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John Conyers

John James Conyers Jr. (May 16, 1929 – October 27, 2019) was an American politician of the Democratic Party who served as a U.S. representative from Michigan from 1965 to 2017. Conyers was the sixth-longest serving member of Congress and the longest-serving African American member of Congress in history.

After serving in the Korean War, Conyers became active in the civil rights movement. He also served as an aide to Congressman John Dingell before winning election to the House in 1964. He co-founded the Congressional Black Caucus in 1969 and established a reputation as one of the most left-wing members of Congress. Conyers joined the Congressional Progressive Caucus after it was founded in 1991. Conyers supported creation of a single-payer healthcare system and sponsored the United States National Health Care Act. He also sponsored a bill to establish Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday, and was the first congressperson to introduce legislation in support of reparations for the descendants of African American slavery.

Conyers ran for Mayor of Detroit in 1989 and 1993, but he was defeated in the primary both times.

Conyers served as the ranking Democratic member on the House Committee on the Judiciary from 1995 to 2007 and again from 2011 to 2017. He served as chairman of that committee from 2007 to 2011 and as chairman of the House Oversight Committee from 1989 to 1995. As the longest-serving current member of Congress, Conyers was the dean of the House of Representatives from 2015 to 2017. By November 2017, he was the last remaining member of Congress who had served since the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson. In the wake of allegations that he had sexually harassed female staff members and secretly used taxpayer money to settle a harassment claim, Conyers resigned from Congress on December 5, 2017.

Early life, education, and early career
Conyers was born and raised in Detroit, the son of Lucille Janice (Simpson) and John James Conyers, a labor leader. Among his siblings was younger brother William Conyers. After graduating from Northwestern High School, Conyers served in the Michigan National Guard from 1948 to 1950; the U.S. Army from 1950 to 1954; and the U.S. Army Reserves from 1954 to 1957. Conyers served for a year in Korea during the Korean War as an officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and was awarded combat and merit citations.

After his active military service, Conyers pursued a college education. He earned both his BA (1957) and LL.B. (1958) degrees from Wayne State University. After he was admitted to the bar, he worked on the staff of Congressman John Dingell. He also served as counsel to several Detroit-area labor union locals. From 1961 to 1963, he was a referee for Michigan's workmen's compensation department.

Conyers became one of the leaders of the civil rights movement. He was present in Selma, Alabama, on October 7, 1963, for the voter registration drive known as Freedom Day.

Elections
In 1964, Conyers ran for an open seat in what was then the 1st District, and defeated Republican Robert Blackwell with 84% of the vote. He was reelected 13 times with even larger margins. After the 1990 United States census, Michigan lost a congressional district, and there was redistricting. Conyers's district was renumbered as the 14th district.

In 1992, Conyers won re-election to his 15th term in his new district, which included western suburbs of Detroit, with 82% of the vote against Republican nominee John Gordon. He won re-election another nine times after that. His worst re-election performance was in 2010, when he got 77% of the vote against Republican nominee Don Ukrainec. In 2013, his district was renamed as the 13th district.

In total, Conyers won re-election twenty-five times and was serving in his twenty-sixth term. He was the dean of the House as longest-serving current member, the third longest-serving member of the House in history, and the sixth longest-serving member of Congress in history. He was the second-longest serving member of either house of Congress in Michigan's history, trailing only his former boss, Dingell. He was also the last member of the large Democratic freshman class of 1964 who was still serving in the House.

In May 2014, Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett determined that Conyers had not submitted enough valid nominating petition signatures to appear on the August 2014 Primary Election ballot. Two of his workers circulating petitions were not themselves registered voters at the time, which was required under Michigan law. But on May 23, Federal District Judge Matthew Leitman issued an injunction placing Conyers back on the ballot, ruling that the requirement that circulators be registered voters was similar to an Ohio law which had been found unconstitutional in 2008 by a Federal appeals court. The Michigan Secretary of State's office subsequently announced they would not appeal the ruling.

Tenure
Conyers was one of the 13 founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and was considered the Dean of that group. Formed in 1969, the CBC was founded to strengthen African American lawmakers' ability to address the legislative concerns of Black and minority citizens. He served longer in Congress than any other African American. In 1971, he was one of the original members of Nixon's Enemies List.

In 1965, Conyers won a seat as a freshman on the influential Judiciary Committee, which was then chaired by Democratic Congressman Emanuel Celler of New York. The assignment was considered an elite one, as Judiciary ranked behind only Ways and Means and Appropriations in terms of the number of Members who sought assignment there. According to the National Journal, Conyers has been considered, with Pete Stark, John Lewis, Jim McDermott, and Barbara Lee, to be one of the most liberal members of Congress for many years. Rosa Parks, known for her prominent role in the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott, moved to Detroit and served on Conyers's staff between 1965 and 1988.

Conyers was known to have opposed regulation of online gambling. He opposed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. After the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, Conyers introduced the first bill in Congress to make King's birthday a federal holiday. He continued to propose legislation to establish the federal holiday in every session of Congress from 1968 to 1983, when Martin Luther King Jr. Day was finally signed into law by President Ronald Reagan.

In 1983 he joined with 7 other congressional representatives to sponsor a resolution to impeach Ronald Reagan over his sudden and unexpected invasion of Grenada.

According to The New Republic, Conyers was a member of the Democratic Socialists of America in 1983.

Conyers introduced the "Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act" in January 1989. He re-introduced this bill each congressional term. It calls for establishing a commission to research the history of slavery in the United States and its effects on current society, which is to recommend ways to remedy this injustice against African Americans. The current version was introduced and referred to committee on January 3, 2013. Conyers first introduced the proposed resolution in 1989, and has stated his intention to annually propose this act until it is approved and passed. Since 1997, the bill has been designated "H.R. 40", most recently,, alluding to the promise of "forty acres and a mule". If passed, the commission would explore the longstanding effects of slavery on today's society, politics, and economy. "'My bill does four things: It acknowledges the fundamental injustice and inhumanity of slavery; It establishes a commission to study slavery, its subsequent racial and economic discrimination against freed slaves; It studies the impact of those forces on today's living African Americans; and the commission would then make recommendations to Congress on appropriate remedies to redress the harm inflicted on living African Americans.'"

Conyers served as the ranking Democratic member on the House Committee on the Judiciary from 1995 to 2007 and again from 2011 to 2017. He served as chairman of that committee from 2007 to 2011 and as chairman of the House Oversight Committee from 1989 to 1995. As the longest-serving current member of Congress, Conyers was the dean of the House of Representatives from 2015 to 2017.

In March 2016, Rep. Conyers and Representative Hank Johnson introduced legislation to protect consumers' access to civil courts. The bill was entitled the "Restoring Statutory Rights Act".

Conyers served more than 50 years in Congress, becoming the sixth-longest serving member of Congress in U.S. history; he was the longest-serving African American member of Congress. By November 2017, Conyers was the last remaining member of Congress who had served since the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson.

Nixon and Watergate
Conyers was critical of President Richard Nixon during his tenure. He was listed as number 13 on President Nixon's enemies list during the president's 1969–74 presidential tenure. The president's Chief Counsel described him as "coming on fast", and said he was "emerging" as a "black anti-Nixon spokesman". Conyers, who voted to impeach Nixon in July 1974, wrote at the time,

"My analysis of the evidence clearly reveals an Administration so trapped by its own war policy and a desire to remain in office that it entered into an almost unending series of plans for spying, burglary and wiretapping, inside this country and against its own citizens, and without precedent in American history."

National Health Care Act
Conyers submitted the United States National Health Care Act (Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act) (H.R. 676); as of 2015, it had 49 cosponsors. He introduced it with 25 cosponsors, in 2003, and reintroduced it each session since then. The act calls for the creation of a universal single-payer health care system in the United States, in which the government would provide every resident health care free of charge. To eliminate disparate treatment between richer and poorer Americans, the Act would prohibit private insurers from covering any treatment or procedure already covered by the Act.

House impeachment manager in Hastings trial
Conyers was one of the House impeachment managers who prosecuted the in case the impeachment trial of Judge Alcee Hastings. Hastings was found guilty by the United States Senate and removed from his federal judgeship.

Downing Street memo
On May 5, 2005, Conyers and 88 other members of Congress wrote an open letter to the White House inquiring about the Downing Street memo. This was a leaked memorandum that revealed an apparent secret agreement between the Bush administration and the Second Blair ministry to invade Iraq in 2002. The Times, among the first to publish news of the leak, wrote that the discovered documented revealed the intentions of Bush and Blair to invade Iraq, along with revealing that the two had "discussed creating pretextual justifications for doing so."

The memo story broke in the United Kingdom, but did not receive much coverage in the United States. Conyers said: "This should not be allowed to fall down the memory hole during wall-to-wall coverage of the Michael Jackson trial and a runaway bride." Conyers and others reportedly considered sending a congressional investigation delegation to London.

What Went Wrong in Ohio
In May 2005, Conyers released What Went Wrong in Ohio: The Conyers Report On The 2004 Presidential Election. This dealt with the voting irregularities in the state of Ohio during the 2004 U.S. presidential election. The evidence offered consists of statistical abnormalities in the differences between exit poll results and actual votes registered at those locations. The book also discusses reports of faulty electronic voting machines and the lack of credibility of those machines used to tally votes.

Conyers was one of 31 members of the House who voted not to count the 20 electoral votes from Ohio in the 2004 presidential election. The state was won by Republican President George Bush by 118,457 votes.

Constitution in Crisis

On August 4, 2006, Conyers released his report, The Constitution in Crisis: The Downing Street Minutes and Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retributions and Cover-ups in the Iraq War, an edited collection of information intended to serve as evidence that the Bush administration altered intelligence to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The Constitution in Crisis examines much of the evidence presented by the Bush administration prior to the invasion and questions the credibility of their sources of intelligence. In addition, the document investigates conditions that led to the torture scandal at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, as well as further evidence of torture having been committed but not made known to the public. Finally, the document reports on a series of "smear tactics" purportedly used by the administration in dealing with its political adversaries. The document calls for the censure of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Conyers refused to back impeachment proceedings, however.

On anti-Muslim intolerance
Conyers proposed House Resolution 288, which condemns "religious intolerance" and emphasizes Islam as needing special protection from acts of violence and intolerance. It states that "it should never be official policy of the United States Government to disparage the Quran, Islam, or any religion in any way, shape, or form," and "calls upon local, State, and Federal authorities to work to prevent bias-motivated crimes and acts against all individuals, including those of the Islamic faith." The bill was referred to the House subcommittee on the Constitution in June 2005.

In 2005, Conyers introduced House Resolution 160, a house resolution that would have condemned the conduct of Narendra Modi, then the chief minister of the State of Gujarat in India. The resolution was cosponsored by Republican Representative Joseph R. Pitts (Republican of Pennsylvania). The resolution's title was: "Condemning the conduct of Chief Minister Narendra Modi for his actions to incite religious persecution and urging the United States to condemn all violations of religious freedom in India." The resolution cited a 2004 United States Commission on International Religious Freedom report on Modi stating that he was "widely accused of being reluctant to bring the perpetrators of the killings of Muslims and non-Hindus to justice". (See 2002 Gujarat riots.) The resolution was not adopted.

Conyers v. Bush
In April 2006 Conyers, together with ten other senior congressmen, filed an action in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Michigan, Southern Division, challenging the constitutionality of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. The complaint alleged the bill was not afforded due consideration by the United States Congress before being signed by the President. The action was subsequently dismissed on grounds of lack of standing.

Ethics controversy
In April 2006, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's office sent independent letters to the House Ethics Committee, saying two former aides of Conyers had alleged that Conyers used his staff to work on several local and state campaigns of other politicians – including his wife – for the Detroit City Council. (She won a seat in 2005.) He also forced them to baby-sit and chauffeur his children.

In late December 2006, Conyers "accepted responsibility" for violating House rules. A statement issued December 29, 2006, by the House Ethics Committee chairman Doc Hastings and Ranking Minority Member Howard Berman, said Conyers acknowledged what he characterized as a "lack of clarity" in his communications with staff members regarding their official duties and responsibilities, and accepted responsibility for his actions.

In deciding to drop the matter, Hastings and Berman said: "After reviewing the information gathered during the inquiry, and in light of Representative Conyers's cooperation with the inquiry, we have concluded that this matter should be resolved through the issuance of this public statement and the agreement by Representative Conyers to take a number of additional, significant steps to ensure that his office complies with all rules and standards regarding campaign and personal work by congressional staff."

Copyright bill
Conyers repeatedly introduced the Fair Copyright in Research Works Act, a bill that would overturn the NIH Public Access Policy, an open-access mandate of the National Institutes of Health. Conyers's bill would forbid the government from mandating that federally funded research be made freely available to the public. The legislation was supported by the publishing industry, and opposed by groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Writers Lawrence Lessig and Michael Eisen accused Conyers of being influenced by publishing houses, who have contributed significant money to his campaigns.

House Report on George W. Bush presidency and proposed inquiry
On January 13, 2009, the House Committee on the Judiciary, led by Conyers, released Reining in the Imperial Presidency: Lessons and Recommendations Relating to the Presidency of George W. Bush, a 486-page report detailing alleged abuses of power that occurred during the Bush administration, and a comprehensive set of recommendations to prevent recurrence. Conyers introduced a bill to set up a "truth commission" panel to investigate alleged policy abuses of the Bush administration.

Bill reading controversy
In late July 2009, Conyers, commenting on the healthcare debate in the House, stated: "I love these members, they get up and say, 'Read the bill'   ... What good is reading the bill if it's a thousand pages and you don't have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?" His remark brought criticism from government transparency advocates such as the Sunlight Foundation, which referred to readthebill.org in response.

Response to accusations regarding American Muslim spies
In October, Conyers responded to allegations from four Republican Congress Members, in the wake of the launch of the book Muslim Mafia, that the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) sought to plant Muslim "spies" in Capitol Hill. He strongly opposed the accusations, saying:

"It shouldn't need to be said in 2009, and after the historic election of our first African-American president, but let me remind all my colleagues that patriotic Americans of all races, religions, and beliefs have the right – and the responsibility – to participate in our political process, including by volunteering to work in Congressional offices. Numerous Muslim-American interns have served the House ably and they deserve our appreciation and respect, not attacks on their character or patriotism."

WikiLeaks
At a December 16, 2010, hearing of the House Judiciary Committee on the subject of "the Espionage Act and the Legal and Constitutional Issues Raised by WikiLeaks", Conyers "argue[d] strongly against prosecuting WikiLeaks in haste – or at all." He strongly defended the whistleblowing organization, saying: "As an initial matter, there is no doubt that WikiLeaks is very unpopular right now. Many feel that the WikiLeaks publication was offensive. But being unpopular is not a crime, and publishing offensive information is not either. And the repeated calls from politicians, journalists, and other so-called experts crying out for criminal prosecutions or other extreme measures make me very uncomfortable. Indeed, when everyone in this town is joined together calling for someone's head, that is it a pretty strong sign we need to slow down and take a closer look.  ... [L]et us not be hasty, and let us not legislate in a climate of fear or prejudice. For, in such an atmosphere, it is our constitutional freedoms and our cherished civil rights that are the first to be sacrificed in the false service of our national security."

Conyers's statement was "in marked contrast to the repeated calls from other members of Congress and Obama administration officials to prosecute WikiLeaks head Julian Assange immediately."

Foreign policy
In 2014, Conyers, along with Ted Yoho, introduced a bipartisan amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act which would prohibit the United States Armed Forces from providing any form of assistance to the Azov Battalion, a National Guard of Ukraine unit accused by Conyers of being a "far-right white supremacist militia". The amendment was subsequently passed by the House of Representatives in 2015. Conyers' decision to introduce the amendment was the subject of both praise and criticism, with detractors noting that claiming that large numbers of Neo-Nazis are members of the Azov Battalion is a common theme of propaganda in Russia.

Conyers stated, "If there's one simple lesson we can take away from U.S. involvement in conflicts overseas, it's this: Beware of unintended consequences. As was made vividly clear with U.S. involvement in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion decades ago, overzealous military assistance or the hyper-weaponization of conflicts can have destabilizing consequences and ultimately undercut our own national interests." He also voiced concerns about sending anti-aircraft missiles to Syrian rebels.

Sexual harassment allegations and resignation
In 2015, a former employee of Conyers alleged that he had sexually harassed her and dismissed her. She filed an affidavit with the Congressional Office of Compliance. Conyers had entered into a confidentiality agreement with the former employee and had paid her a $27,000 (~$ in ) settlement from his publicly funded office budget in 2015. BuzzFeed reported on the allegations and settlement on November 20, 2017; Buzzfeed also reported allegations that Conyers "repeatedly made sexual advances to female staff," caressed female staffers' hands in a sexual manner, and rubbed their backs and legs in public.

On November 21, 2017, Conyers issued a statement in which he said, "In our country, we strive to honor this fundamental principle that all are entitled to due process. In this case, I expressly and vehemently denied the allegations made against me, and continue to do so. My office resolved the allegations – with an express denial of liability – in order to save all involved from the rigors of protracted litigation."

Also on November 21, 2017, the House Ethics Committee launched an investigation into multiple sexual harassment allegations against Conyers.

On November 22, 2017, The Washington Post reported that Melanie Sloan, founder of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), publicly accused Conyers of having harassed and verbally abused her during her tenure working for the House Judiciary Committee. On one occasion, Sloan alleged that Conyers had summoned to his office, where she found him sitting in his underwear; she quickly departed.

Later in November 2017, there were reports that another woman accused Conyers of sexual harassment. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who had initially stated that Conyers was an "icon" and had done a great deal to protect women, called upon Conyers to resign. She said the allegations against him were "very credible".

On December 5, 2017, Conyers resigned his House seat because of his mounting sexual scandals. The announcement came the day after another former staffer released an affidavit accusing Conyers of sexual harassment. The same day, an article by The Washington Post published allegations by Courtney Morse that Conyers had threatened her with a similar fate to that of Chandra Levy, a staffer found murdered in a park in Washington, DC. She said that after she rejected his advances, he "said he had insider information on the case. I don't know if he meant it to be threatening, but I took it that way."

At a time when the MeToo movement was pushing for action against men who harassed women, some media and supporters in Detroit believed Conyers had been unfairly treated. He was reported as the "first sitting politician to be ousted from office in the wake of the #MeToo movement."

Caucus memberships

 * Founding Member and Dean of the Congressional Black Caucus
 * American Sikh Congressional Caucus
 * Congressional Progressive Caucus
 * United States Congressional International Conservation Caucus
 * Out of Afghanistan Caucus (Co-chair)
 * Congressional Full Employment Caucus
 * Congressional Arts Caucus
 * Afterschool Caucuses
 * Congressional NextGen 9-1-1 Caucus

Detroit mayoral campaigns
While serving in the U.S. House, Conyers made two unsuccessful runs for mayor of Detroit: one in 1989 against incumbent Coleman Young and again in 1993.

1989
Incumbent Democratic Mayor Coleman Young decided to run for a fifth term, despite growing unpopularity and the declining economy of Detroit. In the September primary, Young won with 51% of the vote. Accountant Tom Barrow qualified for the November run-off by having 24%, and Conyers received 18% of the vote. Despite the difficulties of the city, Young defeated Barrow in the run-off with 56% of the vote.

1993
In June 1993, incumbent Democratic Mayor Coleman Young decided to retire instead of seeking a sixth term, citing his age and health. Many observers believed he had decided not to test his growing unpopularity. In a Detroit News poll in February, 81% said Young should retire. Conyers was one of the 23 candidates who qualified for ballot access.

Dennis Archer was the front runner in the mayoral campaign from the beginning. The 51-year-old former State Supreme Court Justice raised over $1.6   million to finance his campaign. He won the September primary with 54% of the vote. Conyers came in fourth place. Archer won the November election.

Personal life
Conyers married Monica Esters, a teacher in Detroit, in 1990. She was 25 and he was 61; they had two sons together, John James III and Carl Edward Conyers. Monica Conyers served as vice administrator of Detroit's public schools, and in 2005 was elected to the Detroit City Council. Monica Conyers pleaded guilty to bribery charges on June 26, 2009 and served slightly more than 27 months in prison; her sentence was completed on May 16, 2013. In September 2015, Monica Conyers filed for divorce, citing a "breakdown of the marriage". However, the Conyerses reconciled in late 2016.

Conyers's grandnephew, Ian Conyers, was elected to the Michigan Senate in 2016. He generated controversy by telling of Conyers's planned retirement in interviews before the Congressman announced it himself, and claiming his great-uncle's endorsement. Following the Congressman's resignation, Ian Conyers announced that he would run in the special election for the Congressman's seat. The Congressman instead endorsed his son, John Conyers III, as his successor. John Conyers III chose not to run. Ian Conyers was defeated in the Democratic primary by Rashida Tlaib.

Death
Conyers died at his home in Detroit on October 27, 2019, at the age of 90. His funeral was held on November   4 at Detroit's Greater Grace Temple.

Honors and awards
In 2007, Conyers was awarded the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP.

title: John Conyers


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User:Munion

This used to say a lot more, but then I realized I never check in here anymore.

If you see me changing a lot of maps lately, it's because I've been working with a group of fellow cartographers participating in a MapLift, in which they make a bunch of maps for Wikipedia, and then I go around actually adding them. I didn't make most of them, though I have explicit permission to do the adding on their behalf.

I have been contributing to Wikipedia since, at the latest, June 6th 2002. There may have been other contributions prior to then, but I didn't have a user name and so have trouble tracking them down based on memory. I actually got aroung to getting a user name at the very end of 2003.

Prior to adopting a username, I'm about 99% certain that I made edits under (at least) the following IP addresses in 2002: 146.113.69.242, 67.38.174.30, and 217.52.6.221. In the case of the first address, I managed to make the second edit ever to the article on Kalamazoo. A point of pride. Less of a point of pride is the part where the aforementioned edit was childish boosterism of my alma mater.

Articles that I can remember having started
In no particular order...
 * Kalamazoo College
 * Battle of the Sabis -- I pretty much just took a paper I wrote for my Roman Army class and put the bulk of it online.
 * Etymology of Kalamazoo
 * Neighborhoods of Kalamazoo
 * pilum
 * Kalamazoo Metro Transit
 * Treaty with the Potawatomi
 * Treaty of St. Joseph (as "Treaty with the Potawatomi (1827)")
 * Gallia Aquitania
 * Aegyptus (Roman province)
 * Achaea (Roman province)
 * Demetrius Ypsilanti
 * Kalexsyn
 * Template:Cherries -- OK, not an article, but still perhaps will someday grow into something useful.

Maps I Have Made
I have made some maps, and at one point I had a gallery of them here. But then I actually became a cartographer, and now I realize just how bad my previous maps were. If I have the time, I hope to improve them someday.

If you've read all this, please make your way to my talk page and tell me why.

Zone of Experiments
User:Munion/STS-61-A

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: User:Munion


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Antelope Valley

The Antelope Valley is located in northern Los Angeles County, California, United States, and the southeast portion of California's Kern County, and constitutes the western tip of the Mojave Desert. It is situated between the Tehachapi, Sierra Pelona, and the San Gabriel Mountains. The valley was named for the pronghorns that roamed there until they were all eliminated in the 1880s, mostly by hunting, or resettled in other areas. The principal cities in the Antelope Valley are Palmdale and Lancaster.

Geography
The Antelope Valley comprises the western tip of the Mojave Desert, opening up to the Victor Valley and the Great Basin to the east. Lying north of the San Gabriel Mountains, southeast of the Tehachapis, and east of the Sierra Pelona Mountains, this desert ecosystem spans around 2200 mi2. The valley is bounded by the Garlock and San Andreas fault systems. Precipitation in the surrounding mountain ranges contributes to groundwater recharge.

Flora and fauna
The Antelope Valley is home to a wide range of plants and animals. This includes hundreds of plants such as the California juniper, Joshua tree, California scrub oak, creosote, and wildflowers, notably the California poppy. Winter brings much-needed rain, which slowly penetrates the area's dry ground, bringing up native grasses and wildflowers. Poppy season depends completely on the precipitation, but a good bloom can be killed off by the unusual weather in the late winter and early spring.

The Antelope Valley gets its name from its history of pronghorn grazing in large numbers. In 1882-85, the valley lost 30,000 head of antelope, almost half of the species for which it was named. Unusually heavy snows in both the mountains and the valley floor drove the antelope toward their normal feeding grounds in the eastern part of the valley. Since they would not cross the railroad tracks, many of them starved to death. The remainder of these pronghorns were hunted for their hides by settlers. Once abundant, they either died off or migrated into the Central Valley. A drought in the early 1900s caused a scarcity in bunch grass, their main food source. Now, the sighting of a pronghorn is rare, although a small number remain in the western portion of the valley.

Common game species in the Antelope Valley include mule deer and mountain quail. Other common species in the Antelope Valley include the golden-mantled ground squirrel, Beechey ground squirrel, red-tailed hawk, Cooper's hawk, Stellar's jay, leopard frog, and rattlesnake.

Water issues
Human water use in the Antelope Valley depends mainly on pumping of groundwater from the valley's aquifers and on importing additional water from the California Aqueduct. Long-term groundwater pumping has lowered the water table, thereby increasing pumping lifts, reducing well efficiency, and causing land subsidence.

While aqueducts supply additional water that meets increasing human demand for agricultural, industrial, and domestic uses, diversion of water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in northern California has caused and causes adverse environmental and social effects in the delta: "'Over decades, [the] competing uses for water supply and habitat have jeopardized the Delta's ability to meet either need. All stakeholders agree the estuary is in trouble and requires long-term solutions to ensure reliable, quality water supplies and a healthy ecosystem.'"

The Antelope Valley's population growth and development place considerable stress on the local and regional water systems. According to David Leighton of the United States Geological Survey: "'A deliberate management effort will be required to meet future water demand in the Antelope Valley without incurring significant economic and environmental costs associated with overuse of the ground-water resource.'"

Human history
The first peoples of the Antelope Valley include the Kawaiisu, Kitanemuk, Serrano, and Tataviam. Europeans first entered in the 1770s, during the colonization of North America. Father Francisco Garcés, a Spanish Franciscan friar, is believed to have traveled the west end of the valley in 1776. The Spanish established El Camino Viejo through the western part of the valley between Los Angeles and the missions of the San Francisco Bay in the 1780s. By 1808, the Spanish had moved the native people out of the valley and into missions.

Jedediah Smith came through in 1827, and John C. Fremont made a scientific observation of the valley in 1844. After Fremont's visit the 49ers crossed the valley via the Old Tejon Pass into the San Joaquin Valley on their way to the gold fields. Later, a better wagon road, the Stockton – Los Angeles Road route to Tejon Pass, followed in 1854. Stagecoach lines across the southern foothills came through the valley along this wagon road, and were the preferred method for travelers before the coming of the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1876. The rail service linking the valley to the Central Valley and Los Angeles started its first large influx of white settlers, and farms and towns soon sprouted on the valley floor. The aircraft (now called aerospace) industry took hold in the valley at Plant 42 in 1952. Edwards AFB, then called Muroc Army Air Field, was established in 1933.

The area was once under Mexican rule and was named after the large herds of antelope.

Demographics
In recent decades, the valley has become a bedroom community to the Greater Los Angeles area. Major housing-tract development and population growth took off beginning in 1983, which has increased the population of Palmdale around 12 times its former size as of 2006. Neighboring Lancaster has increased its population since the early 1980s to around three times its former level. Major retail has followed the population influx, centered on Palmdale's Antelope Valley Mall. The Lancaster—Palmdale urbanized area is home to 372,287 people.

Some long-term residents living far out in the desert have been cited by Los Angeles County's nuisance abatement teams for code violations, forcing residents to either make improvements or move. One of the properties is a church building that was used as a filming location for Kill Bill. The code enforcers have arrived on some of their visits in SWAT-team formats.

Hispanics and Whites make up the majority of the population.

Spanish and Tagalog are the most common foreign languages spoken in the Antelope Valley.

According to Mapping L.A., German and English were the most common ancestries and Mexico and the Philippines were the most common foreign places of birth in 2000 in Northwest Antelope Valley. Mexico and El Salvador were the most common foreign places of birth in the northwest. German and English were the most common ancestries in the northeast. German and Irish were the most common ancestries in Southeast Antelope Valley. Mexico and Colombia were the common foreign places of birth in the southeast.

Military base
Edwards Air Force Base lies east of Rosamond, 37 miles (60 km) northeast of Palmdale. Edwards AFB's dry lakebeds are the lowest geographic elevation in the valley. Significant numbers of U.S. military test flights are performed there, and it has been the site of many important aeronautical accomplishments, including the first flight to break the sound barrier, accomplished by Chuck Yeager.

NASA Space Shuttles originally landed at Edwards because the lake beds offer a vast landing area. Although NASA later built a landing strip at Kennedy Space Center, Edwards was retained as the backup in case of bad weather at Cape Canaveral.

NASA Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center is a tenant organization at Edwards AFB. The center is best known for the X-15 experimental rocket ship program. It has been the home of NASA's high-performance aircraft research since it was founded for the X-1 program. The Space Shuttle orbiter was serviced there when it landed at Edwards.

Aerospace
U. S. Air Force Plant 42 in northeast Palmdale is home to Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and BAE Systems, among other aerospace-related companies. Notable projects assembled and/or designed there include the Space Shuttle orbiters, B-1 Lancer bombers, B-2 Spirit bombers, F-117 Nighthawk fighters, F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, and Lockheed L-1011 Tristar passenger jets.

This region also houses the newly dedicated Mojave Air and Space Port. The spaceport is famous as the base of operations for Scaled Composites, the company that designed SpaceShipOne and won the X-Prize.

Much of the work done at these facilities is performed in coordination with Edwards Air Force Base and the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center (see above), from the creation and testing of proof-of-concept X-planes, to Space Shuttle operations, to the manufacturing and integration and testing of new military aviation equipment.

With the size of the industry there, Antelope Valley has been nicknamed the Aerospace Valley.

Agriculture
The valley's first main industry as a part of the United States was agriculture. Historically known in the region for its extensive alfalfa fields and fruit crops, farmers now are growing a wider variety of crops, such as carrots, onions, lettuce, and potatoes. As housing tracts continue to build in the middle of the valley, the farm operations are found farther to the west and east sides than in earlier decades.

Electricity generation
The northern reaches of Antelope Valley are part of the Tehachapi Wind Resource Area, the largest wind resource area in California. The valley also has numerous solar farms, some of which are among the largest in the United States.

Manufacturing

 * U.S. Pole Company Inc.
 * Senior Systems Technology
 * Delta Scientific
 * Lance Camper Manufacturing Corporation
 * Harvest Farms Inc.
 * BYD Company

Mining
The world's largest open-pit borax mine is located near Boron.

Colleges and universities

 * The Antelope Valley Community College District is the local public, regionally accredited, college system that covers the area with a primary service area of 1945 sqmi covering portions of Los Angeles and Kern Counties. Instruction is offered at multiple sites, including Palmdale and Lancaster, as well as through online and instructional television courses. It has two campuses. The main one, Antelope Valley College, is a comprehensive community college located in Lancaster. It offers associate in arts and associate in science (two-year) degrees in 67 fields, as well as certificate programs in 56 vocational areas. It also hosts a satellite location of California State University, Bakersfield-Antelope Valley, where students can obtain bachelor's and master's degrees.
 * California State University Bakersfield has a satellite campus in Lancaster offering eight bachelor's degrees, five master's degrees, and the multiple, single, and special-education teaching credentials.
 * University of Phoenix has a satellite campus in Lancaster.
 * University of La Verne has a satellite campus in Palmdale.
 * DeVry University and its Keller Graduate School of Management have a satellite campus in Palmdale.
 * Chapman University has a satellite campus in Palmdale.
 * The AERO Institute at the Palmdale Institute of Technology is a facility in Palmdale at the Civic Center. It is operated by NASA and the City of Palmdale, and distance learning through a number of universities is available, including Purdue, the University of Southern California, the University of San Diego, Pepperdine University, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Caltech, and Cal Poly Pomona. This specialized school offers graduate and undergraduate education in aerospace science, engineering, and technical skills.
 * West Coast Baptist College in Lancaster is an accredited Independent Fundamental Baptist Bible college offering graduate and undergraduate degrees in pastoral studies, evangelism, missions, church ministries, music, Christian education, youth ministry, and secretarial studies. West Coast opened in 1995, and now has about 1,000 students.
 * The Lancaster University Center in Lancaster provides local students education in engineering and technology from California State University, Long Beach. The $3.5 million reconstruction of Challenger Hall, located at the old Antelope Valley Fairgrounds, gave the new campus 13 classrooms, two of which are high-tech distance-learning rooms and two of which are lab classrooms, as well as office space. The school was created through partnerships with California State University, Bakersfield, California State University, Fresno, and local aerospace companies. They offer Bachelor of Science degrees in mechanical and electrical engineering.
 * University of Antelope Valley (now closed), formerly known as Antelope Valley Medical College, was a private, for-profit, incorporated company. The corporation was owned and operated by Lancaster city councilwoman, Sandra Johnson. The facility was featured on a local news report regarding payouts to local businesses that would hire or place graduated students for $2,000. UAV, INC., must place at least 65 percent of its graduates in jobs, or lose accreditation.

High schools

 * The Antelope Valley Union High School District is the primary public school district covering the vast majority of high-school education in the metropolitan Palmdale and Lancaster area. The district has 25,000 students in eight regular high schools in Palmdale and Lancaster, a continuation school in each city, a trade school in Palmdale, and a specialized early college education school on the Lancaster Antelope Valley College campus. These are:
 * Antelope Valley High School - Lancaster
 * Antelope Valley Regional Occupational Program (AV ROP) - Palmdale
 * Desert Winds High School - Lancaster
 * Eastside High School - Lancaster
 * Highland High School - Palmdale
 * Lancaster High School - Lancaster
 * Littlerock High School - Littlerock, California
 * Palmdale High School - Palmdale
 * Pete Knight High School - Palmdale
 * Quartz Hill High School - Quartz Hill
 * R. Rex Parris Continuation High School - Palmdale
 * SOAR High School - Lancaster
 * The Southern Kern Unified School District provides all public school education in Rosamond.
 * The Muroc Joint Unified School District provides all public school education for Edwards Air Force Base, and the northern Antelope Valley communities of North Edwards, and Boron.
 * The Mojave Unified School District provides all public school education in the northern Antelope Valley communities of Mojave and California City.

Also, several private and home-school high schools arein the area, most notably:
 * Abraham Lincoln High School - Rosamond
 * Paraclete High School
 * Bethel Christian High School
 * Antelope Valley Christian School - Lancaster
 * Desert Christian High School
 * Empowered Learning Academy - Palmdale
 * Palmdale Academy Charter School
 * Pearblossom High School
 * Desert Sands Charter Schools - Lancaster
 * Desert Sands Charter Schools - Palmdale
 * Options for Youth Charter Schools - Lancaster
 * Options for Youth Charter Schools - Palmdale
 * The Palmdale Aerospace Academy

School districts

 * The Palmdale School District is the area's largest school district, with an enrollment of over 28,000 in 29 schools. The district covers the central portion of the city.
 * The Lancaster School District is the area's third largest school district after Palmdale and the A.V. High School District. This school district covers most of central and part of eastern Lancaster with 15,000 students in 19 schools.
 * The Westside Union School District covers western Palmdale and Lancaster and their immediate suburbs including Quartz Hill, Del Sur, Leona Valley, and Antelope Acres. It has over 8,250 students in 11 schools.
 * The Eastside Union School District covers eastern Lancaster with 3,500 students in 4 schools.
 * The Keppel Union School District covers eastern Palmdale and its immediate suburbs, including the eastern Antelope Valley communities of Lake Los Angeles, Pearblossom, Littlerock, Sun Village, Llano, and Valyermo. It has 6 schools with over 3,000 students.
 * The Southern Kern Unified School District provides all public school education in Rosamond.
 * The Muroc Joint Unified School District provides all public school education for Edwards Air Force Base, and the northern Antelope Valley communities of North Edwards, and Boron.
 * The Mojave Unified School District provides all public school education in the northern Antelope Valley communities of Mojave and California City.

Culture
The Antelope Valley Symphony Orchestra is a professional ensemble that performs four concerts each year at the Lancaster Performing Arts Center. It is an auxiliary of Antelope Valley College, and performs regularly with the Antelope Valley College Civic Orchestra.

In popular culture
Antelope Valley Indian Museum State Historic Park has been featured in films such as The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972) and The Stone Killer (1973). Mackenna's Gold (1964) was also partly filmed in Antelope Valley. The video to the R.E.M. song "Man on the Moon" was shot in Antelope Valley in October 1992.

Parks

 * Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, home to California's state flower
 * Arthur B. Ripley Desert Woodland State Park
 * Antelope Valley Indian Museum State Historic Park
 * Saddleback Butte State Park
 * Devil's Punchbowl County Park

Hospitals
Major hospitals include:
 * Antelope Valley Hospital
 * Palmdale Regional Medical Center

The Antelope Valley was formerly served by a county hospital, High Desert Hospital, which was converted into an urgent care clinic in 2003 due to the county's budget problems. As a result, indigent patients with serious but non-life-threatening medical conditions must seek treatment at Olive View – UCLA Medical Center in Sylmar, which is over 50 mi away.

Major highways and roads
Include:
 * Angeles Forest Highway, a key county road, connects Palmdale with Angeles Crest Highway as an alternate route to the Los Angeles basin.
 * The Antelope Valley Freeway (State Route 14)
 * State Route 18 (connects SR 138 east of Palmdale to Victor Valley and U.S. Route 395) There is currently a proposal to turn this into a freeway.
 * State Route 138 (of which Pearblossom Highway comprises the eastern leg)
 * State Route 58 (connects the Antelope Valley with Bakersfield and Barstow as a freeway/expressway)
 * U.S. Route 395 (which technically lies east of the Valley proper)

On the ridgeline of the San Gabriel Mountains, the Angeles Crest Highway (State Route 2) snakes 60 miles (100 km) through the Angeles National Forest to La Cañada Flintridge and the Greater Los Angeles metropolitan region.

Rail

 * The Union Pacific Railroad serves the Antelope Valley with freight service on their route between Palmdale and Mojave, with continuing service to points south, southeast and north. BNSF Railway serves Mojave with freight service to/from the east, and to/from Richmond, California to the northwest.
 * Metrolink passenger rail service to the Los Angeles Basin and other parts of Southern California on its Antelope Valley Line at its Lancaster, Palmdale, and Vincent Grade/Acton stations.
 * Amtrak passenger rail service has a commuter bus that stops at the Palmdale Transportation Center and the Lancaster Metrolink station, connecting Antelope Valley residents to the national rail network.
 * The California High-Speed Rail Authority has designated Palmdale as a stop on the future rail line between San Francisco and San Diego.

Bus

 * The Antelope Valley Transit Authority is the local city-bus system for metropolitan Palmdale and Lancaster. The service also operates a commuter bus network from its hubs at the Palmdale Transportation Center and the Lancaster Park & Ride to several locations in Los Angeles.
 * Greyhound Bus has stops at the Palmdale Transportation Center and the Lancaster Metrolink station.

Airports

 * Palmdale Regional Airport, co-sited with USAF Plant 42 is by far the largest and busiest airport in the valley and is owned by the City of Palmdale via Palmdale Airport Authority (it was previously owned by Los Angeles World Airports which owns and operates LAX up until 2013). Although mostly military flights occur at this airport, it also has an unused commercial terminal.
 * General William J. Fox Airfield in Lancaster is the valley's busiest general aviation airport. It is the fourth largest airport in the valley. Charter air service and helicopter rides are available. This airport also has the valley's only aviation school.
 * Inyokern Airport in Inyokern, near Ridgecrest, is a large general aviation airport with limited commercial airline service to Los Angeles International Airport, serving the northern Antelope Valley and Indian Wells Valley communities. Charter service is also available. It is the area's third largest airport.
 * Mojave Air & Space Port in Mojave is a large civil aviation center and the second largest airport in the valley. Voyager and SpaceShipOne were developed and flown from its location.
 * Mountain Valley Airport in Tehachapi is a gliderport, privately owned but open to the public, which offers glider training for civilian and military pilots
 * Tehachapi Municipal Airport in Tehachapi is a small general aviation airport.
 * Agua Dulce Airpark in Agua Dulce is a medium-sized general aviation airport.
 * Rosamond Skypark Airport in Rosamond is a small general aviation airport, privately owned and operated.
 * California City Municipal Airport in California City is a small general aviation airport.
 * Crystalaire Airport in Llano is a small airstrip principally dedicated to glider flights.

Notable people
Some people of note have spent time in the valley, including:
 * The 1990s R&B group All-4-One was from the AV.
 * Erik Audé, actor-stuntman turned professional poker player, went to Paraclete High School before transferring over to Bethel Christian.
 * Pancho Barnes, the aviator and friend to the U.S. Air Force's test pilots of what is now called Edwards Air Force Base, established the celebrated Happy Bottom Riding Club near Rogers Dry Lake in 1935, later living in Cantil and Boron.
 * Spade Cooley was a Western swing musician, big band leader, actor, and television personality (Willow Springs).
 * Michael Deaver, former aide to Ronald Reagan, is a former Mojave resident.
 * R. Lee Ermey of Full Metal Jacket and Mail Call fame was a Palmdale resident.
 * Joseph Foreman, more frequently known as Afroman, lives in Palmdale.
 * Daniel Fry, a contactee, attended Antelope Valley High School in Lancaster during the 1920s.
 * Judy Garland, then known in the valley as Frances Gumm. As a girl, she would sing in public to her Lancaster neighbors.
 * Paul George, NBA player born and raised in Palmdale, California
 * Donald Glover, singer/songwriter known by his stage name Childish Gambino, was born in Edwards Air Force Base.
 * Ezra M. Hamilton, a pioneer known for his role in the development of Antelope Valley, California. In 1896, he discovered gold in Rosamond, California and began a successful mining operation that spurred growth in the area. He founded and developed the nearby town of Willow Springs in 1897.
 * Tippi Hedren, who made her major motion picture debut in The Birds, is an Acton resident since at least 1981 (Acton not being in the valley proper, but nearby to the south).
 * Aldous Huxley drew writing inspiration from the solitude found at his Llano home. A little known children's book, The Crows of Pearblossom, is set in the valley and is the only children's book he is known to have written.
 * Home to members of the punk band Killradio.
 * Terence McKenna, noted writer, public speaker, philosopher, psychonaut, and ethnobotanist, graduated from Antelope Valley High School in 1965.
 * Debbie Rowe, second wife of Michael Jackson lives in Palmdale, California
 * Burt Rutan and his brother Dick Rutan of Scaled Composites, the firm which produced SpaceShipOne and the Voyager aerospace vehicles, work out of Mojave Air & Space Port in Mojave.
 * Home to members of the punk band Slick Shoes.
 * Kathleen Soliah, who achieved notoriety as a member of the Symbionese Liberation Army in the 1970s and then as a fugitive living a quiet, middle-class life in Saint Paul, Minnesota, grew up in Desert View Highlands, graduating from Palmdale High School in 1965.
 * Chuck Yeager was an early USAF test pilot at Muroc Army Air Field, now Edwards Air Force Base, where he became the first to break the sound barrier on October 14, 1947.
 * Frank Zappa attended Antelope Valley High School in Lancaster, graduating in 1958. He met Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart) there, a fellow student.

Cities over 100,000 population

 * Lancaster (population as of 2018, 159,053) - incorporated in 1977
 * Palmdale (population as of 2018, 156,667) - incorporated in 1962

Cities less than 100,000 population

 * California City (population as of 2018, 14,217) - incorporated in 1965

Unincorporated towns and districts
Over 10,000 population

 * Rosamond (18,150)
 * Lake Los Angeles (12,328)
 * Quartz Hill (10,912)
 * Sun Village (11,302)

Under 10,000 population

 * Acton (technically in the San Gabriel Mountains) (7,596)
 * Agua Dulce (technically in the San Gabriel Mountains) (4,254)
 * Antelope Acres (3,059)
 * Boron (2,253)
 * Cantil
 * Del Sur (1,750)
 * Desert View Highlands
 * Elizabeth Lake (technically in the Leona Valley) (1,756)
 * Hi Vista (1,056)
 * Inyokern (technically in the Indian Wells Valley)
 * Johannesburg
 * Juniper Hills (1,101)
 * Lake Hughes (technically in the Leona Valley)
 * Leona Valley (technically in the Leona Valley)
 * Littlerock (1,377)
 * Llano (739)
 * Mojave (4,238)
 * Monolith (technically in the Tehachapi Valley)
 * Neenach (560)
 * North Edwards
 * Pearblossom (2,435)
 * Piñon Hills (technically in the Victor Valley)
 * Randsburg
 * Saltdale
 * Valyermo (691)
 * Wilsona Gardens (210)
 * Willow Springs (1,784)

title: Antelope Valley


text:
The Dils

The Dils were an American punk rock band formed 1976 and active until 1980, originally from Carlsbad, California, and fronted by the brothers Chip Kinman and Tony Kinman. They appeared as the second act in the "battle of the bands" sequence in Cheech and Chong's film, Up In Smoke, where they can be heard before being seen performing "You're Not Blank".

History
Soon after forming in late 1976, The Dils relocated to San Francisco, where they would have a significant influence on that city's embryonic punk scene (bassist Tony Kinman played briefly with The Avengers during 1977), and then Los Angeles, becoming one of the major bands in the early Los Angeles punk scene too. They were known for their conspicuous radical left politics, and for a strong melodic sense that earned them the nickname "punk rock Everly Brothers".

Their debut single was "I Hate The Rich" / "You're Not Blank" (the latter covered by the Minneapolis punk band Dillinger Four), on Los Angeles–based label What? Records, released in 1977.

Their next record was their critical high-point, 1977's "Class War" / "Mr. Big" (the former covered by Canadian punks D.O.A.), issued on the Dangerhouse label, in a pressing of 1500 copies entitled "198 Seconds Of The Dils". The last contemporary release was a three-sided double-7" in 1980, "Made In Canada", produced by Bob Rock, which showed a gathering roots rock orientation. The Dils opened for The Clash in Santa Monica in 1980 and later that year the band dissolved after playing a final show with Black Flag.

Music from The Dils (including material unreleased during the band's lifetime) remains available.

Possible Visual Influence
A 2021 article in Guitar World magazine discussed the possible linkage between Dils guitarist Chip Kinman's decoration of his instrument and the famous Frankenstrat of Eddie Van Halen.

Post-breakup
The Kinmans continued to follow the roots rock direction, giving birth to the new "cowpunk" genre with their band Rank and File in the 1980s, along with Alejandro Escovedo,. After a move in a different direction with a rock guitar and drum-machine noise project, Blackbird, they then cast a spotlight on "cowboy music" with Cowboy Nation in the 1990s and early 2000s. In 2016, the Kinman brothers reunited for Chip's new band, Ford Madox Ford. Released by Porterhouse records, Ford Madox Ford's debut album, This American Blues, featured Chip on vocals and guitar, Dewey Peek (Giuliano Scarfo) on lead guitar, Matt Littell on bass and S. Scott Aguero on drums, and Tony Kinman as producer.

Tony Kinman died on May 4, 2018.

Revival
Chip Kinman revived The Dils in 2019, with the first show at The Grand Star Jazz Club in Los Angeles' Chinatown on January 27. The following night, The Dils played at San Diego's Casbah Club. Joining Kinman was his stepson Giuliano Scarfo on drums, plus Brian Melendez on bass and backing vocals.

Discography

 * "I Hate The Rich" / "You're Not Blank" 7" (What? Records 1977)
 * Reissued in 1990 on Gift Of Life Records
 * Both songs + "What Goes On" (live, prev unreleased) included on V/A LP/CD What? Stuff (Iloki Records 1990)
 * 1) "I Hate The Rich"
 * 2) "You're Not Blank"
 * "198 Seconds Of The Dils" 7" (Dangerhouse Records 1977)
 * Side A is available on the V/A LP/CD Dangerhouse Volume 1 and Side B can be found on Dangerhouse Volume 2, both albums on Frontier Records
 * 1) "Class War"
 * 2) "Mr.Big"
 * "Made In Canada" 2x7" (Rogelletti Records 1980)
 * A re-recording of "Sound of the Rain" appeared on the Rank and File album Long Gone Dead (Slash Records)
 * Three slower songs
 * 1) "Sound Of The Rain"
 * 2) "Red Rockers"
 * 3) "It's Not Worth It."
 * Live:Dils LP (Triple X/Iloki Records 1987)
 * The Dils Live 1977–1980 LP (Lost Records, 1990)
 * Dils Dils Dils LP (Bacchus Archives 1991) (reissued on CD (1992) Damaged Goods)
 * Side A has the eight studio songs mentioned above on it.
 * Side B contains live tracks from 1978 and 1979.
 * The Last Goodbye (The Dils album)|The Last Goodbye LP (bootleg 199?)
 * A live recording from 1980.
 * Class War LP (Dionysus/Bacchus archives 2000)
 * Includes the first 7 and 10 live songs recorded in 1980 previously released on The Dils Live 1977–1980'' LP.

Compilation appearances

 * We're Desperate: The L.A. Scene (1976–79) (Rhino 1993) - "I Hate The Rich", "Mr. Big"

title: The Dils


text:
Frankenstein (instrumental)

"Frankenstein" is an instrumental track by the American rock band Edgar Winter Group that was featured in the 1972 album They Only Come Out at Night and additionally released as a single.

The song topped the US Billboard Hot 100 chart for one week in May 1973, being replaced by Paul McCartney's "My Love". Frankenstein sold over one million copies. It fared equally well in Canada reaching number 1 on the RPM 100 Top Singles Chart the following month. That same month, the song peaked at number 18 in the UK Singles Chart. The following month, the song peaked at number 10 in Mexico. The song also peaked at number 39 in West Germany, remaining on the chart for one week. The single was certified gold on June 19, 1973, by the RIAA.

Background
Coined by the band's drummer Chuck Ruff, the song's title came about from the massive editing of the original studio recording. As the band deviated from the musical arrangement into less structured jams, the song required numerous edits to shorten it. The final track was spliced together from many sections of the original recording. Winter also frequently referred to the appropriateness of the name in relation to its "monster-like, lumbering beat". (One riff was first used by Winter in the song "Hung Up", on his jazz-oriented first album Entrance. He later tried a variation on it, "Martians" on the 1981 Standing on Rock album.)

Winter played many of the instruments on the track, including keyboards, alto saxophone and timbales. As the release's only instrumental cut, the song was not initially intended to be on the album, and was only included on a whim as a last-minute addition. It was originally released as the B-side to "Hangin' Around", but the two were soon reversed by the label when disc jockeys nationwide in the United States, as well as in Canada, were inundated with phone calls and realized this was the hit. The song features a "double" drum solo, with Ruff on drums and Winter on percussion. In fact, the working title of the song was "The Double Drum Song". The group performed the song, with Rick Derringer on guitar, on The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1973.

Record World called the song "a thumping instrumental featuring fine performances by each member [of the group]."

The song was actually performed three years previously when Edgar was playing with his older brother Johnny Winter at the Royal Albert Hall in 1970. This rare recording was released in 2004 as one of several live bonus tracks included in the two-disc Legacy Edition CD of Johnny Winter's Second Winter.

Rolling Stone listed it number 7 on their top 25 best rock instrumentals. Sections of the track were edited and sequenced into idents and jingles for Alan Freeman's Top 40 and Saturday Rock Show on UK's BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2 for many years, often followed with Freeman's trademark opening line "Greetings Pop Pickers..."

In live performances of the song, Edgar Winter further pioneered the advancement of the synthesizer as a lead instrument by becoming the first person ever to strap a keyboard instrument around his neck, giving him the on-stage mobility and audience interaction of guitar players.

The song is described as a hard rock, progressive rock, and blues rock instrumental, and an example of art rock by non-art rock bands.

In 1983, Winter released a beat-heavy, more-synthesizer-heavy reworking of the song; its contemporaneous video, an homage with Winter appearing as Dr. Frankenstein, was added to MTV's playlist in November of that year.

Personnel

 * Edgar Winter – ARP 2600 synthesizer, electric piano, alto saxophone, timbales
 * Ronnie Montrose – guitar
 * Dan Hartman – bass
 * Chuck Ruff – drums
 * Rick Derringer – producer

Cover versions
A cover version performed by WaveGroup Sound was featured in the video game Guitar Hero as one of five tracks in its sixth and highest difficulty tier, referred to in-game as "Face Melters".

The band Phish has played the song live 92 times over their career.

title: Frankenstein (instrumental)


text:
User:Thosol

I am a Graduate student at the Norwegian School of Management. I startet the Master of Science in Business Administration program the fall of 2003, where I am majoring in Strategy.

I also work for the Royal Norwegian Air Force, currently as a controller for the Air Warfare Center at Air Station Rygge. I am from Drammen, just south-west of Oslo, but I now live in Moss, Norway.

title: User:Thosol


text:
Mercedes-Benz 300 SEL 6.3

The Mercedes-Benz 300 SEL 6.3 is a full-sized luxury performance car built by Mercedes-Benz from 1968 to 1972. It featured the company's powerful 6.3-litre M100 V8 from the flagship 600 (W100) limousine installed in the normally six-cylinder powered (but still premium) Mercedes-Benz 300 SEL (W109). The result was a nearly 2-ton sports sedan with muscle car performance. At the time of its release it was one of the world's fastest four-door cars.

A total of 6,526 300 SEL 6.3s were produced, and though quite costly to maintain are very collectible today.

Concept
The car started out as a private venture in 1966 by company engineer Erich Waxenberger. His principle was simple: take the powerful 6.3 litre Mercedes-Benz M100 V8 from the massive 600 saloon and limousine, and fit it into the engine bay of the top-end 6-cylinder 300 SEL W109 model. The result was an impressive level of performance for the era and for the style of automobile.

The company turned the prototype into a production model, introduced at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1968. This not only enhanced Mercedes-Benz's reputation for performance vehicles, languishing since the demise of the iconic Gullwing and Mercedes-Benz 300 SL roadsters of the 1950s, but made better use of the M100 engine production facilities. By the end of line's production the 6,500 built for the 300 SEL 6.3 far outnumbered the 2,700 turned out for the 600.

The 6.3 was known for its ability to cruise at over 200 km/h with five occupants in complete comfort. Later, the company also fitted new, smaller V8 engines into the W109 series. The 300 SEL 4.5 was only available in the United States, while the 280 SE 3.5 Coupé could also be ordered in Europe.

In 1975, the Mercedes-Benz 450 SEL 6.9 was introduced as a 300 SEL 6.3 successor with a larger displacement engine for more power and various modifications to the equipment.

Features

The 300 SEL 6.3 was an extremely luxurious vehicle for its era. Standard features included air suspension, ventilated 4-wheel power disc brakes, power windows, central locking and power steering. Air conditioning, power sunroof, audio tape deck, and rear window curtains, writing tables, and reading lamps were available as options.

Engine

 * 6.332-litre V8 with Bosch fuel injection,
 * 250 PS at 4000 rpm, 300 HP SAE gross at 4100 rpm
 * 500.3 Nm at 2800 rpm, 434 lbft SAE at 3000 rpm
 * Max. engine speed: 5250 rpm

Performance

 * 0-62 mi/h: 6.6 seconds
 * 0-100 mi/h : 14.6 seconds
 * Standing quarter-mile (~400 m) : 14.2 seconds
 * Top speed : 220 km/h (factory figure)

Test results
Auto, Motor und Sport published the following test results for the 300 SEL 6.3 in March 1968:

 * 0–80 km/h: 4.3 s
 * 0–100 km/h: 6.5 s
 * 0–120 km/h: 9.3 s
 * 0–140 km/h: 13.0 s
 * 0–160 km/h: 17.3 s
 * 0–180 km/h: 22.8 s
 * 0–200 km/h: 31.0 s
 * 0–1000 m: 27.1 s
 * Top Speed: 220 km/h

Motor racing
Originally not intended for motor sports, a few cars were built for racing, usually with the engine enlarged to 6.8 litres or more. The car had an impressive, but short-lived racing career, due to the lack of suitable tyres, or rule changes preventing the use of them.

AMG, now the high-performance division of Mercedes-Benz but back then a small local tuning workshop founded by two former Mercedes engineers, modified a makeshift car to compete in racing events, nicknamed "Red Sow" (German: Rote Sau), which finished second in the 24 Hours of Spa in 1971. At the end of its racing career the 6,834 cc engine yielded 428 PS. The car was sold to French company Matra, which used it for tests of jet fighter landing gear. Five examples were built: three racers and two test cars.

title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SEL 6.3


text:
Benjamin Gompertz

Benjamin Gompertz (5 March 1779 – 14 July 1865) was an English self-educated mathematician and actuary, who became a Fellow of the Royal Society. Gompertz is now best known for his Gompertz law of mortality, a demographic model published in 1825. He was the brother of the early animal rights activist and inventor Lewis Gompertz and the poet Isaac Gompertz.

Life
Of the German Jewish family of Gompertz of Emmerich, Gompertz was born in London, where his father and grandfather had been successful diamond merchants. Debarred, as a Jew, from a university education, he studied on his own from an early age, in the writings of Isaac Newton, Colin Maclaurin, and William Emerson. From 1798 he was a prominent contributor to the Gentleman's Mathematical Companion, and for a period won the annual prizes in the magazine for the solutions of problems. Gompertz married Abigail Montefiore (1790–1871) in 1810; they had three children.

In line with his father's wishes, he entered the London Stock Exchange. He became a member of the Mathematical Society of Spitalfields, and served as its president when it was merged with the Astronomical Society of London. In 1819 he was elected a F.R.S., and in 1832 became a member of the council. The Astronomical Society was founded in 1820, and he was elected a member of the council in 1821.

On the death of his only son he retired from the Stock Exchange, and absorbed himself in mathematics. When the Guardian Insurance Office was established in 1821, he was a candidate for the actuaryship, but the directors objected to him on the grounds that he was a Jew. His brother-in-law Sir Moses Montefiore with his relative Nathan Mayer Rothschild then founded the Alliance Assurance Company (1824), and Gompertz was appointed actuary under the deed of settlement. His management of the Alliance Company was successful, he was consulted by government, and made computations for the Army medical board.

In 1848 he retired from active work and returned to his scientific labours. He was a member of many learned societies, and was also one of the promoters of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Of the leading Jewish charities he was a prominent member, and he worked out a plan of poor relief, which was afterwards adopted by the Jewish board of guardians.

Gompertz died from a paralytic seizure on 14 July 1865.

Works
From 1806 he was a frequent contributor to the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society; but his early tracts on complex numbers and porisms (1817–18) were self-published. Gompertz was an old-fashioned Newtonian who retained and defended the notation of fluxions.
 * Mathematics

For ten years he actively participated in the work of the Astronomical Society, contributing papers on the theory of astronomical instruments, the aberration of light, the differential sextant, and the convertible pendulum. With Francis Baily he began in 1822 the construction of tables for the mean places of the fixed stars; the work was left uncompleted, because of the publication of the Fundamenta Astronomiæ of Friedrich Bessel. Their efforts, however, led to the complete catalogue of stars of the Royal Astronomical Society.
 * Astronomy

He worked out a new series of tables of mortality for the Royal Society, and these suggested to him in 1825 his law of human mortality, which he first expounded in a letter to Francis Baily. The law rests on an a priori assumption that a person's resistance to death decreases as his years increase. The model can be written in this way:
 * The Gompertz model

$$N(t) = N(0) e^{-c (e^{at}-1)},\ $$ where N(t) represents the number of individuals at time t, and c and a are constants.

This model is a refinement of a demographic model of Robert Malthus. It was used by insurance companies to calculate the cost of life insurance. The equation, known as a Gompertz curve, is now used in many areas to model a time series where growth is slowest at the start and end of a period. The model has been extended to the Gompertz–Makeham law of mortality.

title: Benjamin Gompertz


text:
Dassault Étendard IV

The Dassault Étendard IV is a transonic carrier-borne strike fighter aircraft developed and manufactured by French aerospace company Dassault Aviation.

Development of the Étendard originally commenced during the 1950s. Despite not having attracted the interests of either the French Army or any of the NATO air forces, a more powerful proposal had attracted the interest of the French Navy. Accordingly, Dassault developed a navalised demonstrator, which made its first flight on 24 July 1956. Its performance having met with the service's satisfaction, the French Navy ordered the type into production, receiving a total of 69 Étendard IVM fighters, in addition to 21 Étendard IVP, the latter being a specialised aerial reconnaissance variant.

The Étendard would serve as the basis for the more advanced Dassault-Breguet Super Étendard. During the 1970s, it had been intended to replace the Étendard IV with a navalised version of the SEPECAT Jaguar, designated as the Jaguar M. However, development of the Jaguar M was terminated and, shortly after, it was announced that the Super Étendard had been ordered in its place. For a time, the Étendard IV was operated alongside its improved model before being progressively withdrawn during the 1980s. In 1991, the fighter models of the type was finally retired from service by its sole operator, while the reconnaissance variant was withdrawn during 2000.

Development
The Étendard has its origins in the early 1950s, with the experiences of combatants in the Korean War and the lessons derived from it subsequently. Two separate specifications were offered to French manufacturers: one for the French Air Force and the other for the numerous air forces of the multinational NATO alliance. In response, Dassault Aviation drew up a single basic design, with the intention that variants of it would satisfy both specifications. These variants were designated Étendard II and Étendard VI respectively; according to Dassault, these aircraft would have incorporated major advances in terms of high lift devices, which enabled lower take-off and landing speeds to be used. The Étendard II was evidently optimised for speed and payload, while the Étendard VI was a more lightweight variant, aimed at export markets. However, despite the building of a prototype for both variants, there was initially little interest on the part of both the French military and other potential buyers.

However, this lack of demand did not curtail Dassault's ambitions. Early on, the company had decided to embark on the development of a larger and more powerful variant, which was originally designated as the Mystère XXIV, as a private venture in parallel to the issued specifications. The French Navy showed open interest in this prospective Mystère XXIV variant. Bolstered by this, Dassault proceeded with the construction of a single navalised prototype, features of which included new navigation and radar systems, folding wings, deck landing hooks, along with the reinforcement of the fuselage. Following a series of ground tests, its maiden flight occurred on 24 July 1956.

Meanwhile, the French Navy sought to acquire the Étendard, once tests had deemed it suitable as a carrier-based ground attack aircraft, along with a secondary, low-altitude interception role. As part of the trials process, a total of five pre-production aircraft were manufactured. Flight testing of the type revealed it to have favourable performance qualities, including a relatively high external load capacity. Having been sufficiently satisfied with this demonstration of the aircraft's capabilities and performance attributes, the French Navy opted to procure a total of 69 Étendard IVM fighters and 21 Étendard IVP aerial reconnaissance aircraft.

The Jaguar M, a navalized variant of the Anglo-French SEPECAT Jaguar, was intended to be the Étendard's replacement, but this effort was derailed by political lobbying on the part of Dassault, who instead favoured their own proposal, which was an advanced version of the Étendard. This model would go on to be ordered by the French Navy, with whom it would enter service as the Super Étendard. Eventually, the more capable Super Étendard would succeed the Étendard in service.

Design
The Étendard was a relatively lightweight navalised attack fighter. In service, it was often noted for its popularity with its pilots due to its high level of manoeuvrability. It featured a highly swept wing, which was furnished with double-slotted flaps and spoilers, as well as powered ailerons and leading-edge droop flaps. To take up less room onboard aircraft carriers when being stored, the wings of the Étendard were designed to be foldable. The type was powered by a single SNECMA Atar turbojet engine, which had also powered the French Air Force's Dassault Mirage III. The engine's configuration was broadly similar to that of the Mirage III's powerplant, albeit with the exception of the removed afterburner. In flight, the Étendard was capable of attaining transonic speeds, being only able to exceed the speed of sound when in a dive.

The Étendard could be furnished with various equipment to carry out its mission roles, which included attack, photo-reconnaissance, and aerial refueling tanking. In addition to the standard dual 30mm DEFA cannon, various armaments and munitions could be carried on the four wing-mounted hardpoints, such as short range air-to-air missiles, air-to-surface missiles, rocket pods, bombs, and drop tanks. A retractable nose-mounted refueling probe was also fitted. Other optional equipment included a tactical air navigation system (TACAN) receiver and a drogue parachute, the latter of which could be used to assist braking during land operations. A compact Dassault-built Aida radar unit was installed within the aircraft's nose, along with a compact infrared sensor, which could be used for guiding various munitions. Alongside the Aida radar unit, a Swedish-made SAAB bombing computer was added to increase accuracy.

The aerial reconnaissance-orientated Étendard IVP was largely similar to the fighter model of the aircraft, but did have some key differences. An arrangement of five OMERA cameras was housed within the aircraft's lengthy nose; furthermore, the ventral bay could also accommodate a number of long-focus cameras in lieu of the cannon armament. While a refuelling probe was also present on reconnaissance aircraft, this was non-retractable due to a lack of available space in the interior of the nose.

Operational history
During December 1961, the French Navy took delivery of their first Étendards. The following year, the type was deployed for the first time aboard both of the service's newly built Clemenceau-class aircraft carriers, the Clemenceau and Foch. The Étendard IVM was in French Navy service for several decades, even following the development of the more capable Super Étendard. The type was gradually relegated to secondary missions in favour of the Super Étendard; as such, it was phased out from active combat roles during 1987.

The last examples of the fighter-orientated model were withdrawn during July 1991, the type's final use having been with Squadron 59S, a ship-borne fighter school. Throughout its service life, the Étendard fleet had reportedly flown for a combined 180,000 flight hours, during which 25,300 landings had been conducted. The reconnaissance-focused Étendard IVP outlived its fighter cousin, having remained in active service until 27 July 2000. According to Dassault, by this point, the Étendard had reportedly carried out in excess of 200,000 flight hours.

Variants

 * Étendard IV: The prototype powered by a 7,720 lbf SNECMA ATAR 101E3, first flown on 24 July 1956.
 * Étendard IVB: One prototype fitted with a 11,200 lbf thrust Rolls-Royce Avon engine and blown flaps.
 * Étendard IVM: Single-seat Maritime strike fighter aircraft for the French Navy.
 * Étendard IVP: Single-seat Photo reconnaissance aircraft for the French Navy.

Operators

 * French Navy
 * French Naval Aviation (Aviation navale)
 * Flottille 17F
 * Flottille 17F

title: Dassault Étendard IV


text:
Talk:Mindpixel

Similarity
Lumos3 09:17, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)
 * There is a similarity between Mindpixel and Wikipedia in that both projects are trying to build a body of consensual material, although their approaches differ.

Is it still alive ?
Is it me, or mindpixel is a near death project ?

It looks like the project home page is a pretty still state, and the webpage of Chris McKinstry is not valid anymore.

I did not hear from it since a long time and all news seems to be dated 2 years ago.

Not sure how to update the current article to reflect that state of affairs... As of October 17th 2004 the project statistics indicates:

Users: 50,779 Mindpixels: 1,435,127 Minimum Estimated Value: $ 358,781.75

I'll try to come back in a few weeks to see if it has changed much.

- I've been watching the site and it does seem well past its peak of popularity. I count there are between 50 and 200 mindpixels entered per week at present. Chris McKinstry also seems to be silent. He was involved in anti war demonstrations in Iraq in spring 2003 before the invasion and has been silent since then. See article posted by him " A Hacker Goes to Iraq " Lumos3 21:59, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC) ___ a few new postings are now available

Can someone please add:

Mindpixel GAC-80K (80,000 Propositions with a Corresponding Measure of Human Semantic Coherence) (3.5mb of text)

chrisMcKinstry

Chris McKinstry is dead (January 2006), and it looks as though this project died with him. --- I queried Mr Spivey about the pixels but he only had the 80k set

Proposed merge of Mindpixel and Minimum Intelligent Signal Test
Both articles are describing the same general project/results. There are no major published results from either study/project, as such it is just popular culture AI research. While I personally favor deletion, a good stop gap is to combine the two articles and make one single article that has higher value. Thus the merge proposal. Most people that read one will want to read the other anyways, thus there seems to be little reason for there to be two separate articles. --ChrisWakefield 05:30, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

 * Yes to MISTIC (AI project) . Seems to overlap and adds nothing that is not in the Mindpixel article. Lumos3 15:39, 14 February 2007 (UTC)
 * No to Minimum Intelligent Signal Test This is a different subject and deserves an article in its own right. Lumos3 15:39, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

yes to mistic merge

Flaw
Mindpixels database or commonsense had a flaw if it was to be used as a knowledge base for AI. Commonsense is considered the most logical truth as governed by the general belief of the majority in a particular society. But on several occasions in history it have been proven that even though it is thought of as true by the majority, that does not mean to say that it is true. And that the current state of the input is misguided. This would then upon being logically looked at cause the AI to return a false logic answer if the rules of commonsense it used have not been proven absolute. Posted in article by Ascalon101 on, 12 February 2009. Reposted here as opinion piece. This needs to attributed to a reliable independent source to be part of the article. Lumos3 (talk) 13:49, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

External links modified (January 2018)
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title: Talk:Mindpixel


text:
Health benefit

Health benefit or health benefits may refer to:
 * Health benefits (insurance), a payment received through a health insurance
 * Health benefit (medicine), the phenomenon that a food, substance or activity is improving health
 * Health claim, a usually unproven claim as to medical health benefits of food, etc.

title: Health benefit