text:
Prince Yasuhiko Asaka

Prince Yasuhiko Asaka (朝香宮鳩彦王) was the founder of a collateral branch of the Japanese Imperial Family and a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during the Japanese invasion of China and the Second World War. He was the son-in-law of Emperor Meiji and uncle by marriage of Emperor Hirohito. As the commander of Japanese forces outside Nanjing in December 1937, Asaka presided over the mass murder of hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers and civilians in what came to be known as the Nanjing Massacre.

After Japan's defeat in World War II, General Douglas MacArthur granted immunity to the country's Imperial Family. As a result, Asaka was never tried for his involvement in the Nanjing Massacre by SCAP authorities. Nonetheless, by 1947, he and his children were stripped of their imperial status. He later converted to Catholicism and died of natural causes at the age of 93.

Early years
Prince Yasuhiko came from Kyoto, the eighth son of Prince Kuni Asahiko and the court lady Tsunoda Sugako. Prince Kuni Asahiko was the youngest prince descended from the Fushimi-no-miya, one of the four branch houses of the imperial dynasty (shinnōke) entitled to provide a successor to the throne. In 1872, the Emperor Meiji granted him the title Kuni-no-miya and authorization to begin a new collateral branch of the imperial family. Prince Yasuhiko was a half-brother of Prince Higashikuni Naruhiko, Prince Nashimoto Morimasa, Prince Kaya Kuninori, and Prince Kuni Kuniyoshi, the father of the future Empress Kōjun, the consort of Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito).

Marriage and family
On 10 March 1906, the Emperor Meiji granted Prince Yasuhiko the title Asaka-no-miya and authorization to begin a new branch of the imperial family. On 6 May 1909, Prince Asaka married Nobuko, Princess Fumi (7 August 1891 – 3 November 1933), the eighth daughter of Emperor Meiji. Prince and Princess Asaka had four children:

 * 1) Princess Asaka Kikuko (紀久子); married in 1931 Marquis Nabeshima Naoyasu.
 * 2) Prince Asaka Takahiko (朝香 孚彦); married Todo Chikako, the fifth daughter of Count Todo Takatsugu. They had two daughters, Fukuko and Minoko and a son Tomohiko.
 * 3) Prince Asaka Tadahiko (朝香正彦), renounced membership in the imperial family and created Marquis Otowa, 1936. Killed in action during the Battle of Kwajalein.
 * 4) Princess Asaka Kiyoko (湛子); married Count Ogyu Yoshiatsu.

Military career
Like the other imperial princes of the Meiji period, it was expected that Prince Yasuhiko would pursue a career in the military. He received his early education at the Gakushūin Peers' School and the Central Military Preparatory School, before graduating from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy on 27 May 1908. Commissioned a second lieutenant of infantry on 25 December, Prince Asaka was promoted to lieutenant in December 1910, captain in August 1913, major in July 1918, and lieutenant-colonel in August 1922. Between 1920 and 1923, Prince Asaka studied military tactics at the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr in France, along with his half-brother Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni and his cousin Prince Naruhisa Kitashirakawa (1887–1923). However, on 1 April 1923, he was seriously injured in an automobile accident in Perriers-la-Campagne (Normandy) that killed Prince Kitashirakawa; the accident left Prince Asaka with a limp for the rest of his life.

Princess Asaka traveled to France to nurse her husband. Prince and Princess Asaka also visited the United States in 1925. During that period, Prince and Princess Asaka became enthralled with the Art Deco movement. Upon returning to Japan that same year, The Prince and Princess began arranging for a new mansion to be built in the Art Deco style in Tokyo's Shirokanedai neighborhood. The house, currently the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, was completed in May 1933, but Princess Asaka died a few months later.

While these events were occurring, Prince Asaka had risen through the ranks of the military. After being promoted to the rank of colonel in August 1925, in December 1929, he rose to the rank of major general and was subsequently appointed an instructor at the Army Staff College in 1930. On 1 August 1933, he was promoted to lieutenant general and assumed command of the First Imperial Guards Division. In December 1935, he was appointed a member of the Supreme War Council, which gave him a very influential position with Emperor Hirohito.

However, during the abortive February 26 Incident in 1936, Prince Asaka pressed the Emperor to appoint a new government that would be acceptable to the rebels, especially by replacing Prime Minister Keisuke Okada with Kōki Hirota. The Prince's pro-Imperial Way Faction political sentiments, as well as his connections to other right-wing army cliques, caused a rift between himself and the Emperor. It was perhaps due to this rift that Prince Asaka was transferred to the Japanese Central China Area Army (under the aging General Iwane Matsui) in China in 1937.

Role in the Nanjing Massacre
In November 1937, Prince Asaka became temporary commander of the Japanese forces outside Nanjing, then capital of China, because General Matsui was ill. As temporary commander of the final assault on Nanjing between 2 and 6 December 1937, he issued the order to "kill all captives", thus providing official sanction for what became known as the "Nanjing Massacre" or the "Rape of Nanjing" (12 December 1937 – 10 February 1938).

While Prince Asaka's responsibility for the Nanjing Massacre remains a matter of debate, the sanction for the massacre and the crimes committed during the invasion of China might ultimately be found in the ratification, made on 5 August 1937 by Emperor Hirohito, of the proposition of the Japanese army to remove the constraints of international law on the treatment of Chinese prisoners. In February 1938, both Prince Asaka and General Matsui were recalled to Japan. Matsui went into virtual retirement, but Prince Asaka remained on the Supreme War Council until the end of the war in August 1945. He was promoted to the rank of general in August 1939 but held no further military commands. In 1944, he colluded with Prince Higashikuni, his nephew Prince Takamatsu, and former Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe (1895–1945) to oust the Hideki Tojo cabinet.

Immunity from prosecution
Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP) officials interrogated Prince Asaka about his involvement in the Nanjing Massacre on 1 May 1946, but did not bring him before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East for prosecution. Indeed, for politico-strategic and geopolitical reasons, General Douglas MacArthur decided to support the Imperial family and to grant immunity to all its members. Matsui, on the other hand, was tried, convicted, and executed for failing to prevent the massacre.

Postwar life as a commoner
On 14 October 1947, Asaka Yasuhiko and his children lost their imperial status and privileges and became ordinary citizens, as part of the American Occupation's abolition of the collateral branches of the Japanese Imperial family. He and his son were purged from holding any political or public office because they had been officers in the Imperial Japanese Army. His Art Deco mansion in Shirokanedai was seized by the government and now houses the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum.

The former prince, Asaka Yasuhiko, moved to Atami, on the Izu Peninsula south of Tokyo. Asaka converted to Catholicism on 18 December 1951, and he was the first Imperial clansman to do so. He spent most of his time playing golf. He also took an active interest in golf course development and in the 1950s was the architect of the Plateau Golf Course at the Dai-Hakone Country Club. Asaka Yasuhiko died of natural causes on 12 April 1981 at his home in Atami, Shizuoka prefecture. He was 93 years old.

Honours

 * Grand Cordon of the Order of the Chrysanthemum (31 October 1917)
 * Order of the Golden Kite, 1st Class (4 April 1942)

Foreign honours

 * : Grand Cordon Order of Leopold (29 April 1925)

title: Prince Yasuhiko Asaka


text:
User:Rick Block

Lately I haven't been very active (real life intrudes) and don't do much other than run Rick Bot (which mostly runs itself).

I have worked on the Japanese prefectures, towns and villages articles (see WikiProject Japan/Gappei), created and helped with various geographical infoboxes (see Geographical infoboxes), created List of Wikipedians by featured article nominations (and its siblings WP:WBFLN and WP:WBFTN - WP:WBFPC is a work in progress) and was for quite a while a regular responder at the Help desk and Village pump.

I shepherded Monty Hall problem through the Featured articles process and was instrumental in the adoption of Naming conventions (categories) as policy.

 * First edit: February 20, 2004.
 * My contributions (current count: >9999)
 * Admin since August 21, 2005
 * Barnstars

What I think

 * Wikipedia's newcomers are undoubtedly ignorant of many local rules and conventions, but some of them are experts and we desperately need them. Don't piss them off.  Most of them mean well.
 * Wikipedia's most active editors generally aren't suffering from terminal editcountitis. They just like editing and spend far too much time at it.  They should take a break before carpal tunnel syndrome sets in.
 * Wikipedia's administrators deal with obnoxious vandals and do whatever it takes to keep the place running. They deserve our utmost sympathy.  Sometimes, some of them might be a little cranky.  You try dealing with assholes for a few hours and see what kind of mood you're in.
 * The MediaWiki software developers are lazy bums probably out drinking while the rest of us try to work around bugs in their lousy software.  OK.  So, I don't really think this.  But I think some people do.  The main thing to realize is ...

... everyone here, newcomer to developer, is a volunteer. Let's all try to get along.

Favorite quotes

 * I don't mean to sound bitter, cold, or cruel, but I am, so that's how it comes out. (attributed to Bill Hicks).
 * All extremists should be shot (don't know the original source of this one).

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

title: User:Rick Block


text:
Carswell (publisher)

Carswell is a Canadian information source servicing legal, tax, accounting, and human resource professionals. Founded in 1864, it is a part of the professional division of Thomson Reuters.

Modern day
Carswell offers products, services, customized training, and technical support to practitioners and organizations across Canada and beyond. With headquarters in Toronto, Ontario, Carswell provides products and services in a range of formats, including books, looseleaf services, journals, newsletters, CD-ROMs, and online products. Les Éditions Yvon Blais, a specialized legal publisher in the Quebec market, has been part of Carswell since 1996. Lexpert, Canada's leading source of news and information about the business of law, was acquired in 2004 then subsequently sold in 2019 to HAB Press, a division of Key Media. The Cyberbahn Group, a leading provider of corporate and commercial searches, company registrations, and litigation services in Canada, joined Carswell in 2008 and was later sold to Dye & Durham in 2019. Canada Law Book joined Carswell in 2010.

Carswell was named one of Canada's 50 Best Employers by The Globe and Mail Report on Business magazine in 2004, 2005, and 2006. Maclean's Magazine named Carswell one of Canada's Top 100 Employers and one of Greater Toronto's Top Employers.

title: Carswell (publisher)


text:
European route E55

European route E55 is an E-route. It passes through the following cities: Helsingborg … Helsingør – Copenhagen – Køge – Vordingborg – Nykøbing Falster – Gedser … Rostock – Berlin – Lübbenau – Dresden – Teplice – Prague – Tábor – Linz – Salzburg – Villach – Tarvisio – Udine – Palmanova – Venice – Ravenna – Cesena – Rimini – Fano – Ancona – Pescara – Canosa di Puglia – Bari – Brindisi … Igoumenitsa – Preveza – Rhion – Patrai – Pyrgos – Kalamáta.

From Helsingborg, the route was supposed to continue northward through Sweden and into Finland, but a decision was made to keep the E4 designation in Sweden, formerly used for a European route from Lisbon to Helsinki. The E55 is not and has not been signposted in Sweden. Since 2018, the E55 is not signposted between Helsingør and Køge in Denmark, but is signposted south of Køge.

Sweden

 * Helsingborg

Ferry

 * Ferry Sign.svg 🇸🇪 Helsingborg – Helsingør, the HH Ferry route

Exits and service areas in Denmark

 * [[Image:AB-grün.svg|15px]]
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 3 Espergærde
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 4 Kvistgård
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 5 Humlebæk
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 6 Nivå
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 7 Kokkedal
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 9 Hørsholm C
 * [[Image:Zeichen 314 - Parkplatz, StVO 2013.svg|15px]]|[[Image:Zeichen 314 - Parkplatz, StVO 2013.svg|15px]] Isterød
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 10 Hørsholm S
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 12 Vedbæk
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 13 Gl. Holte
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 14 Nærum
 * [[Image:Zeichen 314 - Parkplatz, StVO 2013.svg|15px]]|[[Image:Zeichen 376.svg|15px]] Lærkereden/Storkereden
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 15 Lundtofte
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 16 Lyngby C
 * [[File:AB-Kreuz-grün.svg]] Kgs. Lyngby Copenhagen
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 17 Jægersborgvej
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 18 Nyborgvej
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 19 Buddinge
 * [[File:AB-Kreuz-grün.svg]] Gladsaxe Hillerød  Copenhagen
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 20 Gladsaxe
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 21 Frederikssundvej
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 23 Jyllingevej
 * [[File:AB-Kreuz-grün.svg]] Rødovre Frederikssund,  Ballerup
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 24 Roskildevej
 * [[File:AB-Kreuz-grün.svg]] Brøndby Roskilde  Copenhagen
 * [[File:AB-Kreuz-grün.svg]] Avedøre Malmö
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 25 Vallensbæk S
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 26 Ishøj Strand
 * [[File:AB-Kreuz-grün.svg]] Ishøj Ballerup,  Ishøj, Copenhagen V
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 27 Greve N
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 28 Greve C
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 29 Greve S
 * [[Image:Zeichen 361-50.svg|20px]][[Image:Zeichen 376.svg|20px]] | [[Image:Zeichen 361-50.svg|20px]][[Image:Zeichen 376.svg|20px]] Karlslunde
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 30 Solrød N
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 31 Solrød S Roskilde
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 32 Køge
 * [[File:AB-Kreuz-grün.svg]] Køge Vest Odense
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 33 Lellinge
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 34 Herfølge
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 35 Haslev
 * [[Image:Zeichen 376.svg|20px]]|[[Image:Zeichen 377.svg|20px]] Piberhus
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 36 Bregentved
 * [[File:AB-Kreuz-grün.svg]] Næstved Næstved (planned 2031)
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 37 Rønnede
 * AB-AS-grün.svg]] 38 Tappernøje [[Image:Zeichen 361-50.svg[[Image:Zeichen 376.svg|20px]]|[[Image:Zeichen 361-50.svg|20px]][[Image:Zeichen 376.svg|20px]]
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 39 Bårse
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 40 Udby
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 41 Vordingborg
 * Northern Farø bridge
 * AB-AS-grün.svg]] 42 Farø [[Image:Zeichen 376.svg
 * Southern Farø bridge
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 43 Nørre Alslev
 * [[File:AB-AS-grün.svg]] 44 Eskildstrup Nykøbing F, Gedser
 * [[Image:AB-ende-grün.svg|15px]]
 * [[Image:AB-AZ.svg]] Nykøbing F Ø

Ferry

 * Ferry Sign.svg 🇩🇰 Gedser – 🇩🇪 Rostock

Germany

 * Rostock – Wittstock/Dosse
 * Wittstock/Dosse – Oberkrämer, Kremmen
 * Oberkrämer, Kremmen - Schönefeld
 * Schönefeld – Dresden
 * Dresden
 * Dresden – near Geising

Czech Republic

 * Petrovice – Ústí nad Labem – Trmice (Start of Concurrency with E 442) – Řehlovice (end of concurrency with E 442 – Prague
 * Prague, ), ), ), )
 * Prague - Mirošovice
 * Mirošovice - Mezno
 * Mezno – Tábor – České Budějovice, )
 * České Budějovice – Dolní Dvořiště

Austria

 * Leopoldschlag – Freistadt
 * Freistadt – Unterweitersdorf
 * Unterweitersdorf – Linz – Ansfelden
 * Ansfelden (Start of Concurrency with, ) – Sattledt(End of Concurrency with ) – Salzburg (End of Concurrency with ), ,
 * Salzburg – Spittal an der Drau (Start of Concurrency with) – Villach, ((End of Concurrency with ),
 * Villach – Arnoldstein

Italy

 * Tarvisio – Udine – Palmanova
 * Palmanova (Start of Concurrency with [[Image:Tabliczka E70.svg|27px|link=European route E70]]) - Quarto d'Altino (End of Concurrency with [[Image:Tabliczka E70.svg|27px|link=European route E70]])
 * Quarto d'Altino – Venice
 * Venice – Ravenna
 * Ravenna – Cesena([[Image:Tabliczka E45.svg|27px|link=European route E45]])
 * Cesena ([[Image:Tabliczka E45.svg|27px|link=European route E45]]) – Rimini – Fano – Ancona – Pescara ([[Image:Tabliczka E80.svg|27px|European route E80]]) – Canosa di Puglia ([[Image:Tabliczka E842.svg|27px|link=European route E842]]) – Bari
 * Bari
 * Bari ([[Image:Tabliczka E843.svg|27px|link=European route E843]]) – Fasano
 * Fasano – Brindisi([[Image:Tabliczka E90.svg|27px|link=European route E90]]

Ferry

 * Ferry Sign.svg 🇮🇹 Brindisi – 🇬🇷 Igoumenitsa

Greece

 * Igoumenitsa – Preveza
 * Preveza – Amfilochia
 * Amfilochia – Antirrio (Nafpaktia)
 * Rio-Antirrio bridge
 * Olympia Odos: Rio (Patras) – Patras
 * Patras – Kalo Nero (Trifylia)
 * Kalo Nero – Oichalia
 * Oichalia (Start of Concurrency with ) – Kalamata, (End of Concurrency with )

title: European route E55


text:
Slipmat

A slipmat is a circular piece of slippery cloth or synthetic materials disk jockeys place on the turntable platter instead of the traditional rubber mat.

Unlike the rubber mat which is made to hold the record firmly in sync with the rotating platter, slipmats are designed to slip on the platter, allowing the DJ to manipulate a record on a turntable while the platter continues to rotate underneath. This is useful for holding a record still for slip-cueing, making minute adjustments during beatmatching and mixing and pulling the record back and forth for scratching. They are also very commonly used simply as decoration for when a record isn't on the turntable.

The slipmat was invented by hip-hop pioneer Grandmaster Flash to improve its sound and move the vinyl counterclockwise without causing too much drag and too much friction. In a Washington Post interview, he recalls “My mother was a seamstress so I knew different types of materials,” he continues. Having settled on felt, Flash encountered another issue. “The problem with felt is that it draped, it was limp,” he recalls. “So I ran home and got a copy of my album and I bought just enough felt to cut out two round circles the same size as a 33’ LP and—when my mother wasn't looking—I turned the iron all the way up high and I used my mother's spray starch. I sprayed it until this limp piece of felt became—I called it a wafer, like what you get in church at Easter. Today it's called a slipmat.”

title: Slipmat


text:
MLS Cup

The MLS Cup is the annual championship game of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the culmination of the MLS Cup Playoffs. The game is held in November or December and pits the winner of the Eastern Conference Final against the winner of the Western Conference Final. The MLS Cup winner is awarded the title of league champion.

MLS uses a playoff tournament following the regular season to determine its annual league champion, a method common to every other major North American sports league. This format differs from most football leagues around the world, which consider the club with the most points at the end of the season to be the champion; MLS honors that achievement with the Supporters' Shield.

A U.S.-based team that wins the MLS Cup is awarded one of the country's four berths in the following season's CONCACAF Champions Cup. The three Canadian teams of MLS can only qualify for the Champions Cup through the Canadian Championship—if any of them should win the MLS Cup, the Champions Cup berth tied to game is passed on to the highest-placed U.S.-based team in the overall regular season table that did not already qualify.

The inaugural MLS Cup was held on October 20, 1996, in which D.C. United defeated the LA Galaxy. The Galaxy are the most successful team in MLS Cup history, winning a record fifth title in 2014.

Three trophy designs have been used for the MLS Cup: the Alan I. Rothenberg Trophy from 1996 through 1998, a redesigned Alan I. Rothenberg Trophy from 1999 through 2007, and the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy since 2008.

D.C. United dynasty
The MLS Cup's roots trace back to the foundation of Major League Soccer, when the league decided to hold a championship format similar to its contemporary North American sports leagues. The first few editions of the game were dominated by D.C. United, who appeared in the first four MLS Cup finals, winning three.

The inaugural MLS Cup in 1996 featured D.C. United and LA Galaxy. The Galaxy went ahead 2–0 early in the second half, but their lead was relinquished towards the end of the match when Tony Sanneh pulled one back in the 72nd minute. Nine minutes later, Shawn Medved tied the match at two, resulting in overtime between the two sides. Four minutes into overtime, Eddie Pope gave United the golden goal victory.

In 1997, the second league cup final was contested at RFK Stadium, where United won back-to-back titles, a feat that would not be accomplished for another decade (when the Houston Dynamo won the 2006 and 2007 finals). The game ended 2–1 in United's favor over the Colorado Rapids, who would not win a championship until 2010. Jaime Moreno was declared Man of the Match for his goal in the 37th minute of play. This season was also the first time in league history any MLS team won the regular season (Supporters' Shield) and postseason title in the same season.

D.C. United's run ended the third year, when they made a third run to the MLS Cup finals, only to lose to the expansion side Chicago Fire by 2–0. However the following year, United repeated their "double" of winning both the Supporters Shield and MLS Cup the same season. This time, it was a 2–0 win over the Galaxy in the 1999 MLS Cup final.

Rise of the California Clásico
For the first time since 1997, the 2000 MLS Cup final saw a new club reach the finals along with the Fire. This time the Kansas City Wizards, now known as Sporting Kansas City, won their first MLS Cup with a 1–0 victory over the Fire.

From 2001 through 2005, the MLS Cup finals saw a rising of the California Clásico when intrastate rivals L.A. Galaxy and the San Jose Earthquakes clashed in the 2001 final. The match also saw the rise of U.S. national Landon Donovan who won a Newcomer of the Year award and tallied the equalizer in the Earthquakes 2–1 championship victory over the Galaxy.

With the largest crowd in MLS Cup history at hand, the New England Revolution took on the Galaxy in the 2002 finals. For the match, over 61,000 fans were in attendance at Gillette Stadium to witness the final. In the second period of sudden-death overtime, the Galaxy nabbed their first MLS Cup title, and sparked the start of a string of MLS Cup losses for the Revolution.

The 2003 final saw the league leaders for that season go head-to-head. Two clubs that had MLS Cup experience, the Fire and Earthquakes, played for the final that year. The two clubs had successful regular season campaigns with the Fire winning their first Supporters' Shield, and the Earthquakes being the Western Conference regular season and post-season champions as well as having the second best overall regular season record. In a hotly contested match, the Earthquakes won with their second MLS Cup title with a 4–2 score making it the highest scoring MLS Cup final in league history (six goals).

After a four-year absence, United made their fifth trip to the MLS Cup final, playing against the Wizards for MLS Cup 2004. The match had four goals scored in the first 25 minutes, with United rallying for a 3–1 lead. Midway through the second half, United had relinquished a penalty kick. Josh Wolff scored for Kansas City, bringing the game within a goal. D.C. United was able to retain the lead, by winning their fourth MLS Cup title, by a score of 3–2.

For the 2005 season, the Earthquakes, as the Supporters' Shield winners, fell to the Galaxy in the Playoffs. The Galaxy went on to win the MLS Cup, matching the Earthquakes at two.

Format changes
Until 2005, the MLS Cup championship games had been dominated by clubs that had either won or had come close to winning the Supporters Shield. In the 2005 MLS Cup championship, the match was won by the Los Angeles Galaxy, which won the league title while having a 9th-place overall record. The Wizards had a better record, but did not qualify for the playoffs because they finished 5th in the Eastern Conference, in spite of an 8th-place overall record. The result prompted MLS to create new wild-cards that were used starting in 2006, where a certain number of clubs per conference could qualify, and the next best overall teams regardless of conference would also qualify. That prompted debates about the league switching to a single table and a balanced schedule. The single table has yet been instituted, but in 2010 the league instituted a balanced schedule. During the 2012 season, the league resumed an unbalanced schedule.

Scudetto era
At the start of the 2006 season, MLS created their version of the scudetto (Italian for "small shield"), a symbol worn on the jersey by the team who won the previous season's Serie A (the top Italian league).

The MLS scudetto was originally a curved, triangular badge featuring a backdrop of the American flag behind a replica of the Alan I. Rothenberg MLS Cup trophy. First worn by Los Angeles Galaxy in 2006, following their 2005 MLS Cup title, the Houston Dynamo wore the same triangular scudettos in 2007 and 2008 during their dual-cup run. It was redesigned after the 2008 season after the change to the MLS Cup trophy. It is now an oval-shaped black badge with the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy in the middle. The MLS scudetto is worn by the winning team the season following the victory. It is only during the subsequent season (two years after winning the championship), that the team adds a star – a common soccer signifier of titles won – above the team logo. The team can display the star on other items beside their jersey in the year after winning the Cup, but only if the scudetto is not shown. The Columbus Crew was the first team to wear the redesigned scudetto. Real Salt Lake wore the scudetto in 2010 after winning their first MLS cup in 2009. A year after the Colorado Rapids also wore it after their cup run in 2010 for the 2011 season. Finally, the Los Angeles Galaxy wore the scudetto after winning the MLS Cup in 2011, ironically, it was the last team to do so. After the 2012 season, MLS decided not to use the scudetto for upcoming season and instead the defending MLS Cup champions would have a gold star above one or more silver stars indication the team's MLS Cup wins, followed by an additional silver star added to the lined stars the following season. The Los Angeles Galaxy were the first to receive the gold star above the team's three silver stars for the 2013 season.

"Buffalo Bills" of MLS
While the Galaxy won its second MLS Cup trophy and the Houston Dynamo earned consecutive cups, the New England Revolution went on a run of making three consecutive MLS Cup finals, losing all of them. Two of their three losses were in extra time, while the other was lost on penalty kicks. The infamy gave the club the title of being the Buffalo Bills (an NFL American football team) of MLS. This was in reference to the Buffalo Bills' Super Bowl games in the early 1990s, in which they lost in four consecutive appearances. In the 2005 final, the Revolution lost to the Los Angeles Galaxy, a rematch of 2002, in the final. In a match held at Pizza Hut Park (now Toyota Stadium) in Frisco, Texas, the Galaxy defeated the Revolution by a score of 1–0 thanks to a 105th-minute overtime goal from Galaxy midfielder and Guatemalan international, Guillermo Ramírez. Ramírez's goal sealed the Galaxy's second MLS Cup title, and left the Revs searching once again.

In 2006, the championship was once again played in Frisco at Pizza Hut Park. This time the Revolution took on the Houston Dynamo. Both were coming off a successful season in which they fell short of winning the Supporters' Shield. A sellout crowd of 22,427 attended the match. Revolution forward Taylor Twellman scored an overtime goal in the 113th minute to give the Revolution the 1–0 lead. However, Dynamo captain and forward Brian Ching immediately tied the score following the Revolution's goal. The match went to penalties, in which the Dynamo won 4–3. This left the Revolution for a second consecutive year searching for league glory. It was also the first time in league history that a club made the MLS Cup final and lost consecutively.

In the 2007 final, the Revolution and Dynamo played each other once again for the 2007 cup. Played in Washington, D.C., at RFK Stadium, a crowd just shy of 40,000 witnessed the championship. The announced crowd of 39,859 made it the largest MLS Cup crowd since 2002. The Revolution had a successful season, earning its first U.S. Open Cup title. The Revolution wanted its first MLS Cup crown, and wanted to win its first "Double" in club history. Houston, finishing just shy once again to D.C. United of winning the MLS Supporters' Shield, was determined to finish its second season with some hardware, and to defend its MLS Cup title. The match went in the Revolution's favor early on, as the Revolution's captain, Twellman, netted in the 20th minute to give New England a 1–0 lead. However, midway through the second half, the Dynamo retaliated. Dynamo striker Joseph Ngwenya leveled things at one apiece in the 61st minute, and MLS Cup Man of the Match Dwayne De Rosario gave the Dynamo a 2–1 lead in the 74th. The goal proved to be the winning goal, as the Dynamo earned the first back-to-back MLS Cup titles since D.C. United in 1996 and 1997.

Underdogs winning the cup
Early in the 2008 Major League Soccer season, the league announced that the championship would be returning to The Home Depot Center (now known as Dignity Health Sports Park). Throughout the regular season, the league was dominated by the Columbus Crew, who finished the season with 57 points, and secured the Supporters' Shield title with three matches remaining before the 2008 MLS Cup Playoffs. Traditionally, the Shield winners only rarely made it to the league championship, in spite of usually being the heavy favorites going into the playoffs. However, for the first time in eight years, a regular season champion made it to the MLS Cup final. The Sigi Schmid-led club made their first run to the championship, along with their opponents the New York Red Bulls. For the Crew, being the Shield winners, their run to the final was a bit expected. The Red Bulls making the final was seen as a large surprise, possibly even a fluke. The Red Bulls did not qualify for the playoffs until the last day of the season, where they were the weakest team, in terms of regular season record, to qualify for the playoffs. The match ended up being dominated by the Crew as Columbus defeated New York with ease, 3–1. The point gap between the two clubs was the largest in history, and the scoreline between the two clubs made it tied for the largest margin of victory in MLS Cup history. New York's run to the finals was further emphasized as a fluke when the club had the worst record in 2009.

The following championship saw two intra-conference clubs meet in the final for the second consecutive year, this time at Seattle's Qwest Field (later CenturyLink Field and now Lumen Field). The Western Conference regular season and postseason champions, Los Angeles Galaxy took on Real Salt Lake, who finished fifth in the West. Although the Sounders FC management had originally planned on capping the seats available in Qwest Field to 35,700, surging demand led to the release of an additional 10,000 seats, expanding the total capacity to roughly 45,700. The announced crowd was 46,011. The crowd size was the first championship crowd since 2002 to draw over 45,000 spectators. Televised on ESPN, it was the first time that the MLS championship match was televised on the cable network; the first thirteen were carried on ABC. In the 41st minute, Galaxy striker Mike Magee scored, only for Salt Lake's Robbie Findley to make the tying goal in the 61st. The stalemate was not broken in regulation nor overtime, requiring penalty kicks to decide the match. Thanks to a strike from Salt Lake's Robbie Russell, Salt Lake won their first major trophy. By winning the championship, they gained entry into the 2010–11 CONCACAF Champions League. There, they made it to the final, only to lose to Monterrey of Mexico.

At the 2010 season's end, six teams from the Western Conference qualified for the playoffs, whereas only two clubs from the East qualified, making it the largest disparity between the two conferences in league history. The league's seeding at the time awarded conference winners earned the top seeds, the two weakest Western Conference teams, San Jose Earthquakes and Colorado Rapids were seeded against the Eastern Conference champion, New York Red Bulls and runner-up Columbus Crew, respectively. Some cited this as an unfair advantage for the Rapids and Earthquakes, as both teams made the semi-finals. In the end, the Rapids played FC Dallas for MLS Cup 2010, winning 2–1 in overtime.

LA Galaxy dynasty

Between the 2011 and 2014 MLS Cups, the LA Galaxy appeared in three MLS Cup finals, having the most success in MLS Cup in a short period of time since United's late 1990s dynasty. The only final that the Galaxy did not win, came in 2013, where they lost in the 2013 Western Conference semi-finals to eventual runner-up, Real Salt Lake. During that time, the Galaxy became the first MLS franchise to win five MLS Cups, when they won MLS Cup 2014. These teams contained several high-profile players including Landon Donovan, Robbie Keane, Gyasi Zardes, David Beckham and Omar Gonzalez.

Some claim that the Galaxy's dynasty began in 2009, when they reached the playoffs for the first time since 2005, and marched to the finals, only to lose on penalties to Real Salt Lake. In 2010, and again, in 2011, the Galaxy won consecutive Supporters' Shield, and completed the league double winning both the Shield and MLS Cup in 2011. This was the first time this had been accomplished since the Columbus Crew achieved it in 2008. In the 2011 MLS Cup final, the Galaxy defeated the Houston Dynamo, 1–0 off a 72nd minute Donovan goal. The goal was scored off a Galaxy counter where Beckham fed a through ball to Donovan who slotted it past Hall. The 2012 final featured both the Galaxy and Dynamo again, making it the first since 2007 that an MLS Cup final was a rematch of the previous final. Again, the Galaxy won the final, this time coming from behind to defeat the Dynamo by a 3–1 scoreline. The match was Beckham's final MLS match.

During the 2013 season, the Galaxy's chance to three-peat was thwarted by Real Salt Lake. Salt Lake defeated the Galaxy, 2–1 on aggregate, to advance to the MLS Cup final, where they eventually lost to Sporting Kansas City.

The following season, the Galaxy reached the MLS Cup final again, playing the New England Revolution, making it a rematch of MLS Cup 2002 and MLS Cup 2005. In extra-time a Robbie Keane goal propelled the Galaxy to their fifth MLS match, a victory in the 2014 MLS Cup.

Expansion teams from Cascadia, Canada, and Atlanta
The Portland Timbers won the 2015 MLS Cup, defeating the Columbus Crew 2–1. Portland's Diego Valeri scored the fastest goal in MLS Cup history at 27 seconds when Crew goalkeeper Steve Clark made a fundamental error after he miscontrolled his defender's back-pass while Valeri had advanced towards the ball to strike at the opportunity.

The Seattle Sounders FC faced Toronto FC in the 2016 MLS Cup, which was played at BMO Field in Toronto on the evening of December 10, 2016. The temperature at the start of the match was 21 F (10 F, when adjusted for wind chill), with strong winds coming off Lake Ontario. The field was watered shortly before the match, and resultant field was described as icy by players. Seattle Sounders FC defeated Toronto FC 5–4 in a penalty shoot-out after a scoreless match of 90 minutes regular time and 30 minutes overtime. The Sounders did not register a single shot on goal, becoming the first club to do so in an MLS Cup final. The Sounders, despite a very poor start and mid-season managerial change, became the second team from the Pacific Northwest to win the cup, after Portland in 2015.

In the 2017 MLS Cup, Toronto FC and Seattle faced off in a rematch of the previous edition, also at BMO Field. Toronto FC won the match 2–0, and became the first Canadian team to win the MLS Cup, and the first MLS team to complete a domestic treble, after winning the Canadian Championship and Supporters' Shield earlier in the year.

Atlanta United FC, in their second season as an expansion team, won the 2018 edition of the MLS Cup by defeating the Portland Timbers 2–0. The match, hosted in Atlanta at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, was attended by 73,019 spectators and broke the MLS Cup attendance record set in 2002 by New England. The club became the second-youngest to win an MLS Cup, behind the 1998 Chicago Fire, and brought the first professional sports championship for the city of Atlanta since 1995.

In the 2019 MLS Cup, Toronto FC and Seattle Sounders FC both overcame underdog status in their respective conferences to contest a third final in four years, this time playing at Seattle's home ground. Seattle Sounders FC duly won their second MLS Cup, taking the final match 3–1 at CenturyLink Field in front of a Sounders record attendance of 69,274.

The 2020 edition, which marked the end of a season dramatically affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, saw the Sounders return to the MLS Cup Final, this time facing Columbus Crew SC at the latter's home of Mapfre Stadium in Columbus, Ohio. The Crew won 3–0 in front of a crowd restricted to 1,500, in the stadium's last playoff game.

United States
The MLS Cup Final was aired on English-language networks ABC from 1996 to 2008 and ESPN from 2009 to 2014. ESPN/ABC and Fox alternate as MLS Cup Final broadcasters since 2015, with the MLS Cup 2019 on ABC, their first MLS match since 2008. ABC also air four playoff matches including the MLS Cup 2021. The MLS Cup has also been aired on Spanish-language networks TeleFutura in 2007 and 2008, Galavision from 2009 to 2011,  TeleFutura/UniMás from 2012 to 2018, and Univision in 2019. ABC previously had Spanish announcers under secondary audio program.

From 2015 to 2022, all MLS Cup playoff games are televised on ESPN, Fox Sports, or Univisión networks. UniMás will air two exclusive playoff matches, while ESPN and its affiliated networks will split the rest of the contests – including MLS Cup – with Fox Sports. Univision, UniMás and TUDN also airs the MLS Cup playoffs in Spanish.

With the new Apple TV deal beginning 2023, FOX Sports will be the only linear broadcaster of MLS, and will carry select MLS Cup playoff matches, and every MLS Cup with no alternate broadcaster starting 2023.

Canada
MLS Cup coverage in Canada started in 2007, with the addition of Toronto FC to MLS. The MLS Cup bounced around different networks in the first three seasons of the league's presence in Canada; what was then the bold network aired the 2007 Cup Final, with CBC airing the next year's Final and GolTV Canada airing the Final the year after that. Since 2010, TSN has aired the MLS Cup Final on its networks; this includes Toronto FC's victory in 2017.

In French, RDS has exclusive rights to MLS, and thus the MLS Cup.

Format
Over the history of the MLS Cup Playoffs, numerous formats have been used.

From 1996 to 1999 and 2003 to 2006, the top four teams per conference qualified for the playoffs.

In 2000 and 2001, the three division winners plus the next five teams with the next best records made the playoffs.

In 2002, the top 8 teams qualified for the playoffs regardless of conference.

In 2007, the top two teams per conference plus the next four teams with the next most points qualified.

At the end of the 2008 season, the top three teams of each conference made the playoffs; in addition, the clubs with the next two highest point totals, regardless of conference, were added to the playoffs. In the first round of this knockout tournament, aggregate goals over two matches determined the winners; the Conference Championships were one match each, with the winner of each conference advancing to the MLS Cup. In all rounds, the tie-breaking method was two 15-minute periods of overtime, followed by penalty kicks if necessary. The away goals rule was not used.

At the end of the 2009 and 2010 seasons, the top two teams of each conference made the playoffs; in addition, the clubs with the next four highest point totals, regardless of conference, were added to the playoffs. In the first round of this knockout tournament, aggregate (total) goals over two matches determined the winners; the Conference Championships were one match each, with the winner of each conference advancing to the MLS Cup. In all rounds, the tie-breaking method was two 15-minute periods of extra time, followed by penalty kicks if necessary. The away goals rule was not used.

At the 2011 season's end, the top three clubs in each of the league's two conferences earned the six automatic spots in the Conference Semifinals. The wild card entrants, seeded seventh through tenth, entered based upon their overall position in the overall league standings. The new format was assembled so that the lowest seed to qualify out of the wild card rounds will play against the Supporters' Shield winner. The highest wild-card seed remaining will play the conference champion that did not win the Shield. The play-in games and Conference Finals were single matches, with the higher-seeded club hosting. The conference semi-finals were a two-leg aggregate series. The MLS Cup was held at a predetermined venue.

From 2012 to 2014, the playoff structure was further tweaked with the elimination of the wild card slots. The ten playoff berths were awarded to the top five teams in each conference. In each conference, the No. 4 seeded hosted the No. 5 seed in a single match for a place in the conference semi-finals against the best team in its conference. The Conference Semifinals remained two-legged while the finals changed from a single match to a two-leg aggregate series. Finally, the MLS Cup was held at the home field of the finalist with the highest point total during the regular season. The away goals rule was used but did not apply after extra time.

From 2015 to 2018, the top six teams per conference qualified for the playoffs (12 total teams). The first round involved each conference's No. 3 seed hosting the No. 6 seed, and the No. 4 hosting No. 5. In the Conference Semifinals, the top seed played the lowest remaining seed, and the No. 2 seed played the next lowest seed.

In the 2019, 2021, and 2022 seasons, the top seven teams per conference qualified for the playoffs, with only the best-ranked team in each conference earning a first-round bye. Each round is still single-elimination. The playoff brackets were fixed, as the league abolished re-seeding. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the top ten teams from the Eastern and top eight teams from the Western conference qualified for the playoffs in the 2020 season, with single-elimination remaining intact. The top six Eastern teams earned byes to the first round while teams seeded 7–10 and competed in play-in games. The lowest-ranked team to advance from the play-in round advanced to play the conference's first-placed team while the highest-ranked remaining team from that round advanced to face the conference's runner-up. In the Western Conference, the top eight teams competed in their first round with no byes.

The playoffs expanded to nine teams per conference in 2023 with the re-addition of a best-of-three series. The eighth and ninth seeds play a wild card match, with the winner advancing to face the best-ranked team in their conference in Round One while teams ranked 2–7 face each other, with the higher seed hosting. The Conference Semifinals, Conference Final, and MLS Cup final remain single-elimination matches hosted by the higher-seeded team in late November and early December; as before, without re-seeding.

Champions
The winner of Major League Soccer's MLS Cup, the final match of the MLS Cup Playoffs, determines that season's league champion. The playoff tournament is organized by the league at the conclusion of the regular season in a format similar to other North American professional sports leagues. The tournament is open to the top nine clubs of the Eastern and Western Conferences.

The first MLS Cup final was played on October 20, 1996. To date, the record for the most championships is held by the Los Angeles Galaxy with five cup titles. The record for the most championships lost is held by the New England Revolution, who lost the game five times during their history. The championship has been won by the same team in two or more consecutive years on three occasions.

MLS Cup titles
As of the 2023 season, a total of 32 teams have competed in MLS. Nineteen of these teams have appeared in a cup final, with fifteen of these teams having won the MLS Cup. In the table below, teams are ordered first by the number of appearances in an MLS Cup Final, then by the number of wins, and finally by alphabetical order. In the "Years of Appearance" column, bold years indicate a winning MLS Cup appearance.

MLS Cup finalists records in CONCACAF competition
For most of the league's history, only U.S. teams were eligible to fill MLS based qualification slots for CONCACAF competitions. Canadian teams, even MLS Cup participants, had to qualify by winning the separate Canadian Championship;, the only Canadian winner has been 2017 MLS Cup champion Toronto FC, who also won the Canadian Championship that year. However, starting with the 2024 CONCACAF Champions Cup, Canadian clubs could qualify via MLS slots.

 * Key

 * QR1 = Qualification first round
 * PR = Preliminary round
 * GS = Group stage
 * R16 = Round of 16

 * QF = Quarter-finals
 * SF = Semi-finals or consolation match
 * CON = Consolation match
 * F = Final

 * Notes

Trophies
Culminating the championship, the winning team is presented with a trophy, known as the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy, named for the contributions and investment to American soccer and MLS by Philip Anschutz. Typically, the award presentation is held on a podium in the center of the field, where the league commissioner will award the team with the cup.

Before the actual award presentation, the finalists are awarded with silver medals with the league's logo imprinted on them. The champions are then presented with gold medals, before the trophy is handed to the winning team's captain.

In cup history, the MLS Cup champions have been awarded with three different trophies. For the first three MLS Cup finals, the winning team was awarded with the Alan I. Rothenberg Trophy, named for Rothenberg's contributions to American soccer. The Rothenberg Trophy was a dark gold trophy that had two handles around a soccer ball, with the league's logo imprinted on the plaque. In 1999, the Rothenberg Trophy was redesigned with a soccer ball placed on a beacon. In 2008, the trophy was redesigned again to its present state and renamed the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy.

Venues

In MLS Cup history, eight matches have been played in the Greater Los Angeles area (once at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, six times at Dignity Health Sports Park (formerly StubHub Center and Home Depot Center) in Carson, California, and once at Banc of California Stadium). Columbus, Ohio is alone in second place having hosted MLS Cup final 4 times (3 held at the Historic Crew Stadium and one at Lower.com Field). Three markets are tied for having hosted the MLS Cup final the third-most number of times, with three matches each: the Greater Boston metro area (twice contested at Foxboro Stadium and once at Gillette Stadium, both in Foxborough, Massachusetts), Washington, D.C. (all played at RFK Stadium), and Toronto (all held at BMO Field).

Through the 2011 season every MLS Cup had been played at a predetermined site (i.e., announced before the playoff participants were known). On the day before the 2011 Cup, MLS announced that starting in 2012, Cup finals would be hosted by the participant with the highest point total during the regular season. As is the case with awarding the Supporters' Shield, if the two finalists are tied on points, the team with the most wins hosts the final. For example, at MLS Cup 2022, Los Angeles FC and the Philadelphia Union both finished with 67 points, but LAFC had two more wins and thus hosted the final.

Before the 2012 Cup and the change to awarding the final to the participant with the higher point total, only three teams played the match on their home field. In the 1997 MLS Cup final, D.C. United won the match in their home stadium over Colorado Rapids, RFK Stadium. The same occurrence applied in the 2002 MLS Cup final, where the Los Angeles Galaxy defeated the New England Revolution 1–0, in the Revolution's home stadium Gillette Stadium. As a result, the 1997 and 2002 MLS Cup finals drew the largest crowds in MLS Cup history prior to the 2012 change to the higher seed hosting. In 2011, the LA Galaxy won their 2011 MLS Cup match in their home stadium (Home Depot Center), 1–0, over the Houston Dynamo. The Galaxy became the second team (and first since D.C. United in 1997) to win the Cup at home.

After MLS adopted its current criteria for awarding the MLS Cup match, the first three Cup finals were won by the hosts. The 2012 MLS Cup saw a rematch of the 2011 Cup at the same site, with the Galaxy successfully defending the title with a 3–1 win. In 2013, Sporting Kansas City became the third team to win the cup in their home stadium (Sporting Park) when they beat Real Salt Lake in the penalty kicks, which was the longest shootout in MLS Cup history. Then, in 2014, the Galaxy defeated the New England Revolution 2–1 at the renamed StubHub Center in a match that was also notable as the final competitive match for U.S. national team all-time leading goal scorer Landon Donovan. The pattern was broken in 2015, however, when the Portland Timbers defeated the Columbus Crew in the Crew's home stadium.

Through the 2011 season, MLS typically announced the championship location either prior to the start of its respective season, or even a few weeks into the campaign. For the 2011 championship, the league selected Home Depot Center in Carson, California, making it a fourth time the league's championship had been hosted at the venue.

To date, the coldest MLS Cup final was the 2013 championship game played in Kansas City, Kansas at Sporting Kansas City's Sporting Park where the temperature was 20 F. The hottest MLS Cup final was the 2005 championship game played in Frisco, Texas at FC Dallas's Pizza Hut Park where the temperature was 75 °F (23 °C).

The 2010 edition of the MLS Cup was the first final in league history to be played outside of the United States. The match was played in Canada at Toronto's BMO Field, the home ground of MLS club Toronto FC.

Stadiums

Italics indicate a stadium that is now inactive.

Most Valuable Player
Following each championship, a player on the winning club is awarded with the title of being the Most Valuable Player (MVP). Usually, but not necessarily, the winner of the award is the player who scores the game-winning goal, or sets up the game-winning goal. This is the case of the 2007, 2008, 2010, 2017, 2019 and 2020 recipients, who all scored game-winning goals, or assisted multiple goals for the winning side.

Exceptions to this occurred in 2000, 2009, 2016, and 2021 where the Most Valuable Player award went to goalkeepers Tony Meola, Nick Rimando, Stefan Frei, and Sean Johnson, respectively. Meola and Frei, with the Kansas City Wizards and Seattle Sounders FC, both earned shutouts for their respective teams in the cup. Rimando and Johnson made two saves in a penalty shoot-out to give Real Salt Lake the title over the Los Angeles Galaxy and New York City FC the title over Portland Timbers, respectively.

Players with multiple MLS Cup titles
At least 40 players have won two MLS Cups, mostly for teams with sequential or near-sequential titles (D.C. 1996–1999, San Jose 2001 and 2003, LA Galaxy 2002 and 2005, and 2011–2012, and Houston 2006–2007). Brian Mullan is the only player to have won the Cup with four different teams, while players that have won it with three different teams include: Craig Waibel, Alejandro Moreno, Ezra Hendrickson, and Darlington Nagbe.

Notes and references
General References

title: MLS Cup


text:
Bleep censor

A bleep censor is the replacement of offensive language or classified information with a beep sound (usually a ), used in television and radio.

History
Bleeping has been used for many years as a means of censoring TV and radio programs to remove content not deemed suitable for "family", "daytime", "broadcasting", or "international" viewing, as well as sensitive classified information for security. The bleep censor is a software module, manually operated by a broadcast technician. A bleep is sometimes accompanied by a digital blur pixelization or box over the speaker's mouth in cases where the removed speech may still be easily understood or not understood by lip reading.

In subtitles, bleeped words are usually represented by "[bleep]". Sometimes the phrases "[expletive]", "[beep]", "[censored]", and "[explicit]" are used, while it is also common (though less so) to see hyphens (e.g. abbreviations of the word "fuck" like f—k f---), a series of X's, or asterisks and other non-letter symbols (e.g. ****, f***, f**k, f*ck, f#@k or f#@%), remaining faithful to the audio track. The characters used to denote censorship in text are called grawlixes. Where open captions are used (generally in instances where the speaker is not easily understood) a blank is used where the word is bleeped. Occasionally, bleeping is not reflected in the captions, allowing the unedited dialogue to be seen. Sometimes, a "black bar" can be seen for a closed caption bleep.

Bleeping is mostly used in unscripted programs such as documentaries, radio features, and panel games, since scripted productions are designed to suit the time of their broadcast. For example, on the Discovery Channel, bleeping is extremely common. In the case of scripted comedies, most bleeping may be used for humorous purposes, and other sound effects may be substituted for the bleep tone for comical effect; examples of this include a slide whistle, a baby cooing, dolphin noises, or the "boing" of a spring. Some scripted comedies purposely incorporate bleeping for comedic purposes; for example, profanity in the American sitcom Reno 911! is always bleeped as the show is presented in a mockumentary style, while a recurring joke used in sketches by Australian comedy group Aunty Donna features the bleep appearing slightly too late, resulting in the original profanity being clearly heard before it is immediately followed by a bleep that either serves no purpose or interrupts what the speaker was saying after they had already used profanity.

Other uses of bleeping may include reality television, infomercials, game shows, and daytime/late night talk shows, where the bleep conceals personally identifying information such as ages, surnames, addresses/hometowns, phone numbers, and attempts to advertise a personal business without advanced or appropriate notice, in order to maintain the subject's privacy (as seen for subjects arrested in episodes of Traffic Cops or COPS).

When films are edited for daytime/nighttime TV, broadcasters may prefer not to bleep swearing, but cut out the segment containing it, replace the speech with different words, or cover it with silence or a sound effect.

Bleeping is commonly used in English-language and Japanese-language broadcasting, but is sometimes/rarely used in some other languages (such as Arabic, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Icelandic, Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Korean, Norwegian, Hebrew, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Polish, Russian, Thai and Turkish), displaying the varying attitudes between countries; some are more liberal towards swearing, less inclined to use strong profanities in front of a camera in the first place, or unwilling to censor. In the Philippines and Ecuador, undubbed movies on television have profanity muted instead of bleeped.

On live TV shows, broadcasters prefer to mute the sound to censor profanity rather than bleep over it. This was already the case in March 2022, when American television broadcasters muted the sound during a live broadcast of the Oscars after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock and shouted "Keep my wife's name out your fucking mouth!", to which Rock responded "Will Smith just smacked the shit out of me.". Nevertheless, the complete verbal exchange between Smith and Rock was broadcast uncensored in other countries like Japan, Australia, and Argentina.

Bleeping frequently occurs in videos on the Internet. YouTube videos often have profanity bleeped or muted out as YouTube policy specifies that videos including profanities may be “demonetized” or stripped of ads. In the 2020s, the bleep censor began to be more often used for censoring out words related to sensitive and contentious topics to evade algorithmic censorship online, especially on Meta and TikTok platforms.

Advertising in the United Kingdom
Under the Ofcom guidelines, television and radio commercials are not allowed to use bleeps to obscure swearing under BACC/CAP guidelines. However, this does not apply to program trailers or cinema advertisements and "fuck" is bleeped out of two cinema advertisements for Johnny Vaughan's Capital FM show and the cinema advertisement for the Family Guy season 5 DVD. An advert for esure insurance released in October 2007 uses the censor bleep, as well as a black star placed over the speaker's mouth, to conceal the name of a competitor company the speaker said she used to use. The Comedy Central advert for South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut had a version of "Kyle's Mom's a Bitch" where vulgarities were bleeped out, though the movie itself did not have censorship, and was given a 15 rating, despite a high amount of foul language.

A Barnardo's ad, released in summer 2007, has two versions: one where a boy can be heard saying "fuck off" four times which is restricted to "18" rated cinema screenings, and one where a censor bleep sound obscures the profanity which is still restricted to "15" and "18" rated films. Neither is permitted on UK television.

Trailers for programs containing swearing are usually bleeped until well after the watershed, and it is very rare for any trailer to use the most severe swear words uncensored.

United States
In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission has the rights to regulate indecent broadcasts. However, the FCC does not actively monitor television broadcasts for indecency violations, nor does it keep a record of television broadcasts. Reports must be documented exclusively by the public and submitted in written form, whether by traditional letter or e-mail.

The FCC is allowed to enforce indecency laws during 6 a.m. – 10 p.m. local time. In addition, for network broadcasts, offensive material seen during watershed in one time zone may be subject to fines and prosecution for stations in earlier time zones: for instance, a program with offensive content broadcast at 10 p.m. Eastern Time/Mountain resulted in many stations being fined because of this detail. It falls out of watershed at 9 p.m. Central Time/Pacific Time. To compensate, a channel may only air uncensored material after 1 a.m. Eastern Time so that the broadcast is in watershed in the contiguous United States. For example, Comedy Central only airs uncensored after 1 a.m. so that Eastern Time, Central Time, Mountain Time, and Pacific Time all have it past 10 p.m.

Cable and satellite channels are subject to regulations on what the FCC considers "obscenity", but are exempt from the FCC's "indecency" and "profanity" regulations, though many police themselves, mainly to appeal to advertisers who would be averse to placing their ads on their programs.

Some television and cinematic productions work around the requirement of a censor bleep by writing dialogue in a language that the intended audience is unlikely to understand (for example, Joss Whedon's Firefly used untranslated Chinese curses to avoid being "bleeped", while the Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes "The Last Outpost" and "Elementary, Dear Data" have the character of Captain Jean-Luc Picard utter the French obscenity, merde, which is equivalent to "shit" in English.).

title: Bleep censor


text:
Schering-Plough

Schering-Plough Corporation was an American pharmaceutical company. It was originally the U.S. subsidiary of the German company Schering AG, which was founded in 1851 by Ernst Christian Friedrich Schering. As a result of nationalization, it became an independent company. In 1971, the Schering Corporation merged with Plough, Inc. (founded by Memphis-based entrepreneur Abe Plough in 1908 ) to form Schering-Plough. On November 4, 2009 Merck & Co. merged with Schering-Plough with the new company taking the name of Merck & Co.

Schering-Plough manufactured several pharmaceutical drugs, the most well-known of which were the allergy drugs Claritin and Clarinex, an anti-cholesterol drug Vytorin, and a brain tumor drug Temodar. These are now available from Merck & Co.

Schering-Plough also owned and operated the major foot care brand name Dr. Scholl's and the skin care line Coppertone. These also became a part of the new company.

, Schering-Plough had 1.4% market share in the U.S., placing it seventeenth in the top twenty pharmaceutical corporations by sales compiled by IMS Health.

Schering-Plough was a full member of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), a membership which is also maintained by the new Merck & Co.

Pharmaceuticals and consumer products
Schering was founded in 1851 by Ernst Christian Friedrich Schering as Schering AG in Germany.

Plough, Incorporated was founded by the Memphis, Tennessee area entrepreneur Abe Plough (1892–1984) in 1908. He borrowed $125 from his father to start the business at age sixteen. As a one-man business, he mixed "Plough's Antiseptic Healing Oil," a "sure cure for any ill of man or beast," and sold it off a horse-drawn buggy.

Plough's acquisitions included St Joseph's Aspirin for children, Maybelline cosmetics, and Coppertone skin care products. Plough also had a broadcasting division, operating radio stations in Atlanta, Georgia (WPLO-AM & FM); Baltimore, Maryland (WCAO-AM & FM); Boston, Massachusetts (WCOP-AM & FM); Chicago, Illinois (WJJD-AM & FM); and Memphis, Tennessee (WMPS-AM & FM).

Following the entry of the United States into World War II in 1941, U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ordered Schering AG's U.S. assets be seized. These became the Schering Corporation. The company was placed under a government administratorship until 1952, when it was released, and its assets sold to the private sector.

In 1957, Schering acquired White Laboratories.

In 1971, the Schering Corporation merged with Plough, Inc. At the time of the merger, Abe Plough became Chairman of the combined company. In 2000, Schering-Plough bought a new campus in Summit, New Jersey from Novartis.

On March 12, 2007, Schering-Plough Corp. purchased Organon BioSciences, the drug unit of Netherlands-based Akzo Nobel, for $14.4 billion, giving the US pharmaceutical company an array of women's health products and numerous late-stage pipelines of experimental medicines. Organon itself was founded in 1923 by Dr. Saal van Zwanenberg, the president of Zwanenberg's Slachterijen en Fabrieken.

On November 4, 2009 Schering-Plough merged with Merck & Co. and through a reverse merger, Merck became a subsidiary of Schering-Plough, which renamed itself Merck.

Coopers Animal Health
One of Schering-Plough's plants, in Upper Hutt, New Zealand was the largest single site for the production of veterinary vaccines in the world. This was primarily because New Zealand's isolation has formed a natural quarantine, leaving the country free of rabies, foot and mouth, scrapie, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, and many other livestock diseases. It formerly had echinococcosis, but this has been eradicated. The site was known locally as Coopers Animal Health, a trademark which originated in the 1850s with a British company, Cooper & Nephews; the Coopers brand name was still in use by Schering-Plough in Australia, but not elsewhere.

Intervet
As a result of the acquisition of Organon BioSciences, Schering-Plough bolstered its animal health business with the Akzo Nobel subsidiary Intervet, obtained control of the active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturer, Diosynth and gained access to human vaccine production through the subsidiary Nobilon. The three companies comprising Organon BioSciences were Organon, Diosynth, and Intervet. HomeAgain continues to use the Intervet name owned by Merck.

Merck Animal Health, MSD Animal Health
After the merger of Schering-Plough with Merck the animal health division was still known as Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health. A merger of Merial and Intervet/Schering-Plough was planned in 2010 but was abandoned in March 2011. On June 29, 2011, the company announced that the animal health division would now be known as Merck Animal Health in the United States and Canada; it is now called MSD Animal Health elsewhere in the world.

Prescription products

 * Bridion (sugammadex)
 * Cerazette
 * Desloratadine: antihistamine branded Clarinex
 * Esmeron/Zemuron (rocuronium)
 * Famvir (Famciclovir): for Shingles (herpes zoster) treatment, developed by Novartis
 * Intron A & PEG-Intron Interferon alfa-2b: for treatment of hepatitis C
 * Levitra (vardenafil): Erectile-dysfunction drug; co-marketed with Bayer, and GlaxoSmithKline
 * Livial (tibolone)
 * Marvelon/Desogen
 * Nasonex and Asmanex (Mometasone furoate)
 * Noxafil (posaconazole)
 * NuvaRing
 * Puregon/Follistim
 * Quazepam (Doral)
 * Remeron/Remeron SolTab (mirtazapine)
 * Remicade (infliximab)
 * Suboxone (Buprenorphine/Naloxone)
 * Temodar (temozolomide)
 * Vytorin (ezetimibe/simvastatin): Cholesterol-lowering combination drug
 * Zetia (ezetimibe): Cholesterol-lowering drug

Over-the-counter products (Most products sold to Bayer, except Coppertone)

 * Afrin: A nasal spray decongestant
 * Claritin (loratadine): An antihistamine which has less risk of causing drowsiness
 * Correctol: A stimulant laxative incorporating dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate and yellow phenolphthalein
 * Coricidin: A palliative remedy for the common cold, targeted towards individuals with high blood pressure
 * Coppertone: sunscreens
 * Bain de Soleil: sunscreen
 * Drixoral
 * Solarcaine: Sunburn relief
 * Zinka: Colored sunscreen

Veterinary products

 * Home Again Pet Recovery System: HomeAgain is an advanced pet identification and retrieval system.
 * Zubrin: A non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) for the treatment of osteoarthritis in dogs.
 * Mometamax: Is indicated for the treatment of canine acute externa and chronic otitis externa associated with yeast (Malassezia pachydermatis, formerly Pityrosporum canis) and/or bacteria susceptible to gentamicin. It contains the strongest steroid (Mometasone furoate) in Veterinary Medicine.
 * Eclipse Vaccines: Attenuated modified live feline vaccines available in a multitude of antigen combinations.
 * Galaxy Vaccines: Canine vaccines available in a multitude of antigen combinations.
 * Optimmune: Ophthalmic ointment (ciclosporin) for the treatment of Pannis and Keratoconjunctivitis sicca in dogs.
 * Orbax: Trade name for orbifloxacin, a fluoroquinolone.
 * Otomax: Is indicated for the treatment of canine acute otitis externa and chronic otitis externa associated with yeast (Malassezia pachydermatis, formerly Pityrosporum canis) and/or bacteria susceptible to gentamicin. It contains betamethasone valerate as an anti-inflammatory.
 * Banamine: A non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) used in horses, cattle and swine in different parts of the world.
 * Estrumate: A synthetic prostaglandin used in reproduction of cattle.
 * Trivetrin: Trimethoprin sulfate for the treatment of cattle and swine.
 * Nuflor-Florfenicol-for treatment of bovine respiratory disease, foot rot and control of respiratory disease in cattle at high risk of developing bovine respiratory disease.

Exercise drug
Schering-Plough also received much publicity for a drug AICAR which mimics the effects of exercise, having especially potent effects when used alongside another drug GW1516 developed by GlaxoSmithKline.

Collaborative research
In addition to internal research and development activities Schering-Plough was also involved in publicly funded collaborative research projects, with other industrial and academic partners. One example in non-clinical safety assessment was the InnoMed PredTox.

Controversy
In 2004, Schering-Plough was accused of marketing gimmicks and payoffs to doctors for prescribing the company's pharmaceutical products.

Schering-Plough entered a consent decree with the FDA on March 6, 2002 due to manufacturing issues with its albuterol inhaler. It was ordered to pay $500 million US dollars to the US Treasury.

title: Schering-Plough


text:
Sweet & Maxwell

Sweet & Maxwell is a British publisher specialising in legal publications. It joined the Associated Book Publishers in 1969; ABP was purchased by the International Thomson Organization in 1987, and is now part of Thomson Reuters. Its British and Irish group includes W. Green in Scotland and Round Hall in Ireland.

Sweet & Maxwell publishes Westlaw-UK, as well as the Lawtel, LocalawUK, Legal Hub, and DocDel on-line services. It also published many well-regarded looseleafs and books. Its flagship print products include the White Book (publishing the Civil Procedure Rules 1998, along with extensive commentary and additional material) and Archbold Criminal Pleading, Evidence and Practice (the leading practitioners' text for criminal lawyers in England & Wales and several other common law jurisdictions around the world). In 2003, its Asia division (with headquarters in Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore) won the contract to supply law books to the Hong Kong government. Sweet & Maxwell is part of the European law publishers initiative Law Publishers in Europe.

title: Sweet & Maxwell


text:
User:Blackcarr

Hey! The name is Alex and I'm completing a Ph.D in Polymer Chemistry at the University of Durham, England.

Pages I've started

 * DJ_Danger_Mouse
 * The_Grey_Album
 * Martin_Freeman
 * Bradford_Grammar_School
 * David Arnold
 * Grey_Tuesday

Pages I've contributed to

 * Talk:List_of_languages_by_total_speakers

Contacts
Talk to me

blackcarr.org

title: User:Blackcarr


text:
Religious discrimination

Religious discrimination is treating a person or group differently because of the particular beliefs which they hold about a religion. This includes instances when adherents of different religions, denominations or non-religions are treated unequally due to their particular beliefs, either by the law or in institutional settings, such as employment or housing.

Religious discrimination or bias is related to religious persecution, the most extreme forms of which would include instances in which people have been executed for beliefs that have been perceived to be heretical. Laws that only carry light punishments are described as mild forms of religious persecution or religious discrimination. In recent years, terms such as religism and religionism have also been used, but "religious discrimination" remains the more widely used term.

Even in societies where freedom of religion is a constitutional right, adherents of minority religions sometimes voice their concerns about religious discrimination against them. Insofar as legal policies are concerned, cases that are perceived to be cases of religious discrimination might be the result of interference in the religious sphere by other spheres of the public that are regulated by law.

Ancient
Jews also faced religious discrimination in the Roman Empire. The low point was the expulsion of Jews from Jerusalem and subsequent paganization of the city during the reign of Emperor Hadrian (117–138 AD), which led to the Jewish diaspora.

Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire was widespread. Christianity threatened the polytheistic order of the Roman Empire because of the importance of evangelism in Christianity. Under the Neronian persecution, Rome began to discriminate against monotheists who refused to worship the Roman gods. Nero blamed Christians for the Great Fire of Rome (64 AD). During the Decian persecution, Valerianic persecution, and Diocletianic Persecution, Christians were slaughtered by being thrown to wild beasts, churches were destroyed, priests were imprisoned, and scriptures were confiscated.

Religious discrimination against Christians ended with the Edict of Milan (313 AD), and the Edict of Thessalonica (380 AD) made Christianity the official religion of the empire. By the 5th century Christianity became the dominant religion in Europe and took a reversed role, discriminating against pagans, heretics, and Jews.

Medieval
In the Middle Ages, antisemitism in Europe was widespread. Christians falsely accused Jews of Jewish deicide, blood libel, and well poisoning, and subjected them to expulsions, forced conversions, and mandatory sermons. In the Papal States, Jews were required to live in poor segregated neighbourhoods called ghettos. Historians note that religious discrimination against Jews tended to increase during negative economic and climatic shocks in Europe, such as when they were scapegoated for causing the Black Death.

During the Islamic Golden Age, many Jewish, Christian, Zoroastrian, and Pagan lands came under Muslim rule. As People of the Book, Jews, Christians, and Mandaeans living under Muslim rule became dhimmis with social status inferior to that of Muslims. Although Sharia law granted dhimmis freedom of religion, they were subjected to religious discrimination as second-class citizens and had to pay a jizya tax. They could not proselytize Muslims, marry Muslims (in the case of dhimmi men), build or repair churches and synagogues without permission, perform loud religious rituals such as the ringing of church bells, carry weapons, or ride horses and camels. These discriminatory laws forced many Christians into poverty and slavery.

During the First Crusade (1096), Christian knights recaptured the Holy Land from Muslim rule, massacring most of the Muslims and Jews in Jerusalem. This led to the creation of Catholic-ruled Crusader states, most notably the Kingdom of Jerusalem. In these kingdoms Jews, Muslims, and Orthodox Christians had no rights, being considered property of the crusader lords.

Modern
In early modern Europe, there was a religious conflict between Catholics and Protestants taking place in many countries. In early modern Britain, the Act of Uniformity 1548 compelled the Church of England to use only the Book of Common Prayer for its liturgy. There were several other Acts of Uniformity as the conflict continued well into the 19th century. When Catholicism became the sole compulsory religion in early modern France during the reign of Louis XIV, the Huguenots had to leave the country en masse.

During the decline of the Ottoman Empire in the late modern period, particularly ever since the Great Turkish War (1683), discrimination against religious minorities worsened. The destruction of churches and the expulsion of local Christian communities became commonplace. Tolerance policies were abandoned in Ottoman Albania, in favor of reducing the size of Albania's Catholic population through Islamization.

Antisemitism in the Russian Empire was widespread, as Imperial Russia contained the world's largest Jewish population at the time. Jews were subject to discriminatory laws such as the May Laws (1882), which restricted them from certain locations, jobs, transactions, schools, and political positions. They were also targeted in frequent anti-Jewish riots, called pogroms.

Pakistan
Religious discrimination in Pakistan is a serious issue. Several incidents of discrimination have been recorded with some finding support by the state itself. In a case of constitutionally sanctioned religious discrimination, non-Muslims in Pakistan cannot become Prime Minister or President, even if they are Pakistani citizens. Pakistan's Blasphemy Law, according to critics, "is overwhelmingly being used to persecute religious minorities and settle personal vendettas". Ahmadiyya Muslims have been subject to significant persecution and are sometimes declared 'non-Muslims'.

China
Uyghurs or Uighurs are an ethnic and religious minority group in China. Their identity is based on the Islamic religion and has roots in the former East Turkistan culture. They reside in Xinjiang, an autonomous region situated in the west of the country. This group is persecuted by the Chinese government due to its perceived threat to the nation's security and identity. The Chinese government believes that the Uyghurs have separatist, extremist, and terrorist thoughts. It has detained around one million Uyghurs in camps. According to the Chinese government, these camps are created to re-educate the minority Muslims by learning about the negative consequences of extremism. Detainees are punished in these camps. The treatment of the Uyghurs violates their human rights because they are forcibly sent to the camps for an indefinite period of time. The discrimination against the Uyghurs comes in many forms. Some apparent restrictions include banning religious veils or robes in public. The training camps serve to inculcate beliefs that are congruent with the beliefs of the Chinese Communist Party. Subjected to abuse and suppression in China, some Uyghurs who were seeking refuge resettled in different parts of the world. In June 2021, it was reported that the Uyghurs were being detained even outside China. Following the diplomatic relations of China with the UAE, Uyghurs living in Dubai were subjected to arrest, prolonged detention and deportation to China. China allegedly requested for the deportation of Uyghurs from three Arab countries, including the UAE. The global influence of Beijing has even resulted in the expansion of religious discrimination against the Uyghur Muslims who are residing abroad.

India
Although the Constitution of India prohibits discrimination based on religion discrimination and religious violence in India are frequent, sometimes even involving the function of government. For example dalit people who are not Hindu, Sikh, or Buddhist are not covered by the Scheduled Castes laws and hence dalit Christians and Muslims do not receive the affirmative action political representation and educational placement, welfare benefits, and hate crimes protections accorded to their fellows. Dalits worshipping the same gods as Hindus were previously considered to be of a different religion and in the early twentieth century the question "Is he a Hindu or Pariah?" had currency.

Algeria
Apostasy and proselytization is punishable by Algerian law. Prison sentences for those that practice Christianity do occur.

Egypt
Apostasy and proselytization

Violence against the Christian minority is common.

Coptic Christians face many barriers to building and renovating Coptic churches.

Iraq
Christian Assyrians in Iraq have suffered from discrimination since Saddam Hussein's Arabization policies in the 1980s.

Morocco
Apostasy and proselytization is punishable by Moroccan law. Prison sentences for those that leave Islam do occur.

Iran
Throughout the contemporary history of Iran, ethnic and religious minorities have experienced religious discrimination. Since most of the people of Iran follow the Shia religion, most of the official and unofficial laws of this country are influenced by the Shia religion.

Before the 1979 revolution, there were laws in Iran that allowed religious minorities to participate in elections, have representatives in the parliament, and even reach the highest government positions. After the revolution of 1979, the laws regarding religious minorities were changed. In the current constitution of Iran, only followers of Christianity, Judaism, Zoroastrianism and Sunnis are allowed to perform their religious ceremonies in private and they do not have the right to propagate and spread their religion in public places (proselytize).

Also, Iran's constitution does not recognize other religious minorities such as Baha'is, Buddhists, Hindus, and Atheists. Adherents of these belief systems are not allowed to express their beliefs, but they are deprived of their various rights, including working in government and non-government jobs, etc.

According to the current apostasy laws of Iran, no Muslim has the right to change his (or her) religion, and if he changes his religion, they can be punished by prison and execution. After the Islamic Revolution in 1979 until 2023, all important political and security posts and positions in the country have been assigned to the followers of the Shia religion.

Javid Rahman, the UN rapporteur on Iran affairs, criticized the violation of human rights in Iran at the 77th session of the UN General Assembly. He accused the Iranian government of always ignoring the rights of ethnic and religious minorities in the country and involving them in various judicial cases. In this report, he demanded the release of dissident prisoners and the recognition of the rights of religious and political minorities in Iran.

Kameel Ahmady, an anthropologist and developer of the book From Border to Border (a book about the situation of ethnic and religious minorities in Iran) and his colleagues believes that the legal discriminations in the country's laws regarding ethnic and religious minorities must be removed.

In economic terms, Sunni rural areas lack important infrastructure. It is believed that the majority of the country’s facilities are concentrated in the central provinces. In terms of culture, some ethnic and religious minorities believe that they face restrictions on holding regional festivals and conferences. The national and local media do not cover and represent the cultures and traditions of these regions as the people believe they deserve, and do not provide media services related to the local and regional cultures of Different religions groups. Most Baluchis, as well as some Kurds, have different religious orientations than the state’s official religion. These groups feel that the religious beliefs of government officials lead to the political, cultural, social and economic oppression of indigenous peoples.

United States
Religious discrimination in the history of the United States dates back to the first Protestant Christian European settlers, composed mostly of English Puritans, during the British colonization of North America (16th century), directed both towards Native Americans and non-Protestant Roman Catholic European settlers. (See also Colonial history of the United States).

In a 1979 consultation on the issue, the United States Commission on Civil Rights defined religious discrimination in relation to the civil rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Whereas religious civil liberties, such as the right to hold or not to hold a religious belief, are essential for Freedom of Religion (in the United States secured by the First Amendment), religious discrimination occurs when someone is denied "the equal protection of the laws, equality of status under the law, equal treatment in the administration of justice, and equality of opportunity and access to employment, education, housing, public services and facilities, and public accommodation because they exercise their right to religious freedom".

Canada
In Canada, during 1995-1998, Newfoundland had only Christian schools (four of them, Pentecostal, Roman Catholic, Seventh-day Adventist, and inter-denominational (Anglican, Salvation Army and United Church)). The right to organize publicly supported religious schools was only given to certain Christian denominations, thus tax money was used to support a selected group of Christian denominations. The denominational schools could also refuse the admission of a student or the hiring of a qualified teacher on purely religious grounds. Quebec has used two school systems, one Protestant and the other Roman Catholic, but it seems this system will be replaced with two secular school systems: one French and the other English.

Ontario had two school systems going back before Confederation. The British North America Act (1867) gave the Provinces jurisdiction over education. Section 93 of the BNA Act offered constitutional protection for denominational schools as they existed in law at the time of Confederation. Like "Public schools", Catholic schools are fully funded from kindergarten to grade 12. However, profound demographic changes of the past few decades have made the province of Ontario a multicultural, multi-racial, and multi-religious society. The thought that one religious group is privileged to have schools funded from the public purse is often considered unacceptable in a pluralistic, multicultural, secular society. Although it's also true that the people who send their children to those schools have a form that directs their tax dollars to that school system.

Canadian faith-based university Trinity Western University (TWU) is currently facing a challenge from members of the legal and LGBT community to its freedom to educate students in a private university context while holding certain "religious values", such as the freedom to discriminate against other people, including requiring students to sign a chastity oath, and denying LGBT students the same rights as straight students. TWU faced a similar battle in 2001 (Trinity Western University v. British Columbia College of Teachers) where the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that TWU was capable to teach professional disciplines.

On June 16, 2019, Quebec banned public servants in positions of authority from wearing visible religious symbols. The legislation was erected with the goal of promoting neutrality. Prime Minister Trudeau argues that the ban goes against the fundamental rights of the Canadian people.

European Union
The Court of Justice of the European Union applies aspects of formal equality and substantive equality when evaluating religious discrimination.

Germany

Scientologists in Germany face specific political and economic restrictions. They are barred from membership in some major political parties, and businesses and other employers use so-called "sect filters" to expose a prospective business partner's or employee's association with the organization. German federal and state interior ministers started a process aimed at banning Scientology in late 2007, but abandoned the initiative a year later, finding insufficient legal grounds. Despite this, polls suggest that most Germans favor banning Scientology altogether. The U.S. government has repeatedly raised concerns over discriminatory practices directed at individual Scientologists.

Greece
In Greece since the independence from the Muslim Ottomans rule in the 19th century, the Greek Orthodox Church has been given privileged status and only the Greek Orthodox church, Roman Catholic, some Protestant churches, Judaism and Islam are recognized religions. The Muslim minority alleges that Greece persistently and systematically discriminates against Muslims.

Recently, professor Nick Drydakis (Anglia Ruskin University) examined religious affiliation and employment bias in Athens, by implementing an experimental field study. Labor market outcomes (occupation access, entry wage, and wait time for call back) were assessed for three religious minorities (Pentecostal, evangelical, and Jehovah's Witnesses). Results indicate that religious minorities experience employment bias. Moreover, religious minorities face greater constraints on occupational access in more prestigious jobs compared to less prestigious jobs. Occupational access and entry wage bias is highest for religious minority women. In all cases, Jehovah's Witnesses face the greatest bias; female employers offered significantly lower entry wages to Jehovah's Witnesses than male employers.

Mexico
According to a Human Rights Practices report by the U.S. State department on Mexico note that "some local officials infringe on religious freedom, especially in the south". There is a conflict between Catholic/Mayan syncretists and Protestant evangelicals in the Chiapas region.

United Kingdom
Within the United Kingdom (UK), Northern Ireland has a long history of discrimination based on the religious and political affiliations of Roman Catholics (Nationalists) and Protestants (Loyalists). Some discrimination against Catholics was based on the idea that they were disloyal to the State. In a speech on 19 March 1935, a member of the Northern Ireland government Basil Brooke spoke on the issue of employment based on religion: "I recommend those people who are loyalists not employ Roman Catholics, ninety-nine percent of whom are disloyal." In November of 1934 the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland James Craig stated that his administration was a "Protestant Government for a Protestant People." Discrimination based on religion in Northern Ireland is alleged to have occurred in the areas of housing allocation, employment, voting rights, state benefits and with the Gerrymandering (or discriminatory Electoral boundary delimitation to ensure election results.

An analysis of the 1,095 Northern Ireland government appointments in 1951 showed that Nationalists (comprising 34 percent of the population) received only 11.8 percent of positions in local government bodies: Borough, County, Urban and Rural District Councils. A system known as Plural voting provided for property owners to cast multiple votes in elections. Plural voting ended in the UK in 1948 but remained in effect in Northern Ireland until 1969. The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) was founded in 1967. Several of the demands made by NICRA were for "One Man One Vote", the end of gerrymandering and discrimination based on religion.

title: Religious discrimination


text:
Talk:Andreas Katsulas

Untitled
Maybe somebody would like to know which ST:TNG episodes Andreas Katsulas was in. I don't think it's non-encyclopedic to include this information (but the Appearances stuff was a bad thing to have) What'd be interesting would be for somebody to find out what CHARACTERS he played on his appearances and to add it eg.'ST:TNG ep 543 'Going Beyond' character - 'the one-armed man'. KJ 01:31, 23 Feb 2004 (UTC)

His name is Greek. I am 99% he is a Greek-American. Optim 01:34, 23 Feb 2004 (UTC)

More details on theatrical career?
RIP. How sad. I'm glad we have five seasons of B5 to remember his talent and brilliance with. Let's find a way to add his prodigious theatre career to this article, he loved the stage. Does anyone have this additional bio info? Noirdame 19:56, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Memorial video
I removed the link to the "memorial video" because it appeared to be a fan production, which wouldn't usually meet the criteria for external links at WP:EL.

I'm happy to be proved wrong, of course. Could someone explain why the video is notable? Was it produced by someone from the B5 crew? Who is John E. Hudgens? Thanks. —Whouk (talk) 21:00, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

 * At the very moment I was typing this, I got the answer on my talk page. —Whouk (talk) 21:03, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Seen it spelled Katsulas and Katsoulas (within Wikipedia)- is the second a real alternate spelling, or typo?.
 * probably because in greek we write the sound "oo" like "ou" or "oy" and this surname is written like "katsoulas" or "katsoylas" with the greek alphabet(it's a common surname in greece and sounds like it btw). --Fs 08:06, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

title: Talk:Andreas Katsulas