text:
Louise Bénédicte de Bourbon

Anne Louise Bénédicte de Bourbon (8 November 1676 – 23 January 1753) was the daughter of Henri Jules de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, and Anne Henriette of Bavaria. As a member of the reigning House of Bourbon, she was a princesse du sang. Forced to marry the Duke of Maine, legitimised son of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan, she revelled in politics and the arts, and held a popular salon at the Hôtel du Maine as well as at the Château de Sceaux.

Birth
Louise Bénédicte was born on 8 November 1676 at the Hôtel de Condé in Paris. She was the eighth child born to the then Duke and Duchess of Enghien. The name Bénédicte was added in honour of the child's maternal aunt, the Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg.

She was brought up at the Hôtel de Condé with her many sisters and had to endure slave-like conditions under the madness of her father. Her mother, who was pious and gentle, was often beaten by her father as were their staff and her sister Marie Anne, Mademoiselle de Montmorency. When formally addressed, Louise Bénédicte was known as Mademosielle d'Enghien. As a princess of the blood, she possessed the style of Serene Highness. When she was nine years old, her father was given the title of Count of Charolais, and as a result Louise Bénédicte became known as court as Mademoiselle de Charolais. This appellation would later pass to her niece Louise Anne.

She was very outspoken and witty, and had a terrible temper. As she was very small and paid much attention to her appearance, she was nicknamed poupée du Sang at the French court, literally, "Doll of the Blood", a play on the honorific princesse du sang, princess of the Blood. This nickname is sometimes said to have been made up by her sister-in-law the Duchess of Bourbon. She was close to her sister Marie Anne, whose marriage to the Duke of Vendôme (1654–1712) she later arranged. Although born with a lame arm, she was generally thought to be the most attractive of the Condé daughters. Despite this Madame, Duchess of Orléans, sister-in-law of Louis XIV called her a "little toad." Some time after her marriage, the Duchess of Orléans also said that "Madame du Maine is not taller than a child ten years old, and is not well-made. To appear tolerably well, it is necessary for her to keep her mouth shut; for when she opens it, she opens it very wide, and shows her irregular teeth. She is not very stout, uses a great quantity of paint, has fine eyes, a white skin, and fair hair. If she were well-disposed, she might pass, but her wickedness is insupportable". She was very short like her older sister Anne Marie, Mademoiselle de Condé. Louise Bénédicte and her oldest sister Marie Thérèse de Bourbon, known as Mademoiselle de Bourbon until her marriage to le Grand Conti in 1688, were considered the most attractive of the daughters born to the Condés.

Mademoiselle d'Enghien received the typical education given to girls of the nobility in France and was taught reading, writing, dancing, singing and other matters which were considered necessary for a young aristocrat. She spent most of her time in the company of her mother and two older sisters.

Marriage
At first, it was proposed that she marry Louis de Bourbon, Count of Vermandois, son of Louis XIV and Louise de La Vallière. However, the count died in exile in 1683. Louis XIV arranged several marriages into princely houses of France for his legitimised children by Louise de La Vallière. Prior to her marriage, she saw the marriage of Philippe d'Orléans to Mademoiselle de Blois, future duchesse d'Orléans. Louise Bénédicte's own brother Louis de Bourbon had even had been forced to marry Mademoiselle de Nantes, eldest legitimised daughter of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan.

In 1692, the 15-year-old Louise Bénédicte married the 22-year-old Louis Auguste de Bourbon, Légitimé de France, Duke of Maine. The wedding ceremony took place on 19 May 1692 in the chapel of the Palace of Versailles, Madame de Montespan was not invited but all of Maine's siblings attended as well as the princes and princesses of the blood. As both the groom and his wife were physically handicapped, members of the court joked that "look at the union of a one-armed woman and a lame man! What a beautiful couple!". The marriage was not happy. The couple did not like each other, Louise Bénédicte found her husband weak and abhorred his lack of ambition. He could not stand her terrible temper and deliberate attempts to embarrass him at court. Louise Bénédicte's is said to have had several affairs which were known to Maine. To her husband, she was recorded as saying, "Just look at yourself – a lame bastard! – and you'd like to boss me? I am a pure bred royal princess, Monsieur, with no stain on my cradle! What would you be without the sticks at which everyone laughs? One to support your body, and the other, me, to maintain your rank! And this Leggy wants to rule my steps!" (Since Maine limped, his wife called him 'Gambillard', which meant leggy).

In order to escape the dull court of Madame de Maintenon, Louis XIV's secret wife since October 1683, the enthusiastic duchesse du Maine created a little court at the Château de Sceaux, where she entertained brilliantly and immersed herself in political intrigues. The château, the former residence of Jean-Baptiste Colbert and his family, was bought in 1700 by her husband for the sum of 900,000 livres. Louise Bénédicte spent a further 80,000 livres on its furnishings and decorations.

After extensive renovations, she took up residence in December 1700. There, she began to be called La Reine des Abeilles, or Queen of the Bees. In 1703, to amuse herself, Louise Bénédicte created her own personal chivalric order, the Order of the Honey Bee. She gave the order to thirty-nine people. Each member had a robe embroidered with silver thread, a wig in the shape of a beehive and a medal embossed with a profile of Louise Bénédicte and engraved with the letters L. BAR. D. SC. D.P.D.L.O.D.L.M.A.M, meaning Louise, baronne de Sceaux, dictatrice perpétuelle de l'ordre de la Mouche à miel ("Louise, baroness of Sceaux, dictator of Order of the Honey Bee").

To her small court, Louise Bénédicte attracted a host of literary figures of the day, including the young Voltaire, the baron de Montesquieu, the cardinal de Bernis, the comte de Caylus, Charles-Jean-François Hénault and Jean-Baptiste Rousseau. In 1710, she helped to plot the marriage of her sister, Marie Anne, Mademoiselle de Monmorency, to the famous general Louis Joseph de Bourbon, duc de Vendôme. For mercenary reasons, Louise Bénédicte wanted a marriage that would not produce any children. Upon the death of a childless Vendôme, Louise Bénédicte hoped that she or her children would inherit the duke's huge estate, which he had acquired as the grandson of the rich heiress, Françoise of Lorraine. At thirty-two, Marie Anne was considered past child-bearing age, and Vendôme was a well known homosexual, thirty years older than his prospective bride. As it happened, though, Louise Bénédicte got nothing. On the duke's death, Marie Anne was created Duchess of Étampes in her own right and inherited the Hôtel de Vendôme in Paris, where she died in 1718 from alcoholism.

Both the Maines doted on their children. Their daughter, who would remain close to her mother until her death, was baptised at Versailles on 9 April 1714. Mademoiselle du Maine was given the name of her paternal aunt Louise Françoise de Bourbon, known at court as Madame la Duchesse. Madame la Duchesse had grown up with Maine under the care of Madame de Maintenon.

The guest of honour at the baptism of Mademoiselle du Maine was the small dauphin, the future Louis XV, who was chaperoned by Maine's other sister, the new Duchess of Orléans. The cardinal de Rohan baptised Mademoiselle du Maine. Thanks to the help of Madame de Maintenon, who had always loved Maine, Louis XIV created Maine a Prince of the Blood which put him in line of succession to the throne. In his will, Louis XIV also appointed Maine to be the Regent of France for his five-year-old great-grandson, the future Louis XV.

Regency of Philippe d'Orléans
At the death of the king in 1715, however, the Parlement of Paris annulled Louis XIV's will and named Maine's brother-in-law, Philippe d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans, as Régent for the child king. Upset with this and the role played by the duc d'Orléans in reducing the status of the legitimised children of Louis XIV from the rank of Princes du Sang (which Louise Bénédicte had enjoyed since birth) to mere peers of France, Louise Bénédicte induced her husband to join in the Cellamare Conspiracy in the hope of transferring the regency to King Philip V of Spain, the uncle of Louis XV. The plot was named after Antonio del Giudice, Duke of Giovinazzo, Prince of Cellamare, who was the Spanish ambassador to France.

In order to gain more support for a new regent, Louise Bénédicte started a correspondence with Giulio Alberoni, the Spanish Prime Minister. Among her co-conspirators were the Duke of Richelieu and Melchior de Polignac. The plot, however, was discovered, and both the Maines were arrested and forced to abandon their residence at Sceaux. In 1719, the duke was imprisoned in the Doullens fortress and the duchess in Dijon. Their two sons were put in the care of their governor in Gien, and their daughter was taken from a convent at Maubuisson to another convent at Chaillot in Paris, in the area of the present Trocadéro. She stayed at Chaillot until 1720 when her parents were released from their separate imprisonments.

After her release, Louise Bénédicte led a more peaceful life at Sceaux, still surrounded though by her little court of wits and poets. On 27 December 1718, before their exile, she and her husband had purchased an unfinished house in Paris on the rue de Bourbon (now rue de Lille) from her sister Marie Thérèse de Bourbon. It was originally designed by the architect Robert de Cotte, but they had hired a new architect, Armand-Claude Mollet, to enlarge and redesign it. It was completed before their return from exile and became known as the Hôtel du Maine (destroyed 1838).

At the time of her imprisonment, she was trying to arrange the marriage of her eldest son, Louis Auguste de Bourbon, heir to the Maine's fortune, to his cousin Charlotte Aglaé, Mademoiselle de Valois. The rivalry between the Maines and Charlotte Aglaé's father, the Duke of Orléans, was well known, and it was hoped that the wedding would heal old wounds. A marriage did not occur, however, as the young Mademoiselle de Valois refused her cousin, much to the annoyance of the proud Louise Bénédicte. Madame du Maine was not happy when she found out that Charlotte Aglaé had considered the hand of another cousin, Charles de Bourbon, the son of Monsieur le Duc, Louise Bénédicte's brother, and Madame la Duchesse, Maine's sister.

Widowhood
After their release from imprisonment in 1720, the Maines seemed to have reconciled and led a more compatible life rather than being hostile to each other. In May 1736, the duke died at the age of sixty-six. Louis XV allowed Louise Bénédicte to keep her apartments at Versailles next to those of her daughter. These apartments overlooked the Orangérie. Both her sons also had apartments at court, but both preferred to stay in the country hunting. Madame du Maine tried on more than one occasion to arrange an advantageous marriage for her daughter. The first was to one Monsieur de Guise, but that marriage never materialised. Later, she tried to convince the widower Jacques I, Prince of Monaco, who was often at Versailles, to wed again. Despite the lure of a large dowry, both men considered Mademoiselle du Maine to be very unattractive. Unwed, she died in 1743. She was buried at the Église at Sceaux. At the time of her death, her library was numbered at having some 3000 books.

In 1736 Louise Bénédicte received the medieval Château de Montrond, which she allowed to be dismantled for its stone and the slate and lead in its roof. In 1737, she leased the Hôtel Peyrenc-de-Moras (today the Musée Rodin) in Paris from the widow of Abraham Peyrenc de Moras. During the remainder of her life, this was also referred to as the Hôtel du Maine, and she died there in January 1753. Dying at the age of seventy-six, Louise Bénédicte had outlived all of her siblings. She was buried at the Saint Jean-Baptiste church in Sceaux. Her oldest son, Louis Auguste, died less than two years after her, having been injured in a duel at Fontainebleau. Her youngest surviving son, Louis Charles, never married and died childless in 1775. He left his fortune to his first cousin, the already wealthy Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon, Duke of Penthièvre.

Issue

 * Mademoiselle de Dombes (Palace of Versailles, 11 September 1694 – Palace of Versailles, 15 September 1694), died in infancy.
 * Louis Constantin de Bourbon, Prince of Dombes (Palace of Versailles, 17 November 1695 – Palace of Versailles, 28 September 1698), died in childhood.
 * Mademoiselle d'Aumale (Palace of Versailles, 21 December 1697 – Palace of Versailles, 4 August 1699), died in childhood.
 * Louis Auguste de Bourbon, Prince of Dombes (Palace of Versailles, 4 March 1700 – Palace of Fontainebleau, 1 October 1755), died unwed.
 * Louis Charles de Bourbon, Count of Eu (Château de Sceaux, 15 October 1701 – 13 July 1775), died unwed.
 * Charles de Bourbon, Duke of Aumale (Palace of Versailles, 31 March 1704 – Château de Sceaux, 2 September 1708), died in childhood.
 * Louise Françoise de Bourbon, Mademoiselle du Maine (Palace of Versailles, 4 December 1707 – Château d'Anet, 19 August 1743), died unwed.

title: Louise Bénédicte de Bourbon


text:
Talk:P2P

PPP
Mention PPP perhaps. news:comp.protocols.ppp --Jidanni 2006-04-16 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.194.50.118 (talk) 09:28, 15 December 2017 (UTC)

PP2P2P2PP2P?
We don't need to link to PP2P2P2PP2P now, do we? --Damian Yerrick (☎) 04:23, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

!@--->

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

title: Talk:P2P


text:
User:Zoney

Articles of interest
These are some topics I am interested in, created, or significantly contributed to at some stage. While some items are listed here to show off my work, mostly this is just for my own reference, and to give others a flavour as to what I like doing on Wikipedia. (It's a bit more filtered and helpful than "User Contributions" special page.)

Europe
The European Union. See Infobox, Legal history and governing treaties and map.

Ireland (transport)
Two major elements to Transport in Ireland are the road network and rail network. Both are currently undergoing expansion and upgrade under the National Development Plan. The National Roads Authority is responsible for major roads in Ireland, which mainly focus around Dublin. The M50 circles the east of the city, with the M1 (N1), N2, N3, N4, N5, N6, N7, N8, N11 leading to other parts of the country.

Railways in Ireland have a long history. Iarnród Éireann now operates services in the Republic (except for Dublin's Luas tram system), with most lines running to/from Connolly, Pearse and Heuston Station in Dublin. A new terminal is planned for Spencer Dock. Many routes were built or operated by the Great Southern & Western Railway. Many lines were shut down over the years, such as the West Clare Railway. The Western Railway Corridor is a partly intact closed line, for which there is a campaign to be reopened. One of the Irish rail network's most well-known locations is Limerick Junction (track diagram). Rolling stock used on Irish railways includes British Rail Mark 2 and British Rail Mark 3.

Heritage railways in Northern Ireland include the Downpatrick Railway Museum and The Giants Causeway & Bushmills Railway.

Ireland (places)
The geography of Ireland reflects its situation as an island in northwest Europe in the north Atlantic Ocean. A ring of mountains surround low central plains, although some such as the Galtee Mountains are further inland. Peninsulas such as the Ards peninsula and Iveragh peninsula are common, with many islands (e.g. Achill Island, Fota Island, Great Island, Rathlin Island) also. Almost all cities in Ireland are on rivers, such as Cork on the River Lee. Major lakes such as Lough Erne, and minor ones such as Lough Gur are scattered through the country.

Most of Ireland's towns are settlements hundreds of years old. Letterkenny is one of the few major towns in the northwest of the Republic. South near the border are Longford Town and Roosky. Along the northwest coast are Ballina and Westport. Castlebar is located inland between the two. Further south on the west coast are Doolin and Kilkee, with Shannon Town (and Shannon Airport) located further inland towards Limerick. Hunt Museum and St. John's Cathedral are both in the city. Patrickswell is a town nearby. Cratloe, Bunratty Castle and Ennis are north of the city. Out towards the southwest coast from Limerick are Foynes and Listowel. South of Listowel is Farranfore, with Cahersiveen located further southwest out on the coast. Bantry is south again on the Western edge of West Cork. The city of Cork is located on the south coast. Further along is Dungarvan. Portmarnock is on the east coast near the capital. St. Stephen's Green is in the city centre. Mulhuddart is a town on the western outskirts and Stillorgan is a suburb south of the city. Alongside or along the route from Dublin to Limerick are Sallins and Naas, Droichead Nua (Newbridge) and Borris-in-ossory, with Portarlington located on the railway route. Clara and Moate are north of Portarlington, in the Midlands. Ballinakill, Durrow and Rathdowney are south of the Midlands, alongside the N8 route to Cork.

Ireland has provencial flags, with one each for Ulster, Munster, Connacht and Leinster.

Armagh Observatory is an attraction in Northern Ireland.

Ireland (maps)

 * Physical map: Small, Medium, Large
 * Towns in Westmeath
 * Carlow-Kilkenny constituency
 * Dublin admin divisions: Fingal, South Dublin, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, Dublin City

Template:NI district, added to each NI council article.

Ireland (topics)

 * List of Ireland-related topics
 * Bord na Móna, Charles Bianconi, Irish breakfast
 * Architecture of Ireland
 * Architecture of Limerick, Tower house, Wattle and daub
 * Irish Rebellion of 1798
 * Northern Bank robbery

Transport

 * Grade separation
 * Rail terminology
 * Dual gauge, Loop (rail), Push-pull, Passenger train human waste disposal, Railway platform, Siding, Signal box, Terminal station, Terminus,
 * Regional rail, Train station
 * Image:Platform types.png
 * ''Hope to start road terminology or motoring terminology
 * Cat's eye (road), Filling station, Hard shoulder, License plate, Motorway, Roundabout intersection

Other

 * Briquette
 * Sandwich toaster

ga:Úsáideoir:Zoneyfr:Utilisateur:Zoney

title: User:Zoney


text:
Talk:Bracknell

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Bracknell. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070622112302/http://www.bfheritage.org.uk/history.php?CID=37&Title=New+Town+Development+Corporation to http://www.bfheritage.org.uk/history.php?CID=37&Title=New+Town+Development+Corporation

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 18:38, 3 September 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 external links on Bracknell. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120619030559/http://www.jennettspark.co.uk/ to http://www.jennettspark.co.uk/
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20071229062811/http://www.bracknellhockeyclub.com/ to http://bracknellhockeyclub.com/

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 03:03, 29 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Bracknell Hockey Club is now merged with South Berkshire Hockey Club (http://www.southberkshirehockeyclub.org.uk/). I have updated the link accordingly. Some parts of this article are now well out of date with the Lexicon having opened and Jennets Park long since completed. When I have time I will attempt to update. Dsergeant (talk) 06:57, 30 November 2017 (UTC)

The Deck
I see an edit, now undone, was made to suggest The Deck, the eating/leisure area at the old Bentalls site, was scheduled to open in September 2019. The linked reference was a brochure published in February 2017, even before the Lexicon itself was opened. It is still planned and occasionally gets mentioned in the local press but at the moment (July 2019) there has been absolutely zero work on the site so it clearly won't open then. Dsergeant (talk) 16:55, 7 July 2019 (UTC)

title: Talk:Bracknell


text:
Talk:Albany, Georgia

COVID-19 pandemic
Greetings.

I had cleaned up the mention of the town's noteworthiness to the COVID-19 pandemic in the history section. In addition to the New York metropolitan area, Detroit and New Orleans, Albany was one of the first big COVID-19 outbreaks in the United States, ironic considering its relatively small size and isolation in the Deep South. I think this needs to be preserved for posterity on its Wikipedia page so that the history isn't forgotten. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:240:CD08:593A:8D5A:ADA7:DFA1:606C (talk) 02:12, 7 December 2021 (UTC)

 * I've thought this for years, though I don't really know much about editing Wikipedia. There's reporting from the Associated Press and New York Times about it. 2600:1700:B5B0:C070:249A:7F52:BFDB:F521 (talk) 02:17, 2 April 2024 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 08:51, 23 March 2023 (UTC)
 * USA Georgia location map.svg

title: Talk:Albany, Georgia


text:
Tabula Capuana

The Tabula Capuana ("Tablet from Capua"; Ital. Tavola Capuana), is an ancient terracotta slab, 50 by, with a long inscribed text in Etruscan, dated to around 470 BCE, apparently a ritual calendar. About 390 words are legible, making it the second-most extensive surviving Etruscan text. The longest is the linen book (Liber Linteus), also a ritual calendar, used in ancient Egypt for mummy wrappings, now at Zagreb. The Tabula Capuana is located in the Altes Museum, Berlin.

Description
Horizontal scribed lines divide the text into ten sections. The writing is most similar to that used in Campania in the mid-5th century BC, though surely the text being transcribed is much older. The text is boustrophedon, with the first line to be read left to right, the next right to left, etc.

Attempts at deciphering the text (Mauro Cristofani, 1995) are most generally based on the supposition that it prescribes certain rites on certain days of the year at certain places for certain deities. The ten visible sections seem to each be devoted to a different month, March through December, January and February presumably having been treated in the missing top sections. The text itself was edited by Francesco Roncalli, in Scrivere etrusco, 1985.

Recently, a major scholar in the field, Bouke van der Meer, has proposed a "very tentative partial word-for-word translation" of the text:

Text example
(/ indicates line break; some word breaks are uncertain)

First section (lines 1-7): MARCH?
The first legible section likely is devoted to rituals to be held in March (though the Etruscan word for this month, Velcitna, does not occur in the legible text, presumably because it was in the missing parts).

There are three to five initial lines missing and then 30-50 characters missing in the initial damaged lines shown here.

 * ...vacil.../2ai savcnes satiriasa.../3...[nunθ?]eri θuθcu
 * vacil śipir  śuri leθamsul
 * ci tartiria /4 cim cleva
 * ac asri halχtei
 * vacil iceu śuni savlasie...

(~5-8 characters broken off at the end of this line)
 * /5[mul]u rizile picasri
 * savlasieis
 * vacil lunaśie vaca iχnac
 * fuli/6nuśnes
 * vacil savcnes itna
 * mulu rizile picasri
 * iane
 * vacil l/7eθamsul scuvune
 * marzac saca⋮

Notes: In line 1 and throughout, vacil may mean "libation" (or some similar rite or ceremony), in which case each of the first phrases beginning with it presumably indicate what deity to pour a libation to and perhaps other information. However, Steinbauer (agreeing with Rix) has challenged this assumption and, considering that it seems to be positioned at the beginning of a series of phrases within the context of a step-by-step instruction, proposed that vacil (with its variants vacal and vacl) simply means "then."

In line 2, savc-nes according to van der Meer is an Apolline god, perhaps related in form to saucsaθ at 3.15 of the Liber Linteus. The form in the Liber Linteus, preceded as here by the term vacl "libation," also falls in a section that probably deals with March, though as here there is no explicit mention of a month name. The relevant text from that passage of the Liber Linteus is as follows (3.15-3.17): ''vacl. an. ścanince. saucsaθ. persin / cletram. śrenχve. iχ. ścanince. ciz. vacl / ara roughly: "The libation which was poured to Sauc- Pers-'' (should be performed) with the decorated litter just as it had been poured (before); perform the libation three times."

Note that the ending -nes/-nis also occurs in the forms fulinuś-nes (5-6) and caθ-nis (9), all referring to deities.

In line 2, satiriasa (if one word) may be a form of Satre the Etruscan term for Saturn, which also appears on the Piacenza Liver among chthonic deities. Or it could be in some way connected to or contrasting with tartiria at the end of line 3.

In line three,  ś uri is a (not necessarily exclusively) chthonic deity. The form also appears on the Lead Plaque of Magliano. Leθam-s appears on the Piacenza Liver among chthonic deities, but may have other connections as well. The genitive is used here as usual for indirect object.

In lines three and four, ci(m) means "three," and both tartiria and cleva indicate kinds of offerings, yielding a possible partial translation: "To Lethams, three tartiria (perhaps related to Greek Tartaros, as if '(gifts) for the underworld'?) offerings and three cleva offerings ..." In line 4, halχ- is likely the name of a kind of vase. A verbal form of vacil may be seen in line 5: vac-a "make a libation (to)?"; But van der Meer reads faca here, with unknown meaning. A similar form, vac-i is in line 28, also preceding a form of fuli/nuśnes. Also in line 5, lunaśie brings to mind the Roman moon goddess, Luna (which some equate with Cath, see below). pi-cas(ri) (5,6) is defined by Pallottino as a verb of offering, to be compared with a-cas "to do; to offer." mulu- (4/5, 6) and scu- (7, 10) seem to be roots meaning "to offer, give" and "finish", respectively; and sac- means "carry out a sacred act; consecrate." In lines 5-6,  fuli/nuśnes may be a form of Fufluns, the Etruscan Dionysus who is associated with the Etruscan goddess Caθa who also seems to be mentioned in this text (see below). A somewhat similar form, fuln[folnius] can be found on line 29 of the Tabula Cortonensis.

Note the frequent repetitions (besides vacil): savcnes(2, 6); leθamsul(3, 6/7, 8...); mulu-ri zile picas-ri(4/5, 6, 18/19 but with...a-cas-ri rather than pi-cas-ri); savlasie(is)(4, 5); scu-vune marza(c)(7) versus marza...scuvse(10)...

The tentative partial translation by van der Meer, building on the work of many others suggests this part of the ritual calendar calls for an indeterminate offering be made to the god Saucne, and that libations be performed for the gods Śuri and Letham as well as for the gods Saulasie and Fulinusne. Furthermore, that a gifted rizile be accepted in [the period of?] Iana. And that, the libation to Letham having been properly completed, a marza be consecrated.

Second section (starting on line 8): APRIL = apirase
The second section seems to be devoted to rituals to be held in April.

 * iśveitule ilucve apirase
 * leθamsul ilucu cuiesχu perpri
 * cipen apires /9 racvanies huθ zusle
 * rithnaitultei
 * snuza in te hamaiθi
 * civeis caθnis fan/10iri
 * marza in te hamaiθi
 * ital sacri
 * utus ecunzai
 * iti alχu
 * scuvse riθnaitu/11ltei
 * ci zusle acun siricima nunθeri
 * eθ iśuma zuslevai apire nunθer/12i
 * avθleθ aium
 * vacil ia leθamsul nunθeri
 * vacil ia riθnaita
 * eθ aθene/13ica perpri
 * celutule apirase unialθi turza esχaθce
 * ei iśum unialθ ara
 * /14epnicei nunθcu ciiei turzai
 * riθnaita eiti ia halχ
 * apertule aφes ilucu vacil zuχn/15e...
 * elφa riθnaitultrais
 * vanec calus zusleva atu[unis]ne
 * inpa vinaiθ acas
 * aφ/16es
 * ci tartiria ci turza riθnaitula
 * snenaziulastra
 * vaiuser hivus niθusc riθnaitula
 * hivustra
 * vaiuser snenaziulas

Notes: Line 8 shows the form isvei which occurs frequently in the Liber Linteus where it appears to mean "festival" or "ides". If the form iśum in line 13 is related, it may mean "festive" or (more likely) "appropriate for a sacred festival" > "sacred." The form tul(e) (8, 9, 10) in some contexts means "stone", perhaps related to tular "border" (< "stone marking a border"?), itself probably related to (or the origin of?) Umbrian tuder "boundary"; also the origin of the Umbrian town name Todi. Here it seems to mean "(on or after) the ides (of a particular month)." According to van der Meer, iluc-ve/u (twice in line 8) means "feast." Of course, iśvei and tule can't both mean "ides", and in any case, the Latin ides originally fell on the full moon and was sacred to Jupiter, but since the deities recognizable here are underworld (leθams and caθ), tul may instead refer to the dark phase of the moon, or the new moon (Latin kalends). As van der Meer points out elaborately elsewhere, the contrast between light and dark gods was very important for the Etruscan calendar and for how they divided up the heavens.

apirase may mean "(in the) month of April." See above for Leθam-sul. Van der Meer translates pep-ri as "must be held." cipen seems to be a priestly title (with variants cepa(r), cepe(n)).

huθ in line 9 means "six", and ci in line 11 means "three." zusle(-vai) (9, 11) means "sacrificial victims" perhaps specifically "piglets."

At the end of line 9, caθ-nis may be a form of Catha, an Etruscan goddess, with an ending -nis/-nes also seen above in other theonymns: savc-nes (lines 2 and 6) and fuli/nuś-nes (lines 5-6). Rarely depicted in art, she is number 8 (among celestial gods) and number 23 on the Piacenza Liver.

sacri (10) is certainly connected to words meaning "sacred; victim for sacrifice"—Latin sacer, Umbrian sacra sakra, Oscan sakri-, and to 'saca' in line 7 above.

nunθe-ri (11 twice) seems to be a verb "invoke" or "offer", with the necessitive ending -ri also seen in pep-ri(8), picas-ri(5), mulu-ri(4/5), and perhaps śu-ri(3) and sac-ri(10). eθ (11, 12) means "thus." avθ-leθ (12) may be related to avθa "northwind; eagle."

The word acun in line 11 may be from Greek agon (ἀγών) originally "struggle", which came to be used as a term for festivals involving competitive sports; compare Latin Agonalia festivals in honor of Janus in Rome held in January, March, May and December. Later forms show syncope (loss of word-internal vowels): acn-es-em on the Liber Linteus (10.5)) and acn-s . priumn-es "the agon of Priam" on the left side of the Volterna urn.

The tentative partial translation by van der Meer, building on the work of many others, suggests this part of the ritual calendar calls: for a Cuieschu Feast to be performed for the god Letham on the Feast of April [which is] on the Ides; that Racvanies be the Priest of April; that six piglets be offered for the ritual ; that a snuza, which [is] in the [area of?] Hamai, be declared by Cive [and] by Cathni; and that a statuette of Mariś, which is in the [area of?] Hamai, be consecrated for Ita (? or "for this (festival)"?); that utu be given with ecun and with scuvsa by the Ita priest in the ritual; that three piglets and an acun siricima be offered, and further that iśuma (sanctified items?) be offered with the April piglets in theavθla, but (in this case) for Aiu; that a libation be offered to Letham here (="at this point"?); that a libation be made here (as part of?) the ritual; furthermore that the (sacrifice to?) aθena be held; concerning the love gifts placed in Uni's sanctuary on Earth Day (celitule) in April, take away (any that are not) iśum (sanctified?) in Uni's sanctuary; that three gifts be offered in epn- (and?) a vase (halχ) here in the eit (of the?) ritual; that a libation (be performed) on the Aperta day for the Festival of Aphe in zuchn-; that an offering be made of elfa by the people involved in the ritual, and of young Adonis (?) boars for Calu with vana in the vineyard; that the people of the cult of the servant girl, and the vaiuser priest (?) of Hivu and of Nithu, and the people of Hivu, and the vaiuser of the cult of the servant girl (make an offering of) three tartiria (and) three love gifts for Aphe during the ritual.

Third section (lines 18-20): MAY = an/mpile

 * iśvei tule ilucve anp[ili]e laruns ilucu huχ
 * śanti huri alχu esχaθ canulis
 * mulu/19 rizile zizri
 * inpa [...] an acasri
 * tiniantule leθamsul ilucu perpri
 * śanti arvus/20ta aius nunθeri

Larun, Canuli, Tinia, and Aiu are names of Etruscan gods; huχ may mean "celebrate", alχu "given," esχaθ "bring, place"; arvusta "(produce of the) field" (compare Umbrian arvam "field"; arvia "fruits of the field, grain").

Again, in van der Meer's tentative translation, in summary, the text calls: for a Festival for Larun to be celebrated on the Feast Day of May (namely) on the ides; that Canulis should bring the gifted huri (wild fruits?) vase; that the gifted rizile that must be offered (during ...?) must be ziz-ed; that the feast for Lethams must be held on the day of Tinia; and the vase of the fruits of the field be offered to Aiu.

Fourth section (lines 21-24): June = acalva

 * acalve apertule saiuvie leθamsul ilucu perpri
 * śanti ma(c)vilutule
 * iti/22r śver
 * falal [...] husilitule
 * velθur t[....]sc lavtun icni seri. turza esχaθce
 * p/23acusnausie θanurari turza esχa[θce]
 * nis[c l]avtun icni zusle [ś]ilaciiul eses
 * salχe/24i calaieic
 * len[..]ai stizaitei
 * z[a]l rapa z[al..........]
 * [..]niiac [l]avtun icni seril turza e/25sχaθce
 * laχuθ nunθe[ri...]
 * ei[tu] acasri
 * laχθ turzais . esχa[θce]
 * [ecl..]θ[u] acas θe
 * zusleva/26 stizaitei acasri
 * pacus[naśi]eθu[r]
 * laθiumia[i zusle]i
 * [ś]iχaiei t[ar]tiriiai
 * zanusei pepθiai
 * ra/27tu ceχiniaitei turza esχaθce eθ[.......]

Notes: in line 23, the deity Thanur (Thanr) is a goddess frequently present at the birth of other Etruscan deities and is part of the circle of Turan. But in the Lead Plaque of Magliano, she appears amongst mostly underworld deities, suggesting she is both a goddess of birth and of death. The form laχ(u)- "basin" (twice in line 25) may be akin to Latin lacus "basin, water, lake."

Summarizing van der Meer, the text calls: for a feast for Lethams to be prepared in June on the day of Aperta Saiuvia; for the priest of Ita and of Sva to (present) a dish on the fifth day, and a falal (gift of heaven?) on the day of Husiluta; that seri gifts will have been brought by Velthur and by the T... family; that gifts will have been brought for Thanur by the Pacusnausia (family?); and that some piglets (will have been brought) by the Nis family for Shilaciia Esa, with salcha and with calaia, with len..a and with stizaita, (and) two cups and two...; that the ..nia family will also have brought some seri gifts; that the offerings be made in a basin (laχuθ); that eitu must be made (as an offering); that (those gifts placed) in the basin be those gifts that were brought; that hereby elthu be made; (and) that an offering of piglets be made in the stiza; the Pacusnasia family will have brought gifts ritually in the cachina thus--with lathiuma and with a piglet, with śiχaia and with t[ar]tiriia, with zanuse and with pepθia...

Fifth section: probably July (= parθum?)
Taking up lines 28-30. According to a gloss TLE 854, the name of July in Etruscan should be Traneus, but the names of the Etruscan months may have varied from place to place, as they did in Greece.

 * parθumi ilucve iśveitule tinunus seθumsal ilucu perpri
 * cipen tartiria vaci / fulinuśn[es.....]
 * /[..]etula
 * natinusnal . ilucu
 * ituna fulinuśnai . θenunt
 * eθu[...]

Summarizing van der Meer, the text calls: for a festival to be held in July on the Feast of the Ides for Tinun (and) for Sethums; that a priest pour a libation (over?) tartiria gifts for Fulinushnai; [here follows illegible material ending with] of...eta; that a feast (be prepared) for Natinushna; that Fulinushnai hold this (?); [and the rest is illegible, except for an initial] eθu...

Sixth section: probably August (=papu?)
Taking up lines 31-35. From this point on, the tablet is badly damaged and almost no coherent translations can even be attempted beyond the first line below. Again, gloss TLE 854 indicates that the name of August in Etruscan should be [H]ermius, but the names of the Etruscan months may have varied from place to place.

 * macvilutule papui[....]se ilu[cve...]θasχra turza esχa[θ...]e[s] rapa

Tentative translation of first line: On the fifth day of August, on the (day) of the feast (of ?), bring ...-θasχra gifts and cups. [The rest is mostly obscure.]

Discovery
The tablet was uncovered in 1898 in the burial ground of Santa Maria Capua Vetere.

title: Tabula Capuana


text:
Pat Metheny Group

The Pat Metheny Group was an American jazz band founded in 1977 by guitarist and composer Pat Metheny, along with his core collaborating member, keyboardist and composer Lyle Mays. Other long-standing members included bassist and producer Steve Rodby, from 1981 to 2010, and drummer Paul Wertico, from 1983 to 2001, after which Antonio Sanchez became the percussionist from 2002 to 2010. Vocalist Pedro Aznar was also a long-time member, performing with the group from 1984 to 1993. In addition to a core quartet, the group was often joined by a variety of other instrumentalists expanding the size to six or eight musicians.

1970s
Founder Pat Metheny first emerged on the jazz scene in the mid-1970s with a pair of solo albums. First was Bright Size Life, released in 1976, a trio album with bass guitarist Jaco Pastorius and drummer Bob Moses. The next album, released in 1977, was Watercolors, featuring Eberhard Weber on bass, pianist Lyle Mays, and drummer Danny Gottlieb.

In 1977, bassist Mark Egan joined Metheny, Mays, and Gottlieb to form the Pat Metheny Group. ECM released the album Pat Metheny Group in 1978 with songs co-written by Metheny and Mays. Pat Metheny Group marked Mays' first use of the Oberheim synthesizer, which became an integral part of the Group's sound. In 1979, the group's second album, American Garage, reached No. 1 on the jazz chart in Billboard magazine.

1980s
The Pat Metheny Group released the album Offramp in 1982. Offramp marked the first recorded appearance of bassist Steve Rodby in the group (replacing Mark Egan), and also featured Brazilian "guest artist" Naná Vasconcelos. Vasconcelos had appeared on the Pat Metheny/Lyle Mays album As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls in 1981, and his performance on percussion and wordless vocals marked the first addition of Latin-South American music shadings to the Group's sound. Offramp was also the group's first recording to win a Grammy Award, the first win of many for the group.

In 1983, a live album titled Travels was released. It won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance in 1984, which also brought the release of First Circle, a popular album that featured compositions with mixed meters. With this album, the group featured a new drummer, Paul Wertico (replacing Danny Gottlieb). Wertico and Rodby had both played with the Simon & Bard Group. A soundtrack album The Falcon and the Snowman followed in 1985. It featured the song "This Is Not America", a writing and performing collaboration with David Bowie which reached #14 in the UK Top 40 and #32 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in early 1985.

The South American influence would continue and intensify on First Circle with the addition of Argentine multi-instrumentalist Pedro Aznar. This period saw the commercial popularity of the band increase, especially thanks to the live recording Travels. First Circle would also be Metheny's last project with the ECM label; Metheny had been a key artist for ECM but left over conceptual disagreements with label founder Manfred Eicher.

The next three Pat Metheny Group releases would be based around a further intensification of the Brazilian rhythms first heard in the early '80s. Additional South American musicians appear as guests, most notably Brazilian percussionist Armando Marçal. In 1987, Still Life (Talking) was the Group's first release on new label Geffen Records and featured several tracks which have long been popular with the group's followers, and which are still in their setlist. In particular, the album's first tune, "Minuano (Six Eight)", represents a good example of the Pat Metheny group compositional style from this period: the track starts with a haunting minor section from Mays, lifts off in a typical Methenian jubilant major melody, leading to a Maysian metric and harmonically modulated interlude, creating suspense which is finally resolved in the Methenian major theme. Another popular highlight was "Last Train Home", a rhythmically relentless piece evoking the American Midwest. The 1989 release Letter from Home continued this approach, with the South American influence becoming even more prevalent in its bossa nova and samba rhythms.

1990s
Metheny subsequently concentrated on solo and other small-group projects, and four years went by before the release of the next Pat Metheny Group album. This was a live set recorded in Europe in 1993 titled The Road to You and it featured tracks from the two Geffen studio albums alongside new tunes. By this stage, the group had integrated new instrumentation and technologies into its sound, including Mays' addition of midi-controlled synthesized sounds to acoustic piano solos, accomplished via a pedal control.

Mays and Metheny refer to the following three Pat Metheny Group releases as the triptych: We Live Here in 1995, Quartet in 1996, and Imaginary Day in 1997. Moving away from the Latin style which had dominated the releases of the previous decade, these albums included hip-hop drum loops, free-form improvisation on acoustic instruments, and symphonic signatures, blues and sonata schemes. On some tunes from this era, the band also experimented with thrash metal, electronica, and folk music from parts of the world unexplored by the band in the past.

2000s
After another hiatus, the Pat Metheny Group re-emerged in 2002 with the release Speaking of Now, marking another change in direction through the addition of younger musicians. Joining the core players (Metheny, Mays and Rodby), were drummer Antonio Sanchez from Mexico City, Vietnam-born trumpeter Cuong Vu from Seattle, and bassist/vocalist/guitarist/percussionist Richard Bona from Cameroon.

Following the group's 2002 tour, Bona left to concentrate on his solo career, but appeared as one of two guest artists (the other being mallet cymbalist Dave Samuels) on the group's final release, 2005's The Way Up, together with a new group member, Swiss-American harmonica player Grégoire Maret. The Way Up is a long-form recording which consists of a single 68 minute-long piece split into four sections. Metheny has said that one of the inspirations for the labyrinthine piece was a reaction against a perceived trend for music requiring a short attention span and which lacks nuance and detail. Many of the textures in The Way Up are created from interlocking guitar lines; Steve Reich is credited on the CD as an inspiration, along with Eberhard Weber, and there are large open sections for solo improvisation and group interplay. On the group's 2005 tour (when its lineup was supplemented by Brazilian multi-instrumentalist Nando Lauria), The Way Up was played in its entirety as the first half of the concert. The final performance of the piece was at a free show for more than a hundred thousand people at the close of the 2005 Montreal Jazz Festival.

Their final album, The Way Up was released through Nonesuch Records. It is planned that all of Metheny's Geffen and Warner Bros. Records albums are to be rereleased on the label.

The Pat Metheny Group played at the Blue Note Tokyo and Blue Note Nagoya in December 2008 and January 2009 in its core quartet of Lyle Mays, Steve Rodby and Antonio Sanchez. This quartet version of the group later toured the jazz festivals of Europe in the summer of 2010 for their "Songbook Tour". These concerts featured music from all eras of the group but no new material.

Past members

 * Pat Metheny – acoustic and electric guitars, guitar synthesizer (1977–2010)
 * Lyle Mays – piano, synthesizers (1977–2010, died 2020)
 * Mark Egan – fretless bass, bass guitar (1977–1980)
 * Danny Gottlieb – drums (1977–1982)
 * Naná Vasconcelos – percussion, vocals (1980–1982, 1986, died 2016)
 * Steve Rodby – double bass, bass guitar (1981–2010)
 * Paul Wertico – drums (1983–2001)
 * Pedro Aznar – vocals, percussion, melodica, guitars, tenor saxophone, miscellaneous instruments (1983–1985, 1989–1991, 1992)
 * David Blamires – vocals, miscellaneous instruments (1986–1988, 1992, 1994–1997)
 * Armando Marçal – percussion, vocals (1987–1992, 1995–1996)
 * Mark Ledford – vocals, miscellaneous instruments (1987–1988, 1992, 1994–1998, died 2004)
 * Nando Lauria – guitars, vocals, percussion, miscellaneous instruments (1988, 2005)
 * Luis Conte – percussion (1994–1995)
 * Philip Hamilton – vocals, miscellaneous instruments (1997–1998)
 * Jeff Haynes – percussion (1997–1998)
 * Antonio Sánchez – drums, percussion (2001–2010)
 * Richard Bona – percussion, vocals, electric bass, acoustic guitars, miscellaneous instruments (2001–2004)
 * Cuong Vu – trumpet, vocals, guitars, miscellaneous instruments (2001–2005)
 * Grégoire Maret – harmonica, vocals, miscellaneous instruments (2003–2005)

Timeline
* This timeline reflects active members of the band, at either times they recorded or times they toured with the band. Members may have left the band by the time albums they performed on were released. Minor contributors to albums who did not tour with the band are not included.

title: Pat Metheny Group


text:
Talk:Free monoid

Cheers for tidying this up a bit, but one comment. I deliberately avoided saying alphabet in the first paragraph since this wod is usually reserved for finite sets, while free semigroups and monoids are defined over sets of arbitrary cardinality - compare with the last paragraph. If you don't disagree I'll remove the reference from the first paragraph. Best wishes, Cambyses 16:10, 13 Mar 2004 (UTC)

 * It now mentions alphabet and words only for finite ground sets, but still mentions strings and string concatenation in the leading paragraph. Is this as it should be? Rp (talk) 18:05, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Comparison with lists
This is misleading: lists have a head and tail operation, not usually a concatenation operation. A better comparison is with strings. Rp (talk) 18:05, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

 * You can't define concatenation on lists? And what is a list abstractly if not a string of elements of some other data type? The alphabet need not be characters. The article on list was wrong. I've fixed it. Pcap ping  18:49, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * P.S. The error in the list article was [introduced two weeks ago]. Pcap ping  18:57, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Misleading
There's another problem in that section though. The foldl functional can take more than a binary operation as argument, i.e. its type is foldl :: (a -> b -> a) -> a -> [b] -> a. So the function passed to foldl is a semigroup action, not necessarily the semigroup operation itself. Pcap ping  19:21, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

This article correctly describes the case of foldl1 (same link above), which is a particular case of foldl with type (a -> a -> a) -> [a] -> a. Pcap ping  19:26, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

A further problem is that foldl/foldr and foldl1/foldr1 do not really require an associative operation; otherwise you don't really need the left and right variants, in particular foldl1/foldr1, which have the same signature, but implement different algorithms. So saying that folding requires a homomorphism is quite misleading. Pcap ping  19:32, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * The article never said that folding requires a homomorphism. I've restored the deleted section. The interpretation of lists as free monoids is important in computer science in that the algebraic structure gives a set of list operations which are, in a sense, "natural." Folding an associative operator has several advantages over foldl/foldr: an associative fold can be parallelised. -- Radagast3 (talk) 14:19, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

Is this not a contradiction
If the first line is correct in it being all the finite sequences then the free monoid must be finite. How then can the natural numbers under addition be a free monoid as the set of natural numbers is not finite. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.229.45.38 (talk) 10:18, 28 October 2020 (UTC)
 * Each individual natural number is finite. It is not true that a collection of finite things must itself be finite. —David Eppstein (talk) 16:58, 28 October 2020 (UTC)

Characterization of free submonoids
Planetmath has some material, on the characterization of free submonoids, that we could copy over. Link: https://planetmath.org/characterizationoffreesubmonoids Thatsme314 (talk) 08:43, 12 July 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:Free monoid


text:
Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Mathematics/Archive/2003

Two suggestions
Two suggestions: add paragraphs for
 * historical info (different historical views, famous contributors, postulates, scientific debate) and
 * fields of application

Maybe defer lengthy proofs to the bottom of the page (or a subpage) ? Many readers wil take these for granted, those who want the whole story are willing to scroll forward. Erik Zachte 00:25 Nov 18, 2002 (UTC)

Some ideas
This WikiProject is well thought-out and appears to be consistent with current Wikipedia standards and conventions. In addition to Axel, Pierre, Toby and myself you should also request comment form JakeVortex, tarquin, User:Zundark, User:Gareth Owen, User:Forgottenvector, User:Valhalla, User:Alodyne, User:Steverapaport, User:Jkominek, User:Josh Grosse, User:Archibald Fitzchesterfield, User:Chuck Smith, User:Ram-Man, User:Andre Engels, User:Jheijmans, User:N8chz, and User:Kidburla2002. Also a link to this WikiProject page from the mathematics section of Wikipedians by fields of interest would be great. --mav 00:46, November 18, 2002 (UTC)

On fine-tuning the appearance
I don't think that it's at all a good idea to try to fine-tune the appearance of HTML constructions on the screen, as with the "double sups to make the limit of integration higher". The reason is that the effect depends heavily on the particular characteristics of the reader's system.

In my case, putting in the double sups made the limit too high, too far from the integral sign (a problem already since HTML doesn't support multiscripts) and way too small. On Chas' system, it was presumably an improvement. Since we can't predict it ahead of time, we should stick with simplicity: one sup. (I take it back if one sup is for some reason illegible on Chas' system. That's a different matter.) — Toby 07:43 Dec 1, 2002 (UTC)

 * I concur; the double  looks better (IE6, Win98/Win2K), but the single sup is still readable (although just at the edge of confusion for me). The Summation notation is much more bothersome:

 * ∑undefinedn x

 * reads ambiguously - is that 2n? or nx? i = 2 to n? The alternative, although somewhat non standard, is at least unambiguous (although a bit computer-y). Oh when we will we have our LaTex to HTML conversion (he wailed)? Chas zzz brown 21:28 Dec 1, 2002 (UTC)

For sums in HTML, I prefer nowadays ∑2≤i≤n x. But I guess the topic is mood now. AxelBoldt 00:00 Jan 8, 2003 (UTC)

TeX style
We should probably update our style guide for the new TeX feature. One rule that I would like to see there is this: TeX formulas should not be used inline: "Let $$x\in\mathbb{R}$$ be a real number". Because of the size issues, it looks bad, uses unnecessary bandwidth and makes it harder for non-graphical browsers. Similarly, don't use fancy fonts like fraktur $$\mathfrak{a}$$ if it can be avoided, so that HTML can continue to be used for all inline formulas. AxelBoldt 00:00 Jan 8, 2003 (UTC)

 * I concur with the inline comment; it makes it harder (in my opinion) to follow an argument when the font keeps changing. Chas zzz brown 08:50 Jan 8, 2003 (UTC)

I'll start to edit the main page to this effect a bit; feel free to jump in if anything is controversial. AxelBoldt 18:40 Jan 8, 2003 (UTC)

bold vectors
Note on vectors: my textbooks tend to have \mathbf{v}_1 rather than \mathbf{v_1}. (it seems obvious but it got me wondering). One for the style guide here, maybe? -- Tarquin 10:31 Jan 18, 2003 (UTC)

Differential d
I noticed that we no longer say to leave the differential d unitalicised. I guess that we don't really need an official style, but I'd like to go on the record as saying that I always found texts that didn't italicise it (chiefly from Brits IME) easier to read. -- Toby 09:53 May 3, 2003 (UTC)

Cyclic Groups
The pages for Cyclic group and Klein four-group use the notation Cn to denote the cyclic group on n elements. This seems strange to me; I've never seen this notation elsewhere. The notation I'm familiar with is to use Zn. Has there been some agreement to use Cn? Dominus 06:29 22 Jun 2003 (UTC)

 * It's known in Cambridge, perhaps unknown in 99% of the mathematical world. Obviously it is supposed to stop some abuse of notation problems, as in assuming groups are rings, that there is a preferred generator 1, and so on. Charles Matthews 11:44 22 Jun 2003 (UTC)

"Well, Im obviously not getting along with the mathematicians here …"
The following Copied from Village Pump by Theresa knott|Theresa knott 10:59, June 25, 2003 (UTC)

(Start of copied text)

Well, Im obviously not getting along with the mathematicians here; but, I think the "professional" mathematicians are so intent on outdoing each other with their rigorous mathematics that they fail to understand that the non-mathematician is the one who most needs this site, and nearly ALL of the math pages (even on some of the most "simple" and elementary of topics) are nigh-impossible for anyone without the proper training to understand. Kinda a Catch-22 if you see what Im saying.

Its not that I have a problem with rigorous mathematical definitions and proofs, but we also need to have stuff that is "un-professional" "idiotic" "silly", and the like, and of course (most important perhaps), we need "childish" articles on these topics. To be honest, I don't know (and right now I don't care to know) what real, general, and complex functions are. All I know is that every one of my calculus books talks about stuff which either isn't discussed on the wikipedia (or isn't discussed in language which the beginning calculus student is expected to understand).

Now Ill admit, Im not a mathematician. I don't want to be a mathematician. I don't even like math. I don't even understand why math is worth learning. But I do understand that, right now, the wikipedia is about the last place I would go to if I wanted to learn about a mathematical topic. Its not because the wikipedia is inaccurate; but, because the wikipedia seems determidly hostile (in such areas as mathematics) to expressing things "as if a moron had written it"

What Im trying to explain is, a lot of what Im doing in the math section is, to some degree or other, not correct. A lot of it is correct. But some of it definitely isn't. Unfortunately, I have been, more or less, attacked by certain users who remind me of the young John Forbes Nash, with their elitist attitudes, snobbery, and insulting degradation of others. One user actually had the gall to state that he was too busy with his real job, as a real mathematician, to read my crap anymore. He wasn't just referring to my various misconceptions, he was also referring to my inclusion of material which he felt was redundant, redundant to him of course, since he is a "real mathematician".

Let be clear, this wikipedia thing is a lot of work. But the wikipedia isn't going to get better simply by having a bunch of PhDs stroking their phallic egos. What the wiki really needs is a bunch of "ignoramuses" running amuck, trying to learn what the wiki is saying, trying to add to the article with their (frequently incorrect) newfound understandings, and most importantly, BEING CONSTRUCTIVELY CRITIQUED ON THEIR EDITS.

There is a substantial difference between what the wiki claims to be, and what it is. The wiki urges me to "be bold in editing" but the overwhelming response I have gotten, albeit from a handful of more boisterous editors, is a statement of "Get the hell out of here."

Indeed, I have thought about leaving, but I do see some great potential for good here at the wiki, and I do want to improve this site. So I am simply taking a moment to stand up and ask the Wikipedia what it thinks, does it really think that its appropriate to call people stupid because they don't capitalize something (or because they do) or because they forget a comma, or because they get somewhat confused regarding the implicit differentiation of inverse trigonometric functions?

I have made several new friends since I arrived at the wiki this spring; however, I have also met several people who are not friendly. I would like to know what it is that has turned them so sour.

Pizza Puzzle 23:48 24 Jun 2003 (UTC)

 * Agree, completely agree. The problem is that mathematicians are trained to do things rigorously, and they have to do it that way in order to protect the "correctness" of mathematics.  Some may become intolerant to "misconceptions" from non-mathematicians, but I believe most of them are still friendly.  Professional mathematicians (not just wikipedian mathematicians) need intakes from non-mathematians (like you, PP) to improve their way of introducing mathematics to general publics. -- Wshun

 * It should never be acceptable to call anybody "stupid" if they make a mistake; that is attacking the person, not the act. (If I were in charge, all ad hominem remarks would be grounds for banning.)  However, we still need to be merciless about bad edits, and if you get constructive criticism, be appreciative, but don't expect it.  If you don't know about something, don't put it in.  If you're not sure, put it in italics or in the talk page.  There are articles that are very good, and unless you understand the content very well, you're more likely to make the article worse rather than better.  I have some math background; I can take a look. Stan 04:46 25 Jun 2003 (UTC)

 * I think I'm the guy that Pizza Puzzle is so annoyed at. And I can assure you I never called him `stupid'. The disputed page was calculus with polynomials and I suggest that anyone following this discussion go check out the history of that page, its associated talk page talk:calculus with polynomials, and pizza puzzles talk page User talk:Pizza Puzzle2 too. From my point of view, I found the page in a very sad state - lots of errors and mistakes - off topic - repetitious - inconsistent notation - strange headings -poorly organised - glaring omissions - all sorts of weird stuff. It looked to me like a page in serious need of a bit of fixing up. So I fixed it up, which is what you are supposed to do yes?  Nothing personal in it. I never even paid attention to who had written the thing in the first place, in fact it looked to me like a page that lots of people had dabbled in without paying much attention to what they were doing. It was actually fun to find a maths page that needed something doing to it, since most of them seem to be quite complete.

 * Anyway I then get a number of notes from pizza puzzle seeming rather put out and asking me to explain what I had done. Which I then did on User talk:Pizza Puzzle2. Subsequently I find that over a period of several days all of the errors and strange stuff that I had weeded out had been reintroduced into the page, plus a bunch of other new errors and oddities so that the page is actually in a much worse state than when I'd first found it. Which was just about enough to make me conclude that wikipedia is a total waste of time™. But I thought I'd give it ONE MORE TRY. So I fix the page back up again (note that I did not simply revert, but considered each part of the article on its merits), and on the associated talk page I explain in detail my reasons for each change (once again) in the hope that this will finally dissuade pizza puzzle from reintroducing them (once again). And yes I was probably a touch short with the guy, mostly because I'd already done all of this - including the explanations - once again. It isn't that I think my prose is so deathless that I can't bear to see anyone tinkering with it. Actually I'm sure the page can still be greatly improved. But to see actual ERRORS reintroduced for no good reason ... well it is more than any sane mathematician should be expected to bear.

 * user:Hawthorn, please sign your entries with ~

 * Normally I side with anyone who accuses mathematicians of arrogantly writing stuff which no-one else can understand. However in this case, I find Hawthorn's version makes more sense than Mr. Puzzle's. If PP wants to "add to the article with [his] (frequently incorrect) newfound understandings", he should expect expect to irritate mathematicians. I would advise you both to calm down and deal with the matter rationally. Don't take it as a personal insult when someone reverts your work. You'll have a more constructive debate if you talk for a while before re-reverting. See Staying cool when the editing gets hot. -- Tim Starling 06:18 25 Jun 2003 (UTC)

(End of copied text)

''First let me say where I am coming from. I am reasonably good at maths, though I was taught it by physicists not mathematicians, so I think that I can give some insight.'' I have to say, PP does have a valid point {though s/he should not get so emotional about it}. I find many of the math's pages somewhat dry, and difficult. I think that on the whole they are too short, have too few examples, and are too formal. I would like to see some verbose text generally talking about the basic principles before a formal definition and proofs. That way the reader can get a feel for the idea before delving in. I am also somewhat worried by notation. I think that some peole are going to be be put off pages if they are unfamiler with notation. Theresa knott 10:59 25 Jun 2003 (UTC)

"I remember the set theory edit wars …"
I remember the set theory edit wars, which ended up with two articles, naive set theory and axiomatic set theory. We could probably do the same thing for other topics, for example having an introduction to XXX article for topic XXX which started with a non-rigorous introduction designed to help beginners to understand the ideas and motivation for the rigorous article on the topic. For example, several of the calculus articles contain non-rigorous treatments which are then followed with rigorous treatments later.

However, there will always be fields of mathematics which are downright baffling for the uninitiated (including, often, other mathematicians who do not specialize in those topics).

Looking forward to reading introduction to topos theory, The Anome 11:14 25 Jun 2003 (UTC) (who has studied some mathematics, but is not a mathematician)

 * I may just take you up on that ... Charles Matthews 12:23 26 Jun 2003 (UTC)

"I have great sympathy for those who want 'verbose'. …"
I have great sympathy for those who want 'verbose'. I want it, too, in relation with any advanced topic which I'm not familiar with. There is always a problem with dense texts in mathematics. That being said, there is no single answer: correct statements aren't actually improved by being made looser and less accurate. I've not been here long, but I can see that there are various 'modes' I have used: historical/genetic, examples, informal talk. I find excess emphasis on the category theory point of view to be unhelpful; but it is also clarifying in its way.

Put it this way, perhaps. The more 'pure' attitudes can sometimes be criticised for failure of NPOV. I wrote about that at multilinear algebra and Nicolas Bourbaki. So, let's do that criticism in a practical way, by editing in the other stuff. I don't think implications of snobbery help. I do think that the wiki way is about things other than de facto standards of definition, which is always a contentious area (cf. tensor).

By the way, I'm a published mathematician - but not recently.

Charles Matthews 11:22 25 Jun 2003 (UTC)

"Let's put it this way …"
Let's put it this way: I have a tenuous grasp of category theory and am completely lost when it comes to topos theory. Now I think back to myself at age 13, just learning about things like calculus. Just as I needed a way in then, I need a way in for these other topics. It would be useful for many articles to have a header saying (for example, for integral):

 * Having difficulty understanding this article? Then you might want to learn more about algebra, functions and the theory of limits first.

Do this to enough articles, and we will have a mathematics road map for self-study. The Anome

 * This is a really cool idea. It would help prevent reiteration of all the prerequisite knowledge in specialized articles, and provide a nice path towards learning difficult stuff. Something like this may even be useful for non-mathematical subjects as well -- certainly the other science articles (physics, chemistry, biology, etc.) would benefit from it, but it could even be applied to articles on history, politics, psychology, or anything else where a foundation of terminology and concepts is necessary in understanding the more complex ideas presented in specialized parts of those subjects. At the very least, some form of "Introduction to terminology" or "Glossary of notations" and the like would be helpful. -- Wapcaplet 12:26 25 Jun 2003 (UTC)

 * I don't like the idea of putting the "difficulty" notice on articles, though until Wikibooks gets fully on its feet it may be useful. I don't think this idea meshes well with the encyclopedic concept of the Wikipedia. Dysprosia 05:27, 7 Oct 2003 (UTC)

"Oh and one more thing …"
Oh and one more thing.

WRONG: Articles that go "Let there be objects X such that (introduce new notation here without explanation). Then (notation) (notation) (notation) (notation)."

RIGHT: "(Mathematician) invented the concept of X in 18xx to represent (squeezy-pully-twisty things). A simple example, using modern notation is (example). (Explain notation). The idea has now been generalized to (stuff), which has uses in (other fields of math and science). The idea of X can be formalized as follows: let there be objects X such that (notation). Then (notation) (notation) (notation)..."

Not naming any articles in particular. ;-)

The Anome 11:50 25 Jun 2003 (UTC)

 * Applause! As a maths-untrained person with a yen to learn a little bit about this area from time to time, that is exactly what I would like to see! More strength to your pen, Anome. Tannin

Well, mathematical duckspeak is never going to be awesome teaching. Used between pros it has a high bandwidth; and isn't really so different from other tech-talk. Point is, it's never going to be brilliant prose.Charles Matthews 11:57 25 Jun 2003 (UTC)

 * That's why it is so important to have an english {as opposed to notation}intor. The Anome 's page layout looks perfect to me. Theresa knott 12:07 25 Jun 2003 (UTC)

I have merged these changes into the suggested structure in the main project. The Anome 12:54 25 Jun 2003 (UTC)

"The point is …"
The point is, the quickest and best way to stop somebody from reinserting material which you think is totally wrong, is not merely to state that its wrong, but to give some sort of explanation why its wrong. Most incorrect material can, in some way, be incorporated; as most of it is not only at least an attempt at expressing some correct concept; but generally the user is trying to express it because the concept is not expressed well enough within the article. In short, everytime a user edits a page and "makes it worse" that is a good clue that the article needs improvement. 209.56.25.241

 * Just as likely, there is a structural problem with a single article, or group of articles. Some comments are like weeds in flowerbeds: they're just in the wrong place. Why should everyone agree on what is relevant? One person's helpful aside is another person's red herring. Organisation of the material can definitely help. Charles Matthews 15:18 25 Jun 2003 (UTC)

"Can all these people who are agreeing …"
Can all these people who are agreeing with Pizza Puzzle please read his revision? It really wasn't more understandable to non-mathematicians. By all means, make mathematics accessible, but don't make it nonsense. I've campaigned in the past for comprehensible maths (see Talk:Tensor product) but I'm not campaigning now. -- Tim Starling 05:39 26 Jun 2003 (UTC)

 * As one of the people who agreed with him, I have to say- Yes his version was bad. Yes the new version was better. BUT he still makes a valid point. Maths pages need to be accessible to non mathematicians. Theresa knott 08:37 26 Jun 2003 (UTC)

 * Just wanted to add some general support for comprehensible maths, though I've not been personally involved with any of Pizza Puzzle's edits. Martin 21:46 26 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Well now, generalities are all very well. But if anyone has a general take on how hypertext (with random access) reconciles with the hierarchical way maths is built up, that would be an interesting separate discussion. I've just looked at the backlinks for calculus with polynomials, to assess who might arrive there. Only three: derivative, tangent, chain rule. All of which seem to need work, too: far from clear that there is a consistent level operating. Why no link from the calculus page? There is a 'first principles' proof on the calculus with polynomials page. Not the way I'd do it, given the product rule and induction. And so on. Charles Matthews 09:43 26 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Issue of readability and pedagogy
I was totally inactive for a year but I am getting back on Wikipedia and I'm glad to see this wikiproject going. On the issue of readability and pedagogy, here's my 2 Euro cents.

Articles shouldn't be "dumbed down", because that assumes that shows disrespect for the reader by assuming they're dumb. Ignorant, maybe; unsophisticated, maybe; but not dumb. I truly believe that nobody is too dumb for mathematics, especially is they have the basic suriosity that leads them to read the wikipedia article. Now, mathematicians struggle with the same stumbling blocks as non-mathematicians, it's just that it was usually long ago, and they always make it past the stumbling block eventually. It would be helpful if, when writing about a topic, we mathematicians tried to remember what stumbling blocks we had to overcome and how we did it, and wrote about it in the article!

I have background both from mathematics and physics. Encountering most mathematical structures in physics first has the advantage that I am aware of more ways to justify to nonmathematicians why a concept is important. I have a keen interest in the history of mathematics, and I try to bring that to bear on my wikipedia contributions. However, both in mathematics and in science, I think things should be made accessible but without making wrong statements. I can't help it, but incorrect statements just make me cringe and I have to reach for the "edit this page" link. On the other hand, I have very strong feelings about the teaching of mathematics, so I genuinely try to make things understandable.

As for the layout of the pages, I tend to favour historical information near the top, not near the bottom. I agree with The Anome's proposed layout: first a short, gentle introduction, then the formal definition, then (in any order) history, examples, and formal development. In this way, the first paragraph of the page appeals to both mathematiciand and non-mathematicians.

By the way, a perfect example of what we are trying to achieve is function. That page does a pretty good job, but it is horrible on many counts. If I could put my finger on exactly what I don't like about it I'd come in and change it, but it's the result of so many people's work that I'd be wary of doing that, too.

I have created a few pages that start with an abstract definition, or contain little else. The reason is that I didn't want to stick the definition in the middle of a long, pedagogical section of another article. I believe none of these "dry" pages are linked from nontechnical pages, so I think they are not harmful. The motivation is in the longer, general pages.

I watch pages that I contribute significantly to, which means I also watch the talk pages. If someone posts a cry for help on one of the talk pages, I'll probably come to the rescue and, at the very least, add one of those ''having trouble with this page? Look here first!'' notes. Maybe I'll go in for a full rewrite. -- Miguel 15:42, August 13, 2003 (UTC)

Styles of Mathematics Articles
I had independently created a page for similiar purposes as this one, because I was not aware of this page. It has some advantages over the format of this page. For the time being, I will informally link it via this talk page: Styles of Mathematics Articles, and leave it open for discussion whether or how it could be integrated or benefited from. - Kevin Baas 19:28, August 4, 2003 (UTC)

History of Mathematics
A public domain e-text of the book "History of Modern Mathematics" has just been completed. The book was published in 1906, edited by David Eugene Smith, Columbia University. It just has 75 pages, but some of the material may still be useful and valuable. Here's a link to the PDF.—Eloquence 23:05, Aug 10, 2003 (UTC)

"The beauty of mathematics …"
The beauty of mathematics is a topic that I would like to see developed on wikipedia. Maybe we can gather a commented list of the most beautiful things in mathematics, from the elementary to the abstract, as a way to communicate to the layman that mathematics is not accounting. -- Miguel 14:38, August 17, 2003 (UTC)
 * The page has been listed for deletion by jimfbleak. Please see that page for justification and discussion. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Angela (talk • contribs) 17:09, August 17, 2003

"Template for pages about probability distributions?"
Should we create a template for pages about probability distributions? I know templates exist for various types of content on Wikipedia, but I haven't found any centralised explanation on how to add one to Wikipedia. -- Miguel 15:05, August 17, 2003 (UTC)

"… looking for some help with TeX …"
Howdy folks. I'm working on a personal project (bits of which might make it to Wikipedia eventually), and am looking for some help with TeX. Specifically, how do I get the "model satisfies" symbol (which is like $$\vdash$$ but with an additional horizontal bar), and how do I get the reverse of both these two?

Thanks in advance,

Onebyone. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Onebyone (talk • contribs) 21:37, October 19, 2003 (UTC)

 * Hi Onebyone. You probably want $$\models$$ (\dashv is the TeX thing for but it doesn't seem to work here), but I don't know the reverse of the models symbol... Dysprosia 05:51, 21 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Lovely, thanks. I've actually kludged up a reverse models sign using something like {= \! \! | \>} (can't remember exactly what, it's at home), which will do me for the time being. Onebyone 10:03, 21 Oct 2003 (UTC)

About 'iff'
Can I raise the question of whether we want iff in definitions? I don't. I think it's offputting to those not pure-mathematical 'native speakers'. And the idea that it's more rigorous is surely shallow.

Charles Matthews 16:28, 21 Oct 2003 (UTC)

 * In the absence of an explicitly-stated convention, I think it's marginally more rigorous than "if". I have occasionally used "if" in a definition and meant "if but not only if", although not on Wikipedia as far as I remember. I'd suggest that if "iff" is undesirable, the best replacement for the non-specialist reader is "if (and only if)", since the rigorous alternative is to ensure that "if" is never used other than to mean "iff". Onebyone 16:49, 21 Oct 2003 (UTC)

I don't accept the 'rigour' argument, anyway. Using 'if' there is an implied 'one can assert' in front of mathematical propositions - which no one writes unless in a very careful formal treatment. Those who care about this can imagine it all anyway. Better, I think, just to use normal language: 'an X is a Y with property P'. I haven't checked whether the definitions of legal terms on Wikipedia make a point of this type of care. On the whole I think it's wasted: it's hard to imagine the user who needs it. Charles Matthews 17:58, 21 Oct 2003 (UTC)

 * Well, I agree that the pedantry is not worthwhile if it is off-putting for readers. On the other hand, I'll take no part in any kind of global edit to deliberately introduce ambiguity, even if that ambiguity can generally be resolved from context. You say "I think this care is wasted", but I suspect that for most mathematician authors it will require extra care to remember not to do this rather than extra care to do it!
 * "An X is a Y with property P" sounds good to me, especially in the standout definition at the top of the article. Nobody writes articles on topics other than maths saying "a person is a saint if and only if they have been canonised by the Church" or whatever. If there's a more formal section of maths in the article, I do think that "iff" and other jargon words should be used in that section exactly as the author would use them in any mathematical writing.
 * Onebyone 10:35, 22 Oct 2003 (UTC)

So, my understanding is that the Project isn't trying to prescribe, but is looking for some harmonisation. Charles Matthews 19:02, 22 Oct 2003 (UTC)

mathematical markup
Hi people. I would like to again raise the question of using mathematical markup (namely the tag) versus plain HTML for mathematical content. I have read what pertains to the problem and I am still not convinced of the point of view explained in the guidelines on the main page WikiProject Mathematics. Here's mostly why.

 * 1) Common ground
 * 2) * It seems we all agree that mathematical content should come in a different typeface from standard text, e.g. "Let a be a real number" rather than "Let a be a real number". It is my strong belief that it makes understanding math much easier.
 * 3) * The use of mathematical symbols is sometimes inevitable, and sometimes much shorter than plain text, e.g. $$\sum_{i=k}^p u_i$$ compared to "the sum of all elements in the sequence with indices ranging between $$k$$ and $$p$$". (Not to mention that the example above shows that the TeX processing is wrong: it does not treats the formula as inline.)
 * 4) * However, I fully support the opinion that the Wikipedia should try to reach the "layman" as much as possible, and that implies favoring text to formulas (with the exception of the item above).
 * 5) Why imho the reasons against using mathematical markup fall short:
 * 6) * inline PNG looks bad because it is too big and not vertically aligned. True indeed ! it is ugly, but why stick with it ? Though I am not an expert, it seems simpler to configure ghostscript for size and centering. (Not too small for legibility purposes.)
 * 7) * mathematical markup uses unnecessary bandwidth. That seems overrated, since small png files (the ones that could be replaced by HTML text) are ... small, typically a few hundred bytes (in general much more than the text equivalent except in the example above), so one hundred of them in an entry means maybe 50Kb extra. While not negligible, this remains acceptable even for slow connections. Hence it only marginally slows download speed. However I admit that an increasing number of such files might slow down the Wiki server itself unless solutions are taken (see caching below). I'll be happy to learn more about this. Notice that steps against this overflow can be taken by choosing the HTML if possible or else PNG option, at the possible cost discussed just below. Question: shouldn't that behaviour be the default one ?
 * 8) * mathematical markup slows down the server because it has to create the png image through the complicated tex->ps->png method, or testing whether it can be converted to HTML first. Now that convinces me much more (and more or less mirrors my experience). Since it is quite true that a lot of inline formulas can be written using HTML, I believe the conversion engine could work much faster (all right ! easier said than done ;-) . If not, see suggestion HTMLmath below.
 * 9) The argument in favor of mathematical markup is simple but stronger. Though my remarks above plead for conversion to HTML, the main reason for using mathematical markup is to obey the same principle that is behind HTML, XML, CSS, etc: separate meaning from display. By using the  tag, you indicate  that the content is maths, no matter how you eventually display it (and that may depend who reads it too). You can always change the way it is displayed afterwards, depending on technology (maybe we'll have DSL in ten years :-), on your preferences, and so on. If in two years from now all browsers accept MathML, Wikipedia will obviously render math in MathML. What becomes then of all previously written articles ? If they contain expressions such as 'the real number x ', then they will have to be changed by hand, while 'the real number $$ x $$ ' will be translated into MathML automatically and easily (even for more complicated formulas). And that's only one of the uses of the idea of separating content and display. In short, the main reason for preferring mathematical markup is to preserve the future, i.e. to build something that may last.
 * 10) Solutions ? I do not know of course all the pros and contras of all this, but if you agree that mathematical markup has to be built in, but yields undesirable side effects (like slowing down the whole thing or displaying badly), here are suggestions.
 * 11) * Caching: (unless it is already done) if bandwidth remains an issue, why not cache the math pages, i.e. keep copies of rendered pages on another server which will (i) free the main server of outgoing flux (bandwidth problems) and computing time (conversion procedure). I then suggest a move towards the HTML if possible or else PNG choice for better display. If finding willing servers is a problem, why not ask math academic servers throughout the globe ? Many of them host mirrors of much heavier archives such as arXiv.
 * 12) * One simple thing: make a difference between inline and separate formulas (TeX users will know that). A better solution for all editors would be of course an automatic recognition of whether a math formula is inline or not (not too hard is it ?).
 * 13) * HTMLmath: a simple suggestion helping the rendering machine: add a tag (say for instance) that caracterizes the content as mathematical but is written in plain HTML, with, whenever possible, some simple conventions: usual letters should be italicized, ^ means undefined, etc. So that x^2 will be displayed as the HTML x 2 . That idea remains compatible with a future automatic rewriting, while speeding up the procedure for the moment.
 * 14) * At the very least, if the suggestion above seems too cumbersome, let us provide a tag that describes the content as mathematical (even without anything extra). Or replacing the  tag. I propose  for math italic.

I hope I have not bored you too much with such a longish article. Please excuse the newcomer's stubbornness (or maybe intransigence ?). : Pascalromon 23:12, 26 Nov 2003 (UTC)

New WikiProject, WikiProject Probability
I'd like to announce a new WikiProject, WikiProject Probability. I started this last week on my user page, and was convinced to move it to a more appropriate home amongst the WikiProjects. It is not quite a list of probability topics, but an effort to catalogue the articles on probability theory and applications, providing a guide (in the form of an annotated table of contents) for those who would like to know more about the topic. I hope such an effort would also expose any defiencies in Wikipedia's coverage of the subject. It is not intended to propose alternate formatting for probability articles. I'd appreciate any and all input from the participants in WikiProject Mathematics. Perhaps WikiProject Probability should even be a sub-project of WikiProject Mathematics? --Ben Cairns 01:10, 8 Dec 2003 (UTC)


text:
Vrisa

Vrisa (Βρίσα) is a village in the southern part of Lesbos island approximately 50 km from Mytilene. The village is named after one of the two girls Agamemnon took from Lesbos during the ten-year Trojan War. Five kilometers south is the famous Vatera beach. On June 12, 2017 Vrisa was severely damaged in an earthquake that struck approximately 12 km South of the town of Plomari. Most people could not return to their homes, rendering the village effectively a "ghost village".

Notable people

 * Evangelos S. Gragoudas, MD. Professor of Ophthalmology, Harvard University. Dr. Gragoudas is an international authority in retinal diseases and intraocular tumors. He was born and raised in Vrisa.

title: Vrisa


text:
Meow (disambiguation)

Meow is an imitative word for a sound made in cat communication.

Meow or Miaow may also refer to:

Film and television

 * Meow (2017 film), a 2017 Hong Kong science fantasy comedy film
 * Meow (2021 film), a 2021 Indian Malayalam-language family drama film
 * Meow (Dark Angel), an episode in the TV series Dark Angel
 * Meow, a cat-like alien character in the anime Space Dandy
 * Meeow!, a 2000-2003 British animated series, called Meusaidh in Gaelic

Music

 * Miaow (band), an English band
 * Miaow (album), a 1994 album by The Beautiful South
 * Mew (band), a band from Denmark
 * "Meow", a song from the Anamanaguchi album Endless Fantasy
 * "Meow Meow" (song), a song from the Tamil film Kanthaswamy
 * "Me-ow", a 1918 ragtime song by Mel B. Kaufman

Other uses

 * Meow 104.8 FM, an FM Radio Channel in India
 * Meow (cat), once the world's heaviest cat
 * Miaow, or miaow miaow, a supposed slang name for the stimulant drug mephedrone
 * Meow (Pillow Pal), a cat Pillow Pal plush toy made by Ty
 * MEOW, a sarcastic initialism for the phrase Moral Equivalent of War

title: Meow (disambiguation)


text:
Mashup (music)

A mashup (also mesh, mash up, mash-up, blend, bastard pop or bootleg ) is a creative work, usually a song, created by blending two or more pre-recorded songs, typically by superimposing the vocal track of one song seamlessly over the instrumental track of another and changing the tempo and key where necessary. Such works are considered "transformative" of original content and in the United States they may find protection from copyright claims under the "fair use" doctrine of copyright law.

History
The 1967 Harry Nilsson album Pandemonium Shadow Show features what is nominally a cover of the Beatles' "You Can't Do That" but actually introduced the "mashup" to studio-recording. Nilsson's recording of "You Can't Do That" mashes his own vocal recreations of more than a dozen Beatles songs into this track. Nilsson conceived the combining of many overlaying songs into one track after he played a chord on his guitar and realized how many Beatles songs it could apply to. This recording has led some to describe Harry Nilsson as the inventor of the mashup. Other recordings regarded as early examples of, or forerunners to, the mashup include Buchanan and Goodman's "The Flying Saucer" (1956), Marshall McLuhan's The Medium Is the Massage (1967), the John Benson Brooks Trio's Avant Slant (1968), Grandmaster Flash's "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel" (1981),  Paul McCartney's "Tug of Peace" (1983), the "Hip Hop Mix" of Climie Fisher's "Rise to the Occasion" (1987), Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers' Jive Bunny: The Album (1989),. and Coldcut's Journeys by DJ: 70 Minutes of Madness (1995).

Although described as a medley in its title, "Do It Again Medley with Billie Jean" by Italian music project Club House could be described as one of the first ever commercially released mashups in 1983. The song combines elements of "Do It Again", a 1973 top 10 hit in the US and Canada by Steely Dan, with Michael Jackson's number one hit from earlier in the year, "Billie Jean". It reached number 11 in the UK, and the top 10 in Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands.

Another early mashup appeared in 1985, when The Tubes released their studio album, Love Bomb. The second side of the album contained the track "Theme from a Wooly Place", which combined the tunes "Wooly Bully" in one channel and "Theme from A Summer Place" in the other.

In 1990, Norman Cook reached number one in the UK Singles Chart with his act Beats International with "Dub Be Good to Me", essentially a mashup of re-recorded vocals of the SOS Band's "Just Be Good to Me" with the Clash's "The Guns of Brixton", making it the first mashup to achieve significant mainstream success.

The 1990 John Zorn album Naked City features a version of Ornette Coleman's "Lonely Woman" set over the bassline of Roy Orbison's "Pretty Woman".

In 1991, the Source featuring Candi Staton released "You Got the Love", based on a mashup created by DJ Eren Abdullah that had been an underground club hit since 1989, placing a Candi Staton a cappella over an instrumental version of Frankie Knuckles and Jamie Principle's house track, "Your Love". It reached number four on the UK Singles Chart, and had continued success over subsequent years with several remixes and a cover by Florence + the Machine.

In 1994, the experimental band Evolution Control Committee released the first modern mashup tracks on their hand-made cassette album, Gunderphonic. These "Whipped Cream Mixes" combined a pair of Public Enemy a cappellas with instrumentals by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. First released on home-made cassettes in early 1992, it was later pressed on 7" vinyl, and distributed by Eerie Materials in the mid-1990s. The tracks gained some degree of notoriety on college radio stations in the United States.

The name Pop Will Eat Itself was taken from an NME feature on the band Jamie Wednesday, written by David Quantick, which proposed the theory that because popular music simply recycles good ideas continuously, the perfect pop song could be written by combining the best of those ideas into one track. Hence, "pop will eat itself".

Pre-empting the rise of the mashup in the 2000s, German trance act Fragma reached number one in the UK and the top 10 in Australia and across Europe with "Toca's Miracle", a mashup of their previous single "Toca Me" and Coco Star's 1996 single "I Need a Miracle", initially created by British DJ Vimto in 1999.

The mashup movement gained momentum again in 2001 with the release of the 2 Many DJs album As Heard on Radio Soulwax Pt. 2 by Soulwax's Dewaele brothers, which combined 45 different tracks; the same year a remix of Christina Aguilera's "Genie in a Bottle" was also released by Freelance Hellraiser, which coupled Aguilera's vocals with the guitar track of "Hard to Explain" by New York's the Strokes, in a piece called "A Stroke of Genie-us".

In 2001, English producer Richard X had created a bootleg mashup of Adina Howard's "Freak Like Me" and Tubeway Army's "Are "Friends" Electric?", titled "We Don't Give a Damn About Our Friends", which became a successful underground dance track under his alias Girls on Top. He could not get permission to use the original vocals to release the mashup commercially, so he enlisted the English girl group Sugababes to re-record the vocals. It was released in April 2002, giving the group their first UK number one single, and drawing further recognition, acclaim and mainstream success for the mashup genre. Richard X had continued success with two more mashups reaching the UK top 10: "Being Nobody" (number 3), with pop group Liberty X combining vocals of Chaka Khan and Rufus's "Ain't Nobody" with the Human League's "Being Boiled", and "Finest Dreams" (number 8), featuring American vocalist Kelis singing the vocals from the SOS Band's "The Finest" over an instrumental of the Human League's "The Things That Dreams Are Made Of".

At the 2002 Brit Awards held on 20 February 2002, Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue performed a mash-up version of her number one hit "Can't Get You Out of My Head", combined with New Order's song "Blue Monday". The live performance is cited as one of the first by a mainstream recording artist to utilise a mashup, and was ranked at number 40 on The Guardian's 2011 list of 50 Key Events in the History of Dance Music. The mashup, titled "Can't Get Blue Monday Out of My Head", was later released as the B-side to "Love at First Sight" and was included on Minogue's 2008 remix album Boombox. In the years that followed, mash-ups became more widely used by major artists in their live performances, particularly to update previous material to meld with the themes and sounds of their more recent work. For example, on her 2006 Confessions Tour, Madonna incorporated elements of the Trammps's "Disco Inferno" in the performance of her 2000 hit "Music", to assist the song in blending in with the tour's disco theme. On her 2008 Sticky & Sweet Tour, she performed a mash-up of her 1990 hit "Vogue" with the instrumental of her recent single "4 Minutes", to update it with the more urban sound of her Hard Candy album.

In August 2003, Madonna's single "Hollywood" was remixed with "Into the Groove" and performed with Missy Elliott under the title "Into the Hollywood Groove" as part of a promotional campaign for clothing retailer GAP, prompting criticism for exploiting the underground culture of the mash-up for commercial gain.

The mid-2000s saw a massive surge in popularity for the mashup, including single releases that climbed high into the dance charts and even the mainstream top-40 charts. Such hits include Linkin Park and Jay-Z's "Numb/Encore", Party Ben's "Boulevard of Broken Songs", Alex Gaudino's "Destination Calabria", Mousse T. vs the Dandy Warhols' "Horny as a Dandy" (originally mixed and produced by Loo & Placido) and Mylo vs Miami Sound Machine's "Doctor Pressure". In 2001, "Every Breath You Take" by the Police was mashed up with "Peter Gunn" by Henry Mancini, for the 27th episode of The Sopranos, "Mr. Ruggerio's Neighborhood". The Grey Album, which mashed up recordings by Jay-Z and the Beatles, also became notoriously popular.

With the release of Guitar Hero in 2005, Rock Band in 2007, and those games' sequels, numerous mashup artists discovered that every song in the games had multitracks with instrument stems and acapellas, meaning that these songs could easily be sampled and kept uncompressed and clear. Among others, American comedian Neil Cicierega used this method to produce his four mashup albums, Mouth Sounds, Mouth Silence, Mouth Moods and Mouth Dreams.

DJ Earworm's annual "United States of Pop" mashups became season events, with his 2009 edition alone garnering critical acclaim as well as racking up more than 53 million views on YouTube. Mashups also helped launch the careers of acts such as Girl Talk and Madeon, with the latter's "Pop Culture" accruing more than 55 million views. Acts such as DJs from Mars and Mashd N Kutcher would go on to make mashups a huge part of their creative output.

Launched in San Francisco in 2003, Bootie was the first recurring club night in the United States dedicated solely to the burgeoning art form of the bootleg mashup, and as of 2019 hosted monthly parties in cities around the globe, including Los Angeles, Paris, Boston, Munich, and New York City. The party's slogan, "Music for the A.D.D. Generation" also inspired the creation of "A.D.D", Israel's first mashup-dedicated party. The Best of Bootie mashup compilation series is produced by Bootie creators A Plus D. Released every December since 2005, the compilations are annual Internet sensations, with each album requiring 5,000 GB+ of download bandwidth.

Even though mashups mostly remained underground and barely got noticed aside from a few exceptions (notable examples include Bill McClintock ), people have never stopped remixing other artists' music without getting their prior agreement. It's been increasingly difficult to get noticed in the music industry due to a combination of relative obscurity and an increasing difficulty in keeping them available online due to automatic copyright detection (through Content ID) and cease and desist orders from the original artists.

Video games
DJ Hero is a 2009 rhythm video game developed by Activision that includes over 90 pre-made mashups, where the player scores points by hitting notes on the turntable controller.

Fuser is a 2020 video game developed by Harmonix that allows the player to create mashups of over 100 songs, using four instrument stems from the master recording.

In December 2023, Fortnite introduced a new game mode titled Fortnite Festival. In the Jam Stage and Fortnite Battle Royale, players can make mashups of over 100 songs.

title: Mashup (music)