text:
Uruguay Round

The Uruguay Round was the 8th round of multilateral trade negotiations (MTN) conducted within the framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), spanning from 1986 to 1993 and embracing 123 countries as "contracting parties". The Round led to the creation of the World Trade Organization, with GATT remaining as an integral part of the WTO agreements. The broad mandate of the Round had been to extend GATT trade rules to areas previously exempted as too difficult to liberalize (agriculture, textiles) and increasingly important new areas previously not included (trade in services, intellectual property, investment policy trade distortions). The Round came into effect in 1995 with deadlines ending in 2000 (2004 in the case of developing country contracting parties) under the administrative direction of the newly created World Trade Organization (WTO).

The Doha Development Round was the next trade round, beginning in 2001 and still unresolved after missing its official deadline of 2005.

Goals
The main objectives of the Uruguay Round were:
 * to reduce agricultural subsidies
 * to lift restrictions on foreign investment
 * to begin the process of opening trade in services like banking and insurance.
 * to include the protection of intellectual property

They also wanted to draft a code to deal with copyright violation and other forms of intellectual property rights.

History
A set of updated documents was produced in Geneva by the office of the Director-General during July 1986 in order to prepare the way for progress to be made. As described below, the round was launched in Punta del Este, Uruguay in September 1986, followed by negotiations in Geneva, Brussels, Washington, D.C., and Tokyo.

Background
The 1986 Ministerial Declaration identified problems including structural deficiencies, spill-over impacts of certain countries' policies on world trade GATT could not manage. To address these issues, the eighth GATT round (known as the Uruguay Round) was launched in September 1986, in Punta del Este, Uruguay. It was the biggest negotiating mandate on trade ever agreed: the talks were going to extend the trading system into several new areas, notably trade in services and intellectual property, and to reform trade in the sensitive sectors of agriculture and textiles; all the original GATT articles were up for review.

The round was supposed to end in December 1990, but the US and EU disagreed on how to reform agricultural trade and decided to extend the talks. Finally, In November 1992, the US and EU settled most of their differences in a deal known informally as "the Blair House accord", and on 15 April 1994, the deal was signed by ministers from most of the 123 participating governments at a meeting in Marrakesh, Morocco. The agreement established the World Trade Organization, which came into being upon its entry into force on 1 January 1995, to replace the GATT system. It is widely regarded as the most profound institutional reform of the world trading system since the GATT's establishment.

The position of Developing Countries (GATT) was detailed in the book: Brazil in the Uruguay Round of the GATT: The Evolution of Brazil’s Position in the Uruguay Round, with Emphasis on the Issue of Services. In this book, the polemics about the issue of services are described, as well as the opposition of Developing Countries to the so called "New Issues".

Conclusion and signature
The 20 agreements were signed in Marrakesh—the Marrakesh Agreement—in April 1994.

Achievements
The GATT still exists as the WTO's umbrella treaty for trade in goods, updated as a result of the Uruguay Round negotiations (a distinction is made between GATT 1994, the updated parts of GATT, and GATT 1947, the original agreement which is still the heart of GATT 1994). The GATT 1994 is not, however, the only legally binding agreement included in the Final Act; a long list of about 60 agreements, annexes, decisions and understandings was adopted. In fact, the agreements fall into a simple structure with six main parts:
 * an umbrella agreement (the Agreement Establishing the WTO);
 * goods and investment (the Multilateral Agreements on Trade in Goods including the GATT 1994 and the Trade Related Investment Measures (TRIMS));
 * services (General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS));
 * intellectual property (Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS));
 * dispute settlement (DSU);
 * reviews of governments' trade policies (TPRM).

The agreements for the two largest areas under the WTO, goods and services, share a three-part outline:
 * broad principles (such as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and General Agreement on Trade in Services);
 * extra agreements and annexes;
 * lengthy schedules (lists) of commitments made by individual countries.

One of the achievements of the Uruguay round would be the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture, administered by the WTO, which brings agricultural trade more fully under the GATT. Prior to the Uruguay Round, conditions for agricultural trade were deteriorating with increasing use of subsidies, build-up of stocks, declining world prices and escalating costs of support. It provides for converting quantitative restrictions to tariffs and for a phased reduction of tariffs. The agreement also imposes rules and disciplines on agricultural export subsidies, domestic subsidies, and sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures through the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures

Criticism
Groups such as Oxfam have criticized the Uruguay Round for paying insufficient attention to the needs of developing countries. One aspect of this criticism is that figures very close to rich country industries—such as former Cargill executive Dan Amstutz—had a major role in the drafting of Uruguay Round language on agriculture and other matters. As with the WTO in general, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as Health Gap and Global Trade Watch also criticize what was negotiated in the Round on intellectual property and industrial tariffs as setting up too many constraints on policy-making and human needs. An article asserts that the developing countries’ lack of experience in WTO negotiations and lack of knowledge of how the developing economies would be affected by what the industrial countries wanted in the WTO new areas; the intensified mercantilist attitude of the GATT/WTO’s major power, the US; the structure of the WTO that made the GATT tradition of decision by consensus ineffective, so that a country would not preserve the status quo, were the reasons for this imbalance.

title: Uruguay Round


text:
Talk:Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News

Al Franken

 * Finally, the part where I address the Al Franken readers. Let’s go through the points he makes against “Bias,” but before we do, let me comment. Al Franken preaches constantly about the virtues of having a lot of proof for what one is saying. Bernard Goldberg wrote an entire book, chock-full of solid points and Franken merely could put together a short chapter (8 pages), the majority of which he used to talk about his one “victory” over Goldberg on TV. Franken’s victory: Showing that one of the twelve quotes Goldberg took from another source as an example of “liberal hate speech” was out of context and wrong. This is one of the few mistakes Goldberg made that Franken points out, but it was only one quote, and five out of Franken’s eight pages in this chapter are devoted to this single example. In addition, Franken comments on the fact that Goldberg is a disgruntled former employee. Very original, Al. He quotes a survey that says that although it is true that journalists are biased, the editors are not. Although this may be true, the journalists still prepare the stories themselves, and often the editors are not there with them to balance out the bias, as in the case of a live broadcast. Franken makes fair points about how news groups identify people or institutions.
 * I think that the Franken reference should be removed. Please advise::

All it is is hate speech. I guess it was removed a long time ago...PokeHomsar (talk) 21:53, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

PBS
Perhaps you were quoting this story from PBS. If so, please use quotation marks. Also, when quoting people's responses to a book, please don't just quote critics

 * Some critics say Goldberg is simply a disgruntled ex- employee ... Bob Schieffer, the network's chief Washington correspondent, told The Washington Post: "Bernie just seemed to be upset about everything. He was upset with the world."

 * But others say Goldberg might be on to something. In a New York Times review in December, writer Janet Maslin said while Goldberg's book is meant to raise eyebrows, it also raises questions about how the news media frames its stories.

 * The first is from the book. I don't know about the second. Lolinder (talk) 03:40, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

Unbiased
I agree that if you want to post responses to a book you should be more "unbiased". This article only references critics with a POV.

Well considering how utterly partisan and POV his book is on the conservative side I think you are being absurd in thinking you are going to find an "unbias" critic of the thing.--Ken 13:36, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

His book is about bias. How can an article about it be unbiased? The liberal bias in the media, as only someone not liberal could notice (as Goldberg explains in his book,) is quite obvious. You have to be living under a rock not to notice it, especially recently. Does the Duke Lacrosse rape case ring any bells? The case was influenced by the media (which is why Nifong got the case as far as he did) as the plaintiff's claims (however ridiculous and false) fit the liberals' agenda. Why? It was about an "underprivileged" black single mother who was "only a stripper to get through college and raise her kid" claiming three "over-privileged" white male "jocks" gang raped her. It was like heroin to all those radical feminists! One even said "I've never met a woman who claimed rape that lied." Like that case, you can't do anything but look at this book without having some bias as it's called Bias.PokeHomsar (talk) 22:58, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

Where is the criticism and acclaim section?
This whole article is just a summary of the book... Why is there no mention of the media explosion this book caused and its huge commercial success? It was #1 on the NYT Best Seller list for a whole season. Why is this not mentioned at all?PokeHomsar (talk) 21:51, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Unknown critics

 * Critics contend that Goldberg is nothing more than a disgruntled former employee who found support only from the hard right.

Please name at least one critic. Two would be better if you want to use the plural critics. Then put the sentence back (with the required reference). --Uncle Ed 16:56, 8 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I moved this section to its proper place.PokeHomsar (talk) 21:54, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

What we are not...
All relevant policies and guidelines encourage articles to focus on the real world significance of a work. 95% of this article is dedicated to a chapter-by-chapter summarization of the book, without any critical analysis, book reviews, or any other significance that puts the work into context. I'm going to again remove the chapter and verse and encourage editors to contributed sourced analysis, significance, and context for the work rather than regurgitating its contents. /Blaxthos ( t / c ) 00:17, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

 * And therefore this article differs from List of Keith Olbermann's Special Comments in what way?? Badmintonhist (talk) 01:10, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

 * It's not redlinked, for one. ;-)  In all seriousness, there's a large difference between a list and an article, both in content and style guide.  A list exists to organize multiple separate but related items in one cohesive place (especially when each individual item may not itself qualify for its own article).  An article about a book should briefly summarize its contents, but should dedicate the majority of the article towards its "real world significance and impact" of the book -- critical reviews, analysis, and context.  Wikipedia articles don't exist to solely summarize another work.  Additionally, if you can't provide reliable sources that assert notability then the entire article should probably be deleted.  I'd spend more time focusing on adding sourced, encyclopedic information showing why this book merits its own article than I would trying to have the article parrot the content of the book.  /Blaxthos ( t / c ) 01:54, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Hmm? That term "real world world significance and impact" sounds suspiciously like language that might be used in advising someone on how to write about a work of fiction. I may have missed it but I didn't see any similar language in the MOS applied to non-fiction, which possibly would be assumed to have "real world significance" already. Perhaps the best solution here (for those who are bigger fans of Goldberg's works than either Blaxhos or I are) would be to have an article entitled List of Bernard Goldberg's books which could exist as the kind of uncritical shrine that KO's fans have created for him. Cheers. Badmintonhist (talk) 22:33, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

 * I'm sorry you're having trouble distinguishing a list from an article. :-(  I think a good common-sense rule that sums up our policies and purpose is that articles about any book (or any subjet) should focus not on the content of the book, but rather why the book is significant.  If the article is entirely a summary of the points contained in the book, and devoid of reliable sources that attest to its notability, the article should be deleted for failing WP:N and WP:RS.  /Blaxthos ( t / c ) 00:46, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

 * The removal of the chapter descriptions was very appropriate, because it was not about the book itself, but about the content of the book. For that, we have Media bias (and other articles, such as CBS). This article is about the book itself. A description of the topics covered -- perhaps (but probably not) including a chapter list -- would be appropriate for this article, but the tone would have to be very, very different. --N Shar (talk · contribs) 20:53, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

What happened to the article?
Seriously, this article used to be pretty long. Why is it now just two sentences? Is it because the liberal admins don't like this book or because a wacky liberal Wikipedia person edited down this page? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.180.76.138 (talk) 18:24, 19 October 2008 (UTC)

 * I seem to remember that it was bigger at one point. Then someone trimmed it down to stub length ... and then complained that it was too short. Sounds like they don't want to hear about liberal bias in the news media. --Uncle Ed (talk) 03:07, 13 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Interesting; very interesting. But the astute that want to know have a lead to go on. Charles Edwin Shipp (talk) 17:11, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Stubification
I don't know if this is an official Wikipedia term. If it isn't, I don't know the real one. But the reduction of a long, decent article to two sentences is not really acceptable. If you object to having it just be a summary, improve on it, don't remove what we have so far. And don't revert the edits reverting the reduction without talking about it first here. Lolinder (talk) 03:52, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

Rewrite?
This article may need as rewrite from the start to achieve cleanup. In my opinion problems include: RJFJR (talk) 18:34, 5 August 2011 (UTC)
 * It has too many quotes.
 * It has an odd structure of sections of bulleted material.

 * Yeah. It is really crazy. Better have a paragraph telling us about the book, not giving us a Readers Digest version of it. Steve Dufour (talk) 05:47, 14 December 2011 (UTC)

 * I removed the sections on each chapter and substituted a list of the chapter titles. It actually looks better but now is a bit stubby.  Do we have any reviews we can cite? RJFJR (talk) 15:24, 17 December 2011 (UTC)
 * Re-writing, which is what was being discussed, and completely gutting the article, are different. There is no reason why each chapter can't be summarized and maybe a high point or two mentioned. Just a list of chapters? Not an improvement.
 * I tend to think that what a WP article on a book is supposed to be is a few paragraphs telling us what the book is, what its background is, what influence it has had, and things like that. It's not supposed to repeat everything the book says. I don't even think a list of chapters is appropriate.  Especially on a fairly minor book like this. BTW I'm a conservative and would probably agree with much in this book. Steve Dufour (talk) 00:47, 20 December 2011 (UTC)
 * I tend to consider NY Times Best Sellers to be more than "fairly minor". When it becomes the first in a series of NY times best sellers, then it definately stops being "fairly minor". Regardless, if this were an article about a Tom Clancy novel, yeah, I'd agree no chapter list etc. But a book like this, which covers a fairly broad spectrum of the media, really would be tough to summarize in a couple of paragraphs without engaging in a lot of OR. But I'm open to suggestions.Niteshift36 (talk) 02:10, 20 December 2011 (UTC)
 * I've gotten the book from the library and I'll see if I can summarize the chapters in a more prose form. RJFJR (talk) 01:27, 21 December 2011 (UTC)
 * Again, I'm not saying what exists shouldn;t be cut quite a bit. Just that replacing it with nothing more than a table of contents isn't the way to go. Niteshift36 (talk) 02:08, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

NYT bestseller - references
How do we reference that a book was on the NYT best seller list? RJFJR (talk) 15:12, 24 December 2011 (UTC)
 * This site has been accepted on other articles. They maintain the past lists in PDF format. . I forgot that the book was #1 in non-fiction. Niteshift36 (talk) 15:18, 24 December 2011 (UTC)

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


text:
News magazine

A news magazine is a typed, printed, and published magazine, radio, or television program, usually published weekly, consisting of articles about current events. News magazines generally discuss stories in greater depth than newspapers or newscasts do, and aim to give the consumer an understanding of the important events beyond the basic facts.

Broadcast news magazines
Radio news magazines are similar to television news magazines. Unlike radio newscasts, which are typically about five minutes in length, radio news magazines can run from 30 minutes to three hours or more.

Television news magazines provide a similar service to print news magazines, but their stories are presented as short television documentaries rather than written articles. These broadcasts serve as an alternative in covering certain issues more in depth than regular newscasts. The formula, first established by Panorama on the BBC in 1953, has proved successful around the world. Television news magazines provide several stories not seen on regular newscasts, including celebrity profiles, coverage of big businesses, hidden camera techniques, better international coverage, exposing and correcting injustices, in-depth coverage of a headline story, and hot-topic interviews.

In the United States, television news magazines were popular in the 1990s, since they were a cheap and easy way to better use the investment in national television network news departments. Television news magazines once aired five nights a week on most television networks. However, with the success of reality shows, news magazines have largely been supplanted. Reality shows cost slightly less to produce and attain a younger and more loyal audience than the news magazines they replaced. Thus, the audience once attracted to news magazine shows has largely drifted to cable television, where common news magazine topics such as nature, science, celebrities, and politics all have their own specialty channels.

Most commercial broadcasting television stations have local news that refers to news coverage of events in a local context which would not typically be of interest to those of other localities, or otherwise be of national or international scope.

Australia

 * Four Corners
 * Dateline
 * 60 Minutes
 * Revealed
 * Sunday Night

Canada

 * 16×9
 * The Fifth Estate
 * Global Sunday
 * This Hour Has Seven Days
 * W5

Italy

 * AnnoZero
 * Ballarò
 * In ½ h
 * L'Infedele
 * Porta a Porta

Mexico

 * Noticieros Televisa
 * On Air. with Paola Rojas
 * The News with Karla Iberia Sánchez
 * On Point. with Denise Maerker

Philippines

 * Magandang Gabi... Bayan
 * Pareng Partners
 * Probe
 * Reporter's Notebook
 * Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho
 * Kuha Mo!
 * Rated Korina

United Kingdom

 * Dispatches
 * Exposure
 * Newsnight
 * On Assignment
 * Panorama
 * Tonight
 * Unreported World

United States

 * 20/20
 * 60 Minutes
 * 60 Minutes II
 * 48 Hours
 * America Now
 * America's Heartland
 * Aquí y Ahora
 * Bill Moyers Journal
 * Business Nation
 * CBS News Sunday Morning
 * Connie Chung Tonight
 * Dateline NBC
 * Day One
 * E:60
 * Expose
 * Eye to Eye with Connie Chung
 * Frontline
 * Inside Edition
 * Now on PBS
 * Now with Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric
 * Primetime
 * Public Eye with Bryant Gumbel
 * Real Life with Jane Pauley
 * Rock Center with Brian Williams
 * Saturday Night with Connie Chung
 * Small Town Big Deal
 * Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly
 * Turning Point
 * Weekend

Other countries

 * Brazil
 * Domingo Espetacular
 * Fantástico
 * Bulgaria
 * Panorama
 * Vsyaka nedelya
 * Chile
 * Contacto
 * Informe especial
 * Hong Kong
 * News Magazine (新聞透視)
 * Sunday Report (星期日檔案)
 * Spain
 * BCN Week
 * Informe Semanal
 * European Journal (Belgium/Germany)
 * Kastljós (Iceland)
 * Mladina (Slovenia)
 * Provjereno (Croatia)
 * Séptimo día (Colombia)
 * Tagesthemen (Germany)
 * On the Spot (Indonesia)

International

 * Newshour

Australia

 * AM
 * RN Breakfast
 * PM
 * The World Today

Canada

 * Canada Live
 * The Current
 * The World at Six

Mexico

 * W noticias (XEW-AM)
 * El Heraldo Radio

United Kingdom

 * Breakfast (BBC Radio Five Live)
 * Broadcasting House
 * PM
 * Today
 * The World at One
 * The World This Weekend
 * The World Tonight
 * Worricker on Sunday (Five Live)

United States

 * All Things Considered
 * America in The Morning
 * Eye on the World
 * Morning Edition (weekend version branded as Weekend Edition)
 * This Morning, America's First News with Gordon Deal
 * Weekend America
 * The World

title: News magazine


text:
Taxicab number

In mathematics, the nth taxicab number, typically denoted Ta(n) or Taxicab(n), is defined as the smallest integer that can be expressed as a sum of two positive integer cubes in n distinct ways. The most famous taxicab number is 1729 = Ta(2) = 13 + 123 = 93 + 103, also known as the Hardy-Ramanujan number.

The name is derived from a conversation ca.1919 involving mathematicians G. H. Hardy and Srinivasa Ramanujan. As told by Hardy:

"I remember once going to see him [Ramanujan] when he was lying ill at Putney. I had ridden in taxi-cab No. 1729, and remarked that the number seemed to be rather a dull one, and that I hoped it was not an unfavourable omen. "No," he replied, "it is a very interesting number; it is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two [positive] cubes in two different ways.""

History and definition
The pairs of summands of the Hardy–Ramanujan number Ta(2) = 1729 were first mentioned by Bernard Frénicle de Bessy, who published his observation in 1657. 1729 was made famous as the first taxicab number in the early 20th century by a story involving Srinivasa Ramanujan in claiming it to be the smallest for his particular example of two summands. In 1938, G. H. Hardy and E. M. Wright proved that such numbers exist for all positive integers n, and their proof is easily converted into a program to generate such numbers. However, the proof makes no claims at all about whether the thus-generated numbers are the smallest possible and so it cannot be used to find the actual value of Ta(n).

The taxicab numbers subsequent to 1729 were found with the help of computers. John Leech obtained Ta(3) in 1957. E. Rosenstiel, J. A. Dardis and C. R. Rosenstiel found Ta(4) in 1989. J. A. Dardis found Ta(5) in 1994 and it was confirmed by David W. Wilson in 1999. Ta(6) was announced by Uwe Hollerbach on the NMBRTHRY mailing list on March 9, 2008, following a 2003 paper by Calude et al. that gave a 99% probability that the number was actually Ta(6). Upper bounds for Ta(7) to Ta(12) were found by Christian Boyer in 2006.

The restriction of the summands to positive numbers is necessary, because allowing negative numbers allows for more (and smaller) instances of numbers that can be expressed as sums of cubes in n distinct ways. The concept of a cabtaxi number has been introduced to allow for alternative, less restrictive definitions of this nature. In a sense, the specification of two summands and powers of three is also restrictive; a generalized taxicab number allows for these values to be other than two and three, respectively.

Known taxicab numbers
So far, the following 6 taxicab numbers are known:

$$\begin{align} \operatorname{Ta}(1) =& \ 2 \\ &= 1^3 + 1^3 \\[6pt] \operatorname{Ta}(2) =& \ 1729 \\ &= 1^3 + 12^3 \\ &= 9^3 + 10^3 \\[6pt] \operatorname{Ta}(3) =& \ 87539319 \\ &= 167^3 + 436^3 \\ &= 228^3 + 423^3 \\  &= 255^3 + 414^3 \\[6pt] \operatorname{Ta}(4) =& \ 6963472309248 \\ &= 2421^3 + 19083^3 \\ &= 5436^3 + 18948^3 \\  &= 10200^3 + 18072^3 \\  &= 13322^3 + 16630^3 \\[6pt] \operatorname{Ta}(5) =& \ 48988659276962496 \\ &= 38787^3 + 365757^3 \\ &= 107839^3 + 362753^3 \\  &= 205292^3 + 342952^3 \\  &= 221424^3 + 336588^3 \\  &= 231518^3 + 331954^3 \\[6pt]

\operatorname{Ta}(6) =& \ 24153319581254312065344 \\ &= 582162^3 + 28906206^3 \\ &= 3064173^3 + 28894803^3 \\  &= 8519281^3 + 28657487^3 \\  &= 16218068^3 + 27093208^3 \\  &= 17492496^3 + 26590452^3 \\  &= 18289922^3 + 26224366^3 \end{align}$$

Upper bounds for taxicab numbers
For the following taxicab numbers upper bounds are known:

$$\begin{align} \operatorname{Ta}(7) \le & \ 24885189317885898975235988544 \\ &=2648660966^3 + 1847282122^3 \\  &= 2685635652^3 + 1766742096^3 \\   &= 2736414008^3 + 1638024868^3 \\   &= 2894406187^3 + 860447381^3 \\   &= 2915734948^3 + 459531128^3 \\   &= 2918375103^3 + 309481473^3\\   &= 2919526806^3 + 58798362^3\\[6pt]

\operatorname{Ta}(8) \le & \ 50974398750539071400590819921724352 \\ &= 299512063576^3 + 288873662876^3 \\  &= 336379942682^3 + 234604829494^3 \\   &= 341075727804^3 + 224376246192^3 \\   &= 347524579016^3 + 208029158236^3 \\  &= 367589585749^3 + 109276817387^3 \\  &= 370298338396^3 + 58360453256^3\\   &= 370633638081^3 + 39304147071^3\\   &= 370779904362^3 + 7467391974^3 \\[6pt]

\operatorname{Ta}(9) \le & \ 136897813798023990395783317207361432493888 \\ &= 41632176837064^3 + 40153439139764^3 \\  &= 46756812032798^3 + 32610071299666^3 \\   &= 47409526164756^3 + 31188298220688^3 \\   &= 48305916483224^3 + 28916052994804^3 \\  &= 51094952419111^3 + 15189477616793^3 \\   &= 51471469037044^3 + 8112103002584^3\\   &= 51518075693259^3 + 5463276442869^3\\   &= 51530042142656^3 + 4076877805588^3\\   &= 51538406706318^3 + 1037967484386^3 \\[6pt]

\operatorname{Ta}(10) \le & \ 7335345315241855602572782233444632535674275447104 \\ &= 15695330667573128^3 + 15137846555691028^3 \\  &= 17627318136364846^3 + 12293996879974082^3 \\   &= 17873391364113012^3 + 11757988429199376^3 \\   &= 18211330514175448^3 + 10901351979041108^3 \\   &= 19262797062004847^3 + 5726433061530961^3 \\   &= 19404743826965588^3 + 3058262831974168^3\\   &= 19422314536358643^3 + 2059655218961613^3\\   &= 19426825887781312^3 + 1536982932706676^3\\   &= 19429379778270560^3 + 904069333568884^3\\   &= 19429979328281886^3 + 391313741613522^3 \\[6pt]

\operatorname{Ta}(11) \le & \ 2818537360434849382734382145310807703728251895897826621632 \\ &= 11410505395325664056^3 + 11005214445987377356^3 \\  &= 12815060285137243042^3 + 8937735731741157614^3 \\   &= 12993955521710159724^3 + 8548057588027946352^3 \\   &= 13239637283805550696^3 + 7925282888762885516^3 \\   &= 13600192974314732786^3 + 6716379921779399326^3 \\   &= 14004053464077523769^3 + 4163116835733008647^3\\   &= 14107248762203982476^3 + 2223357078845220136^3\\   &= 14120022667932733461^3 + 1497369344185092651^3\\   &= 14123302420417013824^3 + 1117386592077753452^3\\   &= 14125159098802697120^3 + 657258405504578668^3\\   &= 14125594971660931122^3 + 284485090153030494^3 \\[6pt]

\operatorname{Ta}(12) \le & \ 73914858746493893996583617733225161086864012865017882136931801625152 \\ &= 33900611529512547910376^3 + 32696492119028498124676^3 \\ &= 38073544107142749077782^3 + 26554012859002979271194^3 \\  &= 38605041855000884540004^3 + 25396279094031028611792^3 \\  &= 39334962370186291117816^3 + 23546015462514532868036^3 \\  &= 40406173326689071107206^3 + 19954364747606595397546^3 \\  &= 41606042841774323117699^3 + 12368620118962768690237^3 \\  &= 41912636072508031936196^3 + 6605593881249149024056^3 \\  &= 41950587346428151112631^3 + 4448684321573910266121^3 \\  &= 41960331491058948071104^3 + 3319755565063005505892^3 \\  &= 41965847682542813143520^3 + 1952714722754103222628^3 \\  &= 41965889731136229476526^3 + 1933097542618122241026^3 \\  &= 41967142660804626363462^3 + 845205202844653597674^3   \end{align}$$

Cubefree taxicab numbers
A more restrictive taxicab problem requires that the taxicab number be cubefree, which means that it is not divisible by any cube other than 13. When a cubefree taxicab number $T$ is written as $T = x^{3} + y^{3}$, the numbers $x$ and $y$ must be relatively prime. Among the taxicab numbers $Ta(n)$ listed above, only $Ta(1)$ and $Ta(2)$ are cubefree taxicab numbers. The smallest cubefree taxicab number with three representations was discovered by Paul Vojta (unpublished) in 1981 while he was a graduate student:

$$\begin{align} 15170835645 &= 517^3 + 2468^3 \\ &= 709^3 + 2456^3 \\  &= 1733^3 + 2152^3 \end{align}$$

The smallest cubefree taxicab number with four representations was discovered by Stuart Gascoigne and independently by Duncan Moore in 2003:

$$ \begin{align} 1801049058342701083 &= 92227^3 + 1216500^3 \\ &= 136635^3 + 1216102^3 \\  &= 341995^3 + 1207602^3 \\  &= 600259^3 + 1165884^3 \end{align}$$ .

title: Taxicab number


text:
Mbomou River

The Mbomou River or Bomu (also spelled M'bomou in French) forms part of the boundary between the Central African Republic (CAR) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The Mbomou merges with the Uele River to form the Ubangi River. The Ubangi, a tributary of the Congo, also serves as part of the border between the CAR and the DRC.

title: Mbomou River


text:
Airy disk

In optics, the Airy disk (or Airy disc) and Airy pattern are descriptions of the best-focused spot of light that a perfect lens with a circular aperture can make, limited by the diffraction of light. The Airy disk is of importance in physics, optics, and astronomy.

The diffraction pattern resulting from a uniformly illuminated, circular aperture has a bright central region, known as the Airy disk, which together with the series of concentric rings around is called the Airy pattern. Both are named after George Biddell Airy. The disk and rings phenomenon had been known prior to Airy; John Herschel described the appearance of a bright star seen through a telescope under high magnification for an 1828 article on light for the Encyclopedia Metropolitana: "...the star is then seen (in favourable circumstances of tranquil atmosphere, uniform temperature, etc.) as a perfectly round, well-defined planetary disc, surrounded by two, three, or more alternately dark and bright rings, which, if examined attentively, are seen to be slightly coloured at their borders. They succeed each other nearly at equal intervals round the central disc...."

Airy wrote the first full theoretical treatment explaining the phenomenon (his 1835 "On the Diffraction of an Object-glass with Circular Aperture").

Mathematically, the diffraction pattern is characterized by the wavelength of light illuminating the circular aperture, and the aperture's size. The appearance of the diffraction pattern is additionally characterized by the sensitivity of the eye or other detector used to observe the pattern.

The most important application of this concept is in cameras, microscopes and telescopes. Due to diffraction, the smallest point to which a lens or mirror can focus a beam of light is the size of the Airy disk. Even if one were able to make a perfect lens, there is still a limit to the resolution of an image created by such a lens. An optical system in which the resolution is no longer limited by imperfections in the lenses but only by diffraction is said to be diffraction limited.

Size
Far from the aperture, the angle at which the first minimum occurs, measured from the direction of incoming light, is given by the approximate formula:

$$ \sin \theta \approx 1.22 \frac{\lambda}{d}$$

or, for small angles, simply

$$ \theta \approx 1.22 \frac{\lambda}{d},$$

where $$\theta$$ is in radians, $$\lambda$$ is the wavelength of the light in meters, and $${d}$$ is the diameter of the aperture in meters. The full width at half maximum is given by $$\theta_\mathrm{FWHM} = 1.025 \frac{\lambda}{d}.$$

Airy wrote this relation as

$$ s = \frac{2.76}{a},$$

where $${s}$$ was the angle of first minimum in seconds of arc, $${a}$$ was the radius of the aperture in inches, and the wavelength of light was assumed to be 0.000022 inches (560 nm; the mean of visible wavelengths). This is equal to the angular resolution of a circular aperture. The Rayleigh criterion for barely resolving two objects that are point sources of light, such as stars seen through a telescope, is that the center of the Airy disk for the first object occurs at the first minimum of the Airy disk of the second. This means that the angular resolution of a diffraction-limited system is given by the same formulae.

However, while the angle at which the first minimum occurs (which is sometimes described as the radius of the Airy disk) depends only on wavelength and aperture size, the appearance of the diffraction pattern will vary with the intensity (brightness) of the light source. Because any detector (eye, film, digital) used to observe the diffraction pattern can have an intensity threshold for detection, the full diffraction pattern may not be apparent. In astronomy, the outer rings are frequently not apparent even in a highly magnified image of a star. It may be that none of the rings are apparent, in which case the star image appears as a disk (central maximum only) rather than as a full diffraction pattern. Furthermore, fainter stars will appear as smaller disks than brighter stars, because less of their central maximum reaches the threshold of detection. While in theory all stars or other "point sources" of a given wavelength and seen through a given aperture have the same Airy disk radius characterized by the above equation (and the same diffraction pattern size), differing only in intensity, the appearance is that fainter sources appear as smaller disks, and brighter sources appear as larger disks. This was described by Airy in his original work: The rapid decrease of light in the successive rings will sufficiently explain the visibility of two or three rings with a very bright star and the non-visibility of rings with a faint star. The difference of the diameters of the central spots (or spurious disks) of different stars ... is also fully explained. Thus the radius of the spurious disk of a faint star, where light of less than half the intensity of the central light makes no impression on the eye, is determined by [s = 1.17/a], whereas the radius of the spurious disk of a bright star, where light of 1/10 the intensity of the central light is sensible, is determined by [s = 1.97/a]. Despite this feature of Airy's work, the radius of the Airy disk is often given as being simply the angle of first minimum, even in standard textbooks. In reality, the angle of first minimum is a limiting value for the size of the Airy disk, and not a definite radius.

Cameras
If two objects imaged by a camera are separated by an angle small enough that their Airy disks on the camera detector start overlapping, the objects cannot be clearly separated any more in the image, and they start blurring together. Two objects are said to be just resolved when the maximum of the first Airy pattern falls on top of the first minimum of the second Airy pattern (the Rayleigh criterion).

Therefore, the smallest angular separation two objects can have before they significantly blur together is given as stated above by $$ \sin\theta = 1.22\, \frac{\lambda}{d}.$$

Thus, the ability of the system to resolve detail is limited by the ratio of λ/d. The larger the aperture for a given wavelength, the finer the detail that can be distinguished in the image.

This can also be expressed as $$ \frac{x}{f} = 1.22\, \frac{\lambda}{d},$$ where $$x$$ is the separation of the images of the two objects on the film, and $$f$$ is the distance from the lens to the film. If we take the distance from the lens to the film to be approximately equal to the focal length of the lens, we find $$ x = 1.22\, \frac{\lambda \, f}{d},$$ but $$\frac{f}{d}$$ is the f-number of a lens. A typical setting for use on an overcast day would be (see Sunny 16 rule). For violet, the shortest wavelength visible light, the wavelength λ is about 420 nanometers (see cone cells for sensitivity of S cone cells). This gives a value for $$x$$ of about 4 μm. In a digital camera, making the pixels of the image sensor smaller than half this value (one pixel for each object, one for each space between) would not significantly increase the captured image resolution. However, it may improve the final image by over-sampling, allowing noise reduction.

The human eye
The fastest f-number for the human eye is about 2.1, corresponding to a diffraction-limited point spread function with approximately 1 μm diameter. However, at this f-number, spherical aberration limits visual acuity, while a 3 mm pupil diameter (f/5.7) approximates the resolution achieved by the human eye. The maximum density of cones in the human fovea is approximately 170,000 per square millimeter, which implies that the cone spacing in the human eye is about 2.5 μm, approximately the diameter of the point spread function at f/5.

Focused laser beam
A circular laser beam with uniform intensity across the circle (a flat-top beam) focused by a lens will form an Airy disk pattern at the focus. The size of the Airy disk determines the laser intensity at the focus.

Aiming sight
Some weapon aiming sights (e.g. FN FNC) require the user to align a peep sight (rear, nearby sight, i.e. which will be out of focus) with a tip (which should be focused and overlaid on the target) at the end of the barrel. When looking through the peep sight, the user will notice an Airy disk that will help center the sight over the pin.

Conditions for observation
Light from a uniformly illuminated circular aperture (or from a uniform, flattop beam) will exhibit an Airy diffraction pattern far away from the aperture due to Fraunhofer diffraction (far-field diffraction).

The conditions for being in the far field and exhibiting an Airy pattern are: the incoming light illuminating the aperture is a plane wave (no phase variation across the aperture), the intensity is constant over the area of the aperture, and the distance $$R$$ from the aperture where the diffracted light is observed (the screen distance) is large compared to the aperture size, and the radius $$a$$ of the aperture is not too much larger than the wavelength $$\lambda$$ of the light. The last two conditions can be formally written as $$R > a^2 / \lambda.$$

In practice, the conditions for uniform illumination can be met by placing the source of the illumination far from the aperture. If the conditions for far field are not met (for example if the aperture is large), the far-field Airy diffraction pattern can also be obtained on a screen much closer to the aperture by using a lens right after the aperture (or the lens itself can form the aperture). The Airy pattern will then be formed at the focus of the lens rather than at infinity.

Hence, the focal spot of a uniform circular laser beam (a flattop beam) focused by a lens will also be an Airy pattern.

In a camera or imaging system an object far away gets imaged onto the film or detector plane by the objective lens, and the far field diffraction pattern is observed at the detector. The resulting image is a convolution of the ideal image with the Airy diffraction pattern due to diffraction from the iris aperture or due to the finite size of the lens. This leads to the finite resolution of a lens system described above.

Mathematical formulation

The intensity of the Airy pattern follows the Fraunhofer diffraction pattern of a circular aperture, given by the squared modulus of the Fourier transform of the circular aperture:

$$I(\theta) = I_0 \left [ \frac{2 J_1(k\,a \sin \theta)}{k\,a \sin \theta} \right ]^2 = I_0 \left [ \frac{2 J_1(x)}{x} \right ]^2$$

where $$I_0$$ is the maximum intensity of the pattern at the Airy disc center, $$J_1$$ is the Bessel function of the first kind of order one, $$k = {2 \pi}/{\lambda}$$ is the wavenumber, $$a$$ is the radius of the aperture, and $$\theta$$ is the angle of observation, i.e. the angle between the axis of the circular aperture and the line between aperture center and observation point. $$x = ka \sin \theta = \frac{2 \pi a}{\lambda} \frac{q}{R} ,$$ where q is the radial distance from the observation point to the optical axis and R is its distance to the aperture. Note that the Airy disk as given by the above expression is only valid for large R, where Fraunhofer diffraction applies; calculation of the shadow in the near-field must rather be handled using Fresnel diffraction.

However the exact Airy pattern does appear at a finite distance if a lens is placed at the aperture. Then the Airy pattern will be perfectly focussed at the distance given by the lens's focal length (assuming collimated light incident on the aperture) given by the above equations.

The zeros of $$J_1(x)$$ are at $$x = ka \sin \theta \approx 3.8317, 7.0156, 10.1735, 13.3237, 16.4706\dots .$$ From this, it follows that the first dark ring in the diffraction pattern occurs where $$ka \sin{\theta} = 3.8317\dots,$$ or

$$\sin \theta \approx \frac{3.83}{ka} = \frac{3.83 \lambda}{2 \pi a} = 1.22 \frac{\lambda}{2a} = 1.22 \frac{\lambda}{d}.$$

If a lens is used to focus the Airy pattern at a finite distance, then the radius $$q_1$$ of the first dark ring on the focal plane is solely given by the numerical aperture A (closely related to the f-number) by $$q_1 = R \sin \theta_1 \approx 1.22 {R} \frac{\lambda}{d} = 1.22  \frac{\lambda}{2A} $$

where the numerical aperture A is equal to the aperture's radius d/2 divided by R', the distance from the center of the Airy pattern to the edge of the aperture. Viewing the aperture of radius d/2 and lens as a camera (see diagram above) projecting an image onto a focal plane at distance f, the numerical aperture A is related to the commonly-cited f-number N= f/d (ratio of the focal length to the lens diameter) according to

$$ A = \frac{r}{R'} = \frac{r}{\sqrt{f^2+r^2}} = \frac{1}{\sqrt{4N^2+1}};$$

for N≫1 it is simply approximated as $ A \approx 1/2N .$ This shows that the best possible image resolution of a camera is limited by the numerical aperture (and thus f-number) of its lens due to diffraction.

The half maximum of the central Airy disk (where $$2 J_1(x) / x = 1 /\sqrt{2} $$) occurs at $$x = 1.61633995\dots ;$$ the 1/e2 point (where $$ 2 J_1(x) / x = 1 /{e}$$) occurs at $$x = 2.58383899\dots ,$$ and the maximum of the first ring occurs at $$x = 5.13562230\dots .$$

The intensity $$I_0$$ at the center of the diffraction pattern is related to the total power $$P_0$$ incident on the aperture by

$$I_0 = \frac{\Epsilon_A^2 A^2}{2 R^2} = \frac{P_0 A}{\lambda^2 R^2}$$

where $$\Epsilon$$ is the source strength per unit area at the aperture, A is the area of the aperture ($$A=\pi a^2$$) and R is the distance from the aperture. At the focal plane of a lens, $$I_0 = (P_0 A)/(\lambda^2 f^2).$$ The intensity at the maximum of the first ring is about 1.75% of the intensity at the center of the Airy disk.

The expression for $$I(\theta)$$ above can be integrated to give the total power contained in the diffraction pattern within a circle of given size:

$$P(\theta) = P_0 [ 1 - J_0^2(ka \sin \theta) - J_1^2(ka \sin \theta) ]$$

where $$J_0$$ and $$J_1$$ are Bessel functions. Hence the fractions of the total power contained within the first, second, and third dark rings (where $$J_1(ka \sin \theta)=0$$) are 83.8%, 91.0%, and 93.8% respectively.

The Airy disk and diffraction pattern can be computed numerically from first principles using Feynman path integrals.

Approximation using a Gaussian profile

The Airy pattern falls rather slowly to zero with increasing distance from the center, with the outer rings containing a significant portion of the integrated intensity of the pattern. As a result, the root mean square (RMS) spotsize is undefined (i.e. infinite). An alternative measure of the spot size is to ignore the relatively small outer rings of the Airy pattern and to approximate the central lobe with a Gaussian profile, such that

$$I(q) \approx I'_0 \exp \left( \frac{- 2q^2}{\omega_0 ^2} \right) \ ,$$

where $$I'_0$$ is the irradiance at the center of the pattern, $$q$$ represents the radial distance from the center of the pattern, and $\omega_0$ is the Gaussian RMS width (in one dimension). If we equate the peak amplitude of the Airy pattern and Gaussian profile, that is, $$I'_0 = I_0,$$ and find the value of $\omega_0$ giving the optimal approximation to the pattern, we obtain

 * $\omega_0\approx 0.84 \lambda N \ ,$

where N is the f-number. If, on the other hand, we wish to enforce that the Gaussian profile has the same volume as does the Airy pattern, then this becomes

 * $\omega_0 \approx 0.90 \lambda N \ .$

In optical aberration theory, it is common to describe an imaging system as diffraction-limited if the Airy disk radius is larger than the RMS spotsize determined from geometric ray tracing (see Optical lens design). The Gaussian profile approximation provides an alternative means of comparison: using the approximation above shows that the Gaussian waist $\omega_0$ of the Gaussian approximation to the Airy disk is about two-third the Airy disk radius, i.e. $$0.84 \lambda N$$ as opposed to $$1.22 \lambda N.$$

Obscured Airy pattern
Similar equations can also be derived for the obscured Airy diffraction pattern which is the diffraction pattern from an annular aperture or beam, i.e. a uniform circular aperture (beam) obscured by a circular block at the center. This situation is relevant to many common reflector telescope designs that incorporate a secondary mirror, including Newtonian telescopes and Schmidt–Cassegrain telescopes.

$$I(R) = \frac{I_0}{ (1 - \epsilon ^2)^2} \left ( \frac{2 J_1(x)}{x} - \frac{2 \epsilon J_1(\epsilon x)}{x}\right )^2$$

where $$\epsilon$$ is the annular aperture obscuration ratio, or the ratio of the diameter of the obscuring disk and the diameter of the aperture (beam). $$ \left( 0 \le \epsilon < 1 \right) ,$$ and x is defined as above: $$ x=ka\sin(\theta) \approx \frac {\pi R}{\lambda N}$$ where $$R$$ is the radial distance in the focal plane from the optical axis, $$\lambda$$ is the wavelength and $$N$$ is the f-number of the system. The fractional encircled energy (the fraction of the total energy contained within a circle of radius $$R$$ centered at the optical axis in the focal plane) is then given by:

$$E(R) = \frac{1}{ (1 - \epsilon ^2) } \left( 1 - J_0^2(x) - J_1^2(x) + \epsilon ^2 \left[ 1 - J_0^2 (\epsilon x) - J_1^2(\epsilon x) \right] - 4 \epsilon \int_0^x \frac {J_1(t) J_1(\epsilon t)}{t}\,dt \right) $$

For $$\epsilon \rightarrow 0$$ the formulas reduce to the unobscured versions above.

The practical effect of having a central obstruction in a telescope is that the central disc becomes slightly smaller, and the first bright ring becomes brighter at the expense of the central disc. This becomes more problematic with short focal length telescopes which require larger secondary mirrors.

Comparison to Gaussian beam focus
A circular laser beam with uniform intensity profile, focused by a lens, will form an Airy pattern at the focal plane of the lens. The intensity at the center of the focus will be $$I_{0,Airy} = (P_0 A)/(\lambda^2 f^2)$$ where $$P_0$$ is the total power of the beam, $$A= \pi D^2 / 4$$ is the area of the beam ($$D$$ is the beam diameter), $$\lambda$$ is the wavelength, and $$f$$ is the focal length of the lens.

A Gaussian beam transmitted through a hard aperture will be clipped. Energy is lost and edge diffraction occurs effectively increasing the divergence. Because of these effects there is a Gaussian beam diameter which maximizes the intensity in the far field. This occurs when the $$1 / e^2$$ diameter of the Gaussian is 89% of the aperture diameter, and the on axis intensity in the far field will be 81% of that produced by a uniform intensity profile.

Elliptical aperture
The Fourier integral of the circular cross section of radius $$a$$ is

\int_0^a r dr \int_0^{2\pi}d \phi e^{i{\vec k}\cdot {\vec r}} = \int_{0}^a r dr \int_0^{2\pi}d \phi e^{ikr\cos \phi} = 2\int_{0}^a r dr \int_0^{\pi}d \phi \cos(kr\cos \phi) = 2\pi \int_{0}^a r dr J_0(kr) = 2\pi\frac{a}{k} J_1(kr). $$ This is the special case of the Fourier integral of the elliptical cross section with half axes $$a$$ and $$b$$:

\int_{x^2/a^2+y^2/b^2\le 1} e^{ik_xx}e^{ik_yy} dx dy =2\pi \frac{ab}{c}J_1(c) $$ where
 * $$c\equiv \sqrt{(k_xa)^2+(k_yb)^2}.$$

title: Airy disk


text:
Talk:Brian Littrell

Gifted?
Why is his hosting of Gifted not listed on the page? Check this out -  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.224.110.27 (talk) 00:58, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Greek Arcticle
Μπράιαν Λίτρελ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.130.83.155 (talk) 08:59, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

Unsourced Section
I deleted a large section by User:MyHusbandsAngel that was completely unsourced, in first person, and written like fanfiction. Howicus (talk) 20:08, 5 January 2013 (UTC)

External links modified
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Miscarriage
I have removed the line It's been revealed that he would have had a little sister, but his mother miscarried. This appears to be irrelevant trivia that violates the privacy of a non-notable person (his mother), and is referenced to an unidentifiable publication. Opening this for discussion as at least one other editor thinks it should be included. (Will invite that IP to the discussion since I can't ping them.) Schazjmd   (talk)  15:03, 24 February 2020 (UTC)

 * Deletion is clearly correct per WP:NPF and WP:BLPREMOVE. Jonathan A Jones (talk) 16:12, 24 February 2020 (UTC)
 * Agree that this is unnecessary trivia which we should not include, support its removal. Girth Summit  (blether)  16:15, 24 February 2020 (UTC)
 * Agree. This doesn't belong anywhere on WP, this isn't a fan site. Praxidicae (talk) 20:43, 24 February 2020 (UTC)
 * I appreciate everyone's input, thank you for weighing in. Schazjmd   (talk)  20:49, 24 February 2020 (UTC)

Clean-Up
Dear fellow Wikipedians,

Before editing Brian Littrell's Wikipedia page last month, the article was badly written and poorly structured, making reading difficult, yet the old edit has been restored despite my effort, and for no valid reason other than "messy grammar". Really? Here's why I edited the page:

 * Unnecessary information (Wikipedia is not Teen Beat or a fan site)
 * Tautology was rampant (What's the point in describing Long John Silver's as a fast food chain when it's already been hyperlinked?)
 * More research was required (If you're not aware Johnny Wright was the Backstreet Boys' manager - not Lou Pearlman - you're just a cyber-groupie and not a genuine fan)
 * Poor grammar (Focus on yours before you attack mine)

I don't by any means declare myself to be the best writer out there - I made a few mistakes when I edited Littrell's page but accepted corrections from other users - but the last edit was beyond appalling, see for yourselves. I've restored my original edit, but what do you guys think? Or does everyone else see something I don't? Cleanupbabe (talk) 04:40, 30 March 2020 (UTC)
 * As this is mainly a question about content, the help me template is not the right thing to use here. The approach you need to take when your edits are undone is to contact the other editors and figure out if you can come up with some agreeable compromise. The first place to try this is on the talk page of the article in question, that is, here, but you should ping the specific editor or editors using their usernames. If at first you can't get agreement here, the next stages are to try the talk page of a relevant WikiProject that is interested in this page or, if you think the other editors have violated policies, you can take the issue to the relevant noticeboard. For more information, please see dispute resolution.  — jmcgnh (talk) (contribs) 05:46, 30 March 2020 (UTC)
 * (add comment), I think the rewrite is an improvement. Schazjmd   (talk)  15:10, 30 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Thank you.Cleanupbabe (talk) 10:42, 20 April 2020 (UTC)

Major Edits
I don't wanna burst anyone's bubbles, but I was seeing major errors on the page. I did found some real liable sources for the previous edits:

 * Littrell loved sports and was extremely skilled at gymnastics, which was shown in Everybody (Backstreet's Back), and played in both Little League and the Babe Ruth League.
 * He did some solos for Christmas or Easter when he was 10 and was voted President of the Youth Chorus by his peers one year. He sang a song for a Christmas album when he was only 8 years old and later sang in his high school choir and was selected in the State Chorus lineups for 2 successive years. At 16, he began performing at weddings and other events after his choir teacher, Barry Turner, in 7th grade advised him that he could make money from singing at social events.
 * Littrell also did school plays, including a part of the school production of Grease as Roger at Tates Creek High School. Initially, that fame didn't impress his school friends, as he was just another one of the guys in the classroom. But this positive reinforcement changed in his junior year of high school when his talent was finally recognized when he sang a duet of a spiritual song called 'Another Time, Another Place' with his first girlfriend in a Tates Creek High School talent show. His performance made his classmates - and Brian himself - realize the extent of his natural talent. Brian's vocals singing his part caused the female members of the crowd to scream and cheer so much that he couldn't hear himself. That experience, he says, was a total rush and left him craving more.

 * At 15, Littrell had aspirations to become a basketball player, but at 5 feet 7 inches (170 cm), he struggled with his height and was seldom selected for the high school team, although he managed to play on his church team. He did some wrestling at school, as said in the documentary
 * He was even in a Firestone commercial, a car repair/tire chain when he was 15. (I might need to do more research on this fact)
 * In high school, Brian and some of his friends sing Top 40 songs acapella in a group called Specialty. Besides school, he worked at a fast-food chain, Long John Silver's, Charter Ridge Hospital for the mentally ill and disabled people as a janitor, and at a church that he attended, and organizing the sanctuary as a wedding coordinator when he would also sing at other regional churches, revivals, weddings, and parties.

 * Due to his Christian beliefs, However, music remained important to him, and he aspired to become a music minister, but to be eligible for a full scholarship at Cincinnati Bible College, he needed to be a high school senior. He also dreamed of one day playing for the Kentucky Wildcats basketball team for the University of Kentucky, when as a junior at Tates Creek, Littrell’s cousin and future bandmate Kevin called him out of his American History class and informed him of an audition for a fifth member of the Backstreet Boys, which he did over the phone at 9 pm on April 19, 1993. (the date might be needed)
 * Littrell changed plans, flew to Orlando the next day, and become the final member of the Backstreet Boys, but finished high school via correspondence courses like AJ, even though Brian got to go to high school, and returned for finals, graduating in 1994.

And as for personal life, I don't know if anyone read any magazine articles or done a web search, but I did found some corrected info:

 * Littrell has an older brother name Harold, a singer, actor, and model, and is a cousin of fellow Backstreet Boys member Kevin Richardson (His father Harold and Richardson's mother Anne are siblings). Like his cousin, he is English (20%), Scottish, some German but in 2019, a DNA heritage test revealed he's also Finnish (7.1%), Scandinavian (2.1%), and Irish, and Welsh (70.1%) descent.

 * When Littrell first moved to Florida two months after joining the Backstreet Boys, he met Samantha Stonebraker through her partner in the New Song ensemble and Littrell's bandmate, A.J. McLean, and started dating. It was McLean who played Cupid, matching Littrell and Stonebraker, a Kissimmee native whose family has deep roots there. The relationship lasted four years (from 1993 to 1997) until a mutual split in ‘97 and Littrell even lived with Samantha's family for two years. She and her brother even made an appearance in the group's first video for We've Got It Goin' On. In 1998, after their breakup, she released the book What You Want to Know: Backstreet Boys Secrets Only a Girlfriend Can Tell, about their relationship and the Backstreet Boys. (It's actually in her book)

 * Two months following the breakup of his relationship with Samantha, while on the set of the Backstreet Boys music video for their single “As Long As You Love Me” on June 15, 1997, Littrell met model and actress, Leighanne Reena Wallace who was an extra in the video. He dated her for two years before he proposed to her on Christmas night of 1999 (NOT Christmas eve), and their engagement, along with the engagement of cousin and bandmate Kevin Richardson to Kristin Willits, was announced on MTV in February 2000. They got married on September 2, 2000, at Peachtree Christian Church in Atlanta, Georgia. Both are committed evangelical Christians. On November 26, 2002, they had a son, musician/actor Baylee Wylee Thomas Littrell. Baylee appeared in the Broadway musical Disaster! in 2016, came out with his first single, "Don’t Knock It", in 2018 and release his first debut album, 770 Country, on November 15, 2019.

 * As of 2020, the family lives in Alpharetta, Georgia, near Atlanta.

So, with that being said, I believe I made my point but I would like an honest opinion on these.108.46.251.85 (talk) 07:01, 3 May 2020 (UTC)

 * You haven't identified any specific errors in the article. (Correction, you pointed out that "Christmas eve" is incorrect and supported it with a source, so I've changed that.)I believe you're trying to say that you disagree with the removal of some of the content, although most of the items you list are already covered (the article says Richardson is his cousin, Littrell's a devout Christian, lists his DNA results, mentions his son and his older brother, played in Little League, wanted to be a music minister, was too short for basketball, etc.). I think the article currently does a good job at summarizing his life and career, which is what an encyclopedia article should do. Fansites want to document every little detail about a celebrity, but that isn't what Wikipedia does. Schazjmd   (talk)  13:20, 3 May 2020 (UTC)

@Schazjmd Hear hear. Agreed, Wikipedia is not a fansite, that's why I edited the page. I don't mean to be rude to previous editors, but several Backstreet fans expressed their disapproval of how the page was written - several unnecessary facts, and the grammar was appalling (Why start 'University of Kentucky' with a lowercase 'u'?) Cleanupbabe (talk) 11:08, 12 June 2020 (UTC)

Personal Life
Okay, I was looking over the Personal Life on Brian Littrell and Everything is correct, but does anyone felt that the paragraph on Brian Littrell's personal is a little too short?108.46.251.85 (talk) 06:46, 27 May 2020 (UTC)

Big Resources
Okay, I'm still in shock that some of my research was removed, and I'm absolutely positive that the following resources weren't fan-made:

 * As a kid, he was oldest then his peers but ultimately the smallest and felt uncomtable about it. Despite that, he met best friend Chris Cawood and were inseparable ever since, hanging out together and play sports, such as football, soccer, baseball and basketball. Littrell was skilled at sports, wanted to play soccer since coming home from the hospital but his parents wouldn't let him do to his heart condition, so he got into basketball and played in both Little League and the Babe Ruth League when he was 5. He also likes to make people laugh by doing impersonations such as Donald Duck. Growing up in a religious Baptist family, he was discovered by his church choir director singing soprano at age 6 and was encouraged and coached. He then sang his first solo in Porter Memorial Baptist Church at age 7, was already singing in the senior chior with his parents by the time he was 10 and was voted President of the Youth Chorus by his peers one year.

 * At 16, he began performing at weddings and parties after Barry Turner, his choir teacher at Tates Creek High School, suggested he could make money singing at social events. Aside from high school choir and Allstate Chours lineups for two years, Littrell also performed at his school talent show, performing a duet "Another Time, Another Place" with a female friend, gaining praise and lots of screams, cheers and roars from the girls, and in school plays including a production of Grease,    and worked at fast food chain Long John Silver's.

 * At 15, Littrell had aspirations to become a basketball player and play for the university of kentucky, but at 5 ft he struggled with his height which was hard on his selfesteem, and was seldom selected for high school tournaments , though he was the top star player on his church team which earn him the nicknames "Seaver" and "BRok". He aspired to become a music minister, but in April 1993 during a history class at Tates Creek, Littrell’s cousin and future bandmate Kevin Richardson called him out of an American History class and informed him of an audition for a fifth member of the Backstreet Boys. Littrell flew to Orlando the next day, met the rest of the band, auditioned and joined the group. After joining, he head back home with Kevin for two days, pack up his truck, drove down back to florida and finished high school via correspondence, graduating in 1994.

As you can see, there's more of Brian that I found the Backstreet Boys: Official Biography, such as his self-consciousness for his height growing up and how it affected his self-esteem, starting sports by the age of 5, making voices impressions, being coached by his church choir director, joining the Allstar Chorus and performing at his high school talent show, focus on playing for the University of Kentucky and being the top star on his church team, his nicknames being Seaver and BRok, and packing up his truck and driving down with Kevin back to Florida soon after joining the Backstreet Boys. There are more sources in career and personal life too:

Career
In 1997, Littrell was instrumental in bringing a lawsuit against the group's creator Lou Pearlman, claiming Pearlman had concealed information regarding the group's earnings. Bandmates McLean, Richardson, and Dorough joined the lawsuit which eventually resulted in several settlements, details of which were not disclosed. During the band's hiatus, Littrell became committed to several other show business activities, most of them for charity. Littrell joined other celebrities in a yearly NBA tour where he plays basketball in every NBA city before a game. Aside from that, Littrell has also played charity baseball games. In 2000, he was among Teen People's 25 Hottest People Under 25, tying with Justin Timberlake of rival band *NSYNC.

Personal life
In 1997, following the breakup of his relationship with girlfriend Samantha Stonebraker, Littrell met actress and model Leighanne Wallace on the “As Long as You Love Me” video set in which she was an extra. They dated for two years, and Littrell proposed on Christmas 1999; the couple got married in September 2000 at Peachtree Christian Church in Atlanta. In November 26, 2002, they had their son Baylee, who appeared in the Broadway musical Disaster! in 2017, released his first single, "Don’t Knock It" in 2018, and his debut album, 770 Country, in 2019.

In 2019, a DNA heritage test revealed Littrell's ancestry to be 90.1% British Isles (20.7% English and 70.1% Irish/Scottish/Welsh), plus 7.1% Finnish and 2.1% Scandinavian.

Health issues
Littrell was born with a congenital heart condition, making him susceptible to infections. He was diagnosed with a heart murmur at 6 weeks old. At 5 years old, he was hospitalized for two months due to a bacterial infection from a knee scrap he had two weeks prior. Due to his hospitalization, Littrell was held back in school and had to repeat the first grade. In November 1997, doctors found his heart condition had caused his heart to enlarge considerably, but he underwent open-heart surgery on May 8, 1998. He would later establish the Brian Littrell Healthy Heart Club, a non-profit organization assisting children with heart conditions through medical, financial, and practical help. In October 2009, Littrell became infected with swine flu, causing the cancellation of the Backstreet Boys This Is Us promotional tour.

Littrell got the infection from a knee scrap he had two weeks before his hospitalization.

Religious beliefs
As a devout Christian, Littrell has stated he believes it is the duty of Christians to be open about their faith, saying, "I think as Christians we need to join hands and mount up together and lift God up and talk about our faith publicly and talk about all of the things God has done for us in our life to touch other people." At first he didn't enjoy it, but Littrell, who has been a born again Christian since the age of 8, has said that he attributes his success in life to God, and that his faith has always been "the utmost important thing" in his life.

He didn't like going to church at first before actually understanding how important it is to his family.

You see, everything I had written before the changes now has showcased some important details to the man's life, not fanmade or unsourced. As for the movie Megalodon, that his wife was in, he was a ridge worker in the movie, I can provide a video source as well as other info if you want.108.46.251.85 (talk) 21:34, 14 January 2021 (UTC)

Controversy article and resources
Okay, I'm still in shock that some of my research was removed, and I'm absolutely positive that the following resources weren't fan-made unsourced articles or unnecessary edits:

 * As a kid, he was oldest than his peers but ultimately the smallest and felt uncomfortable about it. Despite that, he met his best friend Chris Cawood and was inseparable ever since, hanging out together and play sports, such as football, soccer, baseball, and basketball.[1] Littrell was skilled at sports, wanted to play soccer since coming home from the hospital but his parents wouldn't let him do to his heart condition, so he got into basketball[2] and played in both Little League and the Babe Ruth League when he was 5.[3] He also likes to make people laugh by doing impersonations such as Donald Duck. [4]Growing up in a religious Baptist family, he was discovered by his church choir director singing soprano at age 6 and was encouraged and coached. He then sang his first solo in Porter Memorial Baptist Church at age 7, was already singing in the senior choir with his parents by the time he was 10, and was voted President of the Youth Chorus by his peers one year.[5]
 * At 16, he began performing at weddings and parties after Barry Turner, his choir teacher at Tates Creek High School, suggested he could make money singing at social events.[6][7] Aside from high school choir and Allstate Chorus lineups for two years, Littrell also performed at his school talent show, performing a duet "Another Time, Another Place" with a female friend, gaining praise and lots of screams, cheers, and roars from the girls[8], and in school plays, including the production of Grease,[9][10][11][12] and worked at fast-food chain Long John Silver's.[13]
 * At 15, Littrell had aspirations to become a basketball player and play for the University of Kentucky[14], but at 5 feet 7 inches (170 cm) he struggled with his height which was hard on his self-esteem, and was seldom selected for high school tournaments[15], though he was the top star player on his church team which earn him the nicknames "Seaver" and "BRok".[16][17][18][19] He aspired to become a music minister,[20] but in April 1993 during a history class at Tates Creek, Littrell’s cousin and future bandmate Kevin Richardson called him out of an American History class and informed him of an audition for a fifth member of the Backstreet Boys. Littrell flew to Orlando the next day, met the rest of the band, auditioned, and joined the group.[21] After joining, he heads back home with Kevin for two days, packs up his truck, drove down back to florida[22], and finished high school via correspondence,[23] graduating in 1994.[17]

As you can see, there's more of Brian that I found the Backstreet Boys: Official Biography, such as his self-consciousness for his height growing up and how it affected his self-esteem, starting sports by the age of 5, making voices impressions, being coached by his church choir director, joining the Allstar Chorus and performing at his high school talent show, focus on playing for the University of Kentucky and being the top star on his church team, his nicknames being Seaver and BRok, and packing up his truck and driving down with Kevin back to Florida soon after joining the Backstreet Boys. There are more sources in career and personal life too:

 * He didn't like going to church at first before actually understanding how important it is to his family.[40]

You see, everything I had written before the changes now has showcased some important details to the man's life, not fanmade or unsourced. As for the movie Megalodon, that his wife was in, he was a ridge worker in the movie, I can provide a video source as well as other info if you want.

By the way, does this page really need the controversial announcement news on the Parler app and QAnon due to the Capitol Attacks?108.46.251.85 (talk) 04:26, 23 January 2021 (UTC)

You're missing the point. This is an encyclopedia, it covers a topic without going into unnecessary detail. Donald Duck impressions...Really?

Oh, and I'm not responsible for the Parler section. Cleanupbabe (talk) 06:13, 7 August 2022 (UTC)

Actual news, not trivia
Before I start reviewing what I misread or what I did wrong with my edits, I just wanna say that the news I found about Brian's uncle and aunt (Kevin's parents) are not trivia facts. I can promise you that they're not. Brian and Kevin are cousins (Brian' s dad and Kevin's mom are brother and sister), which is true and they are family, so the information and the sources I found about the two: Littrell lost both his uncle (Kevin's father) in August 1991 to cancer and his aunt (Kevin's mother) in January 2022, are actual news that I found with the sources from today.com and YouTube.com, and not really trivia. I promise you. Thought I should let you all know. 108.6.204.85 (talk) 00:55, 26 August 2022 (UTC) 108.6.204.85 (talk) 00:55, 26 August 2022 (UTC)

Afraid of heights
Is Brian Littlerell afraid of heights 71.210.135.12 (talk) 20:32, 5 June 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Brian Littrell


text:
Yeniseian languages

The Yeniseian languages (sometimes known as Yeniseic or Yenisei-Ostyak; occasionally spelled with -ss-) are a family of languages that are spoken by the Yeniseian people in the Yenisei River region of central Siberia. As part of the proposed Dené–Yeniseian language family, the Yeniseian languages have been argued to be part of "the first demonstration of a genealogical link between Old World and New World language families that meets the standards of traditional comparative-historical linguistics". The only surviving language of the group today is Ket.

From hydronymic and genetic data, it is suggested that the Yeniseian languages were spoken in a much greater area in ancient times, including parts of northern China and Mongolia. It has been further proposed that the recorded distribution of Yeniseian languages from the 17th century onward represents a relatively recent northward migration, and that the Yeniseian urheimat lies to the south of Lake Baikal.

The Yeniseians have been connected to the Xiongnu confederation, whose ruling elite may have spoken a southern Yeniseian language similar to the now extinct Pumpokol language. The Jie, who ruled the Later Zhao state of northern China, are likewise believed to have spoken a Pumpokolic language based on linguistic and ethnogeographic data.

For those who argue the Xiongnu spoke a Yeniseian language, the Yeniseian languages are thought to have contributed many ubiquitous loanwords to Turkic and Mongolic vocabulary, such as Khan, Khagan, Tarqan, and the word for 'god' and 'sky', Tengri. This conclusion has primarily been drawn from the analysis of preserved Xiongnu texts in the form of Chinese characters.

Classification
The classification of the Yeniseian languages has changed from time to time. A traditional classification is presented below: Georg 2007 and Hölzl 2018 use a slightly different classification, placing Pumpokol in its own branch:Proto-Yeniseic
 * Proto-Yeniseian (before 500 BC; split around 1 AD)
 * Northern Yeniseian (split around 700 AD)
 * Ket (153 speakers as of the 2020 census)
 * Northern Ket
 * Central Ket
 * Southern Ket
 * Yugh (extinct by 1991)
 * Southern Yeniseian
 * Kott–Assan (split around 1200 AD)
 * Kott (extinct by the mid-1800s)
 * Assan (extinct by 1800)
 * Yastin
 * Yarin
 * Baikot
 * Arin–Pumpokol (split around 550 AD)
 * Arin (extinct by 1800)
 * Pumpokol (extinct by 1750)
 * ? Jie (extinct after 4th century)
 * Northern
 * Yenisei-Ostyakic
 * Ket
 * Yugh
 * Pumpokol
 * Southern
 * Assanic
 * Assan
 * Kott
 * Arin A more recent classification, used in Vajda 2024, is presented below:

 * Proto-Yeniseian
 * Ketic
 * Ket (153 speakers as of the 2020 census)
 * Central Ket
 * Northern-Southern Ket
 * Northern Ket
 * Southern Ket
 * Yugh (extinct 1972, 3 speakers reported 2020)
 * Arinic
 * Arin (extinct by 1800)
 * Pumpokolic
 * Pumpokol (extinct by 1750)
 * Jie? (extinct after 4th century)
 * Kottic
 * Kott (extinct by the mid-1800s)
 * Various dialects
 * Assan (extinct by 1800)

It has been suggested that the Xiongnu and Hunnic languages were Southern Yeniseian. Only two languages of this family survived into the 20th century: Ket (also known as Imbat Ket), with around 200 speakers, and Yugh (also known as Sym Ket), now extinct. The other known members of this family—Arin, Assan, Pumpokol, and Kott—have been extinct for over 150 years. Other groups—the Baikot, Yarin (Buklin), Yastin, Ashkyshtym (Bachat Teleuts), and Koibalkyshtym—are identifiable as Yeniseic speaking from tsarist fur-tax records compiled during the 17th century, but nothing remains of their languages except a few proper names.

Distribution
Ket, the only extant Yeniseian language, is the northernmost known. Historical sources record a contemporaneous northern expansion of the Ket along the Yenisei during the Russian conquest of Siberia. Today, it is mainly spoken in Turukhansky District of Krasnoyarsk Krai in far northern Siberia, in villages such as Kellog and Sulomay. Yugh, which only recently faced extinction, was spoken from Yeniseysk to Vorogovo, Yartsevo, and the upper Ket River.

The early modern distributions of Arin, Pumpokol, Kott, and Assan can be reconstructed. The Arin were north of Krasnoyarsk, whereas the closely related Pumpokol was spoken to the north and west of it, along the upper Ket. Kott and Assan, another pair of closely related languages, occupied the area south of Krasnoyarsk, and east to the Kan River. From toponyms it can be seen that Yeniseian populations probably lived in Buryatia, Zabaykalsky, and northern Mongolia. As an example, the toponym ši can be found in Zabaykalsky Krai, which is probably related to the Proto-Yeniseian word sēs 'river' and likely derives from an undocumented Yeniseian language. Some toponyms that appear Yeniseian extend as far as Heilongjiang.

Václav Blažek argues, based on hydronymic data, that Yeniseians were once spread out even farther into the west. He compares, for example, the word šet, found in more westerly river names, to Proto-Yeniseian *sēs 'river'.

Origins and history

According to a 2016 study, Yeniseian people and their language originated likely somewhere near the Altai Mountains or near Lake Baikal. According to this study, the Yeniseians are linked to Paleo-Eskimo groups. The Yeniseians have also been hypothesised to be representative of a back-migration from Beringia to central Siberia, and the Dené–Yeniseians a result of a radiation of populations out of the Bering land bridge. The spread of ancient Yeniseian languages may be associated with an ancestry component from the Baikal area (Cisbaikal_LNBA), maximized among hunter-gatherers of the local Glazkovo culture. Affinity for this ancestry has been observed among Na-Dene speakers. Cisbaikal_LNBA ancestry is inferred to be rich in Ancient Paleo-Siberian ancestry, and also display affinity to Inner Northeast Asian (Yumin-like) groups.

In Siberia, Edward Vajda observed that Yeniseian hydronyms in the circumpolar region (the recent area of distribution of Yeniseian languages) clearly overlay earlier systems, with the layering of morphemes onto Ugric, Samoyedic, Turkic, and Tungusic place names. It is therefore proposed that the homeland, or dispersal point, of the Yeniseian languages lies in the boreal region between Lake Baikal, northern Mongolia, and the Upper Yenisei basin, referred to by Vajda as a territory "abandoned" by the original Yeniseian speakers. On the other hand, Václav Blažek (2019) argues that based on hydronomic evidence, Yeneisian languages were originally spoken on the northern slopes of the Tianshan and Pamir mountains before dispersing downstream via the Irtysh River.

The modern populations of Yeniseians in central and northern Siberia are thus not indigenous and represent a more recent migration northward. This was noted by Russian explorers during the conquest of Siberia: the Ket are recorded to have been expanding northwards along the Yenisei, from the river Yeloguy to the Kureyka, from the 17th century onward. Based on these records, the modern Ket-speaking area appears to represent the very northernmost reaches of Yeniseian migration. The origin of this northward migration from the Mongolian steppe has been connected to the fall of the Xiongnu confederation. It appears from Chinese sources that a Yeniseian group might have been a major part of the heterogeneous Xiongnu tribal confederation, who have traditionally been considered the ancestors of the Huns and other Northern Asian groups. However, these suggestions are difficult to substantiate due to the paucity of data.

Alexander Vovin argues that at least parts of the Xiongnu, possibly its core or ruling class, spoke a Yeniseian language. Positing a higher degree of similarity of Xiongnu to Yeniseian as compared to Turkic, he also praised Stefan Georg's demonstration of how the word Tengri (the Turkic and Mongolic word for 'sky' and later 'god') originated from Proto-Yeniseian tɨŋVr.

It has been further suggested that the Yeniseian-speaking Xiongnu elite underwent a language shift to Oghur Turkic while migrating westward, eventually becoming the Huns. However, it has also been suggested that the core of the Hunnic language was a Yeniseian language.

Vajda et al. 2013 proposed that the ruling elite of the Huns spoke a Yeniseian language and influenced other languages in the region.

One sentence of the language of the Jie, a Xiongnu tribe who founded the Later Zhao state, appears consistent with being a Yeniseian language. Later study suggests that Jie is closer to Pumpokol than to other Yeniseian languages such as Ket. This has been substantiated with geographical data by Vajda, who states that Yeniseian hydronyms found in northern Mongolia are exclusively Pumpokolic, in the process demonstrating both a linguistic and geographic proximity between Yeniseian and Jie.

The decline of the southern Yeniseian languages during and after the Russian conquest of Siberia has been attributed to language shifts of the Arin and Pumpokol to Khakas or Chulym Tatar, and the Kott and Assan to Khakas.

Family features
The Yeniseian languages share many contact-induced similarities with the South Siberian Turkic languages, Samoyedic languages, and Evenki. These include long-distance nasal harmony, the development of former affricates to stops, and the use of postpositions or grammatical enclitics as clausal subordinators. Yeniseic nominal enclitics closely approximate the case systems of geographically contiguous families. Despite these similarities, Yeniseian appears to stand out among the languages of Siberia in several typological respects, such as the presence of tone, the prefixing verb inflection, and highly complex morphophonology.

The Yeniseian languages have been described as having up to four tones or no tones at all. The 'tones' are concomitant with glottalization, vowel length, and breathy voice, not unlike the situation reconstructed for Old Chinese before the development of true tones in Chinese. The Yeniseian languages have highly elaborate verbal morphology.

The following table exemplifies the basic Yeniseian numerals as well as the various attempts at reconstructing the proto-forms:

The following table exemplifies a few basic vocabulary items as well as the various attempts at reconstructing the proto-forms:

Proposed relations to other language families
Until 2008, few linguists had accepted connections between Yeniseian and any other language family, though distant connections have been proposed with most of the ergative languages of Eurasia.

Dené–Yeniseian
In 2008, Edward Vajda of Western Washington University presented evidence for a genealogical relation between the Yeniseian languages of Siberia and the Na–Dené languages of North America. At the time of publication (2010), Vajda's proposals had been favorably reviewed by several specialists of Na-Dené and Yeniseian languages—although at times with caution—including Michael Krauss, Jeff Leer, James Kari, and Heinrich Werner, as well as a number of other respected linguists, such as Bernard Comrie, Johanna Nichols, Victor Golla, Michael Fortescue, Eric Hamp, and Bill Poser (Kari and Potter 2010:12). One significant exception is the critical review of the volume of collected papers by Lyle Campbell and a response by Vajda published in late 2011 that clearly indicate the proposal is not completely settled at the present time. Two other reviews and notices of the volume appeared in 2011 by Keren Rice and Jared Diamond.

Karasuk
The Karasuk hypothesis, linking Yeniseian to Burushaski, has been proposed by several scholars, notably by A.P. Dulson and V.N. Toporov. In 2001, George van Driem postulated that the Burusho people were part of the migration out of Central Asia, that resulted in the Indo-European conquest of the Indus Valley.

Alexei Kassian has suggested a connection between Hattic, Hurro-Urartian and Karasuk, proposing some lexical correspondences.

Sino-Tibetan
As noted by Tailleur and Werner, some of the earliest proposals of genetic relations of Yeniseian, by M.A. Castrén (1856), James Byrne (1892), and G.J. Ramstedt (1907), suggested that Yeniseian was a northern relative of the Sino–Tibetan languages. These ideas were followed much later by Kai Donner and Karl Bouda. A 2008 study found further evidence for a possible relation between Yeniseian and Sino–Tibetan, citing several possible cognates. Gao Jingyi (2014) identified twelve Sinitic and Yeniseian shared etymologies that belonged to the basic vocabulary, and argued that these Sino-Yeniseian etymologies could not be loans from either language into the other.

The Sino-Caucasian hypothesis of Sergei Starostin posits that the Yeniseian languages form a clade with Sino-Tibetan, which he called Sino-Yeniseian. The Sino-Caucasian hypothesis has been expanded by others to "Dené–Caucasian" to include the Na-Dené languages of North America, Burushaski, Basque and, occasionally, Etruscan. A narrower binary Dené–Yeniseian family has recently been well received. The validity of the rest of the family, however, is viewed as doubtful or rejected by nearly all historical linguists.

A link between the Na–Dené languages and Sino-Tibetan languages, known as Sino–Dené had also been proposed by Edward Sapir. Around 1920 Sapir became convinced that Na-Dené was more closely related to Sino-Tibetan than to other American families. Edward Vadja's Dené–Yeniseian proposal renewed interest among linguists such as Geoffrey Caveney (2014) to look into support for the Sino–Dené hypothesis. Caveney considered a link between Sino-Tibetan, Na-Dené, and Yeniseian to be plausible but did not support the hypothesis that Sino-Tibetan and Na-Dené were related to the Caucasian languages (Sino–Caucasian and Dené–Caucasian).

A 2023 analysis by David Bradley using the standard techniques of comparative linguistics supports a distant genetic link between the Sino-Tibetan, Na-Dené, and Yeniseian language families. Bradley argues that any similarities Sino-Tibetan shares with other language families of the East Asia area such as Hmong-Mien, Altaic (which is actually a sprachbund), Austroasiatic, Kra-Dai, Austronesian came through contact; but as there has been no recent contact between Sino-Tibetan, Na-Dené, and Yeniseian language families then any similarities these groups share must be residual.

Dené–Caucasian
Bouda, in various publications in the 1930s through the 1950s, described a linguistic network that (besides Yeniseian and Sino-Tibetan) also included Caucasian, and Burushaski, some forms of which have gone by the name of Sino-Caucasian. The works of R. Bleichsteiner and O.G. Tailleur, the late Sergei A. Starostin and Sergei L. Nikolayev have sought to confirm these connections. Others who have developed the hypothesis, often expanded to Dené–Caucasian, include J.D. Bengtson, V. Blažek, J.H. Greenberg (with M. Ruhlen), and M. Ruhlen. George Starostin continues his father's work in Yeniseian, Sino-Caucasian and other fields.

This theory is very controversial or viewed as doubtful or rejected by other linguists.

title: Yeniseian languages


text:
Transitional Administrative Law (Iraq)

The Law of Administration for the State of Iraq for the Transitional Period (قانون إدارة الدولة للفترة الانتقالية), also called the Transitional Administrative Law or TAL, was Iraq's provisional constitution following the 2003 Iraq War. It was signed on March 8, 2004 by the Iraqi Governing Council. It came into effect on June 28, 2004 following the official transfer of power from the Coalition Provisional Authority (a division of the United States Department of Defense) to a sovereign Iraqi government. The law remained in effect until the formation of the government in May 2006, when it was superseded by the permanent constitution that had been approved by referendum on October 15, 2005.

The TAL was principally drafted by a ten-man committee appointed by the Bush Administration with advice from the United States and United Nations personnel.

Preamble and articles
The preamble begins:

"The people of Iraq, striving to reclaim their freedom, which was usurped by the previous tyrannical regime, rejecting violence and coercion in all their forms, and particularly when used as instruments of governance, have determined that they shall hereafter remain a free people governed under the rule of law."

And contains further,

"...affirming today their respect for international law, ... working to reclaim their legitimate place among nations,... have endeavored at the same time to preserve the unity of their homeland."

Article 2 provides for an Annex to this document, which was issued by the interim Governing Council on 1 June 2004, before the beginning of the transitional period. The Annex forms an integral part of this Law, and for the most part clarifies aspects of the transitional and interim administration.

Rights
Supporters lauded the constitution's guarantees of "fundamental rights":
 * equality before the law (Article 12), guaranteeing the equality of all without regard to "gender, sect, opinion, belief, nationality, religion, or origin";
 * freedom of religion, though Islam is stated as the state's official religion and is to be considered a source of legislation;
 * freedom of speech;
 * freedom of the press;
 * right to privacy;
 * right to a "fair, speedy, and open trial" for all accused of crimes;
 * no unlawful arrest or detention;
 * torture and cruel and unusual punishment are banned "under all circumstances";
 * right to private property is protected.

A lengthy provision emphasizes that police, investigators, or other governmental authorities may not violate the "sanctity of private residences."

Iraqis are also guaranteed the right to "education, health care, and social security." The right to possess, bear, buy, or sell arms is subject to "licensure issued in accordance with the law."

The right to citizenship is detailed and prominent within the chapter on fundamental rights. Eight provisions govern who is and isn't a citizen. Any Iraqi whose citizenship was withdrawn for political, religious, racial, or sectarian reasons has the right to reclaim his Iraqi citizenship, and each Iraqi is guaranteed the right to carry more than one citizenship. Revolutionary Command Council Decree 666, which in 1980 banned citizenship in Iraq for Ajam, Iraqis of Persian origin, is explicitly annulled.

Part of the Law of Administration's explicit rejection of Iraq's former racist policy (also explicitly referenced) is embodied in the wording "The federal system shall be based upon geographic and historical realities and the separation of powers, and not upon origin, race, ethnicity, nationality, or confession."

The Law stipulates that both Arabic and Kurdish be the official languages of Iraq.

Political structure
The constitution provides for a transitional National Assembly, elected on January 30, 2005.

The government under the Transitional Law is a democratic republic, with three separate branches of government.

The elected National Assembly is a unicameral legislature with 275 elected members. Members selected a President of the Assembly, who serves as a non-voting speaker, and two deputies. The Assembly is the chief lawmaking organ, and is required to propose and pass bills in order to make law for the country.

The Assembly also elected a President of State who along with two deputies formed a Presidency Council to "represent the sovereignty of Iraq and oversee the higher affairs of the country." The council represents the executive branch of government and has the right to veto laws passed by the Assembly. The Assembly can then over-rule the Council with a two-thirds majority vote.

The Presidency Council appoints the Prime Minister of Iraq and cabinet (Council of Ministers of Iraq), all who must be approved by the Assembly. The Prime Minister and his cabinet exercise most of the day-to-day runnings of government, including control over the armed forces. The Assembly has a right to remove the Prime Minister with a vote of no confidence.

Transitional period
The Transitional Administrative Law spelled out the steps to be taken after the transfer of sovereignty to the writing and enactment of a permanent constitution.

Article 2 stated that elections for the National Assembly should take place no later than January 31, 2005.

Article 61 stated that the Assembly should write a permanent constitution by no later than 15 August 2005. The draft permanent constitution would be presented in a referendum to the Iraqi people by 15 October 2005.

According to the TAL, the permanent constitution would be adopted if a majority of Iraqi voters approve it, and no more than 2/3 of the voters in any three governorates disapprove it. This provision was criticized by Ayatollah Al-Sistani on the grounds that it could lead to civil war if voters in the three majority Sunni Muslim governorates reject it.

Article 61 also provided for an extension to the constitution drafting process for up to six months. If the constitution were to be rejected or if the National Assembly failed to come to agreement, the National Assembly was to be dissolved and new elections were to be held.

Judiciary
Local court justices are appointed by local governments and their "juridical councils", the Supreme Court being appointed by the Federal Government. The Supreme Court has nine members and possesses the ability to overturn legislation it finds unconstitutional.

The constitution also establishes several "National Commissions" to investigate and address recent concerns such as human rights and war crimes.

Kurdistan and local government
The transitional constitution recognizes the current government of Iraqi Kurdistan as the legitimate government of the Kurds, and allows it to continue to exist within the new federal state.

Iraq elected Governors and Governorate councils for each of its 18 governorates, as well as elected mayors and city councils for each city. Elections were held at the same time as National Assembly elections.

Role of Shariah
Shariah is addressed in two ways:
 * 1) "Islam is the official religion of the State and is to be considered a source of legislation." But decisions according to Shariah may not abrogate articles or guarantees:
 * 2) "Any legal provision that conflicts with this Law is null and void." Thus the Law of Administration circumscribes Shariah.

De-Ba'athification
Former Ba'ath Party members who want to run for office are required to sign documents explicitly denouncing the party and denying they possess any continuing ties to the organization or its principles.

Revenue from oil
The natural resources of Iraq are explicitly declared to belong to all the people of all the regions and governorates of Iraq. Their management is required to involve consultation with the governments of the regions and the administrations of the governorates. Revenue resulting from their sale through the national budget is required to be distributed in an equitable manner proportional to the distribution of population throughout the country, and with "due regard for areas that were unjustly deprived of these revenues by the previous regime."

Enforcement of Coalition-created laws
Section A of Article 26 of the Law of Administration reads:

"Except as otherwise provided in this Law, the laws in force in Iraq on 30 June 2004 shall remain in effect unless and until rescinded or amended by the Iraqi Transitional Government in accordance with this Law."

This appears to permit the Transitional Government to modify coalition legislation or parts of the Law of Administration "by a three-fourths majority of the members of the National Assembly and the unanimous approval of the Presidency Council". The Transitional Government, however, may not change the transitional period or remove human rights, nor may they delay the next elections by more than six months.

Significantly, the elected Transitional Government is not bound by the clause in the Annex to the Law of Administration which prevented the appointed Interim Government from "taking any actions affecting Iraq's destiny beyond the limited interim period".

title: Transitional Administrative Law (Iraq)