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Shikasta

Re: Colonised Planet 5, Shikasta (often shortened to Shikasta) is a 1979 science fiction novel by Doris Lessing, and is the first book in her five-book Canopus in Argos series. It was first published in the United States in December 1980 by Alfred A. Knopf, and in the United Kingdom in November 1979 by Jonathan Cape. Shikasta is also the name of the fictional planet featured in the novel.

Subtitled "Personal, psychological, historical documents relating to visit by Johor (George Sherban) Emissary (Grade 9) 87th of the Period of the Last Days", Shikasta is the history of the planet Shikasta (whose inhabitants call it Earth) under the influence of three galactic empires, Canopus, Sirius, and their mutual enemy, Puttiora. The book is presented in the form of a series of reports by Canopean emissaries to Shikasta who document the planet's prehistory, its degeneration leading to the "Century of Destruction" (the 20th century), and the Apocalypse (World War III).

Shikasta draws on the Old Testament and is influenced by spiritual and mystical themes in Sufism, an Islamic belief system in which Lessing had taken an interest in the mid-1960s. The book represented a major shift of focus in Lessing's writing, from realism to science fiction, and this disappointed many of her readers. It received mixed reviews from critics. Some were impressed by the scope and vision of the book, with one reviewer calling it "an audacious and disturbing work from one of the world's great living writers". Others were critical of the novel's bleakness, that humanity has no free will and that their fate lies in the hands of galactic empires.

The story of Shikasta is retold in the third book of the Canopus series, The Sirian Experiments (1980), this time from the point of view of Sirius. Shikasta reappears in the fourth book in the series, The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 (1982), and the Zones, briefly mentioned in Shikasta, are the subject of the second book in the series, The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five (1980).

Plot summary
Canopus, a benevolent galactic empire centred at Canopus in the constellation Argo Navis, colonises a young and promising planet they name Rohanda (the fruitful). They nurture its burgeoning humanoids and accelerate their evolution. When the Natives are ready, Canopus imposes a "Lock" on Rohanda that links it via "astral currents" to the harmony and strength of the Canopean Empire. In addition to Canopus, two other empires also establish a presence on the planet: their ally, Sirius from the star of the same name, and their mutual enemy, Puttiora. The Sirians confine their activities largely to genetic experiments on the southern continents during Rohanda's prehistory (described in Lessing's third book in the Canopus series, The Sirian Experiments), while the Shammat of Puttiora remain dormant, waiting for opportunities to strike.

For many millennia the Natives of Rohanda prosper in a Canopean induced climate of peaceful coexistence and accelerated development. Then an unforeseen "cosmic re-alignment" puts Rohanda out of phase with Canopus which causes the Lock to break. Deprived of Canopus's resources and a steady stream of a substance called SOWF (substance-of-we-feeling), the Natives develop a "Degenerative Disease" that puts the goals of the individual ahead of those of the community. The Shammat exploit this disturbance and begin undermining Canopus's influence by infecting the Natives with their evil ways. As Rohanda degenerates into greed and conflict, the Canopeans reluctantly change its name to Shikasta (the stricken). Later in the book, Shikasta is identified as Earth.

In an attempt to salvage Canopus's plans for Shikasta and correct the Natives' decline, Canopean emissaries are sent to the planet. Johor is one such emissary, who takes on the form of a Native and begins identifying those individuals who have not degenerated too far and are amenable to his corrective instructions. Johor then sends those he has successfully "converted" to spread the word among other Natives, and soon isolated communities begin to return to the pre-Shikastan days. But without the SOWF, Canopus is fighting a losing battle against Shammat's influence over the Natives and the planet declines further. By the Shikastan's 20th century, the planet has degenerated into war and self-destruction. Johor returns, but this time through Zone 6 from which he is born on the planet (incarnated) as a Shikastan, George Sherban. As Sherban grows up, he establishes contact with other Canopeans in disguise and then resumes his work trying to help the Shikastans. But famine and unemployment grow, and anarchy spreads.

On the eve of World War III, Sherban and other emissaries relocate a small number of promising Shikastans to remote locations to escape the coming nuclear holocaust. He also takes part in the trial of all Europeans for the crimes of colonialism. Europe has been conquered by China, but he persuades people that Europe was not the only offender.

The war reduces Shikasta's population by 99% and sweeps the planet clean of the "barbarians". The Shammat, who set the Shikastans on a course of self-destruction, self-destruct themselves and withdraw from the planet. The Canopeans help the survivors rebuild their lives and re-align themselves with Canopus. With a strengthened Lock and the SOWF flowing freely again, harmony and prosperity return to Shikasta.

Background and genre
In the mid-1960s Lessing had become interested in Sufism, an Islamic belief system, after reading The Sufis by Idries Shah. She described The Sufis as "the most surprising book [she] had read", and said it "changed [her] life". Lessing later met Shah, who became "a good friend [and] teacher". In the early 1970s Lessing began writing "inner space" fiction, which included the novels Briefing for a Descent into Hell (1971) and Memoirs of a Survivor (1974). In the late 1970s she wrote Shikasta in which she used many Sufi concepts.

Shikasta was intended to be a "single self-contained book", but as Lessing's fictional universe developed, she found she had ideas for more than just one book, and ended up writing a series of five. Shikasta, and the Canopus in Argos series as a whole, fall into the category of soft science fiction ("space fiction" in Lessing's own words) due to their focus on characterization and social and cultural issues, and the de-emphasis of science and technology. Robert Alter of The New York Times suggested that this kind of writing belongs to a genre literary critic Northrop Frye called the "anatomy", which is "a combination of fantasy and morality". Gore Vidal placed Lessing's "science fiction" "somewhere between John Milton and L. Ron Hubbard".

Shikasta represented a major shift of focus for Lessing, influenced by spiritual and mystical themes in Sufism. This switch to "science fiction" was not well received by readers and critics. By the late 1970s, Lessing was considered "one of the most honest, intelligent and engaged writers of the day", and Western readers unfamiliar with Sufism were dismayed that Lessing had abandoned her "rational worldview". George Stade of The New York Times complained that "our Grand Mistress of lumpen realism has gone religious on us". The reaction of reviewers and readers to the first two books in the series, Shikasta and The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five (1980), prompted Lessing to write in the Preface to the third book in the series, The Sirian Experiments (1980):

"I would so like it if reviewers and readers could see this series, Canopus in Argos: Archive, as a framework that enables me to tell (I hope) a beguiling tale or two; to put questions, both to myself and to others; to explore ideas and sociological possibilities."

Further criticism of the Canopus series followed, which included this comment by New York Times critic John Leonard: "One of the many sins for which the 20th century will be held accountable is that it has discouraged Mrs. Lessing ... She now propagandizes on behalf of our insignificance in the cosmic razzmatazz." Lessing replied by saying: "What they didn't realize was that in science fiction is some of the best social fiction of our time. I also admire the classic sort of science fiction, like Blood Music, by Greg Bear. He's a great writer." Lessing said in 1983 that she would like to write stories about red and white dwarfs, space rockets powered by anti-gravity, and charmed and coloured quarks, "[b]ut we can't all be physicists".

Lessing later wrote several essays on Sufism which were published in her essay collection, Time Bites (2004). She was awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature, and was described by the Swedish Academy as "that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny".

Lessing dedicated Shikasta to her father. While she was still a child in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) he often used to gaze up at the night sky and say, "Makes you think – there are so many worlds up there, wouldn't really matter if we did blow ourselves up – plenty more where we came from." Shikasta gave rise to a religious cult in America. Lessing said in an interview that its followers had written to her and asked, "When are we going to be visited by the gods?", and she told them that the book is "not a cosmology. It's an invention", and they replied, "Ah, you're just testing us".

Analysis
The name "Shikasta" comes from the Persian word شکسته (shikastah, shekasteh) meaning "broken", and is often seen used as the name of the Iranian national style of Persian calligraphy, Shekasteh Nastaʿlīq. In the book, Lessing does not state explicitly that the planet Shikasta is Earth, but many critics believe that its similarities to Earth's history make it clear that Shikasta is Earth as seen by the Canopeans. Some of the documents in the book written by Shikastans refer to geographical locations and countries on Earth. Other critics, however, interpret Shikasta as an allegorical Earth with parallel histories that deviate from time to time.

Shikasta has been called an "anti-novel", and an "architectonic novel". It is the story of the planet Shikasta from the perspective of Canopus and is presented as a case study for "first-year students of Canopean Colonial Rule". It contains a series of reports by Canopean emissaries to the planet, extracts from the Canopean reference, History of Shikasta, and copies of letters and journals written by selected Shikastans. The history of Shikasta is monitored by the virtually immortal Canopeans, from Rohanda's prehistory, through to Shikasta's "Century of Destruction" (Earth's 20th century), and into Earth's future when the Chinese occupy Europe and World War III breaks out. The book purports to be the "true" history of our planet.

Shikasta alludes to the Old Testament, Gnosticism and Sufism, and draws on several Judeo-Christian themes. Lessing wrote in the book's preface that it has its roots in the Old Testament. Her SOWF (Substance-Of-We-Feeling), the "spiritual nourishment" that flows from Canopus to Shikasta, is also a word she invented with a pronunciation similar to "Sufi". A reviewer of the book in the Los Angeles Times said that Shikasta is a "reworking of the Bible", and the Infinity Plus website draws parallels between the Canopeans and their emissaries, and God and his angels from the Old Testament. A New York Times reviewer wrote that the "outer space" where the Canopeans come from is a metaphor for "religious or inner space". Thelma J. Shinn, in her book Worlds Within Women: Myth and Mythmaking in Fantastic Literature by Women, described the struggle between Canopus and Shammat, played out on Shikasta, as the "eternal struggle between good and evil", and the "Degenerative Disease" that strikes Shikasta as a metaphor for the original sin. Lessing said in an interview that the final war (World War III) at the end of the novel is the Apocalypse. Phyllis Sternberg Perrakis wrote in The Journal of Baháʼí Studies that Shikasta is the "symbolic rendering of the coming of a new prophet to an earthlike planet", and relates it to principles of the Baháʼí Faith.

Reception
Paul Gray wrote in a review in Time that the documents that make up Shikasta allow Lessing to stretch the novel out over vast periods of time and shift perspective "dramatically from the near infinite to the minute". He said that the book's cohesiveness is its variety, and noted how Lessing interspaces her "grand designs" and "configurations of enormous powers" with "passages of aching poignancy". Gray said that Shikasta is closer to Gulliver's Travels and the Old Testament than it is to Buck Rogers, and may disappoint readers interpreting her "space fiction" as "science fiction". He found Lessing's bleak vision of Earth's history in which she suggests that humans "could not ... help making the messes they have, that their blunders were all ordained by a small tic in the cosmos", a little "unsatisfying", but added that even if you do not subscribe to her theories, the book can still be enjoyable, "even furiously engaging on every page". Gray called Shikasta "an audacious and disturbing work from one of the world's great living writers".

Author Gore Vidal wrote in The New York Review of Books that Shikasta is a "work of a formidable imagination". He said that Lessing is "a master" of eschatological writing, but added that while her depictions of a terminal London are "very real", as a whole the book is "never quite real enough". Vidal also felt that Zone 6, Lessing's alternate plane for the dead, is not as convincing as The Dry Lands in Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea trilogy. He compared the Canopeans and Shammat to Milton's God and Satan in Paradise Lost, but said that while Lucifer's "overthrow ... of his writerly creator is an awesome thing", in Shikasta Lessing's human race with no free will is too passive and of no interest. Vidal attributed this to Lessing's "surrender" to the Sufis and the SOWF (Substance-Of-We-Feeling), and not her inability to create good characters.

New York Times reviewer George Stade said that Shikasta "forces us to think about ... what we are, how we got that way and where we are going", but complained that the book is filled with "false hopes", and that the fate of humankind relies on "theosophical emanations, cosmic influences, occult powers, spiritual visitations and stellar vibrations". When the SOWF is cut off and the Shikastans degenerate, Lessing "both indicts and exculpates" them, implying that humanity is bad, but it is not their fault. While Stade complimented Lessing on the book's satire, and her depictions of Zone 6, which he said "have the eerie beauty of ancient Gnostic texts", he "disapprove[d]" of the novel as a whole, but added, "that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy reading it".

Writing in the Los Angeles Times. M. G. Lord called Shikasta an "epic" and suspected that it may have influenced the Nobel committee when they referred to Lessing as an "epicist of the female experience". Thelma J. Shinn wrote in her book, Worlds Within Women: Myth and Mythmaking in Fantastic Literature by Women, that Lessing's history of humanity in Shikasta is "pessimistic" but "convincing". Infinity Plus described Shikasta as a "mainstream novel that uses SF ideas", and said that while Lessing was not able to predict the fall of the Soviet Union and the impact of computers, the novel "barely seems dated" because of her "cunningly non-specific" approach.

James Schellenberg writing in Challenging Destiny, a Canadian science fiction and fantasy magazine, was impressed by Shikasta "grand sense of perspective" and the context of humanity set in a "vaster scale of civilization and right-thinking". He liked the concept of SOWF as a "metaphor of community connectedness", but felt it was an unusual way to build a utopia. The book's fractured storytelling leads to Lessing breaking the "famous dictum of writing – show, don't tell", and while that may work in certain circumstances, Schellenberg felt that that approach does not work very well in Shikasta. The online magazine Journey to the Sea found Lessing's inclusion of stories from the Hebrew Bible "entertaining and intriguing", and said she challenges the logical thinker's rejection of these sacred texts, suggesting that it is "imaginatively possible" that they could be true.

Following Lessing's death in 2013, The Guardian put Shikasta in their list of the top five Lessing books.

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User talk:MythosEdddy

Welcome
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title: User talk:MythosEdddy


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User talk:Quakenul

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Again, welcome! Chris Roy 17:04, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC)

title: User talk:Quakenul


text: User talk:81.152.34.91

title: User talk:81.152.34.91


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Furia Musical

Furia Musical was a Mexican music magazine published by Editorial Televisa, which includes articles and gossip about the famous singers in this genre.

History and profile
Furia Musical was launched in Mexico City in September 1993.

The magazine had Mexico and United States editions as well as an awards show ("Premios Furia Musical") that is broadcast by Televisa, Galavisión and Univision. The US edition was published on a biweekly basis and was based in Miami, Florida. The magazine ceased publication in the U.S. with its December 2006 issue.

title: Furia Musical


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User talk:Jori~enwiki

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Your account will be renamed
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The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

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Primorye (inhabited locality)

Primorye (Примо́рье) is the name of several inhabited localities in Russia:
 * Primorye, Kaliningrad Oblast, an urban locality (an urban-type settlement) in Svetlogorsky District of Kaliningrad Oblast
 * Primorye, Perm Krai, a rural locality (a village) in Chastinsky District of Perm Krai

title: Primorye (inhabited locality)


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Regioselectivity

In organic chemistry, regioselectivity is the preference of chemical bonding or breaking in one direction over all other possible directions. It can often apply to which of many possible positions a reagent will affect, such as which proton a strong base will abstract from an organic molecule, or where on a substituted benzene ring a further substituent will be added.

A specific example is a halohydrin formation reaction with 2-propenylbenzene:

 * RegioselectivityInhalohydrinformation.svg

Because of the preference for the formation of one product over another, the reaction is selective. This reaction is regioselective because it selectively generates one constitutional isomer rather than the other.

Various examples of regioselectivity have been formulated as rules for certain classes of compounds under certain conditions, many of which are named. Among the first introduced to chemistry students are Markovnikov's rule for the addition of protic acids to alkenes, and the Fürst-Plattner rule for the addition of nucleophiles to derivatives of cyclohexene, especially epoxide derivatives.

Regioselectivity in ring-closure reactions is subject to Baldwin's rules. If there are two or more orientations that can be generated during a reaction, one of them is dominant (e.g., Markovnikov/anti-Markovnikov addition across a double bond)

Regioselectivity can also be applied to specific reactions such as addition to pi ligands.

Selectivity also occurs in carbene insertions, for example in the Baeyer-Villiger reaction. In this reaction, an oxygen is regioselectively inserted near an adjacent carbonyl group. In ketones, this insertion is directed toward the carbon which is more highly substituted (i.e. according to Markovnikov's rule). For example, in a study involving acetophenones, this oxygen was preferentially inserted between the carbonyl and the aromatic ring to give acetyl aromatic esters instead of methyl benzoates.

title: Regioselectivity


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User:Eoghan

Hallo!

Tha mi nam Ghaidheal a'fuireach ann an California, ag obair mar eòlaiche nan coimpiutair. Tha ùidh agam ann an cuspairean Albannach, Californiach is meudaireamhach. Ma tha ùidh agad anns na rudan seo, no ma chì thu gu bheil mi air sgùdal a sgrìobhadh, nach cur thu email thugam!

Hi, please send me a mail if you see I've written some rubbish! I like to think I know a wee bit about Scotland, Gaelic, California, and computer science.

Ewen

gd:User:Eoghan fr:Utilisateur:Eoghan

title: User:Eoghan


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Parti canadien

The Parti canadien or Parti patriote  was a primarily francophone political party in what is now Quebec founded by members of the liberal elite of Lower Canada at the beginning of the 19th century. Its members were made up of liberal professionals and small-scale merchants, including François Blanchet, Pierre-Stanislas Bédard, John Neilson, Jean-Thomas Taschereau, James Stuart, Louis Bourdages, Denis-Benjamin Viger, Daniel Tracey, Edmund Bailey O'Callaghan, Andrew Stuart and Louis-Joseph Papineau.

Creation
The British Government established two oligarchic governments, or councils, to rule what is today Quebec and Ontario, then called Lower and Upper Canada. Upper Canada ruled by the Family Compact and Lower Canada ruled by the Chateau Clique. Both groups exerted monopolistic, uncontested rule over economic and political life. The councils were corrupt in their nature by strengthening their dominance by personal use of funds which eventually led to infrastructural problems around Upper and Lower Canada, including land distribution, poor road conditions, and lack of education funding.

Continuous frustration between the councils and the legislative assemblies over language differences and Lower Canada's discontent for treatment of French problems led to the beginning of the Parti Canadien. English merchants and politicians in Canada pushed for an assemblage of the Canada's, which would lead to the assimilation of the French. Louis-Joseph Papineau rallied the people of Lower Canada to sign a petition against the proposition. Papineau later sailed to Britain to present the petition to the British Government and to rally for the rights of the people of Lower Canada, only to have the issue heard with little action to follow. Later, the British Parliament passed the Canada Land and Tenures Act which abolished the feudal and seigneurial systems in British North America. The act left property rights of many land owners in limbo and created much confusion and conflict in Lower Canada where the French Civil Code was in action, and thus infuriating the French people of Lower Canada even more. In July 1830, word of a liberal revolution in France sparked the youth of Lower Canada as liberalism was non-existent in Canada at the time. Upper and Lower Canada governments tried and failed to resolve the recent uprising and tension, even further-distancing the French people of Lower Canada from the English of Upper Canada.

History
Under the leadership of Pierre-Stanislas Bédard, the party campaigned for ministerial responsibility and a responsible government in which the members of the Legislative Council of Lower Canada would be appointed by the Legislative Assembly's majority party. Although the party controlled the assembly in Lower Canada, at that time the council, which held most of the power, was chosen by an appointed British governor, whom the Parti canadien considered to be seriously corrupt and hostile to the interests of the majority of the population.

In 1806, the Parti canadien imitated its political adversaries, the Tory Château Clique, in founding a newspaper named Le Canadien. In 1810, Governor Craig had Bédard and some of his colleagues at the newspaper arrested and imprisoned without trial for a comment published in Le Canadien.

In 1811, James Stuart became leader of the Parti canadien in the assembly and, in 1815, reformer Louis-Joseph Papineau was elected Assembly Speaker. Papineau's reformist ideas gained in authority and popularity as he led the party in its fight against the union of the Canada's proposal in 1822, until the suspension of the Constitutional Act in 1837.

Parti Patriote
In 1826, the party took the name of Parti Patriote, reflecting a much stronger sense of French-Canadian nationalism and a change of strategy. The Patriotes largely favoured agriculture over commercialism and blocked many economic projects led by their adversaries. The party succeeded in delaying development of British capitalism within the colony. However, their positions were often seen as unclear. The party's new strategy was considered too radical even by some of its members, most notably John Neilson, who eventually left the party in 1830.

In 1834, Papineau and the Parti Patriote created the Ninety-Two Resolutions; an extensive list of demands for political reform which was sent to the British government. The British government ignored the resolutions for over three years until in 1837 it countered the Parti Patriote's requests with ten resolutions of its own, called the Russel Resolutions, while rejecting all proposed ninety-two resolutions made by Papineau and his party. These resolutions allowed the colony governor to obtain budgetary estimates without vote of the assembly, which brought about verbal and physical violence, and eventually led to the Rebellions of 1837. After the rebellions, many patriotes were exiled, hanged, or had their houses set ablaze, which marked the end of the party. However many party members became active members in politics of the new Province of Canada.

Newspapers

 * Le Canadien (1806-1837)
 * La Minerve (1826-1837)
 * The Vindicator (1828-1837, originally the sole voice of the Irish Montreal community as The Irish Vindicator until July 1829 - see The Vindicator on French Wikipedia for information on the name change and Parti acquisition)
 * Le Libéral  (1837)
 * L'Écho du Pays (1834)
 * Canadian Spectator (The "English speaking voice" of the Parti amongst Anglo-Montreal colonists; 1822-1828, see Jocelyn Waller on French Wikipedia)

title: Parti canadien


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Howard Phillips (activist)

Howard Jay Phillips (February 3, 1941 – April 20, 2013) was an American politician and activist. A political conservative, Phillips was a United States presidential candidate who served as the chairman of The Conservative Caucus, a conservative public policy advocacy group which he founded in 1974. Phillips was a founding member of the U.S. Taxpayers Party, which later became known as the Constitution Party.

Personal life
Phillips was born into a Jewish family in Boston in 1941, Phillips converted to evangelical Christianity as an adult in the 1970s and was subsequently associated with Christian Reconstructionism.

A 1962 graduate of Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he was twice elected chairman of the Student Council, and was lauded by "The Cross and the Flag," a Ku Klux Klan magazine, for his "patriotic" ideological bent. Phillips publicly and immediately disavowed the Klan. Phillips was also president of Policy Analysis, Inc., a public policy research organization which publishes the bimonthly Issues and Strategy Bulletin.

Phillips resided in Fairfax County, Virginia in the Washington, D.C., suburbs with his wife, the former Margaret "Peggy" Blanchard.

Republican years
During the Nixon Administration, Phillips headed two federal agencies, ending his Executive Branch career as director of the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) in the Executive Office of the President for five months in 1973, a position from which he resigned when U.S. President Richard M. Nixon reneged on his commitment to veto further funding for Great Society programs begun in the administration of Nixon's predecessor, Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson.

Nixon's appointment of Phillips as Acting Director of OEO in January 1973 touched off a national controversy culminating in a court case in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (Williams v. Phillips, 482 F.2d 669) challenging the legality of Phillips' appointment, since the statute establishing the office did not specifically establish a presidential right to make an interim appointment (one not confirmed by the Senate) under the existing circumstances. The Court ruled (and the 2nd Circuit subsequently affirmed) that the President had no right to make the interim appointment and voided it, declaring his time in it to have been illegal.

Formation of the Conservative Caucus
Phillips left the Republican Party in 1974 after some two decades of service to the GOP as precinct worker, election warden, campaign manager, congressional aide, Boston municipal Republican chairman, and assistant to the chairman of the Republican National Committee. In 1970, he was the Republican nominee for Massachusetts's 6th congressional district. In 1978, Phillips finished fourth in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts.

In 1974, Phillips founded the Conservative Caucus, a nationwide, grass-roots public policy advocacy group. The group opposed the 1978 Panama Canal treaties and the Jimmy Carter-Leonid Brezhnev SALT II treaties in 1979, supported the Strategic Defense Initiative and major tax reductions during the 1980s, and fought to end Federal subsidies to activist groups under the banner of "defunding the Left."

The fight against Baker was not Phillips' first clash with Reagan. In 1981, he had joined other conservatives, including the Reverend Jerry Falwell, in opposing the nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor to the United States Supreme Court. According to Phillips, "People say you can't tell how a Supreme Court nominee will turn out once on the bench. I respectfully disagree. In most cases, it's very clear. I opposed the nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor because it was very clear that she had a pro-abortion record in the Arizona State Senate and as a judge in Arizona. She was also allied with Planned Parenthood." In 1990, Phillips opposed the first President Bush's nomination of David Souter of New Hampshire to the high court. Phillips said that he opposed Souter because "I read his senior thesis at Harvard in which he said he was a legal positivist and one of his heroes was Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., and that he rejected all higher law theories, such as those spelled out in our Declaration of Independence. In addition, he was a trustee of two hospitals: Dartmouth Hitchcock and Concord Memorial. He successfully changed the policy of those two hospitals from zero abortion to convenience abortion."

Other Conservative Caucus campaigns have involved opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the World Trade Organization, support for a national version of California's Proposition 187 (to end mandated subsidies for illegal aliens), as well as continuing efforts to oppose publicly funded health care, abortion and gay rights. Phillips was the host of Conservative Roundtable, a weekly public affairs television program.

Role in formation of the New Right
Phillips played an instrumental role in the leadership of the New Right, and in the founding of the religious right in the 1970s. He worked with fellow conservatives Paul Weyrich of The Heritage Foundation and both former Christian Voice co-activists Richard Viguerie and Terry Dolan to persuade the Reverend Jerry Falwell to form the Moral Majority, and helped Judie Brown form the American Life League.

Later, Phillips continued to support the New Right by helping found the Council for National Policy with Dr. Tim LaHaye.

U.S. Taxpayers Party/Constitution Party
Phillips was one of the founders of the U.S. Taxpayers Party (which changed its name to the Constitution Party in 1999), a third party associated with conservative, anti-abortion issues, and constitutional government ideas on both social and fiscal issues. He was that party's presidential candidate in the 1992, 1996 and 2000 elections for U.S. president.

Presidential campaigns
Phillips first campaigned for president in 1992, as an independent. He refused to support the re-election of Republican George H. W. Bush or Democratic challenger Bill Clinton. He finished in seventh place in the popular vote. The campaign received 43,369 votes for 0.04% of the total vote.

Phillips was chosen by an overwhelming majority of delegates at the National Convention of the U.S. Taxpayers Party, in San Diego, California, on August 17, 1996, to serve as its presidential candidate in the 1996 election. Phillips finished sixth, with 184,656 votes, for 0.19% of the total vote.

In the 2000 U.S presidential election, Phillips received 98,020 votes for 0.1% of the total vote and a sixth-place finish.

Death
Phillips died at his home in Vienna, Virginia, on April 20, 2013, at the age of 72 after a battle with frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease. A private service was held on April 29, 2013 with Chuck Baldwin, the 2008 Constitution Party presidential nominee, officiating.

Writings

 * The New Right at Harvard (1983)
 * Moscow's Challenge to U.S. Vital Interests in Sub-Saharan Africa (1987)
 * The Next Four Years (1992)
 * Judicial Tyranny: The New Kings of America? (Amerisearch, 2005) ISBN 0-9753455-6-7 – contributing author

title: Howard Phillips (activist)


text:
User talk:Scotth1

Welcome
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Again, welcome! Chris Roy 17:04, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Hi! I'm doing some work on DEC/OpenVMS-related articles, and I've renamed DCL_command_language to DIGITAL_Command_Language (based on the expansion in the OpenVMS User's Guide and DCL Dictionary), and whilst clearing up articles which linked to it I changed the link on your user page -- just to let you know. It's nice to see some other DEC-type people around :) -- Lady Lysine Ikinsile 04:19, Jun 8, 2004 (UTC)

Speedy deletion of Low-key lighting
Hello Scotth1, this is a message from an automated bot to inform you that the page you created on March 11 2004, Low-key lighting, has been marked for speedy deletion by User:208.191.181.26 (page has mainspace links, and more than 49 edits). This has been done because the page is unquestionably a copyright infringement, and no assertion of permission has been made (see CSD). If you think the tag was placed in error, please add " " to the page text, and edit the to explain why the page should not be deleted. If you have a question about this bot, please ask it at User talk:SDPatrolBot II. If you have a question for the user who tagged the article, see User talk:208.191.181.26. Thanks, - SDPatrolBot II (talk) on behalf of 05:01, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

title: User talk:Scotth1


text:
Talk:Australian Shepherd

Naming
The article states, "They acquired their name because some of the Australian sheepdogs arrived in the United States with boatloads of Australian sheep." To me, this says nothing about where the name comes from (or what the "some... sheepdogs" were) so I'm still wondering what the explanation is, and how we can state it here. Gef05 (talk) 02:38, 7 February 2012 (UTC)gef05

The origin of the name is not reliably placed. The statement quoted by @Gef05 is presumptive - possibly true, but there is nothing definitive to either back it up or refute it. For various examples of how other authorities have described Aussie history (and naming), see https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/dog-breeds/australian-shepherd-history-behind-breed/ (This is, in my mind, probably the most accurate, as the author is the ONLY one I linked here to refer to modern DNA studies of the breed genetics.) http://www.australianshepherds.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Breed-History_Hartnagle.pdf (The Hartnagles are a historic Aussie family, and Jeanne Joy is a named authority by birthright. However, others in the breed world question her emphasis on the Spanish heritage.) https://workingaussiesource.com/working-aussie-source-stockdog-library-australian-shepherd-origin-and-history-by-gwen-stevenson-part-1/ (I think this source tends strongly to repeat the various oral histories of Aussies, but is useful in the detail provided) http://www.lasrocosa.com/history.html (The best compendium (overall) I have found on the history of these dogs. There are evidence based facts offered. However, there are also assumptive jumps in logic to fill in evidentiary gaps.) Mbuell72 (talk) 23:05, 17 October 2020 (UTC)

Origins
I am seeing a possible discrepancy in the introduction. It says that the breed was developed in the US, however a book on breeds I have lists the breed as having its "... beginnings in Spain and Andorra, where it worked with Basque shepherd. When the Basques followed the sheep-herding movement to Australia, the faithful dogs went along.. Then, when the Australian sheep were imported into the western U.S., once more the Basque herders and their dogs, now renamed the Australian Shepherds, made the trip."

Source: Dogs in Canada, 2005 Annual, pgs. 296-297

 * The History section of the article includes discussion of the Basque herding dogs, but from what I've read & learned from Aussie breeders, the breed developed from a variety of breeds here & received its name here. You'll see that the FCI, which organizes dogs by country of origin, also lists it as a US breed . Elf | Talk 16:06, 10 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I just wanted to add that I have read many books on Australian Shepherds and its origin is for the most part unknown and a rather complicated tale. For this purpose, I don't believe we should just accept its origin to be American or more specifically from the United States regardless of how the Kennel Club classifies it. From my current understanding, coupled with close to 10yrs of post secondary education, there is world history and then there is American history. Since its history is still debatable, it should be noted as such in the opening paragraph.

 * I understand that this breed's origins, like that of many other breeds, is difficult to untangle. However, every reference I can find (web, articles predating wikipedia, books...) all list it as an American breed. Would love to see any references that state otherwise. Elf | Talk 02:10, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

Nothing published to cite, but some of the show dog lines appear to be a 25%/75% mix of Brittany and Rough Collie. 24.60.177.137 (talk) 15:55, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

 * These dogs have nothing to do with Australia. They come from ASTURIAS.

Re: comment from User Elf about book referencing dogs from Spain/Andorra --> Australia --> US west coast: That Aus Sheps MAY have had ancestors from Australia is making assumptions, but is generally accepted by various Aussie authorities. See my note under "Naming" for various sources. However, even if the "Australian connection" is true, this does not, in any way, counter the description of the breed as being developed in the US. E.g.: the originator of the German Shepherd breed left, in his breeding notes, descriptions of using grey wolves in the early breedings. This doesn't make the German Shepherd a wolf. Also, just because that description was published in a book, does not give it additional authority as "expert" on the topic. The book is repeating an oft-repeated oral history, which may, or may not, be accurate. As for being developed, as a BREED, it is indisputable that this occurred in the US, not elsewhere. The origins of the FOUNDATION dogs are landrace TYPES, not breeds, and may have come from many geographic landrace dogs. The PRIMARY landrace type of dogs leading to the breed foundation dogs were UK herding farmcollies. Those landrace types also led to the establishment of other similar, and closely related, breeds (e.g. English Shepherds, Border Collies, Welsh Sheepdogs, and others) ″Evidence that the Australian Shepherd we know today derives from British herding dogs, whether via the eastern United States or Australia, is underscored by the landmark 2017 Cell Reports study that examined the canine genome to see how dog breeds are related and, by extension, how they developed. The study found that dogs can be genetically sorted into 18 clades, or groups of related dogs. The Australian Shepherd belongs to the UK Rural clade, alongside the Collie, Shetland Sheepdog, and Border Collie. ″ - https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/dog-breeds/australian-shepherd-history-behind-breed/ Article quoted uses as primary source: https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/pdf/S2211-1247(17)30456-4.pdf Mbuell72 (talk) 23:15, 17 October 2020 (UTC)

I believe it was Jay _Sisler_, not "Lister" who trained the Aussies for Rodeo; his "home movies" on youtube are entertaining and show the breed at it's most agile: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejioz8N9h3U

Origin
Comments moved to section "Origins", as topic duplication.

Health: Epilepsy Prevalence
Article states "Australian Shepherds are the most common dog breed to acquire Epilepsy." I originally removed this, and then the change was reverted, so I figured it might be useful to discuss more here. I'm more than happy to keep the line if there's evidence to back it up, but for now I don't think the current reference provides any support.

The article ("Disease Progression and Treatment Response of Idiopathic Epilepsy in Australian Shepherd Dogs") does not make any attempt to measure or report the prevalence of epilepsy in any breed. Instead it looks at dogs where epilepsy is unexplained by other diseases ("ideopathic") and difficult to treat, and tries to understand why it is difficult to treat in those dogs. One hypothesis is that epilepsy is difficult to treat in Australian Shepherds because "The ABCB1‐1Δ mutation is more prevalent in [Australian Shepherds] than in many other dog breeds", and this ABCB1‐1Δ mutation (also know as the MDR1 mutation) causes dogs to poorly process pharmaceutical drugs. So they are hypothesizing that it's difficult to treat epilepsy in Australian Shepherds with drugs because Australian Shepherds common have a mutation that makes them process drugs in harmful ways. Ultimately their results show that most difficult-to-treat cases of epilepsy in Australian Shepherds cannot be explained by the high prevalence of the ABCB1‐1Δ/MDR1 mutation ("The age at seizure onset was unrelated to the ABCB1 (MDR1) genotype"; "Seizure control was significantly associated with age at seizure onset and coat color but evolved unrelated to the ABCB1 (MDR1) genotype"; "We were unable to show association between the mutation and drug response in [Australian Shepherds] with [Ideopathic Epilepsy].")

So to sum up, the main reference to something being more prevalent in Australian Shepherds than most breeds is actually about the MDR1 mutation (and even there they don't even say it's the most common among all breeds). This was not mentioned as a explanation for epilepsy, but instead to support a hypothesis that it simply made epilepsy more difficult to treat. Furthermore, when this study examined this hypothesis, they found the evidence did not support that hypothesis. There is no ranking of epilepsy being most common in any specific breed.

Unless I hear back, I'll re-make the revision (removing the "Australian Shepherds are the most common dog breed to acquire Epilepsy." statement) within a few weeks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Esgentry (talk • contribs) 21:10, 6 December 2020 (UTC)

 * I concur with you viewpoint. William Harris (talk) 07:11, 10 January 2021 (UTC)

title: Talk:Australian Shepherd


text:
Isaac Komnenos of Cyprus

Isaac Doukas Komnenos (or Ducas Comnenus, c. 1155 – 1195/1196) was a claimant to the Byzantine Empire and the ruler of Cyprus from 1185 to 1191. Contemporary sources commonly refer to him as the emperor of Cyprus. He lost the island to King Richard I of England during the Third Crusade.

Family
Isaac of Cyprus was a member of the royal Komnenos family. His grandfather Isaac had been bypassed by a younger brother, Manuel I Komnenos, in the succession to the Byzantine throne, instead taking the auxiliary position of sebastokrator. With his first wife Theodora Kamaterina (d. 1144) Isaac the sebastokrator had a daughter, Irene Komnene, who married one Doukas Kamateros and gave birth to Isaac of Cyprus, c. 1155.

Life
Most of the following biography is derived from the works of Byzantine historian Niketas Choniates. Isaac was the son of an otherwise obscure Byzantine aristocrat, Doukas Kamateros, and Irene Komnene, daughter of sebastokrator Isaac Komnenos. He married an Armenian princess on Cyprus.

Governor and prison
Appointed governor of Isauria and the town of Tarsus by Emperor Manuel I Komnenos, Isaac started a war against the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia and was captured by its soldiers. Manuel I died in 1180 and his successors did not immediately attempt to rescue Isaac, whose long imprisonment seemingly contributed to his unpleasant disposition. On account of his Armenian royal wife, he perhaps endured not too harsh terms of captivity.

In 1183 his aunt Theodora Komnene, queen consort of Jerusalem, arranged with the new Byzantine emperor Andronikos I Komnenos (1183–1185), to marry their daughter Eirene to a son of Manuel I, and contribute to Isaac's ransom. Constantine Makrodoukas, a loyal supporter of the emperor and uncle of Isaac, and Andronikos Doukas, a relative and childhood friend, described as a "sodomite and debaucher", both made contributions and personally stood surety for the fealty of Isaac Komnenos to the Byzantine emperor. The Knights Templar, whom Niketas Choniates labels "the Phreri," contributed as well, as part of their international banking functions.

From prison to Cyprus
In 1185, the Armenians released Isaac, clearly tired of the imperial service. He used leftover ransom money to hire a troop of mercenaries and sailed to Cyprus, where he made himself ruler with the help of falsified imperial letters ordering the local administration to obey him in everything.

Because Isaac Komnenos failed to return to imperial service, Andronikos I ordered Constantine Makrodoukas and Andronikos Doukas arrested for treason. A mob stoned them to death on 30 May 1185, incited by the courtier Stephen Hagiochristophorites. A water-oracle conducted by Hagiochristophorites had given the letter I (iota) as the initial of the succeeding emperor, leading Andronikos I to fear that Isaac would usurp the throne. A subsequent oracle ruled out this possibility, placing the start of the new reign on an imminent date that would leave Isaac no time to make the crossing from Cyprus.

Meanwhile, Isaac took many other Romans into his service. He created an independent patriarch of Cyprus, who crowned him as emperor in 1185.

After a popular uprising at Constantinople led to the death of Andronikos I on 12 September 1185, Isaac II Angelos succeeded to the Byzantine throne. He raised a fleet of 70 ships to take back Cyprus. The fleet was under the command of John Kontostephanos and Alexios Komnenos (died 1188), a nephew once removed of the emperor. Neither man was ideally suited for this responsibility, John being of advanced age and Alexios having been blinded by order of Andronikos I.

The fleet landed in Cyprus, but after the troops had disembarked, the ships were captured by Margaritus of Brindisi, a pirate in the service of King William II of Sicily. Subsequently, Isaac or more likely Margaritus won a victory over the Byzantine troops and captured their commanders, who were carried off to Sicily. The rest of the sailors on Cyprus tried their best to survive and to fend off the enemy. "Only much later did they return home, if they had not perished altogether."

Rule of Cyprus
From the time of his coronation, Isaac quickly started to plunder Cyprus, raping women, defiling virgins, imposing overly cruel punishments for crimes, and stealing the possessions of the citizens. "Cypriots of high esteem, comparable to Job in riches now were seen begging in the streets, naked and hungry, if they were not put to the sword by this irascible tyrant." Furthermore, he despicably ordered the foot of Basil Pentakenos, his old teacher, hacked and amputated.

Niketas Choniates, clearly not very partial to Isaac, describes him as an irascible and violent man, "boiling with anger like a kettle on the fire." Byzantine emperor Andronikos I Komnenos nevertheless bore responsibility for greater cruelties. A seeming league with William II of Sicily, a powerful thorn in the side of the Byzantine Empire, helped Isaac to hold the island for the duration of his reign, and he was also closely connected to Saladin, sultan of Egypt and Syria.

Third Crusade
Richard the Lionheart and others embarked on the Third Crusade in 1189. Early in 1191, Berengaria of Navarre, the fiancée of Richard, and Joan of England, the sister of Richard, travelled together and were shipwrecked on Cyprus; Isaac Komnenos then took them captive. In retaliation, Richard conquered the island while on his way to Tyre. Isaac is recorded shooting two arrows at Richard from horseback, which is notable because Byzantine horse archery is an obscure subject. The English took Isaac prisoner near Cape Apostolos Andreas on the Karpass Peninsula, the northernmost tip of the island. According to tradition, as Richard had promised not to put him into irons, he kept Isaac prisoner in chains of silver. The English transferred Isaac to the Knights Hospitaller, who kept him imprisoned in Margat near Tripoli.

This was a major turning point in the history of Cyprus, leading to the foundation of the Kingdom of Cyprus which would rule the island for several centuries.

On his return to England, King Richard granted to the town of Portsmouth the coat of arms of Isaac Komnenos: "a crescent of gold on a shade of azure, with a blazing star of eight points" - in recognition of the significant involvement of soldiers, sailors, and vessels from Portsmouth in the conquest of Cyprus. This remains Portsmouth's coat of arms up to the present.

Imprisonment, ransom, and death
Returning to Europe after the Third Crusade, Richard was captured by Leopold V, Duke of Austria and Styria, and imprisoned by Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor, accused of murdering his cousin Conrad of Montferrat. The subsequent ransom agreement freed Isaac and his daughter into the care of Leopold V, the son of Isaac's aunt Theodora Komnene.

Isaac then traveled to the Sultanate of Rûm, where he attempted to gain support against the new Byzantine emperor Alexios III Angelos, crowned in 1195. However his ambitions came to nothing, as he died of poisoning in 1195 or 1196.

His daughter
Sources do not name the daughter of Isaac but usually call her the "Damsel of Cyprus". Upon the deposition of her father Isaac, she joined the court of Richard the Lionheart, and after the Third Crusade, she traveled back to England with the other ladies of his court, including Joan of England, sister of Richard, and Berengaria of Navarre, now queen consort of England. In 1194, as part of ransom agreement of King Richard, the English released the Cypriot princess into the care of Leopold of Austria, a distant relative.

Later she lived in Provence, where in 1199 she again encountered Joan, now married to Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse. After Joan's death in early September 1199, Raymond married the princess from Cyprus, but the marriage was annulled probably in late 1202. In 1203 she married Thierry of Flanders, an illegitimate son of Count Philip I of Flanders. The couple sailed from Marseille in 1204 with a convoy of warriors who intended to join the Fourth Crusade, but on reaching Cyprus, they attempted to claim the island as inheritors of Isaac. The attempt failed, and they fled to Armenia.

title: Isaac Komnenos of Cyprus


text:
Baul

The Baul (বাউল) are a group of mystic minstrels of mixed elements of Sufism and Vaishnavism from different parts of Bangladesh and the neighboring Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam's Barak Valley and Meghalaya. Bauls constitute both a syncretic religious sect of troubadours and a musical tradition. Bauls are a very heterogeneous group, with many sects, but their membership mainly consists of Vaishnava Hindus and Sufi Muslims. They can often be identified by their distinctive clothes and musical instruments. Lalon Shah is regarded as the most celebrated Baul saint in history.

Although Bauls constitute only a small fraction of the Bengali population, their influence on the culture of Bengal is considerable. In 2005, the Baul tradition of Bangladesh was included in the list of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

Etymology
The origin of the word Baul is debated. A common view is that it may be derived either from the Sanskrit word vātula, which means "mad, crazy", or from vyākula, which means "impatiently eager, upset". A recent scholarly research suggests that the Bauls may be descendants of a specific branch of Sufism referred to as ba'al. According to philosopher Shashibhusan Dasgupta, both of these derivations are consistent with the modern sense of the word, "inspired people with an ecstatic eagerness for a spiritual life where one can realise one's union with the eternal Beloved". Another theory is that it comes from the Persian word Aul.

History
The origin of Bauls is not known exactly, but the word "Baul" has appeared in Bengali texts as old as the 15th century. The word is found in the Chaitanya Bhagavata of Vrindavana Dasa Thakura as well as in the Chaitanya Charitamrita of Krishnadasa Kaviraja. Some scholars maintain that it is not clear when the word took its sectarian significance, as opposed to being a synonym for the word madcap, agitated. Bauls are a part of the culture of rural Bengal. Many attempts have been made to ascertain the origin of Bauls but there is wide disagreement among scholars. But they agree that no founders have been acknowledged either by Bauls themselves or others. Bauls are divided into several named groups, each following a named Hindu or Muslim guru. Besides, there are other communities who later identified or affiliated themselves with Bauls, like Darbesi, Nera and two sub-sects of Kartabhajas — Aul and Sai. The Bauls themselves attribute their lack of historical records to their reluctance to leave traces behind. Dr. Jeanne Openshaw writes that the music of the Bauls appears to have been passed down entirely in oral form until the end of the 19th century, when it was first transcribed by outside observers.

There are two classes of Bauls: ascetic Bauls who reject family life and Bauls who live with their families. Ascetic Bauls renounce family life and society and survive on alms. They have no fixed dwelling place, but move from one to another. Bangladeshi men wear white lungis and long, white tunics; women wear white saris. They carry, shoulder bags for alms. They do not beget or rear children. They are treated as. Women dedicated to the service of ascetics, are known as "service slaves". A male Baul can have one, who is associated with him in the act of devotion. Until 1976 the district of Kushtia had 252 ascetic Bauls. In 1982-83 the number rose to 905; in 2000, they numbered about 5000.

Those who choose family life, live with their spouse, children and relations in a secluded part of a village. They do not mix freely with other members of the community. Unlike ascetic Bauls, their rituals are less strict. In order to become Bauls, they recite some mystic verses and observe certain rituals.

The bauls from India dress colourfully in orange and red and have a somewhat different way of getting together. In Bangladesh, Bauls mostly dress in white which symbolises purity. There is a big yearly gathering called Jaydeb Mela, taking place in Januari in Kenduli, near Bolpur, which attract bauls and followers in large numbers.

Concepts and practices
Baul music celebrates celestial love, but does this in very earthy terms, as in declarations of love by the Baul for his bosh-tomi or lifemate. With such a liberal interpretation of love, it is only natural that Baul devotional music transcends religion and some of the most famous baul composers, such as Lalon, criticised the superficiality of religious divisions:

"Everyone asks: 'Lalan, what's your religion in this world?'

Lalan answers: 'How does religion look?

I've never laid eyes on it.

Some wear malas [Hindu rosaries] around their necks,

some tasbis [Muslim rosaries], and so people say

they've got different religions.

But do you bear the sign of your religion when you come or when you go?'"

Their religion is based on an expression of the body (deho sādhana), and an expression of the mind (mana sādhana). Some of their rituals are kept hidden from outsiders, as they might be thought to be repulsive or hedonistic. Bauls concentrate much of their mystic energies on the four body fluids, on the nine-doors (openings of the body), on prakṛiti as "energy of nature" or "primal motive force", and on breath sādhana.

Music
The music of the Bauls, Baul Sangeet, is a particular type of folk song. Their music represents a long heritage of preaching mysticism through songs in Bengal.

Bauls pour out their feelings in their songs but never bother to write them down. Theirs is essentially an oral tradition. It is said that Lalon Fakir (1774 -1890), the greatest of all Bauls, continued to compose and sing songs for decades without ever stopping to correct them or put them on paper. It was only after his death that people thought of collecting and compiling his repertoire.

Their lyrics intertwine a deep sense of mysticism, a longing for oneness with the divine. An important part of their philosophy is "Deha tatta", a spirituality related to the body rather than the mind. They seek the divinity in human beings. Metaphysical topics are dwelt upon humbly and in simple words. They stress remaining unattached and unconsumed by the pleasures of life even while enjoying them. To them we are all a gift of divine power and the body is a temple, music being the path to connect to that power. A consistent part of Bauls' lyrics deals with body-centered practices that aim at controlling sexual desire. The esoteric knowledge of conception and contraception is revealed in the lyrics of the songs through an enigmatic language that needs to be decoded by the guru in order to be understood and experienced.

Besides traditional motifs drawn from the rural everyday life, Baul songs have always been inclined to incorporate change and keep pace with social and economic innovations. For instance, modern Baul compositions discuss esoteric matters by using the terminology of modern, urban and technological lexicons, and it is not unusual to hear Baul refrains containing mobile phones, radio channels, football matches and television.

Bauls use a number of musical instruments: the most common is the ektara, a one-stringed "plucked drum" drone instrument, carved from the epicarp of a gourd, and made of bamboo and goatskin. Others include the dotara, a long-necked fretless lute (while the name literally means "two stringed" it usually has four metal strings) made of the wood of a jackfruit or neem tree; besides khamak, one-headed drum with a string attached to it which is plucked. The only difference from ektara is that no bamboo is used to stretch the string, which is held by one hand, while being plucked by another. Drums like the duggi, a small hand-held earthen drum, and dhol and khol; small cymbals called khartal and manjira, and the bamboo flute are also used. Ghungur and nupur are anklets with bells that ring while the person wearing them dances.

A Baul family played on stage in London for The Rolling Stones' Hyde Park concerts in 1971, '72 and '78 in front of thousands.

Influence on Rabindranath Tagore

The songs of the Bauls and their lifestyle influenced a large part of Bengali culture, but nowhere did it leave its imprint more powerfully than on the work of Rabindranath Tagore, who talked of Bauls in a number of speeches in Europe in the 1930s. An essay based on these was compiled into his English book The Religion of Man:

"The Bauls are an ancient group of wandering minstrels from Bengal, who believe in simplicity in life and love. They are similar to the Buddhists in their belief in a fulfillment which is reached by love's emancipating us from the dominance of self."

The below quotations are from Tagore's book "Creative Unity".

The following is a translation of the famous Baul song by Gagan Harkara: Ami kothai pabo tare, amar moner manush je re. "Where shall I meet him, the Man of my Heart?

He is lost to me and I seek him wandering from land to land.

I am listless for that moonrise of beauty,

which is to light my life,

which I long to see in the fullness of vision

in gladness of heart. [p.524]"

The below extract is a translation of another song:

"My longing is to meet you in play of love, my Lover;

But this longing is not only mine, but also yours.

For your lips can have their smile, and your flute

its music, only in your delight in my love;

and therefore you importunate, even as I am."

"The poet proudly says: 'Your flute could not have its music of beauty if your delight were not in my love. Your power is great—and there I am not equal to you—but it lies even in me to make you smile and if you and I never meet, then this play of love remains incomplete.'

The great distinguished people of the world do not know that these beggars—deprived of education, honour and wealth—can, in the pride of their souls, look down upon them as the unfortunate ones who are left on the shore for their worldly uses but whose life ever misses the touch of the Lover's arms.

This feeling that man is not a mere casual visitor at the palace-gate of the world, but the invited guest whose presence is needed to give the royal banquet its sole meaning, is not confined to any particular sect in India."

A large tradition in medieval devotional poetry from Rajasthan and other parts of India also bear the same message of unity in celestial and romantic love and that divine love can be fulfilled only through its human beloved.

Tagore's own compositions were powerfully influenced by Baul ideology. His music also bears the stamp of many Baul tunes. Other Bengali poets, such as Kazi Nazrul Islam, have also been influenced by Baul music and its message of non-sectarian devotion through love.

The following well-known Rabindra Sangeet is heavily influenced by Baul theme:

"amar praner manush achhe prane

tai here taye shokol khane

Achhe she noyōn-taray, alōk-dharay, tai na haraye--

ogo tai dekhi taye Jethay shethay

taka-i ami je dik-pane

The man of my heart dwells inside me.

Everywhere I look, it is he.

In my every sight, in the sparkle of light

Oh, I can never lose him--

Here, there and everywhere,

Wherever I turn, he is right there!"

All bāuls shared only one belief in common—that God is hidden within the heart of man and neither priest, prophet, nor the ritual of any organized religion will help one to find Him there. They felt that both temple and mosque block the path to truth; the search for God must be carried out individually and independently.

Present status
Bauls are found in the country of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal and the eastern parts of Bihar and Jharkhand. The Baul movement was at its peak in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but even today one comes across the occasional Baul with his ektara (one-stringed musical instrument) and begging bowl, singing across the far-flung villages of rural Bengal. Travelling in local trains and attending village fairs are good ways to encounter Bauls.

Bangladesh
Every year, in the month of Falgun (February to March), "Lalon Smaran Utshab" (Lalon memorial festival) is held in the shrine of Lalon in Kushtia, Bangladesh, where bauls and devotees of Lalon from Bangladesh and overseas come to perform and highlight the mysticism of Lalon.

Palli Baul Samaj Unnayan Sangstha (PBSUS), a Bangladeshi organisation, has been working to uphold and preserve the 'baul' traditions and philosophy since 2000. The organisation often arranges programmes featuring folk songs for urban audiences.

Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy often organises national and international festivals and seminars, featuring the Baul music and the importance of preservation of Baul tradition.

India
In the village of Jaydev Kenduli in Birbhum district of West Bengal, a Mela (fair) is organised in memory of the poet Jayadeva on the occasion of Makar Sankranti in the month of Poush. So many Bauls assemble for the mela that it is also referred to as "Baul Fair".

In the village of Shantiniketan in West Bengal during Poush Mela, numerous Bauls also come together to enthral people with their music.

Since 2006, an annual music show has been organised in Kolkata called "Baul Fakir Utsav". Bauls from several districts of Bengal as well as Bangladesh come to perform over a two-day period.

There are also the Western Bauls in America and Europe under the spiritual direction of Lee Lozowick, a student of Yogi Ramsuratkumar. Their music is quite different (rock /gospel/ blues) but the essence of the spiritual practices of the East is well maintained.

In Bangalore near Electronic City Dr. Shivshankar Bhattacharjee has started Boul Sammelon (Gathering of Bauls) on 7–9 April-2017 on the occasion of the inauguration of Sri Sri Kali Bari (Goodness Kali's Temple). First time it held in Bangalore to embrace the Boul culture. More than 50 Bouls participated and sang soulful songs.

Currently another version of Baul called the folk fusion also called baul rock is also greatly accepted by the audience, especially in West Bengal. Kartik das baul being a traditional folk singer, who has taken baul to different heights is being associated with folk fusion. This type of baul was brought into the world of music by Bolepur bluez.

Another popular Baul from West Bengal is Rina Das Baul from Bolpur. She, along with her troupe named Rangamatir Baul, had performed in several international functions like Urkult Festival in Sweden in 2017, Armor India festival in France in 2018 and Womex in at Porto, Portugal in 2021. Her music was reviewed by Simon Broughton in Songlines and, in 2019, American Grammy-nominated bluegrass Fiddler Casey Driessen collaborated with her on an album.

Notable singers
Lalon also known as Fakir Lalon Shah, Lalon Shah, Lalon Fakir (Bengali: লালন; 17 October 1774 – 17 October 1890; Bengali: 1 Kartik 1179) was a prominent Bengali philosopher, Baul saint, mystic, songwriter, social reformer and thinker. Regarded as an icon of Bengali culture, he inspired and influenced many poets, social and religious thinkers including Rabindranath Tagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam, and Allen Ginsberg although he "rejected all distinctions of caste and creed". Widely celebrated as an epitome of religious tolerance, he was also accused of heresy during his lifetime and after his death. In his songs, Lalon envisioned a society where all religions and beliefs would stay in harmony. He founded the institute known as Lalon Akhrah in Cheuriya, about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) from Kushtia railway station. His disciples dwell mostly in Bangladesh and West Bengal. Every year on the occasion of his death anniversary, thousands of his disciples and followers assemble at Lalon Akhrah, and pay homage to him through celebration and discussion of his songs and philosophy for three days. Shah Abdul Karim (15 February 1916 – 12 September 2009) was a Bangladeshi Baul musician. Dubbed "Baul Samrat", he was awarded the Ekushey Padak in 2001 by the Government of Bangladesh. Some of his notable songs include Keno Piriti Baraila Re Bondhu, Murshid Dhono He Kemone Chinibo Tomare, Nao Banailo Banailo Re Kon Mestori, Ashi Bole Gelo Bondhu and Mon Mojale Ore Bawla Gaan. He referred to his compositions as Baul Gaan.

Bhaba Pagla (1902–1984) was a famous Indian saint-composer and an important guru from East Bengal. He has been a spiritual preceptor for many Bauls and his songs are very popular among Baul performers.

Gosto Gopal Das is the Uncrowned Emperor of Baul Song of Undivided Bengal(East & West) is Gosto Gopal Das until date was born on 8 January 1948 in Hoogly District in West Bengal, India.

Purna Das Baul or Puran Das Baul, popularly known as Purna Das Baul Samrat, (born 18 March 1933) is an Indian musician and singer, in Baul tradition. Dr. Rajendra Prasad, first President of the modern state of India, acknowledged Purna Das as Baul Samrat in 1967. Purna Das has also appeared in numerous films, and was personally fêted by Mick Jagger in England, and by Bob Dylan who told Purna Das that he himself would be 'the Baul of America'. He appeared in the same concert with Dylan once, and is appearing on the cover of Dylan's album John Wesley Harding.

Lalon Band are Bengali folk, rock and fusion music band formed in Khulna, Bangladesh. They draw heavy influence from Lalon. They are led by Nigar Sultana Sumi, one of the most renowned Baul singers in Bangladesh and West Bengal.

title: Baul


text:
User talk:Abhisinha

Welcome
Hello, welcome to Wikipedia.

You might find these links helpful in creating new pages or helping with the above tasks: How to edit a page, How to write a great article, Naming conventions, Manual of Style. You should read our policies at some point too.

If you have any questions, see the help pages, add a question to the village pump, or ask me on my talk page. I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian!
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Again, welcome! Chris Roy 17:37, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Tulsidas
I just added a bunch of stuff from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica to Tulsidas, but it was badly OCRed and I don't know enough about this subject to fix many of the mistakes. You may wish to give that page a cleaning. Bryan 06:05, 27 Mar 2004 (UTC)

India quick links
pamri 10:32, July 12, 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:Abhisinha


text:
Merle Boucher

Merle Boucher (born July 19, 1946) is a North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party politician who served in the North Dakota House of Representatives, representing the 9th district from 1991 to 2011. He served as Minority Leader from 1996 to 2011.

Boucher sought and lost the Democratic-NPL nomination for governor in 2004 and in 2008, but became the running mate of 2008 nominee Tim Mathern, running on the ticket as the nominee for lieutenant governor. Two years after that ticket lost, Boucher became the Democratic-NPL nominee for North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner, losing in the 2010 election to incumbent Doug Goehring.

Boucher is from Rolette County, North Dakota and attended high school there. He went on to college, taking classes from the State School of Forestry. He then transferred to Mayville State University, where he graduated with a teaching degree in 1970.

He returned to Rolette and taught at the high school for 20 years. After retiring, he became a rancher. He holds his family's original Homestead Act claim among other land. He has coached the Rolette American Legion baseball team in past years.

title: Merle Boucher


text:
User talk:Rjyanco

Welcome
Hello, welcome to Wikipedia.

You might find these links helpful in creating new pages or helping with the above tasks: How to edit a page, How to write a great article, Naming conventions, Manual of Style. You should read our policies at some point too.

If you have any questions, see the help pages, add a question to the village pump, or ask me on my talk page. I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian!
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Again, welcome! Chris Roy 17:38, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Charles Hamilton Houston
Congratulations!

According to Announcements, the article you added today on Charles Hamilton Houston was the 250,000th article on the English Wikipedia. -- Cyrius|&#9998 04:27, Apr 20, 2004 (UTC)

User page
Hi, just wanted to drop a note that I generally like your work here at WP. Have you thought about making a user page? :) --Lowellian 19:13, May 21, 2004 (UTC)

All right, I have added three characters to my user page. --Rjyanco 10:52, 22 May 2004 (UTC)

Article Licensing
Hi, I've started a drive to get users to multi-license all of their contributions that they've made to either (1) all U.S. state, county, and city articles or (2) all articles, using the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike (CC-by-sa) v1.0 and v2.0 Licenses or into the public domain if they prefer. The CC-by-sa license is a true free documentation license that is similar to Wikipedia's license, the GFDL, but it allows other projects, such as WikiTravel, to use our articles. Since you are among the top 2000 Wikipedians by edits, I was wondering if you would be willing to multi-license all of your contributions or at minimum those on the geographic articles. Over 90% of people asked have agreed. For More Information:
 * Multi-Licensing FAQ - Lots of questions answered
 * Multi-Licensing Guide
 * Free the Rambot Articles Project

To allow us to track those users who muli-license their contributions, many users copy and paste the " " template into their user page, but there are other options at Template messages/User namespace. The following examples could also copied and pasted into your user page:

 * Option 1
 * I agree to multi-license all my contributions, with the exception of my user pages, as described below:

OR
 * Option 2
 * I agree to multi-license all my contributions to any U.S. state, county, or city article as described below:

Or if you wanted to place your work into the public domain, you could replace " " with "  ". If you only prefer using the GFDL, I would like to know that too. Please let me know what you think at my talk page. It's important to know either way so no one keeps asking. -- Ram-Man (comment| talk)

Ram-Man: I don't really care, so here you go: I agree to multi-license all my contributions, with the exception of my user pages, as described below:

Punctuation
I noticed you changed my edit to the Williams College page to put the comma inside the quotation marks. Please see this page for the Wikipedia consensus of how to treat punctuation and quotation marks (it's about half way down the page). I moved the comma back outside the quotes but kept your other changes. Thanks Chuck 23:07, 13 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Image:Holden ma map.png
Greetings. Did you make Image:Holden ma map.png yourself? If not, where did it come from? Thanks, – Quadell (talk) (sleuth) 19:43, Mar 2, 2005 (UTC)

Thanks
Thanks for splitting the Williams College article. You were right, the list of alumni was getting out of hand. It's much better this way.--Sophitus 20:56, May 31, 2005 (UTC)

Re: Trivial Edits
I don't know what to make out of you reverting trivial edits from more than a year ago. These are changes I agreed on with the 2 persons who initiated them. It is obvious that you either have a bitter taste in your mouth or malicious intentions to keep something that hardly anyone cares to remember. Rananim 01:53, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Perhaps it is you Rananim that wants to bury the past, but you can not hide from the past. Trivial? Hardly. 24.95.48.161 04:58, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

 * relax, i've got more interesting and exciting things to do with my time. i stand by what i said 2 years ago though i should have been more diplomatic. either way, nobody but you cares about it. Rananim 19:34, 11 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Take it to your own Talk pages, gentlemen. -Rjyanco 01:43, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

Image Tagging for Image:Bradford_college.gif
Thanks for uploading Image:Bradford_college.gif. The image page currently doesn't specify who created the image, so the copyright status is therefore unclear. If you have not created the image yourself then you need to indicate why we have the right to use the image on Wikipedia (see copyright tagging below). If you have not created the image yourself then you should also specify where you found it, i.e., in most cases link to the website where you got it, and the terms of use for content from that page.

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This is an automated notice by OrphanBot. If you have any concerns, contact the bot's owner: Carnildo. 06:48, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Notable old Bedalians (is that the correct term?)
Hi there - I noticed you were the guy who originally created the article on Bedales school and mentioned the clarinettist Gervase de Peyer. As it happens, his agent is also my father (see the agency website at . Could you tell me what you know of him? With permission from him and from my father, I will create a stub here on Wikipedia which would link to his page on my dad's website.--RichardHarrold 22:52, 17 May 2006 (UTC) (reply)

License tagging for Image:764px-Vanunu-Hand big.jpg
Thanks for uploading Image:764px-Vanunu-Hand big.jpg. Wikipedia gets thousands of images uploaded every day, and in order to verify that the images can be legally used on Wikipedia, the source and copyright status must be indicated. Images need to have an image tag applied to the image description page indicating the copyright status of the image. This uniform and easy-to-understand method of indicating the license status allows potential re-users of the images to know what they are allowed to do with the images.

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This is an automated notice by OrphanBot. If you need help on selecting a tag to use, or in adding the tag to the image description, feel free to post a message at Media copyright questions. 05:04, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

Latin honors
I left the article in your version, but posted to the talk page why I tagged the article as unreferenced. Kncyu38 05:47, 2 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Replied on the talk page. Kncyu38 12:09, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

Seung-hui Cho
This has been the subject of intense debate at the Cho Seung-hui discussion page. Please weigh-in there if you'd like, but the consensus appears to be in favour of Cho Seung-hui. -Scientz 06:09p, 18 April 2007 (EDT)

German Article about Worcester Academy
I uploaded two pictures of yours into Wiki Commons ( and ) so I could use them in the German article about WA. I hope your OK with that.

Greetings --hroest 19:44, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Image:764px-Vanunu-Hand big.jpg
Have added a short rationale, You do know who the guy is? ShakespeareFan00 20:54, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Re: Cheryl Bentov
I agree that it was a pretty crappy AfD result as I don't like deleting articles on notable people... however I have to close an AfD according to consensus, otherwise my head will be found on a pike somewhere. Normally I'd tell you to go to deletion review, but I see you've already recreated the article, and I don't care enough to delete it again. Cheers! east. 718 at 02:47, November 28, 2007

Disputed fair use rationale for Image:Vanuunu-Article.jpg
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File source problem with File:Princeton ma map.png
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File:Vanuunu-Article.jpg listed for deletion
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File:Oread.png missing description details
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ArbCom elections are now open!
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Speedy deletion nomination of National Assessment & Testing

A tag has been placed on National Assessment & Testing requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section A7 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because the article appears to be about an organization or company, but it does not credibly indicate how or why the subject is important or significant: that is, why an article about that subject should be included in an encyclopedia. Under the criteria for speedy deletion, such articles may be deleted at any time. Please read more about what is generally accepted as notable.

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title: User talk:Rjyanco


text:
User talk:Worc63

ArbCom elections are now open!
Hi, You appear to be eligible to vote in the current Arbitration Committee election. The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to enact binding solutions for disputes between editors, primarily related to serious behavioural issues that the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the ability to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail. If you wish to participate, you are welcome to review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. For the Election committee, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:15, 30 November 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Worc63


text:
Black Army

Black Army may refer to several different groups and affiliations:

 * Black Army of Hungary, the royal army of Matthias Corvinus, a 15th-century king of Hungary
 * Black Flag Army (1857–1895), a splinter remnant of the Taiping rebels
 * Black Guards (1917–1919), several anarchist factions of the Russian Civil War
 * Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine (1918–1921), led by Nestor Makhno
 * Armata Neagră (1949–1950), an anti-Soviet group in Bessarabia
 * Black Legion (Ustaše militia) (1941–1945), Ustaše genocidal militia infantry unit active during World War II in Croatia
 * Black Army, supporter group of the Swedish sports club AIK
 * Black Army of Sudan, is the female faction of the Popular Resistance of Sudan

title: Black Army


text:
User talk:Uclafalcon

Welcome
Hello, welcome to Wikipedia.

You might find these links helpful in creating new pages or helping with the above tasks: How to edit a page, How to write a great article, Naming conventions, Manual of Style. You should read our policies at some point too.

If you have any questions, see the help pages, add a question to the village pump, or ask me on my talk page. I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian!
 * You can introduce yourself on the new users page.
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 * You can sign your name using three tildes, like this: . If you use four, you can add a datestamp too.
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Again, welcome! Chris Roy 17:40, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Nomination of Conan the Librarian for deletion
A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Conan the Librarian is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Articles for deletion/Conan the Librarian until a consensus is reached, and anyone, including you, is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article. Jontesta (talk) 18:58, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

title: User talk:Uclafalcon