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Jefferson River

The Jefferson River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately 83 mi long, in the U.S. state of Montana. The Jefferson River and the Madison River form the official beginning of the Missouri at Missouri Headwaters State Park near Three Forks. It is joined 0.6 mi downstream (northeast) by the Gallatin.

From broad valleys to a narrow canyon, the Jefferson River passes through a region of significant geological diversity, with some of the oldest and youngest rocks of North America and a diversity of igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary formations.

The region was only intermittently inhabited by Native Americans until relatively recent times, and no single tribe had exclusive use of the Jefferson River when the Lewis and Clark Expedition first ascended the river in 1805. Today, the Jefferson River retains much of its scenic beauty and wildlife diversity from the days of Lewis and Clark, yet is threatened by water use issues and encroaching development. The Jefferson is a segment of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, administered by the National Park Service.

Course

From the Rocky Mountains of southwestern Montana, three small rivers converge to form the headwaters of the Jefferson River. The longest begins at Brower's Spring, 9,030 feet (2,750 m) above sea level, on the northern flank of the Centennial Mountains. The site is marked by a pile of rocks. The water flows west then north as Hell Roaring Creek before merging with Rock Creek and flowing west through Upper and Lower Red Rock Lakes. Here it becomes the Red Rock River, flowing west through Lima Reservoir and then northwest into Clark Canyon Reservoir near Dillon. Below the dam, the river is known as the Beaverhead River. It is joined by the Ruby River above the town of Twin Bridges and converges with the Big Hole River to form the Jefferson about two miles downstream from town.

The Jefferson River flows north through the Jefferson Valley towards Whitehall and then east, where it is joined by the Boulder River before passing through the narrow Jefferson River canyon near Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park. After the canyon, the river passes into a broad valley again near Willow Creek. The Jefferson converges with the Madison River at Missouri Headwaters State Park near Three Forks to form the Missouri River, joined a short distance downstream by the Gallatin River.

After flowing into the Missouri, its waters continue into the Mississippi River, eventually into the Gulf of Mexico. These rivers combine to be the fourth longest river on Earth.

Geology

The geology of the Jefferson River and the surrounding mountain ranges includes some of the oldest rocks found in North America, dating back to the Archean Eon, 2.7 billion years ago. Found primarily in the Tobacco Root and Ruby ranges, these ancient rocks are metamorphic, having been highly compressed and nearly re-melted by geologic forces over eons of time. Frequently found along the Jefferson River, these rocks include layered feldspars, gneiss, glassy quartz, heavy dark amphibolite, and sometimes marble.

About a billion years ago, the Willow Creek Fault, north of the Jefferson River canyon, dropped down deeply and filled with seawater, stretching north to Alberta and British Columbia. Eventually, the sea receded and erosion wore away intervening geologic history until about 530 million years ago, during the Cambrian Period of the Paleozoic Era.

A new sea encroached on the land, depositing sedimentary layers of limestone, dolomite, shale, and sandstone over several hundred million years. Limestone is generally made of calcium from marine animals that have been compacted and cemented together. Dolomite is similar but has more magnesium. Shale is formed from fine-grained mud, silts, and clays that have been compacted and cemented together. The sandstone is made up of quartz and feldspar.

By the Mississippian Period, 340 million years ago, much of western North America was covered with a warm, shallow sea, much like the Gulf Coast of Florida today. Small marine fossils can be found in the Madison Group limestone that makes up the steep, narrow section of the Jefferson River canyon today.

Gentle uplift eventually raised the region above sea level again. Rainwater percolated down through cracks in the limestone, dissolving rock and creating caves such as those found at Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park.

Local mountains, such as the Tobacco Roots were formed from the Boulder Batholith. The batholith is composed of at least seven, and possibly as many as fourteen, discrete igneous rock masses called plutons, which formed beneath the Earth’s surface during a period of magma intrusion about 73 to 78 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous. The rising buoyant plutons resulted from subduction along what was then the west coast of North America. Regional uplift brought the deep-seated granite to the surface, where erosion exposed the rocks and the mineral veins they contained. The granite generally consists of quartz, hornblende, and feldspars. Gold, silver, and other semi precious minerals are also associated with batholiths.

The ancient metamorphic and more recent sedimentary layers above the batholiths eroded away as the magma pushed up through the crust. Thus, the granite batholiths are typically found at the center of local mountain ranges, while the much older metamorphic gneiss is usually found lower in the mountains, and limestone layers are mostly found in the foothills nearest the Jefferson River.

The Rocky Mountains began a new and continuing phase of crustal stress 5 to 10 million years ago as tectonic forces began to pull the region apart. Blocks of earth dropped down to form valleys, and the Jefferson River eroded a channel through rock to form the Jefferson River canyon.

First peoples
Archaeologists believe that the first Americans migrated across the Bering land bridge from Asia between 12,000 and 30,000 years ago. They followed the Great North Trail, which dipped down into Montana along the east slope of the Rocky Mountains. These Paleo-Indians or Clovis people hunted the now-extinct mammoths and bison with Clovis points. Clovis points dated 12,000 to 13,000 years old have been found along the Missouri River near Townsend, Montana, about forty-five miles beyond the Jefferson. Paleo-Indians seldom entered the Rockies, where glaciation persisted.

Upstream from the Jefferson, at Barton Gulch, a tributary of the Ruby-Jefferson River system, archaeologists excavated an extensive complex of Paleo-Indian cooking pits and earth ovens dated to 9400 RCYBP.

Between 6,000 and 7,000 years ago, climate change brought dramatically drier conditions to the Northern Rockies. It is thought that far fewer animals survived in the region and the native peoples likely migrated elsewhere. Montana was apparently only intermittently inhabited after that until relatively recent times.

In the 1500s, the Kootenai came into Montana from the north. The Salish and Pend d'Oreille migrated in from the north and northwest, venturing south to the Jefferson River/Missouri Headwaters and eastward. Major population shifts started in the early 1600s, bringing several new tribes into Montana. With horses of Spanish origin, the Shoshone migrated into Montana from the Great Basin and hunted buffalo, becoming the dominant tribe in the area. However, the arrival and expansion of European settlers on the east coast pushed Native Americans west, in a domino effect that extended all the way into Montana. The Crow migrated into Montana from the east in the 1600s, followed by the Blackfeet, Gros Ventre, and Assiniboine in the 1700s. With the acquisition of guns and horses, the Blackfeet became the dominant tribe on the plains in the 1700s. The Shoshone were largely pushed back over the continental divide into Idaho, but still ventured into Montana hunting and foraging. By 1800, the Missouri headwaters and much of southwest Montana was a crossroads frequented by the Lemhi Shoshone, Bannock, Nez Perce, Flathead, Crow, Sioux, and Piegan Blackfeet.

Sacagawea, of the Lemhi Shoshone, was captured by the Hidatsa on the lower Jefferson River in 1800, when she was about twelve years old. She was later married to Toussaint Charbonneau and both of them joined the Lewis and Clark Expedition when Lewis and Clark wintered with the Hidatsa in North Dakota in 1804-05.

Lewis and Clark Expedition
Little was known about the American West at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The Missouri River flowed southeast from an unknown source, joining the Mississippi River before flowing south to the Gulf of Mexico. The Columbia River originated at a similar latitude as the Missouri, and flowed west to the Pacific Ocean. What lay in between was the subject of much speculation.

The United States acquired the Missouri River watershed through the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, and President Thomas Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark with a company of men to explore up the Missouri in the hopes of finding a navigable water route to the Pacific, with a low portage connecting one watershed with the other. The Expedition departed from Saint Louis, Missouri in the spring of 1804, ascended the Missouri River that summer, then wintered over with the Hidatsa Indians in North Dakota, where they met Toussaint Charbonneau and his Shoshone wife Sacagawea. Lewis and Clark hired Charbonneau to join the expedition, in part because Sacagawea's people were native to the Missouri headwaters. The Lewis and Clark Expedition arrived at the Missouri Headwaters on 27 July 1805.

Of the three streams that make up the headwaters of the Missouri, the eastern fork is the smallest, while the larger middle and western forks are of relatively equal size. Therefore, Lewis and Clark concluded that it would be inappropriate for any fork to retain the name "Missouri." Instead, they named the western fork the Jefferson, the middle fork as the Madison, and the eastern fork as the Gallatin, as Meriwether Lewis noted in his journal on July 28, 1805:

 * "Both Capt. C. and myself corrisponded [sic] in opinion with rispect [sic] to the impropriety of calling either of these [three] streams the Missouri and accordingly agreed to name them after the President of the United States and the Secretaries of the Treasury and state..."

The expedition rested a couple days at the Missouri headwaters, then began to ascend the Jefferson River, using ropes to pull the dugout canoes upstream against the current. Along the way they hunted deer, elk, bighorn sheep, and encountered grizzly bears. Describing the upper Jefferson River, Lewis recorded on August 2, 1805:

"The valley though which our rout of this [day] lay and through which the river winds it's meandering course is a beatifull level plain with but little timber and that on the verge of the river.  the land is tolerably fertile, consisting of a black or dark yellow loam,  and covered with grass from 9 Inches to 2 feet high.  The plain ascends gradually on either side of the river to the bases of two ranges of mountains which ly parallel to the river and which terminate 〈it's〉 the width of the vally.    the tops of these mountains were yet partially covered with snow while we in the valley.    were suffocated nearly with the intense heat of the midday sun.    the nights are so could that two blankets are not more than sufficient covering."

Arriving at a major confluence, Lewis and Clark named the western fork the Wisdom River, the eastern fork the Philanthropy River and retained the middle fork as a continuation of the Jefferson River. However, none of these names were retained. These rivers are known today as the Big Hole, the Ruby, and the Beaverhead.

The Jefferson River is a segment of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, established by Congress in 1978 and administered by the National Park Service.

Recreation
The Jefferson River is rated as Class I water for recreational purposes from its origin at the Beaverhead and Big Hole rivers to its confluence with the Missouri at Three Forks. The river is suitable for floaters and beginning paddlers, except during high water flows in the spring. Possible hazards include downed trees, called "sweeps" and diversion dams constructed to channel river water into irrigation ditches. Water levels often drop off by mid-summer, making it necessary to drag watercraft over shallow riffles.

The Jefferson River consists of three distinct sections.

The upper Jefferson is a much-braided, meandering river and floodplain system that supports productive farm fields, extensive cottonwood groves, rich meadows, and abundant wildlife. The river creates diverse habitats as it naturally shifts back and forth across the Jefferson Valley, forming oxbows and swamps of various depth and age. Shifting channels and natural flooding facilitates the germination of cottonwood seedlings. Individual cottonwood groves are often germinated from a single flood event and tend to be of uniform age. The upper Jefferson extends from the confluence of the Big Hole and the Beaverhead rivers approximately 44 miles downstream to the community of Cardwell.

The middle Jefferson enters a narrow canyon a short distance downstream from Cardwell and is largely contained by the geography for most of the next 15 miles downstream to Sappington Bridge. Lacking the ability to flood or meander, this section of the river has few trees, swamps, meadows, and significantly less wildlife than the upper Jefferson.

The lower Jefferson opens up again into a meandering, braided river from Sappington bridge approximately 24 miles downstream to its confluence with the Madison River. Here, the riparian zone again supports an extensive community of swamps, meadows, cottonwood groves, and productive farm lands.

Environmental Degradation
Throughout its length, the Jefferson River is used extensively as a source of irrigation water for local farms and ranches. Dams constructed upstream on the Ruby and Beaverhead rivers store surplus water from spring runoff which is released to augment natural flows during the summer irrigation season. However, portions of the river can become severely dewatered, shallow, and warm in drought years, adversely impacting fish populations. The unnaturally warm water, combined with excess nutrients from irrigation runoff and grazing practices, can stimulate rapid growth of algae in mid-summer, to the detriment of anglers and floaters.

On August 5, 2016 the Jefferson River stream flow was measured at only 19 CFS (cubic feet per second). This occurred even while the three main tributaries to the Jefferson were contributing 1140 CFS. The Ruby River was measured at 310 CFS, the Big Hole River was measured at 200 CFS and the Beaverhead River was measured at 630 CFS. Irrigators took over 98% of this stream flow by forcing the river into irrigation channels using diversion dams, leaving less than 2% of water in the river. Montana has no minimum stream flow legislation to prevent the total dewatering of the Jefferson River in the future.

While much of the Jefferson River remains untouched and scenic, it is threatened by new housing developments that incrementally fragment wildlife habitat and vistas along the river. Efforts to stabilize portions of the riverbank with rock, concrete, and other rip-rap materials have inhibited the river's ability to flood, meander, and form new cottonwood groves and wildlife habitat. In addition, rip-rapped sections of the river tend to funnel floodwaters downstream, increasing the impact to other landowners.

title: Jefferson River


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User talk:Goethean

Archives: 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Archive 4 5 6 7 8 9

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

title: User talk:Goethean


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Beaverhead River

The Beaverhead River is an approximately 69 mi tributary of the Jefferson River in southwest Montana (east of the Continental Divide). It drains an area of roughly 4778 mi2. The river's original headwaters, formed by the confluence of the Red Rock River and Horse Prairie Creek, are now flooded under Clark Canyon Reservoir, which also floods the first 6 mi of the river. The Beaverhead then flows through a broad valley northward to join the Big Hole River and form the Jefferson River. With the Red Rock River included in its length, the river stretches another 70 mi, for a total length of 139 mi, one of the more significant drainages of south-western Montana.

The name of the Beaverhead originates from Beaverhead Rock on the middle river. This rock formation was recognized by Sacajawea when the Lewis and Clark Expedition passed the area in 1805. There were also many beavers in the area at the time, but the name does not originate from the animal. In 1805, Captain Meriwether Lewis traveled up the Jefferson and Beaverhead first, but when the rest of the expedition came, a sign Lewis had left at the confluence of the Beaverhead and Big Hole telling them to follow the Beaverhead had been cut down by a beaver, and the expedition traveled up the Big Hole instead. As a result, the swifter current of the Big Hole swamped two of their canoes before they could travel back down to the confluence.

Together with the Red Rock River, the Beaverhead forms the uppermost headwaters of the Missouri River, the longest tributary of the Mississippi River.

The river is a Class I water from the Clark Canyon Dam to its confluence with the Jefferson River for the purposes of public access for recreational purposes.

title: Beaverhead River


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Riddley Walker

Riddley Walker is a science fiction novel by American writer Russell Hoban, first published in 1980. It won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best science fiction novel in 1982, as well as an Australian Science Fiction Achievement Award in 1983. It was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1981.

It is Hoban's best-known adult novel and a drastic departure from his other work, although he continued to explore some of the same themes in other settings.

Production
Hoban began work on the novel in 1974, inspired by the medieval wall painting of the legend of Saint Eustace at Canterbury Cathedral.

Plot
Roughly two thousand years after a nuclear war has devastated civilization, Riddley, the young narrator, stumbles upon efforts to recreate a weapon of the ancient world.

The novel's characters live a harsh life in a small area which is presently the English county of Kent, and know little of the world outside of "Inland" (England). Their level of civilization is similar to England's prehistoric Iron Age, although they do not produce their own iron but salvage it from ancient machinery. Church and state have combined into one secretive institution, whose mythology, based on misinterpreted stories of the war and an old Catholic saint (Eustace), is enacted in puppet shows.

Characters

 * Riddley Walker, the 12-year old protagonist
 * Brooder Walker, Riddley's father who is known for his "connexions" (prophetic stories) and dies early in the story
 * Lorna, the seer/priest in their village
 * Abel Goodparley and Erny Orfing, agents of the political-religious government
 * Eusa, a religious figure portrayed in puppet form
 * Lissener, titled the Ardship of Cambry, one of the mutant "Eusa folk"

Language
One of the most notable features of the book is its unique dialect: an imagined future version of the English language. This language blends puns, phonetic spelling, and colloquialisms, and is influenced by the dialects of East Kent as Hoban heard them before 1980, where the book is set. Professor of English John Mullan praised the novel's dialect as an "extraordinary risk" and noted that the language "naturalises the shattered world" of the novel, absorbing and engaging readers. Author Peter Schwenger called the language "quasi-illiterate, largely phonetic," arguing that it "slows us to the pace of an oral culture."

Some features include:

 * Technological idioms: progam for plan, gallack seas for the heavens, Puter Leat for the computer elite, pirntowt for printout (or conclusion), the Littl Shyning Man the Addom for the atom
 * Capitalized nouns: Plomercy for diplomacy, Trubba for trouble, Master Chaynjis for changes, or the apocalypse
 * Phonetic spelling: fizzics for physics, vackt our wayt for evacuated, soar vivers for survivors
 * Place names: Inland for England, Cambry for Canterbury, Do It Over for Dover, Fork Stoan for Folkestone
 * Titles: Wes Mincer for Westminster, Pry Mincer for prime minister, Guvner for leader, Ardship of Cambry for Archbishop of Canterbury
 * Colloquialisms: bye bye hump for burial mound, doing the juicy for sex, Bad Time for nuclear armageddon
 * Kent dialect: parbly for probably, arnge for orange, barms for bombs

Critical reception
Peter Ruppert noted that Hoban's novel draws on "such well-known dystopias as A Clockwork Orange, Lord of the Flies, and A Canticle for Leibowitz", and "what is unique in Hoban's haunting vision of the future is his language" which is described as being similar to the Nadsat slang spoken in Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists stated that, "The force and beauty and awfulness of Hoban's creation is shattering," and praised the author's use of a crude "Chaucerian English". John Mullan of The Guardian also praised Hoban's decision to narrate the novel in a devolved form of English: "The struggle with Riddley's language is what makes reading the book so absorbing, so completely possessing."

Library Journal wrote that the book holds "a unique and beloved place among the few after-Armageddon classics". It was included in David Pringle's book Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels. In 1994, American literary critic Harold Bloom included Riddley Walker in his list of works comprising the Western Canon.

Film and theatre

 * Robert C. Cumbow wrote in Slant Magazine that the post-apocalyptic film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome borrowed "whole ideas, themes and characterizations" from the novel.
 * Hoban's own theatrical adaptation premiered at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, in February 1986. It was directed by Braham Murray and starred David Threlfall. Its U.S. premiere was at the Chocolate Bayou Theatre, in April 1987, directed by Greg Roach.
 * In 1989, Russell Hoban gave permission for theatre students at Sir Percival Whitley/Calderdale College, Halifax, West Yorkshire, to transcribe the book into a theatrical script, which was then staged in a new production at The Square Chapel, Halifax.
 * In November 2007, the play was produced by Red Kettle in Waterford, Ireland, to positive reviews.
 * In 2011, the play was also adapted for Trouble Puppet Theater Co. by artistic director Connor Hopkins at Salvage Vanguard Theater in Austin, Texas. This production employed tabletop puppetry inspired by the Bunraku tradition and was supported by an original score by Justin Sherburn.
 * In March 2015, a group of Aberystwyth drama students performed the play in Theatre y Castell over the course of two days. The production was directed by David Ian Rabey.

Popular music

 * "The Rapture of Riddley Walker" is the eighth song on the Clutch album From Beale Street to Oblivion (2007).
 * "Widder's Dump", named after a location in the book and notes on the credits as being inspired by the novel, is the fifth song on the 1989 King Swamp album.
 * "In the Heart of the Wood and What I Found There" from the album Thunder Perfect Mind by Current 93 features references to Riddley Walker. Another Current 93 song, "The Blue Gates of Death" from the album Earth Covers Earth incorporates a rhyme from the book. Also, their album Of Ruine or Some Blazing Starre cites the Saint Eustace story.
 * "Ode to Riddley Walker" is the title track of the second solo album by The Owl Service vocalist Diana Collier (2020). The song refers directly to Hoban's novel.

title: Riddley Walker


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Talk:Philistinism

US presidents Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, abd Donald Trump (all Republicans) have been described as "Philistines," even though these presidents may not know what the word "philistine" means. So a philistine may be a philistine and not actually know it, or anything about the "philistine philosophy." — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hopeglory000 (talk • contribs) 12:21, 20 February 2022 (UTC)

2004- discussion
-- "The term is probably used rather less often today than in the past. Of those individuals who still use the word, some would likely feel that philistinism in Arnold's sense is no less common today than it was in the 19th century, or perhaps even more pervasive."

has replaced

"With the general triumph of Philistine anti-culture during the 20th century, the term itself has dropped out of use."

One statement is cautious, witless, plodding, prolix, self-defending with its "probably"s and "rather less"es. The other too brisk and confident. Is "the general triumph of Philistine anti-culture" in any doubt as a point of fact, when one may not even mention that it has happened! "NPOV" is a cheap smokescreen! Which is the Philistine?

 * I've deleted the whole paragraph. It was foolish of me to try to salvage any content from it, and I shouldn't have tried.

 * I don't think we can know whether Philistinism increased during the 20th century. What certainly did increase is the ability for Philistinic sentiments to achieve publicity through mass communication.  It's simply wrong to claim that the term is no longer used.  Opus33 00:26, 17 Mar 2004 (UTC)

--- I feel Philistinism should be crosslinked to Babbitry and consided a synomym just as Babbitt is comparable to Philistine and can be used with equal currency. --- As long as Wikipedia is accurate it can be snappy-- unless we're discussing a morose or pious subject, *gulp* or nationalism, post-colonial depression... But Philistinism is a subject for comedy... um, unless you are one. then it's tragedy... Wetman 01:26, 17 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Pejorative versus derogatory. My dictionary says

 * pejorative = depreciatory
 * derogatory = tending to detract from etc.

Now, to me that seems to say pejorative has a lesser implication (that is, is used just to deprecate). This is nuance, I suppose. But if we mean that philistine can be used to deprecate an attitude towards culture, in someone, I would say that pejorative is it.

Charles Matthews 16:42, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)

 * If "philistine" is the pejorative ("worse") term, what term, then is it pejorative of, one might ask? Do you see? "Pejorative" has been cheapened by ignorant usage, of course, and all meaning is colored by nuance. Doesn't everyone understand what "derogatory" means? If the entry did actually require "pejorative," it should of course have used the word. --Wetman 17:37, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)

No, I don't really see. Charles Matthews 17:54, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)

is there a reason the article doesnt mention that the arabic word for Palestine is philistine (spelled Filastin or Filistin or something similar)? Nateji77 08:27, 27 Feb 2005 (UTC)

 * The English usage in this specialized sense derives from Biblical Hebrew in O.T. translations rather than from Arabic, which is not relevant. Philistine and Palestine and Palestinian all discuss ancient and modern inhabitants of the area, in the sense you are looking for. --Wetman 10:23, 27 Feb 2005 (UTC)

 * In many European languages ( other than English ), the words "Phillistine"  ( refering to the ancient antagonists of the biblical jews )  and "Palestinian" are the same or almost the same.   And in Turkish apparently.   The 19th century use of the word meaning anti-art or anti-intellectual  comes from the 18th century Church of England interpretation of the so-called Old Testament.  One of the reasons this slur is less used today,  is because in an era of generally heightened sensitivity to racial slurring,  people have come to realise that thats what it is.Eregli bob (talk) 04:56, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

 * The Romans renamed the region Palestinia (translates to 'Land of the Philistines') after they squelched the final Jewish uprising and commenced with the Diaspora. This was a political move to permanently remove the Jewish sense of 'homeland'.  I'm sure the Arabic usage was adapted from this Roman usage.

I am a Classicist, a teacher of Latin and Greek. I first encountered the term Philistine as a convenient grab-all name for those who most oppose the liberal arts values that I as a Classicist have dedicated my life to. I still think that it is a useful term, and that it's connotations of narrow mindedness, least-common-denominator moral, spiritual, and aesthetic sensitivity, and all-around arrested adult development make it a useful part of our language. I think that the closest synonym for philistine as applicable to an individual would be the word slob. Perhaps an even closer phrase as synonym for Philistine would be "crass slob shamelessly flaunting it in public." In short, I believe now, and have so believed over my entire career, that there is such a thing as blatant, over-the-top tastelessness, and that such tastelessness -- moral, spiritual, aesthetic -- ought to be held up to the contempt that it has coming to it. This may sound extreme to some, until I point out that the first object of my contempt and "get your act together" comments should be the Philistinism lurking in myself. No American living today in the rampant Philistinism of contemporary popular culture cannot have been touched by it, and cannot have the duty and necessity of finding it in oneself and digging it out by the roots.

I'm removing the bit about Salinger. It has no significant relevance. 75.68.6.81 00:00, 10 December 2006 (UTC)
 * I think that it has significant relevance.Lestrade 00:03, 10 December 2006 (UTC)Lestrade
 * Please explain what relevance it has. Salinger does not use the word 'philistine'. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.213.14.10 (talk) 01:48, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

 * Pointless deletion restored: deleting isn't editing. Salinger is virtually defining philistinism in the quote. Logged-in Users are often taken more serriously.--Wetman (talk) 04:02, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Citations needed
This article strongly needs citations. Babubebo 00:04, 17 January 2007 (UTC)babubebo

There are no sources cited for the two Goethe quotations. I have been able to find an unsupported attribution for the second quotation, here. (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:The_Spirit_of_the_Chinese_People.djvu/157#cite_note-1) I hope that helps. Mang (talk) 22:20, 21 July 2021 (UTC)

Dumbing Down : The New Philistinism
I've added a link to Dumbing down in the See Also section since I thought that the use of the currently fashionable expression 'Dumbing down' reflects what might arguably be contemporary form of philistinism Godfinger 19:09, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

"Historical Philistines"
This hatnoted section (the required sources are in the main article as usual: let's avoid flagging for citations as an expression of pique) is just sufficient to distinguishe archaeological (not "historical" whatever that might mean here) Philistines from cultural "Philistinism". Not more than that. This is not a suitable place to assert various theories of origins, linguistic connections etc..--Wetman (talk) 18:49, 25 September 2009 (UTC)

Why is there a bible reference, it's used to back a historical theory, the bible is not a proper document to use for reference of this matter! --Adam S 12:15, 30 March 2011 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.237.226.39 (talk)

'From his example, 'Philistine' passed into the enlightened liberal's armament of cultural scorn.'
This really isn't appropriate NPOV speech, it isn't a quote, and the usage of the phrase 'enlightened liberal' is confusing in terms of contemporary vs. historical usage of the terms. 87.113.179.86 (talk) 22:18, 24 October 2011 (UTC)

"The eponymous philistine"
I do not think that word means what you think it means. -- 70.109.46.5 (talk) 23:33, 2 July 2013 (UTC)

Dispute: Dates of Nabokov lectures/death
A man who died in 1977 could not have given lectures in 1981 or 1982. The following passage is impossible and inconsistent: "   In the Lectures on Russian Literature (1981), in the essay ‘Philistines and Philistinism’ Nabokov describes the philistine...    In the Lectures on Literature (1982), in speaking of the novel Madame Bovary (1856), about the bourgeois wife of a country doctor, the writer Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) said that ..."

71.109.150.164 (talk) 00:54, 25 May 2014 (UTC)

It's possible that the work was published then. Doesn't mean he had to be alive. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.181.102.89 (talk) 18:01, 5 June 2014 (UTC)

Origin
So there are no views on why they chose the word "Philistine"? I'd always assumed that it was of biblical origin, as so many terms of those times were. Surely they didn't just choose a word at random. It seems like an important piece of information to leave out. I'd assume they chose "Philistine" specifically BECAUSE it had certain connotations. It would be nice if the article addressed this. The reason for the choice of the term used is as essential as the actual definition is. They didn't just pick up a dictionary, point to a word at random and say "okay, THIS is the word we'll use to describe uncultered anti-intellectuals; one word is as good as another!". There must at least be theories on this. .45Colt 22:33, 16 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Well, the theories go no further than that German students described the non-academic population as Philistines, possibly because they thought themselves to be in the position of the people of Israel (which is: of a superior mission, but quite possibly fighting a losing battle at the moment, though with sure hope to conquer in the end). Confusingly, among corporated students, the term "Philistine" is considered something of a title of honor now, which the students acquire when leaving their "active" time and settling down in civic life. --2001:A61:260C:C01:6D0E:DC8B:D1CC:4A3E (talk) 11:52, 21 June 2018 (UTC)

Started with Arnold?
This article opens with words to the effect "our modern usage comes from Arnold's adaption into English of the German word…"

The German word usage dates to the late 1600's (or 17's)

Arnold wrote in the later 1800's.

The article next states philistine was in common usage in England by 1820.

It seems to me that 1820 is before Arnold?

Should the origin of usage be adjusted? Iwasking (talk) 18:20, 11 April 2024 (UTC)

 * 1689 for the German Jena university story. Iwasking (talk) 18:21, 11 April 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Philistinism


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Tura

Tura may refer to:

Places

 * India
 * Tura, Meghalaya, a municipality in India
 * Tura (Lok Sabha constituency), a parliamentary constituency in Meghalaya State
 * Roman Catholic Diocese of Tura, in Tura, Meghalaya

 * Russia
 * Tura, Russia, several rural localities
 * Tura Airport, a small airport in Krasnoyarsk Krai
 * Tura (river), a tributary of the Tobol in the Ural Mountains and Siberia

 * Other
 * Tura Beach, New South Wales, a community in Australia
 * Tura, Egypt, a town in Cairo Governorate, Egypt
 * Tura, Hungary, a city in Pest County, Hungary
 * Tura, alternative name of Tarreh Bakhakh Pardis, a village in Khuzestan Province, Iran
 * Turá, a village and municipality in Slovakia

Other

 * Tura (name)
 * Tura language

title: Tura


text:
Red Rock River

The Red Rock River may refer to:

 * Red Rock River (Montana), US
 * Red Rock River (New South Wales) in New South Wales, Australia
 * Red Rock River (Ontario) in Ontario, Canada
 * Red Rock River (Kokang) in Kokang Special Region, Burma

title: Red Rock River


text:
Charles Ernest Gault

Charles Ernest Gault (September 19, 1861 – December 25, 1946) was a politician in Quebec, Canada.

He was born in Montreal, Canada East, and educated at the High School of Montreal.

He was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Quebec in a 1907 by-election in Montréal division no. 5, and was re-elected in 1908. He was elected in Montréal–Saint-Georges in 1912, 1916, 1919, 1923, 1927, 1931, and 1935. He lost in 1936 and retired from politics.

He served as Conservative leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly of Quebec from 1931 to 1932, after Conservative leader Camillien Houde lost the 1931 Quebec election and also failed to win a seat.

On November 7, 1932, the Conservative caucus chose Maurice Duplessis to be leader of the Opposition, replacing Gault. Duplessis was formally elected Conservative Party leader on October 4, 1933. On December 12, 1933, Gault was expelled from the Conservative caucus and sat as an independent. He was re-elected in the 1935 election as a Conservative, but in his unsuccessful election bid in 1936 he ran as an independent Conservative candidate and lost to Gilbert Layton of the Union Nationale, which had been formed from the merger of the now-defunct Conservative Party of Quebec and the short-lived Action libérale nationale.

title: Charles Ernest Gault


text:
User:Skyshadow

I grew up in Wisconsin, and I have a degree in history. I have done quite a bit of research into family farm life in the cutover region of the Wisconsin timber area in the second half of the 19th century.

I'm a computer geek by trade.

title: User:Skyshadow


text:
Waterstones

Waterstones Booksellers Limited, trading as Waterstones (formerly Waterstone's), is a British book retailer that operates 311 shops, mainly in the United Kingdom and also other nearby countries. , it employs around 3,500 staff in the UK and Europe. An average-sized Waterstones shop sells a range of approximately 30,000 individual books, as well as stationery and other related products.

Established in 1982 by Tim Waterstone, after whom the company was named, the bookseller expanded rapidly until being sold in 1993 to WHSmith. In 1998, Waterstones was bought by a consortium of Waterstone, EMI and Advent International. The company was taken under the umbrella of HMV Group, which later merged the Dillons and Ottakar's brands into the company. Following several poor sets of results for the group, HMV put the chain up for sale. In May 2011, it was announced that A&NN Capital Fund Management, owned by Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut, had bought the chain for £53.5m and appointed James Daunt as managing director. The company is incorporated in England and Wales as Waterstones Booksellers Ltd, with its registered office at 203–206 Piccadilly, London (which is also the location of its flagship shop).

Waterstones also owns Hodges Figgis (the oldest bookshop in Ireland, founded in 1768), Hatchards (the oldest bookshop in the UK, founded in 1797), and Foyles (a chain of seven bookshops in England).

In April 2018, hedge fund Elliott Management Corporation bought a majority stake in the company.

The bookseller has concession agreements with Paperchase and previously with coffee chains Costa Coffee and Starbucks in some shops, but since 2012 has introduced its own Café W brand. For a time, Waterstones sold e-readers, including in 2012 partnering with Amazon to sell the Amazon Kindle, but has since pulled out of this market for commercial reasons.

Waterstones administers and supports various literary awards, including the Children's Laureate award and the Waterstones Children's Book Prize.

Formation & WHSmith: 1982–1998
The chain was founded by Tim Waterstone after he took a £6,000 redundancy payout from WHSmith. He set up his first shop in Old Brompton Road, Kensington with the ambition of creating a 'different breed of bookshop', using techniques he had seen in the United States. He used literary authors in front of shop displays and employed highly literate staff.

The model proved successful and the chain set about expanding its shop portfolio. In 1990 WHSmith took a strong minority stake in the chain, and ten years after its birth, by 1992, Waterstone's had grown to be the largest bookseller group in Europe. WHSmith then acquired the company in 1993 at an enterprise value of £47m, paying £5.27 a share on 8.1m 10p shares, a 53x multiple for the early-stage investors. Under WHSmith, Waterstones pursued international expansion, opening its first US shop in Boston in 1991, as well as further domestic expansion—opening its 100th UK shop in a former chapel in Reading.

The chain was part of the eventual dismantling of the Net Book Agreement, when in 1991, following a promotion by then-rivals Dillons, the company decided to pursue its own discounting promotion on selected titles. By 1997, the agreement had collapsed and been declared illegal.

HMV Group: 1998–2011

Following an attempt by Tim Waterstone in 1997 to buy the entire WHSmith group, WHSmith sold the Waterstones chain for £300 million to HMV Media plc (now HMV Group)—a joint venture between EMI, Advent International and Tim Waterstone. This included high street brands HMV and rival Dillons, creating an international entertainment retailer. Waterstone was appointed chairman of the group but stood down in 2001, citing "concerns for the way the company was being run" and was replaced by Alan Giles. A year later, all Dillons shops were rebranded as Waterstones, with some sold to rival Ottakar's making the brand defunct. The chain had also begun pulling out of its US overseas venture.

Waterstones launched the Waterstones Books Quarterly magazine in 2001, containing book reviews and author interviews. In the same year the booksellers' online operation, Waterstones.co.uk, was franchised to Amazon.com, with the company expressing a desire "to concentrate on its high street and campus shops". The move resulted in the loss of 50 jobs. In 2003, Waterstones announced it was supporting Dyslexia Action as its chosen charity, helping to raise awareness and understanding for dyslexia.

In 2006 Giles stepped down from his position and was replaced by Gerry Johnson as managing director of Waterstones and Simon Fox as group CEO. In April 2006 following two bids by Permira for the group, Tim Waterstone attempted to buy back the company from HMV for £256 million, but later withdrew his offer specifying the conditions set by HMV were "too punitive" to accept. A strategic review in September saw Waterstones pull out of its franchise agreement with Amazon to re-launch its online business, Waterstones.com, independently. The chain also began to pilot a loyalty programme in South West England and Wales. The scheme was successful, launching nationally as The Waterstones Card across its entire shop portfolio.

Waterstones piloted a brand refresh exercise in selected shops, beginning with Manchester's Arndale Centre in 2007. On 19 November 2007, the chain closed its first branch on Old Brompton Road. Following a consultation, the company's supply chain was overhauled in 2008 with the implementation of a 150000 ft2 warehouse and distribution centre in Burton-upon-Trent. Existing direct-to-store deliveries from suppliers were replaced by a centralised warehouse capable of receiving merchandise and sorting an estimated 70 million books per year and 200 staff were made redundant by the process. In September 2008, Waterstones began selling the Sony Reader in an agreement which saw the booksellers' branches and Sony Centre shops stock the reader exclusively for two weeks after its release. Waterstones.com began to supply e-books in the .epub format. In November 2009, Waterstones moved into second-hand bookselling in a partnership with Alibris setting up an online reselling tool called Waterstones Marketplace, part of Waterstones.com.

In January 2010, HMV Group announced that Waterstones like-for-like sales over the Christmas period were down 8.5 per cent on the previous year. This culminated in the resignation of managing director Gerry Johnson with immediate effect. He was replaced by development director Dominic Myers, who was managing director of the British academic bookselling chain Blackwells until 2005. Myers joined HMV in 2006 to oversee the integration of Ottakar's into the chain. In response to the decline in sales, he implemented a three-year plan in which branches were tailored to their local market alongside a 'rejuvenation' of the company brand and an increase in range. As part of these changes, Waterstones implemented new branding in May 2010, developed by agency VentureThree. The company also moved to support the Rainbow Trust, which provides support to children with life-threatening and terminal illnesses and their families, in the same year.

After an announcement that profits would be at the lower end of analysts' forecasts due to falling sales and a share price fall of 20%, HMV Group indicated its intention to close a number of Waterstones branches in January 2011. These shop closures, including two in Dublin, Republic of Ireland and nine others across the United Kingdom occurred in February 2011. Further branch closures in Luton, Dorking, Lancaster University, Harrods, Gateshead and Norwich Arcade were completed by the end of 2011.

Alexander Mamut & James Daunt: 2011–present
In May 2011 HMV Group announced the sale of Waterstones to A&NN Capital Fund Management, a fund controlled by Russian businessman Alexander Mamut for £53 million. The takeover was welcomed by publishers as "a step forward to re-establishing a proper physical presence". On 29 June 2011, the sale of Waterstones was completed and approved by the vast majority of shareholders at an emergency general meeting. Mamut appointed James Daunt, founder of Daunt Books, as managing director and a board of directors was announced in October 2011 including Miranda Curtis as chairman. In September 2011, the bookseller announced that it intended to drop its 3-for-2 deal on books after a decade. The offer was replaced with a 'bespoke offer', based on branches choosing their own pricing structures from available discounts.

In January 2012, the company announced that it would be moving away from the branding developed in 2010 by agency VentureThree, and reverting to its original logo. This involved the removal of the apostrophe from its name because, James Daunt argued, "Waterstones without an apostrophe is, in a digital world of URLs and email addresses, a more versatile and practical spelling". This decision received media coverage, in which the company was subject to criticism. John Richards, of the Apostrophe Protection Society, said that the change was "just plain wrong" and "grammatically incorrect" while the move sparked outrage on Twitter, involving debate on whether the move was grammatically incorrect or not. Linguist David Crystal on his blog added: " ... if Waterstone's wants to become Waterstones, that's up to the firm. It's nothing to do with expressing possession or plurality or anything to do with meaning."

In the same month, Waterstones confirmed plans to open a Russian-language bookshop in its Piccadilly branch, intending to stock 5,000 titles with the shop being entirely staffed of Russian-speaking booksellers. The concession, named The Russian Bookshop, opened in March 2012.

Following a decision in late 2011 to scrap an e-reading offer in-branch, it was announced in May 2012 that Waterstones would be selling the Amazon Kindle across its estate. James Daunt launched the new agreement with Amazon stating that Waterstones would be offering "e-reading services and offer Kindle digital devices" throughout the company's branches and on its website, with an intention to "make the Kindle experience better". This announcement was received with surprise across the book industry as it had been suggested that Waterstones was developing a partnership with Barnes & Noble to launch the Nook in the UK, or that the company was developing its own device, but Daunt "ultimately rejected" other avenues as Waterstones "would have been out of the market" before their implementation.

It was also announced in May 2012 that the company would begin a refurbishment plan, with Mamut "investing tens of millions of pounds" to fund the refit of a planned 100 shops before the end of the year. The plan saw the introduction of wi-fi into shops, reorganisation of shop sections and space dedicated areas for Kindle devices, and a number of own-brand coffee shops called Café W. The Café W brand was trialled in the Sutton branch, with an expressed aim for around 130 shops over a 3-year period to be fitted with a café. The announcement also noted the introduction of a 'click-and-collect' service.

The Amazon Kindle officially launched in-branch in October 2012 with an "outdoor and press advertising campaign" promoting the launch, with the Kindle Fire and Kindle Paperwhite model going on sale for the first time in the UK along with older models. The Kindles were tailored with Waterstones screensavers, which led to some complaints and customers attempting to return their devices. The release of the Kindle coincided with a relaunch of the company's brand in the same month, pushing the message that the chain was the 'nation's leading bookshop' and producing an exclusive anthology, the Waterstones Red Anthology, to help promote the shops.

By the end of 2012, the Waterstones estate had shrunk to 288 shops, with "commercial reasons" given for the closure of branches in Bromsgrove, Stevenage, Watford, Fleet Street, High Holborn and Epsom among others, with staff being redeployed where possible. In 2012, Daunt stated that future expansion was being considered, based on the performance of the company. The accounts for the year to 2012 showed Waterstones, prior- and post-acquisition had made losses of £37.3 million.

Started in 2012 was an overhaul of the company's business strategy, with centralised decision making giving way to shop-based decisions and a renewed emphasis on traditional bookselling techniques. Waterstones embarked on a major restructuring of staffing levels, with a company-wide consultation with 560 managerial staff to subsequently reduce roles within the company. This consultation led to Head Office staff departures and around 200 branch and regional managers leaving their posts. Waterstones launched a number of new partnerships through the year, including with the University of Derby to launch a professional qualification programme for its staff, with the Folio Society to extend customer reach and stock selection in London-based bookshops, and partnering with a new charity, BookTrust. By the end of 2013, Waterstones had cut its losses to £12.2 million, opened 12 further Café W outlets, and embarked on a capital investment in its shop portfolio of £29.5 million.

In 2014, they opened new shops in Ringwood, Blackburn and Southwold, its first branch to be without Waterstones branding, as well as closing shops in Eastleigh and St Neots. Continued business strategy change saw further departures from head office in brand communication and PR and a renewed agency contract for Waterstones' digital marketing with Epiphany. The retailer overhauled its business technology with new algorithms on its website to help personalise the online shopping experience, updated point-of-sale IT and by introducing contactless payment in its shops. The retailer partnered with Airbnb to hold a one-off 'sleepover' for customers in its Piccadilly branch in October 2014 after a customer was accidentally trapped in the Trafalgar Square branch after closing. Accounts for 2014 saw operating income losses narrow to £3.8 million, but sales slip by 5.9%.

The ongoing strategic changes made to the way the business operates included the decision in October 2015, after 3 years on sale in shops, to remove the Kindle from its offer following "pitiful" sales and handing the retail space over to books. This was followed, after a failed attempt to buy BlinkBox books from Tesco in January 2015, with Waterstones announcing it had sold its e-book business to Rakuten Kobo Inc. in May 2016, subsequently directing customers who had purchased e-books through the retailer to access their e-books via Kobo's eBook site. This sale represented an exit from the e-book and e-reader market for Waterstones after 8 years and multiple platforms.

The company partnered with Oxfam in 2015 to raise £1 million for those impacted by the Syrian civil war crisis through a nationwide campaign called 'Buy Books for Syria'. Further changes to shops were made in 2015, with the closure of Wimbledon and Birmingham New Street, the opening of The Rye Bookshop and a return to Welwyn Garden City. The company reported an operating income of £5.4 million and a further narrowing of losses to £4.5 million from £18.8 million the previous year.

In a 2016 interview with Daunt, he stated that Amazon "defines how Waterstones acts" and while Waterstones could not compete with the internet retailer digitally, it could offer a credible alternative, believing there was "a future in physical bookselling." Waterstones continued to look at "fixing the basics" during 2016, such as adjusting shop opening hours and harnessing data from the loyalty card as well as refurbishment of physical shops, including the Canterbury branch, and work on its e-commerce routes through improvements to product ranking. Shops in Oxford Street Plaza, Edinburgh George Street and Reading Oracle were closed, Harpenden Books, Glasgow Fort and Tottenham Court Road were opened and Wimbledon and Watford were reopened in new sites. The newly opened shops benefitted from a refreshed brand look, widely welcomed by the book trade. The retailer renewed its partnership with Oxfam to continue to raise money for the Syrian crisis, donating £5 for each 'Book of the Month' sold in-shop during November 2016. Daunt made public his concern that the UK EU referendum was likely to impact on company sales due to an expected retail downturn following a 'no' vote. He later noted that sales had remained 'buoyant' following the decision to leave the EU, but remained pessimistic for the future.

Accounts show that Waterstones made its first profit in 7 years of £11.7 million in the year ending April 2016. This included increased profits in Ireland, with sales rising 7% over the year, with the company expressing a desire to open more shops in Ireland. The management board was reduced from 7 members to 3 in August 2016, with the departure of Miranda Curtis and a statement that the future composition was under review. Waterstones announced it had raised £300,000 for BookTrust in 3 years since partnering, and would continue the partnership for a fourth year.

In April 2018, hedge fund Elliott Management Corporation bought a majority stake in the company, leaving Alexander Mamut's Lynwood Investments with a minority holding. The sale completed in early June 2018. Daunt remained as chief executive.

In 2021, an article in The Bookseller reported that Waterstones were planning a collaboration with Next to have Waterstones within some Next stores. In April 2022, a new Waterstones within Next in Martlesham, Ipswich was announced.

In 2022, Waterstones purchased Blackwell's, the largest independent bookstore in the UK, for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition was done under US hedge fund Elliott Investment Management.

Dillons (including Hatchards)
Acquired in 1995 by the Thorn EMI group, Dillons was the UK's second-largest bookseller behind Waterstones and was the bookselling arm of EMI's retail division, which included HMV. Dillons had acquired Hatchards. Following the demerger of Thorn and EMI in 1996, the retail arm was divested from the EMI portfolio within a year and spun off into the HMV Media Group, an investment venture between EMI Group and Advent International private equity group. This venture included HMV, Dillons and Waterstones (the latter bought from WHSmith for £300 million), combining to make an international entertainment retailer of over 500 shops. Following a rebuffed takeover attempt in 1997 of WHSmith, Tim Waterstone became part of the deal and by May 1998, following the £801 million deal completion became chairman of the group. All Dillons shops were incorporated within the Waterstones brand by 1998.

Ottakar's
In September 2005 HMV Group began attempts to buy rival book chain Ottakar's. This alarmed publishers and authors who hoped the Office of Fair Trading would refer the takeover bid to the Competition Commission. In March 2006, the Competition Commission cleared Waterstones for takeover of the Ottakar's, stating the takeover would "not result in a substantial lessening of competition", and is "not likely to affect book prices, range of titles offered or quality of service." Through extensive research they also found that "contrary to widespread perception, Waterstones, like Ottakar's, operates a book-buying system which mixes central and local input on stock selection."

On 31 May 2006, Waterstones announced that it had successfully negotiated the takeover of Ottakar's. HMV chief executive Alan Giles said: "A combined Waterstones and Ottakar's business will create an exciting, quality bookseller, able to respond better to the increasingly competitive pressures of the retail market." Ottakar's chairman Philip Dunne said: "Over the last year the book market has undergone a significant change with new levels of competition from the supermarkets and online retailers impacting all specialist booksellers and in particular those with insufficient scale to compete on equal terms."

Following the takeover, HMV announced that they would be rebranding every branch of Ottakar's as a Waterstones. In July 2006, a conversion programme was initiated and within four months, every Ottakar's shop had been relaunched as a Waterstones and had seen the loss of 100 jobs.

Books Etc
In August 2008, the now-defunct Borders chain agreed to sell eight Books Etc. shops to Waterstones for an undisclosed sum. The takeover, which represented 34000 ft2 of retail space and incurred no staff losses, increased Waterstones' presence within London to almost 50 shops, "crucially [in] areas that are not represented by Waterstones bookshops". The shops, in Fleet Street, London Wall, Holborn, Wandsworth, Uxbridge, Finchley Road and Canary Wharf, were rebranded and merged into the Waterstones chain by September 2008.

Foyles
In September 2018, Waterstones confirmed it would buy 115-year-old Foyles, with seven stores whilst retaining the brand. James Daunt said the purchase would help "to protect and champion the pleasures of real bookshops in the face of Amazon's siren call".

Blackwell's
In February 2022, Waterstones acquired Blackwell's for an undisclosed sum.

Tax
Tim Waterstone and James Daunt have been critical of tax avoidance by Amazon.com in the British press. Amazon has received sustained scrutiny for the amount of its overall sales that are reported by its UK subsidiary, in comparison to those 'processed offshore in Luxembourg to avoid UK tax'. In the 2012–13 financial year, Amazon paid £3.2 million in tax on sales of £4.2 billion and received £2.5 million in grants from the government. In the same period, it was revealed that Waterstones paid £11.9 million in tax, despite an operating loss of £25.4 million and sales of £410.4 million.

In a report on tax avoidance in the book industry, the magazine Ethical Consumer argued that A&NN Capital Fund Management, Waterstones' parent company in Bermuda, "likely to be for tax avoidance purposes". In response to this, Waterstones issued a clarification on their website reading "As a UK registered and domiciled business, Waterstones fulfils all its tax obligations. This will include both the payment and reporting of all necessary UK taxes, as set out under UK tax legislation." In the 2013–14 financial period, the first full year under A&NN, Waterstones reported sales to Companies House of £398.5 million and an operating loss of £12.2 million.

Non-branded shops
Waterstones opened its first non-branded shop in Southwold, Suffolk in July 2014 called Southwold Books. The company decided not to use its branding as it wished to 'fit in' with the town's high proportion of independent retailers, but this move drew anger from local residents at the time as they viewed the move as "dishonest" and said that local shop rents were being increased because of retail chains moving in and this subsequently was "changing the character of the high street".

Non-branded Waterstones became an issue again in 2016 at a national level, following newspaper reports about not only Southwold Books but two further shops, The Rye Bookshop in Sussex and Harpenden Books in Hertfordshire, being opened and local residents not realising the connection with the retailer. Commentators were split on the ethics of the decision to open unbranded shops, but it was noted that at no point had attempts been made to hide the connection to the retailer. In interviews, James Daunt denied any "subterfuge" and said he wanted for the shops to behave as independent retailers do and have their own identity. He further stated that more unbranded shops were likely to open in the future.

Environmental impact
Waterstones has worked with the British Safety Council to consider its environmental impact, including factors beyond its carbon footprint. After a 2008 audit, the Council awarded Waterstones three out of a possible five stars for environmental impact.

Real living wage
, Waterstones does not pay the "real living wage", as recommended by the Living Wage Foundation, and a rate significantly higher than the official National Living Wage. More than 1,300 writers backed a campaign to ask Waterstones to pay the "real living wage". In response Waterstone managing director James Daunt said the company was "simply not profitable enough" and that "there's a long gap between wanting to do something and it being remotely sensible". Waterstones said that only Ikea, Majestic and Lush of other similar large retailers pay the "real living wage".

Awards
Waterstones maintains and supports various literary awards, including the Waterstones Children's Laureate, the Waterstones Children's Book Prize, the Waterstones Book of the Year, Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize and the Pushkin House Russian Book Prize, as well as now-defunct awards including the Waterstones 11 and the Guardian First Book Award. The company has also received various industry and consumer awards.

Book of the Year
The prize, which has been running since 2012, sees booksellers from across the company select a shortlist of books from any category, published at any time, before the winner is chosen by panel.

Children's Book Prize
Waterstones continued the Ottakar's Children's Book Prize under its own brand and since 2005, the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize has attempted "to uncover hidden talent in children's writing" by awarding authors with no more than two previously published books (adult or children's fiction).

Debut Fiction Prize
The Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize, established in 2022, is an annual literary award presented to the best debut fiction published in the previous 12 months.

Waterstones 11
Set up in 2011, the Waterstones 11 was created to promote debut literary fiction from new authors being published in the year ahead. Books were chosen from a list of 100 submitted by publishers, and were announced in January 2011 with in-shop and online support, as well as a media campaign for the final 11. The inaugural 11 included the Orange Prize Winner The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht, Man Booker Prize nominee Pigeon English, by Stephen Kelman and the Edinburgh International Book Festival First Book Award winner When God Was a Rabbit, by Sarah Winman. The last list was announced in January 2013, following the discontinuation of the prize in January 2014.

Locations
Waterstones has academic and high-street shops in Europe including in:
 * Great Britain (under the Waterstones and other brands throughout England, Scotland and Wales)
 * Ireland (under the Waterstones brand in Ballymena, Belfast, Coleraine, Cork, Craigavon, Derry, Drogheda, Enniskillen, Lisburn and Newry, and under the Hodges Figgis brand in Dublin)
 * The Isle of Man
 * Jersey
 * The Netherlands
 * Belgium

Some branches in the company occupy buildings of architectural and historical interest.

Flagship superstores

Its flagship shop on Piccadilly, formerly the Simpsons of Piccadilly department store and notable for its 1930s-Modernist architecture, is the largest shop in the Waterstones estate and claimed to be the largest bookshop in Europe. The main academic branch, formerly the flagship shop of Dillons, is located on Gower Street, between University College London and the Student Central, and promoted as Europe's largest academic bookshop. Aside from these branches, Waterstones operates a number of large shops which are set over multiple floors. Waterstones refers to these shops as 'superstores':
 * Piccadilly, London (formerly Simpsons of Piccadilly) – flagship branch with six floors and an estimated $8 1/2$ miles of shelving. In 2012, the head office of the company was moved to the shop.
 * Gower Street, London – academic branch with five floors and 5 miles of shelving
 * Sidney Street, Cambridge – set over four floors, and containing two cafes.
 * Albion Street, Leeds set over three floors
 * College Lane, Liverpool – two floors, including the largest open-plan floor of books in Europe.
 * Deansgate, Manchester – three floors, with over 100,000 books in stock.
 * Milsom Street, Bath – three floors, with over 55,000 books in stock.
 * La Scala Cinema, Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow – five floors, set in a former cinema
 * Bridlesmith Gate, Nottingham – five floors

Shops of architectural and historical interest
 * Hodges Figgis, Dublin (oldest bookshop in Ireland, founded in 1768)
 * Kalverstraat, Amsterdam, designed by Dutch architect Hendrick Petrus Berlage
 * Wool Exchange, Bradford
 * High Street, Birmingham, formerly Times Furniture Company
 * Dolphin & Anchor, West Street, Chichester,
 * West End Princes Street, Edinburgh
 * Corn Exchange, Lincoln,
 * Emerson Chambers, Newcastle upon Tyne
 * William Baker House, Cornmarket St, Oxford
 * Fishergate, Preston, formerly Booths grocery and head office
 * Broad Street, Reading, formerly Broad Street Independent Chapel
 * The Tontines Building, Parliament Row, Stoke-on-Trent
 * The Carlton Cinema, Swansea

title: Waterstones


text:
HMS Splendid

Two ships and two submarines of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Splendid.

 * HMS Splendid (1597) was listed in 1597, with an unknown fate.
 * HMS Splendid (1918) was an S-class destroyer, launched in 1918, and sold in 1931.
 * HMS Splendid (P228) was a S-class submarine, launched in 1942 and sunk in 1943 by a German destroyer.
 * HMS Splendid (S106) was a Swiftsure-class submarine nuclear-powered hunter killer submarine.

Battle honours
Ships named Splendid have earned the following battle honours:
 * Mediterranean, 1942
 * North Africa, 1942
 * Falkland Islands, 1982
 * The Gulf, 2003

title: HMS Splendid


text:
Madison River

The Madison River is a headwater tributary of the Missouri River, approximately 183 miles (295 km) long, in Wyoming and Montana. Its confluence with the Jefferson and Gallatin rivers near Three Forks, Montana forms the Missouri River.

The Madison rises in Teton County in northwestern Wyoming at the confluence of the Firehole and Gibbon rivers, a location in Yellowstone National Park called Madison Junction. It first flows west, then north through the mountains of southwestern Montana to join the Jefferson and the Gallatin rivers at Three Forks. The Missouri River Headwaters State Park is located on the Madison at Three Forks. In its upper reaches in Gallatin County, Montana, the Hebgen Dam forms Hebgen Lake. In its middle reaches in Madison County, Montana, the Madison Dam forms Ennis Lake and provides hydroelectric power. In 1959, the 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake formed Quake Lake just downstream from Hebgen Dam. Downstream from Ennis, the Madison flows through Bear Trap Canyon, known for its class IV-V whitewater. The Bear Trap Canyon section is part of the Lee Metcalf Wilderness area.

The river was named in July 1805 by Meriwether Lewis at Three Forks. The central fork of the three, it was named for U.S. Secretary of State James Madison, who later succeeded Thomas Jefferson as President in 1809. The western fork, the largest, was named for President Jefferson and the east fork for Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin.

The Madison is a class I river in Montana for the purposes of access for recreational use.

Fauna
The Madison River is widely regarded as one of the finest trout fisheries in the world. It is classified as a blue ribbon fishery in Montana, where fly fisherman target brown trout, rainbow trout, cutthroat trout, and mountain whitefish.

Grizzly bears and wolves reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park roam the river valley.

title: Madison River


text:
User:Lpw~enwiki

Hi,

I'm Laurent, born in 1974 in Neuchâtel (French-speaking part of Switzerland), where I spent most of my life until the age of 20. I am definitely in love with my home town and try to spend most of my week-ends there.

Education and work have brought me to spend some years in Missouri (United States) and Zurich (Switerland).

I currently live near the city of Thun (Switzerland).

I consider Wikipedia to be, both for its concept and realization, probably the best web site there is.

title: User:Lpw~enwiki