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Mikhail Fradkov

Mikhail Yefimovich Fradkov (Михаи́л Ефи́мович Фрадко́в; born 1 September 1950) is a Russian politician who served as Prime Minister of Russia from 2004 to 2007. An Independent, he was the longest serving director of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service from 2007 to 2016. Since 4 January 2017, Fradkov has been Director of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies.

The cabinet of Fradkov was the first government in the history of Russia that voluntarily resigned in accordance with part 1 of Article 117 of the constitution.

He has the federal state civilian service rank of 1st class Active State Councillor of the Russian Federation.

Early life
Fradkov was born near Samara to a family of Jewish origin on his father's side. He studied at both the Moscow Machine Tool Design (станкоинструментальный) Institute (graduated 1972) and the Foreign Trade Academy (graduated 1981). In 1973, he was posted to the economic section of the Soviet Union's embassy in India, where he remained for two years. He later held several positions back in Russia. In 1991, he was Russia's representative to General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in Geneva.

Political career
In late 1992, Fradkov was appointed Deputy Minister for Foreign Economic Relations. Less than a year later, in October 1993, he became First Deputy Minister for Foreign Economic Relations. On 15 April 1997, a presidential decree by Boris Yeltsin appointed Fradkov Minister of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade, a post which he kept for nearly a year. In the middle of 1999, another presidential decree made him Minister of Trade. He was made director of the Federal Tax Police by Vladimir Putin in 2001, having previously been Deputy Secretary of the Security Council. In 2003 he was made Russia's representative to the European Union. On 1 March 2004, he was nominated by Putin as the next prime minister, and this appointment was approved by the Duma on 5 March.

Fradkov's nomination as prime minister was a surprise to many observers, as he was not seen as part of Vladimir Putin's inner circle. Some commentators, such as the Carnegie Moscow Center's Lilia Shevtsova, have speculated that his "outsider" status might have been an important factor in his nomination, saying that Putin selected him as someone who was "not a representative of any of the warring clans" in the Kremlin. Former Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin, whom Fradkov has served under, called Fradkov "absolutely independent from any sort of political clan or group." Putin and his allies praised Fradkov as experienced, professional, and honest.

On 12 May 2004, Fradkov was appointed prime minister for the second time, as Vladimir Putin had won the presidential election and been inaugurated on 7 May (see also Mikhail Fradkov's Second Cabinet). On 12 September 2007 Fradkov announced his resignation to President Putin, which Putin accepted, nominating Viktor Zubkov as Fradkov's successor. Putin bestowed an award on Fradkov and said that he would remain in office until the confirmation of a successor by the Duma. Zubkov was confirmed on 14 September 2007.

On 6 October 2007, President Putin announced that he would appoint Fradkov as head of the Foreign Intelligence Service.

Fradkov's appointment as head of the Foreign Intelligence Service, combined with his service in India, are suggestive of a KGB background. This calls into question earlier assumptions that he was an "outsider" in Kremlin circles and provides an explanation for Putin's trust in him.

In November 2010, reports emerged that one of Fradkov's intelligence officers, a Colonel Shcherbakov, had defected to the United States on 21 June 2010, having betrayed a Russian spy ring in the United States. Critics alleged that the suspicions that Shcherbakov was a double agent which emerged when Shcherbakov turned down a promotion requiring a lie detector test should have been followed up more aggressively. Shcherbakov also had a daughter in the United States. Kommersant, which broke the story, speculated that Fradkov might be replaced by Sergei Naryshkin and/or Russian intelligence services reorganized.

Pavel Fradkov, the son of Mikhail Fradkov, is a deputy head of the state property watchdog Rosimushchestvo.

Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation (2004-2007)
Replacing his predecessor Mikhail Kasyanov in March 2004, Fradkov took over as Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation.

In early March 2004, the State Duma overwhelmingly agreed to the appointment of Mikhail Fradkov as Chairman of the Government: he was supported by the United Russia and LDPR factions, as well as some of the deputies from the Motherland, and opposed by the Communist Party faction. Of the non-parliamentary parties, Fradkov's candidacy was supported by the Union of Right Forces, noting his experience in the government in various areas and international authority, thanks to his work as Russian Plenipotentiary Envoy to the European Union.

According to many analysts, he was the so-called "technical prime minister" who did not pursue an independent policy. All key decisions were made by the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, said Alexei Makarkin, deputy general director of the Center for Political Technologies.

The following steps marked the activities of the Fradkov government:
 * administrative reform (reorganization of government departments) (2004);
 * "Monetization of social benefits" - the replacement of in-kind social benefits with monetary compensation, caused protests in early 2005 (2004);
 * Start of implementation of the project "affordable and comfortable housing for the citizens of Russia";
 * Start of implementation of the National Project "Health";
 * Start of implementation of the National Project "Education";
 * Commencement of the housing and communal services reform aimed at attracting businesses to the housing and communal services sector, housing construction development, and mortgages. As a result, at the time of the resignation of the government, about 15% of Russians could afford a mortgage, commercial structures did not actively work in the housing and communal services sector;
 * EGAIS (Unified State Automated Information System, N 102-FZ dated 21 July 2005) was implemented to automate state control over the production volume and turnover of ethyl alcohol and alcoholic and alcohol-containing products. The introduction was accompanied by technical problems that caused an alcohol crisis in the first half of 2006.

On 14 November 2005, Vladimir Putin introduced two new positions in the government, further curtailing the prime minister's powers. Head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev became the first deputy chairman in charge of the implementation of the so-called National Priority Projects, and the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Sergei Ivanov became the deputy chairman in charge of defense and the military-industrial complex.

In 2006, Fradkov received an income of 2.59 million rubles, which increased from 2005 (1.8 million) by 44%.

On 12 September 2007, at a meeting with the President of the Russian Federation, Fradkov was asked to resign the government, motivating it as follows: "Understanding the ongoing political processes today, I would like you to have complete freedom in choosing decisions, including personnel. And, I think that it would be right, on my part, to come up with the initiative to vacate the post of Prime Minister so that you have no restrictions in decision-making and arranging, here, the power configuration in connection with the upcoming political events."

The President accepted the government's resignation and thanked Fradkov for the results achieved in his work. Putin noted such achievements of the government as reasonable economic growth rates, lower inflation, growth in real incomes of the population, and the launch of major social projects. At the same time, the President offered Fradkov to act as chairman of the government until the State Duma approved the candidacy of a new prime minister.

According to a poll by the Public Opinion Foundation conducted after Fradkov's resignation from the post of Prime Minister, the majority of Russians could not name any achievements (80%) or failures (75%) in the activities of the former prime minister in his post. In November 2005, British experts predicted the departure of Mikhail Fradkov from the post of prime minister.

Sanctions
In April 2018, the United States imposed sanctions on him and 23 other Russian nationals.

Sanctioned by the UK government in 2022 in relation to Russo-Ukrainian War.

Honours and awards

 * Order of Merit for the Fatherland;
 * 1st class (12 September 2007) – for outstanding contribution to the socio-economic policy
 * 2nd class (1 September 2005) – for his great personal contribution to the state's economic policy, and many years of honest work
 * Order of Honour
 * Medal "In Commemoration of the 850th Anniversary of Moscow"
 * Medal "For Valiant Labour. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of Lenin's birth"
 * Fellow Russian counter-intelligence – the strengthening of ties between the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and the Federal Counterintelligence Service

title: Mikhail Fradkov


text:
Turbo code

In information theory, turbo codes (originally in French Turbocodes) are a class of high-performance forward error correction (FEC) codes developed around 1990–91, but first published in 1993. They were the first practical codes to closely approach the maximum channel capacity or Shannon limit, a theoretical maximum for the code rate at which reliable communication is still possible given a specific noise level. Turbo codes are used in 3G/4G mobile communications (e.g., in UMTS and LTE) and in (deep space) satellite communications as well as other applications where designers seek to achieve reliable information transfer over bandwidth- or latency-constrained communication links in the presence of data-corrupting noise. Turbo codes compete with low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes, which provide similar performance (but are patent-free).

The name "turbo code" arose from the feedback loop used during normal turbo code decoding, which was analogized to the exhaust feedback used for engine turbocharging. Hagenauer has argued the term turbo code is a misnomer since there is no feedback involved in the encoding process.

History
The fundamental patent application for turbo codes was filed on 23 April 1991. The patent application lists Claude Berrou as the sole inventor of turbo codes. The patent filing resulted in several patents including US Patent 5,446,747, which expired 29 August 2013.

The first public paper on turbo codes was "Near Shannon Limit Error-correcting Coding and Decoding: Turbo-codes". This paper was published 1993 in the Proceedings of IEEE International Communications Conference. The 1993 paper was formed from three separate submissions that were combined due to space constraints. The merger caused the paper to list three authors: Berrou, Glavieux, and Thitimajshima (from Télécom Bretagne, former ENST Bretagne, France). However, it is clear from the original patent filing that Berrou is the sole inventor of turbo codes and that the other authors of the paper contributed material other than the core concepts.

Turbo codes were so revolutionary at the time of their introduction that many experts in the field of coding did not believe the reported results. When the performance was confirmed a small revolution in the world of coding took place that led to the investigation of many other types of iterative signal processing.

The first class of turbo code was the parallel concatenated convolutional code (PCCC). Since the introduction of the original parallel turbo codes in 1993, many other classes of turbo code have been discovered, including serial concatenated convolutional codes and repeat-accumulate codes. Iterative turbo decoding methods have also been applied to more conventional FEC systems, including Reed–Solomon corrected convolutional codes, although these systems are too complex for practical implementations of iterative decoders. Turbo equalization also flowed from the concept of turbo coding.

In addition to turbo codes, Berrou also invented recursive systematic convolutional (RSC) codes, which are used in the example implementation of turbo codes described in the patent. Turbo codes that use RSC codes seem to perform better than turbo codes that do not use RSC codes.

Prior to turbo codes, the best constructions were serial concatenated codes based on an outer Reed–Solomon error correction code combined with an inner Viterbi-decoded short constraint length convolutional code, also known as RSV codes.

In a later paper, Berrou gave credit to the intuition of "G. Battail, J. Hagenauer and P. Hoeher, who, in the late 80s, highlighted the interest of probabilistic processing." He adds "R. Gallager and M. Tanner had already imagined coding and decoding techniques whose general principles are closely related," although the necessary calculations were impractical at that time.

An example encoder
There are many different instances of turbo codes, using different component encoders, input/output ratios, interleavers, and puncturing patterns. This example encoder implementation describes a classic turbo encoder, and demonstrates the general design of parallel turbo codes.

This encoder implementation sends three sub-blocks of bits. The first sub-block is the m-bit block of payload data. The second sub-block is n/2 parity bits for the payload data, computed using a recursive systematic convolutional code (RSC code). The third sub-block is n/2 parity bits for a known permutation of the payload data, again computed using an RSC code. Thus, two redundant but different sub-blocks of parity bits are sent with the payload. The complete block has m + n bits of data with a code rate of m/(m + n). The permutation of the payload data is carried out by a device called an interleaver.

Hardware-wise, this turbo code encoder consists of two identical RSC coders, C1 and C2, as depicted in the figure, which are connected to each other using a concatenation scheme, called parallel concatenation:

In the figure, M is a memory register. The delay line and interleaver force input bits dk to appear in different sequences. At first iteration, the input sequence dk appears at both outputs of the encoder, xk and y1k or y2k due to the encoder's systematic nature. If the encoders C1 and C2 are used in n1 and n2 iterations, their rates are respectively equal to

 * $$\begin{align}

~R_1 &= \frac{n_1 + n_2}{2n_1 + n_2}\\ ~R_2 &= \frac{n_1 + n_2}{n_1 + 2n_2} \end{align}$$

The decoder
The decoder is built in a similar way to the above encoder. Two elementary decoders are interconnected to each other, but in series, not in parallel. The $$\textstyle DEC_1$$ decoder operates on lower speed (i.e., $$\textstyle R_1$$), thus, it is intended for the $$\textstyle C_1$$ encoder, and $$\textstyle DEC_2$$ is for $$\textstyle C_2$$ correspondingly. $$\textstyle DEC_1$$ yields a soft decision which causes $$\textstyle L_1$$ delay. The same delay is caused by the delay line in the encoder. The $$\textstyle DEC_2$$'s operation causes $$\textstyle L_2$$ delay.

An interleaver installed between the two decoders is used here to scatter error bursts coming from $$\textstyle DEC_1$$ output. DI block is a demultiplexing and insertion module. It works as a switch, redirecting input bits to $$\textstyle DEC_1$$ at one moment and to $$\textstyle DEC_2$$ at another. In OFF state, it feeds both $$\textstyle y_{1k}$$ and $$\textstyle y_{2k}$$ inputs with padding bits (zeros).

Consider a memoryless AWGN channel, and assume that at k-th iteration, the decoder receives a pair of random variables:

 * $$\begin{align}

~x_k &= (2d_k - 1) + a_k\\ ~y_k &= 2( Y_k - 1) + b_k \end{align}$$

where $$\textstyle a_k$$ and $$\textstyle b_k$$ are independent noise components having the same variance $$\textstyle \sigma^2$$. $$\textstyle Y_k$$ is a k-th bit from $$\textstyle y_k$$ encoder output.

Redundant information is demultiplexed and sent through DI to $$\textstyle DEC_1$$ (when $$\textstyle y_k = y_{1k}$$) and to $$\textstyle DEC_2$$ (when $$\textstyle y_k = y_{2k}$$).

$$\textstyle DEC_1$$ yields a soft decision; i.e.:

 * $$\Lambda(d_k) = \log\frac{p(d_k = 1)}{p(d_k = 0)}$$

and delivers it to $$\textstyle DEC_2$$. $$\textstyle \Lambda(d_k)$$ is called the logarithm of the likelihood ratio (LLR). $$\textstyle p(d_k = i),\, i \in \{0, 1\}$$ is the a posteriori probability (APP) of the $$\textstyle d_k$$ data bit which shows the probability of interpreting a received $$\textstyle d_k$$ bit as $$\textstyle i$$. Taking the LLR into account, $$\textstyle DEC_2$$ yields a hard decision; i.e., a decoded bit.

It is known that the Viterbi algorithm is unable to calculate APP, thus it cannot be used in $$\textstyle DEC_1$$. Instead of that, a modified BCJR algorithm is used. For $$\textstyle DEC_2$$, the Viterbi algorithm is an appropriate one.

However, the depicted structure is not an optimal one, because $$\textstyle DEC_1$$ uses only a proper fraction of the available redundant information. In order to improve the structure, a feedback loop is used (see the dotted line on the figure).

Soft decision approach
The decoder front-end produces an integer for each bit in the data stream. This integer is a measure of how likely it is that the bit is a 0 or 1 and is also called soft bit. The integer could be drawn from the range [−127, 127], where:
 * −127 means "certainly 0"
 * −100 means "very likely 0"
 * 0 means "it could be either 0 or 1"
 * 100 means "very likely 1"
 * 127 means "certainly 1"

This introduces a probabilistic aspect to the data-stream from the front end, but it conveys more information about each bit than just 0 or 1.

For example, for each bit, the front end of a traditional wireless-receiver has to decide if an internal analog voltage is above or below a given threshold voltage level. For a turbo code decoder, the front end would provide an integer measure of how far the internal voltage is from the given threshold.

To decode the m + n-bit block of data, the decoder front-end creates a block of likelihood measures, with one likelihood measure for each bit in the data stream. There are two parallel decoders, one for each of the $n/2$-bit parity sub-blocks. Both decoders use the sub-block of m likelihoods for the payload data. The decoder working on the second parity sub-block knows the permutation that the coder used for this sub-block.

Solving hypotheses to find bits
The key innovation of turbo codes is how they use the likelihood data to reconcile differences between the two decoders. Each of the two convolutional decoders generates a hypothesis (with derived likelihoods) for the pattern of m bits in the payload sub-block. The hypothesis bit-patterns are compared, and if they differ, the decoders exchange the derived likelihoods they have for each bit in the hypotheses. Each decoder incorporates the derived likelihood estimates from the other decoder to generate a new hypothesis for the bits in the payload. Then they compare these new hypotheses. This iterative process continues until the two decoders come up with the same hypothesis for the m-bit pattern of the payload, typically in 15 to 18 cycles.

An analogy can be drawn between this process and that of solving cross-reference puzzles like crossword or sudoku. Consider a partially completed, possibly garbled crossword puzzle. Two puzzle solvers (decoders) are trying to solve it: one possessing only the "down" clues (parity bits), and the other possessing only the "across" clues. To start, both solvers guess the answers (hypotheses) to their own clues, noting down how confident they are in each letter (payload bit). Then, they compare notes, by exchanging answers and confidence ratings with each other, noticing where and how they differ. Based on this new knowledge, they both come up with updated answers and confidence ratings, repeating the whole process until they converge to the same solution.

Performance
Turbo codes perform well due to the attractive combination of the code's random appearance on the channel together with the physically realisable decoding structure. Turbo codes are affected by an error floor.

Practical applications using turbo codes
Telecommunications:
 * Turbo codes are used extensively in 3G and 4G mobile telephony standards; e.g., in HSPA, EV-DO and LTE.
 * MediaFLO, terrestrial mobile television system from Qualcomm.
 * The interaction channel of satellite communication systems, such as DVB-RCS and DVB-RCS2.
 * Recent NASA missions such as Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter use turbo codes as an alternative to Reed–Solomon error correction-Viterbi decoder codes.
 * IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), a wireless metropolitan network standard, uses block turbo coding and convolutional turbo coding.

Bayesian formulation
From an artificial intelligence viewpoint, turbo codes can be considered as an instance of loopy belief propagation in Bayesian networks.

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

title: Turbo code


text:
Curse of the ninth

The curse of the ninth is a superstition connected with the history of classical music. It is the belief that a ninth symphony is destined to be a composer's last and that the composer will be fated to die while or after writing it, or before completing a tenth.

History
The curse of the ninth superstition originated in the late-Romantic period of classical music. According to Arnold Schoenberg, the superstition began with Gustav Mahler, who, after writing his Eighth Symphony, wrote Das Lied von der Erde, which, while structurally a symphony, was able to be disguised as a song cycle, each movement being a setting of a poem for soloist and orchestra. Then he wrote his Ninth Symphony and thought he had beaten the curse, but died with his Tenth Symphony incomplete.

This superstition, however, was only hatched by Mahler. Before him, Beethoven and Schubert had died before or while writing their tenth symphonies. Upon realizing this, Mahler created the curse of the ninth and led this superstition into popularity by seemingly proving it true. This superstition has, however, lost popularity, and while it is spoken about, proof of it has not happened recently as it did in the era of Beethoven and Mahler. As Maddy Shaw Roberts writes, "The Curse of the Nine is a great story, and it probably fueled a lot of the angst behind Mahler’s heart-wrenching symphonies. But perhaps it’s best to treat it as a superstition."

After Beethoven, Schubert, and Mahler, some composers cited as examples of the curse include:
 * Malcolm Arnold
 * Kurt Atterberg
 * Anton Bruckner (he completed 10 symphonies, but "Study Symphony" and "Symphony No.0" are not counted)
 * Antonín Dvořák (only 5 of his symphonies were known during his lifetime)
 * Niels Gade
 * Alexander Glazunov
 * David Maslanka
 * Vincent Persichetti
 * Alfred Schnittke
 * Roger Sessions
 * Ralph Vaughan Williams
 * Boris Tishchenko

In 2012, composer Philip Glass stated, "Everyone is afraid to do a ninth. It is a jinx that people think about".

In popular culture
The curse of the ninth symphony was addressed in the sixth episode of the 19th season of the British crime series Midsomer Murders in 2018 and in the fifth episode of the ninth series of the British anthology series Inside No. 9, Curse of the Ninth (2024).

title: Curse of the ninth


text:
Reva (Swedish car)

Reva (according to some sources Reeva) was a series of cars made by Dan Werbin and Holger Brånby at Reva gård in Sweden in the mid-1960s. They were two seated coupé mid engined sports cars. The first one built in 1964, the Reva GT, was made with a fibreglass body on a VW Beetle chassis. It was followed by the Reva GT Mk1 powered with a VW 1200 engine and fitted with Porsche brakes. Three Mk1s were made. The Mk II model had more rounded shapes, but still used the VW Beetle chassis. The company produced and sold about 20 bodies, but no complete cars. For the 1968 Mk III they wanted to produce a more finished car. The body was made lower and wider and they no longer used the Beetle chassis, but had a custom made chassis made of steel tubes. The prototype was powered by a 3.5 litre Buick V8, the next was fitted with a 5.4 litre Chevrolet Corvette engine and number three had a 5.41 litre Oldsmobile V8. Then the rules for amateur built vehicles in Sweden changed and they had to end production.

Dan Werbin was hired by Volvo in 1970. In 1973 he became head of product planning at Volvo of America. He also worked on Volvo trucks and some of Volvo's concept cars like the Volvo VESC.

title: Reva (Swedish car)


text:
REVAi

The REVAi, known as G-Wiz in the United Kingdom, is a small micro electric car, made by the Indian manufacturer Reva Electric Car Company between 2001 and 2012. By late 2013 Reva had sold about 4,600 vehicles worldwide, in 26 countries. Sales in the United Kingdom, its main market, ended by the end of 2011. Production ended in 2012 and the REVAi was replaced by the Mahindra e2o.

In many countries the REVAi does not meet the criteria to qualify as a highway-capable motor vehicle, and fits into other classes, such as neighborhood electric vehicle (NEV) in the United States and heavy quadricycle in Europe.

The vehicle was originally known as simply the REVA, but was then improved and renamed the REVAi.

Design
The REVAi is a small three-door hatchback measuring 2.6 m long, 1.3 m wide and 1.5 m high. The car can accommodate two adults in the front and two children in the rear. The back seats can be folded down to provide cargo space. The maximum passenger and cargo weight is 270 kg.

The REVAi is intended for city trips and commuting, particularly in congested traffic. It is registered in Europe as a heavy quadricycle (category L7). It may be exported to the United States, with a speed limiter that limits the speed to twenty five miles per hour, for use as a neighborhood electric vehicle (NEV).

First model
The first model, produced from 2001 to 2007, was simply called REVA (G-Wiz in the United Kingdom). Its power flowed through a 400 amp motor controller to a DC motor rated at 4.8 kW, with a maximum of 13.1 kW. Power came from eight 6 V, 200 Ah, lead-acid batteries located under the front seats and wired in series to create 48 V. This model did not have the strengthened chassis that allows subsequent models to pass a crash test at 40 km/h.

REVAi
In January 2008, a new model was introduced, the REVAi (G-Wiz i in the United Kingdom). It has an AC drive system, which raises the maximum speed to 80 km/h. The power flows through a 350 Amp motor controller to a 3-phase AC motor rated at 13 kW peak. Like the REVA, power comes from eight 6 V, 200 A h lead–acid batteries located under the front seats.

It has a "boost" switch that gives 40% extra torque for improved acceleration and hill climbing and increases the top speed to 80 km/h. It weighs 665 kg, including 270 kg batteries. The nominal range is 80 km, but driving fast or using the heater or air conditioner reduces the range. To address the previous safety concerns, and in conjunction with Lotus Engineering, several new safety features have been added, such as front disc brakes, a collapsible steering column, and a much revised and reinforced chassis that has been successfully crash tested at 40 km/h by ARAI in India.

REVA L-ion
In January 2009, a new model was launched, the REVA L-ion. It is similar to the REVAi, but powered by high performance lithium-ion batteries, which reduce the car's curb weight to 565 kg, offer greater acceleration, reduce charging time to six hours, and extend the nominal range to 120 km. The performance of these batteries is also less affected by variations in temperature.

An off-board charging station is available, which requires three phase power and gives a 90% charge in one hour. The REVA L-ion will also have a solar panel on the roof for harnessing solar energy.

Sales and price
The car was available in the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Bhutan, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, The Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jamaica, Malta, Monaco, Nigeria, Nepal, The Netherlands, Norfolk Islands, Norway, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Sweden, Ukraine, The United Arab Emirates, The United States, and the United Kingdom.

The different versions of the REVA sold about 4,600 vehicles worldwide by late 2013, and India was its main market, accounting for 55% of global sales, of which, 40% were in the Bangalore city, where Mahindra Reva is based. The UK was one of the leading markets, and the REVA G-Wiz (as it was marketed in the country) was the top selling electric car in Britain for several years, particularly in London.

Pricing in the United Kingdom started at approximately GB£9,995 for the standard model The G-Wiz qualifies for exemption from the London congestion charge due to being an electrically propelled vehicle. The REVA was also sold in other European countries, including Spain and Norway. In Costa Rica, the REVAi was launched in March 2009 and is sold for US$13,000. In the Chilean market was sold for US$12,000.
 * Pricing

The REVAi was available in the Republic of Ireland at a retail price of €11,500 for the REVA Standard and €17,500 for the better specified REVA Li-Ion.

REVA was sold for ₹ 350,000 (US$7,130) in India and has a "running cost of just 40 paise/km" (40 paise [0.08 US cent]/km), considering the Indian petrol price of US$1/liter.

Safety concerns
The REVA is exempt from most European crash test rules, because its low weight and power registers it in the European "heavy quadricycle" category instead of the "car" category.

The UK Department for Transport found "serious safety concerns" after crashing a now-discontinued G-Wiz at 56 km/h into a deformable barrier on 24 April 2007, which is part of the normal test for production cars. Likewise, a test commissioned by Top Gear Magazine that followed the Euro NCAP crash test specifications found that the occupants would suffer "serious or life-threatening" injuries in a 64 km/h (40 mph) crash.

In October 2010, a fatal accident in London occurred between a G-Wiz and a Škoda Octavia, with the driver of the G-Wiz, British scientist Judit Nadal, being killed. The coroner Andrew Walker was quoted as saying about the G-Wiz at the inquest: “What concerns me is that this vehicle was destroyed in this collision in a way that I have not seen a vehicle destroyed before” but he did not recommend further action regarding the vehicle's design. Mr Walker said he would be writing to Transport for London about making improvements to the safety of the junction. Subsequently, the government ordered an investigation into the safety of small electric vehicles.

Current REVAi and REVA L-ion models include several new safety features such as front disc brakes, a collapsible steering column, and a much revised and reinforced chassis that has been successfully crash tested in India by ARAI. A 40 km/h frontal crash test video of the new model is available online.

Reception and criticism
The REVAi has been panned by many critics, including criticisms that it is underpowered, unsafe, and ugly. The BBC programme Top Gear has consistently and incessantly lambasted the G-Wiz, named it the Worst Car of 2007 and then even blew it up later in the same episode; co-presenter James May referred to it as "the worst car for this year - and indeed for every other year whilst we have breath in our bodies — it is the most stupid, useless and dangerous car ever to stalk the earth. It is totally terrible, and disgusting."

In July 2004, The Independent reported Archie Norman owned a G-Wiz to commute around London, and outside London, he drove a Volkswagen Golf.

In October 2013, Top Gear Magazine placed the G-Wiz on its list of "The 13 worst cars of the last 20 years."

In December 2016, twenty G-Wiz vehicles were destroyed in an episode of The Grand Tour and continuing on the theme of lambasting the car, which the presenters started whilst working together on Top Gear.

title: REVAi


text:
Robert Seppings

Sir Robert Seppings, FRS (11 December 1767 – 25 April 1840) was an English naval architect. His experiments with diagonal trusses in the construction of ships led to his appointment as Surveyor of the Navy in 1813, a position he held until 1835.

Biography
Seppings was born to Robert Seppings (1734–1781) and his wife Lydia Milligen (1740–1821), at Fakenham, Norfolk, on 11 December 1767 and was baptised three days later. In 1782 he was apprenticed in Plymouth Dock. In 1800, when he had risen to be master shipwright assistant in the yard, he invented a device which greatly reduced the time required to repair the lower portions of ships in dry dock when compared with the laborious process of lifting then in vogue. His plan was to make the keel of the ship rest upon a series of supports placed on the floor of the dock and each consisting of three parts - two being wedges arranged one on each side of the keel at right angles to it, with their thin ends together, while the third was a vertical wedge fitting in and supported by the lower pair. The result was that it became possible in a comparatively short time to remove these supporting structures by knocking out the side wedges, when the workmen gained free access to the whole of the keel, the vessel remaining suspended by the shores. Soon, his creation became commonly known as "Seppings Blocks." For this invention Seppings received £1000 from the Admiralty, and in 1804 was promoted to be a master shipwright at Chatham. At Chatham, in spite of the repugnance to innovation displayed by the naval authorities of that period, he was able to introduce important innovations in the methods of ship-construction. Seppings innovations were probably influenced by the work of William May, shipbuilder for the Dutch Navy in Amsterdam and son of John May (shipwright). Quoted as saying "partial strength produces general weakness", Seppings significantly improved the strength and seaworthiness of the Navy's fleet. He improved the design of the bow and the stern, but his greatest influence on ship design was in the introduction of 'diagonal bracing' into the construction of the hull. He first experimented with the idea in 1800 when he retrofitted the frigate HMS Glenmore (1796) with the trusses. The method was first introduced to a ship of the line in 1805 with the refitting of the 74-gun HMS Kent (1798).

The use of the diagonal trusses greatly increased the stiffness of the hull, improving a ship's sea worthiness and, more importantly, allowing longer hulls to be built without the drawback of excessive hogging (drooping of the hull at the bow and stern, where buoyancy is at its lowest). This meant that the rigging had better anchor points to take the force of high cross-winds, while 'working' of the hull was lessened. Working was the term used for the result of shear forces along the hull in rough seas opening and closing the joints between hull planking. This caused the oakum caulking between the planks to become ineffective, thus leading to problematic leaking.

Seppings was also instrumental, along with other innovators, in the introduction of iron elements into ship construction, reducing the need for 'grown timbers', which were in increasingly short supply (grown timbers were structural elements, such as 'knees', that needed timber grown to shape in the living tree, in order to give the required strength).

These stronger designs offered better protection than the old forms to the crews against the enemy's fire, permitted a powerful armament to be fitted, and better allowed the ships to be kept on-station during bad weather, since the vessel would be more able to resist the stresses consequently reducing wear on the hull and subsequent leaks and salt water damage (especially insidious and dangerous to a ship where wood and iron were in contact).

Seppings was appointed joint Surveyor of the Navy alongside Joseph Tucker in 1813, and held that office till his retirement in 1832.

Seppings received a knighthood in 1819. He died at Taunton on 25 April 1840.

Family
In June 1795 he married Charlotte Milligen (1770–1834). They had six daughters and four sons.

title: Robert Seppings


text:
Talk:Das Lied von der Erde

NPOV
due to religious and social issues This famous anti-Semitic firing is mentioned like this at Wikipedia in order to be NPOV? Wetman 18:34, 1 Mar 2004 (UTC)

 * It's written like that because nobody has bothered to change it, I guess. --Camembert

Instrumentation
I played this last night, and fixed a couple of obvious errors in the instrumentation list here. In addition, there is one snare drum ("kl.tr.") roll in the Dover score - however, the drum is not mentioned in the list of instruments at the front of the score, and the publisher didn't sent us a part!

Also, the 3rd movement (two different editions of the score) specifies two piccolos, unison throughout. With deep respect for my flautist friends, there is an obvious intonation danger, and we only used one yesterday; I bet that's a common practice. David Brooks 18:19, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

Analysis
I'm not an expert on Mahler, but is not the analysis totally subject? At least cite some sources of reviews whereupon such an analysis is reached as the general consensus.

Analysis (2)
I meant "subjective". The analysis is totally subjective. This article is not told from a neutral point of view.

Ilike1954rcamodels 01:58, 18 October 2006 (UTC)ilike1954rcamodels

I Agree
This article is definitely far too opinionated and filled with original research. Of course, personally, I don't mind that sort of detail in an article since I believe that anyone should be able to tell when something is an opinion or not, and they can ignore it if they so please. I personally like having the opinion there in case someone does find it interesting, like me. Having said that, I recognize that such techniques are not consistent with wikipedia policy, a fact which takes precedence in the end. I probably wouldn't be bothering to join in here, however, if the article (no longer extant) that I began on the Song-Symphony hadn't been utterly lambasted with bouts of complaint about original research. I therefore feel that an article such as this, being (in my opinion) even worse than my own on the aforementioned subject, should certainly be subject to revision. Now after all of that ranting, I must sheepishly confess that I do not have the time currently to revise it myself (although if I did, I am sure that loads of ravenous critics would instantly tear my corrections to shreds just as they did my previous contributions). I will, however, post an uncyclopedic template on this article for the time being, in hopes that someone will take it upon their brave selves to actually do the dirty work. Finally, to the person that wrote the phrases to which we here object, I feel extreme sympathy for you, as I have experienced such criticism in the past. Unfortunately, however, the greater good must be served, and our opinions have no place here. Europus 01:12, 18 November 2006 (UTC)

Edits
I replaced the non-neutral material in the article's introduction with an actual definition of the piece. I only found this definition on a web page after searching for some time, however, and someone who has more reliable sources on hand should check it to verify its correctness. Thank you.

Europus 01:23, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

'Unencyclopedic'?!? Abysmal, more like!
This is probably the worst music-related article I have ever seen on wikipedia. It needs wholesale revision. I have provided a better opening paragraph, but do not currently have the time to work on the rest. The 'Origins' section, for a start, requires almost total recasting: as currently constructed it contains hardly anything that is worth keeping. Pfistermeister 06:45, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

Complaints
Yes, as others have observed, this article has some real problems: specifically, it contain copious amounts of subjective analysis which runs afoul of WP:NOR and/or WP:NPOV. Why, though, has no one simply taken the initiative to root this out (preferably replacing it with solid material, although better to have no material than unencyclopedic material)? I guess I shall have to do so; I invite any others who want to to join in. Heimstern Läufer 05:09, 5 February 2007 (UTC)
 * It should be noted that, while this is probably the most extreme example I've seen yet, many classical music articles on WP have problems like this one. Note that WP:CM has some guidelines concerning what should and should not appear in our articles. Heimstern Läufer 05:23, 5 February 2007 (UTC)
 * OK. I think most of the most obviously offending material has been scrapped. Unfortunately, this leaves a substantially shorter article, but it is better than one with flagrant original reasearch. More objective observations based on the score would probably help us bring the article back to a better length. Heimstern Läufer 05:07, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

"libretto?"
I haven't looked yet at the problems cited by the other editors (I just stopped here quickly to pick up the url so I could cite it on a page I was writing for my blog) -- but I was kind of disturbed by the term "Libretto." I've always felt that term applied to the text of an opera -- and it thus seems disturbingly inappropriate to the sense both of Mahler's music and to the texts he set. I think "text" or "texts" would be a better term.William P. Coleman (talk) 04:56, 26 December 2007 (UTC)

The trouble with Mahler analysis is that there isn't a consensus about his compositional thinking. So, like it or not, comments are going to be subjective, and may well look like "original research". But it ought to be possible to explain why he thought of this work as a symphony (he deliberately withheld a number from it, because he had a superstition about Ninth Symphonies being terminal: the work we know as his Ninth was in fact his Tenth, and, like Das Lied von der Erde, posthumously premiered). This article doesn't address that. It has been suggested that the six movements can actually be seen as covering the traditional four - movements 3 -5 jointly fulfilling the scherzo function and helping to balance the finale. (One also quotes the Eighth Symphony's second movement). It might be possible to find in the finale a texture resembling a hybrid of scena and aria (two of each, separated by a funeral march, based on elements of the Trinklied which begins the work, in the role of a development section) and sonata. The last section of the finale with its repeated "Ewig", could also be seen both as  a cabaletta and the coda to the whole symphonic conception. So the intellectual and formal weight distribution of the classical symphony is completely reversed. But we still have something which can be called a symphony, even though nothing more different from its immediate predecessor, the Eighth, could be imagined. I'm not proposing this as an addition to the article, simply suggesting that it wouldn't be too hard to find similar thinking in the literature.94.192.68.44 (talk) 16:31, 12 January 2011 (UTC) Croy379

Error, wrong poet, "Der Einsame im Herbst"
Both in the paragraph 'Text' and in 'Structure', the Chinese poet Chang Tsi is mentioned as the author of the original "Der Einsame im Herbst" poem. This is wrong. I did some research in the sources, the evidence of the error is threefold:

1. Wikipedia's own article on Chang Tsi mention that it is an error to attribute "Der Einsame im Herbst" to this poet. Instead it should be Qian Qi.

2. This reference: Der Einsame in Herbst, including both the original Chinese text and several translations of it, clearly attributes the poem to Qian Qi.

3. The poem in question is part of the Quantangshi collection. The poem is in volume 236, and can be found online with at a project putting original Chinese classical works online: quantangshi online.

Unless there are objections, I would therefore like to proceed and remove references to Chang Tsi and instead refer to quantangshi and Qian Qi. Uffe (talk) 11:41, 22 August 2011 (UTC) More analysis of sources: The poet Qian Qi (Pinyin spelling) was in early XX century sources often called 'Chien Chi'. This was before pinyin became norm. This lead to confusion between him and another poet called 'Chang Tsi' alias 'Chang Chi' or even 'Tschang Tsi'. I have looked further and found that fr.wikipedia has the full correct story, but da/de/nl.wikipedia also fell in the trap and have the wrong poet. I have not checked in the rest of the languages. I also read the original poem in the quantangshi collection. A bit difficult for my beginner Chinese level, but the poem is a beauty. However, it is also worth mentioning in the article that Das Liad v d Erde only use the first half of the poem.Uffe (talk) 21:41, 26 August 2011 (UTC)

Did the changes, as explained above, also in the da.wikipedia, de.wikipedia and nl.wikipedia.Uffe (talk) 00:48, 27 August 2011 (UTC)

Text
I just added some German text to the article. I know WP guidelines are to put in English -- I will be doing this soon. I like the way it's formatted on the Beethoven's ninth page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._9_%28Beethoven%29 and I shall try to follow this model. Does anybody have any better ideas? jonathan riley (talk) 15:51, 11 March 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
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I have just modified 3 external links on Das Lied von der Erde. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070930032420/http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=composition&composition_id=2393 to http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=composition&composition_id=2393
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20061222055433/http://www.mahlerarchives.net/archives/jugendpoem.pdf to http://www.mahlerarchives.net/archives/jugendpoem.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20140407075730/http://audaud.com/2010/03/mahler-das-lied-von-der-erde-klaus-florian-vogt-tenor-christian-gerhaher-baritone-orchestre-symphonique-de-montreal-kent-nagano-sonybmg/ to http://audaud.com/2010/03/mahler-das-lied-von-der-erde-klaus-florian-vogt-tenor-christian-gerhaher-baritone-orchestre-symphonique-de-montreal-kent-nagano-sonybmg/

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Musical notation Lied 6
In the second example, the third slur shouldn't be there. Because a) I don't know if this is an exact copy of the Urtext and b) I don't know how to use Wikipedian musical notation, I'm not changing it. Barbara Touburg (talk) 20:03, 25 November 2018 (UTC) (musical typographer and musicologist)

Levitsky's "Earth Prayers" as "answer" to Das Lied
I seem to have accidentally stumbled into an edit war with 2-xite concerning Earth's Prayers by Alfred Momotenko Levitsky. Specifically, it deals with the work's designation as a "companion piece" or "answer" to Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. According to a blurb on the Dutch New Music Now website, the work was apparently intended by its composer as an "answer" to the Mahler. I'll quote verbatim in Dutch (with bolding of word "answer"): |"Alfred Momotenko-Levitsky schrijft met zijn premièrestuk ‘Earth’s Prayers’ een ‘antwoord’ op Mahlers ‘Das Lied von der Erde’." 2-xite keeps insisting I'm fabricating this or making a "speculation." Not even sure why they think this; I have tried making it clear to them in my edit summaries that the work is described as an "answer" in the article which I cited. It has nothing to do with me. To be clear, I have no horse in this race one way or another. I'd never even heard of Levitsky until another editor posted the work a few days ago. Anyway, I would appreciate getting some consensus on this matter in order to settle it one way or another. Thanks in advance to all. CurryTime7-24 (talk) 06:55, 2 May 2021 (UTC)
 * The current sentence in the "Related works" looks fine to me, and seems to be backed up by sound sources. Aza24 (talk) 07:20, 2 May 2021 (UTC)
 * War?! You have time to all this... Right? And you read Dutch... And you have to promote Dutch Music Now... I see. OK, here are the program notes: https://www.nporadio4.nl/media/com_nporadio4/files/NTRZM2021-04-24-web2.pdf There is not a word about "answer" to something. The editor on that site did just put some thoughts to fill the space because that person did not have enough time/info/sense (or else)e to write, but it doesn't need to be repeated here. Right? Read the program notes, please.

Some quotes (emphasis added in translations): IMHO, "answer to ...", "commentary on ..." and "companion piece" indicate more or less the same: the expressions hardly indicate a different nuance. The problem is, however, afaics, that these are hardly sources independent of the composer (program notes, quotes by the composer,...) and as such seem insufficient to include this information in this article. Failing any independent (secondary) reliable sources on the topic this can (at best) be included in the Alfred Momotenko Levitsky article. --Francis Schonken (talk) 06:58, 3 May 2021 (UTC)
 * From New Music Now website:
 * From NTR program notes (p. 3):

Recordings section?
What is the purpose and rationale for such a long, primary list of recordings? SPECIFICO talk 16:06, 23 May 2022 (UTC)
 * Probably worth cutting it, or at least significantly shortening if some sources can be found to built consensus on the "most notable" recordings. --Noahfgodard (talk) 17:08, 23 May 2022 (UTC)
 * Yes, although unfortunately that is tricky because there's a strong bias to recent recordings and raves by relatively uninformed reviewers. The alternative might be one of our typical "list articles" which are basically permitted editor-selected significant items. SPECIFICO talk 17:22, 23 May 2022 (UTC)

Numbering of Mahlers last symphonies
If Mahler were indeed superstitious (which he wasn't!) and feared the number nine, he would logically number his next symphony (after "Das Lied v. d. Erde") as his TENTH symphony. But in both the manuscript and the publishing contract he numbered it as his Ninth and the following (incomplete) symphony as his Tenth. This is again one of those silly and inconsistent stories that Alma Mahler peddled about her late husband. Knud Martner, Copenhagen. 85.81.50.123 (talk) 00:17, 17 April 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Das Lied von der Erde


text:
Sterling Lyon

Sterling Rufus Lyon (January 30, 1927 – December 16, 2010) was a Canadian lawyer, cabinet minister, and the 17th premier of Manitoba from 1977 to 1981. His government introduced several fiscally-conservative measures, and was sometimes seen as a local version of the government of Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom. He also successfully fought for the inclusion of the notwithstanding clause in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Early life
Born in Windsor, Ontario, the son of David Rufus Lyon and Ella Mae Cuthbert, he moved with his family to Manitoba at a young age and grew up in Portage la Prairie.

Education and legal career
Lyon graduated from United College (now the University of Winnipeg) in 1948, and received an LL.B from the Manitoba Law School in 1953. For four years after completing his legal education, he worked as a Crown attorney. In 1953, he married Barbara Jean Mayers.

Political career
Lyon was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba in 1958, in the south-central Winnipeg riding of Fort Garry, running as a Progressive Conservative. Lyon defeated incumbent Liberal-Progressive MLA L. Raymond Fennell, and was subsequently named as Attorney General in Dufferin Roblin's minority government.

Roblin's Tories won a majority in 1959, and Lyon was easily re-elected in his own riding. He continued to serve as Attorney General, and also served as Minister of Municipal Affairs (September 30, 1960 – October 25, 1961) and Minister of Public Utilities (October 31, 1961 – June 12, 1963).

On December 9, 1963, Lyon was shifted from the Attorney General's position to the Ministry of Mines and Natural Resources. He held this position until June 22, 1966, and briefly served as Public Utilities minister again in mid-1964. Lyon became Attorney General again after the 1966 election, and also served as Minister of Tourism and Recreation from 1968 to 1969. He was re-elected easily in 1962 or 1966. He served a total of nine years as Attorney General.

When Roblin moved to federal politics in 1967, Lyon was one of four candidates who sought to replace him. He was defeated by Walter Weir on the third ballot, and did not seek re-election in 1969. Although Weir and Lyon were both politically to the right of Roblin, they represented different constituencies in the party: Weir was a rural populist, Lyon a supporter of urban business development.

In February 1969, Lyon expressed skepticism about the wisdom of codifying common law rights in a written constitution.

Lyon ran for the House of Commons of Canada in 1974 for the federal Progressive Conservatives, narrowly losing the riding of Winnipeg South to Liberal incumbent James A. Richardson.

The following year, Lyon returned to provincial politics to challenge Sidney Spivak for the Progressive Conservative Party's leadership. Spivak, a former cabinet colleague of Lyon's who had been elected party leader in 1971, was a Red Tory opposed by many of the more conservative figures within his caucus. The right wing of the party consolidated around Lyon's challenge, and he defeated Spivak by fifty-seven votes at a very divisive leadership convention in December 1975. Lyon returned to the legislature for the rural riding of Souris-Killarney in a 1976 by-election.

Premier of Manitoba
In 1977, Lyon transferred to the west Winnipeg seat of Charleswood. He led the Progressive Conservative Party to an upset victory over Edward Schreyer's New Democrats), picking up 12 seats for a total of 33. Lyon's government cut spending in several departments and reduced investment in several social programs sponsored by the NDP. In other respects, the Lyon government's commitment to "small government" was ambivalent—it was, for instance, highly supportive of large-scale energy-development projects. Roblin has argued that the Lyon government's right-wing reputation was undeserved, but few others have as yet agreed with this assessment.

Lyon was also an initial opponent of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's constitutional plans, and subsequently became a leading supporter of the notwithstanding clause provision. He also fought, unsuccessfully, to have property rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada.

Lyon's PCs lost government to the NDP, now led by Howard Pawley, in 1981, after only one term in office. The Tories lost 11 seats, almost as much as they had won four years earlier.

Post-premiership
Lyon acted as Leader of the Opposition for two years and fought Pawley's proposals to entrench the rights of Franco-Manitobans in the Constitution. In 1983, Lyon stepped down as Tory leader and was replaced by Gary Filmon. Lyon retired from politics when he did not run for re-election in the 1986 provincial election.

Post-political career
He was appointed to the Manitoba Court of Appeal in 1986. He served there until retiring in 2002. Sterling Lyon died on December 16, 2010, following a brief illness, at the age of 83.

Distinctions and awards
He was sworn into the Privy Council on April 17, 1982, by Governor General Edward Schreyer on the advice of Pierre Trudeau.

In 2004, Lyon was chosen as the University of Winnipeg's annual recipient of the "Distinguished Alumnus Award". In 2009, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada "for his contributions as a judge and long-time politician in Manitoba, where, as premier, he led the expansion of community-based health and social services, and modernized governmental financial procedures".

The Sterling Lyon Parkway in Winnipeg was completed and opened to traffic in November 2005. The route was added during the construction of the Kenaston Underpass. The Sterling Lyon Parkway, a new east–west road, has replaced a section of Wilkes Avenue near the underpass.

Legacy
Though his premiership was short, it's been argued that those years left an enduring legacy. An unsigned editorial in the Winnipeg Free Press argued:"The other major pillar of Mr. Lyon's legacy – the inclusion of the notwithstanding clause in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms as a defence of the supremacy of elected parliaments over unelected courts – was controversial when he first supported it and remains so today. He feared that provincial and federal parliaments would themselves cede their power to the courts to avoid controversial issues, a fear that has proved well founded."

title: Sterling Lyon


text:
Wonderfalls

Wonderfalls is a 13-episode American comedy-drama television series created by Todd Holland and Bryan Fuller. Four episodes were broadcast on the Fox television network in 2004, and the entire series was released on DVD in 2005.

The show centers on Jaye Tyler (Caroline Dhavernas), a recent Brown University graduate with a philosophy degree, who holds a dead-end job as a sales clerk at a Niagara Falls gift shop. Jaye is the reluctant participant in conversations with various animal figurines – a wax lion, brass monkey, stuffed bear, and mounted fish, among others – which direct her via oblique instructions to help people in need.

TV Guide included the series in their 2013 list of 60 shows that were "Cancelled Too Soon".

Jaye Tyler
Caroline Dhavernas as Jaye Tyler – A 24-year-old graduate of Brown University, at the start of the series Jaye is discontentedly working as a sales clerk at Wonderfalls Gift Emporium and living in a trailer. She avoids her loving – and overbearing – family, whose successes she seems determined not to emulate, spending most of her time at The Barrel, a local bar at which her best friend, Mahandra, is a cocktail waitress.

Despite her being extremely caustic and a deliberate underachiever, Jaye's life takes an odd turn when various muses, in the form of animal objects, begin talking to her and delivering cryptic instructions. At first uncooperative, Jaye eventually breaks down after they inflict on her various forms of passive coercion, such as keeping her awake all night by singing, and harassing her with their messages when she is around others, forcing her to accede in order to avoid appearing crazy.

Jaye's attempts to ignore or go against the messages often result in unexpected misfortunes, such as when Jaye's father is hit by a car. Jaye's guilt over the event leads to her following the muses' instructions throughout the rest of the episode, only to discover that her father's injury was, in fact, a blessing, as it led his doctors to discover a potentially life-threatening blood clot. As the series progresses, Jaye becomes more willing to follow the muses' instructions, although she fights them when they make her do things she doesn't like, such as driving Eric back into the arms of his wife.

Through the course of the series, Jaye undergoes a subtle, yet discernible personality shift, as the good deeds she unwillingly performs begin to affect the way she perceives the world around her.

Sharon Tyler
Katie Finneran as Sharon Tyler – The eldest of the Tyler siblings, Sharon is an immigration lawyer and the most ambitious member of the family. Sharon constantly finds herself having to help Jaye – particularly when she has legal trouble – even though there is a strong degree of animosity between the sisters at the start of the series. To Jaye, Sharon is everything she doesn't want to be: goal- and career-oriented, constantly seeking their parents' approval, extremely high-strung, and apparently with little enjoyment of her life. Meanwhile, Jaye's constant pranks and somewhat callous disregard for her sister have made Sharon highly resentful.

In the first episode, when Jaye discovers Sharon's "big secret" (that she is a lesbian), they admit that despite their animosity they do love each other. Jaye not only keeps Sharon's secret from everyone else, she even helps her out on occasion when someone (particularly their parents) comes close to discovering the truth. In turn, despite great shows of reluctance, Sharon always helps Jaye when she needs it, and even comforts Jaye when she is in despair over Eric.

Eric Gotts
Tyron Leitso as Eric Gotts – Jaye's love interest – is introduced in "Wax Lion" under unusual circumstances: Six days prior to the events of the pilot, Eric arrived in Niagara Falls for his honeymoon with his new wife, Heidi. Upon returning to their hotel suite one day, he discovered Heidi "servicing" a hotel bellman. Anguished, he retreated to The Barrel and sat and drank for three straight days, after which the owner offered him a bartending job.

Extremely sweet, thoughtful, and kind, Eric is the antithesis of Jaye's often-abrasive personality, although he seems intrigued by her brashness and convinced that she is not as uncaring as she claims to be. Although his interest in Jaye is reciprocated, his light flirtation is often rebuffed because of Jaye's fears that she is going crazy, his status as a married man, and Jaye's deeply rooted fear that she will hurt him. Toward the end of the series Eric's wife Heidi arrives in Niagara in an attempt to win back her husband. Despite having fallen in love with Jaye, her refusal to admit her feelings (caused by the warnings of the muses, rather than her own inclination) leads him to remarry Heidi and decide to leave Niagara.

In the final episode Jaye is held hostage by a bank robber at Wonderfalls; because of deep feelings for Jaye, Eric is able to interpret her coolness toward him as an indication that something is wrong and alerts the police. Eric's explanation of why his suspicions were aroused in an interview on the local news finally convinces Heidi that there is no hope for her marriage to Eric. At the end of the final episode, he returns from New Jersey to Niagara, having divorced Heidi. His explanation helps Jaye to understand that the muses' warnings regarding Eric were in order to allow him to come to terms with his relationship with Heidi and end things with her properly.

Aaron Tyler
Lee Pace as Aaron Tyler – Jaye's brother. Aaron is a PhD student of comparative religions, and the only one of the Tyler siblings still living at home. Aaron is the most easygoing of his siblings, exhibiting a laconic attitude toward his family and toward Mahandra's tension over their burgeoning relationship (although her refusal to acknowledge it doesn't seem to deflect his interest in her, or in legitimizing their relationship). Although they constantly bicker, it is clear that Aaron and Jaye are close (Jaye even asks Sharon at one point if she is angry that Jaye and Aaron like each other better than they like her).

Aaron is the only one during the series who learns of the full extent of Jaye's communications with the muses, a result of his worry over her strange behavior. Although he first believes that she is crazy, and despite being a self-proclaimed atheist, when things that the muses tell her start coming true Aaron begins indulging his sister's claims, even to the extent of helping her try to rid herself of all the animals that have talked to her. Eventually, Aaron reluctantly suffers a sort of existential crisis when, during a session with Dr. Ron, a cow creamer that had communicated with Jaye mysteriously seems to prove that they really have been talking to his sister. When Jaye asks him to gather all of the animals, he attempts to talk to them himself, exhibiting a desire to be proven wrong about his belief that there is no higher power.

Darrin Tyler
William Sadler as Darrin Tyler, a highly respected physician, and Jaye, Sharon, and Aaron's father. Darrin is a loving father to his children, meddling particularly in Jaye's life, as he worries that she isn't doing anything to reach her potential. He bails both Jaye and Yvette out of jail in the episode "Crime Dog". When Jaye apologizes for making him compromise his political beliefs, he tells her that family comes first, and even expresses gratitude toward Jaye for hitting him with her car (because it's discovered that he had a potentially fatal blood clot in his leg). Like his wife, Darrin shows constant support to Jaye, even though he is clearly worried that she is not sharing with them what is going on with her.

Karen Tyler
Diana Scarwid as Karen Tyler – the Tyler siblings' mother. Beautiful and very popular as a successful writer of bestselling travel book guides, Karen is friends with more of Jaye's high school classmates than Jaye herself was.

Karen's deep love and concern for her children often manifests as criticism and a lack of respect for their personal space – in the "Crime Dog" episode, Jaye challenges Aaron with the information that Karen goes through his things when he isn't home. It's clear that Karen is devoted to her family and particularly worried about her youngest daughter. Jaye even jokes that Karen had a tracking device installed in her at birth, thus never allowing Jaye to escape her family. Karen often questions whether Jaye's "problems" are as a result of her and Darrin's parenting, and clearly wants Jaye to open up to her. Often, Karen and Darrin's attempts to show their support result in annoying Jaye; despite that, Jaye recognizes that her mother not only loves her, but is capable of great insight and compassion – particularly toward the people she loves.

Mahandra McGinty
Tracie Thoms as Mahandra McGinty, Jaye's best friend since childhood. Mahandra is a cocktail waitress at The Barrel and a co-worker of Eric's. Like Jaye, she has a sarcastic, dry sense of humor, and a vengeful streak – particularly when first encountering a despised former high school classmate in the episode "Pink Flamingos" or in "Barrel Bear" perceiving Jaye's attempts to help the rival of a woman Mahandra has aligned herself with, as a mockery of Mahandra's hometown pride.

Mahandra often functions as her friend's voice of reason, even to the extent of warning Jaye away from Eric, fearing that her friend will only break his heart. Despite her often blunt manner, she and Jaye have always considered her to be "the nice one" in their friendship. Later in the series Mahandra begins a secret relationship with Jaye's brother, Aaron, which she desperately tries to conceal from Jaye and the rest of the Tyler family. The relationship is "outed" in the episode "Caged Bird" when Jaye is taken hostage at the store. Fearing for her friend's safety, Mahandra hurries to Wonderfalls, but stops short of approaching Jaye during the aftermath. When Aaron sees her, she breaks down, and Jaye and the other Tylers see them kissing.

Heidi Gotts
Jewel Staite as Heidi Socket-Gotts – Eric's estranged wife. Heidi makes her first full appearance in the series in the episode "Safety Canary" when she arrives in Niagara in an attempt to win Eric back. Although she presents to Eric a repentant and loving front, she deliberately manipulates him to suit her purposes – faking amnesia and slipping him male-enhancement drugs in an attempt to get him to sleep with her. She hates Jaye, perceiving her as a threat to her relationship with Eric.

Although Eric seems to recognize Heidi's manipulations, Jaye's inability to confess how she feels for him eventually drives him back to his wife. When Heidi sees Eric on a news report explaining how he knew to alert the police to the hostage situation in "Caged Bird", she begins to realize that although Eric might forgive her, he is truly in love with Jaye. On her way to tell Eric that she is giving up him and their marriage, Heidi collides with the van in which Jaye is being held hostage. This action causes the bank robber who has taken Jaye to be hit by an ambulance, saving Jaye's life. Although in the aftermath of the hostage events it appears that Eric and Heidi have reconciled and returned to New Jersey to begin their life together, Eric reveals later that he only went to help her get settled and to close the book on their marriage by getting a divorce.

Alec "Mouthbreather"
Neil Grayston as Alec "Mouthbreather" – Jaye's co-worker. A large part of Jaye's animosity toward Alec is that although he is still in high school, he is now her boss and doesn't hesitate to order her around. She also resents that he was promoted over her. Despite his attempts to be assertive over Jaye, she generally ignores him.

Gretchen Speck-Horowitz
Chelan Simmons as Gretchen Speck-Horowitz, one of Jaye's former classmates. (She later makes an appearance on the TV series Hannibal, in which Dhavernas co-stars as a different character.)

Production
The series was an American production, filmed in Niagara Falls, Ontario and Toronto, Ontario (standing in for Niagara Falls, New York and environs), with several Canadian actors cast in lead roles (including the show's star). It was created by Bryan Fuller and Todd Holland and executive produced in partnership with Tim Minear. Originally scheduled to debut in the fall of 2003, its premiere was delayed until early 2004. When it finally debuted in March 2004 on the FOX network, Wonderfalls received positive reviews from critics,  but had trouble attracting viewers. The pilot episode, "Wax Lion", received a higher Nielsen rating when it was repeated the Thursday after its premiere, and the show was moved from a Friday-night time slot to Thursday. There was little notice or promotion of the time change, and FOX subsequently canceled the show after airing the fourth episode. A fifth episode was advertised but never aired.

Despite its cancellation, Wonderfalls developed a loyal fan base. A campaign spearheaded by fans, with an accompanying website, was launched, and several members of the cast and crew visited the site and encouraged the grassroots support.

Immediately after the show's cancellation, its producers attempted to interest other networks, including The WB, in picking up the series and some episodes were shown in theatres in Los Angeles during the summer of 2004 in order to raise support for the series.

Planned episodes
Although the show's creators had intended for the 13 episodes of Wonderfalls to tell a standalone story, they discussed plans for second and third seasons in an interview and episode commentaries featured on the 2005 DVD release of the series. Among the projected storylines mentioned on the DVD:
 * In the second season, Jaye's therapist would document their sessions, eventually publishing a book on her, which would lead to her being institutionalized with "Joan of Arc Syndrome" in the third season. Once institutionalized, she would begin to affect the lives of the other residents there.
 * An accidental-pregnancy plotline was also planned for Jaye's sister Sharon. Having slept with her girlfriend Beth, who had just slept with her ex-husband, in the first season, Sharon would later find out that she was pregnant from him. This "miracle pregnancy" would solve one problem between Beth and her ex-husband: they couldn't have children.
 * A new wax lion, one who was intact, would be introduced, who would advise Jaye against listening to what the original wax lion said.
 * In the second season, Aaron would begin to regard his sister as a spiritual leader.
 * The young boy (Spencer Breslin) who received a mail order bride from Russia in the episode "Lovesick Ass" would return in the opening of Season 3 in the same institution as Jaye, suffering from pyromania after Jaye broke his heart.

Episodes
Fox aired the first four episodes out of sequence, although the episodes were produced in a different order than was intended for broadcast. The order below is how they are presented on the DVD release.

There is an alternate version of the first episode "Wax Lion". It features Kerry Washington playing Mahandra and Adam Scott playing Aaron. On the DVD commentary, the creators state that both actors had to be replaced because they could not commit to future episodes. The alternate version omits Thomas telling Jaye at the end that he is going to marry the nurse. The scene was added because the network wanted the Thomas subplot resolved, even though the creators disliked the scene. It also omits a scene where Jaye throws a quarter into the fountain before any muses start talking to her. The network supposedly wanted an impetus for why the muses started talking.

Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the series has an approval rating of 76% with an average score of 8.3 out of 10 based on 17 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Although the premise couldn't sustain the show beyond a single season, Wonderfalls' deadpan protagonist and witty dialogue offer a distinctive take on twentysomething angst."

Broadcast and syndication
All 13 episodes of Wonderfalls were aired to completion for the first time on Canada's VisionTV beginning in October 2004.

Wonderfalls was aired by the digital cable network Logo in the summer of 2005. The same summer, the British network Sky1 picked up Wonderfalls and aired the series to completion, though not in the original intended episode order.

The Museum of Television and Radio held a two-day screening of the entire series on January 29 and 30, 2005.

Home media release
20th Century Fox released the complete series DVD set on February 1, 2005. The DVD set includes all 13 episodes; six commentary tracks by creators Todd Holland and Bryan Fuller, and actors Caroline Dhavernas and Katie Finneran on "Wax Lion", "Crime Dog", "Lovesick Ass", "Safety Canary", "Cocktail Bunny" (with Scotch Ellis Loring) and "Caged Bird"; a behind-the-scenes documentary, an examination of the show's visual effects, and one of two music videos produced for the theme song, "I Wonder Why the Wonderfalls" by Andy Partridge.

title: Wonderfalls


text:
James Rennell

Major James Rennell, (3 December 1742 – 29 March 1830) was an English geographer, historian and a pioneer of oceanography. Rennell produced some of the first accurate maps of Bengal at one inch to five miles as well as accurate outlines of India and served as Surveyor General of Bengal. Rennell has been called the Father of Oceanography. In 1830, he was one of the founders of the Royal Geographical Society in London.

Early life
Rennell was born at Upcot near Chudleigh in Devon. His father, John Rennell, an officer in the Royal Artillery, was killed in action in the Low Countries in July 1747 during the War of the Austrian Succession. His mother Anne subsequently married Mr Elliott, a widower with children of his own and unable to care for additional ones, leading to Rennell being brought up by a guardian, the Rev. Gilbert Burrington, vicar of Chudleigh. The ancient paternal Devonshire family name was formerly spelt Reynell and was of French origin.

Rennell entered the Royal navy as a midshipman at the age of fourteen under Captain Hyde Parker, who was in the process of commissioning the frigate HMS Brilliant (1757) (launched in October 1757) at the beginning of the Seven Years' War. He was present at the Raid on Cherbourg (1758), and at the disastrous Battle of Saint-Cast in the same year. In 1760, he went out to East India, and served in HMS Grafton (1750) under Captain Hyde Parker during the three following years, when he saw some active service, including a cutting-out expedition at Pondicherry. He soon mastered the theory and practice of marine surveying, and, on account of his proficiency in this regard, Parker lent his services to the East India Company. He served for a year on board one of the company's ships bound to the Philippines, with the object "of establishing new branches of trade with the natives of the intervening places". Rennell accompanied the hydrographer Alexander Dalrymple and drew several charts and plans of harbours on journeys in the schooner Cuddalore (1759–62), the London (1762-63) and the Neptune (1763–64).

In 1763, at the end of the Seven Years' War, seeing no chance of promotion, Rennell entered the service of the East India Company's sea service. He at once received command of a vessel of two hundred tons; but it was destroyed by a hurricane in Madras Roads in March 1763. Fortunately, his captain was on shore, and he was at once appointed to command a small yacht called the Neptune, in which he executed surveys of what is now called the Palk Strait and the Pamban Channel. Rennell became a good friend of the Governor of Madras, Robert Palk, who also came from Devon. His next cruise was to Bengal, and he arrived at Calcutta at a time when Governor Vansittart was anxious to initiate a survey of the British territory. Owing to the friendship of an old messmate Mr Topham, who had become the governor's secretary, he was chosen for survey duties and was initially commissioned as an ensign in the Bengal Engineers, dated 9 April 1764.

Survey work in India
Rennell initially surveyed the Ganges river starting in the autumn of 1764, encountering in 1766 the mountains that he called the Tartarian mountains (the Himalayas). The main purpose of the survey was to find a navigable waterway from Calcutta to the northern regions. In the same year Captain Rennell was nearly killed when the party of surveyors were attacked by sanyasis on the Bhutan border. Injured badly in the shoulder blade, he was taken by boat to Dacca, a journey that took six days. He was treated by Dr Francis Russell and was fortunate to recover although he never gained full function of his right arm. On return Rennell's work was much appreciated and he was recommended for a handsome salary of £1000 a year. Rennell immediately sent money home to his mother and sister while also showing gratitude by sending gifts to Rev. Burrington's children. In 1767 Lord Robert Clive, the then Governor of Bengal and Bihar, appointed him as surveyor-general of the East India Company's dominions in Bengal. After this Rennell was always accompanied by a company of Sepoys. The headquarters of the surveyor-general were at Dacca, and in the successive working seasons he gradually completed his difficult, laborious, and dangerous task. Mapping was accomplished on the field by army men with distances measured using a perambulator - a calibrated wheel whose revolutions were counted to calculate distance - and a compass. Economic pressures further forced a reduction in pay and there was dissatisfaction among the native ranks on the question of double batta (part payment). The surveys were sometimes dangerous, a party of his men were attacked by a leopard and Rennell had to use his bayonet to save his men. Malaria was common and in 1771 he was briefly diverted to military duties in an expedition against a band of raiders. The mapping project was originally a general survey of newly acquired lands, but the job soon gained a wider scope under Warren Hastings, who was appointed as Governor-General in 1773. One of Hastings' first projects was to begin a Domesday-style reckoning of property, land, people, and culture for taxation of revenue. As for Rennell's part in this, his project was carried out much like a military survey, searching for safe passage through territory, with information gathering a secondary object. Rennell received the rank of major of Bengal engineers on 5 April 1776, and retired from active service in 1777. The government of Warren Hastings granted him a pension of £600 per annum, which the East India Company somewhat tardily confirmed.

The remaining fifty-three years of his life were spent in London, and were devoted to geographical research chiefly among the materials in the East India House. He took up his residence in Suffolk Street, near Portland Place, where his house became a place of meeting for travellers from all parts of the world.

Achievements
Rennell's first and most influential work was the Bengal Atlas (1779) which was followed by the first detailed map of India (1783), the Geographical System of Herodotus (1800), the Comparative Geography of Western Asia (1831), and important studies on the geography of northern Africa—apparent in introductions to the Travels of Mungo Park and Hornemann. He also contributed papers to Archaeologia on the site of Babylon, the island of St Paul's shipwreck, and the landing-place of Caesar in Britain. Rennell published a book titled Memoir of a map of Hindoostan (1788) and dedicated to Sir Joseph Banks.

Beside his geographical and historical works, James Rennell is known today for his hydrographical works on the currents in the Atlantic and Indian oceans. He started his research on these topics when he was travelling by a sailing ship with his family from India to Britain after his retirement in 1777. During the extraordinary prolonged voyage around the Cape of Good Hope he mapped "the banks and currents at the Lagullas" and published in 1778 the work on what is today called the Agulhas Current. This was one of the first contributions to the science of Oceanography. He was the first to explain the causes of the occasional northern current found to the south of the Isles of Scilly, which has since been called as Rennell's Current.

After the death of his wife in 1810, he returned to the oceanographic topics. His numerous naval friends gave him a mass of data from their logs, which he assimilated into a chart of all currents in the Atlantic Ocean. During his last years, he wrote his last work Currents of the Atlantic Ocean, published posthumously by his daughter Jane in 1832.

He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1781; and he received the Copley Medal of the Royal Society in 1791, and the gold medal of the Royal Society of Literature in 1825. James Rennell has been called the Father of Indian Geography, and for his pioneering work on oceanography as the Father of Oceanography.

In later life Rennell suffered from gout and in 1829 he fell from a chair and broke his thigh. He died on 29 March 1830 at his home on Suffolk Street. He was interred in the nave of Westminster Abbey, and there is a tablet to his memory, with a bronze bust by Ludwig Hagbold, near the western door. The year of his death saw the foundation of the Royal Geographical Society. His collection of books were gifted by his heirs to the Royal Geographical Society.

In 1851, botanist Pieter Willem Korthals published Rennellia, a genus of flowering plants from Indo-China and western Malesia, belonging to the family Rubiaceae and it was named in James Rennell's honour.

Controversy
James Rennell is credited with the original mapping of the Mountains of Kong, supposedly located in the western part of Africa, based on information supplied by explorer Mungo Park. This range was intended to support his own theory on the course of the Niger River, and eventually led to a major impact on the mapping industry to include the mountains. In 1802, Aaron Arrowsmith released a map that included the Mountains of Kong as a main physical geographic feature of western Africa, which encouraged other publishers to update their maps to match.

Debate surrounding the existence of the mountain range occurred frequently, however, it was French officer and explorer Louis-Gustave Binger officially reported that the Mountains of Kong did not exist during an expedition in 1887-1888. It was not long after this that the Mountains of Kong were dropped from most map publications.

While the Mountains of Kong have been disproven, it has remained periodically on maps in until the early 20th century.

Personal life
Rennell was "of middle height, well proportioned, with a grave yet sweet expression of countenance. He was diffident and unassuming, but ever ready to impart information. His conversation was interesting, and he had a remarkable flow of spirits. In all his discussions he was candid and ingenuous". Rennell was however irrational in proposing that the Niger ended in a lake without reaching the sea. He was also strongly opposed to the methods of William Lambton in his proposed trigonometrical survey. His opposition had to be neutralized by Sir Nevil Maskelyne before Lambton's plan was approved.

While at Dacca, Rennell became a close friend of John Cartier. It was in Cartier's home that he met Jane Thackeray (d. 1810), daughter of Dr Thomas Thackeray, headmaster of Harrow, and a great-aunt of the novelist William Makepeace Thackeray and he married her in 1772. Their older son Thomas (born 1779) died unmarried in 1846, while the second son William (born 1781) worked in the Bengal civil service and died in 1819 without leaving any children. One daughter named Jane (born 1773) died young and was buried in Dhaka, whilst another daughter, also Jane, born in 1777 on St Helena where he had stopped on his way to England married Admiral Sir John Tremayne Rodd, KCB in 1809. Lady Rodd devoted several years publishing her father's current charts and revising new editions of his principal works. She died in December 1863.

title: James Rennell


text:
Alexander McDonnell (chess player)

Alexander McDonnell (1798–1835), sometimes spelled MacDonnell, was an Irish chess master, who contested a series of six matches with the world's leading chess player Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais in 1834.

Early life
The son of a surgeon, Alexander McDonnell was born in Belfast in 1798. He was trained as a merchant and worked for some time in the West Indies. In 1820, he settled in London, where he became the secretary of the Committee of West Indian Merchants in which role he advocated strongly on behalf of slave-owning sugar plantation owners. It was a lucrative post that made him a wealthy man and left him with plenty of time to indulge his passion for chess. In his politics, McDonnell was a committed Whig. No confirmed image of McDonnell is known to exist.

Chess career
In 1825, he became a pupil of William Lewis, who was then the leading player in Britain. But soon, McDonnell had become so good that Lewis, fearing for his reputation, simply refused to play him anymore.

Around 1825–1826, McDonnell played Captain Evans, while the latter was on shore leave in London. McDonnell was beaten with what is now regarded in chess circles as the creation of the Evans Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4).

In 1831, along with George Walker, he became a founding member of the Westminster Chess Club and was acclaimed as England's best player.

La Bourdonnais matches
At that time, the world's strongest player was the French aristocrat Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais. Between June and October 1834, La Bourdonnais and McDonnell played a series of six matches, a total of eighty-five games, at the Westminster Chess Club in London. McDonnell won the second match, while La Bourdonnais won the first, third, fourth and fifth. The sixth match was unfinished.

In the first game of the third match, McDonnell successfully introduced a new variation in the King's Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 g5 4.Bc4 g4 5.Nc3), known today as the McDonnell Gambit.

Death
McDonnell was suffering from Bright's disease, a historical classification of nephritis, which affects the kidneys. In the summer of 1835, his condition worsened and he died in London on 15 September 1835 before his match with La Bourdonnais could be resumed.

When La Bourdonnais died penniless in 1840, George Walker arranged to have him buried in London's Kensal Green Cemetery, near where his old rival McDonnell is buried.

Notable games

 * Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais vs. Alexander McDonnell, 04, London 1834, Queen's Gambit Accepted: Central Variation. McDonnell Defense (D20), 0–1 The first immortal game of the history of chess, according to Reuben Fine. A purely positional sacrifice of a queen for two minor pieces.
 * Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais vs. Alexander McDonnell, London 1834, Bishop's Opening: Lopez Variation (C23), 0–1 An interesting encounter with chances and errors on both sides, ending with a nice two-knights mate.
 * McDonnell versus De La Bourdonnais, Match 4 (16), London 1834 A classic game demonstrating the power of a mobile central block of pawns.

title: Alexander McDonnell (chess player)


text:
Wikipedia talk:Candidates for vfd

Feedback
What's your opinion on the newly created utility page Candidates for vfd? Optim 18:41, 1 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Support

 * Optim: Helps us to keep vfd usable for dialup users; prevents the spamming of vfd with unreasonable entries; cvfd can be used as a pool for choosing articles for inclusion in vfd.

Oppose

 * —Eloquence - use Cleanup instead
 * Perl - I don't like this idea. I think it will be too much trouble.
 * Fuzheado - As Eloquence said, Cleanup seems to work fine now. (And I don't think it's stupid)
 * Oppose vehemently. VfD is fine the way it is now. How long do things stay on this proposed page before they go to VfD, and how long do they stay on VfD before they get deleted?  It's just a way for inclusionsists to make an end run around what is working just fine now.  RickK 03:22, 2 Mar 2004 (UTC)
 * "Pages included here will remain until someone decides to list them on vfd or a consensus not to vfd the page is developed."
 * Gandalf61 - can't see the point of having a pre-VfD page - adds complication with no clear benefit.
 * Angela. This is exactly what cleanup is for.
 * Kaihsu 20:01, 2004 Mar 2 (UTC): Are we going into candidates for candidates for vfd, and so on?
 * moink I was going to make the same comment as Kaihsu.

Discussion

 * Mabye you should link to votes for deletion instead of vacuum fluorescent display. Perl 01:05, 2 Mar 2004 (UTC)

 * Some people think cvfd is like Cleanup. I don't see any relevance to Cleanup. They are very different. A page which needs cleanup should be listed on Cleanup. If nobody can fix it, it should be listed on cvfd. The cvfd listing may encourage some people to fix the page. If after the cfvd listing the page is not fixed, it goes to vfd. cvfd is an intermediate layer between Cleanup and vfd. Cleanup and cvfd do not overlap, they are just very different. Optim 07:49, 2 Mar 2004 (UTC)

 * Some people asked how much the articles will stay on cvfd before moved to vfd. Currently there are no rules. The only rule is that no article should be listed both in cvfd and vfd. Optim 07:49, 2 Mar 2004 (UTC)

title: Wikipedia talk:Candidates for vfd


text:
Talk:William Blackstone

Untitled
Not sure if anyone cares, but I'm related to William Blackstone, and share his surname. Unfortunately I don't (presently) know enough to contribute much useful to this article; you'd probably get more information on the subject out of a lawyer. One day, though, I may get the chance to learn more about him.

I added the trivial tidbit about Blackstone being mentioned in literature. I remember being surprised to see the name in Moby Dick; I've seen him mentioned elsewhere, too. Not sure this is really appropriate for an encyclopedia article; if someone wants to pull it out, I won't be offended. Jdavidb 18:42, 1 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I don't mind it being there, and it certain helps to underscore the echoing effects of Blackstone, both during his life and long after. If you could flesh out exactly the reference made, that would be even more interesting, although I don't know how well that would fit into the main article. If it doesn't fit, put it here at least. :) Ari 05:08, 18 Feb 2005 (UTC)

He's also mentioned in To Kill A Mockingbird (in fact, that's why I came to this article; he was mentioned and I didn't know who he was) --Eel 07:55, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Jdavidb

Your not the only relation of his on Wiki - I'm his 1st Cousin - 7 times removed. --BMR789 09:43, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

In my pre-law and US Gov classes, Blackstone's Ratio was name we gave for the "Better ten criminals go free than one innocent man be convicted." I've updated the page to reflect that. SHARPER 13:27, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

Blackstone's anti-Catholicism
I removed this phrase:

 * . . . a charge very similar to that repeatedly leveled at Jews throughout history.

The analogy seems inappropriate. To my knowledge, the Jews have never had a Pope or a comparable leader; and at least in Blackstone's day, the Jews did not have a foreign government either. Smerdis of Tlön 13:41, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

Assessment
With better sourceing and formatting this could easily make it to GA. Aboutmovies 21:17, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 04:36, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Pronunciation
Please provide the pronunciation in IPA. Ad hoc pronunciations are deprecated in Wikipedia. "Blexstun" is highly ambiguous (for example, it does not indicate which syllable is pronounced, suggests a double /s/ and suggests the final syllable is pronounced like the word "stun"). At a guess, /ˈblɛkstən/ is the intended pronunciation, but I have no idea whether this is the case. — 85.211.2.228 (talk) 17:40, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

How can we possibly verify contemporary pronunciation of Blackstone's name, especially when no sources are cited? ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wprest01 (talk • contribs) 11:03, 13 August 2009 (UTC)

This sentence is WILDLY wrong
"These were massively successful, earning him a total of £56,000 in 2013 terms"??? In 2013 terms, that is less than $100,000 U.S., which some modern lawyers make in a month. No sourcing. I don't have the time to tackle it at present, but this is just ridiculous. Did he get that much from his lecture series, and wasn't that in the multi-millions today? Bouldergeist (talk) 11:25, 5 June 2013 (UTC)
 * I'm confused; the statement is quite clearly sourced. By '2013 terms' it means 'converting the money from the 18th century to 2013 currencies, it comes to around £56,000'. You don't seem to be factoring in that the number and proportion of literate people (much less literate people with an interest in law) was far less in the 18th century than it would be today; yes, today he might have made many millions of pounds - from selling many, many more copies. If you've got a suggestion for how to rephrase the sentences, by all means, make it. In the meantime, please try not to be so hyperbolic; it needs rewriting, potentially, but currently conversions are neither "ridiculous" nor "WILDLY wrong". Ironholds (talk) 20:01, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Untitled
A dreadful article.

The article maintains that Sir William Blackstone was highly influential among the Founding Fathers - he was, but in the exact opposite way from the way the article implies. Blackstone's work was held to sum up what the Founding Fathers were AGAINST - the idea that Parliament could anything it likes (an idea that the article briefly mentions, but does not explore). This was seen as a revolt against the principles of Chief Justice Sir Edward Cook, Dr Bonham's case, and against the Old Whig Chief Justice Sir John Holt of the British "Glorious Revolution" period. One can not believe in the principles of the Bill of Rights, American or British, and believe in "Parliamentary Sovereignty", i.e. that Parliament can do anything it likes. Does the "legislature" have the right to pass "gun control" regulations or statutes suppressing freedom of speech? The tradition of the Bill of Rights says "no", the tradition of Sir William Blackstone says "yes" - his principle, that Parliament can do anything it wants, is the exact principle that the American Revolution, the Founding Fathers and so on, was AGAINST. The failure to explain this makes the article worse than useless for people seeking basic understanding.176.252.211.128 (talk) 14:27, 22 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Thank you for your review! If you think the founders were influenced in a negative way by Blackstone's works, do provide some sources saying so. Note that the article doesn't say they agreed, just that his commentaries were (for a long time, including the period in which the mentioned individuals were learning the law) one of the primary sources of legal education - along, yes, with Edward Coke's "Reports" (his article covers that nicely). Ironholds (talk) 20:54, 23 November 2014 (UTC)

Assessment comment
Substituted at 10:36, 30 April 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
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LL.D
There's information in the picture on the right (see the caption at the top) that Blackstone was awarded LL.D degree. Ratte (talk) 21:04, 3 March 2020 (UTC)

Comment on Blackstone
Interesting comment on Blackstone himself, seen in changes to his famous work, as worked upon by his contemporaries. Not complimentary, that. Shenme (talk) 02:09, 7 May 2020 (UTC)

title: Talk:William Blackstone