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Slush pile

In publishing, a slush pile is a set of unsolicited query letters or manuscripts that have either been directly sent to a publisher by an author, or which have been delivered via a literary agent representing the author who may or may not be familiar to the publisher. The responsibility of sifting through slush piles is usually reserved either to editor assistants or to outside contractors called publisher's readers or "first readers". If the reader finds something of interest and can convince a senior editor to accept it, they may earn credit.

Most agents and major publishing houses do not accept unsolicited manuscripts and slush piles are on average usually regarded as undesirable in many literary circles due to the large number of both aspiring and former writers who often produce content of unsatisfactory quality. However, this is not always the case with many smaller publishers or independent editors who are often open to both inexperienced and formerly established writers—both of whom may be able to create original content for the publisher and potentially turn a profit.

In 2008, HarperCollins introduced a website, authonomy, to manage and exploit the slush pile from a web-based perspective, but it was closed in 2015 because writers were gaming the system. Website Youwriteon acts as a slush pile filter for Random House, Orion Publishing Group and Bloomsbury Publishing.

title: Slush pile


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Xylosma

Xylosma is a genus of flowering plants in the family Salicaceae. It contains around 100 species of evergreen shrubs and trees commonly known as brushhollies, xylosmas, or, more ambiguously, "logwoods". The generic name is derived from the Greek words ξύλον (xylon), meaning "wood, tree", and ὀσμή (osmé), meaning "smell", referring to the fragrant wood of some of the species. The Takhtajan system places it in the family Flacourtiaceae, which is considered defunct by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group.

Description
The leaves are alternate, simple, entire or finely toothed, 2 - 10 cm long. The flowers are small, yellowish, produced on racemes 1 - 3 cm long, usually dioecious, and have a strong scent. The fruit is a small purple-black berry 5 - 10 mm in diameter that contains 2 to 8 seeds.

Species
, Plants of the World Online accepted the following species:

 * Xylosma acunae Borhidi & O.Muñiz
 * Xylosma avilae Sleumer
 * Xylosma bahamensis (Britton) Standl. – Bahamas xylosma (The Bahamas)
 * Xylosma benthamii (Tul.) Triana & Planch.
 * Xylosma bernardiana Sleumer
 * Xylosma boliviana Sleumer
 * Xylosma boulindae Sleumer (New Caledonia)
 * Xylosma brachystachys Craib
 * Xylosma buxifolia A.Gray – boxleaf xylosma (the Caribbean)
 * Xylosma capillipes Guillaumin (New Caledonia)
 * Xylosma characantha Standl.
 * Xylosma chiapensis Lundell
 * Xylosma chlorantha Donn.Sm.
 * Xylosma ciliatifolia (Clos) Eichler
 * Xylosma cinerea (Clos) Hemsl.
 * Xylosma claraensis Urb.
 * Xylosma confusa Guillaumin
 * Xylosma congesta (Lour.) Merr. – shiny xylosma
 * Xylosma controversa Clos
 * Xylosma cordata (Kunth) Gilg
 * Xylosma coriacea (Poit.) Eichler
 * Xylosma crenata (H.St.John) H.St.John – sawtooth logwood (Kauai in Hawaii)
 * Xylosma domingensis (Urb.) M.H.Alford
 * Xylosma dothioensis Guillaumin
 * Xylosma elegans (Tul.) Triana & Planch.
 * Xylosma fawcettii Urb. (Jamaica)
 * Xylosma flexuosa (Kunth) Hemsl. – brushholly (Mexico, Central America)
 * Xylosma gigantifolia Sleumer
 * Xylosma glaberrima Sleumer (Brazil)
 * Xylosma glaucescens Urb.
 * Xylosma grossecrenata (Sleumer) Lescot (New Caledonia)
 * Xylosma guillauminii Sleumer
 * Xylosma hawaiensis Seem. – Hawaiian brushholly, maua (Hawaii)
 * Xylosma hispidula Standl.
 * Xylosma horrida Rose
 * Xylosma iberiensis J.E.Gut.
 * Xylosma inaequinervia Sleumer (New Caledonia)
 * Xylosma intermedia (Seem.) Triana & Planch.
 * Xylosma kaalaensis Sleumer (New Caledonia)
 * Xylosma lancifolia Sleumer
 * Xylosma lifuana Guillaumin
 * Xylosma lineolata Urb. & Ekman
 * Xylosma longifolia Clos (Western Himalayas)
 * Xylosma longipedicellata A.Pool
 * Xylosma longipetiolata Legname
 * Xylosma lucida (Tul.) Sleumer
 * Xylosma luzonensis Clos
 * Xylosma maidenii Sleumer
 * Xylosma martinicensis (Krug & Urb.) Urb.
 * Xylosma molesta Sleumer (New Caledonia)
 * Xylosma nelsonii Merr.
 * Xylosma nervosa Guillaumin
 * Xylosma nipensis Borhidi
 * Xylosma nitida (Hell.) A.Gray ex Griseb.
 * Xylosma obovata (Karsten) Triana & Planchon (Colombia)
 * Xylosma oligandra Donn.Sm.
 * Xylosma orbiculata (J.R.Forst. & G.Forst.) G.Forst. (Fiji, Tonga, Niue)
 * Xylosma ovata Benth.
 * Xylosma pachyphylla (Krug & Urb.) Urb. – spiny logwood (Puerto Rico)
 * Xylosma palawanensis Mend. (Philippines)
 * Xylosma panamensis Turcz.
 * Xylosma pancheri Guillaumin
 * Xylosma papuana Gilg
 * Xylosma parvifolia Jessup
 * Xylosma paucinervosa (Steyerm.) Sleumer
 * Xylosma peltata (Sleumer) Lescot (New Caledonia)
 * Xylosma pininsularis Guillaumin (New Caledonia)
 * Xylosma prockia (Turcz.) Turcz.
 * Xylosma prockia (Turcz.) Turcz.
 * Xylosma proctorii Sleumer (Jamaica)
 * Xylosma pseudosalzmannii Sleumer
 * Xylosma pubescens Griseb.
 * Xylosma quichensis Donn.Sm.
 * Xylosma raimondii Sleumer
 * Xylosma rhombifolia (Britton & P.Wilson) Sleumer
 * Xylosma roigiana Borhidi
 * Xylosma rubicunda (H.Karst.) Gilg
 * Xylosma ruiziana Sleumer (Peru)
 * Xylosma rusbyana Sleumer
 * Xylosma samoensis (Christoph.) Sleumer (Savai'i)
 * Xylosma sanctae-annae Sleumer
 * Xylosma schaefferioides A.Gray
 * Xylosma schaefferioides A.Gray – white logwood (Greater Antilles)
 * Xylosma schwaneckeana (Krug & Urb.) Urb. – Schwaneck's logwood (Puerto Rico)
 * Xylosma senticosa Hance
 * Xylosma serpentina Sleumer (New Caledonia)
 * Xylosma serrata (Sw.) Urb.
 * Xylosma shaferi (P.Wilson) R.A.Howard & W.R.Briggs
 * Xylosma simulans A.C.Sm.
 * Xylosma smithiana Fosberg
 * Xylosma spiculifera (Tul.) Triana & Planch. (Colombia)
 * Xylosma suaveolens (J.R.Forst. & G.Forst.) G.Forst.
 * Xylosma suluensis Merr.
 * Xylosma sumatrana Slooten
 * Xylosma terrae-reginae C.T.White & Sleumer (NSW and Queensland, Australia)
 * Xylosma tessmannii Sleumer
 * Xylosma tuberculata Sleumer (New Caledonia)
 * Xylosma tweediana (Clos) Eichler
 * Xylosma velutina (Tul.) Triana & Planch.
 * Xylosma venosa N.E.Br.
 * Xylosma vincentii Guillaumin

Distribution
The genus is predominantly native to the tropics and subtropics, from the Caribbean, Central America, northern South America, the Pacific Islands, southern Asia and northern Australasia. One species, X. congesta, is found in warm-temperate eastern Asia (China, Korea and Japan). Molecular phylogenetic analysis suggest that the genus Lasiochlamys from New Caledonia may be nested in Xylosma.

Ecology
Xylosma foliage is used as food by the caterpillars of some lepidoptera, such as the rustic (Cupha erymanthis), which feeds on X. congesta (syn. X. racemosa), and the common leopard (Phalanta phalantha), which feeds on X. longifolia and X. congesta.

Uses
The main use for the genus is as hedge and topiary plants among gardeners in desert and chaparral climates. Xylosma congesta is the species usually seen in garden hedges and in road landscaping, despite the fact it bears thorns. Other species cultivated for these purposes include X. bahamensis, X. flexuosa, and X. spiculifera (syn. X. heterophylla). X. longifolia is sometimes grown in India for its edible fruits. In addition, a medicinal extract is made from its young leaves that acts as antispasmodic, narcotic, and sedative. 15 species of the genus have reported medicinal or veterinary use.

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

title: Xylosma


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Randall Garrett

Gordon Randall Phillip David Garrett (December 16, 1927 – December 31, 1987) was an American science fiction and fantasy author. He was a contributor to Astounding and other science fiction magazines of the 1950s and 1960s. He instructed Robert Silverberg in the techniques of selling large quantities of action-adventure science fiction, and collaborated with him on two novels about men from Earth disrupting a peaceful agrarian civilization on an alien planet.

Biography and writing career
Garrett is best known for the Lord Darcy books — the novel Too Many Magicians and two short story collections — set in an alternate world where a joint Anglo-French empire still led by a Plantagenet dynasty has survived into the twentieth century and where magic works and has been scientifically codified. The Darcy books are rich in jokes, puns, and references (particularly to works of detective and spy fiction: Lord Darcy is modeled on Sherlock Holmes), elements often appearing in the shorter works about the detective. Michael Kurland wrote two additional Lord Darcy novels after Garrett's death.

Garrett wrote under a variety of pseudonyms, including: David Gordon; John Gordon; Darrel T. Langart (an anagram of his name); Alexander Blade; Richard Greer; Ivar Jorgensen; Clyde Mitchell; Leonard G. Spencer; S. M. Tenneshaw; and Gerald Vance. He was also a founding member of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), as "Randall of Hightower" (a pun on "garret"). The short novel Brain Twister, written by Garrett with author Laurence Janifer (using the joint pseudonym Mark Phillips), was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1960.

An inveterate punster (defining a pun as "the odor given off by a decaying mind"), Garrett was a favorite guest at science fiction conventions and a friend to many fans, especially in Southern California. According to various anecdotes in a tribute volume, Garrett was cherished by his friends, who often repeated anecdotes of his behavior, but horrified many women, to whom he routinely introduced himself with obscene propositions. For example, he introduced himself to Marion Zimmer Bradley (MZB) with the Latin sentence "Coito ergo sum", (sic) which she did not understand until it was explained to her some time later as an obscenity, and at another time to a pregnant Anne McCaffrey with "sly innuendoes" that horrified her. Philip José Farmer recounted an anecdote where Garrett was punched by his then-wife for having a pair of someone else's lace underpants in his pocket, later being seen running naked through a hotel after having been caught having sex with another woman in the wrong room (presumably also the wrong woman).

Frank Herbert said: ""You could follow his movements around this Creative Anachronists' picnic by the squeals of the women whose bottoms he had just pinched.""

Isaac Asimov referred to Garrett's offending Judith Merril to the point where she emptied an ashtray over his and Garrett's heads.

Garrett, Poul Anderson and other friends were members of the Elves', Gnomes' and Little Men's Science Fiction, Chowder, and Marching Society, centered in Berkeley, California. https://fancyclopedia.org/Little_Men One of those members was Geoff Kidd, to whom Poul Anderson dedicated his book "The Earth Book of Stormgate".

Kidd, who is currently a proofreader for Baen Books, recalls a quatrain that Garrett declaimed at one of the Little Men meetings: "There are thousands of laws legislators have spoken, A few the Creator sent. The former are being continually broken The latter can't even be bent." He thinks it should be officially attributed.

Garrett was married to fellow author Vicki Ann Heydron, who largely wrote the Gandalara Cycle fantasy series credited to both spouses; they met in 1975, at the home of their mutual agent, and were married in December 1978. In 1986, Heydron specified that she had been Garrett's third wife "and at least his sixth collaborator".

In 1999, Randall Garrett was posthumously awarded the Sidewise Award for Alternate History Special Achievement Award for the Lord Darcy series. He was also ordained in the Old Catholic Church. Glen Cook's private detective character Garrett P.I. is named in honor of Garrett.

Health
In the summer of 1979, Garrett contracted a viral infection which led to meningitis and/or encephalitis, and, subsequently, severe amnesia. Hoping that his condition was temporary, Heydron served as his caregiver for two years, but in August 1981, "for the sake of his health and [her own] sanity, [...] allowed him to be hospitalized."

In The Best of Randall Garrett, a combined anthology and festschrift which was published in January 1982, editor Robert Silverberg (a personal friend of Garrett's) stated that although the infection "for a time threatened [Garrett's] life and for a much longer time has made it impossible for him to work", Garrett was "fighting his way back to full recovery" — and, indeed, when Algis Budrys reviewed the anthology in the August 1982 issue of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, he stated that he had been told that "when last seen, Garrett was seated at a dinner table, cheerfully ignoring the assembled company and attempting to remember the words to a dirty song"; however, in October 1982, Dave Langford reported that the Hugo Award ceremony at that year's Worldcon had included an announcement that Garrett "had permanently lost his memory". By 1986, the "about the authors" text in the novel The River Wall, credited to Garrett and Heydron, described Garrett as having suffered "serious and permanent injury", and in 2011, Langford and Brian M. Stableford's entry on Garrett in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction summarized him as having been "hospitalized from 1981 until his death" in 1987.

Gandalara Cycle
By Garrett and his wife Vicki Ann Heydron; written by Heydron from a draft of the first volume and an outline of the series by Garrett.
 * 1) The Steel of Raithskar (1981)
 * 2) The Glass of Dyskornis (1982)
 * 3) The Bronze of Eddarta (1983)
 * 4) The Well of Darkness (1983)
 * 5) The Search for Kä (1984)
 * 6) Return to Eddarta (1985)
 * 7) The River Wall (1986)
 * The Gandalara Cycle I (1986), omnibus of #1-3 above
 * The Gandalara Cycle II (1986), omnibus of #4-6 above

Lord Darcy series

 * 1) Murder and Magic (1979), collection of 1964–1973 stories
 * 2) Too Many Magicians (1966), magazine serialization 1966
 * 3) Lord Darcy Investigates (1981), collection of 1974–1979 stories
 * Lord Darcy (1983), omnibus containing all three books above. The 2002 edition adds two previously uncollected stories, with minor editing to remove repetitions of the backstory.

Nidorian series
With Robert Silverberg, as Robert Randall.
 * 1) The Shrouded Planet (1957)
 * 2) The Dawning Light (1959)

Collections

 * Takeoff! (1980), composed of tongue-in-cheek imitations of a number of other authors and universes, such as E.E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman series and Reginald Bretnor's Ferdinand Feghoot (who is "Benedict Breadfruit" in Garrett's treatment).

Short stories

 * "The Hunting Lodge" (1954)
 * "The Best Policy" (1957) also as David Gordon. A smart Earthling is abducted by a reconnaissance group of hostile aliens, but convinces them that Earthlings are a far more advanced and superior race, so they end up sending humble ambassadors instead of conquering the planet. The catch is these aliens have a perfect truth detector, so the hero has to phrase his every comment very carefully so that he can pull off such a huge lie while being literally honest.
 * "The Queen Bee" (1958)
 * "Backward, Turn Backward" (1959)
 * "Despoilers of the Golden Empire" (1959)
 * "But, I Don't Think" (1959)
 * "The Highest Treason" (1961)

Novels

 * 1) Anything You Can Do (1963)  (Originally published in Analog Science Fact & Fiction as a two-part serial under the pseudonym Darrel T Langart and concluded in the May and June 1962 issue-with illustrations).

The collection Takeoff Too included a poem, which the editor titled "The Egyptian Diamond", which was erroneously credited to Garrett. It was actually written by Jack Bennett and originally published under the title "Ben Ali the Egyptian". Parts of "Ben Ali the Egyptian" were quoted in Garrett's short story "The Foreign Hand Tie."

title: Randall Garrett


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Oracle bone script

Oracle bone script is the oldest attested form of written Chinese, dating to the late 2nd millennium BC. Inscriptions were made by carving characters into oracle bones, usually either the shoulder bones of oxen or the plastra of turtles. The writings themselves mainly record the results of official divinations carried out on behalf of the Late Shang royal family. These divinations took the form of scapulimancy where the oracle bones were exposed to flames, creating patterns of cracks that were then subjected to interpretation. Both the prompt and interpretation were inscribed on the same piece of bone that had been used for the divination itself.

Out of an estimated 150,000 inscriptions that have been uncovered, the vast majority were unearthed at Yinxu, the site of the final Shang capital (modern-day Anyang, Henan). The most recent major discovery was the Huayuanzhuang cache found near the site in 1993. Of the 1,608 Huayuanzhang pieces, 579 bear inscriptions. Each of the last nine Shang kings are named in the inscriptions beginning with Wu Ding, whose accession is variously dated between 1250 and 1200 BC. Oracle bone inscriptions corresponding to Wu Ding's reign have been radiocarbon dated to 1254–1197 BC (±10 years). Following the overthrow of the Shang by the Zhou dynasty in c. 1046 BC, divination using milfoil became more common; far fewer oracle bone inscriptions are dated to the Western Zhou. No Zhou-era sites with a comparable cache of inscriptions to Yinxu have been found; however, examples from this period appear to be more widespread, having been found near most major population centers. New sites have continued to be discovered since 2000.

The oracle bone inscriptions—along with several roughly contemporaneous bronzeware inscriptions using a different style—constitute the earliest corpus of Chinese writing, and are the direct ancestor of the Chinese family of scripts developed over the next three millennia. Their study is essential for the research of Chinese etymologies. It is also the direct ancestor of over a dozen East Asian writing systems. The length of inscriptions ranges from 10 to over 100 characters, but a few dozen is typical. The subjects of concern in inscriptions are broad, and include war, ritual sacrifice, and agriculture, as well as births, illnesses, and deaths in the royal family. As such, they provide invaluable insights into the character of late Shang society.

Name

The common Chinese term for oracle bone script is 甲骨文 ( 'shell and bone script'), which is an abbreviation of 龜甲獸骨文字 ( 'turtle-shell and animal-bone script'). This term is a translation of the English phrase "inscriptions upon bone and tortoise shell", which had been coined by the American missionary Frank H. Chalfant (1862–1914) in his 1906 book Early Chinese Writing, which first appeared in Chinese books during the 1930s. In earlier decades, Chinese authors used a variety of names for the inscriptions based on the name of Yinxu, their purpose (卜 'to divine'), or the method of inscription (契  'to engrave'). A previously common term was 殷墟卜辭 ( 'Yinxu divinatory texts').

Oraculology
Oraculology is the study of oracle bones and oracle bone script. It is a humanities discipline that focuses on the Chinese Upper Antiquity oracle characters. Oracle bone science can be divided into a narrow sense of oracle bone science and a broad sense of oracle bone science. In the narrow sense, the study of oracle bone script is limited to the study of oracle bone script itself, and it is a discipline of paleography. This includes the integration of theories, research methods and materials from various disciplines, such as paleography, history, archaeology, historical culture, historical literature, and cultural anthropology, to thoroughly study the historical and cultural background of the oracle bones and some of the patterns of the oracle bone divination. It is a diversified and specialized discipline. In the early days of oracle bone discovery, oracle bones were called qiwen, and the study of oracle bones was called qiology. In 1931, Zhou Yitong proposed for the first time that "oracle bone science" was an independent discipline. Wang Yuxin emphasized that oracle bones are precious cultural relics and historical materials left over from the ancient period, but their value for archaeological and historical research lies in orthography beyond script interpretation, which has become increasingly recognized by scholars as orthography develops. Oracle bone science is a systematic and scientific inquiry into the inherent laws of the oracle bone script itself and uses it as a basis for glimpsing the history, society, and customs of the ancient world. The oracle bones should not be confused with orthography.

Origins
It is generally agreed that the tradition of writing represented by oracle bone script existed prior to the first known examples, due to the attested script's mature state. Many characters had already undergone extensive simplifications and linearizations, and techniques of semantic extension and phonetic loaning had also clearly been used by authors for some time, perhaps centuries. However, no clearly identifiable examples of writing dating prior to the 13th century BC have been discovered. Sets of inscribed symbols on pottery, jade, and bone that have been discovered at a variety of Neolithic archeological sites across China have not been demonstrated to have any direct or indirect ancestry to the Shang oracle bone script at Anyang.

Style

Along with the contemporary bronzeware script, the oracle bone script of the Late Shang period appears pictographic. The earliest oracle bone script appears even more so than examples from late in the period (thus some evolution did occur over the roughly 200-year period). Comparing the oracle bone script to both Shang and early Western Zhou period writing on bronzes, the oracle bone script is clearly greatly simplified, and rounded forms are often converted to rectilinear ones; this is thought to be due to the difficulty of engraving the bone's hard surface, compared with the ease of writing them in the wet clay of the molds the bronzes were cast from. The more detailed and more pictorial style of the bronze graphs is thought to be more representative of typical Shang writing using bamboo books than the oracle bone forms; this typical style continued to evolve into writing styles of the Western Zhou period, and then into the seal script within the state of Qin.

It is known that the Shang people also wrote with brush and ink, as brush-written graphs have been found on a small number of pottery, shell and bone, and jade and other stone items, and there is evidence that they also wrote on bamboo (or wooden) books just like those found from the late Zhou to Han periods, because the graphs for a writing brush (, depicting a hand holding a writing brush) and bamboo book ( , a book of thin bamboo and wooden slips bound with horizontal strings, like a Venetian blind turned 90 degrees, are present in oracle bone inscriptions.

Since the ease of writing with a brush is even greater than that of writing with a stylus in wet clay, it is assumed that the style and structure of Shang graphs on bamboo were similar to those on bronzes, and also that the majority of writing occurred with a brush on such books. Additional support for this notion includes the reorientation of some graphs, by rotating them 90 degrees, as if to better fit on tall, narrow slats. The style must have developed on books of bamboo or wood slats, and then carried over to the oracle bone script. Additionally, the layout of characters in columns from top to bottom is mostly carried over from bamboo books. In some instances, characters are instead written in rows in order to match the text with divinatory cracks; in others, columns of text rotate 90 degrees mid-phrase. These are exceptions to the normal pattern of writing, and inscriptions were never read bottom to top. Columns of text in Chinese writing are traditionally laid out from right to left; this pattern is first found with the Shang-era bronze inscriptions. However, oracle bone inscriptions are often arranged with columns beginning near the center of the shell or bone, then moving toward the edge such that the two sides mirror one another.

Structure and function

Despite the pictorial nature of the oracle bone script, it was a fully functional and mature writing system by the time of the Shang dynasty, meaning it was able to record the Old Chinese language, and not merely fragments of ideas or words. This level of maturity clearly implies an earlier period of development of at least several hundred years. From their presumed origins as pictographs and signs, by the Shang dynasty, most graphs were already conventionalized in such a simplified fashion that the meanings of many of the pictographs are not immediately apparent. Without careful research to compare these to later forms, one would probably not know that these represented 'swine' and  'dog' respectively. As William G. Boltz notes, most of the oracle bone graphs are not depicted realistically enough for those who do not already know the script to recognize what they stand for; although pictographic in origin, they are no longer pictographs in function. Boltz instead calls them zodiographs, emphasizing their function as representing concepts exclusively through words. Similarly, Qiu labels them semantographs.

By the late Shang, oracle bone graphs had already evolved into mostly non-pictographic forms, including all the major types of Chinese characters now in use. Loangraphs, phono-semantic compounds, and associative compounds were already common. One structural and functional analysis of the oracle bone characters found that they were 23% pictographs, 2% simple indicatives, 32% associative compounds, 11% phonetic loans, 27% phono-semantic compounds, and 6% undetermined.

Although it was a fully functional writing system, the oracle bone script was not fully standardized. By the early Western Zhou period, these traits had vanished, but in both periods, the script was not highly regular or standardized; variant forms of graphs abound, and the size and orientation of graphs is also irregular. A graph when inverted horizontally generally refers to the same word, and additional components are sometimes present without changing the meaning. These irregularities persisted until the standardization of the seal script during the Qin dynasty.

There are over 30,000 distinct characters found from all the bone fragments so far, which may represent around 4,000 individual characters in their various forms. The majority of these still remain undeciphered, although scholars believe they can decipher between 1,500 and 2,000 of these characters. One reason for the difficulty in decipherment is that components of certain oracle bone script characters may differ in later script forms. Such differences may be accounted for by character simplification and/or by later generations misunderstanding the original graph, which had evolved beyond recognition. For instance, the standard character 'autumn' now appears with the components  'plant stalk' and  'fire', whereas the oracle bone form depicts an insect-like figure with antennae – either a cricket or a locust – with a variant depicting fire  below said figure. In this case, the modern character is a simplification of an archaic variant 𪛁 (or 𥤚) which is closer to the oracle bone script form – albeit with the insect figure being confused with the similar-looking character for 'turtle' and the addition of the  component.

Some characters are only attested in the oracle bone script, dropping out of later usage and usually being replaced by newer characters. An example is a fragment bearing character for 'spring' that has no known modern counterpart. In such cases, available context may be used to determine the possible meaning of the character. In other cases, the character may be assumed to be a phono-semantic compound, and a rough meaning can be inferred based on the semantic component. For instance, an oracle bone character was recently found which consists of on the left and  on the right ([] when converted from oracle bone forms to their modern printed equivalents). This character may reasonably be guessed to a compound with 'altar'  as the semantic and  (modern reading sheng) as the phonetic. Though no modern character consists of these two components, it likely refers to a type of Shang dynasty ritual with a name similar to the pronunciation of in Old Chinese. In the same collection of fragments, the character $⟨礻升⟩$ was surmised to be a place name, since the semantic component means 'mound', 'hill', and the divination concerned the king traveling for a royal hunt.

Zhou-era inscriptions
There are relatively few oracle bone inscriptions dating after the conquest of the Shang by the Zhou dynasty (c. 1046 BC). From their initial discovery during the 1950s, only a handful of examples from this later period had been uncovered, and those that did were fragments consisting of only one or two characters. In August 1977, a cache containing thousands of Zhou-era oracle bones was discovered at a site closely linked to the ancient Zhou heartland. Among thousands of pieces, 200–300 bore inscriptions.

Scholarship

Among the major scholars making significant contributions to the study of the oracle bone writings, especially early on, were:
 * Wang Yirong recognized the characters as being ancient Chinese writing in 1899.
 * Liu E collected five thousand oracle bone fragments, published the first collection of 1,058 rubbings entitled Tieyun Canggui (鐵雲藏龜, Tie Yun's [i.e., Liu E] Repository of Turtles) in 1903, and correctly identified thirty-four characters.
 * Sun Yirang was the first serious researcher of oracle bones.
 * Luo Zhenyu collected over 30,000 oracle bones and published several volumes, identified the names of the Shang kings, and thus positively identified the oracle bones as being artifacts from the Shang reign.
 * Wang Guowei demonstrated that the commemorative cycle of the Shang kings matched the list of kings in Sima Qian's Records of the Historian.
 * Dong Zuobin identified the diviners and established a chronology for the oracle bones as well as numerous other dating criteria.
 * Guo Moruo editor of the Jiaguwen Heji, the largest published collection of oracle bones.
 * Ken-ichi Takashima, first scholar to systematically treat the language of the oracle bones from the perspective of modern linguistics.

Computer encoding
A proposal to include the oracle bone script in Unicode is being prepared. Code points U+35400–U+36BFF in Unicode Plane 3 (the Tertiary Ideographic Plane) have been tentatively allocated.

title: Oracle bone script


text:
Talk:Benchmark

Untitled
Probably should be split in three, with disambiguation... Egil —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Egil (talk • contribs) 16:39, 21 February 2004 (UTC)

Benchmark score in 5S
Pl let me know benchmark score in 5S, office File retrieval time etc Regds K.C.Srinath///// —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.68.22.202 (talk) 04:28, 12 May 2011 (UTC)

Magic?
The heading of this disambiguation says

"A benchmark is a known magic marked for the purpose of casting magical spells of magic. The term has been adopted in other fields:"

I don't even understand what that means or in what context. Can I simply remove this?

BrolleJr (talk) 19:13, 21 September 2015 (UTC)

EDIT: I briefly checked the history of the one who made the edit, and it's clearly vandalism. I'm resetting the change to its previous state. Is it possible to ban this person's IP?

BrolleJr (talk) 19:22, 21 September 2015 (UTC)

Chanelle YouTube 77.208.169.73 (talk) 14:32, 9 August 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Benchmark


text:
PicoBSD

PicoBSD is a discontinued single-floppy disk version of FreeBSD, one of the BSD operating system descendants. In its different variations, PicoBSD allows one to have secure Dial-up Internet access, a small diskless router, or a dial-in server, all on one standard 1.44 MB floppy disc. It runs on a minimum 386SX CPU with 8 MB of RAM (no hard drive required).

PicoBSD is freely available under the BSD license. The main developer was Andrzej Bialecki, and the latest version is 0.42. Dinesh Nair had then backported the PicoBSD build scripts to FreeBSD 2.2.5, allowing the addition of a few more binaries in the dial-up flavor due to FreeBSD 2.2.5's smaller binary executable format.

With flexibility that FreeBSD gives, along with the full source code being available, one can build a small installation performing various tasks, including:

 * Diskless workstation
 * Portable dial-up access solution
 * Custom demo-disk
 * Embedded controller (flash or EEPROM)
 * Firewall
 * Communication server
 * Replacement for commercial router
 * Diskless home automation system
 * And many others

PicoBSD is now included in the FreeBSD source files where it is used by embedded system developers to create their own system images. It can be used with recent versions of FreeBSD and it is located in /usr/src/release/picobsd/.

In FreeBSD 5, it has been superseded by the NanoBSD framework

title: PicoBSD


text:
Thomas Wyse

Sir Thomas Wyse (24 December 1791 – 16 April 1862), an Irish politician and diplomat, belonged to a family claiming descent from a Devon squire, Andrew Wyse, who is said to have crossed over to Ireland during the reign of Henry II and obtained lands near Waterford, of which city thirty-three members of the family are said to have been mayors or other municipal officers: one, John Wyse,  was Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer in the 1490s.

Life
From the Reformation the family had been consistently attached to the Catholic Church. Wyse was educated at Stonyhurst College and at Trinity College Dublin, where he distinguished himself as a scholar. After 1815 he passed some years in travel, visiting Italy, Greece, Egypt and Palestine. In 1821 he married Princess Letizia Bonaparte (1804–1871), daughter of Lucien Bonaparte, and after residing for a time at Viterbo he returned to Ireland in 1825, having by this time inherited the family estates.

He now devoted his great oratorical and other talents to forwarding the cause of Catholic emancipation, and his influence was specially marked in his own county of Waterford, while his standing among his associates was shown by his being chosen to write the address to the people of England.

In 1830, after the passing of the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829, he was returned to parliament for the County Tipperary constituency. He attached himself to the Whig Party and voted for the great measures of the reform era. But he was specially anxious to secure some improvement in the education of the Irish people, and some of his proposals were accepted by Edward Stanley, later 14th Earl of Derby, and the government, he was chairman of a committee which inquired into the condition of education in Ireland, and it was partly owing to his efforts that provincial colleges were established at Cork, Galway and Belfast.

His work as an educational pioneer also bore fruit in England, where the principles of state control and inspection, for which he had fought, were adopted, and where a training college for teachers at Battersea was established on lines suggested by him. From 1835 to 1847 he was MP for the Waterford City constituency, from 1839 to 1841 he was a Lord of the Treasury, from 1846 to 1849 he was Secretary to the Board of Control, and in 1849 he was sent as British minister to Greece. In that capacity he was a major figure in the notorious Don Pacifico Incident. He was very successful in his diplomacy, and he showed a great interest in the educational and other internal affairs of Greece. In 1857 he was made a KCB, and he died at Athens on 16 April 1862.

Wyse wrote Historical Sketch of the late Catholic Association of Ireland (London 1829), Education reform or the necessity of a national system of education (London 1836), An Excursion in the Peloponnesus (1858, new ed. 1865), and Impressions of Greece (London 1871).

His two sons shared his literary tastes: They were Napoleon Alfred Bonaparte-Wyse (1822–1895) and William Charles Bonaparte-Wyse (1826–1892), a student of the dialect of Provence. The marriage to his wife Letizia, thirteen years younger than he and only sixteen years old when the wedding took place, did not last. After an especially violent fight in 1824 (so fierce that their carriage rocked on its springs), she fled to a convent and asked for a separation. Wyse and Letizia got a papal order of seclusion in the convent. After eight months, when Wyse threatened to leave Italy without her, she submitted and travelled to Ireland with him.

However the arguments continued and in May 1828 they agreed to a separation. Letizia threw herself in a suicide attempt into the Serpentine and was rescued by Captain Studholme John Hodgson (1805–1890), a British Army officer who became her lover. They had three children who survived to adulthood: the writer Marie Laetitia Bonaparte-Wyse (1831–1902, called secretly Studholmina-Maria) who was known as Princess Marie de Solms in her first marriage; Adeline (1838–1899), who married in 1861 the Hungarian general István Türr; and the explorer Lucien Napoléon Bonaparte-Wyse (1845–1909). All of them married and left children; all the children of Captain Hodgson and Princess Letizia used the surname Bonaparte-Wyse.

Wyse was the subject of a biography written by James Auchmuty, Sir Thomas Wyse, 1791–1862: the life and career of an educator and diplomat, London 1939.

Family and children
Wyse married Princess Letizia Bonaparte, daughter of Lucien Bonaparte and his second wife Alexandrine de Bleschamp, in 1821. Their children were:

Though legally his children, Adelina and Lucien were the biological children of Bonaparte and her lover, Captain Studholme John Hodgson.
 * Napoleon Alfred Bonaparte-Wyse (1822–1895);
 * William Bonaparte-Wyse (1826-1892);
 * Marie Bonaparte-Wyse (1831-1902);
 * Adelina Bonaparte Wyse (1838–1899), married to István Türr;
 * Lucien Bonaparte-Wyse (1845-1909).

title: Thomas Wyse


text:
Talk:Francis Maude

Fuel crisis 2012
Hi Rrius, I note you undid my edit on the fuel shortage as wp:undue. I accept you acted in good faith, but there was nothing undue about a crisis which affected millions of motorists and dominated UK headlines for about a week. I've added extra sources to make this clear and this source shows some front page headlines, we mustn't trivialise this section. Maude was at the centre of it, gave "foolish" advice and dismissed expert opinion. Unlike the US, many people in the UK don't have a garage, making storage even more hazardous. Your PRWeb reference contradicts the Wikipedia article on the capacity of a jerrycan and seems otherwise irrelevant. There are plenty of articles from reliable UK sources though all condemn Maude. For the record, not the article, no notification of a strike was ever given and the Guardian articles suggest the Government was trying to damage its political opponents.

Here's a few more sources to show how well covered it was. Evening Standard. ,,,,

Telegraph ,,

Guardian ,

Regards JRPG (talk) 15:42, 1 September 2012 (UTC)

School
I'm not sure we have to hear about 'private, fee-paying Abingdon School'. Anyone interested in schools knows that Abingdon is fee-paying, and it is hardly a surprising announcement. 109.154.12.212 (talk) 18:51, 22 September 2012 (UTC)

No distaff side?
Five children, but no mention of a wife. Also no mention of a mother. And the corresponding page on his father, Angus Maude includes no mention of a wife, and lists Francis Maude alone as his issue, no mention of the brother. Something to hide, among all this? 109.154.12.212 (talk) 18:55, 22 September 2012 (UTC)

Daily Mail source, de facto criticism section and WP:undue
I've moved the Big society and salary cut items to the government minister so that they're not connected c.f wp:synth. I'm about to remove the Daily mail ref partyly because of its inappropriate editorialising, see Reliable_sources/Noticeboard/Archive_23 and partly because its not relevant to the comments. JRPG (talk) 09:08, 9 November 2012 (UTC)

Government websites as a reliable source.
Yes Minister had a one liner about lies, damn lies and Government statistic and the sections on Efficiency and Reform and Digital by default which use ministry websites have obvious wp:npov problems. We should be using wp:reliable sources or wp:Suggested sources. I'll attempt to correct this. JRPG (talk) 22:30, 24 December 2013 (UTC)

 * I hope to start amend good faith edits to Francis_Maude which provide very useful and interesting statistics so that the article is as informative and encyclopedic as possible. JRPG (talk) 16:07, 8 July 2014 (UTC)

 * I note the somewhat startling edit comment by Jgrantduff (talk) (16:35,5 November) that
 * ''Subjectivity: news journalism is by its nature critical, and tends to be Marxist in theory. However reporting accurately events, comments, remarks that have occurred is not an example of bias. Maude is a central figure in party politics, and biography

''
 * If he is seriously saying that government departments are a reliable and impartial source of information, could he please advise Identifying reliable sources. Good luck getting a consensus. FWIW I believe a characteristic of a Marxist state is one where newspapers simply accept what the Government says.
 * Based on the generally accepted policy of WP:PRIMARY, I intend to move the department's claims to the external links and replace them with sources from the Telegraph, Guardian, Independent, BBC and Times and I welcome any wp:npov contribution made using those sources. Regards JRPG (talk) 21:23, 6 November 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
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title: Talk:Francis Maude


text:
Comet Encke

Comet Encke, or Encke's Comet (official designation: 2P/Encke), is a periodic comet that completes an orbit of the Sun once every 3.3 years. (This is the shortest period of a reasonably bright comet; the faint main-belt comet 311P/PanSTARRS has a period of 3.2 years.) Encke was first recorded by Pierre Méchain on 17 January 1786, but it was not recognized as a periodic comet until 1819 when its orbit was computed by Johann Franz Encke. Like Halley's Comet, it is unusual in its being named after the calculator of its orbit rather than its discoverer. Like most comets, it has a very low albedo, reflecting only 4.6% of the light its nucleus receives, although comets generate a large coma and tail that can make them much more visible during their perihelion (closest approach to the Sun). The diameter of the nucleus of Encke's Comet is 4.8 km.

Discovery
As its official designation implies, Encke's Comet was the first periodic comet discovered after Halley's Comet (designated 1P/Halley). It was independently observed by several astronomers, the first two being Pierre Méchain and Charles Messier in 1786. It was next observed by Caroline Herschel in 1795 and was "discovered" for a third time by Jean-Louis Pons in 1818. Its orbit was calculated by Johann Franz Encke, who through laborious calculations was able to link observations of comets in 1786 (designated 2P/1786 B1), 1795 (2P/1795 V1), 1805 (2P/1805 U1) and 1818 (2P/1818 W1) to the same object. In 1819 he published his conclusions in the journal Correspondance astronomique, and predicted correctly its return in 1822 (2P/1822 L1). It was recovered by Carl Ludwig Christian Rümker at Parramatta Observatory on 2 June 1822.

Orbit
Comets are in unstable orbits that evolve over time due to perturbations and outgassing. Given Encke's low orbital inclination near the ecliptic and brief orbital period of 3 years, the orbit of Encke is frequently perturbed by the inner planets. Encke is currently close to a 7:2 mean motion resonance with Jupiter, and it is possible that some of the larger fragments shed by the comet, or released by a larger progenitor of the comet, are trapped in this resonance.

Encke's orbit gets as close as 0.173 AU to Earth (minimum orbit intersection distance). On 4 July 1997, Encke passed 0.19 AU from Earth, and on June 29, 2172, it will make a close approach of roughly 0.1735 AU. On 18 November 2013, it passed 0.02496 AU from Mercury. Close approaches to Earth usually occur every 33 years.

Comet Encke has a perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) of 0.34 AU, and at perihelion Comet Encke passes the Sun at 69.5 km/s. Between 1769 and 2103, Comet Encke's perihelion distance only varies from 0.330 AU (in 2050) and 0.347 AU (in 1782). Of the numbered comets less than 321P, only 96P/Machholz gets closer to the Sun.

Observations
The comet has been observed at every perihelion since 1818 except 1944.

An attempt to photograph the comet close to aphelion was made on 2 July 1913 using the Mount Wilson 60-inch telescope but the resulting photographic plate was lost in the mail. A second attempt using the same telescope was made on 1 September 1913 and this showed an object in about the right position (1.5 arcminutes from its then predicted position) but orbital uncertainties made it impossible to be sure of its identity. A recalculation of Encke's orbit in the 1970s resulted in a calculated position only a few arcseconds (2.0 in ascension and 4.6 in declination) from the imaged object meaning the object probably was Encke.

In March 1918 the Greenwich 28-inch aperture telescope took observations of Encke (1917c).

An observer of Encke's in March 1918 had this to say of the comet on March 12, comparing to the early March 9 observation, "The comet much shaper, brighter, smaller; its diameter was 1 1/2', magnitude 7.7 (B.D. scale). Its magnitude in the 6-inch Corbett was almost stellar, but in the 28 inch no definitive nucleus could be seen."

A number of attempts were made to image the comet around the aphelion of 3 September 1972. Elizabeth Roemer and G. McCorkle photographed the comet on 15 August. R.E. McCrosky and C.-Y. Shao photographed it on 5 September and Elizabeth Roemer this time with M.R. Gonzales photographed the comet on 13 September.

In 1980 Encke was the first comet to be detected by radar.

In April 1984 the Pioneer Venus Orbiter observed the comet in ultra-violet and made measurements of its rate of water loss.

The failed CONTOUR mission was launched to study this comet, and also Schwassmann–Wachmann 3.

On 20 April 2007, STEREO-A observed the tail of Comet Encke to be temporarily torn off by magnetic field disturbances caused by a coronal mass ejection (a blast of solar particles from the Sun). The tail grew back due to the continuous shedding of dust and gas by the comet.

Meteor showers
Comet Encke is believed to be the originator of several related meteor showers known as the Taurids (which are encountered as the Northern and Southern Taurids across November, and the Beta Taurids in late June and early July). A shower has similarly been reported affecting Mercury.

Near-Earth object may be a fragment of Encke.

Mercury
Measurements on board the NASA satellite MESSENGER have revealed Encke may contribute to seasonal meteor showers on Mercury. The Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer (MASCS) instrument discovered seasonal surges of calcium since the probe began orbiting the planet in March 2011. The spikes in calcium levels are thought to originate from small dust particles hitting the planet and knocking calcium-bearing molecules into the atmosphere in a process called impact vaporization. However, the general background of interplanetary dust in the inner Solar System cannot, by itself, account for the periodic spikes in calcium. This suggests a periodic source of additional dust, for example, a cometary debris field.

Effects on Earth
More than one theory has associated Encke's Comet with impacts of cometary material on Earth, and with cultural significance.

The Tunguska event of 1908 may have been caused by the impact of a cometary body and has also been postulated by Czechoslovakian astronomer Ľubor Kresák as possibly caused by a fragment of Comet Encke.

A theory holds that the ancient symbol of the swastika appeared in a variety of cultures across the world at a similar time, and could have been inspired by the appearance of a comet from head on, as the curved jets would be reminiscent of the swastika shape (see Comets and the swastika motif). Comet Encke has sometimes been identified as the comet in question. In their 1982 book Cosmic Serpent (page 155) Victor Clube and Bill Napier reproduce an ancient Chinese catalogue of cometary shapes from the Mawangdui Silk Texts, which includes a swastika-shaped comet, and suggest that some comet drawings were related to the breakup of the progenitor of Encke and the Taurid meteoroid stream. Fred Whipple in his The Mystery of Comets (1985, page 163) points out that Comet Encke's polar axis is only 5 degrees from its orbital plane: such an orientation is ideal to have presented a pinwheel like aspect to our ancestors when Encke was more active.

Astronomers planned a 2019 search campaign for fragments of comet Encke which would have been visible from Earth as the Taurid swarm passed between July 5–11, and July 21 – August 10. There were no reports of discoveries of any such objects.

Importance in the scientific history of luminiferous aether
Comet Encke (and Biela's Comet) had a role in scientific history in the generally discredited concept of luminiferous aether. As its orbit was perturbed and shortened, the shortening could only be ascribed to the drag of an "ether" through which it orbited in outer space. One reference reads:

 * Encke's comet is found to lose about two days in each successive period of 1,200 days. Biela's comet, with twice that length of period, loses about one day. That is, the successive returns of these bodies is found to be accelerated by this amount. No other cause for this irregularity has been found but the agency of the supposed ether.

Encke's pole tumbles in an 81-year period, therefore it will accelerate for half that time, and decelerate for the other half of the time (since the orientation of the comets rotation to solar heating determines how its orbit changes due to outgassing forward or aft of the comet's course). The authors of this 1860 textbook of course could not know that the pole of the comet would tumble as it does over such a long period of time, or that outgassing would induce a thrust to change its course.

title: Comet Encke


text:
Talk:2004 Iranian legislative election

Untitled
Is the turnout known yet? Morwen 16:56, Feb 21, 2004 (UTC)

 * Yes, I'll add it to the page. Roozbeh 00:41, 23 Feb 2004 (UTC)

 * Why is the 2008 results on the 2004 page. The same results are reported on the 2008 page.  Does anyone have the 2004 results?  Throckmorton Guildersleeve (talk) 13:53, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

title: Talk:2004 Iranian legislative election


text:
Amberley, New Zealand

Amberley is a town located in the Hurunui District in north Canterbury, on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It is located on State Highway 1 approximately 50 km north of Christchurch. It is the seat of the Hurunui District Council. The nearest town to the north of Amberly via state highway one is Waipara (11 km) and the nearest town to the south is Leithfield (5.7 km).

History
Amberley was established in 1864 by Mrs. Frederica Josephine Carter who owned freehold land north of the Kowai river. Mrs. Carter subdivided and sold her pastoral run for eight pounds per quarter acre. This price was very attractive as it made the land some of the cheapest in Canterbury. The town was named Amberley after Mrs. Carter's family farm in Oxfordshire, England. The earliest residents included a blacksmith, a wheelwright and a carpenter. A courthouse was established in 1870. The town developed slowly at first until the railway, built by Canterbury Provincial Railways, arrived in 1876. With the arrival of the railway, the town grew quickly and a town hall was completed in 1878 which could seat 400 people. The Anglican church was built in 1877 with room for 140 parishioners. It was destroyed by a "hurricane" in 1889 leaving only the tower standing. The church was then rebuilt at a cost of about £700. The Wesleyan church was built in 1882 with room for 120 parishioners. A branch (a two-story building) of the Bank of New South Wales was established in Amberley in 1890. In 1908 a telephone exchange was opened in Amberley. By this time Amberley had 96 houses or other dwellings and was home to more than 800 people.

A decision to install a water supply for Amberley was made in 1953 with the work being completed in 1957. It was deemed a success and considered "the best thing that has ever happened to Amberley". It was further extended in 1958 and again in 1967. In 1963, planning permission was granted for four shops to be built on Main North Road. This led to other retail businesses moving to Main North Road and further growth in Amberley. Work on a sewage scheme began in 1973. By 1979, around half the properties in Amberley were connected to it.

The Marathon Rubber Footwear factory closed in December 1977 which resulted in 26 redundancies. Amberley was upgraded to an automatic telephone exchange in 1978. By 1986, Amberley had grown to a population of 897 people with a further 144 people living at Amberley Beach.

In early February 2020, a fire at an illegal tyre dump containing 160,000 tyres caused significant air pollution for local residents.

Demographics
Amberley is defined by Statistics New Zealand as a small urban area and covers 3.70 km2. It had an estimated population of as of  with a population density of  people per km2.

Before the 2023 census, the town had a smaller boundary, covering 3.63 km2. Using that boundary, Amberley had a population of 2,067 at the 2018 New Zealand census, an increase of 486 people (30.7%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 762 people (58.4%) since the 2006 census. There were 834 households, comprising 1,002 males and 1,065 females, giving a sex ratio of 0.94 males per female. The median age was 50.3 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 369 people (17.9%) aged under 15 years, 243 (11.8%) aged 15 to 29, 777 (37.6%) aged 30 to 64, and 675 (32.7%) aged 65 or older.

Ethnicities were 93.9% European/Pākehā, 7.4% Māori, 1.2% Pasifika, 2.8% Asian, and 2.2% other ethnicities. People may identify with more than one ethnicity.

The percentage of people born overseas was 17.0, compared with 27.1% nationally.

Although some people chose not to answer the census's question about religious affiliation, 50.2% had no religion, 38.6% were Christian, 0.3% had Māori religious beliefs, 0.7% were Hindu, 0.1% were Buddhist and 1.5% had other religions.

Of those at least 15 years old, 222 (13.1%) people had a bachelor's or higher degree, and 432 (25.4%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $26,800, compared with $31,800 nationally. 225 people (13.3%) earned over $70,000 compared to 17.2% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 669 (39.4%) people were employed full-time, 252 (14.8%) were part-time, and 36 (2.1%) were unemployed.

Economy
The economy in Amberley is in part based on providing services to the dairy farming, arable farming and sheep farming and grape growing industries in the wider district. Many people commute to jobs in Christchurch each day from Amberley.

Climate
The warmest months of the year are January and February, with an average high temperature of 23 °C. The coldest month of the year occurs in July, when the average high temperature is 11 °C. Monthly rainfall ranges between an average of 48mm in January to 85mm in July.

Local information
Amberley is the seat of the Hurunui District Council. Once a year, the local A&P (Agricultural and Pastoral) show is held, usually mid-Spring. The Amberley Swimming Pool is located at the Amberley Domain. It is a 25-yard, 5 lanes, solar heated, public swimming pool. There is also a playground, skate park, bowls club, tennis and squash courts and multiple playing fields for rugby, soccer and cricket at the Amberley Domain.

The Church of the Holy Passion of our Lord
The Catholic Church of the Most Holy Passion was built in 1866 by Sir Frederick Weld. It was moved to its Amberley site on State Highway 1 in the mid-1950s.

Holy Innocents Anglican Church
Located on Church Street.

Cob Cottage
The Cob Cottage is located in Chamberlain Park. it suffered significant damage in 1975 because of gale force nor westerly winds. The damage was such that an upper floor had to be removed. It is owned by the Amberley Historical Society and houses a collection of furnishings and clothing from the early settlers of the area.

Amberley House
Amberley House was built between 1870 and 1876. In 1920 the property was converted into the Amberley House Girls’ Collegiate School. The house was extended by and converted into the school by building two stories to the original house. The school closed in 1942. Previous owners built extensive stables to support a horse breeding business. There are extensive grounds and it operates part time as a wedding venue and offers garden tours.

Charles Upham statue
There is a statue in memory of Charles Upham just outside the council building. Upham farmed in the Cheviot area. Nearby the statue sit three limestone carvings, labelled The Grandmothers, which celebrate the ancient Waitaha people. Carved by Sculptor Warren Thompson, the statues were unveiled in May 2003 by the Rt. Hon. Helen Clark, Prime Minister of New Zealand.

Notable people

 * Alan Johns (1917–1997), scientist, chief executive and university administrator; was born in Amberley and grew up in the town
 * Kate Harcourt, New Zealand actress.

Education
The Amberley school was established in 1872 with three classrooms. By 1902 it had 122 students. Amberley School is a co-educational state primary school for Year 1 to 8 students, with a roll of  as of. Amberley Primary School's Rewi Alley Community Centre has a memorial to Rewi Alley who attended there.

Amberley Beach
Amberley itself sits inland on state highway one and the main train line running north from Christchurch to Picton. Amberley Beach is located 4.6 km away from Amberley on Amberley Beach Road. A small number of houses, a camping ground and the Amberley Beach Reserve are located by the beach, Amberley Beach itself is a shingle rather than a sandy beach. It is popular for walking, swimming, surfing and fishing. The Amberley beach walkway offers a 20-minute walk of native bush and water features. The Amberley Lions helped to build this walkway.

Amberley Beach is described as a rural settlement by Statistics New Zealand and has an area of 0.21 km2. It had an estimated population of as of  with a population density of  people per km2. Amberley Beach is part of the larger Balcairn statistical area.

Before the 2023 census, the settlement had a smaller boundary, covering 0.27 km2. Using that boundary, Amberley Beach had a population of 171 at the 2018 New Zealand census, an increase of 6 people (3.6%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 30 people (21.3%) since the 2006 census. There were 87 households, comprising 84 males and 84 females, giving a sex ratio of 1.0 males per female. The median age was 49.6 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 21 people (12.3%) aged under 15 years, 18 (10.5%) aged 15 to 29, 84 (49.1%) aged 30 to 64, and 48 (28.1%) aged 65 or older.

Ethnicities were 96.5% European/Pākehā, 5.3% Māori, and 3.5% other ethnicities. People may identify with more than one ethnicity.

Although some people chose not to answer the census's question about religious affiliation, 59.6% had no religion, 24.6% were Christian and 3.5% had other religions.

Of those at least 15 years old, 18 (12.0%) people had a bachelor's or higher degree, and 36 (24.0%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $29,100, compared with $31,800 nationally. 24 people (16.0%) earned over $70,000 compared to 17.2% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 57 (38.0%) people were employed full-time, 27 (18.0%) were part-time, and 3 (2.0%) were unemployed.

Amberley Golf Course
Amberley has an 18-hole golf course that runs tournaments throughout the year. The Amberley Golf Club was founded in 1922. The golf course was originally a total of 9 holes based on sheep paddocks opposite Amberley House on state highway one. By 1940 the number of members increased to 63. Electricity was installed in the club-house. Due to World War 2, the club went into recess in 1942 and the course reverted to sheep paddocks. In 1954, a new course at Amberley Beach was proposed. With much voluntary effort a 13 holes course was formed and opened for play in 1955. Two further holes were added in 1957. The final three holes were completed in 1959. A new club-house was also built in 1959. In 1974, a pond was excavated near the seventeenth hole which provided irrigation for the course. Irrigating all the fairways continued to be a challenge and a new watering system was installed in 1992.

title: Amberley, New Zealand


text:
European Green Party

The European Green Party (EGP), also referred to as European Greens, is a transnational, European political party representing national parties from across Europe who share Green values.

The European Greens works closely with the Greens–European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA) parliamentary group in the European Parliament which is formed by elected Green party members along with the European Free Alliance, European Pirate Party and Volt Europa. The European Greens' partners include its youth wing the Federation of Young European Greens (FYEG), the Green European Foundation (GEF) and the Global Greens family.

Green parties are in government in seven countries in Europe: Austria (The Greens), Belgium (Groen and Ecolo), Bulgaria (Green Movement), Germany (Alliance 90/The Greens), the Republic of Ireland (Green Party), Latvia (The Progressives) and Montenegro (United Reform Action), Poland, (Zieloni/Civic Coalition) Spain (Catalunya en Comú / Sumar).

Ideology and positions
The European Greens have committed themselves to the basic tenets of Green politics as seen across Western Europe, namely environmental responsibility, climate action, individual freedom, inclusive democracy, diversity, social justice, gender equality, global sustainable development and non-violence.

The European Greens was the first party to form out of various national movements to become a European entity, committed to the integration of Europe. The party aims to amplify the views of member parties by having common policy positions, mutual election manifestos, and cohesive European election campaigns. The European Greens also has networks which brings Green politicians together, such as the Local Councillors Network.

Charter
According to its charter, the European Greens is working towards a just and sustainable transition towards societies "respectful of human rights and built upon the values of environmental responsibility, freedom, justice, diversity and non-violence". The charter’s guiding principles provide a framework for the political actions taken by member parties.

The priorities outlined in the charter include protecting human health and wellbeing, maintaining biological diversity, combatting global warming, transitioning to a just and sustainable economy, strengthening inclusive democracies, safeguarding diversity, and ensuring social justice.

History
Green politics in Europe emerged from several grassroots political movements, including the peace movements, the ecology movement and movements for women's rights.

The Anti-nuclear movement in Germany first had political expression as Vereinigung Die Grünen, which formed in March 1979, and established itself as a party for the European Parliament in January 1980. Similarly, activists in Britain's Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament would eventually form the Ecology Party. However, it also brought in ecological movements, which had become active across Western European nations in the 1970s. Environmental groups became especially political after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, which strengthened groups such as the Italian Green Party. In the Netherlands, feminists dominated GroenLinks party. Elements of all these national parties would go on to form the European Green Party.

Representatives from these and other parties sat in the European Parliament after the 1984 European Parliament election. The following 11 members of this grouping, which was briefly known as the Rainbow Group, came from parties which went on to be part of the European Greens:

 * 1 Agalev MEP and 1 Ecolo MEP from Belgium
 * 1 Pacifist Socialist MEP and 1 Radicals MEP from the Netherlands
 * 7 Grünen MEPs from German

The European Green Party itself was officially founded at the 4th Congress of the European Federation of Green Parties on 20–22 February 2004 in Rome. At the convention, 32 Green parties from across Europe joined this new pan-European party. As such, the European Greens became a trans-national party, and the very first European political party.

In the 2004 European Parliament election, member parties won 35 Seats and the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament secured 43 in total.

In the 2009 European Parliament election, even though the European Parliament was reduced in size, the European Greens' member parties won 46 seats, the best result of the Green Parties in 30 years. The Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament secured 55 seats in total.

In the 2014 European Parliament election the Green candidates were José Bové and Ska Keller. These elections marked the first time there were primaries including Spitzenkandidaten] at the European elections, which allows Europeans to not only vote for who should represent them in the European Parliament, but also help to decide who should lead the European Commission. In May they presented a common programme including the Green New Deal at the launch of the European Greens' campaign which called for "a new direction of economic policy aimed at reducing our carbon footprint and improving our quality of life". The slogan of the campaign was 'Change Europe, vote Green'. The Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament obtained 50 seats in total.

The candidates for the 2019 European Parliament election were Ska Keller and Bas Eickhout, who campaigned for climate protection, a social Europe, more democracy and stronger rule of law. That year, the Greens made the strongest ever showing across Europe, in part due to rising public awareness about climate change and the impact of youth movements for climate. The strongest surge was in Germany as Alliance 90/The Greens replaced the centre-left Social Democratic Party of Germany as the second-strongest party. The Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament obtained 74 seats in total. The Greens' results signified a new balance of power as the European People's Party (EPP) and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) lost their majority.

By 2023, The Economist analysed that "the policies espoused by environmentalists sit squarely at the centre of today’s political agenda".

Terry Reintke and Bas Eickhout were elected by the European Greens to be lead candidates for the 2024 European Parliament election. The campaign ran under the slogan "Choose Courage". . They were elected by more than 300 delegates at an Extended Congress in Lyon, France in February 2024. The campaign is focused on a Green and Social Deal, and the fight against the rise of the Far Right in Europe.

At the 2024 Maastricht Debate, organised by Politico and the University of Maastricht, European Green top candidate Bas Eickhout asked directly to Ursula von der Leyen, top candidate of the European People's Party, what her position was towards the far right in Europe, European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and Identity and Democracy. Von der Leyen told the audience that a collaboration with the ECR “depends very much on how the composition of the Parliament is, and who is in what group.”

Numerous analyses in European quality media consider this as a win for the Greens the turning point of the 2024 election campaign. The European Greens criticised heavily that von der Leyen, as incumbent president of the European Commission and lead candidate for the EPP, opened the door to collaboration with the far-right.

Organisational structure
The European Green Party is a European political party, constituted out of political parties from European countries. Parties can also become associate members. Members of the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament not belonging to a member party can be admitted as a special member with speaking rights but no vote. The governing bodies of the EGP are the Council and the Committee.
 * The Council takes place twice a year and is the main decision-making body of the European Greens and consists of delegates of member parties. During Councils, delegates from European Greens parties set a common political direction, linked to the development of the European project and its values. They do so by debating and vote on resolutions on key issues in Europe. Delegates are allotted based on their most recent European or national election results. Each party has at least two delegates. consists of delegates of member parties. These are allotted on the basis of their most recent European or national election results. Each party has at least two delegates.
 * The Committee consists of nine members, including two Co-Chairs (one man and one woman), a Secretary General and a Treasurer. They are responsible for daily political affairs, execution of the Council's decisions and the activities of the EGP office and staff. Co-Chairs Thomas Waitz and Mélanie Vogel, Secretary General Benedetta De Marte, Treasurer Ute Michel, and Committee Members Vula Tsetsi, Sibylle Steffan, Małgorzata Tracz, Rasmus Nordqvist and Mina Jack Tolu were elected at the 35th European Green Party in Riga, Latvia. The EGP has had several Co-Chairs.

Co-chairs of the European Greens

 * The Congress is an enlarged meeting of the Council which is convened by the Council at least once every 5 years and hosts more delegates.

Networks
The EGP hosts a collection of networks that have specific special interest focus, including:
 * Balkan Network
 * Mediterranean Network
 * Gender Network
 * European Queer Greens
 * Local Councillors Networks
 * European Green Disability Network
 * European Network of Green Seniors

Partnerships

 * Federation of Young European Greens
 * Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament
 * Global Greens
 * Green European Foundation

Electoral standing and political representation
The table below shows the results of the Greens in each election to the European Parliament, in terms of seats and votes. It also shows how many European Commissioners the European Greens have, and who led the parliamentary group. It also lists how the Green parliamentary group and supra-national organisations was named and what European parliamentary group they joined.

title: European Green Party