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NTRUEncrypt

The NTRUEncrypt public key cryptosystem, also known as the NTRU encryption algorithm, is an NTRU lattice-based alternative to RSA and elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) and is based on the shortest vector problem in a lattice (which is not known to be breakable using quantum computers).

It relies on the presumed difficulty of factoring certain polynomials in a truncated polynomial ring into a quotient of two polynomials having very small coefficients. Breaking the cryptosystem is strongly related, though not equivalent, to the algorithmic problem of lattice reduction in certain lattices. Careful choice of parameters is necessary to thwart some published attacks.

Since both encryption and decryption use only simple polynomial multiplication, these operations are very fast compared to other asymmetric encryption schemes, such as RSA, ElGamal and elliptic curve cryptography. However, NTRUEncrypt has not yet undergone a comparable amount of cryptographic analysis in deployed form.

A related algorithm is the NTRUSign digital signature algorithm.

Specifically, NTRU operations are based on objects in a truncated polynomial ring $$ \ R=\mathbb{Z}[X]/(X^N-1) $$ with convolution multiplication and all polynomials in the ring have integer coefficients and degree at most N-1:

 * $$ \textbf{a} = a_0 + a_1 X + a_2 X^2 + \cdots + a_{N-2} X^{N-2} + a_{N-1} X^{N-1} $$

That $$ X^N = 1 $$ in this ring has the effect that multiplying a polynomial by $$X$$ rotates the coefficients of the polynomial. A map of the form $$ f \mapsto fg $$ for a fixed $$ g \in R $$ thus produces a new polynomial $$ fg $$ where every coefficient depends on as many coefficients from $$f$$ as there are nonzero coefficients in $$g$$.

NTRU has three integer parameters (N, p, q), where N is the polynomial degree bound, p is called the small modulus, and q is called the large modulus; it is assumed that N is prime, q is always (much) larger than p, and p and q are coprime. Plaintext messages are polynomials modulo p but ciphertext messages are polynomials modulo q. Concretely the ciphertext consists of the plaintext message plus a randomly chosen multiple of the public key, but the public key may itself be regarded as a multiple of the small modulus p, which allows the holder of the private key to extract the plaintext from the ciphertext.

History
The NTRUEncrypt Public Key Cryptosystem is a relatively new cryptosystem. The first version of the system, which was simply called NTRU, was developed around 1996 by three mathematicians (Jeffrey Hoffstein, Jill Pipher, and Joseph H. Silverman). In 1996 these mathematicians together with Daniel Lieman founded the NTRU Cryptosystems, Inc. and were given a patent (now expired) on the cryptosystem.

During the last ten years people have been working on improving the cryptosystem. Since the first presentation of the cryptosystem, some changes were made to improve both the performance of the system and its security. Most performance improvements were focused on speeding up the process. Up till 2005 literature can be found that describes the decryption failures of the NTRUEncrypt. As for security, since the first version of the NTRUEncrypt, new parameters have been introduced that seem secure for all currently known attacks and reasonable increase in computation power.

Now the system is fully accepted to IEEE P1363 standards under the specifications for lattice-based public-key cryptography (IEEE P1363.1). Because of the speed of the NTRUEncrypt Public Key Cryptosystem (see http://bench.cr.yp.to for benchmarking results) and its low memory use (see below), it can be used in applications such as mobile devices and Smart-cards. In April 2011, NTRUEncrypt was accepted as a X9.98 Standard, for use in the financial services industry.

Public key generation
Sending a secret message from Alice to Bob requires the generation of a public and a private key. The public key is known by both Alice and Bob and the private key is only known by Bob. To generate the key pair two polynomials f and g, with degree at most $$ \ N-1 $$ and with coefficients in {-1,0,1} are required. They can be considered as representations of the residue classes of polynomials modulo $$ \ X^N-1 $$ in R. The polynomial $$ \textbf{f} \in L_f $$ must satisfy the additional requirement that the inverses modulo q and modulo p (computed using the Euclidean algorithm) exist, which means that $$ \ \textbf{f} \cdot \textbf{f}_p = 1 \pmod p $$ and $$ \ \textbf{f} \cdot \textbf{f}_q = 1 \pmod q $$ must hold. So when the chosen f is not invertible, Bob has to go back and try another f.

Both f and $$ \ \mathbf{f}_p $$ (and $$ g $$) are Bob's private key. The public key h is generated computing the quantity
 * $$ \textbf{h} = p\textbf{f}_q \cdot \textbf{g} \pmod q. $$

Example: In this example the parameters (N, p, q) will have the values N = 11, p = 3 and q = 32 and therefore the polynomials f and g are of degree at most 10. The system parameters (N, p, q) are known to everybody. The polynomials are randomly chosen, so suppose they are represented by

 * $$ \textbf{f} = -1 + X + X^2 - X^4 + X^6 +X^9 - X^{10} $$
 * $$ \textbf{g} = -1 + X^2 +X^3 + X^5 -X^8 - X^{10} $$

Using the Euclidean algorithm the inverse of f modulo p and modulo q, respectively, is computed

 * $$ \textbf{f}_p = 1 + 2X + 2X^3 +2X^4 + X^5 +2X^7 + X^8+2X^9 \pmod 3 $$
 * $$ \textbf{f}_q = 5 + 9X +6X^2+16X^3 + 4X^4 +15X^5 +16X^6+22X^7+20X^8+18X^9+30X^{10} \pmod {32} $$

Which creates the public key h (known to both Alice and Bob) computing the product

 * $$ \textbf{h} = p\textbf{f}_q \cdot \textbf{g} \pmod {32} = 8 - 7X - 10X^2 - 12X^3 + 12X^4 - 8X^5 + 15X^6 - 13X^7 + 12X^8 - 13X^9 + 16X^{10} \pmod {32} $$

Encryption
Alice, who wants to send a secret message to Bob, puts her message in the form of a polynomial m with coefficients in $$[-p/2, p/2]$$. In modern applications of the encryption, the message polynomial can be translated in a binary or ternary representation. After creating the message polynomial, Alice chooses randomly a polynomial r with small coefficients (not restricted to the set {-1,0,1}), that is meant to obscure the message.

With Bob's public key h the encrypted message e is computed:
 * $$ \textbf{e} = \textbf{r} \cdot \textbf{h} + \textbf{m} \pmod q $$

This ciphertext hides Alice's messages and can be sent safely to Bob.

Example: Assume that Alice wants to send a message that can be written as polynomial
 * $$ \textbf{m} = -1 + X^3 - X^4-X^8+X^9+X^{10} $$

and that the randomly chosen ‘blinding value’ can be expressed as
 * $$ \textbf{r} = -1+X^2+X^3+X^4-X^5-X^7 $$

The ciphertext e that represents her encrypted message to Bob will look like
 * $$ \textbf{e} = \textbf{r} \cdot \textbf{h} + \textbf{m} \pmod {32} = 14 + 11X+26X^2+24X^3+14X^4+16X^5+30X^6+7X^7+25X^8+6X^9+19X^{10} \pmod {32} $$

Decryption
Anybody knowing r could compute the message m by evaluating e - rh; so r must not be revealed by Alice. In addition to the publicly available information, Bob knows his own private key. Here is how he can obtain m: First he multiplies the encrypted message e and part of his private key f
 * $$ \textbf{a} = \textbf{f} \cdot \textbf{e} \pmod q $$

By rewriting the polynomials, this equation is actually representing the following computation:

 * $$ \textbf{a} = \textbf{f} \cdot \textbf{e} \pmod q $$
 * $$ \textbf{a} = \textbf{f} \cdot (\textbf{r} \cdot \textbf{h}+\textbf{m}) \pmod q $$
 * $$ \textbf{a} = \textbf{f} \cdot (\textbf{r} \cdot p\textbf{f}_q \cdot \textbf{g} + \textbf{m}) \pmod q $$
 * $$ \textbf{a} = p\textbf{r} \cdot \textbf{g} + \textbf{f} \cdot \textbf{m} \pmod q $$

Instead of choosing the coefficients of a between 0 and q – 1 they are chosen in the interval [-q/2, q/2] to prevent that the original message may not be properly recovered since Alice chooses the coordinates of her message m in the interval [-p/2, p/2]. This implies that all coefficients of $$ \ p\textbf{r} \cdot \textbf{g} + \textbf{f} \cdot \textbf{m} $$ already lie within the interval [-q/2, q/2] because the polynomials r, g, f and m and prime p all have coefficients that are small compared to q. This means that all coefficients are left unchanged during reducing modulo q and that the original message may be recovered properly.

The next step will be to calculate a modulo p:

 * $$ \textbf{b} = \textbf{a} \pmod p = \textbf{f} \cdot \textbf{m} \pmod p $$

because $$ \ p\textbf{r} \cdot \textbf{g} \pmod p =0 $$.

Knowing b Bob can use the other part of his private key $$ \ \left(\textbf{f}_p \right)$$ to recover Alice's message by multiplication of b and $$ \ \textbf{f}_p $$

 * $$ \textbf{c} = \textbf{f}_p \cdot \textbf{b} = \textbf{f}_p \cdot \textbf{f} \cdot \textbf{m} \pmod p $$
 * $$ \textbf{c} = \textbf{m} \pmod p $$

because the property $$ \ \textbf{f} \cdot \textbf{f}_p =1 \pmod p $$ was required for $$ \ \textbf{f}_p $$.

Example: The encrypted message e from Alice to Bob is multiplied with polynomial f
 * $$ \textbf{a} = \textbf{f} \cdot \textbf{e} \pmod {32} = 3 -7X-10X^2-11X^3+10X^4+7X^5+6X^6+7X^7+5X^8-3X^9-7X^{10} \pmod {32}, $$

where Bob uses the interval [-q/2, q/2] instead of the interval [0, q – 1] for the coefficients of polynomial a to prevent that the original message may not be recovered correctly.

Reducing the coefficients of a mod p results in
 * $$ \textbf{b} = \textbf{a} \pmod 3 = -X-X^2+X^3+X^4+X^5+X^7-X^8-X^{10} \pmod 3 $$

which equals $$ \ \textbf{b} = \textbf{f} \cdot \textbf{m}\pmod 3 $$.

In the last step the result is multiplied with $$ \ \textbf{f}_p $$ from Bob's private key to end up with the original message m
 * $$ \textbf{c} = \textbf{f}_p \cdot \textbf{b} = \textbf{f}_p \cdot \textbf{f} \cdot \textbf{m} \pmod 3 = \textbf{m} \pmod 3 $$
 * $$ \textbf{c} = -1+X^3-X^4-X^8+X^9+X^{10} $$

Which indeed is the original message Alice has sent to Bob!

Attacks
Since the proposal of NTRU several attacks on the NTRUEncrypt public key cryptosystem have been introduced. Most attacks are focused on making a total break by finding the secret key f instead of just recovering the message m. If f is known to have very few non-zero coefficients Eve can successfully mount a brute force attack by trying all values for f. When Eve wants to know whether f´ is the secret key, she simply calculates $$ \ \textbf{f}' \cdot \textbf{h} \pmod q $$. If it has small coefficients it might be the secret key f, and Eve can test if f´ is the secret key by using it to decrypt a message she encrypted herself. Eve could also try values of g and test if $$ \ \textbf{g}' \cdot \textbf{h}^{-1} \pmod q $$has small values.

It is possible to mount a meet-in-the-middle attack which is more powerful. It can cut the search time by square root. The attack is based on the property that $$ \ \textbf{f} \cdot \textbf{h} = p\textbf{g} \pmod q $$.

Eve wants to find $$ \ \textbf{f}_1 $$ and $$ \ \textbf{f}_2 $$ such that $$ \ \textbf{f} = \textbf{f}_1 + \textbf{f}_2 $$ holds and such that they have the property
 * $$ \left( \textbf{f}_1+\textbf{f}_2 \right) \cdot \textbf{h} = \textbf{g} \pmod q $$
 * $$ \textbf{f}_1 \cdot \textbf{h} = \textbf{g} -\textbf{f}_2 \cdot \textbf{h} \pmod q$$

If f has d one's and N-d zero's, then Eve creates all possible $$ \ \textbf{f}_1 $$ and $$ \ \textbf{f}_2 $$ in which they both have length $$ \ \frac{1}{2} N $$ (e.g. $$ \ \textbf{f}_1 $$ covers the $$ \ \frac{1}{2} N $$ lowest coefficients of f and $$ \ \textbf{f}_2 $$ the highest) with d/2 one's. Then she computes $$ \textbf{f}_1 \cdot \textbf{h} \pmod q $$ for all $$ \ \textbf{f}_1 $$ and orders them in bins based on the first k coordinates. After that she computes all $$ \ -\textbf{f}_2 \cdot \textbf{h} \pmod q $$ and orders them in bins not only based on the first k coordinates, but also based on what happens if you add 1 to the first k coordinates. Then you check the bins that contain both $$ \ \textbf{f}_1 $$ and $$ \ \textbf{f}_2 $$ and see if the property $$ \ \textbf{f}_1 \cdot \textbf{h} = \textbf{g} -\textbf{f}_2 \cdot \textbf{h} \pmod q $$ holds.

The lattice reduction attack is one of the best known and one of the most practical methods to break the NTRUEncrypt. In a way it can be compared to the factorization of the modulus in RSA. The most used algorithm for the lattice reduction attack is the Lenstra-Lenstra-Lovász algorithm. Because the public key h contains both f and g one can try to obtain them from h. It is however too hard to find the secret key when the NTRUEncrypt parameters are chosen secure enough. The lattice reduction attack becomes harder if the dimension of the lattice gets bigger and the shortest vector gets longer. The chosen ciphertext attack is also a method which recovers the secret key f and thereby results in a total break. In this attack Eve tries to obtain her own message from the ciphertext and thereby tries to obtain the secret key. In this attack Eve doesn't have any interaction with Bob.

How it works:

First Eve creates a ciphertext $$ \ \textbf{e} = c\textbf{h} + c $$ such that $$ \ c = 0 \pmod p, c < \frac{q}{2} $$ and $$ \ 2c > \frac{q}{2} $$ When Eve writes down the steps to decipher e (without actually calculating the values since she does not know f) she finds $$ \ \textbf{a} = \textbf{f} \cdot \textbf{e} \pmod q $$:

 * $$ \textbf{a} = \textbf{f} \left(c\textbf{h} + c\right) \pmod q $$
 * $$ \textbf{a} = c\textbf{g} +c\textbf{f} \pmod q $$
 * $$ \textbf{a} = c\textbf{g} + c\textbf{f} -qK $$

In which $$ \ K = \sum k_i x^i $$ such that
 * $$k_i=\begin{cases} 1 \ \ \qquad \text{if the} \ i^{th} \ \text{coefficient of} \ \textbf{f} \ \text{and} \ \textbf{g} \ \text{is} \ 1 \\ -1 \qquad \text{if the} \ i^{th} \ \text{coefficient of} \ \textbf{f} \ \text{and} \ \textbf{g} \ \text{is} \ -1\\ 0 \ \ \qquad \text{Otherwise}\end{cases}$$

Example:
 * $$ \textbf{f} = -1+X+X^2-X^4+X^6+X^9-X^{10} $$
 * $$ \textbf{g} = -1 +X^2+X^3+X^5-X^8-X^{10} $$

Then K becomes $$ \ K = -1+X^2-X^{10} $$.

Reducing the coefficients of a mod p really reduces the coefficients of $$ \ c\textbf{g}+c\textbf{f}-qK \pmod p $$. After multiplication with $$ \ \textbf{f}_p $$, Eve finds:
 * $$ \textbf{m} = c\textbf{f}_p \cdot \textbf{g}+c\textbf{f}_p \cdot \textbf{f}-q\textbf{f}_p \cdot K \pmod p $$
 * $$ \textbf{m} = c\textbf{h}+c -q\textbf{f}_p \cdot K \pmod p $$

Because c was chosen to be a multiple of p, m can be written as
 * $$ \textbf{m} = -q\textbf{f}_p \cdot K \pmod p $$

Which means that $$ \ \textbf{f} = -qK \cdot \textbf{m}^{-1} \pmod p $$.

Now if f and g have few coefficients which are the same at the same factors, K has few non zero coefficients and is thereby small. By trying different values of K the attacker can recover f.

By encrypting and decrypting a message according to the NTRUEncrypt the attacker can check whether the function f is the correct secret key or not.

Security and performance improvements
Using the latest suggested parameters (see below) the NTRUEncrypt public key cryptosystem is secure to most attacks. There continues however to be a struggle between performance and security. It is hard to improve the security without slowing down the speed, and vice versa.

One way to speed up the process without damaging the effectiveness of the algorithm, is to make some changes in the secret key f. First, construct f such that $$ \ \textbf{f} = 1+p\textbf{F} $$, in which F is a small polynomial (i.e. coefficients {-1,0, 1}). By constructing f this way, f is invertible mod p. In fact $$ \ \textbf{f}^{-1} = 1\pmod p $$, which means that Bob does not have to actually calculate the inverse and that Bob does not have to conduct the second step of decryption. Therefore, constructing f this way saves a lot of time but it does not affect the security of the NTRUEncrypt because it is only easier to find $$ \ \textbf{f}_p $$ but f is still hard to recover. In this case f has coefficients different from -1, 0 or 1, because of the multiplication by p. But because Bob multiplies by p to generate the public key h, and later on reduces the ciphertext modulo p, this will not have an effect on the encryption method.

Second, f can be written as the product of multiple polynomials, such that the polynomials have many zero coefficients. This way fewer calculations have to be conducted.

According to the 2020 NTRU NIST submission the following parameters are considered secure:

title: NTRUEncrypt


text:
Los Angeles Music Center

The Los Angeles Music Center (officially the Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County) is one of the largest performing arts centers in the United States. Located in downtown Los Angeles, The Music Center is composed of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Ahmanson Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Roy & Edna Disney CalArts Theatre (REDCAT), and Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Each year, The Music Center welcomes more than 1.3 million people to performances by its four internationally renowned resident companies: Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Opera, Los Angeles Master Chorale, and Center Theatre Group (CTG) as well as performances by the dance series Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center. The center is home to on-going community events, arts festivals, outdoor concerts, participatory arts activities and workshops, and educational programs.

History
In April 1955, Dorothy Chandler, wife of Los Angeles Times publisher Norman Chandler, began fundraising toward a permanent home for the Philharmonic. Ultimately Mrs. Chandler raised almost $20 million in private donations; the County provided the site and raised the remaining $14 million using mortgage revenue bonds.

The rest of the complex was completed in April 1967. The additional venues, the Mark Taper Forum and Ahmanson Theatre, were dedicated on April 9 and 12, 1967, respectively.

When the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion opened its doors on December 6, 1964, the twenty-eight-year-old Zubin Mehta led the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a program that included violinist Jascha Heifetz and performances of Strauss' Fanfare and Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D Major. The Mark Taper Forum, "scandalizing the power structure of Los Angeles," according to its artistic director Gordon Davidson, with its provocative opening production of John Whiting's The Devils. The Ahmanson Theatre opened with a performance of the Man of La Mancha by the Civic Light Opera. The first dramatic season at the Ahmanson featured Ingrid Bergman in O'Neill's More Stately Mansions, signaling its intent to marry big-name playwrights with big-name stars.

Since its opening in 1964, The Music Center has seen the American debuts of Simon Rattle and Esa-Pekka Salonen, the world premieres of The Shadow Box, Zoot Suit, Children of a Lesser God, and Angels in America at the Taper, and performances by Jessica Tandy, Hume Cronyn, Katharine Hepburn, and Maggie Smith at the Ahmanson. The Philharmonic and L.A. Master Chorale joined forces to provide the accompaniment to Eisenstein's restored silent film classic Alexander Nevsky. While the Civic Light Opera's last season at The Music Center was in 1987, the Los Angeles Music Center Opera was formed in 1986. Its productions have included Wagner's Tristan and Isolde directed by Jonathan Miller and designed by David Hockney.

The Music Center hosts the annual Los Angeles County Holiday Celebration on Christmas Eve since 1960 with performances from singers, dance groups and musicians. The event is free to everyone and it is televised on PBS SoCal.

Construction of Walt Disney Concert Hall and Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater

On October 23, 2003, The Music Center opened the Frank-Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall, expanding the campus to 11 acre. The 2,265-seat Concert Hall is home to the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Walt Disney Concert Hall includes the 266-seat Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT) and outdoor program areas including the W. M. Keck Foundation Children's Amphitheatre, seating 250-300 and the Nadine and Ed Carson amphitheatre seating 120.

Music Center Plaza renovation
The main plaza underwent a $40 million renovation project in July 2018. The project doubles the plaza's capacity from 2,500 to 5,000 people.

Venues
The main venues of the complex (which also includes some outdoor amphitheaters) are:
 * Dorothy Chandler Pavilion: 3,197 seats
 * Mark Taper Forum: 739 seats
 * Ahmanson Theatre: 1,600 to 2,007 seats, depending on configuration
 * Walt Disney Concert Hall: 2,265 seats
 * Roy & Edna Disney CalArts Theatre (REDCAT): 266 seats

Public art
The 10-ton, 29-foot bronze sculpture Peace on Earth (1969 by Jacques Lipchitz, a Cubist sculptor who fled the Nazi occupation of Paris, was dedicated on May 4, 1969, and originally installed as the focal point of the Music Center plaza. His mammoth bronze sculpture shows a dove descending to Earth as a spirit of peace, further symbolized by a Madonna standing inside a tear-shaped canopy, supported by reclining lambs. Lawrence E. Deutsch and Lloyd Rigler donated $250,000 to commission a work for the fountain. The architects of The Music Center, Welton Becket and Associates, opposed placing sculpture in the plaza between the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and the Mark Taper Forum. However, after a two-year search, the Art Committee of The Music Center commissioned Lipchitz. In 2019, the sculpture was re-installed 100 feet west to accommodate a major Plaza renovation to improve accessibility.

Three years after the Peace on Earth installation in 1982, Frederick and Marcia Weisman donated the bronze sculpture Dance Door (1978) by Robert Graham to the Music Center. It consists of an ornamented hollow-centered bronze door hinged on a bronze frame in an open position. The door is constructed of approximately seven welded case panels on each side, containing low relief abstracted figures of dancers.

Resident companies
The complex has four resident companies:
 * Los Angeles Philharmonic
 * Los Angeles Opera
 * Los Angeles Master Chorale
 * Center Theatre Group

Education
Since its inception in 1979, The Music Center and its family programs has served more than 16 million and currently serves nearly 1 million students and teachers each year. The Music Center believes the arts enhance the lives of all people and are crucial to the development of every child. The Music Center-designed curriculum materials are included in art textbooks published by McGraw Hill in use across the country and are also available on The Music Center's website.

Education and family programs include "World City", the "Blue Ribbon Children's Festival", the "Very Special Arts Festival" and the "Spotlight Awards".

Active Arts
Launched in July 2004 and designed to expand the public's experience associated with the performing arts, Active Arts at The Music Center extends beyond the more formal experience associated with performing arts centers. Active Arts programs engage people from diverse backgrounds and experiences and establishes an ongoing series of admission-free or low-cost recreational art-making events that encourage people to sing, dance, play music and tell stories together just for the sheer enjoyment and love of it.

Active Arts programs cut across cross-cultural boundaries and encourage people to participate for the sole purpose of art-making and include "Dance Downtown", "Drum Downtown", "A Taste of Dance", "Public Practice", "Friday Night Sing-Along" and "The Music Center Holiday Sing-Along".

Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center
Over the past ten years, The Music Center has developed an ambitious dance presentation program, which has established a distinguished reputation – locally, nationally, and internationally. The endeavor began in 2000 with The Music Center's sold-out presentation of the Bolshoi Ballet in its historic production of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet as well as new interpretation of Don Quixote.

Since then, The Music Center has presented a broad array of ensembles, including New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ballet Nacional de Cuba, Beijing Modern Dance Company, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Kirov Ballet of the Mariinsky Theatre, Nuevo Ballet Español, Miami City Ballet and Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg.

Governance and administration
The Music Center is governed by a Board of Directors chaired by Lisa Specht. The Music Center president and chief executive officer is Rachel S. Moore (2015). The County of Los Angeles owns The Music Center venues and provides funding for the maintenance, operations, grounds-keeping, security and ushers. Revenue from the operation of The Music Center garages offsets these expenses. The Music Center and the four resident companies are responsible for the productions presented in the theatres. The Music Center maintains and operates the buildings and the grounds and oversees occupancy of the theatres, restaurant facilities and The Music Center Archives.

Membership groups
The Music Center has a number of organized membership groups:
 * The Blue Ribbon, founded by Mrs. Chandler in 1968, has a membership of more than 450 women leaders of Los Angeles who champion the performing arts and make substantial financial contributions to the center's community programs and its resident companies annually.
 * Center Dance Association (CDA) is dedicated to promoting educational programming related to dance, expanding dance audiences in Los Angeles and creating special events related to dance for the enjoyment and further education of its membership.
 * The Music Center Leadership Council (originally known as "Fraternity of Friends"), 1978–2018, consisted of businessmen and entertainment industry leaders who shared an interest in the performing arts and the well-being of The Music Center.

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

title: Los Angeles Music Center


text:
Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access

Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access (FOMA) is the brand name of the W-CDMA-based 3G telecommunications services being offered by the Japanese telecommunications service provider NTT DoCoMo. It is an implementation of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) and was the world's first 3G mobile data service to commence commercial operations.

NTT DoCoMo also offers HSPA services branded FOMA High-Speed (FOMAハイスピード), which offers downlink speeds up to 7.2 Mbit/s and uplink speeds up to 5.7 Mbit/s.

History
NTT DoCoMo developed the W-CDMA air interface, which is a form of DS-CDMA (Direct Sequence CDMA), in the late 1990s. It was later accepted by the ITU as one of several air interfaces for the IMT-2000telecom initiative and by the ETSI as one of three air interfaces for the UMTS cellular network standard.

NTT DoCoMo originally planned to launch the world's first 3G services, initially branded Frontier of Mobile Multimedia Access (FOMA), in May 2001. However, by May 2001, NTT DoCoMo had postponed the full-scale launch until October 2001, claiming they had not completed testing of their entire infrastructure, and would only launch an introductory trial to 4,000 subscribers. In doing so, they also renamed the service to Freedom of Mobile multimedia Access. In June 2001 trial subscribers complained the mobile phones had insufficient battery life and crashed frequently, that there was inadequate network coverage, and that there were security issues within the handset itself. As a result, DoCoMo recalled 1,500 handsets by the end of June 2001. FOMA successfully launched in October 2001, providing mobile telecommunications coverage to Tokyo and Yokohama.

Initially - as the first full-scale 3G service in the world - The first FOMA handsets were of an experimental nature, targeting early adopters, were larger than previous handsets, had poor battery life, while the initial network only covered the center of Japan's largest towns and cities. For the first 1–2 years, FOMA was essentially an experimental service for early adopters - mainly centered around communication industry professionals.

As NTT DoCoMo did not wait for the completion and finalization of the 3G Release 99 network specification, their 3G W-CDMA network was initially incompatible with the internationally deployed UMTS standard. However, in 2004 NTT DoCoMo performed wide-scale upgrades on its network, bringing it into compliance with the specification and enabling 100% compatibility with UMTS handsets, including incoming and outgoing roaming.

Around March 2004, the FOMA network achieved mass adoption, and handset sales soared. As of September 29, 2007, FOMA had over 40 million subscribers.

Terminals
NTT DoCoMo offers a wide range of FOMA branded handsets, which are made specifically for the Japanese market. FOMA handsets differ from Western UMTS handsets in several aspects, for example:

 * A standardized menu structure and chargers.
 * Japan-specific features such as i-mode or Osaifu-Keitai (electronic wallet).
 * Multiband-support, which includes band VI at 800 MHz for FOMA Plus-Area (newer models).
 * No support for dual-mode operation with GSM/EDGE (except some models branded by DoCoMo as World Wing).

Frequency allocations
In metropolitan areas, FOMA uses the UMTS band I around 2100 MHz, which has been originally assigned to IMT-2000 services worldwide, except in the Americas. In order to improve coverage in rural and mountainous areas, NTT DoCoMo also offers FOMA services in the 800 MHz band originally assigned to the 2G PDC mova service, which corresponds to UMTS band VI and is similar to band V used in the United States. These extended service areas are branded FOMA Plus-Area (FOMAプラスエリア) and require multiband terminals.

title: Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access


text:
Dorothy Buffum Chandler

Dorothy Buffum Chandler (May 19, 1901 – July 6, 1997; born Dorothy Mae Buffum) was an American philanthropist. She is known for her contributions to Los Angeles performing arts and culture.

Personal life
Dorothy Mae Buffum was born in 1901 in La Fayette, Illinois. Nicknamed "Buff" or "Buffie", her family moved to Long Beach, California in 1905. Her father, Charles Abel Buffum, alongside her uncle, Edwin, opened a store that would become later become the Buffums department store chain. Buffum attended Long Beach High School, and was described as a competitive student for her gender, especially against the opposite sex. An enthusiastic sprinter, she once marked that “I didn’t take to boys much except to run against them and beat them".

Buffum went on to study history at Stanford University, and was a member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority. At a school dance, she met fellow student Norman Chandler, the eldest son of the family that had published the Los Angeles Times since 1883. The couple married in 1922, and had two children, Camilla and Otis, both born in 1927. The Chandlers went on to have eight grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. In 1945, her husband became publisher of the Times, a position he held until he was succeeded by their son, Otis, in 1960. He died in 1973, and Chandler never remarried. The family lived in Los Tiempos (the Times), a grand house on Lorraine Blvd. in Windsor Square, Los Angeles, where she lived until her death in 1997.

Times Mirror Company
Chandler worked at the Times or its parent, the Times Mirror Company, from 1948 to 1976. She was a director of Times Mirror from 1955 until 1973, when she was named director emeritus.She initiated the Times Woman of the Year award, which was given to 243 women from 1950 through 1976.

Philanthropy
In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Chandler to his Committee on Education Beyond the High School and, in 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson named her to the U.S. Advisory Commission on Information.

As the wife of the publisher of the city's leading newspaper, Chandler became active in Los Angeles cultural circles. In 1950, a financial crisis closed the Hollywood Bowl during its summer season. Chandler chaired a committee that organized a series of fundraising concerts that led to the Bowl's reopening. She later served as president of its parent organization, the Southern California Symphony Association. Chandler served as a regent and chairwoman of the Building Committee of the University of California from 1954 to 1968, during its period of most rapid growth, when the system grew from five to nine campuses. She also served as a trustee of Occidental College from 1952 to 1967.

Chandler later led a nine-year effort to build a performing arts center for the city of Los Angeles. In 1955, she raised $400,000 at a benefit concert at the Ambassador Hotel featuring Dinah Shore, Danny Kaye and Jack Benny. Chandler sought funds from both the long established "old money" families of Pasadena, but also to "new money" communities on the city's Westside and Hollywood, many of whom were Jewish. Attorney Paul Ziffren remarked that "before the Music Center, Jews were not a part of the social life of this community." He regarded Chandler to be "was primarily responsible for opening up this community in terms of Jews and Gentiles." Chandler eventually garnered enough donations to cover $20 million of the estimated $35 million total cost; the remainder was paid through private bond sales.

Chandler was featured on the cover of the December 18, 1964, issue of Time magazine, which praised her fundraising efforts as "perhaps the most impressive display of virtuoso money-raising and civic citizenship in the history of U.S. womanhood." The Los Angeles Music Center held its first performance on December 6, 1964. Chandler hired its first conductor, Zubin Mehta, to lead the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra. The complex was completed in 1967, consisting of three venues: the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, named in honor of Chandler, the Mark Taper Forum and the Ahmanson Theatre. The Chandler Pavilion served as the home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1964 until 2003, when the Music Center opened its fourth hall, the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Author David Halberstam referred to Chandler as a "woman before her time. A feminist in pioneer country. Always, above all else, a presence." Former Mayor Tom Bradley declared her "a giant in the cultural life of Los Angeles. We shall always remember her whenever we see the Music Center, knowing that without her vision and energetic leadership, it would not have been built in our lifetime." On September 17, 2005, the Walt Disney Concert Hall held a Dorothy Chandler memorial concert.

Awards

 * 1971: the Herbert Hoover Medal for Distinguished Service, awarded by the Stanford University Alumni Assn.
 * 1974: Humanitarian Award from Variety Clubs International
 * 1982: UCLA Medal from the University of California, Los Angeles
 * 1985: National Medal of Arts from the National Endowment for the Arts

title: Dorothy Buffum Chandler


text:
Talk:Dorothy Buffum Chandler

Untitled
Redirects: Dorothy Chandler, Dorothy Mae Buffum Chandler

title: Talk:Dorothy Buffum Chandler


text:
Enric Miralles

Enric Miralles Moya (12 February 1955 – 3 July 2000) was a Spanish architect from Barcelona, Catalonia. He graduated from the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB) at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in 1978. After establishing his reputation with a number of collaborations with his first wife Carme Pinós; the couple separated in 1991. Miralles later married fellow architect Benedetta Tagliabue, and the two practiced together as EMBT Architects. Miralles' magnum opus and his largest project, the Scottish Parliament Building, was unfinished at the time of his death.

Life
In 1978, Miralles completed his examinations at the Escola Tècnica Superior d'Arquitectura (ETSAB) in Barcelona. From 1973 to 1978, he worked in the architect's office of Albert Viaplana and Helio Piñón. Whilst there—among other things—he was involved in the construction of the Plaça dels Països Catalans, the forecourt for the Estació de Sants. In 1984, after several architectural competition awards, Miralles formed his own office in Barcelona with his first wife Carme Pinós, which they led together until 1991. Within the rising Spanish architecture scene of the late 1980s following the death of Francisco Franco, their unusual buildings attracted international attention. As a result, they received numerous commissions from Spain and overseas. After their separation, Miralles and Pinós continued to work in separate offices.

In 1993, Miralles formed a new practice with his second wife, the Italian architect Benedetta Tagliabue, under the name "EMBT Architects". She resumed the practice under his name after his death. The most important projects; the Scottish Parliament Building in Edinburgh and the multistoried building for the Spanish gas company Gas Natural in Barcelona, were only finished after his death. Miralles died at the age of 45 as the result of a brain tumor.

Architecture
The independent architectural language of Miralles can be difficult to classify in terms of contemporary architecture. It is influenced by Spanish architects, such as Alejandro de la Sota, José Antonio Coderch and Josep Maria Jujol, and also from international greats such as Le Corbusier, Louis Kahn and Alvar Aalto and the Russian Constructivist movement of the early 20th century. The freely formed buildings utilising massive building materials and steel, develop from their relationship with the environment and connect themselves to it. The form is constructed using often unusual materials which are generally left with natural surfaces. Form and material interpret the place, traditions and history in a personal and poetic art, as his critics attest. From the starting point of the townscape or landscape he would design a building in its totality, down to the details of the furnishing and the exterior installations. Therefore, the execution of the details was just as important to the communication of meaning as the main form. Both were developed over a large number of designs and with numerous models as the main tool of the design process.

Charles Jencks, writing on the problems surrounding the construction of the Scottish Parliament Building and the controversial reception of its design for Architecture Today, summed up Miralles' architectural style: Miralles, like many other postmodern architects, has a preference for piling on the motifs and ideas: upturned boats, keel shapes, deep window reveals like a castle, crow-steps, prow shapes, diagonal gutters, 'bamboo bundles' and above all the dark granite gun-shape that repeats as an ornamental motif at a huge scale. Everywhere broken silhouettes compete for attention, just like the alleyways next door. That's fine, and contextual, but it's quite a meal. As a result of the complexity, the parliament is really a kind of small city, with much too much to digest in one short three-hour sitting. The Scottish parliament will take time to judge: maybe not 50 years but three or four visits, long enough to absorb all the richness and get used to those jumpy black granite guns, the most arbitrary of several questionable ornaments.

Academia
Miralles was an active teacher at numerous universities. In 1985, he became a professor at the ETSAB in Barcelona. During 1990, he took over the conceptional design chair at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main. In 1993, Miralles received an invitation from Harvard University to occupy the Kenzo Tange chair. He taught as a guest lecturer at Columbia University in New York, Princeton University in New Jersey, the Architectural Association in London, the Berlage Instituut in Rotterdam, the Mackintosh School of Architecture in Glasgow and the Universities of Buenos Aires and Mexico City.

Buildings
In Partnership with Carme Pinós
 * 1984 to 1986 La Llauna School, Badalona, Barcelona
 * 1985 Canopy for the Plaça Major, Parets del Vallès
 * 1985 to 1994 Igualada Cemetery, Igualada, Barcelona. 41º35'31"N 1º38'14"E
 * 1986 to 1992 Hostalets de Balenyà Civic Centre, Barcelona
 * 1986 to 1993 Boarding school in Morella, Castelló
 * 1987 to 1993 La Mina Civic Centre, Sant Adrià de Besòs, Barcelona
 * 1988 to 1992 House, Bellaterra, Barcelona
 * 1989/91 Olympic archery range for the 1992 Summer Olympics, Vall d'Hebrón, Barcelona. 41º25'31.53"N 02º08'41.51"E
 * 1988 to 1992 Sportcentre in Huesca
 * 1990/91 Centre for rhythmic gymnastics, Alicante
 * 1990 to 1992 Pergola for the Passeig Nova Icària, Olympic village, Barcelona

In Partnership with Benedetta Tagliabue
 * 1991 to 2001 Park Santa Rosa, Mollet del Vallés
 * 1995 House conversion in Barcelona
 * 1996 Small House for a Kolonihaven
 * 1996 to 2000 Six houses, Amsterdam, Netherlands
 * 1997 to 2000 Parc de Diagonal Mar, Barcelona
 * 1997 to 2000 Utrecht town hall extension, Netherlands
 * 1997 to 2001 Library in Palafolls, Barcelona
 * 1997 to 2001 Santa Caterina Market hall conversion, Barcelona
 * 1998 to 2000 Extension of the national youth school of music, Hamburg
 * 1998 to 2002 Scottish Parliament Building in Edinburgh, Scotland. 55º57'7"N 03º10'29"W
 * 1999 Maretas Museum, Lanzarote
 * 1999 to 2006 Torre Mare Nostrum, Head office of Gas Natural, Barcelona
 * 2002 Public space design Western Hafencity Hamburg
 * 2000 to 2005 New building of the architecture faculty, Venice, Italy

In partnership with Carme Pinós

 * 1985/86 Bridge in Lleida, Catalonia
 * 1987 El Vapor Vell house, Barcelona
 * 1988 Street canopies for the Expo 1992, Seville
 * 1988 House in Girona, Catalonia
 * 1989 to 1992 Promenade in Reus, Tarragona

In partnership with Benedetta Tagliabue

 * 1993 Old Port Redevelopment competition, Bremerhaven, Germany
 * 1995 Chemnitz Stadium
 * 1995 Dresden Stadium
 * 1995 Laboratory building for the University of Dresden
 * 1995 Tram stop in Frankfurt am Main
 * 1996 Japanese National Library, Tokyo, Japan
 * 1996 Auditorium for the University of Lübeck
 * 1997 Pier in Thessaloniki, Greece
 * 1998 San Michele Cemetery extension competition, Venice, Italy
 * 1999 Law courts competition in Salerno, Italy
 * 1999 University campus Vigo, Pontevedra
 * 2000 Wolfsburg Science Center competition
 * 2001 Competition for the head office of the California Department of Transportation, Los Angeles, US
 * 2007 Enric Miralles Public Library in Palafolls, Catalonia

Furniture

 * The Sentada chair for Artespaña
 * 1993 The Iñes Table – designed for a project in Grenoble – a multi-use piece of furniture accommodating a variety of working and storage requirements.

Awards

 * 1985 FAD-Prize (Foment Arts Decoratives)
 * 1992 FAD-Prize (Foment Arts Decoratives)
 * 1995 Spanish Architecture Award
 * 1996 "Golden Lion" from the Venice Biennale
 * 2002 Netherlands "Bouwprijs"
 * 2005 RIBA Stirling Prize for the Scottish Parliament Building

title: Enric Miralles


text:
Baine Kerr

Baine Perkins Kerr (August 24, 1919 – May 20, 2008) was a prominent Houston lawyer who was a partner in the law firm of Baker and Botts, where he managed the corporate law department, before he joined Pennzoil.

Career
Kerr was president of Pennzoil and on the board of directors from 1964 to 1994. He served in World War II, and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. He married Mildred C. Kerr in 1942, with whom he would raise four children, Baine P. Kerr, Jr., John Caldwell Kerr, James Robinson Kerr, and Mary Kerr.

In the 1980s he served on the "Energy Engineering Board" of the National Research Council.

In 1989 he was paid a $10 million bonus for his work on a lawsuit for Pennzoil that resulted in a $3 billion settlement from Texaco.

Friendship with George Bush
Kerr and his family were longtime friends of George H. W. Bush and his wife, Barbara, whom they used to live down the street from. According to an article by Walter Pincus and Bob Woodward in The Washington Post entitled Doing Well with Help from Family, Friends, (August 11, 1988) when Bush was running against Lloyd Bentsen for senator in 1970, Kerr advised Bush on a proposed business deal involving a loan request from a man named Victor Flaherty, who needed money to buy Fidelity Printing Company. Kerr recommended that Bush make the loan, but that he also demand some stock in Fidelity Printing as part of the deal. When Fidelity Printing was sold, Bush cashed in his stock for $99,600 in profit, a gain of 1,900 percent on his original investment. When Bush became president he named his presidential yacht "Fidelity" because of this business deal.

title: Baine Kerr


text:
User:MingMecca

Hello; I am the editor formerly known as Brain.

Update 2016: Wikipedia is improving. While it can still be aggravating to contribute articles written from a non-majority perspective, recently the stub article Fruity Pie was saved from a notability discussion by invoking the Countering systemic bias policy. This is completely appropriate: none of the parties soliciting for deletion were Taiwanese or even spoke Chinese.

Do You Wonder Why Wikipedia Is Slowing Down?
(written in 2007)

I used to edit Wikipedia a great deal... now not so much. I considered Wikipedia potentially the "last encyclopedia" - a reference that could contain all fact. However, overzealous editors have deleted a great deal of my text when they decided something wasn't "notable" enough. A performance-art group here, a television show there. Usually it was because the editor in question had simply never heard of the topic.

All the zany "Facts" in Mel's Hole are gone. I had summarized the complete saga, dozens of hours of radio. Now, due to editing, the only way to get that information is to listen to all the radio again. Everyone already knows Mel is a complete con artist... but that is what makes the story of Mel's Hole interesting. Now it's all gone. All these editors are doing is eliminating information sources that now people will have to find elsewhere. In this particular case, the "elsewhere" is the original radio shows!

My point: Notability is not a valid metric for a digital encyclopedia. With a print encyclopedia, sure-- paper costs money and takes up space. But for an encyclopedia that can have an article about everything without being more inconvenient to use? PUT IT ALL IN.

My other point: Wikipedia could be Google for organized topic summary.  Google is great for finding all the pages about something. But it's still not good at giving a top-level summary of a given topic, or a context-based list of related topics. That is the niche Wikipedia can fill.

My last point: Competing with print Encyclopedias is a stupid goal.  You know what is not a growing industry? Print encyclopedia publishing. Just as copying someone's startup is usally a huge waste of money (you can almost never implement an idea as well as the originator), trying to make a digital encyclopedia "just as good" as a print encyclopedia is an effort with a flawed premise.

To Do
Bored?
 * Find or fix a stub

More directed:
 * incorporate into Yo yo
 * History: Seattle Times
 * History: Links on Mr Yo
 * History: AYYA Article
 * History: Jennifer Baybrook
 * For Duncan Toys Company: some Corporate History
 * More Buddhist art, please
 * clean up images in Bell Rocket Belt
 * More Yokai
 * images using 398th Bomb Group Combat Formations for Combat box and associated

Articles I referred to which do not (yet) exist:
 * Revisionism in Star Wars
 * yogashi
 * kook sul

Misc
There's an ongoing, very old joke amongst enthusiasts in broadcast technology (ham radio builders, television experimenters, radio and TV industry engineers) about the name of RKO- their films opened with the phrase "An RKO Radio Picture." This brings up the question, "what is a radio picture?" - the joke being, that "radio," being an audio medium, does not carry pictures. I have honestly no idea how to work that into any article, but there you have it. brain 14:07, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Deleted Material From Captain Harlock
UPDATE 2016: editors have rediscovered this information and put it into dedicated Captain Harlock sub pages. I only had to wait 10 years, but they came around.

(written in 2009)

I considered this material useful. When I needed this information, I had to do a lot of research, so I added the list to Wikipedia. It got deleted later.

 * "Uchū Kaizoku Captain Harlock" (TV series) (42 episodes, 1978-1979) released as:
 * 宇宙海賊キャプテンハーロック (original Japanese title)
 * Space Pirate Captain Harlock
 * Albator 78
 * Die Abenteuer des fantastischen Weltraumpiraten Captain Harlock
 * Uchū Kaizoku Captain Harlock: Arcadia-gō no Nazo (featurette) (34 min, 1978)
 * 宇宙海賊キャプテンハーロック アルカディア号の謎 (original Japanese title)
 * Space Pirate Captain Harlock: Riddle of the Arcadia\
 * Harlock Movie 1
 * Waga Seishun no Arcadia (movie) ( 135 min, 1982 ) released as:
 * わが青春のアルカディア (original Japanese title)
 * Arcadia of my Youth
 * My Youth in Arcadia
 * Harlock Movie 2
 * Vengeance of the Space Pirate
 * Kaizoku Kikan Arcadia (Pirate Flagship Arcadia) (pilot) (4 minutes, 1982)
 * 海賊旗艦アルカディア (original Japanese title)
 * Waga Seishun no Arcadia: Mugen Kidō SSX (TV series) (22 episodes, 1982-1983) released as:
 * わが青春のアルカディア無限軌道ＳＳＸ (original Japanese title)
 * My Youth in Arcadia: Endless Road SSX
 * Albator 84
 * Arcadia of My Youth: Infinite Course SSX
 * Harlock 84
 * Queen Emeraldas (OAV) (4x 30min episodes, 1999)
 * Nibelung no Yubiwa (pilot) (4 minutes, 1999)
 * ニーベルングの指輪 (original Japanese title)
 * Harlock Saga Nibelung no Yubiwa Rhine no Ōgon (OAV) (6x 30min episodes, 1999)
 * Harlock Saga: The Ring of the Nibelung
 * Space Pirate Captain Herlock: The Endless Odyssey/Outside Legend (OAV) (13x 30min episodes, 2002)

Deleted Material From Mel's Hole
I considered this material... not USEFUL exactly... but when I was LOOKING for this information, I had to do a lot of research, so I added all of it to Wikipedia. It got deleted later. Why? Other preposterous things are on wikipedia. There's a whole category on "paranormal" information. I never claimed any of this was real! But someone else did, and I thought that was interesting.

Anyway:

Mel's Hole is the name of an alleged infinitely deep hole with a retaining wall around it, featuring paranormal powers purportedly found on the property of Mel Waters, who publicised its existence on episodes of Coast to Coast with Art Bell airing between 1997 and 2002. The property is located near Ellensburg, Washington, near the Manastash Ridge. Although the existence of this hole and the events surrounding it have been doubted by many, Art Bell and many of his listeners believe in the existence of the hole and continue to search for it today.

Summary
According to the stories surrounding this, Mel Waters owned land outside of Ellensburg, which had a hole he plotted the depth (allegedly) to at least 80,000 feet deep. According to the Seattle Times, he claimed that "soldiers in yellow gear cordoned off his property and threatened to 'find' a drug lab on it if he didn't cooperate," and that "one neighbor claimed to have thrown a dead dog in the hole, only to see it later frolicking in the woods; how another saw a black beam emanating from the hole; how transistor radios brought to the hole play programs from the past." Search parties to this day routinely search the territory near Ellensburg for evidence of the hole.

Hole History and Mel's Story
For years, locals had known about the "bottomless" nature of the hole, dumping garbage down the hole, including dead cattle, truckloads of old auto tires, and large appliances like refrigerators and TV tubes. When garbage was dumped in the hole, no sound of the object hitting the bottom were heard.

Mel began a series of experiments with the hole on his property, including one where he lowered a roll of Life Savers into the hole, to detect if any water was at the bottom of the hole, at the end of progressively longer lengths of fishing line, up to the 80,000 foot (over fifteen miles) length of the last attempt.

At that point, in 1997, Mel sent a Fax to the Coast to Coast AM show describing the hole, and shortly thereafter appeared on the show.

Shortly after the broadcasts, men identified by Mel as government agents told him that there was a plane-crash nearby and that he could not approach the hole. The government then offered to pay Mel a large monthly stipend to lease the land in perpetuity, on the order of $250,000 a month, or $3M a year. Mel used this money to move to Australia and found a wombat-rescue operation. The payments continued from March 1997 through the beginning of 2000.

In December 1999, Mel returned to the US. While on a bus to Olympia, Washington, Mel witnessed an altercation between police officers and another passenger. He was taken off the bus to sign a police statement- the next thing Mel remembers is walking around San Francisco, twelve days later. He had been physically beaten and his rear molars were extracted. An IV scar on his arm convinced him that he had been drugged. Upon his return to the hole, Mel was served with papers indicating that his ownership was now in question, due to modifications that had been made, presumably by the government tenants. Mel's assets were frozen for unstated reasons and his wombat rescue facility in Australia was dismantled.

Properties of the Hole
Mel Waters attributed numerous paranormal properties to the hole. As described on Coast to Coast:

 * the hole was roughly nine feet across
 * the hole was over 80,000 feet deep
 * a dead hunting dog thrown into the hole by a local was seen much later running through the woods, as if hunting with somebody else.

1943 Roosevelt Dime
Mel Waters manufactures a particular folk art belt buckle, with a design which incorporates a silver fork and coins depicting Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Roosevelt portrait consisting of a US dime. When allegedly kidnapped by the government, Mel's own belt buckle had been removed.

According to Mel, a number of these belt buckles included a Roosevelt Dime with a 1943 mint date, with a "B" mint mark. This is odd because there is no mint using a "B" designation, and the first Rooselvelt dime was released in 1946, after Roosevelt's death in 1945. On Coast to Coast Mel and Art Bell speculate that the dime came from an alternate universe where the Axis Powers won the war, with the "B" standing for "Berlin," which also implies the death of President Roosevelt prior to 1943.

Ten of these 1943 Roosevelt dimes were found by Mel near the Hole in a red envelope, as used for gift money at Chinese New Year. A 1943 Roosevelt dime given to a friend of Mel's was allegedly confiscated by agents of the US Treasury.

In a later interview, Mel claimed the 1943 dime could not be photographed, and would even become invisible from more than fifteen feet away.

Second Hole
After his appearance on Coast to Coast in 2000, Mel claimed on a subsequent appearance that he had found a second hole. This second hole is on public land in Nevada, under the management of the Federal Bureau of Land Management. The land nearby is used by Native Americans as well as "members of the Basque community" who were using the land for grazing sheep.

 * As the first hole, the second hole itself is 9 feet in diameter.
 * Unlike the first hole, the Nevada hole has a solid metal liner, or "collar" sticking out of the ground, 2 feet high, 2 feet "deep" (thick?). This collar has notches in it- Mel speculated on Coast to Coast, "in my estimation... it could possibly be a locking collar... something could be lowered onto it and locked into place."
 * The collar around the second hole is of a substance with unusual paranormal properties:
 * Mel dropped a box wrench on the metal collar- the wrench made no noise, implying that the collar absorbs the sound or energy
 * the hole is "solidly lined" with this metal as far as one can see (into the hole)
 * even in winter, the area around the metal collar is warm to the touch and will keep nearby tents warm.- however the metal collar is not hot to the touch.
 * According to Mel, local Basques say the hole has been there, in its current state, for their community's entire experience, which dates back to the 1800s. One man had personal recollection of the hole since he was young, over 70 years ago at the time of the interview (since around the 1930s).
 * the hole occaisionally emits a "Black beam" - Mel said- "this is a contradiction, but a black beam of light, okay? comes from the hole- it lasts a very short time, but it just goes directly up to the sky." "if you had a flashlight, and it was capable of throwing up a solid black... I have never personally witnessed the black beam."
 * There is an ongoing Basque connection with the two holes Mel discovered- the shepherds living around the second, Nevada hole were all from the Basque community. In addition, a whale bone was found near the first hole which Mel implied could have Basque origins, due to what he asserts is a history of whaling in Basque culture.

Burning Ice
In an experiment with the Nevada hole, Mel and assorted Basque locals lowered a bucket of ice they bought from the grocery store. One bucket of ice was lowered 1500 feet into the hole, and the other bucket of ice was kept at the surface, as a control. By the time half the ice on the surface bucket had melted, the bucket in the hole was retrieved.

To their surprise, the ice in the lowered bucket had not melted, and additionally, was no longer cold to the touch. The ice had been changed in an undefined way, and was described by Mel as havng a texture like silica dessicant found in packaged food.

As a further experiment, the bucket of unmelted ice was placed on a cooking fire, and instead of melting, the ice began to "burn" - as described by Mel Waters, "it was not so much a flame, as kind of a... have you ever used a gas stove? it was like the barest turning of a gas stove on- it was like that last flicker before you turn it off," the former "ice" cubes burning slightly.

Additional trials of the same experiment have resulted in melted ice, unchanged ice, and occaisionally (about one out of three times) more of this Burning Ice.

The new substance could be used as a source of heat- "One guy took some stuff home, he put it in his wood stove... and the thing's been keeping his place warm" for over three months (september to january). This man reported to Mel that steam from a nearby kettle was absorbed by the burning ice, and that the area surrounding the burning ice was always very dry.

After a few months, for unknown reasons the stove with the burning ice crashed through the floor of the man's cabin. Weeks later, the man returned to find the entire cabin collapsed into "wood dust," which Mel attributed to all the moisture being sucked out of the wood by the burning ice. On a later visit, the stove with the burning ice had sunk 5 feet into the ground.

A team of unknown researchers, speculated by Mel as possibly being related to the government, appeared later at the site of the cabin and attempted to use construction equipment and metal chains to remove the stove. Upon pouring water into the hole created by the stove, the metal chains fused with the stove, and the stove was successfully lifted by multiple construction cranes. The stove was then loaded onto a large truck and driven away.

In a later appearance on Coast to Coast, Mel brings up the fictional substance Ice-9, invented by writer Kurt Vonnegut in his novel Cat's Cradle. Mel compares the burning ice to Ice-9.

Sheep Experiment and Seal Entity
In an attempt to lower a living sheep to the 1500 foot level, a subject sheep was led to the hole- however when it got close, the sheep became very agitated and had to be stunned to get it into a crate. When the stunned sheep in the crate was placed over the hole, the sheep woke up again, and began making piercing "screaming" noises and thrashing around inside its crate.

The crate was lowered to about 700 feet, at which point the vibrations could no longer be felt. When the cable had been lowered to its full length of 1500 feet, the metal collar around the hole began to vibrate. The crated sheep was left for half an hour, and winched back up the surface, where it was found to be dead.

Externally, the dead sheep seemed to be the same as when lowered, but inside, "the sheep looked like it had been cooked." In addition, a gellied blob filled the body cavity where the internal organs normally would be, described by Mel as looking like a "huge tumor."

The "tumor" was removed, and the experimenters believed they saw some movement inside it. When cut open, the tumor released a "fetal seal," with human-looking eyes, connected to the tumor with an umbilical cord. The "seal" seemed to have a hold on those present, and it and the human experimenters viewed each other for over two hours.

According to Mel, the seal seemed to him to be a being "filled with compassion" and after nodding at the experimenters, it dove back into the hole. The tumor and sheep remains were bundled in a tarp and thrown back into the hole.

Mel Waters claims that he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer prior to his experience at the second hole- afterwards, the cancer was entirely gone, with no evidence it had ever existed. Mel feels that he was healed by the seal-like entity from the sheep carcass.

In a later interview, Mel claimed the seal entity was now making regular visits to the Basque shepherds camping around the surface of the Nevada hole. The seal was said to communicate with the shepherds through a portable radio, however when recorded, only a series of unintelligible sounds resulted, as one might hear in interference on a short-wave transmission.

Unfinished experiments

 * A local Basque man volunteered to be lowered into the second hole- however he was convinced to reconsider by Mel and the other experimenters.
 * Mel Waters expressed his wish to have his body thrown into the Nevada hole after his death.

Cultural References
The Handsome Family recorded a song inspired by Mel's hole called "The Bottomless Hole" on their 2003 CD Singing Bones.

Broadcast History
Mel Waters initially appeared on Coast to Coast on February 21st, 1997, and again on February 24th, 1997. His next appearance was in April of 2000, with additional appearance afterwards.

title: User:MingMecca


text:
Talk:Foreign relations of Canada

reporting bias
'Canada’s contributions internationally have been detrimental and crucial but it needs redirecting back to its original goals.[17]' How does this fit Wikipedia's NPOV policy? Grandma Roses (talk) 20:45, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

title: Talk:Foreign relations of Canada


text:
Talk:Pratt & Whitney

Founded in 1860 not 1925
Pratt and Whitney was founded in 1860 not 1925 however in 1925 Pratt and Whitney produced their first engine but they made tools prior to building engines and continued to produce tools along with engines for a while after — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.222.180.90 (talk) 17:06, 4 January 2021 (UTC)

 * For the record, the company that became Pratt & Whitney Measurement Systems was founded in 1860. This is a different company. (Why do people post questions without bothering to read the article completely first?) BilCat (talk) 01:52, 30 September 2021 (UTC)

title: Talk:Pratt & Whitney


text:
Tualatin River

The Tualatin River is a tributary of the Willamette River in Oregon in the United States. The river is about 83 mi long, and it drains a fertile farming region called the Tualatin Valley southwest and west of Portland at the northwest corner of the Willamette Valley. There are approximately 500,000 people residing on 15 percent of the land in the river's watershed.

Course
The Tualatin River arises near Windy Point on the eastern side of the Northern Oregon Coast Range. It begins in the Tillamook State Forest in Washington County and flows about 83 mi to the Willamette River near West Linn in Clackamas County. Along the way, it falls from about 2000 ft above sea level to about 60 ft, most of that occurring in its first 15 mi. From the unincorporated community of Cherry Grove, 68 mi from the mouth, the river falls only about 220 ft in meanders that trend generally east across the relatively flat Tualatin Valley.

From its source, the river flows south for about 1 mi before turning east to parallel to Blind Cabin Ridge, which is to the river's right. Shortly thereafter, the river plunges over the 40 ft Ki-a-Kuts Falls, then receives Maple Creek from the left and then Sunday Creek, also from the left, at river mile (RM) 76.7 (RK 123.4). Lee Creek enters from the left and Patten Creek from the right before the river reaches Hillsboro Reservoir and then Haines Falls at about RM 73 (RK 117). Hillsboro Reservoir Road and Southwest Lee Falls Road run roughly parallel to the river along its left bank from the reservoir to the unincorporated community of Cherry Grove. Over the next stretch, the river runs roughly parallel to Hagerty Ridge, which is on the right. About 2 mi further downstream, the river goes over Lee Falls and, shortly thereafter, Little Lee Falls before reaching Cherry Grove, which is on the river's left at the west end of Patton Valley. At Cherry Grove, the river passes under Roaring Creek Road, receives Roaring Creek from the right, passes under Bruce Road and Southwest S Road, and receives Hering Creek from the left. Thereafter, it flows under Northwest Mount Richmond Road and receives Mercer Creek from the left about 65 mi from the river's mouth. Below this, Black Jack Creek enters from the left, and the river passes under Oregon Route 47 and flows by the city of Gaston, which is to the right.

Turning north near Gaston and meandering roughly parallel to Route 47 to the west (left), the river receives Wapato Creek, which flows through the former Wapato Lake, from the right and Scoggins Creek, which drains Henry Hagg Lake, from the left at RM 60 (RK 97). Soon, O'Neill Creek enters from the left, and shortly thereafter, the river passes under Southwest Spring Hill Road, then receives Dilley Creek from the left at about RM 57.5 (RK 92.5). At this point, the unincorporated community of Dilley is on the left. At Dilley, the stream meanders east away from the highway and soon receives Carpenter Creek from the left and then Gales Creek. Along this stretch of the river, the city of Forest Grove is north (left) of the river. Meandering generally east, the river passes under Southwest Fern Hill Road, by the city of Cornelius to the left and the unincorporated community of Blooming to the right, and passes under Golf Course Road about 52 mi from the mouth. Dairy Creek enters from the left at about RM 45 (RK 72) as the river approaches Hillsboro, which is to the river's left. Wandering through Jackson Bottom and the Jackson Bottom Wetlands Preserve, the river passes under Oregon Route 219 (Southwest Hillsboro Highway), and soon receives Jackson Slough from the left, then Davis Creek from the right at RM 40 (RK 64).

Passing under Minter Bridge Road about 41 mi from the mouth, and then Rood Bridge Road, the river wanders by the Meriwether National Golf Course which is on its right and The Reserve Vineyards & Golf Club, which is to the left, and receives Rock Creek, Gordon Creek, and Butternut Creek, all from the left. Flowing south from the vicinity of the golf course, the river runs roughly parallel to River Road, which is on its left. It passes under Harris Bridge, which carries Oregon Route 10 and Oregon Route 208 (Southwest Farmington Road) at the unincorporated community of Farmington. Further downstream, it receives Christensen and Burris creeks from the right and continues south until turning east again at about RM 30 (RK 48). Shortly thereafter, it flows by the unincorporated community of Scholls, where it receives McFee Creek from the right before passing under Scholls Bridge and Oregon Route 210. Entering the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge at about RM 25 (RK 40).

Leaving the wildlife refuge about 4 mi later, the rivers meanders around the unincorporated community of Bull Mountain, which is on its left (north), passes under Roy Rogers Road, receives Chicken Creek and Rock Creek from the right, then passes under Oregon Route 99W (Southwest Pacific Highway) at King City. The river continues by Avalon Park, which is on its left, flows through Cook Park in Tigard, which is on its left, and forms the north boundary of the Tualatin Country Club, which is on the right. Immediately thereafter, the river receives Fanno Creek from the left just after passing under a Portland & Western Railroad bridge and a pedestrian bridge between Tigard and Durham on the left (north) and Tualatin on the right. Durham City Park is on the left bank, and Tualatin Park is on the right. The stream passes under another Portland & Western Railroad bridge, then under Southwest Boones Ferry Road and then under Interstate 5, the latter at about RM 8 (RK 13), and enters Clackamas County.

Shortly thereafter, the river passes Browns Ferry Park, which is on the river's right, and then Canal Acres Park, on the left. At the east end of the park, Saum Creek enters from the right, and the Oswego Canal, which carries water from the Tualatin River to Oswego Lake in Lake Oswego, is on the left. Beyond the canal entrance, the river passes River Run Park, which is on the left. Soon Athey Creek enters from the right and Pecan Creek from the left before the river passes under Southwest Stafford Road near the unincorporated area of Wankers Corner and flows past the unincorporated community of Shadowood. In its final 5 mi, the river receives Wilson Creek from the right, passes under Interstate 205 and then under Southwest Borland Road, and receives Fields Creek from the left. It flows by Swift Shore Park, which is on the left, under Southwest Pete's Mountain Road, by Willamette Park, also on the left, and enters the Willamette River at West Linn, about 28 mi from the larger river's confluence with the Columbia River.the mouth is five miles away from oswego lake. the closest tributary to the mouth is the fanno creek.

Discharge
The highest flow ever recorded in the river was 26400 cuft/s on February 10, 1996, at the West Linn gage. The lowest flow ever recorded at this gage was 0.20 cuft/s between July 30 and August 2, 1966. This flow does not include the estimated flow of 3600 cuft/s from the river through the Lake Oswego Canal.

History
The Tualatin River was named by the local Native American band, the Atafalati, that lived in the Tualatin Valley. The name translated as sluggish or lazy. Early settlers called it the "Quality River".

The valley of the Tualatin was an important early farming region in the settlement of Oregon. The building of Canyon Road, a plank road to the Tualatin Valley from Portland, in 1856 is considered by historians to be one of the main reasons for Portland's rise as the dominant city in the region. The valley contains many natural wetlands, some of which have been designated the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge, and others are protected at Jackson Bottom Wetlands Preserve.

Pollution
The drainage area of the river is approximately 712 sqmi with 27 creeks feeding into the Tualatin. Its watershed is 15 percent urbanized, 35 percent agricultural, and 50 percent forested. The river drops 1800 ft in elevation during its first 12 mi and then only an additional 250 ft for the remaining 71 mi of its course. This creates a slow river for the majority of the course, creating problems with pollution. Pollution reached a point that in 1989 local agencies were forced to begin cleaning up the river after the Tualatin failed water quality standards outlined in the Clean Water Act of 1972. It was the first river in the state to fail overall pollution limits.

title: Tualatin River


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