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Bigfoot (truck)

Bigfoot is a monster truck. The original Bigfoot began as a 1974 Ford F-250 pickup that was modified by its owner Bob Chandler beginning in 1975. By 1979, the modifications were so extensive, the truck came to be regarded as the first monster truck. Other trucks with the name "Bigfoot" have been introduced in the years since, and it remains a well-known monster truck moniker in the United States.

Early history
A former construction worker and off-roading enthusiast from the St. Louis area, Chandler began racing in 1975, using the Chandler family's 1974 Ford F-250 four-wheel drive pickup truck and found that automotive shops in the Midwest generally did not carry the parts needed to repair the frequent damage. To remedy this problem, Chandler and his wife Marilyn, along with friend Jim Kramer, opened a shop called Midwest Four Wheel Drive and Performance Center in Ferguson, Missouri. The shop moved to Hazelwood, Missouri, in 1984, which remained as Bigfoot's headquarters until 2015 when the headquarters was relocated to Pacific, Missouri.

In 1979, Chandler replaced the under assembly of the truck with one from a military-surplus top loader featuring four-wheel drive and four-wheel steering that used 48 in tires. This modification drew attention and Chandler started making appearances at tractor pulls and car shows with his newly christened "Bigfoot" (so named for Chandler's heavy-footed racing style which caused frequent breakage of parts ) to show off the truck's capabilities as well as to promote his shop. The truck's growing popularity led to its appearance in the 1981 Gus Trikonis film Take This Job and Shove It (which also features the early monster truck USA-1 credited under a different name).

Chandler's next experiment would prove revolutionary. In 1981, Chandler placed two dilapidated cars in a field, so that Chandler could videotape himself crushing the cars with Bigfoot as a joke. When Chandler began playing the video in his shop, a man promoting a motorsports event in Columbia, Missouri, asked him to duplicate the stunt in front of a crowd. After initial hesitation because of the destructive image it would convey, Chandler eventually agreed to perform at the event in April of the following year in what is believed to be the first public car crush. Later that year, a second Bigfoot, built to help meet the steadily rising demand to see the vehicle and sporting 66 in tires, received more major media attention by crushing cars at the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan. In 1983, Bigfoot began receiving sponsorship from Ford Motor Company, a relationship which continued until 2005.

By 1984, many truck owners around the country had taken to imitating Chandler's template of outfitting their vehicles with tires standing 66 in tall, with some trucks sporting even larger tires. Promoters of truck and tractor pulls, such as SRO Motorsports (later the United States Hot Rod Association) and Golden State Promotions, noticed the exploding popularity of the giant trucks and began booking several to crush cars at their events, with the eventual result being the advent of side-by-side, drag-racing style car crushing events. A popular example of the early days of monster truck racing is portrayed in the 1986 home video release Return of the Monster Trucks, which involves a truck pull, car crushing, and mud bogging all in the same course. That event, held in the Louisiana Superdome, was won by Bigfoot, as well as most of the events it was entered into in the mid-1980s. By this point, Chandler had already built an entire fleet of "Bigfoot" trucks to accommodate the vast demand for his vehicle, which remained as the most popular and marketable monster truck despite the large number of imitators. In 1987, Chandler added to his innovations by founding the Monster Truck Racing Association, which remains today as the chief voice in monster truck safety.

Another form of competition Chandler faced was the physical size of the competition. Many truck owners had taken to calling their vehicles the "world's largest monster truck", so Chandler outfitted his "Bigfoot 4" vehicle with 10 ft tires he had purchased from a junkyard owner in Seattle for $1,000. The tires had been previously used by the US Army in Alaska on their overland train in the 1950s. In 1986, Chandler built a new truck, "Bigfoot 5", specifically for the tires. Upon its public debut in Indianapolis, Indiana, the truck immediately took the title of the "world's tallest, widest, and heaviest monster truck" and was eventually given official recognition of the title by the Guinness Book of Records in 2002. With a second set of 10 ft tires attached, the truck stands 15 ft tall, measures 20 ft wide, and weighs over 38000 lb.

Racing history
The fledgling all-sports television network ESPN also took note of the popularity of monster trucks in the 1980s and began showing events promoted by the United States Hot Rod Association and TNT Motorsports on a regular basis. With the frequent broadcasts of monster truck races, the next logical step was to create a championship series of monster truck races. TNT began the first recognized series in 1988, and was dominated by Bigfoot for much of the season. However, upstart rookie Rod Litzau, driving the USA-1 truck, gained momentum and passed Bigfoot in the standings going into the last weekend of the season in Louisville, Kentucky. With the way the points system and elimination brackets had been structured, Bigfoot (driven by Rich Hooser) and USA-1 met in the semifinal round with USA-1 clinching the points championship if it beat Bigfoot. USA-1 won the race in spectacular fashion, rolling over in the process, and took the championship. After losing the championship, the Bigfoot team made the decision to shift their focus less on competition and more on research and development in 1989, as well as running frequent events for the USHRA and USA Motorsports and a limited TNT Schedule.

During this time, Chandler began working with computer-aided design (CAD) programs, and using technology he had learned from professional off-road racing, designed a tubular frame for his next Bigfoot truck, along with a nitrogen suspension system sporting 24 in of travel. This innovation allowed Bigfoot to possess four times as much suspension travel as those used by nearly all previous monster trucks. Chandler would be awarded a patent for his designs. After testing the vehicle for three months, driver Andy Brass debuted the eighth incarnation of Bigfoot, with the new frame and suspension, in late 1989. It officially made its debut at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis, Indiana at the Four Wheel and Off Road Jamboree in a special 5,000th show for Bigfoot (where every Bigfoot vehicle gathered in one place for the first time). It made its debut in competition at a USHRA race in the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, reaching the final round of competition before rolling over against Jack Willman's Taurus.

The following year, after running the USHRA races in Anaheim, California, and Pontiac, Michigan, the truck debuted on the TNT Motorsports Monster Truck Challenge points circuit in Memphis, Tennessee. The Bigfoot 8 chassis was briefly banned from the circuit on April 5, 1990, due to a rule clarification that only allowed leaf, coil, and coil-over suspensions to be run. Although TNT stated that safety was the primary reason for the clarification, they also admitted that another reason was that Bigfoot 8 was simply too technologically advanced and was upsetting the competitive balance of the series. Former BMX racer John Piant, piloting Bigfoot 4 raced in place of Bigfoot 8 in multiple events, and Andy Brass drove Bigfoot 4 to victory at the Louisville Motor Speedway. Bigfoot 8 returned to the TNT circuit after the temporary ban had been lifted. Chandler also took legal action against TNT.

Team Bigfoot ended up winning 24 events that season and took the 1990 TNT points championship over Greg Holbrook in Gary Cook's Equalizer and Gary Porter's Carolina Crusher, the first racing championship for the Bigfoot team. Also that year, Piant took the Special Events Triple Crown Championship, in addition to placing third in the USHRA's new point series. After not winning any championships in 1991, Team Bigfoot would go on a 12-year stretch from 1992 to 2003 of winning at least one championship a year, taking a total of 16 series championship victories during that span.

As of 2019, Team Bigfoot has won a total of 50 series championships.

Present day
Bigfoot continues to be in demand. Sponsorships include Firestone, Summit Racing and Vi-Cor. In December 2005, Bigfoot's sponsorship with Ford ended, though was not announced officially until 2007.

Bigfoot ceased running events for the Monster Jam series in 1998 due to a dispute over involving licensing of video footage and pictures, and has not returned since. Bigfoot also appeared frequently for USA Motorsports and Motorsports Entertainment Group until those companies were purchased by the USHRA's parent company at the time, PACE Motorsports.

Bigfoot still races for the Special Events Promotion Company, Chris Arel Motorsports, Toughest Monster Truck Tour, Monster Nation, Monster X Tour, Checkered Flag Promotions, and many others.

In May 2006, Bigfoot signed former professional wrestler and Monster Jam driver Debrah Miceli. Miceli drove the "Bigfoot 10" chassis until the end of the 2007 Major League of Monster Trucks (MLMT) season. Miceli now drives Madusa for Feld Motorsports.

In July 2010, Bigfoot sponsor Firestone, then a Major League Baseball sponsor, brought Bigfoot to the Major League Baseball All-Star Game as a show truck. In order to comply with MLB's official vehicle sponsorship while being used by Firestone, the Bigfoot 10 chassis featured a Chevrolet Silverado body. In March 2012, Bigfoot formed a partnership with Robby Gordon to promote both his SPEED Energy Drink and his new Stadium Super Trucks racing series. For the partnership, a chassis initially built for Gordon himself was dubbed Bigfoot 19. Despite a promotional picture depicting the body as being a Ford, this truck would also compete with a highly modified Silverado body.

For his innovation of creating monster trucks, Bob Chandler has been inducted into multiple halls of fame. In 2006, he was inducted in the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. In November 2011, he was inducted into the International Monster Truck Museum Hall of Fame with its inaugural class. Former driver Jim Kramer was inducted into the second class the following year. Also, in 2013, Chandler was inducted into the Off-road Motorsports Hall of Fame.

On November 30, 2018, Bigfoot was announced as one of the participants in the new Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live tour being coproduced by Hot Wheels owner Mattel and the Raycom-Legacy Content Company. This reunites a marketing relationship dating back to the 1980s.

List of vehicles
The following is a list of all the vehicles built or owned by Bigfoot 4×4, Inc. Bigfoot #13 was skipped due to superstition regarding the number 13.

Snake Bite
Snake Bite is an alternate name and appearance sometimes used when a second truck is scheduled to appear at the same event. The first Snake Bite (using Bigfoot 4's chassis) was originally driven by Gene Patterson, under the pseudonym of Colt Cobra. He wore a mask to hide his identity and came from the fictional town of Cobra Creek, Colorado. Other Bigfoot trucks and drivers have used the identities over the years.

Video games
Bigfoot has been the focus of multiple video games. The first Bigfoot video game was released in 1990 by Acclaim Entertainment for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Bigfoot is also the featured truck in the Monster Truck Madness series by Microsoft from the 1990s. Bigfoot: Collision Course was released on multiple platforms in 2008. Monster Truck Destruction, released on iOS and Android platforms in 2012, also features multiple Bigfoot trucks. Bigfoot Crush is a 2020 arcade game released by UNIS.

Film and television appearances
The original Bigfoot appears in the 1981 film Take This Job and Shove It, where it appears as the main character's personal truck. This was the first appearance of a monster truck in film. A virtual Bigfoot is used by the character Aech inside the virtual reality universe OASIS in the 2018 film Ready Player One. Other appearances by Bigfoot trucks in film include Cannonball Run 2, Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment, Road House, Police Academy 6: City Under Siege, Tango & Cash, and Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle.

Bigfoot has also been a prominent part of animated TV series. Bigfoot and the Muscle Machines was a 1985 animated miniseries produced by Marvel Productions as part of their Super Sunday anthology series. A self-aware version of Bigfoot was one of the main characters of the animated series, The Power Team; it was included to advertise the NES game. A Discovery Kids TV series called Bigfoot Presents: Meteor and the Mighty Monster Trucks was released in 2006.

Legacy
Bigfoot was listed by Hot Rod magazine as one of 100 most influential vehicles in the history of hot rodding for its February 2009 issue, it was ranked 69th.

The truck also entered the International Monster Truck Hall of Fame in 2011.

title: Bigfoot (truck)


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Carnosine

Carnosine (beta-alanyl- L -histidine) is a dipeptide molecule, made up of the amino acids beta-alanine and histidine. It is highly concentrated in muscle and brain tissues. Carnosine was discovered by Russian chemist Vladimir Gulevich.

Carnosine is naturally produced by the body in the liver from beta-alanine and histidine. Like carnitine, carnosine is composed of the root word carn, meaning "flesh", alluding to its prevalence in meat. There are no plant-based sources of carnosine. Carnosine is readily available as a synthetic nutritional supplement.

Biosynthesis
Carnosine is synthesized within the body from beta-alanine and histidine. Beta-alanine is a product of pyrimidine catabolism and histidine is an essential amino acid. Since beta-alanine is the limiting substrate, supplementing just beta-alanine effectively increases the intramuscular concentration of carnosine.

pH buffer
Carnosine has a pKa value of 6.83, making it a good buffer for the pH range of animal muscles. Since beta-alanine is not incorporated into proteins, carnosine can be stored at relatively high concentrations (millimolar). Occurring at 17–25 mmol/kg (dry muscle), carnosine (β-alanyl- L -histidine) is an important intramuscular buffer, constituting 10-20% of the total buffering capacity in type I and II muscle fibres.

Anti-oxidant
Carnosine has been shown to scavenge reactive oxygen species (ROS) as well as alpha-beta unsaturated aldehydes formed from peroxidation of cell membrane fatty acids during oxidative stress. It also buffers pH in muscle cells, and acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain. It is also a zwitterion, a neutral molecule with a positive and negative end.

Antiglycating
Carnosine acts as an antiglycating agent, reducing the rate of formation of advanced glycation end-products (substances that can be a factor in the development or worsening of many degenerative diseases, such as diabetes, atherosclerosis, chronic kidney failure, and Alzheimer's disease ), and ultimately reducing development of atherosclerotic plaque build-up.

Geroprotective
Carnosine is considered as a geroprotector. Carnosine can increase the Hayflick limit in human fibroblasts, as well as appearing to reduce the telomere shortening rate. Carnosine may also slow aging through its anti-glycating properties (chronic glycolyating is speculated to accelerate aging).

Other
Carnosine can chelate divalent metal ions. It has been suggested that binding Ca2+ may displace protons, thereby providing a link between Ca2+ and H+ buffering. However, there is still controversy as to how much Ca2+ is bound to carnosine under physiological conditions.

Research has demonstrated a positive association between muscle tissue carnosine concentration and exercise performance. β-Alanine supplementation is thought to increase exercise performance by promoting carnosine production in muscle. Exercise has conversely been found to increase muscle carnosine concentrations, and muscle carnosine content is higher in athletes engaging in anaerobic exercise.

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

title: Carnosine


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HEA

HEA or Hea may refer to:

Education

 * Higher Education Academy, a British charity
 * Higher Education Act of 1965, United States
 * Higher Education Act 2004, United Kingdom
 * Higher Education Authority, Republic of Ireland

Science

 * Hektoen enteric agar, used in microbiology to identify certain organisms
 * High-entropy alloys, a new class of multi-component alloys in materials science
 * Hea (cicada), a genus of cicadas

Other uses

 * Happily ever after, a fairytale ending

 * Herat International Airport (IATA: )
 * Hockey East Association, an American hockey conference

title: HEA


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ITB

ITB or variant, may refer to:

Travel, transportation, vehicles

 * "Improved Touring B", a racing class in the race car series Improved Touring
 * Integrated tug-barge, a type of tugboat and ocean-going barge
 * Individual throttle body, a carburetor part
 * ITB Berlin, a travel industry trade show
 * Itaituba Airport (IATA airport code: ITB)
 * Interbrasil STAR (ICAO airline code: ITB)
 * Întreprinderea de Transport București, former name of Societatea de Transport București

Organizations

 * Inside the Box Board Games, a UK game publisher

Government organs

 * Innovation and Technology Bureau, Hong Kong
 * FBI Information and Technology Branch, USA

Military units

 * Infantry Training Brigade, of the United States Army Infantry School
 * Infantry Training Battalion, of the United States Marine Corps School of Infantry
 * Infantry Training Battalion, of the Infantry Training Centre (British Army)

Educational institutions

 * Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesian name of Bandung Institute of Technology
 * Institut Teknologi Brunei, now Universiti Teknologi Brunei
 * Institute of Technology, Blanchardstown, Ireland
 * Industry Training Board, a historic type of vocational training organization in the UK

Medicine and biology

 * Iliotibial band, a tissue in the human leg

Other uses

 * itb, an ISO 639 language code for the Itneg language
 * , the intermediate block check character in the IBM communications protocol Binary Synchronous Communications
 * Instruction translation buffer, a type of cache used in Alpha 21064 microprocessors

title: ITB


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City of Canterbury

Canterbury, also known as the City of Canterbury, is a local government district with city status in Kent, England. It is named after its largest settlement, Canterbury, where the council is based. The district also includes the towns of Fordwich, Herne Bay and Whitstable, along with numerous villages and surrounding rural areas. Parts of the district lie within the designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty of the Kent Downs.

The neighbouring districts (clockwise from east) are Thanet, Dover, Folkestone and Hythe, Ashford and Swale, all of which are also in Kent. To the north the district has a coast onto the North Sea.

History
Canterbury itself was an ancient borough, which had held city status from time immemorial. The earliest known charter was issued by Henry II (reigned 1154–1189). A subsequent charter in 1448 gave the city the right to appoint a mayor. Another in 1461 declared the city to be a county corporate, appointing its own sheriff, making it administratively independent from the surrounding county of Kent. When elected county councils were established in 1889, Canterbury's independence was maintained by making it a county borough, independent from the new Kent County Council. Although administratively independent, Canterbury was still deemed part of Kent for the purposes of lieutenancy.

The modern district was created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, covering the area of four former districts, which were all abolished at the same time: The Bridge-Blean Rural District entirely surrounded the old city; the urban districts occupied the coastal area to the north. The new district was named Canterbury after its largest settlement. The district is a non-metropolitan district, with Kent County Council providing county-level services to the area. The district was awarded borough status from its creation, allowing the chair of the council to take the title of mayor, continuing Canterbury's series of mayors dating back to 1448. Canterbury's city status was extended to cover the whole of the new borough.
 * Bridge-Blean Rural District
 * Canterbury County Borough
 * Herne Bay Urban District
 * Whitstable Urban District

In 1988 the position of mayor was given the honorific title of lord mayor. The council continues to appoint a ceremonial sheriff; the sheriff no longer has any judicial functions, but the title is today taken by the deputy chair of the council.

Governance
Canterbury City Council provides district-level services. County-level services are provided by Kent County Council. The more rural parts of the district are covered by civil parishes, which form a third tier of local government for their areas.

Political control
The council has been under no overall control since April 2023. Following the May 2023 elections a Labour and Liberal Democrat coalition formed to run the council, led by Labour councillor Alan Baldock.

Political control of the council since the 1974 reforms has been as follows:

Leadership
The role of lord mayor in Canterbury is largely ceremonial. Political leadership is instead provided by the leader of the council (formally the chair of the policy committee prior to 2002). The leaders since 1974 have been:

Compositions
Following the 2023 election the composition of the council was:

The next election is due in 2027.

Elections
Since the last full review of boundaries in 2015 the council has comprised 39 councillors representing 21 wards with each ward electing one, two or three councillors. Elections are held every four years.

Premises
Council meetings are held at Canterbury Guildhall at the corner of St Peter's Place and St Peter's Street, adjoining the Westgate. The building was formerly the Church of the Holy Cross. It had been commissioned by Archbishop Simon Sudbury and was completed before his death in 1381. After the church was declared redundant and deconsecrated in 1972, it was acquired by the city council and converted for municipal use: it was officially re-opened by Prince Charles as the council's meeting place on 9 November 1978.

The council's main offices are the Council Offices on Military Road, Canterbury, which was built in the 1980s. During 2024 the council plans to vacate Military Road and move its offices to converted parts of the Whitefriars Shopping Centre.

Geography
Within the district are the towns of Herne Bay and Whitstable, which, with the rural parishes and the cathedral city itself, make up the district of the City of Canterbury. There are 27 parishes within the district, as follows:
 * Adisham
 * Barham
 * Bekesbourne-with-Patrixbourne
 * Bishopsbourne
 * Blean
 * Bridge
 * Chartham
 * Chestfield
 * Chislet
 * Fordwich, which has town status
 * Hackington
 * Harbledown and Rough Common
 * Hersden
 * Herne and Broomfield
 * Hoath
 * Ickham
 * Kingston
 * Littlebourne
 * Lower Hardres and Nackington
 * Petham
 * Sturry
 * Thanington Without
 * Upper Hardres
 * Waltham
 * Westbere
 * Wickhambreaux
 * Womenswold

Swalecliffe is an unparished area within the district.

The district is largely rural, with a coastal strip taken up by the almost unbroken spread of seaside towns and beaches from Seasalter, west of Whitstable, to Herne Bay. Between them and the city the hills rise into the wooded area of Blean, south of which the Great Stour flows from its source beyond Ashford.

Twin towns
The district participates in the Sister Cities programme, with links to Bloomington-Normal, Illinois, and Vladimir, Russia.

The Three Towns Association was founded in 1985 on the initiative of three local clergymen to promote person-to-person contact between ordinary people in the UK, the U.S. and Russia. The name was subsequently changed to the Three Cities Association. The Association chose Vladimir as the twin city in Russia because it is the seat of Christianity in that country as Canterbury is the seat of Christianity in England. Vladimir was already twinned with Bloomington-Normal. Among other activities, the Association arranged home-stay exchanges between the two Simon Langton Schools in Canterbury and School No. 23 in Vladimir, where the teaching was conducted in English.

Several towns and villages within the City of Canterbury have their own twinning arrangements: see the articles on Canterbury, Whitstable and Herne Bay.

title: City of Canterbury


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RAS syndrome

RAS syndrome, where RAS stands for redundant acronym syndrome (making the phrase "RAS syndrome" autological) is the redundant use of one or more of the words that make up an acronym in conjunction with the abbreviated form. This means, in effect, repeating one or more words from the acronym. For example: PIN number (expanding to personal identification number number) and ATM machine (expanding to automated teller machine machine).

The term RAS syndrome was coined in 2001 in a light-hearted column in New Scientist.

A person is said to "suffer" from RAS syndrome when they redundantly use one or more of the words that make up an acronym or initialism with the abbreviation itself. Usage commentators consider such redundant acronyms poor style that is best avoided in writing, especially in a formal context, though they are common in speech. The degree to which there is a need to avoid pleonasms such as redundant acronyms depends on one's balance point of prescriptivism (ideas about how language should be used) versus descriptivism (the realities of how natural language is used). For writing intended to persuade, impress, or avoid criticism, many usage guides advise writers to avoid pleonasm as much as possible, not because such usage is always wrong, but rather because most of one's audience may believe that it is always wrong.

Linguistics
Although there are many instances in editing where removal of redundancy improves clarity, the pure-logic ideal of zero redundancy is seldom maintained in human languages. Bill Bryson says: "Not all repetition is bad. It can be used for effect ..., or for clarity, or in deference to idiom. 'SALT talks' and 'HIV virus' are both technically redundant because the second word is already contained in the preceding abbreviation, but only the ultra-finicky would deplore them. Similarly, in 'Wipe that smile off your face' the last two words are tautological—there is no other place a smile could be—but the sentence would not stand without them."

A limited amount of redundancy can improve the effectiveness of communication, either for the whole readership or at least to offer help to those readers who need it. A phonetic example of that principle is the need for spelling alphabets in radiotelephony. Some instances of RAS syndrome can be viewed as syntactic examples of the principle. The redundancy may help the listener by providing context and decreasing the "alphabet soup quotient" (the cryptic overabundance of abbreviations and acronyms) of the communication.

Acronyms from foreign languages are often treated as unanalyzed morphemes when they are not translated. For example, in French, "le protocole IP" (the Internet Protocol protocol) is often used, and in English "please RSVP" (roughly "please respond please") is very common. This occurs for the same linguistic reasons that cause many toponyms to be tautological. The tautology is not parsed by the mind in most instances of real-world use (in many cases because the foreign word's meaning is not known anyway; in others simply because the usage is idiomatic).

Examples
Examples of RAS phrases include:

 * DC (Detective Comics) comics
 * HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) virus
 * LCD (liquid-crystal display) display
 * UPC (universal product code) code

Non-examples
Sometimes the presence of repeated words does not result in a redundant phrase. For example, "OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) countries" are two or more member states of OPEC, whereas "OPEC" by itself denotes the overall organization.

title: RAS syndrome


text:
User:Iason

Short Bio
I'm Jason E., I'm a law geek, Literature: creative writing B.A., lit theoryhead, consumer of sequential art, blogger.

Blog
The Mighty Argos

Entries
None yet. Just gettin' started.

title: User:Iason


text:
COI

COI, CoI or Coi may refer to:

Organizations

 * Center on Organizational Innovation, a research center at Columbia University
 * Central Office of Information, a former UK Government department
 * Church of Ireland, an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion
 * College of Idaho, a university
 * Commission de l'Océan Indien, or Indian Ocean Commission

Science and technology

 * California Oregon Intertie or Path 66, an electrical power transmission system
 * Centre of inertia
 * Coefficient of Inbreeding, the probability that two alleles at a given locus are identical by descent
 * Community of inquiry, a concept describing the social quality of scientific inquiry
 * Community of interest (computer security), a computer networking technique of segregation of resources
 * Confirmed opt-in, a policy for obtaining mailing list recipients
 * Contingency Orbit Insertion, an abort mode of the Apollo spacecraft
 * Cost of illness, see Disease burden
 * Cytochrome Oxidase Subunit 1, a gene
 * Coprocessor Offload Infrastructure, a high-level software library for code and data offloading to a Xeon Phi Coprocessor

Other uses

 * Comoros, UNDP country code
 * Commission of inquiry (disambiguation)
 * Constitution of India
 * Conflict of interest
 * Certificate of insurance
 * Certificate of incorporation
 * Coi (restaurant), restaurant in San Francisco, California
 * Dennis Coi (died 1987), Canadian figure skater
 * Trịnh Cối (died 1584), Vietnamese de facto ruler of Southern dynasty
 * Coi (album), a 2023 album by Coi Leray

title: COI


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Stefan Mazurkiewicz

Stefan Mazurkiewicz (25 September 1888 – 19 June 1945) was a Polish mathematician who worked in mathematical analysis, topology, and probability. He was a student of Wacław Sierpiński and a member of the Polish Academy of Learning (PAU). His students included Karol Borsuk, Bronisław Knaster, Kazimierz Kuratowski, Stanisław Saks, and Antoni Zygmund. For a time Mazurkiewicz was a professor at the University of Paris; however, he spent most of his career as a professor at the University of Warsaw.

The Hahn–Mazurkiewicz theorem, a basic result on curves prompted by the phenomenon of space-filling curves, is named for Mazurkiewicz and Hans Hahn. His 1935 paper Sur l'existence des continus indécomposables is generally considered the most elegant piece of work in point-set topology.

During the Polish–Soviet War (1919–21), Mazurkiewicz as early as 1919 broke the most common Russian cipher for the Polish General Staff's cryptological agency. Thanks to this, orders issued by Soviet commander Mikhail Tukhachevsky's staff were known to Polish Army leaders. This contributed substantially, perhaps decisively, to Polish victory at the critical Battle of Warsaw and possibly to Poland's survival as an independent country.

title: Stefan Mazurkiewicz


text:
Vitória, Espírito Santo

Vitória (lit. 'Victory') is the capital of the state of Espírito Santo, Brazil. It is located on a small island within a bay where a number of rivers meet the sea. It was founded in 1551. The city proper is 93 km2 and has a population of 322,869 (2022), whilst the Greater Vitória metropolitan area has a population of more than 1,880,828, the 14th largest in Brazil.

Vitória is a riverine island surrounded by Vitória's Bay. In addition to Vitória, the main island, another 34 islands and a mainland portion are part of the municipality, totalling 93.381 km2. Originally there were 50 islands, many of which were joined to the largest island by landfill.

In 1998, the United Nations rated Vitória as the fourth best state capital in Brazil to live in, rating cities on health, education, and social improvement projects. Among the Brazilian capitals, Vitória currently maintains the second best human development index (HDI) (after Florianópolis) according to research from the Getulio Vargas Foundation. It was considered the fourth best Brazilian city to live in by the United Nations in 2013, behind São Caetano do Sul, Águas de São Pedro and Florianópolis, and it was ranked as having the highest GDP per capita.

The city has two major ports: the Port of Vitória and the Port of Tubarão. These ports are part of the largest port complex of the country, which are considered the best in quality of Brazil. The city, which lies on the coast, is close to the mountains of Espírito Santo. Through the city's port authority, the city council also manages the Trindade and Martim Vaz islands, 1,100 km off the coast, which are important meteorological bases because of their strategic position: located in an area of dispersion of air masses.

Geography
Vitória is a city located on the southeastern coast of Brazil. It belongs to the state of Espírito Santo, with the role of the capital of the state. Its territory extends over 97.12 km2, being one of the smallest cities in the state and the smallest among the 27 Brazilian capitals.

Located in Vitória Bay, it is divided between the mainland and the island of Vitória. The municipality has an outlet, to the east, to the Atlantic Ocean and borders three other municipalities: Serra, to the north, Cariacica to the west, and Vila Velha to the south. Together with them and the municipalities of Fundão, Guarapari and Viana, it forms the Metropolitan Region of Vitória, also called Greater Vitória.

The city of Vitória integrates the domain of the coastal plain. Its substrate is divided between an area of folds and another of sedimentary deposits, which gives it a very rugged relief composed of hills, some of them derived from residual forms, gently undulating terrains and plains. The city is part of the Atlantic Forest, a biome that extends along the eastern coast of Brazil, as well as part of the coastal-marine system. In this way, the plant cover of Espírito Santo is composed of tropical forests, mangroves, sandbanks and dune vegetation.

Two rivers are responsible for supplying the Metropolitan Region of Vitória: Santa Maria da Vitória river and Jucu river. The beaches that make up the coast of the city are the beaches of Camburi, Curva da Jurema and Castanheiras. The municipality of Vitória is composed of 80 neighborhoods, which are divided into nine different administrative regions:

 * Centro
 * Santo Antônio
 * Jucutuquara
 * Maruípe
 * Praia do Canto
 * Continental
 * São Pedro
 * Jardim Camburi
 * Jardim da Penha

Relief
The relief of the islands is an extension of the continent, whether granite, surrounded by the sea and native Brazilian restinga-mangue vegetation. The central massif of the island of Vitória, Morro da Fonte Grande, has an altitude of 308.8 m and the main granitic outcrops are Pedra dos Dois Olhos, with 296m, and Morro de São Benedito, with 194m of altitude. Vitória's highest point is Pico do Desejado, located in the Trindade Island, with 601m of altitude, eleven hundred kilometers away from the mainland coastline.

Climate
The city's climate is tropical, with average annual temperature of 23 C and the occurrence of rainfall specially in the months from October to January. Temperatures can vary greatly in winter and can reach 30 C in times of drought but 12 C when cold fronts occur followed by an abnormally cold temperature of the ocean.

The highest absolute maximum temperature ever recorded in the city is 39.6 C (INMET) on February 25, 2006, and the minimum is less than 9 C, which resulted from the cold Falklands oceanic current.

Vitória shares the position of the Brazilian capital with the lowest rates of rainfall with Rio de Janeiro at approximately 918 mm annually. Vitória is also the city that presents the lowest temperature range in practically the whole state of Espírito Santo, as a result both of its oceanic climate and the protection that the mountains afford from major weather changes influenced by air masses.

Vitória is one of the hottest cities in the state of Espírito Santo, due to atmospherical pollution and the large cluster of buildings, in addition to several mountains on the island, which block the south wind, which traditionally occurs on cold days in the state. This causes the minimum of the city being 2 C-change warmer than the average in the state.

Another contributing factor is that the level of rainfall in the city is lesser than Espírito Santo's average as a whole, by about 350 mm. This thermal variation can be easily noticed by comparing the temperatures of Vitória with the nearby town of Vila Velha, noted in all seasons, specially in winter, the minimum of Vila Velha is 1 C, 3 C-change lower than in Vitória.

History
Vila Velha, which was the capital of the Captaincy of Espírito Santo, found itself in constant attacks from the Tupi-Guarani-speaking and possibly some Macro-Jê-speaking indigenous peoples and the French and Dutch. The Portuguese then decided to move away the capital and chose an island near the mainland, called by some of the native peoples Guanaani Island. Vila Nova do Espírito Santo, as it was called, was founded on September 8, 1551, and later renamed Vitória in memory of the victory in a great battle led by the holder of the captaincy, Vasco Fernandes Coutinho, against Goytacaz Amerindians. Until the last century, the limits of the current capital of Espírito Santo were Fort São João, where is currently located the Club de Regatas Saldanha da Gama, near the city center, and the hill where sits the actual Santa Casa de Misericórdia hospital, in Vila Rubim. The city was built on the highlands, which originated several narrow streets. The lowlands were under attack and because of that a number of fortresses were built in the coastline.

On February 24, 1823, the town of Vitória became a city, but its insular isolation prevented its development. From 1894 on, many landfills were implemented in the lower parts of the city with the coffee cycle, changing the shape of the island and urbanising it. Several new neighbourhoods were thus inhabited and public steps built to connect them with the higher ground and ancient houses were demolished. Moreover, sanitation was improved. In 1927, the bridge that connected the island to the mainland was opened and it was followed in 1941 by the first harbour pier.

The port had an important development. Wide avenues were opened over landfills. With these changes, the city became the largest urban space of State of Espírito Santo, a metropolis. In 1970, the Vitória Harbour rose to one of the most important in the country, and the city began its industrialization process. The modernization of the island led to the disappearance of almost all traces of the Colonial and Imperial Brazilian epochs.

Demographics
According to the IBGE of 2022, there were 322,869 people residing in the city. The racial makeup of the city was 45.6% White, 41.6% Pardo (Multiracial), 12.4% Black, 0.2% Asian, and 0.2% Amerindian.

Vitória is the second Brazilian capital with the best quality of life, according to research at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation. This same research institution also claims that Vitória is the 9th best city in Brazil to work in. The capital of Espírito Santo has the highest per capita income among the capitals of Brazil.

 * GDP per capita (2007): 60592.00 (1st place among the capitals)
 * Life Expectancy (years) at birth: 70.74 (4th place among the capitals)
 * IDHM R-index of income: 0.858 (3rd position among the capitals)
 * IDHM E-Education Index: 0.948 (3rd position among the capitals)
 * IDHM-L Index Longevity: .762 (4th place among the capital)
 * ICH index of deprivation in the Provision of Essential Services Housing: 0.882
 * Adult literacy rate: 95.48% (5th position among the capitals)
 * Average ENEM 2007: 60.225 (1st place among the capitals of Brazil)
 * Gross rate of school attendance: 93.36% (3rd position among the capitals)
 * Gini Index : 0.61
 * Highest HDI between the capitals of the Southeast and third largest among the capital (0.856)
 * Number of voters: 237 554
 * Annual population growth rate: 2.36%
 * Best capital for young start career
 * Ninth best city to work
 * Vitória Airport is the 14th in passenger movement in Brazil, and it embarked or disembarked 1,661,192 passengers in 2006. It is the 14th in cargo, and transported 13,023,544 kilograms in 2006.
 * Vitória has the largest port in handling a ton of Brazil
 * Fleet of vehicles: 120,826
 * Smaller population of the capitals of Southeastern

Religion
Source: IBGE 2000

Economy
Vitória's economy is based on port activities, active trade, industry, and also providing services to tourism. The capital of Espírito Santo has two ports that are the most important of the country: Port of Vitória and the Port of Tubarão. The most important industries are global steelmaker ArcelorMittal Tubarão (formerly CST) and mining company Vale (formerly Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, CVRD).

Vitória's GDP corresponds to 20% of the state economy. The tertiary sector encompasses most of the economy of Vitória, reaching 60% of the value of the local economy. This amount does not include local public administration. The calculation covers commerce and services. Industry accounts for 30% of Vitória's economy, housing large companies in the extractive sectors, such as Petrobras.

Trade
The main shopping center in Vitória is the Shopping Vitória, featuring over 400 shops, a large food court and a cineplex. There is also the Shopping Norte Sul, with 99 stores, the Shopping Centro da Praia, Shopping Boulevard, among others.

Education
Portuguese is the official national language, and thus the primary language taught in schools. A secondary language is also required as part of the official curriculum for both elementary schools and high school. The second most taught language is English, followed by Spanish, French and Italian.

Curiously, within the state of Espírito Santo, the German language (especially the East Pomeranian variety) has probably as many speakers as the French and Italian languages, although it is not available as part of the official curriculum in most schools.

Educational institutions

 * Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo (UFES)
 * Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Espírito Santo (IFES) – a.k.a. Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica do Espírito Santo (CEFET-ES) / Escola Técnica Federal do Espírito Santo (ETFES)
 * Universidade Vila Velha (UVV)
 * Escola Superior de Ciências da Santa Casa de Misericórdia de Vitória (Emescam)
 * Faculdade de Música do Espírito Santo (FAMES)
 * Centro Universitário Multivix Vitória (Multivix)
 * Faculdade Cândido Mendes de Vitória (FCMV)
 * Faculdades Integradas Espírito-Santenses (FAESA)
 * Faculdades Integradas de Vitória (FDV)
 * Faculdade Estácio de Sá de Vitória (Fesv)
 * Associação Vitoriana de Ensino Superior (Favi)
 * Faculdade Metropolitana de Vitória (Metropolitana)
 * Faculdade Batista de Vitória (Fabavi)
 * Faculdade de Ciências Econômicas de Vitória (Facev)
 * Fundação Capixaba de Pesquisa em Economia, Contabilidade e Finanças (FUCAPE Business)

It formerly hosted the Vitória Japanese School (ヴィトリア日本人学校 Vitoria Nihonjin Gakkō), a Japanese international school.

Airport
Eurico de Aguiar Salles Airport (Goiabeiras) is located on a land plot of just over 5.2 million square meters. Since construction of its first step, finished in 1946, Vitória Airport has undergone several expansions and modernizations, but current demand has surpassed its capacity of 2.9 million passengers a year. The passenger terminal is air conditioned, with a constructed area of nearly 17,000 square meters, a check-in concourse, 25 check-in counters and boarding and arrival lounges. The recent construction of new aircraft parking boxes on the aprons has improved the airport's operational efficiency.

In 2012, more than 3.7 million passengers used the airport, and in 2013 this rose to almost 4 million. Vitória is one of the 32 airports in the Infraero network that has a cargo terminal. In May 1999, the first direct international freight connection started between Vitoria and the United States (Miami) began operating to Vitória, facilitating imports to the state of Espírito Santo. Today there are five such flights a week.

Public Transportation
Vitoria has two urban transportation systems.
 * The first one, which only works in the city, known by the locals as "verdinhos" because the colors of the bus, the municipal fleet is divided into three bus companies operating 52 conventional lines and 2 selective lines with air conditioning. The passages payment system is electronic ticketing and has service in all districts of the city.
 * The Transcol system, linking the capital to other cities of Vitoria, and the lines run along major corridors such as Victoria Av and Beira Mar Av. Some neighborhoods of the city, get out of the axes of the main avenues have specific lines, as Jardim Camburi, which is linked to the Carapina Terminal and Laranjeiras, in the municipality of Serra, through 800 and the Grande Sao Pedro and Grande Santo Antonio line, which are served by lines 518 and 535 and connected to Ibes terminals (Vila Velha) Jardim America (Cariacica), Campo Grande (Cariacica) and Carapina (Serra). It features integration system through bus terminals that are scattered strategic points of the metropolitan area. The state capital, however, no longer has the Transcol system terminals since the closure of the Terminal Don Bosco in 2009.

Highways
The main access roads are the BR-101, a motorway linking the Brazilian south and northeast with the Metropolitan Region of Greater Vitória, the BR-262 that connects the Central region with Vitória and the Rodovia do Sol (Sun Motorway). Aside from the national highways, the ES-060 runs through the city, which links the local coastal regions.

Ports
The city has two ports: the Port of Vitória and the Porto do Tubarão.

The Porto de Vitória is the most difficult port for ships to access in all of Brazil. The Bay of Vitória is extremely narrow, with rocks and hills that complicate access by freighters and maritime cruisers to the docks. Ships, cars, and people all compete for space. There are restrictions on traffic, limiting the use of the port. Currently, the port is mostly used by cruise ships and for the repair of ships and oil platforms.

The Port of Tubarão was designed in the 1960s by Companhia Vale do Rio Doce when the Port of Vitória began showing signs of saturation. It offers much easier access to the sea. Since its opening in 1966, its capacity has gradually increased, reaching 80 million tonnes/year in the last decade. Although originally created to export iron ore, in recent years, it has added silos for storing grains and soybean meal. The port is located at one end of Camburi Beach.

Railways
The Vitória-Minas Railway, which carries cargo from the Central Region, also carries passengers from Vitória to Belo Horizonte.

Bridge
The Deputy Darcy Castelo de Mendonça Bridge, also known as the Third Bridge (Portuguese: Terceira Ponte), is the second tallest bridge in Brazil, connecting and reducing the distance between the cities of Vila Velha and Vitória.

Football
There are four professional football teams in the city, Rio Branco Atlético Clube, usually known simply as Rio Branco, Vitória Futebol Clube (ES), usually known simply as Vitória (or as Vitória-ES), Espírito Santo Futebol Clube, usually known simply as Espírito Santo, Doze Futebol Clube, usually known simply as Doze, currently playing in Campeonato Capixaba first level.

Historic structures

Vitória is home to numerous colonial-period and imperial-period historic structures, many designated as federal, state, or municipal monuments.

 * Carlos Gomes Theatre (Teatro Carlos Gomes)
 * Our Lady of Victory Cathedral, Vitória (Catedral Metropolitana)
 * Old Town Houses (Cidade Velha)
 * Costa Pereira Square (Praça Costa Pereira)
 * Chapel of Saint Lucy (Capela de Santa Luzia)
 * São Gonçalo Church (Igreja de São Gonçalo)
 * Caramuru Viaduct (Viaduto Caramuru)
 * Anchieta Palace (Palácio Anchieta)
 * Solar Monjardim Museum (Museu Solar Monjardim)
 * Domingos Martins Palace (Palácio Domingos Martins)
 * The Monastery of São Francisco (Monastério de São Francisco)
 * Church of Our Lady of the Rosary (Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Rosário)
 * Santo Antônio Sanctuary (Santuário de Santo Antônio)
 * Fonte Grande State Park

Notable people

 * Alison Cerutti — beach volleyball player

Other cities in the greater Vitória Metropolitan Region

 * Vila Velha
 * Fundão
 * Guarapari
 * Serra
 * Cariacica
 * Viana

title: Vitória, Espírito Santo


text:
Talk:Associate degree

Requested move 6 July 2023

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: not moved. (closed by non-admin page mover) – Material  Works  00:04, 14 July 2023 (UTC)

Associate degree → Associate's degree – Consistency with other college degree articles, Bachelor's degree and Master's degree. Mechanical Keyboarder (talk) 21:52, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

 * Oppose - per Ngrams evidence. Consistency is not indicated because the terms are not of a common origin or historical usage (see bachelor's and master's). -- Netoholic @ 05:26, 8 July 2023 (UTC)
 * FYI, the majority of the usage for "associate degree" in that ngram is from the term "associate degree category". Not enough to change the outcome, but enough to significantly influence it. . : 3 F4U (they/it) 22:58, 10 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Oppose. Consistency is irrelevant when this isn't what it's called! It isn't a degree that gives the title of associate; it's an associate degree. Different thing. -- Necrothesp (talk) 13:14, 11 July 2023 (UTC)

 * Oppose The WP:COMMONNAME appears to be associate degree, although associate's degree does have some usage. Associate degree is also recommended by the AP style guide (although Chicago allows either associate or associate's). There doesn't seem to be a good reason to change, and there is certainly a body that considered "associate's" to be incorrect (while there is no dispute over "associate"), so I think we're better sticking with the current name. Robminchin (talk) 21:07, 11 July 2023 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
 * Weak oppose. Either is acceptable and usage looks to be very close, but the current title looks to have a slight edge currently. Rreagan007 (talk) 00:31, 13 July 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Associate degree


text:
Nominoe

Nominoe or Nomenoe (Nominoë; Nevenoe; b. c. 800, d. 7 March 851) was the first Duke of Brittany from 846 to his death. He is the Breton pater patriae and to Breton nationalists he is known as Tad ar Vro ("father of the country").

Origins
He was the second son of Count Erispoe or Erispoë of Poher, King of the Browaroch (775–812), and younger brother of Count Riwallon or Rivallon III of Poher (?–857).

Rise and titulature under Louis the Pious
After a general rebellion which had enveloped the entire Carolingian Empire was put down, a general assembly was held at Ingelheim in May 831. It was probably there that the emperor Louis the Pious appointed Nominoe, a Breton, to rule the Bretons (which corresponded to "almost all" of Brittany). Regino of Prüm in his famous Chronicon writes, inaccurately for the year 837, that: Murmanus rex Brittonum moritur et Numenoio apud Ingelheim ab imperator ducatus ipsius gentis traditur. Morman, king of the Bretons, died and Numenoi [Nominoe] was created duke of that same people by the emperor at Ingelheim. Nominoe was a staunch ally of Louis the Pious until the emperor's death in 840. He supported Louis in the several civil wars of the 830s and he supported the monastery of Redon Abbey, even ordering the monks to pray for Louis in light of the emperor's "strife". Nominoe's power base was in the Vannetais and two charters refer to him as Count of Vannes, though it is unknown when that title was held, be it as early as 819 or as late as 834. Nominoe may not have possessed any land outside Vannes and his ability to gather revenue in Breton-speaking territories was probably no greater than any other aristocrat of those regions. His chief source of income after he broke with his overlord was plunder from raids into Frankish territory and from the despoliation of churches. He did have the political authority to exact payment (wergild) in the form of land from a man who had murdered his follower Catworet.

The title Duke of Brittany is primarily a chronicler's invention of the tenth century. Nominoe never held a title from the emperor, who refers to him in charters as merely fidelis, "faithful one", or as missus imperatoris, "imperial emissary", which was probably the title he was granted at Ingelheim. In Breton charters, Nominoe was known inconsistently by several titles from February 833 until his death:
 * Nominoe magistro in Britanniam ("Nominoe, master in Brittany")
 * Nominoe possidente Brittanniam ("Nominoe, possessing Brittany")
 * gubernante Nominoe totam Brittanniam ("Nominoe, governing all Brittany")
 * Nominoe principe in Brittannia ("Nominoe, prince in Brittany")
 * regnante Nominoe in Brittannia ("Nominoe, reigning in Brittany")
 * Nominoe duce in Britannia ("Nominoe, duke in Brittany")
 * Nomenoius dux ("duke Nominoe")
 * Nominoius princeps ("prince Nominoe")
 * Nomenogius Britto ("Breton Nominoe")

Loyalty and falling out with Charles the Bald
The relations between Nominoe and Charles the Bald, Louis's successor after 840, were initially amicable. In the midst of a revolt of his men in Neustria, Charles sent from Le Mans to see if Nominoe would submit to him in the spring of 841 and Nominoe agreed to do so. It is clear from the wording of the account of this event in Nithard that Nominoe was too powerful to be compelled to submit; later in 841 he rebuffed the overtures of the new emperor, Lothair I, who claimed Neustria. Nominoe remained loyal to Charles throughout the next year, even making a donation "in alms for the king" to the abbey of Redon on 25 January 842. Breton soldiers, as well as Gascons, certainly took part in the military show of the Oaths of Strasbourg.

In the summer of 843, Lothair or perhaps his supporter Lambert II of Nantes succeeded in persuading Nominoe to abandon Charles and go over to the emperor. Nominoe was thereafter a constant enemy of Charles and his authority in Neustria, often acting in concert with Lothair, Lambert, and Pepin II of Aquitaine. Breton troops fought under Lambert in Neustria and when, in June 844, Charles was besieging Toulouse, Nominoe raided into Maine and plundered the territory. In November 843, Charles had marched as far as Rennes to compel Breton submission, but to no effect.

At the synod of Yutz in October 844, presided over by Charles' uncle Drogo of Metz, the bishops sent orders to Nominoe, Lambert, and Pepin commanding them to renew their fealty to Charles or be prepared to accept military consequences. Lambert and Pepin complied, but Nominoe ignored the Frankish bishops. However, some Bretons had connived against him with Charles and the king tried to enter Brittany in support of the defectors, but without success: he was defeated at the Battle of Ballon just north of Redon across the Vilaine on 22 November 845. It is probable that in the Vannetais Nominoe's authority had been weakened after his split with Charles in 843 and Lupus of Ferrières reports "unrest" in Brittany during this period.

In 844 and 847 according to the Annales Bertiniani, Nominoe made war on the Vikings.

Renewed loyalty and second rebellion
In Summer 846, Charles marched on Brittany and again took no military action, instead coming to peace with Nominoe and exchanging oaths. The details of the peace arrangements are unknown, but Prudentius of Troyes uses the title "duke" (dux) for the first time in this context and this may indicate that Nominoe was created Duke of the Bretons in return for recognising Charles' lordship. As another part of the agreement, Nominoe had Charles remove Lambert from Nantes and put him in power in Sens further away.

By Christmas time, Nominoe's Bretons were raiding Neustria, this time near Bayeux, again. This was probably instigated by Lothair, for he, Charles, and their brother Louis the German met at Meerssen in February 847 and agreed to send orders to Nominoe and Pepin II to desist from making war on Charles. Nominoe, probably being paid by Lothair, did not in fact desist; neither did Pepin. In two campaigns in the spring and then fall of 849, Charles was in Aquitaine and Nominoe took the opportunity to raid Neustria. Charles reestablished Lambert in Nantes after Nominoe invaded Anjou.

In 850, Lambert (and his brother Warnar) had renewed their friendship with Nominoe and together were raiding Maine "with unspeakable fury" according to the Chronicon Fontanellense. In August, Charles marched on Rennes, again avoided fighting, and installed garrisons there and at Nantes. Immediately after he left, Lambert and Nominoe defeated the garrisons and captured the new Count of Nantes, Amalric. On 7 March 851, Nominoe died near Vendôme while ravaging the Nantais and Anjou; he was buried at Redon Abbey. By his wife Argentaela, Nominoe left a son named Erispoe, who succeeded him. Nominoe was thus the founder of a political tradition in Brittany which had not thitherto existed; though his charters did not mimic Carolingian ones, his successors would imitate the legitimising Carolingian language in theirs.

Deposition of the bishops
In 849 at a place called Coitlouh, Nominoe held a synod whereat he deposed the five Breton bishops of Alet, Saint-Pol, Vannes, Quimper, and Dol. The charges he levelled against them are unknown. Pope Leo IV sent a letter to Nominoe and the bishops (whether before or after the deposition is unknown) informing him that the depositions could only be enacted by a panel of twelve bishops with seventy-two witnesses. The later popes Benedict II and Nicholas I believed that Nominoe had forced the bishops to admit to crimes they had not committed and that their depositions were thus invalid. A Frankish synod of 850 held at either Angers or Tours accused Nominoe of simony by unlawfully removing bishops and replacing them with mercenarii (mercenaries of his own). These mercenarii were excommunicated, as indicated by an epistle of the synod of Savonnières in 859 sent to what remained of the Breton church in communion with the Archdiocese of Tours. Nominoe sacked Rennes and Nantes, replacing the new Frankish bishop of the latter with his own nominee.

Susannus was deposed in Vannes and replaced by Courantgen. Salocon was deposed in Dol, but his replacement is unknown. At Quimper, Felix was replaced by Anaweten and at Saint-Pol, Clutwoion replaced Garnobrius. The two bishops of Alet, first Rethwalatr and then Mahen are very obscure figures. The bishop of Nantes whom Nominoe succeeded in removing for about a year was Actard. His replacement was the obscure Gislard. In the end the synod of Coitlouh and the bringing of the bishoprics of Rennes and Nantes into the Breton fold meant that the church of Brittany was an actively independent ecclesiastic polity from its nominal metropolitan, the Metropolitan of Tours.

Succession
At his death Nominoe was succeeded by his son Erispoe. Nominoe was buried at Redon Abbey.

title: Nominoe


text:
Ken Wiwa

Kenule "Ken" Bornale Tsaro-Wiwa (28 November 1968 – 18 October 2016), also known as Ken Saro-Wiwa, Jr, although he himself chose to use the name Ken Wiwa, was a Nigerian journalist and author. The eldest son of human rights activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, he worked as an adviser to three Nigerian presidents.

Background
Wiwa was born in Lagos, Nigeria, the eldest son of human rights activist and author Ken Saro-Wiwa. He was educated in Nigeria before going in 1978, along with his mother and siblings, to live in England where his father believed he would receive the best possible education at that time. Wiwa attended Stancliffe Hall School and Tonbridge School and went on to the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, now part of University College, London. He was editor of the United Kingdom's Guardian's periodical New Media Lab, where he developed content for the paper's online edition.

Journalism
In 1999, Wiwa relocated to Canada, where he was a writer-in-residence at Massey College in the University of Toronto, Saul Rae Fellow at the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto, a mentor at the Trudeau Foundation in Canada and a columnist for The Globe and Mail, where he was twice nominated for National Newspaper Awards for feature writing.

Wiwa addressed the European Union, Oxford Union and spoke at a number of colleges and universities, including Harvard University, McGill University and the University of Cambridge. He served as a conference rapporteur at a United Nations meeting on cultural diversity. A regular commentator on major news channels including CNN, BBC, Al-Jazeera, he appeared as a guest on the BBC television programmes HARDTalk and Newsnight.

In 2005, Wiwa was selected by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader. He was the founding curator of the Abuja Hub for the Globalshapers Programme of the World Economic Forum and also served on the Africa Advisory Council of the Prince of Wales Rainforest Project. He wrote for The Guardian in the UK, and  the Washington Post, The New York Times and National Geographic, in the United States. He served as an editor-at-large for Arise Magazine and contributed occasional columns for magazines, newspapers and blogs.

Wiwa produced and narrated television and radio documentaries for the BBC and CBC, and wrote commentaries for National Public Radio.

In the Shadow of a Saint
His memoir of his father, In the Shadow of a Saint, was published in 2000 to overall positive review coverage. Sandra Jordan wrote: "Ken Wiwa does not spare himself in this story. He reveals self-truths he is not proud of. You feel for him. You feel for his father. His elegantly written book is a weave of Nigerian and family history, both turbulent, both tragic, neither without hope. The book is also a song of the Ogoni people, a tribute to their struggle, their endurance. It is, moreover, a story of being trapped in history; the children of heroes find their lives shaped by their parents, as Wiwa discovers when he meets Nkosinathi Biko, son of Steve Biko, Zindzi Mandela, and Aung San Suu Kyi."

The book was described by The Independent as "rich and readable", and by Africa Confidential as "an often sad but refreshingly honest book that provides a unique insight into the personal and political life of one of Nigeria's most dynamic and controversial figures", and for the Publishers Weekly reviewer: "Wiwa's impassioned and detailed memoir provides a superb overview of the Nigerian political landscape, as well as an excellent behind-the-scenes look at his father." In the Shadow of a Saint won the 2002 Hurston–Wright Nonfiction Award.

Special assistant
In 2005 he returned to Nigeria, and the following year former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo appointed Wiwa as his special assistant on peace, conflict resolution and reconciliation. He served President Umaru Yar'Adua as a special assistant on international affairs. Wiwa was also President Goodluck Jonathan's senior special assistant on civil society and international media, from 2012.

Death
Wiwa died suddenly in London on 18 October 2016, aged 47, after suffering a stroke. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari paid tribute by saying: "Wiwa was an ardent believer in the unity, progress and stability of his community. I urge family, friends and associates to honour his memory by making his dream of an environmentally safe, secured and prosperous Ogoniland a reality."

Selected writings

 * In the Shadow of a Saint: A Son's Journey to Understand His Father's Legacy, Doubleday, ISBN 0385601859, 2000. Extracted in The Guardian as "A difficult martyr", 28 October 2000, and "A difficult martyr – part 2", 28 October 2000.
 * "Letter to My Father", Index On Censorship, Vol. 34, No 4, 2005, pp. 24–29.
 * "In the name of my father", The Observer, 6 November 2005.
 * "We Nigerians are celebrating Mandela as the kind of hero we've never had", The Guardian, 8 December 2013.
 * "Finally it seems as if Ken Saro-Wiwa, my father, may not have died in vain", The Guardian, 10 November 2015.

title: Ken Wiwa


text:
Tim Meadows

Tim Meadows (born February 5, 1961) is an American actor and comedian. He was one of the longest-running cast members on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live, where he appeared for 10 seasons from 1991 to 2000. For his work on SNL, he received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series in 1993. He played main character John Glascott on the ABC sitcom Schooled for its two-season run after playing the same character in a recurring role for six seasons on The Goldbergs. Meadows is also known for his role as Principal Duvall in the 2004 teen comedy film Mean Girls, a role he then reprised in Mean Girls 2 and in the film's 2024 musical adaptation.

Early life and education
Meadows is the son of Mardell, a nurse's assistant, and Lathon Meadows, a janitor. He attended Pershing High School in Detroit and studied television and radio broadcasting at Wayne State University.

Career
Meadows began performing improvisational comedy at the Soup Kitchen Saloon. Meadows's start in show business was in Chicago as a member of The Second City comedy troupe, alongside future star Chris Farley. In 1991, Meadows landed a spot on Saturday Night Live and went on to become a longtime cast member, appearing on the program until 2000. (Meadows was on the show for 10 seasons; this was the record for the longest tenure on the show until it was surpassed by Darrell Hammond in 2005, whose record was also surpassed by Kenan Thompson in 2017.) Meadows's lengthy tenure on the show was used as a gag in three monologues when former cast members Phil Hartman and Mike Myers returned to the show to host, and when Alec Baldwin hosted for his 12th time. During his time on SNL, Meadows often spoofed famous personalities, including Oprah Winfrey, Erykah Badu, Michael Jackson, and Tiger Woods, and one time was a quick-change artist to pull off an impersonation of both O. J. Simpson and Al Cowlings within the timespan of one SNL skit. Some skits had Meadows playing a fictionalized version of himself, such as being a fan of ice hockey on Weekend Update, stating his dissatisfaction with the 1994 NHL lockout and remarking, "What am I supposed to do about this; watch basketball?" Another sketch as himself was introducing the entire SNL cast as their most famous characters, such as Wayne and Garth, or Melanie Hutsell as Jan Brady in a sing-along denouncing the 1992 Los Angeles riots, which ends with Meadows remarking, "This is personal to me...mainly because I don't have an SNL character to play!" Eventually, he did get an original character with Leon Phelps, "The Ladies' Man", a perpetually horny talk-show host who falsely believed himself to be the living definition of what women search for in a man. The character was adapted into a 2000 film, The Ladies' Man, which followed the character's attempts to find love and a suitable outlet for his beloved radio program. In 2001, he co-starred in Three Days; in 2003, he appeared as Miles McDermott in The Even Stevens Movie.

Meadows soon moved on to other projects, including a regular role on the short-lived NBC sitcom The Michael Richards Show and a supporting role in the 2004 film The Cookout. He also guest-starred as a client on the hit NBC comedy The Office in the second-season episode "The Client". He played a high-school principal in Mean Girls, a film written by (and co-starring) fellow SNL cast member Tina Fey. He also had a part in Handsome Boy Modeling School's album White People. In 2007, he appeared in a substantial supporting role in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.

Meadows has appeared in other feature films, including Coneheads, It's Pat, and Wayne's World 2, all of which were based on popular SNL characters and had varying degrees of success. He co-starred in the 2006 film The Benchwarmers alongside his former SNL co-stars Rob Schneider and David Spade. He was also featured in CBS's Gameshow Marathon (summer 2006), has appeared on The Colbert Report in the recurring role of P.K. Winsome, a conservative pundit and entrepreneur (who made an appearance at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear), and starred in The Bill Engvall Show and Curb Your Enthusiasm. He was also a frequent guest on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson as a comic field reporter. On May 31, 2008, Meadows threw out a ceremonial first pitch and conducted the seventh-inning stretch at Wrigley Field during a Chicago Cubs game against the Colorado Rockies.

In 2014, Meadows co-starred alongside Casey Wilson and Ken Marino in the short-lived NBC sitcom Marry Me. Dan Bucatinsky and he played "the Kevins", the gay dads of Annie (played by Wilson), who are both named Kevin. Since 2013, he has appeared in a recurring role on the ABC sitcom The Goldbergs, playing Mr. Glascott, the high school's parrot-owning guidance counselor. In 2016, he began starring in the FOX live-action/animation hybrid Son of Zorn opposite Cheryl Hines and Jason Sudeikis. He also had a recurring role in Brooklyn Nine-Nine as Jake Peralta's cannibal prison cellmate.

Meadows is featured in season two of Netflix's Space Force starring Steve Carell.

Meadows continues to perform improv in Chicago and Los Angeles, most frequently at venues such as the ImprovOlympic and Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. With Heather Anne Campbell and Miles Stroth, Meadows frequently performed in the improvised sketch show, Heather, Miles, and Tim in Los Angeles.

On February 17, 2023, Meadows was announced to reprise his role as Principal Ron Duvall from the first Mean Girls film in the stage-to-screen adaptation of the Broadway musical.

Personal life
Meadows married Michelle Taylor in 1997, and they had two sons together. They divorced in 2005.

title: Tim Meadows


text:
That Man from Rio

That Man from Rio (L'Homme de Rio) is a 1964 French-Italian international co-production adventure film directed by Philippe de Broca and starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Françoise Dorléac. It was the first film to be made by the French subsidiary of United Artists, Les Productions Artistes Associés. The film was a huge success with a total of 4,800,626 admissions in France, becoming the 5th highest earning film of the year.

This fast-moving spoof of James Bond-type films features striking location photography by Edmond Séchan of Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, and Paris. At the 37th Academy Awards, the film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

The film is directly inspired by the comics of Belgian cartoonist Hergé, featuring a number of scenes that are direct retelling of plot points in The Adventures of Tintin.

Plot
As airman Adrien Dufourquet embarks on an 8-day leave in Paris to see his fiancée Agnès, two South American Indians steal an Amazonian statuette from the Musée de l'Homme and force Professor Catalan, the curator, into their car. Catalan was the companion of Agnès' father on an expedition into the Amazonian rainforest during which her father died. Catalan believes that the statuette is one of three which hold the secret to an Amazonian treasure. Adrien arrives in time to see the Indians abducting Agnès, the only one who knows the location of her father's statuette, and he pursues them to the airport where he steals a ticket and boards the same plane.

Adrien tells the pilot that his fiancée has been abducted, but Agnès has been drugged and does not recognize him. The pilot plans to have Adrien arrested when they reach Rio de Janeiro, but Adrien eludes the police upon arrival. With the help of Sir Winston, a Brazilian bootblack, Adrien rescues Agnès. They retrieve the buried statuette, but the Indians steal it from them.

In a stolen car provided by Sir Winston, Agnès and Adrien drive to Brasilia to meet Senhor de Castro, a wealthy industrialist who possesses the third statuette. On the way, they come across the Indians' car with Catalan slumped inside; after picking him up, they drive on to Brasilia.

At a party in their honor, De Castro takes Catalan to his strong room to assure him of the statuette's safety, and Catalan, who planned the museum theft, murders him and steals the statuette. By the time Adrien discovers the body, Catalan and the Indians have abducted Agnès again and escaped in a seaplane. Adrien steals a plane and follows.

In a floating jungle cafe run by Lola, the woman who financed Catalan, Adrien learns that Catalan murdered Agnès' father and that Agnès is being held in a boat. Rushing to the boat, Adrien hangs onto the side as it heads upstream and finally docks. While Catalan goes to the underground location of the treasure, Adrien knocks out all of Catalan's accomplices and rescues Agnès. Catalan finds the treasure, but an explosion set off by a nearby Trans-Amazonian Highway construction crew causes him to be buried with it. Adrien and Agnès flee the jungle and arrive in Paris in time for Adrien to catch his train back to his garrison.

Cast

 * Jean-Paul Belmondo as Pvt. Adrien Dufourquet
 * Françoise Dorléac as Agnès Villermosa
 * Jean Servais as the Prof. Norbert Catalan
 * Adolfo Celi as Mario de Castro
 * Simone Renant as Lola
 * Roger Dumas as Lebel, Dufourquet's buddy
 * Daniel Ceccaldi as Police inspector
 * Milton Ribeiro as Tupac
 * Ubiracy de Oliveira as Sir Winston the shoeshine
 * Sabu do Brasil
 * Peter Fernandez
 * Annik Malvil as Airplane Hostess

Production
The film was a follow-up to Cartouche, a popular swashbuckler with Belmondo. It was decided that he should star in a James Bond spoof. Italian financing of the film led to the Italian actor Adolfo Celi, then resident in Brazil, being cast as Mario de Castro.

Jean-Paul Belmondo's personal tastes were Tintin comics, sports magazines, and detective novels. He said he preferred "making adventure films like Rio to the intellectual movies of Alain Resnais or Alain Robbe-Grillet."

Release
That Man from Rio was released in France on 28 February 1964.

Awards
The film was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards.

Critical
In contemporary reviews, the Monthly Film Bulletin reviewed and English-dubbed version noted that the "One may feel that [de Broca]'s inconsequential wit is better suited to the smaller, more parochial atmosphere of his earlier films, but here he is involved in a big budget production aimed at a huge audience, and perhaps we ought to be grateful that so much of his personal style has survived, even in the carefully dubbed and slightly shortened American version now presented." The review noted that the film was "beautifully organised" and that "it always keeps the chuckles rising even if they seldom break into real guffaws." and praised the two leads, specifically Belmondo who "outdid Douglas Fairbanks in agility, Harold Lloyd in cliffhanging, and James Bond in indestructibility".

Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic called That Man from Rio "a delightful film".

In a retrospective review, The Dissolve gave the film a rating of three and a half stars out of five, noting that "the action moves along at such a rapid clip, there’s little time to worry about how much the plot relies on incredible coincidences".

Time Out selected the movie as #99 for its list of the 100 greatest French films.

Influence
Film scholar Cédric Pérolini has argued that the film may be seen as a "missing link" between The Adventures of Tintin comic by Hergé and Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Author Dominique Maricq has stated that "Spielberg even declared having watched it [That Man from Rio] nine times! Did he not know that, to construct his scenario, the Frenchman had himself largely drawn from the boxes and bubbles of the Adventures of Tintin series?" All three pieces of media contain a number of very similar scenes and plot points. For example, at one point in The Man from Rio, Catalan steals a car while it is being repaired, an event that appears in both Tintin in the Land of the Soviets and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

title: That Man from Rio


text:
GWB

GWB may refer to:

 * Baylor University Golden Wave Band
 * DeKalb County Airport (Indiana)
 * The Geochemist's Workbench, a scientific modelling suite
 * George Warren Brown School of Social Work of Washington University in St. Louis
 * George Washington Bridge, linking Washington Heights, Manhattan to Fort Lee, New Jersey, United States
 * George W. Bush (born 1946), 43rd president of the United States
 * Gravitational wave background -- stochastic background of gravitational waves permeating the Universe
 * Great Western Bank (1907–present), an American bank
 * gwb ISO 639-3 code  for the Gwa language
 * Gypsum wall board, a.k.a. drywall, a construction material

title: GWB


text:
Comparative officer ranks of World War I

The following table shows comparative officer ranks of several Allied and Central powers during World War I.


text:
Purr

A purr or whirr is a tonal fluttering sound made by some species of felids, including both larger, outdoor cats and the domestic cat (Felis catus), as well as two species of genets. It varies in loudness and tone among species and in the same animal. In smaller and domestic cats it is known as a purr, while in larger felids, such as the panther, it is called a whirr. Although true purring is exclusive to felids and viverrids, other animals such as raccoons produce vocalizations that sound similar to true purring. Animals that produce purr-like sounds include mongooses, kangaroos, wallabies, wallaroos, badgers, rabbits and guinea pigs.

Animals purr for a variety of reasons, including to express happiness or fear, and as a defense mechanism. It has also been shown that cats purr to manage pain and soothe themselves. Purring is a soft buzzing sound, similar to a rolled 'r' with a fundamental frequency of around 25 Hz. This sound occurs with noticeable vibrations on the surface of the body, varies in a rhythmic pattern during breathing and occurs continuously during inhalation and exhalation. The intensity and length of the purr can also vary depending on the level of arousal of the animal.

Mechanism
The mechanism by which cats purr is an object of speculation, with different hypotheses proposed. An early idea was that purring is a hemodynamic process where sound is produced as the blood runs through the thorax.

There is a unique "neural oscillator" in the cat's brain of uncertain significance. Although the mechanism has not yet been fully explained, recent studies have inferred it could be the result of oscillatory mechanisms in the central nervous system. Studies have also shown that purring can be caused through electrically stimulating the infundibular region of the cat's brain, suggesting central control.

Vocal folds/laryngeal muscles
One hypothesis, backed by electromyographic studies, is that cats produce the purring noise by using the vocal folds or the muscles of the larynx to alternately dilate and constrict the glottis rapidly, causing air vibrations during inhalation and exhalation. Combined with the steady inhalation and exhalation of air as the cat breathes, a purring noise is produced with strong harmonics.

Degree of hyoid ossification
No cat can both purr and roar. The subdivision of the Felidae into "purring cats" (Felinae) on one hand and "roaring cats" (Pantherinae) on the other goes back to Owen and was definitively introduced by Pocock, based on whether the hyoid bone of the larynx is incompletely ("roarers") or completely ("purrers") ossified. However, Weissengruber et al. argued that the ability of a cat species to purr is not affected by the anatomy of its hyoid.

The "roaring cats" (lion, Panthera leo; tiger, P. tigris; jaguar, P. onca; leopard, P. pardus) have an incompletely ossified hyoid, which, according to this hypothesis, enables them to roar but not to purr. However, the snow leopard (Uncia uncia, or P. uncia), as the fifth felid species with an incompletely ossified hyoid, purrs.

All remaining species of the family Felidae ("purring cats") have a completely ossified hyoid, which enables them to purr but not to roar. Based on a technical acoustic definition of roaring, the presence of this vocalization type depends on specific characteristics of the vocal folds and an elongated vocal tract, which is rendered possible by an incompletely ossified hyoid.

Frequency, amplitude, and respiratory variation

 * Domestic cats purr at a frequency of 20 to 30 vibrations per second.
 * Eklund, Peters & Duthie, comparing purring in a cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) and a domestic cat (Felis catus) found that the cheetah purred with an average frequency of 20.87 Hz (egressive phases) and 18.32 Hz (ingressive phases), while the much smaller domestic cat purred with an average frequency of 21.98 Hz (egressive phases) and 23.24 Hz (ingressive phases).
 * Schötz & Eklund studied purring in four domestic cats and found that the fundamental frequency varied between 20.94 and 27.21 Hz for egressive phases and between 23.0 and 26.09 Hz for ingressive phases. Schötz & Eklund also observed considerable variation between the four cats as regards relative amplitude, duration and frequency between egressive and ingressive phases, but that this variation occurred within the same general range.
 * In a follow-up study of purring in four adult cheetahs, Eklund, Peters, Weise & Munro found that egressive phases were longer than ingressive phases in all four cheetahs. Likewise, ingressive phases had a lower frequency than egressive phases in all four cheetahs. Mean frequency were between 19.3 Hz and 20.5 Hz in ingressive phases, and between 21.9 Hz and 23.4 Hz in egressive phases. Moreover, the amplitude was louder in the egressive phases in four cheetahs.
 * Eklund & Peters compared purring in adult, subadult and juvenile cheetahs and reported that while there was considerable variation across most of the parameters analyzed (amplitude, phase duration, cycles per phase and fundamental frequency) – mainly attributable to degree of relaxation/agitation in the animals resting or playing– previously reported observations that ingressive phases tend to be lower in frequency were largely confirmed. There were no major differences in these parameters as a function of age.

Purpose
In domestic cats, many signals that occur when interacting with humans seem to originate from when the animal was dependent on the mother. Cats have been observed to purr for most of their lifespan, starting from when they were young and suckling from their mother. Purring may be a signaling mechanism of reassurance between mother cats and nursing kittens. Post-nursing cats often purr as a sign of contentment when being petted, becoming relaxed or eating. Some purring may be a signal to another animal that the purring cat does not pose a threat.

Cats have been shown to have different types of purrs depending on situations. For example, purring appears to be a way for cats to signal their caretakers for food. This purring has a high-frequency component not present in other purrs. These are called solicitation purrs (when the cat is seeking a result) and non-solicitation purrs, and the two are distinguishable to humans. In a study, 50 humans were subjected to playbacks of purrs recorded in solicitation and non-solicitation situations at the same amplitude. Humans regularly judged the solicitation purrs as less pleasant and more urgent than the non-solicitation purrs. This variety of purring seems to be found more frequently in cats in a one-to-one relationship with a caretaker. Similarities have been drawn between an infant's cry and the isolation cry of domestic cats. The high-frequency aspect of the purr may subtly exploit humans' sensitivity to these cries. Using sensory biases in communication between species provides cats with a productive means of improving the care that they receive.

Cats often purr when distressed or in pain, such as during the three stages of labor. In the first stage, the uterus begins to contract, the cervix relaxes, the water breaks and the cat begins to purr, which is hypothesized to be a self-relaxation technique. This purring may trigger a cat's brain to release a hormone that helps it relax and acts as a painkiller.

There is also some evidence that the frequency at which cats purr can help promote bone density and hasten healing.

title: Purr


text: Talk:Hallucinations (David Usher album)

title: Talk:Hallucinations (David Usher album)


text:
Sodium hexametaphosphate

Sodium hexametaphosphate (SHMP) is a salt of composition Na6[(PO3)6]. Sodium hexametaphosphate of commerce is typically a mixture of metaphosphates (empirical formula: NaPO3), of which the hexamer is one, and is usually the compound referred to by this name. Such a mixture is more correctly termed sodium polymetaphosphate. They are white solids that dissolve in water.

Uses
SHMP is used as a sequestrant and has applications within a wide variety of industries, including as a food additive in which it is used under the E number E452i. Sodium carbonate is sometimes added to SHMP to raise the pH to 8.0–8.6, which produces a number of SHMP products used for water softening and detergents.

A significant use for sodium hexametaphosphate is as a deflocculant in the production of clay-based ceramic particles. It is also used as a dispersing agent to break down clay and other soil types for soil texture assessment.

It is used as an active ingredient in toothpastes as an anti-staining and tartar prevention ingredient.

Food additive
As a food additive, SHMP is used as an emulsifier. Artificial maple syrup, canned milk, cheese powders and dips, imitation cheese, whipped topping, packaged egg whites, roast beef, fish fillets, fruit jelly, frozen desserts, salad dressing, herring, breakfast cereal, ice cream, beer, and bottled drinks, among other foods, can contain SHMP.

Water softener salt
SHMP is used in Diamond Crystal brand Bright & Soft Salt Pellets for water softeners in a concentration of 0.03%. It is the only additive other than sodium chloride.

Preparation
SHMP is prepared by heating monosodium orthophosphate to generate sodium acid pyrophosphate:

 * 2 NaH2PO4 -> Na2H2P2O7 + H2O

Subsequently, the pyrophosphate is heated to give the corresponding sodium hexametaphosphate:

 * 3 Na2H2P2O7 -> (NaPO3)6 + 3 H2O

followed by rapid cooling.

Reactions
SHMP hydrolyzes in aqueous solution, particularly under acidic conditions and/or heat, to sodium trimetaphosphate and sodium orthophosphate.

History
Sodium hexametaphosphate is the alkali salt of one of the series of polymetaphosphoric acids (acids formed by the polymerization of phosphate groups). Hexametaphosphoric acid was first made in 1825 by the German chemist Johann Frederich Philipp Engelhart (1797-1853). For his doctoral thesis, Engelhart intended to determine whether iron was responsible for the red color of blood. In order to purify his blood samples, Engelhart had found that he could coagulate the blood serum's albumin (dissolved proteins) by treating the blood with phosphoric acid. This contradicted the findings of the famous Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius, who had stated that phosphoric acid did not coagulate water-soluble proteins such as egg white. Berzelius and Engelhart collaborated with the intention of resolving the contradiction; they concluded that Engelhart had produced a new form of phosphoric acid simply by burning phosphorus in air and then dissolving the resulting substance in water. However they did not determine the new acid's composition. That analysis was accomplished in 1833 by the Scottish chemist Thomas Graham, who named the sodium salt of the new acid "metaphosphate of soda". Graham's findings were confirmed by the German chemists Justus von Liebig and Theodor Fleitmann. In 1849 Fleitmann coined the name "hexametaphosphoric acid".

By 1956, chromatographic analysis of hydrolysates of Graham's salt (sodium polyphosphate) indicated the presence of cyclic anions containing more than four phosphate groups; these findings were confirmed in 1961. In 1963, the German chemists Erich Thilo and Ulrich Schülke succeeded in preparing sodium hexametaphosphate by heating anhydrous sodium trimetaphosphate.

Safety
Sodium phosphates are recognized to have low acute oral toxicity. SHMP concentrations not exceeding 10,000mg/L or mg/kg are considered protective levels by the EFSA and USFDA. Extreme concentrations of this salt may cause acute side effects from excessive blood serum concentrations of sodium, such as: “irregular pulse, bradycardia, and hypocalcemia."

title: Sodium hexametaphosphate


text:
1989 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom

The 1989 European Parliament election, was the third European election to be held in the United Kingdom. It was held on 15 June. The electoral system was First-past-the-post voting in England, Scotland and Wales and Single transferable vote in Northern Ireland. The turnout was again the lowest in Europe.

This election saw the best performance ever by the Green Party (UK) (formerly the Ecology Party), collecting over 2 million votes and 15% of the vote share. It had only received 70,853 as the Ecology Party in the previous election. However, because of the first past the post system, the Green Party did not gain a single MEP, while the Scottish National Party received 1 seat with only 3% of the vote share. The Green Party's vote total of 2,299,287 remains its best performance in a national election, as does its percentage result of 14.5%.

The election also saw Labour overtake the Conservatives for the first time in any election since October 1974 and the first time ever in a European election, winning 13 more seats.

Two by-elections to the British Parliament also took place on the same day in the Vauxhall and Glasgow Central constituencies - Labour held both seats.

United Kingdom

 * Overall (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) turnout: 36% (EU average: 59%)
 * Overall votes cast: 15,896,078

Great Britain
Total votes cast: 15,361,267

Northern Ireland
Total votes cast – 534,811.

Party Leaders in 1989

 * Labour – Neil Kinnock
 * Conservative – Margaret Thatcher
 * Green – N/A (the Green Party did not have a leader)
 * Social and Liberal Democrats – Paddy Ashdown
 * Scottish National Party – Gordon Wilson
 * Plaid Cymru – Dafydd Elis Thomas
 * Democratic Unionist Party – Ian Paisley
 * Social Democratic and Labour Party – John Hume
 * Ulster Unionist Party – James Molyneaux


text:
John K. Samson

John Kristjan Samson (born 1973) is a Canadian musician from Winnipeg, Manitoba. He is a singer-songwriter and best known as the frontman of the Canadian indie folk/rock band The Weakerthans. He also played bass in the punk band Propagandhi during the mid-1990s. Today, Samson is making music under his own name, John K. Samson. His latest solo album, Winter Wheat, was released in 2016.

Music
In 1993, while still a member of Propagandhi, Samson released a fifteen-track solo album on cassette tape, entitled Slips and Tangles. In 1995, six of these songs were featured on a split album shared with the now-defunct punk band Painted Thin. Following the critical success of The Weakerthans, Samson's side of the split was re-released online by G7 Welcoming Committee as a digital EP in 2006.

In 1995, also while still in Propagandhi, Samson released the song "Letter of Resignation" on a split with F.Y.P. Although credited to Propagandhi, Samson was the only band member to appear on the song. He later rerecorded "Letter of Resignation" on The Weakerthans' debut album, Fallow.

In 2006, he and his wife Christine Fellows recorded The Old House, an album intended as a Christmas gift for friends and family. They eventually released two songs, "Taps Reversed" and "Good Salvage", for airplay on CBC Radio 3 in 2007. Fellows and Samson also performed live on the network on March 17, 2007, to mark the final night of the network's terrestrial simulcast on CBC Radio 2. Both Samson and Fellows also participated in writing and performing music for Clive Holden's multimedia project Trains of Winnipeg.

In 2008, Samson collaborated with electronic musician Blunderspublik and Inuit throat singer Nikki Komaksiutiksak on the song "Keewatin Arctic", as part of the collaborative music project Record of the Week Club.

Shortly afterward, Samson announced his first solo project since 1995's Little Pictures: a series of 7" releases about Manitoba roads, which he planned to release over the next 18 months. The first, City Route 85, was released on November 3, 2009, through Epitaph and ANTI-. In August 2010, Samson announced his next EP, Provincial Road 222, to be released on September 21. In December 2010, the Weakerthans performed four concerts in Winnipeg, one for each of their albums. In their final concert at the Burton Cummings Theatre, they performed all four of their albums in one night.

In 2011, Samson, Fellows and Sandro Perri participated in the National Parks Project, working with filmmaker Daniel Cockburn to produce and score a short film about Ontario's Bruce Peninsula National Park.

On November 29, 2011, Anti- Records announced that Samson would be releasing his 'first full-length solo album', Provincial, on January 24, 2012.

He appears on Michael Feuerstack's 2014 album Singer Songer, contributing vocals to the song "Friday Night Guard".

In 2015, Samson, Fellows, Ashley Au and Jason Tait collaborated on the music for For the Turnstiles, a dance performance by Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers troupe inspired by Neil Young's 1974 album On the Beach.

On August 15, 2016, Samson announced that his second solo album, Winter Wheat, would be released on October 21, 2016. While technically a solo album, Winter Wheat features contributions by his Weakerthans bandmates Jason Tait and Greg Smith, and much of it was recorded by Weakerthans sound tech Cam Loeppky.

In 2018, Samson recorded a version of Fellows' "Saturday Night at Utopia Parkway" for a split single with American musician Kevin Devine. In 2019 he collaborated with Safia Nolin on a cover of Taking Back Sunday's "Cute Without the E" for her EP xX3m0 $0ng$ 2 $!nG @L0nG 2Xx.

In February 2020, Samson wrote and released "Millennium for All", a song supporting the activist campaign against the new security restrictions at Winnipeg's Millennium Library. He followed up in July with the single "Fantasy Baseball at the End of the World".

In February 2023, Fellows and Samson released Hold Music, an album of almost entirely instrumental music except one song with vocals by Samson. The album was credited to Vivat Virtute, the name of Fellows' online music and crafts store.

Other activities
Samson is also a founding member of Arbeiter Ring Publishing, a publishing collective. In 2012 he published his Lyrics and Poems, 1997-2012 with the press.

In 2006, Samson championed Miriam Toews' novel A Complicated Kindness in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's annual Canada Reads, and the novel went on to win the competition. In the 2007 edition of Canada Reads—an "all-star" competition pitting the five winning advocates from previous years against each other—Samson returned to champion Heather O'Neill's novel Lullabies for Little Criminals, which also won the competition.

In 2008 and 2009, Samson spent several weeks working at the CBC's Winnipeg studios as part of the production team for the CBC Radio 2 program The Signal.

Samson was a writer in residence at the University of Manitoba in 2013. He has also been adjunct professor with the Creative Writing Program at the University of British Columbia.

Samson and Christine Fellows frequently produce music for Jonathan Goldstein's podcast "Heavyweight".

Personal life
Samson is married to Canadian singer-songwriter Christine Fellows. Samson is a Quaker.

Albums

 * Slips and Tangles – 1993
 * Provincial – 2012
 * Winter Wheat – 2016
 * Hold Music – 2023 (with Christine Fellows as Vivat Virtute)

EPs

 * Little Pictures – 1995
 * City Route 85 – 2009
 * Provincial Road 222 – 2010
 * June First – 2023 (with Christine Fellows as Vivat Virtute)

title: John K. Samson


text:
Talk:Four-color pen

This might be expanded or linked to other pages; I'm not really sure how to deal with the fact that there are multi-colour pens of more than four. --Daniel C. Boyer 19:02, 1 May 2004 (UTC)

True or false??
True or false: this article is supposed to be about pens that can write in 4 different colors: black, red, blue, and green. 66.32.143.38 19:05, 1 May 2004 (UTC)

 * True. Though it is perhaps possible that they come in other colours, although I've never seen one of these.  --Daniel C. Boyer 19:13, 1 May 2004 (UTC)

title: Talk:Four-color pen