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National Roads Authority

The National Roads Authority (NRA) (An tÚdarás um Bóithre Náisiúnta) is a state body in Ireland, responsible for the national road network. The NRA was established as part of the Roads Act 1993 and commenced operations on 23 December 1993 in accordance with S.I. 407 of 1993. The NRA absorbed the Railway Procurement Agency on 1 August 2015. Technically still the NRA, the merger of the two agencies is legally operationally called Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), and is often treated as a new agency.

County councils remain responsible for local and regional roads, as well as various tasks like setting speed limits. The NRA, meanwhile, was responsible for the planning, maintenance and construction of National Primary Routes and National Secondary Routes as well as establishing safety measures. Ireland's national road network consists of 2739 km of National Primary Routes and 2676 km of National Secondary Routes.

The body also plays an environmental and archaeological role as part of the road building programme, publishing an archaeology magazine, seanda, since 2006. Since 2007 it has managed the eToll toll payment interoperability system operated by Egis Projects.

The NRA was headed by a chief executive officer (CEO) who reported to the NRA's board which in turn reported to the Minister for Transport. There were four departmental heads who reported to the CEO: the Head of Finance and Administration, the Head of Engineering Operations, the Head of PPP (Public Private Partnerships), Strategic Planning and Commercial Operations and the Head of Corporate Affairs and Professional Services.

In the previous decade, the NRA was mainly concerned with the extensive expansion of Ireland's motorway network under the National Development Plan (NDP). The Transport 21 element of the NDP involved improvements to Ireland's transport networks including its roads. The NRA was responsible for making major improvements to key roads, especially the Major Inter-Urban Routes. These routes were the N1/M1 (Dublin - north of Dundalk), the N4/M4/N6/M6 (Dublin - Kinnegad-Galway), the N7/M7 (Dublin-Limerick), the N8/M8 (Portlaoise-Cork) and the N9/M9 (near Naas-Waterford).

Major improvements were also made to many other national primary and national secondary routes, most notably the Atlantic Corridor routes (N15, N17, N18, N20, N24, N25) and the N11/M11 (Dublin - Wexford).

Legal case
In the contract award procedure for the construction of the Dundalk Western Bypass motorway, which commenced with a call for interest issued in 2001, failure by the National Roads Authority to notify an unsuccessful bidding consortium, Eurolink, that they would not be appointed as construction contractor gave rise to a legal case raised in the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in 2008. The court ruled that Ireland's transposition of the EU directives on public works contracts, Directives 93/37 and 89/665 as amended, into Irish law was flawed. Order 84A of the Rules of the Superior Courts was amended as a result of the ECJ ruling.

title: National Roads Authority


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User talk:Cryptfiend64/for school

I linked to this page for a school project, so I protected it. Please don't edit it or unprotect it, until my project is finished (at which point I'll put it on VfD). ugen64 15:40, May 19, 2004 (UTC)

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

title: User talk:Cryptfiend64/for school


text:
Korn Ferry Tour

The Korn Ferry Tour is the developmental tour for the U.S.-based PGA Tour, and features professional golfers who have either not yet reached the PGA Tour, or who have done so but then failed to win enough FedEx Cup points to stay at that level. Those who are on the top 30 of the money list at year's end are given PGA Tour memberships for the next season. Since the 2013 season, the Korn Ferry Tour has been the primary pathway for those seeking to earn their PGA Tour card. Q-School, which had previously been the primary route for qualification to the PGA Tour, has been converted as an entryway to the Korn Ferry Tour.

History
Announced in early 1989 by PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman, the "satellite tour" was formalized by the PGA Tour in 1990, originally named the Ben Hogan Tour, sponsored by the Ben Hogan Golf Company. The first season of 1990 had 30 events, and the typical event purse was $100,000. Late in 1992, Nike acquired the title sponsorship and it became the Nike Tour for seven seasons (1993–1999). Buy.com was the next title sponsor with the tour being titled the Buy.com Tour for three seasons (2000–2002).

Nationwide Insurance became the tour's next title sponsors for the start of the 2003 season, with the tour being renamed the Nationwide Tour. After $9 1/2$ seasons as the Nationwide Tour, Web.com was announced as the new title sponsor in late June 2012. The 10-year sponsorship deal was effective immediately, and the tour's name was changed to the Web.com Tour mid-season. In June 2019, the PGA Tour announced a 10-year deal with Los Angeles–based consulting firm Korn Ferry to replace Web.com as the tour's sponsor.

The vast majority of tournaments have always been hosted within the mainland United States. In 1993 the tour reached beyond those boundaries for the first time, with the Monterrey Open in Mexico. It was an annual fixture on the tour schedule until 2001. The following season, the tour added PGA Tour of Australasia co-sanctioned events in Australia and New Zealand, and the Canadian PGA Championship in Canada. A tournament in Panama was added in 2004, and the tour returned to Mexico in 2008. The tour has also visited Colombia (since 2010), Chile (2012–2015), Brazil (2013–2016), the Dominican Republic (2016–2017) and the Bahamas (since 2017).

Rules and results
All Korn Ferry Tour tournaments operate similarly to typical PGA Tour tournaments in that they are all 72-hole stroke play events with a cut made after 36 holes. The cut on the Korn Ferry Tour is for the top 65 players and ties, which is the same as the PGA Tour. The fields are usually 144 or 156 players, depending on time of year (and available daylight hours). As with the PGA Tour, the winner of the tournament will get a prize of 18% of the total purse.

Since this tour is a developmental tour, players are usually vying to play well enough to gain status on the PGA Tour.

Until 2012, there were a number of ways of getting onto the Korn Ferry Tour: Top 50 golfers at qualifying school after the top 25 and ties, those who finished between 26th and 60th on the previous year's money list, 126–150th on the previous season's PGA Tour money list, and those who were formerly fully exempt on the PGA Tour in the recent past. Those without status can also earn enough to exceed 100th on the previous season's money list and earned unlimited exemptions for the remainder of the season. Around 14 open qualifying spots are given during the Monday of tournament week, and those who finished in the top 25 of a Korn Ferry event are automatically exempt into the next tournament. If a Monday morning qualifier wins an event, they will earn full-exempt status for the remainder of the season. Past PGA Tour winners aged 48 and 49 can play on the Korn Ferry Tour on an increased basis to prepare themselves for PGA Tour Champions, while former PGA Tour winners with limited status use the Korn Ferry Tour as a way to get back to the main tour.

In 2007 Paul Claxton became the first man to reach US$1 million in Korn Ferry Tour career earnings.

The Korn Ferry Tour offers Official World Golf Ranking points. The winner earns a minimum of 14 OWGR points (provided at least 54 holes are played) and 20 for the Korn Ferry Tour Championship. Starting in 2013, the other events of the Korn Ferry Tour Finals award 16 OWGR points to the winner. Tournaments shortened to 36 holes are given reduced values of ten points for regular season events and the win is considered unofficial.

Three-win promotion
Since 1997, a player who wins three tournaments in one year on the Korn Ferry Tour receives an immediate promotion to the PGA Tour for the remainder of the year and for the following year. This "performance promotion" (sometimes informally referred to as a "battlefield promotion") has occurred twelve times:

 * 1997: 🇺🇸 Chris Smith
 * 2001: 🇺🇸 Heath Slocum, 🇺🇸 Chad Campbell, 🇺🇸 Pat Bates
 * 2002: 🇺🇸 Patrick Moore
 * 2003: 🇺🇸 Tom Carter
 * 2005: 🇺🇸 Jason Gore
 * 2007: 🇦🇺 Nick Flanagan
 * 2009: 🇦🇺 Michael Sim
 * 2014: 🇲🇽 Carlos Ortiz
 * 2016: 🇺🇸 Wesley Bryan
 * 2020–21: Mito Pereira

Changes for 2013 season and beyond
On March 20, 2012, the PGA Tour announced radical changes to the main tour's season and qualifying process effective in 2013. Major changes to what was then known as the Nationwide Tour were also announced at that time. Full details of these changes were announced on July 10 of that year.

The first major change was that beginning in fall 2013, the PGA Tour season started in October of the previous calendar year. This change had several consequences for the Korn Ferry Tour, either directly or indirectly.

Starting with the 2013 season, the Korn Ferry Tour has a structure similar to that of the main PGA Tour, with a regular season followed by a season-ending series of tournaments. In the case of the Korn Ferry Tour, the ending series consists of four tournaments, to be held during the main tour's FedEx Cup playoffs, called the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. At least 150 players will be eligible to compete in the Finals—the top 75 on the Korn Ferry Tour regular-season money list, plus the players finishing between 126 and 200 on the FedEx Cup points list. Non-members of the PGA Tour are also eligible if they would have earned enough FedEx Cup points to finish 126 to 200. In addition, PGA Tour players who have been granted medical extensions for the following season are eligible. Because some of the PGA Tour players will be exempt by other means, such as tournament wins in the previous two years, the Finals fields will not consist of all eligible players. A total of 50 PGA Tour cards for the following season will be awarded at the end of the Finals—25 to the top regular-season money winners on the Korn Ferry Tour, with the remaining 25 determined by total money earned during the Finals.

Those who finish in the Top 75 on the regular season money list but fail to earn PGA Tour cards retain full Korn Ferry Tour status, along with those 26–50 on the Finals money list and those who finished 126–150 on the PGA Tour FedEx Cup standings. Conditional status is given to those who finish in the top 100 on the money list or 151–200 in the FedEx Cup.

Also, starting in 2013, the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament was replaced by the Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Tournament which grants playing rights only for the Korn Ferry Tour. The medalist is fully exempt on the Korn Ferry Tour for the entire season. Those finishing in the top ten plus ties are exempt through the third reshuffle, or thirteen events. Players finishing 11th-45th are exempt through the second reshuffle after nine events and all remaining golfers have conditional status. One can also earn direct access to the Korn Ferry Tour through a top-five finish on the Order of Merit on PGA Tour Canada, PGA Tour Latinoamérica, or PGA Tour China. The money leader from each of those tours is fully exempt and those 2nd-5th are conditionally exempt.

Finally, the Korn Ferry Tour now provides up to two entrants in the following year's Players Championship. One invitation is extended to the player who tops the money list for the entire season, including the Finals. The golfer who earns the most during the Finals also receives an invitation; if the same player leads both money lists, only one invitation is given.

Career money leaders
The table shows top-10 career money leaders on the Korn Ferry Tour as of the 2023 season. Players in bold were 2023 Korn Ferry Tour members.

There is a full list on the PGA Tour's website.

title: Korn Ferry Tour


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Talk:Collier's

Untitled
Below text moved here from "Collier's magazine":

Peter Collier founded the periodical, Collier's Once a Week in April 1888. It was advertised as a magazine of "fiction, fact, sensation, wit, humour, news". By 1892 it had a circulation of over 250,000 and was one of largest selling magazines in the United States.

In 1895 its name was changed to Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal. The magazine now concentrating on news and became a leading exponent of the half-tone news picture. To fully exploit this new technology, Peter Collier recruited James H. Hare, one of the pioneers of photo-journalism.

Norman Hapgood became editor of Collier's Weekly in 1903. He developed a reputation of employing the country's leading writers. In May, 1906, he commissioned Jack London to report on the San Francisco earthquake. As well as London's account there were sixteen pages of pictures.

Under Hapgood's guidance, Collier's Weekly became involved in what became known as muckraking journalism. The most important of these writers who contributed to the journal during this period included Ida Tarbell, C. P. Connolly, Samuel Hopkins Adams and Ray Stannard Baker. Campaigns instigated by Norman Hapgood involved the direct election of senators, reform of the child labour laws, slum clearance and votes for women. In April 1905, an article by Upton Sinclair, Is Chicago Meat Clean, helped to persuade the Senate to pass the Pure Food and Drugs Act (1906) and the Meat Inspection Act (1906).

In October, 1905, Samuel Hopkins Adams began a series of eleven articles The Great American Fraud in Collier's Weekly. Adams analyzed the contents of some of the country's most popular medicines. He argued that many of the companies producing these medicines were making false claims about their products. Adams went on to point out that is some cases, these medicines were actually damaging the health of those people using them. The Great American Fraud had a tremendous impact on public opinion and resulted in the passing of the Pure Food and Drugs Act (1906).

The passing of the Pure Food and Drugs Act (1906) and the Meat Inspection Act (1906) helped to establish Collier's Weekly as an agency of social reform. When attempts by various companies to sue Peter Collier ended in failure, other magazines became involved in what Theodore Roosevelt unkindly described as muckraking journalism.

Norman Hapgood left for Harper's Weekly in 1912. Robert Collier, son of the founder, became the new editor. Circulation continued to grow and by 1917 circulation had reached a million. During this period Collier's Weekley began to employ top illustrators such as Will Bradley, Sam Berman, Joseph Leyendecker and Maxfield Parrish.

By the late 1920s Collier's Weekly began to concentrate on the serialization of novels. Produced in about ten parts, the magazine ran two novels at a time. Non-fiction was also serialized, including an account of the First World War by Winston Churchill. In the 1930s Churchill was a regular contributor to Collier's but this came to an end in 1938 when he became a minister in the British government.

During the Second World War the circulation of Collier's had reached 2,500,000. One of the reasons for the magazine's increased popularity was the art work of Arthur Szyk. The magazine also employed the services of outstanding writers such as Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway.

Circulation of Collier's began to fall after WWII and in August 1953 it changed from a weekly to a fortnightly magazine. Television was taking a toll on all of the weekly general interest magazines. Collier's continued to lose money and in January, 1957, the Crowell-Collier Publishing Company decided to close the magazine down.

Crowell Collier continued to publish the Harvard Classics, Junior Classics, and Colliers Encyclopedia but by the 1990’s, when Reach Entertainment acquired the remaining assets of the company, all publication had ceased.

In the late 1990’s, Reach resumed publications in the form of Colliers Audiobooks, utilizing Hollywood stars to read classic novels that had been made into movies. In 2001, Reach established The Colliers Music Treasury, acquiring over 1000 classic popular music recordings from the 20th centrury. In 2004, the venerable Colliers Magazine was reintroduced as a multimedia magazine delivered via the internet, combining the editorial flavor of the classic print Colliers Magazine with 21st century technology.

Concentration camp article
From the article: 'During World War II, when readership reached 2.5 million, Collier's published Jan Karski's "Polish Death Camp," one of the first articles about concentration camps.' This is an important piece of information, but a specific year would be even better. Unfortunately, Google doesn't seem to give any leads. Does anyone have this info available? --Trevor Burnham 05:05, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

 * Trevor: I've added that information to the article. Pepso 09:49, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Should we delete the "Revival" stuff?
The revival of Collier's magazine, which is front and center in this article, really had very little to do with the original magazine. Actually, nothing at all except for using the same name. The person who "bought the trademark" to relaunch the magazine didn't purchase it from the original owners. The name had been expired for years, and then someone else came and registered it as a squatter. They sold it at an auction. I'm conflicted, but I think the supposed "relaunch" should be deleted entirely from this article. Thoughts?

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The Simpsons
Mr Burns thought Homer was from Colliers because he's so old.

title: Talk:Collier's


text:
User talk:Jahalme

Hello "Jahalme" and welcome to Wikipedia. A few tips for you:

 * Peruse Welcome, newcomers and associated pages, such as
 * How to edit a page
 * How to write a great article
 * Naming conventions
 * Manual of Style
 * You can experiment in the Sandbox.
 * Sign talk page entries with ~, which is automatically converted to a name and date.
 * If you have any questions, see Help, or you can a question to the village pump.
 * I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian -- Infrogmation 15:44, 19 May 2004 (UTC)

Hello! Excelent job on the MR2 article, and welcome to Wikipedia! PlatinumX 07:31, 2004 May 20 (UTC)

Images
Hello Jahalme- I realize your last edits were in September of last year, but hopefully you'll find this.

Can you update the source information on the Toyota MR2 photos you uploaded (Image:Toyota MR2 SW20 rear.jpg and Image:Toyota MR2 SW20 front.jpg)? Right now, they don't have a license attached.

They're fantastic pictures and I'd love to keep them in the article, but having known-free images comes before having good-looking images.

Thanks! --Milkmandan 23:00, 2005 Apr 13 (UTC)

title: User talk:Jahalme


text:
John Franklin Enders

John Franklin Enders (February 10, 1897 – September 8, 1985) was an American biomedical scientist and Nobel Laureate. Enders has been called "The Father of Modern Vaccines."

Life and education
Enders was born in West Hartford, Connecticut on February 10, 1897. His father, John Ostrom Enders, was CEO of the Hartford National Bank and left him a fortune of $19 million upon his death. He attended the Noah Webster School in Hartford, and St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire. After attending Yale University a short time, he joined the United States Army Air Corps in 1918 as a flight instructor and a lieutenant.

After returning from World War I, he graduated from Yale, where he was a member of Scroll and Key as well as Delta Kappa Epsilon. He went into real estate in 1922, and tried several careers before choosing the biomedical field with a focus on infectious diseases, gaining a PhD at Harvard in 1930. He later joined the faculty at Children's Hospital Boston.

Enders died at his summer home in Waterford, Connecticut, aged 88, on 8 September 1985. His wife died in 2000.

Biomedical career
In 1949, Enders, Thomas Huckle Weller, and Frederick Chapman Robbins reported successful in vitro culture of an animal virus—poliovirus. The three received the 1954 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discovery of the ability of poliomyelitis viruses to grow in cultures of various types of tissue".

Meanwhile, Jonas Salk applied the Enders-Weller-Robbins technique to produce large quantities of poliovirus, and then developed a polio vaccine in 1952. Upon the 1954 polio vaccine field trial, whose success Salk announced on the radio, Salk became a public hero but failed to credit the many other researchers that his effort rode upon, and was somewhat shunned by America's scientific establishment.

In 1954, Enders and Thomas C. Peebles isolated measlesvirus from an 11-year-old boy, David Edmonston. Disappointed by polio vaccine's development and involvement in some cases of polio and death—what Enders attributed to Salk's technique—Enders began development of measles vaccine. In October 1960, an Enders team began trials on 1,500 mentally retarded children in New York City and on 4,000 children in Nigeria. Refusing credit for merely himself when The New York Times announced the measles vaccine effective on September 17, 1961, Enders wrote to the newspaper to acknowledge the work of various colleagues and the collaborative nature of the research. In 1963, a deactivated measles vaccine and an attenuated measles vaccine were introduced by Pfizer and Merck & Co., respectively.

He continued to work in virology research till the late 1970s and retired from the laboratory at the age of 80.

Honors

 * 1946: Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
 * 1953: Member of the American Philosophical Society
 * 1954: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (together with Frederick Chapman Robbins and Thomas Huckle Weller)
 * 1954: Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research
 * 1955: Kyle Award from the U.S. Public Health Service
 * 1955: Member of the American Philosophical Society
 * 1958: inducted into the Polio Hall of Fame
 * 1960: Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh
 * 1962: Robert Koch Prize
 * 1963: Presidential Medal of Freedom
 * 1963: Science Achievement Award from the American Medical Association
 * 1967: Foreign Member, The Royal Society

Enders also held honorary doctoral degrees from 13 universities.

title: John Franklin Enders


text:
Shrunken head

A shrunken head is a severed and specially-prepared human head often decreased to many times smaller than typical size  that is used for trophy, ritual, trade, or other purposes.

Headhunting is believed to have occurred in many regions of the world since time immemorial, but the practice of headshrinking per se has only been documented in the northwestern region of the Amazon rainforest. Jivaroan peoples, which includes the Shuar, Achuar, Huambisa and Aguaruna tribes from Ecuador and Peru, are known to keep shrunken human heads.

Shuar people call a shrunken head a tsantsa, also transliterated tzantza. Many tribe leaders would display their heads to scare enemies.

Shrunken heads are known for their mandibular prognathism, facial distortion, and shrinkage of the lateral sides of the forehead; these are artifacts of the shrinking process. Among the Shuar and Achuar, the reduction of the heads was followed by a series of feasts centered on important rituals.

Technique

The process of creating a shrunken head begins with removing the skull from the neck. An incision is made on the back of the ear and all the skin and flesh is removed from the cranium. Red seeds are placed underneath the nostrils and the lips are sewn shut. The mouth is held together with three palm pins. Fat from the flesh of the head is removed. Then a wooden ball is placed under the flesh to keep the form. The flesh is then boiled in water that has been saturated with a number of herbs containing tannins. The head is then dried with hot rocks and sand while molding it to retain its human features. The skin is then rubbed with charcoal ash. Decorative beads may be added to the head.

In the head shrinking tradition, it is believed that coating the skin in ash keeps the muisak, or avenging soul, from seeping out.

Significance
The practice of preparing shrunken heads originally had religious significance; shrinking the head of an enemy was believed to harness the spirit of that enemy and compel him to serve the shrinker. It was said to prevent the soul from avenging his death.

Shuar believed in the existence of three fundamental spirits:
 * Wakani – innate to humans thus surviving their death.
 * Arutam – literally "vision" or "power", protects humans from a violent death.
 * Muisak – vengeful spirit, which surfaces when a person carrying an Arutam spirit is murdered.

To block a Muisak spirit from using its powers, they severed their enemies' heads and shrank them. The process also served as a way of warning their enemies. Despite these precautions, the owner of the trophy did not keep it for long. Many heads were later used in religious ceremonies and feasts that celebrated the victories of the tribe. Accounts vary as to whether the heads were discarded or stored.

Trade
When Westerners created an economic incentive for shrunken heads there was a sharp increase in the rate of killings in an effort to supply tourists and collectors of ethnographic items. The terms 'headhunting' and 'headhunting parties' come from this practice.

Guns were usually what the Shuar acquired in exchange for their shrunken heads, the rate being one gun per head. But weapons were not the only items exchanged. Around 1910, shrunken heads were being sold by a curio shop in Lima for one Peruvian gold pound, equal in value to a British gold sovereign. In 1919, the price in Panama's curio shop for shrunken heads had risen to £5. By the 1930s, when heads were freely exchanged, a shrunken head could be purchased for about 25 U.S. dollars. This was stopped when the Peruvian and Ecuadorian governments cooperated to outlaw head trafficking.

Also encouraged by this trade, people in Colombia and Panama unconnected to the Jívaros began to make counterfeit tsantsas. They used corpses from morgues, or the heads of monkeys or sloths. Some used goatskin. Kate Duncan wrote in 2001 that "It has been estimated that about 80 percent of the tsantsas in private and museum hands are fraudulent", including almost all that are female or which include an entire torso rather than just a head.

Thor Heyerdahl recounts in The Kon-Tiki Expedition (1948) the various problems of getting into the Jívaro (Shuar) area in Ecuador to get balsa wood for his expedition raft. Local people would not guide his team into the jungle for fear of being killed and having their heads shrunk. In 1951 and 1952 sales of such items in London were being advertised in The Times, one example being priced at $250, a hundredfold appreciation since the early 20th century.

In 1999, the National Museum of the American Indian repatriated the authentic shrunken heads in its collection to Ecuador. Most other countries have also banned the trade. Currently, replica shrunken heads are manufactured as curios for the tourist trade. These are made from leather and animal hides formed to resemble the originals. In 2019 Mercer University repatriated a shrunken head from their collections crediting the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act as inspiration.

In 2020, Oxford University's Pitt Rivers Museum removed its collection of shrunken heads after an ethical review begun in 2017, as part of an effort to decolonize its collections and avoid stereotyping.

In popular culture

In the novel Moby-Dick, the character Queequeg sells shrunken heads and gives his last as a gift to the narrator, Ishmael, who subsequently sells it himself.

In 1955, Disneyland opened its Jungle Cruise ride. Until recently, the attraction featured a trader selling shrunken heads (three of his for one of yours).

In 1975, Whiting (a Milton Bradley company) released Vincent Price's Shrunken Head Apple Sculpture Kit.

In the 1946 movie The Devil's Mask, a crashed plane that had a shrunken head aboard is the only clue to a mystery involving a secret code.

The 1988 movie Beetlejuice featured a ghost of a hunter whose head had been shrunken. At the end of the movie, the title character suffers the same fate.

One of the North American television commercials for the 1990 video game Dr. Mario featured head shrinking, as well as a cover of the song Witch Doctor with slightly different lyrics.

In the 2004 film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Lenny Henry voices Dre Head, a Jamaican accented shrunken head on the magical Knight Bus. The same film features three more shrunken heads, voiced by Brian Bowles and Peter Serafinowicz, inside the wizard pub The Three Broomsticks.

Both Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007) feature shrunken heads.

title: Shrunken head


text:
American Mathematics Competitions

The American Mathematics Competitions (AMCs) are the first of a series of competitions in secondary school mathematics that determine the United States of America's team for the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO). The selection process takes place over the course of roughly five stages. At the last stage, the US selects six members to form the IMO team. The 1994 US IMO Team is the first of the only two teams ever to achieve a perfect score (all six members earned perfect marks), and is colloquially known as the "dream team".

There are three levels of AMCs:
 * the AMC 8, for students under the age of 14.5 and in grades 8 and below
 * the AMC 10, for students under the age of 17.5 and in grades 10 and below
 * the AMC 12, for students under the age of 19.5 and in grades 12 and below

Students who perform well on the AMC 10 or AMC 12 competitions are invited to participate in the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME). Students who perform exceptionally well on the AMC 12 and AIME are invited to the United States of America Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO), while students who perform exceptionally well on the AMC 10 and AIME are invited to United States of America Junior Mathematical Olympiad (USAJMO). Students who do exceptionally well on the USAMO (typically around 45 students based on score and grade level) and USAJMO (typically around the top 15 students) are invited to attend the Mathematical Olympiad Program (MOP).

American Mathematics Competitions is also the name of the organization, based in Washington, D.C., responsible for creating, distributing and coordinating the American Mathematics Competitions contests, which include the American Mathematics Contest, AIME, and USA(J)MO. The American Mathematics Competitions organization also conducts outreach to identify talent and strengthen problem-solving in middle and high school students.

History
The AMC contest series includes the American Mathematics Contest 8 (AMC 8) (formerly the American Junior High School Mathematics Examination) for students in grades 8 and below, begun in 1985; the American Mathematics Contest 10 (AMC 10), for students in grades 9 and 10, begun in 2000; the American Mathematics Contest 12 (AMC 12) (formerly the American High School Mathematics Examination) for students in grades 11 and 12, begun in 1950; the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME), begun in 1983; and the USA Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO), begun in 1972.

AMC 8
The AMC 8 is a 25 multiple-choice question, 40-minute competition designed for middle schoolers. No problems require the use of a calculator, and their use has been banned since 2008. The competition was previously held on a Thursday in November. However, after 2022, the competition has been held in January.

The AMC 8 is scored based on the number of questions answered correctly only. There is no penalty for getting a question wrong, and each question has equal value. Thus, a student who answers 23 questions correctly and 2 questions incorrectly receives a score of 23.

Rankings and awards
Ranking

Based on questions correct:
 * Distinguished Honor Roll: Top 1% (has ranged from 19–25)
 * Honor Roll: Top 5% (has ranged from 19-23)

Awards
 * A Certificate of Distinction is given to all students who receive a perfect score.
 * An AMC 8 Winner Pin is given to the student(s) in each school with the highest score.
 * The top three students for each school section will receive respectively a gold, silver, or bronze Certificate for Outstanding Achievement.
 * An AMC 8 Honor Roll Certificate is given to all high scoring students.
 * An AMC 8 Merit Certificate is given to high scoring students who are in 6th grade or below.

AMC 10 and AMC 12
The AMC 10 and AMC 12 are 25 question, 75-minute multiple choice competitions in secondary school mathematics containing problems which can be understood and solved with pre-calculus concepts. Calculators have not been allowed on the AMC 10/12 since 2008.

High scores on the AMC 10 or 12 can qualify the participant for the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME).

The competitions are scored based on the number of questions answered correctly and the number of questions left blank. A student receives 6 points for each question answered correctly, 1.5 points for each question left blank, and 0 points for incorrect answers. Thus, a student who answers 24 correctly, leaves 1 blank, and misses 0 gets $$24 \times 6 + 1.5 \times 1 = 145.5$$ points. The maximum possible score is $$25 \times 6 = 150$$ points; in 2020, the AMC 12 had a total of 18 perfect scores between its two administrations, and the AMC 10 also had 18.

From 1974 until 1999, the competition (then known as the American High School Math Examination, or AHSME) had 30 questions and was 90 minutes long, scoring 5 points for correct answers. Originally during this time, 1 point was awarded for leaving an answer blank, however, it was changed in the late 1980s to 2 points. When the competition was shortened as part of the 2000 rebranding from AHSME to AMC, the value of a correct answer was increased to 6 points and the number of questions reduced to 25 (keeping 150 as a perfect score). In 2001, the score of a blank was increased to 2.5 to penalize guessing. The 2007 competitions were the first with only 1.5 points awarded for a blank, to discourage students from leaving a large number of questions blank in order to assure qualification for the AIME. For example, prior to this change, on the AMC 12, a student could advance with only 11 correct answers, presuming the remaining questions were left blank. After the change, a student must answer 14 questions correctly to reach 100 points.

The competitions have historically overlapped to an extent, with the medium-hard AMC 10 questions usually being the same as the medium-easy ones on the AMC 12. However, this trend has diverged recently, and questions that are in both the AMC 10 and 12 are in increasingly similar positions. Problem 18 on the 2022 AMC 10A was the same as problem 18 on the 2022 AMC 12A. Since 2002, two administrations have been scheduled, so as to avoid conflicts with school breaks. Students are eligible to compete in an A competition and a B competition, and may even take the AMC 10-A and the AMC 12-B, though they may not take both the AMC 10 and AMC 12 from the same date. If a student participates in both competitions, they may use either score towards qualification to the AIME or USAMO/USAJMO. In 2021, the competition format was changed to occur in the Fall instead of the Spring.

title: American Mathematics Competitions


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Dead man's hand

The makeup of poker's dead man's hand has varied through the years. Currently, it is described as a two-pair poker hand consisting of the black aces and black eights. The pair of aces and eights, along with an unknown hole card, were reportedly held by Old West folk hero, lawman, and gunfighter Wild Bill Hickok when he was murdered while playing a game. No contemporaneous source, however, records the exact cards he held when killed. Author Frank Wilstach's 1926 book, Wild Bill Hickok: The Prince of Pistoleers, led to the popular modern held conception of the poker hand's contents.

Use of the phrase
The expression, "dead man's hand", appears to have had some currency in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, although no one connected it to Hickok until the 1920s. The earliest detailed reference to it was 1886, where it was described as a "full house consisting of three jacks and a pair of tens". Jacks and sevens are called the dead man's hand in the 1903 Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences. The 1907 edition of Hoyle's Games refers to the hand as jacks and eights.

Hickok's hand
What is currently considered the dead man's hand card combination received its notoriety from a legend that it was the five-card stud or five-card draw hand, held by Wild Bill Hickok when he was shot in the back of the head by Jack McCall on August 2, 1876, in Nuttal & Mann's Saloon, Deadwood, Dakota Territory. Hickok's final hand purportedly included the aces and eights of both black suits.

According to a book by Western historian Carl W. Breihan, the cards were retrieved from the floor by a man named Neil Christy, who then passed them on to his son. The son, in turn, told Mr. Breihan of the composition of the hand. "Here is an exact identity of these cards as told to me by Christy's son: the ace of diamonds with a heel mark on it; the ace of clubs; the two black eights, clubs and spades, and the queen of hearts with a small drop of Hickok's blood on it", though nothing of the sort was reported at the time immediately following the shooting.

Hickok biographer Joseph Rosa wrote about the make-up of the hand: "The accepted version is that the cards were the ace of spades, the ace of clubs, two black eights, and the queen of clubs as the 'kicker'." Rosa, however, said that no contemporaneous source can be found for this exact hand. The solidification in gamers' parlance of the dead man's hand as two pairs, black aces and eights, did not come about until after the 1926 publication of Wilstach's book—50 years after Hickok's death.

Legacy
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Homicide Division, the Los Angeles Police Department CRASH squad, and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System all use some variation of the aces and eights dead man's hand in their insignia. The Deadwood Police Department uses it as a patch on their uniforms.

title: Dead man's hand


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Wild Bill

Wild Bill may refer to:

Places

 * Wild Bill Lake, a lake in Montana

People

 * Wild Bill Hickok (1837–1876), folk hero of the American Old West
 * William L. Carlisle (1890–1964), train robber of the American West
 * Wild Bill Claiborne (1872–1933), American college football player
 * Bill Clinton, former United States president referred to by Donald Trump as "Wild Bill"
 * William Cutolo (1949–1999), New York mobster
 * Wild Bill Davis (1918–1995), jazz organist
 * Bill Davison (1906–1989), jazz cornet player
 * William Edward Donovan (1876–1923), American professional baseball pitcher and manager
 * William Joseph Donovan (1883–1959), American soldier, lawyer, and intelligence officer, founder of the precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency
 * William O. Douglas (1898–1980), Supreme Court Justice
 * Wild Bill Elliott (1904–1965), American actor who specialized in Western film roles
 * Bill Elliott (born 1955), 1988 NASCAR Winston Cup Series Champion and twice Daytona 500 winner
 * Wild Bill Gelbke (born 1938), American engineer and motorcycle designer
 * William Guarnere (1923–2014), American soldier in the 101st Airborne during World War II, made famous by the mini-series Band of Brothers
 * Wild Bill Hagy (1939–2007), American baseball fan who led cheers for the Baltimore Orioles
 * Bill Hallahan (1902–1981), American baseball pitcher
 * William Adams Wild Bill Hickman (1815–1883), frontiersman, ex-Mormon, and purported murderer
 * Bill Hickok (American football) (1874–1933), American football player and businessman
 * William Dathan Holbert (born 1979), American serial killer
 * William Hopson (died 1928), American pilot
 * Bill Hunter (ice hockey) (1920–2002), Canadian hockey player, general manager and coach
 * Bill Hutchison (baseball) (1859–1926), American baseball pitcher
 * Wild Bill Irwin (born 1954), American professional wrestler
 * William Karlsson (born 1993), Swedish professional ice hockey player
 * William Kocay, Canadian professor and graph theorist
 * William Langer (1886–1959), governor and senator from North Dakota
 * Bill Longley (gunfighter) (1851–1878), outlaw of the old American West
 * Wild Bill Longson (1906–1982), American professional wrestler
 * Bill Lovett (c. 1894–1923), Irish-American gangster in New York
 * Wild Bill Luhrsen (1884–1973), American baseball pitcher
 * Wild Bill Moore (1918–1983), American R&B and jazz saxophone player
 * Wild Bill Shrewsberry (born 1938), American drag racer
 * Bill Stealey (born 1947), retired U.S. Air Force pilot and computer game producer
 * Wild Bill Widner (1867–1908), American baseball pitcher
 * Billy Wiles (born 1971), an American professional wrestler

Arts, entertainment, and media

 * Wild Bill (G.I. Joe), a fictional character in the G.I. Joe universe
 * Wild Bill (1995 film), about the legendary gunfighter
 * Wild Bill (2011 film), directorial debut of English actor Dexter Fletcher
 * Wild Bill (TV series), a 2019 ITV television series

title: Wild Bill


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Pranab Mukherjee

Pranab Mukherjee (11 December 1935 – 31 August 2020) was an Indian politician who served as the 13th president of India from 2012 until 2017. He was the first person from West Bengal to hold the post of President of India. In a political career spanning five decades, Mukherjee was a senior leader in the Indian National Congress and occupied several ministerial portfolios in the Government of India. Prior to his election as President, Mukherjee was Finance Minister from 2009 to 2012. He was awarded India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 2019, by his successor as president, Ram Nath Kovind.

Mukherjee got his break in politics in 1969 when the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi helped him get elected to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Parliament of India, on a Congress ticket. Following a meteoric rise, he became one of Gandhi's most trusted lieutenants and a minister in her cabinet in 1973. Mukherjee's service in a number of ministerial capacities culminated in his first stint as Finance Minister of India in 1982–84. He was also the Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha from 1980 to 1985.

Mukherjee was sidelined from Congress during the premiership of Rajiv Gandhi. Mukherjee had viewed himself and not the inexperienced Rajiv, as the rightful successor to Indira following her assassination in 1984. Mukherjee lost out in the ensuing power struggle. He formed his own party, the Rashtriya Samajwadi Congress, which merged with Congress in 1989 after reaching a consensus with Rajiv Gandhi. After Rajiv Gandhi's assassination in 1991, Mukherjee's political career was revived when Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao appointed him Planning Commission head in 1991 and foreign minister in 1995. Following this, as an elder statesman of Congress, Mukherjee was the principal architect of Sonia Gandhi's ascent to the party's presidency in 1998.

When the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) came to power in 2004, Mukherjee won a Lok Sabha (the popularly elected lower house of Parliament) seat for the first time. From then until his resignation in 2012, he held a number of key cabinet portfolios in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government – Defence (2004–06), External Affairs (2006–09), and Finance (2009–12) – apart from heading several Groups of Ministers (GoMs) and being Leader of the House in the Lok Sabha. After securing the UPA's nomination for the country's presidency in July 2012, Mukherjee comfortably defeated P. A. Sangma of NDA in the 2012 Indian presidential election, winning 70 per cent of the electoral-college vote.

In 2017, Mukherjee decided not to run for re-election and to retire from politics after leaving the presidency due to "health complications relating to old age." His term expired on 25 July 2017. He was succeeded as president by Ram Nath Kovind. In June 2018, Mukherjee became the first former President of India to address a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) event.

Early life and education
Pranab Mukherjee was born on 11 December 1935 during the British Colonial rule, into a Bengali Brahmin family in Mirati, a village in the Bengal Presidency (now in Birbhum district, West Bengal). His father, Kamada Kinkar Mukherjee, was active participant in the Indian independence movement and was a member of the West Bengal Legislative Council between 1952 and 1964 as a representative of the Indian National Congress; he was also a member of AICC. His mother was Rajlakshmi Mukherjee. He had two siblings: older sister Annapurna Banarjee (1928–2020) and older brother Piyush Mukherjee (1931–2017).

Mukherjee attended Suri Vidyasagar College in Suri (Birbhum), which was then affiliated to the University of Calcutta. He subsequently earned an MA degree in political science and history and an LL.B. degree, both from the University of Calcutta

He was an upper-division Clerk in the Office of the Deputy Accountant-General (Post and Telegraph) in Calcutta. In 1963, he became a lecturer (Assistant Professor) of Political Science at Vidyanagar College, affiliated to the University of Calcutta and he also worked as a journalist at Desher Dak (Call of the Motherland) before entering politics.

Political career
Mukherjee started his political career in 1967 as a founding member of the Bangla Congress. Ahead of the 1967 election, he played a crucial role in forging the United Front alliance against the Indian National Congress. In 1969, he managed the successful Midnapore by-election campaign of an independent candidate, V. K. Krishna Menon. He became a member of the Rajya Sabha (the upper house of Indian parliament) in July 1969 on a Bangla Congress ticket. Mukherjee soon became the medium of exchanging confidential notes between Indira Gandhi and Ajoy Mukherjee. In 1972, Indira Gandhi recruited him to the Indian National Congress along with merging the Bangla Congress into the party. Mukherjee was re-elected to the house in 1975, 1981, 1993, and 1999.

He became a Gandhi loyalist and was often described as her "man for all seasons." Mukherjee's rise was rapid in the early phase of his career and he was appointed Union Deputy Minister of Industrial Development in Indira Gandhi's cabinet in 1973. He was active in the Indian cabinet during the controversial Internal Emergency of 1975–77. Ruling Congress politicians of the day including Mukherjee were accused of using extra-constitutional powers to "wreck established norms and rules of governance". Following Congress's defeat in the 1977 general elections, the newly formed Janata government-appointed Shah Commission indicted Mukherjee; however, the commission was itself indicted in 1979 for stepping "outside its jurisdiction". Mukherjee emerged unscathed and rose through a series of cabinet posts to become Finance Minister from 1982 to 1984.

His term was noted for his work in improving the finances of the government, which enabled Gandhi to score a political point by returning the last instalment of India's first IMF loan. As Finance Minister, Mukherjee signed the letter appointing Manmohan Singh as Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.

In 1979, Mukherjee became Deputy Leader of the INC in the Rajya Sabha, and in 1980, he was appointed Leader of the House. He was considered the top-ranking Indian cabinet minister and he presided over cabinet meetings in the absence of the Prime Minister.

Mukherjee was sidelined from the INC following the assassination of Indira Gandhi. Although he was much more experienced in politics than Indira's son, Rajiv Gandhi, it was Rajiv who gained control. Mukherjee lost his position in the cabinet and was sent to manage the regional West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee. He was considered to be Indira's likely successor and, siding with those within his party who aligned themselves against Rajiv Gandhi, Mukherjee was sidelined and eventually expelled from the mainstream.

In 1986, Mukherjee founded another party, the Rashtriya Samajwadi Congress (RSC), in West Bengal. The RSC and INC merged three years later after a compromise was reached with Rajiv Gandhi. The RSC had fared terribly in the 1987 Assembly polls in West Bengal. Many analysts, over the years, have attributed the muting of Mukherjee's political aspirations as the supreme leader to his inability to emerge as a magnetic mass leader. On later being asked whether he ever desired to become Prime Minister, Mukherjee replied, "7 RCR was never my destination." Zee News noted: "The statement assumes heft in the light of the longstanding speculation that Mukherjee, as one of the doyens of Congress, always nursed an ambition to occupy the top executive post".

Mukherjee's political career revived following the Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, when P. V. Narasimha Rao chose to appoint him as deputy chairman of the Indian Planning Commission and subsequently as a union cabinet minister. He served as External Affairs Minister from 1995 to 1996 in Rao's cabinet.

Mukherjee was considered to be a Gandhi family loyalist and the principal architect of Sonia Gandhi's entry into politics, a mentoring responsibility he was believed to have continued shouldering. He was made General Secretary of the AICC in 1998–99 after Sonia Gandhi became Congress President. Mukherjee was made President of the West Bengal Congress in 2000 and held the position until his resignation in 2008. He had earlier held the position in 1985.

Mukherjee became Leader of the House in the Lok Sabha in 2004. He contested and won a Lok Sabha seat from Jangipur in West Bengal, which he would later retain in 2009. It was speculated in 2004 that Mukherjee would be made Prime Minister of India after Sonia Gandhi declined to become Prime Minister; however, Manmohan Singh was chosen instead.

Mukherjee was briefly considered for the post of the largely ceremonial Indian presidency in 2007, but his name was subsequently dropped after his contribution to the Union Cabinet was considered practically indispensable.

He held many important posts in the Manmohan Singh government: He had the distinction of being the minister for various high-profile ministries, including Defence, Finance, and External Affairs. Apart from being Leader of the House in the Lok Sabha and Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee President, he also headed the Congress Parliamentary Party and the Congress Legislative Party, which consist of all the Congress MP's and MLA's in the country.

Mukherjee ended his affiliation with the Indian National Congress and retired from active political life following his election as president in 2012. The Economic Times had noted: "[the] decades of activity in critical all-rounder roles make [Mukherjee's] exit both a structural and generation shift. With him, the last of the Congress triumvirate – along with Rao and R. Venkataraman – who formed the core team of Indira/Rajiv regimes bows out. While Rao became PM, Pranab's political marathon too ends where Venkataraman's did, at the Rashtrapati Bhavan".

Political party role
Mukherjee was "very well respected within the party social circles". Media accounts describe him as having "a reputation as a number-crunching politician with a phenomenal memory and an unerring survival instinct".

He became a member of the Congress Working Committee on 27 January 1978. He also became a member of the Central Parliamentary Board of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) that year. Mukherjee briefly held the position of treasurer of the AICC and the Congress party in 1978.

He was appointed chairman of the Campaign Committee of the AICC for conducting National Elections to Parliament in 1984, 1991, 1996, and 1998. He was chairman of the Central Election Coordination Committee of the AICC from 28 June 1999 to 2012. He was appointed to the Central Election Committee on 12 December 2001. Mukherjee was appointed General Secretary of the AICC in 1998. In 1997, he was voted Outstanding Parliamentarian by the Indian Parliamentary Group.

After Sonia Gandhi reluctantly agreed to join politics, Mukherjee was one of her mentors, guiding her through difficult situations with examples of how her mother-in-law, Indira Gandhi, would have done things. His talents were on display during the negotiations for the Patents Amendment Bill in early 2005. Congress was committed to passing an IP bill, but their allies in the United Progressive Alliance from the Left front had a long tradition of opposing some of the monopoly aspects of intellectual property. Mukherjee, as Defence Minister, was not formally involved but was roped in for his negotiation skills. He drew on many old allies including the CPI-M leader Jyoti Basu (former Chief Minister of West Bengal), and formed new intermediary positions, which included product patents. Then, he had to convince his own colleagues, including commerce minister Kamal Nath, who at one point said..."An imperfect legislation is better than no legislation". Finally, on 23 March 2005, the bill was approved.

India Today wrote that Mukherjee's role in "skillfully pushing through the historic 123 Agreement and treaty with the Nuclear Suppliers Group" may have saved the UPA-II government from the 2008 motion of no confidence.

Mukherjee played a crucial role in steering the Cabinet pre-Lok Sabha elections when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh underwent a heart bypass surgery in 2008–09 by taking additional charges as chairman of the Cabinet Committee of Political Affairs and Union Minister in the Finance Ministry despite already being Union Minister of External Affairs.

Mukherjee's political skills and long experience in government have also led him to head a large number of committees of ministers in the government. At the time of his resignation, on being nominated as the UPA's presidential candidate, Mukherjee was heading several Groups of Ministers (GoMs) and Empowered Groups of Ministers (EGoMs).

Minister of Defence
Manmohan Singh appointed Mukherjee as the Minister of Defence of India when the Congress Party once again came to power in 2004. Mukherjee held the post until 2006. He expanded cooperation with the United States during his tenure. The Times of India reported on the United States diplomatic cables leak release and noted how the U.S. was full of praise for the "uniformed leadership" of Indian armed forces. In June 2005, Mukherjee inked the ten-year Indo-US Defence Framework deal.

Despite increasing co-operation with the United States, Mukherjee maintained that Russia would remain India's 'topmost' defence partner. He asserted that "Russia has been and will remain India's largest defence partner in the years to come" while inaugurating the 5th session of the Indo-Russian Inter-Governmental Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation (IRIGC-MTC) in Moscow in 2005.

Russia and India held their first joint anti-terror war games in Rajasthan in October 2005, during which Mukherjee and Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov narrowly escaped injury after a heavy mortar landed several metres from their platform. The Russian ministry subsequently declared its hopes to follow up joint military exercises in India with further joint exercises on Russian territory.

Minister of External Affairs

Mukherjee was appointed External Affairs Minister of India in 1995. Under his leadership, India was made "Full Dialogue Partner" of ASEAN as part of the Look East foreign policy initiated by Narasimha Rao. Mukherjee left the position in 1996.

His second term began in 2006. He oversaw the successful signing of the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Agreement with the U.S. government and then with the Nuclear Suppliers Group, allowing India to participate in civilian nuclear trade in spite of not having signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Mukherjee played a crucial role in mobilising world opinion against Pakistan after the 2008 Mumbai attacks. He left the position a year later to take over the Finance Ministry of India.

When asked what legacy he wanted to leave behind as Foreign Minister of India, Mukherjee replied, "As the [man] who prepared Indian diplomacy to address the challenges of a more globalised, interdependent and uncertain world".

Minister of Commerce and Industry
Mukherjee thrice served as Commerce Minister of India. His first stints were in the Indira Gandhi government from 1980 to 1982 and again in 1984. His third stint in the 1990s saw him contribute significantly to the negotiations which led to the establishment of the World Trade Organization.

Minister of Finance

Mukherjee's first stint as the Finance Minister of India was during the Indira Gandhi government in 1982. He presented his first annual budget in 1982–83. His first term was noted for the work he did to improve the finances of the government and for successfully returning the last instalment of India's first IMF loan. Mukherjee signed the letter appointing Manmohan Singh as the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India in 1982. He was accused of patronage practices in the Ambani–Wadia industrial feuds.

Mukherjee was credited with being an early reformer of the Indian economy. India Today wrote: "Operation Forward, which [Mukherjee] and then Industries Minister Charanjit Chanana launched in the early 1980s, started the liberalisation process that flowered under Rao and Manmohan Singh". A Left-wing magazine once commented that "socialism did not grow out of the pipe Mukherjee smoked".

Mukherjee was removed from his position as Finance Minister by Rajiv Gandhi in 1984. Gandhi had wished to bring in his own team of staff to govern India. Mukherjee was replaced even though he was rated as the best Finance Minister in the World that year according to a survey by Euromoney magazine.

He returned to handling the finances of India during the premiership of Narasimha Rao, after being appointed Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission. During Mukherjee's tenure of 1991 to 1996, Manmohan Singh as Finance Minister oversaw many economic reforms to end the Licence Raj system and help open the Indian economy.

Mukherjee once again became the Finance Minister of India in 2009. He presented the annual budgets in 2009, 2010, and 2011. The 2010–11 budget included the country's first explicit target to cut public debt as a proportion of the GDP and Mukherjee targeted a budget deficit reduction of 4.1% of the GDP in the fiscal year 2012–13, from 6.5% in 2008–09.

He implemented many tax reforms, including scrapping the Fringe Benefits Tax and the Commodities Transaction Tax. He implemented the Goods and Services Tax during his tenure. These reforms were well received by major corporate executives and economists. The introduction of retrospective taxation, however, has been criticised by some economists.

Mukherjee expanded funding for several social sector schemes including the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. He also supported budget increases for improving literacy and health care. He expanded infrastructure programmes such as the National Highway Development Programme. Electricity coverage was also expanded during his tenure. Mukherjee also reaffirmed his commitment to the principle of fiscal prudence as some economists expressed concern about the rising fiscal deficits during his tenure, the highest since 1991. Mukherjee declared the expansion in government spending was only temporary.

In 2010, he was awarded "Finance Minister of the Year for Asia" by Emerging Markets, the daily newspaper of record for the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Mukherjee was praised for "the confidence [he] has inspired in key stakeholders, by virtue of his fuel price reforms, fiscal transparency and inclusive growth strategies". The Banker also recognised him as "Finance Minister of the Year."

Mukherjee's final years at the finance ministry were not considered a success. The NDTV, upon his resignation in June 2012, wrote: "There [had] been a clamour from many quarters for a change in the Finance Ministry, with Mr Mukherjee having faced flak for several decisions where politics seemed to overwhelm economic imperatives".

Other positions
Mukherjee was chairman of the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata. He also held the following posts: chairman and president of the Rabindra Bharati University and the Nikhil Bharat Banga Sahitya Sammelan; trustee of the Bangiya Sahitya Parishad and the Bidhan Memorial Trust. He also served on the Planning Board of the Asiatic Society.

Presidential election

Mukherjee was nominated as the presidential candidate of the United Progressive Alliance on 15 June 2012 after considerable political intrigue. The elections were scheduled to be conducted on 19 July 2012 and the results were expected to be announced on 22 July 2012. The nominee of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was P. A. Sangma. To file his nomination for the presidential poll on 28 June, Mukherjee resigned from the government on 26 June 2012.

[[File:Justice S.H. Kapadia administering the oath of the office of the President of India to Shri Pranab Mukherjee at a swearing-in ceremony in the central hall of Parliament, in New Delhi on July 25, 2012.jpg|thumb|Chief Justice [[S. H. Kapadia]] administering the oath of the office of the President of India to Pranab Mukherjee at a swearing-in ceremony in the central hall of Parliament, in New Delhi on 25 July 2012

]] In the election, Mukherjee received 7,13,763 votes, while Sangma had 3,15,987. In his victory speech, delivered outside his residence before the results were officially announced, he said: "I would like to express my deep gratitude to all of you who are waiting. The figure has crossed 7lakhs, only one state remains. The final figure will come from the returning officer. I would like to thank the people of India for electing me to this high office. The enthusiasm, the warmth of the people was remarkable. I have received much more from the people of this country, from the Parliament, than I have given. Now I have been entrusted with the responsibility of protecting and defending the constitution as President. I will try and justify the trust of the people. I would like to reciprocate the congratulation Shri Purno Sangma has extended."

Mukherjee was sworn in by the Chief Justice of India on 25 July 2012, becoming the first Bengali to hold the post of President of India. After being administered the oath of office, he stated that we are in the midst of a fourth world war of terror (the third was the Cold war) and what minutes of peace can achieve cannot be achieved in many years of war.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh both congratulated Mukherjee on his election as president. Former Communist leader Somnath Chatterjee termed Mukherjee as one of "the best parliamentarians and statesmen of India" and said the country "has got the most able man for the top job". Opposition leader Sharad Yadav declared "the nation needed a president like Pranab Mukherjee". Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit commented and said Mukherjee will be "one of the wisest presidents". She further marvelled at the fact that parties in the opposition ranks supported Mukherjee. "Even the NDA broke up and wanted to vote for the president to be Pranab Mukherjee". The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was reportedly "shocked" and "upset" at the cross-voting for Mukherjee by its legislative members. However, BJP party president Nitin Gadkari congratulated Mukherjee and said "I extend my hearty congratulations to Pranab Mukherjee on his election today as the new President of India". Gadkari further declared "I am sure that the country will make further development and progress. I wish him all success and a bright future". Zee News noted: "What is striking about [Mukherjee] is that after more than four decades in public life, the Opposition had no ammunition against him after he was declared UPA's choice for President. In spite of Team Anna making some noise about him being involved in some corruption cases, it has been more or less an easy ride for Pranab to Raisina Hill. Once when Sonia Gandhi announced his name, most of the allies and the Opposition came on board. Whereas, NDA partner JD(U) saw no merit in opposing him, one of the bitter critics of the Congress Shiv Sena too toed the line a little too easily. This support was not for Congress but for [Mukherjee]".

President of India
Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2013 was promulgated by Pranab Mukherjee on 3February 2013, providing for the amendment of the Indian Penal Code, Indian Evidence Act, and the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 on laws related to sexual offences. As of July 2015, President Mukherjee had rejected 24 mercy pleas including those of Yakub Memon, Ajmal Kasab, and Afzal Guru. Pranab Mukherjee became first President of India to reply all the mercy petitions in his term for the death row inmates and also replying the petitions of former presidents.

In January 2017, Mukherjee announced that he would not contest the 2017 Presidential elections, citing "advanced age and failing health".

Personal life
Pranab Mukherjee married Suvra Mukherjee on 13 July 1957. Suvra Mukherjee was born at Narail, Bengal Presidency, Present Bangladesh. She moved to Kolkata while she was 10 and married Pranab in 1957. The couple had two sons and a daughter. Suvra died on 18 August 2015, aged 74, of heart failure, while Mukherjee was still in office. Their elder son, Abhijit Mukherjee, was a Congress MP from Jangipur, West Bengal, until 2019. He was elected in a by-election after his father vacated the seat. Before his election to the Lok Sabha, Abhijit was an MLA from Nalhati in Birbhum.

Mukherjee was inspired by Deng Xiaoping and quoted him quite frequently. His hobbies were reading, gardening, and music.

His daughter Sharmistha Mukherjee is a Kathak dancer and politician of the Indian National Congress.

Mukherjee celebrated the Durga Puja at his ancestral home in Mirati village. He used to make it a point to be at Mirati village every year to take part in the four-day rituals, the puja having a "social dimension" for him. "I want to avail this opportunity to be with the people of my area", Mukherjee said during a puja ceremony on 4October 2011.

Illness and death
During the COVID-19 pandemic, on 10 August 2020, Mukherjee announced on Twitter that he had tested positive for COVID-19 prior to a surgery to remove a blood clot in his brain. He was admitted to the hospital after accidentally slipping and falling in his bathroom. He was on ventilator support and in critical condition at the Army's Research and Referral (R&R) hospital in Delhi.

On 13 August, the hospital reported that Mukherjee was in a deep coma after he underwent brain surgery; however, his vital parameters remained stable. On 19 August, the R&R said that Mukherjee's health condition had declined as he had developed a lung infection. On 2020.08.25, his renal parameters became "slightly deranged", with the condition worsening days later.

Mukherjee died on 31 August 2020, aged 84, which was confirmed by his son Abhijit Mukherjee via Twitter. His death came after the attending hospital confirmed that his health had deteriorated early that day, stating that he had been in septic shock since a day earlier, which was caused by his lung infection.

Condolences poured in immediately from citizens and political parties of both India and other nations. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu, Home Minister Amit Shah, and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi conveyed their condolences via Twitter. The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, the President of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, the President of the Maldives, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, the Prime Minister of Bhutan, Lotay Tshering, then-Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa, and then-Prime Minister of Nepal, K. P. Sharma Oli, were among foreign leaders who paid their respects. Sports players and actors from the country also voiced their sorrow.

The Government of India announced a seven-day period of state mourning between 31 August to 6 September, whereby the national flag would fly at half mast on all buildings wherever it is flown regularly. The West Bengal state government declared a closure of state-run offices for the following day as a mark of respect.

Mukherjee's funeral was held the following day, on 1 September at the Lodhi Road crematorium, with full state honours. His body was brought to the crematorium in a van instead of gun carriage due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in the country. His ashes were immersed into the Ganges river in Haridwar.

In popular culture
Mukherjee appeared in the Indian mock court television talk show Aap Ki Adalat (lit. 'Your Court') on India TV when he was the Minister of Defence, discussing the UPA government's performance of in the past one year since the 2004 elections.

Academic

 * Hon. Doctor of Letters degree by the University of Wolverhampton, UK in 2011.
 * Hon. D.Litt. by Assam University in March 2012.
 * Hon. Doctorate in Science by Visvesvaraya Technological University; Belgaum, Karnataka in 2012
 * Hon. LL.D. by President of Bangladesh and Chancellor Md. Zillur Rahman at the University of Dhaka on 4March 2013.
 * DCL (Doctor of Civil Law) (honoris causa) by the University of Mauritius on 13 March 2013.
 * Hon. Doctorate by Istanbul University on 5 October 2013.
 * Honorary Doctorate from the University of Calcutta in on 28 November 2014.
 * Hon. Doctorate in Political Science by the University of Jordan on 11 October 2015.
 * Hon. Doctorate by Al-Quds University of Ramallah, Palestine on 13 October 2015.
 * Hon. Doctorate by Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel on 15 October 2015.
 * Hon. Doctorate by Kathmandu University, Nepal on 3 November 2016.
 * Hon. Doctorate by Goa University on 25 April 2017.
 * D.Litt. (Honoris Causa) by Jadavpur University on 24 December 2017.
 * Hon. D.Litt. by the University of Chittagong on 16 January 2018.

Other recognition

 * Best Finance Minister in the World (1984), according to Euromoney magazine survey.
 * Finance Minister of the Year for Asia (2010), by Emerging Markets, daily newspaper of record for the World Bank and IMF.
 * Finance Minister of the Year (2010), by The Banker
 * Honorary Citizenship of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on 15 June 2016.

Offices held
Pranab Mukherjee's positions in chronological order:
 * Union Minister of Industrial Development: 1973–1974
 * Union Minister of Shipping and Transport: 1974
 * Minister of State for Finance: 1974–1975
 * Union Minister of Revenue and Banking: 1975–1977
 * Treasurer of Congress Party: 1978–79
 * Treasurer of All India Congress Committee: 1978–79
 * Leader of House of Rajya Sabha: 1980–85
 * Union Minister of Commerce and Steel and Mines: 1980–1982
 * Union Minister of Finance: 1982–1984
 * Board of Governors of International Monetary Fund: 1982–1985
 * Board of Governors of World Bank: 1982–1985
 * Board of Governors of Asian Development Bank: 1982–1984
 * Board of Governors of African Development Bank: 1982–1985
 * Union Minister of Commerce and Supply: 1984
 * Chairman: Campaign Committee of Congress-I for conducting National Elections to Parliament, 1984 Indian general election, 1991 Indian general election, 1996 Indian general election, 1998 Indian general election
 * Chairman of Group of 24 (a Ministerial Group attached to IMF and World Bank): 1984, 2009–2012
 * President of State Unit of Congress Party: 1985, 2000–08
 * Chairman of Economic Advisory Cell of AICC: 1987–1989
 * Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission: 1991–1996
 * Union Minister of Commerce: 1993–1995
 * Union Minister of External Affairs: 1995–1996
 * President, SAARC Council of Ministers Conference: 1995
 * General Secretary of AICC: 1998–1999
 * Chairman of Central Election Coordination Committee: 1999–2012
 * Leader of House of Lok Sabha: 2004–2012
 * Union Minister of Defence: 2004–2006
 * Union Minister of External Affairs: 2006–2009
 * Union Minister of Finance: 2009–2012
 * President of India: 25 July 2012 – 25 July 2017.

title: Pranab Mukherjee


text:
Horse (disambiguation)

A horse is a hoofed mammal of the species Equus ferus caballus.

Horse or Horses may also refer to:

Animals

 * Equus ferus, or wild horse, the species from which horses were domesticated
 * Equus (genus), the horse genus, including donkeys, horses, zebras, and others
 * Equinae, the horse subfamily
 * Equidae, the horse family

Films

 * Horse (1965 film), an underground film directed by Andy Warhol
 * Horse (1941 film), a Japanese film directed by Kajiro Yamamoto (and finished by assistant director Akira Kurosawa)
 * Horses (film) (Italian: Cavalli), a 2014 Italian drama film

Sports

 * H-O-R-S-E, a variation of basketball
 * Pommel horse, a gymnastics apparatus
 * Vaulting horse, a gymnastics apparatus

Games

 * HORSE (poker), a form of poker
 * Knight (chess), sometimes called a horse by beginners

Artists

 * An Horse, an Australian rock duo
 * Horse McDonald, a Scottish singer-songwriter
 * Band of Horses, an American rock band known briefly as Horses
 * Horse the Band, an American metalcore group
 * Horse, American rapper, member of Bravehearts

Albums

 * Horses (album), by American Patti Smith

Songs

 * "Horse" (song), by Salvatore Ganacci, 2019
 * "The Horse", by Cliff Nobles and Company, 1968
 * "The Horses", by Rickie Lee Jones, 1989; covered by Daryl Braithwaite, 1990
 * "Horse", by Live from Throwing Copper, 1994
 * "Horses", by Dala from Everyone Is Someone, 2009
 * "Horses", by PnB Rock, Kodak Black, and A Boogie wit da Hoodie from The Fate of the Furious: The Album, 2017
 * "Beauty Queen/Horses", by Tori Amos from Boys for Pele, 1996

Fictional characters

 * Horse, the main character of Centaurworld
 * Horse, a main character of Footrot Flats

Other arts and entertainment

 * "Horses", an episode of the television series Zoboomafoo
 * The Horse (poem), a 1954 poem by Ronald Duncan
 * The Horse, a book by William Youatt
 * The Horse: Backstreet Choppers, an American motorcycling magazine founded by former employees of Iron Horse

Australia

 * Horse Peninsula, a peninsula in South Australia
 * Horse Peninsula, a locality which was renamed Little Douglas, South Australia

United States

 * Horse Creek (California)
 * Horse Creek (Colorado), a tributary of the Arkansas River
 * Horse Creek (Tombigbee River), a tributary of the Tombigbee River
 * Horse Range (disambiguation), several US mountain ranges

Multiple countries

 * Horse Island (disambiguation)
 * Horse Creek (disambiguation)

People

 * Harry Horse, pen name of Richard Horne (1960-2007), British author, illustrator and political cartoonist
 * John Horse (c. 1812–1882), African-American adviser to Osceola and a leader of units fighting against the US during the Seminole Wars
 * Michael Horse (born 1951), American actor
 * Alan Ameche (1933–1988), American football player and entrepreneur nicknamed "the Horse"
 * Matt Cain (born 1984), nicknamed "The Horse", American baseball pitcher
 * Harry Danning (1911–2004), nicknamed Harry the Horse, American baseball player
 * Harry B. Liversedge (1894–1951), nicknamed Harry the Horse, United States Marine Corps brigadier general and athlete
 * Horse McDonald, Scottish singer-songwriter Sheena Mary McDonald (born 1958)

Other uses

 * Horse (geology), a block of rock completely separated from the surrounding rock
 * Horse (zodiac), one of the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac
 * Horse meat, the meat from a horse
 * Yakovlev Yak-24 (NATO reporting name: Horse), a Soviet transport helicopter
 * Horse, a nickname for the drug heroin
 * Horse, a nautical term for a fixture which provides a movable attachment for a rope
 * Horse, in the board game shogi, a promoted bishop or "dragon horse"
 * Horse project, a joint venture by car companies Geely and Renault

title: Horse (disambiguation)


text:
Collinsville

There are a number of cities or towns named Collinsville:

 * Australia
 * Collinsville, Queensland, a rural town in the Whitsunday Region
 * Collinsville, South Australia, a locality.
 * Collinsville Station, a pastoral lease in South Australia associated with Collinsville, South Australia.

 * United States
 * Collinsville, Alabama
 * Collinsville, California
 * Collinsville, Connecticut
 * Collinsville, Georgia
 * Collinsville, Illinois, the largest US city named Collinsville
 * Collinsville, Mississippi
 * Collinsville, Ohio
 * Collinsville, Oklahoma
 * Collinsville, Texas
 * Collinsville, Virginia

title: Collinsville


text:
Talk:Orders of magnitude (data)

english
please help me Mr.ali7245 (talk) 08:09, 20 July 2023 (UTC)

 * @M . Rahman Mr.ali7245 (talk) 08:09, 20 July 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Orders of magnitude (data)


text:
Talk:Select (SQL)

Untitled
What is the justification for this page? I think this example should stay on the SQL page. Besides, the phrase "a select" strikes me as sloppy and uncommon. I would use "a select-from-where" or "a select expression" but never "a select". Moreover, the article on SQL should contain examples of SQL statements, so I don't see why these were moved and not just copied. -- Jan Hidders 16:02, 19 May 2004 (UTC)

 * The article begins "A SELECT statement ...". This refers to a particular kind of "statement", that kind which involves the keyword "SELECT". I don't understand your question, unless you think no SQL keyword should have a separate article? --Phil | Talk 16:16, May 19, 2004 (UTC)

 * I was trying to make several points. To begin with, indeed, I don't think there is at this moment enough justification for a separate page for select statements. But if we do, then the title shouldn't be simply "select" but it should be "select statement". And finally, having such a page does not mean that all examples of select expressions should be moved from SQL to this page. The SQL page should at least contain one or two illustrative examples of select statements. -- Jan Hidders

I think that we should also explain a few more details on the SELECT statement, namely: --Stolze 18:47, 24 October 2006 (UTC)
 * joins and the various join types
 * set operations (EXCEPT, UNION, ...)
 * subselects (it is there, but badly organized)
 * relationship to cursors
 * use of expression and host-variables

 * Many of these aren't here because they have their own topics. -- Mikeblas 18:00, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

 * Joins, UNION, and cursors are there; a proper link should occur in this topic here nevertheless. But the others are distinctively missing completely.  Or do you have some links to those topics? --Stolze 18:46, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

I think that the introduction and example sections of this article are excellent, but that the other sections are not notable. The article should be concise. I believe that a discussion of how to limit rows returned in different vendor syntaxes is outside the scope that this article should aim for. A concise mention that syntax variations exists would be fine. 86.43.105.14 (talk) 12:03, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Merge
Recommend merging UPDATE, INSERT, DELETE, MERGE and SELECT statements into DML article and redirecting these statements there. Comments? SqlPac 05:21, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

 * If the article on SELECT is moved, I am only concerned that SELECT is presented in a promient position (some sort of emphasis such as a leading section) because I feel that understanding how the SELECT works and operates is essential and fundamental to all DML and DDL statements in SQL. Right now I am happy with it being a separate article and would not recommend a merge into any other article. // Brick Thrower 18:13, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

 * SELECT is arguably the most important statement in SQL (definitely the most widely used), and would receive a prominent position. It would also encompass a large portion of the article as well.  My main concern is that we have one or two paragraph stubs for the following DML statements and clauses:  UPDATE, INSERT, DELETE, MERGE, FROM, WHERE, TRUNCATE, GROUP BY, HAVING, ORDER BY, etc.  It doesn't make sense (to me anyway) to have a single article's worth of closely-related DML content spread out around a dozen or so separate 1-2 paragraph article stubs. SqlPac 18:53, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

 * I agree that we should merge WHERE/GROUP BY/ORDER BY/HAVING into the article for SELECT. Those are very closely related. I'm not convinced on UPDATE/INSERT/DELETE/MERGE articles.  Those articles should be expanded first to include all the important content.  For example, things like triggers, constraints, assertions, operations on views, indexing etc. are usually not discussed in the articles.  Once the bulk of the content is available, we should revisit the merge discussion.  Maybe it becomes obvious right away that the material would be way too much to be combined in a single article.  TRUNCATE is another issue because that is not a standardized SQL statement IIRC.  We have to figure out how to deal with such things in the first place. --Stolze 08:51, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

 * A lot of those items (triggers, constraints, etc.) have their own articles already. You are right, there is a lot of room to expand the existing articles, but I don't see a lot of room to expand some much larger than "super-sized" stubs.  For example, I wonder how much there really is to say about DELETE that isn't covered in other articles that would be linked anyway? SqlPac 21:39, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

 * True, a lot of those items are covered already. But as with outer joins and NULLs, we should at least have one sentence here for each related topic and link to it.
 * DELETE is a statement where not much can be said about it. UPDATE and INSERT require a bit more explanations.  I still think that we should first sort-of complete the content and then revisit the merge discussion again.  At may indeed be the best thing to do. --Stolze 13:31, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
 * I'm not in a big hurry, just wanted to get the conversation going so it can be addressed. Keep in mind though, that adding WHERE to the SELECT article means that we don't have the option of adding WHERE to INSERT, DELETE, etc., where it is also a valid clause.  The articles in question could all definitely be expanded, many with parallel content (sub-queries, EXISTS clauses, etc., come to mind).  For now I'm happy to leave these DML-related articles as is, and revisit once we have expanded the existing articles.
 * What do you think of combining the DDL-related articles (CREATE, ALTER, DROP), by the way? Obviously those articles address a single keyword of complete DDL statements (CREATE TABLE, DROP VIEW, ALTER TABLE, etc.), and I think they would be better served by combining into one article as well.  Thanks.  SqlPac 19:43, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

 * Actually, we have the issue with the WHERE clause only for DELETE. In INSERT, one specifies a sub-select anyways, so we could simply point to the SELECT article. :-)
 * And UPDATE :) SqlPac 04:15, 22 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Combining CREATE/ALTER/DROP TABLE or CREATE/ALTER/DROP VIEW would be a good thing, I believe. Especially for the DROP statements, there is not much to say, except that the object is removed and what else may be impacted (views becoming invalid etc.) --Stolze 18:07, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Yeah that's sort of what I'm thinking too. There really isn't all that much to say about them individually.  Together they'll make a decent article. SqlPac 04:15, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

 * Hey guys, here is how the page might look really good. Check out the POSIX signals page. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIGKILL.  The sql/mysql commands could each have their own page, but all the pages could have a neat table of commands like they did with the sig* interrupt page.  If no one gets to it by this summer, I'll throw a table on them.  Caalip (talk) 18:15, 23 November 2007 (UTC)

POLICY DEBATE: Use of source code and other examples in articles
Someone started a policy debate concerning the use of source code in articles, that seems to directly impact this (and possibly other Database articles). See below for details:

I have opened a debate on the use of source code and other examples in Wikipedia articles. It seems that many pieces of example source code etc. currently in Wikipedia violate Wikipedia policy, so we need to either clarify or change the situation. Depending on the result of the discussion, this may result in a number of source code examples being summarily removed from computing articles!

Please reply there, not here, if you wish to contribute.—greenrd 10:50, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks.SqlPac 15:10, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

 * That discussion is now archived at Wikipedia_talk:Attribution/Archive_17. - Jmabel | Talk 23:29, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

Performance
Although this may vary between implementations of SQL, is it worth explaining that SELECT * from xxx does have performance impacts on the way that the database has to work out the table size on the fly, whereas explicit declaration is quicker?

 * I don't think that's really a factor--working out the table size on the fly shouldn't have a significant impact, since SQL implementations that follow ISO standards store metadata about the tables involved in the database anyway. Also SELECT * could perform worse in some situations or better in other situations. For instance, SELECT * returns every column in the table--even columns that may not be needed for the task at hand which could impact performance negatively. On the other hand, an optimized SQL query engine may be able to optimize the way in which it retrieves rows by using an index to retrieve rows when one is available, which can be more efficient than a simple table scan in some implementations. It's really implementation-specific behavior. SqlPac (talk) 01:25, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Pretty minimal
No discussion of nested selects. No link to any in-depth discussion on Wikibooks, though I presume one exists. External links provided are almost useless: one is to a decent overall article on Oracle, but it's in Spanish (and it isn't particularly about the Select statement). The other is to a short manual page on the Select statement that doesn't seem to have much significant content not already in the article. - Jmabel | Talk 23:26, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

 * WP:BB SqlPac (talk) 03:26, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

SELECT <> DML
In the opening for the article it states that SELECT is the most commonly used DML command. SELECT is actually not a DML statement. The ISO 9075:2003 standard specifically divides up the landscape like this:

Data-Language Statements | +Query Statements |     | |      +Multirow SELECT Statements | +Data Manipulation Language |       +INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, MERGE, Cursor Statements |       +Single-row SELECT INTO Statement

In all fairness, the single-row SELECT INTO statement is included in DML, but multirow SELECT statement is not. SqlPac (talk) 01:33, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

SELECT *, col1
Maybe mention that one can do SELECT col1, col1 FROM bla; but not SELECT *, col1 FROM bla; apparently for no good reason. Jidanni (talk) 04:42, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

PICK-style?
Another example would be the "SAMPLE n" format used by Unidata (likely other PICK style systems, most of whom have a SQL interface)

66.46.252.68 (talk) 16:43, 5 March 2010 (UTC)twalter@rogers.com

Window functions first example
The first example in Window functions isn't very good: summing the population partitioning by city would only make sense on a "suburbs" table. A better example would be to sum the salary partitioning by department on an "employees" table. Colin 't Hart (talk) 14:00, 8 August 2013 (UTC)

"SELECT INTO"
i got here by following a link for "the 'select into' variant" but that is not described here. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.8.27.140 (talk) 18:44, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

"Generating Data in T-SQL"
What's the purpose of this section? Why add beginner SQL coding tips, labeled as T-SQL "feature"? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fjerdingen (talk • contribs) 20:46, 24 May 2017 (UTC)

title: Talk:Select (SQL)


text:
Fin (legend)

Fin is the subject of a legend involving the construction of a church. To get the work done, an agreement was made between a holy man and a troll or giant with dire consequences for the loser. The Danish version features a troll from Kalundborg, Zealand, Denmark. In the Swedish legend, the subject is a giant from Lund with the name Jätten Finn ("Finn the Giant").

Danish legend
The legend tells how Esbern Snare built a church in Kalundborg. It was hard work, and a troll, who was passing by, offered his services. Esbern accepted; however, the troll's condition was that Esbern should be able to figure out the troll's name by the time the church was finished; if he could not, the troll would take his heart and his eyes.

When there was only a half pillar left to erect before the church would be completed, Esbern became afraid, because he did not know the troll's name. Wandering the fields in great anxiety, he laid himself down on Ulshøj bank to rest. While there, he heard a troll-woman within the hill saying: "Lie still, baby mine! / Tomorrow cometh Fin, / Father thine, And giveth thee / Esbern Snare's / eyes and heart / to play with."

Esbern returned immediately to the church. The troll was busy setting up the half pillar that remained for the church, and when Esbern saw him, he called out "Fin". The troll was so angry that he threw the half pillar into the air. This is why the church has only three and a half pillars.

Swedish legend
A similar legend exists in the Swedish town of Lund, where a troll or giant is supposed to have helped with the construction of Lund Cathedral. Two statues in the crypt of the cathedral are said to be the petrified remains of the legendary creature and his wife. The earliest known mention of the legend as it appears in Lund dates from 1593. The Imperial diplomat Erich Lassota von Steblau had been imprisoned in Sweden and was on his way back to continental Europe when he stopped in Lund and made a passing mention of the legend. Lassota von Steblau writes that the two statues in the crypt of the cathedral were "giants" who tried to prevent the cathedral from being built. They had been punished by God and turned into stone for this.

A more detailed account of the legend was published in 1654 by Jens Lauritzen Wolf. It appears that it's this version that has been the basis for most later versions. The legend, as recounted by Wolf, has it that Saint Lawrence was building Lund Cathedral but had a lack of both funds and building material. To speed up the construction he made a deal with the troll. The troll would help him build the cathedral, but if on the last day Saint Lawrence had not found out his name, the saint would have to bring him the sun and the moon. If he couldn't do that, the troll would be permitted to take his eyes. With the help of the troll, the construction proceeded rapidly. Saint Lawrence became more and more concerned, and to lessen his anxiety he one day took a long walk outside the city. He sat down to rest, and while resting suddenly overheard the wife of the troll comforting their child, telling him not to cry because his father Finn would bring the eyes of the saint as a toy the next day. Lawrence hurried back and found the troll just about to place the last stone in place in the cathedral. He called him out by his name, Finn. Enraged, Finn and his wife started shaking the foundation pillars in the crypt, but the force of the saint was stronger, and the whole family was petrified, frozen in motion.

A only slightly later account of the legend which is basically consistent with that of Wolf exist in a hand-written manuscript today in the archives of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities. Another account was made in 1705.

A first critical account dates from 1750, by Johan Corylander. Corylander points out that not only is the legend clearly fictional, but that it's also improbable that the statues in the cathedral would actually be intended as an illustration of the legend. The construction of the cathedral is in fact well documented, he argued, and both the first architect and the kings who supported its construction are well known. "However superstition has been carried so far, that Saint Lawrence, who lived far more than 800 years before the construction of our cathedral and who could not even have dreamed of Scania, still has had to take the responsibility for its foundation, and an equally innocent troll for its construction", he is quoted by Otto Rydbeck.

Several later accounts of the legend exist. According to one account available in English, a holy man named Laurentius came to what is now known as Lund from Saxony to build a Christian church. As he began his work, a giant named Finn, who lived with his family in the area called Helgonabacken (or Hills of Helgona), offered to help him construct the church. His offer came with a condition, "when it is finished, you will tell me what my name is. But, mark well my condition, oh, wise man: If you cannot tell me, you must give to my little ones the two small torches -- the sun and the moon -- that travel yonder over heaven's expanse." The holy man would lose his sight if he lost the challenge.

It was known amongst the giants that they could not reveal Finn's name or the bargain would be broken, with no harm to Laurentius, and the giant must die. Driven to get the church built, the holy man accepted the offer and had faith that the name would come to him before the construction of the church was completed. Together, they quickly built the church with one remaining stone that needed to be set on the tower.

While Laurentius worried that he did not know the giant's name and would therefore lose his sight, he heard the voice of a giant woman as she attempted to soothe her crying child, "Silent, silent, little son of mine. Morning will bring your father Finn, with either moon and sun or the priest Laurentius' eyes." The holy man ran to the church and yelled, "Come down, Finn! The stone that now remains we ourselves can set. Come down, Finn, for we no longer need your help!"

Finn became angry and wrapped his arms around a pillar in order to pull it out and destroy the cathedral. His wife and their child also tried to bring down the church, and both Finn and his wife were turned to stone, with their arms wrapped around pillars. There is a sculpture of a stone man hugging a pillar in the Lund Cathedral.

Statues of Finn and his wife
As Corylander pointed out in 1750, it's improbable that the statues in Lund Cathedral were meant to depict Finn and his wife. Rather, the legend has probably been a popular way to interpret the meaning of the statues. In fact, art historians still are not entirely sure of what subject matter the statues depict. The most commonly held theory today is that the carving represents the biblical figure Samson, who sacrificed himself by toppling the pillars of a Philistine temple.

Similar legends
The legend of a bargain to help build a church is associated with other churches in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. The story related to Eskellsätter's church of Näs in Värmland, Sweden involves a giant named Kinn falling to his death upon hearing his name by a priest named Eskil. A Norwegian legend involves the troll, Skalle, and the construction of a cathedral in Trondheim. There is also a similar legend of a troll called Wind and Weather, who was installing a cross when St. Olaf called his name.

title: Fin (legend)