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Blarmachfoldach

Blarmachfoldach (or Blàr Mac Faoilteach; Blàrmacfaoltach) is a small crofting settlement in Lochaber, in the Highland council area of Scotland. It is located in the Mamore Hills, 3 mi south of Fort William on the old military road to Kinlochleven. In past centuries, Blarmachfoldach was mainly a Clan Cameron settlement.

Historically, the area spoke Lochaber Gaelic, which had a number of distinctive features.

In the 19th century, Blarmachfoldach had a population of over 800. Reflecting the tragedy that gradually befell the Highlands as a whole, the population has gradually fallen to around 30, the last native dying in 2006. This was exacerbated by the cholera epidemic of the 19th century, when a ship in Loch Linnhe brought contaminated linen.

The Gaelic etymology of the name is not clear. Blàr typically refers to a field, often a battlefield, whereas the faoiltich are the cold early months of the year, corresponding to January (Faoilleach) in modern Gaelic.

Blàr mac Faoltaich is one of the 'four blars' in the area, comprising Blàr Mac Faoltaich, Blàr a' Chaorainn, Blàr nan Cléireach, and Blàr Mac Droighnich (also spelt Mac Droighneach, Mac Druineach, and nan Druineach, and meaning the field of the wise men).

The river Cìochnis (Cìoch Innis), shown by Ordnance Survey as "River Kiachnish", which originates in Lochan Lùnn dà-Bhrà, (Loch Lundavra) and passes through Blàr Mac Faoilteach, was the source of hydro-electric power for the first electric street lighting in Scotland, in nearby Fort William high street. The ruins of the turbine house and a bridge to cross the river (although dangerous to cross now) are still here to see today.

The West Highland Way passes through the clachan near one of its two endpoints.

Blar Mac Faoilteach was known locally as one of the last places to celebrate the old Highland New Year on January 12.

title: Blarmachfoldach


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Platform for Internet Content Selection

The Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS) was a specification created by W3C that used metadata to label webpages to help parents and teachers control what children and students could access on the Internet. The W3C Protocol for Web Description Resources project integrates PICS concepts with RDF. PICS was superseded by POWDER, which itself is no longer actively developed. PICS often used content labeling from the Internet Content Rating Association, which has also been discontinued by the Family Online Safety Institute's board of directors. An alternative self-rating system, named Voluntary Content Rating, was devised by Solid Oak Software in 2010, in response to the perceived complexity of PICS.

Internet Explorer 3 was one of the early web browsers to offer support for PICS, released in 1996. Internet Explorer 5 added a feature called approved sites, that allowed extra sites to be added to the list in addition to the PICS list when it was being used.

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

title: Platform for Internet Content Selection


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Limuru

Limuru is a town in central Kenya. It serves as both a parliamentary constituency and an administrative division. As of 2004, the town's population was approximately 4,800, which significantly increased to 159,314 by the 2019 census.

Location
Limuru is a town located on the eastern edge of the Great Rift Valley about 30 km, by road, northwest of Nairobi. The geographical coordinates of Limuru town are:1°06'28.0"S, 36°38'34.0"E (Latitude:-1.107778; Longitude:36.642778).

History
The native language of most people in Limuru is Kikuyu, with Swahili and English also widely used.

Historically, Limuru served as the capital of Kiambu West District, which was part of the larger Kiambu District. It is now a sub county in Kiambu County and also the name of a parliament constituency.

Limuru encompasses areas previously known as the "white highlands," a rich agricultural land south of the equator. The term "white highlands" derived from the British and other Europeans who realised the productive potential of this area and settled in large numbers with the support of the colonial government, establishing coffee and tea plantations, cereal farms and ranches. The town is at an altitude of about 2,500 meters and experiences temperature of 10–28 °C (75 °F) year round.

There is a railway station in Limuru town.

Industry
Limuru is a key area of tea production and processing, with major factories such as Karirana Tea Estates and Mabroukie Teas Estates on the outskirts of the town.The tea plantations established around Limuru from 1903 onwards were the foundation of Kenya's tea industry.

The town is also home to the BATA shoe company, the largest shoe factory in East and Central Africa. In recent years, more companies have established themselves in the town, including Procter and Allan, polypipes and Fruit 'n' Juice.

The Nest Children's Home, which offers care services for children whose mothers are imprisoned, is located in Limuru town.

Limuru has a rich history tied with the railway, the tea industry (especially with major expansion from the 1920s), and the Bata shoe factory and head office.

The town also serves as a milk processing zone obtained from the small-scale dairy farming in the surrounding area.

People
Limuru residents rely mostly on farming and a shoe factory for employment. Early in the British colonial period (from the 1890s) Europeans settled in the area due to its proximity to Nairobi, the railway, its fertile land and pleasant weather. It is the birthplace of the African writer, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, as well as that of Bishop Caesar Gatimu and human rights and political activist Percy Faith Fawaki (Zartaj).

Health care
Limuru town is served by the government-run Limuru Health Center which is located within the town limits, and other health facilities such as Limuru include Rwamburi Dispensary, Rironi Dispensary, Thigio Dispensary, Ndeiya Health Center and Ngecha Health Center. Tigoni District Hospital is the main government hospital and serves as the link facility between the rural health facilities and the main National referral hospital. Health care has seen an improvement in quality of services with the collaboration of other stakeholders. Services such as cervical cancer screening by VIA/VILLI is available at all government run facilities in Limuru. The nurses working in these clinics also conduct outreach programs to ensure more women are screened. Uptake of long-term contraceptive methods such as implants and IUCDs has also improved due to intensive community education and outreach programs undertaken by the staff working in the various government health facilities. It is for this reason that Ndeiya Health Center was confirmed the center of excellence in addressing family planning and cervical cancer screening in East and Central Africa. Ndeiya Health Center has mentored other health facilities in the area including Rwamburi Dispensary with an aim of replicating the success in the same. Constituency development fund has funded the construction of three rural facilities in the area. These are: Rwamburi Dispensary, Rironi Dispensary and Ngecha Health Center. Also, there are several private hospitals in Limuru.

Community strategy has been implemented in the area and community units such as Ndiuni community unit has been conducting various community health activities. These community units are linked to their respective health facilities where they refer patients.

Recent developments
Due to its proximity to Nairobi and its location on the main highway linking Nairobi to other towns like Naivasha, Eldoret and Kisumu, Limuru is attracting investors and businesses. In July 2014, developers of a new 120000 ft2 shopping mall broke ground. This will be the first mall in the town. Tuskys, the number two supermarket chain in Kenya by sales, will be the anchor tenant, taking up about 50% of the rental space. The development is expected to cost KSh650 million (approx. US$7.5 million) to construct, and is expected to be ready during the second half of 2018. The number three supermarket chain in the country, naivas together with Society Stores have opened new stores in Limuru during the year 2016 & 2017 respectively. The new supermarkets will join others such as Cleanshelf, the then major supermarket in the town, as at January 2015. The Great Kenyan Bake Off, the Kenyan version of The Great British Bake Off, was filmed at Limuru.

title: Limuru


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Molly Maguires

The Molly Maguires was an Irish 19th-century secret society active in Ireland, Liverpool, and parts of the eastern United States, best known for their activism among Irish-American and Irish immigrant coal miners in Pennsylvania. After a series of often violent conflicts, twenty suspected members of the Molly Maguires were convicted of murder and other crimes and were executed by hanging in 1877 and 1878. This history remains part of local Pennsylvania lore and the actual facts are much debated among historians.

Ireland
The Molly Maguires originated in Ireland, where secret societies with names such as Whiteboys and Peep o' Day Boys were common beginning in the 18th century and through most of the 19th century. In some areas the terms Ribbonmen and Molly Maguires were both used for similar activism but at different times. The main distinction between the two appears to be that the Ribbonmen were regarded as "secular, cosmopolitan, and proto-nationalist", with the Molly Maguires considered "rural, local, and Gaelic".

Agrarian rebellion in Ireland can be traced to local concerns and grievances relating to land usage, particularly as traditional socioeconomic practices such as small-scale potato cultivation were supplanted by the fencing and pasturing of land (known as enclosure). Agrarian resistance often took the form of fence destruction, night-time ploughing of croplands that had been converted to pasture, and killing, mutilating, or driving off livestock. In areas where the land had long been dedicated to small-scale, growing-season leases of farmland, called conacre, opposition was conceived as "retributive justice" that was intended "to correct transgressions against traditional moral and social codes".

The victims of agrarian violence were frequently Irish land agents, middlemen, and tenants. Merchants and millers were often threatened or attacked if their prices were high. Landlords' agents were threatened, beaten, and assassinated. New tenants on lands secured by evictions also became targets. Local leaders were reported to have sometimes dressed as women, i.e., as mothers begging for food for their children. The leader might approach a storekeeper and demand a donation of flour or groceries. If the storekeeper failed to provide, the Mollies would enter the store and take what they wanted, warning the owner of dire consequences if the incident was reported.

While the Whiteboys were known to wear white linen frocks over their clothing, the Mollies blackened their faces with burnt cork. There are similarities—particularly in face-blackening and in the donning of women's garments—with the practice of mummery, in which festive days were celebrated by mummers who travelled from door to door demanding food, money, or drink as payment for performing. The Threshers, the Peep o' Day Boys, the Lady Rocks (deriving from Captain Rock and the Rockite movement), and the Lady Clares also sometimes disguised themselves as women. Similar imagery was used during the Rebecca Riots in Wales.

British and Irish newspapers reported about the Mollies in Ireland in the nineteenth century. Thomas Campbell Foster in The Times on 25 August 1845 traced the commencement of "Molly Maguireism" to Lord Lorton ejecting tenants in Ballinamuck, County Longford, in 1835. An "Address of 'Molly Maguire' to her children" containing twelve rules was published in Freeman's Journal on 7 July 1845. The person making the address claimed to be "Molly Maguire" of "Maguire's Grove, Parish of Cloone", in County Leitrim. The rules advised Mollies about how they should conduct themselves in land disputes and were an attempt to direct the movement's activities:
 * Keep strictly to the land question, by allowing no landlord more than fair value for his tenure.
 * No Rent to be paid until harvest.
 * Not even then without an abatement, where the land is too high.
 * No undermining of tenants, nor bailiff's fees to be paid.
 * No turning out of tenants, unless two years rent due before ejectment served.
 * Assist to the utmost of your power the good landlord, in getting his rents.
 * Cherish and respect the good landlord, and good agent.
 * Keep from travelling by night.
 * Take no arms by day, or by night, from any man, as from such acts a deal of misfortune springs, having, I trust you have, more arms than you ever will have need for.
 * Avoid coming in contact with either the military, or police; they are only doing what they cannot help.
 * For my sake, then, no distinction to any man, on account of his religion; his acts alone you are to look to.
 * Let bygones be bygones, unless in a very glaring case; but watch for the time to come.

Liverpool
The Molly Maguires were also active in Liverpool, England, where many Irish people settled in the 19th century, and many more passed through Liverpool on their way to the United States or Canada. The Mollies are first mentioned in Liverpool in an article in The Liverpool Mercury newspaper on 10 May 1853. The newspaper reported that, "a regular faction fight took place in Marybone amongst the Irish residents in that district. About 200 men and women assembled, who were divided into four parties—the 'Molly Maguires', the 'Kellys', the 'Fitzpatricks' and the 'Murphys'—the greater number of whom were armed with sticks and stones. The three latter sections were opposed to the 'Molly Maguires' and the belligerents were engaged in hot conflict for about half an hour, when the guardians of the peace interfered."

Later Liverpool newspaper articles from the same time period refer to assaults by Mollies against other Irish Liverpudlians. The "Molly Maguire club" or "Molly's Club" was described as a "mutual defence association" that had been "formed for the mutual assistance of the members when they got into 'trouble', each member subscribing to the funds". Patrick Flynn was the secretary of the Liverpool Molly Maguire Clubs in the 1850s and their headquarters was in an alehouse in Alexander Pope Street also known as Sawney Pope Street. The Liverpool branch of the Molly Maguires was known for its gangsterism rather than any genuine concern for the welfare of Irish people.

United States
The Mollies are believed to have been present in the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania in the United States since at least the Panic of 1873 until becoming largely inactive following a series of arrests, trials and executions, between 1876 and 1878. Members of the Mollies were accused of murder, arson, kidnapping, and other crimes, in part based on allegations by Franklin B. Gowen and the testimony of a Pinkerton detective, James McParland (also known as James McKenna), a native of County Armagh, Ireland. Fellow prisoners testified against the defendants, who were arrested by the Coal and Iron Police. Gowen acted as a prosecutor in some of the trials.

The trusts seem to have focused almost exclusively upon the Molly Maguires for criminal prosecution. Information passed from the Pinkerton detective, intended only for the detective agency and their client—the most powerful industrialist of the region—was also provided to vigilantes who ambushed and murdered miners suspected of being Molly Maguires, as well as their families. Molly Maguire history is sometimes presented as the prosecution of an underground movement that was motivated by personal vendettas, and sometimes as a struggle between organized labour and powerful industrial forces. Whether membership in the Mollies' society overlapped with union membership to any appreciable extent remains open to conjecture.

Some historians (such as Philip Rosen, former curator of the Holocaust Awareness Museum of the Delaware Valley) believe that Irish immigrants brought a form of the Molly Maguires organization into America in the 19th century, and continued its activities as a clandestine society. They were located in a section of the anthracite coal fields dubbed the Coal Region, which included the Pennsylvania counties of Lackawanna, Luzerne, Columbia, Schuylkill, Carbon, and Northumberland. Irish miners in this organization employed the tactics of intimidation and violence used against Irish landlords during the "Land Wars" yet again in violent confrontations against the anthracite, or hard coal, mining companies in the 19th century.

Historians' disagreement
A legal self-help organization for Irish immigrants existed in the form of the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH), but it is generally accepted that the Mollies existed as a secret organization in Pennsylvania, and used the AOH as a front. However, Joseph Rayback's 1966 volume, A History of American Labor, claims the "identity of the Molly Maguires has never been proved". Rayback writes: ""The charge has been made that the Molly Maguires episode was deliberately manufactured by the coal operators with the express purpose of destroying all vestiges of unionism in the area... There is some evidence to support the charge... the "crime wave" that appeared in the anthracite fields came after the appearance of the Pinkertons, and... many of the victims of the crimes were union leaders and ordinary miners. The evidence brought against [the defendants], supplied by James McParlan, a Pinkerton, and corroborated by men who were granted immunity for their own crimes, was tortuous and contradictory, but the net effect was damning... The trial temporarily destroyed the last vestiges of labor unionism in the anthracite area. More important, it gave the public the impression... that miners were by nature criminal in character...."

Authors who accept the existence of the Mollies as a violent and destructive group acknowledge a significant scholarship that questions the entire history. In The Pinkerton Story, authors James D. Horan and Howard Swiggett write sympathetically about the detective agency and its mission to bring the Mollies to justice. They observe:"The difficulty of achieving strict and fair accuracy in relation to the Mollie Maguires is very great. Sensible men have held there never even was such an organization... We do believe, however, that members of a secret organization, bound to each other by oath, used the facilities and personnel of the organization to carry out personal vendettas..."

History
During the mid-19th century, hard coal mining came to dominate northeastern Pennsylvania, a region already deforested twice over to feed America's growing need for energy. By the 1870s, powerful financial syndicates controlled the railroads and the coalfields. Coal companies had begun to recruit immigrants from overseas willing to work for less than the prevailing local wages paid to American-born employees, luring them with "promises of fortune-making". Herded into freight trains by the hundreds, these workers often replaced English-speaking miners who, according to labour historian George Korson:"...were compelled to give way in one coal field after another, either abandoning the industry altogether for other occupations or else retreating, like the vanishing American Indian, westward..."

The immigrant workers:

"...faced constant hazards from violation of safety precautions, such as they were. Injuries and deaths in mine disasters, frequently reported in the newspapers, shocked the nation."

About 22,000 coal miners worked in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. 5,500 of these were children between the ages of seven and sixteen years, who earned between one and three dollars a week separating slate from coal. Injured miners, or those too old to work at the face, were assigned to picking slate at the "breakers" where the coal was crushed into a manageable size. Thus, many of the elderly miners finished their mining days as they had begun in their youth. The miners lived a life of "bitter, terrible struggle".

Disaster strikes
Wages were low, working conditions were atrocious, and deaths and serious injuries numbered in the hundreds each year. On 6 September 1869, a fire at the Avondale Mine in Luzerne County, took the lives of 110 coal miners. The families blamed the coal company for failing to finance a secondary exit for the mine.

"...the mine owners without one single exception had refused over the years to install emergency exits, ventilating and pumping systems, or to make provision for sound scaffolding. In Schuylkill County alone 566 miners had been killed and 1,655 had been seriously injured over a seven year period..."

The miners faced a speedup system that was exhausting. In its November 1877 issue, Harper's New Monthly Magazine published an interviewer's comments: "A miner tells me that he often brought his food uneaten out of the mine from want of time; for he must have his car loaded when the driver comes for it, or lose one of the seven car-loads which form his daily work."

As the bodies of the miners were brought up from the Avondale Mine disaster, John Siney, head of the Workingmen's Benevolent Association (WBA), climbed onto a wagon to speak to the thousands of miners who had arrived from surrounding communities: "Men, if you must die with your boots on, die for your families, your homes, your country, but do not longer consent to die, like rats in a trap, for those who have no more interest in you than in the pick you dig with."

Siney asked the miners to join the union, and thousands did so that day. Some miners faced additional burdens of prejudice and persecution. In the 1840s, 1850s, and 1860s, some 20,000 Irish workers had arrived in Schuylkill County. It was a time of rampant beatings and murders in the mining district.

Panic of 1873
1873–79 (see Panic of 1873) were marked by one of the worst depressions in the nation's history, caused by economic overexpansion, a stock market crash, and a decrease in the money supply. By 1877 an estimated one-fifth of the nation's workingmen were completely unemployed, two-fifths worked no more than six or seven months a year, and only one-fifth had full-time jobs. Labor organizers angrily watched railway directors riding about the country in luxurious private cars while proclaiming their inability to pay living wages to hungry working men.

Mine owners move against the union
Franklin B. Gowen, the president of the Philadelphia and Reading Railway, and of the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company and "the wealthiest anthracite coal mine owner in the world", hired Allan Pinkerton's services to deal with the Mollies. Pinkerton selected James McParland (sometimes called McParlan), a native of County Armagh, to go undercover against the Mollies. Using the alias "James McKenna", he made Shenandoah his headquarters and claimed to have become a trusted member of the organization. His assignment was to collect evidence of murder plots and intrigue, passing this information along to his Pinkerton manager. He also began working secretly with a Pinkerton agent assigned to the Coal and Iron Police for the purpose of coordinating the eventual arrest and prosecution of members of the Molly Maguires. Although there had been fifty "inexplicable murders" between 1863 and 1867 in Schuylkill County, progress in the investigations was slow. There was "a lull in the entire area, broken only by minor shootings". McParland wrote: I am sick and tired of this thing. I seem to make no progress.

The union had grown powerful; thirty thousand members—eighty-five percent of Pennsylvania's anthracite miners—had joined. But Gowen had built a combination of his own, bringing all of the mine operators into an employers' association known as the Anthracite Board of Trade. In addition to the railroad, Gowen owned two-thirds of the coal mines in southeastern Pennsylvania. He was a risk-taker and an ambitious man. Gowen decided to force a strike and showdown.

Union, Mollies, and Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH)
One of the burning questions for modern scholars is the relationship between the Workingmen's Benevolent Association (WBA), the Mollies, and their alleged cover organization, the Ancient Order of Hibernians. Historian Kevin Kenny notes that the convicted men were all members of the AOH. But "the Molly Maguires themselves left virtually no evidence of their existence, let alone their aims and motivation." Relying upon his personal knowledge before commencing an investigation, McParland believed that the Molly Maguires, under pressure for their activities, had taken the new name, "The Ancient Order of Hibernians" (AOH). After beginning his investigation, he estimated that there were about 450 members of the AOH in Schuylkill County.

While Kenny observes that the AOH was "a peaceful fraternal society", he does note that in the 1870s the Pinkerton Agency identified a correlation between the areas of AOH membership in Pennsylvania, and the corresponding areas in Ireland from which those particular Irish immigrants emigrated. The violence-prone areas of Ireland corresponded to areas of violence in the Pennsylvania coalfields.

In his book Big Trouble, which traces McParland's history, writer J. Anthony Lukas has written: "The WBA was run by Lancashire men adamantly opposed to violence. But [Gowen] saw an opportunity to paint the union with the Molly brush, which he did in testimony before a state investigating committee ... 'I do not charge this Workingmen's Benevolent Association with it, but I say there is an association which votes in secret, at night, that men's lives shall be taken ... I do not blame this association, but I blame another association for doing it; and it happens that the only men who are shot are the men who dare disobey the mandates of the Workingmen's Benevolent Association.'"

Of the 450 AOH members that Pinkerton Agent McParland estimated were in Schuylkill County, about 400 belonged to the union. Molly Maguireism and full-fledged trade unionism represented fundamentally different modes of organization and protest. Kenny noted that one contemporary organization, the Pennsylvania Bureau of Industrial Statistics, clearly distinguished between the union and the violence attributed to the Molly Maguires. Their reports indicate that violence could be traced to the time of the Civil War, but that in the five-year existence of the WBA, "the relations existing between employers and employees" had greatly improved. The Bureau concluded that the union had brought an end to the "carnival of crime". Kenny notes the leaders of the WBA were "always unequivocally opposed" to the Molly Maguires.

"Most Irish mine workers belonged to the WBA and roughly half the officers of its executive board in 1872 bore Irish names. But, in addition to the WBA, there existed a loosely organized body of men called the Molly Maguires, whose membership appears to have been exclusively Irish ... Both modes of organization... tried to improve conditions of life and labor in the anthracite region. But the strategy of the trade union was indirect, gradual, peaceful, and systematically organized across the anthracite region, while that of the Molly Maguires was direct, violent, sporadic, and confined to a specific locality."

Kenny notes there were frequent tensions between miners of English and Welsh descent, who held the majority of skilled positions, and the mass of unskilled Irish labourers. However, in spite of such differences, the WBA offered a solution, and for the most part "did a remarkable job" in overcoming such differences. "All mine workers, regardless of craft status, national origin, and religious background, were eligible to join the WBA. As a result, many of its rank and file were members of the AOH, and there is evidence that some disgruntled trade union members favored violence against the wishes of their leaders, especially in the climactic year of 1875. But there were no Mollys among the leaders of the WBA, who took every opportunity they could to condemn the Molly Maguires and the use of violence as a strategy in the labor struggle. While the membership of the trade union and the secret society undoubtedly overlapped to some extent, they must be seen as ideologically and institutionally distinct."

Vigilante justice
F.P. Dewees, a contemporary and a confidant of Gowen, wrote that, by 1873, "Mr. Gowen was fully impressed with the necessity of lessening the overgrown power of the 'Labor Union' and exterminating if possible the Molly Maguires." In December 1874, Gowen led the other coal operators to announce a twenty percent pay cut. The miners decided to strike on 1 January 1875.

"Edward Coyle, a leader of the union, and of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, was murdered in March. Another member of the AOH was shot and killed by the Modocs (a rival Welsh gang operating in the anthracite coalfields) led by one Bradley, a mine superintendent. Patrick Vary, a mine boss, fired into a group of miners and, according to the later boast by Gowen, as the miners "fled they left a long trail of blood behind them". At Tuscarora, a meeting of miners was attacked; one miner was killed and several others wounded."

A Pinkerton agent, Robert J. Linden, was brought in to support McParland while serving with the Coal and Iron Police. On 29 August 1875, Allan Pinkerton wrote a letter to George Bangs, Pinkerton's general superintendent, recommending vigilante actions against the Molly Maguires: "The M.M.'s are a species of Thugs... Let Linden get up a vigilance committee. It will not do to get many men, but let him get those who are prepared to take fearful revenge on the M.M.'s. I think it would open the eyes of all the people and then the M.M.'s would meet with their just deserts." On 10 December 1875, three men and two women were attacked in their home by masked men. Author Anthony Lukas wrote that the attack seemed "to reflect the strategy outlined in Pinkerton's memo".

The victims had been secretly identified by McParland as Mollies. One of the men was killed in the house, and the other two supposed Mollies were wounded but able to escape. A woman, the wife of one of the reputed Mollies, was assassinated.

McParland was outraged that the information he had been providing had found its way into the hands of indiscriminate killers. When McParland heard details of the attack at the house, he protested in a letter to his Pinkerton supervisor. He did not object that Mollies might be assassinated as a result of his labor spying—they "got their just deserving". McParland resigned when it became apparent the vigilantes were willing to commit the "murder of women and children", whom he deemed innocent victims. His letter stated:"Friday: This morning at 8 A.M. I heard that a crowd of masked men had entered Mrs. O'Donnell's house ... and had killed James O'Donnell alias Friday, Charles O'Donnell and James McAllister, also Mrs. McAllister whom they took out of the house and shot ... Now as for the O'Donnells I am satisfied they got their just deserving. I reported what those men were. I give all information about them so clear that the courts could have taken hold of their case at any time but the witnesses were too cowardly to do it. I have also in the interests of God and humanity notified you months before some of those outrages were committed still the authorities took no hold of the matter. Now I wake up this morning to find that I am the murderer of Mrs. McAllister. What had a woman to do with the case—did the [Molly Maguires] in their worst time shoot down women. If I was not here the Vigilante Committee would not know who was guilty and when I find them shooting women in their thirst for blood I hereby tender my resignation to take effect as soon as this message is received. It is not cowardice that makes me resign but just let them have it now I will no longer interfere as I see that one is the same as the other and I am not going to be an accessory to the murder of women and children. I am sure the [Molly Maguires] will not spare the women so long as the Vigilante has shown an example." There appears to be an error in the detective's report, which also constituted his resignation letter, of the vigilante incident: he failed to convey the correct number of deaths. Two of the three men "were wounded but able to escape". In the note, McParland reported that these two had been killed by vigilantes. Such notes, possibly containing erroneous or as-yet-unverified information, were forwarded daily by Pinkerton operatives. The content was routinely made available to Pinkerton clients in typed reports. Pinkerton detective reports now in the manuscripts collection at the Lackawanna County Historical Society reveal that Pinkerton had been spying on miners for the mine owners in Scranton. Pinkerton operatives were required to send a report each day. The daily reports were typed by staff, and conveyed to the client for a ten-dollar fee. Such a process was relied upon to "warrant the continuance of the operative's services".

McParland believed his daily reports had been made available to the anti-Molly vigilantes. Benjamin Franklin, McParland's Pinkerton supervisor, declared himself "anxious to satisfy [McParland] that [the Pinkerton Agency has] nothing to do with [the vigilante murders.]" McParland was prevailed upon not to resign. Frank Wenrich, a first lieutenant with the Pennsylvania National Guard, was arrested as the leader of the vigilante attackers, but released on bail. Another miner, Hugh McGeehan, a 21-year-old who had been secretly identified as a killer by McParland, was fired upon and wounded by unknown assailants. Later, the McGeehan family's house was attacked by gunfire.

The strike fails
The union was nearly broken by the imprisonment of its leadership and by attacks conducted by vigilantes against the strikers. Gowen "deluged the newspapers with stories of murder and arson" committed by the Molly Maguires. The press produced stories of strikes in Illinois, in Jersey City, and in the Ohio minefields, all inspired by the Mollies. The stories were widely believed. In Schuylkill County, the striking miners and their families were starving to death. A striker wrote to a friend: Since I last saw you, I have buried my youngest child, and on the day before its death there was not one bit of victuals in the house with six children.

Andrew Roy in his book A History of the Coal Miners of the United States noted: "Hundreds of families rose in the morning to breakfast on a crust of bread and a glass of water, who did not know where a bite of dinner was to come from. Day after day, men, women, and children went to the adjoining woods to dig roots and pick up herbs to keep body and soul together..."

After six months, the strike was defeated and the miners returned to work, accepting the 20 percent cut in pay. But miners belonging to the Ancient Order of Hibernians continued the fight. McParland acknowledged increasing support for the Mollies in his reports: Men, who last winter would not notice a Molly Maguire, are now glad to take them by the hand and make much of them. If the bosses exercise tyranny over the men they appear to look to the association for help. Lukas observes that the defeat was humiliating, and traces the roots of violence by the Mollies in the aftermath of the failed strike: Judges, lawyers, and policemen were overwhelmingly Welsh, German, or English ... When the coalfield Irish sought to remedy their grievances through the courts, they often met delays, obfuscation, or doors slammed in their faces. No longer looking to these institutions for justice, they turned instead to the Mollies.... Before the summer was over, six men—all Welsh or German—paid with their lives.

Authors Richard O. Boyer and Herbert M. Morais argue that the killings were not one-sided:"Militant miners often disappeared, their bodies sometimes being found later in deserted mine shafts."

McParland penetrates the "inner circle"
After months of little progress, McParland reported some plans by the "inner circle". Gomer James, a Welshman, had shot and wounded one of the Mollies, and plans were formulated for a revenge killing. But the wheels of revenge were grinding slowly. And there was other violence:"November was a bloody month what with the miners on strike.... In the three days around November 18, a Mollie was found dead in the streets of Carbondale, north of Scranton, a man had his throat cut, an unidentified man was crucified in the woods, a mining boss mauled, a man murdered in Scranton, and three men of [another Molly Maguires group] were guilty of a horror against an old woman, and an attempt to assassinate a Mollie by the name of Dougherty, followed and [Dougherty] at once demanded the murder of W. M. Thomas, whom he blamed for the attempt."

"On the last day of the month, with Gowen's strikebreakers pouring in, the Summit telegraph office was burned, a train derailed, and McParland advised [his Pinkerton supervisor] to send in uniformed police to preserve order."

A plan to destroy a railroad bridge was abandoned due to the presence of outsiders. The Irish miners had been forbidden to set foot in the public square in Mahanoy City, and a plan to occupy it by force of arms was considered and then abandoned. In the meantime, a messenger reported that [W.M.] Thomas, the would-be killer of one of the Mollies, had been killed in the stable where he worked. McParland himself had been asked to supply the hidden killers with food and whiskey, according to the detective. According to Horan and Swiggett:"The probability is that as a man, "Bully Bill Thomas", a Welshman, was no better than his enemies, but he was remarkable in other ways. His killers, leaving him for dead in the stable door, were not aware until two days later that he had survived."

Another plan was in the works, this one against two night watchmen, Pat McCarron and Benjamin Franklin Yost, a Tamaqua Borough Patrolman. Jimmy Kerrigan and Thomas Duffy were said to despise Yost, who had arrested them on numerous occasions. Yost was shot as he put out a street light, which at that time necessitated climbing the lamp pole. Before he died, he reported that his killers were Irish, but were not Kerrigan or Duffy. McParland recorded that a Mollie named William Love had killed a Justice of the Peace, surnamed Gwyther, in Girardville. Unknown Mollies were accused of wounding a man outside his saloon in Shenandoah. Gomer James was killed while tending bar. Then, McParland recorded, a group of Mollies reported to him that they had killed a mine boss named Sanger, and another man who was with him. Forewarned of the attempt, McParland had sought to arrange protection for the mine boss, but was unsuccessful.

The trials
When Gowen first hired the Pinkerton agency, he had claimed the Molly Maguires were so powerful they had made powerful financial sources and organized labour "their puppets". When the trials of the alleged puppet masters opened, Gowen had himself appointed as special prosecutor.

The first trials were for the killing of John P. Jones. The three defendants, Michael J. Doyle, Jimmy Kerrigan and Edward Kelly, had elected to receive separate trials. Doyle went first, with his trial beginning 18 January 1876, and a conviction for first-degree murder being returned on 1 February. Before the trial was completed, Kerrigan had decided to become a state's witness and gave details about the murders of Jones and Yost. Kelly's trial began on 27 March, and ended in conviction on 6 April 1876.

The first trial of defendants McGeehan, Carroll, Duffy, James Boyle, and James Roarity for the killing of Yost commenced in May 1876. Yost had not recognized the men who attacked him. Although Kerrigan has since been described, along with Duffy, as hating the night watchman enough to plot his murder, Kerrigan became a state's witness and testified against the union leaders and other miners.

However, Kerrigan's wife testified in the courtroom that her husband had committed the murder. She testified that she refused to provide her husband with clothing while he was in prison, because he had "picked innocent men to suffer for his crime". She stated that she was speaking out voluntarily, and was only interested in telling the truth about the murder. Gowen cross-examined her, but could not shake her testimony. Others supported her testimony amid speculation that Kerrigan was receiving special treatment due to the fact that McParland was engaged to his sister-in-law, Mary Ann Higgins.

This trial was declared a mistrial due to the death of one of the jurors. A new trial was granted two months later. During that trial, Fanny Kerrigan did not testify. The five defendants were sentenced to death. Kerrigan was allowed to go free. The trial of Tom Munley for the murders of Thomas Sanger, a mine foreman, and William Uren, relied entirely on the testimony of McParland, and the eyewitness account of a witness. The witness stated under oath that he had seen the murderer clearly, and that Munley was not the murderer. Yet the jury accepted McParland's testimony that Munley had privately confessed to the murder. Munley was sentenced to death.

Another four miners were put on trial and were found guilty on a charge of murder. McParland had no direct evidence, but had recorded that the four admitted their guilt to him. Kelly was being held in a cell for murder, and he was reputedly quoted as saying: "I would squeal on Jesus Christ to get out of here." In return for his testimony, the murder charge against him was dismissed.

In November, McAllister was convicted. McParland's testimony in the Molly Maguires trials helped send ten men to the gallows. The defence attorneys repeatedly sought to portray McParland as an agent provocateur who was responsible for not warning people of their imminent deaths. For his part, McParland testified that the AOH and the Mollies were one and the same, and the defendants were guilty of the murders.

In 1905, during the Colorado Labor Wars, in preparation for a trial, McParland told another witness, Harry Orchard, that "Kelly the Bum" not only had won his freedom for testifying against union leaders, he had been given $1,000 (~$ in ) to "subsidize a new life abroad". McParland had been attempting to convince Orchard to accuse Bill Haywood, leader of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM), of conspiracy to commit another murder. Unlike the Mollies, the WFM's union leadership was acquitted. Orchard alone was convicted, and spent the rest of his life in prison.

The executions

On 21 June 1877, six men were hanged in the prison at Pottsville, and four at Mauch Chunk, Carbon County. A scaffold had been erected in the Carbon County Jail. State militia with fixed bayonets surrounded the prisons and the scaffolds. Miners arrived with their wives and children from the surrounding areas, walking through the night to honour the accused, and by nine o'clock "the crowd in Pottsville stretched as far as one could see." The families were silent, which was "the people's way of paying tribute" to those about to die.

Thomas Munley's aged father had walked more than 10 mi from Gilberton to assure his son that he believed in his innocence. Munley's wife arrived a few minutes after they closed the gate, and they refused to open it even for close relatives to say their final goodbyes. She screamed at the gate with grief, throwing herself against it until she collapsed, but she was not allowed to pass. Four (Alexander Campbell, John "Yellow Jack" Donahue, Michael J. Doyle and Edward J. Kelly) were hanged on 21 June 1877, at a Carbon County prison in Mauch Chunk (renamed Jim Thorpe in 1953), for the murders of John P. Jones and Morgan Powell, both mine bosses, following a trial later described by a Carbon County judge, John P. Lavelle, as follows:"The Molly Maguire trials were a surrender of state sovereignty. A private corporation initiated the investigation through a private detective agency. A private police force arrested the alleged defenders, and private attorneys for the coal companies prosecuted them. The state provided only the courtroom and the gallows."

Campbell, just before his execution, allegedly slapped a muddy handprint on his cell wall stating "There is proof of my words. That mark of mine will never be wiped out. It will remain forever to shame the county for hanging an innocent man." Doyle and Hugh McGeehan were led to the scaffold. They were followed by Thomas Munley, James Carroll, James Roarity, James Boyle, Thomas Duffy, Kelly, Campbell, and "Yellow Jack" Donahue. Judge Dreher presided over the trials.

Ten more condemned, Thomas Fisher, John "Black Jack" Kehoe, Patrick Hester, Peter McHugh, Patrick Tully, Peter McManus, Dennis Donnelly, Martin Bergan, James McDonnell and Charles Sharpe, were hanged at Mauch Chunk, Pottsville, Bloomsburg and Sunbury over the next two years. Peter McManus was the last Molly Maguire to be tried and convicted for murder at the Northumberland County Courthouse in 1878.

Rhodes's account of the Mollies
Many accounts of the Molly Maguires that were written during, or shortly after, the period offer no admission that there was widespread violence in the area, that vigilantism existed, nor that violence was carried out against the miners. In 1910, industrialist and historian James Ford Rhodes published a major scholarly analysis in the leading professional history journal:

The aftermath
When organized labour helped elect Terence V. Powderly as mayor of Scranton, Pennsylvania two years after the Molly Maguire trials, the opposition vilified his team as the "Molly Maguire Ticket".

In 1979, Pennsylvania Governor Milton Shapp granted a posthumous pardon to John "Black Jack" Kehoe after an investigation by the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons. The request for a pardon was made by one of Kehoe's descendants. John Kehoe had proclaimed his innocence until his death. The Board recommended the pardon after investigating Kehoe's trial and the circumstances surrounding it. Shapp praised Kehoe, saying the men called "Molly Maguires" were "martyrs to labour" and heroes in the struggle to establish a union and fair treatment for workers. And "... [I]t is impossible for us to imagine the plight of the 19th Century miners in Pennsylvania's anthracite region" and that it was Kehoe's popularity among the miners that led Gowen "'to fear, despise and ultimately destroy [him]'".

In popular culture

 * Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes novel The Valley of Fear is partly based on James McParland's infiltration of the Mollies.
 * The Molly Maguires, a feature film starring Richard Harris as James McParland and Sean Connery as Molly leader Jack Kehoe was released in 1970.
 * A 1965 episode of The Big Valley titled "Heritage" portrayed the Mollies as active at a fictitious mine in the Sierra in the 1870s, in which the Irish miners protest the use of Chinese labourers during a mine strike.
 * George Korson, a folklorist and journalist, wrote several songs on the topic including his composition Minstrels of the Mine Patch, which has a section on the Molly Maguires: "Coal Dust on the Fiddle".
 * Irish folk band The Dubliners have a song called "Molly Maguires".
 * The Irish Rovers' song, "Lament for the Molly Maguires", is on their album Upon a Shamrock Shore.
 * They were mentioned by Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard and Special Agent Jack Sloane on The Season 17 episode of NCIS entitled "Musical Chairs"

Contemporary sources

 * Dewees, Francis P. The Molly Maguires: The Origin, Growth, and Character of the Organization. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1877.
 * Pinkerton, Allan; The Mollie Maguires and the Detectives; New York: G. W. Dillingham Co. Publishers, 1877.

Scholarly secondary sources

 * Bimba, Anthony. The Molly Maguires. New York: International Publishers, 1932.
 * Broehl, Jr., Wayne G. The Molly Maguires, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1964.
 * Gudelunas, Jr., William Anthony, and William G. Shade. Before the Molly Maguires: The Emergence of the Ethnoreligious Factor in the Politics of the Lower Anthracite Region: 1844–1872. New York: Arno Press, 1976.
 * Foner, Phillip. A History of the Labor Movement in the United States: Volume 1, From Colonial Times to the Founding of the American Federation of Labor. New York: International Publishers, 1947.
 * Kenny, Kevin. Making Sense of the Molly Maguires, New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
 * Kenny, Kevin. "The Molly Maguires in Popular Culture", Journal of American Ethnic History, vol. 14, no. 4 (1995), pp. 27–46.
 * Kenny, Kevin. "The Molly Maguires and the Catholic Church", Labor History, vol. 36, no. 3 (1995), pp. 345–376.
 * Lens, Sidney. The Labor Wars: From the Molly Maguires to the Sitdowns. New York: Doubleday, 1973.
 * Morn, Frank. The Eye that Never Sleeps: A History of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1982.
 * Rayback, Joseph G. A History of American Labor. Rev. and exp. ed. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1974. ISBN 1-299-50529-5

title: Molly Maguires


text:
Talk:Abercrombie & Fitch

Too many names
While I was looking for other sources like this one, I realized that there were many more prominent figures who were Abercrombie before it turned into what it is today. It needs to be chopped down. мirаgeinred سَراب ٭ (talk) 05:42, 28 September 2008 (UTC)
 * I realize this post is very old, but ffr, you could be a little more explicit. Rags (talk) 10:31, 29 March 2017 (UTC)

Criticism
This article still has multiple issues, with obvious input by "interested" parties, but I have to say, overall, very informative. I particularly like the section covering discrimination and other legal issues, "girlcott", etc. Much has been done to balance out the hyperbole. Personally, I will never wear A & F unless I find it at a thrift store, but then I was never the fashionista. "Good Article" has a very specific meaning here in wiki-world, and we are not at that point, but I like the progress that is being made here. Rags (talk) 11:07, 29 March 2017 (UTC)
 * All that said, I think the "History" section could be expanded greatly. A&F started as outfitters, which they were, very successfully, for nearly a century.  They're known in military history for providing the first camoflage uniforms to the USMC, when other branches were still restricted to khaki and olive drab.  HUGE military contracts.  This would indicate they were probably hugely successful in peacetime, to have the deep pockets, skill sets, and infrastructure to fulfill such military contracts.  This modern incarnation of A&F is only relatively recent.  My friend who explained all this to me is not very research-savvy, so if he knows this stuff, there should be plenty of good secondary sources.  I'll see what I can do, but my time is limited, so if any of you can help, I believe it would move us along toward a more encyclopedic posting.  Maybe some of you "interested" types, with better computers and more time to invest?  Rags (talk) 11:43, 29 March 2017 (UTC)

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Edits Requested from Abercrombie & Fitch
Hi there,

By way of disclosure, we are associates of Abercrombie & Fitch Co. and we would like to provide some edits to this page that update some of the outdated information.

Our list of edits is below, please let us know the best way to proceed.

-Arthur Martinez is no longer the Executive Chairman of the Board, as announced in January ’18. Terry Burman is now the Non Executive Chairman of the Board

-As announced in October ’17, A&F’s target consumer is 21-24

-A&F does not only cast store employees for its marketing campaigns and the paragraph below is no longer accurate. If you need further clarification, please let us know: Casting directors from the home office travel to key A&F regional stores in the United States and to London to hold "casting calls" for employees aspiring to become the next "A&F New Face".[22][dead link] The company promotes its casting sessions, models, and photo shoots in the "A&F Casting" feature online at abercrombie.com. The website also provides a gallery of current photography. Framed copies at A&F stores will sometimes name the model and store.

-Is it possible to update the leadership names as of ’17 instead of ’14? If so, we can provide those updated executives.

A&F Comms Team (talk) 19:07, 24 February 2018 (UTC)

 * Hi, the important thing about those changes is the availability of publicly accessible sources. It all seems uncontroversial to me, but we need a reference to point at for each statement. Official company websites etc. would do nicely for this kind of information. Exec names should certainly be updated. Could you provide a source for each of the above items? Cheers -- Elmidae (talk · contribs) 06:40, 25 February 2018 (UTC)

Thank you for the quick feedback. Below are sources to verify the updates above. Chairman of the Board Announcement: https://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/arthur-martinez-to-step-down-as-executive-chairman-of-abercrombie--fitch-lead-director-terry-burma-20180122-00440

A&F Target Consumer Update: http://inpublic.globenewswire.com/2017/10/19/Abercrombie+Fitch+Launches+New+Fully+Integrated+Campaign+This+is+the+Time+HUG2142789.html

Executive Leadership, within annual report below. Annual reports are published each June, so doesn't include Scott Lipesky, as he joined as CFO in September '17. His announcement is also linked below and should be included in the list of Executive Leadership. http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=61701&p=irol-reportsannual http://inpublic.globenewswire.com/2017/09/06/ABERCROMBIE+FITCH+CO+APPOINTS+CHIEF+FINANCIAL+OFFICER+HUG2131735.html

Let me know if you need further information. Thank you again for taking the time to make these factual updates. Gray92 (talk) 15:40, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

Hi there! Checking in on the above. Can the above changes be made? Thanks! Gray92 (talk) 17:24, 15 March 2018 (UTC)
 * Hi, sorry for the delay - didn't see you had responded :) I have implemented most of the above changes with the sources given, but apart from Burman and Lipesky, I confess I have been unable to extract the current corporate leadership roster from the annual report, if it is buried in there somewhere. Can I ask you to update those yourself? If you prefer, I can then insert the reference, if you can confirm that the data are from the 2016 report. If you update, I suggest making a note of this talk page conversation in the edit summary, just in case. Cheers -- Elmidae (talk · contribs) 17:58, 15 March 2018 (UTC)
 * , - did you notice the above? You will have to help me out there. Cheers -- Elmidae (talk · contribs) 18:06, 22 March 2018 (UTC)

Hi, yes. Thanks for your patience. We recently launched a corporate site that houses all of this information. Please reference this. http://corporate.abercrombie.com/our-company/about-us/leadership Does this work? Thanks. Gray92 (talk) 13:05, 26 March 2018 (UTC)
 * ✅ Alright, that works fine. Done. -- Elmidae (talk · contribs) 13:30, 26 March 2018 (UTC)

Great. Will the contributors make the edits then based on the above? Thank you. Gray92 (talk) 14:45, 26 March 2018 (UTC)
 * I already did? -- Elmidae (talk · contribs) 15:12, 26 March 2018 (UTC)

Thanks, it still has Arthur as Chairman on the right hand side. Can that be updated to Terry Burman, as non executive chairman? Thank you. Gray92 (talk) 16:25, 26 March 2018 (UTC)
 * Oh, right you are; fixed. (This kind of thing would be entirely uncontroversial for you to change yourself, by the way, for future reference.) -- Elmidae (talk · contribs) 07:43, 27 March 2018 (UTC)

Noted, thank you! Gray92 (talk) 12:51, 27 March 2018 (UTC)

Hi there! Was hoping you could make an update on the Humanitarian section? Our annual A&F Challenge benefits SeriousFun Children's Network, and has since 2016. See here for more details: http://anfchallenge.org/

Thanks! Gray92 (talk) 18:38, 21 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Hi, I suggest you whip up a sentence or two on that and post it here for review? Cheers -- Elmidae (talk · contribs) 07:16, 22 June 2018 (UTC)

Thanks! This section, The A&F Challenge is an annual fundraising event held on the home office campus in New Albany that features running, walking, biking, entertainment, and food. The funds raised go to the Ohio State University Medical Center's Program for Health, which focuses on "women's cancers and the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of inflammatory bowel disease." needs to be updated to say that the funds raised benefit SeriousFun Children's Network (it is not longer benefitting OSU Medical Center). Additionally, can we add this to the overall section: In 2016, A&F Co. and SeriousFun Children's Network launched a 5-year, $15 million partnership through 2020. Founded by actor and philanthropist Paul Newman, SeriousFun Children's Network is a global community of camps and programs for kids with serious illnesses and their families. Specially-designed facilities and programs allow every child, no matter the medical condition, the opportunity to experience the magic of camp -- always free of charge. Whether through summer camp, sibling and family weekends, hospital outreach programs, or a number of other camp-inspired activities, being sick takes a back seat to being a kid. The network consists of 30 camps and programs worldwide.

A&F's support includes $7.5M fundraised dollars through the A&F Challenge, $7.5M in in kind donations, and 100,000 associate volunteer hours though the company's A&F Camp Counselor Program. For more information on this partnership, and others, visit http://corporate.abercrombie.com/af-cares/af-gives-back/our-mission

Gray92 (talk) 19:46, 8 August 2018 (UTC)

Bob Jones University
I have two concerns with this citation. First and foremost, the quoted language does not actually exist in the source material as provided by the link. The handbook states "Abercrombie & Fitch and its subsidiary Hollister have shown an unusual degree of antagonism to biblical morality. Therefore, BJU asks its students not to patronize these stores, wear their clothing, or display articles containing their names or logos." The language about "the name of Christ and an unusual display of wickedness" is absent in the source material. If this was a quote from a different iteration of the Student Handbook, please update the reference so that the quote reflects the source. If the language does not exist in any iteration please remove the erroneous language. (There is a substantial difference between an institution stating that a company does things that are inconsistent with the institution and avoiding the company as a result and affirmatively calling a company evil). Second, this quote is entirely irrelevant to the discussion. There is no discussion of as to what aspect or in what way A&F have shown antagonism to biblical morality. This is one institutions opinion that comes with no explanation. This reference is not styled as the opinion of a single non-denominational Christian school, rather as further proof that A&F is antagonistic to the schools version of biblical morality and A&F's inherent wickedness. This is entirely devoid of any objective analysis and is no more than a statement of opinion and has no business being presented as fact. P.S. personally I would never buy from A&F because of the myriad other legitimate criticisms contained in this article and elsewhere. I am by no means attempting to defend A&F or its actions. I do feel that the article should more accurately reflect reality — Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.125.143.178 (talk) 15:53, 25 January 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: NAS 348 Global Climate Change
— Assignment last updated by TotalSolarEclipse (talk) 17:08, 24 February 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Abercrombie & Fitch


text:
Amy Madison

Amy Madison is a fictional character on the American television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, portrayed by Elizabeth Anne Allen. The character appears in every season of Buffy except the fifth.

In the show, Amy is a witch. Although initially a seemingly good-natured individual, Amy gradually begins misusing her magic, eventually becoming an enemy to Willow (Alyson Hannigan) and her friends. In the series' comic book continuation, the character is a villain.

Television
Amy is a classmate of Buffy Summers at Sunnydale High School. In junior high, she would often go over to Willow's house to escape her mother's abuse. The character first appears in the first season episode "Witch", when she and Buffy both try out for the cheerleading squad. At first, Amy performs poorly in the tryouts, but a series of strange injuries to other contestants move her up in the standings. Amy's mother Catherine, a very powerful witch, has switched bodies with Amy because she wants to relive her youth. Buffy and the Scooby Gang succeed in restoring Amy to her own body and (unknown to them) trapping her mother in the cheerleading trophy she won while a cheerleader for Sunnydale High. Afterward, Amy talks to Buffy and mentions that she is now living with her father and step-mother, and that she is much happier.

The character appears as a Sunnydale student in other episodes. In the second season episode "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", Xander Harris discovers that Amy inherited her mother's power. Xander blackmails Amy into helping him perform a love spell on Cordelia Chase, however, the spell goes awry and causes the entire female population of Sunnydale, except Cordelia, to become infatuated with Xander. Under the influence of her own spell, a jealous Amy invokes the goddess Hecate and temporarily turns Buffy into a rat. Eventually, Rupert Giles forces Amy to undo both spells.

In season three, the character has joined a coven with Willow (now a practicing witch) and warlock Michael Czajak. In the episode "Gingerbread", the parents of Sunnydale (under the influence of the demonic Hans and Greta) become paranoid about the supernatural's influence on their children, and prepare to burn Amy, Buffy, and Willow at the stake. To escape her bonds, Amy turns herself into a rat, but is then unable to remove her own spell. Willow captures Rat-Amy and keeps her in a cage. Willow makes several unsuccessful attempts to return Amy to human form over the next two seasons. In the season four episode "Something Blue", Willow accidentally turns Amy back into a human, but Willow does not notice, and accidentally changes the character back into a rat. Doug Petrie, a writer on the show, describes this series of events as "as cruel and funny as anything could be".

By sixth season, Willow has become an extremely powerful witch and permanently "de-rats" Amy. The two become friends again, though Amy now seems to be drastically different. The character had been involved with the warlock Rack before becoming a rat. Amy gets Willow involved, leading her to become addicted to black magic. Later, when Willow decides to give up magic, Amy casts a spell on her, causing her to magically manipulate everything she touches for a while; Willow complains that Amy's actions are encumbering her attempts to quit magic. As a result, Willow cuts Amy out of her life entirely.

Amy's final appearance in the television series occurs in the season seven episode "The Killer in Me." Elizabeth Anne Allen said, "I think after all the things that she went through, there were a lot of reasons why she was so angry."

Having physically transformed into Warren Mears, whom she tortured and flayed in a rage over the murder of her girlfriend Tara Maclay, Willow seeks help from the UC Sunnydale Wicca Group and discovers that Amy is a member. Amy explains that she had hit "rock bottom", and was doing better now. However, Amy is responsible for transforming Willow, apparently out of jealousy and spite. Allen says she would have liked to explore Amy's struggle to overcome her anger, so that she could "get a grip and come back to the fold with her friends."

Literature
Amy makes minor appearances in several ambiguously canon novels set before the season 3 finale, most notable The Gatekeeper (novel series), where she helps defend Sunnydale from a horde of magical threats while Buffy and her friends are busy elsewhere.

In the first issue of the Season Eight comic book story "The Long Way Home," Amy works together with the US Army to locate and attack Buffy.

Later, in "Time of Your Life," Amy and Warren are shown working under direct orders from Twilight. Together they construct a missile covered in mystical runes and candles and use it to destroy a Scottish citadel, killing seven of the many Slayers residing there. When Twilight betrays Amy and Warren, she attempts to switch sides and forms a truce with Buffy in "Twilight." In the final arc, "Last Gleaming," Amy and Warren have fled far from the final battle scene. At its conclusion, after Buffy destroys an ancient relic and effectively brings about the end of magic on Earth, the spell keeping Warren alive breaks, and Amy watches as he suddenly turns into a pile of blood and bones.

Amy also appears in the second volume of Angel & Faith, tying into Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Ten, in issue four. In the story, magic was recently restored to the world at the conclusion of Buffy Season Nine, while London in Angel & Faith was the site of a failed attempt by Whistler to restore magic which resulted in the mass mutation of locals in one borough, creating the ghetto known as 'Magic Town.'

Powers and abilities
In the television series, Amy possesses formidable witchcraft abilities that she has inherited from her maternal lineage, and these powers undergo significant augmentation over the course of the series. Initially, Amy's magical prowess surpasses that of Willow, as demonstrated when she casts a rat-transformation spell that initially stumps Willow's attempts at reversal. However, in season seven, Amy concedes that Willow has eclipsed her in magical proficiency. In the comic book, Season Eight, she is significantly stronger.

Romantic interests

 * Xander Harris - After a spell Amy casts which was supposed to make Cordelia love Xander goes wrong, she, along with every other woman in Sunnydale, falls in love with Xander ("Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"). This attraction ends after Rupert Giles gets Amy to reverse the spell.
 * Larry Blaisdell - Amy stated that she thought Larry was considering asking her to the prom, apparently unaware he was gay and the fact that the graduation of her class occurred three years before, when Larry died.
 * Warren Mears - Amy's skinless boyfriend in Season Eight. It is revealed in "The Long Way Home" that the two had been in a relationship since "Villains"; after Warren was flayed alive by Willow, Amy saved his life. Amy refers to Warren as "sweetie", while he claims that "her magic is my skin."

Appearances
Amy has appeared in 32 canonical Buffyverse episodes and comics.
 * Buffy the Vampire Slayer : Amy appeared as a guest in eight episodes:
 * Season 1 (1997) - "Witch"
 * Season 2 (1998) - "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"
 * Season 3 (1999) - "Gingerbread"
 * Season 4 (1999) - "Something Blue"
 * Season 6 (2001–02) - "Smashed"; "Wrecked"; "Doublemeat Palace"
 * Season 7 (2003) - "The Killer in Me"

 * Buffy the Vampire Slayer Classics
 * "Bad Blood, Part Three: A Boy Named Sue"

 * Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight
 * "The Long Way Home, Parts 1-4"
 * "Time of Your Life, Part 1 & 4"
 * "Retreat, Part 2, 3 & 5"
 * "Twilight, Part 1-4"
 * "Last Gleaming, Part 1, 3 & 4"

 * Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Ten
 * "Where the River Meets the Sea, Part 1 & 4"
 * "Lost and Found, Part 1-5"

title: Amy Madison


text:
Talk:Maine penny

Section
This section This is generally considered to have been the result of trade or theft or discovery by the Beothuk and the later invading Mi'kmaq from the Nova Scotian mainland but is entirely possible to have been left by the vikings as perhaps the indication of the furthest south they've ever been, eventfully preserved by the presence of the Mi'kmaq who were possibly involved in the coin being dropped, if not later picking it up and moving it to their settlement when visiting the shore. was written by Kenneth Alan. I've tried to keep most of the background on how the coin might've arrived at the site intact, but I do not know how much evidence there is for the identification of the native american peoples involved in this. We should elaborate this first on the talk page.

 * Martijn, it was an exercise to postulate what might have happened. Most people find it hard to draw conclusions without an idea to the background of the nature regarding obscure topics.  I did, however, leave out the presence of the Penobscot by faulty memory and not intended omission.  Lord Kenneð Alansson 05:43, 18 May 2004 (UTC)

 * Are the Penobscot attested to have been at this site around 1200 AD? I mean, I realize the place is dead smack in the area so it's likely. I'll do some checking. Martijn faassen 06:20, 18 May 2004 (UTC)

 * I'm not sure. Penobscots have a bit of local prestige in Maine, from what I remember in summer vacations to southeastern Maine(excursive travel enticements).  They never really talked about about Mi'kmaq or Algonquins in general.  I know that the Mi'kmaq are in Nova Scotia though, and have been there for a long time.  They invaded Newfoundland during European colonial history, from what I recall on the Newoundland heritage website.  The Beothuk were reduced by the combined efforts of the European diseases and Mi'kmaq expansion.  I believe it to make sense to state that it is possible the Mi'kmaq brought the coin to the Penobscot as something exotic for trade.  That's my opinion from the data, but obviously that is a likely, not necessarily exact truth.  In any case, the Mi'kmaq are directly between the Penobscot and (former) Beothuk.  Also, the Innu of Labrador are in between what was the Beothuk of Newfoundland and the Inuit of Greenland.  That's my understanding of the east coast, of these places where the vikings could have met these tribes.  I don't really know much about other tribes in those areas.  Lord Kenneð Alansson 06:46, 18 May 2004 (UTC)

 * I can't find this confirmed so far. I checked "Ancient North America" by Brian M. Fagan but it has nothing about the Penobscot (but does mention the Goddard site briefly). "Goddard site" seems to be the right term, I can't find any reference to "Goddard Point" in my googling. I've found a timeline which mentions the Penobscot but only later, so I don't know. I've removed the identification as peoples can change quite a bit in a few centuries.

 * http://www.mainepbs.org/hometsom/timelines/natamtimeline.html

 * Martijn faassen 18:55, 18 May 2004 (UTC)

 * The Penobscot would have influence in the site, regardless. They encompassed the area.  I know for a fact that Penobscots are the only natives spoken about in that area.  They are advertised in travel guides, but never any history of other natives.  My Penguin Atlas of the Vikings says Goddard Point.  This is a geographical area, not just the name of an archaeological site.  Lord Kenneð Alansson 23:06, 18 May 2004 (UTC)

 * It is quite possible that these (often semi-nomadic) peoples are moving around; or didn't have an individual identity yet; we're talking about a timeframe of centuries. I don't think we can make the positive identification of Penobscot unless we get some grounding in the literature about this.

 * I *was* talking about the 'Goddard site' in the article (which presumbly is at Goddard Point?), but I'll do some more research in the naming conventions for this stuff. Martijn faassen 05:59, 19 May 2004 (UTC)

 * I've just found a few references that support your identification:

 * http://www.cast.uark.edu/other/nps/nagpra/DOCS/nic0185.html

 * Interestingly enough as part of an investigation on the protection of native graves. I did find other references indicating much older finds at this site as well (thousands of years ago), which means we have to be exact in our statement; not all of this might be penobscot ancestral. I'll rewrite to try to take this into account. Martijn faassen 06:25, 19 May 2004 (UTC)

Naskeag
Naskeag gives me a whole trove of new content with google about this site. In particular I found this article which is somewhat skeptical about this coin. It claims it was accepted without much criticism in somewhat dubious circumstances:

http://faculty.virginia.edu/phantom/norsepenny.pdf

I've made the article a bit less definite about some matters to account for this. Martijn faassen 06:18, 19 May 2004 (UTC)

Circumstances of the discovery and external links
There is not a single external link here, nothing to identify which archaeologists have worked the "Goddard site" or where the "Maine penny' is now etc.  Some context would be more interesting. --Wetman 03:08, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Maine penny the only artifact regarded generally as genuine?
I'm trying to find some material outside of wikipedia that can be cited to back up that the Maine Penny is the only Norse artifact in the United States that is generally regarded as genuine by experts. Does anyone have some references for me? Of course if other artifacts also have this status that would be good to find out too. There are of course other artifacts like the Kensington Runestone, but it's debated whether they're genuine. (such debate in fact exists for the Maine Penny too, but it appears to have a special status nonetheless) Martijn Faassen 19:47, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

article biasing the other way now?
Originally the article was very positive about the Maine penny being a genuine Norse artifact. This is because I generally only ran into sources that didn't dispute this (the sources generally aren't very good, though). Finally I ran into the Carpenter paper, which is skeptical. While this paper's arguments are quite convincing, it's only one paper, and generally I do get the impression that it's been accepted. I originally just linked in the paper without modifying the article. Right now the article is leaning much in favor of skepticism. The comments in the history give me the impression that's because other people were convinced by the arguments in he paper and adjusted the article accordingly.

To balance the article, it would be worthwhile to find other careful examinations of the facts surrounding the Maine penny. If we find more skeptical ones, that's a good reason to keep the article as is. If we find well-reasoned articles arguing the other point, that's an indication we might want to adjust the article somewhat. Again, I did have the strong impression that the Maine penny has at least traditionally been accepted as genuine, but it's indeed hard to find sources on a statement like that. Martijn Faassen 14:15, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

 * Hi Martijn. Balancing it out would be just fine with me, although I found the article very convincing, esp. the fact that there are no coins known from L'Anse Aux Meadows, Greenland, or Iceland from that period.  Go ahead and make any changes that you think are necessary, and I'll look for more sources.  Cheers.  Alexwoods 14:26, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

 * The use of the word "allegedly" in the first line of the article suggests there is some sort of fraud or deception taking place - suggest this word should be deleted. I don't think there is any serious dispute that the coin was found where it was found - the dispute centres on whether the Vikings brought it there, or whether it was brought by indigenous peoples from somewhere further north (Baffin Island?) That there are no coins from l'Anse aux Meadows isn't relevant - the L'Anse aux Meadows site is both a lot earlier and was subject to an orderly evacuation, both reasons why we would not find coins there. We have to be rigorous in the standards applied to examining Viking finds in North America, but it is sometimes hard to avoid the view that we are seeking an impossible standard of proof. This is a coin of known date found within the context of an archaeological site as part of a proper dig. It is within a reasonable distance of a major known Viking site (L'Anse aux Meadows) in an area that literary sources tell us the Vikings visited. Furtermore the find of a butternut at L'Anse aux Meadows gives archaeological proof that the Vikings travelled south of L'Anse aux Meadows. How much more evidence do people want? Is it just that it is now fashionable to be sceptical? Graemedavis (talk) 14:15, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

 * Hi Graeme. I suggest you read the linked article by Carpenter.  It is considered highly unlikely verging on totally improbable that the penny is a trade item.  Carpenter points out that there are no such finds from established Norse sites in Newfoundland and Greenland, and that coins like the penny are even incredibly rare in Iceland.  Also, I believe the coin actually dates from after the collapse of the Greenland colony.  I think in this case that skepticism is warranted, and that using 'allegedly' in the intro is appropriate.
 * Incidentally, I don't think anyone disputes that the Norse went south - possibly very far south - of L'Anse aux Meadows. I'd like to spend some time working on articles related to the Norse in North America, and maybe you'd be interested in helping out.  Best regards.  Alexwoods (talk) 14:25, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

 * I think the article is somewhat biased the other way now. What I find missing is citations to papers discussing the find as authentic.  I don't have access to the relevant subscriptions, so I keep hitting paywalls in my searching for academic literature.  But this is clearly missing from the article as it now stands.  (Incidentally, the Carpenter paper link had gone 404 on us; I've replaced it with a link to the same paper at a different site.)  This 2000 NYTimes article describes the consensus on the penny as "Norse penny minted in the late 11th century turned up at an Indian site in Maine, but it is generally thought to have gotten there by trade."  The Carpenter paper is dated 2003.  So the current scholarly consensus may be different - but there certainly ought to be scholarly papers available that are supportive of the trade theory.  If we found and used those, we'd be better able to assess the balance of reliable sources.  GRBerry 16:33, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

 * So, additional sources to consider:

 * 1) Spring 2005 American Numismatic Society Magazine non-scholarly
 * 2) June 2002 issue of American Anthropologist, behind a pay wall
 * 3) June 2003 issue of same, with response to relevant article, also behind pay wal
 * 4) October 1980 issue of of Current Anthropology, behind a pay wall
 * 5) Maine State Museum page - better than popular press but not a scholarly paper, but probably should be an external link in the article regardless
 * (extend list as found)

 * Has anyone found a rebuttal of the Carpenter paper? I looked for one and was unable to find one. patsw (talk) 00:14, 14 July 2009 (UTC)

 * The conclusion of the Carpenter paper - its last words - are "not proven". It is the Spring 2005 American Numismatic Society Magazine which takes the case for a hoax further than did Carpenter by suggesting that the coin may be one from a particular hoard found in Norway.

 * Set against the hoax idea is the view which is in effect endorsed by the Smithsonian on the website "Vikings, the North Atlantic Saga" at http://www.mnh.si.edu/vikings/, ie that the coin is "thought to be evidence of an extensive northern native trade network". This website derives from "Vikings: the North Atlantic Saga", edited by William W. Fitzhugh and Elisabeth I. Ward. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press in association with the National Museum of Natural History, 2000. Fitzhugh is director of the Smithsonian's Arctic Studies Centre. Those wishing to argue that the Maine Penny is a hoax have to argue either that Guy Mellgren is responsible for the hoax, or that someone duped him. I don't think it is possible to demonstrate that he had a motive (as this article suggests). If it were a hoax by him or someone else it required some preparation and some cost in order to carry it out (a coin of this type has a more than trivial value) and it is hard to see what he gained by it. Carpenter writing on the Maine penny expresses surprise that the details of the find circumstances were not thoroughly checked, but the reality is that they rarely were at this period (or even perhaps today). There is an interesting parallel with a coin of the same type found in the 1960s at a dig at the Brough of Birsay in Orkney, http://nms.scran.ac.uk/database/record.php?usi=000-100-060-079-C . It cannot be absolutely proved that either an archaeologist or some nameless hoaxer did not place this coin in the site, though I very much doubt anyone is suggesting this. Unusual though it is to find a Norse coin of this period in a British site we assume good faith on the part of the archaeologists and those amateurs assisting them. I would be interested to know how the ANSM would regard the Birsay coin. Do they doubt this find also? Can you doubt one without doubting the other?

 * I feel this article needs a clearer balance between on the one hand the Smithsonian/Fitzhugh view that the coin comes from an archaeological site in Maine and on the other the view that it is a hoax, as expressed in a brief item in ANSM. Carpenter comes somewhere between these two alternatives. I also think the "old" view that the Vikings took the coin to Maine needs to be more clearly stated. The "new" trade view has not disproved the "old" view, just given an alternative possible explanation. The Dorset Inuit burren is not absolutely certain, and if that is taken out of the equation then there is no evidence of trade with Labrador or Newfoundland. I don't think there has been a proper direct rebuttal of the ANSM view or of Carpenter's view, but the Smithsonian/Fitzhugh view sets out something clearly different.

 * "However, this explanation is unsatisfactory, as no coinage has been recovered from other North American Viking sites. This Maine penny and other similar coins of this era were available on the open market in 1957. Mellgren had the means, motive, and opportunity to plant the coin at the site, or to be deceived by someone else planting the coin". I don't like this section! The only major Viking site on the North American continent is L'Anse aux Meadows, which is earlier than the Maine penny and which was subject to an orderly evacuation. Olaf Kyrre silver pennies were indeed potentially on the market around 1957, but making this statement at this late point in the article implies that the coin is a hoax. By comparison the archaeologists at Birsay also had "means, motive and opportunity" to plant an Olaf Kyrre silver penny, but no-one would dream of suggesting this. I think this sentence suggests wrongdoing when there probably is none and should therefore be deleted. The conclusion is surely to the effect that the identification of the penny is secure, but whether it came there through direct Viking contact, trade or as a hoax is (to borrow Carpenter's words) not proven. Graemedavis (talk) 01:04, 24 July 2009 (UTC)

Picture
Article needs a picture. A diagram showing the original design would also be helpful. Do other coins of the same pattern exist in good condition? Drutt (talk) 04:58, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

The Maine Museum seems to have copyright on images. There are pictures of other Olaf Kyrre silver pennies. Graemedavis (talk) 01:04, 24 July 2009 (UTC)

Some problems with the article fixed.
I rewrote it to be as chronological as possible. The article was rather vague regarding who is claiming what. I hope it is clear to the reader now. I think the Wikipedia's role here is not to decide if it is authentic but to present both sides. My rewrite puts the claim of authenticity in the voice of the Maine State Museum and not as a passive voice claim. It is unfortunate that if Mellgren had followed better archeological protocol either when it was found or when it was handed over to the MSM, there's a possibility we would place this beyond dispute. Carpenter's paper not only discusses the difficulties of proving authenticity in 2003 beyond reasonable doubt, but the lack of interest in the archeological professionals in not recognizing its significance and in not investigating its authenticity during Mellgren's life. I shared Carpenter's shock "How could that not have been checked..." Mellgren died in 1978. patsw (talk) 00:11, 14 July 2009 (UTC)

 * I made a couple of minor updates to the article that I think will help provide balance. The well researched Edmund Carpenter investigation actually concluded "Not proven" to the charge that it was a hoax, and does a good job of presenting facts from both perspectives (it is genuine, it is a hoax). I think, based on that investigation, that no one will ever know. Salient points against: (a) Guy Mellgren did collect coins and (b) was personally of Nordic descent, and (c) didn't record find in his journal when it was found. Points for: (a) he never attempted to make money from the find, (b) he didn't publicize the find (Maurice Robbins, Maine State Archaeologist attributed this to Mellgren's belief that as an amateur archaeologist, he would be accused of fraud), and (c) that he had a good reputation to those who knew him.
 * I personally concur with "Not proven". SunSw0rd (talk) 18:52, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

BLP concern
I'm about to read the Carpenter paper but in the meantime, I wanted to raise a BLP concern here. "There is no solid evidence of a hoax, yet there are enough questionable aspects regarding the archaeologist that produced the coin to leave its provenance in doubt." - I think this wording suggests that there's something dodgy about Guy Mellgren, and I don't think that's appropriate.--Jimbo Wales (talk) 14:58, 17 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Having now read the Carpenter paper, I see that 'BLP' isn't quite right, since Mr. Mellgren passed away decades ago. My concern, though, is still with me.
 * The main thing is that, whatever the deal with the coin is, there seems to be little reason to even suppose that Millgren was the perpetrator of a hoax. To believe that, we have to believe he bought a Norse penny, pretended to find it, but then never ever revealed to anyone that it was a Norse penny, instead putting forward his view that it was an English coin.  It wasn't known to be Norse until after he died.  That just doesn't make sense as a hoax.
 * I think it perfectly appropriate that we raise Carpenter's doubts about the coin, but not appropriate to cast doubt on Mellgren's honesty.--Jimbo Wales (talk) 15:19, 17 September 2010 (UTC)
 * You're missing the possibility that Millgren perpetrated the hoax, but was himself confused about the coin, erroneously believing it to be a British coin - not an impossibly mistake, given the errors often made by collectors of coins and other antiquities at the time. Anyway, I understand your larger point, and I suggest the following replacement text: "There are enough questions regarding the provenance of the coin to leave its archaeological significance unclear."  Regards, ClovisPt (talk) 21:02, 20 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I agree with that. Doubts about the provenance of the coin certainly exist and can be stated in a neutral way without casting doubt on Mr. Millgren.--Jimbo Wales (talk) 13:37, 22 September 2010 (UTC)
 * One thing that can definitely be sourced is the "NEBC Principle" that was first pointed out by author Boland in the '60s - and maybe we should do an article entitled NEBC Principle to explain what that means... "No Europeans Before Columbus" - therefore, if any artifact ever does suggest Europeans before Columbus in the western hemisphere, then it is a priori considered a hoax by scholastics without any further ado. I.N.R.I. Negus (talk) 21:30, 20 September 2010 (UTC)
 * But since virtually every archeologist in the US and Canada agree that there are Norse artefacts in Canada and that the Norse were there(by the way, you don't really mean Western Hemisphere I hope), the principle is nonsense. Besides that, you'd have to find sources mentioning this NEBC principle and this coin, otherwise it would be original research. Dougweller (talk) 07:31, 21 September 2010 (UTC)
 * There are, however, enough external sources to write an encyclopedia article entitled NEBC Principle to explain what that term means. But the term is certainly controversial, has many detractors, and mentioning it in the pre web 2.0 era always led to instant ostracism. Thus, perhaps you are right again and it is preferable for Wikipedia to shun controversial concepts altogether, rather than give voice to them.  I.N.R.I. Negus (talk) 11:31, 21 September 2010 (UTC)
 * If you are responding to me, perhaps you would point out where I've said Wikipedia should shun controversial topics? Dougweller (talk) 15:28, 21 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Perhaps you have misunderstood me, as I have not "put any words into your mouth" whatsoever, and the accusations are getting farther away from the subject at hand. I.N.R.I. Negus (talk) 18:02, 21 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Then when you said 'perhaps you are right' you meant? And you didn't mean I was suggesting WP shun controversial topics, that's your suggestion? Dougweller (talk) 18:25, 21 September 2010 (UTC)
 * 'Perhaps you are right' in what you said before... That the NEBC Principle is "nonsense"... And I'm saying that even if there are other sources out there that explain what it is, yet no sources calling it "nonsense", perhaps WP still doesn't need to explain what it is here, because we already have "your" word that it is nonsense - and that seems to be good enough. I.N.R.I. Negus (talk) 20:41, 21 September 2010 (UTC)
 * It must be difficult to face these kind of conspiracies on a regular basis. Regardless, I've made the change, since no one objected (or commented). ClovisPt (talk) 03:20, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

More info about the native American settlement
The article talks a lot about the dating of the coin, but what about the settlement where it was found, how old is that? Naturally, I'm sure the actual investigators have considered this, but if that settlement doesn't date to the viking times, the coin could have been brought along by a later settler from Europe and could have ended there without it really being a hoax as such. So I would suggest some info would be added about what is known about the settlement.85.157.155.247 (talk) 15:55, 19 July 2012 (UTC)
 * The Maine Penny, also known as the Goddard Coin, was minted between 1065 and 1080 AD. The Goddard site was occupied from 1180 to 1235 AD. So the coin was minted at least 100 years before anyone is thought to be living at the Goddard site. Jerry Stockton (talk) 23:06, 21 August 2018 (UTC)

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Important source for updating this article
This entry should be updated in the light of the discussion of the Maine Penny in Gordon Campbell's Norse America: the Story of a Founding Myth (Oxford University Press, 2021), pp. 167-72. Unlike far too much of what has been written about the Northmen in North America this is a sober, non-partisan and scholarly book. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Henryfunk (talk • contribs) 21:27, 13 May 2021 (UTC)

Surname
It is a bit suspicious that the guy (no pun intended) who discovered it has the surname Mellgren, isn't it? Which is a surname of Scandinavian origin. Reminds me of the Kensington Runestone. Has this been remarked upon? 84.211.57.47 (talk) 04:52, 5 April 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:Maine penny