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Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/May 6

These are a good entries but their article's are still stubs. --mav 06:49, 3 May 2004 (UTC)

 * 1954 - Roger Bannister became the first person to run the mile in under four minutes.
 * 2002 - Jean-Pierre Raffarin became Prime Minister of France

 * Roger Bannister is no longer a stub. Posted. -- PFHLai 12:12, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

Picture of the Hindenburg disaster
Why don't we put this picture as the picture for today? Good quality. WB 06:13, May 6, 2005 (UTC)
 * I tried. It didn't look too nice on screen at 80~100px. Looks great when it's bigger, though. -- PFHLai 06:22, 2005 May 6 (UTC)
 * True. Lacking details. Something else would be rather better. Thanks anyway. WB 06:31, May 6, 2005 (UTC)

 * Thanks. Still a little hard to tell what that is at 100px. We'll use this pic this year. -- PFHLai 12:12, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

Chancellorville
Why is the battle of Chancellorville termed decisive victory (an expression nowhere found in the article itself)? A decisive battle is a battle which directly impact the final outcome of a war. Chancellorville did no such thing. Fornadan (t) 11:25, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

2012 notes
— howcheng  {chat} 12:02, 5 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Deleted: George V of the United Kingdom (appears on June 22); Channel Tunnel (appears on December 1)
 * Rescued from Ineligible (unused): Bob Hope
 * Omitted: Italian Renaissance; Battle of Chancellorsville; Phoenix Park Murders; LZ 129 Hindenburg
 * Included: Siege of Cuzco (first appearance); Christopher Smart's asylum confinement (2nd appearance, last in 2008); Grand Palace (first appearance); The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power (first appearance)
 * Repeats: Assassination of Pim Fortuyn (first appearance; blurb previously featured Pim Fortuyn; 2nd consecutive appearance for blurb, 2 total; 10th anniversary)

2013 notes
— howcheng  {chat} 06:18, 5 May 2013 (UTC)
 * Deleted: Battle of Chancellorsville (moved to May 3 and combined with Stonewall Jackson)
 * Moved to Ineligible: Italian Renaissance (maintenance)
 * New articles (ineligible): Battle of Corregidor (maintenance)
 * Omitted: Siege of Cuzco; Christopher Smart's asylum confinement; The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power; Assassination of Pim Fortuyn
 * Included: Action of 6 May 1801 (first appearance); Chinese Exclusion Act (3rd appearance, last in 2011); LZ 129 Hindenburg (6th appearance, last in 2011); Bob Hope (2nd appearance, last in 2004); Korean Martyrs (first appearance as blurb; listed as observance on September 20)
 * Repeats: Grand Palace (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total)

Four minute mile
Accepted that as it stands, the tag for Roger Bannister is not suitable for main page, as it requires a lot of work (I don't have the source materials or time to do this myself at present). But could the bold article be change to Four minute mile, which is in better shape? This year will be the 60th anniversary. Optimist on the run (talk) 10:36, 27 April 2014 (UTC)

2014 notes
— howcheng  {chat} 08:10, 5 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Omitted: Grand Palace; Action of 6 May 1801; Chinese Exclusion Act; LZ 129 Hindenburg; Bob Hope; Korean Martyrs (ineligible—maintenance)
 * Included: Siege of Cuzco (2nd appearance, last in 2012); Phoenix Park Murders (4th appearance, last in 2011); Four-minute mile (first appearance; blurb previously featured Roger Bannister, which is ineligible, and is making its 5th appearance, last in 2008; 60th anniversary); The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power (2nd appearance, last in 2012); Assassination of Pim Fortuyn (2nd appearance, last in 2012)

2015 notes
— howcheng  {chat} 06:54, 4 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Omitted: Siege of Cuzco; Phoenix Park Murders; Four-minute mile; Assassination of Pim Fortuyn
 * Included: Christopher Smart's asylum confinement (2nd appearance, last in 2012); Chinese Exclusion Act (5th appearance, last in 2013); LZ 129 Hindenburg (7th appearance, last in 2013); Ariel Castro kidnappings (first appearance)
 * Repeats: The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power (2nd consecutive appearance, 3 total)

2016 notes
— howcheng  {chat} 07:02, 4 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Omitted: Christopher Smart's asylum confinement; Chinese Exclusion Act; LZ 129 Hindenburg; Ariel Castro kidnappings
 * Included: Siege of Cuzco (3rd appearance, last in 2014); Grand Palace (3rd appearance, last in 2013); Bob Hope (3rd appearance, last in 2013; 75th anniversary); Assassination of Pim Fortuyn (3rd appearance, last in 2014)
 * Repeats: The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power (3rd consecutive appearance, 4 total; 25th anniversary)

2017 notes
— howcheng  {chat} 02:44, 6 May 2017 (UTC)
 * Moved to Ineligible: Chinese Exclusion Act (maintenance)
 * Omitted: Saint George's Day (ineligible—maintenance); Siege of Cuzco; Grand Palace; Bob Hope; The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power; Assassination of Pim Fortuyn (ineligible—maintenance)
 * Included: Christopher Smart's asylum confinement (3rd appearance, last in 2015); Action of 6 May 1801 (2nd appearance, last in 2013); LZ 129 Hindenburg (8th appearance, last in 2015; 80th anniversary); Four-minute mile (2nd appearance, last in 2014); Ariel Castro kidnappings (2nd appearance, last in 2015); Henry David Thoreau (first appearance); Rosemary Cramp (first appearance); George Clooney (first appearance)

2018 notes
— howcheng  {chat} 03:59, 6 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Omitted: Christopher Smart's asylum confinement; Action of 6 May 1801; LZ 129 Hindenburg; Ariel Castro kidnappings; Henry David Thoreau; Rosemary Cramp; George Clooney
 * Included: Grand Palace (4th appearance, last in 2016); Phoenix Park Murders (5th appearance, last in 2014); Bob Hope (4th appearance, last in 2016); 2010 Flash Crash (first appearance); James Tyrrell (first appearance); Jean Senebier (first appearance); Martin Brodeur (first appearance)
 * Repeats: Four-minute mile (2nd consecutive appearance, 3 total)

2019 notes
— howcheng  {chat} 17:43, 6 May 2019 (UTC)
 * Omitted: Grand Palace; Phoenix Park Murders; Bob Hope; 2010 Flash Crash; Jean Senebier; Martin Brodeur
 * Included: Siege of Cusco (4th appearance, last in 2016); Action of 6 May 1801 (3rd appearance, last in 2017); The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power (5th appearance, last in 2016); Ariel Castro kidnappings (3rd appearance, last in 2017); Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (first appearance); Grant McLennan (first appearance)
 * Repeats: Roger Bannister/Four-minute mile Bannister: 5th appearance, last in 2008, was previously ineligible; Mile: 3rd consecutive appearance, 4 total); James Tyrrell (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total)

2020 notes
— howcheng  {chat} 16:55, 7 May 2020 (UTC)
 * New articles (unused): Widerøe Flight 710
 * Omitted: Action of 6 May 1801; Roger Bannister/Four-minute mile; The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power; Ariel Castro kidnappings; James Tyrrell; Ernst Ludwig Kirchner; Grant McLennan
 * Included: Grand Palace (4th appearance, last in 2018); LZ 129 Hindenburg (9th appearance, last in 2017); Bob Hope (5th appearance, last in 2018); 2010 flash crash (2nd appearance, last in 2018; 10th anniversary); Pope Marcellus II (first appearance); Jean Senebier (2nd appearance, last in 2018); Novera Ahmed (first appearance)
 * Repeats: Siege of Cusco (2nd consecutive appearance, 5 total)

2021 notes
— howcheng  {chat} 06:47, 8 May 2021 (UTC)
 * New articles (ineligible): Death of Mark Saunders (TFA for 2021)
 * Omitted: Siege of Cusco; LZ 129 Hindenburg; 2010 flash crash; Pope Marcellus II; Jean Senebier (moved to July 22); Novera Ahmed
 * Included: Asylum confinement of Christopher Smart (4th appearance, last in 2017); Phoenix Park Murders (6th appearance, last in 2018); The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power; (6th appearance, last in 2019; 30th anniversary) Giaches de Wert (first appearance; 425th anniversary); Victor Grignard (first appearance; 150th birthday); George Clooney (2nd appearance, last in 2017; 60th birthday)
 * Repeats: Grand Palace (2nd consecutive appearance, 7 total); Bob Hope (2nd consecutive appearance, 6 total; 80th anniversary)

2022 notes
Propose removing the following. I do not think this is one of the most notable things that has happened around the world on this date. --Whizz40 (talk) 09:02, 6 May 2022 (UTC)
 * 2008 – British barrister Mark Saunders was shot dead by police after a five-hour siege at his home in Chelsea, London.

2022 notes
— howcheng  {chat} 03:28, 7 May 2022 (UTC)
 * Omitted: Asylum confinement of Christopher Smart; Grand Palace; Phoenix Park Murders; Bob Hope; The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power; Giaches de Wert; Victor Grignard; George Clooney
 * Included: Action of 6 May 1801 (4th appearance, last in 2019); Chinese Exclusion Act (6th appearance, last in 2015; rescued from Ineligible); SY Aurora's drift (first appearance); Widerøe Flight 710 (first appearance); Death of Mark Saunders (first appearance); Henry David Thoreau (2nd appearance, last in 2017); Martin Brodeur (2nd appearance, last in 2018; 50th birthday); Reg Grundy (first appearance)


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Robert Foot

Robert William Foot (7 June 1889 – 2 April 1973) was Director-General of the BBC, first jointly with Cecil Graves from 26 January 1942 to 6 September 1943 and then solely until he resigned on 31 March 1944. Before joining the BBC, Foot was a general manager at Gas Light and Coke Company. After being succeeded by William Haley, he became Chairman of the Mining Association.

Life and career
Foot was born in 1889 and educated at Winchester College. He started his career in 1912 as a solicitor in Calcutta, India, working for the firm of Orr, Dignam and Company. During the First World War, he served in Belgium and France with the Royal Field Artillery. He was mentioned in dispatches on two occasions, and later received an OBE and Military Cross for his service.

In 1919, he began working for the Gas Light and Coke Company, appointed by David Milne Watson. From 1928 to 1941, he held the position of General Manager.

During the Second World War, he acted as a government advisor on organisation within the BBC. In 1942, he was appointed joint Director-General with Cecil Graves. The following year, Graves retired due to poor health, and Foot served as sole Director-General. He was not well-suited to the role and left the post in 1944.

Succeeded by William Haley, Foot became chairman of the Mining Association of Great Britain. He also later served as president of the British Coal Utilisation Research Association. Foot believed that nationalization was a bad idea. During his tenure at the Mining Association, he visited many mines personally to better understand miners' issues. In 1945, he published A Plan for Coal.

In 1947, he was promoted to President of the Mining Association, a position he held until 1952. He also served as the chairman for Powell Duffryn Technical Services and Wankie Colliery Company, and director of Barclays and the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group. After a short time in South Africa, Foot retired in England. He was a member of the court of assistance of the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers. He died aged 83 in Whitehanger Nursing Home, Haslemere, Surrey in 1973. He was married, with two sons and one daughter.

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

title: Robert Foot


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Marie Firmin Bocourt

Marie Firmin Bocourt (19 April 1819 – 4 February 1904) was a French zoologist and artist.

As a young man, he worked as a preparateur for the zoologist Gabriel Bibron (1805–1848), later serving as a museum artist. In 1861, he was sent to Thailand (then called Siam), where he explored the fauna and brought back an important collection of specimens.

He collaborated with Auguste Duméril (1812–1870) on a series called Mission scientifique au Mexique et dans l'Amérique Centrale, a result of Bocourt's scientific expedition to Mexico and Central America in 1864–1866, in one part during the French Intervention in Mexico led by Napoleon III. Auguste Duméril died in 1870, and the project was continued by Bocourt with assistance from Léon Vaillant (1834–1914), François Mocquard (1834–1917) and Fernand Angel (1881–1950). With Vaillant, he published a study on fishes, "Études sur les poissons ", that was included in Mission scientifique au Mexique et dans l'Amérique Centrale.

As an artist, he specialized in engravings, doing portraits of contemporary people as well as zoological illustrations.

Taxa named in honor of Bocourt
Bocourt has a number of zoological species and subspecies named after him, including the following.
 * Bocourt's swimming crab, Callinectes bocourti A. Milne-Edwards, 1879, native to the Caribbean
 * Bocourt's eyelid skink, Phoboscincus bocourti (Brocchi, 1876), native to New Caledonia
 * Bocourt's black-headed snake, Tantilla bocourti (Günther, 1895), native to Mexico
 * Incilius bocourti (Brocchi, 1877), a Central American toad
 * Craugastor bocourti (Brocchi, 1877), a frog native to Guatemala
 * Hyla bocourti (Mocquard, 1899), a frog native to Guatemala
 * Cincelichthys bocourti (Vaillant & Pellegrin, 1902), a Central American cichlid
 * Agama bocourti Rochebrune, 1884, a lizard native to West Africa
 * Anolis bocourtii Cope, 1876, a lizard native to northern South America
 * Atractus bocourti Boulenger, 1894, a snake native to northwestern South America
 * Micrurus bocourti (Jan, 1872), a venomous snake native to northwestern South America
 * Mystus bocourti (Bleeker, 1864), a catfish native to Southeast Asia
 * Pangasius bocourti Sauvage, 1880, a catfish native to Southeast Asia
 * Polemon bocourti Mocquard, 1897, a rear-fanged snake native to Central Africa
 * Sceloporus occidentalis bocourtii Boulenger, 1885, a lizard native to California
 * Subsessor bocourti (Jan, 1865), a snake native to Southeast Asia

Nota bene: A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a different genus.

Works

 * Bocourt, F. (1868) Descriptions de quelques crotaliens nouveaux appartenant au genre Bothrops, recueillis dans le Guatemala. Ann. Sci. Nat., Zool., ser. 5, vol. 10, p. 201–202.
 * Duméril, A., Bocourt, F. Études sur les reptiles et les batraciens. en la serie "Mission scientifique au Mexique et dans l'Amérique centrale., recherches zoologiques", 3e partie, 1ère section. Paris: Imprimerie Impériale.
 * Duméril, A., Bocourt, F. & Mocquard, F. (1870-1909). Mission scientifique au Mexique et dans l'Amérique Centrale. Recherches zoologiques. Paris: Imprimerie Impériale
 * Bocourt, F. (1873a) Caractères d'une  espèce nouvelle d'iguaniens le  Sceleporus acathhinus. [Characters on a New Iguana Species, Sceleporus acathinus] Ann. Sci. Nat., Zool. (5)17(6): 1.
 * Bocourt, F. (1873b) Deux notes sur quelques  sauriens de l'Amérique tropicale.  [Two Notes on Its Tropical (Pan-)American Lizards] Ann. Sci. Nat., Zool. Paleontol. (5)19(4): 1–5.
 * Bocourt, F. (1873c) Note sur quelques espèces nouvelles d'iguaniens du genre Sceleporus. [Notes on the New Iguana Species of the Genre Sceleporus] Ann. Sci. Nat., Zool. (5)17(10): 1–2.
 * Bocourt, F. (1873–1897) Études sur les reptiles. [Studies on Reptiles]  Part 3, Sect. 1, Book. 2–15, pp. 33–860,  Mission Scientifique au Mexique et dans l'Amérique Centrale - Recherches Zoologiques. Paris, Imprimerie Imperiale. p. 1012
 * Bocourt, F. (1876a) Note sur quelques reptiles du Mexique. [Notes on Its Reptiles of Mexico] Ann. Sci. Nat., Zool.(6)3(12): 1–4.
 * Bocourt, F. (1876b) Note sur quelques reptiles  de l'Isthme de Tehuantepec (Mexique) donnés par M. Sumichrast au Muséum. J. Zool. (Paris) 5: 386–411.
 * Bocourt, F. (1879) Etudes sur les reptiles. [Studies on Reptiles] Miss. Sci. Mexique, Rech. ZooL. Book. 6:361-440, p. 21–22, 22A-22D

title: Marie Firmin Bocourt


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Samos (satellite)

The SAMOS (Misidentified as Satellite and Missile Observation System) or SAMOS-E program was a relatively short-lived series of reconnaissance satellites for the United States in the early 1960s, also used as a cover for the initial development of the KH-7 GAMBIT system. Reconnaissance was performed with film cameras and television surveillance from polar low Earth orbits with film canister returns and transmittals over the United States. SAMOS was first launched in 1960 from Vandenberg Air Force Base.

SAMOS was also known by the unclassified terms Program 101 and Program 201.

WS-117L and costs
SAMOS started as part of the WS-117L satellite reconnaissance and protection program of the United States Air Force in 1956. In May 1958, the Department of Defense directed the transfer of the WS-117L program to ARPA. Significant parts of the SAMOS development program were SAMOS-E (optical reconnaissance), SAMOS-F (ELINT Ferret reconnaissance).

In FY1958, WS-117L was funded by the Air Force at a level of US$ 108.2 million (inflation adjusted US$ 0 billion in ). For SAMOS, USAF, and ARPA spent a combined sum of US$82.9 million in FY1959 (inflation adjusted US$ 0 billion in ) and US$163.9 million in FY1960 (inflation adjusted US$ 0 billion in ).

CORONA and SAMOS
During this period, the rival CORONA program, which saw its first launch in February 1959, began operation. SAMOS emerged as a more advanced satellite with additional capabilities that due to its larger mass would be launched on the Atlas-Agena booster instead of the Thor-Agena. While CORONA took photographs and returned them to Earth in a film capsule, SAMOS would instead electronically scan its film and beam images down by radio link.

While CORONA began flying in 1959, the reliability of the program for its first three years was abysmal and a backup reconnaissance program was needed. Moreover, the fear of the "missile gap" with the Soviet Union was very great, with space successes and boasts by Soviet politicians seeming to hint that the USSR not only had a large arsenal of nuclear missiles on hand, but were quite willing to use them. The US ballistic missile arsenal in 1960 consisted of a handful of Atlas ICBMs that were exposed to Soviet attack, took a long time to prepare for launch, and whose test flight record did not inspire much confidence. The Thor and Jupiter IRBMs stationed in the UK, Italy, and Turkey were not much of an improvement, also their bases could be attacked by Soviet bombers. Intelligence on Soviet missile activities was considered vital, but the only viable option, U-2 reconnaissance flights, had been halted by the Gary Powers shootdown in May 1960. Unbeknownst to the Pentagon, Soviet missiles were deployed in far smaller numbers than generally believed and their reliability was no better than any US missile. The initial SAMOS satellites were known as Program 101 and were merely a test model designed to verify the operability of the photo-optical camera system.

Name and secrecy
"Samos" was the name of a Greek island and the name was picked with the belief that nobody would associate it with reconnaissance. However, a mistaken rumor later emerged that the name was an acronym for "Satellite And Missile Observation System". President Eisenhower was adamant about cultivating the image that the US space program was only for peaceful purposes. The Air Force for a while managed to create the fiction that Discoverer was a series of scientific satellites, but SAMOS's real purpose was known from the beginning, and efforts to not link it to Discoverer were made. Although the existence and mission purpose of SAMOS was publicly acknowledged until the fall of 1961, the Air Force did not release detailed information about the satellites or exactly what they were doing during their missions.

SAMOS 1
SAMOS 1 launch took place from PALC 1-1 (Point Arguello Launch Complex - later absorbed into the main launch center at Vandenberg Air Force Base) at 20:34 GMT on 11 October 1960, using Atlas vehicle 57D and Agena 2101. The Atlas lifted smoothly and steered downrange, as the weather was clear and cloudless, visibility was excellent and the launch vehicle could be seen until after booster section separation. Initial jubilation at the successful launch turned to dismay when the real-time telemetry readouts showed that the nitrogen pressure gas for the Agena-A's attitude control jets was gone. Without this, the stage could not be stabilized for ignition so that after separation from the Atlas, the Agena-A was left with no attitude control. Telemetry indicated an erratic attitude rate and abnormal gimbaling of the Bell XLR-81 engine. The Agena-A burn lasted 123 seconds, slightly longer than nominal, but tracking stations in VAFB, Kodiak Island, and Hawaii found no indication that orbit had been achieved, and it was concluded that the vehicle had reentered and broken up over an unknown point in the Pacific Ocean. The postflight analysis also found that the Atlas guidance system had malfunctioned in flight, due to either a failure of the rate beacon or waveguide antenna, but the guidance system was not telemetered so an exact cause could not be determined. The guidance system was unable to generate any steering or programmed engine cutoff commands, however, backup signals from the missile programmer managed to ensure a proper flight path and on-time engine cutoff. The Agena-A malfunction was traced to a technician installing a pad umbilical release lanyard improperly, which resulted in the Agena-A nitrogen quick fill line being ripped out at liftoff. Film and photographs of the launch clearly showed the gas escaping. At Agena engine ignition, the performance was also below normal, suggesting damage to the pneumatic system as well.

The major objective of the SAMOS 1 mission was to determine the engineering feasibility of obtaining ground observation capability from an orbiting satellite. It launched on 11 October 1960 at 20:34 GMT from the Pacific Missile Range in Point Arguello, California. The first stage separated at 249.9 seconds after liftoff. The Agena-A second stage ignited at 506.7 seconds and cutoff at 629.3 seconds, as planned, but a loss of nitrogen gas pressure had disrupted the guidance and control systems at 123 seconds, resulting in poor trajectory and failure to orbit the payload. Tracking telemetry was lost prior to the Agena-A ignition, so the exact trajectory was unknown. SAMOS 1 was the first satellite in the series SAMOS launched by the US Air Force from Vandenberg Air Force Base aboard an Atlas Agena-A rocket. It was a first-generation photo surveillance satellite intended to radio relay images back to Earth but loss of nitrogen gas pressure disrupted the guidance and control systems, causing a second stage failure. No data were returned. The payload comprised photographic and related test equipment, telemetry, radiation, tracking, and command instrumentation. The payload was housed in the Agena second stage. The entire stage was designed to go into orbit. The stage, including payload and casing, had a planned orbital mass of 1,845 kg. It was a 6.7 meter high, 1.5-meter diameter cylinder. The first stage was a modified Atlas ICBM. The full rocket was 30.2 m high with a base diameter of 3.05 m and a liftoff mass of approximately 124 000 kg.

SAMOS 2
SAMOS 2 was launched on 31 January 1961, on Atlas 70D and Agena 2102. Unlike with SAMOS 1, the weather was foggy and gray, and the pad was not even visible from the blockhouse. This time, everything worked perfectly and SAMOS 2 achieved orbit. The F-1 ferret system was tested first, followed by the E-1 electro-optical cameras, which transmitted images of approximately 30.5 m of resolution. On-orbit 21, ground controllers sent the command to jettison the F-1 antenna, which was partially obstructing the camera, in the hopes of even better images. However, something went disastrously wrong when all telemetry signals from SAMOS 2 ceased. It was believed that the separation mechanism for the F-1 antenna had caused the partial or complete disintegration of the satellite vehicle. SAMOS 2 remained in orbit until it decayed into the atmosphere on 21 October 1971.

SAMOS 2 was launched from the Pacific Missile Range at 20:24:00 GMT, into a near-circular polar orbit of 474 x 557 km, 94.97 min of revolution, and 97.4° of inclination, to determine the capability for making observations of space, the atmosphere, and the nature of the globe from satellites. The 1 860 kg spacecraft was a cylinder 6.7 m long and 1.5 m in diameter, and it comprised the entire Agena-A second stage. Included in the instrumentation were photographic and associated test equipment, acoustical (Microphone Density Gauge) micrometeorite detection apparatus, a plasma probe, and an electric field meter. The computer on board was digital-to-analog. Telemetry, tracking, and command equipment completed the payload. Details about the satellite's transmitter were not announced. A conical nose cap detached from the satellite casing and remained in orbit. The expected lifetime of the satellite was 15 years, and the expected lifetime of the nose cap was 12 years.

The next attempt did not take place for seven months, because of the switch to the larger Agena-B second stage that could be restarted in orbit and the operational Program 101A satellites, which had a more advanced camera system with better resolution and a wider field of view. SAMOS satellites after SAMOS 2 also sported a large "mushroom cap" nose cone, as early plans had envisioned flying a crewed capsule similar to Project Mercury.

SAMOS 3
The SAMOS 3 launch was a complete disaster. SAMOS 3 lifted from PALC 1-1 on 9 September 1961 at 00:00:00 GMT, was a US Air Force first-generation photo surveillance satellite with 7 instruments on board but the Atlas booster's engines shut down after the rocket had ascended about 29 cm and it fell back onto the pad in an enormous fireball. Postflight investigation found that an umbilical on PALC 1-1 had not detached on time, resulting in the booster being switched from internal to external power, but since the power umbilicals on the pad had already detached, the result was a complete loss of electrical power to all Atlas systems. The accident necessitated improved procedures to umbilical lanyard installation, and modifications to the launcher system to prevent the hold-down arms from releasing the launch vehicle until all umbilicals had detached.

After SAMOS 3, it was decided to abandon the Program 101/101A satellites entirely and switch to a more conventional film recovery capsule, since the one successful mission had not proven the viability of the electro-optical camera system. While the 101/101A satellites separated from the Agena-B in orbit, the 101B would remain attached and would use it for orbital maneuvers and also deorbiting the film capsule at the end of the mission.

Several more 101/101A satellites were either completed or in a state of partial completion when the program was called off, but the problem of how to dispose of them was never satisfactorily solved. Most were left mothballed in warehouses or scrapped. There was talk of giving the camera systems to NASA for the planetary probe program, but they were of doubtful value for taking photographs of the Moon. The Agena stages that could not be repurposed for other programs were scrapped.

The 101B satellites were originally intended to use an encrypted communications system out of paranoia that the Soviets could not only intercept transmissions, but even reprogram the satellite to land on their territory. Unlike CORONA, the 101B satellites would land with the complete camera system, not just the film capsule, and the Pentagon and State Department dreaded the consequences of a landing on Soviet territory. Ultimately, the encrypted communication requirement was dropped in October 1961, a mere month before the first 101B satellite launched.

As it turned out, PALC 1-1 was not seriously damaged by the explosion of SAMOS 3's booster and repair work only consisted of plumbing and electrical equipment, replacing the launcher mechanism, and cleaning and repainting. By 29 October, the pad was fully restored to working condition.

SAMOS 4
On 22 November 1961 at 00:00:00 GMT, SAMOS 4, the first Program 101B satellite, was a US Air Force first-generation photo surveillance satellite, lifted off. Extensive efforts were made to ensure mission success, such as X-ray testing for bad transistors and super-clean propellant tanks. Unfortunately, the launch was another failure, albeit less dramatic than SAMOS 3. The Atlas suffered a guidance malfunction at T+245 seconds into launch that resulted in loss of pitch control, as well as improper booster and sustainer cutoff signals. Booster jettison happened a few seconds early, while the sustainer engine burned to LOX depletion. The booster pitched up about 160° at SECO, leaving the Agena oriented in the wrong direction for orbital insertion, so when its engine fired, it drove SAMOS 4 into the Pacific Ocean instead of orbit.

It was believed that the improper pitch signals on SAMOS 4's launch vehicle had been caused by the accidental separation of a heat shield covering the retrorockets on the Atlas equipment pods. This would have caused aerodynamic heating of the pitch gyro, and the failure was extremely similar to an incident that occurred during the launch of MIDAS 4 a month earlier, and it led to redesigned heat shields over the retrorockets. The guidance system tracking beacon had also failed in flight, causing the absence of programmed BECO/SECO commands.

SAMOS 4 was the first fully top-secret DoD space mission, as President Kennedy had issued an executive order putting all DoD space programs under strict secrecy. The Air Force announcement said nothing other than that a satellite had been launched on 22 November from PALC 1-1 on an Atlas-Agena B vehicle. SAMOS 4's failure to orbit also went unannounced, although since the Air Force never confirmed that it reached orbit, space program observers quickly guessed that the launch was not a success.

The next two Program 101B satellites contained several technical improvements, such as more sophisticated telemetry and control/communications systems and improved cameras.

SAMOS 5
SAMOS 5 was launched on 22 December 1961 at 19:12:00 GMT, was a first-generation, low-resolution photo surveillance spacecraft, once again with nothing but a brief statement by the Air Force about a launch taking place aboard an Atlas-Agena B from PALC 1-1. Space program observers noted that this time around, the Air Force statement did report the satellite as having attained orbit. Indeed, it did, but the Atlas malfunctioned yet again. This time, the sustainer engine did not cut off on schedule and continued operating until LOX depletion, putting the satellite into a high orbit, which resulted in the deorbit maneuver failing (although given that reentry would have taken place over densely-populated New England, this was not necessarily a bad thing). The reentry command had activated all systems in the satellite, quickly draining the batteries. With the loss of electrical power, the parachutes could not be deployed during reentry, and also since the retrorockets had been expended during the failed deorbit maneuver, SAMOS 5 would only leave orbit once it decayed naturally. Without the parachutes or retrorockets, the capsule's descent would be far too fast for air recovery to be possible, but it could still easily survive reentry and land almost anywhere. The spent Agena-B stage reentered over Indonesia on 31 December, and it was calculated that reentry of the satellite itself would happen on 6 January 1962.

When 6 January 1962 came, the indications were that SAMOS 5 impacted somewhere in northwestern Canada. A US Air Force search party attempted to obtain Canadian permission to search the suspected area, but were unable to explain exactly what they were looking for. The Canadian authorities were suspicious that a B-52 aircraft had accidentally lost a nuclear warhead somewhere, and since this was not an easily resolved matter, the search was called off. Later on, a pair of U-2 reconnaissance aircraft searched the suspected area, but failed to locate any satellite debris.

SAMOS 6
SAMOS 6 was launched on 7 March 1962 at 19:12:00 GMT, finally had no booster problems, in part due to modifications made to the Agena-B after lessons learned from previous missions, but a series of erroneous ground commands caused the satellite to deplete its attitude control gas. When the Agena stage fired for the deorbit maneuver, SAMOS 6 was launched into a high orbit. In July 1963, fifteen months later, the satellite was on the verge of reentry. With the electrical system dead for months, there was again no chance of an air recovery of the capsule, but it could still survive reentry. However, it was calculated that impact would occur in the Arabian Sea and in all likelihood, the cold ocean water would crack the heat shield and cause it to sink. No attempt was made to recover SAMOS 6, which did apparently land in the Arabian Sea. At this point, the idea of the recoverable capsule was abandoned and the electro-optical system put back into use. It proved no more successful than before and after another five SAMOS launches, the program was terminated.

By the end of 1962, when the last SAMOS satellite flew, only the CORONA program had managed to return usable reconnaissance images. The photos obtained by SAMOS 2 back at the start of 1961 were considered little more than curiosities, their resolution too low for reconnaissance. The Lanyard program had by this time emerged as a successor to SAMOS, and by 1962, CORONA was at last reaching operational status.

In addition, aside program was operated during this period (Program 102) which launched a modified SAMOS on the Thor-Agena B with no cameras at all, but instead electronic monitoring equipment for detecting Soviet missile launches — what could be described as an early ELINT satellite. Four of these were launched from 1962 to 1963 with one failure when the first satellite's Agena-B failed to restart in orbit. The standard SAMOS apparently also carried ELINT subsatellites that remained attached to the Agena-B stage.

Like most early space programs, SAMOS had goals that exceeded what contemporary technology was capable of, and the launch vehicles used to orbit it were nearly as marginal as the satellite itself. Digital photography was not attempted successfully until the KH-11 satellites came online in the late 1970s.

Vehicle missions
From October 1960 to November 1962, at least 11 launch attempts were made. Portions of the program are still considered classified information. It is believed that the program was cancelled because the imagery produced was poor. The program was operated by the United States Air Force, but was overshadowed by the CIA CORONA program.

At least two different generations of the satellite were made, and at least four different types of cameras were used. Early on, the idea was to use frame readout cameras that would take a picture and send the scanned image via radio to ground stations on Earth. This system was apparently troublesome, so the program also developed a photographic film return system where the camera and used film would be ejected and be retrieved as it floated down through the atmosphere by parachute. Film-return satellites would remain the standard until the KH-11 satellite with digital imaging capability emerged in the 1970s.

Equipment
SAMOS satellites used four types of cameras. The E-1 and E-2 cameras used the readout method. Little is known about the E-3 type of camera, which was eventually cancelled. It likely had higher resolution, and may have been superseded by the later E-6. An E-4 camera was initially planned for relatively low-resolution mapmaking purposes, but it was cancelled with the functionality being taken up by the KH-5 (Argon) satellite. The E-5 and E-6 were panoramic format film cameras that appeared in later launches, but only a few were used. The E-5 would later be called upon in the short-lived KH-6 (Lanyard) program.

E-1 camera, particularly the unique system of developing and scanning the film on orbit, was later adopted by Kodak for NASA moon cartographic Lunar Orbiter program. Some satellites were equipped with so-called Ferret devices, for "ferreting" information by spying on electronic communication. A more modern term for that activity would be Signals Intelligence. Toward the end of the program, satellites were only being launched with Ferrets, without any cameras. Two Ferret systems were created, designated F-1 and F-2.

Some additional payloads were sometimes on board, mostly scientific devices for learning more about the space environment so that future satellites could be better-designed for spaceflight. The satellites as launched varied in mass from 1,845 to 1,890 kilograms.

Orbit
SAMOS 2 was the first satellite to enter a Sun-synchronous orbit.

Recovery by Soviets

 * Section data from Wade

Sergei Khrushchev wrote in his memoirs about the partial recovery of what he believed was a SAMOS satellite, except the date, was the winter before the program started. A second capsule was apparently recovered in early 1961, although the device had been disassembled by local farmers, exposing film and preventing the Soviets from determining the satellite's capabilities. It may or may not have been a SAMOS.

title: Samos (satellite)


text:
CueCat

The CueCat, styled :CueCat with a leading colon, is a cat-shaped handheld barcode reader that was given away free to Internet users starting in 2000 by the now-defunct Digital Convergence Corporation (which often styled its own name as Digital:Convergence Corporation).

By year-end 2001, barcodes were no longer distributed for the device, and scanning with the device using its original software no longer yielded results. However, third-party software can decode the lightweight encryption in the device, allowing it to be used as a general-purpose wand-type barcode reader. The CueCat can read several common barcode types, in addition to the proprietary CUE barcodes which had been promoted by Digital Convergence.

Description
The CueCat was named CUE for the unique bar code which the device scanned and CAT as a wordplay on "Keystroke Automation Technology". It enabled a user to open a link to an Internet URL by scanning a barcode — called a "cue" by Digital Convergence — appearing in an article or catalog or on some other printed matter. In this way, a user could be directed to a web page containing related information without having to type in a URL. The company asserted that the ability of the device to direct users to a specific URL, rather than a domain name, was valuable. In addition, television broadcasters could use an audio tone in programs or commercials that, if a TV was connected to a computer via an audio cable, acted as a web address shortcut.

The CueCat was connected to computers in the same way as a keystroke logger, as a "keyboard wedge", interposer, or pass-through between the keyboard PS/2 jack and the motherboard PS/2 port. Because of USB-PS/2 compatibility, USB-PS/2 adapters may be optionally used. A native USB version of the CueCat scanner hardware was also produced, but fewer of them were made before all manufacturing of the hardware was discontinued.

Marketing
The CueCat patents are held by Jeffry Jovan Philyaw, who changed his name to Jovan Hutton Pulitzer after the failure of CueCat. Belo Corporation, parent company of the Dallas Morning News and owner of many TV stations, invested US$37.5 million in Digital Convergence, RadioShack $30 million, Young & Rubicam $28 million, and Coca-Cola $10 million. Other investors included General Electric, and E. W. Scripps Company. The total amount invested was $185 million.

Each CueCat cost RadioShack about $6.50 to manufacture.

Starting in late 2000 and continuing for about a year, advertisements, special web editions, and editorial content containing CueCat barcodes appeared in many US periodicals, including Parade, Forbes, and Wired. The Dallas Morning News and other Belo-owned newspapers printed the barcodes next to major articles and regular features like stocks and weather. Commercial publications such as Adweek, Brandweek, and Mediaweek employed the technology. The CueCat bar codes also appeared in select Verizon Yellow Pages, providing advertisers with a link to additional information.

For a time, RadioShack printed these barcodes in its product catalogs, and distributed CueCat devices through its retail chain to customers at no charge. Forbes magazine mailed out the first 830,000 CueCats as gifts to their subscribers, since the magazine was starting to print CRQ ("See Our Cue") barcodes in their magazine. Wired magazine mailed over 500,000 of the free devices as gifts to their subscribers. Each publisher private-branded the CueCat hardware they sent to their mailing list.

Marketing partners
Organizations that used the :CueCat and compatible :CRQ software:

Magazines

 * Adweek
 * Brandweek
 * Mediaweek
 * MC Magazine
 * Forbes
 * Wired
 * Parade

Catalogs

 * RadioShack

Newspapers

 * The Dallas Morning News
 * Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
 * The Providence Journal
 * The Press-Enterprise

Broadcast stations

 * WNBC-TV, New York
 * KNBC-TV, Los Angeles
 * WMAQ-TV, Chicago
 * WCAU-TV, Philadelphia
 * WFAA, Dallas
 * WRC-TV, Washington DC
 * WXYZ-TV, Detroit
 * KHOU, Houston
 * KING-TV/KONG-TV, Seattle
 * WFTS, Tampa
 * WEWS, Cleveland
 * WTVJ, Miami
 * KTVK/KASW, Phoenix
 * KMOV, St. Louis
 * KGW, Portland
 * WMAR, Baltimore
 * KNSD, San Diego
 * WVIT, Hartford
 * WCNC, Charlotte
 * WNCN, Raleigh
 * KSHB, Kansas City
 * WCPO, Cincinnati
 * WTMJ-TV, Milwaukee
 * WCMH, Columbus
 * KENS, San Antonio
 * WVTM, Birmingham
 * WWL, New Orleans
 * WVEC, Norfolk
 * WPTV, West Palm Beach
 * WHAS, Louisville
 * WJAR, Providence
 * KTNV, Las Vegas
 * KMPH, Fresno
 * KOTV, Tulsa
 * KVUE, Austin
 * KMSB/KTTU Tucson
 * KPTM, Omaha
 * KREM/KSKN Spokane
 * KTVB, Boise

User experience
Installation of software and hardware, configuration, and registration took around an hour. Registration required the user's name, age, and e-mail address, and demanded completion of a lengthy survey with invasive questions about shopping habits, hobbies, and educational level. Then users could scan bar codes on groceries, bar codes on books, and custom bar codes in ads in magazines, newspapers, Verizon Yellow Pages, and RadioShack catalogs. The :CRQ software then used that unique serial number from the device to return a URL which directed the user's browser to the sponsored website. It also created a permanent advertisement-displaying taskbar on the user's computers, and could log the web-surfing habits associated with a user's real name and email address.

Reception
In The Wall Street Journal, Walter Mossberg criticized CueCat: "In order to scan in codes from magazines and newspapers, you have to be reading them in front of your PC. That's unnatural and ridiculous." Mossberg wrote that the device "fails miserably. Using it is just unnatural." He concluded that the CueCat "isn't worth installing and using, even though it's available free of charge". Joel Spolsky, a computer technology reviewer, also criticized the device as "not solving a problem" and characterized the venture as a "feeble business idea".

The CueCat is now widely described as a commercial failure. It was ranked twentieth in "The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time" by PC World magazine in 2006. The CueCat's critics said the device was ultimately of little use. Joe Salkowski of the Chicago Tribune wrote, "You have to wonder about a business plan based on the notion that people want to interact with a soda can", while Debbie Barham of the Evening Standard quipped that the CueCat "fails to solve a problem which never existed". In December 2009, the popular gadget blog Gizmodo voted the CueCat the #1 worst invention of the decade of the "2000s". In 2010, Time magazine included it on a list of "The 50 worst Inventions", adding that people didn't accept "the idea of reading their magazines next to a wired cat-shaped scanner".

The CueCat device was controversial, initially because of privacy concerns about its collection of aggregate user data. Each CueCat has a unique serial number, and users suspected that Digital Convergence could compile a database of all barcodes scanned by a given user and connect it to the user's name and address. For this reason, and because the demographic market targeted by Digital Convergence was unusually tech-savvy, numerous websites arose detailing instructions for "declawing" the CueCat — blocking or encrypting the data it sent to Digital Convergence. Digital Convergence registered the domain "digitaldemographics.com", giving additional credence to privacy concerns about the use of data.

Security breach
According to Internet technologist and Interhack founder Matt Curtin, each scan delivered the product code, the user's ID and the scanner's ID back to Digital Convergence.

The data format was proprietary, and was scrambled so the barcode data could not be read as plain text. However, the barcode itself is closely related to Code 128, and the scanner was also capable of reading EAN/UPC and other symbologies, such as Priority Mail, UPC-A, UPC-E, EAN-13, EAN-8, 2-of-5 interleaved, CODABAR, CODE39, CODE128, and ISBN. Because of the weak obfuscation of the data, meant only to protect the company under DMCA guidelines (like the DVD protection Content Scramble System), software for decoding the CueCat's output quickly appeared on the Internet, followed by a plethora of unofficial applications. ":CRQ" ("see our cue"), the desktop software, intercepted the data from both the keyboard and the CueCat, before passing it on to the operating system. Versions for both Windows 32-bit or Mac OS 9 were included. Users of this software were required to register with their ZIP code, gender, and email address. This registration process enabled the device to deliver relevant content to a single or multiple users in a household.

Privacy groups warned that it could be used to track readers' online behavior because each unit has a unique identifier. Belo officials said they would not track individual CueCat users but would gather anonymous information grouped by age, gender and ZIP code.

In September 2000, security watchdog website Securitywatch.com notified Digital Convergence of a security vulnerability on the Digital Convergence website that exposed private information about CueCat users. Digital Convergence immediately shut down that part of their website, and their investigation concluded that approximately 140,000 CueCat users who had registered their CueCat were exposed to a breach that revealed their name, email address, age range, gender and zip code. This was not a breach of the main user database itself, but a flat text file used only for reporting purposes that was generated by ColdFusion code that was saved on a publicly available portion of the Digital Convergence web server.

This failure was given a multi-citation Octopus TV "Failure Award" regarding brands that failed to take off and were hacked.

Aftermath
Digital Convergence responded to this security breach by sending an email to those affected by the incident claiming that it was correcting this problem and would be offering them a $10 gift certificate to RadioShack, an investor in Digital Convergence.

The company's initial response to these hacks was to assert that users did not own the devices and had no right to modify or reverse engineer them. Threats of legal action against the hackers swiftly brought on more controversy and criticism. The company changed the licensing agreement several times, adding explicit restrictions, apparently in response to hacker activity. Hackers argued that the changes did not apply retroactively to devices that had been purchased under older versions of the license, and that the thousands of users who received unsolicited CueCats in the mail had neither agreed to nor were legally bound by the license.

No lawsuit was ever brought against "hackers", as this tactic was not employed to go after specific users or the hacker community, but to show "reasonable assertion". This would prevent another corporation from developing integrated software within an operating system or browser, which could take over the device and circumvent the :CRQ supervisory software and the revenue model that Digital Convergence desired.

In May 2001, Digital Convergence fired most of its 225-person workforce.

In September 2001, Belo Corporation, CueCat investor and owner of newspapers and TV stations, who had sent at least 200,000 free CueCats to its readers, wrote off their $37.5 million investment, and stopped using CueCat technology with newspapers's editions, notably The Press-Enterprise, The Dallas Morning News, and The Providence Journal.

Investors in CueCat lost their $185 million. Technology journalist Scott Rosenberg called the CueCat a "Rube Goldberg contraption", a "massive flop", and a "fiasco".

Awards
In 2001, Computerworld named CueCat as a Laureate in the Media Arts & Entertainment category.

In 2001, Software and Information Industry Association named Digital Convergence Corp.'s :CRQ Technology as Best Reference Tool.

Surplus liquidation
In June 2005, a liquidator offered two million CueCats for sale at $0.30 each (in quantities of 500,000 or more).

Once available for free, the device can now be found on sale at eBay for prices ranging from $5 to as much as $100.

Open source
Hobbyists have reverse-engineered the firmware, software, and the customer database. Other unrelated companies sold and supported surplus new CueCats as low-cost barcode scanners for use with their software, such as the Readerware library cataloging utility. Eventually, the widespread availability of barcode scanner smartphone apps made the CueCat's capabilities mostly superfluous.

title: CueCat


text:
Transit of Venus

A transit of Venus takes place when Venus passes directly between the Sun and the Earth (or any other superior planet), becoming visible against (and hence obscuring a small portion of) the solar disk. During a transit, Venus is visible as a small black circle moving across the face of the Sun.

Transits of Venus reoccur periodically. A pair of transits takes place eight years apart in December (Gregorian calendar) followed by a gap of 121.5 years, before another pair occurs eight years apart in June, followed by another gap, of 105.5 years. The dates advance by about 2 days per 243 year cycle. The periodicity is a reflection of the fact that the orbital periods of Earth and Venus are close to 8:13 and 243:395 commensurabilities. The last pairs of transits occurred on 8 June 2004 and 5/6 June 2012. The next pair of transits will occur on 10–11 December 2117 and 8 December 2125.

Transits of Venus were in the past used to determine the size of the Solar System. The 2012 transit has provided research opportunities, particularly in the refinement of techniques to be used in the search for exoplanets.

Conjunctions

The orbit of Venus has an inclination of 3.39° relative to that of the Earth, and so passes under (or over) the Sun when viewed from the Earth. A transit occurs when Venus reaches conjunction with the Sun whilst also passing through the Earth's orbital plane, and passes directly across the face of the Sun. Sequences of transits usually repeat every 243 years, after which Venus and Earth have returned to nearly the same point in their respective orbits. During the Earth's 243 sidereal orbital periods, which total 88,757.3 days, Venus completes 395 sidereal orbital periods of 224.701 days each, which is equal to 88,756.9 Earth days. This period of time corresponds to 152 synodic periods of Venus.

A pair of transits takes place eight years apart in December, followed by a gap of 121.5 years, before another pair occurs eight years apart in June, followed by another gap, of 105.5 years. Other patterns are possible within the 243-year cycle, because of the slight mismatch between the times when the Earth and Venus arrive at the point of conjunction. Prior to 1518, the pattern of transits was 8, 113.5, and 121.5 years, and the eight inter-transit gaps before the AD 546 transit were 121.5 years apart. The current pattern will continue until 2846, when it will be replaced by a pattern of 105.5, 129.5, and 8 years. Thus, the 243-year cycle is relatively stable, but the number of transits and their timing within the cycle vary over time. Since the 243:395 Earth:Venus commensurability is only approximate, there are different sequences of transits occurring 243 years apart, each extending for several thousand years, which are eventually replaced by other sequences. For instance, there is a series which ended in 541 BC, and the series which includes 2117 only started in AD 1631.

History of observation of the transits
Ancient Indian, Greek, Egyptian, Babylonian, and Chinese observers knew of Venus and recorded the planet's motions. Pythagoras is credited with realizing that the so-called morning and evening stars were really both the planet Venus. There is no evidence that any of these cultures observed planetary transits. It has been proposed that frescoes found at the Maya site at Mayapan may contain a pictorial representation of the 12th or 13th century transits.

The Persian polymath Avicenna claimed to have observed Venus as a spot on the Sun. There was a transit on 24 May 1032, but Avicenna did not give the date of his observation, and modern scholars have questioned whether he could have observed the transit from his location; he may have mistaken a sunspot for Venus. He used his transit observation to help establish that Venus was, at least sometimes, below the Sun in Ptolemaic cosmology, i.e., the sphere of Venus comes before the sphere of the Sun when moving out from the Earth in the prevailing geocentric model.

1631 and 1639 transits
The German astronomer Johannes Kepler predicted the 1631 transit in 1627, but his methods were not sufficiently accurate to predict that it could not be seen throughout most of Europe. As a consequence, astronomers were unable to use his prediction to observe the event.

The first recorded observation of a transit of Venus was made by the English astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks from his home at Carr House in Much Hoole, near Preston, on 4 December 1639 (24 November O.S.). His friend William Crabtree observed the transit from nearby Broughton. Kepler had predicted transits in 1631 and 1761 and a near miss in 1639. Horrocks corrected Kepler's calculation for the orbit of Venus, realized that transits of Venus would occur in pairs 8 years apart, and so predicted the transit of 1639. Although he was uncertain of the exact time, he calculated that the transit was to begin at approximately 15:00. Horrocks focused the image of the Sun through a simple telescope and onto paper, where he could observe the Sun without damaging his eyesight. After waiting for most of the day, he eventually saw the transit when clouds obscuring the Sun cleared at about 15:15, half an hour before sunset. His observations allowed him to make a well-informed guess for the diameter of Venus and an estimate of the mean distance between the Earth and the Sun (59.4 e6mi). His observations were not published until 1661, well after Horrocks's death. Horrocks based his calculation on the (false) presumption that each planet's size was proportional to its rank from the Sun, not on the parallax effect as used by the 1761 and 1769 and following experiments.

1761 transit
In 1663, the Scottish mathematician James Gregory had suggested in his Optica Promota that observations of a transit of Mercury, at widely spaced points on the surface of the Earth, could be used to calculate the solar parallax, and hence the astronomical unit by means of triangulation. Aware of this, the English astronomer Edmond Halley made observations of such a transit on 28 October O.S. 1677 from the island of Saint Helena, but was disappointed to find that only Richard Towneley in the Lancashire town of Burnley, Lancashire had made another accurate observation of the event, whilst Gallet, at Avignon, had simply recorded that it had occurred. Halley was not satisfied that the resulting calculation of the solar parallax of 45" was accurate.

In a paper published in 1691, and a more refined one in 1716, Halley proposed that more accurate calculations could be made using measurements of a transit of Venus, although the next such event was not due until 1761 (6 June N.S., 26 May O.S.). In an attempt to observe the first transit of the pair, astronomers from Britain (William Wales and Captain James Cook), Austria (Maximilian Hell), and France (Jean-Baptiste Chappe d'Auteroche and Guillaume Le Gentil) took part in expeditions to places that included Siberia, Newfoundland, and Madagascar. Most of them observed at least part of the transit. Jeremiah Dixon and Charles Mason succeeded in observing the transit at the Cape of Good Hope, but Nevil Maskelyne and Robert Waddington were less successful on Saint Helena, although they put their voyage to good use by trialling the lunar-distance method of finding longitude.

Venus was generally thought to possess an atmosphere prior to the transit of 1761, but the possibility that it could be detected during a transit seems not to have been considered. The discovery of the planet’s atmosphere has long been attributed to the Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov, after he observed the 1761 transit from the Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg. The attribution to Lomonosov seems to have arisen from comments made in 1966 by the astronomy writer Willy Ley, who wrote that Lomonosov had inferred the existence of an atmosphere from his observation of  a luminous arc. The attribution has since then been questioned.

1769 transit
For the 1769 transit, scientists travelled to places all over the world. The Czech astronomer Christian Mayer was invited by the Russian empress Catherine the Great to observe the transit in Saint Petersburg with Anders Johan Lexell, while other members of the Russian Academy of Sciences went to eight other locations in the Russian Empire under the general coordination of Stepan Rumovsky. King George III of the United Kingdom had the King's Observatory built near his summer residence at Richmond Lodge, so that he and the Astronomer Royal, Stephen Demainbray, could observe the transit. Hell and his assistant János Sajnovics travelled to Vardø, Norway. Wales and Joseph Dymond went to Hudson Bay to observe the event. In Philadelphia, the American Philosophical Society erected three temporary observatories and appointed a committee led by David Rittenhouse. Observations were made by a group led by Dr. Benjamin West in Providence, Rhode Island, Observations were also made from Tahiti by James Cook and Charles Green at a location still known as Point Venus.

D'Auteroche went to San José del Cabo in what was then New Spain to observe the transit with two Spanish astronomers (Vicente de Doz and Salvador de Medina). For his trouble he died in an epidemic of yellow fever there shortly after completing his observations. Only 9 of 28 in the entire party returned home alive. Le Gentil spent over eight years travelling in an attempt to observe either of the transits. Whilst abroad he was declared dead, and as a result he lost his wife and possessions. Upon his return he regained his seat in the French Academy and remarried. Under the influence of the Royal Society, the astronomer Ruđer Bošković travelled to Istanbul, but arrived after the transit had happened.

In 1771, using the combined 1761 and 1769 transit data, the French astronomer Jérôme Lalande calculated the astronomical unit to have a value of 153 ±. The precision was less than had been hoped for because of the black drop effect. The value obtained was still an improvement on the calculations made by Horrocks. Hell published his results in 1770, which included a value for the astronomical unit of 151.7 e6km. Lalande challenged the accuracy and authenticity of observations obtained by the Hell expedition, but later wrote an article in Journal des sçavans (1778), in which he retracted his comments.

1874 and 1882 transits
Observations of the transits of 1874 and 1882 worked to refine the value obtained for the astronomical unit. Three expeditions—from Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States—were sent to the Kerguelen Archipelago for the 1874 observations. The American astronomer Simon Newcomb combined the data from the last four transits, and he arrived at a value of 149.59 ±.

2004 and 2012 transits
Scientific organisations led by the European Southern Observatory organised a network of amateur astronomers and students to measure Earth's distance from the Sun during the transit of 2004. The participants' observations allowed a calculation of the astronomical unit (AU) of 149,608,708 ±, which differed from the accepted value by 0.007%.

During the 2004 transit, scientists attempted to measure the loss of light as Venus blocked out some of the Sun's light, in order to refine techniques for discovering extrasolar planets.

The 2012 transit of Venus provided scientists with research opportunities as well, in particular in regard to the study of exoplanets. The event additionally was the first of its kind to be documented from space, photographed aboard the International Space Station by NASA astronaut Don Pettit. The measurement of the dips in a star's brightness during a transit is one observation that can help astronomers find exoplanets. Unlike the 2004 Venus transit, the 2012 transit occurred during an active phase of the 11-year activity cycle of the Sun, and it gave astronomers an opportunity to practise picking up a planet's signal around a "spotty" variable star. Measurements made of the apparent diameter of a planet such as Venus during a transit allows scientists to estimate exoplanet sizes. Observation made of the atmosphere of Venus from Earth-based telescopes and the Venus Express gave scientists a better opportunity to understand the intermediate level of Venus's atmosphere than was possible from either viewpoint alone, and provided new information about the climate of the planet. Spectrographic data of the atmosphere of Venus can be compared to studies of the atmospheres of exoplanets. The Hubble Space Telescope used the Moon as a mirror to study light from the atmosphere of Venus, and so determine its composition.

Future transits
Transits usually occur in pairs, because the length of eight Earth years is almost the same as 13 years on Venus. This approximate conjunction is not precise enough to produce a triplet, as Venus arrives 22 hours earlier each time. The last transit not to be part of a pair was in 1396 (the planet passed slightly above the disc of the Sun in 1388); the next one will be in 3089.

After 243 years the transits of Venus return. The 1874 transit is a member of the 243-year cycle #1. The 1882 transit is a member of #2. The 2004 transit is a member of #3, and the 2012 transit is a member of #4. The 2117 transit is a member of #1, and so on. However, the ascending node (December transits) of the orbit of Venus moves backwards after each 243 years so the transit of 2854 is the last member of series #3 instead of series #1. The descending node (June transits) moves forwards, so the transit of 3705 is the last member of #2.

Over longer periods of time, new series of transits will start and old series will end. Unlike the saros series for lunar eclipses, it is possible for a transit series to restart after a hiatus. The transit series also vary much more in length than the saros series.

Grazing and simultaneous transits
Sometimes Venus only grazes the Sun during a transit. In this case it is possible that in some areas of the Earth a full transit can be seen while in other regions there is only a partial transit (no second or third contact). The last transit of this type was on 6 December 1631, and the next such transit will occur on 13 December 2611. It is also possible that a transit of Venus can be seen in some parts of the world as a partial transit, while in others Venus misses the Sun. Such a transit last occurred on 19 November 541 BC, and the next transit of this type will occur on 14 December 2854. These effects are due to parallax, since the size of the Earth affords different points of view with slightly different lines of sight to Venus and the Sun. It can be demonstrated by closing an eye and holding a finger in front of a smaller more distant object; when the viewer opens the other eye and closes the first, the finger will no longer be in front of the object.

The simultaneous occurrence of transits of Mercury and Venus does occur, but extremely infrequently. Such an event last occurred on 22 September 373,173 BC and will next occur on 26 July 69,163, and again on 29 March 224,504. The simultaneous occurrence of a solar eclipse and a transit of Venus is currently possible, but very rare. The next solar eclipse occurring during a transit of Venus will be on 5 April 15,232.

In Popular Culture
The Canadian rock band Three Days Grace titled their fourth studio album _Transit of Venus_ and announced the album title and release date on June 5, 2012, the date of the last transit of Venus. The album’s first song, “Sign of the Times”, references the transit in the lyric “Venus is passing by”.

The Transit of Venus March was written by John Philip Sousa in 1883 to commemorate the 1882 transit.

title: Transit of Venus


text:
Toxicoscordion fremontii

Toxicoscordion fremontii, known as the common star lily or Frémont's deathcamas (after John C. Frémont) or star zigadene, is an attractive wildflower found on grassy or woody slopes, or rocky outcrops, in many lower-lying regions of California, southwestern Oregon, and northern Baja California.

Like other deathcamases, T. fremontii grows from a more or less spherical bulb, which in this species has a diameter of 20–35 mm. Its leaves can reach up to half a meter in length, but are typically half that length. They grow from the base of the plant. Flowers, which can be seen from March to June, grow in clusters. They have six petals (strictly, three petals and three very similar sepals), arranged symmetrically, giving rise to the name star-lily. Each flower is 1–4 cm across.

title: Toxicoscordion fremontii


text:
Boarder

Boarder may refer to:

Persons
A boarder may be a person who:

 * snowboards
 * skateboards
 * bodyboards
 * surfs
 * stays at a boarding house
 * attends a boarding school
 * takes part in a boarding attack

Other uses

 * The Boarder (1953 film), a 1953 Soviet drama film
 * Boarders (TV series), a BBC comedy TV show

title: Boarder


text:
Thing (The Addams Family)

Thing T. Thing, often referred to as just Thing, is a fictional character in The Addams Family series. The Addamses called it "Thing" because it was something that could not be identified, being originally an unseen creature in the original cartoons but starting with the live-action television series it was settled to be a disembodied hand. It is known as "Mãozinha" (Little Hand) in Brazil "Cosa" (Thing) in Spain, "Dedos" (Fingers) in Hispanic America, "Mano" (Hand) in Italy, "La Chose" (the Thing) in French speaking countries, "eiskaltes Händchen" (icecold hand) in German, and "Rączka" (Small hand) in Polish.

In The Addams Family media
""The Thing is often observed watching the family through the balustrades of the balcony over the living room. We don't know quite who or what he is, but, whatever, he's the soul of good nature—at least, he grins perpetually and may occasionally whimper."

— Charles Addams"

(The) Thing was the creation of Charles Addams, who drew the Addams Family cartoons in The New Yorker magazine, beginning in the 1930s. The Thing first appeared in Addams's 1954 book Homebodies. According to Phil Hore, Addams was inspired by Phil Harris's 1950 novelty song "The Thing". One of Addams' cartoons introduced a mysterious entity known only as The Thing, who was said to be too horrifying to be seen by human eyes. Compared to the adaptations, The Thing is actually a person of unknown origin, observing the household through slightly-opened doors and the balustrades, from around corners, and even beneath window sills with his face and hands clearly seen by the reader.

In the 1964 television series, Thing was retconned as a disembodied forearm, since he occasionally emerged from his box at near-elbow length—was usually played by Ted Cassidy, who also played the lugubrious butler Lurch. The two characters occasionally appeared in the same scene (in which case Thing would be played by a crew member, notably assistant director Jack Voglin). Thing customarily emerged from a series of boxes, one in each room in the Addams' mansion, and the mailbox outside. He occasionally emerged from behind a curtain, within a plant pot, the family wall safe, or elsewhere.

Since Cassidy was 6 ft tall, using him to depict Thing caused great technical difficulties on the set of The Addams Family. In many scenes he lay on his back on a wheeled trolley, below the line of sight of the cameras, and inserted his arm through the bottom of the box. Thing was usually a right hand, but Cassidy sometimes played him as left, simply to see if anyone would notice. Thing is credited as "Itself" at the end of each episode.

In the later films, thanks to advances in special effects, Thing (played by Christopher Hart's hand) is able to emerge and run on his fingertips, much like a spider. In Addams Family Values, Thing is shown driving a car into Debbie in order to rescue Uncle Fester. After this, Fester gets into the car and Thing drives them off to the Addams Family Mansion, albeit erratically, frightening Fester in the process. This is also true for the 1998 series The New Addams Family where Thing was played by the hand of Canadian magician/actor Steven Fox. His classic box only appears in one episode of the series (the remake of "Thing's Romance"); in others, he lives in a closet that has been modified as his own "house-within-a-house".

In the musical, Thing only appears in the beginning, when he opens the curtain. He is played by a member of the ensemble. In the tour version, Pugsley carries Thing on a pillow at Wednesday and Lucas's wedding while Thing holds the ring.

Thing appears in the 2019 animated film. He appears as a disembodied hand and wears a watch with an eye on it (perhaps used to see) in some scenes, he is also shown to have a foot fetish. Thing also appears in the 2021 animated film sequel, again with a "watch" with an eye, which is used at various times to express Thing's feelings, such as exasperation with an eye roll.

Thing appears in the 2022 live-action Netflix original series Wednesday, portrayed by Victor Dorobantu. Makeup was used to enhance Thing's appearance with stitches and marks. During filming, Dorobantu would be hidden while wearing a blue suit. Thing's language was made up on the day of filming. A stand-in hand was used instead of Dorobantu for certain times. After each take, CGI was added to Thing and editors removed Dorobantu's body and created a skin to cover the top of Thing's wrist. Gomez puts him in charge of watching over Wednesday while she attends Nevermore Academy, only for Wednesday to force him to help her with solving the mysteries of the school and the town of Jericho.

In other media
In December 2021, Thing appeared in advertisements for British furniture retailer DFS, as part of their "find your thing" campaign.

Role in the series
Thing's many useful roles included fetching the mail, handing cigars to Gomez Addams and then lighting them, changing the channel on the Addams TV set, holding Morticia Addams's wool while she knits, turning grapes into wine in under a minute, and turning over records on the phonograph (particularly when Gomez and Morticia dance the tango). It accompanies the family on drives by riding in the glove compartment, and in one episode, where Gomez appears in court, it emerged from Gomez's briefcase. Thing and Grandmama are fond of arm-wrestling. In a flashback episode on how Gomez and Morticia met, it is revealed that Thing has been with the Addams family since Gomez himself was a child, suggesting Thing is the son of an earlier generation of hand-servants (see below). Thing, overall, acts as the straight man of the show.

Morticia is always very appreciative of Thing's services, and her frequent "Thank you, Thing" is one of the best known lines of the series; Wednesday takes after her mother in also expressing gratitude for Thing's assistance. Thing cannot talk, but it does sometimes snap its fingers to attract attention, and is also able to communicate by signaling in Morse code, writing, or with the help of the manual alphabet. This can be very disconcerting to visitors to the Addams' mansion; in a running gag in some episodes, a visitor to the Addams home, profusely grateful for some kindness of the Addamses', enthusiastically shakes hands with everyone present—"Thank you, Mr. Addams! Thank you, Mrs. Addams!"—and is then offered a handshake by Thing. "And thank you..." begins the visitor, before realizing who and what he has been confronted with, recoiling in inarticulate shock, and fleeing the premises.

In one episode, Morticia gets goosed, and initially suspects Thing, who had been nearby moments earlier. However, Gomez immediately appears and admits responsibility, explaining: "Thing just likes to hold hands".

Other hands
On the 1960s TV series, two similar hands were introduced in the episode "Morticia Meets Royalty":

 * Lady Fingers: A female "handmaiden" who was the servant of Aunt Millie, also known as Princess Millicent von Schlepp. When Millicent came to visit, Thing and Lady Fingers fell in love. Lady Fingers later returned in Halloween with the New Addams Family, as the handmaiden of Granny Frump and the 1998 series revival, as the handmaiden of Cousin Pretensia. Her name is a play on Ladyfinger (biscuit).
 * Esmerelda: Another female hand hired by Millicent after firing Lady Fingers. Esmerelda turned out to be a thief and Millicent rehires Lady Fingers.

In the episode "Thing Is Missing", Gomez and Morticia find a portrait of Thing's parents, a male hand and a female hand. The 1990s revived series implied the existence of other hands as well.

title: Thing (The Addams Family)


text:
Board

Board or Boards may refer to:

Flat surface

 * Lumber, or other rigid material, milled or sawn flat
 * Plank (wood)
 * Cutting board
 * Sounding board, of a musical instrument
 * Cardboard (paper product)
 * Paperboard
 * Fiberboard
 * Hardboard, a type of fiberboard
 * Particle board, also known as chipboard
 * Oriented strand board
 * Printed circuit board, in computing and electronics
 * Motherboard, the main printed circuit board of a computer
 * A reusable writing surface
 * Chalkboard
 * Whiteboard

Recreation

 * Game board
 * Chessboard
 * Checkerboard
 * Board (bridge), a device used in playing duplicate bridge
 * Board, colloquial term for the rebound statistic in basketball
 * Board track racing, a type of motorsport popular in the United States during the 1910s and 1920s
 * Boards, the wall around a bandy field or ice hockey rink
 * Boardsports
 * Diving board (disambiguation)

Companies

 * Board International, a Swiss software vendor known for its business intelligence software toolkit
 * Bureau of Architecture, Research, and Design (BOARD), an architecture firm based in Rotterdam

Groups

 * Advisory board, a body that provides non-binding strategic advice to the management of a corporation
 * Currency board, the monetary authority to maintain a fixed exchange rate with a foreign currency
 * Board of directors, or a similar governing or advisory committee
 * Board of selectmen, the executive arm of the government of New England towns in the United States
 * Board of supervisors, a governmental body that oversees the operation of county government in some U.S. states
 * Board of trustees, the authority of a nonprofit organization
 * Editorial board, a group responsible for a publication's editorial policy
 * Examination board, an organization that sets examinations, is responsible for marking them and distributes results
 * Parole board, a panel that decides whether an offender should be released from prison
 * Police board, a group charged with the responsibility of overseeing a local police force
 * Supervisory board, a group responsible for hiring and firing a board of directors

Sports

 * C. J. Board (born 1993), American football player
 * Chris Board (born 1995), American football player
 * Dwaine Board (born 1956), American football player and coach
 * Jim Board (born 1956), Australian rules footballer
 * Michael Board (born 1970), British swimmer
 * Terry Board (footballer, born 1945), Australian rules footballer
 * Terry Board (footballer, born 1968), Australian rules footballer

Other areas

 * Kate Board, English airship pilot
 * Mike Board (born 1952), Australian politician
 * Mykel Board (born 1950), American journalist, musician, and writer
 * Printz Board (born 1982), American record producer, songwriter, and singer
 * Prudy Taylor Board (born 1933), American author and editor

Other

 * Board book, a book made more durable by the use of cardboard covers and thicker paper
 * Board certification, for medical professionals in the United States
 * Board examination, a part of education in some countries
 * Board foot, measurement of lumber volume
 * Boards (magazine), a 1999–2010 trade publication for the advertising community
 * boards.ie, an Internet forum in Ireland
 * Bulletin board (disambiguation), where people can leave public messages
 * Distribution board or breaker panel, a component of an electricity supply system
 * Room and board, in exchange for money, labor, or other consideration, a person is provided with a place to live as well as meals
 * "The Big Board", nickname of the New York Stock Exchange

title: Board


text:
Talk:Blood Bowl

Broken external link
External link (http://www.games-workshop.com/fanatic/sp_games.asp?systemid=bb) does not work - page not found —Preceding unsigned comment added by Knutux (talk • contribs) 07:27, 3 May 2004

 * Fixed. (I'm not much impressed by Games Workshop's site navigation: it took far longer to find the new location of the page than it ought to have done.) --Paul A 04:11, 26 May 2004 (UTC)

 * I very much agree, is hopeless trying to easily find stuff on their sites. Plus their content seems to differ slightly from country to country, so sometimes you can find what you are looking for if you try all over again looking through a different country's site. Mathmo 06:13, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Akin to American football?
I don't understand the line "akin to a very violent version of American football". Blood Bowl has little to do with American Football and is much closer to rugby. Arctic.gnome 21:34, 15 June 2005 (UTC)

 * Blood bowl is very similar to American Football, (which is of course, not all that different from rugby in the greater scope of things) but some specific differences are in the nomenclature of the game, the turns being dubbed 'downs' and the scoring arena 'endzones'. Also note the role of forward passing.  I do agree however the flow of play is much more akin to rugby, but the game is styled after American Football. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bigmacd24 (talk • contribs) 03:33, 27 August 2005

 * Jervis Johnson designed Blood Bowl as a parody of American Football. The "god" of Blood Bowl is NUFFLE, a parody of NFL. neoliminal 01:33, 16 September 2005 (UTC)

 * Remember a lot of people who play this are unfortunate americans who have no clue what rugby is (although on the other hand GW is a british company and rugby is a british sport so maybe it really is from rugby....). Mathmo

 * The rule book specifically talks about the game being inspired by American football. Admittedly, the rules of play seem closer to rugby from what I know of that sport.  Schoop (talk) 12:08, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

 * I agree that it plays more like Rugby than American Football, but given the game designer's clear intent, calling the game a hybrid of both as it's written now seems perfectly reasonable. Gilbertine goldmark (talk) 19:18, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

Death Zone and the other Expansion Pack
I'm surprised... not even one mention of 'Death Zone', the expansion pack that added all sorts of bits and peices! Checking the link i'm putting here, there was TWO expansion packs! Blood Bowl at BoardGameGeek JaffaCakeLover (talk) 16:37, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

Re-drafted Blood Bowl page
I have substantively re-written the Blood Bowl page on a slow day at work and it is now closer to being a wikipedia article than previously. Wikipedia is not for specialists/insiders only. My version addresses Artic.gnome's issue - Neo, your answer doesn't resolve that query. Also, I've removed all the leagues that were spammed here (I took advice on that and it was a large number of links for such a small page). I would be happy to discuss any part of this edit. The purpose of it was to have an article that looked more like a wikipedia one and less like a fanboy/insider article. MLA 15:00, 16 September 2005 (UTC)

 * I will not add again the link to the LABB league, but this league is not a local league of any kind is a online league opened to all spanish speakers that could come here by chance. DarthBLU 23:39, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

 * I can understand why you might want to put up the links to leagues but wikipedia isn't really the place for that. There are plenty of available spaces around the internet for league advertising including the BB forums, TBB, the many fansites, the webring.  I haven't added my league and the only links that are currently on the page here are resources of some kind. MLA 15:22, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

 * I see your point, I will not add LABB league (by the way, LABB is not my league is a league for spanish people). But what I don't understand is why the NAF url is there, it is a pay site, what you can find on the NAF site can be available in TBB. DarthBLU 06:11, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

 * Perhaps if this is the spanish wikipedia we should have included LABB? Mathmo 06:13, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

 * Happy to remove links, feel free to do so yourself. I don't really know what the NAF site is about and if that link is basically also just advertising then scrub it out plus any others that shouldn't be there. I've tried to leave the ones that provide access to info such as the GW sites, Galak's site etc. MLA 08:31, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

 * The NAF site, while requiring paid membership, is the official players society for Blood Bowl and was suggested by Jervis Johnson and created from the ground up by myself (John Lewis,BBRC) to facilitate the growth of the game. It's as close to an official site as you can get without being an official site.  The fact that it requires a membership fee doesn't invalidate it's authoritative tournament ranking of all the major tournaments, nor it's close ties to GW. The site is non-profit.neoliminal 18:26, 6 October 2005 (UTC)

 * Why has the link to the NAF site been given as a citation, rather than directly linked to (either in the text or in the External Links section)? Joemanji 10.28, 20 August 2006 (GMT)

 * Added 3 resource websites (Travellers mini's, Narkotic's pic archive and Ithilkir's fluff archive. Also added a sentence listing the 4 main PBeM leagues (but didn't add any links).  Darkson 19:46, 30 November 2005 (GMT)

 * Took out that section - would be useful if you could put back a link to the tool or to rework the section so that there's an elite list of leagues as currently there seems to just be one and its not the one that I have heard of. Previously this page was pretty much a link depository and there's a risk that it could become that again. MLA 17:22, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

 * Good job on the rewrite. I would like to see a removal/rewording of the FLUFF section as that's an RPG/Warhammer buzz-word with some pejorative connotation. Why not just call it 'background' instead as it makes more sense to the non-gamer.  Also, we need a picture and I think it should be of the best player in the game: GRIFF OBERWALD.--littlemute 17:00, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

Monsters of Midway
Can anyone confirm that BB was based on Monsters of Midway?neoliminal 00:47, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

 * Based on the way the wikipedia works, it's up to the anon user who added that entry to site a source to show that and I would doubt that they can. MLA 09:50, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

 * Also I confirmed with Jervis Johnson personally that this item was not true. He had never seen Monsters of the Midway when he developed Blood Bowl. GalakStarscraper 13:58, 21 January 2007 (UTC)GalakStarscraper

Tournaments are not new
Who thought tournaments were a new phenomenon? Games workshop sponsored tournaments might be new... but the game has always focused on tournaments. The very name "Blood Bowl" is a tournament. As are the Chaos Cup etc. Mathiastck 17:15, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

 * Tournaments are not necessarily new, but I believe the suggestions pertaining to tournament specific rules are new in the rulebook, since tourny play is now different to league play. I haven't read the new rules yet though to be sure.--Herbjunkie 21:18, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Online Blood Bowl
Without advertising specific leagues, a section mentioning the web based communities and ways of playing the board game might be worth including.In particular the Pbem (play-by-e-mail) client developed by Galak and Skijunkie's (at the time of writing outdated) java-client have helped keeping the community of addictet fans grow.[from heinz] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.72.240.7 (talk • contribs) 15:08, 9 September 2006

 * Agreed ... I'll work on adding a section that discusses the online community because the LRB 1.0 through 5.0 have been greatly impacted by the online community and to leave it out completely is a mistake. GalakStarscraper Sept 11, 2006

 * I used to love the OLBBL. It worked well over mIRC. Mathiastck 18:21, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

 * Why has the Online Play section been removed now? There are probably more people playing online versions than the board / video game combined and the online community has helped keep the game alive TomorrowsDream (talk) 14:26, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

Online Living Rulebook
If the Living Rulebook is 'now online' like the entry states, could a link be provded to it? The Kinslayer 11:42, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

 * I have edited things a bit to make it more explicit that the LRB can be downloaded from the official site. Personally, I don't think a separate link is necessary, but I'm open to other views on this. Cheers --Pak21 11:58, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

 * Cool, thanks for that. TBH, it was mainly for my own benefit! I found my old copy of Blood Bowl whilst cleaning out my attic the other day, and looked it up on here out of curiosity. The LRB is similar to something I did for my own benefit a few years back, when I started collecting house rules all over the net, but gave up in the end! The Kinslayer 12:07, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Bloodbowl setting
Reverted to a previous edit, as a user had changed the setting to the Warhammer universe, whereas it's been commented by Jervis Johnson (the games creator) that the direction that it took closer to Warhammer Fantasy Battle with the release of 3rd edition was a mistake, one they're now changing. He also confirmed, on more than one occasion, that Bloodbowl is now set in a world similar to, but not Warhammer. Darkson 23:46, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

What elements still need to be rewritten?
I think the tone of this piece is pretty solid overall. What elements need to be redone to remove the tone note? ZargonDDG 10:00, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

 * I don't think there's anything egrecious, though it's still exceedingly un-stylish. Chris Cunningham 14:43, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Online Play
The article should mention online play. 6 years ago I saw an active community called OLBBL playing with a client over IRC, and today I see http://fumbbl.com/help:Overview doing the same. Mathiastck 23:37, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

 * I've added this in the external links section, as it is a very active league (100+ players available most of the time), though not limited to league play and open to all for free.
 * If people still object, I would suggest we at least give a link to the client used, as it is certainly a useful resource for the average person who wants to find out about Blood Bowl... Odd bloke 20:02, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

 * Looking through the history, I've changed the link to point to the client myself. I still think a link to an online league would be valuable. Odd bloke 21:05, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

April 2007 edits
I see no evidence for the things which are being un-deleted. Personal claims of knowledge aren't acceptable for Wikipedia. Chris Cunningham 20:17, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

 * Then accept the interview file that Darkson has linked where the creator of the game says this material. This removes the claim from personal to quoted. GalakStarscraper 19:23, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

 * Done. As I say, the problem was with it not being sourced originally. Chris Cunningham 19:28, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

The pop culture references probably need cut down. There are dozens throughout the literature, and only two or three (the teams, Nuffle) are really notable. Chris Cunningham 20:17, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

 * But the pop culture stuff is what makes Blood Bowl SO different from any other board game that would be similar. I've played a lot of games in my life ... the pop culture and story behind Blood Bowl is what kept my interest.  Not many board games have fan fiction written for them. For that reason I believe these to be important. GalakStarscraper 19:23, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

 * Meh. The point was to try to keep it to a rational length. Lord knows too many Wikipedia articles end up consisting of little more than OR observations that the subject spoofed some object in popular culture. Chris Cunningham 19:28, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

 * Willing to conceed this point ... I'll delete a couple of the least know (like the TV networks). GalakStarscraper 19:30, 23 April 2007 (UTC)GalakStarscraper

Rules section
I think there should be a rules section. The Wikiproject Board and table games (I placed the template on this page) says: "A brief synopsis of the rules, sufficient only to show what is notable about the game or to distinguish it from other similar games. Lengthy sections and separate rules articles should be avoided -- after all, Wikipedia is not an instruction manual." That would IMHO mean something about player stats, player actions and turnovers at least. I'll see if I have time to start it. -Mattiasr 12:58, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

OK, I went ahead and created a "Rules" section. Hope I did not step on any toes or violate any copyrights. Hope also that I kept the information general enough. (This is my first major edit to an article.) That section could look better, f.ex. I'd like a picture of the player cards from the box next to the "Players" part. -Mattiasr 13:49, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Change proposals for rules section
I think there's a little error considering the pass action. It now states as follows: "Pass - Move and then throw the ball (or just throw the ball)." However current LRB5 clearly states that: "Once per turn a player on the moving team is allowed to make a Pass Action. The player is allowed to make a normal move, and after he has completed the move he may throw the ball" ... Meaning that you are allowed to declare a pass, move your player and then decide to not to throw ball at all. Your pass action will be wasted however.

Although it sound a bit dumn, it is often used when player has already decied to "just move" his/her ball carrier, thus knowing that no pass is going to be happen. This allows the player to change his/her mind if for change a good pass oppurtunity reveals itself after moving the carrier. Another more obvious effect of this rule is that you may cancel your throw attempt when you have first moved your player to throwing possition and then realize that the pass wasn't so good idea at all. 88.115.204.172 (talk) 08:57, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

 * There is no need for this kind of minutae in the article. Exhaustive relisting of the game rules would give them excessive coverage relative to such aspects of the subject as its impact, contemporary popularity, influeces et cetera, and could even be construed as infringing on GW's IP (especially considering how draconic they are known to be over such). let's just keep to giving enough basics that the reader has an understanding of how the game plays out, as opposed to actually being able to play the game using the article as a reference. Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 16:26, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

Strategy section
I think there should be a "Strategy" section, outlining the two overall strategy choices available - bashing v. balling, or whatever you want to name it. I'll try to get started on that as well. -Mattiasr 13:53, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

 * I've written a strategy-section, but as I can't provide sources for it now, I've left it on my user page for now. Original resarch is a problem for any strategy section, perhaps Galak or Darkson (whom I've seen around here) would know some good sources for it? I'd go to FUMBBL for it myself, if that page wasn't blocked from my workplace... Perhaps a better way to do a strategy section would be to first find the sources and then write the section, instead of the other way around? Comments? -Mattiasr 13:42, 3 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Unfortunately, I can't think of any sources that describe those strategies that would pass Wiki's verifiability, which will mean it would be classed as original research. I know of a few web articles, but nothing that could be used here. :(
 * Oh, and the oppisite of "bashy" isn't "balling" within the BB circles, but I'm having a brain-fart at the moment, and I can't think what it is! Darkson (Yabba Dabba Doo!) 17:01, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

I think elf ball is the term you're looking for.Gilbertine goldmark (talk) 02:37, 3 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Thx for answering, and i agree with the verifiability issues. The general articles on the specialist games website ("The Art of Blocking" et al) have some interesting content, but aren't really dealing with overall strategy. Perhaps this will have to be mothballed for now. The opposite of "bashing" has many names (agility, speed, elf-balling etc), no? -Mattiasr 13:53, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

Video game
I added the video game section, but am unsure of your formatting. Fix as needed. JAF1970 00:16, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Trollball
I've long thought that Blood Bowl was a boardgame adaptation of the Trollball rules in the Runequest extension Trollpack, but I've never found confirmation of this Leridan (talk) 01:40, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

No, Blood Bowl was a unique game created by Jervis Johnson as an original concept. It was not based on or inspired from any other game or magazine article. This was confirmed by Jervis Johnson in an interview at the Chaos Cup 2007. 67.162.90.168 (talk) 03:38, 3 March 2009 (UTC) GalakStarscraper

That's what I would say too if I didn't want to pay royalties to Greg Stafford. I find it a bit hard to believe that the British publisher of Runequest II wasn't aware of what they published. --Leridan (talk) 13:20, 1 May 2020 (UTC)

Confusing terminology
The description of the inspirations for the game "Game play is based on a hybrid of American Football, Rugby, and ultra-violent fictional sports events such as Rollerball." Could either be interpreted as "Game play is based on a hybrid of the following three: American Football, Rugby, and ultra-violent fictional sports events such as Rollerball. or "Game play is based on Rugby, which is a hybrid of American Football, and also ultra-violent fictional sports events such as Rollerball.

The second interpretation was how I read it initially, which was confusing as I know rugby is not a hybrid of american football, and thought that large of a mistake was unlikely to be made. 118.92.106.226 (talk) 10:14, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Whats wrong with the Blood bowl 2009 link??
Something is wrong with the Bloodbowl 2009 video game link. It brings up a dowlload link that dose nothing. Sorry if this is the wrong place for this but thought it needed mentioning as its been like that for about a week now. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.34.231.232 (talk) 17:34, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20100809042433/http://endzonemagazine.com:80/ to http://endzonemagazine.com
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External links modified
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Scale - now 32mm not 28mm
Since the 2016 edition the scale has been upped from 28mm to 32mm.

On the games workshop site it often mentions that the team is supplied with 32mm bases e.g. elfheim eagles: "Supplied with 12 32mm Blood Bowl bases...". — Preceding unsigned comment added by Lawrence of course (talk • contribs) 17:56, 21 January 2020 (UTC)

Capital B on the 'Comic Book' section of the article
In my opinion, the capital B on the 'Comic Book' section of the article on should be changed to lower case as it looks better in my opinion. Xboxsponge15 (talk) 15:24, 20 March 2020 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 11:23, 9 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Games Workshop Logo.png

title: Talk:Blood Bowl