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Talk:New Republic Senate

Previously redirected to: Talk:Galactic Republic

title: Talk:New Republic Senate


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A. J. Cook

Andrea Joy Cook (born July 22, 1978 ) is a Canadian actress. She is best known for her role as Supervisory Special Agent Jennifer "JJ" Jareau on the CBS crime drama Criminal Minds (2005–2020, 2022–). Cook has also appeared in The Virgin Suicides (1999), Higher Ground (2000), Ripper (2001), Out Cold (2001), Final Destination 2 (2003), and Tru Calling (2003–2004).

Early life
Cook was born in Oshawa, Ontario. She spent most of her early life in nearby Whitby, where she attended Anderson Collegiate Vocational Institute. She has three siblings: Nathan, Paul, and Angela.

Cook was declared legally blind in the second grade because of severe astigmatism, but wore contacts and thick "Coke bottle" glasses to correct her vision. Talking about her childhood, Cook recalled how other kids were "cruel" and that she "really couldn't see" and "everything looked like a smear of colour with no shapes". She also said that at the time of her diagnosis, she was not doing well in school. At first, people thought she had a learning disability because she could not read. In reality, she could not see the board, which affected her ability to recognize letters and know the sounds they made. In 2007, a surgical lens implant corrected the impairment.

A dancer from age four, Cook began taking jazz, tap and ballet lessons. She said that dance kept her engaged growing up as she did not have to recite or read anything. She danced competitively for many years, before deciding at the age of 16 that she wanted to try acting. Cook also taught dance when she was younger and has stated that if she hadn't become an actress, she would most likely have set up a small dance studio somewhere. In an interview, she said that she still tap dances.

Career
Cook's first job was in a McDonald's commercial in 1997. She graduated to series work with a guest role on the television series Goosebumps and parts in two television movies, In His Father's Shoes and Elvis Meets Nixon. Cook launched her feature film career as one of five suicidal Lisbon sisters in 1999's The Virgin Suicides. Also that year, she took a starring role in the TV series Higher Ground, in which Cook played Shelby Merrick, an adolescent girl dealing with abuse and heartache at a wilderness school for struggling teens. Higher Ground lasted one season, ending with a romance between Shelby and Hayden Christensen's character Scott.

After Higher Ground, Cook appeared in the 2000 TV movie The Spiral Staircase (alongside Higher Ground alum Kandyse McClure), and then captured leading roles in several films, including Out Cold (as Jason London's love interest), Ripper, I'm Reed Fish, and Final Destination 2. In 2003, Cook guest starred in Dead Like Me. She was also in Season One of Tru Calling as Lindsay Walker.

Beginning in September 2005, she starred as Jennifer "J.J." Jareau in the CBS drama Criminal Minds. On June 14, 2010, it was announced that her contract option would not be picked up for season six as a series regular reportedly due to budget cuts on the show, but she returned for two episodes to wrap up her character's storyline due to thousands of letters and petitions written to the show's producers. She also returned for one episode for the departure of Paget Brewster from the series. Former executive producer of Criminal Minds, Ed Bernero, later claimed that CBS executives called him one day and asked him to get rid of Cook and Brewster. Brewster also mentioned in a separate interview that someone from CBS called Bernero and said they wanted "new women" which led to their firing. She said that it was not due to budget cuts as their replacement was paid twice what they were paid. In April 2011, it was reported that Cook had signed to reappear for two more seasons of the show. In 2013, Cook and  Criminal Minds  co-star Kirsten Vangsness managed to negotiate salary raises but not parity after years of being paid less than half the salary of fellow co-stars Matthew Gray Gubler and Shemar Moore. In 2017, both women held out on signing new contracts as they sought pay parity with Gubler. They eventually succeeded and closed new deals to return. Cook would continue to star in the series until it ended in 2020 after 15 seasons. After the show wrapped, Cook decided to take a break from acting and in 2022, she guest-starred on the show 9-1-1. It was also announced that she would be returning for the Criminal Minds revival.

Other ventures
In 2013, it was announced she was hired as a spokeswoman for Proactiv. She appeared in the January/February 2014 issue of Maxim magazine. She was ranked at 88 on the Maxim Hot 100 2014 list. She was the Grand Marshal for the STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway in Martinsville, Virginia on April 3, 2016.

Personal life
Cook was raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), although she is no longer a practicing member. She also did not limit her acting solely to roles reflecting LDS Church beliefs. On August 3, 2001, she married her long-time boyfriend, Nathan Andersen. The two met in a film class at Utah Valley University, and she later moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, to be with him. They reside in Los Angeles, California, with their two sons.

In September 2008, their first son, Mekhai Allan, was born. He appeared as Henry LaMontagne throughout the Criminal Minds series. The couple's second son, Phoenix Sky, was born in July 2015. Cook and her husband named him Phoenix because they were told that they couldn't have any more children but Phoenix was a surprise and "just rose up". He also appeared in Criminal Minds, as Jareau's second son, Michael.

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

title: A. J. Cook


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Aghlabid dynasty

The Aghlabid dynasty (الأغالبة) was an Arab dynasty centered in Ifriqiya from 800 to 909 that conquered parts of Sicily, Southern Italy, and possibly Sardinia, nominally as vassals of the Abbasid Caliphate. The Aghlabids were from the Najdi tribe of Banu Tamim and adhered to the Mu'tazilite rationalist doctrine within Hanafi Sunni Islam, which they imposed as the state doctrine of Ifriqiya. They ruled until 909 when they were conquered by the new power of the Fatimids.

Independence and consolidation
In 800, the Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid appointed Ibrahim I ibn al-Aghlab, son of a Khurasanian Arab commander from the Banu Tamim tribe, as hereditary Emir of Ifriqiya, in response to the anarchy that had reigned in that province following the fall of the Muhallabids. At that time there were perhaps 100,000 Arabs living in Ifriqiya, although the Berbers still constituted the great majority. Most of the Arab immigrants had come from Syria and Iraq, both of which had consistently contributed a significant number of migrants to the Maghreb region from the start.

Ibrahim was to control an area that encompassed what is now eastern Algeria, Tunisia and Tripolitania. The territory granted to Ibrahim was not demarcated, as it theoretically encompassed the entire Maghreb west of Cyrenaica, including any newly conquered territories. Although independent in all but name, his dynasty never ceased to recognise Abbasid overlordship. The Aghlabids paid an annual tribute of 800,000 dirhams to the Abbasid Caliph and their suzerainty was referenced in the khutba at Friday prayers.

After the pacification of the country Ibrahim ibn al-Aghlab established a residence at a new capital, al-Abbasiyya, founded outside Kairouan in 800 and built between 801 and 810. This was done partly to distance himself from the opposition of the Malikite jurists and theologians, who condemned what they saw as the luxurious life of the Aghlabids (not to mention the fact that the Aghlabids were Mu'tazilites in theology, and Hanafis in fiqh), and disliked the unequal treatment of the Muslim Berbers. Additionally, border defenses such as ribats were set up, including in coastal cities like Sousse (Susa) and Monastir. The Aghlabids also built up the irrigation of the area and enhanced the public buildings and mosques of Ifriqiya. Slaves were obtained through the trans-Saharan trade, through Mediterranean commerce, and from raids on other lands like Sicily and Italy.

The Aghlabid army was composed of two main elements. The first was the jund, or Arab troops descended from the Arab tribesmen who had participated in the early Muslim conquests of North Africa. The other component of the army was recruited from slaves, put in place partly to counterbalance to the power of the jund. It was recorded that 5,000 black Zanj slaves were stationed in Abbasiya as part of its garrison. Under Ziyadat Allah I (r. 817–838) came a revolt of Arab troops (the jund) in 824, the last but most serious episode of confrontation between them and the Aghlabid emirs. The rebellion was led by a commander named Mansur ibn Nasr al-Tunbudhi, who owned a fortress near Tunis. By September 824 the rebels had occupied Tunis and Kairouan, but the Aghlabids managed to repel them from Kairouan a month later and killed Mansur. Another chief, Amir ibn Nafi', took over leadership of the rebels and inflicted a severe defeat on Ziyadat Allah's forces. Eventually, the emir was able to gain the upper hand with the help of the Ibadite Berbers of the Nafwaza region and finally crushed the rebellion in 827.

In 838/839 (224 AH) the southwestern province of Qastiliya (the Djerid region), largely inhabited by Ibadi Muslims, revolted, prompting the Aghlabids to recapture Tozeur, its main city, that year.

Conquest of Sicily
In 827, soon after Ziyadat Allah defeated the rebellion, the Aghlabid conquest of Sicily began. Asad ibn al-Furat, a qadi from Kairouan, was appointed as commander of the Aghlabid forces. The pretense for this invasion was an internal revolt in Byzantine Sicily led by a military commander named Euphemios who requested support from the Aghlabids.

Despite the political differences and rivalry between the Aghlabids, who served under the Abbasid Caliphate, and the Umayyad Emirate of Cordoba, the Muslims of al-Andalus (in the Iberian Peninsula) also sent a fleet under Asba' ibn Wakil to aid the Aghlabid conquest of Sicily. Ibn Kathir recorded that a joint force of 300 Umayyad and Aghlabid ships were present. The Aghlabid garrison at Mineo managed to get into contact with the Andalusian Umayyads, who immediately agreed to the alliance, provided that Asba' was recognized as the overall commander, and, together with fresh troops from Ifriqiya, they marched on Mineo. Theodotus retreated to Enna and the siege of Mineo was broken in July or August 830. The combined Ifriqiyan and Andalusian army then torched Mineo and laid siege to another town, possibly Calloniana (modern Barrafranca). However, a plague broke out in their camp, causing the death of Asba' and many others. The town fell later, in autumn, but the Arabs' numbers were depleted to the point where they were forced to abandon it and retreat west. Theodotus launched a pursuit and inflicted heavy casualties, and, thereafter, most of the Andalusians departed the island. However, Theodotus too was killed at this time, possibly in one of these skirmishes.

The conquest of Sicily proceeded slowly and at an uneven pace, progressing roughly from west to east through multiple campaigns over many years. Palermo was conquered in 831 and became the capital of Muslim rule on the island and the base for further conquests. Messina was besieged and captured in 842 or 843, possibly with the support of some Neapolitans, and became a base for further campaigns into the Italian mainland. Syracuse was captured in 878. The conquest of the island was not fully completed until 902, when Taormina was conquered. Even after this, however, some patches of local Byzantine/Christian resistance continued until 967, long after the Aghlabid dynasty had ended.

Italian Peninsula
Even as the conquest of Sicily was ongoing, the Aghlabids began campaigning on the Italian mainland. Their invasions of Calabria and Apulia, as well as their attacks on other central Mediterranean islands, were probably undertaken as an extension of their conquest of Sicily, aiming to aid the latter by attacking other Byzantine positions in the region. The first major expeditions to the peninsula took place between 835 and 843. Amantea was taken in 839 or 846 and occupied until 886, when the Byzantines retook it. Taranto was captured in 840 and occupied until 880. Bari was captured by Muslims either in 840 or 847. Rome was raided by a Muslim force in 846, although it is not certain that the raiders came from Aghlabid territory. Another attack towards Rome took place in 849, leading to a great naval battle near Ostia during which a fleet of Muslim ships was destroyed, marking a halt to Muslim advances on the peninsula.

Many of the Muslim forces that operated on the peninsula or occupied some of its cities seem to have had only tenuous allegiances to the Aghlabid dynasty. Some Muslim mercenaries even entered into the service of Naples or local Lombard rulers at various times. The early Muslim occupiers of Bari, for example, appear to have served as mercenaries of Radelchis I of Benevento. The Emirate of Bari, which existed from 847 to 871, had its own rulers whose relations to the Aghlabids are not clearly known.

Malta, Sardinia and Corsica
Elsewhere in the central Mediterranean, the Aghlabids conquered the island of Malta in 870. They also attacked or raided Sardinia and Corsica. Some modern references state that Sardinia came under Aghlabid control around 810 or after the beginning of the conquest of Sicily in 827. Historian Corrado Zedda argues that the island hosted a Muslim presence during the Aghlabid period, possibly a limited foothold along the coasts that forcibly coexisted with the local Byzantine government. Historian Alex Metcalfe argues that the available evidence for any Muslim occupation or colonisation of the island during this period is limited and inconclusive, and that Muslim attacks were limited to raids. According to Fabio Pinna, most Sardinian historians and archaeologists studying this period of the island's history have reached the same conclusion, denying that a Muslim conquest and occupation of Sardinia took place, due to insufficient supporting evidence from archaeology and local historical records.

Apogee in Ifriqiya
The expansion campaign into Sicily, which Ziyadat Allah launched right after defeating the jund rebellion that started in 824, gave the restless Arab troops of Ifriqiya a new outlet for their military energies. It also brought in new revenues to the Aghlabid state. At home, the Aghlabid emirs faced significant criticism from Maliki religious scholars, who held great influence as religious elites in the region. They dealt with this problem by drawing the Maliki scholars into the orbit of the state and granting them appointments to high religious offices. They also countered criticism of their wealth and privilege by publicly dispensing charity to the poor and sponsoring the construction and expansion of mosques. All of these factors led to greater internal stability and peace in Ifriqiya after 827. Agriculture and trans-Saharan trade were further developed under Aghlabid rule, leading to economic expansion and a growing urban population.

The Aghlabid kingdom reached its high point under Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Aghlabi (856–863). Ifriqiya was a significant economic power thanks to its fertile agriculture, aided by the expansion of the Roman irrigation system. It became the focal point of trade between the Islamic world and Byzantium and Italy, especially the lucrative slave trade. Kairouan became the most important centre of learning in the Maghreb, most notably in the fields of theology and law, and a gathering place for poets. The Aghlabid emirs sponsored building projects, notably the rebuilding of the Great Mosque of Kairouan, and the kingdom developed an architectural style which combined Abbasid and Byzantine architecture. In 876 Ibrahim II ibn Ahmad moved his residence from al-Abbasiya to a new palace-city that he founded, called Raqqada. The new city contained a mosque, baths, market, and several palaces. For the rest of his life, Ibrahim II resided in a palace called Qasr al-Fath (قصر الفتح), which also remained the residence of his successors (except for some periods where they moved to Tunis).

Decline and fall
The decline of the dynasty began under Ibrahim II (875–902). An attack by the Tulunids of Egypt had to be repelled and a revolt of the Berbers put down with much loss of life. In 893 there began amongst the Kutama Berbers the movement of the Isma'ili Fatimids, led by Abu Abdallah al-Shi'i, the dā'ī of the future caliph Abdallah al-Mahdi, although it took almost a decade before they were able to seriously threaten Aghlabid power.

In 902 Ibrahim II became the only Aghlabid emir to personally lead a military campaign in Sicily and the Italian mainland. While he was away in Sicily, Abu Abdallah struck the first significant blow against Aghlabid authority in North Africa by attacking and capturing the city of Mila (present-day eastern Algeria). This news triggered a serious response from the Aghlabids, who sent a punitive expedition of 12,000 men from Tunis in October of the same year. Abu Abdallah's forces were forced to flee their base at Tazrut and re-establish themselves at Ikjan.

Ibrahim II died in October 902 while besieging Cosenza in Italy and was succeeded by Abdallah II. On 27 July 903 Abdallah was assassinated and his son Ziyadat Allah III took power, basing himself in Tunis. These internal Aghlabid troubles gave Abu Abdallah the opportunity to recapture Mila and then go on to capture Setif by October or November 904. Further Aghlabid attempts to crush his movement had little success. In 907, in response to the growing threat, Ziyadat Allah III moved his court back to Raqqada, which he fortified. Later in 907 the heavily fortified city of Baghaya, on the southern Roman road between Ifriqiya and the central Maghreb, fell to the Kutama. This opened a hole in the wider defensive system of Ifriqiya and created panic in Raqqada. Ziyadat Allah III stepped up anti-Fatimid propaganda, recruited volunteers, and took measures to defend the weakly-fortified city of Kairouan. In 908 he personally led his army in an indecisive battle against the Kutama army near Dar Madyan (probably a site between Sbeitla and Kasserine), with neither side gaining the upper hand. During the winter of 908-909 Abu Abdallah conquered the region around Chott el-Jerid. An Aghlabid counterattack against Baghaya failed.

On 25 February 909, Abu Abdallah set out from Ikjan with an army of 200,000 men for a final invasion of Kairouan. The remaining Aghlabid army, led by an Aghlabid prince named Ibrahim Ibn Abi al-Aghlab, met them near al-Aribus on 18 March. The battle lasted until the afternoon, when a contingent of Kutama horsemen outflanked the Aghlabid army and finally caused a rout. When news of the defeat reached Raqqada, Ziyadat Allah III packed his valuable treasures and fled towards Egypt. The population of Kairouan looted the abandoned palaces of Raqqada. When Ibn Abi al-Aghlab arrived on the scene after his defeat, he called on the population to mount a last-ditch resistance, but they refused. On 25 March 909 (Saturday, 1 Rajab 296), Abu Abdallah entered Raqqada and took up residence here. That same year his forces retrieved the Fatimid caliph, Abdallah al-Mahdi, from Sijilmasa (in the western Maghreb) and brought him to Ifriqiya, thus establishing the Fatimid Caliphate.

Religion
The Aghlabids adhered to the Mu'tazilite theological movement within Hanafi Sunni Islam. The Aghlabids adopted the Mu'tazilite rationalist doctrine after it became the official doctrine of the Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad during the reign of caliph Al-Ma'mun (813–833). The officialization of this doctrine faced strong opposition from the Maliki majority of Ifriqiya, particularly due to the Mu'tazilite rejection of the orthodox belief that the Qur'an was God's eternal word and therefore uncreated. Although the Aghlabids recognized the political influence of the Maliki religious leaders, they were both unable and unwilling to alter their governmental system to align with their beliefs. The qāḍī (judge) of Kairouan adhered to the Hanafi school and endorsed the concept of Khalq al-Qur'an (createdness of the Qur'an). The Aghlabids consistently favored Iraqis as their higher-ranking judges, while the viziers had affiliations with the Maliki school.

Nonetheless, the Aghlabids were able to bolster their religious standing and counter criticisms directed against them. Some Malikis were persecuted for rejecting Mu'tazilite beliefs, such as Sahsun, who suffered persecution during the reign of Muhammad I ibn al-Aghlab (841–856) for rejecting the Mu'tazilite concept that the Qur'an was created. The Aghlabids also displayed great generosity in their spending on religious buildings, such Al-Zaytuna Mosque, which they had reconstructed by 864.

As Sunni Muslims, the Aghlabids were vassals of the Abbasid caliphs of Baghdad, representing the influence and presence of the Abbasids throughout Ifriqiya. The Aghlabids maintained strained relations with the Rustamid dynasty of Tahert, who adhered to the Kharijite Ibadi sect. Their relations with the Idrisid dynasty of Fez were always tense, as the Idrisids were Zaydi Shi'ites who had expansionist ambitions on the relatively weak Rustamid state. Furthermore, the Aghlabids held a hostile stance towards the Umayyads in the Emirate of Cordoba.

Architecture
The Aghlabids were major builders and erected many of the oldest Islamic-era monuments in present-day Tunisia, including military structures like the Ribat of Sousse and the Ribat of Monastir, religious buildings like the Great Mosque of Sousse and the Great Mosque of Sfax, and practical infrastructure works like the Aghlabid Reservoirs of Kairouan. Much of their architecture, even their mosques, had a heavy and almost fortress-like appearance, but they nonetheless left an influential artistic legacy. One of the most important Aghlabid monuments is the Great Mosque of Kairouan, which was completely rebuilt by the emir Ziyadat Allah I in 836, although various additions and repairs were effected later which complicate the chronology of its construction. The mosque features an enormous rectangular courtyard, a large hypostyle prayer hall, and a thick three-story minaret (tower from which the call to prayer was issued). The minaret is the oldest surviving one in North Africa and its shape may have been modeled on existing Roman lighthouses. The mihrab (niche symbolizing the direction of prayer) of the prayer hall is among the oldest examples of its kind, richly decorated with marble panels carved in high-relief vegetal motifs and with ceramic tiles with overglaze and luster. Next to the mihrab is the oldest surviving minbar (pulpit) in the world, made of richly-carved teakwood panels. Both the carved panels of the minbar and the ceramic tiles of the mihrab are believed to be imports from Abbasid Iraq. An elegant dome in front of the mihrab wall is an architectural highlight of this period. Its light construction contrasts with the bulky structure of the surrounding mosque and the dome's drum is elaborately decorated with a frieze of blind arches, squinches carved in the shape of shells, and carved low-relief motifs.

The Mosque of Ibn Khayrun (also known as the "Mosque of the Three Doors") possesses an external façade featuring carved Kufic inscriptions and vegetal motifs, which some scholars have called the oldest decorated external façade in Islamic architecture and which may contain the oldest foundation inscription crediting a private individual (rather than a ruler) for a mosque's construction. The al-Zaytuna Mosque in Tunis, which was founded earlier around 698, also owes its overall current form to the Aghlabid emir Abu Ibrahim Ahmad (r. 856–863).

Aghlabid rulers

 * Ibrahim I ibn al-Aghlab ibn Salim (800–812)
 * Abdallah I ibn Ibrahim (812–817)
 * Ziyadat Allah I ibn Ibrahim (817–838)
 * al-Aghlab Abu Iqal ibn Ibrahim (838–841)
 * Abu 'l-Abbas Muhammad I ibn al-Aghlab Abi Affan (841–856)
 * Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Aghlabi (856–863)
 * Ziyadat Allah II ibn Abil-Abbas (863)
 * Abu 'l-Gharaniq Muhammad II ibn Ahmad (863–875)
 * Abu Ishaq Ibrahim II ibn Ahmad (875–902)
 * Abu 'l-Abbas Abdallah II ibn Ibrahim (902–903)
 * Abu Mudhar Ziyadat Allah III ibn Abdallah (903–909)

title: Aghlabid dynasty


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User talk:Starx

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

 * Peruse Welcome, newcomers and associated pages, such as
 * How to edit a page
 * How to write a great article
 * Naming conventions
 * Manual of Style
 * You can experiment in the Sandbox.
 * Sign talk page entries with ~, which is automatically converted to a name and date.
 * If you have any questions, see Help, or you can a question to the village pump.
 * I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian -- Infrogmation 04:31, 9 May 2004 (UTC)

Thanx for the welcome, those link will come in usefull --Starx 01:20, 11 May 2004 (UTC)

Vandalism
Hi, welcome to Wikipedia. Nice work on the vandal patrol. :) RickK 03:45, 11 May 2004 (UTC)

 * Heh, I left a message on the talk page for 65.50.150.251 to let him know I was reverting his advert links. I then go to clean up the list and found it all done already.  You're fast.  Thank you.  :-)  SWAdair | Talk  04:30, 12 May 2004 (UTC)

Thank you for reverting my page!! :0)--Plato 20:49, 12 May 2004 (UTC)

Nick Berg Photograph
Starx I have no problem viewing it, but I can easly see how it could be too much for someone. Safer to have it inline as it is now.

 * sorry, but your comment is not very consistent. You seen to think it should not be directly visible, but nevertheless voted to have it fully visible. Are you sure of your vote ? SweetLittleFluffyThing

 * viewing inline means the picture is fully available to see directly. This is the case at the clitoris article (the clitoris photo is visible)
 * viewing with a link, means you only see a link, and when you click on the link, you access the picture. Currently the case for the head (the head is not visible).

SweetLittleFluffyThing

No biggie :-) I was just a bit perplex :-) ant

Interwikis
Hi Starx, the bg:,de:,fr:,pl:,ja: etc create links between articles that are discussing the same subject but in different languages. For more details, please look at InterWiki. --webkid 00:20, 14 May 2004 (UTC)

Shawn Mikula
I don't see what I can do except list him on Vandalism and vote against all of his listings. RickK 20:15, 16 May 2004 (UTC)

Where is he listing them by the way? They're not on VfD. RickK

VfD
Response to comment at User talk:Cyrius.

Your concern is appreciated, but yes, you are missing something.

Because of the sheer enormity of the VfD page, it was recently decided that VfD listings that have run their 5 day course should be moved to Votes for deletion/Old. There, admins can deal with them more easily than on the main VfD page, which gets a lot of traffic and therefore a lot of edit conflicts. Since older discussions tend not to get much traffic, moving them usually doesn't pose a problem.

The notice that this happens is at Votes for deletion.

If you're looking for something from May 11 or earlier, and don't find it on /Old, it has already been dealt with. -- Cyrius|&#9998 04:26, May 17, 2004 (UTC)

Shawn Mikula's vandalism
No, no, I understand exactly what's going on. My claim is that, since he claims that the material he submits is not released under the GFDL, then the Mikula page has to go too (i.e. that he can't decide that half his contributions are GFDL and half aren't). Snowspinner

Unlikely. He denies being Mikula. His claim is that unless the links to Mikula are maintained, he does not give permission for the articles to go into Wikipedia. Snowspinner 02:19, 21 May 2004 (UTC)

I'll understand if you want to put it back. My reasoning remains, aside from everything else, that the account raising the issue shouldn't exist due to block evasion, the articles shouldn't exist due to refusal to comply with the GFDL. Furthermore, Votes for Undeletion does not, as I am reading it, specifcy a ten day period on the page. So I think the debate should stay terminated, due to excessive destructiveness. Snowspinner 03:19, 21 May 2004 (UTC)

For me it's less an issue of trust regarding the GFDL and more one of principle. Copyvio is the worst possible thing that can happen to Wikipedia - far worse than vandalism, in that it could cause hundreds or thousands of people to suddenly be liable in a massive lawsuit. I don't think we can afford to let people change their minds more than 0 times on whether or not their content is released under the GFDL, little yet more than one - it's just too dangerous for Wikipedia. Consider the number of articles that could be forcibly deleted on the grounds that they're derivative works of somthing that someone decided wasn't a part of the GFDL. Especially with this user, since we've already set the precedent of saying that some of his contributions were not GFDL, I don't think we can take the risk. Snowspinner 03:37, 21 May 2004 (UTC)

Starx, you and your little cronies are not competent nor qualified to edit my expertly written articles. Read Wikipedia:The_perfect_article for yourself. Face the facts, buddy, you're out of your league. You can try as you will to keep the articles here biased and dumbed-down, but understand that it only reflects poorly on you and the other ignorant admins involved. At some point, you will realize this, and you will understand that that's what I've been telling you all along. So, go along now, and play with your other buffoons in your little self-created buffoonland. At some point, you will face reality. Just the thought of it keeps me laughing. 193.255.207.252 18:41, 21 May 2004 (UTC) <<Indent reduced for readability.
 * You realize what you sound like don't you? Ad Hominem attcks are more often then not taken when the logical bases for your argument is non-existant.  BTW, all of your vandalism was reverted within 5 minutes.  You do understand that pages have a history right?  And that any content you delete is instantly recoverable?  Anyway, get a life. --Starx 18:53, 21 May 2004 (UTC)
 * That's all very good and nice, but do not resort to slander. I have not vandalized any pages.  If you want a scapegoat, sorry, but I'm not it.  About getting a life, ahh, I love the irony of it.  Pubescent buffoon.  It's clear to me who's been spending far too much time on the internet.  Maybe you should find something more productive to be doing with your time, eh?193.255.207.252 19:01, 21 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Again refer to my comments on the effectiveness of ad hominem attacks. BTW, something is not considered slander when it is the truth.  You are a vandal, pure and simple. --Starx 19:07, 21 May 2004 (UTC)
 * prove it. --193.255.207.252 (the vandal)
 * Why, it's obvious to everyone capable of looking through a history. That's good enough for me. --Starx 19:10, 21 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Is "everyone" just you, cause that's the only person I've heard making the accusation? You have no proof, and you're just downright pathetic.  Come on, DJ, think of some proof.  You've got none.  You only have suspicions, and that's nothing.  193.255.207.252 19:14, 21 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Please, in every discussion you've taken part in someone has called you a vandal. Be it snowspinner, RickK, Texture... I don't need proof because I'm not asking anyone to adopt my belief. The evidence is all there for anyone who wishes to make their own judgement. --Starx 19:23, 21 May 2004 (UTC)
 * To my knowledge, you're the only person who has ever falsely accused me of vandalism. 193.255.207.252 19:25, 21 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Knowone has falsely accused you of vandalism, they've all been fair accusations. --Starx 19:31, 21 May 2004 (UTC)
 * By the way, is that true that you came out of the closet recently? Congratulations! Am I going to find this info on the internet, or do you plan on making it more public?  193.255.207.252 19:16, 21 May 2004 (UTC)
 * See above about the ad hominems. Your comments don't bother me, everyone reading this is perfectly capable of reading into them. Though I must say your originality is somewhat lacking, I got over the gay joke thing when I was 12. --Starx 19:19, 21 May 2004 (UTC)
 * It wasn't a joke. That's what I heard.  So you're saying it's not true? That's fine.  But it's just strange that people should be saying that then.  193.255.207.252 19:21, 21 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Your not exactly a reliable source. --Starx 19:23, 21 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Enough of this silliness. I have work to do. 193.255.207.252 19:29, 21 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Yes, it is silliness. But then you have been driving the discussion so feel free to drop it.  Go back to your own website, you are unwanted here. --Starx 19:31, 21 May 2004 (UTC)

You presumptuous ass. Why would you say such stupid things? First, you have no idea whether I have a website or not. And second, what makes you think I care whether I'm wanted here or not? Do you really think that's ever stopped me before? 193.255.207.252 19:49, 21 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Someone as intelecually arrogant as you cannot possibly be without an online presence. And I know for a fact you do not care whether you are wanted or not, if you did you'd already be gone. --Starx 19:54, 21 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Starx, there comes a point when you should stop feeding the trolls. There's some relevant quotes I could apply about wrestling pigs and fighting monsters, but I hope you see my point without them. -- Cyrius|&#9998 20:11, May 21, 2004 (UTC)

Starx, try not to take it so personally. You have no idea who I am just as I have no idea who you are. The internet makes us all anonymous, which has its pros and cons, and which means that you should stop holding a grudge. I'm sure you don't believe this, but I fully intend not to harass anymore. Yes, that's right, I've taken off my 'Top Troll' badge and am now just a regular joe. My apologies if you took things personally. --User:208.183.105.4
 * I haven't taken anything personally. In fact all in all this has been an amusing diversion.  I hope you've learned that you'll get more done by playing by the rules.  I still think you're Shawn Mikula though. --Starx 23:08, 21 May 2004 (UTC)
 * I'm glad to hear you're not taking it personally. Believe me, there was nothing personal in it.  And yes, it's better to play by the rules.  I guess I was a little overly-excited when I first stumbled on this site a week ago and let an old trolling habit (one formed on Yahoo messageboards many years back in my younger days) get the better of me.  I know better now and will keep my bad habits in check.  Thanks, for your patience.  Hopefully I'll yet contribute something worthwhile here, and maybe even have the opportunity to have more positive exchanges.  Until then, take care. --User:66.4.225.3

Global warming, biggie size
Starx, I don't think you read the Pro-American sentiment article closely. The article says, not that the sun will consume the earth (which is what's supposed to happen the last time I checked our current cosmology), but that it will die (in some unspecified manner. But, not to worry, good old Yankee ingenuity, backed by the wonderful invisible hand of the marketplace, is on the job, which of course is why the United States is so beloved by so many throughout the world. Dpbsmith 21:31, 23 May 2004 (UTC)

Cosmology/shmosmology, it's turtles all the way down
Well, I did say "the last time I checked..." I do try to find out what our shared-reality creation myths are once a decade or so. Hey, when I was a kid, the continents didn't drift. And I don't mean "we didn't know that they did drift," I mean "we did know that they didn't drift." It was in the textbooks. That crackpot Wegener had been thoroughly discredited... :-)

Edit history of "Pulse-density modulation"
I regret to say I couldn't figure out how to do what you requested. Rollbacks seem to leave the edit history in place. So, I did the next best thing (I hope) which is to delete the page and re-create it. Biggest problem is that this means it's no longer linked as one of your contributions, but you should be able to fix that by making a negligible edit to the page. I've preserved the original page, with its history, in hopefully an inconspicuous place so I can move it back if needed. Dpbsmith 22:23, 26 May 2004 (UTC)

Pythagoreans, etc.

 * If Euclid was around after pythagoras, then the fact that he knew of the irrationality of the square root of 2 is not surprising, considering it was during pythagoras' time that it was first proven. Do you have any sources?  Cause there are plenty documented sources saying it was, in fact, a follower of pythagoras.

So you and I both agree that it was known to the Pythagoreans and therefore to Euclid, who came later. And we both agree therefore that it is ignorant nonsense to say that it was not done until the middle ages. Right? As for sources, I've read some of Thomas Heath's books, but it's been a while, so I cannot cite chapter and verse. On another matter, why do you keep deleting my assertion in the article that the conventional algebraic argument is not the one that the Pythagoreans used? Michael Hardy 21:41, 18 Aug 2004 (UTC)

You are being abusive
It is abuse when you attribute to me the statement that the irrationality of the square root of 2 was not discovered until the middle ages. I am not the one who wrote that. I am the one who wrote that that is NOT true. Nor did I say it is ignorant nonsense to say that the Pythagoreans used a certain method; I wrote only that that is an error. Your reading comprehension is terrible. You need to get clear about what I wrote and what was written by others before you start demanding that I take responsibility for things that were written. Michael Hardy 02:35, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Why was this there?
It was there because DanP blanked a couple of sections of the article unless I left it in. See article's talk page for background. Thanks for deleting it. We'll see what happens next. Alteripse 01:59, 9 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Newdow
No problem. – Andre ( talk ) 01:41, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Grammar (in irrational number)

 * From the article: (because none of its prime factors is 2)
 * Factors is plural, so shouldn't it be are instead of is? --Starx 01:51, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

No. "Its factors" is the object of the preposition "of". If I wrote "Not even one of its factors is prime", obviously it would be grossly wrong to write "are". Similarly if I wrote "Just one of these factors is prime", would you say I should have written "are", when I'm writing about only one, on the grounds that "factors" is plural? Traditionally, "none" is singular. Of course, recently many people have used "none" as plural, but even so, there can hardly be a grammatical objection to using a singular "none". (And somehow the misspelling of "grammar" in the edit summary doesn't inspire confidence either.) Michael Hardy 23:25, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

... and also, when you say "because factors is plural", I almost fear that next you'll write something like "One of these are correct". I actually hear people say that from time to time; it's as if the fact that these is plural means that the phrase one of these is plural. Obviously the phrase one of these is singular and should be followed by is, not are. Michael Hardy 23:58, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

ArbCom elections are now open!
Hi, You appear to be eligible to vote in the current Arbitration Committee election. The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to enact binding solutions for disputes between editors, primarily related to serious behavioural issues that the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the ability to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail. If you wish to participate, you are welcome to review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. For the Election committee, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:15, 30 November 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Starx


text:
Talk:List of kings of Babylon

Section
The numbering scheme article gives no useful information with respect to numbering of monarchs. We shouldn't include irrelevant links. john 04:32, 9 May 2004 (UTC)

 * As it's not linked as numbering of monarchs, but as numbering scheme it would be highly unusal if it would. Obviously if there were one, this would be a better link. The article lacks wikification BTW. -- User:Docu

 * In the meantime I added a bit to numbering scheme and I even found the specialized article. Please contribute to the list. -- User:Docu

[ro4444]:

When I edited the Sealand dynasty kings list, there was a nonspecific [5 Kings] in between Gulkishar and Ea-Gamil. I found another list that had four kings in between the two, and edited those in. However, there still may be a king missing from the list.

 * ok, we are getting to a point where sources should be cited: There are various contradictory lists, and rather than just blending them together, we should explain the situation, and make clear which lists have what. dab (ᛏ) 09:09, 23 Jan 2005 (UTC)

 * http://www.hostkingdom.net/ancmesop.html#Babylon

hostkingdom generally has reliable lists, which is why I use it.User:Ro4444

 * I'm afraid you don't understand. With 'sources' I don't mean web pages. I mean manuscripts, i.e. the actual lists. the website you give is horribly unencyclopedic, they don't even say which chronology they use. (Middle Chronology?) See for an example of a 'reliable' source, which gives manuscript readings.  I honestly don't know how you can decide whether 'hostkingom' is 'reliable', seeing that they give not a single source... dab

(ᛏ) 09:25, 24 Jan 2005 (UTC)

 * Actually, it has a whole list of sources:

http://www.hostkingdom.net/append.html

With at least a few covering ancient times. Also, the original list was definately created from this webpage: http://www.friesian.com/notes/newking.htm#babylonia Ro4444

Writing conventions and fonts
All the special signs used by Assyriologist when transcribing words from the Akkadian language is not found at Wikipedia, and are very rare fonts anyhow. We should better limit our use to the letters in the English alphabet. This make the words more easy to find and use in an encyclopedia for non-experts. The velar h and the emphatic s and t are better written with plain h, s and t. It is doubtful even if š should be used in favour of sh, at least not in entries without a redirection to -sh-.

I have edited the king list in according to the above. --JFK 14:33, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

 * Actually, š / Š is included on most Microsoft Windows systems... AnonMoos 08:33, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

Dynasties
There are two Ninth Dynasties. I suspect that the first group is actually part of Dynasty VIII--the website mentioned above as the original source of this list has these kings listed under Dynasty VIII--but I have no knowledge of the subject beyond that page and this, so if someone can back me up on this and fix it, that would be great.

That would clear up the following problem with Dynasty VIII, however, regarding Dynasty VII: a single ruler is not a dynasty. A dynasty is by definition a series of rulers. Perhaps someone could suggest an alternative nomenclature. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.188.66.104 (talk) 19:06, 24 November 2007 (UTC)

Short chronology, Tables
Would there be a problem if I tabulated the king lists and converted them to short chronology? (like the Sumerian king list) Categorystuff (talk) 00:30, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Nabu-kudurri-usur (Nebuchadnezzar II)
There is a difference between the dates in the Table and the Picture and other references. Which Dates are right? 624 – 582 BC or 605–562 BC? 80.187.103.77 (talk) 08:36, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

Salted
Gérard Gertoux has been salted for a reason. tgeorgescu (talk) 18:49, 14 December 2021 (UTC)

title: Talk:List of kings of Babylon


text:
Lexus SC

The Lexus SC (Japanese: レクサス・SC) is a grand tourer that was retailed by Lexus (a luxury vehicle division of Toyota), and built from 1991 until 2010. It features a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive design and seating for up to four passengers. The first-generation SC debuted as the V8-powered SC 400 in 1991, and the I6-powered SC 300 was added in 1992. Both first-generation models were produced until 2000. The second-generation model, the SC 430, went into production in 2001. The SC 430 features a hardtop convertible design and a V8 engine. The first-generation SC was largely styled in California at Calty, and the second-generation SC was mainly conceived at design studios in Europe.

In Japan, the related third-generation Toyota Soarer, with which the first-generation SC originally shared body design and multiple components, featured a separate line-up of vehicle configurations and different powertrains. The third generation Soarer sport coupe, largely identical to the SC 430, was superseded by its Lexus counterpart in Japan when the Lexus marque débuted there in 2005. The SC was the sole coupé in the Lexus lineup until the arrival of the IS C. According to Lexus, the SC designation stands for Sport Coupe. The LC replaced the SC lineup in 2017.

1991–2000
In the early 1990s, following the début of Lexus, automotive press reports indicated a forthcoming Full-size Lexus coupé to compete with other luxury GT coupés of other marques like the Mercedes-Benz CL, Acura Legend coupe and later the Acura CL, Mazda Eunos Cosmo, Buick Riviera, Cadillac Eldorado, Lincoln Mark VIII, Jaguar XJS, Bentley Continental, Maserati Shamal/Ghibli, Ferrari 456 and BMW 8 Series coupe. At that point, Toyota's luxury coupé was the Soarer. A coupe would complement the successful Lexus flagship model, the V8-powered, rear-wheel drive LS 400 sedan. The coupé was going to be targeted towards the American market, and the development effort for its exterior design was handed over to the Calty Design Research center in California in 1987.

The American Calty design team took a different approach to designing the car, using plaster molding shapes to design the body, and working three-dimensionally instead of the traditional 2-D sketch approach. As described by design chiefs Denis Campbell and Erwin Lui, the result was a car that was based on "emotion and feeling" rather than linear aesthetics. The resulting design possessed almost no straight edges, and produced a drag coefficient of. The production design concept by Lui was approved at the beginning of 1989, resulting in Lui being sent back to Japan for 4 months to assist in completion of the production design. According to automotive journalist Bill Russ, the SC design was considered influential among automotive designs of the time. One of the distinctive features was the articulating door hinges. When the doors opened, the hinges moved out and forward, allowing entry and exit in confined spaces.

Production of the Soarer started in April 1991 at the Motomachi plant in Toyota, Aichi, with the Lexus SC produced alongside the Soarer at a second Higashi Fuji plant at Susono, Shizuoka. Motomachi-sourced cars lasted until April 1997. The Lexus SC platform was used to develop Toyota's next generation Supra, both vehicles were manufactured in the same plant. From 1990-1996 the previously installed TEMS active suspension system was replaced with Toyota Active Control Suspension as an optional upgrade.

The SC 400 débuted on 1 June 1991 in the United States as a 1992 model. The SC 400's 4.0 L V8 1UZ-FE, the same engine as used in the LS 400, was reported to have cost over US$400,000,000 in research and development. The engine sits behind the front axles, which makes it a front mid engine rear wheel drive vehicle. The SC 400 was honored as the Motor Trend Import Car of the Year for 1992. It also made Car and Driver magazine's Ten Best list from 1992 through 1996.

In July 1992, the SC 300, a smaller-engined version of the SC 400, premiered in the United States. The SC 300 was equipped with a 3.0 L inline 6 2JZ-GE. Lexus' traction control system, TRAC, was offered as an option.

The first-generation SC lasted in production until 7 July 2000, over nine years, quite long compared to the other cars of the 1990s. Even with the SC's long production cycle, only minor exterior changes were made. New tail lighting and a modified spoiler design was part of the mid-cycle vehicle refresh. A front grille was added in 1996, along with a redesigned front bumper, side skirts and rocker panels. The SC 400 produced 250 hp/260 lbft from 1991 to 1995. The original 1991–1997 engines for the 2JZ-GE-powered SC 300 were rated at 225 hp/210 lbft. The output of the SC 300 was 5 horsepower more than the equivalent engine used in the Toyota Supra.

In 1996, the SC 400's 1UZ-FE engine design was upgraded to 260 hp from 250 hp. These engines were coupled with a 4-speed automatic transmission on both the SC 300 and SC 400 models. A 5-speed manual transmission was only offered on the SC 300 from its debut until 1997.

By the end of the decade, North American SC sales began dwindling due to the lack of significant design updates since the car's introduction and marketplace changes that led to loss of interest in coupes.

In 1997 (1998 model year), both the SC 300 and 400 were upgraded with VVT-i and thus the ratings were raised to 290 hp/300 lbft of torque for the SC 400 and 225 hp/220 lbft of torque for the SC 300. Tests conducted on the new engines showed an acceleration for the SC 400 for years 1992–1995 of 0–60 mph in 6.9 seconds, years 1996–1997 in 6.7 seconds, and years 1998–2000 in 6.1 seconds. For the SC 300 an acceleration 0–60 mph in 6.8 seconds with the 5-speed manual and 7.2 seconds with the 4-speed automatic for all years. This 1997 upgrade included the replacement of the four-speed automatic on the SC 400 to a five-speed unit. With the replacement of the five-speed unit those models also got a new differential with a final drive of 3.27 improving both fuel economy and top speed.

Sales of the automatic transmission SC 300 and SC 400 models formed the vast majority of models purchased. The Lexus SC 400 was never officially sold in the British Isles, but many examples found their way across the Atlantic as personal imports.

2001–2005
At the 1999 Tokyo Motor Show, Lexus displayed its Sport Coupe concept, a V8-powered convertible, signifying its plans for a replacement for the first-generation SC 300/400. The production version of its new sports coupe-convertible, the SC 430, debuted at the New York Auto Show in April 2000. The car was scheduled to go on sale in the second quarter of the following year. Power was provided by a 4.3 L 3UZ-FE V8 engine with variable valve timing (VVT-i) mated to a five-speed automatic transmission. This engine was the same model as that found in the UCF30 Lexus LS. The SC 430's V8 could produce 288 hp (215 kW) and 430 Nm of torque, allowing the coupe to go from 0–60 mph in 6.2 seconds.

In contrast with the previous generation model, the redesigned Lexus SC was intended as a convertible from its inception. The development team was led by chief engineer Yasushi Nakagawa from 1996 to 2000. Lexus designers from Europe and Japan worked together to create a streamlined design. A design theme was chosen in 1997 developed by Sotiris Kovos, who in return was named chief designer. Led by Kovos, designers travelled to the Côte d'Azur to develop the vehicle's exterior shape, and studied the region's architecture, lifestyle, and harbors. The resulting convertible of 1998 received character lines similar to the region's yachts, in contrast with traditional waveform lines. The vehicle's side profile, the product of extensive wind tunnel testing, was intended to channel air around the passenger compartment at high speed during top-down driving. Design patents were filed in Japan, at the Japan Patent Office on 14 June 1999 under patent number 1095312.

The SC 430 chassis featured a double-wishbone setup for both the front and rear wheels. The vehicle platform shared elements with the GS 430 sport sedan, including variable-assist power rack-and-pinion steering. Safety systems ranged from traction control to vehicle stability control. The convertible received a ULEV emissions certification rating.

The SC 430 featured a retractable aluminium hardtop, all-leather interior with brushed-aluminum accents, navigation screen with folding wood panel, and 18-inch aluminium wheels. Chrome Lexus emblems were mounted on the back of the front seat headrests. The coupe has four seat belts and could technically seat four, but rear-seat space is limited. The hardtop fully retracts in 25 seconds. Standard luxury features include Burl Walnut or Bird's Eye Maple wood trim, a Mark Levinson premium sound system, DVD-based navigation system, and headlamp washers. For additional trunk space, as an option the SC 430 could be equipped with run-flat tires.

At its launch, the SC 430 was marketed as the "jewel of Lexus", and as the marque's first convertible, was intended as a more ostentatious addition to the Lexus lineup. Reviewers from Car and Driver magazine praised the SC 430 for 2002 as "an unqualified success", calling it "comfortable, fast, smooth, and quiet" with "all of the virtues expected in a patrician roadster."

In 2004, Lexus unveiled the Lexus SC "Pebble Beach Edition", a limited-production model of the SC. The special edition SC was produced in partnership with the Pebble Beach Company, and featured a unique exterior and interior color combination which changed with each model year. This edition was offered for model years 2004 through 2009 production of the Pebble Beach edition was limited to varying units each year (see table below for counts). Each Lexus SC Pebble Beach edition coupe exhibited: unique colors (changed each year), special badging (featuring the "Lone Cypress" logo) on the front fenders, center console, and floor mats. For the 2006 model, a rear spoiler and spider alloy wheels was also included. In October 2009 Road & Track published some pictures of that model year.

In 2004 and 2005, J.D. Power and Associates' Initial Quality Survey awarded the SC 430 as the highest ranked premium luxury vehicle. Kelley Blue Book gave the SC 430 its Best to Hold Value Award in 2002. In June 2004, a custom-designed Carolina Herrera SC 430 was shown at the Madrid Motor Show. The special edition SC 430 CH used a 'Testa di Moro' body color, with matching interior leather and carpeting, along with designer logos on the wheels and door sills. A line of accessories was also developed for the vehicle.

In 2012, Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson and James May chose the Lexus SC 430 as the worst car ever built in their film The Worst Car in the History of the World. They criticized its handling, ride and style, with May calling the ride "absolutely diabolical", and stated that a big manufacturer should have known better.

2006–2010
In 2005 for the 2006 model year, the SC 430 was updated, with changes that included redesigned alloy wheels and the introduction of Bluetooth capability. In late 2005, the SC 430 premiered along with the Lexus marque in Japan; it was manufactured at the Kanji (Kanto Jidosha) assembly site in Japan. The SC 430 was sold in North America, Europe, Oceania, and Asia; unlike its predecessor, the SC 430 was officially imported to the British Isles; the old SC 400 had been a popular personal grey import.

In 2010, a final special edition model for Japan, the SC 430 Eternal Jewel edition, was produced, limited to 200 units. The 2010 model was the last automobile from any major manufacturer in the United States to ship with a cassette tape deck.

Production of the second-generation SC ended in July 2010 after nine years of production, but Lexus was still using them in the Super GT until the 2013 season ended.

Replacement
In July 2008, Edmunds InsideLine had reported that Lexus had cancelled the next generation SC due to slowing sales. A company spokesman did not confirm or deny the rumors, but called the report in the possible replacement with the introduction of the Lexus LFA as "unfounded speculation". Lexus subsequently announced the production of the SC 430 model for 2009, and in 2010.

Designated LF-LC for Lexus Future-Luxury Coupe, the concept two-door vehicle premiered in January 2012 at the North American International Auto Show. The vehicle's exterior and interior styling was created by the Calty Design Research center in Newport Beach, California, which previously developed the exterior styling of the first-generation Lexus SC coupe.

The LF-LC features a front-engine, rear-wheel drive drivetrain layout, which incorporates a next-generation Advanced Lexus Hybrid Drive system. The interior features a remote touchscreen control system linked to two liquid crystal display (LCD) screens that measure 12.3 in in width. Smartphone-size touchscreens are placed on the door armrests for additional controls.

The LF-LC was produced as a design study for a driver-focused vehicle at the direction of the Lexus Center in Japan, and work began on the concept in May 2010. The exterior appearance of the LF-LC was inadvertently leaked by Road & Track magazine several weeks prior to its scheduled auto show debut, when a preview of its February 2012 issue with the LF-LC on its cover (under the headline "Stunning! New Lexus Super Coupe") was posted to YouTube.

A series production model inspired by the 2012 LF-LC Concept is being developed under the Toyota 950A development program. Introduced at the 2016 North American International Auto Show, it went on sale as the Lexus LC 500 in early 2017, based on the new Toyota GA-L modular rear-wheel drive platform and the fifth generation LS flagship.

Motorsport

In 2006 the SC 430 was entered in the (Super GT) race series in the GT500 class (cars with approximately 500 horsepower). Extensively modified from the factory car, the engine used is a modified version of the SC 430's 3UZ-FE V8 that was also used in the Toyota Supra racing car from previous years.

The new SC 430 based race cars were immediately competitive with former GT500 champion Juichi Wakisaka and no. 2 driver André Lotterer driving the Open Interface TOM's SC to victory at the opening round at Suzuka giving the SC 430 its first victory on its debut race. Juichi Wakisaka and Andre Lotterer also won the GT500 class championship during the same year. In 2007, the Lexus SC fully replaced Supras in the Toyota side, a Zent Cerumo SC 430 driven by Yuji Tachikawa was victorious in the GT500 opening round race.

In 2008, a Zent Cerumo SC 430 driven by Yuji Tachikawa and Richard Lyons won the Fuji 500 race, round 3 of the Autobacs Super GT at Fuji Speedway. In 2009, five SC 430s were entered in Super GT racing in the GT500 class, including the Petronas TOM's SC 430 driven by Juichi Wakisaka and André Lotterer, along with the Eneos SC 430, Kraft SC 430, Dunlop Sard SC 430, and Zent Cerumo SC 430.

In 2009, the Lexus Team Petronas TOM's SC 430 driven by André Lotterer and Juichi Wakisaka was the championship winner in the GT500 series, also the SC 430 was victorious in early rounds at the Suzuka Circuit. In 2010, the SC 430 continued in Super GT competition, where the MJ Kraft SC 430 and other Lexus Team Kraft SC 430s won victories at the 2010 Autobacs Super GT at Fuji Speedway. Starting from 2009 until 2013, the SC 430s used Toyota's 3.4L RV8KG V8 engine.

In 2012, two years after production had ended the 430 continued to be a force in Motorsports. Namely in Formula Drift with the Achilles Radial Lexus SC430 powered by a 2JZ and piloted by Daigo Saito.

Sales and production
Sales and production data for the first and second generations, based on manufacturer's data:

title: Lexus SC


text:
Excite Ballpark

Excite Ballpark, previously known as San Jose Municipal Stadium or Muni Stadium, is a baseball park in San Jose, California. It is the home of the Minor League Baseball San Jose Giants, an affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. The team plays in the North Division of the California League. The stadium is also home to the San Jose State University Spartans college baseball team. Local high school baseball divisions also use the ballpark as their championship field. The stadium also hosts concerts, weddings, car shows, and many other community events. It has been the home field for the San Jose Owls, San Jose Red Sox, San Jose Jo Sox, San Jose Pirates, San Jose Missions, San Jose Bees, and the San Jose Expos minor league teams.

The facility is located one block from Spartan Stadium, home to the San Jose State Spartans football team. The area across Alma Avenue from Excite is home to the San Jose State practice fields for soccer, baseball, and softball. Additionally part of the stadium's parking lot was converted into an indoor ice area, Solar4America Ice, which is the practice venue for the San Jose Sharks National Hockey League hockey team.

History
San Jose Municipal Stadium was built from 1941 to 1942 as a WPA project at a cost of US$80,000. It was one of the first stadiums to be built entirely of reinforced concrete. It opened in 1942 with a game that featured the San Francisco Seals as the home team.

Fans sit very close to the field in four distinct seating areas. The first seven rows of the main grandstand are numbered box seats. General admission seating is available in the upper rows of the main grandstand on straight-backed benches. Down the left and right field lines are several bleachers that are accessible for general admission use. There is table seating down the third base line as part of "Turkey Mike's BBQ Area". The stadium has remained largely unchanged from its original configuration. However, renovations to the bathroom facilities and clubhouse were done in 1994 and three extra rows of box seating were added in 1996. In 1999, the dugouts were expanded toward the field.

The outfield walls are lined with advertisements, much like the stadiums of the 1920s and 1930s. Over the scoreboard in right field is a Diamond Vision video screen. The out of town scoreboard provides scores for other California League games. Fans are treated to a variety of games and entertainment in-between innings. Such activities include a tire toss, a child footrace around the bases and a fan favorite, "Smash 4 Cash", a competition where players attempt to smash the headlights of an old delivery truck to split a $50 prize with a fan. Each year's Independence Day celebration, complete with fireworks, draws some of the stadium's largest crowds and sees the foul line seating turned into standing room only.

In 1997, the bullpens moved from along the foul lines to the outfield. The visitor and home bullpens create artificial home run porches in left and right field respectively. In 2007, the outfield fence was replaced and moved in 10 to(-) in some areas and bullpens moved once again.

Many major league players over the years have called San Jose Municipal Stadium home including, George Brett, Rod Beck, Joe Nathan, Chad Zerbe, Ron Hassey, Shawn Estes, Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Madison Bumgarner, Buster Posey, and Brandon Crawford.

Stadium features include: the San Jose Giants Dugout Store, group spaces such as the Martinelli's VIP Deck, City National Futures Club and First Base Party Patio, the Astro Jump Family Fun Zone, Turkey Mike's BBQ, and a 36 foot HD video board. The San Jose Giants mascot, Gigante, is often found having fun with fans at the ballpark and throughout the community.

In 2019, the San Jose Giants entered into a three-year naming rights agreement with Excite Credit Union to rename the facility Excite Ballpark. It is one of the oldest active ballparks in Minor League Baseball.

In the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, the Oakland Athletics used Excite Ballpark as their alternate training site.

title: Excite Ballpark


text:
Talk:Richard I of England

.

Richard I main photo
I think it should be changed from the tomb image to the painting image. RicLightning (talk) 03:15, 16 May 2024 (UTC)
 * We don't use fictional depictions as the main image. Celia Homeford (talk) 07:36, 16 May 2024 (UTC)
 * I would clarify - if contemporary or near contemporary images are available. I think, if no such images are available, a later image from the imagination of an artist or illustrator would be acceptable as 'better than nothing'. Urselius (talk) 12:36, 20 July 2024 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 20 July 2024
Suggest Ballans should be The "House of the Templars". The Commandery of Ballan", i.e. the "house of the Templars" on line 8987, was an administrative centre for the Knights Templar located at Ballan, five miles south-west of Tours, and nine miles north-west of Azay-le-Rideau. The Commandery has been restored and is open to the public. 51.9.45.33 (talk) 09:52, 20 July 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Richard I of England


text:
Rustamid dynasty

The Rustamid dynasty (الرستميون) (or Rustumids, Rostemids) was an Ibadi Persian dynasty centered in present-day Algeria. The dynasty governed as a Muslim theocracy for a century and a half from its capital Tahert (present day Tagdemt ) until the Ismaili Fatimid Caliphate defeated it. Rustamid authority extended over what is now central and western Algeria, parts of southern Tunisia, and the Jebel Nafusa and Fezzan regions in Libya as far as Zawila.

History
The Ibāḍī movement reached North Africa by 719, when the missionary Salma ibn Sa'd was sent from the Ibādī jama'a of Basra to Kairouan. By 740, their efforts had converted the major Berber tribes of Huwara around Tripoli, in the Nafusa Mountains and at Zenata in western Tripolitania. In 757 (140 AH), a group of four Basra-educated missionaries including ʻAbd ar-Rahmān ibn Rustam proclaimed an Ibāḍī imamate in Tripolitania, starting an abortive state led by Abu l-Khattab Abdul-A'la ibn as-Samh which lasted until the Abbasid Caliphate dispatched Muhammad ibn al-Ash'ath al-Khuza'i to suppress it in 761. Ifriqiya was conquered by the Abbasids from Kharijite control and Abul-Khattab Abdul-A'la ibn as-Samh was killed. On his death, the Tripolitanian Ibādiyya elected Abu l-Hatim al-Malzuzi as Imām; he was killed in 772 after launching a second unsuccessful revolt in 768. After this, the center of power shifted to Algeria, and, in 777, ʻAbd ar-Rahmān ibn Rustam, an Ifriqiyan-born convert to the Ibāḍī movement of Persian origin and one of the four founders of the imamate, was elected Imām; after this, the post remained in his family, a practice which the Ibādiyya justified by noting that he came from no tribe, and thus his election as imam would not favour the domination of one Ibadi tribe over the others.

In 873, a succession crisis occurred as the Third Imam Abu Bakr, fearing the loss of his title to his older brother Mohammed Abu-l-Yaqzan, attempted to assassinate him. However, his plot failed, leading to the population uprising against Abu Bakr, resulting in his overthrow and death In 874. Consequently, Mohammed Abu-l-Yaqzan assumed the title.

The new imamate was centered on the newly built capital of Tahert (or Tahart), near present-day Tiaret. Several Ibādī tribes displaced from Tunisia and Tripolitania settled there and strong fortifications were built. It became a major stop on the newly developing trade routes with sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.

Ibn as-Saghir also describes the Imām as ascetic, repairing his own house and refusing gifts; the citizens sharply criticized him if they considered him derelict in his duty. Religious ethics were strictly enforced by law.

The Rustamids fought the Kairouan-based Aghlabids of Ifriqiya in 812, but otherwise reached a modus vivendi; this displeased Ibādī tribes on the Aghlabid border, who launched a few rebellions.

After Abdu l-Wahhāb, the Rustamids grew militarily weak; they were easily conquered by the Ismaili Fatimids in 909, upon which many Ibāḍis – including the last Imām – fled to the Sedrata tribe of Ouargla, whence they would ultimately emigrate to Mzab.

Society and culture
The Rustamid dynasty, "developed a cosmopolitan reputation in which Christians, non-Kharijite Muslims, and adherents of different sects of Kharijism lived". On the intellectual field, the Rustamids had many scholars and learned men, such as Abd al-Rahman ibn Rustam, Abd al-Wahhab ibn Abd al-Rahman, Aflah ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab, dan Abu al-Yaqzhan ibn Aflah, Mahdi an-Nafusi, ‘Abd Allah al-Lamthi, and Mahmud ibn Bakr. ‘Abd ar-Rahman had an exegesis of the Qur’an. ‘Abd al-Wahhab wrote his Masa'il Nafusah on Islamic jurisprudence. Aflah mastered Arabic literature, mathematics, and astronomy. Abu al-Yaqzhan wrote about 40 works. Because of their intellectual enthusiasm, the Rustamids vigorously transferred valuable works from the Mashriq to the Maghrib, especially to the library of al-Ma‘shumah (in Tahert) and that of Khizanah Nafusah (in Jabal Nafusah). Moreover, Tahert was famous as ‘Iraq al-Maghrib, al-‘Iraq ash-Shaghir, Balkh al-Maghrib, or Little Basra. Apart from these achievements, the Rustamids also had significant contribution to Islamization in the Maghrib and Bilad as-Sudan. For about two centuries (130-340 AH / 750-950 AD), the Kharijite people gained control of trade routes in the Maghrib and Bilad as-Sudan. Many Ibadite merchants made journeys along the vast area, such as Tahert, Wargla, Nafzawa, Jabal Nafusah, Tadmakkat, Gao, and Ghana. By this economic activity, the Ibadites took advantages of trading business and preaching Islam at the same time.

Rustamid Imams

 * Abd al-Rahman ibn Rustam (Bānū-Bādūsyān) (776-788)
 * Abd al-Wahhab ibn Abd al-Rahman (788-824)
 * Aflah ibn ʿAbdi l-Wahhab (824-872)
 * Abu Bakr ibn Aflah (872-874)
 * Muhammad Abu l-Yaqzan ibn Aflah (874-894)
 * Yusuf Abu Hatim ibn Muhammad Abi l-Yaqzan (894-895)
 * Yaʿqub ibn Aflah (895-899)
 * Yusuf Abu Hatim ibn Muhammad Abi l-Yaqzan, again (899-906)
 * Yaqzan ibn Muhammad Abi l-Yaqzan (906-909)

title: Rustamid dynasty


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Michael Madsen

Michael Madsen (born September 25, 1958) is an American actor. Alongside his frequent collaborations with Quentin Tarantino—Reservoir Dogs (1992), Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004), The Hateful Eight (2015), and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)—he is known for his appearances in films such as The Natural (1984), The Doors (1991), Thelma & Louise (1991), Free Willy (1993), Species (1995), Donnie Brasco (1997), Die Another Day (2002), Sin City (2005), and Scary Movie 4 (2006). He has played voice roles in various video games, including Grand Theft Auto III (2001), Narc (2005), the Dishonored series (2012–2017), and Crime Boss: Rockay City (2023). Madsen has five children, including actor Christian Madsen.

Early life
Madsen was born on September 25, 1958, in Chicago, Illinois. His mother, Elaine (née Melson), was a filmmaker and author. His father, Calvin Christian Madsen, was a World War II Navy veteran and a firefighter with the Chicago Fire Department. His parents divorced in the 1960s, and his mother left the financial world to pursue a career in the arts, encouraged by film critic Roger Ebert. His siblings are Cheryl Madsen, an entrepreneur, and Academy Award nominee Virginia Madsen. Madsen's paternal grandparents were Danish, while his mother is Irish and Native American.

Career
Madsen began working at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, where he served as an apprentice under John Malkovich and appeared in a production of Of Mice and Men.

His first notable film role was a small part for the science fiction film, WarGames. He appeared in John Dahl’s thriller Kill Me Again as criminal Vince Miller opposite Val Kilmer and Joanne Whalley. In Quentin Tarantino's directorial debut film Reservoir Dogs, Madsen played "Mr. Blonde", a cruel criminal. Steve Buscemi received the role of "Mr. Pink", which Madsen wanted because it had more scenes with Harvey Keitel. For Pulp Fiction, Madsen declined the role of Vincent Vega, which went to John Travolta. Madsen starred in the crime film Donnie Brasco. He once said of these films: "Some of them I'm only in for 10 minutes, but they bought my name, and they bought my face to put on the DVD box with a gun. What people don't always understand is that I established a certain lifestyle for my family back in the days of Species and Mulholland Falls and The Getaway. I wasn't about to move my six kids into a trailer park. So when people offered me work, it wasn't always the best, but I had to buy groceries and I had to put gas in the car."

Madsen played assassin Budd, the brother of Bill (David Carradine), in Kill Bill: Volume 2. In 2004, Tarantino discussed an idea for the film to unite Madsen and Travolta, as The Vega Brothers. In 2007, Tarantino said the film (which he intended to call Double V Vega) was "kind of unlikely now", because of the age of the actors and the onscreen deaths of both characters.

Madsen appeared in Uwe Boll's BloodRayne, a film he described as "an abomination... It's a horrifying and preposterous movie." He won Best Actor awards at the Boston Film Festival and New York International Independent Film and Video Festival for his performance in Strength and Honour. He played himself in the mockumentary Being Michael Madsen. Madsen co-starred in Coma, a Web series on Crackle. He played Jim Ricker, the old friend of Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland), in the eighth season of 24. Madsen starred in the comedy film Let the Game Begin. On January 5, 2012, he entered the Celebrity Big Brother house, where he finished in 4th place in the final.

In February 2014, he played Las Vegas casino mogul Ted Binion in Josh Evans' film Death in the Desert. The screenplay was written by John Steppling, based on the book Death in the Desert by crime writer Cathy Scott.

In August 2014, he starred in the Kill Bill-themed music video for the song "Black Widow" by Iggy Azalea featuring Rita Ora.

Madsen starred in the ensemble western film The Hateful Eight. He was among a number of people rumored to have leaked the film's script before it was released, causing Tarantino to almost not make the film and eventually rewrite it. It was later revealed Madsen was not responsible for leaking the script. In 2016, he played a dramatized role of former Texas Ranger Phil Ryan in Real Detective on the Investigation Discovery network.

He executive produced in Vilan Trub's crime drama film The Dirty Kind, which is loosely inspired by Anthony Weiner.

Personal life
Madsen's first wife was Georganne LaPiere, half-sister of singer and actress Cher. They met in 1983, married in 1984, and divorced in 1988.

He has a daughter named Jessica with Dana Mechling. Jessica was born March 24, 1979.

He was married to Jeannine Bisignano from 1991 to 1995. They have two sons, Christian and Max, who are both actors.

In 1996, he married DeAnna Morgan. The couple married in Ocho Rios, Jamaica while Madsen was on a break from shooting Donnie Brasco. Together they had three sons, Luke, Kalvin and Hudson. Hudson died by suicide in January 2022.

Madsen has a line of hot sauces called American Badass.

Charity work
Madsen received the award for his work with the Shriners Hospital for Children in 2002.

In September 2009, Madsen announced his participation in the 26th annual Love Ride to help raise money for local charities. The charity included celebrities Malcolm Forbes, Peter Fonda, Larry Hagman, Billy Idol and Bruce Springsteen, among others. The event was scheduled for October 25, 2009, but was ultimately canceled due to poor ticket sales and a decline in sponsorship.

Madsen hosted the event An Intimate Evening with Michael Madsen to benefit Children's Pediatric Cancer in 2016.

Awards

 * Lifetime Achievement Award at Red Hen Press in 2006.
 * 9th Annual Malibu International Film Festival honored Madsen in April 2008 for his Achievements in the Art of Acting
 * 1999 Firecracker Alternative Book Award for his book of poetry Burning In Paradise.
 * 2007 Best Actor Boston Film Festival for Strength and Honour
 * 2008 Best Actor New York International Independent Film & Video Festival for Strength and Honour.
 * Madsen won Ensemble of the Year for The Hateful Eight at the Hollywood Film Awards.

title: Michael Madsen


text:
Talk:Nuptse

Elevation
There doesn't seem to be a consensus on the height of Nuptse I. Some web sites say 7,861 or 7,879 metres. The two maps (from Kathmandu) that I have say 7,896 or 7,879 metres. RedWolf 04:56, May 9, 2004 (UTC)

title: Talk:Nuptse


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Washington Hunt

Washington Hunt (August 5, 1811 – February 2, 1867) was an American lawyer and politician.

Life and career
Hunt was born in Windham, New York. He moved to Lockport, New York in 1828 to study law, was admitted to the bar in 1834, and opened a law office on Market Street in 1835. He was First Judge of the Niagara County Court from 1836 to 1841.

He was elected as a Whig to the 28th, 29th and 30th United States Congresses, and served from March 4, 1843, to March 3, 1849.

He was elected New York State Comptroller by the State Legislature after the resignation of Millard Fillmore who had been elected U.S. Vice President. In November 1849, he was re-elected, but resigned the comptrollership after his election as Governor of New York the following year. He was Governor from 1851 to 1852, and was defeated for re-election by Horatio Seymour.

After the break-up of the Whig Party, Hunt, despite his previous association with the Seward/Weed faction of the party, was among the more conservative Whigs who refused to join the Republicans. Hunt was the chairman of the 1856 Whig National Convention and supported his fellow New York Whig, former president Millard Fillmore for the presidency in that year. In 1860, Hunt joined the Constitutional Union Party and supported its nominee for the presidency, John Bell. After it became clear that Bell could not win on his own in New York, Hunt was involved in the formation of a fusion ticket with the supporters of Democrat Stephen Douglas.

In his last years, Hunt moved increasingly closer to the Democrats, endorsing his two-time opponent, Horatio Seymour for the New York gubernatorial race in 1862 and supporting George McClellan for the presidency at the 1864 Democratic National Convention. On June 13, 1864, Hunt was at Niagara Falls to confer with Confederate Commissioner Jacob Thompson. He became a supporter of President Andrew Johnson after the war, and supported Johnson's abortive "National Union" movement, serving as a delegate at the National Union Convention of 1866, which sought to join Democrats and conservative Republicans into a new party to support Johnson.

His brother was Major Edward B. Hunt, a West Point graduate, who was killed in October 1863 while working with an experimental weapons system.

He was buried at the Glenwood Cemetery in Lockport. His former Lockport home at 363 Market Street is in the Lowertown Historic District.

title: Washington Hunt


text:
Yellow-billed oxpecker

The yellow-billed oxpecker (Buphagus africanus) is a passerine bird in the family Buphagidae. It was previously placed in the starling and myna family, Sturnidae.

It is native to the savannah of Sub-Saharan Africa from Senegal east to Sudan. It is least common in the extreme east of its range where it overlaps with the red-billed oxpecker, despite always dominating that species when feeding.

Taxonomy
In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the yellow-billed oxpecker in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in Senegal. He used the French name Le pique-boeuf and the Latin Buphagus. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the yellow-billed oxpecker. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Buphaga africana and cited Brisson's work. This species is placed in the genus Buphagus that was introduced by Brisson.

Two subspecies are recognised:
 * B. a. subsp. africanus Linnaeus, 1766 – Mauritania and Senegal to northwest Ethiopia south to northeast South Africa
 * B. a. subsp. langi Chapin, 1921 – Gabon, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo and west Angola

Behavior
The yellow-billed oxpecker nests in tree holes lined with hair plucked from livestock. It lays 2–3 eggs. Outside the breeding season it is fairly gregarious, forming large, chattering flocks. Non-breeding birds will roost on their host animals at night.

The yellow-billed oxpecker eats insects and ticks. Both the English and scientific names arise from this species' habit of perching on large wild and domesticated mammals such as cattle and eating arthropod parasites. It will also perch on antelopes such as wildebeest. In a day an adult will take more than 100 engorged female Boophilus decoloratus ticks or 13,000 larvae.

However, their preferred food is blood, and while they may take ticks bloated with blood, they also feed on it directly, pecking at the mammal's wounds until blood flows. Whatever the net result, mammals generally tolerate oxpeckers.

The yellow-billed oxpecker is 20 cm long and has plain brown upperparts and head, buff underparts and a pale rump. The feet are strong. The adults' bills are yellow at the base and red at the tip, while juveniles have brown bills. Its flight is strong and direct. The call is a hissy, crackling krisss, krisss.

title: Yellow-billed oxpecker


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Cranium (board game)

Cranium is a party game created by Whit Alexander and Richard Tait in 1998. Initially, Cranium was sold through Amazon.com and the Starbucks coffee chain, then-novel methods of distribution. After selling 44 million copies of Cranium and its sister titles, the game's manufacturer Cranium, Inc. was bought by Hasbro, Inc. for $77.5 million in 2008. Billed as "The Game for Your Whole Brain", Cranium includes a wide variety of activities, unlike many other party games. Giorgio Davanzo handles packaging and branding for the game, and the artwork is by cartoonist Gary Baseman.

Gameplay
To play Cranium, players form teams and start on the beginning spot of a long track that goes around the game board. At the start of a team's turn, the team to their right selects a card and reads the task to them. If the task is completed successfully, the team rolls a colored die, and moves to the next spot that matches the color rolled.

There are four equally-dispersed colors of spaces along the track. Each color corresponds to a question card category that players must pull from on their turn. Red cards are "Data Head" tasks, where the team needs to answer questions. Yellow cards are "Word Worm", where the team has to solve word problems, spell words, or solve anagrams. Blue cards are "Creative Cat" cards that require one player on the team to draw or sculpt answers that the other player must guess. Green cards are "Star Performer" cards, which requires one player to use charades, acting, or whistling so the rest of the team can guess the answer.

Along the track are four "Planet Cranium" spots, marked as purple. Teams have to stop on these spots, even if their roll would take them further. On their next turn, they select a category of their choosing to complete a task. If they are successful on their first attempt of a "Planet Cranium" task, they move to a "fast track", which has fewer spaces to traverse. If they are unsuccessful, they continue on the "scenic route", which will take longer.

Some cards in the decks are marked with "Club Cranium" symbols. If one of these cards is drawn, every team has to attempt the activity, and the winning team gets a bonus move.

Once a team reaches the center of the board, they are in "Cranium Central." The teams have to go around a circular section and collect one card from each category. Once that is accomplished, they are allowed into the final spot. At this point, on their turn the opposing teams choose a category for the team to complete. Completing the task wins the game, otherwise they have to try again on their next turn.

Expansions and spinoffs

 * Booster Boxes: boxes of cards (and clay) sold separately from the game that contain a new deck of each type of card., Booster Boxes 1 and 2 are available, along with a special New York edition pack.
 * Cadoo: a children's version of the game that has some elements of tic-tac-toe. Sold between October 2007 and January 2008, Cadoo units were recalled in January 2008 by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission because "the surface paint on the die contains excessive levels of lead, violating the federal lead paint standard."
 * Conga: a version with a slightly older target audience than Cadoo. Incorporates a musical timer of Cranium, designed for two or more players to play cooperatively.
 * Cranium Hullabaloo: a children's dancing game
 * Cranium Kabookii: a video game version available on the Wii platform. Activities comprise a mixture of some from the original game and new games better suited for a video game environment.
 * Cranium Scribblish: played very much like the game of telephone. Players start by drawing a caption card from the deck and must draw the caption, then pass to another player who captions what they believe the other person has drawn, then draw said caption.  Winners correctly guess which drawing started as their own.
 * Cranium The Family Fun Game: a game similar to the original Cranium with some minor changes.
 * Cranium Turbo Edition: a version of Cranium designed for a faster game.
 * Cranium Wow: a similar game to the original with new cards and activities from Cranium Turbo.
 * Cranium Pop 5: a pop-culture focused version released in 2006 where one team assigns the point value (ranked from 1–5) the other team will earn depending on how the other team guesses the clue (through acting, drawing, humming, sculpting, or using letter cubes).
 * Cranium Brain Breaks: 200 one-minute mini games.
 * Cranium SpongeBob SquarePants Edition
 * Cranium Partyland Park: Is a children's game by Vtech, and Vsmile
 * Jam Pack Jam: a travel-themed twist on Buckaroo
 * Cariboo: a children's game
 * Balloon Lagoon: a children's game
 * Bloom Bingo'
 * Cranium Zigity
 * Cranium Dark

Reviews

 * Family Games: The 100 Best

title: Cranium (board game)


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Dora

Dora may stand for:

Television

 * Dora (Dora the Explorer), fictional character in the Dora the Explorer franchise
 * Dora the Explorer (TV series), 2000–2019
 * Dora (TV series), a 2024 reboot of the original series
 * Dora, series 2 of the 1973 British sitcom Both Ends Meet

Film

 * Dora (1933 film), a British comedy
 * Dora (2017 film), a Tamil horror thriller
 * Dora, fictional tribal chieftains in the 2023 Indian film Salaar

Other uses in arts and entertainment

 * Dora Bianchi, fictional character in the webcomic Questionable Content
 * Dora Spenlow, fictional character in David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
 * Dora Mavor Moore Awards, or the Doras, by the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts
 * "Dora", a song by Ambitious Lovers from the 1984 album Envy
 * Dora, bonus tiles in Japanese mahjong
 * Dora festival, selection event for Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest

Military

 * Dora, the name of a Schwerer Gustav railway gun
 * Dora I, and Dora II, German U-boat bases in Trondheim, Norway
 * Dora, nickname of Focke-Wulf Fw 190 D German fighter aircraft

People

 * Dora (given name), including a list of people with the name
 * Dora, code name of World War II Soviet intelligence agent Alexander Radó

United States

 * Dora, Alabama, U.S.
 * Dora, Arkansas, U.S.
 * Dora, Missouri
 * Dora, New Mexico
 * Dora, Oregon
 * Dora, Pennsylvania
 * Mount Dora, Florida

Other countries

 * Lake Dora (disambiguation)
 * Dora, Baghdad, Iraq
 * Dora, Cyprus
 * Dora, Lebanon
 * Dura, Hebron, Palestinian West Bank
 * Dorasan or Mount Dora, a hill in South Korea
 * Dora Beel, a lake in Assam, India
 * Dora Baltea river and Dora Riparia river, northern Italy

Science and technology

 * Dual orexin receptor antagonist, an orexin antagonist
 * DORA (downregulated by activation), a common name for the gene IGSF6
 * Dora (case study), pseudonym of a Sigmund Freud patient
 * Discover, offer, request, acknowledge process in Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol

Transportation

 * Dora (sternwheeler), a 1910 steamboat in Oregon
 * SS Dora, the name of several ships

Other uses

 * Defence of the Realm Act 1914 (DORA), British war legislation
 * Digital Operational Resilience Act, a European Union regulation
 * Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA)
 * Designated outdoor refreshment areas, in open-container law in Ohio, U.S.
 * San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment
 * Dora, medieval title of the feudal landlord in the Telangana region of India
 * Dora, another name for the Italian wine grape Fortana
 * 668 Dora, main belt asteroid
 * List of storms named Dora

title: Dora


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Myron H. Clark

Myron Holley Clark (October 23, 1806 – August 23, 1892) was an American politician from the U.S. state of New York.

Early life
Clark was born in Naples, Ontario County, New York on October 23, 1806. He was the eldest son of Maj. Joseph Clark (1782–1840) and Mary ( Sutton) Clark (1782–1865). His grandfather, Col. William Clark, had migrated to Ontario County from Berkshire County, Massachusetts, in 1790 after the American Revolution.

His education was limited and was in the common schools of New York.

Career
He served in the state's militia as a lieutenant colonel and then entered politics, first serving as President of the then-village of Canandaigua, New York, and eventually becoming Sheriff of Ontario County, New York.

He was a member of the New York State Senate (29th D.) from 1852 to 1854, sitting in the 75th, 76th and 77th New York State Legislatures. At the New York state election, 1854, he was nominated as the Whig candidate, and was elected Governor of New York in the closest gubernatorial election in New York State history. He served as Governor from January 1, 1855, to December 31, 1856.

As Governor, Clark was noted for his meddling with militia appointments, causing the resignation of the state Adjutant General John Watts de Peyster. In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln appointed Clark the first Collector of Internal Revenue of in the Ontario County district.

Clark made several attempts to effect prohibition in the state and signed a prohibition law while governor, but the law was declared unconstitutional by the New York Court of Appeals. His steadfast advocating of temperance led to his nomination on the Prohibition ticket to run again for Governor at the New York state election, 1874. He finished in third place, behind Democrat Samuel J. Tilden and the incumbent Republican Governor John Adams Dix.

Personal life
In 1830 Clark was married to Zilpha Watkins (1806–1877), a daughter of Andrew Watkins and Abigail ( Stanley) Watkins. Together, they were the parents of five children, one son and four daughters, including:

 * Lorenzo Elijah Clark (1833–1917), a banker who married Elizabeth Sheley, a daughter of Alanson Sheley.
 * Zilpha Clark (1834–1915), who married Samuel D. Backus.
 * Mary Lee Clark (1835–1923), who married prominent banker Frederick Ferris Thompson.
 * Charlotte Elizabeth Clark (1838–1929), who died unmarried.
 * Abigail Stanley Clark (1843–1902), who married banker George Norton Williams, in 1866.

Clark died in Canandaigua, New York on August 23, 1892. He is interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in Canandaigua.

Legacy
As a memorial to Clark, his daughter Mary presented a scenic and geologically significant tract of land to New York State in 1915 that is now part of Clark Reservation State Park. Comptroller Clark Williams was his grandson.

title: Myron H. Clark