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Khalid Abdul Muhammad

Khalid Abdul Muhammad (born Harold Moore Jr.; January 12, 1948 – February 17, 2001) was an African-American Muslim minister and activist who became a prominent figure in the Nation of Islam and later the New Black Panther Party. After a racially inflammatory 1993 speech at Kean College, Muhammad was condemned and removed from his position in the Nation of Islam by Louis Farrakhan. He was also censured by both Houses of the United States Congress.

After being removed from the Nation of Islam, he served as the National Chairman of the New Black Panther Party until his death in 2001 from a brain aneurysm. He advocated black independence and stated a personal practice of anti-miscegenation.

Early life
Harold Moore Jr. was raised by his aunt, Carrie Moore Vann, in Houston, Texas, where he attended Bruce Elementary School, E.O. Smith Junior High School, and all-black Phyllis Wheatley High School. After graduating high school, Moore went to Dillard University in Louisiana, where he was known as Harold Vann, to pursue a degree in theological studies, but he did not graduate. At this time, he ministered at Sloan Memorial Methodist Church. In 1967, he was initiated into Omega Psi Phi fraternity (Theta Sigma chapter). Later, Moore transferred to Pepperdine University and earned his bachelor's degree.

Nation of Islam
In 1970, while attending Dillard, Moore joined the Nation of Islam, which was then under the leadership of Elijah Muhammad. He changed his name to Harold Smith or Harold X, then to Malik Rushaddin, became Minister Louis Farrakhan's protégé, and was active as a recruiter within the organization. In 1978, Rushaddin was appointed Western Regional Minister of the Nation of Islam and leader of Mosque #27. In 1983, Minister Farrakhan named him Khalid after the Islamic general Khalid ibn al-Walid, a follower of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, calling him the Sword of Allah.

By 1984, Muhammad had become one of Louis Farrakhan's most trusted advisors in the Nation of Islam. He traveled to Libya on a fund-raising trip, where he became well acquainted with that country's leader, Muammar al-Gaddafi. Muhammad's dedication to Farrakhan and to the message of the NOI eventually secured him the title of national spokesman and he was named one of Louis Farrakhan's friends in 1981. He served at Nation of Islam mosques in New York and Atlanta throughout the 1980s. A federal court convicted him in 1987 of mortgage fraud and sentenced him to nine months in prison. After his prison term he returned to the Nation, becoming Farrakhan's national advisor in 1991.

1993 speech and aftermath
In 1993, Muhammad gave a speech at Kean College in Union Township, New Jersey, in which Muhammad referred to Jews as "bloodsuckers" of the black community, labeled the Pope a "no-good cracker," and advocated the murder of any and all white South Africans who would not leave the nation subsequent to a warning period of 24 hours. The United States Senate and United States House of Representatives both voted overwhelmingly to support resolutions condemning the speech. Farrakhan responded by publicly repudiating Muhammad's speech. However, Minister Farrakhan specified that he opposed the "tone" of Muhammad's speech, while acknowledging the "truths" in it. Despite this, Muhammad's remarks also resulted in not only Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) members distancing themselves from the Nation of Islam, but also CBC chairman Kweisi Mfume, (D-MD), ending his relationship with the Nation of Islam as well. In September 1993, Mfume announced a "covenant" between the Nation of Islam and CBC members to work together on strengthening the black community after he had invited Farrakhan to address the black caucus’ annual legislative conference.

The day after Mfume held a press conference announcing his break with the Nation of Islam in February 1994, Farrakhan demoted Muhammad and also removed him as the NOI's spokesman. He was silenced as a minister and suspended from the NOI soon afterward. In 1994, Muhammad appeared on the Phil Donahue Show. He participated in heated arguments with Jewish audience members amid explanations of his public statements.

Muhammad was shot by James Bess, a former NOI member, after he spoke at the University of California, Riverside on May 29, 1994. He survived the shooting. Muhammed himself believed the shooting was a part of a conspiracy.

New Black Panther Party
After being stripped of his position as NOI spokesman, Muhammad became the national chairman of the New Black Panther Party. On May 21, 1997, he delivered a heated speech at San Francisco State University in which he criticized Jews, whites, Catholics and homosexuals.

In 1998, Muhammad organized the "Million Youth March" in New York City which attracted an estimated 6,000 participants. New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani denied the organizers a permit, calling it a hate march. A court ruled that the event could go on but scaled back its duration and size. At the conclusion of the rally, just as Muhammad appeared on the stage to speak, the demonstration was interrupted by a low-flying police helicopter. Muhammad alleges that was the signal for more than 3,000 police in riot gear, including some mounted on horseback, to come in and disperse the crowd. In response, Muhammad exhorted the rally participants to attack the oncoming police, to beat them with rails, and to shoot them with their own guns. Dozens were arrested, and 30 officers and five civilians were injured. Mayor Giuliani said that the march turned out to be precisely what he predicted, "filled with hatred, horrible, awful, vicious, anti-Semitic and other anti-white rhetoric, as well as exhortations to kill people, murder people ... the speeches given today should not occur [at] any place." Muhammad convened a second march in 1999.

In the year 2000, it was revealed that one of the contestants on the American version of the Dutch television show Big Brother, William Collins (Hiram Ashantee), was a follower of Muhammed.

Musical influence
As a prominent Afrocentrist and speaker on African history, Muhammad attracted interest from several hip-hop artists, who sampled him in their songs. Public Enemy quoted him in the introduction of its 1988 track "Night of the Living Baseheads" from the album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back:

"Have you forgotten that once we were brought here, we were robbed of our name, robbed of our language. We lost our religion, our culture, our god ... and many of us, by the way we act, we even lost our minds."

He also appeared on Ice Cube's albums Death Certificate (1991) and Lethal Injection (1993) as a guest rapper. On the former album, Muhammad appeared in the tracks "Death" and "The Birth". On the latter, he appeared in the song "Cave Bitch", a song ridiculing white women. On the Scarface song "Hand of the Dead Body", Ice Cube also mentioned Muhammad, saying "Down with Kahlid Abdul Muhammad / Do he got a brother? I'm it now." On MC Ren's 1996 album The Villain in Black Muhammad appeared in the track "Muhammad Speaks", where he spoke about the history of the rights of African-Americans.

Musical references to Muhammad since his death include a quote of his "Kill the White Man" speech on The Used's 2009 album Artwork, a sample of his interview with Louis Theroux in the Chase & Status song "Hocus Pocus", and excerpts from a recording of one of his speeches concerning Jesus in the D'Angelo song "1000 Deaths" on the 2014 album Black Messiah.

Personal life
Muhammad had five children, including Farrah Gray, who grew up in Chicago's South Side. Although Gray saw his father only during occasional visits, he credits Muhammad for inspiring him with confidence. Gray rose from poverty to become a successful business entrepreneur, but did not join his father's political activities.

Death
In 2001, Muhammad died unexpectedly of a brain aneurysm in Atlanta, Georgia, at the age of 53. He was buried in Ferncliff Cemetery in Westchester County, New York, near the grave of Malcolm X.

title: Khalid Abdul Muhammad


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Yard (disambiguation)

A yard is a measurement of length in the British imperial and US customary systems of measurement, that comprises 3 feet or 36 inch.

Yard may also refer to:

Parcels of land

 * Yard (land), a land area traditionally adjacent to one or more buildings
 * Backyard, the property behind a house
 * Front yard, the property in front of a house
 * Rail yard, a complex of railroad tracks for railroad cars and locomotives

Places

 * Scotland Yard or The Yard, headquarters for London's Metropolitan Police Service
 * The Yard (adventure playground), a former playground in Minneapolis, Minnesota
 * Yard Peak, a summit in Utah
 * Yard, Texas
 * Yard (Portland, Oregon), an apartment building
 * The Yard (Hot Springs, Virginia), a historic estate home
 * Yards, Virginia and West Virginia
 * The Yards (Washington, D.C.), a development on the Anacostia River waterfront
 * The Yard (Howard University), a quadrangle on the campus of Howard University in Washington, D.C.
 * The Yard Theatre, a theatre and music venue in London, England

Other uses

 * Yard (sailing), a spar on a traditional sailing ship
 * YARD (software), a documentation generator for the Ruby programming language
 * The Yard (2011 TV series)
 * The Yard (2016 TV series) or The Quad
 * Yard (album), 2023 album by Slow Pulp
 * The Yard (podcast), a podcast hosted by popular streamer Ludwig Ahgren
 * Yards Brewing Company, a brewery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
 * Megalithic yard, a theoretical unit of prehistoric measurement
 * Yard glass, a beer glass about a yard deep
 * 1,000,000,000 or yard

People with the surname

 * Douglas Yard, judge of the Family Division of the Court of Queen's Bench of Manitoba
 * Ernie Yard (1941–2004), Scottish association footballer
 * Molly Yard (1912–2005), American feminist of the late 20th century
 * Robert Sterling Yard (1861–1945), American writer, journalist, and wilderness activist

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

title: Yard (disambiguation)


text:
Talk:Specialist

Specialist vs. Corporal
What is the difference between Specialist and Corporal? RickK 05:52, 16 May 2004 (UTC)

 * Corporal is NCO. See Corporal. - Wguynes 18:58, May 16, 2004 (UTC)

title: Talk:Specialist


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Zina

Zināʾ (زِنَاء) or zinā (زِنًى or زِنًا) is an Islamic legal term referring to unlawful sexual intercourse. According to traditional jurisprudence, zina can include adultery, fornication,   prostitution, rape, sodomy, incest,  and bestiality. Zina must be proved by testimony of four Muslim eyewitnesses to the actual act of penetration, confession repeated four times and not retracted later. The offenders must have acted of their own free will. Rapists could be prosecuted under different legal categories which used normal evidentiary rules. Making an accusation of zina without presenting the required eyewitnesses is called qadhf (القذف), which is itself a hudud offense.

There are very few recorded examples of the stoning penalty for zinā being implemented legally. Prior to legal reforms introduced in several countries during the 20th century, the procedural requirements for proving the offense of zinā to the standard necessary to impose the stoning penalty were effectively impossible to meet.

Zina became a more pressing issue in modern times, as Islamist movements and governments employed polemics against public immorality. In recent decades several countries passed legal reforms that incorporated elements of hudud laws into their legal codes, and many modern Islamists have also disregarded the condition of strict evidence requirements. In Nigeria, local courts have passed several stoning sentences, all of which were overturned on appeal or left unenforced. In Pakistan, the Hudood Ordinances of 1979 subsumed prosecution of rape under the category of zina, making rape extremely difficult to prove and exposing the victims to jail sentences for admitting illicit intercourse forced upon them, although these laws were amended in 2006, and again in 2016. According to human rights organizations, stoning to death for zina has also been carried out in Saudi Arabia.

Islamic scriptures
Muslim scholars have historically considered zinā a hudud sin, or crime against God. It is mentioned in both Quran and in the Hadiths.

Introduction and definition
The Quran deals with zinaʾ in several places. First is the Qur'anic general rule that commands Muslims not to commit zina: "Do not go near adultery. It is truly a shameful deed and an evil way."

In the Hadiths, the definitions of zina have been described as all the forms of sexual intercourse, penetrative or non-penetrative, outside of marriage.

"Abu Huraira reported Allah's Apostle as saying: “Allah has decreed for every son of Adam his share of zina, which he will inevitably commit. The zina of the eyes is looking, the zina of the tongue is speaking, one may wish and desire, and the private parts confirm that or deny it.”"

Quran
Stoning punishment, a form of capital punishment for adultery, is not mentioned in the canonical text of the Quran. Most of the rules related to fornication, adultery and false accusations from a husband to his wife or from members of the community to chaste women, can be found in Surah an-Nur (the Light). The surah starts by giving very specific rules about punishment for zina:

"As for female and male fornicators, give each of them one hundred lashes,1 and do not let pity for them make you lenient in ˹enforcing˺ the law of Allah, if you ˹truly˺ believe in Allah and the Last Day. And let a number of believers witness their punishment."

"Those who accuse chaste women ˹of adultery˺ and fail to produce four witnesses, give them eighty lashes ˹each˺. And do not ever accept any testimony from them—for they are indeed the rebellious— except those who repent afterwards and mend their ways, then surely Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful."

According to Jonathan A.C. Brown, Surah an-Nisa verse 4:25 prescribes punishment for a female slave guilty of a sexual offense as half of the punishment of a free woman:

"But if any of you cannot afford to marry a free believing woman, then ˹let him marry˺ a believing bondwoman possessed by one of you. Allah knows best ˹the state of˺ your faith ˹and theirs˺. You are from one another. So marry them with the permission of their owners, giving them their dowry in fairness, if they are chaste, neither promiscuous nor having secret affairs. If they commit indecency after marriage, they receive half the punishment of free women. This is for those of you who fear falling into sin. But if you are patient, it is better for you. And Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful. - Quran 4:25"

Hadith
The public lashing punishment for fornication and adultery are also prescribed in Hadiths, the books most trusted in Islam after Quran, particularly in Kitab Al-Hudud.

"'Ubada b. as-Samit reported: Allah's Messenger as saying: Receive teaching from me, receive teaching from me. Allah has ordained a way for those women. When an unmarried male commits adultery with an unmarried female, they should receive one hundred lashes and banishment for one year. And in case of married male committing adultery with a married female, they shall receive one hundred lashes and be stoned to death."

""

Hadith Sahih al Bukhari, another authentic source of sunnah, has several entries which refer to death by stoning. For example,

"Narrated 'Aisha: 'Utba bin Abi Waqqas said to his brother Sa'd bin Abi Waqqas, 'The son of the slave girl of Zam'a is from me, so take him into your custody.' So in the year of Conquest of Mecca, Sa'd took him and said. (This is) my brother's son whom my brother has asked me to take into my custody.' 'Abd bin Zam'a got up before him and said, (He is) my brother and the son of the slave girl of my father, and was born on my father's bed.' So they both submitted their case before Allah's Apostle. Sa'd said, 'O Allah's Apostle! This boy is the son of my brother and he entrusted him to me.' 'Abd bin Zam'a said, 'This boy is my brother and the son of the slave girl of my father, and was born on the bed of my father.' Allah's Apostle said, 'The boy is for you, O 'Abd bin Zam'a!' Then Allah's Apostle further said, 'The child is for the owner of the bed, and the stone is for the adulterer,' He then said to Sauda bint Zam'a, 'Veil (screen) yourself before him,' when he saw the child's resemblance to 'Utba. The boy did not see her again till he met Allah."

Other hadith collections on zina between men and woman include:
 * The stoning (Rajm) of a Jewish man and woman for having committed illegal sexual intercourse.
 * Abu Hurairah states that the Prophet, in a case of intercourse between a young man and a married woman, sentenced the woman to stoning and the young man to flogging and banishment for a year. (Sahih Muslim 17:4209)

Rape
Rape has been defined as zina al-jabr (forceful illicit sex) in the traditional Islamic texts. Few hadiths have been found regarding rape in the time of Muhammad. The most popular transmitted hadith given below indicates the ordinance of stoning for the rapist but no punishment and no requirement of four eyewitnesses for the rape victim. "Narrated 'Alqamah bin Wa'il Al-Kindi: From his father: 'A woman went out during the time of the Prophet (ﷺ) to go to Salat, but she was caught by a man and he had relations with her, so she screamed and he left. Then a man came across her and she said: 'That man has done this and that to me', then she came across a group of Emigrants (Muhajirin) and she said: 'That man did this and that to me.' They went to get the man she thought had relations with her, and they brought him to her. She said: 'Yes, that's him.' So they brought him to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), and when he ordered that he be stoned, the man who had relations with her, said: 'O Messenger of Allah, I am the one who had relations with her.' So he said to her: 'Go, for Allah has forgiven you.' Then he said some nice words to the man (who was brought). And he said to the man who had relations with her: 'Stone him.' Then he said: 'He has repented a repentance that, if the inhabitants of Al-Madinah had repented with, it would have been accepted from them.''"

The hadiths declare rape of a free or slave woman as zina.

View of scholars
"Malik related to me from Nafi that a slave was in charge of the slaves in the khumus and he forced a slave-girl among those slaves against her will and had intercourse with her. Umar ibn al-Khattab had him flogged and banished him, and he did not flog the slave-girl because the slave had forced her."

"Malik related to me from Ibn Shihab that gave a judgment that the rapist had to pay the raped woman her bride-price. Yahya said that he heard Malik say, 'What is done in our community about the man who rapes a woman, virgin or non-virgin, if she is free, is that he must pay the bride-price of the like of her. If she is a slave, he must pay what he has diminished of her worth. The hadd-punishment in such cases is applied to the rapist, and there is no punishment applied to the raped woman. If the rapist is a slave, that is against his master unless he wishes to surrender him.'"

If a confession or the four witnesses required to prove a hadd crime are not available, but rape can be proved by other means, the rapist is sentenced under the ta'zir system of judicial discretion. According to the eleventh-century Maliki jurist Ibn 'Abd al-Barr:

"The scholars are unanimously agreed that the rapist is to be subjected to the hadd punishment if there is clear evidence against him that he deserves the hadd punishment, or if he admits to that. Otherwise, he is to be punished (i.e., if there is no proof that the hadd punishment for zina may be carried out against him because he does not confess, and there are not four witnesses, then the judge may punish him and stipulate a punishment that will deter him and others like him). There is no punishment for the woman if it is true that he forced her and overpowered her, which may be proven by her screaming and shouting for help."

Homosexuality
Islamic teachings (in the hadith tradition ) presume same-sex attraction, extol abstention and (in the Qur'an ) condemn consummation. Some Quranic verses are used to propose a prohibition of homosexual activities, including:

"And ˹remember˺ when Lot scolded ˹the men of˺ his people, ˹saying,˺ “Do you commit a shameful deed that no man has ever done before? You lust after men instead of women! You are certainly transgressors.”"

In another verse, the statement of prophet Lot has been also pointed out, "Why do you ˹men˺ lust after fellow men, leaving the wives that your Lord has created for you? In fact, you are a transgressing people.”"

Some scholars indicate this verse as the prescribed punishment for homosexuality in the Quran: "And the two among you who commit this sin—discipline them. If they repent and mend their ways, relieve them. Surely Allah is ever Accepting of Repentance, Most Merciful."

However, there are different interpretations of the last verse where who the Quran refers to as "two among you". Pakistani scholar Javed Ahmed Ghamidi sees it as a reference to premarital sexual relationships between men and women. In his opinion, the preceding Ayat of Sura Nisa deals with prostitutes of the time. He believes these rulings were temporary and were abrogated later when a functioning state was established and society was ready for permanent rulings, which came in Sura Nur, Ayat 2 and 3, prescribing flogging as a punishment for adultery. He does not see stoning as a prescribed punishment, even for married men, and considers the Hadiths quoted supporting that view to be dealing with either rape or prostitution, where the strictest punishment under Islam for spreading "fasad fil ardh", meaning corruption in the land, referring to egregious acts of defiance to the rule of law was carried out.

Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali jurists insist that anal sex between men is a hudud crime punished with death, however Hanafi jurists argue that the act is immoral and forbidden but does not qualify as a hudud violation.

The Hadiths consider homosexuality as zina. For example, Abu Dawud state, "From Abu Musa al-Ash'ari, the Prophet states that: 'If a woman comes upon a woman, they are both adulteresses, if a man comes upon a man, then they are both adulterers.”"

""

"Narrated Abdullah ibn Abbas: If a man who is not married is seized committing sodomy, he will be stoned to death."

The discourse on homosexuality in Islam is primarily concerned with activities between men. There are, however, a few hadith mentioning homosexual behavior in women; The jurists are agreed that "there is no hadd punishment for lesbianism, because it is not zina. Rather a ta’zeer punishment must be imposed, because it is a sin..'". Although punishment for lesbianism is rarely mentioned in the histories, al-Tabari records an example of the casual execution of a pair of lesbian slavegirls in the harem of al-Hadi, in a collection of highly critical anecdotes pertaining to that Caliph's actions as ruler. Some jurists viewed sexual intercourse as possible only for an individual who possesses a phallus; hence those definitions of sexual intercourse that rely on the entry of as little as the corona of the phallus into a partner's orifice. Since women do not possess a phallus and cannot have intercourse with one another, they are, in this interpretation, physically incapable of committing zina.

Anal sex
All Sunni Muslim jurists agree that anal sex is haram (prohibited), based on the hadith of Muhammad. In contrast, according to Twelver Shia Muslim jurists, anal sex is considered makruh (strongly disliked) but is permissible with the consent of the wife.

Many scholars point to the story of Lot in the Quran as an example of sodomy being an egregious sin. However multiple others hold the view that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was not specifically due to the sodomy practiced in those towns, but as a combination of multiple transgressions. The death by stoning for people of Sodom and Gomorrah is similar to the stoning punishment stipulated for illegal heterosexual sex. There is no punishment for a man who sodomizes a woman because it is not tied to procreation. However, other jurists insist that any act of lust in which the result is the injecting of semen into another person constitutes sexual intercourse.

Sodomy often falls under that same category as sex between an unmarried man and woman engaging in sexual acts. Male-male intercourse is referred to as liwat while female-female intercourse is referred to as sihaq. Both are considered reprehensible acts but there is no consensus on punishment for either. Some jurists define zināʾ exclusively as the act of unlawful vaginal penetration, hence categorizing and punishing anal penetration in different ways. Other jurists included both vaginal and anal penetration within the definition of zināʾ and hence extended the punishment of the one to the other.

Religious discourse has mostly focused on such sexual acts, which are unambiguously condemned. The Quran refers explicitly to male-male sexual relations only in the context of the story of Lot, but labels the Sodomites's actions (universally understood in the later tradition as anal intercourse) an "abomination" (female-female relations are not addressed). Reported pronouncements by Muhammad (hadith) reinforce the interdiction on male-male sodomy, although there are no reports of his ever adjudicating an actual case of such an offence; he is also quoted as condemning cross-gender behaviour for both sexes and banishing them from local places, but it is unclear to what extent this is to be understood as involving sexual relations. Several early caliphs, confronted with cases of sodomy between males, are said to have had both partners executed, by a variety of means. While taking such precedents into account, medieval jurists were unable to achieve a consensus on this issue; some legal schools prescribed capital punishment for sodomy, but others opted only for a relatively mild discretionary punishment. There was general agreement, however, that other homosexual acts (including any between females) were lesser offences, subject only to discretionary punishment.

Incest
Hadith forbids incestuous relationship (zinā bi'l-mahārim), sexual intercourse between someone who is mahram and prescribes execution as punishment.

"Narrated Ibn 'Abbas: That the Prophet said: 'If a man says to another man: 'O you Jew' then beat him twenty times. If he says: 'O you effeminate' then beat him twenty times. And whoever has relations with someone that is a mahram (family member or blood relative) then kill him.'"

Masturbation
Islamic scripture does not specifically mention masturbation. Like most people prior to the morals of the Age of Enlightenment, pre-modern Islam faced masturbation mostly with indifference. A few hadiths underline this view. Muhammad is reported to have said that "it is your fluid, or your member, so do whatever you like, as it were." There are a few hadiths demonizing masturbation but these are classified as unreliable.

To prohibit masturbation scholars (ulama) of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) may have invoked the Qur'anic proclamation (Quran 23:1-6) that Muslims must protect their sexual organs, except from their legal spouses (azwājihim) or what their right hands own. The Mālikīs jurists follow suit and seem to categorically prohibit masturbation. Abū Bakr b. al-ʿArabī goes as far as to demonize this practise, stating that it was introduced by šayṭān (devil). Imam al-Shafi'i states that male masturbation (istimmā') runs afoul of the Qur'anic proclamation (Quran 23:1-6) that Muslims must protect their sexual organs, except from their legal spouses (azwājihim) or what their right hands own. The Shafi'i school agree with the Mālikīs, and some of them consider masturbation a lesser form of zinā. The founder al-Shafi'i argued that this encourages men to neglect their wives and may cause the termination of family lineage.

The Ḥanafīs have mixed opinions. Most of them are rather critical about, but generally allow for unmarried people, and even obligatory if the alternative is illicit sex. Similarly, diverse are opinions among the Ḥanbalīs. Ibn Taimiyya's statement, a proto-Salaf Hanbalite scholar, that the consensus of early and later jurists (salafan wa-ḫalafan) was to categorically prohibit masturbation, is clearly an overstatement. Due to a lack of concern about masturbation from Quran and hadiths, Ḥanbalīs generally disliked (makrūh), but not forbid masturbation. However, if one couldn't find a spouse, one would be encouraged to masturbate.

Those who didn't adhere to any of these four major schools are often going into more detail. Ibn Ḥazm explains that "a woman who rubs something against herself (without inserting it) until she climaxes is not guilty of sin; the same is true of a man who masturbates. No scholar, he points out, disagrees that it is perfectly lawful for a person to touch their sex organ (specifying the use of the left hand for men), and since no scriptural text explicitly prohibits masturbation, it must be lawful". However, he adds that it is not appropriate for civilized people to do this.

Bestiality
According to hadith, bestiality is defined under zina and its punishment is execution of the accused man or woman along with the animal.

"Narrated Ibn 'Abbas: That the Messenger of Allah said: 'Whomever you see having relations with an animal then kill him and kill animal.' So it was said to Ibn 'Abbas: 'What is the case of the animal?' He said: 'I did not hear anything from the Messenger of Allah about this, but I see that the Messenger of Allah disliked eating its meat or using it, due to the fact that such a (heinous) thing has been done with that animal.'"

Inclusions in the definition
Technically, zina only refers to the act of penetration, while non-penetrative sex acts outside of marriage were censured by Muhammad as that which can lead to zina.

According to Sharia, the punishment for zina varies according to whether the offender is muhsan (adult, free, Muslim and married at least once) or not muhsan (i.e. a minor, a slave, a non-Muslim or never married). A person only qualifies as muhsan if he or she meets all of the criteria. The punishment for an offender who is muhsan is stoning. (rajm); the punishment for an offender who is not muhsan is 100 lashes.

Accusation process and punishment
Islamic law requires evidence before a man or a woman can be punished for zina. These are:

 * 1) A Muslim confesses to zina four separate times. However, if the confessor takes back his words before the punishment is enforced or during the punishment, he/she will be released and set free. The confessor is in fact encouraged to take back their confession.
 * 2) Four free adult male Muslim witnesses of proven integrity. They must testify that they observed the couple engaged in unlawful sexual intercourse without any doubt or ambiguity. They are able to say that they saw their private parts meet "like the Kohl needle entering the Kohl bottle."
 * 3) Unlike witnesses in most other circumstances, they are neither legally nor morally obliged to testify, and in fact legal texts state that it is morally better if they don't.
 * 4) If any of the witnesses take back their testimony before the actual punishment is enforced, then the punishment will be abandoned, and the witnesses will be punished for the crime of false accusation.
 * 5) The witnesses must give their testimony at the earliest opportunity.
 * 6) If the offense is punished by stoning to death, the witnesses must throw the stones.

If a pregnant woman confesses that her baby was born from an illegal relationship then she will be subject to conviction in the Islamic courts. In cases where there are no witnesses and no confession then the woman will not receive punishment just because of pregnancy. Women can fall pregnant without committing illegal sexual intercourse. A woman could be raped or coerced. In this case, she is a victim and not the perpetrator of a crime. Therefore, she cannot be punished or even accused of misconduct merely on the strength of her falling pregnant.

The four witnesses requirement for zina is revealed by Quranic verses 24:11 through 24:13 and various hadiths. The testimony of women and non-Muslims is not admitted in cases of zina or in other hadd crimes.

Any witness to or victim of non-consensual sexual intercourse, who accuses a Muslim of zina, but fails to produce four adult, pious male eyewitnesses before a sharia court, commits the crime of false accusation (Qadhf, القذف), punishable with eighty lashes in public.

These requirements made zina virtually impossible to prove in practice. Hence, there are very few recorded examples of stoning for zina being legally carried out. In the 623-year history of the Ottoman Empire, the best-documented and most well-known pre-modern Islamic legal system, there is only one recorded example of the stoning punishment being applied for zina, when a Muslim woman and her Jewish lover were convicted of zina in 1680 and sentenced to death, the woman by stoning and the man by beheading. This was a miscarriage of justice according to the standards of Islamic law: adequate evidence was not produced, and the correct penalty for non-Muslims was 100 lashes rather than death.

Some schools of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) created the principle of shubha (doubt). According to this principle, if there is room for doubt in the perpetrator's mind about whether the sexual act was illegal, he or she should not receive the hadd penalty, but could receive a less severe punishment at the discretion of the judge. Jurists had varying opinions on what counted as legitimate "doubt" for this purposes. A typical example is a man who has sex with his wife's or his son's slave. This is zina - a man can lawfully have sex only with his own slave. But a man might plausibly believe that he had ownership rights over his wife's or his son's property, and so think that having sex with their slaves was legal. The Ḥanafī jurists of the Ottoman Empire applied the concept of doubt to exempt prostitution from the hadd penalty. Their rationale was that since legal sex is legitimized, in part, by payment (the dower paid by the husband to the wife upon marriage, or the purchase price of a slave), a man might plausibly believe that prostitution, which also involves a payment in return for sexual access, was legal. It is important to note that this principle did not mean that such acts were treated as legal: they remained offenses, and could be punished, but they were not liable for the hadd penalty of 100 lashes or stoning.

Sunni practice
Persons who are not muhsan (i.e. a slave, a minor, never married) are punished for zina with one hundred lashes in public.

Maliki school of Islamic jurisprudence considers pregnancy as sufficient and automatic evidence, unless there is evidence of rape. Other Sunni schools of jurisprudence rely on early Islamic scholars that state that a fetus can "sleep and stop developing for 5 years in a womb", and thus a woman who was previously married but now divorced may not have committed zina even if she delivers a baby years after her divorce. They also argue that the woman may have been forced or coerced (see section above, 'Accusation process and punishment'). The position of modern Islamic scholars varies from country to country. For example, in Malaysia which officially follows the Shafi'i fiqh, Section 23(2) through 23(4) of the Syariah (Sharia) Criminal Offences (Federal Territories) Act 1997 state,

"Section 23(2) - Any woman who performs sexual intercourse with a man who is not her lawful husband shall be guilty of an offence and shall on conviction be liable to a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or to whipping not exceeding six strokes or to any combination thereof.

Section 23(3) - The fact that a woman is pregnant out of wedlock as a result of sexual intercourse performed with her consent shall be prima facie evidence of the commission of an offence under subsection (2) by that woman.

Section 23(4) - For the purpose of subsection (3), any woman who gives birth to a fully developed child within a period of six qamariah months from the date of her marriage shall be deemed to have been pregnant out of wedlock."

Minimal proof for zina is still the testimony of four male eyewitnesses, even in the case of homosexual intercourse.

Prosecution of extramarital pregnancy as zina, as well as prosecution of rape victims for the crime of zina, have been the source of worldwide controversy in recent years.

Shi'a practice
Again, minimal proof for zina is the testimony of four male eyewitnesses. The Shi'is, however, also allow the testimony of women, if there is at least one male witness, testifying together with six women. All witnesses must have seen the act in its most intimate details, i.e. the penetration (like "a stick disappearing in a kohl container," as the fiqh books specify). If their testimonies do not satisfy the requirements, they can be sentenced to eighty lashes for unfounded accusation of fornication. If the accused freely admits the offense, the confession must be repeated four times, just as in Sunni practice. Pregnancy of a single woman is also sufficient evidence of her having committed zina.

Human rights controversy

The zina and rape laws of countries under Sharia law are the subjects of a global human rights debate.

Hundreds of women in Afghan jails are victims of rape or domestic violence. This has been criticized as leading to "hundreds of incidents where a woman subjected to rape, or gang rape, was eventually accused of zināʾ" and incarcerated.

In Pakistan, over 200,000 zina cases against women, under its Hudood laws, were under process at various levels in Pakistan's legal system in 2005. In addition to thousands of women in prison awaiting trial for zina-related charges, there has been a severe reluctance to even report rape because the victim fears of being charged with zina, because of the un-Islamic nature of Pakistani laws regarding sexual intercourse. Under Islamic laws, rape is not considered to be zina and no punishment falls on the victim. But rape falls under zina in Pakistani law introduced in the 1980s and sometimes becomes punishable.

Iran has prosecuted many cases of zina, and enforced public stoning to death of those accused between 2001 and 2010.

Zina laws are one of many items of reform and secularization debate with respect to Islam. In the early 20th century, under the influence of the colonial era, many penal laws and criminal justice systems were reformed away from Sharia in Muslim-majority parts of the world. By contrast, in the second half of the 20th century, after respective independence, a number of governments including Pakistan, Malaysia and Iran have reverted to Sharia with traditional interpretations of Islam's sacred texts. Zina and hudud laws have been re-enacted and enforced.

Contemporary human right activists refer this as a new phase in the politics of gender in Islam, the battle between forces of traditionalism and modernism in the Muslim world, and the use of religious texts of Islam through state laws to sanction and practice gender-based violence.

In contrast to human rights activists, Islamic scholars and Islamist political parties consider 'universal human rights' arguments as impositions of a non-Muslim culture on Muslim people, a disrespect of customary cultural practices and sexual codes that are central to Islam. Zina laws come under hudud – seen as a crime against Allah; the Islamists refer to this pressure and proposals to reform zina and other laws as contrary to Islam. Attempts by international human rights to reform religious laws and codes of Islam has become the Islamist rallying platforms during political campaigns.

In popular culture

 * The Stoning of Soraya M. – A 2008 Persian-language American drama film adapted from French-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam's 1990 book La Femme Lapidée, regarding to a mistaken-punishment of a false zina accusation.

title: Zina


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Gill Fox

Gilbert Theodore Fox (November 29, 1915 – May 15, 2004) was an American political cartoonist, comic book artist and editor, and animator.

Biography
Fox began his career in animation at Max Fleischer's studio, but left due to labor unrest associated with a 1937 strike. He entered the comic book industry, working for a number of studios and companies, including DC Comics. During this period he was an editor and a cover artist for Quality Comics, with his work gracing the covers of such titles as Torchy and Plastic Man. In 1941, he wrote several weeks of continuity for the Spirit daily newspaper strip. A 1941 comic book written by Gill Fox, describing a German attack on Pearl Harbor, was published one month before the real-life Japanese attack on that U.S. naval base.

He left his editorial position at Quality in 1943 to serve in World War II, where he worked for Stars and Stripes. Once discharged from military service, Fox freelanced for Quality Comics until the early 1950s.

Fox later moved to advertising, working for the Johnstone and Cushing advertising agency. There he met Dik Browne, and assisted him on Browne's comic strip Hi and Lois. He also assisted/ghosted on several other strips as favors to friends.

Fox later worked as a political cartoonist for the Connecticut newspapers The Fairfield Citizen and the Connecticut Post; he was nominated for two Pulitzer Prizes. In the late 1980s, Fox created illustrations of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that were used on many licensed products.

He died in Redding Ridge, Connecticut, at age 88.

Personal life and family
Fox was the brother of the illustrator Lorraine Fox.

Circa 1940, Gill Fox married Helen Fittipaldi, who died in 1998. They had two children, daughters Donna Morency and Susan Fox.

title: Gill Fox


text:
Jamie Whitten

Jamie Lloyd Whitten (April 18, 1910 – September 9, 1995) was an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who represented his native state of Mississippi in the United States House of Representatives from 1941 to 1995. He was at the time of his departure the longest-serving U.S. Representative ever. From 1979 to 1995, he was Dean of the U.S. House of Representatives. He is the longest-serving member of Congress ever from Mississippi. He was a New Deal liberal on economic matters, and took a leading role in Congress in forming national policy and spending regarding agriculture. Whitten was the last remaining member of Congress to have served during the FDR administration.

Early life, education, and early career
Jamie Whitten was born in Cascilla, Mississippi. He attended local public schools and the University of Mississippi where he was a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He worked as a school teacher and principal and was elected as a Democrat to the Mississippi House of Representatives, where he served in 1931 and 1932. He was admitted to the bar in 1932, and from 1933 to 1941, he was District Attorney of Mississippi's 17th District, which included his home county of Tallahatchie.

Elections
In 1941, Whitten was elected as a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives in a special election to represent the state's 2nd District, in the northern part of the state. The seat had become vacant as a result of incumbent Congressman Wall Doxey's election to the United States Senate. He was elected to a full term in 1942 and was re-elected 25 more times.

Whitten's district was renumbered as the 1st District after the 1970 Census.

Tenure as leader in agricultural policy
Whitten had the support of the Democratic caucus and served as chair of the Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture (1949-1953 and 1954-1978). He was chair of the entire committee 1979-1992. Throughout that period he had a decisive voice on agricultural spending and to a large extent on policies.

In 1977, his subcommittee lost control of environmental issues. He lost his influence after suffering a debilitating stroke in February 1992. As a champion for American farmers, he fought against the FDA's early 1970s recommendation of restricting the use of antibiotics in livestock. He required that scientists prove the danger of antibiotic use.

Whitten was an ardent New Dealer who supported most liberal spending issues. He supported distribution of free food to the poor from surplus commodity stocks, school lunch programs and food stamps in coalition with urban Democrats. In the 1980s, he clashed with the conservative Reagan administration on policy matters. He voted against Reagan's economic plans, tax cuts, increased defense spending, balanced budget initiative, tort reform, welfare reform, abortion restrictions, missile defense system, and the Persian Gulf War. Although Whitten represented a district that grew increasingly suburban and Republican-leaning from the 1970s onward, his opposition to Reagan's program did not affect him at the ballot box. Indeed, his seniority and popularity resulted in his facing only token, or "sacrificial lamb", opponents on the occasions he faced any opposition at all, even in years when Republican presidential candidates carried the district by landslide margins. Nonetheless, it was assumed that he would be succeeded by a Republican when he retired.

Record on racial issues
Whitten was originally a segregationist, as were many of his colleagues from Mississippi and the rest of the South. He signed the Southern Manifesto condemning the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which ordered the desegregation of public schools. Along with virtually the entire Mississippi congressional delegation, he voted against the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, 1964, and 1968, as well as the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the 24th Amendment to the Constitution. Whitten later apologized for these votes, calling them a "mistake" caused by severe misjudgment. He voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1991.

Committees
Throughout most of his tenure in the House, Whitten served on the Appropriations Committee, ultimately serving as chairman from the 1979 retirement of George H. Mahon until newly-elected Democrats in the House Democratic Caucus removed him in favor of William Huston Natcher after the 1992 election. In 1985, when then-junior Appropriations Committee member Dick Durbin spoke with Chairman Whitten about possibly sitting on the Budget Committee, Whitten told him, "Well, if you want to be on that committee, you can be on that committee, but I want you to remember one thing, the Budget Committee deals in hallucinations and the Appropriations Committee deals in facts." While on the floor of the Senate on March 21, 2018, now Senator Durbin referred to that quote from Whitten as "Whitten's Law," which implies that the Budget Committee is a political branch that makes budget promises while the Appropriations Committee is obliged to either make or break those promises during the budget-making process.

Retirement from the House
Declining to run for reelection to a historic 28th term in 1994, Whitten retired from the House as America's longest-serving Congressman (53 years and two months). He retired to his home in Oxford, Mississippi and died there on September 9, 1995, aged 85. His service from November 4, 1941, to January 3, 1995 set a record for length of service in the House, which remained unbroken until February 11, 2009, when Michigan Rep. John Dingell surpassed it. Whitten is also the 5th longest-serving Congressmember (House and/or Senate) behind Dingell, Daniel Inouye, Carl Hayden, and Robert Byrd.

Publications
Whitten authored That We May Live, written largely as a pro-development, pro-chemical pesticide answer to Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, the seminal 1962 book that helped spur the modern environmental movement.

Legacy and honors
The Jamie Whitten Historical Site is located at the bridge of the Natchez Trace Parkway over the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, two projects that Whitten had successfully fought to fund over his house tenure, overcoming strong opposition from conservatives to their construction using federal funds.

In June 1995, Congress renamed the main headquarters building of the United States Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. the Jamie L. Whitten Building in his honor.

The Beta Beta chapter of Beta Theta Pi fraternity at the University of Mississippi has named their leadership award after brother Whitten. Each year, one graduating brother is selected to receive the award based on his leadership and commitment to the chapter, university, and community.

title: Jamie Whitten


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Christina Milian

Christina Milian ( Flores, born September 26, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter and actress. Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, but raised in Maryland, she signed a contract with Def Soul at the age of 19. In 2001, Milian released her self-titled debut album, which featured the singles "AM to PM" and "When You Look at Me"; the former charted within the Top 40 of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and both peaked in the top three on the UK Singles Chart. In 2002, she performed the theme song "Call Me, Beep Me!", for Disney Channel's animated series Kim Possible. In 2004, Milian released her second studio album It's About Time, which provided her first major U.S. hit, "Dip It Low" (featuring Fabolous), which reached number five on the U.S. Billboard chart. "Whatever U Want" (featuring Joe Budden) was released as the album's second single. Both singles charted within the Top 10 of the UK chart.

In 2006, Milian released her third studio album So Amazin'. The album produced one single, "Say I" (featuring Jeezy), which peaked in the Top 30 of the US Billboard chart. A month after the release of So Amazin', Milian's representative confirmed that she was dropped from Island Records due to creative differences. Milian signed with Interscope Records in 2009. A single, ballad "Us Against the World", was released in October 2008.

Milian originally wanted to be an actress. Her first lead role was in the 2003 film Love Don't Cost a Thing, and she subsequently had lead roles in Be Cool and the 2006 horror film Pulse. Milian had a minor role in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, and starred as the lead role in the straight-to-DVD film Bring It On: Fight to the Finish. Milian has also starred in the 2010 ABC Family Original Movie Christmas Cupid, alongside Ashley Benson and Chad Michael Murray. From 2015 to 2016, she starred in the sitcom Grandfathered. She is an entrepreneur and co-founded and co-owns Beignet Box, a dessert shop in the Los Angeles area.

Early life
Milian (Milián in Spanish) was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, and is of Afro-Cuban descent. Her parents are Don Flores and Carmen Milian.

Flores changed her name and adopted her mother's maiden name (Milian) in the hopes of landing a wider range of acting roles. The oldest of three sisters, including Danielle and Elizabeth, she moved with her family to Waldorf, Maryland, soon after her birth. Milian was four years old when she showed an interest in show business, and when her family realized that she was a talented actress, she became determined to pursue an entertainment career. As a child, Milian was "very imaginative and very creative", and watching television and listening to the radio became her life. They inspired her to have fun, and she convinced her parents that she "did not want to be inside the TV", although it took some time to convince them. By the time she was nine years old, Milian had begun auditioning with local talent agencies, shot commercials for Wendy's and Honeycomb, and played the lead role in the musical Annie. Milian's mother noticed her daughter's potential and left her husband and moved to Los Angeles with her three daughters when Milian was 13 years old. Her father had to stay in Maryland and divorced her mother soon after the move.

When Milian moved to Los Angeles, her only desire was to be an actress. She always wanted to be in the record business, but did not know how to obtain a recording contract. During this time, she was a host for Disney Channel's series Movie Surfers, by the name of Tina. After living in Los Angeles for six months, Milian moved into the same apartment complex as songwriter and producer Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins, who (like Milian) was also born in New Jersey. Jerkins heard about Milian from a boy band he was working with and once he heard her sing, they began working together. For a year and a half, Milian went into a studio every day and worked with Jerkins, which is where she started meeting people in the record business. She began writing songs at the age of 17 because she needed a demo to help her obtain a recording contract. According to Milian, every time she recorded a song, the producer would refuse to give her the demo, or would write lyrics that she did not agree with. She felt that she had to write a song, record a demo, and send it out on her own.

2000–2002: Christina Milian, record deal and acting debut
Milian made her first professional musical appearance on rapper Ja Rule's second studio album Rule 3:36 (2000), performing vocals on the song "Between Me and You". The song was released as the album's lead single in 2000, peaking at number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100, and in the top 30 of the UK Singles Chart. Milian co-wrote and performed vocals for the track "Play" for Jennifer Lopez's album J. Lo (2001), and co-wrote "Same Ol' Same Ol'", the second single from girl group PYT's debut album PYT (Down with Me) (2001).

Milian's collaboration with Ja Rule led to a record deal with Def Soul Records, prompted by his affiliation with Murder Inc. Records, an imprint that was distributed through Def Jam, the parent label of Def Soul Records. She travelled to Sweden and recorded her self-titled debut album. The album was released on October 9, 2001, in the UK, peaking at number 23 and selling a total of 101,986 copies. Internationally, the album peaked at number 36 in the Netherlands, and number 98 in Sweden. The album's domestic release was canceled, primarily due to the September 11 attacks; it was later released internationally on October 9, 2001. Two singles were taken from the album, "AM to PM" and "When You Look at Me", both of which charted worldwide. A music video for the track "Get Away" was filmed in Paris, although it was not officially released as a single.

The critical response to the album was mixed to generally positive. Imran Ahmed of the New Musical Express predicted that based on the record, "genius can't be more than a few albums away". Contrastingly, entertainment.ie writer Andrew Lynch suggested that Milian needed original ideas. Milian believed that the public expected "a certain thing" from her when she first appeared with Ja Rule, however she wanted to record the type of music she was signed to do. She said that "AM to PM" was a "cool record," but it was not what the public expected. Milian approached the executives at her record company, Island Def Jam, and explicitly confronted them for not understanding her image. She felt that she had gained their respect by explaining that she was serious about her musical career. In the following years, she was featured on the track "It's All Gravy", a duet with British rapper Romeo, which was a UK top ten hit; provided the theme song for the hit Disney Channel animated series Kim Possible, "Call Me, Beep Me!"; and collaborated with Hilary Duff on Duff's Christmas album Santa Claus Lane (2002), on the song "I Heard Santa on the Radio".

Although Milian is best known for her singing career, she originally wanted to be an actress. When asked whether she prefers singing or acting, Milian said that "they're both my passion. But, honestly, if I had to choose, it would probably be my music. I love writing. I love listening. I love the challenge of it." Milian has also stated that she loves "performing live on the stage ... above all else. It's my favorite."

Milian's first major acting role was offered by the Disney Channel to join The Mickey Mouse Club; however, she did not accept and opted to star as a reporter on Movie Surfers. During this time, she had minor roles in film and television, including Sister, Sister, Smart Guy, The Steve Harvey Show, Get Real, The Wood and American Pie. In 2002, Milian was appointed the host of the live competitive music series Becoming Presents: Wannabe on MTV, where she met director Joseph Kahn. Kahn suggested she audition for a lead role in the film Torque. Her audition was successful and she played a supporting role in the film. She was subsequently cast in her first lead role in Love Don't Cost a Thing.

Milian has been described as a role model to young girls; she has said that there are a lot of people who young girls look up to, but "at the end of the day you have to be your own person and love yourself." Milian worked with the Children Uniting Nations charity, in which she was a big sister to foster children, and says her favorite charity is the Penny Lane Foundation. Milian was awarded with a humanitarian award at The Reign fundraiser from the Elton John AIDS Foundation for being a role model for young children. Milian said, "I've never been rewarded that way and never been acknowledged like that. That was really nice of them, and I was happy I was able to show up for the kids."

2003–2004: It's About Time and continued acting
Milian felt that Island Def Jam was confused as to how they wanted her image to be portrayed; one second she was young and singing "AM to PM", and next she was a grown woman singing "Get Away". She realized that the change confused the audience, and that "nobody was buying it". In 2003, Milian's label, Def Soul, later shifted its focus into R&B veterans under its Def Soul Classics faction; Def Soul would later be folded into its parent, Def Jam, in 2011. However, Milian would later be drafted to sister label Island Records. After the international release of her debut album, Milian went back into the recording studio. The singer felt that music trends had changed into rock music, hardcore hip hop and tribute songs, and her music did not fall into those categories. Milian decided to stop recording and toured overseas for a year and a half. When she returned to the US, she decided not to release her previous album domestically, and started working on a new album. Milian traveled the world, working with the popular producers Bloodshy & Avant, "Darkchild", Cory Rooney, Warryn Campbell, Bryan-Michael Cox and Polli Paul.

Milian's second studio album, It's About Time, was released in the US on July 13, 2004. The critical response to the album was mixed; the club tracks, most notably lead single "Dip It Low", were praised while the ballads were said to be disappointing. The style and sound of the album was compared to that of Beyoncé and Jennifer Lopez by several critics. Milian later admitted that her new sexy image for "Dip It Low" and the whole album was mainly for shock value. She had to make her way back into the US market, and by choosing a sexier image, she made a name for herself. "Dip It Low" was also meant to show that she was not the same 18-year-old girl in the "AM to PM" video. To create her new image, Milian also decided to change her appearance and lightened her hair. Taking inspiration from Janet Jackson who constantly changed her image, Milian thought to herself, "'When did I like Janet Jackson the most?' It was when she had her lightened hair."

Milian believed that the album was more R&B when compared to her "bubble-gum" pop debut album. The change was reflected in the album's lead single, "Dip It Low", which was more of a club and R&B track than her previous pop release "AM to PM". Milian performed as an opening act on Usher's Truth tour to promote her album. The album debuted and peaked at number 14 on the Billboard 200 album chart and number 21 in the UK, selling a total of 382,000 and 63,708 copies respectively, and received a Grammy Award nomination for "Best Contemporary R&B Album" in 2005. The album's first single, "Dip It Low", became Milian's biggest hit to date, reaching number two in the UK and number five in the US. The single was certified Gold by the RIAA for digital sales, and earned a Grammy Award nomination for "Best Rap/Sung Collaboration". The album's second and final single, "Whatever U Want", featuring Joe Budden, failed to reprise the success of the lead single but reached the top ten in the UK.

Milian starred in Be Cool (2005), the sequel to Get Shorty, with John Travolta and Uma Thurman, and recorded two songs for its soundtrack. She was then cast in a lead role in the horror film Pulse, starring alongside Kristen Bell and Ian Somerhalder. The film was a remake of the Japanese film Kairo (2001), and was adapted by Wes Craven and Ray Wright. Filming took place in Romania, a traumatic time for Milian, where she endured racial abuse and discovered that boyfriend Nick Cannon was cheating on her. Milian has also appeared in two video games: Def Jam Vendetta (2003), where she plays non-playable character/singer Angeline "Angel" Rodriguez, D-Mob's girlfriend, & a main player love interest. and as one of the female leads, Carmen Mendez, in the video game Need for Speed: Undercover (2008).

2005–2006: So Amazin' and record departure
Whereas Milian's previous albums had pop and R&B stylings, she was encouraged by Island Def Jam to target a new audience and release an urban record. Explaining the change, Milian said that one of her main problems was that previous releases would often find mainstream success, but would be relatively unsuccessful on urban radio. As an R&B artist, she wanted to build her core audience–a true fan base that would support her through time–to increase her career's longevity. The main purpose of her genre change was to go back to the streets and add to her core audience. To create a more urban record, Milian had a list of producers that she wanted to work with. L.A. Reid suggested to Milian that she should work with Cool & Dre, with whom she ended up working with as the first people to start off the album. Although Milian was originally supposed to work with several different music producers, she felt that the chemistry they had in the first week was so "instant and real" that she felt she could not get a better "vibe" with anybody else other than them. Milian ended up working with Cool & Dre on the majority of the production of the album, producing ten of the album's eleven tracks together. The album completed within a three-month period, whereas Milian's previous albums would take six months to a year.

Milian's third studio album, So Amazin', was released on May 16, 2006. The album's lead single, "Say I", featured rapper Young Jeezy. The single saw peak positions of number four in the UK, and number twenty-one in the US. So Amazin' debuted and peaked at number eleven on the Billboard 200 albums chart, selling 54,000 copies in its first week and 163,000 copies in total. Internationally, the album peaked at number 55 on the Swiss Albums Chart, 67 on the UK Albums Chart, and 139 on the France Albums Chart. Reviews of So Amazin' were mixed; critics felt that while Milian claimed that she was displaying the various sides of her personality, the album could "only [scratch] the surface of who she really is." "Say I" was praised by several critics, and was described as "instantly rousing" and "intoxicating". In June 2006, Milian's representative confirmed that Island had released her from the imprint. In an interview with Rap-Up, Milian revealed she was dropped a week after her album was released. The singer believed it was a "budget cut", and that Island Def Jam wanted to spend more money on label mate Rihanna; Milian also turned down what would later be Rihanna's hit single, "SOS". She said, "it was embarrassing. It was a week after my album got put out. I would be in my room a lot of the time crying by myself." After leaving Def Jam, Milian released her first compilation album, The Best of Christina Milian (2006).

2007–2010: Elope and hiatus
Milian signed with MySpace Records in 2008. She began writing songs and recording in the studio with numerous different producers, including Cool & Dre, J. R. Rotem, The Runners, Danja, Terry "MaddScientist" Thomas, T-Pain, Jim Jonsin and Toby Gad. Milian was featured on the cover of Rap-Up's 2008 Winter issue, in which she announced that the album's title was Dream in Color (later retitled as Elope). A single was released in October 2008, ballad "Us Against the World". It was written by Milian and produced by Madd Scientist. The single, described by Milian as a "cinematic power ballad", premiered via MySpace on October 6, 2008, and was made available by digital download the next day. Milian felt that Madd Scientist "brought the best out of me" while producing "Us Against the World", and "was really able to do some amazing things with my vocals".

After recording songs with the aforementioned producers, Milian took a break from music and started filming Bring It On: Fight to the Finish. When Milian returned to music, she concentrated on promoting her single "Us Against the World", and shot its music video. Since then, Milian said that she became "a little bit more meticulous with what I feel deserved to be on the album", and resumed recording. Songs recorded for the album included the 1990s Madonna-styled ballad "Stay", Euro-club record "Tug of War" and the feel-good song "Diamonds", which featured Kanye West. Other features included Rick Ross on the Cool & Dre produced track "Blissful", and Pitbull.

In early 2009, Milian began working with The-Dream, Tricky Stewart, and L.O.S. Da Maestro, which led to her signing a deal with Radio Killa Records. Milian revealed that aside from "Us Against the World", The-Dream and Tricky Stewart would be producing all the songs on her album. In March 2009, Milian changed the album's title to Elope. Regarding the album's title change, Milian explained, "the definition of elope is to run away secretly with one's beloved. This next album is about taking responsibility for yourself and making your own decisions." In June 2009, The-Dream said that the album was finished. Upon completion of the album, Milian said it represented "independence, not having to answer to any type of 'authority', being a woman at her best and feeling very confident". She said that fans could expect an "edgy sound with lots of strong powerful anthems. Big up tempos, R&B and Pop at it's [sic] best and two big ballads".

In August 2009, Milian confirmed that she had signed a deal to release Elope through Interscope Records, with a 2010 release date. Originally scheduled to be released in 2009, Tricky Stewart explained the delay, saying "we just got our label deals done, so the reason why some of these projects got delayed had to do with technicalities and things of that nature". The album has been furthered delayed because of Milian's marriage to The-Dream and her pregnancy. In January 2010, Milian said that she was going back into the studio in the summer to record more material. Although the album had already been finished when Milian took a break for her pregnancy, she wanted to "go back and re-do some of the music and make some new songs and find my new inspiration". In October 2009, Tricky Stewart said that another single had yet to be chosen, and that it would be the first single off Elope. Reported choices for the first single include "Zipper", "I'm a Cheat", and "Supersonic".

Milian starred as the main character in the Christmas television movie for the ABC Family channel entitled Snowglobe, alongside Lorraine Bracco. She was to be a leading character in The CW's new show Eight Days a Week as Olivia, alongside Mario Lopez, but The CW decided not to pick up the series due to the Writers Guild of America strike. Milian had a minor role in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past alongside Matthew McConaughey, and starred as the lead role in the straight-to-DVD film Bring It On: Fight to the Finish. and as one of the female leads, Carmen Mendez, in the video game Need for Speed: Undercover (2008).

2010–2014: Return to music, The Voice and Dancing with the Stars
Milian was scheduled to resume recording in July 2010 to complete the album; however, Milian opted to focus on her acting career. Despite the separation, Milian and The-Dream continued to "work together and write together". At the 2010 Los Angeles Fashion Week, Milian performed "Zipper" and "Dip It Low". Milian has worked on a fourth studio album since 2008, but its release has frequently been delayed. At the 2010 American Music Awards, she said it would be ready in 2011. In June 2011, her collaboration with The Jackie Boyz titled "Memory" was released in Japan. It was set to appear on their album Songs In My Blackberry.

NBC announced on October 27 that Milian would serve as the official Social Media Correspondent for The Voice. The role, previously held by Alison Haislip, saw Milian make regular appearances during the live broadcasts. She will also interact with fans through Facebook, Twitter, NBC.com and NBC Live. She has since left the show.

On February 12, 2012, Lil' Wayne said that Christina Milian had joined Young Money. The next day, a song titled "Mr. Valentine" leaked onto the internet. Milian told Carson Daly on 97.1 AMP Radio. "Yeah, I've signed with Young Money. It was pretty awesome. This weekend we had a big party, a big YMCMB party, and Drake was performing and we were all up on the stage and Wayne got up there and he announced it himself. And so I was kind of surprised and I was like, 'Oh my gosh, this is awesome!'" Milian is currently recording her fourth album. "We're just getting started on it," she said. "I've already halfway gotten there and when my mom and I went to Wayne and we played him some of the music, off the second song, he was like, 'I love it. Let's do this deal.' I have some music that's already going to be on it and the second half I'm working with them now. [...] When they did a little background check, they saw even the songwriting, all that kind of stuff adds on top of, alright, she's an actress, she's a pretty face, she can actually sing, but not to mention she's a songwriter. I thought that was cool that they even saw that. [...] They all get on each other's records, so all I have to do is be home with everybody and we'll just do lots of features." In October 2012, during an interview, Milian spoke of her Young Money debut: "Wayne just gets his artists, which is great, I have a very one-on-one business relationship with everybody from Mack Maine to Wayne. They're just very involved in the project as far as bringing the music, playing songs, just giving their input. [...] I really want to pick the perfect single though. It's been a second since I've been out musically, so I do not want to fail and I don't believe in failure, so I just try new things and figure out the pieces. That's one thing that's great about Wayne. He's like, 'Work with different producers, take your time, but at the same time, try new things. Don't be stuck on one thing.'" In July 2013, it was discovered that her contract with The Voice would be ended.

In the summer, she collaborated with the Stafford Brothers and Lil' Wayne on the single "Hello" which reached the Top15 on the Billboard Dance charts. In September 2013, Milian became a contestant on Dancing with the Stars (season 17). She was partnered with professional dancer Mark Ballas. She was eliminated in the fifth week, finishing in the ninth place. In July 2014, she announced she'd started work on a mixtape titled #TinaTurnUp. In November 2014, she collaborated with Lil' Wayne on his single, "Start a Fire", which they performed on the American Music Awards.

2015–present: "#TinaTurnUp, new ventures, and a music refocus
On January 18, 2015, Milian debuted her reality show, Christina Milian Turned Up. The series follows the day-to-day lives of Christina, her mother Carmen and her two sisters, Danielle and Liz Flores. It was renewed for a second season in April, which premiered in November 2015. In March, she released a pair of singles (which were previewed in her reality series), with "Rebel" and "We Ain't Worried", of which the latter was used to promote her "We Are Pop Culture" clothing line. In July, she announced she was going to release a 5-track EP and video set, and was working with director Mike Ho. Also that month, she performed the National Anthem at the 2015 Americafest and premiered a new single "Like Me" featuring Snoop Dogg. A few months later, she released another single "Do It" with Lil' Wayne and changed the EP's title to Like Me. Her EP "4U" was released on December 4, 2015, which includes four tracks and music videos packaged in one.

In 2016, she collaborated with So Solid Crew's MC Harvey on the dance track "We Own the Night" which premiered on August 12, 2016.

In June 2017, she appeared as a judge/panelist on the Fox television show, Superhuman. Superhuman features contestants who possess a distinct, nearly super-human ability in fields such as memory, hearing, taste, touch, smell, sight and more are challenged to push their extraordinary skills to win a $50,000 grand prize.

Starred in the critically acclaimed Netflix romantic comedy Falling Inn Love (2019), costarring Adam Demos. Falling Inn Love was the first Netflix movie to be shot entirely in New Zealand.

In 2023 she joined the Netflix romantic comedy, Meet Me Next Christmas, as executive producer and to lead the cast.

Entrepreneurship
Milian co-owns Viva Diva Wines  with her mother and manager Carmen Milian, as well as her publicist Robyn Santiago.

Heritage
Milian has been faced with the challenges of being an Afro-Latina, stating: I'm Cuban but [people] didn't get it because I was also brown-skinned... Latinos come in all colors, all shades... You should see my mom and her brothers and sisters... We just vary in color, shapes and sizes. But we're still Latinos — that doesn't change a damn thing.

Relationships and children
Milian met actor Nick Cannon on the set of their film, Love Don't Cost a Thing, in 2003, and they began dating. After being together for two and a half years, Milian ended her relationship with Cannon in 2005 because of his cheating. Cannon revealed that he refused to stay faithful to Milian because their relationship was becoming too much like a "Christian romance". When Cannon married Mariah Carey on April 30, 2008, Milian said, "regardless of what I felt in the past at the time, I actually forgive him and I'm very much over that."

After the production of So Amazin' in 2006, Milian began dating Andre Lyon from the production group Cool & Dre. The pair dated until February 2009, when they decided to go on a break. Milian said that they were still really close, and decided to break up because it was "hard to grow together when you live on two different coasts". The singer wanted to take more opportunities and learn more about herself, which she often let go when in a relationship, but felt that she was in a now-or-never situation. Milian described Lyon as an amazing guy, and said that although there was a chance for the couple in the future, she needed to focus on herself.

In February 2009, reports emerged that Milian was dating musician The-Dream. In late May 2009, it was reported that Milian and The-Dream were getting married, and the couple celebrated their engagement party in Las Vegas in June. On September 4, 2009, Milian and The-Dream eloped and were married at the Little White Chapel in Las Vegas, Nevada. MTV reported that Milian and The-Dream would get married again in Rome, Italy, and then renew their vows in the US in front of family and friends. On September 11, 2009, it was announced that Milian and The-Dream were expecting their first child together. The pair separated in late 2009, only three months after their wedding in September of that year. On February 26, 2010, Milian gave birth to a daughter Violet Madison Nash, who was said to have "a full head of hair." This was Milian's first child, and the fourth for The-Dream, who had three children with ex-wife Nivea. As a Catholic, she baptized her daughter into the faith. Two years after she and The-Dream separated, their divorce became finalized on October 23, 2011.

In September 2010, Milian began dating James "Jas" Prince, Jr., son of impresario James Prince, the founder and CEO of Rap-A-Lot Records. In April 2013, Milian and Prince became engaged. However, she moved out of the couple's home on June 19, 2014, and the couple called off their engagement.

In July 2014, it was rumored she was dating rapper Lil Wayne, with whom she attended the ESPY Awards. They later confirmed their relationship in mid-2015 after which they received criticism from their interconnected exes, singer Nivea and songwriter The-Dream. They split in August 2015 after collaborating on various singles, videos, and concert dates.

Milian has been in a relationship with French singer M. Pokora since 2017. In July 2019, the couple announced they were expecting a baby boy together. Their first son, Isaiah, was born in January 2020. In December 2020, the couple announced they were expecting their second child together, and a French magazine reported they were also married that month. In April 2021, they welcomed their second son, Kenna.

Artistry
Milian is a light-lyric soprano, with a vocal range from Eb3 to F5. Her vocal style has been compared to Paula Abdul and Aaliyah by critics. David Peisner of Maxim commented on her talent and described her voice as being "silky and sassy." Earlier in her career, Milian was mainly an urban pop and teen pop singer but as she matured and grew her sound later grew to branch out into a more hip-hop soul and straight forward R&B sound on her later two releases It's About Time and So Amazin'.

Milian described the sound of the album as "hip hop under-toned with nice, pop melodies", and later said the genre of the album was "bubble-gum pop". She described lead single "AM to PM" as a "very pop" and "fun, party/club song". The genre of the album was described by one critic as "light-hearted, energetic R&B pop tunes". Sonically, the album was said to stick "rigidly to the sherbert-snorting pop formula of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera". One reviewer compared Milian to other singers of her generation, and found that "while Spears has gone raunchy with 'I Love Rock 'n' Roll', Christina Aguilera down and dirty on Stripped, and even clean-cut Mandy Moore has brashly cut her hair Felicity-style, Milian still seems young and real." The critic also compared Milian to Beyoncé, "while Beyonce is shaking her bootylicious body like crazy on 'Crazy In Love', Milian is simply enjoying becoming a young star." Milian described the genre of It's About Time as more R&B in comparison to her "bubble-gum pop" debut album. Discussing the change of genre between her lead singles, Milian said that the "first single off my last album, 'AM to PM', was more of a kiddie kind of thing, very pop. [Dip It Low] is more R&B, kind of a club/party kind of vibe." An issue Milian had with the album was that it did not flow. The various pop and urban influences in that album, she found, confused the audience. For her next studio album, Milian said that she wanted a more consistent feel.

Other ventures
In 2010, Milian signed Australian singers, Kasey Osborne and Kelsey-Maree, as their manager. Milian said, "the girls have everything it takes to be the biggest international duo out there. The world is definitely ready for these beautiful girls to hit the stage and kill it on screen." She said that the duo were the "most exciting project" she had worked on.

Discography

 * Christina Milian (2001)
 * It's About Time (2004)
 * So Amazin' (2006)

title: Christina Milian


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Talk:Murphy O. Shewchuk

Notability
Vanity piece ? Man of Significance ? What do others think ? -- Derek Ross
 * I think he is a important man in regions like southern BC and the Nicola Valley Trinity Bowles

 * He'll more than do, he's a major backroads/history writer from what I can see -= I think I've read the Similkameen ones; don't think he wrote the Bridge River-Lillooet one which I'm more familiar with. In the long run articles on such local writers are an important thing to have in Wiki and in BC historiography in general; Garnet Basque, T.W. Paterson and fellows like Mr Shewchuk here all hav a place in an eventual Category:Historians of British Columbia as well as in the writers cat (Wikispeak for category) initially placed here.  Please note: bio articles should not read like resumes, and WP:AUTO and WP:LCOI should be observed.  But since Mr Shewchuk seems to be around these parts, I invite him to peruse the contents of Category:Fraser Canyon, Category:Thompson Country, Category:Similkameen Country and Category:Boundary Country, plus List of ghost towns in British Columbia, and feel free to add to or edit articles, or if you see a redlink and know about the subject, please write it.  As a matter of fact, though I'm from the Bridge River Country I've been so distracted elsewhere in Wikipedia I never have gotten around to writing Bralorne, British Columbia or Pioneer Mine, British Columbia, though there's a Gold Bridge article.  I just wanted to do them well, now I'm far from home and my copy of Lewis Green's book and Mrs de Hullu's....I did the best I could for a stub on Minto City from memory, but there's a potential fo a host of articles up there, Brexton, Ogden et al; Bralorne Mines, Inc. and Pioneer Mines, Inc. would beep corporate articles from their town articles.  Hint, hint.  but anything you could do in the Category:Nicola Country would be great.  Pleas note re that cat vs the Category:Thompson-Nicola Regional District that the one is more for history and geographic articles and community articles, the other for institutional/government/infrastructure articles and the like, though many articles will have both.  A main Nicola Country article has yet to be written, although Nicola River exists and Nicola (chief) exist but edits and additions to them are welcome; Chillaheetza or whatever the proper spelling now is needs writing, and Douglas Lake Ranch and so on; likewise in the Similkameen a big gap is Granite Creek, British Columbia and Copper Mountain, British Columbia and so on; Canadian Cascades, Clera Range, [[Cornwall Hills, Basque, British Columbia, Semlin Valley/Semlin Ranch, Highland Valley Copper Mine, [][Giant Mascot Mine]] and Thompson Plateau also come to mind.....anyway please visit and join WikiProject British Columbia. and welcome to Wikipedia (even if the writing you do here doesn't pay, except in a sense of gratification and public education)

title: Talk:Murphy O. Shewchuk


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Agkistrodon

Agkistrodon is a genus of venomous pit vipers commonly known as American moccasins. The genus is endemic to North America, ranging from the Southern United States to northern Costa Rica. Eight species are currently recognized, all of them monotypic and closely related. Common names include: cottonmouths, copperheads, and cantils.

Name origin
The name Agkistrodon comes from the Greek words ankistron (ἄγκιστρον, 'fishhook', with the irregular transliteration gk rather than the usual nk) and odon (ὀδών) 'tooth' and is likely a reference to the fangs.

Some varieties of the genus are given the common name "moccasin" or "moccasin snake" in the United States, which is the Algonquian word for "shoe". The origin of this nickname is unknown. The first known use of "moccasin" to refer to a deadly venomous snake was in a 1765 publication. The nickname is used to refer to both cottonmouths and copperheads. According to the Word Detective, this use may be related to their color and appearance or the silence with which they move. Another source for this name may be the Native American word "mokesoji" of unknown origin and meaning.

Description
Members of this genus have a number of features in common. All species have a relatively broad head with short fangs. A loreal scale is present, except in A. piscivorus. Usually, nine large symmetrical platelike scales are on the crown of the head, but in all species, these are often irregularly fragmented or have sutures, especially in A. bilineatus. All have a sharply defined canthus rostralis and a vertically elliptical pupil. Usually eight (6-10) supralabial scales and usually 10-11 (8-13) sublabials are present. The dorsal scales are mostly keeled and at midbody number 21-25 (usually 23), while A. piscivorus has 23-27 (usually 25). The snake has 127-157 ventral scales and 36-71 subcaudals. Of the latter, some may be divided. The anal scale is single. All have a color pattern of 10-20 dark crossbands on a lighter ground color, although sometimes the crossbands are staggered as half bands on either side of the body.

The phylogeny of the species has long been controversial. Studies based on morphological and venom characteristics support the idea that A. bilineatus and A. contortrix are more closely related. However, an analysis of mitochondrial DNA, as well as more recent molecular studies, have concluded that A. bilineatus and A. piscivorus are sister taxa, with A. contortrix being a sister species to them both.

Geographic range
They are found in North America from the northeastern and central United States southward through peninsular Florida and southwestern Texas, and in Central America on the Atlantic versant from Tamaulipas and Nuevo León southward to the Yucatan Peninsula, Belize, and Guatemala. They are seen along the Pacific coastal plain and lower foothills from Sonora south through Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua to northwestern Costa Rica.

Behavior
All are semiaquatic to terrestrial and are often found near sources of water. However, A. contortrix and A. bilineatus are also found in dry habitats, often far from permanent streams or ponds.

Reproduction
The members of this genus are all ovoviviparous.

A 2012 study found that they are not only capable of parthenogenesis (asexual reproduction), but that litters created without a male may account for up to 5% of litters in the wild, even in areas that have males present. This phenomenon had previously only been observed in captive populations.

Venom
Pit vipers of the genus Agkistrodon rely on a potent venom they produce for their survival. Used to immobilize prey and fend off predators, one bite can inject enough venom into a human to cause severe pain, swelling, weakness, difficulty breathing, hemorrhaging, gangrene, fever, vomiting, and in rare instances, even death.

The venom of all three species is assumed to be not unlike that of A. contortrix, which contains thrombin-like enzymes that act upon the coagulant activity of the blood. A study of electrophoretic patterns of proteins in venoms among and within populations of A. contortrix and A. piscivorus showed that substantial variation exists, and no reason exists to believe that these differences do not correspond with variations in toxicity.

Research
In a study conducted at the College of Medicine at the University of Florida, venom from A. piscivorous was injected into the lymph fluid of a frog. The frog immediately suffocated because of the collapse of its lung sacs. The venom even resulted in lung constriction when directly applied to the surface of the frog's lungs. To test this, trace amounts of venom were dropped onto a single pulmonary sac in a frog's lung after it was anesthetized and its chest cavity dissected open. A drop of solution containing a venom concentration of 1 mg/ml was enough to cause contraction of the pulmonary artery adventitia after 5-8 sec in a frog weighing 40 g. The study found, however, that this toxic effect is simply a tool the snake can choose to employ from an accessory venom gland it has. In most instances, the viper injects a venom that tends to immobilize, not kill, its prey before ingestion. In this case, the main venom glands secrete a toxin that inhibits the prey's sympathetic response to flee or fend off its predator. This essentially stuns the animal so that the predator can easily attack.

Species
T Type species.

Taxonomy
This genus was previously much larger and also included the following genera:

 * Calloselasma - Ground pit viper found in Southeast Asia (Malaya).
 * Deinagkistrodon - The Hundred-pace viper found mostly in southern China.
 * Gloydius - Ground pit vipers found in Asia.
 * Hypnale - Hump-nosed vipers found in India and Sri Lanka.

title: Agkistrodon


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User:Apoivre

...is a delightful multilingual contributor. We need more of the same! +sj+
 * oh, thanks apoivre 15:38, 19 May 2004 (UTC)

I agree to multi-license all my contributions, with the exception of my user pages, as described below:

Translation Help
Would you be able to translate my article on photoanalysisinto Spanish? It would be greatly appreciated! Wipware (talk) 15:54, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

title: User:Apoivre


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Manas-vijnana

Manas-vijnana (Skt. "'मानस-विज्ञान"'; mānas-vijñāna; "mind-knowledge", compare man-tra, jñāna) is the seventh of the eight consciousnesses as taught in Yogacara and Zen Buddhism, the higher consciousness or intuitive consciousness that on the one hand localizes experience through thinking and on the other hand universalizes experience through intuitive perception of the universal mind of alayavijnana. Manas-vijnana, also known as klista-manas-vijnana or simply manas, is not to be confused with manovijnana which is the sixth consciousness.

Overlapping Pali terms for "mind"
According to Bhikkhu Bodhi, the post-canonical Pali commentary uses the three terms viññāa, mano and citta as synonyms for the mind sense base (mana-ayatana); however, in the Sutta Pitaka, these three terms are generally contextualized differently:
 * Viññāa refers to awareness through a specific internal sense base, that is, through the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body or mind. Thus, there are six sense-specific types of Viññāa.  It is also the basis for personal continuity within and across lives.
 * Manas refers to mental "actions" (kamma), as opposed to those actions that are physical or verbal.  It is also the sixth internal sense base (ayatana), that is, the "mind base," cognizing  mental sensa (dhammā) as well as sensory information from the physical sense bases.
 * Citta includes the formation of thought, emotion and volition; this is thus the subject of Buddhist mental development (bhava), the mechanism for release.

Overlapping Sanskrit terms for "mind"
According to Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki (who uses the term "Manas" rather than "Manas Vijnana" for the seventh consciousness) the Lankavatara Sutra presents the Zen view of the Eight Consciousnesses rather than the Yogacara view. In his introduction to his translation of the Lankavatara Sutra he clarifies the distinction between the overlapping terms:

 * What may be termed Buddhist psychology in the Laṅkā consists in the analysis of mind, that is, in the classification of the Vijñānas. To understand thus the psychology of Buddhism properly the knowledge of these terms is necessary: citta, manas, vijñāna, manovijñāna, and ālayavijñāna.

 * To begin with Vijñāna. Vijñāna is composed of the prefix vi, meaning "to divide", and the root jñā which means "to perceive", "to know". Thus, Vijñāna is the faculty of distinguishing or discerning or judging. When an object is presented before the eye, it is perceived and judged as a red apple or a piece of white linen; the faculty of doing this is called eye-vijñāna. In the same way, there are ear-vijñāna for sound, nose-vijñāna for odour, tongue-vijñāna for taste, body-vijñāna for touch, and thought-vijñāna (manovijñāna) for ideas—altogether six forms of Vijñāna for distinguishing the various aspects of world external or internal.

 * Of these six Vijñānas, the Manovijñāna is the most important as it is directly related to an inner faculty known as Manas. Manas roughly corresponds to mind as an organ of thought, but in fact it is more than that, for it is also a strong power of attaching itself to the result of thinking. The former may even be considered subordinate to this power of attachment. The Manas first wills, then it discriminates to judge; to judge is to divide, and this dividing ends in viewing existence dualistically. Hence the Manas' tenacious attachment to the dualistic interpretation of existence. Willing and thinking are inextricably woven into the texture of Manas.

 * Citta comes from the root cit, "to think", but in the Laṅkā the derivation is made from the root ci, "to pile up", "to arrange in order". The Citta is thus a storehouse where the seeds of all thoughts and deeds are accumulated and stored up. The Citta, however, has a double sense, general and specific. When it is used in the general sense it means "mind", "mentation", "ideas", including the activities of Manas and Manovijñāna, and also of the Vijñānas; while specifically it is a synonym of Ālayavijñāna in its relative aspects, and distinguishable from all the rest of the mental faculties. When, however, it is used in the form of Citta-mātra, Mind-only, it acquires still another connotation. We can say that Citta appears here in its highest possible sense, for it is then neither simply mentation nor intellection, nor perception as a function of consciousness. It is identifiable with the Ālaya in its absolute aspect. This will become clearer later on.

 * Ālayavijñāna is ālaya+vijñāna, and ālaya is a store where things are hoarded for future use. The Citta as a cumulative faculty is thus identified with the Ālayavijñāna. Strictly speaking, the Ālaya is not a Vijñāna, has no discerning power in it; it indiscriminately harbours all that is poured into it through the channel of the Vijñānas. The Ālaya is perfectly neutral, indifferent, and does not offer to give judgments.

Various descriptions of "Manas-vijnana"

 * One of the primary functions of Manas-vijnana is to perceive the subjective position of the store consciousness and erroneously regard it as one's own ego, thereby creating ego attachment.
 * The basic nature of Manas-vijnana is that of thought.
 * There is a difference between the "thought" of this seventh consciousness, Manas-vijnana, and the sixth consciousness "thought" of cognition.
 * Not consciously controllable, Manas-vijnana is said to be a mind of a realm that gives rise to contradiction of conscious decisions, and to incessant self-love.
 * Manas-vijnana can be described as "the consciousness which sees the limits of human variation from within".
 * Manas-vijnana consciousness is also described as the place where good and evil are eternally accumulated.
 * Manas-vijnana consciousness is theorized as the connecting realm between the mano-consciousness and the ālayavijñāna.
 * Manas-vijnana as the seventh consciousness is the basis of human existence, which unceasingly continues and changes, and serves as the ground for the sixth consciousness of cognition.
 * In part II of Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki's Introduction, to his translation of the Lankavatara Sutra, the Manovijñāna, or "that which knows thought", is directly related to an inner faculty known as "Manas". "Manas" is a strong power that attaches to the result of thinking.  From this viewpoint one could discern that the "thought-consciousness", that part of the mind that is conscious of thought, also has the power to "velcro" itself to a completed thought process.  This would explain the human difficulty of observing one's own thoughts, as the "manas" or "velcro" must first be detached, so to speak.

title: Manas-vijnana


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Talk:Molbo story

comment
The molboer stories are really sort of neat. They are ethnic jokes so badly told that they reflect on the teller as well. Similar stories are also told about Skåne, part of southern Sweden that used to belong to Denmark. "De war to Skåner ..." was as familiar to my grandfather 120 years ago in Thy (near Mols) as "There were these two Scotsmen ..." was to his counterparts across the sea in Yorkshire. And yes, as far as I know the Thy dialect was spoken with "wubbleyou" where the rest of Denmark pronounces a V.

Here's another molboerhistorie, gratis. Several molboer find a pocket watch on the road. They listen to the ticking, and are frightened. They carry it to the old wise man of their village. He places the watch on a stump, smashes it with a stone and the ticking stops. The villagers are proud of their resourceful wise man. Snezzy 01:06, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Holes
The Molbo people once needed to dig a new well. During the excavation, they got a large pile of soil left over. They didn't know what to do with it. It was not appropriate that the large pile of earth just lay down.

One of the Molbos then got the idea that they could dig a hole another place and then fill the extra soil in there. It seemed all the Molbos in the first place was a very good suggestion, but then one of them became apprehensive about the project anyway, for what would they do with the soil from the new hole.

They thought about that problem for a long time. But then there was finally a wise molbo who said: "You know what, of course we dig the hole so big that both piles can fit in it.

title: Talk:Molbo story


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Threadsafe

Threadsafe may refer to:

 * Thread safety, a computer programming concept applicable to multi-threaded programs
 * ThreadSafe, a source code analysis tool for detecting Java concurrency defects

title: Threadsafe