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Eastern Counties Football League

The Eastern Counties Football League, currently known as the Thurlow Nunn League for sponsorship purposes, is an English football league at levels 9 and 10 of the English football league system. It currently contains clubs from Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, eastern Hertfordshire, southern Lincolnshire, and north and east London. The league is a feeder to Division One North of the Isthmian League, but may also see sides promoted to the Northern Premier League Midlands Division.

Formation
During the early part of the 20th century there were several leagues covering East Anglia, including the Norfolk & Suffolk League, the East Anglian League, the Essex & Suffolk Border League and the Ipswich & District League, whilst some of the larger clubs (including Ipswich Town and Cambridge Town) played in the Southern Amateur League. Suggestions of forming a league to cover the whole region had been made since the early 1900s, but intensified after Norwich City were promoted to Division Two of the Football League in 1934 and saw a significant rise in attendances. During the 1934–35 season there was a strong movement in Harwich and Ipswich for the formation of such a league and after canvassing, a 'Meeting of Representatives of East Anglian Football Clubs' was held at the Picture House in Ipswich on 17 February 1935. The ten clubs in attendance were Cambridge Town, Harwich & Parkeston and Ipswich Town from the SAL, Colchester Town and Crittall Athletic from the Spartan League, and Gorleston, Great Yarmouth Town, King's Lynn, Lowestoft Town and Norwich CEYMS from the Norfolk & Suffolk League. Although Cambridge Town and Norwich CEYMS later decided against joining, a further four clubs were recruited: Bury Town and Thetford Town from the Norfolk & Suffolk League, Chelmsford City from the London League and Clacton Town from the Ipswich & District League.

Early years
The first season commenced on 31 August 1935 and ended with Harwich and Lowestoft level at the top of the league with 26 points each. Although Lowestoft had a better goal average, the championship was decided by a play-off match held at Layer Road on 29 August 1936. The match ended in a 3–3 draw and the two were declared joint champions and allowed to hold the trophy for six months each. At the end of the first season Ipswich left to join the Southern League and were replaced by their reserve team.

At the end of the 1936–37 season there were concerns about the league's viability. All five Essex clubs had left to join the newly established Essex County League, whilst Thetford had resigned after finishing bottom of the league, leaving only six remaining clubs. However, four new members (Colchester United reserves, Cromer, Newmarket Town and Norwich CEYMS) were recruited. The following season the league expanded to 13 clubs as three of the Essex clubs rejoined (the Essex County League had been a failure with only five members completing the season and was not continued).

The 1939–40 season started on 26 August, but was abandoned after the outbreak of World War II. After the war ended in May 1945 a meeting was held in late June to see whether the league could be restarted. However, a further meeting on 28 July decided that too few clubs were ready to resume footballing activities as many were unable to sign players and some grounds remained under the control of the armed forces. The league finally resumed for the 1946–47 season with ten clubs.

Later development
Prior to the start of the 1948–49 season the league was expanded to 16 clubs, largely through the addition of the 'A' teams of four London clubs, Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United. The following season Gillingham reserves joined, becoming the only Kent-based club to ever play in the league (Dartford also applied to join at the same time, but were rejected). In 1951 the league gained its first Cambridgeshire club with the admission of Cambridge United, and by 1955–56 the league was up to 20 clubs, of which five were reserve or 'A' teams. Although a succession of clubs leaving the league saw it reduced to fourteen clubs by 1964, it quickly regained numbers and was back up to 18 members two years later. In 1976 the league was renamed the Eastern League, but returned to its original name six years later. The league was among the first to be sponsored by an external company when, in the late 1970s, it was sponsored by local building societies Magnet and Planet, and Town and Country. More recently it has been sponsored by building supplies company Jewson, Ridgeons, and current sponsor Thurlow Nunn.

Expansion to two divisions
There had been occasional discussions about adding a second division to the league since its formation, but in 1983 it seemed about to become a reality. However, it was then delayed by the Football Association at the request of the Essex Senior League. The idea was resurrected during the 1987–88 season and a meeting was held to discuss it on 22 November 1987. The league contacted 21 clubs who were considered potential members, of which fifteen were interested in joining. A further four clubs were contacted and another (Long Sutton Athletic) asked for details. Ultimately fourteen clubs applied to join the league; eight from the Peterborough & District League (Downham Town, Huntingdon United, King's Lynn reserves, Ortonians, Somersham Town, Warboys Town and Yaxley – Parson Drove also applied later in the year, but were rejected), three from the Anglian Combination (Diss Town, Fakenham Town and Wroxham) and three from the Essex & Suffolk Border League (Bury Town reserves, Hatfield Peverel and Little Oakley). All were accepted except Hatfield Peverel and Little Oakley, whose grounds were deemed inadequate, whilst Ortonians later withdrew after difficulties getting their reserve and 'A' teams into the Peterborough & District League. Mildenhall Town from the Cambridgeshire League and Ipswich Wanderers from the Ipswich Sunday League were later invited to join, whilst Halstead Town were persuaded to transfer from the Essex Senior League after Ortonian's late withdrawal, allowing the inaugural Division One season in 1988–89 to start with 14 clubs.

Addition of Division One South
On 3 October 2017, The Football Association ratified the creation of a new Step 6 (level 10) division in the league, Division One South, which started playing in the 2018–19 season. It covers the rest of Essex, as well as East London and parts of North London and east Hertfordshire and is intended to enable promotion to the Essex Senior League and relegation to the Essex Olympian League.

Premier Division

 * Brantham Athletic
 * Dereham Town
 * Downham Town
 * Ely City
 * Fakenham Town
 * Hadleigh United
 * Harleston Town
 * Heacham
 * Kirkley & Pakefield
 * Lakenheath
 * Long Melford
 * Mildenhall Town
 * Mulbarton Wanderers
 * Newmarket Town
 * Sheringham
 * Soham Town Rangers
 * Thetford Town
 * Walsham-le-Willows
 * Woodbridge Town

Division One North

 * AFC Sudbury Reserves
 * Cornard United
 * Diss Town
 * Dussindale & Hellesdon Rovers
 * FC Peterborough
 * Framlingham Town
 * Great Yarmouth Town
 * Harwich & Parkeston
 * Haverhill Borough
 * Haverhill Rovers
 * Holbeach United
 * Holland
 * Leiston Reserves
 * Needham Market U23's
 * Norwich CBS
 * Parson Drove
 * Stanway Pegasus
 * Swaffham Town
 * Whittlesey Athletic
 * Whitton United
 * Wivenhoe Town

Division One South

 * Barkingside
 * Basildon Town
 * Benfleet
 * Brimsdown
 * Burnham Ramblers
 * Cannons Wood
 * Clapton
 * Clapton Community
 * Dunmow Town
 * Enfield Borough
 * Hackney Wick
 * Harlow Town
 * Hutton
 * May & Baker
 * Newbury Forest
 * NW London
 * Park View
 * Southend Manor
 * St Margaretsbury
 * Tower Hamlets
 * Wormley Rovers

Former teams
Ninety-four teams have previously played in the Eastern Counties League, including several reserve and 'A' teams. The league's geographical span has previously stretched from Gillingham in Kent in the south to Boston in Lincolnshire in the north and Eynesbury in Cambridgeshire in the west. In the 1940s and 1950s it contained up to four 'A' teams from London.

 * A.F.C. Sudbury (1999–2006)
 * Arsenal 'A' (1948–55)
 * Biggleswade Town (1955–63)
 * Boston Town (1966–68)
 * Braintree Town (four spells)
 * Braintree Town Reserves (2012–19)
 * Brightlingsea Regent (2011–14)
 * Brightlingsea Regent Reserves (2018–20)
 * Brightlingsea United (1990–2002)
 * Buckhurst Hill (2021–22)
 * Bungay Town (1963–64)
 * Bury Town (three spells)
 * Bury Town Reserves (1988–96)
 * Cambridge City Reserves (six spells)
 * Cambridge Regional College (2006–14)
 * Cambridge United (1951–58)
 * Cambridge United Reserves (1959–60, 1978–79)
 * Cambridge University Press (2010–13)
 * Chatteris Town (1966–2001)
 * Chelmsford (1935–37)
 * Chelmsford City Reserves (1938–63)
 * Chelsea Reserves (1948–53)
 * Coggeshall Town (2016–18)
 * Coggeshall United (2018–23)
 * Colchester Town (1935–37)
 * Colchester United Reserves (1937–59, 1976–88)
 * Cromer (1937–39)
 * Debenham LC (2005–23)
 * Dereham Town Reserves (2013–17)
 * Eynesbury Rovers (1952–63)
 * FC Clacton (three spells)
 * Felixstowe Port & Town (1976–2000)
 * Felixstowe & Walton United (2000–18)
 * Felixstowe & Walton United Reserves (2018–20)
 * Fire United (2018–20)
 * Frenford (2018–23)
 * Fulbourn Institute (2005–06)
 * Gillingham Reserves (1949–54)
 * Godmanchester Rovers (2002–21)
 * Gorleston (three spells)
 * Gothic (1963–78)
 * Halstead Town (1988–2022)
 * Hashtag United (2018–19)
 * Hertford Town (1972–73)
 * Histon (1965–2000, 2017–19)
 * Histon reserves (2000–11)
 * Huntingdon Town (2021–23)
 * Huntingdon United (1988–92)
 * Ipswich Town (1935–36)
 * Ipswich Town Reserves (1936–38)
 * Ipswich Town 'A' (1948–51)
 * Ipswich Wanderers (1988–2023)
 * King's Lynn (1935–39, 1948–54)
 * King's Lynn Reserves (four spells)
 * King's Lynn Town Reserves (2014–21)
 * Leiston (2001–11)
 * Leyton Athletic (2019–20)
 * Little Oakley (2017–21)
 * Long Sutton Athletic (1988–95)
 * Athletic Newham (2018–21)
 * Lowestoft Town (1935–2009)
 * Maldon Town (1966–72, 1996–2004)
 * March Town United (1954–2022)
 * Needham Market (1996–2010)
 * Norwich CEYMS (1937–39)
 * Norwich City Reserves (1946–48)
 * Norwich City 'A' (1949–58, 1963–75)
 * Norwich United (1989–2016, 2018–23)
 * Norwich United Reserves (2017–18)
 * Peterborough North End Sports (2021–22)
 * Peterborough United Reserves (1954–60, 1972–73)
 * Romford Reserves (1959–63)
 * Saffron Walden Town (three spells)
 * Somersham Town (1988–2004)
 * Southend United 'A' (1961–62)
 * Spalding United (1955–60)
 * Sporting Bengal United (2022–23)
 * St Neots Town (1969–73)
 * Stanway Rovers (1992–2018, 2019–21)
 * Stowmarket Town (1952–2021)
 * Sudbury Town (1955–90, 1997–99)
 * Sudbury Town Reserves (1990–97)
 * Sudbury Wanderers (1991–99)
 * Team Bury (2009–18)
 * Tiptree United (1979–2009)
 * Tottenham Hotspur 'A' (1948–63)
 * University of East Anglia (2021–22)
 * Warboys Town (1988–2004)
 * Watton United (1986–2000)
 * West Ham United 'A' (1948–56)
 * White Ensign (2018–21)
 * Wisbech St Mary (2016–22)
 * Wisbech Town (three spells)
 * Wroxham (1989–2012, 2017–22)
 * Yaxley (1988–92)

Notes

Membership rejected
Between its inception in 1935 and the formalisation of promotion and relegation between the ECL and its feeder leagues in 1983, several clubs applied to join the Eastern Counties League but were rejected, or were approached by the league but turned the offer of admission down. These included:

Applied to the league but were rejected
 * Chingford Town (1948)
 * Dagenham (1949)
 * Dagenham Town (1950)
 * Dartford (1949)
 * Exning Town (1959)
 * Hoddesdon Town (1974)
 * Hoffman Athletic (1938)
 * Letchworth (1953)
 * RAFFC (1937)
 * Rushden Town (1954)
 * Queens Park Rangers 'A' (1948)
 * Sheringham (1937)
 * Stevenage Athletic (1974)
 * Tunbridge Wells (1954)

Approached by the league but declined
 * Brentford 'A' (1947, 1948)
 * Charlton Athletic 'A', (1948)
 * Fulham 'A' (1948)
 * Leyton Orient 'A' (1947)

Champions
The champions of the league have been as follows:

Clubs

 * Longest membership: Great Yarmouth Town – 1935 (founder members) to date
 * Highest attendance: 8,387 for King's Lynn vs Wisbech Town, 12 September 1951

Matches

 * Fewest defeats in a season: Chelmsford City reserves – undefeated in 1946–47
 * Most wins in a season
 * Wroxham – 34 in 44 matches in 1996–97
 * Chelmsford City reserves – 16 in 18 matches in 1946–47 (89% victory rate)
 * Fewest wins in a season: None by Thetford Town (1936–37), Newmarket Town (1951–52), Eynesbury Rovers (1960–61), Chatteris Town (1989–90), Clacton Town (2005–06)
 * Most defeats in a season
 * Newmarket Town – lost all 34 matches in 1951–52
 * Clacton Town – lost 41 of 42 matches in 2005–06
 * Most draws in a season: Watton United – drew 19 of 40 matches in 1989–90
 * Biggest win: Lowestoft Town 19–0 Thetford Town, 20 March 1937
 * Biggest away win: Newmarket Town 0–12 Biggleswade Town, 2 December 1961, Norwich United 0–12 Thetford Town, 9 September 2023
 * Most consecutive wins: 19 by Lowestoft Town between 21 October 1967 and 13 April 1968
 * Most wins from the start of a season: 18 by Bury Town in 1963–64
 * Longest unbeaten run: 37 matches by Wisbech Town between 30 April 1983 and 20 April 1984
 * Longest unbeaten start to a season: 34 matches by Wisbech Town in 1983–84
 * Most consecutive defeats: 39 by Newmarket Town between 1951 and 1959 (they left the league in 1952 and returned in 1959)
 * Most matches without a win: 45 by Newmarket Town between 1951 and 1959

Goals

 * Most goals in a season
 * Lowestoft Town scored 157 in 34 matches in 1966–67 (4.62 a game)
 * Chelmsford City reserves scored 95 in 18 matches in 1946–47 (5.28 a game)
 * Fewest goals conceded in a season: Norwich United – 19 in 36 matches (1990–91)
 * Fewest goals scored in a season
 * Thetford Town – 18 in 19 matches (1936–37), Haverhill Rovers – 18 in 36 matches (1975–76), March Town United – 18 in 32 matches (2000–01), Warboys Town – 18 in 36 matches (2002–03)
 * Clacton Town – 20 in 42 matches in 2005–06
 * Most goals conceded: Chatteris Town – 208 in 40 matches in 1989–90
 * Most goals in a season: 57 in 30 matches by Mick Tooley (Lowestoft Town) in 1965–66
 * Most goals in a game: 9 by Ivan Thacker for Lowestoft Town in a 16–0 win over Bury Town on 28 December 1935
 * Most consecutive matches scored in: 18 by Mick Tooley (Lowestoft Town) during 1965–66

title: Eastern Counties Football League


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Terpander

Terpander (Τέρπανδρος Terpandros), of Antissa in Lesbos, was a Greek poet and citharede who lived about the first half of the 7th century BC. He was the father of Greek music and through it, of lyric poetry, although his own poetical compositions were few and in extremely simple rhythms. He simplified rules of the modes of singing of other neighboring countries and islands and formed, out of these syncopated variants, a conceptual system. Though endowed with an inventive mind, and the commencer of a new era of music, he attempted no more than to systematize the musical styles that existed in the music of Greece and Anatolia. Terpander is perhaps the earliest historically certain figure in the music of Ancient Greece.

Biography
About the time of the Second Messenian War, he settled in Sparta, to where, according to some accounts, he had been summoned by command of the Delphic Oracle to compose the differences that had arisen between different classes in the state. Here he gained the prize in the musical contests at the festival of Carneia.

He is regarded as the real founder of Greek classical music and lyric poetry, but as to his innovations in music, our information is imperfect. According to Strabo, he increased the number of strings in the lyre from four to seven; others take the fragment of Terpander on which Strabo bases his statement to mean that he developed the citharoedic nomos (sung to the accompaniment of the cithara or lyre) by making the divisions of the ode seven instead of four. The seven-stringed lyre was probably already in existence. Terpander is also said to have introduced several new rhythms in addition to the dactylic and to have been famous as a composer of drinking-songs (skolia).

No poems attributed to Terpander survive complete, and very few lines of his are quoted by later Greek writers; it must be regarded as doubtful whether he worked in writing.

Terpander is said to have died, around Skiades ("shady place" of the Carneia), by choking on a fig when the fruit was thrown in appreciation of one of his performances.

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

title: Terpander


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Osculum infame

Osculum infame is a witch's supposed ritual greeting upon meeting with the Devil. The name means the 'shameful kiss' or 'kiss of shame', since it involved kissing the devil's anus, his "other" mouth. According to folklore, it was this kiss that allowed the Devil to seduce women.

Kiss of shame
During the years of the witch hunts, many believed that witches worshipped the Devil and paid him homage by kissing his posterior. The osculum infame is mentioned in nearly every single recorded account of a Witches' Sabbath and in confessions – most of which were extracted under torture. Although most common in Europe, no illustrations of it exist in the publications of English persecutions, possibly as torture was not regularly employed in the questioning of those accused. It was called the kiss of shame because it was generally regarded as an act of degradation.

According to the allegations, witches would give the kiss of shame at the beginning of the sabbat, after the Devil had read the names of his followers. They would approach him by crawling or walking backwards, turn, bow and kiss his posterior. It was believed that this kiss was required for a new witch to be initiated, and the kiss was followed by feasting.

Sometimes witches kissed not only the Devil's fundament, but lower-ranking demons' as well.

Generally considered to be an act of homage, or respect, the North Berwick Witch Trials of Scotland in the 16th century held that the kiss was an act of penance issued from the Devil. Reported in Newes from Scotland, declaring the damnable Life of Doctor Fian (1592) by W. Wright:

"...and seeing that they tarried over long, hee at their coming enjoyned them all to a pennance, which was, that they should kisse his buttockes, in sign of duety to him, which being put over the pulpit bare, every one did as he had enjoyned them."

The pamphlet provided the first descriptions of the osculum infame to the English population. Belief held that the Devil demanded the kiss of shame in forms other than human, including rams, black cats, and toads. Errores Haereticorum, a medieval tract, claims that the Cathars took their name "from the term cat, whose posterior they kiss, in whose form Satan appears to them." The role could also be reversed whereby the witch was the recipient of the kiss.

title: Osculum infame


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ADE classification

In mathematics, the ADE classification (originally A-D-E classifications) is a situation where certain kinds of objects are in correspondence with simply laced Dynkin diagrams. The question of giving a common origin to these classifications, rather than a posteriori verification of a parallelism, was posed in. The complete list of simply laced Dynkin diagrams comprises
 * $$A_n, \, D_n, \, E_6, \, E_7, \, E_8.$$

Here "simply laced" means that there are no multiple edges, which corresponds to all simple roots in the root system forming angles of $$\pi/2 = 90^\circ$$ (no edge between the vertices) or $$2\pi/3 = 120^\circ$$ (single edge between the vertices). These are two of the four families of Dynkin diagrams (omitting $$B_n$$ and $$C_n$$), and three of the five exceptional Dynkin diagrams (omitting $$F_4$$ and $$G_2$$).

This list is non-redundant if one takes $$n \geq 4$$ for $$D_n.$$ If one extends the families to include redundant terms, one obtains the exceptional isomorphisms
 * $$D_3 \cong A_3, E_4 \cong A_4, E_5 \cong D_5,$$

and corresponding isomorphisms of classified objects.

The A, D, E nomenclature also yields the simply laced finite Coxeter groups, by the same diagrams: in this case the Dynkin diagrams exactly coincide with the Coxeter diagrams, as there are no multiple edges.

Lie algebras
In terms of complex semisimple Lie algebras:
 * $$A_n$$ corresponds to $$\mathfrak{sl}_{n+1}(\mathbf{C}),$$ the special linear Lie algebra of traceless operators,
 * $$D_n$$ corresponds to $$\mathfrak{so}_{2n}(\mathbf{C}),$$ the even special orthogonal Lie algebra of even-dimensional skew-symmetric operators, and
 * $$E_6, E_7, E_8$$ are three of the five exceptional Lie algebras.

In terms of compact Lie algebras and corresponding simply laced Lie groups:
 * $$A_n$$ corresponds to $$\mathfrak{su}_{n+1},$$ the algebra of the special unitary group $$SU(n+1);$$
 * $$D_n$$ corresponds to $$\mathfrak{so}_{2n}(\mathbf{R}),$$ the algebra of the even projective special orthogonal group $$PSO(2n)$$, while
 * $$E_6, E_7, E_8$$ are three of five exceptional compact Lie algebras.

Binary polyhedral groups
The same classification applies to discrete subgroups of $$SU(2)$$, the binary polyhedral groups; properly, binary polyhedral groups correspond to the simply laced affine Dynkin diagrams $$\tilde A_n, \tilde D_n, \tilde E_k,$$ and the representations of these groups can be understood in terms of these diagrams. This connection is known as the  after John McKay. The connection to Platonic solids is described in. The correspondence uses the construction of McKay graph.

Note that the ADE correspondence is not the correspondence of Platonic solids to their reflection group of symmetries: for instance, in the ADE correspondence the tetrahedron, cube/octahedron, and dodecahedron/icosahedron correspond to $$E_6, E_7, E_8,$$ while the reflection groups of the tetrahedron, cube/octahedron, and dodecahedron/icosahedron are instead representations of the Coxeter groups $$A_3, BC_3,$$ and $$H_3.$$

The orbifold of $$\mathbf{C}^2$$ constructed using each discrete subgroup leads to an ADE-type singularity at the origin, termed a du Val singularity.

The McKay correspondence can be extended to multiply laced Dynkin diagrams, by using a pair of binary polyhedral groups. This is known as the Slodowy correspondence, named after Peter Slodowy – see.

Labeled graphs
The ADE graphs and the extended (affine) ADE graphs can also be characterized in terms of labellings with certain properties, which can be stated in terms of the discrete Laplace operators or Cartan matrices. Proofs in terms of Cartan matrices may be found in.

The affine ADE graphs are the only graphs that admit a positive labeling (labeling of the nodes by positive real numbers) with the following property:
 * Twice any label is the sum of the labels on adjacent vertices.

That is, they are the only positive functions with eigenvalue 1 for the discrete Laplacian (sum of adjacent vertices minus value of vertex) – the positive solutions to the homogeneous equation:
 * $$\Delta \phi = \phi.\ $$

Equivalently, the positive functions in the kernel of $$\Delta - I.$$ The resulting numbering is unique up to scale, and if normalized such that the smallest number is 1, consists of small integers – 1 through 6, depending on the graph.

The ordinary ADE graphs are the only graphs that admit a positive labeling with the following property:
 * Twice any label minus two is the sum of the labels on adjacent vertices.

In terms of the Laplacian, the positive solutions to the inhomogeneous equation:
 * $$\Delta \phi = \phi - 2.\ $$

The resulting numbering is unique (scale is specified by the "2") and consists of integers; for E8 they range from 58 to 270, and have been observed as early as.

Other classifications
The elementary catastrophes are also classified by the ADE classification.

The ADE diagrams are exactly the quivers of finite type, via Gabriel's theorem.

There is also a link with generalized quadrangles, as the three non-degenerate GQs with three points on each line correspond to the three exceptional root systems E6, E7 and E8. The classes A and D correspond degenerate cases where the line set is empty or we have all lines passing through a fixed point, respectively.

It was suggested that symmetries of small droplet clusters may be subject to an ADE classification.

The minimal models of two-dimensional conformal field theory have an ADE classification.

Four dimensional $$\mathcal{N}=2$$ superconformal gauge quiver theories with unitary gauge groups have an ADE classification.

Extension of the classification
Arnold has subsequently proposed many further extensions in this classification scheme, in the idea to revisit and generalize the Coxeter classification and Dynkin classification under the single umbrella of root systems. He tried to introduce informal concepts of Complexification and Symplectization based on analogies between Picard–Lefschetz theory which he interprets as the Complexified version of Morse theory and then extend them to other areas of mathematics. He tries also to identify hierarchies and dictionaries between mathematical objects and theories where for example diffeomorphism corresponds to the A type of the Dynkyn classification, volume preserving diffeomorphism corresponds to B type and Symplectomorphisms corresponds to C type. In the same spirit he revisits analogies between different mathematical objects where for example the Lie bracket in the scope of Diffeomorphisms becomes analogous (and at the same time includes as a special case) the Poisson bracket of Symplectomorphism.

Trinities
Arnold extended this further under the rubric of "mathematical trinities". McKay has extended his correspondence along parallel and sometimes overlapping lines. Arnold terms these "trinities" to evoke religion, and suggest that (currently) these parallels rely more on faith than on rigorous proof, though some parallels are elaborated. Further trinities have been suggested by other authors. Arnold's trinities begin with R/C/H (the real numbers, complex numbers, and quaternions), which he remarks "everyone knows", and proceeds to imagine the other trinities as "complexifications" and "quaternionifications" of classical (real) mathematics, by analogy with finding symplectic analogs of classic Riemannian geometry, which he had previously proposed in the 1970s. In addition to examples from differential topology (such as characteristic classes), Arnold considers the three Platonic symmetries (tetrahedral, octahedral, icosahedral) as corresponding to the reals, complexes, and quaternions, which then connects with McKay's more algebraic correspondences, below.

McKay's correspondences are easier to describe. Firstly, the extended Dynkin diagrams $$\tilde E_6, \tilde E_7, \tilde E_8$$ (corresponding to tetrahedral, octahedral, and icosahedral symmetry) have symmetry groups $$S_3, S_2, S_1,$$ respectively, and the associated foldings are the diagrams $$\tilde G_2, \tilde F_4, \tilde E_8$$ (note that in less careful writing, the extended (tilde) qualifier is often omitted). More significantly, McKay suggests a correspondence between the nodes of the $$\tilde E_8$$ diagram and certain conjugacy classes of the monster group, which is known as McKay's E8 observation; see also monstrous moonshine. McKay further relates the nodes of $$\tilde E_7$$ to conjugacy classes in 2.B (an order 2 extension of the baby monster group), and the nodes of $$\tilde E_6$$ to conjugacy classes in 3.Fi24' (an order 3 extension of the Fischer group) – note that these are the three largest sporadic groups, and that the order of the extension corresponds to the symmetries of the diagram.

Turning from large simple groups to small ones, the corresponding Platonic groups $$A_4, S_4, A_5$$ have connections with the projective special linear groups PSL(2,5), PSL(2,7), and PSL(2,11) (orders 60, 168, and 660), which is deemed a "McKay correspondence". These groups are the only (simple) values for p such that PSL(2,p) acts non-trivially on p points, a fact dating back to Évariste Galois in the 1830s. In fact, the groups decompose as products of sets (not as products of groups) as: $$A_4 \times Z_5,$$ $$S_4 \times Z_7,$$ and $$A_5 \times Z_{11}.$$ These groups also are related to various geometries, which dates to Felix Klein in the 1870s; see icosahedral symmetry: related geometries for historical discussion and for more recent exposition. Associated geometries (tilings on Riemann surfaces) in which the action on p points can be seen are as follows: PSL(2,5) is the symmetries of the icosahedron (genus 0) with the compound of five tetrahedra as a 5-element set, PSL(2,7) of the Klein quartic (genus 3) with an embedded (complementary) Fano plane as a 7-element set (order 2 biplane), and PSL(2,11) the  (genus 70) with embedded Paley biplane as an 11-element set (order 3 biplane). Of these, the icosahedron dates to antiquity, the Klein quartic to Klein in the 1870s, and the buckyball surface to Pablo Martin and David Singerman in 2008.

Algebro-geometrically, McKay also associates E6, E7, E8 respectively with: the 27 lines on a cubic surface, the 28 bitangents of a plane quartic curve, and the 120 tritangent planes of a canonic sextic curve of genus 4. The first of these is well-known, while the second is connected as follows: projecting the cubic from any point not on a line yields a double cover of the plane, branched along a quartic curve, with the 27 lines mapping to 27 of the 28 bitangents, and the 28th line is the image of the exceptional curve of the blowup. Note that the fundamental representations of E6, E7, E8 have dimensions 27, 56 (28·2), and 248 (120+128), while the number of roots is 27+45 = 72, 56+70 = 126, and 112+128 = 240. This should also fit into the scheme of relating E8,7,6 with the largest three of the sporadic simple groups, Monster, Baby and Fischer 24', cf. monstrous moonshine.

title: ADE classification


text:
User:Yammy Yamathorn

Yammy's Got Yo Grammy

 * This is Yammy Yamathorn's user page. Do what you will and if you want to contact me you can at Dracmandx@aol.com. I'm Kinda new to HTML so my pages suck, but if you have any information that will help me learn HTML E-mail or write it on me user page talk. Thanks--Yammy Yamathorn 20:55, 12 May 2004 (UTC)

title: User:Yammy Yamathorn


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Randstad

The Randstad ("Rim City" or "Edge City") is a roughly crescent- or arc-shaped conurbation in the Netherlands, that houses almost half the country's population. With a central-western location, it connects and comprises the Netherlands' four biggest cities (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht), their suburbs, and many towns in between, that all grew and merged into each other. Among other things, it includes the Port of Rotterdam (the world's busiest seaport outside Asia), the Port of Amsterdam (Europe's fourth-busiest seaport), and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (the busiest airport in Europe by aircraft movements). With a population of approximately 8.4 million people it is one of the largest metropolitan regions in Europe, comparable in population size to the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region or the San Francisco Bay Area, and covers an area of approximately 11372 km2. The Randstad had a gross regional domestic product of €510 billion in 2022, making it the second most productive region in the European Union, only behind the Paris metropolitan area. It encompasses both the Amsterdam metropolitan area and Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area. It is part of the larger Blue Banana megalopolis.

The Randstad's main cities are Almere, Amsterdam, Delft, Dordrecht, Haarlem, The Hague, Leiden, Rotterdam, Utrecht, and Zoetermeer. Other towns include Alkmaar, Alphen aan den Rijn, Amersfoort, Amstelveen, Capelle aan den IJssel, Gouda, Heerhugowaard, Hilversum, Hoofddorp, Hoorn, Lelystad, Nieuwegein, Purmerend, Rijswijk, Schiedam, Spijkenisse, Vlaardingen, Zaandam and Zeist.

Although the name Randstad is often translated into English as "edge city" or "border city", a more accurate translation would be "rim city". The Dutch name was coined in 1938 by KLM founder Albert Plesman who, while flying over the region, used it to describe a strip of cities at the rim of a large green agricultural area (the Green Heart). While technically more of a crescent (the southeastern edge of the rim is significantly less populated), the ring shape formed by connecting the four major cities of the region led to the use of the name "Ring City".

Economy
Randstad contributes around half or 53% of the Netherlands total GDP.

Geography

Recently, Dutch planners have started to refer to the Randstad as Deltametropool. This actually consists of two large metropolitan areas:

Noordvleugel
The Noordvleugel ("North Wing"), with a population of around 3.6 million people, consists of the Haarlem and IJmuiden conurbations in the west, Amsterdam at the centre and Almere, the Gooi area and Utrecht in the east. The conurbation of Utrecht (population around one million) can be considered to be part of this wing, but can also be excluded. The cultural centre of the Noordvleugel, however, is notably centered on Amsterdam, which could as such be considered a classical centralistic metropolis. Amsterdam recently started to present itself as the Amsterdam metropolitan area (Metropoolregio Amsterdam). The expectation is that the use of the terms Noordvleugel and the Randstad will become less prevalent as a result.

While Utrecht is not the center of the Noordvleugel, it is in fact the center of the whole of the Netherlands itself. While being categorised as part of the Randstad, the Utrecht agglomeration lies relatively further apart, owing to its long history of rivalry with Holland and Amsterdam in particular. Utrecht is much more monocentric than Amsterdam, which has booming satellite cities such as Haarlem and Almere. While Utrecht functions as the gateway to the Randstad for both car and rail transport, it is disconnected from the virtually continuous urbanised zone in western Holland by the protected polder landscape of the Groene Hart. The North Wing of the Randstad is expected to grow more in population than the Zuidvleugel and the Groene Hart areas, with the growth of population also being in effect for a longer period of time, compared to the other two areas.

Zuidvleugel
The Zuidvleugel ("South Wing"), with a population of around 3.5 million people, stretches some 60 kilometers from Dordrecht in the southeast to Leiden in the north. The main conurbations are the Rotterdam and The Hague areas. The virtual centre of the Zuidvleugel lies in between these two major cities, near Delft. The first steps toward this development were taken with the construction of a new fast light-rail connection between Rotterdam and The Hague: RandstadRail. A long-delayed extension of the western A4 motorway from the south of Delft to Rotterdam has also been constructed, creating a second connection from Rotterdam, via The Hague, to Amsterdam.

A possible new area would be the Zuidoostflank; parallel to the A2 motorway (from Amsterdam to Eindhoven) and parallel to the A12 motorway (Utrecht to WERV (Wageningen, Ede, Rhenen and Veenendaal)), as this region has much potential to strengthen the knowledge economy of the Randstad.

Over the last few decades, a major topic in the Randstad is the conflict between the cities and the towns in between. These towns and the surrounding countryside, known as the Groene Hart (Green Heart), are usually much greener than the cities, they house many commuters that work in the cities and the former strongly depend on the latter for facilities such as hospitals and large scale entertainment. Cities need more space to expand, yet the towns fear losing their identity and autonomy.

Boundary issues
The Randstad's borders have never been officially specified. Some consider only the four most populous cities of the Netherlands (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht) part of it, others would say that areas such as Alkmaar (which represents itself as being part of it),  Hoorn and Lelystad are also part of this conurbation.

The publication "Randstad 2040", released by the Government of the Netherlands, reveals that the Noordvleugel (Amsterdam and Utrecht region) is already growing parallel to the A1, A2, and A4 motorways, as well as into the northern part of North Holland (Alkmaar and Hoorn region) and Flevoland (Almere and Lelystad region). There is also a trend shown that the Noordvleugel is expanding parallel to the A2 (Amsterdam towards Eindhoven) and A12 (Utrecht towards the WERV region, encompassing the cities of Wageningen, Ede, Rhenen and Veenendaal) motorways. This region is called the Zuidoostflank (English: Southeastside).

Culture
It is sometimes argued that a cultural divide exists between the Randstad and the rest of the country. This distinction is usually made in relation to Dutch politics and media, who according to critics are mostly interested in the affairs of the Randstad. Both branches (government and media) have their centre in the Randstad; respectively in The Hague and in Hilversum. The Randstad itself, however, does not represent a unified cultural zone. It is not a 'place' of residence or a carrier of cultural identity. According to the late influential urbanist Niek de Boer, the Randstad simply 'does not exist'. While the cities and landscapes in the Randstad share some commonalities, there are also large differences originating in centuries of divergent development. There are strong local identities within the region, especially in rural environments.

Politically, the Randstad is broadly right-leaning and conservative, with student cities, including Amsterdam, Utrecht, Haarlem, Leiden and Delft, being more left-leaning and progressive.

The Randstad is home to some of the most reputable universities in Europe, including the University of Amsterdam, the VU Amsterdam, Leiden University, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Utrecht University and the Delft University of Technology.

Transport

The Randstad possesses a large infrastructure system, with many railways, motorways, trams and subways in various cities. It is possible to cycle on reasonably safe and pleasant routes almost everywhere and cycling is a major mode of transport. The Port of Rotterdam, and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, are both major international gateways. There are various smaller ports and airports in the Randstad, like the ports of IJmuiden, Amsterdam and Dordrecht, as well as Rotterdam The Hague Airport.

Motorways
The Randstad has various motorways, most of them starting around Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Many (inter)national corridors start in the Randstad, including the A1, A2, A4, A5, A6, A7, A8, A9, A10, A12, A13, A15, A16, A20, A27 and A28 autosnelwegen, as well as various commuter routes.

The Randstad network of motorways carry some of the highest traffic volumes in Europe. Until 2005 most motorways used to be no wider than four or six lanes, but from 2005 on capacity of most major highways expanded to six or eight and on some parts even ten lanes. A 14-lane highway is projected near Utrecht. Some hard shoulders are in use as peak hour lanes – traffic is allowed to use the hard shoulder as a third or fourth lane during periods of congestion, when traffic management signs indicate. Since these expansions traffic jams (which used to be quite intense) have been reduced by up to 25%. Traffic on the highway still is quite heavy, though.

Because of the many obstructions in minor roads, such as one-way or circular routes (often created to make living neighbourhoods safer), a lot of local traffic also uses the motorways.

Another growing issue is the number of trucks on the radiating motorways from the Randstad; truck volumes can be as high as 20,000 trucks per day, occupying the entire right lane on some motorways.

Railways
The Randstad is the keystone of the Dutch railway network; most intercity connections terminate in one of the key cities in the Randstad. The railway network in the area is dense and heavily used. Together with the Swiss Federal Railways (1st), and the Belgian railways (3rd), the Dutch Railways are in the top 3 of Europe in punctuality. Larger cities in the Randstad have many railway stations, as well as light rail, subway and/or tram networks.

Cycling
Much effort is being expended in increasing the cycling rate of the Randstad. The campaign Fietsfilevrij exists to encourage cycling as an alternative to waiting in traffic jams on the motorway. Bicycle "superhighways" have been built on which cyclists have priority for long distance, high speed cycle commuting. For instance, one of these stretches the 50 km distance between Amsterdam and Utrecht.

title: Randstad


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Promotion and relegation

In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams can move up and down between multiple divisions arranged in a hierarchical structure, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues.  In a system of promotion and relegation, the best-ranked team(s) in a lower division are promoted to a higher division for the next season, and the worst-ranked team(s) in the higher division are relegated to the lower division for the next season. During the season, teams that are high enough in the league table that they would qualify for promotion are sometimes said to be in the promotion zone, and those at the bottom are in the relegation zone (colloquially the drop zone or facing the drop).

An alternate system of league organization, used primarily in Australia, Canada, Singapore, and the United States, is a closed model based on licensing or franchises. This maintains the same teams from year to year, with occasional admission of expansion teams and relocation of existing teams, and with no team movement between the major league and minor leagues.

Overview

The number of teams exchanged between the divisions is almost always identical. Exceptions occur when the higher division wishes to change the size of its membership, or has lost one or more of clubs (to financial insolvency or expulsion, for example) and wishes to restore its previous membership size, in which case fewer teams are relegated from that division, or (less often) more teams are accepted for promotion from the division below. Such variations usually cause a "knock-on" effect through the lower divisions. For example, in 1995 the Premier League voted to reduce its numbers by two and achieved the desired change by relegating four teams instead of the usual three, whilst allowing only two promotions from Football League Division One. Even in the absence of such extraordinary circumstances, the pyramid-like nature of most European sports league systems can still create knock-on effects at the regional level. For example, in a higher league with a large geographical footprint and multiple feeder leagues each representing smaller geographical regions, should most or all of the relegated teams in the higher division come from one particular region then the number of teams to be promoted or relegated from each of the feeder leagues may have to be adjusted, or one or more teams playing near the boundary between the feeder leagues may have to transfer from one feeder league to another to maintain numerical balance.

The system is said to be the defining characteristic of the "European" form of professional sports league organization. Promotion and relegation have the effect of allowing the maintenance of a hierarchy of leagues and divisions, according to the relative strength of their teams. They also maintain the importance of games played by many low-ranked teams near the end of the season, which may be at risk of relegation. In contrast, the final games of a low-ranked US or Canadian team serve little purpose, and in fact losing may be beneficial to such teams because they offer a better position in the next year's draft.

Although not intrinsic to the system, problems can occur due to the differing monetary payouts and revenue-generating potential that different divisions provide to their clubs. For example, financial hardship has sometimes occurred in leagues where clubs do not reduce their wage bill once relegated. This usually occurs for one of two reasons: first, the club can not move underperforming players on, or second, the club is gambling on being promoted back straight away and is prepared to take a financial loss for one or two seasons to do so. Some leagues (most notably English football's Premier League) offer "parachute payments" to its relegated teams for the following year(s). The payouts are higher than the prize money received by some non-relegated teams and are designed to soften the financial hit that clubs take whilst dropping out of the Premier League. However, in many cases, these parachute payments just serve to inflate the costs of competing for promotion among the lower division clubs as newly relegated teams retain a financial advantage.

In some countries and at certain levels, teams in line for promotion may have to satisfy certain non-playing conditions in order to be accepted by the higher league, such as financial solvency, stadium capacity, and facilities. If these are not satisfied, a lower-ranked team may be promoted in their place, or a team in the league above may be saved from relegation.

While the primary purpose of the promotion and relegation system is to maintain competitive balance, it may also be used as a disciplinary tool in special cases. On several occasions, the Italian Football Federation has relegated clubs found to have been involved in match fixing. This occurred most recently in 2006, when the season's initial champions Juventus were relegated to Serie B, and two other teams were initially relegated but then restored to Serie A after appeal (see 2006 Serie A scandal).

International sport
Promotion and relegation is used in international sports leagues such as in Europe, and many other parts of the world. It may be used in international sports tournaments. In tennis, the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup have promotion and relegation, with a 'World Group' (split into two divisions in the Billie Jean King Cup) at the top and series of regional groups at a lower level. The World Groups in both use a knockout tournament format, with the first-round losers entering play-offs with winners from regional groups to avoid relegation. In international tournaments, this format allows teams from countries in which a sport is less well established to have competitive matches, while opening up the possibility of competing against higher ranked nations as a sport grows. Other international tournaments which employ promotion and relegation include the Ice Hockey World Championships, Bandy World Championships, Floorball World Championships, the UEFA Nations League, the CONCACAF Nations League, the World Cricket League and the European Team Championships in athletics.

Early baseball leagues in the United States
In baseball, the earliest American sport to develop professional leagues, the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) was established in 1857 as a national governing body for the game. In many respects, it would resemble England's Football Association when founded in 1863. Both espoused strict amateurism in their early years and welcomed hundreds of clubs as members.

Baseball's National Association was not able to survive the onset of professionalism. It responded to the trend – clubs secretly paying or indirectly compensating players – by establishing a "professional" class for 1869. As quickly as 1871, most of those clubs broke away and formed the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NAPBBP). That new, professional Association was open at a modest fee, but it proved to be unstable. It was replaced by the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs in 1876, which has endured to the present day. The founders of the new League judged that in order to prosper, they must make baseball's highest level of competition a franchise based system with exclusive membership, a strict limit on the number of teams, and each member having exclusive rights to their local market.

The modest National League guarantee of a place in the league year after year would permit the owners to monopolize fan bases in their exclusive territories and give them the confidence to invest in infrastructure, such as improved ballparks. In turn, those would guarantee the revenues to support traveling halfway across a continent for games. Indeed, after its first season, the new league banked on its still doubtful stability by expelling its members in New York and Philadelphia (the two largest cities), because they had breached agreements to visit the four western clubs at the end of the season.

The NL's dominance of baseball was challenged several times after its first few years, but only by entire leagues. Eight clubs, the established norm for a national league, was a prohibitively high threshold for a new venture. Two challengers succeeded beyond the short-term, with the National League fighting off a challenge from the American Association after a decade (concluded 1891). In 1903 it accepted parity with the American League and the formation of the organization that would become Major League Baseball. The peace agreement between the NL and the AL did not change the "closed shop" of top-level baseball but entrenched it by including the AL in the shop. This was further confirmed by the Supreme Court's 1922 ruling in Federal Baseball Club v. National League, giving MLB a legal monopoly over professional baseball in the US.

The other major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada have followed the MLB model of a franchise based system.

Early football leagues in England
In contrast to baseball's NABBP, the first governing body in English football survived the onset of professionalism, which it formally accepted in 1885. Perhaps the great geographical concentration of population and the corresponding short distances between urban centres was crucial. Certainly it provided the opportunity for more clubs' developing large fan bases without incurring great travel costs. Professional football did not gain acceptance until after the turn of the 20th century in most of Southern England. The earliest league members travelled only through the Midlands and North.

When The Football League (now the English Football League) was founded in 1888, it was not intended to be a rival of The Football Association but rather the top competition within it. The new league was not universally accepted as England's top-calibre competition right away. To help win fans of clubs outside The Football League, its circuit was not closed; rather, a system was established in which the worst teams at the end of each season would need to win re-election against any clubs wishing to join.

A rival league, the Football Alliance, was formed in 1889. When the two merged in 1892, it was not on equal terms; rather, most of the Alliance clubs were put in the new Football League Second Division, whose best teams would move up to the First Division in place of its worst teams. Another merger, with the top division of the Southern League in 1920, helped form the Third Division in similar fashion. Since then no new league has been formed of non-league clubs to try to achieve parity with The Football League (only to play at a lower level, like independent professional leagues in American baseball today).

For decades, teams finishing near the bottom of The Football League's lowest division(s) faced re-election rather than automatic relegation. But the principle of promotion and relegation had been firmly established, and it eventually expanded to the football pyramid in place today. Meanwhile, The FA has remained English football's overall governing body, retaining amateur and professional clubs rather than breaking up.

Use in other competitions
Promotion and relegation has been used in several eSports leagues. Blizzard Entertainment's video game StarCraft II has a "ladder" that uses a promotion and relegation system, where individual players and pre-made teams can be promoted and relegated during the first few weeks of a league season, which generally lasts around 11 weeks, with promotion and relegation taking place based on a skill rating, which is in turn based on wins and losses. However, this form of matchmaking is not typically used for StarCraft II e-sports tournaments, which have various kinds of structures depending on the organizer, the most important being the ESL Pro Tour. Most professional League of Legends leagues like the League of Legends Championship Series and League of Legends Champions Korea used a promotion and relegation system, although the LCS moved away from this in 2018 for North America LCS and 2019 for the European LCS (which was renamed to the League of Legends European Championship), while the LCK moved away from the system in 2020. As of 2023, the Pacific Championship Series and Liga Latinoamérica are the only top-tier professional League of Legends leagues to have promotion and relegation; North America's second-tier league, the North American Challengers League, also has promotion and relegation, as do the various regional leagues in Europe, but not with the top divisions.

The Counter-Strike Majors used a similar system where in the top eight finishers of one of the bi-annual Majors are designated with the "Legends" seed and automatically qualified for the next Major tournament. The best six eliminated teams in the second stage (known as New Legends Stage) of the Major would play a "qualifying" stage (known as New Challengers Stage) with another ten teams from the Minors qualifying tournaments in order to compete at the New Legends Stage. Starting in 2020, however, this was changed to a Regional Major Ranking system, at first a points-based system which was used for ESL One Rio 2020 and PGL Stockholm 2021 (The top rankings from the ESL One Rio 2020 RMRs were turned into PGL Stockholm 2021 points once IEM Rio was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic) and then a series of offline qualifiers starting with PGL Antwerp 2022, in which the teams from the Legends Stage (Now known as the Elimination Stage) from the previous Major automatically qualify for their RMRs and are joined by online qualifiers.

From 1993 until 2003, the Eurovision Song Contest used various systems of relegation to reconcile the number of countries wishing to participate (approximately 30 at the time) with the number of performances allowed considering time constraints of a live television program. The addition of a semi-final in 2004 allowed for more than 26 songs, but in 2008 automatic qualification of the previous year's top 10 to the final was removed.

In Brazilian carnival's samba school contest, a similar system is adopted, with the schools from lower divisions, or "groups", able to be promoted into the highest tier, being currently called the "Special Group" (Grupo Especial). Schools parade in order of groups and ranking from last year contest, with the better ranked inside a group and the higher-tier groups having the privilege of going latter (this means the team has the opportunity of fixing issues with costumes and allegorical floats as well as more rehearsal time). The number of promoted and relegated schools, four until 1997, has been diminishing as time passes, becoming two from 1998 to 2007 and being only one nowadays. There has never been an official reason for that, but it is a fact that the relegated schools have more to lose nowadays, such as access to the Cidade do Samba ("Samba City") facilities. There have been reported several interferences on the contest's final result, especially when traditional schools are involved.

Argentinian football and the average performance system
From 1957 to 1966 and from 1983 to the present, the Argentine First Division has used a system called Promedios based on the average performance over a number of seasons. Originally the previous two seasons, and later three or four seasons, clubs avoid relegation by having a high coefficient, which is obtained by dividing the points achieved in the last three seasons by the number of matches played in the same period. Teams with the lowest points coefficient at the end of the season are relegated to the Primera B Nacional.

This system has both positive and negative aspects, since all of the matches played for the championship in the last seasons are included in the coefficient for the clubs. Teams have an incentive to score points in every match of the season, meaning teams that are not challenging for the title or fighting relegation in the current season want to win even in the final matches to reduce the risk of relegation in the next season; examples are Club Atlético Banfield being champion of the Torneo Apertura in 2009 and last place in the next championship, the Torneo Clausura 2010, without being relegated until the end of the Torneo Apertura 2010 with a second-to-last place finish.

Similarly, River Plate finished last in the Torneo Apertura 2008 and after two bad campaigns and a mediocre one was relegated in the Torneo Clausura 2011 despite being in fifth place and qualifying for the 2011 Copa Sudamericana. This system forces the newly promoted teams to fight relegation from the very beginning of the season. It also allows teams with a low budget with previous good campaigns to compete in international competitions without having to prioritize the championship to avoid relegation; examples of this are Club Atlético Lanús, winner of the 2013 Copa Sudamericana, or Club Atlético Talleres, winner of the 1999 Conmebol Cup. The Uruguayan First Division adopted the same system in 2016. Paraguayan Primera División and Colombian Categoría Primera A also use this same system.

Also, a similar system was used only in the 1999 edition of Campeonato Brasileiro Série A.

title: Promotion and relegation


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Talk:List of snooker players

Needs more info, and formatting
A list of snooker players is useful, but I'd like to see a bit more info in the list. At least the countries the players are coming and their days of birth (and death). And perhaps the years they were professional. Perhaps something like this:

Abigail 14:00, May 11, 2004 (UTC)

 * I agree, some basic details would be handy. Professional dates are very useful, birth/death dates less so. It would be nice to have some sort of indication of how good players are. Best world ranking, maybe? --Auximines 08:14, 12 May 2004 (UTC)

 * Something like this?

 * I also have a question about the rankings. The page for Fred Davis says there were no rankings available before 1976, but Joe Davis has rankings going back all the way to 1927. Abigail 10:00, May 12, 2004 (UTC)

 * The new table looks good. I have to say, I don't like the way all the years are links to the year pages. I find this very distracting and rather pointless. It seems to be common practise throughout Wikipedia, however, so I suspect my view is in a minority.

 * Ok, let me write a script tonight or tomorrow that turns the existing list into a table. As for linking years, that's common practise on Wikipedia (and for dates, it's almost a must as that allows formatting to users taste). Abigail 11:02, May 12, 2004 (UTC)

 * Regarding the rankings, I think I must have got rankings confused with world championship wins. I've amended Joe Davis to put ranking n/a. At some point, I hope to write an article on rankings.

 * BTW check out WikiProject Snooker if you're interested, it's just been set up. --Auximines 10:52, 12 May 2004 (UTC)

Table
If I turn the list of players into a table, I get the table below. It doesn't make me very happy. Main reason for that is that it seems to be impossible to make internal anchors (that is, a box of letters on the top allowing you to jump to players whose name start with that letter). No matter what I try, Wikipedia seems to instead on rendering  bar  as is - instead of turning bar into an anchor, it looks as if we had typed &lt;a name = "foo"&gt;bar&lt;/a&gt;. Abigail 22:29, May 12, 2004 (UTC)
 * Have you tried creating the table using standard HTML rather than Wiki shorthand? I could live without an alphabetic index; the way you don't get lines between empty boxes annoys me more. --Auximines 11:52, 13 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Oh, yes, tried that as well. Didn't make one bit of difference. You can't even make an anchor in plain text. (Can't make a  ) element either). Abigail 23:05, May 13, 2004 (UTC)

This is a list of professional snooker players:

Ding Junhui
Shouldn't Ding Junhui appear under "D" rather than "J"? -- Arwel 21:22, 28 May 2004 (UTC)

 * I wondered about that, but one reference explicitly said his first name was Ding, so now I'm not so sure. To further confuse things, some references write Junhui as Jun Hui. Perhaps he should be listed under both D and J. --Auximines 07:50, 1 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Regarding Ding Junhui's name, Ding is his lastname (surname), Junhui is his first name, acutually his name should be Junhui Ding if we are considering First name - last name order. -?

 * Chinese family names always come before the given name, so I think Ding Jun Hui should be written. -??
 * Ding Jun-hui is the typical form for such names, but Ding himself seems to actually prefer Ding Junhui. — SMcCandlish [talk] [contrib] ツ 07:46, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

 * Agreed, however it should still be moved to the "D" category -?

 * It should definitely be under Ding in the "D" section. Ding IS the family name.  In some pool stats he even shows up as "Jun-hui Ding", and all the other Asian players get listed family-name-last as well. —  SMcCandlish [talk] [contrib] ツ 07:46, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

Top players
I've added to the list all players who have ever been in the top 32 in the world rankings, and all players who have ever been in a ranking final. That should be enough to keep us going for a while! --Auximines 15:44, 3 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Only listing players with articles?
What does does everyone think about only having professional players listed who have articles on them and steadily increasing the list as people write more articles. Of course, you could go the other way and list all the professional players - but it is very incomplete at the moment. Samasnookerfan (talk)
 * There's some side-band discussion (including from Samasnookerfan) on whether this is a good idea, or a broader merge is called for, at User talk:SMcCandlish. —  SMcCandlish  [talk] [cont] ‹(-¿-)› 08:04, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

Strip it down and make it consistent with such articles in other major sports
This entire list needs to be redone like List of baseball players and many others. The other, topical lists of snooker players should be in this article (and perhaps more of them), with descriptions, meanwhile the article needs to stop being a duplication of Category:Snooker players or it will simply be deleted at WP:AFD (hell, I'll probably take it there myself), as there is a large pile of precedent for deleting lists that serve the same function as their corresponding categories. —  SMcCandlish  [talk] [cont] ‹(-¿-)› 09:30, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

This article
Many of these players may have never been professional. I have deleted some names from the article, but it still very needs for cleanup--Якушев Илья (talk) 14:07, 23 January 2011 (UTC)

title: Talk:List of snooker players


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Wikipedia talk:Portraits from the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology

Ahem — are you sure that these images are public domain? Did you read http://www.sil.si.edu/permissions/, where it says

 * The digital image files and associated text on this web site are the property of the Smithsonian Institution or of other institutions or individuals.

 * The Smithsonian images are made available for non-commercial educational or personal use only.

 * Commercial use, copying, or redistribution in any manner for personal or corporate gain, or any other non-educational purpose is not permitted. Any public or commercial use of these materials without prior written permission is a violation of copyright law and may also violate the rights of third parties. Please contact Smithsonian Institution Libraries at libmail@si.edu for information regarding use of these images.

And have you seen http://www.si.edu/copyright/, where they state:

 * MAY I PUT IMAGES, TEXT OR CONTENT FROM THIS WEBSITE ON ANOTHER GENERAL ACCESS WEBSITE OR CD-ROM?

 * No, unless permission has been obtained in advance from the Smithsonian Institution.

All this doesn't look at all like public domain to me... even if most of the images are pre-1923. Before I'd dare use any of these images, I'd want a lawyer's opinion! Lupo 14:07, 11 May 2004 (UTC)


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Operation Tempest

Operation Tempest (akcja „Burza”, sometimes referred to in English as "Operation Storm") was a series of uprisings conducted during World War II against occupying German forces by the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK), the dominant force in the Polish resistance.

Operation Tempest's objective was to seize control of German-occupied cities and areas while the Germans were preparing their defenses against the advancing Soviet Red Army. The Polish Underground State hoped to take power before the Soviets arrived.

A goal of the Polish government-in-exile in London was to restore Poland's 1939 borders with the USSR, rejecting the Curzon Line border. According to Jan Ciechanowski,"'The [exiled] Polish Cabinet believed that by refusing to accept the Curzon Line they were defending their country's right to exist as a national entity. They were determined that Russo-Polish relations should be restored on the basis of the pre-1939 territorial arrangements.'"

History
From its inception, the Home Army had been preparing a national armed rising against the Germans. The basic framework of the future rising was created in September 1942. According to the plan, the Uprising was to be ordered by the Polish Commander-in-Chief in exile when the defeat of the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front became apparent. The Uprising was to begin in Central Poland: in the General Government, Dąbrowa Basin, Kraków Voivodeship, and the Białystok and Brześć areas.

The Uprising's basic objectives were to:
 * 1) end the German occupation;
 * 2) seize arms and supplies needed for a Polish regular army on Polish soil;
 * 3) counter the threat from the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (see Massacres of Poles in Volhynia);
 * 4) rebuild a regular Polish Army;
 * 5) rebuild civil authority, communications, and an arms industry;
 * 6) maintain peace and order behind the front lines; and
 * 7) begin offensive operations against Wehrmacht forces still on Polish soil.

Reconstruction of a Polish regular army was to be based on the prewar Polish order of battle. Home Army units were to be turned into regular divisions. Initially to be created were 16 infantry divisions, three cavalry brigades and one motorized brigade, to be equipped with captured weapons or with arms and supplies delivered by the Allies. The second phase was to see the re-building of an additional 15 divisions and 5 cavalry brigades which, before World War II, had been stationed in eastern and western Poland.

The plan was partly implemented. Beginning in 1943, Home Army units were grouped into larger units bearing the names and numbers of prewar Polish divisions, brigades and regiments.

"Allies of our allies"
In early 1943, after the German defeat at Stalingrad, it became clear that the Soviets would be the force the Home Army would most likely have to deal with, and that the planned Polish uprising would face a still-powerful German army, rather than units retreating to an already defeated homeland.

In February 1943, the Home Army chief, General Stefan Rowecki, amended the plan. The Uprising would take place in three stages. The first stage would be an armed uprising in the east (with main centers of resistance at Lwów and Vilnius) in advance of the approaching Red Army. In preparation, the "Wachlarz" organization was formed. The second stage would be an armed struggle in the zone between the Curzon Line and the Vistula River; and the third stage would be a national uprising throughout the rest of Poland.

On April 25, 1943, Polish-Soviet diplomatic relations were broken off by Joseph Stalin due to Polish inquiries about the Katyn massacres, and it became clear that the advancing Red Army might not come to Poland as a liberator but rather, as General Rowecki put it, "our allies' ally." On November 26, 1943, the Polish government-in-exile issued instructions that, if diplomatic relations did not resume with the Soviet Union before the Soviets entered Poland, Home Army forces were to remain underground pending further decisions.

The Home Army's commander on the ground, however, took a different approach, and on November 30, 1943, a final version of the plan was drafted.

Overview of the operation
The plan was to cooperate with the advancing Red Army on a tactical level, while Polish civil authorities came out from underground and took power in Allied-controlled Polish territory. This plan was approved by the Delegate of the government-in-exile and by the Polish underground parliament, the Home Political Representation.

On January 2, 1944, Red Army forces of the 2nd Belorussian Front crossed the prewar Polish border and Operation Tempest began. The Division managed to contact the commanders of the advancing Red Army and began successful joint operations against the Wehrmacht. Together they retook Kowel (April 6) and Włodzimierz. However, the Division was soon forced to retreat west, and in Polesia was attacked by both German and Soviet forces. Polish soldiers taken prisoner by the Soviets were given the choice of joining the Red Army or being sent to Soviet forced-labor camps. The remnants of the Division crossed the Bug River, where they were attacked by Soviet partisan units. After liberating the towns of Lubartów and Kock, the Division (reduced to some 3,200 men) was surrounded by the Red Army and taken prisoner.

Southeast Volhynia
Operation Tempest began in Volhynia, a region which until 1939 had belonged to the Second Polish Republic (see Wołyń Voivodeship (1921–1939)), in January 1944, after the Red Army had entered prewar Polish territory east of the town of Sarny on January 4. The operation, which was mainly carried out by the 27th Home Army Infantry Division (Poland) (some 6500 soldiers) was aimed at the Wehrmacht units, still operating in the region.

 * January 4, 1944: the Red Army enters Volhynia east of Sarny
 * January 15: a mobilization of ethnic Poles takes place in the area of Kowel and Włodzimierz Wołyński
 * January 28: the 27th Volhynian Home Army Infantry Division is officially created
 * February 10: Colonel Jan Wojciech Kiwerski is named commandant of the Volhynian District of the Home Army
 * March 4: first Home Army unit meets the advancing Red Army
 * March 17: a Wehrmacht company is disarmed at the village of Zasmyki near Kowel
 * March 18: first skirmishes against Germans take place
 * March 20–27: heavy battles in the Turia river valley
 * March 23: a German detachment is disarmed at Stezarzyce
 * March 24: a skirmish near Kapitulka
 * March 26: Colonel Kiwerski meets Soviet General Sergeev
 * April 1944: heavy fighting with the Wehrmacht west of Kowel. Due to German superiority, on April 12 Polish forces try to get in touch with the Red Army, after a failed attempt to capture Włodzimierz Wołyński. Eventually, the division is surrounded, and on April 18, its commandant, Colonel Kiwerski, was killed in action. On April 21 the unit escapes the encirclement, and after several skirmishes, on June 10 it crosses the Bug River, entering Lesser Poland. The division then took part in Operation Tempest in the region of Lublin, remaining active until late July 1944.

All together, between January and June 1944, the 27th Volhynian ID of the Home Army took part in over 100 skirmishes, losing over 600 soldiers. German and Hungarian losses are estimated at up to 750 KIA and 900 wounded.

Northeast Operation Ostra Brama
In the north, on July 7, 1944, the forces of the Wilno District (Home Army) and Nowogródek District (Home Army) (some 13,000 men under Colonel Aleksander Krzyżanowski) launched an attack on German-occupied Vilnius, although the attack stalled until the arrival of Soviet forces. The AK and Soviet armies then jointly occupied the city on July 13. Prior to the assault, the surrounding countryside had also been seized by Polish and Soviet partisans. Cooperation ended almost immediately after Vilnius was occupied; on July 14, Krzyżanowski and his officers were disarmed and imprisoned, and AK units who resisted disarmament were violently crushed by Soviet forces, with dozens of Polish fatalities.

Lwów Uprising
On July 23, Home Army forces in Lwów (now Lviv) began an armed rising in cooperation with advancing Soviet forces. In four days the city was taken over. The Polish civil and military authorities were then summoned to "a meeting with Red Army commanders" and taken prisoner by the Soviet NKVD. Colonel Władysław Filipkowski's men were forcibly conscripted into the Red Army, sent to forced-labor camps, or went back underground.

Polesie
Operation Tempest in Polesia took place in the final days of the German occupation of this region. Due to rapid Soviet advance westwards (see Operation Bagration), it lasted for two weeks (July 15–30, 1944), mainly in the western part of Polesie, near Brześć nad Bugiem, Kobryn and Bereza Kartuska, but also in the area of Pinsk. The Home Army headquarters gave orders for the 30th Home Army Infantry Division to be created in Polesia. This unit was tasked with capturing the areas north and east of Brześć. The division concentrated in forested areas along the Nurzec river, with some 1000 soldiers.

On July 17, a Wehrmacht motorized transport was attacked near the folwark of Adampol, and a skirmish with the Germans took place near the village of Wyzary. On July 30, 1944, Polish forces made contact with Red Army's 65th Army: Soviet officers ordered the Poles to merge with First Polish Army. Poles disobeyed this order, and headed towards Biała Podlaska, where they decided to march to Warsaw and fight in the Warsaw Uprising. Near Otwock, the division was surrounded and disarmed by the Soviets.

Warsaw Uprising
Seeing the fate of the Home Army forces that had taken part in Operation Tempest, the Polish government in exile and the Home Army's current commander, General Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski, decided that the last chance for regaining Poland's independence was to open an uprising in Warsaw. On July 21, 1944, Bór-Komorowski ordered that the Warsaw Uprising begin at 17:00 hours on August 1, 1944. The political goal was to emphasize for the Allies the existence of the Polish government and Polish civil authorities. Warsaw was to be taken in order to allow the legitimate Polish government to return from exile to Poland.

At the same time, other Home Army districts were also mobilized. Units of the Kraków area were preparing an uprising, similar to the one in Wilno, Lwów and Warsaw, but it was cancelled due to several reasons (see: Kraków Uprising (1944)). In the Kielce and Radom area, the 2nd Polish Home Army Division was formed and took control of the entire area except for the cities. Other units were also mustered in Kraków, Łódź and Greater Poland.

Białystok
Operation Tempest in Białystok and its area began in the second half of July 1944 and lasted until late September. The Home Army recreated here four units, based on interbellum Polish Army: 18th and 29th Infantry Divisions, also Suwalki and Podlaska Cavalry Brigades. All together, some 7,000 soldiers fought in over 200 battles and skirmishes. The operation was commanded by Colonel Wladyslaw Liniarski.

The first unit to enter the fighting was 81st Home Army Infantry Regiment, which operated in the forests around Grodno. Armed with light weapons, the regiment was too weak to capture the city of Grodno and limited its activities to fighting German outposts and police stations.

In the outskirts of Białystok, among Polish forces concentrated in the Knyszyn Wilderness were: 42nd Home Army Infantry Regiment, and 10th Home Army Uhlan Regiment. The 2nd Home Army Uhlan Regiment operated in the area of Bransk and Hajnówka. This unit destroyed the rail line between Hajnówka and Czeremcha, including a rail bridge, which was blown up. The 76th Home Army Infantry Regiment fought in the area of Ciechanowiec and Lapy.

Three Home Army regiments were formed in the Augustów Primeval Forest: 1st Home Army Uhlan Regiment (with 300 soldiers), 41st Home Army Infantry Regiment and 3rd Regiment (all together: 700 soldiers).

Fearing a partisan attack, the Germans declared a state of emergency in the town of Augustów. During Operation Tempest in this part of Białystok Province, over 30 raids of different kinds took place, in which 4 military transports were blown up, along the rail line from Augustow to Grodno. Home Army forces cooperated with the Red Army. On August 6, a unit of 300 soldiers managed to get through German lines, and into the areas controlled by the Soviets. By autumn 1944, most regiments had ceased operations. The last skirmish in this area took place on November 2 near the village of Nowinka.

In the forests surrounding the Osowiec Fortress, 9th Home Army Mounted Rifles were concentrated under Wiktor Konopka. In July and August 1944, this regiment fought the Germans in several locations. On September 8, after a heavy battle, the unit was destroyed by the enemy. Survivors managed to cross the frontline, which at that time was along the Biebrza river.

In the area of Łomża, the 33rd Home Army Infantry Regiment was created, with three battalions. It fought rear German units, breaking communication links between frontline and East Prussia. Near the village of Czarnowo-Undy, some 150 Soviet prisoners of war were released by the Poles. As a reprisal, the Germans burned the village, shooting all its residents (July 22, 1944). On August 20, the 5th Home Army Uhlan Regiment, which operated in the area of Ostrołęka, attacked a German artillery battery near the village of Labedy.

Lublin
Operation Tempest in the area of Lublin took place in the final two weeks of July 1944. The Home Army created there such units, as 3rd Infantry Division, 9th Infantry Division, 15th Infantry Regiment, also units of Bataliony Chłopskie and other resistance organizations, plus 27th Home Army Infantry Division (Poland) from the province of Volhynia. All together, Polish forces in the region had some 20,000 men.

The partisans attacked retreating German forces along railways and roads in the whole district of Lublin. In several cases, they defended villages pacified by the Wehrmacht and the SS. Poles cooperated with Red Army guerillas, which also operated in the area.

In the south (the region of Zamość), 9th Infantry Regiment under Major Stanislaw Prus liberated the town of Bełżec (July 21). Together with the Soviets, they captured Tomaszów Lubelski. German forces were attacked in several locations, including Frampol and Zwierzyniec.

On July 21 and 22, Volhynian 27th Division captured Kock, Lubartów and Firlej. In western part of the province, 8th and 15th Infantry Regiments liberated a number of towns: Kurów, Urzędów, Nałęczów, Garbów, Wąwolnica, Sobolew, Ryki, Końskowola. On July 26, Polish units cooperated with Soviet forces fighting for Puławy. Several German rail transports were destroyed, and Polish soldiers saved Końskowola from Germans, who planned to set the town on fire.

Kraków
Home Army District of Kraków was one of the largest districts of the organization. It spread from Przemyśl to Kraków itself, and the first fighting in the area took place in the east. In Rzeszow and Przemysl, 22nd and 24th Home Army Divisions were mobilized. In Rzeszów, Mielec and Krosno, 10th Home Army Cavalry Brigade was created. In the west, 6th and 106th Home Army Infantry Divisions were created, also Kraków Brigade of Motorized Cavalry. Other units active in the region were: Independent Battalion of Major Jan Panczakiewicz and Operational Group Kraków under Colonel Edward Godlewski.

The Home Army considered an armed insurrection in the city of Kraków, but this plan was abandoned (see Kraków Uprising (1944)).

Radom–Kielce
Operation Tempest in Radom and Kielce began on August 1, 1944, and lasted until October 6. The Home Army here created 2nd, 7th and 28th Infantry Divisions, with several other units. The purpose of the operation was to aid the Red Army with its capture of the eastern bank of the Vistula and cities of the region. Polish partisans planned to defend the Vistula bridges, and armament factories in Starachowice and Skarżysko-Kamienna.

After the Red Army had managed to cross the Vistula and capture bridgeheads at Sandomierz and Magnuszew (see Lublin–Brest Offensive), Home Army got in touch with the Soviets, and began cooperating with them.

In Kozienice and Sandomierz, Polish units supported the advancing Soviets: on the night of July 31 / August 1, 1944, a German counterattack was halted by the Polish 2nd Infantry Regiment of Captain Michal Mandziara, which helped the Soviets keep their positions in the Sandomierz Bridgehead. On August 3, Polish and Soviet forces liberated Staszów; in the following days, Poles, helped by Soviet tanks, captured Stopnica and Busko.

On August 14, 1944, General Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski ordered all units of the Kielce – Radom area to march towards Warsaw and join the Warsaw Uprising. Operation Revenge, as it was called, resulted in the creation of Kielce Corps of the Home Army, under Colonel Jan Zientarski, with 6,430 soldiers. On August 21, during its concentration, the Corps saved residents of the village of Antoniów, which was raided by Germans.

Even though Kielce Corps began its march towards Warsaw, it did not reach the Polish capital. After careful analysis of German forces concentrated around Warsaw, Home Army leaders decided to halt the operation, as it was too risky. Poles did not have heavy weapons and tanks to face the enemy on equal terms. Operation Revenge was abandoned, and the Corps was dissolved.

In early September 1944, local units of the Home Army planned to capture either Kielce or Radom, also there were plans to seize Częstochowa and Skarzysko. 7th Infantry Division was transferred westwards, to the area of Częstochowa. 2nd Infantry remained near Kielce, actively fighting the enemy until November. In late October 1944, Operation Tempest was cancelled. All units were dissolved.

Łódź
Operation Tempest in the area of the city of Łódź took place in summer and autumn of 1944, lasting from August 14 until November 26. Local Home Army mobilized here several units, such as the 25th Infantry Regiment under Major Rudolf Majewski. This regiment was stationed in forests near Przysucha: in August 1944, it carried out a number of attacks on German forces, destroying rail lines. The last battle of the 25th regiment took place on November 8, all together it lost 130 men.

Among other units was 29th Kaniow Rifles Regiment, which operated near Brzeziny. On September 14, it captured a German warehouse at the station of Słotwiny near Koluszki.

Outcome
The Germans' suppression of the Warsaw Uprising, in the absence of Soviet assistance to the insurgents, marked the end of Operation Tempest. In military terms it was a success, in political terms a defeat. The Red Army, with the NKVD following the Polish forces, soon showed its real colours. Almost half of the Polish soldiers who took part in Operation Tempest were arrested. They were forcibly conscripted into Berling's army, deported deep into Russia, or simply murdered.

title: Operation Tempest


text:
Talk:Bedroom

Removed
''A common bedroom usually have bathroom and windows inside it. But in crowded cities most bedroom built without windows and the bathroom was built outside and should share it with other people.

Common furnitures in a bedroom are bed, sofa, air-conditioner, make-up desk, wardrobe, television set, carpet.

These matters are very culture-specific. Possibly this text could be rewritten and re-included, but IMO it does need a rewrite first. Andrewa 14:14, 11 May 2004 (UTC)

Reinsert of furniture in new section

 * Relating to the above item, I have reinserted the furniture items in one of the previous edits under a new heading called "Bedrooms in North America." Perhaps this can satisfy some of the questions Andrewa had, as I agree that bedrooms vary greatly depending on culture and continent.
 * Perhaps someone with knowledge of bedrooms in other cultures aside from North America may wish to insert what bedrooms are like in continents such as Europe, Asia, Central and South America, and Africa. Briguy52748 21:12, 25 Jun 2005 (UTC)]]

I changed the subhead to cover bedrooms in North America and Europe. There is no significant difference between the two, seen with my eyes. Differences are so minor as to hardly warrant a separate section. Additionally Europe is not so homogenous as USA, so if we talk about European bedrooms, we are talking about minor differences from one country to the next. In the bigger picture, they are not much different than the North American bedroom. Of course, if someone else disagrees and wants to break them apart, go for it! Sfdan 28 June 2005 10:11 (UTC)

 * The reason for the separate subsctions is because bedrooms (I would guess) are vastly different in Africa and Asia (and even South America) than in Europe and North America. Perhaps someone with that knowledge would know better and be able to insert it. Briguy52748 30 June 2005 17:26 (UTC)

Having just read the article, I'm left very curious about Scandinavian bedding. Apparently it's different, but there's no clue how. Does anybody know?

 * Regarding difference, I found this guide, not sure how good it is and I don't think it explains why it is "significantly different". Sfdan added the information in the first place, so perhaps he can explain it further. -- Woseph 10:31, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

Would anyone oppose to this section being named "Bedrooms in western culture", since "Bedrooms in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand" is a bit long-winded, and as mentioned, I don't believe there is any noticable difference between bedrooms in these countries. -- Chuq 03:36, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

 * Sounds resonable to me, as long as there are more similarities than differences. -- Woseph 10:31, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

"Master" bedroom controversy
Hello. I remember a while back hearing that real-estate agents stopped referring to "master bedroom" ("master bathoom", etc.) because some people found it offensive. Is that true? I'm currently editing the Master-slave (technical) page and there is similar controversy. Ewlyahoocom 07:45, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

Still should be addressed. Here's a ref. ɱ (talk) 00:04, 28 June 2020 (UTC)

Original research
I went and added the originalresearch tag to the article. Yes, I know that the concept of "bedroom" is pretty much common knowledge, but can't we come up with at least one bonafide reference for this concept? --Elonka 03:14, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

What is bedroom then?
During a dinner I was asked by our American partner how many bedrooms is in my flat... I really was confused, because here (in Slovakia) once there is one family living in a house/flat, there is also one (or none if flat is too small) room we would call bedroom = room where you mainly do sleep and so bed is the most important piece of furniture there, where parents use to sleep and there is a bed for two (and sometimes there is also some other furniture, usually some small table(s), wardrobe etc.). All the other rooms are used for some other purposes. Children usually have some room(s) and there are usually also some beds, but these rooms are basically for playing or just for having a piece of private space for children. It seemed ridiculous for my American partner I do not know what the bedroom is and then we switched to another topic.

So I wanted to get it here - What is the bedroom (in the USA)? I still have no idea.

Is it so that an American house has 3 bedrooms - 3 room only for sleeping, then 2 rooms for playing... etc. ? --213.160.184.124 (talk) 15:13, 12 May 2008 (UTC)

Dwarves
Someone has rewritten this page with nonsense about dwarves and forts. Ethereyes 02:26, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Sentence should be removed
I do not think the sentence in the first paragraph of the article: "About one third of our lives are spent sleeping and most of the time we are asleep, we are sleeping in a bedroom." should be there. What do others think?98.229.1.43 (talk) 20:28, 31 May 2013 (UTC) I agree — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ben of USA (talk • contribs) 15:21, 2 August 2013 (UTC)

External links modified
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new book (maybe for a more specific article)
new book (maybe for a more specific article): Get Out of My Room: A History of Teen Bedrooms in America by Jason Reid, University of Chicago Press, 2017 Jodi.a.schneider (talk) 00:07, 7 February 2017 (UTC)

title: Talk:Bedroom


text:
Sphecius speciosus

Sphecius speciosus, often simply referred to as the cicada killer or the cicada hawk, is a large, solitary digger wasp species in the family Crabronidae. The name may be applied to any species of crabronid that preys on cicadas, though in North America, it is typically applied to this species, also referred to as the eastern cicada killer in order to further differentiate it from the multiple other examples of related wasp species. Sometimes, they are called sand hornets, although they are not hornets, which belong to the family Vespidae. This species can be found in the Eastern and Midwest U.S. and southwards into Mexico and Central America. They are so named because they hunt cicadas and provision their nests with them. Cicada killers exert a measure of natural control on cicada populations, and as such, they may directly benefit the deciduous trees upon which the cicadas feed.

The most recent review of this species' biology is found in the posthumously published comprehensive study by noted entomologist Howard Ensign Evans.

Description
Adult eastern cicada wasps are large, 1.5 to 5.0 cm long, robust wasps with hairy, reddish, and black areas on their thoraces (middle parts), and black to reddish brown abdominal (rear) segments that are marked with light yellow stripes. The wings are brownish. Coloration superficially resembles that of some yellowjacket and hornet species. The females are somewhat larger than the males, and both are among the largest wasps seen in the Eastern United States, their unusual size giving them a uniquely fearsome appearance. European hornets (Vespa crabro) are often mistaken for eastern cicada killers, though at about 3.5 cm long, they are smaller than the largest cicada killers. The males are smaller than the females because they are not given as much larval food; since females must carry the cicadas they have killed to a burrow for nesting, they benefit from being larger, and are given more food as larvae.

Life cycle and habits
Solitary wasps like the eastern cicada killer are very different in their behavior from the social wasps such as hornets, yellowjackets, or paper wasps. Cicada killer females use their stings to paralyze their prey (cicadas) rather than to defend their nests; unlike most social wasps and bees, they do not attempt to sting unless handled roughly. Adults feed on flower nectar and other plant sap exudates.

Adults emerge in summer, typically beginning around late June or early July and die off in September or October. They are present in a given area for 60 to 75 days, usually until mid-September. Males emerge first to compete for females. The large females are commonly seen skimming around lawns seeking good sites to dig burrows and searching for cicadas in trees and taller shrubs.

The males are more often seen in groups, vigorously challenging one another for position on the breeding aggregation from which they emerged, and generally investigate anything that moves or flies near them. Not unusually, two or three male wasps are seen locked together in apparent midair combat, the aggregate adopting an erratic flight path until one of the wasps breaks away. The male wasps' aggressive behavior is similar to that of another robust insect of the area, the male carpenter bee. In both cases, while the males' vigorous territorial defense can be frightening and intimidating to human passersby, the males pose no danger whatsoever. Male cicada killers only grapple with other insects, and cannot sting.

This ground-burrowing wasp may be found in well-drained, sandy to loose clay soils in bare or grass-covered banks, berms, and hills, as well as next to raised sidewalks, driveways and patio slabs. Females may share a burrow, digging their own nest cells off the main tunnel. A typical burrow is 25 - 50 cm deep and about 1.5 cm wide. In digging a burrow, the female dislodges the soil with her jaws, and using her hind legs, pushes loose soil behind her as she backs out of the burrow. Her hind legs are equipped with special spines that help her push the soil behind her. The excess soil pushed out of the burrow forms a mound with a trench through it at the burrow entrance. Cicada killers may nest in planters, window boxes, or flower beds, or under shrubs, ground cover, etc. Nests often are made in the full sun where vegetation is sparse. After digging a nest chamber in the burrow, female cicada killers capture cicadas, paralyzing them with a sting. After paralyzing a cicada, the female wasp holds it upside down beneath her and takes off toward her burrow; this return flight to the burrow is difficult for the wasp because the cicada is often more than twice her weight. A wasp often lugs her prey up into the nearest tree, to gain altitude for the flight to the burrow. After putting one or more cicadas in her nest cell, the female deposits an egg on a cicada and closes the cell with soil. Male eggs are laid on a single cicada, but female eggs are given two or sometimes three cicadas, because the female wasp is twice as large as the male and must have more food. New nest cells are dug as necessary off the main burrow tunnel, and a single burrow may eventually have 10 or more nest cells. The egg hatches in one or two days, and the cicadas serve as food for the grub. The larvae complete their development in about 2 weeks. Overwintering occurs as a mature larva within an earth-coated cocoon. Pupation occurs in the nest cell in the spring and lasts 25 to 30 days. Only one generation occurs per year, and no adults overwinter.

This wasp is frequently attacked by the parasitic "velvet ant" wasp, Dasymutilla occidentalis, also known as the "cow-killer" wasp. It lays an egg in the nest cell of the cicada killer, and when the cicada killer larva pupates, the parasitoid larva consumes the pupa.

Interaction with humans
Although cicada killers are large, females are not aggressive and rarely sting unless they are grasped roughly, stepped upon with bare feet, or caught in clothing. One author who has been stung indicates that for him, the stings are not much more than a "pinprick". Males aggressively defend their perching areas on nesting sites against rival males, but they have no stinger. Although they appear to attack anything that moves near their territories, male cicada killers are actually investigating anything that might be a female cicada killer ready to mate. Such close inspection appears to many people to be an attack, but male and female cicada killers do not land on people with the intent to sting. If handled roughly, females will sting, and males will jab with a sharp spine on the tip of their abdomen. They are generally not aggressive towards humans and usually fly away when swatted at, rather than attacking.

Other cicada-killer wasps
The North American cicada-killer wasps all belong to the genus Sphecius, which has 21 species worldwide. The remaining three cicada-killing species in the genus in North America are:
 * Sphecius convallis, the Pacific cicada killer, occurs in the western U.S. and in Mexico.
 * Sphecius grandis, the western cicada killer, occurs in the mid- and western U.S. and in Mexico.
 * Sphecius hogardii, the Caribbean cicada killer, occurs in the U.S. in Florida and in the Caribbean.

The western cicada killer is thought to represent more than one species. Also, some evidence suggests that the eastern cicada killer has either a subspecies or a closely related species that mimics the Pacific cicada killer. Alternatively, when they were already distinct species, significant hybridization has occurred between them, though not enough to fully overcome their present reproductive isolation.

The spectacled cicada killer, Sphecius spectabilis (Taschenberg, 1875), is found in the South American countries of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, French Guiana, Paraguay, Surinam, and Venezuela.

Sixteen other cicada-killer wasp species in the genus Sphecius are found in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Other genera of cicada-killing wasps (e.g., Liogorytes in South America and Exeirus in Australia) are the "cicada killers" of their native lands.

title: Sphecius speciosus