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Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless

Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (Brew MP, Brew, Qualcomm BREW, or BREW) was an application development platform created by Qualcomm, originally for code division multiple access (CDMA) mobile phones, featuring third-party applications such as mobile games. It was offered in some feature phones (mostly with specifications similar to those of mid to high-end mobile phones) but not in smartphones. First developed in 1999, as a platform for wireless applications on CDMA-based mobile phones, it debuted in September 2001. As a software platform that can download and run small programs for playing games, sending messages, and sharing photos, the main advantage of Brew MP was that the application developers can easily port their applications among all Brew MP devices by providing a standardized set of application programming interfaces. Software for Brew MP-enabled handsets can be developed in C or C++ using the freely downloadable Brew MP software development kit (SDK). The BREW runtime library is part of the wireless device on-chip firmware or operating system to allow programmers to develop applications without needing to code for system interface or understand wireless applications. BREW is described as a pseudo operating system, but not a true mobile operating system. BREW was not a virtual machine such as Java ME, as it runs code natively.

Software
For software developers, Brew MP was a full set of application programming interfaces (API) that enables making software and applications in C, C++, Java, and was supported (platform) by an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). It has a memory footprint of about 15,900 KB (15.9 MB). From versions 1.x to 2.x (before 2004), it had a smaller memory footprint of around 60 KB. BREW also features direct hardware access. Versions before Brew MP ran/relied on REX OS (Qualcomm's own RTOS), while Brew MP used Brew RTOS (another RTOS for advanced feature phones). Rather than using an interpreter-based code, BREW also relied on its own mobile hardware.

BREW 1.0 / 1.1 (2001–2003)
Debuted in 2001, it was the first actual version of BREW. Originally made for the Kyocera QCP-3035 (which was the earliest BREW-enabled phone commercially available) and Sharp Z-800. It made use of personal digital assistant-level features (usually for some applications and the ability to run BREW applications). However, it lacks advanced multimedia features and support for Java ME that were available in subsequent versions. It was the only version of BREW to support monochrome screens as support for monochrome screens was removed in BREW 2.0. BREW 1.1 was the first version of Brew to run Java ME applications. It was available in some BREW-enabled phones in 2002 and early 2003.

BREW 2.0 / 2.1 (2002–2009)
Released in the mid-2002, it was installed for most of the BREW-enabled phones in late-2002 until late-2009. It includes support for advanced multimedia playbacks (the ability to play video and audio files, as well as support for 3GPP multimedia formats), connectivity for EV-DO and Bluetooth support, as well as screen savers, and other improvements. It also supports MIDP 2.0 on BREW 2.1 and it is backward compatible with BREW 1.x applications.

It was installed on most feature phones in Indonesia, China, and other countries since 2004 and was supported by a few carriers until 2017.

BREW 3.0 / 3.1 (2004–2012)
Released in mid-2002, it was installed for most of the BREW-enabled phones in late 2004 until early 2012. It was the first version of BREW to have major changes and it has a vast majority of features for mobile phones, such as WiFi connectivity, OpenGL ES 1.0, support for 3G, GPS, QWERTY-based keypads, and support for mobile screens that are higher than 176x220. It is backward compatible with BREW 2.x applications, but not with BREW 1.x applications.

It is also the first version of BREW to support 3D graphics rendering, although it only uses software rendering (which also supports JSR 184 for Java ME games). Hardware acceleration is also natively supported via OpenGL ES 1.0 (if a 3D acceleration chip is available).

It was installed on most feature phones in the United States and in other countries since 2005 and it is still supported by a few carriers.

BREW 4.0.1 - 4.0.2 (2007–2011)
Released in 2007 until 2011, it was only integrated on very few mobile phones (such as the LG enV Touch and the LG Versa). It has only a few improvements and it was later succeeded by Brew MP. It has additional features that are also available in Brew MP, such as accelerometer support and other changes.

It is also used for the Zeebo console in Mexico and Brazil.

Brew MP 5.0.1 - 5.0.4 (2009–2021)
Brew 5.0 was released in 2009 with several new features (including SVG images) and was backward compatible with BREW 3.x and 4.x. Some legacy APIs were deprecated in this version. This release also marked the move to BREW's own real-time kernel, instead of utilizing Qualcomm's REX OS.

The Brew MP developer page was shut down on July 23, 2021, after eight years of inactivity.

BREW application development
For testing applications during the development process, the SDK includes a BREW emulator, or starting with BREW version 1.1 and above, the BREW Simulator. The BREW environment provides for multiple levels of application signatures. One signature authenticates the developer. Another signature verifies that an application has passed True BREW testing and is bestowed through Intertek. The individual telecommunications operators configure the handsets to either enforce or ignore the presence and verification of this second signature. BREW-enabled handsets have a test mode that allows applications to bypass verification of the signature. Qualcomm makes applications that have passed testing available to BREW-enabled wireless network operators. The operators are then able to choose which of these applications to make available to end-users on their catalog.

BREW's own signatures are protected by an Electronic Serial Number (ESN) and a Mobile Equipment Identifier (MEID), this means it prevents the unauthorized distribution/sideloading of BREW applications to 3rd-parties rather than carriers. Once the application is downloaded OTA via a BREW-based carrier, the .sig file will automatically generate an electronic serial number to its installed handset.

The BREW emulator, named BREW Simulator, does not emulate handset hardware. Instead, the BREW application is compiled to native code and linked with a compatible BREW runtime library. Because of this, applications cannot be tested for platform bugs related to memory alignment and various firmware-related glitches without a BREW handset operating in test mode.

For testing purposes, BREW applications can be transferred using a Universal Serial Bus (USB) or serial cable to any BREW-compatible handset using BREW App Loader from Qualcomm. A BREW application contains several components which, if not present and valid, cause the application to be automatically deleted on reboot. This includes the compiled binary file, a file that describes the application, the features it uses, and permissions requested, a file that contains string and image resources if required, and a file containing the application's digital signature.

BREW applications may be unloaded from a consumer handset to save handset memory space. This is referred to as "Disable/Restore", and is a requirement of the True BREW Test Process. Saved files are kept intact using Disable/Restore, and it is possible to reload the application without paying for it again. In a "Disable" situation, all .bar, .mod, and .sig files are deleted from the handset, while any other files remain in their original place. During the "Restore" operation, the .bar, .mod, and .sig files are downloaded from the carrier's mobile store, and the previously disabled application will have full functionality remaining. The Disable/Restore process is only available to consumer users once the handset's memory is full.

On May 28, 2008, Qualcomm and Adobe announced a partnership to integrate Adobe Flash Lite as a supported user interface on BREW.

Since March 2006, the least expensive digital signature package for developers costs US$400 for 100 application submissions.

Business model implications/availability
Strictly speaking, time to market can take longer with BREW than with Java ME because of Qualcomm BREW's rigorous certification requirements. This certification process may be perceived as an advantage by established software developers because the difficulties associated with testing and development costs create a high cost of entry to developers with low budgets and little time, resulting in less market dilution. Specifically, developers of casual games run less risk of having to compete with freeware workalikes developed and self-published by hobbyists. However, this comes at a cost to the end-user as there is less competition to develop the best solution at the lowest price to the end user.

 * After an application is written, it takes two weeks per iteration of True BREW testing (each time the application fails the test).
 * Next, negotiations with carrier(s) commence.
 * Then, (if successful) the carrier will spend time retesting the application with their own tests on their network.
 * Finally, rolling out a new version means starting the process over again.

Differences between Java ME and BREW
Currently, most developers choose to support both Java ME and BREW, or only Java ME. Java ME may offer a lower cost to the market because most carriers allow non-certified Java ME applications to run on their phones. Java ME phones have a larger market share than BREW-enabled handsets. Java ME is widely used in Europe, while BREW is primarily used in the U.S. and Japan. One of the initial advantages of BREW was that Verizon made it easy to purchase applications from the phone, while most Java ME carriers did not. However, most carriers of Java ME phones now offer easy-to-access purchasing portals.

Owing to its different APIs, Java ME relies on Java's virtual machine (interpreter-based code), which is technically slower than BREW, which uses native C/C++ plus and direct hardware access (especially for games). Java ME has limited subset of APIs (both for applications and games). However, 3rd-party APIs and implementations (such as MascotCapsule by HI CORPORATION. (3D rendering API) and DoJa/Star by NTT Docomo) are available, but not popular and successful outside Japan (particularly device adoption). BREW (on the other hand), relies on its own APIs and direct hardware access.

Performance for Java ME applications and games are slower than BREW. For 3D games, Java ME uses JSR 184 (M3G), which 3D games that are developed on Java ME are slower (which results in 10 frames per second on some/most handsets) and have limited graphics, while BREW uses either software rendering (if the BREW handset does not have a 3D acceleration chip) or OpenGL ES (which it can take advantage of its performance).

Unlike the Java ME, when the BREW application crashes, the phone will cause a reboot due to BREW can't handle and recover while the application crashes, it creates "$SYS.EXCEPT_(4-Digit Number)" into the "except" folder on the root of directory, then the phone will automatically reboot by itself, when the Java ME application crashes under BREW, Java ME will handle correctly and recover them from phone rebooting by itself.

Some/few handset manufacturers do not allow to integrate Java ME's virtual machine on a few of their phones.

There are now commercial technologies to fully automate porting from Java ME to BREW. This reduces the entry barrier to produce BREW applications by eliminating the need to develop two versions of the same application in both Java and C/C++.

System failure
System failure in BREW is caused by the components are stopped working properly, a file required for a BREW application is missing, application crash, or some other errors. It creates the "$SYS.EXCEPT_XXXX" file inside the "except" folder on the root of directory. BREW's system failure has 2 variants, the component error and the reboot of death.

Component error (example.c XXXXX)
Component error is an error that will display a black, white, or blue screen with an error text for about 5 seconds if a component stopped working properly, then the phone will reboot by itself. This error may vary depending on your activity, for example:

 * fs_dir.c (file system error)
 * mdsptask.c (task error)
 * oemheap3x.c (heap violation)
 * memory.c (memory corruption)
 * nvm.c (NVM check violation)
 * srch_mdsp.c (index error)
 * callheap.c (call error)

The probability of this variant to occur is very rare, as a reboot of death is more common. Here's an example of these activities to trigger this variant:

 * Undervolting the phone while it's running, it will cause memory corruption (usually if the battery is near flat, on modern devices, undervoltage protection was added) (e.g. LG VX10, LG VX4400, and LG PM225)
 * The phone is at a defective condition. Usually, if this happened, the phone will trigger the reboot of death instead of displaying a component error.
 * "brew", "nvm", or ".efs_private" folder is removed. (fs_dir.c or nvm.c)

Reboot of death
A reboot of death is an error that will reboot the phone by itself instead of displaying a black, white, or blue screen with text. The rarity of this variant to occur is much more common. Here's an example of these activities to trigger this variant:

 * Crashing an application.
 * Removing the R-UIM card.
 * The phone is at defective condition.
 * Incorrectly entering an SP code.
 * Application that requires files are missing.
 * Running the exception test on engineering mode.

Device usage and carrier availability
Qualcomm BREW is used by some mobile phone manufacturers and mobile networks, however, most often the end-user does not know this since mobile phones running BREW most often lack any Qualcomm BREW branding and BREW runs in the background with the custom "skins" of the mobile phone manufacturer or operator on-top. Qualcomm BREW is used by Sprint Nextel, metroPCS, U.S. Cellular, Verizon, Syringa Wireless, Cricket Wireless, and AT&T (in the HTC Freestyle) in the US, KDDI in Japan, KT and SK Telecom in South Korea, China Telecom in China, MOVILNET and BellSouth Chile in Latin America, Sistema Shyam (now MTS) in India, and by the 3 network in much of Europe, the UK and Australia on many mobile phones produced especially for their network.

Because BREW is only offered to mobile networks that operates in CDMA, other countries (with the exception of parts of Europe, the UK, and Australia via the 3 network, India, Japan and China) do not have BREW, because they do not have CDMA networks.

Manufacturers such as Huawei, INQ Mobile, Amoi, LG, Samsung Mobile, ZTE, and HTC amongst others use Qualcomm BREW in some of their mobile phones and it is featured in 3 UK phones such as the 3 Skypephone, INQ1, ZTE Z431 and Huawei u7510 (3 Touch). Tectoy's Zeebo is the only game console to use BREW. Motorola's own T720 as well as the RAZR V3m also use Qualcomm BREW.

title: Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless


text: User talk:82.37.76.189

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

title: User talk:82.37.76.189


text:
User talk:TrainDaBrain

Hello there TrainDaBrain, welcome to Wikipedia! I hope you like the place and decide to stay. If you ever need editing help visit How does one edit a page or how to format them visit our manual of style. Experiment at Sandbox. If you need pointers on how we title pages visit Naming conventions. If you have any other questions about the project then check out Help or add a question to the Village pump. Mark Richards 01:12, 7 May 2004 (UTC)

title: User talk:TrainDaBrain


text:
Riga State Gymnasium No.1

Riga State Gymnasium No.1 (Rīgas Valsts 1. ģimnāzija), the oldest school in the Baltic states, offers secondary education (grades 7 to 12) in Riga, the capital of Latvia.

The school traces its origins to school of Riga Cathedral, which was founded in 1211, a decade after the foundation of Riga itself. Its name and language of instruction have changed several times during its history. The school language was German from the school's foundation until 1892, when it became Russian. Latvian became the main language of instruction in 1919.

Today, the gymnasium is known for its strong programs in the natural sciences, mathematics and computer science. Students wishing to enroll at the school take an admissions test in mathematics. Its admissions rate, with as many as nine candidates competing for each position, is one of the lowest in the country. Since 1997 the school enrolls 30 to 40 people in its International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme each year, where instruction is offered in English. It was the first school in the Baltic states to offer the IBO Diploma Programme. Each year a number of 12th grade students finish the DSD (Das Deutsches Sprachdiplom ) programme by taking an exam along with the regular school leaving exams. Passing the exam enables them to pursue their higher education in German speaking countries.

Riga State Gymnasium No.1 is consistently ranked first among the schools in Latvia. Its students' average results on school leaving (state) exams are the highest in the country. Riga State Gymnasium No.1 is also the best school in Latvia based on its students' achievements at various domestic and international academic competitions.

Many of the graduates continue their education at highly ranked universities abroad, particularly in the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the USA. The percentage of these students is very high among the ones who graduate from the IBO Diploma Programme.

Notable alumni

 * Agnis Andžāns – Latvian mathematician
 * Ingus Baušķenieks – Latvian musician
 * Gunnar Birkerts – Latvian American architect
 * Uldis Cērps – Chairman of the Financial and Capital Market Commission in Latvia
 * Tomass Dukurs – Latvian skeleton racer
 * Indulis Emsis – Latvian politician, former Prime Minister of Latvia
 * Andrejs Ērglis – Latvian cardiologist
 * Māris Gailis – Latvian businessman, former Prime Minister of Latvia
 * Ivars Godmanis – Latvian politician, former Prime Minister of Latvia
 * Garlieb Merkel – Baltic German writer and activist
 * Wilhelm Ostwald – Baltic German Nobel Prize winning chemist
 * Friedrich Parrot – Baltic German naturalist and traveler
 * Kristjan Jaak Peterson – Estonian poet, commonly regarded as the founder of modern Estonian poetry
 * Mārtiņš Pļaviņš – Latvian beach volleyball player, 2012 Olympic medalist
 * Krista Puisite – First Latvian golfer to earn LPGA Tour Card
 * Māris Purgailis – Latvian politician, former Mayor of Riga
 * Rainis – Latvian poet and politician
 * Einars Repše – Latvian politician, former Prime Minister of Latvia
 * Justs Sirmais – Latvian singer
 * Pēteris Stučka – Latvian politician, head of the Bolshevik government in Latvia during the Latvian War of Independence
 * Daina Taimiņa – Latvian mathematician

title: Riga State Gymnasium No.1


text:
Olfactory receptor neuron

An olfactory receptor neuron (ORN), also called an olfactory sensory neuron (OSN), is a sensory neuron within the olfactory system.

Structure
Humans have between 10 and 20 million olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs). In vertebrates, ORNs are bipolar neurons with dendrites facing the external surface of the cribriform plate with axons that pass through the cribriform foramina with terminal end at olfactory bulbs. The ORNs are located in the olfactory epithelium in the nasal cavity. The cell bodies of the ORNs are distributed among all three of the stratified layers of the olfactory epithelium.

Many tiny hair-like non-motile cilia protrude from the olfactory receptor cell's dendrites. The dendrites extend to the olfactory epithelial surface and each ends in a dendritic knob from which around 20 to 35 cilia protrude. The cilia have a length of up to 100 micrometres and with the cilia from other dendrites form a meshwork in the olfactory mucus. The surface of the cilia is covered with olfactory receptors, a type of G protein-coupled receptor. Each olfactory receptor cell expresses only one type of olfactory receptor (OR), but many separate olfactory receptor cells express ORs which bind the same set of odors. The axons of olfactory receptor cells which express the same OR converge to form glomeruli in the olfactory bulb.

Function
ORs, which are located on the membranes of the cilia have been classified as a complex type of ligand-gated metabotropic channels. There are approximately 1000 different genes that code for the ORs, making them the largest gene family. An odorant will dissolve into the mucus of the olfactory epithelium and then bind to an OR. ORs can bind to a variety of odor molecules, with varying affinities. The difference in affinities causes differences in activation patterns resulting in unique odorant profiles. The activated OR in turn activates the intracellular G-protein, GOLF (GNAL), adenylate cyclase and production of cyclic AMP (cAMP) opens ion channels in the cell membrane, resulting in an influx of sodium and calcium ions into the cell, and an efflux of chloride ions. This influx of positive ions and efflux of negative ions causes the neuron to depolarize, generating an action potential.

Desensitization
The olfactory receptor neuron has a fast working negative feedback response upon depolarization. When the neuron is depolarizing, the CNG ion channel is open allowing sodium and calcium to rush into the cell. The influx of calcium begins a cascade of events within the cell. Calcium first binds to calmodulin to form CaM. CaM will then bind to the CNG channel and close it, stopping the sodium and calcium influx. CaMKII will be activated by the presence of CaM, which will phosphorylate ACIII and reduce cAMP production. CaMKII will also activate phosphodiesterase, which will then hydrolyze cAMP. The effect of this negative feedback response inhibits the neuron from further activation when another odor molecule is introduced.

Number of distinguishable odors
A widely publicized study suggested that humans can detect more than one trillion different odors. This finding has been disputed. Critics argued that the methodology used for the estimation was fundamentally flawed, showing that applying the same argument for better-understood sensory modalities, such as vision or audition, leads to wrong conclusions. Other researchers have also showed that the result is extremely sensitive to the precise details of the calculation, with small variations changing the result over dozens of orders of magnitude, possibly going as low as a few thousand. The authors of the original study have argued that their estimate holds as long as it is assumed that odor space is sufficiently high-dimensional.

title: Olfactory receptor neuron


text:
Talk:Anal wink

Keep?
Article kept by consensus. VfD notice removed. Archived delete discussion below. -- Cecropia | Talk 05:32, 11 May 2004 (UTC)

 * Hoax article.  Either that or I have been missing something. ping 07:38, 2 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. Do a google search on the term; both the reflex and the term for it seem to exist and to be accepted terminology. (I don't know how accurate the content of the article is, however) Marcika 07:44, May 2, 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. I looked at the Google hits and they seem sound.  Description seems pretty much the same as can be gleaned from Google too. --bodnotbod 11:25, May 2, 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. Google hits look reasonable, and many seem to be from legitimate medical sources. Agree with Bodnotbod. Dpbsmith 19:51, 2 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. Ping, don't feel bad about this, it is generally known only to medical professionals.  The reflex is very important in a neurologic examination, and it is even called the "Anal wink".  An abnormal anal wink is a sign of a low spinal cord compression.  Another weird reflex for a similar purpose is the Cremasteric reflex Stephen Holland, M.D., Wikidoc Kd4ttc 06:33, 3 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. It's a completely legitimate term. It only seems prurient. - Nunh-huh 06:46, 3 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. Cribcage 02:41, 8 May 2004 (UTC)

Include "Anal Wink Test" Information
It seems like some information should be included about the "Anal Wink Test" here, which was a "test" used to determine if a child had been sexually molested as was used as such in at least some court cases in the "satanic panic" of the late 1980s. It was later determined to be unrelated to having been abused.

Something about when this case took place would be helpful Htaccess 10:39, 28 October 2005 (UTC)

I agree that some information about this infamous test should be included here. Hundreds of parents and their children in the UK were affected during this disgraceful episode. A reliable write up on Wikipedia would help prevent stop credence ever being given to this "test" again. Everybody got to be somewhere! (talk) 21:03, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

Woodling did not develop the test
I will re-request the book with the information, but the "anal wink test" was not Bruce Woodling's creation; he was using a test that had been used by another dubious practitioner to determine whether an adult male had been sodomized (and was therefore a homosexual.) Still no medical validity to it, but not original to Woodling. -- Antaeus Feldspar 00:50, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Cost
It is ambiguous if this trial cost the most Perhaps the OJ trial cost the most -- there is a discussion on the McMartin preschool trial page regarding this issue -- Cliffb 04:16, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

Video?
Would a short video clip of an anal wink be useful for this entry?

I just got a new digital video camera.

Trollaxor (talk) 01:42, 4 December 2009 (UTC)

BLP issues
Criticism of a living person must be reliably sourced. See WP:BLP. Kenilworth Terrace (talk) 19:26, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

title: Talk:Anal wink


text:
Blepharisma

Blepharisma is a genus of unicellular ciliate protists found in fresh and salt water. The group includes about 40 accepted species, and many sub-varieties and strains. While species vary considerably in size and shape, most are easily identified by their red or pinkish color, which is caused by granules of the pigment blepharismin.

All members of the genus possess a long series of membranelles on the left side of the oral groove, and an "undulating membrane" (a structure resembling a flap, scarf or small sail, composed of long cilia fused together as a single sheet) on the right side of the peristome, toward the posterior.

Certain species of Blepharisma have served as model organisms for scientific research. Since some varieties are easily cultured and readily available from scientific supply houses, they are a common object of study in school science classes.

Appearance
Blepharisma may be as small as 50 micrometres in length, or as large as 1 mm (though normal size range is between 75 and 300 micrometres). Body shape varies within the genus. The type species of the genus, B. persicinum, is ellipsoidal. Blepharisma lateritium is teardrop-shaped, with a rounded posterior; while Blepharisma elongatum and Blepharisma sphagni are long and thin, tapering at the posterior into a tail-like point.

All species are uniformly ciliated, with the cilia arranged in longitudinal rows, and stripes of pigment alternating between rows of cilia. Cilia, short hairlike organelles, sweep food into its mouth and are used for movement. The pink or red pigmentation may be quite pale, and in certain cases it is absent altogether. A contractile vacuole, often quite large, is located in the posterior. The Macronuclei can take a variety of forms. Depending on species and phase of life, they may be rod-shaped, ovoid, spherical, or moniliform (like a rosary, or string of beads).

Reproduction and sexual phenomena

Like all ciliates, Blepharisma reproduce asexually, by binary fission, dividing transversally. Fission may occur spontaneously, as part of the vegetative cell cycle, or it may follow a sexual phenomenon called conjugation, a process through which genetic material is exchanged between cells. In conjugation, two organisms come into close contact, and a temporary cytoplasmic bridge forms between them. The micronuclei of each cell then undergo meiosis, and haploid micronuclei pass from one individual to the other. This permits the reshuffling of hereditary characteristics, as in other types of sexual reproduction. Conjugation is immediately followed by binary fission of the two conjugants.

In Blepharisma, as in some other ciliates, chemical substances called gamones are used to induce conjugation by stimulating interaction between compatible mating partners.

Although clonal cells of Blepharisma are sometimes able to conjugate with one another (a phenomenon known as selfing), conjugation ordinarily involves the interaction of cells of different mating types. In the species Blepharisma japonicum, there are two mating types (I and II), each type excreting a specific pheromone (termed gamone 1 and gamone 2, respectively). When sexually mature mating-type I cells are moderately starved, they autonomously produce and secrete gamone I. Gamone 1 specifically acts on mating-type II cells, transforming them so that they can unite with type I cells, and inducing them to secrete gamone 2. Gamone 2 then transforms type I cells so that they can unite with type II cells. Cells that can unite may then undergo conjugation. Conjugation of opposite mating types promotes outcrossing and the masking of deleterious recessive mutations in the diploid phase of the sexual cycle.

Feeding and behavior
Blepharisma feed on a variety of smaller organisms, including bacteria, flagellate algae, rotifers, other ciliates and even smaller members of the same species. Experiments with Blepharisma undulans have shown that cannibalism causes gigantism. When individuals are given a diet of smaller Blepharisma, or certain ciliates (particularly Colpidium colpoda or Tetrahymena), they grow to a relatively enormous size. As long as their diet remains unchanged, cannibal giants will divide to produce more giants. When large prey become unavailable, the offspring will revert to normal size.

Photobiology
Blepharisma are markedly photophobic, and when light levels are increased will seek out darkened areas. The ability to detect light is accomplished with photosensitive pigment granules located just under the plasma membrane of the cell. The pigment in these granules is blepharismin, the same substance that gives Blepharisma their characteristic pinkish color. Blepharisma are usually pink when collected in nature, but when grown in darkness with abundant food they turn red. Exposure to light or starvation causes them to lose their color, but deeply-pigmented cells can even be killed by strong light.

List of species

 * B. americanum Suzuki, 1954
 * B. bimicronucleatum Villeneuve-Brachon 1940
 * B. bothrostoma Mermod 1914
 * B. botezati Lepsi, 1926
 * B. coeruleum Gajevskaja, 1927
 * B. caudatus Dumas 1937
 * B. clarissimum Kahl, 1928
 * B. dawsoni Christie & Hirshfield 1967
 * B. dileptus Kahl, 1928
 * B. elegans Vuxanovici 1963
 * B. elongatum (Stokes, 1884) Kahl, 1926
 * B. falcatum Gelei 1954
 * B. galianoi Fernandez-Leborans 1979
 * B. grayi Hartwig & Parker, 1977
 * B. halophila Ruinen 1938
 * Found to be a phylogenetic outlier under the orthographical variant Blepharisma halophilum.
 * B. hyalinum Perty, 1852
 * B. intermedium Bhandary, 1962
 * B. ichthyoides V. Gelei, 1933
 * B. japonicum (Suzuki, 1954) Giese, 1973
 * B. lateritium (Ehrenberg, 1831) Kahl, 1932
 * B. lentis Gelei 1954
 * B. melana Borror, 1963
 * B. minima Lepsi, 1926
 * B. multinucleata Dragesco, 1960
 * B. musculus Penard, 1922
 * B. ovalis Dumas 1937
 * B. ovatum Penard, 1922
 * B. parasalinarum Dragesco 1997
 * B. persicinum Perty, 1849
 * B. salinarum Florentin, 1899
 * B. seshachari Bhandary, 1962
 * B. sphagni Lepsi, 1926
 * B. steini Kahl, 1932
 * B. tardum Kahl, 1928
 * B. undulans Stein, 1868
 * B. velatum Vacelet, 1961
 * B. vestitum Kahl, 1928
 * B. violaceae Tucolesco 1962
 * B. vitreum Lepsi 1957
 * B. wardsi Hirshfield, Isquith & Bhandary, 1965

title: Blepharisma


text:
Talk:Smart Phone

Redirecting to Smartphone and deleting:

Smart Phone From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

A mobile phone with PDA functions and capabilities. Some PDAs already have mobile phone capabilities but its primary use is as a PDA. Therefore a Smart Phone is more of a phone than a PDA.

Catherine, there's a Smartphone entry already, merge ? Jondel

 * Yup. Catherine - talk
 * Thanks! Jondel

title: Talk:Smart Phone


text:
User talk:Zahra

Proposed deletion of File:BHSEC smaller.png

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This bot DID NOT nominate any file(s) for deletion; please refer to the page history of each individual file for details. Thanks, FastilyBot (talk) 01:00, 24 May 2019 (UTC)

title: User talk:Zahra


text:
Talk:Cunedda

Text was pasted from http://www.britannia.com/bios/ebk/cunedwgd.html (Copyright violation text removed)

Dating
Your dates for Cunedda contradict my sources (Frere, Salway), where do they come from? I changed the date of Roman withdrawal as it was Honorius who wrote the letter in 410, three years after the troops left. I added Frere's description of Paternus as native chief rather than a Roman soldier. I rewrote and rearranged the dating arguments so I hope they make more sense. Non-US spelling for non-US subject. I think I kept all the earlier points too. adamsan 01:08, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Ah, thanks for the Constantine/Honorius correction. I probably should have caught that one, myself. I think I may not have been clear in my previous entry, though: I wasn't suggesting that it was Maximus who ordered Cunedda into Wales (although others have done so, the dating is dubious at best: most sources have Maximus dead a good decade before Cunedda's birth!). My dates come from Mike Ashley's "The Mammoth Book of British Kings and Queens," but the difference isn't that great, and it might just be an issue of Ashley rounding up. I rewrote the entry again, to clarify my earlier meaning, and have tried to clarify the tangle of dating issues surrounding the topic. Hope it makes more sense, now. Seancdaug 05:41, Nov 13, 2004 (UTC)

kunodagos is not Brythonic
I am interested in the source for the opening sentence to this page: "The name Cunedda derives from the Brythonic word kunodagos, meaning good hound."

I am not a native speaker of Welsh but I can say with certainty that the letter K does not exist in the Brythonic language, therefore it is not possible that the word kunodagos derives from it. That is not to say that the meaning is incorrect but merely that the derivation has to have been from a different linguistic origin. The letter k does appear in at least one Goidelic Gaelic languages and was used in English names replacing earlier ones of the Romano-British period - Cunetio fluvius is the River Kennett, and the name Kenneth (which if written by a Welshman from sound alone would probably be rendered Cunedd). If you have a verifiable authority then I am perfectly willing to accept it, but until then I have to say that it seems quite wrong to me. SouthernFrog (talk) 01:00, 6 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Actually the letter K did exist in Welsh until the first printing of the New Testament, when the translator ordered "C for K, because the printers have not so many as the Welsh requireth'"  -- Arwel Parry (talk) 19:22, 15 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Actually, SoFro was right. What written Bryth there is got literacy w/Roman influence and almost universally depreciated k in favor of c. K snuck back into Welsh later.

 * Of course, the sound was the same throughout and it was /k/ and never the soft c people might mistaken use. For that reason Proto-Celtic is generally written with a /k/ and SoFro's cite might either refer to a legitimate Proto-Celtic reconstruction or somebody's reconstruction of a Bryth word using a modern English orthography.

 * It's no reason to throw out the word: Proto-Celt *kū and Bryth cū do mean "doggy". Of course, we should have a cite that it's appropriately used here. —  Llywelyn II   23:06, 7 February 2013 (UTC)

Where do you get the "good dog" etymology? The general consensus of linguists is that the etymology of his name is "good chief" or "good Lord" which makes far more sense: see: Archaeologia Cambrensis s x 4th Series No.XII Oct. 1872 p37;(Lloyd) DICT OF WELSH BIOGRAPHY,"Cunedda"(Accessable both via National Library of Wales & the Honorable Order of Cymmrodorions websites). Also, if you cite a specific scholar's opinion, I really would like that cited in a footnote so I can track it down. For example, I don't doubt that Dumville summarily dismisses the deployment of Cunedda's folk to northern Wales since it goes against his apriori assumptions, but I'd like to know where he said that, if only to refute it. CKC.11/13/2017.

 * Try reading a book/article on the subject written in the past century!! The notion that the initial element is "lord/chief" has long since been debunked. "Good-hound/warrior" (Brittonic *cuno- "hound, warrior" + *dago- "good") is absolutely the consensus interpretation of the name among modern linguists. Cagwinn (talk) 05:06, 13 November 2017 (UTC)

Amlawdd Wledig
No hay ninguna mención a Gwenwyn, una de sus hijas, que se menciona en el siguiente articulo donde se habla del personaje epónimo de este tema nuevo. Christian Alexis Arroyo Ortiz (discusión) 01:47 14 abr 2022 (UTC) Christian Alexis Arroyo Ortiz (talk) 01:48, 14 April 2022 (UTC)

Genealogy
The most cited scholar on this subject has been Molly Miller, who is at odds with much of what is said here. I have also published a little that shows that everything before Einion is not part of an historical Gwynedd dynasty. Tallhwch (talk) 02:11, 9 May 2023 (UTC)

Oh dear, oh dear... so much of this section of the page is garbage. Clackmannanshire is Manau, it remained independent and essentially hostile to the south into and past its incorporation into the kingdom of the Picts in 685.

Manau Gododdin is south of the Antonine Wall - it was that part of Manau conquered and controlled by the Gododdin (the clue is in the name). After all why would you have Roman paternity unless you were part of the foederati???? Freuchie (talk) 22:15, 23 December 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Cunedda


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Tess Gallagher

Tess Gallagher (born 1943) is an American poet, essayist, and short story writer. Among her many honors were a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts award, Maxine Cushing Gray Foundation Award.

Biography
Gallagher was born in Port Angeles, Washington to logger and longshoreman Leslie Bond and gardener mother Georgia Bond. She studied with poet-intellectual Theodore Roethke in the University of Washington, earning both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in English. She also attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she made films.

In November 1977 Gallagher met Raymond Carver, a short story writer and poet, at a writers' conference in Dallas, Texas and their relationship very much influenced her literary work, which included helping to edit and publish his writing. Beginning in January 1979, Carver and Gallagher lived together in El Paso, Texas, in a borrowed cabin near Port Angeles, Washington, and in Tucson, Arizona. In 1980, the two moved to Syracuse, New York, where Gallagher had been appointed the coordinator of the creative writing program at Syracuse University; Carver taught as a professor in the English department. They jointly purchased a house in Syracuse, at 832 Maryland Avenue. In ensuing years, the house became so popular that the couple had to hang a sign outside that read "Writers At Work" in order to be left alone.

In 1988, six weeks prior to his death, Carver and Gallagher married in Reno, Nevada.

Tess Gallagher spends part of her time living in a cottage in County Sligo, Ireland, and has a long-time Irish partner.

Raymond Carver and poetry
Raymond Carver influenced her to write the short stories that were collected in The Lover of Horses (1986).

She wrote Moon Crossing Bridge, a collection of love poems dedicated to Raymond Carver, who died in 1988.

She published the essay "Instead of Dying" in The Sun Magazine about Raymond Carver's life.

Distant Rain: A Conversation Between Jakucho Setouchi and Tess Gallagher
Distant Rain, published in 2006, is a conversation between Tess and Jakucho Setouchi, a Buddhist nun from Kyoto, that happened in Japan in 1990. They spoke about poetry, Tess Gallagher's grief about Raymond Carver, and differences between cultures.

Boogie-Woogie Crisscross
Tess Gallagher wrote the book of poetry Boogie-Woogie Crisscross in collaboration with Lawrence Matsuda. They sent each other emails with new poetry and ideas, then from these correspondences was gathered the book. The collaboration started when Alfredo Arreguin, Tess Gallagher's friend, gave her poetry by Lawrence Matsuda's about World War II and Japanese who were imprisoned in camp Minidoka located in the western United States. Tess Gallagher helped Lawrence Matsuda to find a publisher for the poetry about Minidoka and this was how their literary friendship began.

Teaching career
Gallagher has taught at various institutions including St. Lawrence University, University of Montana, University of Arizona, Syracuse University, Bucknell University, and Whitman College.

Poetry

 * Collections

Short fiction

 * Collections
 * Stories
 * Stories
 * Stories
 * Stories

Other works

 * Words Like Distant Rain (2006)
 * Words Like Distant Rain (2006)

title: Tess Gallagher


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Talk:Alpine States

Welcome, user 24.189.3.230! Thanks for contributing to Wikipedia. It looks like the original information for this article was copied from this article on the WorldWorx travel site. We cannot use their copyrighted information without permission.

Please help us to rewrite this article so that it doesn't contain any of the copyrighted writing from the WorldWorx site. We can use the facts in their article as reference material for writing our own, but we cannot simply copy what they wrote.

Thanks for your help! Catherine - talk 01:42, 7 May 2004 (UTC)

title: Talk:Alpine States


text: User talk:64.12.116.131

title: User talk:64.12.116.131


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York Peppermint Pattie

York Peppermint Pattie is an American dark chocolate enrobed peppermint confection introduced in 1940 and currently produced by the Hershey Company.

History
About 1920, Henry Kessler founded the York Cone Company Corporation on South Pine Street in York, Pennsylvania. The company originally sold ice cream cones and waffles before Kessler wanted to make a chocolate and mint themed candy. Although news articles commonly have it that the York Peppermint Pattie was first produced in York, Pennsylvania by Henry Kessler at his York Cone Company in 1940, a trademark application for “York Peppermint Pattie Mint (Candy)” filed by York Cone Company Corporation on February 10, 1949, shows a first use in commerce date of January 28, 1922, soon after the founding of the company. The trademark registration number 0564557 was awarded on September 30, 1952.

Although chocolate-covered peppermints already existed before the York Peppermint Pattie came on the market, the York differed in that it was firmer and crisp, while the competition was softer and gooier. A former employee and York resident, Phil Kollin, remembered the final test that sample patties went through before leaving the factory: "It was a snap test. If the candy didn't break clean in the middle, it was a second."

The business expanded sales beyond the local market and without consumer advertising the York Peppermint Pattie was being sold in the Northeast, parts of the Midwest and in Florida.

On August 22, 1966, Charles M. Schulz introduced a character named Peppermint Patty to the Peanuts comic strip.

In 1972, the York Cone Company was acquired by Peter Paul, who then launched the York Peppermint Patties nationally in 1975.

Peter Paul then merged with Cadbury for $27.50 per share, a total of $58 million in 1978.

In August 1988, Hershey acquired the US confectionery operations of Cadbury Schweppes which included the Almond Joy, Mounds and York Peppermint Pattie business. The purchase price was $284.5 million plus assumption of $30 million in debt and it included licensing arrangements for Almond Joy, Mounds, York Peppermint Pattie, as well as certain Cadbury brands in the US market.

In 2009, after 23 years in the Reading plant, production of the York Peppermint Pattie moved from Reading, Pennsylvania, to Mexico.

Promotion
During the 1970s, Peter Paul launched a memorable advertising campaign for the candy with the tagline "Get the Sensation" which continues to be used into the present day. A TV commercial in 1979 included the “Get The Sensation” theme.

In the fall of 1982, Peter Paul launched an advertising campaign using an “I Love New York” theme to promote adding 10% more chocolate to the candy.

National Peppermint Patty Day is celebrated each year on February 11.

Product and variations
In the confectionery industry, enrobing is a process that involves covering a confection or snack with chocolate or chocolate coatings. The York Peppermint Pattie confection features strongly contrasting flavors, with a bittersweet dark chocolate surrounding a sugary center with a strong peppermint flavor.

Over time there have been a number of product variations such as the following:

 * Sugar Free Peppermint Patties – a sugar-free version of the traditional Peppermint Pattie.
 * Chocolate Truffle Mint – introduced in 2004, which had a brown filling.
 * Limited Edition Pink Pattie – introduced in October 2005. Peppermint Pattie with pink filling. Sale proceeds are donated to breast cancer research through the Young Survival Coalition.
 * York Mints – introduced in 2007, a tin filled with bite-sized mints that have a mint shell, chocolate on the inside, and more mint on the inside.
 * York Peppermint Bites – Introduced in 2003. Bite sized, round shaped candy. Introduced with other Hershey flavors.
 * Peppermint Batties – Bat-shaped Peppermint Patties made each year around Halloween. Replaced with Peppermint Patties Pumpkins in 2007.
 * Peppermint Patties Pumpkins – introduced in October 2007 for Halloween. Pumpkin-shaped Peppermint Patties with orange filling.
 * Peppermint Patties Miniature Hearts Heart Box – introduced for Valentine's Day. Heart-shaped patties in a heart-shaped box.
 * Peppermint Pattie Snowflakes – for Christmas, snowflake-shaped Peppermint Patties.
 * Egg-Shaped Patties – for Easter.
 * York Chocolate Peppermint Pattie Easter Bunny

title: York Peppermint Pattie


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League for Socialist Action (Canada)

The League for Socialist Action (LSA) was the premier Trotskyist organization in Canada for much of the 20th century. Throughout its history the LSA went through many different names and iterations. In chronological order it was known as: the International Left Opposition (Trotskyist) of Canada, the Workers Party of Canada, the Socialist Policy Group, the Socialist Workers League, the Revolutionary Workers Party, The Club, the Socialist Education League, and the League for Socialist Action.

Origins
The Canadian Trotskyist movement originated in the late 1920s as the left faction within the Communist Party of Canada. Maurice Spector, editor of the Communist Party newspaper The Worker, had been a Canadian delegate to the 1928 Comintern Congress in Moscow when he and American James Cannon inadvertently came across the suppressed platform of Trotsky's Left Opposition. Spector was won over to Trotsky's position and returned to Canada determined to build support for Trotsky in the party. He and his supporters were expelled 1928 and, with American Trotskyists, formed the Communist League of America and then a Canadian section called the International Left Opposition (Trotskyist) of Canada in 1932. Jack MacDonald, the expelled National Secretary of the Communist Party, joined. The Canadian Trotskyist movement went through a number of splits and reincarnations through the 1930s.

In 1934, most of the Montreal branch and about half a dozen members of the Toronto branch, led by William Krehm, left to form the Canadian section of the Organizing Committee for a Revolutionary Workers Party led by B. J. Field who had led a split from the Communist League of America. The Fieldite group, under Krehm's leadership in Canada, published Workers Voice and was, for a time, more active than the Trotskyists but faded away by the outbreak of World War II.

In 1934, the ILO, led by MacDonald and Spector, abandoned its attempts to reform the Communist Party of Canada and became the Workers Party of Canada, which published a monthly newspaper, The Vanguard. It became a fortnightly paper in 1935. The Workers Party also published a twice-monthly Ukrainian newspaper, Labor News, and a youth magazine called first October Youth and then Young Militant.

The party had serious disputes over the Trotskyist movement's orientation to the new social democratic party in Canada, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). In 1937, a majority of the Workers Party voted to join the CCF. They did so as the Socialist Policy Group, and published the newspaper Socialist Action. They were soon expelled from the CCF. They reunited with the faction that had opposed CCF work, and formed the Socialist Workers League in 1939 with Earle Birney as the principal leader as Macdonald and Spector had both dropped out of the movement.

World War II
The SWL was forced underground due to the implementation of the War Measures Act during World War II and their anti-war polemics which resulted in the group's publication being banned. The day after war was declared in 1939, SWL member Frank Watson became the first person arrested under the Defence of Canada Regulations when he denounced the war at a street corner meeting at Bloor and Brunswick in Toronto. Birney dropped out by 1942, according to Dowson because of his support for the war, and the group became inactive.

Revolutionary Workers Party
The group was relaunched in 1946 as the Revolutionary Workers Party (RWP), Canadian Section of the Fourth International, under the leadership of Ross Dowson. The foundations of the party had been laid two years earlier, in 1944, when Canadian supporters of the Fourth International met in Montreal for their first national convention. Dowson ran for mayor of Toronto as an open Trotskyist at the end of the war and won over 20% of the vote.

Entrism
In 1952, the RWP ceased its public activities, including the publication of Labour Challenge, and its members began to practice entrism in the CCF. During this period the group had no formal name but was known to members as The Club (Trotskyists in Britain practicing entrism during this period were also known as "The Club"). The next year, the section split reflecting the international split in the Fourth International between the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) and the International Secretariat of the Fourth International (ISFI). The majority of the RWP, including Ross Dowson, backed James P. Cannon and the International Committee, while a minority, including Dowson's brother Murray and his brother-in-law Joe Rosenthal led a split from the Canadian section to form the Committee for the Socialist Regroupment of Canada in sympathy with Bert Cochran's Socialist Union of America which had split from the American SWP and sided with Pablo and the International Secretariat. They were informally known as the "Rose Group" (after Rosenthal's pseudonym) or as "Labour Forum", which was the name of the series of public meetings they held in Toronto for several years, often featuring writers associated with the US publication Monthly Review.

Members of the former RWP (whose National Committee did not dissolve and whose branches continued to hold meetings) had difficulty working within the CCF. Dowson's application for CCF membership was rejected while other ex-RWP members and their sympathisers found themselves facing persecution within the CCF.

Socialist Education League
In 1955, following the expulsion of 15 supporters from the CCF, the Toronto group reconstituted itself as the Socialist Education League (SEL), pledging itself to support the election of the CCF and with the goal of supporting the growth of the CCF's left wing. To this end, they resumed publication of a regular periodical, Workers Vanguard. Meanwhile, the Vancouver branch, which had developed some disagreements with its Toronto co-thinkers, became the Socialist Information Centre (SIC).

League for Socialist Action
In 1961, the SEL and SIC merged and became the League for Socialist Action (LSA), with branches in Toronto and Vancouver, with the intention of being the Marxist tendency within the newly formed New Democratic Party (itself a merger of the CCF and Canadian Labour Congress). The Young Socialists was set up as an "autonomous" youth wing at the same time and was active in the New Democratic Youth of Canada, though their members were expelled if discovered by the NDP which considered LSA or YS membership incompatible with membership in the NDP.

Outside Toronto near Orono, Ontario, the LSA had a camp property called Camp Poundmaker named after the famous Plains Cree leader. The camp song was a comic parody and it went like this: Camp Poundmaker's the place for me/Far away from the bourgeoise/Steady and true/I'll be to you/Loyal to the LSA-LSO/Raise on guard the red flag/Cheer it with all your might/Hurray for Camp Poundmaker/Hurray for Camp Poundmaker, maker, Camp Poundmaker!

The LSA marked the resumption of open Trotskyist activities in Canada after almost a decade of underground work. In 1964, a branch was established in Montreal under the name Ligue Socialiste Ouvrière with the YS setting up as well, using the name Ligue des Jeunes Socialistes.

Members of the LSA were involved in the Waffle movement of the NDP, from 1969 until the expulsion of the Waffle from the NDP in 1972. The LSA decided to remain in the NDP.

In 1972, Dowson stepped down as Executive Secretary of the LSA and was given the position of chairman while John Riddell became Executive Secretary.

In the early 1970s, the United Secretariat of the Fourth International (USFI, which was the result of a 1963 reconciliation between the ISFI and the ICFI) was riven by an international faction fight. The majority and leadership supported the USFI faction associated with the Socialist Workers Party (United States).

Supporters of Ernest Mandel, many of whom were active in the student movement, coalesced at the 1973 convention of the LSA as the Revolutionary Communist Tendency, a minority tendency that ultimately left the LSA to join the Revolutionary Marxist Group which supported Mandel internationally. Amongst its leadership, Alain Beiner, Ruth Bullock, Al Cappe, Joan Newbigging, John Riddell, Ernie Tate and Art Young were signatories of the 1973 Declaration of the Leninist Trotskyist Tendency, supporting the SWP position in the USFI. In 1976, Bullock, Riddell, Tate and Young, as well as Dowson (no longer a member of the LSA at this point) were among the signatories of a document, "The Verdict", supporting the SWP leadership against allegations made by Gerry Healey.

Dowson and his supporters, meanwhile, found themselves reduced to a minority within the LSA due to criticism of Dowson's sympathy with Canadian economic nationalism. They left the LSA in 1974 to form the "Socialist League" which became known as the "Forward Group" after the name of its publication.

In 1977, supporters of the Revolutionary Marxist Group and a separate Quebec organization, the Groupe Marxiste Revolutionnaire, united with the League for Socialist Action and the Ligue Socialiste Ouvrière to form the Revolutionary Workers League/Ligue Ouvrière Révolutionnaire which became the new Canadian section of the USFI.

Also in 1977, the League for Socialist Action ran Therese Faubert, one of the first two known LGBT candidates in Canadian history to run in a provincial election, as its candidate in Brampton for the 1977 Ontario provincial election.

A feature length documentary film, Let's Rent a Train!: Life in the Toronto Branch of the League for Socialist Action, 1961 - 1977 recalls Canadian socialist activism of the 1960s and ‘70s and deals extensively with the antiwar and reproductive rights movements.

title: League for Socialist Action (Canada)


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Eddie Gaedel

Edward Carl Gaedel (June 8, 1925 – June 18, 1961) was the smallest player to appear in a Major League Baseball game.

Gaedel gained recognition in the second game of a St. Louis Browns doubleheader on August 19, 1951. Weighing 60 lb and standing 3 ft tall, he became the shortest player in the history of the Major Leagues. Gaedel made a single plate appearance and was walked with four consecutive balls before being replaced by a pinch-runner at first base. His jersey, bearing the uniform number "$1/8$", is displayed in the St. Louis Cardinals Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

St. Louis Browns owner Bill Veeck, in his 1962 autobiography Veeck – As in Wreck, said of Gaedel, "He was, by golly, the best darn midget who ever played big-league ball. He was also the only one."

Early life
Edward Carl Gaedele (Gaedel) was born In Cook County, Illinois, on June 8, 1925. His father, Carl Gaedele (1886–1949), was a Lithuanian immigrant who managed a department store and worked as a parking lot checker. His mother, Helen (née Janicki), was a homemaker. In 1930, the Gaedele family lived in Chicago's Garfield Ridge neighborhood, and by 1940, the family lived in Back of the Yards.

Appearance
Gaedel had worked as a riveter during World War II, as he was able to crawl inside the wings of airplanes. He was a professional performer, belonging to the American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA). After the war, Gaedel was hired in 1946 by Mercury Records as a mascot to portray the "Mercury Man". He sported a winged hat similar to the record label's logo, to promote Mercury recordings. Some early Mercury recordings featured a caricature of him as its logo.

Browns' owner Bill Veeck, a showman who enjoyed staging publicity stunts, found Gaedel through a booking agency. Secretly signed by the Browns, he was added to the team roster and put in uniform (with the number "$1/8$" on the back). The uniform was that of future St. Louis Cardinals managing partner and chairman William DeWitt, Jr. who was a 9-year-old batboy for the Browns at the time.

Gaedel came out of a papier-mache cake between games of a doubleheader at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis to celebrate the American League's 50th anniversary. The stunt was also billed as a Falstaff Brewery promotion. Falstaff, and the fans, had been promised a "festival of surprises" by Veeck. Before the second game got underway, the press agreed that the "midget-in-a-cake" appearance had not been up to Veeck's usual promotional standard. Falstaff personnel, who had been promised national publicity for their participation, were particularly dissatisfied. Keeping the surprise he had in store for the second game to himself, Veeck just meekly apologized.

Although Veeck denied the stunt was directly inspired by it, the appearance of Gaedel was similar to the plot of "You Could Look It Up", a 1941 short story by James Thurber. Veeck later said he got the idea from listening to the conversations of Giants manager John McGraw decades earlier when Veeck was a child.

At the plate
On August 19, 1951, Gaedel entered the second half of the doubleheader between the Browns and Detroit Tigers in the bottom of the first inning as a pinch-hitter for leadoff batter Frank Saucier. Immediately, umpire Ed Hurley called for Browns manager Zack Taylor. Veeck and Taylor had the foresight to have a copy of Gaedel's contract on hand, as well as a copy of the Browns' active roster, which had room for Gaedel's addition.

The contract had been filed late in the day on Friday, August 17. Veeck knew the league office would summarily approve the contract upon receipt, and that it would not be scrutinized until Monday, August 20. Upon reading the contract, Hurley motioned for Gaedel to take his place in the batter's box (as a result of Gaedel's appearance, all contracts must now be approved by the Commissioner of Baseball before a player can appear in a game). The change to that day's St. Louis Browns scorecard, listing Gaedel and his uniform number, had gone unnoticed by everyone except Harry Mitauer, a writer for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. The Browns' publicity man shunted Mitauer's inquiry aside. Until Gaedel stepped up to the plate, even his teammates had no idea he was actually going to play in the game.

Gaedel was under strict orders not to attempt to move the bat off his shoulder. When Veeck got the impression that Gaedel might be tempted to swing at a pitch, he warned Gaedel that he had taken out a $1 million insurance policy on his life, and that he would be standing on the roof of the stadium with a rifle prepared to kill Gaedel if he even looked like he was going to swing. Veeck had carefully trained Gaedel to assume a tight crouch at the plate; he had measured Gaedel's strike zone in that stance and claimed it was just 1+1/2 in high. However, when Gaedel came to the plate, he abandoned the crouch he had been taught for a pose that Veeck described as "a fair approximation of Joe DiMaggio's classic style", leading Veeck to fear he was going to swing (in the Thurber story, the player with dwarfism cannot resist swinging at a 3–0 pitch, grounds out, and the team loses the game).

With Bob Cain on the mound—laughing at the absurdity that he actually had to pitch to Gaedel —and catcher Bob Swift catching on his knees, Gaedel took his stance. The Tigers catcher offered his pitcher a piece of strategy: "Keep it low". Cain delivered four consecutive balls, all high (the first two pitches were legitimate attempts at strikes; the last two were half-speed tosses). Gaedel took his base (stopping twice during his trot to bow to the crowd) and was replaced by pinch-runner Jim Delsing. The 18,369 fans gave Gaedel a standing ovation.

Baseball reaction
Veeck had hoped that Delsing would go on to score in a one-run Browns victory, but he ended up stranded at third base and the Tigers won the game 6–2. American League president Will Harridge, saying Veeck was making a mockery of the game, voided Gaedel's contract the next day. In response, Veeck threatened to request an official ruling on whether Yankees shortstop and reigning American League MVP Phil Rizzuto, who stood 5 ft, was a short ballplayer or a tall dwarf.

Initially, Major League Baseball struck Gaedel from its record book, as if he had not been in the game. He was relisted a year later, as a right-handed batter and left-handed thrower (although he did not play the field). Eddie Gaedel finished his major league career with an on-base percentage of 1.000. His total earnings as a pro athlete were $100, the scale price for an American Guild of Variety Artists appearance.

Later life
Gaedel's major league career lasted just the one plate appearance, but with Veeck's 1959 acquisition of the White Sox he began working for Veeck in other capacities. On May 26, 1959, a helicopter carrying Gaedel and three other dwarfs dressed as spacemen "invaded" Comiskey Park, its apparent mission being the delivery of "ray guns" to two of the White Sox' smallest players, Nellie Fox and Luis Aparicio, to whom Gaedel reportedly confided, "I don't want to be taken to your leader. I've already met him." On April 19, 1961, Veeck hired several dwarfs, including Gaedel, as vendors, allegedly due to "some complaints" from fans regarding hitherto blocked sight lines.

Death

On June 18, 1961, the unemployed Gaedel, who had just turned 36, was at a bowling alley in Chicago, his birthplace and hometown. Gaedel was followed home and beaten. His mother discovered him lying dead in his bed. He had bruises about his knees and on the left side of his face. A coroner's inquest determined that he also had a heart attack. Bob Cain, who had pitched to Gaedel, was the only Major League Baseball figure to attend the funeral, despite the fact that the two never formally met. Gaedel was interred at Saint Mary Catholic Cemetery and Mausoleum in Cook County, Illinois. His tombstone indicates that his family name may actually have been Gaedele, not Gaedel.

Legacy
Gaedel is one of only five Major League players who drew a walk in their only plate appearance and never played the field. The first three all played in the 1910s: Dutch Schirick (September 17, 1914 with the Browns), Bill Batsch (September 9, 1916 with Pittsburgh) and Joe Cobb (April 25, 1918 with Detroit; although recent research shows that Cobb may have actually struck out in his only plate appearance). On June 24, 2007, Kevin Melillo of the Oakland Athletics did so against the New York Mets. Other than Gaedel, the other four players pinch-hit for pitchers; all five appeared in games their teams ultimately lost.

Gaedel's one-day career has been the subject of programs on ESPN and MLB Network. He was mentioned by name in the lyrics of Terry Cashman's homage to 1950s baseball, "Talkin' Baseball (Willie, Mickey, and the Duke)." His at-bat was the No. 1 choice on a 1999 list of "Unusual and Unforgettable Moments" in baseball history published by the Sporting News.

In 1994, Veeck's son Mike Veeck owned the minor league St. Paul Saints team. He brought the then 69-year-old Bob Cain the park to "reenact" the at-bat, by pitching to the 10-year-old son of the Saints manager.

Because of its scarcity, Gaedel's autograph now sells for more than Babe Ruth's.

Gaedel's grandnephew, Kyle Gaedele, was selected in the 2011 MLB draft by the San Diego Padres and played minor league baseball as high as the Double-A level.

title: Eddie Gaedel


text:
Talk:Harem (genre)

DO NOT RESTORE UNSOURCED CONTENT OR ORIGINAL RESEARCH
This is the third time I've removed the lists because not a single entry on the lists are verifiable and without sourcing, the lists are pure original research. Per WP:BURDEN, Please do not restore the list or any items on the list without providing third party sources. —Farix (t | c) 11:36, 16 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Hi Farix, is the following link qualified as a good third-party source? http://www.anime-planet.com/tags/harem/anime Zanetu (talk) 07:21, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

What is the point of a genre page with no list of shows. I saw we get a list together or just do away with the page. Shows like Hayate the Combat Butler are listed as harems on respected site. is it okay to start a list if you use things like that, if not then this page serves no purpose.
 * Yes, yes that's true, but listing all Harem genre anime here only make this article looks bad, for the purpose of making an example of Harem genre anime, only listing some of them are good enough. Listing them all? Nope, that would only destroying this article. If you want to make anime recommendation it's better to do that on Anime website, but not on Encyclopedia.-- AldNon Ucallin?☎ 15:56, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

Questionable Content
Harem Anime have been around for a long time now and there has never been a lack of what the second paragraph of the introduction has. There have always been Harem Anime surrounding men and there have always been Trans characters in them, saying things like removing gender identity seems to be stating that Progressivism is entering Anime and that is a downright falsehood. Titles for the "diverse" nature (or as they're called Reverse Harem) include Ouran HS Host Club, Fruits Basket, Uta No Prince Sama Maji love 2000%, Hana Yori Dongo, Dance With Devils. There are plenty more but the idea that this is a new thing is definitely wrong and should be removed from the page — Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.183.128.224 (talk) 12:46, 26 November 2015 (UTC)

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Claim: Love Hina as the origin of harem genre
It is objectively false to claim that Love Hina is the origin of the harem romantic comedy. Tenchi Muyo and Ranma 1/2 both predate Love Hina, as do a few other series included in List of harem (genre) anime and manga. This claim included 2 references which are Japanese-language opinion pieces. For a statement of opinion to be considered a reliable reference, the citation should clearly state that the statement is an opinion as per: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources#Statements_of_opinion — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.187.190.118 (talk) 07:02, 31 July 2020 (UTC)

As further evidence to support this point, the Japanese page does not make the asinine claim that Love Hina is an especially noteworthy example of the genre. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:8802:1800:2BA:A165:EB4:573E:C6DA (talk) 23:07, 22 August 2020 (UTC)

Some cleanup likely needed
There's some good info in this article, but it's pretty basic and there are some significant issues with both NPOV and also just missing the kind of info that people would likely come to the article to look up. For instance, how did "harem" specifically become the term for this kind of anime? It's interesting to me that anime would use a term for another society's version of something that existed in its own form in Japanese history (ooku) — there is probably some interesting stuff to examine here about Japanese cultural perception of Middle-Eastern cultures, or something along those lines. That is what I came to this to see if it answered, but there is nothing discussing the origins of the term's application to anime and video games. Contrast this with, say, the article on yaoi, which has a detailed section about the term's origins.

In terms of NPOV, I agree with previous entries that the "criticism/controversy" section could use some help there, and it's good that it has sources but could use some better ones as well. It also seems to be unhelpfully conflating issues with video games that use dating sim/harem elements and anime that do that, where the protagonist usually has a more profound relationship with, at least, the character they end up with—and also seems to be largely a criticism in Western journalism about the genre (supported by the examples given), which the text does not clarify. There were also some serious issues with the parts describing same-sex harems that I fixed: an unregistered user had edited out a bunch of language relating to "LGBT" under the, frankly, completely untrue assertion that that's a completely unknown concept in the anime industry. They instead replaced it with language that reinforces the heteronormativity the section was originally intended to criticize — like using "traditional" to mean "cis and heterosexual." Along with this being particularly strange in a Japanese cultural context (where there were cultural traditions around same-sex relationships that predate Western contact), that is not an unbiased framing. I would actually agree that "LGBT" isn't the best term here considering that it refers more to personal identity than just the gender dynamics of fictional romances where characters usually don't use specific labels; however, it is possible to use different language that is more neutral, like "same-sex" or "same-gender" or "non-heterosexual," without reifying the idea of heterosexuality as the only "normal, traditional" relationships.

I also am not sure it is accurate to describe harem anime as polyamorous. Most harem and reverse-harem present all the different love interests as options, but the protagonist ultimately ends up with just one of them in the end. The term polyamory refers to simultaneous romantic/sexual relationships with multiple people, and explicitly rejects the idea that you need to "choose one." So I think that terminology and phrasing is misleading.

Lastly, there were some significant grammar issues I fixed in that section that seemed to come from editors who are not familiar with English-language grammar, and there may be similar issues in other parts of the article. Beggarsbanquet (talk) 06:33, 4 March 2024 (UTC)

 * I've tried to revamp the article by cleaning up a lot of the grammar mistakes and non-NPOV sections. Additionally, you're absolutely correct that harem works don't universally (or even normally) appear polyamorous per se; I've updated the article to be more specific on that front. SophieAmity (talk) 09:36, 30 April 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Harem (genre)


text:
Swampland (physics)

In physics, the term swampland refers to effective low-energy physical theories which are not compatible with quantum gravity. In other words, the Swampland is the set of consistent-looking theories with no consistent ultraviolet completion with the addition of gravity.

Developments in string theory also suggest that the string theory landscape of false vacuum is vast, so it is natural to ask if the landscape is as vast as allowed by anomaly-free effective field theories. The Swampland program aims to delineate the theories of quantum gravity by identifying the universal principles shared among all theories compatible with gravitational UV completion. The program was initiated by Cumrun Vafa who argued that string theory suggests that the Swampland is in fact much larger than the string theory landscape.

Quantum gravity differs from quantum field theory in several key ways, including locality and UV/IR decoupling. In quantum gravity, a local structure of observables is emergent rather than fundamental. A concrete example of the emergence of locality is AdS/CFT, where the local quantum field theory description in bulk is only an approximation that emerges within certain limits of the theory. Moreover, in quantum gravity, it is believed that different spacetime topologies can contribute to the gravitational path integral, which suggests that spacetime emerges due to one saddle being more dominant. Moreover, in quantum gravity, UV and IR are closely related. This connection is manifested in black hole thermodynamics, where a semiclassical IR theory calculates the black hole entropy, which captures the density of gravitational UV states known as black holes. In addition to general arguments based on black hole physics, developments in string theory also suggests that there are universal principles shared among all the theories in the string landscape.

The swampland conjectures are a set of conjectured criteria for theories in the quantum gravity landscape. The criteria are often motivated by black hole physics, universal patterns in string theory, and non-trivial self-consistencies among each other.

No global symmetry conjecture
The no global symmetry conjecture states that any symmetry in quantum gravity is either broken or gauged. In other words, there are no accidental symmetries in quantum gravity. The original motivation for the conjecture goes back to black holes. Hawking radiation of a generic black hole is only sensitive to charges that can be measured outside of the black hole, which are charges under gauge symmetries. Therefore, it is believed that the process of black hole formation and evaporation violates any conservation, which is not protected by gauge symmetry. The no global symmetry conjecture can also be derived from AdS/CFT correspondence in AdS.

Generalization to higher-form symmetries
The modern understanding of global and gauge symmetries allows for a natural generalization of the no-global symmetry conjectures to higher-form symmetries. A conventional symmetry (0-form symmetry) is a map that acts on point-like operators. For example, a free complex scalar field $$\phi(x)$$ has a $$U(1)$$ symmetry which acts on the operator $$\hat\phi(x)$$ as $$\hat\phi(x)\rightarrow e^{i\alpha}\hat\phi(x)$$, where $$\alpha$$ is a constant. One can use the symmetry to associate an operator $$\mathcal{O}_g(\Sigma)$$ to any symmetry element $$g$$ and codimension-1 hypersurface $$\Sigma$$ such that $$\mathcal{O}_g(\Sigma)$$ maps any charged local operator such as $$\hat\phi(x)$$ to $$g(\hat\phi(x))$$ if the point $$x$$ is enclosed (or linked) by $$\Sigma$$. By definition, the action of the operator $$\mathcal{O}_g(\Sigma)$$ does not change by a continuous deformation of $$\Sigma$$ as long as $$\Sigma$$ does not hit a charged operator. Due to this feature, the operator $$ \mathcal{O}$$ is called a topological operator. If the algebra governing the fusion of the symmetry operators has an element without an inverse, the corresponding symmetry is called a non-invertible symmetry.

The above definitions can be generalized to higher dimensional charged operators. A collection of codimension-$$(p+1)$$ topological operators which act non-trivially on dimension-$$p$$ operators and are closed under fusion is called a $$p$$-form symmetry. Compactification of a higher dimensional theory with a $$p$$-form symmetry on a $$p$$-dimensional torus can map the higher form symmetry to a $$0$$-form symmetry in the lower dimensional theory. Therefore, it is believed that higher-form global symmetries are also excluded from quantum gravity.

Note that gauge symmetry does not satisfy this definition since, in the process of gauging, any local charged operator is excluded from the physical spectrum.

Cobordism conjecture
Global symmetries are closely connected to conservation laws. The no-global symmetry conjecture essentially states that any conservation law that is not protected by a gauge symmetry can be violated via a dynamical process. This intuition leads to the cobordism conjecture.

Consider a gravitational theory that can be put on two backgrounds with $$d$$ non-compact dimensions and internal geometries $$M$$ and $$N$$. Cobordism conjecture states that there must be a dynamical process which connects the two backgrounds to each other. In other words, there must exist a domain wall in the lower-dimensional theory which separates the two backgrounds. This resembles the idea of cobordism in mathematics, which interpolates between two manifolds by connecting them using a higher dimensional manifold.

Completeness of spectrum hypothesis
The completeness of spectrum hypothesis conjectures that in quantum gravity, the spectrum of charges under any gauge symmetry is completely realized. This conjecture is universally satisfied in string theory, but is also motivated by black hole physics. The entropy of charged black holes is non-zero. Since the exponential of entropy counts the number of states, the non-zero entropy of black holes suggests that for sufficiently high charges, any charge is realized by at least one black hole state.

Relation to no-global symmetry conjecture
The completeness of spectrum hypothesis is closely related to the no global symmetry conjecture.

Example:

Consider a $$U(1)$$ gauge symmetry. In the absence of charged particles, the theory has a 1-form global symmetry $$(\mathbb{R},+)$$. For any number $$c\in\mathbb{R}$$ and any codimension 2 surface $$\Sigma$$, the symmetry operator $$\mathcal{O}_c(\Sigma)$$ multiplies a Wilson line that links with $$\Sigma$$ by $$e^{icn}$$, where the charge associated with the Wilson line is $$n$$ units of the fundamental charge.

In the presence of charged particles, Wilson lines can break up. Suppose there is a charged particle with charge $$k$$, the Wilson lines can change their charges for multiples of $$k$$. Therefore, some of the symmetry operators $$\mathcal{O}_c(\Sigma)$$ are no longer well-defined. However, if we take $$k$$ to be the smallest charge, the values $$c\in\{1/k,2/k,...,k/k\}$$ give rise to well defined symmetry operators. Therefore, a $$\mathbb{Z}_k$$ part of the global symmetry survives. To avoid any global symmetry, $$k$$ must be 1 which means all charges appear in the spectrum.

The above argument can be generalized to discrete and higher-dimensional symmetries. The completeness of spectrum follows from the absence of generalized global symmetry which also includes non-invertible symmetries.

Weak gravity conjecture
The weak gravity conjecture (WGC) is a conjecture regarding the strength gravity can have in a theory of quantum gravity relative to the gauge forces in that theory. It roughly states that gravity should be the weakest force in any consistent theory of quantum gravity.

Original conjecture
The weak gravity conjecture postulates that every black hole must decay unless it is protected by supersymmetry. Suppose there is a $$U(1)$$ gauge symmetry, there is an upper bound on the charge of the black holes with a given mass. The black holes that saturate that bound are extremal black holes. The extremal black holes have zero Hawking temperature. However, whether or not a black hole with a charge and a mass that exactly satisfies the extremality condition exists depends on the quantum theory. But given the high entropy of the large extremal black holes, there must exist many states with charges and masses that are arbitrarily close to the extremality condition. Suppose the black hole emits a particle with charge $$q$$ and mass $$m$$. For the remaining black hole to remain subextremal, we must have $$|q|0$$.

Higher dimensional generalization
Weak gravity conjecture can be generalized to higher-form gauge symmetries. The generalization postulates that for any higher-form gauge symmetry, there exists a brane which has a charge-to-mass ratio that exceeds the charge-to-mass ratio of the extremal branes.

Distance conjecture
String dualities have played a crucial role in developing the modern understanding of string theory by providing a non-perturbative window into UV physics. In string theory, when one takes the vacuum expectation values of the scalar fields of a theory to a certain limit, a dual description always emerges. An example of this is T-duality, where there are two dual descriptions to understand a string theory with an internal geometry of a circle. However, each perturbative description becomes valid in a different regime of the parameter space. The circle's radius manifests itself as a scalar field in the lower dimensional theory. If one takes the value of this scalar field to infinity, the resulting theory can be described by the original higher dimensional theory. The new description includes a tower of light states corresponding to the Kaluza-Klein (KK) particles. On the other hand, if we take the size of the circle to zero, the strings that wind around the circle will become light. T-duality is the statement that there exists an alternative description which captures these light winding states as KK particles. Note that in the absence of a string, there is no reason to believe any states should become light in the limit where the size of the circle goes to zero. Distance conjecture quantifies the above observation and states that it must happen at any infinite distance limit of the parameter space.

Original conjecture
If one takes the vacuum expectation value of the scalar fields to infinity, there exists a tower of light and weakly coupled states whose mass in Planck units goes to zero. Moreover, the mass of the particles depends on the canonical distance travelled in the moduli space $$\Delta\phi$$ as $$m\sim M_0\exp(-\lambda\Delta\phi)$$, where $$M_0$$ and $$\lambda$$ are constants. Moreover, there is a universal dimension-dependent lower bound on $$\lambda$$.

The canonical distance between two points in the target space for scalar expectations values (moduli space) is measured using the canonical metric $$G$$, which is defined by the kinetic term in action.

 * $$S=\int d^dx \sqrt{g}\frac{1}{2}G_{ij}\partial_\mu\phi^i\partial^\mu\phi^j+...$$

Emergent string conjecture
A stronger version of the original distance conjecture additionally postulates that the lightest tower of states at any infinite distance limit is either a KK tower or a string tower. In other words, the leading tower of states can either be understood via dimensional reduction of a higher dimensional theory (just like the example provided above) or as excitations of a weakly coupled string.

This conjecture is often further strengthened by imposing the string to be a fundamental string.

The sharpened distance conjecture
The sharpened distance conjecture states that in $$d$$ spacetime dimensions, $$\lambda\geq1/\sqrt{d-2}$$.

title: Swampland (physics)


text:
Bobby Thomson

Robert Brown Thomson (October 25, 1923 – August 16, 2010) was a Scottish-born American professional baseball player, nicknamed "the Staten Island Scot". He was an outfielder and right-handed batter for the New York Giants (1946–53, 1957), Milwaukee Braves (1954–57), Chicago Cubs (1958–59), Boston Red Sox (1960), and Baltimore Orioles (1960). His pennant-winning three-run home run for the Giants in 1951 is popularly known as the "Shot Heard 'Round the World", and is one of the most famous moments in baseball history. It overshadowed his other accomplishments, including eight 20-home-run seasons and three All-Star selections. "It was the best thing that ever happened to me", he said. "It may have been the best thing that ever happened to anybody."

Early life
Thomson was born in the Townhead area of Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom. He was the youngest of six children born to parents James and Elizabeth. He arrived in the United States two years later. James, a cabinet maker, had moved to New York City shortly before Bobby's birth and sent for his family in 1925.

Thomson grew up on Staten Island in New York City and signed with the New York Giants for a $100 bonus right out of Curtis High School in 1942. On December 5, 1942, he joined the United States Army Air Forces and trained as a bombardier. His entire service was within the continental United States. He played semiprofessional baseball in the summer of 1945 while awaiting his discharge.

Early baseball career
Thomson batted .283 with 29 home runs and 82 runs batted in (RBIs) in his rookie year, 1947. The following season, he batted .248 with 16 home runs. In 1949, Thomson had career bests in RBIs (109) and batting average (.309). His batting average dropped to .252 in 1950. He then hit a career-high 32 home runs in 1951, the fifth-best total in the major leagues; he also had the fourth-highest slugging average in baseball that year.

The "Shot Heard 'Round the World"
Thomson became a celebrity for his walk-off home run off Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca to win the 1951 National League pennant. The home run, nicknamed the "Shot Heard 'Round the World", was dramatic as, until 1969, league pennants were only decided by a playoff when the teams involved finished the regular season in a tie. Prior to 1951, playoffs had only been necessary in 1946 (NL) and 1948 (AL).

Although in mid-August, the Giants were $13 1/2$ games behind the league-leading Dodgers, they won 37 of their final 44 games to tie Brooklyn on the final day of the regular season, forcing a three-game playoff. The Giants won the first game 3–1 as a result of a two-run home run by Thomson (off Branca). Brooklyn's Clem Labine shut out the Giants in the second game, 10–0. The decisive contest, played on October 3 at the Polo Grounds, was the first major sporting event televised coast-to-coast in the United States. The Dodgers took a 4–1 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning, but Giants shortstop Alvin Dark singled, advanced to third on a single by Don Mueller, and scored on a double by Whitey Lockman. With Lockman on second and pinch runner Clint Hartung at third, Thomson's walk-off home run turned looming defeat into a 5–4 victory. The moment was immortalized by Giants play-by-play announcer Russ Hodges's excited multiple repetitions: "The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!"

Waiting in the on-deck circle to hit behind Thomson was rookie Willie Mays. The Giants' season ended, however, at the 1951 World Series; the Yankees swept the last three games to win the best-of-seven series, four games to two. Thomson batted .238 in the series with no home runs.

The bat from the "Shot Heard 'Round the World" is in the collection of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. The uniform worn by Thomson on that day is apparently a part of a large private collection owned by Dan Scheinman, a member of the San Francisco Giants ownership group.

Sign stealing
Longstanding rumors that the Giants engaged in systematic sign stealing during the second half of the 1951 season were confirmed in 2001. Several players told The Wall Street Journal that beginning on July 20, coach Herman Franks used a telescope positioned in the Giants clubhouse behind center field to steal the finger signals of opposing catchers. Stolen signs were relayed to the Giants dugout via a buzzer wire. Joshua Prager, the author of the Journal article, outlined the evidence in greater detail in a 2008 book.

Although Thomson always insisted that he had no foreknowledge of Branca's pitch, Sal Yvars told Prager that he relayed Rube Walker's fastball sign to Thomson. Branca was privately skeptical of Thomson's denials, but made no public comment at the time. Later, he told The New York Times, "I didn't want to diminish a legendary moment in baseball. And even if Bobby knew what was coming, he had to hit it.... Knowing the pitch doesn't always help." Whether the telescope-and-buzzer system contributed significantly to the Giants' late-season 37–7 win streak remains a subject of debate. Prager notes in his book that sign stealing was not specifically forbidden by MLB rules at the time and, moral issues aside, "...has been a part of baseball since its inception". Sign stealing using optical or other mechanical aids was outlawed by MLB in 1961.

Later years
In 1952, Thomson led the National League with 14 triples while batting .271 with 25 home runs and 109 RBIs for the Giants. In his final season with the Giants in 1953, Thomson hit 26 home runs and 106 RBIs, and a .288 average. That winter, he was sent to the Milwaukee Braves in a multiplayer deal. During his first spring training with the Braves in 1954, he suffered a broken ankle, which allowed rookie Hank Aaron to earn a place in the Milwaukee lineup. Thomson batted a career-low .232 in 1954.

The Braves traded Thomson back to the Giants during the 1957 season, and he was in the lineup for the club's final game at the Polo Grounds. The Giants moved to San Francisco for the 1958 season, but Thomson was gone, traded to the Cubs. He spent two seasons in Chicago before closing out his major-league career in the American League with the Red Sox and Orioles. He played one final season in 1963 with the Yomiuri Giants in Japan.

Thomson was a career .270 hitter with 264 home runs and 1,026 RBIs in 1,779 games. He was selected an All-Star in 1948, 1949, and 1952.

In the 1990s, over 40 years after his famous home run, Thomson received a letter from a Marine who had been stationed in Korea in 1951:
 * "I was in a bunker in the front line with my buddy listening to the radio. It was contrary to orders, but he was a Giants fanatic. He never made it home, and I promised him if I ever got back, I'd write and tell you about the happiest moment of his life.  It's taken me this long to put my feelings into words.  On behalf of my buddy, thanks, Bobby."

After baseball, Thomson became a sales executive at a New York City paper-products company. He lived in Watchung, New Jersey, until 2006, when he moved to Savannah, Georgia, to be near his daughter Nancy and his grandchildren. He died August 16, 2010, at his home in The Marshes of Skidaway Island, a continuing care facility in Savannah.

Honors
Scottish baseball team Edinburgh Diamond Devils named their home Bobby Thomson Field. It was opened by Thomson himself in 2003, while he was in Scotland to be inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame.

The UK Chapter of The Society for American Baseball Research is named the Bobby Thomson Chapter.

The Curtis High School Field in Staten Island was renamed Bobby Thomson Field in 2007.

Thomson was inducted into the Staten Island Sports Hall of Fame in the class of 1995.

title: Bobby Thomson


text:
Sighsten Herrgård

Björn Sighsten Herrgård was a Finnish-born Swedish fashion designer and major trendsetter in Stockholm. In 1987, Herrgård was the first Swedish celebrity with AIDS to disclose their status in public.

Sighsten Herrgård received his fashion education at Beckmans School of Design in Stockholm and at the pattern development academies in Stockholm and Copenhagen. His career took off in 1966 when he won the Courtauld International Design Competition with a collection of unisex clothing. In the 1970s Herrgård established internationally in Paris and North America; he also started a company in Stockholm and worked with television, magazines and shows.

On 29 July 1987, Herrgård held a press conference, stating that "I'm going to die. I have AIDS. I may only have months left, but I want to die with dignity". His partner Roar Klingenberg (22 November 1941 – 21 September 1984), the first AIDS patient diagnosed in Sweden, had died 3 years earlier.

title: Sighsten Herrgård