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Kedarnath

Kedarnath is a town and Nagar Panchayat in Rudraprayag district of Uttarakhand, India, known primarily for the Kedarnath Temple. It is approximately 86 kilometres from Rudraprayag, the district headquarter. Kedarnath is the most remote of the four Chota Char Dham pilgrimage sites. It is located in the Himalayas, about 3583 m above sea level near the Chorabari Glacier, which is the source of the Mandakini river. The town is flanked by snow-capped peaks, most prominently the Kedarnath Mountain. The nearest road head is at Gaurikund about 16 km away. The town suffered extensive destruction during June 2013 from the Flash Floods caused by torrential rains in Uttarakhand state.

Etymology
The name "Kedarnath" means "the Lord of the Field". It is derived from the Sanskrit words kedara ("field") and natha ("lord"). The text Kashi Kedara Mahatmya states that it is so-called because "the crop of liberation" grows here.

History
Kedarnath is a pilgrimage site or tirtha dedicated to the Hindu deity Shiva. It is one of the four pilgrimage spots that form a part of the Uttarkhand Char Dham yatra or Chota Char Dham yatra. The temple's construction is credited to the Pandava brothers mentioned in the Mahabharata. However, the Mahabharata does not mention any place called Kedarnath. One of the earliest references to Kedarnath occurs in the Skanda Purana (c. 7th-8th century), which names Kedara (Kedarnath) as the place where Shiva released the holy waters of Ganga from his matted hair, resulting in the formation of the Ganges River.

According to the hagiographies based on Madhava's Sankshepa-Shankara-Vijaya, the 8th century philosopher Adi Shankaracharya died near the Kedarnath mountains; although other hagiographies, based on Anandagiri's Prachina-Shankara-Vijaya, state that he died at Kanchipuram. The ruins of a monument marking the purported resting place of Adi Shankaracharya are located at Kedarnath. Kedarnath was definitely a prominent pilgrimage centre by the 12th century when it is mentioned in Kritya-kalpataru written by the Gahadavala minister Bhatta Lakshmidhara.

Location
Kedarnath is located at a distance of 223 km from Rishikesh in Uttarakhand and close to the source of the Mandakini River at the height of 3583 m above sea level. The township is built on a barren stretch of land on the shores of Mandakini river. The surrounding scenery of the Himalayas and green pastures makes it a very attractive place for pilgrimage and trekking. Behind the town and the Kedarnath Temple, stands the majestic Kedarnath peak at 6940 m, the Kedar Dome at 6831 m and other peaks of the range.

Demographics
As of the 2011 India census, Kedarnath has a population of 830. Males constitute 99% of the population and females 1%. Kedarnath has an average literacy rate of 63%: male literacy is 63%, and female literacy is 36%. Out of total population, 604 were engaged in work or business activity. Of this 601 were males while 3 were females. In Kedarnath, none of the population is under six years of age. The floating population from May to October every year is more than 5000 per day with the pilgrim influx rising up to 10 lacs (1 million) in 2022.

Climate
The Kedarnath Temple is closed during the winter months due to heavy snowfall. For six months, from November to April, the palanquin with the Utsava Murti (Idol) of Kedarnath and of the Madhyamaheshwar Temple is brought to the Omkareshwar Temple in Ukhimath, near Guptakashi. Priests and other summer-time residents also move to nearby villages to cope with the winter. Around 360 families of the Tirtha Purohit of 55 villages and other nearby villages are dependent on the town for livelihood. According to the Köppen-Geiger climate classification system, Kedarnath's climate is monsoon-influenced subarctic climate (Dwc), bordering a uniform rainfall subarctic climate (Dfc) with mild, rainy summers and cold, snowy winters.

2013 flash floods

On 16 June 2013, at approximately 7:30 P.M., a landslide occurred near the Kedarnath Temple. Water from the Chorabari Tal or Gandhi Tal down Mandakini River also washed away everything in its path at about 8:30 p.m. On 17 June 2013 at approximately 6:40 a.m., waters rushed down from Chorabari Tal or Gandhi Sarovar, bringing along with its flow, a huge amount of silt, rocks, and boulders. A huge boulder got stuck behind the Kedarnath Temple, protecting it from the ravages of the flood. The flood-water gushed on both sides of the temple, destroying everything in its path. Thus in the middle of the pilgrimage season, torrential rains, cloud bursts, and resulting flash floods nearly destroyed the town of Kedarnath. The town was the worst affected area by the floods. Thousands of people were killed, and thousands of others (mostly pilgrims) were reported missing or stranded due to landslides around Kedarnath. Although the surrounding area and compound of the Kedarnath Temple were destroyed, the temple itself survived.

The rescue operation resulted in more than 100,000 people being airlifted with the help of mainly the Private Helicopter Operators, who began the rescue mission voluntarily without any clear directives from the State Government or the Ministry of Defence. The Indian Army and Indian Air Force helicopters arrived much after the Private Helicopter Operators had already begun the massive air-rescue mission. Dare-devil helicopter pilots, mostly ex-Indian Air Force and Ex-Army Aviation officers, flew relentlessly. Capt. Unni Krishnan from Prabhatam Aviation & Capt. Bhatnagar from Premair were few such outstanding pilots who landed at the Sh. Kedarnath Ji right-ridge at dusk hours - 1910hrs (almost 35 minutes after 'sunset') to pick-up the 'last' batch of survivors for the day. The NDRF represented by a commandant, and another junior officer arrived at the 'right-ridge' of the town bordering the Mandakini River, unprepared with a malfunctioning satellite phone. However, the next day, they brought in more men and supplies. The first Indian Army officer to arrive at the Sh. Kedarnath Ji 'right-ridge' was a Captain from the Assam Rifles Regiment. He single-handedly displayed exemplary courage in rescuing many survivors by climbing up steep slopes and fractures along the Rambara ridge-line. The Indian Army later launched a massive rescue effort with thousands of its brave-heart men and vital equipment. The Indo-Tibetan Border Police and the reserve battalions of the Uttarakhand Police displayed outstanding courage in the rescue mission. A Eurocopter AS350 B3 helicopter, each, of the private helicopter operators - Prabhatam Aviation & Simm Samm Aviation, were lost during the rescue mission without any reported casualties. An Indian Air Force helicopter (Mi 17) also crashed during this exercise, killing all 20 people on board (all of them were soldiers involved in relief and rescue work). The Air Force dropped logs to build pyres for mass cremations of the victims. It was reported that previously uncollected bodies were still being found one year after the tragedy.

Flood-proof infrastructure plan
After the floods, the Government of India decided to provide a flood-free infrastructure plan for the town. This involves:
 * Development of the retaining wall and ghats on the Mandakini River
 * Development of the retaining wall and ghats on the Sarasvati River
 * Construction of the main approach to the Kedarnath Temple
 * Development of the Adi Shankaracharya Kutir and Museum
 * Development of houses for the Kedarnath Teerth Purohits

The foundation stone for the plan was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 20 October 2017.

Places of interest
Other than the Kedarnath Temple, on the eastern side of the town is Bhairavnath Temple, and the deity of this temple, Bhairavnath, is believed to protect the town during the winter months. About 6 km upstream from the town, lies Chorabari Tal, a lake cum glacier also called Gandhi Sarovar. Near Kedarnath, there is a cliff called Bhairav Jhamp. Other places of interest include the Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary, Adi Shankaracharya Samadhi, and Rudra meditation cave.

title: Kedarnath


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Broadkill River

The Broadkill River is a river flowing to Delaware Bay in southern Delaware in the United States. It is 13.3 mi long and drains an area of 110 mi2 on the Atlantic Coastal Plain.

The Broadkill flows for its entire length in eastern Sussex County. It issues from Wagamons Pond in the town of Milton; the pond is fed by two tributaries known as Ingram Branch and Pemberton Branch. From Milton, the Broadkill River flows generally eastwardly, passing through wetlands and salt marshes in the Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge. After approaching to within 1+1/4 mi of Delaware Bay, the river parallels the shoreline a short distance inland for approximately 2 mi before flowing into the bay in northwest of Lewes. The United States Coast Guard maintains a station near the mouth of the Broadkill at Green Hill. The mouth is connected to Rehoboth Bay by the Lewes and Rehoboth Canal, which forms part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway.

In the 19th century the river was the center of a regional shipbuilding industry, arising from the access it furnished to inland forests; the industry fell into decline in the 1890s.

A footpath known as the Governors Walk follows the Broadkill in central Milton. The Nature Conservancy established a preserve along the river downstream of Milton in 1998. , an annual canoe and kayak race was being held on the river in Milton.

Variant names and spellings
The United States Board on Geographic Names issued an opinion clarifying "Broadkill River" as the stream's name in 1961. According to the Geographic Names Information System, it has also been known historically as:
 * Broad Creek
 * Broad Kill
 * Broad Kill Creek
 * Broadkill Creek
 * Broadkiln Creek
 * Lewis Creek

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

title: Broadkill River


text:
Eurostat

Eurostat ('European Statistical Office'; DG ESTAT) is a Directorate-General of the European Commission located in the Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Eurostat's main responsibilities are to provide statistical information to the institutions of the European Union (EU) and to promote the harmonisation of statistical methods across its member states and candidates for accession as well as EFTA countries. The organisations in the different countries that cooperate with Eurostat are summarised under the concept of the European Statistical System.

Organisation
Eurostat operates pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 223/2009. Since the swearing in of the von der Leyen Commission in December 2019, Eurostat is allocated to the portfolio of the European Commissioner for the Economy, Paolo Gentiloni.

The Director-General of Eurostat is Mariana Kotzeva, former Deputy Director-General of Eurostat and President of the National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria.

History

 * 1953 The Statistics Division for the European Coal and Steel Community established.
 * 1958 The European Community founded and the forerunner of Eurostat established.
 * 1959 The present name of Eurostat as the Statistical Office of the European Communities adopted. First publication issued - on agricultural statistics.
 * 1960 First Community Labour Force Survey.
 * 1970 The European System of Integrated Economic Accounts (European System of Accounts, ESA) published and the general Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community (NACE) established.
 * 1974 First domain in the statistical database Cronos databank installed.
 * 1988 European Commission adopts a document defining the first policy for statistical information.
 * 1989 The Statistical Programme Committee established and the first programme (1989–1992) adopted by the council as an instrument for implementing statistical information policy.
 * 1990 The Council adopts a directive on transmission of confidential data to Eurostat, previously an obstacle to Community statistical work.
 * 1991 Eurostat's role extended as a result of the agreement on establishment of the European Economic Area and adoption of the Maastricht Treaty.
 * 1993 The single market extends Eurostat's activities e.g. Intrastat established for statistics on intra-EU trade. Eurostat starts issuing regular news releases.
 * 1994 First European household panel held, analysing income, employment, poverty, social exclusion, households, health, etc.
 * 1997 Statistics added for the first time to the Treaty of Amsterdam and the Statistical Law approved by the council. Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices HICP published for the first time - designed for Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union (EMU) convergence criteria.
 * 1998 The eleven countries in at the start of EMU (EUR-11) announced, and Eurostat issues the first indicators specific to the EMU area.
 * 1999 Start of EMU, 1 January 2001.
 * 2001 In April, Eurostat, in collaboration with five other international organisations (APEC, IAE, OLADE, OPEC, UNSD) launched the Joint Oil Data Exercise, which in 2005 became the Joint Organisations Data Initiative (JODI).
 * 2002 Start of the Euro on 1 January, Eurostat supplies key statistics for monetary policy.
 * 2003 Irregularities were suspected in Eurostat, see Eurostat scandal.
 * 2004 Start of free-of-charge dissemination of all statistical data except microdata for research purposes.
 * 2005 Commission Recommendation on the independence, integrity and Accountability of the National and Community Statistical Authorities (European Statistics Code of Practice)
 * 2005 Start of a three-year peer review exercise across the European Statistical System to monitor compliance with the Code of Practice.
 * 2007 The currently valid five-year Statistical Programme 2008-2012 was adopted.
 * 2009 New European Regulation governing statistical cooperation in the European Union was adopted.
 * 2010 Following strong criticism, from within the EU and otherwise, of how it had handled inaccurate data regarding Greece, Eurostat published a report to try to rectify its procedures. The European Commission proposes powers for Eurostat to audit the books of national governments in response to the Greek government-debt crisis.
 * 2011 Revision of European Statistics Code of Practice by the European Statistical System Committee.

Regulations
The Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009 on European statistics establishes the legal framework for the European statistics.

Amending Regulation (EU) 759/2015 clarifies that heads of NSIs coordinate national level activities for European statistics and decide on processes, methods, standards and procedures of their respective statistics.

Previous Eurostat regulations were a Decision on Eurostat (2012/504/EU), and the earlier Decision on Eurostat (97/281/EC).

Main areas of statistical activities

European regions by GDP, expressed as a percentage of the EU average

Statistical work
The Eurostat statistical work is structured into Themes and Sub-themes.

 * General and regional statistics
 * Regions and cities
 * Land cover/use statistics (LUCAS)
 * International cooperation

 * Economy and finance
 * National accounts (including GDP)
 * ESA Input-Output tables
 * European sector accounts
 * Pensions in National Accounts
 * Government finance and EDP
 * Exchange and interest rates
 * Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices (HICP)
 * Housing price statistics
 * Purchasing Power Parities (PPPs)
 * Balance of payments
 * Economic globalisation

 * Population and social conditions
 * Population: demography, population projections, census, asylum & migration
 * Health
 * Education and training
 * Labour market (including Labour Force Survey (LFS))
 * Income, social inclusion and living conditions
 * Social protection
 * Household Budget Surveys
 * Youth
 * Culture
 * Sport
 * Crime and criminal justice
 * Quality of life indicators
 * Equality (age, gender and disability)
 * Skills related statistics

 * Industry, trade and services
 * Structural business statistics
 * Short-term business statistics
 * Tourism
 * Manufactured goods (Prodcom)

 * Agriculture and fisheries
 * Agriculture
 * Forestry
 * Fisheries

 * International trade
 * International trade in goods (Comext)
 * International trade in services

 * Transport

 * Environment and energy
 * Environment
 * Energy
 * Climate change

 * Science, technology, digital society
 * Science, technology and innovation
 * Digital economy and society

General statistical activities
General statistical activities related to the European Statistical system are:
 * Coordination and governance of the European Statistical System
 * Statistical methodological coordination and research
 * Statistical quality and reporting

Geographical scope
Currently, and since Brexit on February the first 2020, Eurostat data are aggregated at the EU-27 level, known as EU-27. Before Brexit Eurostat data was aggregated at the EU-28 level, known as EU-28.
 * EU data

Since Brexit occurred on February the first 2020, data has to be computed for the EU-27 because by definition Brexit makes the UK a third country to the EU.

Nonetheless, to avoid confusion with the previous EU-27 group of 27 member states — which was used in the series of statistical data before the accession of member state number 28 — another name for the current EU 27 without the UK is defined as EU27_2019 in February 2019 and EU27_2020 since March 2020 according to Eurostat.

The name changed from EU27_2019 to EU27_2020 due to a British constitutional delay which resulted in Brexit being delivered in 2020 rather than the initially planned 2019.

The concept of the EU 28 has been used since 1 January 2014, also according to the Eurostat methodological manual on city statistics, 2017 edition.

Local data are also computed at the NUTS level.

Eurostat is also engaged in cooperation with third countries through the European Statistical System, Enlargement Policy, and European Neighbourhood Policy.
 * Statistical cooperation in and around Europe

In 2021, European Statistical System includes 4 EFTA countries, that is 3 EEA countries and Switzerland.

EU Enlargement Policy includes "candidate countries" in the process of joining the EU and other potential candidates.

In 2021, European Neighbourhood Policy covers 16 countries such as 6 ENP-East countries — Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine — and 10 ENP-South countries — Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Syria and Tunisia.

The trade and cooperation agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom — since  1 January 2021 — includes a provision on statistical cooperation that foresees the establishment of a specific future arrangement.

Access to Eurostat statistics
The most important statistics are made available via press releases. They are placed on the Eurostat website at 11:00 in the morning. This is also the time that the press release content may be distributed to the public by press agencies.

Eurostat disseminates its statistics free of charge via its Internet and its statistical databases that are accessible via the Internet. The statistics are hierarchically ordered in a navigation tree. Tables are distinguished from multi-dimensional datasets from which the statistics are extracted via an interactive tool.

In addition various printed publications are available either in electronic form free on the internet or in printed form via the EU Bookshop. Only larger publications are charged for as printed copies.

Since September 2009 Eurostat has pioneered a fully electronical way of publishing, Statistics Explained, like Wikipedia based on Mediawiki open source software and with a largely similar structure and navigation. Statistics Explained is not only a dissemination format, however, but also a wiki working platform for producing flagship publications like the Eurostat Yearbook.

Statistical data for research purposes
Microdata, which in principle allows the identification of the statistical unit (e.g., a person in the labour force survey or a company for innovation statistics), is treated as strictly confidential. Under tight security procedures various anonymised datasets are provided to research institutions for validated research projects.

Location
Eurostat has been based in the Joseph Bech building, in the northeast of the Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City, since the building was opened in 1998. The Directorate-General will relocate to the Jean Monnet 2 building, in the Kirchberg's European district, following the completion of the first phase of the building, expected in February 2023.

title: Eurostat


text:
Bottom-up parsing

In computer science, parsing reveals the grammatical structure of linear input text, as a first step in working out its meaning. Bottom-up parsing recognizes the text's lowest-level small details first, before its mid-level structures, and leaving the highest-level overall structure to last.

Bottom-up versus top-down
The bottom-up name comes from the concept of a parse tree, in which the most detailed parts are at the bottom of the upside-down tree, and larger structures composed from them are in successively higher layers, until at the top or "root" of the tree a single unit describes the entire input stream. A bottom-up parse discovers and processes that tree starting from the bottom left end, and incrementally works its way upwards and rightwards. A parser may act on the structure hierarchy's low, mid, and highest levels without ever creating an actual data tree; the tree is then merely implicit in the parser's actions. Bottom-up parsing patiently waits until it has scanned and parsed all parts of some construct before committing to what the combined construct is.

The opposite of this is top-down parsing, in which the input's overall structure is decided (or guessed at) first, before dealing with mid-level parts, leaving completion of all lowest-level details to last. A top-down parser discovers and processes the hierarchical tree starting from the top, and incrementally works its way first downwards and then rightwards. Top-down parsing eagerly decides what a construct is much earlier, when it has only scanned the leftmost symbol of that construct and has not yet parsed any of its parts. Left corner parsing is a hybrid method that works bottom-up along the left edges of each subtree, and top-down on the rest of the parse tree.

If a language grammar has multiple rules that may start with the same leftmost symbols but have different endings, then that grammar can be efficiently handled by a deterministic bottom-up parse but cannot be handled top-down without guesswork and backtracking. So bottom-up parsers in practice handle a somewhat larger range of computer language grammars than deterministic top-down parsers do.

Bottom-up parsing is sometimes done by backtracking. But much more commonly, bottom-up parsing is done by a shift-reduce parser such as a LALR parser.

Examples
Some of the parsers that use bottom-up parsing include:
 * Precedence parser
 * Simple precedence parser
 * Operator-precedence parser
 * Bounded-context parser (BC)
 * LR parser (Left-to-right, Rightmost derivation in reverse)
 * Simple LR parser (SLR)
 * LALR parser (Look-Ahead)
 * Canonical LR parser (LR(1))
 * GLR parser (Generalized)
 * CYK parser (Cocke–Younger–Kasami)
 * Recursive ascent parser
 * Shift-reduce parser

title: Bottom-up parsing


text: User:Frieda

title: User:Frieda


text:
Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Cryptography/Cipher vs Cypher

Matt, In order to leave room for alternate views, I have moved you advocacy line a little lower. Others can reply in their own blocks of advocacy. I trust this doesn't unduly offend, none was meant.

I also added a comment at books using cypher as was apparently intended, though it's within your advocacy block. Hope that's all right with you.

ww 14:34, 25 May 2004 (UTC)

Spelling question: Cypher vs cipher
I'd like to invite discussion on how to treat the "cypher" spelling, a variant of "cipher", in cryptography articles: See WikiProject Cryptography/Cipher vs Cypher for arguments. — Matt 15:44, 25 May 2004 (UTC)

 * According to American and British English differences, "cypher" is a UK spelling, and "cipher" a US spelling. As such, I think it falls under the guidelines in Manual of Style. - jredmond 16:02, 25 May 2004 (UTC)

 * Actually, it's more complex than that. "cipher" is the most popular form in the UK as well as the US (e.g. UK security researcher Ross Anderson uses it). I favour "cipher" (I'm from the UK), and another editor who advocates "cypher" is (I believe) from the US. — Matt 16:17, 25 May 2004 (UTC)

 * Maybe I've been corrupted by too many things american, but I spelt it cipher. If there is a need to standardize, then the "i" version is the best bet. Pete/Pcb21 (talk) 16:10, 25 May 2004 (UTC)
 * You haven't been too corrupted. I can tell, since you spelled spelled as spelt. ;-) -Rholton 18:43, 25 May 2004 (UTC)

 * GCHQ's predecessor was "the Government Code and Cipher School" . I'd always thought cypher was another aspect of American English's long term scheme to inflate scrabble scores. -- Finlay McWalter |  Talk 17:06, 25 May 2004 (UTC)
 * I've generally seen it as GC&Cypher School, however. That fits with common British use of the period as in, for instance, the Royal Navy Cypher series (eg, nr 3). Even though at least nr 3 was a superencyphered code. ww 20:58, 25 May 2004 (UTC)
 * I guess the point is, ww, even GCHQ, the British government's cryptography agency, now spells it "cipher" (the link is to their website). The "cypher" spelling seems to be deprecated in usage by those in the field of cryptography itself; Wikipedia should follow this trend. — Matt 15:25, 26 May 2004 (UTC)

 * The OED, at least, lists "cipher" first and "cypher" as the varient. It has cites back to 1528 for cipher. -- DrBob 17:31, 25 May 2004 (UTC)

 * The New Oxford American Dictionary likewise lists cipher first and cypher as the variant. It also has an entry for cypher punk, which it defines as "a person who uses encryption when accessing a computer network in order to ensure privacy, esp. from government authorities." It places the origin of the phrase as "1990s: on the pattern of cyberpunk." -Rholton 18:43, 25 May 2004 (UTC)

 * Seems like I've seen "cipher" most used regarding cryptography, and "cypher" often used to mean "zero". ;Bear 18:06, 2004 May 25 (UTC)

 * Cypher is an anti-etymological variant of cipher used across the English-speaking world because it's prettier than the correct form. Chameleon 16:11, 26 May 2004 (UTC)

Current Wiki links
I know it's been about half of a year, but I hope someone's watching this. My concern is not the spelling per se, but I would like to note that perhaps cipher may be the term to use. As I noted on ww's page, here, currently the link for cypher is a disambiguation page, but cipher redirects to Encryption. Seeing as how it seems cypher can mean a number of things, I think cipher by default becomes the preferred spelling. Otherwise, I guess we're going to have a number of pages with cypher code in them. Either way, correct (or just make a note not to change things) on the cypher page. In reality, I couldn't care less, and I'll leave it to you all to debate. --Ricky81682 (talk) 09:15, Jan 18, 2005 (UTC)


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Vonnegut (surname)

Vonnegut is a German-rooted surname. Vonnegut is derived from two German words, vonn(e), meaning 'by', and gut, meaning 'good'.

Notable people with the surname Vonnegut include:

 * Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007), American science fiction writer
 * Clemens Vonnegut (1824–1906), German-American businessman, great-grandfather of Kurt Vonnegut
 * Bernard Vonnegut I (1855–1908), American lecturer and architect, son of Clemens Vonnegut, Sr. and grandfather of Kurt
 * Kurt Vonnegut, Sr. (1884–1957), American architect and lecturer, son of Bernard I and father of Kurt
 * Bernard Vonnegut (1914–1997), American atmospheric scientist, elder brother of Kurt
 * Edith Vonnegut (born 1949), American painter, daughter of Kurt
 * Mark Vonnegut (born 1947), American memoirist and journalist, son of Kurt
 * Norb Vonnegut (born 1958), American thriller author, fourth cousin of Kurt

title: Vonnegut (surname)


text:
Firestone Tire and Rubber Company

Firestone Tire and Rubber Company is an American tire company founded by Harvey S. Firestone (1868–1938) in 1900 initially to supply solid rubber side-wire tires for fire apparatus, and later, pneumatic tires for wagons, buggies, and other forms of wheeled transportation common in the era. Firestone soon saw the huge potential for marketing tires for automobiles, and the company was a pioneer in the mass production of tires. Harvey S. Firestone had a friendship with Henry Ford, and used this to become the original equipment supplier of Ford Motor Company automobiles, and was also active in the replacement market.

In 1988, the company was sold to the Japanese Bridgestone Corporation.

Early–to–mid–20th century
Firestone was originally based in Akron, Ohio, also the hometown of its archrival, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, and two other midsized competitors, General Tire and Rubber Company and B.F. Goodrich Company. Founded on August 3, 1900, the company initiated operations with 12 employees. Together, Firestone and Goodyear were the largest suppliers of automotive tires in North America for over 75 years. In 1906, Henry Ford chose Firestone to supply tires for its car models.

In 1918, Firestone Tire and Rubber Company of Canada was incorporated in Hamilton, Ontario, and the first Canadian-made tire rolled off the line on September 15, 1922. During the 1920s, Firestone produced the Oldfield tire, named for racing driver Barney Oldfield.

In 1926, the company opened one of the world's largest rubber plantations, extending over 1000000 acre, in Liberia, West Africa. That year the company also opened its first Firestone Tire and Service Center (later renamed Firestone Complete Auto Care). Firestone Complete Auto Care is the division of Firestone that offers automotive maintenance and repair, including tires.

In 1927, Henry Ford and Harvey S. Firestone visited Southern California to select locations for new factories. His friends said Ford wanted to be near the ocean and picked Long Beach and suggested Firestone locate in South Gate, California a small community southeast of downtown Los Angeles that at the time was mostly farmland. There Firestone identified 40 acre of beanfields for the site of his new manufacturing plant. Architects Curlett and Beelman designed a spectacular four-story Italianate–style complex, with its own power plant and decorated with polychrome murals by Gladding, McBean depicting the tire and rubber–making process. A year after the plant opened in 1928, it expanded to double the initial size, and by 1954 grew to nearly 1000000 sqft. The town grew around Firestone, its main boulevard was named after Harvey, and Los Angeles became the number one tire market in the country. By the mid-1970s, Ford and General Motors had massive layoffs as Firestone and other manufacturers opened new plants in non–union locales like Wilson, North Carolina. After considerable downsizing, the South Gate plant was closed in 1980 and 1,300 workers were laid off. East Los Angeles College has proposed a new satellite campus at the site.

In 1928, the company built a factory in Brentford, England, a longtime Art Deco landmark on a major route into the city; this closed in 1979. After its purchase by Trafalgar House, the building was demolished during the August 1980 bank holiday weekend, reportedly in anticipation of its becoming listed.

In 1936, the company opened a plant in Memphis, Tennessee. With a work force exceeding 3,000 employees, the Memphis plant was the largest tire manufacturer in the company's worldwide operation. On July 1, 1963, the company celebrated the production of 100 million tires in Memphis. The Memphis plant closed in 1982, and most of the plant buildings were demolished. The EPA considers the tract a brownfield site, and the possible presence of hazardous substances or contaminants have deterred its redevelopment.

During World War II, the company was called on by the U.S. Government to make artillery shells, aluminum kegs for food transport, and rubberized military products. Barrage balloons were produced at Akron. Firestone ranked 55th among U.S. corporations in the value of wartime military production contracts. In the 1940s, Firestone was given a defense contract to produce plastic helmet liners; while outproduced by Westinghouse Electric, they still made a fair amount for the M1 Helmet.

On September 2, 1940, William Hoppmann, the General Manager of Firestone's Havana office was discharged from his position under the suspicion of being a Nazi agent.

On October 11, 1941, a fire at the Firestone Rubber and Latex plant in Fall River, Massachusetts destroyed 5 out of its 8 buildings and destroyed at least 15,000 tons of rubber. The fire caused $12 million in damage (equivalent to $ in ).

In 1951, Firestone was given the defense contract for the MGM-5 Corporal missile. Firestone was given a total of US$6,888,796 (equivalent to $ in ) for the first 200 units. Known as the "Embryo of the Army," it was a surface–to–surface guided missile which could deliver a high–explosive warhead up to 75 nmi. It was later modified to be able to carry a nuclear payload for use in the event of Cold War hostilities in Eastern Europe. Built in southern California, this missile was replaced in 1962 by the MGM-29 Sergeant system.

In 1961, Firestone acquired the Dayton Tire division from the Dayco Corporation. Dayco later sued both Firestone and Goodyear, alleging that the two companies conspired to monopolize the tire industry in the United States. The United States District Court dismissed the lawsuit.

In 1965 Firestone acquired the Seiberling Rubber Company.

Restructuring and sale to Bridgestone
In late 1979, Firestone brought in John Nevin, the ex–head of Zenith Electronics, as president to save the hemorrhaging company from total collapse. It was more than a billion dollars in debt at the time and losing $250 million a year (equivalent respectively to $ and $ in ). Nevin closed nine of the company's seventeen manufacturing plants, including six in one day, and relocated the company from its ancestral home in Akron, Ohio to Chicago, Illinois. He spun off non–tire related businesses, including the Firestone Country Club; it was considered a deliberate plan to boost the stock price, and it paid off.

In 1988, after discussions with Pirelli, Nevin negotiated the sale of the company to the Japanese company Bridgestone, which was able to buy the company for much less than it had been worth a decade and a half earlier. The companies celebrated the 20th anniversary of the merger in 2008, and changed the name of the tire division to Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, LLC.

In 1972, Firestone received a ten–year import "concession" by the Kenyan government to secure Firestone's investment in a domestic tire plant, which gave it a virtual monopoly. This included both general price and foreign exchange controls. When the 10–year period came to an end in 1979, Firestone retaliated by increasing production, making entry less attractive. Headquarters eventually canceled expansion and failed negotiations led to no further investments.

Bridgestone Americas, which has served as the American branch of Japan–based Bridgestone since 1992, moved their corporate office to downtown Nashville in October 2017.

In April 2012, Bridgestone Americas opened up its new Bridgestone Americas Technical Center in Akron. The $100 million facility, located near the former headquarters, tire plant, and technical center, houses 450 employees whose jobs are to develop innovative and advanced tire technologies for the company.

In June 2022, Bridgestone opened up its $21 million Advanced Tire Production Center which replaced the Firestone Advance Tire Works Plant at the original Firestone Tire and Rubber Company headquarters which opened in 1910. The new building is home of the company's racing tire production for the NTT IndyCar Series. The plant manufactures all Firestone Firehawk racing tires. It is the first new tire plant in the city of Akron in more than 70 years. Bridgestone also opened up a $6 million test track adjacent to the Advanced Tire Production Center to support passenger tire testing and development. The test track opened in autumn 2022. Bridgestone has invested more than $125 million in its Akron operations since 2012, when the company opened the Bridgestone Americas Technology Center.

Firestone Complete Auto Care
Firestone Complete Auto Care is an chain of automotive maintenance shops founded in Nashville, Tennessee in 1926.

There are over 1,700 Complete Auto Care locations in the United States, all of them independently owned by Firestone, with about 20 million customers each year as of 2002. At the start of 2022 Bridgestone, parent company of Firestone, announced that it will expand its hybrid and electric vehicular services

Motorsports
The Indianapolis 500 auto race was won in 1911 by a car running Firestone tires, as did all winners of the race from 1920 to 1966. The company also provided tires to NASCAR from 1948 to 1974, and to Formula One from 1950 to 1974. Citing rising costs as the cause, Firestone announced its withdrawal from professional motorsports in August 1974 with the exception of Formula 5000 and Formula One. The change was forecast to reduce Firestone's annual race testing budget from between $6 and $8 million to around $500,000 (in, roughly equivalent to a reduction from $–$ to $.) Shortly afterward, Firestone extended this to a complete withdrawal by the end of the 1974 season. The manufacturer returned in 1995 to the CART Series with technical assistance from Bridgestone. Firestone has been the sole supplier of tires for the IndyCar Series since 2000 and will run until the 2025 season.

Great American streetcar scandal
In 1950, Firestone along with General Motors and Standard Oil, were charged and convicted of criminal conspiracy for their part in the Great American streetcar scandal. The scandal included purchasing streetcar systems throughout the United States and dismantling and replacing them with buses.

Firestone 500 tread separation problem
Radial tires were introduced to the U.S. market by rivals B.F. Goodrich and Michelin in the late 1960s, and Firestone lacked their own radial tire. The first radial tire developed and produced by Firestone was the ill–fated Firestone 500 radial. Manufacturing of the new tire was performed on equipment designed to manufacture bias–ply tires.

During the 1970s, Firestone experienced major problems with the Firestone 500 radial. The Firestone 500 steel–belted radials began to show signs of separation of the tread at high speeds. While the cause was never proved, it is believed that the failure of bonding cements, used by Firestone to hold the tread to the tire carcass, may have allowed water to penetrate the tire, which in turn may have caused the internal steel wire to corrode. In March 1978, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced publicly a formal investigation into defects of the Firestone 500. The NHTSA investigation found that the tread separation problem was most probably a design defect affecting all Firestone 500s.

In 1973, only two years after the 500's debut, Thomas A. Robertson, Firestone's director of development wrote an internal memo stating "We are making an inferior quality radial tire which will subject us to belt–edge separation at high mileage". Firestone introduced strict quality control measures in an attempt to fix the inherent problems, however they were not successful in eliminating the basic faults. In 1977 a recall of 400,000 tires produced at the problematic Decatur, Illinois plant was initiated. Firestone blamed the problems on the consumer, stating underinflation and poor maintenance.

On October 20, 1978, Firestone recalled over 7 million Firestone 500 tires, the largest tire recall to date. Congressional hearings into the 500 also took place in 1978. The tire was found to be defective and the cause of 250 deaths. In May 1980 after finding that they knew the tires were defective, the NHTSA fined Firestone $500,000 (equivalent to $ in ), which at that time was the largest fine imposed on any U.S. corporation and the largest civil penalty imposed since passage of the 1966 National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Act. Multiple lawsuits were settled out of court and the constant negative publicity crippled the company's sales and share price.

Harvard Business School and Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania taught classes and wrote papers on the issues of misjudgments and poor decision–making by the management of Firestone. After years of bad publicity and millions paid out in compensation to victims, Firestone was losing vast amounts of money, and its name was severely damaged.

Liberian rubber plantation

Firestone established the Firestone Natural Rubber plantation in Harbel, Liberia in 1926. From 1926 until the outbreak of the First Liberian Civil War in 1990, the Firestone Natural Rubber Company was the largest plantation of its kind in the world. It was originally envisioned for 350,000 people to be employed on the newly created plantations. However this was more than the number of able–bodied men in the entire nation at the time, which created intense pressure for labor. In the period between 1926 and 1946 Christine Whyte concluded that: "The collusion between Firestone and government officials to keep wages low and coerce workers onto the plantations was at best substantially overlooked, at worst regarded as a form of 'development' in itself."

In September 1990, rebel NPFL forces (led by Charles Taylor, who would later be convicted of war crimes) executed sitting Liberian president Samuel Doe and seized the Harbel plantation. Firestone had to evacuate its American workers as a result. In June 1991, Firestone sent a delegation to Monrovia in an attempt to restart operations in Harbel. After a month of waiting, the delegation was brought to meet Taylor, and after a further six months of negotiations the company signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the National Patriotic Reconstruction Assembly Government's Ministry of Finance in January 1992. This MOU provided for taxes to be paid by Firestone to the Taylor government, and for the Taylor government to provide protection to Firestone's employees and assets in Liberia. Firestone resumed operations in March 1992, but once again had to halt in October that same year as hostilities escalated. Over this period, the company had paid $2.3 million in taxes to the Taylor government (equivalent to $ in ), which some say helped legitimize Taylor's Greater Liberia government and finance and enable its attack on ECOMOG controlled Monrovia. Operations did not fully restart until 2003 at the conclusion of the Second Liberian Civil War. Since the end of the war, Firestone has invested over $100 million in restoring and rebuilding its facilities in Liberia.

The company's ventures in Liberia have been the subject of considerable scrutiny and criticism, including a 2005 Alien Tort Claims Act case brought in California by the International Labor Rights Fund and a 2014 investigative report by ProPublica entitled "Firestone and the Warlord", and a PBS Frontline documentary by the same name.

Ford Explorer rollover problem
In 1996, several state agencies in Arizona began experiencing major issues with Firestone tires on Explorers. According to news reports, various agencies demanded new tires, and Firestone conducted an investigation of the complaints, tested the tires and tried to assert that the tires had been abused or under–inflated.

On September 6, 2000, in a statement before the U.S. Senate Appropriations Transportation subcommittee the president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, Joan Claybrook, stated:

"...There are a number of parallels between this recall in 2000 and the 1978 recall of the Firestone 500...there was a documented coverup by Firestone of the 500 defect, spurred by the lack of a Firestone replacement tire. When the coverup was disclosed, the top management of the company was replaced as Firestone was severely damaged in reputation and economically. But a key difference is that the Firestone 500 was used on passenger cars, which rarely rolled over with tire failure. NHTSA documented 41 deaths with the 500, a recall, involving seven million tires."

The report went on to indicate that Ford also had been complicit, stating that The Ford Motor Company had instructed Firestone to add a nylon ply to the tires it manufactured in Venezuela for additional strength and that Ford had made suspension changes to the Explorer model available in Venezuela. Ford did not specify adding the nylon ply for U.S.–made Firestone tires nor did it change the Explorer suspension on U.S. models at this time.

An abnormally high failure rate in Firestone's Wilderness AT, Firestone ATX, and ATX II tires resulted in multiple lawsuits, as well as an eventual mandatory recall. In 2001 Bridgestone/Firestone severed its ties to Ford citing a lack of trust. The lack of trust stemmed from concerns that Ford had not heeded warnings by Bridgestone/Firestone relating to the design of the Ford Explorer. In 2006, Firestone announced renewed efforts to recall tires of the same model recalled in 2000 after the tires were linked to recent deaths and injuries. According to Firestone's last filing with the National Highway Transportation Administration, only 90,259 of more than 2.5 million recalled tires were confirmed as removed from service. In November 2013, two recalled Wilderness AT tires were found in Atlanta, Georgia. One of the tires was offered for sale as new at a used tire retail shop.

Some outside observers have speculated about the blame worthiness of both parties. Firestone tires being prone to tread separation and failure, and the SUVs being especially prone to rolling over if a tire fails at speed compared to other vehicles. A subsequent NHTSA investigation of real world accident data showed that the Ford Explorer SUVs in question were no more likely to roll over after a tread separation than any other SUV.

Labour economists Alan Krueger and Alexandre Mas concluded that one of the main reasons for the high defect rate of Firestone tires was linked to a dispute between the unions and Firestone at the Decatur plant 1994–1996. They find that the tires manufactured at the plant in question around this time featured substantially increased defect rates, rising with the onset of the dispute and subsiding when the dispute was finally settled at the end of 1996. Other similar plants of Firestone did not report similar increases in the defect rate in this period.

Television advertisement jingle
Where the Rubber Meets the Road is an advertisement jingle that was frequently used in the 1960s and 1970s, especially on televised sporting events. The jingle was sung by Don Rondo.

 * Wherever wheels are turning,
 * No matter what the load,
 * The name that's known is Firestone
 * Where the rubber meets the road.

Other brands
Bridgestone/Firestone also produces tires under the Fuzion brand name. Fuzion is a tire manufactured in China for Bridgestone/ Firestone as a budget replacement tire.

Makes include the Fuzion UHP Sport A/S, SUV, and Touring.

title: Firestone Tire and Rubber Company


text:
User talk:Rajivdinesh

Welcome
Hello, welcome to Wikipedia.

You might find these links helpful in creating new pages or helping with the above tasks: How to edit a page, How to write a great article, Naming conventions, Manual of Style. You should read our policies at some point too.

If you have any questions, see the help pages, add a question to the village pump or ask me on my talk page. I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian!

 * If you made any edits before you got an account, you might be interested in assigning those to your username.

 * You can sign your name using three tildes, like this: . If you use four, you can add a datestamp too.

 * If you ever think a page or image should be deleted, please list it at the votes for deletion page. There is also a votes for undeletion page if you want to retrieve something that you think should not have been deleted.

Again, welcome! - UtherSRG 14:36, 25 May 2004 (UTC)

title: User talk:Rajivdinesh


text:
Ahmet Zappa

Ahmet Emuukha Rodan Zappa (born May 15, 1974) is an American musician and writer, and trustee of the Zappa Family Trust.

Early life
Ahmet Zappa was born in Los Angeles, California, the third of four children born to musician Frank Zappa and businesswoman Gail Zappa (née Sloatman). His father was of Italian (Sicilian), Greek, Arab, and French descent, and his mother was of German and Portuguese ancestry. He is said to be named after music executive Ahmet Ertegun (co-founder and president of Atlantic Records), whom his father greatly admired. This is contradicted by Neil Slaven in Electric Don Quixote: The Definitive Story Of Frank Zappa, who notes:

"His first name was that of an imaginary person we always had hanging around back when we had no one on our payroll," Gail told Victoria Balfour. "We'd snap our fingers and say, 'Ahmet? Dishes. Coffee, please.' He was also named Rodan after a giant pterodactyl that would have ravaged the world if the Japanese film director Ishiro Honda hadn't destroyed it in 1957."

His older brother and sister are Dweezil Zappa and Moon Zappa, and his younger sister is Diva Zappa.

Career
Ahmet Zappa has released several albums with his brother Dweezil, and wrote the song "Frogs with Dirty Little Lips" with his father.

He has appeared in several feature films and television programs. In the late 1990s, he appeared on Channel 4 UK's The Adam and Joe Show, in a regular segment called "Vinyl Justice", in which hosts Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish, dressed as policemen, examined his vinyl collection for "criminal records". In 2000, he appeared in the film Ready to Rumble. With his brother Dweezil, he performed a cover of Britney Spears' song "...Baby One More Time" for the film's soundtrack. Other appearances include hosting the TV shows Robotica (TV series) and But Can They Sing?.

In July 2006, Zappa saw the release of his debut novel, entitled The Monstrous Memoirs of a Mighty McFearless, aimed at younger readers. The rights to a movie were purchased by Bruckheimer Films and Disney. The movie is in production with screenwriter Tim Firth assisting, no release date has been announced.

On October 19, 2006, The Jim Henson Company announced it had hired Zappa to write a treatment for a feature film version of the hit 1980s television show Fraggle Rock. He is also writing a sequel to The Monstrous Memoirs of a Mighty McFearless, which had also been optioned to adapt to a screenplay. Zappa proposed to Disney's studio head Bob Iger that the company form a graphic novel-to-film division; the result was "Disney's Kingdom Comics." Zappa was also given a first-look deal at Walt Disney Studios for motion picture productions. His company is called Monsterfoot Productions. His first film, The Odd Life of Timothy Green, was released in 2012 by Walt Disney Pictures, and starred Jennifer Garner and Joel Edgerton.

Following the death of Zappa's mother, Gail, in October 2015, it was revealed that Ahmet and his sister Diva were given control of the Zappa Family Trust with shares of 30% each, while his siblings Moon and Dweezil were given smaller shares of 20% each. As beneficiaries only, Moon and Dweezil will not see any money from the trust until it is profitable—in 2016, it was "millions of dollars in debt"—and must seek permission from Ahmet, the trustee, to make money from their father's music or merchandise bearing his name. The uneven divide of the trust has resulted in several conflicts between Zappa's children, including a feud between Dweezil and Ahmet over Dweezil's use of his father's music in live performances.

Under Ahmet's direction, the trust proposed a trademark on the name Zappa, which would prevent Dweezil from using the name for commercial purposes without authorization. Since 2006, Dweezil toured with an act called Zappa Plays Zappa, playing his father's music. The trust sought to collect a fee from Dweezil for continued use of the name, as well as proceeds from merchandise sold at Zappa Plays Zappa concerts. In response to the trust's action, Dweezil renamed his performance series "50 Years of Frank: Dweezil Zappa Plays Whatever the F@%k He Wants—the Cease and Desist Tour." In more recent times, the Zappa siblings have legally reconciled their differences with Dweezil noting "It may be a bumpy road at times – we are a passionate Italian family – but we have decided to work toward privately discussing issues rather than using public forums and lawyers."

Personal life
Zappa married actress Selma Blair on January 24, 2004, at Carrie Fisher's mansion in Beverly Hills, California. Blair filed for divorce at the Los Angeles Superior Court on June 21, 2006, citing irreconcilable differences. In a statement to People, a spokesman for the couple said, "Selma and Ahmet have decided to divorce but love each other very much and will continue to be close friends".

Zappa is now married to Shana Muldoon—designer, writer, and creator of Disney Star Darlings and the sister of actor Patrick Muldoon. They have a daughter, Halo Violetta Zappa, born in 2010, and a son, Arrow D'Oro Leon Zappa, born in 2016.

Discography

 * Confessions (1991)
 * Shampoohorn (1994)
 * Music for Pets (1996)

Filmography

 * Pump Up the Volume (1990) – Jaime
 * Anarchy TV (1998) - Officer Sweitzer
 * Jack Frost (1998) – Snow plow driver
 * Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror (1998) – Laszlo
 * Ready to Rumble (2000) – Cashier
 * Gen13 (2000) – Additional Voices (voice)
 * The Odd Life of Timothy Green (2012) – story by and producer

Television

 * 2 Hip 4 Tv – Host (1988)
 * Roseanne (1994)
 * webRIOT – host (1999)
 * Happy Hour – host (1999)
 * Robotica – host for three seasons (2001–2002)
 * But Can They Sing? – host (2005)
 * Head Case Ep No. 105 (Parental Guidance Required) – Starz Channel Original Series – self (2008)

title: Ahmet Zappa


text:
1977–78 snooker world rankings

The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, the governing body for professional snooker, first published official world rankings for players on the main tour for the 1976–77 season. Before this, the defending champion was seeded first, and the previous year's runner-up second, for each tournament.

For the 1977–78 season, players' performances in the previous three World Snooker Championships (1975, 1976, and 1977) contributed to their points total. For each of the three years, the World Champion was awarded five points, the runner-up received four, losing semi-finalists got three, players eliminated in the quarter-finals gained two, and losers in the last-16 round received a single point. If players were level on points, then those gained in the most recent event determined positioning. If this was still equal, then the losing margin on was taken into account.

Ray Reardon retained top place in the rankings from the 1976/1977 listing, with 12 points. John Spencer, the 1977 World Champion, was second, six places higher than in the previous season's list, on 9 points. Doug Mountjoy, at 14th, was the highest-ranked one-season professional. The eight highest-ranked players were placed directly into the last-16 round of the 1978 World Snooker Championship, whilst all other entrants were required to participate in a qualifying competition to produce the eight players to play the exempted seeds. As defending champion, Spencer was seeded first for the 1978 tournament, with the other seeds based on the rankings.

Rankings
The professional world rankings for the snooker players on the main tour in the 1977–78 season are listed below. Points gained in each of the three World Snooker Championships are shown, with the total number of points given in the last column. A "–" symbol indicates that the player did not participate in that year's championship. Some sources show Mans as placed 9th and Davis 10th, and Thorne 18th with Virgo 20th. It is unclear why three players with 0 points were included in the rankings.

title: 1977–78 snooker world rankings


text:
Talk:Vanilla

January 2023
Hello @64.56.11.239 and What is wrong with this edit? Invasive Spices (talk) 17:54, 30 January 2023 (UTC)

 * I feel that you are wrong. My reasoning is because their are errors in the non revised version. 64.56.11.239 (talk) 19:52, 30 January 2023 (UTC)

Ancient use of vanilla
Vanilla appears to have been used in the Old World way before contact with the New World.

Linares V, Adams MJ, Cradic MS, Finkelstein I, Lipschits O, Martin MAS, et al. First evidence for vanillin in the old world: Its use as mortuary offering in Middle Bronze Canaan. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. 2019;25: 77–84.

Amir A, Finkelstein I, Shalev Y, Uziel J, Chalaf O, Freud L, et al. (2022) Residue analysis evidence for wine enriched with vanilla consumed in Jerusalem on the eve of the Babylonian destruction in 586 BCE. PLoS ONE 17(3):           e0266085.                https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266085 80.7.184.54 (talk) 22:07, 3 April 2023 (UTC)

Morren and Papantla
For quite some time (since 2008), this article contained an anecdote with no source: "In 1836, botanist Charles François Antoine Morren was drinking coffee on a patio in Papantla (in Veracruz, Mexico) and noticed black bees flying around the vanilla flowers next to his table. He watched their actions closely as they would land and work their way under a flap inside the flower, transferring pollen in the process. Within hours, the flowers closed and several days later, Morren noticed vanilla pods beginning to form." The article Morren wrote in 1837 about his method of hand-pollination says nothing at all about being in Mexico, nothing about Papantla, nothing about black bees. All online sources I have found quote the Wikipedia article as the source. This appears to be a fictional story, and I can find no documentation that verifies it, so I have removed it from the article. I welcome any citations from the 1830s that confirm any of these details. Dyanega (talk) 16:35, 4 April 2023 (UTC)

 * For anyone who cares: this is an actual topic of research for me, but I do not want to run afoul of the WP:NOR policy, so I will put this in the talk page rather than in the article itself. Morren does not appear to have left Belgium between 1831 and 1854, and having now read all of his papers on vanilla, find no reference to him ever setting foot in Mexico. Worse, a major review published in 1897 by Arthur Delteil on the history of vanilla points out that the first demonstration of a hand-pollination technique in France was in 1830 by Neumann, several years before Morren published his technique, and over a decade before Albius came up with a genuinely practical technique. In other words, Morren's contribution to vanilla pollination is nothing more than a footnote (credit for being first published should go to Neumann), and this story about Morren sipping coffee in Papantla and watching bees is pure nonsense. The only reference to Papantla that Morren ever published was in his own 1850 review of the history of vanilla, in which he cites Schiede's 1829 publication in the journal Linnaea, where Schiede wrote about encountering several Vanilla species in Papantla. Schiede said nothing about pollinators. The oldest reference to pollinators I could find is in Delteil's 1897 review where he suggests that there are bees that probably accomplish pollination, but he misidentified them (he called them Melipona, but goes on to indicate that they include green and blue species, which means conclusively that they were orchid bees and not Melipona), and claimed that they ranged in size from "1 to 7 centimetres", which is literally impossible, given that the world's largest bee species (Megachile pluto) is only 4 cm long. All subsequent authors who have referred to Melipona being pollinators of Vanilla based their statements on Delteil's review, or people who cited Delteil, such as Beck in 1912; no one ever has observed Melipona pollinating Vanilla. Beck does refer to early attempts to introduce Melipona to pollinate vanilla, and it is no surprise that these attempts failed; Delteil's misidentification was a "red herring" that misled researchers and horticulturists for over a century. Dyanega (talk) 00:05, 5 April 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Vanilla


text:
Olga Sinclair

Olga Sinclair (born 1957 in Panama City) is an artist and figurative painter.

She participated for the first time in a collective exhibition amongst professional painters at the age of just 14.

She started painting studies with her father, the painter Alfredo Sinclair and went in 1976 to the Academy of Applied Arts in Madrid, Spain. There she also did three years classic art drawing lessons at the Arjona Studio.

Back in Panama she obtained her BA-degree in Interior Design at Santa María La Antigua University in 1984. At the same time she took engraving lessons in Giangranddi Studio. Then she continued her studies in London for another two years. In 1987 she married Hans Risseeuw (whom she divorced 20 years later) and they moved to Bolivia where Olga was Cultural Attaché to the Panamanian Embassy. After that they went to Jakarta, Indonesia where their two daughters Natasha and Suzanna were born. Since 1994 Olga and her family reside again in Panama. Olga is currently Panama's Cultural Ambassador.

World record
On January 18, 2014, in Panama City, Sinclair organized 5,084 children to paint simultaneously for three minutes to break the world record. The piece depicted a set of Canal locks as the event commemorated 100 years of the Panama Canal.

title: Olga Sinclair