text:
Caterpillar Inc.

Caterpillar Inc., also known as Cat, is an American construction, mining and other engineering equipment manufacturer. The company is the world's largest manufacturer of construction equipment. In 2018, Caterpillar was ranked number 73 on the Fortune 500 list and number 265 on the Global Fortune 500 list. Caterpillar stock is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Caterpillar Inc. traces its origins to the 1925 merger of the Holt Manufacturing Company and the C. L. Best Tractor Company, creating a new entity, California-based Caterpillar Tractor Company. In 1986, the company reorganized itself as a Delaware corporation under the current name, Caterpillar Inc. It announced in January 2017 that over the course of that year, it would relocate its headquarters from Peoria, Illinois, to Deerfield, Illinois, scrapping plans from 2015 of building an $800 million new headquarters complex in downtown Peoria. Its headquarters are located in Irving, Texas, since 2022.

The company also licenses and markets a line of clothing and workwear boots under its Cat / Caterpillar name. Additionally, the company licenses the Cat phone brand of toughened mobile phones and rugged smartphones since 2012. Caterpillar machinery and other company-branded products are recognizable by their trademark "Caterpillar Yellow" livery and the "CAT" logo.

Origins
The company traces its roots to the steam tractor machines manufactured by the Holt Manufacturing Company in 1890. The steam tractors of the 1890s and early 1900s were extremely heavy, sometimes weighing 1000 lb per horsepower, and often sank into the earth of the San Joaquin Valley Delta farmland surrounding Stockton, California. Benjamin Holt attempted to fix the problem by increasing the size and width of the wheels up to 7.5 ft tall and 6 ft wide, producing a tractor 46 ft wide, but this also made the tractors increasingly complex, expensive, and difficult to maintain.

Another solution considered was to lay a temporary plank road ahead of the steam tractor, but this was time-consuming, expensive, and interfered with earthmoving. Holt thought of wrapping the planks around the wheels. He replaced the wheels on a 40 hp Holt steamer, No. 77, with a set of wooden tracks bolted to chains. On Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 1904, he successfully tested the updated machine plowing the soggy delta land of Roberts Island.

Contemporaneously, Richard Hornsby & Sons in Grantham, Lincolnshire, England, developed a steel plate-tracked vehicle, which it patented in 1904. This tractor was the first to be steered using differential braking of the tracks, eliminating the forward tiller and steering wheel. Several tractors were made and sold to operate in the Yukon, one example of which was in operation until 1927, and remnants of it still exist. Hornsby found a limited market for their tractor, so they sold their patent to Holt five years after its development.

Company photographer Charles Clements, looking at the machine's upside-down image through his camera lens, commented that the track rising and falling over the carrier rollers looked like a caterpillar, and Holt seized on the metaphor. "Caterpillar it is. That's the name for it!" Some sources, though, attribute this name to British soldiers who had witnessed trials of the Hornsby tractor in July 1907. Two years later, Holt sold his first steam-powered tractor crawlers for US$5,500, about US$185,000 in 2024. Each side featured a track frame measured 30 in high by 42 in wide and were 9 ft long. The tracks were 3 in by 4 in redwood slats.

Holt received the first patent for a practical continuous track for use with a tractor on December 7, 1907, for his improved "Traction Engine" ("improvement in vehicles, and especially of the traction engine class; and included endless traveling platform supports upon which the engine is carried").

Headquarters locations

On February 2, 1910, Holt opened up a plant in East Peoria, Illinois, led by his nephew Pliny Holt. There, Pliny met farm implement dealer Murray Baker, who knew of an empty factory that had been recently built to manufacture farm implements and steam traction engines. Baker, who later became the first executive vice president of what became Caterpillar Tractor Company, wrote to Holt headquarters in Stockton and described the plant of the bankrupt Colean Manufacturing Co. of East Peoria. On October 25, 1909, Pliny Holt purchased the factory, and immediately began operations with 12 employees. Holt incorporated it as the Holt Caterpillar Company, although he did not trademark the name Caterpillar until August 2, 1910.

The addition of a plant in the Midwest, despite the hefty capital needed to retool the plant, proved so profitable that only two years later, the company employed 625 people and was exporting tractors to Argentina, Canada, and Mexico. Tractors were built in both Stockton and East Peoria.

On January 31, 2017, the company announced plans to move their headquarters from Peoria to Deerfield, Illinois, by the end of 2017. The new location at 500 Lake Cook Road is the former site of a Fiatallis plant that manufactured wheel loaders for many years.

On June 14, 2022, the company announced plans to move its global headquarters from Deerfield, Illinois, to Irving, Texas, beginning later in the year, citing "the best strategic interest of the company."

Use in World War I
The first tanks used in WWI were manufactured by William Foster & Co., also in Lincolnshire, England, and were introduced to the battlefield in 1916. That company had collaborated with Hornsby in the development of the vehicles demonstrated to the British military in 1907, providing the paraffin (kerosene) engines.

Holt's track-type tractors played a support role in World War I. Even before the U.S. formally entered WWI, Holt had shipped 1,200 tractors to England, France, and Russia for agricultural purposes. These governments, however, sent the tractors directly to the battlefront, where the military put them to work hauling artillery and supplies. When World War I broke out, the British War Office ordered a Holt tractor and put it through trials at Aldershot. The War Office was suitably impressed and chose it as a gun tractor. Over the next four years, the Holt tractor became a major artillery tractor, mainly used to haul medium guns such as the 6-inch howitzer, the 60-pounder, and later the 9.2-inch howitzer.

Holt tractors were also the inspiration for the development of the British tank, which profoundly altered ground warfare tactics. Major Ernest Swinton, sent to France as an army war correspondent, very soon saw the potential of a track-laying tractor. Although the British later chose an English firm to build its first tanks, the Holt tractor became "one of the most important military vehicles of all time."

Postwar challenges
Holt tractors had become well known during World War I. Military contracts formed the major part of the company's production. When the war ended, Holt's planned expansion to meet the military's needs was abruptly terminated. The heavy-duty tractors needed by the military were unsuitable for farmers. The company's situation worsened when artillery tractors were returned from Europe, depressing prices for new equipment and Holt's unsold inventory of military tractors. The company struggled with the transition from wartime boom to peacetime bust. To keep the company afloat, they borrowed heavily.

C. L. Best Gas Tractor Company, formed by Clarence Leo Best in 1910, and Holt's primary competitor, had during the war received government support, enabling it to supply farmers with the smaller agricultural tractors they needed. As a result, Best had gained a considerable market advantage over Holt by war's end. Best also assumed considerable debt to allow it to continue expansion, especially the production of its new Best Model 60 "Tracklayer".

Both companies were adversely impacted by the transition from a wartime to a peacetime economy, which contributed to a nationwide depression, further inhibiting sales. On December 5, 1920, 71-year-old Benjamin Holt died after a month-long illness.

Caterpillar company formed (1925)
The banks and bankers who held the company's large debt forced the Holt board of directors to accept their candidate, Thomas A. Baxter, to succeed Benjamin Holt. Baxter initially cut the large tractors from the company's product line and introduced smaller models focused on the agricultural market. When the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921 funded a US$1 billion federal highway building program, Baxter began refocusing the company towards building road-construction equipment. Both companies also faced fierce competition from the Fordson company.

Between 1907 and 1918, Best and Holt had spent about US$1.5 million in legal fees fighting each other in a number of contractual, trademark, and patent infringement lawsuits. Harry H. Fair of the bond brokerage house of Pierce, Fair & Company of San Francisco had helped to finance C. L. Best's debt and Holt shareholders approached him about their company's financial difficulty. Fair recommended that the two companies should merge. In April and May 1925, the financially stronger C. L. Best merged with the market leader Holt Caterpillar to form the Caterpillar Tractor Co.

The new company was headquartered in San Leandro until 1930, when under the terms of the merger, it was moved to Peoria. Baxter had been removed as CEO earlier in 1925, and Clarence Leo Best assumed the title of CEO, and remained in that role until October 1951.

The Caterpillar company consolidated its product lines, offering only five track-type tractors: the 2 Ton, 5 Ton, and 10 Ton from the Holt Manufacturing Company's old product line and the Caterpillar 30 and Caterpillar 60 from the C. L. Best Tractor Co.'s former product line. The 10 Ton and 5 Ton models were discontinued in 1926. In 1928, the 2 Ton was discontinued. Sales the first year were US$13 million. By 1929, sales climbed to US$52.8 million, and Caterpillar continued to grow throughout the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Caterpillar adopted the diesel engine to replace gasoline engines. During World War II, Caterpillar products found fame with the Seabees, construction battalions of the United States Navy, which built airfields and other facilities in the Pacific Theater of Operations. Caterpillar ranked 44th among United States corporations in the value of wartime military production contracts. During the postwar construction boom, the company grew at a rapid pace, and launched its first venture outside the U.S. in 1950, marking the beginning of Caterpillar's development into a multinational corporation.

In 2018, Caterpillar was in the process of restructuring, closing a demonstration center in Panama and an engine-manufacturing facility in Illinois.

Expansion in developing markets
Caterpillar built its first Russian facility in the town of Tosno, located near St. Petersburg, Russia. It was completed in 16 months, occupied in November 1999, and began fabricating machine components in 2000. It had the first electrical substation built in the Leningrad Oblast since the Communist government was dissolved on December 26, 1991. The facility was built under harsh winter conditions, where the temperature was below −25 °C. The facility construction was managed by the Lemminkäinen Group in Helsinki, Finland.

In May 2022, production at the Tosno plant was stopped. In November 2023, an agreement was reached on the sale of Caterpillar assets to the Russian company PSK - New Solutions, founded by people from Sberbank. Experts believe that the resumption of Caterpillar production is unlikely and the plant will be repurposed.

The $125 million Caterpillar Suzhou, People's Republic of China facility, manufactures medium-wheel loaders and motor graders, primarily for the Asian market. The first machine was scheduled for production in March 2009. URS Ausino, in San Francisco, California, manages facility construction.

Caterpillar has manufactured in Brazil since 1960. In 2010 the company announced plans to further expand production of backhoe and small wheel loaders with a new factory.

Caterpillar has been manufacturing machines, engines, and generator sets in India, as well. Caterpillar has three facilities in India, which are in Tamil Nadu (Thiruvallur and Hosur) and Maharastra (Aurangabad).

Acquisitions
In addition to increasing sales of its core products, much of Caterpillar's growth has been through acquisitions, including:

Divestitures
Caterpillar occasionally divests assets that do not align with its core competencies.

Business lines
Through fiscal year 2010, Caterpillar divided its products, services, and technologies into three principal lines of business: machinery, engines, and financial products for sale to private and governmental entities. As of 2022, Caterpillar reports its financials using four business segments: construction industries, resource industries, energy & transportation, and financial products.

Machinery
Caterpillar has a list of some 400 products for purchase through its dealer network. Caterpillar's line of machines range from tracked tractors to hydraulic excavators, backhoe loaders, motor graders, off-highway trucks, wheel loaders, agricultural tractors, and locomotives. Caterpillar machinery is used in the construction, road-building, mining, forestry, energy, transportation, and material-handling industries.

Caterpillar is the world's largest manufacturer of wheel loaders. The small size wheel loaders (SWL) are designed and manufactured at facilities in Clayton, North Carolina. The medium size (MWL) and large size (LWL) are designed at their Aurora, Illinois facility. Medium wheel loaders are manufactured at: Aurora, Illinois; Sagamihara, Kanagawa, Japan; Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil; India; and the People's Republic of China. Large wheel loaders are manufactured exclusively in the United States on three separate assembly lines at Aurora, Illinois.

On-road trucks
Caterpillar began selling a line of on-road trucks in 2011, the Cat CT660, a Class 8 vocational truck. As of March 2016, Caterpillar has ceased production of on-highway vocational trucks stating that “Remaining a viable competitor in this market would require significant additional investment to develop and launch a complete portfolio of trucks, and upon an updated review, we determined there was not a sufficient market opportunity to justify the investment,” said Ramin Younessi, vice president with responsibility for Caterpillar's Industrial Power Systems Division. “We have not yet started truck production in Victoria, and this decision allows us to exit this business before the transition occurs.”

Engines and gas turbines
A portion of Caterpillar's business is in the manufacturing of diesel and natural gas engines and gas turbines which, in addition to their use in the company's own vehicles, are used as the prime movers in locomotives, semi trucks, marine vessels, and ships, as well as providing the power source for peak-load power plants and emergency generators.

Caterpillar 3116 engine was used up until 1997, when Caterpillar introduced the inline 6 cylinder 7.2 litre Caterpillar 3126 engine as its first electronic diesel engine for light trucks and buses. Caterpillar decreased emissions and noise the next year in the 3126B version of the engine, and improved emissions further in 2002 with the 3126E which had an improved high-pressure oil pump and improved electronics. In 2003 Caterpillar started selling a new version of this engine called the C-7 to meet increased United States emission standards that came into effect in 2004; it had the same overall design as the 3126 version, but with improved fuel injectors and electronics which included its new Advanced Combustion Emissions Reduction Technology (ACERT) system. In 2007, as ultra-low-sulfur diesel became required in North America, Caterpillar updated the C7 to use common rail fuel injectors and improved ACERT electronics.

In 1998 Caterpillar purchased Perkins Engines of Peterborough, England, a maker of small diesel and gasoline engines. Perkins engines are used in various applications. Perkins engine products are dual branded with the Perkins nameplate for both loose and OEM engines, and the CAT nameplate for captive engines within Caterpillar products.

In June 2008, Caterpillar announced it would be exiting the on-highway diesel engine market in the United States before updated 2010 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) emission standards took effect, as costly changes to the engines, which only constituted a small percentage of Caterpillar's total engine sales, would be likely.

In October 2010, Caterpillar announced it would buy German engine-manufacturer MWM GmbH from 3i for $810 million.

Caterpillar Defense Products
The Caterpillar Defence Products subsidiary, headquartered in Shrewsbury, United Kingdom, provides diesel engines, automatic transmissions, and other parts for the UK's Titan armored bridge layer, Trojan combat engineering tank, Terrier combat engineering vehicles, and tank transporters; the Romanian MLI-84 armored personnel carrier; and the Swiss Piranha III light armored vehicle, which is currently being developed for use by American light armored formations; large fleets of military trucks in both the U.S. and UK; and the CV90 family of infantry fighting vehicles used by the armies of Sweden, Norway, Finland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Denmark.

This division also provides both propulsion engines and power generation systems to the naval shipbuilding industry, such as the Series 3512B turbocharged V-12 diesel engine for American Virginia-class submarine nuclear submarines. Caterpillar diesel engines are also used in San Antonio-class amphibious transport docks, Spanish Álvaro de Bazán-class frigates, British River-class offshore patrol vessels, Mexican Sierra-class corvette patrol boats, and Malaysian Kedah-class offshore patrol vessel MEKO A-100 offshore patrol vessels. The poor network security of the Caterpillar engines put the United States' submarine force at risk for cyberattack. In a 2015 interview on cybersecurity, the United States Navy clarified that Caterpillar actually has some of the most secure control systems. It will be used as a model of how the Navy will design cyber protections into its control systems.

The Israel Defense Forces' use of highly modified Caterpillar D9 bulldozers has led to Caterpillar being criticized by anti-Israel activists and some shareholders. In particular, the IDF Caterpillar D9 was involved in an incident in 2003, in which the American activist Rachel Corrie was killed by a bulldozer. A lawsuit against Caterpillar by her family and families of Palestinians, who were also killed by Caterpillar equipment, was unsuccessful. A lawsuit against Israel and Israeli Defense Ministry was rejected by the court, ruling that her death was an accident, caused by restricted field of view from the heavily armored operators' cabin. In 2014 Presbyterian Church (USA) sold its shares in Caterpillar citing the use of Caterpillar bulldozers involved in demolition and surveillance activities in the West Bank.

Caterpillar Electronics
The Caterpillar Electronics business unit has formed Caterpillar Trimble Control Technologies LLC (CTCT), a 50:50 joint venture with Trimble Inc. CTCT develops positioning and control products for earthmoving and paving machines in the construction and mining industries, using technologies such as GNSS, optical total stations, lasers, and sonics. The products are used in a range of applications where the operator of the machine benefits from having accurate horizontal and vertical guidance. CTCT is based in Dayton, Ohio, and started its operations on April 1, 2002.

Agriculture products
Caterpillar introduced the Challenger range of agricultural tractors as the result of several development programs over a long period of time. The program started in the 1970s and involved both the D6-based units and the Grader power units. A parallel program was also developing wheeled high hp tractors based on using the articulated loading shovel chassis was later merged with the crawler team. The result was the Challenger Tractor and the "Mobi-Trac" system.

The Challenger has been marketed in Europe as Claas machines since 1997, with Caterpillar marketing the Claas-built Lexion combine range in the USA. Claas and Caterpillar formed a joint venture, Claas Omaha, to build combine harvesters in Omaha, Nebraska, USA under the CAT brand. In 2002, Cat sold its stake to Claas, and licensed the use of CAT and the CAT yellow livery to Claas. They are marketed as Lexion combines now.

Also in 2002, Caterpillar sold the Challenger tracked tractor business to AGCO and licensed the use of the Challenger and CAT names and livery to them. This ended Cat's venture into agriculture.

Financial products and brand licensing
Caterpillar provides financing and insurance services to customers via Cat Financial and Caterpillar Insurance Services, both of which are subsidiaries of Caterpillar, Inc. Cat Financial provides retail and wholesale financing for Caterpillar products and services, in addition to other equipment provided or facilitated by the company. The company also generates income through the licensing of the Caterpillar and CAT trademarks and logos.

Caterpillar sells the right to manufacture, market, and sell products bearing the Cat trademark to licensees worldwide. Wolverine World Wide is one example, a licensee since 1994 and currently the sole company licensed to produce Cat branded footwear. Other licensees sell items including scale models of Cat products, clothing, hats, luggage, watches, flashlights, shovels, knives, fans, gloves, smartphones, and other consumer products.

Manufacturing
Caterpillar products and components are manufactured in 110 facilities worldwide. 51 of the 110 plants are located in the United States and 59 of the 110 overseas plants are located in Australia (until 2015), Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, and Sweden.

Caterpillar's historical manufacturing home is in Peoria, Illinois, which also has been the location of Caterpillar's world headquarters and core research and development activities. Although Caterpillar has contracted much of its local parts production and warehousing to third parties, Caterpillar still has four major plants in the Peoria area: the Mapleton Foundry, where diesel engine blocks and other large parts are cast; the East Peoria factory, which has assembled Caterpillar tractors for over 70 years; the Mossville engine plant, built after World War II; and the Morton parts facility.

Remanufacturing
Major facilities in Latin America:
 * Mexico: Oradel Industrial Center, Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, México (Since 1988)

Distribution
Caterpillar products are distributed to end-users in nearly 200 countries through Caterpillar's worldwide network of 220 dealers. Caterpillar's dealers are independently owned and operated businesses with exclusive geographical territories. Dealers provide sales, maintenance and repair services, rental equipment, and parts distribution. Finning, a dealer based in Vancouver, Canada, is Caterpillar's largest global distributor. Gmmco Ltd is India's No. 1 Dealer for Caterpillar Machines. United Tractor & Equipment (Pvt) Limited also known as UTE is the sole authorized dealer of Caterpillar machines and heavy equipment in Sri Lanka.

Most dealers use a management system called DBS for their day-to-day operations.

As of the first quarter of 2006, 66% of Caterpillar's sales are made by one of the 63 dealers in the United States, with the remaining 34% sold by one of Caterpillar's 157 overseas dealers.

Management
Caterpillar has a corporate governance structure where the chairman of the board also acts as chief executive officer (CEO). The board of directors is fully independent and is made up of non-employee directors selected from outside the company. Several group presidents report to the CEO, and multiple vice presidents report to each group president.

The board has three committees: audit; compensation and human resources; governance and public policy.

The behavior of all employees is governed by a code of worldwide business conduct, first published in 1974 and last amended in 2005, which sets the corporate standard for honesty and ethical behavior. Management employees are retested on this code annually.

Current board of directors
, the board of directors was composed as follows:

 * D. James Umpleby III
 * Daniel M. Dickinson
 * Gerald Johnson
 * David W. MacLennan
 * Debra L. Reed-Klages
 * Susan C. Schwab
 * Jim Umpleby—chairman and CEO
 * Rayford Wilkins, Jr.

On January 1, 2017, Jim Umpleby succeeded Douglas R. Oberhelman as CEO and Dave Calhoun became non-executive chairman. On December 12, 2018, Umpleby was named chairman of the board as well, reversing Caterpillar's previous decision to split the CEO and chairman position.

Workforce and labor relations
As of December 31, 2009, Caterpillar employed 93,813 persons of whom 50,562 are located outside the United States. Current employment figures represent a decline of 17,900 employees compared the third quarter of 2008. Due to the restructuring of business operations which began in the 1990s, there are 20,000 fewer union jobs in the Peoria, Illinois area while employment outside the U.S. has increased.

In 2020, it was reported that Caterpillar was planning to cut 700 jobs at its Northern Ireland operations.

Labor practices
Caterpillar came close to bankruptcy in the early 1980s, at one point losing almost US$1 million per day due to a sharp downturn in product demand as competition with Japanese rival Komatsu increased. (At the time, Komatsu used the internal slogan "encircle Caterpillar".) Caterpillar suffered further when the United States declared an embargo against the Soviet Union after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, causing the company to be unable to sell US$400 million worth of pipelaying machinery that had already been built.

Due to the drastic drop in demand, Caterpillar initiated employee layoffs, which led to strikes, primarily by the members of the United Auto Workers, against Caterpillar facilities in Illinois and Pennsylvania. Several news reports at the time indicated that products were piling up so high in facilities that replacement workers could barely make their way to their work stations.

In 1992, the United Auto Workers conducted a five-month strike against Caterpillar. In response, Caterpillar threatened to replace Caterpillar's entire unionized work force. Over ten thousand UAW members struck again in 1994–1995 for 17 months, a record at that time. The strike ended with the UAW deciding to return to work without a contract despite record revenues and profits by Caterpillar. In 1994, Caterpillar offered a contract to the UAW members that would have raised the salary of top workers from $35,000 to $39,000 per year. However, the UAW was seeking the same top wage of $40,000 that was paid to workers at John Deere & Company in 1994.

During the strikes, Caterpillar used management employees in an attempt to maintain production. It suspended research and development work, sending thousands of engineers and other non-bargained for employees into their manufacturing and assembly facilities to replace striking or locked out union members.

Rather than continuing to fight the United Auto Workers, Caterpillar chose to make itself less vulnerable to the traditional bargaining tactics of organized labor. One way was by outsourcing much of their parts production and warehouse work to outside firms. In another move, according to UAW officials and industry analysts, Caterpillar began to execute a "southern strategy". This involved opening new, smaller plants, termed "focus facilities", in right-to-work states. Caterpillar opened these new facilities in Clayton and Sanford, North Carolina; Greenville, South Carolina; Corinth, Mississippi; Dyersburg, Tennessee; Griffin and LaGrange, Georgia; Seguin, Texas; and North Little Rock, Arkansas.

In 2012, the company locked out workers at a locomotive plant in London, Ontario, Canada and demanded some accept up to a 50% cut in pay, in order to become cost-competitive with comparable Caterpillar manufacturing facilities in the United States. The move created controversy in Canada, with some complaining the plant was acquired under false pretenses. Retail store Mark's Work Wearhouse began pulling Caterpillar boots from its shelves as a result.

On May 1, 2012, 780 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local Lodge 851 went on strike. An agreement was reached in August, resulting in a 6-year wage freeze. Striking workers expressed anger about the freeze given the company's record 2011 profits and CEO Oberhelman's 60% salary increase.

Coerced labor in Xinjiang
In June 2020, it was reported that a Caterpillar clothing wholesaler, Summit Resource International, participates in a Chinese government-run labor transfer scheme that uses forced labor of Uyghurs in internment camps.

Environmental stewardship
Caterpillar divisions have won Illinois Governor's Pollution Prevention Awards every year since 1997. Caterpillar was awarded the 2007 Illinois Governor's Pollution Prevention Award for three projects: The Hydraulics and Hydraulic Systems business unit in Joliet implemented a flame sprayed coating for its truck suspension system, replacing a chroming process, reducing hazardous waste by 700,000 lb annually, and saving 14 e6USgal of water. Caterpillar's Cast Metals Organization in Mapleton worked with the American Foundry Society to help produce a rule to reduce hazardous waste in scrap metal that meet strict quality requirements, and also allow foundries to continue recycling certain types of scrap and maintain a competitive cost structure. Caterpillar's Mossville Engine Center formed a team to look at used oil reuse and recycle processes that forced MEC to send large amounts of used oil off-site for recycling, and developed an updated system for reclaiming it for reuse on-site. The resulting benefits included a usage reduction of about 208,000 USgal of oil per year.

In 2004 Caterpillar participated in initiatives such as the United States Environmental Protection Agency's National Clean Diesel Campaign program, which encourages retrofitting fleets of older buses and trucks with newer diesel engines that meet higher emissions standards.

In 2005, Caterpillar donated $12 million to The Nature Conservancy in a joint effort to protect and preserve river systems in Brazil, U.S.A., and China.

Caterpillar has, for many years, been a member of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development based in Geneva, Switzerland and has been listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index each year since 2001.

Clean Air Act violation
In July 1999, Caterpillar and five other diesel engine manufacturers signed a consent decree with the Justice Department and the State of California, after governmental investigations revealed violations of the Clean Air Act. The violation involves over a million diesel engines sold with defeat devices, devices that regulated emissions during pre-sale tests, but that could be disabled in favor of better performance during subsequent highway driving. Consequently, these engines "...emit up to triple the permissible level of smog-forming nitrogen oxides (NOx). In 1998 alone, these violating vehicles emitted 1,300,000 ST of additional NOx – an amount equal to the emissions of 65 million cars." For this reason, Caterpillar was named the "Clean Air Villain of the Month" for August 2000 by the Clean Air Trust. The consent decree provided that $83 million be paid in civil penalties and determined new deadlines for meeting emissions standards. Caterpillar, however, was successful in lobbying for an extension of deadlines they considered too severe. Even so, in October 2002, Caterpillar – the only diesel engine company (of those that signed decrees) to fail to meet the new emissions standards deadline – was forced to pay $128 million in per-engine non-conformance penalties.

Carbon footprint
Caterpillar reported Total CO2e emissions (Direct + Indirect) for the twelve months ending 31 December 2020 at 1,521 Kt (-310 /-16.9% y-o-y). Caterpillar plans to reduce emissions 30% by 2030 from a 2018 base year.

Tax deferral techniques
In March 2017, when US federal agents raided Caterpillar's headquarters in Peoria Ill., it was already evident that the company engaged in aggressive measures to control tax costs. Since April 2014, the company's tax policies have been investigated by a senate subcommittee headed by Senator Carl Levin. Those investigations uncovered significant changes in Caterpillar's offshore tax strategy, culminating in the creation of the new Swiss subsidiary Caterpillar SARL (CSARL) in Geneva. In 1999, former Caterpillar executive Daniel Schlicksup accused the company of funneling profits made on replacement parts into Switzerland, even though it had no warehouses or factories there. The Internal Revenue Service found the firm liable for a billion dollars of unpaid taxes for the years 2007 to 2009.

At the same time, the architect of Caterpillar's fiscal strategy, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), came under scrutiny because of PWC's conflict of interest in acting as Caterpillar's controller as well as being its global tax consultant. The Senate uncovered documents from PWC saying the elaborate move was simply a way to evade American taxes. "We are going to have to do some dancing" one said. Another noted, "What the heck, we will all be retired when this comes up on audit."

In January 2023, Caterpillar reached a settlement with the Internal Revenue Service and was not ordered to pay any penalties.

Israel Defense Forces sales
The sale of Caterpillar bulldozers to the Israeli military, and specifically the IDF Caterpillar D9, for use in the occupied Palestinian territories has long drawn criticism from human rights groups, society groups and responsible investment monitors.

Amnesty International released a report in May 2004 on home demolition in the occupied Palestinian territories that noted the risk of complicity for Caterpillar in human rights violations. The Office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights also sent a warning letter to the company the next month about its sales of bulldozers to the Israel Defense Forces and their use to destroy Palestinian farms. Human Rights Watch reported the same year on the systematic use of D9 bulldozers in what they contended were illegal demolitions throughout the occupied territories and called on Caterpillar to suspend its sales to Israel, citing the company's own code of conduct.

The pro-Palestinian group Jewish Voice for Peace and four Roman Catholic orders of nuns planned to introduce a resolution at a Caterpillar shareholder meeting subsequent to the human rights reports asking for an investigation into whether Israel's use of the company's bulldozer to destroy Palestinian homes conformed with the company's code of business conduct. In response, the pro-Israel advocacy group StandWithUs urged its members to buy Caterpillar stock and to write letters of support to the company.

The US investment indexer MSCI removed Caterpillar from three of its indexes for socially responsible investments in 2012, citing the Israeli military's use of its bulldozers in the Palestinian territories. In 2017, documents emerged that showed Caterpillar had hired private investigators to spy on the family of Rachel Corrie, the American human rights activist who was killed by a D9 bulldozer in Rafah in early 2003. In 2022, Stop the Wall called Caterpillar, alongside Hyundai Heavy Industries, JCB and Volvo Group, complicit in Israel's ethnic cleansing of the occupied Palestinian territories through the use of its equipment in the demolition of eight Palestinian villages in Masafer Yatta in the southern West Bank.

Trademark claims
Caterpillar Inc. has sought the revocations of registered trademarks in the United States incorporating the word "Cat" in markets unrelated to its machinery business, such as "Cat & Cloud" (a cafe in Santa Cruz, California), and Keyboard Cat. The company has faced criticism for this perceived "bullying", especially in cases where the likelihood of confusion is low.

Defective engines
In 2014, Caterpillar paid $46M to settle claims that one of its engines caused a fiery explosion on a ship owned by Bender Shipbuilding and Repair Company Inc. In 2016 Caterpillar paid $60M to settle claims that its bus engines were prone to breakdowns and fires.

Advocacy, philanthropy and awards
Caterpillar is a member of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition. A Washington D.C.-based coalition of over 400 major companies and NGOs that advocates for increased funding of American diplomatic and development efforts abroad through the International Affairs Budget. Economic development projects in developing countries (particularly in rural, agricultural regions) serve as new markets for Caterpillar products by improving political and economic stability and raising average incomes. 2011 recipient of the Henry C. Turner Prize for Innovation in Construction Technology from the National Building Museum.

title: Caterpillar Inc.


text:
Dish

Dish, dishes or DISH may refer to:

Culinary

 * Dish (food), something prepared to be eaten
 * Dishware, plates and bowls for eating, cutting boards, silverware

Communications

 * Dish antenna a type of antenna
 * Dish Network, a satellite television provider in North America
 * Dish TV, a satellite television provider in India
 * Satellite dish, an antenna for receiving satellite signals
 * Stanford Dish, a U.S. Government-owned radio-telescope at Stanford University

Arts, entertainment, and media

 * DISH (band), a Japanese band
 * Dish (American band), an American alternative rock band
 * "Dish", a 2016 single by Chancellor

Other uses

 * Dish, Texas, a town in Denton County, Texas, United States
 * Diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis, a form of arthritis
 * Dish of a bicycle wheel
 * Let's Dish!, a meal preparation company in Minnesota

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

title: Dish


text:
Thermochemical equation

A thermochemical equation is a balanced stoichiometric chemical equation that represents the energy changes from a system to its surroundings. One such equation involves the enthalpy change, which is denoted with ΔH. In variable form, a thermochemical equation would appear similar to the following:
 * A + B → C
 * ΔH = (±) #

{A, B, C} are the usual agents of a chemical equation with coefficients and “(±) #” is a positive or negative numerical value, which generally has units of kJ/J. Another equation may include the symbol E to denote energy; E 's position determines whether the reaction is considered endothermic or exothermic.

A + E → C (endothermic, where E would be considered a positive magnitude)

A → C + E (exothermic, where E would be considered a negative magnitude)

Understanding aspects of thermochemical equations
Enthalpy (H) is the transfer of energy in a reaction (for chemical reactions, it is in the form of heat) and ΔH is the change in enthalpy. ΔH is a state function, meaning that ΔH is independent of processes occurring between initial and final states. In other words, it does not matter which steps are taken to get from initial reactants to final products, as ΔH will always be the same. ΔHrxn, or the change in enthalpy of a reaction, has the same value of ΔH as in a thermochemical equation; however, ΔHrxn is measured in units of kJ/mol, meaning that it is the enthalpy change per moles of any particular substance in an equation. Values of ΔH are determined experimentally under standard conditions of 1 atm and 25 °C (298.15K).

As discussed earlier, ΔH can have a positive or negative sign. If ΔH has a positive sign, the system uses heat and is endothermic; if ΔH is negative, then heat is produced and the system is exothermic.

Endothermic: A + B + Heat → C, ΔH > 0

Exothermic: A + B → C + Heat, ΔH < 0

Since enthalpy is a state function, the ΔH given for a particular reaction is only true for that exact reaction. Physical states of reactants and products matter, as do molar concentrations.

Since ΔH is dependent on the physical state and molar concentrations in reactions, thermochemical equations must be stoichiometrically correct. If one agent of an equation is changed through multiplication, then all agents must be proportionally changed, including ΔH.

The multiplicative property of thermochemical equations is mainly due to the first law of thermodynamics, which says that energy can neither be created nor destroyed; this concept is commonly known as the conservation of energy. It holds true on a physical or molecular scale.

Coefficient multiplication
Thermochemical equations can be changed, as mentioned above, by multiplying by any numerical coefficient. All agents must be multiplied, including ΔH. Using the thermochemical equation of variables as above, one gets the following example.

 * A + B → C
 * ΔH= (±) #

One must assume that A needs to be multiplied by two in order for the thermochemical equation to be used. All the agents in the reaction must then be multiplied by the same coefficient, like so:

 * 2A + 2B → 2C

 * 2ΔH= 2[(±) #]

This is again considered to be logical when the First Law of Thermodynamics is considered. Twice as much product is produced, so twice as much heat is removed or given off. The division of coefficients functions in the same way.

Hess’s Law: Addition of thermochemical equations
Hess's Law states that the sum of the energy changes of all thermochemical equations included in an overall reaction is equal to the overall energy change. Since ΔH is a state function and is not dependent on how reactants become products as a result, steps (in the form of several thermochemical equations) can be used to find the ΔH of the overall reaction. For instance:

 * Reaction 1: C(graphite, s) + O2(g) → CO2(g)

This reaction is the result of two steps (a reaction sequence):

 * C(graphite, s) + ½O2(g) → CO(g)

 * ΔH = −110.5 kJ

 * CO(g) + ½O2(g) → CO2(g)

 * ΔH = −283.0 kJ

Adding these two reactions together results in Reaction 1, which allows ΔH to be found, so whether or not agents in the reaction sequence are equal to each other is verified. The reaction sequences are then added together. In the following example, CO(g) is not in Reaction 1 and equals another reaction.

 * C(graphite, s) + ½O2(g) + ½O2(g) → CO2(g)

and

 * C(graphite, s) + O2(g) → CO2(g), Reaction (1)

To solve for ΔH, the ΔHs of the two equations in the reaction sequence are added together:

 * (−110.5 kJ) + (−283.0 kJ) = (−393.5 kJ) = ΔH of Reaction (1)

Another example involving thermochemical equations is that when methane gas is combusted, heat is released, making the reaction exothermic. In the process, 890.4 kJ of heat is released, so the heat is written as a product of the reaction.

Other notes

 * If reactions have to be reversed for their products to be equal, the sign of ΔH must also be reversed.
 * If an agent has to be multiplied for it to equal another agent, all other agents and ΔH must also be multiplied by its coefficient.
 * Generally, ΔH values given in tables are under 1 atm and 25 °C (298.15 K).

Locations of values of ΔH
Values of ΔH have been experimentally determined and are available in table form. Most general chemistry textbooks have appendixes including common ΔH values. There are several online tables available. A software offered with Active Thermochemical Tables (ATcT) provides more information online.

title: Thermochemical equation


text:
Talk:José Ortega y Gasset

Translation
I've translated this from the Spanish-language Wikipedia. It could use some fleshing out (including about Ortega y Gasset's politics) and the "Philosophy" section at the bottom is very weak, but it's all there was in the original. -- Jmabel 19:38, 20 May 2004 (UTC)

cut from article: influential on Heidegger
I've brought the following recently added sentence over here for discussion.

 * Ortega y Gassett was extremely influential on existentialism, especially the work of Martin Heidegger as Ortega y Gasset was at pains to point out.

Since this pretty much accuses him of boasting about influencing Heidegger, I don't think this should be added without a citation of him making such a claim. -- Jmabel | Talk 23:26, Nov 22, 2004 (UTC)

If you read The Dehumanisation of Art (don't have page number to hand) Ortega y Gassett includes a long footnote in which he praises Heidegger (in a back handed sort of way) before pointing out that almost all of his best ideas were taken directly from 'Meditations on Quixote'. I will get the quote in a few weeks. Ortega y Gassett was not a modest man, and was very sensitive to being slighted, especially if this was because he was Spanish (he felt). BScotland

 * Makes sense, and with a citation I'd be glad to have it in there, but definitely not the sort of thing to add without citation. -- Jmabel | Talk 19:23, Nov 23, 2004 (UTC)

>> The Dehumanisation of Art Princeton University Press 1972 page 146.

'Heideggers admirable book Being and Time...arrives at a definition of life not far from this (i.e. the one Ortega is arguing for).....but i am obliged to say i owe Heidegger very little....of Heidegger's important concepts but one or two at most have not been previously expressed in one of my books....'....Ortega then goes on for two more pages (in a footnote!!!) to show the extent to which Heidegger 'stole' (my word not his) his (i.e. Ortega's) ideas.

So i have put the sentence back in.

 * Please see WP:INDEPENDENT. --Omnipaedista (talk) 02:04, 5 May 2016 (UTC)

Cut: true but trivial
"In spanish speaking countries there is a common joke relative to Ortega y Gasset. A literal translation of his name to english (if that was possible) would be Ortega and Gasset. The joke aquires many shapes but it basically verses on the fact that uneducated people think Ortega y Gasset are two spanish philosohpers (Ortega and Gasset)."

True enough, but not really important enough for an encyclopedia article. By the way, I'm pretty sure this joke shows up in Gabriel Cabrera Infante's Tres Tristes Tigres (somewhere in one of Bustrófedon's lists). A similar joke in English is on the name Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, pronounced (in the joke) as Sir Arthur Cohen and Doyle. I believe that one comes from Allan Sherman. -- Jmabel | Talk 07:53, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

Reference needed: uncited quote
This sentence, found toward the end of the of the section on Circunstancia 2.1, contains an important quote from Ortega that I feel merits an explicit reference. The sentence reads and sounds like Ortega and I feel that I have come across it before but for life of me I don't know where to start looking for it again.

The connextion that Ortega makes with fate and circumstances is often intentionally problematic and more dynamically dramatic then currently comes across. At the time I don't have any suggested changes other than citing the reference source.

 * "In this sense Ortega wrote that life is at the same time fate and freedom, and that freedom “is being free inside of a given fate. Fate gives us an inexorable repertory of determinate possibilities, that is, it gives us different destinies. We accept fate and within it we choose one destiny.”"

Tino 02:19, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Heavily influenced: John Lukacs
I added the significant historian and historical thinker John Lukacs to the list of those influenced by Ortega y Gasset. In Lukacs' most important work (at least by his own reckoning), Historical Consciousness, he quotes and references Ortega y Gasset often and with great approbation. On page 296 of that work, Lukacs scolds those who saw Ortega "as not much more than an unusually intelligent reactionary gadfly;" Lukacs, by contrast, considered him one of the 20th-century's most significant thinkers. Ortega also pops up in many of Lukacs' other works, but he is the most consistent individual references in Historical Consciousness. Julián Marías aside, Lukacs is probably the most significant individual strongly influenced by Ortega. Biasedbulldog (talk) 20:47, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

I'm saddened to learn of this connection... I came over to this page to congratulate all involved in this excellent article, and to remark that I'd had no idea what an interesting fellow this guy was (although I read the Revolt of the Masses many years ago and remember liking it a lot more than I expected to). The part of the article about the picture of truth that emerges from taking in all perspectives is great — I've been groping towards that notion for ages, but hadn't nailed it, and didn't realize anyone else had. But LUKACS??!! Oy vey! Around 1983 or so, I was hired to illustrate the jacket for a new edition of Historical Consciousness and had to try to read enough to know what I was dealing with. It was easily the most ridiculous book I've ever tried to read — layer after layer of meaningful-sounding hogwash, adding up to less than nothing, This wasn't due to an allergy to heavy thoughts or turgid prose per se — I got a charge out of every paragraph of the the preface to Hegel's Phenomenology, which was a breeze to read to compared to Lukacs, because it rewarded the effort — three or four re-readings would always reveal what Hegel was up to (flashing bulb over reader's head). But with Lukacs, the tenth reading was as barren of real meaning as the first. I hate to think Ortega y Gasset was in any way responsible for that disaster. I was really looking forward to delving into OyG's other work after seeing this article — now I'm inclined not to bother... I strongly disagree with your last sentence by the way — my father was a big fan of OyG and considered OyG a strong influence on his (deeply reactionary and sort of anti-intellectual, but still often reasonable) ideas; I can assure you my father was a more "significant individual" than Lukacs although he didn't publish anything besides a brief history of the local golf course, and a lot of letters to editors attacking socialists and the religious right with equal vehemence.Chelydra (talk) 05:12, 30 September 2008 (UTC)

 * I have to say you are incredibly mistaken, and that Ortega should be proud that he helped influence Lukacs. Historical Consciousness is a slightly inscrutable book at first, and it is certainly his most difficult work to understand.  I've read the intro to Phenomenology, and I found it to be twice as impenetrable as HC though.  Lukacs is a fantastic writer and an absolutely brilliant mind, one of the best thinkers of the 20th century.  I'm writing my undergraduate thesis on his work, and I have to say that I enjoy his writing as much now as I ever did. His narrative histories are very readable -- The Duel, Five Days in London, his book on the Blood, Sweat, Toil, Tears speech.  It is reassuring to know the origins of the '84 edition's cover, which I have always found to be, well, inscrutable and meaningless.  I should add that we made fun of it in class. Biasedbulldog (talk) 01:32, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

Ortega and solitude.
Despite having studied Ortega for over forty years, first under the tutelage of the remarkable and remarkably little-known Mickey Gibson, I don't feel comfortable making or suggesting any direct edits. The article is good enough as it goes and seems to cover all the bases. It would probably require re-casting in its entirety to make any substantive changes.

The area in which it seems a little light is the elision of Ortega's evocation of the concept of solitude, which is an existential condition rather than a psychological state, a fact of life rather than an opportunity to grieve. While maintaining the recognition that 'aloneness' is the default status of the human mind, this leads Ortega away from the fatalism and the consequent fascination with dread, anguish, and death that characterizes so much existential thought and speaks to his inherent optimism about the human capacity to change things.

There's a great deal more about Ortega that could be said, the deconstruction and re-integration of Descartes that is at the bottom of his revolutionary reconciliation of idealism and realism chief among them, but this is not the place for it.

Uniquerman (talk) 20:01, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Choice of word
"as Hegel proposed, overcome both the lack of idealism (in which reality gravitated around the ego) and ancient-medieval realism (which is for him an undeveloped point of view in which the subject is located outside the world) in order to focus in the only truthful reality (i.e. life).

I was a bit confused when I read this part of the article. Maybe it would be better to write "overcome the deficiencies of idealism".

Thanks.

You are welcome. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 46.210.237.123 (talk) 06:11, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

Merquior (talk) 23:17, 22 June 2010 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on José Ortega y Gasset. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070916073527/http://www.philosophyprofessor.com/philosophers/jose-ortega-y-gasset.php to http://www.philosophyprofessor.com/philosophers/jose-ortega-y-gasset.php

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 07:02, 28 April 2017 (UTC)

Death reasons?
Are there any death reasons? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Clrichey (talk • contribs) 21:17, 7 August 2020 (UTC)

Yo soy yo y mi circunstancia

 * This sub-section is not in English. The translation appears to be "I am me and my circumstance" but this needs to be checked and translated. --  Otr500 (talk) 04:16, 8 April 2023 (UTC)

Ratiovitalism

 * At first, I thought this might be a misspelling or a mistranslation. It turns out this is one of two words (according to the article and along with "vital reason") the subject coined.
 * This means the words are considered neologisms. In psychology Mr. Webster states "a new word that is coined especially by a person affected with schizophrenia and is meaningless except to the coiner, and is typically a combination of two existing words or a shortening or distortion of an existing word".
 * At any rate, Wikipedia is not a vehicle for advancing neologisms so the sub-section needs renaming. -- Otr500 (talk) 05:10, 8 April 2023 (UTC)

Article issues

 * There are other issues besides those listed above. The article is tagged with "This article needs additional citations for verification", a blanket tag for the whole article, but there is the "Works" section that needs attention and too many red links in the "Bibliography" section.

 * A paragraph and 38 entries in the "Works" section are unsourced. The entire "Bibliography" section is unsourced.
 * While there are (and have been) a following that sourcing on an article is not needed as long as any content is verifiable: All material in Wikipedia mainspace, including everything in articles, lists, and captions, must be verifiable. All quotations, and any material whose verifiability has been challenged or is likely to be challenged, must include an inline citation to a reliable source that directly supports the material, which is sort of like silence and consensus, that the criterion changes when challenged. There are typically two exceptions, 1)- a limited exception for unsourced and uncontested summary material in the lead that is sourced in the body of the article, and 2)- the "External links" section.
 * Wikipedia verification policy is not unclear and unsourced and challenged material can be removed. When unsourced content has been contested the criterion for re-inclusion is covered under WP:BURDEN.
 * Solutions include, providing citations, deleting unsourced contested material, and moving the unsourced and contested material to the talk page for future inclusion with citations.

title: Talk:José Ortega y Gasset


text:
2004 Israeli operation in Rafah

In 2004, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched Operation Rainbow (מבצע קשת בענן) in the southern Gaza Strip on 12–24 May 2004, involving an invasion and siege of Rafah. The operation was started after the deaths of eleven Israeli soldiers in two Palestinian attacks, in which M113 armored vehicles were attacked.

Human Rights Watch reported 59 Palestinians killed during 12–24 May, including 11 under age eighteen and 18 armed men. The IDF razed some 300 homes to expand the buffer zone along the Egypt–Gaza border, expanding it far inside the Gaza Strip. Also, a zoo and at least 700 dunams (70 ha) of agricultural land were destroyed.

Israel's declared aims of Operation Rainbow were finding and destroying smuggling tunnels, targeting terrorists, and securing the Philadelphi Route by expanding the buffer zone.

Background
In response to a repeated shelling of Israeli communities with Qassam rockets and mortar shells from Gaza, the IDF operated mainly in Rafah – to search and destroy smuggling tunnels used by militants to obtain weapons, ammunition, fugitives, cigarettes, car parts, electrical goods, foreign currency, gold, drugs, and cloth from Egypt. The IDF launched a series of armored raids on the Gaza Strip (mainly Rafah and refugee camps around Gaza). On 22 March 2004, an Israeli helicopter gunship killed Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and on 17 April, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi was killed by IDF helicopter gunship strike.

Buffer zone
Since 2001, the IDF has routinely demolished Palestinian houses in Rafah, to create a buffer zone. Persons entering or approaching the buffer zone, including humanitarian workers, foreign dignitaries and UN observers came under fire. Until 2000, the IDF used a 20–40 meter wide buffer zone along the Gaza/Egypt border with a 2.5 to 3 meters high concrete wall topped with barbed wire. In 2002, the IDF destroyed hundreds of houses in Rafah, needed for expansion of the buffer zone and the building of an eight meter high and 1.6 kilometers long metal wall along the border. The wall also extends two meters underground. The wall is built some eighty to ninety meters from the border, which doubled the width of the patrol corridor. After the metal wall was completed in early 2003, the demolitions continued and were even increased dramatically. According to Human Rights Watch, the wall was built far inside the demolished area to create a new starting point for justifying further demolitions. Between 1 April 2003 and 30 April 2004, 487 more houses were demolished in Rafah.

In May 2004, the Israeli government approved a plan to further expand the buffer zone. The Israeli military recommended demolishing all homes within three hundred meters of its positions, or about four hundred meters from the border.

Human rights group PCHR recorded 290 destroyed houses in Rafah in May 2004. According to UNWRA, the total number of house buildings destroyed by the IDF in May 2004 was some 298. 131 homes were destroyed between 1 and 10 May, already before the Government's decision; some 100 houses between 14 and 16 May (Human Rights Watch mentions several rows of houses on 12 May and quotes 88 to 116 between 14 and 16 May).

According to HRW, the IDF's justifications for the destruction were doubtful and rather consistent with the goal of having a wide and empty border area to facilitate long-term control over the Gaza Strip.

Aims of the operation
Initially, the operation just started as a response on the death of five soldiers in the Philadelphi corridor on 12 May 2004; on 13 May, the Israeli government reportedly approved a plan to widen the Philadelphi Route by destroying "dozens or perhaps hundreds" of homes.

On 17 May, the IDF launched "Operation Rainbow" with the objectives: finding and destroying smuggling tunnels, targeting "terrorists", and securing the Philadelphi Route. On 18 May, rumours were spread about arms shipments in the Sinai from Iran, waiting to be smuggled through the tunnels into Gaza. Israeli media mentioned anti-aircraft missiles and long-range rockets waiting to get in, possibly via tunnels underneath the Suez canal. Justice Minister Yosef Lapid said on 20 May that the Rafah operation was necessary to protect Israeli civilian airliners from anti-aircraft missiles that smugglers were attempting to bring into Rafah. No captures of such weapons are known, and a high-ranking Egyptian official interviewed by Human Rights Watch denied the existence of the shipment.

Many saw the assault on Rafah as excessive, and mainly motivated by an IDF desire to appear strong in the event of disengagement.

Preceding military actions
On May 11 and May 12, two M-113 armoured personnel carriers, one of Givati's Dolev combat engineering company and of the Combat Engineering Corps "Tunnels' Team", were destroyed by Palestinian militants. The two separate attacks, in Gaza City's Zeitoun neighbourhood and the Philadelphi Route near Rafah and the Egyptian border, claimed the lives of 11 IDF soldiers. Soon, Israeli troops entered the buffer zone to recover body parts of the dead soldiers. In the evening, the IDF attacked Rafah with tanks and helicopter gunships, firing shells and missiles as residents fled. Several rows of houses were demolished.

On 14 May, a large IDF force entered the "Brazil block" of Rafah and in a heavy fighting, as reported by UNWRA, 12 Palestinians were killed and 52 injured. Israeli forces began demolishing houses in the Qishta neighborhood. and destroyed scores of houses. Around midnight the same day, the Israeli High Court of Justice issued an interim order temporarily barring the IDF from demolishing homes in the refugee camp, if the action was not part of "a regular military operation". Nevertheless, the IDF continued the destruction of homes until 15 May 5:00 am because of "immediate military necessity, a risk to soldiers, or a hindrance to a military operation", raising the number of destroyed houses to just over 100, according to Mezan, even to circa 120.

On 16 May, the High Court ruled that the IDF may destroy homes according to their needs; the IDF had pledged that it would refrain from unnecessarily demolishing houses. The ruling caused panic among the residents and hundreds of Palestinians fled from their homes. Israeli helicopters fired missiles on the office of the weekly newspaper al-Resala in Gaza City, destroying its offices. The next day, Israel started "Operation Rainbow".

Operation Rainbow
In the morning of 17 May 2004, the Israel army launched "Operation Rainbow". At 1 pm, the IDF closed the only road between Rafah and Khan Yunis and initiated a total siege. Armoured vehicles, main battle tanks and armoured bulldozers entered Rafah from the east through the Sofa Crossing, effectively cutting off Rafah from the rest of the Gaza Strip.

The next day before dawn, the army surrounded Tel al-Sultan. Armoured vehicles, tanks and bulldozers supported by helicopter gunships entered the Tel al-Sultan quarter of Rafah simultaneously from several directions; the troops established a cordon around the area and separated the area from the rest of Rafah. A number of armoured vehicles entered through UNRWA schools in the southeastern part, causing extensive damage to the school grounds. Ambulances were prevented from evacuating the casualties out of fear that they would be hijacked by terrorists. Palestinians were prevented from accessing UNRWA's health clinic in the area. An ambulance was fired at. When a convoy of four ambulances accompanied by a Reuters vehicle were sent, they were also fired at. When they arrived at the victim, Israeli soldiers continued to fire. Israeli IDF Caterpillar D9 armoured bulldozers erected sand-barriers around Rafah to isolate it. Later, the D9s entered into the Rafah in order to open routes and demolish houses, allegedly used by militants. Extensive damage was caused to roads, water and sewage pipes and agricultural areas with greenhouses.

Under pressure of sharp international criticism, the Israel government declared on 18 May that the plan to widen a buffer zone along the Egyptian border was cancelled, while the same day, the army massively invaded Rafah and continued its large-scale destruction. The next day, the United Nations Security Council adopted "Resolution 1544", condemning the killing of Palestinian civilians and the demolition of homes.

On 19 May, the IDF ordered all males in Tel al-Sultan aged 16 years and above to gather at an UNRWA school and carried out house-to-house searches. An IDF tank fired four tank shells and a helicopter fired a missile on a group of demonstrating residents in Tel al-Sultan, killing 9 Palestinians and injuring 40–50 others. The IDF asserted there were gunmen in the crowd, although it did not claim to have come under fire. The IDF claimed that the shelling was intended as a warning to deter protesters and was not meant to cause casualties. IDF snipers used abandoned houses as firing positions. Many houses were damaged or destroyed. Israeli snipers shot at suspected militants who claimed they were civilians looking for water. The gunfire claimed the life of a Palestinian teen.

On 20 May the IDF entered the "Brazil", "As-Salam" and "Junena" areas of eastern Rafah and sealed off the areas. In some cases, water and electricity were cut off during the operation. Tens of homes were demolished in Brazil and As Salam without warning. Some Palestinians claimed that the IDF commenced the demolitions when they were still in their homes.

A testimony describes attacks on an ambulance: When the ambulance arrived at al-Brazil to pick up a woman and her three wounded children, Israeli tanks fired. With bulldozers and tanks, the ambulance was surrounded. A bulldozer started to place sand barriers in front of the ambulance, while another bulldozer was demolishing houses and putting the ruins behind the ambulance to lock it in. When the medical workers tried to leave the car, Israeli tanks fired. After 3 hours, the army started to remove the barriers and the ambulance returned, without the wounded civilians.

On 21 May, the Rafah zoo adjacent to the "Brazil" section of the Rafah refugee camp was destroyed during the operation. Some 60 homes were demolished and 35 others partially destroyed. also greenhouses and equipment were destroyed. The IDF withdrew their main forces from the center of Tel al-Sultan and the curfew was lifted.

On 22 and 23 May, a new incursion into the Brazil district took place. The IDF ordered all males in Abu Halaweh aged 16 years and above to gather and carried out house-to-house searches and demolitions. The IDF deliberately demolished two houses with the family who refused to leave inside. A soldier entered a house with a Palestinian as human shield. In Tel al-Sultan, the IDF destroyed with bulldozers and tanks two large agricultural areas full of greenhouses.

During the early hours of 24 May, Israeli forces withdrew completely from Tel al-Sultan, but remained present in the Brazil area until the end of the month. About 40 homes were destroyed from early in the morning until 6 pm.

On 1 June the operation officially ended. Surprisingly, the IDF choose to invade areas where armed resistance was limited, apparently to minimize confrontation with armed groups.

Destruction of the Rafah zoo
On 21 May the Israeli army completely destroyed the Rafah zoo, nearly 800 meters from the Egypt–Gaza border.

The IDF said they had destroyed the zoo while en route to another objective and because an alternate route had been booby-trapped. According to Human Rights Watch, the deliberate and time-consuming nature of the destruction, the seizure of the four-story Juma’ house, and the stationing of several tanks there for over a day means that it was not an action en route, but rather part of enforcing a cordon. The Guardian alleged that the IDF issued multiple discrepant accounts to explain its actions. Mohammed Juma also accused Israeli soldiers of stealing valuable African parrots.

Accusations of human rights violations
Al Mezan reported grave human rights violations. Many Palestinian civilians were killed. Many homes were destroyed or damaged. Medical services were obstructed, ambulances attacked, dead bodies could not be collected. Humanitarian assistance was denied. Large-scale wilful destruction of properties was reported; properties were stolen, soldiers urinated on mattresses and furniture. Civilians were systematically used as human shields. According to Al Mezan, the use as human shield was common use in such Israeli operations.

Casualties
From 12 to 15 May the IDF reportedly killed nine Palestinian civilians and six fighters. Eleven IDF soldiers died on 12–13 May, later during the military operation two Israeli soldiers were killed and two more wounded. Al Mezan reported 15 killed Palestinians, all from missile attacks on 14 and 15 May, and at least 44 Palestinians during Operation Rainbow, making a total of at least 59.

The IDF reportedly killed 32 Palestinian civilians, of whom 10 under age eighteen, as well as 12 armed fighters. Based on a variety of reports, accounts and statements, Human Rights Watch reported 59 Palestinians killed during 12–24 May, including 11 under age eighteen and 18 armed men.

According to the IDF, 41 militants and 12 civilians were killed during the operation, where some of the civilians were killed by Palestinian fire. During the operation, from 18 May to 25 May, no Israeli soldier was killed.

Damage
Pictures from Rafah showed a devastated city. Due to the use of armored bulldozers and tanks, extensive damage was caused to schools, roads, water and sewage pipes and agricultural areas with greenhouses, resulting in floods and risk of disease. At least 700 dunams (70 ha) of agricultural land were destroyed.

As of 23 May 2004 one smuggling tunnel had been found, which according to the Israeli army was 25 feet deep and contained explosives.

According to UN relief agency UNRWA, the IDF destroyed 45 buildings during the operation and 155 buildings in Rafah over the past month. Human rights groups estimated that the army had demolished some 170–180 buildings in Rafah, including some 300 homes. About 2,000 people became homeless in Operation Rainbow. According to Human Rights Watch, during 12–24 May, 254 houses were destroyed, leaving nearly 3,800 people homeless, and 44 another houses in the Rafah area during the same month in other operations.

Aftermath
On 29 June 2004, Israel started an invasion of Beit Hanoun. On 29 September, after a Qassam rocket hit the Israeli town of Sderot and killed two Israeli children, the IDF launched an invasion of the north of the Gaza Strip. The operation's stated aim was to remove the threat of Qassam rockets from Sderot. The operation ended on 16 October, leaving widespread destruction and some 130 Palestinians dead.

title: 2004 Israeli operation in Rafah


text:
Bass River

Bass River may refer to:

Australia

 * Bass River (Victoria), a relatively short coastal river

Canada

 * Bass River, Nova Scotia, an unincorporated rural community in Colchester County and small river therein located
 * Bass River, Kent County, an unincorporated rural community in Weldford Parish, Kent County, New Brunswick
 * Little Bass River, Nova Scotia

United States

 * Bass River (Michigan), a tributary of the Grand River in Ottawa County
 * Bass River (Massachusetts), an estuary and village in South Yarmouth, Massachusetts, United States
 * Bass River (New Jersey), a tributary of the Mullica River
 * Bass River Township, New Jersey

title: Bass River


text:
Hellenization

Hellenization (also spelled Hellenisation) or Hellenism is the adoption of Greek culture, religion, language, and identity by non-Greeks. In the ancient period, colonisation often led to the Hellenisation of indigenous peoples; in the Hellenistic period, many of the territories which were conquered by Alexander the Great were Hellenized.

Etymology
The first known use of a verb that means "to Hellenize" was in Greek (ἑλληνίζειν) and by Thucydides (5th century BC), who wrote that the Amphilochian Argives were Hellenised as to their language by the Ambraciots, which shows that the word perhaps already referred to more than language. The similar word Hellenism, which is often used as a synonym, is used in 2 Maccabees (c. 124 BC) and the Book of Acts (c. AD 80–90) to refer to clearly much more than language, though it is disputed what that may have entailed.

Historical
By the 4th century BC, the process of Hellenization had started in southwestern Anatolia's Lycia, Caria and Pisidia regions. (1st century fortifications at Pelum in Galatia, on Baş Dağ in Lycaonia and at Isaura are the only known Hellenistic-style structures in central and eastern Anatolia).

When it was advantageous to do so, places like Side and Aspendos invented Greek-themed origin myths; an inscription published in SEG shows that in the 4th century BC Aspendos claimed ties to Argos, similar to Nikokreon of Cyprus who also claimed Argive lineage. (Argos was home to the Kings of Macedon.) Like the Argeads, the Antigonids claimed descent from Heracles, the Seleucids from Apollo, and the Ptolemies from Dionysus.

The Seuthopolis inscription was very influential in the modern study of Thrace. The inscription mentions Dionysus, Apollo and some Samothracian gods. Scholars have interpreted the inscription as evidence of Hellenisation in inland Thrace during the early Hellenistic, but this has been challenged by recent scholarship.

However, Hellenization had its limitations. For example, areas of southern Syria that were affected by Greek culture mostly entailed Seleucid urban centres, where Greek was commonly spoken. The countryside, on the other hand, was largely unaffected, with most of its inhabitants speaking Syriac and clinging to their native traditions.

By itself, archaeological evidence only gives researchers an incomplete picture of Hellenization; it is often not possible to state with certainty whether particular archaeological findings belonged to Greeks, Hellenized indigenous peoples, indigenous people who simply owned Greek-style objects or some combination of these groups. Thus, literary sources are also used to help researchers interpret archaeological findings.

Anatolia
"Greek cultural influence spread into Anatolia in a slow rate from the 6th to 4th century. The Lydians had been particularly receptive to Greek culture, as were the 4th century dynasties of Caria and Lycia as well as the inhabitants of the Cicilian plain and of the regions of Paphlagonia. The local population found their desires for advancement a stimulus to learn Greek. The indigenous urban settlements and villages in Anatolia coalesced, on their own initiative, to form cities in the Greek manner. The local kings of Asia Minor adopted Greek as their official language and sought to imitate other Greek cultural forms."

Worship of the Greek pantheon of gods was practiced in Lydia. Lydian king Croesus often invited the wisest Greek philosophers, orators and statesmen to attend his court. Croesus himself often consulted the famous oracle at Delphi-bestowing many gifts and offerings to this and other religious sites for example. He provided patronage for the reconstruction of the Temple of Artemis, to which he offered a large number of marble columns as dedication to the goddess.

It was in the towns that Hellenisation made its greatest progress, with the process often being synonymous with urbanisation. Hellenisation reached Pisidia and Lycia sometime in the 4th century BC, but the interior remained largely unaffected for several more centuries until it came under Roman rule in the 1st century BC. Ionian, Aeolian and Doric settlers along Anatolia's Western coast seemed to have remained culturally Greek and some of their city-states date back to the Archaic Period. On the other hand, Greeks who settled in the southwestern region of Pisidia and Pamphylia seem to have been assimilated by the local culture.

Crimea
Panticapaeum (modern day Kerch) was one of the early Greek colonies in Crimea. It was founded by Miletus around 600 BC on a site with good terrain for a defensive acropolis. By the time the Cimmerian colonies had organised into the Bosporan Kingdom much of the local native population had been Hellenized. Most scholars date the establishment of the kingdom to 480 BC, when the Archaeanactid dynasty assumed control of Panticapaeum, but classical archaeologist Gocha R. Tsetskhladze has dated the kingdom's founding to 436 BC, when the Spartocid dynasty replaced the ruling Archaeanactids.

Judea
The Hellenistic Seleucid and Ptolemaic kingdoms that formed after Alexander's death were particularly relevant to the history of Judaism. Located between the two kingdoms, Judea experienced long periods of warfare and instability. Judea fell under Seleucid control in 198 BC. By the time Antiochus IV Epiphanes became king of Judea in 175 BC, Jerusalem was already somewhat Hellenized. In 170 BC, both claimants to the High Priesthood, Jason and Menelaus, bore Greek names. Jason had established institutions of Greek education and in later years Jewish culture started to be suppressed including forbidding circumcision and observance of the Sabbath.

Hellenization of members of the Jewish elite included names and clothes, but other customs were adapted by the rabbis, and elements that violated the halakha and midrash were prohibited. One example is the elimination of some aspects of Hellenistic banquets, such as the practice of offering libations to the gods, while incorporating certain elements that gave the meals a more Jewish character. Discussion of Scripture, the singing of sacred songs and attendance of students of the Torah were encouraged. One detailed account of Jewish-style Hellenistic banquets comes from Ben Sira. There is literary evidence from Philo about the extravagance of Alexandrian Jewish banquets, and The Letter of Aristeas discusses Jews dining with non-Jews as an opportunity to share Jewish wisdom.

Pisidia and Pamphylia
Pamphylia is a plain located between the highlands of Lycia and Cilicia. The exact date of Greek settlement in the region is not known; one possible theory is that settlers arrived in the region as part of Bronze Age maritime trade between the Aegean, Levant and Cyprus, while another attributes it to population movements during the instability of the Bronze Age Collapse. The Greek dialect established in Pamphylia by the Classical period was related to Arcado-Cypriot.

Mopsus is a legendary founder of several coastal cities in southwestern Anatolia, including Aspendos, Phaselis, Perge and Sillyon. A bilingual Phoenician and neo-Hittite Luwian inscription found at Karatepe, dated to 800 BC, says that the ruling dynasty there traced their origins to Mopsus. Mopsus, whose name is also attested to in Hittite documents, may originally have been an Anatolian figure that became part of the cultural traditions of Pamphylia's early Greek settlers. Attested to in Linear B texts, he is given a Greek genealogy as a descendant of Manto and Apollo.

For centuries the indigenous population exerted considerable influence on Greek settlers, but after the 4th century BC this population quickly started to become Hellenised. Very little is known about Pisidia prior to the 3rd century BC, but there is quite a bit of archeological evidence that dates to the Hellenistic period. Literary evidence, however, including inscriptions and coins are limited. During the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, native regional tongues were abandoned in favour of koine Greek and settlements began to take on characteristics of Greek polis.

The Iron Age Panemoteichos I may be an early precursor to later regional Hellenistic settlements including Selge, Termessos and Sagalassos (believed to be the three most prominent cities of Hellenistic Pisidia). The site is evidence of "urban organisation" that predates the Greek polis by 500 years. Based on Panemoteichos I and other Iron Age sites, including the Phrygian Midas şehri and the Cappadocian fortification of Kerkenes, experts believe that "behind the Greek influence that shaped the Hellenistic Pisidian communities there lay a tangible and important Anatolian tradition."

According to the writings of Arrian the population of Side, who traced their origins to Aeolian Cyme, had forgotten the Greek language by the time Alexander arrived at the city in 334 BC. There are coins and stone inscriptions that attest to a unique script from the region but the language has only been partially deciphered.

Phrygia
The latest dateable coins found at the Phrygian capital of Gordion are from the 2nd century BC. Finds from the abandoned Hellenistic era settlement include imported and locally produced imitation Greek-style terracotta figurines and ceramics. Inscriptions show that some of the inhabitants had Greek names, while others had Anatolian or possibly Celtic names. Many Phrygian cult objects were Hellenised during the Hellenistic period, but worship of traditional deities like the Phrygian mother goddess persisted. Greek cults attested to include Hermes, Kybele, the Muses and Tyche.

Syria
Greek art and culture reached Phoenicia by way of commerce before any Greek cities were founded in Syria. but Hellenisation of Syrians was not widespread until it became a Roman province. Under Roman rule in the 1st century BC there is evidence of Hellenistic style funerary architecture, decorative elements, mythological references, and inscriptions. However, there is a lack of evidence from Hellenistic Syria; concerning this, most scholars view it as a case of "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence".

Bactria
The Bactrians, an Iranian ethnic group who lived in Bactria (northern Afghanistan), were Hellenised during the reign of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and soon after various tribes in northwestern regions of the Indian subcontinent underwent Hellenisation during the reign of the Indo-Greek Kingdom.

Early Christianity
The periodisation of the Hellenistic Age, between the conquests of Alexander the Great up to Octavian's victory at the Battle of Actium, has been attributed to the 19th-century historian J. G. Droysen. According to this model the spread of Greek culture during this period made the rise of Christianity possible. Later, in the 20th century, scholars questioned this 19th-century paradigm for failing to account for the contributions of Semitic-speaking and other Near Eastern cultures.

The twentieth century witnessed a lively debate over the extent of Hellenisation in the Levant, particularly among the ancient Jews, which has continued until today. Interpretations on the rise of Early Christianity, which was applied most famously by Rudolf Bultmann, used to see Judaism as largely unaffected by Hellenism, and the Judaism of the diaspora was thought to have succumbed thoroughly to its influences. Bultmann thus argued that Christianity arose almost completely within those Hellenistic confines and should be read against that background, as opposed to a more traditional Jewish background. With the publication of Martin Hengel's two-volume study Hellenism and Judaism (1974, German original 1972) and subsequent studies Jews, Greeks and Barbarians: Aspects of the Hellenisation of Judaism in the pre-Christian Period (1980, German original 1976) and The 'Hellenisation' of Judaea in the First Century after Christ (1989, German original 1989), the tide began to turn decisively. Hengel argued that virtually all of Judaism was highly Hellenised well before the beginning of the Christian era, and even the Greek language was well known throughout the cities and even the smaller towns of Jewish Palestine. Scholars have continued to nuance Hengel's views, but almost all believe that strong Hellenistic influences were throughout the Levant, even among the conservative Jewish communities, which were the most nationalistic.

In his introduction to the 1964 book Meditations, Anglican priest Maxwell Staniforth discussed the profound influence of Stoic philosophy on Christianity: Again in the doctrine of the Trinity, the ecclesiastical conception of Father, Word, and Spirit finds its germ in the different Stoic names of the Divine Unity. Thus Seneca, writing of the supreme Power which shapes the universe, states, 'This Power we sometimes call the All-ruling God, sometimes the incorporeal Wisdom, sometimes the holy Spirit, sometimes Destiny.' The Church had only to reject the last of these terms to arrive at its own acceptable definition of the Divine Nature; while the further assertion 'these three are One', which the modern mind finds paradoxical, was no more than commonplace to those familiar with Stoic notions.

Eastern Roman Empire
The Greek East was one of the two main cultural areas of the Roman Empire and began to be ruled by an autonomous imperial court in AD 286 under Diocletian. However, Rome remained the nominal capital of both parts of the empire, and Latin was the state language. When the Western Empire fell and the Roman Senate sent the regalia of the Western Emperor to the Eastern Emperor Zeno in AD 476, Constantinople (Byzantium in Ancient Greek) was recognised as the seat of the sole Emperor. A process of political Hellenisation began and led, among other reforms, to the declaration of Greek as the official language.

Modern times
In 1909, a commission appointed by the Greek government reported that a third of the villages of Greece should have their names changed, often because of their non-Greek origin. In other instances, names were changed from a contemporary name of Greek origin to the ancient Greek name. Some village names were formed from a Greek root word with a foreign suffix or vice versa. Most of the name changes took place in areas populated by ethnic Greeks in which a stratum of foreign or divergent toponyms had accumulated over the centuries. However, in some parts of northern Greece, the population was not Greek-speaking, and many of the former toponyms had reflected the diverse ethnic and linguistic origins of their inhabitants.

The process of the change of toponyms in modern Greece has been described as a process of Hellenisation. A modern use is in connection with policies pursuing "cultural harmonization and education of the linguistic minorities resident within the modern Greek state" - the Hellenisation of minority groups in modern Greece. The term Hellenisation (or Hellenization) is also used in the context of Greek opposition to the use of the Slavic dialects of Greece.

In 1870, the Greek government abolished all Italian schools in the Ionian islands, which had been annexed to Greece six years earlier. That led to the diminution of the community of Corfiot Italians, which had lived in Corfu since the Middle Ages; by the 1940s, there were only 400 Corfiot Italians left.

Arvanites
Arvanites are descendants of Albanian settlers who came to the present southern Greece in the late 13th and early 14th century. With participation in the Greek War of Independence and the Greek Civil War, this has led to increasing assimilation amongst the Arvanites. The common Orthodox Christian faith they shared with the rest of the local population was one of the main reasons that led to their assimilation. Other reasons for assimilation are large-scale internal migration to the cities and subsequent intermingling of the population. Although sociological studies of Arvanite communities still used to note an identifiable sense of a special "ethnic" identity among Arvanites, the authors did not identify or never identified a sense of 'belonging to Albania or to the Albanian nation'. Many Arvanites find the designation "Albanians" offensive as they identify nationally and ethnically as Greeks and not Albanians. Because of this, relations between Arvanites and other Albanian-speaking populations have diverged over time. During the onset of the Greek war of Independence, Arvanites fought alongside Greek revolutionaries against Muslim Albanians. For example, Arvanites participated in the 1821 Tripolitsa Massacre of Muslim Albanians, while some Muslim Albanian speakers in the region of Bardounia remained after the war, converting to Orthodoxy. In recent times, Arvanites have expressed mixed opinions towards recent Albanian settlers within Greece. Other Arvanites during the late 1980s and early 1990s expressed solidarity with Albanian immigrants, due to linguistic similarities and being politically leftist. Relations too between Arvanites and other Orthodox Albanian-speaking communities such as those of Greek Epirus are mixed, as they are distrusted regarding religious matters due to a past Albanian Muslim population living amongst them.

There are no monolingual Arvanitika-speakers, as all are today bilingual in Greek. However, while Arvanites are bilingual in Greek and Arvanitika, Arvanitika is considered an endangered language as it is in a state of attrition due to the large-scale language shift towards Greek among the descendants of Arvanitika-speakers in recent decades, becoming monolingual Greek speakers in the end, and since Arvanitika is almost exclusively a spoken language, Arvanites also no longer have practical affiliation with the Standard Albanian language used in Albania, as they do not use this form in writing or in media.

title: Hellenization


text:
WFMU

WFMU is a listener-supported, independent community radio station licensed to East Orange, New Jersey. Since 1998, it has been headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey. It broadcasts in northeast New Jersey at 91.1 MHz FM, to New York City and Rockland County via a repeater at 91.9 FM, and in the Hudson Valley, the Lower Catskills, western New Jersey, and eastern Pennsylvania from Mount Hope, New York at 90.1 via the repeater station WMFU. It is the longest-running free-form radio station in the U.S. The station's main terrestrial transmitter is located in West Orange, New Jersey.

Philosophy and influence
WFMU does not belong to any existing public broadcasting network, and nearly 100% of its programming originates at the radio station.

"WFMU is a place where the Singing Dogs are just as important as Elvis; a place where you will, in fact, hear Elvis, but in close proximity to ritual disinterment music from Sumatra, the soundtrack from Mothra, a theremin band called Lothar and the Hand People, and the intergalactic jazz improvisations of Sun Ra's Arkestra," wrote Jaime Wolf in a 1999 New York Times station profile.

WFMU was named "Best Radio Station in the Country" by Rolling Stone magazine for four consecutive years: 1991 to 1994. and has also been dubbed the best radio station in either NYC or the US by The Village Voice, New York Press, and CMJ, among others. The station also won three awards ("Best Specialty Programming", "Most Eclectic Programming", and "Music Director Most Likely to Never Sell Out") at the 2006 CMJ College Radio Awards.

Notable history
In April 1958, WFMU commenced broadcasting as a radio station licensed to Upsala College in East Orange, New Jersey. Initially a student-staffed and faculty-administered college radio operation, by the 1980s most of the station's staff had no affiliation with the college, and the station's management, though hired by the college, had little involvement with the academic community.

In December 1983, Ken Freedman joined WFMU as a DJ and succeeded Bruce Longstreet as general manager in August 1985.

In 1989, WFMU successfully fended off a challenge to the station's license from four rival broadcasters, who claimed that WFMU was broadcasting above its legal power limit.

A 1990 telephone performance on WFMU by Daniel Johnston was the primary inspiration for filmmaker Jeff Feuerzeig to create the documentary film, The Devil and Daniel Johnston.

In late 1991, Jeff Buckley made his radio debut on WFMU and returned numerous times before signing with Columbia Records.

In 1992, the non-profit organization Auricle Communications was founded, which purchased WFMU's license from Upsala in 1994 one year prior to the college's bankruptcy in 1995.

In 1993 the station launched its website, and in 1997 it began streaming its broadcasts full-time.

In August 1998, listener donations funded a new studio and office in Jersey City.

In May 2001, WFMU received worldwide attention when both national and international media outlets covered DJ Glen Jones's successful attempt to break the Guinness World Record for longest consecutive radio broadcast, staying on the air a full 100 hours, 42 seconds.

In 2005, WFMU expanded its online broadcasting efforts by offering 15 hours a week of Internet-only live programming, as well as an independent 24-hour-a-day webcast of Nachum Segal's Jewish Moments in the Morning program.

In January 2006, WFMU announced the availability of the station's live stream and archives to cellular phones and other mobile devices running the operating systems Windows Mobile (Pocket PC) and Palm OS.

In November 2007, WFMU became the first radio station in the world to offer live streaming to the Apple iPhone.

From 2014 to 2015, a documentary on WFMU, Sex and Broadcasting: A Film About WFMU, screened at American film festivals and independent cinemas nationwide.

title: WFMU


text:
Bass River (New Jersey)

The Bass River is a 4.7 mi tributary of the Mullica River in southeastern New Jersey in the United States.

The river is located primarily in Bass River, New Jersey, which was named for the river, which was in turn named for Jeremiah Basse, who served as governor of both West Jersey and East Jersey.

It rises in the Pinelands of southeastern Burlington County and flows generally south, through Bass River State Forest, and joins the Mullica from the north approximately 1 mi upstream from its mouth on Great Bay. The lower 2 mi of the river forms an arm of the estuary of the Mullica. The river is part of the watershed of the Mullica that drains an extensive unspoiled wetlands region of New Jersey. The majority of the land within the drainage basin is forested, and under state protection. Near the mouth and lower parts of the river, there is tidal influence.

Tributaries
Tommys Branch

East Branch Bass River

West Branch Bass River

Dans Bridge Branch

title: Bass River (New Jersey)


text:
User:Eequor/Sininaniinaninaan

Sininaniinaninaan (literally, in the presence of the Blue Lady) is the religion of the goddess Eequor. It recognizes the impermanence and transience of all things in life and suggests a quiet humility in the face of these facts.

Chaos
Entropy is the natural state of the universe. All things must come to transformation and eventual destruction. Nothing in life should be held with such great importance that its loss is unbearable; indeed, such loss must be expected and even valued when it occurs: for loss brings a recognition of worth, however final.

Chaos is all things. Chaos can create or destroy; it can wound or heal. It can be hostile and destructive; it can be loving and generative. It is to be feared, respected, loved, and worshipped.

Sininaniinaninaan rejects the idea that there is always "one right way" as dictated by laws. There is always more than one way to do anything. The individual must look to all possibilities, able to change their path in any direction when unforeseen obstacles arise.

Love
The emphasis of Sininaniinaninaan is on the healing and constructive elements of chaos. Senseless, random violence and destruction is abhorrent to Eequor. All should strive to find harmony with humankind and with nature: in this way the unpredictability of life can be guided to construct rather than destroy.

At the focus of this construction is love. Love is the most vital and least understood of emotions. It should never be taken lightly and never claimed unless it is truly felt. Too easily love is confused with lust -- the simple hormonal urge to procreate. True love has no desires except to sustain itself and to benefit its target. Love needs nothing to sustain itself except a belief that it exists.

The Greeks had four terms for the kinds of love that may be felt. These are:
 * agape - unconditional love
 * philia - love of a friend for another
 * storge - love within a family
 * eros - lust

Of these, only agape is true. Philia and storge are placeholder terms to allow one to claim love when it is not true. Eros is an animal instinct and has nothing to do with love. Agape is all that an individual should need.

One must learn to love and hold love for all things throughout their transient existences. The greatest ability is to appreciate an entity in all its ways and to venerate it in its passage from one's life.

Organization

 * Func, atheist
 * Rohit Gupta
 * jereme
 * Leah Q, priestess of Eequor
 * Silume, agnostic

title: User:Eequor/Sininaniinaninaan