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Switzerland national football team

The Switzerland national football team (Schweizer Fussballnationalmannschaft, Nazionale di calcio della Svizzera, Équipe nationale suisse de football, Squadra naziunala da ballape da la Svizra) represents Switzerland in men's international football. The national team is controlled by the Swiss Football Association.

Switzerland's best performances at the FIFA World Cup have been three quarter-finals appearances, in 1934, 1938 and 1954. They hosted the competitions in 1954, where they played against Austria in the quarter-finals match, losing 7–5, which still stands as the highest scoring World Cup match ever. At the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Switzerland set a FIFA World Cup record by being eliminated from the tournament despite not conceding a single goal, being eliminated by Ukraine after penalties in the round of sixteen. They did not concede a goal until a match against Chile at the 2010 FIFA World Cup, conceding in the 75th minute, setting a World Cup tournament record for consecutive minutes without conceding a goal.

Switzerland and Austria were the co-hosts of UEFA Euro 2008, where the Swiss made their third appearance in the competitions, but failed for a third time to progress from the group stage. However, since then, the Swiss made it to the round of 16 during Euro 2016, and achieved a record-best quarter-finals showing at Euro 2020 after eliminating world champions France.

Overall, Switzerland's best ever result at an official football competition was the silver medal they earned in 1924, after losing to Uruguay 3–0 in the finals of the 1924 Olympic Games.

1924–1966: early years, World Cup host nation
At the 1924 Paris Olympic Games, Switzerland finished with a silver medal after losing to Uruguay in the final, losing 3–0. The team's debut appearance at the World Cup was in 1934, where they reached the quarter-finals after beating the Netherlands 3–2 in the round of sixteen before getting knocked out by Czechoslovakia. Switzerland once again reached the quarter-finals in 1938, after beating Germany in the round of sixteen, winning 4–2 after a replay but were knocked out by Hungary, losing 2–0. At the 1950 World Cup, Switzerland were drawn in a group with Brazil, Yugoslavia and Mexico, where they lost 4–0 to Yugoslavia in the opening match, drew 2–2 with Brazil in their second match and beating Mexico 2–1 in their final group mach, and finished third in their group. On 22 July 1946, Switzerland was awarded the right to host the 1954 World Cup unopposed, in Luxembourg City. At the World Cup, Switzerland finished second in their group behind England; beating Italy and losing to England, but qualified for the quarter-finals after beating Italy in a group play-off. They were knocked out of the tournament after losing 7–5 to Austria. At the 1962 World Cup, Switzerland finished bottom of the group, losing all three games, losing 3–1 to Chile, 2–1 to West Germany and 3–0 to Italy. A similar result occurred at the 1966 World Cup, where Switzerland again finished at the bottom of their group losing all three of their matches, 5–0 to West Germany, 2–1 to Spain and 2–0 to Argentina.

1992–1996: the Roy Hodgson era
In 1992, Switzerland appointed English manager Roy Hodgson as head coach of the national team; at the time of his appointment, the Swiss had not qualified for any major tournament since 1966. Under his guidance, Switzerland rose to 3rd in the FIFA World Ranking in August 1993, which still remains their highest FIFA ranking to this day. Hodgson led Switzerland to the 1994 FIFA World Cup, losing just one game during qualifying, in a group that included Italy, Portugal, and Scotland. The Swiss won their home tie with Italy, and in the away game, took a 2–0 lead before being pegged back to a 2–2 draw, and also took four points from Scotland, winning 3–1 at home and drawing 1–1 away. Against the Portuguese, Switzerland drew 1–1 at home and lost 1–0 in the away fixture in Porto, their only defeat of the qualifying campaign. Their opening match against hosts United States, on 18 June 1994, was played indoors at the Pontiac Silverdome in Detroit, and the two teams drew 1–1 in the opening match of the World Cup. In the next match, they won 4–1 over Romania, and in their final game against Colombia, the Swiss lost 2–0. Nevertheless, Switzerland still qualified from the group, but were knocked out by Spain, losing 3–0.

2000–2008: the Köbi Kuhn era
At UEFA Euro 1996, Switzerland once again easily qualified for the tournament hosted in England, as they topped their qualifying group, losing just once, which was a 1–2 defeat to Turkey. They were drawn in Group A, but their tournament was disappointing overall; as they finished bottom of the group. Their opening match was against hosts England, and the two sides drew 1–1. In their second match, they lost 2–0 to the Netherlands, and in their final group game, lost 1–0 to Scotland. Switzerland failed to qualify for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, hosted in France, as they finished fourth in their qualifying group, winning three games; 3–2 against Finland, 1–0 against Hungary and 5–0 against Azerbaijan, drawing one game against Hungary (1–1), and losing three games; 1–0 against Azerbaijan and losing both games against Norway, losing 1–0 at home and 5–0 away.

In qualifying for UEFA Euro 2004, Switzerland finished top of a group that featured Russia, the Republic of Ireland, Albania and Georgia. The Swiss finished with 21 points and qualified for the finals in Portugal, where they were drawn in Group B with defending champions France, England and Croatia. They began the tournament with a 0–0 draw with Croatia before succumbing to a 3–0 defeat to England in the next match. They lost their final match against France; losing 3–1 and finishing bottom of the group. Their only goal of the entire tournament was scored by Johan Vonlanthen, who became the youngest ever goalscorer at the Euros when he scored the equalizing goal against France; surpassing the previous record set only four days earlier by Wayne Rooney by three months.

The Swiss managed to qualify for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, overcoming Turkey by the away goals rule in Istanbul, the country's first World Cup since 1994. In the tournament, Switzerland was drawn in Group G with former world champions France, 2002 World Cup's fourth-place finisher South Korea and debutant Togo. In their first encounter, Switzerland bravely held the mighty France and Zinedine Zidane 0–0, before overcoming the Togolese 2–0 in the second match, tied with the South Koreans four points, however the Swiss were inferior to the Koreans by number of goals scored, meaning that the last game a must-win. The Swiss then managed to beat South Korea 2–0 in the final match, occupying first place in their group while knocking the Asians out of the tournament. In the round of sixteen, Switzerland faced Ukraine, but lost on penalty shootout in a match that has been criticized as the worst game in World Cup history. Yet, Switzerland was the only team to be eliminated without conceding a single goal.

Switzerland, along with Austria, were chosen as co-hosts of UEFA Euro 2008. The Swiss were drawn in Group A with Portugal, Turkey and the Czech Republic. Their opening match was a 1–0 loss to the Czech Republic, followed by a 1–2 defeat to Turkey. Their third match was against Portugal, with Switzerland winning 2–0 to ensure that Portugal would top their group with a defeat.

2008–2014: the Ottmar Hitzfeld era
In their first match at the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the team defeated eventual champions Spain 1–0 with a goal by Gelson Fernandes, but they were still eliminated in the group stage. In the second match, a goal scored by Mark González in the 75th minute of the game against Chile ended a 559-minute streak without conceding a goal in World Cup matches, beating the record previously held by Italy by nine minutes. Switzerland did not advance further than the group after a 0–0 draw with Honduras in the third and final group match.

Switzerland did not qualify for UEFA Euro 2012; missing out on the tournament for the first time in a decade, as they finished third in the qualifying group, a group featuring England, Montenegro, Wales and Bulgaria. Switzerland's initial start in qualifying was overall poor; losing 1–3 to England in the first game played, in which Xherdan Shaqiri scored his first goal for the national team, followed by a 1–0 defeat to Montenegro. Switzerland then recorded a 4–1 win over Wales before consecutive draws against Bulgaria (0–0) and England (2–2). Switzerland's hopes of qualifying were restored with a 3–1 win over Bulgaria, with a hat-trick from Xherdan Shaqiri. However, following a 2–0 loss to Wales (in which Reto Ziegler earned a red card) and Montenegro's surprising last-minute equalizer against England in a 2–2 draw, Switzerland's hopes of qualifying were mathematically made impossible. In the final game, Switzerland earned redemption against Montenegro as they came out with a 2–0 win. Switzerland's top goalscorer during the qualifying period was Xherdan Shaqiri, with 4 goals.

At the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, Switzerland were drawn to play France, Honduras and Ecuador in the group stage. They advanced to the round of sixteen with a 3–0 win over Honduras, with a hat-trick from Xherdan Shaqiri. In the knockout match against Argentina, they lost 1–0, conceding to Ángel Di María in the 118th minute.

2016–2021: the Vladimir Petković era
At Euro 2016, Switzerland were selected to play in Group A of the tournament; alongside hosts France, Albania and Romania. In the first game, Switzerland won 1–0 over Albania, with the only goal being scored by Fabian Schär in the fifth minute of the game. The next match was a 1–1 draw with Romania, with Switzerland initially conceding from a penalty but equalizing in the second half following a goal from Admir Mehmedi. The final group game was against France, drawing 0–0. However, the game spread notoriety for several Swiss players' jerseys being ripped during challenges with the French players, and also for the ball bursting during a challenge between Antoine Griezmann and Valon Behrami when they both converged on the ball, with the game also attracting attention for its poor surface, which was criticised by both coaches and players of the two teams; after the game, Switzerland's kit manufacturer had blamed "faulty material" for the incidents regarding the jerseys being ripped. Switzerland, due to the draw, finished second in the group to set up a tie against Poland in the round of sixteen; initially the Swiss conceded but managed to find a late equalizer from Xherdan Shaqiri, who scored a bicycle-kick to send the game into extra-time, but the Swiss were knocked out as Granit Xhaka had missed the second penalty during the penalty shootout, as all other players managed to convert their penalties, with Poland winning 5–4 on penalties to go through and knock out the Swiss. In qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Switzerland were drawn with Portugal, Hungary, Faroe Islands, Latvia and Andorra. The Swiss began their qualifying group with a shock 2–0 win over European champions Portugal, who had won the tournament less than two months prior to playing with them on 6 September. Afterwards, they beat Hungary 2–3, Andorra 2–1, Faroe Islands 2–0, Latvia 1–0 in the first five games, leading the group on maximum points. In the reverse fixtures, they beat Faroe Islands 2–0, Andorra 3–0, Latvia 3–0 and Hungary 5–2,   before facing Portugal in the final group game, where they lost 2–0, meaning they would have to play in the play-offs; where they were ranked as the best second-placed team, and were drawn to play Northern Ireland. In the first leg, played on 9 November, they won 1–0 through a controversial penalty scored by Ricardo Rodríguez, and three days later played in the second leg, drawing 0–0 and advancing to the World Cup finals in Russia with a 1–0 aggregate win. Before the World Cup, Switzerland were ranked 6th in the world ranking, even ranking higher than eventual World Cup winners France.

At the World Cup, Switzerland were drawn to play Brazil, Serbia and Costa Rica in Group E. They began their campaign with a 1–1 draw with Brazil, before beating Serbia 2–1 through a late winning goal from Xherdan Shaqiri. The game with Serbia sparked controversy for the celebrations performed by goalscorers Xherdan Shaqiri and Granit Xhaka (both ethnic Albanians), along with Stephan Lichtsteiner as the trio performed a celebration where they crossed their hands to depict a double-headed eagle, the official emblem of Albania, considered by many as an Albanian nationalist symbol, however, they were not banned by FIFA for this. Their final group game was with Costa Rica; which they drew 2–2, with Blerim Džemaili and Josip Drmić scoring; thus finishing second in the group. They were drawn to play Sweden in the round of sixteen, a fixture they lost 1–0, getting knocked out of the tournament.

On 23 January 2018, Switzerland were selected to play in the inaugural edition of the UEFA Nations League, a tournament contested by all UEFA member's national teams, being drawn to play in League A, in Group 2, against Belgium and Iceland.

At Euro 2020, postponed to 2021 due to COVID-19, Switzerland finished third in Group A which contained Italy, Wales and Turkey; however, they managed to qualify to the knockout stage as one of the best third-placed teams. In the round of 16, they defeated World Cup champions France on penalties, after finishing 3–3 and overcoming a 1–3 second half deficit, to have their first knockout phase win in a major tournament since the 1938 World Cup. In the subsequent quarter-final game against Spain, they once again took the game to penalties, after trailing 1–0. However, after converting only one of their four penalties, they exited the tournament at this stage.

2021–present: the Murat Yakin era
On 9 August 2021, Yakin became the manager of the Swiss national team. During the 2022 World Cup qualification, Switzerland finished in the first place ahead of Italy in Group C, which granted them a spot in the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. During the World Cup, Switzerland finished second in Group G to qualify the round of 16, where they lost 6–1 to Portugal. In 2023, Switzerland played against Romania, Israel, Belarus, Kosovo, and Andorra to qualify for Euro 2024. The Swiss finished second behind Romania.

The Euro 2024 tournament was a major success for Switzerland, as they finished second in their group with 5 points, moving onto the Round of 16. During the Round of 16, Switzerland caused a major upset by defeating defending champions Italy and reaching the Quarter-Finals for the second time in their history.

Kit
The Switzerland national team's traditional home kit is red shirts, white shorts and red socks, with the away kit being reverse with white shirts, red shorts and white socks, although the colours of the shorts and socks are interchangeable if there is a minor clash. Switzerland, since being established in 1895, have always had the same colour code, as tradition and homage to the national colours which are derived from the Swiss flag. The current kit manufacturer is Puma, who have made their kits since 1998.

Results and fixtures
The following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.

Current squad
The following 26 players were called up to the squad for UEFA Euro 2024.

Caps and goals updated as of 6 July 2024, after the match against 🏴 england.

Recent call-ups
The following players have also been called up for the team in the last twelve months and are still available for a call up.

 * Notes
 * COV = Player withdrew from the squad due to testing positive for COVID-19.
 * INJ = Player withdrew from the squad due to an injury or illness.
 * PRE = Preliminary squad.
 * RET = Retired from international football.
 * SUS = Serving suspension.

Individual statistics

 * Players in bold are still active with Switzerland.

Competitive record
The best result Switzerland have achieved thus far is the quarter-finals of the World Cup on three occasions, in 1934, 1938 and 1954, while they also reached the same stage at Euro 2020 and 2024. They earned a silver medal at the 1924 Olympic Games, held in Paris, where they lost 3–0 to Uruguay in the final.

FIFA World Cup

 * * Draws include knockout matches decided via penalty shoot-out.
 * ** Red border colour indicates that the tournament was held on home soil.

UEFA European Championship

 * * Draws include knockout matches decided via penalty shoot-out.
 * ** Red border colour indicates that the tournament was held on home soil.

UEFA Nations League

 * * Draws include knockout matches decided via penalty shoot-out.

Head-to-head record
As of 6 July 2024, after the match against 🏴 england.

title: Switzerland national football team


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Sportsman's Park

Sportsman's Park was the name of several former Major League Baseball ballpark structures in St. Louis, Missouri. All but one of these were located on the same piece of land, at the northwest corner of Grand Boulevard and Dodier Street, on the north side of the city.

History
Sportsman's Park was the home field of both the St. Louis Browns of the American League, and the St. Louis Cardinals of the National League from 1920 to 1953, when the Browns relocated to Baltimore and were rebranded as the Orioles.

The physical street address was 2911 North Grand Boulevard. The ballpark (by then known as Busch Stadium, but still commonly called Sportsman's Park) was also the home to professional football: in, it hosted St. Louis' first NFL team, the All-Stars, and later hosted the St. Louis Cardinals of the National Football League from 1960 (following the team's relocation from Chicago) until 1965, with Busch Memorial Stadium opening its doors in 1966.

1881 structure
Baseball was played on the Sportsman's Park site as early as 1867. The tract was acquired in 1866 by August Solari, who began staging games there the following year. It was the home of the St. Louis Brown Stockings in the National Association and the National League from 1875 to 1877.

It was originally called the Grand Avenue Ball Grounds: some sources say the field was renamed Sportsman's Park in 1876, although local papers were not using that name until 1881, and some local papers used the alternate name "Grand Avenue Park" until at least 1885. The first grandstand, one of three on the site, was built in 1881. At that time, the diamond and the grandstands were on the southeast corner of the block, for the convenience of fans arriving from Grand Avenue. The park was leased by the then-major American Association entry, the St. Louis "Brown Stockings", or "Browns". The Browns were a very strong team in the mid-1880s, but their success waned.

When the National League absorbed the strongest of the old Association teams in 1892, the Browns were brought along. Soon they went looking for a new ballpark, finding a site just a few blocks northwest of the old one, and calling it New Sportsman's Park, which was later renamed Robison Field. They also changed team colors from Brown to Cardinal Red, thus acquiring a new nickname, and leaving their previous team colors as well as the old ballpark site available.

After a fire at the Cardinals' ballpark on May 4, 1901, the club arranged to play some games at the original Sportsman's Park, which by then was being called "Athletic Park" and had only minimal seating. After a May 5 game, it was clear that the old park would no longer be a workable option: the team played on the road for a month while their own park was being rebuilt.

1902 and 1909 structures
When the American League Milwaukee Brewers moved to St. Louis in 1902 and took the Browns name, they built a new version of Sportsman's Park. They initially placed the diamond and the main stand at the northwest corner of the block.

This Sportsman's Park saw football history made: it became both the practice field and home field for Saint Louis University football teams, coached by the visionary Eddie Cochems, father of the forward pass. Although the first legal forward pass was thrown by Saint Louis' Bradbury Robinson in a road game at Carroll College in September 1906, Sportsman's Park was the scene of memorable displays of what Cochems called his "air attack" that season. These included a 39–0 thrashing of Iowa before a crowd of 12,000 and a 34–2 trouncing of Kansas witnessed by some 7,000. Robinson launched an amazingly long pass in the game against the Jayhawks, which was variously reported to have traveled 48, 67 or 87 yards in the air. College Football Hall of Fame coach David M. Nelson called the pass extraordinary, "considering the size, shape and weight" of the fat, rugby-style ball used at that time. Sports historian John Sayle Watterson agreed. In his book, College Football: History, Spectacle, Controversy, Watterson described Robinson's long pass as "truly a breathtaking achievement". St. Louis finished with an 11–0 record in 1906, outscoring its opponents 407–11.

In 1909, the Browns moved the diamond to its final location, at the southwest corner, in the shadow of a new steel and concrete grandstand, the third such stadium in the major leagues, and the second in the American League (after Shibe Park).

The previous wooden grandstand was retained as left-field bleachers for a while, but was soon replaced with permanent bleachers. The Cardinals came back to their original home in mid-1920, as tenants of the Browns, after abandoning the outdated and mostly-wooden Robison Field.

After nearly winning the American League pennant in 1922, Browns owner Phil Ball confidently predicted that there would be a World Series in Sportsman's Park by 1926: in anticipation, he increased the capacity of his ballpark from 18,000 to 30,000. There was a World Series in Sportsman's Park in 1926—but it was the Cardinals, not the Browns, who took part in it, with the Cardinals upsetting the Yankees in a memorable seventh game.

Although the Browns had been the stronger team in the city for the first quarter of the century, they had never been quite good enough to win a pennant: after the previously weak Cardinals had moved in, the two teams' situations had started to reverse, both on and off the field. The Cardinals' 1926 World Series victory more or less permanently tipped the balance in their favor, and from then on, the Cardinals were clearly St. Louis' favorite team, though still tenants of the Browns. The 1944 World Series between the Cardinals and the Browns, won by the Cardinals by four games to two, was perhaps a good metaphor for the two clubs' respective situations: it remains the last World Series to be played entirely in one stadium as the home venue for both competing clubs, with the exception of the neutral-site play in the 2020 World Series.

In addition to its primary use as a baseball stadium, Sportsman's Park also hosted several soccer events. These included several in the St. Louis Soccer League, and the 1948 National Challenge Cup when St. Louis Simpkins-Ford defeated Brookhattan for the national soccer championship.

In 1936, Browns owner Phil Ball died. His family sold the Browns to businessman Donald Lee Barnes, but the Ball estate maintained ownership of Sportsman's Park until 1946, when it was sold to the Browns for an estimated price of over US$1 million.

1953 sale
By the early 1950s, it was clear that St. Louis could not support both teams. Bill Veeck, owner of the Browns (who at one point lived with his family in an apartment under the park's stands), fancied that he could drive the Cardinals out of town through his promotional skills. However, Veeck caught an unlucky break when the Cardinals' owner, Fred Saigh, pleaded no contest to tax evasion. Faced with certain banishment from baseball, Saigh sold the Cardinals to Anheuser-Busch in February 1953. Veeck soon realized that the Cardinals now had more resources at their disposal than he could ever hope to match. Reluctantly, he concluded he was finished in St. Louis, and had no other option but to move the Browns.

As a first step, he sold Sportsman's Park to the Cardinals for $800,000. Busch immediately renovated the stadium, which had not been well maintained in some time. Even with the rent from the Cardinals, the Browns had not been bringing in nearly enough revenue to bring the park up to code, with city officials even threatening to have the park condemned. Before the start of the next season, the Browns relocated to Baltimore and were rebranded as the Orioles. The brewery originally wanted to name the ballpark Budweiser Stadium. Commissioner Ford Frick vetoed the name because of public relations concerns over naming a ballpark after a brand of beer. However, the commissioner could not stop Anheuser-Busch president August Busch, Jr. from renaming it after himself, so the park was renamed Busch Stadium. However, many fans still called it by the old name. The Anheuser-Busch "eagle" model that sat atop the left field scoreboard flapped its wings after a Cardinal home run. The next year, Anheuser-Busch introduced a new economy lager branded as "Busch Bavarian Beer", thus gaming Frick's ruling and allowing the ballpark's name to be branded by what would eventually be Anheuser-Busch's second most popular beer brand.

Sportsman's Park / Busch Stadium was the site of a number of World Series contests, first way back in the mid-1880s, and then in the modern era. The 1964 Series was particularly memorable, the park's last, and featured brother against brother, Ken Boyer of the Cardinals and Clete Boyer of the Yankees. The Cardinals' triumph in seven games led to Yankees management replacing Yogi Berra with the Cardinals' ex-manager Johnny Keane (he had resigned after winning the Series), an arrangement which lasted only to early 1966. Both Series managers were St. Louis natives, but neither had ever played for the Cardinals. The stadium also hosted Major League Baseball All-Star Games in 1940, 1948, and 1957.

Replacement
Despite Busch's extensive renovations, it soon became apparent that Sportsman's Park was at the end of its useful life.

Parking at the stadium was almost non-existent. Its concrete-and-steel incarnation had been built only a year after the Model T was introduced, and the park had been designed in an era when fans took the trolley to games, meaning it was ill-suited to automobile access. Additionally, the neighborhood around the park had an increase in crime and dereliction starting in the late 1940s. In 1964, a Cardinals fan making his way to the home opener was shot and killed during an armed robbery.

Sportsman's Park/Busch Stadium was replaced early in the 1966 season by Busch Memorial Stadium, during which time much was made of baseball having been played on the old site for more than a century. A helicopter carried home plate to Busch Memorial Stadium after the final game at Sportsman's Park on May 8, 1966. The 1966 stadium was replaced forty years later by the new Busch Stadium in April 2006. Donated by August Busch, the Sportsman's Park site became home to the Herbert Hoover Boys Club, which is now Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis. While the grandstand was torn down, the diamond was still intact at the time the structures were cleared, and the field is now used for other sports.

Dimensions
For a small park, there were plenty of posted distance markers. The final major remodeling was done in 1926. Distance markers had appeared by the 1940s:

The following links provide images of the field's markers.
 * Photo of left field markers
 * Photo of center and right center field markers
 * Photo of right field markers

The diamond was conventionally aligned east-northeast (home plate to center field), and the elevation of the field was approximately 500 ft above sea level.

Layout
The left field and right field walls ran toward center, roughly perpendicular to the foul lines or at right angles to each other. The center field area was a short diagonal segment connecting the two longer walls. When distance markers were first posted, there was a 426 marker at the left corner of that segment, and a 422 marker at the right corner of it. There was another 422 marker a few feet to the left of the other one, and that marked "true" center field. For symmetry, a corresponding marker (425) was set a few feet to the right of the 426. The two corner markers were eventually painted over, leaving just the 425 and the true centerfield 422.

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

title: Sportsman's Park


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User:Cyrius/Related changes pages/Stuff I've written

I don't really want to maintain a "brag" page as such, but there's some policy document somewhere that says we should keep an eye on pages we start. So I'm trying to maintain a list here so they won't get lost in my watchlist.

There's nothing to see here, move along.

Stuff I've written

 * American Society of Mechanical Engineers
 * comic relief
 * Glass catfish
 * Wolfgang Paul
 * Maurice LaMarche
 * Will Rogers phenomenon
 * Hurricane Hunters
 * Hurricane Audrey
 * Keesler Air Force Base
 * William M. Gray
 * Bobby Marcano - one of the weirder things I've done.
 * Dude, Where's My Car?
 * Pork chop
 * Pioneer H
 * Hook echo

Various Texas-related stuff

 * Texas State University System
 * Lamar University
 * Sul Ross State University
 * Lamar Institute of Technology
 * Lawrence Sullivan Ross
 * 1943 Surprise Hurricane
 * Elissa (ship)
 * Sabine Pass, Texas
 * Toledo Bend Reservoir
 * Sabine Pass
 * Indianola, Texas
 * Handbook of Texas
 * Jim Turner (Congressman)
 * Fannett, Texas
 * Boondocks Road
 * Texas Department of Public Safety
 * Gulf States Utilities
 * US Camel Corps
 * Bolivar Peninsula
 * Tony Sanchez
 * South Texas State Fair
 * Sea Rim State Park
 * Rainbow Bridge (Texas)
 * New London School explosion

Stuff I've edited extremely heavily

 * Galveston Hurricane of 1900 - brought to Featured article status

Projects

 * Most everything under List of Atlantic hurricane seasons


text:
Académie internationale d'Héraldique

L'Académie internationale d'Héraldique (known in English as the International Academy of Heraldry) was founded in Paris in 1949 to bring together experts in heraldry representing the various areas of the world. Admission is by election, and the number of active academicians is limited to 75. There is no limit to the number of associate members.

The general assembly usually meets once a year, and the headquarters of L'Académie are in Switzerland. The Académie's aim is to centralize the heraldic studies on the basis of the largest possible international cooperation. Applications for admission are addressed to L'Académie in writing and must have the sponsorship of to members of the Council. On a bi-yearly basis, the Académie holds the International Heraldic Colloquium. Recent colloquia have been held in Antwerp (2019) and Copenhagen (2017).

Current president (since 2022) is Elizabeth Roads (UK) with Peter Kurrild-Klitgaard as secretary general.

Prominent members of L'Académie

 * Luigi Borgia (born in Rome in 1941 and died in Arezzo in 2023, former director of the State Archive of Arezzo and professor of heraldry at the School of Archival and Paleography of the State Archive of Florence)
 * Claire Boudreau
 * D'Arcy Boulton
 * Cecil Humphery-Smith
 * Michel Pastoureau
 * Hervé Pinoteau (former vice president of the Académie Internationale d'Héraldique and historian).
 * Elizabeth Roads
 * Gerard Slevin
 * Hallvard Trætteberg
 * Auguste Vachon
 * Robert Watt

title: Académie internationale d'Héraldique


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Yūichirō Miura

Yūichirō Miura (三浦 雄一郎) is a Japanese skier and alpinist.

Early life
Miura was born in Aomori City in northernmost Tōhoku region of northeast Japan on October 12, 1932. His father, Keizo Miura, was a Japanese skier. Yūichirō was exposed to snow sports from the time he was a child, and placed in his first skiing competition during his second grade year in elementary school. He moved south with his family but found that he missed the snow and winter sports, prompting him to enroll at Hokkaido University. There, he continued to pursue skiing as a professional sport.

Career
Miura competed in speedskiing and downhill skiing. His advanced ability to ski, especially in the back-country, required him to reach high elevations by hiking, expanding the breadth of his skills to include wintertime Alpine mountaineering. Once he became a prolific mountain climber, Miura began challenging larger mountains and skied down many of them. While active in ski competitions, he competed for the average speed in the 100 meter section of the steep slope downhill. The world's highest record was established in Italy in July 1964 with a speed of 172.084 km/h.

Miura became the first person to ski on Mount Everest on May 6, 1970. Using a parachute to slow his descent, he skied down nearly 6,600 vertical feet from the South Col (elevation over 7,900 m (26,000 ft)), before falling for some 1,300 feet, and stopping just 250 feet from plunging into the bergschrund at the upper reaches of the Khumbu Glacier. This feat was documented in 1975, in the film The Man Who Skied Down Everest. The film won the Academy Award for best documentary, the first sports film to do so. He also succeeded in skiing downhill at seven of the highest peaks in Europe from 1978 to 1985.

In 2003 at the age of 70, Miura became the oldest person to reach the summit of Mount Everest, a record he twice broke, the last time at the age of 80 in 2013. Miura had heart surgeries for cardiac arrhythmia in 2006 and 2007.

Even though he was unable to complete the descent after reaching the top, and was airlifted from Advanced Base Camp at 6500 meters rather than descending to the Base Camp at 5364 metre (17,600 feet), his achievement is listed in the Guinness Book of Records. Famous alpinists, however, like Ken Noguchi, dispute Miura's achievement, arguing that a climb can not be called “complete” unless one walks all the way down the mountain.

In 2008 Miura described his diet as "healthy eating and organic food. He starts every day with a breakfast consisting of cooked rice, fermented soya bean, miso soup, eggs, and fish. Once a week he will treat himself to a 500g (18oz) steak." He said that he trained outdoors to recover from a serious skiing accident in which he broke five bones in his pelvis with 5 kg on each leg and 30 kg on his back for 5.5 mile walks, and also used a low oxygen room. Gota Miura, freestyle skier and alpinist, is one of his sons.

title: Yūichirō Miura


text:
Talk:List of films based on video games

Films with plots centered on video games - Night Watch
I don't know about "centered on" but Night Watch (2004 film) has some scenes revolving around a video game. It's been years since I've seen the film, so I'm not sure of the details. What I recall is that Zevulon plays a game that seems to parallel events in the movie, and later during the final "real life" confrontation, Zevulon pulls out a sword formed from his own spine, just like the character in the video game.98.162.209.39 (talk) 10:19, 8 March 2015 (UTC)

Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie
This movie is listed here but is not based on any videogame. It is based on the Warhammer 40,000 franchise fictional universe, which is not really a videogame franchise (is a tabletop miniature wargame in its roots), even if there are many videogames made of it. I think it is not a videogame movie unless it is based of one of the videogames. Lordmagikarp (talk) 10:12, 12 August 2015 (UTC)

The First Few Pokemon Movies -> International Wide Releases
Concerning the first three Pokemon animated films; While produced in Japan, they were all technically International Theatrical Wide Releases, thanks to Warner and Co.

Should they be moved to International?

Kyo~ (talk) 18:00, 3 July 2016 (UTC)

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Merging
I think we should merge the theatrical live action films section and the theatrical animated films section because it feels a little silly to have them separate like they are and it makes it less convenient whenever a new film is announced to add it. MPedits (talk) 13:56, 14 June 2019 (UTC)

 * I agree with MPedits. If they're both released in theaters why not show them together. We can set up an "a" tag on the name or something to note that it is animated. Or not do anything at all, because a movie being animated or not won't change the fact that it is based on video games or that it was released in theaters. GlitchNDaSystem (talk) 20:49, 7 April 2022 (UTC)

Elf Bowling the Movie: The Great North Pole Elf Strike
Shoudn't this be on this wiki? Elf bowling has a movie and i don't see it 37.8.230.230 (talk) 15:11, 25 February 2023 (UTC)

Apologies
I was cite the Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) Box office with the numbers. I am sorry. Iacowriter (talk) 03:06, 26 July 2023 (UTC)

Future Ultra V Protagonist hero
War Of The Monsters Anime Based game 2400:AC40:620:F4ED:A1E2:AE36:29B:D575 (talk) 22:31, 21 September 2023 (UTC)

Cancelled or in unknown status.
What about Video game movies that were cancelled or video game movies that weren't cancelled but haven't had news about for some time. Like the InFamous movie or that sly cooper one. Dots321 (talk) 23:30, 1 November 2023 (UTC)
 * I have no idea what should happen to those other than them perhaps have their own article if they have been formally cancelled those tha haven't they should listen under upcoming films me thinks. DoctorHver (talk) 20:00, 18 November 2023 (UTC)

Rotten Tomatoes scores etc
I don't think these scores should be included as they are generally not included in film list article even if you can find them on films' individual articles where this info fit better. Although same should probably apply to the box office since this article isn't about the box office of video games film DoctorHver (talk) 20:00, 18 November 2023 (UTC)

The Legend of Zelda Movie
Where's the Zelda movie? Stein256 (talk) 00:22, 22 November 2023 (UTC)

Animated films
How come the animated films are in a separate list? This seems arbitrary?Halbared (talk) 23:48, 28 December 2023 (UTC)

Knuckles tv show
There is an upcoming tv show titled knuckles that runs with the sonic the hedgehog movie series, and I noticed that it wasn’t on the list. Someone might consider adding that. 50.81.161.7 (talk) 13:35, 13 February 2024 (UTC)

 * Article for TV shows is at List of television series based on video games Indagate (talk) 13:59, 13 February 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:List of films based on video games


text:
General covariance

In theoretical physics, general covariance, also known as diffeomorphism covariance or general invariance, consists of the invariance of the form of physical laws under arbitrary differentiable coordinate transformations. The essential idea is that coordinates do not exist a priori in nature, but are only artifices used in describing nature, and hence should play no role in the formulation of fundamental physical laws. While this concept is exhibited by general relativity, which describes the dynamics of spacetime, one should not expect it to hold in less fundamental theories. For matter fields taken to exist independently of the background, it is almost never the case that their equations of motion will take the same form in curved space that they do in flat space.

Overview
A physical law expressed in a generally covariant fashion takes the same mathematical form in all coordinate systems, and is usually expressed in terms of tensor fields. The classical (non-quantum) theory of electrodynamics is one theory that has such a formulation.

Albert Einstein proposed this principle for his special theory of relativity; however, that theory was limited to spacetime coordinate systems related to each other by uniform inertial motion, meaning relative motion in any straight line without acceleration. Einstein recognized that the general principle of relativity should also apply to accelerated relative motions, and he used the newly developed tool of tensor calculus to extend the special theory's global Lorentz covariance (applying only to inertial frames) to the more general local Lorentz covariance (which applies to all frames), eventually producing his general theory of relativity. The local reduction of the metric tensor to the Minkowski metric tensor corresponds to free-falling (geodesic) motion, in this theory, thus encompassing the phenomenon of gravitation.

Much of the work on classical unified field theories consisted of attempts to further extend the general theory of relativity to interpret additional physical phenomena, particularly electromagnetism, within the framework of general covariance, and more specifically as purely geometric objects in the spacetime continuum.

Remarks
The relationship between general covariance and general relativity may be summarized by quoting a standard textbook:

"Mathematics was not sufficiently refined in 1917 to cleave apart the demands for "no prior geometry" and for a geometric, coordinate-independent formulation of physics. Einstein described both demands by a single phrase, "general covariance". The "no prior geometry" demand actually fathered general relativity, but by doing so anonymously, disguised as "general covariance", it also fathered half a century of confusion."

A more modern interpretation of the physical content of the original principle of general covariance is that the Lie group GL4(R) is a fundamental "external" symmetry of the world. Other symmetries, including "internal" symmetries based on compact groups, now play a major role in fundamental physical theories.

title: General covariance


text:
Kodiak

Kodiak may refer to:

Places

 * Kodiak, Alaska, a city located on Kodiak island
 * Kodiak, Missouri, an unincorporated community
 * Kodiak Archipelago, in southern Alaska
 * Kodiak Island, the largest island of the Kodiak archipelago
 * Kodiak Launch Complex, a commercial spaceport on Kodiak Island
 * Kodiak Island Borough, Alaska, a borough mostly located on the island
 * Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge, a wilderness area in the Kodiak Archipelago
 * Kodiak Seamount, the oldest seamount of the Kodiak-Bowie Seamount chain

Arts, entertainment, and media

 * Kodiak (TV series), a television program that aired Fridays on ABC, during the 1974-75 television season in the United States
 * Kodiak or GDSS Kodiak, a large spaceship in the second and fourth video games of the Command & Conquer: Tiberian series
 * Kodiak, a combat unit ("mech") in the MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat Ghost Bear expansion
 * Kodi (full name: Kodiak), a fictional character in Balto III: Wings of Change
 * Kodiak, a 2010 IDW Publishing comic book
 * Kodiak Empire, a progressive rock band from Brisbane, Australia.

Vehicles

 * Kodiak, AEV 3 Kodiak a Rheinmetall Armoured Engineer Vehicle
 * Kodiak, a whaling steamer
 * Kodiak, an all-terrain vehicle manufactured by Yamaha Motor Company
 * Chevrolet Kodiak, a line of large trucks sold by General Motors
 * Quest Kodiak, a single turboprop STOL airplane by Quest Aircraft
 * Škoda Kodiaq, an SUV

Other uses

 * Kodiak (Boy Scouts of America), the second level leadership development course for Venturers in the Boy Scouts of America's Venturing program
 * Kodiak bear (Ursus arctos middendorffi), also known as the Kodiak brown bear, sometimes the Alaskan brown bear
 * Kodiak tobacco, a brand of dipping tobacco manufactured by American Snuff Company
 * Mac OS X Public Beta, codenamed "Kodiak"
 * Kodiak Cakes, a brand of flapjacks
 * Kh-101, also known as AS-23 "Kodiak", a Russian air-launched cruise missile

title: Kodiak


text:
User talk:Echoray

Welcome to the Wikipedia
Here are some links I find useful

 * Policy Library
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 * Brilliant prose
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Feel free to ask me anything the links and talk pages don't answer. You can sign your name by typing 4 tildes, likes this: ~.

Cheers, Sam [Spade] 21:50, 26 May 2004 (UTC)

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Kokomo

Kokomo may refer to:

Animals

 * Kokomo (gorilla), a western lowland gorilla at the San Diego Zoo
 * Kokomo Jr., a name given to two performing chimpanzees in the 1950s and 1960s

Songs

 * "Kokomo Blues", by Scrapper Blackwell (1928)

 * "Kokomo" (song), by the Beach Boys (1988)

 * "Ko Ko Mo (I Love You So)", a rock/novelty song written in 1954 by Forest Gene Wilson and Eunice Levy and recorded by the Crew Cuts, Perry Como, and many others
 * "Kokomo", by Greg Brown from The Evening Call
 * "Kokomo", by Little Feat from Down on the Farm
 * "Kokomo, IN", by Japanese Breakfast from Jubilee
 * "Going Kokomo" by Royel Otis from "Sofa Kings"

Other

 * Kokomo (band), a British group from the 1970s
 * Kokomo Records, a record company from the 1960/70s

People

 * Kokomo Arnold (1896/1901–1968), born James Arnold, American blues musician
 * Kokomo (musician), one-time name used by American pianist, arranger and songwriter Jimmy Wisner (1931–2018)
 * Ma-Ko-Ko-Mo (1775–1838), a chief of the Miami tribe for whom Kokomo, Indiana, was named

United States

 * Kokomo, Indiana, a city in Howard County, that is also its county seat
 * Indiana University Kokomo
 * Kokomo, Arkansas, an unincorporated area in Lee County
 * Kokomo, Colorado, a ghost town in Summit County
 * Kokomo, Hawaii, a community on the island of Maui
 * Kokomo, Mississippi, an unincorporated community in Marion County
 * Kokomo, Texas

Kokomo Creek

 * Kokomo Creek, a tributary of the Chatanika River, Alaska
 * Kokomo Creek, a creek in Hot Spring County, Arkansas
 * Kokomo Creek, a tributary of Wildcat Creek (Indiana)

Elsewhere

 * Sandals Cay (formerly Kokomo Island), a privately owned island in Jamaica
 * Kokomo Beach, a beach on the island of Curaçao

title: Kokomo


text:
Plzeň Region

Plzeň Region (Plzeňský kraj; Pilsner Region) is an administrative unit (kraj) in the western part of Bohemia in the Czech Republic. It is named after its capital Plzeň (English, Pilsen). In terms of area, Plzeň Region is 7,561 km2, the third largest region in the Czech Republic. However, with a population of about 585,000 inhabitants it is only the ninth most populous region. After the South Bohemian Region it is the second least densely populated region. The region can be roughly divided into two parts: a highly industrialized north-eastern part with a strong engineering tradition around Pilsen (Plzeň) and a more hilly and rural south-western part with smaller-sized manufacturing companies processing natural resources.

The region borders the Karlovy Vary Region (to the north-west), Ústí nad Labem Region (to the north), Central Bohemian Region (north-east), South Bohemian Region (to the east) and with Bavaria (part of Germany) in the south-west and west. The region was established based on the constitutional Act No. 347/97 of Collections concerning the formation of higher territorial administrative units. The region and its authorities are specified by Act No. 129/2000 of Collections concerning regions, which came into effect on the day of the regional authorities elections, or on 1 January 2001.

Administrative divisions
The Plzeň Region is divided into 7 districts (okresy):

The districts still exist as regional units though most administration has been shifted to the Municipalities with Extended Competence and the Municipalities with Commissioned Local Authority.

Municipalities with Extended Competence
Since 1 January 2003, the region has been divided into 15 "Municipalities with Extended Competence" which took over most of the administration of the former District Authorities. Some of these are further divided into Municipalities with Commissioned Local Authority (in brackets):

 * Blovice (Spálené Poříčí)
 * Domažlice (Kdyně)
 * Horažďovice
 * Horšovský Týn (Staňkov)
 * Kralovice (Manětín, Plasy)
 * Klatovy (Nýrsko, Plánice)
 * Nepomuk
 * Nýřany (Město Touškov, Všeruby, Třemošná)
 * Plzeň (Starý Plzenec)
 * Přeštice
 * Rokycany (Radnice, Zbiroh)
 * Stod (Dobřany, Holýšov)
 * Stříbro (Bezdružice)
 * Sušice (Kašperské Hory)
 * Tachov (Bor, Planá u Mariánských Lázní)

Population
As of 1 January 2019, the total population of the region was 584,672 inhabitants. Almost 30% of the inhabitants reside in Plzeň which is the fourth largest city in the Czech Republic with 172 thousand inhabitants. There are 56 towns in the region, which account for 67% of the total population. More than 33% of the population lives in municipalities with less than 2,000 inhabitants.

The Plzeň Region is the third least densely populated region in the Czech Republic. The population density is 75.6 inhabitants per km2 while the national average is 135 inhabitants per km2. The least populated part of the region is Tachov District (39 inhabitants per km2). The average age of the population in the region was 42.7 in 2019.

Cities and towns
The table shows ťhe most populated cities and towns in the region (as of 1 January 2024):

Geography and climate
In the south-eastern part of the region there is a range of Bohemian Forest mountains. The capital Plzeň is surrounded by Plzeň Basin. The rest of the region is occupied by highlands, namely Plzeň Highlands and Brdy Highlands. The largest part of the region belongs to the drainage basin of Berounka river. The southern part of the region belongs to the drainage basin of Otava River.

The agricultural land covers 50.2% of the total area of the region, where 67.9% is arable land. Forests cover 39.7% of the total region's area, with higher proportions of forests can be found especially in Šumava, Brdy Highlands and the Bohemian Forest.

There are raw material resources on the region's territory, such as coal, heat-resistant and ceramic clays, and building stone limestone. The conditions for farming are quite favourable as well.

The climate of the region is influenced by the western and south-western winds from the Atlantic Ocean, which bring the largest part of the regional precipitation. The climate varies considerably within the region. The warmest part of the region is in the Plzeň Basin.

Economy
Plzeň Region is average in economic development when compared to the rest of the Czech Republic. In 2021, the region produced 4.87% of the national GDP. The region's total GDP was CZK 297.919 billion (EUR 12.4 billion) and per capita GDP was CZK 504,354 which was the fourth highest regional result out of fourteen. The most significant sectors in the region are engineering, food processing, building materials industry, ceramics industry, energy production and metallurgy. In 2010 there were 207,000 people employed in the region, accounting for 36% of the total population. In 2011, the business sector in the Plzeň Region comprised 147,000 entities, the majority of which were sole traders. 40% of all economic subjects were based in Plzeň area. The average wage in the region in September 2013 was CZK 23,105 (approximately EUR 905). Compared to other Czech regions, the Plzeň Region has a relatively low level of unemployment (6.07% as of September 2013).

The most significant engineering company in the region is supposedly Škoda Machine Tool a.s. producing for example milling and boring machines, centre lathes, turntables, etc. Other important industrial companies are DIOSS Nýřany a.s. (accumulators and batteries), Okula Nýrsko a.s. (processing of plastics) and Lasselsberger s.r.o (ceramics industry). A number of foreign investors based their establishments in the region in the recent decades, namely Panasonic AVC Networks Czech s.r.o. (flat screen displays production), Yazaki Wiring Technologies Czech s.r.o (components for automobile industry), Vishay Electronic s.r.o. (production of electric components), Borgers Cs spol. s.r.o. (plastic products), etc.

Among important food processing companies of the region belong:
 * Pilsner Urquell Brewery (Czech: Plzeňský Prazdroj a.s.), which was established in 1843 and is the largest Czech beer exporter;
 * Stock Plzeň a.s., the largest Czech producer of liquors;
 * Bohemia Sekt Českomoravská vinařská a.s., an important Czech producer of wines, based in Starý Plzenec

The road network of the region consists of 5,129 km of road, whereof 109 km are motorways. The main motorway in the region is the D5 motorway connecting Plzeň with Prague and Germany. As of 1 January 2011 there was 711 km of railways.

Environment
Compared to the rest of the Czech Republic, the quality of the environment may be regarded as good. Specific emissions in the region are lower than the national average. The least damaged areas comprise the mountainous parts of Šumava, the Bohemian Forest, western parts of Brdy Highlands, and the areas surrounding the municipalities of Manětín and Nečtiny. The protection of the environment in Šumava has been ensured by the establishment of Šumava National Park and the Šumava Landscape Protected Area. In 2005, the Protected Landscape Area Bohemian Forest was newly designated. There are 182 small protected areas in the Region and several wildlife parks have been designated to conserve the landscape variability.

On the other hand, the environment is severely damaged in Plzeň. Specific emissions reported for the Plzeň-City District are several times above the national average. Plzeň and its surroundings suffer from heavy road traffic and high concentration of industrial activities. The traffic worsens quality of the environment by emissions (nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons) and noise. Moreover, the areas surrounding the municipalities Nýřany, Tlučná, Vejprnice, Břasy, Radnice, Stříbro and Ejpovice were affected by mining or quarrying activities.

Cross-border cooperation
Since 1993, Domažlice District, Klatovy District and Tachov District have been using the European support programme of the cross-border cooperation. The municipalities in the border areas of the Czech Republic and Germany form two Euroregions: the Bohemian Forest- the Bavarian Forest–Mühlveiertel and Egrensis. Cross-border co-operation with Bavaria on the Euroregional basis helps moderate social-economic differences.

Tourism and culture
The region is attractive for tourists. Plzeň offers many historical landmarks and natural points of interest. Tourists are also attracted by a dense network of recreation and hiking trails, zoological and botanical gardens in Plzeň and hills in its surroundings – Krkavec, Chlum and Sylván with observation towers. Other places of interest in the region are (in alphabetical order): Also the town of Domažlice and its traditional summer Chod Festival attract attention of many visitors.
 * the remains of Buben, Libštejn and Radyně Gothic castles and Rabštejn nad Střelou castle;
 * Horšovský Týn with its Renaissance chateau;
 * Kaceřov Renaissance chateau;
 * Kašperk Castle;
 * Kladruby monastery;
 * Kozel chateau;
 * Lužany chateau;
 * Manětín baroque chateau;
 * Nebílovy baroque chateau;
 * Plasy Monastery;
 * The water castle at Švihov.
 * The Black tower and the old town in Klatovy.

title: Plzeň Region


text:
Judgment in Berlin

Judgment in Berlin is a 1984 book by federal judge Herbert Jay Stern about a hijacking trial in the United States Court for Berlin in 1979, over which he presided.

From the end of World War II in Europe in May 1945 until the reunification of Germany in October 1990, Berlin was divided into four sectors: the American Sector, the French Sector, the British Sector, and the Soviet Sector, each named after the occupying power. The Soviet sector, informally called East Berlin, was considered by East Germany, then a member of the Warsaw Pact, to be part of its territory and in fact its capital, and the American, French, and British Sectors, collectively called West Berlin, were in some respects governed as if they were a part of West Germany, a member of NATO. Seldom did the American government exercise power directly in the American sector, except as it affected American military forces stationed in Berlin. In particular, the judgeship of the United States Court for Berlin was vacant except during the trial over which Judge Stern presided.

In 1978, after prodigious diplomatic efforts, NATO had convinced the Warsaw Pact states to sign an international convention on hijacking, in which each signatory state promised to punish hijackers who landed in their territory.

On 30 August 1978, Hans Detlef Alexander Tiede and Ingrid Ruske, both East Germans, used a starting pistol (not an actual gun) to hijack a Polish passenger aircraft (LOT Polish Airlines Flight 165) from Gdańsk bound for East Berlin's Schönefeld Airport and diverted it instead to the U.S. Air Force base at Tempelhof Airport in West Berlin. The West German government was very reluctant to prosecute Tiede and Ruske because of the West German policy of supporting the right of East Germans to flee oppression in the GDR. However, the NATO members did not want to lose the hijacking treaty on which they had worked for so long. Consequently, the case was prosecuted in the never-before-convened United States Court for Berlin.

Over the prosecutor's objections, Judge Stern ruled that the defendants were entitled to be tried by a jury, a procedure abolished in Germany in 1924. The case against Tiede's co-defendant Ingrid Ruske was dismissed because she had not been notified of her Miranda rights before signing a confession. Tiede was acquitted on three charges, including hijacking and possession of a firearm, but convicted of taking a hostage. He was sentenced to time served — about nine months.

A significant subtext in the book is Stern's refusal to accept assertions made by representatives of the United States Department of State that, as the authority appointing the judge for the United States Court for Berlin, it also had the right to control the judge's decision, i.e., tell Stern what to decide. The "time served" sentence, writes Stern, was the only method by which he could protect Tiede from the State Department. Not surprisingly, the State Department and the U.S. Mission to Berlin had a different view of the facts and circumstances, Mark Feldman Oral History at p. 126, https://adst.org/OH%20TOCs/Feldman.Mark.pdf

In 1988, Stern's book was used as the basis for a film of the same name that starred Martin Sheen as Judge Stern, Harris Yulin as Bruno Ristau, and Sean Penn as Witness X.

title: Judgment in Berlin


text:
British Columbia Highway 43

Highway 43, the Elk Valley Highway, is the easternmost spur off of the British Columbia segment of the Crowsnest Highway (Highway 3), in the Regional District of East Kootenay. The highway, which is two lanes, starts in Sparwood, and travels 35 km (22 mi) north along the Elk River to the community of Elkford, where a connection to Elk Lakes Provincial Park, on the border with Alberta, is located. The route received its designation in 1983, and it has not been re-aligned.

title: British Columbia Highway 43


text:
Komodo (island)

Komodo (Pulau Komodo ) is one of the 17,508 islands that comprise the Republic of Indonesia. It is particularly notable as the habitat of the Komodo dragon, the largest lizard on Earth, which is named after the island. Komodo Island has a surface area of 291 square kilometres, and had a human population of about 1,800 in 2020.

Komodo is part of the Lesser Sunda chain of islands and forms part of the Komodo National Park. It is a popular destination for diving. Administratively, it is part of the Komodo District (which also includes Rinca Island and numerous other islands off the west coast of Flores, together with part of the western portion of Flores itself), forming part of West Manggarai Regency within the province of East Nusa Tenggara.

Description
Komodo is part of the Lesser Sunda chain of islands and forms part of the Komodo National Park. It lies between the substantially larger neighbouring islands Sumbawa to the west and Flores to the east. The island's surface area covers 291 square kilometres. Komodo Island is home to the Komodo Dragon, the largest lizard on earth.

History
The earliest stories (among Westerners) of a dragon-like animal existing in the region circulated widely and attracted considerable attention. But no Westerner visited the island to check the story until official interest was sparked in the early 1910s by stories from Dutch sailors based in Flores in East Nusa Tenggara about a mysterious creature. The creature was allegedly a dragon which inhabited a small island in the Lesser Sunda Islands (the main island of which is Flores).

Hearing the reports, Lieutenant Steyn van Hensbroek, an official of the Dutch Colonial Administration in Flores, planned a trip to Komodo Island to continue the search. He armed himself, and accompanied by a team of soldiers, landed on the island. After a few days, Hensbroek managed to kill one of the lizards to investigate.

Realising the significance of the dragons on Komodo Island as an endangered species, the Dutch government issued a regulation on the protection of the lizards on Komodo Island in 1915.

In the decades since the Komodo became known to non-locals, various scientific expeditions from a range of countries have carried out field research on the dragons on Komodo Island.

People
Komodo had a population of about 1,800 at the 2020 census, spread out over the island and in the main Komodo village. The native population, the Komodo people, has been extinct since the 1980s. The island's present-day residents are descendants of former convicts who were exiled to Komodo and who have mixed with Bugis from Sulawesi. The population is primarily adherents of Islam but there are also Christian and Hindu congregations.

Ecology
Komodo is part of the Lesser Sundas deciduous forests ecoregion. The island is also a popular destination for diving and it has been included into the controversial New 7 Wonders of Nature list since November 11, 2011.

Fauna
The Komodo dragon, the world's largest living lizard, takes its name from the island. A type of monitor lizard, it inhabits Komodo Island and some of the smaller surrounding islands, as well as part of western Flores. Javan deer also inhabit the island, though they are not native. Other animals include water buffalo, banded pigs, civets, cockatoos and macaques.

Pink beach
Komodo contains a beach with "pink" sand, one of only seven in the world. The sand appears pink because it is a mixture of white sand and red sand, formed from pieces of Foraminifera.

2020 closure
In April 2019, Indonesian authorities announced a plan to close Komodo Island to tourism for a limited period to allow for conservation efforts amid concerns over animal-smuggling. In July 2019, it was confirmed that the island would be closed from the beginning of 2020. In September 2019, the park attracted further controversy when tourists complained that their guides were encouraging them to take selfies with Komodo dragons. The Governor of Nusa Tenggara Timur province, Viktor Laiskodat, said that a budget of Rp 100 billion (around $US 7.2 million) would be provided to support the conservation program. The plan is controversial: Governor Laiskodat has suggested that an expensive entrance fee be charged to foreign tourists while local villagers who live on Komodo Island are worried about the possible loss of income.

title: Komodo (island)


text:
Dennis Murphy (musician)

Dennis Murphy (January 19, 1934 – November 29, 2010 ) was a composer, musician, instrument maker, artist, and playwright.

Dennis Murphy was one of the fathers of American gamelan (along with William Colvig). Lou Harrison credits Murphy as being the first North American to build gamelan instruments. He composed numerous works and shadow plays for gamelan.

Starting around 1959 or 1960, while earning a master's degree in theory and composition at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in Madison, Murphy got interested in gamelan during a survey course which included a section on ethnomusicology. He heard a recording of Javanese gamelan and was hooked. About that time, the head of the economics department, L. Reed Tripp, returned from Java where he had been on a Ford Foundation grant. While in Indonesia, Tripp's two young sons became involved with a children's gamelan group. The boys loved it so much that their parents bought a small slendro gamelan and shipped it to their home in Madison. Then Mrs. Tripp called Bob Crane, a composition professor, and asked if he knew anyone who would like to try Javanese Gamelan. So Crane, Murphy and his wife Pat, and few more people started learning what the children could show them, and it went from there.

Shortly after this, Murphy began constructing gamelan instruments and started composing short pieces for gamelan at the same time. The whole story is described in "The Autochthonous American Gamelan", Murphy's thesis written while working towards his PhD in ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University in Connecticut. He named the gamelan "Venerable Sir Voice of Thoom" and invented an entire cosmology and artificial language to go with it (Thoomese).

Murphy started teaching at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont in the fall 1967. A student group using Murphy's instruments had its first performance the same year. More instruments were made with occasional student help. Instruments were hammered out of steel, or made from found objects such as a car hubcap, soup cans, or an antique milk-strainer. For a couple of years there were nine people in the ensemble (three were named Dennis.) The Goddard Gamelan performed traditional Javanese gamelan pieces along with pieces composed by Murphy and students. By the mid seventies the ensemble had grown to full complement of instruments tuned in both pelog and slendro. Students designed and constructed a building to house the instruments for rehearsals and performances.

In 1980, Goddard made major cuts to its academic programs, and the gamelan moved to the Plainfield Community Center and was renamed the Plainfield Village Gamelan. Later, the ensemble moved to Murphy's farm in Plainfield where the group continued to perform. In later years, Murphy was a faculty member with the Vermont Governor's Institute on the Arts.

Several of Murphy's students have become instrument makers. Barbara Benary while not a student of Murphy made a gamelan following directions in Murphy's thesis, and then went on to make more instruments of her own design, notably giant bar-and-resonator gongs, using one-gallon paint cans to build the tubes.

Murphy also composed pieces of chamber and choral music. He performed with the Fyre & Lightning Consort and the Nisht Geferlach Klezmer Band. He also wrote a number of plays which might be loosely categorized with the Theatre of the Absurd, among them "The Goat Painter" and "The Half-Moon Window". Many of the words and phrases in these plays, such as "Rug Sand," "Office Oil," and Hospital Ice," were taken from the page headers from the local Yellow Pages. He was a vegetarian and did not wear anything made from animal products, preferring a rope belt and flip-flops in all kinds of weather.

title: Dennis Murphy (musician)


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Quantum geometry

In theoretical physics, quantum geometry is the set of mathematical concepts generalizing the concepts of geometry whose understanding is necessary to describe the physical phenomena at distance scales comparable to the Planck length. At these distances, quantum mechanics has a profound effect on physical phenomena.

Quantum gravity
Each theory of quantum gravity uses the term "quantum geometry" in a slightly different fashion. String theory, a leading candidate for a quantum theory of gravity, uses the term quantum geometry to describe exotic phenomena such as T-duality and other geometric dualities, mirror symmetry, topology-changing transitions, minimal possible distance scale, and other effects that challenge intuition. More technically, quantum geometry refers to the shape of a spacetime manifold as experienced by D-branes which includes quantum corrections to the metric tensor, such as the worldsheet instantons. For example, the quantum volume of a cycle is computed from the mass of a brane wrapped on this cycle.

In an alternative approach to quantum gravity called loop quantum gravity (LQG), the phrase "quantum geometry" usually refers to the formalism within LQG where the observables that capture the information about the geometry are now well defined operators on a Hilbert space. In particular, certain physical observables, such as the area, have a discrete spectrum. It has also been shown that the loop quantum geometry is non-commutative.

It is possible (but considered unlikely) that this strictly quantized understanding of geometry will be consistent with the quantum picture of geometry arising from string theory.

Another, quite successful, approach, which tries to reconstruct the geometry of space-time from "first principles" is Discrete Lorentzian quantum gravity.

Quantum states as differential forms
Differential forms are used to express quantum states, using the wedge product:

 * $$|\psi\rangle = \int \psi(\mathbf{x},t) \, |\mathbf{x},t\rangle \, \mathrm{d}^3\mathbf{x} $$

where the position vector is

 * $$\mathbf{x} = (x^1,x^2,x^3) $$

the differential volume element is

 * $$\mathrm{d}^3\mathbf{x} = \mathrm{d}x^1 \!\wedge \mathrm{d}x^2 \!\wedge \mathrm{d}x^3$$

and $x^{1}, x^{2}, x^{3}$ are an arbitrary set of coordinates, the upper indices indicate contravariance, lower indices indicate covariance, so explicitly the quantum state in differential form is:

 * $$|\psi\rangle = \int \psi(x^1,x^2,x^3,t) \, |x^1,x^2,x^3,t\rangle \, \mathrm{d}x^1 \!\wedge \mathrm{d}x^2 \!\wedge \mathrm{d}x^3$$

The overlap integral is given by:

 * $$\langle\chi|\psi\rangle = \int \chi^* \psi ~ \mathrm{d}^3\mathbf{x}$$

in differential form this is

 * $$\langle\chi|\psi\rangle = \int \chi^* \psi ~ \mathrm{d}x^1 \!\wedge \mathrm{d}x^2 \!\wedge \mathrm{d}x^3$$

The probability of finding the particle in some region of space $R$ is given by the integral over that region:

 * $$\langle\psi|\psi\rangle = \int_R \psi^* \psi ~ \mathrm{d}x^1 \!\wedge \mathrm{d}x^2 \!\wedge \mathrm{d}x^3$$

provided the wave function is normalized. When $R$ is all of 3d position space, the integral must be $1$ if the particle exists.

Differential forms are an approach for describing the geometry of curves and surfaces in a coordinate independent way. In quantum mechanics, idealized situations occur in rectangular Cartesian coordinates, such as the potential well, particle in a box, quantum harmonic oscillator, and more realistic approximations in spherical polar coordinates such as electrons in atoms and molecules. For generality, a formalism which can be used in any coordinate system is useful.

title: Quantum geometry