text:
United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 (XXVI)

The United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 (also known as the Resolution on Admitting Peking) was passed in response to the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1668 that required any change in China's representation in the UN be determined by a two-thirds vote referring to Article 18 of the UN Charter. The resolution, passed on 25 October 1971, recognized the People's Republic of China as "the only legitimate representative of China to the United Nations" and removed "the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek" (referring to the Republic of China, whose central government had relocated to Taiwan from the mainland) from the United Nations.

Background
China was one of the original 51 member states of the United Nations, which was created in 1945. At that time, the Republic of China (ROC), led by the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party), governed both mainland China and Taiwan. The ROC army was engaged in a civil war with troops led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In 1949, the CCP proclaimed the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Beijing, and the remaining mainland ROC forces were forced to retreat to Taiwan, which Japan evacuated from in 1945 and renounced all right, title and claim to in the Treaty of San Francisco in 1951. After January 1950, the PRC was in control of mainland China, but was unable to capture Taiwan, Penghu, Matsu and Kinmen, and thus these remained as ROC ruled lands.

The PRC claimed to be the successor government of the ROC, while the Kuomintang in Taiwan championed the continued existence of the Republic of China. Both claimed to be the only legitimate Chinese government, and each refused to maintain diplomatic relations with countries that have recognized the other. The ROC continued to represent China in the UN until Resolution 2758 was passed.

Article 3 of the UN Charter provides: "The original Members of the United Nations shall be the states which, having participated in the United Nations Conference on International Organization at San Francisco, or having previously signed the Declaration by United Nations of 1 January 1942, sign the present Charter and ratify it in accordance with Article 110."

Additionally, the ROC had signed and ratified the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations on 18 April 1961 and 19 December 1969 respectively.

Proceedings at the United Nations
On 15 July 1971, 17 UN members: Albania, Algeria, the Congo, Cuba, Guinea, Iraq, Mali, Mauritania, North Yemen, Romania, Somalia, South Yemen, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Yugoslavia, and Zambia, requested that a question of the "Restoration of the lawful rights of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations" be placed on the provisional agenda of the twenty-sixth session of the United Nations General Assembly. In an explanatory memorandum accompanying their request, the 17 UN members observed that for years they had protested against what they considered were hostile and discriminatory policy followed by several governments with regard to the communist government of mainland China, which they considered to be the genuine representative of the Chinese people. The existence of the People's Republic of China, they declared, was a reality which could "not be changed to suit the myth of a so called Republic of China, fabricated out of a portion of Chinese territory". In the view of the 17 UN members, the ROC were unlawful authorities installed in the island of Taiwan which claimed to represent China, and they remained there only because of the permanent presence of United States Armed Forces. No important international problems, they added, could be solved without the participation of the People's Republic of China. It was in the fundamental interests, they concluded, of the United Nations to "restore" promptly to the People's Republic of China its seat in the organization, thus putting an end to a "grave injustice" and "dangerous situation" which had been perpetuated in order to fulfill a policy that had been increasingly repudiated. This meant the immediate expulsion of the representatives of the Chiang Kai-shek regime from the seat which it held in the United Nations.

On 17 August 1971, the United States requested that a second item, "The representation of China in the United Nations" also be placed on the provisional agenda. In the explanatory memorandum accompanying the U.S. request, the U.S. said that in dealing with the problem of the representation of China, the United Nations should take cognizance of the existence of both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China; it should reflect that incontestable reality in the manner in which it made provision for China's representation. The U.S. asserted that the UN should not be required to take a definitive position on the respective conflicting claims of the People's Republic of China or the Republic of China, pending a peaceful resolution of the matter as called for by the United Nations Charter. Thus, the U.S. added, the People's Republic of China should be represented and at the same time provision should be made to ensure that the Republic of China was not deprived of its representation.

On 22 September 1971, the United States proposed at the UN General Committee that the two items be combined into one item called "The Question of China". The proposal was, however, rejected by 12 votes to 9 with 3 abstentions.

On 25 September 1971, the first Albanian-backed draft resolution, A/L.630 and Add.1 and 2, was submitted by 23 states including 17 of the states which had joined in placing the question on the agenda, to: "...restore to the People's Republic of China all its rights and expel forthwith the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek."

On 29 September 1971, a second draft resolution, A/L.632 and Add.1 and 2, sponsored by 22 members including the U.S., was proposed declaring that any proposal to deprive the Republic of China of representation was an important question under Article 18 of the UN Charter, and thus would require a two-thirds supermajority for approval.

On 29 September 1971, a third draft resolution, A/L.633, sponsored by 19 members including the U.S., was proposed by which the Assembly would affirm the right of representation of the People's Republic of China and recommend that it be seated as one of the five permanent members of the Security Council, while also affirming the continuing right of representation of the Republic of China.

On 15 October 1971 the representatives of 22 UN members requested the UN Secretary-General to distribute, as an official Assembly document, a statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China dated 20 August 1971. In this statement, made in response to the U.S. letter of 17 August 1971 and its accompanying explanatory memorandum, the People's Republic of China declared that the U.S. proposal was a blatant exposure of the Nixon government's scheme of creating "two Chinas" in the United Nations. It added that there was only one China, the People's Republic of China. Taiwan, it continued, was an inalienable part of Chinese territory and a province of China which had already been returned to the motherland after the Second World War. It went on to state that the U.S. was plotting to separate Taiwan from China and was wildly attempting to force members of the UN to submit to its will. The Chinese government declared that the Chinese people and government firmly opposed "two Chinas", "one China, one Taiwan", or any other similar arrangement, as well as the claim that "the status of Taiwan remains to be determined". They declared they would have absolutely nothing to do with the UN in such scenarios.

Discussion at the Assembly took place at 12 plenary meetings between 18 and 26 October 1971 with 73 member states taking part. During the debates four more draft resolutions were submitted - three by Tunisia and one by Saudi Arabia. Broadly, each of these draft resolutions was a variation on the third draft resolution described above, backed by the U.S. Notably, the Saudi-proposed resolution would have held that the people of the island of Taiwan had a right to self-determination. Similarly, the Tunisian resolution would have called for the Republic of China government to be represented in the United Nations under the name "Formosa".

Algeria's representative in the debates submitted that to recognize that the government of the People's Republic of China was lawfully entitled to represent China did not imply the eviction of a member but the eviction of the representatives of a dissident minority regime. The U.S., in its submission, took the opposite view; arguing that adoption of the resolution expelling the representatives sent from Taipei would imply the termination of the membership of a longstanding member. The spokesman of the Republic of China submitted that his country had earned its place in the United Nations by virtue of its contribution to peace and freedom during the Second World War. He said the Chinese communist regime, which had never had the moral consent of the Chinese people, could in no way be regarded as the representative of the great Chinese nation. Various members including two permanent members of the security council, the United Kingdom and the USSR, argued that requiring the matter to be subject to a supermajority vote was not appropriate because the adoption of the Albanian proposed resolution did not involve the admission or expulsion of a member. Rather it concerned only credentials and Taiwan had never been a member. They argued there was only one Chinese state that was a member. Any other Chinese state would have to apply for membership in accordance with the Charter.

On 25 October 1971, the voting took place. In the first vote held, the Assembly rejected the U.S. backed proposal that the matter would require a supermajority vote — the 'important question motion' [A/L.632 and Add.1 and 2]. The Assembly then voted on a separate U.S. proposal that the words "and to expel forthwith the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek from the place which they unlawfully occupied at the United Nations and in all the organizations related to it" be removed from the draft resolution A/L.630 and Add.1 and 2. The U.S. representative suggested that this motion, if adopted, would "have the effect of welcoming the PRC to the General Assembly and the Security Council, while at the same time not affecting the representation of the ROC in this hall". The motion was rejected by a vote of 61 to 51, with 16 abstentions.

At this point the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the ROC, Chow Shu-Kai, stated "in view of the frenzied and irrational manners that have been exhibited in this hall, the delegation of the Republic of China has now decided not to take part in any further proceedings of this General Assembly." He said the "ideals upon which the United Nations was founded and which the General Assembly has now been betrayed".

The Assembly then adopted draft Albanian proposed resolution A/L.630 and Add.1 and 2, by a roll-call vote of 76 to 35, with 17 abstentions, as Resolution 2758. The Beijing government began representing China at the UN from 15 November 1971 and its delegates were seated at the UN Security Council meeting held on 23 November 1971, the first such meeting where representatives of the Beijing government represented China.

Later developments
On 21 September 2007, the UN General Assembly rejected Taiwan's membership bid to "join the UN under the name of Taiwan", citing Resolution 2758 as acknowledging that Taiwan is part of China. The UN General Assembly and its General Committee's recommendations on the "Taiwan question" reflected long-standing UN policy and is mirrored in other documents promulgated by the United Nations. For example, the UN's "Final Clauses of Multilateral Treaties, Handbook" (2003) states:

"...regarding the Taiwan Province of China, the Secretary-General follows the General Assembly’s guidance incorporated in resolution 2758 (XXVI) of the General Assembly of 25 October 1971 on the restoration of the lawful rights of the People’s Republic of China in the United Nations. The General Assembly decided to recognize the representatives of the Government of the People’s Republic of China as the only legitimate representatives of China to the United Nations. Hence, instruments received from the Taiwan Province of China will not be accepted by the Secretary-General in his capacity as depositary."

United States
The US's official policy is to recognize the PRC government as "the sole legal government of China", and "it acknowledged the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China". While keeping diplomatic relations with the PRC, the US expects that "the future of Taiwan will be determined by peaceful means". The US "would continue to maintain cultural, commercial, and other unofficial relations with the people of Taiwan". According to a 2014 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report, the US administrations have not explicitly stated a position on the political status of Taiwan.

In April 2024, US State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary Mark Lambert spoke at a German Marshall Fund (GMF) seminar, saying that "Resolution 2758 does not endorse, is not equivalent to, and does not reflect a consensus for the PRC's 'one China' principle". Lambert added that the Chinese government "mischaracterizes the resolution by falsely conflating it with China’s ‘one China’ principle and wrongly asserts that it reflects an international consensus for its ‘one China’ principle." In May 2024, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that the US's 'one China' policy "has not changed".

According to some analysts at the GMF, Resolution 2758 solved the issue of "China's representation" in the United Nations—but it left the issue of Taiwan's representation unresolved.


text:
Bʼutz Aj Sak Chiik

Bʼutz Aj Sak Chiik, also known as Manik, (November 15, 459 – 501?), was an ajaw of the Maya city of Palenque. He took the throne on July 28, 487, reigning until 501. He was likely the brother of Ahkal Moʼ Nahb I.

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

title: Bʼutz Aj Sak Chiik


text:
Gaki

Gaki may refer to:

 * The Japanese word for Preta
 * A pen-name of Akutagawa Ryunosuke

title: Gaki


text:
Cornerhouse

Cornerhouse was a centre for cinema and the contemporary visual arts, located next to Oxford Road Station on Oxford Street, Manchester, England, which was active from 1985 to 2015. It had three floors of art galleries, three cinemas, a bookshop, a bar and a café bar. Cornerhouse was operated by Greater Manchester Arts Centre Ltd, a registered charity.

The buildings
Cornerhouse occupied two buildings. The main building, 70 Oxford Street, was built for John Shaw in the early 1900s and was a furniture store run by the family until it closed in 1985. The building on the other side of the approach to Oxford Road station was designed by Peter Cummings, was completed in 1934 and opened as a cinema, Tatler News Theatre, in May 1935. The cinema had numerous name changes (Essoldo, Tatler Classic, Tatler Cinema Club) before closing in 1981.

History
Cornerhouse was conceived by the Greater Manchester Visual Arts Trust, chaired by Sir Bob Scott. It opened with the support of the then Greater Manchester County Council and Manchester City Council, North West Arts Association (now part of Arts Council England) and the British Film Institute.

Cornerhouse's first director was Dewi Lewis, who had previously been director of Bury Metro Arts. The building opened on 3 October 1985. The first film screened (on 18 October) was Nic Roeg's Insignificance. Dave Moutrey was director and CEO from 1998 until 2024.

Since its inception, Cornerhouse has hosted the UK premiere of Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and was the first UK public gallery to commission work from Damien Hirst.

In 2012, it was announced that Cornerhouse would merge with the Library Theatre Company to form HOME. In 2015, both organisations moved to new premises at the HOME centre.

From March 2017 to August 2017, the vacant Cornerhouse Cinema building was squatted by the Loose Space Collective before being evicted.

Programme
The Cornerhouse offered independent cinema, and contemporary art in the galleries. Cornerhouse's contemporary visual art programme was dedicated to launching artists who had not received major institutional recognition in Britain. It also let mid-career artists realise new projects in commissions and exhibitions on and off-site. The visual arts programme presented works in all media, with an emphasis on film and video that has a strong link with the film programme.

Cornerhouse produced or co-produced all of its exhibitions as well as a programme for each show. A regular feature of its visual arts programme was international group exhibitions which explored socio-political concerns. In 2011, Cornerhouse launched Artist Film, a project for the production and distribution of longer films, starting with Gillian Wearing's Self Made. Cornerhouse was a partner in the plus Tate programme.

On average, 30 titles were screened across the three screens every month. The cinemas were open seven days a week, with daily matinée and evening performances (no matinées on Monday), making a total of almost 3,500 screenings annually.

Cornerhouse's film programme was international in scope and offered new and innovative film and video alongside more familiar work. This resulted in the screening of new films and re-releases; second runs of overlooked or underrated titles; classic and archive material; shorts, animation and documentary; avant garde film and television; and foreign language films. Alongside a variety of touring film programmes, Cornerhouse also ran two festivals every year ''¡Viva! Spanish and Latin American Film Festival and exposures''.

Books
In 1987, Dewi Lewis launched the Cornerhouse Publications imprint with A Green and Pleasant Land by John Davies. Cornerhouse Publications was joint winner of The Sunday Times Small Publisher of The Year Award in 1990. The imprint continued to be active until 1994 and over the period published books by many major international photographers.

title: Cornerhouse


text:
Ahkal Moʼ Nahb I

Ahkal Moʼ Nahb I, also known as Chaacal and Akul Anab I, (July 5, 465 – November 29, 524), was an ajaw of the Maya city of Palenque. He ruled from June 5, 501 AD to his death.

Family
Ahkal Moʼ Nahb I is the earliest recorded ruler of Palenque whose exact dates of birth, accession and death have been verified. He was possibly the younger brother of his immediate predecessor, Bʼutz Aj Sak Chiik. For unknown reasons Ahkal Moʼ Nahbʼ is mentioned several times in official narratives left by Pacal the Great, who ruled Palenque a century later. It is believed Pacal considered Ahkal Moʼ Naabʼ I a particularly important historical figure or his ancestor.

title: Ahkal Moʼ Nahb I


text:
Jikininki

Jikininki (食人鬼) appear in Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things (1904) as corpse-eating spirits. In Japanese Buddhism, jikininki ("human-eating ghosts"; pronounced shokujinki in modern Japanese), are similar to Gaki/Hungry ghost; the spirits of greedy, selfish or impious individuals who are cursed after death to seek out and eat humans and human corpses.

The supernatural species known as Jijinki (or Phantasm) is the byproduct of a pregnant woman outsmarting a corpse-eater. A similar story can be found as "Aozukin" in Ueda Akinari's Ugetsu Monogatari from 1776.

Story
It is said that there was a monk/priest, named Muso, who was traveling alone through the mountains in the Mino prefecture of Japan, when he lost his way. It was almost dark when he saw, up on a hill, an old Anjitsu (庵室, lit. "Hermitage residence"), the home of solitary priests. He walked to the top of the hill and asked the inhabitant if he could stay the night. The only inhabitant was an old priest, who harshly refused Muso lodgings for the night; however, he told Muso that he could find food and a place to sleep down in a hamlet, nearby.

Muso found the hamlet, where the headman welcomed him and promptly supplied him food and a place to sleep. A little before midnight that night, Muso was awakened by a young man, one of the villagers, who informed him that, earlier that day, before Muso had arrived, that his father had died. The young man had not told Muso earlier so he would not feel embarrassed or obliged to participate in ceremonies. However, the entire village was now leaving their homes for a nearby village, as it was custom to leave the corpse alone for the night or-else bad things would befall the village inhabitants. As a priest, Muso told the young man he would do his duty and perform the burial services and stay the night with the corpse. He was not afraid of the demons or evil spirits the young man spoke of.

When the young man and the other villagers had left, Muso knelt by the corpse and the offerings and began the service. In the deepest part of the night, a shapeless being entered, while Muso was deep in meditation. Muso could not speak or move as he watched the shapeless being devour the corpse and the offerings. The next morning when the villagers had returned, Muso told the young man what had happened. The young man was not surprised.

Muso then asked the young man why the priest up on the nearby hill did not do the ceremony. Confused, the young man told Muso that there was no priest who lived nearby and that there hadn't been for many years. When Muso spoke of the Anjitsu, the young man also denied its existence. Muso then departed from the village, now with proper directions to continue his journey.

Although before he left area, Muso sought out the Anjitsu and the old priest living within it up-upon the top of the hill to see if he had indeed been mistaken. He found the hill and Anjitsu easily, and the old priest let him inside this time. The old priest then began to apologize for displaying his true form in front of Muso; he was none-other than the shapeless figure who had devoured the corpse in front of Muso the night-before. The old priest went on-to explain that he was now a Jikininki and how he had come to be one; after living a long, selfish life as a priest, only caring about the food and clothes his services had brought him--even at the expense of others in more need of them then he had been--after his death, the old priest had been reborn into the world as a Jikininki, doomed to feed upon the fresh corpses of others. The old priest then pleaded with Muso to perform a Segaki Requiem service for him, so that he could finally escape his horrible existence as a Jikininki. As Muso performed the service, all of a sudden the old priest disappeared, along with the Anjitsu, too. Muso found himself kneeling in the long grass upon the top of a hill before a tombstone of a priest and the ruins of the Anjitsu.

title: Jikininki


text:
Kʼan Joy Chitam I

Kʼan Joy Chitam I, also known as Hok, Kan Xul I and Kʼan Hokʼ Chitam I, (May 3, 490 – February 6, 565) was an ajaw of the Maya city-state of Palenque. He took the throne on February 6, 529 at age 34, ending an interregnum that had lasted for a little over four years.

title: Kʼan Joy Chitam I


text:
Olfactory mucosa

The olfactory mucosa is the neuroepithelialial mucosa  lining the roof and upper parts of the septum and lateral wall of the nasal cavity  which contains bipolar neurons of the primary receptor neurons of the olfactory pathway, as well as supporting cells. The neurons' dendrites project towards the nasal cavity while their axons ascend through the cribriform plate  as the olfactory nerves.

The part of the nasal cavity that is lined with olfactory mucosa is known as the olfactory region (pars olfactoria tunicae mucosae nasi), while the rest of the nasal cavity that is lined by ordinary respiratory mucosa is known as the respiratory region.

Structure
Olfactory mucosa lines about 5cm2 of the posterosuperior parts of the lateral nasal wall. Parts of the nasal cavity lined by olfactory mucosa include: parts of the roof of the nasal cavity, the superior nasal concha and some upper parts of the middle nasal concha, parts of the nasal septum, and the sphenoethmoidal recess.

The olfactory mucosa is thicker and lighter in colour (yellowish-brown) in comparison to the (pinkish) respiratory mucosa lining the rest of the nasal cavity.

Glands of the olfactory mucosa secrete a mostly serous fluid.

Histology
The olfactory mucosa consists of the olfactory epithelium and the underlying lamina propria, connective tissue containing fibroblasts, blood vessels, Bowman's glands and bundles of fine axons from the olfactory neurons.

In vertebrates, the olfactory epithelium consists of a three basic cell types: bipolar olfactory receptor neurons; sustentacular cells, a type of supporting cell; and basal cells, the stem cells that continuously give rise to new olfactory receptor neurons and sustentacular cells.

Electron microscopy studies show that Bowman's glands contain cells with large secretory vesicles. The exact composition of the secretions from Bowman's glands is unclear, but there is evidence that they produce odorant binding protein.

Physiology
The mucus protects the olfactory epithelium and allows odors to dissolve so that they can be detected by olfactory receptor neurons.

Research
Adult stem cell harvesting

Cells in the olfactory mucosa have been used in clinical trials for adult stem cell therapeutic treatments and successfully harvested for future applications.

CB1 receptors and obesity

Type 1 cannabinoid receptors (CB1 receptors) are present in the sustentacular cells of the olfactory mucosa, in the periglomerular cells of the olfactory bulb, and in the anterior olfactory nucleus and olfactory cortices. A study in 2008 in mice has shown that the level of CB1 expression in various brain regions, including the olfactory nucleus, is modulated by diet-induced obesity.

title: Olfactory mucosa


text:
Port Richmond, Staten Island

Port Richmond is a neighborhood situated on the North Shore of Staten Island, a borough of New York City. Port Richmond is bounded by Kill van Kull on the north, Clove Road on the east, Forest Avenue on the south, and the Bayonne Bridge on the west. It is adjacent to West New Brighton to the east, Westerleigh to the south, and Elm Park and Mariners Harbor to the west.

Formerly an independent village, it is one of the oldest neighborhoods on the island. In the 19th century it was an important transportation and industrial center of the island, but this role has vanished nearly completely, leaving a largely blue collar residential area bypassed by the shift of development of the island to its interior after the 1960s. The formerly bustling commercial center along Richmond Avenue (now Port Richmond Avenue) had been largely abandoned at the time, but many small businesses have opened in the area since the late 20th century.

Port Richmond is part of Staten Island Community District 1 and its ZIP Code is 10302. Port Richmond is patrolled by the 121st Precinct of the New York City Police Department.

Early exploration and settlement
The first white European contact with Staten Island was recorded in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano. In 1609 Henry Hudson established Dutch trade in the area and named the island Staaten Eylandt after the Staten-Generaal, the Dutch parliament. However, it was not until the mid-17th century that a mixed Dutch and French settlement was established at New Dorp. Settlers established a cemetery at nearby Port Richmond, which served as the burial ground for residents of northern Staten Island until 1696. The community of Port Richmond grew up around this cemetery, beginning with the Dutch Reform Church that was built there in the early 18th century. This colonnaded Church, still standing on Port Richmond Avenue was built in 1824 after a fire destroyed the original building. From those Dutch roots, Port Richmond evolved into a thriving waterfront industrial and transportation hub. The village incorporated as Port Richmond in 1866, the same year as the Staten Island villages of New Brighton and Edgewater.

Port Richmond has had many names through the years. In the late 17th century it was known simply as The Burial Place. Subsequently, the area was alternately known as Bristol, New Bristol, Irvington, Cyrene, and Cityville. These names were proposed, but Port Richmond eventually won out in 1866. The name "Port Richmond" was given to the place by Rev. Dr. James Brownlee of the Dutch Reformed Church

In 1700 the area was known as the "burial place" from a cemetery of the Reformed Church on Staten Island near the present Port Richmond Avenue along the waterfront. It later became a transfer point between ferries from New York City to New Brunswick, New Jersey. A ferry landing (called variously "Ryer's Landing", "Mercereau's Landing", and "Decker's Landing") was later constructed for a route linking Staten Island across the Kill Van Kull to Bergen Point (present-day Bayonne, New Jersey). The Bayonne Bridge was constructed in 1931 yet ferry service continued until 1962.

19th century

Port Richmond's location on the Kull Van Kill made it a prime ferry launch from Staten Island to New Jersey. It was a transfer port for freight and passengers traveling by boat between New York City and New Brunswick, New Jersey. This point is the part of Staten Island closest to Port Elizabeth, New Jersey and was once called Mersereau's Point, after Mersereau's Ferry. This point was also known as Lambert's, Collyer's, and Bowman's Point. It was called Lambert's Point during the Revolutionary War and later Collyer's Point. Other ferries that operated from that point were: Dacosta's, Indian, Decker's, Ryers', and Hilleker's. Ryers' and Hilleker's ferries were in competition with one another until David Mersereau bought out both companies in the late 19th century. Ferries ran continually until shortly after the Bayonne Bridge was built in 1931. The area also became the site of an important stop on a coach route between the city and Philadelphia. Port Richmond Avenue has been known over the years as Church Road, Port Richmond Plank Road, Stone Road, and Richmond Avenue. The road is a continuation of an old highway called the Morningstar Road.

Cornelius "Commodore" Vanderbilt, railway tycoon and patriarch of the Vanderbilt family, was born in the area in 1794. In 1836, former Vice President Aaron Burr died in Port Richmond at the St. James Hotel, a prominent hotel which once stood on Richmond Terrace until it was demolished.

In the early 19th century, the area was an overnight coach stop between New York City and Philadelphia. In 1836, a public park was built. In the middle 19th century, the area began to attract immigrants from Ireland and Germany. Among the industries established in the area was the only whale oil processing plant on Staten Island. It was later replaced by a linseed oil processing plant that operated until the 20th century. Other industries included lumber and coal yards, as a dye processing plant. Because oyster harvesting was a booming business along the mudflats in New York Harbor, many successful oyster boat captains built mansions on Richmond Terrace facing the Kill van Kull in the 1840s and 1850s. Industries along the waterfront included lumber and coal yards.

In 1883, Port Richmond was described as a model village:

"The general appearance of Port Richmond is inviting and pleasing. The streets are wide, well-macadamized and smooth; the side walks well paved and generally shaded by trees of large growth. The business blocks are substantial and the dwellings range from pretentious mansions to quiet cottage"

In 1866, the neighborhood was incorporated as Port Richmond. In the 1880s, the Staten Island Railway constructed a North Shore branch with a stop in the village on Richmond Avenue, which had become a main shopping area of the island. In the 1870, St. Philip's Baptist Church, the oldest of the three black Baptist congregations on the Island, was formed. The church still stands at 77 Bennett Street, next to the Port Richmond Library that was built with funds from Andrew Carnegie in 1902. At the beginning of the 20th century, the neighborhood attracted large numbers of Italian, Polish, Norwegian, and Swedish immigrants. Temple Emanu-El erected its domed, Classical building in 1907.

20th century
When telephone service was upgraded in New York City in December 1930, a telephone exchange bearing the designation "Port Richmond 7" was created, its territory including the neighborhood itself along with many other communities on the western and central North Shore plus the island's then-sparsely populated, rural interior. This exchange was disconnected in 1948 when a "Port Washington 7" exchange was established to serve the town by that name in Nassau County, on Long Island; the Port Richmond exchange customers were moved to exchanges to the east, such as "Saint George 7".

The neighborhood suffered a severe economic decline in the latter half of the 20th century, largely as a result of the shift of development and commercial activity to the center of the island, following the construction of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge and Staten Island Mall. The North Shore Branch of the Staten Island Railway that ran through the neighborhood connecting it to St. George was mainly a freight railroad. It was owned by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and was briefly, in 1925 and 1926, used as a passenger service link to the ferry launch at St. George. This was suspended as the boat ride was slower than the usual B&O trip to the CNJ Terminal in Jersey City, New Jersey. During World War II some trains were used to move troops. This branch was closed in 1953, leaving behind a dilapidated track and Port Richmond station along Richmond (now Port Richmond) Avenue. Plans for reopening this line were studied at various times during the 1990s and early 2000s as a Staten Island light rail line.

Demographics
Based on data from the 2010 United States Census, the population of Port Richmond was 20,191, a change of 2,149 (10.6%) from the 18,042 counted in 2000. Covering an area of 840.52 acres, the neighborhood had a population density of 24 PD/acre. The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 40.2% (8,115) White, 16.8% (3,392) African American, 0.3% (51) Native American, 3.9% (784) Asian, 0% (6) Pacific Islander, 0.4% (79) from other races, and 1.9% (377) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 36.6% (7,387) of the population.

The entirety of Community District 1, which comprises Port Richmond and other neighborhoods on the North Shore, had 181,484 inhabitants as of NYC Health's 2018 Community Health Profile, with an average life expectancy of 79.0 years. This is lower than the median life expectancy of 81.2 for all New York City neighborhoods. Most inhabitants are youth and middle-aged adults: 24% are between the ages of between 0–17, 27% between 25 and 44, and 26% between 45 and 64. The ratio of college-aged and elderly residents was lower, at 10% and 13% respectively.

As of 2017, the median household income in Community District 1 was $48,018, though the median income in Port Richmond individually was $51,135. In 2018, an estimated 21% of Port Richmond and the North Shore residents lived in poverty, compared to 17% in all of Staten Island and 20% in all of New York City. One in fourteen residents (7%) were unemployed, compared to 6% in Staten Island and 9% in New York City. Rent burden, or the percentage of residents who have difficulty paying their rent, is 51% in Port Richmond and the North Shore, compared to the boroughwide and citywide rates of 49% and 51% respectively. Based on this calculation,, Port Richmond and the North Shore are considered high-income relative to the rest of the city and not gentrifying.

The Black and Latino populations are largest in the northern section of the neighborhood, near Richmond Terrace. The southeastern portion of the neighborhood (roughly south of Post Avenue & east of Port Richmond Avenue) is the section with the largest percentage of Whites (almost 50%), and is sometimes referred to as "Port Richmond Center" or "Upper Port Richmond". The 10302 zip code (which is mostly Port Richmond, but also includes part of Westerleigh) has the highest percentage of Hispanics of any zip code on Staten Island, at 41.3%. Within the Hispanic population, it is the only zip code on Staten Island where Mexicans outnumber Puerto Ricans: Mexicans make up 20% of the population of the zip code. The zip code includes parts of nearby Westerleigh, so Mexicans make up roughly 23% of the population of Port Richmond, with the presence being highest along Port Richmond Avenue, and in the northern part of the neighborhood in general.

Racial tensions between blacks and Hispanics
The African-American community that had long occupied Port Richmond's Northern quarters began to see a large influx of Mexican immigrants move in alongside them starting late in the 1980s. The Mexicans transformed many boarded up storefronts along Port Richmond Avenue and quickly made the commercial strip the center of Latino culture on Staten Island. Still many of Port Richmond's Mexicans line busy neighborhood streets every morning looking to be picked up for work as day laborers. Since they often commute on foot and usually have money in their pockets, the immigrants have long been targeted for violent muggings and senseless attacks on Port Richmond streets. The tensions between the area's long-time inhabitants and its newcomers have been well documented for years. Several outreach groups have since popped up to address the community's issues. Still, mistrust persists on both sides of the fence, as portions of northern Port Richmond (especially west of Port Richmond Avenue) have shifted from being predominantly Black to predominantly Hispanic.

This led to an incident, whence in the early morning hours of April 5, 2010, 26-year-old baker Rodulfo Olmedo was on his way home from a local club on Port Richmond Avenue when he was set upon by three African-American and one Hispanic teenagers, who badly beat Olmedo with unidentified objects believed to be baseball bats or wooden planks and possibly a chain before robbing his unconscious body of cash and a cellphone. After being helped by a passer-by and brought to the hospital, Olmedo, a 13-year resident of the U.S., told police that throughout the attack, which was captured on nearby surveillance cameras, he was verbally discriminated against. The attack provoked outrage both politically and locally, but while many felt the attack was solely a result of the victim's nationality, the attackers insisted that they knew Olmedo and were merely settling an earlier score with him. Regardless, the incident caused similar but unpublicized incidents, which had been taking place, to be publicized. After the incident, the United States Department of Justice began assisting community officials in their efforts to develop a neighborhood watch or a "Crime Response Team", a group of citizens that would possibly work with the NYPD to report suspicious activity and prevent more violence in the neighborhood, as well as to organize a series of meetings to facilitate community dialogue. They also set out to create "safe spaces", which was not the first time the idea was floated. These are willing businesses that are open late, such as bodegas or delis, where people who feel like they are being followed or otherwise fear for their safety, can seek refuge and be assisted by workers with contacting the police.

Community activism and outreach
Port Richmond has several community activist and outreach programs and organizations:
 * Northfield Community Local Development Corp.
 * Port Richmond Anti-Violence Task Force
 * Make the Road New York
 * Eye Openers Youth Against Violence
 * Project Hospitality
 * El Centro de Hospitalidad (Latino Civic Association of Staten Island)
 * Port Richmond Improvement Association
 * Community Health Action of Staten Island (formerly Staten Island Aids Task Force)/Port Richmond Wellness Center
 * Community Health Center of Richmond
 * Amazing Grace Interfaith Church
 * Community By Community
 * Labyrinth Arts Collective, Inc.

Wagner College's Port Richmond Partnership Initiative
In March 2008, local Wagner College chose Port Richmond as its target community to begin a five-year plan between the college and seven community groups with the intention of focusing all of Wagner's volunteer activities squarely on the one community in hopes of improving the overall quality of life for the neighborhood's residents by curbing several disturbing trends in the neighborhood ranging from poor health care access, youth obesity, racial/ethnic tensions and youth violence to limited economic and educational opportunities. The students would then be required to report on their progress as part of their course requirements with the ultimate goal being to make significant improvements in the aforementioned fields and eventually branching out to other distressed North Shore neighborhoods.

The Port Richmond initiative was lauded by former president Bill Clinton at The Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) Meeting on February 14, 2009, at the University of Texas at Austin before a star-studded crowd. The CGI U is the college student/administrator-based offshoot of his Clinton Global Initiative, a non-partisan organization that convenes global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to the world's most pressing problems.

Police and crime
Port Richmond and the West Shore are patrolled by the 121st Precinct of the NYPD, located at 970 Richmond Avenue. The 121st Precinct was split from the 120th Precinct in 2013; the latter ranked 12th safest out of 69 patrol areas for per-capita crime in 2010. , with a non-fatal assault rate of 94 per 100,000 people, Port Richmond and the North Shore's rate of violent crimes per capita is more than that of the city as a whole. The incarceration rate of 719 per 100,000 people is higher than that of the city as a whole. The 121st Precinct saw one murder, 13 rapes, 86 robberies, 216 felony assaults, 90 burglaries, 397 grand larcenies, and 115 grand larcenies auto in 2022.

Port Richmond has long been plagued by high levels of crime, such as prostitution, drugs and violence. However, much of it takes place in the northern part of the neighborhood, north of roughly Post Avenue. In 2009, findings showed that Port Richmond (zip code 10302) received a 7 on a scale of 1–10 in terms of violent crime level - the highest for any zip code on Staten Island (one other Staten Island zip code also received a 7). The United States violent crime average for a zip code is a 3. Port Richmond also received a 6 on an identical scale measuring property crime. The United States property crime average for a zip code is also a 3.

Fire safety
Port Richmond is served by the New York City Fire Department (FDNY)'s Engine Co. 157/Ladder Co. 80, located at 1573 Castleton Avenue.

Health
, preterm births and births to teenage mothers are more common in Port Richmond and the North Shore than in other places citywide. In Port Richmond and the North Shore, there were 96 preterm births per 1,000 live births (compared to 87 per 1,000 citywide), and 22.6 births to teenage mothers per 1,000 live births (compared to 19.3 per 1,000 citywide). Port Richmond and the North Shore have a relatively average population of residents who are uninsured. In 2018, this population of uninsured residents was estimated to be 12%, the same as the citywide rate of 12%.

The concentration of fine particulate matter, the deadliest type of air pollutant, in Port Richmond and the North Shore is 0.0071 mg/m3, less than the city average. Sixteen percent of Port Richmond and the North Shore residents are smokers, which is higher than the city average of 14% of residents being smokers. In Port Richmond and the North Shore, 24% of residents are obese, 9% are diabetic, and 26% have high blood pressure—compared to the citywide averages of 24%, 11%, and 28% respectively. In addition, 21% of children are obese, compared to the citywide average of 20%.

Eighty-seven percent of residents eat some fruits and vegetables every day, which is the same as the city's average of 87%. In 2018, 77% of residents described their health as "good", "very good", or "excellent", equal to the city's average of 78%. For every supermarket in Port Richmond and the North Shore, there are 28 bodegas.

The nearest major hospital is Richmond University Medical Center in West New Brighton.

Post office and ZIP Codes
Port Richmond is located within the ZIP Code 10302. The United States Postal Service operates the Port Richmond Station post office at 364 Port Richmond Avenue.

Education
Port Richmond and the North Shore generally have a lower rate of college-educated residents than the rest of the city. While 37% of residents age 25 and older have a college education or higher, 15% have less than a high school education and 48% are high school graduates or have some college education. By contrast, 39% of Staten Island residents and 43% of city residents have a college education or higher. The percentage of Port Richmond and the North Shore students excelling in math rose from 49% in 2000 to 65% in 2011, though reading achievement declined from 55% to 51% during the same time period.

Port Richmond and the North Shore's rate of elementary school student absenteeism is slightly higher than the rest of New York City. In Port Richmond and the North Shore, 25% of elementary school students missed twenty or more days per school year, more than the citywide average of 20%. Additionally, 73% of high school students in Port Richmond and the North Shore graduate on time, about the same as the citywide average of 75%.

Schools
The New York City Department of Education operates the following elementary schools in Port Richmond:

 * PS 19 The Curtis School (grades PK-5)
 * PS 20 Port Richmond (grades K-5)

Port Richmond High School, located in Port Richmond, had a new building constructed in 1993, but the school was originally opened in 1927. The school has about 2,700 students and is known as one of the highest performing high schools on Staten Island. The high school has a reputation for excellence in sports and academics. Newsweek has named Port Richmond High School in its list of "Best High Schools" in many recent years. The local middle school is Markham Intermediate School, located at 20 Houston Street in Westerleigh.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York operates Staten Island Catholic schools. St. Roch Parish School closed in 2011. In its final year it had 96 students, meaning the building was 35% utilized.

Library
The New York Public Library (NYPL)'s Port Richmond branch is located at 75 Bennett Street. Interest in a library began in 1833, and various private library groups operated during the 19th century. The Port Richmond branch's current Carnegie library structure was built in 1905, becoming Port Richmond's permanent library. The Chimes Playhouse auditorium was constructed in 1939, and the Children's Room was rehabilitated in 2008.

Transportation
Port Richmond is the site of the Castleton Bus Depot, at Castleton and Jewett Avenues. It is served by many local and express buses, including the local buses; the  limited-stop buses; and the  express buses. The express bus routes ran to Port Richmond, but were discontinued by the MTA in 2010 due to budget cuts. The abandoned North Shore Branch of the Staten Island Railway runs through Port Richmond, and the area's eponymous station still stands.

Ritz Theater
The Ritz Theater, a movie theater and vaudeville venue now a home improvement showroom, located at Port Richmond Avenue and Anderson Avenue, once hosted the biggest names in rock and roll and show business. It was built in 1924 by Sol Brill, who was also responsible for the construction of Staten Island's Liberty, New Dorp, and St. George Theaters. The spacious Ritz Theater boasted 2,126 seats and was one of New York's premier vaudeville houses. During the blizzard of 1947 the theater's marquee was destroyed and was never restored. The theater also served as a prime American rock concert venue in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Since 1985, the theater has been owned and operated as a tile showroom by the Pedulla family. Portions of the theater's original function can still be seen inside, and its famous murals still grace the walls.

Old PS 20
Now essentially a retirement community, it is one of the few remaining examples of 19th-century school buildings on Staten Island. Old PS 20 was the site of a school since 1842, when the two-story brick building and old stable served as classrooms for the students. The building that now stands on the site was built in 1891 after the old buildings were condemned for sanitary reasons. An addition to the 1891 construction was added in 1898 by James Warriner Moulton who attempted to give the addition what he termed greater "strength" and a "more manly character." The architecture of the building draws from a variety of styles including Romanesque Revival, neo-Classical, Italian villa, and Americanized Queen Anne. The hodge-podge of styles suggests a vernacular approach and reflects the reality of the 19th century, when school districts were responsible for designing, constructing, and maintaining their own buildings. Old PS 20 was within the Staten Island school district until it was disbanded following the consolidation of New York City in 1898. The bell tower on Old PS 20 is significant because it reflects civic pride. It was the first school building to have such an impressive tower and is the last remaining example. Old PS 20 was designated a Landmark Site by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1988.

121 Heberton Avenue
This is a $2 1/2$-story frame building, is located on the eastern side of Veteran's Park, once the most fashionable locations in the neighborhood. Heberton Avenue is known for a plethora of handsome old houses. 121 Heberton, built by James G. Burger around 1859–61, is one of the most impressive. The residence is a rare surviving example in New York City of a picturesque villa in the Rustic style. The design combines elements seen in the pattern books of Gervase Wheeler, Calvert Vaux, and Samuel Sloan. Features associated with this style are broad gables, openwork brackets, long outside galleries, raised basement, and simple ornament. The house was first owned by a prosperous oysterman and abolitionist named Captain John J. Housman, then leased to tenants, and finally fell into the hands of the Brown family. The Browns had a number of notable family members in government in Richmond County. Though the house is no longer in the Brown family, it is still used as a residence today and recent renovations have preserved the unique historic quality of the house. The 121 Heberton Avenue House was designated a Landmark Site by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2002.

Bodine Creek

It is a short walk from The New York Public Library and Veteran's Park. Bodine has had many names over the centuries, including Palmer's Run and Mill Brook. Near Bodine Creek was Bodine's Pond, used for years by various industries. The Richmond County Water Company once supplied water to the area, but when Bodine's Pond was eventually drained, the wells of the company were sunk in the remaining marsh. The edges of the pond are still visible on the landscape in the form of Columbia Street and Jewett Avenue. In 1922, the New York Times reported that a 13-year-old boy was killed by a train while crabbing from the railway trestle over Bodine Creek. Other fatalities have been reported from drowning and train accidents.

Port Richmond Hotel

The Port Richmond Hotel, a barracks-like building facing the Bayonne ferry terminal, was once the elegant St. James Hotel. The St. James Hotel was erected in 1787 remained until 1945, when it was demolished. As identified by a plaque on the Griffith Block building, it was the last home of Aaron Burr, the third Vice President of the United States. He died there on September 14, 1836.

Reformed Protestant Dutch Church and Burial Ground
Built in 1845 in Greek revival style, this is the third church on the site. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005 as the Reformed Church on Staten Island. The first, a hexagonal wooden building erected in 1714, was destroyed by the British during the revolution. The original building, a long structure around which the community now known as Port Richmond grew, was erected on land donated in 1714 by Governor Hunter. The original license to the Dutch Congregation signed by Governor Hunter in 1714 is preserved. The grounds also serve in commemoration of the Five Brothers from Staten Island who served in the Revolutionary War. The Daughters of the American Revolution recognized the Brothers Mersereau: Joshua - 3rd Quarter Master General, Jacob - Colonel, Cornelius - Soldier, John - Captain, and Paul - Sailor.

In media
The cult classic movie release Combat Shock, the independent directing debut of Staten Island native Buddy Giovinazzo, is set in and was largely filmed in Port Richmond, where the main character dwells in apocalyptic squalor. The movie has been hailed for its raw depiction of inner city life and use of the gritty streetscapes it was filmed amid.

In December 2009, Arcadia Publishing released a book named Port Richmond on its Images of America product line about the neighborhood's history, including its ethnic diversity and the effect various immigrant groups have had on the community. The book was written by Phillip Papas and Lori R. Weintrob.

Notable people

 * Aaron Burr, U.S. vice president, died in Port Richmond at the Winants (also, Saint James or Port Richmond) Hotel
 * Carmine Giovinazzo, born in Port Richmond, actor in Black Hawk Down and CSI:NY
 * John Henry Lake, 1900 Olympic bronze medal cyclist
 * Anning S. Prall, born in Port Richmond in 1870, U.S. Representative, Chair of the Federal Communications Commission
 * Jacob Tyson, born in Richmond County in 1773, U.S. Representative, New York State Senate, buried in Dutch Reformed Churchyard

title: Port Richmond, Staten Island


text:
Harriet Monroe

Harriet Monroe (December 23, 1860 – September 26, 1936) was an American editor, scholar, literary critic, poet, and patron of the arts. She was the founding publisher and long-time editor of Poetry magazine, which she established in 1912. As a supporter of the poets Wallace Stevens, Ezra Pound, H. D., T. S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams, Carl Sandburg, Max Michelson and others, Monroe played an important role in the development of modern poetry. Her correspondence with early twentieth century poets provides a wealth of information on their thoughts and motives.

Early life and education
Monroe was born in Chicago, Illinois. She read at an early age; her father, a lawyer, had a large library that provided refuge from domestic discord. In her autobiography, A Poet's Life: Seventy Years in a Changing World, published two years after her death, Monroe recalls: "I started in early with Shakespeare, Byron, Shelley, with Dickens and Thackeray; and always the book-lined library gave me a friendly assurance of companionship with lively and interesting people, gave me friends of the spirit to ease my loneliness."

Early writing
In 1879, Monroe graduated from the Visitation Academy located in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C. Her mentor in writing was Mary Paulina Finn, a nun and writer. Sr. Finn published books, plays, and poems as M.S. Pine. Monroe was later recognized as a talented author for her age. Her prose published in 1899 in the Atlantic Monthly, The "Grand Canyon of the Colorado", was considered better poetry than her most notable poem, I love my life.

Driven by fears of posthumous anonymity, Monroe proclaimed after graduation her determination to become "great and famous" as a poet or playwright. In the Dictionary of Literary Biography, Judith Paterson quoted her as saying, "I cannot remember when to die without leaving some memorable record did not seem to me a calamity too terrible to be borne." She afterward devoted herself to literary work. In her biography, Monroe wrote, 'I have sense of consecration that made me think I would prefer art to life'.

Though Century magazine published her poem, "With a Copy of Shelley," in 1889, she became disillusioned by the limited earnings available for poets, saying: "The minor painter or sculptor was honored with large annual awards in our greatest cities, while the minor poet was a joke of the paragraphers, subject to the popular prejudice that his art thrived best on starvation in a garret." She became a freelance correspondent to the Chicago Tribune, and was commissioned to write a commemorative ode to be read at the opening ceremonies for the World's Fair commemorating the 400th anniversary of Columbus' first landing in the Americas.,

Poetry magazine
Monroe's financial hardships were alleviated after she sued the New York World for publishing the Colombian ode poem without her consent and she was awarded $5,000 in a settlement. With help from publisher Hobart Chatfield-Taylor, Monroe convinced one hundred prominent Chicago business leaders to sponsor the magazine Poetry by each committing to fifty dollars for a five-year subscription. The $5,000, coupled with her own settlement, was enough to launch the magazine on September 23, 1912, while upholding its promise to contributors of adequate payment for all published work.

Monroe was editor for its first two years without salary, while simultaneously working as an art critic for the Chicago Tribune. By 1914, the magazine work became too much for her to accomplish while working other jobs, so she resigned from the Tribune and accepted a salary of fifty dollars per month from the magazine. For more than ten years she maintained herself on this stipend, raising it to one hundred dollars per month in 1925. Her extensive papers and correspondence as editor of Poetry magazine, illuminate the authorial process and the birth of modern poetry.

Don Share, who became editor of Poetry in 2013, writes that Monroe seemed to have a "sixth sense" about the poetry she published. Monroe, herself, wrote and preferred poems rooted in 19th century tradition, but in her magazine, "that countervailing sixth sense allowed her to make literary history. She invented a box, you could say — and promptly set to work thinking outside it. Her magazine was, therefore, like she was: unpredictable, difficult, and infuriating," but she never wavered in her assessment of progressive American culture as a democratic triumph.

Later life and death
Monroe continued to edit Poetry magazine until she died in Arequipa, Peru on September 26, 1936, at age 75. She was on her way to climb Machu Picchu, and the high altitudes reportedly triggered a cerebral hemorrhage, which caused her death.

Monroe was a member of the Eagle's Nest Art Colony in Ogle County, Illinois, and is mentioned in Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City. In 2011, Monroe was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame.

Family
Monroe was the sister-in-law of Chicago architect John Wellborn Root, and wrote his biography.

Works

 * cantata for the opening of the Chicago Auditorium (1889)
 * Columbian Ode composed for the opening of the World's Columbian Exposition, with George Whitefield Chadwick (1892)
 * Valeria and other Poems (1892)
 * John Wellborn Root: A Study of His Life and Work (1896)
 * The Passing Show - Five Modern Plays in Verse (1903)
 * Dance of the Seasons (1911)
 * You and I - Poems (1914)
 * The New Poetry: Anthology of 20th Century Verse (1921)
 * Poets And Their Art (1926)
 * A Poet's Life - Seventy Years in a Changing World (1938)

title: Harriet Monroe


text:
Ahkal Moʼ Nahb II

Ahkal Moʼ Nahb II also known as Chaacal II and Akul Anab II, (September 3, 523 – July 21, 570) was an ajaw of the Maya city-state of Palenque. He took the throne on May 2, 565, eighty-five days after the death of Kʼan Joy Chitam I. He was the grandson of Ahkal Moʼ Nahb I and probably the brother of Kan Bahlam I.

title: Ahkal Moʼ Nahb II


text:
Kintarō

Kintarō (金太郎) is a folk hero from Japanese folklore. A child of superhuman strength, he was raised by a yama-uba ("mountain witch") on Mount Ashigara. He became friendly with the animals of the mountain, and later, after catching Shuten-dōji, the terror of the region around Mount Ōe, he became a loyal follower of Minamoto no Yorimitsu under the new name Sakata no Kintoki (坂田 金時). He is a popular figure in Bunraku and kabuki drama, and it is a custom to put up a Kintarō doll on Boy's Day in the hope that boys will become equally brave and strong.

Kintarō is supposedly based on a real person, Sakata Kintoki, who lived during the Heian period and probably came from what is now the city of Minamiashigara, Kanagawa. He served as a retainer for the samurai Minamoto no Yorimitsu and became well known for his abilities as a warrior. As with many larger-than-life individuals, his legend has grown with time.

Legend
Several competing stories tell of Kintarō's childhood. In one, he was raised by his mother, Princess Yaegiri, daughter of a wealthy man named Shiman-chōja, in the village of Jizodo, near Mount Ashigara. In a competing legend, his mother gave birth to him in what is now Sakata, Yamagata. She was forced to flee, however, due to fighting between her husband, a samurai named Sakata, and his uncle. She finally settled in the forests of Mount Ashigara to raise her son. Alternatively, Kintarō's real mother left the child in the wilds or died and left him an orphan, and he was raised by a yama-uba or "mountain witch" (one tale says Kintarō's mother raised him in the wilds, but due to her haggard appearance, she came to be called yama-uba). In the most fanciful version of the tale, the yama-uba was Kintarō's mother, impregnated by a clap of thunder sent from a red dragon of Mount Ashigara. According to some sources, the dragon was Raijin.

The legends agree that even as a toddler, Kintarō was active and tireless, plump and ruddy, wearing only a haragake apron with the kanji for "gold" (金) on it. His only other belonging was a hatchet (ono or masakari). He was bossy to other children (or there simply were no other children in the forest), so his friends were mainly the animals of Mt. Kintoki and Mt. Ashigara. He was also phenomenally strong, able to smash rocks into pieces, uproot trees, and bend trunks like twigs. His animal friends served him as messengers and mounts, and some legends say that he even learned to speak their language. Several tales tell of Kintarō's adventures, fighting monsters and oni (demons), beating bears in sumo wrestling, and helping the local woodcutters fell trees.

As an adult, Kintarō changed his name to Sakata no Kintoki. He met the samurai Minamoto no Yorimitsu as he passed through the area around Mt. Kintoki. Yorimitsu was impressed by Kintarō's enormous strength, so he took him as one of his personal retainers to live with him in Kyoto. Kintoki studied martial arts there and eventually became the chief of Yorimitsu's Shitennō ("four braves"), renowned for his strength and martial prowess. He eventually went back for his mother and brought her to Kyoto as well.

In modern Japan
Kintarō is an extremely popular figure in Japan, and his image adorns everything from statues to storybooks, anime, manga to action figures. For example, the manga and anime Golden Boy stars a character with the same name. Kintarō as an image is characterized with an ono, a haragake apron, and sometimes a tame bear. In many of Kintarō's pictures, it seems that he is trying to capture a giant black koi. This seems to glorify his strength as he is able to wrestle with such a creature.

Kintarō candy has been around since the Edo period; no matter how the cylinder-shaped candy is cut, Kintarō's face appears inside. Japanese tradition is to decorate the room of a newborn baby boy with Kintarō dolls on Children's Day (May 5) so that the child will grow up to be strong like the Golden Boy. A shrine dedicated to the folk hero lies at the foot of Mount Ashigara in the Hakone area near Tokyo. Nearby is a giant boulder that was supposedly chopped in half by the boy hero himself.

The name and certain traits of the main character of Gin Tama, Gintoki Sakata, are loosely based on Kintarō. The relation has also been confirmed in Gin Tama's episode 98 and manga volume 10. Gintoki has its name contain the character for "silver" instead of "gold", and he has silver hair. One of his nemeses, the golden-haired Sakata Kintoki, also made an appearance.
 * In the anime series Otogi Zoshi, Kintaro is one of the main characters.
 * The Imagin Kintaros from the tokusatsu series Kamen Rider Den-O is based on Kintarō, emulating the bear and axe elements.
 * In the video game Otogi 2: Immortal Warriors developed by From Software, Kintoki wields a large axe as his main weapon, known as the 'Crimson Axe'.
 * Kintarō appears as an alien character who rides a flying bear and wields a small (but large for his size) axe in the animated television series Urusei Yatsura.
 * In the anime and manga series The Prince of Tennis, a character by the name of Tōyama Kintarō is the youngest regular member of the Shitenhoji Middle School tennis team. He is named after Kintarō, and shares his namesake's amazing superhuman strength.
 * In the series One Piece, the character called Sentoumaru has a design based on Kintaro (he wears the same clothes and wields a giant battle axe). Even his signature attacks is called Ashigara Dokkoi.
 * In the Power Instinct video game series, Kintaro appears as a playable character as Kintaro Kokuin. He uses his animal friends, such as a bear and a koi fish, as well as his axe, to attack the opponent, and is capable of transforming into a dog-like superhero named "Poochy".
 * In the video game Persona 4, Kintaro becomes a playable persona, under the name Kintoki-Douji. In a visual pun, instead of carrying an axe, it carries a Tomahawk missile.
 * In the anime Kai Doh Maru, Kintoki is a girl who passes as a boy and is rescued by Raiko no Minamoto from her evil uncle Shuten Doji. He trains her to be a fighter ( specializing in thrown axe and battle axe ) but their love ends in death.
 * In the video game Animal Crossing: New Leaf, the clothing shop "Able Sisters" will sometimes display a wig in the accessories section of the store that the player can purchase, and is styled similarly to Kintarō's own hairstyle.
 * In the second season of the anime Garo: The Animation, Kintoki is an ageless boy of the Heian Period who serves under Raikō as his retainer, in their fight against horrors.
 * In the anime and manga series Gintama, the protagonist Sakata Gintoki is partially inspired by Kintarō, as stated by the author Hideaki Sorachi.
 * In the mobile game Fate/Grand Order, Sakata Kintoki is a Berserker-class Servant. He debuts as an ally in the London chapter. He is shown to have fascination towards golden things, and even has the tendency of saying the English word "Gold" and "Golden". His overall design is modernized; akin to a Yakuza mob boss and he wields an elemental (lightning) axe. He also appears alternatively as a Rider-class Servant, where his appearance is akin to bōsōzoku gang member and rides his bike "Unit Golden Bear". In this class, he fights with spiky fisticuffs; fused with his lightning power.
 * In the video game Nioh, Kintoki appears in the last sub-mission of the Kinki Region, Greater Demon Hunting, to assist the player character, William, in defeating a powerful demon. In the sequel, Nioh 2, Sakata Kintoki makes another appearance with Minamoto no Yorimitsu and the other three members of the Shitennō.
 * In the video game Yo-kai Watch Blasters, Kintaro is another Jibanyan clone by the name of Kintaronyan. Kintaronyan is sometimes befriended with the item "Kintaronyan Candy" on the stage, "Momotaro Hunter 2".
 * In the TMNT 2012 cartoon, Kintaro is an anthropormophic pug who accompanies Usagi Miyamoto. When the Ninja Turtles are transported to their dimension they help Usagi protect him from the demon Jei. He's depicted as a rude and spoiled brat but later warms up to Usagi and the turtles.
 * In episode 23 of the anime To Love Ru, Yuuki Mikan, sister of the protagonist Yuuki Rito, appears as Kintaro.
 * In the 2001 animated hit classic Spirited Away, the main antagonist Yubaba, which means bathhouse witch, has a son that is based on kintarō. He is a gigantic baby named Boh and his only article of clothing is a huge red bib that is kanji for 'Bō', or boy.
 * In the manga Record of Ragnarok, Kintaro, by his later name of Sakata Kintoki, appears as a human fighter battling gods of several pantheons in a tournament to decide the fate of the human species.
 * In the video game Spirit Hunter: NG, Kubitarou of Kintoki is loosely based on Kintarō.
 * In the Marvel Comics' Death of the Venomverse miniseries, Kintaro is known as Kid Venom, an alternate version of Venom created by artist Taigami.

title: Kintarō


text:
Refusenik

Refusenik (отказник, ; alternatively spelled refusnik) was an unofficial term for individuals—typically, but not exclusively, Soviet Jews—who were denied permission to emigrate, primarily to Israel, by the authorities of the Soviet Union and other countries of the Soviet Bloc. The term refusenik is derived from the "refusal" handed down to a prospective emigrant from the Soviet authorities.

In addition to the Jews, broader categories included:
 * Other ethnicities, such as Volga Germans attempting to leave for Germany, Armenians wanting to join their diaspora, and Greeks forcibly removed by Stalin from Crimea and other southern lands to Siberia.
 * Members of persecuted religious groups, such as the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Baptists and other Protestant groups, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Russian Mennonites.

A typical basis to deny emigration was the alleged association with Soviet state secrets. Some individuals were labelled as foreign spies or potential seditionists who purportedly wanted to abuse Israeli aliyah and Law of Return (right to return) as a means of escaping punishment for high treason or sedition from abroad.

Applying for an exit visa was a step noted by the KGB, so that future career prospects, always uncertain for Soviet Jews, could be impaired. As a rule, Soviet dissidents and refuseniks were fired from their workplaces and denied employment according to their major specialty. As a result, they had to find a menial job, such as a street sweeper, or face imprisonment on charges of social parasitism.

The ban on Jewish immigration to Israel was lifted in 1971, leading to the 1970s Soviet Union aliyah. The coming to power of Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union in the mid-1980s, and his policies of glasnost and perestroika, as well as a desire for better relations with the West, led to major changes, and most refuseniks were allowed to emigrate.

History of the Jewish refuseniks
A large number of Soviet Jews applied for exit visas to leave the Soviet Union, especially in the period following the 1967 Six-Day War. While some were allowed to leave, many were refused permission to emigrate, either immediately or after their cases would languish for years in the OVIR (ОВиР, Отдел Виз и Регистрации) or Office of Visas and Registration, the MVD (Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs) department responsible for exit visas. In many instances, the reason given for denial was that these persons had been given access, at some point in their careers, to information vital to Soviet national security and could not now be allowed to leave.

During the Cold War, Soviet Jews were thought to be a security liability or possible traitors. To apply for an exit visa, the applicants (and often their entire families) would have to quit their jobs, which in turn would make them vulnerable to charges of social parasitism, a criminal offense.

Many Jews encountered systematic, institutional antisemitism which blocked their opportunities for advancement. Some government sectors were almost entirely off-limits to Jews. In addition, Soviet restrictions on religious education and expression prevented Jews from engaging in Jewish cultural and religious life. While these restrictions led many Jews to seek emigration, requesting an exit visa was itself seen as an act of betrayal by Soviet authorities. Thus, prospective emigrants requested permission to emigrate at great personal risk, knowing that an official refusal would often be accompanied by dismissal from work and other forms of social ostracism and economic pressure. At the same time, strong international condemnations caused the Soviet authorities to significantly increase the emigration quota. In the years 1960 through 1970, only 4,000 people (legally) emigrated from the USSR. In the following decade, the number rose to 250,000, to fall again by 1980.

Hijacking incident
In 1970, a group of sixteen refuseniks (two of whom were non-Jewish), organized by dissident Eduard Kuznetsov (who already served a seven-year term in Soviet prisons), plotted to buy all the seats for the local flight Leningrad-Priozersk, under the guise of a trip to a wedding, on a small 12-seater aircraft Antonov An-2 (colloquially known as кукурузник), throw out the pilots before takeoff from an intermediate stop and fly it to Sweden, knowing they faced a huge risk of being captured or shot down. One of the participants, Mark Dymshits, was a former military pilot.

On 15 June 1970, after arriving at Smolnoye (later Rzhevka) Airport near Leningrad, the entire group of the "wedding guests" was arrested by the MVD.

The accused were charged for high treason, punishable by the death sentence under Article 64 of the Penal code of the RSFSR. Mark Dymshits and Eduard Kuznetsov were sentenced to capital punishment but after international protests, it was appealed and replaced with 15 years of incarceration; Yosef Mendelevitch and Yuri Fedorov: 15 years; Aleksey Murzhenko: 14 years; Sylva Zalmanson (Kuznetsov's wife and the only woman on trial): 10 years; Arie (Leib) Knokh: 13 years; Anatoli Altmann: 12 years; Boris Penson: 10 years; Israel Zalmanson: 8 years; Wolf Zalmanson (brother of Sylva and Israel): 10 years; Mendel Bodnya: 4 years.

Crackdown on the refusenik activism and its growth
The affair was followed by a crackdown on the Jewish and dissident movement throughout the USSR. Activists were arrested, makeshift centers for studying the Hebrew language and Torah were closed, and more trials followed. At the same time, strong international condemnations caused the Soviet authorities to significantly increase the emigration quota. In the years 1960 through 1970, only about 3,000 Soviet Jews had (legally) emigrated from the USSR; after the trial, in the period from 1971 to 1980 347,100 people received a visa to leave the USSR, 245,951 of them were Jews.

A leading proponent and spokesman for the refusenik rights during the mid-1970s was Natan Sharansky. Sharansky's involvement with the Moscow Helsinki Group helped to establish the struggle for emigration rights within the greater context of the human rights movement in the USSR. His arrest on charges of espionage and treason and subsequent trial contributed to international support for the refusenik cause.

International pressure

On 18 October 1976, 13 Jewish refuseniks came to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet to petition for explanations of denials of their right to emigrate from the USSR, as affirmed under the Helsinki Final Act. Failing to receive any answer, they assembled in the reception room of the Presidium on the following day. After a few hours of waiting, they were seized by the police, taken outside of the city limits and beaten. Two of them were kept in police custody.

In the next week, following an unsuccessful meeting between the activists' leaders and the Soviet Minister of Internal Affairs, General Nikolay Shchelokov, these abuses of law inspired several demonstrations in the Soviet capital. On Monday, 25 October 1976, 22 activists, including Mark Azbel, Felix Kandel, Alexander Lerner, Ida Nudel, Anatoly Shcharansky, Vladimir Slepak, and Michael Zeleny, were arrested in Moscow on their way to the next demonstration. They were convicted of hooliganism and incarcerated in the detention center Beryozka and other penitentiaries in and around Moscow. An unrelated party, artist Victor Motko, arrested in Dzerzhinsky Square, was detained along with the protesters in recognition of his prior attempts to emigrate from the USSR. These events were covered by several British and American journalists including David K. Shipler, Craig R. Whitney, and Christopher S. Wren. The October demonstrations and arrests coincided with the end of the 1976 United States presidential election. On October 25, U.S. presidential candidate Jimmy Carter expressed his support of the protesters in a telegram sent to Scharansky, and urged the Soviet authorities to release them. (See Léopold Unger, Christian Jelen, Le grand retour, A. Michel 1977; Феликс Кандель, Зона отдыха, или Пятнадцать суток на размышление, Типография Ольшанский Лтд, Иерусалим, 1979; Феликс Кандель, Врата исхода нашего: Девять страниц истории, Effect Publications, Tel-Aviv, 1980.) On 9 November 1976, a week after Carter won the presidential election, the Soviet authorities released all but two of the previously arrested protesters. Several more were subsequently rearrested and incarcerated or exiled to Siberia.

On 1 June 1978, refuseniks Vladimir and Maria Slepak stood on the eighth story balcony of their apartment building. By then they had been denied permission to emigrate for over 8 years. Vladimir displayed a banner that read "Let us go to our son in Israel". His wife Maria held a banner that read "Visa for my son". Fellow refusenik and Helsinki activist Ida Nudel held a similar display on the balcony of her own apartment. They were all arrested and charged with malicious hooliganism in violation of Article 206.2 of the Penal Code of the Soviet Union. The Moscow Helsinki Group protested their arrests in circulars dated 5 and 15 June of that year. Vladimir Slepak and Ida Nudel were convicted of all charges. They served 5 and 4 years in Siberian exile.

Various activist organizations constituted the Soviet Jewry Movement. Human rights organizations included the Cleveland Council on Soviet Anti-Semitism (1963), Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry (1964), Bay Area Council for Soviet Jews (1967), the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (1970), and the National Coalition Supporting Soviet Jewry (1971).

Another major source of pressure in favor of the rights of refuseniks was the Jackson–Vanik amendment to the 1974 Trade Act. Jackson–Vanik affected U.S. trade relations with countries with non-market economies (originally, countries of the Communist bloc) that restricted freedom of Jewish emigration and other human rights. As such, it was applied to the USSR. According to Mark E. Talisman, those who benefited included Jewish refuseniks from the Soviet Union, as well as Hungarians, Romanians, and other citizens that sought to emigrate from their nations.

Refusenik as a word
Although Refusenik originally had a precise meaning – those denied exit from the Soviet Union –  its meaning has sometimes diverged away from this sense. It began to be used to mean "outsider" for groups other than Russian Jews and later to mean "those who refuse" rather than its original sense of "those who are refused". Over time, "refusenik" has entered colloquial English for a person who refuses to do something, especially by way of protest.

In 1992, Mikhail Gorbachev referred to himself as the first political "refusenik of Russia," after buildings of the Gorbachev Foundation were taken by the Russian government and the country's high court requested that Gorbachev would be forbidden from leaving the country.

It is occasionally used in the UK to mean "ones who refuse to comply", and also in the U.S., with many people who use it being unaware of the word's origins.

However, the original meaning is preserved and used in parallel, particularly in Israeli and Jewish articles about the historical events from which it emerged.

Documentary films

 * In 2008 filmmaker Laura Bialis released a documentary film, Refusenik, chronicling the human rights struggle of the Soviet refuseniks.
 * Operation Wedding: a 2016 documentary film by filmmaker Anat Zalmanson-Kuznetsov, about her parents story Sylva Zalmanson and Eduard Kuznetsov, leading characters in the Dymshits–Kuznetsov hijacking affair—a daring escape attempt from the USSR in 1970 that kickstarted the Soviet Jewry movement.

Books and articles

 * Pauline Peretz, Let My People Go: The Transnational Politics of Soviet Jewish Emigration During the Cold War. Ethan Rundell, trans. Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2015.
 * Galina Nizhnikov, Against the Kremlin Wall. A participant's account of the Soviet Jewish women movement of the 1970s and the events surrounding the arrest and imprisonment of Ida Nudel.
 * Aba Taratuta, Cheerful Memories/Troubled Years: A Story of a Refusenik’s Family in Leningrad and its Struggle for Immigration to Israel.
 * Aba Taratuta, Cheerful Memories/Troubled Years: A Story of a Refusenik’s Family in Leningrad and its Struggle for Immigration to Israel.

Memoirs

 * Natan Sharansky, Fear No Evil: The Classic Memoir of One Man's Triumph over a Police State. ISBN 1-891620-02-9.
 * Chaim Potok, Gates of November: Chronicles of the Slepak Family. ISBN 0-394-58867-3.
 * Yuri Tarnopolsky, Memoirs of 1984. ISBN 0-8191-9198-1, ISBN 0-8191-9197-3.

Fiction

 * David Shrayer-Petrov (Шраер-Петров, Давид), Herbert and Nelly (a novel, in Russian, abridged 1986; complete 1992, 2006). A saga of a refusenik family set in Moscow in the 1980s.

title: Refusenik


text:
The Pall Mall Gazette

The Pall Mall Gazette was an evening newspaper founded in London on 7 February 1865 by George Murray Smith; its first editor was Frederick Greenwood. In 1921, The Globe merged into The Pall Mall Gazette, which itself was absorbed into The Evening Standard in 1923.

Beginning late in 1868, at least through the 1880s, a selection or digest of its contents was published as the weekly Pall Mall Budget.

History
The Pall Mall Gazette took the name of a fictional newspaper conceived by W. M. Thackeray. Pall Mall is a street in London where many gentlemen's clubs are located, hence Thackeray's description of this imaginary newspaper in his novel The History of Pendennis (1848–1850):

"We address ourselves to the higher circles of society: we care not to disown it—The Pall Mall Gazette is written by gentlemen for gentlemen; its conductors speak to the classes in which they live and were born. The field-preacher has his journal, the radical free-thinker has his journal: why should the Gentlemen of England be unrepresented in the Press?"

Under the ownership of George Smith of Smith, Elder & Co. from 1865 to 1880, with Frederick Greenwood as editor, The Pall Mall Gazette was a Conservative newspaper. Greenwood resigned in 1880, when the paper's new owner (Smith's new son-in-law, Henry Thompson) wished for it to support the policies of the Liberal Party. Taking all the staff with him, Greenwood became the editor of the newly-founded St James's Gazette and maintained his advocacy of Conservative policy. The first editor under Thompson's ownership was John Morley (later Viscount Morley), with W. T. Stead as assistant editor. Morley resigned in 1883 to go into politics.

Stead's editorship from 1883 to 1889 saw the paper cover such subjects as child prostitution; his campaign compelled the government to increase the age of consent from 13 to 16 in 1885. This was one of the first examples of investigative journalism, and Stead was arrested for "unlawful taking of a child" (when he purchased thirteen-year-old Eliza Armstrong from her mother for the meagre price of £5, to highlight how easy it was to buy children). The affair distressed Thompson, who dismissed Stead and hired the handsome society figure Henry Cust to replace him. Editor from 1892 to 1896, Cust returned the paper to its Conservative beginnings.

Thompson sold the paper to William Waldorf Astor in 1896. Sir Douglas Straight was editor until 1909, followed by F. J. Higginbottom, under whom the paper declined. Circulation doubled between 1911–15 under the editor James Louis Garvin, but the paper declined once more under its last editor D. L. Sutherland. It was absorbed into The Evening Standard in 1923. Several well-known writers contributed to The Pall Mall Gazette over the years. George Bernard Shaw gained his first job in journalism writing for the paper. Other contributors have included Anthony Trollope, Friedrich Engels, Oscar Wilde, Robert Louis Stevenson, Charles Whibley, Sir Spencer Walpole, Arthur Patchett Martin, and Jamaican-born writer Eneas Sweetland Dallas.

The British Weekly, "one of the most successful religious newspapers of its time", followed stylistically in the footsteps of the Pall Mall Gazette, "including interviews of prominent personalities, use of line illustrations and photographs, special supplements, investigative reporting, sensationalist headlines, and serialised debates".

References in popular culture
Many works of fiction refer to The Pall Mall Gazette. For example:
 * Consulting detective Sherlock Holmes places an advertisement in newspapers including The Pall Mall Gazette, in "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" (1892).
 * In Bram Stoker's epistolary novel Dracula (1897), the reader is presented with a Pall Mall Gazette article describing the escape of a wolf from the Zoological Gardens.
 * In H. G. Wells's The Time Machine (1895), the Time Traveller returns to London and sees that day's edition of The Pall Mall Gazette. From its date he knows that he is home at his starting point in time.
 * In Wells's The War of the Worlds (1898), the narrator describes the "pre-Martian periodical called Punch" as a prophecy.
 * In director Nicholas Meyer's first feature film Time After Time (1979), H. G. Wells (played by Malcolm McDowell) is a time traveler himself, 90 years in his future chasing Jack the Ripper (by David Warner) through the city of San Francisco in the year 1979. In a revolving restaurant, new female friend Amy (by Mary Steenburgen) states that Wells strikes her as the type that "never reads a newspaper". Wells replies, "I used to write for a newspaper, The Pall Mall Gazette".
 * In the Peruvian novel Vienen los Chilenos (The Chileans are Coming) by Guillermo Thorndike (1978), Mr. Petrie, an English gentleman travelling to Lima during the 19th-century Saltpeter War, visits its Phoenix Club, where Englishmen and England-educated Peruvians meet and converse in English. In its library he selects The Times, The Pall Mall Gazette, and some American newspapers, and reads news of the attempted assassination of the Tsar, the famine in Ireland, the fighting between British and Afghan troops, and the cavalry attacks on the Sioux in the United States.
 * In Gabrielle D'annunzio's novel "The Pleasure" "The Pall Mall Gazette" is referred as the scandalous English newspaper.

Ownership

 * George Smith (1865–1880)
 * Henry Yates Thompson (1880–1892)
 * William Waldorf Astor (1892–1917)
 * Henry Dalziel (1917–1923)

title: The Pall Mall Gazette


text:
Raijū

In Japanese mythology, the raijū (雷獣, らいじゅう) is a legendary creature associated with lightning and thunder, as well as the god Raijin.

Mythology
A raijū ' s body is composed of (or wrapped in) lightning and commonly conceived of as taking the form of a white-blue wolf or dog, among other such animal forms as a tanuki, leopard, fox, weasel, black or white panther, serow, ferret, marten, tiger, and cat. It may also fly about as a ball of lightning (in fact, the creature may be an attempt to explain the phenomenon of lightning, such as ball lightning). Its cry sounds like thunder.

Raijū is the companion of Raijin, the Shinto god of lightning. While the beast is generally calm and harmless, during thunderstorms it becomes agitated, and leaps about in trees, fields, and even buildings (trees that have been struck by lightning are said to have been scratched by raijū ' s claws).

Another of raijū ' s peculiar behaviors is sleeping in human navels. This prompts the Raijin to shoot lightning arrows at raijū to wake the creature up, and thus harms the person in whose belly the demon is resting. Superstitious people therefore often sleep on their stomachs during bad weather, but other legends say that raijū will only hide in the navels of people who sleep outdoors.

Origin
It is believed that the myth of raijū originated from the Chinese materia medica text Bencao Gangmu. Scholars believe that there were raijū sightings and documentation during the Edo period in the history of Japan. However, it is also believed that sky being an unexplored territory in and western scientific and technological knowledge had not reached Japan, the mysterious phenomenon of thunder and lightning were attributed to the notoriety of raijū.

Raijū are given negative connotations as many things were happening in the sky, beyond human beings of Edo period's reach. While the depths of oceans were also inaccessible to human reason, oceans were helping humans with fishes (food) and sustained life forms. In this sense, phenomena of the sky were transcendental and given negative connotations to the phenomena and the creature.

Scientific attempts
Dead animals were found from under trees after a stormy night in Japan. Attempts were made to debunk this myth. It was claimed that dead raijū are essentially real dead animals startled or knocked off from the tree during tempestuous weather of Japan. Recent theory suggests that raijū are essentially a small tree-dwelling creature called hakubishin (Paguma larvata) found in East Asian countries such as China and Taiwan. While, some scholar believe that Paguma larvata was brought by soldiers of World War II as pets, the bearish resemblance of raijū in paintings from Edo period also suggest that Paguma larvata (Masked palm civet) have been in Japan since much earlier. The gem-faced civet has also been considered the inspiration for legends of the kuda-gitsune.

title: Raijū


text:
Kan Bahlam I

Kan Bahlam I, also known as Chan Bahlum I, (September 18, 524 – February 1, 583) was an ajaw of the Maya city-state of Palenque. He acceded to the throne on April 6, 572 at age 47 and ruled until his death. Kan Bahlam was most likely the younger brother of his predecessor, Ahkal Mo' Nahb II and probably son of K'an Joy Chitam I. He was the first ruler of Palenque to use the title K'inich, albeit inconsistently. The title is usually translated as "radiant" but literally means "sun-faced".

title: Kan Bahlam I


text:
Coefficient of relationship

The coefficient of relationship is a measure of the degree of consanguinity (or biological relationship) between two individuals. The term coefficient of relationship was defined by Sewall Wright in 1922, and was derived from his definition of the coefficient of inbreeding of 1921. The measure is most commonly used in genetics and genealogy. A coefficient of inbreeding can be calculated for an individual, and is typically one-half the coefficient of relationship between the parents.

In general, the higher the level of inbreeding the closer the coefficient of relationship between the parents approaches a value of 1, expressed as a percentage, and approaches a value of 0 for individuals with arbitrarily remote common ancestors.

Coefficient of relationship
The coefficient of relationship ($$ r $$) between two individuals B and C is obtained by a summation of coefficients calculated for every line by which they are connected to their common ancestors. Each such line connects the two individuals via a common ancestor, passing through no individual which is not a common ancestor more than once. A path coefficient between an ancestor A and an offspring O separated by $$ n $$ generations is given as:
 * $$p_{AO} = 2^{-n} \cdot \sqrt{\frac{1 + f_A}{1 + f_O}}$$

where $$ f_A $$ and $$ f_O $$ are the coefficients of inbreeding for A and O, respectively.

The coefficient of relationship $$ r_{BC} $$is now obtained by summing over all path coefficients:
 * $$r_{BC} = \sum{p_{AB} \cdot p_{AC}}$$

By assuming that the pedigree can be traced back to a sufficiently remote population of perfectly random-bred stock (fA = 0 for all A in the sum) the definition of r may be simplified to
 * $$r_{BC} = \sum_{p}{2^{-L(p)}}$$

where p enumerates all paths connecting B and C with unique common ancestors (i.e. all paths terminate at a common ancestor and may not pass through a common ancestor to a common ancestor's ancestor), and L(p) is the length of the path p.

To give an (artificial) example: Assuming that two individuals share the same 32 ancestors of n = 5 generations ago, but do not have any common ancestors at four or fewer generations ago, their coefficient of relationship would be
 * $r = 2^n \cdot 2^{-2n} = 2^{-n}$, which for n = 5, is, $2^{-5} = \frac{1}{32}$ , equal to 0.03125 or approximately 3%.

Individuals for which the same situation applies for their 1024 ancestors of ten generations ago would have a coefficient of r = 2−10 = 0.1%. If follows that the value of r can be given to an accuracy of a few percent if the family tree of both individuals is known for a depth of five generations, and to an accuracy of a tenth of a percent if the known depth is at least ten generations. The contribution to r from common ancestors of 20 generations ago (corresponding to roughly 500 years in human genealogy, or the contribution from common descent from a medieval population) falls below one part-per-million.

Human relationships
The coefficient of relationship is sometimes used to express degrees of kinship in numeric terms in human genealogy.

In human relationships, the value of the coefficient of relationship is usually calculated based on the knowledge of a full family tree extending to a comparatively small number of generations, perhaps of the order of three or four. As explained above, the value for the coefficient of relationship so calculated is thus a lower bound, with an actual value that may be up to a few percent higher. The value is accurate to within 1% if the full family tree of both individuals is known to a depth of seven generations.

A first-degree relative (FDR) is a person's parent (father or mother), full sibling (brother or sister) or offspring. It constitutes a category of family members that largely overlaps with the term nuclear family, but without spouses. If the persons are related by blood, the first degree relatives share approximately 50% of their genes. First-degree relatives are a common measure used to diagnose risks for common diseases by analyzing family history.

A second-degree relative (SDR) is someone who shares 25% of a person's genes. It includes uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces, grandparents, grandchildren, half-siblings, and double cousins.

Third-degree relatives are a segment of the extended family and includes first cousins, great-grandparents and great-grandchildren. Third-degree relatives are generally defined by the expected amount of genetic overlap that exists between two people, with the third-degree relatives of an individual sharing approximately 12.5% of their genes. The category includes great-grandparents, great-grandchildren, grand-uncles, grand-aunts, first cousins, half-uncles, half-aunts, half-nieces and half-nephews.

Most incest laws concern the relationships where r = 25% or higher, although many ignore the rare case of double first cousins. Some jurisdictions also prohibit sexual relations or marriage between cousins of various degree, or individuals related only through adoption or affinity. Whether there is any likelihood of conception is generally considered irrelevant.

Kinship coefficient
The kinship coefficient is a simple measure of relatedness, defined as the probability that a pair of randomly sampled homologous alleles are identical by descent. More simply, it is the probability that an allele selected randomly from an individual, i, and an allele selected at the same autosomal locus from another individual, j, are identical and from the same ancestor.

The coefficient of relatedness is equal to twice the kinship coefficient.

Calculation
The kinship coefficient between two individuals, i and j, is represented as Φij. The kinship coefficient between a non-inbred individual and itself, Φii, is equal to 1/2. This is due to the fact that humans are diploid, meaning the only way for the randomly chosen alleles to be identical by descent is if the same allele is chosen twice (probability 1/2). Similarly, the relationship between a parent and a child is found by the chance that the randomly picked allele in the child is from the parent (probability 1/2) and the probability of the allele that is picked from the parent being the same one passed to the child (probability 1/2). Since these two events are independent of each other, they are multiplied Φij = 1/2 X 1/2 = 1/4.

title: Coefficient of relationship


text: File:Jo en computer.cropped.jpg

title: File:Jo en computer.cropped.jpg


text:
Talk:The Pall Mall Gazette

Untitled
There are loads of gaps in the list of editors and owners. Two more snippets of information I found, but couldn't add, were that James Louis Garvin was an editor under William Waldorf Astor's ownership, and that I think Edward James Nankivell edited the paper at one time. fabiform | talk 17:07, 7 May 2004 (UTC)

Digitised?
Has the newspaper been digitised? There's a query here where editors with access to the digital version could help.  Schwede 66  17:52, 1 April 2017 (UTC)

title: Talk:The Pall Mall Gazette