text:
Talk:Olympic flame

manipulations
There were almost 50 edits in the last 2 days often insert false information. Many edits were from IPs and possibly related regarding protest concerning Tibet and the games in China. So this this article needs to be proof read once the dust has settled and recent edition should be read with some skepticism.--Kmhkmh (talk) 11:12, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Should the page be protected, at least for the short term?

Padsley (talk) 12:01, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Well i would support that. However i just came across it by change. I don't know whether anybody was currently observing or maintaining the article--Kmhkmh (talk) 13:10, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

I is spyin' Padsley (talk) 14:11, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

I found this because the IP's had a warning regarding it! This IP is used by a lot of people (I think there's the latter end of a thousand) so I can't speak for everyone that uses this IP Address but as someone sensible I would say that putting some kind of restriction for IP Addresses on this page is defintiely a good idea. 82.33.215.26 (talk) 13:50, 19 July 2012 (UTC)

older entries
What is the origin of the name OLYMPIA in Greek, from which the Olympic games were made. The meaning is unknown. Just as Greece's Alpha-Beta was borrowed from Semites and their Aleph-Bet, many unknown Greek words can be explained in Proto-Semitic. When a P ends a word element, and is preceded by an M, it is likely a nasalized Semitic term. This occurs in the word PUMP, which began as a PIPE to draw water away, which, in turn is from ABOOBH, a Semitic word for a hollow reed. All this explains why OLYMIA (thus the OLYMPICS) is likely from Proto-Semitic ALOOPH (champion). In a prehistoric Olympic village the Hellenic athletes ate a breakfast of champions. Aleph-Lamed-Vav-Phey, ALOOPH (champion) appears in Genesis. More etymolgy (really EMeTology) at www.edenics.org —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.116.166.84 (talk) 20:45, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

Hi, the article says that the flame has been carried by airplane. I find this unlikely and not believable. Fire onboard an airplane is very risky. Also there is no-one who could check if the fire REALLY was on while flying. I think this article needs reference to PROOF that they really transported the fire on board an airplane. -anon-

 * I too find it dubious that a flame would be carried on an aircraft, even in one of the closed lanterns. In fact, if you watch the footage of the flame being delivered to the Tower Of London in 2012, after being rapelled from a helicopter, it's possible to see that the lantern is not lit once it's near the camera on the ground. The bearer takes it to a hut-like building and you can just about see him being handed a lit lantern before the flame continues on it's journey... 82.34.164.19 (talk) 11:48, 20 August 2012 (UTC)

 * "Fire onboard an airplane is very risky. "
 * Not particularly. After all, smoking on aircraft was permitted until fairly recently, and that was stopped for health reasons, not fire hazard. Andy Dingley (talk) 12:07, 20 August 2012 (UTC)

How on earth was the torch carried by laser and sattellite? This should be explained clearly. Thanks, Meelar 18:30, 13 May 2004 (UTC)

 * I found a somewhat longer explanation : "In ter, a machine collected the ionized particles of the flame and transformed it in electronic impulses. They were then transmitted via satellite trough the Atlantic to Ottawa, in Canada, where they activated a laser beam, which relighted the flame. In seconds, the flame had crossed the world." I'll see if I can work this in the article. Jeronimo 06:37, 14 May 2004 (UTC)

The German version of the "Olympic_Flame" claims that it was re-introduced in the Berlin games of 1936 and not in 1928 as claimed by the English wiki article. 1936 was confirmed by a documentary in which Prof. Ulrich Sinn from the University of Wuerzburg explained the connection of the flame to the modern Olympics. Prof. Sinn appears to be one of the most prominent current scientists that study the ancient Olympia location.

 * The Olympic Fire was definitely reintroduced at the 1928 Olympics. You may read this at the site of the IOC for example, there's even some pictures there. However, the first torch relay was held in 1936, also marking the first time the fire was lit in Olympia. So I'm afraid professor Sinn is incorrect about this. Jeronimo 18:37, 7 Jul 2004 (UTC)

I think there might be a confusion between lighters and last runners. In the '92 Olympic Games, archer Antonio Rebollo did light the torch by shooting and arrow, but was not the last runner. This was basketball player Epi, who ran along the stadium track and light the archer's arrow. 82.41.77.46 16:33, 4 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * I will fix this. Jeronimo 18:39, 7 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Why is the info about 1980 Moscow games missing? They had the same route of Olympic flame begun in Olympia....

I have added to following paragraph : "In 2004, the first global torch relay was undertaken, in a journey that lasted 78 days. The Olympic flame covered a distance of more than 78,000 km in the hands of some 11,300 torchbearers, traveling to Africa and Latin America for the first time, visiting all previous Olympic cities and finally returning to Athens for the 2004 Summer Olympics." I've tried to squeeze in the major facts of the event, with moderate emphasis on its "grandeur", but I’m not sure about the result. Does it blend well into the rest of the article? Ninio 01:18, 19 October 2005 (UTC)

Was a torch relay EVER solely done by human power?
For example, if it had to cross the english channel, did a swimmer ever stroke with one hand and keep the torch up with the other? This would seem to me to be the true spirit of the Olympics. I just saw a news cast where the torch was brought via a jumbo jet to the UK. I really hate the modern Olympics. Needs an incredible revamp.

-G

Likewise, I was wondering if it was ever a true, continuous foot relay from Athens to Host City X, as opposed to Athens => get on a plane => run around in Buenos Aires => get on a boat => run a few miles in Seattle => get on a plane, etc. There's not much history about the older relays, aside from the Nazi heritage... 64.178.41.22 (talk) 18:29, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

Spoken Wiki
Am currently laying down tracks for a spoken version of this article, and gaining new appreciation for Olympic commentators who have to pronounce these names under pressure during events - yeesh! Potteryfreak 23:05, 9 January 2006 (UTC) Done. Potteryfreak 00:17, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

What if the Olympic Flame goes out?
What if the Olympic Flame goes out while someone is running with the torch? Is it a dishonour to the torch and does it happen frequently or does it ever happen? Silent Nemesis2710 08:55, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

 * It goes out occasionally. There are typically backup lanterns (also lit in Olympia) carried along with the main torch.  I've added an external link from the time of the Sydney Games that discusses technology and relighting.  To quote from near the bottom of it:

 * "If the torch goes out there is no need to call off the games or return to Olympia to re-light the flame. Flameouts have happened before. The Atlanta torch had a 'quick design review' while still in Greece and the Nagano torch experienced multiple flameouts over seven days.

 * After each flameout, the torches were re-ignited with flame from a miner's lantern, also lit by the original sacred flame. 10 back-up lanterns travel with the Sydney 2000 procession."

 * Hope that helps. -- Jonel | Speak 09:23, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

 * The flame was put out in Paris, France in 2008 and transported via bus for at least some part of its journey, apparently to avoid protesters.Prothonotar (talk) 05:23, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

The flame had been put out 2 times, the first in the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. It is stated here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Summer_Olympics under highlights sixth point. 218.186.8.10 10:32, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

Is the "mother" flame, a fire that has been burning for a very long time? I didn't notice mention of it in the article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.121.221.12 (talk) 22:29, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

2008 Taiwan Torch problem
I want to write something regarding the current negotiations regarding the Beijing torch going to the island of Taiwan. Do you guys think it's ok to place it in this article?ValerioC 02:04, 10 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Yes. Nicolasdz (talk) 16:40, 6 January 2008 (UTC)
 * No. It can be put into a seperate article. Since it has little to do with the actual torch, but rather a political issue. --142.150.139.64 (talk) 17:30, 4 April 2008 (UTC)
 * It seems to have everything to do with the torch; specifically the path of the torch and the political considerations that have gone into it. By the way, why was the section marked as non-neutral? I don't see any critique of its neutrality, and don't see anything in the text that looks non-neutral. Prothonotar (talk) 05:28, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

From the article: "Negotiations stalled when Taiwan demanded that the flag and anthem of the Republic of China be displayed on the route, instead of the Chinese Taipei flag and anthem." Isn't this backwards? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.248.107.194 (talk) 19:21, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

 * To the previous commenter, 'Republic of China' is the self-given name of the Taiwanese government: Republic of China. Not to be confused with the People's Republic of China, which is the mainland government. Prothonotar (talk) 05:20, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

There are lots of article which have critisism about the subject of the article on the same page. It has a lot to do with the actual torch; one of the reasons why there are so many protests around the torch is that it is supposed to be a symbol of liberty and all that jazz. Sport and political issues can't be separated, it's like saying that I'm going to play cricket without using physics. Anyway... I also fail to see how the section on the 2008 Torch relay is non-neutral. I also fail to see any discussion on HOW it is non-neutral. This is also not the correct page to discuss the China/Tibet issue. Leaving the article as 'there are protests about the torch' and such things, statements of fact like that, should be fine. I think we should remove the non-neutrality flag.

Padsley (talk) 11:20, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

The physical torch(es) is/are where?
The article doesn't specify where the torch goes after the games are over. The reason I'm asking this is because the Ripley's Believe It Or Not! museum in Manhattan has a display of all of the torches from the last 40 years or so. I can only assume that they are replicas I find that having at least the last twenty torches in one spot would be odd. If someone could find out whether it they are real or replicas, please let me know via my talk page, add add to the article if they do happen to be real. Thanks. Socby19 (talk) 04:23, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

There is no single Olympic torch; many, many torches are produced for each Olympics. At least recently torch-bearers have generally had the option to purchase the torch they ran with. Those you saw at Ripley's are very likely real. Original torches, used in the torch relay, are widely collected, though relatively expensive. I have one from the 1996 Atlanta games. Fuzzzone (talk) 19:53, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

How is it lit..?
Is it by the sun.? or some eternal flame on mount olympus.? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.108.73.47 (talk) 11:26, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

This one was done with a parabolic mirror using the Sun's rays.

Padsley (talk) 11:13, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Incorrect dating
As per article:
 * When the Olympic flame came to the Panathinaiko Stadium, stadium of the 1896 Summer Olympics, to start the global torch relay, the night was very windy and the torch, lit by the Athens 2004 Organizing Committee Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, blew out due to the wind, but was re-lit from the back up flame taken from the original ceremonial flame at Olympia. This was the second time that the Olympic torch flame was put out.

Either 2004 or 1896 are incorrect. Trav (talk) 13:13, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

The stadium was used for both the 1896 and 2004 games, I presume. When the torch was taken in 2004 into the stadium (that was also used for the 1896 games) it blew out. I think that that part of the article should be rephrased to avoid confusion. Padsley (talk) 11:12, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Extinguished?
Is the flame really extinguished after the end of each Olympics? I know the flame at Squaw Valley is still burning; I drive by it several times a year. EAE (Holla!) 06:37, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

Diem,Goebbels,Hitler
The original promoter/creater of the torch run idea was Diem. However Goebbels was managing/supervising the propaganda effort around the games. So the 2 people closely associated with the torch run's origin are Diem and Goebbels and should be mentioned as such. Hitler as dictator was of cause kinda supervising both, but afaik he was not that closely involved in the actual implementation and management.--Kmhkmh (talk) 08:47, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Marketing?
"The Olympic Flame, Olympic Fire, Olympic Torch, Olympic Light, Olympic Eye, and Olympic Sun are all names for an important **marketing** promotion and symbol of the Olympic Games."

I disagree with the word "marketing" here (although it is true that you can actually buy torch replicas). Anyone object to my removing it? 88.32.216.139 (talk) 13:57, 15 April 2008 (UTC)
 * No objections at all. This is an absolute mischaracterisation of the flame and its spirit. Please go ahead and remove it. Dr.K. (talk) 03:23, 25 April 2008 (UTC)
 * It was this edit. Obviously uncited speculation. Dr.K. (talk) 03:34, 25 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Sorry but I changed it because it had to be fixed as soon as possible because it was a bad example of WP:OR. Thank you for your comment. Dr.K. (talk) 03:41, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Olympic Eye, Olympic Light, Sun etc.
These were added by an old edit (diff). These terms are not common. The concept here is the "Flame" not the "Eye", the "Light" or the "Sun". Until reliable sources are used for the "Light", the "Eye" or the "Sun" they should not appear again in the article. Dr.K. (talk) 22:55, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

"Nazi inspired"
I have removed these two recent additions. I think the origins of the torch relay in Nazi Germany are already clearly detailed. Saying that it was "invented by the Nazis" is an unnecessary simplification - better to say when it began and then go into the details, as the article does. And I think it is completely unfair and inflammatory to have the lead photo caption refer to the 2002 Torch Relay as "Nazi inspired". Absent any proof that the Salt Lake Organizing Committee took their inspiration directly from Adolf Hitler, I don't think it is fair to say that. They were simply carrying on in the tradition of many previous organizers. - EronTalk 16:43, 3 June 2008 (UTC)
 * I agree completely. If we follow the previous editor's logic then we have to call the Volkswagen Beetle also Nazi inspired or Hitler approved. This kind of inflammatory rhetoric and oversimplification of facts has no place in an encyclopedia. Dr.K. (talk) 17:57, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

The first marathon was NOT in the 1928 in Amsterdam... They didn't make a marathon with the olympic Flame... The FIRST olympic Flame Marathon was in 1936 by the nazis. IT IS A FACT. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.74.205.200 (talk) 19:27, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

 * This article is about the Olympic Flame, not just the Olympic Torch relay. The fact that the relay was started in 1936 is in the article already. - EronTalk 21:09, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

It seems clear that the 1936 Games were used as a propaganda tool, but I don't see how relaying a torch has anything to do with "Nazi ideology". And although he was involved in media coverage of the Olympics, the reference to Goebbels strikes me as gratuitous. Removed. -Wiccan Quagga (talk) 18:35, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

 * The whole "the Nazis used the 1936 Games as a propaganda tool" is stupid beyond belief. The propaganda was... what? Because the german flag had a swastika? Because the Games were in, God forbid, Germany? Because the Games were more modern than the one four years before? There were no political speeces at the Games, and the talk about Germany "wanted to prove aryan superiority" is nonsense. They treated participants of all colors equally, and Jesse Owens was portrayed as a sports hero in the german films, books and magazines.

 * I don't like the sentence "The film was part of the Nazi propaganda machine’s attempt to add myth and mystique to Adolf Hitler’s regime.". It's not true. IOC asked Leni Riefenstahl to make the film, and she and her crew made it, not the Propaganda Ministry. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.182.136.178 (talk) 22:22, 7 July 2011 (UTC)

Can't tell
Does anyone know for sure whether the paralympic and olympic flame is the same. There seems to be a different history of both. But they appear to be described as the same flame here? Benjwong (talk) 04:56, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

Ancient Olympics
I've put a "citation needed" tag on references to there being a flame symbolising, or only lit during, the ancient Olympics. Of the references given, the Britannica says "A perpetual fire was indeed maintained in Hera’s temple, but it had no role in the ancient Games" and the NYT article just says "A sacred flame did burn 24 hours a day at Olympia", without commenting on its significence to the Games, if any. The Times article does say "The torch relay is a celebration of the ancient fires that burnt through the original Olympiads", but that's pretty vague (especially since, classically, "Olympiad" meant "four year period from one Games to the next"), and was written by a journalist, not a historian. There's no mention of it in the Ancient Olympics article, either. Daibhid C (talk) 15:16, 30 September 2008 (UTC)

The Route followed by the flame ...
... is completely speculation as it does not have one single reference. I have added tags to each line and to the whole section. Such information without references is pron to vandalism and it should be either referenced or removed. Thanks, Miguel.mateo (talk) 01:27, 23 October 2008 (UTC)

This article is a disaster
Who thought that putting after every other word in} this article would be a good idea? It looks terrible. Just because something needs to be cited, it doesn't need a big fat header. Cite it yourself, or use this as appropriate: GeeCee (talk) 19:41, 31 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I agree, this looks terrible. You could, of course, have corrected this yourself, according to Wikipedia principles. -- megA (talk) 10:52, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Olympic flame in the 2010 Winter Olympics torch relay
Hi. According to the article, the Olympic Flame has only gone out during a few relays. However, in the 2010 relay, it appears that the flame is ignited and extinguished through a switch system, so that non-official torchbearers such as regular Canadians (?) could hold the flame, and the article on the flame itself shows the unlit flame. Is this unusual? Thanks. ~ A H  1 (TCU) 23:07, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

Misspelling
It's Catriona, not "Katrina."

Semi Protected So I Can't Change This Myself...
If someone could fix the sentence ""The athletes were to smoke the poles with the torches and light them up which went to the cauldron." with regards to the 2010 ceremony that might be a good idea.

"smoke the poles"" while funny, is not really the correct wording. "The athletes were to simultaneously light the base of the poles, which would then carry the flame upwards to the cauldron" might be better, thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Spackling (talk • contribs) 07:23, 13 February 2010 (UTC)
 * ✅-- ♦Ian Ma c M♦  (talk to me) 07:31, 13 February 2010 (UTC)

The lighting of Vancovers
The "Official" one was lit by Wayne Gretzky Also, there was one person due to technical error who was not able to light the psudo one... So unfortunately I feel that they should not be included in the wiki. but which one should we say was lit? I honestly think we should just stick with Gretzky since he lit the one that is the official torch. Further Edit: This needs to be edited in two places: the paragraph before the chart... ends with saying the four lit it simultaneously ... only three lit that torch, however, once again... it was Wayne Gretzky that lit the TRUE final torch. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.237.58.9 (talk) 08:05, 13 February 2010 (UTC)

I agree, the final torch bearer was Gretzky lighting the permanment torch outside which is suppose to be lit for rest of the Olympics. Can someone make the change to this semi-protected section?

Reference:  --Hellbringervic (talk) 21:12, 13 February 2010 (UTC)

Can someone add an edit to indicate that VANOC made humorous light of the BC Place cauldron malfunction during the Closing Ceremonies by having a mime appear to "fix" the broken 4th arm and Katrina LeMay Doan finally being given her opportunity to light the cauldron after she was left out during the Opening Ceremonies? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.130.167.126 (talk) 02:07, 1 March 2010 (UTC)

Torch Designs
Should there be a section about the different designs of the torches in all the Olympics? I know they are different for each olympics but I couldn't find any info in wikipedia on what they all looked like. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kosridge (talk • contribs) 15:58, 13 February 2010 (UTC)

Deleting the section "List"
Can we delete the section called "List"? It's merely a duplication of List of people who have lit the Olympic Cauldron, which is linked to right after, in the section "Cauldron". -- Zanimum (talk) 22:28, 13 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Looks like someone duplicated that table back to this article. I went ahead and removed it again. Zzyzx11 (talk) 07:47, 14 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Merci. --  Zanimum (talk) 15:53, 15 February 2010 (UTC)

Possible Misspelling
I may be wrong, but I believe that there is a typo. The article says that 1976 winter games were held in Innsburck. I believe that the correct spelling is Innsbruck. If I am correct could someone please change this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.141.7.66 (talk) 23:19, 13 February 2010 (UTC)
 * ✅ The 1976 Winter Olympics were in Innsbruck, not Innsburck.-- ♦Ian Ma c M♦  (talk to me) 07:20, 14 February 2010 (UTC)

More Ancient Origins
I was watching Horrible Histories and it said that in relay races at the Ancient Games, one end of the torch was on fire so the runners had to be careful when they handed it over. Instantly I thought of the Olympic torch relay when they mentioned this. The link to the episode with the feature in is here http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b012mhv3/Horrible_Histories_Series_3_Episode_11/ the section starts at 20:25 but it is only available until 2nd August 2011 and it is only available to people in the UK with a TV license (If you don't have one you could get arrested). I will try to find some more sources that say this fact so people from other countries can see a source at any time. 82.5.224.82 (talk) 19:21, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

 * This is what the Beijing 2008 website says though I am not sure for how long the site will stay up. "The Ancient Greeks held a "lampadedromia" (the Greek word for Torch Relay), where athletes competed by passing on the Flame in a relay race to the finish line. In ancient Athens the ritual was performed during the Panathenaia fest, held every four years in honour of the goddess Athena. The strength and purity of the sacred Flame was preserved through its transportation by the quickest means; in this case a relay of Torchbearers. The Torch Relay carried the Flame from the altar of Prometheus to the altar of goddess Athena on the Acropolis. Forty youths from the ten Athenian tribes had to run a distance of 2.5 kilometers in total." Here is the link to the site http://torchrelay.beijing2008.cn/en/archives/others/n214039831.shtml If the article is correct I would suggest that it be included in the article. 82.5.224.82 (talk) 19:39, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

Olympic [insert name here].
I thought the Olympic items were as follows:

Olympic Flame = The flame/fire itself.

Olympic Torch = The handheld torch.

Olympic Cauldron = The main thingy lit by the last torch bearer in the Olympic Stadium.

Since the Sydney Olympics at least, the so-called "cauldron" hasn't been a cauldron at all as Sydney had a disc, Athens an Olympic Torch itself and Beijing had a scroll. So I'm wondering, is there a better word we could use other then "Cauldron"? All I ever seem to think of is a Witch's cook pot (hehe). AnimatedZebra (talk) 00:58, 11 September 2011 (UTC)

Number of women lighting the torch
Hi, I saw this sentence "Eleven women, representing the Vestal Virgins, perform a ceremony...". This does not stroke with this image File:Greece 2004 Olympics flame ceremony DSC04251.jpg, which shows 12 women in the ceremony of 2004. Can someone enlighten this please. Thank you, Taketa (talk) 20:11, 10 December 2011 (UTC)

2012 Disabled Rights Protests at Olympic Torch Ceremony
Why no coverage of the large number of disabled people who attended the torch ceremony this evening (18 May 2012)to protest at the use of Atos to sponsor the paralympic games? Has it been edited out? 212.139.100.244 (talk) 01:17, 19 May 2012 (UTC)twl212.139.100.244 (talk) 01:17, 19 May 2012 (UTC)

Barcelona lighting
The report about the flame of the 1992 Olympics contradicts another wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Summer_Olympics The flame was light by a technician not the arrow itself. Chrisp7 (talk · contribs) 09:50, 28 July 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.193.26.93 (talk)

Iamwretched (talk) 18:58, 4 January 2014 (UTC)OK. I have modified the section on the Barcelona lighting to reflect the current state of affairs regarding conflicting reports about what really happened. I hope I have done it respectfully and correctly!

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Helsinki 1952 torch
Why is the picture of Helsinki 1952 torch missing? --2001:999:10:391:85A6:2978:52CB:7DCD (talk) 02:01, 20 August 2016 (UTC)

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Other sites
How is the flame at other sites lighted? Is a torch lighted at the cauldron and then carried to the other sites? 104.153.40.58 (talk) 00:28, 1 August 2021 (UTC)

title: Talk:Olympic flame


text:
Pokémon Mini

The Pokémon Mini (ポケモンミニ) (officially stylized as Pokémon mini) is a handheld game console that was designed and manufactured by Nintendo in conjunction with The Pokémon Company and themed around the Pokémon media franchise. It is the smallest game system with interchangeable cartridges ever produced by Nintendo, weighing just under 2+1/2 oz. It was first released in North America on November 16, 2001, and was only available for purchase at the Pokémon Center and via its website. This was followed by releases in Japan on December 14, 2001, and in Europe on March 15, 2002. The system was released in three colors: Wooper Blue, Chikorita Green, and Smoochum Purple.

Features of the Pokémon mini include an internal real-time clock, an infrared port used to facilitate multiplayer gaming, a reed switch for detecting shakes, and a motor used to implement force feedback. Only ten games were released, five of which were exclusive to Japan, with only being four games released in North America.

Various hackers have reverse engineered the Pokémon mini in order to enable the creation of homebrew games, and to allow official games to be played on other platforms.

Technical details

 * CPU 8-bit, 4 MHz Epson S1C88
 * 96 x 64 pixel monochrome LCD
 * Game Pak (512KiB cartridge)
 * Internal BIOS of 4kB
 * Internal RAM 4kB (shared with video subsystem)
 * 21-bit cartridge bus
 * 256 hardware register; in most cases Open-Bus registers
 * Dimensions: 74 x
 * Weight: 70 g with Game Pak and AAA battery inserted
 * Power: 1 AAA battery (lasting ~60 hours)

List of games
A total of 10 games were officially released for the Pokémon Mini. While all titles were released in Japan, only four were released in North America and five in Europe, all being launch titles. This was due to the low sales and interest in the system. The Japanese-exclusive titles would eventually receive fan translations.

The games were published in Japan by The Pokémon Company and elsewhere by Nintendo.

Pokémon Party mini
Pokémon Party mini (ポケモンパーティミニ) is a minigame collection developed by Denyusha. It includes six minigames which all take advantage of the system's capabilities and abilities:
 * Hitmonchan's Boxing: As a Hitmonchan battling against a Machop in a boxing match, the player must shake the system to 'punch'.
 * Pikachu's Rocket Start: As a Pikachu, the player must launch off a starting line before another Pokémon (A Rattata, Eevee and another Pikachu). Pikachu can run using the buttons or shaking the system. An Elekid gives the signals which is achieved through the system's rumble ability.
 * Bellossom's Dance: A rhythm game. As a Bellossom playing against two other Bellossom, the player must match the right moves with the D-Pad, and shake the system to jump.
 * Chansey's Dribble: A simple soccer dribbling game. As a Chansey, the player must use the D-pad to position the ball, and make sure Chansey kicks it into the finish line as quickly as possible.
 * Slowking's Judge: As a Slowking, the player predicts if a tennis ball will land in or out of the court.
 * Sneasel's Fakeout: A rock paper scissors-like game for two players. As two Sneasel, the players decide who is on defense and offense in a game of Basketball.

Additional modes include "Battlefield", where two to six players battle for the highest score in the aforementioned minigames, and "Celebi's Clock", a clock with date, alarm and stopwatch function.

Pokémon Pinball mini
Pokémon Pinball mini (ポケモンピンボールミニ) is a pinball game developed by Jupiter. The player uses Pokémon such as a Diglett or a Pikachu as the 'bumping' mechanism. Along the way, players can catch more Pokémon for use, and other Pokémon can function as level obstacle elements. There are 70 "Quest" levels, and 10 levels each in Time Attack and Score Attack modes.

Pokémon Puzzle Collection
Pokémon Puzzle Collection (ポケモンパズルコレクション) is a puzzle minigame collection developed by Jupiter. It features four different game types, which can unlock over 80 Pokémon in the game's "Minidex".
 * Motion Puzzle: A sliding game where a moving image of a Pokémon has to be unscrambled by the player.
 * Shadow Puzzle: The player must find different shapes and put them together to make an image of a Pokémon.
 * Rescue Mission: A Pokémon is trapped, and the player must remove the blocks so they can access the rest of the maze.
 * Power On: A Pipe Dream-like game where one has to connect a Pikachu to a light bulb, creating a circuit.

Pokémon Zany Cards
Pokémon Zany Cards (ポケモンアニメカード大作戦) is a card game compilation developed by Denyusha. It includes four playing card games featuring Pokémon-themed cards and characters from the Pokémon anime.
 * Wild Match: The player battles against other characters from the Pokémon anime by making the most evolutionary matches, which at turn gives out coins, with the player who has the most coins winning.
 * Special Seven: The player battling with other Pokémon anime characters must get rid of their hand of cards, which can be determined by suit or matching Pokémon.
 * Card Duel: A two-player only game where the players must attempt to get each other's deck with the highest valued card.
 * Four Kings: A single-player Solitaire-type game where cards must be stacked into a specific order, while Magikarp (which functions as the "King") must top the deck off.

Pokémon Tetris
Pokémon Tetris (ポケモンショックテトリス) is a Puzzle game developed by Nintendo. It plays like most versions of Tetris, but in addition to traditional piece rotation, shaking the system will cause falling pieces to flip. All of the Pokémon from Pokémon Gold and Silver can be "caught" and added to the in-game Pokédex, although rarer Pokémon can only be found on higher difficulty levels.

The game was not released in North America, but was rated by the ESRB under the title Pokémon Mini Shock Tetris, suggesting it was planned for release.

Pokémon Puzzle Collection vol. 2
Pokémon Puzzle Collection vol. 2 (ポケモンパズルコレクションVol.2) is a puzzle minigame collection developed by Jupiter, and is the sequel to Pokémon Puzzle Collection. In addition to the returning "Motion Puzzle" and "Shadow Puzzle" modes, two new modes have been added:
 * Pick-Up Puzzle: The player clears Poké Balls on the field in a forward-only position, and can only move if Poké Balls are faced in the respective direction.
 * Stretch Puzzle: The player, through a given number, must fill gaps in a grid by stretching bars.

The game was not released in Europe or North America, but was rated by the ESRB under the title Pokémon Mini Puzzle Collection Vol. 2, suggesting it was planned for release.

Pokémon Race mini
Pokémon Race mini (ポケモンレースミニ) is a platform racing game developed by Jupiter. Similar to the later-released Pokémon Dash, the player controls a Pikachu and races against other Pokémon including a Chikorita and a Hoppip in a competition for the fastest Pokémon.

Pichu Bros. mini
Pichu Bros. mini (ピチューブラザーズミニ) is a minigame compilation developed by	Denyusha, and is the sequel to Pokémon Party mini. It features six new minigames based on the Pichu Bros. specials:
 * Skate Pichu:- An Endless runner game where as one of the Pichu Bros., the player must avoid obstacles by shaking the system.
 * Magby's Hot-Air Balloon: As Magby, the player must land a hot-air balloon on an island without falling into the sea.
 * Hoppip's Jump: The player must press the C button at the right time to make Hoppip jump.
 * Teddiursa's Shaking Fruits: By shaking the system, the player must make Teddiursa eat a piece of fruit in the shortest amount of time.
 * Smoochum's Angel Kiss: A Whack-A-Mole-type game where the player, as Smoochum, must attempt to kiss the Diglett that pop out of the holes by pressing the buttons at the right time.
 * Cubone's Bone Club Fight: As Cubone, the player must shake the system to throw the bone and make sure it hits the target.

The "Battlefield" and "Clock" modes also return from the original.

Togepi's Great Adventure
Togepi's Great Adventure (トゲピーのだいぼうけん) is a top-down action puzzle game developed by Jupiter. The player guides Togepi out of maze-like levels in a tower while avoiding obstacles and other Pokémon. The game features over 200 levels spread across three towers.

Pokémon Breeder mini
Pokémon Breeder mini (ポケモンそだてやさんミニ) is a virtual pet game developed by Jupiter. The player is given an egg that hatches into a Treecko, Torchic or Mudkip. The player must keep the Pokémon happy by feeding it, playing with it, and using toys. Feeding the Pokémon with special Pokéblocks can improve its stats.

Legacy
The 2002 GameCube game Pokémon Channel has an in-game Pokémon Mini that can be unlocked. By purchasing new games from the in-game store, the player can play emulated demo versions of multiple Pokémon Mini games. One of these games, "Snorlax's Lunch Time", was never part of any commercial Pokémon Mini release.

By reverse engineering the Pokémon Channel emulator, hobbyist software engineers were able to gain a better understanding of how the system worked. This allowed them to build new emulators to run the games on other devices, such as the PC, Dreamcast, Nintendo 3DS, and Analogue Pocket, among others. These efforts also led multiple programmers to create homebrew applications for the system, such as original games and tech demos. A demo, SHizZLE, was released at Breakpoint in 2005 and caused some excitement within the demoscene and media. In 2022, independent developer Sungrand Studios launched a Kickstarter campaign to develop a port of their horror game Silver Falls for the system.

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

title: Pokémon Mini


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White-billed crow

The white-billed crow (Corvus woodfordi) is a member of the crow family found on the Solomon Islands.

Description
It is a short and stocky forest bird (40–41 cm in length) with a short, squared-off tail and a relatively large head with a very distinctive deep and curved pale ivory-coloured bill with a darker tip. The dark nasal bristles, though not thick, are quite apparent against the pale coloured bill. The bird overall is very glossy black with a greenish-purple gloss to the head and purple gloss to the rest of the body. The iris is pale grey or white in the adult bird and the legs and feet are black.

The voice is described as being reminiscent of the Torresian crow but higher in pitch and faster, giving an "ao-ao-ao" sound.

This species is confined to the central part of the Solomon Islands and can be found specifically on the islands of Choiseul, Isabel and Guadalcanal where it forages in small family groups through the trees, feeding on various insects and fruits. It is normally difficult to view as it often remains well hidden in the high forest canopy while feeding and even flying low, just over the tops of the trees when moving on.

As is the case with many forest crows, there is little information on the species' breeding habits.

title: White-billed crow


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Fender Zone Bass

The Fender Zone is a fretted electric bass guitar, introduced in 2001.

It has a slightly lighter and smaller body than previous Fender basses. The 2004 models were made of solid Mahogany and Walnut or Alder and Maple timbers and have a pair of Zone humbucking pickups powered by an 18V active 3-band preamp. Part of the best-selling Fender American Deluxe Series, the Zone Bass replaced the Japanese P-Bass Lyte Deluxe (which featured a mahogany body, an active humbucking Jazz Bass pickup in the bridge position and a single 9V powered 3-band active EQ preamp), which was gone a year earlier.

The Mexican made Fender Zone bass is essentially the same design as the Fender Precision Bass Lyte, which was manufactured in Japan, except for the addition of a set of custom-wound hum-cancelling P/J pickups and a three-band active EQ powered by a single 9V battery. The J-style bridge unit is a customized version of a pre-2004 Deluxe Active Jazz Bass pickup. On the five-string Zone, it's a Vintage Noiseless Jazz Bass pickup with solid covers. The Zone replaced the P-Bass Lyte after its discontinuation in late 2000. A five-string version of the Mexican Zone Bass was launched in 2005. Both the American and Mexican Zone basses were discontinued from the Fender pricelist at the end of 2006.

title: Fender Zone Bass


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Ridley (Metroid)

Ridley, (リドリー) also known by his aliases Geoform 187 and the Cunning God of Death, is a fictional supervillain and the main antagonist of the Metroid series. An evil and aggressive draconic extraterrestrial hailing from the planet Zebes, he became Samus Aran's archnemesis after murdering the latter's parents as he led a Space Pirate raid on her homeworld. Though having been destroyed numerous times by Samus, he is always resurrected, due in equal part to Space Pirate engineering and his natural regenerative ability, which allows him to swiftly recover from what would otherwise be fatal wounds as long as he is able to consume enough biomatter from his fallen adversaries.

Originally appearing as a subordinate of Mother Brain (another primary antagonist), he returns in Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption in his cybernetic Meta Ridley form, commanding the Space Pirates himself. He is fully sentient and he can also speak in the Metroid e-manga.

He is named after Ridley Scott, director of the 1979 film Alien, which has been described by character designer Yoshio Sakamoto as a "huge influence" on the world of the Metroid series.

Overview
Ridley's debut is in the Nintendo Entertainment System video game Metroid. He and Kraid are Space Pirate figureheads charged with protecting Mother Brain at the base on Zebes, where they are cloning Metroids with the intention of converting them into biological weapons.

Throughout the series, Ridley has undergone a variety of changes in appearance. In the original Metroid game, he was roughly the same size as protagonist Samus Aran and sported a more alien appearance (particularly in official artwork, which depicted him with eight eyes running down the length of his head and a small, lamprey-like mouth). His cybernetic form during the events of the Prime series is referred to as Meta Ridley and incorporates various ballistic weapon systems. A robotic duplicate, known as Ridley Robot or Mecha Ridley, appears as the final boss in Zero Mission. In Metroid Fusion, he appears in the form of Neo-Ridley (ネオリドリー), an X parasite mimicking him. Metroid: Other M showcases Ridley's life cycle, beginning as a bipedal and fluffy small creature named Little Birdie that molts into a quadrupedal reptilian Mystery Creature before molting again into his adult draconic form.

He makes guest appearances in other Nintendo games: Nintendo Land; Dead or Alive: Dimensions; and was featured in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate released in 2018. He appears in comics: Captain N: The Game Master (1990); Nintendo Power; and the Monthly Magazine Z manga by Koji Tazawa.

Development
Mike Sneath, one of three senior character artists for Metroid Prime, was responsible for designing the Meta Ridley version of Ridley seen in Metroid Prime. It took him about "20 to 25 days" to model and texture Meta Ridley, citing the wings as having taken a few days of his time, commenting that it took him a while to get the shaders to work to give his wings the appearance of having "holographic energy". He was not involved with designing the battle with Meta Ridley, which was left up to the game designers. Andrew Jones, the lead concept artist for Metroid Prime, had little to do with the design of Ridley. The initial design submitted was rejected by Nintendo, while the second design the artists submitted was approved. Steve Barcia, the executive producer of Retro Studios, called Ridley his favorite enemy from Metroid Prime due to the quality of the battle and his fan appeal. He added that such a battle was rare for a first-person shooter, which helped to set Metroid Prime apart.

The director of the Super Smash Bros. series, Masahiro Sakurai, stated in an interview with Nintendo Power that the development team considered including Ridley as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl but decided against the idea due to creative difficulties. In an interview with IGN about Ridley's exclusion from Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, Sakurai argued that reducing Ridley's size, wingspan or mobility to include him as a fighter would not be true to the character, who is supposed to be a "truly threatening presence" that could only be correctly portrayed as a stage boss unencumbered by a fighter's size and balance restrictions. Sakurai said that high demand from players inspired him to add several playable characters to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, including Ridley's only playable role in any game at the time.

Reception
Throughout the history of the Metroid series, Ridley has received positive reception as a series antagonist by multiple sources, including Nintendo Power. IGN editor Jesse Schedeen called Ridley the real villain of the Metroid series, commenting that he would have to be included in a Metroid film if one were made due to him being too important to leave out.

Ridley has been a popular character suggestion in the Super Smash Bros. series from fans dating back to Super Smash Bros. Melee. Polygon writer Ryan Gilliam discussed his enjoyment of Ridley and how Ridley was always a character that he and his friend group discussed in school to be included in Super Smash Bros. This was due to multiple factors, including finding his design cool and seeing him fight Samus in Melee's opening cutscene. Due to Sakurai's reluctance to include Ridley due to his size, him being too big for Smash became an meme. His lack of inclusion also resulted in widespread negative response on the Internet, especially when it was revealed that he was not playable in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. After its release, he was a popular suggestion for inclusion via downloadable content. Kotaku writer Nathan Grayson noted that this was due in part to the perception that certain clones of other characters in the game, like Dark Pit of Pit, though Grayson noted that Ridley would have not been as easy to do. While Grayson notes that other characters, like King K. Rool, have also received strong fan demand for inclusion, Ridley was the most wanted of them. His eventual inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was described by Gilliam as the best announcement at E3 2018 for "20-somethings".

title: Ridley (Metroid)


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Robert Adley

Robert James Adley (2 March 1935 – 13 May 1993) was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom and a railway enthusiast.

Early life and family
Robert James Adley born on 2 March 1935, the son of Harry Adley, a company director. He was educated at Falconbury School and Uppingham School, before becoming the Director of Sales at the May Fair Hotel (1960–64). In 1961, he married Jane Elizabeth Pople, daughter of Wilfred Pople of Somerset. Later, he was the Marketing Director at Holiday Inns of Canada.

Adley was born Jewish but converted to Anglicanism, and was married with two children.

Political career
He was a councillor on Slough Borough Council from 1965 and first stood for Parliament in 1966 for Birkenhead, failing to win the strongly Labour seat. He became Member of Parliament for Bristol North East after winning the seat by 462 votes in the 1970 election. However, significant boundary changes before the next election in 1974 saw Adley move on to become member of parliament for the new seat of Christchurch and Lymington. In the 1970s Adley was part-time Marketing Director for Holiday Inn (UK). He would brief his agency (Alexander James & Dexter) in the morning, before going to the House of Commons. He would safely hold this seat from 1974 to 1983, and then after further boundary changes the Christchurch seat from 1983 until his death with one of the largest Conservative majorities in the country.

Adley was well known as a railway enthusiast, after gaining a love of trains when he was given The Wonder Book of Trains at the age of three. Adley became leader of the Conservative backbench committee on transport and then the Chairman of the Commons Transport Select Committee. He became a leading opponent of the plans being made by John Major's government for the privatisation of British Rail, describing it a "poll tax on wheels". Adley had previously opposed the poll tax and bus deregulation, while supporting Concorde and an integrated transport system. Adley also called for talks with the African National Congress and for the UK government to support the aspirations of the black majority in apartheid-era South Africa.

Death
Adley died in the Royal Brompton Hospital following a heart attack in 1993 at the age of 58. After his death the seat was won in a by-election by Liberal Democrat Diana Maddock, but was regained by the Conservatives in 1997. British Rail named locomotive 91022 Robert Adley in November 1993.

Author
Adley was the author of numerous books mainly on the subject of railways and in particular steam engines.

title: Robert Adley


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Fumihiro Joyu

Fumihiro Joyu (上祐 史浩) is a former spokesperson and public relations manager of the Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo, and served as the de facto chief of the organization from 1999 to 2007, when he split and formed a new group.

Background
Fumihiro Joyu, originally from Kurume, Fukuoka in Kyūshū, graduated from Waseda University, one of Japan's most prestigious private colleges, with an M.A. degree in artificial intelligence.

Spokesperson for Aum Shinrikyo
Summoned to Japan after the arrests of senior followers following the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, he resumed his position as Aum Shinrikyo's spokesperson. He was arrested and tried for "inciting others to make false statements during [1992] court hearings". Some observers linked Joyu's indictment to a supposed government attempt to "decapitate the cult". The arrest, lengthy trial, and subsequent acquittal of Japan's veteran attorney and Human Rights activist Yoshihiro Yasuda, then head of Shoko Asahara's legal team, a move which was harshly criticized by Human Rights Watch, is often cited in support of this hypothesis.

Joyu would often argue with reporters during press conferences. Especially after the sarin attack, he was sometimes referred to by Japanese as "Aa ieba Joyu", which is a pun on the expression "Aaieba koiu", meaning someone who is excessively contrarian and argumentative (literally "you say one thing and he says the opposite").

He was sentenced to three years in prison and was released in 1999. Later, Joyu apologized for denying Aum's responsibility for the subway attack, saying at that time he had believed that in defending Aum he did the right thing.

Aleph (1999–2006)
On his release on 29 December 1999, Joyu became the de facto head of the organisation. Under his leadership, Aum Shinrikyo has changed its name to Aleph, the first letter of the Carthaginian alphabet. The group has admitted responsibility for the various incidents involving some of its former senior members, including the Tokyo Subway gas attack, delivered apologies to the victims, and established a special compensations fund. Some of the controversial doctrines that previously attracted criticisms were removed. Most of the time, Joyu resided within Aum's religious facilities with occasional trips to the outside world. Police officials were quoted as advising him to refrain from public activities as they 'could not guarantee his safety'.

Joyu's attempts to soften tensions with society did not win him much praise, though. Judging from the statements made by the country's government officials and unanimously critical media coverage, Aleph is still regarded as a threat.

The Circle of Rainbow Light (2007–present)
Leadership split into two opposing factions by the end of 2005, according to the Japanese media quoting the Public Security Intelligence Agency (PSIA), which has been monitoring Aleph since 1999. While the fundamentalist faction wishes to keep the organization as close to its pre-1995 ideal, Joyu and his reformer supporters advocate a milder course, aimed at softening social tensions and re-integration into society.

Opposing factions split in late summer 2006, with Joyu and his supporters (among them many former Aum leaders) residing in a separate building in Tokyo and calling themselves Hikari no Wa (The Circle of Rainbow Light). According to Joyu, many of the members have not taken sides yet, and keep staying with the opposing group. It was raided by PSIA agents on 10 May 2007.

title: Fumihiro Joyu


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Richard Alexander (British politician)

Richard Thain Alexander (29 June 1934 – 20 April 2008) was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Newark in Nottinghamshire until losing his seat in the landslide of the 1997 general election.

Early life
Alexander was born in Aberdeen, although his father was an architect from Lincoln. He went to Logie Coldstone prep school in Eastbourne and Dewsbury Grammar School and the Wheelwright School in Dewsbury, Yorkshire before studying law at University College London and then at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies. He was articled in London, and then worked as a solicitor in Scunthorpe from 1960 to 1964 and then in Retford, Nottinghamshire from 1964 to 1985.

Political career
Having joined the Young Conservatives in 1957, Alexander served on their National Advisory Committee in 1961 and fought his first elections in 1962 and 1963, standing (unsuccessfully) for Scunthorpe Town Council. He was elected to Retford Borough Council in 1965 and to Nottinghamshire County Council in 1967, serving until 1974. He was elected to Bassetlaw District Council in 1975, and he was Mayor of Retford in 1977–78.

He was a parliamentary candidate for Lincoln in 1966 and again in 1970, but he was not chosen by the right-wing local party to fight the by-election of 1973. The seat was won by the sitting MP, Dick Taverne, each time.

At the 1979 general election, Alexander narrowly and unexpectedly beat the popular Labour MP for Newark, Edward Stanley Bishop despite the remaining presence of working mines in the constituency.

He adopted a maverick approach in the House of Commons, and was never made a Minister. He was fully in support of the Conservatives on defence issues, describing Tony Benn's approach to the Falklands War as a "prima facie case of treason and sedition" and strongly opposing the "no first use" pledge on nuclear weapons. On other issues he was more moderate, being a member of the Tory Campaign for Homosexual Equality for a time (he resigned over a controversial article which suggested that Prince Charles should embrace Prince Edward in order to advance their campaign). Alexander could also appear a classic Tory. He faithfully supported Margaret Thatcher, bridled at the poor dress sense of the Labour MP Terry Fields (a member of the Militant group), supported rate capping of left-wing councils, and sought the abolition of Wages Councils which set minimum pay rates.

His majority was substantially increased at the 1983 general election, after boundary changes removing the mining area to the neighbouring Sherwood constituency (although that too went Conservative in 1983). He also supported the Union of Democratic Mineworkers in the 1984 UK miners' strike, but criticised the 31 pit closures announced by Michael Heseltine in October 1992. He was one of many Conservative MPs to lose their seats in the Labour landslide at the 1997 general election. The victor, Fiona Jones, was convicted of falsifying her election expenses in March 1999, and Alexander was to stand at the resulting by-election, but the conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal in April 1999 with no need for a by-election.

After his time in Parliament, Alexander was subsequently elected to serve as a councillor for the Magnus ward of Newark and Sherwood District Council.

Personal life
He married Valerie Ann Winn in 1966. They had a son and a daughter. He separated from his first wife in 1979 and they were divorced in 1985. He remarried in 1987, to Pat Hanson.

Alexander died aged 73 at Beaumond House Community Hospice, Newark-on-Trent, after a short battle with cancer.

title: Richard Alexander (British politician)


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Michael Alison

Michael James Hugh Alison (27 June 1926 – 28 May 2004) was a British Conservative politician.

Born in Margate, Kent, Alison was educated at Eton College; Wadham College, Oxford; and Ridley Hall, Cambridge. During the war, he served in the Coldstream Guards. He was a councillor on Kensington Borough Council from 1956 to 1959 and a research worker on foreign affairs at the Conservative Research Department from 1958 to 1964.

He served as Member of Parliament for Barkston Ash from the 1964 general election until that constituency was abolished for the 1983 general election, and then for the constituency of Selby which replaced it, from 1983 until he stood down at the 1997 general election.

He held various junior ministerial posts under Margaret Thatcher, including serving as her Parliamentary Private Secretary (1983–87) and as a Minister of State (Northern Ireland Office 1979–81, Department of Employment 1981–83). For ten years from 1987 he was the Second Church Estates Commissioner.

Family
In 1958 he married Sylvia Haigh, with whom he had two sons and a daughter. His son, James, is a noted Christian theologian and advocate of the acceptance of LGBTIQA+ people in the Church.

title: Michael Alison


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Privy council

A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The term "privy" (from French privé) signifies private or secret. Consequently, a privy council, more common in the past, existed as a group of a ruling monarch's most trusted court advisors. Its purpose was to consistently provide confidential advice on matters of state. Despite the abolition of monarchy, some privy councils remained operational, while others were individually disbanded, allowing the monarchical system to continue to exist without a secret crown council.

title: Privy council


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FB Vis

The Vis or Vis 35 (Polish designation Pistolet wz. 35 Vis; German designation 9 mm Pistole 35(p), or simply the Radom in some English sources and Vis wz. 35 in Poland) is a Polish 9×19mm caliber, single-action, semi-automatic pistol. Its design was inspired by the Colt 1911 pistol designed by American John Moses Browning.

Production of the Vis began in 1935 at the Fabryka Broni factory in Radom, Poland, and was adopted as the standard handgun of the Polish Army the following year. After the invasion of Poland in 1939 that marked the start of World War II, occupying German forces took over the country's munitions and industry; the pistol was valued by the Germans, who continued its production and eventually issued it to German paratroopers.

The Vis is highly prized among collectors of firearms and considered by some to be one of the best firearms of the period, combining some of the features present in the Colt M1911, the Browning Hi-Power, and the Ruby .45 ACP.

Design
The pistol bears many internal and external similarities to the famous Colt M1911A1, which was the main inspiration behind the project – to the point that some consider the Vis to be an iteration of the Colt M1911. The Vis was designed by Piotr Wilniewczyc, and Jan Skrzypiński in 1930 at the Fabryka Broni (Arms Factory) in Radom under Director Kazimierz Ołdakowski. The first prototype version was ready in 1930 and patented in 1932, when 134 prototype handguns of the ''Vis wz. 32'' were produced.

The pistol operates on the short-recoil principle, with the barrel being cammed down and away from the locking lugs in the slide. Unlike the M1911, the Vis was not cammed by a link, but by a ledge of sorts, which contacts a portion of the barrel and forces it down as it is moved rearward with the slide by the recoil force. It shares some similarities to the Spanish Ruby .45 ACP. A characteristic feature was a trapezoid grip shape, wider at the bottom, offering good ergonomics and firm grip. On the right side grip cover, the Polish pistols had the letters "VIS" in a triangle, on the left side—FB (for Fabryka Broni—"Arms Factory"). Initially it was named WiS (an acronym of the Polish designers' names), later the name was changed to Vis, meaning "force" in Latin, with the wz. abbreviation for wzór ("model").

The tests proved that the handgun was very accurate and stable (due to its size and mass, most stresses are absorbed and not passed on the shooter), while at the same time remaining reliable after firing more than 6,000 rounds. The Vis was generally regarded as one of the best military pistols of that period.

Military use
Mass production started in the state armoury Fabryka Broni in Radom in late 1935, and the following year it was introduced as the standard firearm of Polish infantry and cavalry officers. Successively, other units were to be equipped, and by 1942 all other handguns were scheduled to be withdrawn from service. By mid-1938, it was introduced to the armoured and air forces. Before the invasion of Poland, approximately 49,400 (out of 90,000 ordered) were delivered to the army.

In addition to the 9mm, there was also a small information series of .45 ACP version, with 7-round magazine, but they were not produced in greater series. Most probably only for the Argentinian competition the wooden stock-shoulder was issued but it has not survived. A .22 LR variant also existed, but no details are known, and its series was not produced in great numbers.

After the Polish defeat in 1939, the Germans took over the Radom Armoury and continued production of the Vis under the new name of 9 mm Pistole 645(p), which was for some reason often rendered as P 35(p) (the suffix "p" means "polnisch") (the German pistols of the first series had inscriptions VIS Mod.35 and P.35(p) on the left side ). Up to 1945, between 312,000 and 380,000 were produced and used by the German paratroopers and military police.

Polish technicians working in the armoury stole many handgun parts to be assembled clandestinely and supplied for use by the Home Army in their fight against the German occupation; when the Nazis discovered this, some of the Polish workers were hanged publicly in front of the factory while others were sent to concentration camps. The Germans moved production of barrels and final assembly to Steyr-Daimler-Puch in the "Ostmark" (Austria). However, underground production of Vis barrels was started in Warsaw and Kielce-based Huta Ludwików, and several hundred Vis pistols were assembled using parts smuggled from the factory, delivered to the Home Army, and used extensively during the Warsaw Uprising, among other battles.

Vis pistols made by the Germans after 1939 were issued in four different series, each with small modifications to simplify production. In late 1944, all production was moved to the Steyr works in Austria, where the last simplified model of the fourth series was produced (with no inscriptions at all, apart from bnz signature). The Vis remained in production until April 1945. Generally, the wartime Vis were of much lower quality than the original Polish versions, and further declined towards the end of the war.

Post-war developments
After the war, production of the pistol was not continued, as the Army of the People's Republic of Poland used the Soviet TT-33 pistol, produced in the former Fabryka Broni in Radom due to Warsaw Pact regulations. It was considered much inferior to the Vis, especially in ergonomics and reliability, but political considerations and Soviet influence were decisive.

In August 1997, the Łucznik Arms Factory in Radom reintroduced the Vis pistol and produced a small series of some 27 pistols on the basis of the original plans and specifications, mainly for the US collectors' market. But it differed from the original pre-war pistols with the shape of the rear sight notch and the Eagle on the slide. In 2010 another short series was manufactured. In 2012 IWA Radom Factory has presented the piece dated 2010 that was chromium coated instead of blued. On the 90th anniversary of the arms factory, 50 more handguns were produced for collectors in 2015.

In December 2017, FB Radom's chairman, Adam Suliga, confirmed to the Polish magazine MILMAG that the Vis would be returning to production, and is planned to be available for retail in the second half of 2018. This will not be a single commemorative series, but rather, according to MILMAG, FB Radom reportedly hope to continually offer the wz.35 for the export market.

Overview
The Vis pistol is a single-action, hammer-fired, locked-breech design. The control on the slide is a decocking mechanism that releases the hammer while camming the firing pin up into the slide. There is a grip safety blocking the sear unless fully compressed, but the control in the same position as a thumb safety on a Browning Hi-Power or M1911-style pistol is not a safety.

The take-down lever is used to lock the slide back (as the Browning Hi-Power safety is used) during disassembly to allow removal of the slide release lever. In later variants, this lever is omitted and the slide must be manually aligned to remove the slide release lever. Once the slide and frame are aligned (by the disassembly lever or manually), the recoil guide is pulled forward to release the slide release lever and allow it to drop free. The slide will then be free to run forward and be removed from the frame.

The magazine catch is to the rear of the trigger guard and not at the heel of the grip in the typical European fashion of the time. A pistol lanyard is installed in the heel position for pistol retention. There is no magazine safety.

Users

 * undefined - Standard issue sidearm of the Polish Army from 1935 to 1939, later they were used by Polish Underground, and also by the Polish post-war independence and anti-communist underground.
 * Nazi Germany - Factory captured in World War II, used primarily by the Fallschirmjäger and the Feldgendarmerie. Designated as the Pistole 35(p).
 * Italian Partisans - Captured from German soldiers.
 * Free France - Captured from German soldiers and used by resistance fighters.

title: FB Vis


text:
File:Pssst-intro.png

Summary
Intro image to ZX Spectrum game PSSST

Fair use rationale for Pssst

 * Ultimate/Rare has not released any screenshots to the public domain.
 * The image is being used in an informative way and should not detract from the game.
 * The image's only purpose is to aid in the description of the fictional world of Pssst and for no other purpose.
 * The image does not limit Ultimate/Rare's ability to sell the game.

title: File:Pssst-intro.png


text:
Rupert Allason

Rupert William Simon Allason (born 8 November 1951) is a British former Conservative Party politician and author. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Torbay in Devon, from 1987 to 1997. He writes books and articles on the subject of espionage under the pen name Nigel West.

Background
Born in London, Allason and his brother, Julian, were brought up as Roman Catholics, the faith of their Irish mother, Nuala (who acted under the names Nuala McElveen and Nuala Barrie), daughter of John A. McArevey, of Foxrock, Dublin. The boys attended Downside School. Their father, James Allason, was also a Conservative Party MP, descended from the architect Thomas Allason.

Political career
Allason contested Kettering in 1979 and Battersea in 1983 before being elected as Conservative MP for Torbay in 1987.

He was opposed to integration with the European Union; in 1993 he was the only Conservative to refuse to vote for the Maastricht Treaty when it was made into a motion of confidence. The vote was narrowly won, but Allason's abstention caused him to have the party whip withdrawn for a year.

He left parliament after the landslide 1997 general election in which he lost his seat to Liberal Democrat Adrian Sanders. His margin of defeat was just twelve votes, one of the narrowest election margins since 1945. It was reported that Allason had failed to tip a pub waitress a week before polling day, and that as a consequence, fourteen waiters who were going to vote for him switched to the Liberal Democrats.

In 2000, Allason was reported to have considered joining the UK Independence Party (UKIP). Author Jon Ronson, in the first chapter of his book Them: Adventures with Extremists, briefly analysed Allason's career and character, with particular emphasis on his 1997 electoral loss.

Literary career
As an author, Allason has concentrated on security and intelligence issues. He was voted 'The Experts' Expert' by a panel of other spy writers in The Observer in November 1989. In 1984 The Sunday Times commented: "His information is so precise that many people believe he is the unofficial historian of the secret services. West's sources are undoubtedly excellent. His books are peppered with deliberate clues to potential front-page stories."

Allason has been a frequent speaker at intelligence seminars and has lectured at both the KGB headquarters in Dzerzhinsky Square, Moscow and at the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, where he once addressed an audience that included the Soviet spy Aldrich Ames. He continues to lecture to members of the intelligence community at the Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies in Washington, D.C.

His special contribution to the study of modern historical espionage has been in tracking down former agents and persuading them to tell their stories. He traced the wartime double agent GARBO, who was reported to have died in Africa in 1949. However, Allason found him in Venezuela, and they collaborated on the book Operation Garbo, published in 1985.

He was also the first person to identify and interview the mistress of Admiral Canaris, the German intelligence chief who headed the Abwehr, and he was responsible for the exposure of Leo Long and Edward Scott as Soviet spies.

His titles include The Crown Jewels, based on files made available to him by the KGB archives in Moscow; VENONA, which disclosed the existence of a GRU spy-ring operating in London throughout the war, allegedly headed by J. B. S. Haldane and Ivor Montagu; and The Third Secret, an account of the CIA's intervention in Afghanistan. Mortal Crimes, published in September 2004, investigates the scale of Soviet espionage in the Manhattan Project, the Anglo-American development of an atomic bomb.

In 2005 he edited The Guy Liddell Diaries, a daily journal of the wartime work of MI5's Director of Counter-Espionage. He also published a study of the Comintern's secret wireless traffic, MASK: MI5's Penetration of the Communist Party of Great Britain, and the first of a series of counter-intelligence textbooks, The Historical Dictionary of British Intelligence, The Historical Dictionary of International Intelligence and The Historical Dictionary of Cold War Counter-Intelligence.

In his 2018 book, Cold War Spymaster: A Legacy of Guy Liddell, Deputy Director of MI5, the author did not suggest that Liddell had passed secrets to the Soviets, as had been claimed by some other authors, including John Costello in his Mask of Treachery. In fact, Allason under the 'West' pseudonym stated that Liddell "was betrayed by Burgess, Blunt and Philby", according to a 2019 summary of the book.

Legal actions
Allason has been involved in a number of legal cases, in each of which he represented himself without lawyers. While in the House of Commons, he campaigned against the use of public-interest immunity certificates, and exposed the arms-dealing activities of the publisher and fraudster Robert Maxwell. He was sued for libel by Maxwell but won the case, winning record damages for a litigant in person by counterclaim.

In 1996 Allason sued Alastair Campbell for malicious falsehood with regard to an article printed in the Daily Mirror in November 1992. The case was heard by Mr Justice Drake, without a jury. The judge ruled that Allason had failed to demonstrate that the Daily Mirror article, although inaccurate, had caused him any financial loss. In a retrial in 1998, he was awarded £1,050 in damages and 75% of his legal costs.

In 1998, Allason lost a libel action – his 18th – against the authors and publishers of the Have I Got News for You 1997 diary for referring to him as "a conniving little shit".

In 2001, Allason sued Random House, the publishers of The Enigma Spy, the autobiography of the former Soviet agent John Cairncross. Allason claimed he had ghostwritten The Enigma Spy in return for the copyright and 50 per cent of the proceeds. However, Allason lost the case and was ordered to pay costs of around £200,000. The trial judge, Mr Justice Laddie, described him as "one of the most dishonest witnesses I have ever seen".

Honours and awards
Allason is the recipient of the US Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO)'s Lifetime Literature Achievement Award, and in 2011 he was elected to the Honorary Board of that association. He is the European Editor of the World Intelligence Review, published in Washington, D.C.

Personal life
In 1979 Allason married Nikki van Moppes. They divorced in 1996. The couple have two children. In 2012, he married violinist Nicola Loud.

Publications

 * Spy! (by Richard Deacon with Nigel West), London: British Broadcasting Corporation, 1980
 * MI5: British Security Service Operations, 1909–1945, New York: Stein and Day, 1982, 1981
 * A Matter of Trust: MI5, 1945–72, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1982; published in the U.S. as The Circus: MI5, Operations 1945–1972, New York : Stein and Day, 1983
 * MI6: British Secret Intelligence Service Operations: 1909–45, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1983
 * Unreliable Witness: Espionage Myths of the Second World War, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1984
 * The Branch: A History of the Metropolitan Police Special Branch (By Rupert Allason)
 * Operation Garbo: The Personal Story of the Most Successful Double Agent of World War II, co-written by Juan Pujol and Nigel West, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1985
 * GCHQ: The Secret Wireless War, 1900–86, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1986, ISBN 0-297-78717-9
 * Molehunt: The Full Story of the Soviet Spy in MI5, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1987
 * The Friends: Britain's Post-War Secret Intelligence operations, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1988
 * Games of Intelligence: The Classified Conflict of International Espionage, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1989
 * The Blue List (novel), London: Secker & Warburg, 1989, ISBN 0-436-56602-8
 * Cuban Bluff (novel), London: Secker & Warburg, 1990
 * Seven Spies Who Changed the World, London: Secker & Warburg, 1991
 * Secret War: The Story of SOE, Britain's Wartime Sabotage Organisation, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1992
 * Murder in the Commons (novel), London: 1992
 * The Faber Book of Espionage: Faber & Faber, December 1994
 * Murder in the Lords (novel), London: 1994
 * The Secret War for the Falklands: SAS, MI6 and the War Whitehall Nearly Lost: Little Brown, January 1997, ISBN 0-7515-2071-3
 * Introduction to British Security Co-ordination: British Intelligence in the Americas, 1940-45: Little Brown, 1998
 * The Faber Book of Treachery: Faber & Faber, March 1998
 * The Crown Jewels: The British Secrets Exposed by the KGB Archives, London: HarperCollins, 1999, 1998
 * Counterfeit Spies: Time Warner Paperbacks, March 1999
 * VENONA: The Greatest Secret of the Cold War: HarperCollins, May 2000 ISBN 0-00-653071-0
 * The Third Secret: The CIA, Solidarity and the KGB's Plot to Kill the Pope: HarperCollins, October 2000
 * Mortal Crimes: The Greatest Theft in History: Soviet Penetration of the Manhattan Project, New York: Enigma Books, 2004
 * The Guy Liddell Diaries: 1939–1942 Volume 1: Frank Cass Publishers, February 2005
 * The Guy Liddell Diaries: 1942–1945 Volume 2: Routledge, London, June 2005
 * Historical Dictionary of British Intelligence: Scarecrow Press, London, June 2005
 * Mask: MI5's Penetration of the Communist Party of Great Britain: Frank Cass Publishers, July 2005
 * On Her Majesty's Secret Service: The Chiefs of Britain's Intelligence Agency, MI6: Greenhill Books, London October 2006
 * Classified! The Adventures of a Molehunter: Biteback Publishing, London, February 2024 ISBN 9781785908538
 * Classified! The Adventures of a Molehunter: Biteback Publishing, London, February 2024 ISBN 9781785908538

title: Rupert Allason


text:
C character classification

C character classification is an operation provided by a group of functions in the ANSI C Standard Library for the C programming language. These functions are used to test characters for membership in a particular class of characters, such as alphabetic characters, control characters, etc. Both single-byte, and wide characters are supported.

History
Early C-language programmers working on the Unix operating system developed programming idioms for classifying characters into different types. For example, for the ASCII character set, the following expression identifies a letter, when its value is true:

As this may be expressed in multiple formulations, it became desirable to introduce short, standardized forms of such tests that were placed in the system-wide header file ctype.h.

Implementation
Unlike the above example, the character classification routines are not written as comparison tests. In most C libraries, they are written as static table lookups instead of macros or functions.

For example, an array of 256 eight-bit integers, arranged as bitfields, is created, where each bit corresponds to a particular property of the character, e.g., isdigit, isalpha. If the lowest-order bit of the integers corresponds to the isdigit property, the code could be written as

Early versions of Linux used a potentially faulty method similar to the first code sample:

This can cause problems if when the macro expands, the expression substituted for x has a side effect. For example, if one calls isdigit(x++) or isdigit(run_some_program). It is not immediately evident that the argument to isdigit is evaluated twice. For this reason, the table-based approach is generally used.

Overview of functions
The functions that operate on single-byte characters are defined in ctype.h header file (cctype in C++). The functions that operate on wide characters are defined in wctype.h header file (cwctype in C++).

The classification is evaluated according to the effective locale.

title: C character classification


text:
Jacques Arnold

Jacques Arnold  DL (born 27 August 1947) is a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Gravesham in Kent from 1987, when he succeeded Tim Brinton, until he lost his seat in the landslide 1997 election. He is now a consultant and lecturer on Latin American Affairs as well as the author of a two-book series on political and genealogical subjects. He was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Kent in January 2013.

Unlike many of his fellow former Tory MPs, he refought the seat at the 2001 election – only to come second place to Labour's Chris Pond. The Tories regained the seat in 2005 with Adam Holloway becoming the MP, the first time since the 1951 general election that the seat had not been held by the winning party.

Biography
Jacques Arnold was educated at schools in Brazil, before returning to England in 1968, to attend the London School of Economics (LSE), where he attained a BSc(Hons.) in Economics. During that period he was Chairman of LSE Conservatives, the student society of the Tories at the London School of Economics.

Career
Jacques Arnold started his career at Hill Samuel & Co., merchant bankers, in the City of London.

Between 1976 and 1978 he lived in São Paulo, where he established the Representative Office of Midland Bank Limited, serving as their Deputy Representative.

Returning to Britain, he was Regional Director of Thomas Cook Bankers from 1978 to 1983, with responsibilities for Latin America, Iberia and Africa, setting up new operations in São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Mexico City and Caracas, and running large established businesses in Spain, Portugal, South Africa, Nigeria and Libya. He was then successively Assistant Trade Finance Director of Midland Bank, and a Director of American Express Europe Ltd.

During that period he won the Oundle division of Northamptonshire County Council, and served as County Councillor from 1981 to 1985. He was Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Coventry South East in 1983. In 1982 he succeeded Christopher Horne as Chairman of Hyde Park Tories, the Conservative team at Speakers' Corner.

He was a Parliamentary Private Secretary to David Maclean, Minister of State for the Environment, and then at the Home Office, from 1992 to 1995. He was a Member of the Education and Treasury Select Committees. He was Chairman of the Conservative backbench committee on Constitutional Affairs, and Secretary of the Conservative backbench committee on Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs. He was a member of the executive committee of the British Group, Inter-Parliamentary Union. He also became chairman of both the Brazilian and Portuguese Parliamentary Groups, and Secretary of the British Latin American Parliamentary Group. He was an official parliamentary observer at the 1988 Chilean plebiscite, and also for the first elections in both Angola and Mozambique. He addressed a committee of the Brazilian Congress in Brasília during the constitutional crisis of 1992. He was a member of the Argentine British Conference, which brought the countries back together after the Falklands War. Since leaving the House of Commons he has been Adviser to a number of major companies with interests in Latin America, notably BAE Systems, and FIRST Magazine. He also lectures on Latin America. He was Chairman of the Tonbridge & Malling Conservative Association, 2012–16. He is the author of two series of books: "A History of Britain’s Parliamentary Constituencies", and "The Royal Houses of Europe" a genealogical work.

Jacques Arnold is married to Patricia, and they have a son and two daughters. He is a Grand Official of the Brazilian National Order of the Southern Cross and a Deputy Lieutenant of Kent.

title: Jacques Arnold


text:
Tom Arnold (politician)

 Sir Thomas Richard Arnold (25 January 1947 – 14 November 2023) was a British Conservative Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hazel Grove from 1974 to 1997.

Biography
Thomas Richard Arnold was born in London on 25 January 1947, to his parents Thomas Charles Arnold, a theatrical producer and Helen Arnold. Young Tom Arnold attended the Bedales School, the Institut Le Rosey, and Pembroke College, Oxford.

Arnold died on 14 November 2023, at the age of 76.

Political career
After unsuccessfully contesting the safe Labour seat of Manchester Cheetham in 1970, Arnold was elected to the British House of Commons for Hazel Grove in October 1974, defeating the Liberal incumbent Michael Winstanley; he had fought the same seat unsuccessfully in the previous General Election that same year. He served as the Conservative Member of Parliament for Hazel Grove until his retirement in 1997. From 1979 to 1982, Arnold was the Parliamentary Private Secretary in the Northern Ireland Office and later in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. In 1983, Arnold was appointed Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Party under Chairmen Cecil Parkinson and John Gummer.

When Arnold began office, in 1974, he was one of the youngest members of Parliament, along with Anthony Nelson and Malcolm Rifkind, later joined in 1977 by both Andrew MacKay and Tim Smith. During the 1970s, the five were referred to as "The Tories' Young Men", with Arnold being the only backbencher in the group. Arnold was an ardent supporter of the European Economic Community during his time in Parliament, although he later became much more sceptical.

Arnold was knighted in the 1990 Birthday Honours for political service.

title: Tom Arnold (politician)


text:
Tom Arnold

Tom Arnold may refer to:

 * Tom Arnold (actor) (born 1959), American actor
 * Tom Arnold (economist) (born 1948), Irish CEO of Concern Worldwide
 * Tom Arnold (footballer) (1878–?), English footballer
 * Tom Arnold (literary scholar) (1823–1900), British academic, son of Thomas Arnold of Rugby
 * Tom Arnold (politician) (1947–2023), Conservative politician in the United Kingdom
 * Tom Arnold (theatre impresario) (1897–1969), British theatrical producer

title: Tom Arnold


text:
Triangle piercing

A triangle piercing is one of several forms of genital piercing applied to the vulva. It is a horizontal piercing that passes from side to side, beneath the base of the clitoral hood tissue where it meets the inner labia and under the clitoris. The name is derived from the tissue where the labia meets the clitoral hood, which looks like a triangle when pinched.

The piercing can increase sexual sensation during direct clitoral stimulation as well as during vaginal or anal penetration. It can stimulate the clitoris from behind, the only genital piercing to do so, although it does not pass through the clitoris or the clitoral shaft. The usual jewellery worn with the piercing is a barbell. There are reports of the piercing alleviating anorgasmia in some individuals.

It is one of the more complicated and expensive genital piercings. The average healing time is 12 to 18 weeks and the triangle piercing is more likely to experience subsequent bleeding than other types of vulva piercings. There are a number of anatomical requirements with regards to the vulva. For instance, the clitoral hood has to protrude outwards from the body for sufficient distance. Most vulvas are not suited to the piercing. Its complexity results from the fact that the piercer has to use mainly tactile rather than visual cues for its placement. It is in a location where mistakes could result in the piercing being misplaced or lead to pain and damage to the vulva. Some people find it to be one of the more painful genital piercings because it passes through so much tissue and so many nerves.

History
According to PFIQ magazine, the first triangle piercing was performed by Lou Duff of the Gauntlet body piercing studio in the early 1990s. It was subsequently developed by Elayne Angel.

title: Triangle piercing


text:
Pssst

Pssst is an action video game developed and published by Ultimate Play the Game that was released for the ZX Spectrum in June 1983. In the game, Robbie the Robot has to protect his plant (a Thyrgodian Megga Chrisanthodil) as it is attacked by various insects, each of which needs a different repellent to neutralise it. Pssst was the second game to be released by Ultimate, after Jetpac.

The game was written by Chris Stamper and graphics were designed by his brother, Tim Stamper. Pssst was one of the very few Spectrum games also available in ROM format for use with the Interface 2, allowing "instantaneous" loading of the game (the normal method of cassette loading could take several minutes). The game received positive reviews from two publications upon release, with critics mainly praising its presentation and gameplay.

Gameplay

The game is presented from a single, 2D perspective, and revolves around Robbie the Robot's objective to defend his plant from interstellar space slugs, leeches and midges. The plant grows from the bottom centre of the screen, and spray cans containing three different pesticides are located on ledges on each side of the screen. Bonus items such as fertiliser and fly swatters appear on unoccupied ledges which will increase both the players score and the plant's growth rate.

There are three types of coloured parasite, and three types of pesticide, which will either kill, stun, or have no effect on the parasites. The player can only carry one type of pesticide at a time; during the early stages of the game the lethal pesticide can be carried at all times, but later stages have more than one type of parasite on screen at once, making the choice of pesticide more tactical.

As the plant grows it may sprout leaves; these increase the growth rate but also vulnerability to the parasites. Once the plant reaches a predetermined height it flowers and the player advances to the next level. A life will be deducted whenever the plant dies or the player makes contact with a parasite.

Development
Pssst  is one of the few Spectrum games also available in ROM format for use with the Interface 2, allowing instantaneous loading of the game when the normal method of cassette loading could take several minutes. The game used the common technique of sprites and allowing them to be placed atop each other, which often overlapped colours on the screen causing attribute clash. Pssst was also able to run on the 16K version of the Spectrum.

Reception
Paul Liptrot of Home Computing Weekly praised the graphics, stating them as overall "smooth-moving" and colourful, as well as praising the "addictive" gameplay. ZX Computing considered the game as very professionally written and produced, with excellently smooth and detailed graphics. In addition, the review stated originality, addictivity and enjoyability of Pssst.

Pssst reached number 10 in the MRIB Top 30 software charts in July 1983 while Jetpac was still at number 1. In the fourth issue of Personal Computer Games, Pssst was nominated for a 1983 game of the year list on account of Ultimate's "famous graphics". According to the reviewer, other attributes of the game included its "originality" and "fun" in comparison to other Ultimate titles that were released in 1983. In a retrospective review, a reviewer of ''Retro Games! Now'' summarised that the game "was not the best" of Ultimate's releases for the ZX Spectrum, despite considering it to be "less lauded" than the others. However, they considered Pssst to be a "taste of things to come" and a significant improvement over the "clunky" and "jumpy" animation of previous games for the ZX Spectrum.

title: Pssst


text:
Lansing Community College

Lansing Community College is a public community college with its main campus in Lansing, Michigan. Founded in 1957, the college's main campus is located on an urban, 42 acre site in downtown Lansing spanning seven city blocks approximately two blocks from the state capitol. A West Campus opened in 2004 in Delta Township, southwest of Lansing. There is also an East Campus located in the Eyde Plaza in East Lansing. The school is the third largest community college in Michigan by enrollment, with a fall 2013 enrollment of 18,551, a decrease from 20,394 in 2008.

History
The college was founded in 1957 by Philip Gannon who served as president between 1957 and 1989.

Academics
Lansing Community College (LCC) offers 230 associate degree and certificate programs while offering approximately 1,150 courses each academic year. It is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.

LCC is also a National Alternative Fuels Training Consortium Training Center. Most of the classes in this center are located at the college's West Campus.

Athletics
The LCC Athletic Department fields nine intercollegiate teams. The Lansing Community College Stars play in the Michigan Community College Athletic Association, and is a member of the National Junior College Athletic Association.

Lansing Community College intercollegiate sports include:
 * Fall - Men's and Women's Cross Country, Women's Volleyball
 * Winter - Men's and Women's Basketball
 * Spring - Men's and Women's Track and Field, Softball, Baseball

LCC also has a competitive club hockey team that participates in the American Collegiate Hockey Association and the Michigan Collegiate Hockey Conference.

Notable alumni

 * Lingg Brewer, politician and educator
 * Pamela Ditchoff, author
 * Thom Hartmann, talk show host, author, businessman, and progressive political commentator
 * Nate Huffman, professional basketball player, 2001 Israeli Basketball Premier League MVP
 * Sabah Khoury, international basketball player
 * Lisa McClain, politician
 * Marcus Norris (born 1974), basketball player, 2003-04 Israeli Basketball Premier League Defensive Player of the Year
 * Paul Michael Stoll (born 1985), American-Mexican basketball player

title: Lansing Community College