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Sahaja Yoga

Sahaja Yoga (सहज योग) is a religion founded in 1970 by Nirmala Srivastava (1923–2011). Nirmala Srivastava is known as Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi (trans: Revered Immaculate Mother) or simply as "Mother" by her followers, who are called Sahaja yogis.

Practitioners believe that during meditation they experience a state of self-realization produced by kundalini awakening, and that this is accompanied by the experience of thoughtless awareness or mental silence.

Shri Mataji described Sahaja Yoga as the pure, universal religion integrating all other religions. She claimed that she was a divine incarnation, more precisely an incarnation of the Holy Spirit, or the Adi Shakti of the Hindu tradition, the great mother goddess who had come to save humanity. This is also how she is regarded by most of her devotees. Sahaja Yoga has sometimes been characterized as a cult.

Etymology
The word 'Sahaja' in Sanskrit has two components: 'Saha' is 'with' and 'ja' is 'born'. A Dictionary of Buddhism gives the literal translation of Sahaja as "innate" and defines it as "denoting the natural presence of enlightenment (bodhi) or purity." and Yoga means union with the divine and refers to a spiritual path or a state of spiritual absorption. According to a book published by Sahaja Yogis, Sahaja Yoga means spontaneous and born with you meaning that the kundalini is born within us and can be awakened spontaneously, without effort.

The term 'Sahaja Yoga' goes back at least to the 15th Century Indian mystic Kabir and has also been used to refer to Surat Shabd Yoga. Sahaja can also mean 'comfortable', 'natural', or 'uncomplicated' in Hindi.

History
Before starting Sahaja Yoga, Srivastava had a reputation as a spiritual healer. In 1970, with a small group of devotees around her, she began spreading her message of Sahaja Yoga in India. As she moved with her husband to London, UK, she continued her religious activities there, and the movement grew and spread throughout Europe, by the mid-80's reaching North America. In 1989, Shri Mataji made her first trip to Russia and Eastern Europe. She did not charge for her classes, insisting that her lesson was a birthright which should be freely available to all. As of 2021, Sahaja Yoga has centers in at least 69 countries.

Beliefs and practices
The movement claims Sahaja Yoga is different from other yoga/meditations because it begins with self realization through kundalini awakening rather than as a result of performing kriya techniques or asanas. This self realization is said to be made possible by the presence of Srivastava often through a photography of her. The teachings, practices and beliefs of Sahaja Yoga are mainly Hindu-based, with a predominance of elements from mystical traditions, as well as local customs of India. There are however elements of Christian origin, such as the eternal battle between good and evil. References to a variety of other religious, spiritual, mystical as well as modern scientific frameworks are also interwoven in Srivastava's teachings, although to a lesser degree.

Religious sociologist Judith Coney has reported facing a challenge in getting behind what she called "the public facade" of Sahaja Yoga. She described Sahaja yogis as adopting a low profile with uncommitted individuals to avoid unnecessary conflict.

Coney observed that the movement tolerates a variety of world views and levels of commitment with some practitioners choosing to remain on the periphery.

Kundalini
Within the Indian mystic tradition, kundalini awakening has long been a much sought-after goal that was thought rare and hard to attain. Sahaja Yoga is distinctive in claiming to offer a quick and easy path to such an awakening.

Meditation
Meditation is one of the foundational rituals within Sahaja Yoga. The technique taught emphasises the state of "thoughtless-awareness" that is said to be achieved.

Role of women
Judith Coney has written that in general, Nirmala Srivastava's vision for the role of women within Sahaja Yoga was one of "feminine domesticity and compliance".

Some parents of Sahaja 'yogists', analyzing Nirmala Srivastava's remarks, noted that women play a subordinate role. The texts of Nirmala Srivastava say that "if you are a woman and you want to dominate, then Sahaja Yoga will have difficulty in curing you" and that women should be "docile" and "domestic". Judith Coney writes that women "are valued as mothers and wives but are limited to these roles and are not encouraged to be active or powerful, except within the domestic sphere and behind the scenes".

Coney has observed that "Gender roles for women and men within Sahaja Yoga are clearly specified and highly segregated, and positions of authority in the group are held almost exclusively by the men". Coney writes that the ideal of womanhood promoted within Sahaja Yoga draws both on the ideal wifely qualities of the goddess Lakshmi and on wider Hindu traditions. Coney believes these traditions are summed up in "The Code of Manu" which holds that woman should be honoured and adorned but kept dependent on men in the family. Women are also described in this book as "dangerous" and needing to be guarded from temptation.

Coney has written that Nirmala Srivastava did not display consistent views on women but gave a number of messages about the status of women. On the one hand she said women are not inferior but described the sexes as complementary. Describing the man as the head of the family, she likened the woman's status to the heart: "The head always feels he decides, but the brain always knows that is the heart one has to cater, it is the heart which is all-pervading, it is the real source of everything". She regretted what she saw as the loss of respect for women in society in both the East and West. However, she viewed Western feminism suspiciously, seeing it as a "route to damnation" because it required women to deviate from what she thought was their true nature.

Family
Human rights lawyer Sylvie Langlaude has described the configuration of families within Sahaja Yoga as having "a distinctive image and model of childhood", noting that from birth children become familiarised with the movement's beliefs and Nirmala Srivastava's status by being closely involved in its day-to-day rituals including meditation, foot-soaking, and devotional singing. This is in line with the other religions Langlaude examined, who concluded that "almost all traditions include informal nurturing within the family and slightly more formal nurturing within a religious community", and that children "are also initiated by their parents to a number of initiation rituals and to ceremonies and festivals."

The subtle system – chakras and nadis

Sahaja Yoga believes that in addition to our physical body there is a subtle body composed of nadis (channels) and chakras (energy centres). Nirmala Srivastava equates the Sushumna nadi with the parasympathetic nervous system, the Ida nadi with the left and the Pingala nadi with the right sides of the sympathetic nervous system. Psychoanalyst Sudhir Kakar writes that Nirmala Srivastava's additions to this widespread traditional 'tantric' model include giving it a scientific, neurological veneer, an elaboration of the health aspects and an introduction of notions of traditional Christian morality.

Chakras do not physically exist but in a variety of ancient meditation practices they are believed to be part of the subtle body.

Apostasy
In common with similar movements, most people who have left the Sahaja Yoga movement do not describe their experience as being unremittingly negative, often finding something positive they can say. Nevertheless, in interviews with ex-members Judith Coney heard various complaints, including that they had experienced unwanted arranged marriage, had been dismayed by the difference between the reality of the movement and what they had expected, and had found their time in the movement frightening.

The ex-members who believed they had gained some form of supernatural protection from being in the movement were generally fearful of being exposed to retribution for having left, perhaps in the form of a terminal illness or fatal accident.

Eschatology
Within the Sahaja Yoga belief system, because we are in the final phase of the world (Kali Yuga) before the apocalypse, the Earth is rich in demons, who use satanic forces to possess people, impersonate gurus, and spread evil.

Judith Coney writes that Nirmala Srivastava claimed to be Adi Shakti, who had returned to earth to save it from "demonic influences."

Coney writes that Nirmala Srivastava identified what she saw as increased decadence in society as the work of demons "intent on dragging human beings to hell".

Organization
Vishwa Nirmala Dharma (trans: Universal Pure Religion, also known as Sahaja Yoga International) is the organizational part of the movement. It is a registered organization in countries such as Colombia, the United States of America, and Austria. It is registered as a religion in Spain.

Membership statistics
There are no available statistical data about Sahaja Yoga membership. In 2001, the number of core members worldwide was estimated to be 10,000, in addition to 100,000 practitioners more or less in the periphery. There are varying reports about the movement's distribution worldwide. According to the Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi Sahaja Yoga World Foundation, Sahaja Yoga centers are established in over 140 countries. In a news article in Indian Express published on the occasion of Srivastava's death in 2011, however, Sahaja Yoga centers were said to exist in 140 countries.

International Sahaja Public School
The International Sahaja Public School in Dharamsala founded in 1990, teaches around 250 international students annually, and has accepted children from the age of 6.

Yuvashakti
Sahaja Yoga's youth movement is called "Yuvashakti" (also "Nirmal Shakti Yuva Sangha"), from the Sanskrit words Yuva (Youth) and Shakti (Power).

The movement is active in forums such as the World Youth Conference and TakingITGlobal which aim at discussing global issues, and ways of solving them.

The Yuvashakti participated in the 2000 "Civil Society & Governance Project" in which they were "instrumental in reaching out to women from the poor communities and providing them with work".

Vishwa Nirmal Prem Ashram
The Vishwa Nirmala Prem Ashram is a not-for profit project by the NGO Vishwa Nirmala Dharma (Sahaja Yoga International) located in Noida, Delhi, India, opened in 2003. The ashram is a "facility where women and girls are rehabilitated by being taught meditation and other skills that help them overcome trauma".

Funding
According to the dictates of their founder, the methods for practicing Sahaja Yoga are made available free of charge to those interested. Nevertheless, according to the official Sahaja Yoga website there is a fee for attending international pujas to cover costs.

According to author David V. Barrett, "Shri Mataji neither charged for her lectures nor for her ability to give Self Realization, nor does one have to become a member of this organization. She insisted that one cannot pay for enlightenment and she continued to denounce the false self-proclaimed 'gurus' who are more interested in the seekers' purse than their spiritual ascent".

Cult allegations
Cult expert Jean-Marie Abgrall has written that Sahaja Yoga exhibits the classic characteristics of a cult in the way it conditions its members. These include having a god-like leader, disrupting existing relationships, and promising security and specific benefits while demanding loyalty and financial support. Abgrall writes that the true activities of the cult are hidden behind the projection of a positive image and an explicit statement that "Sahaja yoga is not a cult".

Judith Coney has written that members "disguised some of their beliefs" from the outside world. Coney writes people who had left the movement welcomed the chance to talk to her as an independent researcher, but that some were fearful of reprisals if they did so, and others found their experiences too painful to revisit. Most were unwilling to talk to her "on the record".

In 2001, The Independent reported the allegation made by some ex-members, that Sahaja Yoga is a cult which aims to control the minds of its members. Ex-members said that the organisation insists all family ties are broken and all communication with them cease, that crying children can be seen as being possessed by demons, that negative and positive vibrations need "clearing", and that being a member of the group is very expensive. In 2005, The Record reported that some critics who feel that the group is a cult have started their own websites.

In 2005 the Belgian State organisation IACSSO (Informatie- en Adviescentrum inzake de Schadelijke Sektarische Organisaties) issued an advisory against Sahaja Yoga. The advisory categorizes Sahaja Yoga as a synretic cult ("syncretische cultus") based on the Hindu tradition, and warns that the recruitment techniques used by Sahaja Yoga pose a risk to the public in general and young people in particular. Sahaja Yoga Belgium sued IACSSO and preliminary rulings were found in their favour, adjudging that Sahaja Yoga was "not a cult". However, on appeal in 2011 these preliminary rulings were overturned and in a final judgement it was found that Sahaja Yoga had been unable to refute IACSSO's statements.

In 2013, De Morgen reported that the Belgian Department of State Security monitors how often politicians are contacted and lobbied by organizations. The list of organizations includes Sahaja Yoga.

In 2001, The Evening Standard reported that Sahaja Yoga has been "described as a dangerous cult" and "has a dissident website created by former members". The reporter, John Crace, wrote about an event he attended and noted that a Sahaja Yoga representative asked him to feel free to talk to whomever he wanted. He remarked, "Either their openness is a PR charm offensive, or they genuinely have nothing to hide." He proposed that "one of the key definitions of a cult is the rigour with which it strives to recruit new members" and concluded that there was no aggressive recruitment squeeze.

David V. Barrett wrote that some former members say that they were expelled from the movement because they "resisted influence that Mataji had over their lives". According to Barrett, the movement's founder's degree of control over members' lives has given rise to concerns. The Austrian Ministry for Environment, Youth and Family states that "Sahaja Yoga" regards Nirmala Srivastava as an authority who cannot be questioned.

title: Sahaja Yoga


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Talk:Trigintillion

"It is equal to a thousand novemvigintillion and a thousandth of an untrigintillion."

Oh for fecks sake, this could go on indefinately. All these articles should be under List of numbers. What's going on now is nonsense.

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

title: Talk:Trigintillion


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British Columbia Highway 97

Highway 97 is a major highway in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is the longest continuously numbered route in the province, running 2,081 km and is the only route that runs the entire north–south length of British Columbia, connecting the Canada–United States border near Osoyoos in the south to the British Columbia–Yukon boundary in the north at Watson Lake, Yukon.

The highway connects several major cities in BC Interior, including Kelowna, Kamloops, Prince George, and Dawson Creek. Within and near these cities, Highway 97 varies from a two-lane highway to a freeway with as many as six lanes. Some remote sections also remain unpaved and gravelled. The route takes its number from U.S. Route 97, with which it connects at the international border. The highway was initially designated '97' in 1953.

Route description
The busiest section of Highway 97 is in West Kelowna, carrying almost 70,000 vehicles per day. Some sections in the northern regions of the province have as few as 250 vehicles per day.

Okanagan Highway
The Okanagan Highway is a 189 km section of Highway 97 between the international border and the junction of Highway 97A north of Vernon. It is named for the Okanagan region of British Columbia, through which it largely passes. It begins in the south at the international border crossing north of Oroville, and travels 4 km north to its junction with the Crowsnest Highway (Highway 3) at Osoyoos. The highway travels north for 47 km, passing through the Testalinden Creek Landslide and the communities of Oliver and Okanagan Falls. From Okanagan Falls, Highway 97 runs near the western shore of Skaha Lake before arriving at the locality of Kaleden, where Highway 3A diverges west.

13 km north of Kaleden, Highway 97 arrives at the city of Penticton. North of Penticton, Highway 97 follows the western shore of Okanagan Lake for 45 km, through the communities of Summerland and Peachland, before reaching its junction with Highway 97C just south of Westbank. From there, Highway 97 passes through West Kelowna and reserve lands belonging to the Westbank First Nation until, 15 km northeast of the 97C junction, Highway 97 begins to cross Okanagan Lake via the William R. Bennett Bridge. The highway enters the city of Kelowna upon landfall on the east shore of the lake. 6 km east into the city centre, the highway reaches its junction with Highway 33. As the Okanagan is a very popular travel destination and also has the highest population in inland B.C. (about 300,000), this section of highway 97 is by far the busiest. Congestion is frequent - particularly near the William Bennett Bridge, and Southbound towards West Kelowna.

Four kilometres (2$1/2$ mi) north of the Highway 33 junction, Highway 97 leaves the urbanized area of Kelowna (the municipal boundary is actually a further 12 km, 7 mi, north). For the next 43 km, the route travels well east of Okanagan Lake, passing through the community of Winfield. Prior to 2013, the highway ran alongside the west shore of Wood Lake to Oyama. A new 9 km section of four-lane highway was constructed and opened to traffic at that time, which bypasses Oyama entirely to the north. The original section of the highway skirting the western shore of Wood Lake is now known as Pelmewash Parkway. Both Oyama and Winfield lie within the municipality of Lake Country.

Highway 97 then passes along the west shore of Kalamalka Lake before entering the city of Vernon and a junction with Highway 6 just south of the city centre. The highway then travels north for 10 km to a junction with Highway 97A near Swan Lake.

Vernon-Kamloops-Cache Creek
Highway 97 continues northwest from Highway 97A for 81 km, past the town of Falkland, before it merges onto the Trans-Canada Highway at Monte Creek, and is known as the Vernon-Monte Creek Highway. The highway follows Highway 1 for 105 km west to Cache Creek. As it travels westward, Highways 1 and 97 parallel the Thompson River, passing through the city of Kamloops, where the route shares a 12 km wrong-way concurrency with Highway 5 (signed as 97 North and 5 South and vice versa) and intersects Highway 5A.

Cariboo Highway
The Cariboo Highway section of Highway 97, between Cache Creek and Prince George, is 441 km in length and named for the Cariboo region, through which it travels. Much of its length as far as Quesnel follows approximately the route of the original Cariboo Wagon Road, which was also known as the Queen's Highway. The Cariboo Wagon Road's lower stretches between Yale and Cache Creek were severed in many places by the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 1880s. That section, now part of the Trans-Canada, was rebuilt in the 1920s, when the name Cariboo Highway was first applied to the route, a designation which ran from Yale to Prince George, British Columbia (where portions of the route survive as the Old Cariboo Highway). Today the Cariboo Highway designation begins at Cache Creek, veering north for 11 km to its junction with Highway 99. North of Highway 99, Highway 97 travels 92 km through Clinton, where the British Columbia Railway begins to roughly parallel Highway 97, as well as through the community of 70 Mile House before reaching a junction at 93 Mile House with Highway 24 (the Interlakes Highway). The roughly 30 km section of highway between 70 Mile House and Highway 24 has been re-routed to a new expressway with a speed limit of 110km/h.

Over the 100 km of road north of Highway 24, Highway 97 travels through 100 Mile House and 150 Mile House before reaching the city of Williams Lake and a junction with Highway 20, which runs west across the Chilcotin District to Bella Coola on the Central Coast. Over the next 120 km continuing generally northward, the highway passes through McLeese Lake and Marguerite. En route, Highway 97 follows the east bank of the Fraser River to the city of Quesnel, and a junction with Highway 26. Over the next 115 km north of Quesnel, after passing through the hamlets of Strathnaver, Hixon, Stoner and Red Rock, Highway 97 meets its junction with Highway 16 at Prince George. North of here, the highway veers away from the Fraser River, and the British Columbia Railway veers northwestward from it.

The term Cariboo Highway originally applied to the reconstructed route from Hope through the Fraser Canyon to Cache Creek and Prince George. Constructed in 1924-25, the new gravel toll highway opened in 1926, giving road access to canyon communities cut off since the destruction of parts of the Cariboo Road by construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 1880s. The Cariboo Highway designation for the Fraser Canyon portion of the route was supplanted with the completion and naming of the Trans-Canada Highway c.-1962. Portions of the old highway survive as local streets, some carrying the name Old Cariboo Highway (as in Prince George).

John Hart Highway
This 405 km stretch of Highway 97, named for former British Columbia Premier John Hart, begins at the John Hart Bridge crossing the Nechako River in Prince George, travelling for 152 km north through the small hamlet of Summit Lake, which is situated at the Continental Divide, as well as through Crooked River Provincial Park, Bear Lake and McLeod Lake, to its intersection with Highway 39. It then journeys northeast another 150 km over the crest of the Rocky Mountains via the Pine Pass, at which point the time zone changes from Pacific Time to Mountain Time. After descending from the Pine Pass, the highway generally follows the Pine River northeast to its intersection with Highway 29 at the town of Chetwynd. After a trek of another 97 km east, the Hart Highway terminates at Dawson Creek.

Alaska Highway
This northernmost section of Highway 97 is 965 km long, and travels north through largely unpopulated wilderness, intersecting the communities of Fort St. John and Fort Nelson, the latter being just east of the junction of Highway 77, travelling north to the Northwest Territories. Here, the highway veers generally northwestward into wilderness spotted with tiny localities. As it passes over the Rocky Mountains, the highway parallels the Liard River before terminating just over the BC/Yukon boundary at Watson Lake, where the Alaska Highway is numbered as Yukon Highway 1.

Major intersections
From south to north:

title: British Columbia Highway 97


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Wikipedia:Requests for review of admin actions

Administrative actions are reviewed in multiple places, depending on the type of action and reason for the review. These include:
 * Talk pages: In almost all cases the first place an administrative action should be discussed is on the talk page of the administrator who performed the action or the talk page of the article or other page concerned.
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 * Administrators' noticeboard (WP:AN): For posting information and issues of interest to administrators, including general conduct of an administrator. Generally not for individual actions or urgent matters.
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For more detail see the individual pages and Dispute resolution.


text: Wikipedia talk:Requests for review of admin actions


text: Talk:Blackboard (disambiguation)

title: Talk:Blackboard (disambiguation)


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Regions of Ghana

The regions of Ghana are the first level of subnational government administration within the Republic of Ghana. As of 2020, there are 16 regions, which are further divided for administrative purposes into 260 local metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (or MMDA's).

Current regions
The ten former regions were officially established in 1987, when the Upper West Region was inaugurated as the state's newest administrative region, although it had already functioned as an administrative unit since the break-up of the Upper Region in December 1982, prior to the 1984 national census. A referendum on the creation of six new regions was held on 27 December 2018, where all proposed new regions were approved.

Independence - 6 March 1957
At independence in March 1957, the Northern Territories, Trans-Volta Togoland and the Gold Coast came together to form Ghana. There were initially five regions. The Trans-Volta Togoland was combined with part of the Eastern Region and Northern Territories to form the Volta Region.

Post-independence and First Republic
On 4 April 1959, the Ashanti Region was split into the Ashanti and Brong-Ahafo regions as a result of the Brong Ahafo Region Act No. 18 of 1959. This was in line with what the Brong Kyempem movement had been campaigning for, which was the recognition of the Bono people as a separate ethnic group from the Ashantis with their own region.

On the day Ghana became a republic, 1 July 1960, the Northern Region got split into the Northern and Upper regions raising the number of regions to seven.

Second Republic
During the Second Republic, the Western Region was split into the Western and Central regions, making eight regions in total. This was done ahead of the 1970 census. In 1971, Sekondi and Takoradi were merged to form Sekondi-Takoradi, the new capital of the Western Region.

PNDC era
The Provisional National Defence Council, which was the military government in power between 1981 and 1993, promulgated the Greater Accra Law (PNDCL 26) of 23 July 1982 which created the Greater Accra Region. The new region consisted of the Accra Capital District and the Ada Local Council, which were split off from the Eastern Region. In the following year 1983, the Upper Region was divided into the Upper East Region and Upper West Region, bringing the total number of regions to ten.

title: Regions of Ghana


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Polynomial-time approximation scheme

In computer science (particularly algorithmics), a polynomial-time approximation scheme (PTAS) is a type of approximation algorithm for optimization problems (most often, NP-hard optimization problems).

A PTAS is an algorithm which takes an instance of an optimization problem and a parameter $ε > 0$ and produces a solution that is within a factor $1 + ε$ of being optimal (or $1 – ε$ for maximization problems). For example, for the Euclidean traveling salesman problem, a PTAS would produce a tour with length at most $(1 + ε)L$, with $L$ being the length of the shortest tour.

The running time of a PTAS is required to be polynomial in the problem size for every fixed ε, but can be different for different ε. Thus an algorithm running in time $O(n1/ε)$ or even $O(nexp(1/ε))$ counts as a PTAS.

Deterministic
A practical problem with PTAS algorithms is that the exponent of the polynomial could increase dramatically as ε shrinks, for example if the runtime is $O(n(1/ε)!)$. One way of addressing this is to define the efficient polynomial-time approximation scheme or EPTAS, in which the running time is required to be $O(nc)$ for a constant $c$ independent of $ε$. This ensures that an increase in problem size has the same relative effect on runtime regardless of what ε is being used; however, the constant under the big-O can still depend on ε arbitrarily. In other words, an EPTAS runs in FPT time where the parameter is ε.

Even more restrictive, and useful in practice, is the fully polynomial-time approximation scheme or FPTAS, which requires the algorithm to be polynomial in both the problem size $n$ and $1/ε$.

Unless P = NP, it holds that FPTAS ⊊ PTAS ⊊ APX. Consequently, under this assumption, APX-hard problems do not have PTASs.

Another deterministic variant of the PTAS is the quasi-polynomial-time approximation scheme or QPTAS. A QPTAS has time complexity $npolylog(n)$ for each fixed $ε > 0$. Furthermore, a PTAS can run in FPT time for some parameterization of the problem, which leads to a parameterized approximation scheme.

Randomized
Some problems which do not have a PTAS may admit a randomized algorithm with similar properties, a polynomial-time randomized approximation scheme or PRAS. A PRAS is an algorithm which takes an instance of an optimization or counting problem and a parameter $ε > 0$ and, in polynomial time, produces a solution that has a high probability of being within a factor $ε$ of optimal. Conventionally, "high probability" means probability greater than 3/4, though as with most probabilistic complexity classes the definition is robust to variations in this exact value (the bare minimum requirement is generally greater than 1/2). Like a PTAS, a PRAS must have running time polynomial in $n$, but not necessarily in $ε$; with further restrictions on the running time in $ε$, one can define an efficient polynomial-time randomized approximation scheme or EPRAS similar to the EPTAS, and a fully polynomial-time randomized approximation scheme or FPRAS similar to the FPTAS.

As a complexity class
The term PTAS may also be used to refer to the class of optimization problems that have a PTAS. PTAS is a subset of APX, and unless P = NP, it is a strict subset.

Membership in PTAS can be shown using a PTAS reduction, L-reduction, or P-reduction, all of which preserve PTAS membership, and these may also be used to demonstrate PTAS-completeness. On the other hand, showing non-membership in PTAS (namely, the nonexistence of a PTAS), may be done by showing that the problem is APX-hard, after which the existence of a PTAS would show P = NP. APX-hardness is commonly shown via PTAS reduction or AP-reduction.

title: Polynomial-time approximation scheme


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Cassivellaunus

Cassivellaunus was a historical British military leader who led the defence against Julius Caesar's second expedition to Britain in 54 BC. He led an alliance of tribes against Roman forces, but eventually surrendered after his location was revealed to Julius Caesar by defeated Britons.

Cassivellaunus made an impact on the British consciousness. He appears in British legend as Cassibelanus, one of Geoffrey of Monmouth's kings of the Britons, and in the Mabinogi, Brut y Brenhinedd and the Welsh Triads as Caswallawn, son of Beli Mawr.

Name
The Common Brittonic personal name Cassiuellaunos stems from the word uellaunos ('chief, commandant'). The meaning of the prefix cassi- has been debated, but it possibly signifies 'tin, bronze'. Cassivellaunus may thus been translated as 'Chief-of-Tin', that is to say 'the inflexible'. The personal name Ver-cassivellaunus ('True-Chief-of-Tin') is related.

History
Cassivellaunus appears in Julius Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico, having been given command of the combined British forces opposing Caesar's second invasion of Britain. Caesar does not mention Cassivellaunus's tribe, but his territory, north of the River Thames, corresponds with that inhabited by the tribe named the Catuvellauni at the time of the later invasion under Claudius.

Caesar tells us that Cassivellaunus had previously been in near-constant conflict with his neighbours, as was typical of the British tribes in this period, and had recently brought down the king of the Trinovantes, the most powerful tribe in Britain at the time. The king's son, Mandubracius, fled to Caesar in Gaul. Despite Cassivellaunus's harrying tactics, designed to prevent Caesar's army from foraging and plundering for food, Caesar advanced to the Thames. The only fordable point was defended and fortified with sharp stakes, but the Romans managed to cross it. Cassivellaunus dismissed most of his army and resorted to guerilla tactics, relying on his knowledge of the territory and the speed of his chariots.

Five British tribes, the Cenimagni, the Segontiaci, the Ancalites, the Bibroci and the Cassi, surrendered to Caesar and revealed the location of Cassivellaunus's stronghold. (Possibles sites include Hexton and the Devil's Dyke, Wheathampstead). Caesar proceeded to put the stronghold under siege. Cassivellaunus managed to get a message to the four kings of Kent, Cingetorix, Carvilius, Taximagulus and Segovax, to gather their forces and attack the Roman camp on the coast, but the Romans defended themselves successfully, capturing a chieftain called Lugotorix. On hearing of the defeat and the devastation of his territories, Cassivellaunus surrendered. The terms were mediated by Commius, Caesar's Gallic ally. Hostages were given and a tribute agreed. Mandubracius was restored to the kingship of the Trinovantes, and Cassivellaunus undertook not to wage war against him. All this achieved, Caesar returned to Gaul where a poor harvest had caused unrest. The Roman legions did not return to Britain for another 97 years.

The Greek author Polyaenus relates an anecdote in his Stratagemata that Caesar overcame Cassivellaunus's defence of a river crossing by means of an armoured elephant. This claim may derive from a confusion with the Roman conquest of 43 AD, when Claudius is supposed to have brought elephants to Britain.

Historia Regum Britanniae
Cassivellaunus appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's 12th century work Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain), usually spelled Cassibelanus or Cassibelaunus. The younger son of the former king Heli, he becomes king of Britain upon the death of his elder brother Lud, whose own sons Androgeus and Tenvantius are not yet of age. In recompense, Androgeus is made Duke of Kent and Trinovantum (London), and Tenvantius is made Duke of Cornwall.

After his conquest of Gaul, Julius Caesar sets his sights on Britain, and sends a letter to Cassibelanus demanding tribute. Cassibelanus refuses, citing the Britons' and Romans' common Trojan descent (see Brutus of Britain), and Caesar invades at the Thames Estuary. During the fighting, Cassibelanus's brother Nennius encounters Caesar and sustains a severe head wound. Caesar's sword gets stuck in Nennius's shield, and when the two are separated in the mêlée, Nennius throws away his own sword and attacks the Romans with Caesar's, killing many, including the tribune Labienus. The Britons hold firm, and that night Caesar flees back to Gaul. Cassibelanus's celebrations are muted by Nennius's death from his head wound. He is buried with the sword he took from Caesar, which is named Crocea Mors (Yellow Death).

Two years later, Caesar invades again with a larger force. Cassibelanus, forewarned, had planted stakes beneath the waterline of the Thames which gut Caesar's ships, drowning thousands of men. The Romans are once again quickly put to flight.

The leaders of the Britons gather in Trinovantum to thank the gods for their victory with many animal sacrifices and celebrate with sporting events. During a wrestling bout, Cassibelanus's nephew Hirelglas is killed by Androgeus's nephew Cuelinus. Cassibelanus demands that Androgeus turn his nephew over to him for trial, but Androgeus refuses, insisting he should be tried in his own court in Trinovantum. Cassibelanus threatens war, and Androgeus appeals to Caesar for help, agreeing to accept him as liege and sending his son as a hostage.

Caesar invades a third time, landing at Richborough. As Cassibelaunus's army meets Caesar's, Androgeus attacks Cassibelaunus from the rear with five thousand men. His line broken, Cassibelanus retreats to a nearby hilltop. After two days siege, Androgeus appeals to Caesar to offer terms. Cassibelanus agrees to pay tribute of three thousand pounds of silver, and he and Caesar become friends.

Six years later, Cassibelanus dies and is buried in York. Androgeus has gone to Rome with Caesar, so Tenvantius succeeds as king of Britain.

Welsh literature
Cassivellaunus appears as Caswallawn, son of Beli Mawr, in the Welsh Triads, the Mabinogion, and the Welsh versions of Geoffrey's Historia Regum Britanniae known as Brut y Brenhinedd. In the Second Branch of the Mabinogi, he appears as a usurper, who seizes the throne of Britain while the rightful king, Bran the Blessed, is at war in Ireland. Using a magic cloak which renders him invisible, he kills six of the seven stewards Bran has left in charge, while the seventh, Bran's son Caradog, dies of despair at the sight of a disembodied sword killing his men. He then appears in the Third Branch, in which Bran's followers offer their submission to him to avoid fighting. He is also mentioned in the tale Lludd and Llefelys, which features his two brothers Lludd Llaw Eraint (Geoffrey's Lud) and Llefelys.

Caswallawn is referenced frequently in the Welsh Triads. Triad 51 describes his conflict with "Afarwy" (Mandubracius/Androgeus) as described in Geoffrey of Monmouth, while Triad 95 references the story of Caradawg son of Bran's death as told in the Mabinogion. However, other triads (35, 36, 38, 59, 67, and 71) refer to a tradition about Caswallawn not drawn from either Roman nor existing medieval sources. Triad 38 names his horse as Meinlas ("Slender Gray") and calls him one of the Three Bestowed Horses of the Island of Britain; this is echoed in Triad 59, in which the decision to allow the Romans to land in Britain in exchange for Meinlas is called one of the Three Unfortunate Counsels of the Island of Britain. Triad 35 indicates that Caswallawn left Britain with 21,000 men in pursuit of Caesar and never returned.

Triads 67 and 71 portray Caswallawn as a great lover, who competed with Caesar over the beautiful Fflur. He is named as one of the Three Golden Shoemakers of the Island of Britain in relation to his trip to Rome seeking his love; context suggests he disguised himself as a shoemaker. A later collection of triads compiled by the 18th-century Welsh antiquarian Iolo Morganwg gives an expanded version of this tradition, including the details that Caswallawn had abducted Fflur from Caesar in Gaul, killing 6,000 Romans, and that Caesar invaded Britain in response. As with the rest of Morganwg's Triads, however, the provenance of these references is suspect. However, the 12th-century poet Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr knew of some version of the Fflur story, writing that Caesar's love for her was costly.

Welsh scholar Rachel Bromwich suggests the fragmentary allusions to Caswallawn in the Triads relate to a narrative of the character that has been lost. This may have been in the form of a romance detailing the king's adventures, but would have been largely uninfluenced by the classical accounts.

title: Cassivellaunus


text:
Talk:Coffee filter

I've removed the redirect to drip brew; is the usage of coffee filter for drip brew common enough to warrant a dab page? Ambarish | Talk 23:10, 19 May 2004 (UTC)

Filter coffee is very common all over the world, arguably until the rise of Starbucks bringing espresso chains it was the most commong form that people would have, especially at home or work. It is not just an Indian term or method of preparation. Paper filters, metal (gold or otherwise) filters, all are very very common everywhere. We need to ensure that this is reflected in the articles on coffee filter, filter coffee and coffee (drink). --VampWillow 08:25, 2004 May 20 (UTC)

 * All right, maybe we should wait until the discussion on Coffee dies down. Just a doubt, though. Don't Starbucks etc. use coffee percolators or coffee-makers though? Are paper-based coffee filters (essentially a piece of filter paper?) used still? Ambarish | Talk 08:35, 20 May 2004 (UTC)

 * agree with useing Coffee (drink) to discuss. Starbucks etc use espresso machines (big and look espensive so easier to charge silly prices!) and paper and metal filters in very common use in UK (probably equal with cafetiére, maybe higher) --VampWillow 09:23, 2004 May 20 (UTC)

Is the following in error? I wonder if the original author meant to say "Metal or "nylon" mesh filters do not remove these components." I have never heard of paper mesh filters. From the page: "Paper filters remove oily components called diterpenes; these organic compounds, present in unfiltered coffee, appear to increase the risk of coronary heart disease. Metal or paper mesh filters do not remove these components.[1]" KitINstLOUIS (talk) 17:19, 11 October 2013 (UTC)

this does not make sense: “This enables it to trap the dirt particles that are big and the small water particles can flow through, thus this gives us pure water.” Swoolverton (talk) 00:38, 2 January 2014 (UTC)

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This article is one of many of the subject of coffee that needs to be expanded
Looking around the different articles on Coffee brewing and coffee related apparatuses I have found that many seem to be missing at least some notable aspects of that specific subtopic on Coffee. This one on coffee filters is missing the following info which should be added IMO to make the article more complete: --Notcharliechaplin (talk) 20:34, 1 March 2022 (UTC)
 * There is not enough info in the article on permanent/non-paper coffee filters. Permanent filters can be made of metal (commonly stainless steel or aluminum) and in some case may be gold-plated. The other type of common permanent filter is cloth coffee filters. We should also include what are commonly viewed as the pro and cons of permanent filters vs paper filters such environmental concerns or taste concerns (permanent metal filters don't filter coffee quit as well as paper and thus effect mouthfeel of coffee which some don't like).
 * We need to better explain the the three most common different Coffee filter shapes, the cone/conical filter, basket filter, and disk filter (Used by some specialty coffee maker devices like the AeroPress and comes in non-standard sizes specific to the coffee making device it's designed to be used with).
 * Coffee filters come in different sizes. In North America, the their are two common filter sizes system used, one for basket and one for conical (cone) filters. Conical filters come in sizes #1, #2, #4, and #, with #2 and #4 being the most common. These numbers indicate the filter number of cups and coffee maker type (electric vs non-electric) it's designed for. For example, a #2 cone filter is designed for two to six-cup electric coffee makers and one to two-cup non-electric coffee makers.For basket filters, North American sizes are measured in Junior or regular sizes. While the article does briefly mention the common standardized coffee filter sizes used for conical paper coffee filters, it should included info what these size numbers mean. We also don't have info on standard basket filter sizes (Junior vs regular).
 * Paper filters come in bleach and unbleached varieties and while the article does mention this it does not explain why this is and what advantage and disadvantageous bleached vs unbleached paper filters have.
 * Here is an article on "Choosing the right coffee filters" that I used to help me determine what this article is missing on the topic of coffee filters: https://www.roastycoffee.com/coffee-filter/\

Objections?
I feel that a separate article would be a good idea, because there is more than just listed here, and it would be too long for a section. Does anyone object to disabling the redirect and making it its own article? Sage or something (talk) 23:35, 26 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Yes, I have objections (at present). There has not enough encyclopedic material accumulated for a separate article on the Hario V60 filter yet. --Matthiaspaul (talk) 18:56, 30 April 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Coffee filter


text:
Talk:V. C. Sreejan

Untitled
''This page was listed on Votes for deletion in May, 2004. The result of that discussion was to keep the article. For an archive of the discussion, see Talk:V. C. Sreejan/Delete.''

title: Talk:V. C. Sreejan


text:
Talk:Europe/Archive 1

Whether Europe is really a continent
The notion that Europe is not truly a continent rests on a somewhat silly semantic dispute. Let's put it this way: the word 'continent' is defined by its examples. If, according to a definition of 'continent', Europe is not a continent, then that definition simply doesn't capture the ordinary use of the term. --LMS

Earliest use of "Europa" to mean Europe
I'm still trying to track down the reference in Latin, but the first use of the word "Europa" to mean what WE mean by continental Europe as opposed to the peninsula opposite northern Asia Minor (Thrace, more or less) was in a vita of one of Charlemagne's great-great aunts, Gertrude of Nivelles: "from one of the best known families of Europe." --MichaelTinkler

Whether Armenia and Georgia are in Europe
Should Armenia and Georgia really be included in this list? I know that they sometimes are considered European, but AFAIK technically the geographic boundary of Europe ends at the Caucasus, not behind it. If it doesn't, then why isn't Azerbaijan, another ex-Soviet republic, also included? Is it just because they're mostly Christian nations? -Scipius

 * The borders of Europe are rather vague. Traditionally, Russia is counted as a part of it, even though the country stretches to Alaska. A small part of Turkey (up to the Bosporus) is sometimes counted, at other times the entire country.

 * Looking at sports federations, usually the following former USSR-states are included with Europe: Russia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. The rest is counted with Asia. This does not have to be a defite division, since Israel is also often part of the Europe for these federations (of course for political reasons). Jeronimo

 * I realise they're often lumped in with Europe because of convenience and proximity, but I find that a rather tenuous ground for including them in the primary geographical context. Given the notes on how Turkey and Russia aren't wholly part of this Europe, I vote to remove Armenia and Georgia from the list to a separate note mentioning that they (and Azerbaijan) are often associated with Europe, but not technically part of it in this context. -Scipius

 * Why should they not be? They both speak European languages and are culturally and historically as European as Greece is. It is considered relatively likely that Armenia is the original homeland of the Indo-European tribe(s), which almost all of Europe, Armenia included, has linguistic and cultural heritage from.
 * Azerbaijan on the other hand is ethnically Turkic (who aren't really any more European than the Arabs). They speak a Turkic language and are culturally tied with the Central Asian Turkic cultures.
 * The argument that people in the Caucasus can't be European because they often have black hair or possibly live on the wrong side of cracks under the ground is running a bit thin imho... -203.109.252.20

 * I thought the Urals were at least part of the border; the part of Russia between the Atlantic and the Urals is generally called "European Russia".

 * Europe is a geographical term--if Armenia is European for linguistic reasons, so is half the planet, including northern India, almost all of the Americas, and large parts of sub-Saharan Africa. I'm not prepared to accept a definition of Europe that would exclude Hungary and parts of Iberia, while including Iowa.

 * The argument that people in the Caucasus aren't in Europe isn't that they have black hair--it's that Europe is a geographic term, not one defined by ancestry. If Armenia and Georgia are in Europe, so is Azerbaijan. Vicki Rosenzweig
 * That's hardly the argument I presented, my problem with them is purely geographical. As Vicki made clear, speaking an Indo-European language (though Georgian is in fact not one) is not a prerequisite for being "European" and neither is "having black hair" reason for exclusion. There's no need to bring these notions into it. -Scipius
 * That's hardly the argument I presented, my problem with them is purely geographical. As Vicki made clear, speaking an Indo-European language (though Georgian is in fact not one) is not a prerequisite for being "European" and neither is "having black hair" reason for exclusion. There's no need to bring these notions into it. -Scipius

 * I'd suggest checking out geological sources, since Europe was a separate landmass that collided with Asia. But then, Italy and Greece would be part of Africa.

 * What do we really mean if we say that Europe ends at the Caucasus. The northern foothills? A line connecting the highest points? If the latter is true then the northeastern part of Azerbaijan is definitely located within Europe and possibly some small portions of northern Georgia are too. I also think a mention should be made of Kazakhstan. As stated in the article the Ural river is part of the European border. Part of Kazakhstan lies to the west of this river and is therefore located in Europe. --

G_from_B

 * AFAIK formerly, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan was considered as part of the European USSR. Why should this to be changed after the independences?.

The Baltic states
How about "Baltic" states? Would that be Estonia, Latvia, et al.?

 * The Baltic States are most definitely in Europe. --Brion VIBBER

Notes for rewriting
My notes for rewriting this article:

 * Mention all the countries that could in some way be called European. Use footnotes for the countries that for some reason are not always included. BTW, looking at the mentioned Council of Europe (of which Belarus and the Vatican are not a member), all Caucasian countries are.
 * Delete needless detail for this page, or at least add the same level of details everywhere.
 * Drop all the footnotes that have nothing to do with which country is included in the list (such as the current comments on overseas areas of the UK and France). These are only confusing and really having nothing to with the issue. If they are to be kept, also add Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal.
 * Drop all the extra info on the countries' names (like "sometimes called.." or "(REpublic of)"). If they are to be deleted, be complete for all nations.
 * The different subgroups of nations should be listed in a see also list or so; there's too many of them, and they all have discussion over which nation to include or not.

Reactions are welcome, of course. Jeronimo 07:25 Jul 30, 2002 (PDT)
 * Sounds like you're the man for the job. Go for it. Ed Poor 07:33 Jul 30, 2002 (PDT)

 * I'm sorry, but I disagree. I feel this article should primarily be about the geographical context of Europe, with an extensive explanation of how the concept of "Europe" is a somewhat vague and ever-changing issue. All of the other definitions (political, cultural, etc) however do derive from the core geographic one and according to that one the Transcaucasus is outside Europe and hence should not be included in the main list nor should it really be suggested they geographically belong to Europe. I don't see why the membershiplist of the Council of Europe should suddenly overturn the common geographic definition.

 * The core geographical point is not well-established. Moreover, political and culture also play a role.

 * The core definition certainly is, as outlined in the article. It's the exact details that may be unclear, but the overall boundaries are well defined, even if (in the case of both Urals) they were mostly chosen because they were convenient. I've checked what several other encyclopedias say on the matter and all have the Caucasus as a boundary (Britannica even has the Kuma-Manych depression, which is north of the Caucasus). The Transcaucasus is outside. -Scipius

 * I agee with your last two points, but not entirely with your third about the notes. Since this information is added about Turkey and Russia, other nations' overseas areas should have a mention when a clarification might be needed. The people of Martinique or Guadeloupe do feel French, even if they aren't European. The note on the UK was not even about territory outside Europe and IMO relevant. I suggest perhaps putting the numbered notes back in, but maybe it would be better to just explain it all in a text below, as it is now. It would probably be easiest to just leave out the country list alltogether, but I'm not sure if that is desirable. -Scipius

 * I'd say Martinique is as much France as Greenland is Danish or Aruba is Dutch; feel free to add all the exceptions however. I think however, that all this is way too much detail; there's a note on overseas areas present btw. Same goes for the details on the confusing construction of the UK. Jeronimo 13:47 Jul 30, 2002 (PDT)

 * Martinique and Guadeloupe are French overseas departments. That means they are a lot closer to France than Greenland (not an EU territory) is to Denmark (EU member) or Aruba, which declined complete independence but otherwise has a far reaching autonomy. -Scipius

Breaking the article into themed sub-articles
Why not treat Europe like the various country articles? Have breakout articles with titles like Geography of Europe, People of Europe, Economy of Europe, and if anyone thinks they're capable of it, History of Europe. Ed Poor
 * Hey, that's a good idea Ed! Jeronimo

 * That will certainly help with reducing the amount of information the main article would need, but would not get rid of the present issue: what countries should go in the list? -Scipius

The map
Why do we have a German-language map accompanying this English-language article? -- Zoe
 * We don't now ;) -Scipius

Deleted statements

 * Turkey is neither linguistically nor ethnically European.

I deleted the above statement. It was not justified in any way. See the original discussion above.

--zeno 09:24 Jan 28, 2003 (UTC)

Whether Oceania is really a continent
When did Oceania become a continent? RickK 19:40, 2 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Aah, the old "five parts" of the globe: I think it's in part a European tradition that there must be a terra australis incognita to match the other bits, comnbined with a need to somehow aggregate the non-Eurasian/African/African bits that might not otherwise necessarily be big enough individually to update the ancients' (to them perfectly logical) arrangement. It's all nonsense of course beyond its dubious macroregional listing function and our common wish to lump together things we're not too sure about. Graculus 19:55, 2 Aug 2003 (UTC)

There is no... node eight!
Note 8 is referenced beside Czechia. There is no note 8. Anyone know what it should say or should the number be removed? -- SGBailey 2003-08-06

 * This was about the name Czech Republic or Czechia. - Patrick 11:16, 6 Aug 2003 (UTC)

title: Talk:Europe/Archive 1


text:
KRA

Kra or KRA can refer to:

 * Kenya Revenue Authority
 * Key result area, a management term
 * Kra (band)
 * Kra (letter)
 * Kra Isthmus
 * Kra Peninsula
 * Kra River, Malay Peninsula
 * Kra languages
 * Kra (mythology)
 * Krita native file extension
 * Kerang Airport, IATA airport code "KRA"

title: KRA


text:
René Fonck

Colonel René Paul Fonck (27 March 1894 – 18 June 1953) was a French aviator who ended the First World War as the top Entente fighter ace and, when all succeeding aerial conflicts of the 20th and 21st centuries are also considered, Fonck still holds the title of "all-time Allied Ace of Aces". He received confirmation for 75 victories (72 solo and three shared) out of 142 claims. Taking into account his probable claims, Fonck's final tally could conceivably be nearer 100 or above. He was made an Officer of the Legion of Honor in 1918 and later a Commander of the Legion of Honor after the war, and raised again to the dignity of Grand Officer.

Early life
Fonck was born on 27 March 1894 in the village of Saulcy-sur-Meurthe in the Vosges region of north eastern France. Fonck left school when he was 13. Although he had been interested in aviation from his youth, he was rejected for the air service when conscripted on 22 August 1914. Instead, he underwent five months basic training for the role of combat engineer; his training duties included first digging trenches near Épinal, and later bridge repairs on the Moselle River.

1915–1916
On 15 February 1915 he was finally accepted into basic training to learn how to fly. He trained at St. Cyr and then at Le Crotoy on a Blériot Penguin, a reduced-wingspan "flightless" version of the famous Blériot XI aircraft that gave the sensation of flying while still on the ground. He completed his pilot training in May 1915 and then flew Caudron G III observation aircraft with Escadrille C 47.

On 25 May 1916 Fonck's observer was killed by an anti-aircraft shell burst, a fate that almost befell Fonck a few weeks later. Fonck claimed his first enemy aircraft in July 1916, but his victory was unconfirmed.

On 6 August, he attacked a German Rumpler C.III, and by maneuvering over and around the reconnaissance plane, staying out of its fields of fire, forced it lower and lower until the German crew landed behind French lines. It was his first verified victory, though shared with his observer, Lieutenant Thiberge. It brought him the Médaille militaire in late August 1916.

1917
On 17 March 1917, Fonck scored a second time, downing an Albatros in conjunction with his observer, Sergeant Huffer. By this time, Fonck had amassed over 500 hours flight time, an incredible amount in those early days of aviation.

Aged 23, on 15 April 1917 ("Bloody April"), Fonck received a coveted invitation to join the famous Escadrille les Cigognes. Groupe de Combat 12, with its four escadrilles (or squadrons), was the world's first fighter wing. The then leading French ace, Georges Guynemer, was serving at the time in one of its escadrilles, N3, and had just scored his 36th victory.

Fonck was assigned to another escadrille in the group, Spa 103. Flying the SPAD VII, he quickly made a name for himself, attaining flying ace status by 13 May. He picked off another target on 12 June, then went on hiatus until 9 August. He scored twice more that month, on 21 and 22 August.

On 14 September, he killed the pilot of a German observation plane and watched as the plane inverted and dropped the thrashing observer almost through the wing of Fonck's Spad. He even went to the extreme of tearing the barograph out of the cockpit of that day's victim, his twelfth, so its readout would confirm his combat report. On 30 September, he and Adjutant Dupre jointly shot down a German two-seater Rumpler C.IV 6787/16 of FA 18. The news reported the killed pilot to be Leutnant Kurt Wissemann, who had allegedly shot down Guynemer, and that Fonck had boasted of avenging the death of his "good friend". This story is put into question by German records, indicating that Wissemann of Jasta 3 had been killed two days before in a different fight, in which he was flying a single-seater, probably against No. 56 Squadron.

September and October added four victories apiece to Fonck's score. Thus, by year's end, he had raised his tally to nineteen, was commissioned an officer, and had received the Légion d'honneur.

Fonck got only better. Known for his clinical professionalism, he applied mathematical principles to combat flying, and his engineering knowledge regarding the capabilities of the aircraft he flew was unsurpassed by his fellow pilots. Fonck took few chances, patiently stalking his intended victims from higher altitudes. He then used deflection shooting with deadly accuracy at close range, resulting in an astonishing economy of ammunition expended per kill. More often than not, a single burst of less than five rounds from his Vickers machine gun was sufficient. His preferred method of aerial combat was not to engage into dogfights, but to carry out surgically merciless executions. He was also reputed to be able to spot enemy observation aircraft from very far away, where most other pilots would have perceived nothing.

Fonck, like France's leading ace, Captain Guynemer, flew a limited-production SPAD XII fighter, distinguished by the presence of a hand-loaded 37mm Puteaux cannon firing through the propeller boss. He is apparently credited with downing 11 German airplanes with this type of armament, called a moteur-canon. This was made possible by the gear-reduction version of the Hispano-Suiza V8 SOHC engine first used in that model of SPAD fighter. It offset the now-hollow propeller shaft above the crankshaft axis, and the 37mm cannon was mounted in the V space between the two rows of cylinders. Fonck would later fly the highly successful SPAD XIII, the first SPAD fighter model to use twin Vickers machine guns.

1918
He did not add to his tally sheet until 19 January 1918, when he scored a double victory. February added another five, March seven more, and another three in April.

Then came a spectacular performance on 9 May. It was sparked by a disagreement between Fonck and two of his squadronmates, Edwin C. Parsons and Frank Baylies. Perturbed by Fonck's lectures on aerial success, the two Americans bet Fonck a bottle of champagne that one of them would shoot down an enemy plane before Fonck. Baylies took off despite hazy weather and shot down a Halberstadt CL.II. Back at the airfield, rather than pay off the bet, a sulky Fonck badgered the Americans to change the terms of the bet so that whoever shot down the most Germans that day would win. Lingering fog kept Fonck grounded most of the day. It was well into the afternoon before it cleared enough for him to take off at 1500 hours. Between 1600 and 1605 hours, he shot down three enemy two-seater reconnaissance planes. A couple of hours later, he repeated the feat. Understanding the importance of reconnaissance planes, with their potential to direct intensive artillery fire onto French troops, Fonck concentrated his attention upon them; six shot down within a three-hour span proved it.

He added a double victory on 19 May and five more in June. By now, he was shooting doubles frequently, and with 49 on his score sheet, he was rapidly closing in on Guynemer's record.

On 18 July 1918, he achieved another double, to bring his total to 53 and into a tie with Guynemer. The following day, he shot down three more enemy aircraft and surpassed the score of the legendary Guynemer, who had remained the leading French ace despite his death on 11 September 1917.

He added four more victories in August, raising his total to 60. Then, on 26 September, he repeated his feat of knocking down six enemy airplanes in a day, although this time three of his six victories were over Fokker D.VII fighters.

Another success two days later and two on 5 October put his score at 69, very close to the 72 of Major William Avery Bishop, then the leading Allied ace. On 30 October, he matched Bishop with three more victories. He shot down two more the following day, and another the day after that, finishing with 75 confirmed victories.

To summarize, he claimed 56 victories during the whole of 1918, attaining a total of 36 kills before May 1918. His 1918 list by itself would have made him France's leading ace. By the end of the war, he had accounted for all but 36 of Escadrille SPA.103's 111 claimed victories. Unlike many leading French aces, Fonck's score contained only three shared victories. Also unlike most aces, he remained unwounded; indeed, only a single enemy bullet had ever hit his aircraft. He had also forgone the most hazardous air-to-air combat: he shot down no observation balloons.

Yet for all his skill and success, Fonck never captured the hearts of the French public as Guynemer had. Fonck was ascetic and withdrawn. Instead of drinking or socializing with the other pilots, he planned his flying missions and tactics, ironed his uniforms, and stayed physically fit through calisthenics. He seemed to overcompensate for his shyness by constantly mentioning his exploits. As a result, he seemed distant, arrogant, even abrasive. His comrades respected his skills, but even one of his few friends, Marcel Haegelen, considered him a braggart and shameless self-promoter. Fonck may have resented the fact that Guynemer remained more popular in the French press even after he surpassed him in victories. Fonck also seemed to lack insight into the effect his personality had upon his image or career. However he and he alone carried the flag of the French Air Force at the victory parade on the Champs-Elysées.

After the war
Fonck returned to civilian life after World War I, and published his war memoirs Mes Combats, prefaced by Marechal Foch, in 1920. The fame he got from the war allowed him to be elected Member of Parliament representing the Vosges from 1919 to 1924.

During the 1920s, Fonck persuaded Igor Sikorsky to redesign the Sikorsky S-35 for the transatlantic race or Orteig Prize. On 21 September 1926, the aircraft crashed on takeoff when the landing gear collapsed, killing two of his three crew members. Charles Lindbergh won the prize seven months later in 1927.

Fonck eventually returned to military aviation and rose to Inspector of French fighter forces from 1937 to 1939.

His inter-war contact with the likes of former World War I foe Hermann Göring and Ernst Udet cast a shadow upon Fonck's reputation during the German occupation of France, as did allegations of collaboration with the Nazis and the Vichy regime. In January 1941, Fonck was made a member of the National Council of Vichy France. On 10 August 1940, Vichy Foreign Minister Pierre Laval announced that Fonck had recruited 200 French pilots to fight on the Nazi side. However, the truth was more complicated. Marshal Philippe Pétain wished to exploit Fonck's relationship with Göring in order to meet Adolf Hitler. He ordered Colonel Fonck to talk to Göring. A meeting was planned at Montoire, but after discovering evidence about the pro-Nazi politics of Pierre Laval, Fonck tried to convince Pétain not to attend. Initially Pétain appeared to heed Fonck's advice, but for some reason he eventually decided to disregard Fonck's warnings and met Hitler at Montoire on 24 October 1940. Fonck's loyalties were thus questioned by the Vichy regime, and he returned home to Paris, where he was eventually arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned in the Drancy internment camp.

After the war, a French police inquiry about his supposed collaboration with the Vichy regime completely cleared Fonck. The conclusion was that his loyalty was proved by his close contacts with recognised resistance leaders such as Alfred Heurtaux during the war. He was awarded the Certificate of Resistance in 1948. The citation reads: "Mr. Fonck, René, a member of the fighting French forces without uniform, took part, in territory occupied by the enemy, to glorious fights for the liberation of the nation".

Fonck remained in Paris, but also frequently visited his native Lorraine, where he had business interests.

He died of a stroke in his Paris apartment, Rue du Cirque, at the age of 59 and is buried in the cemetery of his native village of Saulcy-sur-Meurthe.

Quotes

 * "I put my bullets into the target as if I placed them there by hand."
 * "I prefer to fly alone... when alone, I perform those little coups of audacity which amuse me..."

title: René Fonck


text:
Rowayton, Connecticut

Rowayton is an affluent coastal village in the city of Norwalk, Connecticut, roughly 40 mi from New York City. The community is governed by the Sixth Taxing District of Norwalk and has a number of active local associations, including the Civic Association, the Historical Society, the Rowayton Library, a Gardeners Club, and a Parents Exchange. Rowayton annually plays host to a Shakespearean production at Pinkney Park, produced by Shakespeare on the Sound, and also has an active community of artists, many of whom are associated with the Rowayton Arts Center.

The Rowayton station on the New Haven line of the Metro-North Railroad is located within the community, as is an elementary school, a public beach for residents and the Rowayton Public Library.

Coastline
The Rowayton coastline has been a source of inspiration for centuries. John Frederick Kensett, a famous 19th century landscape painter of the Hudson School, frequently painted this seascape in his later life. This tradition has been carried on in an active local arts scene.

Rowayton is home to a number of private and semi-private beaches, three of which—The Roton Point Association, Bayley Beach, and a coastal outpost of Wee Burn Country Club—share a common history. In the early 20th century, the properties of all three made up the Roton Point Amusement Park. A boat landing attached to Sunset Rock, just to the West of Belle Island, allowed steam boats to bring day-trippers from New York City to the park. A trolley ran from both Darien and Norwalk, arriving at the Park via Highland Avenue and over present-day Langdon Preserve, located across from Farm Creek. At the amusement park, amenities included a bath house, a picnic grove, and rides ranging from the classic carousel to roller coasters with views of the beach.

"Rock Ledge" estate

The former Rock Ledge estate at 33 and 40-42 Highland Avenue was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. In 1910, James A. Farrell, later president of the United States Steel Corporation, built a Tudor revival mansion, which burned down in 1913 and was rebuilt in granite. The estate was later bought by the Remington Rand Corporation, developers of the UNIVAC computer, of which General Douglas MacArthur was Chairman of the Board in the 1950s, and which merged with Sperry Corporation to form Sperry Rand. Since 1966, the Farrell family stables have been converted to the Rowayton Community Center and the Rowayton Library. In 1964, the main part of the estate was purchased by the Thomas School for girls, a day and boarding school founded by Mabel Thomas in 1922. The school eventually merged with another private school in Stamford, Connecticut, later becoming coeducational King Low Heywood Thomas. The mansion and attached office building were subsequently owned by Hewitt Associates. Currently, the main house of the estate is the headquarters of Graham Capital Management, L.P.

Notable people

 * George Abbott, Broadway and Hollywood producer/director/writer.
 * Jerome Beatty Jr., author for the Saturday Review, Colliers, and Esquire
 * David Bergamini, author of Japan's Imperial Conspiracy and Time-Life Books
 * Richard Bissell, novelist, some of whose works were adapted to be Broadway musicals
 * Kay Boyle, novelist and short story author, taught at Thomas School on Bluff Avenue
 * Philip Caputo, author whose best-known work is A Rumor of War (1977)
 * Brian Cashman, general manager of the New York Yankees
 * Ward Chamberlin, PBS executive
 * Leslie Charleson, TV actress
 * Kathryn Hays, TV actress
 * Helen Oakley Dance, writer and record producer
 * Stanley Dance, writer and record producer, biographer of Duke Ellington
 * Brian de Regt, US National Team rower and coach
 * Jimmy Ernst, artist and teacher
 * Ian Falconer, children's book author, illustrator, and set/costume designer
 * Jim Flora, commercial illustrator
 * Meg Foster, actress
 * Joseph Franckenstein, diplomat and teacher
 * Robert Griffith, producer of Broadway shows.
 * Crockett Johnson, cartoonist and creator of children's books (Harold and the Purple Crayon)
 * John Frederick Kensett, nineteenth-century artist
 * Ruth Krauss, author of children's books
 * Emily Levine, humorist
 * Albert Markov, violinist and composer
 * Horace McMahon, actor and little league umpire
 * Betsy Palmer, actress
 * Gabor Peterdi, artist
 * Andy Rooney, author, humorist, television commentator
 * Emily Rooney, TV producer, journalist, and host
 * Billy Rose, Ziegfeld impresario and theatrical showman, married to Fanny Brice
 * Stefan Schnabel, Broadway (Plain and Fancy, Three Penny Opera, etc.), movie actor (Counterfit Traitor, Firefox, etc.)and Doctor Jackson on Guiding Light
 * Fred Schwed, humorist
 * Treat Williams, movie actor, Prince of the City, Hair, etc.

title: Rowayton, Connecticut