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Elephant (disambiguation)

The elephant is a large, grey mammal native to Africa and southern Asia.

Elephant may also refer to:

Film and television

 * Elephant (1989 film), directed by Alan Clarke
 * Elephant (1993 film), a public information film about seat belt use in the UK
 * Elephant (2003 film), directed by Gus Van Sant
 * Elephant (2020 film), a Disney nature documentary
 * "Elephants", a Series E episode of the television series QI (2007)

Music

 * Elephant (album), a 2003 album by the White Stripes
 * L'Éléphant, a movement of The Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saëns
 * "Elephant" (Alexandra Burke song), a 2012 song by Alexandra Burke
 * "Elephant" (Margaret song), a 2016 song by Margaret
 * "Elephants" (song), a 2008 song by Warpaint
 * "L'Elephant", a song from the album Tom Tom Club by Tom Tom Club
 * "Elephant", a song from the album 9 by Damien Rice
 * "Elephant" (Tame Impala song), a 2012 song by Tame Impala and covered by the Wiggles in 2021
 * "Elephants", a song from the album Them Crooked Vultures by Them Crooked Vultures
 * "Elephant", a song from the 2012 album Hannah Georgas by Hannah Georgas
 * "Elephant", from Excellent Italian Greyhound by Shellac
 * "The Elephant Song" (song), a 1975 song by Kamahl

Other

 * The Elephants (Los Elefantes), a 1948 painting by Salvador Dalí
 * Elephant and Other Stories, a 1988 story collection by Raymond Carver

Antarctica

 * Elephant Flats, Signy Island
 * Elephant Island, South Shetland Islands
 * Elephant Moraine, Victoria Land
 * Elephant Point, Livingston Island
 * Elephant Ridge, Alexander Island
 * Elephant Rocks (Antarctica), Palmer Archipelago

Subantarctic

 * Elephant Cays, Falkland Islands
 * Elephant Cove, South Georgia
 * Elephant Lagoon, South Georgia
 * Elephant Spit, Heard Island

United States

 * Elephant, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community
 * Elephant Arch, a sandstone formation in Utah
 * Elephant Butte (Arches National Park)
 * Elephant Mountain (Oxford County, Maine)
 * Elephant Mountain (Piscataquis County, Maine)
 * Elephant Peak, a mountain in Montana
 * Elephant Point (Alaska)

Elsewhere

 * Mount Elephant, Victoria, Australia
 * Dâmrei Mountains (Elephant Mountains), Cambodia
 * Elephant and Castle, an area of London, England, informally called "the Elephant"
 * The Elephant, a mountain in Milford Sound, New Zealand
 * Elephant Rock (disambiguation)

Buildings

 * Elephant Building, a high-rise in Bangkok, Thailand
 * Elephant Packing House, Fullerton, California
 * Edward Gorey House, also known as Elephant House, Cape Cod, Massachusetts
 * Elephant Hotel, Somers, New York

Military uses

 * Olifant (tank), main battle tank of the South African Army
 * Elefant, German WWII tank destroyer
 * HMS Elephant, the name of various British Royal Navy ships
 * Martinsyde G.100 "Elephant", a British First World War bomber aircraft
 * 103 Squadron (Israel) or the Elephants Squadron
 * Operation Elephant, part of the World War II Battle for the Kapelsche Veer in the Netherlands

Business

 * Elephant.co.uk, a UK motor insurance company
 * Elephant Memory Systems, a computer floppy disk manufacturer
 * Elephant Field, an oilfield in Libya's Murzuq Basin
 * Elephant Gate and Tower, Carlsberg
 * Elephant beer, a beer brewed by Carlsberg Brewery of Denmark

Sports and games

 * Ivory Coast national football team, nicknamed the Elephants
 * Elephant Rally, a motorcycle rally in Germany
 * Elephant Gambit, a rarely used chess opening

Other uses

 * Al-Fil ("The Elephant"), the 105th sura of the Qur'an
 * Elephant (pharaoh), an ancient Egyptian protodynastic ruler
 * Elephant seal, two species of large seals in the genus Mirounga
 * Elephant (de Camp book), a science book by L. Sprague de Camp
 * Elephant, a digital fat face typeface
 * Elephant folio, a book size
 * Order of the Elephant, the highest order of Denmark
 * The Elephant, a nickname for the 426 cu in Chrysler V8 engine
 * White elephant, an idiom for impractical possessions that are expensive and hard to dispose of
 * Elephant in the room, an idiom for a large and obvious but unmentioned problem

title: Elephant (disambiguation)


text:
John D. Barrow

John David Barrow (29 November 1952 – 26 September 2020) was an English cosmologist, theoretical physicist, and mathematician. He served as Gresham Professor of Geometry at Gresham College from 2008 to 2011. Barrow was also a writer of popular science and an amateur playwright.

Education
Barrow attended Barham Primary School in Wembley until 1964 and Ealing Grammar School for Boys from 1964 to 1971 and obtained his first degree in mathematics and physics from Van Mildert College at the University of Durham in 1974. In 1977, he completed his doctorate in astrophysics at Magdalen College, Oxford, supervised by Dennis William Sciama.

Career and research
Barrow was a Junior Research Lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford, from 1977 to 1981. He completed two postdoctoral years as a Miller Research Fellow in astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, as a Commonwealth Lindemann Fellow (1977–8) and Miller Fellow (1980–1).

In 1981 he joined the University of Sussex and rose to become Professor and Director of the Astronomy Centre. In 1999, he became Professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics and a fellow in Clare Hall at Cambridge University. From 2003 to 2007 he was Gresham Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College, London, and he was appointed as Gresham Professor of Geometry from 2008 to 2011; only one person has previously held two different Gresham chairs.

From 1999, he directed the Millennium Mathematics Project (MMP) at the University of Cambridge. This is an outreach and education programme to improve the appreciation, teaching and learning of mathematics and its applications. In 2006 it was awarded the Queen's Anniversary Prize for Educational Achievement by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.

In addition to having published more than 500 journal articles, Barrow co-wrote (with Frank J. Tipler) The Anthropic Cosmological Principle, a work on the history of the ideas, specifically intelligent design and teleology, as well as a treatise on astrophysics. He also published 22 books for general readers, beginning with his 1983 The Left Hand of Creation. His books summarise the state of the affairs of physical questions, often in the form of compendia of a large number of facts assembled from the works of great physicists, such as Paul Dirac and Arthur Eddington.

Barrow's approach to philosophical issues posed by physical cosmology made his books accessible to general readers. For example, Barrow introduced a memorable paradox, which he called "the Groucho Marx Effect" (see Russell-like paradoxes). Here, he quotes Groucho Marx: "I wouldn't want to belong to any club that would accept me as a member". Applying this to problems in cosmology, Barrow stated: "A universe simple enough to be understood is too simple to produce a mind capable of understanding it".

Barrow lectured at 10 Downing Street, Windsor Castle, and the Vatican, as well as to the general public. In 2002, his play Infinities premiered in Milan, played in Valencia, and won the Premi Ubu 2002 Italian Theatre Prize.

Honours
Barrow was awarded the 2006 Templeton Prize for "Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities" for his "writings about the relationship between life and the universe, and the nature of human understanding [which] have created new perspectives on questions of ultimate concern to science and religion". He was a member of a United Reformed Church, which he described as teaching "a traditional deistic picture of the universe".

In 2008, the Royal Society awarded him the Faraday Prize. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (London) in 2003 and elected Fellow of the Academia Europaea in 2009. He has received Honorary Doctorates from the Universities of Hertfordshire, Sussex, Durham, South Wales, and Szczecin, and was an Honorary Professor at the University of Nanjing. He was an Honorary Fellow of Van Mildert College (Durham University) and of Gresham College (London). He was a Centenary Gifford Lecturer at the University of Glasgow in 1989.

He was awarded the Dirac Prize and Gold Medal of the Institute of Physics in 2015 and the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 2016.

Barrow scale
The Barrow scale proposed by him is a measurement of the technological level and mastery of civilizations based upon the smallest structures that they can manipulate. It is a complement to the Kardashev scale, which is based upon the largest structures that can be manipulated.

Death
Barrow died on 26 September 2020 from colon cancer, at the age of 67.

Publications
In English:
 * The Left Hand of Creation: The Origin and Evolution of the Expanding Universe, Barrow J., and Joseph Silk, Oxford UP, 1983
 * Between Inner Space and Outer Space: Essays on the Science, Art, and Philosophy of the Origin of the Universe
 * Impossibility: Limits of Science and the Science of Limits. ISBN 0-09-977211-6
 * Material Content of the Universe
 * Pi in the Sky: Counting, Thinking, and Being. Oxford University Press, 1992, ISBN 9780198539568
 * Science and Ultimate Reality: Quantum Theory, Cosmology and Complexity
 * The Artful Universe: The Cosmic Source of Human Creativity. OUP, 1995, ISBN 978-0198539964. Expanded 2005, ISBN 019280569X
 * The Book of Nothing: Vacuums, Voids, and the Latest Ideas about the Origins of the Universe, Pantheon, 2001, ISBN 0375420991
 * The Infinite Book: A Short Guide to the Boundless, Timeless and Endless, Pantheon Books, New York, 2005, ISBN 0375422277
 * The Origin of the Universe: To the Edge of Space and Time
 * The Universe That Discovered Itself
 * The Artful Universe Expanded 2005.
 * The World Within the World
 * Theories of Everything: The Quest for Ultimate Explanation
 * The Constants of Nature: The Numbers that Encode the Deepest Secrets of the Universe. 2003, ISBN 0375422218
 * New Theories of Everything, 2007. Pantheon, ISBN 978-0192807212
 * Cosmic Imagery: Key Images in the History of Science. The Bodley Head, 2008, ISBN 978-0224075237
 * 100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know: Math Explains Your World. W. W. Norton, 2008, ISBN 0393070077
 * The Book of Universes: Exploring the Limits of the Cosmos. W. W. Norton, 2011, ISBN 0393081214
 * Mathletics: A Scientist Explains 100 Amazing Things About The World of Sports. W. W. Norton, 2012, ISBN 978-0393063417
 * 100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know About Maths and the Arts. Bodley Head, 2014, ISBN 978-1847922311
 * 100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know About Maths and the Arts. Bodley Head, 2014, ISBN 978-1847922311

In other languages:
 * All Barrow's books for general readers have been re-published in Italy.

As editor:
 * Water and Life: The Unique Properties of H2O. (ed., with Ruth M. Lynden-Bell, Simon Conway Morris, John L. Finney, Charles Harper, Jr.) CRC Press, 2010. ISBN 1-4398-0356-0
 * Fitness of the Cosmos for Life: Biochemistry and Fine-Tuning. (eds., with S. Conway Morris, S.J. Freeland, and C.L. Harper), Cambridge UP, 2007. ISBN 978-1-10740655-1
 * Science and Ultimate Reality: Quantum Theory, Cosmology and Complexity, 90th Birthday Volume for John Archibald Wheeler, (ed., with P.C.W. Davies, & C. Harper), Cambridge UP, 2004. ISBN 0-521-83113-X
 * The Physical Universe: The Interface Between Cosmology, Astrophysics and Particle Physics, (ed., with A Henriques, M Lago, Malcolm Longair), Springer-Verlag, 1991. ISBN 978-3540542933

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

title: John D. Barrow


text:
CityJet

CityJet is an Irish regional airline with headquarters at Dublin Airport. It was founded in 1992 and has gone through a series of corporate structures. The airline was sold to Air France in 2000 and then by Air France to Intro Aviation in May 2014; in March 2016 the airline was bought by founder Pat Byrne and other investors. CityJet ended its own-brand scheduled services in 2018 and is now a major provider of wet leasing to European airlines. As of Summer 2023, CityJet operates wet lease services on behalf of Brussels Airlines, Lufthansa and Scandinavian Airlines.

Over 450 of CityJet's 600+ staff are employed in Copenhagen in both flying and ground roles, making CityJet one of the most significant airline employers in Denmark, with further crew employed in Sweden. In addition to its head office at Dublin Airport and crew planning centre in Luton, CityJet has a maintenance hangar and offices in Copenhagen Kastrup Airport.

Early years
Cityjet was founded in 1992 as Business City Direct and commenced operations in December 1993. In January 1994 it started a single route between Dublin and London City Airport under a franchise agreement with Virgin Atlantic, in which it paid fees and charges to Virgin in order to operate as Virgin Cityjet and use Virgin Atlantic's distribution channels. The airline was mainly competing with British Midland and Aer Lingus services from Dublin to London Heathrow and Ryanair services from Dublin to London Stansted. However, Cityjet held a monopoly on services to London City until Aer Lingus launched services from Dublin to London City in September 1999.

In June 1995, Virgin Cityjet debuted with flights between Dublin and Brussels, competing with Sabena and Aer Lingus initially.

In 1996, the airline terminated its franchise agreement with Virgin Atlantic on short notice and decided to continue operations using its own CityJet name from the end of July that year. By then, the airline flew scheduled flights from Dublin to London City, Brussels and Malaga. The decision to discontinue the Virgin Atlantic franchise came as Virgin itself entered the European short-haul market with budget carrier Virgin Express, and CityJet feared customers could confuse the low-cost carrier with its own full-service operation.

Air France era
In 1999, Cityjet was at the verge of bankruptcy. Air Foyle acquired half of the shares in the airline in return for assuming the carrier's debts. Air France took another 25 percent while investing £2 million. Under the new structure, Cityjet retained its own scheduled services while also becoming Air France's principal European subcontract airline. However, Cityjet still remained a loss-making business. In early 2000, Air France took over all shares in CityJet and became its sole owner. At the time, Cityjet already operated seven out of eight of its aircraft for Air France. The French national airline was allowed to outsource operations of aircraft with less than 100 seats to regional partners and subsidiaries under its contracts with Air France' labour unions; overall savings to Air France by outsourcing regional operations to the Irish subsidiary were estimated at around 40 percent.

In 2006, Cityjet operated supplemented Air France's operations with flights from Paris to Dublin, Birmingham, Edinburgh, London City, Florence, Gothenburg and Zurich. Furthermore, the airline still operated between London City and Dublin. The fleet consisted of 20 aged BAe 146 aircraft. From December 2006, the airline began replacing them with 23 much younger but similar Avro RJ85s it had acquired in a $221 million deal from Mesaba Airlines.

On 24 December 2007, Air France-KLM announced that it had signed an agreement for a full takeover of VLM Airlines NV from Panta Holdings, and announced on 28 May 2009 that VLM Airlines would gradually start to operate under the brand name CityJet. As of 1 June 2010, the whole VLM Airlines Fokker 50 fleet wore full CityJet livery, although VLM remained the owner of its own Airline Operators Certificate, and the Fokker 50 fleet was listed on the Belgian registry.

CityJet filed a pretax loss of €51.5 million for the year to the end of March 2010. This compared to a €53.9 million loss in the year to end March 2009. Revenues fell by 8 percent from €282.4 million to €258.9 million over the same period. Passenger numbers grew, climbing by 6.5 percent to 2.1 million, while average fares dropped by 16 percent. Christine Ourmières joined as new chief executive on 1 October 2010. She had previously held a number of senior posts within the Air France-KLM group. In the IATA year ending 31 March 2010, CityJet carried just over 1 million passengers on its London City network. In June 2012 it was announced that Air France-KLM was considering selling CityJet to support its own ailing business, with a further statement in April 2013 that the winning bidder would be announced in the summer of 2013.

As of October 2013 the operational agreement with Air France had been replaced by codesharing, with most routes operated under its own WX code instead of Air France's. In December 2013 Air France announced it would sell CityJet, including VLM Airlines, to German investor Intro Aviation. The transfer was completed in May 2014. CityJet subsidiary VLM Airlines was bought by its own management and cut itself loose from CityJet. However, they were to remain flying the London City to Antwerp route as an ACMI operator for CityJet until mid-2016.

On 28 June 2016, CityJet inaugurated its Sukhoi Superjet 100 revenue services with its first scheduled flight from Cork to Nantes. CityJet commenced a wet lease contract with Brussels Airlines using the Superjet in March 2017.

In October 2015, Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) announced it would sell its Finnish subsidiary Blue1 to CityJet and that CityJet would provide wet lease services to SAS from March 2016, with CityJet placing an order for up to 14 new Bombardier CRJ900 jets, 8 firm and six options. Four of the options were later confirmed. In 2016 Blue1 was dissolved and merged into its parent CityJet.

In January 2017, CityJet agreed to buy Cimber, which had a fleet of 11 CRJ900s, from SAS. In addition to the acquisition of Cimber, CityJet secured a long term wet lease contract with SAS and placed an order leading to a further ten CRJ900 jets to replace those operated by Cimber, bringing it to a total of 22 new CRJ900 aircraft operating in total for SAS.

In March 2017, CityJet stated that it planned to focus more on its wetlease business while reducing its own scheduled flights. This led to the closure of routes from London City to Nantes and Paris as well as a downgrade of frequencies on other routes. CityJet then planned to operate 80 percent of all flights on a wetlease basis. On 5 April 2017, it was announced that KLM Cityhopper would wet lease two Avro RJ85s from CityJet to operate four additional Amsterdam–London City services per weekday over the Summer 2017 season, starting 15 May 2017. In late October 2017, CityJet cancelled most of its remaining routes from London City Airport, leaving Dublin as its only scheduled destination from there after operating a much larger network in previous years.

In July 2018, it was announced that CityJet and Air Nostrum would merge. This merger received EU approval in 2019 but was deferred during Covid before being reactivated in 2022, with completion expected in 2023.

In late August 2018, CityJet announced they would cease operating scheduled services under their own brand, effective from 27 October 2018, but continue business as an ACMI leasing provider. At the end of October 2018, CityJet commenced a wet lease agreement with Aer Lingus, operating two Avro RJ85 aircraft primarily on the Dublin to London City route.

In 2019, CityJet pulled all Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft from service due to insufficient operational reliability and returned them to their lessor, replacing these aircraft with CRJ900 jets on the wet lease contract with Brussels Airlines.

In 2019, Cityjet partnered with KLM to create Air Antwerp, a new airline based in Antwerp International Airport. It operated daily flights to London City Airport from 9 September 2019. In May 2021 CityJet handed its 75% share of Air Antwerp over to co-owner KLM but the airline ceased operations in June 2021.

In April 2020, Brussels Airlines cancelled its wetlease contract with CityJet for five aircraft in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Aer Lingus wet lease agreement also ended at this time due to market uncertainty. In the same month the High Court appointed an interim examiner to CityJet. CityJet exited the Examinership process in August 2020 after financial restructuring

2020s
After a brief pause at the start of the Covid pandemic, CityJet recommenced wet lease services on behalf of Scandinavian Airlines in June 2020 and progressively built up to the operation of 18 CRJ900 for SAS by 2022.

In March 2023, CityJet took delivery of the first of five CRJ-1000 100-seat regional jets to supplement its fleet of 21 CRJ900s, with the first two flying on a wet lease contract with Lufthansa. A new wet lease contract with Brussels Airlines commenced in March 2023 using two CRJ900 jets.

Current fleet
, the CityJet fleet consists of the following aircraft.

Historic fleet
The airline has previously operated BAE146/Avro RJ85, Fokker 50, Saab 2000, and Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft.

Sponsorships

 * CityJet was the 'Official Airline' of Leinster Rugby.

title: CityJet


text:
Direct election

Direct election is a system of choosing political officeholders in which the voters directly cast ballots for the persons or political party that they wanted to see elected. The method by which the winner or winners of a direct election are chosen depends upon the electoral system used. The most commonly used systems are the plurality system and the two-round system for single-winner elections, such as a presidential election, and proportional representation for the election of a legislature or executive.

By contrast, in an indirect election, the voters elect a body which in turn elects the officeholder in question.

In a double direct election, the elected representative serves on two councils, typically a lower-tier municipality and an upper-tier regional district or municipality.

Legislatures

 * The European Parliament has been directly elected every five years since 1979. Member states determine how to elect their representatives, but, among other requirements, they must be directly elected.
 * The United States House of Representatives has been directly elected, using either first-past-the-post voting or ticket voting in plural district since its inception in 1789.
 * The United States Senate begin directly electing senators in 1914—after the passage and ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Heads of state

 * The president of France has been directly elected with the two-round system since the 1962 French presidential election referendum.
 * The president of the Philippines is elected by national popular vote in elections.
 * The president of Turkey has been directly elected with the two-round system since the 2007 Turkish constitutional referendum.

History of direct presidential elections
The idea that heads of state be elected directly by the people progressed slowly throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This differs from parliamentary systems where executives derive power from the legislative body.

Africa
Many African nations have moved from parliamentary to presidential systems. Regardless of constitutional structures, presidents often have immense power over other political decision-making bodies. Given this power, much of the political violence around elections stems from the elections of presidents. Additionally, recent coups and conflict have postponed direct presidential elections in several African countries.

Asia
The overwhelming majority of democracies in Asia are parliamentary, rather than presidential systems. Based on constitutional design, the Philippines is the only head of state elected by popular vote. Although classified as a semi-presidential system, South Korea in political reality has a strong presidential system as well based on changes in 1987 to its constitution.

Europe
The first major European country to use direct elections was France (1848). However, if no candidate received a majority of the vote the National Assembly chose the winner from the top five candidates. As the so-called Second Republic only lasted for one presidential term, this never happened. Germany (the Weimar Republic) was the first European country to use direct election of a president without intervention by the legislature. Both these systems were replaced by authoritarian systems within a number of years, with indirect presidential elections instated with the restoration of democracy (in 1871 and 1949, in West Germany, respectively). Currently, Europe has a mix of parliamentary republics, presidential republics, where the president is elected directly by the people, and semi-presidential republics - including contemporary France - which have a president elected directly and a prime minister responsible to the parliament.

Colonial legacies
A major debate exists regarding colonial legacies and the promotion of democracy around the world. In terms of direct elections, former British colonies are less likely to hold direct elections for heads of state. Additionally no monarchies have direct elections for head of state since by definition the head of state is unelected.

United States
The conceptual origins of direct presidential elections stem from the U.S. Constitution (1787) through the Electoral College. The Framers intended for the a small group of electors, through methods determined by each state, to elect the president. Thus in practice this represents a form of indirect election.

South America
Bolstered by opposition groups, institutional and constitutional change in the 1980s and 1990s led to direct elections of presidents in many South American countries. These changes created centralized power in presidential positions, often blurring the line of separation of powers and making them powerful decision-makers over the legislature and cabinet.

Advantages and disadvantages of directly electing the head of state
A common political debate, particularly as countries consider governmental reforms, is whether or not direct elections of heads of state strengthen democratic practices among citizens. Selection mechanisms for heads of state can lead to varying outcomes in terms of voter interest, turnout, and overall engagement. For example, some scholars argue that direct elections will mobilize voters and increase their trust in the political process, particularly in emerging democracies. Others note that frequent direct elections may decrease turnout due to voter fatigue and apathy.

Legislatures

 * The European Parliament has been directly elected every five years since 1979. Member states determine how to elect their representatives, but, among other requirements, they must be directly elected.
 * The United States House of Representatives has been directly elected using either first-past-the-post voting or ticket voting in plural district since its inception in 1789.
 * The United States Senate begin directly electing senators in 1914—after the passage and ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

title: Direct election


text:
File:Sonic Groove Flower album cover.jpg

Summary
Cover of the Primal Scream album Sonic Flower Groove.


text:
Talk:JEFF K

I vote this be deleted. -- Zoe

How come? -- Cyde

It isn't encyclopedic. -- Zoe

Since this is a board encyclopedia that covers popular culture topics, I thought that one about ‘JeffK’, who is somewhat of a popular icon, would be fine. Do you object to the way the article was written or do you object to the article its’ self? User:AaronNorris

It's at least as encyclopedic as Penny Arcade, Kuro5hin, and other such "internet culture" things. I might support deleting this article and wrapping it up into one Something Awful article that discusses Jeff K as one part of the site. -- Delirium

Removed part about "created during campaign to drive users from his site"; the JeffK character significantly predates that campaign. -- Delirium

JEFFK's even been parodied - (dump teh xul) - so he's certainly recognisable Kirun

Should link to B1FF
The jeffk entry really needs a "see also" link to http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/B1FF
 * It looks like someone has done this. Saucepan

Did Jeff K originate the term asshat?
Did Jeff K really originate the term "asshat"? I guess it wouldn't be too surprising if he did, since somethingawful.com has turned out to be the source of more than a few bits of Internet drollery, but I'm sure I remember seeing "asshat" in use before Jeff K. appeared on the scene. The earliest uses I've been able to find are in Usenet here and here, but I'm curious if it's older still.

(As for "clownboat", I had never heard of it at all. But I like it.) Saucepan 05:11, 13 May 2004 (UTC)

Name Spacing/Capitalization
"Jeff K" is used about 18 times more than "JeffK" on SomethingAwful.com. Also, his name seems to have normal capitalization and a period after the K when used outside of his site. I've therefore moved this article to "Jeff K." DopefishJustin 21:09, May 13, 2004 (UTC)

title: Talk:JEFF K


text:
Center (basketball)

The center (C), or the centre, also known as the five or the pivot, is one of the five positions in a regulation basketball game. The center is almost always the tallest player on the team, and often has a great deal of strength and body mass as well. In the NBA, the center is typically close to 7 ft tall; centers in the WNBA are typically above 6ft 4in. Centers traditionally play close to the basket in the low post. The two tallest players in NBA history, Manute Bol and Gheorghe Mureșan, were both centers, each standing 7ft 7in tall.

Centers are valued for their ability to protect their own goal from high-percentage close attempts on defense, while scoring and rebounding with high efficiency on offense. In the 1950s and 1960s, George Mikan and Bill Russell were centerpieces of championship dynasties and defined early prototypical centers. With the addition of a three-point field goal for the 1979–80 season, however, NBA basketball gradually became more perimeter-oriented and saw the importance of a traditional center diminish. Modern day big men such as Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid possess elite scoring ability from the perimeter and have very good passing.

1940s–1950s: Emergence and George Mikan era
The center is considered a necessary component for a successful team, especially in professional leagues such as the NBA. Great centers have been the foundation for most of the dynasties in both the NBA and NCAA. Until the 1940s, even dominant centers such as Moose Krause were not extraordinary tall. Then, the 6 ft George Mikan and the 7 ft Bob Kurland pioneered as exceptionally tall centers, shattering the widely held perception that tall players could not develop the agility and coordination to play basketball well, and ushering in the role of the dominant big man. While Kurland never played professional basketball after his time at Oklahoma State, Mikan turned professional in 1946 after leading DePaul to the NIT title. He went on to win seven National Basketball League, Basketball Association of America and NBA Championships in his ten-year career (1946–56), nine of them with the Minneapolis Lakers. Using his height to dominate opposing players, Mikan invented the hook shot and the shot block; as a consequence, the NCAA, and later NBA, adopted the goaltending rule, and in 1951 the NBA widened the foul lane, a decision known as the Mikan rule.

1960s: Bill Russell–Wilt Chamberlain era
In the 1960s, Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain further transformed basketball by combining height with a greater level of athleticism than previous centers. Following the retirement of George Mikan, the rivalry of the two big men came to dominate the NBA. Between the two of them, Chamberlain and Russell won nine of the eleven MVP awards in the eleven-year period between 1958 and 1969; played against one another in six Eastern Conference Finals and two NBA Finals between 1959 and 1969. Many of the records set by these two players have endured today. Most notably, Chamberlain and Russell hold the top eighteen season averages for rebounds.

Bill Russell led the University of San Francisco to two consecutive NCAA championships (1955, 56). He joined the Boston Celtics and helped make them one of the greatest dynasties in NBA history, winning eleven championships over his thirteen-year career (1956–69) as well as five MVP awards. Russell revolutionized defensive strategy with his shot-blocking, rebounding and physical man-to-man defense. While he was never the focal point of the Celtics offense, much of the team's scoring came when Russell grabbed defensive rebounds and initiated fast breaks with precision outlet passes, primarily to point guard Bob Cousy. As the NBA's first African-American superstar, Russell struggled throughout his career with the racism he encountered from fans in Boston, particularly after the 1966–67 season, when he became the first African-American in any major sport to be named player-coach.

His principal rival Wilt Chamberlain, listed at 7'1" (2.15 m), 275 pounds (124 kg), lacked Russell's supporting cast. Chamberlain played college ball for the Kansas Jayhawks, leading them to the 1957 title game against the North Carolina Tar Heels. Although the Jayhawks lost by one point in triple overtime, Chamberlain was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. Briefly a member of the Harlem Globetrotters before joining the Philadelphia Warriors of the NBA in 1959, Chamberlain won two championships, in 1967 with the Philadelphia 76ers and 1972 with the Los Angeles Lakers, although his teams were repeatedly defeated by the Celtics in the Eastern Conference and NBA Finals, including two NBA Finals loss to Willis Reed's New York Knicks in 1970 and 1973. He also won seven scoring titles, eleven rebounding titles, and four regular season Most Valuable Player awards, including the distinction, in 1960, of being the first rookie to receive the award. Stronger than any player of his era, he was usually capable of scoring and rebounding at will. Although he was the target of constant double- and triple-teaming, as well as fouling tactics designed to take advantage of his poor free-throw shooting, he set a number of records that have never been broken. Most notably, Chamberlain is the only player in NBA history to average more than 50 points in a season and score 100 points in a single game (both in 1961–62 as a member of the Philadelphia Warriors). He also holds the NBA's all-time records for rebounding average (27.2), rebounds in a single game (55), and career rebounds (23,924).

A lesser-known center of the era was Nate Thurmond, who initially played the forward position opposite Chamberlain for the San Francisco Warriors but moved to center after Chamberlain was traded to the new Philadelphia franchise. Although he never won a Championship, Thurmond was known as the best screen setter in the league, and his averages of 21.3 and 22.0 rebounds per game in 1966–67 and 1967–68, are exceeded only by Chamberlain and Russell.

1970s–1980s: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar era
In contrast to the Celtics dynasty of the 1960s, the 1970s were a decade of parity in the NBA, with eight different champions and no back-to-back winners. At the college level, the UCLA Bruins, under Coach John Wooden, built the greatest dynasty in NCAA basketball history, winning seven consecutive titles between 1967 and 1973. UCLA had already won two consecutive titles in 1964 and 1965 with teams that pressed and emphasized guard play. After not winning in 1966, Wooden's teams changed their style when Lew Alcindor became eligible. He led UCLA to three championships-in 1967, '68 and '69-while winning the first Naismith College Player of the Year Award. During his college career, the NCAA enacted a ban on dunking primarily because of Alcindor's dominant use of the shot. His entrance into the NBA with the Milwaukee Bucks in 1969 was timely, as Bill Russell had just retired and Wilt Chamberlain was 33 years old and increasingly plagued by injuries. After leading the Bucks to the 1971 NBA championship, teamed up with legendary point guard Oscar Robertson, Alcindor, who had converted to Islam, changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. In 1975, Abdul-Jabbar was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, and, after the arrival of point guard Magic Johnson in 1980, formed part of a new Lakers dynasty that won five NBA titles (1980, '82, '85, '87, '88). In addition, Abdul-Jabbar won six regular-season MVP awards (1971, '72, '74, '76, '77, '80). At 7'2" (2.18 m), 235 pounds (106 kg), he lacked the strength of Chamberlain in his prime, but had a longer wingspan and ultimately proved more durable, adhering to a strict physical-fitness regime that enabled him to play for twenty years, the longest career in NBA history at the time. Offensively, he was best known for his trademark 'Skyhook' hook-shot, almost impossible to block because of his height and wingspan. His regular season career scoring total of 38,387 points was an NBA record for nearly 39 years. Defensively, the 1973–74 season was the first in which the number of blocked shots were kept, and, over the next seven years, Kareem led the league in this statistic or finished second.

Another product of John Wooden's UCLA program, Bill Walton, appeared poised to join the ranks of great centers. He led UCLA to back-to-back NCAA titles in 1972 and 1973, he also led the Portland Trail Blazers to the NBA championship in 1977, and won the NBA MVP the following year. However, his career was plagued with injuries, most infamously a broken bone in his left foot suffered during his MVP season that he never fully recovered from, and he spent most of the following decade on the bench, although he eventually did win a second NBA title as a backup for the Boston Celtics in 1986, when he received the Sixth Man Award. Willis Reed won two championships with the New York Knicks in 1970 and 1973, teamed with point guard Walt Frazier; although undersized for the center position at 6'9", he had the strength to play inside, was a highly skilled jump shooter and was effective at setting picks, a key element in the Knicks motion-oriented offense. The undersized but scrappy Dave Cowens, drafted at the recommendation of Bill Russell, helped the Boston Celtics win two more NBA titles, in 1974 and 1976.

Leading centers of the late 1970s and early 1980s include Wes Unseld of the Baltimore/Washington Bullets, Artis Gilmore of the ABA Kentucky Colonels, Chicago Bulls and San Antonio Spurs; Moses Malone of the Houston Rockets and Philadelphia 76ers; and Robert Parish of the Boston Celtics, who was acquired from the Golden State Warriors in 1980 for the top overall pick in the NBA Draft. Unseld led the Bullets to four NBA finals appearances and one championship, in 1978. Using his strength and determination to compensate for his lack of size (6'7", i.e. 2.00 m), he was famous for his rebounding, shotblocking, and bone-jarring picks. Artis Gilmore, often overlooked because of the mediocrity of his teams, established himself as the best low-post scorer in the league. He set the NCAA Division I record for career average in rebounds (25.2) at tiny Jacksonville University, and enjoyed an illustrious ABA career before joining the NBA's Chicago Bulls in 1976, playing there until he was traded to San Antonio in 1982, for whom he played until his retirement in 1987. He remains the NBA's career leader in field goal percentage (minimum 2000 shots made) with a 59.9 percentage. Malone, the first high school player to turn professional, was drafted by the Houston Rockets after several years in the ABA, and won two MVP Awards and led Houston to its first NBA Finals in 1981, before joining the Philadelphia 76ers, where, teamed with Julius Erving and Bobby Jones, he won an NBA Championship in 1983, as well as a third League MVP. Never a dominant defender, his quickness and tenacity made him one of the best rebounders in NBA history, particularly on the offensive end; he led the league in rebounds six times in a seven-year period and still holds the NBA record for offensive rebounds.

In the mid-1980s, the 7'4" (2.23 m) Mark Eaton was the most prolific shot-blocker in the league, and, although never a major offensive contributor, won two NBA Defensive Player of the Year Awards while helping transform the lowly Utah Jazz into a playoff contender. Of all these players, none enjoyed the success of Robert Parish, who, with forwards Larry Bird and Kevin McHale, formed the legendary frontcourt of the Boston Celtics team that won three titles (1981, 1984 and 1986). The Celtics' fierce rivalry with the Lakers dominated the NBA during the decade and helped basketball reach an unprecedented level of popularity. Nicknamed "Chief" after a character in the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest because of his stoic demeanor, Parish was known for his trademark arching jump-shot—leading many experts to consider him the best medium-range shooting center of all time—and his ability to finish fast-breaks with his surprising speed. Playing until the age of 43, Parish broke Abdul-Jabbar's record for career games played.

The 1979–80 season saw the introduction of the three-point shot. While the concept of the 'stretch five' would not come until the new millennium, players such as Bill Laimbeer and Jack Sikma developed a reliable outside shot later in their career, hitting around the 30% mark.

1990s: Hakeem Olajuwon–David Robinson–Shaquille O'Neal era
Coach John Thompson, once a seldom-used backup to Bill Russell with the Celtics, developed the Georgetown Hoyas into a chief pipeline for talent at the Center position, producing a succession of great defensive big men in Patrick Ewing, Dikembe Mutombo and Alonzo Mourning. In 1984, Georgetown, led by Patrick Ewing, defeated the University of Houston, led by Hakeem Olajuwon, to win the NCAA championship. The number one picks in the 1984, 1985, and 1987 NBA Drafts would all be used on centers who made major impacts in the NBA of the 1990s and eventually became members of the Basketball Hall of Fame: Olajuwon in 1984, Ewing in 1985, and Navy's David Robinson in 1987.

The Nigerian-born Olajuwon was drafted by the Houston Rockets and paired with power forward Ralph Sampson in what was dubbed the 'Twin Towers' duo. In his second season, 1985–86, the Rockets upset the Lakers in the Western Conference finals. Olajuwon established himself as a dominant player, leading the Rockets to two consecutive NBA championships in 1994 and 1995. In the 1993–94 season he became the only player in NBA history to win the NBA's Most Valuable Player (MVP), Defensive Player of the Year, and Finals MVP awards in the same season. Defensively Olajuwon broke Abdul-Jabbar's career record for blocked shots. Offensively, he was best known for his 'Dream Shake', a series of fakes and spin moves regarded as the pinnacle of big man footwork.

Ewing, from Jamaica by way of the Boston area, was drafted by the New York Knicks in 1985, with whom he spent fifteen of his seventeen seasons in the NBA. An eleven-time All Star, Ewing was one of the best shooting centers in NBA history, possessing a baseline jump-shot, as well as being a formidable shot blocker and rebounder. The Knicks were formidable opponents of the Chicago Bulls dynasty in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Ewing's successor as the starting center at Georgetown, Dikembe Mutombo, who played most of his NBA career with the Denver Nuggets and Atlanta Hawks proved a dominant defender. Mutombo, who had not played basketball before arriving in the U.S. from his native Zaire on a USAID scholarship, was among the greatest shot blockers in NBA history, leading the NBA in blocked-shots five consecutive years, in the course of a career in which he ranked second in the history of the league in blocked shots, behind only Hakeem Olajuwon. He was also the recipient of four NBA Defensive Player of the Year Awards, tied for the record with Ben Wallace.

Robinson, drafted by the San Antonio Spurs in 1987, did not enter the NBA for two years due to his commitment with the United States Naval Academy. Upon his arrival in 1989, Robinson instantly transformed the Spurs into title contenders, eventually becoming a ten-time All-Star, MVP and Defensive Player of the Year. Leaner but more muscular than most centers, Robinson outran opponents with his speed and agility, while possessing a reliable left-handed jumper.

The 1992 NBA draft marked the entrance into the league of Shaquille O'Neal, who was drafted by the Orlando Magic. Immediately drawing comparisons to Wilt Chamberlain, the 7'1" (2.15 m), 325-pound (147 kg) O'Neal was billed as potentially the most physically dominating player ever. By his third season, he led the league in scoring and led the Magic to the NBA Finals, where they were swept by the Houston Rockets. After the 1995–96 season, he signed with the rebuilding Los Angeles Lakers. Former Georgetown center Alonzo Mourning, also drafted in 1992, established himself as a premier big man with the Charlotte Hornets and, later, the Miami Heat, winning two Defensive Player of the Year Awards thanks to his prolific shot blocking while also proving a reliable scoring threat.

2000s: Changing times
The NBA landscape began to change in the 1990s as more international players entered the league. Yugoslavia's Vlade Divac and Lithuania's Arvydas Sabonis arrived in 1989 and 1995 respectively, and brought in a new play style. Unlike traditional post-up centers, Divac and Sabonis focused more on playmaking and perimeter shooting, hallmarks of the European style of play.

The balance of power shifted to the Western Conference, and the NBA was dominated by the Los Angeles Lakers, who won titles in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2009, and 2010, and the San Antonio Spurs, who won in 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, and 2014. Even as traditional centers such as Shaquille O'Neal and later on Yao Ming and Dwight Howard continued to dominate the game, the importance of a center was starting to change.

In the 1990s, an increasing number of smaller forwards, most notably Dennis Rodman and Charles Barkley, excelled at the traditional center functions of rebounding, shot-blocking and low-post defense, anticipating a trend towards relying on shorter and quicker post players that continued into the 2000s, as exemplified by perennial Defensive Player of the Year Ben Wallace. In the fast break oriented style of offense employed by a growing number of teams, the traditional role of the center is diminished, if not done away with altogether. Many talented big men choose to play the more versatile power forward position, giving them more room to run the floor and play outside the paint. Under the influence of European basketball, the offensive role of big men has been redefined to include more emphasis on perimeter play, as exemplified by 3-point shooting big men like Dirk Nowitzki, Mehmet Okur, Andrea Bargnani, and Channing Frye.

Most importantly, winning an NBA championship no longer required a dominant center, unlike in previous years. Perimeter players such as Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Stephen Curry became the faces of modern championship teams, and in those instances, their centers were more of a complementary piece than a cornerstone.

2010s: Rise of stretch five and playmaking centers
The low-post functions of the center position continued to dwindle in the 2010s as the NBA embraced small ball and a more perimeter-oriented style of play. While there are still a few centers that play a more traditional style, some centers begin to adapt to the outside game.

The Miami Heat, for example, featured a "positionless" lineup as coined by head coach Erik Spoelstra, with power forwards Chris Bosh and Udonis Haslem shifting between center and power forward depending on matchups. The Heat won two NBA championships in and  using this unconventional lineup.

The Golden State Warriors then won three championships in, , and with a smaller and quicker group known as the Death Lineup. In this case, 6'7" forward Draymond Green was often slotted into the center position, creating matchup problems for larger centers with his defensive versatility, speed, ball-handling skills, and perimeter shooting.

The rise of the stretch five paved the way for centers to add outside shooting to their arsenal. While they continue to roam the paint at times, they have also expanded their game to the perimeter with their three-point shots. Notable modern stretch fives include Al Horford, Joel Embiid, Karl-Anthony Towns, Brook Lopez, Marc Gasol, and Kristaps Porziņģis.

Another byproduct of the small ball revolution is the emergence of big men who possess guard-like skills. An example is Nikola Jokić, whose passing ability for a player his size made the Denver Nuggets contenders in the late 2010s and early 2020s, winning their first ever NBA Championship in 2023.

In women's basketball
In women's basketball, 7'0" (2.13 m) Uljana Semjonova played the center position, helping the Soviet Union women's team win two Olympic gold medals, in 1976 and 1980, and never losing a game in international competition. Semjonova also led her club team, TTT Riga to fifteen European Champion's Cup titles. The 6'8" (2.03 m) Anne Donovan led the Old Dominion University Lady Monarchs to the 1979 Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women championship, and was the first female Naismith College Player of the Year recipient in 1983, before enjoying a successful professional career in Japan and Italy. With the formation of the WNBA, Lisa Leslie established herself as the premier center, and the league's most popular player. The first WNBA player to reach the 3,000 point milestone, she led the Los Angeles Sparks to consecutive titles in 2001 and 2002, and holds the distinction of being the first player to dunk in a WNBA game. Other prominent centers in women's basketball include Australian Lauren Jackson of the Seattle Storm and Karl Malone's daughter Cheryl Ford of the Detroit Shock. Jackson can also be considered a forward-center because she is also a very good outside shooter, leading the WNBA in three-point shooting percentage in one season. Rebecca Lobo led the Connecticut Huskies to an NCAA Championship in 1995, but never recovered from a torn ACL and had a disappointing professional career. When at the University of Oklahoma, Courtney Paris was considered the next dominant female center after becoming the only NCAA player, male or female, to score 700 points, grab 500 rebounds and block 100 shots in a single season; however, she had a disappointing WNBA career and was waived before what would have been the start of her second season in 2010. The tallest center in the WNBA, the late Margo Dydek of Poland, who stood 7'2", is still the league's career leader in blocks per game (2.72) and total blocks (877), solidly ahead of Leslie in that category despite Dydek having played 40 fewer games before retiring.

title: Center (basketball)


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Kleť Observatory

Kleť Observatory (obs. code: 046) is an astronomical observatory in the Czech Republic. It is situated in South Bohemia, south of the summit of Mount Kleť, near the town of České Budějovice. Constructed in 1957, the observatory is at an altitude of 1070 m and has around 150 clear nights per year.

Astronomers
Astronomer Antonín Mrkos became director of Kleť Observatory in 1965.

Two main astronomers who currently work at Kleť Observatory are Jana Tichá and her husband Miloš Tichý.

Instruments
The observatory has two primary telescopes:
 * 1.06-m KLENOT telescope (since 2002)
 * 0.57-m f/5.2 reflector (since 1993)

Discoveries
As of 2015 over a thousand asteroids were discovered at Kleť Observatory, as well as comet 196P/Tichý.

Asteroid 5583 Braunerova was discovered by A. Mrkos at Kleť Observatory in 1989. The asteroid 7796 Járacimrman was (re)discovered at Kleť Observatory on 16 January 1996 by Zdeněk Moravec and was designated 1996 BG. It was observed until April 1996 and then in June and July 1997. It was discovered to be a lost asteroid which had previously been observed twice: at the Brera-Merate Observatory in northern Italy on 12 December 1973 and at Siding Spring Observatory (Australia), on 8 and 9 July 1990. Asteroid 4250 Perun, provisional designation "1984 UG", was discovered by Zdeňka Vávrová on 20 October 1984.

KLENOT project
KLENOT is an initialism of KLET Observatory Near Earth and Other unusual objects observations Team and Telescope. It is limited to objects with a visual apparent magnitude of 22.0 and brighter.

title: Kleť Observatory


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Cape Point

Cape Point (Kaappunt) is a promontory at the southeast corner of the Cape Peninsula, a mountainous and scenic landform that runs north-south for about thirty kilometres at the extreme southwestern tip of the African continent in South Africa. Table Mountain and the city of Cape Town are close to the northern extremity of the same peninsula. The cape is located at -34.35722°N, 18.4975°W, about 2.3 kilometres (1.4 mi) east and a little north of the Cape of Good Hope on the southwest corner. Although these two rocky capes are very well known, neither cape is actually the southernmost point of the mainland of Africa; that is Cape Agulhas, approximately 150 km to the east-southeast.

Peaks
The peak above Cape Point is higher than that above the Cape of Good Hope. The rugged sandstone (Table Mountain sandstone) ridge that rises from Cape Point at sea level develops into two peaks. There is a major peak that dominates the skyline locally, but there is also a smaller peak about 100 m (328 ft) further south. The higher peak has the old lighthouse on the top. The Flying Dutchman Funicular runs from a car park to the north up to slightly below the level of the old lighthouse, and a short flight of steps leads to a viewing platform around the base of the lighthouse. From the end of the railway, a second path leads to a lower peak.

Lighthouse
The new lighthouse is at a lower elevation (87 meters; 285.5 feet above sea level), for two reasons: the old lighthouse, located at -34.35333°N, 18.49033°W (262 meters; 859.6 feet above sea level), could be seen 'too early' by ships rounding the point towards the east, causing them to approach too closely. Secondly, foggy conditions often prevail at the higher levels, making the older lighthouse invisible to shipping. On 18 April 1911, the Portuguese liner Lusitania was wrecked just south of Cape Point at -34.38944°N, 18.48972°W on Bellows Rock for precisely this reason, prompting the relocation of the lighthouse.

The new lighthouse, located at -34.35722°N, 18.49694°W, cannot be seen from the West until ships are at a safe distance to the South. The light of the new Cape Point lighthouse is the most powerful on the South African coast, with a range of 63 km and an intensity of 10 megacandelas in each flash.

Table Mountain National Park
Cape Point is situated within the Table Mountain National Park, within a section of the park referred to as Cape of Good Hope. This section covers the whole of the southern tip of the Cape Peninsula and which takes in perhaps 20% of its total area. The Cape of Good Hope section of the park is generally wild, unspoiled and undeveloped and is an important haven for seabirds. The vegetation at Cape Point consists primarily of Peninsula Sandstone Fynbos.

Ocean currents
Cape Point is often mistakenly claimed to be the place where the cold Benguela Current of the Atlantic Ocean and the warm Agulhas Current of the Indian Ocean collide. In fact, the meeting point fluctuates along the southern and southwestern Cape coast, usually occurring between Cape Agulhas and Cape Point. The two intermingling currents help to create the micro-climate of Cape Town and its environs. Contrary to popular mythology, the meeting point of the currents produces no obvious visual effect; there is no "line in the ocean" where the sea changes colour or looks different in some way. There are, however, strong and dangerous swells, tides and localized currents around the point and in adjacent waters. These troubled seas have witnessed countless maritime disasters in the centuries since ships first sailed here.

Fishing is good along the coast but the unpredictable swells make angling from the rocks very dangerous. Over the years scores of fishermen have been swept to their deaths from the rocky platforms by freak waves. False Bay, which opens to the east and north of Cape Point, is the location of the well-known naval port of Simon's Town. The bay is also famous – or infamous – for its great white sharks, which hunt the Cape fur seals that live in the area.

Climate research
Cape Point is the site of one of the Global Atmosphere Watch's atmospheric research stations. In the early years of the 20th century icebergs from Antarctica were occasionally sighted from Cape Point. There have been no authentic recent sightings of ice, which some climatologists and experts have attributed to global warming.

title: Cape Point


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Cornelius Nepos

Cornelius Nepos (c. 110 BC – c. 25 BC) was a Roman biographer. He was born at Hostilia, a village in Cisalpine Gaul not far from Verona.

Biography
Nepos's Cisalpine birth is attested by Ausonius, and Pliny the Elder calls him Padi accola ("a dweller on the River Po", Naturalis historia III.127). He was a friend of Catullus, who dedicates his poems to him (I.3), Cicero and Titus Pomponius Atticus. Eusebius places him in the fourth year of the reign of Augustus, which is supposed to be when he began to attract critical acclaim by his writing. Pliny the Elder notes he died in the reign of Augustus (Natural History IX.39, X.23).

De viris illustribus
Nepos's De viris illustribus consisted of parallel lives of distinguished Romans and foreigners, in sixteen books. It originally included "descriptions of foreign and Roman kings, generals, lawyers, orators, poets, historians, and philosophers". However, the sole surviving book (which is thought to be complete) is the Excellentium imperatorum vitae ("Lives of the Eminent Commanders"), which covers commanders and generals (imperatores); its contents are as follows:

 * Miltiades
 * Themistocles
 * Aristides
 * Pausanias
 * Cimon
 * Lysander
 * Alcibiades
 * Thrasybulus
 * Conon
 * Dion
 * Iphicrates
 * Chabrias
 * Timotheus
 * Datames
 * Epaminondas
 * Pelopidas
 * Agesilaus
 * Eumenes
 * Phocion
 * Timoleon
 * On Kings
 * Hamilcar
 * Hannibal

Two additional lives survive from elsewhere in the De viris illustribus:

 * Cato
 * Atticus

The Excellentium imperatorum vitae appeared in the reign of Theodosius I, as the work of the grammarian Aemilius Probus, who presented it to the emperor with a dedication in Latin verse. He claims it to have been the work of his mother or father (the manuscripts vary) and his grandfather. Despite the obvious questions (such as why the preface addressed to someone named Atticus when the work was supposedly dedicated to Theodosius), no one seemed to have doubted Probus's authorship. Eventually Peter Cornerus discovered in a manuscript of Cicero's letters the biographies of Cato and Atticus. He added them to the other existing biographies, despite the fact that the writer speaks of himself as a contemporary and friend of Atticus, and that the manuscript bore the heading E libro posteriore Cornelii Nepotis ('from the last book of Cornelius Nepos'). At last Dionysius Lambinus's edition of 1569 bore a commentary demonstrating on stylistic grounds that the work must have been of Nepos alone, and not Aemilius Probus. This view has been tempered by more recent scholarship, which agrees with Lambinus that they are the work of Nepos, but that Probus probably abridged the biographies when he added the verse dedication. The Life of Atticus, however, is considered to be the exclusive composition of Nepos.

Other works
Nearly all of Nepos's other writings are lost, but several allusions to them survive in works by other authors. Aulus Gellius's Attic Nights are of special importance in this respect.

 * Chronica, an epitome of universal history; Catullus seems to allude to the "Chronica" in his dedication to Nepos. Ausonius also mentions it in his sixteenth Epistle to Probus, as does Aulus Gellius in the Noctes Atticae (XVII.21).  "Probably a chronological summary which included the history of outside nations as well as of Rome," it is thought to have been written in three books.
 * Exempla, a collection of anecdotes after the style of Valerius Maximus; Exemplorum libri, of which Charisius cites the second book, and Aulus Gellius the fifth (VI.18, 19). The book likely contained "models for imitation, drawn from the early Romans, whose simplicity contrasted with the luxury" of Nepos's era."
 * letters to Cicero; De Vita Ciceronis. Aulus Gellius corrects an error in this work (XV.28). The book is thought to have been written after the death of the consul, statesman and orator Cicero. According to Roberts, "his friendship for Cicero and Atticus and his access to their correspondence would have made the work an especially valuable one for us."
 * lives of Cato the elder; A complete biography of Cato the Censor, from which Aulus Gellius draws an anecdote of Cato (XI.8).
 * Epistulae ad Ciceronem, an extract of which survives in Lactantius (Divinarum Institutionum Libri Septem III.15). It is unclear whether they were ever formally published.

Pliny the Younger mentions verse written by Nepos, and in his own Life of Dion, Nepos himself refers to a work of his own authorship, De Historicis. If a separate work, this would be from a hypothesized De Historicis Latinis, only one book in the larger De Viris Illustribus (see above), although exclusively comprising biographies of Romans. Pliny also mentions a longer Life of Cato at the end of the extant Life of Cato, written at the request of Titus Pomponius Atticus, the "complete biography" now lost.

In popular culture
While the historical Cornelius Nepos does not appear in fiction, his name is used by the German Romantic author Achim von Arnim for one of the characters in his novella Isabella of Egypt. Contrary to the historical Cornelius, who has been thought of as a writer of simple, less elegant prose, as evidenced through his writing, this Cornelius is a Mandrake, a root creature created from a hangman's tears, and dug up on a dark night at 11 at night, who is a treasure finder, desiring to become more important than what he is. Desiring to be a Field Marshal in the Holy Roman Empire, Cornelius serves the title character, Isabella, helping her by digging up treasures for them, while rejecting the very notion of being considered a Mandrake in society.

An analogy to historical contexts, Arnim names the mandrake Cornelius Nepos, in an effort to implement what Tzvetan Todorov calls "the fantastic", a genre that sets what is real against what is imaginary or supernatural; to transmit to society that life is not as simple as we make it out to be. Here, Nepos is used to convey that idea, that when the real Nepos is set against that of the supernatural mandrake, the reader and society at large, cannot be certain as to which is the real and which is the imaginary, a microcosm of the "uneasy conscience of the nineteenth century."

title: Cornelius Nepos


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Israel Tal

Israel Tal (ישראל טל, 13 September 1924 – 8 September 2010 ), also known as Talik (Hebrew: טליק), was an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) general known for his knowledge of tank warfare and for leading the development of Israel's Merkava tank.

Biography
Tal was born in Mahanayim, Mandatory Palestine. On his mother's side he was descended from Hasidic Jews who migrated to Safed and Tiberias in 1777. He lived in Safed from the age of five and lived through the 1929 Palestine riots. Later he lived in moshav Be'er Tuvia.

Tal began his military service at the age of 17, with the British Army's Jewish Brigade, serving as a machine gunner in North Africa and Italy during the Second World War. After the Jewish Brigade was disbanded in 1946, he enlisted in the Haganah. He served as a junior infantry officer during the 1947–1949 Palestine war, as a brigade commander during the 1956 Sinai War, an armored-division commander in Sinai Peninsula during the Six-Day War, and commander of the southern front during the final stages of the Yom Kippur War.

Israel Tal died in Rehovot on 8 September 2010.

Military career
Tal, who had been a hero of the Six-Day War, was an early opponent of the Bar Lev Line. He and General Ariel Sharon argued that it would not succeed in fending off Egyptian forces. After the official end of the Yom Kippur War, Tal, serving as commander of the southern front, received an order from Chief of Staff General David Elazar and Defense Minister Moshe Dayan to attack Egyptian forces. Tal refused to follow the order, insisting that it was an unethical order and requesting authorization for the requested attack from the Prime Minister and the Supreme Court. Such authorization never came. Tal won the argument, but his refusal to follow the order as a practical matter eliminated his chance of being nominated for the position of Chief of Staff to succeed General Elazar.

In 1970, the Israeli government decided it needed an independent tank-building capability due to the uncertainty of overseas sales for political reasons. Tal led a development team that took into consideration Israel's battlefield characteristics and lessons learned from previous wars, and began the development and building of Israel's Merkava tank.

Armor doctrine

Tal was the creator of the Israeli armored doctrine that led to the Israeli successes in the Sinai surprise attack of the Six-Day War. In 1964, General Tal took over the Israeli armored corps and organized it into the leading element of the Israeli Defense Forces, characterized by high mobility and relentless assault. He re-trained all Israeli gunners to hit targets beyond 1.5 km. In open terrain, such long-distance gunnery proved vital to the survival of the Israeli armored corps in subsequent wars. Israel's Arab opponents, especially Egypt and Syria, normally fired their Soviet-made tank guns from a distance of between 200 and 500 m, and quite often tank units advanced to within 100 m of their targets before firing their main guns. This gave the Israelis an opportunity to exploit this weakness in Arab military doctrine. Its mobility is considered comparable to the German Blitzkrieg and many hold it to be an evolution of that tactic. Tal's transformation and success in 1967 led the IDF to expand the role of armor. However, this resulted in reduced attention to other less glamorous, but essential aspects of the army, such as the infantry. Following the 1973 surprise attack, this excessive focus on fast-striking offensive armor left the IDF temporarily without adequate defensive capability. Only in the latter stages of the war (with the aid of a US$1.1 billion airlift, Operation Nickel Grass) did the armor break out and show its potential; General Avraham Adan's armor broke through the Egyptian lines, crossed the Suez Canal and enveloped the Egyptian 3rd Army near Suez. While the IDF has become a more balanced force since 1973, Tal's development of armored doctrine has been very important to the IDF and has influenced armored doctrines in other parts of the world.

Awards and honours
Israel Tal was awarded the Eliyahu Golomb Israel Security Award in 1961 and 1973. In 1997, Tal was awarded the Israel Prize for his special contribution to the society and State of Israel.

In 1991, he received an honorary doctorate at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. In 2002, he was chosen "Knight of Quality Government" by the Movement for Quality Government in Israel in the "Military and Security" category. Israel Tal's picture appears in the Patton Museum of Cavalry and Armor's "Wall of Greatest Armor Commanders" along with compatriot Moshe Peled, Americans George S. Patton and Creighton Abrams and German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.

title: Israel Tal


text:
Talk:Pierre Charles L'Enfant

Plan of Washington Appendix?
Does anyone know any map of his that's labeled? I don't know what some of the monuments and significant buildings are like the building/squares along the canal.

Anyway, I thought it would be important to put that up. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.141.107.107 (talk) 22:41, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Indianapolis
I was told that he also designed Indianapolis, which also looks like it had more early planning than many cities, and also has major streets at 45-degree angles to most of the rest. The dates aren't completely absurd. Anyone know? --Jerzy(t) 21:10, 2004 May 13 (UTC)

African descent?
Was L'Enfant of African ancestry? I thought I read somewhere that he was. If so, it's worth inclusion, especially considering that most African Americans were living in slavery at the time he was designing Washington, D.C.
 * You might be thinking of Benjamin Banneker, who is also noted in the lay out of Washington, Bannaker was of African descent.

John Jay animosity
Somebody told me that DC's streets are purposely missing a "J Street" because L'Enfant hated John Jay. Any truth to this speculation? Taco325i 20:14, 19 April 2006 (UTC)

 * No, I think that the President at the time hated Jay, but I'm not sure -- I live here though, and there is no J Street.

 * The real reason is that I and J in Roman numerals of the time were so similar that J was avoided so as to not create confusion. See Bordewich's Washington (2008). (around page 240, but I can no longer find the original text) --Daysleeper47 (talk) 00:02, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

bias
The phrase "His adopted nation finally recognizing his genius" is a bit biased

American citizen
did L'Enfant ever become a US citizen or did he just live in the US? Thanks Hmains 22:15, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

 * back then, there was no clear notion of citizenship as we understand it today. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 132.230.30.117 (talk) 10:42, 30 October 2009 (UTC)

American citizen: NO When I read "Nationality: American - Ethnicity	French American" I am appealed! At this time a French born will die French unless he had betrayed the crown. Meanwhile Pierre Charles L'Enfant son of the court painter of the same name, has never been reported as a traitor and has never been shun by the King of France. With a broader look of the times of Pierre Charles L'Enfant, it cannot be denied he may have stay in the newly established USA due to trouble occurring in France, ruined by its effort to support the colony against the crown of England - overlooking its own growing issues in the kingdom. The only French inheritance Pierre Charles L'Enfant is his particle and title of nobility. That say: Pierre Charles L'Enfant is born French - Ethnicity Caucasian - Died Franco-American. by C. de L. Franco-American citizen

Indianapolis
No where does this article note his contribution to the planning and founding of Indianpolis.Moonraker0022 09:20, 24 December 2006 (UTC)

 * L'Enfant had no connection with Indianapolis. His only city planning work, aside from Washington, was at Paterson, NJ, in 1792.  He was fired from the work at Paterson, and none of his work is known to have survived. 76.114.206.62 (talk) 01:27, 28 December 2009 (UTC) Don Alexander Hawkins

Burial Location
i thought l'enfant was buried in front of Arlington House in arlington national cemetery, not "buried at the farm of a friend in Prince George's County, Maryland." can someone please confirm this?

 * According to a recent CSPAN talk by Don Alexander Hawkins, L'Enfant was originally buried in an unmarked grave in a cemetery for poor whites and African-Americans in Maryland. What was believed to be his remains were disinterred in the 20th century and reburied in front of Arlington House, on a rise above President Kennedy's grave with an excellent view of Washington, reachable only by climbing over a rope meant to prevent access to that area. Unfortunately, I don't have a more precise citation. — Joe Kress (talk) 18:35, 24 March 2015 (UTC)

 * I misspoke. The historian was Scott Berg, author of Grand Avenues: The story of Pierre Charles L'Enfant, the French visionary who designed Washington, D.C., whose book discussion can be viewed on CSPAN.org. Nevertheless, he repeatedly cited Don Alexander Hawkins. I now see that this information is in Legacy, the heading immediately below Death, and his book is in References. I'm adding the entry for L'Enfant on the website of the Arlington National Cemetery to the article as a note. — Joe Kress (talk) 19:42, 7 April 2015 (UTC)

Portrait
Only one image of L'Enfant is known to exist: a profile silhouette cut from paper by Sarah deHart, the daughter of the Governor of New Jersey in the early 1780's. It is part of a framed collage at the National Museum of American Art in Washington, DC. The image on the first page of this article was made up out of whole cloth around the turn of the 20th century. 76.114.206.62 (talk) 01:09, 28 December 2009 (UTC)Don Alexander Hawkins

This is true, the portrait in the article is definitely NOT Pierre L'Enfant. I was commissioned to create an accurate portrait of L'Enfant and I found the silhouette as well as a very good pastel portrait of L'Enfant's father. By combining those references, I was able to produce a likeness that is now commonly used in publications about L'Enfant.

Bryan Leister —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.9.154.93 (talk) 17:55, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

 * Can we use that image here, as part of the gallery? 2600:8806:80B:2300:E48D:D1BD:BE52:27E8 (talk) 23:45, 10 June 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Pierre Charles L'Enfant


text:
User:Kupord Maizzed~enwiki

Kupord Maizzed is a pseudonym reminiscent of the reverent phrase, "Look upward amazed".

title: User:Kupord Maizzed~enwiki


text:
Indirect election

An indirect election or hierarchical voting, is an election in which voters do not choose directly among candidates or parties for an office (direct voting system), but elect people who in turn choose candidates or parties. It is one of the oldest forms of elections and is used by many countries for heads of state (such as presidents),  cabinets, heads of government (such as prime ministers), and/or upper houses. It is also used for some supranational legislatures.

Positions that are indirectly elected may be chosen by a permanent body (such as a parliament) or by a special body convened solely for that purpose (such as an electoral college).

In nearly all cases the body that controls the executive branch (such as a cabinet) is elected indirectly. This includes the cabinets of most parliamentary systems; members of the public elect the parliamentarians, who then elect the cabinet. Upper houses, especially in federal republics, are often indirectly elected, either by the corresponding lower house or cabinet. Similarly, supranational legislatures can be indirectly elected by constituent countries' legislatures or executive governments. The indirect democracy is run by electoral college or president.

An election can be partially indirect, for example in the case of indirect single transferable voting, where only eliminated candidates select other candidates to transfer their vote share to.

Heads of state
A head of state is the official leader and representative of a country. The head of state position can vary from ceremonial figurehead with limited power to powerful leader depending on the government structure and historical legacy of the country. For instance, in some cases heads of state inherit the position through a monarchy whereas others are indirectly or directly elected such as presidents. Several examples are included below.

United States
The President of the United States is elected indirectly. In a US presidential election, eligible members of the public vote for the electors of an Electoral College, who have previously pledged publicly to support a particular presidential candidate. When the Electoral College sits, soon after the election, it formally elects the candidate that has won a majority of the members of the Electoral College. Members of the federal cabinet, including the vice president, are in practice nominated by the president, and are thus elected indirectly. The Electoral College is a controversial issue in U.S. politics, especially following presidential elections when voting is polarized geographically in such a way that the electoral college elects a candidate who did not win an absolute majority of the popular vote. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, if enacted, would effectively replace the indirect election via the Electoral College with a de facto plurality-based direct election.

China
The Constitution of the People's Republic of China specifies a system of indirect democracy. The National People's Congress elects the president, also known as the state chairman, who serves as head of state. The power of the presidency is largely ceremonial, the vast majority of power stems from the president's position as leader of the Communist Party and head of the military.

European Union
The president of the European Commission is nominated by the European Council and confirmed or denied by the directly elected European Parliament (see Elections to the European Parliament).

Parliamentary systems
Republics with parliamentary systems usually elect their head of state indirectly (e.g. Germany, Italy, Estonia, Latvia, Malta, Hungary, India, Israel, Bangladesh). Several parliamentary republics, such as Ireland, Austria, Croatia, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, operate using a semi-presidential system with a directly elected president distinct from the prime minister.

Heads of government
A head of government is in charge of the daily business of government and overseeing central government institutions. In presidential systems the president is the head of government and head of state. In parliamentary systems the head of government is usually the leader of the party with the most seats in the legislature. Several examples of heads of government who are chosen through indirect elections are summarized below.

Prime Minister
The most prominent position in parliamentary democracies is the prime ministership.

Under the Westminster system, named after and typified by the parliament of the United Kingdom, a prime minister (or first minister, premier, or chief minister) is the person that can command the largest coalition of supporters in parliament. In almost all cases, the prime minister is the leader of a political party (or coalition) that has a majority in the parliament, or the lower house (such as the House of Commons), or in the situation that no one party has a majority then the largest party or a coalition of smaller parties may attempt to form a minority government. The prime minister is thus indirectly elected as political parties elect their own leader through internal democratic process, while the general public choose from amongst the local candidates of the various political parties or independents.

The Westminster model continues to be used in a number of Commonwealth countries including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom. Additionally many nations colonized by the British Empire inherited the Westminster model following their independence.

In Spain, the Congress of Deputies votes on a motion of confidence of the king's nominee (customarily the party leader whose party controls the Congress) and the nominee's political manifesto, an example of an indirect election of the prime minister of Spain.

Federal Chancellor
In Germany, the federal chancellor - the most powerful position on the federal level - is elected indirectly by the Bundestag, which in turn is elected by the population. The federal president, the head of state, proposes candidates for the chancellor's office. Although this has never happened, the Bundestag may in theory also choose to elect another person into office, which the president has to accept.

Appointment
Some countries have nonpartisan heads of government who are appointed by the president, such as the Prime Minister of Singapore.

Upper houses
Members of the German Bundesrat are appointed (delegated) by the Landtag of the various states.

The Control Yuan of China, formerly a parliamentary chamber, was elected directly by its respective legislatures across the country: five from each province, two from each directly administered municipality, eight from Mongolia (by 1948 only the Inner Mongolian provinces were represented), eight from Tibet and eight from the overseas Chinese communities. As originally envisioned both the President and Vice President of the Control Yuan were to be elected by and from the members like the speaker of many other parliamentary bodies worldwide. The Control Yuan became a sole auditory body in Taiwan in 1993 after democratisation.

In France, election to the upper house of Parliament, the Sénat, is indirect. Electors (called "Grands électeurs") are locally elected representatives.

Members of the Indian Rajya Sabha (upper house of parliament) are largely elected directly by the Vidhan Sabha (legislative assembly) of the various states and Union territories; some are appointed by the president.

Members of the United States Senate were elected directly by the Legislature of the various states until ratification of the 17th Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1913. Since that time they have been elected by direct popular vote.

In some cases, most officials, including most members of legislatures – national and subnational – may be regarded as elected indirectly, because they are preselected by political parties. This kind of system is typified by the United States, at both the federal and state levels. That is primary elections and/or caucuses are responsible for choosing candidates, whose preselection is ratified by a party convention.

Some examples of indirectly elected supranational legislatures include: the parliamentary assemblies of the Council of Europe, OSCE, the WEU and NATO – in all of these cases, voters elect national parliamentarians, who in turn elect some of their own members to the assembly. The same applies to bodies formed by representatives chosen by a national government, e.g. the United Nations General Assembly – assuming the national governments in question are democratically elected in the first place.

Indirect single transferable voting is used to elect some members of the Senate in Pakistan.

title: Indirect election


text: File:Primalscream album cover.jpg

title: File:Primalscream album cover.jpg


text:
Break beat

Break beat may refer to:
 * Breakbeat, a musical genre
 * Break (music)

title: Break beat


text:
Talk:Greeks

Slavic DNA in Greece
The significant Slavic genetic contribution in the today Greeks is undoubted, but the data about it is constantly being removed. Today, the Greek state does not recognize its Slavic minorities, claiming that they do not exist. However, Wikipedia is not censored, I hope. Jingiby (talk) 04:13, 29 June 2024 (UTC)

 * What does "the Greek state does not recognize its Slavic minorities" have to do with anything? There are numerous studies on the subject, yet you are interested only in this one. E.g. the study on the Peloponnese by Stamatoyannopoulos et al. 2017 found much lower values than this paper. Khirurg (talk) 04:33, 29 June 2024 (UTC)
 * The study was added by another editor, not by me. It was deleted by you 3 times. This is the most recent study on the issue and the only archeogenetic one. Jingiby (talk) 05:06, 29 June 2024 (UTC)
 * It seems to have been deleted yet again, on the apparent grounds of “balance”, whatever that’s supposed to mean… Botushali (talk) 01:11, 3 July 2024 (UTC)
 * @Jingiby: It's not the "only archeogenetic one". You haven't even read the article properly. Khirurg (talk) 03:42, 7 July 2024 (UTC)

Population sort by quantity
@User:Khirurg, When contributing to Wikipedia, lists are typically sorted based on criteria that are relevant and objective. Sorting by population quantity is common because it provides a clear, measurable standard that is widely accepted. This approach helps maintain neutrality and consistency across Wikipedia articles. You are suggesting an exception to this standard to push a particular viewpoint or because it personally bothers you WP:JDL, it does not align with Wikipedia's policies on neutrality and verifiability. Also i would like you to remind me what happened the last "edit war" since it seems this discussion it's personal for you, remembering what has happened to me 2 years ago and bringing unprofessional amateuristic arguements that have nothing to do with the article. Also Native or Not its something that has nothing to do with the population sorting keep your POV out of the discussion. RoyalHeritageAlb (talk) 23:21, 8 July 2024 (UTC)

 * I find Khirurg’s edit summary here unproductive - I don’t think it’s a standard practice on Wikipedia to list population stats according to where they’re supposedly native to. In fact, the USA, Germany, Australia, the UK and Canada are all listed before Albania. Are Greeks native to these countries as well? The whole list should be re-arranged based on population IMO.
 * Also, @RoyalHeritageAlb, the final part of Khirurg’s edit summary says this: This is coming from a user who keeps a list of “taunts” ([]) which contains the following three examples:
 * 1.
 * 2.
 * 3.
 * Basically, Khirurg considers himself a victim of taunts when people remind him of previous blocks, something he has just now done towards you in the above edit summary. As such, Khirurg is indirectly admitting to deliberately taunting you. I’d recommend keeping a record of this just in case you’re unfortunate enough to be involved in a dispute with him in which the admins are involved. Botushali (talk) 02:39, 9 July 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Greeks


text:
Miriam Stoppard

Miriam, Lady Hogg ( Stern; formerly Stoppard; born 12 May 1937), known professionally by her former married name Miriam Stoppard, is an English medical doctor, journalist, author and television presenter.

Early life and medical career
Miriam Stern was born in Newcastle upon Tyne. Her father, Sidney, was a nurse and her mother, Jenny, worked for the Newcastle school dinners service. Her sister is social justice activist Murreil Hazel Stern. Her family was Orthodox Jewish. Her father was born Jewish and her mother converted to Judaism.

Stern grew up on a council housing estate. Her mother was a dressmaker who taught Miriam how to make her own clothing, and from an early age she bought remnants of cloth with her pocket-money. Up until her teens, she fashioned her own designs, complemented with cheap and improvised accessories.

As a teenager she attended school on a scholarship. Inspired by her father, she had early aspirations to become a doctor. Outside of studies she enjoyed music, danced and played table tennis. Stern attended the Central High School in Eskdale Terrace and trained as a nurse at the Newcastle General Hospital (Royal Free Medical School). She went on to study medicine at King's College, Durham (which became Newcastle University in 1963).

Career
After qualifying as a doctor, Stoppard worked at the Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary and specialised in dermatology as a senior registrar at Bristol Royal Infirmary. She became a research director and then managing director in the pharmaceutical industry for Syntex. She became well known during the 1970s and 1980s as a television presenter on scientific and medical programmes such as Don't Ask Me and Where There's Life.

Stoppard has written several books about health, including the Children's Medical Handbook, but particularly on the subject of women's health. She writes on health issues and acts as an agony aunt for the Daily Mirror, having previously answered readers' letters for TV Times magazine. Her company, Miriam Stoppard Lifetime, sells her books and health products.

Stoppard was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours for services to healthcare and charity.

In August 2012, writing in the Daily Mirror, Stoppard supported UCL's Institute of Child Health research which suggested reviewing the recommendation of exclusive breastfeeding until six months, adding that the appearance of teeth should signal the end of breastfeeding. She was named Journalist of the Year at the Stonewall Awards on 6 November of that year.

Family
From 1972 to 1992 Stoppard was married to the playwright Tom Stoppard, with whom she had two sons. One of their sons is the actor Ed Stoppard. She married the industrialist Sir Christopher Hogg in 1997, and was married to him until his death in 2021. She has two stepdaughters from her second husband's first marriage.

Former MP Oona King is Stoppard's niece; she is the daughter of Preston King and Miriam's sister, Murreil Hazel Stern. Her first cousin is politician Ted Graham, Baron Graham of Edmonton.

title: Miriam Stoppard


text:
User:Stonda~enwiki

Is it better to be reluctant to see the immorality of the past than face the abolishment of the future?

title: User:Stonda~enwiki