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Linear Tape-Open

Linear Tape-Open (LTO), also known as the LTO Ultrium format, is a magnetic tape data storage technology used for backup, data archiving, and data transfer. It was originally developed in the late 1990s as an open standards alternative to the proprietary magnetic tape formats that were available at the time. Upon introduction, LTO rapidly defined the super tape market segment and has consistently been the best-selling super tape format. The latest generation as of 2021, LTO-9, can hold $18 TB$ in one cartridge.

Cartridges contain hundreds of meters of half-inch (12.65 mm) wide tape media wound onto a single reel. Mechanisms (a.k.a. tape drives, streamers) extract the tape from the cartridge and spool it up on a second reel in the mechanism, reading or writing data as the tape moves between reels. Robotic libraries exist that can hold hundreds or thousands of LTO cartridges and dozens of mechanisms.

The original version of LTO Ultrium, called LTO-1, was released in 2000 and stored $100 GB$ of data in a cartridge; throughout newer generations, the capacity has increased while maintaining the same physical size. They feature built-in encryption for safer storing and transporting of data, and the partition feature enables usage of LTFS, generally having higher capacity, better long-term stability, and lower unit cost than other data storage formats. There are also write once read many LTO cartridges, useful to protect against accidental or malicious deletion.

Historical context
Half-inch (12.65 mm) wide magnetic tape has been used for data storage since the 1950s, starting with the open reel formats IBM 7-track and later IBM 9-track.

In the mid-1980s, smaller, enclosed, single-reel cartridge formats were developed by IBM and DEC. Although the physical tape was nominally the same width in these new formats and the preceding open-reel formats, the technologies and intended markets were significantly different and there was no compatibility between them. The IBM 3480 tape format was designed to meet the demanding requirements of its mainframe products. DEC's CompacTape was targeted at a broader market, including minicomputers and smaller systems. Later on, it was renamed Digital Linear Tape (DLT) and eventually sold to Quantum Corporation.

In the late 1980s, Exabyte's Data8 format, derived from Sony's dual-reel cartridge 8 mm video format, saw some popularity, especially with UNIX systems. Sony followed this success with their own now-discontinued 8 mm data format, Advanced Intelligent Tape (AIT).

By the late 1990s, Quantum's DLT and Sony's AIT were the leading options for high-capacity tape storage for PC servers and UNIX systems. These technologies were tightly controlled by their owners and consequently, there was little to no competition between vendors and the prices were relatively high.

Birth of LTO
Seeing an opportunity, IBM, HP and Seagate formed the LTO Consortium, which introduced a more open format focusing on the same mid-range market segment. Much of the technology is an extension of the work done by IBM at its Tucson lab during the previous 20 years.

In 2000, and around the time of the release of LTO-1, Seagate's magnetic tape division was spun off as Seagate Removable Storage Solutions, later renamed Certance, which was subsequently acquired by Quantum.

Unrealized variations
Initial plans called for two distinct LTO formats:
 * Ultrium - with half-inch tape on a single reel, optimized for high capacity, and
 * Accelis - with 8 mm tape on dual reels, optimized for fast access.

Despite the initial plans, only Ultrium was ever produced. So, in common usage, LTO refers to just the Ultrium form factor.

Another proposed variation was to have different length tapes. The first generation of Ultrium was going to be available with four types of cartridges, holding 10 GB, 30 GB, 50 GB, and 100 GB. However, only the full length 100 GB tapes were ever produced.

Generations
As of 2020, nine generations of LTO Ultrium technology have been made available and five more are planned. Between generations, there are strict compatibility rules that describe how and which drives and cartridges can be used together.

While data capacity and speed figures vary with uncompressed or compressed data, most manufacturers list compressed capacities and speeds on their marketing material. Capacities are often stated on tapes assuming that data will be compressed at a fixed ratio, commonly 2:1. See Compression below for algorithm descriptions and the table above for LTO's advertised compression ratios.

The units for data capacity and data transfer rates generally follow the "decimal" SI prefix convention (e.g. mega = 106), not the binary interpretation of a decimal prefix (e.g. mega = 220).

Minimum and maximum reading and writing speeds are drive-dependent.

Drives usually support variable-speed operation to dynamically match the data rate flow. This nearly eliminates tape backhitching or "shoe-shining", maximizing overall throughput and device/tape life.

The LTO Consortium provide a roadmap of future generations, which state that LTO-10 is expected to have 36 TB of storage and LTO-14 potentially 576 TB.

Compatibility

In contrast to other tape technologies, an Ultrium cartridge is rigidly defined by a particular generation of LTO technology and cannot be used in any other way (with the exception of LTO-M8, see below). While Ultrium drives are also defined by a particular generation, they are required to have some level of compatibility with older generations of cartridges. The rules for compatibility between generations of drives and cartridges are as follows:

 * Up to and including LTO-7, an Ultrium drive can read data from a cartridge in its own generation and the two prior generations. LTO-8 drives can read LTO-7 and LTO-8 tape, but not LTO-6 tape.
 * An Ultrium drive can write data to a cartridge in its own generation and to a cartridge from the one prior generation in the prior generation's format.
 * Some LTO-8 drives may write previously unused LTO-7 tapes with an increased, uncompressed capacity of 9 TB (Type M (M8)). Only new, unused LTO-7 cartridges may be initialized as LTO-7 Type M. Once a cartridge is initialized as Type M it may not be changed back to a 6 TB LTO-7 cartridge. LTO-7 Type M cartridges are only initialized to Type M in an LTO-8 drive. LTO-7 drives are not capable of reading LTO-7 Type M cartridges.
 * An Ultrium drive cannot make any use of a cartridge from a more recent generation. For example, an LTO-2 cartridge can never be used by an LTO-1 drive; and even though it can be used in an LTO-3 drive, it performs as if it were in an LTO-2 drive.

Within the compatibility rules stated above, drives and cartridges from different vendors are expected to be interchangeable. For example, a tape written on any one vendor's drive should be fully readable on any other vendor's drive that is compatible with that generation of LTO.

Physical structure
LTO Ultrium tape is laid out with four wide data bands sandwiched between five narrow servo bands. The tape head assembly, that reads from and writes to the tape, straddles a single data band and the two adjacent servo bands. The tape head has 8, 16, or 32 data read/write head elements and 2 servo read elements. The set of 8, 16, or 32 tracks are read or written in a single, one-way, end-to-end pass that is called a "wrap". The tape head shifts laterally to access the different wraps within each band and also to access the other bands.

Writing to a blank tape starts at band 0, wrap 0, a forward wrap that runs from the beginning of the tape (BOT) to the end of the tape (EOT) and includes a track that runs along one side of the data band. The next wrap written, band 0, wrap 1, is a reverse wrap (EOT to BOT) and includes a track along the other side of the band. Wraps continue in forward and reverse passes, with slight shifts toward the middle of the band on each pass. The tracks written on each pass partially overlap the tracks written on the previous wrap of the same direction, like roof shingles. The back and forth pattern, working from the edges into the middle, conceptually resembles a coiled serpent and is known as linear serpentine recording.

When the first data band is filled (they are filled in 3, 1, 0, 2 order across the tape), the head assembly is moved to the second data band and a new set of wraps is written in the same linear serpentine manner. The total number of tracks on the tape is (4 data bands) × (11 to 52 wraps per band) × (8, 16, or 32 tracks per wrap). For example, an LTO-2 tape has 16 wraps per band, and thus requires 64 passes to fill.

Logical structure
Since LTFS is an open standard, LTFS-formatted tapes are usable by a wide variety of computing systems.

The block structure of the tape is logical so interblock gaps, file marks, tape marks and so forth take only a few bytes each. In LTO-1 and LTO-2, this logical structure has CRC codes and compression added to create blocks of 403,884 bytes. Another chunk of 468 bytes of information (including statistics and information about the drive that wrote the data and when it was written) is then added to create a "dataset". Finally error correction bytes are added to bring the total size of the dataset to 491,520 bytes (480 KiB) before it is written in a specific format across the eight heads. LTO-3 and LTO-4 use a similar format with 1,616,940-byte blocks.

The tape drives use a strong error correction algorithm that makes data recovery possible when lost data is within one track. Also, when data is written to the tape it is verified by reading it back using the read heads that are positioned just "behind" the write heads. This allows the drive to write a second copy of any data that fails the verify without the help of the host system.

Positioning times
While specifications vary between different drives, a typical LTO-7 drive will take about 15 seconds to load the tape and 20 seconds to unload the tape. These drives have an average rewind time of 60 seconds and an average access time (from beginning of tape) of about 56 seconds. Because of serpentine writing methods, rewinding often takes less time than the maximum. If a tape is written to full capacity, there is no rewind time, since the last pass is a reverse pass leaving the head at the beginning of the tape (number of tracks ÷ tracks written per pass is always an even number).

Durability
LTO tape is designed for 15 to 30 years of archival storage. If tapes are archived for longer than 6 months they have to be stored at a temperature between 16 and 25 C and between 20 – 50% RH. Both drives and media should be kept free from airborne dust or other contaminants from packing and storage materials, paper dust, cardboard particles, printer toner dust etc.

Depending on the generation of LTO technology, a single LTO tape should be able to sustain approximately 200-364 full file passes. There is a large amount of lifespan variability in actual use. One full file pass is equal to writing enough data to fill an entire tape and takes between 44 and 208 end-to-end passes. Regularly writing only 50% capacity of the tape results in half as many end-to-end tape passes for each scheduled backup, and thereby doubles the tape lifespan. LTO uses an automatic verify-after-write technology to immediately check the data as it is being written, but some backup systems explicitly perform a completely separate tape reading operation to verify the tape was written correctly. This separate verify operation doubles the number of end-to-end passes for each scheduled backup, and reduces the tape life by half.

Optional technology
The original release of LTO technology defined an optional data compression feature. Subsequent generations of LTO have introduced new technologies, including WORM, encryption, and partitioning features. These features are built into the drives and/or tapes and can be ignored or enabled. Compression and encryption can also be performed in software prior to the data being sent to the tape drive. However, the partitioning function can only be done in hardware, and the WORM feature requires special WORM tapes.

Compression
The original LTO specification describes a data compression method LTO-DC, also called Streaming Lossless Data Compression (SLDC). It is very similar to the algorithm ALDC which is a variation of LZS. LTO-1 through LTO-5 are advertised as achieving a "2:1" compression ratio, while LTO-6 and LTO-7, which apply a modified SLDC algorithm using a larger history buffer, are advertised as having a "2.5:1" ratio. This is inferior to slower algorithms such as gzip, but similar to lzop and the high speed algorithms built into other tape drives. The actually achievable ratio generally depends on the compressibility of the data, e.g. for precompressed data such as ZIP files, JPEG images, and MPEG video or audio the ratio will be close to or equal to 1:1.

WORM
New for LTO-3 was write once read many (WORM) capability. This is useful for legal record keeping, and for protection from accidental or intentional erasure, for example from ransomware, or simply human error. Standard LTO cartridges do include a write-protect switch in the bottom-left corner, although it is easily overridden by the user and doesn't provide any protection from accidental deletion by, for example, misidentification of a cartridge. An LTO-3 or later drive will not erase or overwrite data on a WORM cartridge, but will read it. A WORM cartridge is identical to a normal tape cartridge of the same generation with the following exceptions: the cartridge memory identifies it to the drive as WORM, the servo tracks are slightly different to allow verification that data has not been modified, the bottom half of the cartridge shell is gray, and it may come with tamper-proof screws. WORM-capable drives immediately recognize WORM cartridges and include a unique WORM ID with every dataset written to the tape. There is nothing different about the tape medium in a WORM cartridge.

Encryption
The LTO-4 specification added a feature to allow LTO-4 drives to encrypt data before it is written to tape. All LTO-4 drives must be aware of encrypted tapes, but are not required to support the encryption process. All current LTO manufacturers support encryption natively enabled in the tape drives using Application Managed Encryption (AME). The algorithm used by LTO-4 is AES-GCM, which is an authenticated, symmetric block cipher. The same key is used to encrypt and decrypt data, and the algorithm can detect tampering with the data. Tape drives, tape libraries, and backup software can request and exchange encryption keys using either proprietary protocols, or an open standard like OASIS's Key Management Interoperability Protocol.

Partitioning
The LTO-5 specification introduced the partitioning feature that allows a tape to be divided into two separately writable areas, known as partitions. LTO-6 extends the specification to allow 4 separate partitions. The Linear Tape File System (LTFS) is a self-describing tape format and file system made possible by the partition feature. File data and filesystem metadata are stored in separate partitions on the tape. The metadata, which uses a standard XML schema, is readable by any LTFS-aware system and can be modified separately from the data it describes. The Linear Tape File System Technical Work Group of the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) works on the development of the format for LTFS. Without LTFS, data is generally written to tape as a sequence of nameless "files", or data blocks, separated by "filemarks". Each file is typically an archive of data organized using some variation of tar format or proprietary container formats developed for and used by backup programs. In contrast, LTFS utilizes an XML-based index file to present the copied files as if organized into directories. This means LTFS-formatted tape media can be used similarly to other removable media (USB flash drive, external hard disk drive, and so on). While LTFS can make a tape appear to behave like a disk, it does not change the fundamentally sequential nature of tape. Files are always appended to the end of the tape. If a file is modified and overwritten or removed from the volume, the associated tape blocks used are not freed up: they are simply marked as unavailable, and the used volume capacity is not recovered. Data is deleted and capacity recovered only if the whole tape is reformatted. In spite of these disadvantages, there are several use cases where LTFS-formatted tape is superior to disk and other data storage technologies. While LTO seek times can range from 10 to 100 seconds, the streaming data transfer rate can match or exceed disk data transfer rates. Additionally, LTO cartridges are easily transportable and the latest generation can hold more data than other removable data storage formats. The ability to copy a large file or a large selection of files (up to 1.5 TB for LTO-5 or 2.5 TB for LTO-6) to an LTFS-formatted tape, allows easy exchange of data to a collaborator or saving of an archival copy.

Cartridges

Throughout the history of the format, there have been six compliance-verified, licensed manufacturers of LTO technology media: EMTEC, Imation, Fujifilm, Maxell, TDK, and Sony. All other brands of media are (or were) manufactured by these companies under contract. Since its bankruptcy in 2003, EMTEC no longer manufactures LTO media products. Imation ended all magnetic tape production in 2011, but continued making cartridges using TDK tape for a while. In 2017 they withdrew from all data storage markets, renaming themselves Glassbridge Enterprises. TDK withdrew from the data tape business in 2014. Maxell produced cartridges up to and including generation 6 in 2012, but has since withdrawn from the market. Verbatim and Quantegy both licensed LTO technology, but never manufactured their own compliance-verified media.

, only Fujifilm and Sony continue to manufacture current LTO media.

In addition to the data cartridges, there are also Universal Cleaning Cartridges (UCC), which work with all drives.

Dimensions
All formats use the same cartridge dimensions, 102.0 x.

Colors
The colors of LTO Ultrium cartridge shells are mostly consistent, though not formally standardized; HP is the notable exception. Sometimes similar, rather than identical, colors are used by different manufacturers (slate-blue and blue-gray; green, teal, and blue-green; dark red and burgundy).

WORM (write once, read many) cartridges are two-tone: the top half of the shell is the normal color of that generation for that manufacturer, and the bottom half of the shell is a light gray.

Memory

Every LTO cartridge has a cartridge memory chip inside it. It is made up of 511, 255, or 128 blocks of memory, where each block is 32 bytes for a total of 16 KiB for LTO-6 to 8; 8 KiB for LTO-4 and 5; and 4 KiB on LTO-1 to 3 and cleaning cartridges. This memory can be read or written, one block at a time, via a non-contacting passive 13.56 MHz RF interface. This memory is used to identify tapes, to help drives discriminate between different generations of the technology, and to store tape-use information. Every LTO drive has a cartridge memory reader in it. The non-contact interface has a range of 20 mm. External readers are available, both built into tape libraries and PC based. One such reader, Veritape, connects by USB to a PC and integrates with analytical software to evaluate the quality of tapes. This device is also rebranded as the Spectra MLM Reader and the Maxell LTO Cartridge Memory Analyzer. Proxmark3 and other generic RFID readers are also able to read data.

Labels

The LTO cartridge label in tape library applications commonly uses the bar code symbology of USS-39. A description and definition is available from the Automatic Identification Manufacturers (AIM) specification Uniform Symbol Specification (USS-39) and the ANSI MH10.8M-1993 ANSI Barcode specification.

Leader pin

The tape inside an LTO cartridge is wound around a single reel. The end of the tape is attached to a perpendicular leader pin that is used by an LTO drive to reliably grasp the end of the tape and mount it in a take-up reel inside the drive. Older single-reel tape technologies, such as 9-track tape and DLT, used different means to load tape onto a take-up reel. When a cartridge is not in a drive, the pin is held in place at the opening of the cartridge with a small spring. A common reason for a cartridge failing to load into a drive is the misplacement of the leader pin as a result of the cartridge having been dropped. The plastic slot where the pin is normally held is deformed by the drop and the leader pin is no longer in the position that the drive expects it to be.

Erasing
The magnetic servo tracks on the tape are factory encoded. Using a bulk eraser, degaussing, or otherwise exposing the cartridge to a strong magnetic field, will erase the servo tracks along with the data tracks, rendering the cartridge unusable. Erasing the data tracks without destroying the servo tracks can be done with an LTO drive or with special equipment. The erasing head used in these erasers has four magnetic poles that match the width and the location of the data bands. The gaps between the poles correspond to the servo tracks, which are not erased. Tapes erased by this equipment can be recorded again.

Cleaning

Although keeping a tape drive clean is important, normal cleaning cartridges are abrasive and frequent use will shorten the drive's lifespan. LTO drives have an internal tape head cleaning brush that is activated when a cartridge is inserted. When a more thorough cleaning is required the drive signals this on its display and/or via Tape Alert flags. Cleaning cartridge lifespan is usually from 15 to 50 cleanings. There are 2 basic methods of initiating a cleaning of a drive: robot cleaning and software cleaning. In addition to keeping the tape drive clean, it is also important to keep the media clean. Debris on the media can be deposited onto drive components that are in contact with the tape. This debris can result in increased media wear which generates more debris. Removing excessive debris from tape can reduce the number of data errors. Cleaning of the media requires special equipment. These cleaners are also used by Spectra Logic to clean new media that is marketed as "CarbideClean" media. HP LTO Gen.1 drives have a cleaning strategy that will prevent the drive from using the cleaning tape if it is not needed. In a change of strategy, HP LTO Gen 2, 3 and 4 drives will always clean when a Universal Cleaning Cartridge is inserted, whether the drive requires cleaning or not.

Mechanisms

, compliance-verified licensed manufacturers of current LTO technology mechanisms are IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Quantum, although both Hewlett Packard and Quantum have stopped new development of drive mechanisms. The mechanisms, also known as tape drives or streamers, are available in Full-height and Half-height form factors.

Libraries
These drives are frequently packaged into external desktop enclosures or carriers that fit into a robotic tape library.

Sales and market
In the course of its existence, LTO has succeeded in completely displacing all other low-end/mid-range tape technologies such as AIT, DLT, DAT/DDS, and VXA. And after the exit of Oracle StorageTek T10000 of the high-end market, only the IBM 3592 series and LTO are still under active development. LTO also competes against hard disk drives (HDDs), and its continuous improvement has prevented the predicted "death of tape".

LTO Sales
The presence of five certified media manufacturers and four certified mechanism manufacturers for a while produced a competitive market for LTO products. However,, there are only two manufacturers developing media, Sony and Fuji, and only IBM is developing mechanisms.

The LTO organization publishes annual media shipments measured in both units and compressed capacity. Media unit shipments peaked in 2008, at about 28 million. However, the 152.9 Exabytes of total compressed storage capacity shipped in 2023 is the highest ever reported.

Public information on tape drive sales is not readily available. Unit shipment peaked at about 800,000 units in 2008, but have declined since then to about 400,000 units in 2010, and to less than 250,000 by the end of 2018

Comparison to Disk Storage
For decades, tape storage has primarily been used only in a few special situations, such as with mainframes or for backup and archiving, so the declining cost of disk made it seem possible that disk would completely take over the remaining uses of tape. In spite of this, the continuing evolution of tape technology, and particularly LTO, has kept tape storage relevant.

Tape and disk storage have some important fundamental differences. Tape generally has lower marginal costs, is more portable, and has better long term stability. These attributes make tape very appealing for large primarily offline data sets. Disk generally has much lower initial costs, much better access times, and is better suited to normal everyday usage.

Costs get complicated when considering large storage systems. Besides the simple unit cost of the data storage media, there are costs related to the hardware that makes use of and manages the media. Large robotic tape libraries are capable of managing hundreds of petabytes of data. Since most tapes in a library sit passively in their storage slot, the system uses relatively little power per TB stored. By contrast, disks must be kept powered on, spinning, and attached to some sort of computer system. The cost and capacity of storage arrays and tape libraries varies widely.

As HDD prices have dropped, disk has become cheaper relative to tape drives and cartridges. For decades, the cost of a new LTO tape cartridge plus the tape drive required to make use of it, has been much greater than that of an equivalently sized HDD. However, tape cartridges typically have a substantially lower price per gigabyte than HDDs, so that at very large subsystem capacities, the total price of tape-based subsystems can be lower than HDD based subsystems, particularly when the higher operating costs of HDDs are included in any calculation.

Tape is also used as offline copy, which can be protection against ransomware that cipher or delete data (e.g. tape is pulled out of the tape library, blocked from writing after making copy or using WORM technology). In 2019, many businesses used tape for backup and archiving.

title: Linear Tape-Open


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Talk:Alpine ibex

Steinbock
User:Ferkelparade: Of course, I udnerstood that the English also like to call it steinbock. Only wanted to point out that it is German origin. (for English speakers: Steinbock is a German word, maening the same in german as in English, and put together from Stein=rock and Bock=(male) goat). Simon A. 15:17, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * Hi Simon, I didn't think it was really necessary to add that the name is German...for example, the article on the Gnu/Wildebeest also just lists both common names without pointing out that one of them is the Boer name. Anyway, before we're riding the Ibex into Polish City territory, I've reinserted a small note about the German origin of the name :P Ferkelparade π 17:44, 15 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Steinbock is the known name in English. Cognate of Steinbock in English would be stonebuck and haps stanbuck lesserly. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.104.159.79 (talk) 11:34, 20 January 2018 (UTC)

Height of 1M??
I assume this refers to height at the withers rather than head???--SB Pete (talk) 18:49, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

22,000 feet?
I don't know what source provided the figure of 22,000 feet for the upper elevational limit of Capra ibex, but if it's restricted to the Alps, then 15,774 feet (the summit of Mont Blanc) would seem to be the maximum possible (excluding the possibility of goat flight). I have changed it to 15,000, but suspect that even that is an overestimate. Can anyone provide a more accurate figure? --Stemonitis 06:28, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Bouquetins?
What's a bouquetin?
 * As far as I'm aware, bouquetin is just the French name for ibex. There might be some justification for including this in the English article, since much of the alpine ibex's habitat is in France and French-speaking Switzerland. Mtford 02:43, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Yes, just the French name for the Alpine Ibex as far as I understand it as well. Of course, when I was in Val D'Isere a few years back the English people with whom I had a conversation about the animals referred to them by the French name in an English accent so I suppose there is at least some precedent for the English language use of the French and/or German name. This is also, of course, quite common with other animals/plants. For example, Bouvier Des Flandres--/Flemish Sheep Dog; Coriander/Cilantro, etc. --SB Pete (talk) 18:44, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Yes i would argue as well that the surviving ibex are coming from the French speaking regions of the alps (Grand Paradis in Aosta valley, and Savoy). Furthermore, they are much more common on the French speaking alps. (France, French-speaking Switzerland, Aosta valley) If Steinbock is used even though they are much less common in Tyrol, it would be normal that the original appellation is being used in English. Like chamois.... And ibex is mostly a latin scientific word used in the English language since, there is no real name to describe them. And all the English speaking people that I know and that are familiar with the alps/animal use the word bouquetin more than the other name.

--Gabriel Haute Maurienne (talk) 20:35, 19 March 2014 (UTC)

Jackals?
There are no jackals in the alps, so how can they get in a fight with the steinbock? 84.169.223.237 19:09, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

Climbing
WHY CAN THEY DEFY GRAVITY? Seriously. I read about these on Cracked, and neither Cracked nor the site Cracked linked to nor Wikipedia have explained sufficiently WHY they can just walk up walls like Spiderman. I mean some of the photographs I've seen of them are quite literally impossible. There is one line in this article, which says that they are "good climbers" in essence. Well so am I, and I can't ascend to the ceiling when I feel like it.

Thanks in advance if anybody knows the answer to this.

64.253.217.55 (talk) 04:58, 23 November 2010 (UTC) Hi,

It is because the nails of the feet is made like a kind of gum. Their feet are able to adjust to all type of terrain, wether it is rocks or plain grass. They literally stick on the ground, and move very fast, preventing the gravity to take them away in the cliffs. They are amazing, very docile, even though they are almost as big as a donkey in size. You can can get close to them up to 2 meters (roughly 3 yards) What a shame they have been almost extinct. The legend says that they have a bone shaped like a cross in their heart to prevent the organ to collapse due to the lack of oxygen and strong efforts. Locals were collecting those bones and wearing them as a necklace, thinking that this item would prevent them from sudden death. This legend plus the facility to get close to those mammals almost doomed their breed. Sad when a legend kills almost an entire race. --Gabriel Haute Maurienne (talk) 20:51, 19 March 2014 (UTC)

69
Hey some twat changed a bunch of numbers to 69 all over the article. I changed a few with my best guesses — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.145.135.143 (talk) 04:31, 29 October 2016 (UTC)

Reasons for Vandalism
To explain the reason for the recent vandalism, I believe it was tied to the 20th Anniversary of the original British Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. The question asked what an ibex was, and the choices were goat, pig, hare, and of course, deer. The contestant picked deer as his answer, and was told by Jeremy, the host, that he'd got it right...when he actually got it wrong. So yeah, that's probably why. --Asameshimae1 (talk) 13:04, 12 May 2018 (UTC)

Alpine ibex
What exactly is the size of alpine ibex?, 2405:201:1C:D1C6:AB:A7FB:977A:3E57 (talk) 05:52, 19 August 2022 (UTC)

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

title: Talk:Alpine ibex


text:
LTO

LTO may refer to:

Science and technology

 * Linear Tape-Open, a computer storage magnetic tape format
 * Link-time optimization, a technique used by compilers to optimize software
 * Low Temperature Oxide, a form of silicon dioxide used in microfabrication
 * Lunar transfer orbit, in orbital mechanics
 * Lithium titanate (Li2TiO3), a compound containing lithium and titanium
 * Lithium-titanate battery, a type of rechargeable battery using a lithium-titanate anode
 * Long-term orientation vs. short-term orientation (LTO), a Geert Hofstede's cultural dimension that associates the connection of the past with the current and future actions/challenges

Other uses

 * Lambda Tau Omega, an American college sorority
 * Land Transportation Office (Philippines), a government agency in the Philippines
 * Light tight oil, a type of crude oil
 * Loreto International Airport (IATA code), Mexico
 * Limited time only, a type of sales promotion

title: LTO


text:
Wikipedia talk:Articles for deletion/Tssf

 * They have other game musicians listed, why is there any exception here?
 * I personally removed the vanity references, and I don't agree that Mathew Valente is "nonnotable" especially to the thousands who were recently brought aware of his work through Chrono Trigger: Resurrection, which was linked from Slashdot and Game Review pages for people to freely download his remakes. To the Fans of any Squaresoft game this person is genuinely worth keeping.


text:
User talk:Pfg

Hello and welcome to Wikipedia! Hope you like it here, and stick around.

Here are some tips to help you get started:

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Image
I couldn't find Image:Stuttgart_Koenigsbau.jpg which you uploaded on the german encyclopedia. Can you tell me the source so I can tag it appropriatly. Reply on my talk-page Gkhan 01:00, Apr 20, 2005 (UTC)

pope

 * a pope does not need to be installed to be become pope. he is immediately in office after he accepted the election during the conclave

Actually, that's not true without this qualification: if he is present at the conclave, and if he has been ordained a bishop. If the conclave elects a man who has never been ordained a bishop, then he is not pope as soon as he accepts the job, but only when the cardinal dean then ordains him a bishop. Michael Hardy 22:12, 15 May 2005 (UTC)

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title: User talk:Pfg


text:
Tetraoctylammonium bromide

Tetraoctylammonium bromide (TOAB or TOABr) is a quaternary ammonium compound with the chemical formula: [CH3(CH2)7]4N Br. It is generally used as a phase transfer catalyst between an aqueous solution and an organic solution.

title: Tetraoctylammonium bromide


text:
Philipp Furtwängler

Friederich Pius Philipp Furtwängler (April 21, 1869 – May 19, 1940) was a German number theorist.

Biography
Furtwängler wrote an 1896 doctoral dissertation at the University of Göttingen on cubic forms (Zur Theorie der in Linearfaktoren zerlegbaren ganzzahligen ternären kubischen Formen), under Felix Klein. Most of his academic life, from 1912 to 1938, was spent at the University of Vienna, where he taught for example Kurt Gödel, who later said that Furtwängler's lectures on number theory were the best mathematical lectures that he ever heard; Gödel had originally intended to become a physicist but turned to mathematics partly as a result of Furtwängler's lectures. From 1916, Furtwängler became increasingly paralysed and, without notes, lectured from a wheelchair while his assistant wrote equations on the blackboard.

Some of Furtwängler's doctoral students were Wolfgang Gröbner, Nikolaus Hofreiter, Henry Mann, Otto Schreier, and Olga Taussky-Todd. Through these and others, he has over 3000 academic descendants.

He is now best known for his contribution to the principal ideal theorem in the form of his Beweis des Hauptidealsatzes für Klassenkörper algebraischer Zahlkörper (1929).

Philipp Furtwängler was a grandson of the organ builder Philipp Furtwängler (1800-1867) and a second cousin of the conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler.

Selected publications

 * with Helmut Hasse and W. Jehne: Allgemeine Theorie der algebraischen Zahlen. Vol. 8. Teubner, 1953.

title: Philipp Furtwängler


text:
Talk:Belcourt of Newport

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title: Talk:Belcourt of Newport


text:
Bardos

Bardos may refer to:
 * the six bardos of Tibetan Buddhism
 * Bardos, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, a commune in France
 * Lajos Bárdos, composer and conductor
 * Bardoș River, a river in Romania

title: Bardos


text:
English words of Greek origin

The Greek language has contributed to the English lexicon in five main ways:
 * vernacular borrowings, transmitted orally through Vulgar Latin directly into Old English, e.g., 'butter' (butere, from Latin butyrum < βούτυρον), or through French, e.g., 'ochre';
 * learned borrowings from classical Greek texts, often via Latin, e.g., 'physics' (< Latin physica < τὰ φυσικά);
 * a few borrowings transmitted through other languages, notably Arabic scientific and philosophical writing, e.g., 'alchemy' (< χημεία);
 * direct borrowings from Modern Greek, e.g., 'ouzo' (ούζο);
 * neologisms (coinages) in post-classical Latin or modern languages using classical Greek roots, e.g., 'telephone' (< τῆλε + φωνή) or a mixture of Greek and other roots, e.g., 'television' (< Greek τῆλε + English vision < Latin visio); these are often shared among the modern European languages, including Modern Greek.

Of these, the neologisms are by far the most numerous.

Indirect and direct borrowings
Since the living Greek and English languages were not in direct contact until modern times, borrowings were necessarily indirect, coming either through Latin (through texts or through French and other vernaculars), or from Ancient Greek texts, not the living spoken language.

Romance languages
Some Greek words were borrowed into Latin and its descendants, the Romance languages. English often received these words from French. Some have remained very close to the Greek original, e.g., lamp (Latin lampas; Greek λαμπάς). In others, the phonetic and orthographic form has changed considerably. For instance, place was borrowed both by Old English and by French from Latin platea, itself borrowed from πλατεία (ὁδός), 'broad (street)'; the Italian piazza and Spanish plaza have the same origin, and have been borrowed into English in parallel.

The word olive comes through the Romance from the Latin olīva, which in turn comes from the archaic Greek elaíwā (ἐλαίϝᾱ). A later Greek word, boútȳron (βούτυρον), becomes Latin butyrum and eventually English butter. A large group of early borrowings, again transmitted first through Latin, then through various vernaculars, comes from Christian vocabulary:

 * chair << καθέδρα (cf. 'cathedra');
 * bishop << epískopos (ἐπίσκοπος 'overseer');
 * priest << presbýteros (πρεσβύτερος 'elder'); and

In some cases, the orthography of these words was later changed to reflect the Greek—and Latin—spelling: e.g., quire was respelled as choir in the 17th century. Sometimes this was done incorrectly: ache is from a Germanic root; the spelling ache reflects Samuel Johnson's incorrect etymology from ἄχος.

Other
Exceptionally, church came into Old English as cirice, circe via a West Germanic language. The Greek form was probably kȳriakḗ [oikía] (κυριακή [οἰκία] 'lord's [house]'). In contrast, the Romance languages generally used the Latin words ecclēsia (French église; Italian chiesa; Spanish iglesia) or basilica (Romanian biserica), both borrowed from Greek.

Learned borrowings
Many more words were borrowed by scholars writing in Medieval and Renaissance Latin. Some words were borrowed in essentially their original meaning, often transmitted through Classical Latin: topic, type, physics, iambic, eta, necromancy, cosmopolite. A few result from scribal errors: encyclopedia < ἐγκύκλιος παιδεία 'the circle of learning' (not a compound in Greek); acne < ἀκνή (erroneous) < ἀκμή 'high point, acme'. Some kept their Latin form, e.g., podium < πόδιον.

Others were borrowed unchanged as technical terms, but with specific, novel meanings:

 * telescope < τηλεσκόπος 'far-seeing', refers to an optical instrument for seeing far away rather than a person who can see far into the distance;
 * phlogiston < φλογιστόν 'burnt thing', is a supposed fire-making potential rather than something which has been burned, or can be burned; and
 * bacterium < βακτήριον 'stick (diminutive)', is a kind of microorganism rather than a small stick or staff.

Usage in neologisms
But by far the largest Greek contribution to English vocabulary is the huge number of scientific, medical, and technical neologisms that have been coined by compounding Greek roots and affixes to produce novel words which never existed in the Greek language:

 * utopia (1516; οὐ 'not' + τόπος 'place')
 * zoology (1669; ζῷον + λογία)
 * hydrodynamics (1738; ὕδωρ + δυναμικός)
 * photography (1834; φῶς + γραφικός)
 * oocyte (1895; ᾠόν + κύτος)
 * helicobacter (1989; ἕλιξ + βακτήριον)

So it is really the combining forms of Greek roots and affixes that are borrowed, not the words. Neologisms using these elements are coined in all the European languages, and spread to the others freely—including to Modern Greek, where they are considered to be reborrowings. Traditionally, these coinages were constructed using only Greek morphemes, e.g., metamathematics, but increasingly, Greek, Latin, and other morphemes are combined. These hybrid words were formerly considered to be 'barbarisms', such as:

 * television (τῆλε + Latin vision);
 * metalinguistic (μετά + Latin lingua + -ιστής + -ικος); and
 * garbology (English garbage + -ολογία).

Some derivations are idiosyncratic, not following Greek compounding patterns, for example: Many combining forms have specific technical meanings in neologisms, not predictable from the Greek sense:
 * gas (< χάος chaos) is irregular both in formation and in spelling;
 * hadron < ἁδρός with the suffix -on, itself abstracted from Greek anion (ἀνιόν);
 * henotheism < ἑνό(ς) 'one' + θεός 'god', though heno- is not used as a prefix in Greek;
 * taxonomy < τάξις 'order' + -nomy (-νομία 'study of'), where the "more etymological form" is taxinomy, as found in ταξίαρχος, 'taxiarch', and the neologism taxidermy. Modern Greek uses ταξινομία in its reborrowing.
 * psychedelic < ψυχή 'psyche' + δηλοῦν 'make manifest, reveal'; the regular formation would be psychodelic or psychodelotic;
 * telegram; the regular formation would have been telegrapheme;
 * hecto-, kilo-, myria-, etymologically hecato-, chilio-, myrio-;
 * heuristic, regular formation heuretic;
 * chrysalis, regular spelling chrysallis;
 * ptomaine, regular formation ptomatine;
 * kerosene, hydrant, symbiont.
 * -cyte or cyto- < κύτος 'container', means biological cells, not arbitrary containers.
 * -oma < -ωμα, a generic morpheme forming deverbal nouns, such as diploma ('a folded thing') and glaucoma ('greyness'), comes to have the very narrow meaning of 'tumor' or 'swelling', on the model of words like carcinoma < καρκίνωμα. For example, melanoma does not come from μελάνωμα 'blackness', but rather from the modern combining forms melano- ('dark' [in biology]) + -oma ('tumor').
 * -itis < -ῖτις, a generic adjectival suffix; in medicine used to mean a disease characterized by inflammation: appendicitis, conjunctivitis, ..., and now facetiously generalized to mean "feverish excitement".
 * -osis < -ωσις, originally a state, condition, or process; in medicine, used for a disease.

In standard chemical nomenclature, the numerical prefixes are "only loosely based on the corresponding Greek words", e.g. octaconta- is used for 80 instead of the Greek ogdoeconta- '80'. There are also "mixtures of Greek and Latin roots", e.g., nonaconta-, for 90, is a blend of the Latin nona- for 9 and the Greek -conta- found in words such as ἐνενήκοντα enenekonta '90'. The Greek form is, however, used in the names of polygons in mathematics, though the names of polyhedra are more idiosyncratic.

Many Greek affixes such as anti- and -ic have become productive in English, combining with arbitrary English words: antichoice, Fascistic.

Some words in English have been reanalyzed as a base plus suffix, leading to suffixes based on Greek words, but which are not suffixes in Greek (cf. libfix). Their meaning relates to the full word they were shortened from, not the Greek meaning: Nostalgia was formed in German as a calque of Heimweh.
 * -athon or -a-thon (from the portmanteau word walkathon, from walk + (mar)athon).
 * -ase, used in chemistry for enzymes, is abstracted from diastase, where -ασις is not a morpheme at all in Greek.
 * -on for elementary particles, from electron: lepton, neutron, phonon, ...
 * -nomics refers specifically to economics: Reaganomics.

Through other languages
Some Greek words were borrowed through Arabic and then Romance. Many are learned:
 * alchemy (al- + χημεία or χημία)
 * chemist is a back-formation from alchemist
 * elixir (al- + ξήριον)
 * alembic (al- + ἄμβιξ)

Others are popular:
 * bottarga (ᾠοτάριχον)
 * tajine (τάγηνον)
 * carat (κεράτιον)
 * talisman (τέλεσμα)
 * possibly quintal (κεντηνάριον < Latin centenarium (pondus)).

A few words took other routes:
 * seine (a kind of fishing net) comes from a West Germanic form *sagīna, from Latin sagēna, from σαγήνη.
 * effendi comes from Turkish, borrowed from Medieval Greek αυθέντης (/afˈθendis/, 'lord').
 * hora (the dance) comes from Romanian and Modern Hebrew, borrowed from χορός 'dance'.

Vernacular or learned doublets
Some Greek words have given rise to etymological doublets, being borrowed both through a later learned, direct route, and earlier through an organic, indirect route:

 * ἀδάμας adamant, diamond;
 * ἀμυγδάλη amygdala, almond;
 * ἀντίφωνα antiphon, anthem;
 * ἀποθήκη apothec(ary), boutique via French, bodega via Spanish;
 * ἀσϕόδελος asphodel, daffodil;
 * αὐθεντικός authentic, effendi (αὐθέντης via Turkish);
 * βάλσαμον (probably itself a borrowing from Semitic) balsam, balm;
 * βάσις basis, base, bass (voice);
 * βλάσφημος blasphemy, blame;
 * βούτυρον butyr(ic), butter;
 * διάβολος diabol(ic), devil;
 * δραχμή drachma, dram, dirhem via Arabic;
 * ἔλαιον elaeo-, oil, olive, oleum, latke via Russian and Yiddish;
 * ἐλεημοσύνη eleemosynary, alms;
 * ἐπίσκοπος episcop(al), bishop;
 * ζῆλος zeal, jealous;
 * ἡμικρανία hemicrania, migraine;
 * θησαυρός thesaurus, treasure;

 * ἰῶτα iota, jot;
 * καθέδρα cathedra(l), chair, chaise;
 * κέρας/κέρατ- 'horn' keratin, carat via Arabic;
 * κόλπος 'lap, womb, hollow, bay' colp(itis), gulf;
 * κυβερνᾶν cybernetics, govern;
 * πάπυρος papyrus, paper;
 * παροικία parochial, parish;
 * πόδιον podium, pew;
 * πρεσβύτερος presbyter, priest;
 * πυξίς pyx(is), box;
 * σκάνδαλον scandal, slander;
 * τρίπους/τρίποδ- tripod, tripos (both learned);
 * τύμπανον 'drum' tympanum 'eardrum', timbre, timpani;
 * φρενετικός frenetic, frantic;
 * χειρουργός chirurgical, surgeon;
 * χορός chorus, choir;
 * χρῖσμα chrism, cream;
 * χρῑστιᾱνός Christian, christen, cretin;
 * ὥρα horo(scope), hour.

Other doublets come from differentiation in the borrowing languages:

 * γραμματική grammatic(al): grammar, glamor, grimoire;
 * δίσκος discus: disc, dish, dais, and desk;
 * κιθάρα cither: guitar, zither, gittern, cittern, etc.;

 * κρύπτη crypt: grotto, (under)croft;
 * παραβολή parabola: parable; additional doublets in Romance give palaver, parol, and parole;
 * ϕαντασία phantasy, fantasy, fantasia; fancy in 15th-century English.

From modern Greek
Finally, with the growth of tourism and emigration, some words reflecting modern Greek culture have been borrowed into English—many of them originally borrowings into Greek themselves:

 * retsina
 * ouzo
 * souvlaki (< Latin)
 * taverna (< Italian)
 * moussaka (< Turkish < Arabic)

 * baklava (< Turkish)
 * feta (< Italian)
 * bouzouki (< Turkish)
 * gyro (the food, a calque of Turkish döner).

Greek as an intermediary
Many words from the Hebrew Bible were transmitted to the western languages through the Greek of the Septuagint, often without morphological regularization:
 * rabbi (ραββί)
 * seraphim (σεραφείμ, σεραφίμ)
 * paradise (παράδεισος < Hebrew < Persian)
 * pharaoh (Φαραώ < Hebrew < Egyptian)

Written form of Greek words in English
Many Greek words, especially those borrowed through the literary tradition, are recognizable as such from their spelling. Latin had standard orthographies for Greek borrowings, including, but not limited to:

 * Greek υ was written as 'y'
 * η as 'e'
 * χ as 'ch'
 * φ as 'ph'
 * κ as 'c'
 * rough breathings as 'h'
 * both ι and ει as 'i'

These conventions, which originally reflected pronunciation, have carried over into English and other languages with historical orthography, like French. They make it possible to recognize words of Greek origin, and give hints as to their pronunciation and inflection.

The romanization of some digraphs is rendered in various ways in English. The diphthongs αι and οι may be spelled in three different ways in English:

 * 1) the Latinate digraphs ae and oe;
 * 2) the ligatures æ and œ; and
 * 3) the simple letter e.

The ligatures have largely fallen out of use worldwide; the digraphs are uncommon in American usage, but remain common in British usage. The spelling depends mostly on the variety of English, not on the particular word. Examples include: encyclopaedia / encyclopædia / encyclopedia; haemoglobin / hæmoglobin / hemoglobin; and oedema / œdema / edema. Some words are almost always written with the digraph or ligature: amoeba / amœba, rarely ameba; Oedipus / Œdipus, rarely Edipus; others are almost always written with the single letter: sphære and hæresie were obsolete by 1700; phænomenon by 1800; phænotype and phænol by 1930. The verbal ending -ίζω is spelled -ize in American English, and -ise or -ize in British English.

Since the 19th century, a few learned words were introduced using a direct transliteration of Ancient Greek and including the Greek endings, rather than the traditional Latin-based spelling: nous (νοῦς), koine (κοινή), hoi polloi (οἱ πολλοί), kudos (κύδος), moron (μωρόν), kubernetes (κυβερνήτης). For this reason, the Ancient Greek digraph ει is rendered differently in different words—as i, following the standard Latin form: idol < εἴδωλον; or as ei, transliterating the Greek directly: eidetic (< εἰδητικός), deixis, seismic. Most plurals of words ending in -is are -es (pronounced [iːz]), using the regular Latin plural rather than the Greek -εις: crises, analyses, bases, with only a few didactic words having English plurals in -eis: poleis, necropoleis, and acropoleis (though acropolises is by far the most common English plural).

Most learned borrowings and coinages follow the Latin system, but there are some irregularities:

 * eureka (cf. heuristic);
 * kaleidoscope (the regular spelling would be calidoscope )
 * kinetic (cf. cinematography);
 * krypton (cf. cryptic);
 * acolyte (< ἀκόλουθος; acoluth would be the etymological spelling, but acolythus, acolotus, acolithus are all found in Latin);
 * stoichiometry (< στοιχεῖον; regular spelling would be st(o)echio-).
 * aneurysm was formerly often spelled aneurism on the assumption that it uses the usual -ism ending.

Some words whose spelling in French and Middle English did not reflect their Greco-Latin origins were refashioned with etymological spellings in the 16th and 17th centuries: caracter became character and quire became choir.

In some cases, a word's spelling clearly shows its Greek origin:

 * If it includes ph pronounced as /f/ or y between consonants, it is very likely Greek, with some exceptions, such as nephew, cipher, triumph.
 * If it includes rrh, phth, or chth; or starts with hy-, ps-, pn-, or chr-; or the rarer pt-, ct-, chth-, rh-, x-, sth-, mn-, tm-, gn- or bd-, then it is Greek, with some exceptions: gnat, gnaw, gneiss.

Other exceptions include:

 * ptarmigan is from a Gaelic word, the p having been added by false etymology;
 * style is probably written with a 'y' because the Greek word στῦλος 'column' (as in peristyle, 'surrounded by columns') and the Latin word stilus, 'stake, pointed instrument', were confused.
 * trophy, though ultimately of Greek origin, did not have a φ but a π in its Greek form, τρόπαιον.

Pronunciation
In clusters such as ps-, pn-, and gn- which are not allowed by English phonotactics, the usual English pronunciation drops the first consonant (e.g., psychology) at the start of a word; compare gnostic [nɒstɪk] and agnostic [ægnɒstɪk]; there are a few exceptions: tmesis [t(ə)miːsɪs].

Initial x- is pronounced z. Ch is pronounced like k rather than as in "church": e.g., character, chaos. The consecutive vowel letters 'ea' are generally pronounced separately rather than forming a single vowel sound when transcribing a Greek εα, which was not a digraph, but simply a sequence of two vowels with hiatus, as in genealogy or pancreas (cf., however, ocean, ωκεανός); zeal (earlier zele) comes irregularly from the η in ζήλος.

Some sound sequences in English are only found in borrowings from Greek, notably initial sequences of two fricatives, as in sphere. Most initial /z/ sounds are found in Greek borrowings.

The stress on borrowings via Latin which keep their Latin form generally follows the traditional English pronunciation of Latin, which depends on the syllable structure in Latin, not in Greek. For example, in Greek, both ὑπόθεσις (hypothesis) and ἐξήγησις (exegesis) are accented on the antepenult, and indeed the penult has a long vowel in exegesis; but because the penult of Latin exegēsis is heavy by Latin rules, the accent falls on the penult in Latin and therefore in English.

Inflectional endings and plurals
Though many English words derived from Greek through the literary route drop the inflectional endings (tripod, zoology, pentagon) or use Latin endings (papyrus, mausoleum), some preserve the Greek endings:

 * -ον: phenomenon, criterion, neuron, lexicon;
 * -∅: plasma, drama, dilemma, trauma (-ma is derivational, not inflectional);
 * -ος: chaos, ethos, asbestos, pathos, cosmos;
 * -ς: climax (ξ x = k + s), helix, larynx, eros, pancreas, atlas;
 * -η: catastrophe, agape, psyche;
 * -ις: analysis, basis, crisis, emphasis;
 * -ης: diabetes, herpes, isosceles.

In cases like scene, zone, fame, though the Greek words ended in -η, the silent English e is not derived from it.

In the case of Greek endings, the plurals sometimes follow the Greek rules: phenomenon, phenomena; tetrahedron, tetrahedra; crisis, crises; hypothesis, hypotheses; polis, poleis; stigma, stigmata; topos, topoi; cyclops, cyclopes; but often do not: colon, colons not *cola (except for the very rare technical term of rhetoric); pentathlon, pentathlons not *pentathla; demon, demons not *demones; climaxes, not *climaces.

Usage is mixed in some cases: schema, schemas or schemata; lexicon, lexicons or lexica; helix, helixes or helices; sphinx, sphinges or sphinxes; clitoris, clitorises or clitorides. And there are misleading cases: pentagon comes from Greek pentagonon, so its plural cannot be *pentaga; it is pentagons—the Greek form would be *pentagona (cf. Plurals from Latin and Greek).

Verbs
A few dozen English verbs are derived from the corresponding Greek verbs; examples are baptize, blame and blaspheme, stigmatize, ostracize, and cauterize. In addition, the Greek verbal suffix -ize is productive in Latin, the Romance languages, and English: words like metabolize, though composed of a Greek root and a Greek suffix, are modern compounds. A few of these also existed in Ancient Greek, such as crystallize, characterize, and democratize, but were probably coined independently in modern languages. This is particularly clear in cases like allegorize and synergize, where the Greek verbs ἀλληγορεῖν and συνεργεῖν do not end in -ize at all. Some English verbs with ultimate Greek etymologies, like pause and cycle, were formed as denominal verbs in English, even though there are corresponding Greek verbs, παῦειν/παυσ- and κυκλεῖν.

Borrowings and cognates
Greek and English share many Indo-European cognates. In some cases, the cognates can be confused with borrowings. For example, the English mouse is cognate with Greek μῦς /mys/ and Latin mūs, all from an Indo-European word *mūs; none of them is borrowed from another. Similarly, acre is cognate to Latin ager and Greek αγρός, but not a borrowing; the prefix agro- is a borrowing from Greek, and the prefix agri- a borrowing from Latin.

Phrases
Many Latin phrases are used verbatim in English texts—et cetera (etc.), ad nauseam, modus operandi (M.O.), ad hoc, in flagrante delicto, mea culpa, and so on—but this is rarer for Greek phrases or expressions:

 * hoi polloi 'the many'
 * eureka 'I have found [it]'
 * kalos kagathos 'beautiful and virtuous'
 * hapax legomenon 'once said'
 * kyrie eleison 'Lord, have mercy'

Calques and translations
Greek technical words were often calqued in Latin rather than borrowed, and then borrowed from Latin into English. Examples include:

 * (grammatical) case, from casus ('an event', 'something that has fallen'), a semantic calque of Greek πτώσις ('a fall');
 * nominative, from nōminātīvus, a translation of Greek ὀνομαστική;
 * adverb, a morphological calque of Greek ἐπίρρημα as ad- + verbum;
 * magnanimous, from Greek μεγάθυμος (lit. 'great spirit');
 * essence, from essentia, which was constructed from the notional present participle *essens, imitating Greek οὐσία.
 * substance, from substantia, a calque of Greek υπόστασις (cf. hypostasis);
 * Cicero coined moral on analogy with Greek ηθικός.
 * recant is modeled on παλινῳδεῖν.

Greek phrases were also calqued in Latin. Sometimes English uses the Latin form:

Sometimes the Latin is in turn calqued in English:
 * deus ex machina 'god out of the machine' was calqued from the Greek apò mēkhanês theós (ἀπὸ μηχανῆς θεός).
 * materia medica is a short form of Dioscorides ' De Materia Medica, from Περὶ ὕλης ἰατρικῆς.
 * quod erat demonstrandum (Q.E.D.) is a calque of ὅπερ ἔδει δεῖξαι.
 * quintessence is post-classical quinta essentia, from Greek πέμπτη οὐσία.
 * English commonplace is a calque of locus communis, itself a calque of Greek κοινός τόπος.
 * subject matter is a calque of subiecta māteria, itself a calque of Aristotle's phrase "ἡ ὑποκειμένη ὕλη."
 * wisdom tooth came to English from dentes sapientiae, from Arabic aḍrāsu 'lḥikmi, from σωϕρονιστῆρες, used by Hippocrates.
 * political animal is from πολιτικὸν ζῷον (in Aristotle's Politics).

The Greek word εὐαγγέλιον has come into English both in borrowed forms like evangelical and the form gospel, an English calque (Old English gód spel 'good tidings') of bona adnuntiatio, itself a calque of the Greek.

Statistics
The contribution of Greek to the English vocabulary can be quantified in two ways, type and token frequencies: type frequency is the proportion of distinct words; token frequency is the proportion of words in actual texts.

Since most words of Greek origin are specialized technical and scientific coinages, the type frequency is considerably higher than the token frequency. And the type frequency in a large word list will be larger than that in a small word list. In a typical English dictionary of 80,000 words, which corresponds very roughly to the vocabulary of an educated English speaker, about 5% of the words are borrowed from Greek.

Most common
Of the 500 most common words in English, 18 (3.6%) are of Greek origin: place (rank 115), problem (121), school (147), system (180), program (241), idea (252), story (307), base (328), center (335), period (383), history (386), type (390), music (393), political (395), policy (400), paper (426), phone (480), economic (494).

title: English words of Greek origin


text: Category:Nordic folklore

title: Category:Nordic folklore


text: Category:Opeth albums

title: Category:Opeth albums


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Southwest Asia Service Medal

The Southwest Asia Service Medal (SASM or SWASM) is a military award of the United States Armed Forces which was created by order of President George H.W. Bush on March 12, 1991. The award is intended to recognize those military service members who performed duty as part of the Persian Gulf War and for a time thereafter. The medal was designed by Nadine Russell of the Army's Institute of Heraldry. The colors of the ribbon are tan, representing sand, with the black, white, red, blue, and green colors symbolizing the colors of coalition countries' national flags.

History
Individuals awarded the Southwest Asia Service Medal must have participated in or supported military operations in Southwest Asia between August 2, 1990, and November 30, 1995. That period of inclusion includes participation in Operations Desert Shield or Desert Storm:

 * Iraq
 * Kuwait
 * Saudi Arabia
 * Oman
 * Bahrain
 * Qatar
 * United Arab Emirates
 * Persian Gulf
 * Red Sea
 * Gulf of Oman
 * Gulf of Aden
 * that portion of the Arabian Sea that lies north of 10 degrees North latitude and west of 68 degrees East longitude

Individuals serving in Israel, Egypt, Turkey, Syria and Jordan (including the airspace and territorial waters) directly supporting combat operations between January 17, 1991, and April 11, 1991, are also eligible for this award.

To receive the award, a service member must be: attached to or regularly serving for one or more days with an organization participating in ground/shore military operations; attached to or regularly serving for one or more days aboard a naval vessel directly supporting military operations; actually participating as a crew member in one or more aerial flights directly supporting military operations in the areas designated; or serving on temporary duty for 30 consecutive days or 60 nonconsecutive days, except, if a waiver is authorized for personnel participating in actual combat.

For those service members who performed "home service" during the Persian Gulf War, such as support personnel in the United States, the Southwest Asia Service Medal is not authorized. The award is also not authorized for those who performed support of the Persian Gulf War from European or Pacific bases.

2016 redesign
In April 2016, the appearance of the suspension and service ribbon of the SWASM was slightly modified by the United States Department of Defense through the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). The DLA made the two vertical green bars and one vertical black bar in the middle wider than in the original 1991 version.

Campaign phases and devices
The following are the approved campaign phases and respective inclusive dates for the Southwest Asia Service Medal (SWASM):

The following ribbon devices are authorized for wear on the Southwest Asia Service Medal:
 * Silver and Bronze Service Stars.PNG Campaign stars (all branches)
 * Fleet Marine Force Combat Insignia.svg Fleet Marine Force Combat Operation Insignia (Navy personnel assigned to a Marine Corps unit in combat)

Examples of campaign stars worn on the Southwest Asia Campaign service ribbon:

While several operations occurred in the geographical areas described above between April 12, 1991, and November 30, 1995, including Operation Provide Comfort (June 1, 1992 – November 30, 1995), Operation Southern Watch (August 27, 1992 – April 29, 2003) and Operation Vigilant Warrior (October 14, 1994 – December 21, 1994), these operations were covered under the third campaign, Southwest Asia Cease-Fire. Service in Operations that extended beyond the final campaign date of November 30, 1995, were recognized by awards of either the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal or the Armed Forces Service Medal.

title: Southwest Asia Service Medal


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Koran Tempo

Koran Tempo (Tempo Paper) is a daily online digital newspaper in Indonesia. It is published by PT Tempo Inti Media Harian, a part of Tempo Inti Media, which also published Tempo magazine. It was first published as a print newspaper on April 2, 2001, with a circulation of 100,000 daily.

Koran Tempo was originally published in broadsheet format, before being converted to tabloid in 2005.

Koran Tempo ceased its print publication with the last edition on 31 December 2020, citing change on newspaper readers behavior and increase of its digital version subscribers. Starting in January 2021, the paper published on digital version only, which can be accessed from the paper's website and Tempo mobile application.

title: Koran Tempo


text: Category:Tom Waits albums

title: Category:Tom Waits albums


text:
Considered harmful

Considered harmful is a part of a phrasal template "X considered harmful". , its snowclones have been used in the titles of at least 65 critical essays in computer science and related disciplines. Its use in this context originated with a 1968 letter by Edsger Dijkstra published as "Go To Statement Considered Harmful".

History
Considered harmful was already a journalistic cliché used in headlines, well before the Dijkstra article, as in, for example, the headline over a letter published in 1949 in The New York Times: "Rent Control Controversy / Enacting Now of Hasty Legislation Considered Harmful".

Considered harmful was popularized among computer scientists by Edsger Dijkstra's letter "Go To Statement Considered Harmful", published in the March 1968 Communications of the ACM (CACM), in which he criticized the excessive use of the GOTO statement in programming languages of the day and advocated structured programming instead. The original title of the letter, as submitted to CACM, was "A Case Against the Goto Statement", but CACM editor Niklaus Wirth changed the title to "Goto Statement Considered Harmful". Regarding this new title, Donald Knuth quipped that "Dr. Goto cheerfully complained that he was always being eliminated."

Frank Rubin published a criticism of Dijkstra's letter in the March 1987 CACM where it appeared under the title 'GOTO Considered Harmful' Considered Harmful. The May 1987 CACM printed further replies, both for and against, under the title GOTO Considered Harmful" Considered Harmful' Considered Harmful?. Dijkstra's own response to this controversy was titled On a Somewhat Disappointing Correspondence.

Snowclones

 * (Full proposal text was included in post-meeting distribution; see summary.)
 * This article is the namesake of a Cat-v.org Random Contrarian Insurgent Organization, which maintains a directory of "considered harmful" articles and hosts some Plan 9-related software. (Rob Pike was a main figure in the creation of Plan 9 and wrote extensively on bad designs found in UNIX.)
 * See C shell.
 * See Human-centered design.
 * See C (programming language) and musl, which the author maintains.
 * See Filename extension.
 * See Electron (software framework).
 * See Tensor (machine learning).
 * See C shell.
 * See Human-centered design.
 * See C (programming language) and musl, which the author maintains.
 * See Filename extension.
 * See Electron (software framework).
 * See Tensor (machine learning).
 * See Human-centered design.
 * See C (programming language) and musl, which the author maintains.
 * See Filename extension.
 * See Electron (software framework).
 * See Tensor (machine learning).
 * See C (programming language) and musl, which the author maintains.
 * See Filename extension.
 * See Electron (software framework).
 * See Tensor (machine learning).
 * See C (programming language) and musl, which the author maintains.
 * See Filename extension.
 * See Electron (software framework).
 * See Tensor (machine learning).
 * See Filename extension.
 * See Electron (software framework).
 * See Tensor (machine learning).
 * See Tensor (machine learning).

title: Considered harmful


text:
U.S. Soccer Player of the Year

The U.S. Soccer Player of the Year is given by the United States Soccer Federation to the American soccer players judged best in the calendar year. It is considered the highest accolade for American soccer players.

The U.S. Soccer Male Player of the Year award originated in 1984, followed by the Female Player of the Year in 1985. Awards for Young Male and Young Female Players were added in 1998. An award for Player of the Year with a Disability was added in 2012 but discontinued after 2020 and replaced with the non-player-specific "ADAPTandTHRIVE Disability Award," which "recognizes an individual making an impact in the United States' broad landscape of disability soccer." In 2021, awards for female and male beach soccer as well as futsal are added.

Public voting for the awards account for 50 percent of the results. The other 50 percent are voted by members of the national media and U.S. Soccer representatives (from national team coaches to the National Board of Directors).

Multiple winners
Landon Donovan and Christian Pulisic are the only male players to win the award four times. Marcelo Balboa was the first player to win the award twice, in 1992 and 1994, and Kasey Keller was the first player to win the award three times (1997, 1999 and 2005). Landon Donovan (2003 and 2004; 2009 and 2010) and Clint Dempsey (2011 and 2012) are the only players to have won the award in consecutive seasons.

Abby Wambach is the only female player to win the award six times, closely followed by Mia Hamm with 5. April Heinrichs was the first player to win the award twice, in 1986 and 1989, Mia Hamm was the first player to win the award three, four, and five times, and Abby Wambach was the first and only player to win the award six times. Hamm is the only player to have won the award five times in a row (1994–98), while Michelle Akers (1990 and 1991), Tiffeny Milbrett (2000 and 2001), Abby Wambach (2003 and 2004; 2010 and 2011) and Kristine Lilly (2005 and 2006) are the only players to have won the award in consecutive seasons.

Players that are still active in Europe are highlighted in boldface.

title: U.S. Soccer Player of the Year


text:
Reg Reagan

Reg Reagan is a fictional character created by Australian rugby league player, Matthew Johns. His signature outfit is a false Horseshoe Moustache, A pillow stuffed in his singlet to resemble a beer gut and a shirt displaying his catchphrase "Bring back the biff" Referring to a semi satirical desire for fights in the sport.

In 2004, Reagan, released "Am I Ever Gonna See the Biff Again?" a song to the tune of the Angels' 1977 hit "Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again?".

ARIA Music Awards
The ARIA Music Awards are a set of annual ceremonies presented by Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), which recognise excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of the music of Australia. They commenced in 1987.

! Ref.
 * 2004
 * "Am I Ever Gonna See the Biff Again?"
 * Best Comedy Release
 * Nominated
 * Nominated

Local Shenanigans
The Cessnock Wikipedia article was subject to vandalism listing "the illusive Reg Reagan" as a Notable Local.

title: Reg Reagan


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Ashtavinayaka

Ashtavinayaka (अष्टविनायक) is a Sanskrit term which means "eight Ganeshas". The Ashtavinayaka Yatra refers to a pilgrimage to the eight Hindu temples in the state of Maharashtra, India, centered around the city of Pune. The eight temples house eight distinct idols of Ganesha, the Hindu deity of unity, prosperity, learning, and removing obstacles. Each of these temples has its own individual legend and history, as distinct from each other as the murtis in each temple. The form of each murti of Ganesha and his trunk are distinct from one another. There are other temples of eight Ganesha in various other parts of Maharashtra; however, the ones around Pune are more well known and visited. To complete the Ashtavinayaka Yatra, one must revisit the first temple after visiting all the eight temples.

The Ashtavinayaka Yatra is a pilgrimage covering these eight holy abodes of Ganesha in and around Pune and Raigad District of Maharashtra. Out of these 8 Temples, 6 are in Pune and 2 are in Raigad District. Ganesha is worshiped first before any other worship service is carried out to any other deity. The pilgrimage takes 3 days to complete. As per scriptures travel starts from Moreswar in Moregaon then Siddhivinayak temple of Siddhtek, Pali, Mhad, Theur Chintamani Ganesh in Pune, Lenyandri, Ojar, Ranjangaon then back to Moregaon where pilgrimage had started.

Temples
The eight temples/idols of the Ashtavinayaka in their religious sequence are: Traditionally, Moreshwar of Moregaon is the first temple visited by the pilgrims. The temples should be visited in this order Moregaon, Siddhatek, Pali, Mahad, Theur, Lenyandri, Ozar, Ranjangaon. The pilgrimage is concluded with a second visit to Moregaon.

All these murtis are called svayambhu idols in Sanskrit (self-originating/self-existent images, and not carved images).

Mayureshwar
This is the most important temple on this pilgrimage. The temple, built from black-stone during the Bahamani reign, has four gates (it is supposed to have been built by one of the knights named Mr. Gole, from the court of Bidar's Sultan). The temple is situated in the centre of the village. The temple is covered from all sides by four minarets and gives the impression of a mosque if seen from a distance. This was done to prevent attacks on the temple during Mughal periods. The temple has a 50-foot tall wall around it.

There is a Nandi (Shiva's bull mount) sitting in front of this temple entrance, which is unique, as Nandi is normally in front of only Shiva temples. However, the story says that this statue was being carried to some Shivamandir during which the vehicle carrying it broke down and the Nandi statue could not be removed from its current place.

The murti of Ganesha, riding a peacock, in the form of Mayureshwara is believed to have slain the demon Sindhu at this spot. The idol, with its trunk turned to the left, has a cobra (Nagaraja) poised over it protecting it. This form of Ganesha also has two other murtis of Siddhi (Capability) and Riddhi (Intelligence).

However, this is not the original murti -which is said to have been consecrated twice by Brahma, once before and once after being destroyed by the asura Sindhurasur. The original murti, smaller in size and made of atoms of sand, iron, and diamonds, was supposedly enclosed in a copper sheet by the Pandavas and placed behind the one that is currently worshipped.

The cited temple is the Morgaon Temple, one of the Ashtavinayaka temples in Maharashtra, India. It is located in the village of Morgaon, some 55 kilometres from Pune, along the Karha River. The name of the village is taken from the Marathi word for peacock, and it is claimed to be laid out in the shape of a peacock.

The Ashtavinayaka temples are a significant pilgrimage circuit dedicated to Lord Ganesha in Maharashtra. This circuit's temples are each associated with a different mythology and divinity. Morgaon Temple is one of these eight temples, and it is spiritually and culturally significant to Lord Ganesha worshippers.

Siddhivinayak
According to regional legend, Vishnu is believed to have vanquished the asuras Madhu and Kaitabha after propitiating Ganesha here.

This is the only murti of these eight with the trunk positioned to the right.

It is believed that the two saints Shri Morya Gosavi and Shri Narayan Maharaj of Kedgaon received their enlightenment here.

The temple is North-facing and is on a small hillock. The main road towards the temple was believed to be built by Peshwa's general Haripant Phadake. The inner sanctum, 15 feet high and 10 feet wide is built by Punyashloka Ahilyabai Holkar. The idol is 3 feet tall and 2.5 feet wide. The idol faces North-direction. The stomach of the murti is not wide, but Riddhi and Siddhi murtis are sitting on one thigh. This murti's trunk is turning to the right. The right-sided-trunk Ganesha is supposed to be very strict for the devotees. To make one round (pradakshina) around the temple one has to make the round trip of the hillock. This takes about 30 minutes with moderate speed.

Peshwa general Haripant Phadake lost his General's position and did 21 Pradakshina around the temple. On the 21st day Peshwa's court-man came and took him to the court with royal honor. Haripant promised the God that he will bring the stones of the castle which he will win from the first war he will fight as the general. The stone pathway is built from the Badami-Castle which was attacked by Haripant soon after he became the general.

This temple is situated off the Pune-Solapur highway about 48 km from the town of Srigonda in Ahmadnagar district. The temple is situated next to Bhima river. On Pune-Solapur railway, Daund Railway station is 18 km from here.

Ballaleshwar
Ganesha is believed to have saved this boy-devotee, Ballala, who was beaten by local villagers and his father (Kalyani-seth) for his single-minded devotion to him.

The original wooden temple was reconstructed into a stone temple by Nana Phadanavis in 1760. There are two small lakes constructed on two sides of the temple. One of them is reserved for the puja (worship) of the Deity.

This Temple faces the east and has two sanctums. The inner one houses the murti and has a Mushika (Ganesha's mouse vahana) with modaka in his forepaws in front of it. The hall, supported by eight exquisitely carved pillars demands as much attention as the idol, sitting on throne carved like a cypress tree. The eight pillars depict the eight directions. Inner sanctum is 15 feet tall and outer one is 12 feet tall. The temple is constructed in such a way that after the winter (dakshinayan : southward movement of the sun) solstice, the sun rays fall on the Ganesha murti at sunrise. The temple is built with stones which are stuck together very tight using melted lead.

Like a few other murtis, this one has diamonds embedded in the eyes and navel, and with His trunk pointing to the left.

One speciality of this temple is that the prasad offered to this Ganapati at Pali is Besan Laadu instead of Modak that is normally offered to other Ganapatis.

The shape of the idol itself bears a striking semblance with the mountain which forms the backdrop of this temple. This is more prominently felt if one views the photograph of the mountain and then sees the idol.

The temple is located in the town of  Pali, off the Mumbai-Pune highway, about 11 km before Nagothane on the Mumbai-Goa highway. This is located 30 km to the South-West of  Karjat Railway Station. Mumbai-Panvel-Khopoli-Pali is 124 km. Pune-Lonavla-Khopoli-Pali is 111 km.

Behind this temple is the temple of Shri Dhundi-Vinayak which is West facing. This is a very rare idol which is facing the West. The story says that this idol was the same one which was thrown by Ballala's father (Kalyani-seth) while Ballala was worshipping it.

History of Temple

Ganesha Purana gives an elaborate picture of LEELAS of Ganesha. The legendary story of Ballaleshwar is covered in Upasana Khand Section -22 occurred in Pali – the old name Pallipur.

Kalyansheth was a merchant in Pallipur and was married to Indumati. The couple was childless for quite some time but later had a son known as Ballal. As Ballal grew, he spent much of his time in worshiping and praying. He was devotee of Ganesha and used to worship stone idol of Ganesha in the forest along with his friends and companions. As it used to take time, the friends would reach home late. Regular delay in returning house used to irritate the parents of the friends of Ballal who complained to his father saying that Ballal was responsible for spoiling the kids. Already unhappy with Ballal for not concentrating on his studies, Kalyansheth was boiling with anger when he heard the complaint. Immediately he reached the place of worship in the forest and devastated Pooja arrangements organized by Ballal and his friends. He threw away the Stone Idol of Ganesha and broke the pandal. All the kids were frightened but Ballal who was engrossed in Pooja and japa, did not notice the event. Kalayan beat Ballal mercilessly and tied him to the tree saying to get fed and freed by Ganesha. He left for home thereafter.

Ballal semiconscious and tied to the tree in the forest was lying as that with severe pain all over, started calling his beloved God, Ganesha.

"O Lord, Ganesha, I was busy in praying you, I was right and humble but my cruel father has spoiled my act of devotion and hence I am unable to perform Pooja."

Ganesha was pleased and responded quickly. Ballal was freed. He blessed Ballal to be superior devotee with larger lifespan. Ganesha hugged Ballal and said that his father would suffer for his wrongdoings.

Ballal insisted that Ganesha should continue to stay there at Pali. Nodding His head Ganesha made his permanent stay at Pali as Ballal Vinayak and disappeared in a large stone. This is famous as Ballaleshwar.

Shri Dhundi Vinayak
In the above-mentioned story the stone idol which Ballal used to worship and which was thrown away by Kalyan Sheth is known as Dhundi Vinayak. The idol is facing west. The birth celebration of Dhundi Vinayak takes place from Jeshtha Pratipada to Panchami. From ancient time, it is a practice to take darshan of Dhundi Vinayak before proceeding to main idol Shree Ballaleshwar.

Varadavinayak

The handsome Prince Rukmangad refused sage Vachaknavi's wife Mukunda's illicit call, and was cursed to suffer from leprosy. Mukunda was satisfied by Indra who deceived her as Rukmangad and she bore a child by name Grutsamad. When Grutsamad discovered the truth, he cursed his mother Mukunda to become the tree of Bori and she in turn cursed him to bear a demon son named Tripurasur, the one who was defeated by Shiva after praying the Ranjangaon Ganesha. Grutsamad after being cursed went to the forest of Pushpak and worshipped Ganesha. Sage Grutsamad is famous for the mantra GaNanaN Tva. He founded the temple and called this Ganesha: Varada-Vinayak.

Ganesha is said to reside here in the form of Varada Vinayaka, the giver of bounty and success. The idol was found in the adjoining lake (to Mr. Dhondu Paudkar in 1690AD), in an immersed position and hence its weathered look. In 1725AD the then Kalyan subhedar, Mr. Ramji Mahadev Biwalkar built the Varadavinayak temple and the village of Mahad.

The idol faces the east, has its trunk to the left and has been in the constant company of an oil lamp - said to be burning continuously since 1892. There are four elephant idols on four sides of the temple. The hall is 8 feet by 8 feet. The dome is 25feet high and is golden at the top. The dome has designs of cobra.

This is the only temple where devotees are allowed to personally pay their homage and respects to the idol. They are allowed in the immediate vicinity of this idol to perform their prayers.

The temple is located three kilometers off the Mumbai-Pune highway near Khopoli (80 km from Pune), and is thus closest to Mumbai city. Karjat Railway Station, Karjat on Mumbai-Pune railway is 24 km from this place and 6 km from Khopoli.

Chintamani
Ganesha is believed to have got back the precious Chinatamani jewel from the greedy Guna for sage Kapila at this spot. However, after bringing back the jewel, sage Kapila put it in Vinayaka's (Ganesha's) neck. Thus the name Chintamani Vinayak. This happened under the Kadamb tree, therefore Theur is known as Kadambanagar in old times.

The lake behind the temple is called Kadambteertha. The temple entrance is North facing. The outer wooden hall was built by Peshwas. The main temple is supposed to have been built by Dharanidhar Maharaj Dev from the family-lineage of Shri Moraya Gosavi. He must have built this around 100 years before Senior Shrimant Madhavrao Peshwa built the outer wooden hall.

This idol also has a left trunk, with carbuncle and diamonds as its eyes. The idol faces east.

Theur's Chintamani was the family deity of Shrimant Madhavrao I Peshwa. He suffered from tuberculosis and died at a very young age (~27 years). He is supposed to have died in this temple. His wife, Ramabai committed Sati with him on 18 November 1772.

The temple is located 22 km from Pune, off the Pune-Solapur highway, and is hence the nearest from Pune. The village of Theur sits at the confluence of three major regional rivers—Mula, Mutha & Bhima.

Girijatmaj
It is believed that Parvati (Shiva's wife) performed penance to beget Ganesha at this point. Girija's (Parvati's) Atmaj (son) is Girijatmaj. This temple stands amidst a cave complex of 18 caves of Buddhist origin. This temple is the eighth cave. These are called Ganesha-leni as well. The temple is carved out of a single stone hill, which has 307 steps. The temple features a wide hall with no supporting pillars. The temple hall is 53 feet long, 51 feet wide and 7 feet high.

The idol faces north with its trunk to the left, and has to be worshipped from the rear of the temple. The temple faces south. This idol seems little different from the rest of the Ashtavinayaka idols in a sense that it appears to be poorly designed or carved like the other idols. This idol can be worshipped by anyone. There is no electric bulb in the temple. The temple is constructed such that during the day it is always lighted by sunshine.

The temple is situated 12 km from Narayangaon, which is about 94 km from Pune on the Pune-Nashik highway. Nearest railway station is Talegaon. From Junnar, Lenyadri is about 5 km. Shivaneri castle is close by (5 to 6 km) where Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was born.

Vighneshwar
The history encompassing this idol states that Vighnasur, a demon was created by the King of Gods, Indra to destroy the prayer organized by King Abhinandan. However, the demon went a step further and destroyed all vedic, religious acts and to answer the people's prayers for protection, Ganesha defeated him. The story goes on to say that on being conquered, the demon begged and pleaded with Ganesha to show a mercy. Ganesha then granted in his plea, but on the condition that demon should not go to the place where Ganesha worshipping is going on. In return the demon asked a favour that his name should be taken before Ganesha's name, thus the name of Ganesha became Vighnahar or Vighneshwar (Vighna in Sanskrit means a sudden interruption in the ongoing work due to some unforeseen, unwarranted event or cause). The Ganesha here is called Shri Vighneshwar Vinayak.

The temple faces east and is surrounded by a thick stone wall. One can walk on the wall. The main hall of the temple is 20feet long and the inner hall is 10feet long. This idol, facing the east, has its trunk towards the left and rubies in its eyes. There is a diamond on the forehead and some jewel in the navel. Idols of Riddhi and Siddhi are placed on the two sides of the Ganesha idol. The temple top is Golden and is possibly built by Chimaji Appa after defeating the Portuguese rulers of Vasai and Sashti. The temple is probably built around 1785CE.

This temple is located just off the Pune-Nashik Highway, in the town of Ozhar. It is enclosed on all sides by high stone walls, and its pinnacle is made of gold. The temple is situated on the banks of river Kukadi. Via Mumbai-Thane-Kalyan-Bapsai-Saralgaon-Otur, Ozhar is 182 km.

Mahaganapati
Shiva is believed to have worshipped Ganesha before fighting the demon Tripurasura here. The temple was built by Shiva where he worshipped Ganesha, and the town he set up was called Manipur which is now known as Ranjangaon.

Ranjangaon Ganpati is one among the Ashtavinayaka, celebrating eight instances of legends related to Ganesha. This Temple Ganpati Idol was inaugurated and donated by "Khollam" family one of the Gold Smith family in Ranjangaon. According to the history the temple was built in between 9th and 10th centuries.

While going from the Pune - Nagar highway the route is Pune - Koregaon - then via Shikrapur; Rajangaon is 21 km before Shirur. From Pune it is 50 km.

The idol faces the east, is seated in a cross-legged position with a broad forehead, with its trunk pointing to the left. It is said that the original idol is hidden in the basement, having 10 trunks and 20 hands and is called Mahotkat, however, the temple authorities deny existence of any such idol.

Constructed so that the rays of the sun fall directly on the idol (during the Southward movement of the sun), the temple bears a distinct resemblance to the architecture reminiscent of the 9th and 10th Centuries and faces the east. Shrimant Madhavrao Peshwa used to visit this temple very often and built the stone sanctum around the idol and in 1790 AD Mr. Anyaba Dev was authorised to worship the idol.

The Temple: Mahaganapati is portrayed, seated on a lotus, flanked by his consorts Siddhi and Ridhi. The temple dates back to the period of Peshwa Madhav Rao.

The temple of Maha Ganpati is very close to the centre of the town Ranjangaon. The temple was erected during the rule of the Peshwas. Peshwa Madhavrao had constructed the inner sanctum, to house the swayambhoo (naturally found) idol.

The temple faces east. It has an imposing main gate which is guarded by two statues of Jay and Vijay. The temple is designed in such away that during Dakshinayan, the apparent movement of the sun to the south, the rays of the sun fall directly on the deity.

The deity is seated and flanked on both sides by Riddhi and Siddhi. The trunk of the deity turns to the left. There is a local belief that the real statue of Mahaganpati is hidden in some vault and this statue has ten trunks and twenty arms. But there is nothing to substantiate this belief.

Festivals: As with all other Ashtavinayaka (Ganesha) temples, Ganesha Chaturti is celebrated in great splendor here.

Legend has it that when a sage had once sneezed he gave out a child; since being with the sage the child learnt many good stuff about lord Ganesha, however had inherited many evil thoughts within; when he grew he developed in to a demon by name Tripurasura; thereafter he prayed to Lord Shiva and got three powerful citadels (the evil Tripuram forts) of gold, silver and bronze with a boon of invincibility until all the three are in linear; with the boon to his side he caused suffering to all beings in the heavens and on earth. Upon hearing the fervent appeals of the Gods, Shiva intervened, and realized that he could not defeat the demon. It was upon hearing Narada Muni's advice that Shiva saluted Ganesha and then shot a single arrow that pierced through the citadels, bringing an end to the demon.

Shiva, the slayer of the Tripura citadels is enshrined at Bhimashankaram nearby.

A variation of this legend is commonly known in southern India. Ganesha is said to have caused the axle in Shiva's chariot to break, as the latter headed to battle the demon without saluting Ganesha before he set out. Upon realizing his act of omission, Shiva saluted his son Ganesha, and then proceeded victoriously to a short battle against the powerful demon. (See Acharapakkam - an ancient temple in Tamil Nadu glorified by the 1st millennium Tamil hymns enshrining Shiva associated with this legend, as well as Tiruvirkolam and Tiruvatikai - both over 1200 years old, associated with the legend of Tripurasamhaaram).

(The Tamil lines of 15th century saint poet Arunagirinathar: 'Muppuram eri seida, Acchivan urai ratham, acchadu podi seida athi deera' where he describes Ganesha as the valiant hero, who caused the axle of Shiva's chariot to crumble to dust, as Shiva headed out to destroy Tripurasura, narrate this legend.)

title: Ashtavinayaka