text:
The Firstborn Is Dead

The Firstborn Is Dead is the second studio album released by the post-punk band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. It was first released in 1985. On this record, singer Nick Cave continued his fascination with the American South, with its references to Elvis Presley and bluesmen like Blind Lemon Jefferson. The photography is by Jutta Henglein-Bildau.

The album was recorded in the Hansa Studios in Berlin, Germany. Cave later said of this album, "Berlin gave us the freedom and encouragement to do whatever we wanted. We'd lived in London for three years and it seemed that if you stuck your head out of the box, people were pretty quick to knock it back in. Particularly if you were Australian. When we came to Berlin it was the opposite. People saw us as some kind of force rather than a kind of whacky novelty act."

The album's name is a reference to Jesse Garon Presley, the stillborn identical twin of Elvis Presley.

The album was remastered and reissued on 27 April 2009 as a collector's edition CD/DVD set. The CD features the original 7-song vinyl LP's track listing, while "The Six Strings That Drew Blood" is featured as a bonus audio track on the accompanying DVD.

Reception
Spin wrote, "Mournfully authentic blue lines of harmonica and guitar, journeys through a mythical southern reality heavy on train wrecks, suicides, prison life, and big black crows. Cave's concept of America has been peeled from the grooves of old blues and Western cowboy 78s."

Track listing
All lyrics written by Nick Cave, except "Wanted Man" by Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and Cave. Music written by personnel noted below.

 * 1) "Tupelo" (Adamson, Harvey) – 7:17
 * 2) "Say Goodbye to the Little Girl Tree" (Harvey) – 5:10
 * 3) "Train Long-Suffering" (Cave) – 3:49
 * 4) "Black Crow King" (Bargeld, Cave) – 5:05
 * 5) "Knockin' on Joe" (Cave) – 7:38
 * 6) "Wanted Man" (Bob Dylan) – 5:27
 * 7) "Blind Lemon Jefferson" (Adamson, Bargeld, Harvey, Cave) – 6:10

Songs

 * "Tupelo" is loosely based on the John Lee Hooker song of the same title, which is about a flood in Tupelo, Mississippi (Hooker's song appears on Original Seeds). Tupelo is the birthplace of Elvis Presley. Cave's song incorporates imagery of the birth of Elvis and the apocalypse at the second coming of Christ. However, the "Looky, Looky Yonder" motif that features in the song is derived from a song of the same name recorded by Lead Belly, usually found as part of a medley which Cave himself covered under the title "Black Betty" on his third album, Kicking Against the Pricks.
 * "Wanted Man" evolved from a song composed by Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash. Cave was granted permission to alter the lyrics. Cave's lyrics include references to his friends, such as photographer Polly Borland.
 * "The Six Strings that Drew Blood" is included on the 1988 CD reissue of the album, but not on the original LP. It was the B-side of the "Tupelo" single and is a remake of a song Cave originally recorded with the Birthday Party during the Mutiny sessions in 1982.

Singles

 * "Tupelo" (MUTE 038) (29 July 1985)
 * "Tupelo" (single version) b/w: "The Six Strings That Drew Blood"

Personnel

 * Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
 * Nick Cave – lead vocals, harmonica
 * Blixa Bargeld – guitar, backing vocals, slide guitar, piano
 * Barry Adamson – bass, backing vocals, guitar, organ, drums
 * Mick Harvey – drums, backing vocals, guitar, organ, piano, bass

title: The Firstborn Is Dead


text:
Field Spaniel

The Field Spaniel is a medium-sized dog breed of spaniel type. They were originally developed to be all-black show dogs in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and were unpopular for work as a hunting dog. However, during the mid-20th century they were redeveloped as a longer-legged dog that was more suitable to be used for field work. They are now considered to be a rare breed, and are registered as a Vulnerable Native Breed by The Kennel Club.

Their fur is darker than other spaniels and they have no undercoat like most of the other field type spaniels.

History
The Field Spaniel was originally developed for the show ring by competitors who were attempting to develop an all-black Spaniel. Some of the breeding methods of those early developers were criticised; one of the first breeders of the Field Spaniel, Thomas Jacobs, said of the origin; "Much has been written and said on the purity of the breed; deprecating the means I have adopted to produce them as calculated to alter a presumed type, and frequent missiles have been hurled at me and my dogs from behind the hedge. But where is the pure bred black spaniel we hear so much about? Proof of the existence of the pure bred one (if there ever was one!) has not been forthcoming. Like most sporting dogs, they are the result of different crosses."

They were unpopular with sportsmen as the dark colours of the breed did not show up in hunting conditions, and the elongated and short shape of the early breed was not very practical for moving easily through cover. The low-slung variety of Field Spaniel were developed by Phineas Bullock from dogs previously owned by Sir Francis Burdett, the secretary of the Birmingham Dog Show. Burdett was said to have owned a variety of black Cocker Spaniels. Bullock crossed the Field Spaniel with the Sussex Spaniel and the English Water Spaniel. In the 1870s, Burdett was very successful in the show ring with his variety of Field Spaniel; however, it resulted in a dog that was almost exactly like a Sussex Spaniel with the exception of the head itself.

The dog considered to be the common ancestor of the modern English Cocker Spaniel is Ch. Obo, born in 1879 to a Sussex Spaniel father and a Field Spaniel mother. Obo's son Ch. Obo II is considered to be the father of the modern American Cocker Spaniel, being described as only 10 inches high with quite a long body.

By 1909, the average weight of a Field Spaniel was 35 - 45 lb. Further mixing of the breed occurred with elements of the Basset Hound introduced. Various genetic health issues arose and action was taken in order to correct the problems within the breed. English Springer Spaniels were used to introduce healthier elements into the breed and resulted in the longer legged spaniel known today. Most of the modern breed can be traced to four dogs from the 1950s; Colombina of Teffont, Elmbury Morwena of Rhiwlas, Gormac Teal, and Ronayne Regal.

The Field Spaniel remains a rare breed, even in the UK. In 2009, a total of 51 dogs were registered with The Kennel Club and it has been in steady decline since 2000. Out of all the Spaniel breeds registered with The Kennel Club, the Field Spaniel has the lowest number registered year on year, with only the Sussex Spaniel coming a close second with 60 registrations in 2009. This may be compared with the English Springer Spaniel with 12,700 registrations and the English Cocker Spaniel with 22,211 registrations in 2009 alone. In order to promote the breed, it has been registered as a Vulnerable Native Breed by The Kennel Club.

Appearance
The standard size for a Field Spaniel is approximately 46 cm tall at the withers, and a weight of between 18 - 25 kg. This places it roughly between the English Cocker Spaniel and the English Springer Spaniel in size. Its coat comes in solid colours of black and liver, or in roan. Tan points, white markings on the throat and the chest can be ticked or the same colour as the rest of the body.

They have a moderately long single coat with no undercoat. Feathering of the fur appears on the chest, belly, ears and on the back of the legs. The coat is not as heavy as that of a Cocker Spaniel but requires grooming in order to prevent mats from appearing in the fur. Docking of tails has been banned in a number of countries, including the UK; however, an exemption is made for working animals.

Temperament
The Field Spaniel is an active and inquisitive breed, and makes a good companion. However, if left alone and unoccupied for long periods of time, they may become bored and destructive. They are suitable for dog agility exercises and hunting. They are patient with children and like to stay close to their family. When socialised, they are good with other dogs. They are generally docile and independent, and are not as excitable as Cocker Spaniels. Stanley Coren's The Intelligence of Dogs lists the breed as being above average in working intelligence.

Health
A 2024 UK study found a life expectancy of 13.1 years for the breed compared to an average of 12.7 for purebreeds and 12 for crossbreeds. There are a few ocular conditions to which the Field Spaniel has a predisposition. These include cataracts, retinal atrophy and retinal dysplasia. Hip dysplasia has appeared in British lines of Field Spaniels. The Kennel Club and British Veterinary Association highly recommend eye testing and hip scoring be carried out by Field Spaniel breeders. In a health survey conducted by the Kennel Club (UK), the primary cause of death in Field Spaniels was cancer, with the second most frequent cause being old age.

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

title: Field Spaniel


text:
User:EC

So this is the page where I talk about myself.

Female, nineteen, living in Sydney, Australia. I had acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) and underwent an allogeneic bone marrow transplant in 2004.

She passed away on April 18th, 2005 after failing to recover from a sepsis infection. She was 19.

title: User:EC


text: User talk:68.125.69.27

title: User talk:68.125.69.27


text:
Black Tape for a Blue Girl

Black Tape for a Blue Girl (often stylized as black tape for a blue girl) is an American dark wave band formed in 1986 by keyboardist/songwriter Sam Rosenthal, the founder of Projekt Records.

Their music has elements of dark wave, ethereal, ambient, neoclassical, and dark cabaret music. Their 13th album, The Cleft Serpent, was released on October 1, 2021 on Projekt Records.

Formation/Oscar Herrera era (1986-1999)
Begun in California, Black Tape for a Blue Girl is based around Projekt Records founder Sam Rosenthal, the songwriter, lyricist and producer for the band. The band released seven albums in their first 13 years, covering the mid-80s through late-90s. Black Tape for a Blue Girl released their debut album The Rope in 1986. The band's line-up consisted of a core of Sam Rosenthal, Allan Kraut (on multiple instruments, including drums and guitars) and vocalist and guitarist Oscar Herrera. Guests included Kim Prior (as vocals), Adam Buhler (on guitar), Candy Sherlock and Lara Radford (as violinists).

Their second album, Mesmerized by the Sirens, was released a year later, followed by Ashes in the Brittle Air in 1989, A Chaos of Desire in 1991 and This Lush Garden Within in 1993. The core members through this period were Rosenthal and Herrera, with a variety of guest musicians. Julianna Towns, of the band Skinner Box, provided vocals, flute, and guitar on Chaos.

Recording of Remnants of a Deeper Purity began in 1995 in Los Angeles and was concluded in 1996 after Rosenthal's move to Chicago. This was the second album to feature Lucian Casselman on vocals and Vicki Richards on violin. It also featured Mera Roberts on cello. Remnants went on to become Black Tape for a Blue Girl's best selling release, and was the basis for the band's first live performance, Tuesday June 25, 1996 at Projektfest'96 in Chicago.

In 1999, the band released As One Aflame Laid Bare by Desire, with Oscar Herrera singing two songs on the album as a parting favor to Rosenthal. The album owes some artistic inspiration to Marcel Duchamp. Towns returned for female vocals and also provided guitar arrangements. After a 15 city tour in July 1998 in preparation for the album's release, she was ejected from the band. Elysabeth Grant joined the band as violist, but she soon became the lead vocalist during a 14 city tour in February 1999, which also featured Lisa Feuer on flute and backing vocals.

Elysabeth Grant era (1999-2008)
In late 1999, Rosenthal (and now ex-wife Feuer) moved to New York City. Recording began on the band's seventh studio album, The Scavenger Bride, with Elysabeth Grant as lead vocalist and violist. Original vocalist Oscar Herrera was no longer involved with the band, giving up male vocal duties to Bret Helm (of Audra) and Athan Maroulis (of Spahn Ranch). The Scavenger Bride was released in 2002, with only two live appearances, as Rosenthal and Feuer's son was born.

Two years later, the band released Halo Star, which shifted the vocal focus to Bret Helm. This album also marked a change in the band's lush, ethereal sound. It is the band's first journey into a dark cabaret musical style, very similar to the Dresden Dolls and Katzenjammer Kabarett. An 18 city West Coast and East Coast tour wan through September and October 2004, with the band lineup of Rosenthal, Helm, Grant, Nicki Jaine, and Jay.

Rosenthal and Jaine (vocals and guitar) spent 2005 recording and performing as Revue Noir.

Black Tape for a Blue Girl performed three shows in 2007 with the lineup of Rosenthal, Grant, Helm and Feuer.

Athan Maroulis era (2009-2012)
Athan Maroulis, who appeared on two songs on The Scavenger Bride album, as well as a cover of Dead Can Dance's "Fortune Presents Gifts Not According to the Book", took over as lead vocalist.

On September 22, 2009, the band released their 10th album, 10 Neurotics, with the lineup of Rosenthal on acoustic guitar, programming and keyboards, Brian Viglione (The Dresden Dolls) on drums, percussion, bass and guitar, and vocalists Maroulis (Spahn Ranch), Laurie Reade (ex-Attrition) and Nicki Jaine on additional vocals. Sam explained that the risque nature of the Neurotics-material caused the previous band members to shy away from singing the songs, though Grant did appear on the song "You Strike Me Down", previously released in a longer and more ethereal form on Projekt200.

In August 2009, the band was invited to play at a CD release party for Dreamchild's Sleeping Flowers Severed, Scream of Laughter. Wisteriax performed an opening cello piece, Black Tape for a Blue Girl performed a four-song set from 10 Neurotics, and Dreamchild finished with a final set. The band played East Coast shows and festivals with Rosenthal, Maroulis, Jaine and occasionally Viglione (on guitar).

In October 2010, Valerie Gentile (The Crüxshadows) joined Black Tape for a Blue Girl as guitarist and vocalist, replacing Jaine, who retired from music at this point.

In October 2011, Pinky Weitzman (Not Waving But Drowning) replaced vocalist Valerie Gentile, who was living in Los Angeles. Maroulis, Rosenthal and Weitzman performed three shows together, including the 2011 Projektfest.

With Maroulis as vocalist, Black Tape For A Blue Girl played 31 shows between August 2009 and November 2011. In mid-2011, Rosenthal and Maroulis, with guest cellist Erica Mulkey / Unwoman, recorded a cover of the 1983 David Sylvian / Ryuichi Sakamoto track "Forbidden Colours" which appeared on the Projekt Holiday release Ornamental.

The band then entered a mostly dormant phase while Rosenthal wrote (in 2012) and promoted his erotic novel, Rye.

Post-NYC era (2013-present)
In August 2013, Rosenthal moved to Portland, Oregon. His endorsement of crowd-funding grew after the successful 2013 Kickstarter for the vinyl reissue of Remnants of a Deeper Purity. In the same year, they released Tenderotics - a reworking of the tracks from 2009's 10 Neurotics.

In January 2015, Rosenthal launched a Patreon page to support the recording of new music. In April 2015, the first result of this Patron support was As Lonely As Dave Bowman's Monolith CD, a solo-electronic release from Rosenthal. In September 2015, a Kickstarter was created to fund a 12" single with four new tracks, all sung by Michael Plaster of SoulWhirlingSomewhere.

Rosenthal wrote, "The tracks on the EP are a bit of an anomaly from the others I am recording; these are sparse and sensitive acoustic guitar pieces with Michael's vocals." At this time, he announced the name and stylistic change of the spring 2016 Black Tape For A Blue Girl album, "These fleeting moments will be a return to the ethereal darkwave/dark ambient sound of the early 90s Blacktape CDs."

The band marked their 30th anniversary with the release of These Fleeting Moments, featuring the return of original vocalist Oscar Herrera after 17 years absence from the music scene.

The band's have since released two further Kickstarter-funded albums, their 12th, To Touch the Milky Way, was released in 2018, followed by The Cleft Serpent in 2021.

Style
The style of Black Tape for a Blue Girl is often described as "gothic", though their large catalog of music does not often conform with general standards of gothic or darkwave music. Rather, it could be described as a soundscape of analog synth and old world instruments (both real and synthesized) mixed with ethereal male and female vocals in the vein of contemporaries Dead Can Dance. The lyric writing is done by Rosenthal and often explores powerful emotions of love, vulnerability, isolation, loss, jealousy, and passion.

Notable past members
Past members include Elysabeth Grant (also of Rachael's Surrender) on vocals and violin, Bret Helm (of Audra) on vocals, acoustic guitar and bass, Lisa Feuer on flute and vocals and Michael Laird (of Unto Ashes) on acoustic guitar, percussion and vocals. A notable former member is the long-time vocalist Oscar Herrera (of the 1980s Florida-based The Sleep of Reason), who performed on the band's first seven albums and their 11th album, These Fleeting Moments.

title: Black Tape for a Blue Girl


text:
Kicking Against the Pricks

Kicking Against the Pricks is the third album released by the rock music group Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. First released in 1986, the album is a collection of Cave's interpretations of songs by other artists. The title is a reference to a biblical quote from the King James version of the Bible, Acts 26, verse 14.

The album marked the Bad Seeds debut of drummer Thomas Wydler, expanding the Bad Seeds line-up to Cave (vocals and keyboards), Wydler, bassist Barry Adamson, and guitarists Mick Harvey and Blixa Bargeld.

Cave would later downplay the importance of the record, but said it helped the band develop musically:

"It allowed us to discover different elements, to actually make and perform a variety of different sorts of music successfully. I think that helped subsequent records tremendously."

Remarking on the song selection, Cave said:

"They were all done for different reasons. Basically a list of songs were made and we tried to play them. We tried songs by the Loved Ones and the Saints and all sorts of people that never got on the record. Some songs were tributes, like the Tom Jones song; other songs we didn't think the song was ever done particularly well in the first place. Some songs had just kind of haunted my childhood, like "The Carnival Is Over", which I always loved."

The strings were arranged by Harvey and played by the Berliner Kaffeehausmusik Ensemble. "The Hammer Song" is not to be confused with the song of the same name from the 1990 Bad Seeds album The Good Son.

The album was remastered and reissued on 27 April 2009 as a collector's edition CD/DVD set. The CD features the original 12-song vinyl LP's track listing, while "Black Betty" and "Running Scared" are featured as bonus audio tracks on the accompanying DVD.

Recordings of seven of these songs, performed by the original artists, were later issued on the Original Seeds compilation CDs.

Vinyl version

 * 1) "Muddy Water" – 5:15 (Phil Rosenthal)
 * 2) * Nick Cave – lead vocals, organ, piano interior
 * 3) * Blixa Bargeld – guitar
 * 4) * Mick Harvey – piano, backing vocals
 * 5) * Barry Adamson – bass, backing vocals
 * 6) * Thomas Wydler – drums
 * 7) * + Dawn Cave – violin
 * 8) "I'm Gonna Kill That Woman" – 3:44 (John Lee Hooker)
 * 9) * Nick Cave – lead vocals
 * 10) * Blixa Bargeld – guitar
 * 11) * Mick Harvey – bass, drums
 * 12) * + Hugo Race – guitar
 * 13) "Sleeping Annaleah" – 3:18 (Mickey Newbury, Dan Folger)
 * 14) * Nick Cave – lead vocals
 * 15) * Blixa Bargeld – slide guitar
 * 16) * Mick Harvey – piano, backing vocals, acoustic guitar
 * 17) * Barry Adamson – bass, backing vocals
 * 18) * Thomas Wydler – drums
 * 19) "Long Black Veil" – 3:46 (Danny Dill, Marijohn Wilkin)
 * 20) * Nick Cave – lead vocals
 * 21) * Blixa Bargeld – slide guitar, backing vocals
 * 22) * Mick Harvey – acoustic guitar, backing vocals, snare
 * 23) * Barry Adamson – bass, backing vocals
 * 24) * Thomas Wydler – percussion
 * 25) * + Hugo Race – guitar
 * 26) "Hey Joe" – 3:56 (Billy Roberts)
 * 27) * Nick Cave – lead vocals, organ
 * 28) * Mick Harvey – drums, piano
 * 29) * + Hugo Race – guitar
 * 30) * + Tracy Pew – bass
 * 31) "The Singer" (a.k.a. "The Folksinger") – 3:09 (Johnny Cash, Charlie Daniels)
 * 32) * Nick Cave – lead vocals
 * 33) * Mick Harvey – guitar
 * 34) * Barry Adamson – bass
 * 35) * Thomas Wydler – drums
 * 36) "All Tomorrow's Parties" – 5:52 (Lou Reed)
 * 37) * Nick Cave – lead vocals
 * 38) * Blixa Bargeld – guitar, co-lead vocals
 * 39) * Mick Harvey – guitar, co-lead vocals, piano
 * 40) * Barry Adamson – bass
 * 41) * Thomas Wydler – drums
 * 42) * + Rowland S. Howard – co-lead vocals
 * 43) "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" – 3:39 (Jimmy Webb)
 * 44) * Nick Cave – lead vocals
 * 45) * Blixa Bargeld – guitar
 * 46) * Mick Harvey – piano
 * 47) * Barry Adamson – bass
 * 48) * Thomas Wydler – drums
 * 49) * + Rowland S. Howard – guitar, organ
 * 50) "The Hammer Song" – 3:50 (Alex Harvey)
 * 51) * Nick Cave – lead vocals
 * 52) * Blixa Bargeld – guitar
 * 53) * Mick Harvey – organ, snare drum
 * 54) * Barry Adamson – bass
 * 55) * Thomas Wydler – drums
 * 56) "Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart" – 3:44 (Roger Greenaway, Roger Cook)
 * 57) * Nick Cave – lead vocals
 * 58) * Mick Harvey – piano, backing vocals, vibes
 * 59) * Barry Adamson – bass, backing vocals
 * 60) * Thomas Wydler – drums
 * 61) "Jesus Met the Woman at the Well" – 2:00 (traditional, arranged by the Alabama Singers)
 * 62) * Nick Cave – lead vocals
 * 63) * Blixa Bargeld – guitar, co-lead vocals
 * 64) * Mick Harvey – guitar, co-lead vocals
 * 65) * Barry Adamson – bass, co-lead vocals
 * 66) * Thomas Wydler – drums
 * 67) "The Carnival Is Over" – 3:16 (Tom Springfield)
 * 68) * Nick Cave – lead vocals
 * 69) * Blixa Bargeld – guitar, co-lead vocals
 * 70) * Mick Harvey – piano, co-lead vocals
 * 71) * Barry Adamson – bass, co-lead vocals
 * 72) * Thomas Wydler – drums

CD version

 * 1) "Muddy Water"
 * 2) "I'm Gonna Kill That Woman"
 * 3) "Sleeping Annaleah"
 * 4) "Long Black Veil"
 * 5) "Hey Joe"
 * 6) "The Singer" (a.k.a. "The Folksinger")
 * 7) "Black Betty" (Leadbelly)
 * 8) "Running Scared" (Roy Orbison, Joe Melson)
 * 9) "All Tomorrow's Parties"
 * 10) "By the Time I Get to Phoenix"
 * 11) "The Hammer Song"
 * 12) "Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart"
 * 13) "Jesus Met the Woman at the Well"
 * 14) "The Carnival Is Over"

Track listing errors
Some of the songs were re-titled (possibly through error), and one was miscredited, as follows: 1. "Muddy Water" by Phil Rosenthal. On the Cave LP the song is credited to John Bundrick, who wrote a song of the same title, recorded by the band Free. Previously recorded by the Seldom Scene, and Johnny Cash.

3. "Sleeping Annaleah" is the song "Weeping Annaleah", previously recorded by Tom Jones.

6. "The Singer" is the song "The Folk Singer", previously recorded by Tommy Roe, Johnny Cash, Glen Campbell, and Burl Ives.

7. "Black Betty" is actually three songs recorded by Leadbelly as a medley: "Looky Looky Yonder/Black Betty/Yellow Women's Doorbells".

12. "The Carnival Is Over" was not co-written by Frank Farian; this credit appears as a consequence of his creating an extra verse for Boney M.'s cover of the song.

13. "Jesus Met the Woman at the Well" is credited as "traditional, arranged the Alabama Singers". While this song was recorded by the Alabama Singers, it follows the arrangement of an earlier recording by the Pilgrim Travelers, which is credited as "traditional, arranged J. W. Alexander".

title: Kicking Against the Pricks


text:
Daikokuten

Daikokuten (大黒天) is a syncretic Japanese deity of fortune and wealth. Daikokuten originated from Mahākāla, the Buddhist version of the Hindu deity Shiva, conflated with the native Shinto god Ōkuninushi.

Mahākāla in East Asian Buddhism

The Sanskrit term 'Mahākāla' ("Great Black [One]", "Great Time" or "Great Death" ) was originally one of the epithets of the Hindu god Shiva in his aspect as time (kāla), the ultimate destroyer of all things. This title and aspect of Shiva was eventually adopted by Buddhism, where Mahākāla became reinterpreted as a dharmapāla or a protector of the Buddhist dharma but also as a terrifying deity who roams the forests at night with hordes of ghouls and demons in his train.

Mahākāla is mentioned in many Chinese Buddhist texts, although iconographic depictions of him in China were rare during the Tang and Song periods. He eventually became the center of a flourishing cult after the 9th century in the kingdoms of Nanzhao and Dali in what is now the province of Yunnan, a region bordering Tibet, where his cult was also widespread. Due to Tibetan influence, his importance further increased during the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty, with his likeness being displayed in the imperial palace and in Buddhist temples inside and outside the capital (though most of these images are now no longer extant). The deity's name was both transcribed into Chinese characters as 摩訶迦羅 (Middle Chinese (Baxter): mwa xa kæ la) and translated as 大黑天 (, with kāla being understood to mean 'black'; M. C. (Baxter): dɑH xok then). These were eventually adopted into Japanese as Makakara (or Makakyara) and Daikokuten, respectively.

In some texts, Mahākāla is described as a fearsome god, a "demon who steals the vital essence (of people)" and who feeds on flesh and blood, though he is also said to only devour those who committed sins against the Three Jewels of Buddhism. One story found in the Tang-era monk Yi Xing's commentary on the Mahāvairocana Tantra portrays Mahākāla as a manifestation of the buddha Vairocana who subjugated the ḍākinīs, a race of flesh-eating female demons, by swallowing them. Mahākāla released them on the condition that they no longer kill humans, decreeing that they could only eat the heart – believed to contain the vital essence of humans known as 'human yellow' (人黄,, Japanese: jin'ō) – of those who were near death. A tale found in Amoghavajra's translation of the Humane King Sūtra relates how a heterodox (i.e. non-Buddhist) master instructed Prince Kalmāṣapāda (斑足王) to offer the heads of a thousand kings to Mahākāla, the "great black god of the graveyard" (塚間摩訶迦羅大黑天神), if he wished to ascend the throne of his kingdom. As time went by, Mahākāla also became seen as a guardian of Buddhist monasteries, especially its kitchens. The monk Yijing, who traveled to Srivijaya and India during the late 7th century, claimed that images of Mahākāla were to be found in the kitchens and porches of Indian Buddhist monasteries, before which offerings of food were made:

"There is likewise in great monasteries in India, at the side of a pillar in the kitchen, or before the porch, a figure of a deity carved in wood, two or three feet high, holding a golden bag, and seated on a small chair, with one foot hanging down towards the ground. Being always wiped with oil its countenance is blackened, and the deity is called Mahākāla [莫訶哥羅,, M.C. (Baxter): mak xa ka la] or the great black deity [大黑神,, M. C. (Baxter): dɑH xok zyin]. The ancient tradition asserts that he belonged to the beings (in the heaven) of the great god (or Maheśvara). He naturally loves the Three Jewels, and protects the five assemblies from misfortune. Those who offer prayers to him have their desires fulfilled. At meal-times those who serve in the kitchen offer light and incense, and arrange all kinds of prepared food before the deity. (...) In China the image of that deity has often been found in the districts of Kiang-nan, though not in Huai-poh. Those who ask him (for a boon) find their wishes fulfilled. The efficacy of that deity is undeniable."

Yijing then relates an anecdote about how the deity once miraculously provided food for five hundred monks who came to visit the monastery of Makuṭabandhana in Kushinagar after one of the female servants prayed and made offerings before his image. This idea of Mahākāla as one who brought prosperity to monasteries and granted wishes may have contributed to the identification of the deity as a god of wealth and fortune in Japan.

In China, the god was also associated with fertility and sexuality: during the Qixi Festival (a.k.a. the Double Seventh Festival) held on the 7th day of the 7th month of the Chinese calendar, married women traditionally bought dolls or figurines called 'Móhéluó' (魔合羅) or 'Móhóuluó' (摩睺羅) – the term probably deriving from 'Mahākāla' – in the hopes of giving birth to a child. Ritual texts also prescribe the worship of Mahākāla to women looking for a male partner or to pregnant women.

Transformation in Japan
Upon being introduced to Japan via the esoteric Tendai and Shingon sects, Mahākāla (as 'Daikokuten') gradually transformed into a jovial, beneficent figure as his positive qualities (such as being the purveyor of wealth and fertility) increasingly came to the fore – mostly at the expense of his darker traits. Whereas earlier images of Daikokuten showed him as wrathful (or at least stern-faced), later artworks consistently came to portray him as smiling.

Saichō, the founder of the Tendai school, is credited with bringing the cult of Mahākāla-Daikokuten to Japan. Legend claims that when he first climbed Mount Hiei (located northeast of Kyoto), Mahākāla appeared to him in the form of an old man and offered to become the guardian of the monastic community envisioned by Saichō, what would become known as Enryaku-ji.

By the medieval period, when Buddhism and native Japanese beliefs (Shinto) were becoming syncretized, Daikokuten became conflated with the native kami Ōkuninushi (大国主), as the first two characters of the latter's name (大国) can also be read as 'Daikoku'. Daikokuten's status as patron of Enryaku-ji also influenced this connection: he was identified with Sannō Gongen, the deity enshrined in Hiyoshi Taisha at the eastern foot of Mount Hiei, who in turn was identified with Ōkuninushi or Ōmononushi (Miwa Myōjin, the god of Mount Miwa in Nara Prefecture who is also interpreted as Ōkuninushi under another name or an aspect of his).

The sack or bag Daikokuten carries (already attested in Yijing's description of portrayals of Mahākāla in India) served to further associate the god with Ōkuninushi: in the story of the Hare of Inaba (found in the Kojiki), the young Ōkuninushi is said to have originally been treated by his wicked elder brothers as their luggage carrier. Besides the sack, Daikokuten began to acquire other attributes such as the golden mallet called uchide no kozuchi (lit. "tap-appear little mallet", i.e. a mallet that strikes out anything the user desires) and two big bales of rice. He was also considered a god of fertility, and was thus also portrayed making the obscene fig sign, carrying a suggestively bifurcated daikon (sometimes called the "bride of Daikoku"), sporting a huge erect penis, or being entirely represented himself by a wooden phallus.

Mice and rats also became a part of Daikokuten's iconography, due to Mahākāla's association with Vaiśravaṇa (Bishamonten in Japanese), the Buddhist analogue to the Hindu Kubera, and Pañcika, Vaiśravaṇa's general and consort of the yakshini goddess Hārītī (known in Japan as Kishimojin), who were both associated with the northern direction – which corresponds to the sign of the Rat in the Chinese zodiac. (One of the twelve dikpālas or guardians of the directions in Buddhism is Īśāna, the guardian of the northeast who, like Mahākāla, is a Buddhicized form of Shiva.) This also contributed to the conflation of Daikokuten with Ōkuninushi, as mice also figured in the latter's mythology.

Medieval exegetes interpreted Mahākāla-Daikokuten in both a positive and a negative way: on the one hand he was seen as a symbol of fundamental ignorance (expressed by the name 'Daikoku', which can be interpreted as "great darkness"), but on the other hand he also represented the nonduality of ignorance (symbolized by the character 黒, 'black(ness) / dark(ness)') and enlightenment (designated by the character 大, 'great'). He was identified with Ichiji Kinrin (Ekākṣaroṣṇīṣacakra, a manifestation of both the cosmic buddha Vairocana – specifically, Vairocana's head knob or uṣṇīṣa – and the sacred syllable bhrūṃ) and thus a symbol of ultimate reality, but also with the directional deity Īśāna (who as noted earlier was another deity derived from Shiva), who is also considered to be a god of obstacles. Indeed, because of the stigma related to his origins, he was identified in some texts as a jissha (実者, lit. "true/real one", also known as 実類, jitsurui), a 'real' god considered inferior to deities who are provisional manifestations of enlightened buddhas and bodhisattvas (gongen). However, medieval esoteric Buddhism also posited the existence of a 'higher' Daikokuten, the conventional Daikokuten being but one of the various guises he takes. While the latter represented ignorance, the former was seen as transmuting ignorance into awakening.

Daikokuten was also linked or identified with other deities such as Ugajin, Benzaiten (the Buddhist version of Sarasvatī), Vaiśravana-Bishamonten, the earth god Kenrō Jijin (derived from the Indian earth goddess Pṛthivī, though the deity is also portrayed in Japan as male ), or the wisdom king Acala (Fudō Myōō in Japanese). Indeed, Acala, like Mahākāla-Daikokuten, is credited in some sources with defeating and converting the ḍākinīs and is also considered to be a wrathful avatar of Vairocana. (Likewise, Acala is also thought by some scholars to be derived in one way or another from Shiva.)

In popular belief, Daikokuten is also commonly paired with the folk deity Ebisu. Just as Daikokuten was conflated with Ōkuninushi, Ebisu was sometimes identified with Ōkuninushi's son Kotoshironushi or the dwarf god Sukunabikona, who assisted Ōkuninushi in developing the land of Japan. In homes, the two deities were enshrined in the kitchen or oven, while merchants worshiped them as patron deities of commercial success. Farmers meanwhile revered them as gods of the rice paddy (ta-no-kami).

Iconography
Mahākāla was originally represented in East Asian Buddhist art as a dark-skinned wrathful deity wearing a diadem and a necklace of skulls, with snakes coiled around his neck and arms. One iconographic type portrays him with three heads and six arms, holding a flayed elephant skin with his upper hands, a trident or a sword horizontally with his lower hands, and a human figure and a goat with his middle hands. Many artworks of this type show Mahākāla in a sitting position, though a description of the deity found in the dictionary compiled by the monk Huilin (慧琳) titled The Sound and Meaning of All Sutras (, pinyin: Yīqièjīng yīnyì) has him standing on the hands of the earth goddess. The same work describes Mahākāla as having eight arms, holding an elephant skin, a trident, a preta, a goat, a sword, and a khatvāṅga (a skull-topped club or staff). Some images of Mahākāla of this type found in Dunhuang (dating from the 9th-10th centuries) meanwhile show him standing on a snake. Another iconographic variant (not found in Chinese texts but attested in Japan) depicts Mahākāla with one head and two arms, holding a sword in his right hand and a skull cup (kapāla) in his left. He is sometimes also shown as trampling on the elephant-headed deity Vināyaka (the Buddhist analogue to the Hindu Ganesha, though the Buddhist version is sometimes also perceived as a negative figure), another deity Mahākāla is associated with. Indeed, the two deities are shown together in the outer northeast (upper left) corner of the Womb Realm (Garbhadhātu) Maṇḍala, one of the two main maṇḍalas of East Asian esoteric Buddhism.

Yijing describes the statues of Mahākāla he had seen in Indian monasteries as "holding a golden bag and seated on a small chair, with one foot hanging down towards the ground." Some scholars believe that the images Yijing saw may have actually been that of the god Kubera, who was represented in Indian art as carrying a money bag; indeed, he identifies 'Mahākāla' as being part of the retinue of the "great god" (大天, i.e. Mahādeva / Maheśvara). It is thought that the two gods may have been conflated at some point; images of both deities are commonly found guarding the entrances of temples in India, Nepal and other places influenced by Hindu-Buddhist culture, and Kubera was, as mentioned, closely associated with Shiva. The image of the sack-carrying Daikokuten that would become the standard in Japan is thus thought to be derived from Kubera's iconography. The earliest Japanese representations of Mahākāla-Daikokuten can be classified into two types: one (associated with the Shingon school) shows the deity standing, his left hand holding a sack slung over his shoulder, with his right hand clenched into a fist and resting on the right hip, while the other (associated with the Tendai school) depicts him as sitting. Most of these images show Daikokuten wearing Japanese clothing, though a few has him wearing armor. The standing portrayal is first mentioned in the 10th-century Shingon work Yōson dōjōkan (要尊道場観, 'Visualizations of the Ritual Spheres of the Essential Deities') and an apocryphal 11th-century text titled Daikokutenjin-hō (大黒天神法, 'The Tantra of Mahākāla'), while the seated portrayal's first literary appearance is in the 13th-century Asabashō (阿娑縛抄), a Tendai iconographical and ritual compendium. The Daikokutenjin-hō describes Daikokuten as black in color, wearing eboshi (烏帽子, a black cap worn by Japanese noblemen), kariginu (狩衣, informal aristocratic outerwear), and hakama (loose, skirt-like trousers), with his right fist resting at his waist and his left hand clutching a large bag, the color of which is that of rat's hair. The oldest surviving examples of the two iconographic variants date from around the 11th century (late Heian period). The oldest standing Daikokuten statue is found in Kanzeon-ji in Dazaifu, Fukuoka Prefecture and depicts him wearing eboshi, knee-length hakama, and shoes. The oldest depiction of the sitting Daikokuten, kept in Kongōrin-ji in Echi District, Shiga Prefecture, meanwhile, shows him wearing armor, seated on a rock and holding a small bag and a club or staff.

Daikokuten's iconography evolved during the 14th century onwards, when he increasingly became portrayed as a smiling man with a rotund belly, holding a mallet and standing or sitting on rice bales. The origin of the mallet attribute is uncertain, although Bernard Faure (2015) links it with Mahākāla-Daikokuten's association with the cult of the Saptamātṛkas (the 'Seven Mothers'), who are pictured as holding mallets – symbolizing their role as plague deities – in the Madarijin (摩怛哩神) ritual. During the 16th century (late Muromachi period), the three deities Daikokuten, Vaiśravaṇa-Bishamonten and Sarasvatī-Benzaiten were fused together into the three-headed 'Sanmen Daikokuten' (三面大黒天, lit. "Three-Faced Daikokuten"), which in a way 'reconnected' the deity's popular benign form with his less well-known wrathful form. This form was eventually introduced in later variants of the legend of Daikokuten's apparition to Saichō in Mount Hiei: in response to Saichō's dilemma over how to provide daily sustenance for three thousand monks, the god is now said to have shown himself to the latter with three faces and six arms.

An iconographic grouping known as the 'Roku Daikoku' (六大黒天, lit. "Six Daikoku") also developed during the same period, showing the deity in six different forms:

 * 1) Biku Daikoku (比丘大黒): Daikokuten in the form of a Buddhist monk (bhikkhu), holding a mallet in his right hand and a sword in his left
 * 2) Ōji Kara Daikoku (王子迦羅大黒): Daikokuten as a prince (王子, ōji) brandishing a sword and a vajra; sometimes interpreted as Mahākāla-Daikokuten's son
 * 3) Yasha Daikoku (夜叉大黒): Daikokuten as the subduer of demons (yakṣa), wearing Japanese aristocratic garb and holding a wheel (dharmacakra) in his right hand
 * 4) Makakara Daikokunyo (摩伽迦羅大黒女): Daikokuten as a female figure holding a bale of rice above her head; sometimes interpreted as Mahākāla-Daikokuten's consort (i.e. Mahākāḷī)
 * 5) Shinda Daikoku (信陀大黒 or 真陀大黒): Daikokuten as a boy with the wish-granting jewel (cintāmaṇi) in his hand
 * 6) Makara Daikoku (摩伽羅大黒): Daikokuten in his 'regular' benign form, holding a mallet and a sack

The 17th-18th centuries (Edo period) marked the appearance of the cult of the Seven Lucky Gods (Shichifukujin), of which Daikokuten is a key member. Daikokuten's rise in popularity among the common people during the late medieval and early modern periods led to the god becoming a popular subject in art.

Worship
The god continues to enjoy an exalted position as a deity of fortune and the household in Japan. Images of Daikokuten can be found in both Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines in the country (a relic of the long-standing fusion of the two religions), though in the latter case, these are usually interpreted and revered as representations of the Japanese god Ōkuninushi rather than the Buddhist Mahākāla.

Due to his association with rats, days under the zodiac sign of the Rat (子日, ne-no-hi), especially that of the Yang Wood Rat (甲子, kōshi / kinoe-ne) are considered to be sacred to Mahākāla-Daikokuten (and by extension, Ōkuninushi), with the first (初甲子, hatsu kōshi) and last kōshi days (納め甲子, osame kōshi) of a given year being especially held in great esteem. Special ceremonies and festivals are held on these days at many places of worship dedicated to the deity.

During the early modern period, Daikokuten's association with wealth and prosperity precipitated a custom known as fukunusubi, or "theft of fortune". This custom started with the belief that whoever stole divine figures was assured of good fortune if not caught in the act. The toshi-no-ichi (year-end market) held at Sensō-ji in Asakusa became the main venue of the sale and disposal of such images by the fortune-seekers. Many small stalls were opened where articles including images of Daikokuten were sold on the eve of New Year celebrations. Another practice known as tsubute (礫, lit. "stone throwing") involved 'stealing' the wealth from a rich house by throwing into it a Daikokuten talisman at the hour of the rat (around midnight).

An esoteric ritual performed in many Tendai temples where Daikokuten is worshiped known as yokubei-ku (浴餅供, lit. "glutinous rice bath") involves pouring rice porridge over a statue of the deity.

Bījā and mantra
The bīja or seed syllable used to represent Mahākāla-Daikokuten in Japanese esoteric Buddhism is  (म), written in Siddhaṃ script. Mahākāla's mantra meanwhile is as follows:

Temples
The following are a few examples of Buddhist temples that either have Daikokuten as their main focus of worship (honzon) or enshrine him in an auxiliary capacity.

 * Enryaku-ji (Ōtsu, Shiga Prefecture) – Tendai
 * The Daikoku-dō (大黒堂, "Hall of Daikoku") located in the temple complex enshrines an image of the three-faced Sanmen Daikokuten attributed to Saichō, who is said to have made it after the god appeared to him and promised to become the patron of his monastic community.

 * Daikoku-ji (大黒寺) (Habikino City, Osaka Prefecture) – Sōtō Zen
 * One of the contenders for the birthplace of the cult of Mahākāla-Daikokuten in Japan. The temple's founding story claims that it was first established in 665 CE by the ascetic En no Gyōja after seeing a vision of Daikokuten riding a five-colored cloud.

 * Daikoku-ji (Fushimi-ku, Kyoto) – Shingon (Tōji-ha)
 * Said to have been established by Kūkai, the founder of Shingon Buddhism, to whom is also attributed the image of Daikokuten that serve as the temple's honzon. Originally named Chōfuku-ji (長福寺), the temple was renamed in 1615 after Shimazu Yoshihiro designated it as a "prayer center" (祈願所, kigansho) for his clan, the Shimazu, and their fiefdom, Satsuma Domain, where religious services are performed on their behalf.

 * Myōen-ji (妙円寺) (Matsugasaki Higashimachi, Sakyō-ku, Kyoto) – Nichiren-shū
 * Founded in 1616; also known as Matsugasaki Daikokuten (松ヶ崎大黒天). Enshrines a statue of Daikokuten attributed to Saichō.

 * Mano-dera / Mano-ji (真野寺) (Kubo, Minamibōsō, Chiba Prefecture) – Shingon (Chisan-ha)
 * This temple, founded by Gyōki in 725 CE and dedicated to the Thousand-Armed Avalokiteśvara (Senju Kannon), enshrines an image of Daikokuten claimed to be the work of the Tendai priest Ennin, known as the 'Asahi Kaiun Daikokuten' (朝日開運大黒天) – so named because Ennin is claimed to have carved it in the year 860 after witnessing a vision of the god at daybreak, as the sun was rising.

 * Eishin-ji (英信寺) (Shitaya, Taitō City, Tokyo) – Jōdo-shū
 * A temple to the buddha Amitabha (Amida Nyorai) established in 1631. A statue of Sanmen Daikokuten attributed to Kūkai is enshrined in the Daikoku-dō beside the temple's main hall.

 * Gokoku-in (護国院) (Taitō City, Tokyo) – Tendai
 * Part of the Ueno Park-Kan'ei-ji temple complex. Enshrines a painting of Daikokuten attributed to Fujiwara no Nobuzane donated to the temple by Tokugawa Iemitsu.

 * Kyōō-ji (経王寺) (Haramachi, Shinjuku City, Tokyo) – Nichiren-shū
 * Founded in 1598 by the monk Nichijō, who installed there an image of Daikokuten from Kuon-ji said to have been carved by Nichiren's disciple Nippō.

 * Daihō-ji (大法寺) (Moto-Azabu, Minato City, Tokyo) – Nichiren-shū
 * Founded in 1597. The image of Daikokuten kept in this temple, known as 'Sanshin Gusoku Daikoku-sonten' (三神具足大黒尊天), features the deity with the attributes of Benzaiten (hairstyle) and Bishamonten (armor).

 * Hōju-ji (宝珠寺) – (Onogawamachi, Yonezawa City, Yamagata Prefecture) – Shingon (Daigo-ha)
 * Popularly known as Kinoe-ne Daikokuten Honzan (甲子大黒天本山). The image of Daikokuten in this temple is attributed to Kūkai and was originally from Dainichi-ji (大日寺, in modern Nishikawa, Nishimurayama District), one of the four bettō-ji (administrative temples) of Mount Yudono, one of the Three Sacred Mountains of Dewa Province (Dewa Sanzan). The statue was transferred to its current location after Dainichi-ji was converted into a Shinto shrine during the Meiji period.

In popular culture
One theory claims that the term daikoku-bashira (大黒柱), referring to the central supporting pillar of a traditional Japanese house, originated from Daikokuten's name. This word has also come to figuratively refer to the chief breadwinner of a family. The wife of a Buddhist monk was also referred to in popular slang as Daikoku, due to Daikokuten's association with the kitchen and the household in general.

A traditional art widely performed during the medieval and early modern periods known as Daikoku-mai (大黒舞, lit. "dance of Daikoku") involved performers – usually social outcasts (hinin) – costumed as Daikokuten going from door to door to dance and sing in exchange for donations.

Figurines or plaques of his image can be found in shops throughout Japan.

title: Daikokuten


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Talk:Władysław IV Vasa

Contentiously vs contentedly
Though in the next paragraph we learn that the guy had a short temper, I somehow think that the author was trying here to convey that W died contentedly rather than contentiously, seeing that he had time to make his last will and receive sacraments... Anybody out there who could and would care to contribute the historical facts?

Meanwhile my apologies to the authors and the public for any deteriorations I might have made in my inept efforts at improvement dabbling in a foreign language. I hope that soon a competent native speaker will come out to give this really good article the last linguistic polish... Terminally uncool (talk) 10:19, 27 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Ah, quite possibly that word was used incorrectly. I hope this c/e makes it more clear. Thanks for the interest! --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here 03:10, 28 August 2014 (UTC)

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title: Talk:Władysław IV Vasa


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Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Image:Nitrobenzol.png

Found this article on cleanup. This structure is not correct. I have a correct one I'd like to upload. (Image is included in Nitrobenzol) Jeeves 01:16, 26 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * Can you please list this in Images for deletion, not here. Thank you. -- Graham  ☺ | Talk 01:24, 26 Jul 2004 (UTC)


text:
Time–frequency representation

A time–frequency representation (TFR) is a view of a signal (taken to be a function of time) represented over both time and frequency. Time–frequency analysis means analysis into the time–frequency domain provided by a TFR. This is achieved by using a formulation often called "Time–Frequency Distribution", abbreviated as TFD.

TFRs are often complex-valued fields over time and frequency, where the modulus of the field represents either amplitude or "energy density" (the concentration of the root mean square over time and frequency), and the argument of the field represents phase.

Background and motivation
A signal, as a function of time, may be considered as a representation with perfect time resolution. In contrast, the magnitude of the Fourier transform (FT) of the signal may be considered as a representation with perfect spectral resolution but with no time information because the magnitude of the FT conveys frequency content but it fails to convey when, in time, different events occur in the signal.

TFRs provide a bridge between these two representations in that they provide some temporal information and some spectral information simultaneously. Thus, TFRs are useful for the representation and analysis of signals containing multiple time-varying frequencies.

Formulation of TFRs and TFDs
One form of TFR (or TFD) can be formulated by the multiplicative comparison of a signal with itself, expanded in different directions about each point in time. Such representations and formulations are known as quadratic or "bilinear" TFRs or TFDs (QTFRs or QTFDs) because the representation is quadratic in the signal (see Bilinear time–frequency distribution). This formulation was first described by Eugene Wigner in 1932 in the context of quantum mechanics and, later, reformulated as a general TFR by Ville in 1948 to form what is now known as the Wigner–Ville distribution, as it was shown in that Wigner's formula needed to use the analytic signal defined in Ville's paper to be useful as a representation and for a practical analysis. Today, QTFRs include the spectrogram (squared magnitude of short-time Fourier transform), the scaleogram (squared magnitude of Wavelet transform) and the smoothed pseudo-Wigner distribution.

Although quadratic TFRs offer perfect temporal and spectral resolutions simultaneously, the quadratic nature of the transforms creates cross-terms, also called "interferences". The cross-terms caused by the bilinear structure of TFDs and TFRs may be useful in some applications such as classification as the cross-terms provide extra detail for the recognition algorithm. However, in some other applications, these cross-terms may plague certain quadratic TFRs and they would need to be reduced. One way to do this is obtained by comparing the signal with a different function. Such resulting representations are known as linear TFRs because the representation is linear in the signal. An example of such a representation is the windowed Fourier transform (also known as the short-time Fourier transform) which localises the signal by modulating it with a window function, before performing the Fourier transform to obtain the frequency content of the signal in the region of the window.

Wavelet transforms
Wavelet transforms, in particular the continuous wavelet transform, expand the signal in terms of wavelet functions which are localised in both time and frequency. Thus the wavelet transform of a signal may be represented in terms of both time and frequency. Continuous wavelet transform analysis is very useful for identifying non-stationary signals in time series, such as those related to climate or landslides.

The notions of time, frequency, and amplitude used to generate a TFR from a wavelet transform were originally developed intuitively. In 1992, a quantitative derivation of these relationships was published, based upon a stationary phase approximation.

Linear canonical transformation
Linear canonical transformations are the linear transforms of the time–frequency representation that preserve the symplectic form. These include and generalize the Fourier transform, fractional Fourier transform, and others, thus providing a unified view of these transforms in terms of their action on the time–frequency domain.

title: Time–frequency representation


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Kisshōten

Kisshōten (吉祥天, lit. "Auspicious Heavens"), also known as Kichijōten, Kisshoutennyo (吉祥天女), or Kudokuten (功徳天), is a Japanese female deity, adapted via Buddhism from the Hindu goddess Lakshmi. Kisshoutennyo is sometimes named as one of the Seven Gods of Fortune (fukujin), replacing either Jurōjin or Fukurokuju. For example, in the 1783 edition of the Butsuzōzui compendium (reprinted in 1796), Kichijōten replaces Fukurokuju as one of the seven fukujin. She is considered to be the goddess of happiness, fertility, and beauty. Kisshoutennyo's iconography is distinguished by the Nyoihōju gem (如意宝珠) in her hand, Kisshōten and the Nyoihōju gem are both represented by the symbol of the kagome.

When Kisshoutennyo is counted among the seven fukujin and fellow Fukujin Daikoku is regarded in feminine form, all three of the Hindu Tridevi goddesses are represented in the Fukujin, with Daikoku representing Parvati and Benzaiten representing Saraswati.

title: Kisshōten


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User talk:Sam jervis

Welcome
Hello Sam, welcome to Wikipedia.

You might find these links helpful in editing pages or creating new ones: How to edit a page, Tutorial, Naming conventions, Manual of Style. You should probably read our policies at some point too.

But don't feel you have to read every policy document before you do anything. Dive in, be bold in editing, and if you do anything wrong, someone will be quick to correct it and let you know (hopefully, politely!)

If you have any questions, see the help pages, add a question to the village pump or ask me on my talk page. I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian!

You may have already noticed that you can sign your name using three tildes, like this:. If you use four, you can add a datestamp too, as I've done below. This is mostly useful, and is considered good wikiquette, on talk pages. But be aware that the actual wikipedia articles should never be signed - they belong to the community, rather than the individual who created them.

Again, welcome! -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 01:17, 26 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Speedy deletion of Supermarine Spitfire variants part two
Please do not move pages to nonsensical titles. It is considered vandalism. If you would like to learn more about moving pages, please see the guidelines on this subject. If you would like to experiment with page titles and moving, please use the test Wikipedia. Thank you.

If you think that this notice was placed here in error, you may contest the deletion by adding  to the top of the page that has been nominated for deletion (just below the existing speedy deletion or "db" tag), coupled with adding a note on the talk page explaining your position, but be aware that once tagged for speedy deletion, if the article meets the criterion it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but don't hesitate to add information to the article that would would render it more in conformance with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. Lastly, please note that if the article does get deleted, you can contact one of these admins to request that a copy be emailed to you. Minorhistorian (talk) 12:30, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

ArbCom elections are now open!
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 12:49, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Sam jervis


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Armstrong Whitworth

Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd was a major British manufacturing company of the early years of the 20th century. With headquarters in Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, Armstrong Whitworth built armaments, ships, locomotives, automobiles and aircraft.

The company was founded by William Armstrong in 1847, becoming Armstrong Mitchell and then Armstrong Whitworth through mergers. In 1927, it merged with Vickers Limited to form Vickers-Armstrongs, with its automobile and aircraft interests purchased by J D Siddeley.

History
In 1847, the engineer William George Armstrong founded the Elswick works at Newcastle, to produce hydraulic machinery, cranes and bridges, soon to be followed by artillery, notably the Armstrong breech-loading gun, with which the British Army was re-equipped after the Crimean War. In 1882, it merged with the shipbuilding firm of Charles Mitchell to form Armstrong Mitchell & Company and at the time its works extended for over a mile (about 2 km) along the bank of the River Tyne. Armstrong Mitchell merged again with the engineering firm of Joseph Whitworth in 1897. The company expanded into the manufacture of cars and trucks in 1902, and created an "aerial department" in 1913, which became the Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft subsidiary in 1920.

In 1927, it merged with Vickers Limited to form Vickers-Armstrongs.

Automobiles
The Armstrong Whitworth was manufactured from 1904, when the company decided to diversify to compensate for a fall in demand for artillery after the end of the Boer War. It took over construction of the Wilson-Pilcher, designed by Walter Gordon Wilson, and produced cars under the Armstrong Whitworth name until 1919, when the company merged with Siddeley-Deasy and to form Armstrong Siddeley.

The Wilson-Pilcher was an advanced car, originally with a 2.4-litre engine, that had been made in London from 1901 until 1904 when production moved to Newcastle. When Armstrong Whitworth took over production two models were made, a 2.7-litre flat four and a 4.1-litre flat six, the cylinders on both being identical with bore and stroke of 3.75in (95mm). The engines had the flywheel at the front of the engine, and the crankshaft had intermediate bearings between each pair of cylinders. Drive was to the rear wheels via a dual helical epicyclic gears and helical bevel axle. The cars were listed at £735 for the four and £900 for the six. They were still theoretically available until 1907. According to Automotor in 1904, "Even the first Wilson-Pilcher car that made its appearance created quite a sensation in automobile circles at the time on account of its remarkably silent and smooth running, and of the almost total absence of vibration".

The first Armstrong Whitworth car was the 28/36 of 1906 with a water-cooled, four-cylinder side-valve engine of 4.5 litres which unusually had "oversquare" dimensions of 120 mm bore and 100 mm stroke. Drive was via a four-speed gearbox and shaft to the rear wheels. A larger car was listed for 1908 with a choice of either 5-litre 30 or 7.6-litre 40 models sharing a 127 mm bore but with strokes of 100 mm and 152 mm respectively. The 40 was listed at £798 in bare chassis form for supplying to coachbuilders. These large cars were joined in 1909 by the 4.3-litre 18/22 and in 1910 by the 3.7-litre 25, which seems to have shared the same chassis as the 30 and 40.

In 1911, a new small car appeared in the shape of the 2.4-litre 12/14, called the 15.9 in 1911, featuring a monobloc engine with pressure lubrication to the crankshaft bearings. This model had an 110 in wheelbase compared with the 120 in of the 40 range. This was joined by four larger cars ranging from the 2.7-litre 15/20 to the 3.7-litre 25.5.

The first six-cylinder model, the 30/50 with 5.1-litre 90 mm bore by 135 mm stroke engine came in 1912 with the option of electric lighting. This grew to 5.7 litres in 1913.

At the outbreak of war, as well as the 30/50, the range consisted of the 3-litre 17/25 and the 3.8-litre 20/30.

The cars were usually if not always bodied by external coachbuilders and had a reputation for reliability and solid workmanship. The company maintained a London sales outlet at New Bond Street. When Armstrong Whitworth and Vickers merged, Armstrong Whitworth's automotive interests were purchased by J D Siddeley as Armstrong Siddeley, based in Coventry.

An Armstrong Whitworth car is displayed in the Discovery Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne.

Aircraft
Armstrong Whitworth established an Aerial Department in 1912. This later became the Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Company. When Vickers and Armstrong Whitworth merged in 1927 to form Vickers-Armstrongs, Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft was bought out by J. D. Siddeley and became a separate entity.

Armaments
The Elswick Ordnance Company (sometimes referred to as Elswick Ordnance Works, but usually as "EOC") was originally created in 1859 to separate William Armstrong's armaments business from his other business interests, to avoid a conflict of interest as Armstrong was then Engineer of Rifled Ordnance for the War Office and the company's main customer was the British Government. Armstrong held no financial interest in the company until 1864 when he left Government service, and Elswick Ordnance was reunited with the main Armstrong businesses to form Sir W.G. Armstrong & Company. EOC was then the armaments branch of W.G. Armstrong & Company and later of Armstrong Whitworth.

Elswick Ordnance was a major arms developer before and during World War I. The ordnance and ammunition it manufactured for the British Government were stamped EOC, while guns made for export were usually marked "W.G. Armstrong". The 28 cm howitzer L/10 which played a major role in the Siege of Port Arthur in the Russo-Japanese War was developed by Armstrong.

Locomotives
After the Great War, Armstrong Whitworth converted its Scotswood Works to build railway locomotives. From 1919 it rapidly penetrated the locomotive market due to its modern plant. Its two largest contracts were 200 2-8-0s for the Belgian State Railways in 1920 and 327 Black 5 4-6-0s for the LMS in 1935/36.

AW also modified locomotives. In 1926 Palestine Railways sent six of its H class Baldwin 4-6-0 locomotives to AW for conversion into 4-6-2 tank locomotives to work the PR's steeply graded branch between Jaffa and Jerusalem. PR also sent another six H Class Baldwins for their defective steel fireboxes to be replaced with copper ones.

AW's well-equipped works included its own design department and enabled it to build large locomotives, including an order for 30 engines of three types for the modernisation of the South Australian Railways in 1926. These included ten 500 class 4-8-2 locomotives, which were the largest non-articulated locomotives built in Great Britain, and were based on Alco drawings modified by AW and SAR engineers. They were a sensation in Australia. AW went on to build 20 large three-cylinder "Pacific" type locomotives for the Central Argentine Railway (F.C.C.A) in 1930, with Caprotti valve gear and modern boilers. They were the most powerful locomotives on the F.C.C.A.

AW obtained the UK license for Sulzer diesels from 1919, and by the 1930s was building diesel locomotives and railcars. An early example is the Tanfield Railway's 0-4-0 diesel-electric shed pilot, No.2, which was built by AW as works number D22 in 1933. In the same year, the company launched the UK's first mainline diesel locomotive, the 800 bhp "Universal". It was successful in trials, but not repaired after an engine crankcase explosion a year later. A total of 1,464 locomotives were built at Scotswood Works before it was converted back to armaments manufacture in 1937.

Overseas operations
After the end of WWI demand for armaments and naval ships all but evaporated, and Armstrong Whitworth had to look into diversifying its business.

The company built a hydroelectric station at Nymboida, New South Wales, near Grafton, Australia in 1923–1924. This is still in use and is substantially original. In 1925 the company tendered unsuccessfully to construct the South Brisbane-Richmond Gap (on the New-South Wales-Queensland border) section of the last stage of the standard gauge railway linking Sydney and Brisbane. This was a heavily engineered railway which includes a long tunnel under the Richmond Range forming the state border and a spiral just south of the border. AW's tender price was £1,333,940 compared with Queensland Railway's tender price of £1,130,142. In the mid-1920s the company clearly was trying to break into the booming Australian market, but was stymied by a preference for local companies.

The Dominion of Newfoundland, an island country then mostly dependent on its fishery, had plenty of pulpwood but only one paper mill at Grand Falls-Windsor and one pulp mill at Bishop's Falls, both built in the 1900s. The owners of the Reid Newfoundland Company convinced AW to invest in building a second paper mill at Corner Brook, to be supplied with hydroelectricity from a generating station 50 km away at Deer Lake. A joint venture, the Newfoundland Power and Paper Company, was founded in 1923. After much fighting between Harry Reid and then-PM of the dominion Richard Squires, the so-called Humber project (after the Humber River) received support from the local government and loan guarantees both from it and the UK; Squires even campaigned on it, making "Hum on the Humber" his slogan for the 1923 Newfoundland general election.

The company was heavily involved with the establishment of the town of Deer Lake. The hydroelectric station there was built between 1922 and 1925, while the canal system used by the hydroelectric station helped to expand the forestry operations in the area. Some of the equipment used in the construction of the Panama Canal was shipped to Newfoundland. The pulp and paper mill in Corner Brook began operations in 1925. Overall, AW spent about £5M (equivalent to £ million in ) on the development, which went significantly over the original budget and led to an overdraft, only to witness a consistent decline in newsprint and pulp prices after 1923, which was caused by overexpansion of the Canadian industry and wasn't predicted by either party of the project, both lacking experience in paper trade. Since on a falling paper market longtime players with established customer bases had a clear advantage, shareholders sold their well-working but overleveraged and loss-making business to International Paper & Power Company in 1927. The deal left AW with a loss of £2.8M, and the whole group collapsed.

Shipbuilding
Shipbuilding was the major division of the company. From 1879 to 1880 the predecessor shipbuilding company of Charles Mitchell laid down a cruiser for the Chilean Navy at Low Walker Yard. This vessel was later supplied to Japan as the 'Tsukushi' of 1883; the ship was launched as of Armstrong Mitchell build. Between 1885 and 1918 Armstrong built warships for the Royal Navy, Beiyang Fleet, Imperial Russian Navy, Brazil Navy Imperial Japanese Navy, and the United States Navy. Amongst these were HMS Glatton which, due to bodged construction, suffered a magazine explosion in Dover Harbour less than one month after commissioning. Armstrong Mitchell and later Armstrong Whitworth built many merchant ships, freighters, tank-ships, and dredgers; notable among them was the ice-breaking train ferries SS Baikal in 1897 and SS Angara in 1900, built to connect the Trans-Siberian Railway across Lake Baikal. The company built the first polar icebreaker in the world: Yermak was a Russian and later Soviet icebreaker, having a strengthened hull shaped to ride over and crush pack ice.

Mergers and demergers
In 1927, the defence and engineering businesses merged with those of Vickers Limited to create a subsidiary company known as Vickers-Armstrongs. The aircraft and Armstrong Siddeley motors business were bought by J. D. Siddeley and became a separate entity. Production at the Scotswood Works ended in 1979 and the buildings were demolished in 1982.

Hydraulic engineering installations
The forerunner companies, W. G. Armstrong & Co. and later, from 1883 Sir WG Armstrong Mitchell & Company, were heavily involved in the construction of hydraulic engineering installations. Notable examples include:
 * Development of the Hydraulic 'Jigger', and lifting apparatus, some exhibited at the 1851 Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace, London.
 * Hydraulic mains system, Limehouse Basin, London, 1850s
 * Swing Bridge, River Tyne, 1873
 * 120 ton hydraulic 'Sheer Leg' crane at Elswick Works, for transshipment to vessels.
 * Tower Bridge, London, 1894
 * A bascule bridge for the railway spanning over the River Bann, Coleraine, Ulster, Northern Ireland, 1921.
 * A series of nine late-19th century 160-ton capacity hydraulic cranes for naval use. These were erected worldwide, in India (Bombay), Italy (La Spezia, Pozzuoli, Taranto and Venice), Liverpool, Malta and two more in Japan. The sole surviving example is undergoing partial restoration at Venice's Arsenale.

Ships
Between 1880 and 1925 they built a number of warships:

 * Arturo Prat/JAPANESE CRUISER Tsukushi (筑紫), Naval_Jack_of_Chile.svg Chilean Navy (intended)/Naval Ensign of Japan.svg Imperial Japanese Navy, 1880
 * CHILEAN CRUISER Esmeralda/Izumi (和泉), Naval_Jack_of_Chile.svg Chilean Navy/Naval Ensign of Japan.svg Imperial Japanese Navy, 1883
 * HMCS Protector Flag of South Australia (1876–1904).svg gunboat for the South Australian colonial navy, 1884
 * Naniwa (浪速), Naval Ensign of Japan.svg Imperial Japanese Navy, 1885
 * Elswick Cruisers, Zhiyuen Class Protected Cruiser, Protected cruiser: Jingyuan, Protected cruiser: Zhiyuen, Imperial Chinese Navy, 1887
 * HMS Victoria, Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg battleship built for the Royal Navy, delivered in 1891, she was accidentally rammed and sunk in 1893.
 * Castore and Polluce, gunboats for the Italian Navy, 1888.
 * Yoshino (吉野), Naval Ensign of Japan.svg Imperial Japanese Navy, 1892
 * USS New Orleans (CL-22), United States Navy, 1895
 * Esmeralda, Naval_Jack_of_Chile.svg Chilean Navy, 1895
 * Yashima (八島), Naval Ensign of Japan.svg Imperial Japanese Navy, 1896
 * Takasago (高砂), Naval Ensign of Japan.svg Imperial Japanese Navy, 1897
 * O'Higgins, Naval_Jack_of_Chile.svg Chilean Navy, 1897
 * Chacabuco, Naval_Jack_of_Chile.svg Chilean Navy, 1898
 * Asama (浅間), Naval Ensign of Japan.svg Imperial Japanese Navy, 1898
 * Tokiwa (常盤), Naval Ensign of Japan.svg Imperial Japanese Navy, 1898
 * USS Albany (CL-23), United States Navy, 1898
 * Yermak (Ермак), Imperial Russian Navy, 1898
 * Angara, Imperial Russian Navy, 1899
 * HNoMS Norge, Naval Ensign of Norway (1844-1905).svg Royal Norwegian Navy, 1899
 * HNoMS Eidsvold, Naval Ensign of Norway (1844-1905).svg Royal Norwegian Navy, 1899
 * Hatsuse (初瀬), Naval Ensign of Japan.svg Imperial Japanese Navy, 1899
 * Izumo (出雲), Naval Ensign of Japan.svg Imperial Japanese Navy, 1899
 * Iwate (磐手), Naval Ensign of Japan.svg Imperial Japanese Navy, 1900
 * Southern Cross, Melanesian Mission Steamer, 1903
 * HMS Swiftsure, Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg Royal Navy, 1903
 * Kashima (鹿島), Naval Ensign of Japan.svg Imperial Japanese Navy, 1905
 * HMS Superb, Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg Royal Navy, 1907
 * Minas Geraes, Flag of Brazil.svg Brazilian Navy, 1908
 * Bahia, Flag of Brazil.svg Brazilian Navy, 1909
 * HMS Monarch, Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg Royal Navy, 1911
 * HMS Canada, Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg Royal Navy, 1913
 * HMS Agincourt, battleship built for Ottoman Navy but confiscated by British in July 1914
 * HMS Malaya, Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg Royal Navy, 1915
 * HMS Eagle, Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg Royal Navy, 1918
 * HMS Nelson (28), Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg Royal Navy, 1925
 * Isla de Luzón, Spanish Navy 1886-1887

They built oil tankers, including:

 * British Emperor, Civil Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg British Tanker Company, 1916
 * British Endeavour Civil Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg British Tanker Company, 1927
 * British Ensign Civil Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg British Tanker Company, 1917
 * British Isles Civil Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg British Tanker Company, 1917
 * British Princess Civil Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg British Tanker Company, 1917
 * British Progress Civil Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg British Tanker Company, 1927
 * British Sovereign Civil Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg British Tanker Company, 1917
 * San Felix Civil Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg Eagle Oil and Shipping Company, 1921

Locomotives
Armstrong Whitworth built a few railway locomotives between 1847 and 1868, but it was not until 1919 that the company made a concerted effort to enter the railway market.

Contracts were obtained for the construction and supply of steam and diesel locomotives to railway systems in Britain and overseas, including those detailed in the following table.

Armament
Cannons and other armament were produced by the Elswick Ordnance Company, the armament division of Armstrong Whitworth. An especially notable example is the Armstrong 100-ton gun.

title: Armstrong Whitworth


text:
Your Funeral... My Trial

Your Funeral... My Trial is the fourth studio album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, released on 3 November 1986 by Mute Records. Your Funeral... My Trial was originally released as a double EP. The album was issued on CD with a different running order and the additional track "Scum". During this period in his life, Cave was steeped in heroin addiction, perhaps evidenced by the melancholy, desperate mood of this album. This was the final Bad Seeds album to feature Barry Adamson until he returned for Push the Sky Away (2013).

Cave later said, "That particular record, which is my favourite of the records we've done, is very special to me and a lot of amazing things happened, musically, in the studio. There are some songs on that record that as far as I'm concerned are just about perfect as we can get really- songs like "The Carny", "Your Funeral, My Trial", and "Stranger Than Kindness", I think are really quite brilliant." Your Funeral... My Trial was the band's first album to reach the ARIA Top 100 Albums Chart, where it peaked at number 98, and also reached number one on the UK Independent Albums Chart.

The album was remastered and reissued on 27 April 2009 as a collector's edition CD/DVD set. The CD features the original 8-song vinyl double EP's track listing and track order, while "Scum" is featured as a bonus audio track on the accompanying DVD.

Recording
Producer Flood said, "I remember Mick Harvey arrived in the studio with the guts of an old grand piano, that was the basis of the sound. It was just the strings, attached to a metal frame. He tuned certain notes, and used a guitar plectrum to pick the notes. It then ended up as "The Carny". That was the first day of recording Your Funeral… My Trial, and that kind of set the tone for the whole record."

Reflecting on the album in 2020, guitarist Mick Harvey noted: "[The album] gave us the template to go forward with. It was organised rather than rambling. It all felt complete even though it was a disparate set of sounds and styles. It felt like it belonged to us. It sounded like The Bad Seeds."

Movies
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds appeared in the 1987 Wim Wenders film Der Himmel über Berlin, performing "The Carny" (which is heard once before the performance scene) and "From Her to Eternity". "The Carny" also inspired the 2003 animated short film Jo Jo in the Stars, which won the BAFTA Award for Best Animated Short Film. The film was created and directed by Marc Craste, who said about "The Carny": "The lyrics read like a short story, it seemed to suggest a film – a straight visual interpretation of the text ..."

Personnel

 * Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
 * Nick Cave – vocals (1–9), piano (5, 7, 8) , hammond (1, 3, 4, 6) , harmonica (1, 2)
 * Mick Harvey – bass guitar (1, 6–9), guitar (1, 3, 5–8) , drums (1, 3, 4, 8) , snare drum (7) , piano (2, 3) , organ (2) , glockenspiel (2) , xylophone (2, 7) , backing vocals (6)
 * Blixa Bargeld – guitar (1–9), co-lead vocals (2)
 * Barry Adamson – bass (3, 5)
 * Thomas Wydler – drums (2, 3, 5, 7, 9), fire extinguisher (7)

 * Technical personnel
 * Flood – producer, engineer, mixing
 * Tony Cohen – producer, engineer

 * Design personnel
 * Nick Cave – art direction
 * Paul White – art direction
 * Christoph Dreher – photography

Personnel for Your Funeral... My Trial adapted from the album's liner notes.

title: Your Funeral... My Trial


text:
Arno (automobile)

The Arno was an English automobile manufactured in Coventry only in 1908; the car, which featured a 25 hp White and Poppe engine and shaft drive, was introduced at that year's Stanley Show.

title: Arno (automobile)


text:
Anostomidae

The Anostomidae are a family of ray-finned fishes that belong to the order Characiformes. Closely related to the Chilodontidae and formerly included with them, the Anostomidae contain about 150 described species. Commonly known as anostomids, they are found in freshwater habitats from the Río Atrato in northernmost South America to warm-temperate central Argentina; they are of Amazon origin, with few found west of the Andes (mainly in Colombia and Venezuela). Their scientific name approximately means "mouth on top", from Ancient Greek áno- (ἄνω) "up" (as an adverb) + stóma (στόμᾶ) "mouth", in reference to the arrangement of these fishes' mouth opening.

Description
Anostomids have elongated bodies ranging from 15 to 60 cm in length; their shape varies between fusiform and deeper-bodied, but even the latter are only moderately laterally. They have elongated, tapering heads with rather long, straight snouts, and small apical to upturned mouths immediately at or near the snout tip. This family contains many headstanders, which habitually swim with their heads pointing from 45° up to 90° downwards; most feed on plants near the bottom, while others also eat detritus and invertebrates picked up from river- or lakebeds. Adults guard the eggs after spawning. Anostomidae are generally considered edible, and some of the larger species are caught for food on a regular basis, much like large Leuciscinae (which are superficially similar Cypriniformes) are in the temperate Northern Hemisphere.

Their jaws are rather short, with the maxillary bone small and excluded from the mouth opening, while the ascending process of the premaxilla is triangular in overall shape and robustly developed. One row of six or eight curved teeth occur in each jaw, arranged by length in a step-like fashion, with the front teeth being the longest; the pharyngeal teeth are enlarged and have two or more cusps each.

Anostomid gill openings are small, with the gill membranes firmly joined to the isthmus; the ligament between the interopercle and the mouth is elongated and the interopercle is clearly separated from the retroarticular. On the sides of the preopercle is a large, elongated protrusion, where the powerful jaw adductor muscles attach. The third epibranchial gill arch has a curved anterior process which extends medially over the dorsal surface of the fourth infrapharyngobranchial arch. The circumorbital bone series is complete and includes a supraorbital bone, and at least four, often more, of the forward ribs are united by two or more intercostal ligaments.

The lateral line is complete, contains 33-44 perforated scales, and runs along the midline of the body. The dentary bears a short lateral-line canal ending at or shortly behind mid-length, and altogether the lateral-line canals of the head are divided into at least two ossified tubes. All anostomids have an adipose fin; their dorsal fin contains one and 11, the anal fin one and 9, and the pelvic fins one and 8-9 hard and soft rays, respectively.

Systematics and evolution
This family is in all probability monotypic as traditionally defined. Several attempts to delimit subfamilies have taken place, and several of the proposed groupings indeed correspond to clades within this family. Leporellus has long been recognized as the basal-most living anostomid genus, due to its many plesiomorphies shared with the Chilodontidae and its peculiar apomorphies, and separated as a monotypic subfamily by some. A large clade of "modern" genera was treated as Anostominae by some authors; others considered that subfamily more inclusive.

But the latter view is incorrect, as it includes a large number of lineages that are really basal members of the family and should not be treated as a subfamily (except monotypic ones, but these are generally avoided). Also, the huge assemblage usually treated under Leporinus is not monophyletic and in need of thorough study, to see how it is best divided. Depending on the exact relationships of Anostomoides, a Leporinus sensu lato clade could warrant recognition as another subfamily. Finally, Rhytiodus and Schizodon would almost certainly qualify as another subfamily, even if only the Anostominae warrant recognition otherwise.

Evolution and fossil record
The taxon Anostominae is also used to denote the entire family in outdated treatments, where the name "Anostomidae" is applied to the entire Anostomoidea (and sometimes even more distant relatives). In that respect, agreement is widespread today that the closest living relatives of the Anostomidae sensu stricto are the Chilodontidae headstanders, the toothless characins (Curimatidae) and the flannel-mouthed characins (Prochilodontidae).

The origin of the Anostomidae can be quite confidently placed in the Paleogene, and somewhat less securely in late Paleogene, based on various evidence. For one, the biogeography of the family, with some very basal taxa found west of the Andes, indicates it was already well distinct when the northern part of that mountain range uplifted at the end of the Middle Miocene about 12 million years ago (Mya). Then, some scant but highly informative fossil evidence assigned to this family: a premaxillary tooth was found in the Colombian Villavieja Formation and dated to the Laventan age about 13.5-11.5 Mya, while some pharyngeal teeth and other jaw parts found near Cuenca, Ecuador in the Cuenca basin (a structural basin ) are about 19 million years old. The fossil remains resemble Leporinus and were assigned to the living genus, but given its paraphyly and rather basal position, until more fossils are found the known remains can only be considered fairly basal Anostomidae, incertae sedis, but probably close to the Leporinus assemblage.

Cyphocharax mosesi, a fossil toothless characin found in Brazil, lived at the Oligocene-Miocene boundary about 23 Mya. Thus, at that time, the Anostomoidea families must have already been well distinct. Given that the Characiformes originated slightly more than 115 Mya, the Anostomoidea probably diverged from their characiform relatives the Late Cretaceous and diversified thereafter; a Paleogene origin of the Anostomidae is thus most likely, with present-day subfamilies (whatever eventually will be accepted) having diverged by the start of the Neogene. Whether the family originated in Oligocene or already in the Eocene (or perhaps even in the Paleocene) cannot be said until more fossil material is recovered, either to answer this question directly or to provide calibration for molecular phylogenetic studies.

Genera
The genera of Anostomidae are:

Basal lineages
 * Abramites (two species)
 * Anostomoides (three species)
 * Hypomasticus (seven species)
 * Leporellus (four species)
 * Leporinus (79 species; paraphyletic)
 * Megaleporinus (10 species)

Schizodon clade
 * Rhytiodus (four species)
 * Schizodon (16 species)

Anostominae sensu stricto
 * Anostomus (five species)
 * Gnathodolus (one species)
 * Laemolyta (9 species)
 * Petulanos (three species)
 * Pseudanos (four species; paraphyletic?)
 * Sartor (three species)
 * Synaptolaemus (two species)

In Brazil, many species of Leporinus, Rhytiodus, and Schizodon are called aracu.

title: Anostomidae