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William Meredith

William Meredith may refer to:

 * William Meredith (MP), MP for Wootton Bassett
 * Billy Meredith (1874–1958), Welsh international winger, oft described as "football's first superstar"
 * William Morris Meredith Jr. (1919–2007), American poet and Pulitzer Prize laureate
 * William Collis Meredith (1812–1894), Canadian jurist, Chief Justice of Quebec Superior Court
 * William Morton Meredith (1835–1917), American director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing
 * William Meredith (surgeon) (1848–1916), American surgeon who practiced in Briton
 * William Ralph Meredith (1840–1923), Canadian politician
 * William M. Meredith (1799–1873), American lawyer, politician, and U.S. Treasury Secretary

 * Sir William Meredith, 3rd Baronet (1725–1790), British politician
 * William Meredith (American football) (died 1959), football coach

title: William Meredith


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Environmental degradation

Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as quality of air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems; habitat destruction; the extinction of wildlife; and pollution. It is defined as any change or disturbance to the environment perceived to be deleterious or undesirable. The environmental degradation process amplifies the impact of environmental issues which leave lasting impacts on the environment.

Environmental degradation is one of the ten threats officially cautioned by the High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change of the United Nations. The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction defines environmental degradation as "the reduction of the capacity of the environment to meet social and ecological objectives, and needs".

Environmental degradation comes in many types. When natural habitats are destroyed or natural resources are depleted, the environment is degraded; direct environmental degradation, such as deforestation, which is readily visible; this can be caused by more indirect process, such as the build up of plastic pollution over time or the buildup of greenhouse gases that causes tipping points in the climate system. Efforts to counteract this problem include environmental protection and environmental resources management. Mismanagement that leads to degradation can also lead to environmental conflict where communities organize in opposition to the forces that mismanaged the environment.

Biodiversity loss
Scientists assert that human activity has pushed the earth into a sixth mass extinction event. The loss of biodiversity has been attributed in particular to human overpopulation, continued human population growth and overconsumption of natural resources by the world's wealthy. A 2020 report by the World Wildlife Fund found that human activity – specifically overconsumption, population growth and intensive farming – has destroyed 68% of vertebrate wildlife since 1970. The Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, published by the United Nation's IPBES in 2019, posits that roughly one million species of plants and animals face extinction from anthropogenic causes, such as expanding human land use for industrial agriculture and livestock rearing, along with overfishing.

Since the establishment of agriculture over 11,000 years ago, humans have altered roughly 70% of the Earth's land surface, with the global biomass of vegetation being reduced by half, and terrestrial animal communities seeing a decline in biodiversity greater than 20% on average. A 2021 study says that just 3% of the planet's terrestrial surface is ecologically and faunally intact, meaning areas with healthy populations of native animal species and little to no human footprint. Many of these intact ecosystems were in areas inhabited by indigenous peoples. With 3.2 billion people affected globally, degradation affects over 30% of the world's land area and 40% of land in developing countries.

The implications of these losses for human livelihoods and wellbeing have raised serious concerns. With regard to the agriculture sector for example, The State of the World's Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture, published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2019, states that "countries report that many species that contribute to vital ecosystem services, including pollinators, the natural enemies of pests, soil organisms and wild food species, are in decline as a consequence of the destruction and degradation of habitats, overexploitation, pollution and other threats" and that "key ecosystems that deliver numerous services essential to food and agriculture, including supply of freshwater, protection against hazards and provision of habitat for species such as fish and pollinators, are declining."

Impacts of environmental degradation on women's livelihoods
On the way biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation impact livelihoods, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations finds also that in contexts of degraded lands and ecosystems in rural areas, both girls and women bear heavier workloads.

Women's livelihoods, health, food and nutrition security, access to water and energy, and coping abilities are all disproportionately affected by environmental degradation. Environmental pressures and shocks, particularly in rural areas, force women to deal with the aftermath, greatly increasing their load of unpaid care work. Also, as limited natural resources grow even scarcer due to climate change, women and girls must also walk further to collect food, water or firewood, which heightens their risk of being subjected to gender-based violence.

This implies, for example, longer journeys to get primary necessities and greater exposure to the risks of human trafficking, rape, and sexual violence.

Water degradation
One major component of environmental degradation is the depletion of the resource of fresh water on Earth. Approximately only 2.5% of all of the water on Earth is fresh water, with the rest being salt water. 69% of fresh water is frozen in ice caps located on Antarctica and Greenland, so only 30% of the 2.5% of fresh water is available for consumption. Fresh water is an exceptionally important resource, since life on Earth is ultimately dependent on it. Water transports nutrients, minerals and chemicals within the biosphere to all forms of life, sustains both plants and animals, and moulds the surface of the Earth with transportation and deposition of materials.

The current top three uses of fresh water account for 95% of its consumption; approximately 85% is used for irrigation of farmland, golf courses, and parks, 6% is used for domestic purposes such as indoor bathing uses and outdoor garden and lawn use, and 4% is used for industrial purposes such as processing, washing, and cooling in manufacturing centres. It is estimated that one in three people over the entire globe are already facing water shortages, almost one-fifth of the world population live in areas of physical water scarcity, and almost one quarter of the world's population live in a developing country that lacks the necessary infrastructure to use water from available rivers and aquifers. Water scarcity is an increasing problem due to many foreseen issues in the future including population growth, increased urbanization, higher standards of living, and climate change.

Industrial and domestic sewage, pesticides, fertilizers, plankton blooms, silt, oils, chemical residues, radioactive material, and other pollutants are some of the most frequent water pollutants. These have a huge negative impact on the water and can cause degradation in various levels.

Climate change and temperature
Climate change affects the Earth's water supply in a large number of ways. It is predicted that the mean global temperature will rise in the coming years due to a number of forces affecting the climate. The amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) will rise, and both of these will influence water resources; evaporation depends strongly on temperature and moisture availability which can ultimately affect the amount of water available to replenish groundwater supplies.

Transpiration from plants can be affected by a rise in atmospheric CO2, which can decrease their use of water, but can also raise their use of water from possible increases of leaf area. Temperature rise can reduce the snow season in the winter and increase the intensity of the melting snow leading to peak runoff of this, affecting soil moisture, flood and drought risks, and storage capacities depending on the area.

Warmer winter temperatures cause a decrease in snowpack, which can result in diminished water resources during summer. This is especially important at mid-latitudes and in mountain regions that depend on glacial runoff to replenish their river systems and groundwater supplies, making these areas increasingly vulnerable to water shortages over time; an increase in temperature will initially result in a rapid rise in water melting from glaciers in the summer, followed by a retreat in glaciers and a decrease in the melt and consequently the water supply every year as the size of these glaciers get smaller and smaller.

Thermal expansion of water and increased melting of oceanic glaciers from an increase in temperature gives way to a rise in sea level. This can affect the freshwater supply to coastal areas as well. As river mouths and deltas with higher salinity get pushed further inland, an intrusion of saltwater results in an increase of salinity in reservoirs and aquifers. Sea-level rise may also consequently be caused by a depletion of groundwater, as climate change can affect the hydrologic cycle in a number of ways. Uneven distributions of increased temperatures and increased precipitation around the globe results in water surpluses and deficits, but a global decrease in groundwater suggests a rise in sea level, even after meltwater and thermal expansion were accounted for, which can provide a positive feedback to the problems sea-level rise causes to fresh-water supply.

A rise in air temperature results in a rise in water temperature, which is also very significant in water degradation as the water would become more susceptible to bacterial growth. An increase in water temperature can also affect ecosystems greatly because of a species' sensitivity to temperature, and also by inducing changes in a body of water's self-purification system from decreased amounts of dissolved oxygen in the water due to rises in temperature.

Climate change and precipitation
A rise in global temperatures is also predicted to correlate with an increase in global precipitation but because of increased runoff, floods, increased rates of soil erosion, and mass movement of land, a decline in water quality is probable, because while water will carry more nutrients it will also carry more contaminants. While most of the attention about climate change is directed towards global warming and greenhouse effect, some of the most severe effects of climate change are likely to be from changes in precipitation, evapotranspiration, runoff, and soil moisture. It is generally expected that, on average, global precipitation will increase, with some areas receiving increases and some decreases.

Climate models show that while some regions should expect an increase in precipitation, such as in the tropics and higher latitudes, other areas are expected to see a decrease, such as in the subtropics. This will ultimately cause a latitudinal variation in water distribution. The areas receiving more precipitation are also expected to receive this increase during their winter and actually become drier during their summer, creating even more of a variation of precipitation distribution. Naturally, the distribution of precipitation across the planet is very uneven, causing constant variations in water availability in respective locations.

Changes in precipitation affect the timing and magnitude of floods and droughts, shift runoff processes, and alter groundwater recharge rates. Vegetation patterns and growth rates will be directly affected by shifts in precipitation amount and distribution, which will in turn affect agriculture as well as natural ecosystems. Decreased precipitation will deprive areas of water causing water tables to fall and reservoirs of wetlands, rivers, and lakes to empty. In addition, a possible increase in evaporation and evapotranspiration will result, depending on the accompanied rise in temperature. Groundwater reserves will be depleted, and the remaining water has a greater chance of being of poor quality from saline or contaminants on the land surface.

Climate change is resulting into a very high rate of land degradation causing enhanced desertification and nutrient deficient soils. The menace of land degradation is increasing by the day and has been characterized as a major global threat. According to Global Assessment of Land Degradation and Improvement (GLADA) a quarter of land area around the globe can now be marked as degraded. Land degradation is supposed to influence lives of 1.5 billion people and 15 billion tons of fertile soil is lost every year due to anthropogenic activities and climate change.

Population growth

The human population on Earth is expanding rapidly, which together with even more rapid economic growth is the main cause of the degradation of the environment. Humanity's appetite for resources is disrupting the environment's natural equilibrium. Production industries are venting smoke into the atmosphere and discharging chemicals that are polluting water resources. The smoke includes detrimental gases such as carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide. The high levels of pollution in the atmosphere form layers that are eventually absorbed into the atmosphere. Organic compounds such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) have generated an opening in the ozone layer, which admits higher levels of ultraviolet radiation, putting the globe at risk.

The available fresh water being affected by the climate is also being stretched across an ever-increasing global population. It is estimated that almost a quarter of the global population is living in an area that is using more than 20% of their renewable water supply; water use will rise with population while the water supply is also being aggravated by decreases in streamflow and groundwater caused by climate change. Even though some areas may see an increase in freshwater supply from an uneven distribution of precipitation increase, an increased use of water supply is expected.

An increased population means increased withdrawals from the water supply for domestic, agricultural, and industrial uses, the largest of these being agriculture, believed to be the major non-climate driver of environmental change and water deterioration. The next 50 years will likely be the last period of rapid agricultural expansion, but the larger and wealthier population over this time will demand more agriculture.

Population increase over the last two decades, at least in the United States, has also been accompanied by a shift to an increase in urban areas from rural areas, which concentrates the demand for water into certain areas, and puts stress on the fresh water supply from industrial and human contaminants. Urbanization causes overcrowding and increasingly unsanitary living conditions, especially in developing countries, which in turn exposes an increasingly number of people to disease. About 79% of the world's population is in developing countries, which lack access to sanitary water and sewer systems, giving rises to disease and deaths from contaminated water and increased numbers of disease-carrying insects.

Agriculture
Agriculture is dependent on available soil moisture, which is directly affected by climate dynamics, with precipitation being the input in this system and various processes being the output, such as evapotranspiration, surface runoff, drainage, and percolation into groundwater. Changes in climate, especially the changes in precipitation and evapotranspiration predicted by climate models, will directly affect soil moisture, surface runoff, and groundwater recharge.

In areas with decreasing precipitation as predicted by the climate models, soil moisture may be substantially reduced. With this in mind, agriculture in most areas already needs irrigation, which depletes fresh water supplies both by the physical use of the water and the degradation agriculture causes to the water. Irrigation increases salt and nutrient content in areas that would not normally be affected, and damages streams and rivers from damming and removal of water. Fertilizer enters both human and livestock waste streams that eventually enter groundwater, while nitrogen, phosphorus, and other chemicals from fertilizer can acidify both soils and water. Certain agricultural demands may increase more than others with an increasingly wealthier global population, and meat is one commodity expected to double global food demand by 2050, which directly affects the global supply of fresh water. Cows need water to drink, more if the temperature is high and humidity is low, and more if the production system the cow is in is extensive, since finding food takes more effort. Water is needed in the processing of the meat, and also in the production of feed for the livestock. Manure can contaminate bodies of freshwater, and slaughterhouses, depending on how well they are managed, contribute waste such as blood, fat, hair, and other bodily contents to supplies of fresh water.

The transfer of water from agricultural to urban and suburban use raises concerns about agricultural sustainability, rural socioeconomic decline, food security, an increased carbon footprint from imported food, and decreased foreign trade balance. The depletion of fresh water, as applied to more specific and populated areas, increases fresh water scarcity among the population and also makes populations susceptible to economic, social, and political conflict in a number of ways; rising sea levels forces migration from coastal areas to other areas farther inland, pushing populations closer together breaching borders and other geographical patterns, and agricultural surpluses and deficits from the availability of water induce trade problems and economies of certain areas. Climate change is an important cause of involuntary migration and forced displacement According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, global greenhouse gas emissions from animal agriculture exceeds that of transportation.

Water management

Water management is the process of planning, developing, and managing water resources across all water applications, in terms of both quantity and quality." Water management is supported and guided by institutions, infrastructure, incentives, and information systems

The issue of the depletion of fresh water has stimulated increased efforts in water management. While water management systems are often flexible, adaptation to new hydrologic conditions may be very costly. Preventative approaches are necessary to avoid high costs of inefficiency and the need for rehabilitation of water supplies, and innovations to decrease overall demand may be important in planning water sustainability.

Water supply systems, as they exist now, were based on the assumptions of the current climate, and built to accommodate existing river flows and flood frequencies. Reservoirs are operated based on past hydrologic records, and irrigation systems on historical temperature, water availability, and crop water requirements; these may not be a reliable guide to the future. Re-examining engineering designs, operations, optimizations, and planning, as well as re-evaluating legal, technical, and economic approaches to manage water resources are very important for the future of water management in response to water degradation. Another approach is water privatization; despite its economic and cultural effects, service quality and overall quality of the water can be more easily controlled and distributed. Rationality and sustainability is appropriate, and requires limits to overexploitation and pollution and efforts in conservation.

Consumption increases
As the world's population continues to grow larger by the minute, the demand for natural resources increases as well. With the need for more production of increases comes more damage to the environments and ecosystems those resources are housed in. According to United Nations' population growth predictions, there could be up to 170 million more births by the year 2070. The need for more fuel, energy, food, buildings, and water sources grows with the number of people on the planet.

Deforestation
As the need for new agricultural areas and road construction increases, the deforestation processes stay in effect. Deforestation is the "removal of forest or stand of trees from land that is converted to non-forest use." (Wikipedia-Deforestation). Since the 1960s close to 50% of tropical forests have been destroyed, but this process is not limited to tropical forest areas. Europe's forests are also destroyed by a number of factors; livestock, insects, diseases, invasive species, and other human activities. A large number of the world's terrestrial biodiversity can be found living in the different types of forests. Tearing down these areas for increased consumption directly decreases the world's biodiversity of plant and animal species native to those areas. Along with the destruction of habitats and ecosystems, the decrease of the world's forest contributes to the amount of in the atmosphere. By taking away forested areas, we are limiting the amount of carbon reservoirs, limiting it to the largest ones; the atmosphere and oceans. While one of the biggest reasons for deforestation is for agriculture use for the world's food supply, removing trees from landscapes also increases erosion rates in areas, making it harder to produce crops in those soil types.

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

title: Environmental degradation


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Western Canada Hockey League

The Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL), founded in 1921, was a major professional ice hockey league originally based in the prairies of Canada. It was renamed the Western Hockey League (WHL) in 1925 and disbanded in 1926.

The WCHL's Victoria Cougars were the last non-NHL team to win the Stanley Cup when they won the 1925 Stanley Cup Finals over the NHL's Montreal Canadiens.

Background
The Stanley Cup was donated in 1893 to serve as a trophy to be awarded to the national champion of Canadian amateur ice hockey. The trophy eventually became open to professional teams in 1906 and a new trophy, the Allan Cup was donated to serve as the national amateur trophy. By this time, the Canadian Prairies were being rapidly settled and in 1914 a team based in Saskatchewan (the Regina Victorias) would capture the Allan Cup for the first time. By this time, competition for the Stanley Cup, had evolved into a World Series-inspired "East vs. West" affair to be contested between the winners of the two professional hockey leagues then in business, the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA), based in British Columbia, Washington and Oregon and the National Hockey Association (NHA), based in Ontario and Quebec. Although the PCHA won two of the first three Stanley Cup series contested under this format, the National Hockey League (NHL) came to dominate Stanley Cup play after it replaced the NHA as the premier Eastern competition in 1917.

Early years
In 1921, the Edmonton Eskimos and Calgary Tigers of the Big Four League saw their league collapse on allegations of pay for amateurs. Together with the Regina Capitals and Saskatoon Sheiks the teams organized the openly professional Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL). The league was organized under the presidency of E. L. "Ernie" Richardson of Calgary, with Wesley Champ of Regina, Robert Pinder of Saskatoon, K. C. "Kenny" MacKenzie of Edmonton, and J. Lloyd Turner of Calgary, becoming the directors. The league, like the National Hockey League (NHL), played six-man hockey, without the old 'rover' position. At the time, there was not yet a clear distinction between "major" and "minor" professional leagues in any North American sport other than baseball and the new league was recognized as a comparable league to the existing Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA). The winner of a series between the champions of the two leagues would go on to face the winner of the NHL for the coveted Stanley Cup.

The league started with high hopes in a general climate of optimism that followed the end of the First World War. Like another then-fledgling professional league in a different sport (the American Professional Football Association, forerunners to today's National Football League) the WCHL was centered in smaller cities with populations of under 100,000 people. In an era where professional sport was considered to be a seasonal occupation to be supplemented by off-season work, salaries even at the major professional level were relatively small and thought to be within the means of clubs in markets as small as Saskatoon and Moose Jaw.

The WCHL's first season, 1921–22, saw the Saskatoon Sheiks have money problems and relocate to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, to become the Moose Jaw Sheiks. The Edmonton Eskimos won the regular season standings, but were upset in the playoffs by the second place Regina Capitals. The Capitals then faced the Vancouver Millionaires of the PCHA to determine who would go on to face the Toronto St. Patricks of the NHL for the Stanley Cup. Vancouver won the series against Regina, but lost to Toronto in the Stanley Cup finals.

In the next season, the Moose Jaw team folded, but the WCHL returned to Saskatoon with a new franchise, the Saskatoon Crescents, led by Newsy Lalonde. The WCHL and PCHA started playing inter-league games, but kept separate standings. The Edmonton Eskimos won the regular season, but lost to the NHL's Ottawa Senators in the Stanley Cup finals.

In the 1923–24 WCHL season, the Calgary Tigers finished in first place while Edmonton finished at the bottom of the standings. The playoffs were changed this year, too, despite a protest from the Montreal Canadiens of the NHL. Instead of the two western leagues playing off to see who would play the NHL champion for the Stanley Cup, the president of the PCHA, Frank Patrick, insisted that the NHL champion had to play the PCHA winner first. This change ended up not making any difference for Montreal, as the team swept Vancouver and then Calgary for the Stanley Cup.

For the 1924–25 WCHL season, the PCHA folded and two of its teams, the Vancouver Maroons and Victoria Cougars joined the WCHL, giving the league six teams. The Saskatoon franchise became the Saskatoon Sheiks. The league had some top-level talent on its rosters, with stars such as Bun Cook and Bill Cook and rookie Eddie Shore. The Victoria Cougars, coached and managed by PCHA founder Lester Patrick, won the league championship and went on to face the Montreal Canadiens for the Stanley Cup. Victoria easily beat the Canadiens three games to one, out scoring them 16 to 8. This would be the shining moment for the WCHL as Victoria became the first non-NHL team to win the Stanley Cup since the formation of the NHL in 1917. Since then, no non-NHL team has won the Cup. In fact, the next season, 1925–26, would be the last time a team from outside the NHL would even challenge for it.

Collapse
The WCHL was never particularly stable. A major factor weakening the league's long term prospects for success was the lack of any teams in Winnipeg, then by far the largest city in the Prairies. Due to the city's relatively large size, the league hoped to ice multiple teams in the Manitoban capital (similar to how Montreal, then the largest city in Canada, hosted both the Canadiens and Maroons in the NHL). The rationale was both a desire to boost the total number of teams and a fear that a single Winnipeg team would dominate the league. However, no potential ownership group was willing to ice a team in Winnipeg without being granted the sort of territorial exclusivity that was by then common practice in North American professional sports leagues.

The beginning of the end came in 1924 when the NHL first expanded into the United States. With the NHL rapidly expanding, salaries were on the rise and the WCHL was finding it difficult to keep its star players. In 1925, the Regina Capitals relocated to Portland, Oregon, and rekindled the old name of Portland Rosebuds, which had been out of use since 1918. With the move into the U.S. came a name change for the WCHL - "Canada" was dropped and the league was renamed the Western Hockey League (WHL). In the eastern half of the continent, the NHL eventually achieved relative stability through large-scale expansion to the U.S. and the NHL achieved prosperity by abandoning most of its smaller cities in favour of large markets. Such a path to success was not a viable option for the WHL because few U.S. cities west of the Mississippi River had large arenas with ice plants in the 1920s. For example, St. Louis did not have such a facility until an ice plant was installed in the St. Louis Arena in 1931.

The Edmonton Eskimos won the regular season for the third time in five seasons, but it was the Victoria Cougars who won the league championship and moved on to play for the Stanley Cup. Expectations were high for the defending Stanley Cup champions, but Montreal's other NHL team, the Montreal Maroons, were too strong for Victoria handily beating them three games to one and out scoring them 10 to 3.

By the 1925–26 season, WHL teams were openly selling players to their richer NHL rivals to stay afloat. Nevertheless, financial problems were too great to overcome, the NHL board of governors intervened by purchasing the contracts of every player in the WHL for $258,000 and the league formally disbanded. While the remnants of five former WHL teams immediately formed the professional Prairie Hockey League, the western teams had been stripped of their best players while the NHL and the Stanley Cup's trustees regarded the PrHL as a new minor league and not a continuation of the major professional WHL. The new league would contract to just three Saskatchewan-based teams by 1927 and disappear altogether in 1928.

Although rival leagues were not formally barred from challenging for the Cup until 1947, the WHL's collapse left the NHL as the only top-level professional league in North America. In the meantime, the Cup trustees refused to accept challenges from any rival league. In what was the most significant expansion of its early era, the NHL added three teams for its 1926–27 season, all of which survived the Great Depression to form half of the so-called Original Six in later years. Separate deals were made in stocking the new teams. The rights to the Victoria Cougars' players were bought by the Detroit franchise (which would eventually become the Detroit Red Wings) causing the team to be named the Detroit Cougars in their honor, and the Portland Rosebuds' players' rights were purchased by Frederic McLaughlin for his new Black Hawks team. The New York Rangers did not come to any similar agreement with any team but they grabbed players from certain teams like the Saskatoon Sheiks with the Cook brothers, but never less, the Rangers were the most well rounded team of the three in its early years, including winning a Stanley Cup title in 1928, their second season. Other players of the Saskatoon, Calgary, Edmonton, and Moose Jaw teams went to the already established teams like Eddie Shore going to the Boston Bruins who achieved success in 1929, winning the Stanley Cup that year. Its legacy still lives on with many players from that league being enshrined into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Gallery
Some of the high profile players who spent considerable time in the WCHL:

Franchises

 * Calgary Tigers (1921–1926)
 * Edmonton Eskimos (1921–1926)
 * Regina Capitals (1921–1925), Portland Rosebuds (1925–1926)
 * Saskatoon Sheiks (1921–1922), Moose Jaw Sheiks (1921–1922), Saskatoon Crescents (1922–1923), Saskatoon Sheiks (1923-1926)
 * Vancouver Maroons (1924–1926)
 * Victoria Cougars (1924–1926)

title: Western Canada Hockey League


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Field hockey at the 2004 Summer Olympics

Field hockey at the 2004 Summer Olympics was held at the Olympic Hockey Centre located within the Helliniko Olympic Complex. The competitions for both men and women was split into two groups with the top two teams after the preliminary rounds progressing through to the semi-finals.


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Ingrid Mattson

Ingrid Mattson (born August 24, 1963) is a Canadian activist and scholar. A professor of Islamic studies, she is currently the London and Windsor Community Chair in Islamic Studies at Huron University College at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada. Mattson is a former president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and was described as "Perhaps the most noticed figure among American Muslim women" in a 2010 New York Times article.

Early life and background
Ingrid Mattson, the sixth of seven children, was born in 1963 in Kingston, Ontario, where she spent her childhood and attended Catholic schools. She credits the Catholic women who educated her with providing "a fantastic education" and "a place to explore and develop this early, youthful spirituality". She studied Philosophy and Fine Arts at the University of Waterloo in Canada from 1982–87. As part of her course of study, she spent summer of 1986 as a visiting student in Paris, France. During this time, she befriended West African students from a Sufi Muslim community. On reading the Qur'an, she found, "an awareness of God, for the first time since I was very young." After returning to Waterloo, she converted to Islam in 1987. She completed her studies in Waterloo and earned combined Bachelor of Arts degrees in Philosophy and Fine Arts in 1987.

Advanced education and career
Ingrid Mattson received a PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago in 1999. She then served as a Professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations from 1998–2012 at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut. During that period, she founded the first accredited graduate program for Muslim chaplains in America. For a number of years she was also the Director of the MacDonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary.

While serving as the vice-president and president of the Islamic Society of North America, Mattson worked on a number of occasions with United States government officials. She provided consultation during the administrations of US Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. This work focused on policies regarding violent extremism, Muslim-American military service, and protection of civil rights for Muslim-Americans. John O. Brennan, the Director of the CIA, when he was Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, and Assistant to President Obama thanked Mattson for her leadership at a public meeting at New York University.

Her work focuses on fostering positive relationships between groups of differing religious faiths. She is an advocate for interfaith engagement and multi-faith activism in the interest of the public good. She has spent her academic career teaching Islamic Studies and interfaith relations in historically Christian institutions. As ISNA president, Mattson established a national office for interfaith relations in Washington, DC in 2006. She invited Rabbi Eric Yoffie, President of the Union for Reform Judaism, to speak at the organization's annual convention in Chicago in 2006. Mattson spoke the next year at the group's Biennial where she received a standing ovation and announced "a new partnership that promotes interfaith dialogue and other relationship-building activities" between the two organizations. She also established programs with other Jewish organizations. The "Twinning Program" with the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding is one such program. Another is the three year "Jews and Muslims in America" program developed in cooperation with the Jewish Theological Seminary and funded by the Carnegie Institute.

Mattson has advocated for greater understanding and partnerships between Muslims and Buddhists as well. She shared the stage with the Dalai Lama on a number of occasions, including the "Seeds of Peace" program in Seattle in 2008, in Indiana in 2010, and in Chicago in 2011.

Mattson is an original signatory of "A Common Word" and has participated in many Christian-Muslim conferences and dialogues with the Jordanian Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought. Her leadership in interfaith cooperation has been recognized by Burt Visotzsky of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. She was also awarded an honorary doctorate in 2012 by the Chicago Theological Seminary for her service to the faith community.

Her book, The Story of The Qur'an: its history and place in Muslim Life (now in its 2nd edition) was chosen in 2012 by the National Endowment for the Humanities for inclusion in its "Bridging Cultures" program.

Views on the role of women in Islam
Mattson advocates for a greater public role for Muslim women as religious leaders. When she founded the first accredited graduate program for Muslim chaplains in the US, she insisted that it be open to women. Mattson wears a hijab, but argues that governments should have no authority to enforce religious dress or ban it. Mattson has worked with a Muslim social service agency called Peaceful Families. The group to advocates against domestic violence in the Muslim community and argues against interpretations of the Qur'an that permit violence to or discrimination against women.

Mattson is also the Founder and Director of The Hurma Project - an initiative to help Muslim communities prevent and act against spiritual and sexual abuse by those in position of religious authority and influence. She explained in an interview with Haute Hijab magazine that she was motivated to act after witnessing on multiple occasions how the community was not able to appropriately acknowledge and deal with such situations. She said, "I realized we needed something broad and interdisciplinary to examine the scope of the problem, have a good understanding of all of the dynamics and develop educational materials and processes that we can bring to the community."

Opposition to Islamic extremism
Mattson has been a critic of Islamic religious extremism since she first encountered the Taliban while trying to educate Afghan refugee girls in Pakistan. In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, Mattson published an article on Beliefnet entitled "American Muslims have a Special Obligation." In the article, she stated, "I, as an American Muslim leader, denounce not only suicide bombers and the Taliban, but those leaders of other Muslim states who thwart democracy, repress women, use the Qur'an to justify un-Islamic behavior and encourage violence." Since the attacks of September 11, Mattson been interviewed many times on the radio. She has lectured publicly to denounce violence in the name of Islam and advocated for peaceful resolution of conflicts and differences. In a 2007 essay, Mattson condemned "Exclusivist, triumphalist, communal identities (religious or political)" that justify violent attacks on other groups. Mattson was one of the original signatories of the Amman Message that was an international Muslim response to sectarian violence and terrorism in the name of Islam.

Interviews

 * On WHYY's "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross "A Convert to Islam Takes Leadership Role," September 28, 2006;
 * On APM's "Speaking of Faith" with Krista Tippett "A New Voice for Islam," March 6, 2008;
 * The Spiritual Fallout of 9/11," September 5, 2002;
 * On WNPR’s "Where We Live" with John Dankoski "Christians and Muslims," February 13, 2008:
 * On WNPR's "Where We Live" with John Dankoski "Finding a Religious Common Ground," January 27, 2009:
 * On CBC's "The Sunday Edition" with Michael Enright "In Search of Moderate Muslims," January 4, 2010:
 * On WBEZ's Worldview" with Jerome McDonnell "Muslim Women’s Leadership," May 4, 2010:

title: Ingrid Mattson


text:
Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) (Mahadev Mukherjee)

Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) is an anti-revisionist Marxist–Leninist communist party in India. After the death of Charu Majumdar in 1972 the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) pro Charu Majumdar central committee was led by Mahadev Mukherjee and Jagjit Singh Sohal, and the Central Committee took a stand to defend the line of Charu Majumdar on 5–6 December 1972. The pro Charu Majumdar CPI (M-L) soon faced a split on the question of Lin Biao and the tenth congress of the Communist Party of China, the faction led by Jauhar, Vinod Mishra and Swadesh Bhattacharya parted way from the party by opposing the line of the Central Committee and founded the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation in 1973 which became the pro Charu Majumdar and anti Lin Biao faction. The pro Charu Majumdar and pro Lin Biao faction of the CPI (M-L) was led by Mahadev Mukherjee and this faction organized massive armed assaults on government and rich peasantry in West Bengal, However, their attempt of reviving the revolutionary terrorist line of Charu Majumdar did not last long due to police repression. The pro Lin Biao faction led by Mahadev Mukherjee held the 2nd Congress of the CPI (M-L) in December 1973 in Kamalpur, Burdwan district of West Bengal and soon Kamalpur became a centre of armed guerrilla activity. The armed clashes between government and CPI (M-L) supporter guerrillas in Kamalpur led to a division in the Central Committee with one section attempting to purge Mahadev and his supporters in Deganga session of the Central Committee. The division led to the arrest of Mahadev Mukherjee from Shillong. Later in late 70's the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Second Central Committee was formed by Azizul Haque and Nishit Bhattacharya after a split from the Mahadev Mukherjee led Central Committee.

Still today the CPI (M-L) Mahadev Mukherjee holds the sectarian political line of Charu Majumdar and Lin Biao.

The CPI (M-L) Mahadev Mukherjee has organizational presence in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, West Bengal, New Delhi and Tamil Nadu. The party calls for boycott of parliamentary polls, and urges for armed struggle. The party does not carry out open works and is an underground party. It holds rallies and mass meetings in Naxalbari and Siliguri region of West Bengal only. The party organized a mass rally at Naxalbari on 25 May 2006 in the presence of Mahadev Mukherjee. In Siliguri, the party launches a one-day general strike every year in July, to commemorate the killing of Charu Majumdar.

On 28 July 2009 the CPI (M-L) Mahadev Mukherjee supporters lynched innocent DYFI leader in North Bengal while enforcing such annual strike As per the statements in the party website after the death of Mahadev Mukherjee in 2009 the party is led by a peasant leader Manik.


text:
Talk:Sütterlin

 * After World War II Sütterlin was again used in some schools until the 1970s.

What's the source for this statement? I find it somewhat hard to believe, and in any case it would be interesting to know where that happened. I assume it'd be West Germany or Switzerland? Prumpf 00:05, 21 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * A little late in responding here :), but I was taught Sütterlin in a German Volksschule (elementary school) around the mid-sixties, albeit that's original research, I guess... Asav (talk) 15:45, 3 August 2008 (UTC)
 * When my parents were in elementary school in the early 1970s, they also learned Sütterlin and Fraktur. However, back then, these were already considered deprecated. They were only taught because there were plenty of older documents, books, etc. around that were written in those old scripts. When I was at school, we weren't taught Sütterlin or Fraktur; However, I can read Fraktur anyway (unusual for someone of my Generation) but I cannot read Sütterlin. One thing that really surprised me was that the math textbook we used in 13th grade used Sütterlin letters for vectors. However, that notation was regarded as deprecated, i.e. when we did our homework we had to convert exercises to the notation that is used today - normal small latin letters with arrows above. And we didn't have to know Sütterlin for exams. -- 79.238.174.228 (talk) 19:57, 22 March 2012 (UTC)

Some images to illustrate the differences in letterforms would be really nice. 24.215.177.116 01:43, 14 Mar 2005 (UTC)
 * Done -- Chris 73 Talk 01:50, Mar 14, 2005 (UTC)

-

For me IE doesn't render the unicode for the ligatures in the below correctly - even though it does really well with the unicode examples on the unicode page. Is this my problem or a bug in the page? If its my problem can someone suggest a fix?

several standard ligatures such as ﬀ (f-f), ﬅ (ſ-t), ﬆ (s-t), and of course ß (s-z). ucgajhe 12:10, Jun 23 (UTC) -

Nazi Banning?? - Cufftitles
Sütterlin banned by the Nazis? explain the honorary cufftitles issued to the elite Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, Feldherrnhalle and Großdeutschland divisions? --Ansbachdragoner 00:44, 15 July 2005 (UTC)

 * Citings, links and literature can be found in the article de:Antiqua-Fraktur-Streit. I have requested a translation of that article into English, see German-English translation requests. -- j. 'mach' wust | ‽ 13:02, 2 September 2005 (UTC)

 * That's great, however how doesent that conflict with the actual survivng cufftitles which were issued to, among others, the Großdeutschland Division, Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler and Feldherrnhalle formations? See the Panzer Corps Feldherrnhalle article for a photograph of a Sütterlin pattern cufftitle used throughout the war. --ansbachdragoner 02:29, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

Fraktur (and with it Sütterlin, I’d say) was banned by Martin Bormann in 1941, see letter at http://www.joern.de/borm.gif. He made the Antiqua to "normal type". The Nazis had erroneously taken Fraktur for Jewish. Hitler himself had condemned the "Gothic Script" at Reichsparteitag 1934. You are welcome to get or upload my digital copy of the letter. After the war we learned today’s standard writing here, but were later familiarized with fraktur and Sütterlin as well. Especially mathematicians continued to have a never ending thirst for special characters, and used fraktur for vectors, naturally written on university blackboards in Sütterlin. --Fritz Jörn (talk) 11:36, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

 * Please note that an "errornous belief" and a "propaganda trick" are two different things. I would really like to see a reference that Hitler had really been connecting Fraktur to his Jewish-paranoia - the history of black letters were known for quite a time so that one could hardly make up a Jew-myth about it, so it would be interesting to see how this cam about. Guidod (talk) 13:47, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

I remember from history class that the Nazis introduced "normal" script; However, I also remember that there was a picture in our history book of a sign saying something like "Germans, do not buy from Jews! Only buy at German shops!". The sign was bilingual (English and German, very unusual for that time) and it used "normal" script for English but Fraktur for German. Another thing that I remember is that Sütterlin was banned for postal correspondance in early post-WW2 Germany. This was for a simple reason: Mail was being intercepted by US/British/French people who could understand German but couldn't read Sütterlin. So Germans who wanted to send mail had to use "normal" Latin letters. -- 79.238.174.228 (talk) 19:41, 22 March 2012 (UTC)

Parseltongue
It is said the House of Slytherin in Harry Potter fantasy novels was named after Suetterlin. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.131.210.162 (talk) 14:33, 7 February 2007 (UTC).
 * Citation please? RedAugust 20:07, 3 October 2007 (UTC)
 * WEll, Slytherin and Sütterlin sound quite similar, but I'm not sure that this similarity was intended by J. K. Rowling. However, Sütterlin is almost as hard to read as Parseltongue, so what you're saying is not absurd. However, I agree with RedAugust, we need a citation. -- 79.238.174.228 (talk) 19:46, 22 March 2012 (UTC)

Um, isn't Slytherin based on the word "slither" like a snake? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.4.155.39 (talk) 09:30, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

Image
I hate to nag but the long image shown in the sample seems to be a poor copy/paste job (Either that or each character was pasted into a font-maker program hastily). I think that the image at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Kant_Suetterlin.png is much more suitable. The letters connect in a cleaner manner and it appears more natural. RedAugust 20:09, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

More nagging
The word "Kurrent" shows up in the sample text as "Kurrnet" (at least on my screen). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.33.39.111 (talk) 22:11, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

Reason for banning script
Languages other than German were not written in the Sütterlin script. For example, my grandmother learned the Latin script when she started learning French. I've also seen a facsimile where everything was in German script, but the foreign (English) name was in Latin script (It was the facsmile of a pass issued to the British ambassador on the eve or World War I). It's not likely the Nazis were trying to write orders in, say, French using Sütterlin (they would have been using a typewriter, for starters) and then banned Sütterlin throughout Germany to accomodate the occupied peoples. I have heard (unverified) that the Nazis thought they had discovered Jewish origins of the old German writing, and that was the ostensible reason for banning it.

As for the culltitles: even after the ban, I imagine they would have decided to keep the German script on them as a heraldic, decorative element, since using the cursive German script (Kurrent/Sütterlin) and not the printed script (Fraktur) in itself would be considered decorative, in the same way that running script on a shop sign is more decorative than printed script. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.55.251.13 (talk) 00:51, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

Just asking
Is there an analagous national handwriting style for Spain and Russia? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 112.201.166.54 (talk) 03:35, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

Russia uses Cyrilic
Of course Russia has a handwriting style of its own--they have their own alphabet ! Differences from the block-printed or printing-press forms include that Cyrillic-script "t" is a Latin-script "m" with a macron on top of it ; Cyrillic-script "d" is a Latin-script "g" ; Cyrillic-script "i" is a Latin-script "u" -- I'm not kidding ! I don't know about Spain, but Australia has specified "italic" instead of "script", so it has its own national handwriting style... 4.154.250.119 (talk) 23:47, 18 September 2011 (UTC)

Examples Correct?
Someone posted "Note this is not Sütterlin. It is a Kurrent alphabet which looks quite similar to Sütterlin. Differences can be found in e. g. P and F." beneath the examples. I removed the posting from the page, since it belongs here, not there. The German page has slightly different variants for the letters, noted. Perhaps those examples should be used here. --User:HopsonRoad 02:50, 30 April 2010 (UTC)
 * This was me. The examples show a variant of the Deutsche Kurrentschrift which looks like Sütterlin, e. g. upright letters, constant line width. However this is not Sütterlin. Examples for Sütterlin can be found at Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache, Bund für deutsche Schrift und Sprache or the German version of this article.
 * In fact, the German version used to have the same example alphabet with the notice that it isn’t Sütterlin.
 * In my opinion, the example alphabet of the German Wikipedia should be used here since it is real Sütterlin. --Frakturfreak (talk) 18:10, 29 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I think this is the best spot to put my observation that (Deutsche)(Kurrent) Schrift was the adult script of German, while Sütterlin was a twentieth-century "kindergarten scribble". I'm the person who chimed in that the "e" of Schrift resembled two slashes which were put atop the a, o, and u and which were further reduced to the dots of the umlaut -- and this was moved to the Sütterlin page, where the "e" of Sütterlin does not look like two slashes ! 4.154.250.119 (talk) 23:58, 18 September 2011 (UTC)

title: Talk:Sütterlin


text:
Monk seal

Monk seals are earless seals of the tribe Monachini. They are the only earless seals found in tropical climates. The two genera of monk seals, Monachus and Neomonachus, comprise three species: the Mediterranean monk seal, Monachus monachus; the Hawaiian monk seal, Neomonachus schauinslandi; and the Caribbean monk seal, Neomonachus tropicalis, which became extinct in the 20th century. The two surviving species are now rare and in imminent danger of extinction. All three monk seal species were classified in genus Monachus until 2014, when the Caribbean and Hawaiian species were placed into a new genus, Neomonachus.

Monk seals have a slender body and are agile. They have a broad, flat snout with nostrils on the top. Monk seals are polygynous, and group together in harems. They feed mainly on bony fish and cephalopods, but they are opportunistic. The skin is covered in small hairs, which are generally black in males and brown or dark gray in females. Monk seals are found in the Hawaiian archipelago, certain areas in the east Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea (such as Cabo Blanco and Gyaros island), and formerly in the tropical areas of the west Atlantic Ocean.

All species experienced overhunting by sealers. The Hawaiian monk seal experienced population drops in the 19th century and during World War II, and the Caribbean monk seal was exploited since the 1500s until the 1850s, when populations were too low to hunt commercially. The Mediterranean monk seal has experienced both commercial and illegal hunting since the Middle Ages and has always been threatened with eradication by fishermen. As of 2022, it is estimated and agreed upon that not more than 600-700 Mediterranean monk seals remain, concentrated primarily along the coasts of Turkey, Cyprus, and Greece. The Hawaiian monk seal appears to be faring somewhat better; the 2021 monk seal population count by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) numbered 1,570 animals, an encouraging increase from 1,453 seals in 2019. This marked the first time the Hawaiian monk seal's population exceeded 1,500 in 20 years; their numbers have been recorded and observed to increase approximately 2% each year from 2013-2021. Some of this successful growth is undoubtedly due to numerous rescue-and-release operations and the relocating of weaned pups to quieter beaches (with lower numbers of predatory sharks and less human interactions), enabling more seals to mature naturally and safely.

Etymology
The name "monk seal" (German Münchs-Robbe) was suggested by naturalist Johann Hermann, who claimed that the seal was popularly known as moine (French for "monk") in Marseilles, and speculated that the seal looks from behind like a monk wearing a cape and hood.

Taxonomy and evolution
Monk seals are earless seals (true seals) of the tribe Monachini. The tribe was first conceived by Victor Blanchard Scheffer in his 1958 book Seals, Sea Lions, and Walruses: A Review of the Pinnipedia. The two genera of monk seals, Monachus and Neomonachus, comprise three species: the Mediterranean monk seal (Monachus monachus), the Hawaiian monk seal (Neomonachus schauinslandi), and the Caribbean monk seal (N. tropicalis), which became extinct in the 20th century. All three monk seal species were classified in genus Monachus until 2014, when comparison of the species' mitochondrial cytochrome b DNA sequences led biologists to place the Caribbean and Hawaiian species in a new genus, Neomonachus.

Fossils of the Mediterranean and Caribbean species are known from the Pleistocene. The time of divergence between the Hawaiian and Caribbean species, 3.7 million years ago (Mya), corresponds to the closing of the Central American Seaway by the formation of the Isthmus of Panama. The divergence between Mediterranean seals and the New World clade was dated to 6.3 Mya ago.

Fossils of a Pliocene species of monk seal, Eomonachus belegaerensis, have been found in Taranaki region of New Zealand. This could possibly place the origins of the group in the Southern Hemisphere. The only other fossil monk seal is Pliophoca etrusca, from the late Pliocene of Italy.

Habitat
The Hawaiian monk seal, as the name suggests, lives solely in the Hawaiian archipelago. Monk seals migrated to Hawaii between 4–11 Mya through an open-water passage between North and South America called the Central American Seaway. The Isthmus of Panama closed the seaway 3 Mya. The species may have evolved in the Pacific or Atlantic, but in either case, came to Hawaii long before the first Polynesians. When monk seals are not hunting or eating, they generally bask on the beaches; Hawaiian monk seals tend to bask on sandy beaches and volcanic rock of the Northwest Hawaiian Islands.

The habitat of the Mediterranean monk seal has changed over the years. Prior to the 20th century, they had been known to congregate, give birth, and seek refuge on open beaches. Since sealing had ended, they have left their former habitat and now only use sea caves for such behavior. More often than not, these caves are rather inaccessible to humans due to underwater entries, and because the caves are often along remote or rugged coastlines. Scientists have confirmed this is a recent adaptation, most likely due to the rapid increase in human population, tourism, and industry, which have caused increased disturbance by humans and the destruction of the species' natural habitat. Because of these seals' shy nature and sensitivity to human disturbance, they have slowly adapted to try to avoid contact with humans completely within the last century, and perhaps, even earlier. The coastal caves are, however, dangerous for newborns, and are causes of major mortality among pups when sea storms hit the caves.

Caribbean monk seals were found in warm temperate, subtropical, and tropical waters of the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and the west Atlantic Ocean. They probably preferred to haul out at sites (low sandy beaches above high tide) on isolated and secluded atolls and islands, but occasionally visited the mainland coasts and deeper waters offshore. This species may have fed in shallow lagoons and reefs.

Description
Monk seals are part of the family Phocidae (earless seals), the members of which are characterized by their lack of external ears, the inability to rotate the hind flippers under the body, and shed their hair and the outer layer of their skin in an annual molt. Monk seals as a whole vary minutely in size, with all adults measuring on average 8 ft and 500 lb. They exhibit sexual dimorphism, in that male Mediterranean monk seals are slightly larger than females, while in Hawaiian monk seals, females are larger. Its white belly, gray coat, and slender physique distinguish it from the harbor seal (Phoca vitulina), another earless seal. Much like elephant seals, they shed their hair and the outer layer of their skin in an annual molt.

The Mediterranean monk seal has a short, broad, and flat snout, with very pronounced, long nostrils that face upwards. The flippers are relatively short, with small, slender claws. The monk seal's physique is ideally suited for hunting its prey: fish, octopus, lobster, and squid in deep-water coral beds. The fur coats of males is generally black, and brown or dark gray in females. Pups are about 1 m long and weigh around 15 –, their skin being covered by 1.0 to 1.5 cm fur, usually dark brown or black. On their bellies, a white stripe occurs, which differs in color between the two sexes. This hair is replaced after 6–8 weeks by the usual short hair adults carry.

The Hawaiian monk seal (whose Hawaiian name means "the dog that runs in rough waters") has a short, broad, and flat snout, with long nostrils that face forward. It has a relatively small, flat head with large, black eyes, eight pairs of teeth, and a short snout with the nostrils on top of the snout and vibrissae on each side. The nostrils are small, vertical slits, which close when the seal dives under water. Additionally, their slender, torpedo-shaped body and hind flippers allow them to be very agile swimmers. Adult males are 300 to 400 lb in weight and 7 ft in length, while adult females tend to be, typically, slightly larger, at 400 to 600 lb and 8 ft in length. When monk seal pups are born, they weigh 30 to 40 lb and are 40 in in length. As they nurse for about 6 weeks, they grow considerably, eventually weighing between 150 and 200 lb by the time they are weaned, while the mother loses up to 300 lb.

Caribbean monk seals had a relatively large, long, robust body, and could grow to nearly 8 ft in length and weighed 375 to 600 lb. Males were probably slightly larger than females, which is similar to Mediterranean monk seals. Like other monk seals, this species had a distinctive head and face. The head was rounded with an extended, broad muzzle. The face had relatively large, wide-spaced eyes, upward-opening nostrils, and fairly big whisker pads with long, light-colored, and smooth whiskers. When compared to the body, the animal's foreflippers were relatively short with little claws and the hindflippers were slender. Their coloration was brownish and/or grayish, with the underside lighter than the dorsal area. Adults were darker than the paler and more yellowish younger seals. Caribbean monk seals were also known to have algae growing on their pelages, giving them a slightly greenish appearance, which is similar to Hawaiian monk seals.

Diet and predation
Hawaiian monk seals mainly prey on reef-dwelling bony fish, but they also prey on cephalopods and crustaceans. Juveniles and subadults prey more on smaller octopus species, such as Octopus leteus and O. hawaiiensis (nocturnal octopus species), and eels than do adult Hawaiian monk seals. Adult seals feed mostly on larger octopus species such as O. cyanea. Hawaiian monk seals have a broad and diverse diet due to foraging plasticity, which allows them to be opportunistic predators that feed on a wide variety of available prey. Tiger sharks, great white sharks, and Galapagos sharks are all predators of the Hawaiian monk seal.

Mediterranean monk seals are diurnal and feed on a variety of fish and mollusks, primarily octopus, squid, and eels, up to 6.5 lb per day. They are known to forage mostly at depths of 150 to 230 ft, but some have been observed by NOAA submersibles at a depth of 500 ft. They prefer hunting in wide-open spaces, enabling them to use their speed more effectively. They are successful bottom-feeding hunters; some have even been observed lifting slabs of rock in search of prey. They have no natural predators.

Reproduction and development
Very little is known of the Mediterranean monk seal's reproduction. They are thought to be polygynous, with males being very territorial where they mate with females. Although no breeding season exists, since births take place year round, a peak occurs in October and November. This is also the time when caves are prone to wash out due to high surf or storm surge, which causes high mortality rates among pups, especially at the key Cabo Blanco colony. Pups make first contact with the water 2 weeks after their birth and are weaned around 18 weeks of age; females caring for pups go off to feed for an average of 9 hours. Most individuals are believed to reach maturity at 4 years of age. The gestation period lasts close to a year. However, monk seals of the Cabo Blanco colony may have a gestation period lasting slightly longer than a year. Mediterranean monk seals generally live to be 25 to 30 years old.

Hawaiian monk seals are polygynous. The breeding season takes place throughout the year, excluding the fall, but peaks during April and May. Shark attacks cause a high pup mortality, from 19% to 39%. Pups are thought to be weaned around 6 weeks and reach sexual maturity at 3 years. Their typical lifespan is 25 to 30 years.

Not much is known of the Caribbean monk seal's reproduction. They likely bore a single pup every two years. Their gestation period, lactation period, and sexual maturity age are unknown.

Threats
In the 19th century, many seals were killed by whalers and sealers for meat, oil, and skin. U.S. military forces hunted them during World War II, while occupying Laysan Island and Midway Island. Human disturbances have had immense effects on the populations of the Hawaiian monk seal. They tend to avoid beaches where they are disturbed; after continual disturbance, the seals may completely abandon the beach, thus reducing habitat size, subsequently limiting population growth. For instance, large beach crowds and beach structures limit the seal's habitat. The WWII military bases in the northwestern islands were closed, but minimal human activities can be enough to disturb the species. The current population is only around 1,400 individuals.

The Hawaiian monk seal has the lowest level of genetic variability among the 18 pinniped species, allegedly due to a population bottleneck caused by intense hunting in the 19th century. This limited genetic variability reduces the species's ability to adapt to environmental pressures and limits natural selection, thus increasing their risk of extinction. Given the monk seal's small population, the effects of disease could be disastrous.

Entanglement can result in mortality, because when the seals get trapped in marine debris such as fishing nets, they cannot maneuver or reach the surface to breathe. Marine fisheries can potentially interact with monk seals by direct and indirect relationships. Directly, the seal can become snared by fishing equipment, entangled in discarded debris, and even feed on fish refuse. International law prohibits the intentional discarding of debris from ships at sea. Monk seals have one of the highest documented rates of entanglement of any pinniped species.

Conservation
In 1909, Theodore Roosevelt created the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge (HINWR), which is under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Throughout the 1980s, the National Marine Fisheries Service completed various versions of an environmental impact statement that designated the Northwest Hawaiian Islands as a critical habitat for the Hawaiian monk seal. The designation prohibited lobster fishing in the northwest Hawaiian Islands and Laysan Island. In 2006, a Presidential proclamation established the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, which incorporated the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve, the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, the HINWR, and the Battle of Midway National Memorial, thus creating the largest marine protected area in the world and affording the Hawaiian monk seal further protection.

NOAA cultivated a network of volunteers to protect the seals while they bask or bear and nurse their young. NOAA is funding considerable research on seal population dynamics and health in conjunction with the Marine Mammal Center. From NOAA, several programs and networks were formed. Community programs such as PIRO have helped to improve community standards for the Hawaiian monk seal. The program also creates networks with the native Hawaiians on the island to network more people in the fight for conservation of the seals. The Marine Mammal Response Network is partnered with NOAA and several other government agencies that deal with land and marine wildlife.

To raise awareness of the species' plight, on June 11, 2008, a state law designated the Hawaiian monk seal as Hawaii's official state mammal.

Threats
Several causes provoked a dramatic population decrease over time: on one hand, commercial hunting (especially during the Roman Empire and Middle Ages) and during the 20th century, eradication by fishermen, who used to consider it a pest due to the damage the seal causes to fishing nets when it preys on fish caught in them; and on the other hand, coastal urbanization and pollution. Currently, its entire population is estimated to be less than 600 individuals scattered throughout a wide distribution range, which qualifies this species as endangered. Its current very sparse population is one more serious threat to the species, as it only has two key sites that can be deemed viable. One is the Aegean Sea (250–300 animals in Greece, with the largest concentration of animals on Gyaros, and some 100 in Turkey); the other important subpopulation is the Western Saharan portion of Cabo Blanco (around 200 individuals which may support the small, but growing, nucleus in the Desertas Islands – roughly 20 individuals ). Some individuals may be using coastal areas along other parts of Western Sahara, such as in Cintra Bay. These two key sites are virtually in the extreme opposites of the species' distribution range, which makes natural population interchange between them impossible. All the other remaining subpopulations are composed of less than 50 mature individuals, many of them being only loose groups of extremely reduced size – often less than five individuals. Consequently, low genetic variability exists.

Cabo Blanco, in the Atlantic Ocean, is the largest surviving single population of the species, and the only remaining site that still seems to preserve a colony structure. In the summer of 1997, a disease killed more than 200 animals (two-thirds of its population) within 2 months, extremely compromising the species' viable population. While opinions on the precise causes of this epidemic remain divided, the most likely cause is a morbilivirus or a toxic algae bloom.

Conservation
In the Aegean Sea, Greece has allocated a large area for the preservation of the Mediterranean monk seal and its habitat. The Greek Alonissos Marine Park, that extends around the Northern Sporades islands, is the main action ground of the Greek MOm organisation. MOm is greatly involved in raising awareness in the general public, fundraising for the helping of the monk seal preservation cause, in Greece and wherever needed. Greece is currently investigating the possibility of declaring another monk seal breeding site as a national park, and also has integrated some sites in the NATURA 2000 protection scheme. The legislation in Greece is very strict towards seal hunting, and in general, the public is very much aware and supportive of the effort for the preservation of the Mediterranean monk seal.

One of the largest groups among the foundations concentrating their efforts towards the preservation of the Mediterranean monk seal is the Mediterranean Seal Research Group (Akdeniz Foklarını Araştırma Grubu) operating under the Underwater Research Foundation (Sualtı Araştırmaları Derneği) in Turkey (also known as SAD-AFAG). The group has taken initiative in joint preservation efforts together with the Foça municipal officials, as well as phone, fax, and email hotlines for sightings.

Caribbean
The extinction of the Caribbean monk seal was mainly triggered by overhunting in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to obtain the oil held within their blubber, fueled by the large demand for seal products. As early as 1688, sugar plantation owners sent out hunting parties to kill hundreds of seals every night for blubber oil to lubricate machinery. The Caribbean monk seals' docile nature and lack of an instinctive fear of humans made it an easy target, and hunting only ended (in the 1850s) because the population was too low for commercial use. Overfishing of the reefs that sustained the Caribbean monk seal population also contributed to their extinction. Fish stock decline in the Caribbean starved the remaining populations. Little was done to protect the Caribbean monk seal; by the time it was placed on the endangered species list in 1967, it was likely already extinct.

title: Monk seal


text:
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Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Karbargenbok. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Karbargenbok~enwiki that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name. If you think you might own all of the accounts with this name and this message is in error, please visit Special:MergeAccount to check and attach all of your accounts to prevent them from being renamed.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 00:51, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 14:48, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

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title: User talk:Karbargenbok~enwiki


text:
User:Jonerik

Jon-Erik Griffith Storm, (1977-) attorney, philosophical and political writer. He attended Pitzer College of Claremont, California, receiving his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy in 1999. His philosophical studies were completed at Claremont Graduate University where he earned his Master of Arts in 2001. Chicago-Kent College of Law awarded him the degree of Juris Doctor in 2003. That year, he married Lara Blubaugh on the day of New Year's Eve. He went on to practice law in San Luis Obispo, California, where he specialized in labor law, employment law, administrative law, and intellectual property.

He has been published extensively in print, through syndicate, and also through the internet. He is also a freelance computer programmer, who indirectly contributed to development of the Internet through certain innovations in computer Bulletin Board Systems (BBSs) in the early 1990s.

title: User:Jonerik


text: User:Jengod/Administration

title: User:Jengod/Administration


text:
Ça Ira (opera)

Ça Ira (French for "It will be all right", subtitled "There is Hope") is an opera by Roger Waters. It comes in three acts and is a concept album. The album is based on the French libretto co-written by Étienne and Nadine Roda-Gil on the historical subject of the early French Revolution. Ça Ira was released 26 September 2005, as a double CD album featuring baritone Bryn Terfel, soprano Ying Huang, and tenor Paul Groves. The album received mixed reviews, with critics praising the composition but criticising its plot and simplicity.

History
Waters, known for his work in the English rock band Pink Floyd, was approached by friends Étienne Roda-Gil and his wife Nadine Delahaye in 1987, and asked to set their libretto to music. The initial version was completed and recorded by the end of 1988. On hearing it, an impressed François Mitterrand urged the Paris Opera to stage it for the bicentennial of the revolution the following July. The opera directors, however, were resistant. "It foundered on French chauvinism," Waters suggested. "The idea of an English bass player from a pop group creating something they might use in their celebrations stuck in the Gallic craw." Starting in 1989, Waters rewrote the libretto in English.

Critical reaction
Ça Ira has received mixed reviews. The biggest criticisms were that the opera is too narrative, which makes staging very difficult – and, as a result, disrupts the flow of the piece. Others have complained that the score is too conventional and that Waters should have taken more risks with it.

Performances
The first time any part of Ça Ira was heard in public was on 16 October 2002 when the Overture was performed live at the Royal Albert Hall in London by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, during a benefit gala for the Countryside Alliance.

The next public airing (not a live performance, but a recording played through a sound system) took place in Malta on 1 May 2004, the night that Malta entered the European Union. An approximately 15-minute-long excerpt was heard by 80,000 people present at the waterfront of the Grand Harbour. The music was accompanied by a light show by Gert Hoff.

The official premiere took place in Rome on 17 November 2005, in front of a sold-out crowd, and was followed the next evening by another performance. Both shows were praised for the high quality of music, vocal performances, and sound. The choir, orchestra, and soloists were complemented by a projection screen backdrop which displayed images (some photographed by Mark Holthusen) helping to tell the story.

A full operatic performance took place on 25 August 2006 in Poznań, Poland, and was televised live on Poland's TVP. The project involved the same number of musicians from the concert performances in addition to more than 200 dancers from the Great Theatre in Poznań. There were also period elements of stage design (such as horses, carriages and war scenes with soldiers and stunt performers) and full costumes. Over 500 artists were involved, and the production reportedly cost in excess of €2 million. Performances were held in Kyiv on 16 December, and at the Poznań Opera House on 30 and 31 December 2006.

In April 2008, the opera was performed, with the libretto in English, as part of the Festival Amazonas de Ópera in Manaus, Brazil by the Amazonas Philharmonic Orchestra and choir.

Recordings
The 2005 release was available in three formats:

 * A three-disc set with regular CD and Super Audio (SACD) stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound versions. Disc 3 was a DVD with a 55-minute documentary by Adrian Maben, showing Waters at work on the opera. This also included a 60-page book with libretto and credits, and illustrations by Nadine Roda-Gil.
 * A two-disc set with regular audio CDs, including libretto and illustrations in CD-ROM format.
 * A two-disc set in the original French.

"I have no idea how many people it will appeal to," Waters remarked. "There's no way it's going to appeal to people in the [same] way [as] Dark Side of the Moon. It's a different animal. I'd like to say I don't care, but obviously I do." In the event, the album spent 14 weeks on Billboard's Classical Chart in the United States and peaked at number 5.

Track listing: Disc one

 * 1) The Gathering Storm – 1:38
 * 2) Overture – 4:06

Act 1

 * 1) Scene 1: A Garden in Vienna 1765 – 0:53
 * 2) "Madame Antoine, Madame Antoine" – 2:53
 * 3) Scene 2: Kings Sticks and Birds – 2:41
 * 4) "Honest Bird, Simple Bird" – 2:10
 * 5) "I Want to Be King" – 2:37
 * 6) "Let Us Break All the Shields" – 1:45
 * 7) Scene 3: The Grievances of the People – 4:40
 * 8) Scene 4: France in Disarray – 2:34
 * 9) "To Laugh is to Know How to Live" – 1:44
 * 10) "Slavers, Landlords, Bigots at Your Door" – 3:36
 * 11) Scene 5: The Fall of the Bastille – 1:34
 * 12) "To Freeze in the Dead of Night" – 2:19
 * 13) "So to the Streets in the Pouring Rain" – 4:17

Act 2

 * 1) Scene 1: Dances and Marches – 2:11
 * 2) "Now Hear Ye!" – 2:18
 * 3) "Flushed With Wine" – 4:31
 * 4) Scene 2: The Letter – 1:39
 * 5) "My Dear Cousin Bourbon of Spain" – 2:48
 * 6) "The Ship of State is All at Sea" – 1:46
 * 7) Scene 3: Silver Sugar and Indigo – 0:55
 * 8) "To The Windward Isles" – 4:50
 * 9) Scene 4: The Papal Edict – 1:17
 * 10) "In Paris There's a Rumble Under the Ground" – 6:19

Act 3

 * 1) Scene 1: The Fugitive King – 2:21
 * 2) "But the Marquis of Boulli Has a Trump Card Up His Sleeve" – 4:27
 * 3) "To Take Your Hat Off" – 2:40
 * 4) "The Echoes Never Fade from That Fusillade" – 3:15
 * 5) Scene 2: The Commune de Paris – 2:43
 * 6) "Vive la Commune de Paris" – 3:16
 * 7) "The National Assembly is Confused" – 2:41
 * 8) Scene 3: The Execution of Louis Capet – 1:39
 * 9) "Adieu Louis for You It's Over" – 3:45
 * 10) Scene 4: Marie Antoinette – The Last Night on Earth – 1:39
 * 11) "Adieu My Good and Tender Sister" – 5:09
 * 12) Scene 5: Liberty – 2:51
 * 13) "And in the Bushes Where They Survive" – 6:52

title: Ça Ira (opera)