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Mátyás Rákosi

Mátyás Rákosi (born Mátyás Rosenfeld; 9 March 1892 – 5 February 1971 ) was a Hungarian communist politician who was the de facto leader of Hungary from 1947 to 1956. He served first as General Secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party from 1945 to 1948 and then as General Secretary (later renamed First Secretary) of the Hungarian Working People's Party from 1948 to 1956.

Rákosi had been involved in left-wing politics since his youth, and in 1919 was a leading commissar in the short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic. After the fall of the Communist government, he escaped the country and worked abroad as an agent of the Comintern. He was arrested in 1924 after attempting to return to Hungary and organize the Communist Party underground, and ultimately spent over fifteen years in prison. He became a cause célèbre in the international Communist movement, and the predominantly Hungarian Rákosi Battalion of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War bore his name. Rákosi was finally allowed to leave for the Soviet Union in 1940 in exchange for prized battle flags captured by Tsarist Russian forces after the Hungarian Revolution of 1848.

As the Red Army drove the German Wehrmacht out of Hungary at the end of World War II, Rákosi returned to his home country in early 1945 and became the leader of the re-founded Hungarian Communist Party. The party suffered a crushing defeat in Hungary's postwar free election, at the hands of the agrarian Independent Smallholders' Party; however, at Moscow's insistence the Communists received key positions in the government including the Interior Ministry, while Rákosi himself became a heavily influential deputy prime minister. From this position, the Communists were able to use political intrigue, subterfuge, and conspiracy to destroy their opponents piece by piece, in what Rákosi would later term "salami tactics". By 1948, they had gained total power over the country, and in 1949 the country was proclaimed a people's republic with Rákosi as its absolute ruler.

Rákosi was an ardent Stalinist, and his government was very loyal to the Soviet Union; he even set up a personality cult of his own, modeled on that of Stalin. He presided over the mass imprisonment of hundreds of thousands of Hungarian people, and the deaths of thousands. He orchestrated show trials modeled on those of the USSR, among the most prominent victims of which was his former lieutenant László Rajk. His policies of collectivization and mass repression devastated the country's economy and political life, causing massive discontent. After the death of Stalin in 1953, Rákosi was partially demoted at Moscow's behest and the reformist Communist Imre Nagy became the new Prime Minister; however, Rákosi was able to use his continuing influence as First Secretary to thwart all of Nagy's attempts at reform and ultimately force the latter out of office in 1955.

After Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's famous "Secret Speech" in early 1956 denouncing the crimes of Stalin, Rákosi found his position fatally compromised. Large numbers of people within the party and society at large began to speak out against him and call for his resignation, as information about the Party's past abuses came to light. Rákosi was finally forced to resign in July 1956 and leave for the Soviet Union, replaced by his second-in-command Ernő Gerő. The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 occurred barely three months later as a result of the abuses of Rákosi's system, and his former rival Imre Nagy became a dominant figure in the Revolution. Soviet troops ultimately crushed the uprising and installed a new Communist government under János Kádár.

Rákosi lived out the rest of his life in exile in the Soviet Union, denied permission to return home by the Hungarian government, out of fear of mass unrest. He died in Gorky in 1971, and his ashes were returned to Hungary in secret. Rákosi is generally seen as a symbol of tyranny and oppression in Hungary.

Early years
Rákosi was born in Ada, a village in Bács-Bodrog County in the Kingdom of Hungary (now a town in Vojvodina, Serbia). Born to Jewish parents, the fourth son of József Rosenfeld, a grocer, his mother Cecília Léderer would give birth to seven more children. Of his younger siblings the most notable was Ferenc Rákosi (later Biró, 1904–2006), an administrator, who also became active in Communist politics and was, for a time, General Manager of the Mátyás Rákosi Steel and Metal Works during his brother's rule. His other siblings were Béla (1886–1944), Jolán (1888–?), Matild Gizella (1890–?), Izabella (1895–?), Margit (1896–1932), Zoltán (1898–?), Mária (1902–1938), Dezső (1906–?) and Hajnal (1908–1944). József, Béla and Hajnal were killed during the Holocaust.

Rákosi's paternal grandfather participated in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848; as a result, he had to flee the village following the defeat. Rákosi's father, József Rosenfeld, was called "Kossuth's Jew" by the villagers, because he had been a member and avid supporter of the oppositionist Party of Independence and '48. He changed his surname Rosenfeld to Rákosi in 1903. He later repudiated religion and in common with most other Marxists described himself as an atheist and opponent of organised religion.

Rákosi was a diligent and good student during his childhood. He finished his elementary studies in Sopron, then took his final exam at the High Technical Gymnasium of Szeged in 1910. He then studied external trade at the Eastern Commerce Academy. He won scholarships for a year each in Hamburg (1912) and London (1913).

While still a student in Hungary, he joined the Hungarian Social Democratic Party (MSZDP) in 1910 and was also a secretary and active member of the anarcho-syndicalist student movement, the Galilei Circle.

He served in the Austro-Hungarian Army during the First World War and was captured on the Eastern Front in 1915 and held as a prisoner-of-war in Far Eastern POW camps by the Russians until the end of the war. Taking advantage of the chaotic situation in Russia, he successfully escaped from his detention and moved to Petrograd, centre of the Bolshevik Revolution.

Early career
After returning to Hungary, he participated in the communist movement of Béla Kun and also joined the Party of Communists in Hungary. During the short-lived 133-day Communist rule after the resignation of President Mihály Károlyi, when the Hungarian Soviet Republic was established, Rákosi served as Deputy People's Commissar for Trade from 21 March to 3 April in the Revolutionary Governing Council led by Sándor Garbai. Between 3 April and 24 June 1919, Rákosi was one of the six people's commissars for social production, alongside Jenő Varga, Antal Dovcsák, Gyula Hevesi, József Kelen and Ferenc Bajáki. He was also involved in the Hungarian Red Army's Northern and Eastern military campaigns against the newly formed Czechoslovakia and Romania. At the end of July 1919, he was promoted to Commander of the internal law-enforcement Red Guard for a short time. Following the Soviet Republic's fall, Rákosi fled Hungary on 2 August 1919 via the Austrian border, eventually to the Soviet Union where he worked as part of the Communist International, including representing it at the Livorno Congress of the Italian Socialist Party in 1921. After returning to Hungary in 1924, he was imprisoned, but he was released to the Soviet Union in 1940, in exchange for the Hungarian revolutionary banners captured by Russian troops at Világos in 1849. In the Soviet Union, he became leader of the Comintern. In 1942, he married divorced lawyer Feodora (Fenia) Kornilova, a woman of Yakut origin. He returned to Debrecen, Hungary, on 30 January 1945, having been selected by the Soviet authorities to organise the Hungarian Communist Party.

Leader of Hungary
When the Red Army set up a Soviet-approved government in Hungary (1944–1945), Rákosi was appointed General Secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party (MKP) (1945). He was a member of the High National Council from 27 September to 7 December 1945. Rákosi was deputy prime minister from 1945 to 1949, and was acting Prime Minister from 1 to 4 February 1946 and on 31 May 1947.

Initially, Rákosi and the Communists appeared willing to work within the system. From 1947 onwards, however, he and the Communists began pressuring the other parties to exclude those not willing to work with the Communists on the grounds that they were "fascists" or fascist sympathisers. Later on, after the Communists won complete control, it was commonly believed that Rákosi referred to this practice as "salami tactics," saying he had destroyed the non-Communist forces in the country by "cutting them off like slices of salami." However, no verified source for the "salami" quote has ever been discovered. According to historian Norman Stone, the term might have been invented by the leader of the Hungarian Independence Party, Zoltán Pfeiffer.

The process began when Smallholder Prime Minister Ferenc Nagy was forced to resign in favour of a more pliant Smallholder, Lajos Dinnyés. By the 1947 elections, the Communists had won a plurality, and had largely emasculated the next-largest non-Communist Party, the Social Democrats.

By October 1947, Rákosi had dropped all pretense of liberal democracy. He gave the non-Communist parties an ultimatum: cooperate with a new, Communist-dominated coalition government or go into exile. By the end of 1947, the opposition parties had largely shunted aside their more courageous members, leaving them in the hands of fellow travellers willing to do the Communists' bidding. In the summer of 1948, the Communists forced the Social Democrats to merge with them to form the Hungarian Working People's Party (MDP). However, the few remaining independent-minded Social Democrats were quickly pushed out in short order, leaving the MDP as an enlarged and renamed MKP.

He also pushed out the Smallholder president, Zoltán Tildy, in favour of Social Democrat-turned-Communist Árpád Szakasits, and forced Dinnyés to resign in favour of the openly pro-Communist István Dobi. A year later, elections took place with a single list of candidates. Although non-Communists nominally still figured, in reality they were fellow travellers.

Rákosi described himself as "Stalin's best Hungarian disciple" and "Stalin's best pupil". At the height of his rule, he developed a strong cult of personality around himself.

Approximately 350,000 officials and intellectuals were purged under his rule, from 1948 to 1956. Rákosi imposed totalitarian rule on Hungary — arresting, jailing and killing both real and imagined foes in various waves of Stalin-inspired political purges. In August 1952, he also became Prime Minister (Chairman of the Council of Ministers).

However, in June 1953, Rákosi and other party leaders were summoned to Moscow, where the Soviet leadership dressed down their Hungarian counterparts for Hungary's lackluster economic performance. On 13 June 1953, to appease the Soviet Politburo, Rákosi accepted the Soviet model of collective leadership. While he gave up the premiership to Imre Nagy, he retained the office of General Secretary. Nagy favoured a more humane way of governing, which Rákosi vigorously opposed. On 9 March 1955, the Central Committee of the MDP condemned Nagy for "rightist deviation." Hungarian newspapers joined the attacks and Nagy was blamed for the country's economic problems. On 18 April, the National Assembly unanimously sacked Nagy from his post. Although the Kremlin frowned on a return of Rákosi to the premiership, he and Nagy's successor, András Hegedüs, quickly put the country back on its previous Stalinist course.

Economic policy
The post-war Hungarian economy suffered from multiple challenges. The most important was the destruction of infrastructure in the war (40% of national wealth, including all bridges, railways, raw materials, machinery, etc.). Hungary agreed to pay war reparations totalling approximately US$300 million, to the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, and to support Soviet garrisons.

The Hungarian National Bank in 1946 estimated the cost of reparations as "between 19 and 22 percent of the annual national income." In spite of this, after the highest historical rate of inflation in world history, a new, stable currency was successfully introduced in August 1946 on the basis of the plans of the Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party. The low production of consumer goods and the backwardness of light industry resulted in frequent shortages, especially in the countryside, leading to discontent. In addition, the huge investments in military sectors after the outbreak of the Korean War further reduced the supply of consumer goods. Due to shortages, forced savings (state bond sales to the population) and below-inflation wage increases were introduced.

Forced retirement
Rákosi was then removed as General Secretary of the Party under pressure from the Soviet Politburo in June 1956 (shortly after Nikita Khrushchev's Secret Speech), and was replaced by his former second-in-command, Ernő Gerő. To remove him from the Hungarian political scene, the Soviet Politburo exiled Rákosi to the Soviet Union later in 1956, with the official story being that he was "seeking medical attention". From 1964 to 1968 he lived in the town of Tokmok in Soviet Kirghizia. Later he was sent to Arzamas and, later still, to Gorky.

In 1970, Rákosi was finally granted permission to return to Hungary if he promised not to engage in political activities. He refused the deal and remained in the USSR where he died in Gorky in 1971. After his death, his ashes were privately returned to Hungary for burial in the Farkasréti Cemetery in Budapest. Only his initials are visible on his gravestone to avoid vandalism.

title: Mátyás Rákosi


text:
Talk:Albert Scott Crossfield

yeager
In RE: Yeager commenting on the death: I found no media references that Crossfield said anything to the media about Yeager's coming off the runway in 2003. That may not mean much. The biggest story I saw was 198 words (AP regional wire, 10/2/03), very small; and the subject is minor enough that likely no reporter would think it worthwhile to get comment from anyone else. In short, we don't know what Crossfield said about Yeager's accident, if anything, because likely no reporter called him. Crossfield's death, on the other hand, is a big deal, and it's only natural to expect that reporters pursued Yeager (rather than the other way around) as a former coworker. --Thatnewguy 01:54, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

This bio is almost completely a verbatim copy of the Edwards AFB bio from USAF (not NASA, as the attribution claims.) Is that kosher? Hmmm. -N328KF 19:04, 2004 Jul 21 (UTC)

Some more background here. I took some from the awards, but haven't played with the rest. This is also marked part two of two. http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?ContentBlockID=bd026744-a86c-42e0-ae69-9ace738d3567 --Thatnewguy 13:15, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

Date of Death
According to this AP story, the crash was on Wednesday April 19th, but the body wasn't discovered until the Thursday April 20th.Blackeagle 18:16, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

Wouldn't mind hearing what type of plane it was that he crashed, if you can find it Sherurcij (talk) (Terrorist Wikiproject) 19:23, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

Type aircraft
I knew him slightly. He owned a Cessna 206 last I heard. B Tillman

FAA Registry N-Number Inquiry Results

N6579X is Assigned

Aircraft Description

Serial Number   21057579 Type Registration   Individual Manufacturer Name CESSNA Certificate Issue Date 12/11/1989 Model 210A Status Valid Type Aircraft Fixed Wing Single-Engine Type Engine Reciprocating Pending Number Change None Dealer No   Date Change Authorized  None Mode S Code 52125144 MFR Year 1960 Fractional Owner NO

Registered Owner

Name    CROSSFIELD A SCOTT Street 12100 THOROUGHBRED RD   City  HERNDON  State VIRGINIA    Zip Code     20171-2009 County FAIRFAX Country UNITED STATES

Airworthiness

Engine Manufacturer  CONT MOTOR Classification Standard Engine Model  I0-470 SERIES Category        A/W Date 12/06/1960

Scott Wilson
Link to Scott Wilson goes to the wrong Scott Wilson (a judge, not an actor). I'm going to disable the link for lack of a proper stub to go to. --Thatnewguy 19:44, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

Rename
I moved it back to its original name. You just now decided to move the article, after it's had this name for over a year? Anyhow, there are tens of thousands of Google references to "A. Scott Crossfield," and many articles here had him referenced as such within the article itself (not referring to the links.) Also, that's how he's officially cited in many cases. —Joseph/N328KF (Talk) 19:52, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

 * I have no wish to step on anyone's toes by making a name change... But I think it would be sensible to make it clear in the page's first paragraph that Albert Scott Crossfield is generally referred to as Scott Crossfield and that he used the name Scott instead of Albert. The two NASA web pages linked below both make it clear he was known as Scott Crossfield as does his charitable foundation which is called the 'Scott Crossfield Foundation'. I'm not suggesting a page name change to 'Scott Crossfield' just that it should be made clear up front that he is best known by that name.

 * http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/improvingflight/crossfield.html
 * http://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong/news/Biographies/Pilots/bd-dfrc-p021.html
 * http://www.scottcrossfieldfoundation.org

 * HTH. Mattstan 2014-11-13 15:56:32 UTC

Scott Flew a Cessna 210A
FAA registry number was N6579X. Info on the aircraft is available on the FAA web site at:

Skeet Shooter 17:36, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

Funeral Flyover Made By F/A-18s Not F-22s
Scott's funeral at Arlington included a flyover/missing man formation by Navy F/A-18s, not Air Force F-22s as was posted. Reference

I've held off editing the article to reflect F/A-18s instead of F-22s until I could find additional web references, but I have been unable to find any attribution for the flyover other than the Esquire article. I am 100% certain that F/A-18s performed the flyover as I've seen the USAF video of the funeral and my father had lunch with the F/A-18 pilots. But I'm trying to follow the spirit of Wiki...

Skeet Shooter 04:42, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

 * I concur with Skeet Shooter that F/A-18s would be the most logical aircraft for any flyover of a deceased naval aviator's funeral. Something about the airliner flying over in a slight bank so the passengers could see sounds made up. If indeed the flyover crossed a runway departure corridor, I'm pretty sure that the Air Traffic Control would have prevented an airliner from taking off until the Navy jets were clear, since the missing man formation involves one aircraft climbing above and away from the others. Unless anyone else has any objections I'm going to update the info about the aircraft and remove the reference to an airliner over the missing man formation on 14 Feb, 2007. Anynobody 04:52, 3 February 2007 (UTC)
 * I meant Feb 4th not 14th, sorry about any confusion. Anynobody 23:51, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Scott An Astronaut?
Could someone post a reference to Scott receiving astronaut wings? I noticed the page was changed to list him as a USAF astronaut. Although Scott had many outstanding accomplishments, I didn't think he passed the 50 mile limit needed to receive astronaut wings. Skeet Shooter 21:54, 17 June 2007 (UTC).

I did a quick search but found only the following article which states that three NASA test pilots (Bill Dana, Jack McKay, and Joe Walker) were awarded astronaut wings for flying the X-15 above 50 miles. Skeet Shooter 03:27, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

 * Looking at the Talk page for Astronauts, the definition of "astronaut" is in a state of flux. I had assumed that to be a USAF astronaut, one would require USAF astronaut wings, but that may not be the case, at least per the Wiki definition. Since Scott trained to be an astronaut, he meets the definition of astronaut on the current Wiki page. Therefore, I retract my comment. Skeet Shooter (talk) 05:56, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

 * If you read Scott's bio, he flew X-15 acceptance tests which were less than 1/2 full performance and altitude. His in-person talk (where I am where he once worked) was quite professional (he showed his flight envelope performance data on various aircraft).  Nice guy.  A test pilot's test pilot. 143.232.210.38 (talk) 19:06, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

 * It was Scott's bio that prompted my question. I couldn't find where he ever claimed the title astronaut. In several places (e.g. p. 284) he expressed exasperation at receiving undue credit and titles. But I agree with the Wiki definition of astronaut, and Scott is correctly listed as one. Scott was indeed a fine man and gifted engineer/pilot. Skeet Shooter (talk) 15:05, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

I see the title of astronaut was removed from Scott's wiki article due to a NASA web page which lists him as a test pilot rather than an astronaut. While that is certainly true, how do we deal with the inconsistency between this change and the Wiki definition of astronaut? According to this Wiki article, an astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft. By that definition, Scott is an astronaut since he was selected for and trained with the Man In Space Soonest group in 1957. Skeet Shooter (talk) 15:42, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

 * See User_talk:Farcross where his daughter says he was never an astronaut. - Ahunt (talk) 15:47, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

 * I see the problem here - but is there no Wikipedia precedent to this abstract situation where a person's technical job description within their industry does not match a more common, non-technical, definition of their job? Quaeler (talk) 15:51, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

 * Wiki articles must strive for verifiable accuracy, but in this case two or more reliable sources appear to disagree. NASA's definition of astronaut excludes some trainees such as Scott Crossfield while the popular definition from dictionaries includes them. WP:UNDUE states "the minority view may (and usually should) be described" so perhaps both viewpoints should be mentioned? Skeet Shooter (talk) 18:51, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

 * This issue affects other Wiki articles such as Robert Henry Lawrence, Jr., Richard E. Lawyer, Albert H. Crews, etc. These individuals trained as astronauts but for one reason or another did not get to fly reach space. NASA does not list them as astronauts but Wiki does. Skeet Shooter (talk) 19:13, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

 * Interesting.. i would vote for having their info box title reflect their technical label (like 'Test Pilot' in the case of Mr. Crossfield), and then a small chunk of verbiage in each article (even a template) describing the difference between the wiki definition on the technical definition. Quaeler (talk) 21:33, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

Dead link
During several automated bot runs the following external link was found to be unavailable. Please check if the link is in fact down and fix or remove it in that case!

 * http://www.edwards.af.mil/history/docs_html/people/pilot_crossfield.html (archive)
 * In Albert Scott Crossfield on 2007-08-21 12:15:36, 404 Not Found
 * In Albert Scott Crossfield on 2007-08-29 21:39:06, 404 Not Found

The web page has been saved by the Internet Archive. Please consider linking to an appropriate archived version:. -- Stwalkerbot 21:40, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Done. Now linked to http://web.archive.org/web/20061009111238/http://www.edwards.af.mil/history/docs_html/people/pilot_crossfield.html --rogerd 23:26, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

No Yeager?
This article has zero mentions of Yeager, and they were direct rivals. 65.166.89.2 (talk) 20:21, 3 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Comparing this guy to Yeager is like comparing Weird Al Yankovic to Mozart ! This is the guy who got an X15 and only went 1,900mph, this is a guy who was killed by adverse weather conditions FFS! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 116.30.192.106 (talk) 08:08, 4 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Crossfield, as the manufacturer's test pilot, was 'selected out' of the X-15 programme by project manager Paul Bikle once he'd proved the aircraft (Michelle Evans, The X-15 Rocket Plane: Flying the First Wings Into Space, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London, 2013, ISBN 978-0-8032-2840-5, p.30), but Yeager was rejected outright. 'Chuck was the commandant of the air force's test pilot school at Edwards... Milt Thompson [NASA X-15 pilot] remembered, "Yeager was pressuring Bikle for years to try and get on [the X-15]... Bikle was a very pragmatic person and he wasn't about to do anything stupid just to satisfy someone's desire. He looked at it and asked Yeager, 'What are we going to get out of it?' In Yeager's case, there really wasn't much he had to offer." ' (Evans, op. cit., p.218.) It was an engineering task, with every flight made to an exact profile for an exact purpose, and Yeager was not felt to have what you might call the right stuff (to coin a phrase) for the job. Such as a college degree and a proper attitude. 'Because of this rejection, Chuck launched his own program to acquire a rocket plane for his school. This idea culminated in mounting a rocket in a pod above the tail of a modified F-104 Starfighter, redesignating the vehicle as the NF-104... On 10 December 1963, in an attempt at an altitude record in the plane, Yeager lost control and had to eject. The NF-104 destroyed itself on impact as Yeager floated down on his parachute, a bloody mess after being hit by the separating ejection seat.' (Evans, op.cit., pp.218-9.) Yeager's last previous rocket flight, in the X1A on 12 December 1953, made simply as a spoiler to break Crossfield's Mach 2 mark, had also resulted in loss of control, though that time he recovered. You can see why Bikle didn't want Yeager near the precious X-15. Khamba Tendal (talk) 20:15, 9 July 2019 (UTC)

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Actual speed of first Mach 2 flight
The link in the citation is broken and the official report of this on the NASA website cites a speed of "over 1320 mph". I think in this instance giving an exact speed which is non corroborated is less helpful. Also citing an exacte Mach speed is false information as the speed of sound changes with both altitude and temperature and whilst the margin of error means we know he broke mach 2 there is absolutely no way to know his exact speed in Mach. I would suggest rewording and including a the nasa source. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong/news/Biographies/Pilots/bd-dfrc-p021.html — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.50.213 (talk) 20:02, 16 May 2017 (UTC)

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text:
Oldsmobile Silhouette

The Oldsmobile Silhouette is a minivan manufactured by General Motors for model years 1990–2004 over two generations.

Production ended when General Motors discontinued its Oldsmobile brand in 2004. GM continued to market badge-engineered variants of the U-body minivans, the Saturn Relay and the Buick Terraza for MY2005.

Background
General Motors' first attempt at producing a minivan to compete with the Chrysler minivans, the rear wheel drive, truck-based Chevrolet Astro and its twin, the GMC Safari failed to compete strongly against Chrysler's dominance in the minivan market in the 1980s. The 1990 Oldsmobile Silhouette and its sibling models, sold more successfully than the Astro/Safari predecessors.

First shown to the public in 1986, the Pontiac Trans Sport concept car featured futuristic styling, individually removable bucket seats with built-in stereo speakers, a gull-wing rear passenger door and extensive use of glass including a glass-paneled roof.

The Trans Sport was approved for production without the gullwing door and the glass roof. Chevrolet and Oldsmobile received production vehicles based on the Trans Sport with the Lumina APV and Silhouette respectively. While the Pontiac Trans Sport was targeted at sport- and style-oriented buyers, the Lumina was the value offering and the Silhouette targeted premium markets, competing with the Chrysler Town & Country.

First generation (1990–1996)

The first 1990 Oldsmobile Silhouette was manufactured on August 1, 1989. Assembled in General Motors' North Tarrytown Assembly assembly facility, these U platform vans consisted of a galvanized steel space frame wrapped in composite plastic body panels that were impervious to rust and minor dents and dings, a manufacturing technique developed on the Pontiac Fiero and also used extensively on General Motors' Saturn line of vehicles.

The Silhouette was available with seating for seven, with the five lightweight (34 lb) rear seats being individually reconfigurable and removable. In 1994 built-in child seats were added to the option list, which provided the ability to switch two of the rear seats between adult and child seating with the pull of a seat-mounted tab.

Included with the level ride package, which utilized a compressor and air-pressurized rear shock absorbers to maintain vehicle height regardless of load, was a control panel and air hose kit that allowed the vehicle to be used to inflate tires, air mattresses, sporting equipment and such.

In 1994, a remote-controlled power sliding door feature was added, a General Motors innovation.

For the 1994 and 1995 model years, traction control was available with the 3800 engine option.

The first generation Silhouette was not available in Canada.

European Market
Europeans grew accustomed to sleek minivans thanks to the Renault Espace and did not object to the futuristic styling. For the European market, however, the Oldsmobile Silhouette was sold as the Pontiac Trans Sport by replacing the Oldsmobile badging with Pontiac badging, along with Pontiac wheels. Sales in Europe were good for an American import, but did not represent enough volume to make a fourth, distinct model economically feasible. Like the Oldsmobile Silhouette, the European Trans Sport did not receive any facelift, as the vans' initial styling had not been negatively received there.

The Pontiac Trans Sport of Europe was discontinued in 1997. Its successors were both the Chevrolet Trans Sport (Second gen Pontiac Trans Sport rebadged as a Chevrolet) (LWB), and the Opel Sintra (SWB). In the United Kingdom, it was sold as the Vauxhall Sintra.

Engines

 * 1989–1995 LG6 3.1 (191 cuin) V6
 * 1992–1995 3800 (231 cuin) V6 (optional)
 * 1996 LA1 3400 (207 cuin) V6

Modest sales success
The design of these minivans was controversial. At the time that the Oldsmobile Silhouette and its siblings were conceived, no one had tried to market a stylish or sporty minivan, and GM felt that this represented a potentially large market segment. They styled these minivans to be lower and sleeker than the competing brands. The extremely large, long and sloped windshield and the resultant long distance to the base of the windshield when sitting in the driver's seat made for a disconcerting driving experience until a person could adjust to the "different" proportions. Automotive magazines christened the new minivans "dustbuster" after a household appliance with a similar profile.

The first engine in these vans was a meager 3.1 L V6, that produced only 120 hp, which was not up to the task of hauling these fairly heavy vehicles.

In 1992, the Silhouette and its siblings received the 170 hp 3.8 L 3800 V6 as an option, which provided better torque and acceleration, making them the most powerful as well as best handling minivans then in production.

Production of first generation Silhouettes and stablemates ended in 1996, at which time the Tarrytown, NY plant which produced them and which had been in operation since 1900, was shuttered and scheduled for demolition. The final 1st generation U-body Oldsmobile was assembled on June 26, 1996.

1990

 * All–new model. The Silhouette in keeping with its positioning as GM's luxury minivan offering is available with optional leather seating, a feature not available on its platform mates and available only on the Chrysler Town and Country among competing manufacturer's models.

1991

 * Customer complaints, regarding glare reflected on the interior of the windshield from the massive expanse of dashboard, led to the addition of black carpeting in lieu of the more-reflective plastic used in the previous year.

1992

 * Newly available for 1992 was GM's 3800 V6 engine coupled with a Hydra-Matic 4T60-E 4-speed electronically controlled automatic transmission.
 * The cowl-mounted fixed radio antenna was eliminated, and an integrated roof antenna was installed, sandwiched between the roof and the headliner.
 * Side-view mirrors were changed to the folding type, and were enlarged to provide better rear visibility.
 * Brakes were enlarged and anti-lock brakes (ABS) were added as standard equipment.
 * A pop-up sunroof was added to the options list.
 * Steering wheel-mounted controls for the stereo system were added as an option.

1993

 * The Silhouette's exterior is facelifted, sporting wrap-around turn signal/parking lamps in front, along with standard foglamps.
 * Tail lights' design is changed from a grid to a solid red color with black "dissolves" around the edges, a style that had been previously used exclusively on the Pontiac Trans Sport.
 * A remote-controlled power sliding side door was announced for 1993, but failed to actually make it into production.
 * A redesigned center console was added this year with revamped, larger climate controls, a large storage cubby and a large storage bin at its base.

1994

 * In an effort to lessen the perceived distance to the base of the windshield, a ridge was added to the interior dash finishing panel.
 * A remote-controlled power sliding door became available as an option a year after the announcement.
 * Built-in child seats for the second row became available as an option.
 * A traction control system became available as an option.
 * Rear deep-tinted windows now featured a darker tint than previously used.
 * A driver-side airbag became standard equipment.
 * A roof rack became standard on all Silhouettes and their subsequent model years, but remained optional on the Chevrolet and Pontiac.

1995

 * Automatic power door locks that engaged/disengaged with the transmission shifting into or out of "park" added as a standard feature of the power door lock option package.

1996

 * Final year of production. Replaced in 1997 by an all-new design carrying the same name.
 * Both 3.1 and 3.8 L V6 engines were dropped, the 3.4 L 3400 V6 engine became the only engine available.
 * Traction control dropped as an option.
 * Air conditioning and movable rear seats are now standard.

Second generation (1997–2004)
The redesigned 1997 Silhouette was built at Doraville Assembly. The first 1997 Silhouettes were assembled in August, 1996. Canadian sales began as a 1998 model. Unlike the Venture and Trans Sport/Montana, the roof rack was standard on all Silhouettes. GM continued to offer the Silhouette as their premium luxurious minivan, the Trans Sport/Montana as the sporty one, and the Venture as the basic version. The base model (only offered for 1997) was the only model to offer short-wheelbase and a driver side sliding door being only optional, when all the other trim levels of the Silhouette were in long-wheelbase extended version and offered a standard driver side sliding door.

Having achieved second place in sales to Chrysler, General Motors brought out an entirely new U platform series of minivans, theoretically based on the lessons learned from its previous missteps. GM, still stinging from the criticism of the previous "dustbuster" minivans, the new Silhouette would be completely conventional in all respects. The vehicle would be of steel unibody construction, and styling would be as conservative as possible. The previous generation was a little too large for comfortably navigating European streets, so this new range of models would be narrower and slightly smaller than was the norm for the United States in order to produce a single range of minivans that GM hoped would fill the needs of both the North American and European markets.

New for this generation were cabin air filters, and the filters can be accessed from behind an access panel easily accessed from inside the glove compartment.

During the development of this generation of the U-body minivan, General Motors extensively benchmarked the then current Chrysler minivans. The resultant vehicles more closely resembled the immensely successful trio of Chrysler minivans; However, Chrysler would launch a completely redesigned minivan line a year before GM.

Two different wheelbase lengths were offered as well as dual sliding doors. Silhouettes, in keeping with their luxury positioning, offered many features as standard that were optional on competing makes and on its platform mates. In 1998, it became one of the first vehicles on the market to offer a VCR with overhead retractable LCD screen for back seat viewing, which has since become a "must-have" option for families with children. For 2001, the Silhouette received a minor facelift that included a new grille and front bumper.

Trim levels

 * Base - 1997
 * GL - 1997–2004 Included: Cloth upholstery, 15" steel rims with hubcaps, air conditioning, map pockets in driver and passenger seats, power driver's seat, storage drawer under passenger front seat, an AM/FM stereo with single-CD player and seek-scan tuning, coaxial speakers, and clock, overhead console, fog lamps, and power front windows with automatic driver's side window. Later standard features were an AM/FM stereo with single-CD and cassette players and speed-compensated volume control, TheftLock, and clock, a garage door opener, rear seat audio controls, keyless entry, heated power mirrors, and automatic headlamps.
 * GLS - 1997–2004 Added: leather upholstery, rear parking aid, tri-zone climate control system, rear seat audio/climate controls, compass, garage door opener, an AM/FM stereo with single-CD and cassette players, seek-scan tuning, coaxial speakers and clock, leather wrapped steering wheel with audio controls, power front seats with driver's side memory, 16" alloy rims, and power sliding passenger door.
 * GS - 1998–1999
 * Premiere - 1998–2004 Added: Entertainment system with DVD player with fold-down overhead color monitor for rear passengers, input jacks for video games or camcorders, 4 pairs of wireless headphones and rear seat visual/audio controls, heated front seats, and power sliding driver's side door.

Engine
3.4 L LA1 3400 (207 cuin) V6

Safety criticism

A crash test video of the 1997 Trans Sport conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) resulted in some criticism due to extreme damage to the vehicle in the 40 mi/h moderate overlap crash test. The minivan received a "Poor" rating and was ranked the "Worst Performing Vehicle" by the institute as a result. This applied to the Silhouette and other second generation U-body minivans as well.

Some comments made by the IIHS after the first test in 1996 were:
 * Major collapse of the occupant compartment left little survival space for the driver.
 * Extreme steering wheel movement snapped the dummy's head backward.
 * The unnatural position of the dummy's left foot indicates that an occupant's left leg would have been seriously injured in a real-world crash of this severity.
 * The forces on the left lower leg were so high that the dummy's metal foot broke off at the ankle.
 * The readings in the dummy showed the crash might have been fatal.

The safety issues of the Silhouette and other second generation U-body minivans were later addressed with the third generation redesign, which earned the highest rating of "Good" given by the institute in the moderate overlap crash test.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration gave the van 4 stars for driver protection and 3 stars for passenger protection in the 35 mph frontal impact test. In the side impact test, it received 5 stars for front passenger protection, and 5 stars for rear passenger protection.

More information on the Oldsmobile Silhouette/Pontiac Trans Sport:

Mixed sales success
The Silhouette and its platform mates achieved slightly better sales than their avant-garde predecessors, but also failed to capture a significant share of the market. The Silhouette was a close competitor in many of the categories deemed of importance, but was a winner in luxury, first in the world to offer factory video screen, the minivan market had become significantly more crowded with competing products that proved to be more desirable and throughout its production it was widely considered a second-tier competitor, certainly competent but not a stand-out in any category.

The Silhouette remained in production until the 2004 model year with minimal changes. As Oldsmobile itself was gradually phased out due to poor sales, a limited run of 500 units, dubbed Final 500, of each of the brands 5 remaining models were built and sold. The Silhouette received the Final 500 edition as well, applied exclusively to the Premiere trim. It featured a Dark Cherry Metallic paint, like the Alero, Bravada, Aurora, and Intrigue, custom vintage Oldsmobile badging on the front fenders and rear liftgate, Final 500 embroidered seat backs for the front and middle row (unique to the Final 500 Silhouettes) and front floor mats, and Aurora-styled chrome wheels. However, as a result of the assembly plant running out of production capacity due to fleet order obligations of its siblings, only 360 out of the 500 Silhouettes were built. Production of the Silhouette ended on March 31, 2004.

Successors and decline
The spiritual successor to the Oldsmobile Silhouette within the General Motors lineup is the Buick Terraza (2005-2007), which was built on an updated version of the U platform and occupied the luxury minivan slot previously occupied by the Silhouette.

However, due to poor sales of all the third-generation GM minivans in the United States, GM decided to exit the minivan market altogether in that region. Production of the Pontiac Montana SV6 ended after the 2006 model year in the United States, the Buick Terraza and Saturn Relay ended after the 2007 model year, and for the Chevrolet Uplander, production ceased in the United States after the 2008 model year and focused on the new crossover vehicle market. However, production of the Uplander and Montana SV6 continued in Mexico and Canada until 2009 due to better sales in those countries.

One-Off Variants

 * Silhouette OSV (1999) - A modified version of the Silhouette that was created as part of "Oldsmobile Specialty Vehicles", an experiment in an aftermarket tuning brand for Oldsmobile. It debuted at the 1999 SEMA show alongside the OSV Alero and OSV Intrigue. It features: 3.4L SFI V6 engine with tuned intake and headers that does 210 hp @ 4400rpm, 270 lb-ft torque @ 2800rpm, 4-speed Hydramatic 4T60-E automatic transmission, 19 x RH Evolution C6 Wheels, 13-inch Brembo cross-drilled 4-wheel disc brakes, Koni struts and springs, front and rear spoilers, ground effects package, K&N filtration, Borla exhaust. On the exterior, the OSV Silhouette features a ground effects package similar to its OSV siblings, Candy Apple Red paint with ghosted Oldsmobile Tilted Rocket logos on the rear quarter panels, an OSV badge between the wheel wells and front doors, and silver inserts that block out the minivan's twin grille. Inside, the OSV is largely the same as its OSV siblings, sporting climate-controlled, 8-position Recaro Style seats, trimmed in neutral and red leather, and Titanium pedals. Unique to the OSV Silhouette is the fact that all of its seats are Recaro Style seats. All the headrests of the seats have the OSV logo embroidered into the headrests, like the OSV Alero and OSV Intrigue. It was sold in 2009 at the Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale auction, and again in 2012. In December 2020, an article by Hagerty reported that the OSV Silhouette was found listed for sale at Empire Motors in Canada. According the article, 3 OSV Silhouettes were built. The OSV Silhouette featured in the article has since been sold.
 * Silhouette OSV II (2000) - Another Silhouette modified for OSV, this time painted dark green. Little information exists on the Silhouette OSV II, but it appears largely the same as the Silhouette OSV I. It is part of a second batch of OSVs alongside the Alero OSV II and Intrigue OSV II. Like the other OSV II models, the whereabouts of the Silhouette OSV II are unknown.

title: Oldsmobile Silhouette


text:
Oku District, Okayama

Oku (邑久郡) was a district located in Okayama Prefecture, Japan.

As of 2003, the district had an estimated population of 39,365 and a density of 313.64 persons per km2. The total area was 125.51 km2.

Towns and villages

 * Oku
 * Osafune
 * Ushimado

Merger

 * On November 1, 2004 - the towns of Oku, Osafune and Ushimado were merged to create the city of Setouchi.

title: Oku District, Okayama


text:
No. 101 Squadron RAF

No. 101 Squadron of the Royal Air Force operates the Airbus Voyager in the air-to-air refuelling and transport roles from RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire.

Formation and early years
101 Squadron RFC was formed at Farnborough on 12 July 1917 operating the Royal Aircraft Factory FE2b. Two weeks later it moved to France to operate as a night bomber squadron. In March 1919 the squadron returned to the UK and it was disbanded on 31 December 1919.

Reformation and World War II
The squadron was reformed in March 1928 at RAF Bircham Newton as a day bomber squadron flying the Boulton Paul Sidestrand. In 1938 the squadron was equipped with the Bristol Blenheim. In 1941 the squadron changed to a medium-bomber squadron with the Vickers Wellington. These were replaced the following year with the Avro Lancaster. 101 Squadron Lancasters were in 1943 equipped with a top secret radio jamming system codenamed "Airborne Cigar" (ABC) operated by an eighth crew member who could understand German, some with German or Jewish backgrounds known as "special operators" commonly abbreviated to "spec ops" or "SO". They sat in a curtained off area towards the rear of the aircraft and located and jammed German fighter controller's broadcasts, occasionally posing as controllers to spread disinformation. The aircraft fitted with the system were distinctive due to the two large vertical antennae rising from the middle of the fuselage. Deliberately breaking the standing operating procedure of radio silence to conduct the jamming made the aircraft highly vulnerable to being tracked and attacked, which resulted in 101 Squadron having the highest casualty rate of any RAF squadron.

Post-war
In October 1945, the squadron moved to RAF Binbrook, Lincolnshire and in June 1946 re-equipped with Avro Lincolns. These aircraft were deployed in conducting small-scale raids against the Quteibi tribe at Thumier in Aden in October 1947.

On 25 May 1950, the squadron took delivery of its first English Electric Canberra B2 thereby becoming the RAF’s first jet bomber unit. Without a training unit in existence, conversion to type was achieved by the squadron itself with assistance from English Electric test pilots. Most of the type’s service trials were flown by the squadron and, by the end of 1950, nine Canberra B2s were held on strength. Out of the pool of type-qualified crews, a wing of five squadrons had been formed by August 1952 at Binbrook, comprising Nos. 9, 12, 50, 101 and 617.

In June 1954, the squadron became the first to receive the B.6 variant of the Canberra. After full conversion to the type, the Binbrook Wing of five squadrons undertook an intensive training programme in readiness for staged detachments to Malaya as support for Operation Firedog. This was a large-scale counter-insurgency campaign, on-going in Malaya since 1948 against communist guerrillas. 101 Squadron became the first RAF jet bomber squadron to serve in the Far East when four Canberras arrived at Changi on 11 February 1955. The first bomb drop by an RAF jet bomber occurred when the squadron, which had been deployed to RAF Butterworth, Penang, was operating against a target in Johore. Over a period of two months operating from Butterworth, ninety-eight raids were made before the squadron returned to Binbrook on 21 June 1955. A final deployment to the same base from June to August 1956 signified the last Canberra participation in the Malayan operation. Also in 1956, the squadron flew night bombing raids against Egyptian airfields from their base at Hal Far, Malta during the Suez crisis. With the entry into service of the V bombers, Canberras in the bomber role were becoming outmoded. Consequently, 101 Squadron was temporarily disbanded on 1 February 1957.

Vulcans
The squadron reformed on 15 October 1957 as part of RAF Bomber Command's V bomber force maintaining the UK's strategic nuclear deterrent, equipped with Avro Vulcan B1s from RAF Finningley, and in 1961 the squadron moved from Finningley to RAF Waddington where it remained until disbandment in 1982. Its aircraft were now the upgraded Vulcan B1A fitted with the ECM tailpod. The squadron's assigned role was high-level strategic bombing with a variety of free fall nuclear bombs. These included American bombs supplied to the RAF under Project E.

On 20 June 1961 a 101 Squadron Vulcan B1A (XH481) flew non-stop from RAF Waddington to the Royal Australian Air Force Base Richmond, NSW, the longest recorded non-stop flight by a Vulcan, and the 10,000 nmi flight still stands as a record for the Vulcan, exceeding the mileage done by the Black Buck Vulcan by some 3,000 nmi.

After the advent of effective Soviet SAMs forced Bomber Command to reassign V bombers from high-altitude operations to low-level penetration operations in March 1963, the squadron's Vulcans adopted a mission profile that included a 'pop-up' manoeuvre from 500–1,000 ft to above 12,000 ft for safe release of Yellow Sun Mk2.

By Dec 1967 the squadron was re-equipped with eight Vulcan B2 aircraft and eight WE.177B laydown bombs which improved aircraft survivability by enabling aircraft to remain at low-level during weapon release. Following the transfer of responsibility for the nuclear deterrent to the Royal Navy the squadron was reassigned to SACEUR for tactical strike missions still armed with the WE.177B bomb and a variety of conventional munitions. In a high-intensity European war the squadron's new role was to support land forces on the Continent resisting an assault on Western Europe by the Red Army, by striking deep into enemy-held areas beyond the forward edge of the battlefield, striking at enemy concentrations and infrastructure, first with conventional weapons and secondly with WE.177 tactical nuclear weapons as required, should a conflict escalate to that stage. The squadron continued in this role until the Falklands War of 1982 when the squadron performed operations during the campaign in the South Atlantic, and was then disbanded on 4 August 1982.

Tankers
In 1978, the RAF announced a plan to convert second-hand civil Vickers VC10 aircraft for conversion to aerial refuelling aircraft and the first K2 flew in 1982. No 101 Squadron was chosen to operate the aircraft and was reformed at RAF Brize Norton on 1 May 1984. Notable recent deployments of 101 Squadron include the Gulf War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The VC10 aircraft was retired on 20 September 2013, and was replaced by the Airbus Voyager.

title: No. 101 Squadron RAF


text:
Princess Ragnhild, Mrs. Lorentzen

Princess Ragnhild, Mrs Lorentzen (Ragnhild Alexandra; 9 June 1930 – 16 September 2012), was the eldest child of King Olav V of Norway and Princess Märtha of Sweden. She was the older sister of King Harald V and Princess Astrid. She was the first Norwegian royal to have been born in Norway since the Middle Ages. In 1953 she married the industrialist Erling Lorentzen, a member of the Lorentzen family of shipping magnates. In the same year they moved to Brazil, where her husband was an industrialist and a main owner of Aracruz Celulose. She lived in Brazil until her death 59 years later.

Although she was the King's eldest child, she was never in the line of succession to the Norwegian throne, owing to Norway's law of agnatic succession. She was in the line of succession to the British throne, and occupied the 16th and 17th place in that succession line during her childhood and youth.

Early life
Princess Ragnhild was the first Norwegian princess to have been born on Norwegian soil for 629 years. She grew up at the royal residence of Skaugum near Asker, west of Oslo. She was christened in the Palace Chapel on 27 June 1930 and her godparents were: her paternal grandparents, The King and Queen of Norway; her maternal grandparents, The Duke and Duchess of Västergötland; her great uncle, The King of Sweden; her great aunt, Princess Victoria of the United Kingdom; her maternal aunt, Princess Axel of Denmark; and The Duke of York.

In 1940, during World War II, she and her family fled the German invasion of Norway, and she spent the wartime years in exile with her mother and siblings in Bethesda, Maryland, located northwest of Washington, D.C. Before the birth of her younger brother, it was assumed she would accede to the throne in the absence of a male heir, although this would have required a constitutional amendment, as women could not inherit the throne at the time.

Her Confirmation took place on 11 May 1947 in the Palace Chapel.

Following the royal family's return to Norway she attended Nissen's Girls' School, obtaining her school leaving certificate in 1948. She later spent four semesters, between 1948 and 1949, studying at a finishing school in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Marriage and family
Princess Ragnhild married Erling Lorentzen, a member of the Norwegian merchant upper-class (see Lorentzen family), in Asker Church on 15 May 1953. Lorentzen was a businessman and army officer who had served as her bodyguard during the War.

Following her marriage, the couple moved to Rio de Janeiro, where her husband had substantial business holdings. Their residence in Brazil was originally temporary, but they eventually settled there, and remained in Rio until Ragnhild's death in 2012. In Brazil, her husband founded Aracruz Celulose.

The couple had three children:

 * Haakon Lorentzen (born 23 August 1954), married Martha Carvalho de Freitas (born 1958) on 14 April 1982, and had three children, each born in Rio de Janeiro:
 * Olav Alexander Lorentzen (born 11 July 1985), married Ingrid Kraus de Andrade Nogueira (born 1988) on 4 December 2021, and has one son:
 * Salvador Lorentzen (born 1 April 2023)
 * Christian Frederik Lorentzen (born 23 May 1988) married Mariah de Oliveira Pedrosa (born 1991) on 19 March 2022, and has one son:
 * Thomas Lorentzen (born December 2022)
 * Sophia Anne Lorentzen (born 28 June 1994)
 * Ingeborg Lorentzen (born 27 February 1957), married Paulo César Ribeiro Filho (born 1956) on 4 June 1982, and has one daughter:
 * Victoria Ragna Lorentzen Ribeiro (born 19 December 1988), married Felipe Sampaio Octaviano Falcão on 9 August 2014, and has two children:
 * Frederik Sven Lorentzen Falcão (born 28 September 2016)
 * Alice Eva Lorentzen Falcão (born 21 October 2022)
 * Ragnhild Alexandra Lorentzen (born 8 May 1968), married Aaron Matthew Long on 21 November 2003, and has two daughters.
 * Alexandra Joyce Lorentzen Long (born 14 December 2007)
 * Elizabeth Patricia Lorentzen Long (born March 2011)

Public life
Princess Ragnhild opened the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, Norway, as her father and grandfather were attending the funeral of King George VI.

A conservative, Princess Ragnhild publicly criticized her niece and nephew, Princess Märtha Louise and Crown Prince Haakon Magnus, for their choice of spouses, in 2004.

Princess Ragnhild was patron of the Norwegian Organisation for the Hearing Impaired.

Several ships, including MS Prinsesse Ragnhild, were named for her.

Although a private person, in 1995 Ragnhild decided to write her autobiography (this was penned with the help of author Lars O. Gulbrandsen) published under the title, “Mitt liv som kongsdatter” [My Life as a King’s Daughter].

Death
Princess Ragnhild died of lung cancer at her home in Rio de Janeiro on 16 September 2012, aged 82. Her body arrived in Oslo on 24 September 2012, where her brother King Harald V and her sister Princess Astrid were present to greet her alongside her spouse Erling and their children. The funeral of Princess Ragnhild was held on 28 September 2012 in the chapel of the Royal Palace of Oslo. She was later cremated and privately interred in the church of Asker.

Titles

 * 9 June 1930 – 15 May 1953: Her Royal Highness Princess Ragnhild of Norway
 * 15 May 1953 – 16 September 2012: Her Highness Princess Ragnhild, Mrs. Lorentzen

National honours

 * 🇳🇴 Norway: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Olav
 * 🇳🇴 Norway: Dame of the Royal Family Decoration King Haakon VII
 * 🇳🇴 Norway: Dame of the Royal Family Decoration of King Olav V
 * 🇳🇴 Norway: Dame of the Royal Family Decoration of King Harald V
 * 🇳🇴 Norway: Recipient of the King Haakon VII Golden Jubilee Medal
 * 🇳🇴 Norway: Recipient of the Medal of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of King Haakon VII
 * 🇳🇴 Norway: Recipient of the King Olav V Silver Jubilee Medal
 * 🇳🇴 Norway: Recipient of the King Olav V Commemorative Medal
 * 🇳🇴 Norway: Recipient of the Medal of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of King Olav V
 * 🇳🇴 Norway: Recipient of the Royal House Centenary Medal

Foreign honours

 * 🇧🇷 Brazil: Grand Cross of the Order of the Southern Cross
 * 🇳🇱 Netherlands: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Orange-Nassau
 * 🇳🇱 Netherlands: Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown
 * 🇵🇹 Portugal: Grand Cross of the Order of Merit
 * 🇸🇪 Sweden: Member Grand Cross of the Royal Order of the Polar Star
 * 🇸🇪 Sweden: Recipient of 90th Birthday Badge Medal of King Gustav V

Honorific eponym
A 540 000 km2 area in Antarctica is named Princess Ragnhild Coast in her honour. The Jahre Line (later Color Line) cruiseferry MS Prinsesse Ragnhild was named in her honour.

Ancestry
She was a great-great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and great-granddaughter of Edward VII of the United Kingdom, thus a second cousin to Queen Elizabeth II. At the time of her birth she was 17th in the line of succession to the British throne, and 77th at the time of her death. Princess Ragnhild's maternal aunt was Queen Astrid of Belgium, which also made Princess Ragnhild a first cousin of kings Baudouin and Albert II of Belgium and of Joséphine-Charlotte of Belgium, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg. Through her maternal grandmother, Princess Ingeborg of Denmark, she was also a second cousin of Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and Queen Anne Marie of Greece as well as a second cousin once removed of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden through her maternal grandfather Prince Carl of Sweden.

title: Princess Ragnhild, Mrs. Lorentzen


text:
Porte Maillot station

Porte Maillot is a station on Paris Métro Line 1 and as Neuilly–Porte Maillot on the RER C and RER E. The station replaces another station of the same name, the original terminus of Line 1, which was demolished and moved in 1936.

The name derives from the Porte Maillot, a former gate to the Bois de Boulogne, whose name derives perhaps from maille, or croquet. The present day Porte Maillot is in the centre of a roundabout close to the modern Palais des congrès de Paris which the station serves. The centre of the roundabout is a small park, providing a midpoint on the long view between the arches of La Defense and the Arc de Triomphe.

History
The first station called "Porte Maillot" opened in 1900 and was the terminus of Line 1, and was therefore a loop, allowing trains to turn around without reversing. Like Porte Dauphine and Porte de Vincennes, it was arranged with a central waiting area and tracks on either side, with two tunnels. The station was replaced with a new station a short distance to the west with the extension of Line 1 to Pont de Neuilly in 1937.

The new line dives down and passes under the old loop. In 1992 this old station was turned into a reception area by the RATP, now the "Espace Maillot". The new platforms were built 105 metres long to accommodate 7-car trains in the future, a plan which has never been realised.

Since 1988 and the opening of the northern branch of the C Branch of the RER, this station has served the Neuilly – Porte Maillot station of the RER C. The two stations are connected by a long corridor.

The RER A passes beneath the station, but does not stop. An extension of RER E through Port Maillot from Haussmann–Saint-Lazare to La Défense and then towards Mantes-la-Jolie is under consideration.

Work is currently underway, but nearing completion to convert "Espace Maillot" into a light maintenance facility for the new MP 05 rolling stock, which are fully automated.

Access

 * Access 1 - Palais des Congrès
 * Access 2 - Boulevard Gouvion-Saint-Cyr
 * Access 3 - Place de la Porte-Maillot
 * Access 4 - Avenue de la Grande-Armée
 * Access 5 - Avenue de Malakoff
 * Access 6 - Avenue Charles-de-Gaulle
 * Access 7 - Rue de Chartres

Platforms
The current station is made up of two parallel stations, each of standard configuration with two platforms separated by the metro tracks under an elliptical arch. The trains run on the outer tracks, the others being used as termini or garages. The decoration is in the style used for the majority of metro stations. The lighting canopies are white and rounded in the Gaudin style of the metro revival of the 2000s (with the exception of one on the south platform of the north station), and the bevelled white ceramic tiles cover the walls, the vault, and the tunnel exits. The advertising frames are made of brown ceramic and the name of the station is inscribed in the metro's font, Parisine, on enamelled plaques. The platforms are equipped with yellow Akiko seats, and are fully equipped with screen doors, as is the north platform of the south station (the fourth platform, bordered by a dead-end track on the east side, has façade modules only at the ends, on the spaces not covered by the trains that are parked there).

Other connections
Since 1988 and the opening of the northern branch of the RER C, and now it is also served with RER E in the same station where Line 1 is and it has served the Neuilly-Porte Maillot station. This station connects with the metro station via long corridors.

The station is served by bus lines 73, 82, PC, 244 and 274 (remotely, from the Porte des Ternes stop) of the RATP Bus Network and by lines N11, N24, N151 and N153 of the Noctilien night bus service. In addition, it is at the origin of a bus link to Beauvais-Tillé Airport.

Tourism
The Porte Maillot is an entrance to the Bois de Boulogne, and is located between the avenue Charles de Gaulle of Neuilly-sur-Seine and the avenue de la Grande Armée of Paris.

The Palais des congrès can be accessed directly via the corridor between the metro and RER stations.

The roof over the tracks between the RER station and the Pereire station has been converted into a walkway for pedestrians.

title: Porte Maillot station


text:
Pilliga, New South Wales

Pilliga is a village 105 km west of Narrabri in the North West Plains section of the New England region of New South Wales, Australia. The village is within Narrabri Shire local government area.

It is located near the Pilliga Forest, which supports a rich assortment of bird life and a significant timber harvesting industry. At the 2016 census, Pilliga had a population of 217 people. The place name is derived from an Aboriginal word for "swamp oaks". The Pilliga post office opened on 1 January 1867.

In 1902 the Pilliga artesian bore baths were constructed as a permanent town water supply. These baths have become a popular swimming and therapeutic spot for residents and visitors. The water temperature of the Pilliga bore is 37 °C.

The village has a store, police station, post office and school which has about 16 enrolled pupils.

The book A Million Wild Acres by Eric Rolls, is an acclaimed environmental history of the Pilliga Scrub.

Another point of dubious interest relevant to the area, is the frequent, apparent sightings of the mythical Yowie.

title: Pilliga, New South Wales


text:
Phenocryst

A phenocryst is an early forming, relatively large and usually conspicuous crystal distinctly larger than the grains of the rock groundmass of an igneous rock. Such rocks that have a distinct difference in the size of the crystals are called porphyries, and the adjective porphyritic is used to describe them. Phenocrysts often have euhedral forms, either due to early growth within a magma, or by post-emplacement recrystallization. Normally the term phenocryst is not used unless the crystals are directly observable, which is sometimes stated as greater than 0.5 mm in diameter. Phenocrysts below this level, but still larger than the groundmass crystals, are termed microphenocrysts. Very large phenocrysts are termed  megaphenocrysts. Some rocks contain both microphenocrysts and megaphenocrysts. In metamorphic rocks, crystals similar to phenocrysts are called porphyroblasts.

Phenocrysts are more often found in the lighter (higher silica) igneous rocks such as felsites and andesites, although they occur throughout the igneous spectrum including in the ultramafics. The largest crystals found in some pegmatites are often phenocrysts being significantly larger than the other minerals.

Classification by phenocryst
Rocks can be classified according to the nature, size and abundance of phenocrysts, and the presence or absence of phenocrysts is often noted when a rock name is determined. Aphyric rocks are those that have no phenocrysts, or more commonly where the rock consists of less than 1% phenocrysts (by volume); while the adjective phyric is sometimes used instead of the term porphyritic to indicate the presence of phenocrysts. Porphyritic rocks are often named using mineral name modifiers, normally in decreasing order of abundance. Thus when olivine forms the primary phenocrysts in a basalt, the name may be refined from basalt to porphyritic olivine basalt or olivine phyric basalt. Similarly, a basalt with olivine as the dominant phenocrysts, but with lesser amounts of plagioclase phenocrysts, might be termed an olivine-plagioclase phyric basalt.

In more complex nomenclature, a basalt with approximately 1% plagioclase phenocrysts, but 4% olivine microphenocrysts, might be termed an aphyric to sparsely plagioclase-olivine phyric basalt, where plagioclase is listed before the olivine because of its larger crystals. Categorizing a rock as aphyric or as sparsely phyric is often a question of whether a significant number of crystals exceed the minimum size.

Analysis using phenocrysts
Geologists use phenocrysts to help determine rock origins and transformations because crystal formation partly depends on pressure and temperature.

Other characteristics
Plagioclase phenocrysts often exhibit zoning with a more calcic core surrounded by progressively more sodic rinds. This zoning reflects the change in magma composition as crystallization progresses. This is described as normal zoning if the rim of the crystal shows a lower-temperature composition than the core of the crystal. Reverse zoning describes the more unusual case where the rim shows a higher-temperature composition than the core. Oscillatory zoning shows period fluctuations between low- and high-temperature compositions.

In rapakivi granites, phenocrysts of orthoclase are enveloped within rinds of sodic plagioclase such as oligoclase.

In shallow intrusives or volcanic flows phenocrysts which formed before eruption or shallow emplacement are surrounded by a fine-grained to glassy matrix. These volcanic phenocrysts often show flow banding, a parallel arrangement of lath-shaped crystals. These characteristics provide clues to the rocks' origins. Similarly, intragranular microfractures and any intergrowth among crystals provide additional clues.

title: Phenocryst


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User:Jengod/Ribicoff

Abraham Alexander Ribicoff (April 9, 1910–February 22, 1998) was an American politician. He served in the United States Congress and as President John F. Kennedy's Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare.

Born in New Britain, Connecticut, he attended public schools and New York University. He graduated from the University of Chicago Law School in 1933 and was admitted to the bar the same year.

He began his political career as a member of the Connecticut state legislature, serving in that body from 1938 to 1942. From 1941 until 1943 and again from 1945 to 1947 he was judge of Hartford Police Court.

He was elected as a Democrat to the 81st and 82nd Congresses serving from 1949 until 1953. In 1952 he had an unsuccessful bid for election to fill a vacancy in the United States Senate.

From 1955 to 1961 he was Governor of Connecticut, serving until he was sworn in as Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in JFK's Presidential Cabinet. He was finally elected to the United States Senate in 1962 and served from January 3, 1963, to January 3, 1981.

During his time in the Senate he was was chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Government Operations (94th and 95th Congresses) and its successor committee, the U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs (95th and 96th Congresses). Following his service in the Senate practiced law in New York City and resided in Cornwall Bridge, Connecticut.

He died in New York City in 1998 and is buried at Cornwall Cemetery.

title: User:Jengod/Ribicoff


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Chris Bradshaw

Christopher John Bradshaw (May 20, 1944 – November 3, 2018) was a Canadian politician and businessman. He served as interim leader of the Green Party of Canada from 2001 to 2003, and has sought public office as a candidate of the Green Party of Canada and the Green Party of Ontario.

Business
Bradshaw has a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science, and worked for General Motors of Canada following his graduation. He subsequently moved to Ottawa, Ontario, where he worked in a low-income community with the Company of Young Canadians, then as executive director of the CMHC-funded Canadian Organization of Public Housing Tenants, and then for 22 years as community relations specialist for the Planning Department of the Regional Municipality of Ottawa–Carleton, retiring in 1995. He then co-founded Vrtucar, a car-sharing service in Ottawa, in May 2000, but sold his share to his partner in late 2006. The company continues to grow.

Advocacy
In 1988, he started Ottawalk, the first pedestrian advocacy group in the continent. He was recognized by America Walks in 2001 as the "father of pedestrian advocacy in North America."

Politics
In February 2001, Bradshaw was appointed interim leader of the federal Green Party, via election by the board. Bradshaw helped organize the 2003 Green Party Leadership Convention in Ottawa, and was responsible for moving the party's central office to Ottawa from Toronto. In February 2003, he was succeeded as party leader by Jim Harris. At the 2002 national convention in Montreal, he was elected leader, with the understanding that the post would be filled on a more permanent basis in early 2003 via mail-in ballots.

Bradshaw ran for public office in the Ontario provincial election of 1999, receiving 1,231 votes in Ottawa Centre. In the 2003 election, he finished fourth with 3,821 votes (7.75%) in the same riding, the highest vote percentage of any Green Party candidate in the province.

Federally, Bradshaw first ran for office in the general election of 2000. Again campaigning in Ottawa Centre, he received 1529 votes for a fifth-place finish. In 2002, while serving as party leader, he contested a by-election in Bonavista—Trinity—Conception, Newfoundland but received only 139 votes. Bradshaw ran in Newfoundland in an effort to foster a genuinely national party: there has been a history of division between the Terra Nova Green Party, which is the Newfoundland & Labrador Green Party Association, and the federal Green Party.

In the 2004 federal election, Bradshaw campaigned in the rural St. Lawrence Valley riding of Leeds—Grenville, replacing Jerry Heath who unexpectedly declined to run. Despite the last-minute substitution, Bradshaw received 5.5% of the votes cast (2,722), a significant improvement over the Green Party's previous 1.73%.

title: Chris Bradshaw


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Michael Grant

Michael Grant may refer to:

Entertainment

 * Michael Grant (classicist) (1914–2004), English author of books on ancient history
 * Michael Grant (crime writer) (born 1940), New York policeman and author of police procedurals
 * Michael Grant (television) (born 1951), Arizona television personality
 * Michael Grant (author, born 1954), author of the Gone series
 * Michael Grant, American actor in The Secret Life of the American Teenager

Sports

 * Michael Grant (American football) (born 1986), American football player
 * Michael Grant (basketball) (born 1963), American college basketball coach
 * Michael Grant (boxer) (born 1972), heavyweight boxer
 * Michael Grant (tennis) (born 1956), American tennis player
 * Mike Grant (1873–1955), Canadian ice hockey player
 * Mick Grant (born 1944), English motorcycle road racer

Other

 * Michael Grant, 12th Baron de Longueuil (born 1947), nobleman with only French colonial title recognized by King/Queen of Canada
 * Michael J. Grant (born 1949), member of the Florida House of Representatives
 * Michael Grant (judge) (born 1963), Australian judge
 * Michael Grant (musician), guitarist and founder of Endeverafter
 * Michael S. K. Grant, British IT professional

title: Michael Grant


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Fritz Hochwälder

Fritz Hochwälder (28 May 1911 – 21 October 1986) also known as Fritz Hochwaelder, was an Austrian playwright. Known for his spare prose and strong moralist themes, Hochwälder won several literary awards, including the Grand Austrian State Prize for Literature in 1966. Most of his plays were first performed at the Burgtheater in Vienna.

Biography
Born in Vienna, Austria, Hochwälder wrote social and political dramas, using historical themes in his plays. One of his earlier works Das Heilige Experiment (1942; adapted for the screen in 1959: The Strong Are Lonely) drew on the violent dismantling of a utopian Jesuit settlement by the Spaniards in Paraguay in the 1760s and Der öffentliche Ankläger (The Public Prosecutor, 1948) delved into the violence of the French Revolution. The theme of violence was a major factor in his own life—in fact, without the Nazi rise to power, Hochwälder may not have become a successful playwright.

Before the beginning of World War II, Hochwälder worked as a craftsman (an upholsterer's apprentice) in Vienna. In 1938, Hochwälder escaped Austria and the Nazis by entering Switzerland illegally. He escaped after waiting futilely for an entry visa from any country and in this way his experiences reinforced the Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann's ironic quip that in those days the world was divided into two kinds of countries: countries that wanted to be rid of Jews and those that refused to accept them. (Hochwälder's parents were both murdered in Theresienstadt concentration camp in the Czech Republic.)

After entering Switzerland, Hochwälder spent some time in internment camps. As he was barred by the Swiss from working in his profession, he began in earnest to write plays (he had also written plays in pre-war Vienna without much critical success).

After he left the camps, he lived in Zurich where he met and was influenced by Georg Kaiser, another exiled playwright. Kaiser was his senior by several decades and also wrote tightly constructed plays with psychological underpinnings and a strong moralist stance. Hochwälder's 1945 play Der Flüchtling (The Refugee) was attributed by the author to a suggestion from the German dramatist.

Martin Esslin, the renowned drama professor and theater critic, wrote in the introduction to The Public Prosecutor and Other Plays: "No one who has come into contact with Hochwälder's dramatic work, no one who has been privileged to meet him in person, can fail to be impressed by the integrity, the sheer straightforward commitment to the highest value of decency and civilization that are the hallmarks of the writer and craftsman as well as the man."

Esslin, who translated some of Hochwälder's plays into English, also commented on the juxtaposition of violent themes with a humanistic message. "Again and again the message that his plays leave with the attentive reader and spectator is one of the humanity, forgiveness, reconciliation, and a refusal to fall into the trap set by the violent to the nonviolent, of converting them to their own methods."

Esslin, who coined the term "Theatre of the Absurd", may well have found compelling Hochwälder's often paradoxical plot twists. For example, Der Himbeerpflücker (The Raspberry Picker, 1965) shows how the leaders of an Austrian town mistake a small town crook for a Nazi war criminal and treat him as a returning hero. This play was undoubtedly a homage to Nikolai Gogol's The Government Inspector, but Hochwälder was able to put his own historical spin and moral message on the saga of mistaken identity.

Although Hochwälder spent most of his life after the war in Switzerland, he was buried in Vienna.

Honours and awards

 * 1955 City of Vienna Prize for Literature
 * 1956 Grillparzer Prize
 * 1962 Anton Wildgans Prize
 * 1966 Grand Austrian State Prize for Literature
 * 1971 Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class
 * 1972 Ring of Honour of the City of Vienna
 * 1979 Franz Theodor Csokor Award
 * 1980 Austrian Decoration for Science and Art

Works

 * Die unziemliche Neugier (1934; published in 1979)
 * Esther (1940)
 * Das heilige Experiment (1942)
 * Hôtel du Commerce (1944)
 * Meier Helmbrecht (1946)
 * Der öffentliche Ankläger (1948)
 * Donadieu (1953)
 * Die Herberge (1955)
 * Der Unschuldige (1958)
 * Donnerstag (1959)
 * Holokaust.(Totengericht) (1960; published 1998)
 * 1003 (1963)
 * Der Himbeerpflücker (1964)
 * Der Befehl (1968)
 * Lazaretti oder Der Säbeltiger (1973)
 * Die Prinzessin von Chimay (1982)
 * Der verschwundene Mond (1982)
 * Die Bürgschaft (1984)
 * Donnerstag. Roman (1995)

title: Fritz Hochwälder


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Wikipedia:Protected page/Draft

These are proposed revisions of the current protected page policy, coming in response to much faster edit activity having a bearing on the effectiveness of the current policy with respect to sorting out issue disputes.

Stevertigo's proposal: calls for the initiation of a formal scheme of degrees for different types of page protections, and of self-selecting or assigning standard formal roles for involved participants, based on a quick vote. Amendment:To use the term "moderation" to refer to a formal process of article-specific dispute mediation. The means by which a moderation edit happens is a subsection of thethe protected page policy, which provides for moderators to edit the page, under a proposed header. Add above tag, or see Template:moderationedit for header text.

Pir's alternative proposal: calls for a system of steps to occur after a page is protected each time, beginning with a list of the participants in the conflict, and an outline of the views of each. Wikipedians must mediate to find a compromise; failure to reach said compromise within a week, the listed editors are banned from editing the article in question for a standard time.

Protection by degrees
Currently, protections types are not formalized; short term conflicts and long-term controversies are treated in the same way. Protected pages should be a standard procedure to stop destructive edits to a page. In order that this be done more freely, the boundaries by which these protections can happen must be further defined, and described formally. (I have no idea on what scheme the degrees should go by-SV).

Regardless if the data is safely stored, page revert conflicts should be viewed as destructive in themseves, and stopped immediately by sysops; either those involved or not in the article. Even one instance of an auto revert can be grounds for temporary protection, ((temprotect)), in order to determine cause. Preferably this would be limited to cases where a conflict is errupting between partisans.

Roles
From the outset, involved and incoming parties must define their formal roles in the dispute as either an observer, protector, moderator, partisan, or third party partisan, which are agreed to or recorded by the moderator. Role disputes must be dealt with first; listed as on Category:Role disputes. Because these role disputes would be of an abstract policy nature (unrelated to the topic) neutral editors can be of assistance in determining the roles of each participant before proceeding.

For fairness, any sysops who active in the dispute at the time of the protection are considered partisans, unless by consensus on becomes a moderator.

Rule changes comparison

 * Format note:

 * Existing rules
 * Alteration and comment

 * Do not edit a temporarily protected page except to add a protected page notice.
 * Moderators edit away, provided the concerns on the talk are addressed. Sysop moderators are accountable by process, so unsatisfactory treatment can be lodged as a complaint.
 * Do not protect a page you are involved in an edit dispute over.
 * Sysops in an edit war must themselves protect in order to stop reverts and start dialogue. After revert and protection, all partisan sysops must then recuse themselves from editing the article and accept status as a partisan for the time being, regarding the current article. For sake of fairness, blocked partisans are treated in pairs, while third party partisans at the time of the dispute may recuse themselves, participate as a moderator; otherwise they may be asked to stop editing or be blocked from editing the article (violation of rules is cause for review). Once roles are defined, editing can continue.
 * Protect the page supplying a reason
 * Supply a reason, and state your current or intended role; Protector (intervening short-term), Moderator (intervening long-term) Partisan (involved, must cease editing), 3rdPartisan (third party+partisan).
 * Add to the top of the temporarily protected page and make mention of the protection in the edit summary.
 * Add one of three tags (stprotection) (mtprotection) (ltprotection).
 * List pages you protect on Wikipedia:Protected page; if it is protected due to a conflict, you may want to list all user names/IPs involved in the conflict.
 * Protected pages automatically list on Category:Protected pages. A choice of three headers are chosen based on the type of protection: (in progress), (service) (short term), (medium term) and (long term),
 * Consider encouraging a resolution between the disputing parties.
 * Moderators must encourage a resolution between the disputing parties, assess the current mindset of involved editors, and base the protection level on the anticipated level, duration and cause of conflict.
 * Remove the protection (while supplying a reason) once the conflict has been resolved
 * Remove from the top of an unprotected page and make mention of the removal in the edit summary.

Alternative proposal
A system of steps to occur after a page is protected each time, beginning with a list of the participants in the conflict, and an outline of the views of each. Wikipedians must mediate to find a compromise; failure to reach said compromise within a week, the listed editors are banned from editing the article in question for a standard time. Editors not involved in the dispute can make changes, and deal with the controvesial points. A ban on a specific edtitor can be lifted early by a 3/4 vote in a general poll. *SV: Continued conflicts repeat the above process, adding new names to the list.

 * 1) in case of an edit war the page in question is protected as before. Then the following steps are taken:
 * 2) the admin who protected the page makes a list (on the talk page) of the editors involved in the edit conflict ;
 * 3) the named editors each outline their view of the disagreement (talk page) ;
 * 4) the named editors (with the help of fellow Wikipedians if this is helpful) try to hammer out a compromise ;
 * 5) if no compromise can be found within a week, this is taken as proof that they are unable to resolve their conflict. Therefore the page is unprotected but the listed editors are banned from editing the article in question for a period of, say, a month. Editors that were not involved in the edit conflict can edit the article and get a chance to deal with the controversial points ;
 * 6) Since this system could be abused by people who raise spurious conflicts just to get other editors banned from an article, there is need for a further step: if one of the editors feels their opponent is acting in bad faith, they can ask for a vote on this, and if there is a consensus (say 3/4) then their ban is lifted.

pros:

 * nobody wants to get banned from an article they are interested in, therefore Wikipedians will try to avoid edit wars ; willingness to compromise and to be civil will increase ;
 * a more formal way of dealing with edit conflicts ;
 * no big changes required (software, new sysop roles etc.) ;
 * Wikipedians who avoid edit wars don't get shut out of protected articles for long periods ;
 * the workload of admins stays the same

cons:

 * protection policy change

pir 14:32, 23 Jul 2004 (UTC)

title: Wikipedia:Protected page/Draft


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User:Mt2131

Nothing special about me, haven't cured cancer quite yet.

title: User:Mt2131


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Steve Whitmire

Steven Lawrence Whitmire (born September 24, 1959) is an American puppeteer, known primarily for his work on The Muppets and Sesame Street. Beginning his involvement with the Muppets in 1978, Whitmire inherited the roles of Ernie and Kermit the Frog after Jim Henson's death in 1990; he performed the characters until 2014 and 2016, respectively. As part of the Muppet cast, he has appeared in multiple feature films and television series, performing a variety of characters on The Muppet Show, Sesame Street, and Fraggle Rock and during such occupations has been employed by The Jim Henson Company, Sesame Workshop, and The Muppets Studio.

Career
Whitmire first appeared (unpaid) at a pre-show event at Six Flags Over Georgia. He performed with his then alter-ego puppet Otis for the children waiting to see a multimedia show.

Before graduating high school, Whitmire had his first "professional" puppeteering job using Otis at "The World of Sid & Marty Krofft" in Atlanta, the first indoor theme park. From there Whitmire appeared on local Atlanta TV live for 2 1/2 hours every day on "The Kids Show with Otis" taking telephone calls from children and adults. The show received more than 2000 calls per hour. WATL was owned at that time by former Atlanta children's television host "Officer Don" Kennedy. Otis made appearances on various WATL 36 shows with Atlanta's Ludlow Porch, performing with the Georgia Bulldogs' Larry Munson, Don Kennedy, and Entertainment Page host Artie Goodman. As Otis, Whitmire interviewed Olivia Newton-John during a tour promoting an album. He worked with puppets after graduating high school, and eventually got a job working on The Muppet Show in 1978. Since then, Whitmire performed in almost every major Henson company project, including non-Muppet projects such as The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, and Dinosaurs.

Characters performed
Whitmire was the second performer of two signature Muppets—Kermit the Frog and Ernie—after the death of their creator and original performer Jim Henson (with whom he shared a birthday) in 1990. Whitmire was personally asked by Brian Henson and Jane Henson to be Kermit's performer a few weeks after Jim Henson's death. Heather Henson arranged for a Kermit puppet to be sent to Whitmire's residence; however, Whitmire hid the puppet away for weeks before deciding on taking on the role. Following Richard Hunt's death and Jerry Nelson's retirement, Whitmire took over the roles of Beaker and Statler, respectively. In 2014, Billy Barkhurst took over the role of Ernie, with Peter Linz taking over that role in 2017.

Muppet characters original to Whitmire include Rizzo the Rat, Lips (the trumpet player from Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem), Miss Piggy's dog Foo-Foo, Wembley Fraggle and Sprocket the Dog on Fraggle Rock, and Bean Bunny, a character that originated in The Tale of the Bunny Picnic (1986).

Whitmire voiced Link Hogthrob in the Muppet RaceMania and Muppets Party Cruise video games. He also performed Link for the 2011 film The Muppets. This was the first speaking appearance of the character since the death of Jim Henson, the original performer of Link. He also performed him in Muppets Most Wanted. In 2008, Whitmire took over another of Jim Henson's roles, The Muppet Newsman.

Dismissal from the Muppets
In July 2017, The Muppets Studio announced that Whitmire was no longer involved with the Muppets and that fellow Muppet performer Matt Vogel was cast as Kermit's new performer. Whitmire revealed that he was dismissed from his roles in October 2016 because of undisclosed issues that he said had not been discussed before his dismissal. In their decision-making, The Walt Disney Company (owner of The Muppets Studio) consulted the Henson family, who supported the recasting of Kermit and Whitmire's dismissal.

Brian Henson stated that issues with Whitmire began in the mid-1990s, and said that Whitmire would make "outrageous demands and often played brinkmanship", and additionally stated that Whitmire would "send emails and letters attacking everyone, attacking the writing and attacking the director". He also expressed guilt for not dismissing Whitmire and recasting Kermit before selling the Muppets to Disney in 2004, "because I knew that it was going to be a real problem". Lisa Henson stated that Whitmire was opposed to having an understudy for Kermit and refused to train one, which became problematic when it came to "B-level performances, such as a ribbon-cutting," at some of which she said he was unwilling to appear. She also stated that he "blackballed young performers" by refusing to appear in shows with them.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that same month, Whitmire stated he was dismissed for disagreements over Kermit's characterization and prolonged labor union negotiations between Disney and SAG-AFTRA (of which Whitmire is a member) that delayed his involvement in Muppet productions. Whitmire alleged that Disney offered him what he called "consolation prizes" if he voluntarily left, including honoring him as a Disney Legend, under the public pretense that he would be retiring from performing. In a statement released to The New York Times, Debbie McClellan, then-head of The Muppets Studio, said that they "raised concerns about Steve’s repeated unacceptable business conduct over a period of many years, and he consistently failed to address the feedback". Whitmire has expressed an interest in making amends and resuming his role with the Muppets in the future if possible.

Personal life
Steve Whitmire has been married to Melissa Whitmire, whom he met during his senior year of attending Berkmar High School in Lilburn, Georgia, since June 1978. They live in Atlanta, Georgia.

title: Steve Whitmire


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Fossa (planetary nomenclature)

In planetary nomenclature, a fossa (pl. fossae ) is a long, narrow depression (trough) on the surface of an extraterrestrial body, such as a planet or moon. The term, which means "ditch" or "trench" in Latin, is not a geological term as such but a descriptor term used by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the International Astronomical Union (IAU) for topographic features whose geology or geomorphology is uncertain due to lack of data or knowledge of the exact processes that formed them. Fossae are believed to be the result of a number of geological processes, such as faulting or subsidence. Many fossae on Mars are probably graben.

On Mars
The Tharsis quadrangle is home to large troughs (long narrow depressions) called fossae in the geographical language used for Mars. This term is derived from Latin; therefore fossa is singular and fossae is plural. Troughs form when the crust is stretched until it breaks. The stretching can be due to the large weight of a nearby volcano. Studies have shown that the volcanoes of Tharsis caused most of the major fossae on Mars. The stress that caused the fossae and other tectonic features is centered in Noctis Labyrinthus, at 4 S and 253 E. But the center has moved somewhat over time. Fossae/pit craters are common near volcanoes in the Tharsis and Elysium system of volcanoes. A trough often has two breaks with a middle section moving down, leaving steep cliffs along the sides; such a trough is called a graben. Lake George, in northern New York State, is a lake that sits in a graben. Sometimes, a line of pits form as material collapse into a void that results from the stretching. Pit craters do not have rims or ejecta around them, like impact craters do. Studies have found that on Mars a fault may be as deep as 5 km, that is the break in the rock goes down to 5 km. Moreover, the crack or fault sometimes widens or dilates. This widening causes a void to form with a relatively high volume. When material slides into the void, a pit crater or a pit crater chain forms. On Mars, individual pit craters can join to form chains or even to form troughs that are sometimes scalloped. Other ideas have been suggested for the formation of fossae and pit craters. There is evidence that they are associated with dikes of magma. Magma might move along, under the surface, breaking the rock and more importantly melting ice. The resulting action would cause a crack to form at the surface. Dikes caused both by tectonic stretching (extension) and by dikes are found in Iceland. Pit craters are not common on Earth. Sinkholes, where the ground falls into a hole (sometimes in the middle of a town) resemble pit craters on Mars. However, on the Earth these holes are caused by limestone being dissolved thereby causing a void.

Knowledge of the locations and formation mechanisms of pit craters and fossae is important for the future colonization of Mars because they may be reservoirs of water.

External resources

 * Fossae on Mars
 * Fossae on Venus
 * Fossae on the Moon
 * Fossae on Enceladus
 * Fossae on Ganymede

title: Fossa (planetary nomenclature)


text:
User talk:Farsidehobbes

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

Here are some tips to help you get started:

 * To sign your posts (on talk pages, for example) use the '~' symbol. To insert just your name, type ~~~ (3 tildes), or, to insert your name and timestamp, use ~~~~ (4 tildes).
 * Try the Tutorial, and feel free to experiment in the test area.
 * If you need help, post a question at the Help Desk
 * Follow the Simplified Ruleset
 * Eventually, you might want to read the Manual of Style and Policies and Guidelines.
 * Remember Neutral point of view
 * Explore, be bold in editing pages, and, most importantly, have fun!

Good luck!

P.S. I'm guessing from your username that you're a comic strip fan. You might like to read our article on Calvin and Hobbes, which is a featured article. Best wishes.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University;
forgive my spontaneity in asking, but are you an ERAU student as well? i know it's a bit of a longshot. ✈ James C. 03:24, 2004 Jul 30 (UTC)

title: User talk:Farsidehobbes