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Peter and Paul Fortress

The Peter and Paul Fortress (Петропавловская крепость) is the original citadel of Saint Petersburg, Russia, founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and built to Domenico Trezzini's designs from 1706 to 1740 as a star fortress. Between the first half of the 1700s and early 1920s it served as a prison for political criminals. It has been a museum since 1924.

From foundation until 1917
The fortress was established by Peter the Great on May 16 (Old Style; henceforth "(O.S.)"; May 27 by the Gregorian calendar) 1703 on small Hare Island by the north bank of the Neva river. From around 1720, the fort served as a base for the city garrison and also as a prison for high-ranking or political prisoners.

Russian Revolution and beyond

During the February Revolution of 1917, it was attacked by mutinous soldiers of the Pavlovsky Life Guards Regiment on February 27 (O.S.) and the prisoners were freed. Under the Provisional Government, hundreds of Tsarist officials were held in the Fortress.

The tsar was threatened with being incarcerated at the fortress on his return from Mogilev to Tsarskoye Selo on March 8 (O.S.); but he was placed under house arrest. On July 4 (O.S.) during the July Days demonstrations, the fortress garrison of 8,000 men declared for the Bolsheviks. They surrendered to government forces without a struggle on July 6 (O.S.).

On October 25 (O.S.), the fortress quickly fell into Bolshevik hands. Following the ultimatum from the Petrograd Soviet to the Provisional Government ministers in the Winter Palace, after the blank salvo of the cruiser Aurora at 21.00, the guns of the fortress fired 30 or so shells at the Winter Palace. Just two hit, inflicting only minor damage, and the defenders refused to surrender at that time. At 02.10 on the morning of October 26 (O.S.), the Winter Palace was taken by forces under Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko; the captured ministers were taken to the fortress as prisoners. On 28 January 1919, four grand dukes from the House of Romanov were shot within the walls of the fortress on the orders of the Presidium of the Cheka under Felix Dzerzhinsky, Yakov Peters, Martin Latsis, and Ivan Ksenofontov.

The structure suffered heavy damage during the bombardment of the city during World War II by the Luftwaffe who were laying siege to the city. It has been restored post-war and is a tourist attraction.

Public perception
In the years before and after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, the Peter and Paul Fortress was portrayed by Bolshevik propaganda as a hellish, torturous place, where thousands of prisoners suffered endlessly in filthy, cramped, and grossly overcrowded dungeons amid frequent torture and malnutrition. Such legends had the effect of turning the prison into a symbol of government oppression in the minds of the common folk. In reality, conditions in the fortress were far less brutal than believed; no more than one hundred prisoners were ever kept in the prison at a time, and most prisoners had access to such luxuries as tobacco, writing paper, and literature (including subversive books such as Karl Marx's Das Kapital).

Despite their ultimate falsehood, stories about the prison were vital to the spread of Bolshevik revolutionary sentiment. The legends served to portray the government as cruel and indiscriminate in the administration of justice, helping to turn the common mind against Tsarist rule. Many inmates, after being released, wrote chilling and increasingly exaggerated accounts of life there that solidified the structure's horrible image in the public mind and pushed the people further towards dissent. Writers often purposely exaggerated their experiences to garner more hatred for the government; as writer and former Peter and Paul inmate Maksim Gorky would later state, "Every Russian who had ever sat in jail as a 'political' prisoner considered it his holy duty to bestow on Russia his memoirs of how he had suffered."

Sights
The fortress contains several buildings clustered around the Peter and Paul Cathedral (1712–1733), which has a 122.5 m bell-tower and a gilded angel-topped cupola.

Other structures inside the fortress include the still functioning Saint Petersburg Mint building (constructed to Antonio Porta's designs under Emperor Paul I), the Trubetskoy Bastion with its grim prison cells, and the city museum.

To the north of the fortress across the Kronverksky Strait lies the Kronverk, formerly the fortress' outer defence and now home to the Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineers and Signal Corps.

Midday Cannon Shot
During the time of Peter the Great, a shot from the cannon of the Peter and Paul Fortress was heard in honor of military victories, on holidays, and also to warn residents about the rise in the water level of the Neva.

Since 1873, the cannon is fired at noon. Residents of the city even checked their watches by the shot. The gun was silent only in times of revolutions and wars. However, nowadays the gunshot can be heard every day at 12 noon.

title: Peter and Paul Fortress


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Talk:Domestic AC power plugs and sockets/to do

 * Find out the name of the standard for French plugs
 * French plugs are C and E type. See below.
 * we know that but whats the standard that defines those types?
 * I just happened to stumble across that standard! The French plugs are defined in NF C61-314 «Prises de courant pour usages domestiques et analogues – Systèmes 6 A / 250 V et 16 A / 250 V» (ie. "Plugs and socket-outlets for household and similar purposes – 6 A / 250 V and 16 A / 250 V systems") FF7Sephiroth (talk) 22:54, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

 * Add more facts to all sections, then as each of them becomes bloated, write a summary and move the bulk of the content to a specific article (already done with the following:)
 * Industrial & multiphase power plugs & sockets
 * List of countries with mains power plugs, voltages & frequencies
 * Appliance classes
 * Schuko
 * BS 1363
 * Europlug
 * IEC 60906-1
 * More info on Japanese plug
 * More info on obsolete plugs
 * Take better-quality photos of items
 * Exact dimensions of plugs (e.g. type D, BS 546, 5 amp)
 * The British "Electric Clock Connector" (i put a brief description of this on unusual and obsolete plugs and sockets Plugwash 20:02, 13 Jun 2005 (UTC))
 * More info on the history of the individual sockets, EG. How the US, Israel and Australia ended up with sockets that noone else uses.
 * Umm chinas sockets are essentially the same as australias (only very slight differences) and the USA's are used all over the place. It seems that most countries that were well developed early got thier own systems and theese were later exported to various places.

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


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Viti Levu

Viti Levu (pronounced ; lit. 'Great Fiji') is the largest island in the Republic of Fiji. It is the site of the nation's capital, Suva, and home to a large majority of Fiji's population.

Geology
Fiji lies in a tectonically complex area between the Australian Plate and the Pacific Plate. The Fiji Platform lies in a zone bordered by active extension fault lines, around which most of the shallow earthquakes in the area have been centred. These fault lines are: the Fiji Fracture Zone (FFZ) to the north; the 176° Extension Zone (176°E EZ) to the west; and the Hunter Fracture Zone (HFZ) and Lau Ridge to the east.

The oldest rocks on the island are those formed during the Eocene and Lower Miocene epochs that belong to the Wainimala group. The lower portion of the group is made up of volcanic flows and volcanoclastics, which grade from basalt to trachyte and rhyolite. Geographically, this group is found south of Nadi, including on the peaks of Koromba (at 3528 feet high) and Natambumgguto (at 1242 feet high), and down to Sigatoka. From Sigatoka, the group extends almost all the way to Lodoni, and includes the peaks of Tuvutau (at 3060 feet) and Tikituru (at 3071 feet). Along the southern coast it extends almost to Nausori. The group is intruded by the Tholo Plutonics, which consist of similar-age stocks of tonalite, granodiorite, gabbro and diorite. Mio-Pliocene sandstones, and marl, grading into epiclastics and andesitic Volcanic rocks of the Suva group are found mainly in the river valleys, such as those formed by the Nadi River and Navua River. The Plio-Pleistocene Mba group is found in the northern portion of the island. It consists of porphyritic basalt flows and volcanoclastics, grading into greywacke. Geographically, it includes the peaks of Koroyanitu (at 3921 feet), Malua (at 3294 feet), Monavatu (at 3708 feet), Mount Tomanivi (at 4341 feet), and Ndelamendamu (at 2540 feet). It extends along the eastern coast, almost to Nausori, and includes the Emperor Mine near Vatukoula.

Geography, economy and ecology

Viti Levu is the largest island in the Republic of Fiji — home to 70% of the population (about 600,000 people) — and is the hub of the entire Fijian archipelago. It measures 146 km long and 106 km wide, and has an area of 10389 km². Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions account for the somewhat rugged terrain of the island, which is divided into roughly equal halves by a mountain range that runs north to south. The centre of the island is forested and includes the nation's highest peak Mount Tomanivi (otherwise known as Mount Victoria), which rises to 1324 m.

The eastern side of the island experiences heavy rainfall, particularly in the mountains, and is home to Fiji’s tropical moist forests. The western side (colloquially called the "burning west") is in the mountain range's rain shadow and is noticeably drier; it is home to Fiji’s tropical dry forests. Accordingly, sugar cane production thrives in the west, while a dairy industry is being developed in the east. Fiji's largest cattle ranch, with 7000 head of cattle on 70 km², is in Yaqara, midway between Tavua and Rakiraki. The island of Viti Levu is the only known home of one of the world's largest insects, the Giant Fijian long-horned beetle.

The island is susceptible to the effects of climate change. It is estimated that the compound effects of sea level rise and storm surge may result in a temporary relocation of a relatively high numbers of the inhabitants of Viti Levu, predominantly the northern and western parts, with an exposure of up to 6.75% of the islands' population in the future.

Localities

Viti Levu is home to the capital city of Suva, and to nearly three quarters of the population of the Republic of Fiji (about 580,000 people). Other important towns and cities, which are spread out all along the coast, include Ba, Lautoka, Nadi, Nausori, Rakiraki, and Sigatoka. Two other well-known localities are Natadola Beach in Natadola (a luxurious Intercontinental Fiji Golf Resort and Spa & boutique accommodation at Natadola Beach Resort & Yatule Beach Resort), and Pacific Harbour (a resort centre about 50 kilometers from Suva). A single major road runs around the perimeter of Viti Levu.

Politics
Eight of Fiji's fourteen Provinces are in Viti Levu. The Provinces of Ba, Nadroga-Navosa, and Ra comprise the Western Division, while Naitasiri, Namosi, Rewa, Serua, and Tailevu form the Central Division. The political dynamics of western Viti Levu are somewhat different from those of eastern Viti Levu, in part because western Vitu Levu has a high concentration of Indo-Fijians (many of whose ancestors came to the island from India as indentured workers between 1879 and 1916), whereas eastern Viti Levu has a high concentration of indigenous Fijians (except in its urban areas, which are more racially diverse).

Prehistory
Viti Levu is believed to have been inhabited longer than the island of Vanua Levu, which lies to its north. According to oral tradition, the first Melanesian settlers landed at Vuda Point and established Viseisei as Fiji's first oldest settlement. There is archaeological evidence contradicting this account.

Transportation
Ferry service, provided by the Patterson Brothers Shipping Company LTD, connects Viti Levu to the rest of the islands.

Nausori International Airport is on the main island. It has service on 3 domestic commercial passenger airlines.

title: Viti Levu


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Jay North

Jay Waverly North Jr. (born August 3, 1951) is an American actor. His career as a child actor began in the late 1950s with roles in eight TV series, two variety shows and three feature films. At age 7 he became a household name for his role as the well-meaning but mischievous Dennis Mitchell on the CBS situation comedy Dennis the Menace (1959–1963), based on the comic strip created by Hank Ketcham.

As a teen North had roles in two Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer feature films: Zebra in the Kitchen and Maya. He also starred in the NBC television series adaptation of the latter film, also titled Maya. As an adult he turned to voice acting for animated television series, voicing the roles of Prince Turhan in the Arabian Knights segment of The Banana Splits Adventure Hour and a teenaged Bamm-Bamm Rubble on The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show.

After leaving show business he disclosed the truth about the difficulties he dealt with as a child actor. He began working with fellow former child star Paul Petersen and the organization A Minor Consideration, using his own experiences as a child performer to counsel other children working in the entertainment industry.

Early life
North was born in Hollywood, the only child of Jay and Dorothy (née Cotton) North. North's father was an alcoholic, and his parents' marriage was turbulent. When he was four, his parents separated, and North never saw his father again. He briefly resided happily in Birmingham, Alabama. His mother worked as the secretary to the West Coast director of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA).

From a young age, North was a fan of television. When he was six, his mother used her connections at AFTRA to arrange for him to appear on his favorite television program, local Los Angeles children's show Cartoon Express, hosted by Engineer Bill. Prominent Hollywood talent agent Hazel MacMillan was impressed with the photogenic boy, contacting his mother the following day offering to represent him. His mother was aware of the stories of troubled former child stars, and had reservations but eventually gave her approval.

Early years
North's first professional acting job was a live appearance on the gameshow Queen for a Day, hosted by Jack Bailey. He continued to work as a child model and actor in commercials, and landed small parts on a number of popular NBC variety shows of the 1950s, such as The George Gobel Show, The Eddie Fisher Show, and The Milton Berle Show, before auditioning for the role that made him a star.

In June 1958, Columbia Pictures's television division Screen Gems was holding a nationwide search for a boy to play the title character in their television adaptation of the popular Dennis the Menace comic strip by Hank Ketcham, and 6-year-old North auditioned. After receiving news that his first audition had not gone well, agent Hazel MacMillan pressed the studio to see him again. The studio agreed and was impressed with his second audition. After hundreds of other boys' auditions, North was asked back to screen test with Herbert Anderson, Gloria Henry, and Joseph Kearns. A pilot was filmed later that summer.

The season passed, and North heard nothing more from Screen Gems, but continued to work, appearing in a Christmas-themed episode of the CBS Western series Wanted: Dead or Alive titled "Eight Cent Reward". In the episode, he portrayed Laddie Stone, a young boy who pays bounty hunter Josh Randall (Steve McQueen) eight cents to find Santa Claus. Over the next several months, North made television appearances on such shows as 77 Sunset Strip, Rescue 8, Cheyenne, Bronco, Colt .45, and Sugarfoot, and broke into feature films with roles in The Miracle of the Hills and The Big Operator  until, in early 1959, almost one year after he had first auditioned, MacMillan contacted North's mother to tell her that her son had been chosen to play the role of Dennis "The Menace" Mitchell.

Dennis the Menace
Dennis the Menace premiered on CBS on Sunday, October 4, 1959, and quickly became a hit with audiences. North was paid US$500 1959 per episode, his strawberry red hair was bleached platinum blonde for the role,  and the 8-year-old was instructed to "shave" a year off his age when speaking with the press. His mother continued to work at AFTRA full-time, and hired business managers to invest his earnings. In a 1993 interview with Filmfax magazine, North spoke highly of his mother, saying: "I want to make it very clear about one thing. I never supported my mother during [Dennis the Menace].  She earned her own money from AFTRA.  She never lived off my earnings.  I know that sometimes happens with child actors, but it was not true in my situation."

While his mother worked, her sister Marie Hopper and brother-in-law actor-composer Hal Hopper served as his on-set guardians during filming for Dennis The Menace. In addition to filming the series, he appeared as Dennis in commercials for the show's sponsors, Kellogg's cereals, Best Foods mayonnaise, Skippy peanut butter, and Bosco chocolate milk, and regularly traveled around the country with his aunt and uncle on the weekends to promote the show. These obligations, combined with the required three hours a day of school, took their toll on him, and by the end of the first season, the 8-year-old had begun to feel the pressures of being the lead star of a popular show.

In late 1960, the second season of the series was ranked among TV's top 20 shows, and his portrayal of Dennis had become a beloved pop culture icon. He made crossover guest appearances as Dennis on such television shows as The Donna Reed Show and The Red Skelton Hour, and in the feature film Pépé. That year, North recorded The Misadventures of Dennis the Menace soundtrack stories on LP, and an LP album of songs titled Jay North - Look who's singing!. With the success of the series, the Hoppers became strict taskmasters and stern disciplinarians. He was not allowed to socialize with other cast members on the set and missed being around children his own age. He ate alone in his dressing room. His only opportunity to relax was the occasional "free day" when he could play baseball with other children or when his uncle would take him to see horror films. His favorite films at that time were The Pit and the Pendulum and Village of the Damned.

By late 1961, the series was in its third season, and North was earning US$2500 1961 per episode. The show remained in the top 20, but North had grown tired and frustrated with the pressures of carrying a hit show and the long work hours. Complicating matters was his relationship with his aunt Marie. Many years later, North revealed that his aunt physically and verbally abused him when he made mistakes on the set or did not perform to her standards. He said if he failed a line, she would take him behind the set and beat him. For years, it was too painful for him to watch reruns. His mother and the rest of the Dennis The Menace cast were unaware of the abuse, and he concealed his unhappiness due to threatened retribution from his aunt. In a 1993 interview, North's childhood co-star, Jeannie Russell, said, "If Jay says she abused him in private, then I'm inclined to believe it. The sheer demands of being in every scene all by itself had to be extremely stressful. Any extra pressure from [his aunt] would have made it unbearable." In 2007, she said: "'The show comes first.' This was the ethic that we were raised in.  Had I seen any abuse or any horrible upset on Jay's part, I would have noticed.  It would have impacted me.  It would have upset me terribly."

By the fourth season, North was earning US$3500 1961 an episode; but by 1962, the 11-year-old had begun to outgrow the character's childish antics. This, combined with the unexpected death of the actor who played Dennis' foil, Mr. Wilson (Joseph Kearns), near the end of season three, had changed the dynamic of the show. During his interview with Filmfax, North recalled: "Between the pressures of the business and Joe's dying, I became very serious, very morbid, and very withdrawn from the world. I was the antithesis of the little kid that I played on the television show." By the end of the fourth season, ratings were down, and in early 1963, to his relief, Dennis The Menace was canceled.

Teen years
In late 1963, North's mother enrolled him in prep school, but due to his part-time education while filming Dennis The Menace, combined with not having been allowed to socialize with other children, he struggled to keep up with his studies at his new school and was nervous interacting with the other students. North continued to audition, and in 1964, he appeared in an episode of Wagon Train, but found himself typecast as the impish Dennis Mitchell and had trouble finding steady work. In 1999, North told the E! network, "I had to fight the ghost of Dennis the Menace, and I was typecast. I still had the face, and that's what casting directors, producers and directors saw when I would go in to read for a role."

In 1965, he landed the lead role in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer family comedy film Zebra in the Kitchen as Chris Carlyle, a boy who, unhappy with the living conditions he finds at his local zoo, decides to set the animals free, causing chaos throughout the town. Over the next year, he continued to appear in small television roles, guest-starring on the MGM TV series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and reuniting with his former Dennis the Menace co-star Gale Gordon on The Lucy Show. In 1966, North landed the starring role in another MGM family adventure film, Maya. In the movie, which was filmed on location in India, North played Terry Bowen, a boy who navigates the Indian jungle with a Hindu boy and an elephant and her baby calf, the latter a sacred white elephant. He continued to appear in small guest-starring roles on television shows such as My Three Sons and Jericho, and in 1967, NBC decided to make a television series adaptation of Maya. North agreed to reprise his role and was soon back filming on location in India.

The feature film Maya and subsequent television series made North a popular teen idol of the era, featured in numerous teen magazines such as Tiger Beat, 16 Magazine, Teen Datebook, and Flip. While Maya proved popular with teen audiences, the NBC series struggled in its time slot against popular shows of the time, CBS's The Jackie Gleason Show and ABC's The Dating Game and The Newlywed Game, and was cancelled after one season. Years later, North spoke fondly of his experience on the series, saying, "I can say that I'm really proud of my work on Maya, from a professional standpoint. I got to play an adult role and it was a challenge." North had missed a full year of school while filming Maya in India, and after returning home to Hollywood, began a normal life in high school, graduating from Rexford Senior High School in Beverly Hills in 1969. North narrated the surf film, The Fantastic Plastic Machine, in 1969

Adult years
After completing filming on the Maya television series, North found work as a voice actor for animated television series, providing the voices of Prince Turhan in the Arabian Knights segment of The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, Terry Dexter in Here Comes the Grump, and a teenaged Bamm-Bamm Rubble on The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show. In 1971, he left Hollywood for Chicago to perform in dinner theater, appearing in several stage productions, including principal roles in Norman, Is That You? and Butterflies Are Free. In January 1972, while appearing in Butterflies Are Free, 20-year-old North met actress Kathleen Brucher, who had a four-year-old son from a previous marriage. After touring with the production for over a year, the two returned to Los Angeles and were married on July 20, 1973, but the marriage lasted less than a year. The young couple separated in April 1974, and their divorce was final on October 21, 1974.

In 1974, North appeared in his last starring role in the R-rated coming-of-age suspense thriller The Teacher, opposite Angel Tompkins. Though the film's adult themes were branded "vulgar" and "lurid" by some who still thought of North as his Dennis performance 10 years prior, Los Angeles Times critic Kevin Thomas appreciated North's work in the film, writing, "The plot of The Teacher isn't worth outlining, yet it develops a relationship between a 28-year-old woman and an 18-year-old high school boy with sensitivity and credibility unusual for an exploitation film. [...] Avedis displays much concern for his people and allows Miss Tompkins and North plenty of room to give fresh, spontaneous performances.'"

Over the next several years, North held onto the hope of being rediscovered by Hollywood and continued to take acting classes, but by early 1977, disillusioned with his career in show business, he left acting and enlisted in the US Navy. In January 1977, he reported to Navy boot camp at NTC Orlando. He was assigned to the USS Iwo Jima (LPH-2), stationed in Norfolk, Virginia, as a seaman recruit boatswain's mate, the Navy's lowest rank. He received good evaluations for his work, but was unprepared for the harsh treatment he received from his shipmates and superiors for being a former child star. Within a year, he wanted out of the Navy. He then began his administrative process and was temporarily assigned on board the destroyer tender USS Dixie (AD-14) stationed in Long Beach, California. On August 10, 1979, he left the Dixie and the Navy with an honorable discharge and returned to Los Angeles.

In 1980, he appeared in a cameo role in the television movie Scout's Honor, with other former child stars Angela Cartwright from The Danny Thomas Show, Lauren Chapin from Father Knows Best, and Paul Petersen from The Donna Reed Show. In 1982, he landed a week-long stint on the daytime soap General Hospital, but steady work in show business continued to elude him. Financially secure from real estate investments his mother had made with his earnings from Dennis The Menace and frustrated by the direction his career had taken, he retreated from public life for the next several years and worked in the health food industry. In 1984, he optioned the book Burn Judy, Burn for $5,000, hoping to play the lead role of executed killer Steven Judy. In his 1999 interview with E!, North spoke of his desire to play darker roles: "I was ready to play very dramatic, scary type characters. I thought maybe if I played some villains and scared the pants off of people, maybe Hollywood might take me seriously." However, the Steven Judy story never made it to the screen.

In January 1986, North landed a small role in the Yugoslavian feature film Divlji Vetar (Wild Wind). Later that year, he read for the role of serial killer Ted Bundy in the television miniseries The Deliberate Stranger, but lost the part to Mark Harmon. Still interested in stories about serial killers, North decided to try his hand at screenwriting. His first script was about a 1984 prison break by six death-row inmates from Virginia's Mecklenburg Correctional Center, but the screenplay was never completed. Throughout the rest of the 1980s, he appeared with other former television stars on news and talk shows such as Good Morning America, Donahue, and Oprah. In October 1988, he acted out his frustrations toward Hollywood in a comedy sketch on an episode of HBO's Not Necessarily the News, spoofing his role as Dennis the Menace. Dressed in overalls, striped t-shirt, and cowlick, 37-year-old North portrayed an angry adult Dennis, taking revenge on "Hollywood pigs" with a telescopic rifle.

Hoaxes
On the morning of December 8, 1988, North was at the center of a widely reported hoax. His mother received the news that he had died in a doctor's office that morning. According to a story from United Press International, his body had been found at 12:35 that morning. The article quoted an alleged doctor, Robert Tobias, whom North had actually never met. Around this same time, he also dealt with several impostors. One man, who resembled North in his youth, rented limousines and attended Hollywood parties impersonating him. At the time, North told Knight-Ridder news agency, "I'm not on the 'A' party list. I'm not a hot item, so they don't know what I look like.  I really haven't worked a lot in a long time."

A Minor Consideration
On January 18, 1990, North received a phone call from Paul Petersen telling him that former child star Rusty Hamer from The Danny Thomas Show had died by suicide. Hamer's death was a turning point for North when childhood friends Petersen (Jeff Stone on The Donna Reed Show) and Jeannie Russell (Margaret Wade on Dennis the Menace), concerned with North's similarities, put him in contact with therapist Stan W. Ziegler, who specialized in troubled former child actors. North later joined Petersen's organization, A Minor Consideration, using his experiences to counsel child stars dealing with the same pressures and difficulties he had faced growing up.

Personal life
On March 2, 1991, North married his second wife, Rositia. The couple had met on a blind date and separated only 3 months after their wedding. On April 14, 1992, he met caterer Cindy Hackney at a party after a charity event for pediatric AIDS in Gainesville, Florida. On March 3, 1993, they were married, and three months later, still financially well-off as a result of his mother's investments of his earnings as a child star, North left Los Angeles and moved to Hackney's hometown of Lake Butler, Florida, becoming stepfather to her three daughters. This move was a permanent break from the Hollywood area that had troubled him. That year, with the release of the 1993 feature film Dennis the Menace, the media sought what had become of the "original" Dennis. This renewed interest prompted him to publicly disclose the abuse he had experienced as a child star.

In May 1997, having come to terms with the physical and emotional abuse he had suffered at the hands of his aunt and uncle, North began attending memorabilia shows to meet with fans. After moving to Florida, he began working as a correctional officer, reportedly working with troubled youth within Florida's juvenile justice system and as of 2011, continued to work for the Florida Department of Corrections.

Since the early 1990s, North has made occasional appearances on talk shows, documentaries, cameo appearances as "himself" on The Simpsons, and in the comedy feature film Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star. In 1999, he concluded his E! interview by saying, "I am so happy that I was able to have such a positive impact on people's lives. I'm going to write my autobiography and then I'm just going to live a contented, happy life here in Lake Butler with the people I love, and kind of just vanish into the mists of time."

Television

 * Cartoon Express with Engineer Bill (1957)
 * Queen for a Day (1958)
 * The George Gobel Show (1958)
 * The Eddie Fisher Show (1958)
 * The Milton Berle Show (1958)
 * Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958)
 * 77 Sunset Strip (1959)
 * Rescue 8 (1959)
 * Cheyenne (1959)
 * Bronco (1959)
 * Colt .45 (1959)
 * Sugarfoot (Bobby in "The Giant Killer") (1959)
 * The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor (1959)
 * The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show (1959)
 * The Ed Sullivan Show (1960)
 * The Donna Reed Show (1960)
 * The Red Skelton Hour (1960)
 * The Dinah Shore Chevy Show (1960)
 * Art Linkletter's House Party (1961)
 * Dennis the Menace (1959–1963)
 * Wagon Train (1964)
 * The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1965)
 * The Lucy Show (1966)
 * My Three Sons (1966)
 * Jericho (1966)
 * Space Ghost (1966)
 * Maya (1967–1968)
 * Arabian Knights (1968)
 * Here Comes the Grump (1969–1971)
 * The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show (1971)
 * The Flintstone Comedy Hour (1972)
 * Lassie (1973)
 * Fred Flintstone and Friends (1977)
 * Scout's Honor (1980)
 * General Hospital (1982)
 * Our Time (1985)
 * Not Necessarily the News (1988)
 * The Simpsons (1999)

Film

 * The Miracle of the Hills (1959)
 * The Big Operator (1959)
 * Pépé (1960)
 * Zebra in the Kitchen (1965)
 * Maya (1966)
 * The Teacher (1974)
 * Dikiy veter (Wild Wind) (1986)
 * Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star (2003)

title: Jay North


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Ferdinand Cheval

Ferdinand Cheval (19 April 1836 – 19 August 1924), often nicknamed Facteur Cheval ("Mail Carrier Cheval") was a French mail carrier who spent 33 years building Le Palais idéal (the "Ideal Palace") in Hauterives, in southeastern France. It is regarded as an extraordinary example of naïve art architecture.

Origins
Cheval was born in Charmes-sur-l'Herbasse to a poor farming family. He left school at age 13 to become a baker's apprentice, but eventually became a mail carrier.

In 1858, he married his first wife, Rosaline Revol. They had two sons, Victorin Joseph Fernand (1864) and Ferdinand Cyril (1867). Victorin died after only a year, in 1865. Rosaline herself died in 1873. Five years later, Cheval met and married Claire-Philomène Richaud. Her dowry included the land on which the Palais Idéal stands today. In 1878, she gave birth to their daughter, Alice-Marie-Philomène, who died in 1894 at the age of 15. Alice's death hit Cheval the hardest and she was the last child he would have. 18 years later, his son Cyril and second wife Claire died within two years of each other, in 1912 and 1914, respectively.

Palais idéal

Cheval began building the Palais Idéal in 1879 when he was 43. He reported:

"I was walking very fast when my foot caught on something that sent me stumbling a few metres away, I wanted to know the cause. [Previously, in] a dream, I had built a palace, a castle or caves, I cannot express it well [...] I told no one about it for fear of being ridiculed and I felt ridiculous myself.

"Then fifteen years later, when I had almost forgotten my dream, when I wasn't thinking of it at all, my foot reminded me of it. My foot tripped on a stone that almost made me fall. I wanted to know what it was [...] It was a stone of such a strange shape that I put it in my pocket to admire it at my leisure.

"The next day, I went back to the same place. I found more stones, even more beautiful, I gathered them together on the spot and was overcome with delight [...] It's a sandstone shaped by water and hardened by the power of time. It becomes as hard as pebbles. It represents a sculpture so strange that it is impossible for man to imitate, it represents any kind of animal, any kind of caricature.

"I said to myself: since Nature is willing to do the sculpture, I will do the masonry and the architecture."

For the next 33 years, Cheval picked up stones during his daily mail rounds and carried them home to build the Palais idéal. At first, he carried the stones in his pockets, then switched to a basket. Eventually, he used a wheelbarrow. He often worked at night, by the light of an oil lamp. He spent the first 20 years building the outer walls.

The palace materials mainly consist of stones (river washed), pebbles, porous tufa and fossils of different shapes and sizes. When visitors arrive at the palace, the first thing they see is the southern facade, approximately 26 m long and up to 10 m high. The decoration resembles aspects of both the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, England and Antoni Gaudí's Sagrada Família. Cheval did not travel and had even given himself the title of peasant, so even though some qualities of his work resemble those pieces of art, he had never seen them.

Three giant stones, each with doll-like faces, standing about 10.5 metres high, serve not only as decoration but as a support system for the Barbary Tower, with a line of cement swans leading up to a spiral staircase. The three giant stones were named after Vercingétorix, Archimedes and Julius Caesar, the names of each hand-carved by Cheval into each individual figure.

The north facade exhibits a long path dotted with large openings to provide plentiful light leading into the heart of the palace itself. This facade is strikingly forest-like: walls are coated in moss and massive seaweed. The ceiling's swirling patterns of pebbles and shells outline the chandeliers. Upper walls are lined with horizontal bands that have animals carved into them, Egyptian style. Other animals on the north facade include two ostriches (presumably mother and father) and an ostrich chick, a 1.2 m tall camel, flamingos, octopuses, lions, dragons, and a polar bear.

The east facade took the longest to build, 20 years. It includes the Temple of Nature, an Egyptian style temple-like structure supported by large, thick sandstone columns. It includes two waterfalls called the Source of Life and the Source of Wisdom.

The Palais is a mix of different styles, with inspirations from Christianity to Hinduism. Cheval bound the stones together with lime, mortar and cement.

The palace is sprinkled with short quotes and poems, hand-carved by Cheval himself. Some examples being "If you look for gold you will find it in elbow grease.", "The Pantheon of an obscure hero." "The work of one man", "Out of a dream I have brought forth the Queen of the World", "This is of art, and of energy", "The ecstasy of a beautiful dream and the prize of effort", "Dream of a peasant", "Temple of Life", and "Palace of the Imagination". Perhaps the most iconic phrase he inscribed on the wall reads "1879-1912 10,000 days, 93,000 hours, 33 years of struggle. Let those who think they can do better try."

Burial
Cheval also wanted to be buried in his palace. When, however, the French authorities prohibited that, he spent eight more years building a mausoleum for himself in the Hauterives cemetery. He died on 19 August 1924, about a year after he had finished building it, and is buried there.

Recognition
Just before his death, Cheval received recognition from figures including André Breton, Bernard Buffet, Niki de Saint Phalle, Robert Doisneau, and Pablo Picasso. His work is commemorated in an essay by Anaïs Nin. In 1932, the German artist Max Ernst created a collage titled The Postman Cheval. The collage belongs to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and is on display there. In 1958, Ado Kyrou produced Le Palais idéal, a short film about Cheval's palace.

After admiring Cheval's work, Picasso created a series of drawings telling a narrative, in a cartoon fashion, which is now recognized as Facteur Cheval sketchbook in 1937. Picasso drew him as a twisted, hybrid-like creature (or beast), carved with the initials of the French postal service (P.T.T) on his skin, dressed in typical postman's attire, holding masonry tools and a letter. The creature was standing in front of his creation. In the drawing, Picasso took a humorous route, sketching Cheval's body in the shape of a horse and his head that of a bird. Picasso did this in an effort to make a sort of pun about Cheval's name and career, given birds are messengers (as Cheval was a postman) and the meaning of Cheval is horse.

In 1969, André Malraux, the minister of Culture, declared the Palais a cultural landmark and had it officially protected. In 1986, Cheval was put on a French postage stamp.

In 2018 French director Nils Tavernier released the feature film L'incroyable histoire du facteur Cheval (English: The Ideal Palace) about Cheval's life and work, with Jacques Gamblin starring as Cheval.

In 2018 Will Varley included the song "The Postman" about Cheval and the Palais Idéal on his studio album Spirit of Minnie.

title: Ferdinand Cheval


text:
Louis Enricht

Louis Enricht (c. 1844–1923) was a US inventor who claimed that he had invented a substitute for gasoline.

Claimed gasoline substitute
In 1916, during World War I, Enricht announced that he had invented a cheap substance that, added to ordinary tap water, would be a substitute for gasoline.

Henry Ford visited Enrich at Farmington along with Fords' New York manager in 1918.

In a press conference in Farmingdale, Long Island, he first asked the reporters to check that there was no supplementary tank in the car he had brought. Then he asked one of the reporters to fetch him a bucket of water. He poured greenish liquid into water and filled a gas tank of the car with it. When the car started, it also emitted a strong smell of almonds. Enricht invited the witnesses to use it in their own vehicles.

Enricht admitted that the smell of almonds came from cyanide, but until his lawyer could patent the formula, he kept silent about it. He received millions of dollars - including $100,000 from Hiram Maxim who said he would pay the rest when Enricht would reveal his formula.

Maxim reputedly later dropped the offer, but a banker named Yoakum offered Enricht the same amount. Yoakum received a sealed envelope that supposedly contained the formula. When he heard a - probably unfounded - rumor that Enricht was suspected of being a German spy, he opened the envelope - breaking his part of the agreement - and found only a couple of liberty bonds. He failed to get Enricht tried for treason.

Miller Reese Hutchison observed a demonstration given by Enricht and concluded that an acetylene solution had been used. His own tests with such a solution showed corrosion and other damage to the engine from using an acetylene solution.

Hudson Maxim said the Hudson Munitions Company only had an option on the supposed fuel and wouldn't buy all rights unless tests confirmed claims. Hudson Maxim personally expressed doubts about Enrichts' claims.

Claim to distill gasoline from peat
In 1920, Enricht announced that he had a way to distill gasoline from peat. Again he received a number of would-be-investors. However, district attorney of the Nassau County had decided to investigate. He examined Enricht's bank account and found out that he had spent the money for gambling, instead of benefiting other investors. A demonstration of a machine to produce naphtha from peat in court failed. Louis Enricht blamed the failure on the machine having been dismantled and reassembled, however, the judge refused to allow further demonstrations in court. Enricht was tried for grand larceny and sentenced for seven years.

Death
Enricht was paroled a couple of years later for health reasons and died a year later at the age of 79.

Enricht never revealed the secret formula to anyone nor what the "greenish liquid" was he used in every demonstration to anyone. However, it is a fact that a mixture of acetone, liquid acetylene, and water will run a gasoline car motor and the exhaust gas smells like cyanide. However, it will also prematurely corrode the engine and is much more expensive than gasoline.

title: Louis Enricht


text:
Elmyr de Hory

Elmyr de Hory (born Elemér Albert Hoffmann; April 14, 1906 – December 11, 1976) was a famed Hungarian-born painter and art forger. It is claimed he was responsible for producing over a thousand forgeries that were sold to reputable art galleries all over the world. His activities garnered celebrity from a Clifford Irving book, Fake (1969), and a documentary essay film by Orson Welles, F for Fake (1974).

Early life
De Hory claimed that he was born into an aristocratic family, that his father was an Austro-Hungarian ambassador and that his mother came from a family of bankers. However, subsequent investigation has suggested that de Hory childhood more likely had a middle-class childhood; he was born Elemér Albert Hoffmann on April 14, 1906. (An acquaintance, Fernand Legros, said that de Hory was born in Budapest (Hungary) 14 April 1905, but that de Hory would change the date to 1914 to appear younger. ) Both his parents were Jewish. His father's occupation was listed as "wholesaler of handcrafted goods." His parents did not divorce when he was sixteen, as he had asserted in the Clifford Irving biography.

At the age of 16, he began his formal art training in the Nagybánya artists' colony (now in Romania). At 18, he joined the Akademie Heinmann art school in Munich, Germany, to study classical painting. In 1926 he moved to Paris and enrolled in the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, where he studied under Fernand Léger. By the time he concluded his traditional education in Paris in 1928, the focus of his studies in figurative art had been eclipsed by Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism and other nontraditional movements, all of which made his art appear passé, out of step with new trends and public tastes. This harsh reality and the economic shock waves of the Great Depression dimmed any prospects of his making a living from his art. New evidence (Geneva police records) indicates charges and arrests for minor crimes during the late 1920s and '30s.

He returned to Hungary at the outbreak of the Second World War. Shortly after, he became involved with a British journalist and suspected spy. This friendship landed him in a Transylvanian prison for political dissidents in the Carpathian Mountains. During this time, de Hory befriended the prison camp officer by painting his portrait. Later, during the Second World War, de Hory was released.

Within a year, de Hory was imprisoned in a German concentration camp for being both a Jew and a homosexual. (His homosexuality was proven over time, and while investigation into his past has shown the likelihood that he was at one time christened as a Calvinist, such an ostensible religious affiliation did not stop the Nazi government from targeting a Jew for extermination. ) He was severely beaten and was transferred to a Berlin prison hospital, from which he escaped. He returned to Hungary, and it was there, he said, that he learned that his parents had been killed and their estate confiscated. However, according to Mark Forgy's account, both de Hory's mother and brother were listed as Holocaust survivors.

First forgeries
On arriving in Paris after the war, de Hory attempted to make an honest living as an artist, but soon discovered that he had an uncanny ability to copy the styles of noted painters. In 1946, he sold a pen-and-ink drawing to a British woman who mistook it for an original work by Picasso. His financial desperation trumped his scruples, as was most often the case for the next two decades. To his mind, it offered redemption from the starving artist scenario, buttressed by the comfortable rationalization that his buyers were getting something beautiful at "friendly" prices. He began to sell his Picasso pastiches to art galleries around Paris, claiming that he was a displaced Hungarian aristocrat and his offerings were what remained from his family's art collection or else that he had acquired them directly from the artist, whom he had known during his years in Paris.

That same year, de Hory formed a partnership with Jacques Chamberlin, who became his art dealer. They toured Europe together, selling the forgeries until de Hory discovered that, although they were supposed to share the profits equally, Chamberlin had kept most of the money. De Hory ended the relationship and resumed selling his fakes on his own.

After a successful sale of drawings in Sweden, he bought a one-way ticket for Rio de Janeiro in 1947. There, living from the sales of his fakes, he resumed creating his own art, though the sales of his portraits, landscapes, and still lifes in his own avant-garde style did not bring in the kind of money he had become accustomed to from his newly created master works.

In August 1947 he visited the United States on a three-month visa and decided to stay there, moving between New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, and Chicago for the next twelve years. De Hory expanded his forgeries to include works in the manner of Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani and Renoir. When some of the galleries de Hory had sold his forgeries to were becoming suspicious, he began to use pseudonyms and to sell his work by mail order. Some of de Hory's many pseudonyms included Louis Cassou, Joseph Dory, Joseph Dory-Boutin, Elmyr Herzog, Elmyr Hoffman and E. Raynal. (Fernand Legros listed de Hory's pseudonyms; "Elmyr de Hory, Elmer Hoffman, Elementer alias Hofman, baron de Hory, Haury, Hury or Hurry, Hory, baron Raynal, Raynor, Raynol or Rainol, comte de Herzog, baron de Boughady, von Bonhyday, Boundjy, Elmyr Lazlo, Dauray, Dory, Boutin, Dory-Boutin, Cassou Robert or Cassou Charles, Louis Curiel or Curiel Charles. )

His success came to a halt in Boston after he sold one of his "Matisse" drawings to the Fogg Museum at Harvard University in the mid-1950s. Shortly after its sale, he offered a "Modigliani" and a "Renoir" drawing from his collection. An alert curator noticed a stylistic similarity among the three drawings and refused to buy his subsequent offerings. She then began contacting other institutions and galleries, asking if they knew or had purchased artworks from the debonair E. Raynal. The American art network thereby learned of the suave collector and seller of dubious works by modern masters.

Forgery as a business
In 1955, de Hory sold several forgeries to Chicago art dealer Joseph W. Faulkner, who later discovered they were fakes. Faulkner pressed charges against de Hory and initiated a federal lawsuit against him, alleging mail and telephone fraud. De Hory later moved to Mexico City, where he was briefly detained and questioned by the police, not for his artistic endeavors but regarding his connection to a suspect in the murder of a British man, whom de Hory claimed he had never met. When the Mexican police attempted to extort money from him, de Hory hired a lawyer, who also attempted to extort money from him by charging exorbitant legal fees. De Hory paid the lawyer with one of his forgeries and returned to the United States.

On his return, de Hory discovered that his paintings were fetching high prices at several art galleries, and he was incensed that the galleries had only paid him a fraction of what they thought the works were worth. It is estimated that all de Hory forgeries were sold for more than $50 million in today's value. Further compounding de Hory's plight was that the manner of his forgeries had become recognizable, and he was now a person of interest to the FBI. This unwanted attention may have prompted de Hory to temporarily abandon his fakery and resume creating his own artwork once more. This led him to an ascetic existence in a low-rent apartment near Pershing Square in Los Angeles. Here, he had limited success, mostly selling paintings of pink poodles to interior decorators. However, his self-imposed exile was not to his liking. He decided to return to the East Coast return to producing art forgeries, for which he always found an eager buyer—eventually. In Washington, D.C., de Hory began an ill-fated association with a picture dealer that ended in disaster.

In 1959, suffering from depression, he attempted suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills. A friend rescued him and called an ambulance. His stomach was pumped, and after a stay in the hospital de Hory convalesced in New York City, helped by an enterprising young man, Fernand Legros. Legros's account of his dealings with de Hory differs substantially from de Hory's own. He portrays de Hory as an aggressive and persistent con man, who suckers Legros into the belief that he is a needy impoverished aristocrat deserving of Legros's charity, whereas in reality he is a person wanted by Interpol under a multitude of different aliases and convicted of a variety of crimes, forgery and fraud being not the least of them; de Horys is the object of pursuits, convictions and expulsions from France, Switzerland, Italy, Federal Germany, Great Britain, Mexico, the United States, and Canada, for false check writing without funds, check forgery, committing forgery while carrying a false name, theft, receiving and purveying of stolen goods, and embezzlement.

In de Hory's account, Legros accompanied de Hory back to Miami where he continued to regain his health. When he imprudently took Legros into his confidence, the other man quickly recognized an opportunity and importuned the artist to let him sell his work in exchange for a 40% cut of the profits, with Legros assuming all the risks inherent in the sale of forgeries. With Legros, de Hory again toured the United States. In time, Legros demanded his cut be increased to 50%, when in reality Legros was already keeping much of the profit. On one of these trips Legros met Réal Lessard, a French-Canadian who later became his lover. The two had a volatile relationship, and in late 1959 de Hory decided to leave the two and return to Europe.

In Paris, de Hory unexpectedly ran into Legros. De Hory revealed to him that some of his forgeries were still back in New York. According to de Hory, Legros devised a plan to steal the paintings and sell them, making a name for himself and his art gallery in the process. Later that year, de Hory's account continues, Legros persuaded de Hory to resume their partnership. Legros and Lessard would continue to sell de Hory's work and agreed to pay him a flat fee of $400 a month, enough to guarantee de Hory a comfortable and risk-free life in his newfound home, the Spanish Mediterranean island of Ibiza.

De Hory always denied that he had ever signed any of his forgeries with the name of the artist whom he was imitating. This is an important legal matter, since painting in the style of an artist is not a crime—only signing a painting with another artist's name makes it a forgery. This may be true, as Legros may have signed the paintings with the false names.

Unmasking
In 1964, then 58 years old, de Hory began to tire of the forgery business, and soon his work began to suffer. Consequently, many art experts began noticing that the paintings they were receiving were forgeries. Some of the galleries examining de Hory's work alerted Interpol, and the police were soon on the trail of Legros and Lessard. Legros sent de Hory to Australia for a year to keep him out of the eye of the investigation.

By 1966, more of de Hory's paintings were being revealed as forgeries; one man in particular, Texas oil magnate Algur H. Meadows, to whom Legros had sold 56 forged paintings, was so outraged to learn that most of his collection was forged that he demanded the arrest and prosecution of Legros. Alarmed, Legros decided to hide from the police at de Hory's house on Ibiza, where he asserted ownership and threatened to evict de Hory. Coupled with this and with Legros's increasingly violent mood swings, de Hory decided to leave Ibiza. Legros and Lessard were apprehended soon thereafter and imprisoned on charges of check fraud.

De Hory continued to elude the police for some time but, tired of life in exile, decided to move back to Ibiza to accept his fate. In August 1968, a Spanish court convicted him of the crimes of homosexuality, showing no visible means of support, and consorting with criminals (Legros), sentencing him to two months in prison in Ibiza. He was never directly charged with forgery because the court could not prove that he had ever created any forgeries on Spanish soil. He was released in October 1968 and expelled from Ibiza for one year. During that time, he resided in Torremolinos, Spain.

One year following his release, de Hory, by then a celebrity, returned to Ibiza. He told his story to Clifford Irving, who wrote the biography ''Fake! The Story of Elmyr de Hory the Greatest Art Forger of Our Time''. De Hory appeared in several television interviews and was featured with Irving in the Orson Welles documentary F for Fake (1973). In Welles's film, de Hory questioned what it was that made his forgeries inferior to the actual paintings created by the artists he imitated, particularly since they had fooled so many experts and were always appreciated when it was believed that they were genuine. In F for Fake, Welles also poses questions about the nature of the creative process, how trickery, illusion, and duplicity often prevail in the art world, and thus, in some respects, downplays the culpability of the art forger de Hory and outliers like him.

Death

During the early 1970s, de Hory again decided to resume painting, hoping to exploit his newfound fame: this time, he would sell his own, original work. While he had gained some recognition in the art world, he made little profit, and he soon learned that French authorities were attempting to extradite him to stand trial on fraud charges. This took quite some time, as Spain and France had no extradition treaty at that time.

On December 11, 1976, de Hory's live-in bodyguard and companion Mark Forgy informed him that the Spanish government had agreed to extradite de Hory to France. Shortly thereafter, de Hory took an overdose of sleeping pills, and asked Forgy to accept his decision and not intervene or prevent him from taking his life. However, Forgy later went for help to take de Hory to a local hospital, though en route he died in Forgy's arms. Clifford Irving has expressed doubts about de Hory's death, claiming that he may have faked his own suicide in order to escape extradition, but Forgy has dismissed this theory.

In popular culture

 * Real Fake: The Art, Life and Crimes of Elmyr de Hory, a documentary by Jeff Oppenheim distributed by Gravitas Ventures, 2018
 * Elmyr de Hory, le faussaire du siecle was produced by Dominique Barneaud and Jeff Oppenheim for Arte TV, 2017
 * Intent to Deceive – Fakes and Forgeries in the Art World (2014–2015) an exhibition including works by de Hory, curated by Colette Loll.
 * The Forger's Apprentice – The Musical – (2015) written by Mark Forgy, Kevin Bowen, and C. S. McNerlin.
 * The Forger's Apprentice – (2013) written by Mark Forgy and Kevin Bowen . Performed at the 2013 Minnesota Fringe Festival.
 * Portrait Of An Unidentified Man – (2011) a one-man play written and performed by Pierre Brault about de Hory.
 * National Public Radio – US (2014) Snap Judgment, interview with Mark Forgy . Podcast available at: snapjudgment.org/elmyr
 * Orson Welles' documentary F for Fake (Vérités et mensonges) concerns de Hory
 * A restaurant in Atlanta's Little Five Points is named Elmyr for him and its walls are covered in fakes of famous paintings.
 * The song No More Heroes, by British punk rock band The Stranglers, mentions de Hory in the line, "whatever happened to the Great Elmyr(a)?", but it is unclear if this is an error, an intentional feminization, or "Elmyr" with a separate exclamation after.
 * A character based on de Hory appears in the incomplete final Tintin story Tintin and Alph-Art.
 * Hory is also mentioned in Dale Basye's Fibble: where the lying kids go, the fourth in the series.
 * In Fate/Strange Fake, the Caster servant, whose ability entails modifying and recreating legends, states that if you wanted someone to recreate legends without limit, you would have to call de Hory.
 * The documentary Almost True: The Noble Art of Forgery (1997).

title: Elmyr de Hory


text:
Tamara Bunke

Haydée Tamara Bunke Bider (November 19, 1937 – August 31, 1967) was an Argentine-born East German revolutionary known for her involvement in feminism, leftist politics, and liberation movements.

Born to communist parents, Bunke joined the Free German Youth at fifteen and later studied philosophy at university. She was recruited as an interpreter for the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, where she met Che Guevara during his visit to Leipzig. In 1961, she moved to Cuba and participated in the Cuban literacy campaign and Federation of Cuban Women.

Bunke was recruited for Bolivian Campaign, Che Guevara's guerrilla expedition in Bolivia aimed at sparking revolution across Latin America. Using the alias Tania, she infiltrated Bolivian high society and developed ties with Bolivian President René Barrientos.

In 1966, her cover was blown, leading her to join Guevara's armed guerrilla campaign in Bolivia. During this time, she was responsible for the food and monitoring radio communications. Bunke was killed in 1967 during an ambush by Bolivian Army Rangers while attempting to escape with a leg injury and fever.

Early life
Born in November 1937 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tamara Bunke was the daughter of Erich Bunke and Nadia Bider. Nadia Bider Bunke, born in 1912, was a Russian communist who hailed from a Jewish family within the Russian Empire. Her father, Erich Bunke, relocated to Berlin at the age of 18 to pursue studies in architecture. Both Nadia and Erich took part in left-wing politics; however due to Nazi persecution, they were forced to flee to Argentina in 1935. Erich faced persecution for his involvement with the Communist Party of Germany, while Nadia, being of Jewish descent, also became a target of persecution.

Erich Bunke and Nadia Bider secured positions as teachers upon their arrival in Argentina. Shortly thereafter, they became members of the Communist Party of Argentina, ensuring that Tamara and her brother Olaf would both grow up in a Marxist-Leninist political atmosphere. Their family home in Buenos Aires was often used for meetings, helping communist refugees, hiding publications and occasionally stashing weapons. In 1952, after the end of World War II, the family came back to the newly created East Germany, specifically Eisenhüttenstadt.

Tamara played multiple musical instruments, including the piano, guitar, and accordion, with special interest in Latin American's folk music. By the age of fourteen, she joined the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany's (SUPG) youth organization, the Free German Youth (FGY) and by eighteen, she joined the SUPG. In addition, she also joined the World Federation of Democratic Youth, allowing her to attend the World Festival of Youth and Students in Vienna, Prague, Moscow and Havana.

Bunke commenced her studies in philosophy or political science, depending on the source, at Humboldt University in East Berlin, where she distinguished herself due to her linguistic skills; she was fluent in English, Spanish, French and German. Bunke soon began working as a translator of several Latin American leaders during their visits to East Germany, particularly those associated with the FGY's International Relations Department.

Cuba

After the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro dispatched emissaries to various socialist countries to garner support. In this capacity, in 1960, Che Guevara was sent to Leipzig, East Germany, as part of a Cuban trade delegation. Bunke was assigned to accompany him as his interpreter. Subsequently, in 1961, she received an invitation from Alicia Alonso to travel to Cuba.

She first worked as an interpreter for the Cuban National Ballet. She also involved herself in voluntary work, namely teaching and participating in the construction of homes and schools in rural areas. As a result, she participated in work brigades, the militia, and the Cuban Literacy Campaign. She also worked in the Ministry of Education, the Cuban Institute for Friendship Among People, and the Federation of Cuban Women, where she made close ties with Vilma Espín. Additionally, she registering for a journalism degree at the University of Havana.

Tamara worked for the Asociación de Jóvenes Rebeldes, later known as the Union of Young Communists. She assisted in organizing an international student union conference in Havana. Tamara also joined the People's Defense Militia and collaborated with various Latin American individuals who sought solidarity with their struggles, including Nicaraguan revolutionary Carlos Fonseca. She actively participated in the insurgency in Nicaragua, establishing connections with members of the Sandinista National Liberation Front.

Dámaso Tabares was entrusted with the task of selecting a compañera for Operation Fantasma in Bolivia. Three candidates were considered, and Tamara was eventually chosen for training to participate in Che Guevara's guerrilla expedition. Guevara's goal was to spark a continent-wide revolutionary uprising into neighboring Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, Peru, and Chile.

In preparation, Guevara assigned Bunke to be trained by Dariel Alarcón Ramírez. It was during this period that she took the name, Tania, as her nom de guerre in honor of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, a Soviet partisian who also used this alias. Between 1963 and 1964, she underwent training, culminating in a period of instruction in Prague, where she received training from the StB. It was during this training that she formed a romantic relationship with Dámaso Tabares.

Bolivian insurgency
In October 1964, Bunke traveled to Bolivia under the name Laura Gutiérrez Bauer, as a secret agent for Guevara's last campaign. Her first mission was to gather intelligence on Bolivia's political elite and the strength of its armed forces. Posing as a right-wing folklore expert of Argentine background, she quickly found herself infiltrating high society and rubbing shoulders with the glitterati of Bolivia's academic and official circles. Showing how high she was able to rise in La Paz society, she won the adoration of Bolivian President René Barrientos, and even went on holiday with him to Peru. In order to maintain her cover, she also busied herself part-time with her explorations of folk music (producing one of the most valuable collections of Bolivian music in the process) and entered into a fraudulent marriage of convenience with a young Bolivian to gain citizenship.

In late 1966 however, Bunke travelled to their rural camp at Ñancahuazú on a number of occasions. On one of these trips, a captured Bolivian communist gave away a safe house where Tania's jeep was parked in which she had left her address book. As a result, her cover was blown, and she now had no other choice than to join Guevara's armed guerrilla campaign. She helped with rationing food and monitoring radio broadcasts. Fellow surviving guerrilla Benigno, said that Bunke and Guevara had at some point become lovers in Bolivia; with Benigno remarking decades later in 2008 that "You could tell by the way they spoke so quietly and looked at each other when they were together near the end".

Without Bunke as the guerrilla's contact to the outside world, the guerrillas then found themselves isolated. Bunke also soon found herself battling a high fever, a leg injury and the painful effects of the Chigoe flea parasite. Consequently, Guevara decided to try to send a group of 16 other ailing combatant, out of the mountains.

Death
Following Tania's rise to prominence in Bolivia she became too easily identifiable, so Che initiated arrangements for her departure. On April 17, a detachment led by Juan Vitalio Acuña Núñez departed from the main guerrilla force due to injuries and illness, which included Tania. Guided by Honorato Rojas, a Bolivian peasant, the group was led to the location where Bolivian soldiers were strategically positioned and concealed.

At 5:20 pm on August 31, 1967, the lead guerrilla column was ambushed while crossing the Río Grande at Vado del Yeso. Tania was in the water, when she was shot in the arm and lung and killed along with eight of the insurgents. Her body was then carried downstream and only recovered by the Bolivian Army seven days later on September 6. Her corpse was supposedly transferred by helicopter to Vallegrande. Days later when her corpse was presented to Barrientos, it was decided that it would be buried in an unmarked grave with the rest of the guerrillas. However, the local campesino women said she be given a proper christian burial.

On September 7, when her death was announced over the radio, Guevara, still struggling through the jungles close by, refused to believe the news; suspecting it was army propaganda to demoralize him. Later, when Fidel Castro learned of her demise, he declared "Tania the guerrilla" a hero of the Cuban Revolution.

After the research of biographer Jon Lee Anderson led to the discovery of Che Guevara's remains in 1997, Bunke's remains were also tracked down to an unmarked grave in a small pit on the periphery of the Vallegrande army base on October 13, 1998. They were transferred to Cuba and were interred in the Che Guevara Mausoleum in the city of Santa Clara, alongside those of Guevara himself and several other guerrillas killed during the Bolivian insurgency.

Controversies
Since the time of her death there have been reports that she was a triple agent working for the Soviet KGB, the East German Stasi and for the Cuban intelligence; along with the claim that she and Che Guevara were lovers while in Bolivia and that she may have even been carrying his child when she was killed; this was finally refuted in 2017 by Dr. Abraham Baptista, who was in charge of the autopsy of both Ché and Tamara Bunke.

Before Nadia Bunke died in 2003, she also managed to have the book Tania, the Woman Che Guevara Loved by Uruguayan author José A Friedl, removed from sale in Germany. German courts ruled that the book contained defamatory allegations against Tamara Bunke; namely Friedl repeated Stasi defector Günter Männel's rumor from the 1970s that Bunke and Guevara started an extramarital affair in 1965 while training together in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic's capital of Prague. However, although they both did receive instruction by the StB in Prague, they were never in the city at the same time.

Popular culture
Following Bunke's death, the media swiftly sought to reduce her to merely Che Guevara's romantic partner, thus diminishing her contributions to the Bolivian Campaign. Certain intellectuals associated her as a femme fatale, whose death was due to her extramarital affair with Che. Soviet-Ukrainian astronomer Lyudmila Zhuravleva named a minor planet discovered in 1974, 2283 Bunke, in her honour. Bunke has been depicted in numerous films, songs, and theatrical productions, most notably, portrayed by Franka Potente in the film Che. In fiction literature and games, Tamara's presence is equally notable. Additionally, during Patty Hearst's involvement with the Symbionese Liberation Army in 1974, she adopted the alias "Tania."

title: Tamara Bunke


text:
Charles Hatfield

Charles Mallory Hatfield (July 15, 1875 – January 12, 1958) was an American "rainmaker".

Early life
Hatfield was born in Fort Scott, Kansas, on July 15, 1875. His property speculator father Stephen moved the family to Southern California in 1886, settling firstly in San Diego, where Hatfield Sr built three houses, before establishing a home on a forty acre ranch and olive grove at Gopher Canyon near Bonsall, forty miles north of the city. As an adult, Charles became a salesman for the New Home Sewing Machine Company. In 1904, he moved to Glendale, California.

Career
As a young man growing up in Bonsall, Hatfield studied pluviculture and began to develop his own methods for producing rain, inspired by the way a boiling kettle attracted the water vapour rising from an adjacent, steaming pan on his mother's stove. By 1902 he had created a secret mixture of 23 chemicals in large galvanized evaporating tanks that, he claimed, attracted rain. Hatfield called himself a "moisture accelerator".

In 1904, promoter Fred Binney began a public relations campaign for Hatfield. A number of Los Angeles ranchers saw his ads in newspapers and promised Hatfield $50 to produce rain. In February, Hatfield and his brother Paul built an evaporating tower at La Crescenta where Hatfield released his mixture into the air. Hatfield's attempt was apparently successful, so the ranchers paid him $100. Contemporary weather bureau reports described the rain as a small part of a storm that was already coming but Hatfield's supporters disregarded this.

Hatfield began to receive more job offers. He promised Los Angeles 18 in of rain, apparently succeeded, and collected a fee of $1000. For this effort, Hatfield had built his tower on the grounds of the Esperanza Sanitarium in Altadena, near Rubio Canyon.

In 1906 Hatfield was invited to the Yukon Territory, where he agreed to create rain for the water-dependent mines of the Klondike goldfields. The Klondike contract was for $10,000, but after unsuccessful efforts, Hatfield slipped away, collecting only $1,100 for expenses. This failure did not deter his supporters.

In 1915 the San Diego city council, pressured by the San Diego Wide Awake Improvement Club, approached Hatfield to produce rain to fill the Morena Dam reservoir. Hatfield offered to produce rain for free, then charge $1,000 per inch ($393.7 per centimetre) for between forty and fifty inches (1.02 to 1.27 m) and free again over fifty inches (1.27 m). The council voted four to one for a $10,000 fee, payable when the reservoir was filled. A formal agreement was never drawn up, though Hatfield continued based on verbal understanding. Hatfield, with his brother, built a tower beside Lake Morena and was ready early in the New Year.

On January 5, 1916, heavy rain began—and grew gradually heavier day by day. Dry riverbeds filled to the point of flooding. Worsening floods destroyed bridges, marooned trains and cut phone cables - not to mention flooding homes and farms. Two dams, Sweetwater Dam and one at Lower Otay Lake, overflowed. Rain stopped on 20 January but resumed two days later. On January 27 Lower Otay Dam broke, increasing the devastation and reportedly causing about 20 deaths (accounts vary on the exact number).

Hatfield talked to the press on February 4 and said that the damage was not his fault and that the city should have taken adequate precautions. Hatfield had fulfilled the requirements of his contract—filling the reservoir—but the city council refused to pay the money unless Hatfield would accept liability for damages; there were already claims worth $3.5 million. Besides, there was no written contract. Hatfield tried to settle for $4000 and then sued the council. The suit continued until 1938 when two courts decided that the rain was an act of God, which absolved him of any wrongdoing, but also meant Hatfield did not get his fee.

Hatfield's fame only grew and he received more contracts for rainmaking. Among other things, in 1929 he was hired by the Standard Steamship and Fruit Company of New Orleans to stop a fire on a 100,000 acre banana plantation in Honduras Later the Bear Valley Mutual Water Company wanted to fill Big Bear Lake. However, during the Great Depression he had to return to his work as a sewing machine salesman. His wife Mable divorced him in 1931, claiming in the divorce settlement that Hatfield had hidden some of his earnings from her.

Charles Hatfield died January 12, 1958, and took his chemical formula with him to his grave in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

Hatfield claimed at least 500 successes. According to later commentators and those who encountered him, Hatfield's successes were mainly due to his meteorological skill, detailed study of rainfall statistics and innate sense of timing, selecting periods where there was a high probability of rain anyway. John L. Bacon, a mayor of San Diego who studied Hatfield's so-called successes, regarded him as nothing more than "a darned good weather prophet."

References in popular culture
Charles Hatfield and the 1916 flooding at Lake Morena is the subject of the song "Hatfield" by the band Widespread Panic. Singer/guitarist John Bell wrote the song after reading the story of the rainmaker in a Farmers' Almanac. The song was released on the album Everyday in 1993.

Charles Hatfield and the San Diego flood is credited as the inspiration for the instrumental musical piece "The Rainmaker" from the album Innovators released in 1993 by Sam Cordon and Kurt Bestor.

Hatfield's story inspired the 1956 Burt Lancaster film The Rainmaker, based on the play of the same name. Hollywood invited Hatfield to the premiere. The play also became the basis of a Broadway Musical, 110 in the Shade.

Charles Hatfield's fictional great-great-granddaughter has taken up his research in T. Jefferson Parker's 2007 novel Storm Runners.

Charles Hatfield and the San Diego flood was featured in a 2016 episode of the White Rabbit Project on Netflix.

Charles Hatfield and his rainmaking endeavors are mentioned in Chapter One of Mark Arax's 2019 book, "The Dreamt Land."

Charles Hatfield and the San Diego flood is the subject of The Wizard of Sun City: The Strange, True Story of Charles Hatfield, The Rainmaker Who Drowned a City's Dreams by Garry Jenkins.

title: Charles Hatfield


text:
Alan Abel

Alan Irwin Abel (August 2, 1924 – September 14, 2018) was an American hoaxer, writer, and mockumentary filmmaker famous for several hoaxes that became media circuses.

Education and early career
Born on August 2, 1924, in Zanesville, Ohio, Abel graduated from the Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Science in education. One of Abel's earliest pranks took place in the late 1950s; he posed as a golf professional who taught Westinghouse executives how to use ballet positions to improve their games.

Beginning May 27, 1959, with a story on the Today Show, the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals (SINA), was Abel's most elaborate hoax. SINA's mission was to clothe naked animals throughout the world. They are best known today for their tagline: "A nude horse is a rude horse". As a spokesman for the group, Buck Henry appeared as "G. Clifford Prout" on television and radio several times, including the CBS Evening News on August 21, 1962. Abel himself appeared on The Mike Douglas Show to discuss the SINA mission. The hoax began as a satire of media censorship, but took on a life of its own with sympathizers offering unsolicited contributions (always returned), citizen summonses for walking naked dogs, and sewing patterns for pet clothes.

Yetta Bronstein, a fictional housewife and mother of one concocted by Abel, was a write-in candidate for President of the United States in both 1964 and 1968. A member of "The Best Party", Bronstein ran with the slogan "Vote for Yetta and things will get betta" and a platform which included National Bingo and a suggestion box in front of the White House. Alan Abel and his wife Jeanne both performed as Bronstein for phone interviews, and a photo of his mother was used as the face on campaign posters.

From 1966 to 1967, Abel wrote a weekly syndicated humor column "The Private World of Prof. Bunker C. Hill" that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle and several other newspapers.

1970s
Following the Watergate scandal, Abel hired an actor to pose as Deep Throat for a press conference in New York City before 150 reporters. Literary agent Scott Meredith offered $100,000 to buy the rights to his story. At the news conference, the Deep Throat impostor quarreled with his purported wife, then fainted and was whisked away in a waiting ambulance.

In the early 1970s, Abel appeared on the game show To Tell the Truth with his head wrapped in bandages. This was not so that he would not be recognized, but so the panel would not identify his two imposters: well-known actors Larry Blyden and Tom Poston.

Abel wrote, produced, and directed two mockumentaries: Is There Sex After Death? (1971) and The Faking of the President (1976).

In 1979, Abel staged his own death from a heart attack near the Sundance Ski Lodge. A fake funeral director collected his belongings, and a woman posing as his widow notified The New York Times. The Times published an obituary January 2, 1980 (a rare example of a premature obituary). On January 3, 1980, Abel held a news conference to announce, "[the] reports of my demise have been grossly exaggerated".

Omar's School for Beggars was a fictional school for professional panhandlers. As Omar, Abel was invited to numerous television talk shows, including the Tomorrow Show hosted by Tom Snyder and the shows of Morton Downey Jr., Sally Jessy Raphael, Mike Douglas, and Sonya Friedman, who was especially upset because Omar ate his lunch on camera. The hoax was a satirical commentary on the rise of unemployment and homelessness in the U.S. Omar's TV appearances spanned from 1975 to 1988, though he had been exposed several times.

Mass fainting hoax
Abel was behind one of the most talked-about incidents in The Phil Donahue Show's history on January 21, 1985, soon after the show's well-publicized move of its operations from Chicago to WNBC New York. On that day's program, seven members of the audience appeared to faint during the broadcast, which was seen live in New York. Donahue feared the fainting was caused by both anxiety at being on television and an overheated studio on a morning that was cold and snowy outside. He eventually cleared the studio of audience members and then resumed the show. The fainting "spell" turned out to have been cooked up by Abel in what he said was a protest against poor-quality television.

Parodies
In 1993, when euthanasia and Jack Kevorkian were common topics in the news, Abel set up the bogus Florida company "Euthanasia Cruises, Ltd.", which would offer cruises allowing suicidal participants to jump into the ocean after three days of partying. He revived this hoax in a column in 2006.

In 1997, Abel launched CGS Productions to promote gift-wrapped pint jars of Jenny McCarthy's urine. (A parody of McCarthy's role in a shoe commercial where she appeared sitting on a toilet.) The name of the communications director for CGS Productions was Stoidi Puekaw – "wake up idiots" backwards. Abel once ran for Congress on a platform that included paying congressmen based on commission; selling ambassadorships to the highest bidder; installing a lie detector in the White House and truth serum in the Senate drinking fountain; requiring all doctors to publish their medical-school grade point average in the telephone book after their names; and removing Wednesday to establish a four-day workweek.

Later career
In 1999, Abel appeared in the documentary Private Dicks: Men Exposed, in which he claimed to be the current holder of the Guinness World Record for the smallest penis. Abel, who initially appeared in the video as "Bruce the musician" (later versions of the documentary changed this to reflect that Abel was a prankster), did not disrobe for the documentary crew, and said that he would only do so if they were to have group sex afterwards. Abel stated, "They said no. So I didn't have to take off my shorts."

At the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, Abel introduced a campaign to ban all breastfeeding because "it is an incestuous relationship between mother and baby that manifests an oral addiction leading youngsters to smoke, drink, and even becoming antisocial." After 200 interviews over two years, Abel confessed the hoax in U.S. News & World Report.

Abel died on September 14, 2018, at his home in Southbury, Connecticut, from complications of cancer and heart failure.

Documentary
In 2004, his daughter Jenny Abel, along with Jeff Hockett, made a documentary film of Abel's life called Abel Raises Cain, which played at the Boston Independent Film Festival and the 2005 Slamdance Film Festival, where it won first prize for Best Documentary. It has been released on DVD.

Books

 * The Great American Hoax (1966)
 * The President I Almost Was by "Mrs. Yetta Bronstein" (Abel and his wife) (1966)
 * Confessions of a Hoaxer (1970, Macmillan)
 * The Fallacy of Creative Thinking (as Bruce Spencer, 1972)
 * The Panhandlers Handbook (as Omar the Beggar, 1977)
 * Don't Get Mad, Get Even (1983, Sidg. & J)
 * How to Thrive on Rejection (1983, W W Norton & Co Ltd, as W. W. Norton)

title: Alan Abel


text:
List of prime ministers of the Comoros

The following is a list of prime ministers of the Comoros since 1957, to the abolition of the post of Prime Minister in 2002.

List
(Dates in italics indicate de facto continuation of office)

Affiliations

 * PV - Green Party
 * PB - White Party
 * RDPC - Democratic Assembly of the Comoran People (renamed White Party)
 * UDC - Comoros Democratic Union (renamed Green Party)
 * UCP - Comorian Union for Progress
 * RND - National Rally for Development
 * UDD - Union of Democrats for Democracy
 * RDR - Rally for Democracy and Renewal
 * FNR - Forum of National Recovery
 * PRC - Republican Party of the Comoros
 * n-p - Nonpartisan

title: List of prime ministers of the Comoros


text:
Talk:Gayatri

Untitled
This article states that the Gayatri mantra does not invoke the sun. This statement is partially true and partially false. The mantra in fact invokes the Solar Logos. Should this be corrected? 203.99.212.224 05:32, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

Since nobody objected, I removed the 'cohesive translation' (it is not a translation at all but rather an elaboration on themes in the mantra) -- I suspect it was simply copied off some internet site. I do think it could have a place in the article, but it would need to be incorporated in a paragraph on the role of the mantra in hinduism etc. and also be provided with a specific source. Here it is or easy reference:
 * Oh God! You are the Giver of Life, Remover of pain and sorrow, The Bestower of happiness, Oh! Creator of the Universe, May we receive your supreme sin-destroying light, May You guide our intellect in the right direction.

Dbachmann 09:02, 3 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Would anyone be able to produce a more exact phonetic transliteration using SAMPA or IPA. It would be greatly appreciated. Oska 12:24, Sep 18, 2004 (UTC)
 * think this is unneccesary. With the exact transcription, you can get the phonetic value of each letter from Sanskrit. We can also remove the "roughly phonetical transliteration", I was just not bold enough to do it when I added the correct transliteration. dab 11:47, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC)

"There is also a Gayatri Yantra"
 * when? where?

"Considered even more powerful."
 * by whom? please give some sources. I could also draw a Gayatri with rabbits' ears on my desk and then write "there is also a Gayatri with rabbits' ears". dab 11:54, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Star of David

 * It contains the text of the mantra, an illustraion of the goddess Gayatri, surronded by the Star of David.

This seems unlikely, or at least, misphrased. And also misspelled.

indeed. I removed:
 * There is also a Gayatri Yantra, which is a visual form of the mantra. Considered even more powerful. It contains the text of the mantra, an illustraion of the goddess Gayatri, surronded by the Star of David.

this should cite a source, instead of "there is", "considered". Also, Star of David is inappropriate. This should read Hexagram, probably. dab 14:00, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

 * To most people here in England, "hexagram" means Hexagram (I Ching). Anthony Appleyard 06:26, 6 October 2005 (UTC)

Redirecting Gayatrimantra here.
Text from Gayatrimantra reads as follows. -- Brhaspati (talkcontribs) 07:28, 2005 Mar 10 (UTC)

The Gayatrimantra is a verse from a Vedic hymn. In Sanskrit:
 * Aum
 * Bhu Bhuva Svah
 * Tat Savitur Varenyam
 * Bhargo Devasya Dheemahee
 * Dhiyo Yo Nah Prachodayaat

In English:
 * The primordial creative sound
 * The three worlds: earth, atmosphere, and heaven
 * Adoration of the splendor that radiates from the Divine illumination
 * A prayer for liberation through the light of the universal intelligence

This is perhaps the most popular of all vedic hymns. The term " Gayatri" refers to the meter in which the mantra is composed. It also refers to the Goddess Gayatri (with 5 heads). The hymn is addressed to the sungod and is a prayer for illumination. Traditionally the mantra was guarded to prevent it reaching lower castes and was passed from generation to generation by chanting it in the ears (by the father to the son in the sacred thread ceremony - the Upanayanam). Several people all over the world have wonderful experiences by chanting this powerful hymn.

A bit more translation needed.
The translation of the mantra does not say what "oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ" means. Anthony Appleyard 06:18, 6 October 2005 (UTC)
 * this is not straightforward. It is a magic formula even in the Yajurveda. oṃ means "AUM". "bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ" means "earth - air - heavens" (bhū means "becoming, being, existing", but also "world, earth"; bhuvaḥ means "air, athmosphere", and svaḥ means "sun, sky, heavens"). We give this in the word-by-word glossary. The whole thing is interpreted as a triplet of triplets, (A-U-M) - (bhur-bhuvah-svah) - (pada a - pada b - pada c). dab (ᛏ) 09:01, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Correction in mantra for Devanagari script
It appears to me that the mantra in Devanagari (second line) is incorrect. It should have been "tat savitur" instead it looks like "tat savati".

Different translations
Different translations of the Gayatri mantra can be found here (one of them I've added to the text of the mainarticle): http://wahiduddin.net/mantra/gayatri.htm Austerlitz 88.72.2.43 06:41, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

The "Solar Logos"
"The mantra in fact invokes the Solar Logos." somebody wrote. I had never heard that term, that's why I've looked for some information:
 *
 *
 *
 *

difference between Gayatri and Gayatri-Mantra
the word "Gayatri" itself does not mean "Gayatri mantra". Gayatri by itself means mother of the vedas but Gayatri mantra is the popularly known hymn. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 67.83.98.186 (talk) 00:38, 3 January 2007 (UTC).

Popular culture
I have removed the random trivia, which is irrelevant to this article. If someone wants to write a encyclopedic section on cultural influence of the Gayatri mantra based on secondary sources, they should feel free to do so. Thanks. Abecedare 03:05, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

-- why is random trivia unimportant again? Since this is a site where we go to find out pretty much everything, why wouldn't random information be important? Perhaps even under a trivia section. If I wanted to find out about trivia, where should we go? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.94.209.159 (talk) 17:58, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Totally agree. I've gone back and read the deleted Popular Culture section and it appears to me to be both interesting and relevant to an article on the Gayatri mantra to write about its influence on other forms of art (music, TV, etc.). While that section was a (fairly poorly written) list, I suggest that it was something which could have been built on (and marked as such) rather than a candidate for deletion. Too often on Wikipedia I find that people are willing to throw away useful and interesting information just because it is not yet encyclopedic. Wikipedia is huge and still relatively young. It will take decades for every section in every article to be encyclopedic, but it will take even longer if whenever somebody makes a start by putting in some bare bones information, that somebody else deletes it within a few months because it isn't immediately perfect! Bryces (talk) 00:29, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

10 repetitions
I have reverted an edit claiming that it can be repeated 10 times. Obviously it can be repeated any number of times, but I don't believe it is common practice. I have seen 9, 18, 54, and 108 bead malas, but never a 10-bead one. However, I am being quite bold reverting this, and if it is re-entered I will just add a fact tag. -- Q Chris (talk) 09:54, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

"Origin" section copies content from website without permission
The "Origin" section is directly copied from my website. Since I am forbidden to add a link to my site, how do I get credit for my content created by me? (see eaglespace.com/spirit/gayatri.php for verification). —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ajmanik (talk • contribs) 05:27, 13 May 2008 (UTC)
 * I am notifying admins, but it would seem to me that you have three options.

 * Add your site as a reference. In the reference put "content from this site used with permission of the author". In my opinion if a site is valuable enough to lift content then it certainly is relevant enough to be referenced.
 * Ignore the issue. Put something on your own site to credit yourself with being a source for the wikipedia article.
 * Delete the offending comment from the article. This will leave wiki authors the option of researching and writing the section themselves or doing without it.

 * In my view the first option is the preferable one. As the copyright owner you have the right to chose any one of them. Note that I am not a wikipedia admin, or a copyright lawyer so this has to be taken as personal opinion. If you want to take option one or three but need help actually editing please let me know.

 * By the way, thank you for being constructive about this and not just deleting the section without consideration. By the way I like your site and will explore it further when I have time. -- Q Chris (talk) 12:44, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

 * Update. The admin has deleted the section in accordance with wikipedia policy. -- Q Chris (talk) 13:12, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

Option 1 would have been perfectly acceptable to me (and I would still prefer if we can revert to it - a link to my original would have been great but I feel funny about adding links to my own pages here at wikipedia) but it seems like the admin has chosen to go with Option 3. If you would like to reverse the change and add a reference, please go ahead.

I would appreciate any comments/suggestions that you have regarding my website. I am [slowly] learning and teaching myself about all these topics :-]

Links Question
Why are there SIX links to motherdivine.wetpaint.com in different places in this article? Hmmm.... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ajmanik (talk • contribs) 05:42, 13 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Recently more spam has been added by User talk:Shriramshishya. I have reverted these edits. Thanks. Ism schism (talk) 23:24, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Its not spam its a scientifically relevant information, please justify treating the added informaiton as spam or revert it. Shriramshishya (talk) 23:51, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

http://www.allbhajans.com/gayatri-mantra/ should a video with lyrics added on wikipedia just like its here on this page —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.247.129.72 (talk) 13:39, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Gayatri Mantra in World Religions
This section is original research with quoted taken out of context to try to back up this original research. I will revert it, as it is original research. Please feel free and share any thoughts below. Thanks. Ism schism (talk) 02:09, 28 June 2008 (UTC)
 * The article builds upon the statement, "The Meaning of Gayatri Mantra Encompasses the Teachings of All Religions." From there it quotes from religious text in an attempt to back up such a claim. Thanks. Ism schism (talk) 02:11, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

 * Comment After removing the POV pushing section on how, "The Meaning of Gayatri Mantra Encompasses the Teachings of All Religions," it has been restored. While there are references provided, they do not back up this claim - the world religion text DO NOT refer to Gayatri, this is somebody's original research - I dont know whose - but as it is unidentified and not germane to the article, I will revert it once more. If anybody has any questions, concerns or comments - please state them here. Thanks. Ism schism (talk) 12:50, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

--Bindul (talk) 10:29, 23 August 2009 (UTC)== Gayatri Mantra ==

Gayatri Mantra owes for its origin to the Rigveda. In fact it is the name of one of the meters used by the poets of the Rigveda for the composition of their verses. In Gayatri meter a verse is of one and a half line. Gayatri mantra is the verse 3.62.10 of the Rigveda composed by a poet of Jamdagni-family which reads as follows: “ tat saviturvarenyam bhargodevsya dhimahi: dhiyo yo nah prchodyat “. To this has been added later : “Om bhurbhuvah svah” Thus the Gayatri Mantra in its present form reads as:

“Om bhurbhuvah svah tat saviturvarenyam bhargodevsya dhimahi: dhiyo yo nah prchodyat”

Literally it means: “ May we acquire much desirable information about the destruction in the regions Bhu, Bhuvah and Svah from deva Savitar. May our narrations to people be hair-raising .”[1],The Hindu priests maintain that this is the most sacred verse and its chanting has great spritual significance. The spritual interpretations of this verse are in thousands. For word by word explaination see Dr. Nigam's blogg "Vedanand" on Gayatri Mantra. Bindul (talk) 10:29, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

1.Nigam, Brij (2003), Rigveda, The Rise of Aryan Power, p.5, Published by Swedix HB, Lidingoe, Sweden  (www.swedix.org)  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bindul (talk • contribs) 10:27, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

Revered by Buddhists?
This comment: "revered by both Buddhists (not at least in the Theravada Buddhism tradition) and Hindus worldwide" really needs citation (and the bit in parentheses merits clarification). I don't know of any Buddhist traditions (except for maybe some New Agey universalist types, possibly?) that revere the Gayatri mantra. Not saying there aren't any, but if that claim is going to be made it needs citation in a bad way. Tendrel23 (talk) 9:21pm EST, 2 December 2009 —Preceding undated comment added 02:22, 3 December 2009 (UTC).

This article is an abriged translation of Gayatri MahaVigyan published by Shantikunj Haridwar; does not cite anything beyond the said book.
I suggest to flag this article and rewrite it with additional citation from outside the book. Also, passages are written carelessly with poor construction of sentences and sometimes reader gets lost in the words without understanding the meaning and message being conveyed by the author.

There are topics on "Anushthans" and "Kundlini Jagran" which I presume esoteric in nautre and due care has not been taken to write down the passages.

Wikipedia should not be the site of such thing that may prompt reader to persue unwarranted incidences.59.95.105.64 (talk) 11:26, 9 May 2011 (UTC)

 * If this is true then this is a copyright violation. I will flag appropraitely
 * I removed a lot of copyrighted text from multiple sources added recently. An administrator will be by shortly to deleted revisions.--NortyNort (Holla) 11:29, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

Islamic View?
Regarding the section on the "Islamic View" of Gayatri. Firstly, it's not clear where this is cited from. More importantly, this has no relevance to the topic whatsoever. Gayatri is a primarily Hindu topic and there seems to be no (scholarly, innocuous) purpose served by noting some minor and empirical view perhaps held by some Islamic people. It should be removed. ShyamSSanthanam (talk) 01:39, 20 August 2011 (UTC)

Assessment comment
Substituted at 15:52, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 13:54, 1 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Gayatri goddess appears before Kaushika rishi.jpg

title: Talk:Gayatri