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Lactucarium

Lactucarium is the milky fluid secreted by several species of lettuce, especially Lactuca virosa, usually from the base of the stems. It is known as lettuce opium because of its sedative and analgesic properties. It has also been reported to promote a mild sensation of euphoria. Because it is a latex, lactucarium physically resembles opium, in that it is excreted as a white fluid and can be reduced to a thick smokable solid.

History
"Lettuce opium" was used by the ancient Egyptians, and was introduced as a drug in the United States as early as 1799. The drug was prescribed and studied extensively in Poland during the nineteenth century, and was viewed as an alternative to opium, weaker but lacking side-effects, such as not being highly addictive, and in some cases preferable. However, early efforts to isolate an active alkaloid were unsuccessful. It is described and standardized in the 1898 United States Pharmacopoeia and 1911 British Pharmaceutical Codex for use in lozenges, tinctures, and syrups as a sedative for irritable cough or as a mild hypnotic (sleeping aid) for insomnia. The standard definition of lactucarium in these codices required its production from Lactuca virosa, but it was recognized that smaller quantities of lactucarium could be produced in a similar way from Lactuca sativa and Lactuca canadensis var. elongata, and even that lettuce-opium obtained from Lactuca serriola or Lactuca quercina was of superior quality.

In the twentieth century, two major studies found commercial lactucarium to be without effect. In 1944, Fulton concluded, "Modern medicine considers its sleep producing qualities a superstition, its therapeutic action doubtful or nil." Another study of the time identified active bitter principles lactucin and lactucopicrin, but noted that these compounds from the fresh latex were unstable and did not remain in commercial preparations of lactucarium. Accordingly, lettuce opium fell from favor, until publications of the hippie movement began to promote it in the mid-1970s as a legal drug producing euphoria, sometimes compounded with catnip or damiana. More recent work has confirmed that lactucin and lactucopicrin do have analgesic and sedative properties.

The seeds of lettuce have also been used to relieve pain. Lettuce seed was listed as an anaesthetic in Avicenna's The Canon of Medicine, which served as an authoritative medical textbook from soon after AD 1000 until the seventeenth century.

Contemporary use
Although lactucarium has faded from general use as a pain reliever, it remains available, sometimes promoted as a legal psychotropic.

The seed of ordinary lettuce, Lactuca sativa, is still used in Avicenna's native Iran as a folk medicine.

Chemical constituents
The chemical constituents of lactucarium that have been investigated for biological activity include lactucin and its derivatives lactucopicrin and 11β,13-dihydrolactucin. Lactucin and lactucopicrin were found to have analgesic effects comparable to those of ibuprofen, and sedative activity in measurements of spontaneous movements of the mice. Some effects have also been credited to a trace of hyoscyamine in Lactuca virosa, but the alkaloid was undetectable in standard lactucarium. A crude extract of the seeds was shown to have analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects in standard formalin and carrageenan tests of laboratory rats. It was not toxic to the rats at a dose of 6 grams per kilogram.

Lactuca virosa contains flavonoids, coumarins, and N-methyl-β-phenethylamine. A variety of other chemical compounds have been isolated from L. virosa. One of the compounds, lactucin, is an adenosine receptor agonist in vitro, while another, lactucopicrin, has been shown to act as an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor in vitro.

Lactuca floridana was found to contain 11β,13-Dihydro-lactucin-8-O-acetate hemihydrate.

Formulations
Lactucarium was used unmodified in lozenges, 30–60 milligrams (0.5 to 1 grain), sometimes mixed with borax. However, it was found to be more efficient to formulate the drug in a cough syrup (Syrupus Lactucarii, U.S.P.) containing net 5% lactucarium, 22% glycerin, 5% alcohol, and 5% orange-flower water in syrup.

title: Lactucarium


text:
Bel-Ami

Bel-Ami (, "Dear Friend") is the second novel by French author Guy de Maupassant, published in 1885; an English translation titled Bel Ami, or, The History of a Scoundrel: A Novel first appeared in 1903.

The story chronicles journalist Georges Duroy's corrupt rise to power from a poor former cavalry NCO in France's African colonies, to one of the most successful men in Paris, most of which he achieves by manipulating a series of powerful, intelligent, and wealthy women.

Summary
The novel is set in Paris in the upper-middle class environment of the leading journalists of the newspaper La Vie Française and their friends. It tells the story of Georges Duroy, who has spent three years in military service in Algeria. After working for six months as a clerk in Paris, an encounter with his former comrade, Forestier, enables him to start a career as a journalist. From a reporter of minor events and soft news, he gradually climbs his way up to chief editor. Duroy initially owes his success to Forestier's wife, Madeleine, who helps him write his first articles and, when he later starts writing lead articles, she adds an edge and poignancy to them. At the same time, she uses her connections among leading politicians to provide him with behind the scenes' information which allows him to become actively involved in politics. Duroy is also introduced to many politicians in Madame Forestier's drawing-room. Duroy becomes the lover of Forestiers' friend Mme de Marelle, another influential socialite. Duroy later tries to seduce Madeleine Forestier too, but she repulses Duroy's sexual advances and offers that they remain friends without ulterior motives.

In a few months, Charles Forestier's health deteriorates, and he travels to the south of France to regain it. Soon afterwards, Duroy receives a letter from Madeleine, imploring him to join her and help her bear the last moments of her husband's life. When Forestier dies, Duroy asks Madeleine to marry him. After a few weeks to consider, she agrees. Georges now signs his articles Du Roy (an aristocratic style of French name) in order to add prestige to his name. The married couple travels to Normandy, the region of Georges's childhood, and meets his peasant parents. Finding the reality different from her romantic expectations, Madeleine feels very uncomfortable with his parents, and so their stay with them is short. In the newspaper office, Duroy is ridiculed for having his articles written by his wife, just as the late Forestier had his articles written by her. His newspaper colleagues call him 'Forestier', which angers Georges, and he becomes heavily jealous of Madeleine, insisting that she admit having been unfaithful to Forestier, but she never does.

In order to suppress the stings of jealousy, Duroy starts an affair with Mme Walter, the wife of the owner of the newspaper. He especially enjoys the conquest, as he is her first extramarital lover. Later on, however, he regrets the decision, for he cannot get rid of her when he does not want her. Duroy's relations with his wife become estranged; at one point, he takes a police superintendent and three other police officers to a flat in which his wife is meeting Monsieur Laroche-Mathieu, her lover. They catch the two in the act of adultery, which was then a crime punishable under the law. Duroy used the police as witnesses of his wife's adultery to facilitate their divorce. He did not have her or her lover arrested, although the police gave him the option to do so.

In the last two chapters, Duroy's ascent to power continues. Duroy, now a single man, makes use of his chief's daughter's infatuation with him, and arranges an elopement with her. The parents then have no other choice but to grant their assent to the marriage. The last chapter shows Duroy savouring his success at the wedding ceremony, at which 'all those who figured prominently in society' are present. His thoughts, however, chiefly belong to Mme de Marelle who, when wishing him all the best, indicates that she has forgiven him for his new marriage and that their intimate meetings can be taken up again.

List of characters

 * Georges Duroy (Du Roy), an ex-soldier, journalist and a social climber
 * Charles Forestier, Duroy's former friend in the army, a journalist
 * Madeleine Forestier (Du Roy), Charles's and later Georges's wife who helps her husbands write their articles and has many connections among the powerful
 * Monsieur Laroche-Mathieu, a friend of Madeleine Forestier, a member of parliament, later a minister who owes his position and sudden wealth to La Vie Française, Madeleine Forestier's lover
 * Comte de Vaudrec, an old longtime friend and protector and probably also lover or lost father of Madeleine Forestier (Du Roy)
 * Clotilde de Marelle, the Forestiers' friend whose husband is away for long periods of time, Duroy's main lover
 * Laurine de Marelle, their young daughter, who comes up with the nickname Bel Ami.
 * Jacques Rival, a journalist
 * Norbert de Varenne, an old single bitter life-tired poet who is among the Vie Française staff
 * Monsieur Walter, the owner and chief editor of the Vie Francaise
 * Virginie Walter, his wife, later Duroy's lover
 * Suzanne Walter, their marriageable daughter, later Madame Du Roy
 * Rachel, a prostitute to whom Georges turns in times of financial crisis

Film and television
The novel has been adapted for film and television several times:

 * Bel Ami, a 1939 German film
 * The Private Affairs of Bel Ami, 1947 American film starring George Sanders
 * Bel Ami (1955)
 * Bel Ami (1971), a five-episode BBC TV series
 * Bel Ami, also known as Bel Ami: Beautiful Friend and For Men Only, a 1976 Swedish pornographic version, starring Harry Reems which had the tagline "Harry Reems' Last Adult Film"
 * Bel Ami, a 1983 French mini-series
 * Bel Ami, a 2005 French/Belgian TV movie, starring Sagamore Stévenin
 * Bel Ami, a 2012 European co-production film with Robert Pattinson, Uma Thurman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Christina Ricci and Holliday Grainger

Theatre

"The Wicked World of Bel Ami", a musical in two acts adapted by Ken Hill using the music of Jacques Offenbach, was staged at the Theatre Royal Stratford East 7 April – 13 May 1989 with Haluk Bilginer in the title role

Miláček, a Czech stage version of the story, premiered on 11 April 2008 in City Theatre, Mladá Boleslav. It was directed by Pavel Khek, with Petr Mikeska in the title role of Georges Duroy.

In July 2011, Bel Ami: The Musical was staged at the White Bear Theatre, London. It premiered on July 12. It was written and directed by Linnie Reedman, with music and lyrics composed by Joe Evans.

In February 2014, a contemporary musical adaptation of the book, Bel-Ami, was staged at the Charing Cross Theatre, London, performed by students of the London College of Music. The music and lyrics were written by Alex Loveless.

Cultural influence
John Braine, the English novelist, stated that his favourite author was Guy de Maupassant and that his first novel, Room at the Top (1957), was based on Bel Ami, but 'the critics didn't pick it up'.

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

title: Bel-Ami


text:
Operation Bootstrap

Operation Bootstrap (Operación Manos a la Obra) is the name given to a series of projects which transformed the economy of Puerto Rico into an industrial and developed one. The federal government of the United States together with what is known today as the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company set forth a series of ambitious economical projects that evolved Puerto Rico into an industrial high-income territory. Bootstrap is still considered the economic model of Puerto Rico as the island has still not been able to evolve into a knowledge economy.

History
The island's traditional economy was based around sugarcane plantations; of the 516,730 jobs on the island in 1940, almost half of them were agriculture-based, with 124,076 of these based on sugar-cane farms. However, Esteban Bird described in detail the misgivings of the sugarcane industry and the monoculture economy in general. By the middle of the twentieth century it remained one of the poorest in the Caribbean. After possession of the island was transferred to the United States in 1898 after the Spanish-American War, it remained mostly neglected. Conditions in Puerto Rico worsened during the world wars, after years of neglect. Pressure grew in the U.S. to address the worsening situation, influenced by journalists like John Gunther who described the island in 1941 as such:

"I saw, in short, misery, disease, squalor, filth. It would be lamentable enough to see this anywhere...to see it on American territory...is a paralyzing jolt to anyone who believes in American standards of progress and civilization."

In May 1947, the Puerto Rican legislature passed the Industrial Incentives Act eliminating all corporate taxes, to encourage U.S. investment in industry. The initiative granted private and foreign investment a ten year period of exemption from taxes on many of the expenses for businesses involved in the industrial economy. These exemptions included:

 * "license fees, excises, or other municipal taxes levied by any ordinance of any municipality,"
 * "property devoted to industrial development,
 * "income tax on income from industrial development," and more.

This was proposed by Senator Luis Muñoz Marín of the Popular Democratic Party, and became known as Operation Bootstrap. Based on 1930s New Deal economic relief reforms and infrastructure provided by the programs such as the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration, Operation Bootstrap intended to move Puerto Rico away from its agrarian system and into an industrial economy. The government's Administration of Economic Development — today known as the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company (PRIDCO) — encouraged the establishment of factories. Following the Elective Governor Act of 1947 (also known as the Crawford-Butler Act), Muñoz was elected the first governor of Puerto Rico while under U.S. control, paving the way for the full establishment of Operation Bootstrap across the island. According to Virginia Sanchez Korrol from the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Operation Bootstrap was based on 3 essential elements:

“1) industrialization by invitation: the inducement of American corporations to relocate in Puerto Rico in exchange for lucrative tax benefits;

(2)  a cheap labor pool, educated in the English language and under a U.S. imposed curriculum;

(3) proposed emigration of over a third of the island’s population, a security measure to insure the plan’s viability.”

The US government in Puerto Rico enticed US companies by providing labor at costs below those on the mainland, access to US markets without import duties, and profits that could transfer to the mainland free from federal taxation. The Administration of Economic Development invited investment of external capital, importing the raw materials, and exporting the finished products to the mainland. To entice participation, tax exemptions and differential rental rates were offered for industrial facilities. As a result, Puerto Rico's economy shifted labor from agriculture to manufacturing and tourism. The manufacturing sector has shifted from the original labor-intensive industries, such as the manufacturing of food, tobacco, leather, and apparel products, to more capital-intensive industries, such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, machinery, and electronics. Through this project, a rural agricultural society was transformed into an industrial working class.

Although initially touted as an economic miracle, by the 1960s, Operation Bootstrap was increasingly hampered by a growing unemployment problem. As living standards and wages in Puerto Rico rose, manpower-intensive industries faced competition from outside the United States. It also faced criticism from civil rights groups and the Catholic Church, who perceived the government promoting birth control, and engaging in non-consensual surgical sterilization. American industrialists influenced by eugenicists policies were concerned with "overpopulation" and a perceived lack of self-control on the part of the working class Puerto Ricans.

As of 2005 the continental United States remains Puerto Rico's major trading partner, received 86% of Puerto Rico's exports and providing 69% of its imports.

Increased living standards
Those able to secure a stable job as a result of Operation Bootstrap received higher wages than before, in fact, "The average real weekly salary in manufacturing increased from $18 for men and $12 for women in 1953 to $44 and $37 respectively in 1963." The increase in industrialization and manufacturing saw positive effects in other places, as new electric grids were built, new roads were paved in major cities, and major housing development was underway. As a result, life expectancy in Puerto Rico jumped almost 23 years.

Shift in job market
{| class="wikitable sortable" ! style="text-align: left" | Decade ! style="text-align: right" | Jobs in fishing & agriculture ! style="text-align: right" | Decade-over-decade ratio ! style="text-align: right" | Jobs in manufacturing ! style="text-align: right" | Decade-over-decade ratio ! style="text-align: right" | Employment net loss ! style="text-align: right" | Employment net loss ratio
 * + Salaried employees in Puerto Rico during Operation Bootstrap
 * 1940s
 * style="text-align: right" data-sort-value="230000" |
 * style="text-align: right" data-sort-value="0" |
 * style="text-align: right" data-sort-value="56000" |
 * style="text-align: right" data-sort-value="0" |
 * style="text-align: right" data-sort-value="0" |
 * style="text-align: right" data-sort-value="0" |

! style="text-align: left" | Total ! style="text-align: right" | ! style="text-align: right" | ! style="text-align: right" | ! style="text-align: right" | ! style="text-align: right" | ! style="text-align: right" |
 * style="text-align: right" data-sort-value="0" |
 * 1950s
 * style="text-align: right" data-sort-value="216000" |
 * style="text-align: right" data-sort-value="6.08" |
 * style="text-align: right" data-sort-value="55000" |
 * style="text-align: right" data-sort-value="1.79" |
 * style="text-align: right" data-sort-value="15000" |
 * style="text-align: right" data-sort-value="5.24" |
 * 1960s
 * style="text-align: right" data-sort-value="125000" |
 * style="text-align: right" data-sort-value="42.13" |
 * style="text-align: right" data-sort-value="81000" |
 * style="text-align: right" data-sort-value="47.27" |
 * style="text-align: right" data-sort-value="65000" |
 * style="text-align: right" data-sort-value="23.99" |
 * 1970s
 * style="text-align: right" data-sort-value="68000" |
 * style="text-align: right" data-sort-value="45.60" |
 * style="text-align: right" data-sort-value="132000" |
 * style="text-align: right" data-sort-value="62.96" |
 * style="text-align: right" data-sort-value="6000" |
 * style="text-align: right" data-sort-value="2.91" |
 * style="text-align: right" data-sort-value="62.96" |
 * style="text-align: right" data-sort-value="6000" |
 * style="text-align: right" data-sort-value="2.91" |
 * }

Manufacturing jobs also led to a shift in the job market as it pertains to gender. In 1940, women represented half of the total population of Puerto Rico, but represented less than 25% of the labor force. Women in Operation Bootstrap were targeted as an important labor force, especially for the garment and apparel industry, which represented a share of the manufacturing market.

Education
At the time, modernization theory was the driving force behind American program development in the Cold War era. As a result, Operation Bootstrap focused on educational development to fuel economic development in Puerto Rico. In the 1950s, education was viewed as the cornerstone of Island development and was allocated more of the Islands budget than any other public sector. From 1932-1957 the number of students enrolled in vocational education went from 5,700 to 110,000. The rise in vocational education was designed to prepare Puerto Rican's for work in factories newly developed by the Bootstrap program.

Mass migration
Mass emigration from Puerto Rico was a result of Operation Bootstrap. The growth of the industrial sector could not match the rapid decline of monocultural plantation jobs that characterized the economy of Puerto Rico Pre-World War II. Also, while U.S. businesses sought Puerto Ricans for labor, these businesses were still very willing to continue to seek new, and even cheaper forms of labor. High volatility in employment for those on the island was a direct result. This led to mass unemployment across the island, with the countryside seeing the largest effect. Residents were forced to either move to bigger cities like San Juan or immigrate to the United States for better financial opportunities and higher wages. In the 1950s (the peak of Puerto Rican emigration from the island), as ~470,000 Puerto Ricans emigrated from their country, they went to cities like New York City (where 85% of which people settled), Philadelphia, and others along the East Coast. Through the 60's and 70's, emigration from Puerto Rico declined dramatically.

Coerced sterilization
Throughout the 1940s and to the 1960s, programs supported by the United States encouraged sterilization and birth control for the women on the island. These programs were birthed out of a perceived "overpopulation" problem on the island. Puerto Rican families averaged 5 to 6 people per family, and this was labeled as partly the reason for the unemployment and high poverty rates on the island. Luis Muñoz Marín was concerned that the perceived overpopulation problem could derail Operation Bootstrap, so his administration was in support. Across the island, the sterilization procedure was referred to as 'la operación." According to Antonia Darder, "By 1969, 35% of all Puerto Rican women of child-bearing age had undergone la operación."

title: Operation Bootstrap


text:
Taira no Masakado

Taira no Masakado (平将門) was a Heian period provincial magnate (gōzoku) and samurai based in eastern Japan, notable for leading the first recorded uprising against the central government in Kyōto.

Early life
Masakado was one of the sons of Taira no Yoshimasa (平良将), also known as Taira no Yoshimochi (平良持), of the Kanmu Taira clan (Kanmu Heishi), descendants of Emperor Kanmu (reigned 781–806) who were demoted from princely to commoner status and granted the Taira surname. Yoshimochi was one of the sons of Prince Takamochi, a grandson or great-grandson of Kanmu who was appointed the vice-governor of Kazusa Province (modern central Chiba Prefecture) in 889 (Kanpyō 1). Takamochi's sons who joined him there occupied a variety of provincial offices in the eastern part of the country such as that of chinjufu shōgun, the commander-in-chief of the defense garrison (chinjufu) in Mutsu Province tasked with subjugating the Emishi peoples of the north.

Not much is known of Masakado's birth and early life due to lack of written evidence. The genealogical record Sonpi Bunmyaku (compiled 1377-1395) identifies Masakado as the third of Yoshimochi's eight sons, while the genealogy of the Sōma clan (an offshoot of the Chiba clan, who were descended from Masakado's uncle Yoshifumi), the Sōma Keizu (相馬系図), identifies him as the second of seven sons. The latter text also claims that he was nicknamed Sōma no Kojirō (相馬小次郎, Kojirō meaning "little second son") during his childhood, suggesting that he was raised in the district of Sōma (相馬郡) in Shimōsa Province (part of modern southwest Ibaraki Prefecture and northwest Chiba Prefecture), though the factuality of this information has been disputed. Masakado's mother is sometimes identified as the daughter of a certain Agata (no) Inukai no Harue (県犬養春枝), perhaps a local magnate from Sōma District.

Masakado's year of birth is also unclear. Accounts of his exploits in the mid-930s suggest that his children were young enough to be still in the care of their mother, which may imply that he was born sometime around 900. Later legend portrays Masakado as the reincarnation of scholar and politician Sugawara no Michizane (later deified as the god Tenjin), who died in 903 (Engi 3).

At some point in his late teens, Masakado went to the capital city of Heian-kyō (Kyōto) and served in the household of the imperial regent Fujiwara no Tadahira. He is said to have aspired for a position within the imperial police force, the Kebiishi, but failed to obtain court rank or any significant office in spite of his credentials and his patron's high status.

Beginning of hostilities (931–936)
Disagreement exists about the exact cause of Masakado's rebellion. While some sources portray the uprising as revenge for his failure to secure a government post, the Shōmonki (将門記, also read as Masakadoki), an anonymous monograph on Masakado's life believed to have been completed as early as the 940s, suggests that the conflict originally began in 931 (Jōhei 1) as a dispute between Masakado, freshly returned from Heian-kyō, and his paternal uncle Taira no Yoshikane (平良兼) over a woman. The identity of this woman is uncertain, though one theory suggests that it may have been a daughter of Yoshikane who married her cousin and apparently went to live with him against her father's wishes. (Aristocratic marriages during the Heian period were usually matrilocal; the wife continued to reside with her parents while the husband either moved in with his wife's family or simply visited her.) Besides this affront to his honor, Masakado not obtaining any post or rank in the capital might have been another factor in Yoshikane's opposition to the marriage. Another theory based on folk tradition meanwhile suggests that Masakado and Yoshikane quarreled over a daughter of Minamoto no Mamoru (源護), former senior secretary (大掾, daijō) of Hitachi Province who had married off his daughters to Masakado's uncles, Yoshikane among them.

On the other hand, the Konjaku Monogatarishū (c. 1120) gives another reason for the conflict, namely that Masakado's uncles had appropriated the lands the young man was supposed to inherit from his late father. Masakado's uncle Taira no Kunika (平国香), who as Takamochi's eldest son was the head of the clan, might have tried to take over his younger brother Yoshimochi's property and place it under his control. Kunika, like Yoshikane, was related by marriage ties to Mamoru, who would eventually become involved in the conflict.

In the 2nd month of 935 (Jōhei 5), Masakado and his men were ambushed by Mamoru's three sons, Tasuku, Takashi, and Shigeru, at a place called Nomoto (野本) in the district of Makabe (真壁郡), near the border between Hitachi and Shimōsa (modern Chikusei, Ibaraki), but managed to repel their attack; the three brothers all died in the battle. In retaliation, Masakado then burned and ransacked the houses of Tasuku's supporters across southwestern Hitachi. Kunika also died during this conflict, under circumstances not entirely clear: he may have either been killed during the skirmish at Nomoto or when Masakado set fire to his residence.

On the 21st day of the 10th month of the same year, Taira no Yoshimasa (平良正), Masakado's paternal uncle or cousin who was also related by marriage to Mamoru, seeking to avenge the deaths of Kunika and Mamoru's sons, faced Masakado in battle in the village of Kawawa (川曲村) in western Hitachi (identified with the town of Yachiyo, Ibaraki) but Masakado once again proved the victor; more than sixty of Yoshikane's men were killed while the rest dispersed.

After his humiliating defeat, Yoshimasa called to Yoshikane – now the vice-governor of Kazusa Province – for aid, who then gathered a large number of warriors from Kazusa and Shimōsa such that officials from the two provinces initially attempted to prevent their dispatch (Such protests were later withdrawn after the issue was deemed to be a private matter beyond the sphere of state affairs). On the 26th day of the 6th month of 936 (Jōhei 6), Yoshikane led his massive army to Hitachi, where he joined forces with Yoshimasa and Kunika's son Sadamori (who had been in the capital when his father was killed and initially took a neutral stance), whom he had prevailed upon to take part in the attack against Masakado. They made contact at the border between Hitachi and Shimotsuke (modern Tochigi Prefecture) with Masakado, who went there to verify reports about a plan to launch a joint attack on him from the north. Despite only having about a hundred poorly-equipped soldiers with him, Masakado inflicted heavy casualties upon his enemies' several thousand strong army. Scattered and thrown into confusion, Yoshikane and the remnants of his forces fled to the provincial headquarters of Shimotsuke, Masakado pursuing them. Although he managed to surround his uncle in the governmental offices, Masakado, seemingly concerned about subsequent censure should he kill Yoshikane then and there, allowed him to escape through a gap in his western line. He then filed a formal grievance with the provincial authorities in neighboring provinces before returning to his territory.

Not long after his victory, Masakado received a summons from the imperial court because of a complaint lodged against him by Minamoto no Mamoru over the battle at Nomoto. Masakado then hurried to the capital to give an account of himself; his lord, Fujiwara no Tadahira, probably intervened in the case and helped lighten his punishment. He was eventually pardoned early the following year (937 / Jōhei 7) when a general amnesty was declared at the occasion of Emperor Suzaku's coming of age (genpuku).

Masakado and Yoshikane (937-938)
Anxious to avenge his defeat, Yoshikane almost immediately recommenced hostilities upon Masakado's return. He first launched an attack on Masakado at the Kogai River near the border between Shimōsa and Hitachi while displaying portraits of Yoshimochi and Takamochi (Masakado's father and grandfather) in front of his vanguard. This ploy succeeded in weakening the morale of Masakado and his men, who "withdrew, carrying their shields." (Shōmonki) Afterwards, Yoshikane burned a critical stable and some houses at Masakado's base in Toyoda District (豊田郡) in Shimōsa to weaken his ability to make war. Masakado launched a counterattack some days later, but was again defeated due to being struck by a severe pain in his legs (thought to be due to beriberi). During his retreat, Masakado had his wife (Yoshikane's daughter) and children flee by boat for their safety, but Yoshikane discovered them and carried them off to Kazusa. The woman's brothers eventually allowed them to escape back to Masakado.

Death
In 939 (Tengyō 2, 12th month), Masakado led a minor rebellion which is also known as Tengyō no Ran. The armed struggle began when Masakado led an attack on an outpost of the central government in Hitachi Province, capturing the governor. In December of that year, he conquered Shimotsuke and Kōzuke Provinces; and he claimed the title of Shinnō (New Emperor).

The central government in Kyoto responded by putting a bounty on his head, and fifty-nine days later his cousin Taira no Sadamori, whose father Masakado had attacked and killed, and Fujiwara no Hidesato, killed him at the Battle of Kojima (Shimōsa Province) in 940 and took his head to the capital.

Aftermath
The head found its way to Shibasaki, a small fishing village on the edge of the Pacific ocean and the future site of Edo, which later became Tokyo. It was buried. The kubizuka, or grave, which is located in the present day Ōtemachi section of Tokyo, was on a hill rising out of Tokyo Bay at the time. Through land reclamation over the centuries, the bay has receded some three kilometers to the south.

Deification
When Masakado was preparing for his revolt, a vast swarm of butterflies appeared in Kyoto, a portent of the upcoming battle.

Over the centuries, Masakado became a demigod to the locals who were impressed by his stand against the central government, while at the same time feeling the need to appease his vengeful spirit. The fortunes of Edo and Tokyo seemed to wax and wane correspondingly with the respect paid to the shrine built to him at the kubizuka (ja); neglect would be followed by natural disasters and other misfortunes. Hence, to this day, the shrine is well maintained, occupying some of the most expensive land in the world in Tokyo’s financial district facing the Imperial Palace. His tomb (which contains only a monument to his head) is near exit C5 of Tokyo's Ōtemachi subway station.

Other shrines which he is deity of include Kanda Shrine (神田明神) (located in Kanda), and Tsukudo Jinja (which has multiple locations.)

In Gifu Prefecture, there is a Mikubi shrine (ja) dedicated to Taira no Masakado. According to a legend left at the Shinto shrine, a priest at a shrine in Mino Province prayed to a Shinto deity to prevent the head of Taira no Masakado, who was beheaded in Kyoto, from returning to Kantō for revenge, and the kami shot the head off with a bow as Taira no Masakado flew back to Kantō. The Mikubi Shrine was built on the spot where the head fell.

title: Taira no Masakado


text:
Talk:Taira no Masakado

Untitled
From Japanese Wikipedia.

Reversions
I originally wrote "A.D." but it was changed to "C.E." Please do not change this under the name of "tidying up the English."

Also, Masakado's father was a general, not the barbarian-subduing generalissimo and military ruler of Japan that the word "shogun" connotates in English. So although he was a shogun in Japanese, he was not a shogun in English. For that reason, I reinstated the word "general" in place of "shogun." Both words were in my original text; "general" more accurately conveys his position in English.

 * 1) I'm not sure who this is (please sign messages), but you seem to be under the impression that articles are owned by their creators. It's important to realise that Wikipedia articles are collaborative.
 * 2) If you have a reason for insisting that an article about a non-Christian country has an overtly Christian reference in its dates, please explain.
 * 3) If the term 'shogun' is (as you imply) more accurate, but apt to be misunderstood by stupid non-Japanese, the solution is to explain the accurate terms, not to use inaccurate ones. Mel Etitis ( Μελ Ετητης ) 21:13, 24 Mar 2005 (UTC)

 * On number 2, there's no real need for either AD or CE to be used (I personally prefer AD myself, but that's neither here nor there)
 * For number 3, "general" is the usual translation of the Japanese term shōgun. The English term "Shogun" is actually short for taii taishōgun (I think that's the right term).  Thus, "general" would be the correct translation in English
 * (Clarifying, I am not the original poster here) Nik42 02:51, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as stub, and the rating on other projects was brought up to Stub class. BetacommandBot 21:40, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

I upgraded the ratings to a start class of mid importance. --Bryan MacKinnon (talk) 06:52, 9 August 2008 (UTC)

Attention needed + Small new section and image reorganization
I added this to the category of "Japanese military history articles needing attention to structure" because while I was able to clean up a lot of the bottom portion and clarify the relevance of one of the page images, the top portion, titled "History", is just...a huge wall of text, to the extent I get a headache just trying to read it (though that could have something to do with the late hour - another reason I chose to tag it rather than suffer through it for ya'll). Since he is in fact a historical figure period, I'm pretty sure - just guessing - that "History" can probably be broken down into several sections.

Now, regarding my other changes, to the bottom of the article proper. It may seem odd to some (not everyone, I'm sure, but some) that I would add a section on the man's daughter. There are reasons for this that I feel are valid, however, and I would appreciate anyone thinking of removing it to hear me out on my reasoning before they do so.

It did make sense to me to add a small section on Takiyasha-hime to this article since the image (a woodblock print depicting her in the weird folklore version) was originally already put here, but inserted rather oddly into the middle of the "History" section and with no mention of her relation to the main subject of the article outside of the caption; investigation showed that her own name - originally a bluelink in the caption of said image - redirects to an art print that features her, rather than an article on her. Which is annoying and confusing BUT. Honestly the information we have on her (from what I can tell?) is not sufficient to form more than a stub article at best anyway at current. So, you may ask, "why not just put this information on the article for that one print? That would make sense."

It would, if it were the only print featuring her, or say, it was based off a specific legend which happened to be the only legend she featured in. Then it would make perfect sense to have it there instead, and there is where I would have put it. BUT.

BUT there is also more than just the one print featuring her even in Wikimedia Commons alone, and said print is by a completely different artist and was made during a later era and obviously (just from looking at it/reading the description) is a quite different depiction (in one, she is outdoors somewhere carrying a sword and bell and torch and has a "frog familiar"; in the other, she is inside of an old palace, using some sort of magic spell read off of a scroll to summon a decidedly humanoid skeleton spirit). So, you cannot possibly lump the other print into the "Takiyasha the Witch" print's article, or the artist's article (since there's two completely different artists), and since her own name is a redirect, creating an article about her is a pain in the butt and possibly has already been tried and then shifted into a redirect because some editor somewhere decided it was too short or "too similar in content to something else" (I saw this happen recently with stuff that got changed into redirects to "werewolf" in lieu of a proper merge, so it wouldn't surprise me).

So, logically speaking, since this guy is her father, and since the amount of information we have on her is small but the number of depictions/artists depicting her was more than one, and since on top of that, it appears that the depictions all relate in some way to her father and his legacy (in the one pictured in the article, her father's image also appears up on top, and in the one that has its own article, she's in their palace fighting off the emperor's agents who are looking for "conspirators", i.e. people like her father who had participated in rebellion)...well, it just makes sense that if she isn't going to be covered in an article about the historical/folkloric figure herself, then she might as well be on the very bottom of her father's article here, with a nice bit of clarification as to why the subject is relevant (i.e. "the historical version of her was his daughter, and they both have had an impact on Japanese folklore"). Took a while to get the formatting to not be wacky-looking, but it looks like I managed.

The other logical option I could see is starting another article on her anyway (presumably with a "See also" from here?), and moving the information in that section to there; it's nice and compactly contained in a single area, so if that is the option anybody wants to mess around with, it should be fairly easy.

Now, since it is about 2:30 in the morning where I live and I am at my "sooo cannot edit anymore without my head pounding and eyes crossing" stage, I leave it tagged in the hopes that people will be able to clean it up further. If you got all the way through this explanation, thank you very much for your patience and if you choose to help out, then another big thank you. :) 71.47.209.145 (talk) 06:38, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

Copyright violations
Large chunks of the text have been directly copied and/or lightly paraphrased from Karl Friday's book The First Samurai, stemming, it appears, from this edit] of January 11, 2012 by. You can go to the book's Google Books page to confirm. I have a physical copy of the book, if anyone needs me to manually look things up. --Calton | Talk 07:22, 24 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Thank you for noticing that, ! It's now been removed (see below); the article may need some work as a consequence. Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 13:39, 28 December 2016 (UTC)

Copyright problem removed
Prior content in this article duplicated one or more previously published sources. The material was copied from: The First Samurai by Karl Friday, published 2008. Copied or closely paraphrased material has been rewritten or removed and must not be restored, unless it is duly released under a compatible license. (For more information, please see "using copyrighted works from others" if you are not the copyright holder of this material, or "donating copyrighted materials" if you are.)

For legal reasons, we cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or published material; such additions will be deleted. Contributors may use copyrighted publications as a source of information, and, if allowed under fair use, may copy sentences and phrases, provided they are included in quotation marks and referenced properly. The material may also be rewritten, providing it does not infringe on the copyright of the original or plagiarize from that source. Therefore, such paraphrased portions must provide their source. Please see our guideline on non-free text for how to properly implement limited quotations of copyrighted text. Wikipedia takes copyright violations very seriously, and persistent violators will be blocked from editing. While we appreciate contributions, we must require all contributors to understand and comply with these policies. Thank you. Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 13:39, 28 December 2016 (UTC)

alleged haunted
His grave is allegedly haunted. CycoMa (talk) 00:56, 21 September 2020 (UTC)

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2011/10/25/general/top-tokyo-haunts-five-scary-spots/ CycoMa (talk) 00:56, 21 September 2020 (UTC)

title: Talk:Taira no Masakado


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Studs Lonigan

Studs Lonigan is a novel trilogy by American author James T. Farrell: Young Lonigan (1932), The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan (1934), and Judgment Day (1935). In 1998, the Modern Library ranked the Studs Lonigan trilogy 29th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.

The trilogy was adapted into a minor 1960 film and a 1979 television miniseries, both of which were simply titled Studs Lonigan.

Themes
Farrell wrote these three novels at a time of national despair. During the Great Depression, many of America's most gifted writers and artists aspired to create a single, powerful work of art that would fully expose the evils of capitalism and lead to a political and economic overhaul of the American system.

Farrell chose to use his own personal knowledge of Irish-American life on the South Side of Chicago to create a portrait of an average American slowly destroyed by the "spiritual poverty" of his environment. Both Chicago and the Catholic Church of that era are described at length and faulted. Farrell describes Studs sympathetically as Studs slowly deteriorates, changing from a tough but fundamentally good-hearted, adventurous teenage boy to an embittered, physically shattered alcoholic.

Film
Parts of Farrell's novels were made into a B movie in 1960, directed by Irving Lerner and starring Christopher Knight in the title role. Other cast members included Frank Gorshin, Venetia Stevenson, and Jack Nicholson (in one of his first movie roles). The film was not widely reviewed. Pauline Kael wrote in The New Yorker that "it’s an honorable low-budget effort by a group of people trying to break the Hollywood molds, and there are a few passages of daring editing that indicate what the film was aiming for. It’s an underfinanced American attempt at I Vitelloni.

Television
In 1979 Studs Lonigan was produced as a television miniseries starring Harry Hamlin, Colleen Dewhurst, Brad Dourif, Dan Shor, and Charles Durning. Production Designer Jan Scott won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Art Direction for a Limited Series or a Special. Reginald Rose wrote the adaptation of the trilogy. The miniseries preserves the novel's tragic ending but humanizes Studs Lonigan's family and friends to a very considerable degree.

Other
The entire miniseries is housed at the University of Georgia's Peabody Collection. The University has made the series available online by using the keyword "Studs Lonigan" in the search box.

Reception and legacy
According to William McCann:
 * No writer has described a specific area of American society so thoroughly and comprehensively as Farrell did in the seven novels of Studs Lonigan and Danny O'Neill (1932-43). A consummate realist in viewpoint and method, he turned repeatedly in his fiction to the subject he knew best, the Irish Catholic neighborhood of Chicago's South Side. Drawing on lacerating personal experience, Farrell wrote about people who were victims of injurious social circumstances and of their own spiritual and intellectual shortcomings. He depicted human frustration, ignorance, cruelty, violence, and moral degeneration with sober, relentless veracity....Despite his Marxist leanings, Farrell's fiction is not that of a reformer, or a doctrinaire theorist, but rather the patient humorless representation of ways of life and states of mind he abhors….Farrell’s place in American letters, however, as certainly the most industrious and probably the most powerful writer in the naturalistic tradition stemming from Frank Norris and Dreiser, was solidly established with the Lonegan--O'Neil series.

title: Studs Lonigan


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Northern Thailand

Northern Thailand, or more specifically Lanna, is geographically characterised by several mountain ranges, which continue from the Shan Hills in bordering Myanmar to Laos, and the river valleys that cut through them. Like most of Thailand, it has a tropical savanna climate, but its relatively high elevation and latitude contribute to more pronounced seasonal temperature variation, with cooler winters than the other regions.

Historically, northern Thailand has been linked to the Hariphunchai Kingdom, which emerged as a powerful state in the region in the 7th century. This kingdom was related to the Dvaravati that existed from the 6th to 11th centuries. The Hariphunchai culture later influenced the development of the Lanna Kingdom, which emerged in the 13th century and lasted until the 18th century.

Geography
North Thailand is bound by the Salween River in the west and the Mekong in the east. The basins of rivers Ping, Wang, Yom, and Nan, all tributaries of the Chao Phraya River, in the central part run from north to south and are mostly very wide. The basins cut across the mountains of two great ranges, the Thanon Range in the western part and the Phi Pan Nam in the eastern. Their elevations are generally moderate, a little above 2,000. m for the highest summits. Although formerly forested, many of these mountains are now denuded.

Parallel mountain ranges extend from the Daen Lao Range (ทิวเขาแดนลาว), in the southern region of the Shan Hills, in a north–south direction, the Dawna Range (ทิวเขาดอยมอนกุจู) forming the western border of Thailand between Mae Hong Son and the Salween River. To the east the Thanon Thong Chai Range (เทือกเขาถนนธงชัย), the Khun Tan Range (ทิวเขาขุนตาน), the Phi Pan Nam Range (ทิวเขาผีปันน้ำ), as well as the western part of the Luang Prabang Range (ทิวเขาหลวงพระบาง), form the natural region of the Thai highlands together with the former.

The high mountains are incised by steep river valleys and upland areas that border the central plain. A series of rivers, including the Nan, Ping, Wang, Yom, and Nan, flow southwards through mountain valleys and join to form the Chao Phraya in Nakhon Sawan Province in the central region. Sirikit Dam is on the Nan River in Uttaradit Province. The northeastern part is drained by rivers flowing into the Mekong basin, like the Kok and Ing.

The four-region system includes the northern parts of the central plain as well as some mountainous areas bordering the western and the northeastern limits. The total forest area is 90,228 km² or 52.5 percent of this four-region area.

National parks
Within the northern region there are some sixty national parks. Chiang Mai Province has nine national parks of which Doi Inthanon National Park with the country's highest mountain and Op Luang National Park have a scenic river canyon, waterfalls, and caves. Doi Khun Tan National Park, which is located midway between the two provincial capitals of province Lampang and Lamphun, is best known for Thailand's longest railroad tunnel, which is 1,352 m long. Doi Phu Kha National Park in province Nan is northern Thailand's largest national park.

Regional classification of northern Thailand
The northern region, as defined by the National Geographical Committee in 1978, consists of nine provinces. Geographically the division, in conformance with the six-region system, includes most of the mountainous natural region of the Thai highlands.

In the four-region classification system, northern Thailand gains the eight upper-central-region provinces: Kamphaeng Phet, Nakhon Sawan, Phetchabun, Phichit, Phitsanulok, Sukhothai, Uthai Thani and Tak, bringing the total to 17 provinces.

In 2019 it is common to subdivide the northern region into: nine provinces of the upper northern region and eight provinces of the lower northern region. All websites of these eight provinces state: "located in the lower northern region".

Economy
For FY 2018, Northern Thailand Region had a combined economic output of 1,266 trillion baht (US$40.8 billion), or 7.7 percent of Thailand's GDP. Lamphun province had an economic output of 84.395 billion baht (US$2.7 billion). This equates to a GPP per capita of 211,489 baht (US$6,822), half more than for Chiang Mai province, next in the ranking and double than for Lampang province, which is third in the ranking.

Kamphaeng Phet province had an economic output of 117.705 billion baht (US$3.8 billion). This amounts to a GPP per capita of 150,783 baht (US$4,864), half more than for Tak province, which is fifth in the ranking.

Languages
Central Thai is the sole official language in Thailand. However, in the six-region classification system, it is the second largest native language in Northern Thailand, amounting to roughly two hundred thousand people, found in the lower part of Uttaradit Province. Central Thai spoken in southern regions of Northern Thailand in the four-region classification system comprise a group of dialects classified as Ne (เหน่อ). Because there are no significant Thai Chinese communities in Northern Thailand, the Krung Thep accent (prestige dialect) is not commonly found in Northern Thailand.

The main language is Northern Thai, which is a southwestern Tai language spoken in the 9 changwat of Northern Thailand. It is spoken by roughly six million people. There are also various hill tribe languages such as Lolo-Burmese, Karenic, Mienic, Mienic, Palaungic, Southwestern Mandarin.

title: Northern Thailand


text:
Category:Ichthyologists

This category contains articles about scientists who specialize in ichthyology, or the study of fishes.

title: Category:Ichthyologists


text:
George Suckley

George Suckley (1830–1869) was an American physician and naturalist notable as an explorer of the Washington and Oregon territories in the 1850s, and describer of several new fish species.

Life
He was born in New York City, studied at the College of Physicians and Surgeons (today Columbia University), received an M.D. in 1851, and subsequently served as surgeon at New York Hospital.

In April 1853 Suckley was appointed assistant surgeon and naturalist to the Pacific Railroad Survey led by Isaac Stevens. Initially commissioned as a surgeon with the U.S. Army, Suckley resigned in 1856 to pursue natural history full-time resulting in the publication of several works on the natural history of the Pacific Northwest.

Upon the outbreak of the American Civil War, Suckley rejoined the Army and worked as a surgeon throughout the war. He died in New York City a few years after the war.

Two fish species, Squalus suckleyi Girard 1855, and Catostomus sucklii Girard 1856, and the bumblebee Bombus suckleyi are named after George Suckley.

In 1856, American botanist A.Gray published Suckleya, a genus of flowering plants from America belonging to the family Amaranthaceae, which were named in George Suckley's honor.

Works

 * (with James Graham Cooper) Natural History of Washington Territory (1859)

title: George Suckley


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Thaification

Thaification, or Thai-ization, is the process by which people of different cultural and ethnic origins living in Thailand become assimilated to the dominant culture of Thailand, that of central Thailand.

Thaification was a step in the creation in the 20th century of the Thai nation state in which Central Thai people occupy a dominant position, as opposed to the historically multicultural kingdom of Siam. A related term, "Thainess", describes the particular characteristics that distinguish Thai persons from others.

Motives
Thaification is a byproduct of the nationalist policies mandated by the Thai state after the Siamese coup d'état of 1933. The coup leaders, said to be inspired by Western ideas of an exclusive nation state, acted more in accordance with their close German nationalist and anti-democratic counterparts (pre-Nazi) to effect kingdom-wide dominance by the central Thai culture. Minority-owned businesses, like the traditionally merchant Thai Chinese, were aggressively acquired by the state, which gave preferential contracts to ethnic Central Thais and cooperative ethnic Chinese.

Thai identity was mandated via 12 Thai cultural mandates and reinforced both in the heartlands and in rural areas. Central Thailand became economically and politically dominant, and Central Thai (differentiated from multilingual in Siam) became the state-mandated language of the media, business, education, and all state agencies. Central Thai values were successfully inculcated into being perceived as the desirable national values, with increasing proportions of the population identified as Thai. Central Thai culture, being the culture of wealth and status, made it hugely attractive to a once-diverse population seeking to be identified with nationalist unity.

Targets
The main targets of Thaification were ethnic Chinese and other ethnic groups on the edges of the kingdom, geographically and culturally: the Lao of Isan (อีสาน), the hill tribes of western and northern Thailand, and also Thais who speak the Southern Thai language. There has also been a Thaification of the immigrant Indian and Vietnamese populations. Thaification also targeted the ethnic Malay but was perhaps least successful.

Policies
Thaification by the government can be separated into three sets of policies:

Rural development
In the first set of policies, the government targeted specific policies and actions at fringe groups. An example of this is the Accelerated Rural Development Programme of 1964, the Isan component of which included the strengthening of allegiance to Bangkok and the rest of the country as one of its objectives.

Education
The second set of policies consists of policies applied nationally, but that disproportionately affect fringe groups. One example of this is the prescribed use of Central Thai language in schools. This had little or no effect on the central Thais or Siamese people who already used the language as a native, but made bilinguals of speakers of Isan in the northeast, of Northern Thai (คำเมือง) in the north, and of Pattani Malay (ยาวี) in the south.

Harsher methods were imposed on the Thai Chinese. After the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, a series of anticommunist Thai military juntas, starting with that of right-wing dictator Plaek Phibunsongkhram, sharply reduced Chinese immigration and prohibited Chinese schools in Thailand. Thai Chinese born after the 1950s had "very limited opportunities to enter Chinese schools". Those Thai Chinese who could afford to study overseas studied English instead of Mandarin Chinese for economic reasons. As a result, the Chinese in Thailand have "almost totally lost the language of their ancestors", and are gradually losing their Chinese identity.

Encouraging Thai nationalism
A third set of policies was designed to encourage Thai nationalism in the nation's peoples. Examples include the promotion of the king as a national figurehead, saluting the flag in school and the twice daily broadcasts of the national anthem (เพลงชาติ; ) on radio and television at 08:00 and 18:00 as well as in public spaces. Encouraging Thai nationalism had the intended side effect of discouraging other loyalties, such as that to Laos, stemming from the central Thais' fear of Lao cultural and political dominance in the Isan region and that of Malay (มลายู; ) in the south.

title: Thaification


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Talk:Thaification

Untitled
Duh, this kind of "cultural gencide" goes on in every culture, even cultured yoghurt! R.Lee, on the ear of Siam 10:53 19/6/2549BE

The article so far completely ignores the incorporation of the Chinese, mainly because I know little about it. If I find out, I'll add it. Markalexander100 07:52, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Some sources (e.g. ) say that Yawi is the name of a dialect or language rather than just a script. Does anyone have any details? Mark1 00:27, 9 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Title of the article
Was the term "Thaification" ever used in any of the two references to this article? It sounds like an artificial term to me, and I'd like to confirm that it is in common use in serious articles or book on Thai culture. Patiwat (talk) 03:36, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

 * I didn't originate the article; I believe User_talk:Henry_Flower did, and copied your question to his talk page. The term sounds 'artificial' to me, too; but also highly descriptive. Googling the term mostly referenced right back here; the only 'scholarly' work my search found that didn't refer back here is Holy War or Open Door? The Role of Islam in the Aceh Conflict *DRAFT*, A Working Paper for the Twelth Annual CANCAPS Conference, Quebec City, Quebec, 3-5 December 2004. Writing in reference to the annexation of the Kingdom of Pattani, it says, "Under the Phibun regime, Siam was renamed as Thailand, the land of the free, and a programme of 'Thaification' was undertaken." [www.cancaps.ca/conf2004/barter.pdf Pg. 2 0f 13]. But, if the title is changed to one with a more NPOV, as there are so many references back to the current title, a "redirect" will be needed. Pawyilee (talk) 11:20, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

 * Hi, the term is extensively used in academic discussions of Thai culture; Thongchai certainly uses it.  Wyatt is more of a pop history book, so he may not.  A search on Google scholar shows 16 eminently serious references. HenryFlower 07:58, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

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title: Talk:Thaification


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Talk:Ark-La-Tex

Untitled
Who invented this sobriquet? Quite recent I imagine. Sounds journalese for "Texarkana." Wetman 07:57, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * I don't know if the name was invented or emerged gradually over time, although I am inlcined to think the latter. The name is not recent, my 82 year old grandmother has used the name her entire life. I would say that the name at least predates the use of the word Oklahoma to discribe the modern state as it is not included in the name, but is considered part of the region. There are also variants on the spelling ArkLaTex and Arklatex, both of which are more commonly used by locals. The Ark-La-Tex spelling was popularized by televison stations, and is more popular to use in business names. Personally I prefer Arklatex or ArkLaTex to Ark-La-Tex, it just looks idiotic. Ark-La-Tex does get more google hits though, which is why I haven't moved it.

 * The name is does not refer to Texarkana, but a region roughly the size of New Hampshire and Vermont, with a population between one and two million depending on how its borders are defined. Texarkana is only the secondary metro area, Shreveport/Bossier is the major metro. With Marshall, Texas and Natchitoches, Louisiana as the other major population centers in the region.

 * -JCarriker 18:07, Aug 5, 2004 (UTC)

The core of Ark-La-Tex?
Shreveport is referred to in its article as "the commercial and cultural center of the Ark-La-Tex," while Texarkana is refered to in its own article as "the core of the Ark-La-Tex region." This seems rather contradictory, and should probably be clarified/corrected. Possibly the statements in both articles could be changed to something like "one of the two major Metropolitan Statistical Areas of Ark-La-Tex"? Erp Erpington 08:42, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

Importance
I feel that the Ark-La-Tex is an important US cultural region and not just b/c I used to live there. I think it deserves a bit higher rating from Wikiproject Texas then Low-importance. --Leodmacleod 20:02, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

Autonomy?
"The region is centered on the Shreveport/Bossier metropolitan area in Northwest Louisiana, although Marshall in Northeast Texas, Natchitoches, Louisiana, and both Texarkana, Texas and Texarkana, Arkansas retain a large degree of autonomy."

This sentence in the lead implies that (a) the Arklatex is an actual political entity and (b) Shreveport/Bossier has some authority over the region, specicifically over the other cities listed. For them to have "a large degree of autonomy" would mean there are at least some matters in which they are not autonomous. Is there some other meaning that I'm just missing? LarryJeff (talk) 20:00, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

title: Talk:Ark-La-Tex


text:
Galvanic

Galvanic (after Luigi Galvani) may refer to:

 * Galvanic anode
 * Galvanic bath
 * Galvanic cell
 * Galvanic corrosion
 * Galvanic current
 * Galvanic isolation
 * Galvanic series
 * Galvanic skin response
 * Galvanic vestibular stimulation
 * Galvanism
 * Galvanization
 * Operation Galvanic, World War II attack which included the Battle of Tarawa

title: Galvanic


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User:Doron

Took some time off. Well, not really.

he:משתמש:דורון

title: User:Doron


text:
User:Szopen/NamingWar

The proposition:

The msg
In every article with controversial name the following sentences such be put:

"The question of _proper_ naming of the cities in area called Western Prussia or Pomerania is very sensitive and controversial issue for many Poles and Germans. That's why the compromise about naming had been made, which can be find _here_."

The sentence could be put 1) as the msg in the beginning

2) as the comment AND in the see also link

In addition, in see also there should be link to the article explaining the status of Royal Prussia (including Gdansk/Danzig).

The compromise should explain why the case is sensitive, what arguments had both sides. E.g it could write that in the past using of certain names implied the stressing Polish or German rights to the city; it could show that in the past (up to 1980s) both Polish and German historian were presenting only their sides of the history and were using the history to present the Polish or German historical rights to the city;

Later it should clearly state that both German and Polish names were used for times immemorial, but however in modern period before XIX mostly German names were used in English word; it should explain that it's sensitive to Poles because they believe that it was because of partitions and because English wordl was seeing the region through German eyes. Later it should explain that after 1945 the official names were not invented, but simply Polish names started to be used.

It should also stress the German presence in the area and pre-1989 effort of communists of erasing the traces of Germanness (as well as pre-1945 efforts of Nazis, and earlier the German XIX century historians, to erase traces of ties with Poland).

The status article
I would prefer NOT TO incorporate it into another articles, but rather use it as a way to educate newcomers with fast fingers who are so eager to scream "Gdansk Gdansk uber alles" or "Danzig zawsze Niemiecki!"

Legal status of Pomerania under Teutonic Knights
Explain issues with the _buying_ of the Pomerania and keeping it as "Polish alm".

After 1308 Teutonic knights have occupied Pomerania (territories, which later were known as Western Prussia). They justified their action on two basis

 * 1) First, they bought the claim to Pomerania from Brandenburg. Brandenburg had a claim on Pomerania based on contract with Wenceslaus III, at the time king of Poland and sovereing of Pomerania. He promised Brandenburg Pomerania in return for Meissen territory. However, since Wenceslaus had not acquired Meissen, then in fact contract was NOT made and Brandenburg claim had very weak basis.

 * 1) Second, they claimed that they were promised a payment from Ladislaus the Elbow for helping him with pushing the Brandenburg from Pomerania. It's true that Ladislaus promised a payment, it's not clear however what was the payment and what were other conditions. Teutonic Knights demanded enormous sum in gold, and said that they will keep the whole area when the sum was not paid.

Nevertheless the knights offered the Polish king to buy his claims (the offer he refused). The Polish claims were further backed during papal trials, which ordered Pomerania to be returned to Poland. However, finally in 1343 Casimir the Great signed a treaty which recognised that Teutonic Knights are keeping Pomerania legally. The wording of the treay was tricky: the clause was that the Knights are keeping Pomerania as "an alm from Polish king" which could be interpreted such as Polish king still had rights to Pomerania.

Legal status of Royal Prussia before 1569
explaining the basis of authonomy or Royal Prussia

After the series of wars between Poland and Teutonic Order the Prussian estates (the nobles and cities) received right of armed resistance against Teutons if they would ever start the war against the Poland.

In 1450's the conflict between the Knights and their Prussian subjects have been arising. When Prussians envoys taking their complains to the Holy Roman Emperor were told that they should immedietely dissolve their confederation and be loyal subjects of Teutonic Order, they seek a protection with Polish king Casimir, asking him for incorporation of Prussia into Poland. This was accomplished after 13 years war, when after second treaty of Thorn in 1466 Royal Prussia was incorporated into Poland.

However, the Royal Prussia received wide authonomy: it's own treasure, separate from the treasure in Poland proper (the treasure was managed by the king, but out of any control of Polish Sejm) and it's own parliament. In addition only the Prussians could hold the offices in Prussia. There were two clauses from 1454 privilege used as basis of authonomy:

article VI "..inhabitants of the mentioned ours Prussian lands in laws, freedoms, letters ... which they got from princes, kings and masters of mentioned lands we will protect and keep..."

article XI "..every important case (omnes causas notabilas) which is of interest to mentioned lands, we will with advise of comon Council of mentioned lands end, consider and decide..."

It have to be noted that since XVIII century (starting with Danzig historian Lengnich) German historian were forcing theory that Royal Prussia was not part of Polish crown, but only tied with Poland with personal union. However the treaties and privileges state clearly that Prussia is incorporated into Poland; the king, though was using the title of duke of Prussia, ruled Prussia as Polish king, and there was no separate for becoming duke of Prussia. Prussians had it's places in Polish parliament, but they rarely were using that privilege, usually ignoring king's calls for sending the deputees to Polish parliament.

Therefore before 1569 Royal Prussia was part of Polish kingdom, though with very large authonomy.

Legal status of Royal Prussia after 1569
Explaining changes in the status of Royal Prussia after the union of Lublin

Since the 1550s the Polish executionist's movement was forcing the unification of different part of the kingdom and the union with the Lithuania. Therefore the conflict with Prussian elites was inevitable.

It have to be noted here, that Prussian elites were both Polish and German; There was sense of separate identity, and it could be argued that with good conditions Prussians woudl develop a nation on its own. It was only in XIX century when former Prussians became Poles or Germans.

In the conflict Polish parliament was backed by lower nobility and smaller cities, while Prussian elite and larger cities were backed by Polish senate. In the end however Royal Prussia status was unified with the rest of the country, with the exception of "indigenat", that is privilege that only Prussian may hold offices in Prussia. Despite many protests from nobility from other provinces, the privilege survived (At least to 1630)?

It should be noted here, that some German historians are doubting the legal basis for the unification; however from the point of view of Polish parliament they were just executing rights of the Polish crown from the earlier treaties, which were talking about "incorporation" and were taking this word very seriously. When Prussian elites were saying that they are not bound by acts passed by earlier Sejms, because they were not participating in them, Polish leader of executionist movement answered, that since they had the right to participate, it was only their fault.

Status of Gdansk/Danzig after 1569
The Gdansk/Danzig was the largest city in Royal Prussia and therefore it managed to achieve very special status. While being part of Royal Prussia and therefore - in theory - the Union of Lublin applied also to it, in reality Gdansk/Danzig was self-governing for quite a large time.

There are historians who argue that Gdansk/Danzig was independent: it had it's own army, it send their own envoys etc.

However, it should be stressed that Danzig status was regulated by laws passed by Polish parliament. When on one occassion Danzig refused to enter gates to comission sent by Polish parliament, it's burgmeister was imprisoned and put in trial. Before Union of Lublin and Confederation of Warsaw it needed separate privileges from Polish king for freedom of religion in city; on occasions there were interventions on Polish army inside of Danzig.

Except of one war with stephen Bathory (when Gdansk/Danzig recognised emperor Maximilian as king of Poland and refused to recognise Bathory as king of Poland), Gdansk/Danzig was loyal subject to Polish crown. On many occasion Polish military fleet was stationing in Danzig; during partitions Danzigers were fighting for keeping their status as Polish subjects (there were POLISH deputes who were voting for giving back Gdansk/Danzig, while Danzigers themselves were agaisnt it!!)

It should be noted here that despite being part of Polish kingdom, Danzig/Gdansk was very authonomous and largely self-governing, with majority of population German.

Status of Ducal Prussia after 1525 and before 1650
Before 1525 the Teutonic Order in Eastern Prussia was considered vassal of Poland. However, the grand masters of Order often refused to giving a vow to Polish kings and the status of Eastern Prussia was on occasions a formality.

The situation changed radically in 1525. Ducal Prussia became first protestant country in Europe and it needed desperately protector. Poland became such protector and Eastern Prussia became very loyal subject of Polish crown. The Prussia was to be duchy inherited by Ansbach line of Hohenzollerns. After they would died out, the Duchy should be incorporated into Poland.

However, despite the efforrs of so called "querulants", or pro-Polish party inside of Ducal Prussia (which were planning the incorporation of Prussia into Poland and dividing it into three Polish voivodships), the brandenburg branch of Hohenzollerns were able to convince Polish king first about giving them regentship and protection over mentally ill last duke from Ansbach line, and then finally for letting them inheriting Prussia - on condition, that after Hohenzollerns will died out the province will be incorporated into Poland. The pro-Polish opposition (composed from Polish catholic gentry settled in ducal Prussia and lutheran, German gentry), was eliminated from public life in 1630s.

It should be stressed here that internal oposition in Ducal Prussia was not based on ethnic divisions. It united both catholic Poles and lutheran Germans, who were enraged by the fact, that new duke was violating indigenat cause, was calvin (the only religions allowed in Ducal Prussia were lutheran and catholic) and was confiscating catholic churches. It had few successes, mostly relating to clauses of right of apelation to Polish king (which was never exercised with success) and return of catholic priests to catholic churches.

title: User:Szopen/NamingWar


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Quackwatch

Quackwatch is a United States-based website, self-described as a "network of people" founded by Stephen Barrett, which aims to "combat health-related frauds, myths, fads, fallacies, and misconduct" and to focus on "quackery-related information that is difficult or impossible to get elsewhere". Since 1996 it has operated the alternative medicine watchdog website quackwatch.org, which advises the public on unproven or ineffective alternative medical remedies. The site contains articles and other information criticizing many forms of alternative medicine.

Quackwatch cites peer-reviewed journal articles and has received several awards. The site has been developed with the assistance of a worldwide network of volunteers and expert advisors. It has received positive recognition and recommendations from mainstream organizations and sources, although at times it has also received criticism for perceived bias in its coverage. It has been recognized in the media, which cite quackwatch.org as a practical source for online consumer information. The success of Quackwatch has generated the creation of additional affiliated websites; there were 21 of them.

History
Barrett founded the Lehigh Valley Committee Against Health Fraud (LVCAHF) in 1969, and it was incorporated in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1970. In 1996, the corporation began the website quackwatch.org, and the organization itself was renamed Quackwatch, Inc. in 1997. The Pennsylvania nonprofit corporation was dissolved after Barrett moved to North Carolina in 2008, but the network's activities continue. Quackwatch co-founded, and was closely affiliated with, the National Council Against Health Fraud (NCAHF). The NCAHF was formally dissolved in 2011.

In February 2020, Quackwatch became part of the Center for Inquiry. CFI planned to maintain its various websites and to receive Barrett's library later in the year.

Mission and scope
Quackwatch is overseen by Barrett, its owner, with input from advisors and help from volunteers, including a number of medical professionals. In 2003, 150 scientific and technical advisors: 67 medical advisors, 12 dental advisors, 13 mental health advisors, 16 nutrition and food science advisors, three podiatry advisors, eight veterinary advisors, and 33 other "scientific and technical advisors" were listed by Quackwatch. Many more have since volunteered, but advisor names are no longer listed.

Quackwatch describes its mission as follows:

"...investigating questionable claims, answering inquiries about products and services, advising quackery victims, distributing reliable publications, debunking pseudoscientific claims, reporting illegal marketing, improving the quality of health information on the internet, assisting or generating consumer-protection lawsuits, and attacking misleading advertising on the internet."

Quackwatch has no salaried employees, and the total cost of operating all Quackwatch's sites is approximately $7,000 per year. It is funded mainly by small individual donations, commissions from sales on other sites to which they refer, profits from the sale of publications, and self-funding by Barrett. The stated income is also derived from the usage of sponsored links.

Site content
The Quackwatch website contains essays and white papers, written by Barrett and other writers, intended for the non-specialist consumer. The articles discuss health-related products, treatments, enterprises, and providers that Quackwatch deems to be misleading, fraudulent, or ineffective. Also included are links to article sources and both internal and external resources for further study.

The site is developed with the assistance from volunteers and expert advisors. Many of its articles cite peer-reviewed research and are footnoted with several links to references. A review in Running & FitNews stated the site "also provides links to hundreds of trusted health sites."

Related and subsidiary sites
Naturowatch is a subsidiary site of Quackwatch which aims to provide information about naturopathy that is "difficult or impossible to find elsewhere". The site is operated by Barrett and Kimball C. Atwood IV, an anesthesiologist by profession, who has become a vocal critic of alternative medicine.

The site is available in French and formerly in German and Portuguese, as well as via several mirrors.

Influence
Sources that mention Stephen Barrett's Quackwatch as a useful source for consumer information include website reviews,   government agencies, and various journals     including The Lancet.

Mention in media, books, and journals
Quackwatch has been mentioned in the media, books and various journals, as well as receiving several awards and honors. The Journal of the American Medical Association mentioned Quackwatch as one of nine "select sites that provide reliable health information and resources" in 1998. It was also listed as one of three medical sites in U.S. News & World Report's "Best of the Web" in 1999. Thomas R. Eng, director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Science Panel on Interactive Communication and Health, stated in 1999 that while "the government doesn't endorse Web sites...[Quackwatch] is the only site I know of right now looking at issues of fraud and health on the Internet."

Sources that mention quackwatch.org as a resource for consumer information include the United States Department of Agriculture, the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the Skeptic's Dictionary, the Diet Channel, and articles published in The Lancet, the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, the Journal of Marketing Education, the Medical Journal of Australia, and the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.Sources that mention quackwatch.org as a resource for consumer information:
 * Quackwatch and Skeptical Inquirer are suggested resources for a pharmacy course on unproven medications and therapies.
 * . Names Quackwatch as the premier site for exposing purveyors of health frauds, myths, and fads.
 * Chonko states "Many of the thoughts on which this article is based are adapted from materials found on this site." (referring to Quackwatch)
 * . Sampson says that "CAM source information tends to exclude well known critical and objective web pages such as those found on Quackwatch (www.quackwatch.org)."
 * U.S. National Institutes of Health: Health Quackery: Spotting Health Scams – U.S. National Institutes of Health
 * Diet Channel: In addition, several nutrition associations link to Quackwatch. An article in PC World listed it as one of three websites for finding the truth about Internet rumors. A Washington Post review of alternative medicine websites noted that "skeptics may find Quackwatch offers better truth-squadding than the Food and Drug Administration or the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine."
 * U.S. National Institutes of Health: Health Quackery: Spotting Health Scams – U.S. National Institutes of Health
 * Diet Channel: In addition, several nutrition associations link to Quackwatch. An article in PC World listed it as one of three websites for finding the truth about Internet rumors. A Washington Post review of alternative medicine websites noted that "skeptics may find Quackwatch offers better truth-squadding than the Food and Drug Administration or the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine."
 * Diet Channel: In addition, several nutrition associations link to Quackwatch. An article in PC World listed it as one of three websites for finding the truth about Internet rumors. A Washington Post review of alternative medicine websites noted that "skeptics may find Quackwatch offers better truth-squadding than the Food and Drug Administration or the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine."
 * Diet Channel: In addition, several nutrition associations link to Quackwatch. An article in PC World listed it as one of three websites for finding the truth about Internet rumors. A Washington Post review of alternative medicine websites noted that "skeptics may find Quackwatch offers better truth-squadding than the Food and Drug Administration or the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine."

The books Low-Carb Dieting for Dummies (2003), The Arthritis Helpbook (2006), The Rough Guide to the Internet (2007), Navigating the Medical Maze: A Practical Guide (2008), Chronic Pain For Dummies (2008), and The 2009 Internet Directory (2008) mention or use content from Quackwatch.

Citations by journalists
Quackwatch and Barrett have also been cited by journalists in reports on therapeutic touch, Vitamin O, Almon Glenn Braswell's baldness treatments, Robert Barefoot's coral calcium claims, William C. Rader's "stem cell" therapy, noni juice, shark cartilage and saturated fat.

Recommendations and endorsements
The American Cancer Society lists Quackwatch as one of ten reputable sources of information about alternative and complementary therapies in their book Cancer Medicine. In a long series of articles on various alternative medicine methods, it uses Quackwatch as a reference and includes criticisms of the methods. A list of articles on many forms of alternative medicine on the American Cancer Society website that use Quackwatch as a source. Oxygen Therapy, Metabolic Therapy, Kirlian Photography , Crystals , Psychic Surgery , Folic Acid, Craniosacral Therapy , Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation , Neuro-Linguistic Programming , Questionable Practices In Tijuana , Breathwork , Moxibustion , Faith Healing , Cancer Salves , Qigong , Osteopathy, Imagery , Qigong , Magnetic Therapy.

The Health On the Net Foundation, which confers the HONcode "Code of Conduct" certification to reliable sources of health information in cyberspace, recommends Quackwatch. It also advises Internet users to alert Quackwatch when they encounter "possibly or blatantly fraudulent" healthcare websites.

In a 2007 feasibility study on a method for identifying web pages that make unproven claims, the authors wrote: "Our gold standard relied on selected unproven cancer treatments identified by experts at http://www.quackwatch.org ... By using unproven treatments identified by an oversight organization, we capitalized on an existing high quality review."

Site reviews
Writing in the trade-journal The Consultant Pharmacist in 1999, pharmacist Bao-Anh Nguyen-Khoa characterized Quackwatch as "relevant for both consumers and professionals" and containing articles that would be of interest to pharmacists, but that a peer review process would improve the site's legitimacy. Nguyen-Khoa said the presence of so many articles written by Barrett gave an impression of lack of balance but that the site was taking steps to correct this by recruiting expert contributors. He also noted that"Barrett often inserts his strong opinions directly into sections of an article already well supported by the literature. Although entertaining, this direct commentary may be viewed by some as less than professional medical writing and may be better reserved for its own section."Donna Ladd, a journalist with The Village Voice, in 1999 described Barrett as "a full-time journalist and book author", "never a medical researcher", and one who "depends heavily on negative research ... in which alternative therapies do not work" but "says that most case studies that show positive results of alternative therapies are unreliable". She quoted Barrett as saying that "a lot of things don't need to be tested [because] they simply don't make any sense".

Writing in The Lancet, Mona Okasha wrote that Quackwatch provides an "entertaining read", but described it as only appropriate for limited use as it fails to provide a balanced view of alternative cancer treatments. Jane Cuzzell viewed Quackwatch similarly, arguing that it was entertaining but that the "resource value of this site depends on what the visitor is seeking" and had concerns about the appearance of bias in the selection of the material. However, while Lillian Brazin also found it to be biased, she described Quackwatch as credible, and noted both the credentials of the contributors and the thoroughness of the content.

In a 2002 book, Ned Vankevitch, associate professor of communications at Trinity Western University, places Barrett in a historical tradition of anti-quackery, embracing such figures as Morris Fishbein and Abraham Flexner, which has been part of American medical culture since the early-twentieth century. Although acknowledging that Quackwatch's "exposé of dangerous and fraudulent health products represents an important social and ethical response to deception and exploitation", Vankevitch criticizes Barrett for attempting to limit "medical diversity", employing "denigrating terminology", categorizing all complementary and alternative medicine as a species of medical hucksterism, failing to condemn shortcomings within conventional biomedicine, and for promoting an exclusionary model of medical scientism and health that serves hegemonic interests and does not fully address patient needs.

Waltraud Ernst, professor of the history of medicine at Oxford Brookes University, commenting on Vankevitch's observations in 2002, agrees that attempts to police the "medical cyber-market with a view to preventing fraudulent and potentially harmful practices may well be justified". She commends "Barrett's concern for unsubstantiated promotion and hype," and says that "Barrett's concern for fraudulent and potentially dangerous medical practices is important," but she sees Barrett's use of "an antiquarian term such as 'quack'" as part of a "dichotomising discourse that aims to discredit the "'old-fashioned', 'traditional', 'folksy' and heterodox by contrasting it with the 'modern', 'scientific' and orthodox." Ernst also interprets Barrett's attempt to "reject and label as 'quackery' each and every approach that is not part of science-based medicine" as one which minimizes the patient's role in the healing process and is inimical to medical pluralism.

A 2003 website review by Forbes magazine stated:

"Dr. Stephen Barrett, a psychiatrist, seeks to expose unproven medical treatments and possible unsafe practices through his homegrown but well-organized site. Mostly attacking alternative medicines, homeopathy and chiropractors, the tone here can be rather harsh. However, the lists of sources of health advice to avoid, including books, specific doctors and organizations, are great for the uninformed. Barrett received an FDA Commissioner's Special Citation Award for fighting nutrition quackery in 1984. BEST: Frequently updated, but also archives of relevant articles that date back at least four years. WORST: Lists some specific doctors and organizations without explaining the reason for their selection."

A 2004 review paper by Katja Schmidt and Edzard Ernst in the Annals of Oncology identified Quackwatch as an outstanding complementary medicine information source for cancer patients.

The Good Web Guide said in 2006 that Quackwatch "is without doubt an important and useful information resource and injects a healthy dose of scepticism into reviewing popular health information", but "tends to define what is possible or true only in terms of what science has managed to 'prove' to date".

The organization has often been challenged by supporters and practitioners of the various forms of alternative medicine that are criticized on the website.

title: Quackwatch


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Al Benton

John Alton Benton (March 18, 1911 – April 14, 1968) was an American professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Athletics, Detroit Tigers, Cleveland Indians, and Boston Red Sox. The right-hander was listed as 6 ft tall and 215 lb.

Benton is known for being the only pitcher to face both Babe Ruth (in 1934) and Mickey Mantle (in 1952). Benton is also the only player to have two sacrifice bunts in the same inning, against the Cleveland Indians on August 6, 1941.

Biography
Benton was born in Noble, Oklahoma, a small town a few miles south of Norman. In 1940, Benton led the American League with 17 saves. In 1941 he went 15–6 with a 2.97 earned run average (ERA) (second in the American League (AL)) in 38 games. He completed seven of 14 starts and got seven saves. Despite his 7–13 mark a year later, his ERA was 2.90 with career-highs in starts (30) and innings pitched (226$2/3$). Benton was chosen for the AL All-Star team in both 1941 and 1942, and then missed the 1943 and 1944 seasons while serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II.

Benton was discharged from the Navy in November 1944 and had his best year in 1945. He compiled a record of 13–8, a career-low 2.02 ERA, five shutouts, and 12 complete games in 191$2/3$ innings. In a remarkable testament to the Tigers pitching in 1945, Hal Newhouser and Benton were No. 1 and No. 2 in ERA among AL pitchers. Newhouser's Adjusted ERA+ in 1945 was 195 and Benton's was 175. The Adjusted ERA+ figures posted by Newhouser and Benton in 1945 rank as the first and fifth best seasons all time for a Detroit Tigers pitcher with at least 150 innings pitched. Benton pitched in relief in three games in the 1945 World Series and gave up only one earned run for a 1.93 World Series ERA.

The rest of his career he worked largely as a setup man or as an emergency starter. A two-time All-Star (1941–42), Benton compiled a career 98–88 record with 697 strikeouts and a 3.66 ERA in 1688$1/3$ innings.

Benton died in 1968 at the age of 57 from burns he suffered when the Lynwood, California, motel he managed exploded into flames.

title: Al Benton


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Hucho taimen

Siberian taimen (Hucho taimen), also known as the common taimen (Обыкнове́нный тайме́нь), Siberian giant trout or Siberian salmon, is a species of salmon-like ray-finned fish from the genus Hucho in the family Salmonidae. These fish are found in rivers in Siberia and adjacent regions, and are harvested throughout the year.

Habits and range
The taimen is distributed from the Volga and Pechora River basins in the west to the Yana and Amur River basins in the east, spanning portions of Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and China. On a larger scale, this includes parts of the Caspian, Arctic, and Pacific drainages in Eurasia. In Mongolia, the taimen is found in both the Arctic and Pacific drainages, specifically the Yenisei/Selenga, the Lena, and the Amur River Basins. The taimen lives in flowing water and is only occasionally found in lakes, usually near the mouth of a tributary. The taimen is not anadromous, but does show increased movement rates during the spawning season. The average home range size of taimen in the Eg-Üur rivers of Mongolia is 23 km, but some tagged individuals show home ranges up to 93 km. Some authors consider the taimen to be a subspecies of the huchen, i.e. Hucho hucho taimen.

Description
Coloration varies geographically, but is generally olive green on the head blending to reddish brown in the tail. Adipose, anal, and caudal fins are often dark red. The belly ranges from nearly white to dark gray. The taimen appears to be the largest salmonid in the world, being heavier at average and maximum sizes than the largest North American salmonid, the chinook salmon. Most mature fish caught weigh from 15 to 30 kg. The average length is from 70 to 120 cm. The maximum length is about 150 to 180 cm. The maximum size is not assured, but supposedly a fish caught in the Kotui River in Russia in 1943 with a length of 210 cm and a weight of 105 kg is the largest size recorded. The IGFA world record is 45.80 kg with a length of 150.00 cm. It can reach at least 55 years of age.

Diet
Adult taimen are mainly piscivores, eating fish, though they frequently eat terrestrial prey such as rodents and birds.

Angling and commercial use
The taimen is becoming a more well-known game fish, particularly for fly fishers. Catch-and-release with barbless hooks is practised in many areas to conserve dwindling populations of this species. Organizations such as the Taimen Conservation Fund are working to conserve the remaining populations. While the taimen is sometimes (often illegally) harvested commercially, its low price and slow growth and reproduction make it more valuable as a game fish.

Conservation
The taimen has been assessed as vulnerable and in decline by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Threats to the taimen include land-use change, such as the establishment of sand and gravel industries in Mongolia and in Heilongjiang Province, China, industrial water pollution in Europe, commercial fishing in the Amur River region of Russia and China, legal and illegal sport fishing throughout its range and the impacts of climate change. The IUCN recommends that the fish be considered for inclusion in the Convention on Migratory Species to spur international cooperation on the conservation of this fully migratory species.

Folklore

 * Mongolian legend tells of a giant taimen trapped in river ice. Starving herders were able to survive the winter by hacking off pieces of its flesh. In the spring, the ice melted and the giant taimen climbed onto the land, tracked down the herders, and ate them all.
 * According to Chinese folklore, a type of giant taimen lives in Kanas Lake in China. Villagers near Kanasi claim to have found fish weighing over 4 tonnes.
 * National Geographic called the taimen the "Mongolian Terror Trout".

title: Hucho taimen


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Chi River

The Chi River (แม่น้ำชี,, ; , ) is the longest river flowing wholly within Thailand. It is 765 km long but carries less water than the second longest river, the Mun. The name of the river is "Mae Si" in the Isan and Lao languages of the region, being transliterated as "Chi" in Bangkok-Thai. In wet seasons there are often flash floods in the floodplain of the Chi River basin.

Course
The river rises in the Phetchabun mountains, then runs east through the central Isan provinces of Chaiyaphum, Khon Kaen, and Maha Sarakham, then turns south in Roi Et, runs through Yasothon and joins the Mun in the Kanthararom district of Sisaket Province. The river carries approximately 9.3 km3 of water per annum.

The river was an 18th-century migration route for the re-peopling of the Khorat Plateau by ethnic Lao people from the left (east) bank of the Mekong resettling on the right bank. This began in 1718 when the first king of the left bank Kingdom of Champasak, King Nokasad, sent a group of some 3,000 subjects led by an official in his service to found the first settlement in the Chi River valley—and indeed anywhere in the interior of the Khorat Plateau—Muang Suwannaphum in present-day Roi Et Province (a history recorded and remembered, largely in terms of the struggle to expand wet-rice cultivation in the river valley). Their descendants are now regarded as a separate ethnic group from the Lao to the north and the central Thai to the southwest.

Pop culture
Chi river is the setting of a Thai TV drama on Channel 7 HD, titled Chart Lam Chi (ชาติลำชี; The River Chi's Protector). It was an action-drama TV series that aired from March 14 to April 25, 2018, remake from namesake film in 1969 (starred by Mitr Chaibancha and Petchara Chaowarat).

title: Chi River


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Quelle

Quelle may refer to:

People

 * Horst Matthai Quelle (1912–1999), German philosopher
 * Quelle Chris (born 1984), American rapper

Other

 * Quelle (Bible), a hypothesized collection of Jesus' sayings
 * Quelle station, in Bielefeld, Germany
 * Quelle-Kupferheide station, located in Bielefeld, Germany
 * Quelle, a German department store now part of Karstadt
 * Quelle AG, now part of Arcandor

title: Quelle