text:
Šumadija

Šumadija (Шумадија, ) is a geographical region in the central part of Serbia. The area used to be heavily covered with forests, hence the name (from šuma 'forest'). The city of Kragujevac is the administrative center of the Šumadija District in the Šumadija and Western Serbia statistical region.

The region is very fertile, and it is known for its extensive fruit production (apples, grapes, plums, etc.).

Name
Šumadija received its name from the dense and impassable forests which covered the region, particularly in the 16th and 17th centuries. These forests were preserved until the early 19th century; they are mentioned in literature and tradition. Bertrandon de la Broquière (1400–1459) passed through Serbia, on the road from Palanka to Belgrade he "passed through very large forests". During the reign of Prince Miloš (1817–1839), Serbia was covered with dense forests, through which "no one could walk through, let alone with horse". When Alphonse de Lamartine took a trip to Serbia (1833), he described the forests as "like he was in the middle of the North American forests". In the Jasenica villages a tradition was maintained "that everywhere there were empty forests, and settlers called relatives to come and occupy the land how much they want ... the forests were in need of cutting down trees and burning for years ... it was so impassable, that one could walk for days through it, without seeing the sun".

The region of Šumadija is surrounded by the river Morava in the east, Kolubara in the west, the Danube in the north, and the mountains of Crni Vrh, Kotlenik and Rudnik in the southeast, south and southwest. The inhabitants of this region have earned the demonym Šumadinci.

Geography
Šumadija is located between mountain Kosmaj in the north, city Smederevska Palanka in the east, mountain Gledić in the south, and Kolubara, Ljig and Dičina in the west. According to some interpretations (for example, physiologist J. Cvijić and ethnologist J. Erdeljanović), the northern border of Šumadija lay between Avala and Kosmaj mountain. According to that view, the capital of Serbia, Belgrade does not belong to this region.

Central Šumadija is well known for its rich horticulture, with major products being plums, apples, pears, apricots, peaches, nuts, cherries, strawberries, and raspberries.

The geological region of Šumadija includes formations of enhanced uranium, such as the Brajkovac granitic massif, and volcanites of Medvednjak, Rudnik and, with high average instance of uranium and thorium.

Prehistory
Archaeological sites of the Neolithic Starčevo culture and Vinča culture (5500–4500 BC) are widespread in Šumadija. Settlements of the late Starčevo phase are present in the entire territory of central Šumadija. Risovača Cave, in Aranđelovac is one of the most important archaeological sites of palaeolithic in Europe. Notable Neolithic sites include Grivac and Kusovac in the west, Divostin in the middle, and Dobrovodica and Rajac in the east.

Middle Ages
Šumadija was located directly northeast of Raška, the centre of the Serbian Principality. It is unclear where the exact border with the Bulgarian Khanate went in the 10th century. Prince Zaharija is known to have united several Slavic tribes along the common border to rebel against Bulgaria in the 920s. Časlav (r. 927–960), and Constantine Bodin (r. 1081–1101), may have held parts of Šumadija. The southern half of Šumadija later came under the rule of Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja and the Nemanjić dynasty (1166–1371).

Central Šumadija's three parts – Gruža, Jasenica and Lepenica, most likely existed as administrative divisions or župe (counties) during the Byzantine era. Of these, Gruža was mentioned in the beginning of the 11th century as a peripheral province. The province of Lepenica, with the status of župa, officially entered the realm of Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja in 1183, and later Nemanja granted it as property (metochion) to his endowment, the Hilandar monastery, which he confirmed in the 1198 chrysobull. The province of Dendra, which was held by Serbian ruler Desa (fl. 1150–66), has been interpreted as Šumadija by some scholars, and as Toplica but it has been concluded that it was in the vicinity of Niš; Leskovac (historically Glubočica and Dubočica).

The medieval Serbian state saw its end with the Serbian Despotate's fall in Šumadija in the 15th century.

Early modern history
Until the fall of the Serbian Despotate, the region was advanced, rich and well-populated. This stands out from the travellers that passed through Šumadija in that period. Many topographic names that have survived until today confirm old settlements, churches and monasteries (selište, crkvine, manastirine, kućerine, podrumine, varoševo, etc.), as does old graveyards and other traces. After the fall of the Despotate, opportunities changed. The Ottoman invasion and the events that took place in Šumadija up until the early 19th century were the primary cause for the population motion. Removing themselves ahead of the Ottomans, they left their homes, concealed themselves up in the mountains and ravines, or left in different directions. Settlements disappeared, the churches and monasteries were destroyed, and the population numbers constantly decreased. One traveller, Gerlach, described the path from Batočina to Palanka: "I couldn't find no trace of settlements or culture, everywhere there is wasteland, not a single piece of land has been cultivated, there is not a single village".

Pavle Bakić, who had estates on the Venčac, left between 1515 and 1522 "with a large group of people into Hungary". Schweiger, who passed through Serbia in 1577, among other things, said that he travelled from Kolar "[through] a deserted region, scarcely settled and badly processed, in three days not having seen more than five poor villages". In groups, or individually, families left their homeland and went in different directions, over (preko) the rivers, to Syrmia, Banat, Bačka and Slavonia, to Bosnia, and other regions. This flight lasted until the end of the 18th century, then again, after 1813. During the Austro-Turkish War (1787–91), in 1788, the population of the Šumadija villages Koraćice, Nemenikuća and Rogače fled preko. Among them were Milovan Vidaković, who described their way: "we are watching the villages through which and along which we passed, all are already covered in grass, not a living soul in them, all has gone; vineyards, gardens, flats, it's all empty and lying in weeds". More flights ensued after 1813. For example, the parents of activist Ilija Milosavljević-Kolarac fled preko with the rest of the peasants in 1813, to take shelter in front of the Ottoman army. In Orašac they crossed the Danube and settled in Crepaja, from where they later returned to their homes.

In addition to population emigration, there was also immigration, more or less, depending on the circumstance which prevailed in Šumadija. However, after the Austro-Turkish War, after the establishment of Koča's frontier, when Šumadija had a more bearable situation, it saw an increasing influx of settlers with its height after the outbreak of the First Serbian Uprising (1804). In the first decades of the 19th century Šumadija received most of its population. A liberated region, fruitful, and until then sparsely populated, it attracted settlers.

During the 18th century, the forests and hills of Šumadija were the refuge for the hajduk bands (brigands, rebels, guerilla fighters) that fought against Ottoman occupation. Parts of the Sanjak of Smederevo, all of Šumadija, were liberated by the Austrian army in 1718, resulting in the establishment of the Kingdom of Serbia (1718–39). After the Austro-Russian–Turkish War (1735–39), the sanjak was re-established. In 1788, the Habsburg-organized Serbian Free Corps liberated Šumadija, which, after subsequent Austrian military involvement, came together with the rest of the sanjak under Habsburg occupation (1788–92). The First Serbian Uprising, which broke out in 1804, saw the region liberated under self-organized Serbian rebels led by Šumadijan-born Karađorđe, the national hero of Serbia. The Second Serbian Uprising in 1815 was led by Miloš Obrenović who successfully repelled Ottoman forces and, by 1830, gained full autonomy for Serbia, leading to the independence of central Serbia after several centuries under Ottoman rule.

Contemporary period
Between 1922 and 1929, one of the administrative units in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was the Šumadijska Oblast. It roughly included territory of present-day Šumadija District with its administrative seat in Kragujevac, which is the seat of the modern district as well.

Cities and towns
This section includes towns with a population larger than 15,000.

 * Kragujevac (150,835)
 * Aranđelovac (24,797)
 * Gornji Milanovac (24,216)
 * Mladenovac (23,609)
 * Smederevska Palanka (23,601)
 * Velika Plana (16,078)

Culture
The most common folk costume of Serbia is that of Šumadija. It includes the national hat, the Šajkača, and the traditional leather footwear, opanci. Older villagers still wear their traditional costumes.

The fertile region of Šumadija is particularly known for its plums and Slivovitz (Šljivovica), whose productions are of great importance to Šumadija Serbs and play a part in several of their local customs.

Studies by J. Cvijić
In the Šumadija regions – Kačer, Gruža, Lepenica, Kragujevačka Jasenica, Smederevsko Podunavlje and Jasenica, Kosmaj and in the villages around Belgrade, 8,894 kin families with 52,475 households were included in the study of J. Cvijić. Of these, only 464 families with 3,603 houses were "old" (starinci, also called "natives"), which is close to the number of families of unknown descent (470 families with 2,464 houses), with the rest of the population being settlers (7,960 families, 46,408 houses). Šumadija was settled from almost all of the regions of the then Kingdom of Yugoslavia, though most of which came from the Dinaric areas, that is, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, from Raška and Sandžak, Dalmatia, Lika, and the rest of the Dinaric areas. In lesser numbers they hailed from Kosovo, from Metohija, and the rest of the Yugoslav regions.

According to the studies by J. Cvijić, almost 90% of the families of Šumadija descended from settler families of various Serb ethnographic groups. The Dinaric group was predominant, while other South Slavic regions are included in lesser percentages. This diverse population blended, mutually permeated and leveled, thus creating an ethnographic group (the Šumadinci), with characteristical psychical traits.

Cvijić noted the particular striking character of the Šumadinci as "something very strong, bold, with great activeness, and healthy nerves", that many of them are capable, "it seems, they manage to succeed in any enterprise", and that "there is increasingly appearing personalities with great will", "Foreign observers would have the impression that everyone thrives with intractible persistence and tenacity", "Rigid traditionalism has almost completely disappeared. All adapt to new ways of life. There is less talk, less epic poems and epic preferences than in pure Dinaric people". Among other traits, the Šumadinac has "common sense, measures and sense of reality. They know how to assess things and events fairly and without anger, when they are fully aware of these. The peasants are often characterized by sensing measures, which is rarely held by their schooled compatriots." They were shown to be a very honest and humorous people.

In popular culture

 * Songs
 * Smak, Šumadijski blues (1976)
 * Braća Bajić, Šumadijo, šumovita, folk song (?)
 * interpreted by Bora Spužić Kvaka (1981), Predrag Gojković Cune, Radiša Urošević (1990s), among others
 * Miroslav Ilić, Šumadijo, folk song (1982)
 * Rade Petrović, Šumadijo ko bi tebe ostavio, folk song (1981)
 * interpreted by Era Ojdanić, Šumadijo, Šumadijo
 * Snežana Đurišić, Odakle si, sele, folk song (1981)
 * Gordana Stojićević, Dobro jutro Šumadijo, folk song (1979)
 * Olivera Katarina, Šu, Šu, Šumadijo, pop song (1969)
 * Vasilija Radojčić, Šumadijo, rodni kraju, folk song (?)
 * interpreted by Pavle Stefanović (1977)

title: Šumadija


text:
Charles Booth

Charles Booth may refer to:

Politics

 * Charles Booth (diplomat) (1925–1997), British ambassador to Burma, 1978–1982
 * Charles Erwin Booth (1840–1907), Republican member of the Wisconsin State Assembly
 * Charles Stephen Booth (1897–1988), Canadian member of parliament, 1940–45
 * Charles Steven Booth, Canadian diplomat, representative to the International Civil Aviation Organization, 1947–54

Sports

 * Charles Booth (footballer) (1869–1898), English footballer
 * Charlie Booth (1903–2008), Australian athlete credited for co-inventing starting blocks for sprinting races
 * Charlie Booth (footballer) (1897–?), English footballer
 * Charlie Booth (soccer) (born 1997), American soccer player
 * Charlie Booth (rugby league), English rugby league footballer of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s

Other

 * Charles Booth (bishop) (died 1535), Tudor bishop of Hereford
 * Charles O'Hara Booth (1800–1851), British commandant-in-chief of Port Arthur penal colony, Tasmania
 * Charles Booth (social reformer) (1840–1916), British philanthropist
 * Frederick Charles Booth (1890–1960), Victoria Cross winner
 * Charles G. Booth (1896–1949), American writer of detective fiction

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

title: Charles Booth


text:
Zhangzhou

Zhangzhou is a prefecture-level city in Fujian Province, China. The prefecture around the city proper comprises the southeast corner of the province, facing the Taiwan Strait and (with Quanzhou) surrounding the prefecture of Xiamen.

Name
Zhangzhou is the atonal pinyin romanization of the city's Chinese name, using its pronunciation in Standard Mandarin. The name derives from the city's former status as the seat of the imperial Chinese Zhang Prefecture. The same name was romanized as Changchow on the Chinese Postal Map and Chang-chou in Wade-Giles. Other romanizations include Chang-chow.

It also appears as Chang-chu, Changchew, Chiang-chew, Chiang-Chew, Chiang Chew, Chiochiu, Chanchiu, Changchiu from the city's local Zhangzhou dialect pronunciation of Hokkien. This name appeared in Spanish and Portuguese Jesuit sources as Chincheo as well from the Quanzhou dialect pronunciation of Hokkien, which was anglicized as Chinchew. By the 19th century, however, Chinchew as a name had migrated and was used to refer to Quanzhou, a separate port about 65 mi east-northeast of central Zhangzhou.

Geography
Zhangzhou proper lies on the banks of the Jiulong River in southern Fujian about 35 mi from central Xiamen, whose urban core has grown to form a single urbanized area with it. The prefecture of Zhangzhou comprises the southeastern corner of the province, surrounding Xiamen. The prefecture of Quanzhou lies to its northeast, Longyan to its northwest, and Shantou in Guangdong to its southwest.

Climate
Zhangzhou has a monsoon-influenced humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa), with mild to warm winters and long, very hot and humid summers. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from 13.2 °C in January to 28.8 °C in July, and the annual mean is 21.3 °C. The frost-free period lasts 330 days.

History
According to Odoric of Pordenone, Zhangzhou was a prosperous city twice the size of Bologna.

During the early Qing, Zhangzhou was the primary Fujianese port trading with Portuguese Macao and Spanish Manila. For a time, the Portuguese maintained a factory in the city.

During the late Qing, Zhangzhou remained a center of silk, brick, and sugar production with about a million people and extensive internal and maritime trade. Its city wall had a circumference of about 4.5 mi but included a good deal of open ground and farmland. Its streets were paved with granite but badly maintained. The 800 ft bridge across the Jiulong River consisted of wooden planks laid between 25 piles of stones at roughly equal intervals. The port of Xiamen in an island at the mouth of the Jiulong principally functioned as a trading center for the produce and wares of Zhangzhou and its hinterland; both suffered economically when Indian tea plantations cratered demand for Fujianese tea in the late 19th century.

From 1918 to 1920, Chen Jiongming established the anarchist Constitution Protection Region of Southern Fujian with Zhangzhou as its capital.

The old city of Zhangzhou (now Xiangcheng District) was occupied in April and May 1932 by a column of Communist guerrillas under Mao Zedong. Due to the presence of Western gunboats in Xiamen Bay, arms shipments from the Soviet Union were unable to get up the Jiulong River to Mao's forces and the main Communist bases. Discovering this, Mao retreated from the city, according to some accounts with a substantial amount of loot taken from its residents.

Administrative divisions
Zhangzhou comprises 4 urban districts, and 7 counties.

 * 1) Xiangcheng District (芗城区)
 * 2) Longwen District (龙文区)
 * 3) Longhai District (龙海区)
 * 4) Changtai District (长泰区)
 * 5) Dongshan County (东山县)
 * 6) Hua'an County (华安县)
 * 7) Nanjing County (南靖县)
 * 8) Pinghe County (平和县)
 * 9) Yunxiao County (云霄县)
 * 10) Zhangpu County (漳浦县)
 * 11) Zhao'an County (诏安县)

Demographics
During the 2020 Chinese census, the entire area of Zhangzhou was home to 5,054,328 inhabitants. Along with the 2,120,178 people of central Xiamen, its urban districts of Xiangcheng, Longwen, Longhai and Changtai, form a single metropolitan area of about 7,284,148 people.

The main language of the Zhangzhou Hokkiens is the local dialect of Min Nan, part of the Southern Min branch of Min Chinese.

Hakka is also spoken in the rural peasant area of Zhangzhou in the west and south.

Economy
Babao seal paste was invented by the druggist Wei Changan as a traditional medicine in 1673. It was repurposed for artistic use a few years later and gained imperial favor under the Qianlong Emperor. It remains prized for its bright color and pleasant smell.

A major petrochemical plant, producing paraxylene, owned by Taiwan-based Xianglu Group is located in Zhangzhou's Gulei Peninsula. The plant suffered major fires in 2013 and 2015.

Transportation
Two passenger stations serve Zhangzhou:
 * Zhangzhou East Railway Station on the older Yingtan–Xiamen Railway, northeast of the city;
 * Zhangzhou Railway Station, the junction of the high-speed Xiamen–Shenzhen Railway and Longyan–Xiamen Railway, opened in 2012, south of the city.

Education

 * Minnan Normal University
 * Tenfu Tea College

Notable residents

 * Chen Yuanguang (657–711), a leader of the movement to sinicize Fujian and northern Guangdong.
 * Khaw Soo Cheang (1786–1882), merchant and governor of a Thai province.
 * Lim Gu Tong (1895–1976), international author, cultural ambassador and inventor.
 * Fang Zhouzi (1967), science writer.

Sister city
Zhangzhou is twinned with the following regions, cities and towns:
 * 🇮🇩 Palembang, South Sumatra (since 2002)
 * 🇯🇵 Isahaya, Nagasaki
 * 🇯🇵 Date, Iburi Subprefecture
 * 🇭🇺 Gödöllő, Pest County
 * 🇳🇱 Wageningen, Gelderland
 * 🇺🇸 Honolulu, Hawaii

title: Zhangzhou


text:
User talk:BjarteSorensen

Welcome to Wikipedia, User: BjarteSorensen.

You may want to visit Community Portal to find out how to get more involved in Wikipedia. You may also want to visit WikiProject Clinical medicine.

Happy editing ! :-) -- PFHLai 12:23, 2004 Jul 31 (UTC)

Hello and welcome.

Do you know of any evidence that treating diarrhoea with loperamide actually increases the duration of gastroenteritis? All cases or just those thought to be infectious diarrhea? -- Mehrenberg 15:28, Aug 3, 2004 (UTC)

Regarding gastroenteritis, I read that loperamide will decrease stool frequency and improve quality of life, but not alter duration of illness or risk of dehydration. Further, if bacterial infection is suspected, antimotility agents can increase the risk of intestinal perforation. This is anecdotal of course, but is a widely held belief by expert panels; see The Management of Acute Gastroenteritis in Young Children and Guideline for the management of acute diarrhea in adults. -- Mehrenberg 14:36, Aug 4, 2004 (UTC)

 * If you're going to discuss this can you make sure to also update the Simple English article since it's a major source of death in places where people speak little English, and it's a good article to have translated into many uncommon languages. You can save some lives by doing that, perhaps.  There should be dozens of such articles in Simple.

Temporary adminship
Hello Bjarte, following Aphaia's request, I have made you, Datrio, and Aphaia temporary admins here for the purpose of editing the protected elections page for the duration of the election. This adminship should be used only for editing that page. If you need this on any other wikis, please request it at requests for permissions. Angela. 13:07, Jun 2, 2005 (UTC)

 * Speaking of which, as you are a Norwegian, does that mean that you will represent trolls if you are elected? If so you should get many Sock_puppet votes!

 * No, I'm Askeladden, the young lad who always outwits the trolls ... :). On a serious note, I'm not actually standing for any positions, I'm just helping organising the elections :) BjarteSorensen 08:07, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Name transcription
Since I am assuming you're a speaker of some form of Western Norwegian, I took the liberty of correcting the transcription of your name. I'm going out on a limb to some extent, but I am quite familiar with how the /r/-phoneme in Western Norwegian is realized and the pronunciation is further back in the throat (uvular, not velar) and the sound changes depending if it precedes a voiceless consonant or a vowel, so two different allophones appear in your full name.

cheers,

Peter Isotalo 12:13, 29 July 2005 (UTC)

 * Cheers, Peter. Hmm. I have been wondering about this too. I'm not entirely sure if either transcription is entirely right, though. [χ] is as far as I thought a fairly harsh sounding sound, more like in the Scottish "Loch" and a typical German pronunciation of "Bach". However, when I say my name, the /r/-phoneme is more like a very soft breathing across my velum, it doesn't feel uvular. Certainly, many people would pronounce it with χ, but not where I'm from. What seems like the exact same sound appears in my last name, despicte being between two wovels. I could make a recording of how I pronounce it, if you'd like! :) BjarteSorensen 03:28, 30 July 2005 (UTC)

 * A recording? Please do. Then there we wouldn't have to just guess.
 * Peter Isotalo 08:09, 30 July 2005 (UTC)

 * The recording is now available at [[Image:Bjartesorensen.ogg]] :) Happy transcribing. BjarteSorensen 09:20, 30 July 2005 (UTC)

 * Sounds like what I transcribed. The [χ] here is softer than it sounds in German or Arabic, but it's still an [χ]. If it were velar, it would harder to pronounce and would sound even harsher. The second sound is the voiced equivalent [ʁ].
 * Peter Isotalo 15:51, 30 July 2005 (UTC)

 * Cool. Thanks for that ... :) BjarteSorensen 01:10, 31 July 2005 (UTC)

Miguel de Icaza attacks me
Hi.

I'm editing the wikipedia page on Mono, but the user Miguel.de.Icaza is always attacking me. I think he cannot be objective at all. Can you anything with his attempts to revert the page? As it sounds the same as Bill Gates would edit the wikipedia page on Windows. My contact email: is Kirill.Kononenko@gmail.com

-- Kirill

Category
Added you to category medical students. Hope you don't mind. Nomen Nescio 12:19, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

 * Well, actually I do! :) I graduated in November and am currently soldiering on in a hospital in Tweed Heads, New South Wales. BjarteSorensen 12:53, 26 March 2006 (UTC)

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

title: User talk:BjarteSorensen


text:
Talk:Kantō region

Can we split the Pokemon use into Kanto (Pokémon) please?! (I'll even do it for ya :P) -- EmperorBMA|話す 12:26, 31 Jul 2004 (UTC)

I'm all for it Fg2 12:44, Jul 31, 2004 (UTC)

Good enough for me. -- EmperorBMA|話す 12:52, 31 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Which barrier?
I agree that from the Edo onward, Kanto is the region east of the Hakone checkpoint. My question is about earlier periods. The Japanese article lists the Fuwa barrier as the dividing point in the Heian. Also, the Japanese article on Usui Tōge mentions the Sakamoto barrier. The reason I looked in that article is that I thought there was something called the Usui Checkpoint. Does anyone have specifics? Fg2 06:01, Apr 5, 2005 (UTC)

 * I've recently done quite a bit of research into this and some of the facts can be found at Kansai region. You may also want to take a look at http://www.bookrags.com/Kansai which I plan to incorporate as soon as I have some more time. -- Exitmoose 08:44, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

"Watershed moment"?
Doesn't the term "watershed moment" imply that things were tending in one direction but then suddenly reversed course? How is the Great Kanto Earthquake a watershed moment under that definition. Wouldn't a term like "crisis" or "trying time" or some such be better suited? -- Exitmoose 08:46, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Question
I'm wondering why Kanto Plain redirects to the Kanto Region article. Anyone know? "Kanto Region" is a geo-political designation, while "Kanto Plain" seems to me to be a geo-topographical designation. In this situation, there are overlaps, I realize, but I think the difference is still worth noting. RNavigator (talk) 16:40, 27 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Since there is no article on the Kanto Plain (yet), redirecting it to this article is the most sensible thing to do. Or do you have a better suggestion..? -- ざくら 木 16:47, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

Region should be capitalized
Region should be capitalized because its a title of a place. All words that are four or more letters long should be captialized in a title except three letter or less wors like the or of unless The is at the beginning.

That's why the title of our country is The United Stated of America. Yami (talk) 02:04, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Hard to read
The "Kantō Region data" box is right over some text. Someone fix this! ☠ QuackOfaThousandSuns (Talk''') ☠ 01:03, 14 April 2010 (UTC)
 * EDIT: Never mind, it's okay. It would just be nice if it was moved down a little bit, so people don't get confused. ☠ QuackOfaThousandSuns (Talk''') ☠ 01:05, 14 April 2010 (UTC)

In Popular Culture
Can we please delete the "in popular culture" section of this page? As its stands, it is just as list of anime which are set in this area. The vast majority of anime and other modern day Japanese serials take place in this region, that doesn't mean we have to list all of them here.DeliciousMeatz (talk) 03:36, 25 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Removed--DeliciousMeatz (talk) 04:54, 27 October 2011 (UTC)

Contradictory population
Kantō region article lists a population of 42,607,376 while Greater Tokyo Area, which includes all of Kantō region plus another prefecture, just lists 37,883,000 inhabitants. The part can't contain more inhabitants that the whole. Something should be checked and fixed, or at least it should be explained better.--Pere prlpz (talk) 11:02, 23 August 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Kantō region. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20150316233916/http://www.ukforex.co.uk/forex-tools/historical-rate-tools/yearly-average-rates to http://www.ukforex.co.uk/forex-tools/historical-rate-tools/yearly-average-rates

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 04:31, 2 May 2017 (UTC)

"Second largest sub-national economy"
The first paragraph states that "Kanto is the second largest sub-national economy in the world." But there is no source listed, and the internal link goes to a list of country subdivisions by GDP, which gives the Tokyo prefecture (instead of Kanto), and puts it in 9th place (instead of second). What's going on? (I'd love to see the true list of sub-national economies, if one exists!)

108.31.86.107 (talk) 03:19, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 13:21, 23 January 2023 (UTC)
 * Geofeatures map of Kanto Japan ja.svg

title: Talk:Kantō region


text:
Friedenau

Friedenau is a locality (Ortsteil) within the borough (Bezirk) of Tempelhof-Schöneberg in Berlin, Germany. Relatively small by area, its population density is the highest in the city.

Geography
Friedenau is part of the southwestern suburbs, right at the border with the inner city Schöneberg district, separated by the Berlin Ringbahn and the BAB 100 motorway (Stadtring). It borders the Wilmersdorf locality to the west and Steglitz to the south.

The streets and squares are laid out according to a geometric urban design with an almost complete assembly of Gründerzeit buildings, which survived the bombing of Berlin in World War II.

Urban planning
The characteristic feature of Friedenau its Carstenn layout, named after urban developer Johann Anton Wilhelm von Carsten. This symmetrical layout consists of an avenue dividing a circular road, which is demarcated by four town squares.

Some streets in Friedenau were named after rivers in Alsace-Lorraine to commemorate the annexation of this region into the German Empire.

The majority of Friedenau's buildings date to the early 20th century. Therefore, the architectural styles are almost uniform. 185 buildings are protected as cultural heritage sites.

More recent development does not necessarily match the surrounding cityscape, since the reconstruction efforts after World War II, especially in the earlier years, gave little consideration to the preservation of architectural uniformity.

History
In 1871 it was founded as an affluent commuter town on the estates of the former Deutsch-Wilmersdorf manor. The German name Friedenau, referring to Frieden (peace) and the suffix -au meaning floodplains (hence "floodplain of peace"), was proposed by Hedwig Hähnel, wife of the architect Hermann Hähnel, in memory of the 1871 Peace of Frankfurt, which ended the Franco-Prussian War. It was adopted by Mr. Hähnel, then the director of the Landerwerb- und Bauverein auf Actien (inc.), which developed the real estate in the area. When in 1874 the area constituted as an independent municipality within the Province of Brandenburg, the denotation had already been established and became the official municipal name.

Friedenau opened its own non-denominational municipal cemetery, today's Städtischer Friedhof III, which soon grew too small. So in 1909 Friedenau bought a tract of land in Güterfelde (today a component of Stahnsdorf) as additional graveyard, with the first burial taking place in 1913. Friedenau's municipal construction councillor Hans Altmann designed for the cemetery a mourning chapel, an office, a gardener's house, a flower shop, benches and a fountain as well as a net of paths replicating the streets net in Friedenau. Since June 1913 the cemetery was accessible via the so-called cemetery train line ending at Stahnsdorf station.

Friedenau joined with the town of Schöneberg in 1920 – under the latter's name – as the former 11th administrative borough of Greater Berlin. In the short time from 29 April to 30 June 1945, when the Red Army occupied all Berlin, it was a borough in its own right, until it was reunified with Schöneberg as one borough within the American Sector of West Berlin.

The Güterfelde cemetery, since 1920 called Forest Cemetery of Schöneberg was operated since 1935 by Berlin's Borough of Wilmersdorf, called Wilmersdorf Forest Cemetery Güterfelde (Wilmersdorfer Waldfriedhof Güterfelde). After 1945 the cemetery happened to be in the Soviet Zone of Occupation and later in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), thus with the increasing Eastern interdiction of West Berlin the cemetery grew inaccessible for the Friedenauers.

On 5 April 1986 a bomb exploded at the La Belle discothèque in a former cinema on Hauptstraße 78, killing a Turkish woman and two U.S. servicemen and injuring numerous people. A plaque marks the site.

Notable people
Friedenau has always been home to creative artists, especially of authors. Prominent residents include:
 * Max Bruch, composer, Albestraße 3,
 * Hans Magnus Enzensberger, poet and writer, Fregestraße 19,
 * Max Frisch, architect and writer, Sarrazinstraße 8,
 * Günter Grass, writer, Nobel laureate in Literature, Niedstraße 13,
 * Georg Hermann, writer, Bundesallee 68 and 108 (at that time Kaiserallee) and Stubenrauchstraße 5,
 * Theodor Heuss, the later President of Germany, Fregestraße 80,
 * Kurt Hiller, writer, Hähnelstraße 9,
 * Hannah Höch, artist, Büsingstraße 16,
 * Uwe Johnson, writer, Niedstraße 14 and Stierstraße 3,
 * Erich Kästner, writer Niedstraße 5 (with his secretary Elfriede Mechnig),
 * Karl Kautsky, politician, Saarstraße 14,
 * Heinrich Klemme, film studio founder and director (The Pamir, 1959)
 * Adam Kuckhoff, writer, resistance fighter, Wilhelmshöher Straße 18,
 * Friedrich Luft, drama critic, Bundesallee 74,
 * Rosa Luxemburg, philosopher and economist, Cranachstraße 58,
 * Herta Müller, writer, Nobel laureate in Literature, Menzelstraße 2,
 * Bernd Pohlenz, cartoonist, Rotdornstraße,
 * Rainer Maria Rilke, lyric poet, Rheingaustraße 8,
 * Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, painter, Niedstraße 14 and Stierstraße 3,
 * Walter Trier, drawer and illustrator, Elsastraße 2,
 * Kurt Tucholsky, satirist and writer, Bundesallee 79 (former Kaiserallee).

Transport

Friedenau has access to the Berlin U-Bahn network at Innsbrucker Platz station (U4) as well as at Bundesplatz, Friedrich-Wilhelm-Platz and Walther-Schreiber-Platz (U9). S-Bahn service is available at the Bundesplatz and Innsbrucker Platz stations of the Ringbahn. The nearby Friedenau station of the S1 line is actually situated in neighbouring Schöneberg.

The locality can also be reached via Bundesautobahn 100 (Stadtring) at Wexstraße and Innsbrucker Platz junctions and by Bundesautobahn 103 (Westtangente), also Bundesstraße 1, at Saarstraße.

title: Friedenau


text:
Quaker Bible

The Quaker Bible, officially A new and literal translation of all the books of the Old and New Testament; with notes critical and explanatory, is the 1764 translation of the Christian Bible into English by Anthony Purver (1702–1777), a Quaker. The translation was published in two Volumes in London by W. Richardson and S. Clark in 1764, but is not generally regarded as successful.

Comparison with the New English Bible
In 1970, following the publication of the New English Bible, Harold A. Guy wrote an article printed in the  Expository Times; "An Eighteenth Century New English Bible", discussing Purver's Bible translation. Guy makes no further reference to the NEB to justify the analogy claimed by the title of his article.

Whilst both Purver's Bible and the New English Bible endured long gestation periods, that is where any similarity ends. Nevertheless, exploring the attempted analogy can help to highlight certain factors about Purver's version: Despite the failed analogy, in his article Harold Guy does preserve some details of the story behind the Purver version, and provides some examples of the text.
 * Purver was a self-taught translator and laboured for 30 years with the project single-handed – compared to the New English Bible which involved a large number of academics.
 * Failing to interest a publisher, Purver sold the manuscript for £1,000 to Dr. John Fothergill who published the Bible at his own expense. The two volumes sold for four guineas. There is no evidence of any volume of sales. This was in contrast to the New English Bible, which was backed before publication by the mainstream Churches in Great Britain and Northern Ireland (including the London Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends), and had a built in user base. Sales had already been "road tested" by the sales of the New Testament published in 1961.
 * Unlike the Purver version the New English Bible was launched with nationwide publicity.
 * In 1764, the Purver version was a novelty, as in the 18th century there was only one translation which held the field, and that was the King James Version. The New English Bible followed on from a number of versions, notably the Revised Standard Version.
 * Despite the fact that the Purver Bible had no other competitors as an alternative to the King James Version, the Bible was not successful and although Purver prepared a second edition, it failed to see the light of day. The New English Bible in contrast, whilst receiving widespread criticism, has gone on to a second edition as the Revised English Bible.

Failure
A portion of Purver's translation was published in parts about 1742 by Felix Farley of Bristol, but the publication received little support. Purver failed to get the whole text published, and gained no backing for his venture, even by the Religious Society of Friends. Even when the Manuscript was published by Dr. John Fothergill at his own expense, the full translation also failed to make any impression.

Various reasons can be advanced for the failure of Purver's translation; lack of publicity; the fact that it lacked authority (a one-man translation) and it had not been backed by any Church, not even the Religious Society of Friends, to which Purver belonged. Yet the failure to make its mark may owe itself to the deficiencies of his translation.

By some it is held to be an unreliable translation; The Dictionary of National Biography records that Purver "…on arriving at a difficult passage, he would shut himself up for two or three days and nights, waiting for inspiration". Charles Haddon Spurgeon, who was acquainted with Purver's version remarks "A Quaker Translation. Often ungrammatical and unintelligible. Not without its good points, but much more curious than useful."

title: Quaker Bible


text:
Chacha Chaudhary

Chacha Chaudhary is an Indian comic book, created by cartoonist Pran Kumar Sharma. The comic comes in ten Indian languages including Hindi and English and has sold over ten million copies. It has also been made into a television series with Raghubir Yadav playing the role of Chacha Chaudhary.

History
Chacha Chaudhary was created in 1971 for the Hindi magazine Lotpot. It soon became popular among kids and the elderly alike. Pran was inspired from the ancient philosopher Chanakya and elders people of every village who resides to help and solve problems by their elderly experience.

According to a Pran's Features press release, Indian children aged 10–13 years ranked Chacha Chaudhary as their most recognizable comic book character.

He has also been featured as a guest in other Pran's Features series, with Billoo, Pinki and Lucky.

Biography
Chacha Chaudhary is a middle class Indian, frail but an extremely intelligent elder. The word chacha means uncle in Hindi, while Chaudhary is a term used for landlords. A common saying about him is that "Chacha Chaudhary ka dimagh computer se bhi tez chalta hai" (Chacha Chaudhary's brain runs faster than a computer), which is a testament to his unparalleled wisdom and wits.

Chacha Chaudhary's attire includes his red turban, a wooden stick, a waistcoat with a double inside pocket, and a pocket watch. His household consists of his wife Bini Chachi, a faithful street dog called Rocket and a giant alien from Jupiter named Sabu. He has an identical twin brother Chhajju Chaudhary, who visits him very rarely but whenever he arrives creates a funny situation. Sometimes, a tiny man called 'Tingu Master' is also shown to live with them. Chacha Chaudhary enjoys eating watermelon with relish but mangoes are his weakness, and takes off for a walk with Sabu and Rocket, whenever Chachi nags him. When he takes off his turban, it is shown that he is completely bald.

Everybody in town knows that whenever Chacha Chaudhary goes out with his family, he never locks the door of his house; but nobody has been successful in robbing his house. However, in certain stories, Chachi (his wife) has been seen locking the house.

Sometimes his head or nose itches when any trouble is going to happen.

Characterization
When asked about the inspiration for the series, Pran said, "Each family has its own wise old man. He solved his problems with common sense, but with a touch of humor. Humor is the basis of my cartoon." According to Pran, it was his pleasure to bring relief to the common man suppressed by various work loads of that era. Pran's hometown was Lahore, and came to India during partition of Indo-Pakistan.

Chacha Chaudhary is remarkably different from most other comic-book superheroes in that he is not a muscleman, nor does he have any extraordinary powers or modern gadgets. Instead, he uses "a brain sharper than a needle and faster than a super-computer" (Chacha Chaudhary ka dimaag computer se bhi tez chalta hai ), and a wooden stick, to fight evil-doers. Many times, he takes help of a faithful alien from Jupiter, Sabu, who is like a son to him.

Chacha Chaudhary's characterization, like that of Pran's other characters, is around middle class typical Indian metro surroundings of the 1970s and 1980s, and it has kept evolving. The usual villains are corrupt government officials, thieves, roadside goons & bullies, tricksters, cons and local thugs. He not only fights them and helps the common man but also teaches them moral lessons and good behavior. Most of the events end up with goons embarrassed by their deeds. One can see the middle class dealing with everyday problems. In a way Pran takes a whip at those problems but still maintains a happy-go-lucky feel with twinkling eyes and smiling faces.

Sabu
Sabu is an  alien from the planet Jupiter, always faithful to Chacha and provides the physical strength in time of need. He is huge and incredibly strong, standing at about 15 feet tall. Though his size has been highly inconsistent throughout the comic series. In some comics he is able to increase his size. In certain other stories he also comes out only when Chacha Chaudhary rubs a lamp (much like Aladdin). He wears only a wrestler's kachha (briefs), a pair of ear-rings and a pair of gum-boots. But in some comics, Sabu was shown wearing slim fit green trousers.

Sabu decided to stay on Earth with Chacha when he tasted delicious paratha and halwa made by Chachi during his visit to earth. Both Chacha and Chachi treat Sabu like their own son and in certain stories Chachi is shown to have more affection for Sabu than even Chacha Chaudhary. Sabu has a twin brother called Dabu and the giant earrings that Sabu wears were gifted to him by his mother when he left Jupiter. According to the comics, whenever Sabu gets angry, a volcano erupts at some distant place (this is stated in a panel with a picture of a volcano erupting, which says, "When Sabu is Angry, a Volcano Erupts at some distant place in Jupiter"). Whenever he performs an act of great strength, he utters the cry, "Hu-Huba!". Sometimes he has been found to utter "Jai Bajrang Bali" which roughly translates to "Hail Hanuman" (a popular Hindu God). It is revealed in some comics that and Sabu eats 202 chapatis, 14 kilos of halwa, 22 kilos of rice / pulao, 7 kilos of vegetable preparations, 10 kilos curry, and about 18 litres of lassi (the favourite part of his meal) in one meal. He often finishes the meal with a basketful of fruit. He is often served lassi, tea, juice or some other non-alcoholic drink in a large bucket or pot. He is not married, and avoids the topic.

Unlike Chacha, Sabu does not have much wisdom, intelligence or wits and mainly relies on his physical strength. However, he has quick reflexes and has often saved the life of Chacha with his immense power and lightning-fast reflexes, often acting at the last moment when any goon tries to kill Chacha. In certain stories, Sabu is also shown to be wise, but not like Chacha Chaudhary (like the one where he finds out about an escaped prisoner or the one where he throws his huge umbrella to save people from drowning).

Sabu's biggest enemy is Raka, who is of the same size as that of Sabu, and is immortal, thanks to a special Ayurvedic medicine he accidentally consumed. Raka and Sabu are both strong but Sabu always wins in their fights. Since Sabu can't kill Raka, he always leaves him at a place where he cannot bother humanity. However, somehow Raka manages to escape and wreak havoc upon return. This has resulted in a series of comics on Raka, which have been very popular and well received.

Bini Chachi
Chacha Chaudhary's wife Bini is a dominating lady who is the boss of the house and occasionally battles the thieves with her belan (rolling pin). She is usually dressed in polka dotted sari and has a hair style matching 1970s style of Indian actresses. Although very kind hearted with all the attributes of a strict but caring wife, she often complains Chacha of not buying her gold bangles, not taking her out, and the fact that she has to cook a lot for Sabu although she serves as a motherly figure for Sabu. In one comic she is shown with stirring a giant pot with a ladle for Sabu and serving him more affectionately than Chachaji.

In one of the comics Bini's history was revealed about how she used to be in her the past. She was actually an actress who decided to marry Chacha Chaudhary who saved her life from goons who were threatening her to give them all her jewellery or otherwise they would kill her.

Chhajju Chaudhary
A secret that many of the characters in the comics do not know is that Chacha Chaudhary has a twin brother named Chhajju Chaudhary, who is mentally not as gifted as Chacha Chaudhary. In many stories he proves to be the secret weapon to dodge the corrupts and goons. He was once taken to Mars by aliens mistaking him as Chacha Chaudhary.

Rocket (Raket)
Rocket is Chacha Chaudhary's pet dog. He was found as a stray dog and was adopted by Chacha, much to the dismay of his wife, who said that raising Sabu itself was a handful for her. Though she later accepted the dog when it attacked the burglars in the house. He is rather well known as Raket. The only characteristic of this dog is defined in the line "Chacha Chaudhary ka kutta ssurrlup ssurrlup doodh peeta hai" (Chacha Chaudhary's dog drinks milk) & the fact that he is the only vegetarian dog in the whole world. The dog has proven himself at occasions, attacking his foes on command.

Tingu Master
Tingu Master is a tiny man (probably a midget) who is often seen in comics along with Chacha Chaudhary and Sabu. He usually is shown to be a very unlucky person, falling into problems and danger which are either aimed at Chacha Chaudhary or are purely situational. However, at certain points he has come to the forefront to actually save Chacha Chaudhary from a potential death or defeat. Like Sabu, he is shown to be loyal, albeit he is not as significant a character as the former. Many times, the comic situations in the stories have revolved around Tingu Master being very tiny, which makes others fail to notice him and accidentally perform actions like dumping him away with garbage.

Dag Dag
Dag Dag is actually Chacha Chaudhary's truck which he drives, albeit with a twist: It is revealed that Dag Dag is actually half machine and half human. Many times when thieves have tried to run away stealing Dag Dag, it has not started. Also, if Chacha Chaudhary is in trouble and as soon as he whistles, Dag Dag comes at full speed and crashes with the one who is troubling Chacha.

Gobar Singh and Dhamaka Singh
Main enemies of Chacha Chaudhary are Gobar Singh and Dhamaka Singh. They are robbers always punished by Chacha Chaudhary. Sometimes they try to harm Chacha Chaudhary but end up harming themselves. Dhamaka Singh often brings his other stooges to attack Chacha and Sabu but his plans always backfire. Two of Dhamaka Singh's recurring accomplices are Paleeta and Ruldu.

Raaka
A significant enemy of both Chacha and Sabu is Raaka. Raaka was once a dacoit who was chased by cops. Trying to evade the cops, he hid in a building and a gunfight ensued. When out of ammunition, he tried to commit suicide by drinking poison he found in the house he was hiding in. Unknown to him, the house belonged to a great knowledgeable sage called Chakramacharya, who had developed a potion of immortality. Fearing it would be misused, he had labeled the potion as "Poison". Raaka mistakenly eats the immortality potion believing it to be poison and kills Chakramacharya who tries to stop him from doing so. Once he notices he has become immortal, his mischiefs increase and he no longer remains a mere dacoit. There's a series of comics on Raaka and his fights with Sabu, which Sabu manages to win with the wisdom of Chacha helping him. Since Sabu cannot kill Raaka, Chacha always advises him to dump Raaka somewhere where he cannot harm humans. The places comprise space, deep inside ocean, frozen on the North pole, etc. However, Raaka somehow manages to escape and that's what subsequent comics narrate. Chacha Chaudhary and Sabu have once forced Raaka to shave off his mustache as a result of some competition which was won by Chacha. Chacha's comic with Raaka, Raaka ki Waapsi (The Return of Raaka) is one of the best selling comics of Pran's Features. Raaka was put to sleep by some potion given by a saint from the Himalayas (who happened to be the Guru of Chakramacharya) and buried in the ocean on the first encounter. On his return by another potion he was reduced to a small size, closed in a bottle and buried in a grave. But this was not the end. He returned several times again to wreak havoc in the city. Finally Chacha Chaudhary and Sabu buried him in an endless hole somewhere near a rocket launch site. But for the last time (Comic- Raaka ki Akhiri Jung) he was thrown in a whirlpool in an ocean. He returns from whirlpool in raka's krodh and sent to space In the latest comic (Raaka's terror) Raaka returns from space,    He was defeated again by chacha chaudhary and sabu and thrown in an acid tank where his body get dissolved in acid and he is converted into liquid state. This liquid state has been stored securely to prevent any escape route for Raaka.

Adaptation
A television series Chacha Chaudhary was launched on 13 May 2002 on Sahara One with Raghubir Yadav playing the titular character.

In 2009, Pran's Features, the owner of characters Chacha Chaudhary, Sabu and Pinki tied up with License India, to bring them to silver screen as animation characters.

An animated series produced by Toonz Animation premiered on Hungama TV in June 2019.

title: Chacha Chaudhary


text:
The Register of the Victoria Cross

The Register of the Victoria Cross is a reference work that provides brief information on every Victoria Cross awarded until the publication date. Each entry provides a summary of the deed, along with a photograph of the recipient and the following details where applicable or available–rank, unit, other decorations, date of gazette, place/date of birth, place/date of death, memorials, town/county connections, and any remarks. The book was first published by the quarterly magazine, This England in 1981, a revised and enlarged edition in 1988 and a third edition in 1997. There is no editor noted on the cover page or the title page, but Nora Buzzell is acknowledged in all three editions, especially in the 1988 and 1997 editions as "compiled and researched for This England by Nora Buzzell".

The book
The book was written to be a single volume listing all award recipients, together with details of birth, place of deed, town or county connections and other relevant information.

The first edition of The Register was published in 1981, a year before the Falklands conflict when two more VCs were awarded. The revised and enlarged second edition, published in 1988, includes brief accounts of the deeds for which the VC was awarded. A third edition was published with amendments and new material in 1997.

This England
This book was commissioned and published by This England "to create a definitive and lasting work of reference as a tribute to the bravery of the men themselves."

Since its foundation in 1856, there have been many claims, particularly among family descendants, that a kinsman had received the Victoria Cross. Until this book was published, those claims have been difficult to prove or deny without access to Ministry of Defence files and other Service lists, resulting in lingering disputes.

Details of publication
Third Edition, 352 pages, This England, 1997 (ISBN 0-906324-27-0) hardback. Compiled and researched for This England by Nora Buzzell.

title: The Register of the Victoria Cross


text:
User:BjarteSorensen

My name is Bjarte Sørensen and I currently live in Sydney, Australia where I work as a doctor. I am most active on the Nynorsk Wikipedia.

If you'd like to be able to pronounce my name, in IPA it is something like  [ˈbjaχtəˈsøʁənsən]  in my particular dialect of Norwegian.

Also see my user pages on meta:User:BjarteSorensen.

da:Bruger:BjarteSorensen no:Bruker:BjarteSorensen nn:Brukar:BjarteSorensen

title: User:BjarteSorensen


text:
Jimmie Nicol

James George Nicol (born 3 August 1939) is an English drummer and business entrepreneur. He is best known for sitting in for Ringo Starr in the Beatles for eight concerts of the Beatles' 1964 world tour during the height of Beatlemania, elevating him from relative obscurity to worldwide fame and then back again in the space of a fortnight. Nicol had hoped that his association with the Beatles would greatly enhance his career but instead found that the spotlight moved away from him once Starr returned to the group, and in 1965 his subsequent lack of commercial success culminated in bankruptcy. In 1975, after having worked with a number of different bands which included a successful relationship with the Spotnicks, and several more while living in Mexico, he left the music business to pursue a variety of entrepreneurial ventures.

Over the decades, Nicol increasingly shied away from media attention, preferring not to discuss his connection to the Beatles nor seeking financial gain from it. He has a son, Howard, who is a BAFTA award-winning sound engineer.

Early career
Jimmie Nicol's career break came in 1957 when he was talent spotted by Larry Parnes whilst drumming with various bands in London's The 2i's Coffee Bar, a time that saw Britain's skiffle-dominated music scene giving way to rock and roll which was being popularised by its Teddy Boy youth. Parnes invited Nicol to join Colin Hicks & The Cabin Boys whom Parnes co-managed with John Kennedy (Colin Hicks is the younger brother of English entertainer Tommy Steele, whom Parnes also managed). After taking a temporary break from the group to be a member of the original pit band in the Lionel Bart musical Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be at the Theatre Royal Stratford East Nicol rejoined Hicks's band for their appearance in the 1958 Italian film documentary Europa Di Notte, breaking them in Italy and subsequently allowing them to tour there extensively. During the early sixties, Nicol went on to play for a number of artists, including Vince Eager, Oscar Rabin, and Cyril Stapleton and was kept in regular work through Charlie Katz, a well-known session fixer during that period. Nicol has cited drummer Phil Seamen and saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley as being his main influences.

In 1964 Nicol helped to form The Shubdubs with former Merseybeats bassist Bob Garner, a jazz line-up similar in musical style to Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames, a group with whom Nicol had sat-in when they were the resident house band at London's now defunct Flamingo Jazz Club. Other members of The Shubdubs were Tony Allen (vocals), Johnny Harris (trumpet), Quincy Davis (tenor saxophone), and Roger Coulam (organ – went on to form Blue Mink). It was at this point that he received a telephone call from the Beatles' producer, George Martin. Nicol recalled: "I was having a bit of a lie down after lunch when the phone rang."

With the Beatles

When Ringo Starr became ill with tonsillitis and was hospitalised on 3 June 1964, the eve of the Beatles' 1964 Australasian tour, the band's manager Brian Epstein and their producer George Martin urgently discussed the feasibility of using a stand-in drummer rather than cancelling part of the tour. Martin suggested Jimmie Nicol as he had recently used him on a recording session with Tommy Quickly. Nicol had also drummed on a 'Top Six' budget label album as part of an uncredited session band, as well as an extended play single (with three tracks on each side) of Beatles cover versions (marketed as 'Teenagers Choice' and titled Beatlemania) which meant that he already knew the songs and their arrangements. Producer Bill Wellings and Shubdubs trumpeter Johnny Harris (freelancing as an arranger and composer) were responsible for putting together alternative budget cover versions of songs taken from the British Hit Parade aimed at cash-strapped teenagers. Harris said: "The idea was for me to try and guess which six songs would be topping the charts about a month ahead. I would do the arrangements and then go into the studio and record 'sound a-likes'; the first EP (extended play) released got to number 30 in the charts. Jimmie was on drums and, as you can imagine, we covered a lot of the Beatles' songs."

Although John Lennon and Paul McCartney quickly accepted the idea of using a temporary substitute, George Harrison threatened to pull out of the tour telling Epstein and Martin: "If Ringo's not going, then neither am I. You can find two replacements." Martin recalled: "They nearly didn't do the Australia tour. George is a very loyal person. It took all of Brian's and my persuasion to tell George that if he didn't do it he was letting everybody down." Tony Barrow, who was the Beatles' press officer at the time, later commented: "Brian saw it as the lesser of two evils; cancel the tour and upset thousands of fans or continue and upset the Beatles." Starr stated that "it was very strange, them going off without me. They'd taken Jimmie Nicol and I thought they didn't love me any more – all that stuff went through my head." The arrangements were made very quickly, from a telephone call to Nicol at his home in West London inviting him to attend an audition/rehearsal at Abbey Road Studios, to packing his bags, all in the same day. At a press conference a reporter mischievously asked John Lennon why Pete Best, who had been the Beatles' previous drummer for two years but dismissed by the group on the eve of stardom, was not rehired, to which Lennon replied: "He's got his own group [Pete Best & the All Stars], and it might have looked as if we were taking him back, which is not good for him."

Nicol's first concert with the Beatles took place just 27 hours later on 4 June at the KB Hallen in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was given the distinctive Beatle moptop hairstyle, put on Starr's suit and went on stage to an audience of 4,500 Beatles fans. McCartney recalled: "He was sitting up on this rostrum just eyeing up all the women. We'd start 'She Loves You': [counting in] 'one, two', nothing, 'one, two', and still nothing!" Their set was reduced from eleven songs to ten, dropping Starr's vocal spot of "I Wanna Be Your Man". McCartney teasingly sent Starr a telegram saying: "Hurry up and get well Ringo, Jimmy is wearing out all your suits." Commenting later on the fickle nature of his brief celebrity, Nicol reflected: "The day before I was a Beatle, girls weren't interested in me at all. The day after, with the suit and the Beatle cut, riding in the back of the limo with John and Paul, they were dying to get a touch of me. It was very strange and quite scary." He was also able to shed some light on how they passed the time between shows: "I thought I could drink and lay women with the best of them until I caught up with these guys."

In the Netherlands, Nicol and Lennon allegedly spent a whole night at a brothel. Lennon said: "It was some kind of scene on the road. Satyricon! There's photographs of me grovelling about, crawling about Amsterdam on my knees, coming out of whorehouses, and people saying 'Good morning John'. The police escorted me to these places because they never wanted a big scandal. When we hit town, we hit it – we were not pissing about. We had [the women]. They were great. We didn't call them groupies, then; I've forgotten what we called them, something like 'slags'." Nicol discovered that, aside from acting as a Beatle, he could behave much as any tourist could: "I often went out alone. Hardly anybody recognised me and I was able to wander around. In Hong Kong, I went to see the thousands of people who live on little boats in the harbour. I saw the refugees in Kowloon, and I visited a nightclub. I like to see life. A Beatle could never really do that."

Nicol played a total of eight shows until Starr rejoined the group in Melbourne, Australia, on 14 June. He was unable to say goodbye to the Beatles as they were still asleep when he left, and he did not want to disturb them. At Melbourne Airport, Epstein presented him with a cheque for £500 and a gold Eterna-matic wrist watch inscribed: "From the Beatles and Brian Epstein to Jimmy – with appreciation and gratitude." George Martin later paid tribute to Nicol whilst recognising the problems he experienced in trying to readjust to a normal life again: "Jimmie Nicol was a very good drummer who came along and learnt Ringo's parts very well. He did the job excellently, and faded into obscurity immediately afterwards." Paul McCartney acknowledged: "It wasn't an easy thing for Jimmy to stand in for Ringo, and have all that fame thrust upon him. And the minute his tenure was over, he wasn't famous any more." Nicol himself expressed his disillusionment several years later: "Standing in for Ringo was the worst thing that ever happened to me. Until then I was quite happy earning £30 or £40 a week. After the headlines died, I began dying too." He resisted the temptation to sell his story, stating in a rare 1987 interview: "After the money ran low, I thought of cashing-in in some way or other. But the timing wasn't right. And I didn't want to step on the Beatles' toes. They had been damn good for me and to me."

Later career and life
Nicol reformed the Shubdubs, renaming themselves Jimmy Nicol and the Shubdubs. They released two singles, "Husky"/"Don't Come Back" and "Humpty Dumpty"/"Night Train". Neither of those singles were a commercial success. He was later called upon to again stand in for an ailing drummer when Dave Clark of The Dave Clark Five fell ill and Nicol's band, Jimmy Nicol and the Shubdubs, filled in for The Dave Clark Five in Blackpool, Lancashire. Whilst there, Nicol was reminded of just how popular, albeit briefly, he had been as a stand-in Beatle; receiving a bundle of 5,000 fan letters passed on to him from an Australian radio disc jockey. Nicol sent a message back thanking the fans, promising that he would one day return to Australia permanently.

He was later reunited with the Beatles when his band appeared on the same bill as them and The Fourmost, on 12 July 1964 at the Hippodrome in Brighton.

In 1965, Nicol declared bankruptcy with debts of £4,066, nine months after being a temporary Beatle. After seeing news of Nicol's bankruptcy in the Daily Mirror Paul McCartney recommended him to Peter and Gordon who hired him for a 1965 England tour.

Later that year he joined the successful Swedish group the Spotnicks, recording with them and twice touring the world. He left them in 1967, spending time in Mexico and formed Los Nicolquinn with Eddie Quinn; Los Nicolquinn released one album through RCA Records. He also scored the music for the film El Mes Más Cruel (lit. 'The Cruelest Month'). In 1975, he returned to England and became involved with housing renovations. In 1984, Nicol participated in a Beatles convention in Amsterdam, where he was interviewed.

Disappearance
In 1988, rumours of his death began circulating, where he was presumed dead at 49 years old. The last confirmed sighting of Nicol was outside his rented first-floor flat in Kentish Town, north London, in the early 2010s.

Legacy
During Nicol's brief time with the Beatles both Lennon and McCartney would often ask him how he felt he was coping, to which his reply would usually be "It's getting better". Three years later, McCartney was walking his dog Martha with Hunter Davies, who was writing the only authorised biography of the Beatles, when the sun came out. McCartney remarked that the weather was "getting better" and began to laugh, remembering Nicol. This event inspired the song "Getting Better" on 1967's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. McCartney again makes reference to Nicol on the Let It Be sessions in January 1969, saying: "I think you'll find we're not going abroad 'cause Ringo just said he doesn't want to go abroad. And he put his foot down. So, us and Jimmie Nicol might go abroad."

While appearing on the radio show Fresh Air hosted by Terry Gross in April 2016, Tom Hanks noted that he was at least partly influenced by Jimmie Nicol's experience with the Beatles when he wrote the script for the 1996 feature film That Thing You Do!

Discography and performance history
Information compiled from

title: Jimmie Nicol


text:
Batman: Child of Dreams

Batman: Child of Dreams is a manga series written and illustrated by Kia Asamiya, published in Kodansha's Magazine Z. The series follows Batman as he travels to Tokyo on the trail of a lethal drug that allows the person who ingests it to shapeshift into anyone they desire.

Child of Dreams was collected in two volumes, released in November 2000 and November 2001 by Kodansha. The English-language version was released in hardcover and softcover editions in 2003 by DC Comics. Because of the way that manga is published in Japan, reading from right to left, which is now commonplace in modern translated manga releases, Child of Dreams was "flipped", which might have gone unnoticed had it not made Two-Face scarred on the right side of his body.

Plot
The story features Batman in Gotham City and Tokyo, locating the source of a deadly drug. This drug provides the users with the thrill of literally living the life of their dreams for a day, by forcing the user to shapeshift into the person they desire to be. After the day expires, the drug kills the user by draining him or her of his or her lifeforce. Most of the users in Gotham turned into literal copies of several Batman villains. Batman suspected they were not the real thing after they seemed to sport twisted forms of their regular traits. Realizing a larger force is at work, Batman, with the help of Japanese journalist Yuuko Yagi, follows the trail of the chemical to Tokyo, where he finds the deranged criminal mastermind behind the creation of the infamous drug is none other than a heavily mutated fan.

Publication
Child of Dreams was serialized in Kodansha's Magazine Z. The chapters were later collected in two volumes:
 * ISBN 978-4-06-334361-8. Released in November 2000.
 * ISBN 978-4-06-334474-5. Released in November 2001.

The English-language translation was handled by Max Allan Collins. The hardcover edition (ISBN 1-56389-906-X) was released on March 1, 2003, while the softcover edition (ISBN 1-56389-907-8) was released on December 1 the same year.

title: Batman: Child of Dreams


text:
Metmyoglobin

Metmyoglobin is the oxidized form of the oxygen-carrying hemeprotein myoglobin. Metmyoglobin is the cause of the characteristic brown colouration of meat that occurs as it ages.

In living muscle, the concentration of metmyoglobin is vanishingly small, due to the presence of the enzyme metmyoglobin reductase, which, in the presence of the cofactor NADH and the coenzyme cytochrome b4 converts the Fe3+ in the heme prosthetic group of metmyoglobin back to the Fe2+ of normal myoglobin. In meat, which is dead muscle, the normal processes of removing metmyoglobin are prevented from effecting this repair, or alternatively the rate of metmyoglobin formation exceeds their capacity, so that there is a net accumulation of metmyoglobin as the meat ages.

Metmyoglobin reduction helps limit the oxidation of myoglobin and the oxidation of myoglobin is specific to each species. In other words, metmyoglobin gains electrons in order to limit myoglobin from losing electrons. Metmyoglobin after being oxidized by myoglobin shows the undesirable brown color which can be seen in many types of meat. Metmyoglobin is more susceptible to oxidation when being compared to oxymyoglobin. The metmyoglobin reducing activity varies across species and was studied particularly in beef, porcine, bison, deer, emu, equine, goats and sheep. Currently there is not a standard technique in measuring the metmyoglobin in all species. But many techniques are used including reflectance spectrophotometry and absorbance spectrophotometry are used.

title: Metmyoglobin


text:
Béla I of Hungary

Béla I the Boxer or the Wisent (I. Bajnok or Bölény Béla, Belo I.; c. 1015 – 11 September 1063) was King of Hungary from 1060 until his death. He descended from a younger branch of the Árpád dynasty. Béla's baptismal name was Adalbert. He left Hungary in 1031, together with his brothers, Levente and Andrew, after the execution of their father, Vazul. Béla settled in Poland and married Richeza (or Adelaide), daughter of Polish king Mieszko II Lambert.

He returned to his homeland upon the invitation of his brother Andrew, who had in the meantime been crowned King of Hungary. Andrew assigned the administration of the so-called ducatus or "duchy", which encompassed around one-third of the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary, to Béla. The two brothers' relationship became tense when Andrew had his own son, Solomon, crowned king, and forced Béla to publicly confirm Solomon's right to the throne in 1057 or 1058. Béla, assisted by his Polish relatives, rebelled against his brother and dethroned him in 1060. He introduced monetary reform and subdued the last uprising aimed at the restoration of paganism in Hungary. Béla was fatally injured when his throne collapsed while he was sitting on it.

Childhood (before 1031)
Most Hungarian chronicles, including Simon of Kéza's Gesta Hungarorum and the Illuminated Chronicle, record that Béla's father was Ladislas the Bald, a cousin of Stephen, the first King of Hungary. However, many of the same sources add that it "is sometimes claimed" that Béla and his two brothers—Levente and Andrew—were in fact the sons of Ladislaus the Bald's brother, Vazul. The chronicles also refer to gossip claiming that the three brothers were their father's illegitimate sons, born to "a girl from the Tátony clan". Modern historians, who accept the latter reports' reliability, unanimously write that the three brothers were the sons of Vazul and his concubine.

Béla was born between 1015 and 1020. It is debated whether Béla was a second or a third son. The former view is represented, for example, by the Polish historian Wincenty Swoboda, and the latter by the Hungarian scholars Gyula Kristó and Ferenc Makk. Kristó and Makk write that Béla's name "most probably" derived from the Turkish adjective bujla ("noble"). However, the name may also be connected to the Slavic word for white (bjelij) or to the Biblical name Bela.

In exile (1031 – c. 1048)
King Stephen's only son who survived infancy, Emeric, died on 2 September 1031. Thereafter, Vazul had the strongest claim to succeed the King. However, the monarch, suspecting that Vazul inclined towards paganism, favored his own sister's son, Peter Orseolo. In order to ensure his nephew's succession, Stephen had Vazul blinded. Béla and his two brothers fled from the kingdom.

They first settled in Bohemia, but their "condition of life was poor and mean" there. They moved to Poland, where "they received a warm reception" from King Mieszko II. According to the Hungarian chronicles, Béla participated in a Polish expedition against the pagan Pomeranians and defeated their duke "in single combat". The Illuminated Chronicle narrates that the Polish monarch "praised the boldness and strength of Duke Béla and bestowed on him all the Pomeranian tribute". The King even gave his daughter—named either Richeza or Adelaide—in marriage to Béla and granted "a goodly quantity of land" to him. Makk says that Béla was not baptized until just before his marriage; his baptismal name was Adalbert.

"At that time the Pomeranians refused to pay their yearly tribute to the Duke of Poland, to whom they were subject. The Duke set out to exact by force of arms the tribute due to him from the Pomeranians. Then the Pomeranians, who were pagans, and the Poles, who were Christians, agreed together that their leaders should meet each other in a duel, and if the Pomeranian fell defeated, he would render the customary tribute; and if the Pole, then he might bewail its loss. Since [the] Duke [Mieszko] and his sons shrank in fear from the duel to be fought, [Béla] presented himself before them and through an interpreter spoke thus: 'If it is pleasing to you, Poles, and to the lord Duke, although I am of nobler birth than that pagan, yet I will fight for the advantage of your kingdom and for the honour of the Duke.' This was pleasing both to the Pomeranians and to the Poles. When they met in combat, armed with lances, [Béla] is said to have struck the Pomeranian so manfully that he unseated him from his horse; and the Pomeranian could not move from the spot where he had fallen, and [Béla] smote him with his sword. Then the Duke of the Pomeranians confessed himself at fault; and the Pomeranians, seeing this, humbly submitted to the Duke of Poland and paid the accustomed tribute without murmuring." King Mieszko II died in 1034; his son and heir Casimir was forced to leave Poland. A period of anarchy followed, which lasted at least until 1039 when Casimir returned. According to Kristó and Makk, Béla was staying in Poland during this period; he may even have administered the kingdom in the name of his absent brother-in-law. On the other hand, the Polish historian Manteuffel writes that Béla and his two brothers, in contrast with the unanimous report of the Hungarian chronicles, arrived in Poland only with Casimir, after 1039. It is beyond doubt that Levente and Andrew departed from Poland in about 1038, because—according to the Illuminated Chronicle—they did not want to "live the life of hangers-on in the Duke of Poland's court, regarded only as Béla's brothers".

Duke in Hungary (c. 1048–1060)
Upon leaving Poland, Andrew and Levente settled in Kiev. They returned to Hungary after a rebellion which was dominated by pagans broke out against King Peter Orseolo in 1046. The King was dethroned, and Andrew was proclaimed king. Levente died in the same year and Andrew, still childless, decided to invite Béla back to Hungary.

"Having lost one brother, King Andreas sent to Poland to his other brother Bela, calling him with great love and saying: 'Once we shared poverty and labour together, and now I ask you, most beloved brother, that you come to me without tarrying, so that we may be companions in joy and share in the good things of the kingdom, rejoicing in each other's presence. For I have neither heir nor brother except you. You shall be my heir, and you shall succeed me in the kingdom.' Won by these words, Béla came to the King with all his family. When the King saw him, he rejoiced with a great joy, because he was fortified by his brother's strength. Then the King and his brother Bela held a council and divided the kingdom into three parts, of which two remained under the proprietorship of the royal majesty or power and the third was put under the proprietorship of the Duke. This first division of the kingdom became the seed of discord and wars between the dukes and the kings of Hungary."

Urged by his brother, Béla returned in 1048 and received one-third of the kingdom, with the title of duke. Béla's ducatus or "duchy" encompassed large territories along the eastern and northern borders, including the regions of Nyitra (Nitra, Slovakia) and Bihar (Biharia, Romania). He possessed a wide range of royal prerogatives, including coinage. The half-denars minted for him bore the inscription BELA DUX ("Duke Béla"). According to Steinhübel, the mid-11th-century timber and earth walls of the fortress of Nyitra were erected in Béla's reign.

The two brothers closely collaborated in the subsequent years. According to the Illuminated Chronicle, they together worked out a military strategy against the Germans, who were frequently invading the kingdom in the early 1050s. Ferenc Makk writes that Béla's epithets—the Champion or the Wisent—are connected to his fighting against the Germans. The chronicler emphasizes that Andrew and Béla "lived in a great tranquillity of peace" even after Andrew fathered a son, Solomon, in 1053. Béla was one of the lords witnessing the deed of the foundation of the Tihany Abbey, a Benedictine monastery that his brother established in 1055.

The two brothers' good relationship deteriorated after King Andrew had the child Solomon crowned king in 1057 or 1058. The coronation was the consequence of the peace negotiations with the Holy Roman Empire, because the Germans did not acquiesce in a marriage between Solomon and Judith—the sister of the young German monarch, Henry IV—until Solomon's right to succeed his father was declared and publicly confirmed. Thereafter Andrew was determined to secure the throne for his son. He invited Béla to his manor in Tiszavárkony, where the King offered his brother a seemingly free choice between a crown and a sword (which were the symbols of the royal and ducal power, respectively). However, he had ordered that Béla be murdered if he chose the crown. Having been informed of his brother's secret plan by one of his own partisans in the royal court, Béla opted for the sword, but he departed for Poland after the meeting.

He returned to Hungary, in the autumn of 1060, with Polish troops that Duke Boleslaus the Bold of Poland had provided. Around the same time, German reinforcements arrived in Hungary to assist Andrew against Béla. The ensuing civil war ended with the victory of Béla, who defeated his brother in two successive battles fought at the river Tisza and at Moson. The King was seriously injured and died soon afterward. His partisans took his son, the child Solomon, to Germany.

Reign (1060–1063)
Béla was crowned king in Székesfehérvár on 6 December 1060. He ordered that "the wives and sons and all the property of all those who had followed" his nephew to Germany "should be protected and kept safe and sound", which induced many of Solomon's partisans to reconcile themselves to Béla's rule and return to Hungary. He reformed the coinage and introduced "large coins of purest silver" into circulation. In order to stabilize the new currency, Béla maximized the prices and eliminated the black market. He also ordered that weekly markets should be held on Saturdays, instead of Sundays, in the kingdom. The historian Nora Berend says that the latter measure "may have adversely affected Jewish activities", because Jews, who observed the Sabbath, could not work on Saturdays.

Béla decided to discuss his innovations with the representatives of the freemen, and "sent heralds throughout all Hungary to summon two elders with gift of speech from each village to a royal council", according to the Illuminated Chronicle. A great crowd of commoners gathered in Székesfehérvár in 1061. They demanded the restoration of paganism and the murder of clergymen, but Béla collected his army and suppressed their uprising within three days. According to Kristó, the rebels might have been led by Vata's son, John.

Béla attempted to conclude a peace treaty with the Holy Roman Empire. For this purpose, shortly after his coronation, he released all German commanders who had assisted his brother during the civil war. However, the young German monarch's advisors refused Béla's proposals. In the summer of 1063, an assembly of the German princes decided to launch a military expedition against Hungary to restore young Solomon to the throne. Béla was planning to abdicate in favor of his nephew if the latter restored his former ducatus, but he was seriously injured when "his throne broke beneath him" in his manor at Dömös. The King—who was "half-dead", according to the Illuminated Chronicle—was taken to the western borders of his kingdom, where he died at the Kanizsva Creek on 11 September 1063. Béla was buried in the Benedictine Szekszárd Abbey, which he had set up in 1061. Following Béla's death, his three sons—Géza, Ladislaus and Lampert—sought refuge in Poland, and Solomon ascended the throne.

Family
Béla married, in about 1033, a daughter of King Mieszko II Lambert of Poland. According to Makk, her name was either Richesa or Adelheid. Their eldest children, Géza and Ladislaus—who became kings of Hungary in 1074 and 1077, respectively—were born in Poland in the 1040s. Béla's third son, Lampert, was born after Béla's return to Hungary.

Lampert was followed by a daughter named Sophia, who was first married to Margrave Ulric I of Carniola, and later to Duke Magnus of Saxony. Her younger sister, Euphemia, became the wife of Duke Otto I of Olomouc. Béla's third daughter, Helena, was the wife of King Demetrius Zvonimir of Croatia. An unnamed daughter of Béla became the first wife of a Hungarian nobleman, Lampert of the Clan Hont-Pázmány. According to the historian Martin Dimnik, Béla also fathered a fifth daughter, Lanka, who was the wife of Prince Rostislav Vladimirovich of Tmutarakan.

The following family tree presents Béla's ancestry, his offspring, and some of his relatives mentioned in the article.

*A Khazar, Pecheneg or Volga Bulgarian lady. **Györffy writes that she may have been a member of the Bulgarian Cometopuli dynasty. ***Lanka is not mentioned as Béla I's daughter by all specialists.

title: Béla I of Hungary


text:
Tsinghua University School of Law

Tsinghua University School of Law is the law school of Tsinghua University founded in 1929. It is a part of Tsinghua University. The restructuring of the higher education system in China led to the Law School's merger with Peking University and other universities in 1952. It was reestablished in 1995 and has operated continuously since. As of 2016, it is ranked 2nd among law schools in China.

title: Tsinghua University School of Law


text:
User:Chameleon/NPOV

My take on NPOV
NPOV is a pragmatic policy. Its primary aim is to allow people of differing views to come together and collaborate in a way that creates high-quality, balanced articles. Not everyone sees this the same way. There are two main extremes: a) those who don't care about NPOV at all and will do anything to skew the project towards their often crazy views; b) those who elevate NPOV to near-religious status, and make the error of considering it to be an end in itself rather than a means to creating an outstanding encyclopaedia.

I disagree with both attitudes, and think that a position in between the two makes sense. It seems to me that the first attitude is rather politically incorrect on Wikipedia, and therefore I don't need to criticise it. Everyone accepts that it is wrong. Instead, let's talk about the second attitude. Examples of it include:
 * literally adopting the style and vocabulary of religion, in a way that is intended to be ironic, but which is ironically all too close to the mark:
 * The_Advanced_Wikipedian (see photo)
 * WikipediAhimsa (concept borrowed from Hinduism)
 * edits like this (Jimbo cult)
 * EXPAND LATER

Wikipedia is ruled by several loose cliques (sometimes hyperbolically referred to as "the Cabal") and sub-cliques. For example, whenever certain users wish to push their pro-Israel POV on a given article, they write to users who they know will step in and give an illusion of community support for their edits. Ideally, nobody would ever do this, but it is unfortunately necessary in order to counter the efforts of others. If, for example, a editor brings in several fellow racists to deliberately skew an article, Wikipedians interested in improving rather than worsening the project may be forced to write to each other to bring in support.

This is a regretable trend, but sensible Wikipedians can do very little about it. I myself have had to write messages on people's talk pages asking them to take a look at an article. One difference between people acting in good faith and those acting in bad faith is the language used in such messages. Someone acting in bad faith knows they are doing so, and will therefore avoid honest language such as "please come and revert article X to the good version, because I have already done so three times"; they will instead say something like "please take a look at article X". Of course, only a fool could read such a message and really think that it is an invitation to have a look at the article because it's a good riveting read. It is crystal clear that both messages have the same objective, but a dishonest person knows instinctively how to phrase such messages. Moreover, if even those messages were banned, they would just resort to sending them via private e-mail or chat.

A person acting in good faith runs the risk of being honest about why he is asking someone to have a look at an article, and it does not occur to an honest person to send messages privately, because he knows he is doing nothing underhand, and therefore cannot imagine that anyone else could interpret his actions negatively. This is a monumental error. I myself have been bemused by being accused of "gaming the 3RR rule" for my occasional use of a support request, whilst witnessing users whose main tactic is gaming the 3RR rule get away with zero criticism simply by using dishonest language.

In conclusion, sensible Wikipedians who edit in good faith, and whose minds are not tainted by bizarre, hateful ideologies, need to adopt these tactics. We have to face up to the fact that a couple of right-wingers can only revert an article a total of six times before violating the three-revert rule. Ten good users each committed to reverting just once can easily overcome this and more. By working together, we can stamp out certain instances of POV-pushing.

For example, User:Racist edits an article so that it includes a long rants claiming that black people are scum. User:Chamaeleon changes it to a short, referenced summary of that belief. User:Racist reverts to the racist version a further two times, and User:Chamaeleon reverts to the NPOV version a further two times. User:Bigot steps in to make more reverts. User:Chamaeleon calls on the community, and a few neutral/progressive people come in and revert the racist cabal. With any luck, one of the racists goes one revert over the 3RR and gets himself blocked. We've won — i.e. Wikipedia is better (our aim), rather than worse (their aim).

Simultaneously of course, there are efforts on the talk page to reason with them. This scenarios assumes that this doesn't work.

Let me say that again, because some people skip lines: it goes without saying that the main way to resolve a dispute is by discussing it. This is a last resort.

In conclusion, in the absence of the possibility of eliminating all Wikipedia cliques, I suggest that the next best thing would be to balance out the existing cliques with a clique whose defining characteristic is that they want to make this project better. Call me crazy, but that is why I'm here. Yes, that's right: I'm not here to uphold "wiki" principles (what sort of sad geek would have that as a principle?); I'm not here to worship policy (adherence is one thing; worship, another); I'm not here to skew articles so that groups I belong to are only positively represented (I could make a mile-long list of people like that). I'm here to make an outstanding encyclopaedia. Who wants to join me?

I believe that having a certain POV (in the literal sense of a point of view, not the derogatory Wikipedia sense of "desire to skew things to one's point of view") actually helps people edit in a good way, an NPOV way and an encyclopaedic way. I know that this is Wiki-heresy, but hear me out.

For example, take one user who believes the world is flat, and another who believes it is round. I would personally trust the round-earther more with the task of writing in a sensible, neutral fashion about geography, astronomy and the like. Wouldn't anyone? Similarly, I would expect rabid racists to be rather bad editors on topics such as ethnicity, immigration, and minority languages. I would prefer an anti-racist. Now, this doesn't mean that a round-earther or anti-racist is immune to bad writing or representing only one point of view. Far from it. A round-earther might be too dismissive of the flat-earth view, and not fairly represent it as a perfectly rational view back in the times before certain scientific discoveries. An anti-racist might censor statistics showing a lower average intelligence for an ethnic group, out of the wishful thinking that says that if we are all equal, then we must all be the same. But the fact remains that I would still trust the round-earther and the anti-racist more than the flat-earther and the neo-Nazi. Some people are just wrong and some people are just right. Yes, again that is heresy, but it actually reflects a far deeper understanding of NPOV than that of people who blithely claims that all points of view are equally valid.

If you understand everything I have just written, you may be wondering what other opinions I have apart from the Earth being round and racism being bad. Well, here are some "biases": As most people, I actually can't really imagine having other views. I mean, how could anyone be against freedom and reason? Anyway, it's not that Wikipedia must push the idea that fascism is bad etc, but rather that such conclusions will inevitably be arrived at by people reading accurate, truthful, information-packed, sensible-written, unskewed articles. We don't need to say "Hitler was a very bad man", "inequality needs to be fought", "religion is really stupid"; such conclusions come naturally from factual articles. The main danger to be avoided is POV-pushers coming along and removing facts because they don't like them (e.g. Holocaust deniers messing up our WWII coverage) or flooding articles with weird accusations (e.g. David Icke followers including conspiracy theories about reptilian beings in random articles, or David Horowitz followers messing up our coverage of Jewish American scholar Noam Chomsky with accusations that he hates Jews, or Americans, or scholars, or whatever this month's wacky theory is.
 * Bad stuff: racism, inequality, profits before people, religion, obscurantism, environmental damage, deception, bad faith, homelessness, slavery, irrational behaviour, fascism, etc.
 * Good stuff: liberty, knowledge, truth, solidarity, mutual aid, reason, equality, free expression, accuracy, respect, science used for the common good, reason, etc.

So, what is to be done? If you are struggling for a factual, NPOV article, just let me know, and I'll step into the debate. And if you see me in a similar situation, please also lend a hand. Simple as that.

title: User:Chameleon/NPOV