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Talk:Mizar and Alcor

Mizar is four stars
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-12/uor-fkb120909.php 70.179.127.14 (talk) 13:37, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

 * I didn't think this was new information. I'm pretty sure I read a popular astronomy book back in the 1980s that described this as a sextuple system. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nitroglycol (talk • contribs) 00:57, 10 October 2013 (UTC)

Broken Link
The link to the "Extensive article on Mizar" gets a "page cannot be found message." Has it been moved? 4.243.146.153 19:25, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

If anyone is willing to write it could we have a separate page for alcore? --jim

I rewrote this sentence because as far as I could google there is no consensus on whether Alcor is orbiting Mizar at all, the Hipparcos data still has error bars which could place their separation over several light years.

The two stars lie more than a quarter of a light year apart but proper motions show they actually do form a binary star system, not an optical binary as previously thought.

If new astrometric data has appeared that changes this uncertainty then my change may need to be revised.

I also named the probable discoverer as Benedetto Castelli and not Riccioli and failing that, Galileo Galilei. Most sources and books appear to have erroneously copied assertions that Giovanni Battista Riccioli was the discoverer from his much-quoted note. See Umberto Fedele's Italian 1949 article and.

What's more there are several quotes in books and online that Alcor is a spectroscopic binary, and the above article disputes this, claiming that sources are merely copying earlier writings without determining the original source. -Wikibob | Talk 08:42, 2004 Aug 14 (UTC)

 * Shouldn't this article be called Mizar and Alcor? 132.205.15.43 03:28, 2 Dec 2004 (UTC)

In light of the fact that Alcor's disambiguation page links this article and not an article proper on Alcor, it seems that either this article should be renamed to include both until such time as an article can be written for Alcor.rmagill 20:43, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

Shouldn't this article be a disambiguation? --Devnevyn 20:31, 9 Jun 2005 (UTC)

 * There is a "Mizar (disabiguation)" page. This article was an exact word-for-word duplicate of "Zeta Ursae Majoris." Have changed this article to a Redirect there. It contains an "Other Uses" link to the Mizar dab page. "Alcor" already redirected to "Zeta Ursae Majoris." B00P 17:25, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

Mizar-Alcor Distance
This article states The two stars lie more than a quarter of a light year apart and yet, Mizar's distance is given as 78 ± 1 ly, and Alcor's is given as 81.2 ± 1.2. Even if you take the maximum estimate for Mizar's distance and the minimum for Alcor's, you get a 1 light-year distance, and if you take the mid-range for each, you get a distance of about 3.2 ly Nik42 05:33, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

The latest (refined) reduction of the HIPPARCOS data (van Leeuwen, 2007) gives distances of 85.8 ly and 81.7 ly for Mizar and Alcor, respectively. With the error bars, their distances are Mizar: 82.1 to 89.8 ly, Alcor: 81.5 to 82.0 ly. Thus, at the very least, they are 0.1 ly apart, although it's likely quite a bit more. The distance to Mizar as determined by the USNO's optical interferometer, however, is 82.8 ly (error range: 82.2 to 83.4), so indeed, Mizar and Alcor would appear to be at least 0.2 ly apart. The entry should probably be revised to give a distance to Mizar of 82.8 ± 0.6 ly. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.60.233.2 (talk) 16:48, 23 May 2011 (UTC)

Third Paragraph
I find the third paragraph confusing. It probably should be clarified. Hue White (talk) 17:13, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Space direction??
The following sentence is really weird:

With normal eyesight one can make out a faint companion just to the east, named Alcor or 80 Ursae Majoris.

Recomend rewriting it, to something NOT east, because east is relative to the way you are standing on earth, and therefore also the way you are looking at Ursa Major. --Faina windu (talk) 08:01, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

 * I agree, and I edited the text to remove "east." (One *might* say it's to the north, since it roughly is; but I didn't.) Mcswell (talk) 19:11, 13 December 2015 (UTC)
 * For astronomical objects, east is definitely not relative. Alcor is to the east of Mizar. Assambrew (talk) 21:47, 7 July 2024 (UTC)

Beware of Japanese Intruders!
I was reading along in an astronomy article and suddenly found myself reading about Japanese culture (complete with accompanying kanji for the uberliterati), including manga culture. After I got through that, I found myself reading about astronomy again. Am I an astronomer who dreams he is a Japanese, or a Japanese who dreams he is an astronomer? Writtenright (talk) 21:10, 20 January 2010 (UTC)Writtenright

Mizar companion
According to this article October 1894 - Mizar's companion is called "Jack by the horse's head" in common language... would this be Alcor? 76.66.194.32 (talk) 13:09, 24 March 2010 (UTC)

Requested move

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: moved (non-admin closure). Jenks24 (talk) 03:34, 2 April 2011 (UTC)

Mizar (star) → Mizar and Alcor — This article deals with the subject of both Mizar and Alcor, which are thought to form a single gravitationally-bound system. In the case of this system, the proper names of both subsystems (Mizar and Alcor) are of roughly equal notability, so it makes sense to refer to them both in the title. --Icalanise (talk) 19:31, 7 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Since they've been found to be gravitationally bound, this seems reasonable. When they were thought to be separate systems, splitting into two articles would have been the better option. Has anyone disputed the recent finding at all? If not, I support the move. Modest Genius talk 23:06, 7 March 2011 (UTC)
 * As far as I am aware no-one has disputed it, going by the ADS citation queries for the relevant papers . Even if they weren't bound I'd suggest that Mizar and Alcor comprise a sufficiently notable optical double to warrant a combined article anyway. Icalanise (talk) 23:54, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

 * Certainly "Mizar and Alcor" is much more common than "Mizar-Alcor system", and the former seems to satisfy WP:TITLE. As long as the page is discussing the system as a whole, the suggested name makes sense to me. Thanks.—RJH (talk) 20:39, 25 March 2011 (UTC)

 * I agree on the move. Besides, whenever some talks about one of them, the other generally comes up. -- Kheider (talk) 22:49, 25 March 2011 (UTC)

 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Article should be split into two separate articles(mizar/alcor)
I think that this article should be split into two separate articles, and Alcor B should be combined with Alcor — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.40.92.133 (talk) 04:31, 17 October 2011 (UTC)
 * I'm planning on performing this split, with separate articles for Mizar and Alcor, leaving this article to discuss mostly historical information relating to the two as a pair. Speak up if you're opposed.  Lithopsian (talk) 17:41, 31 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Split done. Mizar and Alcor are both disambiguation pages.  It might be nice to grab one or both of them, but I'll leave that for others to decide.  For now, I've put the split content at Zeta Ursae Majoris and Alcor (star).  There is certainly scope for some renames, retargets, and hatnotes.  Both articles can now be expanded at leisure to describe the stars in detail.  I envisage this article as a resting place for anecdotes, history, maybe some amateur astronomy tips, mythology, etc. Lithopsian (talk) 21:10, 1 January 2018 (UTC)

History
The History section is interesting but needs work - the meaning here is difficult to penetrate (almost as if its been translated from another language) and there's an unattributed quote in the middle of it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.56.198.62 (talk) 14:57, 11 December 2015 (UTC)

Etymology?
A couple of issues: First, the section entitled "Etymology" does not actually include the etymology of the names Mizar and Alcor (which is actually including in a preceding section, "Nomenclature"). The "Etymology" section, instead, discusses other names that have been given to this pair of stars. In comparing articles of other stars in the Big Dipper asterism, the Arabic etymology for the common name is given under a section heading "Nomenclature" (or similar) and alternate names for the star are discussed in the same section. In comparing articles on other well-known stars (specifically, Arcturus, Sirius, and Betelgeuse), the etymology of the primary common name is given under a section entitled "Nomenclature" (or similar) and a separate section treats the other names, but is more correctly titled "Other Names" (or similar). One convention or the other ought to be adopted for this article, but clearly the title "Etymology" needs to be eliminated as it doesn't accurately describe the content of the section.

Second, the construction of the paragraphs in this section is somewhat telegraphic. There isn't enough background information given to transition between one brief statement and the next for many of the alternate names. I don't think there needs to be much more than a sentence or two added for most of these, but as it reads right now it is difficult to understand the origin and significance of all the alternate names. Perhaps even just some careful editing of the currently present material might be adequate for the passage to read more clearly. El piel (talk) 19:07, 12 September 2016 (UTC)

 * You're right. I've renamed it "Other names"; added in the military namesakes as a sub-section, and separated out the 'test of eyesight' material to a new section. It now more accurately reflects the contents; and it's difficult to think of a better title. As to readability, I suspect that arose from ad hoc additions over time. Perhaps a list of bullet points would be preferable, at least in part? Cuddlyopedia (talk) 08:03, 13 September 2016 (UTC)

Data in info box?
The data in the info box show identical mass-radius etc values for Aa and Ab. This surely is not the case; the source given (Hummel) has nothing about Ab. Who can correct that?Kipala (talk) 17:06, 19 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Hummel certainly does say something about Mizar Ab: "In Table 6 we list the derived physical parameters for Mizar A based on the assumption of identical components." So that's why the properties (except mass) are identical, straight from the horse's mouth.  Lithopsian (talk) 18:06, 19 December 2017 (UTC)

Name of article on Mizar
Last year split the article Mizar and Alcor into two, but he gave the one on Mizar the name Zeta Ursae Majoris. Shouldn't it have the common name "Mizar"? Do we have a policy on this? Please ping me if you reply. Eric Kvaalen (talk) 09:01, 29 July 2019 (UTC)
 * We have a policy, at WP:TITLE. Basically the article title should be the most recognizable and commonly-used name.  For stars, that is a proper name for only a few dozen of the best-known, despite several hundred having proper names of some sort.  Mizar might qualify.  I picked Zeta Ursae Majoris, largely because Mizar (star) had previously existed and been renamed and I didn't want to override that without further discussion.  I know that you tried to rename Zeta Ursae Majoris once already; I reverted that because it was a cut'n'paste move instead of a proper rename.  Since none of us probably have the permissions to move Zeta Ursae Majoris over Mizar (star), it might make sense to have this discussion in a formal requested move so that the move will happen properly at the conclusion.  Consider carefully that Mizar exists and is a disambiguation page, but the star could be considered to be a WP:PRIMARYTOPIC (similarly, probably more so, Alcor).  Lithopsian (talk) 12:18, 29 July 2019 (UTC)

Dubious "discovery"

 * It is absurd to credit Riccioli or anyone else as the "discoverer" of stars that have always been visible with the eye.
 * If it remains open whether M and A are gravitationally bound, then neither can anyone claim to have discovered that they are a binary system, and the article should not describe them as one. Surely Riccioli, who had no concept of stars as interacting masses, could not make that claim. 67.180.143.89 (talk) 20:03, 8 July 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Mizar and Alcor


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Category:Scottish inventors

 * Inventors from Scotland.

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

title: Category:Scottish inventors


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Piano Sonata No. 10 (Scriabin)

The Piano Sonata No. 10, Op. 70, was written by Alexander Scriabin in 1913. It was his final work in this form. The piece is highly chromatic and tonally ambiguous like Scriabin's other late works, although arguably less dissonant than most of his late works. It is characterized by frequent trills and tremolos. It is sometimes called his "Insect Sonata", in reference to the following statement he made that was recorded by Leonid Sabaneev:

"Insects, butterflies, moths - they are all living flowers. They are the most subtle caresses, almost without touching...They are all born of the sun and the sun nourishes them...This sunlike caress is the closest to me - take my tenth sonata - it is an entire sonata from insects."

This statement originates in a conversation in which Scriabin, his common-law-wife Tatiana Scriabina, and Sabaneev discuss the ways that various animals "correspond to the movements of our souls." They are particularly interested in the types of caresses that different animals resemble - "birds correspond to elated caresses," while "harrowing caresses - these are beasts" - and the above quotation is prompted by Sabaneev somewhat jokingly asking Scriabin "and what about other living creatures, like worms, insects?." While many have taken the insect quote to refer to a literalistic resemblance between the sonata's trills and the buzzing of insect wings, the musicologist Ross Mitchell has argued that Scriabin intended a more nuanced and philosophical metaphor.

"The insects that Skryabin had in mind while writing this sonata are not simply buzzing busybodies, but sun-kissed and sparkling with a dazzling gleam and an erotic delicacy as they caress with their gentle wingbeats. These insects combine many of Skryabin’s favored philosophical, symbolic, and metaphorical strains – ceaseless activity, fluttering, illumination, seduction – into one potent symbol for enabling spiritual enlightenment."

The atmosphere of the introductory pages of the Tenth Sonata is veiled and distant, like an impressionist reflection, but much more intensely elevated and spiritual. Trills soon sweep into every corner of the music, and in the last pages they are transformed into a glorious reverberation, as if shimmering with pulses of glowing light and taking on lives of their own. Such life and light/sound corroborations are typical of the composer's own imaginative world.

The tenth sonata is in closer dialogue with Sonata Form than some of his other sonatas. It opens with a few desolate notes, forming an augmented chord and then a diminished chord. Then, it moves on to a simple chromatic theme, and then back to the opening theme. Scriabin then introduces the luminous trills that pervade the rest of the piece, and then moves on to a third theme with a chromatically descending melody. Following the sonata format, these three themes take on a modified form in the development before settling down to the recapitulation.

During the middle portion, the feverish buzzing rises to a ferocious climax that thrusts both hands' trills into the upper register of the instrument. The very first, single-line gesture of the piece is not given again until after the richly-varied "recapitulation" has been made; it arrives quite unexpectedly, and is punctuated by a falling fourth in the bass that ends on C natural—a pitch that, in his last music, assumes great significance for Scriabin, who came to view it as a kind of cleansing tonal focus.

Like Scriabin's other sonatas, it is both technically and musically highly demanding for the pianist. A typical performance is about 12 minutes. Notable recorded performances of this piece include that of Scriabin’s son-in-law and musical champion, Vladimir Sofronitzky, and that of the great pianist Vladimir Horowitz, who also championed many of Scriabin’s works throughout his long career. The Russian virtuoso Arcadi Volodos took the very unusual step of opening his Carnegie Hall debut concert with this Sonata, reflecting a daring approach to programming as well as a commitment to Scriabin’s legacy. In 2018, Yuja Wang performed the Sonata in a recital tour, including Carnegie Hall and Berliner Philharmonie. The Berlin recital was recorded and released by Deutsche Grammophon as The Berlin Recital; the album received a Grammy Award nomination for "Best Classical Instrumental Solo".

title: Piano Sonata No. 10 (Scriabin)


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Oregon Coast Aquarium

The Oregon Coast Aquarium is an aquarium in Newport in the U.S. state of Oregon. Opened in 1992, the facility sits on 23 acre along Yaquina Bay near the Pacific Ocean. The aquarium was home to Keiko, the orca who starred in the movie Free Willy, from January 7, 1996, until September 9, 1998, when he was shipped to Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland. USA Today considers the Oregon Coast Aquarium world-class and Coastal Living magazine ranks it among the top ten aquariums in North America.

History
Newport business leaders proposed building an aquarium beginning in the early 1980s. They proposed a $7 million facility in 1982 as a way to boost the local economy. Two years later they incorporated as a non-profit, and increased fundraising efforts in 1987, collecting $11 million by 1991. Plans to turn 23 acre along Yaquina Bay in Newport into a "world class" aquarium were finalized in 1990. The Aquarium was designed by SRG Architects, Portland: BIOS:Inc, of Seattle, and Walker/Macy Landscape Architects, Portland, Oregon. After early bids were rejected by the aquarium's board of directors, Mountain States Construction was selected to build the first phase for about $12 million in August 1990. Plans for the first phase included construction of a 40000 ft2 building and four acres of outdoor exhibits, with completion expected in spring 1992. Construction began in August 1990 on phase one, with two other phases expected to start three years and eight years later.

On May 23, 1992, the Oregon Coast Aquarium opened with about 5,500 visitors the first day. Those in attendance on the first day included Senator Mark O. Hatfield, Governor Barbara Roberts, and Congressmen Mike Kopetski and Les AuCoin. The opening theme of the aquarium was following the path of a raindrop from the Oregon Coast Range all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

On January 7, 1996, Keiko the orca whale arrived on a United Parcel Service C-130 cargo plane, with freight expenses donated by the company. This move from Reino Aventura, an amusement park in Mexico City, came after fund raising by environmentalists and school children to build a $7.8 million habitat for the movie star in Oregon. Keiko was moved to Iceland in 1998 in an attempt to return him to the wild. For 2012, the aquarium had 450,000 visitors and earned $850,000 on about $7.3 million in revenues.

Exhibits
The Oregon Coast Aquarium's collection focuses on the flora and fauna native to the Oregon Coast. The aquarium is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Main building
Exhibits in the main building include four permanent displays: Sandy Shores, Rocky Shores, Coastal Waters, and a changing exhibit area. The first features fish and invertebrates that live either close to shore or in bays such as Yaquina Bay. Progressing, the aquarium displays feature animals further offshore ending in a kelp forest and sea jelly exhibit. Flanking the permanent displays are the changing exhibits.

There are also exhibits focusing on small marine life in the area including jellyfish, and a tidepool exhibit in which visitors may touch sea stars and sea anemones.

Temporary exhibits have included "Turtles," "Swampland," Claws that featured crustaceans, and Oddwater, which featured unusual sea creatures such as the green-blooded cuttlefish and the jet-powered chambered nautilus.

Passages of the Deep
The largest exhibit is "Passages of the Deep", in Keiko's former tank, it features walk-through acrylic tubes surrounded by deep water marine animals such as sharks, rays, and rockfish.

Passages of the Deep was created in Keiko's former home, and has three sections. Orford Reef contains mostly rockfish and other smaller Pacific-Northwest fish. Halibut Flats contains halibut, ling cod, a small ray, and other large fish, and includes a mock sunken ship. Open Sea is the last section in the tunnel, and holds many species of sharks including seven gill sharks, as well as rays, mackerel, anchovies and salmon.

Seabird Aviary
The aviary at Oregon Coast Aquarium exhibits sea and shore birds. Those on display include the seabirds tufted puffin, common murre, rhinoceros auklet, pigeon guillemot, and the shore bird black oystercatcher. The seabird aviary includes two large pools and rocky cliffs.

Nature Play Area
The aquarium's nature play area offers an interactive exhibit for kids which features models of logs (in reference to the area's history in timber), a replica eagle's nest, and a slide designed to look like a river chute.

Outdoor Amphitheater
The outdoor amphitheater was built as part of the same renovation project that brought the nature play area and the headwaters feature. It is an outdoor presentation space that hosts educational presentations from experts and animal demonstrations from caretakers.

Outdoor exhibits
The Aquarium has the largest outdoor Seabird Aviary in North America, which is home to tufted and horned puffins, black oystercatchers, common murres, rhinoceros auklets and pigeon guillemots. The Aquarium also exhibits two turkey vultures in a separate outdoor area. Outdoor exhibits also showcase marine mammal species native to the Oregon Coast, including sea otters, harbor seals, and sea lions. There is even a coastal cave that houses a giant Pacific octopus. The rocks in the outdoor exhibit are artificial rocks constructed of gunite. The Aquarium is also home to a nature trail that overlooks the Yaquina Bay estuary and features native plants and free-roaming wildlife.

title: Oregon Coast Aquarium


text: Category:Brown County, Ohio

title: Category:Brown County, Ohio


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User:Zhafnium

User: Zhafnium
AKA zhaf

Self Description
I'm a perpetual college student and practicing graphic designer, with a strong interest in Illustration. Formerly, I was an English Graduate student (long and boring story that). I was born in a small town that is hardly worth mention. An aspiring comic strip artist, I spend most of my time reading books for classes or working on art projects. Poverty does not even begin to explain my current economical state.

Articles I have Initiated

 * The Things They Carried - by Tim O'Brien. I have read this book.
 * Going After Cacciato - by Tim O'Brien. I have read this book.
 * Curtis (comic strip)
 * Henk Kuijpers - a great Dutch comic artist
 * Franka

Articles to which I have Contributed

 * Tim O'Brien
 * PvP
 * Chowder_(TV_series)
 * Dallas McKennon

title: User:Zhafnium


text:
User:Amir1

Hello my name is Amir from Tehran, Iran. I am a university student. I support open Internet projects. I hope to be able to make positive contributions to the Wikipedia project.

title: User:Amir1


text:
Lakers versus Celtics and the NBA Playoffs

Lakers versus Celtics and the NBA Playoffs is a basketball video game developed and released by Electronic Arts. It was first released in 1989 for MS-DOS-compatible PCs and for the Mega Drive/Genesis in 1991. The game was highly successful; it was the first game endorsed by the NBA and was the first to contain multiple NBA stars and teams in one game. The game's title alludes to the 1980s rivalry between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers. It is the first game in the NBA Playoffs series of games.

The game would be the first team basketball video game to acquire full players names and rights without actually relying on the NBA Players Association. Established stars in the game include Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (DOS version only), Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and Patrick Ewing.

The game introduced innovations in presentation. It was the first NBA game to feature TV style starting line up prior to the opening tip. It also featured halftime shows and announcers to simulate an authentic feel. Later games would go further by replacing music during gameplay with audience cheers. The game was conceived by Producer Don Traeger, and principal work done by programmer Robert Weatherby and Art Director Michael Kosaka. It was the first game to feature the EASN logo, a stand-alone sports brand that Traeger had conceived with marketing partner Don Transeth and Artist Michael Kosaka. This brand later evolved into EA Sports.

Gameplay
The game can be played in various ways: players could play against each other, or against the computer. Games against the computer were divided into two modes, "Exhibition" or "Playoffs". There are also four difficulty levels: Pre-season, Regular season, Playoffs and Showtime. Games could be configured for 2, 5, 8 or 12 minute quarters.

Signature moves for individual star players who have their own were introduced, such as Charles Barkley's gorilla dunk.

Teams
Players can pick from one of eight teams who were among the 16 that had competed in the playoffs the year before the game was released. The MS-DOS version contained teams from the 1989 NBA Playoffs, while the Genesis version contained the playoff teams from the 1990 NBA Playoffs.

MS-DOS version:

Genesis version:

Both conferences' All-Star Teams were available as well. This was the only way to use players from teams that were not represented in the game - Hakeem Olajuwon, Dominique Wilkins, Chris Mullin and Reggie Miller being examples.

Reception
Computer Gaming World praised Lakers versus Celtics' graphics, but stated that it was too easy to play for action gamers and that scoring was too high for statistics-oriented players, and unfavorably noted the lack of league play or custom lineups. The game scored 88% in Computer and Video Games. Mega placed the game at #24 in their Top Mega Drive Games of All Time.


text:
List of governors of São João Baptista de Ajudá

List of Colonial Heads of Fort of São João Baptista de Ajudá
Territory located in present-day coastal Benin


text:
Zenith Electronics

Zenith Electronics, LLC, is an American research and development company that develops ATSC and digital rights management technologies. It is owned by the South Korean company LG Electronics. Zenith was previously an American brand of consumer electronics, a manufacturer of radio and television receivers and other consumer electronics, and was headquartered in Glenview, Illinois. After a series of layoffs, the consolidated headquarters moved to Lincolnshire, Illinois. For many years, their famous slogan (borrowed from Crown Piano maker George Bent of Chicago, used through the 1890s) was "The quality goes in before the name goes on". LG Electronics acquired a controlling share of Zenith in 1995; Zenith became a wholly owned subsidiary in 1999. Zenith was the inventor of subscription television and the modern remote control, and was the first to develop high-definition television (HDTV) in North America.

Zenith-branded products were sold in North America, Germany, Thailand (to 1983), Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, India, and Myanmar.

History

The company was co-founded by Ralph Matthews and Karl Hassel in Chicago, Illinois, as Chicago Radio Labs in 1918 as a small producer of amateur radio equipment. The name "Zenith" came from ZN'th, a contraction of its founders' ham radio call sign, 9ZN. They were joined in 1921 by Eugene F. McDonald, and Zenith Radio Company was incorporated in 1923.

The fledgling company soon became known for its high-quality radios and electronic innovations. Zenith introduced the first portable radio in 1924, the first mass-produced AC radio in 1926, and push-button tuning in 1927. It added automobile radios in the 1930s with its Model 460, promoting the fact that it needed no separate generator or battery, selling at US$59.95. The first Zenith television set appeared in 1939, with its first commercial sets sold to the public in 1948. The company is credited with having invented such things as the wireless remote control and FM multiplex stereo. For many years Zenith used the slogan "the quality goes in before the name goes on". This phrase was used by the Geo. P. Bent Piano Company of Chicago as early as 1906.

Zenith established one of the first FM stations in the country in 1940 (Chicago's WWZR, later called WEFM, named for Zenith executive Eugene F. McDonald), which was among the earliest FM multiplex stereo stations, first broadcasting in stereo in June 1961. The station was sold in the early 1970s and is now WUSN.

Zenith pioneered the development of high-contrast and flat-face picture tubes, and the multichannel television sound (MTS) stereo system used on analog television broadcasts in the United States and Canada (as opposed to the BBC-developed NICAM digital stereo sound system for analog television broadcasts, used in many places around the world.) Zenith was one of the first companies to introduce a digital HDTV system implementation, parts of which were included in the ATSC standard, starting with the 1993 model Grand Alliance. They were one of the first American manufacturers to market a home VCR, selling a Sony-built Betamax video recorder starting in 1977.

The 1962 Illinois Manufacturers Directory (50th Anniversary edition) lists Zenith Radio Corporation as having 11,000 employees, of which at least 6,460 were employed in seven Chicago plants. The corporate office was in plant number 1, located at 6001 West Dickens Avenue (north of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific railroad tracks), where 2,500 workers made radio and television sets and Hi-Fi stereophonic phonographs. Plant number 2 was located at 1500 North Kostner Ave., where 2,100 employees made government electronics, radio and television components, transistors and hearing aids. Plant number 3 was located at 5801 West Dickens Ave. (also north of the Milwaukee Road tracks), where 300 employees made electronics and did servicing. Plant number 4 was located at 3501 West Potomac Ave., where 60 employees handled warehousing. Plant number 5, located at 6501 West Grand Ave., employed 500-600 workers and manufactured government Hi-Fi equipment.

A subsidiary of Zenith, the Rauland Corporation, located at 4245 North Knox Avenue, employed 850 workers who produced television picture tubes. In the mid '60's, Rauland produced the RCA 21" round color CRT; in 1965 it added a 21" rectangular 21" color CRT. In 1966, Rauland bought the Keebler cookie plant in Melrose Park, Illinois for production of color CRTs. Rauland's Niles, Illinois, plant made flat-face radar picture tubes, night vision microchannel image tubes for the military, and many specialty tubes. The other Zenith subsidiary in Chicago was Central Electronics, Incorporated, located at 1247 West Belmont Ave., where 100 employees made amateur radio equipment and performed auditory training. Another Central Electronics plant was located at State Route 133 and Grandview in Paris, Illinois, where 500 employees made radio receivers, with the total Zenith work force in Illinois being thus at least 6,960.

In December 1970, National Union Electric ("NUE") sued most of the Japanese television manufacturers for violation of the Anti-Dumping Act and a conspiracy they alleged violated American antitrust laws. During the pendency of that suit, Zenith Radio Corporation encountered increasing financial difficulty as their market share progressively went to Japanese companies. Zenith joined two other U.S. companies—Sears, Roebuck and Co. and Motorola, Inc.—as co-plaintiffs. The NUE suit was transferred to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and the two suits were consolidated for pretrial proceedings and trial. The suit, styled In re Japanese Electric Products Antitrust Litigation, sought $900 million in damages.

By the end of 1983, Zenith had spent millions of dollars in connection with the litigation. In 1981, the trial court entered summary judgment on the antitrust and antidumping claims and dismissed the lawsuits. Plaintiffs appealed, and the appellate court affirmed the summary judgment for Sears, Roebuck and Co., Motorola, Inc., and Sony. The case was appealed, and in March 1986 the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in favor of the defendants on Zenith's antitrust claims. Zenith's hopes to salvage a victory on the claims that the defendants violated the Antidumping Act of 1916 ended in April 1987, when the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from the U.S. District Court of Appeals in Philadelphia that upheld the ruling of the trial court in favor of the Japanese.

In 1979, Zenith entered the computer market with the purchase of Heath Company from Schlumberger for $64.5 million, forming Zenith Data Systems (ZDS). The company changed its name to Zenith Electronics Corporation in 1984 to reflect its interests in computers and CATV, having left the radio business two years earlier.

By the late 1980s, ZDS's profits were sustaining Zenith, while its television business continued to lose money. To raise money for HDTV research efforts and reduce debt, Zenith sold ZDS to Groupe Bull in October 1989 for $635 million. By 1990, Zenith was in trouble and looking more attractive to a hostile takeover. To avoid this, Zenith sold a five-percent stake to the Korean company GoldStar (now LG Electronics) as part of a technology-sharing agreement. With their analog line aging (the last major update to the line had been the System³ chassis in 1978)), and the adoption of HDTV in the United States decades away, Zenith's prospects were poor.

In 1995 LG, increased its stake to 55 percent, enough to assume controlling interest. Zenith was too small to compete in the consumer electronics industry, which had become global in nature, and its high-quality products made it attractive for acquisition. Zenith filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1999, and in exchange for its debts, LG bought the remaining 45 percent of the company, converting about $200 million of debt owed to it by Zenith into common stock in the revamped company. The shares of existing stockholders were rendered worthless.

During this period, some of Zenith's products were being rebadged as OEM under the Admiral name. Certain products carried the Allegro brand, which had originated in the 1970s as a brand for Zenith speakers and other audio equipment. Their profitable Network Systems division, which produced set-top boxes for cable and satellite TV, was sold to Motorola in the summer of 2000 and became part of Motorola BCS (Broadband Communications Sector).

The Zenith headquarters building was occupied by Aon and subsequently demolished in 2018 to create room for nearby Abt Electronics to expand.

LG produced the Zenith DTT-900 and Zenith DTT-901 ATSC digital television converter box. LG offered some Zenith-branded plasma, LCD, and direct-view televisions through selected retail outlets.

Shortwave radio
Among Zenith's early famous products were the "Royal" series of transistor radios and the "Trans-Oceanic" series of shortwave portable radios, which were produced from 1942 to 1981.

Subscription television
Zenith was the first company to experiment with subscription television, launching their Phonevision system with experimental Chicago station KS2XBS (originally broadcasting on Channel 2 before the Federal Communications Commission forced them to relinquish it to WBBM-TV). Their experiment involved a descrambler box mounted on the television set, and plugged into the telephone lead. When a preannounced broadcast was ready to begin, viewers would call an operator at Zenith who would send a signal with the telephone leads to unscramble the video.

While the Theatre Owners of America claimed the concept was unsuccessful, Zenith itself claimed the experiment was a success. As Phonevision broadcast films, it was seen as a potential competitor for traditional theatres. In spite of the fact that the three films initially available to the first 300 test households were more than two years old, about 18 percent of Phonevision viewers had seen them at the movies, and 92 percent of Phonevision households reported that they would prefer to see films at home.

Remote controls
Zenith is, perhaps, best known for the first practical wireless television remote control, the Space Command, developed in 1956.

The original television remote control was a wired version, released in 1950, that soon attracted complaints about an unsightly length of cable from the viewer's chair to the television receiver. Eugene F. McDonald, Zenith President and founder, ordered his engineers to develop a wireless version, but the use of radio waves was soon discounted due to poor interference rejection inherent in 1950s radio receivers. The 1955 Flash-Matic remote system, invented by Eugene Polley, used a highly directional photo flash tube in the hand held unit that was aimed at sensitive photoreceivers in the four front corners of the television cabinet. However, bright sunlight falling on the television was found to activate the controls. It is worth noting that these remote controls would activate a motor, causing the tuning dial on the television to switch by itself, and this could be used for mischief if someone else was attempting to tune the television.

Lead engineer Robert Adler then suggested that ultrasonic sound be used as a trigger mechanism. This was produced in the hand held unit by mechanically struck aluminum rods of carefully constructed dimensions—a receiver in the television responded to the different frequencies this action produced. Enough audible noise was produced by pressing the buttons that consumers began calling remote controls "clickers". The miniaturization of electronics meant that, eventually, the sounds were produced in the remote unit electronically; however, the operating principle remained in use until the 1980s, when it was superseded by the infrared light system.

The photograph is of a Space Command 600, which was the remote control designed for use with their color television receivers. The Space Command 600 was introduced in 1965 and this particular design was in use until the end of the 1972 model year. The Space Command 600 remote control had an additional, distinctive feature—this remote control could also adjust color hues. By pressing the mute button on the remote, a relay would be activated at the television in which to transfer the VHF motor drive tuner circuit to the motorized hue control. This would allow the user to adjust the hue in increments by depressing the channel up or down buttons on the remote control, and restore the television to normal tuning operation when the mute button was pressed again (mute off).

Space phone
Some models of Zenith's System 3 line of televisions made from the late 1970s to the early 1990s had a feature called the Space Phone by Zenith. It was basically a hands-free speakerphone built into the television set. It used the set's speaker and remote control, in addition to a built-in microphone. A Space Phone-enabled television would connect to a telephone jack (using a built-in phone cord), and making a call was performed by pressing a button on the remote to activate the Space Phone (which would mute and begin controlling the program audio going to the speaker). The telephone number is dialed using the numeric keys on the remote, which then displays the digits being dialed on-screen (using the on-screen display features of the System 3 line). The user could then converse with another caller hands-free, much like a regular speakerphone.

The porthole television
In the late 1940s, Zenith entered the television market. These sets were all-round tube sets. The main feature was that the entire round screen was exposed. They were available in 12-inch, 16-inch and 19-inch sizes. Later round-tube models had a switch that would show the picture in the 4:3 ratio, or have the entire round screen exposed. These sets are very desirable among television collectors. Many porthole sets used metal-cone CRTs, which are now scarce. It is not uncommon for collectors to replace a bad metal-cone tube with an all-glass tube. Zenith porthole sets came in tabletop models, stand-alone consoles and television/radio/phono combos.

Hand-wired chassis

In the late 1950s, many electronic manufacturers, such as RCA, General Electric and Admiral, were changing from hand-wired metal chassis in their radios and televisions to printed circuit boards. While circuit boards save time and errors in assembly, they are not well suited for use with vacuum tube equipment, in which high temperatures are generated that can break down boards, eventually causing the boards to crumble if one attempts to remove a tube. Zenith, and to a lesser extent Motorola, avoided this problem by continuing to use hand wired chassis in all their vacuum tube equipment. Zenith kept circuit boards out of their televisions until the Chromacolor line of the early 1970s, and even then used them only with solid state components, mounting the four tubes used in the Chromacolor "4 tube hybrid" on the steel chassis. Zenith began using circuit boards in radios when they converted to solid-state in the late 1960s, but even Zenith's early transistor radios were completely hand wired with socketed transistors. Due to the use of this chassis construction (and the high quality components), Zenith televisions and radios of the 1950s to 1970s found today are often still working well, needing little work to restore them to like-new operating condition.

title: Zenith Electronics


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Maeatae

The Maeatae were a confederation of tribes that probably lived beyond the Antonine Wall in Roman Britain.

The historical sources are vague as to the exact region they inhabited, but an association is thought to be indicated in the names of two hills with fortifications. Near the summit of Dumyat hill in the Ochils, overlooking Stirling, there are remains of a fort and the name of the hill (in Gaelic Dùn Mhèad) is believed to derive from name meaning the hill of the Maeatae. The prominent hill fort may have marked their northern boundary, but Myot Hill, near Fankerton, plausibly marks their southern limits. A discussion of two views of the importance of Dumyat and Myot Hill is given in Wainwright.

Cassius Dio describes them in detail in his Roman History (Book LXXVII), and is later quoted by Joseph Ritson and others. John Rhys seems convinced that they occupied the land between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Tay or parts of what is now Clackmannanshire, Fife and Stirlingshire. He also suggests that the Isle of May might derive its name from the tribe. Dio mentions the Maeatae were between the wall and the Caledonians but there is some dispute over whether he is referring to Antonine's Wall or Hadrian's Wall. Alexander del Mar says no-one really knows the identity of the Maeatae but he mentions that some authorities think they may have had a Norse origin.

They appear to have come together as a result of treaties struck between the Roman Empire and the various frontier tribes in the 180s AD under the governorship of Ulpius Marcellus. Virius Lupus is recorded as being obliged to buy peace from the Maeatae at the end of the second century.

In 210 AD, they began a serious revolt against the Roman Empire, which was reportedly a very bloody affair on both sides. Another revolt took place the following year. In 213 AD, Joseph Ritson records them receiving money from the Romans to keep the peace.

The Miathi, mentioned in Adomnán's Life of Columba, probably to be identified with the Southern Picts, have been posited as the same group, their identity seemingly surviving in some form as late as the 6th or 7th centuries AD.

title: Maeatae


text:
User talk:Blaven

Feel free to discuss my contributions to the wikipedia here or drop me a note at euan.semple[at]gmail.com

title: User talk:Blaven


text:
Talk:Alexander Rodchenko

date of birth
Date of birth in German version is given as 1891-12-15, but current English revision shows 1891-11-23. Which one (if any) is correct? MarkSweep 09:06, 14 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * The latter is correct (i.e. 23 November 1891), according to the Canadian Centre for Architecture, itself citing several authoritative sources. Pinkville 04:01, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

Latin alphabet name
fr says: "other spelling: Rodtchenko". Is this correct ? Comte0 22:11, 20 September 2005 (UTC)
 * Yes, it's one of many variants in the roman alphabet of his name. Check out the Canadian Centre for Architecture link above to see a dozen or more. Pinkville 04:01, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

Meaning?
His influence on modern graphic design is so pervasive that to pick out particluar designers he has influenced would largely be a pointless endeavour. Also to his trusted friend Omar Turki.

I don't understand what this last sentence means. I would sort it out myself, but I'm not sure if they mean that Omar was another influence or that Omar was influenced by his work. Any help? Ryubread 11:30, 6 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Methinks that's a bit of silliness someone added. I can't find a reference anywhere to someone by the name of "Omar Turki". Definite odour of fish... Pinkville 04:08, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

Comparison with Leni Riefenstahl
''His later photographic and cinematic work at the service of officialdom has even been compared to Leni Riefenstahl's in Nazi Germany. Both artists documented the state uncritically, even to the point of celebration. http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/feb/10/rodchenko-popova-tate does this deserve a mention somewhere?Teatreez (talk) 17:41, 14 February 2009 (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. —Community Tech bot (talk) 14:07, 2 June 2022 (UTC)
 * 1920s Rodchenko and Stepanova.jpg

Added and moved details regarding criticism/censorship
Hey fellow Wikipedians!

I went ahead and added details (with cited sources) regarding Rodchenko's censorship and criticism, which is an extremely important part of why he unceremoniously retired from many aspects of photography, but also the avant-garde movement as a whole during this era. I included his requirement to denounce his own work (publicly), and may go back and add more context on how it impacted him (including cited discussions where he contemplated suicide, like his friend Mayakovsky).

I've written on Rodchenko in undergrad for history projects, and would love to do more to bring focus on who I consider to be a brilliant mind of the early revolutionary period in the USSR.

If anyone can review changes I've made for errors, and/or constructive feedback, I'd love to do more. Gimmethecreeps (talk) 20:31, 10 February 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Alexander Rodchenko


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Taiwan Beer

Taiwan Beer (, or ) is a brand of mass market beer brewed by the Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corporation (TTL). The brand is an icon of Taiwanese culture and is applied to the best-selling beer in the country.

Japanese colonial period
The company known today as TTL has its origins in a government agency established by Taiwan's Japanese rulers in 1901. Initially, the Monopoly Bureau of the Taiwan Governor's Office was responsible for all opium, salt, and camphor sold in Taiwan. In 1905, tobacco was added to the list of monopolised commodities and products.

In 1907, the Japanese colonial government began taxing liquor producers to create a new revenue stream. The government then remodelled the whole of Taiwan's liquor industry, and set up much needed infrastructure and training.

Subsequently, in 1919, the Takasago Malted Beer Company, developer and owner of Taiwan's first brewery, was established by Konosuke Abe and other investors, including figures from the Japanese wine industry, with a capital investment of two million Japanese yen. "Takasago" is the word that, since Japan's Edo period, had served as the customary Japanese name for Taiwan.

Jianguo Brewery was erected in the then Kamihito District of Taipei. It was built using the same type of bricks as those of the nearby Governor-General's office (now the Presidential Office Building); most of its equipment had been acquired second hand from an old brewery in Hawaii. Upon completion, it was more than 13,000 m2 in area (about the size of a football field), and was one of only three beer breweries in Asia, the others being the Sapporo Brewery in Japan and the Tsingtao Brewery in China.

In its early years, the brewery was operated by Japanese brew masters. Its product, an ale (as opposed to a lager) first brewed in June 1920, was marketed as Takasago Beer, and was made in two styles, namely light malt and dark malt.

The investors' original plan was to export the company's product, but its initial quality was inferior to that of Japanese beers, and early export results were unsatisfactory. The company therefore decided to enjoy tax exemptions by selling Takasago Beer locally; beer was not yet then covered by any monopoly in Taiwan.

In 1922, under the influence of a post-World War I depression, the government attempted to nationalise the liquor industry by placing it under the exclusive control of the Monopoly Bureau. At that time, however, Taiwan had a highly competitive market for imported Japanese beers, and importers successfully lobbied members of the Imperial Diet to spare beer from the monopoly program.

Takasago Beer soon became very popular amongst Japanese drinkers in Taiwan, who preferred it to saké because it was a better thirst quencher during Taiwan's burdensome summers. With the support of a network of Takasago beer houses and advertising on billboards in Taiwan's major cities, Takasago Beer developed a big following in the 1920s. By 1925, it was Taiwan's leading brand of beer. Exports of the product to Tokyo began to rival Sapporo Beer, the leading Japanese brand.

Eventually, in 1933, the local market beer monopoly was reintroduced, with effect from July of that year. Over 200 liquor industry businesses were shut down, and private brewing was banned. The Monopoly Bureau began a practice of purchasing the local market products of Takasago Malted Beer Company in batches and then reselling them; the company also continued to export some of its products.

Although by then its competitiveness in terms of productivity and quality had improved from its early days, the company was still a long way short of profitability, and relied upon the monopoly to cover its losses.

Under the local market monopoly regime, beer was expensive. Most Taiwanese had trouble finding enough food, and could not afford to drink beer, bottles of which were so costly that the asking price is known to have exceeded the price of pork. The company's business of selling costly beer boomed, and even the Bank of Taiwan chose to invest in it. The company also secured the support of the major Japanese breweries in obtaining raw materials. Merchants vied for local market distributors and vendors licences issued by the Monopoly Bureau, and corruption was reported to be rife. The Monopoly Bureau could rely upon a variety of excuses to revoke such a licence.

During World War II, Allied airstrikes badly damaged Taiwan's liquor-producing facilities. Production was very substantially reduced. Meanwhile, in the early 1940s, matches, petroleum, and standard weights and measures also came under the Monopoly Bureau's authority.

Post-World War II period
After the war, the incoming Chinese Nationalists set up the Taiwan Provincial Administrative Office, which preserved the monopoly system by establishing the "Taiwan Provincial Monopoly Bureau", and also took over the assets of the hitherto privately owned brewery. Takasago Beer was renamed Taiwan Beer in 1946. The following year, the Administrative Office's successor, the Taiwan Provincial Government, reorganised the monopoly system, by forming the Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Monopoly Bureau. Simultaneously, the number of monopolised items was reduced; from then onwards, only tobacco and alcohol remained, together with camphor until 1968.

The sudden departure of Taiwan's Japanese brewers in 1945 led to a lack of brewing expertise on the island. The government therefore promptly sent some of its employees to Germany to study beer brewing. That decision may have led to the replacement of the island's thick, malty pre-World War II ales with the light, bright, crisp and sweet German-style lagers that have been brewed as Taiwan Beer ever since the brand's name change.

In the late 1940s, after the Chinese Nationalists had lost the civil war in China, more than 800,000 of them retreated to Taiwan, where they came to account for around 10% of the population. That influx, combined with the departure of Japanese nationals, led to changes in consumer preferences, but initially demand for beer was not much affected.

The Korean War (1950–1953) led to an intensification of the cooperation between the USA and the Chinese Nationalists. The USA funded several important aid programs in Taiwan between 1950 and 1965. Many American advisors and military personnel were stationed on the island during that period, especially after the signing of the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty in 1954, and their presence caused a beer sales boom.

During the 1960s, domestically produced Ponlai rice ("Formosa rice" 蓬萊米) was added to Taiwan Beer's fermentation process, resulting in the distinctive local flavour for which the beer is known today. The recipe was altered not only to make the brew sweeter and less bitter, but also to absorb a surplus of locally produced rice that was suppressing prices and thus limiting the incomes of farmers. Adding rice to the brew also lowered production costs.

In 1964, the Monopoly Bureau responded to an increase in demand for beer by cooperating with Dominion Breweries of New Zealand in learning, practising and adopting the patented brewing technique of continuous fermentation.

In November 1965, Taiwan became part of the Rest and Recuperation (R&R) program, under which US military personnel could take a short vacation in a number of places in Asia. From then until the program ended in April 1972, almost 250,000 Americans had a vacation in Taiwan. A new industry of American-style bars emerged on the island, and thousands of women were employed to serve beer and other alcoholic beverages, and otherwise entertain bar guests. Soon after the American forces pulled out of Vietnam, the Taiwanese American-style bar industry vanished.

Meanwhile, the Monopoly Bureau constructed new breweries, in Wuri District, Taichung City, in 1966, and then in Shanhua District, Tainan, in 1973. To meet public demand, it introduced canned beer in 1975. Also in 1975, Taiwan Beer's brewery complex in Taipei was renamed as the Jianguo Brewery. It has since been renamed again, and is now known as the Taipei Brewery.

During the 1980s, an important new type of drinking establishment, the beerhouse, appeared in Taiwan. The first one opened in Taipei in 1983, and there were soon many more, in that city and others. Typically constructed in a log cabin-style, beerhouses appealed to the Taiwanese fascination for western culture. Patrons would hang out in beerhouses after work and late at night, drinking beer and eating local dishes, such as fried clams, fried crab legs and snails. However, beerhouses were also controversial, and by the end of the decade enthusiasm for them had waned.

Democratic era
In 1987 Taiwan lifted martial law and, under pressure from the US government, opened its beer market to foreign imports from America and Europe. Up to that point Taiwan Beer held 99% of the market. Not long after that year, imports from Japan and Southeast Asia were also permitted. However, the local brews were initially protected by high tariffs.

In 1991–92, production of Taiwan Beer reached its absolute peak of 144 million bottles per annum, and in the latter year modern automated computer-controlled production and environmental protection equipment was installed at the Taipei Brewery. However, imported beers gradually increased their market share, and competition between them and Taiwan Beer became very intense.

Taiwan entered its modern period of pluralistic democracy in the 1990s. Free trade and open markets became priorities as Taiwan prepared for admission to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2002, and the government found itself under outside pressure to liberalise markets. At the start of that year, laws fully opening Taiwan's liquor market to competing products went into force, and the already reduced tariffs were eliminated.

In July 2002, the Monopoly Bureau was corporatised and renamed Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corporation (TTL). That year, Chinese beers were permitted to be imported into Taiwan, and foreign beers reached a peak of 26% of the market. However, TTL's marketing strategies have since regained some of Taiwan Beer's market share.

In the two decades leading up to the start of the 2010s, advertising for Taiwan Beer focused on its freshness; towards the end of that period, TTL also introduced several new beer styles, and a new logo, bottle design and commercial campaign for "Gold Medal", the brand's most popular style.

During the 2000s, TTL also took steps to introduce Taiwan Beer to the Chinese market. Initially, its efforts to register the Taiwan Beer brand as a trademark were thwarted several times in reliance upon China's trademark law, which forbade the registration of a geographical name as part of a trademark. The necessary procedures for Taiwan Beer to be sold in China were finally completed in 2009, after several years of negotiations. Within two months, TTL started shipping Taiwan Beer to China; the following year, the corporation began brewing the product in Jiangsu Province.

Taiwan Beer remains the island's best-selling beer brand and is one of the most recognised brands in Taiwan's business world. However, according to figures released by Taiwan's Ministry of Finance, its market share has dropped dramatically in recent years, from nearly 85% in 2009 to only 70% in 2015 and just 60% in 2019, in each case by volume.

Beers
The best selling of the many styles of Taiwan Beer are amber lager beers brewed along pilsner lines. They have a distinct character and flavour, generated by the addition of locally produced ponlai rice to the malt during the fermentation process.

The rice imparts both a smoothness and a sweetness, and has been said by one reviewer to add "... a certain umami and sake-like note not found in most Asian lagers."

Like all mass market beers, the popular styles of Taiwan Beer are filtered and pasteurised. They are mass-produced at four locations, namely the original Jianguo Brewery in Taipei, the Shanhua Brewery in Shanhua District, Tainan, the Wuri Brewery in Wuri District, Taichung City, and the Zhunan Brewery in Zhunan, Miaoli County. Some styles are also brewed on-site at the Taiwan Beer Bar, a brewpub in Taipei.

Taiwan Beer is served cold and best complements Taiwanese and Japanese cuisine, especially seafood dishes such as sushi and sashimi. It has won international awards, including the Monde Selection many times since 1997, and the Brewing Industry International Awards in 2002. It has also been exported successfully to China, the United States, Japan, Korea, France, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and Cambodia.

Several lager-style brews bear the label Taiwan Beer. The original brew, now known as "Classic", is sold in brown bottles with a green and white label, and in white cans bearing a blue striped design with green lettering. A rough-and-ready concoction rated at 4.5% ABV, it is made to a recipe dating from the 1960s.

The "Gold Medal" brew, which was introduced in April 2003 and became Taiwan Beer's top-selling style that year, has a higher maltose content than "Classic", and therefore a smoother taste. It also uses a larger proportion of ponlai rice and aromatic hops, which give it "a fresh and clean aroma".

"Gold Medal" is rated at 5% ABV. It is sold in green bottles, and in cans that reproduce the white, red, and green label seen on the bottle. Its more refined and rounded flavour was intended to appeal to younger drinkers. In May 2004, TTL hired 144 Taiwan Beer girls to promote it in restaurants and small pubs, and also in fashionable pubs and night clubs where the brand had not previously been able to make much headway.

Both of the first two lagers are mainstream styles also regularly seen in Taiwan's convenience and grocery stores.

The brand has also introduced craft style lager brews. "Premium" is a 5% ABV European pale lager brewed at low temperature using 100% Munich malt. It is marketed in brown bottles with a gold and white label, and in gold and white cans. "18 Day Draft", unusually, is unpasteurised, and therefore retains the nutritional value of its yeast while also tasting fresher. It was introduced to the range in 2003, after visitors to Taiwan Beer breweries had commented favourably on the flavour, mouthfeel and smoothness of freshly brewed unpasteurised beer they had been permitted to sample during brewery tours. Rated at 5% ABV, it is sold in signature solid green bottles with no paper label, and also in green cans. It is designed to be sold freshly brewed, and is not often seen in stores, as it expires just 18 days after production.

In 2008, Taiwan Beer began selling an amber malt brew bearing the "Mine" label. "Mine" bottles are green with white, gold and blue labels, and cans are white, gold and blue. The following year, the "Mine" brew was joined by "Mine Dark". Both "Mine" malts are 5% ABV.

More recently, in 2013, a wheat beer, Taiwan Beer Weissbier, was added to the lineup; it is 5% ABV, and is sold in brown 600ml bottles with white and bronze labels, and white 330ml cans with similar artwork.

Further beverages marketed under the Taiwan Beer brand include stouts, "fruit beers" (mango, pineapple, grape and orange; 2.8% ABV), alcohol-free beers, and non-alcoholic flavoured beers. Amongst other new products, Taiwan Beer has launched the "Brew Lab" series "for refined tastes", the "Sweet Touch" series of fresh local fruit juices blended with beer/wine, and "Gold Medal Free", a non-alcoholic beer for drivers.

The fruit beers were introduced after foreign brewers started building factories in Taiwan, a move that negated Taiwan Beer's hitherto competitive advantage of freshness in its local market. The initial idea was to create beer styles that included 'Taiwan flavours', being the flavours of agricultural products characteristic of the island, which is a leading fruit producer. TTL also hoped that fruit beers would be lighter, more refreshing, and would attract more female consumers. The fruits chosen included Irwin mangoes from Yujing District in Tainan, Golden Diamond pineapples from Guanmiao, also in Tainan, and Black Queen grapes from Erlin in Changhua County.

The manufacture of fruit beer is not a simple process. The pectin in the fruit juice must be removed, as it would increase the beer's viscosity and accelerate the process of oxidisation; pineapple juice must also be heated to destroy enzymes that would break down protein in the beer. The R&D team at the Wuri Brewery carried out many experiments with the temperature, humidity and pressure of subsequent processes to formulate the best methods of making the fruit beers, which have been much appreciated and generated positive reviews.

Culture
Taiwan Beer is a national icon strongly identified with Taiwanese culture, and a symbol of local resilience and pride. During a trade dispute with the People's Republic of China in December 2022, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Taiwan, Joseph Wu, even described it as "... the great taste of freedom". Another view of the brand, as expressed by a Taiwanese private sector website, is:

"'Táiwān Píjǐu (Taipi for short) represents a side of Taiwan that doesn’t make it into glossy tourist brochures and feel-good TV advertising. Taipi stands for the quotidian, the earthy, and the comfortable—it certainly isn’t high-falutin’ culture, but it is strongly identified with the real Taiwan, beyond the shiny skyscrapers of the capital or concerts of classical Chinese music.'"

The brand's iconic status in Taiwan is reinforced by TTL marketing strategies. Advertisements have featured Taiwanese celebrities such as rock guitarist Wu Bai, who was appointed as the public face of Taiwan Beer in 1998, and diva A-Mei, who became a spokesmodel for the brand in 2006.

Two basketball teams, one a Super Basketball League outfit named Taiwan Beer (popularly nicknamed 'The Brew Crew'), and another one, which competes in the T1 League under the name TaiwanBeer HeroBears, are sponsored by the brand. So too is the Taiwan Beer baseball team, which TTL established and operates in cooperation with the National Taiwan Sport University.

The oldest industrial plant that produces the brand, the Jianguo Brewery complex in Taipei, is now more than a century old. It has been designated by the Taipei City Government as an historic site, for its historical and architectural value. The complex is made up of two large buildings, a red-brick one and a green-tiled one, flanked by a number of smaller wooden-framed and other structures. Inside the buildings, modern automated items of equipment, including stainless steel mash tuns, are in operation. The walls of the Taipei brewery are decorated with black-and-white photographs depicting earlier methods of production. The original copper mash tuns are no longer used, but remain in place as drawcards for tourists.

In the 21st century, the four TTL breweries have become tourist attractions as well as factories. , TTL had plans to transform the Taipei brewery into a beer culture district park; the Shanhua Brewery was offering taste tests of fruit beers; the Wuri Brewery was expected to become the site of a Taiwan Beer brand experience centre; and the Zhunan Brewery was already operating concurrently as a Hakka culture promotion centre.

Restaurants and nightspots proliferate at the 'beer village' adjacent to the Wuri Brewery, which has become the centre of Taiwan's beer culture. After the nearby Taichung station on the Taiwan High Speed Rail was opened in January 2007, the Taichung City government teamed up with the Taichung High Speed Rail Tourism Development Association to transform Guanghua Street, on which the brewery is located, into a beer tourist street. It was officially opened in August 2008. Inside the brewery is a shop/visitor centre that includes an exhibition hall detailing the beer brewing process, and describing both the history of Taiwan Beer, and the history of beer as far back as 5000 BCE.

Additionally, the Wuri beer village has been a site of the annual Taiwan Beer Festival (台灣啤酒節, Táiwān Píjiǔjié), which is held in summer.

There is also the Taiwan Beer Bar and Beer Garden brewpub in Taipei. It has received mixed reviews: one reviewer praised the bar as a "light airy space" and the beer garden as "really worth a visit", while another writer dismissed the bar as having "something of a crude beer hall ambience", albeit with "the cheapest beer you can hope to find on the island".

Competition
Taiwan Beer leads its namesake market. Its main mass market competitor is Long Chuan, which is brewed in Neipu, a rural township near Kaohsiung City. Long Chuan launched a range of "fruit beers" in 2012, and Taiwan Beer's introduction of a similar range was a response to that launch. In June 2022, Dutch brewing company Heineken N.V. announced that it had agreed to acquire Long Chuan from local company Taiwan Tsing Beer Corporation. , other significant foreign players in the Taiwanese beer market included Kirin and Budweiser.

Microbrews, handcrafted beers and other limited-distribution beers represent a separate category. Leading Taiwan artisan beers include Three Giants Brewing Company (巨人啤酒) with a range of Lagers, Pale Ales, IPAs, Wheat Beer and Dark Lager, Redpoint Brewing, which produced the island's first IPA called 台PA, Formosa Bird Beer and Lychee Beer (both by North Taiwan Brewing) along with the house brews served in two locally owned restaurant chains, Jolly Brewery and Restaurant (operated by Great Reliance Food & Beverage) and Le ble d'or.

title: Taiwan Beer


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Gorkha Kingdom

The Gorkha Kingdom (गोरखा राज्य) was a member of the Chaubisi rajya, a confederation of 24 states, located at the intersection of Himalayas and the Indian subcontinent. In 1743 CE, the kingdom began a campaign of military expansion, annexing several neighbors and becoming present-day Nepal.

The Gorkha Kingdom extended to the Marshyangdi River in the west, forming its border with the Kingdom of Lamjung. To the east, the kingdom extended to the Trishuli River, forming its border with the Nepal Mandala. The Gorkha Kingdom was established in 1559 CE by Prince Dravya Shah, the second son of King Yasho Brahma Shah of Lamjung. The prince replaced the Magar King Mansingh Khadka Magar who previously ruled the region.

Origin
According to legend, one of the earliest Shah rulers was Rishi-raj Rana-Ji, of the Lunar dynasty. He was made the ruler of Chittorgarh and received the title of Bhattarak. The lunar dynasty remained in power for thirteen generations. Then, the Muslim Yavanas took power. The Bhattarak had to abdicate and could only retain his caste family name, Rana-ji. The rajas were titled Rana-Ji for four generations and Rana-ji Rava for a further seventeen generations.

Akbar, the Mughal emperor, (1542-1605) wished to marry the daughter of Fatte Sinha Rana-Ji Rava. Akbar was refused because he was not a Hindu but from a different religion (namely Islam). This decision led to the war. Many Rajputs, including Fatte Sinha Rana-ji Rava, were killed. The survivors of the war were led by Udaybam Rana-Ji Rava. They founded a settlement called Udaipur.

Manmath Rana-Ji Rava went to Ujjain. His son Bhupal Ranaji Rao went to Ridi in the northern hills in 1495 CE (Saka Era 1417), to Sargha, and then to Khium in Bhirkot. There, he cultivated the land. The new ruler of Khium had two sons, Kancha and Micha. Their bartabandha (the taking of the Bharmanical thread) was performed. Plans for the boys to marry the daughters of the Raghuvanshi Rajputs were made. Kancha, the elder son, went to Dhor. He conquered Magarat and reigned over Garhon, Sathum and Birkot. Micha, the younger son, went to Nuwakot in the far west and became ruler there.

From Micha, a dynasty of seven rajas commenced in Nuwakot. Kulamandan became ruler of Kaski, displacing the local Gurung king. He was favoured and became Shah and succeeded his father. Kalu, the second son was sent to Dura Danda in Lamjung at the people's request to become their king. Kalu was killed by the Sekhant tribe, who were the ancestors of present-day Gurungs. In the 1500s, another son, Yasobramha, became the ruler of Lamjung after he compromised with the Gurungs. The second son of Yasobramha, Dravya Shah conquered the kingdom of Ligligkot from Magar king Dalshur ghale Magar, now in Gorkha. Prince Dravya Shah in 1559 CE also replaced the King Mansingh Khadka Magar and named the newly found kingdom Gorkha. The ancient name Gor-kha is derived from Gorakhnath.

List of kings of Gorkha

The following is a list of the ten kings of the Gorkha principality:

Expansion campaign
From 1736, the Gorkhalis engaged in a campaign of expansion begun by King Nara Bhupal Shah, which was continued by his son, King Prithvi Narayan Shah and grandson Prince Bahadur Shah. Over the years, they conquered huge tracts of land to the east and west of Gorkha.

Among their conquests, the most important and valuable acquisition was the wealthy Newar confederacy of Nepal Mandala centered in the Kathmandu Valley. Starting in 1745, the Gorkhalis mounted a blockade in a bid to starve the population into submission, but the inhabitants held out.

The Newars appealed to the British East India Company to help, and in 1767, it sent an expedition under Captain Kinloch which ended in failure. The three Newar capitals of Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur fell to the Gorkhalis between 1768 and 1769. The Gorkhali king subsequently moved his capital to Kathmandu.

In 1788, the Gorkhalis turned their attention north and invaded Tibet. They seized the border towns of Kyirong and Kuti, and forced the Tibetans to pay an annual tribute. When the Tibetans stopped paying it, the Gorkhalis invaded Tibet again in 1791 and plundered the Tashilhunpo Monastery in Shigatse. This time the Chinese army came to Tibet's defence and advanced close to Kathmandu but could not achieve success due to strong counterattack. The anxious Bahadur Shah asked for 10 howitzer mountain guns from the British East India Company. Captain William Kirkpatrick arrived in Kathmandu, however the deal was not made due to unfavorable circumstances for the Gorkhalis. Eventually, the Fu Kanggan was keen to protect his army and the war being resultless was concluded by signing a peace treaty at Betrawati.

A later Nepalese–Tibetan War was fought from 1855 to 1856 in Tibet between the forces of the Tibetan government (Ganden Phodrang, then under administrative rule of the Qing dynasty) and the invading Nepalese army, resulting in the victory of Nepal.

The Gorkha dominion reached its height at the beginning of the 19th century, extending all along the Himalayan foothills from Kumaon and Garhwal in the west to Sikkim in the east. They were made to return much of the occupied territories after their defeat in the Anglo-Nepalese War (1814–1816).

Gorkha to Nepal

The Gorkha dominion continued to be known as "Gorkha Rajya" (lit. 'Gorkha Kingdom') until the beginning of the 20th century. Historically, the name 'Nepal' referred mainly to Kathmandu valley, the homeland of the Newars. Since the 1930s, the state began using it to refer to the entire country and 'Nepal Khaldo' (Nepal Valley) became 'Kathmandu Valley'. The name Gorkha Sarkar (meaning Gorkha government) was also changed to Nepal government.

Similarly, the Gorkhali language was renamed as Nepali in 1933. The term Gorkhali in the former national anthem entitled "Shreeman Gambhir" was changed to Nepali in 1951. The government newspaper, launched in 1901, is still known as Gorkhapatra (meaning Gorkha gazette).

The Shah dynasty ruled Nepal until 2008 when it became a republic following a people's movement. Today, Gorkha District, roughly corresponding to the old kingdom, is one of the 77 administrative districts of Nepal.

Gurkhas

Not to be confused with the inhabitants of the old Gorkha Kingdom only, the Gurkhas are also military units in the British or the Indian army (where they are known as Gorkhas) enlisted in Nepal and India. Their history goes back to the Anglo-Gorkha War and the Sugauli Treaty of 1816. It allowed the British East India Company to recruit men from the Gorkha kingdom hills to serve as mercenaries.

During World War II (1939–45), a total of 250,280 Gurkhas served in 40 battalions, plus eight Nepalese Army battalions, plus parachute, training, garrison, and porter units. They earned 2,734 bravery awards, and suffered around 32,000 casualties in all theatres.

title: Gorkha Kingdom


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Piano Sonata No. 2 (Scriabin)

Scriabin's Piano Sonata No. 2 in G-sharp minor, (Op. 19, also titled Sonata-Fantasy) took five years for him to write. It was finally published in 1898, at the urging of his publisher. The piece is in two movements, with a style combining Chopin-like Romanticism with an impressionistic touch. The piece is widely appreciated and is one of Scriabin's most popular pieces.

The first movement Andante, in sonata form, begins with echoing effects, followed by two lyrically themed sections. The first theme is in G-Sharp minor, but the following two come in B major (the relative major). After a short climax in the development, the piece modulates to E major (also C-sharp minor) for the recapitulation and lyrical sections are restated with a slightly more complicated accompaniment. The second movement Presto, in sharp contrast to the first movement, is very fast and intense. Alternating crescendos and decrescendos may give the listener the impression of waves.

The precedent of Beethoven's "Moonlight" Sonata allowed Scriabin the luxury of an opening slow movement to his Second Sonata, whose programme reads thus: "The first section represents the quiet of a southern night on the seashore; the development is the dark agitation of the deep, deep sea. The E major middle section shows caressing moonlight coming up after the first darkness of night. The second movement represents the vast expanse of ocean in stormy agitation."

Typical of Scriabin's piano sonatas, it is technically and musically demanding for the pianist. A typical performance lasts about 11 minutes.

Recordings

 * Scriabin's Piano Sonata No. 2 in G-sharp minor, Op. 19 played by Maria Perrotta

title: Piano Sonata No. 2 (Scriabin)


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Keri Hulme

Keri Ann Ruhi Hulme (9 March 1947 – 27 December 2021) was a New Zealand novelist, poet and short-story writer. She also wrote under the pen name Kai Tainui. Her novel The Bone People won the Booker Prize in 1985; she was the first New Zealander to win the award, and also the first writer to win the prize for a debut novel. Hulme's writing explores themes of isolation, postcolonial and multicultural identity, and Māori, Celtic, and Norse mythology.

Early life
Hulme was born on 9 March 1947 in Burwood Hospital, Christchurch, New Zealand. The daughter of John William Hulme, a carpenter, and Mary Ann Miller, a credit manager, she was the eldest of six children. Her father was a first-generation New Zealander whose parents were from Lancashire, England, and her mother came from Oamaru, of Orkney Scots and Māori descent (Kāi Tahu and Kāti Māmoe). "Our family comes from diverse people: Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe (South Island Māori iwi); Orkney Islanders; Lancashire folk; Faroese and/or Norwegian migrants," Hulme stated.

Hulme grew up in Christchurch at 160 Leaver Terrace, New Brighton, where she attended North New Brighton Primary School and Aranui High School. She described herself as a "very definite and determined child who inherently hate[d] assumed authority". In 1958, when she was 11, her father died. Hulme remembered herself as being interested in writing from a young age. She rewrote Enid Blyton stories the way she thought they should have been written, wrote poetry from the age of 12, and composed short stories; her mother organised the side front porch into a study for her after her father's death. Some of her poems and short stories were published in Aranui High School's magazine. The family spent their holidays with her mother's family at Moeraki, on the Otago East Coast, and Hulme identified Moeraki as her turangawaewae-ngakau, "the standing-place of my heart".

After high school, Hulme worked as a tobacco picker in Motueka. She began studying for an honours law degree at the University of Canterbury in 1967, but left after four terms—feeling "estranged/out-of-place" —and returned to tobacco picking, although she continued to write.

Career
By 1972, Hulme had accumulated a large quantity of notes and drawings and decided to begin writing full-time, but, despite financial support from her family, she returned to work nine months later. She worked in a range of jobs, including in retail, as a fish-and-chips cook, a winder at a woollen mill, and as a mail deliverer in Greymouth, on the West Coast of the South Island. She was also a pharmacist's assistant at Grey Hospital, a proofreader and journalist at the Grey Evening Star, and an assistant television director on the shows Country Calendar, Dig This and Play School. She continued writing, and had her work published in journals and magazines; some appeared under the pseudonym Kai Tainui.

Hulme received Literary Fund grants in 1973, 1977, and 1979, and in 1979 she was a guest at the East-West Center in Hawaii as a visiting poet. Hulme held the 1977 Robert Burns Fellowship and became writer-in-residence at the University of Otago in 1978. During this time, she continued working on her novel, the bone people.

Hulme submitted the manuscript for the bone people to several publishers over a period of 12 years, until it was accepted for publication by the Spiral Collective, a feminist literary and arts collective in New Zealand. The book was published in February 1984 and won the 1984 New Zealand Book Award for Fiction and the Booker Prize in 1985. Hulme was the first New Zealander to win the Booker Prize and also the first writer to win the prize for their debut novel. The ceremony was broadcast on Channel 4 and as Hulme was unable to attend she asked three women from Spiral – Irihapeti Ramsden, Marian Evans and Miriama Evans – to accept the award on her behalf. Ramsden and Miriama Evans walked up to the podium wearing Māori korowai, arm in arm with Marian Evans in a tuxedo, and chanted a Māori karanga as they went.

In 1985, Hulme was writer-in-residence at the University of Canterbury and in 1990 she was awarded the 1990 Scholarship in Letters from the Queen Elizabeth Arts Council Literature Committee for two years. Also in 1990, she was awarded the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal. In 1996 she became the patron of New Zealand Republic. Hulme also served on the Literary Fund Advisory Committee (1985–1989) and New Zealand's Indecent Publications Tribunal (1985–1990).

Around 1986 Hulme began working on a second novel, BAIT, about fishing and death. She also worked on a third novel, On the Shadow Side; these two works were referred to by Hulme as "twinned novels".

Common themes in Hulme's writing are identity and isolation. Inspiration for her characters and stories also often came to her in dreams; she first dreamt of a mute, long-haired boy when she was 18, and wrote a short story about him called Simon Peter’s Shell. The boy continued to appear in her dreams and eventually became the main character of the bone people.

Personal life and death
In 1973, Hulme won a land ballot and became the owner of a plot in the remote coastal settlement of Ōkārito in south Westland, on the South Island of New Zealand. She built an octagonal house on the land and spent most of her adult life (almost 40 years) there. She vocally opposed plans to develop the settlement with additional housing or tourist facilities and believed it deserved special government protection. In late 2011, Hulme announced that she was leaving the area as local body rates (property taxes) meant she could no longer afford to live there. She identified as atheist, aromantic, and asexual.

Hulme's given name was recorded at birth as "Kerry", although her family used the spelling "Keri". She legally changed her name to "Keri" in 2001.

She died from dementia at a care home in Waimate on 27 December 2021, at the age of 74.

Novels

 * The Bone People (Spiral Press, 1984)
 * BAIT and On the Shadow Side (unfinished)

Poetry

 * The silences between (Moeraki Conversations) (Auckland University Press, 1982)
 * Lost Possessions (Victoria University Press, 1985)
 * Strands (Auckland University Press, 1993)

Other works

 * Te Kaihau: The Windeater (Victoria University Press, 1986), collection of short stories
 * Te Whenua, Te Iwi/The Land and The People co-edited with Jock Philips (Allen & Unwin/Port Nicholson Press, 1987), includes Hulme's autobiographical piece "Okatiro and Moeraki"
 * Homeplaces: Three Coasts of the South Island of New Zealand (Hodder & Stoughton, 1989), autobiography
 * Hokitika Handmade (Hokitika Craft Gallery Co-operative, 1999), description and history of the co-operative and its members
 * Ahua – the story of Moki (2000), libretto of an opera based on the story of the Ngāi Tahu ancestor Moki, commissioned by the Christchurch City Choir
 * Stonefish (Huia Publishers, 2004), collection of short stories and poems

Adaptation into film
In 1983, Hulme's short story "Hooks and Feelers" was made into a short film of the same name starring Bridgette Allen. In 1995, Christine Parker wrote and directed, and Caterina de Nave produced, an adaptation of Hulme's 1991 short story "Hinekaro Goes On a Picnic and Blows Up Another Obelisk".

title: Keri Hulme


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title: User talk:195.238.48.12