text:
User talk:SpaceFrog

Welcome to the Wikipedia
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Be Bold!

Sam [Spade] 17:52, 26 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Thanks!

SpaceFrog 17:57, 26 Jul 2004 (UTC)

title: User talk:SpaceFrog


text:
Alpheratz

Alpheratz, or Alpha Andromedae (α Andromedae, abbreviated Alpha And or α And), is a binary star 97 light-years from Earth and is the brightest star in the constellation of Andromeda when Mirach (βAndromedae) undergoes its periodical dimming. Immediately northeast of the constellation of Pegasus, it is the upper left star of the Great Square of Pegasus.

Although it appears to the naked eye as a single star, with overall apparent visual magnitude +2.06, it is actually a binary system composed of two stars in close orbit. The chemical composition of the brighter of the two stars is unusual as it is a mercury-manganese star whose atmosphere contains abnormally high levels of mercury, manganese, and other elements, including gallium and xenon. It is the brightest mercury-manganese star known.

Nomenclature

α Andromedae (Latinised to Alpha Andromedae) is the star's Bayer designation. Ptolemy considered the star (system) to be shared by Pegasus and Johann Bayer assigned it a designation in both constellations: Alpha Andromedae (α And) and Delta Pegasi (δ Peg). Since the IAU standardized constellation boundaries and widely published them two years after in 1930, the Pegasi alternate name has dropped from use, putting it slightly outside of that constellation.

To most European centres of learning the star bore names Alpheratz or the cognate simplification Alpherat or the other part of the fabled description: Sirrah.

The origin of these three, the Arabic phrasal name, is سرة الفرس "navel of the mare/horse", attracting a hard consonant not present above due to a following vowel. The horse corresponds equivalently to the winged horse of the Greeks, Pegasus. The star is in almost all depictions part of the main asterism of Pegasus and Andromeda. In 2016, the International Astronomical Union organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN's first bulletin of July 2016 confirmed Alpheratz as the name for the main star.

Other terms for this star used by some medieval astronomers writing were راس المراة المسلسلة rās al-mar'a al-musalsala (head of the woman in chains), al-kaff al-khaḍīb and kaff al-naṣīr (palm of the faithful). The chained woman referenced Andromeda.

In the Hindu lunar zodiac, this star, together with the other stars in the Great Square of Pegasus (α, β, and γ Pegasi), makes up the nakshatras of Pūrva Bhādrapadā and Uttara Bhādrapadā.

In Chinese, 壁宿 (Bì Sù), meaning wall, refers to an asterism consisting of α Andromedae and γ Pegasi. Consequently, the Chinese name for α Andromedae itself is 壁宿二 (Bì Sù èr, the second star of the wall.)

It is also known as one of the "Three Guides" that mark the prime meridian of the heavens, the other two being Beta Cassiopeiae and Gamma Pegasi. It was believed to bless those born under its influence with honour and riches.

System
The radial velocity of a star away from or towards the observer can be determined by measuring the red shift or blue shift of its spectrum. The American astronomer Vesto Slipher made a series of such measurements from 1902 to 1904 and discovered that the radial velocity of α Andromedae varied periodically. He concluded that it was in orbit in a spectroscopic binary star system with a period of about 100 days. A preliminary orbit was published by Hans Ludendorff in 1907, and a more precise orbit was later published by Robert Horace Baker.

The fainter star in the system was first resolved interferometrically by Xiaopei Pan and his coworkers during 1988 and 1989, using the Mark III Stellar Interferometer at the Mount Wilson Observatory, California, United States. This work was published in 1992. Because of the difference in luminosity between the two stars, its spectral lines were not observed until the early 1990s, in observations made by Jocelyn Tomkin, Xiaopei Pan, and James K. McCarthy between 1991 and 1994 and published in 1995.

The two stars are now known to orbit each other with a period of 96.9 days. The larger, brighter star, called the primary, has a spectral type of B8IV-VHgMn, a mass of approximately 3.6 solar masses, a surface temperature of about 11,900 K (or 13,850 K ), and, measured over all wavelengths, a luminosity of about 160 times the Sun's. Its smaller, fainter companion, the secondary, has a mass of approximately 1.9 solar masses and a surface temperature of about 7,900 K, and, again measured over all wavelengths, a luminosity of about 15 times the Sun's. It is an late-type A star whose spectral type is estimated as A7V.

Chemical peculiarities
In 1906, Norman Lockyer and F. E. Baxandall reported that α Andromedae had a number of unusual lines in its spectrum. In 1914, Baxandall pointed out that most of the unusual lines came from manganese, and that similar lines were present in the spectrum of μ Leporis. In 1931, W. W. Morgan identified 12 additional stars with lines from manganese appearing in their spectra. Many of these stars were subsequently identified as part of the group of mercury-manganese stars, a class of chemically peculiar stars which have an excess of elements such as mercury, manganese, phosphorus, and gallium in their atmospheres. , §3.4. In the case of α Andromedae, the brighter primary star is a mercury-manganese star which, as well as the elements already mentioned, has excess xenon.

In 1970, Georges Michaud suggested that such chemically peculiar stars arose from radiative diffusion. According to this theory, in stars with unusually calm atmospheres, some elements sink under the force of gravity, while others are pushed to the surface by radiation pressure. , §4. This theory has successfully explained many observed chemical peculiarities, including those of mercury-manganese stars. , §4.

Variability of primary
α Andromedae has been reported to be slightly variable, but observations from 1990 to 1994 found its brightness to be constant to within less than 0.01 magnitude. However, Adelman and his co-workers have discovered, in observations made between 1993 and 1999 and published in 2002, that the mercury line in its spectrum at 398.4 nm varies as the primary rotates. This is because the distribution of mercury in its atmosphere is not uniform. Applying Doppler imaging to the observations allowed Adelman et al. to find that it was concentrated in clouds near the equator. Subsequent Doppler imaging studies, published in 2007, showed that these clouds drift slowly over the star's surface.

Observation

The location of α Andromedae in the sky is shown on the left. It can be seen by the naked eye and is theoretically visible at all latitudes north of 60° S. During evening from August to October, it will be high in the sky as seen from the northern midlatitudes.

Optical companion
The binary system described above has an optical visual companion, discovered by William Herschel on July 21, 1781. Designated as ADS 94 B in the Aitken Double Star Catalogue, it is a G-type star with an apparent visual magnitude of approximately 10.8. Although by coincidence it appears near to the other two stars in the sky, it's much more distant from Earth; the parallax observed by Gaia place this star more than 1,300 light years away.

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

title: Alpheratz


text:
Talk:Pioneer 0

Untitled
When was the attempted launch of Pioneer-0?

 * date is now in the article, source is Encyclopedia Astronautica

Reverted strange edits by user
The user is User:Albanynewyork1.

He/she seemed to replace the article with content of unknown origin, with bad markup. Here is the edit below:

I'll rv the article, put back in the picture, then try to work out what this person has done. I'll probably put a lot of it back in, but it's not good form to completely replace an article, although it was probably just a dump from a NASA website originally, one of my pet hates.

Description
This spacecraft was the first U.S. attempt at a lunar mission and the first attempted lauch beyond Earth orbit by any country. The Pioneer 0 probe was designed to go into orbit around the Moon and carried a TV camera and other instruments as part of the first International Geophysical Year (IGY) science payload. The spacecraft was destroyed by an explosion of the first (Thor booster no. 127) stage 77 seconds after launch at 16 km altitude, 16 km downrange over the Atlantic. Failure was suspected to be due to a ruptured fuel or oxygen line or a faulty turbopump gearbox. Erratic telemetry signals were received from the payload and upper stages for 123 seconds after the explosion, and the upper stages were tracked to impact in the ocean. The original plan was for the spacecraft to travel for 2.6 days to the Moon at which time a TX-8-6 solid propellant motor would fire to put it into a 29,000 km lunar orbit which was to nominally last for about two weeks.

Spacecraft and Subsystems
Pioneer 0 consisted of a thin cylindrical midsection with a squat truncated cone frustrum on each side. The cylinder was 74 cm in diameter and the height from the top of one cone to the top of the opposite cone was 76 cm. Along the axis of the spacecraft and protruding from the end of the lower cone was an 11 kg solid propellant injection rocket and rocket case, which formed the main structural member of the spacecraft. Eight small low-thrust solid propellant velocity adjustment rockets were mounted on the end of the upper cone in a ring assembly which could be jettisoned after use. A magnetic dipole antenna also protruded from the top of the upper cone. The shell was composed of laminated plastic and was painted with a pattern of dark and light stripes to help regulate temperature.

The scientific instrument package had a mass of 11.3 kg and consisted of an image scanning infrared television system to study the Moon's surface, a diaphragm/microphone assembly to detect micrometeorites, a magnetometer, and temperature-variable resistors to record spacecraft internal conditions. The spacecraft was powered by nickel-cadmium batteries for ignition of the rockets, silver cell batteries for the television system, and mercury batteries for the remaining circuits. Radio transmission was at 108.06 MHz through an electric dipole antenna for telemetry and doppler information and a magnetic dipole antenna for the television system. Ground commands were received through the electric dipole antenna at 115 MHz. The spacecraft was to be spin stabilized at 1.8 rps, the spin direction approximately perpendicular to the geomagnetic meridian planes of the trajectory.

JamesHoadley 13:54, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

I've back added most of the edits by the user in a proper way.

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 external links on Pioneer 0. 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/20090131181021/http://msl.jpl.nasa.gov/QuickLooks/pioneer0QL.html to http://msl.jpl.nasa.gov/QuickLooks/pioneer0QL.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20081015182519/http://www.astronautix.com/craft/pioer012.htm to http://www.astronautix.com/craft/pioer012.htm

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) 07:22, 11 November 2017 (UTC)

title: Talk:Pioneer 0


text:
Talk:Current events/Archive 5

Iraqi context
I'm not quite sure where the previous tradition of... ...came from. It links to the Iraqi resistance page under the title 'Insurgency', which on an Iraqi insurgency page is criticised as a 'carefully chosen' and NPOV word to legitimise the occupation. Furthermore, it sports a superfluous capital. I have changed the previous few days this month to... ...where the less subjective 'resistance' is used to link to the similarly titled page, Iraqi resistance.
 * Iraqi Occupation and Insurgency
 * Iraqi Occupation and resistance

Austrian election
67.100.122.101 22:11, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC): On another election topic, I see Austrian presidential election, 2004 has appeared for probably the third or fourth time, still without an actual article behind it. User:Wernher is the latest one to add it. I would contend it is worthless to put a link in the sidebar without a decent and up-to-date article to link to. If it isn't worth writing something long-lived about the subject, it doesn't belong in the Current events sidebar.

 * Presumably Austrian politics are very boring and no one wanted to write an article on it. It's not a contest I've been following, but I've just hacked out an ultrastub to fill the gap. On the wider point: yes, it probably is useless to list an election without a page behind it. And, in the weeks running up to the election, how hard can it be to scribble down a page with the date and main candidates? "Could Do Better". –Hajor 22:39, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * I don't know about the others, but my reason for adding the link was that I quite simply felt it should be there along the other election result articles -- and from my admittedly not very long Wikipedia experience I had a hunch, right or wrong, that once the link was in place, someone with a firmer grip of Austrian politics than myself would feel the 'duty' to contribute a snippet of info in the article. Then, as the wiki-ball gets rolling... (and so forth). The very least would be a non-link text marker in the style of the other election result links, to notify about the election.

 * As for the 'entertainment value' of Austrian politics, I actually think it's a relatively interesting country to follow wrt the fuss about Haider, Austria and the EU, etc, plus I feel that exactly because internationally we usually do not get that much news from Austria ('international' here denoting the non-German-speaking world) all the more reason for us to encourage the spreading of knowledge about that country and its internal affairs. Phew. --Wernher 23:50, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * "Getting the ball rolling" -- fair enough. And, of course, it worked. –Hajor 00:47, 26 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * 67.100.125.106 01:12, 26 Apr 2004 (UTC): I disagree; what got it rolling was an entry on this talk page. For weeks leading up to the election people have added that link to the elections sidebar.  We'd all wait, sometimes a day, sometimes longer, no one ever wrote the article so someone would eventually delete the worthless link.  Now that the election is over, we did finally get you and User:Adam Carr to start something, and that is certainly commendable.

 * Well, it's inclusion on the sidebar gave you the impetus to comment here, which gave me the impetus to start the stub, but yes, you're right. And has it been coming and going from the sidebar over the past few weeks? If so, it totally slipped under my radar. –Hajor 01:25, 26 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * 67.100.125.106 01:12, 26 Apr 2004 (UTC): IMHO however the best role that the current events page plays is as an excuse to use recent world events as a way to highlight a well-written article, ideally one you've just created. I've been watching the Current events page for maybe a year, and I've concluded that it is a lousy source of news for its readers. I also think it can be a really good way to expose wikipedians to topics they might not already care about.  The attributes that make wikipedia strong are its open editing policies and the unusual and evolving mix of sub-cultural affiliations among its contributors.  These are weaknesses for a current events blog. What I want for a news blog is a characterizable point-of-view, not a NPOV.  But current events here end up being a random and yet boring collection;  random for the painted iceberg stories that slip in, boring because the contributors feel

compelled, in a cod liver oil kind of way, to note the events of war, international politics, and death covered much more gracefully elsewhere. And the grace I'm referring to is not in the wording of the blog items here, but in the selection of what makes it to the blog in the first place.

 * Let me end this unsolicited tirade by emphasizing my first point: don't add something to current events hoping that someone else will write the background article--write the article first, then add the event here.

 * 67.100.123.21 00:08, 27 Apr 2004 (UTC): As an example, the new U.S. fifty dollar bill prompted an update to that article, followed by a new current events item.

Bangkok fire
Are the Australian and German embassies in the slum area? RickK 00:12, 24 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * No. The australian one says it's in "Bangkok's central business district.", and indeed the AP article quoted wrt the fire says it was in "a slum in downtown Bangkok".  I guess Bangkok has slum buildings near to fancy ones.  I changed the line to read "downtown" not "slum". -- Finlay McWalter |  Talk 01:06, 26 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Changing the month
Can we wait until the last day of the month is completed around the world before moving the page? It's still April here in the U.S. (and even UTC, according to my timestamp) —Mulad 23:19, Apr 30, 2004 (UTC)

May 3 Deletion
Why was the news entries and headline for May 3 Deleted? By my watch it's actually May 3 across the world... Vanguard 23:57, May 3rd, 2004 (UTC)

 * Because those were just copied headlines. --Wik 13:09, May 3, 2004 (UTC)

Wanted: women UK soldiers
I notice Hajor has removed the equivalent GB£ amount in the May 7 item regarding the 'call to action' to capture women UK soldiers. The reason why I included the GB$£ amount was just as a courtesy to the UK -- it is, after all, their soldiers who are supposed to be captured. Oh well... --Wernher 01:59, 8 May 2004 (UTC)

 * It seemed a little too crowded with three currencies there. No offence meant to the Britons, their currency, or anyone. The untold story is why the sheikh specified British women -- is it just because he's down in UK-held Basra? And, now that I've read around the story a bit, it seems he announced various other bounties for male soldiers, living or dead, Coalition leaders, etc., etc., so it's not quite the "Wacky Sheikh" story it might have seemed at first. –Hajor 02:29, 8 May 2004 (UTC)

April US jobs report? Maybe should be included

Links to British front pages
These links might be useful to gauge what sort of coverage a particular news item gets in the UK, it was was mentioned some time back (maybe in the Pump), but there was no link then, and the BBC only seems to provide a gateway on Mondays, even though most days are available via deep-linking.

 * Daily Telegraph 2004 May 11 front page plus links to the others

Each of the following links will pop-up a window for May 10 showing the front pages of selected British newspapers.
 * Daily Mail Daily Mirror Guardian Independent Times

-Wikibob | Talk 10:12, 2004 May 10 (UTC) (added May 11 and tidied)

 * Thanks for the links Wikibob. It would be great if we could somehow make the Daily Mirror one "go away" though :-). It's pretty embarassing displaying to the world that we have newspapers with the top half of the page on "finding your perfect bikini size" whilst the PoW abuse scandal is relegated to the second half. Pete/Pcb21 (talk) 10:19, 10 May 2004 (UTC)

 * Just be grateful there's not a link to the Daily Star or Daily Sport front pages. -- The Anome 16:26, 11 May 2004 (UTC)

Stockline Plastics factory explosion
Finlay McWalter and Fabiform deserve commendation (or even a barnstar) for going to the effort of writing a detailed article to accompany the posting of the current event about the Stockline Plastics factory explosion. It would be nice to see more people follow that example, instead of either cramming in lots of detail on the current event page or leaving it to others to fill in the background about Jean Brault and GroupeAction when they post the latest exciting turn of events in the Liberal Party of Canada sponsorship scandal — (67.100.125.156 06:56, 12 May 2004 (UTC)).

 * 68.167.252.6 19:21, 12 May 2004 (UTC): It didn't take too long for another wordy counter-example to be added, this time about the Mexican Air Force, Campeche and the renowned UFO guy Jaime Maussan. Our contributor, JohnCrawford, couldn't even be bothered to discover that an article for Campeche already exists.  Is there such a thing as an anti-barnstar? perhaps our contributor deserves one, for setting a bad example and failing to recognize the role of the current events page in highlighting relevant existing articles and linking to new articles you've just created.

Technology Event?
Could we add a technology event or calendar like Java One, Electronica (Germany), CTIA, CEBITT ?

Would like to announce: [QUALCOMM to Host Fourth Annual BREW Developers Conference, June 7-9 in San Diego] (For deletion after June 9)Jondel 00:45, 13 May 2004 (UTC)

Nick Berg
The United States administration pledges to catch Nick Berg's killers - wow. Didn't they also pledge to catch the killers and mutilators of the four American contractors in Fallujah? RickK 01:19, 13 May 2004 (UTC)

 * Yes they did. Pete/Pcb21 (talk) 08:24, 13 May 2004 (UTC)

Chalabi
Our listed source (MSNBC) claims an unknown number were arrested. An article on CNN today specifically claims no one was arrested. Which is right? Rmhermen 12:56, May 22, 2004 (UTC)

Ship carrying 4,000 Hyundai cars
"A ship carrying 4,000 Hyundai cars sinks south of Singapore after colliding with an oil tanker. All crew are safe, there is no oil spill, and the cars were insured. (ABC AU)" Happy end ;) I don't believe it will be remembered in 20 years ? Ericd 00:46, 24 May 2004 (UTC)

 * I contributed this item, so I suppose I better try to justify it. Taking "remembered in 20 years" as the measure of inclusion for argument's sake, I believe that it tells future readers various things about our time, such as that cars and oil were transported by ships in a manner that did not always assure delivery, and that major transport mishaps did not always end in sensational human or environmental tragedy. Shipwrecks are of interest for many years afterwards to divers and navigators. Also, some readers of the linked articles will be interested in what links to those and may find relevance. Although I admire your standards, being remembered in 20 years would probably exclude many of the sporting events, and you'll find a lively community at WP:VFD if you take your criteria there :-). --Zigger 19:38, 2004 May 24 (UTC)

Calendar
A few hours ago JohnCrawford added a calendar to the sidebar. I must admit I'm in two minds about it: if the links are only page-internal, then perhaps there isn't much point, and the clutter and overhead it adds aren't worthwhile. But the idea of having a calendar isn't necessarily a bad one; it just needs to be made more useful. Thoughts? –Hajor 21:45, 25 May 2004 (UTC)

It wouldn't be very useful at the beginning of the month, since only the first would be linked. And the next month isn't linked either, so the arrow to there isn't functional. If we wanted to make a month calendar that only contained valid links, I suppose it could be useful, but as of right now, somebody is going to have to fix it every day to add a link to the new day. RickK 22:12, 25 May 2004 (UTC)

The purpose of the calendar is to serve as a table of content of the page. I fuckin hate to scroll down to a certain date cuz we are using the  option. —John | Talk 23:27, 25 May 2004 (UTC)

John, I'm going to delete it. Nothing personal, but I'm not convinced that it's useful and, anyway, the links don't work. –Hajor 18:02, 26 May 2004 (UTC)

 * I restored it cuz the links do work and well, I find it very useful.   —John | Talk 20:46, 27 May 2004 (UTC)

 * I'm in favour of it. The links work fine for me.  This late in the month the page is 40 pages high on an 800x600 display, and remember that not all browsers have scrollbars (or equivalent) - the calendar is a very nice addition when I'm browsing with lynx. -- Finlay McWalter |  Talk 20:58, 27 May 2004 (UTC)

 * I'm for it, too. Even if one does not use it, can it do any harm? David Cannon 21:31, 27 May 2004 (UTC)

 * Ok, enjoy! Dunno why the in-page links don't work for me, though. –Hajor 22:32, 27 May 2004 (UTC)

 * I seem to remember older versions of Mozilla having a bug regarding setting the scroll position properly when going to a specific #ed anchor. I tried it with Mozilla Firefox 0.8, Mozilla 1.6, Konqueror 3.1-13, Opera 7.23, MSIE 6.0.2800(xp), netscape 4.8, lynx 2.8.3, and even the excrable Amaya 8.3, and it works on all. -- Finlay McWalter |  Talk 23:09, 27 May 2004 (UTC)

 * Thanks for checking, Finlay. I'd assumed it was a problem with my Opera (7.23) -- obviously not the case in light of your tests. It seems it was my date display preference: with "15 January 2001" chosen it doesn't work, but if I have "No preference" or "January 15, 2001" selected then it does. A minor bug: not one that bothers me in particular, but perhaps worth noting for future reference. –Hajor 00:03, 28 May 2004 (UTC)

 * We should see if we can fix that, as we don't want a useless calendar for a good portion of the userbase. I dunno if there's a way to put a non date-dependant link target in using wikimarkup? -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 01:04, 28 May 2004 (UTC)

Darfur Genocide in the Sudan
The link in the ongoing events section for "Darfur Genocide in the Sudan" links to Ethnic cleansing which might be an acceptable stop-gap measure, but the activities warrant their own article. I might get started on one ten hours hence, but if someone else wants to get started, I welcome the help. (BBC) -- Ke4roh 14:12, 26 May 2004 (UTC)

Cryptfiend64 started Darfur Genocide. Thanks! -- Ke4roh 23:32, 26 May 2004 (UTC)

 * Now rewritten and expanded at the new (and hopefully more NPOV) title of Darfur conflict. -- ChrisO 00:17, 27 May 2004 (UTC)

Editorial decisions
It is with some trepadation I remove this story from May 26, 2004:

American horror film actor Scott Reiniger (Dawn of the Dead'', 1978) is found to be Prince of Ghor, a province in western Afghanistan, as he is the great-great-great-grandson of adventurer Josiah Harlan, who obtained the title for himself and his heirs in perpetuity. (BBC)''

I've been scratching my head trying to figure out why anyone (other than fans of the actor or residents of Ghor provence) would be interested. Unless I grossly underestimate the popularity of Reiniger, I don't think the item belongs on current events. I agree that it should be mentioned on Scott Reiniger's page and the Ghor province page.

Which brings me to the big question: What belongs on CE anyhow? We've discussed it before, and I've been generally pleased with the editorial decisions of Wikipedians as a whole. I've seen more sporting events lately, which we discussed earlier. Perhaps we should move those items to a page of their own: Current sports, for example, and we could archive those as we do CE.

I'd think some sporting events belong on CE - like the next Triple Crown winner, but since that hasn't happened since 1978, I don't think it will clutter CE.

I'd guess sporting events are of interest to people by sport, by region, and by date. Is there a good presentation for that information, or will any sporting coverage always be horribly spotty? -- Ke4roh 20:11, 28 May 2004 (UTC)

 * Correct call on the actor, IMHO -- cute, quirky story, but the guy is far from being famous. Re sports: yes, let's start Current Sporting Events on 1 June. The Olympics are just round the corner, and it'd be a shame to restrict our coverage of them because of space constraints (or rampant deletionism) on this page. –Hajor 21:49, 28 May 2004 (UTC)

 * Counting back, I reckon there are 14 sporting stories listed so far for the month of May, including sports politics (awarding of Olympics/Football World Cup). Is a "current sporting events" page really necessary? A disadvantage of a second page is that it opens up duplication issues (see also the several pages recording people's deaths). At what point does a "current sporting event" become a "current event"? The Champions League final, for instance, is news across Europe. In fact you could make a case for almost every one of the 14 sporting stories for May remaining on this page. (If the awarding of the Abel Prize for Maths makes current events, then surely the longest tennis match in history does too.) Having said that, a current sporting events page would be good for news a little lower down the sporting ladder. However, I wouldn't want to open the floodgates to a torrent of minor league baseball results :-) (or non-league football results, for that matter). Euro 2004 starts in June: I'd expect to see

all results from that on a current sporting events page, and the final result promoted to be a current event. Ramble over... --Avaragado 00:03, May 29, 2004 (UTC)
 * Actually I'd expect all the Euro 2004 scores to appear on 2004 UEFA European Championship, where we've already got spaces set up for all of them! Arwel 22:04, 29 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Fair point. But isn't that also an argument for not having a current events page, since everything on that page should also be recorded elsewhere? --Avaragado 22:15, 29 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Then I'm convinced it's not bad with those 14 stories on the page. Yes, the top events should be included, and link to the appropriate stories. I'll leave it to the sports fans to decide which sports are worthy of CE and which aren't. ;-) -- ke4roh 00:41, 30 May 2004 (UTC)

Ronald Reagan
I suggest this death is newsworthy (catches people's interest) itself to stay on Current Events, at least for a while. (And I'm not a Reagan fanboy) - David Gerard 22:19, 5 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Not to mention it's fairly significant. Tomorrow needs to see the D-Day anniversary on top, however. When Reagan's body lies in state in the Capitol, that should be at the top of the front page, and also the day of the funeral. (All future page-toppers barring more momentous news, of course.) orthogonal 00:05, 6 Jun 2004 (UTC)

This month's deaths
I have noticed a practice over the last couple of months of removing deaths after a couple of weeks. I think this rather strange, and would prefer to preserve the deaths section listing of especially prominent individuals who died the current month regardless of whether they died at the beginning or end of the month. Consider it this way: if you go to the June 2004 page ten years from now, you'd expect to see Ronald Reagan and Ray Charles listed under the heading "Deaths in June". Does this seem reasonable? -- ke4roh 02:24, 11 Jun 2004 (UTC)

 * OK. Knocking them off after a week or so was originally my suggestion to keep that section of the sidebar nice and unobtrusive (and dynamic) while it was still a new feature and under threat of removal; and that phase belongs in the past now. So let's do what you suggest -- leave them up there for the duration of the month. We've been doing a very good job of selecting the important ones and ignoring the B-list, so I think we can allow ourselves another couple of cm of column space. As long as we stop well short – well short – of duplicating the Recent Deaths page. –Hajor 04:18, 11 Jun 2004 (UTC)

China
Is there any reference for the Wikipedia story from China. I can see no mention of it on Google News or the BBC - or is this 'inside information'? Agendum 10:49, 13 Jun 2004 (UTC)

 * Inside information, i.e. Chinese contributors report on the mailing list it's blocked. It most certainly hasn't hit the news yet - David Gerard 11:10, 13 Jun 2004 (UTC)

 * Brilliant, now we are banned in China! May I request a link to the mailing list message at the Current events entry?  Cheers. -- Kaihsu 13:53, 2004 Jun 13 (UTC)

 * Report from user, suggestion to wait for confirmation, ideas on what to do. I'm removing this from the Current Events as not confirmed yet - David Gerard 14:11, 13 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I used a Chinese proxy and got "this page cannot be displayed". That means it is banned, according to me. More commmentary at internet censorship in China.--Jiang 22:26, 13 Jun 2004 (UTC)

 * Current suggested action on wikipedia-l is not to make a big fuss yet until we know just why it's banned - e.g. wikimedia specifically, or an IP block we're a side-effect of, or whatever - the idea being to allow them to unban it without an untoward fuss. i.e., this is politics now, and massive publicity may not be the most effective move - David Gerard 22:42, 13 Jun 2004 (UTC)

 * And in the meantime we should de-list the entry on this page which refers to it. Otherwise somebody is likely to pick up the story. The listing is also a bad idea since it is journalism and not just stating what third party news services have reported. The link to a Wikipedian's "news page" is a laughable attempt to make the entry look legit. I suggest immediate removal of the item until a real news agency picks it up (even Slashdot will do). I will do this myself in an hour. --mav 23:45, 13 Jun 2004 (UTC)

 * It's made the tech press and that link's being added to CE already - David Gerard 16:33, 14 Jun 2004 (UTC)

 * Yep - it's real news now. Disregard my message. --mav

Me prepares to offer database dumps over freenet.

Jiang Yanyong
Jiang Yanyong's wife, Hua Zhongwei, is reported to been freed from detention incommunicado in China and returned to the couple's Beijing home.

This story needs a news link. KirbyMeister 16:18, 16 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Bolding important link
Please make sure to bold the link most relevant to the news story, especially if it has been updated. It makes it much easier to see what stories are good for the front page, and it is important for quickly getting to the relevant information about a news article. There are lots of random links that may be appropriate for linkage but have nothing to do with the news item. - Centrx 05:21, 17 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Paul Johnson
Does Paul Johnson warrant a link on "Deaths in June"? Yes, because he was brutally murdered, purportedly by al-Qaida. No, because many other people have died lately, and because we don't want to further highlight the misdeeds (he's already in the June 18 entry). -- ke4roh 02:14, 20 Jun 2004 (UTC)
 * Any opinions? I don't know the answer. -- ke4roh 00:19, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)

SpaceShipOne an airship?
Re: the SpaceShipOne item of 21 June someone has reverted my earlier fix (airship-->aircraft) back to airship. I thought airships were lighter-than-air aircraft. Could somebody enlighten me here, or correct the item if I'm right? --Wernher 00:44, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)

 * some anon pasted in a whole version, undoing a bunch of things. You're quite right - aircraft (or the american equivalent, airplane) is correct, and airship is wrong. Perhaps spaceplane is best, however. -- Finlay McWalter |  Talk 00:47, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Percolating the big events to the top
Our Current events page makes for a good diary, and the sidebar helps us to get a summary of deaths, ongoing events, etc. How about we add a section (to the sidebar?) to highlight the big events of the month? That would make for much easier and more interesting scanning through pages of (recent) history. -- ke4roh 01:15, 24 Jun 2004 (UTC)

 * Intriguing. Be bold; float an idea out on the page (sidebar?); let's see how it looks. –Hajor 13:26, 24 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Major Microsoft crack
I changed "Computer criminals place malicious software on major bank and corporate websites, infecting those using Windows Internet Explorer to view the pages. Microsoft has no patch. Security experts advise against any use of Windows Internet Explorer." to "It is revealed that computer criminals have broken into thousands of Web servers and possibly millions of user computers using security holes in Microsoft Internet Information Server and Microsoft Internet Explorer. Security experts advise against any use of Internet Explorer." but David Gerard reverted it saying it was not concise enough.

The old headline is not as informative and is also partially inaccurate. None of the articles I read suggested bank web sites were particularly targetted. In fact here's a [http://www.google.com/search?q=%22217.107.218.147%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=20&sa=N&filter=0 list of one-time hijacked web sites recorded by Google] and none were financial institutions at a glance. Also, the new headline is smaller, takes into account that this has been happening for a while, explains that Internet Information Server is part of the problem, and does a better job of showing the scale of the attack by using the word "millions". It's also smaller. The mechanics of the attack are missing but I don't think they belong in a headline anyways.

I think the new headline is much better. Tom 00:29, 2004 Jun 26 (UTC)

 * A bank site (specifically a credit union) was the FIRST site targeted, as per the first link - David Gerard 00:38, 26 Jun 2004 (UTC)

'' Microsoft has no patch. Security experts advise against any use of Internet Explorer on Windows'' - are those two statements both factual and NPoV ? Andy Mabbett 08:06, 26 Jun 2004 (UTC)

 * Alarming! But, in reference to that last comment, Id say, if it's factual then it's NPoV. --bodnotbod 08:33, Jun 26, 2004 (UTC)

 * If you read the links (possibly useful when questioning a report), the first is true and the second is what they are in fact advising - David Gerard 09:40, 26 Jun 2004 (UTC)

 * Let's see:

 * ZEDNET: Besides choosing the highest security settings for Internet Explorer, Windows users could download an alternate browser, such as Mozilla or Opera.

 * 14850: They should perform day-to-day operations from an account with no administrator privileges, and configure Internet Explorer [Microsoft's web browser] to restrict which web sites can run scripts and which can't

 * USCERT:  US-CERT recommends that end-users disable JavaScript unless it is absolutely necessary.

 * SANS ISC:  if possible turn off javascript, or use a browser other then MSIE until the current vulnerabilities in MSIE are patched.

 * Which of thsoe advises against any use of Internet Explorer on Windows? Andy Mabbett 16:37, 26 Jun 2004 (UTC)

 * ZDNet: NetSec's Houlahan advocated drastic action. "I told my wife, unless it is absolutely necessary and unless you are going to a site like our banking site, stay off the Internet right now," he said. Evidently you didn't scroll down that far. - David Gerard 17:17, 26 Jun 2004 (UTC)

 * And for the plural, Miami Herald (just added to the page): Security experts noted that users can avoid this particular problem by using alternative browsers such as Netscape, Mozilla or Opera. Will that do, or should that text be added to the story as well? - David Gerard 17:32, 26 Jun 2004 (UTC)

 * In your first example, stay off the Internet right now != Security experts advise against any use of Internet Explorer on Windows; in your second, can avoid this particular problem by using X != Never do Y. Andy Mabbett 17:58, 26 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Today's story: attack blunted (Russian server containing Trojan shut down), IE holes still unpatched. Someone needs to write Download.ject - David Gerard 17:50, 26 Jun 2004 (UTC)

title: Talk:Current events/Archive 5


text:
Bistre

Bistre (or bister) is a pigment made from soot. Historically, beechwood was burned to produce the soot, which was boiled and diluted with water. Many Old Masters used bistre as the ink for their wash paintings. Bistre's appearance is generally of a dark grayish brown, with a yellowish cast.

Bistre has also been used to name colors resembling the pigment, typically shades of brown. The first recorded use of bistre as a color name in English was in 1727; another name for the color bistre is soot brown.

Bistre
Among other colors, bistre is the name of a very dark shade of grayish brown (the version shown on the immediate right).

Bistre brown
At right is displayed the color bistre brown, a medium brownish tone of the color bistre, also known as soot brown.

This is the tone of bistre that most closely matches the color sample in the 1930 book A Dictionary of Color by Maerz and Paul.

This tone of bistre is the color of the ink that was used by the Old Masters for their drawings.

The normalized color coordinates for bistre brown are identical to the color names drab, sand dune, and mode beige, which were first recorded as color names in English, respectively, in 1686, 1925, and 1928.

French bistre
At right is displayed the color French bistre, which is the tone of bistre called bistre in the Pourpre.com color list, a color list widely popular in France.

For pictures of bistre colored postage stamps, see the French Wikipedia article on the color bistre.

Spanish bistre
Spanish bistre is the color that is called bistre (the Spanish word for "bistre" is the same as the English word) in the Guía de coloraciones (Guide to colorations) by Rosa Gallego and Juan Carlos Sanz, a color dictionary published in 2005 that is widely popular in the Hispanophone realm.

title: Bistre


text:
Bister

Bister may refer to:

 * Bister, Switzerland, a village in the canton of Valais
 * Bistre, a pigment and color
 * Bicester, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
 * Bister, "abrupt", "stringent" or "austere" in Swedish
 * Bister, "bed" in the Urdu language
 * Bister, a Belgian/French condiment company

title: Bister


text:
Kalathur Kannamma

Kalathur Kannamma is a 1960 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film directed by A. Bhimsingh and written by Javar Seetharaman. The film stars Gemini Ganesh, Savitri Ganesh and Kamal Haasan. It revolves around a couple — a wealthy zamindar's son and a farmer's daughter — who are separated due to circumstances, while their innocent son is forced to grow up in an orphanage.

Kalathur Kannamma, inspired by the 1960 Chinese film Nobody's Child, was originally directed by T. Prakash Rao who left due to creative differences, resulting in Bhimsingh taking over. It was the debut film of Kamal Haasan. The film's soundtrack was composed by R. Sudarsanam.

Kalathur Kannamma was released on 12 August 1960. The film was critically acclaimed, with Haasan's performance being singled out. It was also commercially successful, running for over 100 days in theatres. It won the Certificate of Merit by the Government of India, and the President's Gold Medal award for Haasan at the age of 6. The film was remade in Telugu as Mooga Nomu, in Hindi as Main Chup Rahungi (with Bhimsingh returning as director), and in Sinhala as Mangalika.

Plot
Rajalingam is the only son of Ramalingam, the zamindar of Kalathur. Kannamma is the daughter of Murugan, a farmer of the same place. On the zamindar advice, Murugan sends his daughter to Madras for higher education. While returning from Madras, Kannamma meets Raja in the train. Noticing her respect and awe for the zamindar, Raja calls himself an electrician visiting the palace. They fall in love. A few days later, Kannamma learns the truth and to reassure her, Raja marries her secretly in a temple.

Two days later, Raja has to go abroad for higher studies. During his absence, Ramalingam learns of the marriage and orders Kannamma to forget his son. Moved by the zamindar feelings, Kannamma promises never to mention their marriage to anyone. Ramalingam arranges Murugan and the now pregnant Kannamma to stay in a nearby town, Sevalpatti. Murugan, who is ashamed of Kannamma's secret marriage, leaves Kannamma's newborn son in an orphanage and lies that the child was stillborn. They both decide to leave the place and settle in Bangalore.

When Raja returns, he learns that Kannamma had left Kalathur. His inquiries in Sevalpatti lead him to believe that Kannamma had led an immoral life. Grief-stricken, he travels from place to place to forget Kannamma and takes to drinking as a last resort. In Bangalore, he encounters Kannamma in a dancer's house where she had come to teach the dancer's daughter. Her presence in the house and reticence to Raja's questions strengthens his belief that Kannamma is a woman of ill repute and in disgust, he returns home.

Kannamma's son Selvam grows up into an intelligent boy and is living in the orphanage in Sevalpatti. Murugan visits the orphanage and on meeting Selvam, decides to shift to Sevalpatti to be near him. Kannamma becomes a teacher in Selvam's school and feels attracted to him. She invites him to stay with her but he refuses as he has to look after Mani, a lame orphan living with him. Raja is invited to Sevalpatti by Singaram, a rich merchant who wants to marry his daughter Maduram to him, to preside over a school function. Raja takes a fascination for Selvam who acts in the school play. After the play ends, he encounters Kannamma again and orders the headmistress to dismiss her.

Mani is critically ill and Selvam turns to Raja for help. Raja brings a doctor who is unable to save Mani. Raja takes Selvam with him to the palace. At Selvam's insistence, he stops drinking and to give him a mother, decides to marry Maduram. A seriously ill Murugan confesses to Kannamma that her child is not dead and reveals the identity of Selvam. Kannamma tries to contact Selvam but does not find him in the orphanage. The news shocks Murugan and to soothe his nerves, they move back to Kalathur. In the local temple, Kannamma meets Selvam and tells him that she is his mother. On learning from him that Raja is bringing him up and is marrying shortly to find him a mother, she asks him not to mention anything about her to Raja.

Maduram learns from Selvam that he is the son of Raja, after which Singaram insists on a written undertaking that the properties of Raja would go to the children of Maduram only. The news of this conflict spreads in the village. On learning this, Murugan rushes to the palace to tell everyone the true identity of Selvam but collapses near the palace gate. Kannamma, who has followed, takes Selvam and tries to move away when she is intercepted by Raja who demands the boy back. Raja refuses to believe that Selvam is Kannamma's son and abuses Kannamma for her shameless life. Ramalingam observes that even in such a humiliating situation, Kannamma is silent and does not breathe a word about her promise to him. He is moved and acknowledges her as his daughter-in-law. Selvam is united with his parents, and Raja's marriage with Maduram is cancelled.

Development
After assisting A. V. Meiyappan in producing films for AVM Productions, his sons Saravanan, Murugan, Kumaran discussed producing one on their own with his son-in-law Arun Veerappan. Their mother Rajeswari told Meiyappan about this, and he gave his consent. The first story the brothers discussed was Maanam Periyadhu, but it did not shape up well. Unwilling to make a half-baked story as their inaugural production, Saravanan continued searching. Vellaichaami, an ex-employee of AVM, told Saravanan that Javar Seetharaman had been discussing a story with Meiyappan. Saravanan inquired further and learned that the story was Pattuvum Kittuvum. However, Meiyappan told Seetharaman that while the story was good, AVM could not film it. When Saravanan and his brothers learned that Seetharaman was in discussions with another production company, they ran to Meiyappan and told him that they were interested in Seetharaman's story; to their relief, Meiyappan revealed that Seetharaman would be visiting him that afternoon. After Seetharaman realised that Saravanan and his brothers were interested, he willingly gave them his story, which evolved into Kalathur Kannamma.

Impressed with T. Prakash Rao's work in Amara Deepam (1956) and Uthama Puthiran (1958), Saravanan and his brothers considered he would be best to direct Kalathur Kannamma. This decision was questioned, given that AVM had its own "director unit" of which Prakash Rao was not a part. Though AVM paid its directors salaries ranging from inr 15000 to inr 20000, Prakash Rao charged inr 40000—twice as much. Meiyappan, not wanting to be an obstacle to his sons' enthusiasm, approved Prakash Rao's salary. Despite Saravanan's desire, the credit of producing the film was given to Meiyappan, Kumaran, and Arun Veerappan. The story by Seetharaman was loosely adapted from two sources: the play The Forgotten Factor by the Moral Rearmament Army, and the 1960 Chinese film Nobody's Child. Cinematography was handled by T. Muthuswamy, editing by S. Surya, and art direction by H. Shantaram. S. P. Muthuraman worked as an assistant director, this being his first stint with film.

Casting
Gemini Ganesan, his last name credited as Ganesh, was cast as Rajalingam and Savitri Ganesh as the title character Kannamma. The former was paid a salary of inr 75000 after initially negotiating for inr 90000. Daisy Irani was originally chosen to play Rajalingam and Kannamma's son Selvam, after AVM were impressed with her performance in Yaar Paiyyan (1957). Sara Ramachandran, the family doctor of AVM, came to the AVM household with four-year old Kamal Haasan. Sara told Rajeswari that Haasan had come to meet Meiyappan as he aspired to become an actor; Haasan was eventually taken by Saravanan to Meiyappan, who asked him to act like Irani. Impressed with Haasan's performance in the audition, Meiyappan decided to replace Irani with him. Though Saravanan protested as Irani had already been already booked for the role and paid an advance of inr 10000, Meiyappan remained adamant as he felt Haasan was fresher and brighter than Irani. Devika, who portrayed Maduram, received a salary of inr 3500.

Filming
The song "Kangalil Vaarthaigal Puriyatho" was shot with many mango trees in the background. When it was decided to reshoot parts of the song, the mangoes were no longer in the trees since the season had ended. Hence, it was decided to reshoot the necessary scenes with fake mangoes hanging from the trees. The first shot filmed on Haasan was a scene featuring Kannamma feeding him upma. The song "Ammavum Neeye Appavum Neeye", picturised on Selvam, was recorded with three minutes duration, but Prakash Rao filmed its video to be only one-and-a-half minutes long. Meiyappan insisted to shoot the entire song so that Selvam could be established, and reshoot other scenes he was not satisfied with. Prakash Rao felt Meiyappan was interfering creatively and expressed his desire to quit the film, although up to nearly 8000 feet had been canned. Though Meiyappan was hesitant, Prakash Rao convinced him and left. AVM later hired A. Bhimsingh, under whose direction the film was completed. Although Bhimsingh offered to retain Prakash Rao's name in the credits, he declined. When Saravanan found another company made a film Kadavulin Kuzhandhai on the same plot as Kalathur Kannamma, he decided to release Kalathur Kannamma as soon as possible. However Meiyappan wanted to reshoot certain scenes which Saravanan was not interested in. Meiyappan felt the presentation was more important than the plot so as per his suggestion, the scenes were reshot. The final length of the film was 17570 feet.

Soundtrack
The music was composed by R. Sudarsanam, while the lyrics were penned by Kannadasan, Kothamangalam Subbu, Ku. Ma. Balasubramaniam, M. K. Athmanathan and T. K. Sundara Vathiyar. For the song "Arugil Vanthaal", Kannadasan came up with 56 or 58 pallavis, of which eight were finalised. The song "Aadatha Manamum" is set in the Carnatic raga known as Gourimanohari. For the song "Ammavum Neeye", the makers were not satisfied with any of the tunes composed by Sudarsanam. When violinist Chengalvarayan composed the tune of "Ammavum Neeye" on his violin, Sudarsanam created a complete tune out of it. The soundtrack received positive response, with "Ammavum Neeye" being singled out for praise.

Release and reception
Kalathur Kannamma was released on 12 August 1960, and received mostly positive reviews. On 11 September 1960, Ananda Vikatan praised Kamal Haasan's performance and described Kalathur Kannamma as one of the best films in Tamil to that point. The Madras-based film magazine Movieland said, "A new star rises on the movie horizon". The article by film journalist, K. Vasudevan, praised the performance of Haasan. Kanthan of Kalki lauded the performances of the various cast members, including Subbaiah and Balaiah, and said the film could be watched once. The film was a major commercial success,  running for over 100 days in theatres. It won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil – Certificate of Merit for the Third Best Feature Film in 1961, and Haasan's performance earned him the President's Gold Medal.

Other versions
Kalathur Kannamma was dubbed in Telugu as Mavoori Ammayi, which was released on 20 October 1960. The film was also remade in the same language as Mooga Nomu (1969). Bhimsingh later remade the film in Hindi as Main Chup Rahungi (1962), where "Ammavum Neeye" was re-used as "Tumhi Ho Mata". The film was also remade in Sinhala as Mangalika (1963), while the Hindi version was remade as Udarata Menike the same year.

In other media
In Udan Pirappu (1993), Vellasamy (Goundamani) as a beggar sings "Mummy-um Neeye" to the tune of "Ammavum Neeye". In Kaathala Kaathala (1998), footage of "Ammavum Neeye" is used in the title credits and Selvam morphs into Ramalingam (Haasan); he and Sundaralingam (Prabhu Deva) along with children are seen singing this song to a garbage bin.

title: Kalathur Kannamma


text:
Talk:Current events/Archive 6

Avaragado vows to slay AP headlines
I just deleted all events from June 27, as they were simply Associated Press headlines in all their headline-speak glory ("Iran vows to resume nukes", and the hideous "Drug links alleged in Mexico editor slay"). I considered trying to rewrite them but thought, well, be bold. Current events doesn't exist to reprint AP news anyhow. -- Avaragado 09:36, 27 Jun 2004 (UTC)

 * Well, daft as those headlines are, rewording them would probably be a better idea, since the page is here to carry brief summaries of news stories, appropriately written. But then, I guess if you just delete them, someone can add them properly from scratch as easily as you could have rewritten them. *shrug* - IMSoP 09:57, 27 Jun 2004 (UTC)

 * My main motivation for deletion rather than rewriting was that Wikipedia is not a news service. It's for the contributors to decide what news events to include: AP's agenda is not Wikipedia's, and vice versa. On balance I thought Wikipedia's agenda was better served by deleting the AP headlines, but it could have gone either way. -- Avaragado 11:56, 27 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Whilst I also find Avaragado's actions drastic, it does act as a reminder that current events primarily exists to provide hooks into Wikipedia articles with relevance to current events, not to provide a news service. For instance today's leading news story on the BBC (World edition) is Powell's visit to Sudan. Now in a way Powell visiting somewhere is not that big a deal, but it does give us a ideal hook to showcase our content on the Darfur conflict.

New president of the European Commission.
i think this news should stay in the current events a little longer, since it afects the whole european union (25 countries), also its a news that appears in the "frontpage" of the important media - --Cyprus2k1 16:37, 29 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Sports events on Current events
I notice that a few hours ago there was a short edit war regarding the US Open golf result. Is there a consensus that important (by some definition) sports events are allowed to be "promoted" from Current sports events to Current events? Or is Current events now for non-sporting events only? -- Avaragado 11:35, 30 Jun 2004 (UTC)

 * Sigh. Why do we keep going through this?  I wasn't especially fond of parlaying sports events to a separate page, but I went along with the idea because I knew some people don't care about the College World Series or the Wimbledon quarterfinals or whatever.  But, come on, the U.S. Open of golf is one of the biggest golfing events in the world.  We sports fans are not "littering" the current events page with smaller events, but when something major comes along, it should be listed here.  Period.  It's a current event.  Whether or not you (ambiguous "you" here, not refering to anyone specific) think it's important is beside the point.  I'm so sick and tired of everyone trying to completely eschew sport from Wikipedia (<sarcasm>except for the articles themselves, no one would ever consider asking them to be deleted, we just don't want them where anyone can see them</sarcasm>).  It's aggravating.  Why must sport be treated like second-class citizenry around here?  R ADICAL B ENDER  ★  13:49, 30 Jun 2004 (UTC)

 * If you could somehow work an anti-Microsoft tirade into the sports reports, they'd be much more acceptable. Thanks! Pcb21| Pete 15:34, 30 Jun 2004 (UTC)

 * For what it's worth, I agree with you. As I said a few weeks ago, I don't see why someone winning the Abel Prize for Maths is considered "major" enough for this page, but the longest match in grand-slam tennis history (or the result of one of the four golf majors, as you've found) is not. As far as I can see the only remotely defensible justification for removing all sports events from this page is because there's a separate page. However, I don't think that's both necessary and sufficient justification for every sports event. An analogy is 2004 and the sundry 2004 in... articles. Even though there's a 2004 in politics article, no one is deleting politics events from 2004 simply because there's a separate page. 2004 in politics/film/sports/shoes/royalty/whatever should contain as much trivia as their editors want; the important stuff from those should bubble up to the main 2004 page. It's surely the same here. If not, then Current events should be renamed Current politics events or Current non-sports events or something else that better describes what is actually wanted here. -- Avaragado 15:41, 30 Jun 2004 (UTC)

 * First of all, "weasel word excuses" is not a way of argumentation but just unreasonably impolite. Second, why do you think there is an extra page if we keep sports news here anyways? Third, as much as many people never read the economics section of the newspaper and always switch off the radio when the lottery numbers or traffic jams are announced, many complain that sport is covered at all in the news rather than in special TV or radio shows. In the particular case of golf, most people in the world have never played golf nor have they ever heard of the US open. If you wanted to include the World Soccer Cup Final I might agree that this is an event interesting for many, but golf is clearly not more important in any way than Wimbledon or Formula 1. And if you want to include those you have to cover the other Grand Slam tournaments as well and some will complain about the Indycar series and in the end you can just include all sports news, which we decided not to do. Get-back-world-respect 22:26, 30 Jun 2004 (UTC)

 * Not argumentation but the truth. See: Avoid weasel terms.  You gave no specifier to whom you said thought golf was unimportant, merely a blanket statement that many people don't care about golf.  Many do.  Millions, in fact, if you go by American TV ratings alone, and that doesn't even scrape the surface worldwide.  Secondly, I think that the reason there is an extra sports page here because people who hate sport are looking to appease those who like sport without coming out and trying to say that they feel that sport is just plain unimportant, not because people who like sports asked for it.  Thirdly, if you don't like sport, ignore it.  If you don't like it on the news, turn it off.  But just because you don't like it doesn't make it unimportant.  Billions of people watch sporting events around the globe.  For many of us, our frames of mind for eras of time are accentuated by major sporting events, or at least sports are one of the easiest things to recall throughout our past, more so than even political events.  If you asked any blanket group of Canadians to name a major piece of legislation that passed in 1972, many, if not most, would be hard-pressed to come up with something.  But if you asked them to come up with a sporting event, I guarantee that almost every Canadian over the age of, say, 10, could probably name something important that happened that year.

 * But specifically about golf, how do you know how many people play golf? Athletes inspire generations of people.  Thirty years from now, a generation of South African golfers will look to this U.S. Open where Retief Goosen and Ernie Els played together on the final round as a defining moment for themselves.  You say that most people haven't heard of the U.S. Open.  Well, most people haven't heard of Wikipedia - is what we're doing unimportant?  That's a fallacious argument.  Additionally, the U.S. Open is a Major, by definition.  There are only four of them: the U.S. Open, the British Open, the PGA Championship and the Masters.  We're not adding results of the Buick Open or the EDS Byron Nelson Championship, just the biggest events in the sport.

 * Finally, to the "slippery slope" argument, those of us who actually know about sports (and there are quite a few of us who work hard on these articles and go completely unnoticed by everybody) are able to determine what should go on this page and what shouldn't. It's not difficult.  There are only so many major sporting events in one year (maybe 25 or so, not including rotating events like the World Cup of soccer, hockey or the Olympics) and maybe a handful of unscheduled events.  The page is not going to be overrun with smaller events.  I wouldn't let it; I haven't let it - I have removed smaller sporting events in the past.  (I recall specifically when someone kept trying to add the results of the NCAA Division II basketball tournament.)

 * I just don't understand why this should be removed. These current events eventually get rotated out into individual articles; they become the historical record of sorts on Wikipedia for what is happening in the world right now.  It will look stupid for someone to look to see what was happening in the world and see no sports.  That's just ridiculous.

 * And, on a personal note, I always hear a lot of complaints about "Ameri-centricism" on Wikipedia and how Americans should be "edumucating" ourselves on other events in the world so that we can write about it and not just what we're "comfortable" with, but I challenge the sports-haters (or, at least, sports-detractors) to do the same. Educate yourselves on something you don't know about in sports and write about it.  R ADICAL B ENDER  ★  01:35, 1 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * I'm with Get-back-world-respect on this one. Fwiw. Which is probably not much -- clearly a minority view, isn't it? And I don't know enough about golf in the USA to comment on this specific case. Probably the opening matches of the Eurofooty event shouldn't be here, either (let's wait for the final?), but I'm not going to take it on myself -- and incur the wrath of the sports fans -- to remove them. –Hajor 23:43, 30 Jun 2004 (UTC)

 * I agree with you on the early Euro 2004 matches - see my comments a few weeks ago. Despite this being a month-long tournament Europe-wide, with UK TV ratings through the roof for England's matches, I intended to include the result of the final only - one match out of 31 - on Current events. But this isn't about football, or golf, or any specific sport. I'm not objecting to the presence of summaries of US Supreme Court judgements, or the latest Internet Explorer vulnerability, or the election results in Mongolia, even though none of these affects me. Look back at the earlier discussion: there were 14 sports events included here over the month of May. What's the problem? (If it's that they all belong in Current sports events, then please address the analogy I made in my comment yesterday.) -- Avaragado 10:24, 1 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * The sports page was only created recently, so no wonder some people still come up with sports news here. However, as I already explained, if we want to cover every masters of a sport like golf that most people in the world have never ever played nor do they follow it we need to cover more popular sports like tennis or soccer as well. And where is the barrier? Formula 1 ok? Do we need every Tour de France race? Major league? Champions league? Just keep it at the extra page and keep this one to major events of international interest, primarily in international politics. Non-sports events is as awkward as would be Current events excluding the weather forecast of Alabama and Chinese lotteries. Everyone can see that sports news have their own page since the link is at the top of this page. You mentioned US Supreme Court judgements, in my eyes they are only relevant in case they have an impact on events that are widely followed like the Guantanamo scandal or the 2000 elections. About election results I cannot see why we should restrict it to big western countries just because most people do not know where Mongolia is. Encyclopedias are there for informing people about things they do not know yet. [[Image:abugitmo.jpg|40px|Get-back-world-respect]] 15:12, 1 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * I already addressed all your concerns. Please see my response.  You talk about court cases that are "widely" followed, but sports are just as widely followed, I don't see why the "widely" followed sports (which, contrary to your opinion, includes golf, tennis, soccer/football, etc.) can't be listed here as well.  Finally, your own argument, "Encyclopedias are there for informing people about things they do not know yet" applies just as much for sports as it does anything else.  R ADICAL B ENDER  ★  15:30, 1 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * You neither addressed my concern that there is an extra page nor that including golf masters while excluding tennis masters and many other sports events is dubious. And concerning your "weasel" term argument, that in itself was a weasel term as defined by that controversial article: "a blanket statement that many people do care about golf". You know yourself that an overwhelming majority of the world population has never heard of a US open for golf nor do they care at all. Get-back-world-respect 15:43, 1 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * Yes, I did. I said there's no need to keep sports events entirely segregated to a secondary page because it would be stupid for someone in five years who visits June 2004 to see nothing about sports at all.  Secondly, I just said that tennis and other important sports events should be included, but you deleted a golf event and said that golf was unimportant, which is why we were talking about golf.  Finally, the "overwhelming majority of the world population" hasn't heard of a whole host of things that are still important.  The "overwhelming majority of the world population" hasn't heard of the Cassini-Huygens probe, yet we list that as "important", despite the fact that outside a group of scientists, astrophysicists and space geeks, it's not even that important to the general population of anywhere.  But it's an accomplishment, something that is difficult to achieve and interests a group of vocal and active people - just...like...sports.  This is no different except that you either don't like sports or just want to see the entirety of sport relegated to a subpage, even when something major happens.

 * The bottom line is what you think is important is not what I think is important. Why can't you just leave it alone and let the people who view the page decide whether or not to skip over one measly sports event?  This is not a minor event, it is a world event.  A South African won the event and people from Japan, Fiji, Canada and a host of other nations were in the running the entire time at one of the four biggest events in golf.  Absolutely international and relevant.  R ADICAL B ENDER  ★  15:59, 1 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * Sigh. Along with User:RadicalBender, I thought the situation was pretty clear. Detailed results for all sports: Current sports events; important results for important sports: promote to Current events. Analogy: Detailed political trivia: 2004 in politics; important political events: promoted to 2004. The people best placed to decide what counts as important are the people who know the subject matter. Yes, current events should include results of Golf majors (four per year!), Tennis majors (four per year!), Formula 1 championship results (not each race unless notable for other reasons), football league championship results (not each match), etc, etc. -- Avaragado 16:04, 1 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * It is not stupid if someone in five years sees nothing about sports in June 2004 as long as there is a separate sports page. Other people already decided they wanted sports on an extra page, that was before I deleted your item which was at the time the only sports item I saw. While many people indeed have never heard of many current events this is only because the event has not happened before but a current event can shed a new light on something and raise the interest of people. In the case of a golf masters, they have been happening four times a year for a long time as you informed me, and still most people never decided it interests them. I do not want to bash your hobby, if you prefer golf and I prefer swimming I am entirely ok, I just would never come to the idea to mention a swimming race as a current event, particularly not if there is an extra page. And your mentioning of different nationalities is nothing special nowadays, there are most probably international meetings of dove keepers or rocket scientists as well, and still they would not be worth covering per se.
 * Avaragado, why shall we cover golf but not rugby, football, icehockey, snooker, curling, basketball, baseball, cricket, volleyball, polo, fencing or boxing? The popularity of sports varies greatly by countries and time period - usually sports are much more popular in a country as long as there are outstanding athletes from that country. To me it seems that the decision is entirely arbitrary and it would be best to keep it all at the extra page. Get-back-world-respect 16:19, 1 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * The decision on whether to include any event - sporting, political, scientific, mathematical, whatever - in current events is arbitrary. We all use our best judgement. By what process did someone decide to include an item on a decision of a Hong Kong appellate court? Or the increase of US interest rates? Or the opening weekend earnings of Fahrenheit 9/11? Why that court decision and no others? Why those interest rates and no others? Why that film and no others? It's the same with sporting events.

 * I'm British. Brits think baseball is called "rounders" and is only played at school. But I know that the World Series result is worthy of a place on current events, even if I would go out of my way to avoid watching it. Your question presupposes that I believe we should not cover those sports: not true at all. Can you give me a list of countries whose events are ineligible for inclusion on current events? -- Avaragado 17:38, 1 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * Of course we always decide on our own best judgment. That judgment decided to set up an extra page for sports. Sports is something that people often want to be kept separately because it is only interesting to those who follow the specific sport, which varies by time and country. I never argued that news of any country should be left out. Get-back-world-respect 22:27, 1 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * Even with the extra page for sports, it does not preclude the possibility of having sport events on current events. On another point, let me make something perfectly clear.  I don't play golf.  I don't watch golf.  I know about golf and the general concepts and rules and some of the golfers, etc. - enough that I can write articles about golfers.  However, I'm not an especially big golf fan.  BUT, I know the importance of golf in sport.  I watch enough sports and Sportscenter that I know what is important and what isn't.  It's all a judgment call, like everything else on this page.  There is no slippery slope argument here.  I won't let smaller events on this page; it reduces its usefulness. R ADICAL B ENDER  ★  03:41, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * Golf may be seen as important in your favourite sports show. In Britain cricket is important. Pakistanis like hockey very much. In New Zealand they play a lot of rugby. Why do you think your perception is more important than theirs? Get-back-world-respect 09:42, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * But you can say that about every event on the page! Why do you think your view - that sports events have no place on this page, period - is more important than anyone else's? There was an entry on June 30th about a proposal for new social bills in Spain. This affects the population of Spain, and very few others. Does that item belong on the page? -- Avaragado 10:50, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * If you think something else does not belong here discuss that separately. I discuss that a US open in golf is not important enough to be mentioned as a current event if there is a separate sports page. Note that it were others who wanted that page and note that the golf open is one of few items that are debated. I insist that if we allow this item we should allow a hell of a lot of other sports events as well which we decided not to do. Get-back-world-respect 11:03, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * I note that you answered neither of my questions. (Incidentally, nowhere did I say that I thought the Spanish item didn't belong here: that's your presumption. I'd like to know what you think.) Also, it's educational to look back to May 2004, before current sports events began. I don't see a "hell of a lot" of sports events. In fact, I count 16 sports or sports politics events out of 201 in total. I don't consider 8% a "hell of a lot". (My breakdown: 13 sport; 3 sports politics; 14 science/technology; 11 arts/entertainment/celebrities; 160 other, mostly global politics. YMMV.) Finally, I don't see where "we decided not to" include sports events here. Could you tell me where? -- Avaragado 01:44, 3 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * I did not say that you said the Spanish item didn't belong here, I just showed that your argumentation is flawed if you want to tell me that because there are other dubious items here all sport should be allowed. As you rightly say, 8% is not a hell of a lot. As I rightly said, if we decided to mention golf sports opens we should allow a hell of a lot of equally interesting other sports events which we decided not to do - which is why the extra page was created and which is why there were only 8% even before. Your continous complaints of "you did not answer me" are not productive. If you mean a particular point please mention it again. Get-back-world-respect 03:42, 3 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * If a news item about a proposed change in Spanish law is worthy (in this case, I believe it is), then a news item naming the winner of the U.S. Open is equally worthy. If a news item announcing the winner of the Abel Prize for Maths is worthy (in this case, I believe it is), then a news item naming the winner of Euro 2004 is equally worthy. Nobody is adding all changes in Spanish law, nor would anyone add all results in the U.S. Open. Nobody is listing all maths, physics, chemistry, biology, etc, prizes, nor would anyone add all results in all football championships.
 * You cannot hold sport to an entirely different standard of entry to other topics. The argument about current sports events is flawed since there was no decision, as far as I have been able to find, to omit the most important sports events from current events as a result of the creation of the new page. Current sports events includes a wider range of sports-related events: if current events is a "news channel", then current sports events is a "sports channel" (and note that news channels also include sports highlights, but leave the depth and the trivia to the sports channels). If you want to hold a consistent position, then you should be arguing on Talk:2004 that, since 2004 in politics exists, then all political events must be removed from 2004. If, however, you believe that important political events should be allowed on 2004, then you can't simultaneously argue against important sports events on 2004, or important sports events on current events - unless you believe sports to be intrinsically less worthy. I contend that they are not. -- Avaragado 09:46, 3 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * Paranoid, I, and those who asked for the extra page do not hold sport to an entirely different standard of entry to other topics. But Paranoid and I agree, as we already noted below, that sports events, and regularly recurring once in particular, most often do not affect people much, as well as celebrity gossip or local news. While it is obvious that 2004 should mainly be about politics since this is mostly what ultimately remains for history, some agree that current events is not the place for much sports. And as I told you several times there are so many sports events equally important as a golf open that this page would be dominated by sports if we hold everything to the same standard as you rightly want to do. Get-back-world-respect 10:04, 3 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * So where do we go from here? This discussion is going nowhere. You say that sports events "most often do not affect people much", but tell that to the millions in Portugal and Greece who will experience elation and despair in a few hours in the Euro 2004 final. (More people, I would suggest, than are affected by the opening of a new subway system in Bangkok that apparently merits an entry in current events for July 3.) I think we need more opinions from other interested parties: we've been dominating this discussion too much. What do other people think? -- Avaragado 17:38, 4 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * The Bangkok subway will affect people's life quite a lot and for a long time if the subway is a substantial improvement for the traffic. It can also be seen as a step in economic development. Ask people in Greece or Portugal in five years if any of them feels still affected by a soccer game. Also note that the Euro football championship is an event that only occurs every four years and has many hundreds of millions of spectators, in contrast to golf opens that occur sixteen times as frequently. I agree that it does not help much if we two discuss this endlessly but should see what others think. Maybe you want to start a poll? Get-back-world-respect 13:59, 5 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Let me give my somewhat different perspective on sporting events debate. It seems to me that the issue should not be relative "importance" of the event, because first of all the definition of "important" is extremely unclear, and second because the section would then change into something completely different (demographics, some behind-the-scenes political stories, investment decisions by large MNC, budget decisions, some medical advances, distruptive industrial and other technologies). Such list would be extremely useful, but the main impediment is we don't have enough highly knowledgeable people to compile (and update) it. And so we are left without clear direction to move in and some rules of thumb are necessary.

One such rule may be how many people will be affected by that and how strongly. Another may be the "newsworthiness" of the event. To judge it we can check how many news outlets carry the story or to think ourselves how new, surprising and original it is. So I think that repeating events, such as sports event (or elections) generally are, do not fit here very well. Furthermore, sport generally does not affect people's lives very much (besides making them happy or unhappy for short time).

On many news sites there are sections, such as Technology, World, Politics, Sports, etc. I think that we should simply ban some categories from being included - sports, celebrity gossip, oddities, local news, should not be included here, because they do not affect many people or because they are not newsworthy enough.

I also don't really see the value of current events page for sports fan. It's not like there may be much new information interesting to them in those 2 or 3 articles that will be linked from the news item. If they care about golf, they are likely to already be following the championship and know enough about the players. And if they don't care about golf, it's not like they will suddenly start caring. This is not true for other news items, such as politics, economy, technology or science. Paranoid 11:16, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * Here's my view: think long term. The current events and current sports events pages have very little value per se; their value starts growing once they're archived. The importance of current events is only apparent when those events are no longer current. (Future historians will also be amused by the events we choose to leave out that subsequently take on an importance we don't yet comprehend.)

 * I don't believe it's possible to include a blanket ban on any category; there are always exceptions. Celebrity gossip? The OJ Simpson trial. Local news? School shootings; bits of Charles de Gaulle airport collapsing. This doesn't mean I think that all celebrity gossip etc is fair game: far from it. I just believe we need to be flexible.

 * I don't understand your last sentence (well, it is 2:30am right now). Are you saying you believe that a technology news item might turn someone who doesn't care about technology into someone who does, and that this could never happen for a sports news item? If so I don't understand your reasoning. -- Avaragado 01:44, 3 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * I guess he meant someone uniterested in golf will not change his mind about that sport when he learns the name of the person who won some open this year whereas when someone learns that people constructed a rocket with private money he may think, "hm, interesting, would not have believed that was possible". The main point is that sports, celebrity gossip, and local news, usually do not affect many people and are not newsworthy. No one is trying to tell you you have to leave it out if Nicole Kidman sets an astonishing record in running around the world in 80 days in order to get funding for the local school of her children. Get-back-world-respect 03:42, 3 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Blissfully ignorant of the discussion going on here, I just added a news item to July 3rd about Sharapova winning the Wimbledon women's final. I did so only because there was already an item on July 4th about Federer winning the men's final. What's good for the goose... - 216.61.33.185 22:00, 7 Jul 2004 (UTC)

July? Archive early
Given that it has been July for 19 minutes UTC, I think the page archive happened too early. We agreed to leave it for about a week before. Where is the discussion of this policy change? Pcb21| Pete 00:18, 1 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * Whut? No we didn't. We used to have it moved pretty much as soon as possible after midnight UTC, but then to copy-and-paste the last few days' worth to keep the page from being so bereft, with any changes to be merged into the month-article upon removal. However, for the last few months, Wik began to object to this second part of the practice, so only the first part - the moving - happened, and the page was, essentially, blank for a few days. Since Wik is not here to object to previous practice, it has continued to be excised in the usual way. BTW, thanks to Grunt for doing the change.
 * James F. (talk) 01:11, 1 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * So... we should archive June 27 when July 2nd comes?
 * KirbyMeister 01:26, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * No, usual practice was to have 7 days' worth of events; as July lengthened, the number of needed entries from June diminishes, until nought on the 8th...
 * James F. (talk) 17:05, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

I agree with Pete that archiving AND deleting every thing so early looks bad. Otheriwse it'd look as if nothing is happening around the world. --Menchi 01:29, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

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title: Talk:Current events/Archive 6


text:
User:Jmeppley

I am physicist turned ecologist. Since the physics pages tend to be quite solid and my ecology background still has some gaps, my contributions tend to be scattered. Most are minor edits or things I found trolling the recent changes page.

I've recently signed up with the WikiProject Ecology. So there should be more ecology related edits from me in the future.

My sand box.

Larger Contributions

 * Acid mine drainage
 * Archaea
 * Biofilms
 * Biological interaction

New Pages

 * Black Rail
 * Linearization
 * Metapopulation

Other Interests

 * Ecology
 * Complex systems
 * Emergence
 * Ultimate
 * Soccer

title: User:Jmeppley


text:
Sir John Rodgers, 1st Baronet

Sir John Charles Rodgers, 1st Baronet (5 October 1906 – 29 March 1993 ), was a British Conservative politician.

Rodgers was educated at St Peter's School, York, and in France and Oxford. He became a scholar in modern history at Oxford and subsequently joined the staff of University College, Hull. He then entered the private sector becoming deputy chairman of the advertising agency J. Walter Thompson Ltd. During World War II, he worked in the Foreign Office, the Department of Overseas Trade (as director of post-war planning) and the Ministry of Production. He then worked in business, travelling widely and becoming chairman of the British Market Research Bureau. He was a member of the BBC General Advisory Council 1945–1952.

Rodgers was Member of Parliament for Sevenoaks from 1950 until 1979. He served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to David Eccles from 1951 and Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade 1958–1960.

title: Sir John Rodgers, 1st Baronet


text:
United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus

The United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus is a demilitarized zone, patrolled by the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), that was established on 4 March 1964, then extended on 9 August after the Battle of Tillyria and extended again in 1974 after the ceasefire of 16 August 1974, following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, and the de facto partition of the island into the area controlled by the Republic of Cyprus (excluding the British Sovereign Base Areas) and the largely unrecognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in the north. The zone, also known as the Green Line (Πράσινη Γραμμή, Prasini Grammi; Yeşil Hat), stretches for 180 km from Paralimni in the east to Kato Pyrgos in the west, where a separate section surrounds Kokkina.

The dividing line is also referred to as the Attila Line, named after Turkey's 1974 military intervention, codenamed Operation Attila. The Turkish army has built a barrier on the zone's northern side, consisting mainly of barbed-wire fencing, concrete wall segments, watchtowers, anti-tank ditches, and minefields. The zone cuts through the centre of Nicosia, separating the city into southern and northern sections. In total, it spans an area of 346 km2, varying in width from less than 20 m to more than 7 km. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Nicosia remains the last divided capital in Europe. Some 10,000 people live in several villages and work on farms located within the zone; the village of Pyla is famous for being one of the few remaining villages in Cyprus where Greek and Turkish Cypriots still live side by side. Other villages are Deneia, Athienou, and Troulloi. Some areas are untouched by human interference and have remained a safe haven for flora and fauna.

History

A buffer zone in Cyprus was first established in the last days of 1963, when Major-General Peter Young was the commander of the British Joint Force (later known as the Truce Force and a predecessor of the present UN force). This Force was set up in the wake of the inter-communal violence of Christmas 1963. On 30 December 1963, following a 'high powered' twelve hour meeting chaired by Duncan Sandys (British Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations), General Young drew the agreed cease-fire line on a map with a green chinagraph pencil, which was to become known as the "Green Line". Brigadier Patrick Thursby also assisted in devising and establishing the Green Line.

This map was then passed to General Young's intelligence officer, who was waiting in a nearby building and told to "Get on with it." Intelligence Corps NCOs then copied the map for distribution to the Truce Force units. Further copies of the map would then have been produced 'in house' for use by Truce Force patrols.

The Green Line became impassable following the July 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus during which Turkey occupied approximately 37% of Cypriot territory, in response to a short-lived Greek Cypriot coup. A "security zone" was established after the Tripartite Conference of Geneva in July 1974. Pursuant to United Nations Security Council Resolution 353 of 1974, the foreign ministers of Greece, Turkey, and the United Kingdom convened in Geneva on 25 July 1974. According to UNFICYP, the text of the joint declaration transmitted to the Secretary-General of the United Nations was as follows:

"A security zone of a size to be determined by representatives of Greece, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, in consultation with UNFICYP, was to be established at the limit of the areas occupied by the Turkish armed forces. This zone was to be entered by no forces other than those of UNFICYP, which was to supervise the prohibition of entry. Pending the determination of the size and character of the security zone, the existing area between the two forces was not to be breached by any forces."

The UN Security Council then adopted the above declaration with Resolution 355. When the coup dissolved, the Turkish Armed Forces advanced to capture approximately 37% of the island and met the "Green Line". The meandering Buffer Zone marks the southernmost points that the Turkish troops occupied during the Turkish Invasion of Cyprus in August 1974, running between the ceasefire lines of the Cypriot National Guard and Turkish army that de facto divides Cyprus into two, cutting through the capital of Nicosia. With the self-proclamation of the internationally unrecognized "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus", the Buffer Zone became its de facto southern border.

Traffic across the buffer zone was very limited until 2003, when the number of crossings and the rules governing them were relaxed.

In March 2021 Cyprus erected a barbed wire fence on the Buffer Zone to curb illegal immigration.

Sector One
Starts at Kokkina exclave and covers approximately 90 km to Mammari, west of Nicosia. Since 16 October 1993, it has been the responsibility of the Argentinian Contingent with approximately 212 soldiers. Sector One Headquarters and Command Company are located in San Martin Camp, which is near Skouriotissa village. Support Company finds its home at Roca Camp, near Xeros in the north. The two line companies are deployed along four permanently staffed patrol bases while also conducting mobile patrols from the San Martin and Roca camps.

Sector Two
Starts at Mammari, west of Nicosia and covers 30 km to Kaimakli, east of Nicosia. Since 1993, it has been the responsibility of the British contingent, which deploys using the name Operation TOSCA.

Sector Three
Sector 3 was patrolled by Canadian troops until their departure in 1993. It was then absorbed into Sectors 2 and 4.

Sector Four
Starting at Kaimakli, east of Nicosia and covers 65 km to the village of Dherinia, on the east coast of Cyprus and has been the responsibility of the Slovak contingent, with 202 soldiers.

Crossings
After a nearly 30-year ban on crossings, the Turkish Cypriot administration significantly eased travel restrictions across the dividing line in April 2003, allowing Greek Cypriots to cross at the Ledra Palace Crossing just outside the walls of old Nicosia. This was only made possible after the decision of the ECHR (Djavit An vs Turkey, Application No.20652/92).

These are the crossings now available:

Before Cypriot accession to the European Union, there were restrictions on Green Line crossings by foreigners imposed by the Republic of Cyprus, but these were abolished for EU citizens by EU regulation 866/2004. Generally, citizens of any country are permitted to cross the line, including Greek and Turkish Cypriots. A 2005 EU report stated that "a systematic illegal route through the northern part to the government-controlled areas exists" allowing an influx of asylum seekers.

Incidents
On 11 August 1996, Greek Cypriots demonstrated with a march against the Turkish occupation of Cyprus. The demonstrators' demand was the complete withdrawal of Turkish troops and the return of Cypriot refugees to their homes and properties. Among the demonstrators was Cypriot refugee Tassos Isaac, who was beaten to death by the Turkish far-right group Grey Wolves.

Another man, Solomos Solomou (Tassos Isaac's cousin), was shot to death by a Northern Cyprus minister during the same protests on 14 August 1996. Aged 26, Solomou was one of many mourners who entered the Buffer Zone three days after Isaac's funeral, on 14 August, to lay a wreath on the spot where he had been beaten to death. As Solomou was climbing to a flagpole to remove the flag of Turkey, he was fired upon by Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources of Northern Cyprus Kenan Akin. An investigation by authorities of the Republic of Cyprus followed, and the suspects were named as Kenan Akin and Erdal Haciali Emanet (Turkish-born Chief of Special Forces of Northern Cyprus). International legal proceedings were instigated, and arrest warrants for both were issued via Interpol. During the demonstrations on 14 August 1996, two British soldiers were also shot at and wounded by the Turkish forces: Neil Emery and Jeffrey Hudson, both from 39th Regiment Royal Artillery. Bombardier Emery was shot in his arm, whilst Gunner Hudson was shot in the leg by a high velocity rifle round and was airlifted to hospital in Nicosia, then on to RAF Akrotiri.

In August 2023, de facto Turkish security forces (police and military) attacked members of the U.N. peacekeeping force inside the U.N. buffer zone at the Pyla. The clashes started over unauthorised construction work in an area under U.N. control. Turkish bulldozers removed U.N. trucks, cement bollards and barbed wire from the zone. The incident occurred at the Sector 4 and three peacekeepers were seriously injured and required hospitalisation. Turkish president Erdogan accused the UN force of bias against Turkish Cypriots and added that Turkey will not allow any "unlawful" behavior toward Turks on Cyprus. The U.N. Security Council said that the incident was a violation of the status quo that is contrary to council resolutions and condemned the assault on the peacekeepers. The U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said that "threats to the safety of U.N. peacekeepers and damage to U.N. property are unacceptable and may constitute serious crimes under international law."

Activism
The buffer zone between the checkpoints that divide Ledra Street was used as a space for activism from 15 October 2011 up until June 2012 by the Occupy Buffer Zone movement.

title: United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus


text:
Terry Waters (British Army officer)

Lieutenant Terence Edward Waters, GC (1 June 1929 – 22 April 1951), known as Terry Waters, was a British soldier who was awarded the George Cross in recognition of gallant and distinguished services whilst a prisoner of war of North Korea, having been captured at the Battle of the Imjin River during the Korean War. He died whilst being held captive at Pyongyang, Korea.

George Cross citation
"Lieutenant Terence Edward (463718) (deceased), The West Yorkshire Regiment (The Prince of Wales's Own), attached The Gloucestershire Regiment.

Lieutenant was captured subsequent to the Battle of the Imjin River, 22nd–25th April 1951. By this time he had sustained a serious wound in the top of the head and yet another most painful wound in the arm as a result of this action.

On the journey to Pyongyang with other captives, he set a magnificent example of courage and fortitude in remaining with wounded other ranks on the march, whom he felt it his duty to care for to the best of his ability.

Subsequently, after a journey of immense hardship and privation, the party arrived at an area west of Pyongyang adjacent to P.W. Camp 12 and known generally as 'The Caves' in which they were held captive. They found themselves imprisoned in a tunnel driven into the side of a hill through which a stream of water flowed continuously, flooding a great deal of the floor in which were packed a great number of South Korean and European prisoners-of-war in rags, filthy, crawling with lice. In this cavern a number died daily from wounds, sickness or merely malnutrition : they fed on two small meals of boiled maize daily. Of medical attention there was none.

Lieutenant appreciated that few, if any, of his numbers would survive these conditions, in view of their weakness and the absolute lack of attention for their wounds. After a visit from a North Korean Political Officer, who attempted to persuade them to volunteer to join a prisoner-of-war group known as 'Peace Fighters' (that is, active participants in the propaganda movement against their own side) with a promise of better food, of medical treatment and other amenities as a reward for such activity—an offer that was refused unanimously—he decided to order his men to pretend to accede to the offer in an effort to save their lives. This he did, giving the necessary instructions to the senior other rank with the party, Sergeant, that the men would go upon his order without fail.

Whilst realising that this act would save the lives of his party, he refused to go himself, aware that the task of maintaining British prestige was vested in him.

Realising that they had failed to subvert an officer with the British party, the North Koreans now made a series of concerted efforts to persuade Lieutenant to save himself by joining the camp. This he steadfastly refused to do. He died a short time after.

He was a young, inexperienced officer, comparatively recently commissioned from the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, yet he set an example of the highest gallantry."

title: Terry Waters (British Army officer)