text:
Alice Walton

Alice Louise Walton (born October 7, 1949) is an American heiress to the fortune of Walmart as daughter of founder Sam Walton. In September 2016, she owned over $11 billion in Walmart shares. As of November 2023, Walton has a net worth of $71 billion, making her the 17th richest person and the second-richest woman in the world according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, after Françoise Bettencourt Meyers.

Early life and education
Walton was born in Newport, Arkansas. She was raised along with her three brothers in Bentonville, Arkansas, and graduated from Bentonville High School in 1966. She graduated from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, with a B.A. in economics.

Career
Early in her career, Walton was an equity analyst and money manager for First Commerce Corporation and headed investment activities at Arvest Bank Group. She was also a broker for EF Hutton. In 1988, Walton founded Llama Company, an investment bank, where she was president, chairwoman, and CEO.

Walton was the first person to chair the Northwest Arkansas Council and played a major role in the development of the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, which opened in 1998. At the time, the business and civic leaders of Northwest Arkansas Council found a need for the $109 million regional airport in their corner of the state. Walton provided $15 million in initial funding for construction, and Llama Company underwrote a $79.5 million bond. The Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport Authority recognized Walton's contributions to the creation of the airport and named the terminal the Alice L. Walton Terminal Building. She was inducted into the Arkansas Aviation Hall of Fame in 2001.

Llama Company closed in 1998.

In his 1992 autobiography Made in America, Sam Walton remarked that Alice was "the most like me—a maverick—but even more volatile than I am."

Art
Walton and her mother would often paint watercolors on camping trips. The first piece of art Walton purchased was a print of Picasso's Blue Nude when she was ten years old; it cost her 5 weeks allowance. Her first museum quality artwork purchase was of two Winslow Homer watercolors in the late 1980s.

In December 2004, Walton purchased art sold from the collection of Daniel and Rita Fraad at Sotheby's, in New York. In 2005, Walton purchased Asher Brown Durand's celebrated painting, Kindred Spirits, in a sealed-bid auction for a purported US$35 million. The 1849 painting, a tribute to Hudson River School painter Thomas Cole, had been given to the New York Public Library in 1904 by Julia Bryant, the daughter of Romantic poet and New York newspaper publisher William Cullen Bryant, who is depicted in the painting with Cole. She has also purchased works by American painters Winslow Homer and Edward Hopper, as well as a notable portrait of George Washington by Charles Willson Peale, in preparation for the opening of Crystal Bridges. In 2009, Walton acquired Norman Rockwell's "Rosie the Riveter" for $4.9 million.

Walton's attempt to quit smoking inspired her to purchase a painting reminiscent of an earlier painting by John Singer Sargent by Alfred Maurer which depicts a full-length woman smoking. Another painting, by Tom Wesselmann, titled "Smoker #9" depicts a hyper realistic, disembodied hand and mouth smoking a cigarette.

In a 2011 interview, she spoke about acquiring great works by other artists, including Marsden Hartley and Andrew Wyeth, saying that she loved the emotion and spirituality they expressed. Other artists whose work Walton has purchased include Georgia O'Keeffe, Mark Rothko, Edward Hopper, Kehinde Wiley, and Titus Kaphar.

Walton's interest in art led to the Walton Family Foundation developing the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. The architect Moshe Safdie designed the 200,000 square foot museum, which was built on 120 acres of Walton family land. Crystal Bridges opened in 2011 and has been visited more than 5 million times as of 2021. It is free to attend. Walton says her motivation for the museum was to give access to art to people who had never had it.

Political contributions
Alice Walton was the 20th-largest individual contributor to 527 committees in the U.S. presidential election 2004, donating US$2.6 million to the conservative Progress for America group. As of January 2012, Walton had contributed $200,000 to Restore Our Future, the super PAC associated with Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. Walton donated $353,400 to the Hillary Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee supporting Hillary Clinton and other Democrats, in 2016.

Philanthropy
In 2016, Walton donated $225 million among a total $407 million from Walmart heirs to the Walton Family Holdings Trust, which finances the family's philanthropy.

Walton formed the Alice L. Walton Foundation in 2017. The foundation promotes arts, education, health, and improving economic opportunity. In 2020, the foundation gave the University of Central Arkansas $3 million in funding for its fine arts program. That year, the foundation also gave a $1.28 million grant to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences to expand its program to provide healthy food in schools. In 2022, Walton's foundation gave a $3.5 million grant to the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank: $3 million to support construction of a food distribution center, and $500,000 to buy and distribute food.

Also in 2017, Walton formed the Art Bridges Foundation. It partners with small and regional museums with less access to cultural resources. The foundation provides funding, collection loans and traveling exhibits, and creates art programs with museums. Walton has said her goal is to reduce the amount of art kept in storage. As of September 2021, the foundation had approximately 30 exhibits traveling throughout the United States. The Arts Bridges Fellows Program provides opportunities for people from historically underrepresented groups to work with its museum partners. Additionally, Walton has given $10 million to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and partnered with the Ford Foundation through Art Bridges to fund programs to improve diversity in arts leadership.

Healthcare
In 2019, Walton established the Whole Health Institute. The institute works with health systems, employers and communities to build and expand access to holistic healthcare. In March 2021, Walton announced that the institute would build a nonprofit medical school in Bentonville called the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine. The school will focus on allopathic medicine and graduates will receive a doctor of medicine degree. The campus will be located near Crystal Bridges. Construction is expected to begin in 2023, with the first class enrolling in 2025, pending accreditation.

In 2021, the Alice L. Walton Foundation partnered with the Cleveland Clinic to evaluate health care in Northwest Arkansas. Following that evaluation, in 2022, the foundation and Washington Regional Medical System announced plans to create a nonprofit medical system aimed at training doctors in specialty care fields such as oncology, cardiology, and neurology.

Personal life
Walton married a prominent Louisiana investment banker in 1974 at age 24. They were divorced two and a half years later. According to Forbes, she married "the contractor who built her swimming pool" soon after, "but they, too, divorced quickly".

Walton has been involved in multiple automobile accidents, one of them fatal. She lost control of a rented Jeep during a 1983 Thanksgiving family reunion near Acapulco and plunged into a ravine, shattering her leg. She was airlifted out of Mexico and underwent more than two dozen surgeries; she suffers lingering pain from her injuries. In April 1989, she struck and killed 50-year-old Oleta Hardin, who had stepped onto a road in Fayetteville, Arkansas. In 1998, she hit a gas meter while driving under the influence of alcohol. She paid a $925 fine.

In 1998, Walton moved to a ranch in Millsap, Texas, named Walton's Rocking W Ranch. An avid horse-lover, she was known for having an eye for determining which 2-month-olds would grow to be champion cutters. Walton listed the farm for sale in 2015 and moved to Fort Worth, Texas, citing the need to focus on the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. She moved back to Bentonville in 2020.

Recognition

 * Time magazine most influential people in the world, 2012
 * Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Art Medal, 2013
 * International Women's Forum hall of fame inductee, 2018
 * J. Paul Getty Medal, 2020

title: Alice Walton


text: User talk:68.90.43.242

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

title: User talk:68.90.43.242


text:
Léon Daudet

Léon Daudet (16 November 1867 – 2 July 1942) was a French journalist, writer, an active monarchist, and a member of the Académie Goncourt.

Move to the right
Daudet was born in Paris. His father was the novelist Alphonse Daudet, his mother was Julia Daudet and his younger brother, Lucien Daudet, would also become an artist. He was educated at the Lycée Louis le Grand, and afterwards studied medicine, a profession which he abandoned. Léon Daudet married Jeanne Hugo, the granddaughter of Victor Hugo, in 1891 and thus entered into the higher social and intellectual circles of the French Third Republic. He divorced his wife in 1895 and became a vocal critic of the Republic, the Dreyfusard camp, and of democracy in general. Together with Charles Maurras (who remained a lifelong friend), he co-founded (1907) and was an editor of the nationalist, integralist periodical Action Française. A deputy from 1919 to 1924, he failed to win election as a senator in 1927 – despite having gained prominence as the voice of the monarchists. When Maurras was released from prison after serving a sentence for verbally attacking Prime Minister Léon Blum, Daudet joined other political leaders Xavier Vallat, Darquier de Pellepoix, and Philippe Henriot to welcome him in the Vel' d'Hiv in July 1937.

Scandals and later life
When his son Philippe was discovered fatally shot in 1923, Daudet accused the republican authorities of complicity with anarchist activists in what he believed to be a murder, and lost a lawsuit for defamation brought against him by the driver of the taxi in which Philippe's body was found. That same year, Germaine Berton carried out an assassination against fellow Action Française writer Marius Plateau. Daudet was also a target of this assassination but was not present at the time of the shooting.

Condemned to five months in prison, Daudet fled and was exiled in Belgium, receiving a pardon in 1930. In 1934, during the Stavisky Affair, he was to denounce Prime Minister Camille Chautemps, calling him the "leader of a gang of robbers and assassins". He also showed particular detestation for the subsequent Prime Minister Léon Blum, candidate of a coalition of socialists and other parties of the left.

A supporter of the Vichy administration headed by Marshal Pétain, Léon Daudet died in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.

Works
Novels
 * Les Morticoles (1894).
 * Le Voyage de Shakespeare (1896).
 * Suzanne (1896).
 * Sébastien Gouvès (1899).
 * Les Deux Étreintes (1901).
 * Le Partage de l'Enfant (1905).
 * La Mésentente (1911).
 * Le Lit de Procuste (1912).
 * Le Cœur et l'Absence (1917).
 * Dans la Lumière (1919).
 * L'Amour est un Songe (1920).
 * L'Entremetteuse (1921).
 * Le Napus, Fléau de l'an 2227 (1927).
 * Les Bacchantes (1931).
 * Un Amour de Rabelais (1933).
 * Médée (1935).

Essays
 * L'Avant-guerre (1915).
 * Contre l'Esprit Allemand de Kant à Krupp (1915).
 * L'Hérédo, Essai sur le Drame Intérieur (1916).
 * La Guerre Totale (1918).
 * Le Poignard Dans le Dos: Notes sur l'Affaire Malvy (1918).
 * Le Monde des Images: Suite de L'Hérédo (1919).
 * Le Stupide XIXe Siècle (1922).
 * Notre Provence (with Charles Maurras, 1933).

Pamphlets
 * Le Nain de Lorraine - Raymond Poincaré (1930).
 * Le Garde des Seaux - Louis Barthou (1930).
 * Le Voyou De Passage - Aristide Briand (1930).

Miscellany
 * Alphonse Daudet (1898).
 * Souvenirs des Milieux Littéraires, Politiques, Artistiques et Médicaux (1914–1921):
 * Fantômes et Vivants (1914).
 * Devant la Douleur (1915).
 * L'Entre-Deux-Guerres (1915).
 * Salons et Journaux (1917).
 * Au Temps de Judas (1920).
 * Vers le Roi (1921).
 * La Pluie de Sang (1932).
 * Député de Paris (1933).
 * Paris Vécu:
 * Rive Droite (1929).
 * Rive Gauche (1930).
 * Quand Vivait mon Père (1940).

Works in English translation
 * Alphonse Daudet (1898).
 * Memoirs of Léon Daudet (1925).
 * The Stupid Nineteenth Century (1928).
 * Cloudy Trophy; the Romance of Victor Hugo (1938).
 * The Tragic Life of Victor Hugo (1939).
 * Clemenceau; a Stormy Life (1940).
 * The Napus: The Great Plague of the Year 2227 (translated, annotated and introduced by Brian Stableford, 2013).
 * The Bacchantes: A Dionysian Scientific Romance (translated, annotated and introduced by Brian Stableford, 2013).

Selected articles
 * "The Overthrow of German Military Prestige," The Living Age, Vol. 302 (1919).
 * "The Stupid Nineteenth Century," The Living Age, Vol. 312 (1922).
 * "Sulla and His Destiny," The Living Age, Vol. 315 (1922).
 * "Maeterlinck's Book on Ants," The Living Age, Vol. 339 (1930).
 * "My Father Alphonse," The Living Age, Vol. 339 (1930).

title: Léon Daudet


text:
Fairy bread

Fairy bread is sliced white bread spread with butter or margarine and covered with "Hundreds and Thousands", often served at children's parties in Australia and New Zealand. It is typically cut into triangles.

History
Although people had been putting hundred and thousands (or nonpareils) on bread and butter for some time, the first known reference to this dish as Fairy Bread was in the Hobart Mercury in April 1929. Referring to a party for child inmates of the Consumptive Sanitorium, the article proclaimed that "The children will start their party with fairy bread and butter and 100s and 1,000s, and cakes, tarts, and home-made cakes..."

The origin of the term is not known, but it may come from the poem 'Fairy Bread' in Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses published in 1885, and had been used for a number of different food items before the current usage.

In April 2021, the satirical group The Chaser created a fabricated online petition calling for the renaming of fairy bread, calling it "offensive", which resulted in many mainstream news stories.

In November 2021, a Google Doodle was created to celebrate fairy bread.

In 2024 rumours surfaced that Fairy Bread, along with smiley fritz, had been banned from South Australian schools. The SA Education Department subsequently released a statement that this was not the case and that their new guidelines for school canteens were optional.

title: Fairy bread


text:
Hárbarðsljóð

Hárbarðsljóð (Old Norse: 'The Lay of Hárbarðr') is one of the poems of the Poetic Edda, found in the Codex Regius and AM 748 I 4to manuscripts. It is a flyting poem with figures from Norse Paganism. Hárbarðsljóð was first written down in the late 13th century but may have had an older history as an oral poem.

Synopsis
In this poem, the ferryman Harbard and the god Thor compete in a flyting or verbal contest with one other. The ferryman Hárbarðr (Greybeard) is rude and obnoxious towards Thor who is returning to Asgard after a journey in Jötunheimr, the land of the jötnar. Hárbarðr obstructs his way and refuses him passage across a swollen river. He begins by saying that Thor dresses poorly (in a beggars clothes, without pants) and that his mother is dead. In the course of the poem, Harbard boasts of his sexual prowess, his magical and tactical abilities, asking Thor about his. Thor responds, telling how he defeated Giants. Ultimately, after mocking him at length, Harbard curses Thor and tells him to walk around.

Structure
The poem is significantly less structured than most Eddic poems, and is predominantly written in a metric form known as málaháttr or "conversational style." However, other metrical forms are also to be discerned, while some of the text is pure prose. In the last decade, several scholars have concluded that the poem is an intentionally stylized version of the traditional flyting structure.

Theories
Some early commentators, such as F. W. Bergmann and Viktor Rydberg argued that Hárbarð was in fact Loki. Although the name Hárbarð means "Grey beard," in the opening exchange of insults Thor addresses the ferryman as one would speak to a youthful servant. Some believe that Hárbarðr's confessed exploits also are allegedly more akin to those of Loki than Odin. However, Hárbarðr repeatedly boasts of his conquests of giantesses, as does Odin in Havamal. Loki in Lokasenna and Hárbarð in Hárbarðsljóð both accuse Thor's wife Sif of adultery, a charge that is never denied and may have been commonly known. They also speak identical half-lines, accusing Thor of being unmanly. Despite these arguments, this theory was rejected by later scholars such as Finnur Jónsson, Fredrick Sander, and Felix Niedner, in favor of identifying Hárbarð with Odin, based, among other things, on Odin's statement in Grimnismál 47 that Hárbarð is one of his by-names.

English translations

 * Hárbarðsljóð English translation by Benjamin Thorpe
 * Harbarthsljoth Translation and commentary by Henry Adams Bellows
 * The Song of Harbard Translation by A. S. Cottle

Old Norse editions

 * Hárbarðsljóð Sophus Bugge's edition of the manuscript text
 * Hárbarðsljóð Guðni Jónsson's edition of the text with normalized spelling

title: Hárbarðsljóð


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/3806 Tremaine

3806 Tremaine was proposed for deletion. This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was keep

Move to BJAODN and delete. "Don't drink and type" --Rlandmann 06:46, 13 Aug 2004 (UTC) This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like other '/delete' pages is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion or on the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.
 * Delete: see above. TPK 07:07, 13 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * Much as I dislike speedy deletes, I think this one qualifie s d under case 3, obvious vandalism. Rossami 13:30, 13 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete it a lot, before it infects us and kills all life on earth anyways. Geogre 13:35, 13 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * Have replaced the silly article with a suitable stub. - TB 14:38, Aug 13, 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep cleaned-up version. - Mustafaa 19:54, 13 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep the replacement (the original was properly annihilated). Geogre 20:28, 13 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. Good work team. Andrewa 21:56, 13 Aug 2004 (UTC)


text:
Talk:Fairy bread

Anecdote 26 07 2007
I am an old lady from Indiana, USA. My grandmother's made us Fairy Bread with butter and sugar. My Paternal Grandmother made Fairy Bread with white sugar and we had to sit on the back porch steps to avoid getting sugar on the kitchen floor. My Maternal Grandmother, whom I liked best, made Fairy Bread with homemade butter and brown sugar. We ate it right at her table. It was a special treat from both grandmothers. Dr. Lois Love

Damn that sounds nice. I'm thinking of making some of it nowJoeldipops 23:42, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

hoax comment
hoax

No it is not. Ask any Australian.

Or any Kiwi. Several parties I attended as a child were catered with fairy bread.

It exists...it's awesome! BaHaReep 01:48, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

 * Confirming not a hoax, well known in Australia and cited in at least one online dictionary. I'll add citation and a photo in the near future. Paddles TC 03:37, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

Masterfoods
Fairy bread is not an official Masterfood product, even if it does contain the Masterfood product Hundreds and Thousands within the recipe. Because of this, the article does not belong in the Mars Brands category and will be removed. -- T B C ??? ???  ??? 06:05, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

Alternative name?
This seems similar to a treat made in a bakery in Los Angeles. We [I, my dad, the baker] call it a payasito (Spanish for tiny clown), and it's a slice of semi-cylindrical (it seems to be like French bread, but with a flat bottom, and a spiraling crust that can be peeled off, although I've never seen a full loaf of it), white or brown bread with pink swirls in it, and the upper crust (not lower) is covered with butter and then dipped into multi-colored sprinkles, instead of the crumb. I think the baker's Mexican, if that means anything. Paperxcrip (talk) 13:29, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Origin of name
Surely closest thing would be fairy cakes? A simple sponge cake topped with hundreds-and-thousands, mostly only served at children's parties. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.145.92.118 (talk) 16:08, 30 September 2012 (UTC)

 * I agree. It is much more likely that the term comes from fairy cakes. It is my belief the Robert Louis Stevenson was referring to the children's name for eggy bread (see below). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.225.8.248 (talk) 00:34, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

Fairy Toast
In the North East of England fairy bread or fairy toast is what children called eggy bread/french toast because that is what the fairies ate. Apparently, it was once also the same in Australia: About French-toast The North East of England shares a lot of culture and words with the lowlands of Scotland, so there is every chance that Robert Louis Stevenson was referring to eggy bread in his poem about fairy bread. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.225.8.248 (talk) 00:31, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

Playing with your food?
When the exact same thing is fixed over and over, perhaps saying "it is correct" isn't good enough? Or more to the point, how many times do you have to be right before you realize you're wrong(ish)? Since just beginning of April
 * covered with nonpareils (aka hundreds and thousands)
 * covered with hundreds and thousands or sprinkles,
 * covered with hundreds and thousands of sprinkles,
 * covered with hundreds and thousands or sprinkles,
 * covered with hundreds and thousands of sprinkles,
 * covered with hundreds and thousands or sprinkles,
 * covered with nonpareils or sprinkles,
 * covered with hundreds and thousands or sprinkles,
 * covered with hundreds and thousands of sprinkles,
 * covered with hundreds and thousands or sprinkles,
 * covered with hundreds and thousands of sprinkles,
 * covered with hundreds and thousands or sprinkles,

Just in case you think this is all only recent, e.g. 11 June 2009 "of" -> "or"

I would like to ask, , and  to come up with a way of being both thoroughly Australian (and maybe NZealandish) and yet not so confusing that a perfectly normal editor would think "this reads wrong". Let's avoid the dozens of future fix edits. Shenme (talk) 03:04, 23 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Fixed now. - Bilby (talk) 03:49, 23 June 2019 (UTC)
 * That was indeed sort of what I was thinking of. If remains a problem, while away from the keyboard I thought of simply reversing the two:
 * covered with sprinkles or hundreds and thousands,
 * the idea being mention the more frequently seen first and then the less familiar. Having something named as a number is tricky. Shenme (talk) 16:56, 23 June 2019 (UTC)

Early example.
There is an early example of it being described, though not by the name Fairy Bread, in the book ‘Tales, sketches and poems‘ by Caroline Clarke (1844-1884), published posthumously by her husband Alfred Edward Clarke in Melbourne in 1886. (The parents of Alfred Rutter Clarke here). Might be useful as an example, or more if other explicit examples can be found.

"also Mrs. Reid had not forgotten to have plenty of thin bread and butter, sprinkled over with "hundreds and thousands," which the children are so especially fond of." 219.89.80.147 (talk) 00:26, 10 February 2023 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 14 April 2024
Change	White bread, butter, Hundreds and Thousands, sprinkles to White bread, butter, Hundreds and Thousands/Sprinkles 2001:8003:1605:6300:DC5B:5EA3:4C8F:BE4F (talk) 09:33, 14 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: no reason given for the proposed change. M.Bitton (talk) 15:09, 15 April 2024 (UTC)

Region or state: Netherlands and Belgium
I'm genuinely curious why the infobox states that this is from the Netherlands and Belgium. While putting sweets on bread/toast is definitely a Dutch tradition (as listed in the See Also section), I'm not sure that the concept of fairy bread itself, especially with the culture around serving it at children's birthdays, is necessarily from that area. Are there any sources that link the concept of fairy bread to that region? InvalidCards (talk) 20:00, 18 April 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Fairy bread


text:
Talk:Hurricane Charley

Hurricane Charley and the Chocolate Factory separate article

 * Section moved from Talk:2004 Atlantic hurricane season.

Given that Charley looks like it's going to make a name for itself by hitting Tampa at a significant strength, it's probably time to think about giving it its own article. Already had someone ask on IRC asking if it had its own article. I'm going to do it myself in a few hours if there's no objections (we need to move a little more rapidly than with most articles). -- Cyrius|✎ 02:33, 13 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * Go for it, you seem to be better with describing actions than me. I'm best at parroting the NHC. :P Incidentally, with the NHC now ignoring TD Bonnie, what's the best source of info? How long do we note Bonnie? Also, the last time Tampa/Clearwater was hit by a hurricane was, IIRC, 1912. So that alone makes this notable. Here's to landfall. --Golbez 05:07, 13 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I'm parroting the NHC as well, with a few other NWS sources, and occasionally whatever pops up elsewhere (Jimbo's been tracking the storm and providing some local news links on IRC). As far as Bonnie goes, the NHC has had the decency to provide a copy of the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center's advisory. Some stats on hurricanes hitting Tampa are available elsewhere -- Cyrius|✎ 05:40, 13 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * It has been done. The intro could use some work. Now it needs an image! -- Cyrius|✎ 05:58, 13 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Charley heads to Tampa
The wrath of God descends upon Wikipedia's server farm - Tim Shell

 * I prefer to think of it as an interesting and inconvenient coincidence. -- Cyrius|✎ 07:09, 13 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * I'll be here on wikipedia at least until either one of us loses power. --ssd 14:06, 13 Aug 2004 (UTC), FL

 * Ah well I am sure Jimbo will nip out into the middle of it to get some great GFDL photos. Pcb21| Pete 16:15, 13 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Charley took a turn east and isn't even expected to hit Tampa any more. anthony (see warning) 17:47, 13 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Presumably the UPS managed the Tampa power cuts OK, then? -- Karada 00:29, 14 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * What Tampa power cuts? Gamaliel 00:33, 14 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * Word has it Tampa cut the power deliberately, instead of waiting for the network to be damaged by the storm. --Golbez 00:52, 14 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * Perhaps in some low lying parts, but certainly not in the entire city.      I am posting from Tampa.  Gamaliel 01:00, 14 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Downtown Tampa had its power cut. Wikipedia's hosting center was running on generators from about 10am to whenever they turend it back on. -- Cyrius|✎ 02:04, 14 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * Today's Tampa Tribune reported that they planned to cut power, but never actually did so as Charlie changed course. Gamaliel 17:48, 14 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * Jimbo said that the hosting facility in downtown Tampa was running on generators. He may have misstated, misheard, or been misinformed, but he said they were on generators due to the power being cut. -- Cyrius|✎ 18:26, 14 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Saint Petersburg, Florida also had its power cut. It's not strictly part of Tampa, but part of the Tampa Bay area, which is frequently referred to as Tampa. anthony (see warning) 12:39, 14 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I'm sad. Cyrius gets the 5pm updates, I empty my cache a half dozen times and www.nhc.noaa.gov still insists on giving me the 2pm update. :( What's your secret, Cyrius? --Golbez 21:44, 13 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * Which page are you looking at? I see both 2pm and 5pm versions. anthony (see warning) 21:49, 13 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ I go there and it says Public Advisory #19 5 PM EDT, but when I click it, it gives me Advisory 18 Correction, 2pm. :( All the others work, except maps, but maps usually lag behind. But I wanna know why I can't seem to get 5pm. --Golbez 21:54, 13 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * And of course now it works. Mutter. But it's off and on, it's weird. --Golbez 21:58, 13 Aug 2004 (UTC)

http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/ is good when the official NHC site seems to be lagging significantly. They repost all the textual content from the NHC, after mercifully running it through a caps filter. Not sure what channel they use to get it, but it's not scraped off the NHC site. They're a bit overloaded today, so you may get an error page. -- Cyrius|✎ 22:01, 13 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I've been using Wikipedia all throughout today and it was fine. It's weird how the storm completely missed Tampa and St.Pete. It barely even rained where I'm at. That NWS-NOAA website is kind of hard to navigate and understand. I was just looking on the Weather Channel site. Milk 05:09, 14 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * From what I've heard from long time residents here (tampa) this is a common occurance. Even the news seemed to be urging that "this time it's really going to hit us" before the hurricane went on a different track, implying that there were a number of these same warnings in previous years. Still a lot of preparation, though.  I saw quite a few empty gas stations, and they were out of vinegar (why vinegar?) and other items at the stores. anthony (see warning) 12:44, 14 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Highlands County and surrounding Restored power promised by 24 Aug, Midnight. Sebring water never stopped, not contaminated. From the viewpoint of downtown Sebring, the county appears to be getting power basically from SE to NW, this makes sense because 1. NW is where the hurricane passed most closely. 2. There are at least two power companies. Glades Electric runs the SE part. Where the power is restored, it's said to be less reliable than normal so far. Public schools close for the remainder of the week of the 14th.

cuba damage
damage to cuba was not minor the Miami Heral reported today 1 billion dollar damage www.miami.com

--LegCircus 8/26/04

 * Then Be Bold and edit the article and pop that in. We only put in what we know, this is apparently new to us. --Golbez 17:18, 26 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Robbie Berg
Where is a public reference to the "criticism" cited in the current version? Can't find anything but a short CNN interview, and it's not in there: http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0408/14/se.11.html

 * Reference to the AP story added. They don't have the exact quote of him criticising the media, or I'd have added it. -- Cyrius|✎ 23:06, 7 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Map/Infobox
of the 4 major storms for 2004, this one lacks the map and infobox. I don't recall who was working on those, but I don't know where to find the map. Oh yes, it was Tomf688. --Golbez 19:11, May 19, 2005 (UTC)

 * I didn't start working with the hurricane articles until after Charley, so I never put an infobox in it. I've been thinking of making a standard template for the hurricanes, much like the ones for the hurricane seasons. -- tomf688 (talk) 19:23, May 19, 2005 (UTC)

 * There are now Infoboxes for all hurricanes since the late 1970s, and slowly they are being added to all notable hurricanes (all retired names + notable pre-1950 hurricanes). For now, a picture, not the map, is included in all the hurricanes from before 2004, as maps can be hard to come by (especially for historical hurricanes) and they need to be standard. CrazyC83 6 July 2005 22:51 (UTC)

Hurricane Maria Stronger
Suggest adding a sentence to the first paragraph:

"During the 2017 Atlantic Hurricane season, Hurricane Maria became the strongest Hurricane to make landfall since Andrew."

Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico with sustained winds of 155mph, making it the strongest forecastable Category 4 landfall possible on the SSHWS.Wade8888 (talk) 22:00, 10 June 2018 (UTC)

 * This would be an unnecessary exercise as the article is about Hurricane Charley, which was indeed at its time the strongest hurricane to make landfall since Andrew; the main idea of that particular sentence is to highlight the longer-than-decade timespan between Andrew and another storm of comparable magnitude for Florida or the United States. Since the crux of the sentence is about Charley, and not Andrew, Maria being the new "strongest since Andrew" ought not to hold any bearing on the Charley article.  TheAustinMan (Talk·Works) 22:09, 10 June 2018 (UTC)

title: Talk:Hurricane Charley


text:
User talk:Marco V

Croatia

The information about Croatia in the english part of wikipedia, is not whole correct.

title: User talk:Marco V


text:
Heather Has Two Mommies

Heather Has Two Mommies is a children's book written by Lesléa Newman with illustrations by Diana Souza. First published in 1989, it was one of the first pieces of LGBTQ+ children's literature to garner broad attention.

In its early years, Heather Has Two Mommies garnered both positive and negative attention due to the lesbian themes present in the book. The book received praise for highlighting the parenthood of lesbian parents, but also drew criticism from people opposed to same-sex parenting, as well as from members of the LGBTQIA+ community who felt the book did not portray same-sex parenthood accurately.

Summary
A child named Heather who is raised by lesbian women: her biological mother, Jane, who gave birth to her after artificial insemination, and her biological mother's same-sex partner, Kate. At Heather's playgroup, her family situation is discussed simply and positively, as are those of other children in other family units. At first, Heather becomes upset when she realizes that many of her other peers at the playgroup have a daddy and she does not. Molly, the caretaker at the playgroup, ensures that all the children at the playgroup understand that all families are special and no family type is better than any of the others. By the end of the book, Heather's sadness goes away and she expresses gratitude for her mothers.

Background
The idea for Heather Has Two Mommies was not Newman's own. While out for a walk, Newman was approached by lesbian parents and asked to write a children's story about a family like theirs. The parents explained that there were no books that they could show their daughter that portrayed the life of a family with lesbian parents. According to "The More Things Change" Newman wrote the story for this purpose, but did not expect the book to gain widespread controversy.

Release, republications
The book was originally co-published by Newman and her friend Tzivia Gover under the auspices of Gover's desktop publishing business, "In Other Words, Ink". Six months after the book's publication in December 1989, it was picked up by Alyson Publications.

Alyson Publishing brought out a Special 20th Anniversary edition in 2010, replacing the original black and white drawings with full-color illustrations by its illustrator Diana Souza, a strategy intended to make the book more modern and kid-friendly. That same year, Alyson Publishing company folded and the book went out of print for some time.

Later, the book was picked up by Candlewick Publications and the original illustrations were replaced in post-2015 editions by Laura Cornell, who made one of Heather's moms look like Lesléa Newman.

Analysis
According to Jennifer Esposito, a professor at Georgia State University, Leslea Newman attempts to normalize the lesbian family structure in Heather Has Two Mommies but seems to have done just the opposite. When Heather acknowledges that she does not have a daddy it makes her sad. Esposito argues that because Heather gets upset that she does not have a father instead of wondering why she has two mothers, it portrays that there is a problem with having two mommies. Furthermore, Esposito believes that Heather Has Two Mommies "dequeers" lesbian households by making them equivalent to heterosexual households. She believes that this does a disservice to those children that live in those households because their experience in the real world is a lot different than what is portrayed in the story. Esposito thinks that books dealing with lesbian families should take the approach of informing people that these households are just as normal as other households while at the same time addressing the unique problems they face. Similarly, Esposito admonishes the manner in which queer relationships are presented. Rather than focusing on the queer relationship, Heather's mothers are used more so as a learning experience for heterosexuals.

According to Jaime Naidoo, a scholar in children's queer literature, Newman included the depiction of artificial insemination in the first edition of the book, meaning that this book was the first to portray a lesbian couple deliberately planning the birth of their child. However, Newman later explained her regret in incorporating this detail into the book. Because parents were writing complaints about not reading the book to their children due to the scene, she decided to omit the section altogether in her 10th edition. Many believed the book was aimed at adults because of the artificial insemination sequence, although the book was intended to be child friendly.

Editor Cat Yampell, though Heather has Two Mommies has faced backlash and criticism, the book has also received praise. For example, Newman explains that multiple presses have expressed interest in more manuscripts, including queer stories. Seeing as publishers are becoming more comfortable in asking for more queer content, it seems like Heather has Two Mommies has helped queer children's literature become more accepting.

In addition, researchers argue that books such as Heather has Two Mommies can be beneficial in the educational setting. Scholars Brianna Burke and Kristina Greenfield argue that Heather Has Two Mommies can create a school environment of tolerance and inclusion of members of the LGBTQIA+ community. In addition, scholar Selena Van Horn explains that by presenting elementary school students with books that challenge heteronormativity. They can gain new perspectives on diverse family structures and critically question their prior knowledge on LGBTQIA+ related topics.

Reception
The American Library Association ranked it the 9th most frequently challenged book in the United States in the 1990s.

In the 2006 Dav Pilkey book Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People. In it, the parallel-universe Miss Singerbrains (the school librarian) invites the two main characters, George and Harold, to read the book Mommy Has Two Heathers.

Challenges
According to Leslea Newman, in Fayetteville, North Carolina, people tried to have Heather Has Two Mommies banned from local libraries and schools. Newman claims they were unsuccessful in their attempts, and instead paid for advertisements in local newspapers to convince citizens to vote against the construction of 5 new libraries in the Fayetteville area. The advertisements conveyed that the libraries were in "pursuit of legitimizing homosexuality" and compared homosexuality to "prostitution, bestiality or incest".

According to Jennifer Steele, Assistant Professor of Library and Information Science at The University of Southern Mississippi, another example of an attempted banning of the book took place in Wichita Falls, Texas. Because several residents of the city wanted to ban Heather Has Two Mommies and Daddy's Roommate, the city council declared a resolution that would limit access to the children's books should it reach 300 signatures. With the support of the American Civil Liberties Union, a countersuit was brought forth after the book restrictions were enforced, eventually leading to the Sund v. City of Wichita Falls, Texas (2000) court case. As a result, the District Court ruled in favor of the countersuit and allowed both books to be restored to their previous status.

In another instance, the Wasilla Public Library in Alaska also neglected to shelve the same two books, Heather Has Two Mommies and Daddy's Roommate. Ironically, the books were sent in as a gift during Banned Books Week. When citing why the book was barred from the shelves, the library cited the books were "poorly constructed, lacked engaging illustrations and seemed to lack the ability to engage young readers." The books were later sold in a fundraiser for the library.

Support
In 1991, Doris Robinson, regional services manager at Fairview Park Regional Library in Cleveland, claims that books such as Heather Has Two Mommies should have a place in schools and libraries around the country, "as long as they tastefully, accurately and appropriately portray the subject matter." Furthermore, Robinson recognizes that keeping LGBTQ subject matter from children would do them a disservice as homosexual couples become a recognized part of society. Robinson asserts that because homosexual families deserve respect, exposing children to Heather Has Two Mommies will teach them to be more accepting of these families.

Additionally, researchers April M. Sanders and Janelle B. Mathis from the University of North Texas have concluded that in order to combat censorship and discrimination in LGBTQ+ literature, young readers, instructors, and parents must learn how to change their attitudes toward LGBTQ+ individuals. Due to the reception of Heather Has Two Mommies, The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) issued a resolution (2007) advocating for the inclusion of LGBTQ+ themes in the classroom, as well as standards for teacher training on such inclusions.

title: Heather Has Two Mommies


text: Category:Swedish students' unions

title: Category:Swedish students' unions


text:
Cladoniaceae

The Cladoniaceae are a family of lichen-forming fungi in the order Lecanorales. It is one of the largest families of lichen-forming fungi, with about 560 species distributed amongst 17 genera. The reindeer moss and cup lichens (Cladonia) belong to this family. The latter genus, which comprises about 500 species, forms a major part of the diet of large mammals in taiga and tundra ecosystems. Many Cladoniaceae lichens grow on soil, but others can use decaying wood, tree trunks, and, in a few instances, rocks as their substrate. They grow in places with high humidity, and cannot tolerate aridity.

Many Cladoniaceae species are characterised by a thallus that has two distinct forms: a scaly or crust-like primary thallus that, depending on the species, can be permanent or temporary, and a secondary fruticose thallus called a podetium or. Cladoniaceae members form symbiotic associations with green algae from the class Trebouxiophyceae, usually the genus Asterochloris. Six Cladoniaceae species are included in the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species.

Historical taxonomy
Cladoniaceae was formally introduced to science in 1827 by German naturalist Jonathan Carl Zenker in a publication of Karl Goebel. Zenker's initial concept of the family included genera that are now recognised as separate families, including Baeomycetaceae, Icmadophilaceae, and Stereocaulaceae. William Nylander included 53 Cladonia species worldwide in his 1860 work Synopsis lichenum. When Edvard August Vainio published his three-volume monograph on the Cladoniaceae (Monographia Cladoniarum universalis, 1887, 1894, and 1897 ), he included 134 species and subspecies. In his circumscription of the family, the genera Pycnothelia, Cladia, and Cladina were included in the genus Cladonia. In more recent history, significant progress in the knowledge of the taxonomy and biogeography of the family can be attributed to several decades of devoted research by Teuvo Ahti.

Cladoniaceae is now one of the largest families of lichen-forming fungi, with about 560 species distributed amongst 18 genera. The type genus is Cladonia, circumscribed by Irish physician and botanist Patrick Browne in 1756. He included eight species in his new genus. Of their occurrence, he wrote: "All these species are found in great abundance in the mountains of Liguanea: they grow mostly on the ground, among other sorts of moss, but a few ... species chiefly are found upon the decaying trunks of trees."

Etymology
As is standard practice in botanical nomenclature, the name Cladoniaceae is based on the name of the type genus, Cladonia, with the ending -aceae indicating the rank of family. The genus name comprises the Greek word: κλάδος (klādos), meaning "branch", "bud", or "shoot"; and the Latin -ia, a suffix meaning "quality or state of a thing".

Synonymy
Several phylogenetic studies have shown that Cladoniaceae is a member of the order Lecanorales, and is closely related to the family Stereocaulaceae. The family Cetradoniaceae, which was created in 2002 to contain the endangered species Cetradonia linearis, was folded into the Cladoniaceae in 2006.

In 2018, Kraichak and colleagues used a technique called temporal banding to reorganize the Lecanoromycetes, proposing a revised system of classification based on correlating taxonomic rank with geological (evolutionary) age. They synonymised the families Squamarinaceae and Stereocaulaceae with the Cladoniaceae, resulting in a large increase in the number of genera and species. The Squamarinaceae had already been included in the Cladoniaceae by previous authors. Although this reorganisation has been used in some later publications, the folding of the Stereocaulaceae into the Cladoniaceae was not accepted in a recent analysis. As Robert Lücking explained, "merging of the two families under the name Cladoniaceae is not possible without a conservation proposal because Cladoniaceae (Zenker, 1827) is antedated by Stereocaulaceae (Chevallier, 1826) by one year." In a 2021 treatment of the British and Irish Cladoniaceae, the authors also keep these families separate, noting "both families are monophyletic and easily distinguishable on both morphological and molecular terms".

Description
The thallus of Cladoniaceae lichens are fruticose (bushy) or foliose (leafy), and are often dimorphic–consisting of two distinct forms; this particular type of growth is also known as . The primary thallus is ephemeral to persistent, crustose, foliose or squamulose, while the secondary thallus is typically vertical and holds the ascomata. The secondary thallus ranges in height from a few millimetres to more than 25 cm. Some species, however, form neither a primary thallus nor any fruticose structures. As for vegetative propagules, isidia occur very rarely in this family, whereas soredia are common.

The ascomata are in the form of an apothecium, and are, meaning they are of the lecideine type – light in colour and soft in consistency. They often have a reduced margin. Their colour is typically dark brown (sometimes pale brown), red, ochraceous, or black. The (referring to all hyphae between the asci in the hymenium) consists of sparsely branched paraphyses, and is amyloid. The asci (spore-bearing cells) are somewhat fissitunicate, meaning they have two layers that separate during ascus dehiscence. The ascus structure consists of an and a tube (both of which are amyloid), which is cylindrical to  (club-shaped). Ascospores number eight per ascus, and they are usually non-septate, ellipsoid to more or less spherical in shape, hyaline (translucent), and non-amyloid. Except for a few genera that produce septate ascospores (Calathaspis, Pycnothelia and Pilophorus), the hymenium does not generally have that are useful in taxonomy. The conidiomata are pycnidia; the conidia are non-septate, usually (thread-like), and hyaline.

Chemistry
In the Cladoniaceae, over 70 different secondary metabolites (lichen products), primarily polyphenols, have been identified. To observe the fluorescence of certain depsides and depsidones, ultraviolet light is directly applied to the specimens. Traditional colour spot tests with reagents like KOH can be ineffective at low concentrations. Consequently, thin-layer chromatography analysis becomes crucial for identifying the major lichen products in the specimens and verifying species identification.

Photobionts
The symbiotic algal partner (photobiont) of most Cladoniaceae taxa are unicellular green algae, usually in the genus Asterochloris, but occasionally in the genus Chlorella; both of these genera are in the class Trebouxiophyceae. Eleven species of Asterochloris have found to be associated with genus Cladonia; the algal genus – one of the most common lichen symbionts – occurs in the thalli of more than 20 lichen genera. The most common photobionts in this genus that associate with Cladonia are A. glomerata, A. italiana, and A. mediterranea, with some lineages showing dominance in one or several climatic regions. In contrast, Myrmecia was shown to be the main photobiont for the Mediterranean species Cladonia subturgida. The algal genus Trebouxia, a very common lichen photobiont, has not been recorded associating with the Cladoniacae. Some Pilophorus species associate with cyanobacterial symbionts (in addition to their association with green algae) in structures called cephalodia. The cyanobacterial genera Nostoc and Stigonema are involved in these tripartite associations. In a study of several Cladonia lichens collected from Southern Finland, the associated microbial community, which was found to be consistent amongst the different species, consisted largely of Alphaproteobacteria and Acidobacteriota.

Development
The development of several Cladoniaceae genera have been studied in detail, although the interpretation of results has sometimes been controversial. For example, two 1970 studies by Hans Jahns explored the development of fruiting bodies in Cladonia, significant for understanding the taxonomy and phylogeny within the Cladoniaceae. This work revealed two distinct ontogenetic types based on the formation of generative tissue and its role in developing the characteristic podetium of Cladonia species. This generative tissue, originating in the thallus horizontalis and growing vertically, is crucial for forming the podetium. The study identified variability within species, showing that different species can have more than one ontogenetic type, challenging previous assumptions about the uniformity of development patterns within the genus. This demonstrated variability had implications for the taxonomy and phylogenetic relationships within Cladoniaceae, suggesting a complex evolution of reproductive structures that did not strictly align with previously conceived taxonomic groupings.

Cladoniaceae species begin development with the formation of a prothallus – a fungal layer upon which an algae-containing thallus will develop. It comprises the hyphae from the germination of an ascospore. After the protothallus contacts the alga, lichenisation begins with the development of small squamules (scale-like thallus segments) that make up the primary thallus. Most Cladoniaceae have a mixed thallus, consisting of two parts: a base, parallel to the substrate, called the primary thallus and the other erect, the secondary thallus. The primary thallus is squamulose (scaly) or crustose (crustose-like). The secondary thallus consists of vertical structures that are shrubby and hollow, although they can be solid in rare cases. If these structures are made of generative tissue, they are called podetia; when they are made of vegetative tissue, they are called pseudopodetia. The morphology of these structures determines to a large part the taxonomy of the Cladoniaceae, which can range from simple to very complex branching patterns. Cladonia minisaxicola, found in the mountains of Bahia (Brazil) is the only species in that large genus that is completely crustose and does not develop podetia.

The tips of the podetia have a wide range of morphology in the Cladoniaceae. They can be straight, tapering from a wide base to a point (called ), or flaring on cup-shaped. The scyphi are sometimes closed, or have a central perforation, forming structures called funnels. The podetia are slow-growing, with an annual growth rate generally ranging from 1 to 15 mm.

Branching in the Cladoniaceae occurs on the podetium due to the growth dynamics of fungal meristem tissue at its apex. Two primary branching patterns exist: one where branches emerge from late divisions of a large meristem that alters its shape, and another where branches come from small meristems that split early but maintain their shape. These meristem growth dynamics are crucial for interpreting phylogeny in Cladoniaceae mycobionts, with the trend towards smaller, early-splitting meristems seen as an evolutionary advancement. In cladoniiform lichens, especially within the Cladoniaceae, a shift in meristem growth from isotropous (having uniform properties in all directions) to anisotropous (having properties that differ depending on the direction in which they are measured) leads to pronounced lateral elongation of the apical meristem. This change offers developmental flexibility, transitioning from a symmetrical growth to a more varied, asymmetrical growth, hinting at evolutionary processes within the Cladoniaceae. Despite this variability, such morphogenetic activities appear to be highly conserved even among species that are presumably distantly related.

Genera
After more than a century of discovery and research, including recent advances in understanding revealed by molecular phylogenetics studies, the Cladoniaceae encompass 17 genera and about 570 species. In terms of species diversity, the Cladoniaceae stood as the tenth-largest lichen-forming fungal family by 2017. This is a list of the genera contained within the Cladoniaceae, based on the Catalogue of Life; this includes taxa formerly classified in the Squamarinaceae, but does not include the Stereocaulaceae. Following the genus name is the taxonomic authority, year of publication, and the number of species:

 * Calathaspis I.M.Lamb & W.A.Weber (1972) – 1 sp.
 * Carassea S.Stenroos (2002) – 1 sp.
 * Cetradonia J.C.Wei & Ahti (2002) – 1 sp.
 * Cladia Nyl. (1870) – ca. 27 spp.
 * Cladonia Hill ex P.Browne (1756) – ca. 500 spp.
 * Gymnoderma Nyl. (1860) – 3 spp.
 * Heteromyces Müll.Arg. (1889) – 1 sp.
 * Metus D.J.Galloway & P.James (1987) – 3 spp.
 * Muhria P.M.Jørg. (1987) – 1 sp.
 * Notocladonia S.Hammer (2003) – 2 spp.
 * Paralecia Brackel, Greiner, Peršoh & Rambold (2015) – 1 sp.
 * Pilophorus Th.Fr. (1857) – 17 spp.
 * Pulchrocladia S.Stenroos, Pino-Bodas, Lumbsch & Ahti (2018) – 3 spp.
 * Pycnothelia Dufour (1821) – 2 spp.
 * Rexiella S.Stenroos, Pino-Bodas & Ahti (2019) – 1 sp.
 * Sphaerophoropsis Vain. (1890) – 2 spp.
 * Squamella S.Hammer (2001) – 1 sp.
 * Thysanothecium Mont. & Berk. (1846) – 3 spp.

Myelorrhiza was transferred from the Cladoniaceae to the Ramalinaceae by Kistenich and colleagues in 2018. Neophyllis, originally classified in the Cladoniaceae, was transferred to Sphaerophoraceae in 1999.

Habitat and distribution
Cladoniaceae species have been recorded growing in many habitats and on a diversity of substrates, including soil, tree trunks, and rotten wood. In a few cases, Cladoniaceae can grow on rocks, such as Cladonia salmonea which grows on the rock faces of vertical cliffs, or Cladonia pyxidata, which can grow on thin soil on rocks. They are absent from very dry regions. The range of their habitats includes boreal forests, bogs, temperate forests, the tundra of the Arctic and Antarctic, man-made habitats (e.g. roadsides), tropical highlands, and the sandy tropical lowlands of the Amazon rainforest.

In his 2000 monograph on the Cladoniaceae of the Neotropical realm, Ahti included 184 species in 4 genera, and showed that that South America is a hotspot of biodiversity for genus Clanodia. Bioclimatic variables significantly influence the distribution of Cladoniaceae species richness in the Neotropics, particularly under conditions of low precipitation and temperature, and high climatic variability. Areas with stable climates and higher temperatures and precipitation tend to support greater species richness. Twenty-six Cladoniaceae species (25 Cladonia and 1 Cladia) are known to occur in the Galápagos Islands. There, some species form mats on lava flows that have developed little soil. A 2013 monograph of Northern European Cladoniaceae treated 100 species (95 Cladonia, 4 Pilophorus, and the monotypic genus Pycnothelia). In the 2021 key to lichen species in Italy, 86 Cladoniaceae are included. In Bulgaria, 55 species in two genera were reported in 2022. In a study of the lichen biodiversity in Kazakhstan's Burabay National Park, the Cladoniaceae made up about 30 percent of the species diversity.

A study on the distributional ecology of Cladina and Cladonia in western North America found that the Coast Mountains of British Columbia act as a key phytogeographic barrier. This results in distinct oceanic and continental taxa groupings on either side. The research also suggests that the southern boundaries of certain species may be determined more by historical rather than purely ecological factors, indicating possible range expansions.

Conservation
Each of the six Cladoniaceae species that have been assessed for the global IUCN Red List face a variety of threats impacting their survival. Cetradonia linearis (vulnerable, 2015) is endangered by ecosystem changes in spruce–fir forests, specifically the balsam woolly adelgid's impact on Fraser fir, and changes in humidity regimes and cloud immersion. The species is also vulnerable to threats from logging, mining, and road building if its legal protection status is removed. Cladonia appalachiensis (endangered, 2020) growing on high-elevation Anakeesta Knob rock, faces threats from visitor disruption and changes in cloud cover and humidity. The main threats to Cladonia perforata (endangered, 2003) include habitat loss, hurricanes, and improper fire management, with a single natural event potentially causing substantial subpopulation reduction. Cladonia submitis (endangered, 2020) is primarily threatened by habitat loss and degradation due to land development, particularly around metropolitan areas. Climate change also poses significant risks through altered fire regimes and sea level rise, affecting its pine barren and sand dune habitats. Pilophorus fibula (endangered, 2020) is threatened by habitat loss, alteration of hydrological regimes, recreational damage, and declining water quality. Lastly, Gymnoderme insulare (endangered, 2014), primarily found in old-growth forests in Japan and Taiwan, faces threats from natural hazards like typhoons and is affected by the decline of its tree hosts, Cryptomeria japonica and Chamaecyparis obtusa.

On the red list of China's macrofungi, Cladonia delavayi (vulnerable), Cladonia pseudoevansii (critically endangered), Gymnoderma coccocarpum (endangered), and Gymnoderma insulare (endangered) are the representatives of the Cladoniaceae.

Human interactions and uses
Some species in the Cladoniaceae have been involved in a profitable export business for decorative uses, with demand reaching thousands of kilograms in various markets. In Europe, Cladonia stellaris is used ornamentally in wreaths, floral decorations and architect's models. In the years 1970–75, an average of nearly 3000 metric tonnes were exported each year from Finland, Norway and Sweden; most of these exports (about 80%) went to West Germany. In Sweden, Cladonia lichens were used historically as a partial insulation for storm windows. The complex net-like structures of the Australasian lichen Pulchrocladia retipora have been described as "of considerable beauty resembling lace or coral", and have been utilised in floral and architectural design.

title: Cladoniaceae


text:
Jack Yan

Jack Yan (born 1972) is a New Zealand publisher, designer and businessman. He is best known as the founder and publisher of Lucire.

He ran for mayor of Wellington in 2010, and again in 2013, but was unsuccessful in both elections.

Background
Yan was born in Kowloon, Hong Kong, and emigrated to Wellington, New Zealand, with his parents in 1976. He attended St Mark's Church School (where he was Dux ) and Scots College, and graduated from Victoria University of Wellington with three degrees – two in business and one in law.

Aside from English, Yan speaks Cantonese, French, and Taishanese.

Business ventures
Beginning in the 1980s, Yan created over 100 typeface designs himself for his firm, Jack Yan & Associates and was New Zealand's first digital typeface designer. He encouraged other local typeface designers such as Kris Sowersby to pursue careers in that industry. His typefaces include Ætna, a revival of Bembo.

He also helms a consulting firm, and is co-chair of the Medinge Group think-tank.

In 1997, he founded Lucire, a fashion magazine that added print editions after starting on the web, and serves as its publisher.

From 2007 to 2012, he was a judge for Miss Universe New Zealand, and became a director of the licensee firm that took over in 2013.

In 2008, he founded the online car encyclopedia Autocade, which he then extended into a print version in 2023.

Writings and media
Yan was a contributor to Visual Arts Trends in New York (1999–2001), The Journal of Brand Management in London (2003–04), and Desktop magazine in Australia (1996–2010).

Web publications that he has written for include UK-based Fontzone and DZ3. He was a founding contributor to Allaboutbranding.com (from 2002). Additionally, he writes for his own publications, CAP and Lucire.

He contributed chapters to Beyond Branding (2003) and Brands with a Conscience (2016), wrote Typography and Branding (2004), and ghost-wrote Greek designer Panos Papadopoulos's autobiography, Panos: My Life, My Odyssey (2022), for which they won a Highly Commended at the Business Book Awards 2023.

From 3 March 2006, he began a weekly spot on TV One's Good Morning, discussing men's issues, but resigned from that role in 2007.

In 2020, he started as a regular panellist on Radio New Zealand's The Panel.

He is better known outside New Zealand for his work; he has been interviewed by CNN, Business 2.0 and the UK's The Daily Telegraph.

Politics
In the 2008 general election Yan stood as a candidate on the Alliance party list, but no candidates for the Alliance were elected. He was a candidate in Wellington's 2010 mayoral election, and stood again in the 2013 elections.

Books

 * Beyond Branding: How the New Values of Transparency and Integrity Are Changing the World of Brands, with Nicholas Ind (editor), Malcolm Allan, Simon Anholt, Julie Anixter, John Caswell, Thomas Gad, Sicco van Gelder, Tim Kitchin, Chris Macrae, Denzil Meyers, Alan Mitchell, John Moore, Ian Ryder; 2003, 2004 reprint edition, Kogan Page, ISBN 0-7494-4115-1; 2005 paperback edition, Kogan Page, ISBN 0-7494-4399-5.
 * Viewpoint: Perspectives on 21st Century Branding: User Seductive; 2004, Wai-te-ata Press.
 * Typography and Branding; 2004, Natcoll Publishing.
 * Brands with a Conscience: How to Build a Successful and Responsible Brand, with Nicholas Ind (editor), Malcolm Allan, Enric Bernal, Peter Brown, Giuseppe Cavallo, Thomas Gad, Ava Hakim, Sudhir John Horo, Oriol Iglesias, Philippe Mihailovich, Simon Paterson, Annette Rosencreutz, Cristián Saracco, Nikolaj Stagis, Brigitte Stepputtis, and Erika Uffindell; 2016, Kogan Page, ISBN 0-7494-7544-7.
 * Panos: My Life, My Odyssey, with Panos Papadopoulos; 2022, LID Publishing, ISBN 978-1-911687-12-2.
 * Autocade Yearbook, 2023, JY&A Media,.

title: Jack Yan


text:
Southern Italy

Southern Italy (Sud Italia,, or Italia meridionale, ; 'o Sudde; Italia dû Suddi), also known as Meridione or Mezzogiorno (Miezojuorno; Menzujornu; lit. 'Midday'), is a macroregion of Italy consisting of its southern regions.

The term "Mezzogiorno" today mostly refers to the regions that are associated with the people, lands or culture of the historical and cultural region that was once politically under the administration of the former Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily (officially denominated as one entity Regnum Siciliae citra Pharum and ultra Pharum, i.e. "Kingdom of Sicily on the other side of the Strait" and "across the Strait") and which later shared a common organization into Italy's largest pre-unitarian state, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

The island of Sardinia, which was not part of the aforementioned polity and had been under the rule of the Alpine House of Savoy that would eventually annex the Bourbon-led and Southern Italian kingdom altogether, is nonetheless often subsumed into the Mezzogiorno. The Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) employs the term "South Italy" (Italia meridionale, or just Sud, i.e. "South") to statistically identify in its reportings the six mainland regions of Southern Italy without Sicily and Sardinia, which form a distinct statistical region under the ISTAT denominated "Insular Italy" (Italia insulare, or simply Isole "Islands"). These same subdivisions are at the bottom of the Italian First level NUTS of the European Union and the Italian constituencies for the European Parliament. Nonetheless, Sardinia and especially Sicily are included as “Southern Italy” in most definitions of the Southern Italy macroregion.

Etymology of Mezzogiorno
In a similar fashion to France's Midi ("midday" or "noon" in French), the Italian term "Mezzogiorno" refers to the intensity and the position of sunshine at midday in the south of the Italian peninsula.

The term came into vogue after the annexation of the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies by the mainland-based Savoyard Kingdom of Sardinia, and the subsequent Italian unification of 1861.

Regions
Southern Italy is generally thought to comprise the administrative regions that correspond to the geopolitical extent of the historical Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, including Abruzzo, Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise, and Sicily. The island of Sardinia, although being culturally, linguistically and historically less related to the aforementioned regions than any of them is to each other, is frequently included as part of the Mezzogiorno, often for statistical and economical purposes.

Geography

Southern Italy forms the lower part of the Italian "boot", containing the ankle (Campania), the toe (Calabria), the arch (Basilicata), and the heel (Apulia), Molise (north of Apulia) and Abruzzo (north of Molise) along with Sicily, removed from Calabria by the narrow Strait of Messina. Separating the "heel" and toe of the "boot" is the Gulf of Taranto, named after the city of Taranto, which is at an angle between the heel and the boot itself. It is an arm of the Ionian Sea. The island of Sardinia, situated to the west of the Italian peninsula and right below the French island of Corsica, may also often be included.

On the eastern coast is the Adriatic Sea, leading into the rest of the Mediterranean through the Strait of Otranto (named after the largest city on the tip of the heel). On the Adriatic, south of the "spur" of the boot, the peninsula of Monte Gargano; on the Tyrrhenian Sea, the Gulf of Salerno, the Gulf of Naples, the Gulf of Policastro and the Gulf of Gaeta are each named after a large coastal city. Along the northern coast of the Salernitan Gulf and on the south of the Sorrentine Peninsula runs the Amalfi Coast. Off the peninsula's tip is the isle of Capri.

The climate is mainly Mediterranean (Köppen climate classification Csa), except at the highest elevations (Dsa, Dsb) and the semi-arid eastern stretches in Apulia and Molise, along the Ionian Sea in Calabria and the southern stretches of Sicily (BSw). The largest city of southern Italy is Naples, an originally Greek name that it has historically maintained for millennia. Bari, Taranto, Reggio Calabria, Foggia, and Salerno are the next largest cities in the area. The region is geologically very active, except for Salento in Apulia, and highly seismic: the 1980 Irpinia earthquake killed 2,914 people, injured more than 10,000 and left 300,000 homeless.

Prehistory and antiquity
In the 8th and 7th centuries BCE, for various reasons, including demographic crisis (famine, overcrowding, etc.), the search for new commercial outlets and ports, and expulsion from their homeland, Greeks began to settle in southern Italy. Also during this period, Greek colonies were established in places as widely separated as the eastern coast of the Black Sea, Eastern Libya and Massalia (Marseille).

They included settlements in Sicily and the southern part of the Italian Peninsula. The first Greek settlers found Italy inhabited by three major populations: Ausones, Oenotrians and Iapyges (these last ones were subdivided into three tribes: Daunians, Peucetians and Messapians). The relationships between the Greek settlers and the native peoples were initially hostile (especially with the Iapygian tribes). The Hellenic influence eventually shaped their culture and way of life.

The Romans used to call the area of Sicily and coastal southern Italy Magna Graecia ("Great Greece") since it was so densely populated by coastal Greek colonies; the ancient geographers differed on whether the term included Sicily or merely Apulia and Calabria—Strabo being the most prominent advocate of the wider definitions.

With this colonisation, Greek culture was exported to Italy, in its dialects of the Ancient Greek language, its religious rites and its traditions of the independent polis. An original Hellenic civilization soon developed, later interacting with the native Italic and Latin civilisations. The most important cultural transplant was the Chalcidean/Cumaean variety of the Greek alphabet, which was adopted by the Etruscans; the Old Italic alphabet subsequently evolved into the Latin alphabet, which became the most widely used alphabet in the world.

Many of the new Hellenic cities became very rich and powerful, like Neapolis (Νεάπολις, Naples, "New City"), Syrakousai (Συράκουσαι, Syracuse), Akragas (Ἀκράγας, Agrigento), and Sybaris (Σύβαρις, Sibari). Other cities in Magna Graecia included Tarentum (Τάρας), Metapontum (Μεταπόντιον), Heraclea (Ἡράκλεια), Epizephyrian Locri (Λοκροὶ Ἐπιζεφύριοι), Rhegium (Ῥήγιον), Croton (Κρότων), Thurii (Θούριοι), Elea (Ἐλέα), Nola (Νῶλα), Syessa (Σύεσσα), Bari (Βάριον), and others.

Although many of the Greek inhabitants of Magna Graecia were entirely Latinized during the Middle Ages, pockets of Greek culture and language remained and have survived to the present day. One example is the Griko people in Calabria (Bovesia) and Salento (Grecìa Salentina), some of whom still maintain their Greek language (Griko language) and customs. The Griko language is the last living trace of the Greek elements that once formed Magna Graecia.

After Pyrrhus of Epirus failed in his attempt to stop the spread of Roman hegemony in 282 BCE, the south fell under Roman domination and remained in such a position until the barbarian invasions (the Gladiator War is a notable suspension of imperial control). It was restored to Eastern Roman control in the 530s after the fall of Rome in the West in 476, and some form of imperial authority survived until the 1070s. Total East Roman rule was ended by the Lombards by Zotto's conquest in the final quarter of the 6th century.

Middle Ages

Following the Gothic War (535–554), and until the arrival of the Normans, much of southern Italy's destiny was linked to the fortunes of the Eastern Empire, even though Byzantine domination was challenged in the 9th century by the Lombards, who annexed the area of Cosenza to their Duchy of Benevento. Consequently, the Lombard and the Byzantine areas became influenced by Eastern monasticism, and much of southern Italy experienced a slow process of orientalisation in religious life (rites, cults and liturgy), which accompanied a spread of Eastern churches and monasteries that preserved and transmitted the Greek and Hellenistic tradition (the Cattolica monastery in Stilo is the most representative of these Byzantine monuments). From then to the Norman conquest of the 11th century, the south of the peninsula was constantly plunged into wars between the Byzantines, Lombardy, and the Aghlabid dynasty. The latter established two emirates in southern Italy: the Emirate of Sicily and, for 25 years, the Emirate of Bari. Amalfi, an independent republic from the 7th century until 1075, and to a lesser extent Gaeta, Molfetta and Trani, rivalled other Italian maritime republics in their domestic prosperity and maritime importance. From 999 to 1139, the Normans occupied all the Lombard and Byzantine possessions in southern Italy, ending a millennium of imperial Roman rule in Italy, and eventually expelled the Muslims from Sicily. The Norman Kingdom of Sicily under Roger II was characterised by its competent governance, multi-ethnic nature and religious tolerance. Normans, Jews, Muslim Arabs, Byzantine Greeks, Lombards and "native" Sicilians lived in relative harmony. However, the Norman domination lasted only several decades before it formally ended in 1198 with the reign of Constance of Sicily, and was replaced by that of the Swabian Hohenstaufen dynasty, thanks to Constance's marriage to Henry VI, member of this family.

In Sicily, King Frederick II endorsed a deep reform of the laws culminating with the promulgation of the Constitutions of Melfi (1231, also known as Liber Augustalis), a collection of laws for his realm that was remarkable for its time and was a source of inspiration for a long time after. It made the Kingdom of Sicily a centralised state and established the primacy of written law. With relatively small modifications, the Liber Augustalis remained the basis of Sicilian law until 1819. His royal court in Palermo, from around 1220 to his death, saw the first use of a literary form of an Italo-Romance language, Sicilian, that had a significant influence on what was to become the modern Italian language. During this period, he also built the Castel del Monte, and in 1224, he founded the University of Naples, now called, after him, Università Federico II.

In 1266, conflict between the Hohenstaufen house and the Papacy led to Sicily's conquest by Charles I, Duke of Anjou. Opposition to French officialdom and taxation combined with incitement of rebellion by agents from the Byzantine Empire and the Crown of Aragon led to the Sicilian Vespers insurrection and successful invasion by king Peter III of Aragon in 1282. The resulting War of the Sicilian Vespers lasted until the Peace of Caltabellotta in 1302, dividing the old Kingdom of Sicily in two. The island of Sicily called the "Kingdom of Sicily beyond the Lighthouse" or the Kingdom of Trinacria, went to Frederick III of the House of Barcelona, who had been ruling it. The peninsular territories, contemporaneously called Kingdom of Sicily, but called Kingdom of Naples by modern scholarship, went to Charles II of the House of Anjou, who had likewise been ruling it. Thus, the peace was formal recognition of an uneasy status quo. Despite the king of Spain being able to seize both the two crowns starting from the 16th century, the administrations of the two halves of the Kingdom of Sicily remained separated until 1816 when they were reunited in the Kingdom of Two Sicilies.

Early modern history
In 1442, Alfonso V conquered the Kingdom of Naples and unified Sicily and Naples once again as dependencies of the Crown of Aragon. At his death in 1458, the kingdom was again split. Ferrante, Alfonso's illegitimate son, inherited Naples. When Ferrante died in 1494, Charles VIII of France invaded Italy, using the Angevin claim to the throne of Naples, which his father had inherited on the death of King René's nephew in 1481, as a pretext, thus beginning the Italian Wars. Charles VIII expelled Ferrante’s successor, Alfonso II of Naples from Naples in 1495. However, he was soon forced to withdraw due to the support of Ferdinand II of Aragon to his cousin, Alfonso II's son Ferrantino. Ferrantino was restored to the throne but died in 1496 and was succeeded by his uncle, Frederick IV. The French, however, did not give up their claim and, in 1501, agreed to a partition of the kingdom with Ferdinand of Aragon, who abandoned his cousin, King Frederick. The deal soon fell through, however, and the Crown of Aragon and France resumed their war over the kingdom, ultimately resulting in an Aragonese victory leaving Ferdinand in control of the kingdom by 1504.

The kingdom remained disputed between France and Spain for the next several decades. The French efforts to gain control of it became feebler as the decades went on, and Spanish control was never genuinely endangered. The French finally abandoned their claims to the kingdom by the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis in 1559. With the Treaty of London (1557), the new client state of the so-called Presidi ("state of the garrisons") was established and governed directly by Spain, as part of the Kingdom of Naples.

The administration of the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily, as well as the Duchy of Milan, was run by the Council of Italy. The island of Sardinia, which had fully come to be under Iberian sovereignty in 1409 upon the fall of the last indigenous state, was an integral part of the Council of Aragon instead and remained as such until the first years of the XVIII° century, when Sardinia was ceded to Austria and eventually handed over to the Alpine-based House of Savoy in 1720.

After the War of the Spanish Succession in the early 18th century, possession of the kingdom again changed hands. Under the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, Naples was given to Charles VI, the Holy Roman Emperor. He also gained control of Sicily in 1720, but Austrian rule did not last long. Both Naples and Sicily were conquered by a Spanish army during the War of the Polish Succession in 1734, and Charles, Duke of Parma, a younger son of King Philip V of Spain was installed as King of Naples and Sicily from 1735. When Charles inherited the Spanish throne from his older half-brother in 1759, he left Naples and Sicily to his younger son, Ferdinand IV. Despite the two kingdoms being in a personal union under the House of Bourbon from 1735 onwards, they remained constitutionally separated.

Early 19th century
Being a member of the House of Bourbon, King Ferdinand IV was a natural opponent of the French Revolution and Napoleon. In January 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte, in the name of the French Republic, captured Naples and proclaimed the Parthenopaean Republic, a French client state, as successor to the kingdom. King Ferdinand fled from Naples to Sicily until June of that year. In 1806, Bonaparte, by then French Emperor, again dethroned King Ferdinand and appointed his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, as King of Naples. In the Edict of Bayonne of 1808, Napoleon removed Joseph to Spain and appointed his brother-in-law, Joachim Murat, as King of the Two Sicilies, though this meant control only of the mainland portion of the kingdom. Throughout this Napoleonic interruption, King Ferdinand remained in Sicily, with Palermo as his capital.

After Napoleon's defeat, King Ferdinand IV was restored by the Congress of Vienna of 1815 as Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies. He established a concordat with the Papal States, which previously had a claim to the land. There were several rebellions on the island of Sicily against the King Ferdinand II, but the end of the kingdom was only brought about by the Expedition of the Thousand in 1860, led by Garibaldi, an icon of the Italian unification, with the support of the House of Savoy and their Kingdom of Sardinia with its economic, political and cultural powerhouse in northern Italy. The expedition resulted in a striking series of defeats for the Sicilian armies against the growing troops of Garibaldi. After the capture of Palermo and Sicily, he disembarked in Calabria and moved towards Naples, while in the meantime the Piedmontese also invaded the Kingdom from the Marche. The last battles fought were that of the Volturnus in 1860 and the siege of Gaeta, where King Francis II had sought shelter, hoping for French help, which never came. The last towns to resist Garibaldi's expedition were Messina (which capitulated on 13 March 1861) and Civitella del Tronto (which capitulated on 20 March 1861). The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was dissolved and annexed to the new Kingdom of Italy, founded in the same year.

Southern and Northern Italy in 1860
At the time of Italian unification, the gap between the former northern states of Italy and the southern two Sicilies was significant: northern Italy had about 75,500 kilometers of roads and 2,316 kilometers of railroads, combined with a wide range of canals connected to rivers for freight transportation; iron and steel production was 17,000 tons per year. By contrast, in the former Bourbon southern state, there were 14,700 kilometers of roads, 184 kilometers of railroads (only around Naples), no canals connected to rivers and iron and steel production was 1,500 tons per year. In 1860, illiteracy rates on the Italian peninsula averaged 75%, with the lowest level of 54% in the northwestern Kingdom of Sardinia (also known as "Piedmont"), and the highest in the south, where illiteracy in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies reached 87%.

In 1860 the southern merchant navy amounted to 260,000 tons, whereas the northern merchant navy came to 347,000 tons, apart from the Venetian navy annexed in 1866 and assessed at 46,000 tons. In 1860 the whole Italian merchant navy was the fourth largest in Europe at about 607,000 tons. The southern merchant navy was made up of sailing vessels mainly for fishing and coastal shipping in the Mediterranean Sea and it had very few steamships, even if one of the first steamers was built and fitted out in Naples in 1818. Both merchant and military navy were insufficient compared to the great coastal extent of southern Italy defined by the Italian historian Raffaele De Cesare: "… a great pier towards the south".

In the article "This is Not Italy! Ruling and Representing the South", it is clear how the northern elites considered the south. The Piedmontese north felt the need to invade the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and establish a new form of governance based on the northern system, since they viewed the south as under-developed and lacking in social capital. These views of the south can largely be attributed to the letters of correspondents in southern Italy who sent biased letters to leaders of the north, specifically Camillo Benso, urging the invasion and reformation of the south. Although these views of the south were condescending, they also came with a genuine belief that in order to create a unified Italy, help from the north was necessary. Viewing southern Italy as barbaric served as a sort of justification to allow the "civilized, Piedmontese north" (167) to intervene. Another view however was marked by disdain for southern Italy. According to the article, "such manifestations of the south's difference threaten the glowing and gloating sense of northern superiority" (167). These viewpoints clearly indicate the divide between northern and southern Italy in the 1860s.

In an attempt to explain the striking difference between the annexed territory of the former Two Sicilies and the economic and political powerhouse centred in the north, racist theories were postulated, suggesting that such a divide had its roots in the coexistence of two mostly incompatible races.

Denis Mack Smith, British historian, describes the radical difference between northern and the newly annexed southern Italy in 1860, for these two halves were on quite different levels of civilization, pointing out that the Bourbon in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies were staunch supporters of a feudal system and that they had feared the traffic of ideas and had tried to keep their subjects insulated from the agricultural and industrial revolutions of northern Europe.

The study by Mack Smith is confirmed by the Italian historian and left-wing politician Antonio Gramsci in his book The Southern Question, by which the author emphasizes the "absolutely antithetical conditions" of northern and southern Italy at the time of Italian unification in 1861, when south and north were united again after more than one thousand years. Gramsci remarks that, in the north of Italy, the historical period of the Comunes had given a special boost to history and in northern Italy existed an economic organization similar to that of the other states of Europe, propitious to further development of capitalism and industry, whereas in southern Italy history had been different and the fatherly Bourbon administrations produced nothing of value; the bourgeois class did not exist, agriculture was primitive and insufficient to satisfy the local market, there were no roads, no ports, the few waterways that the region had were not exploited, due to its special geographical features. The living conditions of the people of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies are also illustrated by Raffaele De Cesare, who reports that the king of Naples Ferdinand II had no interest in doing useful works to improve the neglected condition of public hygiene, particularly in the provinces where scarcity of sewer systems and often water shortages were known issues.

The problem of brigandage is explained in the book Heroes and Brigands by the southern Italian historian and politician Francesco Saverio Nitti, outlining that brigandage was endemic in southern Italy, since the Bourbons themselves relied on it as their military agent. Unlike southern Italy, there was little brigandage in the other annexed states of northern and central Italy, like the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, the Duchy of Parma, the Duchy of Modena, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and the Papal States.

According to the southern Italian historian Giustino Fortunato, and Italian institutional sources the problems of southern Italy existed way before Italian unification, and Giustino Fortunato emphasizes that the Bourbons were not the only ones responsible for the problems of the South, which had ancient and deep origins also in previous centuries of poverty and isolation, caused by foreign domination and foreign governments.

In literature, the period of 1860 was depicted by Sicilian writer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa in his famous novel Il Gattopardo (The Leopard), set in Sicily at the time of Italian unification. In a famous final scene, Prince Salina, when invited to join the senate of unified Italy, tells a high-ranking Piedmontese officer "…the Sicilian will never want to change, because the Sicilian feels perfect…". With these and other words the author underscores the problem Sicilians had, having to change their old lifestyle while remaining on their island. The novel was adapted by Luchino Visconti for his homonymous 1963 film The Leopard.

After 1861
The southern economy greatly suffered after the Italian unification and the process of industrialisation was interrupted. Poverty and organised crime were long-standing issues in southern Italy as well and it got worse after unification. Cavour stated the basic problem was poor government, and believed the solution lay in the strict application of the Piedmontese legal system. The main result was an upsurge in brigandage. Because of this, the south experienced great economic difficulties resulting in massive emigration leading to a worldwide Italian diaspora, especially to North America, South America, Australia, and other parts of Europe. Many natives also relocated to the industrial cities in northern Italy, such as Genoa, Milan and Turin. A relative process of industrialisation has developed in some areas of the "Mezzogiorno" after World War II. In the 1946 referendum after the war, the region voted to keep the monarchy, with its greatest support coming in Campania. Politically, it was at odds with northern Italy, which won the referendum to establish a republic. Today, the south remains less economically developed than the northern and central regions, which enjoyed an "economic miracle" in the 1950s and 1960s and became highly industrialized.

Economy

Starting from the unification of Italy in 1861–1870, a growing economic divide between the Northern provinces and the Southern half of Italy became evident. In the early decades of the new kingdom, the lack of effective land reform, heavy taxes, and other economic measures imposed on the south, along with the removal of protectionist tariffs on agricultural goods imposed to boost northern industry, made the situation nearly impossible for many tenant farmers, small businesses and land owners. Multitudes chose to emigrate rather than try to eke out a meagre living, especially from 1892 to 1921. In addition, the surge of brigandage and mafia provoked widespread violence, corruption and illegality. Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti once conceded that places existed "where the law does not operate at all".

After the rise of Benito Mussolini, the "Iron Prefect", Cesare Mori, tried to defeat the already powerful criminal organizations flowering in the south, with some degree of success. However, when connections between mafia and the Fascists emerged, Mori was removed and the Fascist propaganda declared the mafia defeated. Economically, Fascist policy aimed at the creation of an Italian Empire and southern Italian ports were strategic for all commerce towards the colonies. Naples enjoyed a demographic and economic rebirth, mainly due to the interest of King Victor Emmanuel III, who was born there.

Starting from the 1950s, the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno was set up as a huge public master plan to help industrialise the south, that aimed to do this in two ways: by land reforms creating 120,000 new small farms, and through the "Growth Pole Strategy" whereby 60% of all government investment would go to the south, thus boosting the southern economy by attracting new capital, stimulating local firms, and providing employment. However, the objectives were largely missed, and as a result the south became increasingly subsidised and state-dependent, incapable of generating private growth itself. Presently, huge regional disparities still persist. Problems still include pervasive organised crime and very high unemployment rates.

Due to southern Italy's lack of progress in bettering the area, it has had record numbers of emigration. The most prevalent issue in southern Italy is its inability to attract businesses, and therefore create jobs. Between 2007 and 2014, 943,000 Italians were unemployed. From this figure, 70% were Italians from the south. Employment in the south is ranked the lowest when compared to countries in the European Union. Italians from the south are also ranked the lowest in terms of financial contributions into the economy of Italy from immigrants. In southern Italy tourism, distribution, food industries, wood furniture, whole sale, vehicle sales, sales in mineral and artisan fields are among the leading areas contributing to the projected employment growth. The economy of the south heavily relies on tourism. It attracts tourists through its rich historical background.

A report published in July 2015 by the Italian organization SVIMEZ shows that southern Italy has had a negative GDP growth in the last seven years, and that from the year 2000 it has been growing half as much as Greece. In 2016, southern Italy's GDP and economy was growing twice as much as northern Italy's. According to Eurostat figures published in 2019, southern Italy is the European area with the lowest employment percentages: in Apulia, Sicily, Campania and Calabria, less than 50% of the people aged between 20 and 64 had a job in 2018. This is largely due to the low participation of women in the workforce, as slightly more than 30% of the women are employed, compared to a national and European average of 53.1% and 67.4%, respectively.

In southern Italy, which contains eight cohesion areas (Sicily, Calabria, Campania, Molise, Puglia, Abruzzo and Basilicata), a public–private partnership known as SMEI Italy serves as a catalyst for private investment and supports economic growth and employment creation. Over €1 billion in finance has been catalyzed in these eight locations to far, supporting almost 5 000 SMEs and small mid-caps.

Per capita GDP by region
Today, Abruzzo is the richest of the regions of southern Italy, while Calabria appears as the poorest.

Culture

The regions of southern Italy were exposed to some different historical influences than the rest of the peninsula, starting most notably with Greek colonisation in Magna Graecia. Greek influence in the south was dominant until Latinisation was completed by the time of the Roman Principate. Greek influences returned by the late Roman Empire, especially following the reconquests of Justinian and the Byzantine Empire.

Sicily, a distinctive Norman–Arab–Byzantine culture throughout the Middle Ages, was captured by Muslims and turned into an Emirate for a period, and elements of Arab culture were introduced via Sicily to Italy and Europe. The rest of the mainland was subject to a struggle of power among the Byzantines, Lombards, and Franks. In addition, the Venetians established outposts as trade with Byzantium and the Near East increased.

Until the Norman conquests of the 11th and 12th centuries much of the south followed Eastern rite (Greek) Christianity. The Normans who settled in Sicily and southern Italy in the Middle Ages significantly impacted the architecture, religion and high culture of the region. Later, southern Italy was subjected to rule by the new European nation states, first the Crown of Aragon, then Spain, and then Austria. The Spanish had a major impact on the culture of the south, having ruled it for over three centuries.

Jewish communities lived in Sicily and southern Italy for over 15 centuries, but in 1492 King Ferdinand II of Aragon proclaimed the Edict of Expulsion. At their height, Jewish Sicilians probably constituted around one tenth of the island's population. After the Edict, they partially converted to Christianity and some moved to the Ottoman Empire and other places in Italy and Europe. In the 19th century, street musicians from Basilicata began to roam worldwide to seek a fortune, most of them would become professional instrumentalists in symphonic orchestras, especially in the United States.

Southern Italy has many major tourist attractions, such as the Palace of Caserta, the Amalfi Coast, Pompeii, Sassi di Matera, Trulli di Alberobello and other archaeological sites (many of which are protected by UNESCO). There are also many ancient Greek cities in southern Italy, such as Sybaris and Paestum, which were founded several centuries before the start of the Roman Republic. Some of its beaches, woodlands and mountains are preserved in several National Parks; a major example is the Pollino, between Basilicata and Calabria, that hosts the largest national park in Italy.

In recent years, southern Italy has experienced a revival of its traditions and music, such as the Neapolitan song and the tarantella.

title: Southern Italy