text:
Talk:Centrism

Balancing competing interests to find common ground between ideological groups,
Following up on a few past articles for improvement messages, out of curiosity, and for the first time, I ran a Wikipedia topic through ChatGPT and below is what it came up with. (I apologize in advance if there is a recent policy regarding including such content in Talk.) Of course, in a specific context or country, Centrism has a fairly specific political interpretation, and the current article outlines those. However, I notice that, as discussed in some archived talk threads, definitionally, Centrism isn’t firmly anchored to any specific set of policies. So, to reprise: while we generally accept it to mean a balance between left and right positions, across time such broad generalizations are a moving target. Thus, what is middle-of-the-road or Centrist this year in one country, could vary dramatically from what is Centrist in a different era or country. Only partially tongue in check, I think a middle-of-the-road position would be to include some of the points made in the last paragraph. Any thoughts?

- Start ChatGPT Answer: The political concept of "centrism" refers to a political ideology or approach that emphasizes a moderate or middle-of-the-road position between the left and right ends of the political spectrum. Centrism seeks to balance competing interests and find common ground between different ideological groups, often by advocating for compromise and cooperation across political lines. Centrism can be characterized by a focus on pragmatic solutions rather than ideological purity, a willingness to consider different perspectives and ideas, and a belief in the importance of consensus-building and collaboration. It often emphasizes the importance of evidence-based decision-making and a commitment to empirical data and analysis. In practice, centrist policies and positions may vary depending on the specific political context and issues at hand. Centrists may support policies that draw from both conservative and liberal viewpoints, such as fiscal conservatism combined with social liberalism or a mix of free-market capitalism and welfare state policies. Critics of centrism argue that it can sometimes result in a lack of clear principles or a failure to take bold action on important issues. However, proponents argue that centrism offers a pragmatic and realistic approach to governance that can help to overcome partisan gridlock and address complex societal challenges. - End ChaptGPT Answer

Zatsugaku (talk) 17:30, 6 March 2023 (UTC)

 * I completely agree and see this as an improvement on the current page, which definitely is in need of improvement. This would be a better intro than the current one, which seems overly dependent on research which classies left and right on grounds of social hierarchy vs equality - which seems both simplistic and arcane to me.
 * Overall, I think the article is in need of a few additional sections discussing the following:
 * - core ideals - moderatism, pragmatism, anti-extremism, realism, "go with the research" (I suppose this would likely be objectivism?), median voter theory
 * - left of centre ideologies - mainly social liberalism, social democracy, third way
 * - within marxism: marxist centrism and democratic centralism within marxist-leninism
 * - within non-western political systems
 * Possibly moderatism, pragmatism and realism would justify a right-of-centre section. I appreciate this would likely introduce a western-bias, however centrism tends to express itself within democracies so I'm not sure this can be avoided. Possibly a section discussing the political spectrum as a subjective construct would help remedy this. Pistol92 (talk) 13:21, 22 April 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Centrism


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Mcking

Mcking 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 DELETE

I love tyrolean black death underground rap as much as the next guy, but this seems like a vanity page. Rhobite 19:57, Jul 19, 2004 (UTC)

Delete. and delete the media files too? Kenwarren 21:42, Jul 19, 2004 (UTC)
 * DELETE and especially the fact that it tossed in "bootleg" files. Not good.  Not good. Geogre 21:48, 19 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete, and send the guy a few Euros to buy a new shift key. And a pity about the picture, I was imagining someone in lederhosen rapping over the high Alpine meadows. Ianb 21:50, 19 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * You're in luck, because the same editor also wrote a page on Alpenscooter Rhobite 22:12, Jul 19, 2004 (UTC)
 * omg. Isn't there some EU regulation against this kind of stuff? Hear the mp3, cast your vote below. Ianb 22:56, 19 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete Mcking, MC KING, McKing, and Mc King. All four articles are devoted to the same non-notable rapper, who can't even be distinguished in a web search.  And as for the media files, isn't that a blatant copyvio?  Or is it one of those fuzzy "used with permission" situations?  --Ardonik 04:35, Jul 20, 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete all, vanity article, redirects, and media files. Wile E. Heresiarch 04:12, 20 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * Yeah, I actually don't much care for tyrolean black death underground rap or its perpetrators, but the point here is that the WikiPedia must not become full up of such blatant vanity and advertising. No, because that space has a much more important use - lots of lists of things. -- Brequinda 17:24, Jul 20, 2004 (BST)
 * Does the fact that it's Tyrolean black death underground rap require one to yodel? I can't wait to play one of the files for some people I know.  Delete all.  Redirects, ogg files, everything.  That photo doesn't make me particularly sympathetic, BTW. - Lucky 6.9 22:44, 20 Jul 2004 (UTC)

hey people, i know these artists from my area in so i thought i bring em in here. fact is they develop cultural goods, even if many of you dont like them. and they are happy if somewhere is written bout them! chill! the mcking BOOTLEGS are legal from mcking´s own will. still its bootlegs, recorded when mcking didnt know it - with a tape recorder on a private party.

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.
 * hey Grasier, we're so chilled icicles form on our keyboards ;-). It's not the music, it's that the artists aren't well known and don't meet the criteria for inclusion: if they need promotion, it means they aren't ready for Wikipedia yet. Ianb 21:48, 20 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete all related material. Wikipedia is not a musical vanity press. -- Cyrius|✎ 01:50, 23 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete all related material. The Alpenscooter stuff too! --K. Sperling 10:31, 2004 Jul 23 (UTC)

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

title: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Mcking


text:
Runts

Runts are crunchy candies sold by Ferrara Candy Company. First seen on the market in 1982, the candies are in the shape, color, and flavor of a selection of fruits. Runts have a hard candy shell with a compressed dextrose center (similar to the consistency of SweeTarts).

Flavor changes
Since its introduction, Runts has offered four flavor assortments.
 * In 1982, Runts were introduced with banana, cherry, strawberry, orange, and lime.
 * In the late 1990s, watermelon and blue raspberry were added. Lime was discontinued.
 * In 2007, the flavor assortment was changed to a more tropical-themed array. Pineapple and mango were introduced. Watermelon, blue raspberry, and cherry were all discontinued.
 * In 2009, green apple and grape were added to the mix. Pineapple and mango were removed. Green apple reused the cherry shape, and grape reused the mango shape.

Varieties
A chewy version of Runts known as Chewy Runts was previously available, including the same mix of fruits as the original crunchy runts. Chewy Runts were discontinued in 2014.

A seasonal product named Runts Freckled Eggs was released each year for Easter. The candy pieces were not shaped like fruits as in every other Runts mix. Instead, they were all shaped like eggs. Freckled eggs were available in large bags and smaller single-serve boxes with a built-in handle.

In the 1990s, a variation known as Tropical Runts was available. The pineapple and mango Runts originated in this candy.

A similar variant, Rock'n Runts existed in the 1990s, containing watermelon, grape, pineapple, lemon, and raspberry.

Other changes
Originally, Runts had colorful centers that matched the color of the outer shell. The colorful centers have since been discontinued, as current Runts contain a white center.

Ingredients and nutrition information
Ingredients: dextrose, maltodextrin, and less than 2% of corn syrup, malic acid, calcium stearate, carnauba wax, artificial flavors, color added (red 40 lake, yellow 5, yellow 5 lake, yellow 6).

As stated by the Wonka website, the box comes in two sizes: theater size (6 oz.) and single box (1.8 oz.)

Nutrition facts as given on a box of Runts: Serv size: 12 pieces, servings: about 3.5, amount per serving calories: 60, total fat: 0 g (0% DV) Sodium: 0 mg (0% DV) total carb: 14 g (5% DV) sugars: 13 g protein: 0 g (Percent daily values (DV) are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.)

title: Runts


text:
Talk:Joey Yung

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 4 October 2021 and 9 December 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): KwokHy98.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 01:18, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Edison scandal
i have removed the section about Joey's involvement in the Edison photo scandal because the picture had already been proven as a fake. blablablah 5:11, 6 February 2008

Jump up
Jump up is Joey's Mandarin album. I am afraid adding this album in the table of Canto-pop Albums will affect the accuaracy the article. Alanchan1987 04:26, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

oops, i accidently added it to the Cantopop albums chart. i'll take it out. blablablah 11:16, 22 September 2006

"Current" news?
The current news part at the bottom are SO outdated. 218.103.132.123 16:56, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

Here is a piece of review on her latest album 'Give Love a Break'
A neat album: Give Love A Break ~ Joey Yung

Just six months after the release of her last Cantonese album Nin9 2 5ive, the youngest winner of the Most Popular Female Singer Award is back again with this year's second album, Give Love A Break. Two albums in a year have made Joey Yung an even stronger candidates for various year-end music awards.

When compared to her last two albums Nin9 2 5ive and Show Up, the 11-new-tunes Give Love A Break is definitely the better one in terms of both music and lyrics. The album is produced by Shu Wen with Chen HuiYang and Wu YueCheng taking up a song each.

Most songs in Give Love A Break are poppy and catchy ballads and are probably going to become local big hits as they are already well exposed in karaokes and TV commercials. As for Joey's singing, she has maintained a high standard in both ballads and upbeat songs.

The lyrics of the leading track Split Body Magic (Track#13) is written by Xu JiZong and Huang WeiWen, who were also the lyricists for Joey's previous song Xin Dan. Split Body Magic is rhythmic and touching, its lyrics are going to move and kill all lovers.

Lover Number 16 (Track#3) is a neat yet karaoke-bound ballad. The story it describes is a bit similar to Jade Kwan's The Man Defeated though would still be popular. Mist (Track#7) and The Attractive One (Track#18), the theme song of the movie with same title, are both pretty good.

Secret Concern (Track#17), another theme song of a medicine commercial, sounds not bad. Unfortunately it is only a 30-second demo and the present reviewer could not have commented in detail.

Together with Red-carded (Track#5), which is re-composed from Xu HuiXin's Who Is Scaring, S.O.S. (Track#9), Boyfriend And Song (Track#15), Imaginary (Track#11) are all worthy of listening to.

To one's surprise though, the title song Give Love A Break (Track#14) is plain and ordinary. It is not impressive at all.

Recommendations: Split Body Magic (Track#13), Lover Number 16 (Track#3), Mist (Track#7) and Boyfriend And Song (Track#15)

Reviewer: Stephen Lee (Li Zhong Yan - Hong Kong) Translator: theDan (Chen EnNeng)

Proud of You
This song, which is supposedly hers, has its own article, but doesn't have a link from here (or anywhere else). Please find a place to link to it, or list it on VfD. --Idont Havaname 13:37, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)

"Snow in the Desert"?
218.102.77.244 said Joey had recently released a new single called Snow in the Desert. Can anyone verify this? I have removed that piece of information for now.
 * I'd be prepared to say it's fiction. Google reveals nothing. Enochlau 09:18, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
 * The song really exists. The song has been plugged for some weeks already. Though the literal translation of the song title is a bit odd, the Chinese name, 赤地雪, is quite impressive. Alanchan1987 15:24, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

Track listings
Just then I tried to find track listings for her first couple of albums on the Internet - it's practically impossible! If anyone has the albums, could you please add them to the article, or a page about the album in question? Thanks! enochlau (talk) 14:51, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

You can find her complete discography here: http://www.coolmanmusic.com/sub-page/joeyyungs.html 218.103.132.123 16:59, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

I have updated the track listings and a little information of Ten Most Wanted and Jump Up - 9492. I suppose it is quite difficult to translate the songs in English. Any good suggestions? --Alanchan1987 14:39, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

ref and table format
I feel the article written is good but would need more references as such a reference section need to be added at the end of the page to make it better

Also the table formatting is not good to look at. It would be more prudent to use the heading background formatting to the column heading instead of the entire table. As for the year of release of the album, it is better to list it in the first column of the table Realdan 18:33, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

someone replaced several words in article
The edits are around the 5th or 6th down the list and i don't know how to fix it.... Somebody replaced the words Joey with "talented songstress" or "the sexy singer". Thats great praise, but its annoying.Divinechancellor 06:23, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

I removed some of the other names (Essien related) as I think they were funny at that time but they look a bit offensive as for now. 137.132.228.42 (talk) 15:39, 21 March 2017 (UTC)

容祖儿?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinglish "and 容祖儿 (Jyutping: jung zou ji)(IPA: /'jʊŋ 'tɕou 'jiː/) is Joey Yung." --68.161.140.225 04:31, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Reflectionofjoeysliveposter.jpg
Image:Reflectionofjoeysliveposter.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.BetacommandBot 06:05, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

Stating facts is not vandalism!
Stating facts is not vandalism! (cur) (last) 12:39, 23 October 2008 Dengero (Talk | contribs) m (20,660 bytes) (Reverted 1 edit by Soccer174 identified as vandalism to last revision by Darkprinze. using TW) (undo) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Soccer174 (talk • contribs) 13:17, 23 October 2008 (UTC)

Old Chinese Saying
井水不犯河水 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Soccer174 (talk • contribs) 13:38, 23 October 2008 (UTC)

Joey--->Yung
Should all the references to "Joey" change to "Yung" to adhere to proper format? Just asking for opinion, I'll do the work. Dengero (talk) 12:33, 8 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes. Pandacomics (talk) 21:33, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

External links modified
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Useful Links to improve the article
http://www.scmp.com/article/685053/qa-joey-yung--TerryAlex (talk) 04:17, 14 June 2018 (UTC)

title: Talk:Joey Yung


text:
User talk:Sekizaru

Hello and welcome to Wikipedia! Hope you like it here, and stick around.

Here are some tips to help you get started:

 * To sign your posts (on talk pages, for example) use the '~' symbol. To insert just your name, type ~~~ (3 tildes), or, to insert your name and timestamp, use ~~~~ (4 tildes).
 * Try the Tutorial, and feel free to experiment in the test area.
 * If you need help, post a question at the Help Desk
 * Follow the Simplified Ruleset
 * Eventually, you might want to read the Manual of Style and Policies and Guidelines.
 * Remember Neutral point of view
 * Explore, be bold in editing pages, and, most importantly, have fun!

Good luck!

title: User talk:Sekizaru


text:
Reisbach

Reisbach may refer to:

 * Reisbach (Saar), a small town in Saarland, Germany
 * Reisbach (Vils), a city in Bavaria, Germany in the district of Dingolfing-Landau
 * Reisbach (Palatinate), a river of Alsace, France, and Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
 * Wolfsindis of Reisbach, regional saint of the Middle Ages in Bavaria

title: Reisbach


text:
Thousand Character Classic

The Thousand Character Classic, also known as the Thousand Character Text, is a Chinese poem that has been used as a primer for teaching Chinese characters to children from the sixth century onward. It contains exactly one thousand characters, each used only once, arranged into 250 lines of four characters apiece and grouped into four line rhyming stanzas to make it easy to memorize. It is sung, much as children learning the Latin alphabet sing an "alphabet song." Along with the Three Character Classic and the Hundred Family Surnames, it formed the basis of traditional literacy training in the Sinosphere.

The first line is Tian di xuan huang and the last line, Yan zai hu ye  explains the use of the grammatical particles "yan", "zai", "hu", and "ye".

History
There are several stories of the work's origin. One says that Emperor Wu of the Liang dynasty (r. 502–549) commissioned Zhou Xingsi (, 470–521) to compose this poem for his prince to practice calligraphy. Another says that the emperor commanded Wang Xizhi, a noted calligrapher, to write out one thousand characters and give them to Zhou as a challenge to make into an ode. Another story is that the emperor commanded his princes and court officers to compose essays and ordered another minister to copy them on a thousand slips of paper, which became mixed and scrambled. Zhou was given the task of restoring these slips to their original order. He worked so intensely to finish doing so overnight that his hair turned completely white.

The Thousand Character Classic is understood to be one of the most widely read texts in China in the first millennium. The popularity of the book in the Tang dynasty is shown by the fact that there were some 32 copies found in the Dunhuang archaeological excavations. By the Song dynasty, since all literate people could be assumed to have memorized the text, the order of its characters was used to put documents in sequence in the same way that alphabetical order is used in alphabetic languages.

The Buddhist Uyghur Kingdom of Qocho used the thousand character classic and the Qieyun and it was written that "In Qocho city were more than fifty monasteries, all titles of which are granted by the emperors of the Tang dynasty, which keep many Buddhist texts as Tripitaka, Tangyun, Yupuan, Jingyin etc."

In the dynasties following the Song, the Three Character Classic, Hundred Family Surnames, and 1,000 Character Classic came to be known collectively as San Bai Qian (Three, Hundred, Thousand), from the first character in their titles. They were the almost universal introductory literacy texts for students, almost exclusively boys, from elite backgrounds and even for a number of ordinary villagers. Each was available in many versions, printed cheaply, and available to all since they did not become superseded. When a student had memorized all three, he could recognize and pronounce, though not necessarily write or understand the meaning of, roughly 2,000 characters (there was some duplication among the texts). Since Chinese did not use an alphabet, this was an effective, albeit time-consuming, way of giving a "crash course" in character recognition before going on to understanding texts and writing characters.

During the Song dynasty, the noted neo-Confucianism scholar Zhu Xi, inspired by the three classics, wrote Xiaoxue or Elementary Learning.

Calligraphy
Due to the fact that the Thousand Character Classic contains a thousand unique Chinese characters, and its wide circulation, it has been highly favored by calligraphers in East Asian countries. According to the Xuanhe Calligraphy Catalogue (宣和画谱), the Northern Song imperial collection included twenty-three authentic works by Sui dynasty calligrapher Zhiyong (a descendant of Wang Xizhi), fifteen of which were copies of the Thousand Character Classic.

Chinese calligraphers such as Chu Suiliang, Sun Guoting, Zhang Xu, Huaisu, Mi Yuanzhang (Northern Song), Emperor Gaozong of Southern Song, Emperor Huizong of Song, Zhao Mengfu, and Wen Zhengming all have notable calligraphic works of the Thousand Character Classic. Manuscripts unearthed from Dunhuang also contain practice fragments of the Thousand Character Classic, indicating that by the 7th century at the latest, using the Thousand Character Classic to practice Chinese calligraphy had become quite widespread.

Japan
Wani, a semi-legendary Chinese-Baekje scholar, is said to have translated the Thousand Character Classic to Japanese along with 10 books of the Analects of Confucius during the reign of Emperor Ōjin (r. 370?-410?). However, this alleged event precedes the composition of the Thousand Character Classic. This makes many assume that the event is simply fiction, but some believe it to be based in fact, perhaps using a different version of the Thousand Character Classic.

Korea
The Thousand Character Classic has been used as a primer for learning Chinese characters for many centuries. It is uncertain when the Thousand Character Classic was introduced to Korea.

The book is noted as a principal force—along with the introduction of Buddhism into Korea—behind the introduction of Chinese characters into the Korean language. Hanja was the sole means of writing Korean until the Hangul script was created under the direction of King Sejong the Great in the 15th century; however, even after the invention of Hangul, most Korean scholars continued to write in Hanja until the late 19th century.

The Thousand Character Classic's use as a writing primer for children began in 1583, when King Seonjo ordered Han Ho (1544–1605) to carve the text into wooden printing blocks.

The Thousand Character Classic has its own form in representing the Chinese characters. For each character, the text shows its meaning (Korean Hanja: 訓; ' or ') and sound (Korean Hanja: 音; ). The vocabulary to represent the  has remained unchanged in every edition, despite the natural evolution of the Korean language since then. However, in the editions Gwangju Thousand Character Classic and Seokbong Thousand Character Classic, both written in the 16th century, there are a number of different meanings expressed for the same character. The types of changes of  in Seokbong Thousand Character Classic into those in Gwangju Thousand Character Classic fall roughly under the following categories:

 * 1) Definitions turned more generalized or more concrete when semantic scope of each character had been changed
 * 2) Former definitions were replaced by synonyms
 * 3) Parts of speech in the definitions were changed

From these changes, replacements between native Korean and Sino-Korean can be found. Generally, "rare  vocabularies" are presumed to be pre-16th century, for it is thought that they may be a fossilized form of native Korean vocabulary or affected by the influence of a regional dialect in Jeolla Province.

South Korean senior scholar, Daesan Kim Seok-jin (Korean Hangul: 대산 김석진), expressed the significance of Thousand Character Classic by contrasting the Western concrete science and the Asian metaphysics and origin-oriented thinking in which "it is the collected poems of nature of cosmos and reasons behind human life".

The first 44 characters of the Thousand Character Classic were used on the reverse sides of some Sangpyeong Tongbo cash coins of the Korean mun currency to indicate furnace or "series" numbers.

Vietnam
There is a version of Thousand Character Classic that was changed to the Vietnamese lục bát (chữ Hán: 六八) verse form. The text itself is called Thiên tự văn giải âm (chữ Hán: 千字文解音), and it was published in 1890 by Quan Văn Đường (chữ Hán: 觀文堂). The text is annotated with chữ Nôm characters, for example, the character 地 is annotated with its chữ Nôm equivalent 坦. Because it was changed to the lục bát verse form, many characters are changed such as in the first line,

Manchu texts
Several different Manchu texts of the Thousand Character Classic are known today. They all use the Manchu script to transcribe Chinese characters. They are utilized in research on Chinese phonology.

The Man han ciyan dzi wen written by Chen Qiliang, contains Chinese text and Manchu phonetic transcription. This version was published during the reign of the Kangxi Emperor.

Another text, the Qing Shu Qian Zi Wen by You Zhen, was published in 1685 as a supplement to the Baiti Qing Wen. It provides Manchu transcription without original Chinese. It is known for being referred to by Japanese scholar Ogyū Sorai for Manchu studies as early as the 18th century.

The undated ciyan dzi wen which is owned by the Bibliothèque nationale de France is a variant of the Qing Shu Qian Zi Wen. It is believed to have been used by the translation office of the Joseon Dynasty of Korea. It contains Hangul transcription for both Manchu and Chinese. It is valuable to the study of Manchu phonology.

Text variants
The text of the Qiānzì Wén is not available in an authoritative, standardized version. Comparison of various manuscript, printed and electronic editions shows that these do not all contain exactly the same 1,000 characters. In many cases the differences concern just small graphic variations (for example character no. 4, 黃 or 黄, both huáng "yellow"). In other cases variant characters are quite different, although still associated with the same pronunciation and meaning (for example character no. 123, 一 or 壹, both yì "one"). In a few cases, variant characters represent different pronunciations and meanings (for example character no. 132, 竹 zhú "bamboo" or 樹 shù "tree"). These textual variants are not noted or discussed in any existing edition of the text in a western language. In fact, even the text appended to this article differs from the text presented in Wikisource in 25 places (nos. 123 一/壹, 132 竹/樹, 428 郁/鬱, 438 彩/綵, 479 群/羣, 482 稿/稾, 554 回/迴, 617 岳/嶽, 619 泰/恆, 643 綿/緜, 645 岩/巖/, 693 鑒/鑑, 733 沉/沈/, 767 蚤/早, 776 搖/颻, 787 玩/翫, 803 餐/飡, 846 筍/笋, 849 弦/絃, 852 宴/讌, 854 杯/盃, 881 箋/牋, 953 璿/璇, 980 庄/莊). A critical text edition of the Qiānzì Wén, based upon the best manuscript and printed sources, has not yet been attempted.

Similar poems in other languages

 * Alphabet song
 * Hanacaraka, Javanese
 * Iroha, Japanese
 * Tam thiên tự, Vietnamese
 * Shiva Sutra, Sanskrit

title: Thousand Character Classic


text:
Sandwell Valley Country Park

Sandwell Valley Country Park is a country park, run by Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, in Sandwell Valley, on the River Tame in the middle of the urban conurbation between Birmingham and West Bromwich in West Midlands, England.

Location and features
The country park stretches from the A41 at West Bromwich to the edge of Walsall. The main entrances to the site are at Sandwell Park Farm, Salter's Lane, West Bromwich, B71 4BG. Forge Mill Farm, Forge Lane, West Bromwich B71 3SZ.

Leisure facilities include a pitch & putt golf course, a Millennium Cycle Route, a Mountain Bike Trail, tennis courts and open spaces. Swan Pool (also known as Wasson or Warstone) is used for sailing.

The park has received a Green Flag Award.

Sandwell Valley parkrun happens here every Saturday morning at 9.00am. This is a free, timed, 5 kilometre event for walkers, joggers and runners which is organised by volunteers.

Local nature reserves
Priory Woods and Forge Mill Lake, both local nature reserves (LNRs) since 1991, are within the park.

Priory Woods LNR has an area of 21 ha. It has woodland, with many varieties of native trees and introduced species; pools, inhabited by wildfowl; and it contains the ruins of Sandwell Priory. Footpaths in the reserve link to other areas of the country park. The car park for the reserve is at Sandwell Park Farm.

Forge Mill Lake LNR has an area of 63 ha. The lake is alongside the River Tame, and there is a footpath around it. The car park for the reserve is close to Forge Mill Farm, on Forge Lane.

Sandwell Valley RSPB reserve manages part of Forge Mill Lake, including one of the two islands in the lake; there is a bird hide and an RSPB visitor centre. The reserve is important for breeding birds including oystercatchers and lapwings. A car park is next to the visitor centre.

There are two working farm visitor centres. Sandwell Park Farm is a restored Victorian farm with a walled kitchen garden; it has rare breeds including Hereford cattle and Berkshire pigs. Forge Mill Farm has a farm shop and a farm trail.

History
Sandwell Valley Country Park was once the site of Sandwell Priory, a 12th-century Benedictine monastery which itself was founded on the site of an earlier hermitage. The monastery was closed on the orders of Cardinal Wolsey in 1525, and by 1705 the land was redeveloped once more, into Sandwell Hall, built for the Earl of Dartmouth.

From the late 19th century the Hall was used as an asylum, and then in 1907, a home for boys, "Sandwell Hall Industrial School for Mentally Defective Boys". In 1928 Sandwell Hall was demolished due to subsidence caused by mining from Sandwell Park (Jubilee) Colliery which employed over 600 miners. A coal tramway ran from the Jubilee pit through the Sandwell Park to the canal at Smethwick. By the 1960s the site was developed into the Country Park with up to 660 acre set aside for amenities.

title: Sandwell Valley Country Park


text:
Blind Willie McTell (song)

"Blind Willie McTell" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Named for the blues singer of the same name, the song was recorded in the spring of 1983, during the sessions for Dylan's album Infidels; however, it was ultimately left off the album and did not receive an official release until 1991, when it appeared on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991. It was also later anthologized on Dylan (2007).

Composition and recording
The song's melody is loosely based on the jazz standard "St. James Infirmary Blues". For the version included on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3, Dylan plays piano and is accompanied only by Mark Knopfler on acoustic guitar. The lyrics are comparable to later Dylan songs "High Water (For Charley Patton)" and "Goodbye Jimmy Reed" in that they pay tribute to the titular blues singer indirectly. Dylan sings a series of plaintive verses depicting allegorical scenes which reflect on the history of American music and slavery. Each verse ends with the same refrain: "Nobody can sing the blues like Blind Willie McTell". There was also an electric version of the song recorded with Mick Taylor playing slide guitar.

Critical reception and legacy
Following three albums with overt Christian themes, Infidels struck most major rock critics as dealing largely with secular concerns, and they hailed it as a comeback. When bootleggers released the outtakes from Infidels, the song was recognized as a composition approaching the quality of such classics as "Tangled Up in Blue", "Like a Rolling Stone" and "All Along the Watchtower". According to Dylan biographer Clinton Heylin, the song is regarded by many as "Dylan's one indisputable masterpiece of the early eighties".

Spectrum Culture included the song on a list of "Bob Dylan's 20 Best Songs of the 1980s". In an article accompanying the list, critic Peter Tabakis describes it as "a six-minute repudiation of any argument that somehow insists Dylan's '80s output was fallow. The song, with its spare and dramatic piano backbone by Dylan himself, accented with Knopfler's haunting guitar notes, seems performed in an open field at midnight. The tableau is as cinematic as Dylan gets. An arrow swings on a doorpost. An owl hoots. Feathered maidens strut. Martyrs fall. A canopy of stars hovering over 'barren trees' transforms into an uproarious crowd".

Greil Marcus, from the vantage point of 2021, wrote of the song: "Over three decades, that little rehearsal has emerged as one of Dylan's greatest songs—or even, perhaps, in the right mood, his greatest recording. From the start, it had a burgeoning charisma: the more you played it, the more it demanded that the volume go up, a fraction every time, until you hit the limit and realized it still wasn't loud enough".

Drive-By Truckers' Patterson Hood cited it as his favorite Dylan song in a 2021 Stereogum article, writing, "With McTell as a starting point, Dylan constructed a time travel from slave days through the Jim Crow South with a kitchen sink full of delta imagery, Bible scripture, and vaudevillian shuck and jive. Yet, as it goes with the best of songs, it also remains elusive and mysterious, benefitting as much from what it leaves out as for what it actually says".

Michael Gray's book Song and Dance Man III: The Art of Bob Dylan (2000) includes a chapter on this song and its musical and historical background.

The Guardian in one of its article from 2021 included the song on a list of "80 Bob Dylan songs everyone should know".

In live performance
"Blind Willie McTell" was a concert staple for the Band throughout the 1990s. They also recorded it for their 1993 album Jericho. Dylan later claimed in a Rolling Stone interview that hearing the Band's version of the song inspired him to begin performing it at his own concerts:

"Dylan can't possibly be sorry that the world has had the benefit of hearing, for instance, 'Blind Willie McTell', – an outtake from 1983's Infidels that has subsequently risen as high in most people's Dylan pantheon as a song can rise, and that he himself has played live since. Can he? Bob Dylan – 'I started playing it live because I heard the Band doing it. Most likely it was a demo, probably showing the musicians how it should go. It was never developed fully, I never got around to completing it. There wouldn't have been any other reason for leaving it off the record. It's like taking a painting by Monet or Picasso – goin' to his house and lookin' at a half-finished painting and grabbing it and selling it to people who are 'Picasso fans.'"

According to his official website, Dylan performed the song 226 times on the Never Ending Tour between 1997 and 2017. An August 17, 1997 concert performance appeared on various releases of his "Love Sick" single in June 1998. Dylan also performed a version of the song, hailed as "absolutely stellar" by Rolling Stone, for a televised tribute to Martin Scorsese at the Critics' Choice Movie Awards in 2012.

Other versions
Two different full-band versions from the Infidels sessions in 1983 were officially released in 2021, one on The Bootleg Series Vol. 16: Springtime in New York 1980–1985, and another on a vinyl single released by Third Man Records.

Notable covers
This song has been covered by various artists, including:
 * The Band
 * Chrissie Hynde
 * Mick Taylor
 * Dylan LeBlanc
 * Polo Hofer

title: Blind Willie McTell (song)


text:
Sunbury line

The Sunbury line is a commuter railway line in the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Operated by Metro Trains Melbourne, it is the city's fifth longest metropolitan railway line at 40.3 km. The line runs from Flinders Street station in central Melbourne to Sunbury station in the city's north-west, serving 18 stations via North Melbourne, Sunshine, St Albans, and Watergardens. The line operates for approximately 19 hours a day (from approximately 5:00 am to around 12:00 am) with 24 hour service available on Friday and Saturday nights. During peak hour, headways of up to 5 minutes are operated with services every 20–30 minutes during off-peak hours. Train sets typically used on the Sunbury line are the Comeng and, for two morning peak services, the High Capacity Metro Train.

The Victorian Railways began services in February 1859 on the line originally built to serve the town of Bendigo by the Melbourne, Mount Alexander and Murray River Railway Company. The line was progressively electrified over time, with electrification to St Albans in 1921, to Sydenham in 2002, and finally to Sunbury in 2012.

Since the 2000s, due to the heavily utilised infrastructure of the Sunbury line, improvements and upgrades have been made. Works have included replacing sleepers, upgrading signalling technology, two line extension projects, the construction of new stations, the removal of level crossings, the introduction of new rolling stock, and station accessibility upgrades.

In 2025, the line is planned to be through-routed to the Pakenham and Cranbourne lines via the underground Metro Tunnel.

19th century
The Melbourne, Mount Alexander and Murray River Railway Company started to build a rail line to Bendigo before operations were taken over by the Department of Railways then the Victorian Railways. The line had been extended as far as Sunbury by February 1859. The line was duplicated between Footscray and Sunbury in early July 1859.

20th century
Electrification of the line to St Albans was completed in October 1921, although electrification has already occurred to North Melbourne in May 1919 as part of the Essendon line electrification, and to Footscray in August 1920 as part of the Williamstown line electrification. Electrification shaved 10 minutes off the trip from St Albans to the city.

North Melbourne to South Kensington was quadruplicated in 1924, and South Kensington to Footscray in November 1976. Automatic block signalling was provided between South Kensington and Footscray (and Yarraville on the Williamstown line) in August 1927, from Footscray to West Footscray in October 1927, North Melbourne to South Kensington in June 1928, Sunshine to Albion in July 1929, West Footscray to Sunshine in October 1929, and Albion to St Albans in February 1930, thus resulting in the entire electrified line being provided with this signalling.

Sydenham extension
On 27 January 2002, electrification of the St Albans line was extended along the regional V/Line tracks to Sydenham. The Sydenham electrification resulted in the closure of the original Sydenham station; a new station was built 600 metres south and named after the nearby Watergardens Town Centre. Additionally, another station was constructed in St Albans called Keilor Plains.

Sunbury extension
Proposals for an extension of electrified metropolitan services to Sunbury have dated as far back as the 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan. $270 million was set aside to complete electrification works as part of the 2008 Victorian Transport Plan, with works completed in 2012.

There was some opposition to electrification. Concerns included a less comfortable journey, the removal of toilet facilities, the presence of a conductor, potential overcrowding, and congestion at level crossings due to the increase in the number of services. Bendigo line users also raised concern that electrification to Sunbury would slow down their trains to Melbourne. Public Transport Victoria acknowledged this issue, stating that "there's a slight slow-down of services on that particular corridor with this timetable, because we're putting more Metro services in the mix."

On 18 November 2012, the newly electrified line was renamed from the Sydenham line to the Sunbury line. Completion of the electrification increased the service frequency of Sunbury and Diggers Rest stations to 489 trains per week, an increase of 64% from the 298 trains per week when the service was operated by V/Line.

Sunbury Line Upgrade
In 2019, works began on the $2.1 billion Sunbury Line Upgrade project, delivered by the Rail Projects Victoria. The project upgraded the line to support the introduction of High Capacity Metro Train (HCMT) rolling stock and "take full advantage of the extra capacity created by the Metro Tunnel" which will open in 2025.

Works delivered as part of the project include the installation of five new electrical substations: one in Delahey (near Watergardens station), one in Calder Park rail yard, two in St Albans, and one in Albion;  ten more across the line were upgraded along with improvements to overhead wiring and signalling equipment to enable the use of "high capacity signalling" (a form of communications-based train control ) in the Metro Tunnel. Platforms were extended at Sunbury, Watergardens, Albion, Sunshine, Tottenham, West Footscray, Middle Footscray, and Footscray stations to support the longer HCMT rolling stock. Raised boarding pads were installed at Sunbury, Diggers Rest, Watergardens, Keilor Plains, Albion, Sunshine, and Footscray stations to improve wheelchair accessibility. Train stabling facilities at Sunbury, Calder Park, and Watergardens were upgraded, the level crossing at Gap Road, Sunbury was removed, and the tracks connecting the Sunbury line to the Metro Tunnel's portal at South Kensington station were laid.

Metro Tunnel
The 2012 Network Development Plan identified the need for a north–south tunnel connecting the Sunbury line to the Cranbourne and Pakenham lines. In 2017, the Metro Tunnel project began construction, consisting of twin 9 km tunnels bored underground between South Kensington and South Yarra stations, with five new stations along the route: Arden, Parkville, State Library (connecting to Melbourne Central), Town Hall (connecting to Flinders Street), and Anzac. These works will be completed by 2025, and upon completion, will create a singular rail line from Sunbury to Pakenham.

Level crossing removals
The Level Crossing Removal Project has announced the removal of all 7 remaining level crossings on the Sunbury line, completed in stages from 2016 to 2025. In 2016, the level crossings at Furlong Road and Main Road, St Albans, were removed by lowering the rail line into a trench under the roads; St Albans and Ginifer stations were rebuilt. Another crossing was removed by elevating a section of the Melton Highway in Sydenham onto a bridge above the rail line in 2018. The remaining level crossings are planned to be removed in 2025. The crossings at Old Calder Highway, Watsons Road, and Calder Park Drive will be removed by building road bridges over the rail line, and the Holden Road crossing will be closed to car traffic.

Services
Services on the Sunbury line operates from approximately 5:00 am to around 12:00 daily. In general, during peak hours, train frequency is 5–20 minutes in the AM peak on the Sunbury line while during non-peak hours the frequency is reduced to 20–30 minutes throughout the entire route. On Friday nights and weekends, services run 24 hours a day, with 60 minute frequencies available outside of normal operating hours.

Train services on the Sunbury line are also subjected to maintenance and renewal works, usually on selected Fridays and Saturdays. Shuttle bus services are provided throughout the duration of works for affected commuters.

Stopping patterns
Legend — Station status
 * ◼ Premium Station – Station staffed from first to last train
 * ◻ Host Station – Usually staffed during morning peak, however this can vary for different stations on the network.

Legend — Stopping patterns Some services do not operate via the City Loop
 * ● – All trains stop
 * ◐ – Some services do not stop
 * | – Trains pass and do not stop

Operators
The Sunbury line has had a total of 7 operators since its opening in 1859. The majority of operations throughout its history have been government run: from its first service in 1859 until the 1999 privatisation of Melbourne's rail network, four different government operators have run the line. These operators, Victorian Railways, the Metropolitan Transit Authority, the Public Transport Corporation, and Bayside Trains have a combined operational length of 141 years.

Bayside Trains was privatised in August 1999 and later rebranded M>Train. In 2002, M>Train was placed into receivership and the state government regained ownership of the line, with KPMG appointed as receivers to operate M>Train on behalf of the state government. Two years later, rival train operator Connex Melbourne took over the M>Train operations including the Sunbury line. Metro Trains Melbourne, the current private operator, then took over the operations in 2009. The private operators have had a combined operational period of 23 years.

Route
The Sunbury line forms a relatively linear route from the Melbourne central business district to its terminus in Sunbury. The route is 40.3 km long and is fully doubled tracked from Flinders Street to its termnius. The only underground section of the Sunbury line is in the City Loop, where the service stops at 3 underground stations. Exiting the city, the Sunbury line traverses mainly flat country, except on the west bank of the Maribyrnong River where it requires some moderately heavy earthworks. The line is paralleled by a double track goods line and the interstate standard gauge line, the latter being dual gauge with the goods line to West Footscray. The goods line joins the Sunbury line at Sunshine, whilst the standard gauge line to Sydney continues to run alongside the suburban line to Albion, where it and a goods line head off in a north-easterly direction. Some sections of the line has been elevated or lowered into a cutting to eliminate level crossings.

The line follows the same alignment as multiple lines with the Sunbury line splitting off at North Melbourne. The Sunbury line continues on its western (then northern) alignment, whereas the other lines continue onto a northern, western, or south-western alignment. Most of the rail line goes through built-up suburbs and some industrial areas before becoming more rural before the end of the line.

Stations
The line serves 18 stations across 40.3 km of track. The stations are a mix of elevated, lowered, underground, and ground level designs. Underground stations are present only in the City Loop, with the majority of elevated and lowered stations being constructed as part of level crossing removals. From 2025, services will cease to stop at Flinders Street, Southern Cross, Flagstaff, Melbourne Central, Parliament, and North Melbourne stations due to the opening of the Metro Tunnel.

Rolling stock
The Sunbury line primarily uses Comeng electric multiple unit (EMU) trains that are operated in a split six-car configuration, with three doors per side on each carriage. These trains were built by Commonwealth Engineering between 1981 and 1989, making them the oldest on Melbourne's electrified sububran rail network. Occasionally, Siemens Nexas EMUs are also used. When the Metro Tunnel opens in 2025, the Sunbury line will be operated mainly with High Capacity Metro Train EMUs.

Alongside the passenger trains, Sunbury line tracks and equipment are maintained by a fleet of engineering trains. The four types of engineering trains are: the shunting train; designed for moving trains along non-electrified corridors and for transporting other maintenance locomotives, for track evaluation; designed for evaluating track and its condition, the overhead inspection train; designed for overhead wiring inspection, and the infrastructure evaluation carriage designed for general infrastructure evaluation. Most of these trains are repurposed locomotives previously used by V/Line, Metro Trains Melbourne, and Southern Shorthaul Railroad.

Planned rolling stock
Upon the opening of the Metro Tunnel in 2025, the Sunbury line will primarily use a fleet of High Capacity Metro Train (HCMT) electric multiple unit trains, operating in a seven-car configuration. The trains feature three doors per side on each carriage and can accommodate up to 1,380 passengers. HCMTs were introduced to the Sunbury line in 2023, operating two peak services from Sunbury to Flinders Street each morning. HCMTs are also planned to be used on the Airport line, which will branch off from the Sunbury line at Sunshine. HCMTs are built in Changchun, China, with final assembly occurring in Newport, Melbourne, by Evolution Rail, a consortium composed of CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles, Downer Rail and Plenary Group. As of October 2023, two HCMT services run per day on the Sunbury Line, with more to be gradually introduced in the coming years.

Accessibility
In compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act of 1992, all stations that were newly built or rebuilt since the Act took effect comply with its guidelines. Most stations on the Sunbury line are fully accessible, however, there are some stations that have not been upgraded to meet these guidelines. Stations that are fully accessible feature ramps that have a gradient less than 1 in 14, have at-grade paths, or feature elevators. Accessible stations typically also feature tactile boarding indicators, independent boarding ramps, wheelchair accessible myki barriers, hearing loops, and widened paths.

Several stations on the Sunbury line have been rebuilt or upgraded with better accessibility features, mostly as part of the Level Crossing Removal Project and the Sunbury Line Upgrade. This includes St Albans and Ginifer stations, which were rebuilt as part of the Level Crossing Removal Project; and Sunbury, Diggers Rest, Watergardens, Keilor Plains, Albion, Sunshine, and Footscray stations which had raised boarding pads installed to improve wheelchair accessibility as part of the Sunbury Line Upgrade.

Signalling
The Sunbury line uses three-position signalling which is widely used across the Melbourne train network. Three-position signalling was first introduced in 1929, with the final section of the line converted in 2005. The Sunbury line's signalling system was further upgraded as part of the Sunbury Line Upgrade to enable the use of "high capacity signalling" (a form of communications-based train control) to be used within the Metro Tunnel.

title: Sunbury line


text:
User talk:TealStarsong

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text:
Elfi von Dassanowsky

Elfriede "Elfi" von Dassanowsky (February 2, 1924 – October 2, 2007) was an Austrian-born singer, pianist, and film producer.

Early life
Elfi von Dassanowsky (also known as Elfi Dassanowsky or Elfriede Dassanowsky) was born Elfriede Maria Elisabeth Charlotte Dassanowsky in Vienna, the daughter of Franz Leopold von Dassanowsky, a civil servant in the Austrian Trade Ministry, and Anna (née Grünwald). A piano prodigy at the age of 5, Elfi attended the Vienna Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (known as the "Englische Fräuleins") and became at age 15, the youngest woman admitted to Vienna's Academy of Music and Performing Arts to that date as the protégé of concert pianist, Emil von Sauer. While a student, film director Karl Hartl chose her to instruct Curd Jürgens in piano, so that he could play the instrument on screen in Hartl's Mozart biopic and a Willi Forst musical (it served him well beyond the era, to the 1971 Hollywood film The Mephisto Waltz). But Dassanowsky's studies and early career were halted for extended labor service when she rejected membership in Nazi organizations. The powerful UFA Studio in Berlin offered her a film contract in late 1944, which she also declined.

Career
In 1946, von Dassanowsky made her opera debut as Susanna in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro at the Stadttheater St. Pölten and created in concerts for the Allied High Command.

Dassanowsky remains one of the few women in film history, and at age 22 one of the youngest, to co-found a film studio—Belvedere Film—the first new studio facility in postwar Vienna. With senior partners August Diglas and Emmerich Hanus, the studio created such German-language classics as Die Glücksmühle (The Mill of Happiness, 1946), Dr. Rosin (1949), and Märchen vom Glück (Kiss Me, Casanova, 1949), and gave Gunther Philipp and Nadja Tiller their first screen roles.

Dassanowsky starred in operas, operettas, theatrical dramas and comedies, helped initiate several theater groups, was announcer for Allied Forces Broadcasting and the BBC, toured West Germany in a one-woman-show and gave master classes in voice and piano.

During this period, Dassanowsky also modeled exclusively for famous Austrian painter Franz Xaver Wolf (1896 – 1990), whose work featuring her image is now in museum and private collections.

Through art director Federico Pallavicini Dassanowsky encouraged an issue of the short-lived American magazine, Flair (edited by Fleur Cowles) to cover the arts in postwar Vienna, and modeled for the planned edition, but the publication folded before print. An expert in the Ignace Paderewski piano technique, her musical pedagogy continued in the 1950s in Canada and New York, where she also married and had a son and daughter.

At this time Dassanowsky turned to design and created a prototype for woman's leather day coat, which is now in the collection of The Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna (Museum für angewandte Kunst Wien). She divorced in the late 1970s and although she never remarried, she was briefly linked with author and actor, Prince Heinrich Starhemberg (aka Henry Gregor, 1934–1997) in the mid 1990s until his death.

In Hollywood in the 1960s, she resisted becoming a trendy Euro-starlet and preferred to remain behind the camera as a vocal coach for director/producer Otto Preminger. In 1962, she became a naturalized citizen of the United States. A successful Los Angeles businesswoman, in 1999, she re-established Belvedere Film as a Los Angeles/Vienna-based production company with her son, Robert. She was executive producer of the award-winning dramatic short film, Semmelweis (2001), the spy-comedy, Wilson Chance (2005), and several works in progress at the time of her death, including the documentary Felix Austria! aka The Archduke and Herbert Hinkel (2013), and a screen adaptation (with her son) of the antiwar Austrian novel, Mars im Widder by Alexander Lernet-Holenia.

Recognized internationally for her unique work as a pioneering woman in film production and as a multi-talent in postwar Austrian arts and culture, von Dassanowsky is the only Austrian woman to receive the Women's International Center's prestigious Living Legacy Award, and has been honored with the UNESCO Mozart Medal, the Decoration of Merit in Gold for Services to the Republic of Austria, the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, the Austrian Film Archive's Lifetime Achievement Medal, by the State of California and the cities of Vienna and Los Angeles, where von Dassanowsky lived since 1962. Additionally, she is reported to have been nominated for the honorary Right Livelihood Award in the late 1990s.

Death
While in Kona, Hawaii, in July 2007, Dassanowsky suffered a life-threatening embolism. She was flown to Queens Hospital in Honolulu and part of her left leg had to be amputated. She was reported to be recovering well in rehabilitation in Los Angeles and was expected to continue her efforts in film production as well as arts and UNESCO promotion. According to news reports, amputee celebrity Heather Mills (Lady McCartney) took a personal interest in her rehabilitation. However, Dassanowsky died October 2, 2007, in Los Angeles of heart failure. She was interred in a grave of honor (Ehrengrab) at the Zentralfriedhof in Vienna on July 25, 2008.

Foundation and posthumous recognition
In November 2007, the planned establishment of the Elfi von Dassanowsky Foundation was announced in Vienna. It would continue the pioneering and creative spirit of the late artist by developing awards and grants for emerging women filmmakers. The first phase of this project was complete in late January 2009, when the Elfi von Dassanowsky Fund initiated its program of charitable contributions to non-profit organizations in the U.S. and Europe.

The Elfi von Dassanowsky Rose (a tea-rose – floribunda hybrid) also known as the "Elfi" was created by Brad Jalbert of Canada in 2009. It was included in the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden at the New York Botanical Garden in Spring 2013.

The first Elfi von Dassanowsky Prize for work by female filmmakers was presented to Norwegian artist Inger Lise Hansen for Parallax (2009) at the Vienna Independent Shorts Film Festival in June 2010.

A minor planet/asteroid, 4495 Dassanowsky, discovered in 1988 by Japanese astronomers Masaru Arai and Hiroshi Mori, was named in her honor in 2014.

She was named an Honorary Member of the Association of Austrian Film Producers (AAFP) posthumously in September 2018.

title: Elfi von Dassanowsky


text:
Reichsbank

The Reichsbank (lit. 'Bank of the Reich') was the central bank of the German Empire from 1876 until the end of Nazi Germany in 1945.

Background
The monetary institutions in Germany had been unsuited for its economic development for several decades before unification. In the Kingdom of Prussia, the Bank of Prussia had been established in 1847 and, in the aftermath of the revolution of 1848, five additional banks had been granted a note-issuance privilege (the Berliner Kassenverein, Kölnische Privatbank, Magdeburger Privatbank, Ritterschaftliche Privatbank in Pommern at Stettin, and Städtische Bank in Breslau), but that was still insufficient to sustain adequate monetary conditions. By 1851, 9 banks in the whole of Germany (not including Austria) were chartered to issue banknotes, known as Notenbanken. In addition, most German states - with the only exceptions of Lippe and the Hanseatic cities of Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck - issued government paper money without the intermediation of an issuing bank.

Several pan-German conventions were held with the aim to simplify and rationalize the German monetary system, e.g. in Vienna on 1857/01/24, but to no avail. Instead, the number of Notenbanken kept growing, reaching 31 (in the territories that would become the German Reich) in 1870. They were typically private-sector entities, albeit often under hands-on government oversight, except the Bank of Bremen and Frankfurter Bank which were comparatively independent. Twelve of these were in Prussia, four in the Kingdom of Saxony, one in the Kingdom of Bavaria, and the other 14 in various duchies, principalities and free cities.

On 1870/03/27, a law was passed that forbade the formation of further Notenbanken in the North German Confederation. Following the promulgation of the German Empire that law was extended to all German lands, with entry into force on 1872/01/01. These Prussian initiatives precipitated action by the Grand Duchy of Baden and Kingdom of Württemberg to create note-issuing banks of their own, respectively the Badische Bank in Mannheim (est. 1870) and the Württembergische Notenbank in Stuttgart (est. 1871), bringing the total number of Notenbanken to 33. The panic of 1873 further stimulated discussions on the creation of an integrated monetary system, which pitted advocates of centralization led by Ludwig Bamberger against the incumbent local banks of issue and defenders of state rights, led by Ludolf Camphausen. The political compromise was to allow the latter to keep issuance activity but under such restrictions that they rapidly fell into monetary irrelevance.

German Empire

The Reichsbank was established by legislation of the Reichstag of 1875/03/14, and assumed its new role on 1876/01/01 when it succeeded the Bank of Prussia. Meanwhile, between 1873 and 1875 the Bank of Prussia assumed all the assets and liabilities of the Hamburger Bank, which was a major monetary anchor in Northern Germany.

The Reichsbank was technically a private-sector company with individual shareholders, albeit not in joint-stock form, and operated from the start under the close control of the Reich government. The bank was managed by a management board (Direktorium) reporting to a supervisory board (Curatorium). The Curatorium was chaired by the Imperial Chancellor and included four additional members, one appointed by the emperor and the other three by the Bundesrat; it was to meet every three months. The Direktorium was led by the President (Reichsbankpräsident) and all its members were appointed for life by the emperor, upon nomination by the Bundesrat. The law specified that the Direktorium must obey the Chancellor's orders at all times. The shareholders were represented in a central committee (Zentralausschuss) of 15 members, which met at least every month under the chairmanship of the Reichsbank's president and could scrutinize the management but not change it or influence policy decision. Three deputies of the Zentralausschuss were allowed to attend all meetings of the Direktorium and to examine the books of the Reichsbank. The initial shareholders included the former shareholders of the Bank of Prussia (except a few who opted for selling their shares) and new subscribers. The bank was exempted from all income and trade taxes, but also had to act as the Reich's fiscal agent without compensation.

The Reichsbank operated throughout the Reich's territory through a network of branches, which numbered 206 at its inception in 1876 and expanded to 330 by 1900. A formal distinction was made between main branches (Reichsbankhauptstellen), whose head was appointed directly by the emperor, and other branches (Reichsbankstellen), but that difference of status was insubstantial in practice. The bank's employees had the status of civil servants of the Reich, even though they were paid by the Reichsbank. The Reichsbank also sponsored the establishment of clearing houses which were established in the 1880s and 1890s in Berlin, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Cologne, Leipzig (Petersstrasse), Dresden, Hamburg, Breslau, Bremen, and Elberfeld.

15 of the 32 Notenbanken (other than the Bank of Prussia) relinquished issuing their own banknotes shortly after the Reichsbank's creation; four more did so in the 1880s, six in the 1890s, and three in the early 1900s, leaving only the Bayerische Notenbank, Bank of Baden, Bank of Saxony and Württembergische Notenbank as residual note-issuing institutions by 1906.

Until World War I, the Reichsbank produced a very stable currency, fully convertible into gold and thus known as the German gold mark. In 1909, an amendment to the Banking Act of 1875 made the Rischsbank's notes legal tender and redeemable at the rate of 2790 Marks per kilogram of gold. In the period immediately before the war erupted, the Reichsbank greatly increased its gold reserves, as also did the Bank of France, Bank of Russia and Austro-Hungarian Bank, from an equivalent US$184 million on 1912/12/31 to $336 million on 1914/06/30. At the outbreak of World War I, however, the link between the mark and gold was abandoned, resulting in the Papiermark. The expenses of the war caused inflationary pressure and the mark started to decrease in value..

Weimar Republic

Following Germany's defeat and the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, the German government was unable to meet its expenditures and commitments by taxation and borrowing from external sources, and instead turned to the Reichsbank for monetary financing. Combined with its reaction to the occupation of the Ruhr by France and Belgium, this triggered a dramatic episode of hyperinflation that rendered the Mark practically worthless. The Reichsbank only started raising its discount rate in July 1922, reaching 40 percent per day at the hyperinflationary peak in November 1923. By decree of 1923/10/15 on the initiative of finance minister Hans Luther, the government created a separate bank, the Deutsche Rentenbank, endowed with the right to issue notes (Rentenbankscheine) redeemable in a kind of non-interest-bearing mortgage bond, the Rentenbrief, denominated in gold Mark and theoretically backed by a collective mortgage debt imposed upon German agriculture and industry. That confidence-building initiative succeeded against all expectations, even though the Rentenbankscheine only had the status of "legally-admitted medium of exchange" while the Reichsbank's devalued paper notes remained legal tender. No fixed exchange rate was set by law, but the "Rentenmark" became interchangeable with paper Mark at the rate of one to one trillion. The Rentenmark was thus in effect a transitory domestic currency, which was never convertible internationally.

The success of the Rentenmark, followed by the Dawes Plan on war reparations, paved the way for a restoration of monetary order. The Banking Law of 1924/08/30 was inspired by the stabilization loans orchestrated by the Economic and Financial Organization of the League of Nations that had entailed the creation of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank in January 1923 and of the Hungarian National Bank in June 1924. It comprehensively reformed the Reichsbank and made it, for the first time, an explicitly independent central bank. Its Kuratorium was replaced by a General Council (Generalrat) consisting of 7 German and 7 foreign members, which was to elect the bank's president subject to approval of the President of Germany. The General Council also elected one of its foreign members to serve as Currency Commissioner (Komissar für die Notenausgabe) supervising note issuance. The ability of the reformed Reichsbank to extend credit to the Reich government was strictly limited. The new currency, the Reichsmark (RM), was set at one trillion paper Mark, restoring the prewar parity of 2790 RM for one kilogram of fine gold; the pre-reform notes ceased to be legal tender on 1925/06/05.

In the subsequent period of deflation, the Reichsbank became practically the only source of short-term banking credit in the German economy, which it chose to ration (maintaining a discount rate of no more than 10 percent) rather than lending to high market-determined rates. The Reichsbank's credit rationing only ended in early 1926, after which the discount rate could be gradually lowered, reaching 56 percent in January 1927. In 1930, legislative amendments in line with the Young Plan brought an end to the involvement of foreigners in the Reichsbank's governance. The General Council was reduced to 10 members, all German, and the role of Currency Commissioner went to the President of the Rechnungshof des Deutschen Reiches.

Nazi period

The Nazi regime promptly put an end to the independence of the Reichsbank and made it an instrument of their policy of directing Germany's resources towards rearmament and military expansion. By amendment of 1933/10/27 to the Banking Law, the General Council was abolished and the Direktorium, including the President, were henceforth to be directly appointed and dismissed by the Führer. On 1937/01/30, Hitler publicly proclaimed the unlimited sovereignty of the Reich over the Reichsbank, and a lew of 1937/02/18 formally abolished the Reichsbank's autonomous status. Another law of 1939/06/15 stipulated that the President and Direktorium should directly receive their instructions from the Führer, and renamed the bank as Deutsche Reichsbank. During most of the Nazi period the same individual was President of the Reichsbank and Minister of the Economy, namely Hjalmar Schacht from August 1934 to November 1937 and Walther Funk from January 1939 to May 1945.

On 1935/12/31, the Reichsbank's note issuing privilege became exclusive, bringing an end to the residual central banking roles of the Bank of Baden, Bayerische Notenbank, Bank of Saxony, and Württembergische Notenbank.

The Reichsbank benefited by the theft of the property of numerous governments invaded by the Germans, especially their gold reserves and much personal property of the Third Reich's many victims, especially the Jews. Personal possessions such as gold wedding rings were confiscated from prisoners, and gold teeth torn from dead bodies, and after cleaning, were deposited in the bank under the false-name Max Heiliger accounts, and melted down as bullion.

In April and May 1945, the remaining reserves of the Reichsbank – gold (730 bars), cash (6 large sacks), and precious stones and metals such as platinum (25 sealed boxes) – were dispatched by Walther Funk to be buried on the Klausenhof Mountain at Einsiedl in Bavaria, where the final German resistance was to be concentrated. Similarly, the Abwehr cash reserves were hidden nearby in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Shortly after the American forces overran the area, the reserves and money disappeared. Funk would be tried and convicted of war crimes at the Nuremberg trials, not least for receiving money and goods stolen from Jewish and other victims of the Nazi concentration camps. Gold teeth extracted from the mouths of victims were found in 1945 in the vaults of the bank in Berlin. The explanation of the disappearance of the Reichsbank reserves in 1945 was uncovered by Bill Stanley Moss and Andrew Kennedy, in post-war Germany.

Aftermath and liquidation
In line with decisions made at the Potsdam Conference, the Reichsbank was placed under joint Allied custodianship pending its liquidation. The four occupying powers (France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States) initially continued to issue Reichsmarks and Allied military marks. In Austria, the Oesterreichische Nationalbank was re-established by the Central Bank Transition Act of 1945/07/03 of the Second Austrian Republic.

In line with the Morgenthau Plan, the American authorities in November 1945 proposed a radically decentralized plan that would have organized a separate financial system in each of the Länder, with minimal central coordination. After some hesitancy, the French authorities rallied that vision; the British authorities were initially reluctant, but gradually aligned with U.S. views following the establishment of the Bizone on 1947/01/01. Thus, Land central banks (Landeszentralbanken) were created on 1947/01/01 in American-occupied Munich (for Bavaria), Stuttgart (for Württemberg-Baden), and Wiesbaden (for Hesse), followed in March by French-occupied Tübingen (for Württemberg-Hohenzollern), Freiburg im Breisgau (for South Baden, and Mainz (for Rhineland-Palatinate), then American-occupied Bremen on 1947/04/01, and eventually British-occupied Düsseldorf (for North Rhine-Westphalia), Hanover (for Lower Saxony), Kiel (for Schleswig-Holstein) and Hamburg by the Spring of 1948.

In the Soviet occupation zone, ostensibly similar entities dubbed Emissions- und Girobanken were established in May 1947 in each of the zone's five Provinces, namely in Potsdam for Brandenburg, Rostock for Mecklenburg, Dresden for Saxony, Halle for Saxony-Anhalt, and Erfurt for Thuringia. Each of these was fully owned and controlled by the respective provincial authorities.

In 1947, newly appointed U.S. Military Governor Lucius D. Clay decided, against directives from Washington, that Germany needed a central bank instead of a mere board bringing together the Landeszentralbanken for joint policy decisions. An agreement on that concept was reached among the three Western occupying forces on 1947/10/30, resulting in the establishment on 1948/03/01 of the Bank deutscher Länder. On 1948/05/21, the Soviet occupation authorities replied by establishing a Deutsche Emissions- und Girobank in Potsdam, which was renamed Deutsche Notenbank in July, later relocated to East Berlin, and in 1968 was rebranded the Staatsbank der DDR.

Given Berlin's special situation, no Landezentralbank was initially established there. Plans for a separate currency for all of Berlin were considered up until June 1948, when the situation came to a head and the introduction of Western German marks into West Berlin precipitated the Berlin Blockade. Only after the blockade ended was the Berliner Zentralbank established on 1949/03/20, and initially operated under an association agreement with the Bank deutscher Länder. It was eventually converted into a Landezentralbank in 1957.

The Reichsbank itself went into a protracted process of liquidation. In 1955, a Federal German Law allowed holders of Reichsbank common stock to exchange it for interim certificates of the Bank Deutscher Länder.

Head office
The Bank of Prussia had commissioned a new head office in the late 1860s, which replaced its previous building dating from the late 17th century. The structure designed by architect Friedrich Hitzig was completed in 1876 as the Reichsbank started activity. In 1892-1894, the Reichsbank erected a palatial southward extension on an adjacent lot facing Hausvogteiplatz, designed by its architects Max Hasak and Julius Emmerich. In the early 1930s, the Reichsbank erected a large new facility on the other side of Kurstrasse, designed by its architect Heinrich Wolff (Architect). While the main building was heavily damaged during World War II and eventually demolished in 1960, the 1930s extension survives as the Haus am Werderschen Markt, hosting the German Federal Foreign Office after having been the home of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

Branches
In Prussia, the Reichsbank kept the branches it inherited from the Bank of Prussia, including buildings it had purchased from others (e.g. the palace erected by David Schindelmeißer in Königsberg, acquired in 1843) and those it had built for itself (e.g. in Bromberg in 1864). Elsewhere, it did not take over the properties of banks whose monetary role it replaced, and erected new branch buildings instead. By the end of the 19th century, it had newly built branches in most of Germany's significant cities. In some cases, these branches were replaced by more modern ones in the interwar period.

The Reichsbank employed a number of specialized architects for branch design, including the prolific Max Hasak and Julius Emmerich from the 1880s to the early 1900s, Havestadt & Contag in the 1890s and early 1900s, Curjel and Moser in the 1900s, Julius Habicht and Hermann Stiller in the 1900s and 1910s, Philipp Nitze in the 1910s and 1920s, and Heinrich Wolff (Architect) in the 1920s and 1930s.

Due to Germany's territorial losses following World War I, the former Reichsbank branches in what became the Second Polish Republic were taken over by Bank Polski, and the one in the Free City of Danzig became the Bank of Danzig. During World War II, a number of branches were destroyed and not subsequently rebuilt. The one in Munich, whose construction had started in 1938 on the site of the former Herzog-Max-Palais demolished that year, was only completed in 1951. Following the disappearance of the Reichsbank in 1945, a number of its former branches were taken over by its successor entities, namely the Deutsche Bundesbank in West Germany, the Staatsbank der DDR in East Germany, and the National Bank of Poland in Poland; some in East Germany were demolished later on, such as the Chemnitz branch in 1964. Many other branches have been repurposed for other uses over the years, such as the Bucerius Kunst Forum in Hamburg or the Dommuseum Ottonianum in Magdeburg.

The addresses indicated below are the latest ones, which sometimes differ from original addresses due to street renaming and/or renumbering.

title: Reichsbank


text:
Talk:Elfi von Dassanowsky

Ref
Page based on press release for Austrian Press Association (for free distribution) which was originally written by the author of this text.

title: Talk:Elfi von Dassanowsky


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Frank Vandenbroucke (politician)

Frank Ignace Georgette Vandenbroucke (born 21 October 1955) is a Belgian-Flemish academic and politician of Vooruit who has been serving as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health and Social Affairs in the government of Prime Minister Alexander De Croo since 2020.

Early life and education
Vandenbroucke was born in Leuven. His father, Jozue Vandenbroucke (1914–1987), was vice-rector of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (medicine).

Vandenbroucke attended Sint-Pieterscollege in Leuven for his secondary education. He started his academic studies at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Starting with an undergraduate degree in Economics, he continued and got a master's degree in economics from the same alma mater in 1978. After this he got a MPhil in Economics from Cambridge University (1981–82).

Career in academia
After graduating from the KUL, Vandenbroucke became a research assistant at the "Centrum voor Economische Studiën" at the KUL (1978–80). In 1982 he became a staff member of SEVI, the research department of the SP (1982–85).

In 1999 Vandenbroucke received a D.Phil. from the Faculty of Social Studies, Oxford University. His thesis "Social Justice and Individual Ethics in an Open Society: Equality, Responsibility, and Incentives" (Ethical Economy) was published in March 2001 by Springer publications.

Since 2009 Vandenbroucke took on academic positions at the University of Antwerp (professor of Social Economic Analysis, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy), the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL), and the University of Amsterdam (professor at the Den Uyl Chair at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences). He is guest professor at the College of Europe in Bruges.

Vandenbroucke's academic interests focus on social systems and welfare policies. At EU level, he was active in outlining the Open Method of Coordination among Member States to support the enactment of the 2000 Lisbon Strategy. He later worked for the introduction of a 'horizontal social clause' in the Lisbon Treaty (today's art. 9 TFEU) to provide a stronger legal basis for welfare policies in the EU.

Political career
In 1985 Vandenbroucke was elected to the Belgian Chamber of People's Representatives and was re-elected in 1987, 1991 and 1995. In 1989 the 34-year-old Vandenbroucke became chairman of the SP, a post he held until 1994, when he became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs (1994–95). From 1995 to 1996 Vandenbroucke was the leader of the Parliamentary Group of the SP.

In 1995 Vandenbroucke had to resign as foreign minister and in 1996 he also resigned from parliament due to his involvement in the Agusta scandal. He acknowledged that he was confronted with two million francs which came as bribery money from the Italian helicopter builder Agusta. Refusing to have anything to do with the money, he advised to "have the money burned". Vandenbroucke was never prosecuted but took a voluntary sabbatical at Oxford (1996–99).

After the 1999 Belgian general election Vandenbroucke returned to politics to become Minister of Social Affairs and Pensions (1999–2003). After the 2003 elections he became Minister for Employment and Pensions (2003–04).

After the 2004 regional elections, Vandenbroucke left the federal government for the Flemish Government to become Vice-Minister-President of the Flemish Government and Flemish Minister for Work, Education and Training (2004–09). The 2009 regional elections was a sudden and unexpected turning point in his career. Although Vandenbroucke gained a large number of preference votes in his home province of Flemish Brabant, the president of his party, Caroline Gennez, chose not to give him the opportunity to continue his work as Minister, mentioning political as well as characterial dissimilarities. Instead, he was succeeded by Pascal Smet for Education and by Philippe Muyters for Work. At that time, Vandenbroucke remained member of the Flemish Parliament and accepted a teaching position at the University of Antwerp.

In 2010, Vandenbroucke participated in the general elections, running for the Belgian Senate. During the campaign, Vandenbroucke outed his concerns about the social-institutional reforms that the pre-electorally dominating Flemish nationalist party New Flemish Alliance wanted to achieve. Although his party maintained its position with the outcome of the elections, Vandenbroucke gained a relatively large number of preference votes.

He has been member of the Flemish Parliament (2009) and of the Belgian Senate (2010), and was awarded by King Albert II of Belgium of the title of Minister of State (2009). In October 2011 he left all political posts to focus on academic research.

In April 2013 he became a member and president of Belgium's "Commission de réforme des pensions 2020–40" at the request of the federal ministers responsible for pensions, Alexander De Croo and Sabine Laruelle. Composed of twelve experts, this commission was tasked to prepare, independently and in a closed circle, future pension reforms, in order to further improve the social and financial sustainability of the Belgian pension system.

After being ten years out of politics on 1 October 2020 on behalf of Conner Rousseau, Vandenbroucke joined the De Croo Government as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health and Social Affairs. He was unelected, as he did not appear on any voting lists.

title: Frank Vandenbroucke (politician)


text:
Samuel Galton

Samuel Galton may refer to:

 * Samuel Galton Jr., arms manufacturer
 * Samuel Tertius Galton, businessman and scientist, son of the above

title: Samuel Galton


text:
M-50 (Michigan highway)

M-50 is a state trunkline highway in the US state of Michigan. Although designated as an east–west highway, it is nearly a diagonal northwest–southeast route. The western terminus is at exit 52 along Interstate 96 (I-96) near Alto a few miles east of the metro Grand Rapids area, and its eastern terminus is in downtown Monroe at US Highway 24 (US 24, Telegraph Road). In between the trunkline runs through seven counties of the southern part of the Lower Peninsula mostly through rural farm fields and small communities. The highway also runs through downtown Jackson to connect between two freeway sections of US 127. In the Irish Hills area of the state southeast of Jackson, M-50 runs next to Michigan International Speedway.

Dating back to the early days of the state highway system, M-50 was first signed in the southeastern corner of the state in 1919. During the 1920s, the highway was extended to the Grand Rapids area and beyond to Lake Michigan, making it a trans-peninsular route connecting that Great Lake with Lake Erie. A rerouting of highways including M-50 through Grand Rapids in the 1950s created Business M-50 (Bus. M-50), a business loop through that city that lasted for eight years. Additional changes made during the 1960s rerouted M-50 to replace its business loop until the highway was shortened to its present western terminus south of Lowell. A pair of truncations in Monroe in 1996 and 2006 are responsible for the present-day eastern terminus.

Lowell to Jackson
M-50 begins at an interchange with I-96 at exit 52 south of Lowell in southeastern Kent County. The highway proceeds south along with Alden Nash Avenue and turns east on 92nd Street through farms and fields in the rural southeastern corner of the county. As the trunkline runs to the east, it crosses into Ionia County. M-50 follows Thompson Road, Nash Highway and Tupper Lake Road into Lake Odessa. In Lake Odessa, the road bends around the north side of Jordan Lake, curving to the south into the extreme northeastern Barry County. The highway turns back to the east as it heads towards a junction with M-66 and M-43 at the Barry–Eaton county line.

After meeting M-43, the two trunklines run concurrently for about a mile (1.6 km) before M-50 breaks off to the southwest near Woodbury. From there, the road continues in its southeasterly path along Clinton Trail through the northeast part of Eaton County as it runs through fields to Charlotte. Just prior to entering the city, the road bends to the south and near the middle of town it has a junction with M-79 and Business Loop I-69 (BL I-69). After this intersection, M-50 continues south concurrent with the business loop for several blocks before turning eastward. On the eastern end of town, it has an interchange with I-69 at exit 60.

After heading east past the junction with I-69, the highway turns southeast as it heads through rural fields toward Eaton Rapids. Once it reaches the city, M-50 converges with M-99, and the two intersect M-188 on the south side of the Grand River. The two highways run south out of the city. Immediately prior to entering Jackson County, the two trunklines diverge with M-99 heading off to the southwest and M-50 to the southeast.

M-50 continues its journey through Jackson County, winding its way to the southeast through rural fields and small forests. The landscape transitions to residential neighborhoods as the road approaches the US 127 freeway north of Jackson. In Blackman Township, M-50 merges with US 127 to run concurrently into the north side of Jackson. After an interchange with I-94 at exit 138, US 127 exits to run east on I-94 for 4 mi, M-50 and Business US 127 (Bus. US 127) run concurrently into the city as West Avenue passing by the Jackson Crossing shopping mall. The road then proceeds south through the northern side of the city before turning east on Michigan Avenue as it heads towards downtown.

Jackson to Monroe
In downtown Jackson, Michigan Avenue continues into downtown while M-50 is routed around the city center along paired one-way streets. Washington Street carries eastbound traffic and the Louis Glick Highway. On the east side of downtown, the roads merge near the Jackson Amtrak station and a junction with M-106 on Cooper Street, where M-50 turns south and then southeast as Brooklyn Road. On the south side of Jackson, M-50 and US 127 meet up once again just east of Vandercook Lake. M-50 follows the US 127 freeway through a pair of conjoined partial interchanges before M-50 heads east away from Vandercook Lake.

The trunkline then heads southeast to Napoleon, where the road then turns south and heads towards Brooklyn, part of the Irish Hills area of Lenawee County, a region known for its scenery. The road serves as main street for downtown Brooklyn as well as the primary thoroughfare for drivers headed to Michigan International Speedway. M-50 curves around the north and east side of the race track before intersecting US 12 in Cambridge Junction. After crossing US 12, the road passes between several lakes of the Irish Hills area including Washington, Little Stony and Marrs lakes before continuing on its southeasterly journey towards Tecumseh.

After leaving the Brooklyn area, the road returns to a rural environment as it cuts through agricultural fields. Before passing through Tipton, M-50 passes the entrance to Hidden Lake Gardens, a botanical garden and arboretum operated by Michigan State University. After passing Hidden Lake, the road intersects M-52 and continues into Tecumseh. Known as Chicago Boulevard, the road serves as the main route through the city. After leaving Tecumseh, the highway passes through the communities of Ridgeway and Britton before leaving Lenawee County.

M-50 begins the final leg of its journey, as it crosses into Monroe county, passing through land that is mostly fields. Prior to reaching its interchange with US 23, the highway passes to the south of Cabela's, a 225000 sqft outdoor sports retailer in Dundee. After leaving town, the trunkline continues to the southeast, running to the south of the River Raisin, through rural areas as South Custer Road before entering the outskirts of Monroe where it finally ends its journey at a junction with US 24 (Telegraph Road) a few miles inland from Lake Erie.

M-50 is maintained by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) like other state highways in Michigan. As a part of these maintenance responsibilities, the department tracks the volume of traffic that uses the roadways under its jurisdiction. These volumes are expressed using a metric called annual average daily traffic, which is a statistical calculation of the average daily number of vehicles on a segment of roadway. MDOT's surveys in 2011 showed that the highest traffic levels along M-50 were the 25,770 vehicles daily south of the Springport Road interchange in the Jackson area; the lowest counts were the 2,055 vehicles per day south of the M-99 concurrency. The only sections of M-50 that have been listed on the National Highway System (NHS) are the two US 127 concurrencies in the Jackson area and the connection between them through downtown. The NHS is a network of roads important to the country's economy, defense, and mobility.

History
When the state highway system was first signed in 1919, M-50 started at an intersection with M-23 (present-day US 12) in Cambridge Junction, south of Brooklyn. From there it ran to the southeast, similar to its present-day routing, through Dundee and Tecumseh into downtown Monroe where it intersected M-56. There was a concurrency between M-50 and M-65 between Dundee and the Ida area which became an overlap with US 23 after 1926. By the end of 1927, M-50 underwent a major lengthening as its western terminus was extended through Jackson to Eaton Rapids, Charlotte, and Vermontville before intersecting M-39 just east of Woodbury. From this point, M-50 was routed over M-39 to US 16 near Alto. M-50 then ran concurrently with US 16 into Grand Rapids where it turned to the west and traveled through Allendale before terminating at a junction with US 31 in Agnew. A few years later in 1929, the route between Charlotte and Woodbury was changed as M-50 was routed north out of Charlotte to the former M-39 and replaced it east to Woodbury; the former routing was turned over to local control.

In 1953, the route was realigned onto the south and west beltline to bypass Grand Rapids; the old routing through downtown became Business M-50 (Bus. M-50). In the late 1950s, when the US 127 freeway bypass east of Jackson opened up, the old routing through town became Bus. US 127/M-50. At the same time, the concurrency with US 23 between Dundee and the Ida area was dropped after the new US 23 freeway opened; the old route becomes solely designated M-50.

In 1961, when the I-96/US 16/M-50 freeway was extended to the northwest in Grand Rapids, the old M-50 routing around the city became M-11 and M-50 was returned to its former alignment along Lake Michigan Drive and Fulton Street, supplanting Bus. M-50. In 1964, the western end of M-50 was truncated from its junction with US 31 back to I-96 south of Lowell at exit 52. The former alignment from exit 40 to Agnew was given the M-45 designation.

In 1996, the highway was truncated as the terminus was scaled back to M-125 in Monroe. Finally on October 4, 2006, the section of M-50 between M-125 and US 24 was also removed, shortening the highway by about a mile (1.9 km).

Business route
Business M-50 (Bus. M-50) was a 11.084 mi business loop that ran through Grand Rapids. The state trunkline highway was created when M-50 was rerouted to follow 28th Street and Wilson Avenue around the south and west sides of the city in 1953. The business loop was decommissioned when M-50 was returned to its former routing in 1961. The highway followed Lake Michigan Drive (now M-45) from the Standale neighborhood of Walker easterly to Fulton Street in Grand Rapids. From there it followed Fulton easterly through downtown Grand Rapids and the east side of the city to a junction with Cascade Road in Grand Rapids Township The last segment followed Cascade Road to the I-96/M-50 freeway where it connected with its parent highway and terminated.

title: M-50 (Michigan highway)