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Bell test

A Bell test, also known as Bell inequality test or Bell experiment, is a real-world physics experiment designed to test the theory of quantum mechanics in relation to Albert Einstein's concept of local realism. Named for John Stewart Bell, the experiments test whether or not the real world satisfies local realism, which requires the presence of some additional local variables (called "hidden" because they are not a feature of quantum theory) to explain the behavior of particles like photons and electrons. The test empirically evaluates the implications of Bell's theorem. , all Bell tests have found that the hypothesis of local hidden variables is inconsistent with the way that physical systems behave.

Many types of Bell tests have been performed in physics laboratories, often with the goal of ameliorating problems of experimental design or set-up that could in principle affect the validity of the findings of earlier Bell tests. This is known as "closing loopholes in Bell tests".

Bell inequality violations are also used in some quantum cryptography protocols, whereby a spy's presence is detected when Bell's inequalities cease to be violated.

Overview
The Bell test has its origins in the debate between Einstein and other pioneers of quantum physics, principally Niels Bohr. One feature of the theory of quantum mechanics under debate was the meaning of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. This principle states that if some information is known about a given particle, there is some other information about it that is impossible to know. An example of this is found in observations of the position and the momentum of a given particle. According to the uncertainty principle, a particle's momentum and its position cannot simultaneously be determined with arbitrarily high precision.

In 1935, Einstein, Boris Podolsky, and Nathan Rosen published a claim that quantum mechanics predicts that more information about a pair of entangled particles could be observed than Heisenberg's principle allowed, which would only be possible if information were travelling instantly between the two particles. This produces a paradox which came to be known as the "EPR paradox" after the three authors. It arises if any effect felt in one location is not the result of a cause that occurred in its past, relative to its location. This action at a distance would violate the theory of relativity, by allowing information between the two locations to travel faster than the speed of light.

Based on this, the authors concluded that the quantum wave function does not provide a complete description of reality. They suggested that there must be some local hidden variables at work in order to account for the behavior of entangled particles. In a theory of hidden variables, as Einstein envisaged it, the randomness and indeterminacy seen in the behavior of quantum particles would only be apparent. For example, if one knew the details of all the hidden variables associated with a particle, then one could predict both its position and momentum. The uncertainty that had been quantified by Heisenberg's principle would simply be an artifact of not having complete information about the hidden variables. Furthermore, Einstein argued that the hidden variables should obey the condition of locality: Whatever the hidden variables actually are, the behavior of the hidden variables for one particle should not be able to instantly affect the behavior of those for another particle far away. This idea, called the principle of locality, is rooted in intuition from classical physics that physical interactions do not propagate instantly across space. These ideas were the subject of ongoing debate between their proponents. In particular, Einstein himself did not approve of the way Podolsky had stated the problem in the famous EPR paper.

In 1964, John Stewart Bell proposed his famous theorem, which states that no physical theory of hidden local variables can ever reproduce all the predictions of quantum mechanics. Implicit in the theorem is the proposition that the determinism of classical physics is fundamentally incapable of describing quantum mechanics. Bell expanded on the theorem to provide what would become the conceptual foundation of the Bell test experiments.

A typical experiment involves the observation of particles, often photons, in an apparatus designed to produce entangled pairs and allow for the measurement of some characteristic of each, such as their spin. The results of the experiment could then be compared to what was predicted by local realism and those predicted by quantum mechanics.

In theory, the results could be "coincidentally" consistent with both. To address this problem, Bell proposed a mathematical description of local realism that placed a statistical limit on the likelihood of that eventuality. If the results of an experiment violate Bell's inequality, local hidden variables can be ruled out as their cause. Later researchers built on Bell's work by proposing new inequalities that serve the same purpose and refine the basic idea in one way or another. Consequently, the term "Bell inequality" can mean any one of a number of inequalities satisfied by local hidden-variables theories; in practice, many present-day experiments employ the CHSH inequality. All these inequalities, like the original devised by Bell, express the idea that assuming local realism places restrictions on the statistical results of experiments on sets of particles that have taken part in an interaction and then separated.

To date, all Bell tests have supported the theory of quantum physics, and not the hypothesis of local hidden variables. These efforts to experimentally validate violations of the Bell inequalities resulted in John Clauser, Alain Aspect, and Anton Zeilinger being awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Conduct of optical Bell test experiments
In practice most actual experiments have used light, assumed to be emitted in the form of particle-like photons (produced by atomic cascade or spontaneous parametric down conversion), rather than the atoms that Bell originally had in mind. The property of interest is, in the best known experiments, the polarisation direction, though other properties can be used. Such experiments fall into two classes, depending on whether the analysers used have one or two output channels.

A typical CHSH (two-channel) experiment

The diagram shows a typical optical experiment of the two-channel kind for which Alain Aspect set a precedent in 1982. Coincidences (simultaneous detections) are recorded, the results being categorised as '++', '+−', '−+' or '−−' and corresponding counts accumulated.

Four separate subexperiments are conducted, corresponding to the four terms E(a, b) in the test statistic S (equation (2) shown below). The settings a, a′, b and b′ are generally in practice chosen to be 0, 45°, 22.5° and 67.5° respectively — the "Bell test angles" — these being the ones for which the quantum mechanical formula gives the greatest violation of the inequality.

For each selected value of a and b, the numbers of coincidences in each category (N++, N−−, N+− and N−+) are recorded. The experimental estimate for E(a, b) is then calculated as:

Once all four E’s have been estimated, an experimental estimate of the test statistic

can be found. If S is numerically greater than 2 it has infringed the CHSH inequality. The experiment is declared to have supported the QM prediction and ruled out all local hidden-variable theories.

A strong assumption has had to be made, however, to justify use of expression (2), namely, that the sample of detected pairs is representative of the pairs emitted by the source. Denial of this assumption is called the fair sampling loophole.

A typical CH74 (single-channel) experiment

Prior to 1982 all actual Bell tests used "single-channel" polarisers and variations on an inequality designed for this setup. The latter is described in Clauser, Horne, Shimony and Holt's much-cited 1969 article as being the one suitable for practical use. As with the CHSH test, there are four subexperiments in which each polariser takes one of two possible settings, but in addition there are other subexperiments in which one or other polariser or both are absent. Counts are taken as before and used to estimate the test statistic.

where the symbol ∞ indicates absence of a polariser.

If S exceeds 0 then the experiment is declared to have infringed the CH inequality and hence to have refuted local hidden-variables. This inequality is known as CH inequality instead of CHSH as it was also derived in a 1974 article by Clauser and Horne more rigorously and under weaker assumptions.

Experimental assumptions
In addition to the theoretical assumptions, there are practical ones. There may, for example, be a number of "accidental coincidences" in addition to those of interest. It is assumed that no bias is introduced by subtracting their estimated number before calculating S, but that this is true is not considered by some to be obvious. There may be synchronisation problems — ambiguity in recognising pairs because in practice they will not be detected at exactly the same time.

Nevertheless, despite all the deficiencies of the actual experiments, one striking fact emerges: the results are, to a very good approximation, what quantum mechanics predicts. If imperfect experiments give us such excellent overlap with quantum predictions, most working quantum physicists would agree with John Bell in expecting that, when a perfect Bell test is done, the Bell inequalities will still be violated. This attitude has led to the emergence of a new sub-field of physics known as quantum information theory. One of the main achievements of this new branch of physics is showing that violation of Bell's inequalities leads to the possibility of a secure information transfer, which utilizes the so-called quantum cryptography (involving entangled states of pairs of particles).

Notable experiments
Over the past half century, a great number of Bell test experiments have been conducted. The experiments are commonly interpreted to rule out local hidden-variable theories, and in 2015 an experiment was performed that is not subject to either the locality loophole or the detection loophole (Hensen et al. ). An experiment free of the locality loophole is one where for each separate measurement and in each wing of the experiment, a new setting is chosen and the measurement completed before signals could communicate the settings from one wing of the experiment to the other. An experiment free of the detection loophole is one where close to 100% of the successful measurement outcomes in one wing of the experiment are paired with a successful measurement in the other wing. This percentage is called the efficiency of the experiment. Advancements in technology have led to a great variety of methods to test Bell-type inequalities.

Some of the best known and recent experiments include:

Kasday, Ullman and Wu (1970)
Leonard Ralph Kasday, Jack R. Ullman and Chien-Shiung Wu carried out the first experimental Bell test, using photon pairs produced by positronium decay and analyzed by Compton scattering. The experiment observed photon polarization correlations consistent with quantum predictions and inconsistent with local realistic models that obey the known polarization dependence of Compton scattering. Due to the low polarization selectivity of Compton scattering, the results did not violate a Bell inequality.

Freedman and Clauser (1972)
Stuart J. Freedman and John Clauser carried out the first Bell test that observed a Bell inequality violation, using Freedman's inequality, a variant on the CH74 inequality.

Aspect et al. (1982)
Alain Aspect and his team at Orsay, Paris, conducted three Bell tests using calcium cascade sources. The first and last used the CH74 inequality. The second was the first application of the CHSH inequality. The third (and most famous) was arranged such that the choice between the two settings on each side was made during the flight of the photons (as originally suggested by John Bell).

Tittel et al. (1998)
The Geneva 1998 Bell test experiments showed that distance did not destroy the "entanglement". Light was sent in fibre optic cables over distances of several kilometers before it was analysed. As with almost all Bell tests since about 1985, a "parametric down-conversion" (PDC) source was used.

Weihs et al. (1998): experiment under "strict Einstein locality" conditions
In 1998 Gregor Weihs and a team at Innsbruck, led by Anton Zeilinger, conducted an experiment that closed the "locality" loophole, improving on Aspect's of 1982. The choice of detector was made using a quantum process to ensure that it was random. This test violated the CHSH inequality by over 30 standard deviations, the coincidence curves agreeing with those predicted by quantum theory.

Pan et al. (2000) experiment on the GHZ state
This is the first of new Bell-type experiments on more than two particles; this one uses the so-called GHZ state of three particles.

Rowe et al. (2001): the first to close the detection loophole
The detection loophole was first closed in an experiment with two entangled trapped ions, carried out in the ion storage group of David Wineland at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder. The experiment had detection efficiencies well over 90%.

Go et al. (Belle collaboration): Observation of Bell inequality violation in B mesons
Using semileptonic B0 decays of Υ(4S) at Belle experiment, a clear violation of Bell Inequality in particle-antiparticle correlation is observed.

Gröblacher et al. (2007) test of Leggett-type non-local realist theories
A specific class of non-local theories suggested by Anthony Leggett is ruled out. Based on this, the authors conclude that any possible non-local hidden-variable theory consistent with quantum mechanics must be highly counterintuitive.

Salart et al. (2008): separation in a Bell Test
This experiment filled a loophole by providing an 18 km separation between detectors, which is sufficient to allow the completion of the quantum state measurements before any information could have traveled between the two detectors.

Ansmann et al. (2009): overcoming the detection loophole in solid state
This was the first experiment testing Bell inequalities with solid-state qubits (superconducting Josephson phase qubits were used). This experiment surmounted the detection loophole using a pair of superconducting qubits in an entangled state. However, the experiment still suffered from the locality loophole because the qubits were only separated by a few millimeters.

Giustina et al. (2013), Larsson et al (2014): overcoming the detection loophole for photons
The detection loophole for photons has been closed for the first time by Marissa Giustina, using highly efficient detectors. This makes photons the first system for which all of the main loopholes have been closed, albeit in different experiments.

Christensen et al. (2013): overcoming the detection loophole for photons
The Christensen et al. (2013) experiment is similar to that of Giustina et al. Giustina et al. did just four long runs with constant measurement settings (one for each of the four pairs of settings). The experiment was not pulsed so that formation of "pairs" from the two records of measurement results (Alice and Bob) had to be done after the experiment which in fact exposes the experiment to the coincidence loophole. This led to a reanalysis of the experimental data in a way which removed the coincidence loophole, and fortunately the new analysis still showed a violation of the appropriate CHSH or CH inequality. On the other hand, the Christensen et al. experiment was pulsed and measurement settings were frequently reset in a random way, though only once every 1000 particle pairs, not every time.

Hensen et al., Giustina et al., Shalm et al. (2015): "loophole-free" Bell tests
In 2015 the first three significant-loophole-free Bell-tests were published within three months by independent groups in Delft, Vienna and Boulder. All three tests simultaneously addressed the detection loophole, the locality loophole, and the memory loophole. This makes them “loophole-free” in the sense that all remaining conceivable loopholes like superdeterminism require truly exotic hypotheses that might never get closed experimentally.

The first published experiment by Hensen et al. used a photonic link to entangle the electron spins of two nitrogen-vacancy defect centres in diamonds 1.3 kilometers apart and measured a violation of the CHSH inequality (S = 2.42 ± 0.20). Thereby the local-realist hypothesis could be rejected with a p-value of 0.039.

Both simultaneously published experiments by Giustina et al. and Shalm et al. used entangled photons to obtain a Bell inequality violation with high statistical significance (p-value ≪10−6). Notably, the experiment by Shalm et al. also combined three types of (quasi-)random number generators to determine the measurement basis choices. One of these methods, detailed in an ancillary file, is the “'Cultural' pseudorandom source” which involved using bit strings from popular media such as the Back to the Future films, Star Trek: Beyond the Final Frontier, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and the television shows Saved by the Bell and Dr. Who.

Schmied et al. (2016): Detection of Bell correlations in a many-body system
Using a witness for Bell correlations derived from a multi-partite Bell inequality, physicists at the University of Basel were able to conclude for the first time Bell correlation in a many-body system composed by about 480 atoms in a Bose-Einstein condensate. Even though loopholes were not closed, this experiment shows the possibility of observing Bell correlations in the macroscopic regime.

Handsteiner et al. (2017): "Cosmic Bell Test" - Measurement Settings from Milky Way Stars
Physicists led by David Kaiser of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Anton Zeilinger of the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information and University of Vienna performed an experiment that "produced results consistent with nonlocality" by measuring starlight that had taken 600 years to travel to Earth. The experiment “represents the first experiment to dramatically limit the space-time region in which hidden variables could be relevant.”

Rosenfeld et al. (2017): "Event-Ready" Bell test with entangled atoms and closed detection and locality loopholes
Physicists at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics published results from an experiment in which they observed a Bell inequality violation using entangled spin states of two atoms with a separation distance of 398 meters in which the detection loophole, the locality loophole, and the memory loophole were closed. The violation of S = 2.221 ± 0.033 rejected local realism with a significance value of P = 1.02×10−16 when taking into account 7 months of data and 55000 events or an upper bound of P = 2.57×10−9 from a single run with 10000 events.

The BIG Bell Test Collaboration (2018): “Challenging local realism with human choices”
An international collaborative scientific effort used arbitrary human choice to define measurement settings instead of using random number generators. Assuming that human free will exists, this would close the “freedom-of-choice loophole”. Around 100,000 participants were recruited in order to provide sufficient input for the experiment to be statistically significant.

Rauch et al (2018): measurement settings from distant quasars
In 2018, an international team used light from two quasars (one whose light was generated approximately eight billion years ago and the other approximately twelve billion years ago) as the basis for their measurement settings. This experiment pushed the timeframe for when the settings could have been mutually determined to at least 7.8 billion years in the past, a substantial fraction of the superdeterministic limit (that being the creation of the universe 13.8 billion years ago).

The 2019 PBS Nova episode Einstein's Quantum Riddle documents this "cosmic Bell test" measurement, with footage of the scientific team on-site at the high-altitude Teide Observatory located in the Canary Islands.

Storz et al (2023): Loophole-free Bell inequality violation with superconducting circuits
In 2023, an international team led by the group of Andreas Wallraff at ETH Zurich demonstrated a loophole-free violation of the CHSH inequality with superconducting circuits deterministically entangled via a cryogenic link spanning a distance of 30 meters.

Loopholes
Though the series of increasingly sophisticated Bell test experiments has convinced the physics community that local hidden-variable theories are indefensible; they can never be excluded entirely. For example, the hypothesis of superdeterminism in which all experiments and outcomes (and everything else) are predetermined cannot be excluded (because it is unfalsifiable).

Up to 2015, the outcome of all experiments that violate a Bell inequality could still theoretically be explained by exploiting the detection loophole and/or the locality loophole. The locality (or communication) loophole means that since in actual practice the two detections are separated by a time-like interval, the first detection may influence the second by some kind of signal. To avoid this loophole, the experimenter has to ensure that particles travel far apart before being measured, and that the measurement process is rapid. More serious is the detection (or unfair sampling) loophole, because particles are not always detected in both wings of the experiment. It can be imagined that the complete set of particles would behave randomly, but instruments only detect a subsample showing quantum correlations, by letting detection be dependent on a combination of local hidden variables and detector setting.

Experimenters had repeatedly voiced that loophole-free tests could be expected in the near future. In 2015, a loophole-free Bell violation was reported using entangled diamond spins over a distance of 1.3 km and corroborated by two experiments using entangled photon pairs.

The remaining possible theories that obey local realism can be further restricted by testing different spatial configurations, methods to determine the measurement settings, and recording devices. It has been suggested that using humans to generate the measurement settings and observe the outcomes provides a further test. David Kaiser of MIT told the New York Times in 2015 that a potential weakness of the "loophole-free" experiments is that the systems used to add randomness to the measurement may be predetermined in a method that was not detected in experiments.

Detection loophole
A common problem in optical Bell tests is that only a small fraction of the emitted photons are detected. It is then possible that the correlations of the detected photons are unrepresentative: although they show a violation of a Bell inequality, if all photons were detected the Bell inequality would actually be respected. This was first noted by Philip M. Pearle in 1970, who devised a local hidden variable model that faked a Bell violation by letting the photon be detected only if the measurement setting was favourable. The assumption that this does not happen, i.e., that the small sample is actually representative of the whole is called the fair sampling assumption.

To do away with this assumption it is necessary to detect a sufficiently large fraction of the photons. This is usually characterized in terms of the detection efficiency $$\eta$$, defined as the probability that a photodetector detects a photon that arrives at it. Anupam Garg and N. David Mermin showed that when using a maximally entangled state and the CHSH inequality an efficiency of $$\eta > 2\sqrt2-2 \approx 0.83 $$ is required for a loophole-free violation. Later Philippe H. Eberhard showed that when using a partially entangled state a loophole-free violation is possible for $$\eta > 2/3 \approx 0.67 $$, which is the optimal bound for the CHSH inequality. Other Bell inequalities allow for even lower bounds. For example, there exists a four-setting inequality which is violated for $$\eta > (\sqrt5-1)/2 \approx 0.62$$.

Historically, only experiments with non-optical systems have been able to reach high enough efficiencies to close this loophole, such as trapped ions, superconducting qubits, and nitrogen-vacancy centers. These experiments were not able to close the locality loophole, which is easy to do with photons. More recently, however, optical setups have managed to reach sufficiently high detection efficiencies by using superconducting photodetectors, and hybrid setups have managed to combine the high detection efficiency typical of matter systems with the ease of distributing entanglement at a distance typical of photonic systems.

Locality loophole
One of the assumptions of Bell's theorem is the one of locality, namely that the choice of setting at a measurement site does not influence the result of the other. The motivation for this assumption is the theory of relativity, that prohibits communication faster than light. For this motivation to apply to an experiment, it needs to have space-like separation between its measurements events. That is, the time that passes between the choice of measurement setting and the production of an outcome must be shorter than the time it takes for a light signal to travel between the measurement sites.

The first experiment that strived to respect this condition was Aspect's 1982 experiment. In it the settings were changed fast enough, but deterministically. The first experiment to change the settings randomly, with the choices made by a quantum random number generator, was Weihs et al.'s 1998 experiment. Scheidl et al. improved on this further in 2010 by conducting an experiment between locations separated by a distance of 144 km.

Coincidence loophole
In many experiments, especially those based on photon polarization, pairs of events in the two wings of the experiment are only identified as belonging to a single pair after the experiment is performed, by judging whether or not their detection times are close enough to one another. This generates a new possibility for a local hidden variables theory to "fake" quantum correlations: delay the detection time of each of the two particles by a larger or smaller amount depending on some relationship between hidden variables carried by the particles and the detector settings encountered at the measurement station.

The coincidence loophole can be ruled out entirely simply by working with a pre-fixed lattice of detection windows which are short enough that most pairs of events occurring in the same window do originate with the same emission and long enough that a true pair is not separated by a window boundary.

Memory loophole
In most experiments, measurements are repeatedly made at the same two locations. A local hidden variable theory could exploit the memory of past measurement settings and outcomes in order to increase the violation of a Bell inequality. Moreover, physical parameters might be varying in time. It has been shown that, provided each new pair of measurements is done with a new random pair of measurement settings, that neither memory nor time inhomogeneity have a serious effect on the experiment.

Superdeterminism
A necessary assumption to derive Bell's theorem is that the hidden variables are not correlated with the measurement settings. This assumption has been justified on the grounds that the experimenter has "free will" to choose the settings, and that such is necessary to do science in the first place. A (hypothetical) theory where the choice of measurement is determined by the system being measured is known as superdeterministic.

Many-worlds loophole
The many-worlds interpretation, also known as the Hugh Everett interpretation, is deterministic and has local dynamics, consisting of the unitary part of quantum mechanics without collapse. Bell's theorem does not apply because of an implicit assumption that measurements have a single outcome.

title: Bell test


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Giuseppe Fanelli

Giuseppe Fanelli (13 October 1827 – 5 January 1877) was an Italian revolutionary anarchist, best known for his tour of Spain in 1868, introducing the anarchist ideas of Mikhail Bakunin.

Life and revolutionary path
Fanelli was born in Naples, Italy on 13 October 1827. At the age of 18, he enrolled in Giovine Italia, a political movement with the goal to create a united Italian republic.

He was active in the insurrectionary, united Italian republic Young Italy movement and fought in the Milan insurrection of the 1848 revolution. He went on to fight alongside Garibaldi's Redshirts in the Expedition of the Thousand in Sicily in 1860; he also fought in the Polish uprising in 1863. He was elected to Italian Parliament in November 1865 and fought against the Austrians in 1866.

Fanelli met Bakunin at Ischia in 1866. In October 1868 Bakunin sponsored Fanelli to travel to Barcelona to share his libertarian visions and recruit revolutionists to the International Workingmen's Association. Fanellis trip and the meeting he organised during his travels provided the catalyst for the Spanish exiles, the largest workers' and peasants' movement in modern Spain and the largest anarchist movement in modern Europe.

Fanelli's tour took him first to Barcelona, where he met and stayed with Élisée Reclus. Reclus and Fanelli were at odds over Reclus' friendships with Spanish republicans, and Fanelli soon left Barcelona for Madrid. Fanelli stayed in Madrid until the end of January 1869, conducting meetings to introduce Spanish workers, including Anselmo Lorenzo, to the First National. In February 1869 Fanelli left Madrid, journeying home via Barcelona. While in Barcelona again, he met with painter Josep Lluís Pellicer and his cousin, Rafael Farga Pellicer along with others who were to play an important role establishing the International in Barcelona.

Death
Fanelli died of tuberculosis in Naples in 1877.

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

title: Giuseppe Fanelli


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Ordu Province

Ordu Province is a province and metropolitan municipality of Turkey, located on the Black Sea coast. Its area is 5,914 km2, and its population is 763,190 (2022). Its adjacent provinces are Samsun to the northwest, Tokat to the southwest, Sivas to the south, and Giresun to the east. Its license-plate code is 52. The capital of the province is the city of Ordu.

Geography

Ordu is a strip of Black Sea coast and the hills behind, historically an agricultural and fishing area and in recent years, tourism has seen an increase, mainly visitors from Russia and Georgia, as Ordu boasts some of the best beaches, rivers, and lush, green mountains on the Black Sea coast. Walking in the high pastures is now a popular excursion for Turkish holidaymakers. The higher altitudes are covered in forest.

Melet River, Bolaman River, Elekçi River, Turnasuyu Stream, Akçaova Stream and Civil Stream are the main rivers of the province. The topography of the province is not conducive to lake formation and only two major lakes, Gaga Lake and Ulugöl, are present in Ordu.

Economy
The economy of the province depends on agriculture. Ordu is famous for hazelnuts. Turkey as a whole produces about 70 percent of the world's hazelnuts, and Ordu is the chief producer in Turkey, responsible for 150,000–180,000 tonnes per year, which amounts to around 30% of Turkey's production. Hazelnuts production takes around 88% of Ordu's arable land, the remainder mainly consists of corn and wheat fields. Whilst covering only 0.1% of the arable land of the province, Ordu's kiwi production is the second largest in the country after Yalova. Beekeeping is also important in Ordu, which produced in 2010 12.8% of honey produced in Turkey.

Demographics
In recent decades many people from Ordu have migrated away to jobs in Istanbul, Bursa, Samsun, Sakarya or abroad (espacially to Austria).

Districts
Ordu province is divided into 19 districts:

 * Akkuş
 * Altınordu
 * Aybastı
 * Çamaş
 * Çatalpınar
 * Çaybaşı
 * Fatsa
 * Gölköy
 * Gülyalı
 * Gürgentepe
 * İkizce
 * Kabadüz
 * Kabataş
 * Korgan
 * Kumru
 * Mesudiye
 * Perşembe
 * Ulubey
 * Ünye

Places to see
Ordu has an attractive coast including pretty bays and the cleanest and longest beaches on this stretch of the Black Sea coast. Specific sites include: Perşembe Yaylası Aybastı
 * Kurul Castle
 * Boztepe – a 460 m hill above the city.
 * Karagöl – a crater lake at 3107 m, above the plateau of Çambaşı
 * Yason (Jason) point – a headland in Perşembe
 * Çambaşı Yaylası a high plateau

Well-known residents

 * Fikri Sönmez – left-wing mayor of Fatsa in the period leading up to the 1980 Turkish coup d'état

title: Ordu Province


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User talk:ARD

RFC
See Requests for comment/ARD and Jwalker. You have been served, as they say. --Joy [shallot]   2 July 2005 13:22 (UTC)

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René Lévesque (TV series)

The historical television series René Lévesque, broadcast in 1994, tells the story of René Lévesque, a Quebec premier. It stars Denis Bouchard as Lévesque. Another notable member of the cast is Claudia Cardinale, of 8½, Once Upon a Time in the West, and Pink Panther fame.

title: René Lévesque (TV series)


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User talk:WarEagleTH

Hi.

Would you mind sharing your thoughts concerning what about the Ron Francis article you think needs cleaning up? RGTraynor 03:29, 2 November 2005 (UTC)

bubbles
I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles is a well known song - you do not tag it as nonsense. -- RHaworth 16:42, 17 November 2005 (UTC)

High school article
Hi! Short stub articles are fine. That article basically started out as nothing more than contact info. This isn't the yellow pages. Hope this helps. - Lucky 6.9 23:18, 8 December 2005 (UTC)

Southwest Guilford High School
May I ask why you changed Southwest Guilford High School's text to information about a school that does not have that same name in Minnesota? -Ridethefire3211 01:16, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
 * I have no idea how this happened. At the time, I was doing a lot of work with stub sorting of US schools and I must have accidentally copy-pasted a different school's article into this one.  I have never heard of either and I certainly meant no harm.  Thank you for pointing this out to me; I'm going to check the other school's article to make sure I didn't move this article's text over there.  -- ʀ6ʍ  ɑ  ʏ89  01:24, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Rename
As requested, I have renamed you as User:WarEagleTH. You should now move your userpages to the new name. Warofdreams talk 02:18, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

WP:CVU status
The Counter-Vandalism Unit project is under consideration to be moved to and/or  status. Another proposal is to delete or redirect the project. You have been identified as a project member and your input as to this matter would be welcomed at WT:CVU and at the deletion debate. Thank you! Delivered on behalf of xaosflux 17:48, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

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

title: User talk:WarEagleTH


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Rize Province

Rize Province (Rize ili) is a province of northeast Turkey, on the eastern Black Sea coast between Trabzon and Artvin. The province of Erzurum is to the south. Its area is 3,835 km2, and its population is 344,016 (2022). The capital is the city of Rize. It was formerly known as Lazistan, however the designation of the term of Lazistan was officially banned in 1926.

The province is home to Laz, Hemshin, Turkish and Georgian communities.

Etymology
The name comes from Greek ρίζα (riza), meaning "mountain slopes". The Georgian, Laz, and Armenian names also have Greek origins: their names in respective order are Rize (რიზე), Rizini (რიზინი), and Rize (Ռիզե).

Pre-antiquity
We have little information as to the prehistory of this region, which being covered in thick forest is difficult to excavate and reveals little. Colchis, which existed from the 13th to the 1st centuries BC, is regarded as an early proto-Georgian polity that may have reached this area.

Antiquity
According to Pliny the Elder, the Aegean Ancient Greek community of Miletus established a series of trading posts along the Black Sea coast in 670 BC, of which one was Rize. In the mid-6th century BC, the tribes living in the southern Colchis (Tibareni, Mossynoeci, Macrones, Moschi, and Marres) were incorporated into the nineteenth Satrapy of Persia.

The Achaemenid Empire was defeated by Alexander the Great, but following Alexander's death, a number of separate kingdoms were established in Anatolia, including Pontus, in the corner of the south-eastern Black Sea, ruled by Mithridates. Rize was brought into the Kingdom of Pontus by Pharnaces in 180 BC. The small number of Hellenistic Greek inscriptions that have been found in Pontus suggest that Greek culture did not substantially extend beyond the coastal cities and the court. The kingdom was absorbed into the Roman Empire between 10 AD and 395 AD, when it passed to the Byzantines. By this time, writers such as Pliny and Arrian were describing the inhabitants as Laz.

Medieval era
During the medieval era, the region was under Byzantine control, and was mainly populated by Greeks and indigenous Lazs. During the reign of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I (c. 527–565), the tribes of the interior, called Sannoi or Tzannoi, the ancestors of modern Laz people, were subdued, christianized and brought to central rule. Locals began to have closer contact with the Greeks and acquired various Hellenic cultural traits, including in some cases the language. Locals were under nominal Byzantine suzerainty in the theme of Chaldia, with its capital at Trebizond, governed by native semi-autonomous rulers, like the Gabras family. In 790 AD, Armenians fleeing from the Arab invasion of Armenia settled in Hemshin and established the Principality of Hamamshen. Following the invasion of the Seljuk Turks, there was a larger influx of Armenians in the area, resulting in partial Armenization of the local Tzan population.

With the Georgian intervention in Chaldia and collapse of Byzantine Empire in 1204, the Empire of Trebizond was established along the southeastern coast of the Black Sea, populated by a large Lazian-speaking population. In the eastern part of the same empire, an autonomous coastal theme of Greater Lazia was established. Byzantine authors, such as Pachymeres, and to some extent Trapezuntines such as Lazaropoulos and Bessarion, regarded the Trapezuntian Empire as being merely a Lazian border state. Though Greek in higher culture, the rural areas of Trebizond empire appear to have been predominantly Laz in ethnic composition. Laz family names, with hellenized terminations, are noticeable in the records of the mediaeval empire of Trebizond.

In 1282, the kingdom of Imereti besieged Trebizond, however after the failed attempt to take the city, the Georgians occupied several provinces, and the Trebizontine province of Lazia threw off its allegiance to the king of the 'Iberian' and 'Lazian' tribes and united itself with the Georgian Kingdom of Imereti.

The Ottoman era
The Laz populated area was often contested by different Georgian principalities. Through the Battle of Murjakheti (1535), the Principality of Guria finally ensured control over the area until 1547, when it was conquered by resurgent Ottoman forces and reorganized into the Lazistan Sanjak as part of eyalet of Trabzon.

From the late-17th century onwards, the Ottoman administration built multiple bridges across the Fırtına River and its tributaries.

The province was a site of battles between Ottoman and Russian armies during the Caucasus Campaign of World War I, and was occupied by Russian forces in 1916–1918. It was returned to the Ottomans with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918.

Since 1924, Rize has been a province of the Republic of Turkey. Until tea plantations were established in the 1940s, the province was a poor area at the far end of the country, with only the Soviet Union beyond the Iron Curtain. Many generations of people in Rize left to look for jobs in Istanbul or overseas.

In Turkey
In September 1935, the third Inspectorate General (Umumi Müfettişlik, UM) was created, to which the Rize province was included. Its establishment was based on the Law 1164 from June 1927, which was passed in order to turkefy the population. The third UM spanned across the provinces of Erzurum, Artvin, Rize, Trabzon, Kars, Gümüşhane, Erzincan and Ağrı. It was governed by an Inspector General seated in the city of Erzurum. The Inspectorate General was dissolved in 1952 during the government of the Democrat Party.

Life in Rize today
The city of Rize is a coastal town on a narrow strip of flat land between the mountains and the sea. Today, the area is wealthier, although there is a marked difference between the lifestyle of the people in the relatively wealthy city of Rize and those in the remote villages where wooden houses perch on the steep mountainside with the rain beating down. The province is known in Turkey for the production of Rize tea.

Geography

Rize is located between the Pontic Mountains and the Black Sea. It is considered to be the "wettest" corner of Turkey and is the country's main tea producing region. In addition to tea, the region is also known for growing kiwi fruit. The province is largely rural and very scenic, containing many mountain valleys and elevated yaylas (meadows). The district of Çamlıhemşin is one of Turkey's most popular venues for trekking and outdoor holidays. Roads are scarce in some of the more remote regions, so electrical powered cable cars have been installed to transport people and supplies into the mountains. Summers are cool (July average 22 °C) and winters are mild (January average 7 °C) with high levels of precipitation all year long.

The new Black Sea coast road has made Rize more accessible, but has drawn criticism for its negative effect on the region's wildlife. Since the early 2000s, Rize has seen an increase in visitors from outside the province, particularly tourist from urban areas. This increase in tourism has raised concerns among locals that the traditional way of life and the unblemished character of the natural surroundings is being endangered. The provincial governor, Enver Salihoglu (as of 2005) has stated his opposition to the expansion of the road network and has advocated a commercial focus on beekeeping, trout farming, and the growing of organic teas.

Native plants include the Cherry Laurel (taflan or karayemiş), the fruit of which is an edible small dark plum that leaves a dark stain on the mouth and teeth. In addition, the Bilberry, which are now being actively cultivated, can be found growing the region. Rize is traversed by the northeasterly line of equal latitude and longitude.

Mountains
Notable mountains
 * Kaçkar (3.937 m)
 * Barut (3.251 m)
 * Ziglat (3.511 m)
 * Verçenik (3.711 m)
 * Hipot (3.560 m)

Rivers
From east to the west
 * Fındıklı Deresi
 * Büyükdere
 * Pazar Suyu
 * Karadere
 * İyidere

Districts
Rize province is divided into 12 districts, including the capital district Rize:
 * Ardeşen
 * Çamlıhemşin
 * Çayeli
 * Derepazarı
 * Fındıklı
 * Güneysu
 * Hemşin
 * İkizdere
 * İyidere
 * Kalkandere
 * Pazar
 * Rize

Geology
Part of the Pontic Mountains (Eastern Black Sea Mts.), Rize was formed in the Palaeozoic period. Valleys first appeared during the Cretaceous period and have since expanded due to erosion.

Climate
The region's climate is characterized by relatively mild to warm temperatures and evenly distributed precipitation throughout the year. The Köppen Climate Classification subtypes for this climate are Cfa (Humid Subtropical Climate) and Cfb (Oceanic Climate).

Cuisine
The anchovy forms the basic for many of the dishes peculiar to the region. Soups, salads, pilafs and even desserts are made of anchovy. Some of the local dishes are hamsi buğulama (boiled anchovy), hamsi stew, and kamsi köfte (anchovy meatballs). Lahana çorbası (cabbage soup), muhlama (made of cheese, cornmeal and butter) and pides (pita bread topped with various fillings) are also other local delicacies.

Rize tea
Rize tea is a major agricultural product to the region and has changed the local economy. Rize Province is also one of the largest consumers of Rize tea too.

The province of Rize has prided itself of being the largest tea producer within Turkey. In 2021, the Rize Commerce Exchange started the construction of a seven-floor building in the shape of the traditional tulip-shaped tea glasses called ince belli, in hopes to boost local tourism.

Folk dances and traditional costumes
Folk dancers perform horon energetically when it is accompanied by kemenche. However this folk dance can also be accompanied by Tulum or kaval. Folk dancers wear traditional costumes while performing horon. Men wear shirt, vest, jacket, zipka (pants made of wool and gathered at knees) and black boots. On their jackets are silver embroideries, amulets, and hemayils with religion expressions put inside these small silver containers to br protected against evil's eye. On the other hand, women dancers wear colorful dresses and traditional hand painted head scarves including various motifs.

Handicrafts
Rize offers traditional handicrafts and handmade souvenirs to visitors. Some of them include: copper works, wicker baskets, butter churns, woven socks, shoulder bags, and spoon made of boxwood. Linen of Rize (Turkish: Rize Bezi) is a handwoven textile and is often used as part of the under layer of a dress. Kemençe is a traditional 3-stringed string instrument which is made in this province.

Places of interest
Sites in the province include:
 * Pokut Yaylası - The most touristic yayla in Rize Province.
 * Ayder - A yayla (high meadow) area with hot springs, hotels and restaurants, and from here you can climb up to higher and more remote meadows and villages.
 * Çamlık - riverside area of forest park
 * Fırtına Vadisi - the valley is now a protected site
 * Gelin Tülü Şelalesi - a waterfall in Yukarışimşirli, Çamlıhemşin district.
 * Palovit Şelalesi - a scenic waterfall in Çamlıhemşin district.
 * Ovit - mountain pass on the Erzurum road in Ikizdere, 2640 m, forest and mountain viewpoint
 * The village and waterfall of Palovit, high in the mountains.
 * Avup Dağı, the mountain between Rize and Çamlıhemşin, between Fırtına Deresı and Ortaköy Deresi. There are four Byzantine castles situated high on rocks on the mountainside including;
 * Kale-i Balâ and Zilkale
 * Huser Yaylası - Huser plateau is connected to Çamlıhemşin district of Rize. Huser Plateau, one of the highest plateaus of the Black Sea, must be visited with its unique view.

Other buildings of note include:
 * The watch tower, Kız Kalesi on the sea front in Pazar.
 * Zilkale, "bell tower" near the village of Şenköy in the district of Çamlıhemşin
 * Fırtına River bridges

title: Rize Province


text:
Kars Province

Kars Province (Kars ili; Azerbaijani: Qars Rayonu; Parêzgeha Qersê; Կարսի նահանգ ) is a province of Turkey, located in the northeastern part of the country. It shares part of its closed border with Armenia. Its area is 10,193 km2, and its population is 274,829 (2022). The provincial capital is the city of Kars. The provinces of Ardahan and Iğdır were part of Kars Province until 1992.

History
In ancient times, Kars (Կարս) was part of the province of Ararat in the Kingdom of Armenia. The first known people were the followers of Vanand (Վանանդ), for whom Kars was their main settlement and fortress. In 928, Kars became the capital of Bagratid Armenia. In 968, the capital of Armenia was moved to Ani, but Kars remained the capital of the feudal principality of Vanand.

The Seljuks quickly relinquished direct control over Kars and it became a small emirate whose territory corresponded closely to that of Vanand, and which bordered the similarly created but larger Shaddadid emirate centered at Ani. The Kars emirate was a vassal of the Saltukids in Erzurum, whose forces were effective in opposing Georgian attempts at seizing Kars. Later on, in 1207, Georgian and Armenian forces commanded by David Soslan and brothers Ivane and Zakare Zakarian-Mkhargrzeli captured Kars after a long siege. It was a part of Zakarid Armenia, principality under rule of Zakarians–Mkhargrdzeli, vassals of Bagrationi dynasty of Georgia. George IV son of Tamar, was appointed as a viceroy of Kars. It was conquered in 1242 by the Mongols; was regained by Georgian Kingdom during the reign of George V the Brilliant (1314–1346) and remained as part of the Kingdom before its disintegration, which then passed into the hands of Georgian Atabegs belonging to the House of Jaqeli. During the rule of the Persian Empire and the Ottoman Empire, the fortress of Kars, located in what was then the eastern part of the city, fell into disrepair. However, as Kars was within a border region its defensive structures were often renewed, and they continued to advance to such a degree, that in the 19th century Kars was well known around the world as a castle.

As a result of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877 to 1878, the province of Kars was incorporated into the Russian Empire as part of the militarily administered Kars Oblast and remained so until 1918. It was seen as a border province of a Russian Empire which was seeking to expand yet further by the conquest of more territory belonging to the Ottoman Empire. The period from 1878 to 1918 was marked in the province of Kars by the settlement by the Russian authorities of a very heterogeneous mix of Christian populations, including Armenians, Caucasus Greeks, Russians, Georgians, and even smaller numbers from other Christian communities hitherto with little or no historical links to the region, such as ethnic Germans, Poles, Estonians, Lithuanians, and Russian sectarian communities such as Molokans and Doukhobors. Many from the non-Russian Christian Orthodox communities (Georgians, Caucasus Greeks, and the minority of Armenians who were Lessor Orthodox) had themselves fought in or collaborated with the Russian Imperial army to capture Kars province from the Muslim Ottomans. They saw this as a means of fulfilling their own ambitions to recapture Christian territory on the back of the Russian imperial enterprise.

As a part of Turkey
In September 1935 the third Inspectorate General (Umumi Müfettişlik, UM) was created. The Inspectorates Generals regions ruled with wide-ranging authority over the population in order to Turkify its population. The third UM span over the provinces of Erzurum, Artvin, Rize, Trabzon, Kars Gümüşhane, Erzincan and Ağrı. It was governed by a Inspector General seated in the city of Erzurum. The Inspectorate General was dissolved in 1952 during the Government of the Democrat Party.

Lakes
The main lakes in Kars are Lake Aygır, Lake Çıldır and Lake Kuyucuk.

Mountains
The main mountains in Kars are the Allahuekber Mountains, Mount Soğanlı and Aras Mountains.

Districts
Kars province is divided into 8 districts (ilçe), each named after the administrative center of the district:
 * Akyaka
 * Arpaçay
 * Digor
 * Kağızman
 * Kars
 * Sarıkamış
 * Selim
 * Susuz

There are 382 villages in Kars Province.

Kars nature, wildlife and ecotourism
Kars has a wealth of wildlife that is being documented by the Kars-Iğdır Biodiversity Project run by the KuzeyDoğa Society. The project has recorded 356 of Turkey's 486 bird species in the region, including Ardahan and Iğdır provinces that were formerly part of Kars. At least 233 of these occur at Lake Kuyucuk, that is the most important wetland in the region. Sarıkamış Forests in the south harbor Indian wolves, Syrian brown bear, Caucasian lynx and other animals, and Aras (Araxes) River wetlands comprise a key stop-over site for many migrating birds. Aras River Bird Research and Education Center at Yukarı Cıyrıklı village has recorded 303 bird species at this single location alone.

Economy
The economy of Kars Province is dominated by agriculture, livestock breeding and forestry. 85% of the active population in Kars Province are farmers or herders. 60% of the gross domestic income is received from those sectors. Industry, tourism and commerce is developing.

The climate limits the cultivation of plants in the region. In Kağızman and Tuzluca, cotton, sugar beet, beans and vetches are grown. Vegetable gardening and orchards are not very developed. Wheat, barley, cotton and in small quantity tobacco are grown in the province.

Livestock breeding in the region is more important than agriculture. Grassland, meadows and the rich vegetation led to the development of livestock breeding. The grassland and meadows, which make out 70% of the area of Kars Province, are capable of providing at least ten times of the current livestock potential's breeding. Kars is the biggest cattle breeding province in Turkey, and is the center of livestock trade. Efforts are being made to increase goose breeding, which is very special to Kars region. Aside its meat taking a special place in the Kars cuisine, goose liver and down feather started already to be exported to Europe.

Kars Province is not abundant with woods although the region is favorable for forests. Only 4% of the province area is covered with woods. Scots Pine, spruce and alder are the tree species most found in the woods of Kars. Around 15000 m3 timber is produced by logging in forestry.

Ore beds of rock salt, arsenic, asbestos, magnesite, gypsum and perlite are explored, however, only rock salt is mined.

Main industrial plants in Kars are of meat processing, livestock feed processing, gristmill, yarn, tannery, footwear, cement and brick factories.

Cuisine
Among the most famous food products special to Kars region are Kars honey, Kars Kasseri, Kars Gruyère cheese, which tastes like Swiss Emmental cheese, and Kars style roasted goose.

Monuments
Kars contains numerous monuments, the most notable being the ruined Armenian city of Ani and the 9th century Church of the Apostles.

In popular culture
Kars was the setting for the popular novel Snow by Orhan Pamuk.

The Siege of Kars, 1855 is a book published by The Stationery Office, 2000, and is an account of its defence and capitulation as reported by one General Williams, one of many British officers lent to the Turkish army to lead garrisons and train regiments in the war against Russia.

In the book, Life and Times of Alexis Zorbas by Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorbas talks about his visit to the Kars province in order to find work and where he also attended an extravagant wedding in Kars.

title: Kars Province


text:
Talk:Wave (audience)

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Definite article
I've never heard of it referred to as "the Mexican Wave", it's "a Mexican Wave". The various articles cited seem to use the two terms interchangeably, but I'm changing it as per WP:BOLD. Will Bradshaw (talk) 17:09, 28 May 2018 (UTC)

title: Talk:Wave (audience)


text:
Monteverde

Monteverde is the twelfth canton of the Puntarenas province of Costa Rica, located in the Cordillera de Tilarán (Tilarán range). Roughly a four-hour drive from the Central Valley, Monteverde is one of the country's major ecotourism destinations, with the Reserva Biológica Bosque Nuboso Monteverde (Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve) being the largest, in addition to several other natural attractions which draw considerable numbers of tourists and naturalists, both from Costa Rica and abroad.

National Geographic has called the Monteverde Cloud Forest "the jewel in the crown of cloud forest reserves". Newsweek ranked Monteverde the world's No. 14 "place to remember before it disappears"; by popular vote in Costa Rica, Monteverde was deemed one of the seven natural wonders of the nation, along with Isla del Coco, Volcán Arenal, Cerro Chirripó, Río Celeste, Tortuguero, and Volcán Poás.

Santa Elena is the head town in the region, serving as the area's principal tourist and visitors' hub. Together with the nearby neighborhood of Cerro Plano, and the community of Monteverde proper, visitors have diverse options for accommodations, dining, guided tours, and more when visiting the area's numerous reserves and natural attractions.

Toponymy
Monteverde translates directly to "green mountain", in English, a tribute to the region's wealth of natural beauty. For comparison, the word's French equivalent would be vermont—or montanha verde in Portuguese. Officially, the name is Monte Verde — written with two words.

Climate
Monteverde rests at roughly at 1400 m above sea level, located in a lush, misty and wet, yet breezy and cool, spot in the mountains. The region's mean annual temperature is 18 °C (Nadkarni 2000: 17). Annual precipitation averages around 3000 mm, and ambient humidity oscillates between 74% and 97% (Nadkarni 2000: 34).

History
Various pre-Columbian artifacts testify to the existence of early populations of Clovis Native Americans, who once farmed in villages in the area and hunted the forests, ca. 3000 BC. From around 3300 BC to 2000 BC, nearby tribes of the Arenal area experienced a population decline, but re-established villages in the region between 2000 and 500 BC. Agriculture intensified in the centuries between 500 BC and 300 CE, with simple chiefdom societies replacing the formerly smaller, tribal settlements; some level of deforestation accompanied this rise in population, farming and horticulture. Early stone foundations dating to this period can also be found. Jade, and creating valuable objects with the stone, was a prized material and defining characteristic of these villages. From 300 to 800 CE, complex chiefdoms supplanted simpler chiefdoms as more intricate villages appeared; along with early modern examples of cemeteries, businesses and public squares, goldsmiths were seen as extremely valuable. intertribal trade and conflict. Around 1300, a general decline in population occurred, possibly due to the Arenal Volcano's increased activity.

After the Spanish made landfall in 1502, Costa Rica endured two generations of warfare. Total indigenous populations in what is now Costa Rica fell drastically, from an estimated 400,000 pre-European contact to 80,000 within less than 50 years of contact. Countless innocent people lost their lives for a multitude of reasons, from deplorable living conditions brought about by enslavement (and harsh forced labor and servitude) to outright sadistic punishments, and even murder, of anyone who challenged the conquistadores. Many thousands more quickly succumbed to the vast array of Old World pathogens and infectious diseases that their systems had no immunity against, including diseases such as measles, influenza, chickenpox, bubonic plague, typhus, scarlet fever, pneumonia, syphilis and malaria. However, in a somewhat cruel "twist of fate", unlike neighboring Nicaragua and Panama, Costa Rica did not yield considerable amounts of indigenous labor or mineral resources, and thus the region experienced colonization at a much slower rate than many other Spanish colonies.

Early 20th century
During the first three decades of the 20th century, from roughly 1900–1930, Creole populations arrived in small numbers to the area that is now Monteverde; many men worked within the Guacimal gold mines; many more, still, with their wives and families, provided these miners and their greater communities with needed goods and services. Some families also settled in the lower, warmer valley of nearby San Luís.

1950s and forward
What is now considered Monteverde was founded by Quakers from the United States whose pacifist values led them to defy the American draft before the Korean War. The majority of these settlers hailed from Fairhope, Alabama, and included some non-Quaker pacifists and conscientious objectors. The spokesman of the group was Hubert Mendenhall, a dairyman who had visited Costa Rica in 1949 as part of a farmer's tour. These Quakers and pacifists chose the area for its cool climate, which would facilitate dairy farming, due to the country's non-violent, army-free constitution, and its friendly Costa Rican inhabitants. The Quakers stewarded and farmed a large tract of land, part of which they eventually set aside for conservation, today the Reserva Biológica Bosque Nuboso Monteverde (Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve). This has become a major tourist attraction.

2005 bank raid
On March 8, 2005, a group of three armed Nicaraguan men raided and attempted to rob the Santa Elena branch of the state National Bank (Banco Nacional). A guard killed two of the armed men. However, one assailant held bank customers hostage for 28 hours. When authorities successfully attempted to retake the bank, a senior police officer and nine civilians died, and only one of the attackers survived. This event raised tensions between Nicaraguans and Costa Ricans nationwide and prompted higher security in many national banks.

Canton creation
As a district of Puntarenas canton, Monteverde had its own local government in the figure of a Municipal District Council, due to the long distance from the local government offices of the municipality of Puntarenas canton, therefore its inhabitants have pushed for becoming its own canton.

On 4 August 2021, the Legislative Assembly approved the file N.º 21618, which was then signed into law N.º 10019 by President Carlos Alvarado Quesada on 29 September 2021, which segregates the district from Puntarenas canton to become Monteverde canton. However, due to law N.º 6068 the change was deferred to after 3 April 2022 as it was not possible to change the Territorial Administrative Division fourteen months before elections, which was the case due to the second round of the 2022 Costa Rican general election held on that date.

The canton will obtain its first municipality and mayor upon the local government elections of 2024.

Today
In recent years, the area's rapidly increasing numbers of tourists has brought a sizable influx of Costa Ricans from other towns and cities. Now, an estimated 250,000 tourists visit Monteverde a year. Improved goods and services, including partially paved roads, have arrived in recent years. In 2007, Costa Ricans voted Monteverde one of Costa Rica's Seven Wonders, along with Isla del Coco, Tortuguero, Arenal Volcano, Cerro Chirripó, Rio Celeste and Poás Volcano.

Geography
The district of Monteverde has an area of 53.05 km2 and an average elevation of 1,330 metres.

Administrative territorial division
The canton of Monteverde is subdivided into only one district, occupying the same area as the whole canton:
 * 1) Monteverde, with postal code 61201

Santa Elena is the head town (cabecera de distrito). The district also includes the neighborhoods and towns of Cerro Plano, Cuesta Blanca, La Lindora, Los Llanos, Monte Verde and San Luis.

Demographics
According to the 2011 census, Monteverde had a population of 4,155 inhabitants.

The official and most-spoken language is Spanish, as in the majority of Costa Rica. However, English-Spanish bilingualism is widespread due to the presence of Quakers and three bilingual schools.

Education
The area has several public grade and middle schools. These include the Escuela Santa Elena, the Escuela Cerro Plano, and two schools in San Luis. The Colegio San Rafael and Colegio Técnico Professional (also known as the Colegio Santa Elena) are responsible for the majority of secondary education in the area.

Private education is fairly robust in the Monteverde region. In 1951, the Quakers constructed a Quaker Meeting house, which served as classrooms and a general store. This became known as Monteverde Friends School (MFS) and today offers bilingual education to Pre-K through 12th grade to roughly 120 students.

A larger, non-Quaker bilingual (English/Spanish) institution, the Cloud Forest School, founded in 1991, now enrolls roughly 200 students from Pre-K through 11th grade, over 90% of whom are Costa Ricans. The CFS is accredited by the government of Costa Rica and over 50% of its graduates pursue higher education.

The small private Adventist school, the Escuela Adventista, is also bilingual.

While there is only one institution of higher education in Monteverde, the Distance State University (UNED), the region is home to a considerable number of local and foreign undergraduate and graduate programs. These include the Monteverde Institute, EAP, CIEE, and the University of Georgia (see below). Most residents of Monteverde pursue higher education in the Central Valley at institutions such as the University of Costa Rica.

Monteverde is also home to a substantial number of foreign-born scientists. A long-term resident of the town is the former lead guitarist of British new wave band Japan, Robert Dean, working as a professional ornithology writer.

Road transportation
The district is connected to and transversed by the following road routes:
 * CR RNT 606.svg National Route 606
 * CR RNT 619.svg National Route 619
 * CR RNT 620.svg National Route 620

Agriculture
Agriculture has historically been the area's main source of income and sustenance for both Costa Ricans and Quakers. The original Creole populations relied mostly on subsistence agriculture and trade with the mining town of Guacimal. Initially locals hunted tapirs, deer, pacas, monkeys, and birds, but diminished those populations. They turned to pigs, corn, beans, vegetables, fruits, herbs and livestock. In the 1950s, both Quakers and Costa Ricans produced garlic, beef, flax, and homestead cheese. Quakers took advantages of the infrastructure improvements of the 1960s and exported cheese and beef to the rest of the country. However, due to overgrazing, the dairy industry declined in the 1970s. This led the population to turn to coffee. By the mid-1990s, coffee farmers were receiving some of the highest prices in the world for their coffee beans. In the mid-1990s 210 families were contributing milk to the local dairy factory, with a revenue of $5.2 million.

Tourism
Tourism is a growing sector in Monteverde's economy. In 1975, the region received fewer than one hundred visitors. This increased to around 50,000 in the mid-1990s. In recent years, the average has risen to 250,000 yearly tourists. Hotels, taxis, guides, and other tourist-geared services have operated since the early 1990s.

Nature
Due to the area's cloud forests and rain forests (including seven different ecological life zones), Monteverde has become a major part of the Costa Rican tourist trail – despite difficult access. Readers of the country's leading newspaper La Nación voted it one of the "7 Wonders of Costa Rica". Of Monteverde's quarter-million annual tourists, around 70,000 tourists visit the reserve.

The bulk of Monteverde's cloud forest can be found in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. The area around the park entrance is the most visited, and features six main trails, which total 13 km, are well-kept and easy to access. The reserve features a large network of less-accessible trails and a number of research stations, two of which house ten persons each, as well as one larger station that can house as many as forty-three persons, though these are now restricted to use by researchers only.

To the east of Monteverde lies the Children's Eternal Rainforest (El Bosque Eterno de los Niños) conservation area, a project funded by schools and children from all over the world. The Bosque Eterno is the largest preserve in the area with 22000 ha. Farther north is the Reserva Santa Elena. This area attracts fewer tourists than the Monteverde Reserve, but offers a field station and views of Arenal Volcano.

Preserve
The massive 10500 ha Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve is the region's main draw, due largely to its excellent virgin and semi-virgin environment and world-class biodiversity. Scientists have determined this region to be home to the planet's largest number of orchids, at 500, with 34 being recent discoveries. Fifty-eight species of amphibians, including the extinct Monteverde-endemic golden toad, have been found here. This area is also a stop for ninety-one species of migratory birds. The famed quetzal resides here seasonally. Monteverde's one-hundred-and-thirty-four mammal species include representatives from both North and South America, including six species of marsupials, three muskrats, at least fifty-eight bats, three primates, seven edentates, two rabbits, one ground hog, three species of squirrels, one species of spiny mouse, at least fifteen species of long-tailed rats and mice (family Muridae), one species of porcupine, one species of agouti, one paca, two canids, five mustelids, four species of procyonids, six species of felines, two species of wild pigs, two species of deer, and one tapir.

UGA Costa Rica
The University of Georgia uses a 155-acre satellite campus outside of the Monteverde region in the lower San Luis community. UGA Costa Rica operates numerous study abroad programs, ecological and forestry research, as well as ecotourism via on-campus lodging, the Ecolodge San Luis. Additionally, UGA Costa Rica is responsible for various conservation and sustainability initiatives in the San Luis Valley, namely its Carbon Offset Program and reforestation efforts in the Pájaro Campana Biological Corridor. In May 2019, ownership of the campus was transferred to CIEE (Council on International Educational Exchange), which only hosts University of Georgia and other academic groups, not tourists.

title: Monteverde


text:
Çanakkale Province

Çanakkale Province is a province of Turkey, located in the northwestern part of the country. It takes its name from the city of Çanakkale. Its area is 9,817 km2, and its population is 559,383 (2022). Like Istanbul, Çanakkale province has a European (Thrace) and an Asian (Anatolia) part. The European part is formed by the Gallipoli (Gelibolu) peninsula, while the Asian part is largely coterminous with the historic region of Troad in Anatolia. They are separated by the Dardanelles strait, connecting the Sea of Marmara and the Aegean Sea.

The archaeological site of Troy is found in Çanakkale province.

Çanakkale District is the most populous district of the province. The European and Asian parts of the province were connected to each other with the completion of the Çanakkale 1915 Bridge in March 2022.

History
In the early Turkish Republic, the Çanakkale Province came into existence with the abolition of the Ottoman-era sanjaks of Biga and Gelibolu. According to a population census in 1927, Çanakkale had 8,500 inhabitants, except its neighbouring villages. It is recorded that Çanakkale, which was also called as "Hellespontos" and "Dardanelles" in ancient times, has accommodated many civilizations for about 3,000 years. Even the Archaic Troy (Troia) city, formerly governed by Lydians and destroyed by the devastating earthquake in 2500 BC, has ruins surviving to today. In 336 BC, the Persian Empire, which became the crucial power in Anatolia, was conquered by Alexander the Great. Also with the ruin of the Anatolian beylik of Karesi, most of the territory of Çanakkale was conquered in the Ottoman era, with the assistance of the castles in remuneration for helping to Byzantine Empire, locating Gelibolu. Afterwards, the Çanakkale strait was given to the Ottoman Empire.

The province was included in the Second Inspectorate General on the 19 February 1934 which span over the provinces of Edirne, Çanakkale, Kırklareli, Tekirdağ. It was ruled by an Inspector General who had wide-ranging authorities over civilian, military and educational matters. The office of the Inspectorate-General was abandoned in 1948 but the legal framework of the Inspectorate-Generals was only abolished in 1952, under the Government of the Democrat Party.

Agriculture
The province of Çanakkale is a notable region for viticulture and winemaking in Turkey. The region between Saros Gulf and Gelibolu on the Gallipoli peninsula is cultivated with vineyards. Wine producer "Suvla" is located in Suvla.

Environment
several of the country's coal fired power stations are here, some with smokestack filters which do not meet regulations.

Districts

Çanakkale province is divided into 12 districts, including the capital district Çanakkale (or Merkez):

title: Çanakkale Province


text:
Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Rex071404

Case Closed on 13 Nov 2004

Please do not edit this page directly if you are not a participant in this case. Comments are very welcome on the Talk page, and will be read, in full. Evidence, no matter who can provide it, is very welcome at /Evidence. Evidence is more useful than comments.

Arbitrators will be working on a proposed decision at /Proposed decision.

Statement of complaint
I, on behalf of Wolfman, JamesMLane, Gamaliel, Gzornenplatz, Lyellin, Neutrality, John Kenney, Bkonrad and myself, hereby file an arbitration request against Rex071404. We seek relief from the personal attacks of Rex071404 in the form of a personal attack parole and a formal injunction against editing the John Kerry page. The behavior that caused this complaint — which has caused Rex to be given a 24-hour ban in the past — is listed at Requests_for_arbitration/Rex071404/Evidence. Ambi 06:05, 7 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Note: A total of eleven users supported my Request for comment, as opposed to two for the counter-version. Rex has said mediation is "not ripe at this point." (See RfM). In addition, Rex has been blocked for 24-hours by Snowspinner, which has not seemed to have had much effect.

Supplement to complaint: request for temporary injunction
I join in the complaint and add a specific request that the Committee immediately issue a temporary injunction. I will elaborate on my reasoning and on the supporting facts on the /Evidence page. JamesMLane 08:23, 9 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Cross-Complaint against Wolfman, JamesMLane, Gamaliel and Neutrality
I, Rex071404, contend, complain and charge as follows:

About Neutrality in particular, I contend:
 * 1) These listed editors have abused the Wiki process by bringing an Arbitration complaint against me prior to exhausting attempts at dialog, so as to silence the one strong dissenting voice on John Kerry.
 * 2) Neutrality in particular, in light of his knowledge of and familiarity with Wiki methods, could easily have taken a less confrontational approach with me than he has.

 * He has left multiple false and misleading edit summaries, while reverting me.
 * He has engaged in a pattern and practice of doing John Kerry related reverts to me, virtually every time I edit that page.
 * He has far exceeded the reasonable limits on both acrimony and edit/revert wars against me that a skilled Wikpedian should.
 * He has gone out of his way to stir up animosity against me rather than try to reduce it.
 * He steadfastly refuses to dialog with me on John Kerry talk towards the goal of reducing our edit conflicts.
 * He follows me around the Wiki, wrongly deleting my comments (without so much as a talk page notification)
 * New charge added 09.14.04 - Neutrality has exceeded the (3) revert rule agaisnt me. See evidence about that here
 * New charge added 09.17.04 - Neutrality has again exceeded the (3) revert rule against me. See evidence about that here

Against Wolfman, I additionally complain as follows:
 * He makes has made mocking, snide edit summaries and talk page comments
 * He is very harsh and aggressive in his approach to me
 * He violates has violated (in the past) the "3-revert rule"

These charges vs. Wolfman were updated by me just now (15:36, 14 Sep 2004) - Please note that Wolfman and I have privately resolved much of our differences. Also, please note the new, documented 09.14.04 and 09.17.04 charges against Neutrality.

Cross complaint against Bkonrad
Comes now Rex071404 and adds to his cross-complaint, the party Bkonrad, citing this reason: Personal attacks.

Initial evidence:

Please see this and this

Rex071404 17:53, 28 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Statement by affected party (Bkonrad)
First, I'm honored to be included with the other persons that Rex071404 has listed cross-complaints against. I don't really see much to respond to at this point. Rex071404 wrote something that I thought was preposterous nonsense (and still do) and pointed this out. Rex071404 was offended by this. What can I say? I have no control over what Rex071404 takes offense over. I do not feel I said anything that constitutes a personal attack on Rex071404. If the arbcom or anyone else feels otherwise, please let me know. older ≠ wiser 18:14, 28 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Statement by affected party (Wolfman)
Update: I see Rex has finally actually brought a charge against me. As to that, I refer you to the dispute in question from Talk:Swift Boat Veterans for Truth/Archive 2 down through the next couple sections focusing on his NPOV tag. It would have seemed rather logical to include the SwiftVets page in the initial injuncion, as the most contentious material from the John Kerry dispute was moved there after Rex's ban. Wolfman 04:08, 30 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I'm not sure whether this is a place to respond to the Cross-Complaint or to comment on the arbitration request more generally. So, I'll just respond to the Complaint as the arbitration request is already pretty detailed.

The only complaint I see here against me specifically is that I signed on to a request for arbritration. That's true. I stand by that.

Rex also generally alleges a lack of dialogue before arbitration. I disagree. A quick look through the acres of discussion on Talk:John Kerry shows why. See in particular the August archives 1 & 2 (from when I was editing).

As to the 5 complaints by Rex against Neutrality in particular, I disagree. Yes, I suppose everyone could be a bit more diplomatic and patient. But, in my view, Neutrality's behavior has generally been quite reasonable and often commendable. I'm not aware of any misleading edit summaries by Neutrality -- a couple obvious jokes aside. I'm also not aware of Neutrality reverting Rex without good cause.

One last thing, I stumbled over the cross-compaint almost by accident. It might be nice to leave a note on the user's discussion page if a complaint is filed against them. Wolfman 08:12, 18 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Statement by affected party (JamesMLane)
It appears that the only complaint against me is my role in bringing the complaint against Rex. In general, the bringing of a frivolous complaint could reasonably be grounds for a complaint. In this particular instance, however, the support on the ArbCom for the complaint shows that it wasn't frivolous or even premature. I've already summarized the other steps that were tried first. I won't burden the ArbCom with a detailed backup of that history (specific edits, etc.) unless one of the members asks me to do so. I note that what I've written here in my own defense is also true of Gamaliel and Wolfman, but the latter seems to have dropped out or changed his user name, so he may not know of Rex's cross-complaint against him. JamesMLane 21:07, 15 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Statement by affected party (Gamaliel)
Talk:John Kerry has screens and screens and screens worth of archived talk. There has been nothing but dialogue on every tedious point.

I have no wish to silence a strong dissenting voice. I do wish to silence a voice which has nothing but insults and contempt for people who disagree. Rex can be the former if he choses to stop being rude and starts to adhere to rules for normal civil conduct. He has chosen to be the latter, and he should suffer the consequences of that choice. Gamaliel 17:42, 23 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Statement by affected party (Neutrality)
The evidence says it all. [[User:Neutrality|Neutrality (talk)]] 14:45, 13 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Statement by affected party (Rex071404)
This effort is in my view, a blatent attempt to silence a dissenting voice.

There are two issues here, one of which has been mooted by my new approach to inter-editor dialog. The other, is a matter of perspective.

 * 1) Various users have complained about me posting harsh assements or comments on my Edit Summaries or talk page entries. While previously, there was some merit to these complaints, there no longer is, for I have as of at least several days ago, desisted from such entries.

As my name shows, I have been here for lesss than a month and each week, my courtesy to others has grown. There is no rational basis to infer, suggest or anticipate that I will make rude comments about others. I am not doing that and any suggestions that I am, or will is groundless.

 * 2) The rest of these complaints all derive from the fact that I am basically the lone dissenting voice on the John Kerry page. The entire page has been extremely pro-Kerry in it's POV. Virtually every time I make an edit that certain users disagree with, they immediately jump on it and revert it.

Please look at the latest (08.09.04) John Kerry talk page dialog about the Campaign HQ building break-in involving Cameron Kerry. The New York Times article which I am sourcing and linking to clearly states "he and an associate broke into the building where the phone lines were housed".

This statement of fact is unambigious, yet the other editor involved here, keeps reverting me and justifies his actions based on an older Boston Globe article - and his personal surmise of other, disparate facts.

I fail to see how this other user can simply declare his edits to be superior and superceding - and then even after I supply the information which shows him to be wrong turn round and add to the complaint against me here....

How does allowing such a complaint process against me to go forward, contribute to an egalitaran Wiki?

Here in summary, are the facts:

1) I have responded to each and every comment made to and about me. Excepting the few that I may have missed - I always dialog and I always repsond. This cannot be said about several of those who now complain about me.

2) As demonstrated by my continually improving dialog tone on the John Kerry talk page, I am mindful of the other users wishes to avoid harsh interpersonal comments and I am abiding by it. This too, can not be said about some others. Just yesterday in fact, one of them posted on the John Kerry talk page, this about me: "you are tiresome".

3) The sections of John Kerry text which I have wrangled over have inarguably gotten better since I joined up. Please review the history of the edits on the contested sections and you will see this to be the case. My participation, when blended into the edits made by others has helped hone the text in some areas to an improved state.

I am not sure, beyond this, how to respond, other than to say, on the various comments pages complainingg about me to date as well as on the John Kerry talk page, I have received some support. A review of the various comments sections so far, will reveal this.

For example, just recently, a well known and respected fellow editor, after reviewing in detail - and making copious Talk Page notes, agreed that the facts which I asserted about John Kerry's military medical records were indeed correct: John Kerry, to date, has released only a summary of his military medical records. And yet, until the others would conceed on this point -which they did not do even when I showed them the facts, there was no way to reach consensus on the description of JK's 1st wound. It was only after another editor who has more group recognition backed me up and agreed that I am corrrect: "So, after further research, I'm going to have to side with Rex on this point.", that we resolved the edits to that section.

Obviously, since I have no power here, those that do are free to do with me as they wish. However, if the end result desired is an improved John Kerry page, then I should be allowed to stay. I have contributed positively to the end result of that page. And while doing so, have grown in my role. Even so, I leave the decision to you.

Rex071404 14:39, 9 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Updated statement by Rex0710404
I, Rex071404, hereby withdraw any and all cross complaints and/or counter complaints I have lodged in the course of this particular proceeding. It is not my goal nor desire to see harm or sanctions be placed on others and for that reason, I hereby cease to request sanctions against any whom I have complained about in this proceeding. 20:07, 10 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Primarily because of this edit here I no longer see a benefit in suggesting that the level of charges and counter-charges be toned down at this juncture. At this point, I think it best that the Arbcom proceed with no nudging from the parties involved, lest some parties view of the proceeding be adversly tainted. 15:29, 13 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Arbitrators' opinions on hearing this matter

 * 1) Accept - this does look like a case of an overly aggressive user. --mav 08:35, 8 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * 2) Accept. Fred Bauder 12:22, Aug 8, 2004 (UTC)
 * 3) Accept. Martin 22:23, 8 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * 4) Accept. James F. (talk) 23:33, 8 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * 5) Recuse. →Raul654 23:13, Sep 4, 2004 (UTC) - I have reconsidered. I think that my involvement was small enough that I can judge this case fairly. →Raul654 07:32, Sep 28, 2004 (UTC)

Temporary injunction
Rex071404 is banned from editing the pages John Kerry; John Kerry presidential campaign, 2004; and John Kerry VVAW controversy until the final decision is made in this matter. This is based on his churning of the article over petty matters as well as repeated efforts to inject a hypercritical point of view as illustrated by these edits:, , ; , ,  and

 * 6 out of 9 active arbitrators voted to accept this order as of 24 August 2004 - no votes against.

Final decision
Same numbering as used at /Proposed decision

Principles
1) Personal attacks are not permitted on Wikipedia, see No personal attacks.

 * Passed 7 to 0

2) Wikipedia is not a vehicle for political advocacy or propaganda, see What Wikipedia is not which states that Wikipedia articles are not to used for "Propaganda or advocacy of any kind".

 * Passed 7 to 0

3) An encyclopedia article is a summary of accepted knowledge regarding its subject, not a complete exposition of all possible details.

 * Passed 5 to 2

5) Wikipedia editors are expected to be courteous and respectful towards other editors, especially those they may have a dispute with, see Wikiquette which specifially admonishes editors to "Recognize your own biases and keep them in check."

 * Passed 5 to 0

John Kerry article
1) User Rex071404 and others including the complaining witnesses, Neutrality, Wolfman, and JamesMLane have in the heat of the US Presidential election focused on the article John Kerry and carried the issues of the campaign into the encyclopedia article in detail. See and

 * Passed 7 to 0

Discourtesy
2) User Rex071404 has in his conversations on the talk page of John Kerry and related articles and in his edit summaries been discourteous toward other editors which who he was in dispute.

 * Passed 6 to 0

Edits by User Bkonrad
3) User Bkonrad has made several edits which Rex071404 complains of, and . In the first Bkonrad is somewhat insulting, characterizing one of Rex071404's logical theories as "preposterous nonsense"; the second is unobjectionable. The complaints against Bkonrad's edits in Requests for arbitration/Rex071404/Evidence are not linked to specific edits and cannot be fully evaluated but do seem to be somewhat lacking in Wikiquette.

 * Passed 6 to 0

Feelings of being ganged up on
5) Rex071404 felt that he was out-numbered and ganged-up on as he edited the article John Kerry by supporters of John Kerry who were unfairly editing the article to minimize the point of view he was advocating and maximize their point of view.

 * Passed 6 to 0

Possible motivation of opponents

 * Passed 5 to 0

Difficulties in reaching agreement
8) It has with respect to a number of articles which concern the politics of the United States proven impossible for many editors to reach agreements with Rex071404 despite exhaustive attempts to negotiate.

 * Passed 6 to 0

User:216.153.214.94
8) During the course of arbitration Rex071404 ceased editing under that user name and began editing as User:216.153.214.94. See page history of Dedham, Massachusetts

 * Passed 6 to 0

Edit war at Dedham, Massachusetts
9) Editing as User:216.153.214.94, Rex071404 has engaged in a protracted edit war at Dedham, Massachusetts in which User:Antaeus Feldspar, User:AlistairMcMillan, User:Ambi, User:RickK, User:Gamaliel, User:Jerzy and User:Violetriga have participated. This edit war originated in a dispute between Rex071404 and Antaeus Feldspar respecting this content which Rex071404 repeated inserted into the article.

 * Passed 6 to 0

Retaliatory vandalism
11) Editing anonymously as User:216.153.214.94 retaliated by engaging in vandalism, blanking an opponent's (Violetriga's) home page with the comment, "delete vandal's home page". User:Violetriga is a well-established Wikipedia user but participated in the edit war at Dedham, Massachusetts.

 * Passed 6 to 0

Justification of reversion by reference to arbitration
12) Following his [probably initial] reversion removing the insertion of the disputed material by Rex071404, Antaeus Feldspar justifies it by questioning not only its relevance to Dedham, Massachusetts but also justifies the reversion by linking "the situation" to Rex071404's arbitration case.

 * Passed 5 to 1

Petty offenses
18) In reaction to Rex071404 a number of those who engaged in disputes with him and participated in the arbitration have committed various petty offenses, some of which are mentioned in other proposed findings of fact including personal attacks, taunting of Rex071404, aspersions on his honesty and tag team reverting, see page history of Dedham, Massachusetts. Rex071404, in turn, has recipricated.

 * Passed 5 to 0

Decision
1) Rex071404's cross-complaint that the complaining witnesses "abused the Wiki process by bringing an Arbitration complaint against Rex071404 prior to exhausting attempts at dialog, so as to silence the one strong dissenting voice on John Kerry" is without merit. There were extensive efforts to engage in dialog. There is a great deal of evidence of distress on the part of the complaining witnesses due to the conflict but not of intent to silence Rex071404.

 * Passed 6 to 0

2) It is not possible for the Arbitration committee to deal with Rex071404's cross-complaint that "Neutrality in particular, in light of his knowledge of and familiarity with Wiki methods, could easily have taken a less confrontational approach with me than he has". It is true of all Wikipedia users that they could do better.

 * Passed 6 to 0

3) No penalties shall attach to the various "petty offenses" which parties to this matter committed during the course of this protracted dispute. This is partially due to contraints of time and energy and partially in response to recognition that the parties mutually provoked one another.

 * Passed 5 to 0

Remedies
2) Rex071404, Bkonrad and others who have committed petty offenses are admonished to consult Wikiquette and to conform their edits to that standard.

 * Passed 6 to 0

3) Rex071404 is banned for 4 months from editing Wikipedia articles which concern United States politics.

 * Passed 6 to 0

4.1) Rex071404 is banned from reverting any article for six months.

 * Passed 5 to 0 with 1 abstain

5) In view of his demonstrated deficiencies in engaging in and interpreting the results of research Rex071404 is required to cite a relevant authority, either by footnote or by comment embedded in the text, which supports every [disputed] edit he makes.

 * Passed 5 to 1

Enforcement
2) Edits (including those whose edit summaries offend) by Rex071404 to John Kerry and related articles or their talk pages which contain insulting language directed towards those he views as his political opponents may be removed by any user. Attempts by Rex071404 to revert such removals shall justify a short ban which may be imposed by any sysop.

 * Passed 6 to 0

3) Edits by user Rex071404 during the period of his ban to any article which concerns United States politics may be removed by any user.

 * Passed 6 to 0

4) Any sysop may impose a short ban (one day or up to one week for repeat offenses) of Rex071404 should he revert or reinsert any material removed by another user from an article which concerns United States politics during the period of his ban.

 * Passed 5 to 0

5) This decision shall apply to User:216.153.214.94 and any other username or ip which Rex071404 may utilize.

 * Passed 5 to 0

6) In the event Rex071404 makes an edit which cites no authority or an inappropriate authority it may be removed by any other user.

 * Passed 5 to 0 with 1 abstain

7) In the event Rex071404 reverts any edit for any reason any administrator may impose a short ban (a hour to a day for first offenses and up to a week for repeat offenses).

 * Passed 5 to 0 with 1 abstain