text:
Parables for Wooden Ears

Parables for Wooden Ears is the debut studio album released by the Australian band Powderfinger. It was released on 18 July 1994 by Polydor Records, after recording at the Metropolis Studios in Melbourne during February 1994. The album peaked a number 51 on the ARIA charts, selling 10,000 copies.

The album was received poorly by critics who complained about its poor imitation of Americana, as well as its overuse of complex riffs. In a 2004 interview, Powderfinger lead singer Bernard Fanning said, in reference to the album, "God knows what we were on then."

Three singles were released from the album, all of which failed to chart.

History
In a 1996 interview, Fanning described Parables for Wooden Ears as "big and presumptuous", and stated that it had "a pretty massive sort of sound". He said that the band somewhat regretted this, and did not intend to do so again on future releases.

On Parables for Wooden Ears, Powderfinger worked with the producer Tony Cohen, whom Fanning described as having a huge reputation, and thus being expensive to work with. However, because of the "lack of an obvious single", the album sold poorly, despite the effort put into production. Parables for Wooden Ears contained references by Powderfinger to Aboriginal rights, with a song written by the drummer Jon Coghill discussing the idea that the band's generation was the first to reach out to the concept of reconciliation.

In 1998, the guitarist Ian Haug described their third album Internationalist as a moderation between the band's last two albums, calling Parables for Wooden Ears a "complicated beast". In a 1999 interview, Fanning said that the band "were sorting out our sound" on the album, and that despite it not working well they still thought it was "a good record". Juice commentator Simon Wooldridge noted in 2000 that Parables for Wooden Ears contained "million"s of riffs, and thus the band were not able to produce a simple sound on the album.

In a November 2004 interview with the Melbourne newspaper, The Age, Fanning recalled that the head of Polydor Records had described the album as "awful" and remarked that "God knows what we were on then". He also said that in making Parables for Wooden Ears, Powderfinger "went through this weird stage of trying to be something [they] weren't." Fanning also told Australian Musician that the album, a "spectacular failure", was a result of the band feeling "forced" to play like other bands that were popular in Brisbane at the time.

Release and response
Parables for Wooden Ears was released on 18 July 1994 on the Polydor Records label. Three singles were released from Parables for Wooden Ears: "Tail", released on 14 June 1994, "Grave Concern", released on 22 August 1994, and "Save Your Skin", released on 22 July 1995. Due to the minimal promotion and reputation of the band, the singles failed to reach the ARIA top 100, with "Tail" performing the best, peaking at 118.

Critics generally agreed with Powderfinger's assessment of the album, with some describing it as "a thundering rock album" and noting the similarity to Americana. Fanning also noted that the album had a lot less "balance" than the album that followed it, Double Allergic. Other critics noted that Parables for Wooden Ears had a "dark, overly complex metal sound" and complained of the album's "distorted guitars", but put this down to the album being a learning experience for the band.

Parables for Wooden Ears received a moderate response from reviewers. Juice reviewer John Encarnacao enjoyed the rock elements of the album, drawing comparisons to Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Alice In Chains. He thanked producer Tony Cohen for the "big sound" of the album, and said that the musicians on the album "not only know about power and restraint, but also play tastefully". Encarnacao stated that Fanning "lays the emotion on thick and usually more than gets away with it." The review was summarised by stating that the album may have been "a bit like the retro-rock that the big corporations want you to buy", but that nonetheless it was a good album.

Jackson G. Marx was similarly conflicted in Australian Rolling Stone, writing, "They create painstaking technical 'works' of art. This is not necessarily a compliment. Sometimes it's a certified jerk-off." Despite describing some songs as, "tragically clever," and, "grooveless monstrosities," he scored the album three stars from five, and wrote of the pleasure of repeated listens. "'Tail', for example, is tangled and inert and teeters precariously on the brink of disappearing up its own arsehole, but a determined listener will find its hooks more infecting with each spin."

Sputnikmusic contributor James Bishop gave the album a score of 2.5 (average), summarising his review with the statement "Get Double Allergic instead." Bishop stated that the album contained too much imitation, and that the album is "pretty much forgotten by even the most hardcoriest of music fans" because of the poor imitation in it - described as "a simple case of "monkey see, monkey not do very well"." Bishop praised some aspects of the album, stating that "Hurried Bloom" contained "a raw song-writing ability" and that "Sink Low" was "a hidden gem". However, he said that the majority of songs contained Powderfinger trying too hard with their riffs, noting "Bridle You" and "Father's Pyramid" as specific examples. Bishop also criticised the lyrics in most songs, stating that "Walking Stick" contained "some horrendously bad lyrics". The highlight of the album for Bishop was "Save Your Skin", which he called "a gorgeous addition to their collection", despite calling the overall album "a pretty dark and depressing experience".

Track listing
All music written by Bernard Fanning, John Collins, Ian Haug, Darren Middleton, Jon Coghill. Lyrics by Fanning unless otherwise noted.

 * 1) "Walking Stick" – 4:06
 * 2) "Tail" – 5:27
 * 3) "Hurried Bloom" – 3:34
 * 4) "Fathers' Pyramid" – 4:38 (Fanning, Coghill)
 * 5) "Bridle You" – 3:56
 * 6) "Citadel" – 3:23
 * 7) "Sink Low" – 2:12
 * 8) "Grave Concern" – 4:46
 * 9) "Solution" – 3:50
 * 10) "This Syrup to Exchange" – 4:31 (Fanning, Coghill)
 * 11) "Namaste" – 2:21
 * 12) "Blanket" – 3:39
 * 13) "Save Your Skin" – 3:36

title: Parables for Wooden Ears


text:
Filmfare

Filmfare is an Indian English-language fortnightly magazine published by Worldwide Media. Acknowledged as one of India's most popular entertainment magazines, it publishes pieces involving news, interviews, photos, videos, reviews, events, and style. The magazine also annually gives the Filmfare Awards, the Filmfare Awards South, the Filmfare Awards East, the Filmfare Marathi Awards, the Filmfare Awards Punjabi, the Filmfare Awards Bangla, the Filmfare OTT Awards, the Filmfare Short Film Awards and the Filmfare Style & Glamour Awards.

After the businessman Ramkrishna Dalmia (1893–1978) of Dalmia Group purchased Bennett, Coleman and Company Limited (BCCL) in 1946, J. C. Jain from Bharat Insurance Company was employed to help him in running the company in 1950. In this period, Jain conceived the idea of Filmfare at the actress Kamini Kaushal's house. The magazine was launched by the industrialist Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain alongside his wife Rama in Bombay on 7 March 1952. Its circulation started to decline in the early 1990s and to handle these problems, Filmfare started special monthly editions for Telugu, Tamil, and Malayalam cinema. In 2004, BCCL (who previously published the magazine) established a subsidiary, Worldwide Media, for publishing its future issues.

Establishment (1946–1952)

Ramkrishna Dalmia (1893–1978) was born in Chirawa into a Marwari family. He had a brother, Jaidayal Dalmia, with whom he established Dalmia Group in the 1930s. In 1946, on the threshold of the independence of India from the United Kingdom, Ramkrishna Dalmia purchased Bennett, Coleman and Company Limited (BCCL) for inr 20000000. According to Sangita P. Menon Malhan's The TOI Story (2013), the purchase was by him solely because he wanted to establish newspapers that could help him to "serve India effectively". While Dalmia was searching for a person to help him to run it, J. C. Jain, a former employee of Bharat Insurance Company, saw the opportunity and took it in March 1950; he became the company's general manager until 1963.

During his term-of-office, Jain started the publication of Filmfare as a fortnightly magazine on 7 March 1952 to "build awareness about filmmaking and films". It was launched by Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain and his wife Rama in Bombay, distributed by The Times of India newspaper, and promoted with the taglines, "Another name for 'Credibility and "The first serious effort in film journalism in India". It contains short biography of rising actors at the time, film reviews, and a number of columns, including "The Fortnight in Films" and "Filmfacts". Published two months after the 1st International Film Festival of India, Neepa Majumdar (in her 2012 book Global Neorealism: The Transnational History of a Film Style) wrote that the magazine "saw the festival as an opportunity for Indian film [actors] to be exposed to quality films" and established themselves as leading actors. In the first issue, a manifesto was declared:

"It is from this dual standpoint of its industry and its patrons, whom comprise the vast audience of movie fans, that Filmfare is primarily designed. This magazine represents the first serious effort in film journalism in India. It is a movie magazine—with a difference. The difference lies in our realisation that the film as a composite art medium calls for serious study and constructive criticism and appreciation from the industry as also from the public."

The Filmfare Awards (1953–2001)
In the following year, Filmfare instituted the Filmfare Awards (previously Clare Awards, named after Clare Mendonça). Modelled after the Academy Awards, the winners were voted by a total of 20,000 of the magazine's readers. The first iteration's ceremony took place at Metro Cinema in Bombay on 21 March 1954, and only five categories without nominations were presented: Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Music Director. The award has been considered one of the oldest and most prominent film awards in India; Business Line called it "one such coveted award".

In 1957, Filmfare published the "Self-portraits" series, where several well-known actors at the time, including Ashok Kumar, Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar, Meena Kumari, Nargis, Nutan and Raj Kapoor, were invited and accepted to talk about themselves and their experiences. The magazine faced controversy after the actress Sharmila Tagore did a shot with her photographer Dhiren Chawda with only wearing a two-piece floral bikini for its 19 August 1966 issue. The first time for an Indian celebrity to pose with only a bikini for a magazine cover, she revealed that it was her personal choice but later admitted she had "no idea" why she wanted to. In association with United Producers (a group formed by G. P. Sippy, Shakti Samanta and B. R. Chopra), Filmfare organised the United Producers-Filmfare Talent Contest (also known as the All India Talent Contest) in 1965.

In the 1970s, Rauf Ahmed worked as the editor of the magazine, replacing B. K. Karanjia who had filled the position for 18 years. Talking to Daily News and Analysis in 2015, Ahmed spoke of how the magazine nearly collapsed at the time as no gossip columns were written by its journalist. Following his quit, Bikram Singh (the actor K. N. Singh's brother) was hired for the position until the early of the next decade. Pritish Nandy replaced him in 1984; the first issue he edited was published in July that year, titled "Unquestionably No. 1", which features the actress Sridevi on the cover. The circulation of Filmfare dropped in the early 1990s, prompting the publisher to attach free consumer products (such as soaps or shampoo sachets) to the magazine. Additionally, special monthly editions with a few pages dedicated to Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu cinema were begun and, as reported by The Quint in 2019, become commercial successes. Khalid Mohamed was appointed as the editor in 1993.

Ownership change (2002–present)
In 2002, following Mohamed's nine-year tenure, Shashi Baliga replaced him as Filmfare editor; in an article published in Business Line, she described the occupation as "an opportunity that came unsought". BCCL announced their joint venture with the BBC Worldwide, a company named Worldwide Media, on 1 December 2004; the new company later published the future issues of the magazine. In 2006, Jitesh Pillai was appointed as the new editor. Filmfare launched the Filmfare Awards East in 2014, the Filmfare Style & Glamour Awards and Filmfare Marathi Awards in 2015, the Filmfare Short Film Awards in 2016, the Filmfare Awards Punjabi in 2017, and the Filmfare OTT Awards in 2020. , the magazine was published by Joji Varghese under The Times Group's subsidiary Worldwide Media and Pillai served as the editor.

Reception
Filmfare covers news, interviews, photos, videos, reviews, events, and style. It is considered one of the most popular and reputable magazines in India; The Illustrated Weekly of India referred to the magazine as "decorous", and British magazine The Spectator praised it for "[providing] a good example of how the mainstream media marginalizes certain films as 'sleaze. According to a 2004 article by The Economic Times, the magazine's monthly print circulation was 147,000. In 2008, the cinema and cultural analysis professor Rachel Dwyer estimated that it was 200,000. In a survey conducted by the Indian Readership Survey, the circulation of the magazine was 276,000 in 2013 and 342,000 in 2014.

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

title: Filmfare


text:
Laindon railway station

Laindon railway station is on the London, Tilbury and Southend line, serving the town of Laindon in Essex, England. It is 22 mi down the main line from London Fenchurch Street and is situated between West Horndon to the west and Basildon to the east. Its three-letter station code is LAI.

It was opened in 1888. The station and all trains serving it are currently operated by c2c.

Description
The main ticket office is located on Station Approach. It has two serving positions. A second smaller ticket office is located at the bottom of the stairs that lead to two of the platforms, though this is open only on weekdays.

The station has three platforms. Platforms 1 and 2 are the two faces of an island platform, accessed via a footbridge from outside the main ticket office. Platform 1 is the London-bound platform and platform 2 is a reversing platform which can be used to divert trains from one line to the other. Platform 3 is the Shoeburyness-bound platform, reached from Station Approach via the main ticket office.

Services
Laindon is served by c2c trains westbound to Fenchurch Street in the City of London and eastbound to Shoeburyness in eastern Essex.

As of the June 2024 timetable the typical Monday to Friday off-peak service is:
 * 4 tph (trains per hour) westbound to London Fenchurch Street (2 tph all stations and 2 tph semi-fast)
 * 4 tph eastbound to Shoeburyness (2 tph all stations and 2 tph semi-fast)

Joan Sims
British actress Joan Sims (1930–2001), famous for her roles in the Carry On films, grew up in the station house at Laindon railway station where her father was the station master. A plaque in her memory can be seen near the entrance.

title: Laindon railway station


text:
Talk:Bizzarrini

Yes, I'm the original creator of that text. I'm the owner of www.bizzarriniregister.org. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Superfuzz (talk • contribs) 04:07, October 14, 2004

Most of this belongs in the article about Giotto Bizzarrini
Having read this article, I believe that most of it, including everything that was done before Giotto Bizzarrini started to build cars under his own name, should be put in the article about Giotto Bizzarrini, and all that should be in this article is information directly related to the Bizzarrini car manufacturing concern. Respectfully, SamBlob (talk) 18:27, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

External links modified
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I have just modified one external link on Bizzarrini. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
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Dot missing?
"1300-litre and 1600-litre four-cylinder" — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.155.139.101 (talk) 08:12, 14 February 2019 (UTC)

title: Talk:Bizzarrini


text: Category:Argentine civil utility aircraft


text: Category:Argentine civil aircraft

title: Category:Argentine civil aircraft


text:
Bandits (2001 film)

Bandits is a 2001 American crime comedy-drama film directed by Barry Levinson and written by Harley Peyton. It stars Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, and Cate Blanchett. The film was released in theaters on October 12, 2001. It received mixed reviews, and Thornton and Blanchett's performances received critical praise. Thornton and Blanchett were nominated for Golden Globe Awards for Best Actor and Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical, and Blanchett was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Plot
Two friends and convicts, Joe and Terry, break out of Oregon State Penitentiary in a concrete mixing truck and start a bank robbing spree, hoping to fund a dream they share. They become known as the "Sleepover Bandits" because of their modus operandi: they kidnap the manager of a target bank the night before a planned robbery, then spend the night with the manager's family; early the next morning, they accompany the manager to the bank to get their money. Using dim-witted would-be stunt man Harvey Pollard as their getaway driver and lookout, the three successfully pull off a series of robberies that gets them recognition on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, and ultimately the reward for information leading to their capture is increased to $1 million.

When Kate, a housewife with a failing marriage, decides to run away, she ends up in the hands of the criminals. Initially attracted to Joe, she also ends up in bed with Terry and a confused love triangle begins.

The three of them go on the lam and manage to pull off a few more robberies, but after a while the two begin to fight over Kate, and she decides to leave them. The two criminals then decide to pull off one last job.

The story is told in flashbacks, framed by the story of the pair's last robbery of the Alamo Bank, as told by Criminals at Large, a fictional reality television show, with which they taped an interview stating that Kate was only a hostage, not a participant. The show tells the story of their last job, which is known to be a failure when Kate tips off the police and the two are caught in the act. The two then begin to argue when Joe tells the police "You won't take us alive!" and the argument gets to the point where the two of them shoot each other dead.

At the end of the film the real story behind the last job is revealed: Harvey used some of his special effects to make it seem as though Terry and Joe were shooting each other. Dressed as paramedics, Harvey and his girlfriend Claire then run in and place the stolen money, Terry, and Joe in body bags while Kate (who was in on the plan) distracts the police by pretending to pass out in shock upon seeing the "bodies". In the ambulance, Harvey used electronics to blow out his tires which sent the ambulance into a junkyard. Under his jumpsuit, Harvey was wearing a fire suit. He lit himself on fire and rigged a bomb to go off. Harvey, Claire, Terry, and Joe flee the scene, leading officials to believe that the bodies were burned beyond recognition. Kate receives the $1 million reward for having turned them in.

Reunited, Joe, Terry, Harvey, and Kate make it to Mexico to live out their dream. The last scene shows Harvey and Claire getting married in Mexico and Kate kissing Joe and Terry passionately.

Cast

 * Bruce Willis as Joe Blake
 * Billy Bob Thornton as Terry Collins
 * Cate Blanchett as Kate Wheeler
 * Troy Garity as Harvey Pollard
 * Brían F. O'Byrne as Darill Miller
 * Stacey Travis as Cloe Miller
 * Bobby Slayton as Darren Head
 * January Jones as Claire
 * Azura Skye as Cheri Woods
 * Peggy Miley as Mildred Kronenberg
 * William Converse-Roberts as Charles Wheeler
 * Richard Riehle as Lawrence Fife
 * Micole Mercurio as Sarah Fife
 * Scott Burkholder as Wildwood Policeman
 * Anthony Burch as Phil
 * Sam Levinson as Billy Saunders
 * Scout LaRue Willis as Monica Miller
 * Tallulah Belle Willis as Erika Miller

Soundtrack

 * 1) "Gallows Pole" – Jimmy Page & Robert Plant
 * 2) "Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum" – Bob Dylan
 * 3) "Holding Out for a Hero" (written by Jim Steinman) – Bonnie Tyler
 * 4) "Twist in My Sobriety" – Tanita Tikaram
 * 5) "Rudiger" – Mark Knopfler
 * 6) "Just Another" – Pete Yorn
 * 7) "Walk On By" – Aretha Franklin
 * 8) "Superman (It's Not Easy)" – Five for Fighting
 * 9) "Crazy 'Lil Mouse" – In Bloom
 * 10) "Just the Two of Us" – Bill Withers and Grover Washington Jr.
 * 11) "Wildfire" – Michael Martin Murphey
 * 12) "Total Eclipse of the Heart" (written by Jim Steinman) – Bonnie Tyler
 * 13) "Bandits Suite" – Christopher Young
 * 14) "Beautiful Day" - U2
 * 15) "Kill The Rock" - Mindless Self Indulgence

Reception
Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 60 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

Time Out wrote, "Despite a plot as old as the hills and a title that pitches for outlaw nostalgia, this is a reasonable hybrid, a character-led comic ramble along the highways and byways of genre - buddy pic, heist film, romance and road movie. Add light media satire and, with Levinson's emphasis on performance and dialogue, you have a higher-end studio project, albeit overlong and uneven, with a residue of indie spirit."

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the movie 2 stars out of possible 4, praising the main performances but criticizing the uneven tone, writing: "It's rare for a movie to have three such likable characters and be so unlikeable itself."

In 2007 in New York, five men were prosecuted and convicted for crimes imitative of this film's plot.

Box office
In its opening weekend, the film opened at #2, behind Training Day, earning $13 million. It beat out other newcomer Corky Romano by just over four million dollars. The film grossed $67.6 million worldwide, against a budget of $75 million.

Home media
Bandits was released on DVD and VHS on April 2, 2002. On March 22, 2016, the film was released on Blu-ray.

title: Bandits (2001 film)


text:
Darlingtonia californica

Darlingtonia californica —also called the California pitcher plant, the Oregon pitcher plant, cobra lily or cobra plant—is a species of carnivorous plant in the new world pitcher plant family, Sarraceniaceae. It is the sole species within its monotypic genus, Darlingtonia. The cobra lily is native to Northern California and Oregon, in the western United States, where the climate—while typically thought of as cool and humid—may be quite arid for many months of the year, more so than many carnivorous or pitcher plant genera could feasibly survive (such as Heliamphora, Nepenthes or Sarracenia). However, the cobra lily has evolved into life along the West Coast and in the lower Pacific Northwest through its carnivorous adaptions, where it may be found near bogs, vernal pools, on forested rocky slopes (near snowmelt, especially), creeks, or near seeps with cold running water, usually on serpentine soils. It has even been observed growing in drainage ditches or on the sides of roads. Despite being fairly commonly cultivated, Darlingtonia is designated as uncommon due to its rarity in the field.

The name "cobra lily" stems from the resemblance of its tubular leaves to a rearing cobra, complete with a forked leaf – ranging from yellow to purplish-green – that resemble fangs or a serpent's tongue.

The plant was discovered during the Wilkes Expedition of 1841 by botanist William D. Brackenridge at Mount Shasta, Northern California. In 1853, it was described by John Torrey, naming the genus Darlingtonia after Philadelphian botanist William Darlington (1782–1863).

Cultivation in the UK has gained the plant the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

Biology

The cobra plant is not just restricted to nutrient-poor acidic bogs and seepage slopes, but many colonies actually thrive in ultramafic soils, which are in fact basic soils, within its range. In common with most carnivorous plants, the cobra lily is adapted to supplementing its nitrogen requirements through carnivory, which helps to compensate for the lack of available nitrogen in such habitats.

Root system
Because many carnivorous species live in hostile environments, their root systems are commonly as highly modified as their leaves. Darlingtonia californica is no exception. The cobra lily has a very large and rambling root system when compared to those of other carnivorous plants in the family Sarraceniaceae. The cobra lily is able to survive fire by regenerating from its roots, but despite this important role the roots are very delicate organs. While the temperatures in much of the species's range can exceed 25 °C (77 °F), their roots die back after exposure to temperatures not much higher than 10 °C (50 °F). Temperature plays a large part in the functioning of all plants, but it is very rare for individual organs to have such different temperature tolerances. The physiological mechanisms and evolutionary benefits of this discrepancy are not fully understood, however, in habitat the plants are normally found growing out of cold seeps, and this behavior would cause the plant to only expend energy growing roots in the direction of cold subsurface water sources. The reason for this extraordinary sensitivity of the roots to high temperatures is currently believed to be caused by a very low and limited optimal temperature of the ion pumps in root cells.

Modern cultivation efforts in breeding and selecting plants that can withstand higher temperatures without the roots dying back have met with significant success. As a result, there are several cultivars available as commercial house or garden plants which are more tolerant of higher temperatures. Many wild populations grow in serpentine (ultramafic) soils which are toxic to most green plants. Populations found growing on serpentine can withstand soil temperatures above 80 °F based on field studies of various cobra lily populations in Oregon, most of which are found growing on slopes composed of serpentine with cold subsurface water flow. The plants can suffer from root rot in cultivation if grown in stagnant, standing water and tend to thrive in areas where cold subsurface water slowly flows underground around their roots. It is not currently understood why the plants can withstand higher soil temperatures when found growing on serpentine soils.

Pitcher mechanisms
The cobra lily is unique among the three genera of American pitcher plants. It does not trap rainwater in its pitcher. Instead, it regulates the level of water inside physiologically by releasing or absorbing water into the trap that has been pumped up from the roots. It was once believed that this species of pitcher plant did not produce any digestive enzymes and relied on symbiotic bacteria and protozoa to break down the captured insects into easily absorbed nutrients. However, recent studies have indicated that Darlingtonia secretes at least one proteolytic enzyme that digests captured prey. The cells that absorb nutrients from the inside of the pitcher are the same as those on the roots that absorb soil nutrients. The efficiency of the plant's trapping ability is attested to by its leaves and pitchers, which are, more often than not, full of insects and their remains.

The slippery walls and hairs of the pitcher tube prevent trapped prey from escaping. In addition to the lubricating secretions and downward-pointing hairs common to all North American pitcher plants to force their prey into the trap, this species uses its curled operculum (hood) to hide the tiny exit hole from trapped insects and offers multiple translucent false exits. Upon trying many times to escape via the false exits, the insect will tire and fall down into the trap. Other species that use a low-hanging hood to hide the exit hole include the parrot pitcher plant, Sarracenia psittacina and the hooded pitcher plant, Sarracenia minor. S. psittacina also forms a curled operculum, while S. minor uses a leaf that is folded over the entrance. A misconception about Darlingtonia is that its forked tongue is an adaption to trap insects. However, a study done by American Journal of Botany determined that removal of the tongue does not affect prey biomass.

Pollination
A remaining mystery surrounding the cobra lily is its means of pollination. Its flower is unusually shaped and complex, typically a sign of a close pollinator-plant specialization. The flower is yellowish purple in color and grows on a stalk which is slightly taller than the pitcher leaves. It has five sepals, green in color, which are longer than the red-veined petals. It is generally expected that the pollinator is either a fly or bee attracted to the flower's unpleasant smell or some nocturnal insect.

A new study suggests that it may be melittophilous after observing a miner bee species (Andrena nigrihirta). Pollinating by hand yielded poor results, therefore, melittophilous seems likely considering the complexity of the fruit. According to the study, "Observations of A. nigrihirta on flowers revealed that the shape and orientation of D. californica 's ovary and petals promote stigma contact both when pollinators enter and exit a flower, contrary to previous thought. Our findings provide evidence that D. californica is melittophilous". Furthermore, Darlingtonia was pollen-limited in all five plants observed. However, in the case of male absence, Darlingtonia was still able to reproduce suggesting that self pollination may play a role as well. It seems likely that both occur and only bolsters the reputation of hardiness in the wild.

Infraspecific taxa
Two infraspecific taxa are recognized:

 * D. californica f. californica (autonym)
 * D. californica f. viridiflora B.Rice

Cultivation

Darlingtonia californica can be a difficult carnivorous plant to keep in cultivation, as they require specific environmental conditions. They prefer cool to warm day-time temperatures and cold or cool night-time temperatures. Cobra lilies typically grow in bogs or streambanks that are fed by cold mountain water, and grow best when the roots are kept cooler than the rest of the plant. It is best to mimic these conditions in cultivation, and water the plants with cold, purified water. On hot days, it helps to place ice cubes of purified water on the soil surface. They prefer sunny conditions if in a humid, warm location, and prefer part-shade if humidity is low or fluctuates often. Plants can adapt to low humidity conditions, but optimum growth occurs under reasonable humidity.

Growing cobra lilies from seed is extremely slow and cobra seedlings are difficult to maintain, so these plants are best propagated from the long stolons they grow in late winter and spring. When a minute cobra plant is visible at the end of the stolon (usually in mid to late spring), the whole stolon may be cut into sections a few inches long, each with a few roots attached. Lay these upon cool, moist, shredded long-fibered sphagnum moss and place in a humid location with bright light. In many weeks, cobra plants will protrude from each section of stolon.

Like many other carnivorous plants of temperate regions, cobra lilies require a cold winter dormancy in order to live long-term. Plants die down to their rhizomes in frigid winters and will maintain their leaves in cool winters during their dormancy period. This period lasts from 3 to 5 months during the year, and all growth stops. As spring approaches, mature plants may send up a single, nodding flower, and a few weeks later the plant will send up a few large pitchers. The plant will continue to produce pitchers throughout the summer, however much smaller than the early spring pitchers.

Many carnivorous plant enthusiasts have succeeded in cultivating these plants, and have developed or discovered three color morphs: all green, all red, and red-green bicolor.

Wild-type plants are all green in moderate light and bicolor in intense sunlight.

title: Darlingtonia californica


text:
Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind

Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind is the fourth studio album by American country music artist George Strait, released on September 26, 1984, by MCA Records. It is certified platinum by the RIAA for sales of one million copies in the U.S. The title track, "The Cowboy Rides Away", and "The Fireman" were all released as singles from this album. "Honky Tonk Saturday Night" was previously recorded by John Anderson on his 1982 album, Wild & Blue. American music critic Robert Christgau would refer the album as Strait’s best to date in his relative review.

Personnel

 * George Strait – lead vocals, harmony vocals
 * John Hobbs – keyboards
 * Larry Byrom – electric guitars
 * Reggie Young – electric guitars
 * Randy Scruggs – acoustic guitars
 * Hank DeVito – steel guitar
 * Weldon Myrick – steel guitar
 * Johnny Gimble – fiddle, mandolin
 * David Hungate – bass guitar
 * Eddie Bayers – drums
 * Curtis Young – backing vocals

Production
 * Jimmy Bowen – producer
 * George Strait – producer
 * Dave Hassinger – first engineer
 * Steve Tillisch – first engineer
 * Ron Treat – first engineer
 * Mark Coddington – second engineer
 * Tim Kish – second engineer
 * Glenn Meadows – mastering at Masterfonics (Nashville, Tennessee)
 * Jim Shea – photography
 * Jeff Adamoff – art direction

title: Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind


text: Template:MTR Light Rail stops

title: Template:MTR Light Rail stops


text:
Category:Piciformes

 * Piciformes — six families of largely arboreal birds make up the order Piciformes, in the infraclass Neognathae.
 * There are about 67 genera in the six families and a little over 400 species.
 * The best-known of them is the family Picidae, which includes the woodpeckers and close relatives.

title: Category:Piciformes


text:
Greatest Hits (George Strait album)

Greatest Hits is the first compilation album by American country music artist George Strait, released on March 4, 1985, by MCA Records. It includes all ten singles from Strait's first three albums. It reached No. 4 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and had been certified 4× multi-Platinum by the RIAA.

title: Greatest Hits (George Strait album)


text:
Ross Meurant

Alan Ross Meurant (born 26 August 1947) is a New Zealand public figure, now Honorary Consul for Morocco, who has at various times gained public attention as a police officer, businessman, politician, and political lobbyist.

Early life and family
Meurant was born on 26 August 1947 at Te Kōpuru, the son of Rae-Ola Dalice Meurant (née Olsen) and Edward Alan Meurant. He was educated at Dargaville High School. In 1973, he married Patricia Ann Lewis, and the couple had two children before separating.

Police
Meurant served in the New Zealand Police between 1966 and 1987. In 1975 he was promoted to Sergeant at Takapuna on the North Shore, married Patricia and purchased a home. He had his first pangs to be a Member of Parliament, and as he decided he needed more education to enter political life he enrolled for a BA degree intending to major in political studies. After 2½ years he went back to Auckland Central as Senior Sergeant. He spent eight years at the University of Auckland, finishing a BA in 1982, and starting a law degree, though he then left to pursue business interests in his last years in the police.

He was a detective in the CIB between 1970 and 1975, having worked on the famous case of the murders of Harvey and Jeannette Crewe, helping in the search for cartridge cases, and a member of the Armed Offenders Squad. During the controversial 1981 South Africa rugby union tour of New Zealand, he was second-in-command of one of the riot units, Red Squad. He subsequently wrote a book about the experience of Red Squad: The Red Squad Story. The book was a bestseller in both New Zealand and South Africa.

When Meurant was transferred to night shift work in 1982 after (he says) offending some senior officers he had criticised in his book The Red Squad Story, he studied at night to complete his BA degree and start a law degree. He also started dabbling in business opportunities by running a private security firm from the watchhouse, with his wife as principal partner, and employing up to 70 people. After being commissioned in 1985, he served in various roles including Inspector in charge of the Auckland police criminal intelligence unit. In 1989 he published an autobiography: The Beat to the Beehive.

In 1980, Meurant received the New Zealand Police Long Service and Good Conduct Medal.

Member of Parliament
Meurant stood as the National Party candidate for Hobson in the 1987 election. He was successful and went on to serve 3 parliamentary terms. In 1996, his electorate was abolished when the introduction of the MMP proportional voting replaced the FPTP system. Faced with being a list MP, Meurant chose instead to form a new political party and had the distinction of being the first person to register a political party under the new regime.

In 1990, Meurant was awarded the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal.

Conservative Party
After quitting the National Party, Meurant established a new party known as Right of Centre (later rebranded as the New Zealand Conservative Party). This party was based on his right-wing economic philosophy: selling government assets and reducing government involvement in business. On 7 September 1994, Meurant entered into a formal agreement with Prime Minister Jim Bolger. At that time, Meurant was a member of the executive: the Undersecretary of Agriculture and Forestry. After forming his own party, Meurant retained his executive office and continued to be a member of the Cabinet Committees for Commerce, Industry and Environment and Treaty Issues. Support of government on confidence and supply was central to Meurant's continuation as a member of The Executive.

In August 1995, Meurant refused to comply with a directive from the Prime Minister to relinquish a position that he had as a director of a Russian-owned bank (PROK) domiciled in Vanuatu and was subsequently dismissed from the Executive. Meurant nevertheless continued as a coalition partner of the government as his support at the time was critical to its survival.

Meurant completed a Master of Public Policy at Victoria University of Wellington during his third term in parliament. Contrary to the public perception of him being conservative, while an MP, he voted for gay rights and abortion on demand and also voted against the death penalty. He was also very liberal in regard to drug policy. In his autobiography he wrote: "Perhaps we may liken drug prohibition to the era of liquor prohibition in America ... which created an underworld whose legacy lingers today. If drug use was legal in this country would there be any significant increase in drug use? I think not. Perhaps 50 percent of all crime in New Zealand is drug related. Think of the police resources we would save if we didn’t have to contend with all this drug-related crime. If it was legal to obtain and use drugs in this country, perhaps we could spend the money saved in policing expenditure, running educative programmes and medical clinics to assist those who lack the strength to resist temptation. If drugs such as cannabis and heroin were available through government dispensing stores, perhaps the black market trade which stimulates all this drug-relate trade would recede."

After leaving parliament
After leaving Parliament, Meurant was elected onto the Rodney District Council in 1998. However, his time with the Rodney District Council was short-lived: the entire council was dissolved by the Minister of Local Government after an acrimonious relationship between the general manager and Meurant culminated in a split within the council.

Between 1999 and 2004 Meurant was engaged by parliamentary services as a part-time adviser on agriculture, forestry, fishing and racing taxation policy to Winston Peters, leader of New Zealand First. During this period Meurant was a shareholding director of Digital Global Maps Limited, in which the principal shareholder was Vela Fishing. He also co-owned a thoroughbred horse agistment facility.

In 2002, Meurant was convicted of impersonating police, common assault and inconsiderate driving following an altercation with a truck driver on the Desert Road.

His business relationship with Philip Vela (Vela Fishing) as a director of Digital Global Maps Ltd and as a consultant to Peter Simunovich (Simunovich Fishing) ensured a high public profile. By the early 21st century, he was catapulted into national headlines during the "Scampi scandal" (2003–2009), which included allegations ranging from misreporting of fish catch totals by fishing companies as a mechanism to qualify for bigger allocations of privatised fish assets to allegations of large sums of money being directed from fishing magnates to Winston Peters by Meurant. In 2003 the Primary Industries Select Committee conducted an enquiry into allegations of impropriety involving the principals of Simunovich Fisheries Ltd, Winston Peters and Meurant. After an extensive investigation the allegations were rejected as unfounded and untrue. Contemporaneously, defamation proceedings against TVNZ and The New Zealand Herald were commenced by Simunovich Fisheries. In December 2009 the defendants capitulated and apologised, and reportedly settled for $15 million damages payment. During the 2008 general election Meurant was linked to large donations allegedly transferred from Vela Fishing and other magnates to New Zealand First – the political Party led by Winston Peters, a former National Party colleague of Meurant.

In November 2012, Meurant was elected to the inaugural board of Focus NZ, as Vice-President, a New Zealand list-only political party aimed at the rural sector and primary industry producers and exporters.

2013 Published two novels based on real life: The Syrian Connection – which exposes American interference in transfer of money for non-sanctioned exports and how a Kiwi and Russian KGB agent subverted the blockade. Sex, Power & Politics draws on the author's exposure to a culture in New Zealand parliament.

In July 2016, Meurant was appointed Honorary Consul for the Kingdom of Morocco at the Honorary Consulate office in Auckland, New Zealand.

In February 2018, he was elected to the Electorate Executive Committee of Hon Judith Collins, NZ National Party Member of Parliament. He travelled to the Southern Provinces of Morocco Western Sahara with Collins' husband to look at business opportunities. He was a member of the Executive for 12 months, deciding not to stand for re-selection in 2019. Meurant also decided not to renew his National Party membership at the same time.

Meurant stood for the Gisborne mayoralty in the 2019 New Zealand local elections. Of the three candidates, he came last.

In March 2020, Meurant launched his third novel: "Out of the Inferno". It's about how the adult lives of three childhood friends collide: one becomes a ruthless detective inspector; another a corrupt politician and the third, a gang member.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand, Meurant joined several businessmen and former politicians including former National and ACT leader Don Brash in establishing a company called Covax-NZR Limited to import Russia's untested Gam-COVID-Vac (also known as Sputnik V) vaccine into the country. By late August 2020, they had submitted paperwork through the Russian Embassy to establish supply and distribution arrangements to import the vaccine.

Concerns about police culture
In 2011, Meurant was interviewed in the documentary Operation 8, which was strongly critical of the anti-terror raids in Ruatoki in 2007. In it, he described the negative aspects of police culture and the actions that stemmed from it.

In Sept 2011, Meurant penned a damning critique of the NZ police in North & South magazine. The article describes police culture in disparaging terms likening it to a forest in which new recruits get lost. Meurant discusses a number of well known cases such as the Crewe murders and says it was more than just a couple of detectives on the case who were corrupt. He says that planting of a cartridge in the Crewe's garden was condoned by police management at the time. He makes the case that some officers are willing to break the law in a misguided belief that the end justifies the means and the means "is best decided by you and others in your sub culture of police, for what better epitomises the values of a decent society than those cherished by the men and women in blue?" He also wrote Too many loose ends to ignore Crewe case in which he states: "It is my view that the police then, as they do now, suffer greatly from the misconception that preservation of the police is more important than preservation of the rule of law."

Another critique of police sub culture was published in The Sunday Star-Times, titled Deep in the Forest in which he wrote: "Every new entrant (to the police) runs the same gauntlet. No recruit is ever formally taught to use violence, to lie and cover up. None of my mentors did that to me and I never did it to those whom I mentored. But the culture sends a very clear message: 'When you witness transgression by a colleague, keep your mouth shut'." Meurant also penned Officers in charge of weapons culpable in which he discussed the police shooting of Stephen John Bellingham in Christchurch after Bellingham was attacking cars with a hammer. "Based on what I knew of the incident I do not believe police were justified in shooting to kill."

Meurant also wrote a column "Urewera trial shows the cops have been getting it wrong". in which he criticised the police for the raids of October 2007 in which 17 people were arrested – allegedly as terrorists. Most of the charges were dropped four years later. Meurant believes the police abrogated the basic legal rights of defendants to "no detention without charge" and "to be taken before a court as soon as possible".

title: Ross Meurant


text:
Something Special (George Strait album)

Something Special is the fifth studio album by American country music artist George Strait, released on August 29, 1985, by MCA Records. It is certified platinum by the RIAA. The album produced singles in the track "You're Something Special to Me" (#4 on Hot Country Singles) and "The Chair" (#1 on the same chart). It was the first album for the MCA label to be issued on both LP album and compact disc. "Blue is Not a Word" was previously recorded by Kari Pickett in 1978.

Personnel

 * George Strait – lead vocals
 * John Hobbs – keyboards
 * Richard Bennett – acoustic guitar
 * Dean Parks – acoustic guitar
 * Billy Joe Walker Jr. – electric guitar
 * Reggie Young – electric guitar
 * Paul Franklin – pedal steel guitar
 * David Hungate – bass guitar
 * Matt Betton – drums
 * Johnny Gimble – fiddle
 * Curtis "Mr. Harmony" Young – backing vocals

Production

 * Jimmy Bowen – producer
 * George Strait – producer
 * Bob Bullock – engineer
 * Ron Treat – engineer
 * Mark Coddington – second engineer
 * Tim Kish – second engineer
 * Russ Martin – second engineer
 * Chuck Ainlay – mixing at GroundStar Laboratories (Nashville, Tennessee)
 * Glenn Meadows – mastering at Georgetown Masters (Nashville, Tennessee)
 * Peter Brill Nash – photography
 * Simon Levy – art direction
 * Brown, Wallace & Associates, Inc. – design and production
 * Erv Woosley – management

title: Something Special (George Strait album)


text:
George Thorndike Angell

George Thorndike Angell (June 5, 1823 – March 16, 1909) was an American lawyer, philanthropist, and advocate for the humane treatment of animals.

Biography
He was born in Southbridge, Massachusetts, graduated from Dartmouth College in 1846, studied law at the Harvard Law School, and in 1851 was admitted to the bar in Boston, where he practiced for many years.

While attending horse races in 1866 he witnessed two horses being run to death. Motivated by this incident and inspired by the work of Henry Bergh in New York, his advocacy for the humane treatment of animals became a lifelong passion.

In 1868 he founded and became president of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, in the same year establishing and becoming editor of Our Dumb Animals, a journal for the promotion of organized effort in securing the humane treatment of animals. For many years he was active in the organization of humane societies in England and America. In 1882, Angell and the Rev. Thomas Timmins initiated the movement to establish Bands of Mercy (for the promotion of humane treatment of animals), of which in 1908 there were more than 72,000 chapters in active existence. In 1889 he founded and became president of the American Humane Education Society.

He also became well known as an advocate of laws for the safeguarding of the public health and against adulteration of food.

Death
After suffering from failing health for a long time, he died at his apartments at the Hotel Westminster in Boston at the age of 85. He is buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery, between Cambridge and Watertown.

Selected publications

 * Cattle Transportation in the United States (1872)
 * The Check-Rein (1872)
 * Protection of Animals (1874)
 * Autobiographical Sketches and Personal Recollections (1882)

title: George Thorndike Angell


text:
Hisarya, Bulgaria

Hisarya (Хисаря, also known as Hisar, Hissar or Hissarya, formerly: Toplitsa) is a small town and a major spa resort in Plovdiv Province, central Bulgaria. The town is located at the southern foothills of the Sredna Gora mountain range facing the Upper Thracian Plain.

Hisar means 'fort, castle' in Arabic. The word was adopted in Persian and Ottoman Turkish.

History

The town was founded thousands of years ago probably on account of its hot springs. Some prehistoric remains have been found in what is now the town centre. Later, it became a Thracian city and, when Thrace fell to the Romans and became a Roman province, Hisarya became a Roman town — one of the three most important towns in the province. At times it was called Augusta, Diocletianopolis (after emperor Diocletian), and a couple of other names. It was a famous resort even in those times, which is proved by the fact that emperor Septimius Severus visited the city.

Many Roman ruins are visible everywhere — public buildings, a small amphitheatre, the barracks of the Roman garrison, the foundations of a couple of the oldest churches in Bulgaria, as well as the best-preserved Roman city walls in Bulgaria. The southern gate is known as "The Camels", because it had broken in the middle and looked like two camels facing each other, before it was partially restored in the early 20th century.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the prosperous city declined. When it was included within the borders of Bulgaria, it was just a minor fortified town. During the Turkish rule, it further declined and, at some point, the once-prosperous city was just a couple of small houses in the midst of many Roman ruins, which peasants from the nearby villages used for a stone quarry, destroying most of them in the process.

After the liberation of Bulgaria in 1878, Hisarya was included in the province of Eastern Rumelia; in 1885 it became a part of Bulgaria.

It prospered once again when the mineral springs were rediscovered and the place became a popular recreation spot.

After Bulgaria joined EU in 2007 various financing programs were used to recover the ancient ruins and renovate the park and street infrastructure, which recreates the town intensively and constantly and turns it again into a real gem of the Bulgarian spa, nature and historic heritage. The century-old trees in the parks, which are the habitat of numerous bird species, the renovated new modern large spa hotel centres with sport, spa and recreation areas and the brand new cosy luxurious smaller hotels and affordable guesthouses turn Hisarya again into a preferred resort for relaxation, health recovery, illness treatment and loved place for business seminars and events for foreign and Bulgarian visitors.

Honour
Hisarya Cove in Smith Island, South Shetland Islands is named after Hisarya.

title: Hisarya, Bulgaria


text:
Talk:Room temperature

Problems
Red wine is supposed to be drunk at *cellar temperature* not room temperature, a good 10 degrees lower. Deleted. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.242.175.202 (talk) 06:54, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

This page needs work. The body of this article seems to be taken from a hypothetical "Room Temperature vis-a-vis Scientific Experiments" page. Surely there are other relevant factoids about room temperature unrelated to the concerns of scientists conducting experiments in rooms; maybe it can be explained why room temperature is so comfortable for humans, or if there is a minimum or maximum comfortable or safe room temperature.

Ambient does not mean room temperature; it means surrounding temperature. Ambient temperature might be -40 C to an airplane designer.

Ambient temperature. Wouldn't that also include the temperature of the objects in the room. Which can be different to air temperature of the room. If I turn off my heater in the front room now the temperature would fall fast because the objects in the room are below that of the air temperature. At least until the heating system has been switched on long enough. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.41.173.149 (talk) 15:26, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

Ambient temperature simply means "the temperature of the surroundings" and will be the same as room temperature indoors. This is simply wrong. What would be the point of living in an insulated, closed, conditioned space if it was the same temperature as the ambient (outdoor) temperature? Rarely are they the same; in winter, it's warmer indoors, and in summer, it's cooler. That's rather the point of having a conditioned space. Ian.macky (talk) 15:57, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

I might be accused of nit-picking, but I changed "300 kelvins" to 300 "Kelvin" in the Scientific Calculations section, as per proper form. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 134.53.178.1 (talk • contribs).
 * But uncapitalized plural is correct? Femto 11:48, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

 * The proper form is not to pluralise it so the point is moot. 79.77.119.165 (talk) 13:01, 18 April 2008 (UTC)
 * As noted at Kelvin, since a kelvin is not measured relative to an arbitrary reference point like the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales, but is rather an absolute unit of measure which can be manipulated algebraically, it is indeed correct to use the plural form for more than 1 kelvin, just as the word "degrees" should not be used. I fixed it.  ★NealMcB★ (talk) 19:10, 28 July 2011 (UTC)

Sorry, I try to be tolerant here, but it really is important to be in complete command of the language when writing an article - there are too many vague or incomprehensible formulations here, starting with the first sentence: "within enclosed space at which humans are accustomed" (what does that mean? - a question which it shouldn't be necessary to ask). Article quite simply needs rewriting in English. Also: as remarked elsewhere, "ambient" is not the same as "room" temperature, even on the ground. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.54.176.85 (talk) 11:10, 26 October 2008 (UTC)

Whose standard?
Where do you get the standard room temperature is 22 °C? I more often see 20 °C called standard room temperature, and have seen other values as well--but I don't recall ever having seen 22 °C called by that name. Gene Nygaard 02:37, 30 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Human comfort
- human comfort is a debatable subject.

I'm from caribbean, living on USA (south florida 8-D ), and I prefer something around 78°F (25°C) inside or  90°f (32°C) and up outside, to "feel comfortable". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.213.180.253 (talk) 15:57, 20 May 2012 (UTC)

At 20°C hands are too cold to type comfortably. @ 22°C you can sit in a T-shirt all day. However, from a scientific point of view 1) 20°C=68°F exactly, thus, convenient. Another reason, "By law, residential owners must provide sufficient heat between October 1 and May 31. During this period, between 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m., if the outside temperature is below 55 degrees Fahrenheit, owners must heat apartments to at least 68 degrees Fahrenheit." :) (DL, 23 Oct 2005).

 * I'm perfecly comfortable naked in my room at 26-27°C, but I need body full clothing when it's 20°C or less in my basement room near the cold ground at this time of year. I think a section on human comfort would be appropriate in this article, so I've halved Cheriyan's above question and put it together with mine. 72.136.196.113 06:03, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

 * "By law, residential owners must provide sufficient heat between October 1..." By whose law?  I'm asuming that is some United States law due to the use of Fahrenheit.  But where in the US?  Is it a national law, state level, or something else?  Is it a statute, a common law, a regulation?  It sounds practical and I agree it is a fair statement, but you need to cite that.  This link states a law for Connecticut (and a few others) that is similar in purpose, but different in numbers. --Trakon 08:28, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
 * This depends on local climate and the acclimatisation of the individual. Personally based in northern England I find 20°C a little on the warm side.  That is not an uncommon opinion around here.  Too cold to type would be below about 15°C.  In short you can't make hard and fast rules about such things. 79.77.119.165 (talk) 13:06, 18 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Agreed - I'm also in northern England; the temperature in this room is now dropping below a comfortable level for wearing a tshirt (our boiler's broken and it's snowing outside), and is at 14.6°C. Normally I'd keep it at 16-17° or so - although I'd say that it's still easily warm enough at 14.6° to type :-) --82.70.156.254 (talk) 18:46, 24 November 2010 (UTC)
 * You guys wear t-shirts at 15°C?! Are you hyperthyroid or something? :-P WACGuy (talk) 01:15, 3 January 2011 (UTC)
 * I've always considered "room temperature" to be 61°F, approx 16°C, that's what I recall being marked on thermometers here in the UK (before they started being imported). 15°C is certainly fine to be wearing a T-shirt in; many people from Northern England wear T-shirts outdoors all year round! 109.176.133.116 (talk) 13:04, 26 October 2011 (UTC)

who is Rankine?
A minor quibble, but surely Kelvin - the SI unit of temperature - should be mentioned before the Rankine or "absolute Fahrenheit" scale which is virtually unheard-of outside the USA

 * Even in the US where I am, reading about computational physics a lot, I've never seen that unit 98.119.149.245 (talk) 15:41, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

Range
It says 20 to 23 degrees C but 293 to 298 K. There is a mistake here.

If there is a mistake, please correct it and cite it if possible or required. Thebestkiano 15:45, 18 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Corrected upper temp. K=C+273  -- Blind  Eagle  talk ~ contribs  16:27, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

I believe the error was in the degrees C line and not in the Kelvin line. Most common definitions in the fields of both chemistry and biology list room temperature as between 20 and 25 degrees C (or 293 to 298 K). 24.205.237.46 (talk) 02:06, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

Content
I have just a small problem with this statement: "A study carried out at the University of Uppsala (Sweden)[2], on indoor air quality and subjective indoor air quality (SIAQ) in primary schools, states that perception of high room temperature was related to a poor climate of cooperation. To achieve a good SIAQ, it recommends room temperature should be at a maximum of 22.0 °C (71.6 °F)." The way this idea is stated infers that the poor climate of cooperation may lead to the perception of high room temperature, or vice versa. It's simply a correlational study, which I don't think has much to do with the premise of the article. Niubrad 06:08, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

I have a problem with the mere inclusion of "ambient" temperature in this article. The eloquent writing doesn't conceal the fact that the author could not have consulted any dictionary to learn the correct meaning of the word, one which may "feel" like it is related, in meaning, to "room temperature" but is not, at all. A quick visit to Dictionary.com finds several fine definitions, including the following:

am⋅bi⋅ent /ˈæmbiənt/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [am-bee-uhnt] –adjective 1. 	of the surrounding area or environment: The tape recorder picked up too many ambient noises. The temperature in the display case was 20° lower than the ambient temperature. 2. 	completely surrounding; encompassing: the ambient air. Origin: 1590–1600; (< MF) < L ambient- (s. of ambiēns, prp. of ambīre to go around), equiv. to amb- ambi- + -i- go + -ent- -ent

--Rsmg (talk) 12:06, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

Rankine and Kelvins
We're talking about room temperature here, why not only use units that I'm sure 99% of the human population use to measure temperature, Fahrenheit and Celsius. I think adding Kelvins and Rankine is just too much unnecessary info. Wikidan829 (talk) 02:29, 13 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Kelvin is one thing, but Rankine? That scale is irrelevant to almost everyone, with the exception of a few U.S. engineering fields. Kelvin is used throughout science, the U.S. included. 81.158.1.233 (talk) 02:46, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

Shouldn't there be a reference for Scientific room temperature? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 146.186.238.26 (talk) 16:32, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

Room Temperature in cooking
Room temperature in cooking may often be determined by holding left index finger in the air, and right index in subject. i.e. to determin water, right index should be held under running spout, or cake batter, index finger should be held in batter. left handed people can use opposite index fingers. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.153.30.144 (talk) 15:36, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

 * What??? 98.119.149.245 (talk) 15:43, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

Room temperature in GSP
it is 0~30 degree C. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.220.233.83 (talk) 12:40, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Temperature & Pharmaceutical Science
The U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP/NF) defines several terms relating to the storage of pharmaceutical products. 20°C to 25°C (68°F to 77°F) is given as the definition of "controlled room temperature", and you will see this listed on many pharmaceutical products.

"Warm" is defined as any temperature between 30°C and 40°C (86°F and 104°F).

"Excessive Heat" is any temperature above 40°C (104°F).

"Cool" is any temperature between 8°C and 15° (46°F and 59°F), and any temperature not exceeding 8°C (46°F) is defined as "cold". Quintab (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 21:01, 9 September 2009 (UTC).

Room Temperature Range
I changed a few numbers around in this article. The range originally given for room temperature, 20° to 29°C, is way too high from my experiences. In the winter time, I set the thermostat to about 60°F (15-16°C), and in the summer time, I set it to 77°F (25°C), so 15-25°C seemed like a more appropriate range. I don't know about you but with those settings, I feel comfortable year round. ~June 2, 2011 19:31 EDT (UTC-4)

...where do you live, Svalbard or Baffin Island? Because I thought room temperature is supposed to be 28. 123.201.146.76 (talk) 20:26, 16 June 2015 (UTC)

20 to 29 sounds right to me. Currently my apartment is 83F, and I'm wearing jeans and a Nike golf shirt without any kind of fan blowing at me. I've been sitting like this for the last hour and I feel perfectly comfortable. I'm actually comfortable up to 86F, though with shorts and a lighter shirt. On the other hand, my office is 69F, and I can't stand it at all, so I wear a sport coat to work. 2600:8800:1300:401:E1BD:B108:7EFB:51E4 (talk) 01:16, 19 September 2017 (UTC)

I think that the numbers for a comfortable room temperature varies with region. I am a Nigerian and anything below 24 degrees would be cold for many Nigerians. I suspect that this may be generally true in tropical climates, but the use of biased sources shows otherwise. I will edit the page to reflect this.TEK1 (talk) 16:13, 5 March 2021 (UTC)

Simple English Wikipedia
The article on Room temperature at the Simple English Wikipedia looks somewhat better than this one... I'll copy some material over, unless someone else does it first (with proper attribution!), when I get a chance. Allens (talk) 15:46, 10 November 2011 (UTC)

 * Done. Allens (talk) 17:01, 11 November 2011 (UTC)

 * The above attribution was moved from the article to the Talk page to avoid cluttering the article with the editing history record. —BarrelProof (talk) 22:05, 7 January 2015 (UTC)

Error - typo
Section 2 in "comfort levels" cites 'W mids PH Obs (UK)' as 118 (!!) degrees should be 21C according to the article quoted 86.136.102.36 (talk) 19:21, 18 September 2012 (UTC)

From article: According to the West Midlands Public Health Observatory (UK),[1] an adequate level of warmth for older people (aged 58 and above) is 23 °C (73 °F) in the living room, and 24 °C (75 °F) in other occupied rooms. Yet the cited PDF says: This means a temperature of 21°C in the living room and 18°C in other occupied rooms. Where did the 23°/24° come from? Yeryry (talk) 15:05, 7 January 2015 (UTC)
 * Clearly, someone was vandalizing the numbers. I corrected those I could easily verify by following the citation links for WMPHO and BBC News. —BarrelProof (talk) 21:26, 7 January 2015 (UTC)

Added new section - Liquid metals

 * The article for caesium says "It has a melting point of 28.5 °C (83.3 °F), making it one of the few elemental metals that are liquid near room temperature", which raises the question "What are the others?". As room temperature is linked in that sentence, this seems like the place to say what those elements are. Unfortunately I don't know what the remaining metals are, so perhaps others can add them. :-)
 * 85.211.237.252 (talk) 09:19, 20 June 2018 (UTC)
 * thanks for the contribution. I decided to move it to the Liquid metal article instead. I'm not sure if it's totally appropriate there, but I think more so than here. I don't think we can have in this article a listing of all the things that happen at room temperature, e.g. mercury or water becoming liquid, butter getting soft, and so on. This article is about the concept and definition of room temperature itself. The reason there is a section about wine is that in the context of wine serving, the concept of room temperature itself is different (lower) than usual, i.e., 18 °C rather than the typical 20-21 °C. Btw., in the caesium article, in the first paragraph there is a note #2, that lists the other metals. --IamNotU (talk) 14:57, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

Removing paragraph on WHO thermal comfort guidance
The paragraph in the "thermal comfort" section quoting the WHO's guidance on room temperature is unsourced trash plagiarized word-for-word from a BBC article (linked in the first citation). I should note, here, that copying article text from another source is plagiarism (even if cited; that's not what citations are for), and is against the rules. The second citation is irrelevant to the paragraph's content. I'm going to delete the entire paragraph, and, if I can find the original WHO recommendation, replace it; otherwise, I'll leave it out. 99.250.22.119 (talk) 15:56, 10 May 2020 (UTC)

 * I guess it can't be both unsourced and word-for-word copied from a BBC article? The BBC is usually considered a reliable source, it can be reasonably expected to have accurately represented the WHO guidelines. The piece has other relevant information that could be used to expand the article. Please don't remove the citation, thanks. --IamNotU (talk) 19:58, 10 May 2020 (UTC)
 * PS I've replaced the close paraphrase, and removed the irrelevant source. Thanks for pointing it out. --IamNotU (talk) 20:17, 10 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the quick response! I want to clarify: the "unsourced trash" part of my comment was, perhaps rudely, referring to the BBC article itself, not necessarily to its inclusion in this page (because, as you noted, it was cited). My plagiarism comment stands; thanks for fixing that. The BBC article mentions WHO guidelines, but gives no indication of where they can be found, when they were produced, or any context with respect to why they were published. A better source for this paragraph, now that the copy-pasting issue's been fixed, would be the WHO itself or an article that actually cites the WHO's guidelines. I found this interesting article which notes the frequent quotation of these WHO guidelines and the difficulty in finding them. If you can access it, you'll find it contains the information we're looking for. You can find the referenced WHO report here, but as it's very old and very long, I think the later analysis is a better source for this page because it contains a modern perspective on the original WHO report.
 * If it's ok with you, I'd like to suggest replacing the BBC citation with Ormandy and Ezratty. Also, I would rewrite the first sentence to incorporate the range 18 °C to 24 °C (the BBC article incorrectly quotes only the lower bound of the comfortable temperature range).99.250.22.119 (talk)
 * Thanks for finding that paper. Looking at the WHO reports it mentions, the information in the BBC article originates in the 1987 report, "Health impact of low indoor temperatures". I can't find a copy online. The information is cited and reprinted in this 1990 book: "Indoor environment : health aspects of air quality, thermal environment, light and noise", here on page 17: . The connection between this and the 1968 report doesn't seem as strong as Ormandy and Ezratty indicate.
 * The most recent WHO guideline is from 2018: . It cites the 1987 report's 18-24˚C range, with the higher minimum for vulnerable groups, though it doesn't repeat the specific numbers of 20 and 16. It reviews evidence for it; there is a systematic review regarding cold temperatures in an appendix here:, and warm temperatures here:.
 * I did a quick update and cited the 1990 publication. I also added a paragraph based on the 2018 guidelines. I'd still prefer to leave the BBC citation in as well, as it's not inaccurate. --IamNotU (talk) 18:05, 11 May 2020 (UTC)
 * PS, the 1968 report is largely concerned with thermal comfort, but the later ones focus on health risks, so I added a new section. I suppose the 1968 one could also be cited in the thermal comfort section, but it seems a bit over the hill at 50 years old... --IamNotU (talk) 18:09, 11 May 2020 (UTC)
 * I like these changes; thanks for making them. Cheers99.250.22.119 (talk) 18:12, 11 May 2020 (UTC)
 * PS, the 1968 report is largely concerned with thermal comfort, but the later ones focus on health risks, so I added a new section. I suppose the 1968 one could also be cited in the thermal comfort section, but it seems a bit over the hill at 50 years old... --IamNotU (talk) 18:09, 11 May 2020 (UTC)
 * I like these changes; thanks for making them. Cheers99.250.22.119 (talk) 18:12, 11 May 2020 (UTC)

Oil versus Fat -- New Section?
While researching lipids and the difference between fats and oils, the main difference was physical state at room temperature. A popular search engine sent me here when a searched for 'room temperature'. Maybe a mention here? 216.75.114.13 (talk) 02:05, 1 December 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:Room temperature


text:
7 (George Strait album)

#7 is the sixth studio album by American country music artist George Strait—his seventh album including his Greatest Hits—released on May 14, 1986, by MCA Records. It is certified platinum by the RIAA and it produced two singles: "Nobody in His Right Mind Would've Left Her" (which had previously been recorded by Dean Dillon in 1980), and "It Ain't Cool to Be Crazy About You", both of which reached Number One on the country charts in 1986. "Deep Water" is a cover of a 1948 Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys song. "Cow Town" is a cover of a 1962 Webb Pierce song.

Personnel

 * George Strait – lead vocals
 * John Barlow Jarvis – pianos
 * Richard Bennett – electric guitar, acoustic guitar
 * Billy Joe Walker, Jr. – electric guitar, acoustic guitar
 * Reggie Young – electric guitar
 * Paul Franklin – steel guitar
 * Johnny Gimble – fiddle, mandolin
 * David Hungate – bass guitar
 * Eddie Bayers – drums
 * Curtis "Mr. Harmony" Young – backing vocals

Production
 * Jimmy Bowen – producer
 * George Strait – producer
 * Willie Pevear – recording
 * Chuck Ainlay – overdub recording
 * Bob Bullock – overdub recording
 * Mark J. Coddington – second engineer
 * Tim Kish – second engineer
 * Keith Odle – second engineer
 * Russ Martin – second engineer
 * Ron Treat – mixing
 * Glenn Meadows – mastering at Masterfonics (Nashville, Tennessee)
 * Peter Nash – photography
 * Simon Levy – art direction
 * Camille Brown – design
 * Erv Woolsey – management

title: 7 (George Strait album)


text:
Nirupa Roy

Nirupa Roy (born Kokila Kishorechandra Bulsara; 4 January 1931 – 13 October 2004) was an Indian actress who had appeared in Hindi films. Noted for her portrayals of tragedy and sorrow, Roy was known for her acting ability, and was uncharitably called the "Queen of Misery" in Hindi film circles. Roy was active from 1946 to 1999, and was best known for playing motherly roles. Roy appeared in over 250 films, and won three Filmfare Awards throughout her career, as well as being nominated for one. In 2004, Roy received the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award.

Early life
Roy was born as Kokila Kishorechandra Bulsara in Kalwada, Valsad, Gujarat. She married Kamal Roy at the age of 15, and moved to Mumbai. She used her married name Nirupa Roy when she entered the film industry.

Career
In 1946, Roy and her husband responded to an advertisement in a Gujarati paper looking for actors. She was selected and started her acting career with the Gujarati film Ranakdevi (1946). The same year she acted in her first Hindi film Amar Raj. One of her popular films was Do Bigha Zamin (1953). She largely played mythological characters in the films of the 1940s and 50s. In Har Har Mahadev she played the role of Parvati Devi opposite Trilok Kapoor who played the role of Shiva and the film was the top grosser of the year. Her image of a goddess was very strong and people would visit her home and seek her blessings. Among her co-stars were Trilok Kapoor (with whom she played in eighteen movies), Bharat Bhushan, Balraj Sahni, and Ashok Kumar.

In the 1970s, her role as mother to the characters played by Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor made her name synonymous to the impoverished suffering mother. Her role in Deewaar (1975) and its dialogues with reference to a mother and son are used as clichés.

Personal life
In her marriage with Kamal Roy, she had two children, named Yogesh and Kiran Roy. In the years following her death, they engaged into a dispute over Roy's property and belongings, which has received much attention throughout news and media.

Death
On 13 October 2004, Roy suffered a cardiac arrest in Mumbai, and died at the age of 73.

Several tributes and articles have been made in Roy's memory. Her dialogues from the film Deewaar became iconic, and her acting in the film along with her other notable films are considered to be a landmark in Hindi cinema.

Selected filmography
rani rupmati 1957

title: Nirupa Roy


text:
Pinaka (Hinduism)

The Pinaka (पिनाक, pināka) is the celestial bow of the Hindu deity, Shiva. In popular legend, he is believed to have employed this bow in his avatar as Tripurantaka to annihilate the three cities of Mayasura, known as Tripura. The weapon is the origin of one of Shiva's epithets, Pinākapāṇi, literally meaning, 'The Wielder of The Pināka'.

Literature
The first mention of the pinaka is In the Taittirīya and Vājasneyi Samhitas of the Krishna and Shukla Yajurveda respectively. Here, Rudra is called as Pinākahasta (one who has the Pināka bow in his hands) and Pinākavāsa (The one who wears the Pināka bow as an ornament).

In the Shiva Purana, Shiva employed the Pinaka in his duel against Ganesha, who had been appointed to stand guard while his mother Parvati bathed.

In the Harivamsa Purana, when the Prajapati Daksha performed a yajna for the gods, his ceremony was obstructed by Shiva and a human incarnation of Nandi, who wielded the Pinaka. Hari (Vishnu) stood to confront him, accompanied by the adityas and the vasus. Shiva struck Hari on his breast, who countered by grabbing his assailant's throat. When he strung his own bow Sharanga, the mountain Meru trembled. Infuriated, Nandi raised the Pinaka and struck Hari on the head, who stupefied the man with a smile and stood firm, allowing the yajna to resume.

In the Padma Purana, Shiva employed the Pinaka to combat Jalandhara: "Having heard these words of Brahma, Śiva knew (the illusion). Knowing the demon’s illusion, he threw a large rock (at the demons). With that he killed three hundred crores of demons. O king, then having very angrily mounted upon his bull (i.e. Nandin), Śiva took his Pināka bow and arrows. Then the son of the Ocean (i.e. Jālandhara), seeing Śiva, free from the illusion, manifested quickly another group of illusions which deluded the lord of gods, which was very wonderful, which was very powerful. Jālandhara turned into (one) having a crore of arms and fought Śiva with trees, weapons and missiles; and he, the Ocean’s son, put the earth that was decorated with the red chalk into the intermediate space; and the Ocean’s son made the earth adorned with many charming temples of deities, full of various (kinds of) flowers. Celestial nymphs, more lovely than Menakā danced there. Śambhu, forgot (to fight) and instantly abandoned the bow, and deluded by (the sound of) musical instruments and songs and by the tāṇḍava dance of the lord of demons, started, being mounted upon the bull."When the Yadava forces invaded Sonitapura to rescue Aniruddha, Shiva and Kartikeya rushed to guard the city of the Shaiva asura, Bana. Krishna's Sharanga and Shiva's Pinaka were used against each other in the battle, the conflict ultimately won by Krishna.

In the Ramayana, Rama broke the Pinaka to win Princess Sita's hand in marriage during her svayamvara.

The Pinaka is sometimes considered to be the weapon Shiva employed to destroy Tripura, even though other legends state that the bow used for the destruction of the three cities was fashioned from Mount Mandara:

"Śiva had to make grand preparations for a fight with the Tripuras. He invoked half the strength of the devas to himself to make Śivaśakti (Javelin of Śiva) greater than Asuraśakti. The devas made Viśvakarmā construct a special chariot for Śiva. On the banks of the river Narmadā at a place which became renowned as Maheśvara Śiva stayed for a thousand years thinking about the fight with the Tripuras. He made the mountain of Mandara his bow, Vāsuki, the string and Viṣṇu his arrow. He installed Agni at the tip and Vāyu at the bottom of the arrow. Four devas stood as horses to his chariot. The earth itself was the chariot and all the animate and inanimate objects of the devaloka arrayed at different parts of the chariot. On the wheels stood the Aśvinīdevas and Cakrapāṇi stayed on the axle. Gandharvas took places on the spokes. Indra stayed on the bow and Vaiśravaṇa on the arrow. Yama took his place on the right hand and the dreadful Kāla on the left hand. Brahmā acted as the charioteer.

Equipped thus, Śiva stayed in the godly chariot for a thousand years. When the three cities joined together in the sky Śiva split the cities by his three forked spike. Then he sent an arrow to the cities. Bad omens began to appear in Tripura. People became lifeless in the cities. Soon an arrow from Śiva burnt the cities and the Tripuras were burnt to death."

title: Pinaka (Hinduism)


text:
Ocean Front Property

Ocean Front Property is the seventh studio album by American country music artist George Strait, released on January 12, 1987, by MCA Records. It is certified 2× Multi-platinum by the RIAA. It is the first album to debut at #1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums Chart. It was ranked #5 on CMT's list of 40 Greatest Albums in Country Music in 2006.

Personnel
Tracks 1-4 & 6-10
 * George Strait – lead vocals
 * John Barlow Jarvis – acoustic piano
 * Richard Bennett – acoustic guitars
 * Billy Joe Walker, Jr. – electric guitars
 * Reggie Young – electric guitars
 * Paul Franklin – pedal steel guitar
 * Johnny Gimble – fiddle, mandolin
 * Leland Sklar – bass
 * Owen Hale – drums
 * Curtis Young – harmony vocals

Ace in the Hole Band (Track 5)
 * George Strait – vocals
 * Ronnie Huckaby – acoustic piano
 * David Anthony – acoustic guitars
 * Benny McArthur – electric guitars
 * Rick McRae – electric guitars
 * Mike Daily – steel guitar
 * Terry Hale – bass
 * Phillip Farjado – drums
 * Gene Elders – fiddle

Production

 * Jimmy Bowen – producer
 * George Strait – producer
 * Steve Tillisch – recording, mixing
 * Chuck Ainlay – overdub recording
 * Willie Pevear – overdub recording
 * Tim Kish – second engineer
 * Marty Williams – second engineer
 * Glenn Meadows – mastering at Masterfonics (Nashville, Tennessee)
 * Jessie Noble – project coordinator
 * Simon Levy – art direction
 * Mickey Braithwaite – design
 * Jerry Smith – photography
 * Erv Woolsey – management

title: Ocean Front Property


text:
Robert Elegant

Robert Sampson Elegant (7 March 1928 – 20 June 2023) was an American-British author and journalist. He spent many years in Asia as a journalist. The Asian settings of all but one of his novels reflect that experience. He covered both the Korean and the Vietnam Wars, as well as four or five lesser conflicts. One of his last novels, Cry Peace, is centered on the Korean War.

Career
Elegant held degrees from the University of Pennsylvania (AB, Phi Beta Kappa); and Columbia University (MA, Far Eastern studies, MS journalism, Distinguished Alumnus Award), as well as a diploma of proficiency in Chinese from Yale University. He was a Pulitzer Prize traveling fellow (1951) and received an Edgar Allan Poe Special Award in 1967 for A Kind of Treason, among the best first mystery thriller novels of the preceding year.

Among other awards, he received four prizes for best interpretation of foreign news by the Overseas Press Club of America. He was shortlisted for a Pulitzer Prize in international reporting three times, a finalist twice. He was a visiting professor at the University of South Carolina and Boston University.

Elegant was a fellow of the Washington, D.C. American Enterprise Institute, the Berlin, Germany, Wissenschaftskolleg, Institute for Advanced Studies, and the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University.

Elegant briefed Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger repeatedly on Asia in general, as well as China and Vietnam in particular. He was proud of a handwritten note from the former president whose undeniably momentous masterstroke in foreign affairs was reopening contact with mainland China. That note reads: "Dear Robert, You are my favorite China expert. Richard Nixon"

A patron of the Manchu Shih Tzu Society of Great Britain, he raised Shih-tzu (Chinese lion) dogs and was a devoted amateur sailor and owner of small craft for 50 years.

Elegant later lived in London and Italy. He frequently traveled, mainly to the Far East. He spoke, read, and wrote Chinese and Japanese, having studied both the classical and modern languages, as well as German, Italian, and some Indonesian.

His articles were published in hundreds of newspapers and scores of weekly, biweekly, and monthly journals across the world, and his books were published in a number of languages in 20 countries.

Personal life and death
On 16 April 1956, Elegant married painter Moira Clarissa Brady. Brady died of cancer on 19 January 1999.

On 10 May 2003, Elegant married author and editor Ursula Rosemary Righter (née Douglas).

Elegant died at home in London on 20 June 2023, at the age of 95.

Nonfiction

 * The Dragon's Seed, St. Martin's (1959)
 * The Center of the World, Doubleday (1964) (revised edition by Funk in 1968)
 * Mao's Great Revolution, World Publishing (1971)
 * China's Red Masters: Political Biographies of the Chinese Communist Leaders, Greenwood Press (1971) (First reprint)
 * Mao vs. Chiang: The Battle for China, Grosset & Dunlap (1972)
 * The Great Cities: Hong Kong, Time-Life (1977)
 * Pacific Destiny: Inside Asia Today, Crown (1990)
 * Pacific Destiny: Inside Asia Today, Crown (1990)

Fiction

 * A Kind of Treason, Holt (1966)
 * The Seeking, Funk (1969)
 * Dynasty, McGraw (1976)
 * Manchu, McGraw (1979)
 * Mandarin, Simon & Schuster (1983)
 * White Sun, Red Star, Hamish Hamilton (1986) (published as From a Far Land by Random House in 1987)
 * Bianca, Sinclair-Stevenson (1992) (St Martin's also published it in 1995)
 * The Everlasting Sorrow, Reed International (1994)
 * Last Year in Hong Kong: A Love Story, Morrow (1997)
 * The Big Brown Bears, Hale (1998)
 * Cry Peace, Hale (2005)

title: Robert Elegant


text:
Sendo

Sendo was a British manufacturer and supplier of mobile phones founded in 1998 and based in Birmingham. The company went into administration in June 2005 and its technology was bought by Motorola.

The company specialised in low-cost handsets aimed primarily at the pay-as-you-go markets and also high-end Symbian smartphones.

History
Sendo was created in 1998 by mobile phone experts from Philips and Motorola. In February 2001, Microsoft announced a partnership, in which Microsoft bought $12m of Sendo shares (10% ) and a seat on the board. Sendo was to be Microsoft's "go to market partner" for the Stinger smartphone platform that became Smartphone 2002.

Microsoft was to deliver code for the StingerOS by June and the first prototype, the Sendo Z100, was delivered. Sendo manage to ship an SDK, but by December not enough code had been delivered by Microsoft and, without any products to sell, Sendo couldn't raise any money from sales or venture capitalists. Sendo dropped Microsoft and opted to go with Symbian but eventually went bankrupt.

Under the deal, if Sendo was declared insolvent "Microsoft would obtain an irrevocable, royalty free licence to use Sendo's Z100 intellectual property, including rights to make, use, or copy the Sendo Smartphone to create other Smartphones and to, most importantly for Microsoft, sublicense those rights to third parties." A product based on the Sendo Z100 was released while Sendo was still solvent by Orange as the Orange SPV 100, manufactured by HTC as the HTC Canary, the first Windows Mobile smartphone.

As a consequence Sendo sued Microsoft in December 2002, alleging it stole proprietary technology and trade secrets and gave these to HTC enabling HTC and itself to launch into the mobile phone market.

Microsoft denied the allegations and in February 2003 filed a counter suit alleging breach of contract. A trial was scheduled for early 2005 but an out of court settlement was reached in September 2004, in which there was a "monetary component" and Microsoft giving up its stake of Sendo. In June 2006 Sendo then sued Orange.

In September 2003, Microsoft and Sendo dropped their suits and announced that Microsoft had given up its shares in Sendo.

In 2004, Sendo sold 5 million devices and, along with other major mobile phone manufacturer, showed interest in using Nvidia's GoForce graphic chips.

In March 2005, Sendo made an objection to the European Commission regarding Ericsson and their patent and licence management after being sued.

At the time Motorola took over the developers and their patents, they held 50 valid patents and had 40 waiting for approval.

Models

 * Sendo D800
 * WOXTER D800 (Hong Kong)
 * Sendo A820
 * WOXTER S100/S100i (Hong Kong)
 * Sendo J520
 * WOXTER B110/B110i (Hong Kong)
 * Sendo K1
 * WOXTER K1 (Hong Kong)
 * Sendo M550
 * Sendo M551 (North America)
 * Tevion MD 7300 (Germany)
 * WOXTER G300 (Hong Kong)
 * Sendo M570
 * WOXTER G350 (Hong Kong)
 * Sendo P600
 * WOXTER P600 (Hong Kong)
 * Sendo S1
 * WOXTER S1/S1M (Hong Kong)
 * Sendo S200
 * WOXTER V400/V400i (Hong Kong)
 * Sendo S251
 * WOXTER F600 (Hong Kong)
 * Sendo S300
 * WOXTER T100 (Hong Kong)
 * Sendo S330
 * WOXTER T160 (Hong Kong)
 * Sendo S360
 * WOXTER S360 (Hong Kong)
 * Sendo S600
 * WOXTER S600 (Hong Kong)
 * Sendo SV663
 * Sendo S633
 * WOXTER S670 (Hong Kong)
 * Sendo X
 * WOXTER F200 (Hong Kong)
 * Sendo X2 (canceled)
 * WOXTER F250 (Hong Kong)
 * Sendo Z100 (canceled)
 * WOXTER Z100 (Hong Kong)

title: Sendo


text:
Claudius Clavus

Claudius Clavus (Suartho) also known as Nicholas Niger, (Claudius Claussøn Swart), (born 14 September 1388), was a Danish geographer sometimes considered to be the first Nordic cartographer.

It is believed that he was born in the village of Salling on the Danish island of Funen. He is commemorated by a plaque in the local Aagaarden.

In 141213 at the age of 25 he started to travel around Europe and appeared eleven years later (142324) in Rome. It is believed he travelled as far north as the 70°10' N. lat. In Rome he became friends with the cardinal Giordano Orsini and the pope's secretary Gian Francesco Poggio Bracciolini, who were among those working to update the old Roman cartography. Claudius contributed to a more realistic description of Nordic countries, in particular Iceland and Greenland, and was probably the first cartographer to put Greenland on a map. He is also known for having named Greenlandic places by using lyrics from old folk songs.

Most of his work (including two maps) is lost, but a copy has been preserved through the German cartographers Donnus Nicholas Germanus and Henricus Martellus Germanus, and in the nineteenth century more texts were rediscovered in the imperial library at Vienna. He drew 27 maps for a copy of the Geography by Ptolemy (see image).

title: Claudius Clavus