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Talk:The Waste Land

Reception and criticism?
Should there be a section on the poem's reception by the public and critics? And its impact and legacy? TuckerResearch (talk) 15:33, 29 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Yes. And something should be said about interpretation. This is why I'm downgrading this from "B" class to "C". A lot more could be written, & some of what is currently here could be condensed. -- llywrch (talk) 23:42, 30 October 2019 (UTC)

Interpretation
First, the idea that "Eliot's poem loosely follows the legend of the Holy Grail and the Fisher King" needs at least to be sourced. More importantly, this is only one (very old and contested) interpretation of the poem. I.e. I suggest "the Fisher King" stuff be deleted. There should be a section a la "critical reception" to represent the variety of interpretations etc. and various assertions about its relevance/importance to literary modernism. ProfHanley (talk) 17:52, 10 October 2019 (UTC)

Is Marie a real person?
I was curious about whether the Marie in the very first stanza of the poem was based on a real person, so I went on Google and searched up "marie cousin of arch duke germany" (based on the information in that first stanza). The first result was Maria Anna of Bavaria (1574-1616), who married her first cousin, Ferdinand, the Arch-Duke of Inner Austria. It seems to me like her marriage could explain why her memories are so bitter (why April is the cruellest month for mixing memory and desire and for melting away the forgetful snow). I know Wikipedia doesn't like original research, so I'm wondering if there's any general consensus on this topic? Gridzbispudvetch (talk) 03:48, 14 April 2020 (UTC)
 * The poem seems to say she comes from Lithuanian, but I think it is valid to ask who Eliot is referring to.--Jack Upland (talk) 05:24, 14 April 2020 (UTC)
 * I paid ten dollars for an annotated copy of this poem from amazon and it just answers the question right there. It's apparently Countess Marie Larisch, whom Eliot met in person under unknown circumstances. The description of the sledding is taken verbatim from a conversation the two had together. I feel kind of cheated out of my discovery, but it's kinda nice to know I think. --Gridzbispudvetch (talk) 05:10, 18 April 2020 (UTC)
 * I think that would be worth adding that under "Sources". One of his sources was conversations with real people like Marie Larisch.--Jack Upland (talk) 08:35, 18 April 2020 (UTC)

 * The second great German Eliot translator (after Ernst Curtius), the late Eva Hesse, has something on this in the first chapter of a 1973 book of hers on "T.S. Eliot und das Wüste Land" (Suhrkamp Verlag) - sadly no longer in my possession. I think I also like to point out that the short introduction to the here mentioned Annotated edition of the Waste Land has a very good introduction on Eliot by Lawrence Rainey. PS.: The Annotated edition gives the basic facts/ interpretation of Eva Hesse concerning the Countess Marie Larisch, I think. --Ralfdetlef (talk) 20:16, 1 February 2023 (UTC)

 * Please add it, even if you don't have a page number.--Jack Upland (talk) 06:37, 2 February 2023 (UTC)

Citation maintenance notice regarding short footnotes
In order to maintain consistency in articles using a particular short footnote style, a notice was placed at the beginning of this talk page which appears to fit the style being used for this article. The intention is to be an aid to contributors and citation maintenance editors in upgrading citations to the highest wikipedia standards. It is often unclear what the rationale is for sfn and harvnb use due to the mixture with inline ref citations which inevitably occurs due to contributors being unfamiliar with short footnotes. However I may have incorrectly guessed the style for this article, and that the rule is different. For example- that primary and secondary sources always are placed in the primary and secondary sections regardless if they have different pages referenced or not. If that is the case, please add a note here and I will place the correct notice here. J JMesserly (talk) 22:24, 13 March 2023 (UTC)

Background section is disjointed
I am dizzy after reading this section. It goes from relevant background on the author's mental state to the wage, in GBP, said author received at their bank job.

This is not a biography. I suggest that the section be rewritten with a focus on what factors in Elliot's life impacted The Waste Land. Otter Hunter (talk) 02:33, 17 April 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:The Waste Land


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Chenonceau

Chenonceau
was proposed for deletion. This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result is that this is fixed. This was done by Catherine. - Ta bu shi da yu 07:34, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)

To be deleted in order to allow the #REDIRECT Chenonceaux and recreated with #REDIRECT Chenonceaux As a matter of fact, the city Chenonceaux takes an x where the Château de Chenonceau does not. I have added some info to the page if you need more explanation. notafish [[:fr:Discussion Utilisateur:Notafish| }<';>]] 16:25, 22 Oct 2004 (UTC) This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like other '/delete' pages is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion or on the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.
 * I believe the page you want deleted has the "x", so you can move the page that doesn't have it to the location which does. PS Please read the instructions before listing things. Chris 02:06, 23 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Redirect deleted, page moved, links fixed. Let me know if I missed anything, Notafish.  (I don't suppose you're fowl, either?)  Good work -- next time, for this sort of thing, ask on Help desk or Village pump.  Cheers!  Catherine | talk 06:51, 23 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * He can't be a fish, because I am not a fish! - Ta bu shi da yu 07:32, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Thank you Catherine for the help for this "problem". Ma'ame Michu 17:11, 23 Oct 2004 (UTC)

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


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Al Jean

Alfred Ernest Jean III (born January 9, 1961) is an American screenwriter and producer. Jean is well known for his work on The Simpsons. He was raised near Detroit, Michigan, and graduated from Harvard University in 1981. Jean began his writing career in the 1980s with fellow Harvard alum Mike Reiss. Together, they worked as writers and producers on television shows such as The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, ALF and It's Garry Shandling's Show.

Jean was offered a job as a writer on the animated sitcom The Simpsons in 1989, alongside Reiss, and together they became the first members of the show's original writing staff. They served as showrunners during the show's third (1991–92) and fourth (1992–93) seasons, though they left The Simpsons after season four to create The Critic, an animated show about film critic Jay Sherman. It was first broadcast on ABC in January 1994 (then aired its second season on Fox in March 1995) and was well received by critics, but did not catch on with viewers and only lasted for two seasons.

In 1994, Jean and Reiss signed a three-year development deal with The Walt Disney Company to produce other television shows for ABC. Among multiple pitches made by the duo, their sole project with ABC to come to fruition was the live-action sitcom Teen Angel, which was cancelled in its first season. Jean returned full-time to The Simpsons during the tenth season (1998–99). He became showrunner again with the start of the thirteenth season in 2001, without Reiss, and he stayed in that position until thirty-three. Jean was also one of the writers and producers who worked on The Simpsons Movie, a feature-length film based on the series, released in 2007.

Early life
Alfred Ernest Jean III was born in Detroit, Michigan on January 9, 1961. He was raised in Farmington Hills, Michigan, graduated from Harrison High School, and is of Irish ancestry. After working at his father's hardware store, Jean arrived at Harvard University when he was sixteen years old and graduated in 1981 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics. Daryl Libow, one of Jean's freshman roommates, said he was a "math whiz" when he arrived at Harvard but "soon blossomed and found his comedic feet." In Holworthy Hall at Harvard, Jean met fellow freshman Mike Reiss; they befriended one another and collaborated in their writing efforts for the humor publication Harvard Lampoon. Jeff Martin, another writer for the Lampoon, said "they definitely loomed large around the magazine. They were very funny guys and unusually polished comedy writers for that age. We were never surprised that they went on to success." Jean has also stated that the duo spent most of their time at the Lampoon, adding that "it was practically my second dorm room." He eventually became vice-president of the publication.

Early career and The Simpsons
The humor magazine National Lampoon hired Jean and Reiss after they graduated in 1981. During the 1980s, the duo began collaborating on various television material. During this period, they worked as writers and producers on television shows such as The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, ALF, Sledge Hammer! and It's Garry Shandling's Show. In 1989, Jean was offered a job as a writer on the animated sitcom The Simpsons, a show created by Matt Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon that continues to air today. Many of Jean's friends were not interested in working on The Simpsons because it was a cartoon and they did not think it would last long. Jean, however, was a fan of the work of Groening, Brooks and Simon, and therefore took the job together with Reiss.

The duo became the first members of the original Simpsons writing staff and worked on the thirteen episodes of the series' first season (1989–90). While watching the first episode of the show, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", premiering on television in December 1989, Jean opined to himself that the series was the greatest project he had been involved with and desired to continue working on it for the rest of his professional career. What he enjoyed most about The Simpsons at the time was something he recognized from Brooks' previous work: although the show was largely based on humor, it had depth and warmth.

Although Jean has been credited as the sole writer of several episodes, he considers the process to be mainly collaborative: "the principal writer [of an episode] has, at most, written 40% of the script. It's a real team effort." The writer credited in the episode's opening credits is the person that came up with the idea for the episode and wrote the first draft, even if he or she only contributed to a small part of the final script. Jean has stated that Lisa Simpson is one of his favorite characters to write for. She is the character he relates to the most because of their similar childhoods and the fact that he has a daughter.

Jean became showrunner of The Simpsons at the start of the third season (1991–92) together with Reiss. A showrunner has the ultimate responsibility of all the processes that an episode goes through before completion, including the writing, the animation, the voice acting and the music. According to Jean, when he began his tenure as showrunner, the only thing he thought to himself every day was "Don't blow it and screw up this thing everyone loves." The first episode Jean and Reiss ran was "Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington" (aired September 26, 1991), and they felt pressured to make it good, so much so that they did six to seven rewrites of the script in order to improve its humor. Jean said he "kept thinking 'It's not good enough. It's not good enough.'" Reiss added that "we were definitely scared. We had never run anything before, and they dumped us on this."

Jean and Reiss served as showrunners until the end of the fourth season in 1993. Since the show had already established itself in the first two seasons, they were able to give it more depth during their tenure. Jean believes this is one of the reasons that many fans and critics regard season three and four as the best seasons of The Simpsons. Bill Oakley, another Simpsons writer, has commented that "Mike and Al are responsible for the best thing that ever appeared on television, which was the third season of The Simpsons." Comedy writer Jay Kogen has said that "those years with Al Jean and Mike Reiss running it were pretty darn good. And then the ones after that maybe not so much. Some people ran it better than others."

The Critic and Disney
Jean and Reiss left The Simpsons after its fourth season in order to create The Critic, an animated show about film critic Jay Sherman (voiced by Jon Lovitz); the show was executive produced by Brooks. It was first broadcast on ABC in January 1994 and was well received by critics, but did not catch on with viewers and was put on hiatus after six weeks. It returned in June 1994 and completed airing its initial production run. The Critic was moved to the Fox network for its second season. Since The Simpsons also aired on that network, Brooks was able to create a crossover between it and The Critic.

Said crossover occurred through the Simpsons episode "A Star Is Burns" (1995). Groening was not fond of the crossover, publicly citing it as a thirty-minute advertisement for The Critic. Brooks said, "for years, Al and Mike were two guys who worked their hearts out on this show, staying up until 4 in the morning to get it right. The point is, Matt's name has been on Mike's and Al's scripts and he has taken plenty of credit for a lot of their great work. In fact, he is the direct beneficiary of their work. The Critic is their shot and he should be giving them his support." Reiss stated that he was a "little upset" by Groening's actions and that "this taints everything at the last minute. [...] This episode doesn't say 'Watch The Critic' all over it." Jean added "What bothers me about all of this, is that now people may get the impression that this Simpsons episode is less than good. It stands on its own even if The Critic never existed." On Fox, The Critic was again short-lived, broadcasting ten episodes before its cancellation. A total of only 23 episodes were produced, and it returned briefly in 2000 with a series of ten Internet broadcast webisodes. The series has since developed a cult following thanks to reruns on Comedy Central and its complete series release on DVD.

In 1994, Jean and Reiss signed a three-year deal with The Walt Disney Company to produce other television shows for ABC. The duo created and executive produced Teen Angel, which was canceled in its first season. Reiss said "It was so compromised and overworked. I had 11 executives full-time telling me how to do my job." The pair periodically returned to work on The Simpsons— for example, while under contract at Disney they were allowed to write and produce four episodes of the show, including season eight's "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious" (1997).

Further work on The Simpsons
Following Teen Angel's cancellation, Jean and Reiss ceased their writing partnership. Subsequently, Jean alone returned full-time to The Simpsons during the tenth season (1998–99) and became a prominent writer and executive producer during the ensuing three seasons, all produced under Mike Scully's supervision. Following Scully's departure in 2001, Jean returned to the showrunner position with the start of the thirteenth season (2001–2002), likewise without Reiss. Jean called it "a great job with a lot of responsibility," and cited "the fact that people love it so much" as "great." He adds, however, that "the hardest thing at this point is just thinking of fresh ideas. People are so on top of things that we've done before, so the challenge now is to think of an idea that's good, but hasn't been seen." Jean's return was initially welcomed, with MSNBC's Jon Bonné stating: "Jean, who took the show's helm from executive producer Mike Scully in 2001, has guided the show away from its gag-heavy, Homer-centric incarnation...these are certainly brighter days for the show's long-time fans." However, some critics have argued that the show's quality has continued to decline in recent years during Jean's tenure. Jean has responded to this criticism by saying: "Well, it's possible that we've declined. But honestly, I've been here the whole time and I do remember in season two people saying, 'It's gone downhill.' If we'd listened to that then we would have stopped after episode 13. I'm glad we didn't."

Jean was one of the writers and producers who worked on The Simpsons Movie, a feature-length film released in 2007. The show's voice cast was signed on to do the film in 2001, and work then began on the script. The Simpsons producers were initially worried that creating a film would have a negative effect on the show, as they did not have enough crew to focus their attention on both projects. As the show progressed, additional writers and animators were hired so that both the show and the film could be produced at the same time. Groening and Brooks were therefore able to invite Jean (who continued to work as show runner on the television show) to produce the film with them.

Jean frequently appears on the Simpsons DVD audio commentaries for episodes which he has collaborated on. He told IGN that he enjoys doing them because he has not seen some of the episodes in ten to fifteen years, and "it's kind of like a reunion to see some of the people that I worked with before, so it's a really pleasant experience."

As of 2020 he is joint showrunner with Matt Selman, showrunning four to six episodes per season himself beginning with the thirty-third. Jean has also co-written/produced a number of Simpsons shorts including “Maggie Simpson in ‘The Longest Daycare’” (Oscar nominated) “The Force Awakens From its Nap” (emmy nominated), “When Billie Met Lisa” (emmy nominated) and “Simpsons : Balenciega” (won Clio).

Awards
Jean has received ten Emmy Awards and two Peabody Awards for his work on The Simpsons. In 1997, he and Reiss won an Annie Award in the "Best Producing in a TV Production" category for the Simpsons episode "The Springfield Files". In 1991 they shared the Writing A Comedy Series CableAce Award for the It's Garry Shandling's Show Episode "My Mother The Wife". In 2006, the duo was given the Animation Writers Caucus Animation Award which is given by the Writers Guild of America to writers that "advanced the literature of animation in film and/or television through the years and who has made outstanding contributions to the profession of the animation writer."

Personal life
As of 2005, Jean lives in Los Angeles, California, with his wife, television writer Stephanie Gillis. Jean also has two daughters.

title: Al Jean


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Fritz Fischer (historian)

Fritz Fischer (5 March 1908 – 1 December 1999) was a German historian best known for his analysis of the causes of World War I. In the early 1960s Fischer advanced the controversial thesis at the time that responsibility for the outbreak of the war rested solely on Imperial Germany. Fischer's anti-revisionist claims shocked the West German government and historical establishment, as it made Germany guilty for both world wars, challenging the national belief in Germany's innocence and converting its recent history into one of conquest and aggression. Fischer was named in The Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing as the most important German historian of the 20th century. In 1984, he was elected an honorary member of the American Historical Association.

Biography
Fischer was born in Ludwigsstadt in Bavaria. His father was a railway inspector. Educated at grammar schools in Ansbach and Eichstätt, Fischer attended the University of Berlin and the University of Erlangen, where he studied history, pedagogy, philosophy and theology. Fischer joined the Nazi Party in 1939, and left the Party in 1942. Fischer's major early influences were the standard Hegelian-Rankean opposition typical of the pre-1945 German historical profession, and as such, Fischer's early writings bore a strong bent towards the right. This influence was reflected in Fischer's first books, biographies of Ludwig Nicolovius, a leading 19th-century Prussian educational reformer and of Moritz August von Bethmann-Hollweg, the Prussian Minister of Education between 1858 and 1862.

In 1942, Fischer was given a professorship at the University of Hamburg and he married Margarete Lauth-Volkmann, with whom he fathered two children. He served in the Wehrmacht in World War II. After his release from a POW camp in 1947, he went on as a professor at the University of Hamburg, where he stayed until his retirement in 1978. He was made an honorary member of the American Historical Association in 1984.

National Socialism
After World War II, Fischer re-evaluated his previous beliefs, and decided that the popular explanations of National Socialism offered by such historians as Friedrich Meinecke in which Adolf Hitler was just a Betriebsunfall (an 'occupational accident', meaning 'a spanner in the works') of history were unacceptable. In 1949, at the first post-war German Historians' Congress in Munich, Fischer strongly criticized the Lutheran tradition in German life, accusing the Lutheran church of glorifying the state at the expense of individual liberties and thus helping to bring about Nazi Germany. Fischer complained that the Lutheran church had for too long glorified the state as a divinely sanctioned institution that could do no wrong, and thus paved the way for National Socialism. Fischer rejected the then popular argument in Germany that Nazi Germany had been the result of the Treaty of Versailles, and instead argued that the origins of Nazi Germany predated 1914, and were the result of long-standing ambitions of the German power elite.

Fischer thesis
In the 1950s, Fischer examined the Imperial German government archives – such as were extant and available at the time – that related to the Great War. (This had previously been done by Karl Kautsky, Professor Walther Schucking and Count Max Montgelas and published at Charlottenburg in November 1919 in a collection known as The Kautsky Documents. In 1924 this large book was published in English. A further book by Count Montgelas, The Case for the Central Powers was published in London the following year.)

In 1961, Fischer, who by then had risen to the rank of full professor at the University of Hamburg, rocked the history profession with his first postwar book, Griff nach der Weltmacht: Die Kriegszielpolitik des kaiserlichen Deutschland 1914–1918 (published in English as Germany's Aims in the First World War), in which he argued that Germany had deliberately instigated World War I in an attempt to become a world power. In this book, which was primarily concerned with the role played in the formation of German foreign policy by domestic pressure groups, Fischer argued that various pressure groups in German society had ambitions for aggressive imperialist policy in Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East. In Fischer's opinion, the "September Program" of September 1914 calling for the annexation of parts of Europe and Africa was an attempt at compromise between the demands of the lobbying groups in German society for wide-ranging territorial expansion. Fischer argued that the German government used the July Crisis caused by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in the summer of 1914 to act on plans for a war against the Dual Entente to create Mitteleuropa, a German-dominated Europe, and Mittelafrika, a German-dominated Africa. Though Fischer argued that the German government did not want a war with the British Empire, they were ready to run the risk in pursuit of annexation and hegemony.

The American historian Klaus Epstein noted, in his review of Fischer's book published in October 1962, that in his opinion Fischer instantly rendered obsolete every book previously published on the subject of responsibility for the First World War and German aims in that war. Fischer's own position on German responsibility for World War I has become known as the "Fischer thesis".

The book was preceded by Fischer's groundbreaking 1959 article in the Historische Zeitschrift in which he first published the arguments that he expanded upon in his 1961 book. In The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace, and the Course of History, Philip Bobbitt has written that after Fischer published it became "impossible to maintain" that World War I had been a "ghastly mistake" rather than the consequence of German policy.

For most Germans, it was acceptable to believe that Germany had caused World War II, but not World War I, which was still widely regarded as a war forced upon Germany by its encircling enemies. Fischer was the first German historian to publish documents showing that the German chancellor Dr. Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg had made plans in September 1914 (after the war began) to annex all of Belgium, part of France and part of Russia. Fischer suggested that there was continuity in German foreign policy from 1900 to the Second World War, implying that Germany was responsible for both world wars. These ideas were expanded in his later books Krieg der Illusionen (War of Illusions), Bündnis der Eliten (From Kaiserreich to Third Reich) and Hitler war kein Betriebsunfall (Hitler Was No Chance Accident). Though Fischer was an expert on the Imperial era, his work was important in the debate about the foreign policy of the Third Reich.

In his 1969 book War of Illusions (Krieg der Illusionen), Fischer offered a detailed study of German politics from 1911 to 1914 in which he offered a Primat der Innenpolitik (primacy of domestic politics) analysis of German foreign policy. In Fischer's view, the Imperial German state saw itself under siege by rising demands for democracy at home and looked to distract democratic strivings through a policy of aggression abroad.

Fischer was the first German historian to support the negative version of the Sonderweg ("special path") interpretation of German history, which holds that the way German society developed from the Reformation (or from a later time, such as the establishment of the German Reich of 1871) inexorably culminated in the Third Reich. In Fischer's view, while 19th-century German society moved forwards economically and industrially, it did not do so politically. For Fischer, German foreign policy before 1914 was largely motivated by the efforts of the reactionary German elite to distract the public from casting their votes for the Social Democrats and to make Germany the world's greatest power at the expense of France, Britain and Russia. The German elite that caused World War I was also responsible for the failure of the Weimar Republic, which opened the way for the Third Reich. This traditional German elite, in Fischer's analysis, was dominated by a racist, imperialist and capitalist ideology that was little different from the beliefs of the Nazis. For this reason, Fischer called Bethmann Hollweg the "Hitler of 1914". Fischer's arguments set off the so-called "Fischer Controversy" of the early 1960s when German historians led by Gerhard Ritter attempted to rebut Fischer. The Australian historian John Moses noted in 1999 that the documentary evidence introduced by Fischer is extremely persuasive in arguing that Germany was responsible for World War I. In 1990, The Economist advised its readers to examine Fischer's "well documented" book to examine why people in Eastern Europe feared the prospect of German reunification.

Fischer and his analytical model caused a revolution in German historiography. His Primat der Innenpolitik heuristic, with its examination of the "inputs" into German foreign policy by domestic pressure groups and their interaction with the imperialist ideas of the German elite, forced a re-evaluation of German foreign policy in the Imperial era. Fischer's discovery of Imperial German government documents advocating as a war aim the ethnic cleansing of Russian Poland and subsequent German colonization to provide Germany with Lebensraum (living space) led many to argue that similar schemes pursued by the Nazis in World War II were not due solely to Adolf Hitler's ideas but rather reflected widely held German aspirations that long pre-dated Hitler. Many German historians in the 1960s such as Gerhard Ritter, who liked to argue that Hitler was just a Betriebsunfall of history with no real connection to German history, were outraged by Fischer's publication of these documents and attacked his work as "anti-German".

Criticisms
Fischer's allegations caused a deep controversy throughout the academic world, particularly in West Germany. His arguments caused so much anger that his publisher's office in Hamburg was firebombed. His works inspired other historians, such as Gerhard Ritter, to write books and articles against his war-aims thesis.

Many critics claim that Fischer placed Germany outside the proper historical context. They argue that Germany was not uniquely aggressive amongst European nations of the early 20th century, a time when Social Darwinist views of struggle were popular in Europe's ruling classes. Critics also contend that in the centuries following Columbus's voyages to America, the Western European countries including Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, etc. had already acquired vast overseas colonial possessions and spheres of influence long before German unification in 1871, so it is difficult to single out Germany alone as "grasping for world power" when this was a centuries-old Western European tradition. It was not until after World War II that many European colonial subjects finally won their independence. Even after the conclusion of the Second World War, France refused to relinquish control over Indochina.

Moreover, Fischer's timetable has also been criticized as inaccurate. Bethmann Hollweg's Septemberprogramm, outlining German war aims, was not produced until after the war had begun and was still going well for Germany. At the same time, other powers had been harboring similarly grandiose plans for post-war territorial gains. Since its defeat in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, France was committed to a path of revenge against Germany and the reacquisition of Alsace and Lorraine. Russia, too, had long-standing, explicit war aims.

title: Fritz Fischer (historian)


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All You Need Is Cash

All You Need Is Cash (also known as The Rutles) is a 1978 television film that traces (in mockumentary style) the career of a fictitious English rock group called the Rutles. As TV Guide described it, the group's resemblance to the Beatles is "purely – and satirically – intentional".

The film was co-produced by the production companies of Eric Idle and Lorne Michaels, and it was directed by Idle and Gary Weis. It was first broadcast on 22 March 1978 on NBC, earning the lowest ratings of any show on American prime time network television that week, though those who did watch it gave almost unanimously good reviews. It did much better in the ratings when it premiered in the UK on BBC2 on 27 March 1978.

Premise
All You Need Is Cash is a series of skits and gags that illustrate the fictional Rutles story, closely following the chronology of the Beatles' career.

Cast

 * Eric Idle as Dirk McQuickly, a parody of Paul McCartney; as The Narrator, a parody of Alan Whicker; and as Stanley J. Krammerhead III, Jr., occasional visiting professor of applied narcotics at the University of Please Yourself, California
 * Neil Innes as Ron Nasty, a parody of John Lennon
 * John Halsey as Barry Wom (Barrington Womble), a parody of Ringo Starr
 * Ricky Fataar as Stig O'Hara, a parody of George Harrison
 * Michael Palin as Eric Manchester, Rutle Corp. Press Agent & Lawyer, a parody of Derek Taylor
 * George Harrison as The Interviewer
 * Bianca Jagger as Martini McQuickly
 * John Belushi as Ron Decline, the most feared promoter in the world, a parody of Allen Klein
 * Dan Aykroyd as Brian Thigh, ex-record producer who turned down the Rutles, just as Decca had turned down the Beatles, a parody of Dick Rowe
 * Gilda Radner as Mrs. Emily Pules
 * Bill Murray as Bill Murray the K., a parody of Murray the K.
 * Gwen Taylor as Mrs. Iris Mountbatten (Leggy's mother) / Chastity, a parody of Yoko Ono
 * Ron Wood as a Hell's Angel
 * Terence Bayler as Leggy Mountbatten, a parody of Brian Epstein
 * Henry Woolf as Arthur Sultan, the Surrey Mystic, a parody of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
 * Jeannette Charles as a Queen of the United Kingdom
 * Mick Jagger as himself (uncredited)
 * Paul Simon as himself (uncredited)
 * Roger McGough as himself (uncredited)
 * Ollie Halsall as Leppo, the "fifth Rutle" (ala Zeppo, the fifth Marx Brother), a parody of the so-called "fifth Beatle", Stuart Sutcliffe
 * Barry Cryer as Dick Jaws, a partial parody of music publisher and singer Dick James
 * Frank Williams as record producer Archie Macaw, a partial parody of George Martin
 * Penelope Tree as Stig's wife, a partial parody of Harrison's ex-girlfriend Pattie Boyd
 * Lorne Michaels as Sleazy Merchandiser
 * Al Franken as Ron Decline's Henchman
 * Tom Davis as Ron Decline's Henchman

Writing
The film was co-written by Eric Idle and Neil Innes. The music and events of the Rutles paralleled that of the Beatles, parodying many of the latter's career highlights. For example, the 1968 animated film Yellow Submarine became the Yellow Submarine Sandwich, and the song "Get Back" became "Get Up and Go".

Casting
The Rutles were played by Eric Idle, John Halsey, Ricky Fataar, and Neil Innes. The band originally appeared in a sketch on Idle's programme Rutland Weekend Television in 1975.

The film has many cameo appearances by both English and American comedians, including alumni of Monty Python, Saturday Night Live, and Rutland Weekend Television. George Harrison has a cameo role as a television journalist conducting an interview outside the headquarters of Rutle Corps, oblivious to the stream of people coming out of the building carrying items stolen from the office; this is a reference to the Beatles' famously plundered Apple Boutique and Apple Headquarters, where even the ceiling lining was looted. The interview ends abruptly as the microphone is stolen out of his hand.

The film also features cameos from Idle's fellow Python Michael Palin; several SNL cast members including Gilda Radner, John Belushi, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Al Franken, and Tom Davis; Bianca Jagger as Dirk McQuickly's wife Martini; Ronnie Wood as a Hells Angel; and Mick Jagger, Paul Simon, and Roger McGough as themselves.

Soundtrack
Innes, a former member of the English musical comedy group Bonzo Dog Band and an associate of the Monty Python troupe, became acquainted with the Beatles when the Bonzo Dog Band had a cameo appearance in the film Magical Mystery Tour, in which they performed "Death Cab for Cutie". Paul McCartney had also produced the Bonzos' 1968 hit single, I'm the Urban Spaceman, composed and sung by Innes.

Fourteen of Innes's songs were released on a soundtrack album (the CD version added six songs omitted from the original vinyl album) named The Rutles. The album was both critically and commercially successful and was nominated for a Grammy award for Best Comedy Recording of the year. The orchestrations and arrangements for the Rutles recordings were made by film composer John Altman. John Halsey, Ricky Fataar, and Neil Innes performed their own respective musical and vocal parts, but Eric Idle's vocals were sung [slightly sped up] by Ollie Halsall, who also played the lead guitar parts.

Home media
The show has been released on DVD, originally in a 66-minute version incorporating cuts for syndication, later in a "special edition" restored to its full length of 76 minutes and with extras including a commentary by Idle. The full-length version replaces a spoof newsreel voiceover by Idle with an American-sounding announcer. In 2013, the show was given a Blu-ray release in the form of a double pack with "The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch", once again in including All You Need Is Cash in its original 76-minute version.

The soundtrack was reissued on CD. It included additional tracks from the original television sessions remixed in stereo by Neil Innes. Innes, Fataar and Halsey returned in 1996 to record The Rutles Archaeology, but without the involvement of Eric Idle.

title: All You Need Is Cash


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Category:Geography of Antarctica

de:Kategorie:Geographie (Antarktika)

title: Category:Geography of Antarctica


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Gando Convention

The 1909 Gando Convention was a treaty signed between Imperial Japan and Qing China in which Japan recognized China's claims to Jiandao, called Gando in Korean, and Mount Paektu, and in return Japan received railroad concessions in Northeast China ("Manchuria"). After the Surrender of Japan, Gando Convention was de jure nullified. While China (then still divided between the Nationalist and Communist factions) took control of Manchuria and the northwestern half of Mt. Paektu, the Korean government north of the 38th Parallel (the present-day government of the DPRK or North Korea) took control of the southeastern half of Mt. Paektu in addition to taking control of the Korean Peninsula north of the 38th Parallel.

Gando/Jiandao is a historical border region along the north bank of the Tumen River in Jilin Province, Northeast China that has a high population of ethnic Koreans.

Many Koreans maintain a claim on Gando for they regard the Gando Convention treaty null and void, and because the area is still largely inhabited by Koreans.

Background
Jiandao, or Gando in Korean, is today part of Northeastern China. Many different states and tribes succeeded one another in ruling the area during ancient times, including Korean states Buyeo, Goguryeo, and Balhae, followed later by the Khitans and the Jurchen Jin Dynasty.

Traditionally, the area was inhabited by nomadic tribes from the north and west, as well as Koreans and Chinese fleeing unrest, famine, or other sociopolitical conditions in their home countries. Eventually, it and much of the rest of Manchuria came under the control of the Manchus and later the Qing Dynasty. Gando itself, as it shared a border with Korea, was a particularly high-frequency destination for Koreans fleeing worsening conditions in the late Joseon dynasty after the early 1800s.

By the middle and the end of the 19th century, Koreans formed a majority of the population living in Gando, and when the Qing opened up Manchuria to Han Chinese migration in the 1870s and Gando in 1881, the large number of Korean already living there raised a boundary dispute issue that had been negotiated in 1712. An ambiguity in the characters used, was subject to some speculation, which was used by the Koreans living in Gando to claim that they were still on Korean soil.

While punishments for cross-border movement into northeast China by Han Chinese and Koreans by their respective governments (the Qing and Joseon) were on the books and Koreans apprehended in Gando were repatriated to Korea by Qing authorities, it is evident that these regulations did not deter people fleeing poor conditions, and they were able to make the claim in an attempt to escape relocation and punishment. The ambiguity in the original 1712 treaty gradually became official Joseon policy, but the issue itself did not come to a head until this time, when the Joseon Dynasty itself was in much turmoil and in no position to re-negotiate the boundary.

By the early 20th century, with increasing Japanese intervention in Korea, more Koreans fled to Gando, where they were sometimes welcomed by local Qing authorities, as a source of labor and agricultural knowhow. Additionally, as a result of this consolidation of Japanese control over Korea (which would culminate with the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910, with which Japan annexed Korea and began the Japanese occupation of Korea that ended in 1945), Korea was not able to renegotiate the renewed boundary issues with the Qing, which was having its own problems with Japanese and Western imperialism.

Japanese interventions
By 1905, the Korean Empire was effectively a Japanese protectorate (see Eulsa Treaty). As a result of the Russo-Japanese War, which ended in the same year, Korea was fully surrounded and occupied by Japanese troops. The negotiations to end the war resulted in the Portsmouth Treaty, which stated, "Japan possesses in Korea paramount political, military, and economical [sic] interests" and with the Russian concessions to Japan effectively ensured a Japanese sphere of influence in northeast Asia.

In 1907, Japanese forces infiltrated the rather porous border between Korea and China. A few months later, the Japanese called the border issue "unsettled" because the majority of the population there was still ethnically Korean; as effective overlords of Korea, they claimed that Japan's jurisdiction over Korean subjects should extend into Gando, and invaded Gando in force in August 1907, which resulted in the Qing administration of China issuing a 13-point refutation asserting its claim to Jiandao.

As the Korean boundary dispute with China and the large population of ethnic Koreans in Gando was no secret to anyone in Northeast Asia, it is likely that the Japanese proposed the Gando Convention as a potential threat to continue pressing to claim Gando for Korea as a part of the Japanese Empire if the concessions by China to Japan listed in the Convention were not granted.

Terms
Treaties and agreements, while often lopsided in that era (see unequal treaties), often at least nominally included concessions for all parties signing such agreements. Japan agreed to recognize Gando as Chinese territory and to withdraw its forces from there back into Korea within two months of the date of the agreement. In return, China conceded exclusive railroad rights in Manchuria to Japan, among other things. The convention also contained provisions for the protection and rights of ethnic Koreans under Chinese rule.

Korean claims
The Korean claim is partly based on what is perceived (on the Korean side) to be an ambiguity in the 1712 boundary agreement between the Qing Dynasty (which ruled China at the time) and the Joseon Dynasty (which ruled Korea at the time); that actually did not become an issue again until about 150 years after the agreement was approved by both parties, when Manchuria and Gando was opened to Han Chinese migration by the Qing.

The other major part of the claim relies on the fact that by the time the Gando Convention was signed in 1909, the Korean Empire was not consulted and had no way of disputing the legitimacy of the treaty, as it was already a protectorate of the Japanese Empire and was essentially prevented from resolving or renegotiating the boundary dispute as an independent state.

The Gando Convention, like other unequal treaties (such as the Eulsa Treaty and the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910) dealing with Korean territory/governance or claims made by Imperial Japan, should thus be revoked and the boundary dispute rectified between Korea (though there is no stated consensus on which of the two current Koreas should be party to this) and the People's Republic of China.

In the modern era
When the Japanese occupation of Korea ended in August 1945, the Soviet administration in the north of Korea and the American administration in the south of Korea hampered any unified Korean attempt to recover Gando. However, Gando Convention was de jure nullified and North Korea started to control the area south of Paektu Mountain.

In 1961, PR China claimed a boundary dozens of kilometers south of Mt. Paekdu. North Korea protested by publishing a national map with the claim on Gando included. However, the North Korean claim on Gando and the Chinese claim on the area south of Gando Convention line were not serious. Seriously disputed area was the area between Gando Convention line and Paektu Mountain.

Between 1962 and 1963, North Korea signed two treaties with China, which settled the boundary between the two at the Yalu/Amnok (Chinese/Korean names) and Tumen Rivers, and stipulated that around three-fifths of Heaven Lake at the peak of Mt. Baekdu would go to North Korea, and two-fifths to China.

However, the boundary between North Korea and the People's Republic of China continued to be contested, in spite of the 1963 agreement. In response to North Korea's perceived lack of support in the Sino-Soviet split, China demanded that North Korea cede its portion of the peak of Mt. Baekdu to China, and between March 1968 and March 1969, a number of border clashes between North Korean forces and Chinese forces took place in the Mt. Baekdu region. PR China wanted to restore the Gando Convention boundary. Chinese demands for the rest of Mt. Baekdu were eventually dropped in 1970 in order to repair relations between North Korea and China. China has recognized North Korea's sovereignty over some 80% of the islands in the Yalu/Amnok and Tumen Rivers, and also accepted North Korea's control of some 90% of the mouth of the Yalu/Amnok River. While not openly discussed anymore, it would appear that the 1963 agreement is only something of a framework and not exactly a binding contract for either North Korea or China.

South Korea did not recognize these agreements, but did not made a serious attempt to assert Korean sovereignty on Gando either. South Korea did not officially renounce its claim on Gando, but the Sino-Korean boundary on South Korean national map loosely follows the 1961 line except for Mt. Baekdu, and largely accepts this boundary on the map as de facto boundary.

In 2004, the South Korean government issued the following statement: "Our government takes the position that the 1909 Gando Convention, signed by Japan illegally without Korea's consent, is null and void, to the extent that the Eulsa Treaty, which deprived Korea of its diplomatic rights in 1905, is a null-and-void treaty obtained through duress." On October 22, 2004, South Korean foreign affairs minister Ban Ki-moon also remarked on the voiding of the Gando Convention. Ban also stated that "nullity of the Gando Convention does not automatically resolve Gando dispute and international politics harden our attempt to resolve Gando dispute"

title: Gando Convention


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Pyrrhotite

Pyrrhotite (pyrrhos in Greek meaning "flame-coloured") is an iron sulfide mineral with the formula Fe(1-x)S (x = 0 to 0.125). It is a nonstoichiometric variant of FeS, the mineral known as troilite. Pyrrhotite is also called magnetic pyrite, because the color is similar to pyrite and it is weakly magnetic. The magnetism decreases as the iron content increases, and troilite is non-magnetic. Pyrrhotite is generally tabular and brassy/bronze in color with a metallic luster. The mineral occurs with mafic igneous rocks like norites, and may form from pyrite during metamorphic processes. Pyrrhotite is associated and mined with other sulfide minerals like pentlandite, pyrite, chalcopyrite, and magnetite, and has been found globally.

Structure
Pyrrhotite exists as a number of polytypes of hexagonal or monoclinic crystal symmetry; several polytypes often occur within the same specimen. Their structure is based on the NiAs unit cell. As such, Fe occupies an octahedral site and the sulfide centers occupy trigonal prismatic sites.

Materials with the NiAs structure often are non-stoichiometric because they lack up to 1/8th fraction of the metal ions, creating vacancies. One of such structures is pyrrhotite-4C (Fe7S8). Here "4" indicates that iron vacancies define a superlattice that is 4 times larger than the unit cell in the "C" direction. The C direction is conventionally chosen parallel to the main symmetry axis of the crystal; this direction usually corresponds to the largest lattice spacing. Other polytypes include: pyrrhotite-5C (Fe9S10), 6C (Fe11S12), 7C (Fe9S10) and 11C (Fe10S11). Every polytype can have monoclinic (M) or hexagonal (H) symmetry, and therefore some sources label them, for example, not as 6C, but 6H or 6M depending on the symmetry. The monoclinic forms are stable at temperatures below 254 °C, whereas the hexagonal forms are stable above that temperature. The exception is for those with high iron content, close to the troilite composition (47 to 50% atomic percent iron) which exhibit hexagonal symmetry.

Magnetic properties
The ideal FeS lattice, such as that of troilite, is non-magnetic. Magnetic properties vary with Fe content. More Fe-rich, hexagonal pyrrhotites are antiferromagnetic. However, the Fe-deficient, monoclinic Fe7S8 is ferrimagnetic. The ferromagnetism which is widely observed in pyrrhotite is therefore attributed to the presence of relatively large concentrations of iron vacancies (up to 20%) in the crystal structure. Vacancies lower the crystal symmetry. Therefore, monoclinic forms of pyrrhotite are in general more defect-rich than the more symmetrical hexagonal forms, and thus are more magnetic. Monoclinic pyrrhotite undergoes a magnetic transition known as the Besnus transition at 30 K that leads to a loss of magnetic remanence. The saturation magnetization of pyrrhotite is 0.12 tesla.

Physical properties
Pyrrhotite is brassy, bronze, or dark brown in color with a metallic luster and uneven or subconchoidal fracture. Pyrrhotite may be confused with other brassy sulfide minerals like pyrite, chalcopyrite, or pentlandite. Certain diagnostic characteristics can be used for identification in hand samples. Unlike other common brassy-colored sulfide minerals, pyrrhotite is typically magnetic (varies inversely with iron content). On the Mohs hardness scale, pyrrhotite ranges from 3.5 to 4, compared to 6 to 6.5 for pyrite. Streak can be used when properties between pyrrhotite and other sulfide minerals are similar. Pyrrhotite displays a dark grey to black streak. Pyrite will display a greenish black to brownish black streak, chalcopyrite will display a greenish black streak, and pentlandite leaves a pale bronze-brown streak. Pyrrhotite generally displays massive to granular crystal habit, and may show tabular/prismatic or hexagonal crystals which are sometimes iridescent.

Diagnostic characteristics in hand sample include: brassy/bronze color with a grey/black streak, tabular or hexagonal crystals which show iridescence, subconchoidal fracture, metallic luster, and magnetic.

Optical properties
Pyrrhotite is an opaque mineral and will therefore not transmit light. As a result, pyrrhotite will display extinction when viewed under plane polarized light and cross polarized light, making identification with petrographic polarizing light microscopes difficult. Pyrrhotite, and other opaque minerals can be identified optically using a reflected light ore microscope. The following optical properties are representative of polished/puck sections using ore microscopy: Pyrrhotite typically appears as anhedral, granular aggregates and is cream-pink to brownish in color. Weak to strong reflection pleochroism which may be seen along grain boundaries. Pyrrhotite has similar polishing hardness to pentlandite (medium), is softer than pyrite, and harder than chalcopyrite. Pyrrhotite will not display twinning or internal reflections, and its strong anisotropy from yellow to greenish-gray or grayish-blue is characteristic.

Diagnostic characteristics in polished section include: anhedral aggregates, cream-pink to brown in color and strong anisotropy.

Occurrence
Pyrrhotite is a rather common trace constituent of mafic igneous rocks especially norites. It occurs as segregation deposits in layered intrusions associated with pentlandite, chalcopyrite and other sulfides. It is an important constituent of the Sudbury intrusion (1.85 Ga old meteorite impact crater in Ontario, Canada) where it occurs in masses associated with copper and nickel mineralisation. It also occurs in pegmatites and in contact metamorphic zones. Pyrrhotite is often accompanied by pyrite, marcasite and magnetite.

Formation
Pyrrhotite requires both iron and sulfur to form. Iron is the fourth most abundant element in the Earth's continental crust (average abundance of 5.63 % or 56,300 mg/kg in the crust), and so the majority of rocks have sufficient iron abundance to form pyrrhotite. However, because sulfur is less abundant (average abundance of 0.035 % or 350 mg/kg in the crust), the formation of pyrrhotite is generally controlled by sulfur abundance. Also, the mineral pyrite is both the most common and most abundant sulfide mineral in the Earth's crust. If rocks containing pyrite undergo metamorphism, there is a gradual release of volatile components like water and sulfur from pyrite. The loss of sulfur causes pyrite to recrystallize into pyrrhotite.

Pyrrhotite can also form near black smoker hydrothermal vents. Black smokers release high sulfur concentrations onto the sea floor, and when the surrounding rocks are metamorphosed, pyrrhotite can crystallize. Later tectonic processes uplift the metamorphic rocks and expose pyrrhotite to the Earth's surface.

United States
Pyrrhotite occurs in a variety of locations in the United States. In the eastern United States, pyrrhotite occurs in highly metamorphosed rock that forms a belt along the Appalachian Mountains. Pyrrhotite-bearing rocks are generally unseen in the central United States as the area is unmetamorphosed and underlain by sedimentary rocks which do not contain pyrrhotite. Discontinuous belts that contain pyrrhotite are present in the western United States along the Sierra Nevada mountain range and Cascade Range extending into the northwestern United States. Pyrrhotite may also be found west and south of Lake Superior.

Mining locations worldwide
The following are some of the locations worldwide where pyrrhotite has been reported during mining:

Etymology and history
Named in 1847 by Ours-Pierre-Armand Petit-Dufrénoy. "Pyrrhotite" is derived from the Greek word πνρρό, "pyrrhos", meaning flame-colored.

Issues
If pyrrhotite-containing rocks are crushed and used as aggregate within concrete, then the pyrrhotite creates a problem in the production of concrete. Pyrrhotite has been linked to crumbling concrete basements in Quebec, Massachusetts and Connecticut when local quarries included it in their concrete mixtures. Many houses in Ireland, particularly in County Donegal, have also been affected by inclusion of rocks containing pyrrhotite in concrete blocks. The iron sulfide it contains can naturally react with oxygen and water, and over time pyrrhotite breaks down into sulfuric acid and secondary minerals like ettringite, thaumasite and gypsum. These secondary products occupy a larger volume than pyrrhotite, which expands and cracks the concrete leading to home foundation or block failure.

Uses
Other than a source of sulfur, pyrrhotite does not have specific applications. It is generally not a valuable mineral unless significant nickel, copper, or other metals are present. Iron is seldom extracted from pyrrhotite due to a complicated metallurgical process It is mined primarily because it is associated with pentlandite, a sulfide mineral that can contain significant amounts of nickel and cobalt. When found in mafic and ultramafic rocks, pyrrhotite can be a good indicator of economic nickel deposits.

title: Pyrrhotite


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Talk:Australian federation

Things to do:

Reasons for federation:

 * Defence
 * Immigration
 * Industrial relations
 * Transport
 * Trade
 * Culture

title: Talk:Australian federation


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Kiasu

Kiasu is a term derived from the Hokkien “kia” meaning afraid and “su” meaning to lose. It is commonly defined as “the fear of losing,” and is directed at a person who behaves competitively to either attain their goal or to get ahead of others. The term has been part of the Singlish (formally known as Colloquial Singaporean English) lexicon spoken in Singapore since the 1980s.

Since then, Kiasuism has settled into Singapore society and has become part of the cultural norms such as within the local education system or the queuing culture. Nevertheless, Kiasuism still exists in other countries, which have their own variation of the word. Acts of Kiasuism can be either positive or negative depending on the intent of the person committing the act and on the act's end result. Kiasuism has had a notable history since its move away from the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) army barracks to the streets of Singapore, from the emergence of Mr. Kiasu to government attempts to curb Kiasuism.

Others have considered Kiasuism as something positive and beneficial. Among others, factors include the mentality to drive many Singaporeans to work harder and strive for success, which helped the country to become one of the most prosperous and competitive countries in the world. This mindset has also fostered a culture of innovation and continuous improvement, encourage people to be prepared for any situation, and promote a culture of safety and risk management. This has led many Singaporeans to be careful and cautious, which has helped to improve overall safety in the country.

Etymology and usage
Kiasu comes from the vernacular Chinese phrase, meaning 'fear of losing’. The word is derived from the Hokkien dialect with “kia” meaning “fear” and “su” meaning “to lose”. It is often used to denote an anxious and competitive attitude that arises from fear of missing out. It highlights one’s insistent want to be better than others.

Kiasu can be used as an adjective in a “descriptive state” to describe a person who wants to get ahead of others. Kiasu can also be used as a verb to describe an action a person did out of fear of losing out, and as a “feeling state” when a person has the desire to act in a way that is kiasu. Kiasuism is the action noun form of kiasu.

Kiasu is part of the vocabulary of Singapore's colloquial language: Singlish. Singlish is an English-based language comprising vocabulary from Singapore’s four official languages: English, Malay, Tamil, and Mandarin, as well as other Chinese dialects such as Hokkien, Teochew, and Cantonese. However, the language represents a homogeneous Singaporean way of thinking, rather than a mixture of the various cultures from which the specific languages originate. The word reflects a Singaporean mindset and has become ingrained in Singapore’s national culture.

Kiasu is also similar in etymology to another Singlish term: kiasi which literally translates to “fear of death”. Both terms are used to describe similar attitudes, but have almost opposite uses. Kiasu or kiasuism means taking extreme measures to achieve success, whereas kiasi or kiasiism means to take extreme, risk-avoidant measures.

Academics have identified that kiasuism has two different types of tactics: “kiasu-positive” tactics and “kiasu-negative” tactics. Whether an act of kiasuism involves positive or negative tactics depends on the initial intention, the results of the act, and whether the amount of effort put into the kiasu tactic matches the intended result. Kiasu-positive tactics involve an individual using more effort to attain their goals, with the end reward justifying the means. Kiasu-negative tactics involve an individual gaining an advantage by putting others down, often harming themselves and others, with the end reward not justifying the means.

Kiasu-like traits in other countries
Studies conducted on residents of Australia and the United States have concluded that kiasuism exists outside of Singapore. A study conducted among Australians uncovered a lack of notable distinction between the “kiasu” behaviour in Singaporeans and Australians, meaning that kiasuism is not an exclusively Singaporean trait. The term “Par Chup Sue” from Hong Kong is a close synonym of kiasu; its literal translation is “scared to lose out”. Since kiasu is derived from a Chinese dialect, it is unsurprising that similar sentiments to kiasu are found in Chinese vocabulary and values. For instance, the Chinese phrase: “Don’t let your kids lose in the beginning,” has a similar meaning to kiasu.

Internationally, terms like FOMO (fear of missing out) and hyper-competitiveness have been used in similar situations as kiasu. However, both terms are not direct synonyms. While both FOMO and kiasuism possess the compulsive want to be connected with others, FOMO lacks the competitive element of kiasuism. Hyper-competitiveness does share its competitive element with kiasu. However, hyper-competitiveness and FOMO are better defined as unintentionally “maladaptive” and hard to control while kiasuism is a controllable and intentional tactic to get above. A closer English synonym to kiasu is the idiom “keeping up with the Joneses”. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines this term as a person showing that they are "as good as other people by getting what they have and doing what they do”. However, this term differs from kiasu in terms of compulsivity. The lack of close synonyms to kiasu outside of Chinese values and vocabulary can be attributed to Singapore being more attentive to kiasu tactics compared to other countries.

History
According to Annetta Ayyavoo and Brendan Tennakoon, the emergence of kiasu behaviour among Singaporeans is likely due to the country being an immigrant nation. Since immigrants typically lacked education and were of lower social classes, they had to be overtly competitive to earn a sufficient living.

The word “kiasu” first emerged in the 1980s in its original form: “kian su”, and was used among men completing their compulsory national service. “Kian su” was used to refer to soldiers who were afraid of failure. Eventually, kiasu entered the vocabulary of everyday Singaporeans.

In the 1990s, the term was mostly used to describe negative tactics, particularly due to the increasing local and international popularity of the character Mr. Kiasu, who was known for his exaggerated kiasuism. The Singapore government grew concerned that the rest of the world would have a negative image of Singaporeans. As such, the government began implementing methods to target and fix kiasuism. For instance, the 1993 edition of the government's National Courtesy Campaign had the tagline “If we could only see ourselves sometimes”, in hope that the Singaporean population would make an effort to exhibit less kiasu behaviour. Furthermore, in a parliamentary debate in 1990, Lee Siew-Choh, a member of parliament, stated that he hoped that ministers would not fall ill with the “kiasu syndrome” which the government had been actively preaching against. This speech marked the first time the word “kiasu” was used in a parliamentary setting.

Despite their efforts, the government still found kiasuism to be a problem past the 1990s. For example, during the 2012 National Day Speech, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, told the audience to be wary of “ugly Singaporean” behaviour in reference to kiasuism among other negative behaviours. Four years later, in 2016, a member of parliament claimed that kiasuism was inhibiting innovation in Singapore. Moreover, according to a National Values Assessment survey conducted in 2012 which surveyed 2000 people, “kiasu” and “competitive” appeared as the two highest answers on a list of how Singaporeans would label their society.

Rather than purely viewing kiasuism as a negative behaviour, Singaporeans have begun to embrace kiasuism as part of their national identity. For example, in 2017, the supermarket chain Giant, sent out an online quiz to find out which town in Singapore was the most kiasu. The quiz received 57,000 entries, with Tampines winning the competition. As a prize, Giant gave away free goods such as milo and canned drinks to Tampines residents.

Kiasu also reached prominence in its international status when it entered the online version of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) in March 2007. In 2015, kiasu was OED’s Word of the Day.

Cultural contexts
On February 1989, the Report of the Advisory Council on Youths announced that kiasuism played an important role in shaping Singaporean youth’s perspective towards various facets of life such as education and work. While kiasuism is a behaviour taken on by an individual, this behaviour is also part of the Singaporean shared “cultural norm”. This means that in social situations where competition is required, Singaporeans would feel obliged to adopt a kiasu behaviour because they presume that everyone else would do so too. For example, the inflow of foreign talent into Singapore has convinced Singaporeans, collectively, of the need to be more competitive to be on top of their field of work. To match Singapore’s high quality of living, Singaporeans find themselves pressured to embrace kiasuism as a means to improve their studies, be eligible for benefits at their work, and have an ideal personal life.

Education culture
Kiasuism is noticed in regard to Singaporean attitudes towards education. Due to the elite nature of Singaporean society, success is often measured by how well one performs at school. Therefore, to get ahead of others and be successful, students perform kiasu acts such as the kiasu-negative tactic of sandbagging. In the context of Singaporean schools, sandbagging refers to students lying that they have not studied much hoping it convinces other students to not put in too much effort. Other tactics include attempting to secure more and higher quality study materials and attending tuition, both of which can be seen as either positive or negative depending on intent.

Many Singaporean parents equate kiasuism as a means of achieving academic excellence. Hence, children are pressured by their parents to be kiasu in order to be high scorers. For example, in 2014, the Singapore Department of Statics found that almost S$1.1 billion was collectively spent on external tuition classes by parents every year to ensure that their children would fare better than other students. Moreover, a study in 1992 indicated that the percentage of students receiving private tuition rose from 19% in the early 1980s, to 32% by the 1990s. Parents would send their children of preschool age to enrichment classes as well, to provide them with a head-start against other students. Parents have also taken great measures to ensure that their children go to more reputable schools, such as by joining churches affiliated with the schools, donating large amounts to the schools, and lying about their home addresses. For example, in 2015, a couple provided a falsified home address that was 1km away from the school to secure a position for their child during Phase 2C of the Primary 1 registration exercise, which gave spaces to children who lived close to the school.

Queuing culture
Kiasuism also plays a primary role in Singapore’s queueing culture. A notable example of this queuing culture is seen from the “Hello Kitty fever” in 2019. When McDonald’s launched a limited edition carrier Hello Kitty, an infamous Japanese fictional character, Singaporeans began to queue hours before the launch to be one of the first to get a carrier. To get around the limit of two carriers per transaction, some Singaporeans joined the queue a second time to purchase more of the good. According to interviews by The New Paper, customers revealed that they were unsure of what to do with the carrier after their purchase. Others were selling the carriers for more than five times the original price on Carousell, an online community marketplace. Queuing culture highlights how kiasuism, particularly kiasu-negative tactics, has become a cultural norm in Singapore. An individual would get into a random queue they notice because the kiasu mindset ingrained within Singaporeans will convince them that the queue is for something valuable. Kiasuism makes people idly stand in lines just because they want to fit into the status quo and not lose out in what they perceive as an opportunity.

In popular works
“Kiasu” has also found itself used in popular Singaporean works, such as in its usage of the 1987 play: Army Daze.

Mr. Kiasu
The word is most prominently associated with the “Mr. Kiasu” comic book series published in the 1990s created by Johnny Lau and written by Yu Cheng and James Suresh. The book series followed the lead character, Mr. Kiasu, who was known for showcasing extreme kiasu tactics. Singaporeans were able to relate to the character because he was able to well-encompass the kiasu characteristic that many of them possessed, even if the character's kiasu tactics were exaggerated. Following the character’s quick success, McDonald’s worked with Lau to produce and promote the “kiasu burger” for a limited time in 1993, successfully selling 1.2 million burgers. Due to the books’ popularity, in 2001, the local broadcasting company, Mediacorp, produced a live-action sitcom, "Mr. Kiasu", based on the books. There were also numerous pieces of merchandise of the character that was produced, such as mugs, watches, and stationery.

title: Kiasu


text:
O Come, All Ye Faithful

"O Come, All Ye Faithful", also known as "Adeste Fideles", is a Christmas carol that has been attributed to various authors, including John Francis Wade (1711–1786), John Reading (1645–1692), King John IV of Portugal (1604–1656), and anonymous Cistercian monks. The earliest printed version is in a book published by Wade. A manuscript by Wade, dating to 1751, is held by Stonyhurst College in Lancashire.

The original four verses of the hymn were extended to a total of eight, and these have been translated into many languages. In 1841, the English Catholic priest Frederick Oakeley translated the hymn into English as "O Come All Ye Faithful", which became widespread in English-speaking countries.

Text
The original text of the hymn has been from time to time attributed to various groups and individuals, including St. Bonaventure in the 13th century or King John IV of Portugal in the 17th, though it was more commonly believed that the text was written by Cistercian monks – the German, Portuguese or Spanish provinces of that order having at various times been credited.

In modern English hymnals, the text is usually credited to John Francis Wade, whose name appears on the earliest printed versions. Wade, an English Catholic, lived in exile in France and made a living as a copyist of musical manuscripts which he found in libraries. He often signed his copies, possibly because his calligraphy was so beautiful that his clients requested this. In 1751 he published a printed compilation of his manuscript copies, Cantus Diversi pro Dominicis et Festis per annum. This is the first printed source for Adeste Fideles.

The version published by Wade consisted of four Latin verses. Later in the 18th century, the French Catholic priest Jean-François-Étienne Borderies wrote an additional three verses in Latin. Another anonymous Latin verse is rarely printed.

The text has been translated innumerable times into English. The most common version today is a combination of one of Frederick Oakeley's translations of the original four verses, and William Thomas Brooke's translation of the three additional verses. It was first published in Murray's Hymnal in 1852. Oakeley originally titled the song "Ye Faithful, approach ye" when it was sung at his Margaret Chapel in Marylebone (London), before it was altered to its current form. The song was sometimes referred to as the "Portuguese Hymn" after the Duke of Leeds, in 1795, heard a version of it sung at the Portuguese embassy in London, now Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street. McKim and Randell nonetheless argue for Wade's authorship of the most popular English language version. Bennett Zon offers limited support for that argument, although he also suggests that the author may instead have been someone known to Wade.

Tune
Besides John Francis Wade, the tune has been attributed to several musicians, from John Reading and his son, to Handel, and even the German composer Gluck. The Portuguese composer Marcos Portugal as well as King John IV of Portugal have also been credited. Thomas Arne, whom Wade knew, is another possible composer. There are several similar musical themes written around that time, though it can be hard to determine whether these were written in imitation of the hymn, whether the hymn was based on them, or whether they are totally unconnected.

Published versions

The hymn was first published by John Francis Wade in his collection Cantus Diversi (1751), with four Latin verses, and music set in the traditional square notation used for medieval liturgical music. This version is in triple meter, contrary to modern versions. It was published again in the 1760 edition of Evening Offices of the Church. It also appeared in Samuel Webbe's An Essay on the Church Plain Chant (1782). The hymn tune also made its way to the Sacred Harp tradition, appearing as "Hither Ye Faithful, Haste with Songs of Triumph" in an 1860 collection. With "Herbei, o ihr Gläub'gen" a German translation of the Latin text was published in 1823 by Friedrich Heinrich Ranke.

Lyrics
These are the original four Latin verses as published by Wade, along with their English translation by Frederick Oakeley.

These are the additional Latin verses composed in the 18th century. The first three verses have translations by William Thomas Brooke, while the others have English prose translations:

Claims of Jacobite connections
Although, as previously stated, the hymn’s exact sources and origins remain unproven, there is universal agreement among musicologists that it was through the efforts of Catholic layman and music copyist John Francis Wade that it first appeared in print. Wade himself fled to France after the Jacobite rising of 1745 was crushed, and his liturgical books were often decorated with Jacobite imagery (for context, the aim of the rebellion had been to restore a Catholic monarch – Charles Edward Stuart, popularly known as “Bonnie Prince Charlie ” – to the throne of England). These aspects of Wade’s life and political leanings have given rise to speculation that he might have intended for Adeste Fideles to be a ciphered birth ode to the Jacobite’s Young Pretender.

This theory regarding the hymn’s meaning has been most recently proposed by Professor Bennett Zon, head of music at Durham University. It essentially holds that "the song’s original Latin version was actually a coded rallying cry for the Stewart cause". Elements of this theory include:

 * The as-yet-unproven but popular claim that "Bethlehem" was a common Jacobite cipher for England.
 * The claim (also currently unproven) that Wade deliberately meant for the title Regem Angelorum – which is found in the hymn’s original Latin lyrics and translates literally to "King of Angels" – to refer to the king of England via a pun on the Latin words "Angelorum" ("of the angels") and "Anglorum" ("of the English").
 * The fact that during the mid-18th century some English Roman Catholic liturgical books would place Adeste Fideles physically close to prayers for the would-be king in exile.

Proponents of this theory interpret the notions and circumstances described above as evidence that the lyrics of Adeste Fideles are meant to be "a call to arms for faithful Jacobites to return with triumphant joy to England (Bethlehem) and venerate the king of angels, that is, the English king (Bonnie Prince Charlie).” However, certain historical circumstances would seem to disprove or at least problematize the Jacobite ode theory. Namely:

 * 1) The absence of any textual evidence that can conclusively prove that Wade explicitly composed Adeste Fideles as a piece of political propaganda. In the absence of such evidence, the Jacobite imagery found in Wade’s books might be merely an expression of the author’s idiosyncratic blend of political and religious thought, which in turn might have reflected the sentiments of Catholic Jacobites as a group.
 * 2) Sources that credit the hymn’s composition to Wade overlook the fact that the exact origins of Adeste Fideles are uncertain. It is not known whether Wade might have simply copied the hymn from other sources (for instance, it could have been composed by Cistercian monks and eventually sung at the Portuguese embassy chapel in London ), or to what extent he might have innovated on the contributions of the hymn’s other plausible authors.
 * 3) Most of the hymn’s original lyrics are an almost-verbatim expression of Roman Catholic dogmas regarding the person of Jesus Christ. As stated elsewhere in this article, the hymn takes almost all its contents from Bible verses and the Nicene Creed. To Irish musicologist William H. Grattan Flood, it is so readily evident that the hymn is merely an artistic expression of the Catholic spiritual and intellectual tradition that he concludes that the words and music of the song "are to be attributed to a Catholic source and for Catholic worship".

Performance
In performance, verses are often omitted – either because the hymn is too long in its entirety or because the words are unsuitable for the day on which they are sung. For example, the eighth anonymous verse is only sung on Epiphany, if at all; while the last verse of the original is normally reserved for Christmas Midnight Mass, Mass at Dawn or Mass during the Day.

In the United Kingdom and United States it is often sung today in an arrangement by Sir David Willcocks, which was originally published in 1961 by Oxford University Press in the first book in the Carols for Choirs series. This arrangement makes use of the basic harmonisation from The English Hymnal but adds a soprano descant in verse six (verse three in the original) with its reharmonised organ accompaniment, and a last verse harmonisation in verse seven (verse four in the original), which is sung in unison.

This carol has served as the penultimate hymn sung at the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols by the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, after the last lesson from Chapter 1 of the Gospel of John.

Adeste Fideles is traditionally the final anthem during Midnight Mass at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.

title: O Come, All Ye Faithful


text:
Talk:TI-84 Plus Silver Edition

What attention does this article need?? I don't see it on PNA. 66.32.244.164 02:16, 23 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Not only can I not tell what attention it needs, but I also don't really see a point to having this particular article in the first place. It's short because there isn't anythiing else of interest to say about it. It's a calculator. Laura Scudder 06:28, 8 Nov 2004 (UTC)

title: Talk:TI-84 Plus Silver Edition


text:
Talk:Fanta

Fanta Sours
Someone forgot to add Fanta Sours. I added it to Australia since I live here and I've had it before. Don't know about USA or other places. -Food'N'Games — Preceding undated comment added 18:50, 13 May 2005

Countries with Fanta
I added South Africa, since it wasn't on the list. The flavours are identical to South Korea, curiously enough. —Preceding unsigned comment added by ManicParroT (talk • contribs) 14:14, 9 March 2006

 * Fanta is also in Nigeria —Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.156.1.223 (talk • contribs) 15:56, 26 April 2006

Fanta Light (UK)
I notice "previously known as". Fanta Light was completely replaced with a new drink (Fanta Z) due to Light being a complete disaster. (I'll vouch for that, it tasted horrible).

Fanta Z was introduced with a bizzare advert campaign involving people spitting out Fanta Light due to it tasting so bad http://www.ephinx.com/tvadverts/34/fanta-z-goodbye-fanta-light-advert.html

therefore fanta light is a discontinued drink. not just the old name for fanta z

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.178.192.145 (talk • contribs) 07:53, 8 September 2006

Hitler's Favorite Drink?
A few vandalism reverts ago, there was some quip about Fanta being Hitler's favorite drink? Was this vandalism or not? —Preceding unsigned comment added by FX 72.197.133.100 (talk • contribs) 16:04, 23 November 2006

 * According to Cola Wars part 2, it is said that Nazi headquarters is described as beingf "prime consumers" of coke products —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.192.93.252 (talk • contribs) 19:51, 12 February 2007

Ireland
Can I just say that the "Ireland" and Northern Ireland bit needs to be changed Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom even though it shares the geographical Island with the Republic Of Ireland

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.143.61.130 (talk • contribs) 16:35, 22 April 2007

Fanta ad campaigns
Hey all, I found the Fanta ad campaigns (launched in 2007) on the net. Shall I add the OFFICIAL YouTube links?

Pre Fanta
i own a pre Fanta Fanta bollte, still filled. It's called Citrun limonade-gazeuse, sugarfree. The bottle is almost the same Bottle as the later Fanta models, only the ripples go all the way to the top. Bottled in the local Amsterdam Coca Cola company, before they stared to bottle Fanta.

Marinda taste is more best it makes us more thrusty then any other foreign drinks but Fanta is more famous in my Bharat. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sikandhar brar (talk • contribs) 05:00, 1 July 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Fanta


text:
Mount Anglem

Mount Anglem / Hananui is the highest point on New Zealand's Stewart Island / Rakiura. It is located 20 km northwest of Oban, close to the island's north coast, and rises to an elevation of 980 m above sea level. Following the passage of the Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998, the name of the peak was officially altered to Mount Anglem / Hananui.

Views from Mount Anglem include those inland looking west onto the floodplains. The southern tip of the South Island is visible on a clear day.

title: Mount Anglem


text:
Talk:Combat Rock

Single Change
Straight To Hell was released as a single. I know that there is a picture disk release. I believe it was a double A side with Should I Stay or Should I Go (I may be mistaken). I don't know if it was a radio single (probably not), but I know it had a single release.

Ghetto Defendant
Part of the song (the spoken part) sounds like it was taken from a movie or someone big recorded it. Does anyone know anything about it? Yank sox  13:35, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

I believe in one of the booklets (possibly in The Clash on Broadway) they mention Allen Ginsberg did it during an improv session. Wikipedia in fact mentions this here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Ginsberg

This picture below at least shows Ginsberg with the band, though it doesn't mention the song specifically.

http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/authors/beats/allen-ginsberg/

This article has been selected for Version 0.7
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Eclectic
Since "eclectic" isn't a specific genre, merely a description of their style, I have removed it from the side bar. Jubilee♫ clipman 22:24, 18 September 2009 (UTC)

Kurt Cobain
"Combat Rock was apparently one of the all-time favorite albums of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain."

Is there a source for this? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.105.59.165 (talk) 18:31, 13 November 2011 (UTC)

Walk Evil Talk
There is no citable source anywhere that the track "Walk Evil Talk" is even The Clash, let alone that it was ever intended to be in any way part of Combat Rock or Rat Patrol From Fort Bragg. No one who knows its history, or anyone in the band for that matter, has come forward with details about it. The tracklist for Rat Patrol should be restored to that which is found in a citable source, or at least on the majority of pre-"MP3 era" bootlegs. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.82.85.13 (talk) 00:55, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

WikiProject Albums Importance
Shouldn't this album be listed under top importance? As the article says, it was their top selling album and a highly influential at that. Semancion (talk) 09:39, 7 September 2014 (UTC)

Cleanup
Hello there! I've been WP:BOLD and performed a cleanup, however a few bits could use improved referencing. The track list for Fort Bragg, for example, is unreferenced, as are most of the album personnel and additional musicians. Some individual statements need also be cited accordingly. Most of the big stuff has been taken care of. I removed unreferenced paragraphs dating to a few years ago; citation needed templates ran their course and I had to be drastic. The good news is I found references for most of the other sections, and I added about 10-15. Let me know if you have any comments. Regards, FoCuS contribs ;  talk to me!  18:28, 12 August 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
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Looks good to me. First time doing one of these. :) Meve Stills (talk) 17:47, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

HIGHEST CERTIFICATION IN THE US (GOLD AND 2xPLATINUM)
why there is both GOLD AND 2XPLATINUM as certification in the USA

GOLD - RIAA USA is not necessarily as the highest certified number has been taken here

i will delete the hint with GOLD because it did not only reach GOLD but 2xPLATINUM, THIS is the highest certification of this album in the us — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.113.99.112 (talk) 08:50, 29 May 2016 (UTC)

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title: Talk:Combat Rock


text: User talk:172.137.140.23

title: User talk:172.137.140.23


text:
Rorippa

Rorippa is a genus of flowering plants in the family Brassicaceae, native to Europe through central Asia, Africa, and North America. Rorippa species are annual to perennial herbs, usually with yellow flowers and a peppery flavour. They are known commonly as yellowcresses.

Rorippa formerly included several species of watercress, now placed in the genus Nasturtium. In particular, R. nasturtium-aquaticum (now N. officinale) and R. microphylla (now N. microphyllum) are often referred to as species of Rorippa.

There are about 75 to 85 species in the genus.

Species include:
 * Rorippa alpina (S.Wats.) Rydb. – alpine yellowcress
 * Rorippa amphibia (L.) Bess. – great yellowcress
 * Rorippa aquatica – lakecress
 * Rorippa austriaca (Crantz) Bess. – Austrian yellowcress, Austrian fieldgrass
 * Rorippa backeri (O.E. Schulz) B. Jonsell
 * Rorippa barbareifolia (DC.) Kitagawa – hoary yellowcress
 * Rorippa benghalensis
 * Rorippa calycina (Engel.) Rydb. – persistent-sepal yellowcress
 * Rorippa cantoniensis – Chinese yellowcress
 * Rorippa columbiae (Suksd. ex B.L.Rob.) Suksd. ex Howell – Columbian yellowcress, Columbia watercress
 * Rorippa crystallina – MacKenzie River yellowcress
 * Rorippa curvipes Greene – bluntleaf yellowcress
 * Rorippa curvisiliqua (Hook.) Besser ex Britton – curvepod yellowcress, western yellowcress
 * Rorippa divaricata
 * Rorippa dubia
 * Rorippa elata
 * Rorippa globosa – globe yellowcress
 * Rorippa icarica Rech.f.
 * Rorippa indica Hiern. – variableleaf yellowcress
 * Rorippa intermedia – intermediate yellowcress
 * Rorippa islandica – northern yellowcress, northern marsh yellowcress
 * Rorippa laciniata
 * Rorippa microtitis – Chihuahuan yellowcress
 * Rorippa palustris (L.) Bess. – common yellowcress, yellow watercress, marshcress
 * Rorippa portoricensis – Puerto Rico yellowcress
 * Rorippa ramosa – Durango yellowcress
 * Rorippa sarmentosa (G.Forst. ex DC) J.F.Macbr. – longrunner
 * Rorippa sessiliflora – stalkless yellowcress
 * Rorippa sinuata (Nutt.) Hitchc. – spreading yellowcress, west yellowcress
 * Rorippa sphaerocarpa (A.Gray) Britton – roundfruit yellowcress
 * Rorippa subumbellata Rollins – Tahoe yellowcress, Lake Tahoe yellowcress
 * Rorippa sylvestris (L.) Bess. – creeping yellowcress, yellow fieldcress, keek
 * Rorippa tenerrima – Modoc yellowcress
 * Rorippa teres – southern marsh yellowcress

title: Rorippa


text:
Corwin of Amber

Corwin, a Prince of Amber, is the main character in the first five books of Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber. He is the second son of Oberon and Faiella, and the father of Merlin. Within the novels, much of the action centers on Corwin and his family as they plot against one another conspiring to become the King of Amber.

In the first book of the series, Nine Princes in Amber, Corwin is identified as the eldest heir to the throne who has a legitimate claim. The matter of succession is hotly (and frequently) contested within the family, particularly during the prolonged absence of Oberon, and loyalties constantly shift among the undecided.

Corwin has dark hair and green eyes. His colors are black and silver (alternately gray), and his symbol is a silver rose. Corwin's favoured weapon is his sword Grayswandir, and his use of magic is extremely limited. While a few of his siblings exceed him in certain skills, such as arms (Benedict), strength (Gérard), and magic (Brand, Fiona, and Bleys), Corwin is well-balanced in most and is the best leader of them all. He also exemplifies stamina throughout the series.

Corwin is a quick and strategic thinker. Like his brothers and sisters, he boasts remarkable endurance and regeneration abilities, even more so than his siblings. While Corwin acts with a strong personal code of honor, he is also extremely practical; he will not engage in a fight of principle unless he believes he has a chance to win, and he is perfectly willing to employ subterfuge to defeat an opponent.

Overview
Centuries before the opening of Nine Princes in Amber, while their father Oberon was still ruling in Amber, Corwin fought a duel (or, as Corwin referred to it later, "a simultaneous decision to murder each other") with Eric and nearly died. Eric, fearing their father's wrath, dumped Corwin in Elizabethan England during one of the recurrent plague outbreaks, most likely during one of the outbreaks in 1592 or 1603. Corwin recovered from the plague, but he suffered brain damage causing amnesia. He proceeded to live out several hundred years of Earth's history as a soldier of fortune, physician, and songwriter until the 1970s when he was in a car accident and confined to a clinic. Waking with no memories at all, Corwin escapes and makes contact with his sister Florimel, and soon after his brother Random, using them to return to Amber and finally regain his past (by re-walking on the copy of the Pattern located in the underwater city Rebma).

Once Corwin's memory returns, we learn that he is far from saintly. Like his siblings, he has created his own kingdom in Shadow to rule, calling it Avalon, and in doing so has cast shadows of himself and his kingdom around. While the original Avalon has been destroyed, in the shadow of Avalons his name is reviled for cruelty and arrogance. As Benedict says of the Avalon that he has adopted, acting as Lord Protector, "young boys are not named Corwin here, nor am I brother to anyone of that name". Even in Lorraine, the shadow of a shadow where he first encounters the forces of Chaos, he is remembered as a tyrant and butcher. However, it is also implied that this image may be distorted, as it is from a shadow of Avalon in which the real Corwin never ruled. Even so, it seems that his centuries on Earth have somehow mellowed his character, if not his ambition. For an in-depth plot summary of Corwin's adventures following his time in the clinic, see Nine Princes in Amber, The Guns of Avalon, Sign of the Unicorn, The Hand of Oberon, and The Courts of Chaos.

Grayswandir
Grayswandir, also known as the Night Blade, is Corwin's sword and it has a twin called Brand's Werewindle, the Day Sword. Both Grayswandir and Werewindle are inscribed with portions of the Pattern of Amber, granting them some power over Shadow. In addition, Corwin is able to call Grayswandir to him while travelling in Shadow: while escaping imprisonment by his brother Eric, en route Corwin determines that Grayswandir will be found inside a hollow tree he spots along the way, despite the sword being within Amber at that point. Later, while visiting Tir-na Nog'th, the blade enables Corwin to speak to the shades there, who had previously been unaware of his presence; when Corwin fights the shade of Benedict, he also learns that Grayswandir can harm him, perhaps as a result of the Pattern force within or due to Tir-na Nog'th being a distorted shadow of Amber.

In the Amber short story "Hall of Mirrors," Corwin revealed that Grayswandir and Werewindle were transformed spikards: Spikards are rings of power that existed before Amber and possibly even Chaos were created, and allow the bearer to tap into a power source somewhere in the Shadow.

The name Grayswandir echoes that of Graywand, the longsword of Fafhrd in Fritz Leiber's tales of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Fafhrd naming consecutive swords all Graywand after losing each predecessor is the likely inspiration for the name of Grayswandir as it can reappear to Corwin after being lost.

Corwin's Pattern
In The Courts of Chaos, Corwin inscribed a new pattern after he incorrectly concluded that Oberon's attempt to repair the Primal Pattern had failed. He created his pattern in a shadow originally resembling the nearby Courts of Chaos; when his Pattern was complete, it brought a measure of order to that Shadow. Corwin's Pattern created an additional emblem of Order, upsetting the balance of power between the original Pattern and the weakened Logrus of Chaos.

Corwin's Pattern is somewhat different from the original Primal Pattern and the copies of it. It feels more benevolent than Amber's Pattern and its Shadow copies; this is theorized by readers to be a result of Corwin's mellowed personality and his experiences in Paris, France, which he drew on while creating his Pattern. Corwin's Pattern treats its pattern ghosts as helpers rather than expendable tools.

It appears that the original Pattern wishes to incorporate Corwin's Pattern into itself, to further its advantage over the Logrus and that Corwin's Pattern is resisting its incursions, to the extent that the Pattern of Amber could not subdue the independence of Corwin's without being sufficiently weakened to lay itself open to a counter-stroke from the Logrus of Chaos. Likewise, the Logrus seeks to destroy Corwin's Pattern, since it represents an additional artifact of Order against Chaos (although not in accord with the Order of Amber's Pattern) — but equally cannot do so without the risk of a counter-stroke from Amber's Pattern. It is suggested Corwin's Pattern may end up forming a third "pole" in the struggle between Order and Chaos, ultimately taking neither side and able to retain its independent existence against anything short of what will never happen, namely a combined assault from the Amber Pattern and Logrus.

Reception
Jane M. Lindskold called Corwin of Amber one of Zelazny's several "poet protagonists", noting that "Zelazny gives Corwin dimension beyond the usual sword-and-sorcery hero by giving us hints of what depths of feeling" he is capable of, often through Corwin's use of poetry and song.

Juan A. Prieto-Pablos notes that Corwin, like most of Zelazny's heroes, is a privileged, immortal superhero on a mission to redeem himself from a past mistake.

Corwin of Amber in popular culture
In the game NetHack, Grayswandir appears as a powerful artifact silver saber that protects its wielder from hallucination.

In Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, typing in "Corwin of Amber" activates the game's cheat codes. The summoning of non-human armies from another dimension to lay siege in the case of The Horde in the Warcraft series also closely mirror the events in the climax of Nine Princes in Amber.

In Lost Souls, the magical sword Grayswandir appears as a rare artifact longsword that destroys items of chaos on contact.

title: Corwin of Amber