text:
Thomas Foley

Thomas Foley or Tom Foley may refer to:

Political figures

 * Thomas Foley (Australian politician) (1853–1920), member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly
 * Thomas C. Foley (born 1952), American diplomat
 * Thomas F. "Big Tom" Foley (1852–1925), American Tammany Hall politician and saloon keeper in New York City
 * Tom Foley (Australian politician) (1886–1973), Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly
 * Tom Foley (1929–2013), American Congressman and Speaker of the House
 * Tom Foley (Pennsylvania politician) (born 1953), politician from Pennsylvania who became President of Mount Aloysius College

Others

 * Thomas Foley (Royal Navy officer) (1757–1833), British admiral
 * Thomas Patrick Roger Foley (1822–1879), American religious leader
 * Thomas Foley, journalist and friend of Ian Holbourn, who married RMS Lusitania survivor Avis Dolphin
 * Tom Foley (infielder) (born 1959), American baseball player and coach
 * Tom Foley (outfielder) (1847–1896), American baseball player
 * Tom Foley (racehorse trainer) (1946–2021), Irish racehorse trainer

The Barons Foley and family

 * Thomas Foley (died 1677) (1616–1677), British ironmaster, builder of Witley Court estate, member of Parliament for Bewdley
 * Thomas Foley (died 1701) (c. 1641–1701), son of previous, member of Parliament for Worcestershire, and then Droitwich
 * Thomas Foley, 1st Baron Foley (1673–1733), son of previous, member of Parliament for Stafford, and then Droitwich
 * Thomas Foley, 2nd Baron Foley (1703–1766), son of previous, never married, rebuilt parish church of Great Witley
 * Thomas Foley (auditor of the imprests) (c. 1670–1737), of Stoke Edith, member of Parliament for Weobly, then Hereford, then Stafford
 * Thomas Foley (died 1749) (c. 1695–1749), son of previous, member of Parliament for Hereford, then Herefordshire
 * Thomas Foley, 1st Baron Foley (1716–1777), son of previous, member of Parliament for Droitwich, then Herefordshire, inherited the Witley Court estate from his cousin, the 2nd baron
 * Thomas Foley, 2nd Baron Foley (1742–1793), son of previous, member of Parliament for Herefordshire, then Droitwich
 * Thomas Foley, 3rd Baron Foley (1780–1833), son of previous, member of Parliament and Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms
 * Thomas Foley, 4th Baron Foley (1808–1869), son of previous, member of Parliament for Worcestershire and Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms
 * Thomas Foley (1778–1822), grandson of the first baron, member of Parliament for Herefordshire and Droitwich

title: Thomas Foley


text:
Albert Memmi

Albert Memmi (ألبير ممّي; 15 December 1920 – 22 May 2020) was a French-Tunisian writer and essayist of Tunisian Jewish origins. A prominent intellectual, his nonfiction books and novels explored his complex identity as an anti-imperialist, Zionist, and self-described "Jewish Arab."

Biography
Memmi was born in Tunis, French Tunisia in December 1920, one of 13 children of Tunisian Jewish Berber Maïra (or Marguerite) Sarfati and Tunisian-Italian Jewish Fradji (or Fraji, or François) Memmi, a saddle maker. He grew up speaking French and Tunisian-Judeo-Arabic. During the Nazi occupation of Tunisia, Memmi was imprisoned in a forced labor camp from which he later escaped.

Memmi started Hebrew school when he was 4. He was educated in French primary schools, and continued his secondary studies at the prestigious Lycée Carnot de Tunis in Tunis, where he graduated in 1939. During World War II, he was studying philosophy at the University of Algiers when France's collaborationist Vichy regime implemented anti-Semitic laws. As a result, he was expelled from the university and subsequently sent to a labor camp in eastern Tunisia. After the war, Memmi resumed his studies at the Sorbonne in Paris and married Marie-Germaine Dubach, a French Catholic, with whom he had three children. The family returned to Tunis in 1951, where Memmi taught high school.

Memmi became a professor at the Sorbonne and earned his doctorate there in 1970. In 1975, he was appointed as a director of the School of Higher Studies in Social Sciences. He also held positions at the École des hautes études commerciales and at the University of Nanterre.

Memmi grappled with a profound sense of alienation, particularly his own. While he actively supported Tunisia's independence, once it was achieved, he chose to leave the newly formed Muslim state. He spent the following two-thirds of his life in France, effectively in self-imposed exile. Despite this, Memmi expressed that his true homeland was not the French nation, but the French language. In The Pillar of Salt, he wrote, 'I am a Tunisian, but of French culture. I am Tunisian, but Jewish, which means that I am politically and socially an outcast. I speak the language of the country with a particular accent and emotionally I have nothing in common with Muslims. I am a Jew who has broken with the Jewish religion and the ghetto, is ignorant of Jewish culture and detests the middle class.'"

He died in May 2020, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, at the age of 99.

Writings
Memmi found himself at the crossroads of three cultures, and based his work on the difficulty of finding a balance between the East and the West.

Memmi's well-regarded first novel, La statue de sel (translated as The Pillar of Salt), was published in 1953 with a preface by Albert Camus and was awarded the Fénéon Prize in 1954. His other novels include Agar (translated as Strangers), Le Scorpion (The Scorpion), and Le Desert (The Desert).

His best-known non-fiction work is The Colonizer and the Colonized, about the interdependent relationship of the two groups. It was published in 1957, a time when many national liberation movements were active. Jean-Paul Sartre wrote the preface. The work is often read in conjunction with Frantz Fanon's Les damnés de la Terre (The Wretched of the Earth) and Peau noire, masques blancs (Black Skin, White Masks) and Aimé Césaire's Discourse on Colonialism. In October 2006, Memmi's follow-up to this work, entitled Decolonization and the Decolonized, was published. In this book, Memmi suggests that in the wake of global decolonization, the suffering of former colonies cannot be attributed to the former colonizers, but to the corrupt leaders and governments that control these states.

Memmi's related sociological works include Dominated Man, Dependence, and Racism.

Sean P. Hier, in a review of Memmi's Racism, calls it "well-written and autobiographically informed." He writes that Memmi's main claim is that racism is a "'lived experience' arising within human situations which only secondarily become 'social experiences.' According to Hier, Memmi writes that racism is "endemic to collective human existence."

Memmi wrote extensively on Jewish identity and the place of the Jew in Muslim North African states after independence, including Portrait of a Jew, Liberation of the Jew and Jews and Arabs.

He was also known for the Anthology of Maghrebian literature (written in collaboration) published in 1965 (vol. 1) and 1969 (vol. 2).

Reviewing Memmi's fiction, scholar Judith Roumani asserts that the Tunisian writer's work "reveals the same philosophical evolution over time from his original viewpoints to less radical but perhaps more realistic positions." She concludes that "his latest fiction is certainly more innovative and different than his earlier work."

In his review for The New York Times, essayist and critic Richard Locke Albert Memmi's earlier novels as memoirs "recorded with a cleareyed sensitivity, a modest candor, and remarkable strength." He likened Memmi to "a Tunisian Balzac graced with Hemingway's radical simplicity and sadness." Locke further wrote, "But ultimately, it is Memmi's heart, not his skill, that moves you: the sights and sounds of Tunis, the childhood memories, the brothers' sympathetic and contrasting voices, their all-too-human feelings, have a resonance that reawakens for a while the ghost of European humanism."

In a 2018 article for The Jewish Review of Books, Daniel Gordon wrote that Memmi “has combined, perhaps more than any other writer since World War II, the compassion needed to articulate the suffering of oppressed groups with the forthrightness needed to censure them for their own acts of oppression.”

In 1995, Memmi said of his own work: "All of my work has been in sum an inventory of my attachments; all of my work has been, it should be understood, a constant revolt against my attachments; all of my work, for certain, has been an attempt at...reconciliation between the different parts of myself."

Refuting scientific racism
In Racisme, Memmi defined racism as a social construction assigning values to biological differences (both real and imagined) “to the advantage of the one defining and deploying them, and to the detriment of the one subjected to that act of definition”. In doing so, he countered three major arguments of scientific racism— a pseudoscientific belief in the existence of empirical evidence in support of racist beliefs. First, that pure and distinct races exist; second, that biologically ‘pure’ races were superior to others; and finally, that superior races had legitimate dominance over others. Memmi opposed this belief, asserting biological differences across human beings correlated with changes in geography, and that biological purity was a particular human fantasy. Memmi also pointed out that no evidence existed in support of the idea of racial purity, and merit, rather than biology, was the only basis of superiority. In this way, Memmi's arguments for racism as a social construct were important in refuting the notion of science as a basis for racist thought.

French

 * À contre-courants. Paris: Nouvel Objet, c1993. ISBN 2-84085-002-8
 * Ah, quel bonheur ! précédé de L'exercice du bonheur. Paris: Arléa: Diffusion Seuil, c1995. ISBN 2-86959-250-7
 * Albert Memmi : un entretien avec Robert Davies suivi de Itinéraire de l'expérience vécue à la théorie de la domination. Montréal: Éditions L'Étincelle; distributeur, Réédition Québec, c1975.
 * Bonheurs: 52 semaines. Paris: Arléa, c1992. ISBN 2-86959-142-X
 * Le buveur et l'amoureux: le prix de la dépendance. Paris: Arléa : Diffusion Seuil, c.1998. ISBN 2-86959-391-0
 * Ce que je crois. Paris: B. Grasset, c1985. ISBN 2-246-31171-3
 * La dépendance: esquisse pour un portrait du dépendant. Paris: Gallimard, c.1979.
 * Le désert: ou, La vie et les aventures de Jubair Ouali El-Mammi. Paris: Gallimard, c1977.
 * Dictionnaire critique à l'usage des incrédules. Paris: Kiron/Editions du Félin, c.2002. ISBN 2-86645-430-8
 * L'écriture colorée, ou, Je vous aime en rouge: essai sur une dimension nouvelle de l'écriture, la couleur. Paris: Périple : Distribution Distique, c1986. ISBN 2-904549-03-X
 * L'Homme dominé. Paris: Gallimard, 1968.
 * L'Homme dominé : le Noir, le colonisé, le prolétaire, le Juif, la femme, le domestique, le racisme. Nouvelle éd. Paris: Payot, 1973. ISBN 2-228-32230-X
 * L'individu face à ses dépendances. Paris: Vuibert, c2005. ISBN 2-7117-6181-9
 * Le juif et l'autre. Etrepilly: C. de Bartillat, c1995. ISBN 2-84100-025-7
 * Juifs et Arabes. Paris: Gallimard, 1974.
 * Le nomade immobile : récit. Paris: Arléa, c2000. ISBN 2-86959-521-2
 * Le personnage de Jeha dans la littérature orale des Arabes et des Juifs. Jerusalem: Institute of Asian and African Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1974?)
 * Le pharaon : roman. Paris: Julliard, c1988. ISBN 2-260-00535-7
 * Portrait du colonisé, précédé du portrait du colonisateur ... Preface by Jean-Paul Sartre. Paris: Payot, 1973.
 * Portrait du colonisé, précédé du portrait du colonisateur; preface by Jean-Paul Sartre. Suivi de Les Canadiens francais sont-ils des colonisés? Ed. rev. et corr. par l'auteur. Montréal: L'Etincelle, 1972. ISBN 0-88515-018-X
 * Portrait du colonisé, précédé de portrait du colonisateur: et d'une préface de Jean-Paul Sartre. Paris: Gallimard, c1985. ISBN 2-07-070550-1
 * Portrait du décolonisé arabo-musulman et de quelques autres. Paris: Gallimard, c2004. ISBN 2-07-077110-5
 * Portrait du décolonisé arabo-musulman et de quelques autres. Ed. corr. et augm. d'une postface. Paris: Gallimard, c2004. ISBN 2-07-077377-9
 * Portrait d'un Juif. Paris: Gallimard, 1962–66.
 * Le racisme : description, définition, traitement. Paris: Gallimard, c1982. ISBN 2-07-035461-X
 * Le Scorpion, ou, La confession imaginaire. Paris: Gallimard, 1969.
 * La statue de sel, roman. Paris: Correa [1953].
 * La statue de sel. Préf. d'Albert Camus. Éd. revue et corr. Paris: Gallimard, 1966.
 * Térésa et autres femmes: récits. Paris: Félin, c2004. ISBN 2-86645-568-1
 * La terre intérieure: entretiens avec Victor Malka. Paris: Gallimard, c1976.

English

 * The Colonizer and the Colonized. Introduction by Jean-Paul Sartre; afterword by Susan Gilson Miller; translated by Howard Greenfeld. London, UK: Earthscan Publications, 1990, ISBN 9781853830709. Expanded ed. Boston: Beacon Press, c1991. ISBN 0-8070-0301-8
 * eBook version available. Plunkett Lake Press, 2013.
 * Decolonization and the Decolonized. Translated by Robert Bononno. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, c2006. ISBN 0-8166-4734-8
 * Dependence: A Sketch for a Portrait. New York: Orion Press [1968].
 * Jews and Arabs. Translated from the French by Eleanor Levieux. Chicago: J. P. O'Hara, c1975. ISBN 0-87955-327-8 ISBN 0879553286
 * The Liberation of the Jew. Translated from the French by Judy Hyun. New York: Orion Press [1966].
 * eBook version available. Plunkett Lake Press, 2013.
 * The Pillar of Salt. Translated by Edouard Roditi. Boston: Beacon Press, 1992. ISBN 0-8070-8327-5
 * The Pillar of Salt. Chicago: J. P. O'Hara, [1975] c1955. ISBN 0-87955-907-1
 * eBook version available. Plunkett Lake Press, 2013.
 * Portrait of a Jew. Translated from the French by Elisabeth Abbott. New York: Orion Press [1962]
 * eBook version available. Plunkett Lake Press, 2013.
 * Racism. Translated and with an introduction by Steve Martinot. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, c2000. ISBN 0-8166-3164-6
 * The Scorpion, or, The Imaginary Confession. Translated from the French by Eleanor Levieux. New York: Grossman, 1971. 0670622710
 * Strangers. Translated from the French by Brian Rhys. New York: Orion Press [1960]

Hebrew

 * Yehudim VeArvim, translated by Aharon Amir, Sifriyat Hapo'alim, [1975]
 * Netziv Hamelah, translated by Yosef Luz, Sifria La'am- Am Oved, [1960]

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

title: Albert Memmi


text:
DNA extraction

The first isolation of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was done in 1869 by Friedrich Miescher. DNA extraction is the process of isolating DNA from the cells of an organism isolated from a sample, typically a biological sample such as blood, saliva, or tissue. It involves breaking open the cells, removing proteins and other contaminants, and purifying the DNA so that it is free of other cellular components. The purified DNA can then be used for downstream applications such as PCR, sequencing, or cloning. Currently, it is a routine procedure in molecular biology or forensic analyses.

This process can be done in several ways, depending on the type of the sample and the downstream application, the most common methods are: mechanical, chemical and enzymatic lysis, precipitation, purification, and concentration. The specific method used to extract the DNA, such as phenol-chloroform extraction, alcohol precipitation, or silica-based purification.

For the chemical method, many different kits are used for extraction, and selecting the correct one will save time on kit optimization and extraction procedures. PCR sensitivity detection is considered to show the variation between the commercial kits.

There are many different methods for extracting DNA, but some common steps include:

 * 1) Lysis: This step involves breaking open the cells to release the DNA. For example, in the case of bacterial cells, a solution of detergent and salt (such as SDS) can be used to disrupt the cell membrane and release the DNA. For plant and animal cells, mechanical or enzymatic methods are often used.
 * 2) Precipitation: Once the DNA is released, proteins and other contaminants must be removed. This is typically done by adding a precipitating agent, such as alcohol (such as ethanol or isopropanol), or a salt (such as ammonium acetate). The DNA will form a pellet at the bottom of the solution, while the contaminants will remain in the liquid.
 * 3) Purification: After the DNA is precipitated, it is usually further purified by using column-based methods. For example, silica-based spin columns can be used to bind the DNA, while contaminants are washed away. Alternatively, a centrifugation step can be used to purify the DNA by spinning it down to the bottom of a tube.
 * 4) Concentration: Finally, the amount of DNA present is usually increased by removing any remaining liquid. This is typically done by using a vacuum centrifugation or a lyophilization (freeze-drying) step.

It's worth noting that some variations on these steps may be used depending on the specific DNA extraction protocol. Additionally, some kits are commercially available that include reagents and protocols specifically tailored to a specific type of sample.

What does it deliver?
DNA extraction is frequently a preliminary step in many diagnostic procedures used to identify environmental viruses and bacteria and diagnose illnesses and hereditary diseases. These methods consist of, but are not limited to:

Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (FISH) technique was developed in the 1980s. The basic idea is to use a nucleic acid probe to hybridize nuclear DNA from either interphase cells or metaphase chromosomes attached to a microscopic slide. It is a molecular method used, among other things, to recognize and count particular bacterial groupings.

To recognize, define, and quantify the geographical and temporal patterns in marine bacterioplankton communities, researchers employ a technique called terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP).

Sequencing: Whole or partial genomes and other chromosomal components, ended for comparison with previously published sequences.

Basic procedure

 * Cells that are to be studied need to be collected.
 * Breaking the cell membranes open exposes the DNA along with the cytoplasm within (cell lysis).
 * Lipids from the cell membrane and the nucleus are broken down with detergents and surfactants.
 * Breaking down proteins by adding a protease (optional).
 * Breaking down RNA by adding an RNase (optional).
 * The solution is treated with a concentrated salt solution (saline) to make debris such as broken proteins, lipids, and RNA clump together.
 * Centrifugation of the solution, which separates the clumped cellular debris from the DNA.
 * DNA purification from detergents, proteins, salts, and reagents is used during the cell lysis step. The most commonly used procedures are:
 * Ethanol precipitation usually by ice-cold ethanol or isopropanol. Since DNA is insoluble in these alcohols, it will aggregate together, giving a pellet upon centrifugation. Precipitation of DNA is improved by increasing ionic strength, usually by adding sodium acetate.
 * Phenol–chloroform extraction in which phenol denatures proteins in the sample. After centrifugation of the sample, denatured proteins stay in the organic phase while the aqueous phase containing nucleic acid is mixed with chloroform to remove phenol residues from the solution.
 * Minicolumn purification relies on the fact that the nucleic acids may bind (adsorption) to the solid phase (silica or other) depending on the pH and the salt concentration of the buffer.

Cellular and histone proteins bound to the DNA can be removed either by adding a protease or having precipitated the proteins with sodium or ammonium acetate or extracted them with a phenol-chloroform mixture before the DNA precipitation.

After isolation, the DNA is dissolved in a slightly alkaline buffer, usually in a TE buffer, or in ultra-pure water.

Common chemicals
The most common chemicals used for DNA extraction include:

 * 1) Detergents, such as SDS or Tween-20, which are used to break open cells and release the DNA.
 * 2) Protease enzymes, such as Proteinase K, which are used to digest proteins that may be binding to the DNA.
 * 3) Phenol and chloroform, which are used to separate the DNA from other cellular components.
 * 4) Ethanol or isopropanol, which are used to precipitate the DNA.
 * 5) Salt, such as NaCl, which is often used to help dissolve the DNA and maintain its stability.
 * 6) EDTA, which is used to chelate the metals ions that can damage the DNA.
 * 7) Tris-HCL, which is used to maintain the pH at the optimal condition for DNA extraction.

Method selection
Some of the most common DNA extraction methods include organic extraction, Chelex extraction, and solid phase extraction. These methods consistently yield isolated DNA, but they differ in both the quality and the quantity of DNA yielded. When selecting a DNA extraction method, there are multiple factors to consider, including cost, time, safety, and risk of contamination.

Organic extraction involves the addition of incubation in multiple different chemical solutions; including a lysis step, a phenol-chloroform extraction, an ethanol precipitation, and washing steps. Organic extraction is often used in laboratories because it is cheap, and it yields large quantities of pure DNA. Though it is easy, there are many steps involved, and it takes longer than other methods. It also involves the unfavorable use of the toxic chemicals phenol and chloroform, and there is an increased risk of contamination due to transferring the DNA between multiple tubes. Several protocols based on organic extraction of DNA were effectively developed decades ago, though improved and more practical versions of these protocols have also been developed and published in the last years.

The chelex extraction method involves adding the Chelex resin to the sample, boiling the solution, then vortexing and centrifuging it. The cellular materials bind to the Chelex beads, while the DNA is available in the supernatant. The Chelex method is much faster and simpler than organic extraction, and it only requires one tube, which decreases the risk of DNA contamination. Unfortunately, Chelex extraction does not yield as much quantity and the DNA yielded is single-stranded, which means it can only be used for PCR-based analyses and not for RFLP.

Solid phase extraction such as using a spin-column-based extraction method takes advantage of the fact that DNA binds to silica. The sample containing DNA is added to a column containing a silica gel or silica beads and chaotropic salts. The chaotropic salts disrupt the hydrogen bonding between strands and facilitate the binding of the DNA to silica by causing the nucleic acids to become hydrophobic. This exposes the phosphate residues so they are available for adsorption. The DNA binds to the silica, while the rest of the solution is washed out using ethanol to remove chaotropic salts and other unnecessary constituents. The DNA can then be rehydrated with aqueous low-salt solutions allowing for elution of the DNA from the beads.

This method yields high-quality, largely double-stranded DNA which can be used for both PCR and RFLP analysis. This procedure can be automated and has a high throughput, although lower than the phenol-chloroform method. This is a one-step method i.e. the entire procedure is completed in one tube. This lowers the risk of contamination making it very useful for the forensic extraction of DNA. Multiple solid-phase extraction commercial kits are manufactured and marketed by different companies; the only problem is that they are more expensive than organic extraction or Chelex extraction.

Special types
Specific techniques must be chosen for the isolation of DNA from some samples. Typical samples with complicated DNA isolation are:
 * archaeological samples containing partially degraded DNA, see ancient DNA
 * samples containing inhibitors of subsequent analysis procedures, most notably inhibitors of PCR, such as humic acid from the soil, indigo and other fabric dyes or haemoglobin in blood
 * samples from microorganisms with thick cellular walls, for example, yeast
 * samples containing mixed DNA from multiple sources

Extrachromosomal DNA is generally easy to isolate, especially plasmids may be easily isolated by cell lysis followed by precipitation of proteins, which traps chromosomal DNA in insoluble fraction and after centrifugation, plasmid DNA can be purified from soluble fraction.

A Hirt DNA Extraction is an isolation of all extrachromosomal DNA in a mammalian cell. The Hirt extraction process gets rid of the high molecular weight nuclear DNA, leaving only low molecular weight mitochondrial DNA and any viral episomes present in the cell.

Detection of DNA
A diphenylamine (DPA) indicator will confirm the presence of DNA. This procedure involves chemical hydrolysis of DNA: when heated (e.g. ≥95 °C) in acid, the reaction requires a deoxyribose sugar and therefore is specific for DNA. Under these conditions, the 2-deoxyribose is converted to w-hydroxylevulinyl aldehyde, which reacts with the compound, diphenylamine, to produce a blue-colored compound. DNA concentration can be determined by measuring the intensity of absorbance of the solution at the 600 nm with a spectrophotometer and comparing to a standard curve of known DNA concentrations.

Measuring the intensity of absorbance of the DNA solution at wavelengths 260 nm and 280 nm is used as a measure of DNA purity. DNA can be quantified by cutting the DNA with a restriction enzyme, running it on an agarose gel, staining with ethidium bromide (EtBr) or a different stain and comparing the intensity of the DNA with a DNA marker of known concentration.

Using the Southern blot technique, this quantified DNA can be isolated and examined further using PCR and RFLP analysis. These procedures allow differentiation of the repeated sequences within the genome. It is these techniques which forensic scientists use for comparison, identification, and analysis.

High-molecular-weight DNA extraction method
In this method, plant nuclei are isolated by physically grinding tissues and reconstituting the intact nuclei in a unique Nuclear Isolation Buffer (NIB). The plastid DNAs are released from organelles and eliminated with an osmotic buffer by washing and centrifugation. The purified nuclei are then lysed and further cleaned by organic extraction, and the genomic DNA is precipitated with a high concentration of CTAB. The highly pure, high molecular weight gDNA is extracted from the nuclei, dissolved in a high pH buffer, allowing for stable long-term storage.

DNA storage
DNA storage is an important aspect of DNA extraction projects as it ensures the integrity and stability of the extracted DNA for downstream applications.

One common method of DNA storage is ethanol precipitation, which involves adding ethanol and a salt, such as sodium chloride or potassium acetate, to the extracted DNA to precipitate it out of solution. The DNA is then pelleted by centrifugation and washed with 70% ethanol to remove any remaining contaminants. The DNA pellet is then air-dried and resuspended in a buffer, such as Tris-EDTA (TE) buffer, for storage.

Another method is freezing the DNA in a buffer such as TE buffer, or in a cryoprotectant such as glycerol or DMSO, at -20 or -80 degrees Celsius. This method preserves the integrity of the DNA and slows down the activity of any enzymes that may degrade it.

It's important to note that the choice of storage buffer and conditions will depend on the downstream application for which the DNA is intended. For example, if the DNA is to be used for PCR, it may be stored in TE buffer at 4 degrees Celsius, while if it is to be used for long-term storage or shipping, it may be stored in ethanol at -20 degrees Celsius. The extracted DNA should be regularly checked for its quality and integrity, such as by running a gel electrophoresis or spectrophotometry. The storage conditions should be also noted and controlled, such as the temperature and humidity.

It's also important to consider the long-term stability of the DNA and the potential for degradation over time. The extracted DNA should be stored for as short a time as possible, and the conditions for storage should be chosen to minimize the risk of degradation.

In general, the extracted DNA should be stored under the best possible conditions to ensure its stability and integrity for downstream applications.

Quality control
There are several quality control techniques used to ensure the quality of extracted DNA, including:

 * Spectrophotometry: This is a widely used method for measuring the concentration and purity of a DNA sample. Spectrophotometry measures the absorbance of a sample at different wavelengths, typically at 260 nm and 280 nm. The ratio of absorbance at 260 nm and 280 nm is used to determine the purity of the DNA sample.
 * Gel electrophoresis: This technique is used to visualize and compare the size and integrity of DNA samples. The DNA is loaded onto an agarose gel and then subjected to an electric field, which causes the DNA to migrate through the gel. The migration of the DNA can be visualized using ethidium bromide, which intercalates into the DNA and fluoresces under UV light.
 * Fluorometry: Fluorometry is a method to determine the concentration of nucleic acids by measuring the fluorescence of the sample when excited by a specific wavelength of light. Fluorometry uses dyes that specifically bind to nucleic acids and have a high fluorescence intensity.
 * PCR: Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is a technique that amplifies a specific region of DNA, it is also used as a QC method by amplifying a small fragment of the DNA, if the amplification is successful, it means the extracted DNA is of good quality and it's not degraded.
 * Qubit Fluorometer: The Qubit Fluorometer is an instrument that uses fluorescent dyes to measure the concentration of DNA and RNA in a sample. It is a quick and sensitive method that can be used to determine the concentration of DNA samples.
 * Bioanalyzer: The bioanalyzer is an instrument that uses electrophoresis to separate and analyze DNA, RNA, and protein samples. It can provide detailed information about the size, integrity, and purity of a DNA sample.

title: DNA extraction


text:
Bradford College

Bradford College is a further and higher education college in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, with approximately 25,000 students. The college offers a range of full and part-time courses from introductory level through to postgraduate level and caters for a variety of students, including school leavers, adults wanting to return to education, degree-level students and those seeking professional qualifications.

HE provision
Bradford College is one of the FE Colleges with the largest HE provision in England, with approximately 170 full and part-time HE courses.

The College's HE provision is currently validated by University of Bolton, having previously been validated by Teesside University.

The move to Teesside University was a result of Leeds Metropolitan University's withdrawal from its partnerships with colleges except for foundation degrees.

History
In 1832, the Bradford Mechanics Institute was founded. In 1863, the institute had grown to accommodate full-time staff and had its own School of Industrial Design and Art. In 1872 the Bradford MP William Edward Forster opened new buildings in Bridge Street.

On 23 June 1882, the then Prince and Princess of Wales (later King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra) came to open the new School. They were given a very warm welcome: "From Saltaire Station to the Technical School, a distance of four miles, was one continuous avenue of Venetian masts, streamers, and many coloured banners, while at appropriate points triumphal arches of great magnificence were erected."

In 1982, the institution was named Bradford and Ilkley Community College, after a merger with Ilkley College, giving the combined college a small satellite campus in the nearby town of Ilkley, north-east of Bradford. This was closed in 1999 and soon after the institution became Bradford College.

In 2002, a merger between the college and the University of Bradford was proposed; this was pursued until the summer of 2003, when the two institutions issued a joint statement calling off the merger. Beginning in 2006 the college underwent a re-brand and unveiled its current logo. A community learning centre, named The Three Valleys Centre, was opened in nearby Keighley in 2007 which hosts a hairdressing and beauty salon (also operating on a commercial basis), as well as I.T and a range of language courses.

As part of the college's 175-year celebration, it published a list of 175 famous alumni of the college. This list includes ex-students such as Edward Appleton, Tasmin Archer, David Berglas, Alex Corina, Bob Hardy, David Hockney and Joyce Gould.

Trinity Green, which houses a new sports centre and teaching facilities for construction and engineering students, opened in September 2008, housed in a new purpose-built building on the site of MacMillan Halls of Residence which were demolished in 2007. A second phase of building replaced the Westbrook and Randall Well buildings with a more modern structure. Government funding was put on hold for this project in March 2009 and was not expected to be available again until 2011. The new building, named the David Hockney Building after one its most famous alumni, opened in September 2014 after two years of construction. A new Advanced Technology Centre was scheduled to open in September 2015 on a nearby former car park.

The College received the go-ahead by the Skills Funding Agency for a £50 million building. The project is the second phase of the College's Accommodation Strategy started with the opening of the Trinity Green Campus:

Bradford College's Appleton Building was named after the Bradford scientist Edward Victor Appleton, and the College's Lister Building was named after Samuel Lister.

Quality assurance
As an institution in receipt of government funding Bradford College is regularly inspected by Ofsted and the QAA. The last reports from 2008 (Ofsted) and 2010 (QAA) confirmed the high quality of the provision and identified a number of good practices across the institution.

Ofsted inspection in 2017 gave the college a 'Requires Improvement' grading in most areas. The Initial Teacher Education inspected by Ofsted in 2010 also resulted in good and outstanding grades.

The latest Ofsted inspection was done on 9 November 2021 and found that the College was Good.

Campuses
The main campus is situated on Great Horton Road close to Bradford city centre. However, some courses are delivered elsewhere. The Academy is located in the Three Valleys Centre in Keighley. There are several other campuses in Bradford, such as Bolton Royd on Manningham Lane or Appleton Academy in Wyke. Part-time leisure, community and some of the ESOL courses are offered in over 20 different locations across Bradford.

Bradford College Education Trust
Bradford College is the sponsor of three secondary schools as part of the Bradford College Education Trust. the three schools are Appleton Academy, Bradford Studio School and Samuel Lister Academy.

Erasmus participation
Bradford College participates in the Erasmus Programme. The College is in agreement with 26 institutions across 14 European countries:

 * Başkent University, Turkey
 * European University Cyprus, Cyprus
 * Hacettepe University, Turkey
 * Miguel de Cervantes European University, Spain
 * University of Rennes 1, France
 * Zagreb School of Economics and Management, Croatia
 * Humak University of Applied Sciences, Finland
 * Fırat University, Turkey
 * Ecole Supérieure des Arts Appliqués et du Textile, France
 * Novia University of Applied Sciences, Finland
 * Jan Dlugosz University in Czestochowa, Poland
 * Károli Gáspár Református Egyetem, Hungary
 * Katholieke Hogeschool Limburg, Belgium
 * Kirchliche Pädagogische Hochschule in Vienna, Austria
 * Haute Ecole Namuroise Catholique, Belgium
 * Marnix Academie, The Netherlands
 * Universidad de Córdoba, Spain
 * Universidad de Granada, Spain
 * University College Lillebaelt, Denmark
 * University of Crete, Greece
 * University of Gdansk, Poland
 * University of Lower Silesia, Poland
 * UPV/EHU Bilbao, Spain
 * Bozok University, Turkey
 * Laurea University of Applied Sciences, Finland

Trivia
Bradford College's Trinity Green Campus is also home to the "Dragons Den" where EBL division 2 basketball Team Bradford Dragons play their home matches on Saturday evenings.

Bradford College students broke the record for the biggest onion bhaji in 2011 and the biggest samosa in 2012.

The management of the College caused a stir when a journalist found out it had ordered a mace worth £22,000 to enhance the students' experience during the graduation ceremony in December 2011.

Bradford College Students' Union was awarded the Further Education Students' Union of the Year title at the NUS 2013 Awards Ceremony.

Alumni

 * Alex Corina, artist and community activist
 * Gloria de Piero, Labour MP for Ashfield
 * Sir Edmund Elton, 8th Baronet, ceramics artist and inventor
 * Richard Eurich, artist and landscape painter
 * Graham Fransella, painter
 * Andy Goldsworthy, artist
 * David Hockney, artist
 * Yvonne McGregor, racing cyclist
 * Mick Manning, illustrator and children's author
 * Donald Rooum, cartoonist
 * Paul Sample, cartoonist
 * Robert E. Swindells, author

Lecturers

 * Kim Leadbeater, Labour Co-op politician
 * Alice Mahon, trade unionist and Labour Party politician

Unclear

 * Trevor Bell, artist
 * Major General Dudley Graham Johnson & Bar, MC (13 February 1884 – 21 December 1975), British Army officer and recipient of the Victoria Cross

title: Bradford College


text:
Clean (2004 film)

Clean is a 2004 drama film directed by French director Olivier Assayas, starring Maggie Cheung and Nick Nolte. It was jointly funded by Canada, France, and United Kingdom sources. It was released in the United States in 2006.

Plot
Emily Wang (Maggie Cheung), a former video jockey, who has been in a tempestuous relationship for several years with Lee Hauser (played by James Johnston of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds), a rock musician. Lee's friends feel that Emily is bad for him, describing her as a junkie. Their young son, Jay, is living in Vancouver with Lee's parents.

As the film opens, the pair have arrived in Hamilton, Canada, to see Metric perform. Following an argument in their motel room, Emily walks out and, after taking heroin, falls asleep in her car. When she returns the following morning, she finds that Lee has died of a drug overdose, and the Ontario Provincial Police are investigating. As Emily attempts to force her way into the room, the police find heroin in her bag and she is arrested.

Emily spends six months in jail and, upon release, discovers that custody of her son has been awarded to Lee's parents. She resolves to return to Paris, where she used to live. Before leaving, she briefly meets Albrecht, Lee's father (played by Nick Nolte), who tells her that he would prefer that she not see Jay for a few years.

In Paris, Emily begins work in a Chinese restaurant owned by relatives but does not enjoy it. She has become addicted to methadone and relies on her friends for prescriptions. Meanwhile, Lee's mother, Rosemary (played by Martha Henry) falls ill and she and Albrecht travel to London with Jay for medical treatment. While they are there, Albrecht decides to take Jay to meet Emily, but the boy has been told by his grandmother that Emily was responsible for his father's death and does not want to see her.

Emily eventually decides that she must get clean in order to be able to spend time with her son. She stops taking methadone and prepares for Jay's arrival. When the boy eventually meets her, she takes him to a zoo and explains her relationship with his father and why they took drugs. Emily also has become a singer; when she is given the opportunity arising from meeting a fellow musician in prison, she must make some serious decisions about her life.

Cast
Assayas and Cheung met during the making of Irma Vep in 1996. They married in 1998 and divorced in 2001. Clean was their first collaboration since the divorce and their second and currently last since Irma Vep.

Music
The songs that Maggie Cheung performs in the film were written and produced by David Roback of Mazzy Star. The soundtrack also features songs by Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Emily Haines, Metric, The Notwist, Britta Phillips and Tricky.

 * 1) Brian Eno — "An Ending"
 * 2) Maggie Cheung — "Strawberry Stain"
 * 3) Brian Eno — "Third Uncle"
 * 4) Tricky & Liz Densmore — "Breakaway"
 * 5) Maggie Cheung — "Down in the Light"
 * 6) Metric — "Dead Disco"
 * 7) Brian Eno — "Spider and I"
 * 8) The Notwist — "Neon Golden"
 * 9) Maggie Cheung — "Wait for Me"
 * 10) Britta Phillips — "Knives from Bavaria"
 * 11) Maggie Cheung — "She Can't Tell You"
 * 12) Metric — "Dead Disco (Live)"

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 73% based on 66 reviews and an average rating of 6.64/10. The consensus statement reads, "In one of her best roles, Cheung gives a believable and arresting performance as a recovering addict." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 75 out of 100 based on 28 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

title: Clean (2004 film)


text:
File:Urbeach-washroom-changeroom-architecture.jpg

Men's washroom/changeroom at public urbeach

I took this picture of the Dundas Square urbeach washroom/changeroom facility to show the modern architectural design, using cement, stainless steel, marble, and glass brick.

Note the glass brick lighting, from the walls, rather than lights on the ceiling.

Sensor operated fixtures, throughout, including the sensor operated wash stations shown here.

This picture is an extended dynamic range image made by combining differently exposed pictures of the same subject matter. See http://wearcam.org/textbook.htm

The differently exposed images were captured on a Nikon D2h.

License: eyetap.org/sel.txt. Copyright (c) 2004, Steve Mann. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this experience under the terms of the ePi Lab Shared Experience License, Version 1.0 or any later version published by the EyeTap Personal Imaging Laboratory.

In compliance with the Terms of this license, the full resolution version is available as a link from http://wearcam.org/dundas-square/2004oct09/washrooms/


text:
Lough Ree

Lough Ree, translated to English as King's Lake or King Lake, is a lake in the midlands of Ireland, the second of the three major lakes on the River Shannon. Lough Ree is the second largest lake on the Shannon after Lough Derg. The other two major lakes are Lough Allen to the north, and Lough Derg to the south. There are also several minor lakes along the length of the river. The lake serves as a border between the counties of Longford and Westmeath (both in the province of Leinster) on the eastern side and County Roscommon in the province of Connacht on the western side. The lake is popular for fishing and boating. The lake supports a small commercial eel fishery and is locally famous for its eels on wheels truck. The town of Athlone is situated at the southern end of the lake, and has a harbour for boats going out on the lake. The small town of Lanesboro is at the northern end of the lake.

The island of Inchcleraun (Inis Cloithreann) in the northern part of the lake is the site of a monastery founded in the early Christian era and contains the remains of several ancient churches. In Irish legends, it was on this island that Queen Maeve was killed. The Viking Turgesius controlled a ringfort on the shores until his death by drowning in Lough Owel.

Families lived on some of the islands in Lough Ree including Inchcleraun (Walsh & Farrell), The Black Islands (Hanly & O'Hara), Inchmore (Tiernan, Quigley, Nolan & Keefe), Hare Island (Duffy), Inchbofin (Connell), Inch Turk (Ganly, Slevin & Walsh) and Inchenagh (Shea, Killian & Connaughton) until the 1950s, when they were rehoused ashore. Like several other Irish loughs, Lough Ree has been the scene of claimed sightings of a lake monster over the years.

The geographical centre of Ireland was previously calculated to be in the townland of Carnagh East, County Roscommon on the western shore of Lough Ree, opposite the Cribby Islands Also Hodson pillar which is located on an island on the lake is said to be the most central point in Ireland. However, in 2022 Ordnance Survey Ireland did a new calculation which put the centre near Castletown Geoghegan in County Westmeath.

Ecology
Lough Ree has been designated a Special Area of Conservation. The main habitat, by area, is the lake itself, but there are other habitats including bog.

Lough Ree site has been designated a Special Protection Area on the basis of its migratory waterfowl, with nationally important numbers of Tachybaptus ruficollis. It is also an Important Bird Area.

In 2021, invasive quagga mussels were discovered in the lake and in Lough Derg by a research team from UCD.

Events
Jim O'Connor was the first person to solo swim the length of Lough Ree in 2012. The 33.91 km swim lasted 13 hours and 34 minutes, a mean speed of 2.5 km/h. O'Connor completed this swim to raise funds for South Westmeath Hospice.

Human history
9th century Viking attacks climaxed in 845 in Ireland and they built a fortified base on Lough Ree.

Annalistic references
From the Annals of Inisfallen:

 * AI907.1 Kl. The plundering of Lough Rí by the men of Mumu as far as Mairg Laigen and Mag Léna, as a result of which Mael Craíbe son of Cathalán, king of Cenél Fiachrach, and many others were slain.
 * AI922.2 Tomrair son of Elgi, a Jarl of the foreigners, on Luimnech (the Lower Shannon), and he proceeded and plundered Inis Celtra and Muicinis, and burned Cluain Moccu Nóis; and he went on Loch Rí and plundered all its islands, and he ravaged Mide.

From the Annals of the Four Masters:

 * M934.6.Amhlaibh Ceannchairech, with the foreigners, came from Loch Eirne across Breifne to Loch Ribh. On the night of Great Christmas they reached the Sinainn, and they remained seven months there; and Magh-Aei was spoiled and plundered by them.

From the Annals of Inisfallen

 * AI988.2 A fleet, viz. 300 boats, [was put] on Loch Rí by Brian, and they harried Mide and went to Uisnech. And twenty five boats of these went into Connachta, and a great slaughter of their crews was inflicted there, including Dúnlang, king of Raithlenn, Niall Ua hEirc, Dúngalach Ua Loingsig, and many others. And by them was slain Muirgius son of Conchobar, royal heir of Connachta.
 * AI993.2 A naval raid by Brian, and he reached Breifne from Loch Rí by way of Áth Liac northwards.
 * AI1016.3 A great hosting by Brian's son to Loch Rí, and he plundered Inis Clothrann (Inchcleraun) and Inis Bó Finne (Inchbofin), brought away the boats of Mael Sechnaill and Leth Cuinn, and took the hostages of Mumu from Cnámhchaill westwards.

In popular culture
The lake is the subject of the 1973 song "Where The 3 Counties Meet" by Brendan Shine.

title: Lough Ree


text:
Influx of disease in the Caribbean

The first European contact in 1492 started an influx of communicable diseases into the Caribbean. Diseases originating in the Old World (Afro-Eurasia) came to the New World (the Americas) for the first time, resulting in demographic and sociopolitical changes due to the Columbian Exchange from the late 15th century onwards. The Indigenous peoples of the Americas had little immunity to the predominantly Old World diseases, resulting in significant loss of life and contributing to their enslavement and exploitation perpetrated by the European colonists. Waves of enslaved Africans were brought to replace the dwindling Indigenous populations, solidifying the position of disease in triangular trade.

Infectious diseases
Before the first wave of European colonization, the Indigenous peoples of the Americas and the Caribbean are thought to have lived with infrequent epidemic diseases, brought about by limited contact between tribes. This left them socially and biologically unprepared when the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus and his crew introduced several infectious diseases, including typhus, smallpox, influenza, whooping cough, and measles following his 1492 voyage to the Americas. The Old World diseases spread from the carriers to the Indigenous populations, who had no immunity, leading to more serious cases and higher mortality. Because the Indigenous societies of the Americas were not used to the diseases as European nations were at the time, there was no system in place to care for the sick.

Smallpox is among the most notable of diseases in the Columbian Exchange due to the high number of deaths and impact on life for Indigenous societies. Smallpox first broke out in the Americas on the island of Hispaniola in 1518. The disease was carried over from Europe, where it had been endemic for over seven hundred years. Like the other diseases introduced in the time period, the Europeans were familiar with the treatment of the disease and had some natural immunity, which reduced mortality and facilitated quicker recovery. The Taíno people, who inhabited Hispaniola, had no natural smallpox immunity and were unfamiliar with treating epidemic disease.

In 1493, the first recorded influenza epidemic to strike the Americas occurred on the island of Hispaniola in the northern Spanish settlement of Isabela. The virus was introduced to the Isle of Santo Domingo by the Cristóbal Cólon, which docked at La Isabela on 10 December 1493, carrying about 2,000 Spanish passengers. Despite the general poor health of the colony, Columbus returned in 1494 and found that the Native American population had been affected by disease even more catastrophically than Isabela's first settlers were. By 1506, only a third of the native population remained. The Taíno population before European contact is estimated to have been between 60,000 and 8 million people, and the entire nation was virtually extinct 50 years after contact, which has primarily been attributed to the infectious diseases.

After the first European contact, social disruption and epidemic diseases led to a decline in the Amerindian population. Because the Indigenous societies, including the Taínos, were unfamiliar with the diseases, they were not prepared to deal with the social consequences. The high number of people incapacitated by the disease disrupted the normal cycles of agriculture and hunting that sustained the Native American populations. This led to increased dependence on the Europeans, and reduced capacity to resist the European invasion. The eventual enslavement of the Taíno people by the Europeans compounded the effects of the epidemics in the downfall of the Indigenous societies.

Impact of the transatlantic slave trade
As the population of enslaved Indigenous peoples fell due to disease and abuse, the Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors began to import enslaved workers from Africa in 1505. Until 1800 the population rose as slaves arrived from West Africa. Because there was already an established European colonial presence in Africa at the time, the enslaved Africans were less vulnerable to disease than the Taíno people on Hispaniola. However, they came carrying their own diseases, including malaria. At the time, malaria was endemic both in Europe and Africa, though more prevalent in the latter continent. The climate of the Caribbean was hospitable to mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles, which acts as a vector for the disease and allowed it to spread. Many of the African-born enslaved people had genetic protections against malaria that Indigenous enslaved people did not. As malaria, smallpox, and other diseases spread the Indigenous populations continued to fall, which increased the motivation for the Spanish and Portuguese colonists to continue to import more enslaved workers from Africa. This enslaved people worked in mining and agriculture, driving the development of triangular trade.

title: Influx of disease in the Caribbean


text:
Robert Walpole, 10th Baron Walpole

Robert Horatio Walpole, 10th Baron Walpole of Walpole, 8th Baron Walpole of Wolterton, (8 December 1938 – 8 May 2021), was a British politician who, as an excepted hereditary peer, was a member of the House of Lords until his retirement in 2017.

Ancestors
Walpole was descended from Horatio Walpole, 1st Baron Walpole (of Wolterton), a younger brother of Sir Robert Walpole, the first British Prime Minister. He was the 10th and 8th Baron Walpole (of two different creations). His ancestors include Sir Robert Walpole's father Colonel Robert Walpole (1650–1700).

Education and local government career
He was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, where he received a BA and an MA. He served on Norfolk County Council for eleven years from 1970 to 1981.

House of Lords career
He entered the House on the death of his father in 1989. He was a crossbencher and was internally elected to continue serving after the House of Lords Act 1999 prevented most hereditary peers from sitting. He retired from Parliament on 13 June 2017.

Family
His heir was Jonathan Robert Hugh Walpole (born 16 November 1967), a writer. Walpole and his first wife Judith (née Schofield, later Chaplin) had four other children, including diplomat Alice Walpole. The couple divorced in 1979. In 1980 Walpole married Laurel Celia Ball with whom he had three further children.

Wealth and estates
His father's net estate at his death in February 1989 was sworn as £2,065,295. In April 2016 he sold Wolterton Hall, the house commissioned by his ancestor the 1st Baron Walpole of Wolterton in 1742, where Walpole and his father had lived. He lived nearby at Mannington Hall, a house owned by his family since the 18th century.

Death
Walpole died on 8 May 2021, aged 82. The title was inherited by his eldest son, Jonathan Robert Hugh Walpole, who became the 11th Baron Walpole.

title: Robert Walpole, 10th Baron Walpole


text: User talk:68.76.168.99

title: User talk:68.76.168.99


text:
User:Whosyourjudas/proposal

''This is a proposal-in-progress. Please do not edit it at this moment - it is not release-ready! Leave any remarks on the talk page. Thank you, Whosyourjudas (talk)''

=Requests for Assistance Proposal=

Rationale
Many Wikipedians have seen the need for a place where assistance from an administrator can be requested - requests that do not fit the standard categories of deletion, protection, etc. These sort of requests do not have a place on the refactored Village Pump. If requests are posted there they are often lost in the shuffle and ignored. Requests are sometimes floated directly to a sysop's talk page, but there is no guarantee as to the success of that method. Therefore, a page is propsed to handle such requests, at Requests for Assistance or similar. Administrators could then take and solve these requests.

How It Works
Administrators would, at their option, be able to sign up as "helpers". Helpers agree they they will be: A helper will be able to add or remove himself from the list at any time. Only when he is signed up as a helper would he be responsible for these extra duties.
 * Logged on to Wikipedia often.
 * Willing to help users in need of assistance.
 * Attentive to Requests for Assistance.

When a user feels a need for an administrator's help, he posts his request to Requests for Assistance. All helpers would then be notified of the new request, by means of a notice box that would appear at the top of every Wikipedia page (much like the notice box for new messages). Then, any currently online helper could respond the the request.

Caveats

 * Requires a development change to implement helper system
 * (I imagine there are others)

Goals

 * To provide a central location for those Wikipedians needing assistance from administrators.
 * To guarantee that requests are presented to active administrators.
 * To help mediate some of the issues raised at Wikipedia_talk:Administrator Activity Proposal.

title: User:Whosyourjudas/proposal


text: User talk:67.77.78.48

title: User talk:67.77.78.48


text:
MechCommander

MechCommander is a real-time tactics video game based on FASA's BattleTech/MechWarrior franchise, developed by FASA Interactive and distributed by MicroProse in 1998. An expansion pack, Desperate Measures, was released in 1999.

Gameplay
Players assume the role of the commander of Zulu company from the Federated Commonwealth's First Davion Guards, a member of the Inner Sphere (IS). The planet Port Arthur must be taken back from the Clan Smoke Jaguar. The game's campaign progresses through 30 different missions broken into 5 operations with 6 missions apiece. Each mission consists of a number of objectives which may include destroying enemy units, capturing or defending enemy units, protecting friendly units, and capturing and defending bases. Some missions must be completed within a certain time limit. In each mission, players controls a limited number of units which are either mechs or support vehicles. This control is through a simulated aerial viewscreen above the battlefield. Each mission restricts both the combined tonnage and the number of units allowed. Briefings are supplied prior to the start of the mission which lists the objectives and other relevant information. A wide range of strategies and tactics may be used on any given mission, and players can customize their forces for each one.

In between missions players can repair and refit mechs, assign mechwarriors to each mech and purchase mechs, vehicles, mechwarriors, and components. These items are purchased with Resource Points which are awarded for completing previous mission objectives. Few mechs, vehicles, mech pilots, and components can be purchased at the beginning of the campaign, but more become available as the game progresses. However, only IS technology can be purchased. Clan technology such as weaponry and new mechs must be salvaged from the battlefield. Salvaging equipment is an important feature of the game.

Each mech is piloted by a mechwarrior. Pilots increase in skill as they use them during missions. The more missions and kills a particular pilot has, the more experienced and valuable he or she becomes. If a pilot gains enough experience, he or she will increase in rank. The four ranks from least to greatest are "green", "regular", "veteran", and "elite". Rank determines how effective a pilot is in a certain class of mechs (light, medium, heavy, or assault).

MechCommander: Desperate Measures
MechCommander: Desperate Measures is an expansion pack that was released in 1999. Set immediately after the liberation of Port Arthur, the player once again assumes command of Zulu company in a campaign to liberate the desolate planet Cermak in the Periphery, taken by a renegade Smoke Jaguar, Star Colonel Marcus Kotare (a character that was featured briefly in MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries), for an unknown reason that is revealed later in game. Once again, the player starts with inferior Inner Sphere mechs (pilots and mechs from original campaign cannot be exported into expansion), though both mechs and pilots are better than in the start of the original campaign. The expansion features a total of three campaigns. Aside from the missions, the expansion also includes a new soundtrack, new landscapes along with redesigned and new buildings, new weapons, three new mechs for each side—Stiletto, Bushwacker, and Mauler for IS and Shadow Cat, Nova Cat and Turkina for the Clan, and new vehicles including Alacorn, Pilum and Regulator tanks, as well as ammo trucks that also doubled as mobile bombs and Centipede scout vehicles. Desperate Measures also acted as testbed for the concept of custom NPC mechs that had their own names (like Kotare's Turkina), weapon configurations and overall superiority to the standard modifications. This idea was carried on to, and greatly improved in, MechCommander 2. A compilation called MechCommander Gold was released in 1999 that includes the base game and the expansion.

Reception
The game received favorable reviews according to the review aggregation website GameRankings. Next Generation called it "a good first effort, and FASA is to be commended for trying something different in the overcrowded field of RTS games. Unfortunately, it lacks polish, and the repetition of each mission drags down the fun factor."

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated the game for "PC Strategy Game of the Year" at the 2nd Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, although it ultimately lost to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. The game was a runner-up for Computer Games Strategy Plus' 1998 "Real-Time Strategy Game of the Year" award, which ultimately went to StarCraft. The staff called the former game "great", but argued that "only StarCraft was stellar".

Due to its science fiction setting, MechCommander received an overt recommendation from The Sci-Fi Channel (now SyFy), to the point of Sci-Fi's logo being present on the box art. Along with Nightlong: Union City Conspiracy, it was one of the few games to ever be officially recommended by Sci-Fi.

Reviews

 * The Duelist #34

title: MechCommander


text: Category:Television stations in Utah

title: Category:Television stations in Utah


text:
So (album)

So is the fifth studio album by English singer-songwriter Peter Gabriel, released on 19 May 1986 by Charisma Records and Virgin Records. After working on the soundtrack to the film Birdy (1984), producer Daniel Lanois was invited to remain at Gabriel's Somerset home during 1985 to work on his next solo project. Initial sessions for So consisted of Gabriel, Lanois and guitarist David Rhodes, although these grew to include a number of percussionists.

Although Gabriel continued to use the pioneering Fairlight CMI digital sampling synthesizer, songs from these sessions were less experimental than his previous material. Nevertheless, Gabriel drew on various musical influences, fusing pop, soul, and art rock with elements of traditional world music, particularly African and Brazilian styles. It is Gabriel's first non-eponymous album, So representing an "anti-title" that resulted from label pressure to "properly" market his music. Gabriel toured So on the This Way Up tour (1986–1987), with some songs performed at human rights and charity concerts during this period.

Often considered his best and most accessible album, So was an immediate commercial success and transformed Gabriel from a cult artist into a mainstream star, becoming his best-selling solo release. It has been certified fivefold platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America and triple platinum by the British Phonographic Industry. The album's lead single, "Sledgehammer", was promoted with an innovative animated music video and achieved particular success, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and subsequently winning a record of nine MTV Video Music Awards. It was followed by four further singles, "Don't Give Up" (a duet with Kate Bush), "Big Time", "In Your Eyes", and "Red Rain".

The album received positive reviews from most critics, who praised its songwriting, melodies and fusion of genres, although some retrospective reviews have criticised its overt commercialism and 1980s production sounds. So was nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1987 but lost to Paul Simon's Graceland. It has appeared in lists of the best albums of the 1980s, and Rolling Stone included the album in their 2003 and 2020 editions of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 2000 it was voted number 82 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums. So was remastered in 2002, partially re-recorded for Gabriel's 2011 orchestral project New Blood and issued as a box set in 2012.

Recording
Since 1978, Gabriel had composed his music at Ashcombe House, including his album Security (1982) and the Birdy soundtrack (1984). He had an inexpensive studio in the adjacent barn consisting of two rooms, one where Gabriel would produce his vocals and work on lyrics, and another where the music would be assembled. Preparing for So, Gabriel considered Bill Laswell and Chic's Nile Rodgers as potential producers. He eventually asked his Birdy collaborator Daniel Lanois to stay at Ashcombe and work with him further.

Work on the album began in earnest in February 1985, with "We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)" as the first song. Some of the initial sessions consisted of Gabriel, Lanois and guitarist David Rhodes playing together: Gabriel had begun work on some songs and provided Lanois and Rhodes with chord structures, around which they improvised compositions. Lanois recalled they had "a nice starting point [as] in that kind of scenario, it's not a good idea to have a lot of people around because you get nervous that you're wasting other people's time". Consequently, there was a relaxed atmosphere surrounding these sessions and the trio would jokingly refer to themselves as the "Three Stooges". This also involved the wearing of construction site hard hats as they had a "turning up for work humour". As sessions grew, engineer/mixer Kevin Killen, bassist Tony Levin, and drummer Jerry Marotta became significant contributors, and were aided by percussionists Manu Katché and Stewart Copeland and violinist L. Shankar.

The studio's basic equipment consisted of "two analog 24-track machines, a Studer A80, and a Studer A80 shell that had been modified by a local electronics wizard, with its own audio cards and transport controls". To record vocals a Neumann U47 tube microphone and a Decca compressor were used without equalization. All of So's songs were made in a similar format. Gabriel would record demo parts on a modified "B machine" - using mainly a Yamaha piano and Prophet-5 over a Linn 9000 drum beat - and play this to the band. During rehearsals, the band would listen to the B machine through headphones and record their output onto the "A machine"; parts of Gabriel's demo would also be transferred to the A machine at this stage. Subsequent takes of the song were then put onto the B machine in order for the band to hear what they had played with the demo, as well as the song's new and old takes.

Other equipment included the "groundbreaking" Fairlight CMI synthesizer, which Gabriel said in an interview for Billboard meant "more human imagination is involved". He added, "the creative decision-making process has become more important than technique. You have a wider range of tools, a wider range of decisions". Although remaining continually inspired to produce new music, he often struggled to write lyrics and would procrastinate. His proclivity to being dissatisfied with them required Killen to isolate certain vocal performances as the master track, in order to keep other tracks available so new lyrics could be edited in. Lanois took adverse measures to encourage his writing, such as destroying his much-used telephone in the nearby woods and, on one occasion, nailed the studio door shut to lock him inside.

Towards the end of recording, Gabriel became "obsessed" with the track listing and created an audio cassette of all the song's beginnings and ends to hear how the sounds blended together. He wanted to have "In Your Eyes" as the final track, but its prominent bassline meant it had to be placed earlier on the vinyl edition as there is more room for the stylus to vibrate. With later CD releases, this restriction was removed and the track was placed at the end of the album. So was completed in February 1986 and cost £200,000 to make. It was over-dubbed at Power Station Studios in New York (as well as all horn section parts having been recorded there), despite Gabriel considering sending it via a computer-telephone set up, reasoning, "that's a lot of information to send via phone. Isn't it amazing though? You can send a song idea around the world to musicians then beam parts back by satellite". It was mastered by Ian Cooper in mid-February 1986 at London's Townhouse Studios.

Composition
So has been described as Gabriel's most commercially accessible and least experimental album, one that features pop songs and incorporates art pop and progressive pop throughout. Like his previous albums, its basis is in art rock, although on So, Gabriel develops an increased focus on melody and combines this with elements of soul and African music. "With a song like (the previous album's) 'The Rhythm of the Heat' or 'The Family and the Fishing Net', if I were to strum that along on a guitar or piano, the song might not work very well ... whereas more of the things on this album do work just as lyric, melody and chords in a more traditional sense."

The songs are highly influenced by traditional world music, particularly African and Brazilian music, with Gabriel incorporating rhythms and drum beats from these regions. In a 2011 interview for Uncut, Gabriel said, "I'd had my fill of instrumental experimenting for a while, and I wanted to write proper pop songs, albeit on my own terms." Jon Pareles of The New York Times notes that Gabriel "doesn't just add on African drums or Indian violin to ordinary songs; they are part of the foundation." Chris Roberts of Classic Rock also notes that the album "[takes] the Fairlight synth and [adds] a palatable dash of world music to art pop." Daniel Lanois' production was noted as textured, replete with ambient details and "immaculate warmth giving each note room to breathe, its textures lavish (in the preferred style of the time) without being sterile".

Side one
Gabriel wanted the album to "crash open at the front". Despite disliking "metal" percussion instruments, he was persuaded by Lanois to allow the Police's Stewart Copeland to play cymbals and hi-hat on its opener, "Red Rain". Gabriel sings – in his upper register, with a throaty, gravelly texture – of a destructive world with social problems such as torture and kidnapping. Its concept originated from a dream in which he envisaged the parting of a vast, red sea and human-like glass bottles filling up with blood. It was also intended to continue the story of Mozo, a recurring character on Gabriel's first and second albums.

"Sledgehammer" was the final track to be conceived. Most of Gabriel's band had packed away their equipment and were ready to leave the studio, but he asked them to reassemble to quickly run through a song he had an idea for. "Sledgehammer" was partially inspired by the music of Otis Redding, and Gabriel sought out Wayne Jackson, whom Gabriel had seen on tour with Redding in the 1960s, to record horns for the track. Opened by a shakuhachi bamboo flute, its beat is dominated by brass instruments, particularly Jackson's horn, and features lyrics abundant with sexual euphemisms. Manu Katché's drums were recorded in one take as he believed any subsequent version would be inferior to his original interpretation of the music.

So's most political statement, "Don't Give Up", was fuelled by Gabriel's discontent with rising unemployment during Margaret Thatcher's premiership and Dorothea Lange's photograph "Migrant Mother". The track began as a Linn drum machine pattern of slow, low-pitched tom-tom drums that Gabriel made, and Lanois believed could serve as the centrepiece of a song. Tony Levin added bass to create a more harmonious sound, and during the second half of the track, put a nappy behind his bass strings to dampen the sound. Gabriel ensured the song, which follows a narrative of an unemployed man and his lover, was written as a conversational piece. He initially sought Dolly Parton to portray the woman; although Parton declined, his friend Kate Bush agreed to feature. Bush serves as the song's respondent, she assumes a comforting role and with delicate vocals, sings lines such as "Rest your head/ you worry too much".

The album's first side culminates with "That Voice Again", in which Gabriel explores the concept of conscience, examining the "parental voice in our heads that either helps or defeats us". Co-written with David Rhodes, who plays guitar over Katché and Levin's input, the song was written after Gabriel's initial discussions with Martin Scorsese about scoring The Last Temptation of Christ (1988).

Side two
"In Your Eyes" has been described as Gabriel's greatest love song. Inspired by the Sagrada Família and its architect Antoni Gaudí, Gabriel sings over a drumbeat of only feeling complete in the eyes of his lover. The track's powerful atmosphere is created through the singing of Senegalese musician Youssou N'Dour, who sings in his native Wolof.

Gabriel became interested in the late American poet Anne Sexton after reading the anthology To Bedlam and Part Way Back. He dedicated So's sixth track to her, calling it "Mercy Street" after "45 Mercy Street", a poem released in another posthumous collection. "Mercy Street" is set to one of several Forró-inspired percussion compositions that Gabriel recorded in Rio de Janeiro. When these compositions were unearthed in the studio, they were accidentally played back ten per cent slower than the original recording, giving them a grainy quality that Gabriel and Lanois thought highlighted the cymbal and guitars. It features two harmonious Gabriel vocals; one a shadow vocal an octave below the main vocal. Intended to give a sensual, haunting effect, this was hard to capture except when Gabriel first woke up.

The dance song "Big Time" has funk influences and is built on a "percussive bass sound". Its lyrics satirise the yuppie culture of the 1980s, materialism and consumerism and are the result of Gabriel's self-examination, after he considered whether he may have desired fame after all.

"We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)" was recorded for Peter Gabriel or "Melt" and is described as an interlude. It references the experiment on obedience carried out by American social psychologist Stanley Milgram, intended as a reference to the obedience citizens show to dictators during times of war. Marotta's drums on the song – said to resemble "a heartbeat heard from the womb" – were coupled with Shankar's violin and "two overdubbed guitar tracks by Rhodes".

While "We Do What We're Told" was the final song on initial LP versions of the album, the cassette and CD releases close with "This Is the Picture (Excellent Birds)", which Gabriel decided to include only forty-eight hours before the album's submission. "Excellent Birds" was composed with American musician Laurie Anderson. They recorded the song and the filmed music video over a period of three days - which was relatively quick by Gabriel's standards - for inclusion on the 1984 global satellite television broadcast Good Morning, Mr. Orwell. This was interpolated into a recording called "This Is the Picture", on which Nile Rodgers plays rhythm guitar. According to Anderson, she and Gabriel "could never agree on what a bassline was. (I think I probably don’t hear so well down there.) I wanted to learn from him, but it turned into a standoff and so we each put out our own version of the song." However, Gabriel remembered it slightly differently: both of them quite liked the song such that they agreed to release it on their own albums. Anderson's version, with Gabriel on additional vocals, appeared on her 1984 album Mister Heartbreak, which is closer to the version premiered on Good Morning, Mr. Orwell. Gabriel's own version was based on the groove, while Anderson's version was "more fragmented".

Release
So is Gabriel's first non-eponymous album. Gabriel has noted his dislike for titling albums, mainly because it distracts from the sleeve design. In an interview for Rolling Stone, he explained that his American label Geffen Records refused to release Peter Gabriel IV until it was retitled Security. He elaborated that for So "[he] decided to go for the anti-title ... It can be more a piece of graphic, if you like, as opposed to something with meaning and intention. And that's what I've done ever since". When the album was profiled in the Classic Albums documentary series, Gabriel quipped that its short title meant it could be enlarged and useful when marketing it. Before the album was eventually named So, it was meant to be entitled Good. The album's cover is a portrait of Gabriel photographed by Trevor Key, who was then most famous for capturing the bell artwork for Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells (1973). The sleeve was designed by Peter Saville and Brett Wickens; Saville was best known for designing several sleeves for Factory Records artists and was paid £20,000 for his work on So. According to Saville, the cover was based on the one he designed for New Order's album Low-Life the previous year, utilizing a similar method of taking Polaroid photos to produce a "groovy" portrait of the artist; Saville described the results as "contemporary, young but grown up, mature." Gabriel recalled: "The only compromise I made was to go with Peter Saville's idea for a retro-style portrait. I was told my usual obscure LP sleeves alienated women." Saville, meanwhile, stated that the cover was influenced by the impassioned tone and unusually accessible nature of the music, following a nighttime drive where he witnessed a car crash, then reluctantly started playing a test cassette of the album and was moved to tears by Gabriel's performance. The cover was partly influenced by photographer David Bailey's work.

So was released on 19 May 1986. It topped the charts of seven countries worldwide, including the United Kingdom, where it became Gabriel's second number one album. In the United States, So became one of Geffen Records' most commercially successful releases, peaking at number two and remaining on the chart for ninety-three weeks. In April 1986, "Sledgehammer" was released as the album's lead single and became Gabriel's first and only number one on the Billboard Hot 100, displacing Genesis' first and only US number one "Invisible Touch". The track reached number four in the United Kingdom, where it ties with "Games Without Frontiers" as his highest-charting single, and peaked at number one in Canada. The success of "Sledgehammer" can be seen, in part, due to its hugely popular and innovative stop motion music video, designed by Aardman Animations. Gabriel would go on to say in an interview for Rolling Stone that he believed the video exposed So's songs to a wider audience, bolstering the album's success. Two high-charting singles followed, "Don't Give Up", which rose to number nine on the UK Singles Chart and a less successful seventy-nine in America, while "Big Time" peaked at number thirteen in the UK and number eight in America. "In Your Eyes" saw moderate success in America, where it reached twenty-six on the Hot 100, while "Red Rain" peaked at forty-six in the United Kingdom.

Bono contacted Gabriel to perform at A Conspiracy of Hope, a series of Live Aid-inspired concerts that intended to spread awareness of human rights issues in light of Amnesty International's twenty-fifth anniversary. Gabriel accepted and in June 1986, he performed alongside Sting, the Police, Lou Reed, and Joan Baez, with a set that opened with "Red Rain" and featured "Sledgehammer". Gabriel described it as "the best tour [he'd] ever been on". In the same month, Gabriel performed at London's Clapham Common, along with Boy George and Elvis Costello, for Artists Against Apartheid. Gabriel eventually embarked on the ninety-three date This Way Up tour to support So, beginning in Rochester, New York on 7 November 1986. One of the dates was a special two-night residency (20–21 December) at Tokyo's Meiji Jingu Stadium to fund a global computer system for the University for Peace, a United Nations project. The tour suspended in early 1987 until June when it reached Europe, before going on to America and finishing at the Lycabettus Amphitheatre in Athens in October. Gabriel partially performed So at The Prince's Trust Concert and at Human Rights Now! Tour in 1988.

Critical reception
So received mostly favourable reviews from music critics. Jon Pareles of The New York Times wrote "only a handful of Western rock musicians have managed to use exotic rhythms and instruments with so much ingenuity and conviction". Pareles also praised his vocals, describing them as "grainy but not bluesy, ageless and joyless, the voice of some ancient mariner recounting disasters". Tim Holmes of Rolling Stone described the album as "a record of considerable emotional complexity and musical sophistication" and was pleased that it would assist exposing Gabriel to mainstream pop music.

Terry Atkinson of Los Angeles Times viewed the album as offering "an amazing variety of tones, moods and topics, and a consistently powerful level of expression". Although disliking "Big Time", Atkinson concluded So was "a great album, possibly Gabriel's best". Steve Hochman, also of Los Angeles Times, praised Gabriel's reinvention too, describing it as "real progress" compared to the contemporaneous work of other progressive rock acts such as Genesis, GTR and Marillion. Chicago Tribune's Lynn Van Matre praised the album's "wave of funky rhythms" and called for more appreciation of Gabriel's talent, but noted a lack of "quirkiness" and said there were no tracks as impactful as his 1980 single "Biko". Robert Christgau was also lukewarm in The Village Voice, writing that "Gabriel's so smart he knows rhythm is what makes music go, which relieves him of humdrum melodic responsibilities but doesn't get him up on the one—smart guys do go for texture in a pinch."

So has continued to perform well in most retrospective reviews. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic commended So as the "catchiest, happiest record he ever cut". Erlewine particularly praised Gabriel's fusion of art rock with African music and soul. Jude Rogers of the BBC wrote "once you look past the bombast of "Sledgehammer", ... you notice how easily its artful ideas slipped inside the 80s mainstream". The Quietus Wyndham Wallace praised Sos sincerity and called it "a heartfelt journey through intense emotional territory, assembled and arranged with intricacy and commitment, laboured over with such care that it sounds effortless".

Ryan Bray, writer for Consequence of Sound, concluded So was an "all-too-rare record that manages to have it both ways, earning its richly deserved critical and commercial respect without giving so much as an artistic inch". He added that "it still stands on its own two feet as one of the consensus best records of the 80s". Mark Blake of Q described the album as "carbon-dated to 1986 thanks to those blaring saxes and Fairlight CMI digital sampling synths". He added that "Gabriel crafted an album of user-friendly pop that was still reassuringly odd." Terry Staunton of Classic Rock wrote "Red Rain was familiarly pensive and politically charged, but the radio waves completely surrendered to the record's muscular dance rock and slower tempo eloquence." Staunton concluded that Gabriel had displayed "a masterful confidence, delivering a satisfyingly unified whole".

In a less positive retrospective review, Mojo's David Buckley contrasted the album with Gabriel's earlier, more experimental work, stating "on 1986's So, he switched tack to write pop, and write big. The results are mixed. 'Sledgehammer', echoing both Stevie Wonder's 'Superstition' and David Bowie's 'Fame', retains its punch. Elsewhere, Gabriel sounds airbrushed on 'Mercy Street', 'Red Rain' and 'In Your Eyes', with only 'We Do What We're Told' a reminder of a daring past." In a mostly positive 8/10 review for Uncut, John Lewis also directed criticism at the album. He praised its state-of-the-art production in parts, highlighting "Big Time" and "Sledgehammer" as standout tracks, but stated elsewhere it interfered, such as the Fairlight CMI synthesizer on "That Voice Again" and whistling ambient accompaniment on "Mercy Street".

Legacy
At the 29th Annual Grammy Awards, So was nominated for Album of the Year, losing to Paul Simon's Graceland (1986), while "Sledgehammer" received nominations for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Male Rock Vocal Performance. At the sixth Brit Awards, hosted by Jonathan King at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London, Gabriel won Best British Male Artist and "Sledgehammer" won Best British Music Video. Gabriel was most successful at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards where he was honoured with the Video Vanguard Award and "Sledgehammer" won an additional nine awards including Video of the Year, a record that has not been challenged. Its video is the most played music video in the history of MTV.

So is often regarded as Gabriel's best album, as well as one of the best albums of the 1980s. It enabled Gabriel to transform from a cult artist, acclaimed for his cerebral, experimental solo work, into a mainstream, internationally known star. Rolling Stone placed So at 187 (2003 edition) and 297 (2020 edition) on its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and at 14 on its 100 Best Albums of the 1980s, noting that "despite its mass appeal, however, So also presented compelling challenges." Stereogum placed it at number one on its list of Gabriel's best albums, writing, "Peter Gabriel's fifth studio album is a mesmerizing dichotomy: simultaneously hooky and experimental; timeless, yet completely crystallizing its moment in history ... It's a masterpiece.

So has been profiled in the Classic Albums series and featured in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Slant Magazine listed the album at 41 on its list of the 100 Best Albums of the 1980s, describing it as "Gabriel's most accessible yet ambitious work. A chronicle of political, emotional, and artistic exploration, the album [attempts] to balance standard pop orthodoxy with his still-rumbling desire for sonic experimentation". Jim Allen wrote for Ultimate Classic Rock, "What makes So important is the way he seamlessly blended peerless pop savvy with an iconoclast’s adventurous artistic instincts. His slightly twisted pop songs packed enough emotional impact, sonic surprises and catchy melodies to make for one of the era’s most consistently rewarding records." Conversely, in 2002 The Guardian's lead critic Alexis Petridis stated that Gabriel had "suffered a musical mid-life crisis", lampooning it as "an album packed with ultra-commercial priapic cod-funk" and calling it "a ruthless bid for mainstream success, yet he emerged without a stain on his avant-garde credentials".

So is Gabriel's best-selling album, having been certified fivefold platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and triple platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). In 2002, So was re-issued and remastered. In 2011, several of tracks from So were featured on Gabriel's ninth studio release New Blood, a project of orchestral re-recordings from Gabriel's discography. In 2012, for the album's twenty-fifth anniversary, a limited edition box set was released. It includes the remastered So album, the Live at Athens (1987) album and a So DNA album which examines its production, as well as new liner notes, photographs, vinyl collectibles and the So: Classic Albums documentary. In the same year, Gabriel embarked on the Back to Front Tour where Gabriel plays every song on the So album with several of the session musicians from its recording.

Michael Glabicki of the American band Rusted Root acknowledges this album as a key influence on his own career exploring worldbeat music, saying, "I just kind of got locked into that sound. Peter Gabriel's So kind of gave everyone the go-ahead that this could work in a popular fashion. For people like me who were exploring those sounds, the wonder of if it's going to work or not just went away at that point." English musician Steven Wilson said, "People think the 80s were a shallow, superficial era", but he cited So as an album that was "really smart".

Track listing
All songs written by Peter Gabriel, except "That Voice Again" written with David Rhodes and "This Is the Picture (Excellent Birds)" written with Laurie Anderson.

Notes:

 * "This Is the Picture (Excellent Birds)" did not appear on vinyl pressings until 2002.
 * "In Your Eyes" appears as side 2, track 5 (track 9 on CD) on all pressings from 2002 and later.

Personnel
Credits adapted from So's liner notes. The track numbers correspond to the original release.

 * Peter Gabriel – lead and backing vocals, CMI (all tracks), Prophet synthesizer (all except tracks 5 & 9), piano (all except tracks 7 & 9), Linn 9000 (tracks 3 & 7), synthesizer (tracks 5 & 7), percussion (track 4), Yamaha CS-80 (track 6), LinnDrum (track 9), Synclavier (track 9)
 * Tony Levin – bass guitar (tracks 1–5), drumstick bass (fretting only) (track 7)
 * David Rhodes – guitar (all except tracks 6 & 9), backing vocals (tracks 1 & 5)
 * Jerry Marotta – drums (tracks 1 & 8), additional drums (track 5), bass guitar (drumming only) (track 7)
 * Manu Katché – drums (tracks 2–5), percussion (tracks 3–5), talking drum (tracks 5 & 9)
 * Chris Hughes – electronic drums, programming (track 1)
 * Stewart Copeland – hi-hat (track 1), drums (track 7)
 * Daniel Lanois – guitar (tracks 1, 2 & 4), tambourine (track 2), surf guitar (track 7), twelve-string guitar (track 9)
 * Wayne Jackson – trumpet (tracks 2 & 7), cornet (track 7)
 * Mark Rivera – tenor saxophone (tracks 2 & 7), processed saxophone (track 6), alto saxophone, baritone saxophone (track 7)
 * Don Mikkelsen – trombone (tracks 2 & 7)
 * P. P. Arnold – backing vocals (tracks 2 & 7)
 * Coral Gordon – backing vocals (tracks 2 & 7)
 * Dee Lewis – backing vocals (tracks 2 & 7)
 * Richard Tee – piano (tracks 3, 5 & 6)
 * Simon Clark – keyboards, backing vocals (track 3), Hammond organ, programming, bass guitar (track 7)
 * Kate Bush – vocals (track 3)
 * L. Shankar – violin (tracks 4 & 8)
 * Larry Klein – bass guitar (tracks 5 & 6)
 * Youssou N'Dour – backing vocals (track 5)
 * Michael Been – backing vocals (track 5)
 * Jim Kerr – backing vocals (track 5)
 * Ronnie Bright – bass vocals (track 5)
 * Djalma Correa – surdo, congas, triangle (track 6)
 * Jimmy Bralower – programming kick (track 7)
 * Bill Laswell – bass guitar (track 9)
 * Nile Rodgers – guitar (track 9)
 * Laurie Anderson – synthesizer and vocals (track 9)
 * Greg Fulginiti – mastering

title: So (album)


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Talk:343 Guilty Spark

transparent image
Isn't this image here better? , Because it is transparent and more clear than the actual one. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 49.149.121.239 (talk) 07:38, 5 June 2021 (UTC)
 * Feel free to upload another image for the infobox. Haleth (talk) 14:32, 10 June 2021 (UTC)

title: Talk:343 Guilty Spark


text:
User talk:לערי ריינהארט/archive 01

Featured picture candidates resolution and size
Halló Angela! I was chatting with Neutrality about what resolution and size Featured picture candidates should be provided. She tald me to ask you. I would like to know what resolution to use to scan paper copies (200 dpi?) and / or what should be the pixel size for a .jpg file. I have seen some 500x???, 1000x???, 2000x??? etc. pictures already. Regards Gangleri 00:49, 2004 Oct 1 (UTC)

relatated to categories in different languages

 * Dear Angela, Thank you fro answering my last question. I would like to heare your opinion about the following:
 * Is it recommendet to make InterWiki links between categories?
 * If so I want to point out the difficulties regarding this: Categories in different languages shows some examples of how different it can bee to:
 * know the link to the special page categories in the different Wikipedias or know the name wich is used when you search the link at special pages;
 * know the word to insert in the code / to search for it in the code;
 * I have some questions about this:
 * Has a similar work been done already?
 * Where is the rigth place to address this item and where such a list should be maintained?
 * Should it be maintained as text or in a database?
 * Pease note that this taughts can be expanded to other words as well. If somebody creates a in another language having minimal knowledge of it and not being experienced with this (maybe new) Wikipedia he / she would not know what words to choose for Stub, External link and so on.
 * I reaslised that Wikipedias in some languages are using icons for   or other not for this particular template. This is not the case for   . Why not use same icons for most of / all Wikipedias (WikiProjects)? Just open アイスランド・シープドッグ and you probably will not recognize (immediatly), that such an article does not exist allready. Regards Gangleri 02:37, 2004 Oct 3 (UTC)

title: User talk:לערי ריינהארט/archive 01


text:
John Howard (Australian actor)

John Howard (born 22 October 1952) is an Australian stage and screen actor. Howard is best known for his appearances in the television series Blue Heelers, SeaChange, Always Greener, All Saints and Packed to the Rafters. As well as his portrayal of The People Eater in the Mad Max franchise.

Film
Howard was born in Corowa, New South Wales. He graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA). His first role was in The Club. He appeared in the 1988 film Young Einstein, the 2001 film The Man Who Sued God, the 2006 film Jindabyne and had a minor supporting role in the 2012 Australian comedy Any Questions for Ben?, along with the 2015 released Australian road film Last Cab to Darwin. In 2015, he also starred in George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road as The People Eater, a role he reprised in 2024 in the film's prequel, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.

Television
Howard is also a television actor and has appeared in a number of Australian programs. He began his career as Bob Scott in Young Ramsay (1979–1980) starred in the children's program The Girl from Tomorrow as the evil Silverthorn, and he has played Frank Reilly in Wildside (1997–1998), Bob Jelly in SeaChange (1998–2000) and John Taylor in Always Greener (2001–2003). He also played Dr. Frank Campion in the Australian medical TV drama All Saints (2004–2009). He had a role in Packed to the Rafters for a season (2010–2011) and the first series of the ABC drama Janet King.

Theatre
Howard served as the associate director of Sydney Theatre Company between 1992 and 1996. He also acted numerous roles in plays including Shrine, Rising Water, Mongrels, The Crucible, Life of Galileo, Dead White Males, and Measure for Measure.

Awards
He was the recipient of the Sydney Critics Circle Best Stage Actor Award in 1991 and the Variety Club of Australia Stage Actor Heart Award in 1992. Howard has also won the Most Outstanding Actor award at the 2001 Logie Awards for his role in SeaChange, the 2009 Sydney Critics Circle Awards for Best Stage Actor, and the Centenary Medal for Service to the Arts and the Community.

ARIA Music Awards
The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony held by the Australian Recording Industry Association. They commenced in 1987.

! Ref.
 * 1989
 * Australia Day / Child of Australia (with Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Australian Youth Orchestra, & Joan Carden
 * Best Classical Album
 * Nominated
 * Nominated

title: John Howard (Australian actor)