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Allyson Felix

Allyson Michelle Felix  (born November 18, 1985) is a retired American track and field athlete who competed in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 400 meters. She specialized in the 200 meters from 2003 to 2013, then gradually shifted to the 400 meters later in her career. At 200 meters, Felix is the 2012 Olympic champion, a three-time world champion (2005–2009), a two-time Olympic silver medalist (2004 and 2008), and the 2011 world bronze medalist. At 400 meters, she is the 2015 world champion, 2011 world silver medalist, 2016 Olympic silver medalist, 2017 world bronze medalist, and 2020 Olympic bronze medalist. Across the short distances, Felix is a ten-time U.S. national champion (2004, 2005, 2007–2012, 2015 and 2016).

Felix played a key role on the United States women's relay teams, winning six additional Olympic gold medals: four consecutive medals at 4 × 400 meters (2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020) and two at 4 × 100 meters (2012 and 2016). The 2012 and 2016 U.S. Olympic 4 × 100 m teams set a world record of 40.82 s and the second fastest time of 41.01 s, respectively. With these six golds from relays and one from an individual event, Felix became the first female track and field athlete to ever win seven Olympic gold medals. She is also the most decorated woman in Olympic track and field history and the most decorated American track and field athlete in Olympic history, having earned 11 total medals from five consecutive Olympic Games. Felix is the most decorated athlete, male or female, in World Athletics Championships history with 20 career medals, 7 from individual events and 13 from team relays. With a combined Olympic and World Championship total of 31 medals, she is also the overall most decorated athlete in track and field history, with 12 medals from individual events and 19 from relays. Felix was the first athlete in track and field history to medal in 3 different relays, 4 × 100 m, 4 × 400 m and mixed 4 × 400 m.

Among Felix's notable performances, her 200 meters personal best of 21.69 seconds, which was set at the 2012 U.S. Olympic trials, ranked at the time as the third-fastest time ever run by an American woman and sixth-fastest time by a female athlete in history. She also ran a 47.72-second leg on the U.S. women's 4 × 400 m relay team at the 2015 Beijing World Championships, recording the fastest split ever by an American woman, and third-fastest split ever by a female athlete.

Felix, along with Alysia Montaño and Kara Goucher, is credited with stirring public outcry over Nike's refusal to guarantee salary protections for its pregnant athletes, prompting the sportswear brand to expand its maternity policy in 2019. Two years after her departure from Nike, the athlete turned entrepreneur launched her own footwear company, Saysh, in June 2021.

She was included in Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2020 and 2021. In 2022, Felix received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from her alma mater USC and also served as the commencement speaker for that year's graduation ceremony. In July 2024, Felix was placed at number 63 on ESPN's list of the 100 greatest athletes of the 21st century.

Early life
Allyson Felix was born on November 18, 1985, in Los Angeles, California. She is the daughter of Paul, an ordained minister and professor of New Testament at The Master's Seminary in Sun Valley, California, and Marlean, an elementary school teacher at Balboa Magnet Elementary. Her elder brother Wes Felix was also a sprinter, winning the 2002 USA Junior Championships in the 200 meters race and later, the Pac-10 championships in 2003 and 2004 as a collegiate athlete for USC. Wes now acts as the agent for his sister. Felix describes her running ability as a gift from God: "For me, my faith is the reason I run. I definitely feel I have this amazing gift that God has blessed me with, and it's all about using it to the best of my ability."

Junior career
Allyson Felix attended Los Angeles Baptist High School in North Hills, California, where she was nicknamed "Chicken Legs" by her teammates, because the five-foot-six, 125-pound sprinter's body had skinny legs despite her strength. Her slightness belied her speed on the track and strength in the gym, as she could deadlift at least 270 pounds while still in high school. Felix credits much of her early success to her high school sprint coach, Jonathan Patton.

Felix began to discover her athletic talents after she tried out for track in the ninth grade. Just ten weeks after that first tryout, she finished seventh in the 200 meters at the CIF California State Meet. In the coming seasons, she became a five-time winner at the meet. In 2001, at the Debrecan World Youth Championships, Felix achieved her first international title in the 100 meters. In 2003, she was named the national girls' "High School Athlete of the Year" by Track and Field News. As a senior, Felix finished second in the 200 meters at the US Indoor Track & Field Championships. A few months later, in front of 50,000 fans in Mexico City, she ran 22.11 seconds, the fastest in history for a high school girl, though it could not count as a world junior record because there was no drug testing at the meet.

Felix graduated high school in 2003, making headlines by forgoing college eligibility to sign a professional contract with Adidas via her agent Nik Visger. Adidas paid her an undisclosed sum and picked up her college tuition at the University of Southern California. She graduated with a degree in elementary education.

Early career
At the 2003 U.S. national championships, the seventeen-year-old phenomenon finished second in the 200 meters sprint with a time of 22.59 seconds, earning her spot to the 2003 Paris World Championships. In the quarter-finals of the 200 meters in Paris, Felix finished sixth in 23.33 seconds.

At the age of 18, Felix earned an Olympic silver medal in the 200 meters at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, behind Veronica Campbell of Jamaica; in doing so, she set a world junior record over 200 meters with her time of 22.18 seconds. After leaving Athens, Felix and her coach Pat Connolly, who also guided the 1984 Olympic 100 meters champion Evelyn Ashford, parted ways as Connolly moved back to Virginia and Felix cited difficulties training alone. The young sprinter then sought the tutelage of controversial sprint coach Bob Kersee, whom she would train under for the next 18 years.

Nineteen-year-old Felix became the youngest world champion ever in the 200 meters at the 2005 Helsinki World Championships and then successfully defended her world title in Osaka two years later. At the 2007 Osaka World Championships, Felix caught Jamaican rival, Veronica Campbell, on the bend and surged down the straightaway to finish in 21.81 seconds, dipping under the 22-second barrier for the first time in her career. After the final, Felix stated in the post-race interview: "I feel so good. I am so excited. I have been waiting for so long to run such a time, to run under 22 seconds. It has not been an easy road, but finally, I managed." At that time, she addressed her future, saying, "My next goal is not the world record, but gold in Beijing. I want to take it step-by-step. I might consider doing both – the 200 and the 400 meters – there." Days later, after partaking in the winning U.S. 4 × 100 meters relay and also the 4 × 400 meters relay, in which she unofficially split 48.01 seconds on the second leg, Felix became only the second female athlete, after Marita Koch in 1983, to win three gold medals at a single IAAF World Championships in Athletics.

2008–09
Felix qualified for the 2008 Summer Olympics at the 2008 Olympic trials by winning the 200 meters sprint in 21.82 seconds, but narrowly missed qualifying for the 100 meters sprint. In the Olympic 200 meter final, despite running her season's best time in the 200 meters at 21.93 seconds, she again finished second to Campbell, who ran 21.74 seconds, the best time of the decade, to win the gold medal. Felix avenged her disappointing loss by regaining the lead for the U.S. women's 4 × 400 meters relay team during her 48.55-second leg, allowing Team USA to eventually win and earning her first Olympic gold medal.

In the build-up to the 2009 World Championships in Athletics, Felix was part of a U.S. 4 × 100 meters relay team that ran the fastest women's sprint relay in twelve years. Lauryn Williams, Felix, Muna Lee and Carmelita Jeter finished with a time of 41.58 seconds, bringing them to eighth on the all-time list. In 2009, at merely 23 years old, Felix proceeded to claim her third 200-meter world championship gold medal, an unprecedented accomplishment in women's sprinting. Felix clocked 22.02 sec to comfortably beat Jamaica's Olympic 200-meter champion Veronica Campbell-Brown.

Afterwards she said, "It's really special to win a third world title. I wanted to do it in this stadium, represent my country and make Jesse Owens proud." But Felix admitted that she would rather have the one gold medal that she was missing. "I would love to trade my three world championships for your gold," Felix jokingly said to Veronica Campbell-Brown of Jamaica at the medalists' news conference, referring to the 2008 Olympic gold medal in the 200 meters, a race Felix was heavily favored to win. Still distressed over finishing second to Campbell-Brown in Beijing, Felix stated: "I don't think I ever want to get over it. I never want to be satisfied with losing." At the same time, she also commented, "I'm just grateful to have had success quickly, and sometimes I do have to pinch myself and realize all this has happened in not that much time." Felix later claimed another gold medal by running a 48.75-second leg on Team USA's victorious 4 × 400 meters relay team.

2010–11
In 2010, Felix focused on running more 400-meter races. Running the 200 meters and the 400 meters, she became the first person ever to win two IAAF Diamond League trophies in the same year. She continued her dominance by winning 21 out of 22 races, only losing to Veronica Campbell-Brown in New York. Felix also became the U.S. 100 meters champion by winning the sprint in 11.27 seconds against a strong −2.5 m/s headwind.

At the 2011 World Championships in Athletics, Felix ran in the 200 and 400 meters, as well as the 4 × 100 and 4 × 400 meters relay races. In the 400-meter event, Felix's best efforts yielded only a second-place finish despite straining down the homestretch to a personal best of 49.59 seconds, 0.03 behind winner Amantle Montsho of Botswana. Montsho later tested positive for the banned stimulant methylhexaneamine in 2014. In the 200-meter final, Felix finished third in a subpar time of 22.42 seconds due to fatigue. Veronica Campbell-Brown won the gold and Carmelita Jeter won silver. In the relay events, Felix ran the second leg in both the 4 × 100 meters and 4 × 400 meters. Team USA won both events, attaining world-leading times in both finals as Felix added two world championship gold medals to her collection. The 25-year-old American sprinter was the only athlete to leave Daegu with four medals.

2012–13
In 2012, Felix returned to the Olympic trials, choosing to race the 100 meters in addition to her main event, the 200 meters. The top three finishers in each event qualify for the 2012 Summer Olympics team. In the 100 meters final, she ran 11.07 seconds, placing third, but not without controversy. Officials ruled that training partners Felix and Jeneba Tarmoh were in a dead heat for third place, the final qualification position, after initially declaring Tarmoh ahead. A run-off between Tarmoh and Felix was scheduled, but Tarmoh eventually withdrew due to emotional and physical fatigue, conceding the final 100-meter spot to Felix. In the 200 meters final at the 2012 Olympic trials, Felix recorded a personal best and a meet record of 21.69 seconds, the third-fastest time an American woman had ever run and the fourth-fastest ever clocked by a female athlete, up until that point. Carmelita Jeter and Sanya Richards-Ross placed second and third, respectively.

At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Felix competed in four events: 100 meters, 200 meters, 4 × 100 meters relay, and 4 × 400 meters relay, placing fifth in the 100 meters and winning gold in the other three, thus becoming the first American woman to win three golds in athletics at an Olympics since Florence Griffith-Joyner at the 1988 Summer Olympics. In her first final, the 100 meters final, she placed fifth with a personal best of 10.89 seconds. The 200 meters final, a race she lost twice at the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics to Jamaican rival, Veronica Campbell-Brown, proved to be her successful third attempt as she won in 21.88 seconds, outracing a stacked field that included Campbell-Brown, 2012 Olympic 100 meters champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, 2012 Olympic 100 meters silver medalist Carmelita Jeter, and 2012 Olympic 400 meters champion Sanya Richards-Ross. Felix pushed out of the blocks with a strong start and was on par with the Jamaican athletes coming off of the curve before pulling away in the final 50 meters to clinch her long-awaited individual Olympic gold medal. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce won silver and American compatriot Carmelita Jeter took the bronze medal.

Felix took to the track again as part of the women's 4 × 100 meters relay team alongside Tianna Madison, Bianca Knight, and Carmelita Jeter. The foursome won with a time of 40.82 seconds, breaking the long-held world record of 41.37 seconds, set by East Germany in October 1985. On the final night of Olympic athletics, Felix ran a 48.2-second leg on the U.S. women's 4 × 400 meters relay team that included DeeDee Trotter, Francena McCorory, and Sanya Richards-Ross, winning in a time of 3:16.87, the third-fastest time in Olympic history behind the Soviet Union and the United States at the 1988 Summer Olympics, and the fifth-fastest time overall, up until that point.

In the 2013 World Championships in Moscow, Felix entered in the 200 meters and was expected to also appear in the relays, but succumbed to a hamstring injury in the 200 meters final and was carried off the track by her brother. The race was won by Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.

2014–15
After a nine-month layoff due to a hamstring injury, Felix resumed competition in the 400 meters at the Shanghai Diamond League meet in May 2014, in which she finished fifth with a time of 50.81 seconds. She later competed in the 200 meters at the Prefontaine Classic meet, finishing third with a season's best of 22.44 seconds.

As the winner of the 2014 IAAF Diamond League 200-meter title, Felix received a bye into the 2015 World Championships in Athletics. Obligated to participate in the 2015 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships but not required to run the 200 meters, she opted for the 400 meters. Felix won the event in 50.19 seconds with a late surge from fourth place at the 300-meter mark, catching Natasha Hastings right before the finish line to earn her ninth U.S. championship title. World number one ranked Francena McCorory and number two Sanya Richards-Ross failed to qualify for the 2015 Beijing World Championships.

The 2015 Beijing World Championships schedule placed the 400-meter final just over an hour after the 200-meter semi-finals, making it virtually impossible to perform to world championship level in both events. As of July 1, Felix held the fastest seed time in both the 400 (0.11 over the fastest competitor) and 200 (0.22 over the fastest competitor), leaving her with a difficult choice as to which event to put her full effort into. Felix eventually chose the 400 meters and later triumphed in the event final with a personal best of 49.26 seconds. She dominated the race from beginning to end, making up the stagger from the start of the gun and never relinquishing her lead to claim the 400 meters title. In doing so, Felix became the first woman to win world titles in the 200 meters and the 400 meters. Additionally, she has now won the most world championship gold medals, and most overall world championship medals, out of any American track and field athlete. She continued to add to her medal collection by earning silver medals in both the 4 × 100 meters relay and 4 × 400 meters relay. In the latter race, Felix received the baton with a significant deficit to the leading Jamaican team, prompting her to sprint a historic split time of 47.72 seconds to regain the lead for the American women before the final handoff. This was the fastest 4 × 400 meters split ever recorded by an American woman and third-fastest 4 × 400 meters split ever by any female athlete, after Jarmila Kratochvílová and Marita Koch. Running the final leg, Francena McCorory failed to hold onto the lead and was overtaken by Novlene Williams-Mills in the final meters.

2016–17
Felix began her 2016 season with an uncharacteristically slow start after a gym accident in April, when she dropped from a pull-up bar and landed awkwardly, twisting her right ankle and tearing multiple ligaments. Felix was slated to run in a Diamond League meet in Doha as well as the Prefontaine Classic, but pulled out of both meets. In early June, she ran the 400 meters in 51.23 seconds at a low-key San Diego meet. Still dealing with the physical repercussions from the accident, Felix raced the 200 meters and 400 meters anyway at the 2016 Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon, attempting to fulfill her goal of completing a 200–400 meters double victory at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. In the 400 meters trials final, she surged from the middle of the pack down the homestretch and overtook the field in the final meters, recording a world-leading time of 49.68 seconds. Then, in the 200 meters final, the lack of speed work due to injury eventually caught up with her as she was narrowly edged out by Jenna Prandini, who dove across the finish line to secure the third and final spot on the team, beating Felix by 0.01 seconds (22.53 to 22.54 seconds). Felix took the rest of July and early part of August off to give her ankle more time to heal while she continued preparations for the Olympics.

At the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, Felix bumped her overall Olympic haul to nine overall medals: six golds and three silvers, tying Jamaican legend Merlene Ottey's record for the most Olympic medals won by a female track and field athlete, although most of Ottey's medal collection consists of individual medals. Felix's hope of winning the 400 meters Olympic gold medal came up short after she lost by 0.07 to Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas, who made a legal but unusual dive across the finish line as Felix was quickly closing the distance. Felix recovered from the disappointing performance to win two golds with the U.S. 4 × 100 meters and 4 × 400 meters relay teams. The 4 × 100 meters relay win drew much controversy, as Team USA was initially disqualified in their semi-final run after Felix had dropped the baton during the handoff attempt to English Gardner. However, replays showed that the Brazilian sprinter in the neighboring lane swung her arm and accidentally impeded Felix right before the handoff, causing her to lose her balance. After the appeal was accepted, Team USA was awarded a solo run the next day. With a successful time trial, Felix and her teammates advanced to the final, where they won in 41.01 seconds, the second-fastest 4 × 100 meters relay time in history.

The following year, during the 2017 World Championships in London, Felix added three more medals to her collection, cementing her position as the most decorated athlete in IAAF World Championships history. Felix equaled Merlene Ottey's and Usain Bolt's 14 medal tally by winning a bronze medal in the 400-meter final with a time of 50.08 seconds. She admitted that the result was disappointing, as she was hoping to defend her title in the discipline. Just a month prior to the championships, Felix had won the London's Diamond League meet held at the same track with a world-leading time of 49.65 seconds. Felix earned two additional gold medals by partaking in the 4 × 100 relay and also the 4 × 400 meters relay, in which she ran a 48.7-second leg, bringing her tally up to 16 world championship medals.

Pregnancy emergency
Felix reduced her racing schedule in 2018, stating: "In the 19 years that I've been running track, I've never taken a break. Never had a year where I took it easy. Now that this is kind of a year without a championship, I've had to force myself to have a different approach because my goal is 2020. So, if you guys don't see me at as many of the races as I usually run, don't worry. I'm fine. I'm just challenging myself to be smarter." Later in December 2018, Felix revealed her difficult pregnancy story to espnW. During her 32nd-week pregnancy checkup, doctors discovered that Felix had developed pre-eclampsia, a condition that is disproportionately prevalent in African-American women and is marked by high blood pressure along with potentially harmful childbirth effects. With the baby's heart rate steadily decreasing, Felix had to deliver her premature daughter via emergency C-section within 48 hours. Motivated by her life-threatening experience, Felix testified before the United States House Committee on Ways and Means on the topic of the black maternal mortality crisis: "Research shows that racial bias in our maternal health care system includes things like providers spending less time with Black mothers, underestimating the pain of their Black patients, ignoring symptoms and dismissing complaints."

Nike controversy
The new mom furthered her maternal advocacy work in May 2019 by penning an op-ed for The New York Times, accusing her longtime sponsor Nike of refusing to guarantee salary protections for female athletes in the months following pregnancy. Her story underscored the earlier allegations made by her former Nike teammates Alysia Montaño and Kara Goucher regarding their pregnancy disputes with the sportswear company. In the article, Felix explained that after her contract ended in December 2017, she and Nike negotiated for a contract renewal. Planning to start a family in 2018, Felix asked Nike for written financial security, in case her performance yielded subpar results while recovering from childbirth; the negotiators declined after already offering a 70 percent pay cut in this contract proposal. Soon after, Felix left and signed a clothing sponsorship deal with the Gap Inc.–owned apparel company Athleta in July 2019, becoming their first sponsored athlete. Following the public controversy, Nike altered their maternal policy in August 2019, promising to not apply any performance-related salary reductions for 18 consecutive months, starting eight months before the due date. During this period, the sportswear company would also not float the possibility of termination if the athlete chooses to not race due to pregnancy.

Return to competition
In July 2019, Felix competed in her first race since giving birth in November 2018, finishing sixth in the 400-meter sprint at the U.S. national championships in Des Moines, Iowa. Although failing to qualify into the individual 400-meter event for the 2019 Doha World Championships, Felix's sixth-place finish still placed her in the U.S. 4 × 400 meters relay pool. In the first-ever mixed-gender 4 × 400 meters relay at the world championships, Felix competed with Michael Cherry, Wil London III, and Courtney Okolo to set a world record time of 3:09.34. Felix ran a 50.4-second split for her leg. She earned another gold medal as a runner in the preliminary heats for the U.S. women's 4 × 400 meters relay, although she was not selected to participate in the final. With her 12th and 13th world championship gold medals, Felix surpassed Usain Bolt for the most golds by any athlete in World Athletics Championships history.

2020–present
Felix trained during the COVID-19 pandemic with the aim of qualifying for her fifth Olympic Games – her first as a mom. She completed workouts on streets, empty soccer fields, and beaches when quarantine measures were first enacted in March 2020. A former participant in the US Anti-Doping Agency's "Project Believe" program in 2008, she volunteered again for "Project Believe 2020" to help test an unprecedented sample collection procedure for athletes during the coronavirus stay-at-home orders.

In June 2021, two years after she publicized her contract dispute with Nike, Felix launched her own footwear company, Saysh, and began wearing spikes created by the brand into competitions. Within the same month, at the U.S. Olympic trials, the 35-year-old American qualified for the 400 meters individual event by finishing second with a time of 50.02 seconds, a new masters athletics record (35–40 age group) and also her fastest time since July 2017.

Leading up to the 400 meters final of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, some doubted that the track veteran would stand on the podium again for her final individual Olympic event due to her age, U.S. Olympics trials performance, and semi-final time. Every finalist in the 400 meters final ran sub-50 seconds in their semi-final, with Felix running the second-slowest qualifying time of 49.89 seconds. Despite the odds, Felix ran 49.46 seconds in the final to claim the bronze medal, her 10th overall Olympic medal. This accomplishment lowered her 400-meter masters athletics record, tied her with Carl Lewis as the most decorated American track and field Olympian, and broke her tie with Merlene Ottey as the most decorated female track and field Olympian. Felix concluded her Olympic career after winning gold in the women's 4 × 400 meters final, alongside a team that included Sydney McLaughlin, Dalilah Muhammad, and Athing Mu. This 11th Olympic medal broke Felix's tie with Carl Lewis and officially established her as the most decorated American track and field athlete in Olympic history.

Felix has announced that she intends to retire before the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

Achievements
Allyson Felix is a five-time recipient of the Jesse Owens/Jackie Joyner Kersee Award, an accolade given by USA Track & Field to commend the chosen athlete of the year. She won the award for the first time in 2005, and then again in 2007, 2010, 2012 and 2015. After her success at the 2012 London Olympics, Felix received the 2012 IAAF Female World Athlete of the Year award. In 2022, Felix received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.

Personal bests

 * At the 2012 Summer Olympics Felix ran the second leg of the 4 × 400 meters relay in a time of 48.2 seconds.
 * At the 2015 World Championships Felix ran the third leg of the 4 × 400 meters relay in a time of 47.72 seconds, which is the fastest 4 × 400 meters split ever by an American woman and third-fastest 4 × 400 meters split ever by any female athlete, after Jarmila Kratochvílová and Marita Koch.

National titles

 * Six-time national 200 meters champion – 2004 (22.28), 2005 (22.13), 2007 (22.34), 2008 (21.82), 2009 (22.02), 2012 (21.69)
 * Three-time national 400 meters champion – 2011 (50.40), 2015 (50.05), 2016 (49.68)
 * U.S. national 100 meters champion – 2010 (11.27 with −2.5 m/s headwind)

Notes: The 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016 U.S. championships double as the U.S. Olympic track and field trials. Felix is the first woman ever to win U.S. national titles in the 100 meters, 200 meters, and 400 meters in her career. She is also the second American woman, after Chandra Cheeseborough, to ever qualify for the Olympics (by placing in the top three) in the 100 meters, 200 meters, and 400 meters during her career.

Golden League wins

 * 2008 (2) – Rome (400 m), Zurich (200 m)

Diamond League wins

 * 2010 (7) – Doha (400 m), Eugene (400 m), Paris (200 m), Stockholm (200 m), London (400 m), Zürich (400 m), Brussels (200 m)
 * 2011 (3) – Doha (400 m), Rome (400 m), New York (200 m)
 * 2012 (2) – Doha (100 m), Eugene (200 m)
 * 2013 (1) – London (200 m)
 * 2014 (3) – Oslo (200 m), Stockholm (200 m), Brussels (200 m)
 * 2015 (2) – Doha (200 m), Lausanne (200 m)
 * 2017 (1) – London (400 m)

Diamond League titles

 * 2010 Overall 200 m Diamond Race Title
 * 2010 Overall 400 m Diamond Race Title
 * 2014 Overall 200 m Diamond Race Title
 * 2015 Overall 200 m Diamond Race Title

Sports advocacy
Under the Obama administration, Felix served on the President's Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition, an advisory committee dedicated to creating affordable and sustainable physical activity and nutrition programs to encourage healthy lifestyles among Americans of all ages. As a councilmember, she appeared in short clips promoting healthy school breakfasts, mediated youth panels, and participated in a "Let's Move! Active Schools" event hosted by First Lady Michelle Obama.

In November 2014, Felix traveled to Brazil as a Sports Diplomacy Sports Envoy for the U.S. Department of State. In this function, she worked with Josh George to conduct clinics, speeches and other events for 510 youth, many of whom had disabilities or came from marginalized communities. The program was designed to remove barriers and create activities that benefit audiences with and without disabilities, whilst speaking with a young, at-risk public about important life and sports values, such as respect, discipline and overcoming adversity.

Awards

 * World Athletics Awards
 * World Athlete of the Year (Women)：2012

Personal life
She is married to American sprinter and hurdler Kenneth Ferguson. They have a daughter, born in 2018, and a son, born in 2024. Felix is a Christian. She is a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha.

title: Allyson Felix


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Timiș

The Timiș or Tamiš (Timiș, Тамиш, Temes, Temesch) is a 359 km river that flows through the Banat region of Romania and Serbia and joins the Danube near Pančevo, in northern Serbia. Due to its position in the region, it has been labeled as the "spine of the Banat".

Name
In antiquity, the river was known as Tibiscus (in Latin) and Tibisis (Θίβισις in ancient Greek); in addition, Edward Gibbon referred to it as the Teyss.

The Romans, who traversed the plains of Hungary, suppose that they passed several navigable rivers, either in canoes or portable boats; but there is reason to suspect that the winding stream of the Teyss, or Tibiscus, might present itself in different places under different names.

Geography
The drainage area covers 10280 km2, of which 7310 km2 in Romania. With the Danube, the Timis belongs to the Black Sea drainage basin. The river flows through Romania for 241 km, and 118 km through Serbia. Its average discharge at the mouth is 47 m3/s.

The source of the river is near the mountain resort Semenic, in the Semenic Mountains, Caraș-Severin County, Romania. It flows towards the southeast, through the Trei Ape Reservoir, until it turns north near Teregova. Downstream from Caransebeș it turns northwest. It leaves the mountains and enters the Banat plain near Lugoj. After entering Banat, the river becomes slow and meandering. The most important port is the heavily industrialized Pančevo.

At the river's mouth, on the right bank, there is a forested area, the Pančevo Forest. It covers 300 ha of marshland, with several dozen of deciduous species and 176 species of birds and mammals. The colonies of magnificent bryozoans were found in the river.

In June 2023, Serbian government began process of declaring a landscape of outstanding features Potamišje ("Tamiš valley"). It will protect the river's flood valley on the territory of Zrenjanin, Kovačica, and Opovo municipalities. A spatial plan for wider valley area (including Sečanj and Plandište) has been concurrently made.

Characteristics
Within the scopes of the Interreg IPA program, conducted jointly by Romania and Serbia, the area around the river has been arranged in the 2017-2019 period. Starting from Timiș' origin in Romania, up to its mouth in Serbia, the bird watch towers, benches, gazebos, small bridges, billboards, signposts and waste containers have been placed. The bicycle paths along the river have been built and locations for recreational fishing have been set. At Pančevo, near the confluence, there are catamarans, canoes and bicycles for renting.

The right bank, on river's course through Pančevo close to its mouth, was arranged as a promenade in the 1980s. A plan of massive reconstruction of the quay and urbanization of the area was announced for years and confirmed in June 2020. Section between the bridge and old shipyard facilities will be completely reconstructed with addition of renovation of "city pontoon" (floating platform for various public activities), sports and recreation fields, skate park, ski slopes, bicycle paths, etc. The project is titles "Pančevo Promenade". It also includes the footbridge across the Timiș which will connect the city with the City Forest which stretches along the opposite, un-urbanized bank. The forest degraded in time and will be rejuvenated as part of the same project. The anti-flood embankments will be re-fortified, too. The deadline is 2023.

Arranged beach on the Timiș, with paid tickets and some 200 visitors daily, was recorded in Pančevo in 1891. Later, two beaches developed in Donji Grad neighborhood, left of the bridge across the river: Waltman's and municipal (also called students or military beach). The former was paid and had pontoons, while the latter, with two marked basins, was open for everyone. Sports club "Banat" held revues and competitions on the municipal beach in the 1920s, which survived until the 1970s. Upstream, there was another beach in Gornji Grad neighborhood called "At three carrots", while the wild beach "Bećar Lido" developed on the very mouth into the Danube.

By the 2020s, several beaches developed along the river's banks, outside if Pančevo. At Idvor, 250 poplars were planted, to restore the natural vegetation balance along the river. A small bridge was placed, and the crushed stone was poured before the beach, to purify and clear the water. In Glogonj, there is Skela beach. In Jabuka, there are two beaches. One, also called Skela, was arranged as part of the joint Serbian-Romanian project "Eco-Timiș - new touristic product". The other one is Pesak. All got new access roads, some of them have barges-restaurants, some sports fields, etc.

Navigation
In its lower course, the river is regulated, and for the last 53 km it is navigable.

Pančevo had a busy port already in the 17th century, when it was occupied by the Ottoman Turks. Later, in Habsburg period, it became a hub of the river routes in the Banat region. The grain was transported to the capital Vienna, while later, with the industrialization of Pančevo, shipping of the beer, silk, salt, bricks and timber developed. In time, a row of halls, warehouses and storage object along the river bank were built. With the appearance of the steam power, the passenger transport developed too, connecting Pančevo and Serbian capital Belgrade. As Pančevo grew into the developed industrial center, by the early 20th century the traffic on Timiș became so intensive that the river had to be rerouted and straighten, with numerous canals being cut through around it.

Lighthouses
At the mouth of the Timiș into the Danube, there are two lighthouses, one on the each bank of the Timiș. They are one of the rare inland lighthouses in Europe, as the banks of the rivers are usually visible so there is no need for them. They are also among only few inland lighthouses in the world, and the only one in Europe, that were built in pair. Measured by the Danube, they are located at Danube'e 1,154 km, on its left bank, and 3 km from downtown Pančevo.

The lighthouses were built during the "golden age" of the steam-powered river traffic. They are designed in the military style. The cone-shaped bases have 15,3 m in diameter, and are plated with stone. The towers are sturdy and massive, built of yellow bricks. Doors and paned windows are framed with decorative garlands made of bricks. The top platform has an open terrace with the powerful lighthouse reflector. The terrace is covered with cone-shaped roof, resting on the metal rods.

After the works to improve the navigation were conducted in the early 20th century, river's mouth area was left without any landmarks. The trees and overgrowth were cut during the digging of the canals so the area and the course of the river was new and unfamiliar to the ship crews. Situation became dangerous, especially at night, as there were no natural orienteering marks, so the wreckages became frequent. To prevent this, the lighthouses were built in 1909. The one on the right bank of the Timiș is built in the Ferland locality, while the left one is in the Pančevo's section of Mali Rit. They became very popular. The honking of the ships passing next to them was considered "obligatory", while the young boatmen and town youth used to visit and climb onto them, as a sort of the adolescent dare games. They were also writing and carving their names and short notes on the bricks, so by the time of the 2000s reconstruction, almost none of the bricks were carve-free.

Since then, the steamboats were replaced with modern ships and Pančevo got a new port on the Daunube, so the old one, on the Timiș, was closed. The lighthouses went out of use in the 1960s and were left to the elements. In time, the locals stripped from them all that could be taken and transported by the boat, including metal staircases, oil lamps, etc. The stone slabs were used for paving private backyards and the bases, without this stone cover, were being partially washed off by thy river which compromised the integrity of the objects as they began to tilt and the collapse became a serious threat.

The reconstruction of the lighthouses began in the 21st century, and was finished by 2019. Geodetic surveys were conducted and the old photographs were used in the reconstruction. The carved writings on the bricks were documented by the Pančevo's Cultural Monuments Protection Institute. The lighthouses are protected by the law as the Cultural Heritage of Great Importance.

Flooding

After Banat, floods occur in rainy years. Especially devastating were the floods of 2005, when the villages Boka and Jaša Tomić were badly damaged. On April 20, 2005, a level of 844 cm was recorded, the highest ever since the measurements began.

In the spring of 2007 works on the elevation of the embankments on both banks of the river began, 11.5 km on the right bank and 13.2 km on the left. The embankments will be 30 - 70 cm higher than they are now and being higher than 8.5 m should prevent any future floodings.

In some parts of the low, marshy areas created by the floods, several fish-filled lakes have been created, most notably at Banatski Despotovac, Uzdin, Sakule and Slatina.

Tributaries
The following rivers are tributaries to the river Timiș:

Left: Brebu, Slatina, Goleț, Bucoșnița, Cerneț, Petroșnița, Valea Mare, Vălișoara, Măcicaș, Vâna Secănească, Vâna Mare, Spaia, Știuca, Cernabora, Timișana, Timișina, Șurgani, Sariș, Pogăniș, Timișul Mort, Lanca Birda, Bârzava/Brzava

Right: Semenic, Teregova, Criva, Pârâul Rece, Feneș, Armeniș, Sadovița, Ilova, Groapa Copaciului, Bolvașnița, Zlagna, Sebeș, Potoc, Bistra, Pleșa, Calova, Maciovița, Vălișor, Tincova, Nădrag, Slatina, Măguri, Tapia, Iarcoș, Timișaț

Romania
Major cities in its Romanian course are Caransebeș and Lugoj, smaller places include (from source to mouth): Timișoara has its name derived from the river Timiș meaning the fortress of Timiș. However the town of Timiș City, even though its name may indicate it, is not a settlement on the river, but on another Romanian-Serbian river, Bega.
 * Teregova, Armeniș, Slatina-Timiș, Bucoșnița, Buchin, Caransebeș, Constantin Daicoviciu, Sacu, Gavojdia, Lugoj, Coșteiu, Moșnița Nouă, Șag, Parța, Peciu Nou

Serbia
From source to mouth: Jaša Tomić, Šurjan, Boka, Sečanj, Neuzina, Banatski Despotovac, Botoš, Tomaševac, Orlovat, Uzdin, Idvor, Farkaždin, Sakule, Čenta, Baranda, Opovo, Sefkerin, Glogonj, Jabuka, Pančevo

After the Austrians officially took over the lands north of the Sava and Danube in the early 18th century, at the Timiș' mouth into the Danube, there was a derelict Ottoman stockade, surrounded by the palisades. In 1716 the Austrians began construction of the new, larger proper fortress, and finished it in 1720. It was a pentagon shaped structure built for artillery warfare., with brick-layered bastions, triangular ramparts, and a pontoon bridge across the Timiș. It resembled the Belgrade Fortress, and bailey of the Petrovaradin Fortress.

Settlement which developed within the fortress was the core of modern Panćevo. One of the stipulations of the 1739 Austrian-Ottoman Treaty of Belgrade was that Austria had to demolish all fortifications built in the previous two decades. Pančevo Fortress was razed to the ground, with nothing surviving above the ground level, but the settlement remained as a border town. Old downtown of Pančevo, and its street grid, were shaped by the size, position and orientation of the fortress. During the reconstruction of the City Park in 2013, remains of the foundations and brick walls of the southern rampart were discovered.

Pančevački Rit
The river's old mouth into the Danube was some 40 km to the north-west, between villages of Čenta and Surduk, thus it was shorter. Canal Karaš remained marking old river bed, and the area bounded by the old and new river beds and the Danube, is called Pančevački Rit (Pančevo Marsh). The 400 km2 large wetland was constantly flooded, but since World War II it has been drained part by part and almost half of it is turned into a very fertile patch of land, suitable especially for cultivating grains and vegetables. It is managed by Serbian largest agricultural company, "PKB Beograd", which almost exclusively provides food for 2 million people in wider Belgrade area, thus Pančevački Rit is commonly nicknamed Granary of Belgrade. Stockbreeding is also very intensive, and so are fishery and hunting.

Many meandering canals and bogs remained in the marsh: slow streams of Vizelj, Dunavac, Sibnica, Butuš, Rogoznica, Buk, Belanoš and Sebeš, and large bogs of Reva, Veliko Blato (2 km2), Sebeš and Široka Bara. In the south, area ends with a river island (ada) Kožara (0.44 km2).

After being almost uninhabited before 1945, today its population density is above average for Serbia as a whole, since some of the fastest growing suburbs of Belgrade (Borča, Padinska Skela and Krnjača) are built there. The whole area of Pančevački Rit belongs administratively to Belgrade's municipality of Palilula.

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

title: Timiș


text:
Annie's Song

"Annie's Song" (also known as "Annie's Song (You Fill Up My Senses)") is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter John Denver. The song was released as the lead single from his eighth studio album Back Home Again. It was his second number-one song in the United States, occupying that spot for two weeks in July 1974. "Annie's Song" also went to number one on the Easy Listening chart. Billboard ranked it as the No. 25 song for 1974.

It went to number one in the United Kingdom, where it was Denver's only major hit single. Four years later, an instrumental version also became flautist James Galway's only major British hit.

Background
"Annie's Song" was written as an ode to Denver's wife at the time, Annie Martell Denver. Denver "wrote this song in July 1973 in about ten-and-a-half minutes one day on a ski lift" to the top of Aspen Mountain in Aspen, Colorado, as the physical exhilaration of having "just skied down a very difficult run" and the feeling of total immersion in the beauty of the colors and sounds that filled all senses inspired him to think about his wife. Annie Denver recalls the beginnings: "It was written after John and I had gone through a pretty intense time together and things were pretty good for us. He left to go skiing and he got on the Ajax chair on Aspen mountain and the song just came to him. He skied down and came home and wrote it down... Initially it was a love song and it was given to me through him, and yet for him it became a bit like a prayer."

"The first time I heard 'Annie's Song,' I told John it had the same melody as Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony, Second Movement," says Milt Okun. "He walked over to the piano, sat for an hour and came back, and the only thing remaining from Tchaikovsky was the first five notes. It was fantastic."

Critical reception
Shawn M. Haney of Allmusic noted the song's expressive emotionality, calling it an "ever so romantic tearjerker". Haney praised "Annie's Song" as "one of Denver's finest achievements". Billboard called it a "fine love song." Record World said that this "folk ballad, subtle and sweet, glows with a continental flair that should take it to all the right places."

Ville Valo cover
On July 4, 2016, Ville Valo released a cover version of "Annie's Song" in Finnish, titled "Olet mun kaikuluotain" ("You're My Sonar"). The lyrics were by Hector, and the song had previously been recorded in 1976 by Freeman. Ville Valo's version was released as a tribute to Finnish label Love Records, who celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2016. Valo's version was also the first release from the label in over 30 years. Valo commented on the song, stating: "'Kaikuluotain' is a childhood favorite of mine, to the beat of which many a sleepless night ended up in tears. To this day it gives me cold shivers and goosebumps." The song would go on to reach number one on the Finnish Download Chart.

Valo's version also received a music video, directed by Ykä Järvinen. Released on July 11, 2016, the video features scenes of Valo walking around Helsinki, done in tribute to Aki Kaurismäki's film Calamari Union. The video received the Emma Award for Video of the Year in 2017.

Adaptations
Supporters of Sheffield United use the melody of "Annie's Song" as "The Greasy Chip Butty Song", a football chant with recast lyrics humorously extolling the virtues of life in Sheffield and as supporters of the club.

The Egan band performed Bilintx's song "Louolan Jai Jai" with this tune, which became the common tune for the song.

A parody version of the first few bars of the song is included on Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album, but was removed and replaced with an apology on later pressings of the album on legal advice.

title: Annie's Song


text:
Rampjaar

In Dutch history, the year 1672 is referred to as the Rampjaar (Disaster Year, pronounced /ˈrɑmp.jaːr/). In May 1672, following the outbreak of the Franco-Dutch War and its peripheral conflict the Third Anglo-Dutch War, France, supported by Münster and Cologne, invaded and nearly overran the Dutch Republic. At the same time, it faced the threat of an English naval blockade in support of the French endeavor, though that attempt was abandoned following the Battle of Solebay. A Dutch saying coined that year describes the Dutch people as redeloos ("irrational"), its government as radeloos ("distraught"), and the country as reddeloos ("beyond salvation"). The cities of the coastal provinces of Holland, Zealand and Frisia underwent a political transition: the city governments were taken over by Orangists, opposed to the republican regime of the Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt, ending the First Stadtholderless Period.

By late July however, the Dutch position had stabilised, with support from Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, Brandenburg-Prussia, and Spain; this was formalised in the August 1673 Treaty of the Hague, which Denmark joined in January 1674. Following further defeats at sea at the hands of the Dutch navy, the English, whose parliament was suspicious of King Charles's motives in his alliance with France, and with Charles himself wary of French domination of the Spanish Netherlands, settled a peace with the Dutch republic in the Treaty of Westminster in 1674. With England, Cologne, and Münster having made peace with the Dutch and with the war expanding into the Rhineland and Spain, French troops withdrew from the Dutch Republic, retaining only Grave and Maastricht. To offset these setbacks, Swedish forces in Swedish Pomerania attacked Brandenburg-Prussia in December 1674 after Louis threatened to withhold their subsidies; this sparked Swedish involvement in the 1675–1679 Scanian War and the Swedish-Brandenburg War whereby the Swedish army tied up the armies of Brandenburg and some minor German principalities plus the Danish army in the north.

From 1674 to 1678, the French armies managed to advance steadily in the southern Spanish Netherlands and along the Rhine, defeating the badly coordinated forces of the Grand Alliance with regularity. Eventually the heavy financial burdens of the war, along with the imminent prospect of England's reentry into the conflict on the side of the Dutch and their allies, convinced Louis XIV of France to make peace despite his advantageous military position. The resulting Peace of Nijmegen between France and the Grand Alliance left the Dutch Republic intact and France generously aggrandized in the Spanish Netherlands.

Situation in the Republic

During the Eighty Years' War there had been tension in the provinces between adherents of a government ruled by the burgher oligarchy, called regents, and those who favoured a government led by the Prince of Orange. These tensions had escalated in 1650 when William II, Prince of Orange had tried to conquer Amsterdam, the main bastion of the Regents of the De Graeff and Bicker clans. After negotiations, he succeeded in removing a number of his adversaries from office.

When William died from smallpox later that year, the republican party came back into power. The Act of Seclusion declared that they would not appoint his son, William III of Orange, or anybody else to the office of Stadholder, stating that a supreme head of government would be harmful to 'True Liberty'. Johan de Witt was appointed Grand Pensionary of Holland and led the States of Holland, the most important province within the Union.

The takeover by the regents did not go without protest from the Orangists, but with the economy booming and peace on the Union's borders they had little opportunity to remove the government from office. To appease the Orangists, and because of their own business interests, the Dutch Regents tried to keep the peace within Europe.

Foreign affairs
When the Republic fought for its independence from Spain, it had allied with France and England. In 1648, as part of the Peace of Westphalia, the Republic made peace with Austria and Spain. France had only made peace with Austria and continued fighting Spain until the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659. A condition of that peace was that Louis XIV would marry Maria Theresa, daughter of Philip IV of Spain. Maria Theresa would also renounce her share of the inheritance in exchange for a large dowry. The dowry, however, was never paid by the Spanish.

During the 1650s and 1660s the existing tensions between Dutch trade interests and English trade interests grew. The First Anglo-Dutch War was fought between the republics, resulting in a victory for the English. In a secret appendix to the Treaty of Westminster, the Act of Seclusion, Holland declared that it abolished the office of Stadholder and would never allow the States-General of the Netherlands to appoint a member of the House of Orange to the office of Captain-General. Oliver Cromwell, who was Lord Protector of England at that time, insisted on this condition because William II had assisted Charles I (his father-in-law) during the English Civil War. While supporters of the Dutch Regent favoured diminishing the influence of the House of Orange, by agreeing to the English conditions they intermingled internal and foreign affairs and infuriated the pro-Orange faction. When Charles II was crowned king of England in 1660 during the English Restoration, the Act of Seclusion was declared void, but to the dismay of Holland, Charles affirmed those clauses of the peace which negatively impacted Dutch trade interests.

An English attempt to take over Dutch trade and colonies led to the Second Anglo-Dutch War. After the previous war Johan de Witt had supervised the expansion and improvement of the Dutch navy at the cost of neglecting the Dutch army. With the new fleet and the help of France, with whom they had allied again, the Dutch ultimately defeated the English at sea through the Raid on the Medway and put pressure on the English ally Münster. First Münster and then England were forced to make peace. While France had helped to put pressure on England and Münster they had not committed a major part of their army or fleet. After the death of Philip IV, Louis XIV claimed part of the inheritance for his wife. According to local law in parts of the Spanish Netherlands daughters of an earlier marriage took precedence before the sons of a later marriage. The way Louis XIV explained this, Maria Theresa, daughter of the first marriage of Philip IV, should inherit the Spanish Netherlands because Philip's son, Charles II was from Philip's second marriage. This went against the interests of the Dutch Republic, who preferred having a weak state as their neighbour to the south.

Because of this, Johan de Witt allied with the defeated English and Sweden, who had an army nearby in Germany, forming the Triple Alliance. In secret clauses of the treaty they agreed to use force if Louis XIV would not come to terms with Spain.

Renversement des Alliances
France made peace with Spain, but because the secret clauses of the Triple Alliance were soon made public, Louis XIV felt insulted by the "perfidious" Dutch, who according to him had broken faith. Immediately after the peace agreement, France took steps to isolate the Republic. Sweden and Münster were quickly bribed, but the English public distrusted Louis XIV. The English king, on the other hand, saw war with the Dutch as being in his best interests. He hoped that a defeat of the Republic would lead to the fall of the republican government so that his nephew, William III of Orange, could take power. A war would also be a good opportunity to crush the Dutch competition in trade and colonies. Additionally, Louis promised Charles a notable sum of money, so enabling him to rule without having to consult the English parliament.

In 1670, after the mediation of Charles' sister Henrietta Anne Stuart, wife of Louis's brother the Duc d'Orléans, France and England signed the secret Treaty of Dover.

To war

The Dutch were aware that negotiations between England and France were going on, but specific details were not known. Johan de Witt counted on the unpopularity among the English public of a war with a fellow Protestant nation and tried to improve relations with the French. The discussion on the issue of the Spanish Netherlands, however, yielded no consensus between the two countries. France saw the Rhine as its natural border and between France and the Rhine lay the Spanish Netherlands and the Dutch Generality Lands. The Dutch felt threatened by the French ambitions. According to the French ambassador, the Dutch acted from the motto: Gallicus amicus, non vicinus, or "The Frenchman is a good friend, but a bad neighbour". The Dutch again reinforced their fleet, but made insufficient preparations for their army because of a shortage of money. The Regents also distrusted an army that had often been an instrument of the Orange party. With war becoming more and more likely, pressure increased on the Dutch government to appoint William III, who had not yet come of age, to the office of Stadtholder and Captain-General. In February 1672, Johan de Witt finally agreed to appoint William as Captain-General for the duration of a single war campaign.

War
On 12 March 1672 Robert Holmes attacked a Dutch trade convoy, the Smyrna fleet. France, the Electorate of Cologne and the Bishopric of Münster declared war in April. In June, Louis XIV's army, led by Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé and Turenne bypassed the Dutch southern defence through the Spanish Netherlands, the possessions of Münster and Cologne and other French allies and invaded the Dutch from the east.

At the IJssel, a short battle was easily won by the French and Groenlo was taken. The whole of the Republic lay open to the French. Panic broke out in the cities in Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht. Lower and middle-class people revolted against the government and demanded the appointment of the Prince along with the punishment of those responsible for the war and the state of the army. Johan de Witt and several others resigned and the government of the Regents fell. Partisans of William III took over. One of William's first acts was to strike out the word 'honourably' from Johan de Witt's letter of resignation.

Lynching of the De Witt brothers

Popular sentiment remained unsatisfied and frustrations with the hopeless military situation led to the search for scapegoats. In August, Cornelis de Witt, the less gifted and less popular brother of Johan de Witt, was imprisoned in The Hague on suspicion of treason and plotting to assassinate William. When Johan de Witt visited his brother, the small cavalry security detail present was sent away on the pretext of stopping a group of marauding peasants. Around the prison a crowd had gathered, demanding the punishment of the brothers. The prison was stormed — according to some contemporary accounts, after Orangist Cornelis Tromp, an enemy of Johan de Witt, had given the sign — by civil militia. The brothers were taken and murdered by the militia members and their bodies mutilated and partly eaten by the crowd. The names of a few of the murderers became known but they were protected and, in some cases, even rewarded by Prince William. Many modern historians suspect that the murders were the result of a conspiracy involving, among others, William himself, although direct evidence for his involvement has not been found.

The Waterline

The French had advanced from the IJssel to Utrecht. By that time, negotiations had begun. Louis XIV and Charles II of England had intended that William become Sovereign Prince at the head of a Hollandic rump state principality, a joint protectorate (with the British occupying key Hollandic cities and the isle of Walcheren). Louis halted his army to allow the Orangists to take over Holland and come to an arrangement with him. He offered the Dutch peace in exchange for either the southern fortresses, religious freedom for Catholics and six million guilders, or the retention of his present conquests and sixteen million guilders. These demands, especially the financial portions, led to a renewed public outrage and the Dutch mood abruptly changed from defeatism to a dogged determination to resist the French.

While negotiations took place, the French failed to prevent the Dutch from inundating the Dutch Waterline. Before the French understood the nature and importance of this defence system, William III's small army withdrew behind it and further French advance was blocked by an impassable barrier of water and mud. This small success for the Dutch was followed by others. The Dutch fleet under admiral Michiel de Ruyter had already defeated the Anglo-French fleet at the Battle of Solebay, and on 28 August 1672 the German Bishop of Münster, Bernhard von Galen, withdrew from the siege of Groningen – an event still celebrated annually in Groningen.

On the diplomatic front, the Holy Roman Empire and Spain took the side of the Netherlands. In 1673, Bonn fell to a Dutch army. This forced the French to retreat from most of the Republic. England, Münster and Cologne made peace in 1674; the French fought on until 1678. (For the rest of the war, see Franco-Dutch War.)

Effects
The experience of the Rampjaar had considerable influence on the direction of Dutch foreign policy. William III saw it as his life's work to defend both the Republic and Europe against French hegemony. In all the wars of Louis XIV, the Dutch would support his adversaries. In 1688, when faced with an English king who again seemed to side with the French, the Dutch mobilised their full resources in order to invade Britain and overthrow the Catholic Stuart Dynasty (the Glorious Revolution)—an event of immense historical importance. Although a gamble, it was considered worthwhile, since after the Rampjaar, the possibility of a Catholic and French-dominated Britain was regarded as a mortal threat to the Netherlands. In England, public opinion was already turning against the French but was accelerated by the war of 1672. While Charles II and his successor James II of England still had French sympathies, they had to take into account the English public's distrust of France.

The Dutch economy never fully recovered from the severe crisis, although the Dutch Golden Age is sometimes said to have continued until the end of the century. The art market was as severely affected as other trades. A famous comment by Jan Vermeer's widow described how he was unable to sell work thereafter. The leading maritime artists, Willem van de Velde the Elder and his son Willem II, both emigrated to London, never to return.

title: Rampjaar


text:
User talk:Danbloom

A tag has been placed on Polar cities, requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done because it is an article about a certain website, blog, forum, or other web content that does not assert the importance or significance of that web location. Please read our criteria for speedy deletion, particularly item 7 under Articles, as well as notability guidelines for websites. Please note that articles must be on notable subjects and should provide references to reliable sources which verify their content.

Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself. To contest the tagging and request that administrators wait a while for you to add contextual material, please affix the template  to the page, and put a note on Talk:Polar cities. Feel free to leave a note on my talk page if you have any questions about this. Thanks. -- intgr 12:58, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Welcome to Wikipedia. We invite everyone to contribute constructively to the encyclopedia. However, the external links you added do not comply with our guidelines for external links. Wikipedia is not a mere directory of links; nor should it be used for advertising or promotion. Since Wikipedia uses nofollow tags, external links do not alter search engine rankings. If you feel the link should be added to the article, then please discuss it on the article's talk page before reinserting it. Please take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to this encyclopedia. -- intgr 12:58, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for experimenting with Wikipedia. Your test worked, and the page that you created has been or soon will be deleted. Please use the sandbox for any other tests you want to do. Take a look at the welcome page if you would like to learn more about contributing to our encyclopedia. See No original research. I also removed the self-advertising from this page; see WP:SPAM. NawlinWiki 14:26, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

A tag has been placed on Danny Bloom requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done because the article appears to be about a person, group of people, band, club, company, or web content, but it does not indicate how or why the subject is notable: that is, why an article about that subject should be included in an encyclopedia. Under the criteria for speedy deletion, articles that do not assert the subject's importance or significance may be deleted at any time. Please see the guidelines for what is generally accepted as notable.

If you think that you can assert the notability of the subject, you may contest the deletion by adding  to the top of the page (just below the existing speedy deletion or "db" tag), coupled with adding a note on the article's talk page explaining your position, but be aware that once tagged for speedy deletion, if the article meets the criterion it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but don't hesitate to add information to the article that would confirm the subject's notability under Wikipedia guidelines.

For guidelines on specific types of articles, you may want to check out our criteria for biographies, for web sites, for bands, or for companies. Feel free to leave a note on my talk page if you have any questions about this. Murderbike (talk) 04:20, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

AfD nomination of Polar Cities
An article that you have been involved in editing, Polar Cities, has been listed for deletion. If you are interested in the deletion discussion, please participate by adding your comments at Articles for deletion/Polar Cities. Thank you. Do you want to opt out of receiving this notice? Nyttend (talk) 12:08, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

title: User talk:Danbloom


text:
Talk:Afro

Is an "Afro" just the hairstyle, or is it a combination of the hairstyle combined with social and cultural aspects?
I ask this question because the article has a particularly heavy focus on black people, and the culture around afro hair. Which is all fine, but clearly, such hair is not completely unique to black people, and can be found worldwide in other groups of people. For example, some white people have very tightly coiled and kinky hair, and will also grow an afro-like hairstyle naturally. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A00:23C7:731:4601:7CE6:26D2:EB26:1C17 (talk) 20:47, 7 February 2022 (UTC)

 * The world doesn't center around white people, jeez 2601:8C:B80:6660:E0C2:2A67:452E:1B68 (talk) 14:49, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

Images
Should we add more Jewfro images

https://imgur.com/a/IIXunNf Walapo (talk) 00:59, 29 July 2022 (UTC)

This is not a hair style to us it’s just the way are hair is without chemicals 2601:441:4980:4E00:A156:36:F680:8B95 (talk) 15:46, 18 October 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Afro


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Esoteric programming language related

 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was no result, subseded by a later AfD; this AfD has been abandoned for too long to be able to close with a result. --ais523 12:56, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Esoteric programming language related

 * To conserve space on the main VfD page, the individual votes for each of the 74 articles have been move to this subpage.

There seems to be a whole bunch of so called Esoteric programming language that found its way into wikipedia over time. Personally I think most of them are rubbish and nothing more than a (lame) joke, except maybe Befunge, Brainfuck, False, Intercal, Malbolge, Unlambda, and Shakespeare programming language (see Template:Esolangs). I apologize to the community for listing them all on VfD at the same time, especially since the VfD already has a very heavy load, but I see no other way to clean out this mess. By putting them all in one sub page Votes for deletion/Esoteric programming language related I hope to speed up the deletion process. Also, if some of you think some articles could be "Speedy Deleted", be my guest. Thank you -- Chris 73 Talk 12:01, Sep 29, 2004 (UTC)

 * Delete. Delete 'em ALL!!! Good grief.  I did enjoy TMMLPTEALPAITAFNFAL, though.  New variables and commands for every day of the century.  Employers must be screaming for this skill.  Terrapin 14:27, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete or Merge (sans examples) all but Var'aq, False programming language. {Ανάριον} 15:03, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)

 * Keep. By the way, the google search results are skewed. An extreme example:
 * 0 google hits for -wikipedia -thefreedictionary "HQ9 Plus" "esoteric programming language"
 * 2 google hits for -wikipedia -thefreedictionary "HQ9+" "esoteric programming language"
 * 251 google hits for -wikipedia -thefreedictionary "HQ9+"
 * 7 google hits for -wikipedia -thefreedictionary "C Plus Plus" "esoteric programming language"
 * Κσυπ Cyp  15:15, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * I removed your addition of "C Plus Plus" from the list... this is confusing enough without joke listings. ;-) • Benc • 18:28, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)

 * Keep all You know something is MASSIVELY wrong with either the nominator or with vfd if 74 articles are proposed for deletion all at once. Like ARGH!
 * Motivation: Computer languages are self selecting. If they don't work, they don't work and don't show up anywhere. Some esoteric computer langauges are more famous than others, but it doesn't hurt to have all of them on wikipedia. I'm somewhat strongly POV against vfd by now, and this kind of nomination doesn't do much to lower my blood pressure. I wish there was a speedy denomination procedure. (for obvioussly broken nominations such as this) :-( I'm going to stop doing vfd for a while now. Don't delete the entire wikipedia while I'm not watching? :-/ Kim Bruning 15:32, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * FYI: I looked at all entries at least twice, and also voted to KEEP some of them, but most are rubbish. -- Chris 73 Talk 15:57, Sep 29, 2004 (UTC)
 * If you don't think some of these articles should be deleted, why did you list them on VfD in the first place? That seems like an abuse of the VfD process to me, making speculative guesses about articles which someone else might think is worthy of deletion and then cluttering VfD up with polls to see if anyone does. If someone else thinks they're delete-worthy they can list them here themselves, and if you wanted to do random polling to prompt them you should probably have stuck to talk: pages. Bryan 23:50, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)

 * Keep all but redirect where necessary to prevent them being recreated. Merge into the list of esoteric programming languages and delink them from there. Exceptions that should be kept as articles and not redirected include (but are not limited to) Brainfuck, C Plus Plus, Iota and Jot (completely misleading Google search. iota+jot "programming language" gets 292 and iota +"programming language" gets 1940 hits), L33t, Lambda, PATH, OISC, VALGOL and Var'aq (Var'aq +"programming language" gets >17000 hits). I didn't check them all. I expect there are many more exceptions that these. Angela. 16:08, Sep 29, 2004 (UTC)

 * Comment: I would suggest that in most cases, we just want a redirect to List of esoteric programming languages; if the language has any actual significance, perhaps that page could include a link to the language's homepage. I don't see much point in including fictional languages at all, unless they have some cultural significance. BTW, having so many in the list is making it extremely difficult to submit a vote, due to edit conflicts. Please don't do that again. Securiger 16:17, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)

 * Keep - I strongly object to deletion enthusiasts listing anything that they can't find on a Google search and then claiming it shouldn't be here. If it is real, verifiable, neutral, keep it. You have no idea whether this is useful to others. Mark Richards 16:46, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)

 * Merge and Redirect all except ones listed by Chris73 to list of esoteric programming languages. I'm in partial agreement with Kim.  VfD has some great uses and is definitely necessary,  but this is a little overboard.  70+ VfD's all at once?  Did this not indicate to you that perhaps talking in the Village Pump or starting a poll might have been better? -Vina 16:56, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)

 * I *strongly* disagree with Schnee, who seems to feel that nothing should ever be deleted ever from Wikipedia, no matter how obscure. Delete all but the following because of obscurity:
 * Befunge
 * Brainfuck
 * C-
 * INTERCAL
 * Iota/Jot
 * Malborge
 * --Improv 17:35, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)

 * [Comment] The fact is that most of these languages are in violation of Wikipedia's rules. Why?  Because they are essentially Original Research, with no greater significance outside of the handful of l33t-wannabes who want to claim they invented a language.  Terrapin 18:36, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * To clarify: "original research" refers to work done for the specific purpose of including it in the Wikipedia. As far as I can tell, none of these articles qualify under that definition: they're all reporting the facts about pre-existing toy languages. If anything, these articles are candidates for deletion or merging because of their lack of notability. • Benc • 19:41, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)

 * Keep - These articles are of interest to me and to many others. There's no compelling reason to get rid of the information. Why is this even being brought up? Factitious 19:32, Sep 29, 2004 (UTC)

 * I second Angela's vote: keep or redirect all. To decide which ones to keep and which ones to merge/redirect into List of esoteric programming languages, discuss it at WikiProject Programming Languages, not here on VfD. Side note about the mass listing: please don't ever do this again. I know you were trying to speed up the process, but the logistics of juggling 70+ subnominations has actually slowed down the process. (Never sacrifice sanity for speed!) If you want to delete an entire class of articles, start by discussing it at Wikipedia talk:Deletion policy and the village pump. Thanks, • Benc • 19:34, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep all of them, and make a policy to stop people doing this again. Intrigue 19:48, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. No policies, though, that is absurd. He is not a troll for nominating these. —  El Chico!  Talk 20:15, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep these articles. The Recycling Troll 20:18, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. --Yath 20:35, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. Important articles. Some are funny languages, but you don't remove articles about comedians. --Pengo 22:13, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)

 * Keep in general: esoteric-ness is not grounds for deletion, so why should it be a valid criterion for merging listings on VfD? OTOH, I'm sure some of these aren't notable enough to have their own pages, or even their own mentions in a list - people's pet projects could be construed as vanity. I suggest making a new listing containing only those which are not notable; or a handful of listings, sorted by perceived notability; or Benc's suggestion of discussing it somewhere else first, and merging into the list. - IMSoP 22:53, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)

 * Keep. There very well may be some articles in this grouping that are worthy of deletion, but I'm not going to read through all of them picking and choosing; if the deletion-proposer wants to propose deleteing the whole lot of them one bundle then so be it, I vote to keep the whole lot of them. There are lessons to be learned even from "bad" or "obscure" languages. Bryan 23:35, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Also, I just noticed that the VfD template on the articles I just spot-checked all point to non-existant VfD pages. Someone who stumbles across one of these articles will not be able to find where the voting is actually being held without hunting through VfD manually for it, which is a bit of a major undertaking under the circumstances. Bryan 23:59, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)

 * Keep all. If a particular article is a joke/whatever, it needs to be listed individually; please don't bulk-add all ~70 articles in an entire category. Kwertii 00:35, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)

 * Keep all. Some of these, such as Unlambda, actually illustrate important computer science principles. Others, such as my favourite, HQ9 Plus, parody various aspects of programming language design. And like others, I object to an entire category of topics being proposed for deletion: if there are individual entries that should be deleted, propose those on the merits of the case. The fact that such classics as Brainfuck, Befunge and INTERCAL have been proposed suggests the proposer isn't taking due care and attention. —Ashley Y 01:02, 2004 Sep 30 (UTC)
 * Look again. I voted "Keep" for Brainfuck, Befunge and INTERCAL (see Sub Page) -- Chris 73 Talk 01:21, Sep 30, 2004 (UTC)
 * Comment on the methods, not the man. I have no doubt that Chris's motives for this mass listing were nothing but the best. • Benc • 04:15, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Thanks. With 20/20 hindsight I should have done things differently. I guess I have to work on my foresight, and try not to make such a goof again. Apologies to all people involved. Still think that some articles on the list are not really needed, though. -- Chris 73 Talk 06:07, Sep 30, 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep only the ones enumerated in Template:Esolangs; merge the rest into a single article. [[User:Poccil|Peter O. (Talk)]] 03:40, Sep 30, 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. Mikkalai 05:00, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. I think keep it if there is one mention on 1 google about the language and its not a wikipedia article copy, keep the language, also keep it if any other langugages or theorys are based off of it. Patcat88 05:57, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep all. This Vfd listing is just wrong, just like listing the GNAA three times. Google hits are NOT a valid reason to delete. Wikipedia is not paper, I have gone through every listing and each of the languages are real. This will hurt Wikipedia by creating holes in Wikipedias coverage. Esotoric languages are crazy, but it provides entertainment for some, so keep them all. [[User:Norm|Norm] 09:57, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep all. No need to delete knowledge. WhiteTimberwolf 11:50, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Comment: the google test mechanism employed to discredit the languages described in the articles seems fatally flawed. Almost invariably the test has been to search for "name programming language". I wonder if this is likely to discount perfectly good hits simply on the grounds that this exact phrase does not occur. I might support replacing the List with a longer article containing more detailed descriptions of each language, but I suspect that the product would be less helpful than what we have now. I'm definitely inclining towards Keep unless I can be convinced otherwise. --Phil | Talk 12:05, Sep 30, 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep All esoteric does not mean unknown.  There is a great deal of interest in these languages among CS people.  The Google results are flawed and so meaningless.  Too much attention is paid to them anyway.  Also, the nominator voted Keep for some entries, undercutting his own argument   The Steve  13:07, Sep 30, 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep All The esoteric programming languages have relevance in terms of experimental computer science -- for one thing, most are simple Turing Machines. While they might not be generally useful, they do have their uses, and they're interesting to read about.  Considering the number of votes in support of the esoteric languages, I'm suprised the boilerplates are still up....
 * Comment: a lot of people are casting blanket "keep" votes despite the fact that some of these "languages" have, by their articles' own admission, never existed outside of one humorous USENET post. I suggest that, after the five-day voting period for this mass nomination ends, any articles that have received a simple majority of non-"keep" votes cast specifically for them be re-nominated, so that we can reach a genuine consensus on whether they deserve inclusion.   —Triskaideka 15:56, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Comment: Oooh, what a great idea! It's always so fun to pick on minorities! How about we delete all chess variants, Category:Homestar Runner, Template:HitchhikerMiscellanea and, here comes the best part, all but the five biggest religions from Category:Religion! Personally I think most of religions are rubbish and nothing more than a (lame) joke so obviously they should be deleted. --ZeroOne 18:03, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep all (but possibly merge some). The few completely fictional joke languages (namely DOGO, SIMPLE, SLOBOL, VALGOL, LAIDBACK, SARTRE, FIFTH, C- and LITHP) could be merged under some appropriate topic (like fictional programming languages). Other languages could stay like they are, or, if you have some really good reasons to do so, merged into the list of esoteric programming languages or preferably to some other -new- list, like esoteric programming languages. However this list would become really long and Wikipedia would start complaining that it should be split into smaller articles. --ZeroOne 19:40, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * If someone were to write a working compiler for SIMPLE, would you change your mind about its status? Factitious 20:34, Sep 30, 2004 (UTC)
 * Someone did write a working (at least, I assume it works) implementation of VALGOL; see .  —Triskaideka 21:21, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Yeah, and there's also an attempt to define the specs for SARTRE too... So I don't know. They can't be as wild as the original article in InfoWorld specified so in that matter their implementations are different from the actual joke. Maybe fictional programming languages could also hold those languages that started as a joke? The working ones could also be listed in the list of esoteric programming languages. The simplest solution would of course be to left everything as it currently is. :) --ZeroOne 21:29, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Well, if something started as a joke but now exists, then it isn't really fictional... OK, I'm thinking you're right about the simplest solution. Factitious 21:39, Sep 30, 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep all. And don't list 74 articles at once. Eric119 20:39, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep all because I object to this mass-nomination.   — Gwalla | Talk 20:48, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep all: Remember, evin tho these ar esoteric program langwige its still reel program langwiges! Do not redirect eny uv them (unles thay ar 1 that only 1 persen in the hole world uses them, wich is unlikely). The 1 that you do redirect you shud put a link to the web-site about them. And remember, a lot uv peple still use INTERCAL. Reed sum uv the abuve as well to see wy its importent to keep all uv them. -- zzo38 02:39, 2004 Oct 1 (UTC)
 * Keep all. ElBenevolente 03:45, 1 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep all and remove the VfD notice (sooner than later) from at least all the Template:Esolangs articles (that User:Chris 73 obviously shouldn't have put on VfD in the first place).  ~leif ☺ HELO 09:49, 1 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Done. -- Chris 73 Talk 10:34, Oct 1, 2004 (UTC)
 * Thanks, Chris  ~leif ☺ HELO 21:01, 1 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep all - The mass nomination is wrong. If you can't be bothered to evaluate them individually then they don't belong here.  If you have then discuss them individually instead of lumping them in a group where the good can be thrown out with the bad (if any). -  Tεx  τ  urε  20:38, 1 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Comment: several voters are giving Chris 73 a hard time for mass-nominating a large number of articles. In fact, he's one of a very few people who did evaluate all of the articles individually.  He voted on every one and provided at least a short reason. This only looks like a blanket nomination because he nominated them all at the same time and allowed people to vote on them all as a group—which I think is turning out to have been a mistake, as some of these subjects are, IMO, clearly more notable than others.  It might have been easier on the voters if he'd nominated them in batches over a longer period (although then I'm sure people would have cited the languages that hadn't yet been deleted as support for the languages up for consideration), but I think it's unfair to criticize him for being willing to do more work than anyone else.  If articles deserve to be nominated, then they deserve to be nominated, and many of these clearly deserve at least nomination, even if we ultimately decide that they don't deserve deletion.   —Triskaideka 21:13, 1 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * (Comment & Apoligies by Nominator) Thank you very much. I agree that it was a mistake to nominate such a large nuber at once, including some clear Keeper's .I would like to thank everybody who looked at the individual nominations for their effort. My apologies to the community for creating such a stir. On top of that, I have to go on a trip today and won't be back until Thursday, so I can't even clean up my mess when it is due on Monday. (Not that I would delete anything at this point with that number of Keep all votes). Otherwise i would remove all the VfD tags from the articles and also see which articles had a majority for deletion based on the individual votes. Again - not deleting them but only list them somewhere (possibly WikiProject Programming Languages) and ask for further comment. After that I probably take a VfD Holiday. Thanks. -- Chris 73 Talk 23:13, Oct 1, 2004 (UTC)
 * Either keep all or keep the prominent esoteric languages while merging several of the lesser-known ones into a smaller number of articles. I provide the second option not based on how esoteric these languages are (that's the point, after all), but because some of them you really can't say much about. I could sum up the Whitespace language or HQ9+ in a paragraph. In any case, kill none of this content! Derrick Coetzee 16:48, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * There's considerably more than a paragraph in the HQ9+ entry, and it could in fact be expanded by mentioning the HQ9++ extension. Factitious 20:52, Oct 2, 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep all. As an esoteric language enthusiast I would really hate to see them go. Wikipedia has become most comprehensive list of esoteric languages on the web. Rune Berge, 14:08, Oct 4, 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep all. --Tmh
 * Keep all and reorganize 02:13, 5 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep all and please redo the google searches for all, many of them get more results if you remove "programming language" from the quotes. 01:31, 20 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep all. They may be obscure, but documentation of something true should not be destroyed just because someone feels it is insignificant. -- Andrés Santiago Pérez-Bergquist 02:07, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.


text: Talk:Culture of Spain

title: Talk:Culture of Spain


text:
Talk:Revolving door

Revolving Doors
What advantages do revolving doors have over normal ones? There is a full explaination of energy savings and sustainablity and stack pressure on MIT's Sustainablity Website: http://sustainability.mit.edu/Revolving_Door

The article mentions that they can installed to minimize heat loss. However, I would think a normal door would do a better job of that. Also, it claims security is one factor, but many revolving doors are permanently unlocked. What other theories or facts do you have about them? Superm401 | Talk 22:06, July 13, 2005 (UTC)

The number of people is usually in the thousands that use revolving doors, in large lobbys, skyscrapers, storefronts with glass, malls : with lots of traffic.

 * Well, IMO, revolving doors increase the efficiency and flow of human traffic. One (normal) revolving door can have four people at once, and serves both entering and exiting traffic. Meanwhile, hinge doors usually only serve one direction. Thus, it is more efficient to have revolving doors rather than hinge doors. Hope this helps! Flcelloguy | A note? | Desk 22:10, 13 July 2005 (UTC)

 * I suppose that's right. I guess I've seen too many situations when there wasn't a large flow of traffic and revolving doors actually slowed people significantly.  I can understand how much time could be saved in a high-flow environment, though. Superm401 | Talk 22:37, July 13, 2005 (UTC)

 * "With revolving doors, the directions of traffic are well defined and while a given individual may take longer to get in or out, the overall throughput is probably higher." Anonymous comment by 68.179.157.56 Samw 03:14, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

 * I think the genesis of revolving doors was high-rise buildings, which my memory tells me are or were associated with differential air pressures at different heights, which can lead to a tendency to draw air in or expel it at ground level ... a revolving door does not care about such things; whereas hinged doors can be held closed or blown open by air pressures ... indeed, for whatever reason, I thought revolving doors were an enabling technology. But I could be wrong. Memory eh? Who'd trust it? Meanwhile the diverse answers you might get for this question bring to mind Call My Bluff. But I see that airlock has a passing mention of revolving doors. And a little googling brings up this article which talks about differential air pressures but in the context of keeping cold air out. More generally, they seem to be a good thing for keeping a controlled environment isolated from the outsider world.

Check engineering "STACK PRESSURE"

Try this google query for some more. --Tagishsimon (talk)
 * The air pressure comment seems to be a valid possibility. However, cold air can be brought in through revolving doors fine, so that part seems incorrect.  Anyway, both are insufficient because revolving doors are used in many one floor buildings as well. Superm401 | Talk 22:37, July 13, 2005 (UTC)
 * Revolving doors also save money by keeping in air conditioned air in the summer, and reducing heat loss during winter. --HappyCamper 22:27, 13 July 2005 (UTC)
 * I simply don't see how this is true. There is still air flow.  Superm401 | Talk 22:37, July 13, 2005 (UTC)

 * An exterior revolving door setup has walls around 2 opposing quarters of its perimeter . If you are passing through the system, the "door" in front of you will leave contact with the wall of the system as the "door" behind you makes contact. There is never a complete path for air to flow between inside to outside. Only the parcels of air actually inside the door will be exchanged. -- Cyrius|✎ 22:56, 13 July 2005 (UTC)
 * I already knew that. As you said, the air in the chambers is exchanged.  I think that is about the air that would be exchanged because of the opening of a normal door.  Do you disagree? Superm401 | Talk 23:26, July 13, 2005 (UTC)
 * When you open a normal door the difference in air pressure can cause a wind to flow in and up the lift shafts. I've hears that it can be so bad that it's difficult to close the door. Theresa Knott (a tenth stroke) 00:01, 14 July 2005 (UTC)

 * And a normal door in a high traffic building would be open almoste all the time. EnSamulili 12:21, 14 July 2005 (UTC)

 * In summary: yes, each trip through a revolving door may exchange one "parcel" of air, but a steady breeze through an open, conventional door could exchange much more air than that. Thus the efficiency claim. Steve Summit 22:13, 15 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Also, with respect to the air pressure claim: there's a reasonably well-known story at MIT that when the 20-story Green Building (building 54) first opened, an unexpected wind-tunnel Bernoulli effect at the base of the building meant that the (conventional) doors couldn't be opened if there was ay significant wind blowing, and people had to enter and exit via the basement tunnels to adjacent buildigs, until revolving doors could be retrofitted. Steve Summit 22:21, 15 July 2005 (UTC)

 * Security: The hinges aren't right there to play with as with normal doors. If you manage to get through a normal door, you're home free - with a revolving door you may still have another "door" to go through. ¦ Reisio 23:11, 2005 July 13 (UTC)
 * As I said, many are permanently unlocked. Superm401 |

(usually with attendents in the lobby) Talk 23:26, July 13, 2005 (UTC)
 * There's more security even when they're unlocked - it takes longer to get through them to the other side. ¦ Reisio 23:40, 2005 July 13 (UTC)
 * But even if that is security, why would a company want that? Superm401 | Talk 23:46, July 13, 2005 (UTC)
 * Sorry, but are you really asking why a company would want security? ¦ Reisio 02:07, 2005 July 14 (UTC)
 * NO. I am really asking why a company would want "security" that only entails slowing down customers entering to transact while the business is open. Superm401 | Talk 03:38, July 14, 2005 (UTC)
 * Simple - it doesn't slow them from entering. It takes longer to get from outside to inside, not to actually cross the area.  When you open a normal door, you are immediately accessing a new area.  When you're using a revolving door, you are not.  As for actually going from point A to point C with door B somewhere in the middle, a revolving door probably decreases total travel time. ¦ Reisio 12:36, 2005 July 14 (UTC)

 * Why would the company want it to "take longer to get from outside to inside" while they are open? Superm401 | Talk 12:51, July 14, 2005 (UTC)
 * You're missing the point. It's not that it takes longer to get inside, it's that the (number of seconds) transition from being outside to being inside is longer.  The only situation in which this might actually hamper efficiency would be if all business inside were done within a few feet of the doors...and even then it'd probably still be more efficient to use revolving doors. ¦ Reisio 15:02, 2005 July 14 (UTC)
 * I agree with Flcelloguy. The problem with standard doors is that when foot traffic increases, you have a situation where people get in each others' way and are constantly trying to push past each other.  With revolving doors, the directions of traffic are well defined and while a given individual may take longer to get in or out, the overall throughput is probably higher --CVaneg 23:20, 13 July 2005 (UTC)

 * When a hinged door is open there is a direct path for wind to enter at high speed, and wind can blow a hinged door open or hold it shut. In high traffic places even two sets of swing doors don't help because often both sets will be open at once. Revolving doors provide no path for wind because at least one doorseal is in contact with the "jamb" at all times, and because they have equal areas all around their point of revolution, no amount of differential pressure will cause or prevent rotation. Sure a finite amount of air is exchanged with each person that passes but this is minor; with no wind behind it, most of the air probably keeps rotating with the door. For security, I believe the chief advantage is the difficulty of rapid egress of fleeing felons; a regular door can be held open by an accomplice, but a revolving door is a much less appealing getaway channel. The mention of no exposed hinges (and perhaps a more easily secured locking mechanism) also rings true. The bit about two-way traffic I think is less clear; larger revolving doors take as much lateral space as two normal doors (which could be allocated to "in" and "out" directions) and with smaller revolving doors it's hard to enter the same chamber that someone is leaving, so with constant traffic in one direction the backchannel goes unused. Sharkford 15:24, July 14, 2005 (UTC)

 * In answer to several questions about security, in day and age, with a regular door someone can walk up to an open door, throw a bomb inside and run. That's a lot more difficult with a revolving door. DJ Clayworth 17:01, 14 July 2005 (UTC)

 * I added a history section, quoting from the original patent the advantages cited by the author. Samw 02:29, 15 July 2005 (UTC)

Also, revolving doors are used in air-supported domed stadiums, like the Pontiac Silverdome (which I've personally been to several times). When 80,000 people try to leave at once, the revolving doors keep the air pressure relatively moderated while still providing significant traffic movement. If they had 'standard' doors, the sheer number of people living in a small time span (15 minutes or so) would deflate the roof in hardly any time. PolarisSLBM 18:35, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

Needs better diagram
I think the graphic being used could be improved in a number of areas: --Hooperbloob 05:26, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
 * It needs to be shown in an isometric projection, straight on and top-down views fail to convey how they work,
 * Pushbars should be added,
 * The partially curved walls need to be shown as well,
 * Bonus points if someone can show an animated version

 * Gimme a few days and I can toodle about in AutoCAD, see what I can come up with, huh? PolarisSLBM 18:32, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

Image on revolving doors in Turkey
This image is listed as a door from Turkey revolving clockwise. I believe Turkey is a right-hand drive country. Shouldn't it have a counter-clockwise revolving door? Samw (talk) 00:04, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

It does. Have a look at your clock. - 203.214.147.217 (talk) 06:15, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Political Economy of War and Peace
— Assignment last updated by Muhammadmir1 (talk) 17:11, 18 December 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Revolving door