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Natural gas vehicle

A Natural Gas Vehicle (NGV) utilizes compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquefied natural gas (LNG) as an alternative fuel source. Distinguished from autogas vehicles fueled by liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), NGV's rely on methane combustion, resulting in cleaner emissions due to the removal of contaminants from the natural gas source.

Conversion of existing gasoline or diesel vehicles to NGVs is feasible, offering both dedicated and bi-fuel options. Heavy-duty vehicles such as trucks and buses can also undergo conversion, utilizing spark ignition systems or hybrid electric motor configurations.

Challenges in NGV adoption include the storage and refueling of natural gas, given its pressurized or liquefied state. While advancements in compression and liquefaction mitigate energy density differences, trade-offs regarding storage container size, complexity, and weight impact vehicle range. Despite these challenges, the safety and cost advantages of methane over hydrogen fuel contribute to its viability.

Obstacles to widespread NGV adoption for private vehicles include concerns over additional weight, technological unfamiliarity, and limited refueling infrastructure in some regions. Nevertheless, global NGV numbers reached nearly 28 million by 2019, with significant market presence in countries such as China, Iran, India, Pakistan, Argentina, Brazil, and Italy.

Advantages
CNG may be generated and used for bulk storage and pipeline transport of renewable energy and also be mixed with biomethane, itself derived from biogas from landfills or anaerobic digestion. This allows for the use of CNG in mobility with significantly lower carbon emissions compared to regular diesel-powered vehicles. It would also allow the continued use of CNG vehicles currently powered by non-renewable fossil fuels so that those vehicles do not become obsolete if stricter emissions regulations are mandated to combat climate change.

A key advantage of using natural gas is the existence, in principle, of most of the infrastructure and supply chain, which is non-interchangeable with hydrogen. Methane today mostly comes from non-renewable sources but can be supplied or produced from renewable sources, offering net carbon-neutral mobility. In many markets, especially the Americas, natural gas may trade at a discount to other fossil fuel products such as petrol, diesel or coal, or indeed be a less valuable by-product associated with their production that has to be disposed of. Many countries also provide tax incentives for natural gas-powered vehicles due to the environmental benefits to society. Lower operating costs and government incentives to reduce pollution from heavy vehicles in urban areas have driven the adoption of NGV for commercial and public uses, i.e. trucks and buses.

Challenges
Despite its advantages, the use of natural gas vehicles faces several limitations, including fuel storage and infrastructure available for delivery and distribution at fueling stations. CNG must be stored in high-pressure cylinders (3000 to 3600 psi), and LNG must be stored in cryogenic cylinders (-260 to -200 F). These cylinders take up more space than gasoline or diesel tanks that can be molded in intricate shapes to store more fuel and use less on-vehicle space. CNG tanks are sometimes located in the vehicle's trunk or pickup bed, reducing the space for other cargo. This problem has been solved by installing the tanks under the vehicle's body or on the roof (typical for buses), leaving cargo areas free. As with alternative fuels, other barriers to the widespread use of NGVs are natural gas distribution and the lower number of CNG and LNG stations then liquid fuels.

Other challenges include relatively expensive and environmentally insensitive but convenience-seeking private individuals; good profits and taxes extractable from small-batch sales of value-added, branded petrol and diesel fuels via established trade channels and oil refiners; resistance and safety concerns to increasing gas inventories in urban areas; dual-use of utility distribution networks originally built for home gas supply and allocation of network expansion costs; reluctance, effort and costs associated with switching; prestige and nostalgia associated with petroleum vehicles; fear of redundancy and disruption. A particular challenge may be that refiners are currently set up to produce a certain fuel mix from crude oil. Aviation fuel is likely to remain the fuel of choice for aircraft due to its weight sensitivity for the foreseeable future

Infrastructure
NGV filling stations can be located anywhere natural gas lines exist. Compressors (CNG) or liquefaction plants (LNG) are usually built on a large scale, but small home CNG refueling stations are possible. A company called Fuel Maker pioneered a system called Phil Home Refueling Appliance (known as "Phil"), which they developed in partnership with Honda for the American GX model. Phil is now manufactured and sold by BRC Fuel Maker, a division of Fuel Systems Solutions, Inc.

Deployment
The Asia-Pacific region leads the world with 6.8 million vehicles, followed by Latin America with 4.2 million. In Latin America, almost 90% of NGVs have bi-fuel engines, allowing these vehicles to run on either gasoline or CNG. In Pakistan, almost every vehicle converted to (or manufactured for) alternative fuel use typically retains the capability of running on gasoline.

As of 2016, the U.S. had a fleet of 160,000 NG vehicles, including 3,176 LNG vehicles. Other countries where natural gas-powered buses are popular include India, Australia, Argentina, Germany, and Greece. In OECD countries, there are around 500,000 CNG vehicles. Pakistan's market share of NGVs was 61.1% in 2010, followed by Armenia with more than 77% (2014), and Bolivia with 20%. The number of NGV refueling stations has also increased to 18,202 worldwide as of 2010, up 10.2% from the previous year.

CNG/LNG as fuel for automobiles
An increasing number of vehicles worldwide are being manufactured to run on CNG by major carmakers. Until recently, the Honda Civic GX was the only NGV commercially available in the US market. More recently, Ford, General Motors and Ram Trucks have bi-fuel offerings in their vehicle lineup. In 2006, the Brazilian subsidiary of FIAT introduced the Fiat Siena Tetra fuel, a four-fuel car that can run on natural gas (CNG).

CNG-powered vehicles are considered safer than gasoline-powered ones.

Available production cars

Existing gasoline-powered vehicles may be converted to run on CNG or LNG, and can be dedicated (running only on natural gas) or bi-fuel (running on either gasoline or natural gas). However, an increasing number of vehicles worldwide are being manufactured to run on CNG. Until recently, the now-discontinued Honda Civic GX was the only NGV commercially available in the US market. More recently, Ford, General Motors and Ram Trucks have bi-fuel offerings in their vehicle lineup. Ford's approach is to offer a bi-fuel prep kit as a factory option and then have the customer choose an authorized partner to install the natural gas equipment. Choosing GM's bi-fuel option sends the HD pickups with the 6.0L gasoline engine to IMPCO in Indiana to upfit the vehicle to run on CNG. Ram currently is the only pickup truck manufacturer with a truly CNG factory-installed bi-fuel system available in the U.S. market.

Outside the U.S. GM do Brasil introduced the Multipower engine in 2004, which was capable of using CNG, alcohol, and gasoline (E20-E25 blend) as fuel. It was used in the Chevrolet Astra 2.0 model 2005, aimed at the taxi market. In 2006, the Brazilian subsidiary of FIAT introduced the Fiat Siena Tetra fuel, a four-fuel car developed under Magneti Marelli of Fiat Brazil. This automobile can run on natural gas (CNG); 100% ethanol (E100); E20 to E25 gasoline blend, Brazil's mandatory gasoline; and pure gasoline. However, it is no longer available in Brazil but is used in other neighboring countries.

In 2015, Honda announced its decision to phase out the commercialization of natural-gas-powered vehicles to focus on the development of a new generation of electrified vehicles such as hybrids, plug-in electric cars and hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles. Since 2008, Honda sold about 16,000 natural gas vehicles, mainly to taxi and commercial fleets.

Differences between LNG and CNG fuels
Though LNG and CNG are both considered NGVs, the technologies are vastly different. Refueling equipment, fuel cost, pumps, tanks, hazards, and capital costs are different.

One thing they share is that due to engines made for gasoline, computer-controlled valves to control fuel mixtures are required for both of them, often being proprietary and specific to the manufacturer. The on-engine technology for fuel metering is the same for LNG and CNG.

CNG as an auto fuel
CNG, or compressed natural gas, is stored at high pressure, 3000 to 3600 psi. The required tank is more massive and costly than a conventional fuel tank. Commercial on-demand refueling stations are more expensive to operate than LNG stations because of the energy required for compression; the compressor requires 100 times more electrical power. However, slow-fill (many hours) can be cost-effective with LNG stations [missing citation - the initial liquefaction of natural gas by cooling requires more energy than gas compression]. The time to fill a CNG tank varies greatly depending on the station. Home refuels typically fill at about 1 kg/h (0.4 GGE/h). At gas stations, where the pressure is greatly higher, it is possible to refill a 25 kg (10 GGE) tank in 5–10 minutes. Also, because of the lower energy density, the CNG range is lower compared to LNG. Gas composition and throughput allowing, it should be feasible to connect commercial CNG fueling stations to city gas networks or enable home fueling of CNG vehicles directly using a gas compressor. Similar to a car battery, the CNG tank of a car could double as a home energy storage device, and the compressor could be powered at times when there is excess / free renewable electrical energy.

LNG as an auto fuel
LNG, or liquified natural gas, is natural gas that has been cooled to the point that it is a cryogenic liquid. Its liquid state is still more than twice as dense as CNG. LNG is either dispensed from bulk storage tanks or made locally from utility pipes at LNG fuel stations. Because of its cryogenic nature, it is stored in specially designed insulated tanks. Generally speaking, these tanks operate at fairly low pressures (about 5 to 10 bar) when compared to CNG. A vaporizer is mounted in the fuel system, turning the LNG into a gas (which may be considered low-pressure CNG). When comparing a commercial LNG station with a CNG station, utility infrastructure, capital cost, and electricity heavily favor LNG over CNG, but the availability of piped gas is more common than LNG delivery by tanker. There are existing LCNG stations (CNG and LNG), where fuel is stored as LNG, then vaporized to CNG on demand. LCNG stations require less capital cost than fast-fill CNG stations alone but more than LNG stations.

Aside from different fuel tanks, fuel metering, and computer modules, the engines in NG vehicles could be run by CNG or LNG without requiring any modification because both are forms of natural gas.

Advantages over gasoline and diesel
LNG – and especially CNG – tends to corrode and wear the parts of an engine less rapidly than gasoline. Thus, it is quite common to find diesel-engine NGVs with high mileages (over 500000 miles). CNG also emits 20-29% less than diesel and gasoline. Emissions are cleaner, with lower emissions of carbon and lower particulate emissions per equivalent distance traveled. There is generally less wasted fuel. However, the cost (monetary, environmental, pre-existing infrastructure) of distribution, compression, and cooling must be taken into account. In addition, natural gas has a higher Octane rating than gasoline, with an octane rating of 112 RON/105 AKI for propane and 120 RON/120 AKI for methane, making it less likely to cause engine knocking.

Inherent advantages/disadvantages between autogas (LPG) power and NGV
Autogas, also known as LPG or propane, has a different chemical composition. However, it is still a petroleum-based gas produced from refining petroleum oil and has several inherent advantages and disadvantages, as well as noninherent ones. The inherent advantage of autogas over CNG is that it requires far less compression (20% of CNG cost), is denser and easier to store as at this lower pressure it is a liquid at room temperature, and thus requires far cheaper tanks (consumer) and fuel compressors (provider) than CNG. As compared to LNG, it requires no chilling (and thus less energy) or problems associated with the extreme cold such as frostbite. Like NGVs, it also has advantages over gasoline and diesel in terms of cleaner emissions and less wear on engines than gasoline. A major drawback of LPG is its safety. The fuel is volatile and flammable, and the fumes are heavier than air, which causes them to collect in a low spot in the event of a leak, making it far more hazardous to use. More care is needed in handling this. Besides this, LPG (40% from Crude Oil refining) has historically been more expensive than Natural Gas, even though the energy density per weight is higher.

Current advantages of LPG power over NGV
In places like the US, Thailand, and India, there are five to ten times more LPG stations, thus making the fuel more accessible than NGV stations. In some countries like Poland, South Korea, and Turkey, LPG stations and autos are widespread, while NGVs are not. In addition, retail LPG fuel is considerably cheaper in some countries, such as Thailand.

Future possibilities
Though ANG (adsorbed natural gas) has not yet been used in either providing stations nor consumer storage tanks, its low compression (500 psi vs 3600 psi) has the potential to drive down costs of NGV infrastructure and vehicle tanks.

Use of LNG to fuel large over-the-road trucks
LNG is being evaluated and tested for over-the-road trucking, off-road, marine, and railroad applications. There are known problems with the fuel tanks and the delivery of gas to the engine.

China has been a leader in the use of LNG vehicles with over 100,000 LNG powered vehicles on the road as of 2014.

In the United States, there were 69 public truck LNG fuel centers as of February 2015. The 2013 National Trucker's Directory lists approximately 7,000 truck stops, thus approximately 1% of US truck stops have LNG available.

In 2013, Dillon Transport announced they were putting 25 large LNG trucks into service in Dallas, USA. They are refueling at a public LNG fuel center. The same year Raven Transportation announced they were buying 36 LNG large trucks to be fueled by Clean Energy Fuels locations and Lowe's finished converting one of its dedicated fleets to LNG fueled trucks.

UPS had over 1200 LNG fueled trucks on the roads in February 2015. UPS has 16,000 tractor trucks in its fleet, and 60 of the new 2014 large trucks will be placed in service in the Houston, USA area, where UPS is building its own private LNG fuel center to avoid the lines at retail fuel centers. In Amarillo, USA and Oklahoma City, USA, UPS is using public fuel centers.

Clean Energy Fuels has opened several public LNG Fuel Lanes along I-10 and claims that as of June 2014, LNG fueled trucks can use the route from Los Angeles to Houston, USA by refueling exclusively at Clean Energy Fuels public facilities. In 2014 Shell and Travel Centers of America opened the first of a planned network of U.S. truck stop LNG stations in California, USA. Per the alternative fuel fuelling centre tracking site there are 10 LNG capable public fuel stations in the greater Los Angeles area, making it the single most penetrated metro market. As of February 2015, Blu LNG has at least 23 operational LNG capable fuel centers across 8 states, and Clean Energy had 39 operational public LNG facilities.

As can be seen at the alternative fuel fueling center tracking site, as of early 2015 there is a void of LNG fuel centers, public and private, from Illinois to the Rockies. A Noble Energy LNG production plant in northern Colorado was planned to go online in the first quarter of 2015 and to have a capacity of 100,000 gallons of LNG per day for on-road, off-road, and drilling operations. As of 2014, LNG fuel and NGV's had not achieved much usage in Europe.

American Gas & Technology pioneered the use of onsite liquefaction using van sized station to access Natural Gas from utility pipe and clean, liquefy, store, and dispense it. Their stations make 300-5000 USgal of LNG per day.

Use of LNG to fuel high-horsepower/high-torque engines
In internal combustion engines, the volume of the cylinders is a common measure of the power of an engine. Thus, a 2000cc engine would typically be more powerful than a 1800cc engine, but that assumes a similar air-fuel mixture is used.

If via a turbocharger as an example, the 1800cc engine were using an air-fuel mixture that was significantly more energy dense, then it might be able to produce more power than a 2000cc engine burning a less energy-dense air-fuel mixture. However, turbochargers are both complex and expensive. Thus, it becomes clear that for high-horsepower/high-torque engines, a fuel that can inherently be used to create an energy-dense dense air-fuel mixture is preferred because a smaller and simpler engine can produce the same power.

With traditional gasoline and diesel engines, the energy density of the air-fuel mixture is limited because the liquid fuels do not mix well in the cylinder. Further, gasoline and diesel auto-ignite at temperatures and pressures relevant to engine design. An important part of traditional engine design is designing the cylinders, compression ratios, and fuel injectors such that pre-ignition is avoided, but at the same time as much fuel as possible can be injected, become well mixed, and still have time to complete the combustion process during the power stroke.

Natural gas does not auto-ignite at pressures and temperatures relevant to traditional gasoline and diesel engine design, thus providing more flexibility in the design of a natural gas engine. Methane, the main component of natural gas, has an autoignition temperature of 580 °C, whereas gasoline and diesel autoignite at approximately 250 °C and 210 °C respectively.

With a compressed natural gas (CNG) engine, the mixing of the fuel and the air is more effective since gases typically mix well in a short period of time. Still, at typical CNG compression pressures, the fuel itself is less energy dense than gasoline or diesel thus the result is a lower energy dense air-fuel mixture. Thus for the same cylinder displacement engine, a non-turbocharged CNG-powered engine is typically less powerful than a similarly sized gasoline or diesel engine. For that reason, turbochargers are popular in European CNG cars. Despite that limitation, the 12 litre Cummins Westport ISX12G engine is an example of a CNG capable engine designed to pull tractor/trailer loads up to 80000 lbs showing CNG can be used in most if not all on-road truck applications. The original ISX G engines incorporated a turbocharger to enhance the air-fuel energy density.

LNG offers a unique advantage over CNG for more demanding high-horsepower applications by eliminating the need for a turbocharger. Because LNG boils at approximately -160 °C, using a simple heat exchanger, a small amount of LNG can be converted to its gaseous form at extremely high pressure with little or no mechanical energy. A properly designed high-horsepower engine can leverage this high-pressure energy-dense gaseous fuel source to create a higher energy-density air-fuel mixture than can be efficiently created with a CNG-powered engine. Compared to CNG engines, the result is more overall efficiency in high-horsepower engine applications when high-pressure direct injection technology is used. The Westport HDMI2 fuel system is an example of a high-pressure direct injection technology that does not require a turbocharger if teamed with appropriate LNG heat exchanger technology. The Volvo Trucks 13-liter LNG engine is another example of an LNG engine leveraging advanced high-pressure technology.

Westport recommends CNG for engines 7 litres or smaller and LNG with direct injection for engines between 20 and 150 litres. For engines between 7 and 20 litres, either option is recommended. See slide 13 from their NGV BRUXELLES – INDUSTRY INNOVATION SESSION presentation

High horsepower engines in the oil drilling, mining, locomotive, and marine fields have been or are being developed. Paul Blomerus has written a paper concluding as much as 40 million tonnes per annum of LNG could be required to meet the global needs of the high-horsepower engines by 2025 to 2030.

As of the end of the first quarter of 2015, Prometheus Energy Group Inc claims to have delivered over 100 million gallons (380 million litres) of LNG within the previous four years into the industrial market, and is continuing to add new customers.

Motorcycles
Scooters can also use CNG as a fuel source.

Ships
The MV Isla Bella was the world's first LNG powered container ship. LNG carriers are sometimes powered by the boil-off of LNG from their storage tanks, although Diesel powered LNG carriers are also common to minimize loss of cargo and enable more versatile refueling.

Aircraft
Some airplanes use LNG to power their turbofans. Aircraft are susceptible to weight; much of an aircraft's weight goes into fuel carriage. Liquified natural gas has a high specific energy (MJ/kg), a useful optimization for flight applications.

Chemical composition
The primary component of natural gas is methane (CH4), the shortest and lightest hydrocarbon molecule. It may also contain heavier gaseous hydrocarbons such as ethane (C2H6), propane (C3H8) and butane (C4H10), as well as other gases, in varying amounts. Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is a common contaminant, which must be removed prior to most uses.

Energy content
Combustion of one cubic meter yields 38 MJ (10.6 kWh). Natural gas has the highest energy/carbon ratio of any fossil fuel and thus produces less carbon dioxide per unit of energy.

Transport
The major difficulty in the use of natural gas is transportation. Natural gas pipelines are economical and common on land and across medium-length stretches of water (like Langeled, Interconnector and Trans-Mediterranean Pipeline), but are impractical across large oceans. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker ships, railway tankers, and tank trucks are also used.

Storage
CNG is typically stored in steel or composite containers at high pressure (205 to 275 bar). These containers are not typically temperature controlled but are allowed to stay at local ambient temperature. There are many standards for CNG cylinders. The most popular one is ISO 11439. For North America the standard is ANSI NGV-2.

LNG storage pressures are typically around 3 to 10 bar. At atmospheric pressure, LNG is at a temperature of -162 °C. However, in a vehicle tank under pressure, the temperature is slightly higher (see saturated fluid). Storage temperatures may vary due to varying composition and storage pressure. LNG is far denser than even the highly compressed state of CNG. As a consequence of the low temperatures, vacuum-insulated storage tanks typically made of stainless steel are used to hold LNG.

CNG can be stored at lower pressure in a form known as an ANG (Adsorbed Natural Gas) tank at 35 bar (500 psi, the pressure of gas in natural gas pipelines) in various sponge-like materials, such as activated carbon and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). The fuel is stored at similar or greater energy density than CNG. This means that vehicles can be refuelled from the natural gas network without extra gas compression, and the fuel tanks can be slimmed down and made of lighter, less strong materials.

Conversion kits
Conversion kits for gasoline or diesel to LNG/CNG are available in many countries, along with the labor to install them. However, the range of prices and quality of conversion vary enormously.

Recently, regulations involving certification of installations in the USA have been loosened to include certified private companies, those same kit installations for CNG have fallen to the $6,000+ range (depending on the type of vehicle).

Overview
Natural gas vehicles are popular in regions or countries where natural gas is abundant and where the government chooses to price CNG lower than gasoline. The use of natural gas began in the Po River Valley of Italy in the 1930s, followed by New Zealand in the 1980s, though its use has declined there. At the peak of New Zealand's natural gas use, 10% of the nation's cars were converted, around 110,000 vehicles. In the United States CNG powered buses are the favorite choice of several public transit agencies, with a fleet of more than 114,000 vehicles, mostly buses. India, Australia, Argentina, and Germany also have widespread use of natural gas-powered buses in their public transportation fleets.

Germany
As of December 2011, Germany has 900 CNG filling stations in service. Gibgas, an independent consumer group, estimates that 21% of all CNG filling stations in the country offer a natural gas/biomethane mix to varying ratios, and 38 stations offer pure biomethane.

Greece
Greece uses natural gas buses for public transport in Athens. Also, the Public Gas Company (DEPA) has a network of 14 stations (as of June 2020), under brand "Fisikon", with expansion plans.

Ireland
Bus Éireann Introduced the first NGV on 17 July 2012. It will operate on the 216 city centre to Mount Oval, Rochestown, route until mid-August on trial being undertaken in partnership with Ervia. The Eco-city bus is made by MAN.

Italy
Natural gas traction is quite popular in Italy, due to the existence of a capillary distribution network for industrial use since the late 50s and a traditionally high retail price for petrol. As of April 2012 there were about 1500 filling stations, spread on the entire country except for the island of Sardinia, while the fleet reached 730,000 CNG vehicles at the end of 2010.

Ukraine
Ukraine's first compressed natural gas refueling station (CNGS) was commissioned in 1937. Today, there is a well-developed CNGS network across the country. Many buses were converted to run on CNG during the 1990s, primarily for economic reasons. The retrofitted cylinders are often visible atop the vehicle's roof and/or underneath the body. Despite their age, these buses remain in service and continue to provide reliable public transport combined with the environmental benefits of CNG.

United Kingdom
CNG buses are beginning to be used in the UK, e.g. by Reading Buses and Nottingham City Transport. The latter company purchased 53 double-decker gas buses between 2017 and 2018, earning them the world record for the largest fleet of CNG buses in the world. In 2019, Nottingham City Transport purchased a further 67 CNG buses.

Canada

Natural Gas has been used as a motor fuel in Canada for over 20 years. With assistance from federal and provincial research programs, demonstration projects, and NGV market deployment programs during the 1980s and 1990s, the population of light-duty NGVs grew to over 35,000 by the early 1990s. This assistance resulted in a significant adoption of natural gas transit buses as well. The NGV market started to decline after 1995, eventually reaching today's vehicle population of about 12,000.

This figure includes 150 urban transit buses, 45 school buses, 9,450 light-duty cars and trucks, and 2,400 forklifts and ice-resurfacers. The total fuel use in all NGV markets in Canada was 1.9 petajoules (PJs) in 2007 (or 54.6 million liters of gasoline liters equivalent), down from 2.6 PJs in 1997. Public CNG refueling stations have declined in numbers from 134 in 1997 to 72 today. There are 22 in British Columbia, 12 in Alberta, 10 in Saskatchewan, 27 in Ontario, and 1 in Québec. There are only 12 private fleet stations.

United States
As of December 2009, the U.S. had a fleet of 114,270 compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles, 147,030 vehicles running on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and 3,176 vehicles running on liquefied natural gas (LNG). The NGV fleet is made up mostly of transit buses, but there are also some government fleet cars and vans, as well as an increasing number of corporate trucks replacing diesel versions, most notably Waste Management, Inc and UPS trucks. As of 12-Dec-2013, Waste Management has a fleet of 2000 CNG Collection trucks; as of 12-Dec-2013, UPS has 2700 alternative fuel vehicles. As of February 2011, there were 873 CNG refueling sites, 2,589 LPG sites, and 40 LNG sites, led by California with 215 CNG refueling stations in operation, 228 LPG sites and 32 LNG sites. The number of refueling stations includes public and private sites; not all are available to the public. As of December 2010, the U.S. ranked sixth in the world in terms of number of NGV stations. Currently, there are 160,000 NGVs operating in the country.

Mexico
The natural gas vehicle market is limited to fleet vehicles and other public use vehicles like minibuses in larger cities. However, the state-owned bus company RTP Of Mexico City has purchased 30 Hyundai Super Aero City CNG-Propelled buses to integrate with the existing fleet as well as to introduce new routes within the city.

Overview
CNG vehicles are common in South America, with a 35% share of the worldwide NGV fleet, where these vehicles are mainly used as taxicabs in main cities of Argentina and Brazil. Normally, standard gasoline vehicles are retrofitted in specialized shops, which involve installing the gas cylinder in the trunk, the CNG injection system, and electronics.

As of 2009 Argentina had 1,807,186 NGV's with 1,851 refueling stations across the nation, or 15% of all vehicles; and Brazil had 1,632,101 vehicles and 1,704 refueling stations, with a higher concentration in the cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

Colombia had an NGV fleet of 300,000 vehicles, and 460 refueling stations as of 2009. Bolivia has increased its fleet from 10,000 in 2003 to 121,908 units in 2009, with 128 refueling stations.

Peru had 81,024 NGVs and 94 fueling stations as 2009,. In Peru, several factory-built CNVs have tanks installed under the vehicle's body, leaving the trunk free. Among the models built with this feature are the Fiat Multipla, the new Fiat Panda, the Volkswagen Touran Ecofuel, the Volkswagen Caddy Ecofuel, and the Chevy Taxi. Right now, Peru has 224,035 NGVs.

Other countries with significant NGV fleets are Venezuela (226,100) as of 2017 and Chile (15,000) as of 2017.

Latest developments
GM do Brasil introduced the MultiPower engine in August 2004 which was capable of using CNG, alcohol and gasoline as fuel. The GM engine has electronic fuel injection that automatically adjusts to any acceptable fuel configuration. This motor was used in the Chevrolet Astra and was aimed at the taxi market.

In 2006 the Brazilian subsidiary of Fiat introduced the Fiat Siena Tetra fuel, a four-fuel car developed under Magneti Marelli of Fiat Brazil. This automobile can run on 100% ethanol (E100), E20 to E25 blend (Brazil's normal ethanol gasoline blend), pure gasoline (not available in Brazil), and natural gas, and switches from the gasoline-ethanol blend to CNG automatically, depending on the power required by road conditions.

Since 2003 and with the commercial success of flex cars in Brazil, another existing option is to retrofit an ethanol flexible-fuel vehicle to add a natural gas tank and the corresponding injection system. Some taxicabs in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, run on this option, allowing the user to choose among three fuels (E25, E100 and CNG) according to the current market prices at the pump. Vehicles with this adaptation are known in Brazil as tri-fuel cars.

India
In 1993, CNG had become available in Delhi, India's capital, though LPG became predominantly used due to its lower capital costs. Compressed Natural Gas is a domestic energy produced in Western parts of India. In India, most CNG vehicles are dual-fuelled, which means they can run both on CNG and petrol. This makes it very convenient, and users can drive long distances without worrying about the availability of natural gas (as long as petrol is available). As of December 2010, India had 1,080,000 NGVs and 560 fueling stations, many of the older ones being LPG rather than CNG. In addition, it is thought that more illegally converted LPG autos than legal ones ply the streets in India, some estimates are as high as 15 million "autos" (running the gamut of everything from LPG motored pedal bicycles to CNG buses)

In 1995, a lawyer filed a case with the Supreme Court of India under the Public Interest Litigation rule, which is part of the Constitution of India and enables any citizen to address the Supreme Court directly. The lawyer's case was about the health risks caused by air pollution emitted from road vehicles. The Supreme Court decided that cars in circulation after 1995 would have to run on unleaded fuel. By 1998, India was converted to 100% of unleaded fuel after the government ruled that diesel cars in India were restricted to 10,000 ppm after 1995. At the beginning of 2005, 10,300 CNG busses, 55,000 CNG three-wheeler taxis, 5,000 CNG minibuses, 10,000 CNG taxis and 10,000 CNG cars ran on India's roads (1982-2008 Product-Life Institute, Geneva). The Delhi Transport Corporation currently operates the world's largest fleet of CNG buses for public transport. Currently India stands third with 3.045 million NGVs.

Iran
By the end of 2015, Iran had the world's largest fleet of NGV at 3.5 million vehicles. The share of compressed natural gas in the national fuel basket is more than 23%. CNG consumption by Iran's transportation sector is around 20 million cubic meters per day. There are 2,335 CNG stations. The growth of NGV market in Iran has in large part been due to Iranian government intervention to decrease the society's dependence on gasoline. This governmental plan was implemented to reduce the effect of sanctions on Iran and make the nation's domestic market less dependent on imported gasoline. Iran has been manufacturing its own NGV's through local manufacturing using dedicated CNG engines which use gasoline only as a backup fuel. Also by 2012, Iranian manufacturers had the capacity to build 1.5 million CNG cylinders per year and therefore Iranian government has banned their imports to support the local manufacturers. In addition CNG in Iran costs the least compared to the rest of the world. In 2012, the Iranian government announced a plan to replace the traditional CNG cylinders with Adsorbed Natural Gas (ANG) cylinders.

Pakistan
Pakistan was the country with the second largest fleet of NGV with a total of 2.85 million by the end of 2011. Most of the public transportation fleet has been converted to CNG. Also, in Pakistan and India, there have been on-going (last several years now) series of CNG fuel shortages which periodically waxes and wanes, getting the fuel into a tank can be a major problem. In July 2011, petrol usage shot up 15% from the month before due to shortages. Pakistan also has reported that over 2,000 people have died in 2011 from CNG cylinder blasts, because of low quality of cylinders there. In 2012, the Pakistani government decided to gradually phase out the CNG sector, beginning by banning any new conversions to CNG and banning the manufacturing of new NGV's. In addition, the government plans to close down all refueling stations in the next three years.

Thailand
Thailand has for over a 15 years run autogas taxi cabs in Bangkok, though autos and buses had erroneously labelled NGV stickers on them, when in fact, were LPG fuelled.

Given a generous natural gas supply but relying on imported oil, the Thailand government heavily promoted alternative fuels like LPG, natural gas and ethanol to replace gasoline beginning around 2003. Yet, NGV was very slow to take off due to cheaper LPG fuel, a pre-existing LPG fleet, and the low conversion cost of local LPG conversion shops compared to factory-installed CNG or conversion. A significant effort was made when the state-controlled oil company PTT PCL built a network of natural gas refueling stations. The cost of subsidy was estimated at US$150 million in 2008.

As the price of oil climbed rapidly, it was estimated more than 40,000 new cars and trucks powered by natural gas were purchased in six months in 2008, including many buses. That year, about half of the taxi fleet in Bangkok used LPG and was prodded to convert to CNG, with little success. Since 2008, there has been government arm-twisting to switch from LPG to CNG, with a rollout of CNG stations near Bangkok around 2007 and then upcountry in 2010, at times replacing LPG stations. Operators of used vehicles have balked at the massive conversion cost (up to quadruple that of LPG in Thailand), especially given Thailand's strong ultra-competitive domestic LPG conversion industry and retail CNG fuel cost (one and a half times). Thailand had some 700,000 LPG-fueled vehicles and 300,000 CNG fueled, with 1,000 LPG stations and 600 CNG as of 2011. Demand has increased 26% over 2011 for CNG in Thailand. As of the end of 2012, Thailand has 1,014,000 LPG fueled vehicles, and consumed 606,000 tonnes in 2012 of LPG, while 483 stations serve up some 380,000 CNG vehicles., showing that LPG conversion continues to enjoy heavy favor over NGVs despite a massive government push for CNG. CNG vehicles are more likely to be bought factory installed, while LPG is likely to be an aftermarket conversion. LNG vehicles in Thailand are almost non-existent except for lorries.

Malaysia
In Malaysia, the use of compressed natural gas was originally introduced for taxicabs and airport limousines during the late 1990s, when new taxis were launched with NGV engines while taxicab operators were encouraged to send in existing taxis for full engine conversions, reducing their costs of operation. Any vehicle converted to use CNG is labelled with white rhombus "NGV" (Natural Gas Vehicle) tags, lending to the common use of "NGV" when referring to road vehicles with CNG engines. The practice of using CNG remained largely confined to taxicabs predominantly in the Klang Valley and Penang due to a lack of interest. No incentives were offered for those besides taxicab owners to use CNG engines. At the same time, government subsidies on petrol and diesel made conventional road vehicles cheaper to use in the eyes of the consumers. Petronas, Malaysia's state-owned oil company, also monopolizes the provision of CNG to road users. , Petronas only operates about 150 CNG refueling stations, most of which are concentrated in the Klang Valley. At the same time, another 50 was expected by the end of 2008.

As fuel subsidies were gradually removed in Malaysia starting June 5, 2008, the subsequent 41% price hike on petrol and diesel led to a 500% increase in the number of new CNG tanks installed. National car maker Proton considered fitting its Waja, Saga and Persona models with CNG kits from Prins Autogassystemen by the end of 2008, while a local distributor of locally assembled Hyundai cars offers new models with CNG kits. Conversion centres, which also benefited from the rush for lower running costs, also perform partial conversions to existing road vehicles, allowing them to run on both petrol or diesel and CNG with a cost varying between RM3,500 to RM5,000 for passenger cars.

Singapore
There were about 400 CNG-fueled vehicles in Singapore in mid-2007, of which about 110 are taxis operated by Smart Automobile. By February 2008, the number has risen to 520 CNG vehicles, of which about half are taxis. All vehicles had to refuel at the sole CNG station operated by Sembcorp Gas and located on Jurong Island until the opening of the first publicly accessible CNG station at Mandai in 2008, operated by Smart Automobile. The company plans to build another four stations by 2011, by which time the company projects to operate 3,000 to 4,000 CNG taxis, and with 10,000 CNG public and commercial vehicles of other types on Singapore's roads. Sembcorp Gas opened its second CNG station a week after the Mandai station at Jalan Buroh.

Indonesia
CNG is almost unheard of as a transport fuel before 2010 in the archipelago except in Jakarta, where a very relatively minor number of vehicles, most notably Transjakarta buses, use the fuel. However, since 2010, the government has emphasised using CNG for vehicle fuel and domestic consumption over wood burning (which can produce deadly methanol) and kerosene.

China
China had 450,000 NGV's and 870 refueling stations as of 2009. China in 2012 had 1 million NGVs on the roads, 3 million forecasts for 2015, and over 2000 stations (CNG and LPG), with plans for 12,000 by 2020. Currently, China leads the World with 5 million NGVs China also has a lot of vehicles running of Petrol blended with Methanol as M15 and M85.

South Korea
For the purpose of improving air quality in the metropolitan area of Seoul, CNG buses were first introduced in July 1997. By 2014, all Seoul buses were operating on CNG. Hyundai motor developed a CNG hybrid bus with 34.5% more-fuel efficiency and 30% lower pollution compared to CNG buses. As a result, the Seoul city government plans to change to CNG hybrid buses for 2,235 low-bed disabled-friendly CNG buses in Seoul.

CNG buses are operating in other major South Korean cities like Busan, Daegu, Daejeon, Gwangju and Incheon.

Motorsport
A new category of motorcar racing unites teams which compete with cars powered by natural gas, to demonstrate the effectiveness of natural gas as an alternative fuel. ECOMOTORI (magazine) Racing Team The magazine's team participates in the FIA Alternative Energies Cup and the Italian ACI/CSAI Alternative Energies Championship. In 2012, the team, led by Nicola Ventura, competed with a Fiat 500 Abarth, modified to run on natural gas with a Cavagna/Bigas fuel conversion kit and thus renamed "500 EcoAbarth". The driver is Massimo Liverani while in the role of navigator, alternate Valeria Strada, Alessandro Talmelli and Fulvio Ciervo. On October 14, 2012, at the end of the seventh Ecorally San Marino-Vatican, with three wins and second place (out of four races), the Team also won the Italian CSAI Alternative Energy Pilots and Navigators titles. On 28 October 2012, after having raced in seven European countries, collecting three wins, two second places and additional points, the team won the FIA Alternative Energies Drivers and Constructors world titles. For the first time, a methane-powered car won an FIA world title. In 2013, the team raced in the FIA Alternative Energies Cup and CSAI Championships. The "500 Eco barth" dominated the season, winning five out of five titles. Thanks to the team's work, the Abarth once again won a constructors' title since its last win 46 years ago.

title: Natural gas vehicle


text:
Žemyna

Žemyna (also Žemynėlė or Žemelė) (from žemė – earth) is the goddess of the earth in Lithuanian religion. She is usually regarded as mother goddess and one of the chief Lithuanian gods similar to Latvian Zemes māte. Žemyna personifies the fertile earth and nourishes all life on earth, human, plant, and animal. All that is born of earth will return to earth, thus her cult is also related to death. As the cult diminished after baptism of Lithuania, Žemyna's image and functions became influenced by the cult of Virgin Mary.

Name
Žemyna stems from the name of Proto-Indo-European Earth-goddess *Dʰéǵʰōm. It relates to Thracian Zemele ('mother earth') and Greek Semelē (Σεμέλη).

Role
Žemyna was first mentioned by Jan Łasicki (1582). It was later also described by Mikalojus Daukša (1595), Daniel Klein (1653), Matthäus Prätorius, Jacob Brodowski (1740), and in numerous folk legends, beliefs, and prayers. Prätorius described a ritual, called žemyneliauti, performed at major celebrations (e.g. weddings) or agricultural works (e.g. harvest). The head of the household would drink a cup of beer, but first, he would spill some of the drink on the ground and say a short prayer. Then he would kill a rooster or a hen, which would be cooked and eaten by the entire family. Each family member would receive a loaf of bread and say prayers, blessings, and greetings. The bones and other scraps would be sacrificed to the goddess (burned or buried). Other recorded rites included burying bread baked from last crops of prior harvest in a field before new sowing and sacrifice of a black piglet. People would also kiss the earth saying a short prayer thanking Žemyna for all her gifts and acknowledging that one day they will return to her. People addressed Žemyna in various affectionate diminutive names and epithets.

In addition, historical sources on Baltic mythology describe the dual role of goddess Zemyna: while she was connected to the fertility of the land, she was also associated with receiving the dead and acting as their ruler and guardian. Pieces of Lithuanian folklore also make references to Earth as mother of humans and their final abode after death.

Family
The goddess is said to be married to either Perkūnas (thunder god) or Praamžius (manifestation of chief heavenly god Dievas). Thus the couple formed the typical Indo-European pair of mother-earth and father-sky. It was believed that the earth needs to be fertilized by the heavens (rain and thunder). Thus it was prohibited to plow or sow before the first thunder as the earth would be barren.

In modern culture
The Lithuanian folk music group Kūlgrinda in collaboration with Donis released an album in 2013 titled Giesmės Žemynai, meaning "Hymns to Žemyna".

Related male deities
Other characters in Lithuanian mythology are related - etymologically or semantically - to goddess Zemyna and a cult of the earth, such as Žemėpatis  ('Earth Spouse') and Žemininkas, male deities associated with cattle, agriculture and the fertility of the land. Their names are present in historical records of the Lithuanian non-Christian faith by foreign missionaries.

Another male divinity with the name Zemeluks, Zamoluksei, Zameluks or Ziameluks is also said to be attested. An account tells he is a DEUS TERRAE ('earth god'), while in other he is "a lord or god of earth who was buried in the earth" by the Prussians.

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

title: Žemyna


text:
Fumi-e

A fumi-e (踏み絵) was a likeness of Jesus or Mary onto which the religious authorities of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan required suspected Christians (Kirishitan) to step, in order to demonstrate that they were not members of the outlawed religion; otherwise they would be tortured or killed.

History
Fumi-e began first to be used against Christians in Nagasaki in 1629. Residents of Nagasaki, whether commoner, Buddhist monk or samurai, were required to tread on the icons which were brought from house to house. Their use was officially abandoned when ports opened to foreigners on 13 April 1856, but some remained in use until Christian teaching was placed under formal protection during the Meiji era. The icons were also known as e-ita or ita-e, while the forced test was called "e-fumi".

The Japanese government used the e-fumi to uncover Christians and sympathizers. Fumi-e contained images of the Virgin Mary and Jesus, which government officials ordered all to trample on. Those who were reluctant or refused to do so were arrested for being Christians. The policy of the shogunate was to get them to abjure the faith. If they refused they would be tortured. If they still refused to abjure, they would be killed. Some executions took place at Nagasaki's Mount Unzen, where the Christians were boiled in the hot springs.

Execution for Christianity was unofficially abandoned by the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1805.

Eighteenth-century Europe was aware enough of e-fumi for authors of fiction to mention it when alluding to Japan, as in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726), Oliver Goldsmith's The Citizen of the World (1760), and Voltaire's Candide (1759). Allegations published in Europe during the late 17th and early 18th century that Dutch traders at Dejima were required to undergo the e-fumi are thought by modern scholars to be propaganda arising from the Anglo-Dutch Wars.

In modern Japanese literature, treading on the fumi-e is a pivotal plot element of the novel Silence by Shūsaku Endō and the 2016 film of the same name.

Christians would sometimes perform the e-fumi yet continue to practice their beliefs secretly (Kakure Kirishitan); there were some 20,000 secret Christians in Japan when Christianity was legalized again, down from 500,000 in Nagasaki at the height of Japanese Christianity before the persecution. University of Auckland professor Mark Mullins concluded that "In that sense, the fumi-e policies were effective."

Interpretations
Many theologians have tried to contemplate the role of the fumi-e to Japanese Christians, some seeing the treading of the fumi-e as a sign of the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ.

Nagasaki Junshin Catholic University professor Simon Hull stated that if all of the fumi-e participants had instead chosen to be defiant and died, Christianity would not have continued in Japan; he stated "It is only because some made an existential decision to trample on the fumi-e,... that Christianity in Japan was able to survive."

Form
Fumi-e were usually cast from bronze, but others were made of painted stone and some were woodblock prints. There are relatively few surviving fumi-e, as most were simply thrown away or recycled for other uses. Some examples were displayed by the Smithsonian in their 2007 exhibition "Encompassing the Globe: Portugal and the World in the 16th and 17th Centuries."

title: Fumi-e


text:
Talk:Śīla

Moved
Moved from the Sanskrit section:

 * Also, perhaps śīla, a stone, i. e. a precious stone, pearl, or coral.

because I can't make sense of this half-sentence. Is this supposed to be an alternate meaning of the word? Lupo 11:14, 4 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Stub
I don't think this a stub any longer, but could someone please verify this. Squidnchips 18:03, 18 November 2006 (UTC)

An opinion without any point of reference.
no longer being susceptible to perturbation by the passions like greed and selfishness ,which are common in the world today.

The struck portion is an opinion without any point of reference. It is stated as a fact, not as a belief by any particular group. If it was not intended as "wiki says this is the right religion", then it is merely an awkward sentence. If a particular group or authority says that a motivation for their moral code is due to the observation that "greed and selfishness ... are common in the world today", then it should be stated as such.

No matter how much I or anyone else may agree with the opinion doesn't necessarily make it appropriate.

--199.80.142.72 (talk) 19:11, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Delusional
Whoever wrote this: " The Sanskrit and Pali word sīla is an ethical compass within self and relationships, rather than what is associated with the English word "morality" (i.e., obedience, a sense of obligation, and external constraint - all of which are quite foreign to the concept of sīla as taught by Gautama the Buddha since 588BC)." is delusional. Sīla, as is explained time and again, is all about obedience to the Vinaya; obligations to one's peers, family, etc (e.g. Sigalovadasutta), and the imposition of external constraints. Key words in Buddhist ethics are: saṁvara 'restraint', rakkha 'guarding', and hirotappa 'shame & moral dread'. One is frequently told not to do anything blameable (sāvajja) by the wise (viññu). Both the Buddha and the lay communities in which the monks live are often depicted rebuking the monks for their wicked behaviour, often for sexual behaviour of rich variety. The whole point of the Vinaya is to impose obedience to external constraints on people who don't know how to conduct themselves. But Westerners are busy rewriting Buddhism to their own liking and attributing it back to the Buddha, often in genuine ignorance of the Buddha's recorded words (if that's what the early Buddhist texts in fact are) or the languages they are mainly recorded in: Sanskrit, Pali, Gandhari, and Chinese. Jayarava (talk) 14:15, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

title: Talk:Śīla


text:
Kahane

Some people named Kahane include:

 * Anetta Kahane, German journalist
 * Binyamin Kahane, Israeli Air Force pilot, recipient of Medal of Courage
 * Rabbi Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane, founder of the Israeli Kahane Chai party; son of Rabbi Meir Kahane
 * Brianna Kahane (born 2002), American child prodigy violinist
 * Gabriel Kahane, American composer, pianist and singer-songwriter
 * Henry R. Kahane, Romance philologist
 * Howard Kahane, professor of philosophy known for promoting a popular approach to logic
 * Jack Kahane (1887–1939), Manchester-born writer and publisher
 * Jackie Kahane, Polish-Canadian stand up comedian.
 * Jean-Pierre Kahane (1926–2017), French mathematician
 * Jeffrey Kahane, American pianist and conductor
 * Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the American Jewish Defense League and the Israeli Kach party
 * Rabbi Nachman Kahane, rabbinic scholar involved in renewal of Sanhedrin; author of commentary on Tosafot of the Talmud; brother of Rabbi Meir Kahane

The name is the Aramaic equivalent of kohen.

title: Kahane


text:
Angvik

Angvik or Angvika is a small village in Gjemnes Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The village is located along the western shores of the Tingvollfjorden, just across the fjord from the village of Tingvollvågen.

The population of Angvik is about 300. There is a furniture factory, a salmon fish farm, a Spa Hotel, and tourist apartments. The village of Rausand (in Nesset Municipality) lies about 7 km to the south, Heggem lies about 10 km to the west, Torvikbukt lies about 12 km to the northwest–near the mountain Reinsfjellet, and the village of Flemma lies about 6 km to the north.

title: Angvik


text:
User talk:Gaage

gaage is the nickname of Geir Åge Noven, who intends to make contributions to the wikipedia/wikitionary project. My fields of interest, and probably competence, are ASIC/FPGA design and -methodology, music and athletics.

--gaage 11:35, 2004 Oct 4 (UTC)

title: User talk:Gaage


text:
Wikipedia:WikiProject Countering systemic bias

The Wikipedia project contains several types of WP:NPOV violations that arise from systemic bias in the demographics of the editor community. Encyclopedic coverage is imbalanced and often omits points of view from under-represented demographic groups. Systemic bias on Wikipedia may take the form of gender, geographical, racial, ideological, and other forms of bias.

See § Further reading for studies, statistics, and more information that demonstrate contributor or subject imbalances.

Goals

 * 1) Reduce systemic bias on Wikipedia as much as possible, consciously focusing upon subjects and points of view neglected by the encyclopedia as a whole.
 * 2) Improve the editing community's understanding of the systemic bias in Wikipedia by reviewing existing scholarship and ensuring that recent studies about Wikipedia's systemic bias are included as sources, both in articles and discussions among editors. Ensure that sections about systemic bias in these articles are clear, complete, and concise.

Scope
The first goal is extremely broad, as under-represented POVs may affect almost any article. It may be advisable to focus on projects within the scope of the related WikiProjects listed below.

The second goal can be accomplished by WikiProject members sharing the latest research about Wikipedia's systemic bias on this WikiProject's talk page, as well as in articles about Wikipedia itself and in relevant content and policy discussions among editors.

Systemic bias in coverage and selection of articles
Research consistently finds systemic bias in Wikipedia's selection of articles in its various language editions. This bias leads, without necessarily any conscious intention, to the propagation of various prejudices and omission of important information. Wikipedia's increasing influence on the way people comprehend the world makes this bias a potentially serious threat.

Selection based on gender bias
Wikipedia has a longstanding controversy concerning gender bias and sexism. Wikipedia has been criticized by some journalists and academics for lacking not only female contributors but also extensive and in-depth encyclopedic attention to many topics regarding gender. An article in The New York Times cites a Wikimedia Foundation study which found that fewer than 13% of contributors to Wikipedia were women. Sue Gardner, then the executive director of the foundation, said increasing diversity was about making the encyclopedia "as good as it could be". Factors the article cited as possibly discouraging women from editing included the "obsessive fact-loving realm", associations with the "hard-driving hacker crowd", and the necessity to be "open to very difficult, high-conflict people, even misogynists".

Selection based on racial bias
A challenge for editors trying to add Black history articles to Wikipedia is the requirement that potential article topics, such as historical individuals or events, meet Wikipedia's "notability" criteria. Sara Boboltz of HuffPost wrote that the Wikipedia notability criteria "is a troubling problem for those fighting for more content about women and minorities", because "there's simply less [published] documentation on many accomplished women and minorities throughout history – they were often ignored, after all, or forced to make their contributions as someone else's assistant."

Maher stated that one issue is that "content on Wikipedia has to be backed up by secondary sources, sources that she says throughout history have contained a bias toward white men;" "people of color have not been represented in mainstream knowledge creation or inclusion in that knowledge," as "encyclopedias of old were mostly written by European men."

Although these assume bias, the presence of white nationalists and other far-right extremists on Wikipedia is an ongoing problem that is unlikely to go away in the near future given the rightward political shift in countries where the majority of the site’s users live." The SPLC cited the article Race and intelligence as an example of the alt-right influence on Wikipedia, stating that at that time the article presented a "false balance" between fringe racialist views and the "mainstream perspective in psychology."

Task forces
Some task forces that focus on particular aspects of systemic bias are linked below:

Defunct task forces
Talk pages for the following task forces have not been edited in over a year:

 * WikiProject Countering systemic bias/Gender gap task force
 * WikiProject Countering systemic bias/Geography
 * WikiProject Countering systemic bias/Global perspective
 * WikiProject Countering systemic bias/History
 * WikiProject Countering systemic bias/Mathematics
 * WikiProject Countering systemic bias/Politics
 * WikiProject Countering systemic bias/Religion task force

Tasks
There are many things you may do, listed roughly from least to most intensive:
 * Sign up as a participant and mention any interests you may have related to CSB. Watch the talk page, and participate in discussions there.
 * Read news articles and other sources from political view points you wouldn't normally read or in other languages. If you're multilingual, translate articles from other languages.
 * Consciously edit topics that are systemically under-represented, such as geographic places in Africa. Changing one out of every twenty of your edits to something outside your "comfort zone" would be substantial.
 * Create articles for underrepresented groups and topics. Women in Red keeps a list of potentially notable women that do not have articles on the English Wikipedia.
 * Be careful not to worsen the bias with your deletion nominations. If you are not familiar with a subject area, discuss your concerns on appropriate forums before making an AfD nomination.
 * Review articles being discussed for deletion. Advocate to keep suitable articles about under-represented topics. Improve articles that are being considered for deletion. For example, use WikiProject delete sorting to review deletion nominations of biographies about women WP:DS/WOMEN
 * Change the demographic of Wikipedia. Encourage friends and acquaintances that you know have interests that are not well-represented on Wikipedia to edit. If you are at high school or university, contact a professor in minority, women's, or critical studies, explain the problem, and ask if they would be willing to encourage students to write for Wikipedia.

Related WikiProjects and regional noticeboards
''There are several WikiProjects and regional notice boards that have potential to help out in our efforts. We may also eventually want to create new WikiProjects as part of this effort.''

WikiProjects:

 * WikiProject Authors
 * WikiProject Biblical Criticism
 * WikiProject Buddhism
 * WikiProject Biography
 * WikiProject Catholicism
 * WikiProject Conservatism
 * WikiProject Disability
 * WikiProject Ethnic Groups
 * WikiProject Gender Studies
 * WikiProject Hinduism
 * WikiProject Feminism
 * WikiProject Indigenous peoples of North America
 * WikiProject Indigenous peoples of the Americas
 * WikiProject Islam
 * WikiProject Languages
 * WikiProject LGBT studies
 * WikiProject Organized Labour
 * WikiProject Politics
 * WikiProject political figures
 * WikiProject Military history
 * WikiProject World music
 * WikiProject Women in Red
 * WikiProject Women's sport
 * WikiProject Women scientists
 * WikiProject Women's health

See also:
 * Category:WikiProjects relevant for countering systemic bias
 * Infobox WikiProject, which has a  parameter putting projects in that category
 * Article Rescue Squadron
 * Hinduism-related topics notice board
 * Middle Eastern military history task force
 * Middle Eastern military history task force
 * WikiProject Visual arts/Global visual art taskforce (art from non-Western cultures to balance the strong systemic bias towards the Western canon)
 * WikiProject Football/Women's football task force

Latin America or the Caribbean

 * WikiProject Mexican-Americans

See also:

 * Caribbean Wikipedians' notice board
 * Argentina-related regional notice board
 * WikiProject Echo, which translates pages from other WikiProjects

Asia
Also
 * Middle East, under Category:WikiProject Middle East
 * Notice board for Pakistan-related topics
 * Notice board for India-related topics
 * Indonesia-related topics notice board|topics notice board
 * Thailand-related topics notice board

Europe

 * WikiProject Basque
 * WikiProject Belarus
 * WikiProject Bulgaria
 * WikiProject Croatia
 * WikiProject Estonia
 * WikiProject Galicia
 * WikiProject Latvia
 * WikiProject Moldova
 * WikiProject Netherlands
 * WikiProject Ukraine

Other projects

 * Wikimedia urban postering campaign
 * WikiProject Interlanguage Links/Ideas from the Hebrew Wikipedia - a project in the Hebrew Wikipedia, and in the first stages of being exported to other languages, to add interlanguage links to articles which don't have them. One of its positive side effects is that it facilitates writing articles about the culture specific to that language.
 * WikiProject Countering systemic bias/Mathematics

Related cleanup templates
The template globalize may be placed to produce

The template toofewopinions may be placed to produce

The template religion primary may be placed to produce

The template recentism may be placed to produce

When these templates are used they should be accompanied by a brief note on the talk page to outline what exactly you feel needs to be addressed.

Members
Please add your name to the members page.

We of course encourage all members of WikiProject Countering systemic bias, to also promote their membership to other Wikipedians, by adding the Userbox template to their personal user page. This is fast and easy to do. You only need to add this line at your user page:  , and then you will find this wonderful blue userbox displayed:

If you have specific interests relating to countering systemic bias, feel free to briefly describe them there or on this Wikiproject's talk page so we can get a sense of the strengths of the project.


text:
Jacques-Alexandre Laffon de Ladebat

Jacques-Alexandre Laffon de Ladebat (2 January 1719 – 18 November 1797) was a prominent shipbuilder and merchant of the port of Bordeaux in the late 18th century. His son, André-Daniel Laffon de Ladebat (November 30, 1746 – October 14, 1829), succeeded him, and later became involved in politics. In 1789, he participated in the French Revolution.

He was born on 2 January 1719 in the Netherlands to Daniel Laffon de Ladébat and Jeanne Nairac. His family, being Protestant, had fled to the Netherlands following revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685).

Following the death of Louis XIV, Ladébat was able to return to France without fear of religious persecution. There, he and his brother established a business as wine merchants and maritime traders through the network of correspondents that they had developed in the Netherlands.

In 1755, Ladébat began to trade in the colonies of the French West Indies and, from 1764, this included the slave trade. In 1769, it is speculated that he was no longer content to trade in naval weapons and wine, he created a sugar plantation in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, and began clearing and cultivating land in Bordeaux by buying several hundred acres straddling Pessac and Merignac. He built a model farm called "Bellevue," which produced grain, flour, wine, lumber, silkworms and trained farm hands.

He was ennobled and granted a coat-of-arms in 1773 for his economic successes. His grant of arms symbolized his areas of success: "Azure, a gushing fountain of money surmounted by a golden sun with two anchors." The motto "Soyez Utile" accompanied the arms.

title: Jacques-Alexandre Laffon de Ladebat


text: Category:Arabic languages

title: Category:Arabic languages


text:
Category:Roman sites of Tuscany

 * Roman archaeological sites in Tuscany — central Italy.

title: Category:Roman sites of Tuscany


text: Talk:Farscape

title: Talk:Farscape


text:
User talk:Luqui

Nonchord tone
Quick explination:
 * The principle aspect of a nonchord tone is that it is not a part of a chord. Thus, in a seventh chord, a seventh is not a nonchord tone, it is a chord tone. Given a (seventh) chord with the four notes C-E-G-Bb, the Bb is a chord tone and not a nonchord tone.
 * How does one determine if a tone is a part of a chord if one does not already know? It depends, obviously, on context. A Bb played during a C major chord (CEG) does not necessarily turn that major chord into a seventh chord. A nonchord tone always resolves, while a chord tone does not (see nonchord tone).
 * Hopefully this explains somewhat. I have to go, but I will write more later. Please ask questions, and tell me to talk up or down if need be, on my talk page. Hyacinth 18:30, 9 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I am unable to determine what the chord you describe is. I would guess that C-Eb-Gb-B, despite the spelling, is not classified as a seventh chord, and maybe considered enharmonic spelling of another chord. Alternately, you could consider it a diminished chord with an added tone (the major seventh), see added tone chord. It may simply be a "nonharmonic" chord, which means not that its inharmonic, but that it is not analyzable using tonal theory. Hyacinth 22:16, 15 Oct 2004 (UTC)

 * My best guess right now is a major chord with an added (minor) ninth, B-D#-F#-C. Hyacinth 00:02, 6 Nov 2004 (UTC)

The chord C-Eb-Gb-B can be called a Cmi(ma7b5) chord in popular music. In common practice period theory it would be theoretically described as a "diminished-major chord," but because it uses thirds other than the M3 and m3, the chord is not found in the standard repertoire. --TobyRush 17:08, 10 Dec 2004 (UTC)

transitive closures
Is there an algorithm, that, given a transitive relation T, will return the smallest relation R such that the transitive closure of R is T? Is there such a smallest relation? I'm looking for such an algorithm, and this seems the most logical place to find a link to it. Luqui 10:55, July 19, 2005 (UTC)
 * Yes, and it's called transitive reduction, a concept that Wikipedia is not yet familiar with. Luqui 10:56, July 19, 2005 (UTC)

There is indeed a smallest one. To see that, consider that (1) the relation whereby every pair of members of the domain is related, is a transitive relation that is weaker than (i.e. that includes) T, and (2) the set of all such relations is closed under intersection, so the intersection of all such relations is another such relation; that intersection is therefore the smallest one. Michael Hardy 22:44, 19 July 2005 (UTC)

Wieman image
Hi, do you happen to know when Image:WiemanandCornell.jpg was taken? Thanks, AxelBoldt 16:52, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Image copyright problem with Image:Farmers_hz.jpg
Thanks for uploading Image:Farmers_hz.jpg. The image has been identified as not specifying the copyright status of the image, which is required by Wikipedia's policy on images. If you don't indicate the copyright status of the image on the image's description page, using an appropriate copyright tag, it may be deleted some time in the next seven days. If you have uploaded other images, please verify that you have provided copyright information for them as well.

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Articles for Deletion - Lenga (game)
An editor has nominated the article Lenga (game) for deletion, under the Articles for deletion process. We appreciate your contributions, but the nominator doesn't believe it satisfies Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion, and has explained why in the nomination (also see What Wikipedia is not and Deletion policy). Your opinions on why the topic of the article meets inclusion criteria and what should be done with the article are welcome: participate in the discussion by editing Articles for deletion/Lenga (game). Add four tildes like this ˜˜˜˜ to sign your comments. You can also edit the article Lenga (game) during the discussion, but do not remove the "Articles for Deletion" template (the box at the top of the article), this will not end the deletion debate. --WikiSlasher 13:57, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

Unreferenced BLPs
Hello Luqui! Thank you for your contributions. I am a bot alerting you that 1 of the articles that you created  is tagged as an Unreferenced Biography of a Living Person. The biographies of living persons policy requires that all personal or potentially controversial information be sourced. In addition, to insure verifiability, all biographies should be based on reliable sources. if you were to bring this article up to standards, it would greatly help us with the current Category:All_unreferenced_BLPs article backlog. Once the article is adequately referenced, please remove the unreferencedBLP tag. Here is the article:

Thanks!--DASHBot (talk) 22:02, 8 January 2010 (UTC)
 * 1) Jonathan Caouette -

Proposed deletion of Jonathan Caouette

The article Jonathan Caouette has been proposed for deletion  because of the following concern:
 * BLP with no reliable sourcing, tagged for several months.

While all contributions to Wikipedia are appreciated, content or articles may be deleted for any of several reasons.

You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the  notice, but please explain why in your edit summary or on the article's talk page.

Please consider improving the article to address the issues raised. Removing  will stop the proposed deletion process, but other deletion processes exist. The speedy deletion process can result in deletion without discussion, and articles for deletion allows discussion to reach consensus for deletion. Doniago (talk) 16:05, 12 October 2010 (UTC)

non-standard models of arithmetic
A while ago you added a comment on Goodstein's theorem at non-standard model of arithmetic. I find the comment confusing. Could you perhaps clarify it? Tkuvho (talk) 08:53, 24 October 2010 (UTC)

ArbCom elections are now open!
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 12:48, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Luqui


text:
User talk:Joanneralph

Do not vandalize pages, it will only get you blocked from editing, but all the damage will be undone quickly. So you are wasting your time, you better do something constructive. andy 11:40, 4 Oct 2004 (UTC)

title: User talk:Joanneralph


text:
User talk:PRB

Welcome to the Wikipedia
Here are some links I thought useful:

 * Tutorial
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 * Policy Library
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 * Cite your sources
 * Verifiability
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Feel free to contact me personally with any questions you might have. The Village pump is also a good place to go for quick answers to general questions. You can sign your name by typing 4 tildes, like this: ~.

Be Bold!

Sam [Spade] 11:42, 4 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Michael Power
Hi, PRB. I just noticed that you had cut a bit from the Michael Power (Guinness character) article. The section was describing the film Critical Assignment and the fact that the crew and cast were mostly African. Can you explain why you cut this bit? According to my sources, that statement was true, but do you perhaps have access to something that shows it to be false? Thanks! --BrianSmithson 12:54, 8 November 2005 (UTC)
 * I don't dispute the factual content of the statement. The modified statement was
 * "Assignment is a typical action film, save that it was shot on location in Cameroon and Nigeria using African actors and crews."
 * Which I changed to:
 * Assignment, shot on location in Cameroon and Nigeria, is a typical action film
 * I altered this because:
 * It states earlier in the section that the Michael Power films "are also notable because the advertisements are shot on location in Africa using African actors and crews"
 * While it is true that the lion's share of action films are shot using principally American participants, to say that it a film is typical of its genre apart from the fact that it was made by Africans grates a little. The continent of residence of the participants doesn't in itself change the nature of the film, it is still just a "typical action film". What was there before was like saying "E=mc2 is a typical mathematical equation, save for the fact that it was originally written in America by a Jew.".  If you mean to say that the use of purely African cast and crew brought with it some interesting cultural feature, then say so.PRB 16:22, 8 November 2005 (UTC)
 * I see your point. The real significance is that, as you say, very few big-budget action films are made with African casts and crews. By calling the film "typical" I mean that the plot, characters, explosions, etc. are standard for the genre. I've had another go at it; please check it out when you get the chance. —BrianSmithson 17:05, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

Image:Parts of a sail.png
Hello - Please provide source and copyright info for Image:Parts of a sail.png or it will be deleted in 7 days. Thanks! - SCEhard T 02:54, 1 December 2005 (UTC)

How to make a page in a different language?
If I create a page in English, how can I transfer that page to another language. Do you have to go to the "other language" wikipedia and make the article completely new again or how does that work? I am fluent in other languages, but I don't know if there is a different way to go abot that or not? Can you write your respnse back on my page, thanks!Motorex (talk) 11:06, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

AMSA
Thanks for your edits at AMSA WRT the shield/crest. I was just reading up on it and was about to make the corrections when you beat me to it. Thanks!--Cpt ricard (talk) 01:15, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

Heraldry
I see you signed up at the WikiProject - I guess that means I'm not the newest member any more. . Unfortunately, I don't see much happening there. Still... Welcome! David V Houston (talk) 13:35, 21 April 2010 (UTC)

Proposed deletion of Derek Roberts

The article Derek Roberts has been proposed for deletion because under Wikipedia policy, all biographies of living persons created after March 18, 2010, must have at least one source that directly supports material in the article.

If you created the article, please don't take offense. Instead, consider improving the article. For help on inserting references, see Referencing for beginners or ask at Help desk. Once you have provided at least one reliable source, you may remove the prod blp tag. Please do not remove the tag unless the article is sourced. If you cannot provide such a source within ten days, the article may be deleted, but you can when you are ready to add one.  Ϣere Spiel  Chequers  01:25, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Gregory Foster

A tag has been placed on Gregory Foster requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section A3 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because it is an article with no content whatsoever, or whose contents consist only of external links, a "See also" section, book references, category tags, template tags, interwiki links, a rephrasing of the title, or an attempt to contact the subject of the article. Please see Wikipedia:Stub for our minimum information standards for short articles. Also please note that articles must be on notable subjects and should provide references to reliable sources that verify their content.

If you think that this notice was placed here in error, you may contest the deletion by adding to the top of the page that has been nominated for deletion (just below the existing speedy deletion, or "db", tag; if no such tag exists, then the page is no longer a speedy delete candidate and adding a hang-on tag is unnecessary), coupled with adding a note on the talk page explaining your position, but be aware that once tagged for speedy deletion, if the page 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 page that would render it more in conformance with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. If the page is deleted, you can contact one of these administrators to request that the administrator userfy the page or email a copy to you. Mono (talk) 02:25, 24 December 2010 (UTC)

-sa As reviewing administrator, I of course did not delete it,but added the necessary line of text to make it a stub article. I hope you'll be expanding it. I advise you to never leave an article with just a succession box or an infobox--someone is likely to try to delete it rather than do as they ought, and fix it.  DGG ( talk ) 04:00, 24 December 2010 (UTC)

IPA
Hi,

If you want to indicate local pronunciations, as at Cheshire, that's fine, but you need to mark them as local. When we indicate English pronunciations without any further clarification, they're just English, not any particular dialect. (And actually, is all of Cheshire non-rhotic?) — kwami (talk) 03:48, 13 September 2011 (UTC)
 * For many words, you can't indicate pronunciations without any particular dialect. Both RP (i.e. Standard English) and most of the accents of North West of England are non-rhotic.  Rhotic accents of English That's two reasons not to put the /r/ on the end. I'm moving this to the Cheshire Discussion page where it is more appropriate PRB (talk) 07:41, 13 September 2011 (UTC)
 * If you speak a non-rhotic accent, then you simply drop the ars. Problem solved. But not everyone in the world speaks a non-rhotic accent, in many place names the ars are not predictable, and WP-en is for all English speakers, not just non-rhotic speakers. Ergo we need to include the ars. Also, some non-rhotic accents have ars in this name. RP, for example. Okay, I know hardly anyone actually speaks RP any more, but it's still a prestige form. An argument that "some people in Cheshire have a rhotic accent, and RP has /r/ in this name, but we need to drop the /r/ because I don't have it in my dialect" doesn't hold water. You might want to read the IPA key you're linking to so that you know how this works. — kwami (talk) 08:42, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

File:Parts of a sail(Simplified).png missing description details
Dear uploader: The media file you uploaded as: is missing a description and/or other details on its image description page. If possible, please add this information. This will help other editors make better use of the image, and it will be more informative to readers.
 * File:Parts of a sail(Simplified).png

If you have any questions, please see Help:Image page. Thank you. Message delivered by Theo's Little Bot (opt-out) 15:52, 3 August 2013 (UTC)

Opinion
Hi, i would like to have your opinion about a discussion which i started here, thank.Kingroyos (talk) 23:29, 27 May 2014 (UTC)

ArbCom elections are now open!
Hi, You appear to be eligible to vote in the current Arbitration Committee election. The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to enact binding solutions for disputes between editors, primarily related to serious behavioural issues that the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the ability to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail. If you wish to participate, you are welcome to review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. For the Election committee, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:13, 30 November 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:PRB


text: Category:Polish actors

title: Category:Polish actors


text:
User talk:Verbalcontract

Welcome to the Wikipedia
Here are some links I thought useful:

 * Tutorial
 * Help desk
 * Foundation issues
 * Policy Library
 * Utilities
 * Cite your sources
 * Verifiability
 * Wikiquette
 * Civility
 * Conflict resolution
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 * Pages needing attention
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 * Bad jokes and other deleted nonsense
 * Brilliant prose
 * List of images
 * Boilerplate text
 * Current polls
 * Mailing lists
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Feel free to contact me personally with any questions you might have. The Village pump is also a good place to go for quick answers to general questions. You can sign your name by typing 4 tildes, like this: ~.

Be Bold!

Sam [Spade] 11:46, 4 Oct 2004 (UTC)

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

title: User talk:Verbalcontract


text: Category:Bulgarian actors

title: Category:Bulgarian actors


text:
Great Court

Great Court may refer to:

 * Trinity Great Court at Trinity College, Cambridge, England
 * Queen Elizabeth II Great Court at the British Museum, London, England
 * Great Court, University of Queensland, a heritage-listed university site at the University of Queensland, St Lucia, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
 * Great Court, one of the ruins of ancient Baalbek, known as Heliopolis in Greek and Roman antiquity
 * Great Courts, the alternative name of Pro Tennis Tour

title: Great Court


text: Category:Animal experimentation

title: Category:Animal experimentation


text:
Category:Towns in Japan

Towns in Japan.

Also see Category:Dissolved municipalities of Japan.

title: Category:Towns in Japan


text:
User talk:Cozy Creme Dog

Welcome to the Wikipedia
Here are some links I thought useful:

 * Tutorial
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 * Foundation issues
 * Policy Library
 * Utilities
 * Cite your sources
 * Verifiability
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 * Brilliant prose
 * List of images
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 * Current polls
 * Mailing lists
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Feel free to contact me personally with any questions you might have. The Village pump is also a good place to go for quick answers to general questions. You can sign your name by typing 4 tildes, like this: ~.

Be Bold!

Sam [Spade] 11:58, 4 Oct 2004 (UTC)

title: User talk:Cozy Creme Dog


text:
Wang Hsing-ching

Wang Hsing-ching (born 1946 ), who has a pseudonym of Nanfang Shuo (南方朔, Nánfāng Shuò), is a journalist, political commentator, and cultural critic. Currently, he is the chief editor and writer of The Journalist magazine (新新聞週刊), with commentaries on current issues in major newspapers. He co-founded The Journalist when he was in his 40s. His writings, including Western ideas analysis, social phenomena criticism, and literature comments, are all regarded as very influential. Crediting his intellectual contribution to the society, he is known as "the most industrious private scholar in Taiwan".

Background
Wang earned his undergraduate degree in the School for Forestry and Resource Conservation, from National Taiwan University and a doctorate degree in Chinese Culture University. The Senkaku (Diaoyutai) Island incident made Wang reach an epiphany to become a journalist. During that period, Wang abandoned his overseas study plan and stayed in Taiwan, starting his career. His first journalist job was at the Taiwanese newspaper National Evening News. In the 1970s, Wang was a reporter for the Taiwan Times, and afterwards worked as a writer, vice general editor, and general editor in The China Times (中國時報). Although he never received technical university training in journalism, he has more than twenty years of experience in the mass media as a news commentator.

Style and major themes of writing
Wang, as an author, began with topics mainly concerned about cultural changes, political changes, and the controversies in society. His early works are based on the themes of describing and criticizing cultures and politics, e.g. Diguo zhuyi yu Taiwan duli yundong (帝國主義與臺灣獨立運動). Later in his career, he started publishing critical book reviews. Recently, Wang has published a series of books about "Language". Magical Eyes, his latest book, (魔幻之眼) is his first published work in the book commentary collection. As a tutor through writing, his analysis focuses on culture, history, thoughts, politics, etc.

Contributions to journalism
Wang has never been shy expressing his critical opinions on current affairs. In the summer of 2004, he attended a forum in the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center concerning the political issues in Taiwan and the relation across the Taiwan Strait after the presidential election. He suggested that the two shores of the Strait should make positive interactions in order to solve the rational problems.

As a journalist and the chief writer of The Journalist magazine, he has his own independent analysis towards the political issues. Not long after President Chen Shuibien gave the speech of "One State on Each Side", he wrote critics on it, which was exactly to the point, "democracy in Taiwan is already moving towards a new and populist type of soft politics of terror".

Views on journalism
In a public discussion titled "How to build a mass media culture with "taste"? Wang criticized the current mass media culture. He pointed out that if the speakers/interviewees could not state their stance clearly, they had to "pay the price" in the sense that reporters might make twist their words to make a story more dramatic. The unethical reporting of some journalists disappointed Wang, and he urged that journalists had to realize that it was shameful to have disregarded the obligation to report the truth.

At societal level, he emphasized that not only does the mass media deliver information to the public, but it also affects the social structure and the political environment. He noted that journalists should bear in mind that they have great responsibilities to the general public.

Particularly in Taiwan, he put the blame of the current situation on changes in political conditions. During this unstable period, different types of mass media emerged. As advertising plays a greater role in the mass media, it is inevitable that politicians would make use of the mass media for propaganda. However, he said that there are still journalists who stand by their principles, although it remains difficult for them to uphold the journalistic ethics.

Seeing literature as journalism
In an RTHK TV program "Merry Book Worm" in October 2003, (愈讀愈快樂 (www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/tv/bookworm/20031026.html inactive as of 2008-05-07), 5 Oct 04.) Wang shared his opinions on how to choose suitable books for ourselves. He raised questions on how topics of certain discourses are set, why the topics are written the way they are, and how the written formats differ from author to author, and suggested that these are the aspects we have to think about when we choose books to read. Also, Wang stressed that it is necessary for every author to get the basic and wide-ranging knowledge on different areas before having any discussion or analysis. With his literature commentaries in Magical Eyes (魔幻之眼), Nanfang Shuo attempts to give his readers a brief overview on his recommended books to help them choose readings.

Wang's views on literature ties in well in the principles in journalism. While literature commenting allows his audience to have a knowledge of what is currently happening in the world, reporters are also doing the same thing: making readers be aware of current affairs. Speaking about journalism, he said that we, as readers, have to be careful about different reporters' stances and their different perspectives based on various sources. On the other hand, reporters should always bear the obligation to the truth and be objective by relying on the more reliable sources.

In another interview from Central News Agency (news.pchome.com.tw/life/can/20030408/index-20030408165736010244.html inactive as of 2008-05-07) in Taiwan, Wang pointed out that readers are not encouraged to spend too much time on books which are too difficult to be digested or too easy to read. In the interview, Wang encouraged readers to find the books which would motivate them and those which can give them new perspectives. Applying Wang's views on reading, journalism, and news reports, readers should focus their attention on news of particular interest to them, ones which they feel comfortable to read and criticize. Moreover, Wang believes that readers are responsible for the verification of reports.

Views on reading
As a commentator of literature, Wang welcomes all different genres of books. He firmly believes that all books can be beneficial and that the more one reads, the more one will gain in that field of expertise. He recalled that in his childhood, he was unable to do anything but read.

One belief of Wang is that wisdom in different aspects are all inter-related. For him, the concepts of literature, history, and social theory can be easily understood. He believes that literature, poetry, politics, and philosophy are mutually related. Having this understanding, Wang likes to use poems to interpret international politics and the economic phenomenon in recent years. This proves that as a commentator of current affairs and as chief writer of The Journalist, he uses literary style to write journalistic articles.

A few years ago, Wang discovered an interest in linguistics. Some of the inspirations of Wang stems from the Chinese classic literature, novels, and prose, while some of them comes from news reports. Researching the origin and history of the common vocabularies, he also investigated the changing process of these vocabularies in society. To him, this changing process can be seen from the use of language in news reports, for the language the reporters used marks the changes in social value. In fact, his motivation and his way to learn about the origins of vocabulary is very applicable to the elements of journalism: both fields require accurate information, and verification by different reliable sources. We can only tell the truth (of events or the origin of vocabularies) after verifications.

Wang is a libertarian, and he believes that it is important to be aware of the language ambiguity in understanding readings. As there are some writers who easily confuse readers, with or without intention, great language skills and a critical mind are essential to make yourself clear about what you are reading and what the writers are telling.

Comments on literature
Wang was one of the committee members to adjudicate the "20th century 100 greatest Chinese novels". As the novels revealed to Wang a feeling of sorrow and a sense of pressure, he commented the 20th century Chinese novels as a reflection of Chinese history in the past 100 years which he saw a difficult and suffering period for the intellectuals.

title: Wang Hsing-ching


text:
Adriana Sklenaříková

Adriana Sklenaříková (formerly Karembeu; born 17 September 1971) is a Slovak fashion model and actress who lives and works in France. She is a former Guinness record holder for the longest legs among female models (at almost 1.24 m).

Early life and education
Sklenaříková was born in Brezno to parents Miroslav Sklenařík and Zlatica Gazdiková. Her mother was a Slovak doctor, while her father was a Czech engineer originally from Vsetín, where her Czech surname originates. She also has a younger sister named Natalia, who works as a lawyer in Paris. At the time of Sklenaříková's birth, her parents were both students, and she was thus raised by her grandparents until she was six years old. Sklenaříková has gone on to comment that her father was cold and distant with her throughout her upbringing, and that he preferred her sister.

After completing her secondary education, Sklenaříková enrolled in Charles University in Prague to study medicine. In 1994, her third year of studies, Sklenaříková was discovered by a French modeling agency after competing in a beauty pageant.

Career
In 1998, she was hired as one of the models for the Wonderbra campaign. In the United States, she modeled for Victoria's Secret. In 2005 she featured in the Channel 5 TV documentary Bra Wars: Boom or Bust In 2007 she was the host of Top Model on Métropole 6.

In 2008 she participated in Rendez-vous en terre inconnue on France 2. In 2011 she was a contestant in the first season of the French Dancing with the Stars.

Personal life
Sklenarikova met French football player Christian Karembeu on a flight from Paris to Milan in 1998, and they were married in December that year. On 9 March 2011, in an interview to French magazine Paris Match, Adriana revealed that she was separating from her husband. She stated that the causes for the separation were the couple's constant exposure in the media and their "hectic lifestyle" as well as him being "upset to see photographs of [her] with other men appearing in the press and speculation that [she] had a lover". Christian refused questions from the media about the divorce, stating that he would not comment in public about his private life.

In June 2014, she married Armenian businessman Aram Ohanian, her boyfriend of three years. Their wedding was held in Monaco, and was attended by numerous film and show business stars; in August 2018 Adriana became the mother of a daughter named Nina. In December 2022, Adriana announced her second divorce from Ohanian.

Award

 * 2009 Vienna Fashion Award, category Style Icon

title: Adriana Sklenaříková


text:
Category:Romanian actors

This category lists articles about actors and actresses of stage, cinema, and television who originated from Romania, or from regions that are incorporated into modern Romania.

title: Category:Romanian actors


text: Category:Ukrainian actors

title: Category:Ukrainian actors


text:
User talk:Ndewitz

Welcome to the Wikipedia
Here are some links I thought useful:

 * Tutorial
 * Help desk
 * Foundation issues
 * Policy Library
 * Utilities
 * Cite your sources
 * Verifiability
 * Wikiquette
 * Civility
 * Conflict resolution
 * Neutral point of view
 * Pages needing attention
 * Peer review
 * Bad jokes and other deleted nonsense
 * Brilliant prose
 * List of images
 * Boilerplate text
 * Current polls
 * Mailing lists
 * IRC channel

Feel free to contact me personally with any questions you might have. The Village pump is also a good place to go for quick answers to general questions. You can sign your name by typing 4 tildes, like this: ~.

Be Bold!

Sam [Spade] 12:02, 4 Oct 2004 (UTC)

title: User talk:Ndewitz


text: User:ChrisG/Systemic bias/to do

title: User:ChrisG/Systemic bias/to do