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De-escalation

De-escalation refers to the methods and actions taken to decrease the severity of a conflict, whether of physical, verbal or other nature. It is the opposite of escalation. De-escalation may also refer to approaches in conflict resolution, by which specific measures are taken to avoid behaviors that escalate conflict. De-escalation can be modeled with game theory.

Verbal de-escalation in psychiatric settings
In psychiatric settings, de-escalation is aimed at calmly communicating with an agitated client in order to understand, manage and resolve their concerns. Ultimately, these actions are intended to reduce the client's agitation and potential for future aggression or violence. An insufficient or overdue intervention may leave staff needing to use coercive measures to manage an aggressive or violent client. Coercive measures, such as chemical or mechanical restraints, or seclusion, are damaging to the therapeutic relationship and harmful to clients and staff.

As of 2016, there are 19 articles in literature that define or provide a model of de-escalation. Articles converge on a number of themes (i.e. de-escalation should involve safely, calmly and empathetically supporting the client with their concerns).

Hankin et al.’s (2011) review of four de-escalation studies reflected the somewhat unclear state of de-escalation research. Their review settled on eight goals, seven elements, 15 general techniques and 15 other techniques divided into three subheadings.

Price & Baker (2012) identified seven themes across relevant papers: three related to staff skills (e.g. empathetic concern, calm appearance and gentle tone of voice) and four related to the process of intervention (e.g. establishing rapport, maintaining safety, problem solving and setting limits).

The available literature provides clinical descriptions of effective de-escalation based on qualitative data and professional observations. However, these thematic analyses need to be supported by more objective data; one hallmark of such objectivity would be an empirical scale or quantitative measure of de-escalation.

De-Escalating Aggressive Behaviour Scale (DABS)
An English modified version of the De-Escalating Aggressive Behaviour Scale (DABS) identifies seven qualities necessary for de-escalation:
 * Valuing the client: Provides genuine acknowledgement that the client's concerns are valid, important and will be addressed in a meaningful way.
 * Reducing fear: Listens actively to the client and offers genuine empathy while suggesting that the client's situation has the potential for positive future change.
 * Inquiring about client's queries and anxiety: Can communicate a thorough understanding of the client's concerns, and works to uncover the root of the issue.
 * Providing guidance to the client: Suggests multiple ways to help the client with their current concerns and recommends preventive measures.
 * Working out possible agreements: Takes responsibility for the client's care and concludes the encounter with an agreed-upon short-term solution and a long-term action plan.
 * Remaining calm: Maintains a calm tone of voice and steady pace that is appropriate to the client's feelings and behaviour.
 * Risk taking: Maintains a moderate distance from the client to ensure safety, but does not appear guarded and fearful.

United States
Starting around 2015, after facing criticism after numerous high-profile killings of civilians by police officers, some police forces in the US adopted de-escalation training, designed to reduce the risk of confrontations turning violent or deadly for anyone involved.

The FIRST STEP Act prison reform bill, passed under the Trump administration, mandates de-escalation training, especially for "incidents that involve the unique needs of individuals who have a mental illness or cognitive deficit."

Need for de-escalation practices in law enforcement
Richards (2007) states that de-escalation is the act of moving from a state of high tension to a state of reduced tension. Bell (2018) points out that the reason there is heightened tension in law enforcement today than ever before is due to technology. Media reports on the use of force, racial unrest, riots and injustice make it seem like conflicts between police and citizens are happening every day. Bell notes that because people can so readily view these conflicts between police and citizens through technology, people have become resistant to or challenging of law enforcement. In response, the police have had to become engaged in social media, ethics training, diversity training and de-escalation programs.

Bell notes that police are different from average citizens. He states that citizens have a “duty to retreat" while trained officers are expected to pursue and make arrests if need be. Sometimes officers have some discretion in how they will handle a situation such as when an encounter has the potential to become violent. It is at these times that “officers can turn to de-escalation tactics and still complete their mission to protect and serve.” Oliva et al. note, “As the role of police officers continues to expand from exclusively crime fighting to encompass other service-oriented functions, they must be able to recognize the characteristics of individuals in crisis in order to provide an effective and helpful resolution to the situation while reducing liability and risk of injury” (p. 16.) Hence the need for de-escalation tactics on the part of law enforcement officers.

Types of de-escalation practices
De-escalation tactics predominantly revolved around securing the scene at hand and attempting to calmly communicate with the citizen involved. Andrew Bell describes several de-escalation practices to assist in a potentially violent situation: Oliva et al. suggest the following basic de-escalation techniques: securing the scene, remove distractions or disruptive people from the area. Further, "The officer should remain calm and speak slowly, in short sentences, to encourage communication. The responding officer should also present a genuine willingness to understand and help". Oliva et al. go on to outline the following specific de-escalation techniques: Oliva et al. also note behaviors that officers should avoid when attempting to de-escalate a situation which include: Not asking “why” questions as it makes the person defensive, they shouldn’t rush the person, never speak too loudly, they should keep their feelings from interfering, they shouldn’t challenge a person if they are having delusions or hallucinations but neither should they agree they are real.
 * The Tactical Pause entails stepping back, pausing to allow everyone involved a brief moment to think, perhaps ending or limiting a fight-or-flight response.
 * The Just-Be-Nice Tactic where the police officer speaks and gives commands in a friendly tone regardless of how the citizen is conducting themselves. Bell notes that there are occasions when the situation is not, in fact, what it appears to be, and the citizen is not committing a crime or violation. The Just-Be-Nice Tactic is particularly helpful in such cases.
 * Be Aware, Understand, then React. Police need to avoid getting caught up in the moment so should take a moment to be aware, assess and understand what is going on around them before they react.
 * Effective Communication so that the officer and individual can understand each other.
 * Active Listening Skills such as reflecting statements like "I understand that makes you angry". Use of minimal encouragers-brief responses, like saying 'OK,' that let the person know the officer is listening. Introducing oneself using "I" statements restating statements the individual says mirroring/reflecting or summarizing/paraphrasing.
 * Use of Open-Ended/Closed-Ended Questions.

Memphis Model
One of the most prominent de-escalation programs was developed by The Memphis Crisis Intervention Team or CIT. This program, which has come to be known as the Memphis Model, provides law enforcement with crisis intervention training to particularly help those with mental illness. This program is aimed at diverting those in a mental health crisis from ending up in jail. The goal of the program is to improve the safety of officers, family members and people in the community and to direct people with mental illness away from the judicial system and into the healthcare system. Through this program, officers are given 40 hours of comprehensive training that includes de-escalation techniques. Officers engage in role-playing various scenarios as part of this program.

According to The Memphis Crisis Intervention Team, research on the efficacy of CIT shows that it helps officers feel more confident, increases jail diversion for those with mental illness, increases the likelihood that those with mental illness get treatment, and injury to officers is significantly reduced. Compton et al. (2008) conducted a comprehensive review of the existing research on the effectiveness of the Memphis Model of the Crisis Intervention Team. While research is limited, the authors note that there is preliminary support that the Memphis Model may be helpful in connecting those with mental illness to the psychiatric services that they need. The authors further note that police officers knowledge and confidence improve with such training. Arrest rates also appear to be lower by officers trained in the CIT model.

According to PBS, the Memphis Model has expanded to approximately 3,000 law enforcement agencies across the United States. However, there are shortcomings to the research done on the effectiveness of the CIT programs such as lack of control groups and small sample sizes. The CIT programs around the country seem limited to addressing instituting de-escalation interventions with the mentally ill and not with the broader range of offenders that law enforcement officers may encounter. Furthermore, not all officers are trained in CIT; only self-selected police officers participate in this specialized training.

Apex Officer
There are other training programs, most notably the Apex Officer's Virtual Reality Training that addresses other de-escalation situations and is not limited just to work with the mentally ill. This training follows many of the basic de-escalation approaches noted above (e.g. effective communication and assessment of the scene) but is done through a virtual reality simulator. This model was introduced to the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) at their 126th Annual Conference and Exposition in Chicago, Illinois in October 2019.

International relations
In the military, de-escalation is a way to prevent military conflict escalation. A historic example is the teaching harvested from the Proud Prophet war simulation of a conflict between the USA and the USSR, which took place in 1983. In war-time diplomacy, de-escalation is used as an exit strategy, sometimes called an "off-ramp" or "slip road". In such cases, an alternative peaceful resolution is offered to a belligerent (i.e. nation or person engaged in war or conflict) in order to avoid further bloodshed. Restraint or appeasement against interventionism can in some cases lead to escalation instead of de-escalation. Deterrence is one strategy to decrease conflict severity. In asymmetric conflicts a probabilistic escalation might be rational for one side in some situations, resulting in challenges for de-escalation.

title: De-escalation


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DRE voting machine

A DRE voting machine, or direct-recording electronic voting machine, records votes by means of a ballot display provided with mechanical or electro-optical components that can be activated by the voter. These are typically buttons or a touchscreen; and they process data using a computer program to record voting data and ballot images in memory components. After the election, it produces a tabulation of the voting data stored in a removable memory component and as printed copy. The system may also provide a means for transmitting individual ballots or vote totals to a central location for consolidating and reporting results from precincts at the central location. The device started to be massively used in 1996 in Brazil where 100% of the elections voting system is carried out using machines.

In 2004, 28.9% of the registered voters in the United States used some type of direct recording electronic voting system, up from 7.7% in 1996.

History
The idea of voting by push button with electrical technology used to total the votes dates back to the 19th century when Frank Wood of Boston was granted a patent on a direct-recording electrical voting machine. (Thomas Edison's electrical voting system patent is sometimes cited in this regard, but it was intended for tallying roll-call votes in legislative chambers; as such, it is more like an audience response system.) The idea of electrical voting was pursued with much more vigor in the 20th century. Numerous patents were filed in the 1960s, many of them by AVM Corporation (the former Automatic Voting Machine Corporation), the company that had a near monopoly on mechanical voting machine at the time.

The first direct-recording electronic voting machine to be used in a government election was the Video Voter. This was developed by the Frank Thornber Company in Chicago. The Video Voter saw its first trial use in 1974 near Chicago, Illinois, and remained in use until 1980.

Microvote and Shoup Voting Machine Corporation entered the market in the mid 1980s with the MV-464 and the Shouptronic. Both of these machines saw widespread use; over 11,000 Shouptronic machines had been sold by 1993. In the years that followed, the rights to the Shouptronic were transferred to Guardian Voting and then to Danaher Controls, which sold it as the ELECTronic 1242.

Benefits
DRE's prevent overvotes and provide immediate feedback to the voter about undervotes. They avoid ballots with ambiguous marks where voter intent can be unclear.

Like electronic ballot markers, DRE's can be programmed to offer ballots in multiple languages, and they let people with disabilities vote without assistance, which would remove the anonymity of their vote. The machines can use headphones and other adaptive technology to provide accessibility.

Additionally, with DRE voting systems there is no risk of exhausting the supply of paper ballots, and they remove the need for printing paper ballots, which cost $0.10 to $0.55 per ballot, though some versions print results on thermal paper, which has ongoing costs.

Issues
Skepticism about the integrity of DRE voting machines led to the creation of election forensics, which can help identify election fraud.

Delays in voting
DRE's can cause more delay than paper ballots at busy times, since every voter needs access to a machine. Queuing theory calculates that waits of an hour result from known variations in when voters arrive, number of voters per machine, and average time a voter spends with a machine.

Errors
Issues have included public web access to the software, before it is loaded into machines for each election, and programming errors which increment different candidates than voters select.

2009 German court ruling
In 2009, the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany found that with voting machines the "determination of the result must be able to be examined by the citizen reliably and without any specialist knowledge of the subject." They further found the DRE-type voting machines, used in parliamentary elections under current German law, permitted voting machines but were unconstitutional without further qualification. The decision does not ban electronic voting but implements a higher standard.

Demonstrated laboratory attacks

 * Diebold Election Systems AccuVote-TS (Manipulation of the votes by the Princeton University)
 * Nedap ES3B (Manipulation of the votes by a citizen group)
 * SDU voting computers (Violating the secrecy of the ballot using Van Eck phreaking, tested by the Dutch secret service AIVD)

Attacks have also been performed on both DRE machines and optical scan voting machines, which count paper ballots. (See California study, "Security Analysis of the Diebold AccuBasic Interpreter" ).

Whether it is a DRE or an optical scan machine, the opportunity for tampering applies to persons with inside access (including government workers) and to a lesser extent, outside hackers. Therefore, framing election tampering issues as "hacking" may not be an accurate framework for public concerns. Within the context of protecting voting rights, it would not matter whether vote alteration was done by an outsider or an insider. What is of most importance is the ability to perform an audit with a record generated and verified by the voter at the time their vote is cast, all of which is lost with the sole use of these DRE systems.

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

title: DRE voting machine


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Category:Wikipedian journalists

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Goffredo Petrassi

Goffredo Petrassi (16 July 1904 – 2 March 2003) was an Italian composer of modern classical music, conductor, and teacher. He is considered one of the most influential Italian composers of the twentieth century.

Life
Petrassi was born at Zagarolo, near Rome. At the age of 15 he began to work at a music shop to supply his family's financial needs, and became fascinated by music. In 1928, he entered the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome to study organ and composition. In 1933, composer Alfredo Casella conducted Petrassi's Partita for orchestra at the ISCM festival in Amsterdam.

From 1940 to 1960 Petrassi was professor of composition at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory; later, he also became musical director of the opera house La Fenice, and from 1960 to 1978 he taught in the master courses in composition at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia. He was also a teacher at the Salzburg Mozarteum. Petrassi had many famous students, including Franco Donatoni, Aldo Clementi, Cornelius Cardew, Ennio Morricone, Karl Korte, Boris Porena, Norma Beecroft, Mario Bertoncini, Ernesto Rubin de Cervin, Eric Salzman, Kenneth Leighton, Peter Maxwell Davies, Michael Dellaira, Armando Santiago, and Richard Teitelbaum. Petrassi died in Rome at the age of 98.

Music
Petrassi's early work was part of an attempt by several Italian composers to create a national "Italian" revival in classical music, corresponding to the romantic work of Germans such as Richard Wagner. During this time, his work was characteristically neoclassical in style, influenced by Bartók, Hindemith and Stravinsky.

In later years, Petrassi's open musical mind and acute personality led him to experiment with different post-Webernian influences and a wide range of poetic materials, from Latin hymns to Ariosto's La follia d'Orlando and Ritratto di Don Chisciotte (Portrait of Don Quixote), based on the Miguel de Cervantes literary character. All these influences are present in a remarkable series of eight Concerti for Orchestra which he composed between 1934 and 1972. His music appears on the CD labels Chandos, Stradivarius, Naxos, and Capriccio.

Petrassi stopped composing in 1986 due to progressive loss of eyesight.

Works

 * Sinfonia, Siciliana e Fuga per Quartetto d'Archi (1929)
 * Partita for Orchestra (1932)
 * Preludio, Aria, e Finale for Cello and Piano (1933)
 * Concerto for Orchestra (1934)
 * Psalm IX (1934–36)
 * Piano Concerto (1936–39)
 * Magnificat (1939–40)
 * Coro di Morti (1941)
 * Quatro inni Sacri (1942–50)
 * La follia di Orlando (1942–43) (also as a symphonic suite)
 * Ritratto di Don Chisciotte (1945)
 * Il Cordovano (1948)
 * Morte dell'aria (1950)
 * Noche Oscura (1950–51)
 * Concerto for Orchestra No. 2 (1951)
 * Concerto for Orchestra No. 3 (1953)
 * Concerto for Orchestra No. 4 (1954)
 * Concerto for Orchestra No. 5 (1955)
 * Concerto for Orchestra No. 6 (1956–57)
 * Quartetto per Archi (String Quartet) (1957)
 * Serenata (1957)
 * Trio per Archi (String Trio) (1959)
 * Flute Concerto (1960)
 * Concerto for Orchestra No. 7 (1963–64)
 * Concerto for Orchestra No. 8 (1970–72)
 * Orationes Christi (1975)
 * Kyrie (1990)

title: Goffredo Petrassi


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Focas (lunar crater)

Focas is a small lunar impact crater that lies on the far side of the Moon, just past the southwestern limb. In this location the crater is occasionally brought into view due to libration, but not much detail can be seen because the crater is viewed from the side.

The crater is situated in the wide valley between the ring-shaped Montes Rook in the north and Montes Cordillera range in the south. These ranges form a double-ring around the Mare Orientale impact basin. The crater is located toward the southern end of this immense feature, just to the north of the Montes Cordillera range. Focas is a relatively isolated crater, with the nearest craters of note being the Wright–Shaler crater pair some distance to the east along the same interior edge of the Montes Cordillera.

This is a circular crater with an interior floor about half the total diameter. It is symmetrical in form, with only some slight appearance of wear along the rim. The interior floor contains no features or impacts of note.

Focas Crater is named after Jean-Henri Focas (1909-1969), a Greco-French astronomer.

Satellite craters
By convention these features are identified on lunar maps by placing the letter on the side of the crater midpoint that is closest to Focas.

title: Focas (lunar crater)


text: User talk:69.37.75.94

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Category:American football running backs

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Freedom of Information Act 2000

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (c. 36) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that creates a public "right of access" to information held by public authorities. It is the implementation of freedom of information legislation in the United Kingdom on a national level. Its application is limited in Scotland (which has its own freedom of information legislation) to UK Government offices located in Scotland. The Act implements a manifesto commitment of the Labour Party in the 1997 general election, developed by David Clark as a 1997 White Paper. The final version of the Act was criticised by freedom of information campaigners as a diluted form of what had been proposed in the White Paper. The full provisions of the act came into force on 1 January 2005. The Act was the responsibility of the Lord Chancellor's Department (now renamed the Ministry of Justice). However, freedom of information policy is now the responsibility of the Cabinet Office. The Act led to the renaming of the Data Protection Commissioner (set up to administer the Data Protection Act 1998), who is now known as the Information Commissioner. The Office of the Information Commissioner oversees the operation of the Act.

A second freedom of information law is in existence in the UK, the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (asp 13). It was passed by the Scottish Parliament in 2002, to cover public bodies over which the Holyrood parliament, rather than Westminster, has jurisdiction. For these institutions, it fulfils the same purpose as the 2000 Act.

Around 120,000 requests were made in the first year that the Act was in force. Private citizens made 60% of them, with businesses and journalists accounting for 20% and 10% respectively. However, requests from journalists tended to be more complex, and, consequently, more expensive. They accounted for around 10% of initial FoI requests made to central government, but 20% of the costs of officials' time in dealing with the requests. The Act cost £35.5 million in 2005.

Background
The act implements what was a manifesto commitment of the Labour Party in the 1997 general election. Before its introduction, there had been no right of access to government by the general public, merely a limited voluntary framework for sharing information.

The white paper
The act was preceded by a 1998 white paper, Your Right to Know, by David Clark. The White paper was met with widespread enthusiasm, and was described at the time as being "almost too good to be true" by one advocate of freedom of information legislation. The final act was substantially more limited in scope than the initial white paper.

Parliamentary debate
A draft Bill was published in May 1999; the Bill was extensively debated in the House of Commons and the House of Lords, and received royal assent in November 2000.

How the FOIA of 2000 Affected Access to Public Records
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) modernised the UK Public Records Act of 1958. This act gave the public a general right to access all types of recorded information held by public authorities, much greater than was previously allowed. The FOIA was mainly concerned with the management and preservation of public records.

Access To More Recent Records
The FOIA reduced the 30-year rule to a 20-year rule, meaning records would be made public earlier. This gave the public the ability to access more recent records without sacrificing national security or personal privacy.

Creation of the Information Commissioner's Office
A significant part of the FOIA was the establishment of the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). This office oversees the upholding of information rights in the public interest, as well as making sure the FOIA is adhered to properly. If you think a public body is intentionally not giving you the information you've asked for, the ICO is the agency to contact. They are essentially the centralized management agency for all things public records.

Real Time Reporting
While there was still a waiting period for the public to access records, the FOIA also established a system of real time reporting of records to the National Archives which could be accessed by all UK government agencies.

Digitisation of Public Records
This is also when public records began to become digitised which also meant that the time frame for accessing records was immediate or real-time. This is an ongoing process that started with the advent of the digital age of the 21st century and is today a common practice for all UK public records.

Applicability
The Freedom of Information Act creates a statutory right for access to information in relation to bodies that exercise functions of a public nature. Three different kinds of bodies are covered under the act: Public Authorities, publicly owned companies and designated bodies performing public functions.

Public authorities
In principle, the freedom of information act applies to all "public authorities" within the United Kingdom. A full list of "public authorities" for the purposes of the act is included in Schedule 1. Government departments, the Houses of Parliament, the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Welsh Assembly, the armed forces, local government bodies, National Health Service bodies, schools, colleges and universities, police authorities and Chief Officers of Police are included within this list, which ranges from the Farm Animal Welfare Council to the Youth Council for Northern Ireland. A few government departments are expressly excluded from the scope of the act, principally intelligence services.

As government departments are created or closed, the act must be continually updated. Schedule 4 of the Act empowers the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs to add a body or officeholder to Schedule 1 as a public authority if they are created statute or prerogative; and its members are appointed by the government.

Hybrid public authorities
It is important to note that for some public authorities listed under Schedule 1, the act has limited effect. For example, the BBC is subject to the act only for information which is not held for the purposes of journalism, art or literature, to prevent its journalistic activities from possible compromise. The scope of this provision was considered in the recent High Court decision of BBC v Sugar, an internal BBC document examining the BBC coverage of the Middle East for potential bias. The appellants in that case argued that the document had been produced for both operational and journalistic reasons, and so should not be covered by the partial exemption provided in the act. The High Court rejected this argument; Mr Justice Irwin considered that the meaning of journalism within the act meant that any information held for such purposes was covered by the exemption:

"My conclusion is that the words in the Schedule mean the BBC has no obligation to disclose information which they hold to any significant extent for the purposes of journalism, art or literature, whether or not the information is also held for other purposes. The words do not mean that the information is disclosable if it is held for purposes distinct from journalism, art or literature, whilst it is also held to any significant extent for those listed purposes. If the information is held for mixed purposes, including to any significant extent the purposes listed in the Schedule or one of them, then the information is not disclosable."

A 4:1 majority (Lord Wilson dissenting) of the Supreme Court upheld this decision, stating that the disclosure of any information held for the purposes of journalism, art or literature was to be excluded - even if the information was predominantly held for other purposes.

Publicly owned companies
Companies that fall within the definition of a publicly owned company under s6 of the Act automatically fall within its grasp. S6 provides that a company is publicly owned if:

 * (a) it is wholly owned by the Crown, or
 * (b) it is wholly owned by any public authority listed in Schedule 1 other than
 * (i) a government department, or
 * (ii) any authority which is listed only in relation to particular information.

Designated bodies
Under Section 5 of the Act, the Secretary of State may designate further bodies as public authorities under the Act, provided that those bodies are exercising a function of a public nature or contracting to provide a service whose provision is a function of a public authority. The first order under section 5 (in November 2011) extended the list of public authorities to also include the Association of Chief Police Officers, the Financial Ombudsman Service and UCAS.

Right of Access
The act creates a general right of access, on request, to information held by public authorities. On receipt of a freedom of information claim a public authority has two corresponding duties. First, a duty to inform a member of the public whether or not it holds the information requested (s1(1)(a)), and second, if it does hold that information, to communicate it to the person making that request (s1(1)(b)). As the corollary to this, the Act thus grants the equivalent rights to a confirmation or denial and communication of relevant information to an individual making a request under the act. The basic duty is supplemented by an additional duty to aid individuals in making requests and ensuring that they frame their FOI requests appropriately. (s.16(1))

However, there are numerous exemptions. Some of these are absolute bars to disclosure; some are qualified, which means the public authority has to decide whether the public interest in disclosing the relevant information outweighs the public interest in maintaining the exemption. An applicant for information who considers that a request has been wrongly rejected may apply to the Information Commissioner, who has the power to order disclosure. However, such orders can be appealed to a specialist tribunal (the Information Tribunal) and in some circumstances, the Government has the power to override orders of the Information Commissioner.

Any person can request information under the act; this includes legal entities such as companies. There is no special format for a request. Applicants do not need to mention the Act when making a request. Applicants do not have to give a reason for their request.

Exemptions
Although the Act covers a wide range of government information, the act contains a variety of provisions that provide for the exemption from disclosure of certain types of information. The act contains two forms of exemption: "absolute" exemptions that are not subject to any public interest assessment, they act as absolute bars to the disclosure of information; and "qualified" exemptions where a public interest test must be made, balancing the public interest in maintaining the exemption against the public interest in disclosing the information. The original Freedom of Information White Paper proposed 15 such exemptions, but the final Bill included 24, and not all of the initial 15 were included.

Absolute exemptions
Exemptions designated "absolute exemptions" have no public interest test attached. The act contains eight such exemptions:

 * Information that is accessible by other means (s.21)
 * Information belonging to security services (s.23)
 * Information contained in court records (s.32)
 * Where disclosure of the information would infringe parliamentary privilege (s.34)
 * Information held by the House of Commons or the House of Lords, where disclosure would prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs (s.36). (Information that is not held by the Commons or Lords falling under s.36 is subject to the public interest test)
 * Information which (a) the applicant could obtain under the Data Protection Act 1998; or (b) where release would breach the data protection principles. (s.40)
 * Information provided in confidence (s.41)
 * When disclosing the information is prohibited by an enactment; incompatible with a European Union obligation; or would commit a contempt of court (s.44)

Qualified exemptions
If information falls within a qualified exemption, it must be subject to a public interest test. Thus, a decision on the application of a qualified exemption operates in two stages. First, a public authority must determine whether or not the information is covered by an exemption and then, even if it is covered, the authority must disclose the information unless the application of a public interest test indicated that the public interest favours non-disclosure. Qualified exemptions can be subdivided into two further categories: class-based exemptions covering information in particular classes, and harm-based exemptions covering situations where disclosure of information would be liable to cause harm.

Class-based exemptions

 * Information intended for future publication (s.22)
 * Information which does not fall within s. 23(1) is exempt if required for the purpose of safeguarding national security (s.24)
 * Information held for purposes of investigations and proceedings conducted by public authorities (s.30)
 * Information relating to the formation of government policy, ministerial communications, advice from government legal officers, and the operation of any ministerial private office (s.35)
 * Information that relates to communications with members of the Royal family, and conferring honours (s.37)
 * Prevents overlap between FoI Act and regulations requiring disclosure of environmental information (s.39)
 * Information covered by professional legal privilege (s.42)
 * Trade secrets (s.43(1))

Harm-based exemptions
Under these exemptions the exemption applies (subject to the public interest test) if complying with the duty under s.1 would, or would be likely to:
 * Prejudice defence or the capability, effectiveness or security of any relevant forces (s.26)
 * Prejudice international relations (s.27)
 * Prejudice relations between any administration in the United Kingdom and any other such administration (s.28)
 * Prejudice the economic interests of the UK (s.29)
 * Prejudice law enforcement (e.g., prevention of crime or administration of justice, etc.) (s.31)
 * Prejudice the auditing functions of any public authorities (s.33)
 * In the reasonable opinion of a qualified person: prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs; prejudice collective responsibility, or inhibit the free and frank provision of advice or exchange of views (s.36)
 * Endanger physical or mental health, or endanger the safety of the individual (s.38)
 * Prejudice commercial interests (s.43(2)).

Vexatious requests
A public authority is not obliged to comply with a request for information if the request is vexatious (s14(1)). A request is considered vexatious if it is 'obsessive or manifestly unreasonable', harasses the authority or causes distress to its staff, imposes a significant burden, or if the request lacks any serious value.

Implementing the act
The Act affects over 100,000 public bodies including government departments, schools and councils. The Act came into force in phases, with the final "general right of access" to public information under the Act coming into force on 1 January 2005. As well as the "general right of access", the Act places a duty on public authorities to adopt and maintain pro-active "publication schemes" for the routine release of important information (such as annual reports and accounts). These publication schemes must be approved by the Information Commissioner. In general, public authorities have 20 working days to respond to an information request, though this deadline can be extended in certain cases and/or with the agreement of the requester. Under the Act, public authorities are encouraged to enter into a dialogue with the requester to better determine the information they want, and the format they want it in - in itself, a change in the way UK authorities interact with the public. Requests can be refused if they cost more than £600, including time spent searching for files. The UK Government established the Access to Information Central Clearing House in order to ensure consistency across Central Government in the way requests are handled.

Unusual features
Three aspects of the UK Freedom of Information Act differ from the position in many other countries:

 * Requests by individuals for access to their own personal information are dealt with outside the act for most practical purposes. They are dealt with under the Data Protection Act 2018 once it has been determined that the exemption for first party personal data is engaged, although some key provisions remain applicable e.g. the right of complaint to the Information Commissioner.
 * Requests for information about matters concerning the environment are dealt with by the Environmental Information Regulations 2004. Those regulations, while similar to the FOIA, do differ in a number of ways.
 * There is no procedure whereby third parties can challenge a decision by a public authority to disclose information: for instance, if a commercial organisation provides information to a public authority, and the authority discloses that information in response to an FOI Act request, the commercial organisation has no right of appeal against that decision. By contrast, "reverse FOI" applications of this type are common in the U.S.

Reception
At the time of the passing of the Act, advocates of freedom of information legislation were critical of the bill for its complexity, limited scope and the inclusion of a ministerial veto. Lord Mackay criticised the bill in the House of Lords as "toothless" for its inclusion of provisions allowing ministers to veto applications.

By contrast, Tony Blair, the prime minister responsible for passing the Act regards it as "One of the biggest mistakes of his career". Blair says that "For political leaders, it's like saying to someone who is hitting you over the head with a stick, 'Hey, try this instead', and handing them a mallet. The information is neither sought because the journalist is curious to know, nor given to bestow knowledge on 'the people'. It's used as a weapon." Labour peer Lord Falconer has criticised the use of the act by journalists for "fishing expeditions" into salacious stories, arguing that "FoI is not for press[,] it is for the people. It needs to be properly used in order to promote good Government. Information needs to be handled responsibly, and I strongly believe that there is a duty of responsibility on behalf of the media as well."

In the article Freedom of Information: A sheep in wolf's clothing? Rodney Austin offers the following criticisms of the substance of the Act:

 * The range of exemptions is wider than for any other freedom of information act existing in a democratic state.
 * The obligations to establish publication schemes were diluted meaning that there is no duty to publish information of any specified type.
 * There is a ministerial veto which undermines the Act. This has been used five times: the first time to stop publication of minutes of cabinet meetings relating to the invasion of Iraq, the second and third time by successive governments to stop publication of cabinet meetings relating to discussions regarding devolution, the fourth to stop publication of a risk register on NHS overhaul in England, and the fifth to stop publication of private letters of Charles III, then the Prince of Wales, sent to a number of government departments.

The legislation has also been criticised for "loopholes" that allow authorities to avoid disclosing information in certain situations. Companies owned by one public authority are generally subject to the Act but companies owned by two or more public authorities are not covered.

Facts revealed by the act
Facts that have been brought to light by this Act include:

 * The Government agreed to a £1.5 million bailout of one of the most troubled schools in its flagship academies programme ten days before the 2005 general election.
 * Ministers and MPs claimed thousands of pounds on taxis as part of £5.9 million in expenses for travel.
 * Foreign diplomats – who have diplomatic immunity – were accused of rapes, sexual assaults, child abuse and murders while working in Britain.
 * Seventy-four police officers serving with the Metropolitan Police have criminal records.
 * A clandestine British torture programme existed in post-war Germany, "reminiscent of the concentration camps".
 * The UK supported the Israeli nuclear weapons program, by selling Israel 20 tonnes of heavy water in 1958.
 * The NHS has made available Implanon implants to girls from the age of 13 in an attempt to cut teenage pregnancies.

Data breaches

 * On 8 August 2023, the Police Service of Northern Ireland inadvertently responded to a FoI request made using WhatDoTheyKnow by supplementing the source data used to answer the request, which included the personal details of all police officers and staff on the force.

Amendment bill
The Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill was a private member's bill introduced to the British House of Commons in 2007 which failed to become law. Conservative MP David Maclean introduced the bill to ensure that MPs' correspondence was exempt from freedom of information laws. The then leader of the Liberal Democrats, Sir Menzies Campbell, said there should not "be one law for MPs and a different law for everyone else" and that the Bill might make it appear as though "Parliament has something to hide". However, this failed to pass the first reading in the House of Lords.

Further to this, Lord Falconer made comments suggesting that time spent deciding whether or not information fell under an exemption clause should be included in the £600 cost limit. Consultation was carried out, with the government saying the change would cut costs and discourage requests for trivial information, although critics said that it was to keep embarrassing information secret.

title: Freedom of Information Act 2000


text: Category:American football wide receivers


text:
Category:American football tight ends

This category includes players who played tight end and/or end in American football. For defensive ends, see Category:American football defensive linemen.

title: Category:American football tight ends


text: Category:American football offensive linemen


text: Category:American football defensive linemen


text:
Talk:Joseph Proust

Untitled
Someone needs to add a summery of this guy before the first headline like most of the bio's have. -Scruff323

Why has everyone been so worked up about gold for so long? Apparently this guy's got the recipe, lol... -John — Preceding unsigned comment added by 139.62.26.100 (talk) 21:12, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on Joseph Proust. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
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title: Talk:Joseph Proust


text:
Category:American football linebackers

See also:
 * Category:American football middle linebackers
 * Category:American football outside linebackers

title: Category:American football linebackers


text:
Jean Peters

Elizabeth Jean Peters (October 15, 1926 – October 13, 2000) was an American film actress. She was known as a star of 20th Century Fox in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and as the second wife of Howard Hughes. Although possibly best remembered for her siren role in Pickup on South Street (1953), Peters was known for her resistance to being turned into a sex symbol. She preferred to play unglamorous, down-to-earth women.

Late in her career, and after her retirement, Peters occasionally played roles in TV productions, appearing in four from 1973 to 1988.

Early life
Peters was born on October 15, 1926, in East Canton, Ohio, the eldest daughter of Elizabeth Thomas (née Diesel; 1898–1987) and Gerald Peters (1900–1937), a laundry manager. She had a younger sister, Shirley Peters (b. 1935). She also had a younger paternal half-sister, Arlen Stuart (born Shirley Arlen Peters; 1935), an actress, and a younger paternal half-brother, Boomie Peters, a script reader, from her father second marriage with Dora Hervitz. Raised on a small farm in East Canton, Peters attended East Canton High School. She was a Methodist. She went to college at the University of Michigan and later Ohio State University, where she studied to become a teacher and majored in literature. While studying for a teaching degree at Ohio State, she entered and won the Miss Ohio State Pageant in the fall of 1945, besting 11 other finalists. Sponsored by photographer Paul Robinson, she was awarded the grand prize of a screen test with 20th Century-Fox.

20th Century Fox
As her agent, Robinson accompanied Peters to Hollywood, and helped her secure a seven-year contract with Fox. She dropped out of college to become an actress, a decision she later regretted. (In the late 1940s, Peters returned to college, in between filming, to complete her work and obtain a degree. )

Fox announced that in her first film I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now (1947), she would play an "ugly duckling", supported by "artificial freckles and horn-rimmed glasses". She eventually withdrew from the film. Peters was tested in 1946 for a farm girl role in Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! (1948), but the producer and director decided she was not suitable.

Film debut
Peters was selected to replace Linda Darnell as the female lead in Captain from Castile (1947) opposite Tyrone Power, when Darnell was reassigned to save the production of Forever Amber. Although she had not yet made her screen debut, Peters was highly publicized. She received star treatment during the filming. Captain from Castile was a hit. Leonard Maltin wrote that afterwards, Peters spent the new decade playing "sexy spitfires, often in period dramas and Westerns."

She was offered a similar role in the Western Yellow Sky (1948), but she refused the part, explaining it was "too sexy". As a result, the studio, frustrated by her stubbornness, put her on her first suspension.

For her second film, Deep Waters (1948), which Peters filmed in late 1947, she was reunited with her director from Captain from Castile, Henry King. On this, she commented: "It's really a break for me, because he knows where he's going and what he wants, and I naturally have great confidence in him." The film was not nearly as successful as Captain from Castile, but Peters was again noticed. She was named among the best five 'finds' of the year, among Barbara Bel Geddes, Valli, Richard Widmark and Wanda Hendrix.

She was next assigned to co-star next to Clifton Webb in Mr. Belvedere Goes to College (1949), but Shirley Temple later replaced her.

In early 1949 Peters signed on to play Ray Milland's love interest in It Happens Every Spring (1949). For the role, she offered to bleach her hair, but the studio overruled this. Although the film became a success, most of the publicity was for Milland's performance.

Peters next starred alongside Paul Douglas in the period film Love That Brute (1950), for which she had to wear a dress so snug she was unable to sit. The film was originally titled Turned Up Toes, and Peters was cast in the film in June 1949, shortly after the release of It Happens Every Spring. To prepare for a singing and dancing scene, Peters took a few lessons with Betty Grable's dance instructor.

By 1950, Peters was almost forgotten by the public, but she had been playing lead roles since 1947. In late 1950, she was cast in a secondary role as a college girl in Take Care of My Little Girl (1951). A Long Beach newspaper reported that Peters gained her role by impressing Jean Negulesco with her sewing. She once became famous for playing a simple country girl, but as she grew up, the studio did not find her any more suitable roles.

Stardom

At her insistence, Peters was given the title role in Anne of the Indies (1951), which the press declared was the film that finally brought her stardom. Before its release, she was cast in Viva Zapata! (1952) opposite Marlon Brando. Julie Harris had been considered for this role. Also in 1951, Peters had her first collaboration with Marilyn Monroe, when they had secondary roles in As Young as You Feel.

Peters was set to play the title role in the drama film Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie (1952). It was the first time since the beginning of her career that Peters received this much publicity. While shooting the film in Hutchinson, Kansas, Peters was honored with the title 'Miss Wheatheart of America'. Peters was one of many names in the studios O. Henry's Full House (1952). She co starred with Jeffrey Hunter in Lure of the Wilderness (1952).

In 1953, director Samuel Fuller chose Peters over Marilyn Monroe for the part of Candy in Pickup on South Street. He said he thought Peters had the right blend of sex appeal and the tough-talking, streetwise quality he was seeking. Monroe, he said, was too innocent-looking for the role. Shelley Winters and Betty Grable had been considered, but both had turned it down. Because of the sexual attractiveness of her character, Peters was not thrilled with the role. She preferred playing more down-to-earth, unglamorous parts as she had done with Anne of the Indies (1951), Viva Zapata! (1952) and Lure of the Wilderness (1952).

For Pickup on South Street, Peters was advised to bleach her hair, but she refused to do so, wanting to avoid comparisons with Winters and Grable. She did agree to adopt a "sexy shuffle" for the role. She was helped by Marilyn Monroe to understand the role of a siren. Peters later said that she had enjoyed making the film, but announced in an interview that she was not willing to take on other siren roles. She said: "Pickup on South Street was fine for my career, but that doesn't mean I'm going to put on a tight sweater and skirt and slither around. I'm just not the type. On Marilyn Monroe it looks good. On me it would look silly." In another interview, Peters explained that playing down-to-earth and sometimes unwashed women have the most to offer in the way of drama.

She said: "A clothes horse seldom has lines or situations that pierce the outer layer and get into the core of life. After all, a woman in the latest Paris creation might feel and think like a plain, simple soul, but the clothes she wears would prevent her from revealing exactly what she feels and thinks. One look in the mirror and she must live up to what she sees there. The same is true on screen. If the character is chic and soignee and lines are either 'bright' or 'smart aleck' I do not think of myself as a person suited to reading such lines. Sophistication in an actress usually comes from many years of training. I came to the screen from the classroom and I'm learning as I go along. I like to play roles I understand. As I am a farm girl, born and raised near Canton, Ohio, I like the frank, honest approach. Innuendo, intrigue, the devious slant, are foreign to me and to the sort of character I best understand. I often think our glamorization of Hollywood stars – the perpetual photographing us in ermine and bouffant tulle, in French bathing suits or sleek satin – throws the public off. They don't recognize us as human beings subject to the same discomforts of climate and working conditions as they are. They expect to see that goddess leading a couple of wolfhounds come striding onto the set. Because I like to get away from all that and down to the heart of things I choose such characters as Josefa, or Anne, or Louise, the girl in Lure of the Wilderness."

Peters and Marilyn Monroe starred together in Niagara, also starring Joseph Cotten. In Niagara, Peters replaced Anne Baxter, with whom she co-starred in the anthology film O. Henry's Full House (1952). Shooting of Niagara took place in the summer of 1952. Peters's character was initially the leading role, but the film eventually became a vehicle for Monroe, who was by that time more successful.

Peters's third film in 1953, A Blueprint for Murder, reunited her with Joseph Cotten. She was assigned to the film in December 1952 and told the press she liked playing in the film because it allowed her to sing, but no song by her is used in the picture, only the playing of a piano. Shortly after the film's premiere in July 1953, the studio renewed Peters' contract for another two years.

In 1953, she also starred in the film noir Vicki. Writer Leo Townsend bought the story of the film, a remake of I Wake Up Screaming, as a vehicle for Peters. Townsend said that he gave the role to Peters in December 1952, because she was "one of the greatest sirens he's ever seen."

Next, Peters was assigned to replace Crain in the film Three Coins in the Fountain (1954), which was shot on location in late 1953 in Italy. Peters was unsatisfied with her role and said in a September 1953 interview: "When I heard Dorothy McGuire, Clifton Webb, and Maggie McNamara were going to be in the picture, I thought I would finally have the kind of role that suited me. They sounded like smart, sophisticated company. But when I got to Italy and read the script, I discovered I was going to be an earthy kind of girl again. The script had me nearly being killed in a runaway truck." However, the film became a great success and brought Peters again into the limelight.

Final films
Other 1954 films co-starring Peters were the Westerns Apache (borrowed by Warner Bros.) and Broken Lance. Although Broken Lance did not attract much attention, she was critically acclaimed for her performance in Apache. One critic praised her for "giving an excellent account for herself", declaring she was "on her way to becoming one of the finest young actresses around Hollywood today."

Peters's next (and ultimately final) film was A Man Called Peter (1955), in which she played Catherine Marshall, the wife of Peter Marshall, a Presbyterian minister and chaplain of the United States Senate. After the release of A Man Called Peter, Peters refused several roles, for which she was placed on suspension by the studio.

Retirement
Deciding she had had enough, Peters left Fox to focus on her private life. Following her marriage to Howard Hughes, she retired from acting. In 1957, the producer Jerry Wald tried to persuade her not to leave Hollywood but had no luck. She was supposedly discouraged from continuing as an actress by Hughes, and reported in late 1957 that she was planning on becoming a producer.

In March 1959, it was announced that Peters was to return to the screen for a supporting role in The Best of Everything. But, she did not appear in that film; and, despite her earlier announcement, never produced a film.

Return to acting
In 1970, rumors arose of Peters making a comeback to acting when the press reported that she was considering three film offers and a weekly TV series for the 1970–1971 season. She chose the television movie Winesburg, Ohio (1973). Afterwards, she said, "I am not pleased with the show or my performance in it. I found it rather dull." At the beginning, she had expressed enthusiasm for the project, saying: "I'm very fond of this script. It's the right age for me. I won't have to pretend I'm a glamour girl." Her co-star William Windom praised her, saying she was "warm, friendly, and charming on the set."

In 1976, Peters had a supporting role in the TV miniseries The Moneychangers. When asked why she took the role, she said: "I'll be darned if I know. A moment of madness, I think. I ran into my old friend Ross Hunter, who was producing The Moneychangers for NBC-TV, and he asked me if I wanted to be in it. It seemed like fun. It's a nice part – not too big – and I greatly admire Christopher Plummer, whom I play opposite."

Peters appeared in the 1981 television film Peter and Paul, produced by her then-husband, Stan Hough. She guest-starred in Murder, She Wrote in 1988, which was her final acting performance.

Personal life
After landing a contract in Hollywood, Peters moved there, where she initially lived with her aunt, Melba Diesel. From the beginning of her career, Peters openly admitted she did not like fame due to the crowds. Co-actors at Fox recalled that she was very serious about her career. Jeanne Crain said Peters was "anything but a party girl". Despite her clashes with the studio, Peters was well-liked by other contract players.

One biographer recalled: "In all the research and planning that went into this book, no one ever had an unkind word to say of Miss Peters, and that is unusual." Peters was close friends with Marilyn Monroe, who also worked for Fox. Other actors she befriended during her career were Joseph Cotten, David Niven, Ray Milland, Marie McDonald, and especially Jeanne Crain.

In 1954, Peters married Texas oilman Stuart Cramer (grandson of Stuart W. Cramer). At the time they married, they had known each other for only a few weeks, and they separated a few months later. There was much talk of Peters possibly retiring from the screen, but the actress insisted that after her eight-week leave from Fox, she was to return to Hollywood.

The decorated soldier and actor, Audie Murphy, met Peters when both were students at the Actors Lab. They had a very warm affair in 1946; during this time she met Howard Hughes.

In 1957, after her divorce from Cramer, Peters married Howard Hughes. Soon after that, he retreated from public view and, reportedly, started becoming an eccentric recluse. The couple had met in the 1940s, before Peters became a film actress. During their highly publicized romance in 1947 there was talk of marriage, but Peters said that she could not combine it with her career. The columnist Jack Anderson claimed that Peters was "the only woman [Hughes] ever loved." He reportedly had his security officers follow her everywhere even when they were not in a relationship. The actor Max Showalter confirmed this, after becoming a close friend of Peters during shooting of Niagara (1953).

During her marriage, which lasted from 1957 to 1971, Peters retired from acting and social events in Hollywood. According to a 1969 article, she went through life unrecognized, despite being protected by Hughes's security officers all day. Living in anonymity was easy, according to Peters, because she "didn't act like an actress." It was later reported that during the marriage, Peters was frequently involved in activities such as charitable work, arts and crafts, and university studies including psychology and anthropology at UCLA.

In 1971, Peters and Hughes divorced. She agreed to a lifetime alimony payment of $70,000 ($ today) annually, adjusted for inflation, and she waived all claims to Hughes's estate, then worth several billion dollars. In the media, she refused to speak about the marriage, claiming she preferred to focus on the present and future. She said that she hoped to avoid being known as 'Mrs. Howard Hughes' for the rest of her life, although that would be difficult. "I'm a realist. I know what the score is, and I know who the superstar is."

Later in 1971, Peters married Stan Hough, an executive with 20th Century Fox. They were married until Hough's death in 1990.

Peters died of leukemia on October 13, 2000, in Carlsbad, California at age 73. She was buried at the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

Radio appearances
CBS Radio Network LUX RADIO THEATER "The Day the Earth Stood Still" Monday 4 January 1954

title: Jean Peters


text:
1854 in rail transport

January events

 * January 16 – The permanent London Paddington station, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel for the Great Western Railway of England, is opened.
 * January 20 – The North Carolina General Assembly in the United States charters the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad to run from Goldsboro through New Bern to the newly created seaport of Morehead City near Beaufort.

February events

 * February 15 – Pennsylvania Railroad's Horseshoe Curve near Altoona, Pennsylvania, opens for railroad traffic.
 * February 22 – Chicago & Rock Island Railroad opens throughout to Rock Island, Illinois, making it the first railroad to connect Chicago with the Mississippi River.

April events

 * April 30 – Opening of first railway in Brazil, running 16 km inland from Mauá on 1676 mm gauge.

May events

 * May 15 – Opening of railway over the Semmering Pass in Austria.

June events

 * 1 June – Birmingham New Street station is opened in Birmingham, England.
 * June – The Grand Excursion takes prominent Eastern United States inhabitants from Chicago to Rock Island, Illinois, by railroad, then up the Mississippi River to St. Paul, Minnesota, by steamboat.

July events

 * July 1 – The Harcourt Street railway line opens between Dublin and Bray, Ireland.
 * July 3 – The Brooklyn City Railroad, the oldest streetcar line in Brooklyn, New York, opens for passenger service.

August events

 * August 12 – The first section of what is now Belgian railway line 161 opens connecting Brussels-Luxembourg and La Hulpe stations.
 * August 15 – First section of East Indian Railway opens, from Howrah to Hooghly (37 km).
 * August 20 – The first trains operate in what is now Romania between Oraviţa, Transylvania, and Baziaş, on the Danube.
 * August 21 – The Great Western Railway of Canada opens its Galt Branch.
 * August 28 – The Somerset Central Railway opens and is leased to the Bristol and Exeter Railway for a seven-year term.

September events

 * September 1 – Opening of first railway in Norway, the Hovedjernbanen, from Christiania (Oslo) to Eidsvoll (67.6 km).
 * September 12 – Opening of first steam railway in Australia, the Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway Company's Port Melbourne line, from Melbourne Terminus to Sandridge on gauge.
 * September 20 – The Great North of Scotland Railway operates its first passenger train over the 39 mi route from Kittybrewster, in Aberdeen, to Huntly.

October events

 * October 20 – Kingston Locomotive Works, the predecessor of the Canadian Locomotive Company, completes construction of its first steam locomotive.
 * October 25 – The Carillon and Grenville Railway, in Canada, opens.

November events

 * November 13 – Opening London Necropolis railway station at Waterloo, London, a special railway station constructed by the London Necropolis Company for funeral trains.

Unknown date events

 * Opening of first section of railway in Africa, the Middle East and the Ottoman Empire, between Alexandria and Kafr el-Zayyat in Egypt.
 * Aretas Blood purchases the steam locomotive manufacturing business of Amoskeag Locomotive Works and folds it into Manchester Locomotive Works.
 * Henry Farnam becomes president of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad.

January births

 * January 6 – William N. Page, American civil engineer, builder of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway and the Virginian Railway (d. 1932).

February births

 * February 14 – Job A. Edson, president of Kansas City Southern Railway 1905–1918 and 1920–1927 (d. 1928).

December births

 * December 26 – Charles Frederick Crocker, son of Charles Crocker of California's Big Four railroaders, president of San Joaquin and Sierra Nevada Railroad, vice president of Southern Pacific Railroad (d. 1897).

February deaths

 * February 19 – Whitmell P. Tunstall, first president of the Richmond and Danville Railroad (b. 1810).

title: 1854 in rail transport


text:
Category:American football safeties

American football players who played/are playing safety

title: Category:American football safeties


text: Category:American football cornerbacks

title: Category:American football cornerbacks


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Talk:Stephen Milligan

Public awareness
...led to a greater public awareness of auto-erotic asphyxiation and self-bondage and their risks.

Yeh, every cloud has a silver lining!

That last sentence needs some work.

It is true that it greatly increased awareness in the UK of autoerotic asphyxia; it gained considerable media coverage. Prior to Milligan's death, most people knew little or nothing about the practice, for many people, it was the first time they had heard of it. Biographies 2 (talk) 13:57, 22 June 2009 (UTC)

Back door key
A colleague of mine, who is rather strange, had a back-door key to Stephen Milligan's house at the time of his death. We were 12/13 at the time. I never found out why he had the key and the colleague (then good friend) went very strange a few years later and now doesn't talk to anybody and is an alcoholic. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.223.81.88 (talk) 09:13, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

That orange
-- The Anome 11:27, 16 November 2005 (UTC)
 * 1) Orange, or orange segment?
 * 2) There is much speculation on the web that he had used the orange as a way of self-administering amyl nitrite. Does anyone have an authoritative cite (such as, say, the coroner's report) either confirming or refuting this?
 * [This blog http://www.newsmedianews.com/milligan.shtml] claims that amyl nitrite was not found, and that this removed a major plank from the misadventure theory, but then there is the "wake up" theory of citrus fruit below. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.251.226.41 (talk) 22:26, 3 August 2011 (UTC)

There is also some suggestion that it was not suicide at all: http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/1996/223/223p22.htm

 * The coroner's verdict was "death by misadventure". Nobody's suggesting it was suicide.

Segments of citrus fruit are used to "wake up" when somebody is almost passed out during autoerotic asphyxiation. This is well known. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.174.181.141 (talk) 06:46, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

Does anyone have more information about his policies, career, etc. - i.e., his LIFE? An article that mentions the injustice of disproportionate focus on his death could itself have more than a couple of lines on his time on earth before his corpse was discovered. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.241.83.99 (talk) 15:47, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

Sadly the media seems to have little more to say about the man than stranglewank. --86.177.220.63 (talk) 00:24, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

Unfortunately, it was such a spectacularly bizarre and lurid way to die that he would probably have to be a major celebrity - Hollywood superstar, or global political figure or similar - to avoid his achievements being overshadowed by it. The bad timing of being the definitive final blow to Major's "Back To Basics" campaign must have sealed his legend too. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.173.168.114 (talk) 23:56, 5 April 2010 (UTC)

Date of death.
Should his date of death not be given as "c. 5 February 1994," as this is an assumption rather than certain fact? P M C 19:13, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

 * In any event, it seems rather odd that his death of date is given as both 5 February 1994 and 7 February 1994 on the page. It's a shame that there hasn't been discussion on the matter as it's rather difficult to reach a consensus without it. --GusF (talk) 20:11, 16 November 2012 (UTC)

Relationship with Julie Kirkbride
The 'details box' and the 'Personal life' section give conflicting information on this. Could someone please check their sources? Harfarhs (talk) 22:12, 2 November 2012 (UTC)

title: Talk:Stephen Milligan


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Talk:Matrimonial regime

 * Add more here about the various regimes, i.e. partnership of acquests and community property regimes.

I removed this line because what I know of Wikipedia convention indicates that this kind of instruction belongs on the article's talk page. I'm still new here, so I apologize if I was too bold. [[User:Shred|Shred -§-]]

title: Talk:Matrimonial regime


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Gerard (crater)

Gerard is a lunar impact crater that lies along the western edge of the Oceanus Procellarum near the northwest limb of the Moon's near side. It is located to the north-northwest of the crater von Braun, and northeast of Bunsen. Because of its location, Gerard appears strongly foreshortened when viewed from the Earth, hindering observation.

This is a worn and eroded formation with a rim that has been nearly obliterated in some locations and distorted in others. The northern half of the rim has outward bulges to the northeast, north, and northwest. The interior floor is rough in places, with several small and tiny craters along the floor and the eastern rim.

To the northwest of this formation is the unusual Gerard Q Inner (eastern floor covered in dark-hued basaltic lava) within the larger Gerard Q Outer, and a system of rilles named the Rimae Gerard. These extend for a distance of about 100 kilometers.

Satellite craters
By convention these features are identified on lunar maps by placing the letter on the side of the crater midpoint that is closest to Gerard.

title: Gerard (crater)


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Talk:Rickie Lee Jones

2015 album - article needed
Would someone please create an artcile for The Other Side of Desire? Thanks. Design (talk) 05:26, 7 September 2017 (UTC)

title: Talk:Rickie Lee Jones


text:
Erysipeloid

In humans, Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae infections most commonly present in a mild cutaneous form known as erysipeloid or fish poisoning. E. rhusiopathiae can cause an indolent cellulitis, more commonly in individuals who handle fish and raw meat. Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae also causes Swine Erysipelas. It is common in domestic pigs and can be transmitted to humans who work with swine. It gains entry typically by abrasions in the hand. Bacteremia and endocarditis are uncommon but serious sequelae. Due to the rarity of reported human cases, E. rhusiopathiae infections are frequently misidentified at presentation.

Diagnosis
Violaceous swelling with severe pain but without pus (Which differentiates from pus forming streptococcal and staphylococcal erysipelas)

Erysipeloid of Rosenbach
Erysipeloid of Rosenbach is a cutaneous condition most frequently characterized by a purplish marginated swelling on the hands. The eponym Rosenbach's disease is in reference to the milder type of the condition and is named after Friedrich Julius Rosenbach. Early work on the condition in US fishermen was carried out by Klaunders and colleagues.

Treatment
The treatment of choice is a single dose of benzathine benzylpenicillin given by intramuscular injection, or a five-day to one-week course of either oral penicillin or intramuscular procaine benzylpenicillin. Erythromycin or doxycycline may be given instead to people who are allergic to penicillin. E. rhusiopathiae is intrinsically resistant to vancomycin.

title: Erysipeloid


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Pleopeltis polypodioides

Pleopeltis polypodioides (syn. Polypodium polypodioides), also known as the resurrection fern, is a species of creeping, coarse-textured fern native to the Americas and Africa.

Description
The evergreen fronds of this fern are 25 cm high by 5 cm wide and monomorphic. The leathery, yellow-green pinnae (leaflets) are deeply pinnatifid, oblong to narrowly lanceolate, usually widest near middle, occasionally at or near base. It attaches to the limbs of its host plant with a branching, creeping, slender rhizome, which grows to 2 mm in diameter. The scales are lanceolate, with light brown base and margins, and having a dark central stripe.

The gametophytes (the haploid gamete producers) of this plant develop from very small spores that float in the air and are deposited on moist tree branches. These spores are produced in sporangia that develop on the leaves of the fern's sporophyte. The fern can also reproduce by the division of its rhizomes.

On the underside of the blades, the sori (reproductive clusters) are round, discrete, and sunken. Their outline can be seen as raised dimples on the upper surface. They are typically near the outer edge, and occur on all but the lowest pinnae of fertile fronds. Indusium is absent. Sporangia are yellow to brown at maturity. Spores are produced from summer to fall.

Habitat
This fern is an epiphyte, or air plant, which means it attaches itself to other plants and gets its nutrients from the air and from water and nutrients that collect on the outer surface of bark. The resurrection fern lives on the branches of large trees such as cypresses and can often be seen carpeting the shady areas on limbs of large oak trees repeatedly exposed to rainfall. However, it is known to grow on the surfaces of rocks and dead logs as well. It is often found in the company of other epiphytic plants such as Spanish moss.

The P. polypodioides resides in the hardwood forests of southeastern United States in areas including Delaware, Maryland, the Carolinas, Virginia, West Virginia, Illinois, Ohio, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma. This fern can also be found in areas such as subtropical America, parts of southern Africa and other humid or sub-humid climate areas.

Physiology and Rehydration
The resurrection fern gets its name because it can survive long periods of drought by curling up its fronds and appearing desiccated, grey-brown and dead. However, when just a little water is present, the fern will uncurl and reopen, appearing to "resurrect". It has been estimated that these plants could last 100 years without water and still revive after a single exposure. The resurrection fern roots have evolved to function as anchors for the epiphytes, holding them to their host tree’s bark and have been found to be inefficient in absorption. When in clustered groups of ferns on the bark of trees, the increased transpiration of the ferns and bark allow the middle ferns of the cluster to remain open longer than ferns on the outside. The relative humidity of the air and the closing rate of the leaves of the ferns is an inverse relationship. The greater the humidity, the slower the leaves of the ferns close because they have prolonged exposure to moisture in the air.

The resurrection fern can severely desiccate and lose almost all of its water. Experiments have shown they can lose up to 97%--and remain alive, though more typically they only lose around 76% in dry spells. For comparison, most other plants would die after losing only 8-12%. This fern can lose almost all the water not hydrating the cells in its leaves and survive. Upon rainfall or even minute exposures to water they can fully rehydrate and return to a normal state within 24 to 48 hours. Following substantial exposures to moisture, there is an immediate increase in its water content of up to 50% after the first hour and 65-70% after three hours. When it regains moisture, the fern can once again become photosynthetically active, increasing its metabolism and release of organic compounds that provide nutrients for symbiotic bacteria that allow them both to thrive.

At least one study has shown association between P. polypodioides and moss, indicating that this fern may rely on moss for some of its water needs. The resurrection ferns accumulate sugar in their dehydrated cells in order to protect them and stabilize the membranes and proteins in the dry state. By accumulating sugar, the cells can maintain hydrogen bonds between necessary macromolecules needed for their structure. An interesting feature of the resurrection fern is it does not immediately uptake water after having been in a desiccated state. The resurrection ferns have porous cell structure networks that can expand and rearrange to accommodate absorbing three to four times their own weight in water after being exposed. Initially, the water flows via capillary pressure into the spongy layer of the epidermis and the porous network of the fern’s leaves, without altering them significantly. Over time, pressure builds up in the fern cell network, changing the turgor pressure and strain in the plant, initiating the unfolding of the leaves. The fern only stops unfolding its leaves when the cell network of the fern is entirely filled with water. The uncurling of the leaves was believed to be an entirely osmotic phenomenon, but when the fern is again exposed to water, it absorbs the water through solid colloids causing an increase in volume and capillary pressure of the cells of the fern.

When the fronds “dry,” the mesophyll deforms, which causes the lamina to curl and exposes the underside and show the peltate scales. The peltate scales help prevent photooxidation and mechanical damage, as well as assist in quick rehydration. The fern fronds contain canal cells in the center of their surface scales that direct water to the epidermis of the fern leaves, allowing absorption. The ability of the fern fronds to unroll after exposure to desiccation is attributed to the large cells of the upper epidermis along the midrib of the frond that increase in width more than any other epidermal cell, which forces the fronds to uncurl and flatten out.

One way the resurrection fern has adapted to survive desiccation is the ability of its cell walls to deform and reform, without bursting or rupturing. It has been observed that dehydrins may allow the cell walls of the fern fronds and leaves to deform and reform in times of extreme drought followed by water exposure, due to large fluctuations in water content. Dehydrins were found to be only expressed when the fern was drying or in the desiccated state, with the dehydrins located on the outsides of the cells near the cell walls, allowing the leaves and fronds of the ferns to deform and reform accordingly.

Thermoluminescence of the resurrection fern has been tested to observe at what temperatures it occurs and therefore shows what temperatures and amount of desiccation the ferns can tolerate before their chloroplasts lose the energy they’ve stored for the plant, in the form of light emissions. One study found the resurrection fern to require high temperatures before thermoluminescence occurred at around 50 degrees C whereas other desiccation-tolerant plants showed thermoluminescence at 40 degrees C. The thermoluminescence activity of the resurrection fern increased as it was exposed to six separate but consecutive flashes of green safelight at its leaves. Because thermoluminescence from the fern fronds wasn’t observed until higher temperatures, this hints that the fern’s chloroplasts may have a mechanism to withhold and store energy for the fern as it desiccates that allow it to survive higher temperatures and extreme periods of desiccation.

Reproduction
The fern has spores on the bottom of the fronds, contained in sori. Sori can be found aligned in rows on the underside of fertile fronds. They start as yellow color, but as they mature, they turn a brown color and split. The fern sporulates in Summer and early Fall. Rhizome sections are also viable offspring and can root themselves in new medium.

title: Pleopeltis polypodioides