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Shiruko

Shiruko, or oshiruko (お汁粉) with the honorific o (お), is a traditional Japanese dessert. It is a sweet porridge of azuki beans boiled and crushed, served in a bowl with mochi. There are different styles of shiruko, such as shiruko with candied chestnuts, or with glutinous rice flour dumplings instead of mochi.

There are two types of shiruko based on different methods of cooking azuki beans. Azuki beans may be turned into paste, crushed without keeping their original shape, or a mix of paste and roughly crushed beans. There is a similar dish, zenzai (/ぜんざい), which is made from condensed paste with heat and is less watery than shiruko, like making jam or marmalade. In Western Japan, zenzai refers to a type of shiruko made from a mixture of paste and crushed beans. In Okinawa, the term zenzai commonly refers to this bean soup served over shaved ice with mochi. Other toppings, such as sweetened condensed milk, are occasionally added for flavor.

The half-melted sticky mochi and the sweet, warm red bean porridge is enjoyed by many Japanese, especially during the winter. Shiruko is frequently served with a side dish of something sour or salty, such as umeboshi or shiokombu to refresh the palate as shiruko is so sweet that the taste may cloy after a while.

In Tottori Prefecture and Shimane Prefecture, shiruko is also used for zōni, the special soup for New Year celebration.

title: Shiruko


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Agreste

The agreste (, "countryside") is a narrow zone of Brazil in the states of Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe and Bahia between the coastal forest zona da mata and the semiarid sertão. The agreste fades out after it reaches Rio Grande do Norte due to the break of the mountain-chain that blocks air currents from the Atlantic ocean. This barrier is what induces high rainfalls in the coastal Atlantic forest zone.

Most of the agreste is hilly, its hills becoming higher at south, except near the narrow valley of São Francisco River. This land is mostly used for mixed farming, prevailing fruits, of which melons have especial importance. Like the sertão, the agreste is frequently affected by drought, though generally with less severe effects. Only some highland regions mostly in Pernambuco, where cities like Garanhuns and Triunfo are located, are able to reach temperatures below 10 degrees Celsius for a part of the year, usually coinciding with the south-American winter.

Climate
The climate is hot and sub-humid, with rainfall in the area's principal city of Campina Grande averaging about 700 millimetres per year - ranging from less than 10 millimetres in October and November to about 120 millimetres in May and June.

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

title: Agreste


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Infante

Infante (, ; f. infanta), also anglicised as "infant" or translated as "prince", is the title and rank given in the Iberian kingdoms of Spain (including the predecessor kingdoms of Aragon, Castile, Navarre, and León) and Portugal to the sons and daughters (infantas) of the king, regardless of age, sometimes with the exception of the heir apparent or heir presumptive to the throne who usually bears a unique princely or ducal title. A woman married to a male infante was accorded the title of infanta if the marriage was dynastically approved (e.g., Princess Alicia of Bourbon-Parma), although since 1987 this is no longer automatically the case in Spain (e.g., Princess Anne d'Orléans). Husbands of born infantas did not obtain the title of infante through marriage (unlike most hereditary titles of Spanish nobility), although they were occasionally elevated to the title de gracia ("by grace") at the sovereign's command.

While the title belonged by right to all sons and daughters of a monarch (even when they ceased to be children of the reigning sovereign), it was also often accorded to sons-in-law and male-line grandchildren of the sovereign (e.g., Prince Ferdinand of Bavaria, Infante Pedro Carlos of Spain and Portugal), sometimes to other agnates of the ruling dynasty (e.g., Infante Enrique, Duke of Seville), and to female-line relatives of the monarch (e.g. Infante Sebastian of Portugal and Spain, Infante Alfonso de Orléans-Borbón).

History
Although the title is derived from the same root as "infant", in Romance languages the term may be more broadly interpreted to mean "child" (cf. French enfants de France), and historically indicated that the infante or infanta was the child of the nation's monarch.

Like the enfants de France, all infantes in the various Iberian kingdoms were princes of the blood royal, although since 1987 the Spanish sovereign may also confer the title infantado by decree upon a person (typically the spouse of an infante or infanta) who is not of royal descent.

Spanish infantes

In the Spanish royal family, the dynastic children of the monarch and of the heir apparent are entitled to the designation and rank of infante with the style of Royal Highness (infantes by birth). A second category of infantes may be granted that title by royal decree (infantes by grace), but only bear the style of Highness. Previously, the title and rank of infante of Spain was often granted to relatives and in-laws of Spain's monarchs, but unlike those created under the 1987 decree, their dynastic wives were automatically infantas and bearers of the title were Royal Highnesses.

In addition, some distant relatives of Spanish sovereigns, usually children of infantes by grace, were accorded the "honours and treatment" of infante or infanta, but were not granted the title itself, Included in this category were the children of Infante Carlos de Borbón-Dos Sicilias' second marriage to Princess Louise d'Orléans, those of Infante Fernando de Bavaria y Borbón's marriage with Infanta Maria Teresa of Spain, and those of Infante Alfonso de Orléans-Borbón's marriage to Princess Beatrice of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (e.g., Princess María de las Mercedes of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Countess of Barcelona, Prince Alvaro de Orléans-Borbón, Duke di Galliera).

Current infantes of Spain
The current infantes of Spain are (by precedence):
 * Infanta Sofía (daughter of King Felipe VI and Queen consort Letizia, younger sister of Leonor, Princess of Asturias, the heir presumptive);
 * Infanta Elena, Duchess of Lugo (elder daughter of former King Juan Carlos I and former Queen consort Sofía);
 * Infanta Cristina, former (stripped in 2015) Duchess of Palma (younger sister of above);
 * Infanta Margarita, Duchess of Soria (younger sister of former King Juan Carlos I)

Portuguese infantes
Infante had no feminine form at first in Portugal and may be compared to the infanções of the lower Portuguese nobility, who were also cadets of their families with no prospect of inheriting the main possessions of the noble families to which they belonged, being distinguished in law by some prerogatives, but little patrimony.

Later, the word infanta emerged in Portugal as a feminised form applied to Portuguese princesses after the 16th and 17th centuries. Also, after Edward, King of Portugal, in the 15th century, the heir apparent and his eldest son, or daughter if there was no son, came to be styled "prince" or "princess". The first prince in Portugal was the future Afonso V, his eldest son, maybe adopting the French royal style by an English influence imported by Philippa of Lancaster's retinue.

After the accession of the House of Braganza to the throne, the honorific of "Most Serene" (Sereníssimo) was prefixed to the title of infante (Sereníssima for an infanta), since the complete appellation of this dynasty was "Most Serene House of Braganza" (Sereníssima Casa de Bragança), a style granted by the Pope. The style, however, does not seem to have been used with the title of Prince Royal.

Current infantes of Portugal
Portugal has been a republic since 1910. Close relatives of Duarte Pio, Duke of Braganza, head of the Portuguese royal house, using the title are:
 * Infanta Maria Francisca, Duchess of Coimbra: Duarte Pio's 2nd child;
 * Infante Dinis, Duke of Porto: Duarte Pio's 3rd child;
 * Infante Miguel, Duke of Viseu: Duarte Pio's 2nd brother

Afonso, Prince of Beira, Duarte Pio's eldest son and heir apparent, is styled Prince of Beira, not infante.

title: Infante


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Category:Bass-baritones

Classification: Performing arts: Opera: Singers: By voice type: Bass-baritones also: Music: Genres: Opera: Singers: By voice type: Bass-baritones

title: Category:Bass-baritones


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Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Australian Garden Orb Weaver

Australian Garden Orb Weaver
I have put in a couple of options again. I like the second one becauseof the little strands of web visible at its legs Third option I like because the head is clearly visible Last one I like because of the semi transparent nature of its legs.

 * Support first image. Self Nom. --Fir0002 04:20, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Support any of them. Fredrik | talk 05:06, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * I would support any of the daytime ones. The night one loses some of the detail of the spider. Enochlau 06:33, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Support either the second or third [[User:BrokenSegue|BrokenSegue]] 19:04, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Support any daytime picture, slight preference for the Third Option - Head shot. -- Chris 73 Talk 00:49, Dec 22, 2004 (UTC)
 * Support the third. The fourth could go on the Spider web article for sure though. Matthewcieplak 08:42, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Support Third. --ZayZayEM 00:47, 24 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Support 3rd - possibly in place of Image:Redback frontal view.jpg - Solipsist 11:35, 25 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Promoted 3rd: Supports #1:4 #2:4 #3:7 #4:1  Direct opposes 0 -- Solipsist 18:46, 7 Jan 2005 (UTC)


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Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Bukkacracy

Bukkacracy was proposed for deletion. This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was DELETE

 * Delete. Another offensive hoax article by sock puppet User:Disgustipator. Similarly unfunny. 160 04:21, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * It was patent nonsense and I speedied it. DJ Clayworth 05:00, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Having gotten sick of this guy's (gal's/group's) antics, I've started this account to track him. Warthog 05:29, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)

This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like some other VfD subpages, is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion or on the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.


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R. G. LeTourneau

Robert Gilmour "R. G." LeTourneau (November 30, 1888 – June 1, 1969), born in Richford, Vermont, was a prolific inventor of technologies related to earthmoving machinery, and founder of LeTourneau Technologies and LeTourneau University. His factories supplied machinery which represented nearly 75 percent of the earthmoving equipment used by the Allied forces during World War II, and more than half of the 1,500 mi Alaska Highway in Canada, "Alcan", was built using LeTourneau equipment. Over the course of his life he secured 299 patents, relating to earthmoving equipment, manufacturing processes, and machine tools.

LeTourneau sold most company assets in 1953 for US$ 31M, but reentered the heavy equipment field as LeTourneau Technologies, the oversight of which was left to his son, Richard LeTourneau, on his retirement in 1966. Its manufacturing and offshore drilling assets were sold in 1970 to Marathon Manufacturing Co., to become Marathon LeTourneau Co. (the assets of which became and remain divded between various manufacturing and rig-technology companies).

In his later life and retirement, the elder LeTourneau was invovlved in philanthropic pursuits, many related to his Christian faith.

Early life and education
Robert Gilmour LeTourneau, known as "R.G." to friends, was born on November 30, 1888, to a farming family living in Richford, Vermont. He moved with them to Duluth, Minnesota, and then to Portland, Oregon, where he attended school through high school, dropping out at the age of 14 to take on an apprenticeship as an ironworker, at the East Portland Iron Works.

There he learned the foundry and machinist trades, and, at the same time, did correspondence study of the "basics of mechanical engineering", although he never completed any course assignments in those International Correspondence Schools courses. LeTourneau then began his working life in a variety of jobs that taught him "valuable technical skills".

Early career
LeTourneau eventually moved to San Francisco, where he worked at the Moore and Scott Iron Works at the personal invitation of the owner. After the San Francisco earthquake and fire, work was hard to come by. As described in a 2007 LaTourneau company biography (after his passing, when the company was under ownership by Rowan Companies), before 1909"he was employed at the Yerba Buena Power Plant and learned welding skills and became familiar with the application of electricity. In 1909, he moved to Stockton, California. During this time, LeTourneau worked at a number of jobs including wood cutter, farm hand, miner and carpenter’s laborer, acquiring a sound knowledge of the manual trades that would prove invaluable in later life."

In 1909 he took an automobile correspondence course granting himself a "Bachelor of Motorcycles" as he learned about vehicle mechanics and graduated by taking apart and putting back together his newly acquired motorcycle in a day. After working on a project to build a bridge across the Stanislaus River, and seeing first hand the Fresno scraper, he was anxious to put to use his mechanical skills.

As described in the 2007 company biography, "[i]n 1911, LeTourneau was employed at the Superior Garage in Stockton, California, where he learned about vehicle mechanics and later became half-owner of the business." His stake was $1,000, and the building may have been the first in that section of California designed exclusively for the sales and servicing of cars.

LeTourneau was further described in the 2007 company biography:"Refused military service because of permanent neck injuries sustained in a car racing accident, LeTourneau worked during World War I as a maintenance assistant at the Mare Island Navy Yard in California, where he was trained as an electrical machinist and improved his welding skills. After the war, LeTourneau returned to Stockton and discovered the Superior Garage business had failed. In order to repay his portion of the debts, he took a job repairing a Holt crawler tractor, and was then employed by the tractor owner to level 40 acre using the tractor and a towed scraper."

Move into manufacturing
As also described in the company biography:"This type of work appealed to LeTourneau and in January of 1920, he purchased a used Holt tractor and, with a hired scraper, commenced business as a land leveling contractor. In May of 1921, he purchased a plot of land in Stockton, California, and established a small engineering workshop, where he designed and built several types of scrapers. Combining contracting and earthmoving equipment manufacturing, his business soon began to expand and, in 1929, ...were incorporated in California as R. G. LeTourneau, Inc."

Continuing, the biography states,"Letourneau completed many earthmoving projects during the 1920’s and early 1930’s, including the Boulder Highway to Hoover Dam in Nevada, the Marysville Levees, Orange County Dam and the Newhall Cut-off in California. In 1933, LeTourneau retired from contracting to devote his attention to the manufacturing of earthmoving equipment. In 1935, he built a manufacturing plant in Peoria, Illinois, and the continued expansion of his business saw the establishment of manufacturing plants in Toccoa, Georgia in 1938; Rydalmere, Australia in 1941; Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1942, and Longview, Texas in 1945."

Later career
In 1953, LeTourneau sold his entire earthmoving equipment line—including plants, land, machinery, and inventory—to the Westinghouse Air Brake Company for US$ 31 million. In 1958, at the age of seventy, LeTourneau re-entered the earthmoving equipment manufacturing business, offering contractors a range of high capacity earthmoving, transportation, and material handling machines. These were based on his recently developed electric wheel drive (wheel hub motor).

In 1966, at age 77, LeTourneau handed over leadership of the work and assets of the remaining company, LeTourneau Technologies, to his son, Richard LeTourneau. After 1966, LeTourneau continued to work each day and could be found at the drawing board in his modest office, designing new ways to move larger loads faster and more economically.

LeTourneau Technologies was sold to Marathon Manufacturing Company in 1972, becoming Marathon LeTourneau Company, which was in turn acquired by Rowan in 1986, and Joy Global in 2011, the last of which was acquired by and renamed to Komatsu Mining Corp. That company's assets—electric wheel and oil rig technologies—became and remain divded between various manufacturing and rig-technology companies.

Contributions
The LeTourneau name became synonymous with earthmoving worldwide. LeTourneau was largely responsible for the invention and development of many types of earthmoving machines now widely used. He designed and built machines using technology that was years, sometimes decades, ahead of its time, and became recognized worldwide as a leader in the development and manufacture of heavy equipment.

LeTourneau is credited with:
 * introduction of land scaper equipment with a single person-operated power control unit, allowing it, in combination, to load, haul, dump, and spread earth;
 * replacing earlier-used "wide steel wheels" that "cut into sandy soil", with large rubber truck tires, and the development of low-pressure, heavy-duty rubber tires;
 * placing diesel-generator powered electric motors (akin to diesel-electric locomotives) on each driving wheel of his scrapers;
 * and with developing the two-wheeled "Tournapull" tractor unit; and numerous other improvements relating to scrapers;
 * as well as the concepts related to and used in mobile offshore drilling platforms.

Outside of business
With the help of his wife, the late Evelyn Peterson (1900-1987), he founded LeTourneau University, a private, Christian institution, in Longview, Texas. LeTourneau was widely known as a devout Christian and generous philanthropist to Christian causes, including the "LeTourneau Christian Center" camp and conference grounds in Rushville, New York, and Georgia Baptist Conference Center in Toccoa, Georgia. LeTourneau was often referred to by his contemporaries as "God's businessman".

Personal pursuits
As described in his 2007 company biography, "[i]n 1917, [R.G.] married Evelyn Peterson, the daughter of a draying company owner from Minnesota."

In 1965, International Correspondence Schools awarded LeTourneau his diploma in engineering, 50 years after he studied from their course materials. LeTourneau was 76 at the time and, in accepting the diploma, jovially remarked to executive assistant, Nels Stjernstrom: "So now I've got a diploma. Now I'm educated."

LeTourneau held many respected positions throughout his life as a Christian layman, including as a leader in the Christian & Missionary Alliance Church, of Christian Business Men's Connection International, (CBMC, then the Christian Business Men's Committee International), and of the Gideons International. For 30 years he flew thousands of miles each week to maintain Christian speaking engagements around the United States and overseas.

LeTourneau set aside 90 percent of his salary and company profits for religious donations, living on the other 10 percent. "You have made the word of God a glorious, practical reality," radio program host Robert Ripley told LeTourneau, then turned to the audience with his own trademark flourish. "And of such is the work of faith...believe it or not."

LeTourneau was a firm believer in the effectiveness of practical instruction combined with classroom studies; and, in 1946, he purchased an unused military hospital, accompanying land and buildings in Longview. There he established the LeTourneau Technical Institute at the site of the former Harmon General Hospital to provide sound technical and mechanical training, traditional college courses, and training for missionary technicians, based on the philosophy of combining work, education, and Christian testimony. The LeTourneau Technical Institute became a college in its own right, in 1961, and eventually gained "university" status to become LeTourneau University.

In 1953, LeTourneau began a development project in the country of Liberia, West Africa, with the diverse goals of colonization, land development, agricultural development, livestock introduction, evangelism and philanthropic activities. In 1954, a colonization project with similar objectives to those in Liberia was established in the country of Peru, South America. The project in Peru was called "Tournavista".

Death

In March 1969, LeTourneau suffered a severe stroke from which he never recovered. He died on June 1, 1969, at the age of eighty. He was survived by his wife, Evelyn, and five children: four sons (Richard, Roy, Ted, and Ben), and a daughter, Louise Dick.

Awards, recognition, and legacy
Known throughout the construction world as, "The Dean of Earthmoving," LeTourneau is considered to this day to have been the world's greatest inventor of earthmoving and materials handling equipment. Few manufacturers of that era had such a profound effect upon the art of earthmoving as did LeTourneau. Just two years prior to his death, LeTourneau recorded his thoughts about the future of earthmoving equipment:"Construction machinery will grow bigger and bigger, and more and more powerful. Instead of 'tons' of capacity, they’ll be in 'hundreds of tons', and instead of hundreds of horsepower, they’ll all be rated in 'thousands’ of horsepower' ... We’re already seeing it in big hauling units in the mines, and believe me, when the contractor and mining companies start looking for bigger and more profitable hauling units and earthmoving equipment, I’m going to be right there, the firstest with the mostest."

LeTourneau was active in his company as president and chairman of the board from 1929 until 1966. He also held the position of chief engineer, personally working alongside his engineers and employees throughout his working life. Having spent his entire life around earthmoving equipment, LeTourneau (by description of those close to him), was just as likely to be seen at the controls of one of his machines as attending to corporate matters; he preferred the former. LeTourneau, as described by the peers at the university he founded, shunned the high-life often associated with successful businessmen, preferring to spend his time at the drawing board with the engineers designing new machinery or spending time on the factory floor overseeing his employees.

LeTourneau Hall at Toccoa Falls College was named in his honor. Toccoa Airport, also known as R. G. LeTourneau Field, was built by LeTourneau and named in his honor.

Throughout his career, he was the recipient of more than 30 awards and honors related to engineering, manufacturing, and the development of heavy equipment. In 1936, he was presented with the "Appreciation of Service Achievement 1931-1935," by Six Companies Incorporated for supplying earthmoving equipment to the "Boulder Dam" project. He was awarded the Frank P. Brown Medal in 1956. Recognition of service to the earthmoving industry later came from many other contractors in the industry, and, in February 1958, LeTourneau was presented with the "Beavers Award" at the third-annual awards dinner of the Beavers, an association of leaders in the heavy construction industry. In presenting the award to LeTourneau, Beaver president George H. Atkinson, of the highly respected U.S. contractors, Guy F. Atkinson Company, of San Francisco, said, "There is hardly any place in the vast industry that has not benefited through the products of Mr. LeTourneau's inventive genius."

title: R. G. LeTourneau


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Tennis (1984 video game)

Tennis (テニス) is a sports video game developed by Nintendo in 1983, and released for the Family Computer (Famicom) in 1984. The arcade game version Vs. Tennis was also released for the Nintendo VS. System in 1984, becoming a hit at Japanese and American arcades that year; it was the sixth top-performing arcade game of 1984 in the United States. Tennis is one of 17 launch games for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in North America and Europe. The game was re-released for the Game Boy as a launch game in North America.

Gameplay
The game features single-player and two-player modes for singles and doubles matches, with either competitive or cooperative gameplay. A computerized opponent's artificial intelligence can be set to one of five difficulty levels. Mario is the official.

Development and release
In 1983, the Famicom had only three launch games, and its library would total seven, including Tennis. Shigeru Miyamoto said he was "directly in charge of the character design and the game design". The game was developed in 1983.

In 1984, it was included in the Nintendo VS. System arcade game series under the name Vs. Tennis, (VS. テニス) which was released in Japan on January 18, 1984. In 1985, Hudson Soft published Tennis for the PC-8801. It was re-released for the North American launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System in October 1985. Nintendo ported the game to the Game Boy in 1989, and to the Nintendo e-Reader in 2002.

The NES version is embedded in the life simulation game Animal Crossing (2001), and in the party video game WarioWare: Twisted! (2004) as one of 9-Volt's minigames. For the Virtual Console, Nintendo republished the NES version to the Wii in 2006 and the Wii U in 2013 and the Game Boy version to the Nintendo 3DS in 2011. This version was added to Nintendo Switch Online in late 2018.

Reception
In Japan, Game Machine listed VS. Tennis in its March 15, 1984 issue as the most successful table arcade cabinet of the month. It again topped the Game Machine table arcade game charts in April and May 1984. In the United States, Vs. Tennis topped the arcade software conversion kit charts of RePlay (July 1984) and Play Meter (August 1984). It became the sixth top-performing arcade game of 1984 in the United States. In Europe, it had become a popular arcade game by 1986.

title: Tennis (1984 video game)


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Lincang

Lincang is a prefecture-level city located in the southwest of Yunnan province, People's Republic of China.

History
Lincang was previously called Baihuai during the Shang dynasty.

On December 26, 2003, the state council approved the cancellation of Lincang District and set up prefecture-level Lincang city.

Geography and climate
Lincang covers latitude 23° 05′－25° 02′ N and longitude 98° 40′－100° 33′ E, thus straddling the Tropic of Cancer in the southern part of its administrative area, or prefecture. It is situated on the middle to lower reaches of the Mekong, known as the Lancang in China, and the Salween, or the Nu. Bordering prefectures are Pu'er to the southeast, and Baoshan and Dali to the northwest. It also borders Burma's Shan State. Elevations within the prefecture range from 450 to 3504 m.

Located at an altitude of above 1450 m and within 30 arc minutes to the north of the Tropic of Cancer, Lincang has a mild subtropical highland climate (Köppen Cwb), bordering on a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cwa), with muddled distinction between the seasons and daytime temperatures remaining warm year-round. Highs peak in May before the core of the rainy season and reach a minimum in December; however, the warmest and coolest months are June and January respectively. June through September accounts for nearly 70% of the annual rainfall of 1126 mm and during this time, some rainfall occurs on most days, pushing relative humidity above 80% and there is a marked reduction in sunshine. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 24% in July to 75% in January, the city receives 2,227 hours of bright sunshine annually.

Demography
Among the resident population, the Han population is 1,523,670, accounting for 62.72% of the total population; the ethnic minorities population is 905,835, accounting for 37.28% of the total population.

Natural resources
Mineral resources mined and extracted in the Lincang area include coal (including waste coal ash), germanium and uranium. Lincang is also home to the world's oldest cultivated tea tree, especially pu'er tea, some 3,200 years old, in the village of Jinxiu (锦绣), Xiaowan town, of Fengqing County.

Transport

 * Lincang Boshang Airport
 * Dali–Lincang railway

title: Lincang


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Artuqids

The Artuqid dynasty (alternatively Artukid, Ortoqid, or Ortokid; Artuklu Beyliği, Artuklular, pl. Artukoğulları; Artykly begligi, Artykogullary; Artuklu bəyliyi, Artıqlılar) was established in 1102 as an Anatolian Beylik (Principality) of the Seljuk Empire. It formed a Turkoman dynasty rooted in the Oghuz Döğer tribe, and followed the Sunni Muslim faith. It ruled in eastern Anatolia, Northern Syria and Northern Iraq in the eleventh through thirteenth centuries. The Artuqid dynasty took its name from its founder, Artuk Bey, who was of the Döger branch of the Oghuz Turks and ruled one of the Turkmen beyliks of the Seljuk Empire. Artuk's sons and descendants ruled the three branches in the region: Sökmen's descendants ruled the region around Hasankeyf between 1102 and 1231; Ilghazi's branch ruled from Mardin and Mayyafariqin between 1106 and 1186 (until 1409 as vassals) and Aleppo from 1117–1128; and the Harput line starting in 1112 under the Sökmen branch, and was independent between 1185 and 1233.

History
The dynasty was founded by Artuk, son of Eksük, a general originally under Malik-Shah I and then under the Seljuk emir of Damascus, Tutush I. Tutush appointed Artuk governor of Jerusalem in 1086. Artuk died in 1091, and was succeeded by his sons Sökmen and Ilghazi who were expelled from Jerusalem by the Fatimid vizier al-Afdal Shahanshah in 1098; the Fatimids lost the city to the Crusaders the following year after the siege of Jerusalem of 1099.

Sökmen and Ilghazi established themselves in Diyarbakır, Mardin, and Hasankeyf in al-Jazira where they came into conflict with the Seljuk sultanate. Sökmen, bey of Mardin, defeated the Crusaders at the Battle of Harran in 1104. Ilghazi succeeded Sökmen in Mardin and imposed his control over Aleppo at the request of the qadi Ibn al-Khashshab in 1118. The next year, Ilghazi defeated the Crusader state Principality of Antioch at the Battle of Ager Sanguinis of 1119.

After pillaging the County of Edessa, Ilghazi made peace with the Crusaders. In 1121, he went north towards Armenia with his son-in-law Mazyad Dubais II ibn Sadaqah and Sultan Malik of Ganja. Ilghazi invaded Georgia and was defeated by David IV of Georgia at the Battle of Didgori of 1121. Ilghazi died in 1122, and although his nephew Belek Ghazi nominally controlled Aleppo, the city was really controlled by ibn al-Khashshab. Ibn al-Kashshab was murdered by Assassins in 1125, and Aleppo fell under the control of Zengi, atabeg of Mosul, in 1128. After the death of Belek Ghazi, the Artuqids were split between Harput, Hasankeyf and Mardin. Sokman's son Rukn al-Dawla Dāʾūd, bey of Hasankeyf, died in 1144, and was succeeded by his son Kara Aslan. Kara Aslan allied with Joscelin II of Edessa against the Zengids, and while Joscelin was away in 1144, Zengi recaptured Edessa, the first of the Crusader states to fall (see Siege of Edessa). The Artuqids became vassals of the Zengids during the reign of Nur al-Din Zengi (r. 1146–1174).

Kara Aslan's son Nūr al-Dīn Muḥammad allied with the Ayyubid sultan Saladin against Kilij Arslan II, Seljuk sultan of Rûm, whose daughter had married Nur ad-Din Muhammad. In the peace settlement with Kilij Arslan II, Saladin gained control of the Artuqid territory, even though the Artuqids were still technically vassals of Mosul, which Saladin did not control. The Seljuk Empire completely disintegrated soon after that in 1194.

The Artuqid dynasty remained in nominal command of al-Jazira, but their power declined under Ayyubid rule. The Hasankeyf branch conquered Diyarbakır in 1198 and its center was moved here, but was demolished by the Ayyubids in 1231 when it attempted to form an alliance with the Seljuks. The Harput branch was destroyed by the Sultanate of Rum due to following a slippery policy between the Ayyubids and Seljuqs. The Mardin branch survived for longer, but as a vassal of the Ayyubids, Sultanate of Rûm, Il-Khanate and the Timurids. Qara Arslan (r.1260-1292), ruler of Mardin, submitted to the Mongol Hulegu. The Kara Koyunlu captured Mardin and finally put an end to Artuqid rule in 1409.

Art
Despite their constant preoccupation with war, members of the Artuqid dynasty left many architectural monuments. Artuqid rulers commissioned many public buildings, such as mosques, bazaars, bridges, hospitals and baths for the benefit of their subjects. They left an important cultural heritage by contributing to literature and the art of metalworking. The door and door handles of the great Mosque of Cizre are unique examples of Artuqid metal working craftsmanship, which can be seen in the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum in Istanbul, Turkey.

They made the most significant additions to Diyarbakır City Walls. Urfa Gate was rebuilt by Muhammad, son of Kara Arslan. In the same area of the western wall, south of Urfa Gate, two imposing towers, Ulu Beden and Yedi Kardeş were commissioned in 1208 by the Artuqid ruler Nāṣir al-Dīn Maḥmūd who designed the Yedi Kardeş tower himself and apposed the Artuqid double-headed eagle on its walls.

A large caravanserai in Mardin as well as the civil engineering feat of Malabadi Bridge are still in regular use in our day. The partially standing Old Bridge, Hasankeyf, was built in 1116 by Kara Arslan.

The Great Mosques of Mardin and Silvan were possibly but in any case considerably developed over the 12th century by several Artuqid rulers on the basis of existing Seljuk edifices. The congregational mosque of Dunaysir (now Kızıltepe) was commissioned by Yülük Arslan (1184–1203) and completed after his death in 1204 by his brother Artuk Arslan (1203–1239).

Literature
The Artuqids are known for their sponsoring of literary works in Arabic. A copy of al-Sufi's book on astronomy The Book of Fixed Stars, a synthesis of Ptolemy’s Almagest and Arabic astronomical traditions, was made in 1131 in Artuqid Mardin. Kara Arslan (1148–1174 CE) commissionned a new Arabic translation of De Materia Medica by an Arab Christian author named Abu Salim al-Malti, probably from Malatya.

The Artuqid ruler Nasr al-Din Mahmud (r. 1201–1222) is known to have commisionned an edition of the Al-Jāmi‘ fī ṣinā‘at al-ḥiyal of Ibn al-Razzaz al-Jazari, devoted to the depiction of mechanical devices, in April 1206 at the Artuqid court (Ahmet III 3472, Topkapı Sarayı Library). The miniatures are thought to reflect various aspects of the Artuqid court at the time. Ibn al-Razzaz al-Jazari was employed at the Artuqid court during the last quarter of the 12th century, and this is the earliest known manuscript of his opus. Many of the figures in the manuscript wear the characteristic Turkic dress, with long coat and boots, and the sharbush headgear (of a special type seen only in Artuqid manuscripts, with a very tall cap behind the headplate and the limited usage of fur around the rim).

An early edition of the Maqamat al-Hariri (Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Arabe 3929) is also considered as probably belonging to the same Artuqid school of painting.

List of rulers
The major branches of the Artuqid dynasty were those based in Hasankeyf, Harput, Mardin and Aleppo.

Hasankeyf branch
This branch was initially based at Hasankeyf (Ḥiṣn Kaifā). The capital moved to Diyarbakır (Amid) in 1183.
 * Sökmen, son of Artuk, 1102–1104
 * Ibrahim of Ḥiṣn Kaifā, son of Sökmen, 1104–1109
 * Rukn al-Dawla Dāʾūd (Dāʾūd), son of Sökmen, 1109–1144
 * Kara Arslan, son of Dāʾūd, 1144–1174)
 * Nūr al-Dīn Muḥammad, son of Kara Arslan, 1174–1185
 * Sökmen II, son of Nūr al-Dīn Muḥammad, 1185–1201
 * Nāṣir al-Dīn Maḥmūd, son of Nūr al-Dīn Muḥammad, 1201–1222
 * Rukn al-Dīn Mawdūd, son of Nāṣir al-Dīn Maḥmūd, 1222–1232/33.

Following the rule of Rukn al-Dīn Mawdūd, the territories of the Hasankeyf branch of the Artuqids were taken over by the Ayyubids.

Harput branch
The Harput branch was initially part of the Hasankeyf branch until 1185, gaining independence from Kara Arslan.

 * Imad ud-din Abu Bakr, son of Kara Arslan, 1185–1204
 * Ibrahim ibn Abu Bakr, son of Abu Bakr, 1203–1223
 * Ahmad Khidr, son of Ibrahim, 1223–1234
 * Artuq Shah, son of Ahmad Khidr, 1234.

Harput was conquered by Kayqubad I, Seljuk sultan of Rûm, in 1234, as part of his conquering of Anatolia.

Mardin branch
The Mardin branch of the Artuqids ruled in Mardin and Mayyafariqin from 1101–1409 and were primarily descendants of Ilghazi and his brother Alp-Yaruq.

 * Yāqūti, son of Alp-Yaruq (son of Artuk), 1101–1104
 * 'Ali ibn Yāqūti, son of Yāqūti, 1104
 * Sökmen, son of Artuk, 1101–1104
 * Ilghazi, son of Artuk, 1107–1122
 * Timurtash, son of Ilghazi, 1122–1154
 * Alpï I, son of Timurtash, 1154–1176
 * Ilghazi II, son of Alpï I, 1176–1184
 * Yülük Arslan, son of Ilghazi II, 1184–1203
 * Artuk Arslan, son of Yülük Arslan, 1203–1239
 * Al-Sa'id Najm al-Din Ghazi I, son of Yülük Arslan, 1239–1260
 * Al-Muzaffar Fakhr al-Din Kara Arslan, son of Ghazi I, 1260–1292. Submitted to Hulegu.
 * Al-Sa'id Shams al-Din Dāwūd I, son of al-Muzaffar Fakhr al-Din Kara Arslan, 1292–1294
 * Al-Mansur Najm al-Din Ghazi II, son of al-Muzaffar Fakhr al-Din Kara Arslan, 1294–1312
 * 'Ali Alpï II, son of Ghazi II, 1312
 * As-Salih Shams al-Din Mahmūd (Mahmūd), son of Ghazi II, 1312–1364
 * Al-Mansur Husam al-Din Ahmad, son of Mahmūd, 1364–1367
 * As-Salih Shams al-Din Mahmūd (second rule), 1367
 * Al-Muzaffar Fakhr al-Din Dāwūd II, son of Mahmūd, 1367–1376
 * Al-Zahir Majd al-Din 'Isā, son of Dāwūd II, 1376–1407
 * Al-Salih Şhihab al-Din Ahmad, son of Al-Zahir Majd al-Din 'Isā, 1407–1409.

Mardin was conquered by the Kara Koyunlu, a Turkoman tribe, in 1409.

Aleppo subbranch
The Artuqid branch that ruled Aleppo was an offshoot of the Mardin branch and included descendants of Ilghazi and his brothers Abd al-Jabar and Bahram ibn Artuk. See also Rulers of Aleppo.

 * Ilghazi, son of Artuk, 1117–1121
 * Badr ad-Dawlah Süleiman, son of Abd al-Jabar (son of Artuk), 1121–1123
 * Belek Ghazi, son of Bahram ibn Artuk (son of Artuk), 1123–1124
 * Timurtash, son of Ilghazi, 1124–1125
 * [Seljuks under al-Bursuqi and various others, 1125–1127]
 * Badr ad-Dawlah Süleiman (second rule), 1127–1128.

Aleppo was taken by Zengi in 1128 and ruled by the Zengid dynasty until 1183.

Coinage
Artuqids coinage was very figural, "with its apparent classical and Byzantine motifs and representations".

title: Artuqids


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Talk:Ceratopia

The following comment doesn't belong in the article, so I removed it. But User:66.206.236.187 has a valid point, so I tried to factor the essential bits in:
 * [The situation concerning Brontosaurus/Apatosaurus is not perfectly analogous, as it is Ceratopsia which has strict chronological priority, and there is presently no organization relgulating the usage of the names debated here.]

68.81.231.127 04:26, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)

 * I fear that the misunderstanding was caused by me: I had forgotten, while discussing this issue on the discussion page of Dinosaur, that the rules of the ICZN do not regard the names of groups above family-level. Still I would hold that it is preferable to apply these rules by analogy.

MWAK--84.27.81.59 15:05, 1 Jan 2005 (UTC)

 * Slipped by me, too... and I prefer "Brontosaurus" :) 68.81.231.127

 * For an old geezer like me it will always be Brontosaurus :0).

MWAK--84.27.81.59 14:17, 2 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Feeling a bit confused, I consulted the rules again and found that while rule 29.3.1 indeed orders the correct formation of family names by deriving them from the genus name, rule 29.4 states that names published since 1999 are always to be considered correct, and rule 29.5 now protects names when there is a "prevailing usage", which probably means even CeratopSoidea, CeratopSidae en CeratopSinae are correct. Glad to be a cladist. ;>)

MWAK--84.27.81.59 09:57, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Ongoing confusion with Ceratopsia
This should be settled for once and for all. Please look at Talk:Ceratopsia. Phlebas 00:00, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Other Incorrectly formed taxa names...
Isn't there a similar situation with Caudipteridae (should have been Caudipterygidae)? If we're correcting the grammar of taxon names here, should this be applied throught the dinosaur entries? Dinoguy2 01:25, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

 * Preferably :o)--MWAK 09:37, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

title: Talk:Ceratopia


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Aesti

The Aesti (also Aestii, Astui or Aests) were an ancient people first described by the Roman historian Tacitus in his treatise Germania (circa 98 AD). According to Tacitus, the territory of Aesti was located somewhere east of the Suiones (Swedes).

Overview
According to Tacitus, the Aesti live Upon the right of the Suevian Sea and have the same customs and attire as the Germanic Suevi. It has been suggested that the Aesti worshipped the mother of the gods, similar to the Nerthus cult among northern Germanic peoples. Though they were most likely of Baltic origin, they had extensively intermingled with the neighbouring Gothic Tribes.

Tacitus wrote that the Aesti were "the only people who collect amber—glaesum is their own word for it—in the shallows or even on the beach". Glaesum, an apparently Latinised word for amber (in Latin, sucinum), is the only surviving example of the Aestian language. The word is quoted of being of Germanic origin, given its similarity to the Gothic word glas. Tacitus, however, describes the language of Aestii as closer to that spoken in Britain than that spoken by other neighbouring tribes.

The Old Prussian and modern Lithuanian names for the Vistula Lagoon, Aīstinmari and Aistmarės, respectively, appear to derive from Aesti and mari ("lagoon" or "fresh-water bay"), which suggests that the area around the lagoon had links with the Aesti.

Tacitus

The ancient writers, beginning with Tacitus, who was the first Roman author to mention them in his Germania, provide very little information on the Aestii. Although Tacitus never travelled to Magna Germania himself and only recorded information he had obtained from others, the short ethnographic excursus below is the most detailed ancient account of the Aestii that we have:

"'Upon the right of the Suevian Sea the Aestian nations reside, who use the same customs and attire with the Suevians; their language more resembles that of Britain. They worship the Mother of the Gods. As the characteristic of their national superstition, they wear the images of wild boars. This alone serves them for arms, this is the safeguard of all, and by this every worshipper of the Goddess is secured even amidst his foes. Rare amongst them is the use of weapons of iron, but frequent that of clubs. In producing of grain and the other fruits of the earth, they labour with more assiduity and patience than is suitable to the usual laziness of Germans. Nay, they even search the deep, and of all the rest are the only people who gather amber. They call it glesum, and find it amongst the shallows and upon the very shore. But, according to the ordinary incuriosity and ignorance of Barbarians, they have neither learnt, nor do they inquire, what is its nature, or from what cause it is produced. In truth it lay long neglected amongst the other gross discharges of the sea; till from our luxury, it gained a name and value. To themselves it is of no use: they gather it rough, they expose it in pieces coarse and unpolished, and for it receive a price with wonder."
 * (Germania, chapter XLV).

The placement of the Tacitean Aestii is based primarily on their association with amber, a popular luxury item during the life of Tacitus, with known sources at the southeastern coast of the Baltic Sea. The Baltic amber trade, which appears to have extended to the Mediterranean Sea, has been traced by archaeologists back to the Nordic Bronze Age; its major center was in the region of Sambia.

This trade probably existed before the historical Trojan War in the 13th century BCE, as amber is one of the substances in which the palace of Menelaus at Sparta was said to be rich in Homer's The Iliad.

Cassiodorus
Cassiodorus' Variae, published in 537, contains a letter written by Cassiodorus in the name of Theodoric the Great, addressed to the Aesti:

"It is gratifying to us to know that you have heard of our fame, and have sent ambassadors who have passed through so many strange nations to seek our friendship. We have received the amber which you have sent us. You say that you gather this lightest of all substances from the shores of ocean, but how it comes thither you know not. But as an author named Cornelius (Tacitus) informs us, it is gathered in the innermost islands of the ocean, being formed originally of the juice of a tree (whence its name succinum), and gradually hardened by the heat of the sun. Thus it becomes an exuded metal, a transparent softness, sometimes blushing with the color of saffron, sometimes glowing with flame-like clearness. Then, gliding down to the margin of sea, and further purified by the rolling of the tides, it is at length transported to your shores to be cast upon them. We have thought it better to point this out to you, lest you should imagine that your supposed secrets have escaped our knowledge. We sent you some presents by our ambassadors, and shall be glad to receive further visits from you by the road which you have thus opened up, and to show you future favors."

The style of the letter proves that the nation was at that time independent, not ruled by the Ostrogoths. Apparently Cassiodorus considered it politically essential to establish friendly relations with the Nordic region. The letter also indicates that the Aesti were fully confident of the value of amber and had made out of it a trade secret. The sending of presents and the promise to show future favors were in ancient times a cordial way of giving de jure recognition to another power.

Jordanes

Sixth Century historian Jordanes makes two references to the Aesti in his book "The Origins and the Deeds of the Goths", which was a treatment of Cassiodorus' longer book (which no longer survives) on the history of the Goths. The first quote places the Aestii beyond the Vidivarii, on the shore of the Baltic: "a subject race, likewise hold the shore of Ocean." The next quote concerns the subjugation of the Aesti by Hermanaric, king of the Gothic Greuthungi: "This ruler also subdued by his wisdom and might the race of the Aesti, who dwell on the farthest shore of the German Ocean".

Alfred the Great
In an 11th-century manuscript of King Alfred's account of the voyage from Hedeby to Truso by Wulfstan, held by the British Museum, includes ethnographic information on the medieval Aestii, in which the terms Esti, Est-mere and Eastland are used referring to Old Prussians. In the text, a summary description of the country and its riches is followed by a very detailed account of the people's funeral customs. It mentions the old trading port Truso of Old Prussians and also calls the land Witland - "the Vistula is a very large river, and near it lie Witland and Weonodland; and Witland belongs to the Esthonians ["belimpedh to Estum"]."

Adam of Bremen
During the 11th century Adam of Bremen, citing Einhard (who in the Vita Caroli Magni states "the Slavs and the Aisti live on the shores of the Eastern Sea"), mentions the coastal tribe as the Haisti, and refers to today's Estonia as Aestland.

Cited sources

 * Deutschler, Yorck:  "Die Aestii - Bezeichnung für die heutigen Esten Estlands oder die untergegangenen Pruzzen Ostpreußens" , in: Deutschler, Yorck, "Die Singende Revolution" - Chronik der Estnischen Freiheitsbewegung (1987–1991), pp. 196–198. Ingelheim, March 1998/June 2000. ISBN 3-88758-077-X
 * link

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Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back is a 1997 platform game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation. It is a sequel to Crash Bandicoot (1996), and is part of the Crash Bandicoot series.

Taking place on a fictional group of islands near Australia, Crash Bandicoot 2 follows the adventures of the anthropomorphic bandicoot named Crash. Crash is abducted by series villain Doctor Neo Cortex, who tricks him into thinking he wants to save the world. Crash is thrust into several parts of N. Sanity Island in order to gather crystals that will allow Cortex to contain the power of an upcoming planetary alignment and keep the planet from being destroyed. Crash's sister Coco and Cortex's former assistant Doctor Nitrus Brio try to warn him about Cortex, with the latter urging Crash to gather gems instead of crystals.

Cortex Strikes Back received positive reviews from critics and is widely considered to be superior to its predecessor. Much of the praise went to the game's graphics, controls and music, while criticisms focused on the trial-and-error gameplay, lack of level variety, easy boss levels and lack of innovation as a platform game. The game went on to become one of the best-selling PlayStation video games of all time and replaced its predecessor as the highest-selling Western title in Japan at the time, selling more than 800,000 copies in the country by April 1998. A remastered version was included in the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy collection, released on the PlayStation 4 in June 2017, and ported to other platforms in June 2018.

Gameplay
Cortex Strikes Back is a platform game in which the player character is the titular Crash Bandicoot. The goal of the game is to gather 25 crystals for Crash's nemesis Doctor Neo Cortex. The crystals are scattered between 25 different levels, accessible via "Warp Rooms", which are hub areas of the game. A level is cleared by collecting its respective crystal and reaching the end of its path, which returns Crash to the Warp Room. Each Warp Room contains five levels. When all five levels are cleared, the player must defeat a boss character before gaining access to the next Warp Room. The player is given a certain amount of lives, which are lost when Crash is attacked by an enemy, or falls into water or a pit. If the player runs out of lives, the game is over. However, it can be continued by selecting "Yes" at the "Continue?" screen.

Crash has the ability to jump into the air and land on an enemy character, spin in a tornado-like fashion to knock enemies off-screen, slide across the ground, and perform a body slam to break certain objects. Crash can jump higher than he normally can if he jumps immediately following a slide. All of these techniques can be used as offensive measures against most enemies, who serve to deter Crash's progress. Enemies with deadly topsides cannot be jumped on, while enemies that attack from the front or have side spikes must be jumped on or undergo a body slam. Enemies with sharp necklines (such as frill-necked lizards or long-legged robots with heated circumferences on their upper) can only be defeated if Crash slides into them.

Boxes play a prominent role in Cortex Strikes Back and can be broken with all of Crash's techniques. Most boxes in the game contain "Wumpa Fruit", which give the player an extra life if 100 of them are collected. Some boxes contain a Witch Doctor's Mask, which shields Crash from one enemy's attack while it is in his possession. If three masks are collected in a row, Crash is given temporary invulnerability from all minor dangers. If jumped upon, boxes with arrows pointing up propel Crash further into the air than he can ordinarily reach, and such boxes can be broken only with Crash's spin attack. Boxes with an exclamation mark (!) on them cause previously intangible objects in the area to solidify. TNT Boxes explode after a three-second fuse when jumped on, while Nitro Boxes explode upon any physical contact. All of the Nitro Boxes in a level can be detonated at once if a green-colored box with an exclamation mark (!) on it is touched. Checkpoint boxes allow Crash to return to the point where the first checkpoint box has been opened upon losing a life. If more than one checkpoint box has been opened in a stage, Crash returns to the last checkpoint box that has been opened. The player will earn a gem if they manage to destroy all the boxes, including Nitro Boxes and boxes on alternate routes, in a level. Certain gems can be acquired by other means, like reaching the end of a level within a certain time parameter, or completing a level without breaking any boxes.

"Bonus Paths", signified by platforms with a question mark on them, lead Crash to a secret region of the level. In these areas, numerous Wumpa Fruit and extra lives can be collected if the player successfully navigates to the end of the path. If Crash falls off-screen or is otherwise killed off, the player loses whatever was collected in the Bonus Path and is returned to the level from which the Bonus Path was accessed, keeping all lives the player had previously collected.

Plot
Crash Bandicoot sends Doctor Neo Cortex falling from his airship into a cavern filled with glowing crystals. Convinced that they hold tremendous power, he takes one and gets back onto his laboratory. One year later, Cortex and his new assistant Dr. N. Gin rebuild an upgraded, crystal-powered Cortex Vortex in outer space; N. Gin says that they need 25 more crystals to reach the Vortex's maximum capacity and they do not have any of their operatives left on Earth. Cortex then devises a plot to manipulate Crash into retrieving the crystals for him.

Meanwhile, Crash's younger sister, Coco, has him retrieve a new battery for her laptop, but Crash is abducted. Finding himself in an ancient Warp Room that has access to several places all over the world, Crash meets Cortex via his holographic projection. Cortex tells Crash that he discovered that the upcoming alignment of the planets will create a solar flux capable of catastrophic proportions and urges Crash to retrieve pink power crystals through each of the Room's doors to help Cortex harness the crystal's energy to dissipate the massive power unleashed. Unbeknownst to Cortex, his former assistant Dr. Nitrus Brio also appears in hologram form and tells Crash that, scattered across the world, there are several clear and colored gems that serve as an alternative form of energy that Brio is planning to use against Cortex. However, Brio also warns Crash that he will use his forces to prevent Crash from collecting more crystals. As such, while collecting crystals, Crash battles Brio's mutant allies: the demented Ripper Roo, the scimitar-wielding Komodo Brothers and the ravenous Tiny Tiger.

Meanwhile, Coco uses her technology expertise to hack into Cortex's hologram communication to advise Crash to be careful trusting Cortex. Cortex eventually tells Crash to return the crystals he collected to his current assistant, N. Gin, but when Crash destroys N. Gin's mecha suit and defeats him, Cortex gets furious. After gathering all 25 crystals, Coco manages to hold a steady connection to reveal Cortex's ultimate plan; with the energy harnessed from the planetary alignment, Cortex will power the gigantic Cortex Vortex built onto his space station and brainwash everyone on Earth into serving his army. Crash reaches Cortex in outer space and incapacitates him once again before the crystals can be used, leaving him drifting through outer space, but leaves the Cortex Vortex intact. However, after collecting all 42 gems, Crash and Dr. Brio use all the gathered gems to power a laser beam machine that Brio created. With Crash's help, the laser beam breaks the Cortex Vortex apart, with one of the pieces falling back to Earth.

Development
Production of Cortex Strikes Back began in October 1996. Development took place over the course of 13 months on a budget of $2,000,000. The concept art for the game's environments was mainly created by Naughty Dog employees Bob Rafei, Eric Iwasaki, Erick Pangilinan, Charlotte Francis and Jason Rubin. The jungle levels were originally to have featured ground fog, but this was abandoned when magazines and the public began to criticize other developers for using fog to hide polygon count. Sunlight and depth accentuation was experimented with for these levels. Naughty Dog created the sewer levels as a way to work some "dirty" locations in the game. Color contrast was added to the levels to show depth and break up the monotony of sewer pipes. The character of Coco Bandicoot was created by Naughty Dog as a counterbalance to Tawna (Crash's girlfriend in the first game) that would appease Sony Computer Entertainment Japan, who were uncomfortable with a "super sexy" character being alongside Crash. Character designer Charles Zembillas drew the first sketches of Coco on March 18, 1997.

For the game, Crash Bandicoot co-creator Andy Gavin programmed a new engine named "Game-Oriented Object LISP 2" (GOOL 2); being three times faster than the previous game's engine, it could handle ten times the animation frames and twice the polygon count. A flat plane z-buffer was created for the game; because the water surfaces and mud in the jungle had to be a flat plane and be exactly flat on the Y-axis, there could be no waves and the subdividing plane could not be at an odd angle. The effect only worked on objects in the foreground and was only used on Crash, some enemies and a few boxes at the same time.

The soundtrack of Cortex Strikes Back was written by Josh Mancell from Mutato Muzika, while the sound effects were created by Universal Sound Studios (consisting of Mike Gollom, Ron Horwitz and Kevin Spears). The characters were designed by Charles Zembillas of American Exitus, Incorporated. Clancy Brown provided the voice of Doctor Neo Cortex, Vicki Winters voiced Coco Bandicoot, and Brendan O'Brien voiced Crash Bandicoot, Doctor N. Gin, and Doctor Nitrus Brio. The game was unveiled at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Atlanta, Georgia in June 1997 to a positive response from the game industry.

The game went into the alpha stage in August 1997. Around that time, Dan Arey, the lead designer of Gex: Enter the Gecko, joined Naughty Dog and streamlined the level design. A "Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment" system was added, which would adjust elements of the game in response to player activity to balance difficulty. IGDA considers the testing process for Crash Bandicoot 2 the moment where the field of Games User Research "came of age". The game was released in North America on November 6, 1997.

A death animation in which Crash is squashed into a stunned head and feet was altered for the Japanese version of the game due to its resemblance to the severed head and shoes left by a serial killer loose in Japan at the time.

Reception
Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back was released to critical acclaim. Major Mike of GamePro said that while the fundamental gameplay mechanics were the same as the first title, "its graphical enhancements and added moves catapult it to the top of the PlayStation action/platform heap." He gave it a 4.5 out of 5 in both control and fun factor, and a perfect 5.0 in both graphics and sound. John Broady of GameSpot considered the game to be superior to its predecessor, commenting positively on the Warp Room concept, improved game-saving system and variety of the levels. Of the four reviewers in Electronic Gaming Monthly's review team, Shawn Smith and Kraig Kujawa hailed it as an outstanding sequel, citing its advanced graphics and heavy challenge, while Dan Hsu and Kelly Rickards said it is an excellent game but overly similar to the original. The staff of IGN praised the "spot on" control and noted the decreased linearity of the game and increased intuition of the bonus levels compared to the first game. Mark Cooke of Game Revolution described the game as "undeniably fun". Next Generation stated that "Crash 2 is a tempting gameplay treat, one that frustrates at times, but it always rewards a job well done – and that is an addictive combination for any serious platform gamer. Recommended."

The game's graphics were positively received. Major Mike considered the graphics to be "a quantum leap" over its predecessor, and cited Crash's detailed animations and level effects such as reflective ice surfaces as highlights. GameSpot's Broady described them as "in a league of their own among PlayStation games", while the IGN staff praised the high-resolution graphics as "beautiful". Shawn Smith of Electronic Gaming Monthly praised the colorfulness, lack of breakup, animation, reflections, and lighting effects, as well as the texture morphing when Crash burrows. Game Revolution's Mark Cooke noted the absence of cutscenes brought about by the entirety of the game being "rendered on the fly beautifully" and that the game could "really set some new standards in Playstation graphic quality." He went on to describe the animation as "flawless" and of "cartoon quality" and added that the game's "creatures, environments, and story building scenes are absolutely perfect." The game's audio was also well-received; Broady simply stated that the music "couldn't be better", while Cooke said that Clancy Brown's "hilarious satirical" performance as Doctor Neo Cortex added to the game's cartoonish quality. Major Mike also singled out Brown's performance for commendation, and remarked that the music, which he felt was "perfect for every stage", "sounds like a cross between the Pulp Fiction soundtrack and the B-52s".

Minor criticisms varied amongst critics. Broady noted that the semi-3D setup is "sometimes hard to navigate" and elaborated that "you'll find yourself missing jumps because you're unable to judge distances properly." Additionally, he criticized the trial-and-error aspect of the gameplay as "just plain cheap" and stated that "in some areas you must sacrifice many lives until you memorize a level's layout." Smith and Rickards both said that while the control works well with the analog pad, it is somewhat loose with the digital gamepad, which was still the standard for the PlayStation. Contrarily, Major Mike contended that the digital pad "works just as well, if not better." The IGN staff said that the level design "isn't as varied as it could be" and added that the "jungle, snow and water" environments are recycled from the previous game and reused multiple times in Cortex Strikes Back. They also described the boss levels as "insultingly easy". Major Mike similarly commented "Although [the bosses] look awesome, they have easy-to-recognize patterns and present no challenge." Cooke observed that, like its predecessor, the game did not add anything to the genre and summarized that "the first Crash was dauntingly similar to the 16-bit platform games of yester-yore, only with better graphics, and Crash 2 doesn't deviate much from this formula". He also described the "bizarre" lenticular 3D cover art of the game as "unnecessary and evil" and "a device of unprecedented agony", claiming to have contracted a massive headache after "looking at it in [his] car for about 15 seconds".

Crash Bandicoot 2 was nominated for "Console Game of the Year" and "Console Action Game of the Year" at the inaugural Interactive Achievement Awards.

Crash Bandicoot 2 was a commercial hit. By late February 1998, its sales has reached 1 million units in the United States, 800,000 units in Japan, and 340,000 units in Europe. By February 1999, 4.08 million copies of Crash Bandicoot had been shipped to retailers worldwide; the NPD Group reported sell-through of 1.49 million copies in North America alone. By December 2007, Cortex Strikes Back had sold 3.78 million units in the United States and 1.3 million in Japan. This makes it one of the best-selling PlayStation video games of all time. The game's success resulted in its re-release for the Sony Greatest Hits lineup on August 30, 1998, and for the Platinum Range in 1999. The game replaced Crash Bandicoot as the highest-selling non-Japanese title in Japan, selling over 800,000 copies by April 1998. Cortex Strikes Back was initially released on the European PlayStation Network on July 26, 2007, but was withdrawn on August 7, 2007, along with Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer and MediEvil, as a precautionary measure when the latter two games experienced technical problems. The game was released on the North American PlayStation Network on January 10, 2008, and re-released on the European PlayStation Network on February 2, 2011.

title: Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back


text:
Latinxua Sin Wenz

Latinxua Sin Wenz is a historical set of romanizations for Chinese. Promoted as a revolutionary reform to combat illiteracy and replace Chinese characters, Sin Wenz distinctively does not indicate tones, for pragmatic reasons and to encourage the use of everyday colloquial language. Beifangxua Latinxua Sin Wenz, for Mandarin Chinese, was the original iteration, and a number of variations for various varieties of Chinese were developed by regional Sin Wenz associations.

Latinxua is historically notable as being the first romanization system used in place of Chinese characters by native Chinese speakers. It was originally developed by groups of Chinese and Russian scholars in the Soviet Union and used by Chinese expatriates there until the majority of them left the Soviet Union. Later, it was revived for some time in Northern China where it was used in over 300 publications before its usage was ended by the People's Republic of China.

History and development
The work towards constructing the Beifangxua Latinxua Sin Wenz (北方話拉丁化新文字) system began in Moscow as early as 1928 when the Soviet Scientific Research Institute on China sought to create a means through which the large Chinese population living in the far eastern region of the USSR could be made literate, facilitating their further education.

This was significantly different from all other romanization schemes in that, from the very outset, it was intended that the Latinxua Sin Wenz system, once established, would supersede the Chinese characters. They decided to use the Latin alphabet because they thought that it would serve their purpose better than Cyrillic. Unlike Gwoyeu Romatzyh, with its complex method of indicating tones, Latinxua Sin Wenz system does not indicate tones at all.

The eminent Moscow-based Chinese scholar Qu Qiubai (1899–1935) and the Russian linguist V.S. Kolokolov (1896–1979) devised a prototype romanization system in 1929.

In 1931 a coordinated effort between the Soviet sinologists Alekseyev V.M., Dragunov A.A. and Shprintsin A. G., and the Moscow-based Chinese scholars Qu Qiubai, Wu Yuzhang, Lin Boqu, Xiao San, Wang Xiangbao, and Xu Teli established the Latinxua Sin Wenz system. The system was supported by a number of Chinese intellectuals such as Guo Moruo and Lu Xun, and trials were conducted amongst 100,000 Chinese immigrant workers for about four years and later, in 1940–1942, in the communist-controlled Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Region of China. In November 1949, the railways in China's north-east adopted the Latinxua Sin Wenz system for all their telecommunications.

In 1940, several thousand members attended a Border Region Sin Wenz Society convention. Mao Zedong and Zhu De, head of the army, both contributed their calligraphy (in characters) for the masthead of the Sin Wenz Society's new journal. Outside the CCP, other prominent supporters included Sun Yat-sen's son, Sun Fo; Cai Yuanpei, the country's most prestigious educator; Tao Xingzhi, a leading educational reformer; and Lu Xun. Over thirty journals soon appeared written in Sin Wenz, plus large numbers of translations, biographies (including Lincoln, Franklin, Edison, Ford, and Charlie Chaplin), some contemporary Chinese literature, and a spectrum of textbooks. In 1940, the movement reached an apex when Mao's Border Region Government declared that the Sin Wenz had the same legal status as traditional characters in government and public documents. Many educators and political leaders looked forward to the day when they would be universally accepted and completely replace Chinese characters. Opposition arose, however, because the system was less well adapted to writing regional languages, and therefore would require learning Mandarin. Sin Wenz fell into relative disuse during the following years.

For a time, the system was very important in spreading literacy in Northern China; and more than 300 publications totaling half a million issues appeared in Latinxua Sin Wenz. However:

In 1944 the latinization movement was officially curtailed in the communist-controlled areas [of China] on the pretext that there were insufficient trained cadres capable of teaching the system. It is more likely that, as the communists prepared to take power in a much wider territory, they had second thoughts about the rhetoric that surrounded the latinization movement; in order to obtain the maximum popular support, they withdrew support from a movement that deeply offended many supporters of the traditional writing system.

Description
Sin Wenz was designed so that every dialect had its own form of the alphabet. The letters below represent only one of the thirteen possible schemes present, the below form being Beifangxua Latinxua Sin Wenz: that for Northern Mandarin.

Much of Beifangxua Latinxua Sin Wenz is similar to Pinyin in its orthography. However, it is based upon the pronunciation outlined by the Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation, rather than upon the Beijing pronunciation (as with Hanyu Pinyin), hence the distinction between sounds such as palatalized alveolars (zi–ci–si) and palatalized velars (gi–ki–xi), or spellings such as yo and ung instead of ye or eng. Thus, Beijing is written as Beiging and Tianjin as Tianzin in Sin Wenz, and the characters 畫 and 下  are written as xua and xia, with the same initial character.

Finals
1e and ye is written as o and yo after initials g, k and x. For example: gogo, xyosheng 2Standalone ui, un and ung are written as wei, wen and weng respectively. 3What is written as i (IPA ) after zh, ch, sh, r, z, c and s in pinyin is not written in Sin Wenz. This "null vowel" feature is identical to Zhuyin.

As in pinyin, spacing in Sin Wenz is based on whole words, not single syllables. Except for u, others syllables starting with u is always written with a w replacing the u. The syllable u is only preceded by a w when it occurs in the middle of a word. For syllables starting with i, the i is replaced by a j (in case of the syllables i, in and ing, preceded by a j) only in the middle of a word. Syllables starting with y is preceded by a j only when preceded by a consonant in the middle of a word. These are unlike pinyin, which always uses w and y regardless of the positions of the syllables. As in pinyin, the apostrophe (') is used before a, o, and e to separate syllables in a word where ambiguity could arise.

Irregular spellings
Because Sin Wenz is written without indicating tones, ambiguity could arise with certain words with the same sound but different tones. In order to circumvent this problem, Sin Wenz defined a list of exceptions: "characters with fixed spellings". For example, 买 and 卖  are of the same sound but different tones. The former is written as maai and the latter is written as mai in Sin Wenz. The word 有 is also special; it is written as iou, as opposed to iu, which may be 又.

Telegrams sent by workers for the railways in the northeast of China switched from Zhuyin to Sin Wenz in 1950, then from Sin Wenz to Hanyu Pinyin in 1958; the 5 irregular spellings of 买 maai, 试 shii, 板 baan, 不 bu, and 李 lii, in use during the Hanyu Pinyin period, were inherited from Sin Wenz.

In addition, Sin Wenz also calls for the use of the postal romanization when writing place names in China, as well as preservation of foreign spellings (hence  Latin xua rather than *Ladingxua).

title: Latinxua Sin Wenz


text:
Talk:Hacilar

Changes, suggestions and criticsms for History Stub Hacilar.

Updates and what have you
DECEMBER 28 2004 I've taken out some of the linked subjects as most really aren't necessary. I don't think anybody here needs to know what "walls" are or what a "roof" is or even a "courtyard" (did'nt take that one out yet, but I'm leaning towards it). Water run-off stays for the time being, but probably not for long as there is a better term for the term I'm describing. FEBRUARY 20 2005 It's been a year and a bit and I've been neglectful, which blows because I'm now a little bit more educated on the topic. Excavation notes have been added. A little more elaboration on what was found is coming up and a bibliography too. If anyone has any infomormation on any excavations done by someone other then Mellaart, please contribute. There's not nearly as much information on Hacilar on the net as say Catal Hoyuk, so any help is appreciated. Also a graphic will be added, a map with the location perhaps as there is no picture of the excavation that I can find :(

Coordinate error
The following coordinate fixes are needed for

The coordinates are not correct, the true position of the archaeological site is c. 1 km W. of Hacilar village, not c. 2 km to the NE.

thelios2006@yahoo.gr

 * Error confirmed: I've confirmed that you are correct about them not being NE of the village and that they are to the West — actually, Westsouthwest, probably based on a map included with one of the excavation reports — but I've not been able to locate them well enough to provide new coordinates. I'm going to remove the existing coordinates (which were bot-added) and continue looking for more accurate information. — TransporterMan  ( TALK ) 19:31, 6 October 2014 (UTC)
 * The photos from the excavation reports and the description of the location would seem to put them somewhere around here: 37.57816°N, 30.08313°W, but I cannot seem to spot an exact location. There are some pits just to the west of those coordinates, but those seem to be too close to the river according to the excavation report (which says that the village is 1.5 km away and the river 1 km away) and appear from the satellite maps to more likely be gravel pits. Perhaps someone can find a better source. — TransporterMan  ( TALK ) 20:03, 6 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Since no one else has been able to find coords (the geodata-check tags are ordinarily resolved very quickly, if it is possible to do so), I have restored the tag on the article to put it into the list of articles needing coordinates. —  TransporterMan  ( TALK ) 13:00, 8 October 2014 (UTC)

title: Talk:Hacilar


text: Category:World War I espionage

title: Category:World War I espionage


text:
Centro-Sul

Centro-Sul (, South-Central) is a geographic area that encompasses the Southeastern, Southern and Central-West regions of Brazil (see Brazil Regional Division), excluding the north of Minas Gerais, most of Mato Grosso, and parts of Tocantins.

Demographics
About 135 million Brazilians live in this region. Most industries are concentrated in the area and are responsible for ~75% of the national GDP. In addition, the majority of the population is predominantly of European descent, and more than half of the population self-identifies as White Brazilian.

The region also is characterized by having a high standard of living (HDI of ~0.787, in average), compared to the rest of the country.

The Centro Sul region now has similar development to that of Uruguay and Argentina; the richest South American countries.

title: Centro-Sul


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Bah

Bah
Dicdef. Fredrik | talk 04:31, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Fredrik | talk 04:31, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Meh. Samaritan 04:44, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Interjections like these are the epitome of articles bound to forever be dicdefs if they are allowed to be kept. [[User:Livajo|Ливай | ☺]] 06:58, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. dicdef. utcursch 09:52, Dec 21, 2004 (UTC)
 * Cute. Meh thinks delete. - Lucky 6.9 19:51, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Humbug. Edeans 07:01, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Gruntcruft - delete =P [[User:Premeditated Chaos| P M  C ]] 08:45, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. It's an interesting word, with some history. I like "gruntcruft", though. Wile E. Heresiarch 00:27, 23 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Move to Wiktionary. And the whole "*cruft" terminology really grates on me, in fact I've been using a search for "cruft" to pick entries on VfD to vote for (not that I universally vote keep on them, of course). Bryan 21:11, 24 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Okay, I have to admit it; I just came across a "cruft" term that I liked. "Lovecruft", from the Cthulhu Mythos Zoogs VfD below. :) Bryan 21:20, 24 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * "Cruft" is just shorthand. See GOOPTI.  SWAdair | Talk  09:26, 26 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Transwiki --L33tminion | (talk) 04:25, Dec 25, 2004 (UTC)

title: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Bah


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Meh

See also Articles for deletion/Meh/old.
 * This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion of the article below. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record.

The result of the debate was DELETE. On 29 Dec 2004, User:SimonP deleted it, but didn't close this vote. Perhaps the process was different back then. Anyway, I've deleted it again. dbenbenn | talk 03:35, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Meh
Dicdef. Fredrik | talk 04:31, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC) Is it possible to move this to wiktionary or something? It already has "Bah" User:220.240.179.187
 * Delete. Fredrik | talk 04:31, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Bah. Samaritan 04:44, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Or if we must deal in monosyllabic interjections, shoo! [[User:Livajo|Ливай | ☺]] 06:55, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. if anything - wiktionary. Xtra 08:22, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Meh. —[[en:RaD Man|RaD Man (talk)]] 09:17, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. dicdef. utcursch 09:51, Dec 21, 2004 (UTC)
 * More monosyllables: Bye!  Gone! Toast! Meh!  In conclusion:  Gee, that was fun. - Lucky 6.9 19:54, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Monocruft. =P Delete. Better - gruntcruft. [[User:Premeditated Chaos| P M  C ]] 02:50, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep, this is what Wikipedia's good at. Imagine a collection of millions of quality articles on obscure bits of linguistics like this from various languages. Everyking 05:36, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Feh (delete). Edeans 06:59, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * If it's a dictdef, then surely a move to Wiktionary would be the appropriate action rather than an outright delete? That's my vote. Bryan 21:09, 24 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Concur. Kappa 02:58, 25 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Aye. --L33tminion | (talk) 04:14, Dec 25, 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Neologism, maybe.  Internet slang, sure.  Typographical error?  Okay, who is using a Dvorak Simplified Keyboard?  SWAdair | Talk  09:23, 26 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Strong delete. This article is complete, utter rubbish.   — J I P | Talk 12:41, 1 Mar 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. Or move to wiktionary. -- Joolz 14:25, 2 Mar 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. Or move to Wiktionary, or at least group this under something like internet slang. Cctoide 15:15, 8 Mar 2005 (UTC)

We definitely need to keep this article. This is what people come to Wikipedia for. Random stuff. If nobody else keeps track of these sorts of things who will? After all, this word was highlighted in the Simpsons.

We should certainly keep this article, or at least move it to wiktionary. The above user is right, this is what people come to Wikipedia for! I myself only found this article when searching for some definite meaning of the word 'meh'. perhaps the blatant advertising is a bit too much however.
 * Delete. The current content of this page does not provide sufficient useful information about this "word". Having a look through the history of the page, I find it highly unlikely that it will in the future. The fact that someone commented out the "This article is being considered for deletion ..." box also gives me a negative impression of the page. --TheParanoidOne 19:59, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like some other VfD subpages, is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion, or the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.

title: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Meh


text:
Spallanzani (disambiguation)

Spallanzani may refer to:

 * Lazzaro Spallanzani (1729-1799), an Italian Catholic priest, biologist and physiologist; and things named for him:
 * Lazzaro Spallanzani National Institute for Infectious Diseases
 * Spallanzani (lunar crater)
 * Spallanzani (Martian crater)
 * Spallanzani Point, Antarctica
 * 10350 Spallanzani, a main belt asteroid
 * Marco Spallanzani, a teacher of economic history at the University of Florence

title: Spallanzani (disambiguation)


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/PROPER

 This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion of the article below. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was DELETE. Postdlf 09:00, 9 May 2005 (UTC)

PROPER
Obscure dicdef. Fredrik | talk 04:34, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Fredrik | talk 04:34, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Neologism. Delete. --Slowking Man 09:02, Dec 21, 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Dictionary definition, local term. - 81.70.91.207 09:35, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. dicdef. utcursch 09:52, Dec 21, 2004 (UTC)
 * I have no idea what this is, but I do know it should be deleted. Edeans 23:19, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Nonsense, non-notable. Quale 05:36, 3 May 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete Cburnett 06:34, May 3, 2005 (UTC)
 * This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like some other VfD subpages, is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion, or the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.

title: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/PROPER


text:
User talk:Wwoods

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Belated invitation to join the Twenty Year Society
Dear Wwoods,

I'd like to extend this overdue but still cordial invitation to you to join the Twenty Year Society, an informal group for editors who've been participating in the Wikipedia project for twenty years or more.

Best regards,  Chris Troutman  ( talk )  16:43, 13 April 2024 (UTC)

title: User talk:Wwoods


text:
Talk:Tiglath-Pileser I

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Irvinechristopher1.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 11:22, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 14 January 2019 and 8 May 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Madelinesnoke.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 11:22, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Section
Shouldn't the Aramaic transcription of Tiglath Pileser at the beginning of the article be labeled as Aramaic. Most readers would not know this.

Section
Removed from the article:
 * at Arvad he received presents, including a crocodile from the Egyptian king

I've checked the Oxford History of Ancient Egypt & Georges Roux, Ancient Iraq (3rd ed.): neither mention Tiglath-Pileser receiving a gift of a crocodile from an Egyptian king, nor do the primary sources translated in my copy of ANET. If this happened, then it would be an important synchronism between Egyptian & Mesopotamian chronologies. I suspect this is, at best, a mistake in the original 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. -- llywrch 04:37, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Sea Horse
Im not sure what the following sentence in the article means or from where was it taken: "on which he killed a nahiru or "sea-horse" (which A. Leo Oppenheim translates as a narwhal) in the sea." Iberieli (talk) 20:51, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Sea Horse
See A. Kirk Grayson, Assyrian Rulers of the Early First Millenium BC, Toronto 1991, A. 0.87.3,16-25 und A.0.87.4, 67-71

Weidner in: Archiv für Orientforschung 18 (1957-1958), 344 and 352

Both regard the nahiru, which seems to be translated into "Blower" as a whale. It cannot be a narwhale, because they live in the artic. It must be a sperm whale, because its teeth are important enough to mention. If this is true, this story is a likely candidate for the world's oldest whaling record. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.68.142.47 (talk) 22:20, 4 November 2009 (UTC)

Wrong phrase
Article says: " His first campaign was against the Mushkiin 1112 B.C who had occupied certain Assyrian districts in the Upper Euphrates; then he overran Commagene and eastern Cappadocia, and drove the Hittites from the Assyrian province of Subartu, northeast of Malatia". This must be a mistake, because in 1112 aC the hitites don't exist (from near 1185 aC).--88.3.132.255 (talk) 17:46, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

Neo-hittites. From the Assyrian point of view the neo-hittites were still the Khatti of old. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.245.243.207 (talk) 12:53, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

title: Talk:Tiglath-Pileser I