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Talk:Railroad switch

Outside slip
As soon as I find an image of an outside slip I'll post a link. --7severn7 11:10, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

 * The use of this switch is in the second sentence, "An advantage over an inside slip switch is that trains can pass the slips with higher speeds." This unfortunately makes the dis/advantage list nonsensical as:-
 * being a form of diamond there are no parallel tracks
 * the slips are never going to be straight and therefore must be crossed at reduced speed
 * the crossing being crossed at full speed is true even of the inside slip. What that speed will be depends entirely on where it is placed.
 * With that in mind I would suggest the removal of the "scissors crossover" comparison as they would never (I think) be considered for the same layout (solution?). 101.98.22.129 (talk) 02:00, 9 November 2020 (UTC)

Change Name of article to Railway Points/Railroad Switch
I think the article should have it name changed to Railway Points/Railroad Switch to reflect that it has different names in the birth place of the Railway and the Largest Railway network. With the Birth Place's name should come first because that is what they called for the longest and before the name Railroad came it was a Railway everywhere.--85.255.236.180 (talk) 11:13, 18 June 2021 (UTC)

 * I agree with user 85.255.236.180 that it should have both names on it. --I Like The british Rail Class 483 (talk) 07:50, 19 June 2021 (UTC)
 * I don't agree. Redirects, and adding other names in the first sentence, are enough. If we start with such changes, we'd have to do this with thousands of articles, and not only in the English WP. And finding the articles would not improve: Finding via Google etc. already works today (search for "railway points" in Google - it will show you this article prominently); and prefix searches (as in WP's search field) would only work for the first term, so we would have discussions about whether it should be "railroad switch / railway points" or "railway points / railroad switch". So there is no added value in this "alternate terms" suggestion. Last, I think this has been discussed many times ... should be easy to find the discussion. --User:Haraldmmueller 09:46, 19 June 2021 (UTC)
 * This proposal would violate Wikipedia's naming conventions. See WP:TITLEVAR and WP:OTHERNAMES for details. Indefatigable (talk) 16:16, 19 June 2021 (UTC)
 * What about calling it Railway Points since they were invited by Britain and should use British English. I Like The british Rail Class 483 (talk) 08:50, 23 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Can we stop with this nonsense about "if it's invented by Britain, it should use British English?" That's not how things work around here and I'm sick and tired of British editors claiming ownership of everything. This is a global encyclopedia and we have carefully agreed upon rules about WP:ENGVAR. You don't get to change everything just because you personally prefer British English. This is not a MOS:TIES situation at all. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 16:03, 23 April 2023 (UTC)
 * I fully agree with here. I was about to say something similar. —   void  xor  16:21, 23 April 2023 (UTC)
 * I thoroughly agree.  You can bet if it was an American invention any attempt to call it anything than the American name would invoke much squealing and keyboard warrioring aplenty.
 * The other commentators seem to live in an insulated US only world, a point to make is that "points" and "railway" as examples are used as terms in MORE countries than America and if you added up the territorial space, population etc the US would be dwarfed meaning that a majority of human beings on this planet DO NOT call it a switch, they call it a set of points.  It is also signs of Americans trying to subvert and claim ownership of items and systems they did not invent, something that has occurred since James Watt was claimed to have purloined his works from an American who happened to invent it all years before, as we have seen with ASDIC, Radar, Jet Propulsion, the internet, WAN networking, the ATM as prime examples of where America claims to have invented but had in fact not one bit invented these things.   We even saw in the recent film Oppenheimer the "US only" club at work, discarding not just British but many nations scientific work and collaboration at the Manhattan project and so a new generation will only think America invented the atomic bomb when in reality, America only contributed a smaller part to the whole project.   America would not have even competed in the space race without first using lend-lease debt blackmail forced Britain to surrender not only much of its nuclear technology at that point but also the more unknown British space programme developed before WW2.  Britain was years ahead of the Germans who had a pre-war space programme but post war austerity halted any further work and thus space exploration petered out until the Soviets launched Sputnik and America utilised Operation Paperclip captured Nazi's alongside the vast British knowledge of space vehicle design that saw the US even enter that race. 92.31.58.42 (talk) 11:02, 7 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Again, we go by WP:ENGVAR around here, not personal preferences. And we certainly don't squeeze two or more global terms into article titles. —  void  xor  13:45, 8 March 2024 (UTC)

Split into multiple pages due to its length
Mabey move the list of different types of points into a new page. I Like The british Rail Class 483 (talk) 17:05, 22 April 2023 (UTC)

 * The prose size is 6663 words, 39817 characters. Per WP:SIZERULE, it's not really necessary to split right now. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 19:11, 22 April 2023 (UTC)

Ladder layouts
Ladder layouts are used on both yards and on mainlines so they should be in here. For example Clapham Junction is a Ladder which lets trains come off Latchmere curve and run on the Windsor or the South western mainline. Another reason is that it makes sense it be in Railway Points page. International Junction near to London Waterloo is a Ladder. There is other examples of Ladders in use on the national network and not in yards, which is what Marshalling Yards and Ladder track which both make it out to be that you will only find the Marshalling yards which is not true. https://sacuksprodnrdigital0001.blob.core.windows.net/sectional-appendix/Sectional Appendix full PDFs March 23/Kent Sussex Wessex Sectional Appendix March 2023 .pdf I Like The british Rail Class 483 (talk) 08:59, 23 April 2023 (UTC)

 * I think this would be more appropriate on Rail yard, even if there are a handful of examples on mainlines. It's mostly used in yards and is fundamental to the design of most yards. —  void  xor  15:43, 23 April 2023 (UTC)

Rocks
Mention if rocks kicked up by cars on nearby gravel roads might jam switches. Jidanni (talk) 07:26, 14 October 2023 (UTC)

 * That may or may not be notable enough for inclusion here. Do you have a reference? —  void  xor  23:41, 15 October 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Railroad switch


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Girl next door

The girl next door is a young female stock character who is often used in romantic stories. She is so named because she often lives next door to the protagonist or is a childhood friend. They start out with a mutual friendship that later often develops into romantic attraction.

A similar expression is "boy next door".

Characteristics
A girl-next-door character is often seen as natural and unpretentious. A trope that evokes nostalgia, it is associated with small towns and more local or even rural ways of life. The girl next door is often portrayed as innocent.

Actress and singer Doris Day, renowned for her rom-com film roles in the 1950s, is described as a pioneering embodiment of the girl-next-door image in film: regarded as "Hollywood's girl next door".

A common cliche is when a male protagonist is caught in a love triangle between two women, he will usually choose the "sweet, ordinary, and caring girl next door" he grew up with rather than a more well-off or beautiful woman with fewer morals. Other times, this character ignores the hero for another male character, despite being the object of his affections.

The character Mary Ann Summers from the TV show Gilligan's Island (portrayed by Dawn Wells) had the girl next door allure, in a contrast with the more glamorous character Ginger Grant (portrayed by Tina Louise). Due to the popularity of the show and the two lead female characters, the question "Ginger or Mary Ann?" became shorthand for asking someone whether they preferred a girl-next-door type or a more glamorous type.

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

title: Girl next door


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Matthew Bourne

Sir Matthew Christopher Bourne (born 13 January 1960) is a British choreographer. His productions contain many classic cinema and popular culture references and draw thematic inspiration from musicals, film noir and popular culture

Popular novels and films usually form the basis for his work but Bourne's dance adaptations are sui generis, distinct from their originals. For example, his 1995 restaging of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake updated the ballet's setting, narrative and famously used all-male swans.

Workshops, collaboration and the innevitable dialogue with the original works inform many of his adaption's choreographical routines and thematic concepts. For his 1997 reimagining of Cinderella, Bourne invoked the Victorian and Edwardian eras by disseminating certain books and novels from those time periods amongst the production's cast members.

His New Adventures dance company's work covers ballet, contemporary dance, dance theatre and musical theatre.

His adaptations of Sleeping Beauty, Edward Scissorhands, The Red Shoes, Dorian Gray, and Lord of the Flies added new dimensions to these near-ubiquitous stories. Bourne's recent work, The Midnight Bell, sets Patrick Hamilton's 1929 novel in a pub, and Bourne's Romeo and Juliet put the tragedy's mental health and youth suicide themes centre stage.

In 2016, he was knighted as part of Queen Elizabeth II 2016 New Year Honours list for 'Services to Dance'.

Early life and influences
Bourne was born on January 13, 1960, in Hackney, London, England. His mother was a secretary and his father worked for Thames Water. Bourne had no formal ballet training during his childhood. However, as a teenager, he was passionate about show business. He would frequently autograph hunt in London's West End after his mother took him to see Dame Edith Evans and Friends in 1974 at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. He wrote to and received letters back from Joan Crawford, Charlie Chaplin and Bette Davis. He was eighteen when he attended Sadler's Wells Theatre to see his first ballet, Swan Lake.

He worked as a filing clerk at the BBC and as an usher at The National Theatre for four years after graduating from William Fitt and Sir George Monoux School in Walthamstow, London. At 20 he started studying at London's Laban Centre and began dance classes at 22. In 1985, he toured for two years with the centre's dance company. However, his interests gradually shifted from dancing to choreographing for television, theatre, and other dance companies. He completed a BA honours degree in contemporary dance in 1985. And in 1986, he graduated with an MA in dance performance. He co-founded the London-based company Adventures in Motion Pictures (AMP) in 1987. Bourne's radical reinterpretations of classic ballets set him apart as a choreographer. In 1992, he placed the Christmas Eve scene of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker in a Victorian orphanage reminiscent of a Charles Dickens novel. His 1994 version of Filippo Taglioni's La Sylphide titled Highland Fling, was set in a modern-day Glaswegien housing project. Highland Fling was also the beginning of Bourne's creative alliance with the designer Lez Brotherston.

Style and process
Bourne's work primarily concerns clarity of exposition, characterisation, technical staging and cinematic devices. Thematically, his work draws on Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals, film noir and Alfred Hitchcock, among others. Bourne's career trajectory shifted after his time at the Laban Centre, where he honed his signature theatrical style. His work stood in contrast to the more provocative dance styles of the 1980s, associated with artists such as Michael Clark and Lloyd Newson's DV8 Physical Theatre. Instead, Bourne's style centred on romance, wit, and tangible drama, as demonstrated in his adaptation of Swan Lake.

Bourne's New Adventure's troupe consists of both ballet and modern dancers who perform intricate choreography that stems from the character's actions and movements.

Bourne's works often convert written works into physical, visual, and musical forms, initiating a dialogue between the adaptation and the original work by actively emphasising the relationship between the two. Moreover, because his work uses many classic cinema and popular culture references, its impact largely depends on the viewer's relationship to the original work.

Process
Since the start of his career, Bourne's approach has involved a collaborative process with his dancers and creative-partners. In 2007, Sam Archer and Richard Winsor, portraying Edward in the initial Edward Scissorhands performances, confirmed that Bourne still uses this approach; where in a piece's embryonic stage, Bourne assigns the dancers tasks like creating individual dance steps that eventually form part of the choreography.

Nutcracker!
In Bourne's Nutcracker!, a dance adaptation of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker first staged in 1992, Clara inhabits a black-and-white orphanage under the rule of a stern matron and Dr. Dross. Somehow, Clara's Nutcracker doll transforms into a young man who leads her on a journey to Sweetieland, a fictional location where sweets and confectionary represent pleasure and desire. In this world, earlier characters reappear as sweets in a visually striking setting created by Anthony Ward, combining elements of the graphic novel with surreal, vibrant colors.

Bourne's Nutcracker! blends ballet, folk dance and mime in elaborately choreographed movements. The performance references the Norwegian figure skater Sonja Henie and Les Patineurs to form a tableau reminiscent of The Nutcracker's original choreographers, Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov.

Swan Lake
In 1995, AMP premiered Bourne's restaging of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. In his updated version, he placed the prince in a contemporary dysfunctional family and had him fall in love with a male swan. Drawing inspiration from Tchaikovsky's music and nature, Bourne portrayed swans as large, aggressive, and powerful creatures, danced by bare-chested men wearing knee-length shorts made of shredded silk resembling feathers. This was a significant departure from the traditional portrayal of swans by young women in romantic white costumes. Swan Lake won the 1996 Laurence Olivier Award for best new dance production, and the production won 1999's 53rd Tony Awards for direction and choreography after it opened on Broadway in 1998. The ballet toured internationally multiple times in the early 21st century.

Cinderella
Bourne's reinterpretation of this classic fairytale is set in wartime London. Premiered at the Piccadilly Theatre, London in September 1997. Bourne provided his dancers with books and films about Cinderella and the Victorian and Edwardian eras that influenced his version. Bourne's research into previous interpretations and historical contexts contributed to a historically informed performance. Bourne favoured the 1977 Royal Ballet version, appreciating its drama and narrative pace, despite its longer duration.

The Car Man
Bourne's dance interpretation of Georges Bizet's, Carmen titled The Car Man, premiered at The Royal Albert Hall in 2000.

The narrative revolves around Luca, a drifter who finds himself in a love triangle with Lana, the wife of a local garage owner, and Angelo, a young man grappling with his identity in the town's hypermasculine environment. Typical of Bourne productions, the production blends genres, dotting film, ballet, and musical references amongst its retro visual designs.

Larger productions use a flexible multi-tier set construction incorporating a live orchestra and billboard screens, allowing for a seamless transition between scenes and creating a thrust stage.

The production's soundtrack merges compositions from Rodion Shchedrin's Carmen Suite with sound effects, thus functioning as both an orchestral score and a cinematic soundtrack. This blend of audio elements contributes to the atmosphere and progression of the narrative.

The Car Man's most recent cast includes Zizi Strallen as Lana, Will Bozier as Luca, and Paris Fitzpatrick as Angelo. The choreography is deeply integrated into the storytelling, with initial group numbers establishing the setting, before individual interactions become the narrative's driving force. Notably, the carnal encounters between Luca, Lana, and Angelo, choreographed with great intensity and physicality, propel the story forward.

In the spirit of classic melodrama, the narrative threads of lust, deceit, and violence intertwine, leading to a second act dominated by themes of guilt and revenge. The production's duality mirrors the character of Luca, who compellingly embodies multiple aspects of the narrative's nuanced exploration of desire and identity.

Play without words
Play Without Words debuted in 2002 as part of the National Theatre's Transformation season, aimed at attracting a younger audience. The production, a dance work, drew inspiration from 1960s British new wave cinema. It featured an atmospheric jazz score by Terry Davies and was largely influenced by Joseph Losey's 1963 film The Servant. This film, scripted by Harold Pinter, explored class and power dynamics through the story of a young upper-class man who hires a Cockney valet to manage his townhouse, a relationship that implodes due to the valet's manipulation.

Bourne's unique approach involved casting each character multiple times, concurrently revealing different and sometimes contradictory aspects of their personalities. This technique created an environment where reality and fantasy coexisted, resulting in a narrative reminiscent of Nicolas Roeg's work in Performance.

The plotline follows Prentice, the manservant, as he caters to his employer, Anthony's needs while simultaneously scheming his downfall. Bourne's choreography intensifies during these scenes, highlighting the characters' dynamic interactions.

Certain scenes highlight the ambiguous relationships between the characters. For instance, Prentice's friend Speight seduces Anthony's neglected fiancée, Glenda, though his actions hint at more complex motivations. Speight is presented as an embodiment of an evolving, sexually egalitarian future.

Bourne's Play Without Word's pessimistic tone was a stark contrast to the Cultural Olympiad's more optimistic works. The production encouraged audience immersion and encouraged audience members to dress in attire inspired by the 1960s British cinema.

Edward Scissorhands
Bourne's Edward dance adaptation of Tim Burton's film debuted in 2005. The story follows the tale of a boy with scissors for hands created by an inventor in a gothic workshop. The boy, Edward, played by Dominic North, is welcomed into 1950s suburban America in a fictional town called Hope Springs. Bourne subtly caricatured the social life and mannerisms of the time realised through Lez Brotherston's costumes and stage designs.

The protagonist's dance movement arc progresses from a robotic goofiness akin to pantomime to confidence as his suburban community accepts him. But finally descends into theatrical despair after Kim and the town's community reject him.

The production's highlights included Edward's dream, where momentarily free of his scissor hands, he performs a duet with Kim flanked by dancers dressed as Edward's topiary art. Terry Davies based the score on themes from the movie score by Danny Elfman.

Dorian Grey
Bourne's adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray in 2008 highlights the combination of celebrity and youth that lead to Wilde's protagonist's downfall.

Bourne's concept originated from a male duet workshop titled Romeo and Romeo. The dancers' contributions and the choreographical ideas that emerged from the workshop, with some minor changes, formed the final production of Dorian Gray. Therefore, in the performance's original programme, Bourne credited both himself and his company for the production's choreography. Richard Winsor, who played Dorian, and Jason Piper, who portrayed Basil Hallward in the ballet's second iteration, both participated in the Romeo & Romeo workshop.

Moreover, he began to refine Wilde's narrative's intricate plot and themes during conversations with long-term collaborator Lez Brotherston. Bourne attests that their adaptation preserves most of Wilde's original work, particularly the novel's central theme of a handsome young man's internal corruption.

The desire to modernise the narrative raised several discussions about which time period might work best for their reimaging. Initially, they considered setting their adaptation in the 1960s because both Bourne and Brotherston often revisit this period in their work. However, they decided to set their rendering in the present. Later, Bourne admitted the piece's contemporary setting brought an element of apprehension.

In his adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray, Bourne changes Sybil Vane to a male ballet dancer called Cyril and he rewrites Lord Henry as a female magazine editor who wields considerable power.

The plotline of Bourne's Dorian Grey also differs slightly from Wilde's. In Bourne's adaptation, the portrait reflecting the protagonist's inner state, transforms into Dorian's doppelgänger. Dorian's doppelgänger incrementally poses a threat to Dorian's position as a figure of public and private adoration. Ultimately, rather than destroy the painting like he does in Wilde's original, Bourne's contemporary Dorian Grey stabs his doppelgänger in front of the paparazzi.

The Doppelgänger first appears after Dorian's involvement in his lover Cyril's drug overdose. The doppelganger's presence increases thereafter. At several points Dorian scrutinises his own actions by observing the actions of his Doppelgänger from a dissociative state.

In contrast to Wilde's original novel, by introducing a Doppelgänger into the plot bourne reframes the protagonist's conflict as an internal conflict with himself, his nature and his values.

Reception
The production broke The Edinburgh International Festival's biggest-selling dance event record. Mark Morris's set the festival's previous record of 10,146 tickets for his The Hard Nut in 1995. At the time, The Herald reported that Bourne's Dorian Grey sold 11,212 tickets.

Bourne's Dorian Grey and Oscar Wilde's original work faced similar criticism; both Wilde's original and Bourne's adaptation parodied the excess and superficiality of celebrity culture;but some critics still derided the performance's choreography for how it depicted the traits central to its protagonist's narcissism. The challenge of satirising a subject without adopting its criticised traits has featured heavily in the subsequent analysis of Bourne's Dorian Grey.

Lord of the Flies
Bourne's 2011 adaptation of William Golding's classic illustrates masculinity's savagery-inducing effects in a way that words cannot. Unlike previous Bourne productions. The Theatre Royal approached the Bourne's New Adventures charitable arm, ReBourne, to stage the show with Scottish Arts Council funding and a cast including some young men who had never danced before. The project's goal was to stage a production of Lord of the Flies that drew on the talent pool of the cities where it was shown. Typical of Bourne's adaptations, as director, he chooses to set his Lord of the Flies in a deserted theatre. The boy's reasons for being trapped in a deserted theatre are unclear. Nor is it apparent why this abandoned theatre has a decaying pig's head. But in this new setting, Golding's characters find themselves scavenging for mini ice cream tubs in this new setting.

Sleeping Beauty
Bourne drew on many sources of inspiration when creating Sleeping Beauty in 2012, as did his dancers for their characters. He read multiple versions of the story, noting commonalities and differences. While he ignored the second half of Perrault's original, he found the Grimm version, titled Little Briar Rose, closer to the well-known story. The Disney animated film also took liberties, such as omitting the 100-year sleep. Bourne incorporated elements from each of these versions into his production. He addressed perceived shortfalls in the original story, crediting Walt Disney for rectifying them in the 1959 animated version. The historical timeframe of Bourne's narrative provided anchor points for movement styles. Aurora's christening is set in 1890, her coming-of-age party in 1911, and her awakening in a modern-day gothic nightmare. The story starts with a childless King and Queen seeking help from the evil fairy Carabosse, who leaves Aurora on the palace's doorstep. The fairies bestow qualities reinforcing her free-spirited nature. Bourne's version encompasses themes of good versus evil, sleep, rebirth, and vampires. Carabosse's son, Caradoc, is introduced to maintain the malign theme, forming a love triangle with Leo. Themes of sleep and rebirth appear in both versions, with one fairy named Hibernia, the Fairy of Rebirth, emphasising this connection.

Bourne's original 2012 cast featured Dominic North as Leo and Hannah Vassallo as Aurora. The score was adapted and supplemented with additional sound effects.

2022 staging
In 2022 Bourne's Sleeping Beauty returned to Sadler's Wells Theatre for a seven-week residency.

Red Shoes
Bourne's 2016 adaptation of The Red Shoes is based on the iconic Powell and Pressburger film and inspired by the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale of the same name about a pair of red shoes that enhance their owner's dancing abilities but at a cost.

Lez Brotherston designed the set to resemble the grandeur of an opera house. And Terry Davies incorporated Bernard Herrmann's more obscure soundtracks to create an atmospheric score performed by New Adventures' 16-piece orchestra conducted by Brett Morris.

The adaptation premiered in Plymouth on November 21, 2016, starring Ashley Shaw as Victoria Page.

The two-act performance glimpses a theatre's inner workings and the sacrifice required for seamless performances. For example, early in the performance, the spotlight voyeuristically tracks the company's prima ballerina assoluta, Michela Meazza, as she wafts, waves and flutters a La Sylphide-styled tutu's fairy wings emulating the imminent performance's movements.

After its initial run, The Red Shoes toured the UK and internationally.

2019 tour
Bourne's company reprised Red Shoes for an International tour at the end of 2019. Adam Cooper returned to New Adventures for the 2019 tour to reprise his erotic, dangerous swan role. However, after a final performance at Wimbledon, the tour ended abruptly due to Covid 19 restrictions on March 14, 2020.

Remote staging
The cast created a condensed twelve-minute version of The Red Shoes during the 2020 lockdown. They performed in various home settings, including living rooms, gardens, and kitchens. This version's performers wore casual attire like football kits, homemade outfits, and towels.

Romeo and Juliet
Renderings of William Shakespeare's tragedy about teen suicide typically highlight the family feud as the reason for the protagonist's joint suicide while ignoring their death's most probable explanation; two young people forcibly separated at a difficult point in their lives. During rehearsals Bourne repeatedly rewrote Shakespeare's plot and scenario, eventually settling for a gender-segregated institution akin to a Psychiatric hospital. It isn't clear exactly what type of institution it is, but Bourne speculated that it could be, “A borstal, a prison, a school, something to do with mental health? An excess of feeling is frowned upon – there may be young people who have too much feeling.” What is clear are the physical and sexual power structures binding this institution. For example, Tybalt, a prison guard, sexually assaults Juliet and the ballet's choreography uses rigidly synchronised motions to underscore its character's incarceration. Brotherston's set consists of an austere white-tile-clad stage flanked by doors, a balcony, staircases and circled by white fencing. First staged in 2019, Cordelia Braithwaite portrays Juliet as an intense red-haired girl. While the twitchy, troubled Romeo is there because his mother and father wish to disassociate themselves from their embarrassing son. Like the Kenneth MacMillan version before it, a homoerotic bond between Romeo, Mercutio, Benvolio, and Balthasar is also present in Bourne's version.

The Midnight Bell
Bourne's The Midnight Bell is an adaptation of Patrick Hamilton's 1929 novel The Midnight Bell, which is not to be confused with Francis Lathom's gothic novel of the same name. Bourne subtitled the piece Intoxicated Tales from Darkest Soho, and set it in a smokey 1930s London pub called The Midnight Bell. The narrative centres on ten of Hamilton's original characters' intertwined lives. The performance introduces its characters through their professions or societal roles. They are primarily individuals seeking social connection and solace from their circumstances in their local pub. The two acts depict the character's personal struggles, dreams, and the evolution of their relationships over one month. The piece's most notable character arcs and performances were Bryony Wood's portrayal of a young prostitute, Michela Meazza's depiction of Miss Roach, the lonesome spinster and George Harvey Bone, the deranged killer played by Richard Winsor.

Career
Matthew Bourne is best known for his unique re-imaginings of traditional ballet, such as his 1995 production of Swan Lake, where he replaced the traditionally female corps-de-ballet with a male ensemble. Swan Lake (Bourne) went on to be the longest-running ballet in London's West End and New York City's Broadway. The production earned him the title as the only British director to win both 'Best Choreographer' and 'Best Director' in the same year at the 1999 Tony Awards. On the iconic appeal of Swan Lake at the time, The New Yorker said, 'what was important about the gender switch was that it made this old love story romantic again, by making it seem dangerous.'

His admirers say that he has 'broadened the definition of ballet in a way that has consistently appealed to young audiences'.

Since 1986, Bourne has worked in dance, musical theatre and film with his dance companies New Adventures and AMP, as well as choreographed musicals for West End Theatre such as Mary Poppins and My Fair Lady. Productions include The Red Shoes (ballet), The Car Man (Bourne) (based on Bizet's Carmen) and Edward Scissorhands (dance) among many others. The company has reimagined many traditional Tchaikovsky ballets, such as The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty, placing them in a new, cinematic context to enliven their potential for storytelling for a modern audience. Bourne has also adapted famous cinema and literature for the stage, such as a dance version of Tim Burton's 1990 film Edward Scissorhands, Hans Christian Andersen and Pressburger's The Red Shoes (1948 film) and Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Bourne is described after an interview with the New Yorker in 2007 as a particularly 'audience-conscious artist'. Bourne highlights the importance of intervals for the audience, "in the second half they're always more demonstrative, because they've talked to their friends and decided that it's O.K. to enjoy it." He also explains how he always asks company dancers to offer warmth in their curtain calls, saying, "I pride myself on my company's curtain calls, I really do. I think you won't see a nicer curtain call than from my lot."

New Adventures
A group of Laban graduates established the company, formerly known as 'Adventures in Motion Pictures' in 1987. After the success of Swan Lake, AMP (Adventures in Motion Pictures) was heading down a highly commercial route. Long-running international tours of Swan Lake meant the company felt headed for world domination, which made Bourne uneasy, "I felt that I was running an office rather than a company". The pressure to create highly profitable productions left Bourne feeling creatively stifled. Feeling the need to be closer to his productions and seeking room to experiment and work with a smaller team, Bourne and AMP's co-director Katherine Doré eventually made the decision to split.

In 2000, he started a new company, New Adventures, which was officially formed with Managing Director Robert Noble OBE (also Deputy Managing Director of Cameron Mackintosh) and Bourne's long time collaborator, and former dancer, Etta Murfitt MBE as Associate Artistic Director. This enabled Bourne and the company to scale down and create low budget shows, working in close collaboration with the dancers and artists who contribute hugely to his creative process. Esteemed dance critic Judith Mackrell notes, 'there were moments in his career when Bourne could easily have let himself become a commercial commodity and squandered his talent.

Its notable members include the Canadian dancer and critic Lynn Seymour. Often described as "one of the greatest dramatic ballerinas of the 20th century", Seymour, reportedly took a liking to Bourne's adaptation of Swan Lake and asked Bourne if she could play the part of Queen. The following year Seymour played a Bette Davis-inspired Stepmother in Bourne's adaptation of Sergei Prokofiev's Cinderella. And reprised the stepmother role in Bourne's 2017 version.

Personal life
Bourne started his dance training at the relatively late age of 22, and trained at Trinity Laban in London. Before that he describes himself as self-taught, saying "my first ever dance class was my audition for dance college when I was 21".

As a teenager he would take the bus to the West End to collect autographs. Bourne attended the London Gay Teenage Group in Holloway, North London. He spoke about this on the Jo Whiley show on BBC Radio 2 in 2018.

As of 2015 Bourne is in a long-term relationship with contemporary dance choreographer Arthur Pita, who has been described as the "David Lynch of dance". Pita says of their relationship, "we talk about work a lot, but it's never competitive, our styles are so different". The two met through Bourne's production of Swan Lake, when Bourne was director and Arthur was a swan.

In addition to his 2016 knighthood, Bourne has received multiple awards and award nominations, including the Laurence Olivier Award, Tony Award, and Drama Desk Award, and has also received several honorary doctorates of arts from UK universities.

title: Matthew Bourne


text:
Ellis Minns

Sir Ellis Hovell Minns, FBA (16 July 1874 – 13 June 1953) was a British academic and archaeologist whose studies focused on Eastern Europe.

Educated at Charterhouse, he went to Pembroke College, Cambridge studying the Classical tripos including Slavonic and Russian. He lived briefly in Paris before moving to St Petersburg in 1898 to work in the library of the Imperial Archaeological Commission. Returning to Cambridge in 1901 he began lecturing in Classics.

In 1927, he was appointed Disney Professor of Archaeology, a post he held until 1938. He wrote widely with books including Scythians and Greeks (1913) and The Art of the Northern Nomads (1944). He was an authority on Slavonic icons and in 1943 cleared the Russian translation engraved on the ceremonial "Sword of Stalingrad" presented by the British people in homage to the defenders of the Russian city.

In the 1945 New Year Honours, Minns was appointed a Knight Bachelor, and thereby granted the title sir.

title: Ellis Minns


text:
Talk:American romanticism

Untitled
Aargh - copyvio from the external link. Just when I'd cleaned it all up.

Charles Matthews 12:32, 4 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Looking at http://monkeymoosehistory.blogspot.com/, it may well be the author of the blog submitting what he has just posted there. This should be established, before treating this as a copyvio.

Charles Matthews 12:36, 4 Dec 2004 (UTC)

title: Talk:American romanticism


text:
Spatula Mundani

The Spatula Mundani was a surgical device invented in the 17th century by the London surgeon James Woodall to treat extreme cases of severe constipation where purgatives had failed. Woodall believed that the cause of this malady was from scurvy, but speculation is that many of the cases were from the abuse of laudanum, a popular painkiller of the time. A drawing of the device is found in his 1617 book The Surgeons Mate.

The device was an iron tool slightly longer than 12 inches and consisted of a paddle at one end. The other end was spoon-shaped, with the center removed and a knob at the end. The spoon end was used to extract the "hard excrements" while the other was used for applying ointments, no doubt necessary after undergoing a procedure with this instrument.

The term mundani is apparently derived from the archaic term mundify which appeared in a dictionary from 1604 with the definition "to make clean".

On an archaeological dig at the Jamestown, Virginia, colonies a spatula mundani was found, and documents from 1608 report that it was part of a chest of surgeon's tools sent by Woodall to the colonies.

title: Spatula Mundani


text: Category:Travel books

title: Category:Travel books


text:
Urn

An urn is a vase, often with a cover, with a typically narrowed neck above a rounded body and a footed pedestal. Describing a vessel as an "urn", as opposed to a vase or other terms, generally reflects its use rather than any particular shape or origin. The term is especially often used for funerary urns, vessels used in burials, either to hold the cremated ashes or as grave goods, but is used in many other contexts.

Large sculpted vases are often called urns, whether placed outdoors, in gardens or as architectural ornaments on buildings, or kept inside. In catering, large vessels for serving tea or coffee are often called "tea-urns", even when they are metal cylinders of purely functional design.

Urns are also a common reference in thought experiments in probability wherein marbles or balls of different colors are used to represent different results and the urn represents the "container" of the whole set of possible states.

Funerary
Funerary urns (also called cinerary urns and burial urns) have been used by many civilizations. After death, corpses are cremated, and the ashes are collected and put in an urn. Pottery urns, dating from about 7000 BC, have been found in an early Jiahu site in China, where a total of 32 burial urns are found, and another early finds are in Laoguantai, Shaanxi. There are about 700 burial urns unearthed over the Yangshao (5000–3000 BC) areas and consisting more than 50 varieties of form and shape. The burial urns were used mainly for children, but also sporadically for adults.

The Urnfield culture (c. 1300 BC – 750 BC), a late Bronze Age culture of central Europe, takes its name from its large cemeteries of urn burials. The discovery of a Bronze Age urn burial in Norfolk, England, prompted Sir Thomas Browne to describe the antiquities found. He expanded his study to survey burial and funerary customs, ancient and current, and published it as Hydriotaphia or Urn Burial (1658).

In ancient Greece, cremation was usual, and the ashes typically placed in a painted Greek vase. In particular the lekythos, a shape of vase, was used for holding oil in funerary rituals. Romans placed the urns in a niche in a collective tomb called a columbarium (literally, dovecote). The interior of a dovecote usually has niches to house doves. Cremation urns were also commonly used in early Anglo Saxon England, and in many Pre-Columbian cultures.

In some later European traditions, a king's heart, and sometimes other organs, could be placed in one or more urns upon his death, as happened with King Otto of Bavaria in 1916, and buried in a different place from the body, to symbolize a particular affection for the place by the departed.

In the modern funeral industry, cremation urns of varying quality, elaborateness, and cost are offered, and urns are another source of potential profit for an industry concerned that a trend toward cremation might threaten profits from traditional burial ceremonies. Biodegradable urns are sometimes used for both human and animal burial. They are made from eco-friendly materials such as recycled or handmade paper, salt, cellulose or other natural products that are capable of decomposing back into natural elements, and sometimes include a seed intended to grow into a tree at the site of the burial.

Besides the traditional funeral or cremation ashes urns, it may also be possible to keep a part of the ashes of the loved one or beloved pet in keepsake urns or ash jewellery, although this might be banned in some localities as the law of certain countries may prohibit keeping any human remains in a private residence. It is even, in some places, possible to place the ashes of two people in so-called companion urns. Cremation or funeral urns are made from a variety of materials such as wood, nature stone, ceramic, glass, or steel.

Figural
A figural urn is a style of vase or larger container where the basic urn shape, of either a classic amphora or a crucible style, is ornamented with figures. These may be attached to the main body, forming handles or simply extraneous decorations, or may be shown in relief on the body itself.

Trophies, tea and fashion
The Ashes, the prize in the biennial Test cricket competition between England and Australia, are contained in a miniature urn.

Urns are a common form of architectural detail and garden ornament. Well-known ornamental urns include the Waterloo Vase.

A tea urn is a heated metal container traditionally used to brew tea or boil water in large quantities in factories, canteens or churches. They are not usually found in domestic use. Like a samovar it has a small tap near the base for extracting either tea or hot water. Unlike an electric water boiler, tea may be brewed in the vessel itself, although they are equally likely to be used to fill a large teapot.

In Neoclassical furniture, it was a large wooden vase-like container which was usually set on a pedestal on either side of a side table. This was the characteristic of Adam designs and also of Hepplewhite's work. Sometimes they were "knife urns", where the top lifted off, and cutlery was stored inside. Urns were also used as decorative turnings at the cross points of stretchers in 16th and 17th century furniture designs. The urn and the vase were often set on the central pedestal in a "broken" or "swan's" neck pediment. "Knife urns" placed on pedestals flanking a dining-room sideboard were an English innovation for high-style dining rooms of the late 1760s. They went out of fashion in the following decade, in favour of knife boxes that were placed on the sideboard.

title: Urn


text:
Category:Airlines of Hong Kong

See Also: List of airlines and List of defunct airlines

title: Category:Airlines of Hong Kong


text:
User:Mantson

I am a danish student... grafic design. I am from 1983 and live at the moment in the city of Høng, Zealand, Denmark... Here at wikipedia I just do the things I stumple across... and the few things I believe I know something about and can contribute with. Main interests are amongst others: local history, history, genealogy, music, design and especially film.

Mathias

da:User:Mantson

title: User:Mantson


text:
Talk:Land's End

'''April 2010: Despite this article being top importance to WP:Cornwall and Mid importance to WP:UKGEO, it needs cleaning up, expanding and ref-improving. I've made a start – I hope others will feel free to boldly continue.''' Andy F (talk) 22:11, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

Map
The map doesn't indicate where Lands End is in the whole of west Cornwall. I think it should be removed, edited or replaced with one more useful. pomegranate 12:40, Dec 4, 2004 (UTC) I will try and get round to doing that. Thelb4 19:33, 4 September 2005 (UTC)

Too many pictures
There is a picture of West Cornwall with an inset of Great Britain and a seperate picture of the location in Great Britain. I propose that the latter is deleted. Thelb4 19:33, 4 September 2005 (UTC)

bad map removed

This map has been removed as it has a red dot on The Lizard and not on Lands End.

Pictures obscuring text
Can anyone move the pictures to stop them obscuring text? I did this yesterday, but someone has changed it back.--DuncanHill 14:21, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

 * Hmm - they don't obscure the text in my browser - what setup are you using? Mammal4 15:06, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

It's not obscuring much, just bits of a couple of words - though which words it obscures varies according to whether I have my favourites list open or not. I use IE. --DuncanHill 15:11, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

 * I'm not sure what the problem was. I've slightly re-arranged the images and it seems to be OK now. Dan1980 09:47, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

Bold text

Penn an Wlas
On the shortened write-up that appears on Google Earth, the name in Cornish is incorrect, but correct on the main page. On Google Earth it appears as "Penn a Wlas" whereas on the main page it is correct as "Penn an Wlas".

 * What does Penn, an, Wlas mean in Cornish - Etymolgy? Have these words expressions in the other celtic languages? --78.8.148.94 (talk) 08:03, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

Grammar
I'm unsure on your grammar. Is it "Land's end", as in the end belongs to the land? Surely it should be Lands End. And if you are implying ownership, then it would be "Lands'End". Not "Land's End. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.128.223.67 (talk) 17:32, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

 * The official name is Land's End. Whether it is incorrect grammar or not, that is the name of the place. Take a look at the UK Ordnance Survey (OS) map for that region. Search for "tr19 7aa" at OS Get-a-map and you will see for yourself. --Simple Bob (talk) 21:57, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

 * "Land's End" is grammatically correct. It's, literally, the end of the land. CF the whiskers of the cat / the cat's whiskers as an example of apostrophe use in this instance. Anyway, as Simple Bob states, the correct name is what's presented on official maps. RobC (talk) 15:39, 30 October 2009 (UTC)

People need to get away from this idea that the apostrophe is used solely for possession in a literal sense. Don't people read anymore to see how it is properly used? I think it's been noted somewhere that about 75% of the time, the use of the apostrophe has nothing to do with ownership, it's much more often a marker of the genitive/dative. Failure to appreciate this is what is leading to the current omission of the apostrophe in many situations which would never have been tolerated in the past. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.137.169.119 (talk • contribs)

 * Cornwall Council voted today on a consistent spelling - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-45499594 80.4.33.22 (talk) 15:44, 12 September 2018 (UTC)

South west extremity
Land's End is the most westerly point in mainland England. However I don't think it's the most south-westerly point in mainland England or Britain, this is a point a few miles south, although still in the Penwith peninsula, looking at this map probably Carin Boel although it might be Pordemack Point. PatGallacher (talk) 22:00, 20 July 2011 (UTC)

No... look at an OS map. Carin Boel and Pordemack Point are only about 500m south of Land's End. There are a couple of points near Porthgwarra (which is about 2km SSE) which are clearly further southwest than either of these. The most southwesterly appears to be Carn Guthensbrâs, although Gwennap Head is pretty close. But I agree that Land's End is not the most southwesterly point... anyone looking at a sufficiently detailed map can see it is not. TomH (talk) 03:00, 25 July 2011 (UTC)

 * I have therefore removed the incorrect claim. - David Biddulph (talk) 03:14, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

Just a pointer, Lands End is often mistaken to be the most westerly point in mainland Britain (The bus schedule claims it to be this) when the most westerly point is somewhere near Ardamurchan Lighthouse     in Scotland, probably should be made more clear in the article that this is not the case.Madattak (talk) 15:45, 2 June 2013 (UTC)

Dr Syntax's Head
Is "Dr Syntax's head" part of this area? Siuenti (talk) 21:06, 15 February 2013 (UTC)

The West Country Challenge
Would you like to win up to £250 in Amazon vouchers for participating in The West Country Challenge?

The The West Country Challenge will take place from 8 to 28 August 2016. The idea is to create and improve articles about Bristol, Somerset, Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, Dorset, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, like this one.

The format will be based on Wales's successful Awaken the Dragon which saw over 1000 article improvements and creations and 65 GAs/FAs. As with the Dragon contest, the focus is more on improving core articles and breathing new life into those older stale articles and stubs which might otherwise not get edited in years. All contributions, including new articles, are welcome though.

Work on any of the items at: or other articles relating to the area.
 * Core articles
 * Missing article hotlist
 * Missing photograph hotlist

There will be sub contests focusing on particular areas:
 * Bristol (Day 1-3)
 * Cornwall and Scilly (Day 4-6)
 * Devon (Day 7-9)
 * Dorset (Day 10-12)
 * Gloucestershire (Day 13-15)
 * Somerset (Day 16-18)
 * Wiltshire (Day 19-21)

To sign up or get more information visit the contest pages at WikiProject England/The West Country Challenge.— Rod talk 16:30, 18 July 2016 (UTC)

Carlisle
End to end section- Who is "Carlisle"? 77.98.212.141 (talk) 23:26, 5 June 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Land's End


text:
Cape Maria van Diemen

Cape Maria van Diemen is the westernmost point of the North Island of New Zealand. A tombolo, it was originally an island composed mainly of basaltic-andesitic lava flows and dykes. Drifting sands joined it to the rest of the North Island during the late Pleistocene.

The cape was named by Abel Tasman, (first European explorer to discover New Zealand) after the wife of his patron, Anthony van Diemen, Governor General of Batavia (now Jakarta) in January 1643, on the same voyage of discovery during which he named Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania). It is - along with the Three Kings Islands - one of only two geographic features in New Zealand to retain the names given to them by Tasman.

Climate
Cape Maria van Diemen normally has a subtropical climate, but it is the most northerly part of New Zealand in which snowfall has been reported.

title: Cape Maria van Diemen


text:
Category:Music books

Books about music.

title: Category:Music books


text:
Category:Climbing and mountaineering books

This category is for books (fiction and non-fiction) whose primary topic is climbing or mountaineering.


text: Category:Occult books

title: Category:Occult books


text:
Talk:Hilary Putnam

Turing Machine description / implementation
The description (specification) of the Turing machine does not match the implementation. The description states that it "writes out the sequence '111' after scanning three blank squares and then stopping". The actual machine as written scans three squares in sequence, writing a '1' in any blank square - to ensure the sequence '111' - and then stops.

Trivially, the description as cited can be re-written as: it scans three blank squares, it stops, then it writes out the sequence '111'. This, of course, is ridiculous - it does nothing after it stops. Equally trivially, this flaw can be fixed by putting a comma after the word "squares" and changing "stopping" to "stops".

A Turing machine to perform the corrected specification would be:

 * {| border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=5

! State || Input B || Input 1
 * align=center| 1 || move right; go to state 2 || move right
 * align=center| 2 || move right; go to state 3 || move right; go to state 1
 * align=center| 3 || move right; go to state 4 || move right; go to state 1
 * align=center| 4 || write 1; move right; go to state 5 || write 1; move right; go to state 5
 * align=center| 5 || write 1; move right; go to state 6 || write 1; move right; go to state 6
 * align=center| 6 || write 1; halt || write 1; halt
 * }
 * align=center| 4 || write 1; move right; go to state 5 || write 1; move right; go to state 5
 * align=center| 5 || write 1; move right; go to state 6 || write 1; move right; go to state 6
 * align=center| 6 || write 1; halt || write 1; halt
 * }
 * align=center| 6 || write 1; halt || write 1; halt
 * }

If you see "write" and "move" as separate actions [which is not the way I've done it all these years, but is certainly one way of doing it] then states 4 and 5 both need to be split into two states.

Also trivially, this is "one way" a Turing machine can be visualized.

Why don't I "be bold" and make the suggested changes? First off, I don't know whether the original author intended to have a correct specification for the given machine or a correct machine for the given specification. Second off, it seems that this article generates strong feelings for some, so I thought I'd socialize this change first. -- Jsdy (talk) 14:00, 25 March 2011 (UTC)

 * Maybe I was wrong about the strong feelings. --  Jsdy (talk) 01:02, 28 March 2011 (UTC)

85th birthday conference
I think mentioning the conference was an ok addition on informational grounds. I won't unrevert but maybe someone else can put it back if they think it's appropriate. 69.111.194.167 (talk) 12:57, 4 May 2011 (UTC)
 *

Algorithms are not computed
The current passage reads:

''The first formulation of such a functionalist theory was put forth by Putnam himself. This formulation, which is now called "machine-state functionalism", was inspired by analogies noted by Putnam and others between the mind and theoretical "Turing machines" capable of computing any given algorithm.''

But algorithms can't be computed. In simple language, algorithms are recipes, lists of action to take. They don't have to compute anything (although digital or analogue algorithms, and especially those used in digital computers often compute computable functions). One common counter-example of non-computing algorithm is a "bucket of rain water" algorithm. It's a recipe which says that you have to put out bucket every day and collect it in the evening, then measure the rain water in the bucket. It's perfectly fine, as an algorithm, but it doesn't compute anything. If this example is not enough, consider an algorithm of an infinite loop - what does it compute?

However it is true that Turing machines are computing machines, they don't compute algorithms, they execute algorithms. Thus I'd suggest that the sentence be changed to say that the Turing machine computes a computable function (or simply function, if that's too technical), or that it executes an (digital) algorithm (again, digital classification may be too technical). Also, there's no reason for Turing machine to be quoted, it's a mathematical object just like sine curve or equilateral triangle. :) 79.176.121.21 (talk) 19:40, 3 June 2014 (UTC)

Putnam's pragmatic turn?
I have read this article several times and it contain great material, but I believe that two little text is about Putnam's pragmatic turn from early 80s to present day. Most of the article is dedicated to his early writings.--Vojvodae please be free to write :) 09:33, 8 July 2014 (UTC)

Incorrect link in Note 9 for Putnam's 'Brain in a Vat'
I found that Note 9 did not provide the article. Searching for the material I found both a pdf for it at http://ieas.unideb.hu/admin/file_2908.pdf

as well as a working link in the connected Wikipedia page 'Brain in a Vat' http://books.google.it/books?id=h3g3GicFWGoC&hl=en&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Being a newbie, I did not feel confident to make this change myself. Codon3 (talk) 14:46, 16 April 2015 (UTC)Codon3

Multiple Realizability
This section is clear, but it does not explain to the layperson why Putnam's argument is novel or important when applied to the Mind/Body problem, whereas it is obviously not when applied to pure physics problems, for example phase transitions. For example any physical system which behaves identically to the 3D Ising problem will show the same qualitatative behavior (and universality in general). obviously a person's brain, and their "mind" and general identity remain essentially the same despite the fact that all the molecules in their body are continuously replaced, so their physical Identity is never the same. Even if one were to take the view that one molecule is literally identical to another, so in a sense the molecularly renewed person remains physically the same, this would not imply that 1 extra molecule made the person mentally as well as physically different. For all practical purposes one block of ice is the same as another of similar size. , and qualitatively quite different from the same molecules as liquid water. I don't see the difference from me today and me yesterday, or why Putnam's argument is important or substantially different.Paulhummerman (talk) 10:34, 25 October 2015 (UTC)

This lead deserves its status as a featured article
Edit: I hadn't noticed that it already _was_ a featured article.

Out of thousands of leads I've mentally critiqued, this one stands out as a paragon of the form. It actually appears to summarize in an even and succinct form his many contributions, phases, and lines of inquiry (my only hesitation is that this is complex material about which I only know the barest amount). I hereby award my personal gold star to the past contributors. — MaxEnt 16:24, 20 February 2016 (UTC)

 * I agree that the "lead" for this article is terrific. But it is suggested, as a general rule of thumb, that the lead should be limited in its length to four (4) paragraphs, and this lead for the Putnam article is not. Ie., a lead section should contain no more than four well-composed paragraphs and be carefully sourced as appropriate. But perhaps the quality of this particular lead, as pointed out by MaxEnt, demonstrates that sometimes the "rule of thumb" is simply a guideline, and does not always apply. For more information see: Manual of Style/Lead section. Christian Roess (talk) 18:16, 14 March 2016 (UTC)

An IP editor has cut the lead radically. I urge them the discuss here rather than by edit summaries and back-and-forth reverting. – Finnusertop (talk ⋅ contribs) 01:04, 15 March 2016 (UTC)

 * I don't even want to admit why I randomly commented that this was such a good lead, but here goes.

 * I use the MediaWiki software for my own Evernote-like system, and often my own wiki needs to link to a notable subject, so what I ended up doing was creating a shadow Wikipedia, where my own page links to the Wikipedia page, but I usually grab a few paragraphs of the lead and paste them onto my shadow page so that I have some ability to search locally and I don't have to always go back to Wikipedia, which also, unfortunately, sometimes changes for the worse. Gradually this became a reflex arc—and here's the embarrassing part—I now find I've created 6400 shadow pages where my own wiki contains a miniaturized copy of the Wikipedia lead.

 * Immediately when I saw this lead while creating my shadow page I went "oh, bother, it's an elephant" and then I tried to delete half the paragraphs, which usually takes about ten seconds, so I started to read in detail looking for the chaff and found basically not a word worth removing, which makes this article unique out of 6400 previous cut-and-paste quickie jobs. It's truly an awesome synopsis of a man who impacted a great many things.

 * What I did in my own copy of the lead to make the lead visually manageable was to highlight key material in each paragraph. "He is known for ..." became the start of a new paragraph, and that entire first sentence is highlighted in green (the whole point of having your own wiki is to draw attention to what most inspires you).  Then I bold faced the following terms (mostly found after the word "in", usually as the first word of the sentence): philosophy of mind, philosophy of mathematics, metaphysics, philosophy of perception, American pragmatism, ethics, Davis–Putnam algorithm, politically controversial figure.  Now my own copy of the long version of the lead totally rocks.  (Sadly, it didn't notice Putnam's departure, which I must now amend.) I didn't bold face "transactionalism" which heads a boring sentence (to non-specialists), yet seems to have been a important turning point in his philosophical stand for those who would know.

 * I love Wikipedia, but this kind of mindless guideline compliance drives me batty, so I found a way to care a little bit, but not too much.

 * I paragraph my own copy however I wish, and in my copy there are basically six paragraphs each summarizing a major life contribution. Of these, only the "philosophy of perception" makes one wish for a shorter summary, maybe something like this:

 * By 2012, however, he rejected this further commitment, in favor of "transactionalism", see the relevant section for details.

 * But is forwarding out of the lead even an endorsed Wikipedia style?

 * Clearly these six meaty paragraphs would present better with some kind of a sub-head system (as the real Wikipedia would use bold face as I have done).

 * The short form from the IP editor clearly fails to summarize the subject. Maybe in 1/3 of the cases, I find an article with a horrible lead that doesn't summarize and I have to dumpster dive the main text just to make a sufficient mini-lead for my own wiki (what a PITA).  With the short lead, this article would fall into my dumpster-diver category.  Bear in mind I've done this quick transcription over 6000 times now.  What a ghastly admission, but in any case, I would know.

 * When the ;TLDR IP editor goes to heaven, God has something special in mind for the first eternity (not many people know this, but eternity comes in waves): he or she will have his or her own private 18-hole golf course, only the golf ball will be the size of a grapefruit and the cups will be thimbles. Then in the next eternity, the cups will be the size of oil barrels and he/she won't want to change a thing. — MaxEnt 15:00, 15 March 2016 (UTC)

 * The lead currently has seven paragraphs, and according to the guideline it should be kept to four, but I think this isn't compulsory to all articles. It also lacks on biographical material. Other than that, it's good. Just not sure if it's adequate for FA.  κ  ατάστασ   η  17:29, 15 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Thanks and I will keep my eye on this. Thanks for reverting those edits to the lead, Finnusertop. IMO, no editor needs to mess with the lead until they bring it to the talk page first. If the lead can be made to accommodate the 'guidelines', ie. 4 paragraphs, then I don't have a problem. But it will be difficult to improve on the current version, IMO. Christian Roess (talk) 00:32, 16 March 2016 (UTC)

Wife's maiden name: Jacobs or Hall?
" he moved to Harvard in 1965 with his wife, Ruth Anna Jacobs, who took a "

 * But in the NYTimes obituary, she is identified as Ruth Anna Hall: "Professor Putnam married Ruth Anna Hall, a philosopher who taught at Wellesley College, in 1962. ".  Her CV at Wellesley simply has her as R.A. Putnam.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by ABShippee (talk • contribs) 01:35, 20 March 2016 (UTC)

 * I just came here to ask the same question, as I'm working on Ruth Anna Putnam right now. And I've found her PhD thesis listed as being by Ruth Anna Hall Mathers here and here.  Pam  D  21:23, 29 August 2016 (UTC)

Status as an atheist
It seems that toward the end of his life, he became somewhat religious. https://forward.com/culture/14256/spiritual-encounters-of-a-philosopher-of-science-02570/ http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/198578/remembering-hilary-putnam-harvard-philosopher-and-religious-jew https://www.huffingtonpost.com/martha-c-nussbaum/hilary-putnam-1926-2016_b_9457774.html https://divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings/hilary-putnam-1926-2016-philosopher-sciences-late-life-return-his-native-judaism Yaakovaryeh (talk) 12:12, 15 January 2018 (UTC)

Putnam did become a religious Jew later in life, and certainly was not an atheist. However, he didn't believe in an afterlife (denial of an afterlife among Jews is quite common) nor did he appear to believe in a personal or a loving God. I would describe him as an agnostic deist.

Influences/doctoral Students Additions
Something I noticed glancing Putnam's page, was that some of his well known students Alva Noë and Ned Block were missing. I'd also make the recommendation of adding Block and McDowell to his influences, as he cited them as being big influences on him late in his career. — Preceding unsigned comment added by ScreamingUrethra (talk • contribs) 01:29, 11 November 2019 (UTC)

WP:URFA/2020 review
Hi article-watchers, I am starting a review of this article for WP:URFA/2020, a task force which looks at featured articles that were promoted before 2016. I have made some edits to the article during my review, and I hope others will review my edits to ensure I did not change the meaning of anything. I also have some questions below:
 * The article says Putnam was born in Chicago and grew up in Paris, but does not mention when he moved to France. Do we know when this happened?
 * "The Harvard administration considered these activities disruptive and attempted to censure Putnam, but two other faculty members criticized the procedures." Do we know which faculty members this was?
 * Is encyclopedia.com the best source we can find for this information? I think there are more high-quality sources available.
 * The life section seems to have lots of gaps, as there is very little information on his life in the 1980s and in the 2000s. I understand that there are other sections which address his theories and accomplishments, but I think this article needs to be organised chronologically; afterall, this is a biography article.
 * A similar problem to what is outlined above, some of Putnam's accomplishments do not include dates on when they were first published or gained widespread fame. For example, when was the "brain in a vat" thought experiment first proposed? When did he show that "there are many levels of the constructible hierarchy that add no subsets of the integers"? When were his theories, outlined in the "Philosophy of mathematics" section, first published?

 * The references are in various styles. Can someone standardise the references for this article?
 * I am surprised that there isn't a Legacy section. Are there any monuments, statues, roads, or awards named for this person? Any information on his legacy within different groups and places?

Those are just some initial thoughts, I look forward to doing a deeper when the above concerns are addressed. Z1720 (talk) 23:07, 17 December 2021 (UTC)

 * Diff since notice, issues unaddressed, new uncited text added; listing at WP:FARGIVEN. Sandy Georgia (Talk)  02:02, 28 June 2022 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure that the very little information on his life in the 1980s and in the 2000s issue is really a problem. There can be a "life ends at tenure" effect with academic biographies; once someone is established in a particular place and any kids are born, the only events that get documented are career events. It's probably too early for statues and roads, but there may be awards or scholarships. I'll look into that. XOR'easter (talk) 14:43, 20 July 2022 (UTC)
 * Somewhat to my surprise, I have found nothing of note in this regard. I was expecting at least a few things along the lines of a "Hilary Putnam Memorial Scholarship" or a "Hilary Putnam Lecture Series", but nothing like that has turned up yet. What's been named after Putnam have been arguments, which the article already talks about. XOR'easter (talk) 18:50, 30 July 2022 (UTC)

 * I'm concerned whether past talk page messages have been addressed. Sandy Georgia (Talk)  16:58, 20 July 2022 (UTC)

 * How do we know this is his blog? Sandy Georgia (Talk)  17:04, 20 July 2022 (UTC)
 * @SandyGeorgia, did a quick search and managed to find this paper where he mentions the blog. It's on the first page so should be viewable from the preview even if you don't have access to the full paper. Alduin2000 (talk) 18:38, 20 July 2022 (UTC)
 * That helps ... we might add that as a supplementary note to those citations as "proof" ... I can do it later, but for now am fuzzy-brained with COVID ... thx! Sandy Georgia (Talk)  19:04, 20 July 2022 (UTC)
 * His blog, so I added it to External links in such a way that it verifies our use of the blog as a source in the article. Sandy Georgia (Talk)  18:54, 29 July 2022 (UTC)
 * The "References" section was actually completely redundant with the footnoted citations enumerated in "Notes", so I cut it and renamed "Notes" to "References". XOR'easter (talk) 17:36, 20 July 2022 (UTC)
 * Seems fine ... in the "olden days", that was sometimes done, and because that was the single worse FAC I ever experienced, I doubt anyone was worrying about that particular detail. Sandy Georgia (Talk)  17:50, 20 July 2022 (UTC)

 * I am also concerned about the growing list of uncited info in the infobox; there is probably plenty more than seen in this recent diff. Sandy Georgia (Talk)  17:57, 20 July 2022 (UTC)
 * Is there another list of his doctoral students somewhere, besides this? XOR'easter (talk) 18:35, 29 July 2022 (UTC)
 * I do not know; I have always found the idea of such a list in infoboxes troubling, because how do we know it's comprehensive? My view is that unless there is independent coverage about them as notable that we can cite, we should leave them out. Sandy Georgia  (Talk)  18:56, 29 July 2022 (UTC)
 * That infobox is a classic infobox nightmare. Sandy Georgia (Talk)  18:57, 29 July 2022 (UTC)
 * I'm rather resentful over the existence of "influenced" and "influenced by" fields in infoboxes. All too often, that's too vague a concept to fit into a neatly tabular format. XOR'easter (talk) 19:07, 29 July 2022 (UTC)
 * Who will object if we delete the lot? Sandy Georgia (Talk)  19:10, 29 July 2022 (UTC)
 * I could understand if the entry were significant enough that it warranted a well-cited paragraph in the text, but not infobox material. Sandy Georgia (Talk)  19:11, 29 July 2022 (UTC)
 * I think of infoboxes as conceptually part of the lede, as they share the task of summarizing the text. Accordingly, my inclination would be to remove everything from the infobox that the text does not explicitly cover. We're not a database like the Mathematics Genealogy Project. XOR'easter (talk) 19:26, 29 July 2022 (UTC)
 * BINGO. Sandy Georgia (Talk)  19:32, 29 July 2022 (UTC)
 * I'll try to get around to this in the next few days if nobody objects (or beats me to it). XOR'easter (talk) 20:34, 29 July 2022 (UTC)

 * Hi, not sure if this is the appropriate place to post this or if it should be put in the FAR page, but I have some concerns about the sourcing in the article that could be a fruitful avenue to improving the article and ensuring it meets the FA criteria. I recently rewrote the philosophy of mathematics section of the article because it contained some pretty large errors. For example, it presented a form of the indispensability argument which is due to Mark Colyvan and attributed it to Putnam. However, Putnam in multiple places distanced himself from that form of the argument (some details on this can be seen at Quine–Putnam indispensability argument). It also said he defended a clause in that form of the argument which claims we should have ontological commitment to only the entities of science. But, according to Putnam himself, he never endorsed anything like that in his life (see here). I think the main reason why these errors were able to survive in the article is because they were cited to primary sources. This is obviously in violation of the requirement that interpretations of primary sources require reliable secondary sources, otherwise it is basically just original research. Looking over the article, it seems that there may be some other areas that rely solely on interpretations of primary sources without being backed up by a secondary source. However, unlike the indispensability argument, I personally do not have the knowledge on Putnam or the secondary literature on his work to fix these instances. Therefore, I'm writing here to suggest that a good way of improving the article would be to find places in the article which rely only on primary sources and finding secondary sources to back them up, to make sure that the text is genuinely verifiable and not an incorrect interpretation of a primary source. Hope this is useful to those currently working on the article. Alduin2000 (talk) 15:02, 24 August 2022 (UTC)

I added the name "Alan Garfinkel" to the list of Hilary Putnam's students
I added the name "Alan Garfinkel" to the list of Hilary Putnam's students. (PhD 1975, Putnam was principal supervisor) Agarfink (talk) 00:40, 30 July 2022 (UTC)

 * Do you have an independent (third-party) source? Unless there are secondary mentions of the significance of Putnam as a mentor, the content would not be due weight in this article (although it may be appropriate at Alan Garfinkel. Sandy Georgia (Talk)  00:43, 30 July 2022 (UTC)
 * Hi Sandy- Here are a couple of references. But it looks like you are scrapping the list of students altogether.
 * Thanks
 * Alan
 * https://philarchive.org/archive/STUBR-4
 * https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Place_of_Probability_in_Science/MT2oJfY0Zf8C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=garfinkel+putnam&pg=PA146&printsec=frontcover Agarfink (talk) 02:36, 1 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Real sources !! :)  Perhaps you can work out with  if something there should be working in to the body of the article.  Suggestions? Sandy Georgia  (Talk)  02:38, 1 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the references! I am not at all sure how to handle the matter of students. He had more than a dozen that probably qualify as wiki-notable, judging from the MGP list. (Not everyone on that list already has an article here, but that list doesn't include all of his students.) Maybe we could have a paragraph somewhere that starts, Putnam had N doctoral students, including X who worked with Putnam on Y.... That would depend upon having a complete list of his doctoral students, which I haven't been able to turn up, though it's entirely possible that it exists and I've overlooked it. XOR'easter (talk) 14:34, 1 August 2022 (UTC)

PLP
By the way: the story of Progressive Labor inside SDS is interesting in its own right, not only at the end when it must have been seen as the sane alternative to Weather. Read about this story some time ago, perhaps in "Radical America" (it's all online). --Ralfdetlef (talk) 13:33, 19 September 2022 (UTC)

Reichenbach and Positivism
Logical Positivism was the leading philosophy in much of the US (Quine, Sellars, etc.), but in the 1950 in Europe Sartre, Heidegger and Wittgenstein were the big guys.--Ralfdetlef (talk) 13:40, 19 September 2022 (UTC)

تطوير الذات
اهتمام Adam hash my (talk) 21:05, 19 March 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Hilary Putnam


text:
Andre Melendez

Andre Melendez (May 1, 1971 – March 17, 1996) was a member of the Club Kids and drug dealer who lived and worked in New York City. He was killed by Michael Alig and Robert "Freeze" Riggs on March 17, 1996. His life and death have inspired several pieces of media, including books, films, music, and television.

Life
Melendez and his family arrived in New York from Colombia when Melendez was eight years old. Melendez purportedly became a drug dealer during the early 1990s after he met Peter Gatien, owner of The Limelight and several other nightclubs in New York City, and became a regular dealer in Gatien's clubs. He was frequently seen at Manhattan clubs wearing his signature feathered wings.

Death
On Sunday, March 17, 1996, Melendez approached Michael Alig and Robert D. "Freeze" Riggs for money Melendez was purportedly owed. According to various statements, the confrontation became violent and Melendez got the better of Alig, who cried out for help. Riggs then hit Melendez on the head with a hammer, three times (until Melendez "went down"), after which Alig smothered him (either with a pillow or sweatshirt, depending upon the source), poured a "cleaner or chemical" into his mouth, then covered Melendez's mouth with duct tape.

Alig and Riggs stripped Melendez's body and placed it in the bathtub, where it remained for 5–7 days. According to Riggs, he then purchased "two chef knives and one cleaver" at Macy's, with which he said Alig dismembered Melendez's legs. The two then wrapped the legs in garbage bags, placed them into individual duffle bags and dumped in the Hudson River.

The following day, Alig and Riggs wrapped the upper body in a sheet and plastic garbage bag, placed it in a cardboard box from which Riggs had removed the UPC code, and together took the heavy box down in the elevator and through the main lobby. They then placed it in the trunk of a Yellow Cab "that happened to be right outside the door." Riggs confessed "We took the body to the Westside Highway around 25th Street. The taxi drove off, and we threw the box into the river."

However, Alig gave some conflicting details. For example, he stated he used liquid Drano (and baking soda) to combat the smell of the malodorous decomposition after the body had been in the bathtub for several days. At first, Alig claimed the killing was in self-defense, but he later admitted to having committed manslaughter.

In the documentary film Glory Daze (2015), the police recount the discovery by a group of children at the beach at Miller Field, Staten Island, of a box containing the remains of Melendez, in March 1996. (American Justice reports the box was found in April 1996. ) A tropical storm had helped propel the floating, cork-lined box to Staten Island.

Mainstream media began covering Melendez's disappearance when the victim's brother and father turned to the press for help and interest grew in rumors – perpetuated by Alig himself and first publicized to outsiders by Michael Musto as a blind item in his Village Voice column – that Alig and Riggs had murdered Melendez. The coincidental discovery, on Friday, September 8, 1996, of another dismembered body, fished out of the Harlem River at a pier near 134th Street by a homeless woman, sparked police to begin investigating the case in earnest. A police officer in Staten Island, who caught the Melendez media coverage, initiated an investigation of the John Doe found at Miller Field. The Staten Island Police Department used dental records to identify Melendez (whose body the coroner had mis-identified as that of an Asian male); on November 2, 1996, the mutilated corpse was positively identified as Melendez, and details of the rumors about how Melendez was killed were confirmed.

In the face of increasing police scrutiny, Alig fled to Toms River, New Jersey, where he moved into a motel room with his boyfriend, a drug dealer named Brian. On December 5, 1996, the police arrested Alig at the motel and hours later, Riggs in Manhattan. Alig insisted to the police he and Riggs had killed Melendez in self-defense, and disposed of the body in a panic. (This story contrasts sharply with the account Alig had given the victim's brother, John ("Johnny") Melendez, in an August 1996 conversation secretly taped by the District Attorney's office, implicating "Melendez and club czar Gatien in a drug-dealing venture at Gatien's nightspots," and charging "that Riggs killed Melendez for Gatien because 'Peter is in trouble right now for drugs' and 'Angel knew everything and he was threatening to go to...his friend at the Village Voice and tell him all this stuff." ) Prosecutors were hesitant to charge Alig with first-degree murder, as they still hoped he would testify against his former boss, Gatien, who had been arrested for allowing drugs to be sold in his nightclubs. They eventually offered both Alig and Riggs a plea deal: a sentence of 10 to 20 years if they accepted the lesser charge of manslaughter. On October 1, 1997, both pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 10 to 20 years. (American Justice reports they pleaded guilty and were sentenced on September 10, 1997. ) Because of their convictions, Alig and Riggs were not used as prosecution witnesses in Gatien's trial.

Convictions, prison, and aftermath
On October 1, 1997, Alig and Riggs were sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison for Melendez's killing, after each pleaded guilty to one count of manslaughter. Riggs was released on parole in 2010, Alig on May 5, 2014.

On December 24, 2020, Alig died of a drug overdose at the age of 54.

In popular culture

 * Book
 * James St. James's book, Disco Bloodbath: A Fabulous but True Tale of Murder in Clubland (1999), is about Melendez's murder. It was reprinted with the title Party Monster after the release of the eponymous 2003 film.

 * Films
 * There are two films based on Melendez's murder and the events which followed:
 * The documentary film Party Monster: The Shockumentary (1998), based on the events leading up to and surrounding the Melendez's murder.
 * The subsequent feature film Party Monster (2003), which stars Wilson Cruz as Melendez
 * The documentary film Glory Daze (2015) reviews the creation, rise, and dispersion of the Club Kids phenomenon after Melendez's murder.

 * Music
 * Melendez's friend Screamin' Rachael wrote the song "Give Me My Freedom/Murder in Clubland." The lyrics to a backward loop in the song include such lines as "Michael, where's Angel?", and "Did someone just cry wolf, or is he dead?"
 * A 12 track concept album "a terrible beauty featuring Michael Alig" - www.satorigroup.uk - was produced in 2000 by UK-based the satori group. Track five is titled "BROTHER." The track features, set to music, audi  from the documentary "Party Monster," with Johnny, Andre's brother, and his fruitless search, making flyers, and talking to the police, as well as Michael Alig.
 * A 12 track concept album "a terrible beauty featuring Michael Alig" - www.satorigroup.uk - was produced in 2000 by UK-based the satori group. Track five is titled "BROTHER." The track features, set to music, audi  from the documentary "Party Monster," with Johnny, Andre's brother, and his fruitless search, making flyers, and talking to the police, as well as Michael Alig.

 * Television
 * Television

Melendez's murder case has also been featured in multiple TV series, including:
 * American Justice: "Dancing, Drugs, and Murder" (2000) on A&E
 * Deadly Devotion: "Becoming Angel" (July 16, 2013) on Investigation Discovery
 * ''Notorious
 * The 1990s: The Deadliest Decade: “Death of an Angel” (Season 1, Episode 3) (Aired: November 19, 2018) on Investigation Discovery

Clubland: The Monster Pop Party (2013), a musical adaptation of St. James' book Party Monster and its 2003 eponymous film adaptation, debuted April 11, 2013, at the American Repertory Theater's Club Oberon, with book, music, and lyrics by Andrew Barret Cox
 * Theatre
 * Theatre
 * Theatre

title: Andre Melendez


text:
Gourmet

Gourmet is a cultural idea associated with the culinary arts of fine food and drink, or haute cuisine, which is characterized by their high level of refined and elaborate food preparation techniques and displays of balanced meals that have an aesthetically pleasing presentation of several contrasting, often quite rich courses. Historically the ingredients used in the meal tended to be rare for the region, which could also be impacted by the local state and religious customs. The term and the related characteristics are typically used to describe people with more discerning palates and enthusiasm. Gourmet food is more frequently provided with small servings and in more upscale and posh fine dining establishments that cater to a more affluent and exclusive client base. When it comes to cooking gourmet dishes, there are also frequent cross-cultural interactions that introduce new, exotic, and expensive ingredients, materials, and traditions with more refined, complex, formal, and sophisticated high-level cooking and food preparation techniques.

Origin of term
The word gourmet is from the French term for a wine broker or taste-vin employed by a wine dealer. Friand was formerly the reputable name for a connoisseur of delicious things that were not eaten primarily for nourishment: "A good gourmet", wrote the conservative eighteenth-century Dictionnaire de Trévoux, employing this original sense, "must have le goût friand", or a refined palate. The pleasure is also visual: "J'aime un ragoût, et je suis friand", Giacomo Casanova declared, "mais s'il n'a pas bonne mine, il me semble mauvais". In the eighteenth century, gourmet and gourmand carried disreputable connotations of gluttony, which only gourmand has retained. Gourmet was rendered respectable by Monsieur Grimod de la Reynière, whose Almanach des Gourmands, essentially the first restaurant guide, appeared in Paris from 1803 to 1812. Previously, even the liberal Encyclopédie offered a moralising tone in its entry Gourmandise, defined as "refined and uncontrolled love of good food", employing reproving illustrations that contrasted the frugal ancient Spartans and Roman Republic with the decadent luxury of Sybaris. The Jesuits' Dictionnaire de Trévoux took the Encyclopédistes to task, reminding its readers that gourmandise was one of the Seven Deadly Sins.

Associated terms
The term gourmet can refer to a person with refined or discriminating taste who is knowledgeable in the craft and art of food and food preparation.

Gourmand carries additional connotations of one who enjoys food in great quantities.

An epicure is similar to a gourmet, but the word may sometimes carry overtones of excessive refinement.

A gourmet chef is used to refer to a chef with a particularly high caliber of cooking talent and culinary skill.

Regional differences
What is considered gourmet is different depending on the time and geographic region. What is gourmet historically depended upon what ingredients the people of that region had access to and how easily they acquire them. For instance, seafood could be considered a luxury in an area that lacks fish, whereas it would not be seen as such in an area near the ocean or a great river. Gourmet tended, and still does in many parts of the world, to be revered by a person with access to wealth because gourmet food has always been expensive. The expense was the result of a scarcity of ingredients for a particular food in the region at the time. This fact meant they needed to be brought in from far away, which brought a variety of risks to the merchants. Merchants would have to deal with weather conditions, thieves, and broken equipment, intermediaries, and other such factors that could delay or interrupt the shipment of the good at the cost of their lives and fortune. Thus they asked for higher prices. For millennia, about 10% of the population could eat food that may have been considered gourmet in their time. Potentially 80% of the global population worked in food production and would have eaten more typical meals to survive. The typical meal would be what they could most easily get their hands on. In Britain, for instance, that was gruels, vegetables, small amounts of wild game, and grains.

Another factor would be religious/cultural beliefs and customs, which have a significant impact on the food that was eaten. For instance, Jewish and Islamic cultures have rules for not only what they can eat, but how to prepare the food and what it can be paired with. To eat specific food items they must be Kosher (for Jews) Jhatka (for Hindu) and Halal (for Muslims). One well-known example is that neither Jews nor Muslims can eat pork because they consider pigs to be unclean. Another example is that many people of India generally do not consume beef because many devout Hindus believe the cow is a sacred animal. Buddhism's encouragement of adopting vegetarianism also limits what devout Buddhists can eat. These practices and beliefs encourage what is not eaten in society but also what can be eaten. For instance, the Buddhists have a history of preparing and eating tofu to satisfy their dietary requirements for protein. There is also the role of the state when it comes to these issues sometimes dictating how meals should be prepared. An example of this would be that of edicts of Ashoka who declared that many animals shall be given decent treatment and limited the numbers that could be consumed. Ashoka was a very devout Buddhist and that affected his policies.

Cultural exchange
This trading from non-local regions, also means, almost by necessity, that there was much cultural exchange between different groups to get these goods. The Columbian Exchange introduced many ingredients and styles to the new world and Europe starting with the expansion of the Iberian Empires. The new world introduced to Europeans tomatoes, potatoes, chocolate, and much more. Another example would be interactions with the Islamic world, which impacted Catholic cuisine in the 1100s. These interactions introduced many spices, the theory of the culinary cosmos, and cooking items such as North African pottery. These trades were facilitated by rich merchant states that traded with them, the most notable being Venice.

Food
Gourmet may describe a class of restaurant, cuisine, meal or ingredient of high quality, of special presentation, or high sophistication. In the United States, a 1980s gourmet food movement evolved from a long-term division between elitist (or "gourmet") tastes and a populist aversion to fancy foods. Gourmet is an industry classification for high-quality premium foods in the United States. In the 2000s, there has been an accelerating increase in the American gourmet market, due in part to rising income, globalization of taste, and health and nutrition concerns. Individual food and beverage categories, such as coffee, are often divided between a standard and a "gourmet" sub-market.

Gourmet pursuits
Certain events such as wine tastings cater to people who consider themselves gourmets and foodies. Television programs (such as those on the Food Network) and publications such as Gourmet magazine often serve gourmets with food columns and features. Gourmet tourism is a niche industry catering to people who travel to food or wine tastings, restaurants, or food and wine production regions for leisure.

Related concepts
Foodie is often used by the media as a conversational synonym for gourmet, although it is a different concept (distinct from that of a food aficionado or food enthusiast). The word foodie was coined synchronously by Gael Greene in the magazine New York and by Paul Levy and Ann Barr, co-authors of The Official Foodie Handbook (1984).

title: Gourmet


text:
Allmersbach

Allmersbach im Tal is a municipality in the Rems-Murr district of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It belongs to the Stuttgart Region (middle Neckar Region until 1992) and to the boundary area of the Stuttgart Metropolitan Region.

History
Allmersbach im Tal was first mentioned in 1291, relating to the gifting of goods from the Countess Richinza von Löwenstein to the Teutonic Order of Winnenden. Owing to this gifting, Manorialism came into the hands of the Dominican Monastery Weiler bei Esslingen. In the 16th century the Reformation lead to the town falling under the jurisdiction of Württemberg. Until 1712 Allmersbach im Tal belonged to the monastery court mastery and until 1807 to the monasterial administration of the monastery Weiler bei Esslingen.

With the new administrative structure of the Kingdom of Württemberg, Allmersbach was assigned to the Backnang offices.

During NS-rule, 1938 reforms assigned Allmersbach to the Backnang district. In 1945 the town was a part of the American Zone of the Ally occupied Germany, this made it a part of the newly founded Württemberg-Baden which then dissolved into the state Baden-Württemberg.

The municipality of Allmersbach im Tal was formed on 1 January 1972, as part of the 1968-75 Baden-Württemberg municipal reforms, by the merging of the towns of Allmersbach and Heutensbach.

Geography
The municipality (Gemeinde) of Allmersbach lies at the center of the Rems-Murr district of Baden-Württemberg, one of the 16 States of the Federal Republic of Germany. Allmersbach is physically located in the Neckar basin and the southwest edge of the Backnanger Bucht. The municipal area also includes portions of the Schurwald and Welzheim Forest. Elevation above sea level in the municipal area ranges from a high of 462 m Normalnull (NN) to a low of 414 m NN.

The Federally-protected Sommerrain nature reserve is located in Allmersbach's municipal area.

Politics
Allmersbach is in a municipal association (Verwaltungsgemeinschaft) with the city of Backnang and the municipalities of Althütte, Aspach, Auenwald, Burgstetten, Kirchberg an der Murr, Oppenweiler, and Weissach im Tal.

Mayors

 * 1975–1999: Rüdiger Kieninger
 * 1999–2021: Ralf Wörner
 * since 2021: Patrizia Rall

Coat of arms
Allmersbach's coat of arms displays a crossbow, in red and with its trigger guard facing right, upon a field of silver. The crossbow is a motif that has been associated with Allmersbach since 1686, though it is not known why, and the tincture is taken from the arms of the County of Löwenstein, which had property in the town. The coat of arms was approved for official use and a corresponding municipal flag issued by the Federal Ministry of the Interior on 16 September 1965.

Transportation
Allermsbach is connected to German's network of roadways by its local Landesstraßen and Kreisstraßen. Local public transportation is provided by the Verkehrs- und Tarifverbund Stuttgart.

title: Allmersbach