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Robert Tear

Robert Tear (pronounced to rhyme with "beer"), CBE (8 March 1939 – 29 March 2011) was a Welsh tenor singer, teacher and conductor. He first became known singing in the operas of Benjamin Britten in the mid-1960s. From the 1970s until his retirement in 1999 his main operatic base was the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; he appeared with other opera companies in the UK, mainland Europe, the US and Australia. Generally avoiding the Italian repertoire, which did not suit his voice, Tear became known in leading and character roles in German, British and Russian operas.

Tear's concert repertoire was wide, extending from music from the 17th century to contemporary works by Britten, Tippett and others. He conducted for some years from the mid-1980s, but found himself temperamentally unsuited to it. As a teacher at the Royal Academy of Music he was happier, and was well regarded by colleagues and pupils.

Early years
Tear was born in Barry, Glamorgan, the son of Thomas Tear, a railway clerk, and his wife Edith, née Dodds. As a schoolboy at Barry Boys' Grammar School he sang in a local church choir and at the age of seven he took part in the nascent Welsh National Opera's first production, Cavalleria Rusticana in Cardiff in April 1946. In 1957 he won a choral scholarship to King's College, Cambridge, where he studied English. His biographer Raymond Holden counts as his chief university influences the critic and teacher F. R. Leavis, the writer E. M. Forster and the conductor David Willcocks.

Tear graduated in 1960, and moved to London. where in 1961 he was appointed a vicar choral at St Paul's Cathedral. His choir duties left him time to study with the singing teacher Julian Kimbell and to sing with the Ambrosian Singers. In January 1961 he married Hilary Thomas; they had two daughters.

Tear made his operatic debut in 1963 as the Male Chorus in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia with the English Opera Group (EOG); the composer approved of Tear's performance, and invited him to understudy Peter Pears in the original production of Curlew River at the Aldeburgh Festival in 1964. Tear then played Peter Quint in a production of The Turn of the Screw, before joining Britten and the EOG in a four-week tour of the Soviet Union in September and October 1964. Britten wrote two roles with Tear's voice in mind: Misael in The Burning Fiery Furnace (1966) and the title role in The Prodigal Son (1968). For the EOG Tear also created the role of Private Todd in Gordon Crosse's The Grace of Todd (1969) and sang Arbace (1969) and later the title role (1973) in Mozart's Idomeneo.

Tear was never a member of Britten's inner circle; he failed to treat the composer with the required reverence, and was seen as a threat to Pears's preeminence as leading tenor. When he chose, in 1970, to create the role of Dov in Michael Tippett's The Knot Garden for the Royal Opera rather than appearing in the premiere of Britten's Owen Wingrave he became one of Britten's "corpses" – former colleagues from whom he completely cut off contact once they had outlived their usefulness to him or offended him. He continued to perform in Britten's operas and concert works, but never saw the composer again.

Peak years
Concurrently with his developing operatic career, Tear built up a reputation as a concert singer. In 1965 he made his debut at the Edinburgh Festival, singing Tippett's song cycle The Heart's Assurance; in the same year he made the first of fifty-four appearances at the Proms, in Haydn's Paukenmesse, conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent. His repertoire ranged from Tudor music to the most modern works.

Tear sang with many opera companies in Britain, continental Europe, Australia and the US, but his principal base was Covent Garden. His voice was described by his obituarist in The Times as "typically British: less expansive than the Italian style and with little of the German heroic tenor in it, but pure, elegant, flexible, capable of sweetness and with a expressive quality at the service of fine musicianship and great intelligence." Italian opera did not appeal to him; his rare performances in that repertoire were Malcolm in Macbeth, Gastone in La traviata, the comic character roles of Dr Caius in Falstaff and Alcindoro in La bohème, and the one Italian role with which he became associated, the Emperor Altoum in Turandot, which he first sang at the Royal Opera House in 1984 and in which he made his final appearance there, in 2009. At Covent Garden and elsewhere he sang many leading roles, such as Captain Vere in Billy Budd, the title role in Peter Grimes, Aschenbach in Death in Venice, Lensky in Eugene Onegin, Herod in Salome, Loge in Das Rheingold, Belmonte in The Seraglio, and David in Die Meistersinger. A greater part of his operatic repertoire consisted of character roles, in which, in the view of The Times, "his humour and his sharp human perceptions were given free rein". They included Monostatos in The Magic Flute, Don Basilio in Le nozze di Figaro, Jaquino in Fidelio, Spalanzani in The Tales of Hoffmann, Valzacchi in Der Rosenkavalier, and Aegisth in Elektra.

Later years
In 1980 Tear made his debut as a conductor with the Thames Chamber Orchestra at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Although he subsequently conducted the London Mozart Players and the Minneapolis, English Chamber, London Symphony and Philharmonia orchestras, he found that he was temperamentally unsuited to conducting, because his friendly and easy-going nature made it difficult for him to exert the authority and discipline required in conductors. He found more satisfaction in his role as a teacher; he was the first incumbent of the international chair of singing at the Royal Academy of Music, London. He held it from 1987 to 1989, and was judged a success by students and staff.

After his official retirement, Tear made a cameo appearance at the 2009 Proms as Bunthorne's solicitor in a performance of Patience, conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras, whose final Prom appearance it also was.

Tear died of bronchopneumonia, secondary to oesophageal cancer, at his home in Hammersmith, London, on 29 March 2011. A memorial service was held in September of that year at St Martin-in-the-Fields, at which readings and songs were performed by Tear's former colleagues including Dame Janet Baker, Sir Thomas Allen, John Mark Ainsley, Sir John Tomlinson and Dame Felicity Palmer.

Honours and publications
In 1984 Tear was appointed CBE. He was an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and of King's College, Cambridge.

Tear published two volumes of memoirs: Tear Here (1990) and Singer Beware (1995). In a memorial tribute Robert Ponsonby commented that they were both written "in a style so odd, so metaphysical and so idiosyncratic as sometimes to defy comprehension", although Tear's "seriousness and his interest in things spiritual (he had discovered Buddhism) were self-evident – as they were in his paintings and drawings)."

Recordings
Tear made more than 250 records, and wrote in his Who's Who entry that he had worked for every major recording company. Roles he sang on disc range from Uriel in Haydn's The Creation to the painter in Berg's Lulu, and from Pitichinaccio in Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann to Sir Harvey in Donizetti's Anna Bolena. His many classical recordings include performances of Bach, Handel, Monteverdi, Mozart, Beethoven, Mahler, Bruckner, Stravinsky, Janáček, Wagner and Messiaen. In the English canon, he also recorded songs by Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Butterworth and Britten.

title: Robert Tear


text:
Talk:Wicked problem

404 errors
The Roberts footnote goes to a 404 error 404 Not Found (sfu.ca) LoveElectronicLiterature (talk) 14:21, 31 December 2022 (UTC)

 * But the link itself DOES work? I do not know how to fix this? Wholesome Design for Wicked Problems | Public Sphere Project — Liberating Voices Pattern Languagehttps://www.publicsphereproject.org/content/wholesome-design-wicked-problems LoveElectronicLiterature (talk) 14:23, 31 December 2022 (UTC)

wicked problem 2.70.209.253 (talk) 15:54, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

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

title: Talk:Wicked problem


text: Category:963 deaths

title: Category:963 deaths


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Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/How to avoid cramps while swimming

How to avoid cramps while swimming
This is advice (and unreliable advice at that), not an encyclopedia article. Actually, the whole series of How-to articles are problematic, and need to be removed (the useful ones transwikied and the rest deleted). --L33tminion | (talk) 19:49, Dec 3, 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Wikipedia is not a place for how-to articles or, for that matter, medical advice. [[User:Livajo|力伟|☺]] 20:45, 3 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete: The article tells what to do after you get cramps, not how to avoid them. Everyone knows that to avoid cramps you have to wait 30 minutes after eating. DCEdwards1966 21:53, Dec 3, 2004 (UTC)
 * Actually, I read something within the last few years that says there's no truth whatsoever to the "wait thirty minutes" dictum. It's just another piece of advice with no known origin or supporting evidence (like the "fact" that you need to drink eight glasses of water a day). [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith (talk)]] 02:21, 4 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * I was just kidding about the "wait 30 minutes" thing. However, the article doesn't address avoiding cramps, it talks about dealing with them after the fact. DCEdwards1966 06:10, Dec 4, 2004 (UTC)

 * Weak keep. After writing the above I actually looked at the article and noticed that it has a fine pair of links to flatly contradictory pieces of information. It's worth keeping for that alone. As always, the Snopes article is detailed and convincing. Amazing that she thinks she's achieved something by showing that the belief goes back to 1968... I can personally vouch for it going back to the 1950s if not earlier. In fact, perhaps the most interesting thing about the old article is that it quotes "A Boy's Own Book of Outdoor Sports" to the effect of its being connected to "indigestion." The article should be moved to something like Leg cramps while swimming and comparatively discuss the various factoids, beliefs, and viewpoints. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith (talk)]] 02:21, 4 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Wikipedia is neither a doctor nor an FAQ. Lord Bob 05:55, Dec 4, 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Unencyclopedic. Indrian 23:57, Dec 4, 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. This is not a howto site. --Improv 03:16, 6 Dec 2004 (UTC)


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Talk:C.S. Lewis Jr.

 * Previous deletion debate

title: Talk:C.S. Lewis Jr.


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Brian Sonntag

Brian S. Sonntag (born December 28, 1951) was the ninth Washington State Auditor. He served five terms, from 1993 until his retirement in 2013. He is a Democrat.

Personal
Sonntag was born in 1951 in Tacoma, Washington. He attended Tacoma Community College and the University of Puget Sound. He and his wife Jann live in Tacoma. They have five sons and three grandchildren.

Sonntag has served on the boards of United Way and the Boys and Girls Clubs. He has volunteered for the YMCA and the March of Dimes and has also spent several years coaching youth baseball and basketball teams.

Public office
Sonntag was first elected to public office in 1978 as Pierce County Clerk, working as the administrative officer for the Superior Courts. On November 4, 1986, he was elected to the office of Pierce County Auditor, an office his father, Jack W. Sonntag, had held from 1948 to 1969. Following the end of his second term, Sonntag was elected Washington State Auditor on November 3, 1992. He was re-elected four times, most recently in 2008 with 70 percent of the vote.

Sonntag is a Certified Government Financial Manager (CGFM), a designation formally recognized by seven states since its inception in 1994. He has been a member of the Washington Coalition for Open Government, State Productivity Board and the National State Auditors Association's Performance Audit Task Force. Although four of the fourteen members of his executive team at the State Auditor's Office are CPAs, the fact he is not a CPA has drawn criticism from some of his constituents.

Tenure
One of the most publicized issues involving the Auditor's Office in 2006 was its performance audit of the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT). Sonntag's office examined the WSDOT's inventory and project management, as well as its overall administration and overhead. Always a hot topic of debate, traffic congestion in Seattle caused many commuters to look more closely at what was being done to alleviate the problem. One sign that legislators were attempting to address the problem came in the form of SB 6839. The State Auditor was granted legal authority to conduct performance audits of transportation-related agencies on June 7, 2006, the effective date of Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 6839. Section 5.2.c of the bill states, "Fair, independent, comprehensive performance audits of transportation-related agencies overseen by the elected state auditor are essential to improving the efficiency, economy, and effectiveness of the state's transportation system." Despite the bill's passage, Sonntag faced resistance from the transportation committee as he moved forward with the audit.

2012 gubernatorial campaign
On June 13, 2011, Sonntag announced he was considering a run for the 2012 Gubernatorial race. However, on July 5 Sonntag said he had decided not to run for Governor: “The Office of State Auditor continues to be a good fit and the place where I can best contribute and focus on my values.” On June 11, 2012, Sonntag endorsed Republican Attorney General Rob McKenna for Governor and became chairman of Democrats for Rob (D4R).

Retirement and successor
In September 2011, Sonntag announced he would retire from the office of State Auditor: "In the past week, I made a difficult decision not to seek re-election as Washington State Auditor in 2012. It was a tough call, but it is the right decision. At the end of my current term, I will have served 20 years in this Office and 40 years in public service – 35 in elected office. Based on what we have accomplished and what we will continue to do on behalf of citizens, the 2012 election is the right time for the Office to transition to new leadership." He was succeeded by Troy Kelley.

Recognition
On May 7, 1999, the Municipal League of King County awarded Sonntag the Warren G. Magnuson Award for "implementing performance measures and the performance audit as constructive management tools for state and local governments, allowing them to operate more efficiently and be more accountable to their constituencies."

title: Brian Sonntag


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Metro Times

The Detroit Metro Times is a progressive alternative weekly located in Detroit, Michigan. It is the largest circulating weekly newspaper in the metro Detroit area.

The Metro Times was an official sponsor of the now-defunct Detroit Festival of the Arts, where one of the stages is named after it.

History and content
Founded in 1980, the Metro Times since its inception has been supported entirely by advertising and distributed free of charge every Wednesday in newsstands, businesses, and libraries around the city of Detroit and its suburbs. Compared to the two dailies, the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News, the Metro Times has a liberal orientation, like its later competitor Real Detroit Weekly. As of 2014, average circulation for the Metro Times was 50,000 weekly and it was available at more than 1,200 locations. Average readership is just over 700,000 weekly.

Its annual "Best of Detroit" survey awards local businesses. The categories include "Public Square" (city life); "Spend the Night" (nightlife and bars); "Nutritional Value" (restaurants and food); and "Real Deal" (retail and other stores).

Syndicated alternative comics run by the Metro Times have in the past included Perry Bible Fellowship, This Modern World, Eric Monster Millikin and Red Meat. The Metro Times also prints Dan Savage's Savage Love sex advice column (which replaced Isadora Alman's Ask Isadora sex advice column) and Cal Garrison's Horoscopes (which replaced Rob Brezsny's Free Will Astrology). Starting with the January 19–25 issue, the Metro Times had its own exclusive crossword, crafted by Brooklyn-based cruciverbalist Ben Tausig, who appears in the documentary Wordplay. Editors cut the crossword in May 2008 to save space.

The paper was founded in 1980 by co-publishers Ron Williams and Laura Markham, with Williams as editor and Markham as business manager. In December 2012, Metro Times Editor W. Kim Heron announced his departure. Heron had previously been the paper's managing editor. In March 2013, after three months during which Michael Jackman was interim editor, the publisher named Bryan Gottlieb as Editor-in-Chief.

In 2013, Times-Shamrock Communications sold the newspaper to Euclid Media Group. The company dissolved in August 2023 and the sold to Chris Keating, operating under the name Big Lou Holdings LLC.

In April 2014, Valerie Vande Panne, former editor of High Times, was named editor-in-chief. In May 2014, the Metro Times merged with Real Detroit Weekly, which had been a Detroit-area alternative weekly paper since 1999. Dustin Blitchok took over as editor-in-chief in February 2016, before resigning from the position in November of the same year. Former Metro Times staff writer and associate editor for Hour Detroit Lee DeVito was named editor-in-chief following Blitchok's departure. Euclid Media Group dissolved in August 2023 and the newspaper was sold to Chris Keating, operating under the name Big Lou Holdings LLC.

Offices
The headquarters are located in Midtown Detroit. It was previously headquartered in the Detroit Cornice and Slate Company Building in Downtown Detroit. The Metro Times moved to the Cornice and Slate building in the 1990s and building owners constructed a wraparound expansion to give the newspaper additional room. In 2013 Blue Cross Blue Shield purchased the Cornice and Slate building, forcing the Metro Times to move to a leased space in Ferndale. According to editor-in-chief Lee DeVito, the newspaper intended to eventually return to Detroit. In 2018, the Metro Times returned to Detroit, moving into the Arnold E. Frank Building in Midtown.

title: Metro Times


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Nalubaale Hydroelectric Power Station

Nalubaale Power Station, formerly known as Owen Falls Dam, is a hydroelectric power station across the White Nile near its source at Lake Victoria in Uganda. Nalubaale is the Luganda name for Lake Victoria.

Location
The dam sits across the Nile River between the town of Jinja, in Jinja District approximately 85 km, by road, east of Kampala, Uganda's capital and largest city.

History
Before the construction of the dam, water levels on Lake Victoria were moderated by a natural rock dam on the north side of the lake. Rising lake waters would spill over the natural dam into the White Nile, which flows through Uganda, South Sudan, Sudan, and Egypt before emptying into the Mediterranean Sea. When water levels dropped too low, flow into the river ceased.

In 1947, Charles Redvers Westlake, an English engineer, reported to the Colonial Government of Uganda recommending the construction of a hydroelectric dam at Owen Falls near the city of Jinja. This led to the establishment of the Uganda Electricity Board (UEB), with Westlake as its first chairman. A treaty between Uganda and Egypt ensured that the dam would not alter the natural flow of the Nile. The consultant engineer on the project was Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners. Eighty thousand tons of plant and construction materials (including 36,000 tons of cement) were shipped out from Europe in the difficult post-war period. They were then hauled 1200 km by rail from Mombasa to Jinja. The dam was completed in three years, ahead of schedule in 1954, submerging Ripon Falls.

It supplies electricity to Uganda and parts of neighbouring Kenya and Tanzania. Maintenance and availability of the station declined seriously during the government of Idi Amin.

The rating of the Nalubaale power station is 180 megawatts (MW). Originally it was designed for ten turbines rated at 15 MW each (for a total of 150 MW. The station was refurbished in the 1990s to repair the accumulated wear from a decade of civil disorder. During the repairs, the output power of the generators was increased, bringing the Nalubaale Power Complex's generating capacity to 180 MW.

Operations
The Uganda Government, through the Uganda Electricity Generation Company (UEGCL), a 100% parastatal, awarded a 20-year operational, management and maintenance concession to Eskom Uganda Limited, a subsidiary of Eskom, the South African energy company, to cover both Nalubaale Power Station and the adjacent Kiira Power Station. The concession agreement commenced in 2002. The electricity generated here, is sold to the Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited (UETCL), the authorized single buyer. UETCL in turn sells the power to Umeme, the energy distributor.

On 31 March 2023, the 20-year concession with Eskom for both dams expired and was not renewed. Uganda Electricity Generation Company Limited (UEGCL) took over the management of the power stations and absorbed 93 percent of Eskom Uganda staff, effective 1 April 2023.

Maintenance
In 2021, Eskom Uganda Limited hired Babcon Uganda Limited at a cost of USh888 million (approx. US$251,000) to repair and strengthen the powerhouse staircase to Units 1, 5 and 9. The deterioration of the staircase is blamed on Alkali Silica Reaction (ASR), which results when water reacts with concrete, over time, causing expansion of the concrete and loosening of attached hardware.

In September the same year, Sinohydro Corporation Limited completed renovations to the dam's structure. The repairs that lasted nearly one year, were meant to stop water leakages due to "deterioration of grout curtain". It is expected that the repairs, last carried out in 1999, will give the dam at least another 20 years of life. The repairs cost USh11.6 billion (US$3.3 million).

In September 2022, Eskom Uganda spent UGX:6.84 billion (approx. US$1.8 million) to replace three of the ten generator transformers. The transformers to units 3, 5 and 6 "were past their service life expectancy" and were replaced. The transformers from units 1 to 4, step up voltage from 11kV to 33kV, while those from units 5 to 10 step up voltage from 11kV to 132kV. The power at high voltage is then transmitted across the grid. Transmission of power at high voltage over long distances reduces power losses.

Owen Falls Extension
In 1993 work started on the Owen Falls Extension project, a second powerhouse located about 1 km from the 1954 powerhouse. A new power canal was cut to bring water from Lake Victoria to the new powerhouse. Major construction was completed in 1999 with first power from the project from two units in 2000. The extension has space for five hydroelectric turbine generators with four installed as of 2001. Each unit at the extension has a capacity of 40 megawatts. During official opening ceremonies in 2003, the extension was named the Kiira Power Station. Design and project management of the extension project was by Acres International of Canada, now known as Hatch Limited.

Eskom Uganda operates Nalubaale Power Station as a concessionaire. They regularly clear debris water hyacinth from the intakes of the stations. Further downstream, the 250 MW Bujagali Hydroelectric Power Station was constructed between 2007 and 2012.

Lake Victoria water levels
Since January 2006, hydroelectric generation at Nalubaale and Kiira stations has been curtailed due to a prolonged drought and low level of water in Lake Victoria. The hydrology of Lake Victoria has unusual features.

In 2006 there was a release of secret documents from 1956 in Britain that indicated the British had considered using this dam to reduce the water in the Nile in an effort to remove Egyptian President Nasser. The plan was not carried out because it would have seasonally flooded land in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, reduced flows to a trickle in Sudan and the effect of shutting off the White Nile even to coincide with the seasonal lull in the Blue Nile would not have affected Egypt for at least 16 months. Veto power over construction projects on the Nile River and its tributaries was granted to Egypt by the Anglo-Egyptian treaty of 1929, reinforced by the bilateral agreement between Egypt and Sudan signed in 1959. In 1959 upriver Nile states such as Uganda denounced this treaty purportedly claiming virtually all of the waters of the Nile to themselves and leaving none to the upriver states. The countries along the White Nile excluding Sudan seek to create a unified international legal framework for the basin and for the time being respect keeping lake levels virtually unaltered so as not to upset their own eco-systems and established patterns of crop production and livestock raising.

title: Nalubaale Hydroelectric Power Station


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BVS

BVS may stand for:

 * Bachelor of Veterinary Science, a degree
 * Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
 * Biblioteca Virtual en Salud ("Virtual Health Library" in Spanish)
 * Business Valuation Standards
 * Breves Airport, IATA code BVS
 * FAA location identifier for Skagit Regional Airport
 * Reporting mark for Bevier and Southern Railroad

title: BVS


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User talk:Dannish

Welcome!

Hello,, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers: I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Where to ask a question, ask me on my talk page, or place  on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome! --Flockmeal 19:53, Dec 3, 2004 (UTC)
 * The five pillars of Wikipedia
 * How to edit a page
 * Help pages
 * Tutorial
 * How to write a great article
 * Manual of Style

Hi! I noticed you create a personal page at Dannish. User pages don't belong there, and I have moved your to it's correct location at User:Dannish. Thue | talk 15:54, 11 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Nomination of Finbarr Saunders for deletion
A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Finbarr Saunders is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Articles for deletion/Finbarr Saunders until a consensus is reached, and anyone is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on good quality evidence, and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion template from the top of the article. Ten Pound Hammer • (What did I screw up now?) 17:44, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

title: User talk:Dannish


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Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome

Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) is a condition characterized by an abnormally large increase in heart rate upon sitting up or standing. POTS is a disorder of the autonomic nervous system that can lead the individual to experience a variety of symptoms. Symptoms may include lightheadedness, brain fog, blurred vision, weakness, fatigue, headaches, heart palpitations, exercise intolerance, nausea, diminished concentration, tremulousness (shaking), syncope (fainting), coldness or pain in the extremities, numbness or tingling in the extremities, chest pain, and shortness of breath. Other conditions associated with POTS include myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, migraine headaches, Ehlers–Danlos syndrome, asthma, autoimmune disease, vasovagal syncope and mast cell activation syndrome. POTS symptoms may be treated with lifestyle changes such as increasing fluid, electrolyte, and salt intake, wearing compression stockings, gentler and slow postural changes, avoiding prolonged bedrest, medication, and physical therapy.

The causes of POTS are varied. POTS may develop after a viral infection, surgery, trauma, autoimmune disease, or pregnancy. It has been shown to emerge in previously healthy patients after COVID-19, or possibly in rare cases after COVID-19 vaccination though causative evidence is limited and further study is needed. POTS is more common among people who got infected with SARS-CoV-2 than among those who got vaccinated against COVID-19. Risk factors include a family history of the condition. POTS in adults is characterized by a heart rate increase of 30 beats per minute within ten minutes of standing up, accompanied by other symptoms. This increased heart rate should occur in the absence of orthostatic hypotension (>20 mm Hg drop in systolic blood pressure) to be considered POTS, though some patients with POTS do not show any changes in blood pressure upon standing. A spinal fluid leak (called spontaneous intracranial hypotension) may have the same signs and symptoms as POTS and should be excluded. Prolonged bedrest may lead to multiple symptoms, including blood volume loss and postural tachycardia. Other conditions which can cause similar symptoms, such as dehydration, orthostatic hypotension, heart problems, adrenal insufficiency, epilepsy, and Parkinson's disease, must not be present.

Treatment may include avoiding factors that bring on symptoms, increasing dietary salt and water, small and frequent meals, avoidance of immobilization, wearing compression stockings, and taking medications. Medications used may include beta blockers, pyridostigmine, midodrine or fludrocortisone. More than 50% of patients whose condition was triggered by a viral infection get better within five years. About 80% of patients have symptomatic improvement with treatment, while 25 percent of patients are so disabled they are unable to work. A retrospective study on patients with adolescent-onset has shown that five years after diagnosis, 19% of patients had a full resolution of symptoms.

It is estimated that 1–3 million people in the United States have POTS. The average age for POTS onset is 20 years, and it occurs about five times more frequently in females than in males.

Signs and symptoms
POTS is a complex and multifaceted clinical disorder, the etiology and management of which remain incompletely understood. This syndrome is typified by a diverse array of nonspecific symptoms, making it a challenging condition to describe.

Individuals living with POTS experience a diminished quality of life compared to healthy individuals, due to disruptions in various domains such as standing, playing sports, symptom anxiety, and impacts on school, work, or spiritual (religious) domains—these disruptions affect their daily life and overall well-being.

In adults, the primary manifestation is an increase in heart rate of more than 30 beats per minute within ten minutes of standing up. The resulting heart rate is typically more than 120 beats per minute. For people between ages 12 and 19, the minimum increase for a POTS diagnosis is 40 beats per minute. POTS is often accompanied by common features of orthostatic intolerance—in which symptoms that develop while upright are relieved by reclining. These orthostatic symptoms include palpitations, light-headedness, chest discomfort, shortness of breath, nausea, weakness or "heaviness" in the lower legs, blurred vision, and cognitive difficulties. Symptoms may be exacerbated with prolonged sitting, prolonged standing, alcohol, heat, exercise, or eating a large meal.

POTS and dysautonomia often presents with narrowed pulse pressures. In some cases, patients experience a drop in pulse pressure to 0 mmHg upon standing, rendering them practically pulseless while upright. This condition leads to significant morbidity, as many affected individuals struggle to remain standing.

Up to one-third of POTS patients experience fainting for many reasons, including but not limited to standing, physical exertion, or heat exposure. POTS patients may also experience orthostatic headaches. Some POTS patients may develop blood pooling in the extremities, characterized by a reddish-purple color of the legs and/or hands upon standing. 48% of people with POTS report chronic fatigue and 32% report sleep disturbances. Other POTS patients only exhibit the cardinal symptom of orthostatic tachycardia. Additional signs and symptoms are varied, and may include excessive sweating, lack of sweating, heat intolerance, digestive issues such as nausea, indigestion, constipation or diarrhea, post-exertional malaise, coat-hanger pain, brain fog, and syncope or presyncope.

Whereas POTS is primarily characterized by its profound impact on the autonomic and cardiovascular systems, it can lead to substantial functional impairment. This impairment, often manifesting as symptoms such as fatigue, cognitive dysfunction, and sleep disturbances, can significantly diminish the patient's quality of life.

Brain fog
One of the most disabling and prevalent symptoms in POTS is "brain fog", a term used by patients to describe the cognitive difficulties they experience. In one survey of 138 POTS patients, brain fog was defined as "forgetful" (91%), "difficulty thinking" (89%), and "difficulty focusing" (88%). Other common descriptions were "difficulty processing what others say" (80%), "confusion" (71%), "getting lost" (64%), and "thoughts moving too quickly" (40%). The same survey described the most common triggers of brain fog to be fatigue (91%), lack of sleep (90%), prolonged standing (87%), and dehydration (86%).

Neuropsychological testing has shown that a POTS patient has reduced attention (Ruff 2&7 speed and WAIS-III digits forward), short-term memory (WAIS-III digits back), cognitive processing speed (Symbol digits modalities test), and executive function (Stroop word color and trails B).

A potential cause for brain fog is a decrease in cerebral blood flow (CBF), especially in upright position.

There may be a loss of neurovascular coupling and reduced functional hyperemia in response to cognitive challenge under orthostatic stress – perhaps related to a loss of autoregulatory buffering of beat-by-beat fluctuations in arterial blood flow.

Co-morbidities
Conditions that are commonly reported with POTS include:
 * Migraine headaches (40%)
 * Ehlers–Danlos syndrome (18–25%)
 * Asthma (20%)
 * Autoimmune disease (16%)
 * Vasovagal syncope (13%)
 * Mast cell activation disorder (9%)

Causes
The pathophysiology of POTS is not attributable to a single cause or unified hypothesis—it is the result of multiple interacting mechanisms, each contributing to the overall clinical presentation; the mechanisms may include autonomic dysfunction, hypovolemia, deconditioning, hyperadrenergic states, etc.

The symptoms of POTS can be caused by several distinct pathophysiological mechanisms. These mechanisms are poorly understood, and can overlap, with many patients showing features of multiple POTS types. Many people with POTS exhibit low blood volume (hypovolemia), which can decrease the rate of blood flow to the heart. To compensate for low blood volume, the heart increases its cardiac output by beating faster (reflex tachycardia), leading to the symptoms of presyncope.

In the 30% to 60% of cases classified as hyperadrenergic POTS, norepinephrine levels are elevated on standing, often due to hypovolemia or partial autonomic neuropathy. A smaller minority of people with POTS have (typically very high) standing norepinephrine levels that are elevated even in the absence of hypovolemia and autonomic neuropathy; this is classified as central hyperadrenergic POTS. The high norepinephrine levels contribute to symptoms of tachycardia. Another subtype, neuropathic POTS, is associated with denervation of sympathetic nerves in the lower limbs. In this subtype, it is thought that impaired constriction of the blood vessels causes blood to pool in the veins of the lower limbs. Heart rate increases to compensate for this blood pooling.

In up to 50% of cases, there was an onset of symptoms following a viral illness. It may also be linked to physical trauma, concussion, pregnancy, surgery or psychosocial stress. It is believed that these events could act as a trigger for an autoimmune response that result in POTS. It has been shown to emerge in previously healthy patients after COVID-19, or after COVID-19 vaccination. A 2023 review found that the chances of being diagnosed with POTS within 90 days after mRNA vaccination were 1.33 times higher compared to 90 days before vaccination, still, the results are inconclusive due to a small sample size; only 12 cases of newly diagnosed POTS after mRNA vaccination were reported, all these 12 patients having autoimmune antibodies. However, the risk of POTS-related diagnoses was 5.35 times higher after getting infected with SARS-CoV-2 compared to after mRNA vaccination. Possible mechanisms for COVID-induced POTS are hypovolemia, autoimmunity/inflammation from antibody production against autonomic nerve fibers, and direct toxic effects of COVID-19, or secondary sympathetic nervous system stimulation.

POTS is more common in females than males. POTS also has been linked to patients with a history of autoimmune diseases, Long Covid, irritable bowel syndrome, anemia, hyperthyroidism, fibromyalgia, diabetes, amyloidosis, sarcoidosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and cancer. Genetics likely plays a role, with one study finding that one in eight POTS patients reported a history of orthostatic intolerance in their family.

Autoimmunity
There is an increasing number of studies indicating that POTS is an autoimmune disease. A high number of patients has elevated levels of autoantibodies against the adrenergic alpha 1 receptor and against the muscarinic acetylcholine M4 receptor.

Elevations of autoantibodies targeting adrenergic α1 receptor has been associated with symptoms severity in patients with POTS.

More recently, autoantibodies against other targets have been identified in small cohorts of POTS patients. Signs of innate immune system activation with elaboration of pro-inflammatory cytokines has also been reported in a cohort of POTS patients. Studies suggest the involvement of adrenergic, cholinergic, and angiotensin II type I autoantibodies in the pathogenesis of orthostatic intolerance, so that these autoantibodies are thought to interfere with the normal functioning of the autonomic nervous system, leading to the symptoms observed in POTS; as such, there is growing interest in the use of immunomodulation therapy as a potential treatment strategy for POTS: immunomodulation therapy aims to regulate or normalize the immune response, thereby reducing the production of harmful autoantibodies.

Secondary POTS
If POTS is caused by another condition, it may be classified as secondary POTS. Chronic diabetes mellitus is one common cause. POTS can also be secondary to gastrointestinal disorders that are associated with low fluid intake due to nausea or fluid loss through diarrhea, leading to hypovolemia. Systemic lupus erythematosus and other autoimmune diseases have also been linked to POTS.

There is a subset of patients who present with both POTS and mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and it is not yet clear whether MCAS is a secondary cause of POTS or simply comorbid, however, treating MCAS for these patients can significantly improve POTS symptoms.

POTS can also co-occur in all types of Ehlers–Danlos syndrome (EDS), a hereditary connective tissue disorder marked by loose hypermobile joints prone to subluxations and dislocations, skin that exhibits moderate or greater laxity, easy bruising, and many other symptoms. A trifecta of POTS, EDS, and mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) is becoming increasingly more common, with a genetic marker common among all three conditions. POTS is also often accompanied by vasovagal syncope, with a 25% overlap being reported. There are some overlaps between POTS and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), with evidence of POTS in 10–20% of ME/CFS cases. Fatigue and reduced exercise tolerance are prominent symptoms of both conditions, and dysautonomia may underlie both conditions.

POTS can sometimes be a paraneoplastic syndrome associated with cancer.

There are case reports of people developing POTS and other forms of dysautonomia post-COVID. There is no good large-scale empirical evidence yet to prove a connection, so for now the evidence is preliminary.

Diagnosis
POTS is a complex disorder with a multifactorial etiology, and the diagnostics of POTS is challenging.

POTS is most commonly diagnosed by a cardiologist (41%), cardiac electrophysiologist (15%), or neurologist (19%). The average number of physicians seen before receiving diagnosis is seven, and the average delay before diagnosis is 4.7 years.

Diagnostic criteria
A POTS diagnosis requires the following characteristics: Alternative tests to the tilt table test are also used, such as the NASA Lean Test and the adapted Autonomic Profile (aAP) which require less equipment to complete.
 * For patients age 20 or older, a sustained increase in heart rate ≥30 bpm within ten minutes of upright posture (tilt table test or standing) from a supine position.
 * For patients age 12–19, heart rate increase must be >40 bpm.
 * Associated with frequent symptoms of lightheadedness, palpitations, tremulousness, generalized weakness, blurred vision, or fatigue that are worse with upright posture and that improve with recumbence.
 * An absence of orthostatic hypotension (i.e. no sustained systolic blood pressure drop of 20 mmHg or more).
 * Chronic symptoms that have lasted for longer than three months.
 * In the absence of other disorders, medications, or functional states that are known to predispose to orthostatic tachycardia.

Orthostatic intolerance
An increase in heart rate upon moving to an upright posture is known as orthostatic (upright) tachycardia (fast heart rate). It occurs without any coinciding drop in blood pressure, as that would indicate orthostatic hypotension. Certain medications to treat POTS may cause orthostatic hypotension. It is accompanied by other features of orthostatic intolerance—symptoms that develop in an upright position and are relieved by reclining. These orthostatic symptoms include palpitations, light-headedness, chest discomfort, shortness of breath, nausea, weakness or "heaviness" in the lower legs, blurred vision, and cognitive difficulties.

Differential diagnoses
A variety of autonomic tests are employed to exclude autonomic disorders that could underlie symptoms, while endocrine testing is used to exclude hyperthyroidism and rarer endocrine conditions. Electrocardiography is normally performed on all patients to exclude other possible causes of tachycardia. In cases where a particular associated condition or complicating factor are suspected, other non-autonomic tests may be used: echocardiography to exclude mitral valve prolapse, and thermal threshold tests for small-fiber neuropathy.

Testing the cardiovascular response to prolonged head-up tilting, exercise, eating, and heat stress may help determine the best strategy for managing symptoms. POTS has also been divided into several types (see § Causes), which may benefit from distinct treatments. People with neuropathic POTS show a loss of sweating in the feet during sweat tests, as well as impaired norepinephrine release in the leg, but not arm. This is believed to reflect peripheral sympathetic denervation in the lower limbs. People with hyperadrenergic POTS show a marked increase of blood pressure and norepinephrine levels when standing, and are more likely to have from prominent palpitations, anxiety, and tachycardia.

People with POTS can be misdiagnosed with inappropriate sinus tachycardia (IST) as they present similarly. One distinguishing feature is those with POTS rarely exhibit >100 bpm while in a supine position, while patients with IST often have a resting heart rate >100 bpm. Additionally patients with POTS display a more pronounced change in heart rate in response to postural change.

Treatment
Despite numerous therapeutic interventions proposed for the management of POTS, none have received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) specifically for this indication, and no effective treatment strategies have been identified that would have been confirmed by large clinical trials.

POTS treatment involves using multiple methods in combination to counteract cardiovascular dysfunction, address symptoms, and simultaneously address any associated disorders. For most patients, water intake should be increased, especially after waking, in order to expand blood volume (reducing hypovolemia). Eight to ten cups of water daily are recommended. Increasing salt intake, by adding salt to food, taking salt tablets, or drinking sports drinks and other electrolyte solutions is an effective way to raise blood pressure by helping the body retain water. Different physicians recommend different amounts of sodium to their patients. Combining these techniques with gradual physical training enhances their effect. In some cases, when increasing oral fluids and salt intake is not enough, intravenous saline or the drug desmopressin is used to help increase fluid retention.

Large meals worsen symptoms for some people. These people may benefit from eating small meals frequently throughout the day instead. Alcohol and food high in carbohydrates can also exacerbate symptoms of orthostatic hypotension. Excessive consumption of caffeine beverages should be avoided, because they can promote urine production (leading to fluid loss) and consequently hypovolemia. Exposure to extreme heat may also aggravate symptoms.

Prolonged physical inactivity can worsen the symptoms of POTS. Techniques that increase a person's capacity for exercise, such as endurance training or graded exercise therapy, can relieve symptoms for some patients. Aerobic exercise performed for 20 minutes a day, three times a week, is sometimes recommended for patients who can tolerate it. Exercise may have the immediate effect of worsening tachycardia, especially after a meal or on a hot day. In these cases, it may be easier to exercise in a semi-reclined position, such as riding a recumbent bicycle, rowing, or swimming.

When changing to an upright posture, finishing a meal, or concluding exercise, a sustained hand grip can briefly raise the blood pressure, possibly reducing symptoms. Compression garments can also be of benefit by constricting blood pressures with external body pressure.

Aggravating factors include exertion (81%), continued standing (80%), heat (79%), and after meals (42%).

Medication
If nonpharmacological methods are ineffective, medication may be necessary. Medications used may include beta blockers, pyridostigmine, midodrine, or fludrocortisone. As of 2013, no medication has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat POTS, but a variety are used off-label. Their efficacy has not yet been examined in long-term randomized controlled trials.

Fludrocortisone may be used to enhance sodium retention and blood volume, which may be beneficial not only by augmenting sympathetically mediated vasoconstriction, but also because a large subset of POTS patients appear to have low absolute blood volume. However, fludrocortisone may cause hypokalemia.

While people with POTS typically have normal or even elevated arterial blood pressure, the neuropathic form of POTS is presumed to constitute a selective sympathetic venous denervation. In these patients the selective alpha-1 adrenergic receptor agonist midodrine may increase venous return, enhance stroke volume, and improve symptoms. Midodrine should only be taken during the daylight hours as it may promote supine hypertension.

Sinus node blocker ivabradine can successfully restrain heart rate in POTS without affecting blood pressure, demonstrated in approximately 60% of people with POTS treated in an open-label trial of ivabradine experienced symptom improvement.

Pyridostigmine has been reported to restrain heart rate and improve chronic symptoms in approximately half of people. However, it may cause GI side effects that limit its use in around 20% of its patient population.

The selective alpha-1 agonist phenylephrine has been used successfully to enhance venous return and stroke volume in some people with POTS. However, this medication may be hampered by poor oral bioavailability.

Prognosis
POTS has a favorable prognosis when managed appropriately. Symptoms improve within five years of diagnosis for many patients, and 60% return to their original level of functioning. Approximately 90% of people with POTS respond to a combination of pharmacological and physical treatments. Those who develop POTS in their early to mid teens will likely respond well to a combination of physical methods as well as pharmacotherapy. Outcomes are more guarded for adults newly diagnosed with POTS. Some people do not recover, and a few even worsen with time. The hyperadrenergic type of POTS typically requires continuous therapy. If POTS is caused by another condition, outcomes depend on the prognosis of the underlying disorder.

Epidemiology
The prevalence of POTS is unknown. One study estimated a minimal rate of 170 POTS cases per 100,000 individuals, but the true prevalence is likely higher due to underdiagnosis. Another study estimated that there are at least 500,000 cases in the United States. POTS is more common in women than men, with a female-to-male ratio of 4:1. Most people with POTS are aged between 20 and 40, with an average onset of 21. Diagnoses of POTS beyond age 40 are rare, perhaps because symptoms improve with age.

As recently stated, up to one-third of POTS patients also present with Vasovagal Syncope (VVS). This ratio is probably higher if pre-Syncope patients, patients that report the symptoms of Syncope without overt fainting, were included. Given the difficulty with current autonomic measurements in quantitatively isolating and differentiating Parasympathetic (Vagal) activity from Sympathetic activity without assumption or approximation, the current direction of research and clinical assessment is understandable:  perpetuating uncertainty regarding underlying cause, prescribing beta-blockers and proper daily hydration as the only therapy, not addressing the orthostatic dysfunction as the underlying cause, and recommending acceptance and associated lifestyle changes to cope.

Direct measures of Parasympathetic (Vagal) activity obviates the uncertainty and lack of true relief of POTS as well as VVS. For example, the hypothesis that POTS is an auto-immune disorder may be an indication that a significant number of POTS cases are indeed co-morbid with VVS. Remember the Parasympathetic Nervous System is the memory for, and controls and coordinates, the immune system. If Parasympathetic (Vagal) over-, or prolonged-, activation is chronic then portions of the immune system may remain active beyond the limits of the infection. Given that portions of the immune system are not of self, these portions remain active and continue to "feed." Once the only source of "feed" is self, the immune system begins to attack the host. This is the definition of autoimmune. This is a counter-hypothesis that may provide a simpler explanation with a more immediate plan for therapy and relief. For it may be that relieving the Vagal over-activation, will retires the self-attacking portion of the immune system, thereby relieving the autoimmunity.

Another example may be "Hyperadrenergic POTS." A counter hypothesis and perhaps a simpler explanation that leads to more direct therapy and improved outcomes is again the fact that POTS and VVS may be co-morbid. It is well known that Parasympathetic (Vagal) over-activation may cause secondary Sympathetic over-activation. Without direct Parasympathetic (Vagal) measures, the resulting assumption is that the secondary Sympathetic over-activation (the definition of "hyperadrenergic") is actually the primary autonomic dysfunction. Simply treating the (secondary) Sympathetic over-activation may be just treating a symptom in these cases, which may work for a while but then the body compensates and more medication is needed or the patient become unresponsive and the permanent degraded lifestyles are considered the only option. Again, this is unfortunate. Given that cases of POTS with VVS involves different portions of the nervous system (Parasympathetic and Sympathetic), and that both branches may be treated simultaneously, albeit differently, true relief of both conditions, as needed, is quite possible, and the cases of these newer hypothesized causes may be relieved with current, less expensive, and shorter-term therapy modalities.

Research directions
A key area for further exploration of POTS management is the autonomic nervous system and its response to the orthostatic challenge. The autonomic nervous system plays a crucial role in maintaining cardiovascular homeostasis during changes in posture. A deeper understanding of its function and the alterations that occur in POTS could provide valuable insights into potential therapeutic targets and the mechanisms of POTS treatment.

History
In 1871, physician Jacob Mendes Da Costa described a condition that resembled the modern concept of POTS. He named it irritable heart syndrome. Cardiologist Thomas Lewis expanded on the description, coining the term soldier's heart because it was often found among military personnel. The condition came to be known as Da Costa's syndrome, which is now recognized as several distinct disorders, including POTS.

Postural tachycardia syndrome was coined in 1982 in a description of a patient who had postural tachycardia, but not orthostatic hypotension. Ronald Schondorf and Phillip A. Low of the Mayo Clinic first used the name postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, POTS, in 1993.

Notable cases
British politician Nicola Blackwood revealed in March 2015 that she had been diagnosed with Ehlers–Danlos syndrome in 2013 and that she had later been diagnosed with POTS. She was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Life Science by Prime Minister Theresa May in 2019 and given a life peerage that enabled her to take a seat in Parliament. As a junior minister, it is her responsibility to answer questions in parliament on the subjects of Health and departmental business. When answering these questions, it is customary for ministers to sit when listening to the question and then to rise to give an answer from the despatch box, thus standing up and sitting down numerous times in quick succession throughout a series of questions. On 17 June 2019, she fainted during one of these questioning sessions after standing up from a sitting position four times in the space of twelve minutes, and it was suggested that her POTS was a factor in her fainting. Asked about the incident, she stated: "I was frustrated and embarrassed my body gave up on me at work ... But I am grateful it gives me a chance to shine a light on a condition many others are also living with."

In 2024, Taiwanese tennis player Latisha Chan revealed that she was diagnosed with POTS back in 2014 and has been receiving treatments before Summer Olympics as well. Her condition was considered career-threatening, but has her career extended by over a decade due to external counterpulsation.


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Klaus Tennstedt

Klaus Hermann Wilhelm Tennstedt (June 6, 1926 – January 11, 1998) was a German conductor from Merseburg. Known for his interpretation of the Austro-German repertoire, especially his sympathetic approaches towards Gustav Mahler, Tennstedt is widely considered one of the greatest and most influential conductors of the late 20th century. He worked with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the NDR Symphony Orchestra, and other highly regarded ensembles such as the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and most notably the London Philharmonic Orchestra, with which he was closely associated and recorded many of his celebrated recordings under the EMI label, including a cycle of Mahler's 10 symphonies.

Life and career
He studied violin and piano at the Leipzig Conservatory. He avoided military service during the Nazi era by joining a Baroque orchestra. He became concertmaster of the Halle Municipal Theater orchestra in 1948, but a finger injury ended his career as a violinist and he continued as a voice coach at the same theater. Tennstedt then directed his talents toward conducting. In 1958, he became music director of the Dresden Opera, and in 1962, music director of the Schwerin State Orchestra and Theatre.

He emigrated from East Germany in 1971, obtaining asylum in Sweden. He conducted in Gothenburg at the Göteborg Theater, and in Stockholm with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 1972, he became General Music Director of the Kiel Opera in northern Germany. From 1979 to 1981, he was chief conductor of the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra (NDR Symphony) in Hamburg, and during the same period (1979–82) was principal guest conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra in Minneapolis.

In 1974, Tennstedt made his North American debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. His first U.S. appearance was shortly after that, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, on December 13, 1974, conducting an all-Brahms program. The following week, his BSO Bruckner Symphony No. 8 earned laudatory reviews. In Norman Lebrecht's The Maestro Myth, the story was told that when the Boston management asked Tennstedt what he wanted to conduct, he replied: "You mean I get to choose?" His appearances were so highly acclaimed that as a result, Tennstedt was invited to guest-conduct at the Tanglewood Music Festival and Blossom Music Festival in 1975.

His only American opera engagement was a series of seven performances of Beethoven's Fidelio at the Metropolitan Opera, the last of which, on January 7, 1984, was broadcast. Tennstedt then guest-conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the New York Philharmonic. In Europe, he guest- conducted the Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony of Munich, the Berlin Philharmonic and the SDR Symphony (now the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra).

His London debut was with the London Symphony (LSO) in 1976. In 1977 came his first engagement with the London Philharmonic (LPO), which led to his appointment as its principal guest conductor in 1980, and eventually as principal conductor in 1983. Due to ill-health he resigned in 1987, but was later named its conductor laureate, returning to the LPO in 1986 to record Mahler's Symphony No. 8 ("Symphony of a Thousand", EMI DSB-47625) and for Mahler concerts in November 1991 (Symphony No. 6) and May 1993 (Symphony No. 7). His last guest appearance in the U.S. was with the New York Philharmonic in 1992, but on the advice of his physicians he retired from conducting altogether in October 1994. The last time he conducted was in June 1994, at a rehearsal of a student orchestra at Oxford University, where he received an honorary doctorate a few days later. He died of throat cancer in January 1998, at his home in Kiel, Germany.

In 1978 Tennstedt became the first German conductor of his generation to conduct the Israel Philharmonic, which until then had boycotted German conductors because of their connections with the Nazi regime.

His recordings include a complete cycle of the symphonies of Gustav Mahler, and several of Tennstedt's concert performances have been reissued on CD.

title: Klaus Tennstedt


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University of Charleston

The University of Charleston (UC) is a private university with its main campus in Charleston, West Virginia. It also has a location in Beckley, West Virginia, known as UC-Beckley.

History
The school was founded in 1888 as the Barboursville Seminary of the Southern Methodist Church. In 1901, it was renamed Morris Harvey College, in honor of a devoted supporter. In 1935 the school moved to downtown Charleston and affiliated with the Mason College of Fine Arts and Music. In 1940, it became independent of the Methodist Church. In 1947, the school moved to its present campus in the Kanawha City section of Charleston across the river from the State Capitol. In 1951, it purchased the Young-Noyes House as the home of the college president. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

The college fell on hard times after the end of the military draft and college deferment during the Vietnam War and offered itself to the state in 1975, which refused the gift. In December 1978, the school changed its name to the University of Charleston. Beginning with the inauguration of President Dr. Edwin H. Welch in 1989, the school has undergone a physical and academic transformation. Four new residence halls, a parking garage, a fitness center, an academic building housing the library, computer and science labs, and a new school of pharmacy have been built since 1998.

UC established campuses on Mountain State University's former Beckley and Martinsburg, West Virginia, locations on January 1, 2013. UC later vacated the former MSU Martinsburg campus (the property was sold to a third-party buyer, and established a new location in Martinsburg, known as UC-Martinsburg. UC vacated the former MSU Beckley campus after the 2014–15 academic year and established a new campus in Beckley.

On December 15, 2017, the board of trustees named Martin S. Roth to succeed Dr. Edwin Welch as the president of the university. He began on June 30, 2018. Roth left his position as the dean of the business school at the University of Hartford.

Academics
The University of Charleston is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.

There are over twenty undergraduate major programs at UC, including fields such as business, communications, education, nursing, exercise science, organizational leadership, sport administration, radiologic science, and digital media design.

Graduate schools
In 2006, UC opened its first doctoral program, the UC School of Pharmacy. UC now also offers an online doctoral program through its School of Leadership, the Doctor of Executive Leadership (DEL). In 2008, the university opened a graduate business school which grants four business master's degrees: Master of Business Administration and Leadership (MBAL), Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA), Executive Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Pharmaceutical & Healthcare Management (EMBA- PHM), and Executive Master of Forensic Accounting (EMFA).

In 2012, the school announced a new Physician Assistant program.

Athletics
UC's athletic teams, known as the Golden Eagles, mostly compete in the Mountain East Conference (MEC) in NCAA Division II. In June 2012, UC was one of nine members of the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC) that announced their plans to leave to form a new Division II conference. Two months later, the new conference was unveiled as the MEC, with UC as one of 12 charter members. The men's volleyball team, which was elevated from a club team to full varsity status for the 2015 season (2014–15 school year), plays at the National Collegiate (Division I/II) level; after playing in 2015 as an independent, it joined the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association. University of Charleston achieved its first Division II national championship in men's soccer in 2017 defeating Lynn University in the finals.

In 2005, UC entered into a partnership with the local school board to refurbish the school board–owned Laidley Field, which was renamed University of Charleston Stadium. The campus also boasts new or renovated softball, football, baseball, and soccer fields, and competes in 18 Division II sports.

title: University of Charleston


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Talk:Eastern Mountain Sports

Initial comments
I have trimmed a lot of enthusiasm about of this article, which read more like a sales brochure than an article. Every company in the world thinks it has a highly-trained staff and concentrates on customer loyalty and uses only the best brands, etc. etc. - that's not encyclopedia fodder. (I am a frequent EMS customer, by the way ... not that it really matters, but it shows that I'm not operating out of complete ignorance!) - DavidWBrooks 19:56, 3 Dec 2004 (UTC)

 * It probably was too enthusiastic, but what are your objections to listing their major competitors? - Lifefeed 20:44, Dec 3, 2004 (UTC)

 * I think I left them in - REI and the other one - I just took out a comment that they're not as well-staffed, or something like that. - DavidWBrooks 21:01, 3 Dec 2004 (UTC)

 * Well look at that. I'm an idiot. - Lifefeed 21:58, Dec 3, 2004 (UTC)

 * Wikipedia provides us all with massive opportunities to be idiotic! That's one of the things I like about i. - DavidWBrooks 17:33, 4 Dec 2004 (UTC)

"...EMS has focused back towards being a specialty outdoors fluff store." Fluff store?! What should they be selling to avoid this label? Prospecting gear and bear traps? Tolchocker 22:45, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

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title: Talk:Eastern Mountain Sports


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Victims' Rights Amendment

In the United States, the Victims' Rights Amendment is a provision which has been included in some states' constitutions, proposed for other states, and additionally has been proposed for inclusion in the United States Constitution. Its provisions vary from state to state but are usually somewhat similar. There are likewise competing versions of the proposed federal amendment.

The Victims' Rights Movement
The Victims' Rights Movement began as a response to the spread of two beliefs. The first was the perception that the legal system was more concerned with the protection of the constitutional rights of criminal offenders and alleged offenders than they were the victims of their offenses. This was especially inflamed by numerous lawsuits alleging unconstitutional conditions in many U.S. jails and prisons, and a strong emphasis on the education and rehabilitation of those who were incarcerated, especially beginning in the late 1960s and 1970s. Advocates of the movement wanted to see affirmative help for crime victims to be at least as extensive as that provided to the offenders, and for victims to receive compensation from offenders whenever this was practicable. The second stimulus was the spread of the belief, bolstered by prominent stories in the media, that the number of released or paroled offenders returning to attack their original victims or victims' families was increasing, in some cases in retaliation for having reported the original offense.

Most states' victims' rights amendments provide for the prosecutors to stay in touch with the victims and their families during all stages of prosecution, and to stay in touch with them post-conviction to advise them of events such as parole hearings, applications for pardons or other forms of executive clemency or relief, and similar news. They may require that any pay received by an offender while incarcerated go at least in part to compensate the victims, and that royalties to any creative works such as books, screenplays or similar works created by the offender judged to be derived from the events of the offense be assigned to the victims (though these latter requirements have been challenged as a violation of the constitutional guarantee of free speech).

The Federal Amendment
The federal victims' rights amendments which have been proposed are similar to the above. The primary contention, and perhaps the main reason that to this point they remain only proposals, is whether they will apply only to federal offenses and the federal system or will mandate all states to adopt similar provisions (the version advocated by at least one very high-profile advocate, John Walsh, host of America's Most Wanted). This second version is offensive to many otherwise conservative "law and order" members of United States Congress because they deem it to be violative of another principle important to conservatives, that of federalism. Advocates of both sides are adamant on their version, and for this reason neither has been passed by either house of Congress.

Text of the Victims' Rights Amendment
House Joint Resolution 106, introduced on March 26, 2012, by Reps. Trent Franks (R-AZ 02) and Jim Costa (D-CA 20), failed to pass committee or be voted on. The bill reads as follows:

 * ''Section 1. The rights of a crime victim to fairness, respect, and dignity, being capable of protection without denying the constitutional rights of the accused, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State. The crime victim shall, moreover, have the rights to reasonable notice of, and shall not be excluded from, public proceedings relating to the offense, to be heard at any release, plea, sentencing, or other such proceeding involving any right established by this article, to proceedings free from unreasonable delay, to reasonable notice of the release or escape of the accused, to due consideration of the crime victim's safety, and to restitution. The crime victim or the crime victim's lawful representative has standing to fully assert and enforce these rights in any court. Nothing in this article provides grounds for a new trial or any claim for damages and no person accused of the conduct described in section 2 of this article may obtain any form of relief.
 * ''Section 1. The rights of a crime victim to fairness, respect, and dignity, being capable of protection without denying the constitutional rights of the accused, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State. The crime victim shall, moreover, have the rights to reasonable notice of, and shall not be excluded from, public proceedings relating to the offense, to be heard at any release, plea, sentencing, or other such proceeding involving any right established by this article, to proceedings free from unreasonable delay, to reasonable notice of the release or escape of the accused, to due consideration of the crime victim's safety, and to restitution. The crime victim or the crime victim's lawful representative has standing to fully assert and enforce these rights in any court. Nothing in this article provides grounds for a new trial or any claim for damages and no person accused of the conduct described in section 2 of this article may obtain any form of relief.

 * Section 2. For purposes of this article, a crime victim includes any person against whom the criminal offense is committed or who is directly harmed by the commission of an act, which, if committed by a competent adult, would constitute a crime.

 * Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it has been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within 14 years after the date of its submission to the States by the Congress. This article shall take effect on the 180th day after the date of its ratification.  ''

There have been several previous versions of the Victims' Rights Amendment. The text of one version reads as follows:

 * Section 1. Victims of crimes of violence and other crimes that Congress and the States may define by law pursuant to section 3, shall have the rights to notice of and not to be excluded from all public proceedings relating to the crime; to be heard if present and to submit a statement at a public pre-trial or trial proceeding to determine a release from custody, an acceptance of a negotiated plea, or a sentence; to these rights at a parole proceeding to the extent they are afforded to the convicted offender; to notice of a release pursuant to a public or parole proceeding or an escape; to a final disposition free from unreasonable delay; to an order of restitution from the convicted offender; to have the safety of the victim considered in determining a release from custody; and to notice of the rights established by this article.

 * Section 2. The victim shall have standing to assert the rights established by this article; however, nothing in this article shall provide grounds for the victim to challenge a charging decision or a conviction, obtain a stay of trial, or compel a new trial; nor shall anything in this article give rise to a claim for damages against the United States, a State, a political subdivision, or a public official; nor shall anything in this article provide grounds for the accused or convicted offender to obtain any form of relief.

 * Section 3. The Congress and the States shall have the power to enforce this article within their respective federal and state jurisdictions by appropriate legislation, including the power to enact exceptions when required for compelling reasons of public safety.

 * Section 4. The rights established by this article shall be applicable to all proceedings occurring after ratification of this article.

 * Section 5. The rights established by this article shall apply in all federal, state, military, and juvenile justice proceedings, and shall also apply to victims in the District of Columbia, and any commonwealth, territory, or possession of the United States.

title: Victims' Rights Amendment


text:
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear is a 1999 tactical first-person shooter video game developed and published by Red Storm Entertainment for Microsoft Windows, with later ports for the Dreamcast, Mac OS, PlayStation, and Game Boy Advance. The sequel to 1998's Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, it is the second installment in the Rainbow Six series and the last to be published by Red Storm before its acquisition by Ubi Soft in 2000. The game's plot follows the secret international counterterrorist organization Rainbow as they investigate nuclear terrorism in Eastern Europe.

Rogue Spear was released on September 22, 1999 to generally positive reviews on PC, but mixed reviews for all other platforms. Critics praised its significant improvements on the original Rainbow Six 's formula but criticized the AI behavior which - while improved - acted inconsistently, and the cluttered planning stage that was more burdensome with Rogue Spear's larger and more complex levels. The game sold over 200,000 copies in its first year of release, with almost 500,000 copies sold by 2006. It was nominated for numerous accolades and has been considered one of the best action games of 1999.

A PlayStation 2 port was announced, but was ultimately canceled. Three expansion packs for the game were released between 2000 and 2001, adding new missions, weapons, characters, and assorted materials. Two spin-off games—Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lone Wolf, a PlayStation exclusive; and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Take-Down – Missions in Korea, using Rogue Spear 's engine—were released in 2002 and 2003 respectively. A sequel, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield, was released in 2003. In 2006, the United States Department of Defense licensed Rogue Spear 's engine for use in training simulation programs.

Gameplay
Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear is a tactical shooter, in which characters are affected by realistic factors and can be killed with a single bullet, thus promoting planning and tactics over force and firepower. Rogue Spear is very similar to its predecessor, Rainbow Six, and uses the same engine and gameplay, albeit greatly modified to feature improved graphics and animations, improved artificial intelligence, and new mechanics such as camouflage selection and the return of the hands-off "watch" mode from Rainbow Six: Eagle Watch. The campaign features a total of 18 missions from locations around the world, while the multiplayer portion features 20 different maps.

Rogue Spear 's basic gameplay remains mostly unchanged from Rainbow Six, with the exception of the addition of a 'lean' mechanic, allowing players to peak around corners. The game follows a campaign of several missions, with objectives ranging from rescuing hostages and defusing bombs to gathering intelligence and planting surveillance devices; there are various approaches the player can take to complete said objectives, but Rogue Spear takes an approach that promotes stealth, as enemies can now react to the player's presence if they are heard or seen, such as investigating the area, fleeing, or attacking hostages. Before each mission is a briefing that details the situation and advances the plot, and a planning stage where the player selects the Rainbow operatives they want for the operation (categorized into Assault, Demolitions, Electronics, Recon, and Sniper based on their skillsets), sets waypoints and orders for their color-coded teams on a map of the area of operations, and equips their operatives with appropriate weapons, equipment, and uniforms for the mission. During the mission, the player can control the leader of any team at will, while teams not controlled by the player follow the orders assigned to them in planning. Injured operatives cannot be healed during a mission, while deceased operatives are permanently gone for the rest of the campaign playthrough, forcing players to plan carefully to avoid casualties.

Rogue Spear features two free-play modes outside the campaign: Lone Wolf, where the player must complete an entire level using only a single operative; and Terrorist Hunt, where the player must defeat up to 30 terrorists in a level, with no other objectives aside from clearing the entire level of enemies.

Rogue Spear 's online multiplayer consists of two modes: cooperative and adversarial. Cooperative mode has players team up to complete missions against AI-controlled enemies in formats similar to the singleplayer missions, while adversarial mode pits players against one another in deathmatch and team deathmatch modes. Rogue Spear does not support dedicated servers, and games are limited to sixteen players per server.

Plot
In 2001, Rainbow, led by John Clark, handles a spike in terrorist attacks conducted by various seemingly unaffiliated terrorist groups. Meanwhile, the former Eastern Bloc has fallen into disarray since the dissolution of the Soviet Union a decade prior, with conflict, crime, and corruption increasing as money and necessities become scarce.

Investigating a thwarted nerve agent attack in Oman, Rainbow, assisted by an anonymous informant, sources the agent to anti-Western oil baron Samed Vezirzade. Surveillance of Vezirzade leads Rainbow to an illegal deal between a Russian military unit and Russian mobsters connected to arms dealer Maxim Kutkin and kingpin Lukyan Barsukov. Rainbow interrupts the deal and recovers weapons-grade plutonium, leading them to believe Kutkin is assembling nuclear weapons. Rainbow plants surveillance devices in Vezirzade's mansion and Kutkin's private spa, and discovers Vezirzade has been supporting terrorist groups for his own gain; they also learn he is aware Rainbow is after him.

Rainbow locates and raids Kutkin's nuclear weapons facility in Siberia, destroying the facility and recovering two nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, the informant leaves to "set things right", and Kutkin's mafia is promptly embroiled in a gang war; Rainbow analyst Susan Holt learns the informant was Barsukov himself, who was suspicious of Kutkin (his son-in-law) and needed Rainbow's investigations to confirm. Suddenly, Holt and Barsukov are kidnapped by Kutkin; worse, Clark learns two other nuclear weapons were not recovered from the Siberian facility. After rescuing Holt and Barsukov, Rainbow learns Kutkin is personally moving the nuclear weapons to the West, and they intercept the shipment, securing the nuclear weapons and seemingly killing Kutkin.

With Kutkin defeated, Rainbow raids Vezirzade's personal fortress in Azerbaijan, killing Vezirzade when he fights back. However, Kutkin is revealed to still be alive, having used a double to fake his death. Aware his downfall is imminent, Kutkin seizes a nuclear power plant in Ukraine, intent on causing a Chernobyl-esque nuclear meltdown to take as many lives with him as possible. Rainbow storms the plant, killing Kutkin and preventing the meltdown.

The threat finally over, Clark debriefs Rainbow and notes that Kutkin's spa has been sold to Barsukov, who claims he has retired from crime and will settle down to operate the spa legally; however, Rainbow continues to monitor Barsukov with a hidden camera, and it is implied he has not retired after all. While discussing his plans with an aide, Barsukov suddenly turns his attention to the hidden camera and, after rebuking Clark for invading his privacy, shoots it with a pistol.

Urban Operations
Rogue Spear Mission Pack: Urban Operations, released on April 4, 2000, was the first expansion for Rogue Spear. It was developed and published by Red Storm Entertainment. It added eight new maps and five classic Rainbow Six maps from the original game, three new weapons, and a built-in mod system. Urban Operations was later re-released by Kama Digital Entertainment in South Korea, including two exclusive missions and two new weapons.

Covert Ops Essentials
Rainbow Six: Covert Ops Essentials is a stand-alone expansion pack of Rogue Spear, released on September 28, 2000. Developed as an educational game and a training simulator, Covert Ops Essentials was developed by Magic Lantern Playware and published by Red Storm Entertainment. It includes nine new maps in total, and a three mission long campaign. Six of the maps were made by Zombie Studios, while the three mission campaign was made by Red Storm. Covert Ops Essentials includes educational materials such as actual military field manuals, view video interviews from counterterrorism experts, take multiple-choice tests to progress in rank, and see live-fire demonstrations of the weapons featured in the game. For the live-fire videos, Sergeant Anthony Levatino, a SWAT team leader of the Santa Ana Police Department, was contracted to provide expertise for the educational material and for the video demonstrations.

Black Thorn
Rogue Spear: Black Thorn was developed by Red Storm Entertainment and published by Ubi Soft as a stand-alone add-on on December 15, 2001, featuring nine new singleplayer maps and fifteen new multiplayer maps, along with eleven new weapons and a new multiplayer game mode called Lone Wolf. The singleplayer plot features a mentally disturbed ex-SAS operative challenging Rainbow with reenactments of real-life terrorist attacks, such as Operation Entebbe and the Japanese embassy hostage crisis.

Development
Rogue Spear uses the same game engine as the original Rainbow Six, albeit with new and improved additions and refreshed graphics and visuals. Like its predecessor, Rogue Spear focuses on realism, planning, strategy, and teamwork.

Reception
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear was met with positive to mixed reception upon release. Review aggregator Metacritic displays a score of 85.97% for the PC version, 75.77% for the Game Boy Advance, 72.62% for the Dreamcast, and 60.07% for the PlayStation. Video game review aggregator GameRankings displays 76/100 for the Game Boy Advance and 75/100 for the Dreamcast.

Many reviewers noted Rogue Spear 's similarity to Rainbow Six, and commended its various improvements on the original. Tal Blevins of IGN deemed Rogue Spear "certainly in the running for Best Action Game of '99", praising its improvements over the original Rainbow Six in graphics, game mechanics, level design, and AI improvements. Michael E. Ryan of GameSpot similarly praised the improvements in graphics, game mechanics, and weapon diversity, but stated the largely unchanged and "cluttered" planning stage did not work with Rogue Spear 's larger, more detailed levels, and failed to provide an accurate feel for the actual level depicted. John Lee reviewed the PC version of the game for Next Generation, rating it four stars out of five, describing it as "More of the same, but then it's hard to ask for anything more." Greg Orlando reviewed the Dreamcast version of the game for Next Generation and also rated it four stars out of five, saying "A title that works on many different levels, Rogue Spear is a must-have for the Dreamcast-owning shooter fan."

Reviewers found notable issues with the game's AI. Blevins noted that while Rogue Spear 's AI was considerably improved compared to the original Rainbow Six 's AI, they acted inconsistently and often failed to react to obvious threats. Ryan called the game's teammate AI "flaky" and noted teammates were far more likely to die in combat or even in accidents such as falling off ladders, which he critically contrasted with the enemy AI, which he described as very reactive and "rarely, if ever, miss[ing] their targets", making the game "overwhelmingly difficult for all the wrong reasons". Gestalt of Eurogamer considered AI flaws to have greatly let down the game, recalling an incident where he watched almost an entire team of operatives get killed by a single terrorist without firing back once, with only one team member surviving because "he'd managed to get lost earlier on in the mission".

Black Thorn
Expansion packs of the PC version received lower scores than the original release. The most recent was Black Thorn, which currently has a score of 71.92% on GameRankings, and 67 out of 100 on Metacritic.

Accolades
The editors of PC Gamer US named Rogue Spear the best action game of 1999, and wrote, "Congratulations, Red Storm... in a loud market, you made the quiet revolution." The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated Rogue Spear for "PC Action Game of the Year" at its 3rd Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, but ultimately lost to Half-Life: Opposing Force.

Sales
In the United States, Rogue Spear's sales reached 240,503 copies by April 2000. In the same country, the game's Platinum re-release sold another 240,000 copies and earned $7.7 million by August 2006, after its launch in October 2001. It was the U.S.'s 85th best-selling computer game between January 2000 and August 2006.

title: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear


text:
Jess Thomas

Jess Thomas (August 4, 1927 – October 11, 1993) was an American operatic tenor, best known for singing Wagner compositions.

Biography

Jess Floyd Thomas was born in Hot Springs, South Dakota. As a child, he took part in various musical activities and studied psychology at the University of Nebraska. For several years, he worked as a high school guidance counselor, before enrolling at Stanford University for an MA. Learning that the operatic department was producing Verdi's Falstaff, he auditioned for Otto Schulmann, the vocal professor, and obtained the role of Fenton. Although by now 27 years old, Thomas decided to change careers and to become a singer. He studied with Schulmann for three years before his operatic debut in 1957. In 1958, he joined the Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe, Germany. He was awarded the Wagner Medal at Bayreuth in 1963. His many appearances in North America and Europe between the late 1950s and early 1980s included fifteen seasons in 109 performances of fifteen roles at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

Thomas died in Tiburon, California in 1993, aged 66.

Operatic career
Thomas made his operatic debut in 1957 for the San Francisco Opera, performing in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier as the Haushofmeister. In 1958, he debuted in the title role of Richard Wagner's Lohengrin for the Karlsruhe Staatstheater at the commencement of a career in Germany.

It was at Bayreuth that he established his reputation as a Wagnerian tenor, performing in the following roles and operas:
 * Parsifal 1961–63, 1965
 * Lohengrin 1962, 1967
 * Siegmund in Die Walküre (Bayreuth Festival on Tour in Osaka) 1967
 * Walther in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg 1963, 1969
 * Tannhäuser 1966–67
 * Siegfried 1969, 1976

In 1963, Thomas joined the roster of the Metropolitan Opera and went on to sing 109 performances of fifteen roles with the company, including all the major tenor roles of Wagner's work. Among the highlights of his career with the Met was appearing at the opening of the new Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, in the first performance of Samuel Barber's Antony and Cleopatra with Leontyne Price.

In 1970, at the 12th Annual Grammy Awards, Thomas won a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording for his performance of Wagner's Siegfried, with the Berlin Philharmonic.

On December 9, 1981, San Francisco Opera general director Kurt Herbert Adler called Thomas an hour before a performance of Die Walküre. Heldentenor James King had lost his voice, and Adler asked Thomas if he would like to sing the role in an hour. "But I haven't even shaved yet", Thomas said. Though he hadn't looked at the score in years, Thomas performed the role at the age of 54, relying on a memory of the role, with some prompting. The next day, headlines proclaimed Thomas's eleventh-hour rescue for Die Walküre. Thomas's farewell performance took place in the title role of Parsifal with the Metropolitan Opera in 1982, while it was on tour in Washington, D.C.

In 1997, on request of Thomas's widow, Violeta Thomas, the Austrian sculptor Hortensia Fussy made a portrait of Jess Thomas, showing him as Siegfried with his sword. The sculpture was donated to the Austrian Theatre Museum in 2002.

title: Jess Thomas


text:
Alsea

The Alsea are a Native American tribe of Western Oregon. They are (since 1856), confederated with other Tribes on the Siletz Reservation, Oregon, and are members of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz.

Their origin story says that the Yaquina, Alsea, Yachats, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw people are all one tribe, and speak the same language. Today however, the Yakonan language branch is divided into Alsean and Siuslawan. The Alsean people (Yaquina/Alsea/Yachats) all practiced forehead flattening (by slight pressure applied in baby’s cradleboard) until about 1860. The Alsea signed the 1855 Coast Treaty, agreeing to share their homelands with other Tribes when the Siletz Reservation was to be established, the treaty not being ratified by the U.S. Senate, the appropriations never arrived. The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, represented Tillamook, Yaquina, Alsea, Coquille, Tututni, Chetco aboriginal title compensation claims in the 1940s–50s. The lawsuit “Alsea Band of Tillamooks et al vs the United States”. The confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians won that case, and some compensation was received about 1959.

Name
The name "Alsea" comes from /alsíiya/, the name applied to the Alseas by their neighbors, the Tillamook and Coos peoples.

Kûnis'tûnne, Chastacosta name. Päifan amím, Luckiamute Kalapuya name. Si ni'-te-li tunne, Naltunne name, meaning "flatheads." Tcha yáxo amim, Luckiamute Kalapuya name. Tehayesátlu, Nestucca name.

Geography
The Alsea lived on the western coast of Oregon, around what is now Alsea Bay at the mouth of the Alsea River.
 * Villages

"Mooney (1928) estimates the number of Indians belonging to the Yakonan stock at 6,000 in 1780. The census of 1910 returned 29 Indians under this name, and that of 1930 only 9 under the entire Yakonan stock."
 * Chiink, on the south side of Alsea River.
 * Kakhtshanwaish, on the north side of Alsea River.
 * Kalbusht, on the lower course of Alsea River.
 * Kauhuk, on the south side of Alsea River.
 * Kaukhwan, on the north side of Alsea River at Beaver Creek.
 * Khlimkwaish, on the south side of Alsea River.
 * Khlokhwaiyutslu, on the north side of Alsea River.
 * Kutauwa, on the north side of Alsea River at its mouth.
 * Kwamk, on the south side of Alsea River.
 * Kwulisit, on the south side of Alsea River.
 * Kyamaisu, on the north side of Alsea River at its mouth.
 * Panit, on the south side of Alsea River.
 * Shiuwauk, on the north side of Alsea River.
 * Skhakhwaiyutslu, on the south side of Alsea River.
 * Tachuwit, on the north side of Alsea River.
 * Thlekuhweyuk, on the south side of Alsea River.
 * Thlekushauk, on the south side of Alsea River.

Culture
The Alsea hunted seals and sea lions, fished for salmon, and gathered camas roots. Like many tribes in the area, they flattened the heads of infants. They placed their dead in canoes on isolated land jutting into estuaries.

Language
Alsea was an Alsean language very closely related to Yaquina. By 1910, it was almost extinct, with fewer than six people having a speaking knowledge of the language.

Religion
Very little is known about Alsea religion. It is thought to be similar to that of the Coos. Alsea shamans promoted good salmon runs and the Alsea appealed to animal spirits and powers in nature for aid.

Arts
The Alsea wore robes of seal skin, wove baskets and made grass raincoats.

title: Alsea


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Wisma Maria

Wisma Maria
A non-notable building. Delete or trim and merge somewhere. Mikkalai 20:01, 3 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete: Just a building, apparently of interest to the Medical Centre author, as it's the same church. Geogre 05:05, 4 Dec 2004 (UTC)

 * Keep: vfd is 100% Ridiculous. It is the name of a well-known skyscraper. User:Chan Han Xiang
 * Ha-ha, a four-storey skycraper. Mikkalai 19:58, 4 Dec 2004 (UTC)

 * Please note that Chan Han Xiang has modified Geogre's comment from "Delete" to "Delete and merge". --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 17:55, 4 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Sheesh. User:Chan Han Xiang is getting very close to the vandalism that generates 24 hour bans.   This, and then the revenge VfD nominations looks like someone who can't work in the community. Geogre 06:01, 5 Dec 2004 (UTC)

 * Delete. Not notable. Indrian 23:59, Dec 4, 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. --Gtabary 12:06, 6 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Comcat