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BR Standard Class 2 2-6-0

The BR Standard Class 2 2-6-0 is a class of steam locomotive, one of the British Railways Standard classes of the 1950s. They were physically the smallest of the Standard classes; 65 were built.

Overview
The design was derived from the Ivatt-designed Class 2 2-6-0, with a reduced cab to enable it to fit into a universal loading gauge, and other standard fittings, most notably a taller chimney, others including the lack of an Ivatt dome and side plates connecting the two sections of the engine. Like the LMS predecessor the BR design had a tender cab to enhance crew protection and visibility when running tender-first. They were all attached to a BR3 type tender. These locomotives are often known by the nickname "Mickey Mouse".

Construction
Darlington works was responsible for building the entire fleet of 65 engines and for a time construction of the LMS and BR designs overlapped. The last No. 78064 was completed in 1956 but the class remained intact for just seven years. Coincidentally the first to be withdrawn No. 78015 was a Darlington-based engine.

Route availability
Like the LMS counterpart, the Standard Mogul was arranged for a low axle-loading of just 13.75 LT. This allowed it to operate on most lightly laid routes and secondary lines. The route availability was 3. Some of the class had speedometers fitted.

Reputation
Among crews the 2MT 2-6-0 gained a reputation for being very sure-footed. Some maintained however that the engine did not steam well. The loudest complaint was about the draughty and dirty footplate. This was surprising given the efforts of Robert Riddles and his team to optimise working conditions in the Standards' cab layout.

Shed allocations
Two former Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway sheds (Bank Hall (Liverpool) and Wigan (L&Y), respectively), designated 27A and 27D, received an allocation of the class. Bank Hall had 78041–44 which were used with great success on both slow and fast trains from Liverpool Exchange to either Preston, Bolton or Rochdale. The Wigan engines 78040/61–64 were used on stopping trains to Liverpool, Southport, Bolton and Rochdale. They replaced LMS Class 2P 4-4-0s and L&YR 2-4-2Ts. On the former L&Y lines this class was generally employed on passenger work whilst the LMS Class 2 2-6-0s were normally found on shunting and freight jobs until the mid-1960s.

When the Cambrian section closed and other areas dieselised, other members of the class came to the former L&Y lines (some as replacements for those originally allocated to 27A and 27D). These included 78002 (in green livery), 78007, 78027 and 78057. Some of these were used on shunting duties from Bolton and Lostock Hall sheds. Number 78022 preserved on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway had a spell as Preston station passenger pilot whilst allocated to Lostock Hall.

Preservation
Four members of the class survived into preservation, however one member of the class (78059) is currently in the process of being converted to the tank version of the class.

title: BR Standard Class 2 2-6-0


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Strange Days at Blake Holsey High

Strange Days at Blake Holsey High (also known as Black Hole High) is a science fiction television series which first aired in North America in October 2002 on Global TV. It is set at the fictional boarding school of the title, where a Science Club (five students and their teacher) investigates mysterious phenomena, most of which is centered on a wormhole located on the school grounds. Spanning four seasons, the series developed into a success, and has been sold to networks around the globe.

Created by Jim Rapsas, the series intertwines elements of mystery, drama, romance, and comedy. The writing of the show is structured around various scientific principles, with emotional and academic struggles combined with unfolding mysteries of a preternatural nature. In addition to its consistent popularity among children, it has been recognised by adults as strong family entertainment. Forty-two episodes of the series, each roughly twenty-five minutes in length, have been produced, the last three of which premiered in January 2006. Those three final episodes that aired were combined into a film, Strange Days: Conclusions. The show was filmed at the Auchmar Estate on the Hamilton Escarpment in Hamilton, Ontario.

Premise
The show revolves around a group of five friends and their favourite teacher. Together they join the Science Club at Blake Holsey High, a boarding school located in southern Ontario. The name "Blake Holsey" is a pun on the concept of a black hole in that preternatural events constantly happen at the school and affect the students, sometimes as an unexpectedly drastic consequence of their own minor misbehavior. The school's science club considers what a wormhole, a floating Qigong ball, and Pearadyne Industries, a lab that was destroyed years ago right next to the school, all have to do with the mystery.

Characters

 * Josie Trent (portrayed by Emma Taylor-Isherwood) is the show's main protagonist, an intelligent and curious new student who transfers to Blake Holsey High at the beginning of the series, and is the one who discovered the wormhole first.
 * Corrine Baxter (portrayed by Shadia Simmons) is Josie's best friend and roommate, Corrine is the so-called "brains" (with a self-claimed IQ of 172) in the Science Club.
 * Lucas Randall (portrayed by Michael Seater) is a conspiracy theorist and the most driven member of the Science Club.
 * Marshall Wheeler (portrayed by Noah Reid) is Lucas' best friend and roommate, Marshall is more social and fun loving than Lucas.
 * Vaughn Pearson (portrayed by Robert Clark) is the fifth student in the Science Club. Vaughn is intelligent but sometimes struggles in school as a result of dyslexia and has preferred pursuing athletic activities. His father is Victor Pearson, the owner and founder of Pearadyne Industries.
 * Professor Noel Zachary (portrayed by Jeff Douglas) – Professor Zachary, or "Z", is the presiding teacher of the Science Club.
 * Principal Amanda Durst (portrayed by Valerie Boyle) is the disagreeable Principal Durst is a looming presence over the Science Club, and differs with Professor Zachary's easygoing ways. A former science teacher, she is a reluctant conspirator in Victor Pearson's plans.
 * Victor Pearson (portrayed by Lawrence Bayne) is a benefactor of the school and a constant antagonist to the Science Club's investigations.
 * The Janitor (portrayed by Tony Munch) is an enigmatic character who seems to understand the mysteries at Blake Holsey High.

Significant objects and locations

 * Qigong Ball/Chi Ball/Floating Ball: Once a normal ball used to handle stress, but became a source of unlimited potential. Josie had used these balls for relaxation, but during Science Club, one was taken from her by Professor Zachary. The other one was affected by the energy of the wormhole in a trip to the 1970s, which made it gravity-less. It defies the laws of physics, which was why a younger Victor Pearson steals it from Josie years ago when he was in Blake Holsey High. Presenting it to Sarah Lynch, they started their plan to create Pearadyne Industries. Using the Chi Ball to power their lab, it caused an explosion, which led to the destruction of Pearadyne and Sarah's disappearance. Consequently, a wormhole formed at Blake Holsey and caused other strange occurrences. When Josie finds the ball again, she assumes that Vaughn and Victor had plotted to use it. Josie steals it back from them and replaces it with the Chi Ball's original normal partner, leaving Victor under the impression that the Chi Ball has somehow lost its power. However, Josie's clone from the future steals the floating ball back and places it back into Victor's hands.
 * Wormhole: A powerful vortex that can lead to either the future or the past that can be found in the office of Blake Holsey's science teacher. The exact time and duration the wormhole is open is apparently sporadic and it is uncertain when it will lead. Many agents have attempted to keep the knowledge of the wormhole a secret from everyone, however the energy released from the wormhole has affected the students and the school due to the emotions and conditions of the students.
 * Pearadyne Industries/Labs: A laboratory created by Victor Pearson and Sarah Lynch. It was used to create inventions and master quantum physics. On October 4, 1987, Pearadyne was destroyed in an explosion that covered the disappearance of many workers, including Sarah Lynch (Vaughn's mother).

History
Strange Days at Blake Holsey High began airing in Canada on Global as well as VRAK.TV in Quebec. In the United States, meanwhile, it aired on Discovery Kids and NBC, Also airing in the Philippines on ABS-CBN. In late March 2003, almost six months after its North American debut, the series was sold to several international markets at the annual MipTV, which was held at Cannes, France. After the series ended, reruns aired on The Hub until June 25, 2011. The British broadcasting network ITV acquired UK terrestrial television rights to the series, while Fox Kids Europe acquired pay television rights in the UK, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Scandinavia, who themselves pre-sold the series to Disney Channel for Latin American and Australia. In Russia (Tomsk), the series airs on CTC. In Denmark, it airs on TV2 Denmark. It also airs in other European countries such as Norway (and other Scandinavian nations), the Netherlands, Portugal, Israel, Poland, Turkey and Italy, as well as Colombia in South America. The children's television channel in the UK, PopGirl, acquired the rights to show the series in 2012 with a host of other acquired programmes including another season of Life With Derek, Family Biz, Mortified and Zoey 101. They were bought together and Black Hole High was the last to be shown. Coming Soon trailers started broadcasting on the channel until its 29 September debut. It was the first airing of the show in almost five years. The series is currently airing.

Fireworks Entertainment, the company behind Strange Days at Blake Holsey High, closed down after the production of Season 3. There were three additional episodes of the series, which aired as a finale film event on January 28, 2006 on the Discovery Kids channel, as "Strange Days Conclusions". As of June 2006, no episode or season of Strange Days at Blake Holsey High has been legally released to DVD in any country. In 2004 it was announced that a DVD box set of season one was to be released in the United Kingdom on July 26, 2004, and websites such as Amazon put up the DVD for pre-order. The release was later pulled without explanation.

Strange Days at Blake Holsey High has been nominated for several awards, but won none. Writers Jeff King, Jeff Schechter and Thérèse Beaupré were nominated for episodes broadcast in the year 2003 at the 31st Daytime Emmy Awards in 2004, in the category Outstanding Writing in a Children's Series. Emma Taylor-Isherwood, Shadia Simmons and Robert Clark were each given Young Artist Award nominations in early 2003, although Taylor-Isherwood was placed in the supporting category, Simmons was elevated to lead, and Clark was considered a "guest actor". Simmons received a second nomination the following year, alongside Talia Schlanger (Madison). The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television nominated creative team Tony Thatcher, Adam Haight, Jeff King and Kevin May for Best Children's or Youth Fiction Program or Series at the annual Gemini Awards in late 2004, and the Directors Guild of Canada also recognised the show in areas such as sound editing, team achievement, and the product as a whole in 2003 and 2004.

In 2006 Strange Days was nominated for two Emmy Awards: "Outstanding Children's Series" and "Outstanding Writing".

The series went on hiatus in the UK in early September 2006, but returned on November 6, 2006. The show has since been removed from the Jetix schedules.

The series is currently available for streaming on Amazon Prime.

Sequel
A continuation web series has been announced as a sequel to Strange Days. Called Echoes, the show takes place 16 years after the events of "Conclusions" and is intended to show how the events impacted individuals in and out of the school. The web series is currently being released as shorts that will lead into a full on sequel. The first episode of Echoes was released on YouTube on June 16, 2022.

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

title: Strange Days at Blake Holsey High


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Gross national income

The gross national income (GNI), previously known as gross national product (GNP), is the total domestic and foreign output claimed by residents of a country, consisting of gross domestic product (GDP), plus factor incomes earned by foreign residents, minus income earned in the domestic economy by nonresidents.

Comparing GNI to GDP shows the degree to which a nation's GDP represents domestic or international activity. GNI has gradually replaced GNP in international statistics. While being conceptually identical, it is calculated differently. GNI is the basis of calculation of the largest part of contributions to the budget of the European Union. In February 2017, Ireland's GDP became so distorted from the base erosion and profit shifting ("BEPS") tax planning tools of U.S. multinationals, that the Central Bank of Ireland replaced Irish GDP with a new metric, Irish Modified GNI (or "GNI*"). In 2017, Irish GDP was 162% of Irish Modified GNI.

Comparison of GNI and GDP
$$ \mathrm{GNI} = \mathrm{GDP} + \text{Money flowing from foreign countries} - \text{Money flowing to foreign countries}$$

GNI (Atlas method) nominal
Nominal, Atlas method – millions of current US$ (top 15)

GNI (Atlas method) PPP
PPP – millions of international dollars (top 15)

Gross national product
Gross national product (GNP) is the market value of all the goods and services produced in one year by labor and property supplied by the citizens of a country. Unlike gross domestic product (GDP), which defines production based on the geographical location of production, GNP indicates allocated production based on location of ownership. In fact it calculates income by the location of ownership and residence, and so its name is also the less ambiguous gross national income.

GNP is an economic statistic that is equal to GDP plus any income earned by residents from overseas investments minus income earned within the domestic economy by overseas residents.

GNP does not distinguish between qualitative improvements in the state of the technical arts (e.g., increasing computer processing speeds), and quantitative increases in goods (e.g., number of computers produced), and considers both to be forms of "economic growth".

When a country's capital or labour resources are employed outside its borders, or when a foreign firm is operating in its territory, GDP and GNP can produce different measures of total output. In 2009 for instance, the United States estimated its GDP at $14.119 trillion, and its GNP at $14.265 trillion.

The term gross national income (GNI) has gradually replaced the Gross national product (GNP) in international statistics. While being conceptually identical, the precise calculation method has evolved at the same time as the name change.

Use of GNP
The United States used GNP as its primary measure of total economic activity until 1991, when it began to use GDP. In making the switch, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) noted both that GDP provided an easier comparison of other measures of economic activity in the United States and that "virtually all other countries have already adopted GDP as their primary measure of production". Many economists have questioned how meaningful GNP or GDP is as a measure of a nation's economic well-being, as it does not count most unpaid work and counts much economic activity that is unproductive or actually destructive.

GNI vs GDP
While GDP measures the market value of all final goods and services produced in a given country, GNI measures income generated by the country's citizens, regardless of the geographic location of the income. In many states, those two figures are close, as the difference between income received by the country versus payments made to the rest of the world is not significant. According to the World Bank, the GNI of the US in 2016 was 1.5% higher than GDP.

In developing countries, on the other hand, the difference might be significant due to a large amount of foreign aid and capital inflow. In 2016, the GNI of Armenia was 4.45% higher than GDP. Based on the OECD reports, in 2015 alone, Armenia has received a total of US$409 million development assistance. Over the past 25 years, USAID has provided more than one billion USD to improve the living of the people in Armenia. GNI equals GDP plus wages, salaries, and property income of the country's residents earned abroad that also constitutes the higher GNI figure. According to the UN report on migration from Armenia in 2015–17, every year around 15–20 thousand people leave Armenia permanently, and roughly 47% of those are working migrants that leave the country to earn income and sustain the families left in Armenia. In 2016 Armenian residents received in a total of around $150 million remittances. Armenia's GNI, measured in US dollars, amounted to USD 13.5 billion in 2021, according to the National Statistical Office. This is an 8.23% increase over the prior year. GNI in USD terms in Armenia has historically ranged from a record high of USD 13.8 billion in 2019 to a record low of USD 1.06 billion in 1992. Regarding interest rates on GNI expressed in USD, Armenia is ranked 119th out of the 155 monitored nations.

Lists of GNI per capita

 * List of countries by GNI (nominal) per capita
 * List of countries by GNI (PPP) per capita

title: Gross national income


text:
Stinson 108

The Stinson 108 is a popular single-engine, four-seat, light general aviation aircraft produced by the Stinson division of the American airplane company Consolidated Vultee, from immediately after World War II to 1950 (by which time Stinson was a division of Piper Aircraft). The 108 was developed from the prewar Model 10A Voyager (also known as the "Stinson 105").

First built in 1946 -- as a stretched derivative of the Model 10A / 105 Voyager -- more than 5,000 of the model 108 Voyager (or Station Wagon) were produced by Stinson, before the company was acquired by Piper Aircraft in late 1948.

When Piper took over the 108 line, a number of model 108s (estimates ranging from 125 to 500 ) built by Stinson were completed, but unsold, and went to Piper as part of the acquisition. Piper then sold that inventory as the Piper-Stinson over the next few years. Some reports appear to indicate that 108 production and/or sales  continued under Piper until 1949,  1950 or 1951.

In all, 5,260 Stinson (or Piper-Stinson) 108s were reportedly built (one source says all serial numbers above 4231 are Piper-built )  Most models were named "Voyager" (like the preceding 10A/105),  but some were named "Station Wagon,"  reflecting interior modifications to accommodate cargo.

Design and development
The single-engine, four-seat, fixed-gear, high-wing, Stinson 108 series was built with a six-cylinder Franklin engine -- 150 hp 6A4-150, or 165 hp 6A4-165, normally -- driving a fixed-pitch propeller.

The fuselage is of fabric-covered steel tube. Aftermarket modifiers have obtained supplemental type certificates (STC) allowing conversion to an aluminum covering. Many different engines have been installed in the 108 by STC such as the Lycoming O-360, Franklin O-350, Continental O-470.

One distinctive feature is the partial leading edge slot installed on the wings and aligned with the ailerons on the trailing edge, ensuring that the portion of the wing containing the aileron remains unstalled at higher angles of attack, thus contributing to docile stall behavior.

The 108 initially proved popular, with 746 examples built in 1946, while production in 1947 was almost half of all 4-seat private aircraft built in the United States, with the Stinson division the only part of Convair that was profitable for a time.

In 1948, however, overproduction in the US general aviation industry led to a glut of light aircraft, with unsold 108s being stored, and on 30 June 1948, Convair shut down the Stinson factory. The name and assets of Stinson (including 200 unsold 108s) were sold to Piper Aircraft on 1 December 1948, with Piper setting up a Stinson division in April 1949 to sell the complete aircraft inherited from Convair, and to assemble a further 125 aircraft from spare parts. These aircraft were marketed as Piper-Stinson 108s.

Total new production of the Stinson Model 108, by Stinson, was 5,260; this total does not include the two converted prototypes. Stinson delivered approximately 4,935 aircraft and Piper delivered approximately 325 aircraft. Piper later sold the type certificate to Univair Aircraft Corporation. Univair built and certified the model 108-5, but built only one example. Total new model production by Stinson and Univair was 5,261 aircraft.

Variants
The 108 variants closely resemble each other but can be visually distinguished by their design changes:
 * Prototype 108
 * Two prototype model 108s were converted from Stinson model 10A airframes. FAA records show NX31519 was model 108 serial number 1, and NX31532 is model 108 serial number 2. Both registrations later changed to NC. The production model straight 108 would also use serial number 1 and 2, so there was for a short period 2 duplicate serial numbers;

 * 108 Voyager 125
 * Powered by a 125 hp Lycoming O-235 piston engine.

 * 108 Voyager 150
 * Powered by a 150 hp Franklin 6A4-150-B31, B3 or B4 piston engine. 742 built in 1946.

 * 108-1
 * Slightly modified version with external baggage door. 1508 built 1947–1948.

 * 108-2
 * Powered by 165 hp Franklin 6A4-165-B3 or -B5. 1250 built from May 1948. There was a conversion kit to add the rudder trim to the earlier airplanes advertised.

 * 108-3
 * The 108-3 introduced a taller vertical fin with a rudder featuring a straight trailing edge. Larger fuel tanks (50 u.s.gal versus 40 u.s.gal) were also fitted. The -3 has a higher gross weight than its predecessors of 2400 lb. 1760 built by Stinson and Piper.

 * 108-4
 * The 108-4 is a higher powered model 108, sn 108-4693, NX149C, not certified, flown experimentally by Stinson, later by Piper, 1 built.

 * Flying Station Wagon
 * The "Flying Station Wagon" version was an option available with the -1, -2 and -3 models, had a utility interior incorporated wood panelling and a reinforced floor, allowing 600 lb of baggage in the passenger compartment. The aircraft could be fitted with wheel, float or ski landing gear. The single 108-4 built was a Flying Station Wagon.

 * 108-5
 * A single 108-5 was built by Univair, who purchased the Stinson 108 type certificate from Piper, in 1964. The 108-5 used a 180 hp Franklin 6A-335-B1 engine. Univair offered kits to convert earlier aircraft to this standard. The 108-5 brought total model 108 production to 5,261, of which 5,135 were built by Stinson, 125 by Piper, and 1 by Univair.

Operators

 * Spanish Air Force operated eighteen 108-3 aircraft, with the designation L.2.
 * Spanish Air Force operated eighteen 108-3 aircraft, with the designation L.2.

title: Stinson 108


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Frederick Traugott Pursh

Frederick Traugott Pursh (or Friedrich Traugott Pursch) (February 4, 1774 – July 11, 1820) was a German–American botanist.

Born in Großenhain, in the Electorate of Saxony, under the name Friedrich Traugott Pursh, he was educated at Dresden Botanical Gardens, and emigrated to the United States in 1799. From 1802 to 1805, he worked in Philadelphia as the botanical manager of the extensive gardens of William Hamilton, Esq., "The Woodlands." By 1805, he was working for Benjamin Smith Barton on a new flora of North America, under whom he studied the plants collected on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. His work with Barton allowed him to travel farther afield. In 1805, he traveled south from Maryland to the Carolinas and, in 1806, he traveled north from the mountains of Pennsylvania to New Hampshire. He made both trips principally on foot, with only his dog and a gun, covering over three thousand miles each season.

Barton's proposed flora was never written, but Pursh, who then moved to London, England, did make a major contribution to North American botany in his Flora americae septentrionalis; or A Systematic Arrangement and Description of The Plants of North America (variously dated as published in 1813 or 1814). He then returned to America, moving to Canada in 1816. He botanized a great deal in Quebec, but all the material he accumulated was destroyed by fire before it could be organized into suitable form for publication. His hopes of carrying out further major work were prevented by ill health due to alcoholism.

He was so destitute when he died in Montreal that his funeral expenses had to be defrayed by his friends. His remains lay in the Papineau Road cemetery until 1857, when they were moved to the Mount Royal Cemetery. A proper monument was paid for by subscription. It read as follows:

 * Frederick Pursh,
 * Obt. 1820, AEt. 46.
 * Erected
 * By Members of the
 * Natural History Society
 * of Montreal
 * 1878.

His name is commemorated in the genus Purshia (bitterbush) and in several species, e.g. Rhamnus purshiana.

title: Frederick Traugott Pursh


text: Category:Science fiction short story collections by Isaac Asimov


text: Template:Politics of Cambodia

title: Template:Politics of Cambodia


text:
Désirée Cousteau

Désirée Cousteau is the stage name of a pornographic actress and striptease artist who was active in the late 1970s and early 1980s. She is best known for her role in the 1978 film Pretty Peaches.

Pre-porn
Cousteau aspired to be a mainstream model, but was told she was not tall enough or thin enough to succeed. After a period modeling lingerie, she secured a small part in Jonathan Demme's 1974 debut Caged Heat, a women in prison film. She is credited as Deborah Clearbranch. In the same year she did a photo shoot for Penthouse magazine, again as Deborah Clearbranch, which was published in the June issue. She then dropped from view for a time, her career stalled.

Porn
In the late 1970s she began a relationship with Jeff Scheer, who would become her husband and manager. She got breast implants (rare at the time), performed as a go-go dancer, and looked for pornographic work. Her porn career began in 1978, when she did sex scenes in four films, initially with the hybrid stage name of Désirée Clearbranch, before taking a more substantial role in Bob Chinn's Hot and Saucy Pizza Girls, in which she has three sex scenes and something of a narrative arc. Pizza Girls was followed a couple months later by Alex de Renzy's Pretty Peaches, a film constructed entirely around Cousteau. It instantly established her as a porn star, a status confirmed when she won the Adult Film Association of America Best Actress Award for her performance the following year.

Other roles quickly followed, most trading on the dizzy naïf persona Cousteau created for Pretty Peaches (whose storyline was distantly derived from Voltaire's Candide). She made around twenty features and loops in 1979, as well as doing photo shoots for magazines such as Hustler and High Society. Cousteau's 1979 credits include scenes in three movies by French director Gérard Kikoïne. One was in the ambitious French-American co-production Aphrodesia's Diary, shot mostly in New York and not released until 1983, but the other two were shot in France (Cousteau's dialogue was dubbed).

Cousteau announced her retirement from porn films in an interview with Midnight Blue at an event to promote Deep Rub in the latter part of 1979. She appears, however, to have undertaken a few projects after that date, with a handful of loops and features in 1980 and 1981. All later films purporting to involve Cousteau use archival footage.

Colleagues including the actresses Seka and Annette Haven recall Cousteau's eccentric behavior on movie shoots. Cinematographer David Jennings considered her psychologically unsuited for pornographic work. Actor and director John Sleeman concluded that "she didn't like being in the business". This is the impression Cousteau gives in the Midnight Blue interview, in which she says she prefers striptease, "Because you're on a stage and you never have physical contact with anyone. I never leave the stage. So there's an isolation and a security there that I don't feel with films." In 1980 Cousteau said she could afford to slow down because her film work provided her with a salary and a percentage of profits, which would have been extraordinary in an industry where even the biggest stars were paid by the day.

Post-porn
At the time of the Midnight Blue interview, Cousteau was appearing at the Melody Burlesk in New York, which regularly featured porn stars in addition to its house dancers. By 1980 she had developed a one-woman show consisting of dance and striptease followed by a Q&A, which she performed in November at the Aquarius Burlesk in Gloucester City, New Jersey. Cousteau "was covered with a coat and led off stage" by police during a performance at the Parkway Theater in Milwaukee, but "the district attorney's office declined to issue charges". Undaunted, she appeared on New York cable television's The Robin Byrd Show in December and danced topless "in front of the single Ikegami camera" to promote her stage work.

Cousteau was still touring in the Fall of 1981. The venues were mostly X-rated cinemas and burlesque theaters in smaller cities and towns. She spent three weeks a month on the road and did up to five performances a day, including posing nude on patrons' laps for $5 a photograph (with Jeff Scheer as photographer). One such patron in Fort Wayne, Indiana was a vice squad officer, who arrested Cousteau for public indecency. She was identified at the time of her arrest (17 September 1981) as Deborah A. Scheer, aged 26, of Arvada, Colorado. After more than a year of physically gruelling live performance and at least two brushes with the law, she appears to have quit the adult entertainment industry by the end of 1981.

Cousteau's films remained staples of the shrinking X-rated cinema circuit in the 1980s and of cable television in the 1990s, as well as of X-rated home video. She was inducted into the XRCO Hall of Fame in 1993, and into the AVN Hall of Fame in 1997.

1974

 * Caged Heat (1974), by Jonathan Demme (Cousteau is credited as Deborah Clearbranch)

1978

 * The China Cat (1978), by Bob Chinn (Cousteau is credited mononymically as Clearbranch)
 * Easy (1978), by Anthony Spinelli (Cousteau is credited as Désirée Clearbranch)
 * A Formal Faucett (1978), by Fred J. Lincoln (Cousteau is credited as Désirée Clearbranch)
 * Telefantasy (1978), by Bob Chinn
 * Hot and Saucy Pizza Girls (1978), by Bob Chinn
 * Pretty Peaches (1978), by Alex de Renzy

1979

 * 800 Fantasy Lane (1979), by Svetlana Mischoff
 * Candy Goes to Hollywood (1979), by Gail Palmer
 * Aphrodesia's Diary (shot in 1979, released in 1983), by Gérard Kikoïne
 * Enquêtes (1979), by Gérard Kikoïne
 * Initiation au collège (1979), aka French Finishing School, by Gérard Kikoïne (as Loic Chalmain)
 * The Tale of Tiffany Lust (released in France as Dolly l'initiatrice in 1979, released in the U.S. in 1981), by Radley Metzger (credited to Gérard Kikoïne)
 * Deep Rub (1979), by Leonard Kirtman (as Leon Gucci)
 * Female Athletes (1979), by Leonard Kirtman (as Leon Gucci)
 * Getting Off (1979), by Ed De Priest
 * Hot Lunch (1979), by John Hayes (as Harold Perkins)
 * Hot Rackets (1979), by Gary Graver (as Robert McCallum) (Cousteau is credited as Désirée Clearbranch)
 * Inside Désirée Cousteau (1979), by Leonard Kirtman (as Leon Gucci)
 * Intimate Illusions (1979), aka Boiling Point, by Gary Graver (as Paul Levis) (Cousteau is credited as Danielle Hunnee)
 * Ms. Magnificent (1979), aka Superwoman, by Joe Sherman
 * Summer Heat (1979), by Christy McCabe and Charles Webb
 * The Ecstasy Girls (1979), by Gary Graver (as Robert Mc Callum)

1980

 * Randy (1980), aka Randy the Electric Lady, by Phillip Schuman and Zachary Strong

1981

 * Center Spread Girls (shot in 1981, released in 1982), by Gary Graver (as Robert McCulum)
 * Delicious (1981), by Bill Milling (as Philip Drexler Jr.)

Loops
Cousteau also appeared in loop collections such as Swedish Erotica (Caballero) and Electric Blue (Scripglow). Some of this material may have been recycled.

title: Désirée Cousteau


text:
Talk:U.S. presidential election, 2008/Archive 1

When did Michael Bloomberg come into this picture? Didn't the guy just switch parties to run for Mayor? His loyalty to the Republican Party is unproven, not to mention his liberal views. I doubt they would ever think of nominating him. --Jiang 23:21, 23 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * Maybe the list should be left out entirely. The article itself says such predictions would be useless. --Jiang 23:43, 23 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * No, the article doesn't say useless, it says tentative, which is correct. --Mcarling 23:49, 23 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * Or rather, "difficult". --Jiang 23:52, 23 Dec 2003 (UTC)

How about Bill Owens?
The most widely-discussed candidate at this point is Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, whom the article doesn't even mention. John Ashcroft, though unelectable, is also talked about as the candidate of the Far Right.

As to Giuliani or Colin Powell, I think a great deal depends on the outcome of this year's election. If Bush is re-elected, I think it will be somebody like Frist or Owens. If Kerry wins, though, I think the Republicans will be infected with a visceral desire to "Bush" him. In that case, a pro-choice candidate like Rudy Giuliani or Colin Powell or Tom Ridge might well become acceptable on the ground of electability to people who otherwise wouldn't support him.

If Bush is re-elected and Cheney steps down in mid-term, of course, the new Veep will automatically become the front-runner

Reorganized List
I reshuffled the list of potentials in party affiliation, creating three categories, with one being for "Other Parties and independents" which I hope is respectful enough. To me, it makes it easier to see the potential races for the nominations. This is fun. -- Decumanus 09:35, 7 Feb 2004 (UTC)
 * also added Jeb and Harold Ford Jr., who if you see if him on tv, you can see how people are going to be talking about this guy a few years down the road for higher office. See A bit young this time around, but I think his name will be thrown about, with implications for 2012 and beyond. I should add: I see him as a potential candidate, not a potential nominee. There's obviously a big difference. OK I added two three names. That's all the speculating I'm going to do about this thing for a while.-- Decumanus 09:46, 7 Feb 2004 (UTC)
 * Do we really think a 38 year old (in 2008) Congressman without a strong national reputation will even be a potential candidate in 2008? I agree with after 2012, when he'll be 42 and possibly a Senator or Governor, but a 38 year old Congressman?  Isn't that a bit of a reach, even for a list of potentials? --Xinoph 16:13, Mar 25, 2004 (UTC)
 * I'll believe that an African American can be elected statewide in Tennessee when I see it. Until then, he's in the highest office that he can hold.  When was the last time that a House member was nominated by a national party for President?

Rlquall 13:37, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Added (D)'s + Gov. Commentary
I added the following Democrats to the potential candidates section: U.S. Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, also a former Governor U.S. Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, co-sponsor of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002. Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico, former Congressman and Secretary of Energy, amongst other things. I also added a brief paragraph to the "Lessons from History" section pointing out that four of the last five Presidents have been Governors, and that the last U.S. Senator elected President was John Kennedy in 1960. --Xinoph 13:00, Mar 9, 2004 (UTC)

What about Haley Barbour?
I don't know, but, I wonder if in Barbour's running for governor of Mississippi, he may be trying to set up a potential run for the presidency. After all, most Presidents have been a governor at some time or another earlier in their political careers. With that in mind, I added Barbour's name to the list.

Clinton vs Bush? again?
What if Bush wins in 2004, and in 2008 Florida Governor Bush runs against Hillary Clinton? I think It is absolutely possible.

Armen Abelyan

My prediction for the 2008 election-
Jeb Bush/Bill Frist ticket vs John Edwards/Wes Clark ticket

Bush will win re-election, thus setting up a non-incumbent election in 08. I also predict that Jeb's Bush name will stir up the Republican base, and Jeb's popularity in Florida will win him the Presidency. Bill Frist would be the perfect running-mate for Jeb.

Biographical Lines
I've added short biographical lines to the possible candidates list. I thought this would be an easy way for people to make their own decisions about whether a candidate is possible or plausible merely by looking at this page, and not pawing through all the biographical articles. In all cases I have listed only their most recent (or currently held) office; if they held that office in the past, I have indicated dates. Xinoph 15:06, Sep 4, 2004 (UTC)

Ruty Gulinony for president becuase of his political backround and the job that he did in New York after the terrorist attack.I think he will be the best candidate for the job.

Ashcroft
There is zero chance that Ashcroft will be a presidential candidate. First, he was defeated for reelection to the US Senate in what should have been a safe Republican seat by a dead guy. Second, he is possibly the most unpopular political figure in the US.

Exactly what I was thinking. While the major parties certainly aren't above nominating bad choices, Ashcroft goes beyond just "bad" as a choice. Even if he were stupid enough to run for nomination, even Republicans don't like him -- he would never be nominated.

--- Ashcroft as VP, especially after a terrorist attack on the US is more likely that some would like to consider, I'll wager ---

The candidate lists are too speculative
Trying to speculate about who the Democratic candidate might be before we know whether or not the incumbent will be a Democrat is premature, at best. On the Republican side, there is an overwhelming likelihood that McCain will be the nominee. The current lists portray a wholly inaccurate picture by obscuring these facts. I propose that the candidate lists be removed, at least until after the 2004 election.
 * Yes, but it's a handy resource for do-it-yourself political commentators :-) And it's fun to maintain. --zenohockey 01:22, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * And the "overwhelming likelihood that McCain will be the nominee" would be awfully POV, too. He's anathema to many religious conservatives, and they tend to play hugely in Republican primaries. And many serious commentators would give edges to various other candidates, notably Giuliani or Jeb Bush. 64.229.35.161 02:48, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Another point about McCain -- he will be 72 years old in 2008. Reagan aside, that's pretty old for a presidential race. I doubt he'd really be up for it. (I tend to like McCain myself, but I think 2000 was his chance, sadly.) Acheron 20:00, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

8 more years
"If George W. Bush won re-election in 2004, and sentiments across party lines looked favorably on a contest between him and Bill Clinton in 2008, a change to this term limit might find support."

Bush for 8 more years? Why not, fine by me.
 * This would require a constitutional amendment, which could only pass with overwhelming public support. The chances are remote. Mcarling 9:09, 9 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Schwarzenegger
I'm not sure if he should go on the speculative candidates list, but given the talk that's been going around recently about a constitutional amendment to allow foreign-born candidates, it's entirely possible that he could be considered for 2008. TheProject 04:36, 2 Nov 2004 (UTC)

And here I was waiting for T4 *pouts* Daddydog 06:46, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

"Refused Candidates"
I don't think this should be in the article. Cause afterall- most Presidential candidates say the same thing before they run. With that logic- Guilani, Frist, and Owens have to be taken off the list too. All are widely considered to be the GOP frontrunners.

Of course no one knows who it will be this early. But Jeb may throw his hat in yet, you never know. Daddydog 06:49, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

 * I've been bold and done this. (172.186.42.31 19:09, 6 Nov 2004 (UTC))

 * I added the section and I disagree with the removal of the list. It should be there. This is a list of potential candidates. Jeb Bush nor Dick Cheney is a potential candidate, for both have declared not to seek the presidency. Therefore, they should not be on the list. However, to make clear that they were not simply "forgotten", we need a list of candidates who declared *not* to run. That's what this list is for. I'll be bold and place it back. Gerritholl 13:17, 7 Nov 2004 (UTC)

 * And yet, in politics, simply declaring that you will not run does not necessarily mean you are not a potential candidate. - Nat Krause 13:32, 7 Nov 2004 (UTC)

 * I think that the list should be included for that very reason - potential candidates should be listed in this article, yet we should note that they've said that they're not running. --Goobergunch 17:35, 7 Nov 2004 (UTC)

 * Fair enough. I've moved two other refused Republicans, plus the first two refused Dems (Obama and Hillary). Let's see if any of them change their minds over the next three and a bit year. (172.202.9.48 18:30, 7 Nov 2004 (UTC))

Just because a candidate says he isn't running doesn't mean it's true. Sometimes a candidate can have many reasons for saying that- not wanting the surprise to leak out, wanting to leave the base in suspense, etc.

BTW- Bill Owens and Bill Frist have both said they wont run. Based on various interviews I saw them both do on the major cable news networks. If you take all these candidates off the list (Giuliani, Frist, Owens, Pataki, Jeb, McCain- if you take all these guys off, the Republicans have no one to run). Daddydog 22:13, 7 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Time to reform the article
I believe the "2008- if Kerry wins" scenario should be taken off right about now. Daddydog 06:51, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

John Thune
John Thune for president?!That's a bit joke!I think we should remove him from this list.Everyone agree?

John Thune is the most stupid idiot in the world.

Tom Daschle
I love Tom Daschle.

Section moved here
Hi, I've moved the following section from the article, as it has nothing to do with 2008. john k 07:38, 8 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Moved to U.S. presidential election
I moved the last revision of this extant on our page before john k removed it again tonight to U.S. presidential election, under the heading "Presidential candidacies." I made slight changes: one typo fix, one wording change slightly downplaying Kerry and Edwards' surges leading up to the first primaries which I thought was overplayed, and obvious changes to the superstructure to fit it into the context of its new home. There's considerable promise there for there for a section of encyclopedic value and use, but it probably was misplaced in an article about the 2008 election. Samaritan 07:40, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Yes, exactly. I have no problem with the section as such, but it has nothing to do with 2008. john k 16:10, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Candidates: The lessons from history
Predictions as to who will be a major party's candidate in the 2008 election are difficult to make. Past selections suggest that the Democrats and Republicans will likely look to a present or former President or Vice-President, a Senator or Representative, or a state Governor. The last candidate from one of the two major parties who had not previously served in one of the elective offices listed above was General Dwight D. Eisenhower who won the Republican nomination and ultimately the presidency in the 1952 election.

It should be noted that although Representatives and Cabinet members have frequently run in their party's primaries, they have rarely been nominated in the 20th century. Furthermore, most Senators nominated have served at least one full term, and often in a leadership capacity, before being considered prominent enough to become a serious contender for their party's nomination.

In recent years, electoral success has favored state governors. Of the last five Presidents (Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush), only George H.W. Bush was never Governor of a state. Geographically, these Presidents were all from either very large states (California, Texas) or from a state south of the Mason-Dixon Line and east of Texas (Georgia, Arkansas). The last elected President from a northern state was John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts in 1960; he was also the last sitting U.S. Senator elected President.

A major turnover in each of these offices will occur in gubernatorial and congressional elections due in 2006, which could see new potential challengers emerging or present challengers facing new circumstances.

Among the past upsets and unexpected candidates were the following:

 * Abraham Lincoln was a little-known Congressman from Illinois when he arrived in New York City for the Republican Convention in 1860. His speech at the Cooper Union immediately catapulted him into the nomination. The photographs of him taken by Matthew Brady in his signature tophat before his speech were distributed to newspapers around the country, making him an instant nationwide celebrity. The current nominating process makes convention surprises like this extremely unlikely.
 * Warren G. Harding was a little-known U.S. Senator from Ohio before receiving the Republican nomination in presidential election of 1920. Considered the last true "dark horse" candidate, he emerged from complete obscurity to become president in less than six months.
 * Calvin Coolidge was a little-known one-term governor of Massachusetts leading up to the presidential election of 1920. Following a deadlock for vice president at the 1920 Republican National Convention, he received the nomination after a delegate from Oregon shouted his name out into the crowd. After Harding's death in 1923, Coolidge received the nomination and easily won re-election in the presidential election of 1924.
 * Many people predicted that the presidential election of 1936 would be a close election, in part due to what was expected to be a strong challenge from the left by William Lemke and the short-lived Union Party, but President Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Kansas Governor Alfred M. Landon in a landslide.
 * In 1944, Harry S. Truman was a little known U.S. Senator from Missouri. Picked by Franklin Roosevelt to replace the increasingly radical Henry Wallace as Vice President, Truman still languished in near complete obscurity during the first months of his term as Vice President and was never once invited to the White House by Roosevelt. Immediately after Roosevelt's death, Truman was catapulted into the Presidency. Later he was widely predicted to lose the presidential election of 1948, with Governor Thomas Dewey seen as the certain victor.  This prediction, however, was largely based on telephone polling at a time when there was still a statistically very significant proportion of the population who did not have telephones, and who generally favored Truman.
 * Most Republican insiders, and many other observers, in 1952 felt that "Mr. Republican" Robert Taft would easily turn back the challenge of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, previously an apolitical soldier who had never so much as even voted; however it was "Ike", not Taft, who went on the the Republican presidential nomination and won subsequent election.
 * In 1964 it seemed to many that Senator Barry Goldwater would be too conservative to make major inroads into the ensconced "regular" Republican apparatus that had governed the party for generations. This perception was enhanced when the 1964 New Hampshire primary was won by Henry Cabot Lodge in a write-in campaign largely orchestrated by the Manchester Union-Leader.  However, Goldwater came back to swamp his rivals, notably Nelson Rockefeller, in the later primaries and then withstood a "Anybody But Goldwater" movement which coalesced around Pennsylvania governor William Scranton in the runup to the 1964 Republican National Convention, and Goldwater received the nomination, but was swamped by Lyndon Johnson in the general election.
 * Following his defeat in the 1960 election, few imagined that Richard Nixon would become the Republican nominee, let alone the Republican victor, in the 1968 election, nor were they prepared for the shock assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy and the decision of President Lyndon Johnson to drop out of the 1968 race. These events resulted in an electoral battle that no one had expected. In mid-1967 the conventional wisdom was that Michigan governor George Romney would be the Republican nominee, or that New York governor Nelson Rockerfeller would finally be successful in obtaining the nomination on his third attempt.  It hardly seemed likely that Romney would drop out of the race in December, 1967, three months before the first primary was held in New Hampshire, or that Rockefeller would again be overwhelmed in the primaries by the unsucessful nominee from eight years prior.  Later the "conventional wisdom" became that George Wallace, Democratic governor of Alabama running for President on the ticket of his self-created American Independent Party, would carry most or all of the eleven states of the old Confederacy, probably forcing the election into the United States House of Representatives and becoming something of a "kingmaker" who could make strong demands upon the major party candidates in exchange for Southern support.  However, in the end he wound up receiving only about 13% of the popular vote and 46 electoral votes, which was not enough to force the election into the House or otherwise disrupt anything about Nixon's plurality popular vote win and large Electoral College majority.
 * In 1972, it was widely predicted that the 1972 Democratic nominee would be either 1968 vice presidential nominee Edmund S. Muskie or his old boss, 1968 Democratic presidential nominee Hubert H. Humphrey. Few thought that it would be George McGovern, a Senator from a state with only three electoral votes (South Dakota) which usually supported Republicans in presidential elections, and who was little-known by the public at large outside of Democratic Party inner circles until the 1972 primary season.
 * After the 1972 election, few could have predicted that the 1976 presidential election would involve Congressman Gerald Ford, who suddenly became Vice President and then President after the resignations of Vice President Spiro Agnew and President Nixon. Likewise, Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter was largely unknown politician prior to his 1976 run, and not expected to be a large player in the race.  In fact, the announcement that he was running was met with yawns by most political pundits and the mainstream media of the time, and this perception did not change until his upset win in the Iowa caucuses. Conversely Senator Edward Kennedy was widely predicted as destined to be the Democratic candidate in either 1976 or 1980. However, after the depth to which the 1969 Chappaquiddick scandal had damaged his credibity with much of the public at large, including many Democratic primary voters, at least those outside of Massachusetts, became readily apparent, Kennedy's name was taken off the table temporarily. After an attempt to seek the Democratic nomination in the 1980 election revealed just the depth to which this scandal and the damage it had done to his reputation had lingered, and the general public's perception of him of being, unlike his brothers, an "ultraliberal", Kennedy has never again sought the presidency.
 * Gary Hart was a little-known U.S. Senator from Colorado at the time he lauched his bid in 1983. Few political commentators had been prepared for the initial shock of Hart beating former Vice President Walter Mondale in the 1984 New Hampshire Primary and challenging Mondale for the Democratic nomination. Hart was later considered a frontrunner for the 1988 Democratic nomination before the Donna Rice affair in 1987.
 * Michael Dukakis was not widely predicted to be candidate for the 1988 election until his challenge was launched.
 * After the 1988 election, Bill Clinton (then Governor of Arkansas) was not regarded as serious contender for the 1992 election. His long-winded and widely ridiculed opening night address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention was generally thought to destroyed whatever small amount of credibility he might have possessed at the national level.  At the time, many people believed that New York governor Mario Cuomo would be Democratic candidate in 1992.  When the Gennifer Flowers affair was then exposed in early 1992, it was at first assumed that it would destroy Clinton's chance for the nomination in the same way that the Donna Rice affair had destroyed those of Gary Hart five years previously.
 * Paul Tsongas, Bill Clinton's main challenger for the 1992 nomination, was a little known former U.S. Senator from Massachusetts at the start of the 1992 campaign.
 * George H. W. Bush was seen by many as unbeatable in the year prior to the 1992 presidential election due to his record approval ratings in the wake of the Gulf War.
 * Howard Dean, former governor of the small state of Vermont, was not considered a serious contender when he launched his bid in 2003. Conversely, he later held commanding leads in both fundraising and opinion polls during the months prior to the Democratic primaries in the 2004 presidential election, but his campaign fizzled after stunning surges from John Kerry and John Edwards in the weeks prior to the earliest primaries.

The failure of front-runners like Edward Kennedy, Mario Cuomo and Howard Dean to win their parties' nominations, and unexpected victories like those of Harry Truman, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, show that any predictions made will have to be tentative.

Conversely, early serious contenders (excluding sitting presidents) who turned back their challengers and later went on to receive their party's nomination as expected include:

 * Herbert Hoover in 1928. Although never elected to office, he had served as Secretary of Commerce and was widely known as an "engineering genius" for his relief efforts in Europe in World War I. He was widely considered as Coolidge's heir apparent who would continue the prosperity of the 1920s.
 * Thomas Dewey in 1944. Although he had lost to Franklin Roosevelt in the waning days of World War II in 1944, he was later considered the frontrunner for the nomination in 1948.
 * Adlai Stevenson in 1956. He had been the nominee in 1952, losing to Dwight Eisenhower.
 * Richard Nixon in 1960, the sitting Vice President.
 * John F. Kennedy in 1960. Although not considered the frontrunner in part because of his relative youth (many thought Stevenson would win a third nomination), he was widely considered to be a possible candidate at some point. His victory over Hubert Humphrey in the West Virginia primary established him as a serious candidate to challenge party insider Lyndon Johnson, who later became Kennedy's Vice President.
 * Hubert Humphrey in 1968, the sitting Vice President. His most serious challenger, Robert Kennedy, entered the race late but was assassinated after winning the California Primary less than two months before the convention.
 * Ronald Reagan in 1980. He had mounted a serious and hard-fought challenge to Gerald Ford in 1976. Early in the campaign, however, few anticipated his landslide victory over Jimmy Carter.
 * Walter Mondale in 1984, former Vice President, who turned back the unexpected challenge from Gary Hart.
 * George H.W. Bush in 1988, the sitting Vice President. Although he received an early challenge from televangelist Pat Robertson, he drive for the nomination was never seriously threatened.
 * Al Gore in 2000, the sitting Vice President, who turned back a challenge from Senator Bill Bradley.
 * George W. Bush in 2000. His early heavyweight status was based partly on name recognition. He received the lion's share of early fundraising support in the Republican Party in 1999 and later turned back a serious challenge from John McCain to seal the nomination on Super Tuesday in March 2000.
 * John F. Kerry in 2004.  His early frontrunner status was due to several factors: his lengthy Senate career, his inclusion in 2000 on Al Gore's VP "short list", and his well-known military service in Vietnam.  In the pre-voting, fundraising phase of the primary process, his campaign stalled and Vermont Governor Howard Dean became the leading candidate in the eyes of the media and many enthusiastic volunteers. Kerry reshuffled his campaign staff, won the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, and almost every primary thereafter.

A question from a newcomer
I feel uncomfortable pontificating on American politics, as I am a newcomer to the USA, having moved to this country from England just over a year ago. But I was wondering about an omission form the possible Democratic candidates list. My wife's home state of West Virginia was in the news briefly for electing a Democratic governor, Joe Manchin, despite the state going to Bush in the presidential race. Manchin seems to fit the criteria for potential candidates outlined in the article, being governor of a state south of the Mason-Dixon line and east of Texas. He also has proven ability to appeal to red-state voters. I would have thought this would at least make him a possibility as a Dem candidate. But as I know so little, I assume there's some reason that he wasn't included which I'm missing. I'm just posting this to find out what that reason is. I have no connection to the man or his campaign beyond the fact that my wife was born in WV - if he had been governor of any other state, I doubt I'd have even noticed him in the newspaper reports!

 * Once again - my view is that people should only be listed if they have been mentioned as potential presidential candidates in the press, not because wikipedians think they would be plausible candidates. The latter strikes me as being essentially "original research," which we are not supposed to engage in. john k 18:37, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Pelosi and Reid, "refused" candidates
Firstly, can anyone give any support for Pelosi and Reid being discussed as possible candidates for the nomination? If it is unsourced, I see no basis for the argument that they should be on the list. Secondly, considering that some of the most discussed candidates have at least quasi-refused to run, wouldn't it be appropriate to list them all together, and note any refusals in the description, rather than having a separate section? john k 18:40, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Removed fluff
I trimmed this out the of the article:
 * Each candidate listed carries both strengths and deficits; a candidate may be much younger than the typical presidential candidate, or older, or may have some weakness (or overweight) in senior-level political experience, national, foreign or domestic experience, or executive leadership experience. Some candidates may be seen as especially liberal for a presidential candidate, others as especially conservative. These are not lists of the most "mainstream" or "electable" candidates alone. As much as possible, potential candidates listed are among those who could mount reasonably high-profile campaigns for their party's nomination, or independent candidacies as applicable.

Essentially, these sentences don't make an argument. They convey no information that would be either essential or informative. --Jiang 01:03, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I wrote that essentially to caution against the plague of extremely subjective deletions without breaking into self-reference; maybe a self-referential tag outside of the main article would have been better. Anyway, I liked your shortened version Jiang, and there's now a note to editors at the top of the Democratic and Republican that appears only in the edit window conveys the same basic caution. 64.229.33.197 01:17, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)


text:
Flocculation

In colloidal chemistry, flocculation is a process by which colloidal particles come out of suspension to sediment in the form of floc or flake, either spontaneously or due to the addition of a clarifying agent. The action differs from precipitation in that, prior to flocculation, colloids are merely suspended, under the form of a stable dispersion (where the internal phase (solid) is dispersed throughout the external phase (fluid) through mechanical agitation) and are not truly dissolved in solution.

Coagulation and flocculation are important processes in fermentation and water treatment with coagulation aimed to destabilize and aggregate particles through chemical interactions between the coagulant and colloids, and flocculation to sediment the destabilized particles by causing their aggregation into floc.

Term definition
According to the IUPAC definition, flocculation is "a process of contact and adhesion whereby the particles of a dispersion form larger-size clusters". Flocculation is synonymous with agglomeration and coagulation/coalescence.

Basically, coagulation is a process of addition of coagulant to destabilize a stabilized charged particle. Meanwhile, flocculation is a technique that promotes agglomeration and assists in the settling of particles. The most common used coagulant is alum, Al2(SO4)3·14H2O.

The chemical reaction involved:

 * Al2(SO4)3 · 14 H2O → 2 Al(OH)3(s) + 6 H+ + 3 + 8 H2O

During flocculation, gentle mixing accelerates the rate of particle collision, and the destabilized particles are further aggregated and enmeshed into larger precipitates. Flocculation is affected by several parameters, including mixing shear and intensity, time and pH. The product of the mixing intensity and mixing time is used to describe flocculation processes.

Jar test
The process by which the dosage and choice of flocculant are selected is called a jar test. The equipment used for jar testing consists of one or more beakers, each equipped with a paddle mixer. After the addition of flocculants, rapid mixing takes place, followed by slow mixing and later the sedimentation process. Samples can then be taken from the aqueous phase in each beaker.

Surface chemistry
In colloid chemistry, flocculation refers to the process by which fine particulates are caused to clump together into a floc. The floc may then float to the top of the liquid (creaming), settle to the bottom of the liquid (sedimentation), or be readily filtered from the liquid. Flocculation behavior of soil colloids is closely related to freshwater quality. High dispersibility of soil colloids not only directly causes turbidity of the surrounding water but it also induces eutrophication due to the adsorption of nutritional substances in rivers and lakes and even boats under the sea.

Physical chemistry
For emulsions, flocculation describes clustering of individual dispersed droplets together, whereby the individual droplets do not lose their identity. Flocculation is thus the initial step leading to further ageing of the emulsion (droplet coalescence and the ultimate separation of the phases). Flocculation is used in mineral dressing, but can be also used in the design of physical properties of food and pharmaceutical products.

Medical diagnostics
In a medical laboratory, flocculation is the core principle used in various diagnostic tests, for example the rapid plasma reagin test.

Civil engineering/earth sciences
In civil engineering, and in the earth sciences, flocculation is a condition in which clays, polymers or other small charged particles become attached and form a fragile structure, a floc. In dispersed clay slurries, flocculation occurs after mechanical agitation ceases and the dispersed clay platelets spontaneously form flocs because of attractions between negative face charges and positive edge charges.

Biology
Flocculation is used in biotechnology applications in conjunction with microfiltration to improve the efficiency of biological feeds. The addition of synthetic flocculants to the bioreactor can increase the average particle size making microfiltration more efficient. When flocculants are not added, cakes form and accumulate causing low cell viability. Positively charged flocculants work better than negatively charged ones since the cells are generally negatively charged.

Cheese industry
Flocculation is widely employed to measure the progress of curd formation in the initial stages of cheese making to determine how long the curds must set. The reaction involving the rennet micelles are modeled by Smoluchowski kinetics. During the renneting of milk the micelles can approach one another and flocculate, a process that involves hydrolysis of molecules and macropeptides.

Flocculation is also used during cheese wastewater treatment. Three different coagulants are mainly used:
 * FeSO4 (iron(II) sulfate)
 * Al2(SO4)3 (aluminium sulfate)
 * FeCl3 (iron(III) chloride)

Brewing
In the brewing industry flocculation has a different meaning. It is a very important process in fermentation during the production of beer where cells form macroscopic flocs. These flocs cause the yeast to sediment or rise to the top of a fermentation at the end of the fermentation. Subsequently, the yeast can be collected (cropped) from the top (ale fermentation) or the bottom (lager fermentation) of the fermenter in order to be reused for the next fermentation.

Yeast flocculation is partially determined by the calcium concentration, often in the 50-100ppm range. Calcium salts can be added to cause flocculation, or the process can be reversed by removing calcium by adding phosphate to form insoluble calcium phosphate, adding excess sulfate to form insoluble calcium sulfate, or adding EDTA to chelate the calcium ions. While it appears similar to sedimentation in colloidal dispersions, the mechanisms are different.

Water treatment process
Flocculation and sedimentation are widely employed in the purification of drinking water as well as in sewage treatment, storm-water treatment and treatment of industrial wastewater streams. Typical treatment processes consist of grates, coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, granular filtration and disinfection. As the demand for eco-friendly solutions in the flocculation process continues to grow, biopolymers are emerging as a highly promising solution. Among these, chitosan stands out for its exceptional properties, making it a top contender in this environmentally-conscious endeavor. Chitosan is not only biodegradable but also exhibits a unique ability to bind with a wide range of contaminants, including heavy metals and organic pollutants, effectively removing them from water sources.

Deflocculation
Deflocculation is the exact opposite of flocculation, also sometimes known as peptization. Sodium silicate (Na2SiO3) is a typical example. Usually in higher pH ranges in addition to low ionic strength of solutions and domination of monovalent metal cations the colloidal particles can be dispersed. The additive that prevents the colloids from forming flocs is called a deflocculant. For deflocculation imparted through electrostatic barriers, the efficacy of a deflocculant can be gauged in terms of zeta potential. According to the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Polymers deflocculation is "a state or condition of a dispersion of a solid in a liquid in which each solid particle remains independent and unassociated with adjacent particles (much like emulsifier). A deflocculated suspension shows zero or very low yield value".

Deflocculation can be a problem in wastewater treatment plants as it commonly causes sludge settling problems and deterioration of the effluent quality.

title: Flocculation