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Language identification in the limit

Language identification in the limit is a formal model for inductive inference of formal languages, mainly by computers (see machine learning and induction of regular languages). It was introduced by E. Mark Gold in a technical report and a journal article with the same title.

In this model, a teacher provides to a learner some presentation (i.e. a sequence of strings) of some formal language. The learning is seen as an infinite process. Each time the learner reads an element of the presentation, it should provide a representation (e.g. a formal grammar) for the language.

Gold defines that a learner can identify in the limit a class of languages if, given any presentation of any language in the class, the learner will produce only a finite number of wrong representations, and then stick with the correct representation. However, the learner need not be able to announce its correctness; and the teacher might present a counterexample to any representation arbitrarily long after.

Gold defined two types of presentations:
 * Text (positive information): an enumeration of all strings the language consists of.
 * Complete presentation (positive and negative information): an enumeration of all possible strings, each with a label indicating if the string belongs to the language or not.

Learnability
This model is an early attempt to formally capture the notion of learnability. Gold's journal article introduces for contrast the stronger models A weaker formal model of learnability is the Probably approximately correct learning (PAC) model, introduced by Leslie Valiant in 1984.
 * Finite identification (where the learner has to announce correctness after a finite number of steps), and
 * Fixed-time identification (where correctness has to be reached after an apriori-specified number of steps).

Examples
It is instructive to look at concrete examples (in the tables) of learning sessions the definition of identification in the limit speaks about.
 * 1) A fictitious session to learn a regular language L over the alphabet {a,b} from text presentation:In each step, the teacher gives a string belonging to L, and the learner answers a guess for L, encoded as a regular expression. In step 3, the learner's guess is not consistent with the strings seen so far; in step 4, the teacher gives a string repeatedly. After step 6, the learner sticks to the regular expression (ab+ba)*. If this happens to be a description of the language L the teacher has in mind, it is said that the learner has learned that language.If a computer program for the learner's role would exist that was able to successfully learn each regular language, that class of languages would be identifiable in the limit. Gold has shown that this is not the case.
 * 2) A particular learning algorithm always guessing L to be just the union of all strings seen so far:If L is a finite language, the learner will eventually guess it correctly, however, without being able to tell when. Although the guess didn't change during step 3 to 6, the learner couldn't be sure to be correct.Gold has shown that the class of finite languages is identifiable in the limit, however, this class is neither finitely nor fixed-time identifiable.
 * 3) Learning from complete presentation by telling:In each step, the teacher gives a string and tells whether it belongs to L (green) or not (red, struck-out). Each possible string is eventually classified in this way by the teacher.
 * 4) Learning from complete presentation by request:The learner gives a query string, the teacher tells whether it belongs to L (yes) or not (no); the learner then gives a guess for L, followed by the next query string. In this example, the learner happens to query in each step just the same string as given by the teacher in example 3.In general, Gold has shown that each language class identifiable  in the request-presentation setting is also identifiable in the telling-presentation setting, since the learner, instead of querying a string, just needs to wait until it is eventually given by the teacher.

Gold's theorem
More formally,

 * a language $$L$$ is a nonempty set, and its elements are called sentences.
 * a language family is a set of languages.
 * a language-learning environment $$E$$ for a language $$L$$ is a stream of sentences from $$L$$, such that each sentence in $$L$$ appears at least once.
 * a language learner is a function $$f$$ that sends a list of sentences to a language.
 * This is interpreted as saying that, after seeing sentences $$a_1, a_2..., a_n$$ in that order, the language learner guesses that the language that produces the sentences should be $$f(a_1, ..., a_n)$$.
 * Note that the learner is not obliged to be correct — it could very well guess a language that does not even contain $$a_1, ..., a_n$$.
 * a language learner $$f$$ learns a language $$L$$ in environment $$E = (a_1, a_2, ...)$$ if the learner always guesses $$L$$ after seeing enough examples from the environment.
 * a language learner $$f$$ learns a language $$L$$ if it learns $$L$$ in any environment $$E$$ for $$L$$.
 * a language family is learnable if there exists a language learner that can learn all languages in the family.

Notes:
 * In the context of Gold's theorem, sentences need only be distinguishable. They need not be anything in particular, such as finite strings (as usual in formal linguistics).
 * Learnability is not a concept for individual languages. Any individual language $$L$$ could be learned by a trivial learner that always guesses $$L$$.
 * Learnability is not a concept for individual learners. A language family is learnable iff there exists some learner that can learn the family. It does not matter how well the learner performs for learning languages outside the family.

$$

$$ Gold's theorem is easily bypassed if negative examples are allowed. In particular, the language family $$\{L_1,L_2, ..., L_\infty\}$$ can be learned by a learner that always guesses $$L_\infty$$ until it receives the first negative example $$\neg a_n$$, where $$a_n\in L_{n+1} \setminus L_{n}$$, at which point it always guesses $$L_n$$.

Learnability characterization
Dana Angluin gave the characterizations of learnability from text (positive information) in a 1980 paper. If a learner is required to be effective, then an indexed class of recursive languages is learnable in the limit if there is an effective procedure that uniformly enumerates tell-tales for each language in the class (Condition 1). It is not hard to see that if an ideal learner (i.e., an arbitrary function) is allowed, then an indexed class of languages is learnable in the limit if each language in the class has a tell-tale (Condition 2).

Language classes learnable in the limit
The table shows which language classes are identifiable in the limit in which learning model. On the right-hand side, each language class is a superclass of all lower classes. Each learning model (i.e. type of presentation) can identify in the limit all classes below it. In particular, the class of finite languages is identifiable in the limit by text presentation (cf. Example 2 above), while the class of regular languages is not.

Pattern Languages, introduced by Dana Angluin in another 1980 paper, are also identifiable by normal text presentation; they are omitted in the table, since they are above the singleton and below the primitive recursive language class, but incomparable to the classes in between.

Sufficient conditions for learnability
Condition 1 in Angluin's paper is not always easy to verify. Therefore, people come up with various sufficient conditions for the learnability of a language class. See also Induction of regular languages for learnable subclasses of regular languages.

Finite thickness
A class of languages has finite thickness if every non-empty set of strings is contained in at most finitely many languages of the class. This is exactly Condition 3 in Angluin's paper. Angluin showed that if a class of recursive languages has finite thickness, then it is learnable in the limit.

A class with finite thickness certainly satisfies MEF-condition and MFF-condition; in other words, finite thickness implies M-finite thickness.

Finite elasticity
A class of languages is said to have finite elasticity if for every infinite sequence of strings $$s_0, s_1, ...$$ and every infinite sequence of languages in the class $$L_1, L_2, ...$$, there exists a finite number n such that $$s_n\not\in L_n$$ implies $$L_n$$ is inconsistent with $$\{s_1,...,s_{n-1}\}$$.

It is shown that a class of recursively enumerable languages is learnable in the limit if it has finite elasticity.

Mind change bound
A bound over the number of hypothesis changes that occur before convergence.

Infinite cross property
A language L has infinite cross property within a class of languages $$\mathcal{L}$$ if there is an infinite sequence $$L_i$$ of distinct languages in $$\mathcal{L}$$ and a sequence of finite subset $$T_i$$ such that:
 * $$T_1 \sub T_2\sub ...$$,
 * $$T_i \in L_i$$,
 * $$T_{i+1}\not\in L_i$$, and
 * $$\lim_{n=\infty}T_i=L$$.

Note that L is not necessarily a member of the class of language.

It is not hard to see that if there is a language with infinite cross property within a class of languages, then that class of languages has infinite elasticity.

Relations between concepts

 * Finite thickness implies finite elasticity; the converse is not true.
 * Finite elasticity and conservatively learnable implies the existence of a mind change bound.
 * Finite elasticity and M-finite thickness implies the existence of a mind change bound. However, M-finite thickness alone does not imply the existence of a mind change bound; neither does the existence of a mind change bound imply M-finite thickness.
 * Existence of a mind change bound implies learnability; the converse is not true.
 * If we allow for noncomputable learners, then finite elasticity implies the existence of a mind change bound; the converse is not true.
 * If there is no accumulation order for a class of languages, then there is a language (not necessarily in the class) that has infinite cross property within the class, which in turn implies infinite elasticity of the class.

Open questions

 * If a countable class of recursive languages has a mind change bound for noncomputable learners, does the class also have a mind change bound for computable learners, or is the class unlearnable by a computable learner?

title: Language identification in the limit


text: User talk:208.63.158.141

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

title: User talk:208.63.158.141


text:
User talk:Janust

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Feel free to contact me personally with any questions you might have. The Village pump is also a good place to go for quick answers to general questions. You can sign your name by typing 4 tildes, like this: ~.

Be Bold!

[[User:Sam Spade|Sam Spade Wants you to vote!]] 21:48, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)

title: User talk:Janust


text:
User talk:Wikilook

Welcome!

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title: User talk:Wikilook


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Peasant foods

Peasant foods are dishes eaten by peasants, made from accessible and inexpensive ingredients.

In many historical periods, peasant foods have been stigmatized.

They may use ingredients, such as offal and less-tender cuts of meat, which are not as marketable as a cash crop. One-dish meals are common.

Meat-and-grain sausages or mushes
Ground meat or meat scraps mixed with grain in approximately equal proportions, then often formed into a loaf, sliced, and fried
 * Balkenbrij
 * Black pudding
 * Boudin
 * Goetta, a pork or pork-and-beef and pinhead oats sausage
 * Groaty pudding
 * Haggis, a savory dish containing sheep's pluck (heart, liver, and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and cooked while encased in a sheep's stomach
 * Knipp
 * Livermush
 * Lorne sausage
 * Meatloaf
 * Scrapple, pig scraps, cornmeal and other flours and spices fried together in a mush
 * Slatur

Pasta

 * Pasta con i peperoni cruschi, an Italian pasta dish from Basilicata, defined a true representative of cucina povera ('the cuisine of the poor').
 * Pasta e fagioli, a traditional Italian pasta soup
 * Pasta mollicata, Italian pasta dish from southern Italy, especially Basilicata, often known as a "poor man's dish".
 * Testaroli

Sauces

 * Agliata – a garlic sauce in Italian cuisine that has been a peasant food, and also used by upper-class people

Soups and stews

 * Acquacotta, an Italian soup that dates to ancient history. Primary ingredients are water, stale bread, onion, tomato and olive oil, along with various vegetables and leftover foods that may have been available.
 * Batchoy (Tagalog), a Filipino meat soup or noodle soup made with pork and pork offal in ginger-flavored broth, traditionally with pork blood added.
 * Cassoulet, a French bean, meat, and vegetable stew originating from the rural Southwest that has since become a staple of French cuisine
 * Cawl, a Welsh broth or soup
 * Cholent, a traditional Jewish Sabbath stew
 * Chupe, refers to a variety of stews from South America generally made with chicken, red meat, lamb or beef tripe and other offal
 * Duckefett, a German sauce
 * Dinuguan, a Filipino pork blood stew infused with vinegar.
 * Feijoada, originally a Portuguese stew consisting of beans and meat; also a Brazilian dish originally made by slaves from leftover ingredients from their master's house
 * Gazpacho, typically a tomato-based vegetable soup, traditionally served cold, originating in the southern Spanish region of Andalusia.
 * Minestrone, the meal in one pot of ancient Italy that is still a basic part of Italian cuisine
 * Mulligan stew, a stew often made by itinerant workers
 * Mujaddara, an Arabian dish of lentils, rice, grains, and onions
 * Pappa al pomodoro, a bread soup typically prepared with tomatoes, bread, olive oil, garlic, and basil
 * Pea soup or "pease pudding", a common thick soup, from when dried peas were a very common food in Europe, still widely eaten there and in French Canada
 * Pot-au-feu, the French stew of oxtail, marrow, and vegetables, sometimes sausage
 * Pottage, a staple stew made from boiling vegetables, grains and whatever was available, since Neolithic times in the British Isles
 * Ratatouille, a French stewed vegetable dish
 * Shchi, a traditional Russian soup made from cabbage, meat, mushrooms, flour and sour cream, usually eaten with rye bread
 * Scouse (food), a stew type dish from Liverpool, which gives its name to the residents of the city, who are known as scousers.
 * Zatiruha, an Eastern European soup

List of peasant foods

 * Baked beans, the simple stewed bean dish
 * Barbacoa, a form of slow cooking, often of an animal head, a predecessor to barbecue
 * Bulgur wheat, with vegetables or meat
 * Broken rice, which is often cheaper than whole grains and cooks more quickly
 * Bubble and squeak, a simple British dish, cooked and fried with potatoes and cabbage mixed together
 * Finger millet balls made from ragi flour which is boiled with water and balls are formed and eaten with vegetable gravy
 * Greens, such as dandelion and collard
 * Head cheese, made from boiling down the cleaned-out head of an animal to make broth, still made
 * Hominy, a form of corn specially prepared to be more nutritious
 * Horsebread, a low-cost European bread that was a recourse of the poor
 * Katemeshi, a Japanese peasant food consisting of rice, barley, millet and chopped daikon radish
 * Lampredotto, Florentine dish or sandwich made from a cow's fourth stomach
 * Panzanella, Italian salad of soaked stale bread, onions and tomatoes
 * Polenta, a porridge made with the corn left to Italian farmers so that land holders could sell all the wheat crops, still a popular food
 * Pumpernickel, a traditional dark rye bread of Germany, made with a long, slow (16–24 hours) steam-baking process, and a sour culture
 * Ratatouille, the stewed vegetable dish
 * Red beans and rice, the Louisiana Creole dish made with red beans, vegetables, spices, and leftover pork bones slowly cooked together, and served over rice, common on Mondays when working women were hand-washing clothes
 * Salami, a long-lasting sausage, used to supplement a meat-deficient diet
 * Soul food, developed by enslaved African-Americans, primarily using ingredients undesired and given away by their enslavers
 * Succotash, a blend of corn and beans
 * Tacos, cooked meats or vegetables wrapped in native maize tortillas in the Americas

title: Peasant foods


text:
Ensoniq EPS

The Ensoniq Performance Sampler (EPS) was one of the first few affordable samplers on the market. It was manufactured from 1988 to 1991 by Ensoniq in Malvern, Pennsylvania, US. The EPS is a 13-bit sampler and replaced the Mirage - widely regarded as the first truly affordable sampling keyboard.

The EPS has a straightforward interface that is easy to use, with configurable controls geared for live performance. Because it has two processors, it can load and play up to eight instruments simultaneously (with another eight on reserve). The display is a 22-character, single-line vacuum fluorescent display. It boots from an integrated floppy disk drive (sourced from Sony or Matsushita), or from a SCSI drive connected to the expansion bay. The EPS has 256 Kwords of RAM on board. Ensoniq offered both a 2x (512 Kword) Memory Expander and a 4x (1 Mword) Memory Expander with SCSI interface. A company called Maartists offered both 4x and 8x memory expanders, allowing a total of 2 Mwords RAM. Extra RAM allows for longer and higher quality samples. The "2x" expander contains one 1x256Kbit and three 4x256Kbit chips, for a total of 13x256Kbits in addition to the onboard memory. The EPS is unusual in having a 13-bit sample memory word length, left-justified into the most significant bits of a 16-bit word.

The EPS uses double-sided, double-density 3.5" disks, formatted to 800k with ten 512-byte sectors per track. It can also read (but not write) Ensoniq Mirage sample disks.

The EPS uses MIDI and can be used as a controller of other instruments or connected to a computer.

The EPS was superseded by the EPS-16 Plus which upgraded the sample size to 16 bits and added a 24-bit effects system. Other improvements include CD-ROM support in the optional SCSI interface and FlashBank storage for the OS and favorite sounds.

Construction
The keyboard is of thick plastic construction of a dark gray color with 61 weighted keys. There are assignable pitch, modulation wheels, and two patch select buttons. The interior of the unit is accessed by removing four hex screws under the front of the keyboard and swinging open the rear-hinged control panel.

The whole unit is configurable through a custom operating system (latest version was 2.49 for the EPS and 1.30 for the EPS-16 Plus). After the system boots from the floppy drive, it flashes a "Tuning Keyboard - Hands Off" message while it calibrates its polyphonic after-touch keyboard. The EPS-16 Plus is capable of storing the OS in the optional FlashBank, which removes the need for a boot disk.

An optional Output Expander module allows access to eight discrete mono outputs on the machine, allowing to separately mix levels and effects for each loaded sample.

The key limitations of the EPS were its proprietary disk format, and later a lack of support from Creative Technology, the current owner of Ensoniq. A 19" rack-mount version of both machines were also available in limited numbers.

This model was superseded by the EPS-16 Plus, released in 1991. The EPS-16 Plus is very similar to the EPS. Its main addition is integrated DSP effects and stereo audio routing. Due to the upgrade to 16-bit audio, the Output Expander on the EPS-16 Plus is different, instead providing three pairs of stereo outputs, two from before the new effects chip.

Use
The EPS is a performance sampler. Besides the main processor it contains a dedicated sound engine so that playing can be done whilst loading another sample. The main processor handles the I/O while the sound engine is responsible for keeping the audio running without interruption — this made the EPS especially useful for live performance situations.

The interface, although operating through a single-line fluorescent display, offers rapid access to all functions by the intelligent way that functionality is broken into Modes and Pages.

Modes are: Load, Command, and Edit.

Pages are: Instrument, Sequence, MIDI, and System.

In addition to eight soft instrument buttons, it has a number pad (0-9), four cursor buttons, a value slider, and 'Yes' - 'No' buttons.

The vast majority of functionality can be accessed with less than three clicks: Mode - Page - Number Pad.

There is also a dedicated button for Sampling, and three for the built-in sequencer. The EPS-16 Plus also has a dedicated button for configuring the effects DSP.

Easter Egg: There is a hidden menu in the Command-ENV1 page which contains Software Information, the names of the designers, a DC Offset Adjustment, and a keyboard calibration command.

Instrument
Instrument pages are prefixed by clicking a Mode (Load, Command, or Edit) -- yielding functions relating to loading, editing, and tweaking EPS sampled instruments. Instruments can contain a number of discrete samples which are patched into Layers - each with their own ADSR-like envelopes and keyboard ranges. A loop editor allows you to define envelopes, cross-fades, and sample start-end, and loop points in real-time. It is possible to modulate the loop start with any source to give complex evolving sounds. On the EPS-16 Plus, the Transwave loop mode allows the start point to be modulated in exact "single-cycle" steps, giving effects similar to the PPG Wave. The Ensoniq manuals were famous for including quality tutorials for sampling and editing new sounds.

Sequence
The Sequence pages allow you to define sequences and songs. Simple quantization is available, along with a crude, but effective, step-editor to tweak individual sequence elements. Sequences (with up to eight instruments playing simultaneously) can be assembled into Song Steps. In assembling songs, you can define the number of repetitions of each sequence that comprises a song step. This makes it relatively easy to score and arrange a song.

Sequences depend on having instruments loaded into one of the eight instrument banks in the right order. Banks of instruments can be saved which can be loaded in by a song sequence so that loading the song loads all the appropriate sounds into the right places so everything will play when you start the sequencer. In the EPS-16 Plus, an effect is also assigned to a bank.

MIDI
The EPS supports polyphonic-aftertouch on its 61 keys, and therefore allows a fair amount of expression as a MIDI controller. Sys-ex messages are supported over MIDI, and can transmit and receive on multiple MIDI channels simultaneously.

System
By using a dedicated sound engine in addition to the main processor, sound generation and disk I/O are handled separately. This allows so-called load-while-play, a feature quite unique at the time. The user can boot the EPS and load some sounds while playing the ones that are already loaded. Then sample in a new sound, only to find that you're out of floppies to save your new sample to — the EPS OS will allow you to go ahead, format another floppy disk, and save your new sound without the system function getting in the way of playing the audio.

True to their user-oriented approach, the EPS boot disk not only contains everything needed to run the sampler, but also a tiny operating system with the ability to create a bootable version of itself. This was an improvement on the earlier Mirage sampler, which required a special boot disk with a formatting program, and could not make copies of its own boot disks.

title: Ensoniq EPS


text:
Jim Calhoun

James A. Calhoun (born May 10, 1942) is a retired college basketball coach. He is best known for his tenure as head coach of the University of Connecticut (UConn) men's basketball team. His teams won three NCAA national championships (1999, 2004, 2011), played in four Final Fours, won the 1988 NIT title, and won seventeen Big East Championships, which include 7 Big East tournament championships (1990, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2004, 2011) and 10 Big East regular season (1990, 1994–1996, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006). With his team's 2011 NCAA title win, the 68-year-old Calhoun became the oldest coach to win a Division I men's basketball title. He won his 800th game in 2009 and finished his NCAA Division I career with 873 victories, ranking 11th all time as of February 2019. From 2018–21, he served as head coach of the University of Saint Joseph men's basketball team. Calhoun is one of only six coaches in NCAA Division I history to win three or more championships, and he is widely considered one of the greatest coaches of all time. In 2005, he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Early life and education
A self-described Irish Catholic, Calhoun was born and raised in Braintree, Massachusetts, where he was a standout on the basketball, football, and baseball teams at Braintree High School. After his father died of a heart attack when Calhoun was 15, he was left to watch over his large family that included five siblings.

Although he received a basketball scholarship to Lowell State, he only attended the school for three months after which he returned home to help support his mother and siblings. He worked as a granite cutter, headstone engraver, scrapyard worker, shampoo factory worker, and gravedigger.

After a 20-month leave from higher education, Calhoun returned to college, this time at American International College in Springfield, Massachusetts, where he was given another basketball scholarship. He was the leading scorer on the team his junior and senior seasons, and captained the team in his final year, during which AIC advanced to the Division II playoffs. At the time he graduated, he was ranked as the fourth all-time scorer at AIC. Calhoun graduated in 1968 with a bachelor's degree in sociology.

High school
Calhoun began his coaching career at Lyme-Old Lyme High School in Old Lyme, Connecticut in the 1968–69 season after accepting a sixth grade teaching position in that town over the summer. After finishing 1–17 that season, Calhoun returned to Massachusetts after deciding not to complete the necessary certification paperwork to renew his teaching contract (he was certified in Massachusetts and working in Conn. only on a temporary certificate). He then coached one season at Westport (Massachusetts) High.

In 1970, Calhoun accepted a position at Dedham High School as a history / social studies teacher and began building a very strong program. In addition to teaching, he was the school's varsity basketball coach and the assistant freshman football coach. In the two years before Calhoun began coaching, the basketball team had only won five games in the previous two seasons. During his first season, the Dedham Marauders went 6-12.

After his first season, Calhoun began a summer basketball league that played five nights a week. The next year, during the 1971-72 season, the team had an undefeated 18-0 season. This was only the second time in Bay State Conference history that a team went undefeated. During the Bay State Conference championship game, there were two seconds left on the clock when the Marauders were playing Needham High School. There was two seconds left on the clock when Charlie Baker inbounded the ball. A Dedham player, Jeff Dillion, stole the ball, layed it up, and Dedham won the game by one point. The team entered the TECH Tournament as the number one seed but lost to North Quincy High School in the semifinals at the Boston Garden.

Calhoun was the guest speaker at the 1995 Dedham High School boys basketball championship banquet, the graduation speaker for Dedham High School's class of 2011, and a member of the 2023 class of inductees to the Dedham High School Athletic Hall of Fame.

Northeastern
Calhoun was recruited by Northeastern University in Boston to serve as their new head coach. He took the position in October 1972. He transitioned the team from Division II to Division I in 1979.

The Huskies advanced to the Division I tournament 4 times under Calhoun. During his final three seasons, Northeastern achieved automatic bids to the NCAA tournament and had a 72–19 record. He received six regional Coach of the Year accolades at Northeastern and remains the institution's all-time winningest coach (245–138).

Former Boston Celtics captain Reggie Lewis, who played for Calhoun at Northeastern, was a first-round pick in the 1987 NBA draft.

UConn
On May 14, 1986, Calhoun was named the head coach at UConn. After completing his first season just 9–19, Calhoun led the Huskies to a 20–14 record in 1988 and a bid to National Invitation Tournament, where they defeated Ohio State to win the NIT championship. In 1990, Calhoun was named the consensus National Coach of the Year after leading the Huskies to their first Big East Conference championship, the NCAA tournament Elite Eight, and a 29–6 record in only his fourth year at the helm.

Calhoun won his first NCAA national championship in 1999, as he led UConn to its first Final Four, ultimately defeating Duke in the championship game in St. Petersburg, Florida. Future NBA standout Richard "Rip" Hamilton led the team to a 77–74 victory. Earlier that year, Calhoun had passed Hugh Greer to become the winningest coach in UConn history.

Calhoun led the Huskies to another national championship in 2004, at the conclusion of a season that saw UConn start and complete the year as the number one team in the nation. UConn standouts Emeka Okafor and Ben Gordon were selected No. 2 and No. 3 in the NBA draft, respectively. Calhoun now holds a 35–12 record with UConn in NCAA tournament play including 3-1 in the Final Four. They lost in the first round for the first time on March 21, 2008 in overtime to San Diego.

During the Jim Calhoun era, the Huskies did well in the Big East Conference with an impressive 220–112 record (.665 winning percentage). The Huskies won or shared conference titles in 1990, 1994–1996, 1998–1999, 2002, 2003 and 2005–2006. UConn also won seven Big East men's basketball tournament championships in 1990, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2004, and 2011.

On March 2, 2005, he achieved his 700th win at Gampel Pavilion over the Georgetown Hoyas. His friend and Big East rival coach Jim Boeheim also won his 700th game during the previous week. Later in 2005, Coach Calhoun was honored by induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, fittingly, along with Boeheim. On February 25, 2009, he achieved his 800th win at the Bradley Center over Marquette.

Calhoun was the first coach in NCAA history to have won at least 240 games at two different Division I schools. Eddie Sutton later achieved this same feat.

Calhoun also coached 23 UConn players who have moved on to professional ranks.

Calhoun signed a five-year, $16 million contract until 2014.

On April 4, 2011, Calhoun won his third NCAA title as the Huskies defeated Butler 53–41. The victory over Butler made Calhoun, at 68, the oldest coach to win an NCAA Division I men's basketball title. With the win, Calhoun joined John Wooden, Adolph Rupp, Bob Knight, and Mike Krzyzewski as the only coaches to win at least 3 national championships.

On September 13, 2012, Calhoun announced his retirement and the head coaching position was given to assistant coach Kevin Ollie, who eventually was named the permanent head coach.

Sanctions
In March 2009, the NCAA investigated potential violations in UConn's recruitment of Nate Miles (a scholarship recipient expelled without playing a single game for the Huskies). The NCAA eventually determined that a former UConn team manager, who was attempting to become an NBA agent, helped guide Miles to UConn by giving him lodging, transportation and meals. The former team manager, Josh Nochimson, was deemed a UConn representative under NCAA rules and his actions were therefore ascribed to UConn. As a result, in February 2011, Calhoun was cited by the NCAA for failing to create an atmosphere of compliance and suspended for the first three Big East games of 2011–2012 season. The NCAA's chairman of the Committee on Infractions stated, after the penalty was announced, that "the head coach should be aware, but, also in the same frame, the head coach obviously cannot be aware of everything that goes on within the program. However, the head coach bears that responsibility." The school admitted that it had committed major NCAA violations.

Health problems
On February 3, 2003, Calhoun announced that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. He took an immediate leave of absence from the team and underwent surgery three days later to have his prostate removed. He was released from the hospital on February 9 and within days was once again involved in the day-to-day operation of the program. On February 22 Jim Calhoun returned to the sidelines for the team's matchup with St. John's at Gampel Pavilion, only 16 days after the surgery.

On May 30, 2008, UConn announced that Calhoun was undergoing treatment for squamous cell carcinoma.

On June 13, 2009, Calhoun fell during a charity bike event and broke five ribs.

On January 19, 2010, Calhoun took a leave of absence from the team again for health reasons. Calhoun had a "serious" condition that he wanted to discuss with his family. Calhoun returned to the court to coach the Huskies on February 13.

On February 3, 2012, Calhoun took a medical leave of absence from coaching as a result of spinal stenosis. He returned on March 3, 2012, less than a week after having back surgery, to coach the team to a win over Pittsburgh in the final game of the regular season.

After a left hip fracture, he received while bike riding on August 4, 2012, Calhoun had surgery that same day.

Retirement
Calhoun retired as Connecticut's basketball coach on September 13, 2012, closing a 26-year career at UConn.

Comeback in Division III
On September 18, 2018, Calhoun was named the first head coach of the men's basketball team at the University of Saint Joseph (USJ), an NCAA Division III program in West Hartford, Connecticut. He told the school website: "Whether it's Division I or Division III, the kids are the kids, and the game is the game and I'm looking forward to getting back out on the court and teaching these young men each and every day. I really missed being a part of a team." Glen Miller became his assistant at USJ. Calhoun's 2019–20 team at USJ had a 25-game winning streak before losing in the first round of the Division III postseason tournament.

On November 18, 2021, Calhoun announced he would step down as head coach at St. Joseph, effective immediately. He retired with a career head coaching record of 920–397.

Personal life
Calhoun and his wife, Pat, live in Pomfret, Connecticut, have been married since 1967, and have two sons and six grandchildren. They previously also had a home on Long Island Sound in Madison, Connecticut and sold it in 2016.

Awards and honors

 * 1998 – The Franciscan Sisters dedicate an outdoor basketball area, "Calhoun's Court" at the Franciscan Life Center in Meriden, Connecticut
 * 2004 – Calhoun is the first recipient of an award by the Swim Across The Sound Prostate Cancer Institute
 * 2005 – "Honorary Alumni Award" from the University of Connecticut Alumni Association
 * 2005 – Inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, Springfield, Massachusetts
 * 2019 – Received the Best Coach award at the 2019 ESPYs in Los Angeles, California
 * 2023 - Dedham High School Athletic Hall of Fame

College
* Connecticut had its 2–1 record in the 1996 NCAA tournament and Sweet 16 appearance vacated after two players were ruled ineligible.

As of April 5, 2013, Calhoun has a 50–19 (.720) record in the NCAA tournament, going 2–5 (.286) at Northeastern and 48–14 (.770) at Connecticut.

Due to COVID-19 complications, the 2020–21 season was shortened and the team finished with a 3–2 record. Calhoun wasn't able to be on the sidelines for a game that year due to an injury he suffered right before the season.

title: Jim Calhoun


text:
Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/December 26, 2004

Please add the missing word:

 * "The battle is best remembered for its first day, 1 July 1916, on which the British suffered 57,470 casualties, making it the bloodiest day in the history of the British Army."

I would be nice to feature the Battle of the Somme on 1 July instead, if you can wait that long. Geoff/Gsl 21:55, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Featured articles shouldn't collide with selected anniversaries. If it could concievably show up in selected anniversaries that day, it shouldn't also show up as the featured article. →Raul654 22:05, Dec 19, 2004 (UTC)


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St Ann's Church, Manchester

St Ann's Church is a Church of England parish church in Manchester, England. Although named after St Anne, it also pays tribute to the patron of the church, Ann, Lady Bland. St Ann's Church is a Grade I listed building.

Architecture and setting
At the beginning of the 18th century, Manchester was a small rural town, little more than a village, with many fields and timber-framed houses. A large cornfield named Acres Field, which is now St Ann's Square, became the site for St Ann's Church. Acresfield was the site of an annual fair from the 13th century until 1823 when it was moved to Knott Mill.

Although the church stood between the market and the collegiate church, both towers could be seen from all directions. It is a neo-classical building, originally constructed from locally quarried, red Collyhurst sandstone although, due to its soft nature, much of the original stone has since been replaced with sandstone of various colours from Parbold in Lancashire, Hollington in Staffordshire, Darley Dale in Derbyshire and Runcorn in Cheshire. When the church was first constructed, the interior was simple, with plain glass windows. However, in the 19th century many changes were made, including the installation of stained glass windows. Some of these were bespoke, and others were adapted from other churches. One such window, on the north side of the church, was designed and made by William Peckitt of York. The furniture includes a Queen Anne altar table, thought to be the only existing one of its kind, and a painting of "The Descent from the Cross" by Annibale Carracci of Bologna.

The tower of the church marks the centre of the city; surveyors used it as a platform to measure distances to other locations. Their benchmark remains visible at the tower door.

Buildings and statues in St Ann's Square
At the southeast corner of the square is the Royal Bank of Scotland which is in the Italian palazzo style. It was built in 1848 for Benjamin Heywood's bank by J. E. Gregan. In the square there are two statues; the statue of Richard Cobden is by Marshall Wood, 1867; the Boer War Memorial is by Hamo Thornycroft, 1907.

Consecration
The Mosleys were the Lords of the Manor of Manchester and in 1693 the manor was inherited by Lady Ann Bland, daughter of Sir Edward Mosley. Lady Bland was a leader of fashion in Manchester, staunch in her religious and political views as a member of the Low Church Party: she herself at first worshipped at the Presbyterian Church in the centre of the town. In 1695, however, Henry Newcome, the incumbent, died and Lady Bland decided to found a church of her own. In 1708, Parliament was petitioned to seek permission to build a new church, as the population of Manchester was increasing rapidly. On 18 May 1709, Lady Bland laid the foundation stone of a new church at one end of Acres Field. On 17 July 1712, the church was consecrated by the Bishop of Chester and was dedicated to Saint Anne, the Virgin Mary's mother, which was a compliment both to the founder and to the reigning monarch, Queen Anne. Lady Bland herself is buried in the Church of St James, Didsbury, where a memorial plaque commemorates her life.

John Byrom
As a result of the proximity of St Ann's to the collegiate church, there was a time when it was fashionable to attend "the old church" in the morning and "the new church" in the afternoon or vice versa. One of those who did so was John Byrom (1692–1763), author of Christians Awake, who played quite a prominent part at St Ann's under the first two rectors, despite his Jacobite sympathies.

Manchester becomes a growing town
Towards the end of the 17th century, streets had become more numerous in the St Ann's district; by 1720, St Ann's Square had been laid out and planted with trees in imitation of the fashionable squares of London and Bath. By 1735, buildings had begun to rise on the south side of Acres Field and King Street and Ridgefield came into being. There was now no longer the simple distinction between "the old church" and "the new church". The rapid growth of Manchester as a result of the Industrial Revolution led to the building of other churches. Then, as the population moved out to the suburbs in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many of these churches fell into disuse and were demolished. St Ann's holds the memorials from several of these churches, for example Sir Charles Barry's St Matthew's, Campfield (built 1823–25, demolished 1950).

Importance to civic life
St Ann's has always been closely associated with the civic life, and its rectors have from time to time acted as chaplain to the Lord Mayor, the county council chairmen and the police. In 1975, the Friends of St Ann's Church was formed from the business houses in the parish, to maintain the fabric of this historic building. Renovation work was carried out at St Ann's during 2011 (whilst the church remained operational). The work included the repair of its clock, bell, stonework and roof. During renovation work the church was draped in large advertising banners, which was controversial for a Grade I listed building. The church has an active concert schedule, including weekly lunchtime organ recitals (on Wednesdays), monthly professional concerts, and regular piano and chamber music concerts by Royal Northern College of Music students. The church has a four-manual George Sixsmith organ.

title: St Ann's Church, Manchester


text: Category:1673 books

title: Category:1673 books


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Telos (journal)

Telos is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes articles on politics, philosophy, and critical theory, with a particular focus on contemporary political, social, and cultural issues.

Established in May 1968 with the intention of providing the New Left with a coherent theoretical perspective, in the 1980s it turned to the right politically.

History
Founded in May 1968 at SUNY-Buffalo, the journal sought to expand the Husserlian diagnosis of "the crisis of European sciences" to prefigure a particular program of social reconstruction relevant for the United States. In order to avoid the high level of abstraction typical of Husserlian phenomenology, the journal began introducing the ideas of Western Marxism and of the critical theory of the Frankfurt School.

With the disintegration of the New Left and the gradual integration of what remained of the American Left within the Democratic Party, Telos became increasingly critical of the Left in general. It subsequently undertook a reevaluation of 20th century intellectual history, focusing on authors and ideas including the Nazi legal philosopher Carl Schmitt and American populism. Eventually the journal rejected the traditional divisions between Left and Right as a legitimating mechanism for new class domination and an occlusion of new, post-Fordist political conflicts. This led to a reevaluation of the primacy of culture and to efforts to understand the dynamics of cultural disintegration and reintegration as a precondition for the constitution of that autonomous individuality critical theory had always identified as the telos of Western civilization.

The academic Joan Braune writes that Telos turned to right-wing politics in the 1980s, when editor Paul Piccone supported United States intervention in Nicaragua. In 1994, the paleoconservative Sam Francis was the keynote speaker at a Telos conference about populism. Telos had ties to the paleoconservative Chronicles magazine, and was sympathetic to the Lega Nord in Italy, but Telos differed from paleoconservatives by supporting military intervention by NATO against Serbia in 1999 to prevent ethnic cleansing. Braune in 2019 described Telos as far-right, writing that the journal had translated the French New Right figure Alain de Benoist and had written favorably about the "Russian fascist" Aleksandr Dugin.

The journal is published by Telos Press Publishing and the editor-in-chief is David Pan. It is affiliated with the Telos Institute, which hosts annual conferences, select papers from which are published in Telos.

Abstracting and indexing
The journal is abstracted and indexed in the Social Sciences Citation Index, Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Current Contents/Social & Behavioral Sciences, and Current Contents/Arts & Humanities. According to the Journal Citation Reports, the journal has a 2013 impact factor of 0.065, ranking it 133rd out of 138 journals in the category "Sociology".

Telos Press Publishing
Telos Press Publishing was founded by Paul Piccone, the first editor-in-chief of Telos, and is the publisher of both the journal Telos as well as a separate book line. It is based in Candor, New York.

title: Telos (journal)


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Trigonometry in simple terms

 This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion of the article below. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was transwikied to wikibooks and consensus to delete. Tony Sidaway|Talk 13:17, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Trigonometry in simple terms
Nice article, but not what we're about. Transwikify to Wikibooks? - Ta bu shi da yu 21:57, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)

 * Keep. I like the idea -- the original Trigonometry article is getting weighed down with too many extra details. (If it does have to go, perhaps http://simple.wikipedia.org/ would be a good place for it to go to.) --DavidCary 22:01, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Comment: This was apparently either never listed on vfd or removed out of process, so I'm bringing it to today's page for resolution. —Korath (Talk) 00:49, Apr 16, 2005 (UTC)
 * Trigonometry has a big notice across the top of the page that currently reads:
 * A word to potential contributors: This module is extremely bare-boned and in need of contributors. Edit this page!
 * whilst Talk:Trigonometry in simple terms says:
 * This might be a candidate for Wikibooks. -- Chessphoon 22:09, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Yeah it is. But is there any way to move it there? If you could do so i would appreciate it.--Slicky 07:28, Sep 19, 2004 (UTC)
 * I sense a void to be filled, an article to fill it, and the agreement of several editors. I've tagged the article as Wikibooks. Uncle G 01:47, 2005 Apr 16 (UTC)
 * seems like a good start, transwiki to wikibooks is my vote too. BigFatDave 02:20, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Wikibooks. Megan1967 03:13, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * The article is now living at Wikibooks:Trigonometry:In simple terms as a chapter under Trigonometry. My vote is now Delete. Uncle G 15:32, 2005 Apr 22 (UTC)
 * This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like some other VfD subpages, is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion, or the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.


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User talk:Tophcito

Welcome to the Wikipedia
Here are some links I thought useful:

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Feel free to contact me personally with any questions you might have. The Village pump is also a good place to go for quick answers to general questions. You can sign your name by typing 4 tildes, like this: ~.

Be Bold!

[[User:Sam Spade|Sam Spade Wants you to vote!]] 21:57, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)

title: User talk:Tophcito


text: User talk:65.25.186.46

title: User talk:65.25.186.46


text: Category:1670 books

title: Category:1670 books


text:
Newport Transporter Bridge

The Newport Transporter Bridge (Pont Gludo Casnewydd) is a transporter bridge that crosses the River Usk in Newport, South East Wales. The bridge is the lowest crossing on the River Usk. It is a Grade I listed structure.

It is one of fewer than 10 transporter bridges that remain in use worldwide; only a few dozen were ever built. It is one of only two operational transporter bridges in Britain, the other being the Tees Transporter Bridge.

History
The bridge was designed by French engineer Ferdinand Arnodin. It was built in 1906 and opened by Godfrey Charles Morgan, 1st Viscount Tredegar, on 12 September 1906. Newport Museum holds a silver cigar cutter which was presented to Viscount Tredegar on the day of the opening, as a memento of the occasion.

Design
The design was chosen because the river banks are very low at the desired crossing point (a few miles south of the city centre) where an ordinary bridge would need a very long approach ramp to attain sufficient height to allow ships to pass under, and a ferry could not be used during low tide at the site. The river is too narrow for a swing bridge or a bascule bridge (drawbridge).

Principal dimensions
A Corporation of Newport drawing dated December 1902 is calibrated in metres. The height of the towers is 73.6 m, and the height to the underside of the main girder truss above the road level is 49.97 m. The span between the centres of the towers is 196.56 m, and the clearance between the towers is quoted as being 180.44 m; however, including the cantilevered sections, the main girder truss gives the bridge an overall length of 236 m. The distance between the centres of the anchorage caissons is 471.06 m. Power to propel the transporter platform or gondola is provided by two 35 hp electric motors, which in turn drive a large winch, situated in an elevated winding house at the eastern end of the bridge. This winch is sufficient to drive the gondola through its 196.56 m total travel at a speed of 3 m/s.

When compared with Middlesbrough's Transporter Bridge, the Newport Transporter is 5 m taller, but 23 m less in overall length. It also utilizes approximately 1400 LT of steel compared to 2600 LT used to construct Middlesbrough's Transporter (not accounting for steel used in foundations or concrete anchors). This difference in weight is mainly due to the Newport bridge making use of cables to support and induce tension into its structure to a far greater extent than the Middlesbrough bridge.

The bridge is a Grade I listed structure, its Cadw listing describing it as "the oldest and largest of the three historic transporter bridges which remain in Britain, and also the largest of eight such bridges which remain worldwide".

Other information
Today, the bridge is considered an “iconic symbol” of the city of Newport, particularly as a mark of its industrial heritage. As well as a working transport link, the bridge is also open as a tourist attraction – visitors can climb the towers and walk across the upper deck for a small charge. The bridge forms part of the classified highway network and is also where route 4 of the National Cycle Network crosses the River Usk and route 47 begins. It was the focal point of the local millennium celebrations of 2000, where fireworks were fired from its length, and has been featured in several movies and television shows. It was the centre-piece of the Crow Point Festival in September 2006 to celebrate its centenary. It is used for charity events such as sponsored abseils.

Refurbishment
The bridge was shut down in 1985 because of wear and tear. Following a £3 million refurbishment, it reopened in 1995. Service was suspended again in December 2008 with the bridge facing a £2 million repair bill. £1.225 million was spent on refurbishment, financed by grants from the Welsh Government, Newport City Council and Cadw. It re-opened on 30 July 2010. The bridge was closed on 16 February 2011, because of operational problems, but re-opened again on 4 June.

Appearances in popular media
The transporter bridge provided the setting for some scenes in the 1959 British crime drama film Tiger Bay, which was set in Cardiff and therefore gave audiences the impression that the bridge was in Cardiff and not Newport. The bridge also appears in an early scene in the 1972 experimental film The Other Side of the Underneath by Jane Arden and features extensively in the 1996 video for the song "Talk to Me" by Newport band 60 Ft. Dolls.

Visitor centre
The Visitor Centre is located on the west bank and features exhibits on the history of the bridge, its construction and other transporter bridges around the world. The centre has a painting of David Pearce, the former undefeated Welsh and British Heavyweight Boxing Champion 1983–1985. Pearce used to run up the steps of the Transporter Bridge during his training. The centre is generally open at weekends, but it is currently closed until Summer 2024, while extensive restoration of the bridge structure is performed and a new visitor centre is constructed.

title: Newport Transporter Bridge


text: Category:1674 books

title: Category:1674 books


text: Category:Transporter bridges

title: Category:Transporter bridges


text:
Murder of Bobbie Jo Stinnett

Bobbie Jo Stinnett (December 4, 1981 – December 16, 2004) was an American, 23-year-old, pregnant woman who was murdered in Skidmore, Missouri, in December 2004. The perpetrator, Lisa Marie Montgomery, then aged 36 years old, strangled Stinnett to death and cut her fetus (eight months into gestation) from her womb. Montgomery was arrested in Kansas the next day and charged with kidnapping resulting in death – a federal crime. Stinnett's baby, who had survived the crude caesarean section, was safely recovered by authorities and returned to the father. Montgomery was tried and found guilty in 2007. She was executed by lethal injection shortly after midnight on January 13, 2021, having exhausted the appeals process. Montgomery became the first female federal inmate since 1953 to be executed by the United States federal government, and the fourth overall.

Background
Bobbie Jo Stinnett was born on December 4, 1981, and graduated from Nodaway-Holt High School in Graham, Missouri, in 2000. Stinnett and her husband ran a dog-breeding business from their residence in Skidmore.

Stinnett and Montgomery had met through dog show events and had ongoing interactions in an online Rat Terrier chatroom called Ratter Chatter. Montgomery told Stinnett that she was pregnant too, leading to the two women chatting online and exchanging e-mails about their pregnancies.

Murder and investigation
On December 16, 2004, Montgomery entered Stinnett's house and murdered her by strangulation. Montgomery then cut Stinnett's unborn child from her womb and fled the scene. There was no sign of forced entry; authorities believe that Montgomery, posing as customer "Darlene Fischer", had arranged to visit Stinnett's house on that day. It is known that Stinnett was expecting the arrival of prospective buyers for a terrier at her home in Skidmore at about the time of her murder.

Stinnett was discovered by her mother, Becky Harper, lying in a pool of blood, approximately an hour after the murder. Harper immediately called authorities and described the wounds inflicted upon her daughter as appearing as if her "stomach had exploded." Paramedics were unsuccessful in attempts to revive Stinnett, and she was pronounced dead at St. Francis Hospital in Maryville. Montgomery allegedly called her husband, Kevin, that same day around 5:15 p.m. saying that, on a shopping trip to Topeka, she had gone into labor and given birth..

The following day, December 17, police arrested Montgomery at her farmhouse in Melvern, Kansas. A witness would later report that on the morning before her arrest, Montgomery took the infant, her husband, and two teenage sons to a restaurant for breakfast. Police had initially gone to Montgomery's home after tracing online communications to her IP address, hoping to interview her as a witness. When they arrived, they found a car matching the description of the one at the crime scene and, when they entered the home, they found Montgomery inside, holding the infant and watching television. Montgomery was arrested an hour later after her story fell apart and she confessed. The kidnapped newborn, whom she claimed as her own, was recovered and soon placed in custody of the father. The quick recovery and capture was attributed to the use of forensic computer investigations which tracked Montgomery and Stinnett's online communication.

The investigation was aided by the issuance of an AMBER alert to enlist the public's help. The alert was initially denied as it had not been used before in an unborn child's case and thus there was no description of the victim. Eventually after intervention by Congressman Sam Graves, the alert was implemented. DNA testing was used to confirm the infant's identity.

Perpetrator
Lisa Marie Montgomery (February 27, 1968 – January 13, 2021) resided in Melvern, Kansas, at the time of the murder. Montgomery's mother's alcohol addiction led to Lisa being born with permanent brain damage. She was raised in a physically, emotionally, and sexually abusive home where she was allegedly raped by her stepfather and his friends, and beaten, from the age of 11. Lisa’s older half sister, Diane Mattingly, was removed from their home and placed in foster care. She sought mental escape through drinking alcohol. When Montgomery was 14, her mother discovered the abuse and reacted by threatening her daughter with a gun. Montgomery tried to escape by marrying at the age of 18, but both her first marriage and a second marriage resulted in further abuse.

Montgomery had four children before she underwent a tubal ligation in 1990. She falsely claimed to be pregnant several times after the procedure, according to both her first and second spouses.

At the time of her arrest, authorities speculated that Montgomery's motivation stemmed from a miscarriage she may have suffered and subsequently concealed from her family. Prosecutors alleged that her former husband planned to reveal she had lied about being pregnant in an effort to get custody of her children; speculating that Montgomery needed to produce a baby to counter this charge of habitual lying about pregnancy.

Trial and ruling
Montgomery was charged with the federal offense of "kidnapping resulting in death", a crime established by the Federal Kidnapping Act of 1932, and described in Title 18 of the United States Code. If convicted, she faced a sentence of life imprisonment or the death penalty.

At a pre-trial hearing, a neuropsychologist testified that head injuries which Montgomery had sustained some years before could have damaged the part of the brain that controls aggression. During her trial in federal court, her defense attorneys, led by Frederick Duchardt, asserted that she had pseudocyesis, a mental condition that causes a woman to falsely believe she is pregnant and exhibit outward signs of pregnancy. According to The Guardian, Duchardt attempted to follow this line of defense only one week before the trial began after being forced to abandon a contradictory argument that Stinnett was murdered by Montgomery's brother Tommy, who had an alibi. As a result, Montgomery's family refused to co-operate with Duchardt and described her background to the jury.

Dr. V. S. Ramachandran and Dr. William Logan gave expert testimony that Montgomery had pseudocyesis in addition to depression, borderline personality disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Ramachandran testified that Montgomery's stories about her actions fluctuated because of her delusional state and that she was unable to dictate the nature and quality of her acts. Both federal prosecutor Roseann Ketchmark and the opposing expert witness forensic psychiatrist Park Dietz disagreed strongly with the diagnosis of pseudocyesis.

On October 22, 2007, jurors found Montgomery guilty, rejecting the defense claim that Montgomery was delusional. On October 26, the jury recommended the death sentence. Judge Gary A. Fenner formally sentenced Montgomery to death on April 4, 2008.

Duchardt's pseudocyesis defense, Montgomery's past trauma and separate diagnosis of mental illness were not fully revealed until after her conviction. This led critics including Guardian journalist David Rose to argue that Duchardt provided an incompetent legal defense for Montgomery. Fenner required Duchardt to be cross-examined in November 2016. Duchardt rejected all criticism and defended his conduct.

Subsequent legal proceedings
On March 19, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Montgomery's certiorari petition. Montgomery, who was registered for the Federal Bureau of Prisons under number 11072-031, was incarcerated at Federal Medical Center, Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas, where she remained until she was transferred to the site of her execution. For the duration of her time there, she was the only woman on federal death row.

During her appeals, Montgomery's lawyers argued that she technically did not commit the crime of kidnapping resulting in death, claiming that Victoria Jo Stinnett was not considered a person until she was removed from her mother's womb. Accordingly, since Bobbi had died beforehand, the crime was instead a "death resulting in kidnapping." That claim was dismissed, with the courts saying the felony murder rule nullified this and that Montgomery needed to kill Bobbi regardless in order to complete the kidnapping.

Experts who examined Montgomery after conviction concluded that by the time of her crime she had long been living with psychosis, bipolar disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorders. She was said to be often disassociated from reality and to have permanent brain damage from numerous beatings at the hands of her parents and spouses. The case of Atkins v. Virginia ruled that executing individuals with intellectual disability violates the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution regarding cruel and unusual punishments. Given this ruling, it could be expected that Montgomery was ineligible for a death sentence. Very strong and undisputed evidence can lead to a withdrawal of the death sentence or a further enquiry into it. Montgomery was scheduled for execution on December 8, 2020, by lethal injection at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, but this was delayed following her attorneys contracting COVID-19. On December 23, 2020, Montgomery was given a new execution date of January 12, 2021. U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss found that "the director's order setting a new execution date while the Court's stay was in effect was 'not in accordance with law'", prohibiting the re-scheduling of the execution before January 1, 2022.

On January 1, a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated Moss's ruling, effectively reinstating her execution date of January 12. On that date, U.S. District Judge Patrick Hanlon granted a stay of her execution on the grounds that her mental competence must first be tested as it could be argued she did not understand the grounds for her execution, per the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The stay was then vacated by the Supreme Court via a 6–3 vote. The execution was ordered to be carried out immediately. She arrived in Terre Haute's death row on January 12.

Execution
Montgomery was executed by lethal injection on January 13, 2021, at the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. When asked if she had any last words, she replied: "No." She was pronounced dead at 1:31 a.m. EST.

Montgomery became the first female federal prisoner executed in 67 years, the first woman executed in the United States since Kelly Gissendaner in 2015, and the first person executed in the United States in 2021. Only three other women have been executed by the U.S. federal government: Mary Surratt, by hanging in 1865; Ethel Rosenberg by electric chair in 1953; and Bonnie Heady by gas chamber, also in 1953. Montgomery's execution was followed a day later by Corey Johnson, and three days later by Dustin Higgs. All three were carried out by the United States federal government, each being controversial for a variety of reasons.

In her final days, Montgomery had kept a calendar marked with Joe Biden's inauguration date. Joe Biden had promised to enact a moratorium on capital punishment at the federal level.

In 2023, one of Montgomery's attorneys admitted that Montgomery's legal team had briefly considered taking her off the medications she was on to stabilize her mental health. The intent was for Montgomery to "go absolutely psychotic" in her team's attempt to postpone her execution by "proving mental fragility exacerbated by sexual abuse in childhood." The attorney stated, "Ultimately, we weren't going to do that to her."

Aftermath
Members of the Nodaway-Holt High Class of 2000 have a yearly memorial donation drive for Stinnett.

In popular culture
The case was described in author Diane Fanning's Baby Be Mine books, and M. William Phelps's Murder in the Heartland. The case featured in an episode of the true crime series Deadly Women titled "Fatal Obsession", in an episode of the true crime series Solved titled "Life and Death", and in the fifth episode of the documentary series No One Saw a Thing that aired on the Sundance Channel on August 29, 2019. The artist Jasper Schalks made a song about the life of Lisa Montgomery titled "the Ballad of Lisa Marie Montgomery".

title: Murder of Bobbie Jo Stinnett


text:
Smiles of a Summer Night

Smiles of a Summer Night (Sommarnattens leende) is a 1955 Swedish comedy film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. It was shown at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. In 2005, Time magazine ranked it as one of the 100 greatest films since 1923.

The film's plot—which involves some couples who switch partners on a summer night—has been adapted many times, particularly as the theatrical musical A Little Night Music by Stephen Sondheim, Hugh Wheeler and Harold Prince, which opened on Broadway in 1973, and as Woody Allen's film A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982).

Plot
The film takes place in Sweden around the turn of the twentieth century. Fredrik Egerman is a middle-aged lawyer married to a 19-year-old beauty, Anne. Their two-year marriage is still unconsummated, due to Anne's reluctance. Fredrik has a son, Henrik, from his marriage to his late first wife. Henrik is in his early twenties and is studying to be a minister but is currently tormented by his love for his step-mother, who secretly loves him in return. Henrik is distracting himself from his urges by attempting an inconclusive affair with Fredrik's lusty young servant, Petra.

Between his two marriages, Fredrik had an affair with a prominent stage actress, the beautiful Desiree Armfeldt, but she broke off the relationship. Desiree now has a young son named Fredrik, born shortly after her affair with Fredrik Egerman. (It is implied, but never directly stated, that little Fredrik Armfeldt is the son of Fredrik Egerman.) Desiree is now having an affair with an army officer, Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm. The Count's wife, Charlotte, is an old friend of Anne Egerman.

Fredrik goes to see Desiree one night to pour out his marital troubles to her and ask for her help. Fredrik falls into a puddle outside Desiree's house, and Desiree dresses him in the Count's nightshirt. The violently jealous Count shows up and orders Fredrik to leave. After Fredrik goes, the Count and Desiree argue and subsequently decide to part amicably. When the Count returns home, he tells Charlotte about the encounter and orders her to tell Anne Egerman about Fredrik's supposed infidelity (though no infidelity actually occurred). When Charlotte visits Anne, she confesses that she loves the Count despite everything, and would do anything to be loved in return.

To solve these woes, Desiree has her mother invite all the characters to her country house for Midsummer Night, the shortest night of the year, a traditional observance in Sweden, when many party-goers stay awake all night until dawn. Desiree and Charlotte become temporary allies. Henrik and Anne, unexpectedly finding themselves alone together in a bedroom, consummate their relationship and elope with the assistance of Petra and her new lover Frid, another servant. Charlotte then joins Fredrik in the garden pavilion. Learning his wife is with Fredrik, the Count bursts in and challenges Fredrik to a game of Russian roulette. Fredrik loses, but the Count had loaded the revolver with soot so neither party was ever in danger. The Count reunites with his wife, his feelings for her renewed by his jealousy. Desiree comforts Fredrik, and he asks her not to leave him. The dilemmas of the four pairs of lovers appear to be happily resolved in the course of a night, said by Frid to have smiled three smiles upon them all.

Cast

 * Ulla Jacobsson – Anne Egerman
 * Eva Dahlbeck – Desiree Armfeldt
 * Harriet Andersson – Petra
 * Margit Carlqvist – Countess Charlotte Malcolm
 * Gunnar Björnstrand – Fredrik Egerman
 * Jarl Kulle – Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm
 * Åke Fridell – Frid
 * Björn Bjelfvenstam – Henrik Egerman
 * Naima Wifstrand – Mrs. Armfeldt
 * Jullan Kindahl – Beata
 * Gull Natorp – Malla
 * Birgitta Valberg – Actress
 * Bibi Andersson – Actress

Production
Smiles of a Summer Night was filmed on location at Jordberga Castle in Scania and at Svensk Filmindustri's Filmstaden in Råsunda, Stockholm, beginning on 28 June 1955 and completing on 29 August, except for two additional days in November 1955.

Release
The film premiered at the Red Mill (Röda Kvarn) cinema in Stockholm on 26 December 1955.

Reception
Smiles of a Summer Night opened to highly positive reviews and is viewed favorably today. The film ranked sixth on Cahiers du Cinéma's Top 10 Films of the Year List in 1956, and won the Bodil Award for Best European Film in 1957. It was nominated for a BAFTA Award in Best Film From Any Source category in 1957. It has a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In 1996, Smiles of a Summer Night was included in Movieline Magazine's "100 Greatest Foreign Films". The film was included in film critic Roger Ebert's list of "The Great Movies" in 2012 who gave it four stars out of four. Film critic Pauline Kael called the film "a nearly perfect work", writing "The film is bathed in beauty, removed from the banalities of short skirts and modern-day streets and shops, and removed in time, it draws us closer." In 2012, the film was voted at number twenty in the 25 best Swedish films of all time by a poll of 50 film critics and academics conducted by film magazine FLM.

When Stanley Cavell saw Smiles of a Summer Night, he was so affected that he returned home and wrote about it the rest of that night. The experience led him to explore the intersection between his field, philosophy, and film.

title: Smiles of a Summer Night


text:
Cassin's auklet

Cassin's auklet (Ptychoramphus aleuticus) is a small, chunky seabird that ranges widely in the North Pacific. It is the only species placed in the genus Ptychoramphus. It nests in small burrows and because of its presence on well studied islands in British Columbia and off California it is one of the better known auks. It is named for the American ornithologist John Cassin.

Cassin's auklet is a small (25 cm, 200 g) nondescript auk. Its plumage is generally dark above and pale below, with a small white mark above the eye. Its bill is overall dark with a pale spot, and its feet are blue. Unlike many other auks, Cassin's auklet lacks dramatic breeding plumage, remaining the same over most of the year. At sea it is usually identified by its flight, which is described as looking like a flying tennis ball.

Cassin's auklet ranges from midway up the Baja California peninsula to Alaska's Aleutian Islands, off North America. It nests on offshore islands, with the main population stronghold being Triangle Island off Vancouver Island's Cape Scott, where the population is estimated to be around 55,0000 pairs. It is not known to be migratory. However, northern birds may move farther south during the winter.

Two subspecies are recognised:

 * P. a. aleuticus – (Pallas, 1811) : Aleutian Islands & south Alaska to northern Baja California.Kurile Islands.
 * P. a. australis – van Rossem, 1939 : southern Baja California.

An extinct relative or predecessor species, Ptychoramphus tenuis L. H. Miller et Bowman, 1958, is known from the Late Pliocene of the San Diego Formation in California.

Behaviour
Cassin's auklet nests in burrows on small islands, and in the southern area of its range may be found in the breeding colony year round. It either digs holes in the soil or uses natural cracks and crevices to nest in, also readily using man-made structures. Pairs will show a strong loyalty towards each other and to a nesting site for many years. Both the parents incubate the single white egg, returning to swap shifts at night (usually after 2300 h) to avoid being taken by predators such as the western gull or peregrine falcon. They also depart from the colony before dawn. The egg is incubated for 40 days, the small chick is then fed nightly for 35 days by both parents, who regurgitate partially digested food (euphausiids and other small crustaceans) carried in a special gular pouch, often referred to in the literature as a sublingual pouch. The chick fledges alone and makes its way to the sea. Cassin's auklet is unusual amongst seabirds in occasionally laying a second clutch after a successful first clutch (it is the only northern hemisphere seabird to do so).

Most individuals in a cohort begin breeding at age 3 (27%), and by 8 years >95% of a given cohort has recruited. Mean age of recruitment is 3.6 years. Minimum annual breeding propensity is 0.83, apparent local survival is 0.76, juvenile survival (ages 0 to 2) is 0.15.

At sea Cassin's auklets feeds offshore, in clear often pelagic water, often associating with bathymetric landmarks such as underwater canyons and upwellings. Numbers at sea may be grossly underestimated because the bird moves away from ships at a distance of more than a kilometer. Recently their distribution around Triangle Island has been determined by telemetry. It feeds by diving underwater beating its wings for propulsion, hunting down large zooplankton, especially krill. It can dive to 30 m below the surface, and by some estimates 80 m.

Conservation
Cassin's auklet is listed as Near Threatened, and some populations (principally the Farallon Islands population) have suffered steep declines. Threats to the auklet include introduced carnivores (particularly in Alaska), oil spills and changes in sea surface temperature (caused by El Niño events). Cassin's auklet is protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. Annual variation in ocean climate synchronously affects multiple demographic parameters including survival, breeding propensity, breeding success, and recruitment, a situation conducive to rapid population declines due to climate change.

2014 summer mass death in US
In the last few months of 2014, the carcasses of thousands of Cassin's auklets washed ashore from Northern California up to the north coast of Washington State. The Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team estimated a toll between 50,000 and 100,000 deaths that year. Scientists were uncertain about the cause of these deaths. While viruses, bacteria, and oil spills were ruled out the cause appeared to be starvation. Scientists found little evidence of food in the stomachs of the carcasses. Some scientists from the California's Farallon Institute believe these mass deaths could be related to the unusual North Pacific warmth which is pushing marine food chains and could affect other species of zooplankton, krill and fish that normally develop in cold waters and the birds that consume them including Cassin's auklets. The event happened in the late summer when the auklet chicks began to fledge.

title: Cassin's auklet


text:
Talk:Ford v Quebec (AG)

POV
It is not neutral as these are not the words of the Supreme Court, nor that or the two Quebec courts. There is indeed a passage on "reasonable limitations in a free and democratic society" in the judgement. It reads as follows:

"Commercial expression, like political expression, is one of the forms of expression that is deserving of constitutional protection because it serves individual and societal values in a free and democratic society."

That in itself has nothing to do with the reasons why section 58 and 69 of the Charter of the French Language were invalidated. It only says that, in the opinion of the judges, commercial expression is one form of expression deserving constitutional protection.

Nowhere does any of the judgements claim that "the sections regarding commercial signs were contrary to the freedom of expression protected by section 3 of the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms and under section 2b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and that those limitations were not reasonable in a free and democratic society." This is a fabrication by someone who did not carefully read the full text. Not only is this sentence unclear (what limitations?), it is also too long and misleading.

Here is what the Supreme Court had to do:

"This appeal is to determine (1) whether ss. 58 and 69 infringe the freedom of expression guaranteed by s. 2(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and s. 3 of the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, R.S.Q., c. C-12; and (2) whether ss. 58 and 69 infringe the guarantee against discrimination based on language in s. 10 of the Quebec Charter."

Here is what the judges said on this very subject:

(c) Freedom of Expression

The "freedom of expression" guaranteed by s. 2(b) of the Canadian Charter and s. 3 of the Quebec Charter includes the freedom to express oneself in the language of one's choice. Language is so intimately related to the form and content of expression that there cannot be true freedom of expression by means of language if one is prohibited from using the language of one's choice. Language is not merely a means or medium of expression; it colours the content and meaning of expression. It is a means by which a people may express its cultural identity. It is also the means by which one expresses one's personal identity and sense of individuality. The recognition that "freedom of expression" includes the freedom to express oneself in the language of one's choice does not undermine or run counter to the express or specific guarantees of language rights in s. 133 of the Constitution Act, 1867 and ss. 16 to 23 of the Canadian Charter.

The expression contemplated by ss. 58 and 69 of the Charter of the French Language -- conveniently characterized as "commercial expression" -- is expression within the meaning of both s. 2(b) of the Canadian Charter and s. 3 of the Quebec Charter. Commercial expression, like political expression, is one of the forms of expression that is deserving of constitutional protection because it serves individual and societal values in a free and democratic society. Indeed, over and above its intrinsic value as expression, commercial expression, which protects listeners as well as speakers, plays a significant role in enabling individuals to make informed economic choices, an important aspect of individual self-fulfillment and personal autonomy. This leads to the conclusion that s. 58 infringes the freedom of expression guaranteed by s. 3 of the Quebec Charter and s. 69 infringes the guaranteed freedom of expression under both s. 2(b) of the Canadian Charter and s. 3 of the Quebec Charter.

(d) Reasonable Limits

The material adduced in this Court did not justify the limit imposed on freedom of expression by ss. 58 and 69 of the Charter of the French Language. The material established the importance of the legislative purpose reflected in the Charter of the French Language -- the enhancement of the status of the French language in Quebec -- and that it was a response to a pressing and substantial concern -- the survival of the French language. The threat to the French language demonstrated to the government that it should, in particular, take steps to assure that the "visage linguistique" of Quebec would reflect the predominance of the French language. While the material indicated a rational connection between protecting the French language and assuring that the reality of Quebec society is communicated through the "visage linguistique", it did not demonstrate that the requirement of the use of French only in ss. 58 and 69 is either necessary for the achievement of the legislative purpose or proportionate to it. Whereas requiring the predominant display of the French language, even its marked predominance, would be proportional to the goal of promoting and maintaining a French "visage linguistique" in Quebec and therefore justified under s. 9.1 of the Quebec Charter and s. 1 of the Canadian Charter, requiring the exclusive use of French has not been so justified. French could be required in addition to any other language or it could be required to have greater visibility than that accorded to other languages. Accordingly, the limit imposed on freedom of expression by s. 58 of the Charter of the French Language is not justified under s. 9.1 of the Quebec Charter, and the limit imposed on freedom of expression by s. 69 of the Charter of the French Language is not justified under either s. 1 of the Canadian Charter or s. 9.1 of the Quebec Charter. Section 9.1 is a justificatory provision corresponding to s. 1 of the Canadian Charter subject, in its application, to a similar test of rational connection and proportionality.

(e) Discrimination Based on Language

Under section 10 of the Quebec Charter, a "distinction, exclusion or preference" based on one of the grounds listed in s. 10 is discriminatory when it "has the effect of nullifying or impairing" the right to full and equal recognition and exercise of a human right or freedom. Although s. 58 of the Charter of the French Language applies to everyone, the requirement of the exclusive use of French, regardless of their language of use, has the effect of impinging deferentially on different classes of persons according to their language of use. Francophones are permitted to express themselves in their language of use while anglophones and other non-francophones are prohibited from doing so. Because of its differential effect or impact on persons according to their language of use, s. 58 creates a distinction based on language within the meaning of s. 10. The human right or freedom in issue here is the freedom to express oneself in the language of one's choice. The distinction based on language of use created by s. 58 has the effect of nullifying the right to full and equal recognition and exercise of this freedom. Section 58 is therefore of no force or effect as infringing s. 10 of the Quebec Charter. The same conclusion applies to s. 69 of the Charter of the French Language.

Summary
Obviously, we can't write the whole thing in the article, however, we can maybe try to summarize it in clear and easy to understand terms. I will try to do that here. Feel free to correct any mistake you see:

Sections 58 and 69 were invalidated because the judges were of the opinion that 1) commercial expression is indeed protected by both Charters of Rights and Freedoms, 2) the limitation imposed to freedom of expression were not justified as "it did not demonstrate that the requirement of the use of French only in ss. 58 and 69 is either necessary for the achievement of the legislative purpose or proportionate to it." and 3) the sections created a discrimination based on language, which section 10 of the Quebec charter does not allow.

-- Mathieugp 22:03, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)

 * I've tried to add links to relevant concepts and changed the words "not reasonable" to "not justified", if it's not clear enough I can work on the opening paragraph again. The words I used are common Canadian legal jargon, maybe they can seem to lack neutrality to the lay person but this is unintentional... You're right I haven't read the complete decision, but I've taken two courses in constitutional law, so I just assumed those were the arguments (often) used based on how the article was written when I first read it. --132.204.219.5 19:13, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

title: Talk:Ford v Quebec (AG)


text:
Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge

Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge is a National Wildlife Refuge in the U.S. state of Vermont located on the eastern shore of Lake Champlain and the southern side of Missisquoi Bay. The refuge is in Franklin County in the northwest corner of the state near the International Boundary with Canada.

The refuge was established on February 4, 1943, under the authority of the Migratory Bird Conservation Act. The initial acquisition was 1,582 acres (6.4 km2) of land in the Missisquoi River delta, including Shad Island and Big Marsh Slough. Additional land is acquired from willing sellers. The refuge's current size is 7,232 acres (27 km2). It was designated a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance in 2013. It is the only National Wildlife Refuge located entirely in Vermont and is administered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. It is located in the towns of Swanton and Highgate with satellite units in Derby, Vermont and Westville, New York.

Habitat management
Refuge lands support a variety of wildlife species and habitats including floodplain forest, wetlands, shrub, bog, grasslands, and upland areas. Lands are managed to provide and protect habitat for migratory birds, to preserve the natural diversity and abundance of plants and animals, to assist with recovery of threatened and endangered species. Federal wildlife laws and regulations are enforced to ensure the protection of habitat and wildlife.

Maquam Bog is a 900 acre located on the northeastern margin of Lake Champlain, Vermont. It contains Vermont's largest populations of pitch pine, rhodora, and chain fern, a state-threatened species. The bog serves as an important wintering area for white-tailed deer and provides feeding and breeding areas for a variety of birds.

Parcels of early successional hardwoods are rotationally clear cut in 8 - 10 year intervals in an effort to provide a variety of age class hardwood habitat for woodcock. Small clearcuts, usually 100 feet wide, are used on the refuge to create feeding, nesting and brood-rearing covers. Permanently mowed pieces of land adjacent to the clearcuts provide singing grounds and roosting areas for American woodcock. Woodcock, like ruffed grouse, turkey, white-tailed deer and a variety of songbirds all require forest habitat that is disturbed periodically to stimulate regeneration of dense hardwood stands that support declining woodcock populations throughout the east.

Grasslands are periodically hayed, mowed or burned to keep open field from changing back to forest. Many wildlife species benefit from these open field habitats. Waterfowl, bobolinks, and many other songbirds, pollinators and small mammals use open fields to nest and rear young. Birds of prey such as kestrel, northern harriers and rough-legged hawks glide over these same grasslands in search of prey such as mice, voles and other small mammals.

In addition to 5000 acres of natural marsh, the refuge includes 1200 acres of managed wetlands formed by three impoundments. Water levels in these areas are manipulated to encourage the growth of waterfowl food and cover plants such as wild rice and buttonbush, while also exposing hummocks of soil and vegetation that support nesting by mallards, American black ducks and other wetland birds.

Fauna
The largest great blue heron rookery in Vermont has been on the refuge's Shad Island. This rookery fluctuates from about 250 to almost 600 nests each year. This rookery has been reduced in since 2015, due to an increasing bald eagle population. More than 20,000 ducks converge on the refuge each fall and find habitat for feeding and resting. In the spring, a small percentage of those use the refuge habitats for nesting. All of Vermont's endangered black terns nest on the refuge. A significant percentage of Vermont's nesting ospreys are found on the refuge. Spiny softshell turtles, a state threatened species, use the refuge to feed and bask from April through September. Mammals that inhabit this refuge include raccoon, black bear, coyote, skunk, beaver, red fox, river otter, bobcat, porcupine, muskrat, and mink.

title: Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge


text:
Tracy Byrd (boxer)

Tracy Michelle Byrd (born August 27, 1964, Flint, Michigan ) is an American female boxer.

Early life
Byrd comes from a boxing family: her father, Joe Byrd, is a former boxer who trained her.

Her brother Antoine once lost to Roy Jones Jr. in a bid to win the world's Middleweight title, and her other brother, Chris, is a former heavyweight title holder.

Tracy Byrd enjoyed athletics since she was a young child. She excelled in high school as a basketball player. Her brothers Antoine and Chris, however, inspired her into trying out boxing, so she began to attend the Byrd boxing gym, owned by her father.

Professional career
On her first professional fight, August 6, 1996, the then 32-year-old boxer beat Sue Chase by a decision in four rounds in Flint. Her first three fights were held in Flint, and she earned first round knockouts in professional fights number two and three.

Her fourth fight, a rematch with Chase on January 28, 1997, took place just outside Flint, in Detroit. Byrd again outpointed Chase over four rounds.

After beating Dee Dufoe by decision in six in what turned out to be her first fight held outside Michigan (the fight was held in Indio, California), Byrd was given the opportunity to challenge for a world championship for the first time: On August 2, 1997, she defeated defending champion Nora Daigle to become the IFBA world Lightweight champion, in Biloxi, Mississippi.

Byrd retained the title on October 24 with a fourth-round knockout of Bethanny Payne in New Jersey. After this fight, and since Byrd continued undefeated in nine fights, Byrd was given some attention by boxing magazines such as The Ring and KO. But, on her second defense, held on June 30, 1998, she lost her title, and her undefeated mark, to Russian Zulfia Koutdoussova, who, as a consequence, inherited the media attention that Byrd was receiving.

Byrd rebounded with three consecutive decision wins, and she was given a second chance at becoming a world champion, when she met Laura Serrano of Mexico on September 2, 1999. She lost by a ten-round decision in Tunica, Mississippi, for the WIBF's world Lightweight title.

Byrd then took off two years from boxing, deciding to lose weight and return as a Junior Lightweight in 2001. Initially, she had success fighting at a lower weight class, conquering the vacant IFBA intercontinental title with a ten-round unanimous decision over Brenda Vickers on May 19, at Ignacio, Colorado.

Her next fight was for the IFBA world Featherweight title, on July 7. She lost that world championship bid, being outpointed over ten rounds by Layla McCarter. This was the beginning of a five fight losing streak for Byrd. All those fights were lost by decision, and they included two more losses to McCarter, another loss to Koutdoussova, and a defeat at the hands of Isra Girgrah.

Despite losing five times in a row, she was given yet another world title chance, when, on March 22, 2003, she faced Agnieszka Rylik for the WIBO world Jr. Welterweight title. Byrd became a world champion for the second time, when she defeated Rylik by a ten-round split decision in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Her next, and so far last, fight, took place on June 28 of that year, when she and Puerto Rico's Belinda Laracuente drew (tied) in an eight rounds non-title bout held at Coconut Grove, Florida.

Byrd has a record of thirteen wins, seven losses and one draw, with four wins by knockout, she has not been knocked out as a professional.

Championships and accomplishments

 * 2001 IFBA Intercontinental Super Featherweight Title
 * 1998 IWBF Lightweight Title
 * 1997 IFBA Lightweight Title (1 defense)

title: Tracy Byrd (boxer)