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Variable-width encoding

A variable-width encoding is a type of character encoding scheme in which codes of differing lengths are used to encode a character set (a repertoire of symbols) for representation, usually in a computer. Most common variable-width encodings are multibyte encodings, which use varying numbers of bytes (octets) to encode different characters. (Some authors, notably in Microsoft documentation, use the term multibyte character set, which is a misnomer, because representation size is an attribute of the encoding, not of the character set.)

Early variable width encodings using less than a byte per character were sometimes used to pack English text into fewer bytes in adventure games for early microcomputers. However disks (which unlike tapes allowed random access allowing text to be loaded on demand), increases in computer memory and general purpose compression algorithms have rendered such tricks largely obsolete.

Multibyte encodings are usually the result of a need to increase the number of characters which can be encoded without breaking backward compatibility with an existing constraint. For example, with one byte (8 bits) per character, one can encode 256 possible characters; in order to encode more than 256 characters, the obvious choice would be to use two or more bytes per encoding unit, two bytes (16 bits) would allow 65,536 possible characters, but such a change would break compatibility with existing systems and therefore might not be feasible at all.

General structure
Since the aim of a multibyte encoding system is to minimise changes to existing application software, some characters must retain their pre-existing single-unit codes, even while other characters have multiple units in their codes. The result is that there are three sorts of units in a variable-width encoding: singletons, which consist of a single unit, lead units, which come first in a multiunit sequence, and trail units, which come afterwards in a multiunit sequence. Input and display software obviously needs to know about the structure of the multibyte encoding scheme, but other software generally doesn't need to know if a pair of bytes represent two separate characters or just one character.

For example, the four character string "I♥NY" is encoded in UTF-8 like this (shown as hexadecimal byte values): 49  4E 59. Of the six units in that sequence, 49, 4E, and 59 are singletons (for I, N, and Y), is a lead unit and  and  are trail units. The heart symbol is represented by the combination of the lead unit and the two trail units.

UTF-8 makes it easy for a program to identify the three sorts of units, since they fall into separate value ranges. Older variable-width encodings are typically not as well-designed, since the ranges may overlap. A text processing application that deals with the variable-width encoding must then scan the text from the beginning of all definitive sequences in order to identify the various units and interpret the text correctly. In such encodings, one is liable to encounter false positives when searching for a string in the middle of the text. For example, if the hexadecimal values DE, DF, E0, and E1 can all be either lead units or trail units, then a search for the two-unit sequence DF E0 can yield a false positive in the sequence DE DF E0 E1, which consists of two consecutive two-unit sequences. There is also the danger that a single corrupted or lost unit may render the whole interpretation of a large run of multiunit sequences incorrect. In a variable-width encoding where all three types of units are disjunct, string searching always works without false positives, and (provided the decoder is well written) the corruption or loss of one unit corrupts only one character.

CJK multibyte encodings
The first use of multibyte encodings was for the encoding of Chinese, Japanese and Korean, which have large character sets well in excess of 256 characters. At first the encoding was constrained to the limit of 7 bits. The ISO-2022-JP, ISO-2022-CN and ISO-2022-KR encodings used the range 21–7E (hexadecimal) for both lead units and trail units, and marked them off from the singletons by using ISO 2022 escape sequences to switch between single-byte and multibyte mode. A total of 8,836 (94×94) characters could be encoded at first, and further sets of 94×94 characters with switching. The ISO 2022 encoding schemes for CJK are still in use on the Internet. The stateful nature of these encodings and the large overlap make them very awkward to process.

On Unix platforms, the ISO 2022 7-bit encodings were replaced by a set of 8-bit encoding schemes, the Extended Unix Code: EUC-JP, EUC-CN and EUC-KR. Instead of distinguishing between the multiunit sequences and the singletons with escape sequences, which made the encodings stateful, multiunit sequences were marked by having the most significant bit set, that is, being in the range 80–FF (hexadecimal), while the singletons were in the range 00–7F alone. The lead units and trail units were in the range A1 to FE (hexadecimal), that is, the same as their range in the ISO 2022 encodings, but with the high bit set to 1. These encodings were reasonably easy to work with provided all your delimiters were ASCII characters and you avoided truncating strings to fixed lengths, but a break in the middle of a multibyte character could still cause major corruption.

On the PC (DOS and Microsoft Windows platforms), two encodings became established for Japanese and Traditional Chinese in which all of singletons, lead units and trail units overlapped: Shift-JIS and Big5 respectively. In Shift-JIS, lead units had the range 81–9F and E0–FC, trail units had the range 40–7E and 80–FC, and singletons had the range 21–7E and A1–DF. In Big5, lead units had the range A1–FE, trail units had the range 40–7E and A1–FE, and singletons had the range 21–7E (all values in hexadecimal). This overlap again made processing tricky, though at least most of the symbols had unique byte values (though strangely the backslash does not).

Unicode variable-width encodings
The Unicode standard has two variable-width encodings: UTF-8 and UTF-16 (it also has a fixed-width encoding, UTF-32). Originally, both the Unicode and ISO 10646 standards were meant to be fixed-width, with Unicode being 16-bit and ISO 10646 being 32-bit. ISO 10646 provided a variable-width encoding called UTF-1, in which singletons had the range 00–9F, lead units the range A0–FF and trail units the ranges A0–FF and 21–7E. Because of this bad design, similar to Shift JIS and Big5 in its overlap of values, the inventors of the Plan 9 operating system, the first to implement Unicode throughout, abandoned it and replaced it with a much better designed variable-width encoding for Unicode: UTF-8, in which singletons have the range 00–7F, lead units have the range C0–FD (now actually C2–F4, to avoid overlong sequences and to maintain synchronism with the encoding capacity of UTF-16; see the UTF-8 article), and trail units have the range 80–BF. The lead unit also tells how many trail units follow: one after C2–DF, two after E0–EF and three after F0–F4.

UTF-16 was devised to break free of the 65,536-character limit of the original Unicode (1.x) without breaking compatibility with the 16-bit encoding. In UTF-16, singletons have the range 0000–D7FF (55,296 code points) and E000–FFFF (8192 code points, 63,488 in total), lead units the range D800–DBFF (1024 code points) and trail units the range DC00–DFFF (1024 code points, 2048 in total). The lead and trail units, called high surrogates and low surrogates, respectively, in Unicode terminology, map 1024×1024 or 1,048,576 supplementary characters, making 1,112,064 (63,488 BMP code points + 1,048,576 code points represented by high and low surrogate pairs) encodable code points, or scalar values in Unicode parlance (surrogates are not encodable).

title: Variable-width encoding


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London Town (1946 film)

London Town is a 1946 Technicolor musical film directed by Wesley Ruggles and starring Sid Field and Petula Clark, generally regarded as one of the biggest flops in the history of British cinema.

Plot summary
The screenplay by Sig Herzig, Val Guest, and Elliot Paul, based on a story by director Wesley Ruggles, revolves around comedian Jerry Sanford (Sid Field), who arrives in London believing he has been hired as the star of a major stage production, when in fact he is merely an understudy. Thanks to his daughter Peggy (Petula Clark, already a screen veteran at age fourteen), who sabotages the revue's star Charlie de Haven (Sonnie Hale), he finally gets his big break. The premise allows for a variety of musical numbers and comedy sketches performed by, among others, Kay Kendall in her film debut and Tessie O'Shea.

Cast

 * Sid Field as Jerry Sanford
 * Greta Gynt as Mrs. Eve Barry
 * Petula Clark as Peggy Sanford
 * Kay Kendall as Patsy
 * Sonnie Hale as Charlie de Haven
 * Claude Hulbert as Belgrave, Charlie's dresser
 * Mary Clare as Mrs. Gates
 * Tessie O'Shea as herself
 * Jerry Desmonde as George
 * Beryl Davis as Paula
 * Scotty McHarg as Bill
 * W. G. Fay as Mike
 * Reginald Purdell as Stage Manager
 * Alfie Dean as Heckler
 * Charles Paton as Novelty Shopkeeper
 * Pamela Carroll as Street Singer
 * Marion Saunders Obligato in 'Street Singer'
 * Lucas Hoving as Dancer
 * Jack Parnell as Drummer
 * Sheila Bligh as London Town Dozen & One Girl
 * Dorothy Cuff as London Town Dozen & One Girl
 * Pat Hughes as London Town Dozen & One Girl
 * Sheila Huntington as London Town Dozen & One Girl
 * Pauline Johnson as London Town Dozen & One Girl
 * Pamela Kay as London Town Dozen & One Girl
 * Freda Lansley as London Town Dozen & One Girl
 * Mary Midwinter as London Town Dozen & One Girl
 * Giselle Morlais as London Town Dozen & One Girl
 * Louise Newton as London Town Dozen & One Girl
 * Enid Smeeden as London Town Dozen & One Girl
 * Pauline Tyler as London Town Dozen & One Girl
 * Jackie Watson as London Town Dozen & One Girl
 * Stella Hamilton as Dancer (uncredited)
 * James Kenney as Extra (uncredited)
 * Wally Patch as Constable (uncredited)
 * Susan Shaw as Extra (uncredited)
 * Ann Sullivan as Singer, Street Scene (uncredited)

Production
The critical and financial failure of the extravagant film, Britain's first major Technicolor musical, is part of British film legend. Financed by the Rank Organisation at a time of rationing and shortages of materials in the period immediately after World War II, it was filmed in the shell of "Sound City Shepperton", which had been made available as a film studio after being requisitioned during the war as a factory for aircraft parts. (The studio was later renamed Shepperton Studios and is still used for film production).

Music Hall performer Field had cheered up wartime London audiences with his hugely successful stage variety shows, including Strike a New Note (1943), Strike it Again (1944), and Piccadilly Hayride (1946), so he seemed a natural for the lead. As he was of the opinion that no British director was capable of making a good musical, he insisted on having an American at the helm, and the task fell to Wesley Ruggles, who produced as well.

Given that Ruggles had no experience with the genre – his best-known films at that point were the Academy Award-winning Western epic Cimarron (1931) and the Mae West comedy I'm No Angel (1933), both more than a decade old – and his Hollywood career was on a downslide, he was an odd choice indeed.

Val Guest said he did not write the script but he "did a script of all Sid's stuff" because they had worked together on stage.

J. Arthur Rank spent large sums of money for American songwriters (Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke), musicians (Ted Heath and his orchestra), and costumes by the legendary designer Orry-Kelly, while at the same time re-equipping the studio from the ground up. He was confident that box-office business was booming at the time and that demand for a flashy musical entertainment would be such that he would make a healthy profit, so his financial controls were slack.

Kay Kendall was promoted as England's answer to Lana Turner. "Nobody had ever heard of me but they called me a star", she later recalled. "I opened bazaars, signed autographs, went to premieres, did everything a star was supposed to do. My photograph was on magazine covers and front pages of newspapers. And all before we'd ever finished the picture."

Guest said "Wes Ruggles needed somebody firm on top of him and he didn’t have anybody. I think they were overawed by his “weight” [gravitas] because his biography read like movie history. It just didn’t hang together, it was a very bad script". He added, "I spent quite a lot of time down there trying to hot things up, it was heart-breaking. Sid was also doing a show at the same time, and was having slight drinking problems – not a lot... Wes was sober during shooting yes, absolutely paralytic at night."

Reception
So much was spent on production that the film needed to perform better than possible just to break even. However, dismissed by critics (who described it as "tacky" and "tasteless") and ignored by audiences, it was a legendary flop. In hindsight, however, especially for nostalgia fans, many of its kitschy aspects make it fascinating, and film historians consider it an interesting record of the times in which it takes place. Following Britain's victory in the war, it can be seen as a tribute to London and its residents, and as a celebration of popular Cockney culture, especially its music hall traditions.

It should also be pointed out that according to trade papers, the film was a "notable box office attraction" at British cinemas in 1946. According to Kinematograph Weekly the 'biggest winner' at the box office in 1946 Britain was The Wicked Lady, with "runners up" being The Bells of St Marys, Piccadilly Incident, The Road to Utopia, Tomorrow is Forever, Brief Encounter, Wonder Man, Anchors Away, Kitty, The Captive Heart, The Corn is Green, Spanish Main, Leave Her to Heaven, Gilda, Caravan, Mildred Pierce, Blue Dahlia, Years Between, O.S.S., Spellbound, Courage of Lassie, My Reputation, London Town, Caesar and Cleopatra, Meet the Navy, Men of Two Worlds, Theirs is the Glory, The Overlanders, and Bedelia.

Kay Kendall said after the film's release there were "no more bazaars to open, no more premieres, no more autographs." However her career later recovered and she became a major star of British films, before dying of leukaemia in 1959 at the age of just 32.

According to Val Guest "after it folded in America, they took all Sid’s routines out of the picture and joined them all together and issued it. As a sort of comedy half-hour. And that became the rage in Hollywood, everybody had it at their parties because they thought he was quite fabulous. And Sinatra had special showings, it went around all the people there, it became a cult thing."

Ruggles and Guest were going to make a film together about the Rolls Royce family but those plans ended after the financial failure of London Town.

London Town was the starting point for the career of Susan Shaw.

Music
Songs in London Town include "You Can't Keep a Good Dreamer Down", "The 'Ampstead Way" (most definitely inspired by "The Lambeth Walk" from the earlier stage production Me and My Girl), "Any Way the Wind Blows", a medley of Cockney songs ("Knock 'em in the Old Kent Road"/"Any Old Iron"/"Follow the Van"), "Don't Dilly Dally on the Way" (sung by Charles Collins), and "My Heart Goes Crazy", which was the title under which an abridged U.S. version of the film was released by United Artists in 1953.

In September 2006, the film's soundtrack – plus bonus tracks including four early studio recordings by Clark – was released on CD by Sepia Records.

Media
The original two-hour-12 minute version, which never was released commercially, is now available for viewing at the archives at the BFI Southbank.

In September 2011, the full-length version of the film was made commercially available for the first time, when it was released on a PAL DVD by Odeon Entertainment in the U.K. (Running time is listed as 122 mins. on Amazon UK, so that would be shortened. Or, that might simply be running fast at PAL speed, 25 frames per second instead of transferred correctly at film speed of 24 fps.)

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

title: London Town (1946 film)


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Sphere (1998 film)

Sphere is a 1998 American science fiction psychological thriller film directed and produced by Barry Levinson, adapted by Kurt Wimmer, and starring Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone and Samuel L. Jackson. It is based on Michael Crichton's novel of the same name. The film was released in the United States on February 14, 1998.

Plot
A spacecraft presumed to be of alien origin is discovered on the floor of the Pacific Ocean, estimated to have been there for nearly 300 years. A team of experts, including marine biologist Dr. Beth Halperin, mathematician Dr. Harry Adams, astrophysicist Dr. Ted Fielding, psychologist Dr. Norman Goodman, and U.S. Navy Captain Harold Barnes, is assembled and taken to the Habitat, a state-of-the-art underwater living environment located near the spacecraft.

Examining the spacecraft, they are perplexed to learn it is not alien at all, but rather American in origin. However, its technology far surpasses any in the present day. The ship's computer logs cryptically suggest a mission that originated either in the distant past or future, but the team deduces that the long-dead crew was tasked with collecting an item of scientific importance.

Norman and Beth discover the ship's logs, with the last entry noting an "unknown event". A holographic reenactment of the event reveals that hundreds of years in the future, the ship encountered a black hole, which apparently led to a crash landing in the ocean, back in the 1700s. Soon after, Norman and the others stumble on a large, yet perfect sphere hovering in the cargo bay. They cannot find any way to probe the inside of the sphere, as the fluid surface seems to be impenetrable. On observation, Norman ominously notes that the sphere reflects everything in the room, except them.

When they return to the Habitat, Harry hypothesizes that everyone on this team is fated to die. Harry notes that the black hole is referred to as an "unknown event" in the future logs. However, here in the present, they have knowledge of the historic event, yet it is unable to be explained later on. During the night, Harry returns to the spacecraft and is able to enter the sphere. Norman follows Harry, where he finds him unconscious next to the sphere, and returns him to the Habitat.

The next day, the crew discovers a series of numerically encoded messages appearing on the computer screens. The crew is able to decipher them, and comes to believe they are speaking to "Jerry", an alien intelligence from the sphere. They find that Jerry is able to see and hear everything that happens on the Habitat.

A powerful typhoon strikes the surface, and the Habitat crew is forced to stay in the Habitat several more days. During that time, a series of tragedies strikes the crew, including attacks from aggressive jellyfish and a giant squid, and equipment failures in the base that kill Ted and the team's support staff. The survivors, Beth, Harry and Norman, believe Jerry is responsible. Norman discovers that they had misinterpreted the initial messages from Jerry, and that the entity speaking to them through the computers is actually Harry himself, transmitted from his mind while he is asleep. Norman and Beth eventually realize that when Harry entered the sphere, he gained the ability to make anything he imagines a reality, and they conclude that all the horrors that have befallen the Habitat were manifestations of Harry's fears.

Norman and Beth sedate Harry with enough sleeping drugs to put him into a dreamless sleep, to prevent him from doing any further damage. However, when Norman is attacked by a snake, Beth realizes that Harry alone could not have been responsible for everything that had happened on the Habitat, and she confronts Norman, accusing him of entering the sphere when he went to retrieve Harry. Beth's suspicions prove to be correct, but after experiencing her own nightmarish vision, she confesses to Norman that she too entered the sphere.

When rejoined by Harry, the three of them realize that the crew of the ship must have also entered the sphere, and they ended up killing each other after being driven mad by their fears. Under the stress of the situation, Beth has suicidal thoughts, which causes the detonation mechanisms on a store of explosives to engage, threatening to destroy the base and the spacecraft. They race to the Habitat's mini-sub, but their combined fears cause them to reappear back in the spacecraft. As a psychologist, Norman is able to see through the illusion. He triggers the mini-sub's undocking process, and overrides the others' fears that they will not escape the destruction of the Habitat and spacecraft. The sphere is untouched by the explosions.

The mini-sub makes it to the surface as the surface ships return. As Beth, Harry and Norman begin safe decompression, they realize that they will be debriefed and their newfound powers discovered. They agree to erase their memories of the event using their powers, ensuring the "unknown event" paradox is resolved. The sphere rises from the ocean and accelerates into space.

Cast

 * Dustin Hoffman as Dr. Norman Goodman
 * Sharon Stone as Dr. Elizabeth "Beth" Halperin
 * Samuel L. Jackson as Dr. Harry Adams
 * Liev Schreiber as Dr. Ted Fielding
 * Peter Coyote as Capt. Harold C. Barnes
 * Queen Latifah as Alice "Teeny" Fletcher
 * Marga Gómez as Jane Edmunds
 * Huey Lewis as Helicopter pilot
 * Bernard Hocke as Seaman
 * James Pickens, Jr. as OSSA Instructor
 * Michael Keys Hall as OSSA Official
 * Ralph Tabakin as OSSA Official

Production
Hoffman joined the cast because of Levinson's involvement. Hoffman and Levinson had collaborated on several prior projects, and Hoffman had faith that Levinson could raise the project beyond its script.

Due to budgetary concerns, pre-production stopped in October 1996, and the script was revised. In the interim, Levinson directed Wag the Dog, which also starred Hoffman.

Shooting on Sphere began in March 1997, with a budget that Variety estimates was $80 million. Shooting took place at a naval base on Mare Island in Vallejo, California. Principal photography ended in July 1997, after 68 days.

Release
Sphere initially had a Christmas release date, but was moved forward to avoid competition. Warner Bros. released the film theatrically in the U.S. February 13, 1998, where it debuted in third place and grossed $37 million in total. Sphere did almost as well internationally, grossing $73.4 million worldwide.

Reception
Sphere received mostly negative reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 14%, based on 55 reviews, with an average score of 4/10. The site's critical consensus states: "Sphere features an A-level cast working with B-grade material, with a story seen previously in superior science-fiction films." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 35 out of 100, based on 21 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a "C−" on scale of A+ to F.

Todd McCarthy of Variety said that it was derivative of classic science fiction films and devoid of suspense.

Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote: "While this is no quick-witted treat on a par with Mr. Levinson's Wag the Dog, it's a solid thriller with showy scientific overtones."

The Los Angeles Times characterized it as a flop. Kenneth Turan wrote: "The more the movie explains itself, the more ordinary it becomes."

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film one-and-a-half stars out of four, and stated: "Sphere feels rushed. The screenplay uses lots of talk to conceal the fact that the story has never been grappled with."

Soundtrack
The score for Sphere was composed by Elliot Goldenthal.

Crew credits
 * Music composed and produced by Elliot Goldenthal
 * Orchestrated by Robert Elhai and Elliot Goldenthal
 * Conducted by Stephen Mercurio and Jonathan Sheffer
 * Recorded and mixed by Joel Iwataki
 * Electronic music produced by Richard Martinez
 * Film music editor: Curtis Roush
 * Additional orchestrations by Deniz Hughes

Legacy
Barry Levinson said he had been inspired to write the basic plot line for his subsequent film, Liberty Heights, based on a review of Sphere for Entertainment Weekly. Its critic, Lisa Schwarzbaum, specified that Hoffman played "the empathetic Jewish psychologist. Okay, so he's not officially Jewish; he's only Hoffman, who arrives at the floating habitat and immediately announces, noodgey and menschlike, 'I'd like to call my family.' You do the math." Levinson remarked: If I do the math, I will discover what? That he is officially Jewish? What does that have to do with the movie? Do we need to know the math of Mel Gibson or Tom Cruise? Why would an actor in a sci-fi film be singled out as Jewish? For days it troubled me. Negative reviews are part of filmmaking, but what did this comment mean? Suddenly, I remembered my childhood impression that everyone in the world was Jewish, and the subsequent realization: Not only wasn't the world Jewish, but 99 percent of the world wasn't! And that led to memories of a time when Jews were denied access to a swim club, and not allowed to live in certain parts of Baltimore, just as blacks were excluded. School integration didn't happen until 1954. Finally, there was a reason to revisit Baltimore once again, not to indulge nostalgia, but to examine race, religion and class distinction. With the story of the friendship between a Jewish boy and a black girl who find themselves classmates in a newly integrated high school, I wanted to examine not the anger among Baltimore's different populations but the lack of understanding -- because with misunderstanding comes humor, humor from character.

title: Sphere (1998 film)


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Talk:Peritrich

Individuals animals are generally between 0.1 and 2 mm long although for those species with a highly contractile stalk, the maximum extended length can be up to 3 mm.

I'm pretty sure that many peritrichs are much smaller than this - 0.05 mm sounds typical. That's not counting the stalk, but then, not all peritrichs have stalks. I haven't been able to find any info on the full range of peritrich sizes, though. Where exactly do these numbers come from? Josh

The figures come from my own post-grad notes from the microscope when categorising the micro-fauna of activated sludges from sewage treatment plants in the London area in 1968 - 1969. The individual animals associated with the floc particles tended to be large and it is very likely that we would not have been observing many smaller cilliates. I would be happy to accept that there are many Peritichs at or smaller than 0.05mm - I don't have personal evidence for these - I was noting in this topic the unusually large maximum that has been observed. As I read my notes, many of the scale lines are against extend individuals of Vorticella and related spp. Velela 20:24, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Ok, that sounds good. I'll happily trust your maximum and put it back in the article as a note about the stalks. I still wonder what the range of size for the cells themselves is, though. Josh

title: Talk:Peritrich


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Category:Iwate Prefecture

Iwate Prefecture (岩手県; Iwate-ken) is a prefecture located in the Tōhoku region on Honshū island, Japan. The capital is Morioka.

title: Category:Iwate Prefecture


text:
P. N. Dhar

Prithvi Nath Dhar (P.N. Dhar, 1 March 1919 – 19 July 2012) was an Indian economist and the head of Indira Gandhi's secretariat and one of her closest advisers.

Early life and career
P. N. Dhar was born into a Kashmiri Pandit family on 1919 to Dr. Vishnu Hakim and Radha Hakim. His wife was the singer-writer Sheila Dhar. He attended Tyndale Biscoe School in Srinagar, India, and then studied economics at the Hindu College of the University of Delhi.

Dhar served as principal secretary to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi during the tumultuous days of the Emergency (1973–1977). He was one of her close advisors, who were collectively known as the "Kashmiri Mafia".

He was also a professor of economics at Delhi University for many years and the director and emeritus professor of the Institute of Economic Growth in New Delhi.

He was one of the founders of the Delhi School of Economics. He served as the United Nations assistant secretary general, research and policy analysis, in New York from 1978 to 1986.

He was awarded the Padma Vibushan, India's second highest civilian award in 2008.

His memoir, Indira Gandhi, the Emergency, and Indian Democracy was published in 2000.

title: P. N. Dhar


text:
Cassin-class destroyer

Four destroyers in the United States Navy comprised the Cassin class. All served as convoy escorts during World War I. The Cassins were the first of five "second-generation" 1000-ton four-stack destroyer classes that were front-line ships of the Navy until the 1930s. They were known as "thousand tonners" for their normal displacement, while the previous classes were nicknamed "flivvers" for their small size, after the Model T Ford.

They were the first to carry the new 4 in/50 caliber guns. The number of torpedo tubes was increased from the six carried by the Paulding-class destroyer to eight. The additional armament significantly increased their tonnage to over 1,000 tons and decreased their speed to less than 30 kn, despite an increase from 12,000 shp to 16,000 shp.

The Aylwin-class destroyer was built concurrently, and those four ships are often considered to be Cassins. Both classes were ordered in fiscal year 1912.

The class performed convoy escort missions in the Atlantic in World War I. Hulls 43–45 served in the United States Coast Guard as part of the Rum Patrol in 1924–31. All were scrapped 1934–35 to comply with the London Naval Treaty.

Design
The increase in normal displacement to over 1,000 tons was due to the desire to combine a heavy armament with a substantial cruising range. The US Navy at the time had only three modern scout cruisers of the Chester-class cruiser, so the destroyers had to double as scouts. The engineering arrangement of two-shaft direct drive turbines was similar to some previous ships, but the poor performance of early cruising turbines caused a reversion to reciprocating engines for cruising. Hulls 43 and 44 had a triple expansion engine that could be clutched to one shaft for cruising; the other pair of ships had a similar arrangement on both shafts.

"Thousand tonner" development
The "thousand tonner" type included 26 destroyers in five classes: four Cassins, four Aylwins, six O'Brien-class destroyers, six Tucker-class destroyers, and six Sampson-class destroyers. The ships were commissioned 1913–17. As the type developed the gun armament of four 4 inch (102 mm) guns remained the same, torpedo armament greatly increased, and displacement rose by about 100 tons. The Cassin and Aylwin classes had eight 18-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes in twin broadside mounts, two mounts on each side. The O'Briens introduced the 21 in torpedo to the US destroyer force, but the number of tubes remained at eight. In the Sampsons, torpedo armament was increased to twelve 21 inch (533 mm) tubes by replacing the twin mounts with triple mounts. The subsequent "flush deck" types retained the gun and torpedo armament of the Sampsons on a new hull with displacement increased by about 100 tons, and with a new engineering plant. The thousand tonners also debuted US destroyer anti-aircraft armament: two 1-pounder (37 mm) autocannons were specified for the Tuckers but not fitted until the Sampsons.

In engineering, cruising turbines were re-introduced with the Tucker and Sampson classes. USS Wadsworth (DD-60) had prototype fully geared turbines without cruising turbines; this arrangement was later adopted for the Clemson-class destroyer "flush deckers"; other flush deckers had geared turbines with varying cruising arrangements.

Armament
The gun armament of four 4 in/50 caliber Mark 9 guns was a significant increase from the five 3 in guns of the Paulding class, and remained the standard US destroyer gun armament through the "flush deck" Clemson-class destroyers commissioned through 1921. It reflected the increasing size of foreign destroyers that the Cassins might have to fight. The torpedo armament of eight 18-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes was an increase of two tubes over the Pauldings. A factor in the size of the torpedo armament was the General Board's decision to use broadside rather than centerline torpedo tubes. This was due to the desire to have some torpedoes remaining after firing a broadside, and problems experienced with centerline mounts on previous classes with torpedoes striking the gunwales of the firing ship.

The class was probably equipped with one or two depth charge racks each for anti-submarine convoy escort missions in World War I.

Engineering
Most references list the propulsion plant of Cassin and Cummings as standard for the class. However, the Navy's official Ships' Data Book for 1912 shows there was some variation. Cassin and Cummings had four Normand boilers supplying steam to two direct-drive Parsons-type steam turbines driving two shafts for a total of 16,000 shp. A small triple-expansion engine could be clutched to one shaft for economical cruising at moderate speeds. Early steam turbines were inefficient at low speed, and this was only remedied with the rise in steam pressure and the introduction of geared cruising turbines during World War I. Downes had Thornycroft boilers and Duncan had Yarrow boilers. Both of these had Curtis steam turbines and triple-expansion cruising engines on both shafts.

Downes made 29.14 kn on trials at 14,254 shp. Normal fuel oil capacity was 312 tons.

title: Cassin-class destroyer


text: User talk:69.64.103.104

title: User talk:69.64.103.104


text:
Lost to Apathy

Lost to Apathy is the fifth EP by Swedish melodic death metal band Dark Tranquillity. It was released on 15 November 2004 through Century Media Records. All songs were recorded from the Character album, except the live version of "Undo Control" which is from the previously released Live Damage DVD. The album also includes the video for "Lost to Apathy", produced by Roger Johansson (who worked with other bands such as The Haunted, In Flames, and HammerFall) and a Dark Tranquillity screensaver.

"Lost to Apathy" is on the Alone in the Dark (see Page) soundtrack. "Derivation TNB" is a joint remix of some clean riffs from "The New Build", "Mind Matters" and "Dry Run", songs from Character. A shorter version (only the "New Build" riff) can be found at the end of "Through Smudged Lenses", also in the Character album. The EP also includes an industrial remix of "The Endless Feed".

Credits

 * Dark Tranquillity
 * Mikael Stanne − vocals
 * Martin Henriksson − Guitar
 * Niklas Sundin − Guitar
 * Michael Nicklasson − Bass guitar
 * Martin Brändström − keyboards and electronics
 * Anders Jivarp − drums

 * Guests
 * All tracks mastered by Peter In de Betou at Tailor maid
 * Artwork design by Cabin Fever Media

title: Lost to Apathy


text:
Fengbo (deity)

Fengbo (Chinese: 風伯), also known as Fengshi, is the Taoist deity of the wind. In ancient times, he was depicted as a grotesque deity with the body of a deer, the head of a bird, horns, the tail of a snake, and patterns of a leopard. Eventually, Fengbo was replaced by Feng Po Po. According to the Records of the Grand Historian, he was an object of state ritual from early times, with temples and festivals held in honor of him.

Mythology of the Ming dynasty
In the mythology of the Ming dynasty, Fengbo was also known as the Count of the Wind (Chinese: 風伯方天君, pinyin: Fēng bó fāng tiān jūn). He is depicted as an old man holding a fan, with a yellow cloak, a blue and red cap, and a white beard. He holds a goatskin bag of winds and directs them as he pleases. He is considered a stellar divinity, under the control of the star Ch’i of the Sagittarius constellation. In some myths, Fengbo lives in this constellation, where he looks after the solar breezes; when the moon passes too close to his star, he gets a little flustered, allowing too much wind to escape from his sack.

Fei Lien
Fei Lien is considered the dragon form of Fengbo. There are two origin stories of Fe Lien.

Legends say that Fei Lien was originally one of the supporters of the rebel Ch’ih Yu, who was defeated by Huang Ti. He was transformed into a spiritual monster and stirred up tremendous winds in the southern regions. Emperor Yao sent Shên I and three hundred soldiers to quiet the storms and appease Ch’ih Yu's relatives, who were wreaking their vengeance on the people. Shên I ordered the people to spread a long cloth in front of their house and secure it to the ground with stones; this caused the wind to blow against it and change direction. Shên I then flew through the wind to the top of a high mountain and they saw a monster, white and yellow in color breathing deeply. Shên I understood that the monster was the cause of all these storms and decided to shoot an arrow and try to kill it. The monster ran and hid in a deep cave. Shên I followed the monster which drew its sword and dared him to attack the Mother of Winds. Shên I bravely decided to face the monster and shot another arrow, this time hitting it in the knee. The monster was finally defeated. It immediately dropped its sword and begged for its life.

Another legend says that Fei Lien appears as a dragon. He was initially one of the tyrant Chou's wicked ministers and could walk with unheard-of swiftness. Both he and his son Ô Lai, who was so strong that he could tear a tiger and rhinoceros to pieces with his bare hands, were killed while in service of Chou Wang. The legend says that Fei Lien had the body of a stag, about the size of a leopard, with a bird's head, horns, and a snake's tail, and was able to make the wind blow whenever he wished.

Relationships
Some myths say that Fengbo is a subordinate of Chiyou and assists him in his struggle against the Yellow Emperor in the Battle of Zhuolu. He has been known to be friendly with the rain deity Yu Shi. Fengbo is considered a neutral god and does not belong to any faction. Fengbo, in his dragon form, is considered a troublemaker who needs to be watched by Shen Yi. In the Han Feizi (韓非子) or book of master Han Fei, when Huangdi the Yellow Emperor gathers all the demons at Mount Tai Fengbo sweeps the path.

title: Fengbo (deity)


text:
Yug (river)

The Yug (Юг) is a river in Kichmengsko-Gorodetsky, Nikolsky, and Velikoustyugsky Districts of Vologda Oblast and in Podosinovsky District of Kirov Oblast in Russia. It is 574 km long, and the area of its basin is 35600 km2. The Yug joins the Sukhona near the town of Veliky Ustyug, forming the Northern Dvina, one of the biggest rivers of European Russia.

The principal tributaries of the Yug are the Sharzhenga (left), the Kichmenga (left), the Yontala (right), the Pushma (right), and the Luza (right). Most of the course of the Yug runs through the Northern Ridge, and the Yug is one of the biggest rivers crossing the ridge.

The name of the river is identical to the Russian word for "south", but has Finno-Ugric origins and originates from the Komi word ju, which means "water". It is cognate with joki "river" in the most river names in Finland and further with Oka, Vuoksi, Vakh, Yogan, etc. in Russia.

The towns of Veliky Ustyug and Nikolsk, as well as the district centers Kichmengsky Gorodok and Podosinovets, are located on the banks of the Yug.

The source of the Yug is in the southern part of Kichmensko-Gorodetsky District, south of the village of Kaleplikha. The river flows southwest, enters Nikolsky District, runs all the way almost to the border of Kostroma Oblast and sharply turns northwest. The town of Nikolsk is located on both banks of the Yug, and upstream from Nikolsk the valley is already densely populated. Downstream from Nikolsk, the Yug is navigable, although there is no passenger navigation with the exception of several ferry crossings. The river course runs further to the north, re-enters Kichmengsko-Gorodetsky District, turns northeast, accepts the Kichmenga from the left in the selo of Kichmengsky Gorodok, and enters Kirov Oblast. In Podosinovets, the Yug accepts the Pushma from the right, turns north, then turns west, and enters Velikoustyugsky District of Vologda Oblast. The Yug accepts the Luza, its biggest tributary, from the right, and turns north before joining the Sukhona.

There are a number of bridges in the upper course of the Yug, but downstream from Kichmengsky Gorodok there is only one bridge, located in Podosinovets.

History
In 14th-15th century the upper course of the Yug, around Nikolsk, was a disputed territory between Grand Duchy of Moscow and Novgorod Republic. Novgorod controlled the major part of Russian North, and, in particular, all areas along the Sukhona, whereas Moscow controlled Veliky Ustyug, which it inherited from the Vladimir-Suzdal Principality. The Yug was the waterway Moscow used to get to Veliky Ustyug. In the end of 15th century, Novgorod was appended to Grand Duchy of Moscow, and Nikolsk became one of the key points on the way from Moscow to the White Sea, which until 1703 was the main route for the foreign trade in Russia. In particular, the harbor in Nikolsk was used to transport cargo.

title: Yug (river)


text:
Talk:John W. Dower

Niteowlneils disputes neutrality of this article
(reproduced from the author's talk page):

To expand on my comment on the cleanup page, it is not very NPOV, often stating opinion as fact. "Finest" is also too ambiguous to be used in an encyclopedic article--something specific like "award-winning" or "best-selling" (if true) would be fact based; something like "most respected" could work if backed up with quotes/sources, etc. Niteowlneils 19:50, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * The problem with "finest" has nothing to do with the world it's just too vague--it's the same as saying the "best", which begs the question 'in what way?' Most concise? Most comprehensive? Most authoratative? Most suitable for a lay audience? (let alone the questions of 'measured how?', and 'according to whom?'). "...abuse of history..." is one of the debatable opinions stated as fact. Niteowlneils 20:38, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Author's response 1:08 Shanghai time 22 Dec 2004
"Finest" is not the same as saying "best", it has the following relevant definitions:

1. Of superior quality, skill, or appearance 2. Very sharp; keen 3. Characterized by refinement or elegance

In this case the most relevant is also the top definition. The sentence in question, meanwhile, has important qualifications that furthermore make it more precise than Niteowlneils contends--it does not simply state that the subject IS the finest, but that he is CONSIDERED by MANY to be the finest CURRENT AMERICAN scholar in his relevant field. If the page comes across someone who disputes this assertion with the relevant facts, so be it, but I made the assertion based on my own knowledge having been far more immersed in the field than a layman such as Niteowlneils.

As for the sentence regarding G.W. Bush, it is plainly refering not to facts regarding Bush's action but rather to facts regarding the SUBJECT'S assertions regarding Bush's actions, complete with relevant external link.

"Best", finally, is given more than twenty definitions on dictionary.com, a much more problematic word selection, if it had been used. So what we have here from Niteowlneils is a simple strawman masquerading as expert critique.

Controversy about visualizing cultures
I proceed to delete the last sentence on the third paragraph regarding nazi propaganda, as well as to rewrite some parts of this paragraph to keep the neutrality of the point of view. Remember this is an enciclopedia, so articles are not places to express your personal opinions. If you disagree with these changes, please explain your reasons in the discussion page. Wamdebach May 2, 2006,23:07 UTC.

I have included an introductory text about "Visualizing cultures" itself and move this section to a subsection inside John Dower's biography. Wamdebach May 4, 2006,23:40 UTC.

As for Wei's statement, I don't see any reason why it should not be in the article. It is presented as his personal opinion, it is relevant (because it refers to the issue discussed here and he is a prominent historian), and it is appropriately referenced. Even if some people disagree or dislike his opinion, it should not be censored. If you disagree with this citation being in the article, give your reasons here. Wamdebach May 6, 2006,16:30 UTC.

=Non Sense= It is clear that you are censoring opinions, removing arguments you dislike and adding insulting words to a group as whole based an irrlevent person's opinion. Please support facts not your personal feeling.

 * Are you referring to me? If so, I won't respond to personal insults. I'm open to discussion about the article's content, though. If you are interested in having a constructive discussion, please discuss the specific parts of the article that should or should not be included, or the parts that should be re-written in a different way, and give your arguments. As for Wei's quotation, as I said before, I don't see how you consider him irrelevant. He is a history professor of Chinese origin (he taught in the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences) and is currently the president of the Chinese historians in the US. He has given an opinion about this controversy based on his interaction with Chinese students and I wrote about his opinion, not about mine. I think that, given that we are writing here about a controversy, we should offer the views from all actors, referencing where we got the information from. On the other hand, we should avoid writing about our own personal opinions. Now, if you read the text I have written, you can check it only contains facts and opinions/reactions of the involved persons or groups. As you can check, all my text is properly referenced, and I have never written about my personal opinions. Wamdebach May 7, 2006,00:25 UTC.

=Rephrasing and NPOV= Some parts of the "response from the Chinese community" are rephrased for clarity.

 * I find most of this rephrasing acceptable. However, I have made two changes:

 * - The sentence "The conflict was discussed after a week of meetings between the authors of "Visualizing Cultures" and members of the Chinese community at MIT." is gramatically incorrect and its meaning is obscure. I have rewritten it in a clearer way (I think).

 * - The second part of "However, some members of the Chinese commnunity are strongly against the opinion of Mr. Wei, who lacks interaction with and understanding of the ideology of overseas Chinese students." is a non-factual subjective judgement. If you present it as an opinion from someone relevant to the issue, then it may be acceptable. But here it seems to be just your personal opinion. Therefore, I have deleted the second part of the sentence. I have placed the remaining first half of the sentence in the middle of the paragraph, because it makes more sense this way (The structure of the paragraph is: Critical reaction from the Chinese community first and support from the Chinese community second). Wamdebach May 11, 2006,19:56 UTC

 * I consider this removal as censorship of materials. I intend to recover it since neither you or Mr. Wei understand "what's going on" and the ideology of Chinese community, then why bother give an opinion with nothing but insult? Or, if you intend to keep it, I believe the corresponding opinion, which is definetly not personal, should stay. Leave the readers to make their own judgement.

 * It seems to to me that you have misunderstood the goals of Wikipedia. I feel you are using this website to voice out your personal opinions or the opinions of a group you belong to, rather than to explain the facts. I may or may not understand that subliminal "what's going on" (I am pretty sure I do, but that's irrelevant), but in any case it's not for me to include my personal opinion in the article. However, you should not do it either. One thing is to include the opinions of relevant actors in the controversy, like Prof. Wei (who, again, is the president of the Chinese historians in the US). Another thing is that you include your personal opinions, without referencing them, and presenting them as facts. This is totally unacceptable and contrary to the spirit of Wikipedia. Please read the policy page "What Wikipedia is not" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:What_Wikipedia_is_not). Wamdebach May 11, 2006,19:56 UTC.

 * I also disagree with including the sentence "... whereas they describe the Chinese POWs captured during the war as "brutal". It seems to me that you are just picking certain words from Dower's text and putting them in the article outside their context. Please, include a longer fragment of the original text, so that it is clear in which meaning Dower used the words "heroic", "exhilarating beauty", and "brutal". Otherwise, I will proceed to delete this sentence, because I think it's a distortion of Dower's original meaning and therefore it violates the neutrality of the point of view. -- Wamdebach May 11, 2006,1:36 UTC.

 * I guess you have never really read the ORIGINAL caption on the website, which now has been removed and replaced. I believe it is inappropriate for you to edit this part. Or if you intend to make changes, please find a way to read the original captions accompanyiong the controversial pictures first.

 * Well, do you have the "original caption"? If so, please include a reference to it in the article, and then we can discuss. If you have no access to the original caption anymore, then your statements are not verifiable, and they violate Wikipedia's policies. I won't make any further changes in the article at the moment, since this is becoming a war between you and me. I think it's better to let other users decide and edit the content if they think so. However, I find pretty obvious that some of your contributions flagrantly violate basic policies of Wikipedia, namely the neutrality of the point of view (refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view) and the requirement of the material to be verifiable (refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability). Therefore, I will include a flag warning of the dispute on the neutrality of this section. Wamdebach May 12, 2006,19:56 UTC.

=NPOV issues in "Visualizing Cultures" section=

The following statements in the article are not referenced and seem to be personal opinions of the user who wrote them:

- Peter C. Perdue's open letter got strong refutes from the Chinese community. They pointed out it is false to claim that "the uproar" was generated by "distribution of some selected pictures out of context," because the course page of "Visualizing Cultures" was openly available to everyone in the world, and the link to the course was prominently shown on MIT's main page. --> There is no reference of who made this strong refutes. I think that the person who wrote this was expressing his personal feelings. In any case, proper reference is needed.

- Some members of the Chinese community are deeply offended because, in some parts, the authors expressed appreciation by describing the poses of invading Japanese soldiers as "heroic" or by considering certain woodprints as of "exhilarating beauty", whereas they describe the Chinese POWs captured during the war as "brutal". --> The three words "heroic", "exhilarating beauty" and "brutal" are indeed in John Dower's text for Visualizing Cultures, but they were originally written within a context in which they have a totally different meaning from the one that the author of this text tries to convey here. Please refer to the Visualizing Cultures website, http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027j/menu/.

- Many readers pointed out that, even if there were statements condemning the atrocities committed by Japanese armies, as a whole the texts were very unclear on this point. --> Citation is needed. Otherwise, this is again the personal opinion of a Wikipedia user.

- Some members of the Chinese commnunity strongly disagreed with the opinion of Prof. Wei as well, considering his remarks based on "poor understanding of the ideology of overseas Chinese students". --> Again, citation is needed. The quotation does not come from the reference at the end of the paragraph, since this reference was included by me in relation to the final sentences in the paragraph, not to this sentence. I suspect the quotation marks are fake ones, i.e., the author of this text is just "quoting" his own opinion. Wamdebach May 12, 2006,20:20 UTC.

Wamdebach: this popular BBS has a lot of refutes to Professor Perdue's open letter. Surely it's in Chinese and not easy reading to a American reader, but you can find enough 'citation' you requested. http://www.mitbbs.com/mitbbs_bbsdoc.php?board=ChinaNews

As to your opinion "I feel you are using this website to voice out your personal opinions or the opinions of a group you belong to, rather than to explain the facts.", other readers can also charge you are using Professor Perdue's open letter to express your own opinion, because in any case, Professor Perdue's open letter only expresses his own opnion, so I think it's unfair to cite Professor Perdue's open letter while censoring away those against him. I think to be objective, you should either keep both Professor Perdue and his refuters' words, or delete both of them.

 * Very good, if you have a citation, please add it to the article, and rewrite the text to explain whom the opinion comes from: "Users of the China News board in www.mitbbs.com strongly disagreed..." Then, we can discuss whether all these opinions are relevant or not in a Wikipedia article, but to keep the NPOV you have to explain whose opinions you are reporting, instead of presenting them as facts.

 * Since citations have not been included in the article yet, and my issue about the use of the words "heroic", "exhilarating beauty" and "brutal" out of context was not addressed, I'll reintroduce the NPOV flag in the article. Please do not remove it until we reach an agreement. Wamdebach May 15, 2006,23:45 UTC.

 * I suggest the following solution to keep the NPOV: Why don't we remove the third and fourth paragraph? I feel that, if we leave the other three, the facts are already there. Does anyone disagree? Wamdebach May 15, 2006,23:50 UTC.

Wamdebach: Everyone has the freedom to edit an Wikipedia article, please don't dictate anyone what to do or what not to do here. I have removed the NPOV flag because I think it's ridiculous to put it there. If you like you can simply add it back.

Wamdebach: What you have done is balatant censorship. I have added back all paragraphs deleted by you.

 * Do you have any interest of reaching a reasonable agreement? You suggested that "you should either keep both Professor Perdue and his refuters' words, or delete both of them." I think that the second option -deleting both of them- is better than having some non-NPOV paragraphs in an article. Why do you get upset when I do something that *you* suggested? Wamdebach May 16, 2006,00:14 UTC.

Let me explain why I think we should delete those two paragraphs. I can agree that the opinions of Prof. Perdue and Wei are not strictly relevant in an article about John Dower. Therefore, we can delete them. But if we delete the opinions by Perdue and Wei, we don't neet the refutes to their opinions anymore, right? So let's delete these two paragraphs and leave only the facts, so that readers can reach their own conclusions. The article looks much cleaner this way. Wamdebach May 16, 2006,00:33 UTC.

=CNN(AP) report= I don't see any reason that CNN report should be removed, which is a quite neutral one.

 * Ok with me. I'm glad we have finally reached an agreement on the text for this article. Wamdebach May 16, 2006,23:45 UTC.

 * It is not me who was arguing with you in the past week. See, it was not my "personal" opinion at all...I am too just too lazy to argue with anyone. Uvgm

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title: Talk:John W. Dower


text:
User talk:Vortexentity

I am a long time supporter of efforts to free humankind from the shackles of oppressive socialist, and communist governments. Having worked on this effort for the US government while enlisted and serving in Berlin Germany during the cold war. I saw first hand the work of the communist and socialist in converting their populations into dosicle slaves who work for peanuts and can thank their big brother government for both their free medical care, and long food lines.

While training to become an expert in MOUT infantry tactics while stationed in Berlin I spent most of my free time in the fabulous libraries in Berlin instead of the drinking establishments. This gave me a unique opportunity to find out a great deal about the world and Europe in particular.

Unique in all of the world were a small band of idealist that had considered another way to govern themselves. This project and planned community far out to sea called New Utopia attracted my interest a great deal since it was not like any socialist ideal but a social structure built on hard work and constant effort to achieve.

It would not attract socialist or communist as it allows no way for any socialist group of people to over breed or migrate on top of the existing population so they can vote them out using democracy and take over government.

It is established on Libertarian principles that are locked into place with the establishment of a Constitutional monarchy that is kept in line with a constitution that allows for the highest level of freedom and privacy available in any place on the Earth. To me that is a vision worthy of supporting.

New Utopia is only becoming a reality because bold and tireless visionaries work on this dream every day to make it a reality. People looking from the outside that can see nothing of this effort but a web site are not in a place to judge the efforts of the people who are working on this project.

My main focus in life is science and technology. My primary focus in this area is in development of business to find new energy and propulsion technology. My work with New Utopia is as primary creative and technical consulting with the Monarchy. I consult in all areas of technology but mostly in computers, and communications, energy, construction materials, and defense technologies.

My personal interest include martial science, 3D computer modeling, photography, exploring, reading.

I would discribe myself as a militant-utopian-technologist, and early transhumanist.

New Utopia
Hi there. Please note that the changes you're making to the above article do not comply with a number of key Wikipedia content policies, among them WP:V and WP:NPOV. Please familiarise yourself with these and other applicable policies, and do not revert the article again without first discussing your reasons on the article talk page. --Gene_poole 03:04, 1 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Hi. The statements within the article that you are trying to remove are fully referenced and properly cited. They do not constitute "slander". If you wish to promote an alternative viewpoint you are welcome to do so, but you will need to ensure your statements are supported by appropriately cited reliable, non-trivial third party references. --Gene_poole 03:52, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

With regard to your recent edits to New Utopia, I would like to suggest that you review our "conflict of interest" guideline. If you do indeed have a conflict of interest with the subject of the article, you are asked to "avoid, or exercise great caution when ... [e]diting articles related to you, your organization, or its competitors, as well as projects and products they are involved with". If you do not have a conflict of interest, as defined here, with the subject of the article (i.e., New Utopia), please disregard this comment. Thank you, Black Falcon (Talk) 04:58, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

 * I can certainly understand your passion and I personally took no offense at your remarks; my concern was that others might. So that discussion is not spread out over three pages, I suggest that we limit it to the talk page of the article. I have made another edit, removing some more unsourced and disputed content from the "infobox" at the top right of the page. Regarding your most recent comment at my talk page ... it may be the case that you do not see that "good faith can ... be clearly established", but the premise of Assume good faith is that one should assume good faith, even when there is no evidence of it. One should only drop the assumption of good faith in the presence of evidence to the contrary. I believe that the slant of the article is a direct result of the content of the reliable sources included in it. In any case, I think the best solution would be to comment specifically on the content of the article and not speculate about the intentions of its editors. I will shortly place another comment at Talk:New Utopia. -- Black Falcon (Talk) 05:15, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

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title: User talk:Vortexentity


text:
Cross and circle game

Cross and circle is a board game design used for race games played throughout the world.

Design
The basic design comprises a circle divided into four equal portions by a cross inscribed inside it like four spokes in a wheel; the classic example of this design is Yut. However, the term "cross and circle game" is also applied to boards that replace the circle with a square, and cruciform boards that collapse the circle onto the cross; all three types are topologically equivalent. Ludo and Parcheesi (both descendants of Pachisi) are examples of frequently played cruciform games.

The category may also be expanded to include circular or square boards without a cross which are nevertheless quartered (Zohn Ahl), and boards that have more than four spokes (Aggravation, Trivial Pursuit). The game board for the Aztec game Patolli consists of a collapsed circle without an interior cross and thus has the distinction of being a cross that is a circle (topologically), without being a cross plus circle.

Tokens are moved around spaces drawn on the circle and on the cross, with the goal of being the first player to move all tokens all the way around the board. Generally the circle of the cross and circle forms the primary circuit followed by the players' pieces. The function of the cross is more variable; for example, in Yut the cross forms shortcuts to the finish, whereas in Pachisi the four spokes are used as player-specific exits and entrances to the pieces' home. In non-race games (like Coppit and Trivial Pursuit) all paths may be undifferentiated in function.

History
Although these board game designs may be of considerable antiquity, firm evidence is sparse. In India, there are uncited claims that the most ancient board games would date back to BC 3500 in the time of legendary Ruler King Bharata. Noted writer and translator Gilles Schaufelberger lists Sanskrit words for board and dice games from ancient India (based on Heinrich Lüders' work). For cruciform boards, the monumental Pachisi or Chaupat boards of the Moghul ruler Akbar (1542–1605), designed to accommodate humans as playing pieces, "still represent the earliest secure evidence for the existence of the game in India." Culin found evidence for a Nyout-like game existing in China in the 3rd century AD, though this does not seem to be accepted by H. J. R. Murray. Mayan cross and circle boards have been found on stones from the 7th century AD. Although frequently encountered among the native tribes of North America (particularly as a "quartered circle" design) these boards were not made of durable materials, so generally the writings and collections of European-Americans constitute their earliest attestations.

Esoteric connections
Cross and circle boards may suggest a variety of mystical, symbolic, or esoteric designs such as mandalas; sun and earth symbols; swastikas; or Celtic, Coptic, and Greek crosses. However, mere visual similarities do not prove a deeper connection; and demonstrating any historical connection has proven to be a slippery matter. Many modern discussions of the religious, magical, or divinatory genesis of board games stem from the work of Stewart Culin who postulated a single source: the "classification of all things according to the Four Directions" by means of divinatory arrows, and that "[s]urvivals of these magical processes constitute our present games" (including all dice, board, card, and domino games). He quotes, for example, an "account of the Zuñi War Gods" which explicitly links divination, the 4 quarters of the earth, and games. Nyout (Yut) and Native American games like Zohn Ahl are integral to his argument. However, later scholars have called into question our ability to assign historical precedence among randomizing activities such as divination, impartial decision-making, gambling, and game-playing, and elements of his monolithic genealogy of games have been called "absurd".

Nevertheless, if origins confound us, some historical connections are in evidence. In the 19th century, Yut stick dice were used for divination, their results being looked up in a book not unlike the I Ching.

title: Cross and circle game


text:
Silver Meteor

The Silver Meteor is a long-distance passenger train operated by Amtrak between New York City and Miami, Florida. Introduced in 1939 as the first diesel-powered streamliner between New York and Florida, it was the flagship train of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad (SAL) and one of the flagship trains of its successor, the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad (SCL). The train was transferred to Amtrak when it took over intercity passenger rail service in 1971.

The train is part of Amtrak's Silver Service brand, along with its sister train, the Silver Star, SAL’s other former flagship streamliner. The two trains are the remnants of the numerous long-distance trains that operated between New York and Florida for most of the 20th century.

During fiscal year 2023, the Silver Meteor carried 283,932 passengers, an increase of 258.5% from FY2022. In November 2023, the train had a total revenue of $7.3 million.

History
The Silver Meteor was inaugurated by the SAL on February 2, 1939. The name was selected via contest, with 30 people among 76,000 entrants proposing the winning name. Utilizing EMC E4 diesel locomotives originally purchased for SAL's flagship all-Pullman train, the Orange Blossom Special, it became the first diesel-powered streamliner to Florida. Its introduction later prompted SAL's competitor, the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (ACL), to introduce its own New York-Florida streamliner, the Champion, on December 1, 1939. The SAL emphasized the train's modernity, referring to it as the "Train of Tomorrow" and having its first trip to Florida begin not from New York Penn Station, but from the Long Island Rail Road station at the 1939 New York World's Fair. The original schedule took 25 hours.

The train used seven new cars manufactured by the Budd Company, those being a baggage-dormitory-coach, a diner straddled by two coaches on either side, and a coach-lounge-observation. The train was originally tri-weekly, alternating service between Miami and St. Petersburg every other day. However, the train proved to be so popular that after new equipment was delivered, SAL upgraded the train to daily operation to both coasts in December 1939. Heavyweight sleeping cars would be added to the train in 1941, and would be upgraded to lightweight sleeping cars in 1947. In 1956, SAL introduced the Sun Lounge to the train. These cars included five double-bedrooms on one end, and a lounge with glass panels in the roof. This was due to the fact that full dome cars could not fit through the tunnels on the Northeast Corridor between New York and Washington D.C.

The Pennsylvania Railroad carried the train from New York to Washington along its mainline—now the Northeast Corridor—under a haulage agreement. Between Washington and Richmond, Virginia it used the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad, jointly owned by the SAL and five other railroads. South of Richmond, the train used SAL's own mainline via Raleigh, North Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia, Jacksonville, Florida and Ocala, Florida. At Wildwood, Florida, the train was split into east and west coast sections. The east coast section continued to Miami, and the west coast section to Tampa, where the train would be split again into a St. Petersburg section and a Venice section via Sarasota. The Venice section was normally handled by SAL Motorcar 2028.

The Seaboard Air Line Railroad merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad to form the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad in 1967, and in 1968 the new railroad reshuffled the Florida streamliners. The Silver Meteor lost its west coast section and began serving Miami only. The Pennsylvania Railroad merged with the New York Central Railroad to form Penn Central Transportation in 1968, which inherited the longstanding haulage agreement for the Silver Meteor. Amtrak retained the train when it took over most intercity passenger trains on May 1, 1971.

Amtrak era
From December 17, 1971, to April 15, 1972, and September 10, 1972, to April 27, 1973, the Silver Meteor bypassed Jacksonville, running over the Gross Cutoff between Gross near the Georgia state line and Baldwin. Between November 14, 1971, and January 16, 1972, the Silver Meteor made the major shift in its route, shifting from its traditional path on the old SAL mainline via Raleigh and Columbia to the old ACL mainline through Florence and Charleston, South Carolina. Between June 11 and September 10, 1972, the Silver Meteor was extended to Boston and called the Meteor. Service to St. Petersburg returned with the train splitting at Auburndale, Florida.

On several occasions during the 1970s, the Silver Meteor was combined with the Champion, the main rival of the Silver Meteor up until the SCL merger. In the summer of 1972, Amtrak split the trains in Savannah, with the Champion continuing to St. Petersburg and the Meteor continuing to Miami. They were combined again for the summers of 1975, 1976 and 1977, splitting in Jacksonville. Finally, in 1979, the Champion was permanently consolidated into the Silver Meteor as its St. Petersburg section. Although the Champion name was preserved for a time, it disappeared with the October 1, 1979, timetable.

On September 30, 1979, the Silver Meteor was rerouted between Savannah and Jacksonville over the former Atlantic Coast Line Railroad route, due to the abandonment of the old SAL route. On January 31, 1984, the Silver Meteor's Florida west coast terminus was cut back from St. Petersburg to Tampa, ending almost 100 years of rail passenger service to St. Petersburg. By October 26, 1986, the Silver Meteor had shifted to the old ACL route north of Savannah, as the abandonment of the SAL route north of Raleigh affected only the Silver Star. On June 11, 1988, the tracks between Coleman and Auburndale, Florida were abandoned, then removed to create the General James A. Van Fleet State Trail, shifting the Miami section west to Lakeland.

By the end of 1988, the Silver Meteor's Miami section had train numbers 97 and 98, while the Tampa section had train numbers 87 and 88. The Tampa section (87 and 88) was discontinued in 1994, and the Miami section (97 and 98) was rerouted through Orlando, and are still used today.

The best timing for Amtrak's Silver Meteor between Miami and New York City was 27 hours in 2008; SAL's first edition took 25 hours in 1939. Late trains often add more hours to today's schedules, most often caused by freight delays.

In the January 2011 issue of Trains Magazine this route was listed as one of five routes to be looked at by Amtrak in FY 2011 as the previous five routes (Sunset, Eagle, Zephyr, Capitol, and Cardinal) were examined in FY 2010.

In October 2019, the Silver Meteor's dining car discontinued serving freshly cooked meals in a traditional, restaurant-style setting, otherwise known as "traditional dining." Amtrak introduced the “flexible dining” system to the Silver Meteor, which consists of pre-prepared meals which are then heated in either a convection oven or a microwave oven at the time of purchase. In a Rail Passengers Association webinar that took place on November 16, 2022, Amtrak's vice president of long-distance service revealed that traditional dining service was planned to be reintroduced on the Silver Meteor and the Silver Star in early 2023. Following this announcement, beginning on northbound train 92 on March 15, 2023, traditional dining was reintroduced to the Silver Star in the form of a 3-month pilot program gauged to test the success of the service. Southbound train 91 received the pilot on March 17. On June 24, 2023, traditional dining service was formally launched on the Silver Meteor on northbound train 98, and the pilot program on the Silver Star was replaced by permanent service. Southbound train 97 received traditional dining on June 26. However, coach passengers were not allowed access to the dining car on either the Silver Meteor or Silver Star, unlike on Amtrak's western long-distance trains. Shortly after the formal rollout in another interview with the Rail Passengers Association, Amtrak's vice president of long-distance service stated that Coach Class access to the dining car was planned to be allowed by the end of 2023, however by January 2024 coach passengers still did not have access. On March 4, 2024, dining car access was finally expanded to coach passengers, mirroring service on Amtrak's western long-distance trains.

Since 2012, issues have prevented Amtrak from moving from their current station to the Miami Intermodal Center (MIC), primarily regarding the length of the platforms and lease agreements. Amtrak argued that the platforms were insufficient in length, as extra cars are normally added to the Silver Meteor and Silver Star during the winter season to accommodate increased demand. Tri-Rail began serving the MIC on April 5, 2015, and Greyhound began using the station on June 24, 2015. Amtrak had been expected to move to the MIC by the Fall of 2016, but in 2018 Amtrak rejected the terms of a lease agreement with FDOT and said it had no plans to move to the MIC. In 2021, Amtrak reached out to FDOT to begin negotiations again for utilization of the MIC, and in February 2022, negotiations officially restarted. Later in March 2022, a test train operated into and out of the station and proved that the platforms are sufficient in length to hold a standard 10 car train. However, the platforms are not long enough to accommodate an 11 to 12 car train, which could be possible in the winter months. In September 2022, Amtrak management announced that it had restarted lease negotiations with FDOT regarding use and maintenance of the terminal. One issue however, is the deadheading move that will need to take place between the MIC and Hialeah. Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner has stated that "the company is evaluating technical and operational aspects of the move." In an Amtrak Public Board Meeting Q&A on December 1, 2022, it was revealed that Amtrak was in the final stages of its preparations for relocating from their current Miami station, and had planned to relocate to the MIC in 2023. However, additional track area would need to be constructed for the Amtrak trains to turn back north, and as of 2024, Amtrak has no date indicated for when service will start at the MIC.

COVID-19 pandemic
On July 6, 2020, Amtrak reduced the frequency of this train to four times per week as opposed to daily due to the impact of ridership from the worldwide COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic. Southbound Silver Meteor trains departed New York Monday through Thursday, while Silver Star trains departed Friday through Sunday. Similarly, northbound Silver Meteor trains departed Miami Sunday through Wednesday, while Silver Star trains departed Miami on Thursday through Saturday. Both trains resumed daily services on June 7, 2021, after additional Amtrak funding was included in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

From January 24 to October 14, 2022, the Silver Meteor was suspended due to the Omicron variant surge of the coronavirus pandemic and its effect on staffing and equipment availability. During this period, the Silver Meteor's sister train, the Silver Star, continued to operate. Additional coach and sleeping car capacity was added to the Silver Star, creating a train that carried as many as six coaches and five sleepers. The Silver Star provided once-daily service to stations normally served by both trains between New York and Rocky Mount, NC as well as between Savannah and Miami during this period. Furthermore, a stop was temporarily added at Jesup, Georgia, which is usually only served by the Silver Meteor. Once-daily service remained available to Silver Meteor stations between Rocky Mount, North Carolina and Savannah via the daily daytime Palmetto, which operates between New York and Savannah. The Silver Meteor's resumption date was pushed back a total of six times. Originally scheduled to return on March 27, it was pushed back to May 23, then September 11, and finally October 3. However, Hurricane Ian caused extensive damage to the Central Florida Rail Corridor in late September, which Amtrak uses to get to central and southern Florida. Amtrak in response pushed the suspension back to October 6, then to October 11, and finally October 14 after the full extent of the damage became apparent.

Equipment
The original Silver Meteor used lightweight cars built by the Budd Company. Three consists were needed for a daily train between New York and Miami; each had a baggage-dormitory-coach (22 seats), three 60-seat coaches, a tavern-lounge-coach (30 seats), a dining car, and a coach-observation-lounge (48 seats). Some of the coaches were owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad. Budd delivered more cars in November–December 1940, allowing daily service to St. Petersburg: three baggage-dormitory-coaches (18 seats), seven 56-seat coaches, two dining cars, and three coach-buffet-observation cars (30 seats).

By the early 1960s, the SAL's Silver Meteor typically had 17 cars or more, consisting of nine Pullman sleeping cars including its highly touted glass-topped Sun Lounge introduced in 1956, several coaches, two dining cars, and an observation car with tavern. The train began using rebuilt Heritage Fleet equipment in 1981.

The Silver Meteor now uses Amtrak's standard long-distance single-level equipment: Viewliner baggage cars, Viewliner sleeping cars, Viewliner dining cars, Amfleet café-lounges and Amfleet coaches. An ACS-64 electric locomotive is used between New York City and Washington, D.C, while two diesel-electric locomotives, either GE P42DC or Siemens ALC-42 locomotives, are used for power south of Washington, D.C. Amtrak began replacing the older P42DC locomotives with ALC-42 locomotives in 2023.

A typical Silver Meteor consist as of June 2024 is made up of:

 * ACS-64 locomotive (New York–Washington)
 * P42DC or ALC-42 locomotive (Washington–Miami)
 * P42DC or ALC-42 locomotive (Washington–Miami)
 * Amfleet II Coach
 * Amfleet II Coach
 * Amfleet II Coach
 * Amfleet II Coach
 * Amfleet II Café/Lounge Car
 * Viewliner II Dining Car
 * Viewliner I Sleeping Car
 * Viewliner II Sleeping Car
 * Viewliner II Sleeping Car
 * Viewliner II Baggage Car

Route details
The Silver Meteor operates over a combination of Amtrak and CSX Transportation trackage:
 * New York – Washington D.C. (Amtrak)
 * Northeast Corridor:
 * Washington D.C. – DeLand, Florida (CSXT)
 * RF&P Subdivision
 * Richmond Terminal Subdivision
 * North End Subdivision
 * South End Subdivision
 * Charleston Subdivision
 * Savannah Subdivision
 * Nahunta Subdivision
 * Jacksonville Terminal Subdivision
 * Sanford Subdivision
 * DeLand - Poinciana, Florida (SunRail)
 * Central Florida Rail Corridor
 * Poinciana - Mangonia Park, Florida (CSXT)
 * Carters Subdivision
 * Auburndale Subdivision
 * Miami Subdivision
 * Mangonia Park - Miami, Florida (Tri-Rail)
 * South Florida Rail Corridor

The Silver Meteor uses the same route as the Silver Star –the other train in the Silver Service brand –excluding two segments: Selma, North Carolina – Savannah, Georgia, and Kissimmee, Florida – Winter Haven, Florida. Between Selma and Savannah, the Silver Star travels inland over the CSX S-Line to serve the Carolinas' state capitals of Raleigh and Columbia, while the Silver Meteor travels closer to the coast on the CSX A-Line and serves Fayetteville, North Carolina and Charleston, South Carolina. Between Kissimmee and Winter Haven, the Silver Meteor turns south to go directly to Miami at Auburndale, Florida, while the Silver Star continues west to Lakeland, Florida and Tampa, before coming back to Auburndale and turning south to Miami. In addition to these diversions, between Sebring, Florida and West Palm Beach, Florida, the Silver Meteor makes no intermediate stops, while the Silver Star makes an additional stop at Okeechobee, Florida. Inversely, between Savannah and Jacksonville, Florida, the Silver Meteor makes an additional stop at Jesup, Georgia, while the Silver Star makes no intermediate stops. The daytime Palmetto operates from New York to Savannah over the same route as the Silver Meteor, allowing cities in the Carolinas and Virginia on the Silver Meteor's route to have service during the day.

In its present form, the southbound Silver Meteor leaves New York in mid-afternoon, arriving in Washington at dinner time and traveling overnight through Virginia and the Carolinas for arrival at breakfast time the following morning in Savannah, rush hour in Jacksonville, lunchtime in Orlando, and early evening in Miami. Northbound trains leave Miami just before rush hour, arriving in central Florida at lunchtime and Jacksonville in late afternoon and dinner time in Savannah, then passing through the Carolinas and Virginia overnight for arrival at breakfast time in Washington, mid-morning in Philadelphia and lunchtime in New York.

Like other long-distance trains operating on the Northeast Corridor, local travel between NEC stations is not allowed on the Silver Meteor. Northbound trains only stop to discharge passengers from Alexandria, Virginia northward, and southbound trains only stop to receive passengers from Newark, New Jersey to Washington. This policy is in place to keep seats available for passengers making longer trips. Passengers wanting to travel locally must use the more frequent Northeast Regional or Acela trains. Additionally, the Silver Meteor, like the Silver Star, does not allow local travel between West Palm Beach and Miami. Southbound trains only stop to discharge passengers, while northbound trains only stop to receive passengers bound for points beyond West Palm Beach. This is due to the availability of Tri-Rail, South Florida's commuter rail system.

title: Silver Meteor


text: User talk:68.23.36.104

title: User talk:68.23.36.104


text: User talk:68.0.91.184

title: User talk:68.0.91.184