text:
User talk:Goldom/Archive 1

The Humungous Image Tagging Project
Hi. You've helped with User:Sietse Snel/Fix common mistakes project, so I thought it worth alerting you to the latest and greatest of Wikipedia fixing project, User:Yann/Untagged Images, which is seeking to put copyright tags on all of the untagged images. There are probably, oh, thirty thousand or so to do (he said, reaching into the air for a large figure). But hey: they're images ... you'll get to see lots of random pretty pictures. That must be better than looking for at at and the the, non? You know you'll love it. best wishes --Tagishsimon (talk)

Help desk
Surf over, I've added an answer to your question there. Mgm|(talk) 08:20, Feb 10, 2005 (UTC)

Sig
Please remember to sign your comments on talk pages by appending  ~ . Thanks. -- BMIComp (talk, HOWS MY DRIVING) 23:47, 15 August 2005 (UTC)

Thank you
Thanks for reverting the vandalism on my userpage - Akamad Merry Christmas to all! 07:57, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

Kanji
Hi ^^ I thought you might like to know that, on the Japanese Wikipedia, the kanji used for 'talk [page]' and 'contributions' are 会話 (kaiwa, "conversation") and 投稿 (tōkō, "contribution," "submission"), respectively. ～卍 JadziaLover  会話 ~ 投稿 卐～ 02:37, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

 * Thanks! I've changed my sig to those, wasn't sure if the ones I had were any good.-Goldom 莨夊ｩｱ 謚慕ｨｿ 04:02, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

Utopia (online game) report on WP:RFI
I've semi-protected that article to allow the vandalism to be cleared up. Petros471 08:50, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

re: "Ditto that fo..." 07:09, 2 May 2006 (UTC)
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Here at JayKeaton we strive for only the highest quality edits and we were most distressed to hear about your issue with the Family Guy Theme Song edit. Please rest assured that your complaint has been handed to our compliance team and all our staff will informed on this issue to ensure such an event never occurs again. We would like to thank you for viewing JayKeaton material and we are sure you will continue to enjoy our material in the future.

We trust this reply has been satisfactory and if you have no further complaints we consider this investigation closed.

Stacey Carnegie, Public Relations manager. JayKeaton 08:23, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

Articles for deletion/Endless Online (2nd nomination)
Hi, Steve block placed a convincing argument in favor for deletion on the linked deletion request which cites WP:V in saying that the content needs to be verified with third-party content. Just letting you know. — THIS IS M ESSED OCKER  (TALK) 00:17, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

Deletion review/Myg0t (second)
Hi, I notice you've had a say in previous discussions about deletions/undeletions for the myg0t article, I'd just like to inform you that another such discussion is occurring now, so if you'd like to voice your opinion, for or against undeletion of the article, feel free to post your thoughts. - USER-cacophony 20:09, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

Template request
Please see the reply to your request at Requested templates. --CBDunkerson 19:31, 29 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Ah, I didn't know that already existed. Thanks. -Goldom ‽‽‽ ⁂

Thanx
yeah ill definately substitute or copy and paste their code, thanx for the tip  •USER• ADAM THE ATOM  •TALK•  07:41, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Harry's Place
I read your points on the WhatReallyHappened delete page with considerable interest. Here is another page I think you should look at - Harry's Place. It was deleted recently but the original authour (user: Dbiv) circumvented the process by using a friend (User Peter Werner) on wikipedia to get it reposted under their name. All the arguments you used against WRH apply but much more so to Harry's Place. I am prepared to accept the WRH deletion if that is the case but I would like to see some consistency applied across the political spectrum otherwise wikipedia's reputation will be severely damaged leading to accusations of political bias. (It is already starting to happen…) 88.101.187.61 11:25, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

 * PMJI but almost everything that 88.101.187.61 says about me is a lie. I was not the original author of the article in any sense (it was created by anon Special:Contributions/81.134.212.213). I have never met Peter Werner and he is in no sense a sockpuppet or meatpuppet; he came to me spontaneously as an admin who has offered to let people look at deleted pages. Having recreated the page and userfied it for him, he recreated a substantially different article. The page now clearly meets accepted notability standards but 88.101 disagrees with its policy stances. David | Talk 11:35, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

 * As has been pointed out, deletion of articles has no basis in political motivations. (Even if one user did nominate an article under such a pretense, far more would oppose that motion). Both these articles were under criticism for non-notability. But anyway, I and others have said that repeatedly. To the point: you claim to have "read my points with considerable interest". Yet you seem to have missed the part where I voted keep, by the line "All the arguments you used against..." Both these sites appear notable as far as I can see, and I think both deserve to be kept. The comments you have written and recieved at Talk:Harry's Place say enough about your motivations that I see no need to further defend mine (even though I'm not the one voting to delete in the first place). -Goldom T Review 11:38, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

 * My mistake - I thought you voted to delete (did you change?). I just wanted an unbiased wikipedia literate person familiar with the arguments for and against keeping a blog type entry to review the HP entry using the same criteria as is being used for WRH. As you want to keep WRH you are clearly not the right person to do this. As for my comments at the HP page I accept my opinions are strong but the propagation of hate is a serious subject. Just ask the ADL. 88.101.187.61 12:34, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

 * I did change it temporarily (several days ago), but it was originally keep as well. Sorry for the confusion. Even so, I should say, if the two are put side by side, I'd keep the HP over WRH - its just a much better put together article, well cited and all that. Also, having a ton of people come to the site to influence AfDs tends to rub people the wrong way. But since neither of those is a criteria for deletion, but rather cleanup, I had to concede to stick with voting keep. -Goldom T Review 23:10, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Positive comment
Thank you for your positive comment on the RfC. I think perhaps we may be able to make this all end well. Stephen B Streater 13:27, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Vandalism ???
Stop vandalizing my page. I hope it had happened by mistake, coz I was reverting by myself, so, what's happening?Brian W 11:43, 5 June 2006 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure what you mean. I reverted a vandal writing on your page (twice), back to your last version. -Goldom (t) (Review) 11:45, 5 June 2006 (UTC)
 * We workied at the same moment, so the system has reverted again. Cheers and thank you.Brian W 11:48, 5 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Ah, I thought maybe that's what'd happened, but when I checked it looked like my revert went properly. Crazy system. -Goldom (t) (Review) 11:51, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Club music
I'm recently editing the article Club music, but the user Kiand vandalize it putting a redirect to Electronic dance music. Club music is a term in use since the 1980s, and even if it is arguable whether it is correct to regard it is a genre, nevertheless it's a term that includes many genres and gives the users the opportunity to study and discuss the real history of modern dance music in last 20 years without breaks and artificial boundaries between genres.Could you help?. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Brian G. Wilson (talk • contribs).
 * Looking at the discussion on his talk page and the article's, it seems this is more of a conflict than simple vandalism. Right now its just your word against his, and since I don't know enough on the subject to make a judgement of my own, I'm going to stay out of it. Once more users weigh in on the talk page, hopefully a consensus will emerge one way or the other. Sorry I can't be of more help. -Goldom (t) (Review) 16:24, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

WP:SIGTYPE
I replied to your message on the talk page there. I thank you for your continued input and constructive criticism and look forward to gaining more input from you. Thanks, Charli e ( t 05:28, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

A star for your efforts
For the fact that every single anime article I ever look at seems to have you as a major editor, I award you this barn star flower. -Goldom (t) (Review) 08:58, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Domo arigaro Goldom-san -- Cat out 11:55, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Hey there
Thanks for commenting on my RfA...it was greatly appreciated! --Osbus 21:45, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Your edit to The Matrix: Path of Neo
Your recent edit to The Matrix: Path of Neo was reverted by an automated bot that attempts to recognize and repair vandalism to Wikipedia articles. If the bot reverted a legitimate edit, please accept my humble creator's apologies – if you bring it to the attention of the bot's owner, we may be able to improve its behavior. Click here for frequently asked questions about the bot and this warning. // Tawkerbot2 13:31, 7 June 2006 (UTC)
 * bot rv'd my rv of a vandal. Left a note on bot's talk about its error. -Goldom (t) (Review) 13:37, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Hello
Smile

has smiled at you! Smiles promote WikiLove and hopefully this one has made your day better. Spread the WikiLove by smiling to someone else, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend. Smile to others by adding {{subst:smile}}, {{subst:smile2}} or {{subst:smile3}} to their talk pages. Happy editing! --Bhadani 13:42, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Thank you! -Goldom (t) (Review) 13:52, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Barnstar
I didn't even notice you added it until I went to move in a new one from my talk page. Thanks! Voice -of-  All Talk 19:27, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Hehe, you're welcome, I guess I should have let you know on your talk page, I guess I forgot. :) -Goldom (t) (Review) 01:00, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Thank you
Thank for reverting the vandalism on my userpage.-- Andeh 22:19, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

The advice
Hey, thanks for the advice! I know that its your job to do that but thanks anyway! I am new to wikipedia and havent really had the time to read about all the techniques. I really appreciate it!

SSDS man
 * Well, I wouldn't say it's my job, but you're welcome. Just didn't want you to end up with a page full of broken template links if they got deleted and your work on them get lost. -Goldom (t) (Review) 02:29, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Re:Barnstar
Regarding the page Scott Boss, I think you have been mistaken; you may have seen the last version of the article which, for some reason, contained the text of MediaWiki:Noarticletext. :-) Anyway, thanks for the award; I have just handed out another one ... - Mike Rosoft 19:47, 12 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Well that's strange indeed. -Goldom (t) (Review) 21:05, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Thank you for your support
Dear , Thank you very much for your support on my recent RfA. I am pleased to announce that it passed with a tally of 72/11/1, and I am now an administrator. I'll be taking things slowly at first and getting used to the tools, but please let me know if there are any admin jobs I can do to help you, now or in the future. —Cuivi é nen 02:24, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

RE: Question about edit at Earth Girl Arjuna
My comments imported from other talk page

Hey, thanks for formatting the character section correctly. A question though, you changed the "Notes" section to be titled "References" - which it was until my last edit, when I changed it to notes, cause I realized that's what it says to do at WP:FOOT. Is there a reason it is supposed to be References instead that I'm missing? -Goldom (t) (Review) 04:14, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

 * If that's the case, then it's a recent change. Last time I looked, the reference section was suppose to be titled "References". --TheFarix (Talk) 04:23, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

 * Yeah, I didn't realize it at first either, but I think (according to the example on that page, anyway) Notes is for the footnotes, References is for a list of references, not neccisarily cited ones. Though it says (somewhere) they could also be combined into Notes and References. -Goldom (t) (Review) 04:54, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

 * I guess it then depends on what you consider a footnote and what is a reference. Looking at the contents of the section, they all appear to be references. --TheFarix (Talk) 04:33, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

 * You're right it probably doesn't matter too much which it is. And that right now, it isn't really much more than a list of sources. I guess that's the same thing I was being told on the project talk page, that I should make them into actual notes with quotes/explaining what's being references. So I guess when I do get around to that, I'll make it into a "Notes and References", and leave it til then. -Goldom (t) (Review) 04:54, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

 * After reading WP:CITE, it looks like it can be either one. But I think it's better to label sections based on their contents. --TheFarix (Talk) 04:45, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

For the help with the AOL "Formula" vandal...
Cool, just as I was previewing this page it would appear that you've given me a barnstar too... thanks very much! -- gtdp (T)/(C) 13:55, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

Re: signature
I've shortened my signature as you suggested. I thought it was too bulky anyway, only made it a few days ago! I'm still not happy with it, so it will probably change again very soon. Thanks for voting on my RfD(s), it was my very first attempt at nominating anything, I hope I did it right. Tomcage9 --Talk 17:52, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

ty
... for rv-ing the vandalism of my user page. Xiong Chiamiov t alk c ontact 00:24, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

Barnstar Brigade
If you plan to use a noinclude template style to list your barnstars, please archive every sunday/monday. Cheers, H ig hway Rainbow Sneakers 16:48, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Ok, sorry. -Goldom ‽‽‽ ⁂ 16:49, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

My RfA

Hello Goldom, and thanks for voting in my recent RfA, which passed with a tally of (68/19/3). I appreciated your comments, which I hope to take on board in order to gain your respect in my work as an administrator. Best of luck in your continued editing of the encyclopedia! Sam Vimes 20:01, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

AfD
You may wish to reconsider your regretful delete vote here Articles for deletion/Names of European cities in different languages in light of a reply I posted there. Moving the debate as to which languages should be included in each article, and whether their inclusion is POV or detracts from the flow of the article. Just food for thought. Carlossuarez46 21:28, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

RE:Section hiding
I'll put the code here;

 Basic Statistics

I stuffed in helping bits to help you tell what is what; if you need anything else cleared up, feel free to buzz me. Cheers, Master of Puppets Giant Enemy Crab!  03:59, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Alan Liefting's RFA
You seem to be both neutral & opposing this RFA. Can you please clarify your stand & strike out the duplicate vote? Thanks --Srikeit (Talk 04:12, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

List of air episodes vote
I have altered my version of the template significantly. You may want to reconsider your vote. -- Cat out 03:57, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Requests for adminship/Winhunter
My editing summary usage have risen to 51% since my RFA vote begins. Would you mind reconsidering my suitability as an admin in my RFA? Many thanks. --WinHunter (talk) 16:24, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for reverting vandalism on my user page!

 * Thank you! -Goldom ‽‽‽ ⁂ 19:27, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

WikiProject The Beatles Newsletter, Issue 3, July 2006

 * Want to help on next month's newsletter? Don't want to receive these in future? Don't want it subst'd next time? – It's all here.

Hey you FUCKWAD pedophile
Do you even fucking realize what this asshole did to our country. I bet you'll be cheering when you see penises cut and put in our troops mouth. Exactor 05:14, 6 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Riiight. -Goldom ‽‽‽ ⁂ 05:17, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

 * More pleasant discussion from this fellow.

title: User talk:Goldom/Archive 1


text:
Destruction (band)

Destruction is a German thrash metal band formed in 1982. They have been credited as one of the "Big Four" of the German thrash metal scene, the others being Kreator, Sodom and Tankard. In addition to helping pioneer black metal, Destruction was part of the second wave of thrash metal in the mid-to-late 1980s, along with American bands Testament, Sacred Reich, Death Angel and Dark Angel. For most of the 1990s, the band was not signed to a record label and self-produced their albums until they signed a contract with Nuclear Blast in the early 2000s.

History
The band was formed in Weil am Rhein as Knight of Demon in 1982, inspired by Iron Maiden, Mercyful Fate, Motörhead and Venom. The lineup featured Ulf Kühne on vocals, Mike Sifringer on guitar, Marcel "Schmier" Schirmer on bass and Tommy Sandmann on drums. Kühne was kicked out of the band due to conflict with Sifringer over a girl. Schmier took over vocal duties. They were then known as Destruction and released a demo titled Bestial Invasion of Hell on 10 August 1984. After this, the group signed with Steamhammer Records and released an EP titled Sentence of Death on 10 November.

Their first album Infernal Overkill was released in 1985, followed by Eternal Devastation in 1986. The band was joined by a second guitarist, Harry Wilkens, and Sandmann was replaced by Oliver Kaiser. Together they recorded the EP Mad Butcher, their third studio album Release from Agony, both released in 1987, and the band released its first live album Live Without Sense in 1989. During this time, Destruction had enjoyed considerable popularity worldwide, touring relentlessly in Europe and North America, and sharing the stage with Venom, Slayer, Kreator, Sodom, Celtic Frost, Motörhead, King Diamond, Voivod, Exodus, Testament, Overkill, Death Angel, Possessed, Sacred Reich, The Cro-Mags, Tankard, Flotsam and Jetsam, Artillery, Rage, Coroner, Assassin, Candlemass, Prong, Accu§er, Iron Angel, Wolfsbane and Girlschool.

During the initial recording sessions of the fourth album Cracked Brain, Schmier was fired from the band and was replaced by Poltergeist vocalist André Grieder, the only album with him. The album was released in 1990. Guitarist Mike Sifringer remained and continued to release material under the moniker of "Neo-Destruction", featuring vocalist Thomas Rosenmerkel, second guitarist Michael Piranio, bassist Christian Engler and continuing drummer Oliver Kaiser. The first recording was the self-titled Destruction EP in 1994, followed by the Them Not Me EP in 1995 and the album The Least Successful Human Cannonball in 1998.

In 1999, the lineup was disassembled and Schmier rejoined with the addition of new drummer Sven Vormann, returning Destruction as a trio. They signed a record deal with Nuclear Blast and released three new albums; All Hell Breaks Loose in 2000, The Antichrist in 2001, and Metal Discharge in 2003,    with Marc Reign replacing Vormann. The second live album Alive Devastation was released on 26 March 2003, followed by the release of a live DVD titled Live Discharge: 20 Years of Total Destruction on 4 March 2004. Reign was temporarily arrested on 24 May 2004 following the band's performance in Brescia, due to the stage accessories, which was confiscated as a result. Destruction would then sign with AFM Records and release Inventor of Evil on 22 August 2005. That album was followed by a compilation album titled Thrash Anthems on 19 January 2007, featuring re-recorded material, and the next studio album D.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N. on 29 August 2008. The third live album The Curse of the Antichrist: Live in Agony was released 25 September 2009,      followed by the second DVD release A Savage Symphony - The History of Annihilation on 29 January 2010.

Drummer Marc Reign would leave the band in 2010 and be replaced by Polish drummer Wawrzyniec "Vaaver" Dramowicz. On 18 February 2011, the twelfth album Day of Reckoning was released. The band's thirteenth studio album Spiritual Genocide was released on 23 November 2012. Their next album Under Attack was released on 13 May 2016. Through an exclusive PledgeMusic campaign, Destruction released the sequel album to Thrash Anthems titled Thrash Anthems II on 18 July 2017, featuring more re-recordings of classic songs. On 23 January 2018, Vaaver left Destruction "for family reasons", according to Schmier. He took time off in 2015 to be with his family following the birth of his second child. Randy Black would temporarily replace him until the band finds a "worthy successor". He was later announced as the band's new drummer. On 28 February 2019, Swiss guitarist Damir Eskic joined the band. This new lineup recorded the fifteenth studio album Born to Perish, which was released on 9 August 2019. It is rooted in their traditional style of thrash metal and received good reviews. The fifth live album Born to Thrash was released on 8 May 2020.

On 16 July 2021, Destruction performed at the Area 53 Festival in Leoben without rhythm guitarist Mike Sifringer. Schmier explained in a Facebook post that Sifringer had not answered his emails and questioned his status, and that there was a problem that led to the decision to continue without him and would release a statement planned for 19 August. Sifringer's departure was confirmed that day and was replaced by new guitarist Martin Furia, followed by the release of a new single titled "State of Apathy", featuring the band's first recording appearance with Furia. On 13 August, the sixth live album Live Attack was released. On 16 December, a music video of the title track from the sixteenth studio album Diabolical was released. The album was released on 8 April 2022 in celebration of the band's 40th anniversary.

On 31 July 2023, it was announced that Destruction, Kreator, Sodom and Tankard were on the bill for the Klash of the Ruhrpott festival, which is scheduled to take place on 20 July 2024 at Amphitheater Gelsenkirchen in Gelsenkirchen, making this the first time that all of the "Big Teutonic Four" bands have performed together.

On 6 June 2024, the band released a new single titled "No Kings - No Masters" ahead of their next album set to be released in early 2025.

Band members
Current
 * Marcel "Schmier" Schirmer – bass (1982–1989, 1999–present), lead vocals (1984–1989, 1999–present)
 * Randy Black – drums (2018–present)
 * Damir Eskic – lead guitar, backing vocals (2019–present)
 * Martin Furia – rhythm guitar, backing vocals (2021–present)

Former
 * Mike Sifringer – rhythm guitar (1982–1989, 1990–2021), lead guitar (1982–1987, 1990–1993, 1999–2019) , bass (1989–1993)
 * Tommy Sandmann – drums (1982–1987)
 * Ulf Kühne – vocals (1982–1984)
 * Oliver "Olly" Kaiser – drums (1987–1999)
 * Harry Wilkens – lead guitar (1987–1990), rhythm guitar (1989–1990)
 * André Grieder – lead vocals (1989–1990)
 * Thomas Rosenmerkel – vocals (1993–1999)
 * Michael "Ano" Piranio – lead guitar (1993–1999)
 * Christian Engler – bass (1993–1999)
 * Sven Vormann – drums (1999–2001)
 * Marc Reign – drums, backing vocals (2001–2010)
 * Wawrzyniec "Vaaver" Dramowicz – drums, backing vocals (2010–2018)

Discography

 * Infernal Overkill (1985)
 * Eternal Devastation (1986)
 * Release from Agony (1987)
 * Cracked Brain (1990)
 * The Least Successful Human Cannonball (1998)
 * All Hell Breaks Loose (2000)
 * The Antichrist (2001)
 * Metal Discharge (2003)
 * Inventor of Evil (2005)
 * D.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N. (2008)
 * Day of Reckoning (2011)
 * Spiritual Genocide (2012)
 * Under Attack (2016)
 * Born to Perish (2019)
 * Diabolical (2022)

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

title: Destruction (band)


text:
Hard coding

Hard coding (also hard-coding or hardcoding) is the software development practice of embedding data directly into the source code of a program or other executable object, as opposed to obtaining the data from external sources or generating it at runtime.

Hard-coded data typically can only be modified by editing the source code and recompiling the executable, although it can be changed in memory or on disk using a debugger or hex editor.

Data that is hard-coded is best suited for unchanging pieces of information, such as physical constants, version numbers, and static text elements.

Softcoded data, on the other hand, encodes arbitrary information through user input, text files, INI files, HTTP server responses, configuration files, preprocessor macros, external constants, databases, command-line arguments, and is determined at runtime.

Overview
Hard coding requires the program's source code to be changed any time the input data or desired format changes, when it might be more convenient to the end user to change the detail by some means outside the program.

Hard coding is often required, but can also be considered an anti-pattern. Programmers may not have a dynamic user interface solution for the end user worked out but must still deliver the feature or release the program. This is usually temporary but does resolve, in a short term sense, the pressure to deliver the code. Later, softcoding is done to allow a user to pass on parameters that give the end user a way to modify the results or outcome.

The term "hard-coded" was initially used as an analogy to hardwiring circuits - and was meant to convey the inflexibility that results from its usage within software design and implementation. In the context of run-time extensible collaborative development environments such as MUDs, hardcoding also refers to developing the core engine of the system responsible for low-level tasks and executing scripts, as opposed to softcoding which is developing the high-level scripts that get interpreted by the system at runtime, with values from external sources, such as text files, INI files, preprocessor macros, external constants, databases, command-line arguments, HTTP server responses, configuration files, and user input. In this case, the term is not pejorative and refers to general development, rather than specifically embedding output data.

Hardcoding and backdoors
Hardcoding credentials is a popular way of creating a backdoor. Hardcoded credentials are usually not visible in configuration files or the output of account-enumeration commands and cannot be easily changed or bypassed by users. If discovered, a user might be able to disable such a backdoor by modifying and rebuilding the program from its source code (if source is publicly available), decompiling, or reverse-engineering software, directly editing the program's binary code, or instituting an integrity check (such as digital signatures, anti-tamper, and anti-cheat) to prevent the unexpected access, but such actions are often prohibited by an end-user license agreement.

Hardcoding and DRM
As a digital rights management measure, software developers may hardcode a unique serial number directly into a program. Or it is common to hardcode a public key, creating the DRM for which it is infeasible to create a keygen.

On the opposite case, a software cracker may hard-code a valid serial number to the program or even prevent the executable from asking the user for it, allowing unauthorized copies to be redistributed without the need of entering a valid number, thus sharing the same key for every copy, if one has been hard-coded.

Fixed installation path
If a Windows program is programmed to assume it is always installed to C:\Program Files\Appname and someone tries to install it to a different drive for space or organizational reasons, it may fail to install or to run after installation. This problem might not be identified in the testing process, since the average user installs to the default drive and directory and testing might not include the option of changing the installation directory. However, it is advisable for programmers and developers not to fix the installation path of a program, since the default installation path depends on the operating system, OS version, and sysadmin decisions. For example, many installations of Microsoft Windows use drive C: as their primary hard disk, but this is not guaranteed.

There was a similar issue with microprocessors in early computers, which started execution at a fixed address in memory.

Startup disk
Some "copy-protected" programs look for a particular file on a floppy disk or flash drive on startup to verify that they are not unauthorized copies. If the computer is replaced by a newer machine, which doesn't have a floppy drive, the program that requires it now can't be run since the floppy disk can't be inserted.

This last example shows why hard coding may turn out to be impractical even when it seems at the time that it would work completely. In the 1980s and 1990s, the great majority of PCs were fitted with at least one floppy drive, but floppy drives later fell out of use. A program hard-coded in that manner 15 years ago could face problems if not updated.

Special folders
Some Windows operating systems have so called Special Folders which organize files logically on the hard disk. There are problems that can arise involving hard coding:

Profile path
Some Windows programs hard code the profile path to developer-defined locations such as. This is the path for the vast majority of Windows 2000 or above, but this would cause an error if the profile is stored on a network or otherwise relocated. The proper way to get it is to call the  function or to resolve the   environment variable. Another assumption that developers often make is assuming that the profile is located on a local hard disk.

My Documents folder path
Some Windows programs hardcode the path to  as. These programs would work on machines running the English version, but on localized versions of Windows this folder normally has a different name. For example, in Italian versions the  folder is named Documenti. may also have been relocated using Folder Redirection in Group Policy in Windows 2000 or above. The proper way to get it is to call the  function.

Solution
An indirect reference, such as a variable inside the program called "FileName", could be expanded by accessing a "browse for file" dialogue window, and the program code would not have to be changed if the file moved.

Hard coding is especially problematic in preparing the software for translation to other languages.

In many cases, a single hard-coded value, such as an array size, may appear several times within the source code of a program. This would be a magic number. This may commonly cause a program bug if some of the appearances of the value are modified, but not all of them. Such a bug is hard to find and may remain in the program for a long time. A similar problem may occur if the same hard-coded value is used for more than one parameter value, e.g. an array of 6 elements and a minimum input string length of 6. A programmer may mistakenly change all instances of the value (often using an editor's search-and-replace facility) without checking the code to see how each instance is used. Both situations are avoided by defining constants, which associate names with the values, and using the names of the constants for each appearance within the code.

One important case of hard coding is when strings are placed directly into the file, which forces translators to edit the source code to translate a program. (There is a tool called  that permits strings to be left in files, but lets translators translate them without changing the source code; it effectively de-hard codes the strings.)

Hard coding in competitions
In computing competitions such as the International Olympiad in Informatics, contestants are required to write a program with specific input-output pattern according to the requirement of the questions.

In rare cases where the possible number of inputs is small enough, a contestant might consider using an approach that maps all possible inputs to their correct outputs. This program would be considered a hard-coded solution as opposed to an algorithmic one (even though the hard-coded program might be the output of an algorithmic program).

Softcoding
Softcoding is a computer coding term that refers to obtaining a value or function from some external resource, such as text files, INI files, preprocessor macros, external constants, configuration files, command-line arguments, databases, user input, HTTP server responses. It is the opposite of hardcoding, which refers to coding values and functions in the source code.

Programming practice
Avoiding hard coding of commonly altered values is good programming practice. Users of the software should be able to customize it to their needs, within reason, without having to edit the program's source code. Similarly, careful programmers avoid magic numbers in their code, to improve its readability, and assist maintenance. These practices are generally not referred to as softcoding.

The term is generally used where softcoding becomes an anti-pattern. Abstracting too many values and features can introduce more complexity and maintenance issues than would be experienced with changing the code when required. Softcoding, in this sense, was featured in an article on The Daily WTF.

Potential problems
At the extreme end, soft-coded programs develop their own poorly designed and implemented scripting languages, and configuration files that require advanced programming skills to edit. This can lead to the production of utilities to assist in configuring the original program, and these utilities often end up being 'softcoded' themselves.

The boundary between proper configurability and problematic soft-coding changes with the style and nature of a program. Closed-source programs must be very configurable, as the end user does not have access to the source to make any changes. In-house software and software with limited distribution can be less configurable, as distributing altered copies is simpler. Custom-built web applications are often best with limited configurability, as altering the scripts is seldom any harder than altering a configuration file.

To avoid softcoding, consider the value to the end user of any additional flexibility you provide, and compare it with the increased complexity and related ongoing maintenance costs the added configurability involves.

Achieving flexibility
Several legitimate design patterns exist for achieving the flexibility that softcoding attempts to provide. An application requiring more flexibility than is appropriate for a configuration file may benefit from the incorporation of a scripting language. In many cases, the appropriate design is a domain-specific language integrated into an established scripting language. Another approach is to move most of an application's functionality into a library, providing an API for writing-related applications quickly.

title: Hard coding


text:
Yelena Bonner

Yelena Georgiyevna Bonner (Елена Георгиевна Боннэр; 15 February 1923 – 18 June 2011) was a human rights activist in the former Soviet Union and wife of the physicist Andrei Sakharov. During her decades as a dissident, Bonner was noted for her characteristic blunt honesty and courage.

Early life and education
Lusik Georgiyevna Alikhanova was born in Merv, Turkestan ASSR, Soviet Union (now Mary, Turkmenistan). She was born to Ruf "Ruth" Bonner, a Jewish communist activist from Siberia, and Levon Kacharyan, an Armenian. Her father died a year after her birth, and her mother remarried to Gevork Alikhanyan, founding First Secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia and a Comintern executive. She had a younger brother, Igor, who became a career naval officer. Her family had a summer dacha in Sestroretsk and Bonner had fond memories there.

In 1937, Bonner's father was arrested by the NKVD and executed as part of Stalin's Great Purge; her mother was arrested a few days later as the wife of an enemy of the people, and served ten years in the Gulag near Karaganda, Kazakhstan, followed by nine years of internal exile. Bonner's 41-year-old maternal uncle, Matvei Bonner, was also executed during the purge, and his wife internally exiled. All four were exonerated (rehabilitated) following Stalin's death in 1953. In 1941 she volunteered for the Red Army's Hospital when the Soviet Union was invaded, and she became head nurse. While serving during World War II, Bonner was wounded twice, and in 1946 was honorably discharged as a disabled veteran. In 1947 Bonner was accepted as student in the medical institute in Leningrad. After the war she earned a degree in pediatrics from the First Leningrad Medical Institute, presently First Pavlov State Medical University of St. Peterburg.

Marriage and children
In medical school she met her first husband, Ivan Semyonov. They had a daughter, Tatiana, in 1950, and a son, Alexey, in 1956. Her children immigrated to the United States in 1977 and 1978, respectively. Bonner and Semyonov separated in 1965, and eventually divorced.

In October 1970, while attending the trial of human rights activists Revol't (Ivanovich) Pimenov and Boris Vail in Kaluga, Bonner met Andrei Sakharov, a nuclear physicist and human rights activist; they married in 1972. The year before they met, 1969, Sakharov had been widowed from his wife, Klavdia Alekseyevna Vikhireva, with whom he had two daughters and a son.

Activism
Beginning as early as the 1940s, Bonner had helped political prisoners and their families. Although Bonner had joined the Soviet Communist Party in 1964 while she was working as a physician, only a few years later she was becoming active in the Soviet human rights movement. Her resolve towards dissidence was strengthened in August 1968 after Soviet bloc tanks rolled into Czechoslovakia in order to crush the Prague Spring movement. That event strengthened her belief that the system could not be reformed from within. At the Kaluga trial in 1970, Bonner and Sakharov met Natan Sharansky and began working together to defend Jews sentenced to death for attempting an escape from the USSR in a hijacked plane. Under pressure from Sakharov, the Soviet regime permitted Yelena Bonner to travel to the West in 1975, 1977 and 1979 for treatment of her wartime eye injury. When Sakharov, awarded the 1975 Nobel Peace Prize, was barred from travel by the Soviet authorities, Bonner, in Italy for treatment, represented him at the ceremony in Oslo.

Bonner became a founding member of the Moscow Helsinki Group in 1976. When in January 1980 Sakharov was exiled to Gorky, a city closed to foreigners, the harassed and publicly denounced Bonner became his lifeline, traveling between Gorky and Moscow to bring out his writings. Her arrest in April 1984 for "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda" and sentence to five years of exile in Gorky disrupted their lives again. Sakharov's several long and painful hunger strikes forced the new Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev to let her travel to the U.S. in 1985 for sextuple bypass heart surgery. Prior to that, in 1981, Bonner and Sakharov went on a dangerous but ultimately successful hunger strike to get Soviet officials to allow their daughter-in-law, Yelizaveta Konstantinovna ("Lisa") Alexeyeva, an exit visa to join her husband, Bonner's son Alexei Semyonov, in the United States.

In December 1986, Gorbachev allowed Sakharov and Bonner to return to Moscow. Following Sakharov's death on 14 December 1989, she established the Andrei Sakharov Foundation, and the Sakharov Archives in Moscow. In 1993, she donated Sakharov papers in the West to Brandeis University in the U.S.; in 2004 they were turned over to Harvard University. Bonner remained outspoken on democracy and human rights in Russia and worldwide. She joined the defenders of the Russian parliament during the August Coup and supported Boris Yeltsin during the constitutional crisis in early 1993.

In 1994, outraged by what she called "genocide of the Chechen people", Bonner resigned from Yeltsin's Human Rights Commission and was an outspoken opponent to Russian armed involvement in Chechnya and critical of the Kremlin for allegedly returning to KGB-style authoritarianism under Vladimir Putin. She was also critical of the international "quartet" two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict and expressed fears about the rise of antisemitism in Europe. In 1999, Yelena Bonner received the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom.

Bonner was among the 34 first signatories of the online anti-Putin manifesto "Putin must go", published 10 March 2010. Her signature was the first.

Last years and death
From 2006, Bonner divided her time between Moscow and the United States, home to her two children, five grandchildren, one great-granddaughter, and one great-grandson. She died on 18 June 2011 of heart failure in Boston, Massachusetts, aged 88, according to her daughter, Tatiana Yankelevich. She had been hospitalized since 21 February.

Works and awards
Bonner was the author of Alone Together (Knopf 1987), and Mothers and Daughters (Knopf 1992), and wrote frequently on Russia and human rights. She was a recipient of many international human rights awards, including the Rafto Prize in 1991, the European Parliament's Robert Schuman Medal in 2001, the awards of International Humanist and Ethical Union, the World Women's Alliance, the Adelaida Ristori Foundation, the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy, the Lithuanian Commemorative Medal of 13 January, the Czech Republic Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, and others.

She was also awarded the Giuseppe Motta Medal in 2004 for protection of human rights.

In 2005 Bonner participated in "They Chose Freedom", a four-part television documentary on the history of the Soviet dissident movement. Bonner was on the Board of Advancing Human Rights (NGO).

Depiction in media
Bonner was portrayed by Glenda Jackson in the 1984 film Sakharov.

title: Yelena Bonner


text:
Snohomish River

The Snohomish River is a river in Snohomish County, Washington, formed by the confluence of the Skykomish and Snoqualmie rivers near Monroe. It flows northwest entering Port Gardner Bay, part of Puget Sound, between Everett and Marysville. The Pilchuck River is its main tributary and joins the river at Snohomish. The river system drains the west side of the Cascade Mountains from Snoqualmie Pass to north of Stevens Pass.

Measured at Monroe, the Snohomish River has an average annual flow of 9500 ft3/s. In comparison, the Columbia River, Washington's largest river, has an average flow of about 265000 ft3/s.

Course
The Snohomish River forms at the confluence of the Snoqualmie and Skykomish Rivers just west of Monroe. Both of these rivers originate in the Cascades and drain the west slopes of the mountains in southeastern Snohomish County and northeastern King County. The Snohomish River flows generally northwestward from the confluence, passing under state route 522 and flowing alongside Lord Hill Regional Park before reaching downtown Snohomish. Here, it is joined by the Pilchuck River, its main tributary, and flows under state route 9. From Snohomish, the river continues northwestward through a broad floodplain, forming the eastern boundary of the city of Everett. The final few miles of the river in Everett form the Snohomish River estuary, a river delta that features wetlands and tideflats spread out across various islands and arms of the river. Several bridges carry U.S. Route 2, Interstate 5, and State Route 529 across the delta. The river then empties into Possession Sound, which is part of Puget Sound, between Everett and Marysville.

Pollution
The lower Snohomish River was a site of major industry during the 20th century that contaminated the area with various pollutants, including oil and fuel products from former mills and factories. An ore smelter operated by ASARCO contaminated soil and groundwater near the Snohomish River with arsenic. The river has also been used a site for illegal dumping of tires, litter, and batteries. The county government began a program to remove derelict vessels, including old boats, in the Snohomish River delta in 2018; by 2023, the program had removed 27 vessels that had leaked pollutants into the river.

title: Snohomish River


text:
Canada Reads

Canada Reads is an annual "battle of the books" competition organized and broadcast by Canada's public broadcaster, the CBC. The program has aired in two distinct editions, the English-language Canada Reads on CBC Radio One, and the French-language Le Combat des livres on Ici Radio-Canada Première.

The English edition has aired each year since 2002, while the French edition aired annually from 2004 to 2014, and was then discontinued until being revived in 2018.

In 2021, sister service CBC Music launched Canada Listens, which used a similar format of advocates debating five classic albums by Canadian musicians. In 2023, CBC Kids introduced CBC Kids Reads, a feature which uses a similar format to highlight children's picture books.

Overview
During Canada Reads, five personalities champion five different books, each champion extolling the merits of one of the titles. The debate is broadcast over a series of five programs. At the end of each episode, the panelists vote one title out of the competition until only one book remains. This book is then billed as the book that all of Canada should read.

CBC Radio producer Peter Kavanagh proposed the general idea of a national radio book campaign during the fall of 2001. Later that year, Talin Vartanian conceived Canada Reads and created the essential structure of the program: an annual campaign to select a book for the nation to read. She proposed the idea of five panelists, each championing a different title in a national on air debate. Vartanian was producer in the first edition (with Kavanagh), then she became executive producer from 2002 to 2007. In 2007 the program was an "All Star Edition", a reunion of the winning panelists from the first five years. From 2007 to 2017, Ann Jansen produced the program.

Canada Reads was first broadcast on the CBC's Radio One in 2002, and has aired annually on radio since then. The third and fourth editions also were broadcast on television, on CBC Newsworld. Broadcast dates were February 16 to February 20, 2004, and February 21 to February 25, 2005, respectively. The seventh edition was also broadcast on Bold TV, broadcasting from February 25 to February 29. Beginning with the third edition, the daily debates could be heard online as well as on Radio One. The fifth edition was broadcast from April 17 to April 21, 2006. The sixth edition aired February 25 to March 2, 2007. The seventh edition of Canada Reads was broadcast on February 25 to February 29, 2008, and for the first time, it was available as a podcast.

The books in the running for each edition of Canada Reads are announced several months before the programs are broadcast. Titles must be Canadian fiction, poetry or plays. They are promoted in bookstores, in the hope that the Canada Reads audience will purchase and read them all before the programs air. In some cases, publishers have published special editions of the nominated titles.

The publisher of the winning Canada Reads title donates a portion of sales proceeds from the winning book to a charitable organization working in the field of literacy. Recipients have included Frontier College, the Movement for Canadian Literacy, ABC Life Literacy Canada (formerly ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation) and Laubach Literacy of Canada.

Beginning in 2004, Radio-Canada, the French-language service of the CBC, produced a French version of Canada Reads entitled Le Combat des livres ("Battle of the books"). It was broadcast on Première Chaîne until 2014, following which it was discontinued for three years until being revived in 2018.

Both the English and French programs sometimes, but not always, include one personality more commonly associated with the other language community, who champions a translated work. One advocate, Maureen McTeer, has appeared on both programs in the same year, championing the same novel in both its original English and translated French editions. Several other novels have also been chosen for both programs, although their English and French versions were not chosen by the same advocate or in the same year; one novel to date, Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes (French title Aminata) has won both competitions.

2002
Canada Reads 2002 aired from April 16 to 19, 2002. The winning title was announced on April 23, 2002, Canada Book Day. Mary Walsh was the moderator.

2003
Canada Reads 2003 aired from April 21 to 25, 2003. Bill Richardson was the moderator.

2004
Canada Reads 2004 aired on both CBC Radio and CBC Newsworld from February 16 to 20, 2004. Bill Richardson was the moderator.

2005
Canada Reads 2005 was broadcast from February 21 to 25, 2005. Bill Richardson was again the moderator.

2006
Canada Reads 2006 was broadcast from April 17 to 21, 2006. Bill Richardson was again the moderator.

2007
Canada Reads 2007 aired from February 26 to March 2, 2007. Bill Richardson again moderated the competition. For the 2007 competition, each of the five winning advocates from past series returned to champion a new book in an "all-star" edition of the series.

2008
Canada Reads 2008 aired from February 25 to 29, 2008. Jian Ghomeshi moderated the competition.

2009
Canada Reads 2009 aired from March 2 to 6, 2009. Jian Ghomeshi moderated the competition.

2010
Canada Reads 2010 aired from March 8 to 12, 2010. Jian Ghomeshi moderated the competition.

2011
Canada Reads 2011 aired from February 7 to 10, 2011. The producers announced a slightly different format for the 2011 contest. Throughout the month of October 2010, an online vote was held to determine the books that listeners consider the 40 "most essential" Canadian novels of the past decade, and the panelists made their choices from within that list. Only novels, not short story collections, were eligible; however, novels which have previously been included in a Canada Reads competition were still eligible for renomination.

2012
The books for this edition were all non-fiction. A list of 40 non-fiction books were announced as being the shortlist finalists in October 2011, including And No Birds Sang by Farley Mowat, Shake Hands with the Devil by Romeo Dallaire, The Last Spike by Pierre Berton, The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs and Paris 1919 by Margaret MacMillan. Listeners could vote on up to five books they wanted to be shortlisted. The debates aired from February 6 to 9, 2012. Jian Ghomeshi moderated the competition.

On the first day of discussions, panelist Anne-France Goldwater "caused shock and outrage among literary types" (according to The Globe and Mail) by calling Carmen Aguirre "a bloody terrorist" and alleging that Marina Nemat "tells a story that's not true". In response, Marina Nemat posted on Facebook, "I hope [Goldwater] can produce evidence to back up her claims. If not, I would like to receive a public apology from her." Nemat's Prisoner of Tehran was the first voted off, with Stacey McKenzie casting a tie-breaking vote. Arlene Dickinson (the panelist defending Prisoner of Tehran) called McKenzie's vote "the wrong choice for the wrong reason".

2013
The theme for 2013 was "Turf Wars", with the advocates and titles chosen to each represent one of Canada's major geographic regions (British Columbia, the Prairies, Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces). The books and panelists for 2013 were revealed on November 29, 2012, on Q. The debates ran from February 11 to 14, 2013.

2014
The theme for this year was "A Novel to Change Our Nation." Books and panelists were revealed on November 27, 2013, on Q. Jian Ghomeshi moderated the competition.

2015
The 2015 edition of Canada Reads was moderated by Wab Kinew, with the theme of the discussions being "One Book to Break Barriers". The panelists and titles were announced on January 20, 2015, with the debates taking place from March 16 to 19.

2016
The 2016 edition of Canada Reads was moderated by Gill Deacon, and conducted on theme of "Starting Over". Panelists and titles were announced on January 20, 2016, with the debates taking place from March 21 to 24.

2017
The 2017 edition of Canada Reads was moderated by Ali Hassan, on the theme of "The Book Canadians Need Now". Panelists and titles were announced on January 31, 2017, and the debates took place from March 27 to 30.

Note: Tamara Taylor was originally announced as advocate for Company Town but had to withdraw due to a conflict with the filming schedule of her Netflix series Altered Carbon. Measha Brueggergosman was announced as Taylor's replacement on March 9, 2017.

2018
The 2018 edition of Canada Reads was moderated by Ali Hassan, on the theme of "One Book to Open Your Eyes". Panelists and titles were announced on January 30, 2018, and the debates took place from March 26 to 29.

2019
The 2019 edition of Canada Reads was moderated by Ali Hassan on the theme "One Book to Move You". The books and panelists were announced on January 31, 2019, with the debates taking place from March 25 to 28.

2020
The 2020 edition of Canada Reads was moderated by Ali Hassan on the theme "One Book to Bring Canada into Focus". The books and panelists were announced on January 22, 2020. The debates were originally slated to take place from March 16 to 19; however, as the debates normally take place in a theatre in front of a live audience, they were postponed to a later date in light of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. In the interim, the CBC produced a series of five specials, one profiling each of the five nominated books through interviews with both the writer and the advocate, to air in place of the original debates.

In July, it was announced that the debates would take place in the week of July 20 to 23.

2021
The 2021 debates took place in the week of March 8 to 11, 2021, moderated by Ali Hassan on the theme of "One Book to Transport Us".

Canada Listens
Also in 2021, CBC Music announced Canada Listens, a debate which applied the Canada Reads format to five albums by Canadian musicians. Hosted by Saroja Coelho and broadcast on Mornings, the Canada Listens debates took place in the week of April 12 to 15.

2022
The 2022 debates took place during the week of March 28 to 31, 2022, moderated by Ali Hassan on the theme of "One Book to Connect Us".

Canada Listens
The second Canada Listens debates were hosted by Saroja Coelho on CBC Music's Mornings from April 11 to April 14. It resulted in the first tie in the history of the Canada Reads franchise, with two albums jointly winning the final vote.

2023
The 2023 debates took place from March 27 to March 30, moderated by Ali Hassan on the theme of "One Book to Shift Your Perspective".

CBC Kids Reads
Also in 2023, CBC Kids announced CBC Kids Reads, a junior edition of the franchise which focused on illustrated books for younger readers. Unlike the original iteration of Canada Reads, CBC Kids Reads did not have a winner, but selected titles recognized for significant interest for younger readers. The program aired on CBC Kids from March 27 - 30, 2023 and celebrated six books, advocated by the hosts of CBC Kids morning programs.

2024
The 2024 debates took place from March 4 to March 7, moderated by Ali Hassan on the theme of the "One Book to Carry Us Forward." Heather O'Neill became the first person to participate and to win Canada Reads as both an author, after her novel Lullabies for Little Criminals won in 2007, and as an advocate, for championing The Future by Catherine Leroux, in the 2024 edition of the competition.

CBC Kids Reads
A second edition of CBC Kids Reads was announced, celebrating six illustrated books for younger readers. The hosts of CBC Kids returned as advocates. In contrast to the previous edition, a winner was announced among the featured titles on March 7, 2024.

Success
As a vehicle to promote interest in reading and books and to increase sales, Canada Reads has been a signal success. Even already successful titles see increases in sales driven by their inclusion in the contest: sales of Michael Ondaatje's In the Skin of a Lion increased by 80,000 in 2002, the year of its appearance on Canada Reads. Its publisher, Random House of Canada attributed much of this increase to Canada Reads.

The success for lesser known titles can be as marked. Hubert Aquin's Next Episode sold 18,500 copies in the year when it won Canada Reads.

For the 2005 edition, sales of Jacques Poulin's Volkswagen Blues, which usually are about 200 copies a year, increased to 7,500 between the time the nominations were announced and the shows began airing. During the same period, 7,000 copies of Frank Parker Day's Rockbound were shipped by its publisher, the University of Toronto Press.

Various community groups have also created local events that highlight the Canada Reads shortlist; for instance, the Greater Sudbury Public Library in Sudbury has staged several editions of "Sudbury Reads", an event where members of the community discuss and debate that year's Canada Reads titles to arrive at a selection of the city's own favourite Canada Reads book.

Criticism
There has been some criticism of Canada Reads. First, criticism has been made of the use of "celebrity" panelists. In 2007, a listener named John Mutford unsuccessfully attempted to become the first non-celebrity panelist. Critics have also taken issue with the game show format, and have contended that discussion of the books has often remained on a superficial level.

The choice of books has also been criticized. Originally each panelist provided a list of five books, from which the producers chose the final contenders. In 2005, this process changed, and each panelist submitted only one choice. Due to scheduling problems, Rufus Wainwright was not able to appear after selecting his choice, and singer Molly Johnson was chosen to defend his chosen book.

title: Canada Reads


text:
Diverticulum

In medicine or biology, a diverticulum is an outpouching of a hollow (or a fluid-filled) structure in the body. Depending upon which layers of the structure are involved, diverticula are described as being either true or false.

In medicine, the term usually implies the structure is not normally present, but in embryology, the term is used for some normal structures arising from others, as for instance the thyroid diverticulum, which arises from the tongue.

The word comes from Latin dīverticulum, "bypath" or "byway".

Classification
Diverticula are described as being true or false depending upon the layers involved:

 * False diverticula (also known as "pseudodiverticula") do not involve muscular layers or adventitia. False diverticula, in the gastrointestinal tract for instance, involve only the submucosa and mucosa, such as Zenker's diverticulum. False diverticula are typically synonymous with pulsion diverticula, which describes the mechanism of formation as increased intraluminal pressure.
 * True diverticula involve all layers of the structure, including muscularis propria and adventitia, such as Meckel's diverticulum. True diverticula are typically synonymous with traction diverticula, which describes the mechanism of formation as pulling forces external to the structure.

Embryology

 * The kidneys are originally diverticula in the development of the urinary and reproductive organs.
 * The lungs are originally diverticula forming off of the ventral foregut.
 * The thymus appears in the form of two flask-shape diverticula, which arise from the third branchial pouch (pharyngeal pouch) of the endoderm.
 * The thyroid gland develops as a diverticulum arising from a point on the tongue, demarcated as the foramen cecum.

Gastrointestinal tract diverticula

 * Esophageal diverticula may occur in one of three areas of the esophagus:
 * Pharyngeal (Zenker's) diverticula usually occur in the elderly, through Killian's triangle between the thyropharyngeus and cricopharyngeus muscle of the inferior pharyngeal constrictors.
 * Midesophageal diverticula
 * Epiphrenic diverticula are due to dysfunction of the lower esophageal sphincter, as in achalasia.

 * A duodenal diverticulum can be found incidentally in 23% of normal people undergoing imaging. It can be either congenital or acquired, but the acquired form is more common and is due to the weakness of the duodenal wall, which causes protrusions. It is usually found at the second or third part of duodenum, around the ampulla of Vater. Food debris may enter the diverticular outpouchings, causing inflammation or diverticulitis. On CT or MRI imaging, it appears as a sac-like outpouching. If the diverticulum is filled with contrast agents, the wall would be thin and may contain air, fluid, contrast material, or food debris. If the food debris is broken down by bacteria, the outpouching may show "faeces sign". Inflammation of the duodenal wall shows thickening of the wall. Rarely, on barium studies in congenital duodenal diverticula, the contrast material fills up the true lumen, causing "windsock" deformity.
 * A jejunal diverticulum is a congenital lesion and may be a source of bacterial overgrowth. It may also perforate or result in abscesses.
 * A Killian-Jamieson diverticulum is very similar to a pharyngeal esophageal diverticulum, differing in the fact that the pouching is between the oblique and transverse fibers of the cricopharyngeus muscle.
 * A Laimer diverticulum is an outpouching that occurs in the Laimer triangle between the cricopharyngeus and superior esophageal circular muscle.
 * Colonic diverticula, although found incidentally during colonoscopy, may become infected (see diverticulitis) and can perforate, requiring surgery.
 * Gastric diverticula are very infrequent.
 * Meckel's diverticulum, a persistent portion of the omphalomesenteric duct, is present in 2% of the population, making it the most common congenital gastrointestinal malformation.
 * Rokitansky-Aschoff sinuses are diverticula in the gallbladder due to chronic cholecystitis

Most of these pathological types of diverticula are capable of harboring an enterolith. If the enterolith stays in place, it may cause no problems, but a large enterolith expelled from a diverticulum into the lumen can cause obstruction.

Genito-urinary tract diverticula

 * Bladder diverticula are balloon-like growths on the bladder commonly associated with chronic outflow obstruction, such as benign prostatic hyperplasia in older males. Usually found in pairs on opposite sides of the bladder, bladder diverticula are often surgically removed to prevent infection, rupture, or even cancer.
 * Calyceal diverticula are usually asymptomatic, but if a stone becomes lodged in the outpouching, they may present with pain.
 * Urethral diverticula are usually found in women aged 30 to 70 years old, in between 1 and 6% of adult women. Since most cases are without any symptoms, the true incidence is unknown. Symptoms may vary from frequent urinary tract infections, painful sexual intercourse (dyspareunia), or symptoms due to cancer. A urethral diverticulum is located on the anterior vaginal wall, 1 to 3 cm inside the vaginal introitus. MRI is preferred as the imaging method of choice due to its excellent soft-tissue resolution. On T2-weighted imaging, it shows a high signal in the diverticulum due to the presence of fluid inside it. Vaginal ultrasonography is highly sensitive in diagnosing the diverticulum, but it is strongly dependent on the skills of the operator.

Other diverticula

 * A diverticulum of Kommerell is an outpouching (aneurysm) of the aorta where an aberrant right subclavian artery is located. It is unusual nomenclature, in that focal dilatations of a blood vessel are properly referred to as aneurysms.
 * Cardiac diverticulum is a very rare congenital malformation of the heart that is usually benign.

title: Diverticulum


text:
Michael Astor

The Hon. Michael Langhorne Astor (10 April 1916 – 28 February 1980) was a British Conservative Party politician.

Early life
Michael Astor was born on 10 April 1916. He was the fourth child of Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor, and Nancy Witcher Langhorne, both Members of Parliament. He attended prep school at St. Michael's, Uckfield, where he was a contemporary of the future writer and painter Denton Welch, who later included him in a short story. He was educated at Eton College and gained the rank of captain, serving in the Royal Artillery (Territorial Army). He served as an officer during WW2 in "Phantom" GHQ Liaison Regiment.

Career
He was elected as Conservative Member of Parliament for Surrey East in the 1945 general election. He kept his seat in the 1950 election but did not stand in 1951. He wrote a memoir, Tribal Feeling, published in 1963, and a novel, Brand, published in 1968.

Personal life
Astor married three times:
 * Barbara McNeill (1942–1961), with whom he had four children.
 * Pandora Clifford (1961–1968). Annabel Jones, his stepdaughter from his second marriage, married his nephew, William Astor, 4th Viscount Astor.
 * Judith Innes (1970–1980), with whom he had a daughter, Polly in 1971. Polly has a daughter, Martha West, with actor Dominic West.

title: Michael Astor


text:
David Bieber

David Francis Bieber (born 3 February 1966 ), also known under the alias Nathan Wayne Coleman, is an American convicted murderer. A fugitive from the United States, he murdered police constable (PC) Ian Broadhurst and attempted to murder PCs Neil Roper and James Banks on 26 December 2003 in Leeds, England, sparking a nationwide search before he was captured. He was given a whole life sentence after being found guilty of murder in December 2004 and the trial judge recommended that he should never be released; however, in 2008 this sentence was reduced to a minimum term of 37 years by the Court of Appeal, after which he could apply for parole.

Florida shootings
Bieber is originally from Fort Myers, Florida, the son of a middle school principal. After leaving school, he was briefly a US Marine before being discharged for going AWOL.

Bieber became a drug dealer and bodybuilder. On 9 February 1995 a fellow bodybuilder, Markus Mueller, was shot and killed in Fort Myers. Police arrested Bieber, thinking he had hired a hitman, but later released him due to lack of evidence. In November 1995, Bieber's former girlfriend Michelle Marsh was attacked by the same gunman who had attacked Mueller. All four shots missed.

Bieber fled the state, assuming the identity of Nathan Wayne Coleman by stealing the identity of a deceased child who died in the 1970s, and escaped the country in 1996.

Leeds police shootings
Bieber entered the United Kingdom on 26 September 1996 through the port of Ramsgate, Kent using a false passport. He was given a six-month visa, but it was extended until his marriage to Denise Horsley in Kendal, Cumbria.

In 1998, Bieber arrived in Yorkshire, where he worked as a nightclub doorman. He also acquired an arsenal of illegal firearms. In 2001, his wife petitioned for divorce.

On 26 December 2003, on the border between the Gipton and Oakwood areas of Leeds, unarmed traffic policemen Ian Broadhurst and Neil Roper saw Bieber's stolen BMW car parked at the junction of Grange Park Avenue and Dib Lane, where Bieber had just been into the adjacent post office.

They identified the number plates as false, and asked him to accompany them to the police car, where Bieber sat in the back seat. The officers did not attempt to search him or handcuff him. They became uneasy, however, and so called for backup.

Roper then moved to handcuff Bieber, who, facing imprisonment for various offences in the UK and possible extradition to the US, drew a 9 mm handgun and fired an initial four shots at the officers, who tried to flee. Roper was hit twice in the shoulder and abdomen, but managed to get away. Broadhurst was shot once in the back and immobilised. PC James Banks, who had arrived as backup, escaped injury after a bullet hit his radio. Bieber walked over to where Broadhurst was lying, and fired a fifth shot into his head at point blank range. It was the first fatal shooting of an English police officer for over eight years – preceded by that of PC Philip Walters of the Metropolitan Police, who was shot dead on 18 April 1995.

After the shootings, Bieber escaped down Dib Lane, and stole a car at gunpoint outside a betting shop further down the road. This caused some confusion in initial news reports of the shootings, which state that the shooting itself happened outside the betting shop.

Nationwide search
Following the shootings West Yorkshire Police launched a nationwide search for Bieber led by Detective Chief Supt Chris Gregg. On 27 December 2003, Bieber took a taxi journey in Bradford, and on 28 December, armed police raided Bieber's apartment in Leeds.

Bieber was arrested by armed police at the Royal Hotel in Dunston, Gateshead at 2.25am on 31 December. He had dyed his hair ginger. Under his bed, he had a loaded pistol which was later determined to be the weapon used in the shooting, along with around 300 rounds of ammunition. The next day, he was charged with murder and two counts of attempted murder.

Trial
The trial was held at Newcastle Crown Court and ended on 2 December 2004. Bieber denied murder, two counts of attempted murder and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and possession of two hundred 9 mm pistol rounds found in a storage shed. Bieber admitted possession of 298 9mm rounds, found when arrested, without a firearms certificate.

The prosecution presented evidence from witnesses, identification of Bieber's voice and DNA evidence. Bieber's defence was that the culprit was his friend who looked like him, also from Florida, that committed the offences and had asked him to look after the murder weapon. Bieber said he could not name this friend for fear of reprisals.

Bieber was convicted on one count of murder and two counts of attempted murder. The judge, Mr Justice Moses, told Bieber he had shown "no remorse or understanding of the brutality" of his crime, and the aggravating feature in the case was that Bieber did not need to shoot Broadhurst through the head, noting:"You had already disabled him and he was defenceless. You could have escaped then but you chose to wait and fire a second shot at point blank range. To shoot and kill an officer in such circumstances, doing no more than trying to serve us all, is an attack on all of us. It must be acknowledged that he might have died as a result of your first shot, but you made certain of his death."

Bieber was given three life sentences. The judge recommended that Bieber should never be released, making him only the 25th person in British legal history to be recommended for lifelong imprisonment.

Should he be released, the State of Florida, where he faces charges relating to the murder of Markus Mueller and the attempted murder of former girlfriend Michelle Marsh in 1995, has said it would seek his extradition.

Appeals
On 24 October 2006, the Court of Appeal rejected a bid from Bieber for his convictions to be overturned, but ruled he could appeal against the trial judge's recommendation that he should never be released. The Appeal Court ruled that the whole life tariff was not in itself a violation of the provision in the European Convention on Human Rights against "inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment". In February 2007, it was announced that Bieber's sentence appeal would be delayed due to a European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) review of that question; the ECHR ruled in January 2012, by a 4–3 majority, held there was no such violation.

Later in 2007, it was reported that Bieber was involved in an escape plot with two other prisoners.

On 23 July 2008, Bieber was told by the High Court that he would not have to serve a whole life term, as originally recommended by the trial judge, but would still have to serve a minimum of 37 years before being considered for parole, meaning he is set to remain in prison until at least 2041, when he will be 75 years old. Paul McKeever, chairman of the Police Federation, described the ruling as "[leaving] the judiciary with blood on its hands".

Prison officer attack and conviction
On 10 August 2017 Bieber attacked prison officer Alison Smith at HMP Long Lartin prison with a homemade weapon fashioned from an iron bar. At Worcester Crown Court he was given an additional life sentence, with a minimum six year additional term to run consecutively to the existing 37 year minimum term. Consequently, the minimum term is now 43 years and will run until 1 January 2047 when Bieber will be 80 years old.

title: David Bieber


text:
VFA-32

Strike Fighter Squadron 32 (VFA-32), nicknamed the "Fighting Swordsmen" are a United States Navy strike fighter squadron presently flying the F/A-18F Super Hornet and based ashore at Naval Air Station Oceana. Their radio callsign is Gypsy and their tail code is AC. The Fighting Swordsmen of VFA-32 are the 2023 recipients of the Mutha Fighter Spirit Award, awarded annually at the Navy’s Strike Fighter Ball in Norfolk, VA.

Their mission is: "Strike Fighter Squadron 32, as a part of United States Naval Aviation, utilizes the F/A-18F aircraft to project power ashore and at sea, to defend the Fleet against air and sea threats and to carry out all other missions which may be assigned by cognizant authority."

Insignia and nickname
Originally, the squadron used the Fighting Three Felix the Cat symbol and called themselves the "Crazy Cats" because so many pilots were from Fighting Three. At one time, the squadron was known as the "White Lightning." In 1950, the squadron adopted the insignia of a traditional heraldry lion under Naval Aviation wings of gold and the motto "Deus et Patria" that has endured with only slight modernization through today. The VF-32 squadron radio callsign is "Gypsy" and most alumni refer to themselves as "Gypsies". The squadron picked up the nickname Swordsmen after it switched to the F-8 Crusader and added a sword to the lion's hand.

1940s
VFA-32 was established as Bombing Fighting Three (VBF-3) on 1 February 1945, flying the F6F Hellcat, when it was split off from VF-3, the famed Felix squadron. Fritz Wolf, a former member of the American Volunteer Group (AVG) or Flying Tigers, was assigned as the first VBF-3 commanding officer. At the time, U.S. Navy carriers were closing on the Japanese home islands and were facing aggressive Kamikaze attacks. VBF-3 was assigned to Carrier Air Group THREE on board USS Yorktown (CV-10) in the Pacific theater. On 16 February 1945, VBF-3 pilots became the Navy's first carrier-based pilots to strike the Japanese islands. During the heavy action on that day, the squadron shot down 24 Japanese aircraft, earning the Presidential Unit Citation.

On 15 November 1946, VBF-3 was redesignated VF-4A and switched to the F8F-1 Bearcat. On 7 August 1948, VF-4A became VF-32 and switched to the F4U Corsair.

1950s
In 1950, the squadron were deployed to the Korean War with F4Us aboard USS Leyte (CV-32). From October 1950 to January 1951, VF-32 hit Korean targets including Wonsan Harbor, Puckchong, Chonjin, and Chosin Reservoir. On 4 December 1950, the aircraft of Ensign Jesse L. Brown, the first Black American Naval Aviator, was hit by flak while supporting embattled Marines at Chosin. He crash-landed his Corsair behind enemy lines on a snow-covered mountain slope. His wingman, Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Thomas J. Hudner, Jr., could see that Brown survived the forced landing, but appeared to be trapped in the cockpit with smoke coming from the engine compartment. In an attempt to save his squadron mate, Hudner crash-landed his plane alongside Brown's. Hudner found Brown semi-conscious, but was unable to extricate him from the crumpled fuselage. Brown died in Hudner's arms, and although the attempted rescue failed, Hudner received the Medal of Honor and Brown received the Distinguished Flying Cross posthumously.

In November 1952 the squadron returned to the East Coast and became the first squadron to operate the swept-wing F9F-6 Cougar. VF-32 made subsequent deployments aboard USS Tarawa (CV-40) in 1953 and the USS Ticonderoga (CV-14) in 1955. In 1956, VF-32 became the first squadron to transition to the F8U-1 Crusader, thus becoming the first supersonic squadron in the Navy.

While deployed aboard USS Saratoga (CV-60) as a unit of Carrier Air Group THREE, VF-32 participated in the 1958 Lebanon crisis.

1960s
During the Cuban Missile Crisis in late 1962, VF-32 flew 96 sorties to support photo-reconnaissance flights and intelligence-gathering missions. After returning from cruise in 1965, the squadron changed homeport from NAS Cecil Field, Florida to NAS Oceana, Virginia, and switched to the F-4B Phantom II. VF-32 detached from Carrier Air Group THREE, ending a relationship that had lasted since the squadron's establishment.

In June 1966, VF-32 embarked aboard USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CV-42) as a component of Carrier Air Group ONE and sailed for Yankee Station in Southeast Asia. The squadron flew 940 combat sorties during three line periods in five months, building a highly successful Vietnam War combat record, losing no aircraft or aircrew. In May 1968, VF-32 deployed aboard USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) for her maiden voyage.

1970s
For service in October 1970, the squadron received the Meritorious Unit Commendation for actions in support of the United States Sixth Fleet operations during the Middle East Crisis.

In 1974, VF-32 switched to the F-14 Tomcat at NAS Miramar before moving to NAS Oceana as one of the first fleet Tomcat squadrons based there. VF-32 made the first Atlantic Fleet F-14 deployment in June 1975. On that cruise, VF-32 was awarded the Joseph Clifton Award as the Navy's top fighter squadron.

In October 1977, VF-32 became the first fleet squadron to fly against the Air Force F-15 Eagle, setting the stage for regularly scheduled dissimilar air combat training between the Air Force and Navy. VF-32 again embarked for the Mediterranean aboard Kennedy in June 1978. During this deployment, VF-32 conducted the first fleet test and evaluation of the new Television Camera System. The squadron also deployed with AIM-9L Sidewinder missiles for the first fleet captive-carry evaluation. A mid-cruise missile exercise, "BUZZARDEX", saw firings of AIM-54 Phoenix and AIM-7 Sparrow missiles at five targets moving at Mach 2.5. In October 1979, VF-32 completed 10 years of accident-free flying. In those 10 years, the squadron flew over 33,000 hours, including 17,000 in the F-14A.

1980s
In 1980, the squadron was again presented with the Admiral Clifton Award. In 1980 and 1981, the squadron achieved an accident-free Mediterranean deployment aboard Kennedy, followed in 1982 by another accident-free Med cruise aboard USS Independence (CV-62) and the 1982 Commander, Naval Air Force U.S. Atlantic Fleet Battle "E" and CNO Safety "S" awards. In 1982, three VF-32 Tomcats tail numbers 211, 212 and 214, were modified to carry the Tactical Air Reconnaissance Pod System TARPS pod.

In 1983–84, the squadron completed the Navy's first combat deployment since the Vietnam era with CVW-6 aboard Independence. VF-32 flew combat air patrol missions and provided TARPS imagery for 4 December 1983 CVW-6/CVW-3 air strikes on Syrian positions in Lebanon. VF-32 also flew missions in support of Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada providing pre- and post-battle damage assessment using photography from the TARPS pod. The deployment concluded with participation in NATO exercise "TEAMWORK 84" in the Norwegian Sea. The squadron made a third deployment aboard Independence from October 1984 through February 1985 to the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean.

The squadron rejoined CVW-3 in February 1985, and embarked aboard John F. Kennedy in August 1986 for another Mediterranean deployment. This cruise saw the squadron's Class "A" safety record extended another year, but also included the first night F-14 barricade landing. VF-32 participated in a variety of NATO and combined exercises, and extended their major mishap-free safety record to nine years during a 1988–89 Mediterranean deployment, again aboard John F. Kennedy.

On 4 January 1989, while flying from John F. Kennedy during a routine patrol over the Gulf of Sidra, two VF-32 F-14s intercepted two Libyan MiG-23 Floggers, which had originated from the Al Bumbai airfield in Tobruk. After attempting a peaceful intercept, the F-14s used their Television Camera System (TCS) to verify that the MiGs were armed. Hostile intent was declared and the aircraft were cleared to engage. The lead fired an AIM-7 Sparrow, which failed to track. His wingman also fired an AIM-7, which tracked and destroyed one of the MiGs, its pilot ejecting. The first F-14 then closed to AIM-9 Sidewinder range and downed the remaining MiG-23, whose pilot also ejected. The squadron returned to Virginia in February 1989.

VFA-32 appeared on an episode of CBS News 48 Hours entitled "Super Carrier - USS Kennedy."

1990s
When Kuwait was invaded by Iraqi forces in August 1990, VF-32 joined Carrier Air Wing 3, was put on emergency recall from Nellis AFB and returned to NAS Oceana to prepare to sortie with Kennedy. Kennedy immediately proceeded to the Red Sea to participate in Operation Desert Shield alongside USS Saratoga (CV-60). During Desert Shield, the ship made several Suez Canal transits and operated in the Eastern Mediterranean. When Desert Shield turned into Operation Desert Storm in January 1991, VF-32 Tomcats were in the first strike wave flying Combat Air Patrol mainly in central and western Iraq. VF-32 TARPS aircrews flew daily missions throughout Iraq including supersonic runs over highly defended Al Qa'im. Throughout Operation Desert Storm, VF-32 aircrew logged 1,445 combat flight hours on 403 missions, including 38 combat TARPS missions. After an eight-month deployment, the squadron returned to NAS Oceana on 28 March 1991. Later that year, the squadron won the 1991 AIRLANT Grand Slam missile firing competition with 17 of 17 scored kills.

VF-32 and John F. Kennedy again deployed in October 1992. The squadron conducted a great deal of air-to-ground operations in the Adriatic Sea while on cruise in support of Operation Provide Promise, marking the beginning of the Tomcat strike/fighter mission and provided significant carrier air patrol support for C-130 food drop missions in the former Yugoslavia. The squadron returned home to NAS Oceana in April 1993 and throughout the summer conducted joint exercises with the Air Force and was coined the first "Toms to Bomb" squadron to fully certify the use of bombs on the F-14 platform. The year was highlighted with presentations of the Battle "E" and Clifton Awards to VF-32.

In May 1994, VF-32 and CVW-3 embarked aboard USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69). This four-week deployment marked the first extensive at-sea period where women worked alongside men on a fleet aircraft carrier. In September, a small detachment provided TARPS photography and air support for Operation Uphold Democracy in Haiti. In November 1994, VF-32 deployed aboard Dwight D. Eisenhower for another tour in the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. The squadron flew missions over Iraq in support of Operation Southern Watch and over Bosnia-Herzegovina in support of Operation Deny Flight. 1995 marked fifty years of service from the men and women of VF-32. In November 1996, VF-32 and CVW-3 deployed on board USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) for another tour in support of Operation Deny Flight and Operation Southern Watch over Bosnia and Iraq. The squadron brought digital imagery to the TARPS mission through new cameras that could take up to two hundred digital images and was able to store them on board or transmit them to appropriately equipped ground or sea-based receivers up to 300 kilometers away, resulting in a near-real-time reconnaissance capability. The squadron received the Meritorious Unit Commendation for its cutting edge work with Digital TARPS. In August 1997, VF-32 began transitioning from the F-14A to F-14B. In February 1998, the squadron received the F-14B Upgrade.

In November 1998, VF-32 and CVW-3 deployed aboard USS Enterprise (CVN-65) to the Persian Gulf and Mediterranean Sea to support Operation Southern Watch and Operation Deliberate Force. With Iraq’s failure to cooperate with United Nations inspections of known weapon sites, Operation Desert Fox was launched on 16 December 1998. VF-32 took part in a 33-aircraft strike package on 16 December. The first night of the four-day operation was conducted by the US Navy only. Over four days, VF-32 expended 111054 lb of ordnance during 16 strike missions and 38 sorties. During Desert Fox many Tomcat firsts were achieved, including the first GBU-24s dropped in combat by the US Navy, the first multiple GBU-24 drop by any platform in combat, the first combat use of the LANTIRN, the first autonomous F-14 delivery of a GBU-10/16/24, and the first F-14 use of Night Vision Devices in combat. The squadron returned home in May 1999.

2000s
VF-32 deployed once again in November 2000 for the maiden voyage of the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75). They spent four months in support of Operation Southern Watch and returned home on 23 May 2001. In December 2002 VF-32 deployed once again on Harry S. Truman in support of Operation Noble Eagle and Operation Northern Watch.

In support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) in 2003, VF-32 was deployed to the Mediterranean Sea aboard Harry S. Truman. VF-32 flew strike missions and missions in support of US Special Forces on the ground. VF-32 was involved in the worst friendly fire incident of the war when on 6 April 2003 a squadron F-14 crew was cleared to attack an Iraqi tank near Dibakan, 30 mi south east of Mosul. Instead, they mistakenly dropped a single laser-guided bomb on a vehicle convoy consisting of US Special Forces and Kurdish resistance fighters, killing 18 Kurdish fighters, 4 US soldiers and a BBC translator. An additional 80 people were wounded. An investigation following the war found that the pilot had been cleared to drop without the benefit of target coordinates provided by the Forward Air Controller, who was "operating under great stress" at the time. Overall, VF-32 flew 275 sorties and expended 247 laser-guided bombs and 118 JDAM. In January 2004 VF-32 became the first operational squadron to attempt the launch of six AIM-54 Phoenix missiles from one aircraft. A launch such as this had not been attempted since 1972. Five of the six active radar missiles were successfully launched. VF-32 returned to NAS Oceana in May 2003.

In 2004 VF-32 deployed again in support of OIF, becoming the first Naval squadron to redeploy in support of OIF. The squadron delivered multiple precision guided munitions on insurgent hideouts using the LANTIRN pod in the urban Close Air Support environment. This would be the squadron's final deployment with the F-14.

In October 2005, VF-32 transitioned to the F/A-18F Super Hornet and in November 2005 the squadron was designated Strike Fighter Squadron Thirty Two (VFA-32).

In November 2007, VFA-32 embarked on USS Harry S. Truman for their first F/A-18F Super Hornet cruise, deploying to the Persian Gulf. VFA-32 and the rest of CVW-3 returned home on 4 June 2008. VFA-32 was awarded the Battle Effectiveness Award for maintaining the highest state of battle readiness and sustained superior performance in February 2009.

Throughout the 2010s, VFA-32 saw numerous deployments and conducted extensive combat operations in the Middle East with their F/A-18Fs.

In October 2023, VFA-32 began a combat deployment within Air Wing Three onboard the USS Dwight D Eisenhower. The deployment focused heavily within the CENTCOM AOR. For the majority of the deployment, VFA-32 operated from the Red Sea.

Constant combat operations against Houthi-Iranian military units in Yemen and over the Red Sea occurred during the deployment. VFA-32 was heavily involved in defensive and offensive operations against Houthi-Iranian drones, as well as fixed and mobile targets.

VF-32 Awards

 * Navy Expeditionary Medal, for 19-Oct-1962 to 23-Oct-1962, Cuban Missile Crisis.
 * Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, 24-Oct-1962 to 15-Nov-1962, Cuban Missile Crisis.
 * Meritorious Unit Citation, 29-Sep-1970 to 31-Oct-1970.
 * Navy E Ribbon, 01-Oct-1977 to 30-Sep-1978.
 * Meritorious Unit Citation, 01-Dec-1977 to 01-Mar-1979.
 * Navy E Ribbon, 01-Jan-1982 to 31-Dec-1982.
 * Navy Expeditionary Medal, 20-Aug-1982 to 05-Sep-1982, Lebanon.
 * Navy Expeditionary Medal, for several non-contiguous time periods from 01-Oct-1982 to 06-Dec-1982, Lebanon.
 * Navy Unit Commendation, 20-Oct-1983 to 03-Mar-1984.
 * Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, 24-Oct-1983 to 02-Nov-1983, Grenada.
 * Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, 16-Nov-1983 to 02-Mar-1984, Lebanon.
 * Meritorious Unit Citation, 01-Jul-1986 to 06-Jul-1986.
 * Southwest Asia Service Medal, 14-Sep-1990 to 12-Mar-1991.
 * Navy Unit Commendation, 17-Jan-1991 to 28-Feb-1991, Desert Storm.
 * Armed Forces Service Medal, for several non-contiguous time periods beginning 22-Oct-1992 to 24-Mar-1993, Bosnia.
 * Navy Unit Commendation, as a part of Dwight D. Eisenhower Battle Group, 01-Mar-1994 to 01-Apr-1995.
 * Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, 16-Sep-1994 to 22-Sep-1994, Operation Uphold Democracy Haiti.
 * Armed Forces Service Medal, for several non-contiguous time periods from 15-Dec-1994 to 28-Mar-1995, Bosnia.
 * Meritorious Unit Citation, 01-Nov-1995 to 30-Nov-1996.
 * Navy Unit Commendation, as part of Enterprise Battle Group, 16-Dec-1998 to 20-Dec-1998.

VFA-32 Awards

 * Navy E Ribbon, 01-Jan-2008 to 31-Dec-2008.
 * Mutha Fighter Spirit Award, 26-May-2023.

title: VFA-32


text:
Boll weevil (politics)

Boll weevils (named for the type of beetle which feeds on cotton buds) was an American political term used in the mid-to-late 20th century to describe conservative Democrats, particularly Southern Democrats.

Background
During and after the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt, conservative Southern Democrats were part of the coalition generally in support of the economic policies of Democratic presidents Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman, dubbed the New Deal and Fair Deal respectively, but were opposed to desegregation and the civil rights movement.

On several occasions between 1948 and 1968, prominent conservative Southern Democrats broke from the Democrats to run a third party campaign for President on a platform of states' rights: Strom Thurmond in 1948, Harry F. Byrd in 1960, and George Wallace in 1968. In the 1964 presidential election, five states in the Deep South (then a Democratic stronghold) voted for Republican challenger Barry Goldwater over Southern Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson, partly due to Johnson's support of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Goldwater's opposition to it.

After 1968, with desegregation a settled issue, the Republican Party began a strategy of trying to win conservative Southerners from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party (see Southern strategy and silent majority).

History
Representative Howard W. Smith of Virginia took up the boll weevil as a symbol in the 1950s, during Dwight D. Eisenhower's administration, but the term did not gain currency until the 1980s, when it was revived by Representative Charles W. Stenholm of Texas. The group adopted the name of the boll weevil, a pest destructive to cotton crops, because of the difficulty of eradicating the weevil and the pest's range in the Southern United States.

Nonetheless, a bloc of conservative Democrats, mostly Southerners, remained in the United States Congress throughout the 1970s and 1980s. These included Democratic House members as conservative as Georgia's Larry McDonald, who was also a leader in the John Birch Society.

During the administration of Ronald Reagan, the term "boll weevils" was applied to this bloc of conservative Democrats, who consistently voted for Reagan administration policies, such as tax cuts, increases in military spending, and deregulation. The boll weevils were contrasted with the "gypsy moth Republicans"—moderate Republicans from the Northeast and Midwest who opposed many of Reagan's economic policies.

Most of the Democratic boll weevils eventually retired from politics, or in the case of some, such as Senators Phil Gramm of Texas and Richard Shelby of Alabama, switched parties and joined the Republicans. Since 1988, the term "boll weevils" has fallen out of favor.

A bloc of conservative Democrats in the House, including some younger or newer members as well as the remaining boll weevils who refused to bow to pressure to switch parties, organized themselves as the "Blue Dogs" in the early 1990s. A different bloc of Democrats also emerged in the 1990s, under the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), espousing pro-business views on economic issues and moderate views on social issues.

title: Boll weevil (politics)


text:
Platacanthomyidae

The rodent family Platacanthomyidae, or Oriental dormice, includes the spiny dormice and the Chinese pygmy dormice. In spite of their appearance, these animals are not true dormice, but are part of the large and complex superfamily Muroidea. The platacanthomyids can be distinguished from the true dormice, because they have no premolars, giving them three cheek teeth, like their relatives, the Muroidea.

The evolutionary relationship of the Platacanthomyidae was uncertain until a molecular phylogenetic study found it to be the earliest extant lineage to branch within the superfamily Muroidea. They can be distinguished from both the family Spalacidae and the Eumuroida (all non-spalacid and non-platacanthomyid muroids), by the distinct shape of their infraorbital canal and by the presence of multiple openings in the palate of the skull. On the basis of these two characteristics, they have been considered to be distinct from all other muroids. More work is needed to determine the evolutionary position of this subfamily.

The Platacanthomyidae contain three genera – Neocometes, Platacanthomys (spiny dormice), and Typhlomys (pygmy dormice) – but only three extant species.

Taxonomy

 * Family Platacanthomyidae
 * Genus †Neocometes
 * †Neocometes brunonis
 * †Neocometes orientalis
 * †Neocometes similis
 * Genus Platacanthomys (spiny dormice)
 * †Platacanthomys dianensis
 * Platacanthomys lasiurus (spiny dormouse)
 * Genus Typhlomys (pygmy dormice)
 * Typhlomys cinereus (Chinese pygmy dormouse)
 * Typhlomys nanus
 * †Typhlomys hipparionium
 * †Typhlomys intermedius
 * †Typhlomys macrourus
 * †Typhlomys primitivus

title: Platacanthomyidae