text:
ACTRA Award

The ACTRA Awards were first presented in 1972 to celebrate excellence in Canada's television and radio industries. Organized and presented by the Association of Canadian Television and Radio Artists, which represented performers, writers and broadcast journalists, the Nellie statuettes were presented annually until 1986. They were the primary national television award in Canada until 1986, when they were taken over by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to create the new Gemini Awards, although ACTRA continued to present Nellies in radio categories.

The ACTRA Awards were then revived in 2003 as a local film industry award, separately presented by each of ACTRA's regional chapters to honour performances in local film and television production, since expanded to incorporate web series and video games.

History
ACTRA began presenting the John Drainie Award for distinguished lifetime contribution in broadcasting in 1968, before launching a comprehensive program for television and radio awards in 1972. The 1st ACTRA Awards that year only presented the Drainie Award alongside the new Earle Grey Award for actors and Gordon Sinclair Award for broadcast journalism, with its roster of categories beginning to expand the following year.

By 1978, there began to be talk in the industry of a "Nellie curse", as several broadcast personalities in the past couple of years had been fired or had their shows cancelled very soon after winning an ACTRA award. The same year also saw the first widespread complaints about ACTRA's nomination criteria, which limited honours in most categories to ACTRA members; even if ACTRA members had collaborated with non-ACTRA members, then only the ACTRA member could be considered for nomination.

That year further saw the public revelation of an unconfirmed but longstanding industry rumour that if Lloyd Robertson had won the award for Best News Broadcaster at the 4th ACTRA Awards in 1975, elements in the audience were planning to pie him in the face just to see if they could cause the normally unflappable Robertson to lose his composure.

By 1980, the CTV network decided to boycott the awards, on the grounds that the members-only rule biased the awards in favour of CBC Television productions; the issue arose because the CBC produced most of its programming directly, and thus nearly all CBC programming involved ACTRA members, while CTV broadcast far more programming from independent non-ACTRA producers. The boycott, which continued for several years thereafter, sparked discussions through the early 1980s about how to improve the management and delivery of Canadian television awards.

In this era, there was also significant concern about the fact that ACTRA only presented awards in categories such as acting, writing and journalism, but had no categories for television crafts such as cinematography or editing, as well as a controversy when ACTRA rejected the CBC's proposal of Dan Aykroyd as host, on the grounds that he was working in the United States and not an active ACTRA member.

By 1983, the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television's experimental Bijou Awards, which had been presented for the first time in 1981, were being proposed to replace the ACTRA Awards, but this did not proceed at this time; ultimately, responsibility for presenting the Canadian television awards was transferred to the Academy's new Gemini Awards in 1986.

Awards transferred to the Academy included the John Drainie Award, a lifetime achievement award for distinguished contributions to Canadian broadcasting, and the Earle Grey Award, which transitioned from ACTRA's award for best performance in a television film into the Academy's lifetime achievement award for acting.

Following the launch of the Geminis, the ACTRA Awards continued to honour radio programming.

Revival
Beginning in 2002, ACTRA took management of the John Drainie Award back from the Academy, presenting it thereafter at the Banff Television Festival.

On the 60th anniversary of the national union in 2003, now renamed the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists and representing only performers, the ACTRA Awards were resurrected in several of its branches across Canada as a local film and television award, presented by the organization's local chapters in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador and the Maritimes to honour achievements in film and television within their own regions. Depending on the level of production activity in their respective regions, some chapters of ACTRA present their awards annually, while others present their awards every two years.

However, the revived ACTRA Awards program also includes a national Award of Excellence, presented to an actor to honour their lifetime achievements; the national award of excellence is most commonly presented to an actor who is working in Hollywood, and would thus not be eligible for a regional chapter's local award of excellence. However, the national award of excellence is not necessarily always presented annually.

Some awards are handed out for performances, while others are given for union activism and contributions to the industry.

National Award of Excellence recipients

 * 2003 — Leslie Nielsen
 * 2004 — Lloyd Bochner
 * 2005 — Tonya Williams
 * 2007 — Kiefer Sutherland
 * 2009 — Sandra Oh
 * 2010 — Eugene Levy
 * 2011 — Bruce Greenwood
 * 2015 — Jason Priestley
 * 2016 — Neve Campbell
 * 2017 — Kim Coates
 * 2018 — Molly Parker
 * 2019 — Jay Baruchel
 * 2020 — Catherine O'Hara

title: ACTRA Award


text:
Shuffling machine

A shuffling machine is a machine for randomly shuffling packs of playing cards.

Because standard shuffling techniques are seen as weak, and in order to avoid "inside jobs" where employees collaborate with gamblers by performing inadequate shuffles, many casinos employ automatic shuffling machines to shuffle the cards before dealing. These machines are also used to reduce repetitive motion stress injuries to a dealer.

Shuffling machines have to be carefully designed, as they can generate biased shuffles otherwise: the most recent shuffling machines are computer-controlled. The randomness or otherwise of cards produced from automatic shuffling machines is the subject of considerable interest to both gamblers and casinos.

Shuffling machines come in two main varieties: continuous shuffling machines (CSMs), which shuffle one or more packs continuously, and batch shufflers or automatic shuffling machines (ASMs), which shuffle an entire single pack in a single operation. Batch shufflers are more expensive, but can avoid the problems associated with some continuous shufflers, whereby the shuffling operation only slowly changes the state of the deck, and new cards may be taken before shuffling has sufficiently randomized the pack, allowing some players to "shuffle track" cards through the shuffling process.

A widely reported, but unpublished, study by Persi Diaconis and Susan Holmes in 2000 resulted in the redesign of many shuffling machines. SIAM News later published a reasonably detailed discussion of its results.

Early mechanical card shufflers
Patents regarding card shuffling devices started to appear in the United States around the end of the 19th century. It is unclear whether these devices were converted to commercial products or were discarded. These machines were often complex with many mechanical parts to achieve card retrieval, shuffling and distribution with pseudo-randomness.

In 1878, Henry Ash proposed an apparatus to shuffle cards. His device was a box with an open top where the operator would place the deck. The operator would then slightly shake the box to make the cards fall through a comb at the bottom of the box. About half of the cards would fall into the lower compartment while the rest were still in the upper compartment. The operator would take these upper cards, pack them together and do the same with the lower cards. The two packs would be placed upon each other to form a new deck and the operation could be repeated for better shuffling.

In 1887, Silvanus Tingley and Charles Stetson patented their "card shuffling apparatus". The device was composed of two card-holding boxes where the packs were held by springs. The device simulated a riffle shuffling by extracting the cards through a slot at the bottom of each box and placing them in a pile in the middle. The operator would turn a crank which was connected to gears and finally disks covered with rubber that were in contact with cards. This feeding mechanism ensured that the final stack was composed of cards "randomly" coming from the left or right chamber. The main difference with the next machines is that only one card would be ejected from a box during one turn.

In 1892, William H. Ranney filed a patent for a "card shuffling and dealing mechanism". The apparatus was basically an inclined box which was fixed to the border of the playing table. The cards were inserted from the top of the case and were trapped inside a receptacle hold by a lever. The operator would turn a crank which would slowly lower the bottom wall of the inclined receptacle. At this point, the device relied upon the friction force between the cards to achieve some kind of randomness. One card would start to slide as a result of the steepness and would attract a few cards with it. The number of cards being released at each turn would typically vary between one and five cards. The cards fell into another receptacle and the operator would turn the whole device to distribute the cards to another player. This rotation activated a roller which would distribute the bottom card out of the box. One year later, William Ranney proposed another version of his device where the original deck was split in half and cards would fall from one or both halves at once.

In 1897, two brothers, the Crooks, proposed a more complex machine which was similar to a slot machine displaying five cards. This device did not distribute cards to players but was just displaying a random sequence of cards. However, it used a shuffling mechanism that relied upon a rotating triangular frame where each side contained the same device. Only one mechanical side could operate and display cards at a moment and the operator would rotate the whole drum to perform another shuffling. A shuffling box would be split into five compartments using what they called "partition fingers". A complex pins mechanism would then mix the cards between the compartments and the new result would be displayed.

John Bowen proposed in 1899 a compact "card shuffling machine" where the unshuffled pack was enclosed between two horizontal plates. The principle of this apparatus was similar to Tingley and Stetson's machine. The top plate could move and was called the follower, the bottom plate was fixed. The operator would press the deck using a vertical handle which was connected to the follower, and he would turn a crank that activated two rollers which were above and under the deck. In front of the deck, a bar would block most cards except those on top of the pack as well as those at the bottom. The rollers were pressing against the cards and with their respective rotation, would throw them into a receptacle. At each step, cards could come from the top or the bottom of the deck and the number of cards which were ejected was not constant. Variable friction between the rollers and the cards themselves ensured some randomness as in Ranney's machine.

Fred C Rollings in 1899 invented a device with a rotating table where cards were spread around the center using a detent with variable pressure. In 1901, Benjamin Bellows filed a patent for his device which used "gravity alone for all movements of the cards" by dividing guiding them through moving compartments. Various mechanisms were proposed during the following years with different combinations of rollers, card-holding boxes, combs and pins systems. Most of these machines were manually run by turning a crank which would activate the inner gears and rollers. Randomness could be improved by increasing the number of shuffling turns performed by the operators or by increasing the number of boxes, combs or partitioning chambers in the machines. Some devices were simple boxes with combs that would simulate a manual shuffling like riffle shuffling. In 1925, Charles and William Gunzelmann filed a patent for a simple rhombus-shaped apparatus where the cards were inserted in an upper chamber. Shaking the device would make the cards fall into a lower compartment; the shuffling was ensured by two small wings in the middle of the box that would distribute the cards. The operator would then turn the box upside down and repeat the operation. A glass windows permitted seeing that all cards had fallen into the compartment.

Improving randomness using mechanical tricks
After 1930, inventors focused on the design of machines that could directly deal the cards, an idea that was already present in Ranney's machine in 1892.

In 1932, a dealing table was patented by Laurens Hammond. This was one of the first machines to use electricity to power the necessary shuffling and dealing mechanism. His patent description provides interesting insights regarding the problems related to previous machines: If the cards were worn or bent, the shuffling could fail. He also criticized the randomness of previous shuffling methods and pointed out the risk of predicting the final sequence. The patent also contains mathematical explanations regarding the inner state of his machine. A motor drove a rotating frame that would distribute 13 cards to each player. The machine went through 53 cycles to distribute the 52 cards. During each cycle, a selector plate with 52 notches rotated by one step. There were four possible depths for the notches and a lug touching the notches would determine which player would receive the card. Each card was taken from the top of deck and sent to the corresponding player's receptacle using a conveyor track. The first cycle was used to rotate the plate and ensured that the distribution would start with a new sequence. One property of the machine was that the same player could be served during two or three consecutive cycles. To increase randomness, the author proposes to use a set of different selector plates or to use another deck being shuffled while people are playing. The machine was fast enough to shuffle a whole deck in a few seconds. If only one plate was used, the same dealing sequence would appear after 52 deals (there were 52 possible starting points on the plate; the starting point was not randomly chosen, as the plate always rotated by one step in the same direction during each cycle).

The problem of ensuring randomness using mechanical means was hard to resolve. In the early 1930s, Robert McKay proposed an ingenious machine containing a chamber with 52 balls of different diameters (for each player, there were 13 balls with the same size). Like in a lottery machine, the balls would be shaken and randomly chosen by driving them one by one into a wheel with 52 slots. This wheel would then rotate, slot by slot, and a rod in contact with the ball would "detect" its diameter. A distribution mechanism could then use the diameter information and take the appropriate action to deal the card to the correct player.

Together with the lottery machines, the shuffling devices continued to evolve. In 1934, Ralph Potter invented an electromechanical machine that would read perforated cards and generates random sequences. The data would be then used to power up lamps on the gaming table. These lights symbolized cards and roulette values. Players pressed on buttons to indicate their choices to the machine. To some extent, his device was one of the first attempts to make a computerized pseudo-random generator and game console.

During the rest of the 1930s, many inventions tried to address the dealing problem, mainly by using rotating frames that would distribute cards to each player around the table. Rotating parts were common in the shuffling machines; designers often used gears and plates with notches or holes whose purposes were similar to the sequence-generator plate of Hammond's machine. These shufflers shared some similarities with the machines used in cryptography such as Enigma. This German encryption device used during World War II contained rotors that stepped each time a key was typed and produced an encrypted version of the letter. Both domains must fulfill mathematical requirements regarding randomness to avoid known patterns, repeated sequences and other kind of statistical weaknesses or biases.

After World War II
After World War II, engineers tried to generate random sequences using electrical devices. Signals from electrical noise sources (like a hot cathode gas discharge tube or a resistor) would typically be sent through filters and amplifiers to output one or several random streams. Such a device is described in a 1940 patent by Newby et al.. Most patented machines continued to be based on old mechanical designs that did not provide as much randomness as noise sources, but were more practical. According to the patents filed during the 1950s and 1960s, designers created simple devices where a basic shuffling operation was repeated several times (by feeding the output deck back into the machine) instead of having one complex pass implying many tricky mechanical operations ending up with a poor shuffling and lower reliability. Some of them tried to reproduce what was manually done during riffle shuffling with cards interleaving each others. Card-picking rollers in contact with the top or bottom of the deck were still heavily used at that time.

Computerized shufflers
In 1969, Thomas Segers patented his "electronic card dealer" which was not working with real cards but simulating random selections. Thanks to lights, players could see the result. According to the patent, the design contains multivibrators, AND logic gates and a tube oscillator. The inventor also indicates that transistors could have been used in the circuit. In 1974, David Erickson and Richard Kronmal proposed a shuffler based upon a logic circuit with binary gates. The deck was placed in a holder and cards were extracted one by one, sent into a downward slope channel containing some flaps that would be activated or deactivated, depending upon which stack should be fed. The flap forwarded the card into the proper container and was moved by a coil controlled by the pseudo-random generator. Synchronization was important and several methods were used to ensure that the card would follow the correct path.

Until the 1980s, there were not many innovations. In 1985, Edward Sammsel proposed a machine that extracted the cards from the bottom of two deck holders and put them in a second compartment. Another extractor would eject the card that was taken by the dealer. The order in which the two cards were taken from the holders was driven by a logic circuit whose main parts were a counter and a decoder. Photosensors detected how many cards were present in each compartment and if the card was taken by the dealer. In this case, another card would be processed from the initial holders.

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

title: Shuffling machine


text:
Talk:Marijuana Policy Project

Chuck Thomas
There was a link to Chuck Thomas earlier, but the substub for him was deleted due to non-notability. 205.217.105.2 15:49, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Jack black was listed, but Kyle Gass was not so I added him.

Quote
I dont believe we should have a quote in the opening, not least as we musnt let this organisation appear top define themselves re our WP:NPOV policy, SqueakBox 23:56, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

"Marijuana" vs. "Cannabis"
As far as I know, the organization focuses on marijuana, and not other cannabis products such as hashish, hashish oil, hemp, etc. I believe we should leave the "marijuana" references intact. Josephgrossberg 16:41, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

 * Can you source this as there is no eveidence to support what you say? Wikipedia uses the scientific word cannabis not the US word marijuana and I dont see why this article should be different from all the others. We need to remain consistent. Changing the link for Cannabis (drug) to marijuana, a redirect, is clearly unhelpful as we try and repair redirects not create them, SqueakBox 16:54, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

 * (Quick note: I didn't make that change; some anonymous user did.)

 * "Marijuana" is not synonymous with "cannabis" -- it is a specific. subset of the latter, so a substitution is often but not always appropriate.

 * This particular article should be "different from all the others" because this organization deliberately focuses on marijuana; and not cannabis in general.

 * For example, there is the Nevada initiative that MPP backed:

Sec. 39. Regulation of marijuana. As used in this section, 'marijuana' means a plant of the genus Cannabis or its product, but does not include hashish."
 * "Section 3. Article 4 of the Constitution of the State of Nevada is hereby amended by adding thereto a new section to read as follows:

 * I think it is clear that in this one case, the more specific term "marijuana" is accurate and "cannabis" is incorrect. Josephgrossberg 21:49, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

I dont think that is so at all as Americans tend to call cannabis marijuana far more commonly than they call it cannabis but the wikipedia international name for the wikipedia international encyclopedia is cannabis. Some source about them not wanting preparations but only the plant would be best to back yourself up, SqueakBox 01:35, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

 * I just gave you a source -- the Nevada bill they spent a year pushing for, which mentions marijuana, Cannabis and hashish by name -- and I'm not sure what else you want.

 * You're clearly in the minority on this, for what it's worth -- I'm one of multiple users (check the varying IP addresses) who has changed it to say "marijuana" and you're the only one who replaces that with "cannabis".

 * Twice previously, you even changed the quoted mission mission statement, before finally removing it (in frustration?).

 * I just can't see you conceding the point that, in this particular case, "marijuana" is the correct term.

 * I contribute to Wikipedia because it's interesting and fun; this edit war is neither. I am tired of this dispute and am not going to do any cannabis→marijuana reverts any more. Josephgrossberg 14:03, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

In the minority? How is that in a debate between 2 people. IP addresses are not confiable especially when they dont join in the devbate on the talk page. I have stated I think a quote in the opening is wrong in any article though you were right that if the quote says marijuana we shoulkdnt change the quote to say cannabis. I honestly think that in your ref they used marijuana because that is what Americans do and many have a problem with the word cannabis because it isnt used a lot in the States. But wikipedia does use the word cannabis, nor does the UK, see this story from today, SqueakBox 15:59, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

I would say that in accord with general wikipedia standards and international usage as seen on global newsgroups, we should use the "cannabis" nomenclature rather than "marijuana" in all references except direct quotes and the name of the organization itself. Sarsaparilla (talk) 03:23, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

Need help expanding
Drug Free America Foundation article needs expansion. I tried to add a little to it, but sourcing stuff has been tough. Gigs (talk) 18:42, 14 October 2008 (UTC)

Legalization of Marijuana on a Federal Level
In the United States of America medical marijuana is legal in twenty-three states and in the District of Columbia; while recreation marijuana use is legal in only three states. The state of Colorado has legalized both medical and recreational use of marijuana. The federal legalization of marijuana would benefit all people in the United States by offering alternative medical treatments, refocused state legislation, and increased state revenue. The legalization of cannabis in Colorado provides homeopathic and natural treatment options for numerous medical conditions. Use of medical cannabis helps relieve the side effects of several medical conditions such as chronic pain, appetite loss, sleep deprivation, and nausea. Secondly, the cost of prohibiting marijuana, at state and federal levels, is estimated at eight billion dollars each year (Blackwell, 691). Marijuana prohibition diverts critical law enforcement resources from violent crime. Also, while other states are seeing cut backs in their education programs as a result of national budget cuts, Colorado has promised forty billion dollars from recreational medical marijuana excise tax to public schools. As one of the first states to legalize medical marijuana, Colorado officials are working through unforeseen problems but also receiving millions in tax revenue. One thing remains clear, while the state of Colorado has legalized marijuana sales on a state level, marijuana sales are still very much illegal on the federal level.

Works Cited Blackwell, J. Michael. “The Costs and Consequences of US Drug Prohibition for The Peoples of Developing Nations.” Indiana International & Comparative Law Review 25.1 (2015): 665-692. Academic Search Complete. Web. 8 Apr. 2016.

2601:280:C000:1A4C:8D6F:D983:8EF3:18C9 (talk) 03:27, 25 April 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
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External links modified
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 * Added archive https://archive.is/20130216231911/http://www.uatrav.com/2012/11/07/issue-5-goes-up-in-smoke-narrowly/ to http://www.uatrav.com/2012/11/07/issue-5-goes-up-in-smoke-narrowly/
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Content removal and WP:COI declaration
, thank you for declaring a WP:COI on your user page. You are strongly encouraged not to edit this article directly, but to instead bring ideas to talk where they can be discussed and vetted by impartial editors. Please don't make edits like this, which remove reliably sourced content without an explanation. If you have issues with the content, or alternative sourcing, I suggest starting a discussion here and then other editors can implement any changes that are agreed upon. Marquardtika (talk) 21:59, 20 August 2018 (UTC)

/* History */
Leadership at the organization has recently changed, so I propose the following edits to reflect that:

Matthew Schweich, who joined MPP as the director of state campaigns in early 2015, served as interim executive director until August 2018, when the organization named Steven W. Hawkins its new executive director.

Staff size and budget numbers also need an update for accuracy:

MPP has grown to over 40,000 dues-paying members and is the largest marijuana policy reform group in the United States. The organization has approximately 20 staffers and an annual budget of about $7 million.

Kzawidzki (talk) 13:59, 21 August 2018 (UTC)

 * The first change seems fine. Do you have a source for the "MPP has grown to over..." part? We want to avoid the organization's own website whenever possible. Marquardtika (talk) 20:35, 21 August 2018 (UTC)

 * I'm not sure what kind of sources you want me to provide. All one has to do is count the number of staff on our staff page for an accurate number. For the budget, our 990s are publicly published online. For our number of dues-paying members, I have referenced our member database. I'm just trying to provide accurate updates for all of this information. Kzawidzki (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 14:36, 24 August 2018 (UTC)

/* State legislative victories */
Vermont's bill was signed in late January, so I propose the following edit to reflect that:

In January 2018, the Vermont Legislature passed a limited legalization bill, which will make it legal for adults to possess and grow limited amounts of marijuana. Gov. Phil Scott (R) signed the bill into law on January 22, 2018. MPP’s staff and lobbyists led advocacy efforts for medical marijuana, decriminalization, and legalization in Vermont for more than 15 years.

Kzawidzki (talk) 14:01, 21 August 2018 (UTC)

 * Could you provide a source for this? The last sentence, especially, is promotional. The whole section "state legislative victories" is actually problematic. This should be an encyclopedia article reflecting an overview of the group, its history, activities, and why it is notable. Per WP:NOTPROMOTION, it shouldn't resemble a press kit or brag sheet of "accomplishments." At a minimum, we need some sourcing (not MPP authored per WP:SPS) for the Vermont stuff. Marquardtika (talk) 20:39, 21 August 2018 (UTC)

/* Sex scandal */
I propose deleting this whole section. Kampia is no longer affiliated with the organization in any way, so this information is no longer relevant.

Kzawidzki (talk) 14:02, 21 August 2018 (UTC)

 * This content is still relevant to MPP and it history, as Kampia was the long-time leader. Seven MPP staffers quit. This is a notable episode in the organization's history and its notability isn't reduced because Kampia is gone--in fact, he is gone because of the scandal, affirming the notability of this issue. Marquardtika (talk) 20:42, 21 August 2018 (UTC)

He's not actually gone because of the scandal. Not sure why you purport to know more about the organization than I do. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kzawidzki (talk • contribs) 14:29, 24 August 2018 (UTC)

 * Look, Wikipedia does not look fondly upon COI editors. I tried to explain that to you and to help you. But I have no interest in helping you if you are going to be rude. I'm done here. If you continue trying to push your edits through here, I'll start a discussion at WP:COIN. Marquardtika (talk) 14:40, 24 August 2018 (UTC)

 * Sir, people outside of the organization, without a COI, can't always provide the accurate information. I want the information for our organization to be correct, not wrong and outdated. So I'm not sure what you want me to do here. The staff numbers, budget numbers, etc. are all incorrect. Kzawidzki (talk)  —Preceding undated comment added 16:05, 24 August 2018 (UTC)

One of the Benefits of Legalizing Marijuana Recreationally
Within my research that I have done recently, there a many benefits to legalizing marijuana. According to the World Health Organization, North America is the largest consumer of marijuana. Why wouldn't the U.S. want to take advantage of this market. The amount of money that can be gained from the taxes and revenue that could be brought in is exponential. This market can do so much for the American economy; the money that this market would bring would exceed the amount of money it takes to prosecute. Jeffrey Miron who is a Harvard economist estimates the legal and illegal market to be around fourteen billion dollars. Not only making it legal for medical use, recreational use would sky rocket these numbers. There are already policies in place for not prosecuting medical marijuana business and users, for example the in 2009 the Department of Justice issued the Ogden Memo stating operations in medical marijuana states cannot be prosecuted. Also the amount of jobs that can be created for this industry for example government regulators, license issuers, jobs in retail and agriculture. Also the amounts of jobs that can be created for research and to further explore its benefits. Thank you Rachael Underwood — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rdrunderwood (talk • contribs) 23:30, 28 February 2019 (UTC)

title: Talk:Marijuana Policy Project


text:
Stracciatella

Stracciatella is a term used for three different types of Italian food:

 * Stracciatella (ice cream), a gelato variety with chocolate flakes, inspired by the soup
 * Stracciatella di bufala, a soft cheese from the Apulia region
 * Stracciatella (soup), an egg drop soup popular in central Italy

title: Stracciatella


text:
Jason Richardson

Jason Anthoney Richardson (born January 20, 1981) is an American former professional basketball player who played 14 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Richardson was taken by the Golden State Warriors as the fifth overall pick in the 2001 NBA draft after playing college basketball for Michigan State University. He won the NBA Dunk Contest in both 2002 and 2003, becoming the second player, after Michael Jordan, to win the competition back-to-back. Richardson has also played for the Charlotte Bobcats, Phoenix Suns, Orlando Magic, and the Philadelphia 76ers. Richardson is often remembered for his proficiency in dunking and shooting. Since 2021, Richardson has been an active player for Tri-State of the BIG3.

Early life and college
Born in Saginaw, Michigan, Richardson graduated from Arthur Hill High School in 1999. Having led the Arthur Hill basketball team to the Class A championship game, Richardson was Mr. Basketball of Michigan and a McDonald's High School All-American in his senior year. Richardson chose to play college basketball for Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo.

In his freshman season at Michigan State, Richardson averaged 5.1 points per game in 37 games (including three starts) and made 50.3% of attempted field goals. Led by Mateen Cleaves and Morris Peterson, the Spartans won the NCAA Championship with Richardson as a key reserve. In a bigger role in his sophomore season at Michigan State, he led the Spartans in scoring averaging 14.7 points per game. Richardson played along future NBA players Zach Randolph and Charlie Bell as the Spartans advanced to the Final Four before losing to Arizona. He was named Big Ten First Team that year.

Golden State Warriors (2001–2007)
The Warriors drafted Jason Richardson out of Michigan State with the 5th overall pick.

Richardson competed in the Rookie Challenge as a rookie in 2002 and a sophomore in 2003. His teams won both years, and he was awarded the Rookie Challenge MVP as a rookie. As a sophomore, he had a memorable moment when, in the closing seconds of the game, he bounced the ball off Carlos Boozer's forehead and then made a three-pointer before the clock ran out.

During his time with Golden State, Richardson gained popularity for his outstanding scoring, ability to dunk, dedication to the team and fans, and ethical maturity. As the long time captain of the Warriors, Richardson organized a letter of apology to Warrior fans in 2005 after the team failed to make the playoffs for the 12th straight season. The letter ran in several Bay Area newspapers. The following year, Richardson helped lead the Warriors to their first playoff trip in 13 years. The Warriors upset the top-seeded Dallas Mavericks in the first round, but lost in the second round to the Utah Jazz.

Even after leaving Golden State, Richardson remained one of the most popular players among Warrior fans because of his electric style of play and ability to shoot three-pointers, as well as the longevity and tenor of his tenure with the team. Richardson set the Warrior franchise record for three-pointers made in a game without missing (8) in a home win against the Phoenix Suns. Richardson is especially known for his high-flying abilities and is widely regarded as one of the best dunkers in 2000s. He won the NBA Slam Dunk Contests in 2002 and 2003, and also competed in the 2004 contest, but lost to Fred Jones in the finals.

Charlotte Bobcats (2007–2008)
On June 28, 2007, Richardson was traded to the Charlotte Bobcats along with the draft rights to 36th pick Jermareo Davidson for the draft rights to eighth pick Brandan Wright.

Richardson began to gain attention with the Bobcats when he led the team to a road win against the Boston Celtics after scoring 34 points. This was only the Celtics' fourth loss of the season and second loss at home. It was also the Bobcats' second road win of the season, ending an 11-game road losing streak. Richardson also led the Bobcats to a franchise-record five consecutive game winning streak, including a home win against his former team, the Golden State Warriors. Richardson posted 42 points against the Warriors. The 2007–08 season was a season of rebuilding for Richardson and the Bobcats. He was able to get his points per game average back up to 21.8, lead the Bobcats in scoring, and lead the league in three-point field goals made.

Phoenix Suns (2008–2010)
On December 10, 2008, Richardson was traded along with Jared Dudley, and a 2010 second-round pick to the Phoenix Suns for Boris Diaw, Raja Bell and Sean Singletary. The Suns dealt for Richardson, as they were looking for another backcourt scorer to take pressure off of Steve Nash.

In his first game as a Sun, Richardson scored a game-high 21 points, including an alley-oop from Leandro Barbosa that brought the crowd to their feet. His first year in Phoenix resulted in the team missing the playoffs for the first time since 2003.

However, in his second year with the team, he helped bring them back to the playoffs with his play on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. In the first round of the 2010 NBA Playoffs, Richardson led the Suns to a first-round victory over the Portland Trail Blazers, including a career playoff-high 42 points in a Game 3 blowout. In the next round, Richardson helped the Suns to a series sweep against the San Antonio Spurs, before falling to the Los Angeles Lakers in game 6 of the Western Conference Finals.

Orlando Magic (2010–2012)
On December 18, 2010, Richardson was traded to the Orlando Magic along with Hedo Türkoğlu and Earl Clark for Vince Carter, Marcin Gortat, Mickaël Piétrus, a 2011 first-round draft pick and $3 million cash. In December 2011, Richardson agreed to a four-year, $25 million contract to remain in Orlando. The Magic made the playoffs in Richardson's first year with the team, losing in the first round to the Atlanta Hawks.

Philadelphia 76ers (2012–2015)
On August 10, 2012, Richardson was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers in a four-team deal which sent Dwight Howard to the Los Angeles Lakers. He managed just 33 games in 2012–13 before being ruled out for the rest of the season in January 2013 after undergoing surgery on his left knee, and subsequently sat out the entire 2013–14 season with the injury as well.

On February 18, 2015, Richardson was a full participant in practice for the first time in over two years after having not taken to the court in 762 days. Two days later, he returned to action for the 76ers as he started against the Indiana Pacers. In 18 minutes of play, he recorded 7 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and 1 block in the 95-106 loss. On March 4, 2015, he scored a season-high 29 points in a 123-118 overtime loss in Oklahoma City to the Thunder.

Richardson's final NBA game ever was played on April 11, 2015 in a 107 - 114 loss to the Chicago Bulls. In that game, Richardson recorded 19 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal.

Retirement
On August 18, 2015, Richardson signed with the Atlanta Hawks. However, less than a month later, Richardson began experiencing pain in his right knee, and an MRI revealed bone spurs. On September 23, 2015, he announced his retirement from the NBA, citing he feared that his ability to walk would be impaired for the rest of his life if he continued to play.

NBA

 * NBA Slam Dunk Champion: 2002, 2003
 * Rookie Challenge MVP: 2002
 * NBA All-Rookie First Team: 2002
 * NBA regular season leader for 3-point field goals made: 2007–08 (243 threes made)

College

 * NCAA champion: 2000
 * Consensus second team All-American: 2001
 * All-Big Ten First Team: 2001

High school

 * McDonald's All-American: 1999
 * Mr. Basketball of Michigan: 1999
 * Parade All-American Second Team: 1999

title: Jason Richardson


text:
Ketchum Inc.

Ketchum Inc. is a global public relations firm, offering marketing, branding, and corporate communications services in the corporate, healthcare, food and beverage, and technology industries. George Ketchum founded the firm as a Pittsburgh-based advertising company in 1923. It later evolved to include a public relations practice. The firm is headquartered in New York City, with auxiliary offices and affiliates in North America, EMEA, Asia Pacific, and Latin America. The agency has been owned by Omnicom Group since 1996. Ketchum merged with Düsseldorf-based Pleon in one of the industry's largest mergers in 2009. It has been led by President and CEO Mike Doyle since 2020.

History
The agency that would become Ketchum was founded as Ketchum and MacLeod in Pittsburgh on May 22, 1923. The agency's name was changed to Ketchum, MacLeod & Grove in 1924. It was led by brothers George and Carlton Ketchum, and Norman McLeod and Robert Grove, whom the brothers met at University of Pittsburgh in the 1910s. The agency's early work focused on advertising, publicity, and fundraising.

In 1934 the agency established a public relations department. The department's first assignment was a campaign for Natural Gas Companies, People's Natural Gas, and other local natural gas companies. The agency received national attention in 1951 when it orchestrated a sponsorship for client Westinghouse of the first nationally televised NCAA football game. As the firm's billings grew in the late 1950s, it opened offices in New York City and Washington, D.C. It acquired west coast-based agency Botsford Constantine & McCarty, forming Botsford-Ketchum in 1969. It continued acquiring other agencies throughout the 1970s and 80s, expanding internationally in Europe and Asia.

George Ketchum died in September 1975. The agency changed its name to Ketchum Communications Inc. in 1981. Its major divisions became known as Ketchum Advertising, Ketchum Public Relations, and Ketchum Directory Advertising. Ketchum Public Relations moved its headquarters to New York from Pittsburgh in 1982.

The agency won its first global account (with FedEx) and its first pan-European account (with Whirlpool) in 1994. In 1996, Ketchum handled the Torch relay for the Atlanta Olympics.

Omnicom Group acquired Ketchum in 1996. At the time, Ketchum was the 25th-largest American agency. In 1998, Ketchum merged with British consumer agency Life PR. Ketchum sold Ketchum Advertising in 1999; the "Ketchum" name has referred solely to the PR practice since that time.

In the 2000s, Ketchum acquired several firms and opened others, including the acquisition of New York management consulting firm Stromberg Consulting in 2001, the launching of influencer marketing and community building firm Emanate in 2006, and the acquisitions of clinical trial patient recruitment agency MMG in 2008, Moscow-based Maslov PR in 2010, Indian agency Sampark PR in 2011, Capstrat in North Carolina in 2012, and German lifestyle and social media PR agency Brandzeichen in 2013. Ketchum took a majority stake in Newscan's China operations in 2011, expanded Ketchum Sports & Entertainment practice into Brazil in 2012, and acquired ICON International Communications in Singapore in 2013. In the US, Ketchum partnered with luxury and lifestyle agency Harrison & Shriftman in 2011, and launched music marketing service Ketchum Sounds in 2012.

In 2009, Ketchum merged with Europe-based Pleon in one of the industry's largest mergers. Ketchum merged with South Korea-based firm InComm Brodeur in 2013.

Rob Flaherty became CEO of Ketchum in 2012.

In 2016, Ketchum created "Cultivate", a new branch to help companies and organizations in organic food markets.

In November 2017, Ketchum announced that then Partner and President Barri Rafferty would assume the role of president and chief executive officer, effective January 1, 2018. Rafferty is the first woman to lead a top five global public relations firm.

Major work
Ketchum's major clients include MasterCard, Chase, IBM, IKEA, Philips, and Pfizer.

In 1985, Ketchum launched the Acura line of cars for American Honda Motor Company. Ketchum also worked on the rebranding of Orville Redenbacher's popcorn in the 1990s to appeal to a younger demographic, developed Doritos' 2006 crowdsourced "Crash the Super Bowl" contest, which won a Golden World Award from the International Public Relations Association, and created a campaign for Delta Air Lines during US Airways' 2008 bid to take over the airline after it had filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy. US Airways later dropped the bid and the campaign won a Silver Anvil. The agency has also worked with Kodak in 2010, the Committee to Preserve Olympic Wrestling (CPOW)'s campaign to keep wrestling in the Olympic program, and Wendy's on the launch of the Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger in 2013, for which they were nominated as a 2014 Shorty Award finalist.

In 2011, Ketchum faced backlash for a promotion for ConAgra, in which the agency hosted a dinner for food bloggers that was billed as serving food prepared by George Duran, but diners were served ConAgra frozen foods instead. Ketchum filmed each dinner and hoped to use footage of diners' reactions for promotional purposes. However, many bloggers felt tricked by the switch. Ketchum apologized and ConAgra offered reimbursement for any incurred expense to the attendees.

Crisis management
Ketchum has a team of approximately 50 crisis management executives in the US and offers a suite of related services, including Mobile RepProtect, University RepProtect for higher education, Cyber RepProtect for data security, and Game Plan for sports teams and brands.

In 2011, Pennsylvania State University hired Ketchum to handle crisis communications following the Jerry Sandusky scandal in 2011. Ketchum worked with Malaysia Airlines during the search for and response to missing plane MH370 in 2014. The agency also provided crisis counseling to Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield in 2015 during the largest data breach in the US insurance industry's history.

American government work
Ketchum has fulfilled multiple contracts for the United States government, including for the Department of Education, Department of Health & Human Services, the Internal Revenue Service, and the US Army. In 2015 the agency worked with the Library of Congress to provide support for the National Book Festival. In 2004, Ketchum was accused of "covert propaganda" for a series of news stories for HHS that used actors playing journalists reporting on drug benefits without informing viewers of the government connection, for which it was found to be in violation of a federal propaganda ban by the Government Accountability Office. In 2005, the Ketchum received similarly critical coverage after the Education Department directed the agency to pay for coverage that praised President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act. The final investigation by the FCC did not find Ketchum to be at fault, but it did issue a citation for Armstrong Williams, who was paid by Ketchum to promote the NCLB Act, and fined two broadcasting companies.

Russian government work
In 2006, Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin's press attaché, hired Ketchum to work on the 32nd G8 summit held in Saint Petersburg, to improve Russia's reputation in the West after its state-controlled energy company Gazprom cut off natural gas supplies to Ukraine.

From 2006 to 2015, Ketchum represented the Russian Federation in the US and Europe for events including the G20 Summit, World Economic Forum, and 2014 Sochi Olympics, media and op-ed outreach. In 2013, Ketchum pitched an op-ed from Russian president Vladimir Putin on the Syrian Civil War to The New York Times. According to The Holmes Report, the assignment "attracted plenty of mainstream media scrutiny in the US, most of it negative" due to the countries' political relationship. In January 2015, Politico magazine reported that Ketchum had received more than $60 million from the Kremlin for their work from 2006 to 2014. The contract between the Russian and Ketchum ended in March 2015.

Awards
In 1985 Ketchum New York was a finalist in the Caples direct marketing awards for their pro bono work assisting Central Park and the Central Park Conservancy. As of 2016, Ketchum has won more Silver Anvils from the Public Relations Society of America than any other agency. Its campaigns have been awarded "Campaign of the Year" by PRWeek five times, and Ketchum was the 2002 and 2012 PRWeek Agency of the Year. Ketchum London was named Agency of the Decade by U.K.’s CorpComms magazine in 2015.

Corporate overview
Ketchum is owned by Omnicom Group and is part of the company's Diversified Agency Services network's Omnicom Public Relations Group. The agency's subsidiaries include Access Brand Communications, Emanate, and Capstrat.

Locations and employees
Ketchum's headquarters are located in New York City. The agency has more than 130 offices and affiliates in over 70 countries.

Ketchum is led by President and CEO Mike Doyle. Other leadership roles include President of North America, Neera Chaudhary, and Global Chief Financial & Operating Officer Alan Banner. , Ketchum has approximately 2,500 employees. In 2016, Ketchum announced the formation of a global leadership council comprising 20 senior leaders. The GLC replaced and significantly expanded Ketchum's Executive Committee.

Company culture
Ketchum developed a program called MindFire for college students to respond to client challenges with creative solutions in order to earn prizes and networking opportunities.

title: Ketchum Inc.


text:
Jonathan Sarfati

Jonathan David Sarfati (born 1 October 1964) is a young Earth creationist who writes articles for Creation Ministries International (CMI), a non-profit Christian apologetics ministry. Sarfati has a PhD in chemistry, and was New Zealand national chess champion in 1987 and 1988.

Background
Born in Ararat, Victoria, Sarfati moved with his family to New Zealand as a child, where he became a dual Australian and New Zealand citizen. He attended Wellington College in New Zealand, later graduating from Victoria University of Wellington with a BSc (Hons.) in chemistry, and a PhD in the same subject for a thesis entitled "A Spectroscopic Study of some Chalcogenide Ring and Cage Molecules". He co-authored a paper on high-temperature superconductors that was published in Nature in 1987 ("Letters to Nature"), and from 1988 to 1995, had five papers on spectroscopy of condensed matter samples published in other peer-reviewed scientific journals. In 1996, he returned to Brisbane, Australia to work for the Creation Science Foundation, then Answers in Genesis, then its current name Creation Ministries International. In 2010, he moved to the American office of that ministry.

Creationism
Sarfati was a founder of the Wellington Christian Apologetics Society in New Zealand, and has long retained an interest in Christian apologetics and the creation–evolution controversy. His first two books, Refuting Evolution in 1999, and Refuting Evolution 2 in 2002, are intended as rebuttals to the National Academy of Sciences' publication Teaching about Evolution and the Nature of Science and the PBS/Nova series Evolution, respectively. Refuting Compromise, published in 2004, is Sarfati's rebuttal of the day-age creationist teachings of Hugh Ross, who attempts to harmonise the Genesis account of creation with mainstream science regarding the age of the Earth and the possible size of the Biblical Flood, against which Sarfati defends a literal biblical timeline and a global flood. Eugenie Scott and Glenn Branch of the National Center for Science Education called Sarfati's Refuting Evolution 2 a "crude piece of propaganda".

Sarfati is a critic of geocentrism, the Myth of the flat Earth and flat Earth teaching, homosexual behaviour, and abortion except to save the life of the mother. While opposing embryonic stem cell research, he supports adult stem cell research. Sarfati also supports vaccination and rebuts anti-vaccination arguments.

Chess
Sarfati is a chess FIDE Master, and achieved a draw against former world champion Boris Spassky during a tournament in Wellington in 1988, and was New Zealand's national chess champion in 1987–88.

Although tied with Rey Casse for first place in the Australian Junior Championship of 1981, he was not eligible to share the title as he was a resident of New Zealand at the time. He represented New Zealand in three Chess Olympiads: the 27th in Dubai in 1986, the 28th in Thessaloniki in 1988, and the 30th in Manila in 1992. He also represented New Zealand on top board at the 5th Asian Teams in New Delhi.

He has given blindfold chess exhibitions at chess clubs and other events,  and has played twelve such games simultaneously. His previous best was winning 11/11 at the Kāpiti Chess Club in New Zealand.

title: Jonathan Sarfati