text:
Alain Lamassoure

Alain Lamassoure (born 10 February 1944 in Pau) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the south-west of France. He was a member of Les Républicains, which is part of the European People's Party, and was the chairman of the European Parliament's Committee on Budgets from July 2009 until June 2014.

He is a substitute for the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, a member of the delegation for relations with the countries of South Asia and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, and a member of the EPP-ED bureau. He was also a member of the temporary committee on policy challenges and budgetary means of the enlarged Union 2007–2013. Lamassoure is a member of the Reconciliation of European Histories Group.

He was in charge of writing parts of the Treaty of Lisbon. Alain Lamassoure is a well-known pro-European. He is a member of the European Movement France, which he has been vice-president of, and has a privileged relationship with the diverse European federalist groups.

Career

 * Graduate of the Paris Institute of Political Studies (1964) and ENA (National School of Administration) (1968)
 * Auditor, Commissioner of Audit, then Senior Member of the Court of Auditors (1968–1973, 1976–1977, 1981–1986, 1997–1999)
 * Special adviser in the office of the Minister for Cultural Affairs (1973–1974)
 * Technical adviser in the offices of the Minister for Finance (1974–1976), the Minister for Infrastructure (1977–1978) and the President of the Republic (1978–1981)
 * Economic and social adviser (1985–1986)
 * Delegate, 'Perspectives et Réalités' clubs (1985–1989)
 * UDF spokesman (1988)
 * Vice-president of the UDF (1999–2002)
 * National Secretary of the UMP (since July 2003)
 * First Deputy Mayor of Anglet (1995–1999)
 * Mayor of Anglet (1999–2000)
 * Member of the Anglet Municipal Council (since 2000)
 * Chairman of the Bayonne-Anglet-Biarritz Urban Area Community Council (1995–2001)
 * Vice-chairman of the Bayonne-Anglet-Biarritz Urban Area Community Council (since 2001)
 * Chairman of the Council of Elected Representatives of the Basque Country
 * Member of the National Assembly (1986–1993)
 * Minister with special responsibility for European Affairs (1993–1995)
 * Minister with special responsibility for the budget and government spokesman (1995–1997)
 * Member of the European Parliament (1989–1993 and since 1999)
 * Chairman of the Committee on Budgetary Control (1992–1993)
 * Representative of the European Parliament at the European Convention (2002–2003)
 * Vice-president of the European Movement – France (since 1999)
 * Chairman of the Committee on Budgets (2009–2014)
 * Knight of the Legion of Honour

title: Alain Lamassoure


text:
Talk:Kirby Puckett

Move to Arizona
currently states that kirby moved to arizona due to mounting controversy in Minnesota. Seems POV to me, and not really provable

 * No, this is probable. He was involved in sesual aligations, in which, although he was cleared of charges, his reputation was somewhat blurred.  I dont really think is POV, anyways.--Gephart 07:05, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Probable is a far cry from certain, and the article stated as fact that controversy in MN is the reason Puckett moved. Maybe its not POV, but none of us can know for certain why He moved unless a qoute or something can be found where he states the reason behind the move. Really not a big deal, but I changed it slightly.

 * WIkipedia is not a crystal ball --E tac 22:00, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

It says under 'Retirement' that he moved from Minnesota to Scottsdale in the winter of 2003, and under 'Controversy' that 'in 2004, Puckett moved from the Twin Cities to Scottsdale, Arizona.' I'm assuming he moved in early 2004, but perhaps it should be worded slightly differently. 71.56.48.23 00:29, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

Infobox
It seems this article should be using Template:Mlbretired, not MLB Player. Timneu22 21:26, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

all right I changed it to Template:Mlbretired--Yankees10 18:21, 26 June 2007 (UTC)Yankees10

Loss of Vision
Actually, he seems to have lost his sight from a “central vein occlusion” (blood clot), although he did have glaucoma. Not sure how to find a "definitive" reference however. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.95.232.200 (talk) 10:37, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

 * OK, I've got a definitive reference for this now -- -- I've updated the text to say "central retinal vein occlusion", giving that as a cite. -- The Anome (talk) 12:00, 17 July 2011 (UTC)

Controversy section???
If Puckett was acquitted, what's the controversy? Why is this section still there??? If no one says anything, I think it ought to be removed. Kochamanita (talk) 03:09, 21 September 2010 (UTC)

 * You either didn't live in MN or didn't follow the Twins because it was VERY controversial when all the "Kirby isn't the super guy we all thought he was" came out and was squeeky clean image was tarnished. Although I'm obviously not married to it, I definitely think that the section should stay in some form. Ckruschke (talk) 16:32, 19 July 2011 (UTC)Ckruschke

Unquestionable Baseball Prowess?
I take umbrage with the statement "unquestionable baseball prowess." Puckett's inclusion in the Hall of Fame is often criticized due to his career statistics. 75.150.80.193 (talk) 20:23, 12 January 2012 (UTC)

 * Kirby doesn't have the "career" numbers because his career was cut short. This is the crux of the criticsm that his HOF induction has since rightfully garnered - he only has app 200 HR, 1000 RBI and 2300 hits which are all subpar for the Hall. However, no one questions his baseball skills as a player. He was repeatedly in the top 10 in BA, was a 10-time all-star, led the league in hits 4X's and was in the top 10 10X's, had 6 silver sluggers, and 6 gold gloves (as one of the best CF in the game). I'm pretty sure he was the highest payed player in 1990 - or close to it - and MLB isn't like the NBA where you hand out stupid contracts like candy, everyone thought he deserved it. If he'd played another 6 seasons until he was 40, like many other players, he would most likely have hit another 100-120 HR, 500-600 RBI, and would have been a cinch to join the 3000 hit club (see here for his career averages in these categories). Those are all HOF numbers.
 * I'm not defending his HOF status and maybe the statement you bring up is too flowery, but I definitely believe his ability was really "unquestioned". Ckruschke (talk) 14:37, 13 January 2012 (UTC)Ckruschke

Eden Prairie Assault Charges
Currently 8.2% of the total words in this article are devoted to the incident in Eden Prairie and 10.9% of the article talks about controversy. 75% of the total controversy revolves around the charges of assault in Eden Prairie. I do agree that it is significant; however, I believe undue weight has been applied to that incident, specifically because he was acquitted. I propose changing the statement "Then on September 5, he was arrested and charged with groping a woman in a restroom at Redstone American Grill in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. A witness testified that he saw Puckett drag a woman into the bathroom at the restaurant, and that she appeared terrified when she came out moments later. The alleged victim claimed Puckett squeezed her hard enough to cause a bruise. Puckett was subsequently charged with false imprisonment, a felony; fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct, a gross misdemeanor; and fifth-degree assault, a misdemeanor.[32] After a nine-day trial, a jury ruled Puckett not guilty of all counts.[33] However, the damage had been done and he felt compelled to relinquish his role as Twins executive vice president." To read "On September 2002, Puckett was charged with false imprisonment, fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct, and fifth-degree assault. A jury later found him not guilty of all counts; however, he subsequently relinquished his role as Twins executive vice president." Or something of the like. Ryan Vesey Review me!

 * Wow 8.2% & 10.9%! This must be serious if you actually looked it up! ;-) I'm good with your suggestion, although it might be useful to add something like "stemming from charges that he groped a woman in a restaurant bathroom" so that the reader doesn't have to look up the context. What do you think? Ckruschke (talk) 21:10, 16 April 2012 (UTC)Ckruschke
 * Yeah, if you have no objections I'll implement the statement as "In September 2002, Puckett was charged with false imprisonment, fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct, and fifth-degree assault after being accused of groping a woman in a restaurant bathroom. A jury later found him not guilty of all counts; however, he subsequently relinquished his role as Twins executive vice president." I will also add in the references where they are needed and I modified your statement slightly just because I think this sounds better. Is writing "in September 2002" correct or should it be "on September 2002"?  Thanks for the references on the information that was presented directly before this.  Ryan Vesey  Review me!  21:36, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

 * Whatever you thinks sounds better is fine with me. I think "in September" is correct - "on" denotes a specific date (such as "on September 22") - but then again I'm an engineer so grammar isn't my forte. Keep up the good work! Ckruschke (talk) 13:36, 17 April 2012 (UTC)Ckruschke
 * ✅ Thanks for your cooperation on this. Ryan Vesey  Review me!  14:10, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on Kirby Puckett. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20070224003902/http://archive.sportingnews.com:80/baseball/100/index-86.html to http://archive.sportingnews.com/baseball/100/index-86.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 21:46, 27 February 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Kirby Puckett. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20150904102058/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_n25_v89/ai_18260230/?tag=content%3Bcol1 to http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_n25_v89/ai_18260230/?tag=content%3Bcol1

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 14:52, 6 May 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 3 external links on Kirby Puckett. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20141006105640/http://www.startribune.com/sports/11709746.html to http://www.startribune.com/sports/11709746.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20140228092213/http://www.startribune.com/sports/11708911.html to http://www.startribune.com/sports/11708911.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20091014205758/http://www.startribune.com/sports/11709746.html to http://www.startribune.com/sports/11709746.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 03:17, 11 December 2017 (UTC)

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

title: Talk:Kirby Puckett


text:
Véronique Mathieu

Véronique Mathieu (born 28 October 1955 in Nancy, Meurthe-et-Moselle) is a French politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament from 1999 until 2014, representing the East of France. She is a member of the Radical Party, associated to the Union for a Popular Movement, part of the European People's Party.

From 2012 to 2013, Mathieu served on the special committee on organised crime, corruption and money laundering in the European Parliament.

title: Véronique Mathieu


text:
Talk:High Pitch Eric

Crap Tacular food stuffs
I seem to remember that High Pitch asked for two White Castle crave casses, totalling 60 burgers, not just one (30 burgers). Any one else know, or know where to find out? The Howard Stern website might have an archived copy of the discussion.158.121.188.104 19:18, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

VFD Result
The result of the VFD can be found here: Votes for deletion/High Pitch Eric -- AllyUnion (talk) 02:35, 10 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Pregnant with himself
Dear Sirs,

Perhaps it can be pointed out that during the Artie Lange roast it was pointed out by one of the commedians that High Pitch looks like he is pregnant with himself.

 * I think it was an earlier roast, but I added the comment. Foday 07:53, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

Eric doesn't like to give his real name out
He stated this on the air on 6/30/06. I removed it from the article. I don't think it adds much to the article anyway. Foday 00:54, 2 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Hey may not like it, but it's this is an encylopedia, not a fan site. Real names are relevant.  And it's listed at IMDB and other sources. --Bill.matthews 03:04, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

Notability
Please read the tag folks: 'If you are familiar with the subject matter, please expand the article to establish its notability, citing reliable sources.'  If we can site sources that eric is notable, then excellent. If not, please leave the tag. Simply feeling he is notable, or has lots of google hits alone isn't enough. --Bill.matthews 02:54, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

 * Notability (people)

This article is notable, as it passes:
 * The person made a widely recognized contribution that is part of the enduring historical record in their specific field. (History of Howard Stern Show)
 * Notable actors and television personalities who have appeared in well-known films or television productions. Notability can be determined by:
 * A large fan base, fan listing or "cult" following.

As you say here and here, you are not "supporting deletion, or merging. The article (Eric the Midget) should stay." You also stated you don't believe The Wack Pack should be deleted either. As such, the tag you implemented at these various locations is incorrect. I believe you added this tag incorrectly to other articles as well.

Citing reliable sources is needed, and a tag for that is currently in place for the article in question. Since the Notability tag is a precursor for deletion or merging, and you have stated that is not your aim or intention, I am removing it. However, I do encourage others to cite sources and improve this article. --Bark 15:00, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

 * Okay the tag can go, but I still feel the point of the tag isn't to simply lead to deletion. It is a valid point that notability should be established in the article, and I don't feel it currently is.  Everyone seems to want to establish notability here in the talk pages.  But couldn't the same effort be made to establish the notability in the articles?  Using reliable sources, discussing the subject's impact, etc.   --Bill.matthews 18:21, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

 * The point of the tag leading to article deletion is stated in the tag itself. --Bark 18:39, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

 * I believe it says something about the article being 'more likely' to be 'considered' for deletion. I'm not sure why everyone got so defensive about the tag.  It's a valid point.  We should establish notability in the article. --Bill.matthews 19:14, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

title: Talk:High Pitch Eric


text:
User talk:Gibsea~enwiki

Welcome!

Hello,, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers: I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Questions, ask me on my talk page, or place  on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome! --Flockmeal 02:36, Feb 10, 2005 (UTC)
 * The five pillars of Wikipedia
 * How to edit a page
 * Help pages
 * Tutorial
 * How to write a great article
 * Manual of Style

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Gibsea. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Gibsea~enwiki that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name. If you think you might own all of the accounts with this name and this message is in error, please visit Special:MergeAccount to check and attach all of your accounts to prevent them from being renamed.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 00:05, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 13:17, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Gibsea~enwiki


text:
User talk:Twyforddocks

Welcome!

Hello,, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers: I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Questions, ask me on my talk page, or place  on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome! --Flockmeal 02:37, Feb 10, 2005 (UTC)
 * The five pillars of Wikipedia
 * How to edit a page
 * Help pages
 * Tutorial
 * How to write a great article
 * Manual of Style

Separate Reality
Why did you reverse the edit in the Separate reality article. The edit you made is controversial. But you didn't explain yourself. You are contributing to the a breakdown of civility.

If you have a good reason for your edit you should put it in the Talk:Separate reality page. -- Geo Swan 05:03, 10 Feb 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:Twyforddocks


text: User talk:69.195.44.238

title: User talk:69.195.44.238


text:
User talk:Fish lizard

Welcome!

Hello,, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers: I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Questions, ask me on my talk page, or place  on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome! --Flockmeal 02:37, Feb 10, 2005 (UTC)
 * The five pillars of Wikipedia
 * How to edit a page
 * Help pages
 * Tutorial
 * How to write a great article
 * Manual of Style

Please do not engage in sterile edit wars in a way that suggests you are a sockpuppet of another user. -- 03:13, 10 Feb 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:Fish lizard


text:
Tokia Saïfi

Tokia Afféda Saïfi (born 11 July 1959 in Hautmont, Nord) is a French politician who served as Member of the European Parliament for the North-West of France from 1999 until 2019. She is a member of the Radical party and of the Union for a Popular Movement, part of the European People's Party. She is a former member of Ecology Generation.

Political career
Saïfi was first elected as Member of the European Parliament in the 1999 elections. During her first term in parliament, she first served on the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs. Following the 2004 elections, she joined the Committee on International Trade; from 2014 until 2019, she served as the committee's vice-chairwoman under the leadership of Bernd Lange. In this capacity, she was the parliament's rapporteur on trade and investment-driven growth for developing countries as well as on human rights and social and environmental standards in international trade agreements.

In addition to her committee assignments, Saïfi was the vice-chairwoman of the parliament's delegation for relations with the Maghreb countries and the Arab Maghreb Union and a member of the delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean. In this capacity, she took part in the EU's observer mission for the 2012 legislative elections in Algeria.

Political positions
In the Republicans’ 2016 presidential primaries, Saïfi endorsed Alain Juppé as the party's candidate for the office of President of France.

title: Tokia Saïfi


text: User talk:81.155.214.145

title: User talk:81.155.214.145


text:
Dominique Vlasto

Dominique Vlasto (born 14 August 1946) is a French retired politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2000 until 2014. She was a member of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), part of the European People's Party (EPP). She was also a Deputy Mayor of Marseille from 1995 to 2020, during the entire mayoralty of Jean-Claude Gaudin.

In the European Parliament, Vlasto served on the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy. She was also a substitute for the Committee on Transport and Tourism, as well as a member of the delegation to the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly.

Career

 * Management assistant in a small clothing company (1965–1967)
 * Worked at SOFRES (French opinion poll organisation) (1975–1979)
 * Member of the France Congrès office (since 1995)
 * Chairwoman of the Marseilles Tourist Office and administrator at the Marseilles International Fair limited company
 * Member of Marseilles City Council (1983–1989) and district councillor in Marseilles (1989–1995)
 * Deputy Mayor of Marseilles with responsibility for building permits and land rights (1995–1998)
 * responsibility for tourism, conferences and festivals (since 1999)
 * Member of the Committee of the Regions (1998–1999)
 * Member of the European Parliament (since 2000)
 * The Mayor of Marseilles' representative on the World Water Council
 * Chairwoman of the regional association for women and families' activities and information (association under the auspices of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regional Council (1986–1998)
 * Member of the administrative council of the Youth and Leisure Social Centre (Marseilles) (since 1997)

Decorations

 * Knight of the Order of Merit (1995)

title: Dominique Vlasto


text:
Losar

Losar ("new year" ) also known as Tibetan New Year, is a festival in Tibetan Buddhism. The holiday is celebrated on various dates depending on location (Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, India) tradition. The holiday is a new year's festival, celebrated on the first day of the lunisolar Tibetan calendar, which corresponds to a date in February or March in the Gregorian calendar. In 2024, the new year commenced on 10 February and celebrations ran until the 12th of the same month. It also commenced the Year of the Male Wood Dragon.

The variation of the festival in Nepal is called Lhosar and is observed about eight weeks earlier than the Tibetan Losar.

History
Losar predates the arrival of Buddhism in Tibet and has its roots in a winter incense-burning custom of the Bon religion. Tibetan new year is counted by the current year added to 127 BCE the year of the founding of the Yarlung dynasty. During the reign of the ninth Tibetan king, Pude Gungyal (317-398), it is said that this custom merged with a harvest festival to form the annual Losar festival.

The 14th Dalai Lama (1998: p. 233) frames the importance of consulting the Nechung Oracle for Losar:

Tenzin Wangyal (2002: p.xvii) frames his experience of Tibetan cultural practice of Losar in relation to elemental celebrations and offerings to Nāga (Tibetan: Klu): Losar is celebrated in the city of Dharamsala in India and in other Tibetan Buddhist communities.

Practice
Losar is celebrated for 15 days, with the main celebrations on the first three days. On the first day of Losar, a beverage called changkol is made from chhaang (a Tibetan-Nepali equivalent of beer). The second day of Losar is known as King's Losar (gyalpo losar). Losar is traditionally preceded by the five-day practice of Vajrakilaya. Because the Uyghurs adopted the Chinese calendar, and the Mongols and Tibetans adopted the Uyghur calendar, Losar occurs near or on the same day as the Chinese New Year and the Mongolian New Year, but the traditions of Losar are unique to Tibet, and predate both Indian and Chinese influences.

As well as that, the Sherpas are associated with Losar and enjoy Losar in the high altitudes of the Nepal Himalayan Range. Prior to the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950, Losar began with a morning ritual ceremony at Namgyal Monastery, led by the Dalai Lama and other high-ranking lamas, with government officials participating, to honor the Dharmapala (dharma-protector) Palden Lhamo. After the Dalai Lama was exiled, many monasteries were destroyed and monks imprisoned. Since that time, Tibetan Buddhist practice in Tibet has been difficult to observe publicly.

Losar forms part of the culture of Ladakh for Buddhists residing in that region.

In Tibet, various customs are associated with the holiday:

"Families prepare for Losar some days in advance by thoroughly cleaning their homes; decorating with fragrant flowers and their walls with auspicious signs painted in flour such as the sun, moon, or a reversed swastika; and preparing cedar, rhododendron, and juniper branches for burning as incense. Debts are settled, quarrels are resolved, new clothes are acquired, and special foods such as kapse (fried twists) are made. A favorite drink is chang (barley beer) which is served warm. Because the words "sheep's head" and "beginning of the year" sound similar in Tibetan, it is customary to fashion a sheep's head from colored butter as a decoration. Another traditional decoration that symbolizes a good harvest is the phyemar ("five-grain bucket"), a bucket with a wooden board that creates two vertical halves within. This bucket is filled with zanba (also known as tsamba, roasted qingke barley flour) and barley seeds, then decorated with barley ears and colored butter."

Losar customs in Bhutan are similar to, but distinct from, customs in neighboring Tibet. Modern celebration of the holiday began in Bhutan in 1637, when Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal commemorated the completion of the Punakha Dzong with an inaugural ceremony, in which "Bhutanese came from all over the country to bring offerings of produce from their various regions, a tradition that is still reflected in the wide variety of foods consumed during the ritual Losar meals." Traditional foods consumed on the occasion include sugarcane and green bananas, which are considered auspicious. In Bhutan, picnicking, dancing, singing, dart-playing, archery (see archery in Bhutan), and the giving of offerings are all traditions.

The Dalai Lama blesses many Buddhists in Dharamsala during Losar, from the young to the old, and they form a queue to manage the number of people who visit the Dalai Lama's temple to do this.

Dates
The Tibetan calendar is a lunisolar calendar. Losar is celebrated on the first through third days of the first lunar month.

 * * Note: Rabjung (Wylie: rab byung) is the name of the 60-year cycle of the Tibetan calendar that started in 1027 CE, and is currently in its 17th cycle.
 * ** Note: These year names have more than one translation into English with different terms used by different groups.
 * *** Note: Losar is celebrated by some international communities at more or less the same time it is celebrated in Asia. For example, for a year when Losar starts on February 1 in Asia time zones, it may be celebrated by some in United States time zones on January 31. Losar celebrations are normally for three days.

title: Losar


text:
Margie Sudre

Margie Sudre (born 17 October 1943) is a Vietnamese-born Reunionese politician and Member of the European Parliament for France's "Outre-mer".

Politic
Before her election to the European Parliament (UMP-"les républicains"), she held several political mandates, both local and national: chairwoman of the Réunion Island regional Council (1993–1998, member since 1998), Secretary of State for the French-Speaking World (1995–1997). She worked to make French the second official language of the Atlanta Olympic Games.

She is a member of the Union for a Popular Movement, which is part of the European People's Party, and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Fisheries and its Committee on Regional Development.

She is a member of the delegation to the EU–Russia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee, a substitute for the delegation for relations with the countries of Southeast Asia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and, as Head of the French UMP MEP delegation, a member of the EPP-ED bureau.

Career

 * Specialisation in anaesthesia and resuscitation (1976)
 * Doctor of medicine (1977)
 * Replacement anaesthetist (including resuscitation) (1971–1977)
 * Anaesthetist (including resuscitation) at the Joan of Arc Clinic (La Réunion) (1977–1995)
 * Chairman of the Réunion Island Regional Council (1993–1998)
 * State Secretary for the French-Speaking World (1995–1997)
 * Member of the European Parliament (elected 1999, 2004). She did not candidate in 2009 elections.
 * Knight of the Legion of Honour (1999)
 * Officer of the Legion of Honour (2010)

title: Margie Sudre


text:
Wikipedia:Australian Wikipedians' notice board/Archive 7

global warming
If anyone in Sydney doesnt believe in global warming after the last two days ill be very suprised. Anyway, all the more reason to stay inside where its nice and cool, like in front of a computer contributing to wikipedia. The bellman 03:31, 2004 Dec 1 (UTC)

 * I have a job interview there in two weeks. I thought I'd be in for a nice cool change from the tropics for a few days. Then after I get off the phone, I read 42 freaking degrees, there goes that plan.--ZayZayEM 03:24, 2 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Light bulbs
I stumbled across Lightbulb joke (university) today, in which Aussie unis are sadly under represented, so does anyone know any lightbulb jokes about aussie unis other than newcastle? The bellman 05:06, 2004 Dec 1 (UTC)

 * I don't think that joke just applies to Newcastle. AFAIC Australia doesn't have quite the same level of polarisation in students that other countries do.--ZayZayEM 12:44, 1 Dec 2004 (UTC)

 * It is in reference to a specific incident in which an internaitonal fee paying student who handed in absolute crap (if memory serves, it wasnt even his own crap, he had downlaoded it off the web or something), so his lecturer failed him, he complained, and the admin, got it remarked by a different lecturer who (presumably under pressure from the admin) passed it. There was a big thing in the papers about it at the time. The bellman 00:49, 2004 Dec 2 (UTC) update: links be here (my memory was a little off) The bellman 00:55, 2004 Dec 2 (UTC)
 * Yeah, I remember it because it gave me the shits at the time. - Ta bu shi da yu 12:29, 7 Dec 2004 (UTC)

coming out of my searching for info on the newcastle plagerism case is a new google tool that i just found and might be useful to others - google scholar, it is meant to be used specificaly for searching peer reviewed papers, theses, etc. sounds like it could be useful to us. By the way, do people think that this newcastle plagarism affair deserves its own article, or just a heading in the UNCLE artile? The bellman 01:14, 2004 Dec 2 (UTC)

 * I read soemwhere it was meant to (have an option?) find only free full text articles (a godsend to any student with picky markers), but I can't seem to turn that on. Still great tool to compete with PubMed and ProQuest.--ZayZayEM 14:52, 2 Dec 2004 (UTC)

 * Re the list of Uni light bulb jokes - I remember seeing one about Adelaide high schools a year or two ago, it had the Universities in it as well. Ah, here is a list of Australian Unis. Someone want to wikify this for me - it's after midnight here... Alphax (talk) 14:22, Dec 14, 2004 (UTC)

 * I added some of those in the list above. I tried to use ones which were somewhat particular to that university. --bainer 23:48, 29 Jan 2005 (UTC)

 * Here is one about Perth high schools:

Light Bulb

Geography olympics
This was placed in the page header by an anon, I've kept it in case anyone is actually interested. T.PK 02:26, 2 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Attention Aussie Wikipedians: For those with a sense of the world, that is, those of you good with geography, please participate in the Geography Olympics to give Australia a respectable score.

 * mmm... wikispam, almost as tasty as real SPAM. The bellman 01:06, 2004 Dec 3 (UTC)

 * E AI, that's freaking more dificult than i thought it would be. I should be doubly ashamed since my mother is a geography teacher. The bellman 01:12, 2004 Dec 3 (UTC)

 * I have two High Distinctions in geography. I scored 2/10. (I used a map to rectify my tragedy so that the rest of Australia need not be tarnished by my abysmal performance - I still only managed 9/10). Seems it's reaching the news.

--ZayZayEM 03:32, 3 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Damper
Damper is on VFD - help save it! The version original put up for deletion is quite different to what is there now, so it should be safe, but you never know. -- Chuq 05:40, 4 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * 7 Keeps, 2 Extreme Keeps, and 1 Keep Keep KEEP, versus 1 Delete. I think it's well and truly safe now. T.PK 08:05, 4 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * No deletes now... - Aaron Hill 09:51, Dec 7, 2004 (UTC)

Australian Federation
It's my view that we need, as part of the Australian history series, a specific entry on the history, and process, of Federation. Trouble is, I'm not really sure what such an article should include. Does anyone have any ideas? Lacrimosus 09:06, 4 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Firstly, the article should really be at Australian federation, instead of Federation of Australia. The latter makes it sound as if it's about Australia itself. It shouldn't be too hard to get a good article on federation - starting off with the early ideological rumblings and causes, through the Tenterfield Oration and the official conferences, then the people's conferences and referendums, and finally, to January 1, 1901. Ambi 12:18, 7 Dec 2004 (UTC)

12th Man
I've just reverted this edit by User:Aggie0083 : http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=12th_Man&diff=8137313&oldid=8133576

Hopefully he'll leave it alone, but this guy could start causing a problem. AFAIK even if it is copyrighted (does he mean "trademarked"?), it would in the US only. Internationally, '12th man' is a generic term, and it hasn't stopped Billy Birmingham from releasing his CDs. -- Chuq 04:50, 5 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Murray River is new ACOTW
The Murray River is now ACOTW.

ACOTW has sort of shifted to Monday nights. We might run an extra long COTW over Christmas/New Years to restore order? Or possibly run this COTW for only 6 days depending on enthusiasm? --ZayZayEM 12:43, 6 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Select Committee on Reserves (Reserve 43131) Bill 2003
I was hoping that we could add to this new report that has been released in Western Australia. I have lots of links to information, so we really have no excuse not to be able to work on this article. Not only this, but it's a high visibility article (especially in WA) and the media may pick it up. You have a good chance of having your work quoted, cited, mentioned by the media! Now wouldn't that be cool? hint hint...

I've made a start on Select Committee on Reserves (Reserve 43131) Bill 2003, but would appreciate some help on this one. Mainly because I'm also working on the btreive article, which is totally unrelated but I'm not sure how long I'll have access to my btreive book! - Ta bu shi da yu 12:43, 7 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Red_Ensign
Does anyone know if we had one of these? The bellman 12:43, 2004 Dec 11 (UTC)
 * From 1954 Australian's used one, details are here --nixie 22:11, 11 Dec 2004 (UTC)

ACOTW overhaul
ACOTW is getting an official pruning policy for 2005. Akin to the footer on the main WP:COTW page. See User:ZayZayEM/Sandbox for the new look. (the to /Removed section will obvioulsy be removed)

Every two votes an article receives will give it two weeks on the board for proposal.

Articles that are currently on the board have the following options :
 * 1) They have until January 3 (or another set date) to get additional votes to make their number even (either 1 or 2)
 * 2) All votes will be reset and counting will start from the date of the reset (which is probably a lot simpler)

 * Sounds good to me! I think you've officially taken over from me now :P Good work! - Ta bu shi da yu 06:38, 13 Dec 2004 (UTC)

 * I think I'm going to go for a whole vote reset, this will be a lot simpler and hopefully not upset people too much.--ZayZayEM 11:32, 13 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Viewing deleated articles
Voting in Australia is compolsory, so unless you want to get a fine from the AEC, go and vote :P The bellman 11:38, 2004 Dec 14 (UTC)

OK, I'm a sucker
I'm most definitely a sucker, but I've taken on another WikiProject: WikiProject computers. If anyone has any flair with computers or knows how to research computer topics, I welcome them there!!!! We're still formulating policy. - Ta bu shi da yu 11:41, 15 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Australian turpentine
Following a question on the turpentine page, I was checking a number of haz-chem data sheets and noticed that several search results gave Gum turpentine coming from .au domains. I've put in a redirect to the main turpentine page, but can anyone confirm that this is right (it could possibly be rosin), and is it a name that is more commonly used in Australia? -- Solipsist 15:12, 16 Dec 2004 (UTC)

 * I seem to recall that my cousin used to use Gum turpentine to thin artists oil paints. I seem to recall it was to extend the working time of the paint or possibly it was just because it was higher quality than normal turps. Of course there is a chance I am remembering totally wrongly and it was another turps variety altogether. Martyman 21:35, 16 Dec 2004 (UTC)

 * I've never heard of turpentine gum before, but research on google seems to suggest that turpintine gum, is rosin. In normal converstaion aussies call turpentine oil 'turps'. Also turpentine is the name of a native tree (not a pine - hard wood semi-rainforest) which i doubt trups oil can be got from, so i dont know why it has the same name (and its not a gum tree either, so turpentine gum cant refer to it). The bellman 11:01, 2004 Dec 17 (UTC)

 * I've now done enough net searching to convince myself that Gum Turpentine is just another name for genuine turpentine (eg ). The name doesn't appear to be particularly localised to Australia, but it might be that more genuine turpentine is manufactured in Australia and New Zealand than elsewhere (differential cost in the availability of crude oil vs Pine resin?) Some people are also using the name 'Gum rosin' for rosin produced from pine trees.

 * I was in a hardware store the other day - and I use 'turps' quite often - 'turps' is Mineral Turpentine. I have no idea what Gum turpentine is, but it could be Turpentine oil, from the tree... or maybe not... oh well... Alphax (talk) 13:54, Jan 2, 2005 (UTC)

1999 Australian republic referendum
Can someone please go through 1999 Australian republic referendum and NPOV it - looks like a monarchist has been through it with a sledgehammer. PMA 23:22, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Added Australian Suburb Mapping template
Folks, I've added a new Australian mapping template based on the stuff the Americans have been doing (and which will soon be added to all or most of the RamBot articles). This template only needs a longitude and a latitude, and you can see an example of it here. The template itself is Template:Mapit-AUS-suburbscale, the discussions the Americans have had about their new templates are here, and an example of it being added to an American town is here. Please feel free to expand / update / modify the template as you see fit. It would be great to see all Australian Suburb articles include this type of information (which is why I thought it better to mention it here, rather than just on the Sydney Suburbs WikiProject page). All the best, -- Nickj 04:21, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Nice idea, but I would prefer the Ausway maps over Sensis/Mapquest (the latter of which has no data at high zoom levels in Australia), at least for Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane, (which are all mapped in Melway style) - nothing better frankly :P Main page Example long/lat URL What though is the difference between the 'street map' and the 'suburb map' - they're the same thing, just with different websites and different starting zooms. Seems redundant to me. The aerial photo is nice though. T.PK 04:35, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Fair enough! This is the benefit of using a template, that it can easily be changed once in one place ... I've ditched MapQuest (couldn't zoom in very far), added Ausway (as "Street Map 1"), but I've kept Sensis (because it lets you zoom in much further than Ausway does), and renamed it "Street Map 2". Yes, I know, two street maps, which is redundant, but they've both got good points, so they're complementary. The Americans also include a topographic map, but I don't know if such a thing is available for Australia. If it is, or if there are any other resources that should be included in this template, please feel free to add them in. All the best, -- Nickj 06:53, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * A quick update: You can get an approximate longitude and latitude for just about all Australian suburbs from this list. The figures should be pretty close (within 1/2 kilometer), although you might have to adjust them a little bit to make sure they're spot-on to the suburb's centre. -- All the best, Nickj (t) 05:59, 23 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Asbestosis - Compensation and Liability Disputes
A VfD after a revert war on asbestosis. Anyone think they could do anything to this, given what James Hardie has just done? Alphax (talk) 04:23, Dec 22, 2004 (UTC)

Public Domain images
These are all over 70 years old, so should be OK in both Australia and the U.S.
 * Image:Lower George Street Sydney 1828.jpg
 * Image:Exploring party in New South Wales.jpg
 * Image:Sydney from the West about 1828.jpg
 * Image:Sydney looking north over Hyde Park 1828.jpg

Kylie Minogue
What have we got to do to get this to featured article status? - Ta bu shi da yu 01:37, 1 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * You might want to read the earlier objections - apparently the writing was considered fansitish, from memory. Ambi 15:49, 1 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Newcastle Earthquake article
I've done an article on the 1989 Newcastle earthquake, you guys can take a look and make changes as you see fit. Also, if you're doing an article relevant to Newcastle, you can put it in the "Newcastle, New South Wales" category. Cheers! BigDan 14:49, Jan 1, 2005 (UTC)
 * I've been meaning to do that for ages - nice article! I might have to go expand it a bit soon. :) Ambi 15:49, 1 Jan 2005 (UTC)

ACOTW is broken, please fix it!
I'm talking about two things here:
 * 1) The "click here to add..." link is gone
 * 2) The page has been severly neglected.

Oh, and I'd like to add Hutt River Province (if it's Australian); compare with Sealand, which has only 5 citizens, but a much better article. Alphax (talk) 15:19, Jan 2, 2005 (UTC)

 * I've cleaned up the template to add a new nomination. Try the link at the bottom of the page. T.PK 16:05, 2 Jan 2005 (UTC)

 * Sorry about the link. There is always the "edit section" and "edit page" buttons. I am waiting for a few more people to vote before a new ACOTW is chosen. Especially as not much has happened to Bert.--ZayZayEM 04:47, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)

 * REMEMBER EVERYONE HAS TO CAST VOTES AGAIN FOR ACOTW

Can I ask when Sunday, January 4, 2005, 20:00 (AEST) is? I assume it's meant to be January 9? T.PK 11:00, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * maybe?
 * On another note, I'm going to work in Japan in a few months (and therefore am busy organising a lot of forms, clothes, items for that), and have recently been suckered into Anarchy Online's free subscription campaign - so if someone else would like to take over ACOTW it would be nice.--ZayZayEM 03:04, 5 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Referendums in Australia
I've created a number of articles under Referendums in Australia. There's a basic format for each referendum, with links to the questions, and an article about each question. If anyone would like to help fill in some of the referendum sections, there's a great link at the bottom of the Referendums in Australia for references, however it doesn't go into much detail about the whys and wherefores of each referendum.

Please use the discussion page Talk:Referendums in Australia to cover any issues with the series.

 * i will do some work on it. Xtra 13:36, 6 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Australian placename convention
Question: If I find an Australian city, place, town etc. article which does not have the state/territory in the title, should I move it? Alphax (t) (c) (e) 03:29, Jan 9, 2005 (UTC)

 * Generally yes, as the standard is usually [place], [state] (i.e: Box Hill, Victoria or Mascot, New South Wales), instead of just [place].

 * There seem to be quite a lot of uniquely Australian placenames that are not positioned in a State/Territory. Looking back at the archives, the "standard" seems to only be widely accepted for suburb names, and ambiguous names. --ScottDavis 05:56, 2005 Jan 9 (UTC)

 * We had a vote HERE, and so this did become an (official?) policy. A notice still needs to to be penned for the wikipedia:naming conventions (places) page.--ZayZayEM 07:12, 9 Jan 2005 (UTC)

 * I thought I'd had a look at the archive, but only found the discussion, not that formal vote. I better rename a few pages I made today, having followed option 2 rather than the winning option 1. Thanks. --ScottDavis 09:55, 2005 Jan 9 (UTC)

I've also been slapped over the wrist for trying to rename Lake Albert to Lake Albert, Africa and disambiguate it from Lake Albert, South Australia. Any comments? --ScottDavis 09:55, 2005 Jan 9 (UTC)
 * I think its okay the way it is. There is only two articles called Lake Albert, and the African one was just lucky to get in first. As long as the dismabiguation notice at the top of that page remains, and only two same-named articles exist I don't feel an additional disambig page is needed.--ZayZayEM 04:44, 10 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * I'm happy with Xtra's disambiguation. Stan said Google is a good source to identify which one is most significant. It was interesting that Yahoo put 3 each of Africa, South Australia and NSW in the top 12 (plus one each for Alaska and Ontario and two for Albert Park Lake in the top 20), while Google was much stronger biased towards Africa. --ScottDavis 11:03, 2005 Jan 10 (UTC)

Well, Renmark and Renmark, South Australia were merged, but the SA one is now a redirect. What should be done in cases like this, where the State/Territory article is a redirect? Alphax (t) (c) (e) 05:33, Jan 11, 2005 (UTC)

Inland water transport
The Darling River article links to Paddle steamer which is very USA-centric. The Murray River article links to steamboat, which is slightly UK-centric. Neither article says anything about Australia. I don't feel confident to attempt to merge these pages or add significant Australian content. Is anyone aware of an Australian-centric article that covers a similar space? I may be able to contribute some photos taken at Echuca last month. --ScottDavis 13:18, 2005 Jan 10 (UTC)

 * The two boats mentioned in the Murray article (Mary Ann and Lady Augusta) were paddle-steamers. I don't know why I linked "steamboat" instead -- possibly because, as you say, the "paddle steamer" article is so US-centric.  The "steamboat" and "paddle steamer" discussion pages suggest the two articles shouldn't be merged (but that duplicate content should be reduced) so I think Australian stuff should be added to "paddle steamer".  If there is going to be a lot of content, or if there were Australian river boats that weren't paddle-steamers, perhaps a separate river transport in Australia article would be worthwhile. Geoff/Gsl 21:30, 10 Jan 2005 (UTC)

 * The trouble with creating new articles is that they tend to overlap (some Murray River could also fit in Ngarrindjeri). It might be better to just expand the Murray River section, and try to add some Australian content to Paddle steamers. I guess a new article would be useful if we wanted to try to list all existing commercial boats or something. There have been significant non-steam vessels such as the Murray River Queen, too. I'd also like to add a bit about transport across the river as well as along it - bridges are significant, and the public road ferries/punts are quite unusual I believe. Transport should also mention contemporary houseboats and tourist rides. --ScottDavis 00:08, 2005 Jan 11 (UTC)
 * I don't understand your mythology comment. This myth, in various forms is common to more than just one langauge group. And on furtehr information that has come my way since writing that bit, outside of the Murray-area (extended to the creation of all rivers on a cross-country hunt).--ZayZayEM 07:14, 11 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * Geoff attributes the detail and names to the peoples of Lake Alexandrina. The Ngarrindjeri live there, and upstream as far as Mannum. --ScottDavis 07:38, 2005 Jan 11 (UTC)

 * I didn't contribute any of the mythology stuff. I wrote some of "river transport" and "water storage".  As far as overlapping articles goes, I don't see that as a problem.  If there's an article on Australian river transport (covering, say, the Murray, Darling, Murrumbidgee, etc.) then there is nothing wrong with summarising the Murray-relevant material in the Murray River article. Geoff/Gsl 09:50, 11 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * Ooops! Sorry to you both - it was ZayZayEM! My point is still that the dreamtime stories of the Ngarrindjeri could be on their page as well as on the Murray River page. --ScottDavis 12:44, 2005 Jan 11 (UTC)
 * Yes, it was me. Also note, it was me who raised concerns as to your suggestions. the story is far beyond a single language group, and is probably best left in this article (or in an article of its own)--ZayZayEM 08:28, 12 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * Fine - again sorry for not attributing the work to you the first time. I won't be copying any of it across, and won't be adding anything about dreamtime or mythology, as I don't feel I know it myself. That's why I READ encyclopediae, not write them :-) If you know more, please add it to the Ngarrindjeri or any other articles. This conversation has drifted from river transport and paddlesteamers, where I do hope to be able to contribute further. --ScottDavis 11:33, 2005 Jan 12 (UTC)

How to maintain lists of postcodes
Should they be ordered by Name or Number? I'm trying to do something with List of postcodes in South Australia, but there are quite a few duplicate entries. What should I do? Alphax (t) (c) (e) 08:23, Jan 11, 2005 (UTC)
 * In my opinion, these should have been deleted and redirected to a page that describes the Australia postcode format, with an off-site link to the actual postcode index. I believe there may already have been a vote to do this, but it was rejected (check the pages' talk page and whatlinkshere page) -- Chuq 06:10, 12 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * I'm certain there was a VfD vote, but somehow, they survived. They should all be deleted as they are exact duplicates (essentially) of the List of X suburbs pages, just sorted by postcode, rather than by suburb/locality name, and some of them have no links either. Why have two sets of pages to do the same thing? Compare List of Melbourne suburbs/List of localities (Victoria) with List of postcodes in Victoria. TPK 07:51, 20 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Law
Is there any interest in kicking off WikiProject:Australian law? Our product in that regard, so far, is woeful. Any takers? User:SilasM 13 Jan 05
 * You're telling me. I don't know how much help I'll be - I suspect I'll be substantially more so in a year or two, but I'll certainly try, and I'd be prepared to dedicate a fair bit of time to it. Ambi 04:07, 13 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * i may be able to give some assistance. Xtra 04:16, 13 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * My inspiration is the remarkably readable Oxford Companion to the High Court of Australia (ISBN 0195540220). Compulsory reading. One suggestion I have is that someone might do a bit of an examination of the good things that have developed in Wikipedia re other jurisdictions (esp the USA. I haven't looked at the UK materials), and come back with a list of, say, three or four things that are worth emulating. Now that some people have starting pecking away at descriptions of the courts and what they do, we might as well finish that off. After that, I'd be most keen to see a systematic burst on the big High Court cases. I am very new to WP, but am a relatively senior legal practitioner, so I think I can best assist by helping people find relevant content. SilasM 05:31, 13 Jan 2005 (UTC)

There's really quite a few things we need, not necessarily in this order.
 * articles for the courts
 * articles for the High Court and Supreme Court justices
 * a template for articles on pieces of legislation, and a to-do list of important laws to point people in the right direction
 * a list of important High Court cases (per the American example), to give us something to work from - note that we can follow the template established by the US Supreme Court WikiProject, or at least use it as an example. I'd go dig both links up, but wiki is ultra slow right now. Ambi 09:02, 13 Jan 2005 (UTC)

i will write some basic articles, giving background info on all the High Court Judges. Xtra 09:53, 13 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I think that the best article we have is Australian constitutional law. Each of its subtopics deserves expansion in articles of their own, as do each of the cases to which the author referred to in footnotes. SilasM 02:42, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I will start on an article about Australian anti-terrorism legislation, and my current collection of resources is here, in case anyone has anything further they could point me to. SilasM 03:44, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

IRC
So far, there's a couple of Australian editors who regularly congregate in the #wikipedia IRC channel. It'd be nice, though, to see a few more Australians on there - might help getting things really started again. So what about it, TPK, Somebody in the WWW, Xtra, Silas, ZayZayEm, Alphax, Nickj, and others? Ambi 04:22, 13 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * how do you get onto this IRC? Xtra 04:24, 13 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * Get a client, such as mIRC.
 * Install it.
 * Connect to FreeNode (it'll be in a drop-down box if you use mIRC).
 * Join the #wikipedia channel.
 * Voila (or drop me a note if you have any problems). Ambi 04:59, 13 Jan 2005 (UTC)

 * Don't use IRC. Don't plan on (then again said the same about Mozilla)--ZayZayEM 06:17, 13 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * C'mon! more Aussies would be cool :-) Ta bu shi da yu 08:19, 13 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * Sorry, my proxy won't work with non-http stuff. Alphax (t) (c) (e) 09:42, Jan 14, 2005 (UTC)

 * I have occasionally checked out the IRC channel. There is usually no useful discussion in there so i rarely go in there. Somebody in the WWW 09:17, 25 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Latham
Who would have guessed this time last year hey? The bellman 12:25, 2005 Jan 19 (UTC)
 * Ya :( more's the pity. - Ta bu shi da yu 03:22, 20 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Municipality of Strathfield
Can someone have a look at this and tell me if I should add any material? I'm trying to focus on issues relating to the whole municipality, not just Strathfield. - Ta bu shi da yu 03:22, 20 Jan 2005 (UTC)


text:
File:Steel empire front.jpg

Steel Empire for Sega Genesis game box (Front)

title: File:Steel empire front.jpg


text: Template:NYCS Jamaica west local

title: Template:NYCS Jamaica west local


text: Template:NYCS Franklin

title: Template:NYCS Franklin


text:
Talk:Crackhead Bob

VFD Result
The result of the VFD can be found here: Votes for deletion/Crackhead Bob -- AllyUnion (talk) 02:48, 10 Feb 2005 (UTC)

title: Talk:Crackhead Bob


text:
Balto (film)

Balto is a 1995 animated adventure film directed by Simon Wells, produced by Amblin Entertainment and distributed by Universal Pictures. It is loosely based on the true story of the eponymous dog who helped save children infected with diphtheria in the 1925 serum run to Nome. The film stars the voices of Kevin Bacon, Bridget Fonda, Phil Collins, and Bob Hoskins. Though primarily an animated film, it uses a live-action framing device that takes place in New York City's Central Park and features Miriam Margolyes as an older version of one of the children. This was the third and final film to be produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblimation animation studio, before the studio's closure in 1997.

Although the film was a financial disappointment due to being overshadowed by the success of Pixar's Toy Story, its subsequent sales on home video led to two direct-to-video sequels: Balto II: Wolf Quest (2002) and Balto III: Wings of Change (2005), though none of the original voice cast reprised their roles.

Plot
In New York City, an elderly woman and her granddaughter are walking through Central Park, looking for a memorial statue. As they seat themselves for a rest, the grandmother recounts a story about Nome, Alaska.

In 1925, a wolfdog named Balto lives on the outskirts of Nome with his adoptive father, a Russian snow goose named Boris, and two polar bears, Muk and Luk. Being a half-breed, Balto is ridiculed by dogs and humans alike. His only friends in town are a little girl named Rosy and her red husky Jenna whom Balto has a crush on. He is challenged by the town's favorite sled dog Steele, a fierce and arrogant Alaskan Malamute, and his teammates, Nikki, Kaltag and Star.

That night, Rosy and all the children fall ill with diphtheria. Severe winter weather conditions prevent medicine from being brought by air or sea from Anchorage, and the closest rail line ends in Nenana after authorization to transport the antitoxin by rail is given by the Governor of Alaska in Juneau. A dog race is held to determine the best-fit dogs for a sled dog team to get the medicine. Balto enters and wins, but is disqualified after Steele exposes his wolf-dog heritage. The team departs that night with Steele in the lead and picks up the medicine successfully. On the way back, conditions deteriorate and the disoriented team ends up stranded at the base of a steep slope with the musher knocked unconscious.

When the word reaches Nome, Balto sets out in search of them with Boris, Muk, and Luk. On the way, they are attacked by a huge grizzly bear, but Jenna, who followed their tracks, intervenes. The bear pursues Balto out onto a frozen lake, where it falls through the ice and drowns. Muk and Luk save Balto from a similar fate. However, Jenna is injured and cannot continue on. Balto instructs Boris and the polar bears to take her back home while he continues on alone. Balto eventually finds the team, but Steele refuses his help and attacks him until he loses his balance and falls off a cliff. Balto takes charge of the team, but they lose their way again since Steele had destroyed the trail. Balto falls while attempting to save the medicine from falling down a cliff.

Back in Nome, Jenna is explaining Balto's mission to the other dogs when Steele returns, saying the team, including Balto, is dead. However, Jenna sees through his deception and she assures Balto will return with the medicine. Using a trick Balto showed her earlier, Jenna places broken colored glass bottles on the outskirts of town and shines a lantern on them to simulate the lights of an aurora, hoping it will help guide Balto home. When Balto regains consciousness, he is ready to give up hope. When a large, white wolf appears and he notices the medicine crate still intact nearby, he realizes that his part-wolf heritage is a strength, not a weakness, and drags the medicine back up the cliff to the waiting team. Using his advanced senses, Balto is able to filter out the false markers Steele created.

After encountering further challenges though an ice bridge, an avalanche, and an ice cavern, and losing only one vial, Balto and the sled team finally return to Nome. A pity-playing Steele is abandoned by the other dogs who realized the truth about him. Reunited with Jenna and his friends, Balto earns respect from both the dogs and the humans. He visits a cured Rosy, who thanks him for saving her.

Back in the present day, the elderly woman and her granddaughter finally find the memorial commemorating Balto and she explains that the Iditarod trail covers the same path that Balto and his team took from Nenana to Nome. The woman, who is actually Rosy, repeats the same line "Thank you, Balto. I would have been lost without you". She walks off to join her granddaughter and her Siberian Husky Blaze. The Balto statue stands proudly in the sunlight.

Cast

 * Kevin Bacon as Balto, a brown-and-grey wolfdog; being a Siberian Husky-Arctic wolf hybrid. Jeffrey James Varab and Dick Zondag served as the supervising animators for Balto. Bacon is succeeded by Maurice LaMarche in the direct-to-video sequels, Balto II: Wolf Quest and Balto III: Wings of Change.
 * Bob Hoskins as Boris Goosinov, a Russian snow goose and Balto's caretaker, mentor, adoptive father, and sidekick. Kristof Serrand served as the supervising animator for Boris. Hoskins is succeeded by his Who Framed Roger Rabbit co-star, Charles Fleischer in the sequels.
 * Bridget Fonda as Jenna, a female copper-and-white Siberian Husky and Rosy's pet as well as Balto's love interest. Her facial design is based on actress Audrey Hepburn. Robert Stevenhagen served as the supervising animator for Jenna. Fonda is succeeded by Jodi Benson in the sequels.
 * Jim Cummings as Steele, a fierce-looking black-and-white Alaskan Malamute who bullies Balto and also has a crush on Jenna. Sahin Ersöz served as the supervising animator for Steele. Brendan Fraser was originally cast to voice Steele before being replaced by Cummings.
 * Phil Collins as Muk and Luk, a pair of polar bears, Boris' adoptive nephews, and Balto's adoptive cousins. Nicolas Marlet designed and served as the supervising animator for Muk and Luk. Collins is succeeded by Kevin Schon in the sequels.
 * Juliette Brewer as Rosy, a kind, excitable girl and Jenna's owner who was the only human in Nome who was kind to Balto before his epic journey. David Bowers served as the supervising animator for Rosy. Rosy makes a brief cameo in Balto III: Wings of Change.
 * Miriam Margolyes as an old Rosy in the live-action sequences who narrates her story to her granddaughter at the beginning of the film.
 * Jack Angel, Danny Mann and Robbie Rist as Nikki, Kaltag, and Star, respectively. The only three prominent members of Steele's team who later abandon him for Balto. Nikki is a reddish-brown Chow Chow, Kaltag is a honey-yellow Chinook, and Star is a mauve-and-cream Alaskan Klee Kai. William Salazar served as the supervising animator for the team. Nikki, Kaltag, and Star make brief cameos in Balto III: Wings of Change.
 * Sandra Dickinson as Dixie, a female Pomeranian and one of Jenna's friends who adores Steele until his lies about Balto are exposed by Balto returning with the medicine needed to cure the children. Dickinson also voices Sylvie, a female Afghan Hound who is also Jenna's friend; and Rosy's mother. Patrick Mate served as the supervising animator for Sylvie and Dixie. Sylvie makes a brief cameo in Balto III: Wings of Change.
 * Lola Bates-Campbell as Rosy's unnamed granddaughter who appears in the live-action sequences and is accompanied by her dog Blaze, a purebred Siberian Husky.
 * William Roberts as Rosy's father
 * Donald Sinden as Doc, an old St. Bernard. Doc makes a brief cameo in Balto III: Wings of Change.
 * Garrick Hagon as a telegraph operator
 * Bill Bailey as a butcher

Production
Screenwriter Elana Lesser first recalled being told the story of Balto by her grandfather as a child, and as an adult, felt that it would make an excellent animated film. She and screenwriter Cliff Ruby, pitched a screenplay to Amblin Entertainment in Universal City, California, and executives Douglas Wood and Bonne Radford subsequently relayed it to co-directors Phil Nibbelink and Simon Wells at Amblin's London-based animation studio, Amblimation. Although Steven Spielberg agreed that the story had potential, he was initially concerned that such a film would not be colorful enough. To reassure Spielberg, Wells showed him several color studies by production designer Hans Bacher, which showed that the film would not simply depict black and white dogs against a desolate scenery. Nibbelink and Wells had initially developed Balto together, before Nibbelink left to continue working on We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993), and screenwriters Roger S. H. Schulman and David Steven Cohen, as well as several uncredited writers, did further development.

Balto was officially put into production in March 1993, under the working title Snowballs. To have a source for the dogs' character animation to be based on, the filmmakers set up special drawing classes, in which they brought in about seven Siberian Huskies and videotaped them walking around in the studio, while the animators studied their movements and anatomy. During these classes, Kristof Serrand, who was assigned to supervise the animation on Boris, gave a lecture on the locomotion of dogs. Former Disney animator Jeffrey J. Varab, who had trained under Eric Larson, was assigned to co-supervise the animation on Balto alongside Dick Zondag. At the behest of Wells, Varab also gave a dog anatomy lecture that focused on how Balto was to be drawn, drawing on his prior knowledge from his work on The Fox and the Hound (1981), as well as citing preliminary character sketches drawn by character designer Carlos Grangel and original model sheets of Tramp from Lady and the Tramp (1955). Prior to his departure from the project, Nibbelink gave a lecture on how to apply spacing and weight to the dog animation, using the "bouncing ball" animation exercise, which he had learned from Frank Thomas while working as an animator at Disney alongside Varab. In addition, Wells and several other crew members took special trips to Finland, where they studied dog sledding. The tight budget necessitated many difficult decisions; for instance, it was calculated that in most shots, the effects animators could not afford to include both footprints and shadows, and had to figure out what they could get away with omitting. Another principal difficulty that the crew faced was that in order to achieve the snow colors and textures that Bacher's production design mandated, the background artists needed to use oil paint, instead of gouache, like most other animated films. Because oil paint dries slower than gouache, the filmmakers had to schedule in extra days to allow each background to dry before they could shoot their scenes. According to producer Steve Hickner, an advantage that came from the longer drying time was that the artists could "work back into their art" days later, while the paint was still wet. Although the film was mainly hand-drawn animated, considerable computer animation was implemented into the film's more challenging visual elements; all of the falling snow was animated using an early CGI particle animation system. All of the ink-and-paint work was also done using the 2D animation software program Toonz, making Balto the first animated film to use it. The program was still in its trial stages at the time, which necessitated an intense interaction with the developers. Principal animation lasted from 1993 to 1994. Additional animation and clean-up was done by the Danish studio A. Film Production.

Because the characters were designed before the voices were cast, the actors were given several inspirational character sketches to look at before each recording session, in order to get a sense of the characters they were portraying. Initially, it was reported that Kevin Anderson had been cast as Balto. Anderson had finished all of his voice-over work and the animation had been done around his performance, but late in production, Universal Pictures insisted on having a bigger name in the role, so he was replaced by Kevin Bacon, who had been filming Apollo 13 (1995) at Universal around the same time. Because of the completed animation, Bacon had to precisely match his timing to Balto's mouth movement. According to Bacon, "It was very hard. I didn't like it. They would play his dialogue in the way that he had said it in my head right before I'd say my line." Similarly, Brendan Fraser, who was filming Airheads (1994) at the time, was originally cast as Steele, because Wells had envisioned Steele as a school quarterback jock carried away by his sense of importance, and felt that Fraser fit that personality well. According to Wells, "I liked Brendan a great deal, and we did one recording session with him that was terrific." However, Spielberg wanted to feel a clearer sense of Steele's "inherent evil", so Fraser was replaced by Jim Cummings. Wells stated that Cummings "did a fantastic job, and totally made the character live, so I don't regret the choice." Cummings was officially cast by January 1995, though Anderson was still listed at the time. Jennifer Blanc also originally voiced Jenna, but she was also subsequently replaced by Bridget Fonda. Fonda explained in an interview with Bobbie Wygant that she was offered the role of Jenna via phone call, and accepted after being shown a rough cut on tape, which showed some shots in finished form, some still in pencil test form, and some missing. When asked how hard it was to be doing voice-over work for animation for the first time, she explained, "It was odd, it was different. It was challenging. It was exhausting in that I had to be more active, and more outgoing vocally than usually. And syncing up to animated is very difficult. But, y'know, it was just so imaginative, and satisfying in a different way." Bob Hoskins, who had previously worked with Spielberg on Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and Hook (1991), voiced Boris, and Wells stated that his performance proved to be helpful in shaping the character, praising it as "a lot more emotional and effusive than we had originally conceived the character to be." Phil Collins, despite having never done voice-over work before, actively expressed interest in the role of Muk and Luk, and even called Amblimation to ask for the role. Wells praised his voice for Muk as "just head and shoulders better than anything else we heard."

The film score was composed by James Horner, who had previously scored An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991) and We're Back!. According to Wells, because Horner worked in California, and Amblimation was based in London, he "preferred to present his score as the orchestral finished product, and make alterations based on notes from that finished product." Horner also collaborated with songwriting duo Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil to write an original song, "Reach for the Light", sung by Steve Winwood, which plays over the film's end credits. It was initially reported that the end credits would feature a song co-written by Neil Diamond and Carole Bayer-Sager, but this song never materialized.

The film's live-action prologue and epilogue segments were filmed on-location in Central Park over a period of one to two days. Closing down the area for filming proved to be a challenge, due to uncooperative locals. However, Wells greatly enjoyed working with Miriam Margolyes, and was impressed how well she worked with Lola Bates-Campbell, who played Rosy's granddaughter.

Historical differences
The film has many historical inaccuracies:
 * The film portrays Balto (1919 – March 14, 1933) as a brown-and-gray wolfdog. In reality, Balto was a purebred Siberian Husky and was black and white in color. Balto's colors changed to brown due to light exposure while on display in the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
 * Balto was never an outcast street dog as shown by the film, but was instead born in a kennel owned by the famous musher and breeder Leonhard Seppala, who raised and trained him until Balto was deemed fit for being a sled dog.
 * In reality, the sled run to retrieve the medicine was actually a relay. Instead of being the leader of the first and only team, Balto was scheduled to be part of the penultimate team led by dog Fox. This team left by Seppala, while driven by Gunnar Kaasen. Although they were scheduled to hand off the serum to the final team, Kaasen decided to advance on. They eventually became the last team to carry the medicine to Nome. The longest and most hazardous distance was traveled by the 18th and third-to-last team, which was led by Togo (October 17, 1913 – December 5, 1929). However, considerable controversy surrounded Balto's use as a lead dog on Kaasen's team, including many mushers and others at the time doubting the claims that he truly led the team, based primarily on the dog's track record. It was believed that at most Balto was co-lead with Seppala's dog Fox. No record exists of Seppala ever having used him as a leader in runs or races prior to 1925, and Seppala himself stated Balto "was never in a winning team", and was a "scrub dog".
 * In the film, the reason why Dr. Curtis Welch orders the medicine to be sent to Nome is because his supply has completely run out. In reality, the reason was that his entire batch was past its expiration date and no longer had any effect.
 * In the film, the medicine is shipped to Nenana from the Alaskan capital of Juneau, but in reality, it was shipped from Anchorage, 800 miles southeast of Nome.
 * The medicine was transported in a 300,000 unit cylinder. In the film, it is transported in a large square crate.
 * In the film, the only residents of Nome who contract diphtheria are 18 children, but in reality, many more were infected, including adults.
 * In reality, none of the mushers were ever knocked unconscious.
 * In the sequels, Balto becomes Jenna's mate and they have a litter of puppies who grow up and move on with their lives. In reality, however, Balto was neutered as a puppy and consequently never fathered a litter.
 * In the sequels, Balto continues living in Nome along with his family and friends, but in reality, Balto and his team were sent to the Brookside Zoo (now the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo) in 1927 where they spent their last years. Balto rested there until his death on March 14, 1933, at the age of 14. After he died, his body was taxidermied and kept in the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, where it remains today.

Release
The film was theatrically released in the United States on December 22, 1995, and then international theatres on January 13, 1996, when it first premiered in Brazil. Its release was vastly overshadowed by that of Pixar Animation Studios' first feature film, Toy Story, which had premiered a month earlier.

Box office
The film ranked 15th on its opening weekend and earned $1.5 million from a total of 1,427 theaters. The film also ranked 7th among G-rated movies in 1995. Its total domestic gross was $11,348,324. Despite being a disappointment at the box-office, it was much more successful in terms of video sales. These strong video sales led to the release of two direct-to-video sequels: Balto II: Wolf Quest and Balto III: Wings of Change being created, though neither sequel received as strong a reception as the original film.

Critical reception
Balto generally received mixed reviews from critics. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 56% based on 25 reviews, with an average rating of 5.90/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Balto is a well-meaning adventure with spirited animation, but mushy sentimentality and bland characterization keeps it at paw's length from more sophisticated family fare." The film received a "thumbs down" from Gene Siskel and a "thumbs up" from Roger Ebert in a 1996 episode of their television program At the Movies. Siskel found the film to be a weak attempt at aping Lady and the Tramp, criticizing the animation style as "sketchy", and the story as "all over the map, from the rousing adventure, to the sweet and cloying scenes", whereas Ebert liked the film, stating that despite not being in the "category of the great animated film" and the animation not being as strong as that of Disney, it was "adequate", the story was "interesting", and the film was a "nice, little children's adventure movie about a brave dog."

Roger Ebert gave the film a three-out-of-four-star review, praising it as "a kids' movie, simply told, with lots of excitement and characters you can care about", and though he criticized Balto's refusal to fight Steele and stated that it compared poorly to Disney's output, he found it to be a satisfactory film in its own right. Paul Merrill of Empire Magazine gave the film three out of five stars, commending the film as "enchanting, highly enjoyable and impressively crafted, not least for its adventurous 'camera work'", and praised the voice cast, "barnstorming" chase sequences and lack of "cheesy songs to slow proceedings down." Nell Minow of Common Sense Media gave the film three out of five stars, calling it a "fun-but-tense fact-based film." Stephen Holden of The New York Times praised the film for "avoiding the mythological grandiosity and freneticism that afflict so many animated features these days", and "making modesty a virtue." Brian Lowry of Variety gave the film a more middling review, praising its pro-social messages and James Horner's "blaring" score, and finding the action sequences decent, but also criticized the humor as scant, and Balto himself as "rather blandly heroic."

On the negative side, Nick Bradshaw of Time Out criticized the film as a "half-hearted animated feature" that "rambles on" with "second-hand plotting and characterization", and criticized the animation style as "TV-standard." David Kronke of The Los Angeles Times criticized the film's historical inaccuracy and slow-paced premise establishment, criticized the animation as competent at best, and criticized the voice cast, stating that "even as voiced by [Kevin Bacon], Balto doesn't have the sort of charisma to get kids to truly root for him." Rita Kempley of The Washington Post gave the film a negative review, calling it a "mushy animated melodrama", criticizing its storyline as "prosaic" and "sappy", and unfavorably comparing the film itself to Toy Story, as well as Disney's other output, and its artistry to Dogs Playing Poker.

Home media
Balto was released on VHS and Laserdisc on April 2, 1996, by MCA/Universal Home Video in North America and CIC Video internationally. The VHS version was made available once more on August 11, 1998, under the Universal Family Features label.

The film was released on DVD on February 19, 2002, which includes a game, "Where is the Dog Sled Team?". This version was reprinted along with other Universal films such as An American Tail, An American Tail: Fievel Goes West and The Land Before Time. It was initially released in widescreen on Blu-ray for the first time exclusively at Walmart retailers on April 4, 2017, before its wide release on July 4, 2017.

Music
Balto: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack  contains the score for the film, composed and conducted by James Horner, and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. The soundtrack was released on December 5, 1995, by MCA Records. It includes the film's only song, "Reach for the Light" performed by Steve Winwood. The original album release went out of print when MCA Records went out of business in 1997.

A limited edition expansion of the soundtrack album was released by Intrada Records on October 29, 2018. This release includes newly remastered versions of the tracks from the original release and previously unreleased material, as well as alternate tracks that were ultimately unused in the finished film.

Awards
The film received five Annie Award nominations, including Best Animated Feature, but lost to Toy Story.

Sequels
Two direct-to-video sequels that soon became a trilogy followed, made by Universal Cartoon Studios, with their animation done overseas by the Taiwanese studio Wang Film Productions, as Amblimation had gone out of business. Due to the significantly lower budgets and different production personnel of the sequels, Kevin Bacon, Bob Hoskins, Bridget Fonda, and Phil Collins did not reprise their roles in either of them. Instead, Bacon was replaced by Maurice LaMarche as the voice of Balto, Hoskins was replaced by Charles Fleischer as the voice of Boris, Fonda by Jodi Benson as the voice of Jenna, and Collins by Kevin Schon as the voices of Muk and Luk. In addition, numerous supporting characters from the original (such as Steele, Nikki, Kaltag and Star) either did not return in the sequels or became background characters in them.

The first sequel, Balto II: Wolf Quest, was released in 2002 and follows the adventures of one of Balto and Jenna's pups, Aleu, who sets off to discover her wolf heritage. Characters from the first sequel could not be brought back owing to Mary Kay Bergman’s suicide in 1999, which caused Balto II to be delayed for two years.

The second, Balto III: Wings of Change, was released in 2004. The storyline follows the same litter of pups from Balto II, but focuses on another pup, Kodi, who is a member of a U.S. Mail dog sled delivery team, and is in danger of getting put out of his job by Duke, a pilot of a mail delivery bush plane.

Unlike the original movie, none of the sequels took any historical references from the true story of Balto, and neither of both contained live-action sequences.

title: Balto (film)


text: User talk:142.3.100.142

title: User talk:142.3.100.142


text:
Talk:Ronnie Martin

VFD Result
The result of the VFD can be found here: Votes for deletion/Ronnie Martin -- AllyUnion (talk) 02:50, 10 Feb 2005 (UTC)

title: Talk:Ronnie Martin