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Jaska Raatikainen

Jaska Raatikainen (born 18 July 1979) is a Finnish musician, he is best known as the former drummer and co-founder of the melodic death metal band Children of Bodom from 1993 until his departure in 2019. He is currently in the project called Mercury Circle.

Musical life
His first instrument was the piano, and during most of his childhood also played the French horn in a big band – a fact which later led him to be introduced to Alexander Kuoppala. It was only at the age of 12 that he began playing drums; he had his first double bass pedals before he owned a drum kit. He was inspired by musicians such as Scott Travis (from Judas Priest) and Mikkey Dee (from Motörhead).

Children of Bodom
When Raatikainen met Alexi Laiho at school in the year of 1993, they realised that they had similar ideas and musical taste. Thus, they began playing together and idealizing their band Inearthed which would one day become Children of Bodom. The band released their first demo, Ubiquitous Absence of Remission, which he contributed some keyboards. Jaska played a vital role in the formation of the band, since he was the one who brought both Alexander Kuoppala and Janne Wirman to their line-up. Jaska also provided backing vocals on the songs "Warheart", "Black Widow", and "Children of Bodom" from his band's album, Hatebreeder.

Other musical ventures
He has also helped quite a few bands when they needed a competent drummer. During Sinergy's 2000 European tour, he replaced Tommi Lillman, who had injured his leg. The problem, however, was that this happened three days before the start of the tour, which meant that Raatikainen had to quickly learn how to play ten of Sinergy's songs. Despite the high degree of difficulty, he managed to perform very well, and fans of both bands enjoyed seeing both Raatikainen and Laiho on stage together with Sinergy. On the Suicide by My Side album's booklet, the band wrote a dedicatory to Raatikainen for, on to their own words, "saving [their] tour".

Raatikainen has also played in Virtuocity and Evemaster albums, but since those are both studio bands, he does not have to worry greatly about Children of Bodom's tour schedule, which already has to be calculated ahead to some extent, due to Laiho's previously active participation in Sinergy.

On the 2002 tribute to Chuck Schuldiner – mastermind of one of the most notable death metal bands of all time, Death – Raatikainen, who is a fan of the band, played a couple of cover songs with Norther. A year later, Raatikainen formed a side project with Norther's guitarist Kristian Ranta entitled Gashouse Garden, which has not yet been signed to any recording label.

Equipment and sponsorships
Up to the recording of the album Hatebreeder, Raatikainen was endorsed by Sonor drums and by Sabian cymbals. He eventually lost the deal with Sonor and for some time played with different drumsets, until settling with Pearl drums in 2003. His drumsticks are custom Millennium II sticks from Promark with his name engraved on them.

Pearl Reference Redline – Piano Black with Black Chrome Hardware 8"x8" Tom Tom 10"x8" Tom Tom 12"x9" Tom Tom 14"x12" Floor Tom 16"x16" Floor Tom 22"x18" Bass Drum x 2 14"x5" Snare Cymbals 14" Meinl Byzance Traditional Heavy Hi-Hat x2 (both sides) 20" Meinl Mb20 Heavy Ride (left) 8" Meinl Byzance Traditional Splash x2 18" Byzance Brilliant Medium Thin Crash x2 20" Meinl Byzance Traditional Heavy Ride (right) 20" Byzance Brilliant Medium Crash 18" Byzance Brilliant China

Pearl Hardware DR-503 Icon Rack + PCX-100 and PCX-200 Rack Clamps H-2000 Eliminator Hi-hat Stand Pearl Demon Drive Double Pedal CLH-1000 Closed Hat S-2000 Snare drum stand CH-1000 Cymbal Holders TH-100S Tom Holders D-220 Roadster Throne Sticks Promark Evelyn Glennie 740 drumsticks

Acting
Raatikainen has had some side projects, some of them unrelated to music. In the year of 2000 he was asked by the director of a popular Finnish soap opera (Siamin Tyttö) to play a special part on it. He played a character named Rauli for three episodes, until the character's death. He did have the chance to show some of his drumwork before that happened, though. According to Raatikainen, he had always dreamed of acting, but does not plan to take his career further.

Personal life
Raatikainen has two brothers; Jussi, who plays for numerous professional Finnish metal bands, as well as Julius, who plays for melodic death metal band Kauna. In early 2010, he became the father of a baby girl.

Raatikainen is a quiet and reserved person who spends a lot of time by himself. Most of the time, he stays in single rooms in hotels and generally picks the beds on upper corners while travelling on tour buses. Interviews with him are rare, and despite being one of the founding members, he lets Laiho and Henkka Seppälä do most of the talking.

Although his last name is Raatikainen, he is not related to Finnish guitarist Sami Raatikainen.

title: Jaska Raatikainen


text: User:Prisk

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

title: User:Prisk


text:
Mahmoud Fawzi

Mahmoud Fawzi (محمود فوزى, ; 19 September 1900 – 12 June 1981) was an Egyptian diplomat and political figure who was Prime Minister of Egypt from 1970 to 1972 and the vice president of Egypt from 1972 to 1974.

Biography
Fawzi was born in a village near Quwaysina, Monufia Governorate. His father was a graduate of Dar al'Ulum and the Shari'a Judges School. He studied law at the University of Cairo. He did his postgraduate studies at the Universities of Liverpool, Columbia, and Rome, and received a PhD in criminal law in 1926.

He served in many diplomatic posts as a young man, including Egyptian Consul in the Egyptian Consulate in Kobe, Japan, in the early 1930s, beginning in 1926. In 1942 he was appointed Egyptian consul-general in Jerusalem. He became Egyptian representative to the United Nations in 1947 and ambassador to the United Kingdom in 1952. In late 1952 he became foreign minister of Egypt under its new leader, Gamal Abdel Nasser. Fawzi was appointed largely because of his fluency in languages, and was known to avoid involvement in politics, always remaining a diplomat. Fawzi served as foreign minister of Egypt until 1958 when the United Arab Republic, a union between Egypt and Syria was formed. Fawzi served as foreign minister of the United Arab Republic until its collapse in 1961. He remained in office until 1964. After that he remained a close advisor to Nasser on foreign affairs. Upon Nasser's death in 1970, Fawzi was appointed prime minister by his successor, Anwar Sadat, as a compromise civilian candidate. Fawzi served as prime minister until January 1972 and then served as vice-president of Egypt until his retirement in 1974. He wrote a book entitled "Suez War" about the 1956 crisis with Israel over the Suez Canal and it was published after his death in 1981.

Foreign honour

 * Malaysia:
 * MY_Darjah_Yang_Mulia_Pangkuan_Negara_(Defender_of_the_Realm)-_PMN.svg Honorary Commander of the Order of the Defender of the Realm (PMN (K)) - Tan Sri (1965)

title: Mahmoud Fawzi


text:
Wikipedia talk:Account deletion

Is it true that user accounts can't be deleted, even if they have no edits? Just to make the question concrete, I'm thinking of the growing number of User:Faethon accounts, many of which were created disruptively. Gazpacho 01:49, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I'd like for my Wikipedia account to be deleted. Thank you.

Duplicate accounts?
Hi,

I created an account as 'johnkershaw' which came up as 'Johnkershaw' (cap J).

So I created a new account called 'John Kershaw'.

I realise in retrospect I should've got my account renamed, but now that it's done, how do I get rid of the first 'Johnkershaw' account?

Sorry to be so dumb.

John Kershaw 08:19, 11 July 2005 (UTC)

Lost Password
I own Shell. I have it registered to either shell6@gmail.com or shell@dotshell.net. I have forgotten my password, yet when I ask it to be sent to me, I get no email. Can you delete my account or reset the password? {{unsigned|208.59.132.30|14:43, 5 November 2005 (UTC)]]

Merge into WP:Username?
This would make a nice little paragraph at the end of WP:Username, don't you think? Suggestions on picking a good username, and a handy "if you stuff up, here's what you can do". Short policies such as this one seem to never get read. Stevage 02:04, 14 January 2006 (UTC)
 * No comments in a week, seems short policies really don't get read. Merged. Stevage 20:26, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

title: Wikipedia talk:Account deletion


text:
User:Edsmilde

Hi! I'm ED smilde. If you like this wiki stuff, you might want to try the SpongeBob Wiki and the Homestar Runner wiki.

title: User:Edsmilde


text:
Martian poetry

Martian poetry was a minor movement in British poetry in the late 1970s and early 1980s, in which everyday things and human behaviour are described in a strange way, as if by a visiting Martian who does not understand them. Poets most closely associated with it are Craig Raine and Christopher Reid.

The term Martianism has also been applied more widely to include fiction as well as to poetry. The word martianism is, coincidentally, an anagram of the name of one of its principal exponents, Martin Amis, who promoted the work of both Raine and Reid in the Times Literary Supplement and the New Statesman.

Perhaps the best-known Martian poetry is Craig Raine's "A Martian Sends a Postcard Home" in which a Martian attempts to describe everyday human interactions and habits from his own point of view.

Origins
The term derives from Raine's poem "A Martian Sends a Postcard Home" in which the narrator, a Martian, uncomprehendingly observes human behaviour and tries to describe it to fellow Martians. For examples, the narrator calls books "Caxtons" and describes them as "mechanical birds with many wings" that "perch on the hand" and "cause the eyes to melt/or the body to shriek without pain."

This drive to make the familiar strange was carried into fiction by Martin Amis. His 1981 novel Other People: A Mystery Story where the story unfolds from the point of view of a protagonist who is apparently suffering from an extreme form of amnesia which causes her to lose her memory of even basic aspects of human experience.

Martian poetry became a popular element in the teaching of poetry composition to school children.

Related to Surrealism, it arose in the context of the experimental poetry of the late 1960s; but also owes a debt to a variety of English traditions including metaphysical poetry, Anglo-Saxon riddles, and nonsense poetry (e.g.: Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear). Samuel Johnson's descriptions of the metaphysical poets' approach where  'the most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together'  could aptly describe much Martian poetry; in this context what was distinctive about Martian Poetry was its focus on visual experience.

Poetry

 * Raine, Craig, The Onion, Memory, Oxford University Press, 1978. ISBN 0-19-211877-3.
 * Reid, Christopher, Arcadia, Oxford University Press, 1979. ISBN 0-19-211889-7.
 * Raine, Craig, A Martian Sends a Postcard Home, Oxford University Press, 1979. ISBN 0-19-211896-X.
 * Reid, Christopher, Pea Soup, Oxford University Press, 1982. ISBN 0-19-211952-4.

Anthologies

 * Morrison, Blake & Motion, Andrew, The Penguin Book of Contemporary British Poetry, Penguin, 1982. ISBN 0-14-042283-8.

Commentary

 * Diedrick, James, Understanding Martin Amis University of South Carolina Press, 2004. ISBN 1-57003-516-4.
 * O'Brien, Sean, The Deregulated Muse, Bloodaxe, 1998. ISBN 1-85224-281-7.
 * Robinson, Alan, Instabilities in Contemporary British Poetry, Macmillan, 1988. ISBN 0-333-46769-8.

title: Martian poetry


text: User talk:128.12.60.46

title: User talk:128.12.60.46


text:
Hoyt Street station

The Hoyt Street station is a local station on the IRT Eastern Parkway Line of the New York City Subway in Downtown Brooklyn. Located under the intersection of Fulton Street, Hoyt Street, and Bridge Street, the station is served by the 2 train at all times and the 3 train at all times except late nights.

Construction
Planning for a subway line in New York City dates to 1864. However, development of what would become the city's first subway line did not start until 1894, when the New York State Legislature passed the Rapid Transit Act. The subway plans were drawn up by a team of engineers led by William Barclay Parsons, the Rapid Transit Commission's chief engineer. The Rapid Transit Construction Company, organized by John B. McDonald and funded by August Belmont Jr., signed the initial Contract 1 with the Rapid Transit Commission in February 1900, in which it would construct the subway and maintain a 50-year operating lease from the opening of the line. In 1901, the firm of Heins & LaFarge was hired to design the underground stations. Belmont incorporated the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) in April 1902 to operate the subway.

Several days after Contract 1 was signed, the Board of Rapid Transit Railroad Commissioners instructed Parsons to evaluate the feasibility of extending the subway south to South Ferry, and then to Brooklyn. On January 24, 1901, the Board adopted a route that would extend the subway from City Hall to the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR)'s Flatbush Avenue terminal station (now known as Atlantic Terminal) in Brooklyn, via the Joralemon Street Tunnel under the East River. Contract 2, which gave the IRT a 35-year lease,was executed between the commission and the Rapid Transit Construction Company on September 11, 1902. Work under Fulton Street and Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn commenced in April 1904. The IRT line in Brooklyn had been proposed with two tracks, as engineers originally did not think it was feasible to build four tracks under Fulton Street. Belmont submitted a revised proposal to the Rapid Transit Commission in April 1905 to widen the line to four tracks. Because of the narrowness of Fulton Street, as well as the fact that there would be an express station at the intersection of Flatbush Avenue and Fulton Street, the plan called for constructing the Hoyt Street station as a local station.

Opening and early history
The first station on the line in Brooklyn, Borough Hall, opened on January 9, 1908. An extension to Atlantic Avenue, including a station at Hoyt Street, opened on May 1, 1908, completing the Contract 2 IRT line. Initially, the station was served by express trains along both the West Side (now the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line to Van Cortlandt Park–242nd Street) and East Side (now the Lenox Avenue Line). The express trains, running to Atlantic Avenue, had their northern terminus at 242nd Street or West Farms (180th Street). Lenox local trains to 145th Street served the station during late nights.

After the original IRT opened, the city began planning new lines. In 1913, as part of the Dual Contracts, the New York City Public Service Commission planned to split the original IRT system into three segments: two north-south lines, carrying through trains over the Lexington Avenue and Broadway–Seventh Avenue Lines, and an east–west shuttle under 42nd Street. This would form a roughly H-shaped system. The Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line would split into two branches south of Chambers Street, one of which would turn eastward through Lower Manhattan, run under the East River via a new Clark Street Tunnel, and connect with the existing Contract 2 IRT Brooklyn Line at Borough Hall. Service increased after the opening of the Clark Street Tunnel on April 16, 1919. Trains using the Clark Street Tunnel began serving the Hoyt Street station at all times, while trains using the Joralemon Street Tunnel only served the station during off-peak hours.

Later years
An entrance from the A. I. Namm & Son Building, at the southeast corner of Fulton and Hoyt Streets, to the Hoyt Street station opened in November 1914, two months after Namm's and IRT officials signed an agreement for the subway entrance. Martin's Department Store, occupying the Offerman Building on the northern side of Fulton Street, built a 44 ft staircase leading to the station in 1923, on the site of its former store. The entrance had two large display windows at platform level, two windows at the top of the stairs, a bank of turnstiles, and a change booth for the store's customers. The House of Worth, a neighboring store at Fulton and Bridge Streets, opened an entrance from the basement of its store to the subway in 1925.

The city government took over the IRT's operations on June 12, 1940. In November 1946, the New York City Board of Transportation awarded a $733,200 contract for the lengthening of the Hoyt Street station's platforms. On February 2, 1948, the platform extensions at the Hoyt Street station opened, allowing 10-car express trains to board as opposed to only 6-car trains. Initially, the platforms were 360 ft, but they had been lengthened to 515 ft. The platform extensions were part of a program to lengthen the platforms at 32 of the original IRT station for $12.27 million. The Hoyt Street project cost $750,000.

The New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) announced plans in 1956 to add fluorescent lights above the edges of the station's platforms. In 1981, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) listed the station among the 69 most deteriorated stations in the subway system. In 1982, the Urban Mass Transportation Administration gave a $66 million grant to the New York City Transit Authority. Part of the grant was to be used for the renovation of several subway stations, including Hoyt Street. The renovation of the Hoyt Street station was funded as part of the MTA's 1980–1984 capital plan. The station was renovated around the 1980s.

In 1995, as a result of service reductions, the MTA was considering permanently closing the Hoyt Street station, as well as two or three other stations citywide, due to its proximity to other stations. An entrance to the southbound platform, with an elevator, opened in September 2023. The entrance's construction was funded entirely by Macy's department store, which owned the building above the entrance.

Station layout

The Hoyt Street station is a standard local station with four tracks and two side platforms serving only the local tracks, and is the northernmost four-track station on this line. The station is between Borough Hall to the west (railroad north) and Nevins Street to the east (railroad south). The stops here at all times and the  stops here at all times except late nights. Both trains run on the outer local tracks and come from the Clark Street Tunnel. The two center express tracks, used by the at all times and the  on weekdays only during the day, come from the Joralemon Street Tunnel. The original construction included only the Joralemon Street Tunnel with crossover switches north of Hoyt Street. These switches have been removed and new ones were installed between Nevins Street and Atlantic Avenue, so trains from the Joralemon Street Tunnel cannot stop at this station at all.

South of Borough Hall, the IRT Lexington Avenue Line and the Brooklyn Branch of the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line join to form the four-track IRT Eastern Parkway Line. Southbound (east Brooklyn-bound) trains use track E1 while northbound (Manhattan-bound) trains use track E4. Southbound and northbound express trains use tracks E2 and E3, respectively. Track numbers and letters are used for chaining purposes and are rarely, if ever, used by passengers.

The station has been extensively renovated; old signs reading "Hoyt Street – Bridge Street" remain on the I-beams separating the local and express tracks. One of the original ceramic cartouches from the station is now on display at the New York Transit Museum.

Exits
All fare control areas are on the respective platforms. The full-time fare control is at the west end of the station, and contains one token booth and a turnstile bank for each platform. The northbound platform has two exits, one to either northern corner of Bridge and Fulton Streets. The southbound platform has an exit to the southwest corner of Hoyt and Fulton Streets.

There is a part-time fare control area at the extreme eastern ends of both platforms. There are HEET turnstiles on both platforms. The southbound platform's exit leads to the southwest corner of Fulton Street and Elm Place, and the northbound platform's exit leads to the northeast corner of Duffield and Fulton Streets. The northbound platform's part-time fare control area also had an exit-only stair to the northwest corner of Duffield and Fulton Streets, but it was closed due to security concerns.

At the north end of the southbound platform is an entrance to Macy's (formerly Abraham & Straus); the entrance was closed for some time but reopened in September 2023 with an elevator. It formerly included a crossunder to the northbound platform.

title: Hoyt Street station


text:
Jim'll Fix It

Jim'll Fix It is a British television series broadcast by the BBC, presented by Jimmy Savile and running for almost two decades, between May 1975 and July 1994. Devised by Bill Cotton, the show encouraged children to write a letter to Savile with a "wish" that would come true at the end of each episode, upon which the child would be granted a medal. Famous people who appeared on the show included Muhammad Ali, Doctor Who stars Tom Baker and Colin Baker, Rolf Harris, Gary Glitter, Margaret Thatcher and Peter Cushing.

Jim'll Fix It was briefly revived in 2007 as Jim'll Fix It Strikes Again and a television special aired in 2011 following Savile's death. A year after Savile's death, allegations of child sex abuse against him arose relating to the television series.

Development
The idea for a show based on viewers' requests came from the BBC's head of light entertainment, Bill Cotton, and the idea was originally offered to Harry Secombe, but he turned it down. The show was instead hosted by Top of the Pops presenter Jimmy Savile, who would "fix it" for the wishes of several viewers (usually children) to come true each week. The producer throughout the show's run was Roger Ordish, who later recalled that he had advised Cotton to choose a different presenter from Savile, saying "That was nothing to do with Jimmy Savile's moral behaviour, it had to do with his ability to communicate with young people. He did openly say: 'I hate children.'"

Format
The standard format was that the viewer's letter, which described their wish, would be shown on the screen and read out aloud, initially by Savile, but in later series by the viewers themselves as a voice-over. Savile would then introduce the Fix, which would either have been pre-filmed on location or take place "live" in the studio. At the end, the viewer would join Savile to be congratulated and presented with a large medal with the words "Jim Fixed It For Me" engraved on it. Occasionally, other people featured in the "Fix It" (actors from well known series, for example), might also give the viewer an extra gift somehow relating to the Fix. Savile himself played no part in the filming or recording of the "fix-its", unless specifically requested as part of the letter writer's wish. Some children apparently thought that Savile's first name was "Jim'll", so some letters shown on the programme started "Dear Jim'll".

Early series saw Savile distributing medals from a "magic chair" which concealed the medals in a variety of compartments. The "magic chair" was invented by Tony Novissimo and was built for the BBC by him at his workshops in Shepherd's Bush. The chair had first appeared on Savile's earlier Saturday night TV series, Clunk, Click. The chair was later replaced by a new computer-controlled robotic "magic chair", the brainchild of Kevin Warwick, built for the BBC by his team at the University of Reading. The arm for the chair was an RTX robotic arm, designed by Roy Levell at Universal Machine Intelligence in Wandsworth around 1985.

Internally, the BBC were concerned that the show was providing excessive product placement for corporations.

Notable "Fix-its"
Following Savile's death in 2011, the BBC cited famous examples of "fix-its" from the show, including the group of cub scouts who were sent to eat a packed lunch on a rollercoaster at the Blackpool Pleasure Beach, and the young viewer who played drums with Adam and the Ants for a performance of their track "Kings Of The Wild Frontier".

The Fourth Doctor, Tom Baker, appeared in the second episode, where he tore off and handed away the frayed ends of his scarf to girls visiting the studio. Ten years later, a young Doctor Who fan, Gareth Jenkins, took part in a short adventure titled A Fix with Sontarans with Colin Baker and Janet Fielding.

In 1976 Muhammad Ali appeared in a fix. Also that year, Rolf Harris, appeared on the show. Footage from this appearance was featured in the 2023 documentary Rolf Harris: Hiding In Plain Sight.

On 1 January 1977, Margaret Thatcher, then Leader of the Opposition, appeared in an episode when Savile introduced a group of children to her. In 1981, Savile asked her to appear on the show again. Thatcher, who was by this time prime minister, declined his request on that occasion.

Veteran actor Peter Cushing wrote to the show in 1986 to ask if a variety of rose could be named after his late wife; the 'Rose Helen Cushing' was the result. Also that year, a 14-year-old boy called Dom Lawson, who went on to work for Kerrang! and Metal Hammer magazines, got his wish to meet Iron Maiden and be their technician for a day. The episode was described in Iron Maiden's A Matter of Life and Death tour book, where Lawson speaks about Iron Maiden and his history with the band.

Former glam rock singer Gary Glitter appeared on Jim’ll Fix It several times, including in 1991.

2007 revival (Jim'll Fix It Strikes Again)
This new series saw the return of Savile and began on 5 April 2007 on UKTV Gold, and was titled Jim'll Fix It Strikes Again. The series showed classic moments from the original shows, and attempted to 're-fix' it for some of the original participants.

2011 special
The BBC announced on 14 November 2011, following Savile's death, that the show would return for a one-time Christmas special on 26 December 2011, featuring Shane Richie as the programme's host. Only letters for 'fix-its' from children under 14 were eligible for the revived format. Lewis Hamilton guest-starred in this episode, as well as Girls Aloud member Kimberley Walsh and opera singer Alfie Boe.

Theme song
The theme song was sung by voice-over artist Lynda Hayes. The closing theme was sung by the group Good Looks (featuring Lavinia & Lewis Rodgers, siblings of Clodagh Rodgers) who competed in the 1982 A Song for Europe competition. Savile "fixed it" for a young viewer to perform the song with the group on an edition of the show.

Sexual abuse scandal
Allegations surfaced in 2012 that Savile sexually abused some of the children who took part in Jim'll Fix It, including suggestions that special episodes of Jim'll Fix It were devised by Savile in order to gain access to victims. Ordish said, "I didn't see anything and nothing was reported to me", but added that he knew Savile had a "predilection for younger females". Reflecting on his own time producing the show, Ordish added, "It's of no significance really compared to the terrible things that happened to the victims, but in retirement, people say: 'What did you do?'. I'd say: 'I was a BBC producer … Jim'll Fix It, I did that for 20 years', and you used to get a wonderful reaction. Now it's something I can’t mention, you’re ashamed of it."

Compilations

 * Series 2 Compilation: 17 April 1976
 * Series 3 Compilation: 26 February 1977
 * Series 4 Compilation: 25 March 1978
 * Series 5 Compilation: 24 March 1979
 * Series 6 Compilation: 22 March 1980
 * Children in Need Compilation: 23 November 1984
 * Series 13 Compilation: 27 August 1988
 * Series 14 Compilation: 28 August 1989
 * Series 15 Compilation: 25 August 1990
 * Series 16 Compilation: 24 August 1991
 * Series 17 Compilation: 29 August 1992
 * Series 18 Compilation: 5 September 1993

title: Jim'll Fix It


text: User talk:65.10.1.128

title: User talk:65.10.1.128


text:
Amobarbital

Amobarbital (formerly known as amylobarbitone or sodium amytal as the soluble sodium salt) is a drug that is a barbiturate derivative. It has sedative-hypnotic properties. It is a white crystalline powder with no odor and a slightly bitter taste. It was first synthesized in Germany in 1923. It is considered a short to intermediate acting barbiturate.

If amobarbital is taken for extended periods of time, physiological and psychological dependence can develop. Amobarbital withdrawal mimics delirium tremens and may be life-threatening. Amobarbital was manufactured by Eli Lilly and Company in the US under the brand name Amytal in bright blue bullet shaped capsules (known as Pulvules) or pink tablets (known as Diskets) containing 50, 100, or 200 milligrams of the drug. The drug was also manufactured generically.

Amobarbital was widely misused, known as "Blue Heavens" on the street. Amytal, as well as Tuinal, a combination drug containing equal quantities of secobarbital and amobarbital, were both manufactured by Eli Lilly until the late-1990s. However, as the popularity of benzodiazepines increased, prescriptions for these medications became increasingly rare beginning in the mid to late-1980s.

Pharmacology
In an in vitro study in rat thalamic slices, amobarbital worked by activating GABAA receptors, which decreased input resistance, depressed burst and tonic firing, especially in ventrobasal and intralaminar neurons, while at the same time increasing burst duration and mean conductance at individual chloride channels; this increased both the amplitude and decay time of inhibitory postsynaptic currents.

Amobarbital has been used in a study to inhibit mitochondrial electron transport in the rat heart in an attempt to preserve mitochondrial function following reperfusion.

A 1988 study found that amobarbital increases benzodiazepine receptor binding in vivo with less potency than secobarbital and pentobarbital (in descending order), but greater than phenobarbital and barbital (in descending order). (Secobarbital > pentobarbital > amobarbital > phenobarbital > barbital)

It has an in mice of 212mg/kg s.c.

Metabolism
Amobarbital undergoes both hydroxylation to form 3'-hydroxyamobarbital, and N-glucosidation to form 1-(beta-D-glucopyranosyl)-amobarbital.

Approved

 * Anxiety
 * Epilepsy
 * Insomnia
 * Wada test

Unapproved/off-label
When given slowly by an intravenous route, sodium amobarbital has a reputation for acting as a so-called truth serum. Under the influence, a person will divulge information that under normal circumstances they would block. This was most likely due to loss of inhibition. As such, the drug was first employed clinically by William Bleckwenn at the University of Wisconsin to circumvent inhibitions in psychiatric patients. The use of amobarbital as a truth serum has lost credibility due to the discovery that a subject can be coerced into having a "false memory" of the event.

The drug may be used intravenously to interview patients with catatonic mutism, sometimes combined with caffeine to prevent sleep.

It was used by the United States armed forces during World War II in an attempt to treat shell shock and return soldiers to the front-line duties. This use has since been discontinued as the powerful sedation, cognitive impairment, and dis-coordination induced by the drug greatly reduced soldiers' usefulness in the field. Amobarbital was once manufactured in the US by Eli Lilly Pharmaceuticals under the brand name Amytal in capsule form. It was discontinued in the early 80s, largely replaced by the benzodiazepine family of drugs. Amobarbital was also widely abused, known on the streets as "blue heavens" because of their blue capsule.

Contraindications

The following drugs should be avoided when taking amobarbital:
 * Antiarrhythmics, such as verapamil and digoxin
 * Antiepileptics, such as phenobarbital or carbamazepine
 * Antihistamines, such as doxylamine and clemastine
 * Antihypertensives, such as atenolol and propranolol
 * Ethanol
 * Benzodiazepines, such as diazepam, clonazepam, nitrazepam, alprazolam, or lorazepam
 * Chloramphenicol
 * Chlorpromazine
 * Cyclophosphamide
 * Ciclosporin
 * Digitoxin
 * Doxorubicin
 * Doxycycline
 * Methoxyflurane
 * Metronidazole
 * Narcotic analgesics, such as morphine and oxycodone
 * Quinine
 * Steroids, such as prednisone and cortisone
 * Theophylline
 * Warfarin

Interactions
Amobarbital has been known to decrease the effects of hormonal birth control.

Overdose
Some side effects of overdose include confusion (severe); decrease in or loss of reflexes; drowsiness (severe); fever; irritability (continuing); low body temperature; poor judgment; shortness of breath or slow or troubled breathing; slow heartbeat; slurred speech; staggering; trouble in sleeping; unusual movements of the eyes; weakness (severe). Severe overdose may result in death without intervention.

Chemistry

Amobarbital (5-ethyl-5-isoamylbarbituric acid), like all barbiturates, is synthesized by reacting malonic acid derivatives with urea derivatives. In particular, in order to make amobarbital, α-ethyl-α-isoamylmalonic ester is reacted with urea (in the presence of sodium ethoxide).

Society and culture
It has been used to convict alleged murderers such as Andres English-Howard, who strangled his girlfriend to death but claimed innocence. He was surreptitiously administered the drug by his lawyer, and under the influence of it he revealed why he strangled her and under what circumstances.

On the night of August 28, 1951, the housekeeper of actor Robert Walker found him to be in an emotional state. She called Walker's psychiatrist who arrived and administered amobarbital for sedation. Walker was allegedly drinking prior to his emotional outburst, and it is believed the combination of amobarbital and alcohol resulted in a severe reaction. As a result, he passed out and stopped breathing, and all efforts to resuscitate him failed. Walker died at 32 years old.

The British actor and comedian Tony Hancock killed himself in Australia in 1968 using the drug in combination with alcohol.

Eli Lilly manufactured amobarbital under the brand name Amytal, it was discontinued in the 1980s replaced largely by the benzodiazepine family of drugs. Amytal was also widely abused. Street names for amobarbital include "blues", "blue angels", "blue birds", "blue devils", and "blue heavens" due to their blue capsule.

Cultural references
In Len Deighton's 1967 novel An Expensive Place to Die, a combination of amytal and LSD is used to make the unnamed protagonist respond to questioning about his activities.

In Thomas Pynchon's 1973 novel Gravity's Rainbow, sodium amytal is used by a military intelligence unit as some kind of truth serum to extract Tyrone Slothrop's (the novel's protagonist) ideas on racism of white Americans against Afro-Americans during the 1930s in his home state of Massachusetts (Chapter 1).

In the 1975 Columbo episode "A Deadly State of Mind" the victim Nadia Donner has Amobarbital found in her blood according to the autopsy report.

In the 1994 comedic action thriller True Lies, the protagonist Harry Tasker (portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger) is given sodium amytal as a truth serum, when questioned by terrorists.

In 2001, the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Repression" (Season 3, Episode 1), a therapist (Shirley Knight) treats her patient with "sodium amytal". The character Dr. George Huang (BD Wong) claims that the drug leaves a patient so susceptible to suggestion, that the therapist is able to implant false memories in the patient.

In 2003, the animated series Sealab 2021 season 3, episode 7, "Tourist Season", Dr. Quentin Q. Quinn, voiced by Brett Butler, uses "sodium amytal" to induce amnesia in a group of tourists, in order to prevent them from taking action against Sealab as a result of a hare-brained scheme by Capt. Murphy. He gives the dose in a free alcoholic beverage as a parting gift before the tourists leave, and in quantities he describes that could "make an elephant forget".

In the 2005 movie, Hellraiser: Hellworld, the main antagonist uses "sodium amytal" to secretly anesthetize the people he believes were responsible for his son's death, and induce extreme hallucinations in them.

In 2016, television drama A Fist Within Four Walls episode 14, Man Zeun (portrayed by Princeton Lock) uses sodium amytal in an attempt to force gambling addict Lee Fat into paying debts.

In 2022, in "Diophantine Pseudonym", Episode 06 of Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol, sodium amytal is used by the CIA as a truth serum.

title: Amobarbital


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Element extrapolation

 This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion of the article below. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was DELETE. dbenbenn | talk 23:44, 24 Feb 2005 (UTC)

===Unquadnilium, Unbiseptium, Unquadunium, Unquadbium, Unquadtrium, Unquadquadium, Unquadpentium, Unquadhexium, Unquadseptium, Unquadoctium, Unquadennium, Unpentnilium, Unpentunium, Unpentbium===

More extrapolationcruft, in line with the binilnilium nomination. All information on these pages is boilerplate or simply mathematical extrapolation, which could be carried out ad infinitum. (And why pages on these particular non-existant elements?) Eric119 01:55, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete (again). These placeholder names are for elements which do not exist and have never been created. Should they ever be, they will be given a more formal name. Let's wait until then to create an article. Denni ☯ 02:33, 2005 Feb 13 (UTC)
 * Redirects to Systematic element name Transuranium element, since these atomic number are greater than 92. The names are proposed by IUPAC btw so it's not really a hoax as such, see . Megan1967 03:08, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Redirect amended as per above. Megan1967 00:00, 14 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * I second the Redirect. (Still trying to figure out how they can guess the appearance of an undiscovered element...) — RJH 04:24, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete imaginary topic, do not redirect. Gazpacho 05:45, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Redirect it may seem odd to some, but there are people who will look up such bizarre words. Joshuaschroeder 07:09, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete, redirection would be unhelpful until such a thing exists (WP not a word construction manual), vapor-element. Wyss 11:32, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete, since the problem with redirecting is that there is no practical end to the series (e.g. quaddiseptium, etc). Radiant! 11:45, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Redirect to Systematic element name, which describes the scheme by which these names are constructed—and redirects are cheap. Do not redirect to transuranium element, because these elements exist as nothing but figments of an overzealous imagination, and such a redirect would be confusing. --TenOfAllTrades | Talk 18:37, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. Agree with Denni. If/when these elements are found/created, they will eventually be given a new name anyway.--jag123 21:04, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. These articles can be recreated when the elements in question are observed. -- The Anome 00:03, Feb 14, 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. No useful information. Redirects considered harmful in this case, as if there is a list of all these elements, they will be coloured as blue links, suggesting we have separate articles for them. The chances of anyone actually searching for these names is fairly remote. sjorford// 09:18, 14 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Good point, delete, no redirect. Kappa 19:23, 14 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete all, do not redirect. —Korath (Talk) 02:15, Feb 16, 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete all, no redirect. Jayjg (talk) 03:36, 18 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete all, no redirects. Carrp | Talk 22:07, 18 Feb 2005 (UTC)

This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like some other VfD subpages, is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion, or the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.


text:
Avoca, Victoria

Avoca is a town in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia, 71 km north west of Ballarat. It is one of two main towns in the Pyrenees Shire, the other being Beaufort to the south.

Geography
The town stands in the gently undulating basin of the Avoca River, which rises in the Pyrenees Ranges to the west. To the south, the region is bounded by low hills of the Great Dividing Range; eastwards, the basin ends in a dry forested rise; to the north the Avoca River runs slowly through the plains of the Wimmera before joining Lake Bael Bael and the lake and swamps just south of the Murray. The town and river were named after Avoca, the village and River Avoca in County Wicklow, Ireland.

The region takes in an area of about 200 km2, and includes the towns of Redbank, Natte Yallock, Rathscar, Bung Bong, Lamplough, Amphitheatre, Percydale, Moonambel, and Warrenmang. A few miles to the northeast, bare paddocks mark the site of Homebush, once a flourishing mining village.

Avoca has many small businesses servicing the local community including a pub, several cafes, a chemist, convenience store, a butcher, a supermarket, its own newspaper (Pyrenees Advocate) and a community bank. Since the 1970s, the wine industry has grown to be one of the most significant economic drivers and the sector is now the largest employer in the region and has increased tourism.

Early settlement and the gold rush
The explorer and surveyor Thomas Mitchell was the first European recorded to have travelled through the Avoca district. He found the area more temperate in climate and better watered than inland New South Wales, and he encouraged settlers to take up land in what he described as "Australia Felix".

The Blood Hole massacre occurred at Middle Creek, near Glengower at the end of 1839 or early 1840 killing an unknown number of Dja Dja Wurrung people.

By 1850 there were several large sheep runs, and pastoral settlement was well established.

Like Ballarat and many other Victorian towns, Avoca sprang into being suddenly in the 1850s with the discovery of gold. Gold was first found in Victoria in 1849 in the Pyrenees Ranges near Avoca. But it was not for another two years that the first discovery of any importance took place. In 1851 a shepherd called James Esmond found gold at Clunes, 40 km from present-day Avoca, setting off a gold rush to the region. In 1853 gold was found at Four Mile Flat, near Avoca, and the main lead at Avoca itself was opened up a few months later.

By the beginning of December 1853, the population had increased from 100 to 2,200, and by June the following year, Avoca, with a population of 16,000, was regarded as one of Victoria's more important gold rush districts.

With a Court, a police station, Post Office (opened 1 September 1854), gold wardens, churches, and schools, Avoca had established itself as an administrative centre. This was a crucial development in its survival as a town, for when the gold miners left their Avoca claims to travel to the new Dunolly rush in 1856, Avoca continued to serve as the focus of the region's commercial and administrative life. With the Lamplough rush in 1859, miners returned to the Avoca district, and in that year rich deposits were also opened up at Homebush, established on the site of the 1853 Four Mile Flat rush. This discovery brought renewed activity to the district. The value of gold mining to the economy of the area may be seen in a single statistic: from 1859 to 1870 gold worth £2,500,000 was sent from Avoca to Melbourne. (Even this huge sum may represent as little as one third of the gold won as private sales were not included.) On 16 April 1889, gold mining ceased in Avoca with the closure of the Golden Stream Company mine. All that is visible today of the Golden Stream Mine is several large mullock heaps of mainly white pipeclay on the west side of the Sunraysia Highway between the railway crossing and the Avoca Cemetery.

From mining to agriculture and pastoralism
Avoca's economic basis was shifting rapidly from gold mining to agriculture. Many of the miners who had rushed the area in the 1850s and early 1860s settled and took up land. The big pastoral runs that had existed before the rushes were broken up for closer settlement. In addition to running sheep, several vineyards were planted from the late 1850s onward. Mining continued to be an important source of employment, but for the last decades of the nineteenth century most miners no longer worked individually or in small teams except for a small number of larger companies still working deep leads. Homebush, about ten kilometres from Avoca, was based almost entirely on company mines and flourished for several decades before these mines became uneconomical. Rural Victoria was hit particularly by the depression and drought of the 1890s. From 1895 the larger mines in the Avoca district closed and at the outbreak of World War I very few companies were still in operation. The downturn also affected agriculture in general with the last vineyard ceasing activity in 1929.

Across Australia rural productivity was rising, partly through the development of agricultural machinery by implement makers such as Mackay and Shearer. Some rural areas in 1901 recorded five times the harvest yields of the 1890s, at a small fraction of the cost.

In the first decade of the twentieth century Avoca's infrastructure was further developed. More and better roads were being built, the Shire Engineer attributed the problem of bad roads to heavier traffic from increased cultivation of land and more produce being brought to market. In 1911 the Sugarloaf reservoir was opened, and in the same year the district was linked to the rest of the State by telephone.

The Avoca Magistrates' Court closed on 1 April 1979, not having been visited by a Magistrate since 1971.

Avoca Soldiers' Memorial
The Avoca Soldiers' Memorial is prominent in the park in the centre of the High Street. The war memorial often features on souvenirs of Avoca and could be said to be the symbol of the town.

The memorial was built in 1921. Since early in the First World War there had been a desire in the community to honour the men from the district who had enlisted. Finally in 1920 it was decided to hold a "Back to Avoca" celebration the next year and for the memorial to be opened at this time.

The memorial cost £1,100. Most monuments in Victoria and New South Wales cost between £100 and £1000, one in five between £1000 and £2000, and a few more than that. (It has been estimated that £100 in the 1920s was roughly equivalent to A$8000 in 1998.) Avoca, too small to be allocated a gun for a war trophy, built a monument on a scale suitable for the largest twenty per cent of communities. Having not built a band rotunda to date, it appears that the community may have used the opportunity of erecting the memorial to overcome this deficiency in the town's furnishings.

The Avoca memorial, which was initially conceived as a band rotunda, is an irregular octagon with eight piers carrying a roof obscured by a parapet. A frieze above the columns contains the names of the main areas where volunteers from Avoca fought: Gallipoli, France, Palestine and Belgium. Low walls on four sides each have a soldier's helmet and pack sculptured in high relief. The entrances on the other sides are guarded by free-standing granite tablets, inscribed with the names of soldiers from the district who fought in the First World War. The tablet on the northern side of the memorial records the names of those who died. The memorial is based on a classical model but with few references to classical detailing.

Cemetery
The cemetery is located at 247 Sunraysia Highway Avoca Vic 3467. ( Coordinates -37.06885°N, 143.4664°W ) Information on the interments, with more details and images of the headstones - here. The Avoca and District Historical Society Inc has erected a Memorial Wall in the old section of the Avoca Cemetery, to enable memorialisation of early citizens of the district buried in unmarked graves. Early in 2012 the Chinese Memorial Foundation in Melbourne sought permission to erect a memorial in the Avoca Cemetery in honour of their fellow countrymen who died in the area. This memorial was unveiled at a ceremony conducted on 23 November 2012.

Chinese Garden
Local business in conjunction with the Pyrenees Shire and Victorian government constructed a Chinese Garden in 2014. The Avoca Chinese Garden was named the Garden of Fire and Water by artist Lindy Lee. This contemporary Chinese garden represents the important contribution of Chinese people in the culture, those who came from China as immigrants and those Australians whose parents or grandparents came from China.

Churches
There are 5 current churches and 1 former church in Avoca.

Population
At the 2016 census, Avoca had a population of 1,193. 82.6% of people were born in Australia and 90.5% of people only spoke English at home. The most common responses for religion were No Religion 35.9% and Anglican 22.2%.

Sport
The town has an Australian rules football team competing in the Maryborough Castlemaine District Football League, the Avoca Bulldogs. Avoca have played in this league since 2005. They played in the Lexton Football League from 1944 until 1999. Then played with the Lexton Plains Football League until 2004 which was a merger of the Lexton Football League and the Western Plains Football League. The Avoca Football Club was formed in 1872.

Avoca has a horse racing club, the Avoca Shire Turf Club, which hosts several race meetings throughout the year. Best known are the ANZAC Races on Anzac Day every year and The Avoca Cup meeting in October.

Golfers play at the Avoca Golf Club on Davey Street.

Avoca has had a number of Australian Football League. players over the years. The most notable being Jim Jess who played 223 games for Richmond Football Club and playing in the 1980 Premiership. Jim Jess also represented Victoria on five occasions and was an All Australian representative. Ex-Collingwood and Sydney Swans player Darren Jolly also has ties with Avoca.

Avoca also hosts a wide range of other sporting events including mountain and road cycling events, running events and car rallies that profit from the natural beauty, space and support from local business and local government.

Tourism
Tourism is important for Avoca. The Avoca region is home to an established agricultural and winery industry thanks to its Mediterranean climate, good soil and running streams. The Tourist Information Office provides a pamphlet outlining a walking tour of the town's historic buildings which lists around 40 separate destinations.

Transport
The town is located at the intersection the Sunraysia Highway and the Pyrenees Highway. It was once served by a railway station, until it was closed in 1979. Freight traffic ceased in 2005. Subsequently, the railway from Ararat to Maryborough was closed for conversion to standard gauge.

In 2017, there is a proposal entitled the, Murray Basin rail project designed to link Mildura to Portland with standard gauge track to carry grain and mineral sands on the now disused Avoca railway line. This upgrading will include the Maryborough to Ararat section of the line, past the site of the disused station.

Water supply
Today's Avoca town water supply is largely dependent upon the "Bung Bong Bore" which was originally installed in an attempt to overcome flooding of deep lead mine shafts at Caralulup.

Wineries
In the late twentieth century viticulture was re-established and wine and tourism are now of significant economic importance to the region. Avoca is regarded as the gateway to the Pyrenees wine region. 1963 saw the rebirth with government ministers attending the official planting ceremony. While wineries extend from near Waubra in the south to St Arnaud in the north, Avoca is considered the epicentre of the wine region.

Climate
The Bureau of Meteorology maintains temperature and rainfall statistics for Avoca, showing it has a mean maximum temperature of 20.3 C and an annual rainfall of 537.5 mm.

Notable people

 * Michael James Laracy (1871–1952), shearer and trade unionist

title: Avoca, Victoria


text: User talk:4.178.51.170

title: User talk:4.178.51.170


text:
Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Finnish language/archive1

Finnish language
I think it should be a featured article because there is much detail in it, and I just frankly think people need to know more about Finland! There haven't been that many featured articles about languages also. flockofpidgeons 23:52 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Comments. There's a "Plenty more to add ..." at the end of the list in the Vocabulary section, and a lengthy 'to do' list in commented-out HTML. Have these things been done (the to do list seems like it probably mostly has)? I think there should be summaries in the Sounds and Grammar sections (if someone has trouble thinking what they should have, I'm not enuf of a language person to know about the actual content, but the size of the corresponding summaries at Spanish language seems to be about right). And this is may be just a nit, but "to date" in English can have two distinctly different meanings (social vs. calendar contexts); it seems unlikely to me that the Finnish word cited (at the bottom of the Borrowing section) happens to also mean both, in which case, the applicable def should be identified. Niteowlneils 03:30, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Object. I'm not a linguist either, but it seems strange that the Uralo-Altaic grouping is described as "disputed" in the language infobox, while there is no discussion or mention of it or its disputedness in the two-sentence "Classification" section. I appreciate that it may not deserve a mention on account of the grouping being "almost universally rejected by historical linguists as a mistake" (see Ural-Altaic languages), but in that case how does it deserve to tantalize the reader by inclusion in the infobox...? Bishonen | Talk 06:12, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * sigh, the Hungarians were here. Just remove the 'disputed', or we'll have to tag pretty much every statement on Wikipedia. Better still, change the header to "From Wikipedia, the free disputed encyclopedia." dab sorry, I didn't read. Ural-Altaic is of course controversial. I wouldn't say "disputed" so much as "uncertain", but the matter is too complex to convey in the table anyway, so I'm still for just removing the qualifier. dab (ᛏ)
 * the grammar article is quite nice too, but the grammar section should be a little bit more than just the link: it should be a paragraph briefly summarizing and putting in context the grammatical peculiarities of Finnish (same goes for "Sounds"). dab (ᛏ) 11:25, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)

 * Object. 1) Has several sections without content. (Sounds, grammar). Also there are a lot of subsections with barely any content. Please restructure these. 2) This article needs images. I can imagine some map images for - for example - the dialects. Other illustrations, especially in the history section, seem possible too. 3) This article needs some samples of spoken Finnish. 4) Lead section is brief and does not summarize the article well. 4) Annotations for the references (use this instead of bibliography) are nice, but sometimes POV and unnecessary. 5) The article doesn't read well at times, often indicated by single-sentence paragraphs. 6) The article has a lot of vagueness: "Some linguists", "sometimes", "mostly", "usually", "some estimates", "mainly believed", etc. Please rewrite these, or attribute the statements to a source or to persons. Jeronimo 11:30, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Comment. I already objected above, but I'm afraid I have more objections to the infobox, sorry I didn't list them all before. 1) In other major language articles I've sampled (Swedish, German, English, Dutch) the infobox heading "Spoken in" is used for the countries the language is spoken in, while "Region" is used for the larger, umbrella, unit (Northern Europe, etc). Here, the "Region" box contains instead smaller units, as in parts of the countries, such as Tornio River Valley (which is incidentally a redirect to Torne Valley), Karelia, Finnmark. Is there a misunderstanding, or is there a dispute as to what this part of the infobox is for? 2) And, in any case, given the apparent principle, how can Finnmark (in Norway) be under "Region" when Norway isn't under "Spoken in"? And how, on any principle, can "Finland" appear in both places? 3) As with the Uralo-Altaic grouping I mentioned before, the infobox and the article text need to be put on speaking terms with each other on the subject of Meänkieli (a language, or perhaps a Finnish dialect, spoken in the Swedish Torne Valley region). The box doesn't mention Meänkieli, which is fine (that level of detail doesn't belong there), but the box has an obvious (to a specialist, ahem) reference to it in the only Swedish region it mentions, Tornio River Valley = Torne Valley. In the article proper, on the other hand, Meänkieli is ascribed to Västerbotten. OK, Torne Valley is in Västerbotten, but how is a non-Swedish reader of the article supposed to know that? It's completely confusing to use different geographical terms. Btw, also, the article needs to refer to Meänkieli in a more clarifying way than is done in the brief mention under "Western dialects", i.e. explain that the difference of opinion concerns whether it's a form of Finnish at all (see article Meänkieli), not what kind of Finnish dialect it is. Bishonen | Talk 15:12, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)


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The Sooty Show

The Sooty Show is a British children's television series, created by Harry Corbett, and produced for the BBC from 1955 to 1967, and then for ITV from 1968 until 1992. The show, part of the Sooty franchise, focuses on the mischievous adventures of the glove puppet character of the same name, alongside his friends Sweep and Soo, and their handler. Between 1955 and 1975, Corbett presented the programme until his retirement, before it was taken over by his son Matthew Corbett. It also co-starred Marjorie Corbett as the voice of Soo from the character's debut in 1964, until her retirement in 1981, whereupon Brenda Longman replaced her.

The show originally focused on a sketch-based format featuring slapstick comedy, music, and stories, along with additional puppet characters, and later the incorporation of a studio audience. In 1981, Matthew changed the format towards a sitcom setting, in which he and the characters lived within a country cottage and engaged in a new adventure in each episode. The new arrangement retained some elements from the original format such as songs, while introducing narration in a number of scenes featuring the puppets only. In both formats, guests are featured in episodes, alongside the involvement of prop items for gunging and making messes of human performers and guest stars.

The Sooty Show proved a success with children's television, due to the popularity of Sooty, spawning additional sequels including Sooty & Co. in 1993, as well as several stage shows, and a spin-off educational series titled Learn With Sooty. The programme itself was later made available on VHS and DVD, featuring episodes from primarily the 1980s to 1990s.

History
The Sooty Show was created by Harry Corbett, a children's entertainer and magician, following the popularity of his puppet character Sooty on children's television and the decision by BBC Television to commission him for several episodes featuring the character. Corbett hosted several episodes for the BBC, originally under the title of Sooty, before later renaming it to the title that would be use throughout its broadcast history, along with creating additional characters that would become key elements to the children's media franchise sharing the character's name. In 1967, Corbett fell into disagreement with BBC producers over the presentation of the programme, and with the decision by Paul Fox, BBC1 controller at that time, to cancel the programme, he signed a deal with ITV to move The Sooty Show to their channel. Production was handled by Thames Television shortly after its return in 1968, with Corbett presenting the programme until he was forced to retire in 1975, with his son Matthew Corbett presenting the programme until its conclusion in 1992, when Thames lost its franchise.

Format
The Sooty Show featured three different formats during its broadcast history: two created by Harry Corbett, the programme's creator; and the third by Harry's son, Matthew Corbett. The first format, used from the programme's premiere in 1955, functioned in the manner of a cartoon short. In this arrangement, Harry would detail a scenario to viewers that Sooty was undertaking, that would often go wrong and cause chaos, often for Harry. The plots devised for these episodes were influenced by societal values, current events and the development of new technologies, tailored towards amusing young children, and made use of slapstick humour, including the use of cream pies and water. As episodes progressed, stories under this format later saw the involvement of Sweep and Soo, whom Harry created to accompany Sooty, alongside other puppet characters.

The second format, devised in the mid-1960s, expanded episodes to consist of a series of sketches involving Sooty and his friends, but with the inclusion of a studio, and a live audience of young children at each filming session. In this arrangement, Harry was able to incorporate additional elements, including music, story-telling, magic tricks and guest stars alongside the comedic sketches. The format was maintained by Harry when the programme moved from the BBC to ITV in 1968, and later by Matthew, upon becoming a regular in 1974, after taking over from his father following his retirement in 1975, though with Harry retaining a guest capacity in episodes.

The third format used by the programme was introduced by Matthew in 1981, later becoming a staple for all future programmes in the Sooty franchise. Under the new format, Matthew discontinued the use of a studio audience and comedic sketches, in lieu of a sitcom format focused on a single misadventure, with himself, Sooty, Sweep and Soo sharing a suburban house together. Elements of the previous format, such as guest stars and music, were retained, with narration added in for scenes focused entirely on the puppets; story-telling was also retained, but phased out over the 1980s. The new format included the use of educational elements in some stories, and the creation of specially designed sets for the puppet characters, which would be later updated and maintained in subsequent programmes in the Sooty franchise – in particular, a bathroom set created for the programme was specially designed so that its miniature taps and shower dispensed running water.

Presenters

 * Harry Corbett (1955–1975) – The show's first presenter and the creator of Sooty. Corbett ran the programme mostly within a sketch-based format throughout his era, later creating the characters of Sweep and Soo to accompany the show. His most notable contribution to the show, aside from the puppet characters, was the catchphrase he used to conclude an episode's run, which would continue to be used by his successors – "Bye bye, everybody. Bye bye." Harry returned to the programme as a guest star during his son Matthew's era, and was knighted with an OBE for his contributions with the programme and characters following his retirement.
 * Matthew Corbett (1976–1992) – The show's second presenter. Matthew took over in 1976, having initially worked in children's television, and maintained the same format as his father up until 1981. After the show's format was changed to a sitcom-based arrangement, Matthew transformed himself on screen into a well-meaning father figure, but also a somewhat sarcastic character who was slightly conceited with pomposity and boasting, to complement the mayhem created by Sooty and Sweep.
 * Marjorie Corbett (1964–1981) – The first voice of Soo, whom her husband Harry had created as a talking female panda. She remained a part of the show until after the first series of the format change. According to Brenda Longman, who took over the voice of Soo, the reason Marjorie was replaced was because her heavy smoking caused her to be short of breath. It was also felt that she made Soo sound too old.
 * Brenda Longman (1981–1992) – The second voice of Soo starting from the second series of the format change, following Marjorie's retirement from the role, who also made frequent guest appearances as various characters within the show's sitcom format. Longman remained with the programme until its conclusion and continued to work with Matthew and his successor Richard Cadell on subsequent sequels of The Sooty Show and other Sooty productions in the same role.

Puppet characters

 * Sooty – A mute yellow male bear, and the protagonist of the show alongside its human presenters. The show introduced his trademark traits of tapping a surface to whisper into the presenter's ear what he wishes to say, owning a magic wand, the use of his magic words "Izzy wizzy, let's get busy!", and his fondness for using a water pistol.
 * Sweep – A grey male dog, and Sooty's best friend, who was created in 1957. His trademark voice of bizarre squeaks was achieved by his original puppeteer Leslie Corbett, through a reed from a saxophone in his mouth to create the sounds.
 * Soo – A calm and collected female panda with a normal human voice, who was created in 1964. The character's design was towards being a foil for both Sooty and Sweep, but with a motherly-like nature to her personality. She was originally voiced by Harry's wife Marjorie Corbett until 1981, whereupon after the show's format changed, she was voiced by Brenda Longman until the show's conclusion in 1992.
 * Butch – A dark brown male dog, like Sweep, but able to talk. Introduced by Harry Corbett in the early 1970s, the character was withdrawn by his son Matthew in 1980, returning to guest star in the role of a villain.
 * Mr. Woof – A Yorkshire terrier who is a friend of Sweep, he barks in communication, eats, and sleeps.
 * Ramsbottom – A brown male snake who spoke in a deep Yorkshire accent and had the habit of telling convoluted stories and ditties. The character was created by Harry Corbett but retired by his son Matthew. He was originally voiced by Bill Garrett, the company model and prop maker who used his own strong Yorkshire accent and made the original puppet.
 * Little Cousin Scampi – A mute white bear and Sooty's cousin. The character was created by Matthew Corbett and introduced in Series 15 episode of the same name in 1990 and was designed to be a mischievous bear who liked pranks, making inventions, and caring for mice. The character became a regular member of the puppet characters from 1991, and beyond the programme's conclusion in 1992.

Legacy
The Sooty Show proved popular with children and helped to develop the Sooty franchise, culminating in the formation of additional television programmes that would run on the format brought in by Matthew Corbett in the 1980s. After the programme's conclusion, it was followed with a sequel in 1993, titled Sooty & Co.. The programme also spawned an educational spin-off series for young children, titled Learn With Sooty, that was produced for the direct-to-video market between 1989 and 1991, and several stage shows involving the puppets, Matthew, and Connie Creighton. Its early success led to it receiving a short-run comic strip based on the character, for the children's magazine Playhour between 1960 and 1961, drawn by Gordon Hutchings.

Outside the UK, the show was also given international broadcasts in other countries: these included ABC in Australia; TVNZ in New Zealand; and the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) in the United States.

UK home media releases
Also, in January 2008, a promotional DVD containing 5 early-1980s episodes was distributed by The Times newspaper, for Fremantle Media. The episodes featured were: "Bob a Job"; "Safety First"; "Sleep Walking"; "Connie Comes to Tea"; and "Sooty's Christmas Panto''.

title: The Sooty Show


text:
User:Bluefruitbowl

ack! entirely pointless. minor edits are life.

title: User:Bluefruitbowl


text: Category:English engravers

title: Category:English engravers


text: Category:British engravers

title: Category:British engravers


text:
Category:Churches in Berkshire

Churches and chapels in the English county of Berkshire:

title: Category:Churches in Berkshire


text:
Amber Valletta

Amber Evangeline Valletta (born February 9, 1974) is an American model and actress. She began her career as a fashion model, landing her first of 17 American Vogue covers in February 1993. During the 1990s, Valletta reached the status of supermodel, working as the face of Giorgio Armani, Chanel, Escada, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Valentino, Gucci and Versace, and signing multimillion-dollar cosmetics contracts with Calvin Klein and Elizabeth Arden. From 1995 to 1996, Valletta and her friend and fellow model Shalom Harlow hosted the MTV show House of Style.

In the 2000s, Valletta began to focus on her career as an actress. She had her first major film role as a poltergeist in Robert Zemeckis's supernatural thriller What Lies Beneath (2000). She has since appeared in films such as Hitch (2005), Transporter 2 (2005), Man About Town (2006), Dead Silence (2007), Gamer (2009), and The Spy Next Door (2010). In 2011, she moved to television, appearing in a recurring role as the fallen socialite Lydia Davis on ABC's drama television series Revenge. In 2015, Valletta starred as the scheming Carla Briggs in another ABC soap opera, Blood & Oil.

Early life
Amber Evangeline Valletta was born in Phoenix, Arizona and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her mother, Theresa Malaby, worked at the post office. Her grandmother is Portuguese. Valletta is a Cherokee Nation citizen. Her half-brother is actor and producer Robert Parks-Valletta.

Modeling
Valletta got her start in the fashion industry when her mother enrolled her in modeling school at the age of 15 at the Linda Layman Agency. Valletta, along with the likes of Kate Moss, Eva Herzigová, Tyra Banks, Carolyn Murphy and Shalom Harlow, was one of the most recognizable faces of the generation immediately subsequent to the original supermodels. During the 1990s she appeared 13 times on the cover of American Vogue, second only to Claudia Schiffer's sixteen. Valletta was presented on the November 1999 Millennium cover of American Vogue as one of the "Modern Muses".

She has appeared on the cover of several international fashion magazines, such as Germany's Cosmopolitan and Glamour; Spain's Elle, Telva and Harper's Bazaar; UK's Esquire and Love and US' V, Porter, Interview, Ocean Drive, Shape, Allure, Marie Claire and i-D. Valletta has walked in fashion shows for Versace, Lanvin, Louis Vuitton, Balenciaga, Gucci, Valentino, Prada, Michael Kors, Alberta Ferretti, Claude Montana, Dolce & Gabbana, Pierre Balmain, Sonia Rykiel, Versus, Yohji Yamamoto, Anna Molinari, Calvin Klein, Christian Dior and Tom Ford. She was the face of NARS Cosmetics' Spring 2010 Collection.

Valletta also continued to work with photographer Steven Meisel. Not only was she selected by Steven Meisel for the 2014 50th Anniversary Cover of Italian Vogue but one of her prior Italian Vogue editorials with super model Tracy James and photographed by Meisel was selected as one of Italian Vogues most Iconic photos.

Valletta continues to work as a fashion model, closing the Versace Autumn/Winter 2017 fashion show. She was also model for Marks and Spencer. In 2018, Valletta appeared in advertisements for Mango, Blumarine, Escada, Chanel Watches, Prada and David Yurman. In 2019, she appeared on the cover of Vogue Korea and U.S. Elle, advertising campaigns for Stella McCartney and Holt Renfrew, and editorials for Italian, American and Arabian Vogue.

Acting
Valletta's first role was in the comedy film Drop Back Ten (2000). Later that year, she played a supporting role in the thriller film What Lies Beneath, starring Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer and directed by Robert Zemeckis. She appeared alongside Nicolas Cage in The Family Man. In 2003, she played Celine in Danny DeVito's Duplex, starring Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore, and in 2004, she played Martina in Raising Helen, opposite Kate Hudson, Hayden Panettiere, Abigail Breslin, and Helen Mirren.

Valletta's first major film role was as Allegra Cole in Andy Tennant's romantic comedy Hitch. The film was released on February 11, 2005, and was a box office and critical success. She also had a role in Transporter 2, playing the mother of the kidnapped child. She played the female lead in the 2006 independent film The Last Time, co-starring alongside Michael Keaton and Brendan Fraser. In 2007, she had supporting roles in the horror film Dead Silence, as Ella Ashen, and as Claire in Premonition, starring Sandra Bullock. Also in 2007, Valletta played the leading role in the independent coming-of-age film My Sexiest Year. In 2009, Valletta starred alongside Gerard Butler in the science fiction action film Gamer. The film was released in North America on September 4, 2009, to negative reviews from critics. In 2010, she starred in The Spy Next Door, alongside Jackie Chan, George Lopez, and Billy Ray Cyrus; she played Chan's character's love interest, Gillian. In 2011, she appeared in the ensemble comedy film Girl Walks into a Bar.

In 2011, Valletta was cast in the recurring role as the socialite Lydia Davis on the ABC television prime time soap opera Revenge. In 2014, she was a regular cast member in the TNT crime drama series Legends, playing Sean Bean's character's ex-wife. In 2015, Valletta starred in the short-lived ABC prime-time soap opera Blood & Oil. She played Carla Briggs, the glamorous business partner and new wife of oil tycoon Hap Briggs (Don Johnson).

In 2016, Valletta starred in the video for Keith Urban's song "Blue Ain't Your Color", directed by Carter Smith. She also starred in the video for Fergie's song "M.I.L.F. $".

Other projects
Valletta serves as the spokesperson for Oceana's Seafood Contamination Campaign, to raise awareness of the dangers of mercury poisoning in various kinds of seafood. The decision to join Oceana's campaign was prompted by the mercury-poisoning experience of a friend and the fact that she is a mother.

Personal life
Valletta married Hervé Le Bihan in 1994, divorcing in 1996. In 2000, Valletta had a son with Olympic volleyball player Chip McCaw. She married McCaw, in September 2003, and they divorced in early 2015.

Valletta endorsed incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama for re-election in 2012.

In July 2014, Valletta spoke out about her battle with drug and alcohol addiction.

title: Amber Valletta


text: Category:Engravers by nationality

title: Category:Engravers by nationality


text:
Mallaig, Alberta

Mallaig is a hamlet in Alberta, Canada within the County of St. Paul No. 19. It is located approximately 200 km northeast of Edmonton.

The hamlet was one of the many communities that spawned due to the construction of the railroad in Western Canada during the early 1900s. In 1928, the hamlet was officially founded. The name was inspired by one of the Scottish workers. The many swamps and low-lying areas in the area reminded him of his home town of Mallaig, Scotland.

As the 20th century progressed, the railway has been removed, and has been replaced by the Iron Horse Trail, which is a long, recreational trail intended for all-terrain vehicles. The hamlet today is quite small, containing minimal services, a landfill, and a school (kindergarten to grade 12) with an enrollment of 246 students from the hamlet and surrounding area.

Demographics
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Mallaig had a population of 210 living in 80 of its 83 total private dwellings, a change of NaN% from its 2016 population of 207. With a land area of 0.6 km2, it had a population density of in 2021.

As a designated place in the 2016 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Mallaig had a population of 207 living in 70 of its 76 total private dwellings, a change of NaN% from its 2011 population of 173. With a land area of 0.6 km2, it had a population density of in 2016.

title: Mallaig, Alberta


text:
Clark Street station

The Clark Street station (originally the Brooklyn Heights station) is a station on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. It is located at Clark Street and Henry Street in Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn. It is served by the 2 train at all times and the 3 train at all times except late nights. At approximately 80 ft deep, the Clark Street station contains one island platform and two tracks. Its only exit is via a set of three elevators, which lead from a passageway above the platform to the ground story of the Hotel St. George. Despite being one of three New York City Subway stations that can only be accessed by elevators, the Clark Street station is not wheelchair-accessible with only stairs leading to the platforms.

The Clark Street station was built for the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) as part of the Clark Street Tunnel, which in turn was built as part of the Dual Contracts. It opened on April 15, 1919, and initially had two elevators; a third elevator was installed in 1931. Two of the elevators were replaced in 1962, and the station received a major renovation in the 1980s. Due to repeated breakdowns of the elevators, further replacements took place in 2000 and between 2021 and 2022, requiring the full closure of the Clark Street station.

Construction and opening
The Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) opened its first subway line in 1904; the line was extended from Manhattan to Downtown Brooklyn in 1908 with the opening of the Joralemon Street Tunnel. Residents of Brooklyn Heights, a largely residential neighborhood near Downtown Brooklyn, expressed concerns in 1909 that there was no subway station within Brooklyn Heights, even though the line had an emergency exit at Joralemon and Hicks Streets in the center of the neighborhood. After the first line opened, the city began planning new lines. In April 1912, the New York Public Service Commission gave the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) the right to operate the proposed Clark Street Tunnel under the East River, between Old Slip in Lower Manhattan and Clark Street in Downtown Brooklyn, with a stop along Clark Street. The next month, the Old Slip–Clark Street route was assigned to the IRT instead; the plans called for a station at Clark Street. As part of the Dual Contracts between the government of New York City, the BRT, and the IRT, which were signed in 1913, the Clark Street Tunnel was assigned to the IRT, becoming the Brooklyn branch of the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line, which diverged from the original subway south of Times Square.

The Clark Street Tunnel consisted of a pair of 5900 ft tubes, with a station at the eastern end of the tubes. This station, the line's first stop in Brooklyn, was to be at Clark and Henry Streets. By November 1913, the Public Service Commission had decided that the Brooklyn Heights station would be a deep-level station that would be solely or primarily accessed by elevators. Booth & Flinn Ltd. and the O'Rourke Engineering Construction Company received a $6.47 million contract in July 1914 to build a tunnel between Old Slip in Manhattan and Clark Street in Brooklyn. Construction of the tunnel began on October 12, 1914, and both tubes were holed through in December 1916. The station was named the Brooklyn Heights station in 1917. By January 1919, the tracks had been completed, but signals and station finishes were still being installed. Because the station was 80 ft deep, it could only be accessed by elevators from the lobby of the Hotel St. George. The tube was largely finished by March, and the IRT decided to push forward the tunnel's opening after learning that BRT workers might go on strike.

On April 15, 1919, the Clark Street Tunnel opened, and this station opened with it, extending West Side Line express trains from Wall Street on the other side of the East River to Atlantic Avenue via a new connection at Borough Hall. The connection doubled the number of IRT trains that could travel between Manhattan and Brooklyn, and it eased congestion in the Joralemon Street Tunnel, the only other tunnel carrying IRT trains between the two boroughs. Direct express service to Times Square was provided to the inhabitants of Brooklyn for the first time as a result (trains through the Joralemon Street Tunnel made express stops in Manhattan, skipping Times Square). Soon after the station opened, the Public Service Commission began planning to install an escalator there, as passengers had to climb 71 steps to exit the station; the escalator was not built.

1920s to 1960s
After Brooklyn Heights residents complained that sailors were using the Clark Street station at night to travel to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Rear Admiral Charles Peshall Plunkett of the United States Navy stationed guards outside the station in 1924 to prevent sailors from using it from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. to reduce overcrowding. The station's existing elevators had reached capacity by 1930. This prompted the New York State Transit Commission to mandate on April 30, 1930, that the IRT install a third elevator at the station, using an existing elevator shaft. The commission approved a $41,300 contract for the installation of an elevator in December 1930. This elevator went into service on November 25, 1931. Additionally, the IRT had installed silencing devices on the station's turnstiles by early 1931. The city government took over the IRT's operations on June 12, 1940.

As part of a modernization program for the New York City Subway system, the New York City Board of Transportation provided funding for the lengthening of the Clark Street station's platform during the 1950 fiscal year. The New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) announced plans in 1956 to add fluorescent lights above the edges of the station's platforms, which were installed the next year.

The station's first automatic elevator was installed in April 1962; it ran automatically during middays and evenings and was staffed by an operator at other times. Afterward, the NYCTA converted a second manual elevator to automatic operation. This prompted concerns from riders who said the automatic elevators might attract muggers. During the 1964–1965 fiscal year, the platforms at Clark Street, along with those at four other stations on the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line, were lengthened to 525 ft to accommodate a ten-car train of 51 ft IRT cars. The work at Clark Street was performed by the Arthur A. Johnson Corporation.

1970s to 1990s
Local residents began raising concerns about the unreliability of the station's elevators in the early 1970s. The subway system's operator, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), allocated funding for the replacement of the station's only remaining manual elevator in 1975 as part of the MTA's six-year capital plan. Developer Martin J. Raynes began converting part of the Hotel St. George, above the station, to an apartment building in 1978. As part of the project, mayor Ed Koch announced that the developer had agreed to renovate the hotel's subway entrance. On January 3, 1980, work began on a $225,000 project to renovate the arcade entrance to the station through the St. George Hotel. As part of the project, storefront repairs would be made, and new flooring and doors would be installed.

The station was selected for a renovation in 1979, and design work was completed in early 1982, after the Municipal Arts Society had taken over management of the design work in 1980. The MTA had listed the station among the 69 most deteriorated stations in the subway system in 1981. A renovation of the station, conducted as part of the MTA's Adopt-A-Station Program, was unveiled on February 9, 1983. The $260,000 cost was roughly evenly split between public and private agencies, with $120,000 coming from St. George Tower Developers. Neighborhood maps were added to the station as part of the project. Further renovations of the Clark Street station were funded as part of the MTA's 1980–1984 capital plan. The MTA received a $106 million grant from the Urban Mass Transit Administration in October 1983; most of the grant would fund the renovation of eleven stations, including Clark Street.

A further renovation during the mid-1980s involved refinishing the platform, installing new lights and new signs, repainting the station, and adding artwork. The project was budgeted at $1.25 million and was to begin in January 1984, but it quickly experienced delays and budget overruns, in part due to issues with the contractor. The MTA fired the original construction contractor, Standard Construction Services, in October 1985. At the time, the project was only 25 percent complete; tiles on the floors and walls had been removed, and part of the passageway connecting the platform to the elevators had been closed off, causing severe congestion during rush hours. The MTA hired a new contractor. The passageway was partitioned off for over two years while new tiles were installed on the walls; work was complicated by the fact that some of the tiles had been stolen. The renovation was also delayed because of poor communication: in one case, contractors installed a public-address system on a beam that was intended to contain new lighting. The project was completed in May 1987, and an artwork by Ray Ring was dedicated at the station in April 1988.

The Clark Street station's elevators had deteriorated by the 1990s, and residents described the station as dirty, unmaintained, and technologically obsolete. In 1990, Newsday reported that the emergency bell for the elevators were installed outside the token booth, meaning that token booth clerks could not hear when there was an issue. The same year, snowfall on a third rail caused an electrical fire in a tunnel near the Clark Street station, killing two people and injuring 149 others; it was the subway's worst-ever fire at the time. The severity of the fire was exacerbated by the fact that ventilation fans near the station were not working. The MTA had ordered four replacement fans in 1977 but did not install them until after the fire. The new fans had to be modified, as they required too much electricity and could not turn on. Another electrical fire occurred in an elevator room in 1992, although no one was injured in that incident. Newsday, in 1992, reported that one of the station's elevators had recorded 24 outages in six months and was non-functional for nearly a quarter of that time.

2000s to present
By early 2000, one of the station's elevators was so unreliable that it only operated during the morning peak. The other two elevators were supposed to run 24 hours a day, but one of the elevators was only operational 82 percent of the time, while the other was operational 94 percent of the time. That January, the MTA announced that it would close the Clark Street station for four months to repair the elevators, which dated from 1962. The project was estimated to cost $2 million. Although many merchants and residents opposed a full shutdown, the MTA estimated that it would be able to accelerate the work by closing the station completely. The agency estimated that, if the elevators were repaired one at a time, the work could take up to two years. The station closed temporarily in April 2000; although the storefronts near the fare-control area remained open, their operators reported steep declines in business. To encourage the contractor to complete the renovation on time, the MTA charged the contractor $15,000 for every day that the project was delayed. The project cost $3.5 million and was completed in August 2000, but riders reported that the elevators still sometimes broke down after the renovation.

The elevators were repaired again in 2007. Transit Wireless installed Wi-Fi and cellular equipment at the Clark Street station in January 2017, making it the last underground station in the New York City Subway system to receive Wi-Fi and cell service. From June 16, 2017, to June 24, 2018, there was no weekend service at the Clark Street and Hoyt Street stations while the Clark Street Tunnel was out of service to repair damage from Hurricane Sandy and to fortify it for future storms.

After several passengers were trapped in an elevator in late 2018, residents and officials, including Brooklyn borough president Eric Adams, asked the MTA to replace the station's elevators again. The MTA announced in 2019 that the elevators would need to be replaced again the next year. At the time, one of the station's three elevators was the fourth-least-reliable subway elevator in Brooklyn, out of 54 total. The MTA estimated that repairs might take eight months to three years depending on whether the station is fully closed or remains open. In September 2021, the MTA announced that the station would be closed for several months for elevator replacement and structural repairs. The station was closed on November 3, 2021, and reopened on May 5, 2022. In spite of the renovation, local news website The City found that the elevators broke down dozens of times from May to December 2022, trapping passengers on several occasions.

In 2024, the MTA announced that it would install low platform fences at the Clark Street station to reduce the likelihood of passengers falling onto the tracks. The yellow barriers, spaced along the length of the platform, do not have sliding platform screen doors between them. The platform fences were installed during the weekend of January 27–28, 2024.

Station layout
Clark Street is geographically the westernmost station in Brooklyn on the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line. It has one island platform and two tracks. The 2 stops here at all times, while the 3 train stops at all times except late nights. The station is between in Manhattan to the north and  to the south.

On the walls adjacent to the tracks are mosaics of sailing ships and docks, a reference to the maritime activity of New York Harbor. The walls also contain large name panels reading Clark Street–Brooklyn Heights. Due to the deep-bore tunneling used to construct this part of the line, the station's walls are rounded.

The center of the platform has two staircases, which ascend to a passageway on a lower mezzanine level immediately above the platform. This passageway is about 69 ft below street level. The floor of the passageway contains a 1987 artwork titled Clark Street Passage by Ray Ring. The artwork consists of red circles, yellow triangles, and gray-white squares in various configurations, placed on a background of black tiles. According to MTA Arts & Design, the differing placements of the shapes were intended to "create a flowing sense of movement" for passengers who looked at the shapes while walking along the corridor.

Exit
The Clark Street station is one of only three stations in the subway system that can be accessed solely by elevators; the other two—168th Street and 181st Street—are also on the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line, albeit in Upper Manhattan. Three elevators ascend from the lower-mezzanine passageway to a fare control area on the ground floor of the Hotel St. George. Each elevator fits approximately 48 people. The fare control area contains a small arcade with businesses and two doorways to the street. A rarely-used emergency stairwell, between elevators 1 and 2, ascends 80 ft from the passageway to fare control. This stairway is about 3 ft wide. Nearby points of interest include Cadman Plaza Park two blocks east, the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department two blocks south, and the Brooklyn Heights Promenade three blocks west.

The station is not fully ADA-accessible, since no elevators or ramps lead from the passageway to the platform. A study by Stantec found that it was infeasible to make the station ADA-accessible by extending the lower mezzanine passageway, replacing one of the staircases between the passageway and the platform, and adding another staircase elsewhere. The passageway could not be extended because the tracks would need to be closed, and excavations for the passageway could compromise the structural integrity of the cavern. Additionally, the side walls of the passageway could not be modified because it was a truss bridge.

The developers of Brooklyn Bridge Park, along the East River shoreline, proposed constructing an entrance from the park to the station in 2000. The plan was scrapped in 2007 after a study of traffic patterns found that it would cost between $30 million and $50 million to build a four-block passageway to the park. In 2008, Brooklyn Community Board 6 studied the possibility of creating an exit to the park. The exit would have consisted of a tunnel connection measuring 1,135 feet from the east side of Furman Street to the center of the existing mezzanine passageway. Construction of this passageway would have required expensive major structural support for the Brooklyn Queens Expressway cantilever overhead. With an overall estimated cost of $226 million, excluding the cost of acquiring the right-of-way for the tunnel, it was deemed economically infeasible.

title: Clark Street station


text:
Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2005-02-14/Music recordings

After leaving Wikipedia two months ago due to outside musical commitments, UninvitedCompany returned last week to start up a project to expand Wikipedia's collection of recorded music. The project soon developed to include recordings of performances by Wikipedians along with an effort to import suitable recordings from outside sources.

A competent amateur pianist and organist, UninvitedCompany suggested that audio clips of pieces would be beneficial to illustrate well-known pieces, and offered to record his own playing of some classical keyboard works. He uploaded his first recording, the prelude from the Short Prelude and Fugue in G Minor (BWV 558), attributed to J.S. Bach, on Tuesday.

This was soon followed by Dysprosia, who provided a recording of an Intermezzo, Op. 76 No. 7, by Johannes Brahms. Not quite satisfied with the performance, she characterized it as a "rough first recording" and promised a better one later.

The musical bot
The proposal also prompted Raul654 to write a script, with help from Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason and other Wikipedians, to upload more sound files. After some minor technical issues, the Raulbot began converting a series of recordings into Ogg files for use on Wikimedia Commons. However, the large size of some of the files caused some problems, and Raul654 said he hoped the limit on file sizes for uploads could be raised to accommodate this effort.

Initially, Raulbot started out by uploading a number of files from FreeMusic, a site containing classical music recordings, many by the MIT Concert Choir. Raul654 said Friday that he would next work on recordings of oral arguments before the United States Supreme Court, taken from the Oyez project. Files from both sites are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license (cc-by-sa), and therefore eligible for inclusion in the Wikimedia Commons. This license was also used by UninvitedCompany for his recording, pointing out that the GNU Free Documentation License is difficult to apply to audio due to the lack of a transparent format under the terms of the GFDL.

Prior to this effort, only a very small handful of full recordings existed on Wikipedia, along with a few more excerpts claiming fair use (some recordings have also been used to illustrate word pronunciation). In addition to his work uploading audio clips, Raul654 started a catalogue of Wikipedia's full-length recordings of songs, which can be found at Sound/list.