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The Osterman Weekend (film)

The Osterman Weekend is a 1983 American suspense thriller film directed by Sam Peckinpah, based on the 1972 novel of the same name by Robert Ludlum. The film stars Rutger Hauer, John Hurt, Burt Lancaster, Dennis Hopper, Meg Foster, Helen Shaver, Chris Sarandon and Craig T. Nelson. It was Peckinpah's final film before his death in 1984.

Plot
CIA director Maxwell Danforth (Burt Lancaster) watches a recording of agent Laurence Fassett (John Hurt) and his wife having sex. When Fassett goes to the shower, two KGB assassins enter the bedroom and kill his wife. The CIA had in fact sanctioned her killing. Fassett, unaware of his employer's involvement, is consumed by grief and rage. He hunts the assassins, eventually uncovering a Soviet spy network known as Omega.

Fassett points to three men as the top Omega agents: television producer Bernard Osterman (Craig T. Nelson), plastic surgeon Richard Tremayne (Dennis Hopper) and stock trader Joseph Cardone (Chris Sarandon). Rather than arrest the three members, which would alarm the KGB, Fassett proposes to the CIA director that they turn one of them to the side of the West in order to unravel the entire network more efficiently. Fassett sees an opportunity in John Tanner (Rutger Hauer), a controversial television journalist who is highly critical of government abuses of power. Tanner has been close friends with the three men since all four were at Berkeley together, and Fassett believes Tanner can successfully turn one of them.

The CIA contacts Tanner and Fassett tells him that his closest friends are Omega agents. Although initially highly skeptical, Tanner becomes more convinced as Fassett shows him videotaped evidence of his friends talking with a Russian man, whom Fassett identifies as a KGB agent. In three different video clips, the Russian man discusses with Cardone the prospect of "targeting" Tanner, seeing him as a threat; Tremayne expresses his desire to leave the country when "it" goes down; Osterman talks about wanting to see "radical change" in the current system, but makes clear that he's only interested if paid handsomely, asking for a Swiss bank account. Tanner eventually agrees to try turning one of them at their annual reunion, which is coming up that weekend (these reunions are named "Ostermans", in honour of their initial sponsor), which this year is being held at Tanner's house; but only on the condition that Danforth, the CIA director, appear as a guest on his show. Danforth agrees to this condition.

Tanner's troubled marriage is not improved when he asks his wife, Ali (Meg Foster), to take their son out of town for the weekend so the two of them would miss the reunion. He does not want them involved but cannot tell her why, which upsets her. Fassett tells Tanner that his family is safer at home where the CIA can keep an eye on them, but Tanner disagrees. While driving his wife and son to the airport, their car is ambushed, and Ali and the child are kidnapped. With Fassett's intervention, they are rescued unhurt and the kidnapper is shot dead. In the meantime, Tanner's home has been wired with closed circuit video so Fassett can gather more evidence. Now that Ali is aware Tanner is involved in espionage activity (although not knowing the details), Tanner has her and their son stay at the house for the weekend. Fassett sets himself up in a large van on the grounds with a squad of CIA agents on the outskirts of Tanner's property.

Osterman, Tremayne and Cardone arrive for the weekend, each having recently encountered difficulties engineered by the CIA in order to unsettle them. Consequently, the mood is tense. On the second night, Fassett sends a video feed to Tanner's dining room television, showing a clip about Switzerland that focuses on Swiss bank accounts and illegal financial manipulation. Virginia, Tremayne's wife, becomes furious, and Ali punches her in the face. Osterman tells Tanner that he's getting himself into something out of his depth, and everyone retires to their rooms. Soon after, Tanner's son discovers the severed head of the family dog in the refrigerator, but it turns out to be fake. Tanner has had enough and demands that his guests leave. Tanner confronts Fassett and insists he arrest the suspects. Fassett sends an order to the CIA guards to kill Osterman, who is an expert in martial arts and kills one of them barehanded.

Cardone and Tremayne and their wives escape in Tanner's RV. Tanner confronts Osterman and assaults him. Osterman easily overpowers him and demands an explanation. Tanner says that he knows that Osterman and his friends are Soviet agents. Osterman dismisses the accusation and explains that they have been illegally sheltering money in Swiss bank accounts to avoid taxation, but insists they are not traitors.

Fassett appears on the television and admits that he knows Osterman and his friends are only tax evaders. Fassett kills the Tremaynes and Cardones by remotely detonating an explosive device on the RV. He sends his soldiers into the house to kill Osterman and Tanner. Fassett taunts Tanner during the attack on the house, revealing that Danforth authorized his wife's murder. Fassett offers to release Tanner's family if Tanner will expose Danforth on television.

Sometime later, Danforth prepares for his remote interview with Tanner. Danforth is at his office and will speak into a camera and microphone crewed by the TV station. Tanner introduces Fassett on the air and Fassett, who is also being filmed remotely, exposes Danforth as a murderer. Danforth becomes enraged when he realizes that he has been tricked, publicly unleashing a paranoid diatribe and threatening Fassett with assassination. Fassett's remote location is a secret, but it is clear someone is coming for him. It is revealed that Tanner himself has pre-recorded his questions for both men with Osterman's assistance, and has used the video feed to locate Fassett, whom he shoots and kills. The angle from which Fassett's death is captured protects Tanner's anonymity, thereby appearing to confirm Danforth's threats in real time. Tanner then rescues his wife, his son, and his dog.

Cast
In addition, Merete Van Kamp makes a brief appearance as Fassett's wife, whose murder sets the plot in motion.

Production
William Castle initially purchased the film rights and asked author Ludlum to write the script. Ludlum was reluctant. Despite his extensive film and theatre experience, he said "I didn't leave that crowd of ocelots to go back into it."

As related in the documentary Alpha to Omega: Exposing The Osterman Weekend, producers Peter S. Davis and William N. Panzer were celebrating the wrapping of a film when they ran into Larry Jones. Jones, also a producer, revealed that he owned the film rights to Robert Ludlum's 1972 novel The Osterman Weekend, but was giving up on turning it into a feature film since he had not been able to develop a satisfactory screenplay. Davis and Panzer immediately offered to purchase the rights, as they felt this could be the project that elevated them out of the B-movie features that they had been financing up to that point. Jones and a partner agreed, and Davis and Panzer began pre-production.

The first order of business was to adapt Ludlum's complex story, and for this they hired Ian Masters. Davis claims that Masters followed conspiracy theories and closely paid attention to the CIA's activities throughout the world. After Masters developed the script's groundwork, Alan Sharp was hired to work on characters and dialogue.

With the screenplay completed they went looking for a director, and an offhand comment led them to Sam Peckinpah, the controversial and troubled man who had helmed The Wild Bunch (1969) and Straw Dogs (1971). Suffering from a damaged reputation due to alcohol and drug addiction (noted most recently on the set of his 1978 film Convoy), Peckinpah had been given the opportunity to do second unit work on Don Siegel's Jinxed! in 1981. The competence and professionalism he displayed made it possible for him to be considered as director of The Osterman Weekend.

Many studios did not want to work with Peckinpah because of his antagonistic relationship with producers. Additionally, the director's health was poor. Davis and Panzer were undaunted, because they felt that having Peckinpah's name attached to their film would lend it an air of respectability. Due to the director's damaged reputation, the producers were forced to seek financing from independent sources.

According to the commentators on the film's special edition DVD, Peckinpah hated Ludlum's novel and he did not like the screenplay either. Peckinpah requested and was given permission to work on the script himself, but after submitting his first few pages the producers forbade him from any more rewrites.

In Marshall Fine's book Bloody Sam, screenwriter Sharp said that he himself did not like the screenplay he had written, and that he found it incredible that Davis and Panzer used his draft as the shooting script. Fine also wrote that Ludlum had stated to his friend Jason Robards that he would provide a free rewrite; if this is true the producers never accepted his offer. In spite of his distaste for the project, Peckinpah immediately accepted the job as he was desperate to re-establish himself within the film community.

Multiple actors in Hollywood auditioned for the film, intrigued by the chance of working with the legendary director. Many of those who signed on, including John Hurt, Burt Lancaster and Dennis Hopper, did so for less than their usual salaries for an opportunity to work with Peckinpah. Rutger Hauer, fresh from the success of Blade Runner, was chosen by the producers for the lead role. For the film's primary location, the Tanner household, the filmmakers chose Robert Taylor's former residence in the Mandeville Canyon section of Los Angeles, the "Robert Taylor Ranch".

Peckinpah managed to keep up with the 54-day shooting schedule and within a budget of just under $7 million, but his relationship with the producers soon soured and he became combative. The cast greatly respected him and said that Peckinpah put everything he could into directing the picture in spite of his physical exhaustion and health problems.

By the time shooting wrapped in January 1983, Peckinpah and the producers were hardly speaking. Peckinpah delivered the film on time and on budget, submitting his director's cut to the producers.

This version was screened once on May 25, 1983. Test audiences reacted unfavorably and many walked out of the theater during the first few minutes. Peckinpah opened with a distorted image of Fassett and his wife making love, and the way he had edited the scene made it difficult for the audience to discern what was going on.

Panzer and Davis were hoping that Peckinpah would re-edit the film himself because they did not desire to antagonize him any further, but the director refused to make changes. Peckinpah had also filmed several satirical scenes, subtly ridiculing the product. As a result, the producers felt they had no choice and effectively fired Peckinpah and re-edited the film themselves.

The producers changed the opening sequence and deleted other scenes they deemed unnecessary. Peckinpah proclaimed that producers had sabotaged his film, a complaint he also made after filming Major Dundee (1965) and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973).

Release and reception
The film was not a blockbuster, though it grossed $6 million domestically and did extremely well in Europe and on the new home-video market. Theatrical distribution was handled by 20th Century Fox.

Critical response
Critics reacted unfavorably towards the film, with one of the common complaints being that the story was full of plot holes. Roger Ebert wrote, "I do not understand this movie. I sat before the screen, quiet, attentive and alert, and gradually a certain anger began to stir inside me, because the movie was not holding up its side of the bargain. It was making no sense. I don't demand that all movies make sense. I sometimes enjoy movies that make no sense whatsoever, if that's their intention. But a thriller is supposed to hold together in some sort of logical way, isn't it?'"  The Chicago Reader's Dave Kehr has stated, "The structure is a mess...which ultimately makes it too difficult to tell whether its oddly compelling qualities are the result of a coherent artistic strategy or the cynical carelessness of a director sidelined." Vincent Canby of the New York Times wrote that it was "incomprehensible" and "full of gratuitous sex and violence", but "has a kind of hallucinatory craziness to it". It currently holds a 45% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 20 reviews.

Home media
Thorn EMI picked up the initial video rights; a laserdisc edition was published by Image Entertainment. It is currently available on DVD and Blu-ray from Anchor Bay Entertainment, which has included the director's cut of the film on its DVD release, but sourced from a low-quality, full-screen videotape.

In 2022, the Australian distributor Imprint released a 2-disc limited edition Blu-ray of The Osterman Weekend. Disc 1 includes a 1080p high-definition presentation of the theatrical cut in 1.78:1 aspect ratio and an alternative unrestored presentation of the film in 1.66:1 aspect ratio scanned from a 35mm German print. Disc 2 includes a 1080p high-definition, unrestored 2K scan of the director's cut sourced from Sam Peckinpah's personal 35mm negative. The release also includes two audio commentaries and several documentaries, including the feature documentary Alpha to Omega: Exposing “The Osterman Weekend”.

Alpha to Omega: Exposing The Osterman Weekend
Alpha to Omega: Exposing The Osterman Weekend is a 2004 documentary about the making of The Osterman Weekend. It was included as a special feature on Anchor Bay Entertainment's 2004 DVD release of the film. Featuring interviews with many members of the cast and crew, it not only examines the process of bringing Ludlum's novel to the screen, but also provides a portrait of Peckinpah's approach to the filmmaking process and of his frame of mind and physical health following years of substance abuse. It was directed by Jonathan Gaines, who co-wrote it with Michael Thau, who was also the editor.

Interviews:

 * William N. Panzer
 * Peter S. Davis
 * Rutger Hauer
 * John Hurt
 * Chris Sarandon
 * Craig T. Nelson
 * Cassie Yates

 * Nick Redman
 * Meg Foster
 * Martin Baum
 * Helen Shaver
 * Edward Abroms
 * Lalo Schifrin

Remake
In February 2012, it was reported that talks were under way to film a new adaptation of Ludlum's book.

title: The Osterman Weekend (film)


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Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Smell the power

 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. jni 17:51, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Smell the power
Non-notable website. Can't get an Alexa ranking. RickK 06:22, Feb 4, 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.
 * Google thinks that nothing links there, either. 700-odd hits for the phrase "smell the power", but most are unrelated; the website in question clocks in at #4.  Delete.  -Sean Curtin 06:36, Feb 4, 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete, Inter 07:37, 4 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. jni 13:32, 4 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete Ashibaka tlk 21:11, 4 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep it and categorize it to Non-notable websites Faethon2 22:35, 4 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. Faethon2, please stop suggesting articles be placed in categories that don't exist. — Knowledge Seeker দ (talk) 03:49, 5 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete, not notable, website advertisement. Megan1967 01:31, 5 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete, smell the ad. Wyss 23:10, 5 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete, and I can smell the power......no, wait, that's my socks. humblefool® 23:52, 5 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete, not encyclopedic. —Stormie 08:12, Feb 6, 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. I can smell spam.  Or maybe hoax.  Edeans 03:38, 9 Feb 2005 (UTC)

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


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Bob Davie (American football)

Robert Edwin Davie Jr. (born September 30, 1954) is an American former college football coach and player. He served as the head football coach at the University of Notre Dame from 1997 to 2001 and the University of New Mexico from 2012 to 2019. Davie worked for ESPN as a college football color commentator from 2002 to 2011.

Early life and playing career
Robert Edwin Davie Jr. was born in Sewickley, Pennsylvania to Robert Sr. and June. Davie was raised in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania. As a student at Moon Area High School, Davie excelled in sports, lettering three times each in football, baseball, and basketball. During his senior year, Davie served as captain of both the football and basketball teams. The same year, his elder brother died of cancer.

Davie received a football scholarship to attend the University of Arizona. After two weeks in Arizona, however, Davie became homesick and returned to Pennsylvania. He soon enrolled in nearby Youngstown State University, where he was a starting tight end for three years.

Assistant coach
Following his graduation from Youngstown State in 1977, Davie took a job as a graduate assistant for the University of Pittsburgh football team, working under head coach Jackie Sherrill. Davie then spent two years as an assistant coach at the University of Arizona before returning to the University of Pittsburgh for the 1980–1982 seasons. He then moved to Tulane as defensive coordinator and assistant head coach from 1983 to 1984. From 1985 to 1988, Davie served as the outside linebackers coach at Texas A&M University before serving as the school's defensive coordinator from 1989 to 1993. During his stint at A&M, he helped further develop the "Wrecking Crew" defense, which, in 1991 was No. 1 in the nation in total defense.

In 1994, Lou Holtz, the head coach at the University of Notre Dame, offered Davie a job as defensive coordinator, at the recommendation of Notre Dame offensive line coach Joe Moore. Although Davie twice turned down this job offer, after discussing the matter with his wife he agreed to work for Holtz. Under Davie, the Notre Dame defense improved, and in 1996 the team set a school record for number of sacks and allowed the lowest total yardage of any Notre Dame team since 1980. In September 1995, Davie served as interim head coach when Holtz missed a game in order to have surgery. Under Davie, Notre Dame beat Vanderbilt 41–0.

Head coach
In November 1996, Holtz retired from Notre Dame after eleven seasons as head coach. Notre Dame interviewed four candidates, including Gary Barnett, Tom Clements, and Davie. Davie had applied for several other head coaching jobs, and was offered a position at Purdue University. He turned down Purdue when offered the opportunity to become the next head coach at Notre Dame. Davie was the first assistant to become a head coach at Notre Dame since 1954, when Terry Brennan replaced Frank Leahy.

Fans were not excited about Davie's promotion. His habit of referring to the traditions of Texas A&M University rather than those of Notre Dame alienated many fans. Within months of his hiring, Davie and the university were sued by Joe Moore, who had been fired by Davie. Moore alleged that Davie had defamed him, and that his firing was a result of age discrimination. Although a judge dismissed the defamation charges, the university was later found guilty of age discrimination, and Moore received a small settlement. Throughout much of the proceedings, fan sentiment had been on Moore's side, with many fans very unhappy with Davie. During Davie's tenure, Notre Dame was also placed under NCAA sanctions for the first time over the actions of a booster (Kim Dunbar) who stole $1.2 million and spent it on Notre Dame players during Lou Holz time as head coach. The school was placed on probation and lost two scholarships, and the university subsequently disbanded all booster clubs.

In five seasons at Notre Dame, Davie compiled a 35–25 record including three bowl games, most notably the 2001 Fiesta Bowl, a 41–9 loss to Oregon State, which was the first Bowl Championship Series game in school history. His final season included the 2001 AFCA Academic Achievement Award when the Notre Dame football team posted a 100% graduation rate.

Notre Dame's performance on the field was inconsistent from year to year during Davie's tenure. Following a 7–6 campaign in 1997 which saw Notre Dame overcome a 2–5 start, the Irish were poised for a major bowl bid with a 9–1 record going into their 1998 season finale against USC upon closing the door in the final seconds against LSU. They led 39-36 with 21 seconds left in their own territory but had to kill time for four plays due to LSU having three timeouts. On 4th down, having killed all but eight seconds, Davie instructed his quarterback Jarious Jackson to scramble around in the end zone before taking a safety. Ideally, this would have wound the clock almost to zero, but instead, Jackson suffered a blindsided hit, leading to ligament damage in his right knee. Jackson did not play against the Trojans and Notre Dame, its offense rendered powerless, suffered a 10–0 loss. The team had to settle for the Gator Bowl and lost to Georgia Tech to finish 9–3. A 5–7 campaign followed in 1999, and the national media began to question Davie's abilities.

In 2000 the Irish bounced back and finished 9–3 once again. Newly hired athletic director Kevin White promptly gave Davie a five-year contract extension. Within weeks of signing the contract extension, Davie's team lost in the Fiesta Bowl. During the next season, Davie presided over the first 0–3 start in Notre Dame history in 2001. The Irish won their next three games to even their record, but losses to Boston College, Tennessee and Stanford sealed Davie's fate as the Irish finished 5–6. He was fired on December 2, one day after a 24–18 win over Purdue. Davie was replaced by George O'Leary, who in turn resigned after it was revealed that his resume contained inaccuracies. Notre Dame then turned to Tyrone Willingham to lead the program.

On November 16, 2011, Davie was hired as the new football coach at New Mexico replacing Mike Locksley. With Davie, the Lobos won the 2016 Mountain West Conference Mountain Division championship along with Wyoming and Boise State. On February 8, 2018, he was suspended 30 days without pay; this was related to his handling of incidents of alleged misconduct by football players at UNM.

After the Lobos' 2019 season opener, a 39–31 victory against Sam Houston State, Davie was hospitalized for heart problems, forcing him to cancel the post-game press conference. Run game coordinator and offensive line coach Saga Tuitele served as interim head coach for New Mexico's game against Notre Dame.

On November 25, 2019, it was announced that New Mexico and Davie have agreed to part ways.

Media career
Between his head coaching positions at Notre Dame and New Mexico, Davie was a college football analyst for ESPN.

Personal life
Davie is married to the former Joanne Fratangelo. They are the parents of two children, Audra and Clay. Clay Davie played football at Arizona State University.

title: Bob Davie (American football)


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Naval Special Warfare Command (Thailand)

The Naval Special Warfare Command (หน่วยบัญชาการสงครามพิเศษทางเรือ), commonly known as the Royal Thai Navy SEALs (an acronym for SEa–Air–Land), is the special operations force of the Royal Thai Navy.

The unit was set up in the name of Underwater Demolition Assault Unit in 1956 with the assistance of the U.S. Government. A small element within the Navy SEALs has been trained to conduct maritime counter-terrorism missions. The unit has close ties with the United States Navy SEALs and conducts regular training exercises.

History
In 1952, the Thai Ministry of Defence considered forming a diving unit. At a meeting with the Royal Thai Army and Royal Thai Police it was agreed that the Royal Thai Navy would be responsible for establishing the unit. Representatives of the Thai Navy met with officers from the United States Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) to discuss possible training. On 13 June 1952, the Thai Navy approved the training program for the diving unit that included Underwater Demolition Team (UDT) training. Unfortunately at the time there were not enough instructors from the United States to make the project happen and so it was temporarily put on hold. In 1953, the Overseas Southeast Asia Supply Company (SEA Supply), a CIA front company, that provided assistance to the Thai Police, offered to provide the initial diving training to the Thai Navy and also to the Thai Police, which had received parachute training. The Thai Navy approved a contingent of seven personnel and the Thai Police approved a contingent of eight personnel to receive training at Saipan island in the United States. At Saipan island, the Thai Navy and Thai Police received eleven weeks training. The Thai Navy contingent requested further training and the establishment of a Thai Navy Underwater Demolition Team on 24 November 1953 under the command of a Lieutenant.

In 1956, the Royal Thai Navy formed a small combat diver unit. In 1965, the unit was expanded and reorganised with US Navy assistance. Three years later, it was again reorganised with US Navy assistance, dividing the unit between an underwater demolitions team and a SEAL team. The UDT was tasked with salvage operations, obstacle clearance, and underwater demolitions. The SEAL team was tasked with reconnaissance and intelligence missions. In the 1991 book South-East Asian Special Forces by Kenneth Conboy, the author wrote that the Navy SEALs were organised into two units, SEAL Teams One and Two, with a strength of 144 personnel with each SEAL Team divided into four platoons. On 18 March 1991, the Navy SEALs were re-designated as the Naval Special Warfare Group, Royal Thai Fleet and were to report directly to the Royal Thai Fleet. The unit was expanded and organised into three divisions: special combat, special warfare school, and support.

On 7 August 2008, the Naval Special Warfare Group was re-designated as the Naval Special Warfare Command, Royal Thai Fleet, in order to increase the unit size and its capability for dealing with any future threats.

Mission

 * Prepare readiness of personnel for operations, study and training of naval special warfare
 * Special operations squad for naval special warfare and perform other special tasks as will be assigned
 * Naval Special Warfare School has to train, study and evaluate of naval special warfare. Command and control the trainees and students of Naval Special Warfare Command.
 * Naval Special Warfare Support Division supports logistics service to the unit under the responsibility.

Organization

 * Naval Special Warfare Command Headquarter
 * Naval Special Warfare Training Center
 * 1st Naval Special Warfare Group
 * 2nd Naval Special Warfare Group

Training Course
Training on an assault course takes about 7–8 months. It is considered the longest military training course in Thailand, divided into 5 periods as are following;

 * Introduction to basic training practicing exercise and solving various obstacles takes approximately 3 weeks.*
 * Actual training, lasting 6 weeks.
 * Intense training, known as "Hell Week", lasts for continuously 120 hours without breaks.
 * Various tactical training
 * Tactical training in real conditions, lasting approximately 2 months.

Badge
Upon completion of the course, students will receive a badge of competence which was designed by Admiral Pan Rukkaew. The components of the badge have the following meaning

 * Shark meaning the god of the sea, fierce, formidable, elegant and strong.
 * The waves mean the horror of the sea that is always wave. But the shark is not even fear.
 * Anchor means a sailor. In the past, courses only accepted sailors. But now the unit has also received additional army, air force and police.
 * Thai national flag means sacrifice for the nation, religion and king.

Operational deployments
Most of the operations of the Navy SEALs are highly sensitive and are rarely divulged to the public. Navy SEALs have been used to gather intelligence along the Thai border during times of heightened tension.

Navy SEALs have participated in anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Thailand. They have also participated in salvage and rescue operations, and have supported Royal Thai Marine Corps training exercises.

Thai Navy SEALs have deployed on Royal Thai Navy warships for anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Somalia as part of Combined Task Force 151. The CTF 151 was established on 12 January 2009 as a response to piracy attacks in Somalia. The task eventually were succeed as a piracy events in the region have been reduced.

On February 13, 2013, the Battle of Bacho occurred when 50 RKK members attacked a 2nd Rifle Company, 32nd Task Force Narathiwat of the Royal Thai marine base. The royal thai marine base had already prepared due to receiving clues about the plans to attack the stronghold 2–3 days before. The marine commander has put in a defensive strategy with additional of the 11 members of Recon and 17 Thai Navy SEALs. After clashing resulted in 16 deaths from attacker side with non fatality for both Recon and Navy SEALs members. In June 2018, Navy SEALs responded to a request for assistance to search for a junior football team in the Tham Luang Nang Non cave system. The Navy SEALs coordinated a rescue of the football team from the flooded cave system with assistance from international cave and support divers.

Totally 127 current and former Navy SEALs participated in the rescue. While delivering supplies for the rescue, former Navy SEAL Petty Officer 1st class Saman Kunan died after losing consciousness underwater and could not be resuscitated. A year after the rescue, another Navy SEAL, petty officer 1st class Beirut Pakbara died following a blood infection he contracted in the caves.

However, all junior football team members including 12 junior football players together with their assistant coach were safely rescued.

Engagements

 * Cold War
 * Communist insurgency in Thailand
 * Communist insurgency in Malaysia
 * Third Indochina War
 * Vietnamese border raids in Thailand
 * Global War on Terrorism
 * OEF - Horn of Africa
 * Combined Task Force 150
 * Anti-Piracy operation in Gulf of Aden
 * Southern Insurgency
 * Battle of Bacho (2013)
 * Anti-Piracy in strait of Malacca
 * MT Orkim Harmony hijacking
 * Tham Luang cave rescue

In popular culture

 * 2018: The Crown Princess is a Thai television series, premiered on May 14, 2018 and last aired on June 19, 2018 on Channel 3. It starred Urassaya Sperbund and Nadech Kugimiya and produced by Ann Thongprasom. Because her life was put into danger after her coronation, Crown Princess Alice (Urassaya Sperbund) of the country Hyross was secretly sent to Thailand, where Dawin Samuthyakorn (Nadech Kugimiya), a Lieutenant Commander of the Thai Navy and Navy SEAL, becomes her bodyguard.

 * 2018: Against The Elements: Tham Luang Cave Rescue, a documentary with exclusive interviews produced by Channel News Asia in Singapore.

 * 2018: Thai Cave Rescue, an episode of science television series Nova (season 45, episode 14).

 * 2019: The Cave, a feature film written and directed by Thai-Irish filmmaker Tom Waller. It features many of the real-life cave divers as themselves.

 * 2021: The Rescue, a National Geographic documentary released on 8 October 2021. The film made use of body-cam footage recorded by the divers involved in the operation.

 * 2022: Thirteen Lives is a 2022 American biographical survival film based on the Tham Luang cave rescue directed and produced by Ron Howard, from a screenplay written by William Nicholson. The film stars Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton, and Tom Bateman. Royal Thai Navy SEALs, led by Captain Arnont, arrive to search for the missing boys, but find the dive too difficult to locate the team. Vernon Unsworth, a local British caver, shares his extensive knowledge of the complex and dangerous cave and suggests the authorities get in touch with the British Cave Rescue Council. British cavers Rick Stanton and John Volanthen attempt the dive, finding the boys and coach four kilometres from the entrance. In an attempt to deliver wetsuits to the boys in preparation for the rescue, former Thai Navy Seal Saman Kunan drowns.

 * 2022: Thai Cave Rescue, a Netflix limited series was released on September 22, 2022. It is the only dramatic production that was granted access to the members of the Wild Boars soccer team.

 * 2022: The Trapped 13: How We Survived The Thai Cave, a Netflix documentary will release on October 5, 2022. The documentary features interviews with selected members of the Wild Boars team.


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Without Face

Without Face were one of the most famous internationally known Hungarian progressive metal bands. They were formed in the city of Veszprém, Hungary in 1997. The band featured a dual female and male vocal line-up similar to that of gothic metal, with progressive metal and thrash metal overtones and they managed to mix these different styles in a very original own version. Their lyrics are influenced by the writings of H. P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

In 1998, Without Face recorded its first self-titled demo Without Face. Constant touring and the demo resulted in a deal for their first album Deep Inside with Hammer Music Productions, in 2000. Without Face also appeared on a number of the label's metal music compilations. Their first album was subsequently re-released in the United States by the Dark Symphonies Records label.

The band were approached by English producer Lee Barrett, from Elitist - Earache Records for a four-album deal and worldwide release in 2002. A full-length album, Astronomicon was released in late 2002 and received favourable reviews from the metal music press. It was awarded "Album of the Month" in the English music magazine Metal Hammer. They eventually split up and finished their career in 2008.

Members

 * Andras Szabo - male vocals
 * Nori Pádár - female vocals
 * Zsolt Horváth (Roomy) - guitar
 * Szilard Sárik (Sasza) - keyboard
 * Gergo Maros - bass guitar
 * Peter Sütõ - drums

Without Face have gone through several line-up changes. Péter Márton (bass guitar), Anett Balássi (vocals), Péter "Incho" Inotai (guitars), Kyrah Németh (keyboards), and Bertalan Temesi (bass guitar), were all original members who left in 2000 and 2001. Juliette Kiss, who replaced Anett on vocals, has since left to form UK band To-Mera. Andras Szabo, one of the original vocalists and forming member of the band, departed in 2006, and has since joined ex-Sutcliffe guitarist Tommy's new project Lunatic Asylum, with ex-To-Mera drummer Akos.

Discography

 * (Men) Without Face (1998) demo recording
 * Deep Inside (2000)
 * Astronomicon (2002)

title: Without Face


text:
Dave Brindle

David Brindle is a Canadian broadcast journalist and producer.

An anchor for CBC Radio and Television, and CBC Newsworld in the 1980s and 1990s, he was Canada's first television personality to publicly acknowledge that he was HIV-positive.

title: Dave Brindle


text:
Carmen Delia Dipini

Carmen Delia Dipiní (November 18, 1927 – August 4, 1998), was a Puerto Rican singer of boleros. In 2002, Carmen Delia Dipiní was inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame.

Early years
Dipiní was born in Naguabo, Puerto Rico to Justo Dipiní Castro and Concepción Piñero Medina. Dipiní often entertained her family and friends as a child with her singing. She attended the Eugenio Brac Elementary School where one of the teachers, Mrs. Brenes, realized that Dipiní was talented as a singer and encouraged the 7-year-old student to become a singer. In 1941, when she was 14 years old, Dipiní went with her parents to San Juan with the intention of participating in a radio talent show. As a result, she would make her radio singing debut on the radio program of Rafael Quiñones Vidal.

Music career
In 1948, Dipiní, who had befriended fellow Puerto Rican singer Ruth Fernández, left for New York City at her friend's recommendation. While in New York, she participated and won the first place prize in a talent show held at the Triboro Theater. Part of the prize was a singing contract with Johnny Albino y El Trío San Juan and she would go on to record her first hit El Día que nací yo (The Day I was Born) with the trio.

While in New York she worked in various theaters and nightclubs. She received an offer from another recording company, Seeco Records, and recorded a tango titled Besos de Fuego (Kisses of Fire) which earned her international acclaim. She later joined Johnny Rodríguez's band, for whom she sang and recorded the following songs:
 * Fichas Negras (Black Chips);
 * Son Amores (Loves);
 * Dímelo (Tell Me);
 * Experiencia (Experience);
 * Si No Vuelves (If You Don't Return);
 * No Es Venganza (It's Not Vengeance).

She had many fans in places as far as Venezuela and Mexico. Dipiní lived in Mexico for seven years and was contracted by both Columbia Records and RCA-Victor Records. One of her "hits" with RCA was Especialmente para Ti (Especially for You). Dipini recorded with the Cuban and Afro-Cuban group Sonora Matancera in Havana, Cuba for a short time.

Later years
When she returned to Puerto Rico, she joined Tito Rodríguez and later recorded Somos el Prójimo, the Hispanic version of We Are The World. She also recorded a tribute to Sylvia Rexach with the quartet Los Hispanos. Among her last recordings were the songs Amor Perdido (Lost Love) and Congoja (Anguish). She had made over thirty albums in her lifetime.

Carmen Delia Dipiní died on August 4, 1998, and is buried in the Braulio Dueño Colón Cemetery in Bayamón. The city of Bayamón dedicated an artistic center to Dipiní named Café Teatro Carmen Delia Dipiní. In 2002, Carmen Delia Dipiní was inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame.

title: Carmen Delia Dipini


text:
File:NightWiesel.jpg

Night by Elie Wiesel

title: File:NightWiesel.jpg


text:
Polybutadiene acrylonitrile

Polybutadiene acrylonitrile (PBAN) copolymer, also noted as polybutadiene—acrylic acid—acrylonitrile terpolymer is a copolymer compound used most frequently as a rocket propellant fuel mixed with ammonium perchlorate oxidizer. It was the binder formulation widely used on the 1960s–1970s big boosters (e.g., Titan III and Space Shuttle SRBs). It is also notably used in NASA's Space Launch System, likely reusing the design from its Space Shuttle counterpart.

Polybutadiene acrylonitrile is also sometimes used by amateurs due to simplicity, very low cost, and lower toxicity than the more common hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB). HTPB uses isocyanates for curing, which have a relatively quick curing time; however, they are also generally toxic. PBAN based composite propellants also have a slightly higher performance than HTPB based propellants. PBAN is normally cured with the addition of an epoxy resin, taking several days at elevated temperatures to cure.

Usages
PBAN was to be used in the Constellation program, later canceled, as this copolymer was to be used in the first stage of the Ares I rocket in five segments. However future versions of Ares I were discussed using liquid propellants as a potential alternative. PBAN is currently used in the solid rocket boosters on the SLS rocket.

title: Polybutadiene acrylonitrile


text:
Army of the James

The Army of the James was a Union Army that was composed of units from the Department of Virginia and North Carolina and served along the James River during the final operations of the American Civil War in Virginia.

History
The Union Departments of Virginia and North Carolina merged in 1863. Troops from these departments formed the XVIII Corps. In April 1864 the X Corps was transferred from the Department of the South and the two corps formed the Army of the James. Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler was placed in command.

During Lt. Gen. Ulysses Grant's Overland Campaign in 1864, Butler made several unsuccessful attempts at Petersburg and Richmond. At the Battle of Cold Harbor the XVIII Corps was sent to act under the Army of the Potomac. The XVIII Corps also participated in the Siege of Petersburg. During the siege the Army of the James was mainly involved in the investment of Richmond.

Butler's only major success as commander of the army was in September 1864 at the Battle of Chaffin's Farm, in which the army took a significant portion of the Confederate works guarding Richmond, including Fort Harrison. In December the army was reorganized and the XVIII and X Corps were for the time discontinued. All the black troops in the army were formed into the XXV Corps and the white troops into the XXIV Corps and the Departments of Virginia and North Carolina were separated. Units from the former XVIII Corps and X Corps were formed into the "Fort Fisher Expeditionary Corps" and sailed to Fort Fisher. Butler used his position as department commander to assume personal command of the expedition, but after his failure at the First Battle of Fort Fisher, Grant took the opportunity to relieve Butler of command. Maj. Gen. Edward Ord was placed in command of the Army of the James.

Under Ord's leadership the Army of the James was to achieve its greatest success. The XXIV Corps participated in the final assaults on Petersburg, while the XXV Corps was the first unit to enter the fallen city of Richmond. Ord and the XXIV Corps followed the Confederates to Appomattox Court House where they cut off Robert E. Lee's escape route. The Army of the James was present at the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia.

Command history

 * Major General Benjamin F. Butler (April 28, 1864 – January 8, 1865)
 * Major General Edward Ord (January 8, 1865 – August 1, 1865)

Major battles and campaigns

 * Bermuda Hundred Campaign
 * Battle of Cold Harbor (Only the XVIII Corps was involved from the Army of the James)
 * Siege of Petersburg
 * Siege of Richmond
 * Battle of Chaffin's Farm
 * First Battle of Fort Fisher
 * Second Battle of Fort Fisher
 * Battle of Wilmington
 * Fall of Petersburg
 * Fall of Richmond (Only the XXV Corps was involved from the Army of the James)
 * Appomattox Campaign

title: Army of the James


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Hennie de Bruin

 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. Joyous 02:33, Feb 14, 2005 (UTC)

Hennie de Bruin
Wikipedia is not an obituary. Hate to be Callous, but this name proved to common to find out any notability of this character via Google, so I'm guessing its an "in memory" contribution. Sweet, but not encyclopedic.--ZayZayEM 06:46, 4 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete, I'm sorry he's dead, but Wikipedia isn't a memorial. Mgm|(talk) 09:42, Feb 4, 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. As Macgyver said. Average Earthman 13:09, 4 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete as memorial. Wyss 23:09, 5 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: Talk:Léonce Bernard

title: Talk:Léonce Bernard


text:
Saladin tithe

The Saladin tithe, or the Aid of 1188, was a tax (more specifically a tallage) levied in England and, to some extent, France, in 1188, in response to the capture of Jerusalem by Saladin in 1187.

Background
In July 1187, the Kingdom of Jerusalem's army was defeated by Saladin at the Battle of Hattin; in October, Saladin captured Jerusalem itself. When news of the city's capture reached Europe by the end of the year, a new crusade was promulgated. In January 1188, Henry II of England and Philip II of France discussed the crusade at Le Mans, with Joscius, Archbishop of Tyre in attendance; on February 11, Henry began to organize the preaching of the crusade in England at Geddington. There he also discussed the "Saladin tithe."

Collection of the tithe
The Saladin tithe was a literal tithe of 10% on revenues and movable properties. The tithe was assessed by dioceses, rather than by shires, and local sheriffs had no role in the collection of the tithe. The money was collected instead by the local priest or bishop, the dean of the local church, the local baron, and a sergeant of the king, as well as, notably, a Knight Templar and a Knight Hospitaller, whose orders were especially concerned with the defense of the Holy Land. Assessments were made by oaths in rural areas, and by a jury in urban areas. Certain items were exempt from assessment:

"This year each man shall give in alms a tenth of his revenues and movables with the exception of the arms, horses and garments of the knights, and likewise with the exception of the horses, books, garments and vestments, and all appurtenances of whatever sort used by clerks in divine service, and the precious stones belonging to both clerks and laymen."

Anyone who joined the crusade was exempt from the tithe altogether. This was meant to encourage participation, and many did indeed join in order to avoid the tallage. All other landowners, both clerics and laymen, had to pay the tithe; if anyone disagreed with the assessment of their property, they were imprisoned or excommunicated. While taxes were usually collected by the Exchequer, a separate office with ten tellers was set up to collect the tithe in Salisbury.

According to Gervase of Canterbury, £70,000 was collected from Christians, and another £60,000 was collected from Jews. The amount collected from Jews was more likely £10,000, with another £2,000 collected in 1190. (£82k ≈ £150m 2016 ). At the time, this was the largest-ever tax collected in England, although Henry had previously levied other taxes for assistance to the Holy Land, in 1166 and 1185. The tithe was extremely unpopular, despite the general acknowledgement that it was, at least in English eyes, for a worthy cause. Because assessments were made by dioceses, Baldwin of Exeter, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was especially blamed. He spent most of the year (perhaps wisely) in Wales, preaching the crusade, accompanied by the chronicler Giraldus Cambrensis.

The same tithe was levied in France, but Philip did not have the same centralized government there, and faced much opposition which he could not control. The tithe was also levied less successfully in England's territories in France. Henry suggested that William the Lion levy the tithe in Scotland, but William refused, as English power did not yet extend so far north as to force the tithe upon the Scots.

Aftermath
In the end, Henry never went on crusade. In 1189, he was involved in a war with Philip and his own son Richard the Lionheart, and was accused of spending the tithe on provisions for this war. Henry died later in the year before the crusade was underway; according to Girardus, this was divine punishment for such a harsh tithe. Richard succeeded him and found the treasury full, although he collected even more money by selling land and imposing various fines throughout England. Altogether, Henry and Richard succeeded in raising 100,000 silver marks with the Saladin tithe.

The subsequent Third Crusade helped capture the Mediterranean coast for the remnant of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, but King Richard could not conquer Jerusalem. On his return home he was taken hostage by Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor. In 1194, another massive tax was imposed on England in order to raise his ransom money. It was essentially a repeat of the Saladin tithe of 1188, but in this case the tax was set at the much higher rate of 25%. The same organizational structure and machinery of collection was used to raise money for King John's wars in France in 1207.

title: Saladin tithe


text:
Carla Robinson

Carla Robinson (born 23 January 1971 in Kitimat, British Columbia) is a Canadian television journalist for CBC Newsworld.

Early life and education
Robinson was born in Kitimat (also spelled Kitamaat). She lived briefly on her mother's reserve in Bella Bella, British Columbia, but returned to Kitamaat at age six. She is a member of the Haisla and Heiltsuk First Nations.

Robinson earned an honours degree in mass communications from Carleton University in 1995, and a master's degree in journalism from the University of Western Ontario in 1996.

Career
At age sixteen Robinson began her journalism career by writing articles for The Northern Sentinel Press. She has also written for Aboriginal Voices, The Rez, and Dreamspeaker. She previously reported for BCTV News and hosted the program Pressure Point on Rogers Television in Vancouver.

From August 1998 to March 2013, Robinson anchored evening news broadcasts for CBC. She also hosted a weekly edition of Absolutely Canadian devoted to First Nations news. In 2004 Robinson replaced Knowlton Nash as the host of CBC's educational series News in Review. In 2013, she hosted the biography series "All Our Relations," aired on APTN.

She has worked for the Canadian government (in the Ministry of Indian and Northern Affairs), and has taught students in the Junior Achievement Stay in School program.

She presently holds title of founder and president of Carla Robinson Media Productions.

Family
Robinson has two children: Sam Robinson and Leenah Robinson. Her sister, Eden Robinson, is a noted Canadian writer.

title: Carla Robinson


text: User talk:137.163.21.50

title: User talk:137.163.21.50


text: User talk:83.27.212.25

title: User talk:83.27.212.25


text:
Liberty Counsel

Liberty Counsel is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt religious liberty organization that engages in litigation related to evangelical Christian values. Liberty Counsel was founded in 1989 by its chairman Mathew Staver and its president Anita L. Staver, who are attorneys and married to each other. The Southern Poverty Law Center has listed Liberty Counsel as an anti-LGBT hate group, a designation the group has disputed. The group is a Christian ministry.

History
Liberty Counsel started as a religious liberty organization that focused its litigation efforts on freedom of speech cases. The organization used freedom of speech arguments instead of religious free exercise claims in its cases. In addition to litigation, Liberty Counsel saw education of its members and public officials regarding religious rights as a goal.

Positions and responses
In 1990, Liberty Counsel supported a change in public library rules which had excluded religious and political events from library meeting rooms until the ACLU met with a library official.

In 1998, Liberty Counsel was part of a coalition of organizations that backed a state-level "Religious Freedom Restoration Act" in Florida; others supporting the bill were the ACLU, Florida Family Counsel, Aleph Institute and Justice Fellowship.

In 2009, a Liberty Counsel attorney from its Tennessee office worked with city commissioners to draft an ordinance limiting the permitted locations for adult bookstores and similar establishments.

In 2011, the organization expressed that defining "personhood" as beginning at conception was a path to barring abortion.

Liberty Counsel opposed the repeal of the U.S. military's former policy "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" that banned personnel from openly identifying as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. The group opposes the addition of sexual orientation, gender identity, or similar provisions to hate crimes legislation, including the anti-lynching bill passed unanimously by the Senate in 2018. The group issued a statement, saying that an "anti-lynching bill should apply to everyone". It also opposes same-sex marriage and same-sex civil unions.

Liberty Counsel has been listed as an anti-gay group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). In 2015, SPLC listed the group as a hate group, in part because Liberty Counsel opposes LGBT participation in scouting and because Liberty Counsel's leadership implicitly compared gay men to pedophiles. Liberty Counsel has challenged that SPLC's designation and the Associated Press's reporting thereof. Fox News referred to that designation as a "smear".

In 2017, Liberty Counsel sued GuideStar USA, Inc., an information service specializing in U.S. nonprofit ratings, for flagging Liberty Counsel as having been labeled a hate group by the SPLC. In 2018, a Virginia federal judge dismissed Liberty Counsel's suit, ruling that GuideStar's "expressive right to comment on social issues" was protected by the First Amendment. The SPLC was not named in the lawsuit. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit rejected Liberty Counsel's appeal. GuideStar removed the SPLC annotations from the entries for Liberty Counsel and 45 other organizations shortly after adding them, citing "harassment and threats directed at our staff and leadership" and "our commitment to objectivity and our concerns for our staff's wellbeing."

In 2020, Liberty Counsel launched "ReOpen Church Sunday" to encourage Christian leaders in the United States to hold in-person services on the first weekend of May. On-site religious services had stopped in some locations due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Activities
Orlando Magic general manager Pat Williams was the scheduled keynote speaker for the organization's kick off banquet in 1990.

In 2000, Liberty Counsel threatened legal action against a public library in Jacksonville, Florida after the library held a party that featured readings from Harry Potter books and distributed "Hogwarts' Certificate of Accomplishment" to the children who attended. Staver said, "Witchcraft is a religion, and the certificate of witchcraft endorsed a particular religion in violation of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause."

Liberty Counsel sponsors an annual "Day of Purity" campaign where youth wear white T-shirts to show their commitment to sexual abstinence until marriage.

In December 2005, Liberty Counsel issued a press release accusing an elementary school in Dodgeville, Wisconsin, of changing the lyrics of Christmas songs to make them more secular, and said that it would sue the school district "if the district does not immediately remedy the situation." The school was putting on the play "The Little Tree's Christmas Gift", written by Dwight Elrich, a former church choir director. Liberty Counsel represented a parent who objected to using secular lyrics to the tune of Silent Night. The Dodgeville school district sought a retraction and an apology from Liberty Counsel, as well as reimbursement of $20,000 spent in personnel, security, and attorney fees to fight the accusation. Liberty Counsel's Staver refused, asserting, "There is nothing to apologize for or retract."

When a Deltona, Florida city hall Black History Month display intended to include only memorabilia provided by city employees removed religiously-themed paintings by Lloyd Marcus, Liberty Counsel sued. The city opened up the display to material provided by citizens, including Marcus, while saying that this change was not occasioned by the suit.

In November 2015, a Wisconsin school cancelled plans to read the book I am Jazz, by Jessica Herthel and transgender teen Jazz Jennings, after Liberty Counsel threatened a lawsuit. The planned reading had been to help the students comprehend what one of their fellow students was going through and to give her support. In response to the cancellation, a public reading of the book was held at the local library the following month, an event that drew an attendance of almost 600 people. This led to similar reading events held in dozens of public schools, churches, community centers, and libraries in eight states on January 14, 2016, and then the recurring annual event "Jazz & Friends", backed by the National Educational Association and the Human Rights Campaign.

In March, 2020, Liberty Counsel defended a Florida megachurch pastor who was arrested for "unlawful assembly" after holding church services in violation of a public health emergency order. Charges against the pastor were later dropped after Florida Governor DeSantis declared churches an essential activity.

Liberty Counsel engaged in attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election in favor of Donald Trump after the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol. In an email about the event, Chairman Staver characterized the rioting crowd as "concerned marchers." Staver also wrote that Liberty Counsel condemns the violence that broke out.

In March 2021, the organization wrote a letter to the Dean of the Louisiana State University School of Dentistry, Robert Laughlin, denouncing his mandate that all dentistry students receive a vaccine for COVID19, and calling the mandate a violation of religious liberties. This campaign resulted in LSU revising the vaccine mandate.

Loyola University refused to grant exemptions to students from its vaccine mandate, but reversed course after Liberty Counsel threatened a lawsuit.

Lawsuits
In 1993, Liberty Counsel sued the Orlando airport over a literature distribution policy that required proof of liability insurance. The court granted the couple who sought to distribute religious literature a 10-day restraining order allowing them to distribute their material, but refused to extend it beyond the date originally requested. The attorney for the airport said that the couple had not completed the form needed to distribute literature, and that homeowners could generally get the needed insurance for $10. After the couple filed an appeal, the airport stopped requiring those who want to pass out literature to obtain a $100,000 insurance policy and changed what information was placed on badges that such distributors were required to wear.

Liberty Counsel filed a federal lawsuit challenging a 1993 injunction restricting protests near an abortion facility. Liberty Counsel represented the plaintiffs challenging the injunction, which barred protesters from interfering with those entering or exiting an abortion facility within a 36-foot buffer zone. The Florida Supreme Court upheld the injunction but a federal appeals court stuck down the injunction. The case, Madsen v. Women's Health Center, Inc. reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 1994 upheld part of the injunction prohibiting protests within 36 feet of the facility and making loud noises, while invalidating the part of the injunction that placed a 300-foot ban on approaching patients or the homes of facility staff, finding that this was too restrictive. The Court ruled 6-3 striking down the 300-foot zone around people going in and out of the clinic and striking down the prohibition against images "observable" from inside the clinic. The court upheld the 36-foot buffer zone. An audio recording of the case was made by the Supreme Court.

In 2000, the group represented eight absentee voters in a lawsuit over recounting ballots for the presidential election.

In Lawrence v. Texas (2003), the group submitted an amicus curiae brief urging the Supreme Court to uphold a Texas statute that criminalized homosexual sodomy.

The Supreme Court agreed to take a case in 2004 regarding displays of Ten Commandments on government property. Liberty Counsel represented Kentucky counties that posted copies in courthouses.

Liberty Counsel represented Dixie County, Florida against the American Civil Liberties Union in a 2007 lawsuit involving a Ten Commandments monument.

In 2010, Liberty Counsel filed a lawsuit against Obamacare but the Supreme Court declined to take the case. In 2012, the High Court ordered an appeals court to reconsider the case.

After New York enacted the Marriage Equality Act, legalizing same-sex marriage in New York, in 2011, Liberty Counsel sued, seeking to invalidate the law. The New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, rejected Liberty Counsel's claim, and in 2012, the state's highest court declined to hear a further appeal.

In 2012, Liberty Counsel unsuccessfully maintained a case at the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia on behalf of Liberty University against the Affordable Care Act. On July 12, 2013, the appeals court upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act over Liberty's arguments against the "employer mandate."

In the case of Miller v. Davis, Liberty Counsel represented Rowan County (Kentucky) Clerk Kim Davis, an Apostolic Christian who in 2015, stopped issuing marriage licenses after the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have the right to marry. She lost an earlier ruling in 2015 and in 2016, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed an injunction against her at the request of Liberty Counsel after a new Kentucky law was passed that made the case moot. At the same time, they refused to vacate a contempt decree against her. Liberty Counsel filed for a stay pending appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case. The case was dismissed as moot on April 19, 2016.

Liberty Counsel also represented former Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis who has fought issuing any marriage licenses because she did not want to issue licenses to same-sex couples based on her religious objection. The case was petitioned before the U.S. Supreme Court, which denied certiorari in October 2020. The issue before the Court was her qualified immunity defense.

After a Massachusetts public library denied Liberty Counsel's requests in 2013 and 2014 to use a meeting room for prayer, singing hymns and presenting Christian ideas, the group sued. The library then changed its policy to allowed religious and political viewpoints.

In 2021, a federal appeals court ruled in favor of Liberty Counsel's client, Jackson County, Indiana, by upholding a Christmas display including a Nativity scene in front of a county building. After the Freedom From Religion Foundation demanded that Jackson County remove the Nativity scene, the ACLU filed suit on behalf of a taxpayer. The ACLU won in the lower court, but was reversed on appeal.

In May 2021, California Governor Gavin Newsom agreed to pay $1,350,000 to Liberty Counsel for attorneys fees and costs in a case brought on behalf of Harvest Rock Church and Harvest Rock International Ministries. The settlement includes a statewide injunction against California's COVID-19 restrictions on places of worship.

In late 2021, Liberty Counsel filed suit in Florida on behalf of members of the U.S. military who had religious objections to taking COVID-19 vaccinations. The lawsuit claims that military rules permitted medical exemptions but not religious exemptions violates the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

On May 2, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous 9-0 decision in favor of Liberty Counsel's client that had been prevented from flying a Christian flag in Boston. The Court held that the city violated the constitution by approving 284 applications to use its flagpole in the city plaza, but refusing to allow a Christian group to fly its flag. Although Boston contended that the flags were "government speech" and not private speech protected by the First Amendment, the Supreme Court disagreed.

List of U.S. Supreme Court cases:

 * Madsen v. Women's Health Center, Inc.,
 * McCreary County v. American Civil Liberties Union,
 * Mountain Right to Life v Becerra, 138 S.Ct. 2702 (2018)
 * Shurtleff v. City of Boston, 142 S.Ct. 1583 (2022)

Founder
Liberty Counsel's founder, Mathew Staver, was dean of Liberty University School of Law for eight-and-a-half years. He worked to start the school with Jerry Falwell, Sr.

Related organizations
Liberty Counsel currently or previously had interlocking boards with other organizations.
 * Luke 1827 Foundation Inc.
 * Liberty Counsel Action (FL)
 * Liberty Counsel Action (VA)
 * Freedom Federation Inc.
 * Liberty Action PAC Inc.
 * Liberty Mission Trust
 * Liberty Action Mission Trust
 * Freedom Mission Trust
 * Salt and Light Council

Publications

 * Judicial Tyranny - The Faith & Freedom Series - ISBN 0-9662079-1-2
 * Eternal Vigilance - Knowing and Protecting Your Religious Freedom - ISBN 0-8054-4000-3
 * Faith and Freedom: A Complete Handbook for Defending Your Religious Rights - ISBN 0891078355
 * Religious Expression in the Public Schools - ISBN 0966207955
 * Same-Sex Marriage - Putting Every Household at Risk - ISBN 0-8054-3196-9
 * Take Back America - ISBN 0966207971

title: Liberty Counsel


text:
June Jordan

June Millicent Jordan (July 9, 1936 – June 14, 2002) was an American poet, essayist, teacher, and activist. In her writing she explored issues of gender, race, immigration, and representation.

Jordan was passionate about using Black English in her writing and poetry, teaching others to treat it as its own language and an important outlet for expressing Black culture. Jordan was inducted on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor within the Stonewall National Monument in 2019.

Early life
Jordan was born in 1936 in Harlem, New York, as the only child of Granville Ivanhoe Jordan and Mildred Maude Fisher, immigrants from Jamaica and Panama. Her father was a postal worker for the USPS and her mother was a part-time nurse. When Jordan was five, the family moved to the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, New York. Jordan credits her father with passing on his love of literature, and she began writing her own poetry at the age of seven.

Jordan describes the complexities of her early childhood in her 2000 memoir, Soldier: A Poet's Childhood. She explores her complicated relationship with her father, who encouraged her to read broadly and memorize passages of classical texts, but who would also beat her for the slightest misstep and call her "damn black devil child." In her 1986 essay "For My American Family", Jordan explores the many conflicts in growing up as the child of Jamaican immigrant parents, whose visions of their daughter's future far exceeded the urban ghettos of her present. Jordan's mother died by suicide. Jordan recalls her father telling her: "There was a war against colored people, I had to become a soldier."

Jordan's education began in the New York City public school system, "beginning her studies at P.S. 26 elementary school." Jordan attended Brooklyn's Midwood High School for a year, beginning at age 12, before enrolling in Northfield Mount Hermon School, an elite preparatory school in New England. Both Midwood and Northfield had primarily white student bodies. Throughout her education, Jordan became "completely immersed in a white universe" by attending predominantly white schools; however, she was also able to construct and develop her identity as a black American and a writer. In 1953, Jordan graduated from high school and enrolled at Barnard College in New York City.

Jordan later expressed how she felt about Barnard College in her 1981 book of essays Civil Wars, writing:

"No one ever presented me with a single Black author, poet, historian, personage, or idea for that matter. Nor was I ever assigned a single woman to study as a thinker, or writer, or poet, or life force. Nothing that I learned, here, lessened my feeling of pain or confusion and bitterness as related to my origins: my street, my family, my friends. Nothing showed me how I might try to alter the political and economic realities underlying our Black condition in white America."

Due to this disconnect with the predominantly male, white curriculum, Jordan left Barnard without graduating. June Jordan emerged as a poet and political activist when black female authors were beginning to be heard.

Personal life
At Barnard College, when she was 19, Jordan met Columbia University student Michael Meyer, whom she married in 1955. She subsequently followed her husband to the University of Chicago, where she pursued graduate studies in anthropology. She also enrolled at the university but soon returned to Barnard, where she remained until 1957. In 1958, Jordan gave birth to the couple's only child, Christopher David Meyer. The couple divorced in 1965, and Jordan raised her son alone.

After the Harlem Riots of 1964, Jordan found that she was, in her words, "filled with hatred for everything and everyone white." She wrote:

"... it came to me that this condition, if it lasted, would mean that I had lost the point: not to resemble my enemies, not to dwarf my world, not to lose my willingness and ability to love."

From that time on, Jordan wrote with love. She also identified as bisexual in her writing, which she refused to deny, even when this status was stigmatized.

Career
Jordan's first published book, Who Look at Me (1969), was a collection of poems for children. It was followed by 27 more books in her lifetime, and one (Some of Us Did Not Die: Collected and New Essays) that was in press when she died. Two more have been published posthumously: Directed By Desire: The Collected Poems of June Jordan (Copper Canyon Press, 2005), and the 1970 poetry anthology SoulScript, edited by Jordan, has been reissued.

She was also an essayist, columnist for The Progressive, novelist, biographer, and librettist for the musical/opera I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky, composed by John Adams and produced by Peter Sellars. When asked about the writing process for the libretto of the opera, Jordan said:

"The composer, John [Adams], said he needed to have the whole libretto before he could begin, so I just sat down last spring and wrote it in six weeks, I mean, that's all I did. I didn't do laundry, anything. I put myself into it 100 percent. What I gave to John and Peter [Sellars] is basically what Scribner's has published now."

After the 1964 riots, Jordan collaborated with architect and public speaker Buckminster Fuller to draft a proposal for "Skyrise for Harlem", a redesign of the Harlem area including 15 conical towers to house 250,000-500,000 Harlem residents, to be placed over existing buildings to provide a better environment for Harlem residents, including larger rooms and communal space. Jordan intended this as a way to help residents and allow them to imagine as well. However, their article, published in the April 1965 issue of Esquire, would have its original title "Skyrise for Harlem" changed to "Instant Slum Clearance", and would never be developed. Jordan later expressed her frustrations with the magazine in her book Civil Wars.

Jordan began her teaching career in 1967 at the City College of New York. Between 1968 and 1978 she taught at Yale University, Sarah Lawrence College, and Connecticut College. She became the director of The Poetry Center at SUNY at Stony Brook and was an English professor there from 1978 to 1989. From 1989 to 2002 she was a full professor in the departments of English, Women's Studies, and African American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

Jordan was known as "the Poet of the People". At Berkeley, she founded the "Poetry for the People" program in 1991. Its aim was to inspire and empower students to use poetry as a means of artistic expression. Reflecting on how she began with the concept of the program, Jordan said:

"I did not wake up one morning ablaze with a coherent vision of Poetry for the People! The natural intermingling of my ideas and my observations as an educator, a poet, and the African-American daughter of poorly documented immigrants did not lead me to any limiting ideological perspectives or resolve. Poetry for the People is the arduous and happy outcome of practical, day-by-day, classroom failure and success."

Jordan composed three guideline points that embodied the program, which was published with a set of her students' writings in 1995, entitled June Jordan's Poetry for the People: A Revolutionary Blueprint. She was not only a political activist and a poet, but she wrote children's books as well.

Literary topics and influences
Jordan felt strongly about using Black English as a legitimate expression of her culture, and she encouraged young black writers to use that idiom in their writing. She continued to influence young writers with her own published poetry, such as her collections, Dry Victories (1972), New Life (1975), and Kimako's Story (1981).

Jordan was dedicated to respecting Black English (AAVE) and its usage (Jordan 1). In her piece "Nobody Mean More to Me Than You and the Future Life of Willie Jordan," Jordan criticizes the world's quickness to degrade the usage of Black English, or any other form considered less than "standard". She denounced "white English" as standard English, saying that in stark contrast to other countries, where students are allowed to learn in their tribal language, "compulsory education in America compels accommodation to exclusively White forms of 'English.' White English, in America, is 'Standard English.'" "Nobody Mean More to Me Than You and the Future Life of Willie Jordan" opens On Call (1985), a collection of her essays.

Jordan tells the story of working with her students to see the structure that exists within Black English, and respect it as its own language rather than a broken version of another language. Black English was spoken by most of the African-American students in her classes but was never understood as its own language. She presented it to them for the first time in a professional setting where they ordinarily expected work in English to be structured by "white standards." From this lesson, the students created guidelines for Black English.

Jordan's commitment to preserve Black English was evident in her work. She wrote: "There are three qualities of Black English— the presence of life, voice, and clarity—that intensify to a distinctive Black value system that we became excited about and self-consciously tried to maintain."

In addition to her writing for young writers and children, Jordan dealt with complex issues in the political arena. She engaged topics "like race, class, sexuality, capitalism, single motherhood, and liberation struggles across the globe." Passionate about feminist and Black issues, Jordan "spent her life stitching together the personal and political so the seams didn't show." Her poetry, essays, plays, journalism, and children's literature integrated these issues with her own experience, offering commentary that was both insightful and instructive. Her essay "Declaration of an Independence I Would Just As Soon Not Have" was included in the 1992 anthology Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby.

When asked about the role of the poet in society in an interview before her death, Jordan replied: "The role of the poet, beginning with my own childhood experience, is to deserve the trust of people who know that what you do is work with words."

"Report from the Bahamas"
In her 1982 classic personal essay "Report from the Bahamas," Jordan reflects on her travel experiences, various interactions, and encounters while in The Bahamas. Writing in narrative form, she discusses the possibilities and difficulties of coalition and self-identification based on race, class, and gender identity. Although not widely recognized when first published in 1982, this essay has become central to women's and gender studies, sociology, and anthropology in the United States. Jordan reveals several issues and important terms regarding race, class, and gender identity.

Privilege
Jordan repeatedly grapples with the issue of privilege in both her poems and essays, emphasizing the term when discussing issues of race, class, and gender identity. She refuses to privilege oppressors who are similar to or more like certain people than other oppressors might be. She says there should be no thought of privilege because all oppression and oppressors should be viewed equally.

Her writing in solidarity with Palestinians points to the difficult complicity of the US tax-payer. She visited the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps in Lebanon after the massacres there, writing of this visit “Yes I did know it was the money I earned as a poet that/paid/for the bombs and the planes and the tanks/that they used to massacre your family. . . I’m sorry. I really am sorry” (1985, 106).

Concepts of race, class, and gender
"[In 'Report from the Bahamas'] Jordan describes the challenges of translating languages of gender, sexuality, and blackness across diasporic space, through the story of a brief vacation in the Bahamas." Vacationing in the Bahamas, Jordan finds that the shared oppression under race, class, and gender is not a sufficient basis for solidarity. She notes:

"'These factors of race and class and gender collapse.. .whenever you try to use them as automatic concepts of connection.' They may serve well as indicators of commonly felt conflict. Still, as elements of connection, they seem about as reliable as precipitation probability for the day after the night before the day."

As Jordan reflects on her interactions with a series of black Bahamian women, from the hotel maid "Olive" to the old women street sellers hawking trinkets, she writes:

"I notice the fixed relations between these other Black women and myself. They sell, and I buy, or I don't. They risk not eating. I risk going broke on my first vacation afternoon. We are not particularly women anymore; we are parties to a transaction designed to set us against each other. (41)"

Focusing on her trip's reflections with examples of her role as a teacher advising students, Jordan details how her expectations are constantly surprising. For instance, she recounts how an Irish woman graduate student with a Bobby Sands bumper sticker on her car provided much-needed assistance to a South African student who was suffering from domestic violence. Such compassion was at odds with Jordan's experience in her neighborhood of being terrorized by ethnic Irish teenagers hurling racial epithets.

Jordan's concluding lines emphasize the imperative to forge connection actively rather than assuming it based on shared histories: "I am saying that the ultimate connection cannot be the enemy. The ultimate connection must be the need that we find between us ... I must make the connection real between these strangers and me everywhere before those other clouds unify this ragged bunch of us, too late."

Common identity vs. individual identity
Jordan explores that, as human beings, we possess two very contrasting identities. The first is the common identity, which is the one that has been imposed on us by a long history of societal standards, controlling images, pressure, a variety of stereotypes, and stratification. The second identity is the individual identity that we have chosen once we are given the chance and feel are ready to expose our true selves.

Death and legacy
Jordan died of breast cancer at her home in Berkeley, California, on June 14, 2002, aged 65. Shortly before her death, she completed Some of Us Did Not Die, her seventh collection of political essays (and 27th book). It was published posthumously. In it she describes how her early marriage to a white student while at Barnard College immersed her in the racial turmoil of America in the 1950s, and set her on the path of social activism.

In 2004, the June Jordan School for Equity (formerly known as the Small School for Equity) in San Francisco was named after her by its first ninth grade class. They selected her through a democratic process of research, debate, and voting. A conference room was named for her in the University of California, Berkeley's Eshleman Hall, which is used by the Associated Students of the University of California.

In June 2019, Jordan was one of the inaugural fifty American "pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes" inducted on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor within the Stonewall National Monument (SNM) in New York City's Stonewall Inn. The SNM is the first U.S. national monument dedicated to LGBTQ rights and history, and the wall’s unveiling was timed to take place during the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.

Honors and awards
Jordan received numerous honors and awards, including a 1969–70 Rockefeller grant for creative writing; An American Academy in Rome Environmental Design Prize in 1970; a New York Council of the Humanities Award in 1979; a Creative Arts Public Service grant in 1978; a Yaddo Fellowship in 1979; a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in 1982; the Achievement Award for International Reporting from the National Association of Black Journalists in 1984; a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in 1985; a Massachusetts Council on the Arts Award in 1985; a MacDowell Colony Fellowship in 1987; a Nora Astorga Leadership Award in 1989; a Distinguished Service award from the Northfield Mount Herman School in 1993; a Ground Breakers-Dream Makers Award from the Woman's Foundation in 1994; a Lila Wallace Reader's Digest Writers Award from 1995 to 1998; a Critics Award and a encyclo from the Edinburgh Festival in 1995, for I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky, which premiered at the Royal Lyceum Theatre.

Jordan was a finalist for a National Book Award in 1972 for her young adult novel His Own Where. She was included in Who's Who in America from 1984 until her death in 2002. She received the Chancellor's Distinguished Lectureship from UC Berkeley and the PEN Center USA West Freedom to Write Award in 1991.

In 2005, Directed by Desire: Collected Poems, a posthumous collection of her work, received a Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Poetry even though Jordan identified as bisexual. However, BiNet USA led the bisexual community in a multi-year campaign eventually resulting in the addition of a Bisexual category, starting with the 2006 Awards.

Reception
Author Toni Morrison commented:

"In political journalism that cuts like razors in essays that blast the darkness of confusion with relentless light; in poetry that looks as closely into lilac buds as into death's mouth ... [Jordan] has comforted, explained, described, wrestled with, taught and made us laugh out loud before we wept ... I am talking about a span of forty years of tireless activism coupled with and fueled by flawless art."

Poet Adrienne Rich noted:

"Whatever her theme or mode, June Jordan continually delineates the conditions of survival—of the body, and mind, and the heart."

Alice Walker stated:

"Jordan makes us think of Akhmatova, of Neruda. She is among the bravest of us, the most outraged. She feels for all of us. She is the universal poet."

Thulani Davis wrote:

"In a borough that has landmarks for the writers Thomas Wolfe, W. H. Auden, and Henry Miller, to name just three, there ought to be a street in Bed-Stuy called June Jordan Place, and maybe a plaque reading, 'A Poet and Soldier for Humanity Was Born Here.'"

title: June Jordan


text:
Philadelphia Herpetological Society

The Philadelphia Herpetological Society (PHS) is the oldest, continually operated reptile group in North America. It was founded by Roger Conant (herpetologist) and a group of like-minded herpetologists in 1952. PHS is a US 501(c)3 non-profit educational organization. The current president is Mark Miller.

PHS has published the Bulletin and occasional newsletters throughout its history. They seem to meet infrequently at present but operate a reptile rescue in the Philadelphia metro area, and own and operate a wildlife conservation area in Burlington, New Jersey.

title: Philadelphia Herpetological Society


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Pantsu

 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.

The votes were 12 delete, 5 redirect, 3 keep. dbenbenn | talk 18:19, 14 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Pantsu
Not encyclopedic or notable, but I'll just let the article speak for itself:
 * A Japanese word for underwear, this object of sexual desire is worshipped by many in the Half-Life 2 modification community, as well as various anime/game IRC channels.

silsor 07:00, Feb 4, 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. Evil Monkey∴Hello? 07:02, Feb 4, 2005 (UTC)
 * Redirect to undergarment or something similar. It's somewhat well known as a word referring to underwear, although the half-life 2 reference doesn't seem notable. Yelyos 07:05, Feb 4, 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete, May aswell make a redirect too. Inter 07:40, 4 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Redirect to undergarment (although I'm tempted to say redirect to Chobits) --L33tminion | (talk) 00:49, Feb 5, 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete, not notable, dictionary definition. Megan1967 01:34, 5 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep. It's encyclopedic in that it explains something that you and I didn't know before.  It's notable to those who are familiar with the culture in which it was created.  If this goes, then delete Didgeridoo, too.  Unless someone has a solid place to merge it to (maybe one of the things it links to, more likely one of the anime/hentai refs, because it's even more out of place in undergarment than it is floating on its own), it might as well stay where it is. Blair P. Houghton 02:12, 5 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Comment: Speak for yourself. :p But, okay, seriously... the difference is that didgeridoo is an encyclopedia article, whereas pantsu is a dictdef.  And it's not even an English dictdef, although it is based on a loanword.  Furthermore, it's not a dictdef which could be expanded into an encyclopedia article without duplicating undergarments.  I'm not convinced it even warrants a redirect, but I suppose redirects are cheap... Shimeru 05:22, Feb 5, 2005 (UTC)
 * It's marked as a stub, and grows about as often as anything else on my watchlist. I see no reason not to give it a chance.  Again, its relationship to undergarments exists only because it's an undergarment; in this case, however, the usuage is unique to a certain subculture, and therefore more about their referent than the mundane object being so repurposed. Blair P. Houghton 23:52, 5 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Unique? How, exactly?  And why doesn't the article say so?  I submit that the supposed usage is not noteworthy or encyclopedic.  The Japanese usage could be — but not in English.  (And the Japanese article would essentially duplicate, in translation, undergarments.  And perhaps bits of some fetish article.)  Furthermore, the English usage isn't something that can result in the article growing until (and unless) the usage itself broadens.  If it's sufficiently noteworthy within the Halflife 2 "subculture," then it might rate a mention in Halflife 2, yes.  A separate article?  I don't see any indication that it's widespread enough or that the subject is deep enough to warrant it.  And since I didn't say so outright before: Delete Shimeru 10:40, Feb 8, 2005 (UTC)
 * There are only 148 results when one searches for Pantsu and "Half life" in Google suggesting that it is not notable enough. Didgeridoo gets 527,000 results. And it is not actually linked to by an article in Wikipedia. Evil Monkey∴Hello 05:12, Feb 5, 2005 (UTC)
 * Then delete Didgeridoo because it's well-known enough that we don't need anything in Wikipedia to tell us what it is. Blair P. Houghton 23:52, 5 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * "It's encyclopedic in that it explains something that you and I didn't know before." - that's like saying something is "coloured blue, in that it is shaped like a coffee cup". silsor 23:30, Feb 5, 2005 (UTC)
 * I can only respond by saying no it's not, because to paraphrase (iirc) Max Planck, your argument "isn't right, it's not even wrong." Blair P. Houghton 23:52, 5 Feb 2005 (UTC)

 * Keep for reasons established by Blair P. Houghton. —RaD Man (talk) 04:39, 5 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete, it's cruft, not dicdef. Wyss 23:07, 5 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * From one okaku to another, delete. humblefool® 23:54, 5 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete or at most redirect. -Sean Curtin 00:13, Feb 6, 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. I don't think we need an encyclopedia article on the Japanese word for underpants.  Half Life 2 isn't such a blazing sun of notability that anything on which its light falls becomes notable itself.   --BM 00:21, 6 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * You'd delete Millard Fillmore. 65.122.15.98 02:44, 6 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Well, if there are any non-notable American presidents, he'd be one of them. But, no, I reckon all American Presidents -- indeed all heads of state (but not their twin brothers who died in infancy) -- are notable. --BM 15:02, 6 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * redirect. Yuckfoo 01:13, 6 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. Rossami (talk) 05:18, 6 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * "something that I didn't know before" is not a reasonable criterion for inclusion in an encyclopaedia. Wikipedia is not a general knowledge base.  Being known by those of "the culture in which it was created" (an assertion that, by the way, Evil Monkey has demonstrated isn't even verifiable) does not magically make a dictionary definition anything other than a dictionary definition.  This is a dictionary definition, and Wikipedia is not a dictionary.  Delete. Uncle G 03:00, 2005 Feb 7 (UTC)
 * Redirect. Wile E. Heresiarch 06:07, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete, by the way, what's a didgeridoo? :-)) Lectonar 15:37, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Elefino. What are Pantsu, and why are alla these punks talking about them all the time like they're special? Blair P. Houghton 20:51, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC) (driving home the fricken' point)

 * You could try looking didgeridoo up in that Wikipedia thingie. I hear it isn't half bad. --BM 19:50, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Thx. At last I know what it's good for; but I abide by my decision, we could do without Pantsu, or could we? Lectonar 15:20, 8 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete, dicdef at best, more likely just gamecruft. Edeans 03:50, 9 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Believe it or not, I typed "pantsu" into the search to find out just what it meant; I'd seen it mentioned in conversation on IRC and elsewhere. It's not encyclopedic, but it's not a dicdef either. This is what people like to call a meme, perhaps not in the strict definition, but in the memepool.com sense. But does this deserve the same level of documentation that All your base are belong to us has received? What is the threshold for worthiness? It's hard to decide. Google search? Pantsu by itself brings in ~17800. That makes me believe it's used in more than just the few contexts listed -- Half-Life mods and Anime IRC channels. So give the article a chance to grow into something that documents the phenomenon and contributes to our understanding of the subculture. Keep. - mako 09:06, 9 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Redirect to undergarments without merge. There might be something worth saying specifically about "pantsu", but if there is, none of it is in the article. -- Antaeus Feldspar 20:00, 13 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.

title: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Pantsu