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Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748)

The 1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, sometimes called the Treaty of Aachen, ended the War of the Austrian Succession, following a congress assembled on 24 April 1748 at the Free Imperial City of Aachen.

The two main antagonists in the war, Britain and France, opened peace talks in the Dutch city of Breda in 1746. Agreement was delayed by British hopes of improving their position; when this failed to occur, a draft treaty was agreed on 30 April 1748. A final version was signed on 18 October 1748 by Britain, France, and the Dutch Republic.

The terms were then presented to the other belligerents, who could either accept them or continue the war on their own. Austria, Spain, and Sardinia had little choice but to comply, and signed separately. Modena and Genoa joined on 21 January 1749.

The treaty largely failed to resolve the issues that caused the war, while most of the signatories were unhappy with the terms. Maria Theresa resented Austria's exclusion from the talks, and blamed Britain for forcing her to accept concessions, while British politicians felt they had received little benefit for the financial subsidies paid to her. These issues, combined with other factors, led to the strategic realignment known as the Diplomatic Revolution, and the outbreak of the Seven Years' War in 1756.

Background

Franco-British negotiations began at Breda in August 1746 but were deliberately delayed by the Duke of Newcastle, who controlled British foreign policy. The death of Philip V of Spain in July 1746 seemed an opportunity to break the Bourbon alliance, while Newcastle hoped the Orangist revolution would revitalise the Dutch war effort, and allow the Allies to recover the Austrian Netherlands. Both assumptions proved incorrect; Spanish policy remained largely unchanged, the Dutch army collapsed, and Newcastle later berated himself for his "ignorance, obstinacy, and credulity".

However, despite French victories in Flanders, the impact of the British naval blockade was such that throughout 1746, Finance Minister Machault repeatedly warned Louis XV of the impending collapse of their financial system. The position became critical after the Second Battle of Cape Finisterre in October 1747, as the French navy was no longer strong enough to protect their merchant convoys.

Maria Theresa made peace with Bavaria in April 1745, then with Prussia in December; only British financial subsidies kept Austria in the war thereafter. At a conference in December 1747, Austrian ministers agreed 'the worse peace is preferable to starting another campaign', and drew up proposals for ending the stalemate in Italy. They agreed to withdraw Austrian troops from the Duchy of Modena and Republic of Genoa, confirm Spanish control of Naples, and provide territorial concessions that would provide Philip of Spain with an Italian state.

In November, Britain signed a convention with Russia for the supply of troops and in February 1748, a Russian corps of 37,000 arrived in the Rhineland. Lack of progress in Flanders and domestic opposition to the cost of subsidising its allies meant Britain was also ready to end the war. Both France and Britain were prepared to impose terms on their allies if needed, but preferred to avoid dropping them by making a separate peace treaty.

On 30 April 1748, France, Britain, and the Dutch Republic signed a preliminary treaty which included the return of the Austrian Netherlands, the Dutch Barrier forts, Maastricht and Bergen op Zoom. They also guaranteed the Austrian cession of Silesia to Prussia, as well as the Duchies of Parma, and Guastalla to Philip of Spain. Faced with this, Austria, Sardinia, Spain, Modena and Genoa acceded to the treaty in two separate documents finalised on 4 December 1748 and 21 January 1749 respectively.

Terms

These included the following;

 * 1) All signatories accept the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713;
 * 2) Austria recognises the Prussian acquisition of Silesia
 * 3) Austria cedes the Duchies of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla to Philip of Spain, second eldest son of Philip V of Spain and Elisabeth Farnese;
 * 4) Austria cedes minor territories in Italy to Sardinia, including Vigevano;
 * 5) Austria withdraws from the Duchy of Modena and Republic of Genoa, which regain their independence;
 * 6) France withdraws from the Austrian Netherlands and returns the Dutch Barrier forts, Maastricht and Bergen op Zoom;
 * 7) Britain and France exchange Louisbourg on Île-Royale for Madras in India;
 * 8) Spain renews the Asiento de Negros (a monopoly contract to supply slaves to Spanish America) which was granted to Britain in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht; Britain subsequently renounced this under the 1750 Treaty of Madrid, in return for £100,000;
 * 9) Commission established to resolve competing claims between French and British colonies in North America. France also agrees to expel the Jacobite Prince of Wales, Charles Edward Stuart.

Aftermath

The terms of the peace largely failed to resolve the issues that caused the war in the first place, while most of the signatories either resented the concessions they made, or felt they had failed to obtain what they were due. These factors led to the diplomatic re-alignment known as the 1756 Diplomatic Revolution, and the subsequent Seven Years' War.

Prussia, which doubled in size and wealth with the acquisition of Silesia, was the most obvious beneficiary, Austria arguably the biggest loser. Maria Theresa did not see acceptance of the Pragmatic Sanction as any kind of concession, while she deeply resented Britain's insistence that Austria cede Silesia and the concessions made in Italy. On the other hand, the Habsburgs survived a potentially disastrous crisis, regained the Austrian Netherlands and largely retained their position in Italy. Administrative and financial reforms made it stronger in 1750 than 1740, while its strategic position was strengthened by installing Habsburgs as rulers of key territories in Northwest Germany, the Rhineland and Northern Italy.

The Spanish considered their territorial gains in Italy inadequate, failed to recover Menorca or Gibraltar, and viewed the reassertion of British commercial rights in the Americas as an insult. Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia felt he had been promised the Duchy of Parma, but had to content himself with minor cessions from Austria. The war confirmed the decline of the Dutch Republic as a great power, and exposed the weakness of their Barrier forts, which proved unable to stand up to modern artillery.

Few Frenchmen understood the desperate financial state that required the return of their gains in the Austrian Netherlands; combined with the lack of tangible benefits for helping Prussia, it led to the phrase "as stupid as the Peace". This view was widely shared; many French statesmen felt Louis XV had panicked, while English writer and politician, Horace Walpole, wrote "wonderful it is...why the French have lost so much blood and treasure to so little purpose". As a result of the Treaty Charles Edward Stuart, the Jacobite Pretender to the thrones of Britain was arrested and exiled from France.

The decline of the Dutch Republic as a military power exposed the vulnerability of Hanover, George II's German possession. In exchange for restoring the Barrier forts, France insisted on the return of Louisbourg, the capture of which in 1745 was one of the few clear British successes of the war. This caused fury in both Britain and America, where it was seen as benefitting the Dutch and Hanover at the expense of the American colonies.

Lord Sandwich, the lead British negotiator, failed to include the Utrecht terms in the list of Anglo-Spanish agreements renewed in the Preliminaries to the treaty. When he tried to amend the final version, the Spanish refused to approve it, threatening the lucrative import and export trade between the two countries. Since it was equally valuable to the Spanish, they later agreed terms in the October 1750 Treaty of Madrid, but it was another source of popular dissatisfaction with the treaty.

Austrian resentment of British 'disloyalty' was mirrored in London; many questioned the value of the financial subsidies paid to Vienna, and suggested Prussia as a more suitable ally. In the 1752 Treaty of Aranjuez, Austria, Spain and Sardinia agreed to respect each other's boundaries in Italy, ending conflict in this region for nearly fifty years, and allowing Maria Theresa to focus on Germany. Her determination to regain Silesia, combined with a feeling the Treaty had left many issues unresolved, meant that it was seen as an armistice, not a peace.

The treaty would mark the end of the Anglo-French India-based First Carnatic War.

The London celebrations of the signing of the treaty featured music specially composed by George Frideric Handel, the Music for the Royal Fireworks.

title: Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748)


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John Watson Gordon

Sir John Watson Gordon (1788 – 1 June 1864) was a Scottish portrait painter and president of the Royal Scottish Academy.

Life and work
Gordon was born John Watson in Edinburgh, the eldest son of Captain Watson, R.A., a cadet of the family of Watson of Overmains, in the county of Berwick. He was educated specifically to prepare him for enrolling in the Royal Engineers. He entered as a student in the government school of design, under the management of the Board of Manufactures. he showed a natural aptitude for art, and his father was persuaded to allow him to adopt it as his profession. Captain Watson was himself a skilful draughtsman, and his brother George Watson, afterwards president of the Royal Scottish Academy, was a highly respected portrait painter, second only to Sir Henry Raeburn, who was a friend of the family.

In 1808 Gordon exhibited a picture "The Lay of the Last Minstrel" at the Lyceum in Nicolson Street, Edinburgh – the first public exhibition of paintings in that city – and continued for some years to exhibit fancy subjects; but, although freely and sweetly painted, they were altogether without the force and character which stamped his portrait pictures as the works of a master. After the death of Sir Henry Raeburn in 1823 he succeeded to much of his practice. He assumed the name of Gordon in 1826.

One of the earliest of his famous sitters was Sir Walter Scott, who sat for a first portrait in 1820. Then came JG Lockhart in 1821; Professor Wilson, 1822 and 1850, two portraits; Sir Archibald Alison, 1839; Dr Chalmers, 1844; a little later De Quincey, and Sir David Brewster, 1864. Among his most important works may be mentioned the 1st Marquess of Dalhousie; Sir Alexander Hope (1835); Lord President Hope; and Dr Chalmers. These, unlike his later works, are generally rich in colour. The full-length of Dr Alexander Brunton (1844), and Dr Lee, the principal of the university (1846), mark a modification of his style, which ultimately resolved itself into extreme simplicity, both of colour and treatment.

During the last twenty years of his life he painted many distinguished Englishmen who came to Edinburgh to sit to him. And it is significant that David Cox, the landscape painter, on being presented with his portrait, subscribed for by many friends, chose to go to Edinburgh to have it executed by Watson Gordon, although he neither knew the painter personally nor had ever before visited the country. Among the portraits painted during this period, in what may be termed his third style, are De Quincey; General Sir Thomas Macdougall Brisbane; the Prince of Wales, Lord Macaulay, Sir M. Packington, Lord Murray, Lord Cockburn, Lord Rutherfurd and Sir John Shaw-Lefevre.

These latter pictures are mostly clear and grey, sometimes showing little or no positive colour, the flesh itself being very grey, and the handling extremely masterly, though never obtruding its cleverness. He was very successful in rendering acute observant character. A good example of his last style, showing pearly flesh-painting freely handled, yet highly finished, is his head of Sir John Shaw-Lefevre.

Gordon was one of the earlier members of the Royal Scottish Academy, and was elected its president in 1850; he was at the same time appointed limner for Scotland to the queen, and received the honour of knighthood. Since 1841 he had been an associate of the Royal Academy, and in 1851 he was elected a royal academician.

He is buried in the eastern extension of Canongate Kirkyard on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh.

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

title: John Watson Gordon


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Talk:Ellipsometry

Resolution
Hi, I'm sorry by I dont agree with your statement, Bobblewik about ellipsometry. The fact that the technique and modern equipment is capable of determining differences of the order of amstrongs is NOT the same as nanometers (ten times less accurate).

Please if you have doubts about the technique or the physics involved ask away. Askewmind 16:19, Feb 19, 2005 (UTC)

Ellipsometry Plans
Hi everyone interested. I'm working on providing a full article on Ellipsometry, from basic principles to complex modelling of data and maybe some particular cases of organic films or metal oxides. Any suggestions appreciated. Askewmind 02:09, Feb 20, 2005 (UTC)

 * Some of this work may be delay a few months now, I'll try to keep an eye and add material as soon as I can, in the mean time contributions are more than welcomed. Askewmind''' | (Talk) 01:50, 13 May 2005 (UTC)

We'll wait your supplement. thanks.Honeyzjj 15:29, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)

i just added two manufacturers. Note that Gaertner uses a completly different approach (not moving parts such as polarisers) which may merit an article of itself (the technique not the company!)?

there is a statement in the article about multiple layers for modelling. since with PCSA one usually only get 2 parameters there is only so much that you can model ... Benkeboy 13:38, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

 * This is not true. You indeed get only 2 parameters, but you could get these for different wavelengths and angles, ending up with whole matrices of parameters. With these, you can model multiple layers for sure! 84.195.248.116 (talk) 10:41, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

It says that ellipsometry does not require calibration and is insensitive to scattered light. I would say that since it involve moving parts (the polarisers) it does require calibration of alignment of the polarisers. Since no surface is mathematically flat (and the polarisers are not 100% effective) there will always be scattered light that affects the accuracy of the measurements. Compare to what happens with a really rough surface, there is so much scatter that it becomes difficult to measure and to built appropriate models, although "simpler" for VASE over PCSA. Benkeboy 14:20, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

 * To answer your question about not requiring calibration above. An ellipsometer will initially need to be calibrated after it is manufactured and/or installed. The comment in this article was referring to NOT needing to calibrate on each sample. Like other methods that are intensity base you need to calibrate first. Ellipsometry uses change in polarization NOT change in intensity.

A correction to my statement above: Not all ellipsometers use moving parts to determine the optical constants, e.g. Stokes ellipsometry or when the polariser are made with liquid crystals. Benkeboy 09:37, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

List of manufacturers
Should an wikipedia article contain a list of manufacturers? anyway Jasco Inc and Ellipso Technology seem to have disappeared, at least their websites were down now. Benkeboy 09:37, 13 June 2007 (UTC) There are many manufactures, even Accurion GmbH is one who sells imaging ellipsometers — Preceding unsigned comment added by 46.223.224.176 (talk) 11:52, 27 August 2015 (UTC)

Ellipsometer Pictures
As Benkeboy said, a wiki page should not be commercial. As a result I suggests not including pictures of any commercial ellipsometers in this article. Anybody having a picture of a "homemade" ellipsometer is welcomed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bixente44 (talk • contribs) 15:02, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Historical Interest
Wouldn't it be good to mention Ludvig Lorenz at some point? He discovered that light reflected by a thin transition layer between two media becomes elliptically polarised in the first place. The article about him on Wikipedia already links to this page after all. Geoffpointer (talk) 23:45, 27 April 2017 (UTC)

title: Talk:Ellipsometry


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Kevin Dunn

Kevin Dunn (born August 24, 1955) is an American actor who has appeared in supporting roles in a number of films and television series since the 1980s.

Dunn's roles include White House Communications Director Alan Reed in the political comedy Dave, U.S. Army Colonel Hicks in the 1998 version of Godzilla, a role he reprised for the animated adaptation of Godzilla, Alan Abernathy's father Stuart in Small Soldiers, Sam Witwicky's father Ron in the Transformers film series, Oscar Galvin in the 2010 action thriller Unstoppable, and misanthropic White House Chief of Staff Ben Cafferty in Veep. He has also had recurring roles on True Detective in 2014 and on the TV series adaptation of The Mosquito Coast in 2021.

Early life and education
Dunn was born in Chicago, the son of John Dunn, a musician and poet, and his wife Margaret (née East), a nurse. His sister is actress/comedian Nora Dunn. He also has a brother, Michael Dunn, a high school history teacher and football coach. He was raised in a Catholic family, and has Irish, English, Scottish, and German ancestry. Dunn graduated from Illinois Wesleyan University in 1977, and received an honorary doctorate in 2008 from the same school.

Career
Dunn appeared in many live performances in Chicago and its suburbs, including the theater companies Northlight, Remains, Wisdom Bridge and Goodman before his TV and motion picture career. Dunn's work includes Samantha Who?, a series appearing on ABC from 2007 to 2009, as well as playing Ron Witwicky in Michael Bay's Transformers film series. His film appearances include Small Soldiers, Stir of Echoes, Godzilla, Snake Eyes, Nixon, Mad Love, Ghostbusters II, Dave, Beethoven's 2nd, Hot Shots!, and 1492: Conquest of Paradise. Dunn also played Murry Wilson in a 2000 miniseries, The Beach Boys: An American Family. He played President Richard Nixon's White House Counsel, Charles Colson, in Nixon and played President Bill Clinton's National Security Advisor, Sandy Berger, in the ABC miniseries The Path to 9/11. In 2000, he co-starred in Bette, a sitcom starring Bette Midler, in which he played her husband in the show's first 11 episodes. From 2004 to 2006 Dunn had a small recurring role as Terry Hardwick, a baseball coach and mentor to Tyler Hoechlin character Martin Brewer, on the long-running family drama 7th Heaven.

Dunn played Joel Horneck, Jerry's overzealous childhood friend, in the Seinfeld episode "Male Unbonding". He has also featured in Live Free or Die as well as the 2006 film Gridiron Gang.

Dunn is an executive producer of the award-winning documentary film Kumpanía: Flamenco Los Angeles (2011).

Dunn played the role of White House Chief of Staff Ben Cafferty in HBO's late 2010s political comedy Veep.

Personal life
Dunn married Katina Alexander in 1986. They have a son, Jack.

title: Kevin Dunn


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Allapattah

Allapattah is a neighborhood, located mostly in the city of Miami, Florida in metropolitan Miami. , the county-owned portion of Allapattah, from State Road 9 to LeJeune Road, is being annexed by the city proper.

A stretch in the neighborhood along NW 17th Avenue was nicknamed Little Santo Domingo in 2003, in an effort spurred by former Miami mayor and longtime city commissioner Wilfredo "Willy" Gort to honor the sizable Dominican American population in the community.

History
The name is derived from the Seminole Indian language word meaning alligator. The initial settlement of the Allapattah community began in 1856 when William P. Wagner, the earliest documented white American permanent settler, arrived from Charleston, South Carolina and established a homestead on a hammock along the Miami Rock Ridge, where Miami Jackson High School presently stands. Development ensued from 1896 and into the 20th century in the area with the completion of the Florida East Coast Railroad (FEC).

While most of Allapattah was populated by whites until the late 1950s, an African American neighborhood named Railroad Shops Colored Addition existed between NW 46th Street to the south and NW 50th Street to the north, from NW 12th Avenue on the east to NW 14th Avenue on the west. The neighborhood had been established at the end of the 19th century when the Florida East Coast Railroad built servicing facilities nearby. In the late 1940s the entire neighborhood was condemned under eminent domain, and the residents forced to leave. The area was used as a site for a new white school (originally named Allapattah Elementary, since renamed Lenora B. Smith Elementary in honor of an educator who once lived in the Railroad Shops neighborhood) and a park.

There was a large influx of black Americans displaced by the construction of I-95 (then, the North-South Expressway) into Allapattah in the 1950s and 1960s, leading to white flight to suburban Miami-Dade County and Broward County. Cubans migrated to Miami neighborhoods like Allapattah in large numbers following the Cuban Revolution of 1959, hosting one of Miami's largest Cuban American populations. The 1980s brought influxes of Dominican Americans, Nicaraguans, Hondurans, and Haitians in the aftermath of various refugee crises in those nations. Now, a melting pot of residents from all across the Caribbean, Central America, Latin America more broadly, and African Americans who historically lived throughout the South, reside in the area.

Geography
Allapattah is northwest of downtown, and about five miles (8 km) east of Miami International Airport. It is located at 25.815°N, -80.224°W, with an elevation of 10 ft.

Many of the businesses and educational institutions in the neighborhood are generally located on Northwest 36th Street (US 27). The boundaries are roughly the Airport Expressway (SR 112) to the north, the Miami River and the Dolphin Expressway (SR 836) to the south, I-95 to the east, and Northwest 27th Avenue (SR 9) to the west.

Economy
A thriving textiles market is located along Northwest 20th Street between Northwest 17th and 27th Avenues, with several garment manufacturing and wholesale outlets from Latin America and the Caribbean makers along the row. The Produce Market, the largest open-air food distribution center in Miami, serves local supermarkets and bodegas with the freshest variety of South Florida produce, tropical fruits and many other products.

The industrial district of the city of Miami is located in an area straddling the Health District and Allapattah, along a former FEC corridor just north of Northwest 20th Street. Trades ranging from clothing manufacturers, auto repair, carpentry and upholstery shops. Additionally, several shipyards and dry docks located along the neighborhood's banks of the Miami River.

Education
Miami-Dade County Public Schools operates all area public schools:

Elementary schools

 * Comstock Elementary School
 * Maya Angelou Elementary School
 * Santa Clara Elementary School
 * Melrose Elementary School
 * River Cities Community Charter School

Middle and high schools

 * Mater Academy Middle School of International Studies (charter)
 * Brownsville Middle School
 * Georgia Jones Ayers Middle School
 * Miami Springs Middle School
 * Miami Jackson Senior High School
 * Miami Springs Senior High School
 * Miami Northwestern Senior High School

Libraries
Miami-Dade Public Library operates all area public libraries:
 * Allapattah Library
 * Medical Center Library

Demographics
, Allapattah had a population between 40,406 and 43,860 residents, with 12,508 households, and 8,224 families residing in the neighborhood. The median household income was $19,141.53. The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 72.23% Hispanic or Latino of any race, 18.33% Black or African American, 6.89% White (non-Hispanic), and 2.55% Other races (non-Hispanic).

The zip codes for Allapattah include 33136, 33125, 33127, and 33142. The area covers 4.653 sqmi. , there were 23,967 males and 19,894 females. The median age for males was 33.9 years old, while the median age for females was 36.0 years old. The average household size had 2.8 people, while the average family size had 3.4 members. The percentage of married-couple families (among all households) was 36.4%, while the percentage of married-couple families with children (among all households) was 16.6%, and the percentage of single-mother households (among all households) was 14.5%. 8.0% of the population were in correctional institutions, 1.0% of the population were in nursing homes, and 1.2% of the population were in other group homes. The percentage of never-married males 15 years old and over was 24.5%, while the percentage of never-married females 15 years old and over was 12.4%.

, the percentage of people that speak English not well or not at all made up 33.0% of the population. The percentage of residents born in Florida was 30.5%, the percentage of people born in another U.S. state was 9.2%, and the percentage of native residents but born outside the U.S. was 4.3%, while the percentage of foreign born residents was 56.1%.

Transportation
Allapattah is served by Metrobus throughout the area, and by the Miami Metrorail at:

 * Santa Clara (NW 20th Street and NW 12th Avenue)
 * Allapattah (US 27 and NW 12th Avenue)
 * Civic Center (NW 15th Street and NW 12th Avenue)
 * Earlington Heights (SR 112 and NW 22nd Avenue)

Places of interest

 * Miami Jackson Senior High School (founded 1898)
 * Allapattah Library
 * Juan Pablo Duarte Park

title: Allapattah


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Ma'mar ibn al-Muthanna

Ma'mar ibn al-Muthanna (728–825) also known as Abu Ubayda (أبو عبيدة) was an early Muslim scholar of Arabic philology. He was a controversial figure; later scholar Ibn Qutayba remarked that Abu Ubayda "hated Arabs," though his contemporaries still considered him perhaps the most well-rounded scholar of his age. Whether or not Abu Ubayda was truly a supporter of the Shu'ubiyya is a matter of debate.

Life
Ma'mar was originally of Persian Jewish descent. In his youth, he was a pupil of Abu 'Amr ibn al-'Ala', Yunus ibn Habib and Al-Akhfash al-Akbar, was later a contemporary of Al-Asmaʿi, and in 803 he was called to Baghdad by the Caliph Harun al-Rashid. In one incident recounted by numerous historians, the Caliph al-Rashid brought forth a horse and asked both Al-Asmaʿi and Abu 'Ubaida (who had also written extensively about zoology) to identify the correct terms for each part of the horse's anatomy. Ma'mar excused himself from the challenge, saying that he was a linguist and anthologist rather than a veterinarian; Al-Asmaʿi then leaped onto the horse, identified every part of its body and gave examples from Bedouin Arab poetry establishing the terms as proper Arabic vocabulary. Among his students was the noted musician Ishaq al-Mawsili.

He was one of the most learned and authoritative scholars of his time in all matters pertaining to the Arabic language, antiquities and stories, and is constantly cited by later authors and compilers. Al-Jahiz held him to be the most learned scholar in all branches of human knowledge, and Ibn Hisham accepted his interpretation even of passages in the Qur'an. Although Ma'mar couldn't recite a single verse of the Qur'an without committing errors in pronunciation, he was considered an expert on the linguistic meanings of the verses, especially in regard to rarely used vocabulary. The titles of 105 of his works are mentioned in the Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadim, and his Book of Days is the basis of parts of the history of Ibn al-Athir and of the Kitab al-Aghani of Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani, but nothing of his (except a song) seems to exist now in an independent form.

He died in Basra in 825.

Legacy
The exact nature of Ma'mar's religious and ethnocentric views is a matter of debate. Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb holds that prior to Ibn Qutaybah's accusation centuries later, none had accused Abu Ubaida of prejudice against Arabs; rather, Gibb holds that this was as a result of his status as a Kharijite, a Medieval sect of Muslims different from both Sunnis and Shi'as. Hugh Chisholm disagrees, holding that Abu Ubaida was neither a Kharijite nor a racist but simply a supporter of Shu'ubiyya and opposed the idea that Arabs were inherently superior to other races. In Chisolm's description, he delighted in showing that words, fables, customs, etc., which the Arabs believed to be peculiarly their own, were derived from the Persians. In these matters he was the great rival of al-Asma’i. Ma'mar's views differed sharply in regard to Arabic and the Qur'an; he denied that the Qur'an contained any non-Arabic vocabulary, a position to which later commentators such as Al-Suyuti were opposed.

Regardless of any controversy, Ma'mar's influence is well known. Almost half of all information about Arabia before Islam reported by later authors was by way of Ma'mar, and he wrote the earliest extant Tafsir or commentary on the Qur'an, which was the basis for explaining any verses in the prophetic biography written by Ibn Hisham.

title: Ma'mar ibn al-Muthanna


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Karen McDougal

Karen McDougal (born March 23, 1971) is an American model and actress. She is known for her appearances in Playboy magazine as Playmate of the Month for December 1997 and Playmate of the Year in 1998, and for her alleged 9-month-long affair with Donald Trump before he became president. In 2001, the readers of Playboy voted McDougal the runner-up of "The sexiest Playmate of the 1990s."

McDougal taught pre-kindergarten before winning a swimwear competition that launched her career as a glamour, promotional, and swimsuit model. Since her appearances in Playboy, she extended her career into a wide variety of appearances in mainstream media, including other magazine modeling, television commercials, and minor acting, with mixed success. She has been a successful fitness model, with multiple magazine appearances, including as the first female cover figure on Men's Fitness magazine. She also starred in The Arena, a 2001 direct-to-video film, and inspired the creation of a fantasy art statuette and a doll.

McDougal is a fitness enthusiast, having studied ballet in her youth and engaged in high school sports. She is also an avid motorcycle and car collector. Since her Playmate days, she has maintained a largely private social life. The revelation of an affair with Donald Trump from 2006 to 2007, and its subsequent coverup, put her into national headlines before and after the 2016 United States presidential election.

Early life
McDougal was born in Merrillville, Indiana, near Gary. She self identifies as Cherokee, and is of Scottish, and Irish descent. She is the eldest daughter in the family, with three older brothers, Bob, Dave and Jeff, and a younger sister, Tina. Her mother, Carol, remarried when McDougal was nine years old, and the family moved to Sawyer, Michigan where she remained until college.

McDougal studied tap dance and ballet as a child. Her childhood dream, prior to teaching and modeling, was to become a ballerina. She attended River Valley High School and became a cheerleader, a marching band member, a color guard member, and a volleyball and softball player, as well as Michigan state champion clarinet player, four years in a row in high school. Her high school nickname was "Barbie," due to her wholesome sweetness. After graduating from high school in 1989, she attended Ferris State University at Big Rapids, Michigan, majoring in elementary education.

After two years of college, McDougal moved to a Detroit suburb where she taught pre-kindergarten, before being persuaded to try out for a swimsuit competition. One of her professional goals has always been to open a learning center for children, but she put those aspirations on hold to focus on pursuing roles in acting and modeling.

Modeling
McDougal's first modeling assignment was as a promotional model at a Harley-Davidson bike show in Detroit.

Playboy
In 1997, McDougal won a local swimsuit competition, promoted by Venus Swimwear in Michigan, earning her place at the international final in Florida. Her victory caught the eye of Playboy photographer David Mecey. Soon after, Playboy approached her, offering a test shoot at Playboy Studio West, which she accepted. Afterwards, she was promptly invited to return for a more complete photo and video shoot, and was ultimately chosen as Miss December 1997. Her pictorial, by photographers Richard Fegley and Stephen Wayda, has a winter theme and its outdoor portion was shot in snowy fields near Park City, Utah. Her video, the "Playmate Profile," was featured on Playboy TV soon after her magazine debut.

In May 1998, at a luncheon at the Playboy Mansion, it was announced that Hugh Hefner and fans had chosen her as 1998's Playmate of the Year (PMOY).

As part of becoming a PMOY, she received $100,000 and a special-edition silver Shelby Series 1 convertible with a customized Michigan license plate "PMOY 98." McDougal's PMOY pictorial was featured in the July 1998 issue of Playboy, where she also appeared on its cover. In contrast to her Playmate pictorial, her PMOY pictorial has a tropical theme, and its outdoor portion was shot in Saint Lucia. According to her interview in her Playmate of the Year "Video Centerfold," released soon after her PMOY issue debuted, she views as physical imperfections her "funny" smile, her crooked pinkies, inherited from her grandfather, and her "ugly feet," which she wishes others would not look at. Because of the popularity of the VH1 television series "Pop-up Video" at the time, one of the segments in her PMOY video was done as a Pop-up Video parody, filled with factoids about her and Playboy. During her appearance on The Magic Hour to promote her PMOY issue, McDougal demonstrated her signature pose, straddle split on TV in front of a live studio audience.

In an online chat in 2002, McDougal expressed interest in posing nude for Playboy again, if offered.

Fitness modeling
In March 1999, McDougal became the first woman to appear on the cover of Men's Fitness magazine. Since then she has expanded her career into fitness and bodybuilding magazines, such as Muscle & Fitness (January 2000), Physical (June 2004), and Iron Man (October 2005, January 2006, June 2007, and November 2009 ). She appeared in a 10-page pictorial in the January 2006 issue of Iron Man as "Hardbody" of the month, and on the cover of its October 2005 and June 2007 issues. McDougal returned as "Hardbody" of the month in the November 2009 issue in a pictorial together with fellow Playmate Katie Lohmann. In interviews, she said her transition to fitness modeling was unintentional.

Other appearances
Playboy released a Playboy Collectors' Figure Series limited edition doll in 2002 based on the likeness of McDougal and emphasized that it was an accurate model of her statuesque physique. Her collectors' figure was originally slated to be the first in the series to be released, however it was delayed due to redesigns. McDougal collaborated with fantasy sculptor Bill Toma in creating a limited edition bronze statuette titled Warrior Princess in 2003. McDougal posed for Toma in the creative process and the pedestal of each statuette bears her signature.

In early 2004, McDougal appeared in a photo spread in the Italian edition of Vogue with fellow Playmates, Pamela Anderson, Audra Lynn and Tishara Cousino. It was a tennis themed men's fashion spread shot in Las Vegas by photographer David LaChapelle. The spread contained her first published nudes since her contract with Playboy expired years earlier. She traveled to Japan to be one of the eye candies for the wrestling bout between Scott Hall and Kevin Nash (The Outsiders) at Yokohama, Japan in May 2004. McDougal also participated in the 50th Anniversary celebrations of Playboy throughout the year at Las Vegas, New York and Moscow with other Playmates past and present.

McDougal appeared in the 2005 Playmates at Play at the Playboy Mansion swimsuit calendar as the calendar girl of July. The calendar was the inaugural Playmates at Play calendar and it was shot on the grounds of Playboy Mansion in 2004. It was Playboy's first attempt at creating a non-nude swimsuit calendar featuring Playmates, similar in style with those from Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. While all Playmates appeared in bikinis in the calendar, in the case of McDougal and Hiromi Oshima, the "bikinis" were actually only painted on using body paint.

In November 2006, McDougal was part of a trio of Playmates (along with Tina Marie Jordan and Katie Lohmann) that appeared in the "Celebrity Playmate Gift Guide" pictorial of Splat, a magazine for paintball enthusiasts. The pictorial showcased new paintball products for the 2006 holiday season. McDougal has also appeared in various pin-up posters, calendars, magazine covers, advertising campaigns, promotional events, clothing, swimwear and lingerie catalogs following her success as Playmate of the Year.

Television and film
McDougal appeared in a series of sexy television commercials for XFL football league on NBC and UPN with the theme of "Cheerleaders". These edgy XFL commercials with implied nudity backfired and caused a controversy as they were deemed too risqué by the media, they were quietly withdrawn before the launch of 2001 XFL inaugural (and final ) season; the footage was nonetheless repurposed later in the season as a publicity stunt for a halftime telecast.

In 2001, she co-starred with Lisa Dergan in The Arena, a Roger Corman-produced, direct-to-video movie directed by Timur Bekmambetov. The entire production was shot in Russia. In her feature film debut, McDougal's character, Jessemina, is a slave girl who is forced into fighting as a female gladiator in an Ancient Roman colony by its corrupt governor. The role offered McDougal her first opportunity to act in a dramatic role and to demonstrate her physical abilities with the movie's sword fighting sequences. The movie, initially titled Gladiatrix, was deemed to be a knockoff of Gladiator. Although the movie was not well received, it has turned into a lesser known cult film.

McDougal was one of 12 contestants in the search for the new host succeeding Brooke Burke for Wild On! in 2002 (known as Wild Off!). The contest took place at The Palms in Las Vegas. Each contestant was given a "wild" challenge to complete and McDougal's challenge was to dress up as Cleopatra and roam the casino at Caesars Palace in the arms of an actor dressed up as Julius Caesar for a day. She completed her challenge and was considered an early favorite by fellow contestants, but did not advance to the final round of five contestants. Cindy Taylor was the eventual winner of Wild Off!.

After winning a local try out in Los Angeles, McDougal advanced to the 2004 WWE Diva Search special held at the Beacon Theatre in New York as one of 28 finalists. The special was televised live on Spike TV on July 15, 2004. McDougal, clad in a black bikini, survived two rounds of elimination during the program, only to be eliminated by the judges in the last round at the end, just prior to the selection of the final 10 contestants eligible for online voting.

McDougal appeared as one of the interviewees in the April 9, 2006 episode of E! True Hollywood Story, which focused on Hugh Hefner. She briefly described her experience at the Playboy Mansion when she was Miss December 1997. In mid-2006, McDougal appeared as a fitness model demonstrating all the exercises in a fitness training DVD with Hollywood celebrity fitness trainer Valerie Waters.

She has guest hosted TV programs (Wild On! on E!, VIP Access on Showtime), appeared in other TV programs (such as: Lovespring International, Anger Management, The O'Reilly Factor, the Playmate edition of Russian Roulette, etc.), movies (cameos in Joe Dirt, Charlie's Angels, Grind, The Girl Next Door and Raising Helen) and music videos with singer David Lee Roth.

Business venture
In 2010, McDougal became one of the owners of Pharmore Alternatives, a company selling various health and wellness supplements. She attended the 2011 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in January 2011 to promote its products.

Personal life
McDougal's family members did not initially support her decision to pose for Playboy. But eventually, they embraced the fact, and her mother appeared in interview segments of her Playmate of the Year "Video Centerfold" as a sign of support. When she was Playmate of the Year of 1998, she had a healthy BMI of 19.

In 2004, she bought a pink custom-built motorcycle and entered an Easyriders-sponsored motorcycle competition in Pomona, California, where her motorcycle won the Best Radical Custom award. She also professes to be a chocoholic and junk food addict, despite otherwise seeing herself as a "health nut." In her spare time, she exercises five days a week to stay in shape. She is an animal lover and has owned two cats: Brittany and Brandy. McDougal has two tattoos, one of a cat on the second toe of her right foot, honoring the felines in her life, and the other of a cross behind her right ear, a reminder of her spirituality.

As of 2007, McDougal lived in Los Angeles and Phoenix, Arizona. In March 2008, she appeared in a topless pictorial and interview in Spanish magazine Interviu, in which she discussed her then relationship with actor Bruce Willis.

Her family has a history of breast cancer, and McDougal, who had breast implants, is an advocate of breast cancer awareness. In January 2017, she had her own breast implants removed after her health had worsened.

In 2018, McDougal said she was registered as a Republican voter.

Although she is a swimsuit model, she is not a proficient swimmer, due to aquaphobia, or fear of water.

Affair with Donald Trump
In November 2016, The Wall Street Journal reported that McDougal had told a friend that she had an affair with a married Donald Trump from 2006 to 2007, with various sources quoting that it had lasted from ten months to a year. It also reported that American Media, Inc. (AMI), the owner of the National Enquirer, had paid McDougal $150,000 for exclusive rights to her story, but never published it. AMI stated to The Wall Street Journal that it had paid the amount to McDougal not "to kill damaging stories about" Trump, but for "exclusive life rights to any relationship she has had with a then-married man" and "two years' worth of her fitness columns and magazine covers". On June 20, 2016, Dylan Howard, chief content officer for AMI, interviewed McDougal for several hours at the offices of her lawyer. McDougal later met with investigative reporters from ABC News, which prompted AMI to offer to buy the rights to McDougal's story for $150,000 on August 5, 2016.

The Wall Street Journal published the story four days before the 2016 United States presidential election, in which Trump was the Republican Party nominee. Trump was endorsed by the National Enquirer, and was friends with AMI CEO/Chairman David Pecker. Hope Hicks, speaking for the Trump campaign, denied the existence of an affair between Trump and McDougal, saying that the notion was "totally untrue."

In February 2018, with Trump already elected as president, The New Yorker's Ronan Farrow wrote about the affair and AMI's purchase of the story, largely corroborating the 2016 Wall Street Journal report, except that the affair had gone on for nine months. The story was based on McDougal's handwritten memoirs of the affair, which McDougal's friend passed to Farrow. McDougal confirmed to Farrow that she had written the memoirs. Farrow quotes the memoirs as stating that McDougal first met Trump in June 2006 at a party hosted by Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion. Trump kept in contact with McDougal, and they had sex on the first date. She said she met members of his family and he promised to buy her an apartment in New York. To avoid "paper trails", Trump had McDougal pay for flight and hotel expenses when she flew to meet him, then he reimbursed her. McDougal ended the affair in April 2007 because she felt guilty about sleeping with a married man; she was also offended by derogatory comments he made about her mother and a Black man who was dating a female acquaintance of his.

McDougal declined to discuss details of the alleged affair due to her agreement with AMI, but she told Farrow that she regretted signing that agreement, saying, "It took my rights away... I don't know what I'm allowed to talk about. I'm afraid to even mention his name." Farrow also wrote that Pecker has a "favorite tactic" of buying "a story in order to bury it". AMI said it did not publish McDougal's story as it was not credible, and a spokesperson for the White House denied the affair.

On March 22, 2018, Anderson Cooper conducted an interview in which McDougal detailed the affair and apologized to Melania Trump. She said that Trump tried to give her money after they first had sex, that their relationship lasted 10 months, and that she visited Trump "many dozens of times".

In March 2018, McDougal filed a lawsuit against AMI in Los Angeles Superior Court, aiming to invalidate the non-disclosure agreement. On April 19, 2018, AMI settled with McDougal, which allowed her to speak about the alleged affair.

In July 2018, The New York Times reported that two months before the 2016 presidential election, Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, had secretly recorded a conversation between him and Trump regarding paying McDougal. Rudy Giuliani, then representing Trump in a personal capacity, said that Trump did not know of the recording and gave two versions of the topic of conversation, saying first that the protagonists planned to pay McDougal directly, then saying that they planned to pay AMI for the rights to McDougal's story. This appeared to contradict a previous claim by Hicks days before the election, when she responded to The Wall Street Journal report about the payment by saying, "we have no knowledge of any of this".

On July 25, Cohen's attorney Lanny Davis released the recording to CNN, which played it on the air. Trump and Cohen can be heard discussing how to make a payment for "all of that info regarding our friend David," ostensibly referring to Pecker. Trump is also heard asking if "one-fifty" needed to be paid, which Cohen confirms. McDougal was reportedly paid $150,000 by AMI. Davis stated that Cohen "achieved independence" on July 2, 2018, and was ready to admit the truth at this point.

In August 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to breaking campaign finance laws, admitting paying hush money of $130,000 and $150,000 "at the direction of a candidate for federal office" to two women who alleged affairs with that candidate, "with the purpose of influencing the election". The figures match payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and McDougal. Daniels also stated that she had had a 2006 affair with Trump. Trump responded to Cohen's claims by saying he only knew about the payments "later on", and that he paid back Cohen personally, not out of campaign funds. Pecker, Howard and Allen Weisselberg (chief financial officer of The Trump Organization) were reportedly granted witness immunity in exchange for their testimony regarding the payments.

In May 2019 the Southern District of New York was investigating the possible role of Trump and others regarding concealment of hush money payments.

In September 2019, it was reported the House Judiciary Committee was preparing to investigate Trump's alleged involvement in the 2016 hush-money payments to McDougal and Stormy Daniels.

In June 2021, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) found that the National Enquirer violated U.S. election laws and the $150,000 paid by AMI to McDougal amounted to an illegal campaign contribution. AMI agreed to a fine of $187,500. Because the FEC was equally divided on party lines, it could not pursue further investigation into Trump, who accordingly will not be punished or be the subject of further inquiry by the FEC. In March 2023, the Manhattan district attorney asked Trump to appear before a grand jury. Trump denounced the investigation as a "political Witch-Hunt, trying to take down the leading candidate, by far, in the Republican Party." Prosecutors have also questioned Trump's former attorney, Michael Cohen, who coordinated payments, alongside Trump's former political adviser, Kellyanne Conway.

In April 2024, Pecker testified during Trump's New York criminal trial how he, Howard and Cohen conspired to get The National Enquirer to acquire McDougal's story. Pecker stated that after Howard found out about McDougal's allegation, he sent Howard to California to interview her. During the time Howard met with McDougal, he conversed with Cohen about the situation. Ultimately, McDougal agreed to sell her story to the National Enquirer for $150,000.

McDougal's former attorney Keith Davidson would later testify on how he negotiated McDougal's $150,000 hush money payment on her behalf. Text messages which were shown to the trial's jury also showed how Davidson had conversations with Dylan Howard concerning the hush money negotiations.

On May 3, 2024, Hicks appeared to retract her previous denial of the affair while testifying during the Trump criminal trial in New York, stating that Trump not only sought to cover up the affair with McDougal, but even went as far as to draft a statement which addressed the affair allegation just before The Wall Street Journal was about to break the story that AMI paid off McDougal for her silence about the alleged affair. According to Hicks, Trump even sought to hide news reports of the alleged affair from his wife Melania. On May 13, 2024, the trial jury would hear the taped conversation between Trump and Cohen concerning McDougal's hush money payment. The same day, Cohen testified that he had asked Donald Trump how Melania would take the news of his affair with Stormy Daniels, and Trump responded "how long do you think I'll be on the market for? Not long." On May 14, 2024, Cohen testified that McDougal's hush money was undertaken "in order to ensure that the possibility of Mr. Trump succeeding in the election — that this would not be a hindrance" and that he did not alter the recording of the conversation.

Defamation lawsuit against Tucker Carlson
On December 5, 2019, McDougal filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox News. According to the suit, network anchor Tucker Carlson defamed McDougal by saying that she had personally extorted Trump for the hush money she received in 2016. McDougal denies this accusation. On September 24, 2020, Manhattan U.S. District Court Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil, a Trump appointee, dismissed the defamation lawsuit, writing: "The statements are rhetorical hyperbole and opinion commentary intended to frame a political debate, and, as such, are not actionable as defamation." The judge added that the "'general tenor' of the show should then inform a viewer that [Carlson] is not 'stating actual facts' about the topics he discusses and is instead engaging in 'exaggeration' and 'non-literal commentary.'" Fox News released a statement the same day, stating: "The decision is a victory not just for FOX News Media, but for all defenders of the First Amendment."

title: Karen McDougal


text:
The Legend of Bagger Vance

The Legend of Bagger Vance is a 2000 American sports fantasy drama film directed by Robert Redford, and starring Will Smith, Matt Damon, and Charlize Theron. The screenplay by Jeremy Leven is based on Steven Pressfield's 1995 book The Legend of Bagger Vance: A Novel of Golf and the Game of Life. The film is set in 1931 Georgia. It was the final film starring Jack Lemmon and Lane Smith.

The plot is loosely based on the Hindu sacred text the Bhagavad Gita. It depicts God, Krishna, tutoring a warrior-hero, Arjuna, played in the film by Smith and Damon. The film was criticized by several African American commentators and reviewers for employing the "Magical Negro" stereotype.

Plot
As a senior, having had his sixth heart attack while playing golf, Hardy Greaves contemplates how his late wife used to ask him why he kept playing "a game that seems destined to kill" him. Explaining his love for the game, the story begins with his childhood idol: Rannulph Junuh.

Junuh is the favorite son of Savannah, Georgia: a noteworthy golfer from a wealthy family; he and his beautiful girlfriend Adele Invergordon seem to have it all. While serving as a captain in the U.S. Army during World War I, Junuh is traumatized when his entire company is wiped out in battle. Though he earns the Medal of Honor, he disappears after the war, returning to Georgia years later as a broken-down alcoholic.

At the start of the Great Depression (circa 1930), Adele is trying to recover her family's lost fortune by holding a four-round, two-day exhibition match between Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen, the best golfers of the era, with a grand prize of $10,000, at the golf resort her family opened as the Depression struck. However, needing a local participant to gain local interest, a young Greaves speaks up for his hero, Junuh, prompting Adele to ask her estranged lover to play.

Junuh is approached by a mysterious traveler carrying a suitcase, who appears while he is trying to hit golf balls into the dark void of the night. The man identifies himself as Bagger Vance and says he will be his caddie. With Greaves as assistant caddie, Bagger helps Junuh come to grips with his personal demons and play golf again.

When the match starts, Jones and Hagen each play well in their distinctive ways, but the disengaged Junuh plays poorly and is far behind after the first round. With Bagger caddying for him and giving advice, Junuh rediscovers his "authentic swing" in the second round and makes up some ground. In the third round, he closes the gap even more, hitting a hole in one in the process. Meanwhile, Junuh and Adele rekindle their romance.

Late in the final round, an overconfident Junuh disregards Bagger's advice at a crucial point and, after that, plays poorly. He hits a ball into a forest, which triggers a war flashback, but Bagger's words help him focus on the game. Junuh pulls back to a tie with Jones and Hagen, then has a chance to win on the final hole, but has the integrity to call a penalty on himself when his ball moves after trying to remove a loose impediment.

Seeing Junuh has grown and matured, Bagger decides that his golfer does not need him any more. With the 18th hole left unfinished, Bagger gives the position of caddie to Greaves and leaves as mysteriously as he came.

Though losing a chance to win because of the penalty, Junuh sinks an improbable putt and the match ends in a gentlemanly three-way tie. The three golfers shake hands with all of Savannah cheering. Junuh and Adele get back together.

The old Greaves wakes up and sees Bagger Vance, not aged a day, on the golf course. As Bagger beckons, Greaves follows.

Background
The plot is loosely based on the Hindu sacred text the Bhagavad Gita, part of the Hindu epic Mahabharata, where the Warrior/Hero Arjuna (R. Junuh) refuses to fight. The god Krishna appears as Bhagavan (Bagger Vance) to help him follow his path as the warrior and hero that he was meant to be. This relationship was explained by Steven J. Rosen in his 2000 book Gita on the Green: The Mystical Tradition Behind Bagger Vance, for which Pressfield wrote the foreword.

Filming
Portions of the exhibition match were set at the Kiawah Island Golf Resort in South Carolina, United States, considered one of the toughest in the country. The scene in which Greaves has a heart attack was shot on No. 11 of the resort's Cougar Point golf course. The final hole in the film was temporary, so the filming did not interfere with the club activities, and cost US$200,000 to build. Most of the golf scenes were filmed at Colleton River Plantation, just off Hilton Head Island. Certain segments were filmed in Savannah and Jekyll Island, Georgia.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 43% based on reviews from 130 critics, with an average rating of 5.23/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Despite the talent involved in The Legend of Bagger Vance, performances are hindered by an inadequate screenplay full of flat characters and bad dialogue. Also, not much happens, and some critics are offended by how the film glosses over issues of racism." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 47 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B+ on scale of A to F.

Film critic Roger Ebert, who gave it 3½ stars, said, "It handles a sports movie the way Billie Holiday handled a trashy song, by finding the love and pain beneath the story. Redford and his writer, Jeremy Leven, starting from a novel by Steven Pressfield, are very clear in their minds about what they want to do. They want to explain why it is possible to devote your life to the love of golf, and they want to hint that golf and life may have a lot in common". The BBC's George Perry called it a "sumptuously photographed film" but added that "in spite of being lovely to look at, it is pretentious piffle, although Will Smith shows skill and subtlety in his ludicrous role".

Time called it one of the most "embarrassing" films of recent years for its treatment of African Americans and the use of a "Magical African-American Friend". The film would later be cited by Spike Lee as an example of a film with a Magical Negro.

Box office
The Legend of Bagger Vance opened at No. 3 at the U.S. box office behind Charlie's Angels and Meet the Parents, grossing $11,516,712 from 2,061 theaters.

Soundtrack
The now out-of-print soundtrack to The Legend of Bagger Vance was released on November 7, 2000. It was mostly written by Rachel Portman, except for tracks one ("My Best Wishes"), thirteen ("Bluin' the Blues") and fourteen ("Mood Indigo"), which were written by Fats Waller, Muggsy Spanier and Duke Ellington, respectively. The score for this movie was the last to be recorded at CTS Studios in Wembley, England, before the scoring stage's closure and demolition.

 * Track list

 * 1) My Best Wishes (2:27)
 * 2) The Legend of Bagger Vance (2:11)
 * 3) Savannah Needs a Hero (4:53)
 * 4) Bagger Offers to Caddy for Junuh (4:07)
 * 5) Bagger & Hardy Measure the Course at Night (2:32)
 * 6) The Day of the Match Dawns (3:07)
 * 7) Birdie (1:46)
 * 8) Junuh Sees the Field (5:11)
 * 9) Hole in One (2:30)
 * 10) Junuh Comes Out of the Woods (3:55)
 * 11) Bagger Leaves (3:12)
 * 12) Old Hardy Joins Bagger by the Sea (5:50)
 * 13) Bluin' the Blues (2:27)
 * 14) Mood Indigo (3:07)
 * Total soundtrack time: 47:15

title: The Legend of Bagger Vance


text:
Talarn

Talarn is a municipality in the comarca of the Pallars Jussà in Catalonia, Spain. It is situated in the centre of the Tremp basin, on the Noguera Pallaresa river below the Sant Antoni reservoir. It is the site of a hydroelectric power station and of a training school of the Spanish army (Academia Básica de Suboficiales). The town is served by the C-147 road between Tremp and La Pobla de Segur.

Talarn was originated on a hill around the former castle. It was an important fortified place and the chief town of the area of Pallars in 1453. The arms (see image) show a wall, the enclosure around the town (at present day there are some remains of it), and the royal arms of Catalonia-Aragon (four pales Gules on Or), alluding to the royal jurisdiction (in 1370 the right to have a fair and market was given by the king, and the town had a representation in the Catalan Parliament). These arms were officially granted on 25 July 1991.

title: Talarn


text:
Fries with That?

Fries with That? is a YTV produced sitcom. It first aired in April 2004.

This sitcom revolves around a group of high school students who work at a local fast-food restaurant named Bulky's in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

The sitcom follows primarily five high school students and focuses on many themes such as love, responsibility, friendship, and honesty.

It was cancelled after completion of the second season due to declining ratings.

Principal characters
Pattie, cashier. She enjoys playing sports, especially Canadian football and basketball. She uses her athleticism to compensate for her lack of intellect. For example, Pattie uses a unique studying technique, which involves shooting a piece of paper into a makeshift basket in order to learn specific historical events such as July 1, 1867 (Canadian Confederation). Although she is in touch with her masculine side, she is extremely romantic. Her taste for men can vary from an ostracized nerd to a handsome criminal, and she once had feelings for Alex. Her full name is Patricia Johnson.

Tess, cashier. Tess is the free spirit of the crew. Her French accent and last name indicate that she comes from a Francophone household. Her colleagues know her to be extremely creative and artistic. She tends to be rather eccentric, and she believes her aura/soul has a huge presence in her life and should be taken seriously, but is often ignored. She is obsessed with the paranormal and likes to use it as an explanation for everyday occurrences. She is often distracted at work by studying, art projects, deadlines, songs, extra projects, or boys. Her full name is Tess Laverière.

Robyn, cashier, griller, dishwasher. She is the most functional member of the group. She claims to hate men, but has a secret crush on Alex. She hints at the secret several times, but Alex could never figure it out. For example, when Alex and Pattie were mistakenly believed to be in a serious relationship, she indicated with two miniature figurines that they would not be married; she also moped and ate expired chocolate. Her full name is Robyn Cohen.

Alex, burger-flipper. Alex is the typical handsome egotistical teenager. Although he has a reputation of being rude, disgusting, and inconsiderate, he is a loyal friend. He is not very romantic and fails to recognize Robyn's attraction. He tends to be very physical in his relationships and cannot seem to keep his hands off girls that attract him. He also loves to provoke his extremely obsessive assistant manager, Ben Shaw, and they seem to be in a constant state of frustration with each other. His full name is Alexander Kurzi.

Ben is the highly obsessive and greedy assistant manager. He only wants one thing: more profits for Bulky's so that he can get some recognition and finally become the manager. He is sometimes aloof and unpleasant, but other times friendly and accepting. He is a perfectionist and tends to stress easily. Some crewmembers wish he would fall off a bridge, just so they could have a day off. He enjoys making up absurd but "official" sounding rules such as "no member of the crew at Bulky’s is allowed to date another crewmember at Bulky’s." Ben is also an excellent mathematician and greatly enjoys listing and calculating profits. His full name is Benjamin Shaw.

Meiyan, introduced in season two. She loves to annoy Ben, and tried to take his job when he faked his death.

Eddie is not part of the main crew, but rather an employee that transports the supplies from the warehouse to the restaurant. He is portrayed as a simpleton, but revealed he got 100% on all of his provincial exams without cheating. He often replies "____? I'm super good at _____" whenever anyone mentions something they have problems with, but usually, Eddie turns out to not be as good as he says he is. His full name is Eduardo Samisk.

The "head office guy" supervises the restaurant and is constantly bombarding Ben and the crew with threats in order to increase productivity. He tends to be serious, but can be lighthearted, such as when he pulled an April Fool's Day prank on the crew.

Origin of the series
Fries with That? was inspired by the Quebec French language VRAK.TV sitcom Une grenade avec ça? ("A grenade With That?").

Cast

 * Jeanne Bowser as Pattie Johnson
 * Giancarlo Caltabiano as Ben Shaw
 * Morgan Kelly as Alex Kurzi
 * Stefanie Buxton as Robyn Cohen
 * Anne-Marie Baron as Tess Laverriere
 * Li Li as Meiyan
 * Kent McQuaid as Eddie
 * Heidi Foss as the Principal
 * Arthur Holden as Head Office Guy

title: Fries with That?


text:
Erato Records

Erato Records is a record label founded in 1953 as Erato Disques S.A. by Philippe Loury to promote French classical music. Loury was head of éditions musicales Costallat. His first releases in France were licensed from the Haydn Society of Boston, and he made Erato's first recording in January 1953: Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Te Deum with Les Jeunesses Muslcales.

Michel Garcin became the label's artistic director and producer and built up the catalogue with contemporary French composers such as Henri Dutilleux and French artists: Jean-François Paillard (234 records), Marie-Claire Alain (234 records), Maurice André (198 records), Jean-Pierre Rampal (127 records), and Lily Laskine.

Notable recordings
Erato Records released first recordings of :

 * J S Bach's complete organ works, played by Marie-Claire Alain, in 1968
 * J M Leclair's works, played by Jean-François Paillard, in 1978
 * D Scarlatti's complete keyboard sonatas, played by Scott Ross, in 1988.
 * The world premiere of John Corigliano's Symphony No. 1, performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim, in 1990

Warner Music Group acquisition
Warner Music Group acquired Teldec Records in 1988. Erato Records was distributed in the USA on the RCA Red Seal label for many years. In 1992, Erato Records was acquired by Warner Music Group. In 2001, Warner Music Group closed down both Teldec Records and Erato Records to cut operating costs in classical music business and streamline the Warner Classics label.

Revival with Virgin Classics catalogue
In 2013, the Erato Records label was revived with Warner Music Group acquisition of EMI Classics and Virgin Classics, which became part of Warner Classics. Erato Records absorbed the Virgin Classics artists roster and catalogue while the EMI Classics label's artists roster and catalogue was absorbed into the Warner Classics label but not the rights to the EMI or Virgin names due to the trademark rights being retained by seller Universal Music Group.

title: Erato Records


text:
Wikipedia:Requests for comment/138.130.194.229

In order to remain listed at Requests for comment, at least two people need to show that they tried to resolve a dispute with this user and have failed. This must involve the same dispute, not different disputes. The persons complaining must provide evidence of their efforts, and each of them must certify it by signing this page with ~. If this does not happen within 48 hours of the creation of this dispute page (which was: {insert UTC timestamp with }), the page will be deleted. The current date and time is:, 29 July 2024 (UTC).

This anon has been using a number of different IPs originating with http://www.melbourneit.com.au, in Brisbane, Australia, largely in the range 138.130.xxx , but also including other numbers (see Whois).

 * (138.130.192.210 | talk | contributions)
 * (138.130.192.10 | talk | contributions)
 * (138.130.194.62 | talk | contributions)
 * (138.130.194.105 | talk | contributions)
 * (138.130.194.229 | talk | contributions)
 * (138.130.195.166 | talk | contributions)

Other anons who may have been inadvertently caught up;
 * (217.42.27.31 | talk | contributions)
 * (217.42.29.103 | talk | contributions)
 * (220.244.224.8 | talk | contributions)
 * (66.81.128.86 | talk | contributions)

Statement of the dispute
138.130.xxx appears to be a young earth creationist who shares the opinions of the ministry Answers in Genesis. 138.130.xxx is trying to insert his/her creationist POV into science articles, in particular RNA world hypothesis and related articles. 138.130.xxx has also tried to subtley push pov into other articles. In doing so, he/she has been uncivil, violated community consensus on talk pages, engaged in edit wars, has done some borderline vandalism, and broken the NPOV guidelines. User has also inserted copyrighted material into articles and has removed valid information from articles.

Description
''{Add summary here, but you must use the section below to certify or endorse it. Users who edit or endorse this summary should not edit the other summaries.}''

Evidence of disputed behavior
(provide diffs and links)
 * RNA world hypothesis history, edit warring.
 * Origin of life history (to a lesser extent)
 * Richard Dawkins history -- adding links to Answers in Genesis reviews of Dawkins' books (but since we have articles on each of his books already a single review could go in each of those articles).
 * Abiogenesis history
 * Urey Miller Experiment history (to a lesser extent)
 * William A. Dembski history; edit warring on how to express POV on pseudoscience in lead.
 * More POV pushing
 * Vandalism of links in Kent Hovind article  (appears to be different anon)
 * And yet more NPOV violation in "scientific community"

Applicable policies
{list the policies that apply to the disputed conduct}
 * Civility
 * Edit war
 * WP:NPOV, especially WP:NPOV
 * WP:3RR
 * Copyright violations from  (which is also a copyvio)
 * Reasonless removal of valid information

Evidence of trying and failing to resolve the dispute
(provide diffs and links)
 * talk:RNA world hypothesis several users trying to reason with said anon. Anon exposes POV and ignores.
 * User talk:220.244.224.8

Users certifying the basis for this dispute

 * Dunc|☺ 16:36, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Deglr6328 18:43, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Other users who endorse this summary
(sign with ~ )
 * Vsmith 02:11, 20 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Response
This is a summary written by the user whose conduct is disputed, or by other users who think that the dispute is unjustified and that the above summary is biased or incomplete.

{Add summary here, but you must use the endorsement section below to sign. Users who edit or endorse this summary should not edit the other summaries.}

This is becoming silly. No one tried to "reason" at all. Instead, they simply went ahead and reverted, then attacked me for undoing their vandalism. Evidently in the eyes of some evolutionists, including a sysop (who thus has a clear conflict of interest so should step aside from (ab)using his powers), anything from a creationist or ID is "POV", while it is not "POV" to denounce anything from that source or if it is blatantly motivated by atheism (e.g. Dawkins). The sysop concerned called creationists "liars" then squealed about "incivility" when called upon it. So he cannot be trusted about NPOV, since to him, evidently any deviation from materialism is POV, and any who reply to his diatribes are "uncivil" by definition.

It becomes worse when criticisms of the RNA world by an evolutionist, on sound chemical grounds, are rejected. This is supposed to be an encyclopedia, so it seemed fair to show concrete and comprehensive chemical problems with the hypothesis.

I also fail to understand why a link on peptides is retained when it has nothing to do with this topic. Yet when this link was removed from this section, it was added to the origin of life page. 138.130.194.229 03:33, 20 Feb 2005 (UTC)

In the Dembski page, the sysop simply decrees "no, it really is pseudoscience", and evidently everyone else is supposed to take his word for it. This is one more example of why we should have no confidence in Duncharris as sysop -- he simply can't be trusted not to insert his own POV and crush dissent with his sysop powers.138.130.194.229 03:36, 20 Feb 2005 (UTC)

 * I believe the following links provide context that may be useful for commenters in this dispute.
 * anon's first edit in the Origin of life article followed by Deglr6328's revert
 * Deglr reverts anon at Origin of life with the edit summary "answersingenisis" link? you have got to be kidding me. this has absolutely no place in a scientific article and if 220.224.whatever adds it again I'm putting him on the list of known vandals
 * Vandalism (NPOV violations)
 * User:Deglr6328, which says in part, "I have no patience for pseudoscience or mysticism being inserted into legitimate rational articles on Wikipedia."
 * User talk:Deglr6328, my attempt to remind Deglr not to mistake good-faith but POV edits for vandalism, followed by Deglr's rebuff and escalatory remarks between anon and Deglr.
 * Deglr lists anon at Vandalism in progress
 * Gazpacho 12:59, 20 Feb 2005 (UTC) (not endorsing any summary at this time).

 * Good grief, so Duncharris is even misusing Wiki's own definition of "vandalism". A sysop should surely know the rules, and since he doesn't, that's another reason he should resign. 138.130.193.19 13:01, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Anyone can make a mistake. Gazpacho
 * True enough, although it's not just one. But OK, if he is prepared to learn from his mistakes ... 138.130.192.82 11:47, 24 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Users who endorse this summary (sign with ~ ):

Outside view
This is a summary written by users not directly involved with the dispute but who would like to add an outside view of the dispute.

I was asked by Duncharris to get involved with this dispute. I have worked on a number of articles this user has been involved with, although not on any of the seven listed as evidence of disputed behaviour. Before commenting here I studied the edit histories and talk pages of RNA world hypothesis and William A. Dembski to see the basis of the accusations. In my opinion the fault lies on the side of the anonymous editor's opponents, not with the anon. (My greatest criticism of the anon is that he should get himself a username—but then he's not actually required to do that.)

The anon's first edit on RNA world hypothesis was to insert a link to a paper co-authored by a biologist (Dean Kenyon), which paper disputed the RNA world hypothesis. Deglr6328 reverted that insertion, citing "religious propaganda link" as the reason. As the paper doesn't mention religion, is clearly discussing science, and Kenyon is quite competent to discuss the issue, the claim that it was "religious propaganda" was nothing more than a genetic fallacy, as the anon user (if user 220.244.224.8) really is the same user—see my comments below) pointed out.

Without detailing the rest of the edit war, essentially the same pattern followed, with the anon user re-inserting things deleted by others or inserting new information, and a number of others users reverting his changes simply because they came from a creationist source (the genetic fallacy yet again).

I endorse the anon user's response to accusations of incivility. Duncharris accused creationists of "a nasty habit of bending the truth", and the anon editor of "spouting nonsense" then accuses the anon editor of being offensive and of incivility!

From the other user bringing this complaint, Deglr6328, we've had the following just on the RNA world hypothesis talk page:
 * A particular "creationist" (actually ID) website is "infamous"
 * He referred to the anon user's insertions as "religiously influenced nonsense" and "bilge"
 * He referred to Dean Kenyon's "sordid academic career" (Kenyon was a respected biologist until—and because—he started questioning naturalism)
 * He referred to user 220.244.224.8 as "a rabidly rambling nutter".

Now what was that about the pot calling the kettle black?

As for the charge of copyright violation, nobody has attempted to claim that it doesn't fall under the 'fair use' criteria.

As an aside, I'm not totally convinced that user 220.244.224.8 is the same as user 138.xxx.xxx.xxx. I note that the IP addresses for the latter resolve to Brisbane, Australia, whilst the IP address for the former resolves to Melbourne, Australia (which is where I am—but no, it's not me). For those ignoramuses that don't know, those two places are nearly 1,400 kilometres apart. Now I don't know enough about how these things work to know whether someone in Brisbane could use a Melbourne IP address or vice versa, and it is possible that the anon editor has flown between the two cities and made edits from both, but ....

Philip J. Rayment 11:00, 20 Feb 2005 (UTC)

P.S. If the editors reverting anon's edits hadn't displayed so much religious bigotry (rejecting his edits because they came from a "religious" source), you may have found him more willing to work with you instead of fighting you. Philip J. Rayment 11:09, 20 Feb 2005 (UTC)

 * 1) Endorse. One further point: Deglr6328 called for a vote (on the Talk page) with the words: “Can we please take a vote here on who wants this bilge included in a perfectly good scientific article? Obviously everyone here knows I think it needs to go. (furthermore, I can't believe we're wasting our time arguing with an IP address. someone who cares so little for wikipedia he hasn't even bothered to take the 2 minutes to get a username.)”  While the voting was continuing, Duncharris persisted in removing the link under discussion.  I've no sympathy with intelligent design, which I consider to be religiously promoted pseudoscience, but this isn't about opinions, it's about behaviour, and 138.xxx.xxx.xxx's behaviour was at worst no worse than that of his or her accusers. Mel Etitis ( Μελ Ετητης ) 11:21, 20 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * 2) Endorse. It seems like Philip J. Rayment is spot on in his assesment. I see the fault as lying with the opponents as well. Philip makes the case rather nicely. Why is it that in every single article pertaining to a creationists or creationism, evolutionists links get to be posted on the external links section, but in evolutionist or evolution articles, a creationist link is intolerable? It seems amazingly hypocritical. Why fight tooth and nail to keep an external link to book review which holds a different viewpoint? Infocat 12:32, 20 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * 3) Endorse for all of the above reasons. our newfound anon has provided some very valuable resources and perspectives for furthering npov on a number of pages.  his frustration is, in my opinion, entirely justified when one considers some of the tactics he has encountered.  Ungtss 16:36, 20 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * 4) Endorse. Though I firmly fall in the "evolutionist" camp and I in general despise anonymous editors, I have to agree that the editor in question has made good faith edits to the article, has attempted reasoned discussion, and has been met with pig-headedness and an unwillingness to respond to his queries and arguments, been unfairly labeled a "vandal", etc. Nothing I have read leads me to believe s/he is interested only in advancing a POV with no interest in dialogue with other editors. S/he should still get a login, though. Graft 18:00, 25 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * 5) Endorse albeit with strong reservations. The objections to Dean Kenyon are completely valid, albeit uneccessary ad hominem attacks do seem to have occured on both sides. A) Kenyon is not a biologist or a biochemist and has no real has no qualifications to talk about abiogenesis, and is the author of the creationist text book Of Pandas and People. Objecting to including an article by him is completely reasonable. However this does not in any way excuse making unproductive ad hominem attacks. JoshuaZ 03:50, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

Later additions to summary, and resulting discussion

 * Since writing my summary above, further IP addresses have been added to this page as allegedly belonging to the same user. I used Geobytes' IP Address Locator Tool to determine the geographical location of all the listed IP addresses.
 * 138.130.* all resolve to Brisbane, Australia.
 * 220.244.224.8 resolves to Melbourne, Australia
 * 217.42.* resolves to London, England
 * 66.81.128.86 resolves to Sacramento, U.S.A.
 * Quite a jet-setter, our anon! Or perhaps they are not all the same person?  I see no reason whatsoever to think that the last two (the non-Australian ones) are the same person as 133.130.*.  Yet the eighth article listed as evidence is based on 217.42.* being the same user.
 * Philip J. Rayment 14:33, 20 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Ah, okay. Perhaps they're not the same chap.  I found them all resolving to the same place through whois, though perhaps that's a problem with them or me?. Dunc|☺ 15:17, 20 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Right, so Duncharris has been bullying other users on other web pages. Same pattern -- reverting additions that don't agree with his atheistic religion, then squawking "vandalism" when the user restores some of the information summarily deleted.  The only vandal around here is Duncharris, and it's time for him to step down from sysop or be pushed.

 * And when is he going to unblock the page so we can get rid of the partisan "religiously motivated links" heading a perfectly scientific article? For his information, it was scientific difficulties in chemical evolution that caused Kenyon to abandon the theory.138.130.193.19 12:57, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Discussion
All signed comments and talk not related to a vote or endorsement, should be directed to this page's discussion page.


text:
Eternal Records

Eternal Records was a British imprint of Warner Bros. Records. Originally formed in the early 1980s as an imprint for various genres such as post-punk and new wave, it was later relaunched in the mid-1990s as an electronic/Eurodance imprint. The label went dormant in the early 2000s.

title: Eternal Records


text:
Mäntyniemi

Mäntyniemi (Talludden; lit. 'Pine Cape') is one of the three official residences of the President of Finland, besides the Presidential Palace and the summer residence Kultaranta. Mäntyniemi was finished in 1993. Five Finnish presidents have lived there: Mauno Koivisto, Martti Ahtisaari, Tarja Halonen, Sauli Niinistö and Alexander Stubb.

History
When president Urho Kekkonen resigned in 1982 due to a serious illness, he stayed in the then official residence Tamminiemi until his death in 1986. The Government of Finland set aside Tamminiemi for him and decided to choose a new residence for the president Koivisto. In 1983, 28000 m2 of land was bought in the Meilahti district in western Helsinki. Architects Reima and Raili Pietilä, well known for their distinctive organic architecture, won the open architectural competition to design Mäntyniemi. Construction started in September 1989 and was completed in 1993.

Features
Mäntyniemi is the first official residence to be built specifically for the President of Finland. It is located by the sea. Steps lead down from the main reception room to a waterfront terrace.

There are three buildings on the site. The large main house comprises most of the total floor space of approximately 2000 m2. The main house contains the president's private living quarters and personal office suites, as well as the reception rooms. The latter can be used for meetings, for receiving visitors, and for hosting smaller receptions. There is also a small gatehouse and an outbuilding on the premises.

Interior design, the textiles, furnishings, tableware and other items were designed specifically for Mäntyniemi. Competitions for artists were held to choose some of the individual works of art for particular settings or parts of the house. Stone (such as granite) and wood (birch) are among the commonly used materials on the inside, along with concrete.

The surrounding landscaping was designed by Maj-Lis Rosenbröjer to exist in harmony with the natural vegetation.

Numerical data

 * Volume: 16290 m3
 * Gross floor space: 4210 m2
 * Net floor space: 2312 m2, of which:
 * Private living quarters: 680 m2
 * Personal offices: 424 m2
 * Reception rooms: 916 m2
 * Windows: 300
 * Corners on the exterior: 212
 * Doors: 190, of which 180 are all different

In comparison, the White House has 5100 m2 of floor space.

Presidents who have resided in Mäntyniemi

 * Mauno Koivisto (1993–1994)
 * Martti Ahtisaari (1994–2000)
 * Tarja Halonen (2000–2012)
 * Sauli Niinistö (2012–2024)
 * Alexander Stubb (2024-present)

title: Mäntyniemi


text:
Canon EOS 350D

The Canon EOS 350D, known in the Americas as the EOS Digital Rebel XT and in Japan as the EOS Kiss Digital N, is an 8.0-megapixel entry-level digital single-lens reflex camera manufactured by Canon. The model was initially announced in February 2005. Part of the EOS range, it is the successor to the EOS 300D and the predecessor to the EOS 400D (or Digital Rebel XTi), which was released in August 2006.

Details
The 350D is the successor to the Canon EOS 300D, which was the first sub-US$1000 digital SLR, introduced in 2003. There are some differences between the 350D and the 300D. Many of the features 'locked out' by Canon in the 300D were unlocked in this camera, so it has been subject to less unofficial 'hacking' to release the locked features. In addition to these unlocked features, a number of other improvements have been made. Some of the most significant upgrades include:
 * 8.0 megapixels (up from 6.3)
 * DIGIC II image processor
 * Faster power on times (0.2 seconds)
 * Compact Flash type II capability (includes microdrives)
 * 14 (JPEG) or 4 (raw) frames continuous shooting buffer
 * Smaller and lighter body
 * Increased function customization
 * E-TTL II flash algorithm (improvement over the old E-TTL flash algorithm)
 * Mirror lock-up
 * Selectable AF and metering modes
 * USB 2.0 interface (improved from the slower USB 1.1 interface on the 300D)
 * Lithium ion battery.

The Canon EOS 350D comes with Digital Photo Professional to be able to create JPEG or TIFF files from raw files. This was only available on Canon's professional cameras.

Issues
Canon had compatibility problems with the Lexar Professional 80x-speed Compact Flash (CF) cards which resulted in either total image loss, or the camera freezing up. In the cases of the camera freezing, the images may still be retrieved using an external CF card reader.

The camera will interpret the presence of a hot shoe protector as the presence of an auxiliary flash attachment thereby disabling the built-in pop-up flash. Removing the hot shoe protector will re-enable the built-in flash. A micro-switch in the hot-shoe senses the presence of the flash.

When using third party lenses, most notably older Sigma lenses, there may be a compatibility issue. Reports exist of people receiving "Err99" errors when using such lenses. The problem is more pronounced when using older lens that do not feature an HSM focus drive. Using the problematic lens with its largest aperture is sometimes possible. Another cause of Err99 messages involve EF-S 18–55 lenses (kit lens for the 350D and 20D) that are defective; purchasing used EF-S 18–55 lenses is a risk factor, especially from eBay auctions. Some auction listings state that the lens was never used – especially those claiming that the lens was originally part of an EOS 400D kit; the best way is to verify the serial numbers indicating the manufacture date.

Firmware updates
The latest firmware released by Canon for the EOS 350D is version 1.0.3 (released 27 October 2005). It fixes problems relating to remote release cables, as well as a problem while reviewing saved images.

title: Canon EOS 350D


text:
Work Group

The Work Label (stylized as The WORK Group) was an American record label. Its major album releases included Tidal (1996) by Fiona Apple and On the 6 (1999) by Jennifer Lopez.

History
In July 1999, founders Jeff Ayeroff and Jordan Harris left the label. It was discontinued in 2000 when all the label's artists were moved to Epic Records.

Artists

 * Tatyana Ali (MJJ Music/Work)
 * Fiona Apple (Clean Slate/Work)
 * Elephant Ride
 * Dan Bern
 * Eagle-Eye Cherry
 * Esthero
 * Neil Finn (US/Canada)
 * Imperial Drag
 * Rebbie Jackson (MJJ Music/Work)
 * Jamiroquai
 * Puff Johnson
 * Diana King
 * Len
 * Jennifer Lopez
 * Mary Lou Lord
 * Men of Vizion (MJJ Music/Work)
 * Mercury Rev
 * Midnight Oil
 * Morley
 * Ned's Atomic Dustbin
 * Heather Nova
 * Pond
 * Pressure Drop
 * Sabelle
 * Schtum
 * Sponge
 * Cree Summer
 * Chris Whitley
 * Count Bass D

title: Work Group


text:
Portrait Records

Portrait Records was a sister label of Epic Records and later of Columbia Records. Notable artists Cyndi Lauper and Sade signed with Portrait, but their contracts were absorbed by Epic after that incarnation of the label was shuttered.

History & Overview
Portrait began in 1976 as a sister label of Epic; its initial signings were Joan Baez, Burton Cummings, and the McCrarys. Cummings' "Stand Tall" was the lead-off single. Baez's Blowin' Away album and the McCrarys' self-titled debut bowed in early 1977. The label design was similar to that of Columbia's singles; design on it was in grey tones, while the logo was handwritten orange with a red outline. This was also the launch of Epic/Portrait/Associated (EPA) under the CBS moniker.

One of the signings the label had was the band Heart. The band had been signed with Mushroom Records, but left after a dispute in advertising their Dreamboat Annie album. The print ads led some fans to think that the sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson were lesbians. Portrait snatched the group up quickly, releasing the single "Barracuda" before Little Queen was to hit the shelves. The McCrarys also scored big with "You".

By 1979, however, Epic was looking to consolidate some of its low-end producing labels and, for a short time, Portrait and Epic had both names on the same label. In 1980, only Heart was picked up from Portrait; releasing Bébé le Strange, after which they took a two-year hiatus, releasing Private Audition in 1982.

Baez left the label after the release of her 1979 Honest Lullaby album; she later admitted in her 1987 memoir, And a Voice to Sing With, that she regretted signing with the label, describing her having left her previous label (A&M) for Portrait as "the stupidest career move I ever made".

In 1982, the label was relaunched again tapping into the new wave scene and other music not gaining any airplay. It signed artists such as Altered Images, Aldo Nova, Accept, Arc Angel, Hawaiian Pups, The Elvis Brothers, Eddy Grant, Orion the Hunter, The Producers, Saga, and Peter Baumann (formerly of Tangerine Dream). The label was completely black but the red logo stayed intact. Portrait struck gold again with the signings of Cyndi Lauper and Sade, both in 1983. Americans wouldn't get Sade until a year later. Aldo Nova did make some headway with the songs "Fantasy" and "Monkey on Your Back" from his Subject...Aldo Nova album. Saga also found success with the songs "On the Loose" and "Wind Him Up", which would gain the band gold and platinum albums worldwide. In 1985, British singer Toyah released her album Minx on Portrait. In 1986, British guitarist and songwriter Bill Nelson released Getting the Holy Ghost Across (US title: On a Blue Wing) on the label.

By the end of 1986, the only act making money on this label was Lauper. Her album True Colors went platinum, but it wasn't enough to keep the label afloat. At the end of 1986, Portrait was shuttered again.

In 1988, the label re-emerged once more but as a contemporary jazz outfit, with signings as diverse as Stanley Clarke, Ornette Coleman, Prime Time and Japanese import T-Square. The logo changed dramatically. This time the label had two: the primary one was a painted P with the word "portrait" in a red block, while the secondary one was an outline drawing of a woman. This one was gone by 1990.

Epic did try to make the label work two more times: in 1988, it was trying to do jazz collections, and, in 1999, it was relaunched through Columbia Records as a hard-rock/metal label, signing Ratt, Cinderella, Great White, the Union Underground, and Mars Electric. In 2000, Iron Maiden signed with Portrait in conjunction with Columbia Records in the US. Finally, after trying so hard to keep it afloat, Portrait dissolved in 2002 after the US release of Iron Maiden's Rock in Rio album.

In late 2012, Sony Masterworks reactivated the label as a classical music imprint with its first artists The Piano Guys on the newly relaunched imprint, and subsequently transferring Jackie Evancho to Portrait from the Columbia label.

Through Epic

 * Burton Cummings
 * Saga
 * Heart
 * Cyndi Lauper
 * Eddy Grant
 * Bill Nelson
 * Sade
 * Joan Baez
 * Toyah
 * Accept

Through Columbia

 * Cinderella
 * Great White
 * Ratt
 * The Union Underground

Through Sony Masterworks

 * Jackie Evancho
 * Natalie Imbruglia
 * The Piano Guys
 * Yanni

title: Portrait Records