text:
Talk:Charles Berlitz

normal explanations
"he offered normal explanations for anomalous phenomena"? That's a new one. Can you name a few? --Hob Gadling July 4, 2005 22:40 (UTC)

 * That particular phrase was taken from another encyclopedia. We can do better than that.DanielDemaret 10:16, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

 * Nothing. Aha. --Hob Gadling 16:53, July 14, 2005 (UTC)

 * I can see how that might be misinterpreted. "well known alleged anomalous phenomena" might be better?DanielDemaret 09:32, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

article not objective
"Many of the "facts" cited in his books are highly questionable." I think this sentence reflects the opinion of the author. I have a completely different opinion, so I think that this sentence should be modified or removed, because it's not "neutral". Luca - Italy
 * Better? :-) --Hob Gadling 10:46, July 27, 2005 (UTC)

"a brilliant linguist"
This article must be a joke. 1. A linguist is not somebody who speaks many languages. 2. Berlitz' "Native Tongues: The Book of Language Facts" doesn't betray his linguistic capacities, to put it mildly. It's just a pile of half-baked language-related pseudo-facts. Never saw a bigger list of nonsense, at least off-line.

Frank
 * That text was taken from a web dictionary a long time ago.DanielDemaret 11:51, 28 March 2006 (UTC)
 * It is true that it is not enough to speak many languages to be a linguist. However, he did write a books about linguistics and also about language teaching.DanielDemaret 09:30, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

 * Just watched a ca. 1990 German-made documentary on "Atlantis" on German TV featuring Mr Berlitz and found it astounding that the master of 32 languages wasn´t able or willing to speak German, but relied on his native tongue. Strange. --328cia (talk) 07:08, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

Reference.com
There are many reviews of his books in reference.com, if anyone is interested DanielDemaret 10:18, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

Criticism
Wow. This article's a corker. As a big fan of Wikipedia, & regular reader, I've yet to come across such an involuble junk-piece. The writing is god-awful (too many flaws to list), and the writer is inexcusably light/sympathetic to Berlitz's failings. A glib reference to Berlitz's quip "my critics said I should have received the award for fiction" IS NOT sufficient reference to his casual relationship to the truth. Such insufficient reference to the substantive criticisms of Berlitz either reflect a poor writer and/or a Berlitz sympathiser. Come on. "The Bermuda Triangle" was the 70s' "Da Vinci Code". This article needs to be scrapped.

M
 * (above written by 124.168.76.208)

I have corrected/trimmed down som parts due to your partly correct criticism. Correction and improving the article is better than scrapping. However, the likeness to the "da vince code", I don't see, perhaps since I have read both books that you mention. For example, "The Bermuda Triangle", like almost all of Berlitz books, lists different causes that other people have proposed, but keeps a boringly neutral stance to all proposals. Brown is more exciting, in sharp contrast, since he claims that all that he writes in "the da vinci code" is true.DanielDemaret 21:55, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

Berlitz has been very influential
He has almost single handedly created two of the most enduring myths of the 20th century - the Bermuda Triangle and the Roswell Incident (though his crucial role in popularising the latter is strangely often forgotten). I think this deserves a mention. TharkunColl 08:10, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

 * As far as "the latter" (Roswell) goes, I would think that the contemporaneous newspaper accounts also played a role. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.163.65.9 (talk) 11:32, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

 * He made the myths a lot more well known, that should perhaps be mentioned. This goes for most of his books, not just the two you mentioned. At the same time he made strange structures in far away places better known. But since the myths clearly existed before he wrote the books, the word "created" would be a tad misleading. When it comes to the particular example of the Bermuda Triangle, he found out about it when helping people booking plane tickets. Nobody wanted a plane that crossed the area, and he decided to find out why this strange request appeared repeatedly. DanielDemaret 07:55, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Charles Frambach Berlitz Genealogy
Charles Louis "Lewis" Frambach Berlitz was born named Charles Louis Frambach" His father was Charles Louis Frambach Born in Kaukauna, WI on 7/27/1880 and his mother was named Millicent Berlitz. They were married on 6/9/1909 in NYC where they lived. His father attended Columbia University and Majored in Mining as his father was involved in the gold mining business in Cripple Creek, Colorado from 1898 until 1904.

Charles Frambach Berlitz's Grandfather was named Henry Frambach and was a well known Capitalist who helped develop the Papermaking industry in the US making paper with Wood Pulp in Kaukauna, Wisconsin. He had 14 Patents for several phases of the papermaking process with the first patent from 1879. He also ran for the US Congress in the late 1890's. His Civil war career included being a spy for the Union army and being captured and escaping several times.

His Great Grandfather was named Charles Augustus Frambach who according to biographies written in the late 1890's was also a well known linguist and professor. His Great Grandfather died and is buried in Racine, Wisconsin and his Grandfather died and is buried in Los Angeles, CA Tomdu 20:11, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

Dag Hammarskjöld International Prize
This article is indeed a joke. I removed the silly 32 languages claim (unverified since December 2007). I also put a "citation needed" on the Dag Hammarskjöld International Prize. I haven't found any information about such a prize worth mentioning, and don't think there is. Hexmaster (talk) 19:11, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

This article needs major revision
This is a terrible article. I would remove the section regarding the People's Almanac, as it doesn't seem to be an actual credible source. Also, the whole thing needs to be rewritten to emphasize the fact that Atlantis and the Bermuda Triangle are simply conspiracy theories/folklore with no basis in reality, as any source will show. I'll check in in a few days and see what transpires, but as of now, I think I'll have to come back and gut this atrocious excuse for an article. Sources need to be provided for any claim about this subject. Jparenti (talk) 11:50, 8 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Please do! This article is crying out for some attention. —  Mr. Stradivarius ♫ 04:45, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

Date of birth: 22 November 1913 or 20 November 1914?
The article has said 20 November 1914 ever since 7 March 2004, but that edit came without any source.

When he died on 18 December 2003, both the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times said he was aged 90. If that's accurate, it means he was born no later than 18 December 1913. The NY Times also gave his year of birth as 1913.

There are plenty of google hits for 22 November 1913. There are also now plenty of hits for 20 November 1914, but 8 years down the track, how many of these are Wikipedia mirrors? Most if not all, I would suggest.

This seems to be an independent genealogical source for 22 November 1913. This gives his Social Security number and date of birth 22 November 1913 (although it does get his death date wrong – 11 December rather than 18 December).

Comments? --  Jack of Oz   [Talk]  04:07, 29 November 2012 (UTC)

 * I reckon 10 months is enough time for comments. I've made the above change.  --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  12:12, 5 October 2013 (UTC)

title: Talk:Charles Berlitz


text:
Talk:Bohemian Rhapsody

The meaning(s) of the song
I think it would be useful for somebody to research the meanings of the song. Mercury may have said something, others may have multiple conflicting ideas. Much of the article is about the commercial side of the song, but there must be something to say about the meaning. 17:04, 9 October 2020 (UTC)
 * My digital signature was rejected. trying again. Pete unseth (talk) 17:05, 9 October 2020 (UTC)
 * Journalists and people have been searching for decades for the meaning of the song, and nobody has ever found it. The band members have said they know but they aren't saying, so the likelihood is that nobody will never know, sorry. Richard3120 (talk) 19:38, 9 October 2020 (UTC)
 * It is the event which takes place within the self, also described with Buddha's "enlightenment" and Christ's fasting in the desert. Rhapsody is a psychological event, described in the book below, which is experienced when the ego (Mara/Satan) is starved in the correct manner. Book: Conflict: A Life Nearly Wasted on Dualism2A00:23C7:5981:A01:25DA:8506:141:2FA1 (talk) 01:51, 12 August 2022 (UTC)

Don't have an account, would neither prefer to. Will remain anonymous as this is one-time, though i suppose i could be referred to by "forgetmenaut". Some of the meaning that i know: "Put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger now he's dead" - 'Guns don't kill people, nuh-uh; I kill people, with guns." "I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy. Because I'm easy come, easy go. Little high, little low." Easily conceived, easily departed. A few feet above the ground, and then a few feet below. "Any way the wind blows, doesn't really matter to me." Coriolis effect.  Nothing new under the Sun: circles of circles, bubbles of bubbles, vanity of vanities.  Life on earth is like chasing the wind... i too am a poor boi, dancing more gracefully than my ability to on the border between this life and the next. 2603:8080:2601:4972:F5D6:AB0F:83CB:EDBA (talk) 14:49, 29 January 2021 (UTC)
 * I'm sure Freddie would have been mightily impressed with the reference to the coriolis effect. Martinevans123 (talk) 14:55, 29 January 2021 (UTC)
 * He Kills his ego (personality), not someone else. Like Buddha and Christ did.2A00:23C7:5981:A01:25DA:8506:141:2FA1 (talk) 01:53, 12 August 2022 (UTC)

I think (based on my understanding) it’s just about (let’s be honest) finding out that you’re queer, then being depressed and hating yourself, then accepting yourself and then realizing nothing really matters in this world, so fuck it, do what you gotta do. Freddie is known to be pretty bisexual/gay so…. Tengoritmo (talk) 20:30, 20 January 2023 (UTC)

"So you think you can stop me and spit in the eye" listed at Redirects for discussion
The redirect [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=So_you_think_you_can_stop_me_and_spit_in_the_eye&redirect=no So you think you can stop me and spit in the eye] has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at  until a consensus is reached. Utopes (talk / cont) 23:37, 22 March 2024 (UTC)

https://www.queensongs.info/album-data/queen/a-night-at-the-opera
Read now also https://www.queensongs.info/album-data/queen/a-night-at-the-opera 2A02:A45E:B226:1:64F0:14E1:DD8A:B660 (talk) 17:00, 4 April 2024 (UTC)

vitality rating
shouldnt one of the most famous songs of all time have a vitality rating of at least 4? 216.164.249.213 (talk) 11:26, 6 July 2024 (UTC)

 * I take it you mean a Vital Article rating... you have a very good point, but those are decided by committee, we can't place them arbitrarily. Richard3120 (talk) 14:14, 6 July 2024 (UTC)
 * i see, thanks 216.164.249.213 (talk) 00:21, 7 July 2024 (UTC)

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

title: Talk:Bohemian Rhapsody


text:
Sibérie m'était contéee

Sibérie m'était contéee [sic] (translated as "if [the story of] Siberia was told/recited to me", but see Puns and wordplay below) is the third studio album and first exclusively French language album by Manu Chao, released in 2004. This album features, along with a CD, an oversized book with lyrics to songs from the album and previous Manu Chao albums, as well as illustrations by Jacek Woźniak. Hit singles include "Petite blonde du Boulevard Brune" ("Little blonde from Brune Boulevard", which is a Parisian boulevard). The album's songs refer heavily to Paris, and Parisian life. The song "Helno est mort" ("Helno is Dead") is dedicated to the memory of his friend Helno (Noël Rota), the singer of Les Négresses Vertes who died of a drug overdose in 1993.

Spelling of the title
Note that the title incorporates an intentional misspelling (contéee instead of contée). It may or may not incorporate an intentional dropping of acute accents in Sibérie/Siberie and m'était/m'etait.

The grammatically correct title would be Sibérie m'était contée. The title as written in capital letters on the album cover is SIBERIE M'ETAIT CONTÉEE. To interpret this, it is necessary to understand that the French language usually drops accents (diacritics) on capital letters, but nevertheless very often retains the accent for capital É (E with acute accent) when it occurs in a word-final or near word-final position, because in this position it could be mistaken for silent "e" and the word could be mistaken for another word: e.g., conté (told [masculine]), conte (tale).

Thus, nearly all French language references interpret the title as Sibérie m'était contéee (Amazon.fr, album reviews, etc). However the official Manu Chao website manuchao.net gives the title as Siberie m'etait contéee (without accents on Sibérie or m'était) even though Sibérie appears elsewhere on the same webpage with the accent. It is not known if this dropping of accents in Sibérie and m'était actually reflects the singer's intentions or was merely done by the site's webmaster.

Puns and wordplay
The title is a pun or word play. There are many books or articles in French with the title "Si X m'était conté" or "Si le X m'était conté" (for masculine nouns X) or "Si X m'était contée" or "Si la X m'était contée" (for feminine nouns X). These translate literally as "If X was told to me" or figuratively as "What X is all about" or "An introduction to X". Thus in Sibérie m'était contée the first syllable of Sibérie (Siberia) could be interpreted, in wordplay, as the word si (if): "If  ' bérie '  was told to me" (whatever "bérie" might be - it may, given the themes of the album, be a reference to Paris itself).

Note also a 1974 album by Melina Mercouri with the title Si Melina m'était contée.

The album cover also includes the words (in capital letters): "…A TOUS LES PECHEURS DU FLEUVE AMOUR…", which is also a pun. It can be understood as either "to all those who fish the Amur river" (a river in Siberia), or as "to all the sinners of the river Love". The French words pécheur (sinner) and pêcheur (fisherman/fisher) are spelled the same way when the accent is dropped in capital letters.

Track listing

 * 1) "Le P'tit Jardin" – 4:03
 * 2) "Petite Blonde du Boulevard Brune" – 3:22
 * 3) "La Valse à Sale Temps" – 3:41
 * 4) "Les Milles Paillettes" – 4:05
 * 5) "Il Faut Manger" – 1:47
 * 6) "Helno Est Mort" – 3:34
 * 7) "J'ai Besoin de La Lune" – 2:46
 * 8) "L'automne Est Las" – 2:57
 * 9) "Si Loin de Toi... Je Te Joue" – 2:50
 * 10) "100.000 remords" – 3:29
 * 11) "Trop Tôt, Trop Tard" – 2:37
 * 12) "Te Tromper" – 1:13
 * 13) "Madame Banquise" – 2:41
 * 14) "Les Rues de L'Hiver" – 3:36
 * 15) "Sibérie Fleuve Amour" – 4:14
 * 16) "Les Petites Planètes" – 4:12
 * 17) "Te Souviens Tu..." – 2:34
 * 18) "J'ai Besoin de La Lune... Remix" – 2:46
 * 19) "Dans Mon Jardin" – 5:33
 * 20) "Merci Bonsoir..." – 0:52
 * 21) "Fou de Toi" – 2:27
 * 22) "Les Yeux Turquoises" – 3:18
 * 23) "...Sibérie..." – 4:23

title: Sibérie m'était contéee


text:
Talk:Washi

Incorrect word
There is no such word as "tortuorous ".

There is "tortuous" (probably what is intended) and "torturous" (more painful) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Pdn~enwiki  (talk • contribs) 08:24, 3 February 2005

also... the first link below doesnt work. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Junglizt1210 (talk • contribs) 17:34, 18 February 2006

"To Do" list
The link to interlog.com remains broken, but an archived version is still available (minus the odd picture).

I'm rather confused by some of the "Applications" listed here. I thought kimonos were made out of silk, for example. And how is washi used for sewing? Can anyone back up these statements?

Sakurambo 20:46, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

All above applications are applicable. Quick clothing examples are here:

http://www.spoon-tamago.com/2011/10/13/washi-paper-clothing-by-masamitsu-kimura/

http://web-japan.org/trends00/honbun/tj000522.html

Even though mixed media clothing would be whatever base washi is actually made from...not the paper itself. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Washimaster (talk • contribs) 20:45, 25 February 2013 (UTC)

'Imperial Japanese'
Where does classical 'Imperial Japanese paper' fit in? Since the 19th century, many deluxe editions of American and European books have been printed in a small number on this distinctive paper with its subtle gloss and vaguely fibery structure. What is the Japanese name of it? Is it 'Insetsu-Kioku'? But I don't see that name on the Washi- and Japanese tissue-pages. Glatisant 11:03, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Price
How does it compare in price in Japan to Western-style paper? --Error (talk) 02:04, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

more expensive as most is some form of handmade and material is not quite as readily available. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Washimaster (talk • contribs) 20:48, 25 February 2013 (UTC)

Mistumata
Links to the totally wrong thing. Seems it should link to: Edgeworthia_papyrifera. Can someone confirm? Iameditingstuff (talk) 06:36, 23 May 2011 (UTC)
 * I fixed the link. Thank you for pointing that out. Oda Mari (talk) 14:20, 23 May 2011 (UTC)

Made from Rice?
Should this be 'rice straw?' The term 'rice paper' is still in circulation for Japanese papers; for example, an educated Swiss German gentleman asked me in Feb 2016 about mulberry paper. I pointed out that the word is similar in German - 'Maulbeere.' The word 'kozo' is not in general use, I believe. He said: 'Isn't it made from rice?' I suggested he try to eat it.

--Steve (talk) 06:13, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

History
We do not have to use a phrase,’via Korea’, when we talk about history of Japan. Korea was just ‘path’, but paper came from China directly by shipping. 2400:2410:8182:A00:8898:D076:9AA2:521B (talk) 09:28, 25 April 2023 (UTC)

 * that sentence probably wrote by a south Korean loll 63.157.97.218 (talk) 22:00, 10 August 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Washi


text:
1992 Consensus

The 1992 Consensus is a political term referring to the alleged outcome of a meeting in 1992 between the semiofficial representatives of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-led People's Republic of China (PRC) in mainland China and the Kuomintang (KMT)-led Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan. They are often credited as creating a diplomatic basis for semi-official cross-strait exchanges which began in the early 1990s and is a precondition set by the PRC for engaging in cross-strait dialogue.

Whether the meetings truly resulted in a consensus is disputed in the ROC. The KMT understanding of the consensus is "one China, different interpretations" (一中各表, 一個中國各自表述), i.e. that the ROC and PRC "agree" that there is One China, but disagree about what "China" means (i.e. ROC vs. PRC). The PRC's position is that there is one China (including Taiwan), of which PRC is the sole legitimate representative of China. This discrepancy has been criticized by Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) who is now in power in ROC politics. The DPP has never acknowledged the existence of the a 1992 Consensus achieved by the semi-official meetings, and also rejects any claim that both sides of the Taiwan Strait are "One China".

Critics have also stated that the term was not used contemporaneously during the meeting: the term was invented in April 2000 by former National Security Council secretary-general Su Chi, eight years after the 1992 meetings. The President of ROC in 1992, Lee Teng-hui, denied the existence of the 1992 Consensus in 2006. The 1992 Consensus was rejected by then-incumbent ROC president, Tsai Ing-wen, who associated it with one country, two systems in a 2019 speech.

History
On 1 August 1992, the ROC's National Unification Council passed the "Definition of One China Resolution," stating: "The two sides of the Taiwan Strait uphold the One China principle, but the interpretations of the two sides are different ... Our side believes that one China should mean the Republic of China, established in 1912 and existing today, and its sovereignty extends throughout China, but its current governing authority is only over Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matzu. Admittedly, Taiwan is part of China, but the mainland is also a part of China." This resolution provided the basis for a series of talks between the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) of the Republic of China (ROC).

1992 ARATS-SEF meeting and Wang-Koo summits
In November 1992, a meeting between ARATS and SEF occurred in British Hong Kong. On 1 November 1992, SEF issued a press release stating that "each side expresses its own interpretation verbally in order to solve this sticky problem of [One China] and thereby reaffirmed the August 1st NUC resolution as SEF's interpretation of One China."

ARATS telephoned SEF and stated that it "fully respected and accepted" Taipei's proposal to use verbal declarations for each side's position on this issue. On 16 November, ARATS sent a letter to SEF formally confirming that position and stating, "both sides of the strait uphold the principle of one China, and actively seek national unification, but the political interpretation of the one China will not be referred to in the cross-strait negotiations on functional issues."

The conclusion they reached was intended as a means of side-stepping the conflict over the political status of Taiwan. At the time of the meeting, Hong Kong was under British rule and therefore considered neutral territory by both sides. In the KMT's view, the consensus is about "one China, respective interpretations."

As a result of the 1992 meeting, ARATS Chairman Wang Daohan and SEF Chairman Koo Chen-fu met in Singapore on April 27, 1993, in what became known as the Wang-Koo summit. They concluded agreements on document authentication, postal transfers, and a schedule for future ARATS-SEF meetings. Talks were delayed as tensions rose in the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis, but in October 1998 a second round of Wang-Koo summit were held in Shanghai. Wang and Koo agreed to meet again in Taiwan in the autumn of 1999, but the meeting was called off by the PRC side when then President Lee Teng-hui proposed his Two-states Theory of "special state-to-state relations".

After Lee began a more independence-oriented policy in the mid-1990s, the PRC began describing "one China, respective interpretations" as a "deliberate distortion" used by independence advocates as a "disguise" for either "two Chinas" or Taiwan's formal separation.

Chen Shui-bian era
The election of the DPP to the ROC government in 2000 prompted former SEF official Su Chi to coin the term "1992 Consensus" as an ambiguous replacement for the previous terms in order to capture the broadest consensus between the different parties over the outcome of the 1992 meeting. President Chen Shui-bian initially expressed some willingness to accept the 1992 Consensus, a precondition set by the PRC for dialogue, but backed down after backlash within his own party.

In a speech on 10 October 2004, then-president Chen Shui-bian expressed his willingness to initiate dialogue with PRC leaders on "the basis of the 1992 meeting in Hong Kong." This formulation did not imply that an agreement on one China was made in the 1992 meeting; thus, Chen's speech was widely seen as an effort to establish a basis for negotiations with the PRC without accepting the one China principle. The PRC did not respond to his speech favorably; thus, subsequently, no dialogs were initiated.

The 1992 Consensus was invoked again the following year, when KMT chairman Lien Chan and People First Party (PFP) chairman James Soong made separate trips to mainland China to begin party-to-party dialog both between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and KMT and between the CCP and PFP. Both leaders explicitly endorsed the 1992 Consensus.

During debates in the 2008 Taiwanese presidential election between KMT candidate Ma Ying-jeou and DPP candidate Frank Hsieh, Ma said the 1992 Consensus undoubtedly existed, and that while the DPP were entitled to disagree with it, they could not deny its existence. Furthermore, he stated that the agreements reached in the 2005 Pan-Blue visits to mainland China, which occurred on the basis of the 1992 Consensus, could, if it was beneficial to the people, be developed into policy and thence into law, and put into practice.

Ma Ying-jeou era
The election of the KMT to the ROC government saw both sides of the Taiwan strait moving closer to a common interpretation of the Consensus. In March 2008, PRC's state news agency Xinhua in its English website reported a telephone discussion between US president George W. Bush and his PRC counterpart Hu Jintao. According to Chinese and American sources, Hu said that it is PRC's "consistent stand that the Chinese Mainland and Taiwan should restore consultation and talks on the basis of the 1992 Consensus, which sees both sides recognize there is only one China, but agree to differ on its definition". On the other hand, Xinhua's Chinese version of the report only stated that the resumption of the talks should be on the basis of the 1992 Consensus without expanding into the meaning of the Consensus.

In his inauguration speech on 20 May 2008, ROC president Ma Ying-jeou stated that in 1992 the two sides of the strait reached a consensus which saw "one China with different interpretations" and the ROC would resume talks with the PRC as soon as possible based on the 1992 Consensus.

On 28 May 2008, KMT Chairman Wu Po-hsiung met Hu Jintao as CCP general secretary in Beijing at the CCP's invitation to engage in an intraparty dialog. In the meeting, the parties expressed that both sides across the strait will lay aside disputes, and work for a win-win situation on the basis of the 1992 Consensus. As well as the party-to-party channel, the semi-governmental dialog channel via the SEF and the ARATS was scheduled to re-open in June 2008 on the basis of the 1992 Consensus, with the first meeting held in Beijing. The first priority for the SEF-ARATS meeting would be the establishments of the three links, especially direct flights between mainland China and Taiwan. Weekend direct chartered flights between mainland China and Taiwan commenced on 4 July 2008 subsequent to the successful cross-strait talks in June 2008.

On 2 September 2008, the ROC President Ma Ying-jeou was interviewed by the Mexico-based newspaper El Sol de México. He was asked about his views on the subject of "two Chinas" and if there is a solution for the sovereignty issues between the two. The ROC President replied that the relations are neither between two Chinas nor two states. It is a special relationship. Further, he stated that the sovereignty issues between the two cannot be resolved at present, but he quoted the 1992 Consensus, currently accepted by both sides according to Ma, as a temporary measure until a solution becomes available. The spokesman for the ROC Presidential Office Wang Yu-chi later clarified the President's statement and said that the relations are between two regions of one country, based on the ROC Constitutional position, the Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area and the 1992 Consensus.

On 12 January 2011, Xinhua news agency reiterated Beijing's position on this issue by defining the 1992 Consensus as saying that "under which both sides adhere to the One-China Principle".

The 1992 Consensus was stressed by both Ma and Xi during the 2015 Ma-Xi meeting. During the meetings, Ma brought up the "different interpretations" of "one China".

Tsai Ing-wen era
In her 2016 campaign, Tsai Ing-wen did not challenge the 1992 consensus, but did not explicitly accept it either, referring instead to "existing realities and political foundations".

On 2 January 2019, Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping marked the 40th Anniversary message to Taiwan compatriots with a long speech calling for the adherence to the 1992 Consensus and vigorously opposing Taiwanese independence. He said the political resolution of the Taiwan issue will be the formula used in Hong Kong and Macau, the one country, two systems. The ROC President, Tsai Ing-wen responded to Xi's speech the same day. She stated that "the Beijing authorities' definition of the '1992 Consensus' is 'one China' and 'one country, two systems'", and that "we have never accepted the '1992 Consensus.'" Nevertheless, Tsai called for the PRC to conduct negotiations with the Taiwanese government to resolve the political status of Taiwan rather than engage in political consultations with Taiwanese political parties to advance their reunification goals. A January 2020 piece in The Diplomat noted that the CCP, KMT, and DPP were all currently challenging their own conceptions of the 1992 consensus. A task force convened by the Kuomintang's reform committee issued new guidelines on cross-strait relations in June 2020. The task force found that public trust in the consensus had declined due to the actions of the Democratic Progressive Party and Beijing. The consensus was described as "a historical description of past cross-strait interaction," and the task force proposed that the consensus be replaced with a commitment to "upholding the Republic of China’s national sovereignty; safeguarding freedom, democracy and human rights; prioritizing the safety of Taiwan; and creating win-win cross-strait relations."

Following the landslide defeat of the KMT in the 2020 Taiwanese presidential election, some commentators speculated that the KMT would remove the 1992 Consensus from the party platform due to its associations with "one country, two systems". However, KMT chairman Johnny Chiang ultimately kept the 1992 Consensus. However, he rejected the "one country, two systems" as a feasible model for Taiwan. In 2021, the Taiwan Affairs Office stated that the meaning of the 1992 consensus is "both sides of the strait belong to one China, and work together to strive for national unification". The KMT platform under newly elected chairman Eric Chu also continued to include the 1992 consensus while rejecting "one country, two systems". In 2022 KMT chair Eric Chu called the 1992 Consensus a "'no consensus' consensus."

Ambiguity and debate
The KMT has defined the 1992 Consensus as "one China with different interpretations", i.e. that both sides agreed that there was one China, but indirectly recognized and respected that both sides had different interpretations of that concept. The ambiguity of the 1992 Consensus allowed the PRC to emphasize that both sides of the strait upheld the position of one China and allowed the ROC to emphasize that it was the one China to which both the mainland and Taiwan belonged. This facilitated the improvement of cross-strait relations in the early 1990s.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), however, did not understand the 1992 meeting as reaching any consensus on there being only "one China". Instead, it saw the outcome of the meeting as establishing that the two sides had different interpretations of the status quo.

Some Taiwan independence supporters, such as former President Lee Teng-hui, point to a lack of documentation to argue that the consensus has never existed.

According to Raymond Burghardt, the chair of the American Institute in Taiwan, the United States representative office in Taiwan:
 * "[There was] some language [in the faxes] that overlapped and some language that differed." Then Taiwan and China agreed to conduct dialog based on their statements written in those faxes. "That's what happened. Nothing more or nothing less," Burghardt said, adding that the KMT called this the '1992 Consensus', which was to some extent "confusing and misleading. To me, I'm not sure why you could call that a consensus."

Public opinion in Taiwan
In 2018, academics conducted a survey in Taiwan to assess Taiwanese understanding of the 1992 Consensus. They gave respondents four possible meanings of the consensus:
 * Historic: On international affairs, both ROC and PRC claim to represent the whole Chinese people including both mainland and Taiwan.
 * KMT definition: ROC represents Taiwan, PRC represents the mainland, the two governments belong to the same country waiting for unification.
 * Incorrect: ROC represents Taiwan, PRC represents the mainland, the two governments belong to two different countries.
 * PRC definition: PRC represents the whole Chinese people including both mainland and Taiwan, and ROC is the local government.

They found that 34% chose the KMT's definition (which was acceptable to 48%), 33% chose the incorrect definition (acceptable to 75%), 17% chose the historic relationship (acceptable to 40%), and 5% chose the PRC definition (acceptable to 10%), and 11% did not respond.

A 2020 poll conducted by the Duke University Program in Asian Security Studies that asked "Some people argue that Taiwan and China should live under a policy of “One China, Two Rule” with ongoing exchanges. Do you support this statement?" found that 51.0% of respondents agreed and 39.5% of respondents disagreed.

title: 1992 Consensus


text:
Piz Bernina

Piz Bernina (Romansh, Pizzo Bernina, ) is the highest mountain in the Eastern Alps, the highest point of the Bernina Range, and the highest peak in the Rhaetian Alps. It rises 4048 m and is located south of Pontresina and near the major Alpine resort of St. Moritz, in the Engadin valley. It is also the most easterly mountain higher than 4000 m in the Alps, the highest point of the Swiss canton of Grisons, and the fifth-most prominent peak in the Alps. Although the summit lies within Switzerland, the massif is on the border with Italy. The "shoulder" (4020 m) known as La Spedla is the highest point in the Italian Lombardy region.

Piz Bernina is entirely surrounded by glaciers, of which the largest is the Morteratsch Glacier.

The mountain was named after the Bernina Pass in 1850 by Johann Coaz, who also made the first ascent. The prefix Piz comes from the Romansch language of the Grisons; any mountain with that name can be readily identified as being located in southeastern Switzerland.

Geography
Piz Bernina is one of the few isolated Alpine four-thousanders and the most topographically isolated mountain of Switzerland. It is the culminating point of a group of summits slightly lower than 4000 m mostly lying on the main watershed between Switzerland and Italy (such as Piz Scerscen, Piz Zupò, and Piz Palü). The only other summit higher than 4000 m is La Spedla (the Shoulder), a minor prominence south of the mountain, which is also the highest point on the Italian side of the massif.

The summit itself is located on a perpendicular chain (orientated north–south) starting at La Spedla on the border and finishing at Piz Chalchagn, composed also of Piz Morteratsch and Piz Boval.

Piz Bernina separates two glacial valleys, the Tschierva Glacier on the west and the Morteratsch Glacier on the east. The waters flowing on both side of the mountain end up in the Inn River running northeast through Engadin. South of Piz Bernina the watershed separates the drainage basins of the Danube (Black Sea) and the Po River (Adriatic Sea). The summit of Piz Bernina is the culminating point of the Danube drainage basin. Politically, it is split between the municipalities of Samedan and Pontresina.

Geology
The rocks composing Piz Bernina are mostly diorites and gabbros. The massif in general is also composed of granites, notable on Piz Corvatsch and Piz Palü. Most of the range belongs to the Austroalpine nappes, a tectonic unit whose rocks come from the Apulian plate, a small continent which broke away from Africa (Gondwana) before the Alpine orogeny. The Austroalpine nappes are common throughout all of the Eastern Alps.

Climbing history
The first ascent was made via the east ridge in 1850 by the 28-year-old topographer Johann Wilhelm Coaz (1822–1918, from S-Chanf) and his assistants, the brothers Jon and Lorenz Ragut Tscharner. On 13 September 1850, shortly after 6 a.m., they left the Bernina Inn (at 2050 m) with their measuring instruments. They traversed the Labyrinth (on the Morteratsch Glacier) and headed to the Fuorcla Crast'Agüzza, a col between the Crast' Agüzza and Piz Bernina. They reached the summit at around 6 p.m.

Johan Coaz wrote in his diary:
 * "At 6 p.m. we stood on the ardently desired lofty peak. On soil that no human had trodden upon before. On the highest point of the canton at 4052 meters above sea level."

 * "Serious thoughts took hold of us. Greedy eyes surveyed the land up to the distant horizon, and thousands and thousands of mountain peaks surrounded us, rising as rocks from the glittering sea of ice. We stared amazed and awe-struck across this magnificent mountain world."

In 1866, the south ridge running from La Spedla was climbed by Francis Fox Tuckett and F. A. Y. Brown with guides Christian Almer and F. Andermatten. They started at midnight from the Alpe Foppa on the Italian side, and reached the summit at 11 a.m., descending to Pontresina only a few hours later.

The first attempt to climb the northern ridge, the Biancograt, was made on 12 August 1876 by Henri Cordier and Thomas Middlemore with guides Johann Jaun and Kaspar Maurer. They successfully reached the top of the ridge, Piz Alv, but when they saw the chasm lying between them and the summit of Piz Bernina, they considered it to be beyond their powers and returned down the Biancograt. Cordier later declared the gap to be "absolutely impossible".

Exactly two years later, Paul Güssfeldt, accompanied by the guides H. Grass and J. Gross, reached the summit via the Biancograt and accomplished the first complete ascent on this route. The first winter ascent was made on 15 March 1929 by C. Colmus with guides C. and U. Grass. To win a bet worth 200 CHF, Hermann Buhl reached the summit of Piz Bernina from the Boval hut in 6 hours; he then descended the north ridge in only 15 minutes, establishing a record.

Tourism
Piz Bernina is the highest summit of the Engadin region and lies close to the resorts of St. Moritz and Pontresina. The mountain can be seen from different viewpoints with the use of ski-lifts from Diavolezza, Piz Corvatsch or Piz Nair. The Bernina railway connects St. Moritz with the southern Val Poschiavo through the Bernina Pass.

Climbing routes and huts
The normal route starts from the Rifugio Marco e Rosa, located at 3600 m above the Fuorcla Crast'Agüzza, and follows the route taken by the first ascentionists.

The north ridge, called the Biancograt or Crast Alva (both meaning White Ridge), is the most well-known and attractive route to the summit, and is much more difficult than the normal route. The route starts from the Tschierva Hut (2584 m) in Val Roseg, accessible from Pontresina. The Biancograt itself starts at the Fuorcla Prievlusa (3430 m) and leads to Piz Bianco (3995 m). To reach the summit, the Bernina gap – which repulsed Cordier, Middlemore, Jaun and Maurer in 1876 – has to be traversed.

Other huts in the area
 * Rifugio Carate Brianza (2662 m) – capacity 32 beds, 3 places in winter room
 * Rifugio Marinelli Bombardieri (2813 m) – capacity 220 beds, 15 places in winter room
 * Chamanna Boval (2495 m) – capacity 120 beds
 * Chamanna da Diavolezza (2973 m) – capacity 234 beds

Deaths on Piz Bernina

 * 1970: Rollo Davidson and Michael Latham

title: Piz Bernina


text:
User talk:XaRa

don't post nonsense. RickK 08:31, Feb 3, 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:XaRa


text:
Armenian American Political Action Committee

Armenian American Political Action Committee (A.A.P.A.C.), was founded by Albert A. Boyajian.

It is a grassroots political organization and coordinates with a network of offices, chapters and supporters throughout the United States and affiliated organizations around the world, and concerns of the Armenian-American community on a broad range of issues.


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Yr Eifl

Yr Eifl, sometimes called the Rivals in English,  is a group of hills on the north coast of the Llŷn Peninsula in Gwynedd, Wales.

On a clear day, the views from the highest summit reach as far as the Isle of Man, the Wicklow Mountains in Ireland and the Lake District, as well as the entire sweep of Cardigan Bay.

The view of Yr Eifl is especially prominent from the SW coast of Anglesey, for instance from Ynys Llanddwyn.

Ordnance Survey maps show a height of 564 metres (1850'), but a recent survey gives the height at 561 metres (1,841 feet).

The three peaks
There are three peaks:
 * Tre'r Ceiri: 485 m,
 * Garn Ganol: 561 m and
 * Garn Fôr: 444 m.

Garn Ganol, the central summit, is the highest point on Llŷn, with an ancient cairn, and a trig point.

Across the pass "Bwlch yr Eifl", and overlooking the sea, is Garn Fôr, the northern summit. Garn Fôr is also known as Mynydd y Gwaith. It has a microwave radio relay station on it, as well as cairns and granite quarries (which produced the material for the curling event at the 2006 Winter Olympics), and a cliff face dropping to the Irish Sea at Trwyn y Gorlech.

The third summit, Tre'r Ceiri, on the south-eastern side, is the location of an Iron Age hillfort. Its name means "settlement of the giants", from cewri, plural of cawr, giant. It is regarded as one of the best examples of a prehistoric hillfort in Europe. A path leads to the summit.

Surroundings
Routes lead onto the hill from the nearby villages of Llithfaen to the south, Llanaelhaearn to the east and Trefor to the north. On the western slopes of Yr Eifl, beneath Graig Ddu (a cliff on the western slope of Garn Ganol), a small valley leads down to the sea. This is Nant Gwrtheyrn ("Vortigern's valley"), a valley with access via a private road, with a former quarry village, which is now home to a Welsh language teaching centre, which is a popular tourist attraction too.

Another quarry, Trefor granite quarry, can be found to the north of Garn Ganol.

title: Yr Eifl


text:
Wikipedia:BC

WP:BC may refer to:
 * WikiProject British Columbia, to which this shortcut redirected from December 2006 to March 2022
 * (shortcut MOS:BC)
 * Basic copyediting
 * Bureaucrats
 * Birthday Committee
 * Broadly construed
 * , an introductory page; during its existence in 2005–2006 it was the target of the shortcut WP:BC; eventually superseded by Questions

title: Wikipedia:BC


text:
User talk:JohnC

Hi John good to see you made it. Looks like you're finding your way round no problem. :) —Christiaan 08:43, 3 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Category:Wikipedians in New Zealand
Hi, You might want to consider adding User NZ res to the top of your user page, which will add you to this category automatically and also add a nice graphic. Onco_p53 00:27, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

Question
Hi John, please look at my question under Talk:Extraordinary rendition. Thanks. Kosebamse 07:27, 4 February 2006 (UTC)

Blue fly Tail
Hi - I was wondering if you could re-write that paragraph as I can't make heads or tails of it. If you could just say what it means in simple language. Thanks. -- Stbalbach 01:05, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Regarding edits made during January 11 2007 (UTC) to War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
Please do not add commentary or your own personal analysis to Wikipedia articles. Doing so violates Wikipedia's neutral point of view policy and breaches the formal tone expected in an encyclopedia. If you would like to experiment, use the sandbox. Thank you. It seems most, if not all, of your edits tonight are highly POV. Please read Wikipedia's policies on neutral point of view and no original research.  Auburn Pilot talk 05:50, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

February 2009
Please do not add commentary or your own personal analysis to Wikipedia articles. Doing so violates Wikipedia's neutral point of view policy and breaches the formal tone expected in an encyclopedia. Terrillja talk  07:00, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

Please do not add content without citing reliable sources. Before making potentially controversial edits, it is recommended that you discuss them first on the article's talk page. If you are familiar with Citing sources please take this opportunity to add references to the article. Terrillja talk  07:13, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

WP:TERRORIST
Please read WP:TERRORIST. Wikipedia generally avoids using the word "terrorist" in the narrative voice unless attributing it to a source. Please don't add it to articles. Thank you. — Malik Shabazz 06:58, 19 July 2009 (UTC)

anti-semitism and anti-zionism
Hi John,

If I say antisemitism I mean antisemitism not anti-zionism. I have a great deal of personal experience of both and can make the distinction.

To suggest otherwise is patronising and offensive.

Telaviv1 (talk) 18:47, 20 July 2009 (UTC)

Surafend affair
Hi, re: your comment at Talk:Surafend affair, can you elaborate on which part(s) you consider to be POV? I'm happy to edit the article to remove any bias, but it's not clear from your statement what you consider non-neutral. I look forward to your feedback. Thanks, --Canley (talk) 06:49, 25 July 2009 (UTC)

Talk page questions
Hi, I removed your comments to the Peak oil talk page because they do not address improvement of the article or discussion of the sources (see wp:NOTFORUM). If you have questions, feel free to pose them to the reference desk. By the way, you seem to be conflating several different topics and concepts. Read the article if you're not sure exactly what "Peak oil" means. NJGW (talk) 06:39, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

Sign your posts
Please sign your posts to talk pages. You can do this by either typing four tildes (~) or clicking on the signature button above the edit box. --Steven J. Anderson (talk) 18:41, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

Proposed deletion of Olga Stringfellow

The article Olga Stringfellow has been proposed for deletion because under Wikipedia policy, all biographies of living persons created after March 18, 2010, must have at least one source that directly supports material in the article.

If you created the article, please don't take offense. Instead, consider improving the article. For help on inserting references, see Referencing for beginners or ask at Help desk. Once you have provided at least one reliable source, you may remove the prod blp tag. Please do not remove the tag unless the article is sourced. If you cannot provide such a source within ten days, the article may be deleted, but you can when you are ready to add one. Ravendrop 10:03, 26 February 2011 (UTC)

Replied
Hello, JohnC. Just letting you know that I replied to your comment on the Pedophilia talk page. Flyer22 (talk) 10:19, 3 April 2011 (UTC)

Articles for Deletion
Hello John. As a courtesy I want to let you know that I have nominated John Cox (lawyer) for deletion because of concerns about Notability, Autobiographies, and so forth. Please don't take this as a personal slight -- I'm nominating the article solely for policy concerns. Thanks --Neutralitytalk 03:27, 9 June 2011 (UTC)

September 2011
Please do not remove content or templates from pages on Wikipedia, as you did to White nationalism, without giving a valid reason for the removal in the edit summary. Your content removal does not appear constructive, and has been reverted. Please make use of the sandbox if you'd like to experiment with test edits. Thank you.   Greenman (talk) 22:07, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

Please stop your disruptive editing. If you continue to add defamatory content, as you did at Talk:Katie Price, you may be blocked from editing. Off2riorob (talk) 20:57, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Talk pages
Hi. I just removed 2 of your comments on Talk:Anita Bryant. Talk pages are not a place to engage in a discussion about politics, sexuality, or, really, anything else. Talk pages are to discuss improvements to the attached article. Per WP:FORUM and WP:SOAPBOX, off topic comments can and will be removed. There are thousands of places on the internet where you can get involved in arguments about homosexuality, politics, etc. Wikipedia is not one of them. Qwyrxian (talk) 05:27, 25 September 2011 (UTC)

 * Also, you need to sign every post you make on a talk page. You do this by typing four tildes, which will look like ~ . That will automatically add your name and time of posting, which is necessary to make threaded conversation possible. Qwyrxian (talk) 05:28, 25 September 2011 (UTC)

October 2011
Welcome to Wikipedia! I am glad to see you are interested in discussing a topic. However, as a general rule, talk pages such as Talk:Irish Republican Army are for discussion related to improving the article, not general discussion about the topic. If you have specific questions about certain topics, consider visiting our reference desk and asking them there instead of on article talk pages. Thank you.  RepublicanJacobite  TheFortyFive 21:16, 1 October 2011 (UTC)

 * And you're still doing it (which I warned you about last month), on Talk: Hung (TV series). Your behavior is beginning to cross over into disruptive territory, and could result in you being blocked.  You have to understand, Wikipedia is not a site for general discussion.  Find an online chat/politics/debate site, and leave your comments there.  Use Wikipedia talk pages only to discuss improvements to articles.  Qwyrxian (talk) 08:21, 4 October 2011 (UTC)

January 2012
Re: your recent deletions of sourced content, addition of unsourced opinion, and use of talk pages for commentary, it seems that the above suggestions and warnings are neither understood or heeded. I'll request administrative overview. 76.248.147.199 (talk) 14:41, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

Notice of discussion at the Administrators' Noticeboard

 * Archived ANI thread: Administrators' noticeboard/IncidentArchive735 --Chris (talk) 16:34, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

Hello. This message is being sent to inform you that there is currently a discussion at Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents regarding an issue with which you may have been involved. Thank you. 76.248.147.199 (talk) 15:53, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

 * Consider this a one and only warning. Read Wikipedia's policy on verification. Do not remove sourced content (as here ) without going at once to the article talkpage to explain why it was a good idea.  Do not add unsourced content. Especially, do not add unsourced content to articles about living people. Wikipedia is not the thought police - editors are entitled to whatever views they hold.  However, editing against basic policy and with the apparent aim of advancing one point of view is likely to result in sanctions. --Elen of the Roads (talk) 01:29, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

One unblock request is sufficient
Please pick one and remove the other or remove both and post another.  Tide  rolls  12:38, 8 July 2012 (UTC)

title: User talk:JohnC


text:
Leo Myers

Leopold Hamilton Myers (6 September 1881 – 7 April 1944) was a British novelist.

Life
Myers was born in Leckhampton House, Cambridge into a cultured family; his father was the writer Frederic William Henry Myers (1843-1901) and his mother the photographer Eveleen Tennant (1856-1937). He was named after his godfather, Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany. He was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge. His trilogy/tetralogy The Root and the Flower, set in India at the time of Akbar, is his major work and was recognised by the award of the 1935 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction.

He did not visit India, and his writings about it have been seen by some critics as reflecting his own intellectual milieu and its concerns. He was independently wealthy from his mid-20s, travelled and began to write. In 1908 he married the American Elsie Palmer (1873–1955), daughter of General William Palmer, and a friend of John Singer Sargent, who painted her. He made many friends of different kinds, and late in life broke with most of them. In the 1930s he wrote in sympathy with Marxist thought, and became increasingly pessimistic in his outlook. He committed suicide on 7 April 1944 by taking an overdose of Veronal.

He was on the edge of the Bloomsbury group, and knew L. P. Hartley, Aelfrida Tillyard and Max Plowman. He kept up a lengthy correspondence with Olaf Stapledon. Other friends were David Lindsay, Frank Dobson, and Charles le Gai Eaton. By an anonymous loan he helped George Orwell travel to Morocco in 1938, to convalesce from tuberculosis.

The designer EQ Nicholson was his daughter.

Works

 * Arvat (1908) verse drama
 * The Orissers (1922)
 * Clio (1925)
 * The Root and the Flower
 * The Near and the Far (1929)
 * Prince Jali (1931)
 * Rajah Amar (1935), published as The Root and the Flower
 * Strange Glory (1936)
 * The Pool Of Vishnu (1940) now sometimes included as part 4 of The Root and the Flower

title: Leo Myers


text:
Wikipedia:WikiProject South Africa/A few topics

These are existing pages (taken from Special:Whatlinkshere/South Africa) that are related, either directly or indirectly to South Africa, that could get someone started that wants to verify information or improve articles. The categorising was done very loosely, so feel free to change things around or add new entries.

Health: AIDS

Military & Government: AK-47, Communications in South Africa, Economy of South Africa, Foreign relations of South Africa, Military of South Africa, Transportation in South Africa

Nature: Abalone, Amaryllis, Aloe, Blue Crane, Galjoen, Buffalo, Ivory, King protea, Pinotage, Quagga, Real Yellowwood

Wealth: Beryl, Diamond, Gold, Krugerrand

Geography: Africa, Cape Town, Kalahari Desert, Pretoria, Robben Island, Soweto, Springbok, Wartburg

Politics: African National Congress, Coat of Arms of South Africa, National anthem of South Africa, People Against Gangsterism and Drugs, Politics of South Africa, South African Republic, Afrikaner nationalism

Humanities: Afrikaans, Afrikaner, Bantu, Bantu languages, Click consonant, Khoisan languages, Northern Sotho language, South African English, Tswana language, University of South Africa, Voortrekkers

Sport: Ajax Cape Town

History: Apartheid, Discrimination, Financial rand, Homeland, Racial segregation, Racism, Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Famous People: Charlize Theron, Christiaan Barnard, Desmond Tutu, Frederik Willem de Klerk, Hansie Cronje, J. R. R. Tolkien, List of South Africans, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko, Thabo Mbeki, Trevor Jones, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela


text:
Vangiones

The Vangiones appear first in history as an ancient Germanic tribe of unknown provenance. They threw in their lot with Ariovistus in his bid of 58 BC to invade Gaul through the Doubs river valley and lost to Julius Caesar in a battle probably near Belfort. After some Celts evacuated the region in fear of the Suebi, the Vangiones, who had made a Roman peace, were allowed to settle among the Mediomatrici in northern Alsace. (Metz however is now in Lorraine). They gradually assumed control of the Celtic city of Burbetomagus, later Worms.

The emperor Augustus cultivated them as allies, intending to invade Germany through the region between the Rhine and the Danube. He had Drusus place two forts among the Vangiones, castrum Moguntiacum (13 BC, later Mainz) and one of unknown name (14 BC) at Worms. From there troops of the Vangiones were inducted into the Roman army. When he changed his mind after the Battle of Teutoburg Forest, the Vangiones were used for garrison duty on the far-flung northern frontier of the province of Britannia, Hadrian's Wall.

The Vangiones of Germania Superior held their position as a bulwark of civilized might as long as Germania Superior existed. Under the Roman Republic they were not among the Belgae, an alliance of Celticised Germanic tribes in northeastern France. In the early empire this name was extended by the Romans to all the Celticised Germans in northern France (the forerunners of the Franks), among whom were now the Vangiones.

In the late empire what was left of Germania Superior was divided into "First Germany" and "Second Germany", the first comprising the Vangiones, Worms and Mainz. The identity disappeared nearly altogether when the region was overrun by the Alemanni and became Alisatia. The Vangiones then merged into the Alemanni. Only names local to Worms remembered the presence of the Vangiones, such as the Bishop of the Vangiones. The fate of the Vangionic troops in Britain is uncertain. Some may have remained as a Scottish tribe (see under Moguns), but that hypothesis is more speculative than not.

Julius Caesar
The Vangiones are mentioned in Caesar's De Bello Gallico as a unit among the copiae ("forces") of Ariovistus. According to Caesar's Celtic informants, Ariovistus had appeared as a leader of Germani who had settled in the land of the Aedui (upper Loire) following the assistance of a vanguard of 15,000 at the Battle of Admagetobriga in 61 BC. The Germans had been initially invited by the Celts to participate in the resolution of their issues. They continued to cross the Rhine until, in 58 BC, 120,000 of them (Caesar's numbers) were in Gaul.

Caesar does not say that the Vangiones were among the 120,000, but the text does imply it. He also does not state that they specifically were Germanic, but the 120,000 are stated to be so, and Caesar consistently refers to the copiae of Ariovistus as Germani. Caesar gives no indication of the homeland of any of the Germani other than the other side of the Rhine. Moreover, he omits mention of what happened to the Vangiones and other tribes that had crossed the Rhine (if they did) after the defeat of Ariovistus.

Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder's Naturalis Historia includes a geography that relies on Varro, a citizen of the late Republic and contemporary of Caesar, and Agrippa, who lived in the next generation after Caesar. Through him they give us considerable information on Gaul and the Germanic tribes living in it.

Caesar describes pre-Roman Gaul and some of the modifications he made to it. The Belgae (from which Belgium) of his time lived on the left bank of the lower Rhine and were considered Celts of Germanic origin. In Pliny Roman Belgae extends along the Rhine from the Scheldt to the upper Seine; that is, upstream to Switzerland, and includes many more tribes than are listed in Caesar, some of them still Germanic. For the region of Alsace he gives a double list, one Celtic and one Germanic.

Two known end points are the Treveri who we know lived in the vicinity of Trier (which was named after them) and the Helvetii who we know lived in Switzerland. The Celtic list between those points is Lingones, Remi, Mediomatrici, Sequani and Raurici. The Germanic list, whom Pliny describes as
 * accolentes Germaniae gentium in eadem provincia
 * "colonists from the peoples of Germany in the same province"

is Nemetes, Triboci and Vangiones.

As the Remi were more to the west, near the Ardennes, and the Lingones also to the west, near Langres (named after them), the Vangiones are believed to have been in the country of the Mediomatrici, but how did they arrive there? The three tribes were among the forces of Ariovistus. Apparently, Caesar did not destroy all the Germanic warriors who failed to escape across the Rhine. He probably only pursued the remnants of the Suebi. He does state that some tribes curried favor by attacking the Suebi on their own initiative. Very likely, they received favor and were allowed to remain on the left bank of the Rhine among the Mediomatrici. They were still identifiably Germanic.

Strabo
The Geography of Strabo, dated to the early empire, mentions the defeat of Varus at the Battle of Teutoburg Forest but makes no mention of the Vangiones. Of the two sections that cover the Alsace region, the one on Germania makes no mention of any Germanic tribes there except the Suebi. Alsace-Lorraine is covered mainly in the section on Gaul and describes the region as it must have been before Ariovistus led his expedition across the Rhine.

Between the Helvetii and the Treveri around Trier, Strabo lists the Sequani, Mediomatrici (around Metz), the Leuci and the Lingones. In the country of the Mediomatrici are the Tribocchi, who are Germani and had crossed the Rhine from their homeland. Why the Vangiones and Nemetes are not present remains unknown. Perhaps Strabo was relying on an earlier account, which depicts Alsace before Ariovistus, and yet he knew of the defeat of Varus. The Vangiones are not in Germania either.

Lucan
Marcus Annaeus Lucanus was a poet of the early empire who chose to immortalize the civil wars in verse, beginning Pharsalia with a famous first line calling them the "uncivil wars" (bella ... plus quam civilia, "wars beyond civil"). In Book I he enumerates poetically all the barbarians who will no longer be troubled by Roman troops because they have been recalled to fight the uncivil wars, among whom are those
 * qui te laxis imitantur, Sarmata, bracis        (430)
 * Vangiones
 * "who imitate you, Sarmatian, with loose britches, the Vangiones"

Lucan did not regard the Vangiones as nostri, "one of us". He saw a Sarmatian resemblance in the loose trousers, but whether those were the same as the Gallic bracae is hard to say. The connection is tantalizing because the *wagniones have a name similar to an earlier Sarmatian tribe, the "wagon-dwellers" known to Herodotus. Whether there was one must wait for evidence.

Tacitus
The Vangiones appear solidly in the works of Tacitus, a writer of the 1st century AD of some authenticity and credibility, having been a Roman of fairly high office himself. In Germania he states that the Gauls were once more powerful than the Germani. At that time the Helvetii were on the right bank of the Rhine south of the Main, with the Boii further down the Danube.

On the left bank of Tacitus' time, the Treviri (Trier) and Nervii claimed Germanic descent, the Ubii (Cologne) were proud of it, and the Vangiones, Triboci and Nemetes were of undoubted Germanic origin. Tacitus does not say that any of them were currently Germanic or spoke Germanic, only that they were careful to distinguish themselves from the cowardly Gauls. Apparently the Celtic tribes were no longer in the Agri Decumates (right bank of Rhine) because Tacitus characterizes its population as rabble and penniless adventurers.

His Annales contains brief mention of the Vangiones in connection with capturing bands of plunderers from the Chatti across the Rhine to the north (Hesse) in AD 50. The Chatti must have been overconfident to send such small numbers into Alsace, which was tenanted by both Celtic and Germanic tribes loyal to Rome and was protected by bases at Mainz and Worms. The Roman commander Publius Pomponius Secundus used cavalry from the Vangiones and the Nemetes as well as regular Roman cavalry to attack the sleeping Chatti in their open camps by night. They are said to have set free some of Varus's men who had been slaves for 40 years.

His Histories describes a year of crisis for the young empire in 69, when for the first time the system established by the Julio-Claudian dynasty as a solution to civil war was severely tested by the question of succession. Nero was assassinated to rid Rome of his bad management. The Romans could not agree on a successor, inadvertently involving the provinces in their internal politics, with a nearly ruinous result.

After the death of Vitellius despair prevailed along the limes regarding the continued ability of the empire to rule and enforce peace. The lag in communication allowed the peoples along the Rhine to believe that the empire had in fact disintegrated. A revolt gradually spread along the Rhine, initiated by the Batavi and other tribes of the Belgae among the Germans, and the Treviri and Lingones among the Celts (see under Batavian rebellion). They convinced the Roman legions at Moguntiacum and other bases to defect to an ad hoc Gallic government put up at Trier. The last to defect were the Vangiones, the Caeracates and the Triboci.

Meanwhile, government at Rome stabilized under Vespasian, who sent some 8 legions from various parts of the empire under Quintus Petillius Cerialis, a fortunate choice, to deal with the confusion on the Rhine frontier. On the approach of Cerealis the legions who had defected now deserted the government at Trier and sought refuge among the Mediomatrici, who, we learn, were still in place and had remained loyal to Rome. The three Belgic tribes among them, including the Vangiones, followed their tradition and changed loyalty back to the Romans.

Cerealis poured oil on troubled waters. He forgave the tribes involved, of either nationality. Moguntiacum was reoccupied and restored. The legions who had defected hid in their tents and could not look their loyal comrades in the face. Cerealis instructed the others not to be scornful. Meanwhile, Gaul had repudiated Trier as a government. Cerealis offered it terms, which eventually it was forced to take, as were the Batavi. The frontier was restored, with the exception that now the Batavi had to accept a garrison of Roman troops. Cerealis rose to high rank, as he justly deserved to do, serving as a counterbalance to the headstrong Domitian, who had replaced Vespasian.

Ptolemy
Ptolemy, writing in the 2nd century AD, gives only brief mention of the Vangiones in his lists of towns and peoples. Lower Germany comprises from the Batavi at the mouth of the Rhine to Mocontiacum, or Mainz. Just after it is the Obruncus or Obrincus river, which is unknown, except that it ought to be the Main, and then the towns of Upper Germany. For the Vangiones Borbetomagus (Worms) and Argentoratum (Strasbourg) are mentioned. The Mediomatrices are not in either Germania but are listed to the south of Trier. Their town is Dividurum (Metz).

Ammianus Marcellinus
Ammianus Marcellinus, 4th century soldier and historian (Res Gestae), after pointing out that the Rhine had previously been governed by two iurisdictiones, describes the provincial division of his times. However, the regional names "upper" and "lower Germany" are still in general use. In the jurisdiction of Prima Germania ("First or Upper Germany") are Mogontiacus (Mainz), Vangiones (Worms), Nemetae (Speyer), Argentoratus (Strasbourg) and "alia municipia." Metz and Trier however are in Prima Belgica.

For the year 356 Ammianus records the problems of the emperor Julian with Germanic tribes on the Rhine frontier. In 355 the Franks had destroyed Cologne (Agrippina), making it a desert of ruins, and the Alamanni had occupied the countryside of Alsace, isolating but not occupying the cities there. A list is given (in the accusative case), presumably including the "alia municipia" of "Prima Germania": Argentoratum (Strasbourg), Brotomagum (Brumath), Tabernas (Saverne), Salisonem (Selz), Nemetas (Speyer), Vangionas (Worms) and Mogontiacum (Mainz). In 356 Julian moved to the relief of the cities, driving out the Alamanni, and reoccupied Cologne, forcing the Franks to the peace table. He went into winter quarters at Sens and was besieged there by the Alamanni but they became discouraged and departed before the campaign season began.

Notitia Dignitatum
The 5th century Notitia Dignitatum records eleven prefectures in the domain (sub dispositione...) of the "Duke of Mainz" (Dux Mogontiacensis). Ruling over one of them from the castellum Vangionis (locative case of either Vangionis or Vangio) is the Praefectus militum Secundae Flaviae, Vangiones; that is, the prefect of a district called Secunda Flavia among the Vangiones. This domain includes 11 prefectures in the Rhineland and northern Alsace.

title: Vangiones


text:
White pages schema

A white pages schema is a data model, specifically a logical schema, for organizing the data contained in entries in a directory service, database, or application, such as an address book. In a white pages directory, each entry typically represents an individual person that makes use of network resources, such as by receiving email or having an account to log into a system. In some environments, the schema may also include the representation of organizational divisions, roles, groups, and devices. The term is derived from the white pages, the listing of individuals in a telephone directory, typically sorted by the individual's home location (e.g. city) and then by their name.

While many telephone service providers have for decades published a list of their subscribers in a telephone directory, and similarly corporations published a list of their employees in an internal directory, it was not until the rise of electronic mail systems that a requirement for standards for the electronic exchange of subscriber information between different systems appeared.

A white pages schema typically defines, for each real-world object being represented:

 * what attributes of that object are to be represented in the entry for that object
 * what relationships of that object to other objects are to be represented
 * how is the entry to be named in a DIT
 * how an entry is to be located by a client searching for it
 * how similar entries are to be distinguished
 * how are entries to be ordered when displayed in a list

One of the earliest attempts to standardize a white pages schema for electronic mail use was in X.520 and X.521, part of the X.500 specifications, that was derived from the addressing requirements of X.400 and defined a Directory Information Tree that mirrored the international telephone system, with entries representing residential and organizational subscribers. This evolved into the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol standard schema in. One of the most widely deployed white pages schemas used in LDAP for representing individuals in an organizational context is inetOrgPerson, defined in, although versions of Active Directory require a different object class, User. Many large organizations have also defined their own white pages schemas for their employees or customers, as part of their Identity management architecture. Converting between data bases and directories using different schemas is often the function of a Metadirectory, and data interchange standards such as Common Indexing Protocol.

Some early directory deployments suffered due to poor design choices in their white pages schema, such as:

 * attributes used for naming purposes were non-unique in large environments (such as a person's common name)
 * attributes used for naming purposes were likely to change (such as surnames)
 * attributes were included which could lead to Identity theft, such as a Social security number
 * users were required during provisioning to choose attributes which are unique but still memorable to them

Numerous other proposed schemas exist, both as standalone definitions suitable for use with general purpose directories, or as embedded into network protocols.

Examples of other generic white pages schemas include vCard, defined in, and FOAF.

title: White pages schema


text:
Stoa Poikile

The Stoa Poikile (ἡ ποικίλη στοά, hē poikílē stoá) or Painted Portico was a Doric stoa (a covered walkway or portico) erected around 460 BC on the north side of the Ancient Agora of Athens. It was one of the most famous sites in ancient Athens, owing its fame to the paintings and war-booty displayed within it and to its association with ancient Greek philosophy, especially Stoicism.

History
The stoa is frequently mentioned in literary and epigraphical sources. It was built by one Peisianax, a cousin of Pericles, in the 460s BC, and it was therefore originally known as the "Peisianactean Stoa" (ἡ Πεισιανάκτειος στοά, hē Peisianákteios stoá). Inside the stoa, there were a set of paintings on tablets, by Polygnotus (who painted his portion for free), Micon, and perhaps Panaenus (a younger relative of Phidias). The sources disagree on which painter produced which painting. Demosthenes, Aeschines, and other authors point to the painting of the Battle of Marathon as a key memorial of Athens' ancestral valour. Bronze shields captured from the Spartans at the Battle of Sphacteria in 425 BC and from the siege of Scione in 421 BC were set up in the stoa, where they could still be seen in the 2nd century AD.

According to Diogenes Laertius, was the site where the oligarchic government of the Thirty Tyrants "made away with" 1400 Athenian citizens in 403 BC. It is unclear whether this means that the stoa was where they sentenced them to death or where they were actually executed.

At the beginning of the Eleusinian Mysteries, the hierophant and the dadouch made an announcement that all non-initiates must keep out of the way. Sources from the mid-fourth century BC mention its use as a law court and as the venue for official arbitrations.

From the fourth century BC onwards, philosophers often taught in the stoa. The homeless Cynic philosopher Crates spent his time there. His student, Zeno of Citium, was particularly closely associated with the stoa, where he taught from around 300 BC until his death c. 262 BC. The philosophical school that he founded was named Stoicism as a result. The late third-century BC comedian Theognetus refers to "trifling arguments from the Poikile Stoa" in a joke about philosophers. Some philosophers spoke to their followers while walking up and down the stoa, but there were benches where people could sit and listen to lectures. There was also an area - probably the steps - where beggars customarily sat. The second century AD epistolographer Alciphron refers to "the unshod, cadaverous people who spend their time in the Poikile" and to "chattering philosophers making trouble there." Lucian presents philosophers teaching and debating there in several works. In the Imperial period, it was also a site of street entertainment; the second-century AD novelist Apuleius reports watching sword swallowers and gymnasts there.

A gate over the street to the west was added in the Hellenistic period, which was joined to the west side of the stoa. The stoa apparently survived the Herulian Sack of 267 AD intact. In a letter of 396 AD, Synesius mentions that the paintings had been removed by a Roman governor, apparently not long before. The building was still standing in the fifth century AD when the "late Roman stoa" was built to the west; this building rested against the Stoa Poikile's west wall. Debris over the remains suggest that it went out of use and was quarried for building material in the sixth century AD.

Description
The stoa was located at the northwest corner of the Agora, on the left (north) side of the Panathenaic Way as one entered the Agora. To the west was a narrow north–south street. On the other side of that street was an altar and (in the Roman period) a temple, probably dedicated to Aphrodite Urania. To the north was a Classical Commercial Building. To the south was the drain that conveyed the Eridanus. To the southwest, on the other side of the Panathenaic Way, were the Stoa Basileios, the Leokorion, and the Altar of the Twelve Gods. Another north–south street probably bounded the eastern edge of the stoa and somewhere further east was the Stoa of the Herms.

The stoa was oriented so that it extended from south-west to north-east. The northern (back) wall is 1.40 metres wide and has been uncovered for a length of 10.40 metres. The total length of the stoa is unknown, but at least 46 metres would be proportionate with the stoa's depth. It probably extended all or most of the way to the next north–south street, which enters the agora about 55 metres to the east. The west side-wall was 12.6 metres long and (at the level of the foundations) 2.68 metres thick. The foundation consisted of three steps of hard, fine-grained poros of very fine workmanship, joined very precisely with iron double-T clamps sealed in place with lead. The steps show substantial wear from use as seating. An upside-down kalos graffito indicates that the blocks were reused from some earlier context. The southern side of the stoa was the main façade. There were four steps and a Doric colonnade, with an intercolumniation of 1.998 metres. Above this was a triglyph frieze of poros, which was 0.718 metres high. The triglyphs were 0.384 metres wide; the metopes, which consisted of marble panels that slotted in between the triglyphs, were 0.615 metres wide. This frieze continued around the west and east sides of the stoa. Inside, there was an interior colonnade of narrow Ionic columns with poros shafts and marble capitals, which supported the ridge of the roof. This makes it the earliest known building at Athens to combine the Doric and Ionic orders. A set of rough poros blocks running along the inside of the back wall probably supported a bench running along the back wall.

The packing of the foundation consisted of poros chips and red earth which contained numerous sherds of pottery that date almost exclusively to the 460s BC, indicating that this was the date of construction.

By the second century AD, bronze statues of Hermes Agoraeus, Solon, Seleucus, and others stood in front of the stoa.

Paintings
The stoa contained four famous paintings, which have not survived, but are mentioned by many authors, particularly the 2nd-century AD travel writer Pausanias. These paintings were probably on wooden boards on the back wall of the stoa and depicted:
 * A Battle at Oenoe,which is otherwise unknown, but perhaps took place during the First Peloponnesian War (author unknown);
 * The Amazonomachy, attributed to Micon or Panaenus by different sources;
 * The Sack of Troy and trial of Ajax the Lesser, by Polygnotus;
 * The Battle of Marathon, by far the most frequently mentioned, which different sources attribute to Micon, Polygnotus, or Panaenus.

A scholiast states that the stoa contained "many paintings", and other paintings are mentioned by various authors, including a painting by Apollodorus or Pamphilus of the Heracleidae and Alcmene supplicating the Athenians for protection from Eurystheus, a picture of the tragedian Sophocles playing the lyre, and a battle at Phlius.

The set of paintings sharply juxtaposes mythical and historical events, so that the mythical victories of Theseus over the Amazons and of the Greeks over Troy contrast with the (presumably) historic battle of Oenoe, apparently the first important Athenian victory over Sparta, and the Athenian victory over the Persians at Marathon. This contrast is a theme in the art and literature of Athens from the fifth century BC onwards.

Battle of Marathon
The painting of the Battle of Marathon displayed the confidence and identity of the Athenians in the wake of the Persian Wars. Of this painting Pausanias says: "At the end of the painting are those who fought at Marathon; the Boeotians of Plataea and the Attic contingent are coming to blows with the foreigners. In this place neither side has the better, but the center of the fighting shows the foreigners in flight and pushing one another into the morass, while at the end of the painting are the Phoenician ships, and the Greeks killing the foreigners who are scrambling into them. Here is also a portrait of the hero Marathon, after whom the plain is named, of Theseus represented as coming up from the under-world, of Athena and of Heracles. The Marathonians, according to their own account, were the first to regard Heracles as a god. Of the fighters the most conspicuous figures in the painting are Callimachus, who had been elected commander-in-chief by the Athenians, Miltiades, one of the generals, and a hero called Echetlus, of whom I shall make mention later."

Hellenistic gate
In the Hellenistic period a gate was built over the north–south street, which abutted on the stoa's west wall and aligned perfectly with its front anta. The foundations of this gate are formed of poros blocks and consist of two large piers, with a 2.5 metre gap of hard-packed gravel for traffic. Only two blocks from the superstructure (a higher quality poros) survive. It is not possible to reconstruct its appearance, but it must have been a large and "imposing" structure. Pottery found in the packing of the road ranges from 325 BC to a little after 300 BC, indicating that it was constructed around 300 BC. The conglomerate foundations of a monument base stand in front of the west pier.

This gate is mentioned by Pausanias, who says that it had a trophy on top commemorating the Athenian cavalry victory over Pleistarchus.

The structure was demolished before or during the construction of the Late Roman Stoa in the 5th century AD. The west pier wasthen used as the base for a columnar monument; the Ionic base is still in situ on top of it.

Excavations
The stoa was uncovered as part of the Agora excavations undertaken by the American School of Classical Studies. In 1949, Homer A. Thompson found a set of architectural fragments of a stoa that had been reused in a Late Antique wall to the west of the Stoa of Attalos. These consisted of a Doric entablature and Oinic interior columns of mid-fifth century BC date. In 1970 Lucy Shoe Meritt identified these as fragments of the Stoa Poikile. The foundations of the stoa were discovered during new American excavations in the northwestern corner of the Agora at 13 Hadrianou Street, which took place between 1980 and 1982 under the leadership of T. Leslie Shear, Jr.. The excavation of the stoa was supervised by Ione Mylonas Shear and Margaret Miles in 1981 and by John McK. Camp in 1982. Only the western corner of the stoa was excavated. This discovery disproved Shoe Meritt's theory, since the measurements of the foundations do not match the architectural fragments from the Late Antique wall. Architectural fragments that do fit the foundations were found scattered around the northwest corner of the Agora.

title: Stoa Poikile


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Strait of Messina Bridge

The Strait of Messina Bridge (Ponte sullo stretto di Messina) is a planned 3.6-kilometre suspension bridge across the Strait of Messina, connecting Torre Faro in Sicily with Villa San Giovanni in the Italian Peninsula.

The bridge has been controversial due to the impact of earthquakes, strong currents in the strait, concerns of disruption of bird migration routes, and the infiltration of mafia groups Cosa Nostra and 'Ndrangheta in area construction projects.

While a bridge across the Strait of Messina had been proposed since ancient times, the first detailed plan was made in the 1990s for a suspension bridge. The project was cancelled in 2006 under Prime Minister Romano Prodi. On 6 March 2009, as part of a massive new public works programme, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government announced that construction of the Messina Bridge would indeed go ahead, pledging €1.3 billion as a contribution to the bridge's total cost, estimated at €6.1 billion. The project was cancelled again on 26 February 2013, by Prime Minister Mario Monti's government due to budget constraints. A decade later, the project was revived again with a decree by Giorgia Meloni's government on 16 March 2023, which received presidential approval on 31 March 2023.

If fully approved and built, the bridge will be the longest suspension bridge in the world. The bridge would be part of the Berlin–Palermo railway axis (Line 1) of the Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T).

Geography
The Strait of Messina is a funnel-shaped arm of sea that connects the Ionian Sea in the south to the Tyrrhenian Sea to the north. The width of the strait varies from a maximum of approximately 16 km (between Capo d'Alì in Sicily and Punta Pellaro in Calabria) to a minimum of approximately 3 km between Capo Peloro in Sicily and Torre Cavallo in Calabria. A similar distance separates Pezzo and Ganzirri; at that point, the strait is only 72 m deep, while in other places it can reach 200 m deep. It is also characterised by strong currents and the region has strong seismicity.

History
The idea of a bridge crossing the strait is an old one. The Romans considered building a bridge joining Calabria and Sicily made of boats and barrels. Pliny the Elder, philosopher and Roman military leader born in 23 AD wrote of a plan to bridge the Strait with a series of connecting boats. The idea was abandoned as it was clear that more traffic ploughed the Strait in a north-south than east-west direction, so any structure on water could not be permanent.

Charlemagne considered joining the two sides with a series of bridges. This idea was revived by the Norman adventurer Robert Guiscard in the 11th century and by Roger II of Sicily in the 12th century. In 1876, Giuseppe Zanardelli was convinced that the strait could be linked by either a bridge or a tunnel. In 1866, public works minister Stefano Jacini gave Alfredo Cottrau, an internationally recognised engineer, the task of drawing up plans for a bridge between Calabria and Sicily. Later, in 1870, Navone proposed building a tunnel based on Napoleon's idea of a tunnel under the English Channel. This tunnel was to start at Contesse and was to pass below Messina and Ganzirri at a depth of 150 m, crossing the Strait to Punta Pezzo and resurfacing at Torre Cavallo.

A geologic study of the area of the Strait of Messina was published in 1909 (historical Arch. Sicilian year XXXIV f.1,2) and in 1921, a study of an undersea tunnel was released to the Geographic Conference of Florence. A group of railway civil engineers studied the possibility of a suspension bridge but nothing came of it. The idea was revived in 1953 by master bridge builder David B. Steinman with a plan to build a bridge that crossed the Strait using two 220 m towers sunk in 120 m deep waters. The proposed 1524 m span would have represented a world record, eclipsing the then-longest 1275 m centre span of the Golden Gate Bridge and beating the 2256 m Mackinac Straits Bridge (then in planning) with a total length of 2988 m. The proposed structure was to clear the sea by 50 m for navigation, and have two decks – a lower deck carrying two rail lines, and 7 m above, a road deck 30 m wide. The main cables were designed with a diameter of 1 m. The construction of the bridge would have required 12,000 workers and cost hundreds of billions of lire.

Early planning stages

 * In the 1960s, a wide variety of proposals were advanced, including everything from submerged tubes to floating struts, pontoons and a revolving central section of the bridge. None turned out to be realistic.
 * In 1969, an international design competition was arranged.
 * In the 1970s, feasibility studies were undertaken by the State Railways leading to the creation of a private company with responsibility for planning the crossing of the Strait.
 * In the 1980s, the Messina Strait Company (Stretto di Messina S.p.A.) was set up with support from the State Railways, the regions and IRI. It concluded that it would be feasible to build a suspension bridge.
 * Detailed plans followed in the 1990s with final approval from the High Council of Public Works (Consiglio Superiore dei Lavori Pubblici).

Development of detailed plans
The 2006 plan called for a single-span suspension bridge with a central span of 3300 m. This would have made the span more than 60% longer than the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge in Turkey – the longest suspension bridge in the world at 2023 m.

Plans called for four traffic lanes (two driving lanes and one emergency lane in each direction), two railway tracks and two pedestrian lanes. In order to provide a minimum vertical clearance for navigation of 65 m, the height of the two towers was to be 382.6 m. This would have been taller than the Millau Viaduct in France (currently the tallest bridge in the world at 341 m). The bridge's suspension system would have relied on two pairs of steel cables, each with a diameter of 1.24 m and a total length, between the anchor blocks, of 5300 m.

The design included 20.3 km of road links and 19.8 km of railway links to the bridge. On the mainland, the bridge was to connect to the new stretch of the Salerno-Reggio Calabria motorway (A3) and to the planned Naples-Reggio Calabria High-Speed railway line; on the Sicilian side, to the Messina-Catania (A18) and Messina-Palermo (A20) motorways as well as the new Messina railway station (to be built by Rete Ferroviaria Italiana).

The bridge was planned to connect Reggio Calabria to Messina, the two cities that face each other on either side of the strait, in order to form a single city. This ambitious urban project was called Area Metropolitana integrata dello Stretto (Integrated Metropolitan Area of the Strait) or simply Città dello Stretto (City of the Strait). Among the controversies surrounding the building of the bridge was strong opposition to the formation of the new city by various Sicilian nationalist groups.

Abandonment and revival
On 12 October 2006, the Italian Parliament voted 272 to 232 in favour of abandoning the plan due to the bridge's "doubtful usefulness and viability", as well as the inability of the already burdened Italian treasury to bear its share of the cost. Additionally, transport minister Alessandro Bianchi pointed out that the road and rail links leading to the location of the proposed bridge are not capable of supporting enough traffic to make the bridge profitable. Other reasons for abandoning the plan were earthquake risk and fears that the bridge would enrich the networks of Organized crime in Italy such as Cosa Nostra and 'Ndrangheta.

On 15 April 2008, Silvio Berlusconi was re-elected prime minister of Italy and vowed to restart the project to build the bridge. The following month, Altero Matteoli, Italy's minister of infrastructure and transport confirmed the government's intent to restart work on the bridge in a letter to Pietro Ciucci, the president of Società Stretto di Messina.

On 6 March 2009, as part of a massive new public works programme, Silvio Berlusconi's government announced that plans to construct the Messina bridge had been revived, pledging €1.3 billion for the bridge as a contribution to its estimated cost of €6.1 billion. Some 3300 m long and 60 m wide, the bridge would be supported by two 382 m pillars, each higher than the Empire State Building in New York. There would be two motorway lanes and one emergency lane in each direction, catering for 6,000 vehicles per hour, a double track railway for up to 200 trains a day, and two independent lanes for service traffic and pedestrians. Berlusconi claimed that work will be completed by 2016. Until 2006, when the project was halted, the work had been assigned to a consortium of Impregilo (now called Webuild), Condotte d'Acqua, Cooperativa Muratori & Cementisti (CMC), and Consorzio Stabile A.C.I., alongside Spain's Sacyr, and Japan's IHI Corporation.

On 23 December 2009, preparatory work started with the diversion of the Tyrrhenian railway at Cannitello on the Italian mainland side of the strait.

In February 2013, the project was shut down by Mario Monti, the new Italian Premier, by the government for lack of funds.

In September 2016, the project was reconsidered by the government of Matteo Renzi.

On 6 October 2019, the Tribunale amministrativo regionale (TAR) postpones to 8 July 2020 the hearing for the decision on the dispute undertaken by Salini Impregilo against the Italian Government for the payment of the huge penalties for the failure to execute the Bridge as decided by the Monti Cabinet in 2013.

On 3 June 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Premier Giuseppe Conte returned to talk about Messina Bridge, declaring that the Government of Italy would return to evaluate the resumption of work without prejudice.

On 22 April 2021, the CEO of Webuild, Pietro Salini, in Catania in a joint press conference with the President of the Sicilian Region Nello Musumeci, announced that he was ready to build the Strait of Messina Bridge, starting immediately with the works and on the basis of the executive project and construction site approved definitively in 2013. He declared that he already had the 4 billion euro coverage necessary for the construction of the Work and that he could obtain the other two necessary for the infrastructures connected to it from private financing.

On 16 March 2023, the Government of Italy, chaired by Giorgia Meloni and with Matteo Salvini at the Ministry of Infrastructure, approved a decree law to proceed with the construction of the Messina Bridge by remodeling the current project.

On 19 March 2023, WeBuild's Chief Executive Officer (C.E.O.), Pietro Salini, said works on the bridge should begin by Summer 2024 with the opening of the project scheduled for 2032.

On 31 March 2023, the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella approves the Decreto Ponte (Bridge Decree) which is thus published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale (Official Gazette).

Contracting parties
A construction consortium led by Impregilo (now called Webuild) was chosen in 2005, with actual construction set to begin in the second half of 2006. The bridge was designed by Danish architects at Dissing+Weitling in close collaboration with the Danish engineering firm COWI.

On 27 March 2006, Impregilo and Stretto di Messina announced that they had signed a contract assigning final project planning to a General Contractor. Impregilo S.p.A., the lead partner had a 45% share. Other participants were Spain’s Sacyr (18.70%), the Italian companies Società Italiana per Condotte D’Acqua S.p.A. (15%) and Cooperativa Muratori & Cementisti-C.M.C. of Ravenna (13%), Japan’s IHI Corporation (6.30%), and Consorzio Stabile A.C.I. S.c.p.a (2%). The General Contractor would also be assisted by the Danish and Canadian companies COWI A/S, Sund & Baelt A/S and Buckland & Taylor Ltd., who would handle project engineering. Completion was projected to take six years, at a projected cost of €3.9 billion. The first task of the General Contractor was to draw up the final project.

Criticisms
The bridge has been controversial due to the impact of earthquakes, strong currents in the strait, concerns of disruption of bird migration routes, and the infiltration of mafia groups Cosa Nostra and 'Ndrangheta in area construction projects.

Supporters see the bridge as a huge job-creation scheme and a boost for tourism. However, opponents question the priority of the bridge, claiming that if the government concentrated instead on making Sicily's roads more efficient, drivers would be able to reach the coast more quickly at a fraction of the bridge's cost. Others believe that the bridge is quite unnecessary, since the local economy is already providing for the conversion of the local former NATO Comiso Airport into a commercial terminal to export vegetables to Northern Europe. Alternatively, a much cheaper revamping of the current structures is claimed to be sufficient (for instance, the ferry lines on the Calabria side are now accessible by trucks only by driving through very narrow streets, which are a tight bottleneck for transport). Another argument against the bridge is the poor state of the transport infrastructure in Sicily, particularly the railroad and the A20 autostrada linking Messina to Palermo, and the poor state of the A2 autostrada on the mainland linking Reggio Calabria to Naples.

The greatest structural design problem of the bridge is the aerodynamic stability of its deck under wind and seismic activity.

title: Strait of Messina Bridge


text:
Los Carayos

Los Carayos was a French band which released four albums between 1986 and 1994. They were active mostly in Paris in the mid-1980s, but side interests of the musicians, notably of Manu Chao, did not allow the band to take off.

Their songs were largely of a parodic style, mixing rockabilly, punk, blues, and various genres of folk from throughout the world, especially country, and hispanic music. They were also influenced by Italian composer Ennio Morricone, who is famous for his work in movie soundtracks.

Name
Carallo (Galician spelling) or caralho (Portuguese one, both pronounced the same) are slang words with several meanings including "penis".

Members
The members of Los Carayos have gone on to achieve success in separate projects on the French and world music scenes. The group members include:
 * François Hadji-Lazaro (also in Pigalle and Les Garçons Bouchers): vocals and diverse instruments
 * Manu Chao (also being in the Hot Pants, then founding Mano Negra): vocals and guitar
 * Schultz from Parabellum: vocals and guitar
 * Tonio Chao (Manu's brother, also being in Chihuahua, then in Mano Negra)
 * Alain from Les Wampas

Discography

 * Hot Chicas (1986) - this album also featured music from Hot Pants
 * Ils Ont Osé LIVE (1986) All or Nothing Rec. (D. Pasquier prod)
 * Persistent et Signent (1987)
 * Au prix où sont les courges (1994)

title: Los Carayos