text:
Jim Brickman

James Merrill Brickman (born November 20, 1961) is an American pop songwriter, pianist and radio host. Brickman has earned two Grammy nominations for his albums Peace (2003) for Best Instrumental, and Faith (2009) for Best New Age Album. He won a Canadian Country Music Award, a Dove Award presented by the Gospel Music Association, and was twice named Songwriter of the Year by SESAC. Billboard lists 22 of his albums reaching No. 1 on the New Age chart, and 16 of his songs reaching Top 10 on the Adult Contemporary chart. Four of his albums were certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Since 1997, he has hosted his own radio show, The Jim Brickman Show, which is carried on radio stations throughout the United States.

Brickman has collaborated with Lady A, Johnny Mathis, Kenny Rogers, Michael W. Smith, Leslie Odom Jr., Martina McBride, Megan Hilty, Donny Osmond, Delta Goodrem, Olivia Newton-John, Carly Simon, John Oates, Five for Fighting, Michael Bolton, Gerald Levert, Jane Krakowski, Richie McDonald, Sandi Patty, Mat & Savanna Shaw, and many others.

Early life
Brickman was born and raised in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and began playing piano at the age of five. His Jewish parents took him to services at Suburban Temple-Kol Ami in nearby Beachwood, where Brickman was confirmed in his teens. He attended Shaker Heights High School, and he performed on piano with the high school orchestra. He heard fellow student Anne Cochran sing in a musical, and introduced himself, asking her to join him in performing piano-vocal material. Together, they won a talent competition hosted by the WGCL "G98" radio station. Another high school friend named Meg Tippett convinced Brickman to join the Heights Youth Theatre as accompanist, which grew into four years as musical director.

Brickman studied composition and performance at the Cleveland Institute of Music while taking business classes at Case Western Reserve University. In 1980, Brickman founded his own advertising music company called The Brickman Arrangement, writing commercial jingles for many companies across the country such as McDonald's, Pontiac, City of Cleveland, Ohio Lottery, and Isuzu.

Musical career
Brickman signed to Windham Hill Records in 1994 and released his first album, No Words featuring the song "Rocket to the Moon" which became his first solo instrumental to be ranked on the Billboard charts. The songs "Angel Eyes" and "If You Believe" gained radio airplay from Brickman's second release, By Heart on the Windham Hill label in 1995. The following year, the CD's title track, "By Heart", became his first top 20 adult contemporary (AC) hit. In 1997, Brickman released the album Picture This, adding a vocal performance, "Valentine", sung by Martina McBride. By the end of the year, Brickman issued the first of many Christmas CDs, The Gift, with the title song featuring Collin Raye and Susan Ashton, topping three different charts; for this album, Brickman received a Dove Award from the Gospel Music Association. He later produced several other Christmas-themed albums, Peace (2003), Christmas Romance (2006), Homecoming (2007), and The Hymns and Carols of Christmas (2008); and his two albums Grace (2005) and Faith (2008) concentrated on arrangements of well-known Christian music.

During his career, four albums have sold over 500,000 copies; By Heart (1995), Picture This (1997), The Gift (1997), and Destiny (1999), qualifying them as Gold records in the United States. In November 2005, three of Brickman's albums, The Disney Songbook (2005), Grace (2005) and Greatest Hits (2004), held the top three spots on Billboard 's New Age chart. He also received a Grammy nomination in 2003, an SESAC "Songwriter of the Year" award, and a Canadian Country Music Award for "Best Vocal/Instrumental Collaboration". The 2008 album Faith was nominated for the 2009 Grammy Award for Best New Age Album.

Brickman composes a variety of music, and is known for his success in radio's adult contemporary format. He has collaborated with artists from all genres with songs like "Love of My Life" with Michael W. Smith, "You" with Jane Krakowski, "Never Alone" with country group Lady A, "After All These Years" with Anne Cochran, and "Never Far Away" with Christian contemporary group Rush of Fools, among others. Because of his long association with Windham Hill, his work is sometimes classified in the new-age genre, although Brickman considers his style to be broader than that. In May 2006, Brickman left Windham Hill and signed with Savoy Label Group (SLG) to release music under his own Brickman Music Group imprint. The album Escape was his first release distributed by SLG, following Pure Jim Brickman, a career-spanning compilation from Windham Hill.

In 2015, Brickman released the first album in the Soothe series for relaxation, meditation, yoga and massage. Soothe, Vol. 1 came with an audiobook. Three more volumes in the series followed through 2019.

Radio show
Making its debut in January 1997, Your Weekend with Jim Brickman is a four-hour radio show that has been heard across the US featuring music blended with celebrity interviews, lifestyle features and entertainment reports.

In 2018, The Jim Brickman Show Podcast debuted on Pandora. Two years later, his podcast moved to Spotify as The Brickman Bedtime Story.

Television
Brickman filmed the PBS specials My Romance: An Evening with Jim Brickman (2000), Love Songs & Lullabies (2002), The Disney Songbook (2005), and Beautiful World (2009). He has appeared on various TV shows such as Good Morning America and Live with Regis and Kathie Lee.

Personal life
Brickman grew up in Cleveland. He has a residence there as well as in New York City.

Other media
Brickman appeared on the September–October 2013 cover of Making Music Magazine to discuss his life and career.

Brickhouse Direct
Brickman founded Brickhouse Direct (BHD) in 2003 to provide internet marketing and e-commerce solutions. They specialized in promoting new acts and reinvigorating the careers of veteran musicians. In 2005, Brickhouse bought the online marketing firm Viawerk, bringing Viawerk co-founder Rod Flauhaus on board as partner. Flauhaus co-wrote the album Homecoming. Brickman's younger brother Michael served as president of Brickhouse. Brickhouse marketing clients included, Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, Richie McDonald (Lonestar), Point of Grace and many others. The label also published works by saxophonist Dave Koz, comedian Anita Renfroe, singer Chris Sligh and singer Mark Masri. Brickman's own 2012 album Blessings was released on the Brickhouse Direct label.

Singles

 * A "Valentine" was originally only released to Adult Contemporary and charted on Hot Country Songs as an album cut. It was remixed and released to country radio the following year. It also peaked at No. 50 on the Billboard Hot 100.
 * B "Sending You a Little Christmas" also peaked at No. 15 on Hot Christian Songs.
 * C "Escape" peaked at No. 17 on Hot Contemporary Jazz Songs.
 * D Peak position from Christmas version titled "Merry Christmas Beautiful".
 * E "The Gift" was not eligible to enter the Billboard Hot 100, but instead peaked No. 65 on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay.

Awards

 * 1998 – Canadian Country Music Association Award, Vocal Collaboration of the Year, for "Your Love" with Michelle Wright
 * 1998 – Dove Award presented by the Gospel Music Association for "The Gift" with Collin Raye and Susan Ashton
 * 1998 – SESAC Songwriter of the Year
 * 1999 – SESAC Songwriter of the Year
 * 2002 – SESAC: Performance award, for Simple Things
 * 2003 – SESAC: New Adult Contemporary album, for Love Songs and Lullabies
 * 2003 – Grammy nomination for Best Pop Instrumental Album, for Peace
 * 2009 – Grammy nomination for Best New Age Album, for Faith

title: Jim Brickman


text:
D5

D5 or D05 may refer to:

Arts and fiction

 * Dedication 5, a 2013 mixtape by American rapper Lil Wayne
 * D5 class Klingon starships, in the Star Trek science fiction series
 * Dimension Delete and Deadly Destruction Day, featured in Digimon Xros Wars

Aviation, transport, vehicles, communications

 * Albatros D.V, a German World War I fighter plane
 * Caterpillar D5
 * Citroën D5
 * Dauair (IATA code D5)
 * Dublin 5, an Irish postal district
 * Identification symbol for Nachtjagdgeschwader 3, a Luftwaffe night fighter-wing of World War II
 * Land Rover D5 - Land Rover Discovery 5
 * Trident D5 ballistic missile
 * Volvo D5 engine, an engine family made by Volvo Cars

Roads

 * D5 motorway (Czech Republic)
 * D5 road (Croatia), a state road
 * Detour for the M5 South Western Motorway, Sydney, Australia

Substances

 * Vitamin D5
 * D5, also known as DRD5, a subtype of dopamine receptors
 * A 5% dextrose solution, a type of intravenous fluid
 * Decamethylcyclopentasiloxane, an organosilicon compound
 * ATC code D05, Antipsoriatics, a subgroup of the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification System
 * D5, slang for a 5-milligram diazepam tablet

Other uses

 * Digital 5, a network of leading digital governments
 * D-5 (Panasonic), a professional digital video format
 * Demand 5, a video on demand website
 * The fifth D: All Things Digital, conference
 * Nikon D5, a 20.9 megapixel DSLR camera

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

title: D5


text:
Bolshaya Muksalma

Bolshaya Muksalma (Больша́я Му́ксалма) is one of the Solovetsky Islands. Bolshaya Muksalma is situated to the east of Bolshoy Solovetsky Island and is separated from it by two straits: Severnye Zheleznye Vorota and Yuzhnye Zheleznye Vorota (literally translated as Northern and Southern Iron Gates). The Yuzhnye Zheleznye Vorota Strait is crossed by a dam which was built by the monks of Solovetsky Monastery between 1865 and 1871 and now connects the two islands. The dam is several hundred meters long and 6.5 m wide. Southeast of Bolshaya Muksalma, there is Malaya Muksalma Island, as well as a number of tiny islets. The area of Bolshaya Muksalma is 17 km2. In terms of the area, this is the third island of the archipelago behind Bolzhoy Solovetsky and Anzersky Islands.

There is archaeological evidence that the island was populated in the second millennium BC. In historical time, Bolshaya Muksalma was made the location of the farm serving Solovetsky Monastery, as keeping female animals in close proximity to the monastery was prohibited. In the 19th century there was a small and secluded monastery (Sergeyev skete) on the island, which ran the monastery farm. In the 1900s, two cell buildings were constructed: in 1900, the wooden St. Sergius cells, and in 1901–1905, a stone building which combined cells with some agricultural facilities. In 1920, the monastery was shut down, and the skete later served as a department of the Solovetsky Gulag camp where women prisoners were confined. In 1939, the prison camp was shut down. Currently, there is algae production run on the island.

title: Bolshaya Muksalma


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José Balta

José Balta y Montero (25 April 1814 – 26 July 1872) was a Peruvian soldier and politician who served as the 19th President of Peru from 1868 to 1872. He was the son of John Balta Bru and Agustina Montero Casafranca.

In 1865, he aided Mariano Ignacio Prado in the seizure of the presidency and served in his administration. In 1867, he in turn overthrew Prado. As president, he re-established constitutional rule and undertook vast projects for national improvement. He granted a monopoly of guano export to a French company and obtained large loans in Europe, yet the lavish expenditures of his administration plunged Peru deep in debt. Balta was deposed and shot by a disgruntled member of his own cabinet, Defense Minister Tomás Gutiérrez during his subsequent coup d'état attempt.

Early career
José Balta y Montero embraced a military career from an early age. At only 16 years of age he entered the Military College in 1830, from which he graduated three years later with the rank of sergeant. By the age of 38, he already had the rank of colonel. In 1855, he joined the cause of Luis José de Orbegoso (1834), that of Felipe Santiago Salaverry (1835) and the Restoration (1838 to 1839).

In 1865, he joined the rebellion of Pedro Diez Canseco and Mariano Ignacio Prado against President Juan Antonio Pezet. He participated in the Battle of May 2, but the following year he distinguished himself among the opponents of president Prado, who exiled him to Chile.

José Balta returned to Peru in 1867 and led a movement against the Prado in Chiclayo, which was echoed in Arequipa, where he rose with General Pedro Diez Canseco. Both refused to swear under the new Constitution of 1860, which was proclaimed in force.

Mariano Ignacio Prado, then traveled south to quell the rebellion, but under pressure from both Balta and Diez-Canseco, and exercised by the Congress from Lima, he was forced to resign. The interim presidency fell for the third time and in the general veteran Pedro Diez Canseco became president.

Before the first month of his term, on February 6, Diez Canseco called for presidential elections, in which Balta actively campaigned. In that contest, he got 3168 votes, against 384 for Manuel Costas and 153 for his main rival, Manuel Toribio Ureta, who represented the Liberals. Balta wore the presidential sash on 2 August 1868.

Presidency of the Republic
Under his administration, Balta began opening the country to foreign capital. Nicolás de Piérola, the appointed Minister of Finance, tried to resolve the financial crisis that choked Peru by surrendering what would become the exploitation of Guano to the French-Jewish company Dreyfus. This put him at odds with the local oligarchy.

The money from the agreement was used for the construction of railways and other projects. This was one of the main legacies of the Balta government. By the year 1861, Peru only had a 90-mile railroad system, but by 1874, it became a 947 miles system. At the same time, besides the railroads, several major projects were also realized: new piers on the coasts, major avenues in Lima and new bridges in the coast. One such example is the bridge now named after him, built between 1869 and 1919.

However, not having enough money to pay contractors for railway construction, the government began to ask Dreyfus for advances in guano revenues, which led to a large increase in the already huge debt. President José Balta, facing the economic crisis, appointed Nicolás de Piérola, a political conservative and a democrat, as finance minister in 1868. Piérola requested authorization to Congress to negotiate directly (no consignment) the sale of guano abroad in a volume that bordered the two million metric tons. The French Jewish house "Dreyfus Hnos" accepted the proposal.

The contract between the Peruvian government and the house Dreyfus was signed on 17 August 1869 and was approved by Congress on 11 November 1870. The contract went ahead despite protests from the Peruvian capitalists or consignees.

By 1879, the rail system had 1,963 miles of track.

Elections and murder
In 1871, with very close elections, rumors circulated that Juan Francisco Balta, brother of head of state, and prime minister at the time, would run for president. However, on the advice of Nicolás de Piérola, this did not happen. Balta, therefore, decided to support the candidacy of former President José Rufino Echenique, but he too declined nomination. Finally, the third candidate, Antonio Arenas was the one who received the full support of Balta.

The contenders were Manuel Toribio Ureta Arenas, who was a repeat candidate, and Manuel Pardo y Lavalle, then Supreme Prosecutor. The latter's campaign was overwhelming, and in 1872 was established as the first civilian president in the history of the Republic of Peru.

Although José Balta had been tempted to remain in power by the Gutiérrez brothers, one of whom was Minister of War, he ultimately declined to do so, a situation rare in the history of Peru. That year, 1872, July 22, Tomas Gutiérrez, the then minister, led a rebellion to proclaim himself Supreme Head of the Republic.

That same day, President Balta was taken prisoner when he went to meet with Miguel Grau Seminario and Aurelio García y García, the two highest ranking naval officers at the time. Through the mediation of these two great military men, the Navy did not provide support for the rebellion of Tomas Gutiérrez, and did not recognize his government.

Likewise, Lima's population disagreed, and one of the conspirator brothers, Silvestre Gutiérrez, died on 22 July 1872 in one of the many skirmishes in the capital. In retaliation for his brother's death, president Tomás Gutiérrez gave order to kill José Balta y Montero; he was shot in his bed. This led some days later to the overthrow and lynching of Gutiérrez.

In the 1990 presidential election, his great-grandson Nicolás de Piérola Balta (also a great-grand nephew of President Nicolás de Piérola) was a candidate.

Work and legacy

 * 1) In 1869 he founded the School of Agriculture.
 * 2) Founded Ancón and constitutional province of Tarapacá.
 * 3) Construction of pier dock in Callao.
 * 4) Construction of the Lima-Callao and Lima-Huacho.
 * 5) Salaverry Port Trust.
 * 6) Construction of the "Palace of the Exhibition", currently the Museum of Art.
 * 7) Founded the neighborhood of La Victoria.
 * 8) He built the Cathedral of San Marcos de Arica, and the office of the same city (now Chile).

title: José Balta


text:
Talk:Hotelling's T-squared distribution

Comments 2005
Hi Michael

that was a good edit!

I suppose if the observations are rank deficient, that would be equivalent to them all lying in a (p − 1)-dimensional hyperplane. I can't quite visualize the effect on $$W^{-1}$$. Any ideas as to how to "see" what's going on in this case?

best

Robinh 22:07, 26 Feb 2005 (UTC)

 * I'll think about that one. But notice that if the sample size is smaller than p, then you would necessarily have a rank deficiency. Michael Hardy 23:13, 26 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Confusing
Hello,

Could someone add a brief, common-sense explanation of what the T-square statistic actually is for? I have a somewhat vague idea, but nothing certain. Such an addition would be a much appreciated preface to the mathematical details. Thanks, 65.183.135.231 (talk) 04:58, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

 * Hi. The T-square statistic is a generalization of Student's t statistic that is used in multivariate hypothesis testing (cut-and-pasted from the article).  In what way does this fall short of what you ask for?  Best wishes, Robinh (talk) 07:10, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Relation to Mahalanobis distance
The only difference is the factor of N. I have been trying to compare the results from some statistical software but I do not quite see their results to show this relationship. Shyamal (talk) 07:12, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

Results
Hello, How do you view your data set? as a set of n vectors of p samples each, or p samples of a single vector of n dimensions? So long as you are consistent, the results are consistent withe 'cov' function in 'R'. I've checked my own function against the returns of cov. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.198.241.62 (talk) 19:33, 22 June 2010 (UTC)

Rename to Hotelling's T-squared Statistics
The Hotelling's T-squared distribution is essentially the F-distribution, and has been noted on the F-distribution article. This article, as the edit history shows, is clearly more concerned with the Hotelling's T-squared statistics.

 * Do remember to sign comments. The edit history doesn't show this as there are essdentailly no comments there. There are some related comments above on the Talk page. Any change should follow the usual convention on capitals. And there would be merit in following the general set-up of related articles that exist in pairs such as F-test and F-distribution ... this would suggest having "Hotelling's T-squared test" as a name, rarther than "...statistic". Having a pair would leave some room for expansion of distributional properties but, given the link to the F distribution, there is not much need for this ...unless there are important uses in the published literature that use the T-squared explicitly. Melcombe (talk) 09:57, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

Positive Definite vs. Positive Semidefinite
Am I correct in think that we should change "It can be shown that $$\mathbf W$$ is positive-definite and follows..." to "It can be shown that $$\mathbf W$$ is positive-semidefinite and follows..." Monsterman222 (talk) 20:55, 12 March 2013 (UTC)

M's Wishart distribution
Hello, There is a good chance I have misunderstood, but (in the first line of the `distribution' section) isn't there a problem with $$M$$ being an $$m \times p$$ matrix then a $$p \times p$$ matrix that is inverted? Should it be that $$(_mM_p)^T (_mM_p)=_pM_p$$ is Wishart distributed?Benedict.powell (talk) 16:55, 7 September 2013 (UTC)

title: Talk:Hotelling's T-squared distribution


text:
Talk:Pseudoskepticism

Contemporary usage
Why is all the 'contemportary usage' parapsychologists (pseudoscientists) attacking people who disagree with them? Hows about we trim back the ghost-and-UFO-promotion and include maybe holocaust denial or AIDS denial? This is horribly POV, promoting supernatural phenomena and ignoring ACTUAL pseudoscepticism. Not that there aren't a few pseudosceptics in CSISOP or whatever but I would imagine most members simply haven't seen sufficient evidence. Earfetish1 (talk) 10:47, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

 * Why do you see a need to trim any sourced material which is not incorrect? If you have sources for "ACTUAL pseudoscepticism" (including what that phrase means) please help improve this article.  Alternately, if we cannot find usage examples beyond "parapsychologists (pseudoscientists) attacking people who disagree with them" then we really need to change the lead.  NJGW (talk) 19:37, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

Thoughts on reading the article
The key to this article is that as a modern term, pseudo-skeptic was introduced by Marcello Truzzi. Truzzi's argument in On Pseudo Skepticism is a subtle one:

 * Critics who assert negative claims, but who mistakenly call themselves "skeptics," often act as though they have no burden of proof placed on them at all, though such a stance would be appropriate only for the agnostic or true skeptic. A result of this is that many critics seem to feel it is only necessary to present a case for their counter-claims based upon plausibility rather than empirical  evidence. Thus, if a subject in a psi experiment can be shown to have had an opportunity  to cheat, many critics seem to assume not merely that he probably did cheat, but  that he must have, regardless of what may be the complete absence of evidence  that he did so cheat and sometimes even ignoring evidence of the subject's past reputation  for honesty. Similarly, improper randomization procedures are sometimes assumed to  be the cause of a subject's high psi scores even though all that has been established  is the possibility of such an artifact having been the real cause. Of course, the  evidential weight of the experiment is greatly reduced when we discover an opening  in the design that would allow an artifact to confound the results. Discovering an  opportunity for error should make such experiments less evidential and usually unconvincing.  It usually disproves the claim that the experiment was "air tight" against  error, but it does not disprove the anomaly claim.

Thus Truzzi regards the position of the "agnostic or true skeptic" to be one of provisional disbelief. He distinguishes the line-crossing of the pseudo-skeptic in a very subtle manner. If a possible flaw is discovered in an experiment, this reduces the evidential value of the experiment, but (he claims) some investigators go so far as to claim that the flawed experiment disproves the claim, but these people fail in skepticism because they do not recognise that the burden of proof is now on them.

Now the lead of our article refers to Truzzi, but then it goes off the rails a bit:

 * ''University of Washington electrical research engineer William J. Beaty describes pseudo-skepticism as;
 * "a variety of pseudoscience: the behavior of highly biased 'sneering scoffers' who try to legitimize their prejudice by donning the mantle of science and proper skepticism. They claim to support reason/logic while in fact filling their arguments with plenty of ad-hominems, straw-man, poisoning-the-well, and numerous other emotion-enflaming fallacies and debating tactics."

Now Beaty here is apparently being quoted by Steven B. Krivit in The Rebirth of Cold Fusion: Real Science, Real Hope, Real Energy. Beaty runs a website, called Weird Science, which is well worth a visit. However his views on science and skepticism (as opposed to his science, which is admirable) seem to be rather on the edge. It's probably inappropriate to quote him in the lead section of an article on the subject--I'd prefer to see a more extensive description of Truzzi's position supported by quotes from Truzzi.

Another problem with this article is that some of it is an essay. For instance the much of the section "Pseudo-skepticism and scientific method" is unreferenced and indeed seems to be a synthesis of uncited external sources.

The section "Contemporary usage" just seems to be an assorted set of quotes most likely gleaned from googling.

The main problem here is that a succession of editors have simply jumped in and added descriptions of their favorite primary sources without regard to weight.

Truzzi's usage and his essay have reasonably wide circulation (although I'm not convinced that the usage is widely enough cited in reliable secondary sources to merit a whole article, I'll hold my, er, skepticism in check for now).

I propose that the best thing to do would be to trim the article down and limit it to a discussion of Truzzi's critique of skepticism, some of the other references that appear in reasonably widely published sources (not just stuff on the web, please!) and the section "Other usages" which describes uses of the term mostly unrelated to Truzzi's coinage. --TS 14:31, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

 * A really big problem with this article is that it was at one time simply a vehicle for Truzzi's view points, and an extension of the ongoing tension on Wikipedia between "skeptics" and "non-skeptics" (mainstream vs. fringe). You can see this in the extensive discussions above.  I tried cleaning it up, or at least changing the wording to reflect the fact that this article is just about Truzzi, but that wasn't quite accepted and now we have all these examples of other people using the term.  Perhaps the thing to do is to merge it with Truzzi, as this seems to be a wp:NEO problem.  NEO states that you need sources about the topic of the article, not ones that just mention the term in passing.  A google scholar search shows this type of source may not exist.  NJGW (talk) 19:49, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

 * I think it may well belong with Truzzi, but at the moment I'm only concerned with removing the undue weight, which is essentially a load of uses of the term apparently gleaned from googling (perhaps in reaction to your earlier attempts to hightlight that it's basically about Truzzi).

 * As I've tried to show, Truzzi's point is quite a subtle one. He deliberately brings up the distinction between atheist and agnosticism, which is also rather subtle.  --TS 08:36, 8 January 2009 (UTC)

 * Okay, I had a go at clearing the clutter, including a huge amount of linkspam. The "Contemporary uses" section probably needs work. --TS 08:57, 8 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I had a closer look at the "Contemporary" section and didn't see anything particularly worthy of note. I think we could easily encapsulate this entry as "Marcello Truzzi once compares skeptics to agnostics and suggested the term 'pseudo-skeptic' for those who failed to adopt an agnostic approach to extraordinary claims".  Nothing seems to have been added to that over the past three decades.  --TS 20:50, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

Proposed merge with scientific skepticism or Marcello Truzzi
I'm proposing that this article, which really just relates to Marcello Truzzi's critique of a certain trend in scientific skepticism, be merged either to scientific skepticism or Marcello Truzzi. Discuss this at talk:scientific skepticism. --TS 14:46, 11 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I left a comment on the first talk page already suggesting that there needs to be a coupe of sentences there, but from looking at the second article I think what it already has covers this topic quite admirably, so this article should just redirect to that one. DreamGuy (talk) 17:26, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

 * I've gone ahead with the merge to Marcello Truzzi. --TS 22:17, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

 * I've gone ahead and undid your improper, discussion-free merge. --Wjbeaty (talk) 21:55, 24 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Hi, you'll find the discussion on talk:scientific skepticism. No problem with undoing it.  --TS 22:12, 24 January 2009 (UTC)
 * But I also notice that you've hauled back into the article a rather large amount of material that I had deleted in a cleanup. Could you explain why you did that, please? Please come and discuss your concerns at Talk:Scientific skepticism. --TS 22:14, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Some editing
I removed some of the mere mentions, but they could be re-inserted if they go more in depth. I don't have access to all the source material. The other uses are interesting, but only incidentally. I kept some mentions since they actually do go in depth with some surrounding problems that people have with pseudoskepticism other than the dry definition per Truzzi. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Benjaminbruheim (talk • contribs) 05:34, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

 * I've changed the following unsourced statement:
 * Generally the term is used for somebody who declares an idea to be wrong without inquiry into the field or doing experimentation and thus commiting an a priori fallacy.

 * My proposed replacement correctly characterizes the term:
 * Generally the term is used for somebody who declares disbelief rather than simply withholding belief.

 * --TS 16:07, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

 * I've removed the section "Pseudo-skepticism and the scientific method", which seems to be a mini-essay, entirely original research. --TS 16:13, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Hufford, Leiter
I've removed the reference to Hufford because he seems to be applying a general critique to the systemic bias of scientific culture against woo as "radical skepticism" (which would include skeptics such as Truzzi!) --TS 17:33, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

 * This is a common misconception. Truzzi's zeteticism is closely related to pyrrhonism which is a step less skeptical than radical skepticism. Radical skepticism is about being skeptical about everything while pyrrhonism is about witholding judgement until you know everything. The difference is subtle, but in practice very different. It's worth noting because often a flawed assumption about these philosophical perspectives lead to a lot of debacle: A person who allows a radical position to be spoken can be misunderstood of supporting it. --Benjaminbruheim (talk) 02:04, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

There are also problems with Leiter--he is extremely unfocussed and it's a fringe opinion. Basically this seems to be a bit of special pleading, complaining that scientists who dismiss the paranormalist claims won't "read significantly into the literature on the subjects about which they are most skeptical". This is related to Hufford in a way: Leiter doesn't like the way science works. Why would a scientist read a book written by and for credulous people when there is such a dearth of actual scientific evidence and such a multiplicity of extraordinary claims? --TS 17:37, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

 * I aggree with the removal of Hufford. He is a folklorist commenting on "most of the scientific community", and he is talking about his personal perceptions of the feild of science 24 years ago (seems a non-notable source for this sort of issue).  I don't know of many true scientists who will even say anything definitive about their own areas of study, much less the areas of other researchers.

 * Leiter is misquoting Truzzi. He's says Truzzi used the term specifically for "organized skepticism", but doesn't get into what's wrong with an organization of skeptics other than calling PhACT "dysfunctional."  If this adds to the understanding of our concept, I'll have to be shown how.  NJGW (talk) 18:58, 25 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I tweaked your comment to stop it interleaving with mine (which made the section almost impossible for me to read). --TS 19:13, 25 January 2009 (UTC)
 * This is wrong. He is not quoting Truzzi. Leiter posits that organized skepticism is not scientific skepticism or healthy skepticism but pseudoskeptical. I fixed the link to the article so you can check for yourself. I'll read over this and his follow up article. --Benjaminbruheim (talk) 02:17, 26 January 2009 (UTC)
 * When Leiter says, "organized skepticism appears to be something very different: it might be called [...] in the words of Marcello Truzzi, pseudoskepticism," he is implying that Truzzi uses this application. You're right that he's different in that he calls them "scientifically inclined, but psychologically scarred."  Now that I read it again, I see he's not talking about all organized skeptics, just the ones that treat the organization like an AA of sorts.

 * I'm having a hard time seeing what this has to do with the concept, as Leiter has a different idea of the word than is presented in the lead. He's not even talking about pseudoskepticism anyway, but about organized skepticism (as this discussion of Leiter's discussion backs up).  Besides, who is he and why is he notable?  NJGW (talk) 04:07, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

 * L David Leiter is just this guy. The term "peer review" as applied to JSE appears to mean that the paper is read and checked by other members of the SSE before publication.  I don't think we should be giving this fellow's muddled opinion much prominence. --TS 05:40, 26 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I agree he's not very notable, except that he caused a number of back and forths on the topic. But it was not very constructive and mostly just an extended version of internet-drama. The edit I did was just to clarify the article before it is eventually removed. I am still interested in finding the source of Huffords' comment, since it seems very relevant to "pathological skepticism". I also think that the article lacks a "positive theory" - which the previous "science"-essay that was removed acted as. --Benjaminbruheim (talk) 06:00, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Blackmore
I've restored the Blackmore quote from the source. I don't know where the previous--completely different--statement attributed to Blackmore came from. --TS 17:46, 25 January 2009 (UTC)
 * This needs more context. First of all, the two places I see Kennedy quoting Blackmore disaggree over whether she said "worst kind of pseudoskepticism," or "worse kind of pseudoskepticism".  Either one doesn't give us much context, as it implies she thinks there's more than one kind of pseudoskepticism, and the follow up quote is just her ranting about males not believing.  There is no clear connection between Blackmore's use of the term and the quoted sentences.  Someone needs to find the 1994 source and verify what's actually being said.
 * The non-Blackmore quote was originally attributed to "University of Washington electrical research engineer William J. Beaty" in Steven B. Krivit's, The Rebirth of Cold Fusion: Real Science, Real Hope, Real Energy. If anybody has access to this we can verify what's acctually said there.  Interestingly, Wjbeaty is the username of the person that reverted the redirect to a version with "William J Beaty" in the lead.  NJGW (talk) 19:29, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

The table
There's a table that goes "Truzzi attributed the following characteristics to pseudoskeptics". I tried to balance it by adding a similar table describing Truzzi's ideal of skepticism.

What concerns me about this is that it reduces Truzzi's nuanced opinion to a set of sound-bites.

Truzzi himself wrote:

 * "In science, the burden of proof falls upon the claimant; and the more extraordinary a claim, the heavier is the burden of proof demanded. The true skeptic takes an agnostic position, one that says the claim is not proved rather than disproved. He asserts that the claimant has not borne the burden of proof and that science must continue to build its cognitive map of reality without incorporating the extraordinary claim as a new "fact." Since the true skeptic does not assert a claim, he has no burden to prove anything. He just goes on using the established theories of "conventional science" as usual. But if a critic asserts that there is evidence for disproof, that he has a negative hypothesis --saying, for instance, that a seeming psi result was actually due to an artifact--he is making a claim and therefore also has to bear a burden of proof....

 * "...Thus, if a subject in a psi experiment can be shown to have had an opportunity to cheat, many critics seem to assume not merely that he probably did cheat, but that he must have, regardless of what may be the complete absence of evidence that he did so cheat and sometimes even ignoring evidence of the subject's past reputation for honesty. Similarly, improper randomization procedures are sometimes assumed to be the cause of a subject's high psi scores even though all that has been established is the possibility of such an artifact having been the real cause. Of course, the evidential weight of the experiment is greatly reduced when we discover an opening in the design that would allow an artifact to confound the results. Discovering an opportunity for error should make such experiments less evidential and usually unconvincing. It usually disproves the claim that the experiment was "air tight" against error, but it does not disprove the anomaly claim."

The first quote is already in our article on Truzzi, the second is from two paragraphs further on in Truzzi's article.

I think that taken together these two lengthy quotes give a very accessible explanation of the phenomenon he was concerned about. The beauty of the writing above is that it depersonalizes the term and lays the issues bare--something even Truzzi himself was not always at pains to do. --TS 05:55, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

The link farm
Some of this is good, most of it is junk. Some of it is just broken links. I've brought it here for now. The WikiQuote thing didn't work because the section it pointed to no longer exists on WikiQuote.

 * Truzzi, Marcello, "On Pseudo-Skepticism". Anomalist. (Commentary)
 * Truzzi, Marcello, "On Some Unfair Practices towards Claims of the Paranormal". Oxymoron, 1998
 * Drasin, Daniel, "Zen and the Art of Debunkery". aol.com, 1997.
 * Milton, Richard, "Scientific skepticism".
 * Mooney, Chris, "Abuses of Skepticism : Doubting is a powerful tool, but it can definitely be taken too far". CSICOP, December, 2003.
 * Haack, Susan, "Science, Scientism, and Anti-Science in the Age of Preposterism". CSICOP, December 1997.
 * Hall, Stephanie A. "Folklore and the Rise of Moderation Among Organized Skeptics" Paper presented at the 1999 Annual Meeting of the American Folkore Society
 * Sofka, Michael D., "Myths of Skepticism". ISUNY, March, 2002.
 * Beaty, William J., "Symptoms of Pathological Sketicism". 1996.
 * Hyman, Ray, "Proper Criticism". (csicop.org)
 * Martin, Brian, "Strategies for dissenting scientists". Society for Scientific Exploration. Journal of Scientific Exploration, Volume 12 No 4. 1998. (PDF)
 * Baez, John, "The crackpot index : Method for rating potentially revolutionary contributions to physics.".
 * Kruger, Justin, and David Dunning "Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments". Department of Psychology, Cornell University.
 * Debunking Pseudo-Skeptical Arguments of Paranormal Debunkers by Winston Wu
 * A Logical Analysis of Winston Wu's Anti-Skeptical Article by Paul Sandoval
 * Wilson, Robert Anton, interview in which he discusses CSICOP and pseudoskeptism, what he calls "irrational rationalists" and "fundamentalist materialism"
 * Sarma, Amardeo, Misguided Stigmatization of "Organized Skepticism"
 * Skeptic's pages - Quotes and links to articles about skepticism and pseudoskepticism.

--TS 06:34, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

The problem
I don't think the pathological skepticism thing holds up. The examples we have here, Leiter, Meynell, Kluft, even Blackmore to a certain extent, are diverse and focus on different aspects. Leiter has encountered former fundies who have swung to the other side of the pendulum. Meynall basically caricatures orthodox skeptical approaches. Kluft wishes for more dispassionate (and presumably less derisive) skeptics. Blackmore comes closest to a genuine characteristic when she highlights a priori dismissal. She seems to be using the term "pseudoskepticism" in the same sense as Truzzi.

And perhaps Truzzi's "psi" example seemed more weighty when Geller was still claiming to be doing something other than entertain people.

All of those objections are coming from the heterodox side (Blackmore still chafes), and they're very weak and disorganized. Can somebody convince me, perhaps with examples from the "link farm" above, that there's a coherent phenomenon distinct from Truzzi's "biting off more than one can chew" pseudo-skepticism? --TS 08:12, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

 * I suppose what I'm getting at is that there are bad painters, there are names for bad painting, such as "daubing", but there is no article on bad painting, or pathological painting, and daubing is a redirect to wattle and daub, an entirely different meaning of the word. There is a phenomenon known as pathological science, but compared to the few comments about pathological skepticism this is an absolutely vast field, with sources by Nobel Prize-winners and science professors.  I suspect that pathological skepticism may be more towards the "daubing" end of the spectrum of "bad ways of doing things that have names" than the "pathological science" end.  Significant criticisms of scientific skepticism (and there are some in the link farm) should probably be mentioned in scientific skepticism, but probably do not need a separate article in my view. --TS 01:04, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

 * There has been no response in over a week. I'm inclined to restore the redirect, and include the Blackmore quotation as an example of the use of the term with the same meaning by others.  The "link farm" contains much dross, but I propose to move it to the talk page of scientific skepticism to see if there's material in it that can be worked into that article. --TS 04:35, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

 * I agree, restore the redirect. There's just no reason to have this article as a separate toic. DreamGuy (talk) 19:24, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

I agree, and I've restored the redirect. --Akhilleus (talk) 19:39, 5 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I apologize but I missed this conversation. Can I request that we do a proper "Merge" discussion before we do such a redirect? Thanks. -- Levine2112 discuss 19:47, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

Merger proposal
Okay, I set up a proper merge template and am opening this for community discussion. Thanks again! -- Levine2112 discuss 19:50, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

 * Undid it. We can see if there's consensus to undo it, but this has been done twice already.  NJGW (talk) 19:53, 18 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Okay. Can you please point me to the two proper Merge conversations? I can't seem to find it (except for one informal one on this page from 2007). Thanks. -- Levine2112 discuss 19:57, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

 * "Proper"? Is there such a thing as an "unproper merge conversation"?  This was discussed extensively over the course of months.  Read the talk page and archives.  Feel free to state your case, but existing consensus is that they should be merged.  NJGW (talk) 20:00, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

The merge process that's been followed is just fine, since merging has blissfully remained free of the elaborate processes involved in WP:AFD, WP:RM, etc. Obviously I think the merge was a good idea, too. --Akhilleus (talk) 20:12, 18 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure if it was a good idea or not. I'm not really commenting on that at the moment. I just want to make sure that the standard protocol (including a merge template on this and the target article) was followed. Above I see a decision made by a limited amount of editors without the benefit of such a template. The templates are used to garner more community input. That is the way to properly propose a merge and have a discussion. If such a process has already occured, that is fine. I am just asking to be pointed to some diff of the article or section of the talk page where the "Merge proposal" discussion happened. Thanks. -- Levine2112 discuss 20:37, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

 * If you're not commenting about the redirect then you're disrupting Wikipedia to make a wp:POINT. Please don't do that. Have a look at the article history and the process above, in which a group of editors (and by the very nature of WP, a group will ALWAYS be limited) whittled down the article TWICE until they realized there was nothing left worth its own article. You were bold, I reverted, let's discuss what you think the issue with the redirect is, not what you think the only way to do a merge is. NJGW (talk) 20:44, 18 February 2009 (UTC)
 * The article was still in flux, but I found it pointless to edit with people who were more concerned about getting the article deleted than developing an article on the philosophical debate that caused the schism in csicop. The same kind of debate happened repeatedly on every topic on this schism. Just check out all the links in the article now pointing to the truzzi article. And how all the references that were in place in the article has been moved into a a biography on Truzzi, ie not his work. It's silly and the wp:POINT was really just a bunch of editors feel pseudoskepticism is a touchy subject. Remember this article started as "pathological skepticism" - but renamed pseudoskepticsm later on. This edit-and-reduce-then-delete tactic is annoying to us editors who like to return to articles when we DO find something to add instead of getting it deleted because we can't present data on the subject within two days. --Benjaminbruheim (talk) 02:38, 20 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I would suggest that you continue to add to the "Pseudoskepticism" section of the Truzzi article. If enough well-sourced, encyclopaedic information is added there which establishes the notability of the concept "Pseudoskepticism", then it will become too big for the Truzzi article, and as such, we would be mandated to split the Pseudoskepticism information off into its own article. -- Levine2112 discuss 02:56, 20 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Well, I feel it is bad form, because anything on pathological skepticism belongs here and not to Truzzi. But I guess there's no option at this pace. I'd prefer a stub notice rather than being forced into a section in a barely relevant article; and notice what's gone in the merge. --Benjaminbruheim (talk) 03:09, 20 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I agree. I think the merge was decided on and executed poorly. That said, I am not sure what I would have "voted" if this had gone through the proper merge procedure. For now, don't think it weird to add non-Truzzi-related information to the "Pseudoskepticism" portion of the Marcello Truzzi article. For all intents and purposes, that section is the Pseudoskepticism article now and can and should be treated as such. Again, if that section becomes too overwhelming and irrelevant for the Truzzi article, then splitting it off to its own article would be warranted. -- Levine2112</b> <sup style="padding:1px; border:1px #996600 dotted; background-color:#FFFF99; color:#774400; font-size:x-small;">discuss 03:13, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Benjamin, the fact that there used to be an article called "pathological skepticism" does not mean that you should try to change what used to be here into that topic. If there is enough to recreate that article, then there is no reason not to create the article under that name. Under this name however, there is not enough for an article. I think Levine's advice about editing Truzzi is good advice, and that if you feel too restricted there, you could try recreating Pathological skepticism... though you should read up on the debates surrounding its move so you know the pitfalls to watch out for. NJGW (talk) 05:24, 20 February 2009 (UTC)
 * That article was this article. This article is about the concept pseudoskepticism and the word pseudoskepticism was solely chosen because it was a better designator. That is from reading and following the debate. That the article turned into specifically defining pseudoskepticism and not the wider (and with more names) the phenomena and concept is because editors seems to have forgotten this. Actually it would rather make sense to merge it with scientific skepticism since that article is now devoid from criticism (and that is due to the same process that this article has gone under). And pseudoskepticism is mostly a critique of the shallowness of the culture surrounding scientific skepticism after all. --Benjaminbruheim (talk) 09:13, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

 * I haven't been around long enough to have been a part of those changes. Making Scientific skepticism a more dynamic article may be a good idea too, as long as it's done well and without being too attached to this term.  I'm just concerned that, given the sources I've seen and dug up personally, any article under the name 'pseudoskepticism' would be a wp:coatrack for Truzzi's philosophy... which it didn't even do so well to begin with.  NJGW (talk) 15:48, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

 * It has been stated that the merger was not tagged and discussed. That is incorrect as can be seen in the history of this merger, which was first proposed on January 11th with formal taggings. --TS 07:29, 20 February 2009 (UTC)
 * For clarification, I was looking for a merge tag and subsequent formal discussion about merging this article with Marcello Truzzi. The merge tag which you added on January 11 was for Scientific skepticism, not to Marcello Truzzi. I see that a discussion happened not here on this article talk page, but rather at Talk:Scientific_skepticism. That's fine. But I don't see much of a consensus for such a merger there. I see three editors in favor and two editors against. Am I missing something? -- <b style="color:#996600; font-family:times new roman,times,serif;">Levine2112</b> <sup style="padding:1px; border:1px #996600 dotted; background-color:#FFFF99; color:#774400; font-size:x-small;">discuss 08:37, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

In Summary
So to summarize, I believe that the first part of the article may be taken as an explanation of the way in which "pseudoskeptic" was a neologism developed in the middle of the nineteenth century to describe the philosophical overreach that tempted young European gentlemen who, having received proper upbringings in good Christian homes, encountered troubling cognitive dissonance upon reaching educated, thoughtful adulthood.

At the same time the second part of the article describes the hijack of this very word at he end of the twentieth century by an obtuse and derivative sociology teacher of no particular merit who provided the stunning revelation, constituting absolutely no news whatsoever among the community of thoughtful skeptics, that James Randi can often be a kind of a prick.

Is that correct?

Rt3368 (talk) 08:16, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

→→ Agreed, I just removed the parAgraph containing the source of the guy basically publishing an article summarizing his distaste for a certain group of people. It really stood out as being a departure from the neutral and scholarly point of view of the article. The term "Pseudoskepticism" does not appear as a keyword nor does it appear in the Abstract/Introduction of the source material. Even if this paper were taken at face value as being a legitimate piece of scholarly work, to take the iniative of concluding that within the article there is a modern example of pseudoskepticism being charged would border on original research. I'm not an expert on the W: stuff but I think it's like W:NOR or "No Original Research" or something along those lines. -Laced 96.41.71.198 (talk) 23:46, 29 May 2015 (UTC)

Lead definition
In many cases today, this is more a claim, used in supernatural-denialism accusations. This may perhaps explain the previous "a term referring to" which was recently removed, but if so this was still unclear. This article itself of course needs work, but the lead appears to lack this distinction, the sentence reads like if this was always true. Common examples are spiritualist healers or alternative medicine practitioners calling pseudoskeptics those who investigate their claims scientifically and/or dismiss their extraordinary claims as improbable when a better explanation is understood (an example of use against editors was at WP:ARBPS, not usable as a source). The article already mentions Truzzi in this context, also see CSICOP. CSI was accused of pseudoskepticism when evaluating cases like Natasha Demkina's. — Paleo  Neonate  – 00:41, 9 November 2017 (UTC)

Subsequent usage
This looked as if someone had dredge the literature and collected all the sources they could find where someone used the word. But the WP:PRIMARY usages of it are WP:UNDUE. Every loon and crank, when contradicted by skeptics, will search for some way of deflection, and Truzzi's concept is useful for such tactics. That does not mean that we have to directly quote all of the instances. Secondary sources are needed here. I deleted two primary sources. --Hob Gadling (talk) 07:11, 8 September 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:Pseudoskepticism


text:
Sentrum, Oslo

Sentrum, meaning city-centre, is located on the southeast side of Oslo near the inner Oslofjord.

The district is dominated by high rises like Postgirobygget and The Plaza. Oslo's Central Station is located on the eastern side of the borough. Sentrum consists of Bjørvika which has a history as Oslo's main harbour. The area is now being rebuilt with modern high rises consisting of the Barcode and also several student apartments, schools and museums. Sentrum is not a borough with an administration. It is partially administered by St. Hanshaugen, and in part directly by the city council. The borough St. Hanshaugen takes care of health and social services.

Waterfront
The waterfront near what was once a harbour is now a cultural centre and where the Oslo Opera House is located. An artificial island is being constructed together with an artificial beach near the Opera. The Munch Museum which replaced the museum at Tøyen is located on the right side of the Opera House. Several canals are built in the apartment district east of the upcoming Munch Museum.

The Centre
The tallest buildings in the city are located in the innermost part of Sentrum. Spektrum is located here. Spektrum is one of the major staging facilities in Oslo. Sentrum is located near the Plaza. Several media companies are located here. Various magazines and companies such as Aftenposten, which offices are located in Postgirobygget and TV Norge. An entrance to the Oslo Central Station is located here and Oslo Bus Terminal is being rebuilt and currently serves at the main bus terminal in the city. Oslo City is a large shopping mall located near Spektrum. It is a large mall and currently the third largest mall in the Oslo district.

title: Sentrum, Oslo


text: Category:Waterfalls of Iran

title: Category:Waterfalls of Iran


text:
Ministry of National Defence (Greece)

The Ministry of National Defence (Υπουργείο Εθνικής Άμυνας, abbreviated ΥΠΕΘΑ), is the civilian cabinet organisation responsible for managing the Hellenic Armed Forces, the leader of which is, according to the Constitution (Article 45), the President of the Republic but their administration is exercised only by the Prime Minister and the Government of Greece. It is located at 227-231 Messogion Avenue, in the Papagos camp (Pentagon) in Athens, between Papagos and Holargos.

Today is hierarchically ranked 3rd in the rankings of ministries, according to a decision of the Prime Minister (Government Gazette B / 1594 / 25-6-2013). The highest position in the history of the Ministry was the second, behind the ministry of the presidency of the government, on the last government of Andreas Papandreou (1993-1996).

It is considered to be a ministry of particular prestige and is one of the most desirable to the members of each government, because it oversees the Armed Forces, manages huge sums of money, and is usually away from the woes and the wear and tear of everyday life.

Since June 27 2023, the Minister for National Defence is Nikos Dendias.

History
It was founded in 1950 from the unification of three Ministries: under the influence of American advisors. However, a single Ministry of National Defense was established and operated in the three-year period of 1941-44 by the puppet governments (the legitimate exiled Greek government of the Middle East had retained the separate Ministries of Military Affairs, Naval Affairs and Aviation for the free Greek Armed Forces there).

Civilian leadership

 *  Minister of Defence Υπουργός Εθνικής Άμυνας (Υ.ΕΘ.Α)
 *  Alternate Minister of Defence Αναπληρωτής Υπουργός Εθνικής Άμυνας (ΑΝ.Υ.ΕΘ.Α)
 * Assistant Minister of Defence Υφυπουργός ή Υφυπουργοί Εθνικής Άμυνας (ΥΦ.ΕΘ.Α)

Advisory bodies

 * Defence Council Συμβούλιο Άμυνας (ΣΑΜ)
 * Council of the Chiefs of the General Staff Συμβούλιο Αρχηγών Γενικών Επιτελείων (ΣΑΓΕ)
 * Chief of the National Defence General Staff Αρχηγός Γενικού Επιτελείου Εθνικής Άμυνας (Α/ΓΕΕΘΑ)
 * Supreme Councils of the Branches of the Armed Forces Ανώτατα Συμβούλια των Κλάδων των Εvόπλων Δυνάμεων (ΑΣΣ–ΑΝΣ–ΑΑΣ)
 * Chiefs of the General Staff of the three Branches of the Armed Forces Αρχηγοί των Γενικών Επιτελείων των τριών Κλάδων (Α/ΓΕΣ–Α/ΓΕΝ–Α/ΓΕΑ)

Directorates of the MoND
The ministry is structured into three General Directorates:
 * General Directorate for Financial Planning and Support Γενική Διεύθυνση Οικονομικού Σχεδιασμού και Υποστήριξης (ΓΔΟΣΥ)
 * General Directorate for Defense Equipment and Investments Γενική Διεύθυνση Αμυντικών Εξοπλισμών και Επενδύσεων (ΓΔΑΕΕ)
 * General Directorate for National Defense Policy and International Relations Γενική Διεύθυνση Πολιτικής Εθνικής Άμυνας και Διεθνών Σχέσεων (ΓΔΠΕΑΔΣ)

There are also the Departments of:
 * Department of Briefing Διεύθυνση Ενημέρωσης
 * Relief Fund for Disabled and War Victims Ταμείο Αρωγής Αναπήρων και Θυμάτων Πολέμου
 * Single Administrative Sector Ενιαίος Διοικητικός Τομέας

Responsibilities
Also, the ministry oversees the four General Staff of the Armed Forces:
 * National Defence General Staff
 * General Staff of the Army
 * General Staff of the Navy
 * General Staff of the Air Force

title: Ministry of National Defence (Greece)


text:
Yohogania County, Virginia

Yohogania County was created by the new state of Virginia in 1776, in an area long disputed between Virginia and Pennsylvania. The county ceased to exist after the border dispute between the two states was resolved in the 1780s. Thus, it is sometimes referred to as a "lost county," although 1.5 million people live within the territory it once claimed, which encompasses two entire counties and parts of four others in two states.

The problem arose through the complex and conflicting manner of granting territory and defining boundaries during the Colonial period. The North American continent was not surveyed until long after various land grants were made to individual colonies, and such land grants and even governmental entities frequently overlapped.

Conflicting claims
Virginia's claim was for a wedge from their coastal area all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Pennsylvania's was for five degrees of longitude west of the Delaware River. By the 1770s it was obvious that the two claims overlapped, in the area that in 1773 had been designated by Pennsylvania as Westmoreland County, because settlers were moving into the area from both directions. Both claims included the entire southwestern corner of what is now Pennsylvania, west of the Laurel Ridge in the Allegheny Mountains and south of the Kiskiminetas, Allegheny, and Ohio rivers. The major prize location was the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, forming the Ohio River, at the location of Fort Pitt, now the city of Pittsburgh. The disputes over which colony had authority over the area led to overlapping land grants to settlers and battles between Virginians and Pennsylvanians in the period 1774–1775. In 1774, a Virginian militia group even attacked and captured the Westmoreland County seat at Hannastown and arrested three Westmoreland County justices who refused to acknowledge the jurisdiction of Virginia.

Similar conflicts between Maryland and Pennsylvania had been resolved earlier, by 1767, through the work of two men chosen by Cecil Calvert, brother of Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, proprietor of Maryland, and Thomas Penn and his brother Richard, sons of William Penn and proprietors of Pennsylvania. Astronomer Charles Mason, an acquaintance of Benjamin Franklin, and surveyor Jeremiah Dixon came from England to do this work. The line they located has since been known as the Mason–Dixon line or Mason and Dixon's Line. However, their authority extended west only as far as western Maryland, and did not resolve border conflicts between Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Creation of Yohogania County
In 1776, shortly after the American Revolutionary War began, the Virginia General Assembly formed three new counties from the District of West Augusta, an area of Augusta County, Virginia, which encompassed much of what is now northern West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania. These were Monongalia County, Ohio County, and Yohogania County. All three included, or at least claimed, land in what is now Pennsylvania as well as in Virginia, now West Virginia. The new counties were named after rivers in the region, the Ohio, the Monongahela, and the Youghiogheny, the latter two being Latinized to create the county names. The county seat of Yohogania County was near the Monongahela River, within the present borough of Jefferson Hills across from Elizabeth.

On December 27, 1779, a resolution by the Second Continental Congress recommended to the two now-states of Virginia and Pennsylvania that, rather than continue to quarrel with each other as well as fighting the British, they should reach an agreement on the border situation. This was done in theory by an agreement reached by commissioners from both states in Baltimore in 1779, and ratified by the legislatures of both states in 1780, "to extend the line commonly called Mason and Dixon's line five degrees of longitude from Delaware River ... and from the western termination thereof to run and mark a meridian line to the Ohio River," which was the northern boundary of Virginia's claim. That would be the boundary between the two states.

The conflict apparently being over, Pennsylvania carved Washington and Fayette counties out of Westmoreland in 1781 and 1783, respectively. These counties contained land claimed by Yohogania and Ohio or (in Fayette's case) Monongalia counties. But confusion over jurisdictions continued.

Boundary survey
On November 4, 1782, Colonel Joseph Neville, representing Virginia, and Alexander McClean of Pennsylvania marked a temporary line. A final, permanent survey was performed by Neville and Andrew Ellicott, a Marylander representing Virginia. The corner was marked late in 1784—the report to the commissioners of both states being dated November 18, 1784—and on August 23, 1785, the boundary as far north as the Ohio River (near present-day East Liverpool, Ohio) was completed. In 1786 the line was continued to Lake Erie, marking the boundary between Pennsylvania and the portion of the Northwest Territory that in 1803 became the state of Ohio. (Virginia's claim to the Northwest Territory had been ceded to Congress in 1784.)

The survey determined that parts of Ohio and Monongalia counties and nearly all of Yohogania County were within the Pennsylvania boundaries. The areas of Yohogania County ceded to Pennsylvania included all of present-day Westmoreland County and parts of the present counties of Allegheny, Beaver, Washington, and Fayette. The portion of Yohogania remaining in (West) Virginia's Northern Panhandle—itself a creation of the border settlement—was deemed too small at the time to form a county, and was annexed to Ohio County. (Similarly, part of Ohio County's claim is now in Washington and Greene Counties in Pennsylvania, and part of what had been considered Monongalia County are in Washington, Greene, and Fayette counties, Pennsylvania.) In 1797, Virginia created Brooke County from the northern portion of Ohio County. Later, as the population of the region continued to grow, Hancock County was created from the northern portion of Brooke County in 1848, with the county line being drawn through the middle of the village of Hollidays Cove, now Weirton.

Reorganization of local government after resolution of boundary dispute
Allegheny County was formed in 1788 from Westmoreland and Washington counties. Most of the present territory of Allegheny County, including most of Pittsburgh (with the notable exception of what is now the northside (Pittsburgh), formerly its own municipality Allegheny City), was once claimed by Yohogania. Beaver County was created in 1800 from parts of Allegheny and Washington. The southern part, known locally as "South Side Beaver" because it is south of the Ohio River, was once claimed by Yohogania. (Greene County, formed in 1796 from Washington, does not include any territory once claimed by Yohogania but was once claimed by Ohio and Monongalia counties.)

The part of Yohogania that remained in Virginia was from Cross Creek north. This creek is just south of the present-day town of Follansbee, West Virginia, entering the Ohio River across from Mingo Junction, Ohio. In 1791, this remnant area was made part of the newly created Brooke County, Virginia, though the southern part of Brooke, including the county seat, Wellsburg, had been part of Ohio County. In 1848, the northern half of Brooke—roughly two-thirds of the Yohogania remnant—became Hancock County, Virginia. On June 20, 1863, both Brooke and Hancock, as well as Ohio and Monongalia (and the counties since formed from Ohio and Monongalia) became part of the new state of West Virginia.

title: Yohogania County, Virginia


text:
Talk:Li Hongzhang

Eight?
Too many names - there are eight! Must we make such a feast about his names? Mandel 22:10, Feb 26, 2005 (UTC)
 * Welcome to China. — LlywelynII  12:31, 26 October 2011 (UTC)

Marquis
Marquis in Chinese is 侯, not 候. I've changed it to the correct spelling. Telly (talk) 12:02, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Suyi
Isn't a name. They're just words. Why aren't we translating them along with "First Degree" and "Marquis"? — LlywelynII  12:36, 26 October 2011 (UTC)

treaty of Shimonoseki
there is no mention of his role as negotiator here, or of his attempted assasination on 24 march 1895 which resulted in the treaty terms being altered... :-/ --Aep 06:35, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)

there should be more about Li.
it is Li who promoted Yuan Shikai who was a key figure in the political stage in the following two to three decades.

what is needed to add is Li's attitude towards Qing Court and his attitude towards outside world and revolution even though he gained his fame and position through suppressing rebellion; it should be awared that some revolutions in the late stage of Qing is totally different from ones before because they have fundamentally right perception of the constitute of a state.

i have watched "towards the republic", and i think it is a comparably unbiased art work in China. there are more detail about Li, such as his most often used name is "shaoquan" besides Li Hongzhang. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tunhu (talk • contribs)

 * As you are undoubtedly aware of, Towards the Republic is a work of art and not necessarily a reliable source on Li Hongzhang. If you want to improve the article, you should read a couple of academic works on Li and integrate that into the text.--Niohe 13:41, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

Postnominals
British postnominals are only used by British/Commonwealth people within their own countries. The KBE after Donald Tsang is relevant because he was awarded his KBE as a British citizen, and Hong Kong continues to use the British postnominal system for HK issued awards. (Tsang and the HKSAR do not use KBE, but display JP and GBM as postnominals.) China, like America, does not use postnominals. British awards for subjects in which Britain is not directly and visibly relevant are out of place.

It would be more helpful and informative if we could 1) provide citation for this award 2) indicate the time, place, and circumstance which this award was given. I really don't see what postnominals accomplish. --Jiang 01:17, 28 December 2006 (UTC)
 * I just want to begin by thanking you for doing the redirect on Xuantong.

 * I don't want to make a big fuss out of this, but I don't think we should apply twentieth century logic to nineteenth century people. As far as I know, in the nineteenth century, you would list all titles of a person in a biographical entry, regardless where the person came from.

 * As for when and where Li got his GCVO, this is what I came up with:

 * "... Britain began in the 1890s to use honours as a way of gaining influence over Chinese politicians. For example, in 1896, Queen Victoria bestowed the Grand Cross of the Victorian Order (GCVO) on the leading Chinese statesman, Li Hung-chang. Then in the following year, the leading figures in China’s delegation to the queen’s jubilee also became recipients of British decorations, a privilege that was notably denied to Arisugawa and Ito (Kimizuka 2000: 41). "Antony Best, "Race, Monarchy, and the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, 1902–1922," Social Science Japan Journal 2006 9(2):171-186

 * Would this suffice, or do you want me to dig deeper?--Niohe 01:40, 28 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Added in the reference in the text.
 * I've seen British texts published in the 20th century listing all the author's degrees, titles, awards, and decorations after his name on the title page, but I've never seen it done this way in an American text. American texts tend to limit the listing to professional degrees, licenses, and associations for relevant scholarly works. The 1911 EB doesn't list any postnominals, even for British people. --Jiang 01:56, 29 December 2006 (UTC)
 * I think you are a bit strict, but fair enough. Thanks for adding the reference!--Niohe 01:57, 29 December 2006 (UTC)
 * I'm all for removing the silly thing from the lede. Surely there's a policy somewhere, though. — LlywelynII  12:31, 26 October 2011 (UTC)

Is this character Jet Li in the 2007 movie 'The Warlords'?
Is this character Jet Li in the 2007 movie 'The Warlords'? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dagvadorj (talk • contribs) 09:36, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

No. It's 马新贻.--刻意(Kèyì) 10:29, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

'No' is too simple an answer. The Jet Li character, General Pang Qinyun, and the other two blood brothers of the movie, may be composites. The Suzhou Massacre of prisoners, was ordered by Li Hongzhang, and by Pang in the movie, though the scale of the prisoner massacre is unclear. Seemingly about 20,000 Taiping troops were 'slaughtered' during the operation to take the city, but the number of these that were prisoners ranges from 8 princes (according to most Western accounts) whose safety had been guaranteed by a subsequently outraged Charles George Gordon, to 4,000 common soldiers (according to the movie), and about 10,000 (according to the unsourced Wikipedia Suzhou Massacre article and the many online sites that simply repeat the Wikipedia story, and, for all I know, perhaps also most Chinese accounts). But, unlike Pang in the movie, Li was not assassinated, unless the scriptwriter is implying that the later depiction of Li as a traitor in later life is character assassination, perhaps partly stemming from anger at that massacre. So Wikipedia's article on The Warlords says Pang is based on the assassination of Ma Xinyi in 1870, presumably because the movie ends with a caption saying Pang's assassination remains one of the great unsolved mysteries of the time. The 3 blood brothers of the movie are presumably partly the 3 Chinese generals credited with suppresssing the Taiping Rebellion, Li Hongzhang,Zeng Guofan, and Zuo Zongtang, though presumably 'Zhao' is also partly based on Gordon, as he is outraged that the Massacre violated his promise. Pang might also be seen as an allegory for Zeng. Like Pang, Zeng is credited with taking the rebel capital Nanjing. Like Pang, he is also criticized for a 'massacre', the execution of 18 Chinese alleged inciters or alleged scapegoats following the 1870 Tianjin Massacre of about 60 Chinese and foreign Christians. And partly as a result, Zeng has been seen as a 'conservative traitor', especially during the Cultural Revolution, though seemingly less so now. Indeed perhaps all 3 can be seen as victims of character assassination as 'conservative traitors' by Chinese Nationalist (Kuomintang) and/or Chinese Communist revolutionaries wishing to see the Taiping (and other) rebels as early revolutionaries. Wikipedia's article on Taiping leader Hong Xiuquan tells us that (according to page 212 of China Unbound: Evolving Perspectives on the Chinese Past, by Paul A. Cohen (2003)) the Communists under Mao Zedong generally admired Hong Xiuquan and his movement as a legitimate peasant uprising that anticipated their own, and Nationalist leader Sun Yat-sen came from the same area as Hong and was said to have identified with Hong since his childhood days. Wikipedia also tells us that, after being rebuffed for his handling of the aftermath of the Tianjin Massacre, Zeng retired to his viceroyalty at Nanjing, where he died in 1872 'mysteriously' (Wikipedia's word) in Taiping Rebellion leader Hong Xiuquan's former mansion. This seems similar to Pang's 'mysterious' death (knifed by a blood brother, but also simultaneously shot in the back by one or more persons unknown) in the grounds of his mansion as Nanjing governor. But of course most of this is presumably speculation and/or 'original research' which is thus, if my memory and understanding of the rules is correct, is probably illegal even on this Talk page, though I'm not quite sure how else I can honestly answer Dagvador's perfectly reasonable question.Tlhslobus (talk) 12:36, 4 September 2012 (UTC)

Li‘s wife and daughter
I memory some rumor ancient that said Li‘s first wife and daughter were killed by Taiping in 1856, then Li very sad and married second wife was Li Maid.Suzhou Massacre POW Incident was took revenge by Li. Who can evidence this rumor? --User:Hans yulun lai 05:57, 6 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Anyone? — LlywelynII  12:31, 26 October 2011 (UTC)

A Chinese can tell you,it is as true as MacArthur's wife killed by Japanese.They both died of illness.And by the way,Admiral Ding Ruchang is a former Taiping officer. — Victorkkd 15:32,15 June 2012 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Victorkkd (talk • contribs)

3 persons important influence Li
Zeng Guofan(Political teacher),Cheng Xuechi(military teacher),Lai Wenkwok(tough enemy made Li growth), I think Li released Lai Wenkwok at last which very possible. --User:Hans yulun lai 05:57, 1 October 2008 (UTC)

Er,you are wrong,at least by the last one.Lai almost never faced Li in battle.He fought Li's Huai generals.When Li still personally command a battle,he mostly fought Taiping's Li Xiucheng.--User:Victorkkd 05:57, 15 June 2012(UTC)

Numerous factual problems
There are many problems in this article in its current state; even basic facts are oddly put or ignored. Taking Li's relation with Zeng Guofan for example, the article says that following Li's resistance to the Taipings in Anhui, "His service to the imperial cause attracted the attention of Zeng Guofan, the generalissimo in command." But Zeng was a close family friend from much earlier; he tutored Li when Li was preparing for the jinshi examination. The description of Li's activities during the Taiping rebellion is very unclear, and sometimes questionable. For instance, I can't find any source that says Li was a daotai in Fujian. The paragraph on Li and the Ever-Victorious Army is confused and contradictory, and the story about the execution of the eight Taiping generals is even more of a mess. In a very unfortunate omission, Li's activities establishing factories, schools, arsenals, and navies over thirty years are completely ignored. Most unbelievable of all, however, is the statement that in 1875 "he introduced a large armed force into the capital and effected a coup d'etat which placed the Guangxu Emperor on the throne under the tutelage of the two dowager empresses." This event has everything to do with the Empress Dowager Cixi, and nothing to do with Li Hongzhang. A very mysterious insertion is the paragraph about Ouchtomsky/Ukhtomskii, which is completely undocumented except for a reference to a memoir called "Strategic Victory over the Qing Dynasty." In fact the negotiations over the railway did not involve Ukhtomskii at all, but Sergei Witte, who was one of the main architects of the Trans-Siberian railroad. A complete rewrite is in order. It's on my list, but not forlo this week. One possible source for those interested (now quite old but at least documented and accurate as far as the facts are concerned) is the biography by William Hail in Hummel's "Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period." Rgr09 (talk) 09:05, 1 March 2010 (UTC)

A further note: I've looked at the history of the article, which explains a number of the problems cited above. Wikipedia was created from the eleventh edition of Encyclopædia Britannica (1910-11), and this article came straight out of EB 11, which was full of many serious mistakes and confusion on Chinese history, both early and modern. (Li's "coup d'etat" seems to be one of these mistakes.) For those interested in fixing Wikipedia entries on China, finding the old EB 11 entries and replacing them all should be a high priority. Rgr09 (talk) 02:18, 2 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Although further improvement still would be to address the calumny on the guy's name both by the EB (Brits' dislike for his pro-Russian moves) and the Chinese (essentially fall guy/collaborator). — LlywelynII  12:24, 26 October 2011 (UTC)

I take it from the numerous grammatical errors that someone rewrote and added sections to the EB material. Problem is they still seem highly specious."Hongzhang used the Siege of the International Legations (Boxer Rebellion) as a political weapon against his rivals in Beijing, since he controlled the Chinese Telegraph service, he exaggerated and lied, claiming that Chinese forces committed atrocities and murder upon the foreigners and exterminated all of them. This information was sent to the western world. He aimed to infuriate the Europeans against the Chinese forces in Beijing, and succeeded in spreading massive amounts of false information. [6] ... Since the First Sino-Japanese War (1894), Li Hongzhang has been a target of criticism and was portrayed in many ways as a traitor to the Chinese people, an infamous name that lives in history. In communist China this negative verdict is echoed through history textbooks and other media until today." Plus article still omits a lot of information on the Beiyang and Li's work in Hankow and on the Kaiping Tramway. — LlywelynII  12:31, 26 October 2011 (UTC)

Li's military modernization program
http://books.google.com/books?id=y5aFP-7b3jIC&pg=PA208#v=onepage&q&f=false

biography
wikisource this biography and link to this article

http://books.google.com/books?id=XXYdAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

Rajmaan (talk) 02:52, 5 February 2013 (UTC)

He is really a brother of Li Hongzao?
According to this page, Li Hongzhang is a brother to Li Hongzao, but on the Li Hongzao page it is claimed that they are not related. Can we get a confirmation on this and make the necessary corrections? Tooironic (talk) 05:36, 13 January 2015 (UTC)

Modifying citations
There is a mixed citation style (see WP:CITEVAR), some using shortened footnotes for books, others not. I intend to move full book citations to the References section & use sfn for the Notes section. Additionally, some of the citations are incomplete. I will add bibliographic & other parameters. I will probably not do this all at once, but I will return to this as I am able. Peaceray (talk) 15:58, 26 March 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Li Hongzhang


text:
Masked Rider (TV series)

Masked Rider is an American live-action superhero television series produced by Saban Entertainment and Toei Company, Ltd. It is an American adaptation of the 1988 Japanese television series Kamen Rider Black RX, It aired on Fox as part of the Fox Kids program block from September 16, 1995, to August 31, 1996, and then in syndication from September 9, 1996, to August 1997.

Story
The series began with the main character, Prince Dex, escaping the Plague Patrol with a small group of Edenoite rebels. Dex heads for Earth, the next target of his sinister uncle Count Dregon, who ruled Edenoi with an iron fist after displacing Dex's grandfather King Lexian. King Lexian had given Dex the Masked Rider powers (where the powers came from is a mystery, although they have been kept for some time by Edenoi's champions), which Dregon desires for himself. Arriving on Earth in a massive crater, Dex finds himself in the care of the Stewarts. A multiracial family consisting of a white father and adopted daughter (named Hal and Molly respectively), an Asian wife (Barbara) and their adopted African-American son (Albee). The addition of an extra Stewart was not noticed by anyone (although, according to Albee, he and Molly are adopted) in Leawood, the town where the series took place in. Dex defends the town as Masked Rider from Count Dregon and his vicious Insectivores.

Edenoi was featured in Power Rangers as the planet where Alpha 5 was created by Lexian, the Edenoites' leader. (Although the continuity between Masked Rider and Power Rangers is unclear based on the differences in the origin story Dex tells the rangers compared to what is shown in Masked Rider)

Dex was dispatched to Earth by his grandfather to keep Count Dregon from taking over it. The scene in which Dex is given his powers by King Lexian (a scene that differs from the televised version) remains in the title sequence, possibly one of the few remaining aspects of the original pilot.

Dex's Masked Rider armor was also eventually given upgrades to change into "Masked Rider Super Gold", a gold-and-black variation equipped with a powerful laser gun, the Ecto-Ray, and "Masked Rider Super Blue", a blue-red-and-grey variation with the power of liquified teleportation and a powerful sword, the Blue Saber.

Edenoites are descended from insects, instead of apes. Dex is not aware that humans did not evolve from insects (as he discovered in "Pet Nappers" where he reports about how humans evolved from insects). Edenoites also possess telepathic abilities that are focused through a gem on their foreheads called mind crystals, which can be hidden telepathically, though in times of stress can become visible. The gem is capable of focusing mental energy, as well as creating mental imagery that can be shared with others. Dex possesses the knowledge needed to detoxify Leawood's rivers using solar-powered lasers.

Dex had a furry friend named Ferbus, a small bear/duck-like creature that followed him to Earth. Ferbus was kept hidden by Molly and Albee because Hal was allergic to fur. Ferbus is eventually revealed to the entire family during the series.

Dex is a loquacious individual. In the first episode, Molly and Albee told him to speak like a regular person, and that he could learn how to do that by watching TV. Sadly, Dex misunderstood and spoke what words he heard in the way that he heard them.

Main

 * Prince Dex/Masked Rider (portrayed by Ted Jan Roberts) – An Edenoite who is the hero of the story. He is the grandson of King Lexian. Dex originates from the fallen planet of Edenoi. In Edenoi's royal family, the powers of the Masked Rider are passed down from generation to generation. As the current Masked Rider, Dex is sent to Earth as "Dex Stewart" to stop his evil uncle Count Dregon from enslaving the Earthlings. He is adopted by the Stewarts and tries to interact with US-American culture. Dex has many capabilities that Earthlings do not possess. He can materialize a crystal on his forehead to transmit his thoughts to others, use it to scan and x-ray, and sense nearby danger. Dex has superhuman strength, super-speed, light wave generation, and telekinetic abilities. While trying to blend in, he appears unusual to everyone else. In order to transform into Masked Rider, he shouts out the phrase "Ectophase Activate!"
 * Ferbus (portrayed by Verne Troyer, voiced by Paul Pistore) – Dex's pet and friend. Ferbus is a furry bipedal alien with a beak, and looks similar to furby. He wants nothing more than to be at Dex's side. Ferbus has a big appetite and can get into some trouble at times, but fortunately, Dex manages to bail him out at the right moment. When Ferbus first arrived, Molly and Albee had to hide him due to Hal's allergies, but Hal is not allergic anymore around Ferbus; once he revealed himself, Ferbus was accepted as part of the family. In the episode "Pet Nappers", Nefaria states that Ferbus' species is called the "Monotomonax". The puppet for Ferbus was created by Chiodo Bros. Productions.
 * Hal Stewart (portrayed by David Stenstrom) – Dex's adoptive Earth father, a full-time handyman and part-time inventor. His personal workspace is filled with assorted junk and recycled parts. Hal often assembles a weird invention in his spare time which sometimes backfires. He has, however, invented very useful items with some help from Dex. One of his more successful creations is the alien detector alarm that goes off when Count Dregon or his agents come within the radius of the house. Hal was at one point allergic to animal fur, though he had seemingly developed a tolerance as he no longer sneezed around Ferbus.
 * Barbara Stewart (portrayed by Candace Kita) – Dex's adoptive Earth mother. She works as a caterer and part-time as a homemaker. Barbara keeps on eye on the family's well-being and constantly has her husband stick to his diet. In one episode, Count Dregon imprisoned Nefaria in one of the monster jars and brainwashed Barbara into his new commander Barbaria. Barbara's love for Dex broke the spell on her.
 * Molly Stewart (portrayed by Rheannon J. Slover) – Dex's adoptive Earth sister. Molly always tries to steer Dex in the right direction and help him adjust to life on Earth. Since his arrival, they develop a strong sibling relationship. Dex in turn always supports Molly to the best of his ability. In one episode, Molly tried out for the cheerleading squad and made the cut, though her career as a high school cheerleader is never mentioned afterwards.
 * Albee Stewart (portrayed by Ashton McArn) – Dex's adoptive Earth brother. Albee looks up to Dex with enthusiasm as any little brother would. He tries to help Dex get accustomed to Earth by encouraging him to watch a great deal of television. Of course, Albee's help can sometimes lead to Dex acting strange in public. In one episode, he dreamed that he gained the Masked Rider's powers upon bumping into Dex. In his dream, Count Dregon put Albee through a triple death match against three tough Insectivores consisting of Manosect, Dread Dragon, and Cyborgator, but Albee managed to destroy them all.

Villains

 * Count Dregon (portrayed by Ken Ring) – An Edenoite who is the main antagonist of the series. He is Dex's uncle, the youngest son of King Lexian, and younger brother of one of Dex's parents. Because of his place in the royal lineage, Count Dregon could not inherit the Masked Rider powers. He was banished from Edenoi for his evil deeds. Count Dregon is determined to have the powers even at the cost of destroying his own family and Edenoi. Count Dregon took advantage of Edenoi's peaceful way and enslaved everyone in full swoop. He wears a gold mask to hide scars he sustained in a duel with King Lexian. In the three-part Mighty Morphin Power Rangers episode "A Friend in Need", it's said that Count Dregon was an old rival of Lord Zedd.
 * Nefaria (portrayed by Jennifer Tung) – A human-looking female in black-and-red armor, Nefaria uses the yellow feather on her helmet as a weapon or to write messages. She hardly goes into battle and is often seen on Earth giving commands. Nefaria has sometimes flirted with Count Dregon, but she's often ignored. Sometimes, Nefaria accompanies any Insectovores in the Supernatural category. Her eyes regularly glow bright red and she has an extremely sinister laugh.
 * Cyclopter (voiced by Steve Kramer) – A blue one-eyed robot biker in a leather jacket and slacks. Cyclopter has faced Masked Rider in battle occasionally. He is armed with a laser gun and a powerful motorcycle named Cannon Wheels. His head can detach from his body to float around on its own. Sometimes, Cyclopter accompanies any Insectovores in the Robot category.
 * Double Face (voiced by Michael Sorich) – A tall man dressed in a blue-green naval coat and white tights. Double Face's distinct feature is that he has two faces: his primary face is the large red visor on his "helmet" and the tiny face on his forehead. He has gone to battle Dex personally with various type of swords and daggers. Sometimes, he accompanies any Insectovores in the Man-Beast category.
 * Gork (voiced by Michael McConnohie) – A small unusual creature that speaks in rhyme. Gork is constantly hopping about and annoying everyone else (especially Double Face) on the Spider Base. He is most cowardly and quick to ditch a battle before it's even over. Sometimes, he accompanies any Insectovores in the Alien Lifeform category.
 * Fact (voiced by Julie Maddalena) – A small robot that gives out statistical data, calculations, and probabilities concerning a plan before Count Dregon makes any final decision.
 * Plague Sentry (voiced by Tom Wyner) – The horse-riding insectoid-like leader of the Plague Patrol that oversees the enslaved Edenoites. The Plague Sentry first appeared in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers episode "A Friend in Need". He fits the category of Double Face's unit.
 * Plague Patrol (voiced by Scott Page-Pagter, Stephen Apostolina, and Oliver Page) – Three horse-riding monsters that worked for the Plague Sentry. With their boss, they oversee the enslaved Edenoites on Edenoi.
 * The Maggots – Tall, humanoid maggots that serve as Count Dregon's foot soldiers. They're not so bright, and hardly get the job done. Count Dregon makes reference in one episode that the Maggots belong to Nefaria when he commands her to "dispatch her Maggots". They can spew slime and shoot threads from their mouths. A Maggot was seen in the Onyx Tavern in the Power Rangers in Space episode "Flashes of Darkonda" and the Power Rangers Lost Galaxy episode "Heir to the Throne". The Maggot costumes were created by Chiodo Bros. Productions.
 * Commandoids – The Commandoids are an alternate set of foot soldiers with hockey mask-like faces. They come in three colors: gray, brown, and black.
 * Cogwarts – A trio of toad-like mutants that were sent to assist Plague Sentry and his Plague Patrol in their battle against Masked Rider and the Power Rangers. The three of them were destroyed by Masked Rider in "A Friend in Need" Pt. 3.

Supporting

 * King Lexian (portrayed by Ralph Votrian) – Dex's grandfather and the ruler of the Edenoite race. King Lexian bestowed the powers of the Masked Rider to Dex when he became far too old to carry on the responsibility. He still communicates with Dex from time to time giving Dex guidance. King Lexian also built Alpha 5 who had been assisting Zordon years before Dex began his mission on Earth.
 * Magno (voiced by Wendee Lee) – Masked Rider's talking car. Magno is a red car modeled after an ant-like bug. She is capable of driving at high speeds and digging underground.
 * Combat Chopper (voiced by Jason Narvy) – Masked Rider's talking chopper. Chopper is a wisecracking motorbike modeled after a grasshopper. According to part two of the episode "Escape from Edenoi", he can go at a higher speed than that of Magno. With the help of Dex, Chopper can also change into two other variations depending on if Masked Rider uses his Super Gold form as "Super Chopper" or his Super Blue one as "Ultra Chopper".
 * Patsy Carbunkle (portrayed by Libby Letlow) – Patsy is a spoiled child that thinks the world should revolve around her. Patsy always lies to further enhance her reputation as the most popular girl at Leawood High School. Patsy is condescending towards the Stewarts and thinks they're all weird, and often rivals with Molly. She does, however, have a soft spot for Dex and occasionally tries to flirt with him.
 * Herbie (portrayed by Matthew Bates) – Patsy's friend and unwitting partner in her schemes, Herbie is a stereotypical geek. Although he is friends with the brattiest girl in Leawood, he is still a nice, albeit cowardly, guy and a pretty experienced Dirtbiker.
 * Principal Henry Chalmers (portrayed by Don Yanan) – The principal of Leawood High School. Chalmers is much like Principal Caplan from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and encourages teamwork and enforces discipline. He has an obsessive suspicion of Dex's unusual behavior. Although he means no harm, Chalmers constantly keeps his eyes on Dex hoping to find answers.
 * Moon Dude (portrayed by Tom Ayers) – The owner of the arcade that Dex, Molly, and Albee frequently hang out at. His arcade has been host to several events and competitions that Dex and his siblings have participated in, such as a dance contest and a video game tournament. In one episode, Moon Dude employed Dex when Dex was looking for a job.
 * Donais (portrayed by Winston Story) – An Edenoite who is one of Dex's friends. In "Super Gold", Donais is sent to earth to give Dex the crystal to enable Dex to harness the powers of Super Gold. Unfortunately, he was kidnapped by Count Dregon's Maggots and the crystal was used to transform him into Robo Rider when Donais yells out the phrase "Robo Rider Force!" to fight Dex. This forced Dex to battle his own friend. In the end, Dex helps Donais see that he is Dex's friend. After being restored to normal, Donais hands over the crystal and Dex assumes his Super Gold form to fight Edentada. In "Unmasked Rider", Donais returned to Earth to give Dex the power of Super Blue. This time, Dex saves Donais from the Maggots. When Donais finishes upgrading the Masked Rider powers, Dex assumes his Super Blue form which he uses to destroy Tripron.
 * Masked Rider Warriors – A team of ten warriors from different time and space who used the powers of the Masked Rider. They are summoned by King Lexian to help Dex battle the super-monster Bruticon. The Masked Rider Warriors are based on the ten Kamen Rider heroes prior to Black, who appeared on this show via footage from their guest appearance in the final seven episodes of Kamen Rider Black RX. The names were carried over from RX aside for a few changes. However, almost all of the Riders except for Warrior Leader (Kamen Rider 1) and Z-Cross (ZX) ended up introducing themselves with switched names during the roll call due to a mix-up between the edited footage (Kamen Rider 2 and Riderman were cut out from the introduction) and the voice clip that was used (all the names were mentioned in order, with Skyrider and Kamen Rider Super-1 being omitted).
 * Warrior Leader (voiced by Kim Strauss) – This was Kamen Rider 1.
 * Warrior Commander (voiced by Mike Reynolds) – This was Kamen Rider V3.
 * V3 (voiced by Richard Epcar) – This was Kamen Rider X.
 * Riderman (voiced by Ken Merckx) – This was Kamen Rider Amazon.
 * Masked Rider X (voiced by Kim Strauss) – This was Kamen Rider Stronger.
 * Amazon (voiced by Richard Epcar) – This was Skyrider
 * Strongman (voiced by Mike Reynolds) – This was Kamen Rider Super-1.
 * ZX (Z-Cross) (voiced by Richard Epcar) – This was Kamen Rider ZX, the only Rider whose name was not switched nor changed in the adaptation, although the pronunciation was changed from the original "Zed Cross" to the Americanized "Zee Cross".

Production
The series is a co-production of Toei Company and Bugboy Productions. Though an adaptation of a Japanese series, the series is also a spinoff of the Power Rangers Franchise, and the series has a much lighter tone compared to the original version. The series also marks the first American debut of two Toei staff veterans, Kenyūkai Ōno (the suit actor for Masked Rider) and unit director Michi Yamato.

The show was launched with a 3-part Power Rangers episode, "A Friend in Need", with part 1 airing on September 2, 1995, and the other two airing on September 9. The Rangers themselves were never mentioned in the Masked Rider television series, however, as Saban reformatted the series to sever links with Power Rangers. The Rangers did, however, make a guest appearance in Masked Rider short-lived comic book adaptation from Marvel Comics, as well as clips from "A Friend in Need" exclusive to the VHS release of the episode "Super Gold".

Like Power Rangers and VR Troopers, Masked Rider battle and villain scenes, with few exceptions, were taken from Japanese stock footage – primarily Kamen Rider Black RX, but also two Japanese Kamen Rider movies, Kamen Rider ZO and Kamen Rider J. Robo Rider (episode "Super Gold") and the first form of Hydrasect ("Stranger from the North") were the only two of Count Dregon's Insectovores to appear in American footage throughout the show's run.

On May 7, 2010, the copyright for Masked Rider was transferred from BVS Entertainment and ABC Children's Entertainment to Saban Capital Group.

Home video releases
In the U.S., two VHS tapes were released in April 1996: "Escape from Edenoi" and "Super Gold". Another VHS tape ("Ferbus' First Christmas") with a bonus episode ("Ferbus Maximus") was scheduled to be released, but was cancelled. In the United Kingdom, Maximum Entertainment released both parts of "Escape from Edenoi" and "License To Thrill" on DVD in 2005.

Reception
Shinichi Moriyasu, the former president of Bandai stated that the series was a commercial flop in the United States, and said that sales of the toys were low.

title: Masked Rider (TV series)