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Delaware Wedge

The Wedge (or Delaware Wedge) is a 1.068 sqmi tract of land along the borders of Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania. Ownership of the land was disputed until 1921; it is now recognized as part of Delaware. The tract was created primarily by the shortcomings of contemporary surveying techniques when the boundaries were defined in the 18th century. It is bounded on the north by an eastern extension of the east–west portion of the Mason–Dixon line, on the west by the north–south portion of the Mason–Dixon line, and on the southeast by the Twelve-Mile Circle around New Castle, Delaware. The crossroads community of Mechanicsville, Delaware, lies within the area today.

Colonization and establishment of ownership
The original 1632 charter for the Province of Maryland gave the Calverts what is now called the Delmarva Peninsula above the latitude of Watkins Point, Maryland up to the 40th parallel. A small Dutch settlement, Zwaanendael (1631–32), was within their territory, as were the later New Sweden and New Netherland settlements along the Delaware Bay and Delaware River. Although the Calverts publicly stated that they wanted the settlements removed, they did not confront them militarily because of the foreign policy implications for the Crown.

In 1664, Prince James, Duke of York, the brother of King Charles II, removed foreign authority over these settlements, but in the process the Crown eventually decided that the area around New Castle and the land below it on the Delaware Bay should be separated from Maryland and administered as a new colony.

In 1681, William Penn received his charter for the Province of Pennsylvania. This charter granted him land west of the Delaware River and north of the 40th parallel, but land within 12 mi of New Castle was excluded. This demonstrates how poorly-charted this area was, as New Castle is actually about 25 mi south of the 40th parallel. The Penns later acquired the New Castle lands from the Duke of York, which they called the Three Lower Counties and later became known as Delaware Colony. However, it remained a distinct possession from Pennsylvania.

Border agreement
The exact, and even approximate, boundaries of these three colonies remained in considerable dispute for the next 80 years. After settling Philadelphia and the surrounding area, the Penns discovered that it was actually below the 40th parallel, and tried to make claims to the land south of Philadelphia. The Calverts had failed to confirm their hold on their grant, either by surveying it or by establishing loyal settlers. The main progress during the 1750s was to survey the Twelve-Mile Circle around New Castle as the northern and western boundary of Delaware and to establish the Transpeninsular Line as its southern border. An agreement was also reached between the Calverts and Penns that the boundary between their respective possessions would be:

 * 1) The Transpeninsular Line from the Atlantic Ocean to its midpoint to the Chesapeake Bay. According to NOAA, the Middle Point monument is at 38° 27′ 35.8698″ N, 75° 41′ 38.4554″ W (NAD27) or 38° 27′ 36.29213″ N, 75° 41′ 37.18951″ W (NAD83). The monument is a short distance east of U.S. Route 50 near Mardela Springs, Maryland.
 * 2) A line segment which was tangent to the western side of the Twelve-Mile Circle and which extended to the midpoint of the Transpeninsular Line, of minimal length. (This line is uniquely determined by geometry)
 * 3) A North Line from the Tangent Point to a line which runs 15 mi south of Philadelphia (approximately 39° 43′ N latitude).
 * 4) The aforementioned parallel at 39° 43′ N, which was reached as a compromise to the 40th parallel and the desire to accommodate Philadelphia within Pennsylvania.
 * 5) Should any land within the Twelve-Mile Circle fall west of the North Line, it would remain part of Delaware. (This indeed was the case, and this boundary segment is known as the Arc Line.)

Maryland would be south or west of all of these borders. Penn's possessions would be north or east of them.

The 39° 43′ N parallel united with the Tangent Line would become (once surveyed) the Mason–Dixon Line.

Discovery of the Wedge and basis of dispute
When this was agreed upon, the final shape of the border was unknown to the involved parties. Mostly because of the difficulty of surveying the Twelve-Mile Circle tangent point and the Tangent Line, astronomer Charles Mason and surveyor Jeremiah Dixon were hired. This complex border became known as the Mason–Dixon line. There turned out to be a small wedge of land between 39° 43′ N latitude, the Twelve-Mile Circle, and the North Line. The top is roughly 3/4 mi, and the side is roughly 3 mi long. Maryland clearly no longer had a claim to the Wedge, as it is east of the Mason–Dixon Line, and since the Penns owned both Pennsylvania and Delaware, there was no particular incentive to determine which possession it was a part of, at least until they became separate states.

Mason and Dixon actually began surveying the Maryland–Pennsylvania border line at the Delaware River, or at least fixed the longitude of the intersection of 39° 43′ N and the river. Even though this point is within the Twelve-Mile Circle, the western boundary of Pennsylvania was to be five degrees of longitude west of it, and Mason and Dixon were to survey the Maryland line to Pennsylvania's western border.
 * Pennsylvania claimed the Wedge because it was beyond the Twelve-Mile Circle and past the Maryland side of the Mason–Dixon Line, therefore part of neither Maryland nor Delaware.
 * Delaware claimed the Wedge because it was never intended that Pennsylvania should go below the northern border of Maryland (which originally ran at 40° N all the way to the Delaware River). The North Line is logically an extension of the Tangent Line and therefore should separate Maryland and Delaware. Even though the Wedge is outside the Twelve-Mile Circle, because it is south of the 39° 43′ N compromise line, it should not be part of Pennsylvania.

Resolution
By simple geometry, the Wedge fit more logically as a part of Delaware, which exercised jurisdiction of the area. In 1849, Lt. Col. J. D. Graham of the U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers resurveyed the northeast corner of Maryland and the Twelve-Mile Circle. This survey reminded Pennsylvania of the issue and they once again claimed the Wedge. Delaware ignored the claim. In 1892, W.C. Hodgkins of the Office of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey monumented an eastward extension of the Maryland–Pennsylvania border, and created the "Top of The Wedge Line". In 1921 both states settled on this boundary, giving ownership of the Wedge – in full – to Delaware.

Contemporary routes
Delaware Route 273 and Delaware Route 896 cut across the Wedge. Route 896 passes very close to the tripoint, and actually passes through Maryland before entering Pennsylvania. Hopkins Road, a side road off Route 896, passes near the northeast corner of the Wedge and passes from Delaware into Pennsylvania and back into Delaware at this point. The name of the road bordering the Wedge to the east is Wedgewood Road. As a convenience to motorists, the highway retains route number 896 in Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania.

title: Delaware Wedge


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/2007 Atlantic Hurricane Season

 This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion of the article below. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was DELETE. jni 15:29, 4 Mar 2005 (UTC)

2007 Atlantic Hurricane Season
This information is already available in the Hurricane article and is not needed in a duplicate article. Furthermore, the 2007 hurricane season won't begin for another two and a half years. Arkyan 04:23, 26 Feb 2005 (UTC) This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like some other VfD subpages, is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion, or the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.
 * Delete, Wikipedia is not a fortune teller. Megan1967 06:32, 26 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete until 2006 - unnecessary placeholder of little to no value. I delinked years far in the future on the existing articles to try to prevent this one from being created, but apparently the author decided to type it into the search box manually. -- Cyrius|✎ 15:13, 26 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. Same opinions as above. Nick04 19:52, 26 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete, placeholder, nothing that can't be included in Hurricane. Mgm|(talk) 22:26, Feb 26, 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete, I think it was posted for the sake of the author getting to it first, and not just for information. --Kitch 06:05, 27 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete for now as premature - however the idea of an article listing approved hurricane names for upcoming seasons might be of interest, though it's probably better to roll that information into the various year articles (i.e. 2007, etc.) alongside astronomical predictions. 23skidoo 06:23, 27 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * We already have Lists of tropical cyclone names. -- Cyrius|✎ 15:58, 27 Feb 2005 (UTC)

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


text: User talk:209.145.192.46

title: User talk:209.145.192.46


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Vladimir Motyl

Vladimir Yakovlevich Motyl (Влади́мир Я́ковлевич Моты́ль; 26 June 1927 – 21 February 2010) was a Soviet and Russian film director and screenwriter.

Vladimir Motyl was born in Lepiel, Belarus. His father was a Polish émigré, who was arrested in 1930 and sent to Solovki and died there the following year. Many of his other relatives suffered similar treatment. Vladimir and his mother were exiled to the Northern Urals, where he became fascinated in theatre and cinema, and later graduated from the Sverdlovsk Theatrical Institute. For about 10 years he worked in various theatres in the Urals and Siberia and eventually became chief director of Sverdlovsk Young Spectator's Theatre.

He decided to start afresh in cinema, despite having no technical qualifications. Eventually he directed his first film, Children of Pamirs (1963) (Detyi Pamira/Дети Памира) in Tajikistan. This work was met with public success, as well as earning him the State Prize of Tajik SSR (1964), and the title of honorary citizen of Dushanbe (1977).

His next film Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha (1967) (Женя, Женечка и "Катюша"), a romantic comedy/drama set in 1944, was warmly accepted by the public as well, but earned the displeasure of the Soviet agitprop for "disrespectful" treatment of the Second World War theme, and the director fell into disfavor.

Nevertheless, he was invited to direct a film which was to become one of the most popular Soviet cult films, the "Red Western" (or technically, "Ostern") White Sun of the Desert. Notably, this film has a strong theme about exile, as its protagonist, Sukhov finds himself waylaid in Central Asia when trying to return home.

For his work, Motyl received numerous awards.

Filmography

 * 1963: Children of Pamirs (Дети Памира), film director
 * 1967: Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha (Женя, Женечка и Катюша), playwright, film director
 * 1969: White Sun of the Desert (Белое солнце пустыни), film director
 * 1975: The Captivating Star of Happiness (Звезда пленительного счастья) (the title is a line from a verse by Pushkin), playwright, film director
 * 1980: Forest (Лес), playwright, film director
 * 1984: Unbelievable Bet (Невероятное пари), film director
 * 1987: My Best Respects (Честь имею), playwright
 * 1991: Let's Part while we're alright (Расстанемся, пока хорошие), playwright, film director
 * 1993: Okhlamon (Охламон), playwright, play director
 * 1996: Nesut menya koni (Несут меня кони), playwright, film director, music for the songs
 * 2009: Crimson Colour of the Snowfall (Багровый цвет снегопада), playwright, film director, music for the songs

Awards

 * 1996:Order of Honour for the film White Sun of the Desert
 * 1998: State Prize of the Russian Federation category Literature and Arts for year 1997, for the film White Sun of the Desert
 * 2003: Honorary title of People's Artist of Russian Federation

Death
On 5 February 2010, Vladimir Motyl was at home alone when he felt ill. On the same day he was hospitalized in the city clinical hospital No. 67. Initially, he was suspected of a stroke, but in the hospital doctors found a fracture of the cervical vertebrae and pneumonia.

On 21 February 2010 at approximately 11 pm Vladimir Motyl died at the age of 83.

title: Vladimir Motyl


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Talk:Ludwig Pfau

What does this article need?
In my opinion, this article needs ...

 * Evidence of the birth and death dates; the Lieder website provides evidence for the years of birth and death.
 * Evidence of Ludwig Pfau's being a journalist.
 * Evidence of Ludwig Pfau's being a revolutionary.

Courtland 04:24, 2005 Feb 26 (UTC)

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title: Talk:Ludwig Pfau


text:
Red Oak, Georgia

Red Oak is an area in the City of South Fulton, Fulton County, Georgia, United States, near College Park and East Point. The ZIP Code is 30272 and 30349 The region is located along U.S. Route 29 and the Georgia State Route 14 Connector to Interstate 85 and 285. The former terminus of SR 14 Connector is in the vicinity of post office destroyed during a civil war battle in 1864.

Through its history the community of Red Oak has never been incorporated as a town, but a post office was built in 1849. Its first postmaster was the Reverend William “Harrison” Walker (1809-1879), a Baptist minister, who came to Fayette County with his father, Levi Loudy Walker (1784-1860), and shows up on the first Fayette County census in 1830. Levi's property adjoined his son's and another son – Redmond – lived close by.

As was the custom the Red Oak post office was established on the property of the postmaster. Rev. Walker's home was in District 9, Land Lot 128 of Fayette County. On one of the early deeds to his property the Atlanta and West Point Railroad can be clearly seen crossing the property.

Local stories state a red oak tree stood at the postal stop giving the community its name – Red Oak. Today, a Georgia Historical Society marker stands at the intersection of Welcome All Road and U.S. 29/Roosevelt Highway. The marker verifies the existence of the Red Oak post office which was discontinued following the Civil War. Decades later another post office at Red Oak would be re-established and continues to this day.

In 2020, Red Oak was named one of the Historic Main Street Districts in the City of South Fulton.

title: Red Oak, Georgia


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Constantin Sotiropoulos

Constantin Sotiropoulos is the co-creator (with François Lionet) of AMOS BASIC, a popular video game and multimedia programming language for the Amiga computer, and STOS BASIC on the Atari ST. He has also been creator of copy protection software for some French companies.

title: Constantin Sotiropoulos


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C3 Church Global

C3 Church Global, formerly known as Christian City Church International (C3i), is a charismatic movement founded by Phil Pringle and Christine Pringle. The first church was started in Dee Why on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Australia, and is now located in Oxford Falls. As of October 2019, C3 Church Global was a community of over 500 churches.

History
Pastor Phil and Christine Pringle arrived in Sydney from New Zealand in 1980 to begin a church on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Australia. Growing to 400 people within four years, the church began expanding and planting in other cities. The vision of 10 churches in 10 major cities was developed and the movement of Christian City Church began.

In 2008, at the "Here We Go" global conference held in Hawaii, Christian City Church announced the name change to "C3 Church".

Media
In 2017, Global News took an inside look at C3 Toronto, one of the C3 Church Global locations around the world. The article details what a regular Sunday service looks like. Lead Pastor Sam Picken explains his approach to leading a church, and congregation member Mirelli Vanheer talks about how she found C3.

Eternity News published an article on C3 Church in April 2017, detailing C3's annual Presence Conference and the movement's approach to community. Reference was made to C3 Church in the Business Review Weekly (BRW), Australian edition article "God's Millionaires". This article noted that "Prosperity theology is practised by the bigger Pentecostal churches, including Hillsong, Christian City Church and Paradise. This promotes the idea that it is a Christian's responsibility to achieve wealth and worldly success."

In 2019, A Current Affair aired an exposé of the Church's financial ideology and history, including its controversial practice of requesting large donations from members of its congregation in return for 'miracles'. C3 Church responded to the allegations levelled in an online statement.

Criticism and controversy
The Cult Information and Family Support organization (CIFS) notes that C3 Church is being actively monitored by a self-appointed Christian watchdog group, run anonymously. Two accusations made by this group are of C3 controlling people and of teaching false doctrine.

Phil Pringle has been accused of 'grooming' church congregations to pay for legal fees after a friend of Pringle's, a pastor of an unrelated church was convicted of fraud for using church funds to fund his wife's music career.

During the 1980s, church elders within C3 were accused of failing to act on several situations of sexual abuse and molestation of young boys. In 2007, in the South Australian Supreme Court, paedophile Trevor John Russell, 57, of Stansbury, who had already pleaded guilty to sexually abusing four teenage boys at church camps in the early 1980s, also confessed to molesting five other teenage boys in the 1970s and '80s.

In 2014, the senior pastor at C3 Asheville in North Carolina, Nicholas Dimitris, received a federal prison sentence for his part in a real estate fraud. In 2017, a pastor within C3 was convicted of colluding with a person to defraud copyright of a large number of DVDs. Phil Pringle has maintained friendships with pastors around the world who have been convicted of financial fraud, including Kong Hee.

The church has also been accused of claiming to be progressive and inclusive while hiding the fact that it is strongly against gay marriage and does not allow sexually active gay members to fully participate in the church.

title: C3 Church Global


text:
Tarfaya

Tarfaya (طرفاية - Ṭarfāya; ⵟⵔⴼⴰⵢⴰ) is a coastal Moroccan town, located at the level of Cape Juby, in western Morocco, on the Atlantic coast. It is located about 890 km southwest of the capital Rabat, and around 100 km from Laayoune and Lanzarote, in the far east of the Canary Islands. During the colonial era, Tarfaya was a Spanish colony known as Villa Bens. It was unified with Morocco in 1958 after the Ifni War, which started one year after the independence of other regions of Morocco.

Tarfaya is the capital and main town in the Tarfaya Province, and counts a population of 8,027 inhabitants according to the 2014 census. Although founded in the twentieth century, the city has a big historical symbolic in the Moroccan history, dating back to the era of the Green March in November 1975.

The region of Tarfaya has been linked to relations with foreign powers, following several incursions conducted at its coasts (Spanish, Portuguese, British and French). This blending gave the city a special cultural dimension in its history. The famous French writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944) lived in Tarfaya for two years (1927-1928) before writing his masterpiece The Little Prince that was later translated to more than 300 languages and dialects. He served as station manager here during his career as an airmail pilot. In 2004, the Antoine de Saint-Exupery Museum was opened in Tarfaya.

Tarfaya is home to a number of economic projects, including the largest wind farm in Africa, called Tarfaya Wind Farm, and Casamar, also known as Port Victoria, that was founded by the Scottish trader and traveler Donald McKenzie in 1882. It is the meeting area of Atlantic coast with stretching sand dunes.

Sebkha Tah, the lowest altitude point in Morocco (55 meters below sea level ) is located in Tarfaya province. Tarfaya is also the closest city to the Khenifiss National Park, added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative list, an ecological site home to hundreds of different kinds of migratory birds each year. It is estimated that more than 20,000 birds from 211 different species breed, nest and feed regularly in the park.

History
Tarfaya was occupied by the British in 1882, when they built a trading post called Casa del Mar. The building is currently in a state of complete disrepair. The Sahrawi tribes then solicited the intervention of Sultan Hassan I who negotiated the withdrawal of the British in 1895 by Treaty of Cape Juby. In 1912 the territory of Tarfaya, then named Cape Juby, was part of the Spanish Sahara. The greater Cape Juby region was unified with Morocco in 1958, at the end of the Ifni War. In December 2014 the Tarfaya Wind Farm, the largest wind farm in Africa, was commissioned.

Aéropostale
Tarfaya's association with Aéropostale began in 1927. The airmail carrier, based in Toulouse, France, was founded by French industrialist Pierre-Georges Latécoère, who envisioned an air route connecting France to its French colonies in Africa. Latécoère firmly believed in the future of aviation as a means of commercial transportation and communication between people.

The nearby Cape Juby airfield was an important refueling and stopover station for Aéropostale. Author-aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was named its station manager in 1927. There he remained for 18 months, on occasion negotiating with the rebellious Moorish tribes to release the imprisoned pilots, as he wrote in his first novel, Southern Mail.

On 28 September 2004 a museum opened in honour of the memory of Aéropostale, Saint-Exupéry and its pilots, as an initiative of the “Friends of Tarfaya Association”supported notably by the city of Toulouse and European aircraft maker Airbus. The museum was inaugurated by renowned aviation journalist Bernard Chabbert, whose father was also part of Aéropostale's history.

Air services
The town maintains the Tarfaya Airport with the IATA code TFY.

Climate
Tarfaya has a desert climate (BWh/BWk).

title: Tarfaya


text:
User talk:De la a la de a la

Please stop. If you continue to vandalize pages, you will be blocked from editing Wikipedia. JamesBurns 05:40, 26 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Please do not replace Wikipedia pages with blank content. Blank pages are harmful to Wikipedia because they have a tendency to confuse users. If it is a duplicate article, please redirect it to an appropriate existing page. If the page has been vandalised, please revert it to the last legitimate version. If you feel that the content of a page is inappropriate, please edit the page and replace it with appropriate content. If you believe there is no hope for the page, please see the deletion policy for how to proceed. Thanks for contributing to Wikipedia! - RedWordSmith 04:32, Feb 26, 2005 (UTC)
 * Don't vandalize my user page either. - RedWordSmith 04:41, Feb 26, 2005 (UTC)

VANDAL
Please stop adding nonsense to Wikipedia. It is considered vandalism. If you were just trying to experiment, then use the sandbox instead. Thank you. --User:Boothy443 | comhrÚ 06:40, 26 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Evidence:
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Sure ok. --User:Boothy443 | comhrÚ 06:53, 26 Feb 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:De la a la de a la


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Rudolph Dirks

Rudolph Dirks (February 26, 1877 – April 20, 1968) was one of the earliest and most noted comic strip artists, well known for The Katzenjammer Kids (later known as The Captain and the Kids).

Dirks was born in Heide, Germany, to Johannes and Margaretha Dirks. When he was seven years old, his father, a woodcarver, moved the family to Chicago, Illinois. After having sold various cartoons to local magazines Rudolph moved to New York City and found work as a cartoonist. His younger brother Gus soon followed his example. He held several jobs as an illustrator, which culminated in a position with William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal.

The circulation war between the Journal and Joseph Pulitzer's New York World was raging. The World had a huge success with the full-color Sunday feature, Down in Hogan's Alley, better known as the Yellow Kid, starting in 1895. Editor Rudolph Block asked Dirks to develop a Sunday comic based on Wilhelm Busch's cautionary tale, Max and Moritz. When Dirks submitted his sketches, Block dubbed them The Katzenjammer Kids, and the first strip appeared on December 12, 1897. Gus Dirks assisted his brother with The Katzenjammer Kids during the first few years until his suicide on June 10, 1902.

Comics competition
Dirks took time off from his Journal work to serve his country in the Spanish–American War and on other occasions. In 1912, he requested a year's leave to tour Europe with his wife. The request led to a rupture with the Journal. After a lengthy and notorious legal battle, the federal courts ruled that Dirks had the right to continue to draw his characters for a rival newspaper chain but that the Journal retained the right to the title The Katzenjammer Kids. Dirks thereupon began drawing a comic strip titled Hans and Fritz for the World, beginning in 1914. Anti-German sentiment during World War I led to the strip being renamed The Captain and the Kids. The Journal chose H. H. Knerr to continue The Katzenjammer Kids, and he and his successors have carried it on to the present day. The Captain and the Kids was distributed by United Feature Syndicate while King Features Syndicate handled The Katzenjammer Kids. The success of The Katzenjammer Kids was due to more than just lucky circumstances. Dirks was a gifted cartoonist with superb timing and a colorful gallery of different characters, including Hans and Fritz, Der Captain, Der Inspector and Mama. In the mid-1950s, a romantic swindler named Fineas Flub was introduced to the strip. Characters such as Rollo never appeared in Dirks' version of the strip.

Strip icons
Dirks made substantial contributions to the graphic language of comic strips. Although not the first to use sequential panels or speech balloons, he was influential in their wider adoption. He also popularized such icons as speed lines, "seeing stars" for pain, and "sawing wood" for snoring.

As a pastime, Dirks produced serious paintings associated with the Ashcan School. Like many of his cartoonist colleagues, he was an avid golfer. Dirks incrementally passed his cartooning duties on to his son John Dirks, who took over The Captain and the Kids around 1955. The elder Dirks died in New York City in 1968.

title: Rudolph Dirks


text:
Ma al-'Aynayn

Mohamed Mustafa Ma al-'Aynayn (محمد مصطفى ماء العينين; c. 1830–31 in Oualata, present-day Mauritania – 1910 in Tiznit, Morocco; complete name Mohamad Mustafa ben Mohamad Fadel Maa al-'Aynayn ash-Shanguiti محمد مصطفى بن محمد فاضل ماء العينين الشنقيطي) was a Saharan Moorish religious and political leader who fought French and Spanish colonization in North Africa. He was the son of Mohammed Fadil Mamin (founder of the Fadiliyya, a Qadiriyya Sufi brotherhood), and the elder brother of shaykh Saad Bouh, a prominent marabout (religious leader) in Mauritania.

Early years
Ma al-'Aynayn was born in 1830 in the southern Hawdh region, the twelfth of 48 brothers born to the Qadiri Sufi Sheikh Muhammad Fadil. He was singled out among his brothers to study in Fes.

In 1859, Ma al-'Aynayn settled in the oasis of Tindouf in present-day Algeria. Ma al-'Aynayn was a nickname he received as a child, meaning "water of the two eyes" in Arabic, in reference to the Qadiriya Sheikh Sidi Ahmed El Bekkay who immigrated to Oualata a few centuries earlier. The son of a famous Marabout, he quickly became known as a great scholar. His nomadic encampment attracted many students of Islamic law.

In 1898, Ma al-'Aynayn began building a Ribat in Smara, in the Spanish Sahara (present-day Western Sahara). His goal in creating the Ribat, which was previously just a water center for travelers, was to launch attacks on European colonial forces and particularly the French. The Moroccan sultan Abdelaziz assisted him in building the Ribat, as he sent craftsmen, materials, financing and arms. In 1902, he moved there creating among other things an Islamic library.

The anticolonial revolt
Increasingly disturbed by Western penetration of the area, which he viewed both as an intrusion by hostile foreign powers and as a Christian assault on Islam, he began agitating for resistance. Local Saharan tribes performed ghazi raids against the foreign forces, but French troops drew ever closer, conquering one local ruler after another. In 1904, Ma al-'Aynayn proclaimed a holy war, or jihad, against the colonizers. Sultan Abdelaziz of Morocco did not have control over Ma al-'Aynayn's forces but this display of effective cooperation helped assemble a large coalition of tribes to fight the colonizers. Ma al-'Aynayn set about acquiring firearms and other materials both through channels in Morocco and through direct negotiations with rival European powers such as Germany, and quickly built up a sizable fighting force. A member of his Gudfiyya brotherhood in 1905 may have assassinated Xavier Coppolani, who was leading the French conquest of Mauritania, thereby delaying the conquest of the emirate of Adrar for a few years.

Character assassination in the press
Sheikh Ma’ al-‘Aynayn was the target of an extensive character assassination campaign in the French arabophone newspaper Es-Saada, published out of the French Legation in Tangier. The newspaper called the qaid and spiritual leader’s patriotism and religious devotion into question, describing him as an unscrupulous mendicant and arms smuggler, even peddling rumors that his followers were Shii'a.

On Ma’ al-‘Aynayn es-Saada published: "عاد شيخ الصحراء إلى دسائسه المفطور عليها، فقام بما هايج من الخواطر يوم مروره بالشواطئ البحرية عند رجوعه إلى مقره، ولم يقنع بما ناله من الأموال وحاز من الهدايا، بل أرسل الآن ولده إلى فاس يتظاهر أمام المخزن باستعداد أبيه لحماية المخزن وإخراج الإفرنسيين من وجدة" "The sheikh of the Sahara has returned to his old tricks; he stirred up memories when he, discontent with the money he made and the gifts he got passing by the coast on his return to his base, sent his son to Fes to appear before the Makhzen, appealing with his father’s readiness to protect the Makhzen and oust the French from Oujda." and: "لم يكن إشفاق المولى عبد العزيز على هذا الشيخ ولا أكرمه سخاء على حاشيته وأتباعه فمازلنا نتذكر الأنعام العديدة التي حباه بها في العام الماضي والذنوب الكبيرة التي تحمل المخون مسؤوليتها يوم مروره بالدار البيضاء وكيف كانت العمال تقاد إلى طاعة الشيخ صاغرة كالنعاج لدى الراعي والأمناء تتسابق للتبريك …حاملة الهدايا والدراهم، والشيخ يهزأ بالمخزن ويضحك عليه" "Abdelaziz had no compassion for the sheikh, nor did he honor him for the sake of his entourage and supporters. We still remember the gifts bestowed upon him last year, and the great wrongs the day the ungrateful sheikh passed through Casablanca, and how the laborers were made to submit to him, supplicating like sheep around a shepherd while their managers jostled to bless him, bearing gifts and money. The sheikh mocks the Makhzen and laughs at it."

Literature
The Shaykh Ma al-'Aynayn was a prolific writer and left a number of works including Mubṣir al-mutashawwif ʻalá Muntakhab al-Taṣawwuf.

Defeat of Morocco and Final years
In 1906 the Sultan Abdelaziz ratified the Algeciras Conference, granting colonial powers substantial concessions over Morocco, Ma al-'Aynayn's deemed this a betrayal, and supported in 1907 the Sultan's brother and rival Abdelhafid (at the time opposed to the French). The flow of arms from the Makhzen dwindled as a result. The French forces under then-colonel Gouraud pushed forward in the French Sudan, and Ma al-'Aynayn was forced to retreated to Tiznit (Morocco) in 1908-1909 determined to fight along Abdelhafid in dethroning his brother, which they succeeded in doing.

In 1910, anarchy spread through Morocco, as the new Sultan grew ever weaker under European pressures. Ma al-'Aynayn, concerned that Morocco would fall into European hands, decided to extend Jihad north of Tiznit at the head of an army of 6,000 men to overthrow the new Sultan Abdelhafid. He was defeated by French General Moinier, on June 23, 1910. He would die several months later at Tiznit, on October 23 of the same year.

Legacy of Ma al-'Aynayn
A few years after Ma al-'Aynayn's death, his son El-Hiba, known as The Blue Sultan, continued the war against the French, but was ultimately defeated.

Ma al-'Aynayn enjoyed tremendous prestige and his name is invoked by both the Morocco and the Polisario Front. For Moroccans, he embodied the idea of unity of Morocco and the Sahara. Many descendants of Ma al-'Aynayn hold high-profile offices in Morocco as well as in the Polisario Front and in Mauritania.

Ma al-'Aynayn, is buried in Tiznit, Morocco where his tomb became a pilgrimage site.

title: Ma al-'Aynayn


text:
Central Subway (San Francisco)

The Central Subway is a Muni Metro light rail tunnel in San Francisco, California, United States. It runs between Chinatown station in Chinatown and a portal in South of Market (SoMa), with intermediate stops at Union Square/Market Street station in Union Square and Yerba Buena/Moscone station in SoMa. A surface portion runs through SoMa to connect to the previously existing T Third Street line at 4th and King station.

The project was initiated after the Embarcadero Freeway was demolished following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, as activist Rose Pak "almost single-handedly persuaded the city to build" the Central Subway to compensate Chinatown for the loss of the fast cross-town connection. Originally set to open in late 2018, the subway initially opened with a weekend-only shuttle service between Chinatown station and 4th and Brannan station on November 19, 2022. Full service as part of the T Third Street line began on January 7, 2023. With the addition of the Central Subway, the T Third Street line is projected to become Muni Metro's highest ridership line by 2030.

The budget to complete the Central Subway was $1.578 billion. The project was funded primarily through the Federal Transit Administration’s New Starts program. In October 2012, the FTA approved a Full Funding Grant Agreement, the federal commitment of funding through New Starts, for the Central Subway for a total amount of $942.2 million. The Central Subway was also funded by the State of California, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority and the City and County of San Francisco.

Design
The tunnel is about 1.7 miles long, including 0.4 miles of non-revenue tail tracks, and includes three subway stations; the surface tracks built as part of the project are 0.4 miles long and include one surface station. These surface tracks begin at 4th and King and continue northwest along 4th Street to 4th and Brannan station. The line enters the Central Subway at a portal under the Interstate 80 viaduct. Yerba Buena/Moscone station is located under 4th Street at Folsom Street. At Market Street, the subway crosses under the Market Street subway, with a reverse curve to align under Stockton Street. Union Square/Market Street station is located under Stockton Street between Market Street and O'Farrell Street, with an outside-fare-control connection to Powell Street station. The line continues north to Chinatown station at Washington Street. The twin subway tunnels continue north under Stockton Street and terminate under Columbus Avenue near Union Street, where the opportunity for extracting the excavators existed.

The platforms of all stations on the Central Subway can only accommodate two-car trains, limiting the capacity of the line.

Cost
In 2000, the estimated cost of the Central Subway project was $530 million. By 2001, the cost had risen to $647 million and completion was projected for 2009. When construction began in 2012, the cost had reached $1.6 billion. When the main contract for Central Subway construction was awarded in May 2013 to the lowest bidder, Tutor Perini, the $840 million contract was up to $120 million over the budgeted amount, which took up nearly two-thirds of the entire project's contingency.

Due to the capital cost ($1.578 billion for the 1.7 mile light rail line), the Central Subway project has come under criticism from transit activists for what they consider to be poor cost-effectiveness. In particular, they note that Muni's own estimates show that the project would increase Muni ridership by less than 1% and yet by 2030 would add $15.2 million a year to Muni's annual operating deficit.

Previous transit access to these areas was provided entirely on the surface through small blocks that feature intense pedestrian activity and narrow streets with multi-modal street congestion. Other, lower-cost rapid transit options were explored, such as bus rapid transit (BRT), but were rejected in part because these conditions do not support the basic features of efficient BRT operations. Compounding these conditions is the fact that many Chinatown residents are transit-dependent and do not own cars, helping rationalize funding for a subway. The high-ridership Muni bus lines serving Chinatown (e.g., the 1 California and the 30 Stockton) are typically over capacity.

In October 2012, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced it would provide $942.2 million for the project under its New Starts program after indicating it would approve the grant in January. This award included the recognition that better, more comfortable service for an already intensively-used transit corridor, particularly for low-income residents as in Chinatown, justifies the investment even if it does not attract a high percentage of "new" riders the way a new rapid transit investment might somewhere that is not already served by extremely slow, uncomfortable high-ridership local service.

Construction
A study released in 2000 called for the Central Subway as part of a larger plan to alleviate projected traffic gridlock which also included a light rail line along Geary. Voters approved the Central Subway in 2003, and the alignment was selected in 2008. Ground was broken for the project on February 9, 2010, however, physical work did not begin until June 2012. The first phases of work included preparation of the tunnel boring machine launch site and headwalls for the Yerba Buena/Moscone Station. At the time, the FTA grant had not been secured, and opponents were threatening lawsuits over potential disruption to traffic and businesses.

Tunnel boring
The two tunnel boring machines (TBMs) are named "Big Alma" and "Mom Chung" (for "Big" Alma Spreckels and Dr. Margaret "Mom" Chung, respectively). Preparations for tunnel boring began on June 12, 2012, with the start of excavation for the TBM launch box on Fourth Street between Bryant and Harrison. "Mom Chung" was delivered to San Francisco in April and May 2013, and in late July 2013, "Mom Chung" began digging the tunnel for southbound T Third trains. "Big Alma" began digging north in November 2013 at a slightly faster rate, 54 ft/day, compared to the 44 ft/day average of "Mom Chung".

The initial plan was to remove the two TBMs near Washington Square in North Beach in 2014 once boring was complete. On July 31, 2012, a lawsuit was filed in Superior Court by Marc Bruno and Save North Beach, a 501(c)(4) organization of North Beach merchants and residents who believed that the removal of the equipment on Columbus Avenue would cause permanent harm to the neighborhood near Washington Square. The petitioners pointed out in their suit that they are in favor of the city's "Transit First" policy and that they would favor the removal of the equipment if a subway stop was planned, approved and financed for their neighborhood. Muni General Manager Ed Reiskin announced a plan in December 2012 to extend the tunnel to Columbus and Powell, using the site of the long-closed Pagoda Palace theater to extract the TBMs, with a potential option to purchase the Pagoda as the site of a future North Beach station. In 2013, MTA reached a lease agreement with the owners of the Pagoda to tear down the old building and use its site for TBM removal. This will reduce impact of construction on the public space.

On June 11, 2014, "Big Alma" broke through to the North Beach extraction shaft at Columbus and Powell Street in North Beach, joining "Mom Chung", which had arrived on June 2. The arrival of the TBMs marked the completion the boring operation phase. The two TBMs were to be disassembled and removed, and the extraction shaft filled in by the end of 2014. The twin tunnels were fully complete by May 2015, when Mayor Ed Lee toured the project underground. Each completed tunnel is 8500 ft long and 20 ft in diameter, supported by 1,750 concrete rings placed during the boring operation.

Two of the three underground stations were constructed using cut-and-cover methods while Chinatown station was constructed with the sequential excavation method.

Schedule
Just before construction began in 2012, the start of revenue service on the Central Subway extension was scheduled for December 2018. When the main contract was awarded to Tutor Perini in May 2013, schedule float (the amount of time set aside for delays) was reduced from 14.8 months to 5.2 months. In 2014, the San Francisco Controller's Office audited the project and predicted it would be completed on schedule in December 2018 and slightly under budget. Tunnel boring completed in June 2014, a month ahead of schedule and under budget.

Over Labor Day weekend 2015, between September 5–8, the track at the intersection of 4th Street and King Street was extended, which temporarily shortened the services of T Third Street between 4th and King Station (referred to as 4th and Berry in the notice) and Sunnydale Station; the K Ingleside route also ended at Embarcadero Station and did not splice with the T Third Street route. A similar shutdown was imposed in early November 2015. During the November shutdown, bus service was provided in lieu of the T-Third trains between Embarcadero and Sunnydale; E-Embarcadero service was suspended for two weekends; K-Ingleside again terminated at Embarcadero; and streets were closed in the vicinity of 4th and King.

A Project Management Oversight Committee report released in mid-2017 reported ten months of delays in construction, pushing back the date of service as late as December 10, 2019. The $76 million contingency fund may be used to expedite completion. The delays were attributed to work on the Chinatown station. In December 2017, Tutor Perini (TPC) circulated a report predicting a fifteen-month delay past December 2019 due to circumstances beyond their control, including hard rock and required utility relocations. TPC is liable for penalties of up to $50,000 per day for late completion beyond December 2019.

Also in December 2017, the Central Subway Program Director, John Funghi, announced he would leave the project for Caltrain, where he headed the Peninsula Corridor Electrification Project starting in February 2018. In April 2018, SFMTA announced that excavation was complete for Chinatown station, which was expected to be the last station completed for the Central Subway in mid-2019. The other underground stations, Yerba Buena/Moscone and Union Square, were scheduled to be completed by the end of 2018 ahead of the then-scheduled December 2019 start of revenue service.

SFMTA noted that of 37 schedule updates submitted by Tutor Perini between December 2014 and December 2017, 21 were rejected "due to multiple and repetitive issues that vary from incorrect working sequences to unrealistic forecasted completion dates to artificially steering the schedule longest path through certain portions of the project". Contrary to TPC's claims, SFMTA stated that ground conditions were as expected from preliminary surveys, but TPC's "mining productivity has not been as planned" and directed TPC to develop a recovery schedule. In January 2018, for example, TPC modified their construction sequence at Chinatown station and were able to shave 18 days off the schedule, changing the estimated revenue service date to November 22, 2019. By May 2019, the estimated opening had slipped to February 2020. In September 2019, it was announced that the opening was delayed yet again, this time to mid-2021. Another delay to late 2021 was announced in June 2020, followed by a further delay to 2022.

In March 2021, Muni imposed a deadline for major construction to complete by March 31 as part of a settlement with TPC for work order modifications and other claims; in exchange, TPC would receive a $143 million payment. Test trains began operation in the subway in July 2021. By September 2021, construction was 98% complete. Installation of overhead line equipment at the junction with existing trackage at 4th and King took place in November 2021.

Other issues
Residents and workers near the 4th Street portal and North Beach extraction sites noted an increase in the visible number of rats after construction began.

Construction of the Union Square/Market Street station required closing Stockton Street just north of Market, which depressed traffic to retailers in Union Square. During the excavation, workers accidentally breached a water main in July 2014, causing basement-level flooding in shops along Geary between Stockton and Grant. The ensuing cleanup took several days and required a few businesses to keep stores closed. Since Stockton Street has been closed between Geary and Ellis, starting in 2014, construction is suspended in December and the area is transformed into a pedestrian plaza known as "Winter Walk". Some have called for Winter Walk to be made a permanent year-round fixture, but notable opposition included Rose Pak, who wanted to retain Stockton as a link from Market to Chinatown.

Workers breached a natural gas pipeline in May 2015 while working on the Yerba Buena/Moscone station, forcing the evacuation of the nearby Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Opening and operations
On September 20, 2022, the SFMTA announced that service in the Central Subway would begin on November 19, 2022. Initial service was a "soft launch", running only on weekends, while operator training continued on weekdays. This early service ran only between Chinatown station and 4th and Brannan station. The T Third Street line continued to use the Market Street subway during this period. Full service, with the T Third Street line rerouted to run through the Central Subway to Chinatown, began on January 7, 2023. Additional shuttle trains signed "S Chase Center" will operate between Chinatown and UCSF/Chase Center for events at Chase Center.

Initial ridership was "tepid" – the T only saw a modest increase in ridership, while the parallel route 30 and 45 buses saw small drops. In February 2023, the three subway stations averaged 2,966 daily boardings and 4,501 daily exits. Half the ridership was at Union Square/Market Street.

Art
Ten permanent installations were built as part of the project: three at each subway station and one at 4th and Brannan. A draft of the Central Subway Arts Master Plan was presented to the San Francisco Arts Commission in September 2008. Artworks are divided into "landmark" and "wayfinding" categories. Candidates were announced in July 2010 and the winning entrants were announced that August.

Temporary artworks were also installed during construction. "One Hundred Years: History of the Chinese in America", a mural painted by James Leong originally for the Ping Yuen housing project in Chinatown, was enlarged, printed, and wrapped in 2012 around the Hogan & Vest building at Stockton & Washington, at the future Chinatown station site, prior to that building's demolition. In addition, temporary murals were painted on the construction barricades erected around the Chinatown and Yerba Buena/Moscone stations. The art was printed on adhesive vinyl and wrapped onto the plywood panels, measuring approximately 8 ft high by 190 ft long at Chinatown, along Stockton, or 160 ft long at Yerba Buena/Moscone, along Folsom. Temporary art was also installed around the Pagoda Palace Theatre from 2014 to 2017, while it was being used to extract the two tunnel boring machines.

Proposed extension
A proposed third phase would build an extension beyond Chinatown, including new stations at Washington Square in North Beach and Fisherman's Wharf. In preparation, the tunnels were bored past Chinatown station, and the tunnel boring machines were extracted from the intersection of Powell and Columbus, near Washington Square.

Fourteen alternative routes were proposed in a 2014 study to extend the line, and daily ridership was projected to increase by 40,000 if the extension was completed. San Francisco Chronicle architecture critic John King wrote there was "a compelling power to the idea of an extension that, if nothing else, would make the Central Subway seem less like a boondoggle and more of a factor in the shaping of tomorrow’s city. The empty lot of the Pagoda was a starting point for dreams. Let’s see if it can become a starting point of something real as well."

The SFMTA published a concept study in January 2015 on the feasibility of several options for phase 3. The report studied three main alignments: Columbus Ave, Powell St, or a loop line on Powell St, Beach St, and Columbus Ave. Both subway and surface options were studied for each alignment. The report found that the phase 3 project could improve transit trip time by at least 50% and would increase the ridership on the T Third by 55%. Project cost estimates ranged from $440 million to $1.4 billion depending on the design. In June 2018, the SFMTA began a detailed study of possible routes to narrow down options for a future environmental impact study.

A conceptual fourth phase has been advanced by SFMTA and transit advocates to further extend the line west of Fisherman's Wharf to the Presidio. However, since the Central Subway station platforms will be about 250 ft long, enough to accommodate two-car trains, unlike the upper deck Market Street subway platforms which can accommodate four-car LRV trains, the projected ridership increase with a fourth phase Presidio extension would require the stations currently under construction to be rebuilt to three- or four-car trains.

title: Central Subway (San Francisco)


text:
Transpeninsular Line

The Transpeninsular Line (at approximately 38°27′ N) is a surveyed line, the eastern half of which forms the north–south border between Delaware and Maryland. The border turns roughly north from the midpoint of the line towards the Twelve-Mile Circle, which forms much of the remainder of the Delaware land border.

Overview
In 1751, a line was surveyed straight across the Delmarva Peninsula beginning at what at least some early Swedish settlers called Cape Hinlopen, which was later to become the southern boundary of Delaware. This place is better known as Fenwick Island. Twenty-four miles north is another cape named Cape Henlopen near Lewes, Delaware. Various spellings of henlopen mean "entering in" or "approaching," although one authority insists it means "runaway cape." The confusion of the placement of Cape Henlopen was the crux of a long-standing dispute between the Penns (Delaware) and the Calverts (Maryland), the latter claiming the Lewes' cape should have been the start of the boundary line. A map commissioned by Charles Calvert in 1732 which showed Cape Henlopen at Fenwick Island was used to decide the matter, although the map commissioned by Calvert was based on a 1651 map by Nicholas Visscher owned by William Penn. Calvert had accepted Penn's map which depicted Cape Henlopen at approximately 38°27′ N. Calvert discovered the mistake only after he had submitted the map he had commissioned to the English court deciding the case. Calvert failed in his later attempts to have the court reject his own map. If the actual Cape Henlopen near Lewes had been used as the start of the line, Delaware would be about one thousand square miles smaller, losing over a third of its current area. In 1751 a line was surveyed from the Court-designated point on the Atlantic coast (Penn's Cape Henlopen) to the Chesapeake Bay, and in turn was used by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon (of Mason–Dixon line fame) in 1763 when they were engaged to survey the north-south border between Maryland and the three southern counties of Pennsylvania, which became Delaware 13 years later).

The Transpeninsular Line splits several Delmarva communities, separating them between the two states. The best known are Delmar, Delaware, and Delmar, Maryland, which derive their name from the two states' names.

A Transpeninsular Line marker can be found near the Fenwick Island Lighthouse, at the northern boundary of Ocean City, Maryland, located on 146th Street. The midpoint Transpeninsular Line marker can be found on the north side of Route 54 about halfway between Delmar and Mardela Springs, Maryland. This marker is also the southern endpoint of the Mason–Dixon Line.

title: Transpeninsular Line


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Nephilim Plasma Weapon

 This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion of the article below. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was DELETE (7 delete vs. 4 merge votes). jni 15:36, 4 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Nephilim Plasma Weapon
The Nephilim PLASMA SUPERWEAPON is basically a large Plasma Cannon installed on thier KRAKEN-class Capital Ship Killers and TIAMAT-dreadnaughts. Et cetera et cetera. Appears to be fancruft of some genre or other. -- Hoary 04:43, 2005 Feb 26 (UTC) This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like some other VfD subpages, is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion, or the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.
 * This PLASMA SUPERWEAPON would probably make part of a great sci-fi novel on Wikibooks. After reviewing what links to it more extensively, my opinion is that it should be merged; I do not see this article expanding like other "weapon"/"ship" articles on the same topic. Merge; delete this article. Tygar 07:49, Feb 26, 2005 (UTC)
 * merge with what links to it or keep. Kappa 09:02, 26 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Comment. A quick google search for "nephilim plasma" and "T.C.S. Midway" seems to indicate this relates to Wing Commander. Let knowledgeable fans decide how important it is. Phils 16:11, 26 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Yes, but given that 'nephilim' has lots of other meanings outside Wing Commander, it should probably be merged with something like 'spaceships in WC' or 'weapons in WC'. Radiant! 17:58, Feb 26, 2005 (UTC)
 * WILE E HERESIARCH is a Wikipedia editor equipped with GAMMA BURSTER RAILGUNS and a FONDNESS FOR TOAST AND TEA. He was created early in the history of the cosmos, circa 1970 AD, by two scientists who were experimenting with GENETIC RECOMBINATION. Fancruft, delete. Wile E. Heresiarch 04:34, 27 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Merge some of it into whatever fancruft topic this is a subset of, then redirect (and perhaps someday merge that page into whatever it is a subset of, until we have fancruft like this confined into a somewhat sane form. Someday). -R. fiend 19:53, 27 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. Unwikified fancruft of some kind. Jonathunder 22:13, 2005 Feb 27 (UTC)
 * Delete. Look at the wookiee. —Neuropedia 23:38, 2005 Feb 27 (UTC)
 * Delete. Wing Commander fan that I am, this is not Wikiworthy, which can be said for alot of the Wing Command related articles. ScottM 00:22, 28 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. BTW why is all fancruft so badly written? Miss Pippa
 * You got me. Delete for reasons stated, but keep the Wile E. cruft.  Oh, and pass the tea, would you?  Thanks. - Lucky 6.9 00:07, 1 Mar 2005 (UTC)


text: Category:Lists of birds

title: Category:Lists of birds


text:
Twelve-Mile Circle

The Twelve-Mile Circle is an approximately circular arc that forms most of the boundary between Delaware and Pennsylvania. It is a combination of different circular arcs that have been feathered together.

It is nominally a circle with an approximate and variable 12 mi radius, centered in the town of New Castle, Delaware. In 1750, the center of the circle was fixed at the cupola of the courthouse in New Castle. The Twelve-Mile Circle continues into the Delaware River. A small portion of the circle, known as the "Arc Line," forms part of the Mason-Dixon line in the United States that separates Delaware and Maryland, which are considered part of the Mid-Atlantic. Two other small portions, although not actually demarcated until 1934, form parts of the boundary between the states of Delaware and New Jersey. Although the Twelve-Mile Circle is often claimed to be the only territorial boundary in the United States that is a true arc, some cities in the South, including Plains, Georgia, have circular boundaries. The Twelve-Mile Circle is the only circular U.S. state boundary, however.

Its existence dates back to 1681, when King Charles II granted a deed to William Penn north of the already chartered Maryland. Charles created an exception, consisting of 12 miles around New Castle and extending down the peninsula, since these lands were held by the Duke of York, who had won them in conquest from the Dutch colonists. Later, on August 24, 1682, the Duke granted these lands to Penn as well, giving him:

The boundaries of the circle were the focal point of the 80-year Penn–Calvert boundary dispute.

The fact that the circle extends into the Delaware River makes for an unusual territorial possession. Most territorial boundaries that follow watercourses split the water course between the two territories by one of two methods, either by the median line of the watercourse (the Grotian Method, after Hugo Grotius) or, more often, the center of the main flow channel, or thalweg (the lowest point in the stream channel). However, due to the text of the deed, within the Twelve-Mile Circle, all the Delaware River to the low-tide mark on the east (New Jersey) side is territory of the state of Delaware (a similar condition exists between the states of Vermont and New Hampshire, with the border being defined as the west bank of the Connecticut River, leaving the river - and bridges - in sole possession of New Hampshire).

New Jersey has often disputed this claim, as the rest of its territorial boundaries along the Delaware River are determined by the midline and thalweg methods. In 1813, Delaware's legislature passed an act deeding Pea Patch Island to the United States government, and in 1820 New Jersey disputed that they owned the island since it was primarily on the New Jersey side of the river. Attorney General William Wirt sided with Delaware. In the 1840s, the Pea Patch Island disagreement led to two conflicting circuit court decisions—the circuit of Delaware ruling that the entirety of the river (and its islands) belonged to Delaware, and the circuit in New Jersey ruling that the island had belonged to New Jersey, which had deeded it to Dr. Henry Gale, a citizen of New Jersey. At the recommendation of President James K. Polk, the parties agreed to arbitration, which resulted in a confirmation of Delaware's claim.

The arbitration did not ultimately resolve the dispute, and it has been brought to the Supreme Court of the United States on several occasions (all titled New Jersey v. Delaware), most notably in 1907, 1934, 1935, and 2008. The court's opinion for the 1934 case contained an extensive history of the claims to this territory, and the 1935 opinion enjoined New Jersey and Delaware from ever disputing their jurisdictions again.

Regardless of the Supreme Court's admonition to the two states against further litigation on this subject, they were back before the court as late as November 2005, when New Jersey's desire to approve plans by BP to build a liquefied natural gas terminal along the New Jersey shore of the Delaware River fell afoul of Delaware's Coastal Zone Act. The court on January 23, 2006, appointed a special master to study the border dispute, and on March 21, 2008, it upheld his report, which largely supported Delaware's authority. Meanwhile, the Delaware House of Representatives considered a (symbolic) bill to call out the National Guard to safeguard the state's interests, while New Jersey legislators made comments about the battleship New Jersey, moored upriver from the site.

Surveying the Circle
There are persistent rumors that David Rittenhouse, the famous astronomer and instrument-maker of Pennsylvania, surveyed the circle around New Castle, but this is likely not correct. The circle was first laid out by surveyors named Taylor and Pierson in 1701. The 1813 "Memoirs of the life of David Rittenhouse" by William Barton surmises that Rittenhouse was involved in such a survey in 1763, based on a letter in which Rittenhouse mentions being paid "for my attendance at New Castle," but there is no clear record of what, exactly, Rittenhouse was paid for. His biographer, Brooke Hindle, guessed that Rittenhouse assisted with latitude or longitude calculations.

title: Twelve-Mile Circle


text:
User:Vishakha

Favorites...

Writers: William S. Burroughs, Philip K. Dick, Samuel R. Delany, Ursula K. LeGuin, James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, Robert A. Heinlein, Hunter S. Thompson, Robert Anton Wilson, Kurt Vonnegut, Rudy Rucker, Carlos Castaneda, Orson Scott Card, Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore

Artists: (of all types): Range Murata, Dalí, Hyung Tae-Kim, Scott Morse, Jean-Auguste Ingres, Dave McKean, Ralph Steadman, Brion Gysin, John Singer Sargent, Tetsuya_Nomura

Comics: NYX, New X-Men, 1602, Arkham Asylum, The Sandman, Hellblazer, 21 Down, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Sin City, Southpaw, Barefoot Serpent, Watchmen, The_Invisibles, Fables

Games: Xenogears, Final Fantasy Series, The_Bouncer, Kingdom Hearts Series, Street Fighter Series, Metroid_Prime

Religions/Philosphies: Discordianism, Zen Buddhism, Science of Mind, Gnosticism, Church of the SubGenius

My favorite book is Dhalgren. I'm deeply interested in eschatology, especially in relation to the Mayans and 2012.

title: User:Vishakha


text:
Cold snap (disambiguation)

A cold snap, also known as a cold wave, is a period of intensely cold and dry weather

Cold snap may also refer to:
 * Coldsnap, an expansion set for the trading card game Magic: The Gathering from the Ice Age block
 * Coldsnap, a member of DC Comics Masters of Disaster supervillain team
 * Cold Snap (Albert Collins album), 1986
 * Cold Snap (Weeping Tile album), 1996
 * "Cold Snap" (Heroes), an episode from the fourth season of the TV series Heroes
 * ”Cold Snap” (Dexter: New Blood), is the premiere episode of the sequel TV series Dexter: New Blood

title: Cold snap (disambiguation)


text:
Adriano

Adriano or Adrião is the form of the Latin given name Hadrianus commonly used in the Italian language; the form Adrian is used in the English language. Notable people with the name include:

 * Adriano Banchieri, Italian composer, music theorist, organist and poet
 * Adriano Bernareggi, Italian Catholic bishop
 * Adriano Castellesi, Italian cardinal and writer
 * Adriano Celentano, Italian entertainer
 * Adriano Correia de Oliveira, Portuguese singer and composer
 * Adriano Espaillat, Dominican-American politician
 * Adriano Galliani, Italian entrepreneur
 * Adriano Garrido, Brazilian beach volleyball player
 * Adriano Olivetti, Italian entrepreneur
 * Adriano Panatta, Italian tennis player
 * Adriano Rigoglioso, English footballer
 * Adriano Sofri, Italian politician and journalist
 * Adriano Visconti, Italian air force major
 * Adrian Willaert, Flemish composer, who in sources was sometimes referred to simply as "Adriano"

Brazilian footballers

 * Adriano (footballer, born 1969), full name Adriano Silva Francisco, goalkeeper
 * Adriano Gerlin (born 20 September 1974), midfielder
 * Adriano (footballer, born 25 September 1974), forward
 * Adriano Basso (born 1975), goalkeeper for Bristol City, among others
 * Adriano Alves (born 1976), striker
 * Adriano Spadoto (born February 1977), FC Thun player in UEFA Cup, Champions League
 * Adriano Gabiru (born 11 August 1977), midfielder for Internacional, once capped for Brazil in Confederations Cup 2003
 * Adriano Rossato (born 27 August 1977), defender
 * Adriano (footballer, born 1978), full name Adriano Rodrigues da Silva also known as Adriano Cabeça, defensive midfielder and coach
 * Adriano (footballer, born January 1979), full name Adriano Vieira Louzada, striker
 * Adriano (footballer, born June 1979), full name Adriano Ferreira Silvestre, midfielder
 * Ferreira Pinto (footballer, born 1979), full name Adriano Ferreira Pinto, winger for Atalanta
 * Adriano Duarte (born 1980), central defender
 * Adriano (footballer, born January 1982), full name Adriano Ferreira Martins, striker
 * Adriano (footballer, born February 1982), full name Adriano Leite Ribeiro, former Inter Milan and Flamengo player, Brazil international in 2000s
 * Adriano (footballer, born April 1982), full name Adriano Pereira da Silva, Monaco defender
 * Adriano Pimenta (born November 1982), midfielder for Swiss club Thun
 * Adriano (footballer, born 1984), full name Adriano Correia Claro, defender/midfielder for Beşiktaş (formerly at Barcelona), Brazil international in 2000s
 * Adriano (footballer, born July 1985), full name Adriano Alves dos Santos, defender
 * Adriano (footballer, born October 1985), full name Francisco Adriano da Silva Rodrigues, forward
 * Luiz Adriano (born April 1987), striker
 * Adriano (footballer, born May 1987), full name Adriano Bispo dos Santos, defensive midfielder
 * Adriano (footballer, born September 1987), full name Carlos Adriano de Sousa Cruz, strike
 * Adriano (footballer, born December 1987), full name Adriano José de Lara
 * Adriano (footballer, born February 1994), full name Adriano Louzada e Silva, winger
 * Adriano (footballer, born August 1994), Adriano Aparecido Narcizo, winger

Fictional characters

 * Adriano Tumino, a supervillain known as the Vulture, appearing in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

title: Adriano


text: User:JamesBurns

title: User:JamesBurns


text:
The Massacre

The Massacre is the second studio album by American rapper 50 Cent, released on March 3, 2005, via Interscope Records, Eminem's Shady Records, 50 Cent's G-Unit Records, and Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment. With production from Dr. Dre, Eminem, Scott Storch, Sha Money XL and others, the album features guest appearances from G-Unit affiliates Tony Yayo, Olivia, Eminem and Jamie Foxx.

Preceded by the singles "Disco Inferno" and "Candy Shop", the album debuted atop the Billboard 200, selling 1.15 million copies in its first four days; it remained atop the chart for six weeks after its release. The Massacre received generally positive reviews from music critics, and was 50 Cent's second consecutive number one album on the chart. Following its release, the album spawned the Billboard Hot 100-top ten singles "Just A Lil Bit" and "Outta Control."

Background
The original title for the album was revealed as The St. Valentine's Day Massacre, named after the 1929 Chicago gang murder spree known as Saint Valentine's Day Massacre. 50 Cent intended the album to be released on February 15, 2005, but Interscope was not interested. He leaked "Disco Inferno" in order to force their hand, and Interscope released it on March 7.

Originally, songs intended for the album included "Hate It or Love It", "How We Do", "Higher", "Church for Thugs" and "Special" but the songs were eventually given to the Game's The Documentary, causing a majority of The Massacre to be reworked.

After 50 Cent released the Game from his G-Unit Records imprint on live radio February 21, 2005, a shootout occurred. Paul Rosenberg of Shady Records and Jimmy Iovine of Interscope worried that the album would underperform due to the negativity of the Hot 97 shooting. 50 and the Game later entered into a truce six days after The Massacre was released, but their animosity rose up again after Game made fun of G-Unit at Hot 97's annual Summer Jam, where he first used the "G-Unot" insult, later turning to a boycott.

Censorship
The censored version of the album censors out most profanity, violence, and all drug content. The track "Gunz Come Out" has inconsistency in the editing, and contains some profanity. The opening intro removes the shooting sequence, and is cut down to 20 seconds. The album cover also removes guns in the background behind the rapper, being replaced by motifs and a gradient background. In comparison, the album is not as heavily censored as his previous album Get Rich or Die Tryin'  (2003).

Commercial performance
With a release in the middle of the sales week, The Massacre sold 1.15 million copies in its first four days of release, becoming the sixth-largest opening week for an album at the time since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991. This is the second largest opening week for a hip hop album, behind Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP (2000), which sold 1.76 million copies in its first week. Mariah Carey's The Emancipation of Mimi replaced it as number one in late April 2005, as The Massacre reached 3 million units sold. In February 2020, The Massacre was certified six times platinum for combined sales and album-equivalent units of at least six million copies in the United States. It has sold over eleven million copies worldwide.

In 2005, The Massacre was ranked as the number one album of the year on the Billboard 200.

Critical reception
The Massacre received generally positive reviews from music critics; it holds a score of 66 out of 100 at Metacritic. Vibe magazine found it "full of finger-pointing panache" and wrote that "50 delivers a taut, albeit less explosive, album aimed at both silencing his detractors and keeping the ladies satisfied". NME observed "a new depth to the murderous lyricism" from 50 Cent on the album. Greg Tate, writing in The Village Voice, said that, like Tupac, 50 Cent is "a ruffian who knows the value of a good pop hook", and called The Massacre "the most diabolically sensous collection of baby-making gangsta music since Pac's All Eyez." Kelefa Sanneh of The New York Times found the album to be "nearly as addictive as its predecessor" and called 50 Cent "a crafty songwriter, specializing in obvious but nearly irresistible tracks that sound better the more you hear them." In his review for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau said that 50 Cent's "ugly gangsta lies" are "incidental to the mood of the piece, which is friendly, relaxed, good-humored, and in the groove."

In a mixed review, Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club said that, although its strengths lie in 50 Cent's "dark charisma" and "fluid delivery", the album is marred by flaws typical of "big rap releases: At nearly 78 minutes, it's far too long, wildly uneven, and not particularly cohesive sonically or thematically." Uncut magazine wrote that, despite 50 Cent's "cool menace", "not even tight productions from Eminem and Dre can stop things from flagging midway." Lynne D. Johnson of Spin felt that it lacks "originality" and makes artistic concessions: "He's tryin' too hard to be everything to everybody." In a negative review for The Guardian, Alexis Petridis panned him as a lyricist and felt that the album lacks "any of the factors that make the best gangsta rap disturbingly compelling ... There's nothing except a string of cliches so limited that repetition is unavoidable".

Accolades
The Massacre was nominated at the 2006 Grammy Awards for Best Rap Album, but lost to Kanye West's Late Registration. It was ranked the twenty fifth best album of the year by Rolling Stone.

According to 50 Cent, the album received more mixed reviews than its predecessor Get Rich Or Die Tryin' because he was focused more on the hooks and song structure: "People fought love for the things they see are significant. Jimmy Iovine was a producer … he loves the significance of production. He loves Dre. I don’t give a fuck what I made … look, I made my whole second album as a 10-record. I knew they wasn’t my best verses but my choruses were right so I focused on my song structure."

Track listing

 * Notes
 * $undefined$ signifies an additional producer.
 * "Intro" is excluded from the 2006 France edition.

 * Sample credits
 * "Intro" contains elements from "What Up Gangsta" performed by 50 Cent.
 * "This Is 50" contains elements from "Things Done Changed" performed by The Notorious B.I.G.
 * "I'm Supposed to Die Tonight" contains vocal samples of "Vocal Planet" performed by Spectrasonics.
 * "Gatman and Robbin'" contains replayed elements from "Batman Theme" composed by Danny Elfman.
 * "Candy Shop" contains a sample of "Love Break" performed by The Salsoul Orchestra (uncredited).
 * "Outta Control" contains an interpolation from "Set It Off" performed by Strafe.
 * "Ski Mask Way" contains elements from "What Am I Waiting For" performed by The O'Jays and resung elements from "Cell Therapy" performed by Goodie Mob.
 * "A Baltimore Love Thing" contains elements from "I'll Be Waiting There for You" performed by The Dells.
 * "God Gave Me Style" contains elements from "Each Day I Cry a Little" performed by Eddie Kendricks.
 * "I Don't Need 'Em" contains elements from "Nobody Knows" performed by S.C.L.C.

Personnel
Credits for The Massacre adapted from Allmusic.

 * 50 Cent – executive producer, author
 * Bang Out – producer
 * Jeff Bass – keyboards, producer
 * Mark Bass – producer
 * Steve Baughman – engineer, mixing
 * Akane Behrens – engineer
 * Black Jeruz – producer
 * Buck Wild – producer
 * Jeff Burns – mixing assistant, assistant
 * Dave Cabrera – keyboards
 * Tony Campana – engineer
 * Larry Chatman – project coordinator
 * Lindsay Collins – voices, speech/speaker/speaking part
 * Cool – producer
 * Ruben Cruz – background vocals
 * Cue Beats – producer
 * Dion Jenkins – background vocals
 * Disco D – producer
 * Dr. Dre – producer, executive producer, mixing
 * Mike Elizondo – bass, guitar, keyboards, sitar, producer
 * Eminem – producer, executive producer, mixing
 * Nicole Frantz – creative assistance
 * Brian "Big Bass" Gardener – mastering
 * Yvette Gayle – publicity
 * Zach Gold – photography
 * Scott Gutierrez – assistant engineer, assistant
 * Tiffany Hasbourne – stylist
 * Adam Hawkins – engineer
 * Hi-Tek – producer
 * Lionel Holoman – keyboards
 * Kameron Houff – engineer
 * Eric Hudson – bass
 * Mauricio "Veto" Irragorri – engineer, mixing
 * Tyrue "Slang" Jonas – artwork
 * Rouble Kapoor – assistant engineer, mixing assistant, assistant

 * Steven King – bass, guitar, mixing
 * Steve Lininger – assistant engineer, assistant
 * Jared Lopez – engineer
 * Andrew Mains – editing
 * Kyla Miller – engineer
 * Needlz – producer
 * Traci Nelson – background vocals
 * Alex Ortiz – engineer
 * Conesha Owens – background vocals
 * Kirdis Postelle – project coordinator
 * Chuck Reed – engineer
 * Luis Resto – horn, keyboards, producer
 * Robert "Roomio" Reyes – assistant engineer, assistant
 * Roberto Reyes – assistant
 * J.R. Rotem – producer
 * David Saslow – video
 * Kelly Sato – marketing coordinator
 * Ed Scratch – engineer
 * Les Scurry – production coordination
 * Sha Money XL – producer, engineer, executive producer, mixing
 * Randy Sosin – video
 * Nancie Stern – sample clearance
 * Scott Storch – producer
 * Chris Styles – producer
 * Rob Tewlow – producer
 * Patrick Viala – mixing
 * Che Vicious – programming
 * Barbara Wilson – background vocals
 * Brandon Winslow – assistant
 * Ravid Yosef – editing

Background
The album was re-released on September 6, 2005 as the Special edition. It included a remix of "Outta Control" featuring Mobb Deep, which replaces the original version of the song as track eight. This edition included a bonus DVD with music videos for a majority of the album's tracks (with the exclusion of "Disco Inferno", "Gunz Come Out" and the intro), and the trailer for the film Get Rich or Die Tryin', which released two months later. Due to the ongoing feud between 50 Cent and The Game, this version omits the G-Unit remix to "Hate It or Love It" as the twenty-second track. Once the special edition was released, The Massacre re-entered the top three of the Billboard 200 at number two, being blocked from number one by Kanye West's Late Registration. The original version was also re-issued using the special edition track listing leaving out the parts for the DVD.

Track listing
Notes
 * $undefined$ signifies an additional producer.

Sample credits Information taken from The Massacre liner notes:
 * "Intro" contains elements from "What Up Gangsta" performed by 50 Cent
 * "I'm Supposed to Die Tonight" contains samples of "Warning" by The Notorious B.I.G.
 * "Gatman and Robbin'" contains replayed elements from "Batman Theme"
 * "Candy Shop" contains a sample of "Love Break" performed by The Salsoul Orchestra (uncredited)
 * "Ski Mask Way" contains elements from "What Am I Waiting For" performed by The O'Jays and resung elements from "Cell Therapy" performed by Goodie Mob
 * "A Baltimore Love Thing" contains elements from "I'll Be Waiting There For You" performed by The Dells
 * "God Gave Me Style" contains elements from "Each Day I Cry A Little" performed by Eddie Kendricks
 * "I Don't Need 'Em" contains elements from "Nobody Knows" performed by S.C.L.C.

title: The Massacre


text:
Hans-Jürgen Wischnewski

Hans-Jürgen Wischnewski (24 July 1922 – 24 February 2005) was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD).

Life
Born in Allenstein, East Prussia (now Olsztyn, Poland), Wischnewski obtained his Abitur degree in Berlin in 1941. He then served in a Panzergrenadier division of the Wehrmacht in World War II, achieving the rank of Oberleutnant. Wischnewski was decorated with the Iron Cross.

Career
After the war, Wischnewski joined the SPD. He was employed by a metal-working company and from 1952 trained as an IG Metall union secretary. Upon the 1957 federal election, he became a member of the Bundestag parliament and also a SPD board member in the Cologne district. He was elected federal chairman of the party's Young Socialists youth organisation in 1959 and joined the SPD federal committee in 1970, from 1979 as deputy chairman. From 1961 to 1965 he also was an elected member of the European Parliament.

On 1 December 1966, Wischnewski was appointed Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation in the grand coalition cabinet of Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger. He resigned from office on 2 October 1968, to become SPD federal executive director.

Again in May 1974, he again joined the federal government of Chancellor Helmut Schmidt as a state secretary in the Foreign Office, after the 1976 federal election as a state minister in the German Chancellery.

Political influence
Because of his good relations with Arab politicians since the days of the Algerian War, Wischnewski was nicknamed "Ben Wisch" by Chancellor Willy Brandt (later sometimes spoofed as "Ben Cash" because of his duty as the SPD federal treasurer). His efforts decisively improved the West German diplomatic relations with numerous Arab and African countries. Also, after the 1973 Chilean coup d'état, he played a vital role in rescuing German and European hostages.

Wischnewski is best known outside Germany for his involvement in the "German Autumn" of 1977: when the German business executive Hanns Martin Schleyer was kidnapped by the militant Red Army Faction (RAF) in September, Wischnewski visited several Arabian governments and during the joint RAF and PFLP hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 181 in October followed the plane to Mogadishu, negotiating with the Somalian government. His success allowed German GSG 9 troops to storm the plane and rescue 90 hostages; three of the hijackers were killed in the process.

Wischnewski later travelled to Nicaragua, to intermediate between the Sandinista National Liberation Front and its Contra opponents. In Latin America, he became known as "Commandante Hans".

His commitment to the rights of the Palestinian people earned him an award by president Yasser Arafat. Wischnewski was a long-time member of the German-Arabian Association, until he left after a dispute with its president Jürgen Möllemann. He also was a member of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group.

title: Hans-Jürgen Wischnewski


text:
User talk:DanDoner

Welcome!

Hello, and welcome to Wikipedia. Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers: I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! By the way, you can sign your name on Talk and vote pages using three tildes, like this: ~~~. Four tildes (~~~~) produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, see the help pages, add a question to the village pump or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome!  — Zeimusu | Talk 05:05, 26 Feb 2005 (UTC)
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If you don't know what any of this means, just let me know exactly where you got the images (on my talk page) and I'll tag them for you. Thanks so much.  — Zeimusu | Talk 05:05, 26 Feb 2005 (UTC)

File source problem with File:1960Cessna180-remote.jpg
Thank you for uploading File:1960Cessna180-remote.jpg. I noticed that the file's description page currently doesn't specify who created the content, so the copyright status is unclear. If you did not create this file yourself, you will need to specify the owner of the copyright. If you obtained it from a website, please add a link to the page from which it was taken, together with a brief restatement of the website's terms of use of its content. If the original copyright holder is a party unaffiliated with the website, that author should also be credited. Please add this information by editing the image description page.

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Please refer to the image use policy to learn what images you can or cannot upload on Wikipedia. Please also check any other files you have uploaded to make sure they are correctly tagged. Here is a [ list of your uploads]. If you have any questions or are in need of assistance please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. Kelly hi! 17:02, 1 December 2011 (UTC)

title: User talk:DanDoner


text:
Lu Sheng-yen

Lu Sheng-Yen (, born 27 June 1945), commonly referred to by followers as Grand Master Lu (師尊), is a Taiwanese-born American Buddhist teacher who is the founder and spiritual leader of the True Buddha School, a new religious movement with teachings from Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. Lu is known by the sect as Living Buddha Lian Sheng (蓮生活佛, Liansheng Huófó) and is revered by his disciples as a Living Buddha.

Lu’s sect claims to have more five million followers worldwide, of whom the majority hail from Taiwan, China, Macau, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Hong Kong. Lu Sheng-Yen holds dual American and Taiwanese citizenship, and often travels between the two countries.

Life
Lu Sheng-Yen was born in present-day Chiayi County, Taiwan in 1945. Lu was raised a Christian and attended a Protestant school. He graduated from Chung Cheng Institute of Technology with a degree in Survey Engineering. In his early twenties he was both a survey engineer for the Taiwan military and a Sunday School Bible teacher. Though his parents were not Christians, he had joined Kaohsiung New Presbyterian Church, in which he became an active member.

In a biography, Lu wrote that he had a Zen-style instant awakening to the first stage of enlightenment by the Golden Mother of the Jade Pond in 1969, who opened his third eye during a visit to a Taoist temple, revealing to him his true nature and purpose. She directed him to follow the instructions of Reverend Liao Ming 清真 (of the Taoist Ching Zhen Sect, also a lineage holder of the Kagyu school of Vajrayana Buddhism) and the Three Mountains and Nine Marquis.

Lu is a prolific author and has produced a large body of work over a span of 40 years. This has resulted in 240 books published in Traditional Chinese.

Personal life
Lu Sheng-Yen is married to Lian Hsiang, who is also a vajra master, and is referred as Shimu in Chinese, which translates as Grand Madam in English, the standard Chinese title for a woman married to a Grandmaster. Prior to becoming a monk, the couple already had two children.

Differences between teachings and other Buddhist sects
In 2007, the Buddhist Federation of Malaysia, the Malaysian Buddhist Youth Association, the Malaysian Buddhist Dharma Promotion Association, the International Buddha's Light Association Malaysian Association, the Ceylon Buddhist Advancement Association, Buddhist Tzu Chi Merit Association and Malaysian Vajrayana issued a joint statement, criticizing the True Buddha Sect as a heretic Buddhist group, and questioned Lu Shengyan´s claim to be a Buddha and the supreme power of Dharma. They argue that these claims are misleading, and his personal behavior is not in line with the Buddhist system.

Allegations of money-making fraud
In 2007, seven Buddhist groups in Malaysia criticized Shengyan Lu's gatherings for conducting monetary transactions in a statement. For example, the Buddhist hat worn by Shengyan Lu was priced at 300,000 USD, and the cassock worn by Mr. Lu was priced at 100,000 USD. Moreover, the proceeds from the auction were handed over to Lu Shengyan himself. In 2012, in New Taipei City Banqiao District, a church leader from the True Buddhist Sect promised to help believers invest in stocks and guaranteed that the investment would be profitable. Lee, accused of violating Banking Law.

Collective cash donation to then-Governor Gary Locke
Lu made headlines during an investigation by the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission, prompted by media reporting, into a collective cash donation to then-Governor Gary Locke after a speaking engagement at the Ling Shen Ching Tze Temple. Lu hoped Locke might eventually run for the White House. Locke was cleared of any wrongdoing by the commission in 1998. Further, this did not affect Locke in his pursuit for confirmation as U.S. Secretary of Commerce.

Criticism
In 2007, the Buddhist Federation of Malaysia, the Malaysian Buddhist Youth Association, the Malaysian Buddhist Dharma Promotion Association, the International Buddha's Light Association Malaysian Association, the Ceylon Buddhist Advancement Association, Buddhist Tzu Chi Merit Association and Malaysian Vajrayana Buddhist Association issued a joint statement, criticizing the True Buddha Sect as a Buddhist heretic rather than orthodox Buddhism, and stating their view that Lu Sheng-yen claimed to be Buddha and claimed the supreme power of Dharma.

Prof. Wai Lun Tam of the Chinese University of Hong Kong has conducted on-going research into True Buddha School and his studies question the use of the term "new religion", finding instead that it was simply "a new Buddhist movement".

title: Lu Sheng-yen