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Phantom Lady

Phantom Lady is a fictional superheroine appearing in media published by Quality Comics and DC Comics. She was created by the Eisner & Iger studio, one of the first to produce comics on demand for publishers. The character's early adventures were drawn by Arthur Peddy.

As published by Fox Feature Syndicate in the late 1940s, Phantom Lady is a notable and controversial example of "good girl art", a style of comic art depicting voluptuous female characters in provocative situations and pin-up poses that contributed to widespread criticism of the medium's effect on children. The character was ranked 49th in Comics Buyer's Guide's "100 Sexiest Women in Comics" list.

Quality Comics
Phantom Lady first appeared in Quality's Police Comics #1 (August 1941), an anthology title the first issue of which also included the debut of characters such as Plastic Man and the Human Bomb. That issue established her alter ego as Sandra Knight, the beautiful Washington, D.C., debutante daughter of U.S. Senator Henry Knight. The issue established that it was not her first appearance as the Phantom Lady, but it did not go into her origin. Stories published decades later by DC Comics would give her a proper origin, which was altered several times to give Sandra a more active role. Her skimpy costume was eventually explained as a deliberate tactic to distract her usually male foes.

Sandra Knight assumed the identity of Phantom Lady in a costume consisting of a green cape and the equivalent of a one-piece yellow swimsuit. She used a "black light projector", a device which allowed her to blind her enemies and make herself invisible. She drove a car whose headlights also projected black light when necessary. She was sometimes assisted by her fiance, Donald Borden, an agent of the U.S. State Department.

According to Jess Nevins' Encyclopedia of Golden Age Superheroes, "she fights the cowgirl Ace of Spades, the arsonist Fire Fiend, the Killer Clown, the Robbing Robot, the woman-killer the Subway Slayer, and the cloud-seeding saboteur the Vulture".

Phantom Lady ran as one of the features in Police Comics through #23. Arthur Peddy continued as the artist through #13, with Joe Kubert drawing her feature in Police Comics #14-16; Frank Borth in #17-21; Peddy again in #22; and Rudy Palais in #23. Phantom Lady also appeared in Feature Comics #69-71 as part of a crossover with Spider Widow and the Raven.

Fox Feature Syndicate and Star Publications
After Quality stopped publishing the adventures of Phantom Lady, what was now simply Iger Studios believed it owned the character and assigned it to Fox Feature Syndicate, a move that would later cause confusion as to who actually owned the character's copyright. The Fox version which premiered in Phantom Lady #13 (taking over the numbering of Wotalife Comics) is better known to contemporary comic fans than the Quality version because of the "good girl art" of Matt Baker. Baker altered her costume by changing the colors to red and blue, substantially revealing her cleavage, and adding high-cut loose shorts. Fox published Phantom Lady only through issue 23 (April 1949), though the character guest starred in All-Top Comics #8-17, also with art by Baker. Her rogue's gallery in these two Fox titles included the Avenging Skulls; the Fire Fiend; the Killer Clown; Kurtz, the Robbing Robot; the Subway Slayer and Vulture.

Baker's cover for Phantom Lady #17 (April 1948) was reproduced in Seduction of the Innocent, the 1954 book by Dr. Fredric Wertham denouncing what he saw as the morally corrupting effect of comics on children. The cover, which illustrated Phantom Lady attempting to escape from ropes, was presented by Wertham with a caption that read, "sexual stimulation by combining 'headlights' with the sadist's dream of tying up a woman". In the meantime, Fox went under and its assets were acquired by other publishers, and a Phantom Lady story from All-Top was then reprinted as a backup feature in Jungle Thrills by Star Publications, which then itself went out of business.

Ajax-Farrell Publications
Ajax-Farrell Publications then published four issues of the second Phantom Lady title, cover dated Dec. 1954/Jan. 1955 through June 1955. The company also published her as a backup feature in two issues of Wonder Boy.

By then, Wertham's efforts had led to a Congressional investigation into the comics industry, and publishers formed the self-censoring Comics Code Authority in the fall of 1954. Some changes were consequently made to the Phantom Lady's costume, so that her cleavage was covered and shorts replaced her skirt.

Charlton Comics and I.W. Publications
Farrell's assets were later acquired by Charlton Comics, and, until DC relaunched the character in the 1970s, Phantom Lady's only appearances were in reprinted Matt Baker stories in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Israel Waldman's I.W. Publications (later Super Comics), a company that published unauthorized reprints from 1958 to 1964, included Phantom Lady reprints in issues of Great Action Comics and Daring Adventures. These comics featured new cover images of Phantom Lady that bore little visual consistency either to the Fox version of the character or each other (e.g., the character was blonde on one cover, brunette with a brown costume on another).

Sandra Knight

In 1956, DC Comics obtained the rights to the Quality Comics characters, which they believed included Phantom Lady, and reintroduced her 17 years later with a group of other former Quality heroes as the Freedom Fighters in Justice League of America #107 (October 1973).

As was done with many characters DC acquired from other publishers, or that were holdovers from Golden Age titles, the Freedom Fighters were relocated to a parallel world. Their particular earth was referred to as "Earth-X". On Earth-X, Nazi Germany had won World War II. The team was later featured in its own series for 15 issues (1976–1978), in which they temporarily left Earth-X for "Earth-1" (where most DC titles were set at the time) and Phantom Lady was given real phantom-like powers.

During the final issue of the original Freedom Fighters series, the writers gave the character an origin story. One night, Sandra happened across two would-be assassins targeting her father, and stealthily thwarted them with nothing more than a rolled-up newspaper. Knight consequently developed a taste for adventure and crime-fighting, and after finding a "black light ray projector" that a family friend named Professor Davis sent to her father, she adopted the device as a weapon.

In 1981, Phantom Lady became a recurring guest star of All-Star Squadron, a superhero-team title set on "Earth-2", the locale for DC's World War II-era superheroes, and at a time prior to when she and the other Freedom Fighters were supposed to have left for Earth-X. Phantom Lady then appeared with the rest of DC's superheroes in Crisis on Infinite Earths, a story that was intended to eliminate the confusing histories that DC had attached to its characters by retroactively merging the various parallel worlds into one. This left Phantom Lady's Earth-X days written out of her history, and the Freedom Fighters became a mere splinter group of the All-Star Squadron.

DC also retconned the origin of Phantom Lady established in Quality's Police Comics, so that she now belonged to the prestigious Knight family of Opal City, a locale central to DC's Starman line of heroes. Her formative story was changed so that she overtook her father's would-be assassins with her fists instead of a newspaper. Lastly, she was given a more active role in the acquisition of her black light ray, which she no longer received from a mere family friend but instead from a scientist named Dr. Abraham Davis, who had escaped from Nazi-controlled Europe. In the retelling, Sandra Knight gave asylum to Davis, setting him up in a laboratory and helping him to complete his invention. Ted Knight, now established as her cousin, also aided Davis, as a result acquiring the technology that allowed him to become the first Starman.

The 1994 title Damage established the post-World War II history for Phantom Lady. She was made an agent of a Cold War-era government intelligence agency called Argent, in which she met and married fellow former-All Star Squadron member Iron Munro (a character introduced in the 1986 series Young All-Stars). The two were paired on several missions and fought a Soviet-backed agent named The Baron, actually the German Baron Blitzkrieg, a foe both had met during World War II. Shortly after becoming pregnant, Sandra was kidnapped by The Baron who stole the fetus from her womb and left her for dead. After escaping from Communist Poland, Sandra wanted out of the spy game and turned to an old friend, Roy Lincoln. He helped her, and soon thereafter she started the Universite Notre Dame Des Ombres (the University of Our Lady of the Shadows) in the hopes of making further intelligence contacts and finding her baby, but she was not successful. Phantom Lady's presence in the U.S. and her work with American Intelligence was kept a secret to most; she never reunited with her husband, and in her old age became headmistress of the school she began, now a training center for female spies in Washington, D.C.

In Manhunter (vol. 3) #23 (June 2006), Phantom Lady met the current Manhunter, Kate Spencer, and it was revealed that she was Spencer's grandmother. Phantom Lady and Iron Munro were revealed to have had a child before their marriage whom they gave up for adoption—Walter Pratt, Spencer's father. The Golden Age Atom, Al Pratt, had allowed Phantom Lady to use his contact information so that she could get into a home for unwed mothers, causing the belief that the child was Pratt's son. Knight and Munro still keep in contact, as she brought him to meet Kate and her son, Ramsey.

Dee Tyler

A second Phantom Lady, Delilah "Dee" Tyler, was introduced in Action Comics Weekly #636 (January 1989) and was given a back-up feature in that title through #641 with art by Chuck Austen. The daughter of the U.S. Attorney General, Tyler was trained by the original Phantom Lady, the now-elderly Sandra Knight, at the exclusive [Université Notre Dame des Ombres (Our Lady of the Shadows) in France. She inherited Knight's equipment and costume.

It was heavily implied in that series that she was not alone in being thus trained and equipped, as her "college roommate" Marie Saloppe also appeared in the guise of Phantom Lady in Action Comics Weekly #639. Tyler's primary ability was an extensive knowledge of the martial art called savate, also known as French kickboxing. She also possessed a wrist-mounted blaster, and a holographic projector developed by her childhood friend and roommate Sarah that could be used to cast powerful illusions.

This successor Phantom Lady never received a series of her own, but was a periodic guest star in other titles, including the 1988 Starman, Flash, and most frequently in the 1994 Starman title. She joined a new version of the Freedom Fighters in the 1999 JSA series.

The character was graphically killed (along with at least two other Freedom Fighters) in Infinite Crisis #1 (December 2005), in a battle against the Society. The group was ambushed while investigating the meeting place of other supervillains. Tyler was wounded by the Cheetah and then fatally impaled by Deathstroke. Her body was hung on the Washington Monument along with the Human Bomb and Black Condor.

In Blackest Night crossover, Tyler was reanimated as a member of the Black Lantern Corps.

Stormy Knight
A new Phantom Lady was introduced in Crisis Aftermath: The Battle for Blüdhaven (2006), as one of the metahumans guarding Blüdhaven. She appears in the limited series Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters. Her name is Stormy Knight and, like the original character, her father is a U.S. Senator, though no connection to the other Knight characters has been established. She seems to know Father Time and has hinted that they've met before with him in a different guise, referring to his look as "this year's look is Colonel Sanders, Time?" She acts like a spoiled movie star and treats her other teammates like the popular girl in high school would treat the geeks (especially the Human Bomb and Major Force), but shows some hint of respect for the new Doll Man, hinting that they worked together for some time. Her wristbands not only project light but can bend reality.

She does not maintain a secret identity. In Brave New World, a radio program names her as Stormy Knight. Like other members of the Blüdhaven team, this incarnation of Phantom Lady is a cold-blooded killer, although there are indications in issue #1 of Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters, as she finds herself defending her actions, that she may be disturbed by what she is ordered to do. Also in issue #1, her father is depicted in a more sympathetic light as a man who might disband the Blüdhaven team if elected. He is murdered on orders of Father Time and replaced by a doppelganger. It was believed that Senator Knight wanted to run America as a dictatorship enforced by a metahuman army shown through visions created by Uncle Sam, but it appears that the real person who wants America this way is the individual running S.H.A.D.E. This figure, a cyborg named Gonzo the Mechanical Bastard, is impersonating Senator Knight.

In the second issue of Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters, Stormy becomes a Freedom Fighter. She reveals that she has a degree in quantum physics and pretends to be a spoiled idiot so she won't end up like other socialites. Her wrists bands appear to be able to transport Stormy and others from the third dimension to the fourth dimension.

In the second Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters series (September 2007), Stormy, still in shock over her father's death, begins to take drugs and drink heavily. After she drunkenly cuts a super-powered troublemaker in half on live television, Black Condor takes her to the extra-dimensional Heartland, where Uncle Sam tells her she won't leave until her habit has been kicked. Stormy later slits her wrists, but is found in time by Doll Man. Miss America removes all the toxins from her systems, allowing her to recuperate better.

By the end of the miniseries, Stormy decides to forgo her superhero career to pursue an acting vocation.

She was invited by Oracle to join the Birds of Prey, but ended up casually setting fire to her invitation immediately after reading it, stating that she was already on someone else's payroll.

Jennifer Knight
In 2012, DC Comics published a new ongoing comic book, Phantom Lady and Doll Man, featuring completely new versions of the characters, with no relation to their Freedom Fighter predecessors other than the character names. These were part of the "Second Wave" of its continuity reboot and entire-line relaunch, The New 52 which begun in September 2011 following on from the Flashpoint limited series.

Several years ago, Jennifer Knight witnessed the murder of her parents on Christmas Eve. Her father had been one of the best reporters on the Daily Planet's crime beat, and was close to breaking the case against crime boss Robert Bender, until Bender found out. She swore to bring the Bender family down and in the present tries to enact this by infiltrating the inner circle of Cyrus and Eli Bender, the heirs to Robert Bender's crime legacy. Her cover is quickly discovered forcing Jennifer to seek help from her friend, Dane Maxwell, hoping to use his genius to hack Cyrus Bender's cellphone, but Cyrus' henchmen track them down and apparently kill Dane inside his own machine. Jennifer is later rescued by Dane, who had become miniaturized. He gives her a special suit and gloves enabling invisibility and shadow manipulation. She then chooses to become a vigilante, known as Phantom Lady.

In "The New Golden Age", Phantom Lady was mentioned by Mister Terrific to have been enlisted to take Human Bomb's sidekick Cherry Bomb and Red Bee's sidekick Ladybug under her wing so that she can hook them up with the Freedom Fighters as this is seen on one of the screens.

Silk Spectre
The second Silk Spectre in Watchmen by Alan Moore is based loosely upon the Phantom Lady. Alan Moore had originally intended to use Charlton Comics characters in his mini-series (until DC told him otherwise), which would imply that Silk Spectre was based on Charlton's Nightshade. Moore found the Nightshade character boring, and based Silk Spectre on the Phantom Lady and DC's Black Canary instead.

Kingdom Come
A new Phantom Lady is shown in the Elseworlds comic Kingdom Come, who is described in the series' endnotes as a literal phantom (ghost) of the original version. Series co-creator Alex Ross used famed pin-up model Bettie Page as his model for this version of Phantom Lady.

52
In the final issue of 52, a new Multiverse is revealed, originally consisting of 52 identical realities. Among the parallel realities shown is one designated "Earth-10". As a result of Mister Mind "eating" aspects of this reality, it takes on visual aspects similar to the pre-Crisis Earth-X, including the Quality characters. The names of the characters and the team are not mentioned in the panel in which they appear, but a character visually similar to the Sandra Knight Phantom Lady appears.

Based on comments by Grant Morrison, this alternate universe is not the pre-Crisis Earth-X.

New Super-Man
New Super-Man features a character named Ghost Woman (an analog of Phantom Lady).

Cobweb
Cobweb appeared in Tomorrow Stories, an anthology title in Alan Moore's America's Best Comics line. The character, created by Moore and Melinda Gebbe, was an eroticized homage to Phantom Lady. She is a rich society girl named Laurel Lakeland who battles crime out of sheer boredom with her chauffeur/lesbian partner, Clarice.

Blue Bulleteer

In May 1972, Bill Black's Paragon Publications began publishing its own revival of Phantom Lady with a four-page ashcan titled The Phantom Lady #1, on the belief that the character had lapsed into the public domain. While the announced standalone title was never released, the character continued in titles such as Fem Fantastique. Black's Phantom Lady was an even more undressed version of the Matt Baker character, and a mask and ordinary handgun were also added. When DC Comics threatened legal action, AC changed their version to "Nightveil", a supernaturally-themed character who was later made a member of Femforce, the first all-female superhero team; the Bill Black version of the Phantom Lady was retained as Nightveil's original superhero identity, under the name "Blue Bulleteer".

AC Comics, as well as other minor publishers such as Verotik, have nonetheless published reprints of the original Quality and Fox stories without any legal action from DC Comics. When Verotik published its reprints, it was AC Comics that sued for trademark infringement, not DC Comics. Many believe these early stories to have lapsed into the public domain because the original owners failed to renew the copyright before it expired (as was required under pre-1976 U.S. copyright law).

Shadow Lady
Shadow Lady is a character seen in Big Bang Comics, all of whose characters are parodies of DC Comics. Like Sandra Knight, Veronica Prescott is a wealthy debutante, whose father invented the "Shadow Ray Projector". Shadow Lady is not Veronica, however, but is actually a duplicate created by the projector. She has the power to become solid or intangible at will, and has her own Shadow Ray Projector she can use to blind villains. The character's costume, and the art style, are strongly based on Phantom Lady.

Savage Dragon
The Fox Features Syndicate version of the character made a minor appearance in Savage Dragon #141 as one of the many Golden Age characters who were released from Solar Man's prison. In the subsequent clash between Image Comics superheroes and Golden Age superheroes, Phantom Lady wound up fighting Witchblade until the misunderstanding between the two groups was resolved.

The Golden Age Phantom Lady made her return in Savage Dragon #199 as part of the Special Operations Strikeforce (S.O.S.) alongside her other Golden Age contemporaries, and many of Erik Larsen's original characters, where they battled subterranean demons invading the surface.

Television

 * The Stormy Knight version of Phantom Lady appears in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "Cry Freedom Fighters!", voiced by Hope Levy. This version uses technology to provide the powers of intangibility, invisibility, and self-duplication. She appears as a member of the Freedom Fighters and accompanies them, Batman, and Plastic Man in freeing Qward from its Supreme Chairman's oppressive government.
 * An Earth-X version of Phantom Lady named Jenny Knight appears in the Arrowverse CW Seed series Freedom Fighters: The Ray, voiced by Dilshad Vadsaria.
 * The Earth One version appears in the episode three.

Miscellaneous
Phantom Lady appears in Justice League Unlimited #17.

title: Phantom Lady


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Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Lachoza

 This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion of the article below. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was delete. Joyous 01:08, Mar 4, 2005 (UTC)

Lachoza
Non-notable. Plus I can't find the exact page out there, but this has to be a copyvio as well. Plus it reads like a fan site.
 * Delete, not notable, band vanity. Megan1967 02:01, 27 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete for not meeting the Notability and Music Guidelines. Tuf-Kat 04:46, Feb 27, 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.

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

title: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Lachoza


text:
Monarda

Monarda is a genus of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae. The genus is endemic to North America. Common names include bergamot, bee balm, horsemint, and oswego tea, the first being inspired by the fragrance of the leaves, which is reminiscent of bergamot orange (Citrus bergamia). The genus was named for the Spanish botanist Nicolás Monardes, who wrote a book in 1574 describing plants of the New World.

Description
Monarda species include annual and perennial herbaceous plants. They grow erect to heights of 20 - 90 cm. The slender, serrated, lanceolate leaves are oppositely arranged on the square stem, hairless or sparsely hairy, and about 7 - 14 cm long.

The flowers are tubular and bilaterally symmetric, with a narrow upper lip and a wider lower lip. The wild flowers are single, but some cultivated forms have double flowers. They are monoecious, with male and female structures in each flower. There are two stamens. Inflorescences occur at the top of the stem or emerge from the axils. They are typically crowded head-like clusters of flowers with leafy bracts. Flower color varies, with wild species bearing red, pink, and light purple flowers. M. didyma has bright carmine red flowers, M. fistulosa has pink, and M. citriodora and M. pectinata have pale purple. Hybrids occur in the wild, and they are common in cultivation. Seed collected from hybrids does not yield plants identical to the parent.

Uses
The crushed leaves of all species exude a spicy, fragrant essential oil. Of the species examined in one study, M. didyma contained the highest concentration of oil.

Several species, including Monarda fistulosa and M. didyma, have a long history of use as medicinal plants by many Native Americans, such as the Blackfoot, Menominee, Ojibwa and Winnebago. The Blackfoot recognized the strong antiseptic action of the plants, and used them in poultices for skin infections and minor wounds. Native Americans and later settlers also used it to alleviate stomach and bronchial ailments. A tisane made from the plant was also used to treat mouth and throat infections caused by dental caries and gingivitis. Bee balm is a natural source of the antiseptic compound thymol, the primary active ingredient in some modern commercial mouthwash formulas. The Winnebago used a bee balm tisane as a general stimulant. Bee balm was also used as a carminative herb by Native Americans to prevent excessive flatulence.

Although somewhat bitter due to the thymol content in the leaves and buds, the plant tastes like a mix of spearmint and peppermint with oregano. Bee balm was traditionally used by Native Americans as a seasoning for wild game, particularly birds. The plants are widespread across North America and can be found in moist meadows, hillsides, and forest clearings up to 5000 ft in elevation.

Cultivation
Monarda plants thrive in sun and moist but well-drained soil. Plants growing in partial shade spread horizontally and produce fewer flowers. Monarda are used in beds and borders to attract hummingbirds, pollinating insects, and insects that control garden pests. They are prone to developing powdery mildew in high humidity, especially if planted in a place without good air circulation.

Hybrid cultivars range from dark red mahogany to bluish lilac to multiple shades of pink. These are generally not as robust as wild species. Some hybrids have been developed to produce high levels of essential oil for use as flavoring or medicine.

Cultivars
The following cultivars have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:

 * 'Beauty of Cobham' (pink)
 * 'Gardenview Scarlet'
 * 'Marshall's Delight' (pink)
 * 'Squaw' (red)
 * 'Talud' (pink)

The UK National Collection of Monardas is held at Glyn Bach Gardens at Pont Hywel, Efailwen, near Llandissilio in Pembrokeshire.

Carole Whittaker of Glyn Bach Gardens was appointed International Cultivar Registration Authority for Mondarda in 2019, and currently recognises over 100 cultivars.

Ecology

Monarda species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including case-bearers of the genus Coleophora. Coleophora monardae feeds only on Monarda plants, and C. heinrichella and C. monardella only feed on the species M. fistulosa.

Taxonomy
Monarda is in the tribe Mentheae of the subfamily Nepetoideae in the mint family. Molecular phylogenetic studies of this tribe have been poorly sampled, and relationships within it remain unclear. The genera Blephilia and Pycnanthemum are close relatives of Monarda, but they might not be the closest. Monarda is divided into two distinct subgenera, Monarda and Cheilyctis. These are easily distinguished by several characteristics.

Species
Species in the genus include:
 * Monarda bartlettii Standl. - Tamaulipas, Veracuz
 * Monarda balmettii Nutt. - fools balm - northwest United States
 * Monarda bradburiana L.C.Beck – eastern beebalm - mid Mississippi Valley
 * Monarda citriodora Cerv. ex Lag. – lemon beebalm, lemon-mint - southern United States, northern Mexico
 * Monarda clinopodia L. – white bergamot, basil beebalm - eastern United States, especially Appalachians
 * Monarda clinopodioides A.Gray – basil beebalm - Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana
 * Monarda didyma L. – Oswego tea, scarlet beebalm, fragrantbalm, mountain-mint - eastern United States, especially Appalachians, eastern Canada
 * Monarda eplingiana Standl. - Coahuila
 * Monarda fistulosa L. – wild bergamot, mintleaf beebalm, horse-mint, purple beebalm - widespread across most of United States + Canada; Tamaulipas, Nuevo León; cultivated in China and elsewhere
 * Monarda fruticulosa Epling – spotted beebalm - southern Texas
 * Monarda humilis (Torr.) Prather & J.A.Keith - New Mexico
 * Monarda lindheimeri Engelm. & A.Gray ex A.Gray – Lindheimer's beebalm - Texas, Louisiana, southwestern Arkansas
 * Monarda luteola Singhurst & W.C.Holmes - northeastern Texas, southwestern Arkansas
 * Monarda maritima (Cory) Correll – seaside beebalm - coastal plain of Texas
 * Monarda media Willd. – purple bergamot - Ontario, eastern United States
 * Monarda × medioides W.H.Duncan - Georgia, Indiana  (M. fistulosa × M. media)
 * Monarda pectinata Nutt. – plains beebalm, pony beebalm, spotted beebalm - central + southwestern United States (Great Plains, Rocky Mountains, southwestern desert mountains)
 * Monarda pringlei Fernald - Nuevo León
 * Monarda punctata L. – spotted beebalm, dotted monarda, horse-mint - Quebec, Ontario, eastern + south-central United States, California, northeastern Mexico
 * Monarda russeliana Nutt. ex Sims – redpurple beebalm - Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky
 * Monarda stanfieldii Small – Stanfield's beebalm - central Texas
 * Monarda viridissima Correll – green beebalm - east-central Texas

Formerly placed here

 * Blephilia ciliata (L.) Benth. (as M. ciliata L. )
 * Blephilia hirsuta (Pursh) Benth. (as M. ciliata Pursh )

title: Monarda


text: Category:Undercover journalists

title: Category:Undercover journalists


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Dean Mahomed

Dean Mahomed (1759–1851) was a British Indian traveller, soldier, surgeon, entrepreneur, and one of the most notable early non-European immigrants to the Western World. Due to non-standard transliteration, his name is spelled in various ways. His high social status meant that he later adopted the honorific "Sake" meaning "venerable one". Mahomed introduced Indian cuisine and shampoo baths to Europe, where he offered therapeutic massage. He was also the first Indian to publish a book in English.

Early life
Born c. May 1759 in the city of Patna, then part of the Bengal Subah and today the capital of the Indian state of Bihar. Dean Mahomed described himself as a "native of Patna" belonging to a Shia Muslim family that claimed Arab and Afshar Turk origin. However other sources indicate that he belonged to the Nai caste of barbers.

In his work Shampooing, he described himself as a native of India, born in the city of Patna in Hindoostan: "'The humble author of these sheets, is a native of India; and was born in the year 1749, at Patna, the capital of Bihar, in Hindoostan, about 290 miles N.W. of Calcutta. I was educated to the profession of, and served in the Company's Service, as a Surgeon, which capacity I afterwards relinquished, and acted in a military character, exclusively for nearly fifteen years. In … the commencement of the year 1784, [I] left the service and came to Europe, where I have resided ever since.'"

Dean Mahomed's father served in the Bengal Army which mainly recruited from the area of Bihar and the historian, Michael H. Fisher believes that Dean Mahomed's father was recruited by Robert Clive during a recruitment drive in the town of Buxar. He claimed he had ancestors who worked in administrative service under the Mughal Emperors and the Nawabs of Murshidabad. Sake Dean Mahomed grew up in Patna and his father died in battle when Mahomed was about 11 years old.

Following his father's death, he was taken under the wing of Captain Godfrey Evan Baker, an Anglo-Irish Protestant officer. Mahomed served in the army of the East India Company as a trainee surgeon and against the Marathas. He remained with Captain Baker until 1782 when the Captain resigned. That same year, Mahomed also resigned from the Army, choosing to accompany Baker, 'his best friend', to Ireland.

Adult life and family
In 1784, Mahomed emigrated to Cork, Ireland, with the Baker family. There he studied to improve his English language skills at a local school, and fell in love with Jane Daly, a "pretty Irish girl of respectable parentage". The Daly family was opposed to their relationship because it was illegal for Protestants to marry non-Protestants at the time, so the couple eloped to another town to get married. Mahomed and Daly were married in the Diocese of Cork & Ross in Cork. They moved to 7 Little Ryder Street in London, England, at the turn of the 19th century." In 1786, Mahomed converted from Islam to Christianity.  According to leading scholars, and as indicated by parish records in London, Mahomed contracted a bigamous marriage in Marylebone in 1806 to Jane Jeffreys (1780-1850); the banns were read on 24 August for Jane and "William Mahomet."  He had a daughter, Amelia (b. 1808) by her and is listed as the father "William Dean Mahomet" in the parish register. Amelia was baptised on 11 June 1809 at St Marylebone, Westminster, in London. By his legal wife, Sake Dean Mahomed had seven children: Rosanna, Henry, Horatio, Frederick, Arthur, and Dean Mahomed (baptised in the Roman Catholic church of St. Finbarr's, Cork, in 1791).

His son, Frederick, was the proprietor of Medicated and Hot and Cold Baths at Brighton and also ran a boxing and fencing academy near Brighton. His most famous grandson, Frederick Henry Horatio Akbar Mahomed (c. 1849–1884), became an internationally known physician and worked at Guy's Hospital in London. In 1869, he opened a "Turkish bath room" in Somerset Street, London. In 1863 he added a Victorian Turkish bath to his establishment which remained open till the early 1870s. He made important contributions to the study of high blood pressure. Another of Sake Dean Mahomed's grandsons, Rev. James Keriman Mahomed, was appointed as the vicar of Hove, Sussex, in the late 19th century. James married Emma Louisa Black, a flower painter whose work was displayed at the Royal Academy. Together they had a son, RAF Captain Felix Wyatt. Felix was killed in action during the First World War after he was shot down whilst flying over France. During the war, Frederick and James' children changed their surnames from Mahomed to Deane and Wyatt, respectively, in order to avoid xenophobic attention at a time when racial prejudice was rife and mixed marriages were disapproved of.

The Travels of Dean Mahomet

On 15 January 1794, Mahomed published a book titled The Travels of Dean Mahomet. The book is in epistolary form as was common for travel books and many novels in that era and consists of 38 letters. The book begins with a brief introduction where he contrasts Ireland and India, writing that "the face of every thing about me [is] so contrasted to those striking scenes in India." and proceeds to give a sketch of his early years. He then describes his travels over the period 1770 to 1775 as a camp follower to the Bengal army as it moved around North East India. A series of military conflicts are described along with descriptions of some major cities, including Kolkata (Calcutta) and Varanasi (Benares). This is accompanied by first hand accounts of Indian culture, trade, military conflicts, food, wildlife, etc. The book concludes with a description of Mahomed's voyage to Britain where he arrived at Dartmouth in September 1784. While Mahomed gives an insightful and sympathetic account of India and Indian customs, as Mona Narain points out this is done from an essentially European cultural perspective - he consistently uses the pronoun "we" to describe himself and Europeans, and does not in his writings seek to challenge poor governmental management within the East India Company. The historian Michael Fisher, who published a biographical essay to accompany an edition of the book, suggested that some passages in the book were closely paraphrased from other travel narratives written in the late 18th century.

Restaurant venture
In 1810, after moving to London, Sake Dean Mahomed opened the first Indian restaurant in England: the Hindoostane Coffee House in George Street, near Portman Square, Central London. The restaurant offered, among other items, hookah "with real chilm tobacco, and Indian dishes, ... allowed by the greatest epicures to be unequalled to any curries ever made in England." The restaurant also provided a home delivery service. This venture came to an end in 1812 due to financial difficulties.

Introduction of shampooing to Europe
Before opening his restaurant, Mahomed had worked in London for nabob Basil Cochrane, who had installed a steam bath for public use in his house in Portman Square and promoted its medical benefits. Once again indicating his acceptance by the wealthy elite, Mahomed and his family lived alongside the rich and titled in Portman Square and Mahomed may have been responsible for introducing the practice of "champi" or "shampooing" (or Indian massage) there. In 1814, Mahomed and his family moved back to Brighton and opened the first commercial "shampooing" vapour masseur bath in England, "Mahomed's Baths", on the site now occupied by the Queen's Hotel. Located on the seafront, the luxurious bathhouse offered therapeutic baths and shampooing with Indian oils. He described the treatment in a local paper as "The Indian Medicated Vapour Bath, a cure to many diseases and giving full relief when every thing fails; particularly Rheumatic and paralytic, gout, stiff joints, old sprains, lame legs, aches and pains in the joints". Jane Daly, Mahomed's wife, was also actively involved in the bathhouse business. Adverts suggested that, like her husband, Jane possessed "the art of shampooing" and that she superintended the Ladies Baths. The business was an immediate success and Dean Mahomed became known as "Dr. Brighton". Hospitals referred patients to him and he was appointed as shampooing surgeon to both King George IV and William IV. Due to a lack of capital, however, Mahomed's Baths was put up for auction in the late 1830s and Mahomed and his family were forced to relocate to more modest accommodation in Brighton. The literary critic Muneeza Shamsie notes that Mahomed wrote two books connected to his burgeoning trade. The first was Cases Cured by Sake Deen Mahomed, Shampooing Surgeon, and Inventor of the Indian Medicated Vapour and Sea-Water Bath (1820), while the second, Shampooing; or, benefits resulting from the use of the Indian medicated vapour bath, went through three editions (1822, 1826, 1838) and was dedicated to King George IV. In this work, Mahomed speaks of the initial resistance to the idea of shampooing among the English he encountered in his new country: "It is not in the power of any individual to give unqualified satisfaction, or to attempt to establish a new opinion without the risk of incurring the ridicule, as well as censure, of some portion of mankind. So it was with me: in the face of indisputable evidence, I had to struggle with doubts and objections raised and circulated against my Bath, which, but for the repeated and numerous cures effected by it, would long since have shared the common fate of most innovations in science."

Death
Mahomed died on 24 February 1851 (aged 91–92) at 32 Grand Parade, Brighton. He was buried in a grave at St Nicholas Church, Brighton, in which his son Frederick was later interred. Frederick taught fencing, gymnastics and other activities in Brighton at a gymnasium he built on the town's Church Street.

Recognition
After his death in 1851, Sake Dean Mahomed, once so renowned in Ireland and Brighton's social scenes, began to lose prominence as a public figure and until the scholarly interventions of the last fifty years was largely forgotten by history. The modern renewal of interest in his writings developed after poet and scholar Alamgir Hashmi drew attention to him in the 1970s and 1980s. Michael H. Fisher has written a book on Mahomet entitled The First Indian Author in English: Dean Mahomed in India, Ireland, and England (Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1996). Additionally, Rozina Visram's Ayahs, Lascars and Princes: The Story of Indians in Britain 1700–1947 (1998) was highly influential in drawing public attention to Mahomed's life and work.

Several commemorations of and tributes to Mahomed's legacy have taken place in the 21st century. On 29 September 2005 the City of Westminster unveiled a Green Plaque commemorating the opening of the Hindoostane Coffee House. The plaque is at 102 George Street, close to the original site of the coffee house at 34 George Street. On 15 January 2019, Google recognised Sake Dean Mahomed with a Google Doodle on the main page.

Excerpts from Dean Mahomed's writings were included in the anthology, The Book of Bihari Literature, which was edited by the diplomat, Abhay Kumar to celebrate literature which has come from people born in the state of Bihar.

title: Dean Mahomed


text:
David Koechner

David Michael Koechner (born August 24, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for playing roles such as Champ Kind in the Anchorman films and Todd Packer on The Office series.

Koechner first became involved in performing when he began studying improvisational comedy in Chicago at ImprovOlympic, before joining the Second City Northwest. Koechner relocated to New York City in 1995, doing year-long stints of sketch comedy as a cast member on Saturday Night Live (1995–1996) and as a sketch regular on Late Night with Conan O'Brien in the mid-1990s. In 1997, Koechner moved to Los Angeles and started working regularly in various film and television comedies, making his first film appearances with small roles in the films such as Wag the Dog, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, and Man on the Moon.

While filming the country mockumentary film Dill Scallion in 1998, Koechner befriended actor/comedian Dave 'Gruber' Allen, and eventually began performing as the comedy duo, The Naked Trucker & T-Bones Show, a live musical comedy act. The act became a hit at Hollywood clubs such as Largo, and Allen and Koechner were invited to open for Tenacious D. In 2007, Koechner and Allen created and starred together in a Naked Trucker & T-Bones Show sketch comedy series that ran for one season on Comedy Central.

After his breakout role as Champ Kind in the 2004 comedy Anchorman, Koechner began appearing frequently with larger supporting roles in many high-profile comedic films including Talladega Nights, Thank You for Smoking, Waiting..., Semi-Pro, The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, and Extract. His first leading film role, as Coach Lambeau Fields in sports comedy, The Comebacks opened on October 19, 2007. More recently, Koechner reprised his role of Champ Kind for Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, co-starred in the horror-comedy Krampus, and received praise from critics for his dark turn in the 2014 black comedy Cheap Thrills. He co-starred in the sitcoms Bless This Mess and Superior Donuts and recurred on Another Period and on the reboot of Twin Peaks. He makes regular appearances on the sitcom The Goldbergs and provides the voices of Dick Reynolds on American Dad!.

Early life and education
Koechner was born on August 24, 1962, in Tipton, Missouri, to Margaret Ann (née Downey) and Cecil Stephen Koechner. He has two brothers, Mark and Joe, and three sisters, Mary-Rose, Cecilia and Joan. His father ran a business that manufactured turkey coops (Koechner has stated that "If you see a turkey going down the road in a big truck, most likely its coop is from Tipton..."). He was raised Catholic, and is of German, English, and Irish descent. Koechner studied Political Science at Benedictine College and the University of Missouri, before he eventually decided to pursue a career in improvisational comedy and moved to Chicago. After studying at Chicago's ImprovOlympic, under famed improvisation instructor Del Close, Koechner joined The Second City comedy troupe in Chicago, graduating in 1994.

Early career
In 1995, Koechner landed a year-long stint on Saturday Night Live, joining the show with Second City friends Nancy Walls and Adam McKay. During his time at SNL, he befriended guest-writer David 'Gruber' Allen, and castmate Will Ferrell. Some of Koechner's recurring skits included Bill Brasky, the British Fops (playing Fagan, opposite Mark McKinney), Gary Macdonald (the fictional younger brother of Weekend Update anchor/SNL castmember Norm Macdonald, based on "Jokey", a character he originated at Second City), Will Ferrell's "Get Off the Shed" sketches (playing his neighbor, Tom Taylor), and Gerald "T-Bones" Tibbons. Koechner impersonated several celebrities, including Christian Elliott, Mike Ditka, Charlie Sheen, Robert Shapiro, Willard Scott, Oliver Stone, Phil Gramm, David Kaczynski, and Pat Buchanan. After his one-season on SNL, Koechner joined the 1996–97 sketch cast of Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

Partnership with David "Gruber" Allen
On the set of the 1999 country music mockumentary, Dill Scallion, Koechner struck a partnership with SNL colleague David "Gruber" Allen, joining Allen's improvisational comedy act, The Naked Trucker Show.

Koechner joined the act as Gerald "T-Bones" Tibbons, a character he had been playing on comedy stages for a few years, including a recurring character bit on SNL. Gerald Tibbons dates back to 1995, when he filmed a short television pilot based on the character's misadventures. The "Gerald" character, based on a real drifter named Four-Way George, became so popular that Koechner would go to auditions, only to find that directors were always demanding his stage persona. The stage act, a mix of stand-up comedy and off-color country songs, became a hit on the Hollywood improv circuit, ultimately landing television performances on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Real Time with Bill Maher. The Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show toured with fellow comedic musical duo, Tenacious D.

2004–2006
In 2004, Koechner landed his largest film role up to that point, as sports reporter Champ Kind in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. As part of the Anchorman ensemble, Koechner shared two MTV Movie Award nominations for Best On-Screen Team and Best Musical Performance. MTV's initial press release accidentally listed Fred Armisen instead of David Koechner, but eventually corrected the error on their website, crediting Koechner during the broadcast. Following this role, he landed small and supporting roles in such films such The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Talladega Nights, The Dukes of Hazzard and Snakes on a Plane. In 2006, he made his voice acting debut in Barnyard as "Dag". That same year, he had a supporting role as a gun lobbyist in the critically acclaimed satire, Thank You for Smoking. Thank You for Smoking was one of the best-reviewed films of Koechner's career, and he was included in Fox Searchlight's Oscar campaign, among the film's listings for Best Supporting Actor.

After co-starring in Anchorman and The 40-Year-Old Virgin, fellow Second City alum Steve Carell personally recommended Koechner for a recurring role on NBC's The Office, playing Todd Packer. Koechner's role is the American version of Chris Finch from the original. Packer is an obnoxious, alcoholic best friend of Carell's character. Koechner guest-starred, both in person and voice, on fifteen episodes of the series. His frequent work with actors Ferrell, Carell, Jack Black, and Ben Stiller have led some critics and journalists to point out his association with the media-dubbed "Frat Pack". David had a guest starring role as Uncle Earl in an episode on Hannah Montana.

2007–present
In 2007, Koechner was seen in his first leading role in The Comebacks (which opened on October 19), the first comedy to be released under Fox Searchlight's Fox Atomic division. He played a college football coach with the worst record in the history of the sport who vows to turn things around with his new team of ragtag recruits. He described this career opportunity as the "first lead for the right-hander." Veteran actor Carl Weathers played Koechner's rival coach. Though Koechner, who usually writes and improvises his material, had no involvement with the screenplay, he complimented director Tom Brady for taking "great care to make it as smart as he could", adding that it is a sports comedy rather than a spoof.

On January 17, 2007, Comedy Central premiered The Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show, a sketch comedy series starring Koechner (as T-Bones) and longtime performing partner Dave "Gruber" Allen (as The Naked Trucker). The duo performs their unique brand of off-color songs and introduces pre-taped skits. Many of Koechner's past co-stars made cameos, including Will Ferrell, Jack Black, Steve Carell, Andy Richter, Dax Shepard, and Paul Rudd. The pre-taped skits gave Koechner more screen time than Allen, often letting him showcase his comedic charisma alongside guest stars like Richter and Shepard. Comedy Central ordered eight episodes.

In the eight years Koechner & Allen have been playing these characters, there have been several attempts to bring the act to television, but they had trouble figuring how to translate it into a series. Koechner & Allen's first album, Naked Trucker and T-Bones Live at the Troubador, was released March 20, 2007. Koechner co-starred with Luke Wilson in the 2009 indie-comedy Tenure and was a lead in the 2012 horror film Piranha 3DD. Koechner returned as Champ Kind, in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013).

Following the release of Live at the Troubador, Koechner revealed that a T-Bones film is in development with Will Ferrell and Adam McKay's Gary Sanchez Productions. Koechner wrote the script with veteran television writer/producer Norm Hiscock, who also wrote for The Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show, in addition to past work on Saturday Night Live, The Kids in the Hall, and King of the Hill. He made his first return guest appearance to Saturday Night Live on December 7, 2013, with his fellow Anchorman co-stars Will Ferrell, Steve Carell, and the episode's host, Paul Rudd. The Anchorman stars sang "Afternoon Delight" with the episode's musical guest One Direction during the opening monologue. Koechner and Ferrell also reprised their Bill Brasky sketch in the same episode.

In 2015, Koechner began co-starring as Commodore Bellacourt in the Comedy Central series Another Period. He also recurs as Bill Lewis on The Goldbergs.

In a contrast to his largely comedy-based acting career, Koechner starred in the 2016 drama Priceless, a film about human trafficking. He said of the role, "My wife and I have five kids – three of them are daughters. So, just to imagine the horror of any young lady having to go through this. This film is based on true events. It's happening right now. It's happening in Chicago. It's happening here in Los Angeles. It's happening globally. So, to be a participant in a film like this – to bring awareness to such a horror – makes me happy."

Personal life
Koechner lives in Los Angeles and is separated from his wife Leigh. They have five children. Koechner has the names of his wife and children tattooed on his right upper-arm. In 2020, Koechner filed for divorce.

Koechner performs regularly in Los Angeles comedy clubs such as Flappers Comedy Club, Improv Olympic, West Theater (in the show Beer Shark Mice), and Largo, the nightclub where the Naked Trucker Show plays regularly. Koechner supported the 2004 US presidential campaign of Senator John Kerry, performing at a June 6, 2004, Hollywood fundraiser for the senator, where The Naked Trucker & T-Bones opened up for Tenacious D.

On December 31, 2021, Koechner was arrested on New Year's Eve for a suspected DUI and hit and run in Simi Valley, California. A court date was set for March 30 in Ventura, California. On March 31, he was charged with a DUI and hit and run and may face up to six months in jail for each misdemeanor charge, probation, and required to take an alcohol education course.

On June 4, 2022, Koechner was arrested for DUI in Ohio, his second DUI arrest in under six months. He soon began to speak publicly about his alcoholism and has pursued sobriety.

title: David Koechner


text:
Borago

Borago, or borage, is a genus of five species of herbs native to the Mediterranean, with one species, Borago officinalis, cultivated and naturalized throughout the world.

Uses
Borago officinalis is used medicinally, in companion planting, in cooking, and as an oilseed. Cooked stalks are sometimes eaten as a vegetable. The large, hairy leaves taste mildly of cucumber, and star-shaped purple-blue flowers are prized for their flavour. The leaves are often added to teas and salads, and the flowers have been added to wine (Borage has had a reputation to give one courage since Roman times). The flowers are highly attractive to bees. The hairs covering the plant are said to repel herbivores.

Description
Borages are annual or perennial herbaceous plants with alternate leaves and long-stalked flowers. The inflorescences are branched scorpioid cymes, i.e. subsequent flowers are oriented in a curve, as in the tail of the scorpion.

The flowers are star-shaped wheel or bell-shaped; nectar is dispersed through a cone-shaped structure. They are pollinated by bees. The corolla is blue, pink, or white. Corollas are rotate with five petals. The corolla tube is short or nonexistent. Throat scales are short, hairless, and emarginated, i.e. with a nick or notch at the apex, standing out from the crown.

The stamens are inserted near the base of the corolla. The anthers are mucronate, with long, pointed appendages, and are upright. The stamens protrude through the throat scales to nearly the bottom of the crown. The stamens are at the top of a long, narrow appendage. The appendix is a long, narrow apex. Styles are whole filiform to the base ovarium. The style does not extend beyond the scales of the throat and a capitate stigma.

The fruits are small obovate achenes with a thick, ring-shaped collar at the base. Seeds are dispersed by ants.

Distribution
The species of this genus are found in cultivated and rocky areas through the southwestern Mediterranean. The genus is monophyletic and very close genetically to the sister genus Symphytum. Four of the five species are found only in northwest Africa, Corsica, Sardinia, and the Tuscan Archipelago. Only B. officinalis is widely cultivated, and has become naturalized through much of the temperate world (e.g. Argentina, Canada, Chile, United States, Mexico, and Paraguay). B. officinalis was once thought to be native to Syria, but it is probably of North African origin, where other Borago species occur. It is often grown as ornamental.

Species
The genus comprises five species in two subgenera:

Subgenus Borago is characterized by erect herbaceous, wheel-shaped flowers, blue, sometimes white:
 * Borago officinalis  cultivated throughout the world, native to North Africa
 * Borago trabutii  endemic to the High Atlas and the Anti-Atlas, Morocco
 * Borago longifolia  endemic to northern Algeria and Tunisia

Subgenus Buglossites is prostrate and has bright, bell-shaped flowers:
 * Borago pygmaea  sometimes cultivated, native to Corsica, Sardinia, and the island of Capraia
 * Borago morisiana  endemic to the island of San Pietro in southwestern Sardinia

title: Borago


text:
HNLMS Walrus (1985)

HNLMS Walrus (S802) was a Walrus-class submarine of the Royal Netherlands Navy. After a long delay following a serious fire during construction, the submarine entered service in 1992. Walrus was deployed both for naval exercises and in combat operations around the world. She was decommissioned in October 2023.

Ship history
Walrus was laid down on 11 October 1979 at the Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij ("Rotterdam Dry Dock Company") yard in Rotterdam. She was launched on 28 October 1985, but on 14 August 1986 an electrical fire broke out on board causing damage costing ƒ225 million(€100 million) to repair. Her completion was delayed until 13 September 1989. Sea trials were carried out in 1990 and 1991, and the submarine was commissioned on 25 March 1992.

As part of the Netherlands contribution to NATO, Walrus took part in various joint exercises, including Submarine Rescue Exercise "Sorbet Royal 96" and "Northern Light 99". During the multi-national "Joint Task Force Exercise/Theatre Missile Defence Initiative 1999" (JTFEX/TMDI99) Walrus successfully penetrated the U.S. Navy screen and "sank" several ships, including the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) before escaping.

In 2000 she participated in a British Flag Officer Sea Training exercise, and in "Linked Seas 2000", a naval control of shipping exercise in the North Atlantic. In September 2000 all four Walrus-class boats were withdrawn from service after micro-fractures and corrosion was detected in the diesel engine exhaust valves. After replacement valves were fitted Walrus returned to active service in early 2001. From September to December 2002 Walrus took part in "Operation Enduring Freedom", acting as an COMINT intelligence gathering post in the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf.

In 2007 she took part in exercises in the Caribbean Sea with special forces of the Netherlands Marine Corps.

In 2008 it was announced the Netherlands will spend up to 100 million euros ($155 million) on a programme to upgrade all four Walrus-class submarines. These improvements will keep them operational until at least 2025.

On 13 May 2013 Dutch Ministerie van Defensie signed a contract worth EUR94 million (USD120.3 million) with Imtech Marine Netherlands to begin the life-extension programme for the four Walrus-class boats. Walrus was to be the last of the class to undergo refit and upgrade and was scheduled to return to operational service in 2019.

In October 2023 Walrus was withdrawn from service, and is to be used for parts.

title: HNLMS Walrus (1985)


text:
Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad

The Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad (P&LE; ), also known as the "Little Giant", was formed on May 11, 1875. Company headquarters were located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The line connected Pittsburgh in the east with Youngstown, Ohio, in the Haselton neighborhood in the west and Connellsville, Pennsylvania,  to the east. It did not reach Lake Erie (at Ashtabula, Ohio) until the formation of Conrail in 1976. The P&LE was known as the "Little Giant" since the tonnage that it moved was out of proportion to its route mileage. While it operated around one tenth of one percent of the nation's railroad miles, it hauled around one percent of its tonnage. This was largely because the P&LE served the steel mills of the greater Pittsburgh area, which consumed and shipped vast amounts of materials. It was a specialized railroad, deriving much of its revenue from coal, coke, iron ore, limestone, and steel. The eventual closure of the steel mills led to the end of the P&LE as an independent line in 1992.

At the end of 1970 P&LE operated 211 mi of road on 784 mi of track, not including PC&Y and Y&S; in 1970 it reported 1419 million ton-miles of revenue freight, down from 2437 million in 1944.

Route of the P&LE
The P&LE purchased many smaller railroads that operated in the areas of its main train line extending the line north to Youngstown and south to Connellsville. This provided a means of transportation from the steel centers of Pittsburgh to the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway area.

P&LE Division
The original line ran between Youngstown, Ohio (at Haselton) and 24th Street in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania near the Jones and Laughlin Iron Works, opened in 1879. The P&LE's passenger terminal in Pittsburgh was on the south bank of the Monongahela River, at the foot of the Smithfield Street Bridge.

The P&LE followed the left downstream bank of the Monongahela River past the terminal to the Golden Triangle, where that waterway meets the Allegheny River and becomes the Ohio River. The railroad continued northwest along the left downstream bank of the Ohio River to the vicinity of Beaver, Pennsylvania, where it crossed the river on the Beaver Bridge. From there it followed the Beaver River to just south of New Castle, Pennsylvania, where it then followed the Mahoning River west-northwest, crossing into Ohio just east of Lowellville. From there it ran northwest into Youngstown, terminating at a junction with the New York Central known as Haselton.

In the table below, mileage is reckoned westbound from the P&LE Terminal in Pittsburgh. The original line continued east past that station for a little over 2 mi (listed in Youghiogheny Branch table below) to near 24th Street in the South Side Flats neighborhood of Pittsburgh, where it met the Monongahela Connecting Railroad and the Pittsburgh, McKeesport & Youghiogheny (PM&Y).

Youghiogheny Branch
The Pittsburgh, McKeesport and Youghiogheny Railroad ran from 24th Street in Pittsburgh, PA to Connellsville, Pennsylvania, in 1882. The PM&Y followed the Monongahela River to McKeesport, Pennsylvania, then the Youghiogheny River to Connellsville, Pennsylvania.

Mileage on this P&LE branch was reckoned from the passenger terminal back at the Smithfield Street Bridge.

Monongahela Branch
The Pittsburgh, McKeesport & Youghiogheny Railroad also followed the Monongahela River to Brownsville, Pennsylvania.

History
The Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad was the creation of William McCreery, a prominent Pittsburgh businessman, merchant, and railroad builder. McCreery had suffered at the hands of the Pennsylvania Railroad in a business that had a loss or failed. The Pennsylvania Railroad at the time used discriminatory rates which became a hot issue in Pittsburgh. On May 11, 1870 McCreery and ten other people filed Articles of Association with the Pennsylvania Secretary of State. The stated length of the railroad was for 57 mi. After 2 years the starting group was not very successful at raising the required funds and in 1877 many of the directors were succeeded by a new group of Pittsburgh businessmen. The new group was James I. Bennett, David Hostetter, James M. Baily, Mark W. Watson and James M. Schoonmaker, all influential.

In the spring of 1877, the first rails were laid down in Beaver Falls, which had the largest population other than Pittsburgh. The other reason for this was around February 1877 Jacob Henrici of the Harmony Society had business there. Henrici would also become a director in 1877. On July 6, 1877, McCreery resigned and Bennett was elected to president with Jacob Henrici becoming a director. Henrici was the key due to his Harmony Society ties which was a communal religious group founded in 1805. In 1880, William Henry Vanderbilt's Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway bought stock to the tune of $200,000 in the P&LE. The P&LE would stay in the Vanderbilt's New York Central system until Conrail. Also in 1877, an agreement between the P&LE and the Atlantic & Great Western (Erie) and the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway was reached for routing traffic at Youngstown, Ohio. The final track laying between Pittsburgh and Youngstown was on January 27, 1879. At the opening in 1879, the P&LE was a poorly built, single track line. Fortunately for the railroad it was an immediate success and money was soon available for improvements.

South Penn and Pittsburgh, McKeesport and Youghiogheny Railroad
In 1881, the P&LE became linked with the notorious South Pennsylvania Railroad (South Penn). This would lead to William Henry Vanderbilt to control of the P&LE as a link in the South Penn and the building of the Pittsburgh, McKeesport and Youghiogheny Railroad. The South Pennsylvania Railroad was planned to connect to the PM&Y. Vanderbilt did this by buying Henry W. Oliver's and the Harmony Society's stock in the P&LE. Then Vanderbilt, aided by Andrew Carnegie, advanced the PM&Y all of the funds to build to Connellsville, Pennsylvania and then lease it to the P&LE for 99 years. The PM&Y in the end was the only part of the South Penn that was built, but it would be an important part of the P&LE. The PM&Y opened in 1883 and leased to the P&LE in 1884. Concurrently in 1883, to get the P&LE ready for the expected new business due to the South Penn linkage, the McKees Rocks shops were built.

Vanderbilt and the "Little Giant"
The company came under more formal control in 1887 by the New York Central Railroad. Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway's president, John Newell, took over as president of the P&LE in 1887. Under Newell, Reed and Colonel Schoonmaker; the P&LE would become the "Little Giant". From 1887 to 1927, the P&LE would become a heavy duty railroad, with double track all the way from Pittsburgh to Youngstown. The P&LE operated as an independent subsidiary, even after New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroad merged to form Penn Central.

PM&Y and the Monongahela Railway
The making of coke in Connellsville had been a big part of P&LE traffic, but by the early 20th century it had lessened. The development of by-products distillation processing of coke had moved to the Pittsburgh area. The P&LE then extended up the Monongahela River to Brownsville, Pennsylvania in 1901. The Pennsylvania Railroad at the same time had extended to Brownsville. Both the PRR and the P&LE had plans to extend even further up the river into West Virginia coke fields. Most likely due to the South Penn, they decided to work together by using the Monongahela Railway. The Monongahela Railway then was extended south to Martin, Pennsylvania reaching the Kondike Coke fields. Later in 1915 it reached Fairmont, West Virginia.

Conrail and CSX
When Conrail was formed, the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad again became an independent company because P&LE was owed $15.2 million by Penn Central, and operated as such until its merger into CSX Transportation (CSX).

Starting in 1934, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) bought trackage rights over P&LE from McKeesport to New Castle. The B&O's route through Pittsburgh had excessive grades and curves. In the last years of the P&LE, CSX used the line more than P&LE leading to the merger. Most of the online customers had long been gone, with only the main line still intact. In 1993 the company was purchased by CSX. The CSX designated the P&LE as a new subsidiary, the Three Rivers Railway. However, in 1993, CSX leased the TRR, and there is currently no de facto distinction between the former P&LE and any other portion of CSX's system.

Company officers

Presidents of the railroad were as follows: After Newell the presidency would be held by the president of the NYC with the active management of the local vice president.
 * William McCreery 1875-1877
 * James I. Bennett 1877-1881
 * Jacob Henrici 1877-1885
 * John Newell 1887-1896

Vice Presidents: With Nash the active management went back to the president.
 * James H. Reed 1892-1896
 * Colonel James M. Schoonmaker 1886-1927
 * James B. Yohe 1917-1919 WW1 Supervisor 1920-1929 V.P.
 * Curtis M. Yohe 1929-1953
 * John F. Nash 1953-1956

 * John W. Barriger III 1956-1964
 * Curtis D. Buford 1965-1969
 * Henry G. Allyn, Jr c. 1969-1983
 * Richard Thompson c. 1983-1986
 * Gordon Neuenschwander c. 1986-1993

Pittsburgh Terminal and P&LE passenger trains
The P&LE's Pittsburgh passenger train station (interior seen in the lower right photo) sat adjacent the south bank of the Monongahela River at the foot of the Smithfield Street Bridge. The Pittsburgh Terminal was the railroad's headquarters, passenger train shed, and freight warehouse complex. In the upper photo, the terminal sits along the Monongahela river. The roof of the freight house is to the right of the terminal train shed. The former P&LE headquarters building at the bottom of the Monongahela Incline has been converted into a present-day shopping center, Station Square. The passenger station has been placed on a list of historic edifices, modernized and converted to a restaurant.

During 1910 - 1930, the P & LE operated 50 passenger daily trains on its 65-mile Pittsburgh - Youngstown portion of its system. Ticketing agreements with the Erie RR and the P & LE's parent New York Central, passengers boarding in Pittsburgh could ride coaches or sleepers west to Toledo, Detroit, Chicago, and St. Louis, and north to Cleveland, Buffalo, Toronto, Albany and Boston.

The Baltimore & Ohio RR obtained trackage rights in 1934 on the P&LE, and Chicago-New York trains such as the Capitol Limited (Chicago-Washington), Columbian (Chicago-Washington) and Ambassador (Detroit-Baltimore) operated over the P & LE between New Castle Junction and McKeesport. These trains stopped at the Terminal located in Pittsburgh's South Side. The trackage sharing arrangement continued until Amtrak assumed responsibility for the nation's passenger rail service in 1971.

P&LE operated commuter trains into Pittsburgh. In 1964, it ran one round-trip between Youngstown and Pittsburgh as well as one additional southbound and two additional northbound trains on the section between Beaver Falls and Pittsburgh. Latest by 1968, only the section between College Hill, Beaver Falls, Aliquippa and P&LE's Pittsburgh Terminal was served by one single roundtrip commuter train per day. In 1978, P&LE tried to drop that last commuter train, which was met by fierce objections. With state support, P&LE continued to operate the commuter run but eventually ended the service on July 12, 1985, after passenger counts had dropped significantly.

The PATrain commuter operation continued to use some P&LE-trackage until 1989.

Shops and yards
The Youngstown Gateway Yard was a major hub location on the railroad, until the creation of Conrail. Gateway Yard was opened in October 1957, to be a modern hump yard. The yard was approximately 200 acre stretching for a distance of just over 5 mi from Lowellville, Ohio to Center Street in Youngstown, Ohio. Gateway Yard was made up of three principal yards, and an assortment of smaller, special-purpose yards. The principal yards were arranged linearly, with the eastern limits of the Departure Yard in Lowellville. The Hump Yard was located in Struthers in the center of the facility, and the Receiving Yard was to the west. The special purpose yards were "Diesel Servicing Facilities", "Gorilla Park" and "Interchange" yards. The "Interchange" yard was made up of six tracks, four were for interchange to and from the B&O Railroad and two of which were for general use. The other interchange was with New York Central Railroad which was a direct interchange. The western yard limit was the end of track for the P&LE. Beyond the western end of the Yard was the NYC mainline that continued to Ashtabula, Ohio. The yard was constructed when the P&LE was under the control of the New York Central Railroad. Conrail routing most of the traffic around P&LE facilities in the area. After the 1993 CSX takeover of P&LE, Gateway Yard was closed and most tracks have been removed. The yard tower still stands but has been heavily vandalized.
 * Gateway Yard

The McKees Rocks Yard facility was home to a yard, major locomotive rebuilding and general maintenance, as well as freight car repair and maintenance. On the westernmost end of the McKees Rocks yard, the P&LE interchanged with the PC&Y. However, the PC&Y facilities were just behind the P&LE Locomotive facilities in the main yard, and trackage from the PC&Y crossed the P&LE Mainline at this point, servicing several local businesses in the Bottoms section of McKees Rocks, finally making the previously mentioned interchange. Most of the McKees Rocks facilities are now gone. The entire McKees Rocks locomotive facility, shops, and yard is to be replaced by a regional CSX intermodal facility.
 * McKees Rocks

In 1904, P&LE built the O'Donovan Bridge for easier automobile access from Island Avenue to The Bottoms without crossing the railroad tracks. This was replaced in 1931 by the McKees Rocks Bridge, which extended to Ohio River Boulevard but still provided access to The Bottoms via Helen Street exit.

The McKees Rocks Community Development Corporation has plans to adaptively reuse the building.

The College Hill neighborhood of Beaver Falls had a small yard located just below Geneva College along the Beaver River. There was also a small roundhouse on the property, plus the College Hill Station. Today, only the station remains.
 * College

Subsidiaries

 * Pittsburgh, McKeesport and Youghiogheny Railroad (Leased 1888 and merged in 1965)
 * Pittsburgh, Chartiers and Youghiogheny Railroad (1/2 P&LE, 1/2 CR)
 * Mahoning State Line Railroad (Leased 1885)
 * Monongahela Railway (1/3 P&LE, 1/3 B&O, 1/3 CR(PR))
 * Montour Railroad
 * Lake Erie and Eastern Railroad (1/2 P&LE, 1/2 CR)
 * Youngstown and Southern Railway

title: Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad


text:
User talk:Deadcorpse

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text:
Reasonable doubt

Beyond (a) reasonable doubt is a legal standard of proof required to validate a criminal conviction in most adversarial legal systems. It is a higher standard of proof than the standard of balance of probabilities (US English: preponderance of the evidence) commonly used in civil cases because the stakes are much higher in a criminal case: a person found guilty can be deprived of liberty or, in extreme cases, life, as well as suffering the collateral consequences and social stigma attached to a conviction. The prosecution is tasked with providing evidence that establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in order to get a conviction; albeit prosecution may fail to complete such task, the trier-of-fact's acceptance that guilt has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt will in theory lead to conviction of the defendant. A failure for the trier-of-fact to accept that the standard of proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt has been met thus entitles the accused to an acquittal. This standard of proof is widely accepted in many criminal justice systems, and its origin can be traced to Blackstone's ratio, "It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer."

In practice
Because a defendant is presumed to be innocent, the prosecution has the burden of proving the defendant's guilt on every element of each criminal charge beyond a reasonable doubt. To do so, the prosecution must present compelling evidence that leaves little real doubt in the mind of the trier of fact (the judge or jury) that the defendant is almost certainly guilty. For any reasonable doubt to exist, it must come from insufficient evidence, or conflicts within the evidence, that would leave an impartial factfinder less than fully convinced of the defendant's guilt. Accordingly, the standard of proof forces the factfinder to ignore unreasonable doubts—doubts that are frivolous, hypothetical, or not logically linked to the evidence—and to consider evidence favoring the accused, since reasonable doubt entitles them to an acquittal.

The definitions of the term "reasonable doubt" can be criticised for having a circular definition. Therefore, jurisdictions using this standard often rely on additional or supplemental measures, such as a judge's specific instructions to a jury, to simplify or qualify reasonable doubt. Legal systems have tended to avoid quantifying the reasonable doubt standard (for example, "over 90% probability"); legal scholars from a variety of analytical perspectives have argued in favor of quantification of the criminal standard of proof. In a 2019 YouGov survey conducted in the United Kingdom, participants were asked to quantify how accurate an evidence had to be before they could consider it to be beyond a reasonable doubt; 15% of Britons said they would accept an evidence that was 99% accurate, while 14% preferred an accuracy of no less than 100%, and 10% said it should be at least 90% or 95% accurate.

By jurisdiction
Medieval Roman law, followed by the English jurist Edward Coke, expressed a similar idea by requiring "proofs clearer than light" for criminal conviction. The formulation "beyond reasonable doubt" is characteristic of Anglophone legal systems since the eighteenth century.

England and Wales
In English common law prior to the reasonable doubt standard, passing judgment in criminal trials had severe religious repercussions for jurors. According to judicial law prior to the 1780s, "the Juryman who finds any other person guilty, is liable to the Vengeance of God upon his Family and Trade, Body and Soul, in this world and that to come." It was also believed that "[i]n every case of doubt, where one's salvation is in peril, one must always take the safer way. ... A judge who is in doubt must refuse to judge." It was in reaction to these religious fears that "reasonable doubt" was introduced in the late 18th century to English common law, thereby allowing jurors to more easily convict. Therefore, the original use of the "reasonable doubt" standard was opposite to its modern use of limiting a juror's ability to convict.

Juries in criminal courts in England and Wales are no longer customarily directed to consider whether there is reasonable doubt regarding a defendant's guilt. A 2008 conviction was appealed after the judge had said to the jury, "You must be satisfied of guilt beyond all reasonable doubt." The conviction was upheld; but the Appeal Court made clear their unhappiness with the judge's remark, indicating that the judge should instead have said to the jury simply that before they can return a verdict of guilty, they "must be sure that the defendant is guilty".

The principle of "beyond reasonable doubt" was expounded in Woolmington v DPP [1935] UKHL 1:

"Juries are always told that, if conviction there is to be, the prosecution must prove the case beyond reasonable doubt. This statement cannot mean that in order to be acquitted the prisoner must 'satisfy' the jury. This is the law as laid down in the Court of Criminal Appeal in Rex v. Davies 29 Times LR 350; 8 Cr App R 211, the headnote of which correctly states that where intent is an ingredient of a crime there is no onus on the defendant to prove that the act alleged was accidental. Throughout the web of the English Criminal Law one golden thread is always to be seen, that it is the duty of the prosecution to prove the prisoner's guilt subject to what I have already said as to the defence of insanity and subject also to any statutory exception. If, at the end of and on the whole of the case, there is a reasonable doubt, created by the evidence given by either the prosecution or the prisoner, as to whether the prisoner killed the deceased with a malicious intention, the prosecution has not made out the case and the prisoner is entitled to an acquittal. No matter what the charge or where the trial, the principle that the prosecution must prove the guilt of the prisoner is part of the common law of England and no attempt to whittle it down can be entertained."

In recent years the preferred terminology used is simply "sure" – juries are told they must be "satisfied that they are sure" of the defendant's guilt in order to convict.

Canada
In Canada, the expression "beyond a reasonable doubt" requires clarification for the benefit of the jury. The leading decision is R. v. Lifchus, where the Supreme Court discussed the proper elements of a charge to the jury on the concept of "reasonable doubt" and noted that "[t]he correct explanation of the requisite burden of proof is essential to ensure a fair criminal trial." While the Court did not prescribe any specific wording that a trial judge must use to explain the concept, it recommended certain elements that should be included in a jury charge, as well as pointing out comments that should be avoided.

The Supreme Court suggested that the concept of proof beyond a reasonable doubt should be explained to juries as follows:
 * The standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt is inextricably intertwined with that principle fundamental to all criminal trials, the presumption of innocence.
 * The burden of proof rests on the prosecution throughout the trial and never shifts to the accused.
 * A reasonable doubt is not a doubt based upon sympathy or prejudice and, instead, is based on reason and common sense.
 * Reasonable doubt is logically connected to the evidence or absence of evidence.
 * Proof beyond a reasonable doubt does not involve proof to an absolute certainty. It is not proof beyond any doubt, nor is it an imaginary or frivolous doubt.
 * More is required than proof that the accused is probably guilty. A jury that concludes only that the accused is probably guilty must acquit.

The Court also warned trial judges that they should avoid explaining the concept in the following ways:
 * By describing the term reasonable doubt as an ordinary expression that has no special meaning in the criminal law context.
 * By inviting jurors to apply to the task before them the same standard of proof that they apply to important, or even the most important, decisions in their own lives.
 * By equating proof "beyond a reasonable doubt" to proof "to a moral certainty".
 * By qualifying the word "doubt" with adjectives other than reasonable, such as serious, substantial, or haunting, which may mislead the jury.
 * By instructing jurors that they may convict if they are "sure" that the accused is guilty, before providing them with a proper definition as to the meaning of the words beyond a reasonable doubt.

The Supreme Court of Canada has since emphasized in R. v. Starr that an effective way to explain the concept is to tell the jury that proof beyond a reasonable doubt "falls much closer to absolute certainty than to proof on a balance of probabilities." It is not enough to believe that the accused is probably guilty, or likely guilty. Proof of probable guilt, or likely guilt, is not proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

New Zealand
In New Zealand, jurors are typically told throughout a trial that the offence must be proved "beyond reasonable doubt", and judges usually include this in the summing-up. There is no absolute prescription as to how judges should explain reasonable doubt to juries. Judges usually tell jurors that they will be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt if they "feel sure" or "are sure" that the defendant is guilty. In line with appellate court direction, judges do little to elaborate on this or to explain what it means.

Research published in 1999 found that many jurors were uncertain what "beyond reasonable doubt" meant. "They generally thought in terms of percentages, and debated and disagreed with each other about the percentage certainty required for 'beyond reasonable doubt', variously interpreting it as 100 per cent, 95 per cent, 75 per cent and even 50 per cent. Occasionally this produced profound misunderstandings about the standard of proof."

In R v Wanhalla, President Young of the Court of Appeal set out a model jury direction on the standard of proof required for a criminal conviction.

United States
The cornerstone to American criminal jurisprudence is that the accused is presumed innocent until guilt is proved beyond a reasonable doubt. The US Supreme Court held that "the Due Process clause protects the accused against conviction except upon proof beyond a reasonable doubt of every fact necessary to constitute the crime charged." The US Supreme Court first discussed the term in Miles v. United States: "The evidence upon which a jury is justified in returning a verdict of guilty must be sufficient to produce a conviction of guilt, to the exclusion of all reasonable doubt." The U.S. Supreme Court extended the reasonable doubt standard to juvenile delinquency proceedings because they are considered quasi-criminal. "[W]e explicitly hold that the Due Process Clause protects the accused against conviction except upon proof beyond a reasonable doubt of every fact necessary to constitute the crime with which he is charged."

Juries must be instructed to apply the reasonable doubt standard when determining the guilt or innocence of a criminal defendant. However, courts have struggled to define what constitutes a reasonable doubt. There is disagreement as to whether the jury should be given a definition of "reasonable doubt." Some state courts have prohibited providing juries with a definition altogether. In Victor v. Nebraska (1994), the US Supreme Court expressed disapproval of the unclear reasonable doubt instructions at issue, but stopped short of setting forth an exemplary jury instruction. Reasonable doubt came into existence in English common law and was intended to protect the jurors from committing a potentially mortal sin, since only God may pass judgment on man. The idea was to ease a juror's concern about damnation for passing judgment upon a fellow man. Since there is no formal jury instruction that adequately defines reasonable doubt, and based on the origins of the doctrine and its evolution, reasonable doubt may be resolved by determining whether there exists an alternative explanation to the facts seems plausible. If yes, then there is reasonable doubt and the accused must be acquitted.

Japan
Since 1945, Japan has also operated by a "reasonable doubt" standard, including the doctrine of in dubio pro reo, which was instituted by the Supreme Court during a controversial murder trial in 1975 (the Shiratori case brought before the Supreme Court of Japan, see for example notes on Shigemitsu Dandō). However, this is not considered an essential standard in Japan and lower level judges sometimes disregard it.

title: Reasonable doubt