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Birmingham and Gloucester Railway

The Birmingham and Gloucester Railway (B&GR) was the first name of the railway linking the cities in its name and of the company which pioneered and developed it; the line opened in stages in 1840, using a terminus at Camp Hill in Birmingham. It linked with the Bristol and Gloucester Railway in Gloucester, but at first that company's line was broad gauge, and Gloucester was a point of the necessary but inconvenient transhipment of goods and passengers onto gauge that became the national standard. Nearly all of the original main line remains active as a "trunk" route, also known as an arterial route or line.

Its main line incorporated the Lickey Incline 2 mi of track climbing a 1-in-37 (2.7%) gradient, northbound (and descending in the other). The climb was a challenge or impediment for many of the heaviest loads and weaker engines during the era of steam traction.

Having attracted its own patronage, capital and accomplished fully functional transformation and employment of land, buildings, labour force and rolling stock, it was acquired by the Midland Railway in 1846.

First proposals
The idea for a railway line between Bristol and Birmingham was put forward during the construction of the Stockton and Darlington Railway. 78,000 tons of goods were conveyed from Birmingham to Bristol annually, a journey that took nearly a week, and the cost of the journey was high. At a meeting in Bristol on 13 December 1824 subscriptions were taken for a proposed Bristol, Northern and Western Railway. Investors, among which wealthy venture capitalists, were enthusiasts of the scheme and before the fund promoters' prospectus meeting closed, all the 16,000 shares allocated to Bristol were taken up. A further 9,000 shares were created, the subscription fee and paying-up of which was allocated to other locations, and the total amounted to £1.25 million (equivalent to £ million in ), in an era when cheap and plentiful labourers' and professional work would have enabled the construction of thousands of houses or road modifications (e.g. regular bridges) for such a sum. The company surveyed the route in 1825 but there was a financial crisis in 1826 in which investors asked for the project to be suspended, which the company did.

In 1832 the company advanced a new scheme; Isambard Kingdom Brunel was asked to survey a cheap route between Birmingham and Gloucester. He avoided the barrier of the Lickey Hills and his maximum gradient would have been 1 in 300. This scheme too failed to make progress due to lack of funds.

Birmingham and Gloucester Railway proposed
The idea was revived when in 1834 Captain W. S. Moorsom was engaged to survey a route; once again economy was considered to be essential, and his route avoided large towns thus lowered cost of the land. Bypassed townspeople expressed disappointment and Cheltenham was particularly vocal. Moorsom modified his intended route to provide it a station, but that was not considered convenient for the centre of the town, and a branch line was proposed. When the B&GR promoters refused to contemplate the expense of that, Pearson Thompson, a prominent Cheltenham resident and a member of the Gloucester Committee of the B&GR, offered to build it himself at his own expense.

Around Birmingham local politics and geographic factors proved easier; a connection to the London and Birmingham Railway close to the nascent city was agreed, moreover, L&BR agreed to shared use of their Curzon Street station on payment of a toll. As well as giving a direct connection to London, and over the Grand Junction Railway to the north west of England, this avoided the expense of constructing a new terminus in the city.

Moorsom estimated the cost of construction to be £920,000. Moorsom's route did climb the Lickey Ridge directly, involving a long climb. This was divided into two sections: 1+1/4 mi at 1 in 54 worked by a 96 hp stationary engine, and 1+1/4 mi at 1 in 36 worked by a 121 hp machine. there was also to be an inclined plane at Gloucester to reach a goods depot at the canal, and another at the connecting line to the L&BR in Birmingham, at 1 in 84.

In the 1836 session of Parliament, the Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway's plans were likewise considered, and between Gloucester and Cheltenham the two companies proposed almost identical routing. They came to an arrangement by which they would collaborate in the construction. The line between Gloucester and Cheltenham was to be divided, the Cheltenham end being built by the Birmingham company and the Gloucester end by the C&GWUR. Each would build one of the stations and both would have freedom to run over the whole line and use both the stations. The means of dealing with the complexity of the different gauges was not fully specified at first.

A functional plateway tramroad ran between the two: the Gloucester and Cheltenham Tramroad that opened in 1810. As well as connecting the two, it had an important branch to quarries at Leckhampton, in the hills south of Cheltenham and terminus at the Gloucester docks. Stone for house building was in demand at the time. Acquisition of the tramroad was sought by the B&GR and the C&GWUR; its alignment was unsuitable for a main line railway but its dock trade and access were very attractive. The collaborative approach to building the new main line extended to the issue of acquiring the tramroad, and it was agreed to do so jointly, for the sum of £35,000.

Authorisation
At this stage the line was conceived as a toll railway (on which independent carriers would run trains, paying the B&GR a toll for that right). The railway received royal assent for its act of Parliament on 22 April 1836, with authorised capital of £950,000.

Opinion among the parliamentary borough of Worcester's elite and businesses was strong for a much closer line. To assuage fear of other railway company competition, the B&GR agreed to provide it a branch line, from Abbotswood in the county. Similarly Tewkesbury had to be pacified, with a branch line from Ashchurch. These were authorised by Act of 15 May 1837. for extensions to Worcester and Tewkesbury.

Construction had been delayed due to high prices and the difficulty of obtaining access to the land on the route, but in April 1837 it was started in earnest. However a group of shareholders cast doubt on Moorsom's ability and it was agreed that there would be a six-week delay while an eminent engineer reviewed the technical aspects of the proposed line. This was done by Joseph Locke, and his report on the technical aspects, including the Lickey Incline, was favourable.

The Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway company had been short of money from the outset, chiefly due to its parliamentary battle won with a rival to reach Cheltenham. In November 1837 it made clear it its easternmost part (Swindon to Cirencester) took total priority. Thus its agreement to lay the line between Cheltenham and Gloucester, on which the B&GR depend had banked, was put back. The B&GR were alarmed by this; if the C&GWUR were to become insolvent and their powers lapsed, the B&GR had no powers to form the line themselves.

The C&GWUR had a bill before Parliament in the 1838 session, and it was mutually accepted that protective clauses for the B&GR could be inserted; power was given for the B&GR to build the line itself if the C&GWUR failed to do so by a date; each company would build and own one town station. The B&GR under these provisions soon built the line itself.

By August 1839 the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway had four locomotives, and 35 wagons had been delivered but an early opening that was anticipated was delayed by extremely bad weather. The directors joined the first public passenger journey on part of the route on 1 June 1840; involving two round trips.

Opening of the line
The line was opened in stages; from Cheltenham to Bromsgrove was opened to the public without ceremony on 24 June 1840 for passenger traffic. On 17 September 1840 it was extended to a temporary terminus at Cofton Farm a little south of semi-rural Longbridge, south of Birmingham. The Cheltenham to Gloucester section was opened on 4 November 1840. On 17 December 1840 northern extension, to Camp Hill, opened which became the Birmingham terminus for a time, as very early planned.

The Tewkesbury branch opened on 21 July 1840. It was horse-operated until 1844; doubletrack was installed in 1864 in connection with the construction of the Malvern and Tewkesbury line.

The line was more widely linked, as agreed, by building then opening a junction with the London and Birmingham Railway beyond Camp Hill on 17 August 1841 when Camp Hill was relegated to a goods station and Curzon Street station became a major junction station and further operational route terminus. Goods traffic started on the line in April 1841.

One tunnel exists and was engineered for the line at Grovely Hill, near Bromsgrove; 1/4 mi in length, lined in brick with no invert. The largest bridge is over the Avon at Eckington, Worcestershire, when built having three cast-iron segmental arches of 73 ft span supported on two lines of iron columns.

The rails were Vignoles rail weighing 56 lb/yd, laid on longitudinal sleepers, except on embankments over 15 ft high where cross sleepers were used. The construction had cost £1,266,666.

Locomotives
Edward Bury, locomotive builder and superintendent of the London and Birmingham Railway, was engaged in 1838 as consultant for motive power, workshops and stationary engine for the Lickey Incline. He promptly organised the purchase of two second hand engines, the Leicester and the  Southampton to assist in line construction and ordered four from George Forrester, the first two arriving in November.

In 1838, during the construction period thought was being given once again to the working of the Lickey Incline by locomotives. Although Brunel, Robert Stephenson and Bury declared this to be impossible or advised against it. Captain Moorsom said that he had seen locomotives working similar gradients in the US, An order was placed with engine builders called Norris Locomotive Works in Philadelphia for a number of 4-2-0 locomotives. The key requirement for the B&GR was for three 12 ton Class A Extra locomotives to assist trains up the Lickey Incline, but astute and possibly duplicitous salesmanship by the Norris team resulted in additional sales of seven Class B and three Class A of eight and ten tons respectively.

After the initial deliberations about engines fit for the Lickey incline, several American engines were obtained. The prototype Norris engine was described as a Class A Extra locomotive, supposedly capable of taking 75 LT up the Lickey incline at 10 to 15 mph. Three more of these were ordered. Norris's British agent persuaded the B&GR to purchase smaller "Class B" locomotives, and the prototype, England, was trialled on the Grand Junction Railway (as the B&GR was not ready) in March 1839, and found to be non-compliant with the specification as to load haulage. Undeterred, the B&GR purchased six of the class B engines. A Class A Extra locomotive, Philadelphia, was delivered at the end of May 1840; it had a sandbox and water tub "for wetting the rails to improve adhesion". In a trial on the uncompleted Lickey incline, it performed better than a Bury locomotive, taking 24 tons up at 15 mph.

However Rake comments that, "The American locomotives were, however, afterwards superseded, as it was found that an ordinary tank engine, assisted by a pilot, worked the traffic in a perfectly satisfactory manner." Moreover, the fireboxes and boiler tubes were iron, and soon had to be replaced with brass fittings.

On opening there were four locomotives built by Forrester; they were named Cheltenham, Worcester, Bromsgrove and Tewkesbury. They had 5 ft driving wheels. There were four of the American 4-2-0 locomotives, which had 4 ft driving wheels. The four non-driven wheels were mounted on a bogie. They were named Philadelphia, England, Columbia, and Atlantic. In addition there were four ballast engines.

Early business performance
Night mail trains started running from 6 February 1841, by contract to the Postmaster General.

In 1842 the strained UK economy witnessed a massive fall in passenger carryings which continued in 1843. This cut or delayed B&GR outlay due to investor confidence.

The Bristol and Gloucester Railway opened on 8 July 1844. The fact of a through rail route between Birmingham and Bristol, albeit for the time being with a break of gauge at Gloucester, heralded the decades of busy goods traffic.

The Bristol and Gloucester Railway and the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway obviously had a mutual interest, and discussions took place over the amalgamation of the two companies. This was "agreed" on 14 January 1845 but Parliament made way for other Bills to be scheduled (it failed Standing Orders). The two worked in informal collaboration.

Tewkesbury
A contemporary description of the station mentions that "the front elevation is 38 feet wide, and at the back is a raised platform 133 feet by 12 feet 6 inches covered by a substantial roof with glass lights on each side. The roof measures 166 feet long by 32 feet wide".

Bristol and Gloucester Railway

In 1839 the Bristol and Gloucester Railway had been authorised. It was conceived as a narrow (standard) gauge railway between a terminal in Bristol and Standish Junction, where it would make use of the Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway into Gloucester. The company noted as it would operate between the GWR at Bristol and at Standish (both crossing/ending on the broad gauge) it should make its line on the broad gauge, and this enabled it to use the GWR Temple Meads station at Bristol, and simplified the section between Standish and Gloucester, which otherwise would have needed to be built allowing mixed (dual) gauge.

The Bristol and Gloucester Railway opened for passenger traffic on 6 July 1844; it used a platform, intended for the C&GWUR, on the north side of the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway station there; the two lines crossed on the immediate approach to the stations.

Absorption by the Midland Railway
On 24 January 1845 the Great Western Railway offered to buy the two companies; this would have resulted in the broad gauge being extended to Birmingham; and was declined. John Ellis of the Midland Railway encountered Edward Sturge and Joseph Gibbons while they were travelling to a second meeting with the GWR on 26 January. Ellis saw the opportunity and offered that his company would purchase the Gloucester companies, and offered to raise and spend 6% on their (own) capital of £1.8 million if discussions with the GWR were inconclusive. The GWR declined to increase their offer, and the Gloucester companies turned back to Ellis.

The company granted the Midland's solicitor Samual Carter a perpetual lease giving the right to purchase. The matter was ratified in Parliament in the 1846 session, and on 3 August 1846 the amalgamation Bill was passed.

The London and North Western Railway was as anxious to keep the broad gauge away from Birmingham as was the Midland Railway, and it undertook to share any loss the MR might make by the acquisition; this was later commuted into permission to use the LNWR New Street station (built later) in Birmingham for a nominal rental of £100 per annum.

The corporate buyout, dragged out the break of gauge at Gloucester. The disruption caused by the process of transferring goods from narrow (standard) gauge wagons to broad gauge influenced the Gauge Commission, who at the time were deliberating on recommendations to Parliament about the standardisation of the gauge in Great Britain. Of more immediate concern, the Midland Railway obtained authorisation by Act of 14 August 1848 to lay an independent narrow gauge track between Gloucester and Standish Junction (where the Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway diverged), and to mix the gauge between Standish and Bristol. They ran their first narrow gauge train throughout on 29 May 1854.

Further Norris locomotives were purchased, but they were crudely constructed and early replacement of fireboxes proved to be necessary. From February 1842 several were progressively converted to tank engines.

Worcester
The Birmingham and Gloucester Railway had, from the outset, implied a willingness to serve Worcester to respond to an outcry from the city over being bypassed. MPs and Peers objected to such a branch who had interests in or lobbying from its canals, the stagecoach sector and rival railways so that the early authorising Acts left such plans out.

The Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway had been authorised on 4 August 1845; it was to be a broad gauge line, allied to the Great Western Railway. A national financial recession resulted in waylaid construction. Meanwhile, the Midland Railway was anxious to reach Worcester, and the two companies reached an agreement to lay narrow (standard) gauge track between a junction at Abbots Wood (Abbotswood) (on the B&GR main line) and Shrub Hill, a station for Worcester. The Midland Railway started operating a train service on 5 October 1850. There were five daily trains to Bristol and six to Birmingham; the Birmingham trains reversed at Abbots Wood Junction.

Gough reports: "The Midland worked the service on the short section between Abbot's Wood Jcn and Worcester from its commencement. When the loop to Stoke Works Jcn was completed the company began to divide its passenger trains and run one section direct and one via Worcester. The trains separated and rejoined at the two junctions. By 1855 the service on the original line consisted of two trains in each direction between Bromsgrove and Abbot's Wood, making connections with trains running via the loop. From 1 October 1855 these services were withdrawn, and all regular passenger trains ran via Worcester. Goods trains and excursion traffic continued to run via Dunhampstead [the original main line]. The Dunhampstead line was re-opened for regular traffic on 1 June 1880 to allow some through trains to by-pass Worcester, but the intermediate stations were not re-opened for passenger traffic."

The Direct Line at Landor Street Junction
The Midland Railway had been formed by the amalgamation of the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway with others. Both the B&DJR and the B&GR line turned westward to Curzon Street station and Landor Street, and in 1862 the Midland Railway obtained powers to construct a direct line between the two networks.

This was opened in the first half of 1864. From that time express passenger trains were run between Derby and Bristol over the direct line. Portions for Birmingham New Street station, by now opened as the main central station for the Midland Railway, were detached or attached at Saltley and Camp Hill.

Birmingham West Suburban Railway
On 3 April 1876 the Birmingham West Suburban Railway was opened, as a single line from the Midland Railway at Lifford to Granville Street canal wharf, near the centre of Birmingham. It was worked by the Midland Railway, who later acquired it. The line was intended as a suburban passenger line. A connection was made at Lifford to Kings Norton on the Birmingham and Gloucester main line, and the passenger trains from Granville Street ran to that place.

In 1881 an Act authorised an extension north-eastwards, so as to connect to New Street station in Birmingham. This was opened in 1885 and from that time express passenger trains between Bristol and Birmingham used the West Suburban line. This had the added advantage of entering New Street station from the west, enabling forward running on to the Midland Railway's Derby line without reversal. As a result, the stretch between Kings Norton and New Street effectively became a branch line, becoming known as the Camp Hill line.

Lifford Curve
In 1892 a curve was installed at Lifford forming the third side of a triangle there, and enabling circular suburban passenger train operation.

Lickey bank engines
Banking on the Lickey incline remained an operational inconvenience throughout the years of steam traction. In 1920 a four cylinder 0-10-0 locomotive was built specially of the purpose; no 2290, it was known informally as Big Bertha, in association with the German heavy howitzer used during World War I. An electric headlight was provided on the engine to assist in closing up to the rear of a goods train in the hours of darkness

Later, while no. 2290 was being overhauled, an LMS 2-6-0+0-6-2 Garratt design of engine, no 4998, was used and later an LNER 2-8-0+0-8-2 Garratt, class U1, no 69999 was used in 1949.

Intermediate stations near Birmingham
During World War II intermediate stations between Kings Norton and Birmingham on the original Birmingham and Gloucester alignment were closed as an economy measure, in 1941. After the end of the war, there appeared to be little public pressure to reopen them, and they remained closed.

From 1923
A the start of 1923 most of the railways of Great Britain were restructured into four large concerns, a change mandated by the Railways Act 1921. The Midland Railway as a constituent of the new London, Midland and Scottish Railway, (LMS).

Nationalisation
In 1948 the railways were taken into national ownership under British Railways.

Concentration from alternative routes
Still in the early 1960s three routes vied as those for freight between two groups of areas: a) South West England and South Wales and b) England's West Midlands and North West: the above described main line, the "Lickey route", the via Honeybourne and Stratford and (in the case of South Wales only) the via Hereford and Worcester, or Shrewsbury. The backbone, Lickey route, carried the heaviest traffic by a moderate margin. The second line overlapped on the use of an east-of-Gloucester stretch of track for the onward link to South Wales; the third was principally Welsh-related and would be circuitous and involve the Great Western's Severn Tunnel for the South West of England. Concentration and rationalisation were sought at the time. Diesel traction had rendered the Lickey incline a negligible problem so it was declared the general freight route from Spring 1965; heavy through freight shifted away from the Honeybourne route.

The present day
The line is an important part of the British railway network, forming a section of the Bristol to Birmingham main line.

Frequent long-distance passenger services operate by CrossCountry, part of Arriva UK Trains. The line is also an important freight route. West Midlands Trains operate the local passenger service from Hereford to Birmingham New Street, which uses the line only closer to the latter (Stoke Works Junction to Kings Norton).

A brief corollary known as former Birmingham West Suburban Railway is used by the majority of Birmingham New Street passenger trains; a few through trains use the original Camp Hill route for convenience in approaching or leaving that hub station at the east end rather than the west.

Most of the freight traffic uses the Camp Hill route, which gives quick connectivity to the national network at Saltley.

The Tewkesbury branch closed in 1961 to passengers and completely in 1964.

Accidents and incidents
On 10 November 1840, the boiler of locomotive Surprise exploded at Bromsgrove. Two people were killed.

On 26 June 1845, a passenger train from Gloucester, hauled by one of the Philadelphian engines, ran head-on into a slow-moving "heavy, powerful" goods engine which was crossing the line from a siding, via a diamond crossing, at Camp Hill, Birmingham. The driver of the Gloucester train was badly hurt after jumping from his engine. Some passengers suffered minor injuries, mostly from flying glass. Both engines suffered only minor damage. The driver of the goods engine, John Garvie, was deemed at fault, but was discharged by magistrates on the grounds of previous good character. For the same reason the company demoted him to non-driving duties, rather than dismissing him.

Topography

 * Gloucester; opened 4 November 1840; closed 12 April 1896;
 * Churchdown; opened August 1842; closed September 1842; reopened 2 February 1874; closed 2 November 1964;
 * Badgeworth; opened 22 August 1843; closed October 1846;
 * Hatherley Junction; divergence of curve to Banbury line (1906–1956);
 * Lansdown Junction; convergence of Banbury and Cheltenham Direct line (1881–1962); divergence of GWR line to St James station (1847 – 1966);
 * Cheltenham; opened 24 June 1840; sometimes known as Cheltenham Spa Lansdown; still open;
 * Cheltenham High Street; opened 1 September 1862; closed 1 July 1910
 * Swindon (Gloucestershire); opened 26 May 1842; closed 1 October 1844;
 * Cleeve; opened 14 February 1843; closed 20 February 1950;
 * Ashchurch; opened 24 June 1840; closed 15 November 1971; reopened 2 June 1997; still open; divergence of Tewkesbury branch (1840 – 1964); divergence of line to Evesham (1864–1963);
 * Ashchurch flat crossing (1864–1957);
 * Bredon; opened 24 June 1840; closed 4 January 1965;
 * Eckington; opened 24 June 1840; closed 4 January 1965;
 * Defford; opened 24 June 1840; closed 4 January 1965;
 * Besford; opened November 1841; closed after August 1846;
 * Pirton or Kempsey; opened November 1841; closed November 1844;
 * Wadborough; opened November 1841; closed 4 January 1965;
 * Worcester Junction; opened November 1850; renamed Abbot's Wood Junction March 1852; closed 1 October 1855;
 * ''Abbotswood Junction; divergence of spur towards Worcester (1850 -);
 * Norton; opened November 1841; closed August 1846;
 * Spetchley; opened 24 June 1840; closed 1 October 1855;
 * Bredicot; opened November 1845; closed 1 October 1855;
 * Oddingley; opened September 1845; closed 1 October 1855;
 * Dunhampstead; opened November 1841; closed 1 October 1855;
 * Droitwich; opened 24 June 1840; renamed Droitwich Road 1852; closed 1 October 1855;
 * Dodderhill; opened November 1841; closed 5 March 1844;
 * Stoke; opened about September 1840; soon renamed Stoke Works; closed 1 October 1855;
 * Stoke Works Junction; convergence of line from Droitwich Spa (1852 -);
 * Bromsgrove; opened 24 June 1840; still open;
 * Lickey Incline;
 * Blackwell; opened 5 June 1841; closed 18 April 1966;
 * Barnt Green; opened 1 May 1844; still open; convergence of Redditch branch (1859–);
 * Croft Farm; opened 17 September 1840; closed 17 December 1840;
 * Cofton; opened 17 October 1840 as temporary northern terminus; closed 17 December 1840; reopened November 1841; closed December 1843
 * Longbridge; opened November 1841; close 1 May 1849; reopened 1918; closed by 1927; reopened 8 May 1978; still open; convergence of Halesowen Railway (1883 – 1964);
 * Northfield; opened 1 September 1870; still open;
 * King's Norton; opened 1 May 1849; still open; divergence of West Suburban Line (1885 -); divergence of dive under to West Suburban Line (1876 – 1967);
 * Lifford East Junction; convergence of Lifford curve;
 * Lifford; opened ?; closed November 1844; reopened 28 September 1885; closed 30 September 1940;
 * Hazelwell; opened 1 January 1903; closed 27 January 1941;
 * Moseley; opened November 1841; renamed King's Heath 1 November 1867; closed 27 January 1941;
 * Moseley; opened 1 November 1867; closed 27 January 1941;
 * Brighton Road; opened 1 November 1875; closed 27 January 1941;
 * Camp Hill; opened by December 1844; renamed Camp Hill and Balsall Heath December 1867; renamed Camp Hill 1 April 1904; closed 27 January 1941; divergence of connecting line to London and Birmingham Railway (1841 -);
 * Camp Hill; opened 17 December 1840; closed 17 August 1841; closed to goods traffic 1970.

Connecting line to London and Birmingham Railway

 * Camp Hill (second station); above;
 * Bordesley Junction; convergence of joint line from GWR (1861–);
 * St Andrews Junction; divergence of connecting line to Birmingham and Derby Junction line, (1866–);
 * Gloucester Junction with London and Birmingham Railway.

Connecting line to Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway

 * St Andrews Junction; above;
 * Landor Street Junction; convergence with Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway.

Tewkesbury branch

 * Ashchurch (above);
 * Tewkesbury Junction; convergence of line from |Evesham (1864 to 1957);
 * (Junction; divergence of Tewkesbury and Malvern Railway (1864 to 1963);
 * Tewkesbury; opened 21 July 1840; closed and transferred to Malvern line 16 May 1864;
 * Tewkesbury Quay.

title: Birmingham and Gloucester Railway


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George Segal (artist)

George Segal (November 26, 1924 – June 9, 2000) was an American painter and sculptor associated with the pop art movement. He was presented with the United States National Medal of Arts in 1999.

Works

Although Segal started his art career as a painter, his best known works are cast life-size figures and the tableaux the figures inhabited. In place of traditional casting techniques, Segal pioneered the use of plaster bandages (plaster-impregnated gauze strips designed for making orthopedic casts) as a sculptural medium. In this process, he first wrapped a model with bandages in sections, then removed the hardened forms and put them back together with more plaster to form a hollow shell. These forms were not used as molds; the shell itself became the final sculpture, including the rough texture of the bandages. Initially, Segal kept the sculptures stark white, but a few years later he began painting them, usually in bright monochrome colors. Eventually he started having the final forms cast in bronze, sometimes patinated white to resemble the original plaster.

Segal's figures have minimal color and detail, which give them a ghostly, melancholic appearance. In larger works, one or more figures are placed in anonymous, typically urban environments such as a street corner, bus, or diner. In contrast to the figures, the environments were built using found objects.

Life
Segal was born in New York; his Jewish parents were immigrants from Eastern Europe. His parents ran a butcher shop in the Bronx, then moved to a poultry farm in New Jersey where Segal grew up. He attended Stuyvesant High School, as well as the Pratt Institute, the Cooper Union, and New York University, from which he graduated in 1949 with a teaching degree. In 1946, he married Helen Steinberg and they bought another chicken farm in South Brunswick, New Jersey, where he lived for the rest of his life.

During the few years he ran the chicken farm, Segal held annual picnics at the site to which he invited his friends from the New York art world. His proximity to central New Jersey fostered friendships with professors from the Rutgers University art department. Segal introduced several Rutgers professors to John Cage, and took part in Cage's legendary experimental composition classes. Allan Kaprow coined the term happening to describe the art performances that took place on Segal's farm in the Spring of 1957. Events for Yam Festival also took place there. After his death on June 9, 2000, he was interred at Washington Cemetery in South Brunswick, New Jersey.

His widow, Helen Segal, kept his memory and works alive, until her death in 2014, through the George and Helen Segal Foundation. The foundation continues this mission. George and Helen had three children.

Notable works

 * The Truck (1966)
 * The Billboard (1966) - included in the Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza Art Collection, Albany, NY
 * ''The Laundromat (1966–67)
 * The Costume Party (1965–72) – housed at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
 * Parking Garage (1968) - installed at the Paul Robeson Library at Rutgers University-Camden
 *  Hot Dog Stand (1978) - installed at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
 * Abraham and Isaac (1978–79) – commissioned in memory of the 1970 Kent State shootings; housed at Princeton University's Modern Sculpture Garden
 * Gay Liberation (1980) – commissioned in memory of the 1969 Stonewall riots; the first piece of public art dedicated to LGBT rights; two castings, one now housed at the Gay Liberation Monument, Christopher Street Park, Manhattan; the other at Stanford University's Main Quad
 * The Commuters (1982) – installed in the New York City Port Authority Bus Terminal
 * Japanese Couple against a Brick Wall (1982) – Honolulu Museum of Art
 * Holocaust Memorial at California Palace of the Legion of Honor (1984) in San Francisco
 * Abraham's Farewell to Ishmael (1987), presented at the Pérez Art Museum Miami between 2019-2023. The set of sculptures is part of PAMM's permanent collection.
 * Chance Meeting (1991) – installed on campus of the University of Hawaii at Manoa
 * Depression Bread Line (1991) - installed in the rooftop Sculpture Garden of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (Madison, WI)
 * Street Crossing (1992) – installed in the College Avenue Promenade at Montclair State University

Recognition

 * The George Segal Gallery at Montclair State University opened in spring 2006.
 * His collected papers are housed in the Princeton University Library.

Honors and awards

 * (1992) Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award, International Sculpture Center, Hamilton, New Jersey, United States ;
 * (1997) Praemium Imperiale, Japan ;
 * (1999) National Medal of Arts, United States.

Films

 * Segal's legs appeared in John Lennon and Yoko Ono's 1971 film Up Your Legs Forever.
 * George Segal (1980). Directed by Michael Blackwood.  Documentary about Segal, who discusses and is shown creating his bronze sculpture Abraham and Isaac, which was originally intended as a memorial for the Kent State shootings of 1970.
 * George Segal: American Still Life (2001). Directed by Amber Edwards. Television documentary about his life and work.

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

title: George Segal (artist)


text:
User:Nicholas Tam

Nicholas Tam doesn't edit Wikipedia often anymore; primary sources are more fun to peruse. Nevertheless, he has a user page dwelling here as a relic of his narcissistic youth, which may function serviceably well as a signpost to his actual haunts of online activity.

Blog
Ntuple Indemnity (www.nicholastam.ca). It's much more interesting than anything you'll find here. He doesn't update this user page often, and he actually hasn't done anything significant on Wikipedia in a long time anyhow, apart from the judicious correction of typographical errors and stylistic oddities.

Anagrams
(Feel free to add your own.)

 * Sloth maniac: Rumour has it that Tam is a deft procrastinator, but only when duty calls for it.
 * This cola man: In his first job as a website programmer, Tam built sculptures out of aluminum soda cans on his desk. He was not entitled to a dental plan.
 * Last Mohican
 * Macho Stalin: An ironic appellation, for he is neither macho nor Soviet.
 * Shit on a clam: No comment.
 * I am not clash: Nick's fashion sense never fails to produce beautifully coordinated outfits.

title: User:Nicholas Tam


text: User talk:69.208.79.148

title: User talk:69.208.79.148


text:
Generation loss

Generation loss is the loss of quality between subsequent copies or transcodes of data. Anything that reduces the quality of the representation when copying, and would cause further reduction in quality on making a copy of the copy, can be considered a form of generation loss. File size increases are a common result of generation loss, as the introduction of artifacts may actually increase the entropy of the data through each generation.

Analog generation loss
In analog systems (including systems that use digital recording but make the copy over an analog connection), generation loss is mostly due to noise and bandwidth issues in cables, amplifiers, mixers, recording equipment and anything else between the source and the destination. Poorly adjusted distribution amplifiers and mismatched impedances can make these problems even worse. Repeated conversion between analog and digital can also cause loss.

Generation loss was a major consideration in complex analog audio and video editing, where multi-layered edits were often created by making intermediate mixes which were then "bounced down" back onto tape. Careful planning was required to minimize generation loss, and the resulting noise and poor frequency response.

One way of minimizing the number of generations needed was to use an audio mixing or video editing suite capable of mixing a large number of channels at once; in the extreme case, for example with a 48-track recording studio, an entire complex mixdown could be done in a single generation, although this was prohibitively expensive for all but the best-funded projects.

The introduction of professional analog noise reduction systems such as Dolby A helped reduce the amount of audible generation loss, but were eventually superseded by digital systems which vastly reduced generation loss.

According to ATIS, "Generation loss is limited to analog recording because digital recording and reproduction may be performed in a manner that is essentially free from generation loss."

Digital generation loss
Used correctly, digital technology can eliminate generation loss. This implies the exclusive use of lossless compression codecs or uncompressed data from recording or creation until the final lossy encode for distribution through internet streaming or optical discs. Copying a digital file gives an exact copy if the equipment is operating properly which eliminates generation loss caused by copying, while reencoding digital files with lossy compression codecs can cause generation loss. This trait of digital technology has given rise to awareness of the risk of unauthorized copying. Before digital technology was widespread, a record label, for example, could be confident knowing that unauthorized copies of their music tracks were never as good as the originals.

Generation loss can still occur when using lossy video or audio compression codecs as these introduce artifacts into the source material with each encode or reencode. Lossy compression codecs such as Apple ProRes, Advanced Video Coding and mp3 are very widely used as they allow for dramatic reductions on file size while being indistinguishable from the uncompressed or losslessly compressed original for viewing purposes. The only way to avoid generation loss is by using uncompressed or losslessly compressed files; which may be expensive from a storage standpoint as they require larger amounts of storage space in flash memory or hard drives per second of runtime. Uncompressed video requires a high data rate; for example, a 1080p video at 60 frames per second require approximately 370 megabytes per second. Lossy codecs make Blu-rays and streaming video over the internet feasible since neither can deliver the amounts of data needed for uncompressed or losslessly compressed video at acceptable frame rates and resolutions. Images can suffer from generation loss in the same way video and audio can.

Processing a lossily compressed file rather than an original usually results in more loss of quality than generating the same output from an uncompressed original. For example, a low-resolution digital image for a web page is better if generated from an uncompressed raw image than from an already-compressed JPEG file of higher quality.

Techniques that cause generation loss in digital systems
In digital systems, several techniques such as lossy compression codecs and algorithms, used because of other advantages, may introduce generation loss and must be used with caution. However, copying a digital file itself incurs no generation loss—the copied file is identical to the original, provided a perfect copying channel is used.

Some digital transforms are reversible, while some are not. Lossless compression is, by definition, fully reversible, while lossy compression throws away some data which cannot be restored. Similarly, many DSP processes are not reversible.

Thus careful planning of an audio or video signal chain from beginning to end and rearranging to minimize multiple conversions is important to avoid generation loss when using lossy compression codecs. Often, arbitrary choices of numbers of pixels and sampling rates for source, destination, and intermediates can seriously degrade digital signals in spite of the potential of digital technology for eliminating generation loss completely.

Similarly, when using lossy compression, it will ideally only be done once, at the end of the workflow involving the file, after all required changes have been made.

Transcoding
Converting between lossy formats – be it decoding and re-encoding to the same format, between different formats, or between different bitrates or parameters of the same format – causes generation loss.

Repeated applications of lossy compression and decompression can cause generation loss, particularly if the parameters used are not consistent across generations. Ideally an algorithm will be both idempotent, meaning that if the signal is decoded and then re-encoded with identical settings, there is no loss, and scalable, meaning that if it is re-encoded with lower quality settings, the result will be the same as if it had been encoded from the original signal – see Scalable Video Coding. More generally, transcoding between different parameters of a particular encoding will ideally yield the greatest common shared quality – for instance, converting from an image with 4 bits of red and 8 bits of green to one with 8 bits of red and 4 bits of green would ideally yield simply an image with 4 bits of red color depth and 4 bits of green color depth without further degradation.

Some lossy compression algorithms are much worse than others in this regard, being neither idempotent nor scalable, and introducing further degradation if parameters are changed.

For example, with JPEG, changing the quality setting will cause different quantization constants to be used, causing additional loss. Further, as JPEG is divided into 16×16 blocks (or 16×8, or 8×8, depending on chroma subsampling), cropping that does not fall on an 8×8 boundary shifts the encoding blocks, causing substantial degradation – similar problems happen on rotation. This can be avoided by the use of jpegtran or similar tools for cropping. Similar degradation occurs if video keyframes do not line up from generation to generation.

Editing
Digital resampling such as image scaling, and other DSP techniques can also introduce artifacts or degrade signal-to-noise ratio (S/N ratio) each time they are used, even if the underlying storage is lossless.

Resampling causes aliasing, both blurring low-frequency components and adding high-frequency noise, causing jaggies, while rounding off computations to fit in finite precision introduces quantization, causing banding; if fixed by dither, this instead becomes noise. In both cases, these at best degrade the signal's S/N ratio, and may cause artifacts. Quantization can be reduced by using high precision while editing (notably floating point numbers), only reducing back to fixed precision at the end.

Often, particular implementations fall short of theoretical ideals.

Examples
Successive generations of photocopies result in image distortion and degradation. It has been documented that successive repostings on Instagram results in noticeable changes. Likewise, repeated postings on YouTube degraded the work. Similar effects have been documented in copying of VHS tapes. This is because both services use lossy codecs on all data that is uploaded to them, even if the data being uploaded is a duplicate of data already hosted on the service, while VHS is an analog medium, where effects such as noise from interference can have a much more noticeable impact on recordings.

title: Generation loss


text:
Fukuda Chiyo-ni

Fukuda Chiyo-ni (福田 千代尼, 1703 - 2 October 1775) or Kaga no Chiyo (加賀 千代女) was a Japanese poet of the Edo period and a Buddhist nun. She is widely regarded as one of the greatest poets of haiku (then called hokku). Some of Chiyo's most notable works include "The Morning Glory", "Putting up my hair", and "Again the women".

Being one of the few women haiku poets in pre-modern Japanese literature, Chiyo-ni has been seen an influential figure. Before her time, haiku by women were often dismissed and ignored. She began writing haiku at seven years old, and by age seventeen she had become very popular all over Japan. Chiyo-ni continued writing throughout her life. Influenced by the renowned poet Matsuo Bashō but emerging and as independent figure with a unique voice in her own right, Chiyo-ni's dedication not only paved a way for her career but also opened a path for other women to follow. Chiyo-ni is known as a "forerunner, who played the role of encouraging cultural exchange with Korea".

She is perhaps best known for this haiku:

"morning glory! the well bucket-entangled, ''I ask for water"

Today, the morning glory is a favorite flower for the people of her home town, because she left a number of poems on that flower. Shokouji temple in Hakusan contains a display of her personal effects.

Biography
Chiyo-ni was born in Matto, Kaga Province (now Hakusan, Ishikawa Prefecture), in February 1703, the eldest daughter of a scroll mounter. At an early age, Chiyo-ni was introduced to art and poetry, and she began writing haiku poetry at the age of seven. By the age of seventeen, she had become very popular all over Japan for her poetry.

Her poems, although mostly dealing with nature, work for a unity of nature with humanity. Her own life was that of the haikai poets who made their lives and the world they lived in one with themselves, living a simple and humble life. She was able to make connections by being observant and carefully studying the unique things around her ordinary world and writing them down.

At age twelve, Chiyo-ni's studied under two haiku poets who had themselves apprenticed with the great poet Matsuo Bashō, and many in her time saw her as one of Bashō's true heirs, both in her poetry and in her humble attitude of warm awareness toward the world and her simple living. She studied Basho's style of writing poems in her early years, although she did develop on her own as an independent figure with her own unique voice.

She was well aware of being considered Bashō's heir and on a portrait of Bashō she wrote in calligraphy:

"To listen, fine not to listen, fine too... nightingale"

She appears to say that while she did listen to him, she also did not copy him, "not to listen, fine too."

In around 1720 she married a servant of the Fukuoka family of Kanazawa, and had one child with him, a son, who died in infancy. Her husband died of disease not long after in 1722. She valued her independence too much, and despite her loneliness, she did not remarry, so she returned home to her parents.

It may be that after her husband's death Chiyo-ni lived with and cared for her elderly parents and worked in the family’s scroll mounting business. She wrote:

"parents older than I are now my children the same cicadas"

After her parents died, she adopted a married couple to carry on the family business and in 1754, at the age of fifty-two (by East Asian age reckoning), Chiyo-ni chose to become a Buddhist nun. "Not", she said, "in order to renounce the world, but as a way 'to teach her heart to be like the clear water which flows night and day." Chiyo-ni shaved her head and started to live in a temple with other nuns and took the Buddhist name Soen. She continued her writing and lived the rest of her simple yet peaceful life in the manner of haikai.

In 1764, she was chosen to prepare the official gift for Maeda Shigemichi, the daimyō of her region, to the Korean Delegation led by civil minister Jo Eom. Chiyo-ni crafted and delivered 21 artworks based on her twenty-one haiku.

Chiyo-ni died in 1775.

In popular culture

 * The American rock band Red House Painters adapted one of Chiyo's haiku for the chorus of their song "Dragonflies".

title: Fukuda Chiyo-ni


text:
Beeton

Beeton is a small community located in southern Simcoe County, Ontario, Canada between Tottenham and Alliston; all three were amalgamated in 1991 into the single Town of New Tecumseth. Beeton was named for a local apiary. Formerly known as Clarksville for Robert Clark, an early settler; the name changed to Beeton in 1878 with possible reference to David Allanson Jones, postmaster and Bee King of Canada.

Demographics

 * Population: 3,891 (2016 Census)
 * Location: Ontario, Canada
 * Postal code: L0G 1A0
 * Area code: +1-North American area code 905
 * Elevation: about 200 m (700 ft)

Education
Beeton has one public elementary school (Tecumseth Beeton Elementary School) and one Catholic elementary school (Monsignor J.E Ronan Catholic School).

Railway

Beeton was a stop on the Hamilton and North-Western Railway. The railway split just north of the townsite, at a location then known as Allimil, running northeast through Cookstown to Barrie and northwest through Alliston to Collingwood. The line was later taken over by the Grand Trunk Railway, eventually turning into Canadian National Railways. Canadian Pacific Railway constructed a second line just to the west of town, and the CNR right-of-way was closed in the 1970s. The portion of the CNR railway running from Beeton south to Tottenham is now used for the South Simcoe Railway, a heritage railway.

title: Beeton


text:
Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Xezbeth

Xezbeth
final (29/1/0) ending 22:24 18 April 2005 (UTC)

Excellent user. He made many articles about films. He made about 11700 edits since August 2004. I believe, that he will be a good admin. -- Darwinek 22:24, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * Candidate please indicate acceptance of the nomination here
 * Accept, and thanks for the nomination. Xezbeth  06:42, Apr 12, 2005 (UTC)

Support
 * 1) Very strong support. - Darwinek 22:25, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * 2) Support. I have seen his work and believe he would make an excellent admin. Zzyzx11 | Talk 23:03, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * 3) Support. I've come to know and trust his opinion and judgement on Vfd, and I feel he would be responsible and helpful. Meelar (talk) 23:43, Apr 11, 2005 (UTC)
 * 4) RickK 23:56, Apr 11, 2005 (UTC) We frequently disagree on the VfD pages, Xezbeth has always been someone who's easy to work with.
 * 5) A definite. Grutness|hello? [[Image:Grutness.jpg|25px|]] 00:30, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * 6) Support. User and talk pages show us an editor who communicates well and works well with others. Jonathunder 03:21, 2005 Apr 12 (UTC)
 * 7) Support. Seen him in VfD. jni 05:58, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * 8) Support. Great contributor. Admins are made of such stuff. Tim Rhymeless (Er...let's shimmy)  07:48, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * 9) I always thought the name was some sort of play on Elizabeth. So I guess I was completely wrong. I see now what it means...I hope the user doesn't take after his namesake any. Everyking 11:01, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * 10) Thought he was one. -- M e r o v i n g i a n  (t) (c) 11:30, Apr 12, 2005 (UTC)
 * 11) A fantastic contributor who works well with others, I have every faith that he will be a good admin. Rje 11:41, Apr 12, 2005 (UTC)
 * 12) Easy decision. utcursch | talk 12:12, Apr 12, 2005 (UTC)
 * 13) Support. An excellent user. Sjakkalle 12:23, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * 14) Support. I would love to have such stamina. Pavel Vozenilek 01:06, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * 15) Support. Everything I have seen is quite good.  Antandrus 01:14, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * 16) Support he makes good edits and is very well liked --Zeerus 01:16, Apr 13, 2005 (UTC)
 * 17) Support, not that litotes are particularly explanatory but I have no reason to oppose. :) Cburnett 06:44, Apr 13, 2005 (UTC)
 * 18) Support. Radiant_* 13:50, Apr 13, 2005 (UTC)
 * 19) PedanticallySpeaking 17:06, Apr 13, 2005 (UTC)
 * 20) Lst27 ( t a l k )  21:56, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * 21) Support--nixie 03:12, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * 22) Support - Great work on categorization. - SimonP 20:40, Apr 14, 2005 (UTC)
 * 23) Support Feel we Gnomes ought to stick together.  Alai 04:11, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * 24) SupportGeni 22:38, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * 25) Enthusiastically support. Fantastic editor! - Lucky 6.9 03:34, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * 11,000+ edits?! Support Andrew Lenahan - St ar bli nd  18:49, Apr 16, 2005 (UTC)
 * 1) Strong Support. Only ecountered her recently but this revert proves, for me, that she has what it takes. An hour of work would have been lost without her. Thanks. -JCarriker 20:16, Apr 16, 2005 (UTC)
 * 2) Support. Dbiv 11:12, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * 3) Support. SlimVirgin (talk) 21:08, Apr 18, 2005 (UTC)

Oppose
 * 1) Very Strong Oppose Dwain 22:51, Apr 17, 2005 (UTC)
 * Any particular reason? Grutness|hello? [[Image:Grutness.jpg|25px|]]
 * Concur on the rationale request. Cburnett 02:39, Apr 18, 2005 (UTC)
 * I may be wrong, but it probably has something to do with this] VfD. Xezbeth  06:32, Apr 18, 2005 (UTC)

Neutral

Comments
 * Xezbeth currently has 11694 total edits: 10654/59 to articles/talk, 576 to Wikipedia, 201/1 to Category/talk, 116 to Image, 47/36 to User/talk, and 4 to Template. —Korath (Talk) 22:58, Apr 11, 2005 (UTC)
 * What kind of bot/tool are you using? (Around 500 edits just yesterday!) Pavel Vozenilek 03:09, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Thirteen of which were non-minor edits to articles. SlimVirgin (talk) 04:27, Apr 12, 2005 (UTC)
 * I don't use a bot, but as SlimVirgin says a lot of my edits are minor; either adding categories or wikifying. Xezbeth  06:42, Apr 12, 2005 (UTC)

Questions for the candidate

A few generic questions to provide guidance for voters:
 * 1. What sysop chores, if any, would you anticipate helping with? (Please read the page about administrators and the administrators' reading list.)
 * A. I'll probably become more involved on VfD, as well as continue with RC patrolling and new page patrolling.
 * 2. Of your articles or contributions to Wikipedia, are there any about which you are particularly pleased, and why?
 * A. Not particularly; I try to edit a broad range of articles so I haven't done any huge amounts of work on a single page. I suppose I'm pleased with my contributions to film articles, though a lot of my edits are formatting or copyediting.
 * 3. Have you been in any conflicts over editing in the past or do you feel other users have caused you stress? How have you dealt with it and will deal with it in the future?
 * A. No, but then again I don't edit the more controversial articles very often. I'd comment on talk pages if I feel the need to, but I wouldn't get stressed over it.


text: User talk:80.97.242.86

title: User talk:80.97.242.86


text:
Giant Mine

The Giant Mine was a gold mine located on the Ingraham Trail, 5 km north of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Giant Mine was within the Kam Group, a part of the Yellowknife greenstone belt. Gold was discovered on the property and mineral claims staked in 1935 by Johnny Baker, but the true extent of the gold deposits was not known until 1944, when a massive gold-bearing shear zone was uncovered beneath the drift-filled Baker Creek Valley.

History
The discovery led to a massive post-war staking boom in Yellowknife. Giant Mine entered production in 1948 and ceased operations in 2004. It produced over 7000000 ozt of gold. Owners of the mine have included Falconbridge (1948–1986 through subsidiary Giant Yellowknife Mines Limited), Pamour of Australia (1986–1990 through subsidiary Giant Yellowknife Mines Limited), and Royal Oak Mines (1990–1999). When Royal Oak went bankrupt in 1999 the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND) took over responsibility for cleaning up the Giant mine site. Miramar Mining Corporation subsequently entered into an arrangement with the government whereby Miramar held the mine operation in care and maintenance, continued underground dewatering operations, and removed the remaining ore from underground for treatment at the nearby Con Mine process facility (1999–2004).

According to an article published in The Star in 2006, there were 15 sealed underground storage chambers 250 feet below ground containing a total of 237000 t of deadly arsenic trioxide dust, containing up to 60% organic and inorganic arsenic. The dust was a byproduct of extracting gold from the mineral and was collected and stored in sealed underground chambers from 1951 to 1999. Prior to legislated collection and underground storage in 1951 arsenic was released directly into the atmosphere during the roasting process. Arsenic trioxide readily dissolves in water; in 2006 underground flooding around Giant Mine's Mill Pond's underground chamber which contained 16946 t of arsenic trioxide dust threatened to migrate out of the chamber if it was flooded and dump large amounts of arsenic into Yellowknife Bay.

Bombing
On September 18, 1992, at the height of a labour dispute during the tenure of Royal Oak Mines ownership, an explosion in a drift of the mine, 750 ft underground, killed nine strikebreakers. Mine employee Roger Warren was later convicted of placing the bomb. The strike/lockout ended in 1993, pursuant to an order by the (then) Canada Labour Relations Board. A civil suit also resulted on behalf of the families of the replacement workers killed in the explosion (Fullowka v. Royal Oak Ventures Inc.) In 2008, the nine Giant Mine widows lost their $10-million civil judgment when the Northwest Territories Supreme Court overturned an earlier ruling.

Contamination
Mining operations over five decades have created a massive environmental liability, a problem which the mine's previous owners left to the Government of Canada and Government of the Northwest Territories to sort out. The site's 950 ha footprint includes 8 open pits, 4 tailing ponds, 325000 m3 of contaminated soils, and approximately 100 buildings including a roaster/bag house complex that is highly contaminated with arsenic trioxide dust and fibrous asbestos. The remediation plan proposed by the SRK Consulting Inc. and SENES Consultants Limited, the leading technical advisors since 2000 to Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada on the Giant Mine Remediation Project, includes underground issues such as dust that contains arsenic trioxide, and remediation of the surface, water and Baker Creek.

Remediation
Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada reported that the "greatest challenge associated with the remediation of Giant Mine" is the safe long-term storage 237000 t of the arsenic trioxide dust, the lethal byproduct of extracting gold from the mineral arsenopyrite ore stored underground. Their top priority for the Giant Mine site remediation is an "effective, long-term management" of arsenic trioxide. Arsenic trioxide dust, which contains approximately 60% arsenic, is highly lethal even in small doses. It is odourless, tasteless and semi water-soluble. The arsenic trioxide dust is stored in 15 stope or rock chambers that have been sealed with concrete approximately 250 ft below the surface.

The taxpayer-funded (c. $900m to approximately one billion dollars) remediation plan to permanently freeze the underground arsenic trioxide dust chambers was approved by the Canadian federal government in August 2014. According to the federal civil servant in charge of the clean-up, Jane Amphlett, using technology like that used in ice-hockey rinks, coolants will permanently freeze the storage chambers containing the arsenic trioxide dust to keep groundwater seepage out in what is called the "Frozen Block Method."

A Yellowknife community museum is envisioned for part of the former Giant Mine townsite.

In winter 2020 the Yellowknives Dene First Nation (YKDFN) demonstrated outside the site demanding a federal apology, compensation, and a role in the contracts for remediation. They launched their own website which details the story from their point of view.

Film
The events and aftermath of the Giant Mine labour dispute and explosion were dramatized in the 1996 CBC television movie Giant Mine. Additionally, the contamination is the topic of the interactive documentary "Shadow of a Giant" by Saskatchewan filmmaker Clark Ferguson who was artist in residence with Western Arctic Moving Pictures (WAMP) in 2013.

title: Giant Mine


text:
Dan Boyle (politician)

Daniel Boyle (born 14 August 1962) is an Irish Green Party politician and author who served as Deputy leader of Seanad Éireann from 2007 to 2011. He was a Senator from 2007 to 2011, after being nominated by the Taoiseach. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Cork South-Central from 2002 to 2007.

He was elected to Cork City Council in May 2019.

Early life and education
Boyle was born in Chicago, Illinois, to emigrant Irish parents. He has lived in his mother's native city of Cork since he was eight years of age, in the Turners Cross area of the city. He was educated at local schools; Scoil Chríost Rí and Coláiste Chríost Rí, and at the Cork Institute of Technology, where he studied Business Studies and Child Care. He received an MBS in Government from University College Cork in 2015. He was married to Bláithín Hurley from 1987 to 2014, they have one daughter.

At the time of the 1992 general election, he had served as a board member of the Cork Youth Federation, the National Youth Federation, and as chairperson of the National Youth Clubs Council.

Political career
In 1991, he won election to Cork City Council, the first Green Party candidate to do so. At the 2002 general election, he was elected to Dáil Éireann for the Cork South-Central constituency. He was the Green Party Spokesperson for Finance, Social and Family Affairs and Community, Rural Development and the Islands during the 29th Dáil. He was also the party whip. In 2002, he resigned his seat on Cork City Council, where he was replaced by Chris O'Leary.

At the 2007 general election, Boyle lost his seat in the Dáil. He was subsequently part of the Green Party team that negotiated a programme that brought the party into the Irish government for the first time in its history. He was nominated by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to Seanad Éireann as a Senator on 3 August 2007. He was appointed as Deputy Leader of the Seanad on 16 August 2007. He succeeded John Gormley as Chair of the Green Party/Comhaontas Glas in 2007. He was succeeded in that office by Roderic O'Gorman in 2011.

He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Green Party in the 2009 European Parliament election for the South constituency.

Commenting on Willie O'Dea's defamation case on 17 February 2010, Boyle said that he has "no confidence" in O'Dea and declaring him to be "compromised". On 18 February 2010, O'Dea resigned as Minister for Defence.

He ran for Dáil Éireann in Cork South-Central constituency at the 2011 general election, but failed to get elected. He stood as a candidate in the 2011 Seanad election on the Industrial and Commercial Panel but was not elected. He was an unsuccessful Green Party candidate for Cork City Council at the 2014 local elections. In May 2019, Boyle was elected to Cork City Council for the Cork South Central local electoral area. In November 2019, he sought to have further drive-thru restaurants banned in Cork. The Southern Star reported in October 2020 that Boyle was a voluntary board member of CHA, an Approved Housing Body (2020). He has also served as a board member of the Firkin Crane, the Crawford Art Gallery, Corcadorca Theatre Company, Terence MacSwiney Community College and the Lavitt Gallery. He is currently a board member of Arts at Civic Trust House CLG. He was made a community representative on the Public Participation Network for Cork City Council. Boyle has served as Vice President of the National Youth Council of Ireland and Chair of NASC, the Irish Immigrant Support Agency.

As of 2021, Boyle served on the Board of the Irish Council of Social Housing.

On 21 June 2024, Boyle was appointed as Lord Mayor of Cork, the first Green Party lord mayor of cork city.

Other work
In 2011, he released a music album titled Third Adolescence.

He has authored three books on political history - A Journey to Change (2006); Without Power of Glory (2012) and Making Up The Numbers (2017).

He was later hired by the Wales Green Party in 2015, as their campaign manager for the 2016 Welsh Assembly election. In 2015, he was credited by the Irish Examiner as being the driving force behind the Green Foundation think tank.

title: Dan Boyle (politician)


text:
Talk:Psychocandy

Fair use rationale for Image:Psychocandy.jpg
Image:Psychocandy.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.BetacommandBot 04:22, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

This is the most boring album I have ever heard.
And I listen to a lot of music, but this album is just white noise mistaken as music. Avoid! - 211.30.231.112 11:18, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

 * You're entitled to your opinion, but this page is for discussion of the article, not dicussion of the album that the article is about. -Dayv (talk) 21:10, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Production problems
I wonder if the album had production problems? Every time I listen to the album I am less than impressed by the softness of the music. It is as though someone turned it down. Does anyone else have the same problem? --One Salient Oversight (talk) 11:57, 8 January 2008 (UTC)
 * See Loudness war 62.77.181.13 (talk) 17:56, 17 November 2008 (UTC)

Good Article, anyone?
Since this album is A) great and B) at #269 on this list, I'm planning to attempt to take this to WP:GA status in the near future. If anyone wants to join in, that would be magic. Thanks! — sparklism hey! 13:13, 24 November 2014 (UTC)

title: Talk:Psychocandy


text: Category:The Jesus and Mary Chain albums


text:
User talk:Atolmazel

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! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Where to ask a question, ask me on my talk page, or place  on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome! adamsan 22:25, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * The five pillars of Wikipedia
 * How to edit a page
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PWOT Vandal
I unblocked you shortly after I (admittedly reflexively) blocked you. What you wrote was a little unconventional, but I'll admit that it was not vandalism. – ClockworkSoul 02:38, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Thanks Atolmazel 02:40, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:Atolmazel


text:
Konstantinos Volanakis

Konstantinos Volanakis (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Βολανάκης; c. 1837 - 29 June 1907) was a Greek painter. He is known as one of the greatest Greek seascape painters.

Biography
Volanakis was born at Heraklion on Crete, to parents who came from a small village near Rethymno. Later, they moved again for business reasons, and he completed his basic education on Syros in 1856. Afterward, urged on by his brothers, he went to Trieste and became a book-keeping clerk for a family of Greek merchants who were related to his family by marriage. While there, he made sketches of ships and harbors in his account books. Rather than dismiss him, the family recognized his artistic talent, and made arrangements for him to study at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, under Karl von Piloty, joining a group of Greek students that included Nikolaos Gyzis, Georgios Jakobides, Nikiphoros Lytras and Polychronis Lembesis. His instructors discouraged any sort of landscape painting, because it was "in decline", so he concentrated on portraits.

His break came in 1869, three years after the Battle of Lissa, when Emperor Franz Joseph held a drawing competition to memorialize the event. Volanakis won the contest, receiving 1000 gold Florins and free travel cruises with the Austrian navy for three years. He took full advantage of this, producing numerous canvases and sketches. In 1883, despite warnings from Gyzis that it would ruin his career, he returned to Greece and settled in Piraeus, where his family had a pottery factory, citing pressure from his wife, whose health was suffering from the cold winters in Germany.

From then until 1903, he was a teacher at the Athens School of Fine Arts, where one of his best-known students was Michalis Oikonomou. He also operated his own private school. Another of his pupils was Sophia Laskaridou In 1889, he was awarded the Silver Cross of the Order of the Redeemer. He was, however, very poor in his later years, due to his very large family and declining interest in his art. In an effort to increase his income, he reversed the usual method of painting first, then framing, by working with a group of framers who would make luxurious carved frames first, then creating paintings to fit them.

Volanakis died on 29 June 1907 at Piraeus, from complications related to a major hernia. His funeral fell on an important election day, so very few people attended. Volanakis' paintings are held in public and private collections such as the National Gallery of Greece, Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation, and the Teloglion Fine Arts Foundation.

title: Konstantinos Volanakis


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Majority favorite criterion

The majority favorite criterion is a voting system criterion that says that, if a candidate would win more than half the vote in a first-preference plurality election, that candidate should win. Equivalently, if only one candidate is ranked first by a over 50% of voters, that candidate must win. It is occasionally referred to simply as the "majority criterion", but this term is more often used to refer to Condorcet's majority-rule principle.

Some methods that comply with this criterion include any Condorcet method, instant-runoff voting, Bucklin voting, plurality voting, and approval voting.

The criterion was originally defined only for methods based on ranked ballots, so while ranked systems such as Borda fail the criterion under any definition, its application to methods that give weight to preference strength is disputed, as is the desirability of satisfying such a criterion (see tyranny of the majority).

The mutual majority criterion is a generalized form of the criterion meant to account for when the majority prefers multiple candidates above all others; voting methods which pass majority but fail mutual majority can encourage all but one of the majority's preferred candidates to drop out in order to ensure one of the majority-preferred candidates wins, creating a spoiler effect.

Difference from the Condorcet criterion
By the majority favorite criterion, a candidate C should win if a majority of voters answers affirmatively to the question "Do you (strictly) prefer C to every other candidate?"

The Condorcet criterion gives a stronger and more intuitive notion of majoritarianism (and as such is sometimes referred to as majority rule). According to it, a candidate C should win if for every other candidate Y there is a majority of voters that answers affirmatively to the question "Do you prefer C to Y?" A Condorcet system necessarily satisfies the majority favorite criterion, but not vice versa.

A Condorcet winner C only has to defeat every other candidate "one-on-one"—in other words, when comparing C to any specific alternative. To be the majority choice of the electorate, a candidate C must be able to defeat every other candidate simultaneously—i.e. voters who are asked to choose between C and "anyone else" must pick "C" instead of any other candidate.

Equivalently, a Condorcet winner can have several different majority coalitions supporting them in each one-on-one matchup. A majority winner must instead have a single (consistent) majority that supports them across all one-on-one matchups.

Application to cardinal voting methods
The majority favorite criterion was initially defined with respect to voting systems based only on preference order. In systems with absolute rating categories such as score and highest median methods, it is not clear how the majority favorite criterion should be defined. There are three notable definitions of for a candidate A:

 * 1) If a majority of voters have (only) A receiving a higher score than any other candidate (even if this is not the highest possible score), this candidate will be elected.
 * 2) If (only) A receives a perfect score from more than half of all voters, this candidate will be elected.
 * 3) If a majority of voters prefer (only) A to any other candidate, they can choose to elect candidate A by strategizing.

The first criterion is not satisfied by any common cardinal voting method, but arguably lacks the persuasive force it has when comparing ordinal systems. Ordinal ballots can only tell us whether A is preferred to B (not by how much A is preferred to B), and so if we only know most voters prefer A to B, it is reasonable to say the majority should win. However, with cardinal voting systems, there is more information available, as voters also state the strength of their preferences. Thus cardinal voting systems do not disregard minority voices when making decisions; a sufficiently-motivated minority can sometimes outweigh the voices of a majority, if they would be strongly harmed by a policy or candidate.

Approval voting
Approval voting trivially satisfies the majority favorite criterion: if a majority of voters approve of A, but a majority do not approve of any other candidate, then A will have an average approval above 50%, while all other candidates will have an average approval below 50%, and A will be elected.

Plurality voting
Any candidate receiving more than 50% of the vote will be elected by plurality.

Instant runoff
Instant-runoff voting satisfies majority--if a candidate is rated first by 50% of the electorate, they will win in the first round.

Borda count
For example 100 voters cast the following votes:

A has 110 Borda points (55 × 2 + 35 × 0 + 10 × 0). B has 135 Borda points (55 × 1 + 35 × 2 + 10 × 1). C has 55 Borda points (55 × 0 + 35 × 1 + 10 × 2).

Candidate A is the first choice of a majority of voters but candidate B wins the election.

Condorcet methods
Any Condorcet method will automatically satisfy the majority favorite criterion, as a majority choice of the electorate is always a Condorcet winner.

Score voting
For example 100 voters cast the following votes:

Candidate B would win with a total of 80 × 9 + 20 × 10 = 720 + 200 = 920 rating points, versus 800 for candidate A.

Because candidate A is rated higher than candidate B by a (substantial) majority of the voters, but B is declared winner, this voting system fails to satisfy the criterion due to using additional information about the voters' opinion. Conversely, if the bloc of voters who rate A highest know they are in the majority, such as from pre-election polls, they can strategically give a maximal rating to A, a minimal rating to all others, and thereby guarantee the election of their favorite candidate. In this regard, score voting gives a majority the power to elect their favorite, but just as with approval voting, it does not force them to.

STAR voting
STAR voting fails majority, but satisfies the majority loser criterion.

Highest medians
It is controversial how to interpret the term "prefer" in the definition of the criterion. If majority support is interpreted in a relative sense, with a majority rating a preferred candidate above any other, the method does not pass, even with only two candidates. If the word "prefer" is interpreted in an absolute sense, as rating the preferred candidate with the highest available rating, then it does.

Criterion 1
If "A is preferred" means that the voter gives a better grade to A than to every other candidate, majority judgment can fail catastrophically. Consider the case below when $n$ is large: A is preferred by a majority, but B 's median is Good and A 's median is only Fair, so B would win. In fact, A can be preferred by up to (but not including) 100% of all voters, an exceptionally severe violation of the criterion.

Criterion 2
If we define the majority favorite criterion as requiring a voter to uniquely top-rate candidate A, then this system passes the criterion; any candidate who receives the highest grade from a majority of voters receives the highest grade (and so can only be defeated by another candidate who has majority support).

title: Majority favorite criterion


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Con Mine

The Con Mine (1938–2003) was the first gold mine developed in the Northwest Territories, Canada, just south of Yellowknife. The property was staked by Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada (Cominco) in September 1935 in response to the discovery of visible gold nearby; the name "Con" is an abbreviation of "Consolidated". The advent of winter prevented any prospecting from being conducted, but work in the summer of 1936 led to the discovery of numerous gold veins. The Con Mine entered production in 1938 and ceased operations in 2003. It has produced over 5000000 ozt of gold from 12,195,585 tons of ore processed. The mine was over 6000 ft deep.

Owners of the mine have included Cominco (1938–1986), Nerco Minerals (1986–1993), Miramar Mining Corp. (1993–2008), and Newmont Mining Corp. (2008–present).

Geologically, the Con Mine is located within the Kam Group which is part of the Yellowknife greenstone belt.

Social history
The first gold brick was poured on September 5, 1938. A wave of settlers and workers moved North and Yellowknife was established. The company had to build a living environment for its workers. The company built a number of dwellings for families while single men stayed in long bunkhouses and ate in a cookhouse. The homes for management were located on the lakefront. There were also recreation facilities provided such as a bowling alley. Along with hosting regular dances and parties, the Con recreation Hall included a library of books donated by the Edmonton library. Garden plots were also provided where families could grow vegetables.

As people left the mines to join the war effort, the Con Mine closed between 1943 and 1946 and the economy of Yellowknife nearly collapsed. The Con Mine was the first mine to welcome immigrant workers (1951). The immigrants who came to work at the mine were primarily from Italy, although there were workers attracted to the prospects of work drawn from across Europe. They often learned to speak English with the help of the nuns at the local church.

There was a vibrant hockey league after the war with teams being sponsored by various mines and businesses. The Con Mine team was named the Cougars. Workers were often recruited and hired on the basis of their talent to play hockey. The mining companies contributed to the maintenance of the local arena.

In 1954, the Con Mine was visited by the Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. This began a long line of visits to the mine in which Canada showcased its gold mine in the sub-arctic. Other Royal visits have included Queen Elizabeth (1970) and her son Prince Charles (1975).

An increase in gold prices in the 1970s led to the expansion of the Con Mine, including a deep new shaft. In 1975, the first women began to enter work in the Mines.

As Yellowknife developed and became more accessible by road to the Con Mine, workers and their families began to access facilities and eventually live in the city and the "Con Camp" declined until it was razed in the 1980s. After the closure of the Mine in 2003, the mine itself was reduced to rubble and concrete.

Future prospects
The defunct mine's deep shafts posed the possibility of extracting geothermal energy for heat generation free of greenhouse gases. The mine has the potential to heat half of the city of Yellowknife. A Memorandum of Understanding signed between the City of Yellowknife and Corix Utilities in June 2011 gave new impetus to the project. After a referendum voted against the geothermal plan in 2011 it was abandoned by the City.

Hopes of preserving the iconic Robertson headframe sitting over the shaft were dashed when the City's Development Appeal Board dismissed a final appeal by prospector Walt Humphries to delay planned demolition. "Miramar Northern Mining, the company that is remediating the Con site, says it plans to begin the demolition right away."

At 4:50 PM on October 29, 2016, demolition commenced bringing down the headframe.

title: Con Mine


text: Category:Anti-tank guns

title: Category:Anti-tank guns


text: Talk:HMS Zulu

title: Talk:HMS Zulu


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Tom Scott

Tom Scott most commonly refers to:
 * Tom Scott (saxophonist) (born 1948), American jazz musician
 * Tom Scott (YouTuber), English online personality and web developer

Tom Scott may also refer to:

Arts and entertainment

 * Tom Scott (composer, born 1912) (1912–1961), American folk singer and classical composer
 * Tom Scott (painter) (1854–1927), Scottish water-colourist
 * Tom Scott (poet) (1918–1995), Scottish poet
 * Tom Scott (cartoonist) (born 1947), New Zealand cartoonist
 * Tom Everett Scott (born 1970), American actor
 * Tom Scott (sound engineer), shared the Academy Award for Best Sound in 1983 and 1984
 * Tom Scott (rapper) (born 1984), New Zealand rapper

Sports

 * Tom Scott (American football coach) (1920–1978), coach of the Brooklyn Dodgers
 * Tom Scott (basketball coach) (1908–1993), coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels basketball program
 * Tom Scott (Canadian football) (born 1951), member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame
 * Tom Scott (footballer) (1904–1979), English footballer
 * Tom Scott (linebacker) (1930–2015), member of the College Football Hall of Fame
 * Tom Scott (offensive lineman) (born 1970), American football offensive lineman
 * Tom Scott (rugby union, born 1870) (1870–1930), Scotland international rugby union player
 * Tom Scott (rugby union, born 1875) (1875–1947), Scotland international rugby union player

Others

 * Tom Scott (businessman) (born 1966), founded Nantucket Nectars
 * Tom Scott (politician) (born 1958), member of the Connecticut Senate

title: Tom Scott


text:
Hakuhodo

Hakuhodo Inc. (株式会社博報堂) is a Japanese advertising and public relations company owned by Hakuhodo DY Holdings. It is headquartered at Akasaka Biz Tower in Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo.

History
Hakuhodo is one of the oldest advertising agencies in Japan and was founded by Hironao Seki at Nihonbashi-Honshiroganecho, Tokyo, as an advertising space broker and wholesale distributor for educational magazines in October 1895.

In 1910 the company broke from its obscurity by contracting to place front-page newspaper ads.

Their growth over the next few decades came from:
 * 1937 to 1944: grew by absorbing other agencies.
 * 1951: they created a radio advertising department
 * 1953: a TV group.

In 1996, Hakuhodo cofounded the DAC Consortium, a consolidated group of Japanese global media players investing in digital innovation.

In 2000, Hakuhodo created the joint-venture Hakuhodo-Percept with the Indian agency Percept to target the Indian advertising market. In December 2002, Hakuhodo launched the first advertising campaign where the Beckhams appeared together (displayed on billboard screens in Tokyo).

In October 2003 the company became part of the Hakuhodo DY Holdings after merging with other companies. Hakuhodo DY Holdings launched a unique media and entertainment company, Hakuhodo DY Media Partners Inc., in 2003. In February 2009, Hakuhodo announced a partnership with US global public relations firm Ketchum.

Hakuhodo acquired the US-based companies SYPartners LLC and Red Peak Group LLC in May 2014, the US-based marketing company Digital Kitchen in June 2015, the Montreal-based creative agency Sid Lee in July 2015, and the Singapore-based agency Integrated Communications Group (ICG) in February 2017. The Japanese company purchased 30% of Palo Alto–based IDEO in February 2016.

On 28 February 2023 prosecutors formally indicted Hakuhodo, rival ad agency Dentsu, and four other companies on suspicion of bid rigging of contracts worth approximately ¥43.7 billion for the 2020 Summer Olympics. They were accused of lowering the competitiveness of their tenders. Dentsu had admitted to liability in voluntary questioning a few days earlier. The companies allegedly colluded with Yasuo Mori, a former senior Olympic official, who was arrested along with other suspects.

Description
Hakuhodo has a large international footprint with offices in many major cities across Asia, Europe & the Americas In Japan and in offices around the world.

Awards and recognition

 * 1993: Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity for Hungry? (client: Cup Noodles)
 * 2007: Silver Lion at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity for Humanity (client: Toyota)
 * 2018: Silver Lion at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity for Long Long Man (client: UHA Mikakuto)

title: Hakuhodo


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Lisa Fittko

Lisa Fittko (born Elizabeth Eckstein, Eckstein (Ekstein) Erzsébet; 1909 – March 12, 2005) helped many escape from Nazi-occupied France during World War II. The author of two memoirs about wartime Europe, Fittko is also known for her assisting German philosopher and critic Walter Benjamin in getting out of France to escape the Nazis in 1940.

Biography
Lisa Fittko was born into an international Jewish family (Simon, Ekstein) in 1909 in Uzhhorod, Ung County, Kingdom of Hungary. Her large family was active in many spheres of cultural and economic life of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. One branch of her family was active in the Czech national movement, others were prominent industrialists and patrons of the arts. Johann Strauss II, the "Waltz King" was an in-law. She grew up in the company of her aunt Malva Schalek.

After her family moved to Berlin, she witnessed the Nazi rise to power, and became involved in anti-fascist politics. She worked as an underground resistance fighter in Berlin, Prague (where she met her husband and comrade Hans Fittko), Zurich, Amsterdam, Paris, Marseilles and finally, in the Pyrenees where from 1940 to 1941, she escorted refugees into Spain. In Banyuls-sur-mer she was asked by the Socialist mayor, Azéma to assist émigrés in crossing the border, and in creating a network of information so that the "new route would be known by those who came after". Fittko was an émigré herself wanting to get to Portugal, to be able to take a boat to escape to the U.S. but she remained in Banyuls-sur-mer to participate in Varian Fry's "border project" (Emergency Rescue Committee) and help many others. Her route became the "new route" and the alternative to the fascist controlled coastal path from Cerbere to Portbou. This same route was called the Lister Route in 1939 (named after the Spanish Republican general who led his troops out of Spain at the end of the Spanish Civil War) and then later, in 1940 it was coined the F-Route by Fry.

Perhaps the best-known refugee she was able to help was Walter Benjamin, who reached Portbou, Spain, on September 25, 1940. She took Benjamin into Spain following verbal instructions, and a small drawing of the route that mayor Azéma had drawn for her. This was the first of her many walks over the Pyrenees. Benjamin was found dead in the small hotel in the border town of Port-Bou, where they had arrived on the morning after the Spanish police threatened to turn the small group of émigrés he was with back to occupied France. After Benjamin's death, the rest of his group was subsequently allowed to proceed. According to Fittko, Benjamin carried with him a heavy briefcase which he claimed to be more important than his life. This story was not confirmed by other accounts, causing some controversy. Authorities such as Chimen Abramsky, who was among the first to hear the story and from Fittko herself, give Fittko's account credibility. A briefcase was mentioned in the Spanish police records, but its contents mention only "newspapers and various other papers of unimportant content". Speculations as to its contents have been the subject of scholarly articles and artistic works inspired by Benjamin's story and Lisa Fittko's account of it in her books.

With her husband Hans, she escaped to Cuba, and from there entered the United States. She came to international recognition over forty years later through her two widely translated memoirs, in which she describes her actions.

She died in Chicago at the age of 95 on March 12, 2005.

Selected works

 * Lisa Fittko, Escape through the Pyrenees, Northwestern University Press, ISBN 0-8101-1803-3.
 * Lisa Fittko, Solidarity and Treason: Resistance and Exile, 1933-1940, translated by Roselyn Theobald in collaboration with the author Evanston, Illinois, Northwestern University Press, 1993

Films

 * Les Unwanted de Europa, Directed by Fabrizio Ferraro, Lisa Fittko played by Catarina Wallenstein, 2018.
 * Transatlantic, TV series, Lisa Fittko played by Deleila Piasko, 2023.

title: Lisa Fittko


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Royal Oak Mines

Royal Oak Mines Incorporated was a gold mining company, founded in 1990 by Margaret "Peggy" Witte (now known as Margaret Kent) in Kirkland, Washington.

The company held numerous gold and base metal properties in Canada, including the Giant Mine in the Northwest Territories, Pamour Mine in Ontario, Hope Brook Mine in Newfoundland, Colomac Mine in the Northwest Territories, and the Kemess Mine in British Columbia. The company also had significant interests in minerals in China through Asia Materials (44% share) and Highwood Resources (39% share). The company reported nearly US$600 million in assets, and loss of $4.4 million on revenues of US$187 million for fiscal 1996. Its Hopebrook and Colomac mines were closed in 1997. Low gold prices of 1997-1998 caused Royal Oak to go bankrupt in April 1999, and its mining assets were liquidated.

Labour dispute
Royal Oak Mines' operations at the Giant Mine in Yellowknife became infamous in Canada during the 1990s as the site of a protracted and violent industrial relations dispute that lasted eighteen months. The declining price of gold led to Witte demanding pay cuts, which the Canadian Association of Smelter and Allied Workers union (CASAW) Local 4 refused, arguing that the company was also lax on safety.

The company locked out the union and flew in strikebreakers.

On September 18, 1992, at the height of the labour dispute, an explosion in a drift of the mine, 750 ft (230 m) underground, killed nine strikebreakers/replacement workers riding in a man-car.

For 13 months after the blast, the RCMP interrogated hundreds of strikers, their families, and supporters, wiretapping their telephones and searching their houses. Owner Margaret Witte said that there would be no negotiations with the union unless an arrest was made.

Criminal charges
Union member and dismissed miner Roger Warren later confessed to and was convicted by a jury of nine counts of second degree murder, being sentenced to life imprisonment. In 2004, he blamed Royal Oak Mines, the security company, and his union. He argued that a simple screen and padlock over a broken window would have dissuaded him, and that he was only capable of the bombing because replacement workers had been "dehumanized" by his union.

CAW members Al Shearing and Tim Bettger were sentenced to two and a half and three years in prison, respectively. Both were convicted of painting anti-strikebreaker graffiti and setting an explosion in a ventilation shaft on June 29, 1992. Bettger was sentenced to six more months in prison for blowing a hole in a television satellite dish Sept. 1 of that year.

Civil suit (Fullowka v. Royal Oak Ventures Inc.)
The workers' compensation board, on behalf of the surviving family members of the killed replacement workers, launched a $10 million lawsuit against several parties involved in the strike, including Royal Oak Ventures, Pinkerton's of Canada (the security firm hired by Royal Oak), the union (Canadian Association of Smelter and Allied Workers union (CASAW) Local 4), and the Government of the Northwest Territories. The compensation board had already paid out a similar amount of funds to the deceased miners' families.

At trial, the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories found the defendants liable. Pinkerton security was held responsible for 15% of damages, for failing to adequately secure the mine. The Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) was found to have breached its duty of care by doing nothing to stop illegal acts during the strike, paying fines and legal fees for striking miners, providing a person to assist the striking union who prolonged the strike, and failing to bargain in good faith. The court ruled that the cumulative effect of these breaches of the duty of care were found to have materially contributed to Roger Warren's bombing of the mine. (The unionized miners were part of Local 4 at the time of the strike, and merged into the CAW in May 1994.) The company was found to be 23% responsible for the damages assessed, as they maintained mine operations during the strike, refused to bargain in good faith, and for failing to ensure the safety of the replacement workers.

On appeal to the Court of Appeal for the Northwest Territories, the trial decision was overturned and the defendants were found to not owe the plaintiffs a duty of care.

A further appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada was heard in May 2009. In February 2010 the appeal was dismissed. The Court found that although the security firm and the government owed a duty of care to the replacement workers, that duty was not breached.

Royal Oak Mines v. Canada (Labour Relations Board)
The employer's steadfast refusal to discuss grievance arbitration for these and other dismissed employees constituted the single largest sticking-point in the negotiations. The Canada Labour Relations Board intervened several times during the bargaining process and eventually forced Royal Oak Mines to return to the negotiation table with a previously withdrawn proposal. Royal Oak Mines sought judicial review of this order, with the dispute winding its way through the court system during the first half of the 1990s. This set the stage for significant changes in Canadian labour law as evident in the Supreme Court's 1996 decision in Royal Oak Mines v. Canada (Labour Relations Board), [1996] 1 S.C.R. 369. In his majority decision Mister Justice Peter Cory formulated a distinction between the subjective and objective aspects of the duty to bargain. A 'good faith' requirement forms the subjective aspect of this duty, while a requirement to 'make every reasonable effort' to conclude a collective agreement injects an objective standard into the analysis. In this decision Royal Oak Mines was compelled to return to the bargaining table on the basis that its refusal to discuss grievance arbitration with the Canadian Association of Smelter and Allied Workers, Local No. 4, constituted an unreasonable limitation on the bargaining process and thereby represented a lack of good faith. In coming to this conclusion the Court observed that grievance arbitration for dismissed employees was a nearly universal characteristic of collective agreements in Canada.

title: Royal Oak Mines


text:
User:Profeta~enwiki

hallo everybody!!!

I`ve got an account on the italian wikipedya: Profeta

see ya :)

Links I use

 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Template_messages#Article-related_namespace

Pages I'm Currently working on

 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_popular_music

Pages to which I've given a great Contrib
none... *sad*sad*

title: User:Profeta~enwiki