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Lai Changxing

Lai Changxing (born September 15, 1958) is a former Chinese businessman and entrepreneur. He was the founder and Chairman of Yuanhua Group, based in the Special Economic Zone of Xiamen. He imported foreign products like cars, cigarettes and was responsible for one-sixth of the national oil imports at one time. In the late 1990s, he was implicated in corruption scandals involving a large smuggling ring. By 1999, he was described by several media organizations as "China's most wanted fugitive".

Lai evaded Chinese authorities and went to Canada, where he resided in Vancouver, British Columbia. After a lengthy extradition battle and diplomatic negotiations, Canadian authorities deported him to China on July 22, 2011, upon promises that he would not be executed. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2012.

Names
Despite his massive empire of wealth, Lai often smuggled goods into China and broke numerous trade laws. He has also been referred as "the one who destroys lives" and "the corrupted smuggler".

Early years
Lai was the eldest child born to Lai Yongdeng and Wang Zhuzhi in Jinjiang, Fujian province in 1958, the year the Great Leap Forward began. He was the first of eight children. He grew up in Shaocuo village (烧厝村). He would have starved to death during the Great China famine but luckily in Jinjiang and the rest of south-eastern Fujian the situation was greatly milder due to massive overseas Chinese donations and better leadership (unlike Tingzhou where about 100,000 Hakkas starved to death due to the Great Famine), his family also survived because his father converted a swamp into a personal vegetable field during the most difficult years. Lai received almost no formal education as he spent one year in school before the Cultural Revolution shut his school down. According to some sources Lai received three years of education.

Factory worker
When Lai was age 18, Mao Zedong died and private businesses began re-appearing across China under Deng Xiaoping. Lai began working at a farming machinery factory before it shut down. At age 20 Lai started a business making simple car parts. The business took off and turned into an empire. Within a decade he was the country's biggest private car importer.

TV business
In 1990 Lai tried to run a business to import duty-free TVs, where he made thousands. Two government officials from Shaocuo demanded fees be paid to them. When Lai refused, the two officials went to his house. At the time Lai was not home, but his sister was. The officials asked for business accounts, but she refused to give in. She was then beaten severely and sent to the hospital. The officials then started a tax fraud case. Lai would win in court, but his revenge campaign against Communist officials would tie up his businesses. Lai left Shaocuo and from this point on.

Yuanhua group
In 1994 Lai founded Fairwell Group, also known as Yuanhua Group (远华集团有限公司), a prominent group of upstart companies that took advantage of the economic boom of Xiamen's status as a Special Economic Zone. The group was heavily involved in the importing/smuggling of cars, cigarettes and oil. The group invested heavily in the city's real estate, hotels, clubs, roads and other infrastructure. Lai also has his own brand of Fairwell cigarettes.

In the mid-1990s Xiamen no longer regulated maximum building heights. Many rich businessmen tried to build the tallest skyscrapers. Lai built the 88-floor Yuanhua tower and the Yuanhua International Centre with a groundbreaking ceremony attended by 2000 guests. Each guest received a 3000-yuan red envelope. Lai had prominent connections with the Fujian power elite; he was also a member of the Provincial Consultative Conference.

Lai was believed to be the mastermind of a US$10 billion scheme, during which he allegedly bribed high level officials in the administration of the Xiamen Special Economic Zone in order to smuggle luxury cars and entire tanker-loads of oil into the country. The smuggling ring fraudulently avoided US$3.6 billion in taxes and fees. Chinese authorities do not comment on allegations that Lai's Yuanhua group was also a conduit for clandestine military shipments, such as Silkworm missiles.

In 1996 Xiamen airport's terminal building 2, funded by Lai, was one of the biggest airport structure in the country. In 1997 Xiamen's party secretary even made him an honorary citizen (厦门荣誉市民). In 1998 he spent two million yuan to purchase a football team based in Foshan, Guangzhou and disbanded the team. He then moved all the players to Xiamen to create the Xiamen Lanshi F.C., and helped the team promote to the Chinese Super League. He even made his own film starring himself as a football star to improve his image.

He built a 7-story building called the Red Mansion (红楼), named after the classical story Dream of a Red Mansion. The mansion hired girls that were at least 5 ft 6 inches tall and have a highschool diploma at a salary of US$1000 a month. The girls were offered as sex mistresses and prostitutes to government officials.

Lai had his own Forbidden City replica (远华影视城) built with US$20 million that acts as a film production studio. He typically drove sedans. His armoured Mercedes was formerly owned by Party General Secretary Jiang Zemin.

Relationships with officials and celebrities
According to Oliver August's book Inside the Red Mansion, Lai is known to be financially linked with high-ranking Chinese officials and celebrities. Some of the people include Ji Shengde, major general of military intelligence for the People's Liberation Army. Ji Shengde is the son of former Secretary General of the State Council Ji Pengfei.

August alleged that singer Dong Wenhua was offered 10 million yuan if she took her clothes off for Lai, who was drunk at the time. She purportedly did take off her clothes for the money, and disappeared from public view. She returned to state-run television after 3 years. Others include Li Jizhou (李纪周), deputy minister for public security and Xu Ganlu (许甘露), Immigration secretary. Other corrupt officials include Liu Feng (刘丰), Zhuang Rushun (庄如顺), Lan Fu (蓝甫), Yang Qianxian (杨前线), Shi Zhaobin (石兆彬), Zhao Keming (赵克明). Some of them have already received sentences.

Lai's corruption of what was said to be literally hundreds of Chinese officials was effected through paying millions of dollars in bribes, by hosting lavish banquets and by giving jobs to relatives of local bureaucrats. He also blackmailed officials, through filming them with prostitutes arranged by him. Such arrangements enabled his companies to receive illicit import licenses and to avoid billions of dollars in import taxes. Lai's level of corruption of officials was to such a degree that corrupted naval officers allegedly ordered naval ships to escort freighters carrying Lai's contraband.

According to August, then Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji, known for his anti-corruption stand and for repeatedly saying publicly that Lai needs to be executed, met Lai twice. In one meeting an offer was allegedly made for Lai to pay US$125 million in exchange for amnesty. This, according to August, suggested the entire government knew of Lai's corruption for a long time. Lai also purportedly gave money to Zhu Niuniu, son of former deputy commander of China's 31st army from Xiamen. Zhu constantly threatened to expose Lai's smuggling if he did not help him with his financial problem from gambling at the Macau casinos.

Lai himself was said to be an apprentice to then General secretary Jiang Zemin. At the height of Lai's corruption in the 1990s, the Fujian party chief was Jia Qinglin. Xi Jinping, now CCP General Secretary, was the Fujian governor.

Hong Kong
Lai resided in Fujian province before he moved to Hong Kong in April 1991. While he was in HK, the Chinese government pursued him. Lai explained to the HK Immigration Department that he was in HK because he was a friend of Leung Kam-kwong, a senior immigration officer who later died in honor during the Immigration Tower fire in 2000. Leung apparently secretly warned Lai about the immigration department's pending warrant for his arrest. Leung also suggested Lai move to Canada to escape arrest. However, the HK government later responded that the claim was totally baseless as the officer was already dead and could not defend himself against these accusations.

Canada
Lai fled to Canada with his wife Zeng Mingna (曾明娜) and children in August 1999. He paid US$1 million in cash for a house in South Granville Rise Vancouver. His kids went to private schools at a cost of US$4,000 a year and his wife opened a bank account with a deposit of US$1.5 million. They were chauffeur-driven around in a US$90,000 SUV. In 1999 he was detained, apparently caught on a 28-day gambling spree at Casino Niagara in Niagara Falls. Lai was a regular customer at the casino where at one time bought as much as US$3 million worth of chips. Canadian police noticed him and suspected he was involved in money laundering or loan-sharking. Lai and his family then made a claim to stay in Canada as refugees.

The family used a HKSAR passport to emigrate to Canada. Following heavy pressure from Beijing, Lai's Hong Kong permanent residency and HKSAR passport were revoked in 2002 by the Hong Kong Government, saying that he obtained the status dishonestly.

Following his detention in Canada, Lai was able to obtain his release, pending the hearing into his refugee claim, by placing himself under house arrest. He returned to the family's luxury condo in Burnaby, a suburb of Vancouver, and agreed to pay $80,000 per month to live under the guard of a private security firm. Notwithstanding such arrangements, Lai was observed by RCMP officers associating with known members of Asian smuggling gangs in Canada.

Lai divorced his wife in June 2005. In 2009 Lai was granted a working permit and worked at a Vancouver real-estate company as a consultant.

Charges
Despite Lai's departure for Canada, the Chinese government continued to pursue charges against him, and sought his extradition. In the same corruption case, one of the largest in modern Chinese history, many high-level municipal and provincial officials were sacked and a few were sentenced to life in prison or death. The complex smuggling case shifted the entire political scene in Fujian by the late 1990s. A special task force operation was created by the government to track down Lai on April 20, 1999, called "4.20" (420专案组) with about 1200 investigators.

Lai denied criminal wrongdoing, and stated that the allegations were politically motivated. Others like Pierre Lemieux defended Lai, saying he is only a criminal because of China's communist economic system and that with a free market, there would be no need for smugglers like Lai. Chinese websites could write about Lai as long as he was depicted as evil.

One of Lai's attorneys, Winnipeg lawyer David Matas, said that it was doubtful Lai could ever get a fair trial in China, given the extent of the Communist Party's influence in the opaque judicial system. Matas has filed for an assessment of whether Lai's family are at risk if they are returned to China. As long as immigration officials are considering this request, he says, they may not be removed from Canada.

Nevertheless, Lai has repeatedly been denied political refugee status in Canada, for example by a ruling in September 2005 by the Supreme Court in Ottawa, Ontario. This affirmed the decision of the Federal Court of Appeal, which in April had refused to hear Lai's appeal of the June 2002 Refugee Board decision, on the grounds that Lai and his wife failed to meet the standards to be designated as refugees.

Canada does not have the death penalty and is prohibited from deporting accused criminals to countries where they will face capital punishment. China claimed that he would not be executed if extradited from Canada. Canadian courts did not believe this guarantee, due to certain CPC bias in any trial and as 14 others involved in the complex Xiamen racket have already been executed. Svend Robinson, then New Democratic Party member of parliament for Burnaby-Douglas, also noted that Lai's brother died in a Fujian labour-camp after receiving a lesser sentence. The likelihood of a de facto death sentence remained an obstacle to his deportation.

On February 3, 2009, the Canadian Government granted Lai a work permit. Canadian officials acknowledged that Lai did not have access to the vast fortune they thought he had upon arrival in Canada back in 1999. Lai has said his legal and living expenses were being funded by friends, whom he has declined to identify, saying they could be in danger if the Chinese government knew their names.

On July 8, 2011, John Baird, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, said that, the extradition of Lai must be conducted using Canadian laws. In early stages, Lai's Refugee Application was refused, with the possibility of extradition to China.

Extradition
Lai's corruption is known to have reached the top levels of the Chinese government. He has publicly declared in the past that if he returned to China: "many high government officials will not be able to sleep. Incidents will happen." In relation to the case, 14 people have already been executed, about 300 provincial officials have already been put on trial. Since 2002 Beijing sent MSS agents to follow him wherever he went.

On July 22, 2011, Lai Changxing was extradited to China. He was escorted to Vancouver International Airport and boarded Air Canada flight 29 (AC 29) bound for Beijing. He was later transferred to Chinese custody on July 23, 2011, and signed an arrest warrant issued for his arrest upon his arrival in Beijing. Spokesman of the Chinese ministry of foreign affairs has expressed satisfaction concerning this decision, referring to Lai as responsible for the "biggest economic crime in the history of the People's Republic of China."

Sentence
On May 18, 2012, Lai Changxing was sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of smuggling and bribery by the Intermediate People's Court in Xiamen. In addition, all of his property was confiscated.

title: Lai Changxing


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Talk:Emerald ash borer

Merged
SOMEONE HAS DESTROYED THE EAB "INFESTATION" PAGE BY MERGING WITH ORIGINAL. THE SEPARATION WAS ORIGINALLY MADE BECAUSE SEVERAL WIKI POLICE KEPT REMOVING HISTORICAL FACTUAL INFORMATION LINKING BACK TO OFFICIAL SOURCES AFTER FEELING STUFF DID NOT BELONG. WELL WARNING TO YOU ALL NOW, HELP REPAIR PEOPLES ADDITIONS RATHER THAN JUST REMOVING. — Preceding unsigned comment added by CHICAGOCONCERTMAN (talk • contribs) 22:59, 14 December 2014 (UTC)
 * That all happened quite a while ago now, but I merged them after seeing no opposition on either page to it. Everything was more or less consolidated to be more concise to take care of the issues that apparently prompted the split in the first place. The problem material before the split just got shunted over the to infestation page, so now that's all reintegrated now to be a manageable size for a reader. Also, try not to type with caps lock on as it makes it appear as if you are yelling. Kingofaces43 (talk) 23:14, 14 December 2014 (UTC)
 * sounds like the original split page was as WP:POVFORK which is not allowed. Nice to move to merge it back. Jytdog (talk) 01:23, 15 December 2014 (UTC)
 * Stop using concision as an excuse to delete content without an acceptable level of justification. Your approach to Wikipedia articles is based on a fallacy. Shorter articles are not more useful when they lack the information people need. If you are concerned about article length then work toward giving the article clear and concise sections. Article length should expand over time, getting more depth as others contribute to it. You seem to think that your opinion about what an article needs is somehow universal — like you're the king of science. Breadth and depth are not the enemy of the readers of scientific articles. Poor organization is. If you think this topic needs a "Dummies" version of the article then propose having one like that, so more detailed information can stop being censored fruitlessly. Better yet, just make sure the sections of the articles each start with a clear/concise summary. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.233.7.76 (talk • contribs) 23:12, July 27, 2017 (UTC)
 * IP, please WP:FOC. This is a rather old talk section back when we were dealing with merging two articles with a lot of bloat before getting this article to Good Article status recently. The article format is set up now where people can add in content if appropriate sources indicate there are gaps, but that needs to follow WP:WEIGHT policy. Kingofaces43 (talk) 16:17, 29 July 2017 (UTC)

Page protected
I have protected this page for 24 hours. Whatever previous disagreements users may have had, there does seem to plausibly be a legitimate disagreement about this image issue; the edit warring is not acceptable. This protection does not endorse the current version of the page in any way- at this time, I have no opinion on which version is preferable. Josh Milburn (talk) 12:19, 24 July 2015 (UTC)
 * The disruptive editing is currently being discussed at ANI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/Incidents#Hounding_by_GregJackP. There's not a legitimate disagreement with that in mind. Kingofaces43 (talk) 12:29, 24 July 2015 (UTC)

 * It is not at all surprising to see Kingofaces43 responding to the subject of edit warring given that he/she reverted useful well-sourced content from me just now. Amphibians are having enough problems from the ash borer without Wikipedia editors finding enjoyment in preventing useful content from being disseminated in articles like this one. When a subject-specific scientific journal isn't considered a strong enough source there is a problem with Wikipedia. But, the problem isn't with Wikipedia in this case. It appears to rest with Kingofaces43's judgement. The journal I cited is very credible and the content I added is very relevant. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.233.7.76 (talk • contribs) 22:25, July 27, 2017 (UTC)
 * This is not an appropriate use of the talk page. I opened up a talk section below about your edits if it's not clear how they conflicted with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. Kingofaces43 (talk) 16:17, 29 July 2017 (UTC)

Suggested Expansion of Disturbance Effects
I am proposing a section about the effects on forests as a disturbance event. This would be done as a part of the WikiEdu program, under the guidance of our University professor and our assigned WikiEd staff.

The existing article mentions only in passing ecological changes occurring in forests with high ash tree mortality, stating that "the loss of ash from an ecosystem can result in increased numbers of invasive plants, changes in soil nutrients, and effects on species that feed on ash." I am confident that peer-reviewed studies have been done that would help elaborate on that important piece of the article. A quick browsing of the journals shows some possibilities:

ForTheForest-ForTheTrees (talk) 04:51, 27 October 2017 (UTC)

 * It's good to see interest in this article. First, please see that this article is currently at Good Article status, and there was a review process it went through including depth of information etc. Part of that was removing WP:PRIMARY sources as you included and instead relying on WP:SECONDARY sources such as journal review articles instead, which is the preference at Wikipedia (see WP:SCIRS for more info. I know some (maybe all) of the sources you included are mentioned to some degree in the cited reviews currently in the article. There may be more information worth including in those reviews, but we generally assign what we call WP:WEIGHT to however much the secondary sources discuss something. Kingofaces43 (talk) 20:19, 28 October 2017 (UTC)

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

title: Talk:Emerald ash borer


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Talk:Gay male speech

An audio file would be very useful here
Any language article is confusing, are there any freely-available files to add to the page so we can hear what "trap vowel" and "dress vowel" mean? Or maybe a Wikipedian would like to create one? Gatemansgc (TɅ̊LK) 17:23, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

 * @Gatemansgc I agree, also. — I'ma editor2022 (🗣💬 |📖📚) 04:10, 13 February 2024 (UTC)

I concur. How can speech patterns be discussed without examples? Janice Vian, Ph.D. (talk) 15:57, 5 September 2021 (UTC)

Cause of gay lisp
Maybe gay lisp is caused by some mouth/teeth anatomical idiosyncrasy or deformity occurring frequently in male homosexuals. Just check footage of Roy Cohn (and others alike) speaking. He had such a weird mouth/teeth and he sure lisped...—AnnaBruta (talk) 21:58, 7 June 2021 (UTC)
 * Citation needed. Wolfdog (talk) 23:45, 7 June 2021 (UTC)
 * He had a weird mouth and teeth? we need actual citations here — Preceding unsigned comment added by WesPhil (talk • contribs) 12:43, 9 February 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:Gay male speech


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Category:Home computer hardware companies

This category includes computer hardware companies which made home computer hardware during the lifetime of that class of computer—namely the late 1970s to the early 1990s—as well as those few companies making hardware for today's retrocomputing hobbyist market.


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WXRV

WXRV (92.5 FM; "The River") is an adult album alternative radio station licensed to Andover, Massachusetts, and based in Haverhill, with a signal covering most of northeast Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire, and audible as far away as Plymouth, Massachusetts, and Portland, Maine.

Background
The station's slogan is "Independent Radio", proclaiming its status as being a single station separate from the large mass-media conglomerates such as iHeartMedia and Audacy with freedom from the idea of corporate playlists and national content. This enables WXRV to play a very wide variety of music, ranging from blues and folk to contemporary alternative and classic rock, as well as songs from numerous local musicians and lesser-known musical acts.

Despite the station's transmitter location, WXRV attempts to primarily serve the Greater Boston area; its signal also reaches into the nearby Manchester and Portsmouth markets. To overcome signal issues near Boston, the station applied for four on-channel booster stations in the Boston and MetroWest areas in August 2015.

The studios are still located in Haverhill, in the original WHAV art deco building. The current station inherited a facility on the top floor of its studio now called the River Music Hall, which was designed for broadcasting live performances in the pre-rock era, and is used today to broadcast live performances and to record performances for later broadcast. In 2007, their studio location began using photo-voltaic solar power for a portion of the station's power consumption, making it one of the few such solar-powered radio stations in the world at the time.

Starting in 2001 the River began its Riverfest Festival each summer. It is held in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and has had performers such as Matt Nathanson, Eric Hutchinson, Fastball, Barenaked Ladies, Anderson East, Phillip Phillips, and the Sam Roberts Band appear.

As of 2023, WXRV has an eight-person on-air staff: Dana Marshall (host of the Sunday morning 'Brunch By the River' program), Charlie Wilde, Carolyn Morrell, AJ Crozby, Duncan, Lori D, and Olivia Lowe (host of 'Under the Covers'). Current substitute hosts Stephanie Battaglia. Past on-air personalities include Annalisa Pop and Rita Cary.

Broadcast history
Originating in 1947 as WHAV, an AM station in Haverhill, an FM station was founded in 1948, but went dark in the early 1950s. WHAV-FM was restored on its current frequency in 1959. It became soft rock-formatted WLYT (Lite 92.5) in 1983, and gained its current identity as WXRV on August 1, 1995.

For several months after Northeast Broadcasting acquired WKBR (1250 AM) in Manchester, New Hampshire, in 1997, that station offered a temporary simulcast of WXRV. The station is now separately-owned WGAM.

In February 1999, WXRV began simulcasting on WVFM (105.7 FM) in Campton, New Hampshire, which Northeast Broadcasting had just acquired. For a brief time during 2012 and 2013, the station—which in 2005 had been renamed first WUSX and then WLKC —was programmed separately (though retaining the "River" branding and AAA format), before returning to the WXRV simulcast. In 2014, Northeast Broadcasting acquired a second New Hampshire station, WWHK (102.3 FM) in Concord; that station began broadcasting WXRV programming on May 2, 2014, though WWHK broadcast separate news, weather, and advertising. On March 28, 2016, WWHK changed its call letters to WXRG. WXRG and WLKC were sold to the Educational Media Foundation in 2020.

In 2008, WXRV began simulcasting in the northwest part of Central Massachusetts on WXRG (99.9 FM), licensed to Athol, Massachusetts, which itself was rebroadcast on daytime station WTUB (700 AM) in Orange and Athol starting in late 2011. In April 2013, WXRG took on the WFNX call sign, which had been previously used by an alternative rock station in Boston owned by the Boston Phoenix, first on 101.7 FM (now WBWL) and later as an Internet radio station; Northeast Broadcasting acquired the call letters after that station shut down along with the Phoenix. WFNX and WWBZ (the former WTUB) dropped the WXRV simulcast in May 2014 and began stunting with a wide range of music while preparing to launch new formats for the stations on June 9, with listeners being asked to vote on which of the songs being played should be included in the new formats.

In May 2016, WFNX announced that it would end the variety hits format after May 29, 2016, and return to simulcasting WXRV, citing a lack of advertiser support, in its announcement, WFNX said it needed ten businesses to advertise on the stations on an annual basis to cover their operations costs. WFAT (the former WWBZ) concurrently announced that it would also resume a simulcast of WXRV, but continued to broadcast its oldies format until Northeast Broadcasting sold it to Saga Communications in January 2019 (the station is now WQVD). WFNX continued simulcasting WXRV until 2020, when it was sold to the Educational Media Foundation and became K-Love station WKMY.

In late May 2014, WXRV added a translator in Needham, Massachusetts, W243DC (96.5 FM); the initial application for this facility had been made in 2003. In 2023, Northeast Broadcasting sold W243DC—by then relocated to One Financial Center in Boston—for $550,000 to Gois Broadcasting; it would become a translator for WAMG.

title: WXRV


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East Coast Park

East Coast Park is a beach and a park on the southeastern coast of Singapore. It stretches along the south of Marine Parade, Bedok and Tampines. It was opened in the 1970s, after the Singapore government had completed reclaiming land off the coast at Katong, from Kallang to Changi. Themed "Recreation for All", it not only serves the needs of communities in the east, other Singapore residents do also visit the park for sports, recreation, and food.

The 185 ha East Coast Park is the largest park in Singapore, and is built entirely on reclaimed land with a man-made beach, where swimming is possible. The beach is protected by breakwaters.

The park has barbecue pits, chalets, food centres and amenities for various sports activities. Visitors can fish at Bedok Jetty (Area F). A cycling and inline skating track runs along the perimeter of the park, which measures over 15 km long. It is connected to Changi Beach Park by the Coastal Park Connector Network, a 12 km park connector running along Tanah Merah Coast Road.

Description
With an area of 185 ha, East Coast Park is Singapore's largest. It is bounded by the East Coast Parkway to the north and has 15 km of coastline. The park is also the most visited park in Singapore, with 7.5 million visitors annually.

East Coast Park is divided into eight areas, A to H. Of these, those at the park's edges, areas A, G, and H, tend to be less crowded, while the main facilities and attractions are located in the more popular areas, from B to F.

Initial plans and development
East Coast Park was first proposed as part of plans for the utilisation of land reclaimed as part of the East Coast Reclamation Project. Initial plans for the park included a 9 acre swimming lagoon, areas for camping and picnicking, and outdoor sports facilities such as tennis courts. Development work commenced in the middle of 1971, and the park, although still under development, was opened to the public in October 1972, to alleviate some of the pressure on the Changi and Tanah Merah beaches on weekends and public holidays. Construction on a $12 million, 350 acre seaside holiday resort began in September 1974 and a dedicated cycling track was opened for public use at the end of that year.

The S$4 million swimming lagoon was opened in May 1976, along with refreshment and sanitation facilities. Upon its opening, the lagoon immediately became popular with swimmers and picnickers, with over 70,000 people visiting in the first week. To provide access between the park and nearby areas, six underpasses were constructed at a cost of S$1 million.

In January 1977, plans to build a 2.8 ha aquatic centre to complement the lagoon were announced. The Singapore Tennis Centre, located in the park, was opened in March that year. Plans for a 1200-seat food centre near the lagoon were announced in April, and the first batch of the Housing and Urban Development Company's (HUDC) chalets were opened in May, with the rest following soon after. Plans for a seafood centre in the park, with five seafood restaurants from Upper East Coast Road, were also announced that year.

The $6 million aquatic centre, named 'Big Splash', was opened in July 1977. It featured an 85 m slide, which was claimed to be the world's longest and highest, and an artificial wave pool, as well as food outlets. Nevertheless, the aquatic centre suffered from poor business and low patronage, and cost $2 million a year to operate. As a result, the original operator sold it to the Singapore Industrial Business Organisation (SILO) for $4.3 million the following year.

In August 1978, the Parkland Golf Driving Range, the first one in Singapore, opened its doors in the park. Due to high demand for the chalets, the Urban Redevelopment Authority constructed 59 additional two-storey chalets, twice as large as the previous ones, for the HUDC in 1979. Costing $2.5 million, the chalets were opened in April 1981.

The 1980s and 1990s
In 1980, as part of the government's desire to inculcate a sense of courtesy among road users, a 4 ha, $1 million traffic games park for children, operated by the Traffic Police, was built. A sailing school was opened by the Singapore Sports Council off the lagoon in May that year. The cycling track was also extended from the lagoon to Changi Point and the entire East Coast area was landscaped as parkland over two years beginning in 1981, to cope with the large number of users. The East Coast Recreation Centre, built at a cost of $3.5 million, opened in 1982, with restaurants, a computer library, sports facilities, and a remote-control car track. During this period, the park also had insufficient parking spaces to cope with demand, resulting in widespread illegal parking in the more popular areas. Hence, more parking spaces were built, and the government put in place parking fees to encourage motorists to use other, less utilised carparks. To facilitate crime prevention and public outreach, a police post was opened in the park in October 1982.

Construction of what was stated to be one end of the park, a 1.2 km stretch between Bedok Canal and the Tanah Merah Golf Club, began in 1983. In February 1985, plans to extend the park by 17 ha to the Bedok Canal were announced, along with additional facilities to be built within that area. In October of that year, the $5.4 million East Coast Parkway Seafood Centre opened for business with six restaurants, with brisk business in the first few weeks of operation. To improve access to the park, and as a result of feedback from road users, the one-way service road was converted to two-way traffic in 1986. In the same year, the children's lagoon was closed due to low patronage and was filled in. A water slide was installed at the lagoon to attract more users, to little effect.

To reduce confusion, the naming system for the areas in the park was changed in 1987 with the areas being named, from A to G, from west to east. By the late 1980s, the chalets at the park had become frequently utilised for vice and other questionable activities. To prevent the chalets from being used as such, in March 1990, the UDMC, which operated the chalets, limited bookings to a maximum of two chalets. In May 1990, in light of similar violations across Singapore, the eight restaurants at the seafood centre were fined, and two suspended, for poor hygiene and for breaking several health laws.

Littering was also rampant within the park, with The Straits Times claiming that it had the most litter of all the parks in Singapore in 1990. In November 1990, a skateboard park was opened at Big Splash. The park was also the first area which litterbugs cleaned up when given a Corrective Work Order (CWO) under a new law, implemented in 1992. The park had also been facing considerable soil erosion, with two to seven per cent of jogging and cycling paths relocated as of 1993. Nevertheless, the Parks and Recreation Department stated that the soil would stabilise. In November 1992, Sun Corporation announced plans to develop a $40 million leisure and recreation park at the lagoon. The development was handed over to Unicentral in 1993, but by 1994, the plan had run into trouble, with building plans still not approved.

Plans for E-zone, a $50 million theme park at the East Coast Recreation Centre, were announced in July 1995. To accommodate E-zone, the East Coast Recreation Centre underwent a significant revamp in 1996. The lagoon was turned into a fish and crab-catching area, which opened in November 1996. In April 1997, camping permits were made available to the public, with camping permitted at three designated camp sites within the park.

The 2000s and onward
By the start of the 2000s, the park's popularity had waned considerably from its heyday in the 1970s and 80s. To rejuvenate the park, major upgrading plans were put in place in 2003. These included expanding the park by 11 ha, connecting it with Marina South, renovation of the food centre, and introducing more food and beverage outlets. A mini-golf range, Lilliputt, was also opened that year. To cope with increasing demand, more facilities were added to the park in the following years. These included the 1.5 ha Bougainvillea Garden and the $2 million Cable Ski Park Ski360 which was located at the East Coast Lagoon. Moreover, in November 2005, a $160 million revamp of the park was announced. In 2008, after a $6 million revamp, the Big Splash water park was reopened as Playground @ Big Splash, which was marketed as a 'lifestyle destination'. Camping within the park also gained popularity at this time, with 12,000 campers as of 2008. NParks implemented a stricter permit-to-camp system as a result.

In 2012, Marine Cove was closed for redevelopment. That same year, the National Parks Board (NParks) announced plans to connect the park with the Bay East Garden, with completion by 2014. This was done to improve safety for cyclists and to improve access. After eight years, the Ski360 cable ski park closed in November 2014. Additional closures followed, with several restaurants at the East Coast Seafood Centre making way for a lawn in 2015, and Raintree Cove, consisting of 10 establishments, closing in 2017.

New facilities were opened at the sites of closed attractions, with Parkland Green, a development with retail outlets and a lawn for picnickers, opening in 2014 at the former location of Parkland Golf Driving Range. After a two-year redevelopment, Marine Cove was reopened in 2016, with NParks touting its facilities as family-friendly. Marine Cove then became the most popular in the park, attracting large crowds. With concerns over overcrowding at Marine Cove, NParks announced redevelopment plans at the former Raintree Cove, Goldkist Chalets and Big Splash sites, meant to spread out park patrons throughout more areas of the park. Raintree Cove became an area for leisure activities, and in November 2019, Cyclist Park, with two cycling circuits, retail outlets, and other facilities intended for cyclists, was opened. Redevelopment works in the park were completed with the opening of Coastal PlayGrove, a recreational area for adolescents, on the former Big Splash site in March 2021, while plans for additional facilities, such as a nature trail and a wellness garden, were announced that year.

National Sailing Centre
The National Sailing Centre, run by the Singapore Sailing Federation, conducts activities such as sailing and wind surfing.

East Coast Lagoon Food Centre
The East Coast Lagoon Food Centre is a hawker centre near the East Coast Lagoon.

Occupying 0.81 ha, the centre was constructed by the Public Works Department in 1977 at a cost of $700,000, with seating for 1,200 and 60 stalls. Constructed of wood, the centre consisted of 10 structures, with butterfly-shaped roofs for the cooking areas and pyramid-shaped ones for the eating areas; its design was intended to blend in with the seaside and the lagoon.

In 2003, as part of a redevelopment plan for the park, the hawker centre received an upgrade. In late 2013, it was upgraded at a cost of $1.5 million. As part of the upgrade, the toilets were renovated and the seating capacity increased. Roofing and wooden floors were also installed.

East Coast Seafood Centre
The East Coast Seafood Centre was opened at the same time as the East Coast Park, with eight restaurants serving seafood. Its original name was UDMC Seafood Centre, which was later changed in 2000 to its current name. In 2005, the Seafood Centre was upgraded to give it a modernised look.

Plans for the seafood centre were first announced in July 1977, with five seafood restaurants from Upper East Coast Road. The owners of the restaurants were initially unhappy with the offer to move, citing reduced seating and patronage at the new site. In response, the Ministry of National Development claimed that with the offer, they were helping them by allowing them to continue business permanently, since the restaurants were then operating on a temporary basis.

In September 1980, revised plans for the seafood centre were announced, with room for eight seafood restaurants located near the lagoon. Eventually, the seafood centre, with space for eight restaurants, was constructed near the swimming lagoon due to frequent complaints by residents in the Upper East Coast Road area over illegal parking by restaurant customers, at a cost of $5 million. Tenders for the restaurants were called in February 1985.

After renovations, the first six restaurants at the seafood centre opened for business in October 1985. For these restaurants, the business was generally better than at their old premises, with restaurant owners noting increased takings, and their patrons were also satisfied with the new location. However, there was also much unhappiness among restaurant owners and customers over the inconvenience of the seafood centre. In 1990, renovations were carried out at the restaurants. That same year, all the restaurants at the centre were fined, while two, Golden Lagoon and Jumbo, were suspended for two weeks for violations of health regulations, such as poor hygiene practices. Nevertheless, business did not seem to be affected, with a Straits Times reporter noting that they still drew large crowds in the evening.

Through the rest of the 1980s and 1990s, the restaurants at the centre generally did well, and many tourists patronised them. However, by 2015, customer numbers had decreased considerably, with those at Red House Seafood falling by 35 per cent in the previous two years. In March 2015, Red House Seafood closed, with a landscaped lawn taking its place, and with their leases having expired, two other restaurants, No Signboard Seafood and Fisherman's Village, also closed.

Marine Cove
Marine Cove (formerly known as the East Coast Recreation Centre), is a building complex in Area C at East Coast Park.

Construction of the East Coast Recreation Centre began in April 1980, and it was completed in early 1982 at a cost of $3.5 million. Touted by its developer to have something for each member of the family, it featured a computer library offering computer classes, a music school, an amusement room with video games, restaurants and sports facilities. Because of insufficient available parking spaces, an additional car park was initially opened on a grass verge; a permanent car park was eventually built.

In 1996, as part of the new E-zone theme park, the complex underwent an eight-month renovation in 1996. Among the changes were the construction of a room and a building to house Sega gaming machines.

The location was sold to Rock Productions, New Creation Church's business arm, in 2002, and it was subsequently renamed Marine Cove. During this time, many cafés, restaurants, and bars were located along the stretch. It also had a small commemorative fountain in the middle of the pedestrian walkway in its premises. It featured a McDonald's restaurant with a drive-thru and a "skate-thru" counter. It also used to have a bowling alley and a billiards saloon.

With the land handed back to NParks in 2011, the area was closed on 18 March 2012 for the area's redevelopment. The new Marine Cove featuring a greater variety of dining options and a 3,500 m2 children's playground at the redeveloped facility, reopened on 28 June 2016.

Raintree Cove
Raintree Cove was once an establishment in Area C which once housed Long Beach seafood restaurant, Korean barbecue restaurant and a tuition Center and arcade on the second floor. Facing the seafront had a bar, a bicycle rental kiosk and an ice cream kiosk. Within the grounds also featured a Tennis Centre with an indoor Futsal court. Due to its lease expiry, it was closed in 2017 for redevelopment. It was reopened in 2019 as an outdoor refreshment lounge area with greenery featuring swings and an open lawn.

Coastal Playgrove
Formerly known as Big Splash, the sports facility that once home to a Singapore's first themed indoor mini golf course and a water play slide had been redeveloped into an outdoor play area with dining options surrounding the facility.

Parkland Green
Parkland Green is a 4 ha cluster of restaurants, cafes and consists of an open lawn for activities. The building facility is situated next to Carpark C1.

Parkland Green opened in September 2014 and is also a popular spot for pet lovers especially on weekends.

Bedok Jetty
Bedok Jetty is the longest fishing jetty—250 m—in Singapore. It is located in Area F of East Coast Park.

It is the most popular jetty for fishing in Singapore, but it is also frequented by cyclists, rollerbladers, joggers or park visitors since it is part of the East Coast Park.

Bedok Jetty was originally built by a local businessman Mr Yap Swee Hong at a cost of $1.5 million in 1966. He did this to facilitate the importation of scrap metal from the Americans who were engaged in the Vietnam war at the time. It was built in the reclaimed land of East Coast under the East Coast reclamation. It was used by the Singapore Armed Forces in 1975 to receive the refugees after the surrender of Saigon to the North Vietnamese forces. An SAF Field Hospital was deployed to Bedok Jetty to provide first aid and other essential medical services to all Singapore bound refugee boats fleeing South Vietnam following the fall of Saigon in 1975.

In the 1980s, the jetty became popular among fishing enthusiasts. However, by 1988, it was in a poor state, with The Straits Times noting its corroded railings and cracked support beams. In March that year, the Public Works Department closed the jetty for a $1.1 million facelift, consisting of repairs to the jetty's deck and supports.

Siglap Canal
Located near Area C4, a new lawn and lookout deck in the East Coast Park was opened to provide visitors with an additional area for recreational activities as well as a community space. These enhancements were carried out that included drainage upgrading for a 230 m section of the Siglap Canal to the sea.

Transportation
The park is accessible by East Coast Park Service Road with numerous exits along the East Coast Parkway. Ample parking space is provided with many carparks situated in various locations in the park. SBS Transit Bus Service 401 stops along the East Coast Park Service Road from Bedok Bus Interchange during weekends and public holidays. Underpasses link the park to the nearby Marine Parade housing estate.

The park is also connected to other parks in Singapore through the Park Connector Network, being part of the Eastern Coastal Park Connector Network. Within the park, footpaths and cycling paths allow access to pedestrians and cyclists respectively.

title: East Coast Park


text:
Talk:East Coast Park

Untitled
Please add some context. e.g. Where is this park? Yes, we know it's an East coast, but the East coast of which country? And where on that coast? P Ingerson 06:16, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Can we swim at the East Coast Park? What animals are there in the beach —Preceding unsigned comment added by 119.74.135.177 (talk) 08:08, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

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title: Talk:East Coast Park


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Kōriki Masanaga

Kōriki Masanaga (高力 正長) was a Japanese daimyō of the Azuchi–Momoyama period, who ruled the Iwatsuki Domain. Masanaga, like his father Kiyonaga, served the Tokugawa clan.

Masanaga died in 1599, and was succeeded by his son Tadafusa.

title: Kōriki Masanaga


text:
User talk:Filladdar

Furor and/or furore are not the same thing as führer... Just so you know! Musser 06:19, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Vault solutions
A tag has been placed on Vault solutions requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section A7 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because the article appears to be about about a person, organization (band, club, company, etc.) or web content, but it does not indicate how or why the subject is important or significant: that is, why an article about that subject should be included in an encyclopedia. Under the criteria for speedy deletion, such articles may be deleted at any time. Please see the guidelines for what is generally accepted as notable. You may also wish to consider using a Wizard to help you create articles - see the Article Wizard.

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title: User talk:Filladdar


text:
Zondervan

Zondervan is an international Christian media and publishing company located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States. Zondervan is a founding member of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA). It is a part of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc. and has multiple imprints including Zondervan Academic, Zonderkidz, Blink, and Editorial Vida. Zondervan is the commercial rights holder for the New International Version (NIV) Bible in North America. According to the Zondervan website, it is the largest Christian publisher.

History
Zondervan was founded in 1931 in Grandville, MI, a suburb of Grand Rapids, by brothers Peter ("P.J.", "Pat") and Bernard (Bernie) Zondervan, who were the nephews of publisher William B. Eerdmans. The company began in the Zondervans' farmhouse and originally dealt with selling remainders and publishing public domain works.

The first book it published was Women of the Old Testament by Abraham Kuyper, in 1933. Within a few years it developed a list of its own, and began publishing Bible editions. The Berkeley Version appeared in 1959, and the Amplified Bible in 1965. The New International Version New Testament was published in partnership with the International Bible Society in 1973, and the complete NIV Bible appeared in 1978. The company was bought by HarperCollins, a division of News Corp, in 1988, and is the company's principal Christian book publishing division. Scott Macdonald was appointed president and CEO in May 2011.

Zondervan also publishes many other books by Christian authors focusing on topics of interest to Christians. In the 1970s it published The Late, Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey, which has sold more than 30 million copies. The publisher is also known for the Bible storytelling books of Ethel Barrett, Joni by quadriplegic Joni Eareckson Tada, Baptist minister and author Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life, which has sold more than 35 million copies, and Sacred Marriage, by Gary Thomas. In 2004, Zondervan expanded to include Renee Altson, Shane Claiborne, Sarah Raymond Cunningham and Margaret Feinberg, authors writing for young readers.

The children's arm of the company Zonderkidz published The Jesus Storybook Bible in 2007, written by Sally Lloyd-Jones and illustrated by Jago. It has sold in excess of 2 million copies in 19 languages.

The NIV Zondervan Study Bible was released in 2015 during the 50th anniversary of the New International Version (NIV) translation. The study Bible, edited by Dr. D. A. Carson, features over 60 evangelical contributors from multiple denominations.

On 11 March 2019, Zondervan announced the formation of two new imprints, Zondervan Reflective and Zondervan Academic. Although both imprints ran informally at Zondervan for several years this announcement formalized their public brand.

Zondervan Reflective focuses on publishing books discussing the relationship between faith and culture, leadership, and how Christians can lead biblically faithful lives privately and in the public square. Noted authors include Andy Stanley, Clay Scroggins, J.D. Greear, Colin Hansen, Tim Challies, Michael Horton, Jared Wilson, John Lennox, Jemar Tisby, and Peter Scazzero. On 28 June 2020, Jemar Tisby's The Color of Compromise reached #13 on the New York Times Best Sellers list.

Zondervan Academic publishes reference volumes, textbooks, and monographs, for both use in schools and by many pastors. It is widely known for its biblical language resources, including the bestselling textbooks Basics of Biblical Greek, Basics of Biblical Hebrew, and many others. The imprint also publishes several popular commentary series, including the Zondervan Exegetical Commentary, Story of God Bible Commentary, and Word Biblical Commentary. Noted authors include N.T. Wright, Douglas Moo, Scot McKnight, Michael Bird, John Walton, Michael Horton, Dan Wallace, Bruce Waltke, Tremper Longman, Thomas Kidd, Craig Keener, Thomas Schreiner, Nijay Gupta, Lynn Cohick, and D.A. Carson.

Recording business
Zondervan was in the Christian record business for many years with the Singspiration and Zondervan Victory labels in the 1960s, Singcord in the 1970s, and the Milk & Honey Records label, starting in the late 1970s.

In 1980, Zondervan and Paragon Associates bought Christian record label Benson Records in a partnership to own and operate for $3 million. The resulting company was (measured by sales) one and a half times the size of its closest competitor, Word. Zondervan bought out Paragon in 1983, and eventually sold Benson to Zomba Label Group in 1993, now a part of Sony BMG Music Entertainment.

Pradis
Pradis was the trademarked name for Zondervan's native format for biblical software. On September 22, 2009, Logos Research Systems, Inc, and Zondervan announced a new partnership, and the retirement of Pradis. Thirty-one titles were slated for availability in "early 2010" in the LOGOS Bible Software format.

title: Zondervan


text:
New Sudan

New Sudan is a concept for restructuring the Sudanese state, which was proposed by the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement during the Second Sudanese Civil War. The original SPLA/M Manifesto outlined 'New Sudan' as a proposed united and secular Sudanese state. The vision of 'New Sudan' was developed by Dr. John Garang, who advocated the 'New Sudan' as a democratic and pluralistic state.

The 1994 National Convention of New Sudan (organized by SPLA/M) redefined 'New Sudan' as a system of governance for the regions under SPLA/M control. After John Garang's death in 2005 and the independence of South Sudan in 2011, the New Sudan discourse became a less prominent feature in Sudanese politics.

title: New Sudan


text:
Talk:Canadian postal abbreviations for provinces and territories

 * Northwest Territories missing? --Closeapple 06:22, 2005 Apr 17 (UTC)

 * Fixed. Musser 06:28, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Name
Can this simply be renamed Canadian postal abbreviations? To my knowledge there are no other common types of postal abbreviation. This would also match United States postal abbreviations. - SimonP 01:01, 8 June 2006 (UTC)why do peps care about ontorio so much

Agree. The other articles on postal abbreviations are Australian postal abbreviations and United States postal abbreviations. The word

Update
We should update this article with official information from. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.138.43.113 (talk) 07:32, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Correction
Article states "regardless of whether it is domestic or international mail addressed to Canada, the Postal Code always is always the last item in the address."

This has not been true for several years. The Canada Post addressing guideline is "the municipality, province or territory, and Postal Code should always appear on the same line ..." http://www.canadapost.ca/tools/pg/manual/PGaddress-e.asp For incoming international mail, the word "CANADA" appears alone on the last line.--Torontonian1 (talk) 14:45, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

Adjacent countries

 * non-overlapping abbreviations to adjacent countries

I thought Canada had only one adjacent country: America (USA). I'd also like to make one list combining the USPS codes for the US with the Canadian codes:
 * BC - British Columbia
 * DC - Washington, D.C.
 * NY - New York

Any takers? --Uncle Ed (talk) 05:14, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

conflicting information re PQ → QC
This article says that "PQ" changed to "QC" for Quebec in 1991. But the PQ disambiguation page says it happened in 1992. We should figure out which is correct. —Steve Summit (talk) 21:33, 6 July 2013 (UTC)

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Replace "acronym" with "abbreviation"
These are not acronyms. An acronym is a pronounceable word made from the initial letters or parts of words, such as scuba or sonar. Nobody attempts to pronounce "MB" or "QC", do they? Even if some people do not understand the distinction, a reference source like Wikipedia should respect it. Doug Ewell (talk) 05:24, 14 June 2021 (UTC)


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User:Erehtsti/Archive01

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Archive from Dec'04 to Apr'05. Talk page

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Latin Union
I just wanted to say hello! Comment allez vous? Do you like languages? I do. I wish I could become a translator and just study languages like latin, French and spanish. About the Latin Union, they haven't replied. --Jondel 01:00, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

title: User:Erehtsti/Archive01


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User talk:Dp2005

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Image Tagging Image:Tatu is on a car dump 05.jpg
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It seems like the publicity tag, source information and a fair use rational on the image description page would be the most useful thing you could do here. Regards, Dethomas 04:26, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

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AfD nomination of List of The Price Is Right pricing games
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title: User talk:Dp2005


text:
Mirian I

Mirian I (მირიან I) was a king (mepe) of Iberia who reigned in the 2nd century BC. An adopted son of his father-in-law King Sauromaces I, he was a Persian-born prince but governed over Iberia as a member of the Pharnavazid dynasty.

His reign coincided with the emergence of large geopolitical changes associated with the slow collapse of the Seleucid Empire and the rise of Parthia, as well as the increasing power of the neighboring Kingdom of Armenia. While he faced a violent North Caucasian invasion, he repelled it successfully and fortified the Dariali Pass, which would remain Georgia's first line of northern defense until the 19th century.

Origins
The medieval Georgian Chronicles, telling the history of the ancient Kingdom of Iberia, remains vague on the origins of Mirian. In the book, he is named a "Nebrotid" along with his descendants, an indication of his Persian origin as "Nebrot" was the Georgian name for Biblical figure Nimrod, the mythical ancestor of Persians. While the identity of his father is unknown, his mother was said to be a maternal aunt of the wife of King Sauromaces I of Iberia and a sister of the Persian governor of Azerbaijan.

Vakhushti of Kartli and Marie-Félicité Brosset talk of Mirian I as the founder of the Nebrotid dynasty of Iberia. However, Cyril Toumanoff believed that the king was born into the Orontid royal dynasty of Armenia (though the latter disappeared around 200 BC), or even a Persian Mihranid (and so even though the Mihranids only appeared in history in the 4th century). Most likely, Mirian I was a Persian noble, his name coming from the Middle Persian mihrbān ("friendly, good") and the Old Persian "Miθrāpāna" ("under the protection of Mithra").

Heir to the throne
King Sauromaces I had Mirian sent to Iberia as he had no male heir and was seeking a successor. He offered him his oldest daughter to wed, as well as the provinces of Gachiani and Samshvilde, the southern marches of the kingdom, with the title of eristavi ("royal governor"). He would eventually formally be appointed as heir to the throne by Sauromaces I, making his reign a continuation of the Pharnavazid dynasty.

North Caucasian invasion
In 162 BC (or 159 BC according to Cyril Toumanoff), King Sauromaces I died after a long reign of 75 years. Mirian acceded the throne, becoming the third King of Iberia, his capital being Mtskheta. He ruled at a time of tense geopolitical crises: at his southern border, Artaxiad Armenia at an increasing ambition that threatened the southern territories of Iberia, while Hellen Seleucids and Parthian Arsacids were at war over the control of the Near East.

The largest conflict came, however, at the north of Iberia, where several mountainous tribes maintained an unstable relationship with Iberia. At an unknown date, the Dzurdzuk tribe, historical allies of Iberia, invaded the provinces of Kakheti and Bazaleti, in the north of the kingdom. Along with several other North Caucasian tribes and the Chartaletian clan, which had been settled in Iberia by King Sauromaces I, the Dzurdzuks ravaged the country and captured many Iberians as hostages. King Mirian I summoned the governors of the eight royal provinces of the kingdom, as well as the pro-Iberian Dzurdzuk contingent in Svaneti to repel the invasion.

Mirian and his troops managed to first free to lands occupied by the North Caucasians, before chasing down the Dzurdzuks. The decisive battle took place in the Dariali Gorge, where Iberian forces afoot, led by the king himself, won a bloody victory over the invaders. Continuing his campaign, King Mirian pursued the North Caucasians and ravaged the Dzurdzuk and Chartaletian lands.

Following this invasion, Mirian I had a series of fortifications built in the gorge, known as the Dariali Pass. Till the 19th century, these fortifications would be used as the first line of defense against North Caucasian raids.

Shift in foreign policy
Unlike his predecessors, King Mirian became a vassal of Parthia, while seeking to keep close ties with the Seleucid Empire, notably my marrying his daughter to wed the Armenian Prince Artaxias, son of the pro-Seleucid king Artavasdes I. These alliances, however, could not prevent the rise of the Kingdom of Pontus, whose ruler King Mithridates VI Eupator acceded the throne in 120 BC and began a progressive annexation of Colchis.

The Persian origins of Mirian I may be behind the fact that he has been depicted as a Zoroastrian. He dispatched several religious representatives across Iberia, but had to face a large opposition and several bloody revolts. In 112 BC (or 109 BC), King Mirian I died and left his throne to his son Pharnajom.

Family
King Mirian I had at least two children from an unknown wife:
 * Pharnajom, King of Iberia
 * a daughter, wife of King Artaxias I.

title: Mirian I


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Information quality

Information quality (IQ) is the quality of the content of information systems. It is often pragmatically defined as: "The fitness for use of the information provided". IQ frameworks also provides a tangible approach to assess and measure DQ/IQ in a robust and rigorous manner.

Conceptual problems
Although this pragmatic definition is usable for most everyday purposes, specialists often use more complex models for information quality. Most information system practitioners use the term synonymously with data quality. However, as many academics make a distinction between data and information, some will the process to guarantee confidence that particular information meets some context specific quality requirements. It has been suggested, however, that higher the quality the greater will be the confidence in meeting more general, less specific contexts.

Dimensions and metrics of information quality
"Information quality" is a measure of the value which the information provides to the user of that information. "Quality" is often perceived as subjective and the quality of information can then vary among users and among uses of the information. Nevertheless, a high degree of quality increases its objectivity or at least the intersubjectivity. Accuracy can be seen as just one element of IQ but, depending upon how it is defined, can also be seen as encompassing many other dimensions of quality.

If not, it is perceived that often there is a trade-off between accuracy and other dimensions, aspects or elements of the information determining its suitability for any given tasks. Richard Wang and Diane Strong propose a list of dimensions or elements used in assessing Information Quality is:

 * Intrinsic IQ: accuracy, objectivity, believability, reputation
 * Contextual IQ: relevance, value-added, timeliness, completeness, amount of information
 * Representational IQ: interpretability, format, coherence, compatibility
 * Accessibility IQ: accessibility, access security

Other authors propose similar but different lists of dimensions for analysis, and emphasize measurement and reporting as information quality metrics. Larry English prefers the term "characteristics" to dimensions. In fact, a considerable amount of information quality research involves investigating and describing various categories of desirable attributes (or dimensions) of data. Research has recently shown the huge diversity of terms and classification structures used.

While information as a distinct term has various ambiguous definitions, there's one which is more general, such as "description of events". While the occurrences being described cannot be subjectively evaluated for quality, since they're very much autonomous events in space and time, their description can—since it possesses a garnishment attribute, unavoidably attached by the medium which carried the information, from the initial moment of the occurrences being described.

In an attempt to deal with this natural phenomenon, qualified professionals primarily representing the researchers' guild, have at one point or another identified particular metrics for information quality. They could also be described as 'quality traits' of information, since they're not so easily quantified, but rather subjectively identified on an individual basis.

Quality metrics
Source:

Authority refers to the expertise or recognized official status of a source. Consider the reputation of the author and publisher. When working with legal or government information, consider whether the source is the official provider of the information. Verifiability refers to the ability of a reader to verify the validity of the information irrespective of how authoritative the source is. To verify the facts is part of the duty of care of the journalistic deontology, as well as, where possible, to provide the sources of information so that they can be verified
 * Authority/verifiability

Scope of coverage refers to the extent to which a source explores a topic. Consider time periods, geography or jurisdiction and coverage of related or narrower topics.
 * Scope of coverage

Composition and organization has to do with the ability of the information source to present its particular message in a coherent, logically sequential manner.
 * Composition and organization

Objectivity is the bias or opinion expressed when a writer interprets or analyze facts. Consider the use of persuasive language, the source’s presentation of other viewpoints, its reason for providing the information and advertising.
 * Objectivity

 * Integrity
 * 1) Adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character
 * 2) The state of being whole, entire, or undiminished

 * Comprehensiveness
 * 1) Of large scope; covering or involving much; inclusive: a comprehensive study.
 * 2) Comprehending mentally; having an extensive mental grasp.
 * 3) Insurance. covering or providing broad protection against loss.

Validity of some information has to do with the degree of obvious truthfulness which the information carries
 * Validity

As much as ‘uniqueness’ of a given piece of information is intuitive in meaning, it also significantly implies not only the originating point of the information but also the manner in which it is presented and thus the perception which it conjures. The essence of any piece of information we process consists to a large extent of those two elements.
 * Uniqueness

Timeliness refers to information that is current at the time of publication. Consider publication, creation and revision dates. Beware of Web site scripting that automatically reflects the current day’s date on a page. Means that documented methods are capable of being used on the same data set to achieve a consistent result.
 * Timeliness
 * Reproducibility (utilized primarily when referring to instructive information)

Professional associations

 * IQ International—the International Association for Information and Data Quality
 * IQ International is a not-for-profit, vendor neutral, professional association formed in 2004, dedicated to building the information and data quality profession.

Information quality conferences
A number of major conferences relevant to information quality are held annually:
 * Annual MIT Chief Data Officer & Information Quality (CDOIQ) Symposium
 * Annual conferences held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

 * Data Governance and Information Quality Conference
 * Commercial conferences held each year in the USA

 * Data Quality Asia Pacific
 * Commercial conference held annually in Sydney or Melbourne, Australia

 * Enterprise Data and Business Intelligence Conference Europe
 * Commercial conferences held annually in London, England.

 * Information and Data Quality Conference
 * Not for profit conference run annually by IQ International (the International Association for Information and Data Quality) in the USA

 * International Conference on Information Quality
 * Academic Conference launched through MITIQ held annually at a University

 * Master Data Management & Data Governance Conferences
 * Six major conferences are run annually by the MDM Institute in venues such as London, San Francisco, Sydney, Toronto, Madrid, Frankfurt, Shanghai and New York City.

title: Information quality


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Watching Rainbows

"Watching Rainbows" is an unreleased song by the Beatles recorded on 14 January 1969 during the Get Back sessions at Twickenham Studios. It features John Lennon on lead vocal and electric piano, Paul McCartney on electric guitar, and Ringo Starr on drums. No bass guitar was present as McCartney was filling in for the absent George Harrison, who had temporarily left the group at that stage of the sessions. The song is played in two chords and has since been compared to "I Am the Walrus" and "I've Got a Feeling" for the similarities in the song's lyrics and structure.

A riff from the song was integrated into the Plastic Ono Band song "Don't Worry Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow)", which was released later in 1969.

Composition and background
"Watching Rainbows" is an improvised song written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was never released and can only be heard on bootlegs. The track was recorded at Twickenham Studios on 14 January 1969 by producer George Martin during the Get Back sessions. "Mean Mr. Mustard" and the unreleased song "Madman" were also recorded during this session, although the Beatles ultimately abandoned them after a few run-throughs. The song features Paul McCartney on lead guitar because George Harrison had temporarily left the group at this stage of the sessions. The song has a two chord riff.

"Watching Rainbows" is very often associated with two other songs by the Beatles. One is the structurally similar McCartney tune "I've Got a Feeling", which the Beatles released on their final album Let It Be on 8 May 1970. The other one is the single, "I Am the Walrus", which had been released on 24 November 1967, as the B-side of the hit single "Hello Goodbye". "I Am the Walrus" was later released on their EP Magical Mystery Tour on 8 December 1967. One of the most intelligible pieces of lyric in the song is the oft-repeated line "Standing in the garden, waiting for the sun to shine", reminiscent of a line from the earlier Beatles tune, which contains the line "Sitting in an English garden, waiting for the sun." Because of that slight similarity, the song is often interpreted as being derived from, or loosely inspired by, "I Am the Walrus". The lyrics also feature the words "shoot me", which Lennon later reused on his hit single "Come Together". It begins with McCartney playing the lead guitar part from "I've Got a Feeling", while Lennon joins in and improvises three verses from "I Am the Walrus". It leads into a chorus, but then evolves to a jam. Lyrically, the song is about a man suffering from poverty who doesn't just want to watch rainbows, but make his own. There is also a line concerning a relationship with a mother, which is echoed in Lennon's song "Mother", released by him in 1970.

Reception
In a negative review, author Richie Unterberger dismissed it as "uninteresting" and "chunky", furthermore calling the track a "throw-away". In a positive review, David Marchese of Vulture called the song "another playful, jammy track from the Let It Be sessions".

Personnel
According to Kenneth Womack:

 * John Lennon – electric piano, lead vocals
 * Paul McCartney – lead guitar
 * Ringo Starr – drums

title: Watching Rainbows


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Communist Party of Andalusia

The Communist Party of Andalusia (in Spanish: Partido Comunista de Andalucía) is the federation of the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) in Andalusia.

History
PCA was founded in 1979, as the Andalusian branch of PCE was converted into a regional party. The party supported autonomy for Andalusia, and called for a 'yes'-vote in the 1980 referendum on autonomy. During this phase it worked in cooperation with the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party at the municipal level. At the time, Fernando Soto was the general secretary of PCA.

PCA contested the 1982 Spanish parliamentary election, obtaining 211,456 votes (6.19% of the votes in Andalusia). The party was able to elect one parliamentarian to the Congress of Deputies, from the electoral district of Seville.

In the 1983 municipal elections, at a time when the influence of PCE was decreased across Spain, the Andalusian communists were able to win a decisive victory (57.4%) in the city of Córdoba. This was the sole provincial capital in which the PCE won the post of mayor in these elections. The electoral victory was largely due to the charismatic leadership of the mayoral candidate, Julio Anguita. The fourth congress of PCA, held in January 1984, decided to launch the coalition Convocatoria por Andalucía. Convocatoria por Andalucía would become a model for the statewide United Left (IU) which contested the 1986 municipal elections.

Leadership and organization
PCA is led by a Central Committee.

The tenth congress of PCA, held in Matalascañas March 20–21, 2010 elected José Manuel Mariscal as the new general secretary of PCA, replacing José Luis Centella (who had been elected as the general secretary of PCE in November 2009). Juan de Dios Villanueva was elected as vice general secretary.

The twelfth congress of PCA, held in Albolote July 2, 2017 elected Ernesto Alba as the new general secretary of PCA, replacing José Manuel Mariscal.

title: Communist Party of Andalusia


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List of Emirates destinations

As of March 2023, Emirates operates flights to 133 destinations in 85 countries across six continents from its hub in Dubai. It has a particularly strong presence in the South and Southeast Asian region, which together connect Dubai with more international destinations in the region than any other Middle Eastern airline. The countries with the largest number of destinations served by Emirates are the United States with 12 (13 airports), India with 10, Pakistan with 6, the United Kingdom with 6 (7 airports), Australia and Saudi Arabia with 5, and Germany and Italy with 4.

This is a list of destinations which Emirates flies to as of June 2023; the list includes the country, city, and airport names. Additionally, there are labels for airports that are the airline's hub, future cities, and former destinations that have been discontinued. Doha, Qatar is one of the discontinued destinations as a result of the Qatar diplomatic crisis, even though the crisis was resolved in 2021, Emirates have not resumed their flights to Doha.

title: List of Emirates destinations


text:
2006 Portuguese presidential election

Presidential elections were held in Portugal on 22 January 2006 to elect a successor to the incumbent President Jorge Sampaio, who was term-limited from running for a third consecutive term by the Constitution of Portugal. The result was a victory in the first round for Aníbal Cavaco Silva of the Social Democratic Party candidate, the former Prime Minister, won 50.54 percent of the vote in the first round, just over the majority required to avoid a runoff election. It was the first time in which a right-wing candidate was elected President of the Republic since the 1974 Carnation Revolution.

Voter turnout was 62 percent.

Background
In the presidential election of 14 January 2001, the outgoing Socialist Jorge Sampaio was re-elected in the first round with 55 percent of votes. Because he was term-limited, he was forbidden, by the Constitution, to run for a third consecutive term.

In the parliamentary elections of 20 February 2005, the Socialist Party, led by José Sócrates, won for the first time in its history with an absolute majority of seats, while the Social Democratic Party led by Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopes fell below 30 percent, their worst result since 1983.

To cope with the bad fiscal situation, the government introduced a policy of fiscal restraint, combining higher taxes, lower public treatments and privatizations. Adding to this, a bad summer in terms of wildfires put more pressure in the government. This policies were not popular and as a result, the Socialists were defeated in the local elections on 9 October 2005. In the follow-up for the presidential elections, the Socialists decided to nominate their former secretary-general, Mário Soares, President of the Republic between 1986 and 1996. This decision divided the party, which led Manuel Alegre, a member of the party parliamentary group, to announce his candidature as an independent. The Social Democratic Party opted to support their former leader Aníbal Cavaco Silva, Prime Minister from 1985 to 1995, and presidential candidate defeated in 1996.

Electoral system
Any Portuguese citizen over 35 years old has the opportunity to run for president. In order to do so it is necessary to gather between 7,500 and 15,000 signatures and submit them to the Portuguese Constitutional Court.

According to the Portuguese Constitution, to be elected, a candidate needs a majority of votes. If no candidate gets this majority there will take place a second round between the two most voted candidates.

Candidates
Thirteen citizens sought election officially, but only six gathered the 7,500 signatures required under the constitution to be a candidate in the poll:

Official candidates

 * Manuel Alegre, a Socialist Party politician who ran without the official backing of his party;
 * Aníbal Cavaco Silva, Prime Minister from 1985 to 1995, supported by the Social Democratic Party and by the People's Party;
 * Francisco Louçã, coordinator of the political commission of the Left Bloc;
 * Garcia Pereira, Secretary-General of the PCTP/MRPP;
 * Mário Soares, President from 1986 to 1996, the official candidate of the Socialist Party; and
 * Jerónimo de Sousa, Secretary-General of the Portuguese Communist Party, also supported by the Ecologist Party "The Greens".

All the candidates except for Cavaco Silva are considered to be from the Portuguese political left.

Unsuccessful candidacies
The other potential candidates who, according to the Constitutional Court, did not gather enough signatures, were:
 * Josué Rodrigues Gonçalo Pedro;
 * Luís Filipe Guerra, leader of the Humanist Party;
 * Teresa Lameiro;
 * Manuela Magno, nuclear physicist;
 * Carmelinda Pereira, leader of the Workers Party of Socialist Unity (POUS);
 * Luís Botelho Ribeiro; and
 * Diamantino da Silva;

Voter turnout
The table below shows voter turnout throughout election day including voters from Overseas. Due to lack of data from the 2001 election, it's not possible to compare the turnout throughout election day between the two elections.

title: 2006 Portuguese presidential election


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Communist Party of Aragon

The Communist Party of Aragon (in Spanish: Partido Comunista de Aragón, in Aragonese: Partiu Comunista d'Aragón) is the federation of the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) in Aragon.

title: Communist Party of Aragon


text:
Communist Party of Asturias

The Communist Party of Asturias (in Spanish: Partido Comunista de Asturias) is the federation of the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) in Asturias. The current general secretary is Francisco de Asís Fernández Junquera-Huergo.

In the 2011 Asturian elections the PCA decided to quit IU-IX and form a candidacy of its own, the Left Front, getting only 3 town councillors. After this electoral failure the PCA joined IU-IX again.

title: Communist Party of Asturias


text:
Primm Valley Resorts

Primm Valley Casino Resorts (formerly known as Primadonna Casino Resorts) is a group of three hotel-casinos in Primm, Nevada, along Interstate 15 at the California state line. They are owned and operated by Affinity Gaming. It is named after the Primm family, benefactors of the hotel and casino properties by Ernest and Gary Primm.

The hotels are a popular stop on the drive between Las Vegas and California.

The various hotels are connected across I-15 by both a monorail and a defunct amusement train line that was connected with Buffalo Bill's and Whiskey Pete's.

History
The hotels were built by Gary Primm and the Primm family at State Line, Nevada, the informal name for the area. The family's history in the area is the reason why it received the official name of Primm.

Whiskey Pete's was the first of their hotels. The Primadonna Resort was the second hotel built, and it was later renamed as the Primm Valley Resort. These two hotels were connected by a single-car monorail that rain across the I-15.

Buffalo Bill's was the third hotel built. Buffalo Bill's and Primm Valley Resort were connected by a monorail.

The company acquired an option to buy an 18-acre site on the Las Vegas Strip. Gary Primm of Primadonna Resorts approached MGM Grand Inc. president Bob Maxey in 1994 with an idea for the site: a casino recreating the New York skyline. A joint venture was formed between the two companies, and construction began in March 1995. Completed at a cost of $460 million, the New York-New York Hotel and Casino opened in January 1997.

The Las Vegas Outlet Mall was added as a part of the Primadonna Resort in 1998.

On March 1, 1999, MGM Grand Inc. acquired Primadonna Resorts in an all-stock transaction that had been announced on November 9, 1998.

Since the initiation of New York-New York, analysts had speculated that MGM Grand or Primadonna would buy out the other's interest in the project. Instead of making such a cash-intensive purchase, however, MGM agreed to buy Primadonna outright for $276 million in stock plus $336 million in assumed debt. The merger closed in March 1999, giving MGM ownership of three casinos and two golf courses at the Nevada–California state line, in addition to full control of New York-New York.

On October 31, 2006, MGM announced plans to sell Primm Valley Resorts to Herbst Gaming for $400 million. The proposed sale would not include the Primm Valley Golf Club. The sale closed on April 10, 2007.

Operations

 * Buffalo Bill's
 * Fashion Outlets of Las Vegas
 * Primm Valley Resort & Casino
 * Star of the Desert Arena
 * Whiskey Pete's
 * Several gas stations and convenience stores that surround the casinos and the lottery and convenience store located on a portion of the property in California.

Former

 * Primm Valley Golf Club
 * New York-New York Hotel and Casino (50% with MGM Grand Inc.)

title: Primm Valley Resorts


text:
The Damning Well

The Damning Well was a rock supergroup comprising Wes Borland of Limp Bizkit on guitar, Danny Lohner formerly of Nine Inch Nails on bass, Richard Patrick of Filter on vocals, and Josh Freese of A Perfect Circle on drums. While rumors spread that an entire album had been recorded, Patrick has said on numerous occasions that this is false. Only two songs were recorded: "Awakening", which was released on Underworld movie soundtrack in 2003, and "Power", an unreleased track featuring Amy Lee of Evanescence on guest vocals.

History
The project originated with the creation of the Underworld movie soundtrack in 2003. Danny Lohner, rock musician and producer previously involved with A Perfect Circle and Nine Inch Nails, was tasked with creating a soundtrack for the Underworld movie. Lohner recruited a large number of artists he had worked with in the past and had them collaborate, which created a number of atypical arrangements of artists on various tracks, such as Maynard James Keenan and David Bowie singing together on the track "Bring Me the Disco King". Among these variations, a group formed that was dubbed "The Damning Well", which consisted of Lohner on bass, Wes Borland of Limp Bizkit on guitar, Richard Patrick of Filter on vocals, and Josh Freese of A Perfect Circle.

The group only formally released one track, titled "Awakening," on the Underworld soundtrack. After the completion of the soundtrack, rumors arose that an entire album's worth of material was apparently recorded with producer Terry Date, and that Amy Lee of Evanescence also contributed vocals to the track "Power", but her record label would not allow those to be released".

In 2008, Patrick cleared up misconceptions about the band, stating: "'Most of [The Damning Well material] turned into Black Light Burns. There was a song called “Power” I wrote with Amy Lee, I wrote all the lyrics and everything and then Amy Lee came in and sang on it. Her manager was such a, just so hard to deal with which is like that with a lot of the things she gets involved with you know, they were just so hardcore that we were like forget it. There were only two songs recorded under the Damning Well, it wasn’t a whole record. But I have the Amy Lee song I did with her, she just came in and sang my lyrics and sang with me, it was cool sounding though, I was really proud of it. It’s now on the Black Light Burns record. So yeah, we did one song for the Underworld soundtrack and it just kind of petered out after that. I wrote another song for something else and that was really about it.'"

Patrick later said "Power" appeared as "Coward" on the Black Light Burns album Cruel Melody.

In 2010, Patrick said that while he hadn't talked to the members in years, he'd still consider doing an album with The Damning Well. However, by 2013, he stated "that project is done for sure".

Legacy
Borland, Freese, and Lohner started another band, Black Light Burns, in 2005, upon Borland temporarily leaving Limp Bizkit. It is often considered to be a spiritual successor to The Damning Well and contains bits and pieces of their work. The track "Power" was reworked into the track "Coward", and used in Black Light Burns as the fourth track of their debut album, Cruel Melody, without vocals from Patrick or Lee. Patrick claims to have a version with his and Lee's original vocals, but has not ever released said material. Additionally, some work is thought to have been carried on into Filter's 2008 release Anthems for the Damned, especially the song "In Dreams", which was written and composed by Patrick and Borland, and features drums by Freese. Borland said that Patrick co-wrote the chorus to the Black Light Burns song "Lie", possibly hinting that at least the chorus was Damning Well material at one point.

Band members

 * Richard Patrick - vocals
 * Wes Borland - guitar
 * Danny Lohner - bass
 * Josh Freese - drums

title: The Damning Well