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Joel Shubin

Joel Shubin (died March 24, 1942) was a Russian agronomist, journalist, and an alleged Communist International representative to the American Communist Party. At one time, he served as the Soviet Deputy Minister of Agriculture.

Biography
Born Jewish, Shubin edited the Moscow-based Peasant Gazette in the 1930s. A widower with a teenage daughter, he married the American journalist Anna Louise Strong without ceremony in 1931, and they remained married for the rest of his life. At the time, Strong edited the English-language version of another Soviet newspaper, Moscow News. While Shubin often accompanied Strong during her trips back to the United States, the two were often separated due to work commitments. According to Rewi Alley's account, Strong later said: "perhaps we married because we were both so doggone lonely...but we were very happy."

Shubin died of a lung disease under mysterious circumstances on March 24, 1942. Strong, who was working in California at the time, didn't learn of her husband's death until that August. It was reported in 1949 that an unnamed Soviet official suspected that Shubin was "liquidated."

title: Joel Shubin


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Talk:Andrew Hunter (British politician)

Untitled
I would contest that he is the first mainland MP to sit for a NI party. What about Enoch Powell? Matthew Platts 22:31, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * Enoch Powell was elected for a constituency in Northern Ireland. Nicke Lilltroll 00:00, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * You're absolutely right. I lost control of my senses... for some reason I thought he defected while he was in his Wolverhampton seat. Thanks for pointing that out. Matthew Platts 00:13, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * I presume by mainland, you are referring to Continental Europe. England's on an island. --MacRusgail 05:49, 24 March 2006 (UTC).

If the above user knows anything at all about Britain and definitions used in relation to Ulster, he would know that the island the Romans named Britannia is commonly referred to as the mainland, Ulster being a province of the UK on another island. I know of not one person who refers to Europe as the mainland. It is always called 'the Continent'. Sussexman 10:05, 26 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Wasn't there a nationalist to sit for a mainland constituency in the first half of the C20th? Forget his name. --Counter-revolutionary (talk) 12:26, 11 April 2008 (UTC)
 * T. P. O'Connor --Counter-revolutionary (talk) 12:28, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

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title: Talk:Andrew Hunter (British politician)


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User talk:I Love You Wikipedia.

Hi, please stop adding extraneous content to pages. If you really love Wikipedia, you can help by making our articles look professional. Thanks. Meelar (talk) 22:32, Apr 10, 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia appreciates your love, not your vandalism. If you want to show your love, make some worthwhile contributions! :) oo64eva (AJ) 22:36, Apr 10, 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:I Love You Wikipedia.


text: User talk:144.39.5.45

title: User talk:144.39.5.45


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Ten Thousand

The Ten Thousand (οἱ Μύριοι, hoi Myrioi) were a force of mercenary units, mainly Greeks, employed by Cyrus the Younger to attempt to wrest the throne of the Persian Empire from his brother, Artaxerxes II. Their march to the Battle of Cunaxa and back to Greece (401–399 BC) was recorded by Xenophon, one of their leaders, in his work Anabasis.

Campaign
Between 401 and 399 BC, the Ten Thousand marched across Anatolia, fought the Battle of Cunaxa, and then marched back to Greece.

Xenophon stated in Anabasis that the Greek heavy troops routed their opposition twice at Cunaxa at the cost of only one Greek soldier wounded. Only after the battle did they hear that Cyrus had been killed, making their victory irrelevant and the expedition a failure.

The Ten Thousand found themselves far from home with no food, no employer, and no reliable allies.

They offered to make their Persian ally Ariaeus king, but he refused on the grounds that he was not of royal blood and would not find enough support among the Persians to keep the throne.

They then offered their services to Tissaphernes, a leading satrap of Artaxerxes, but he demanded their complete surrender, which they refused. This presented Tissaphernes with a problem – a large army of heavily-armed troops, which he could not defeat by frontal assault. He supplied them with food and, after a long wait, led them northwards for home.

Meanwhile he succeeded in luring away the Persian general Ariaeus and his light troops.

The Greek senior officers accepted the invitation of Tissaphernes to a feast where they were taken prisoner, led before the king, and executed.

The Greeks elected new officers, among them Xenophon, and set out to march northwards to the Black Sea, through Corduene and Armenia.

Xenophon and his men initially had to deal with volleys from a minor force of harassing Persian missile cavalry. Every day, this cavalry, finding no opposition from the Ten Thousand, moved cautiously closer and closer.

One night, Xenophon formed a body of archers and light cavalry. When the Persian cavalry arrived the next day, now shooting within several yards, Xenophon suddenly unleashed his new cavalry in a charge, smashing into the stunned and confused enemy, killing many and routing the rest.

Tissaphernes pursued Xenophon with a vast force, and when the Greeks reached the wide and deep Great Zab river, they seemed to be surrounded. A Rhodian proposed a plan in exchange for a talent; all goats, cattle, sheep, and donkeys were to be slaughtered and their bodies stuffed with hay, laid across the river, and sewn up and covered with soil so as not to be slippery. This was refused, for it would've been impossible to implement, and so the Greeks simply turned around, with the Persians refusing to pursue.

That Xenophon was able to feed his force in the heart of a vast empire with a hostile population was considered astonishing. Dodge notes:

"On this retreat also was first shown the necessary, if cruel, means of arresting a pursuing enemy by the systematic devastation of the country traversed and the destruction of its villages to deprive him of food and shelter. And Xenophon is moreover the first who established in the rear of the phalanx a reserve from which he could at will feed weak parts of his line. This was a superb first conception."

The Ten Thousand eventually made their way into the land of the Carduchians, a wild tribe inhabiting the mountains of modern southeastern Turkey,

...a fierce, war-like race, who had never been conquered. Once the Great King had sent into their country an army of 120,000 men, to subdue them, but of all that great host not one had ever seen his home again.

The Ten Thousand made their way in and were fired at with stones and arrows for several days before they reached a defile where the main Carduchian host stood. In the Battle of the Carduchian Defile, Xenophon had 8,000 men make a diversionary attack on this host whilst he marched the other 2,000 under cover of a rainstorm to a pass revealed by a prisoner, and

"...having made their way to the rear of the main pass, at daylight, under cover of the morning mist, they boldly pushed in upon the astonished Carducians. The blare of their many trumpets gave notice of their successful detour to Xenophon, as well as adding to the confusion of the enemy. The main army at once joined in the attack from the valley side, and the Carducians were driven from their stronghold."

After heavy mountain fighting, the Greeks made their way to the northern foothills of the mountains at the Centrites River, only to find a major Persian force blocking the route north. With the Carduchians surging toward the Greek rear, Xenophon again faced the threat of total destruction in battle.

Xenophon's scouts quickly found another ford across the river, but the Persians moved and blocked this as well. Xenophon sent a small force back toward the other ford, causing the anxious Persians to detach a major part of their force. Xenophon stormed and completely overwhelmed the force remaining at his ford, while the Greek detachment made a forced march to this bridgehead.

This was among the first attacks in depth ever made, 23 years after Delium and 30 years before Epaminondas' more famous use of it at Leuctra.

Winter had by now arrived as the Greeks marched through Armenia "absolutely unprovided with clothing suitable for such weather", inflicting more casualties than they suffered through their ambush of a local satrap's force and the flanking of another force.

At a stage when the Greeks were in desperate need of food, they decided upon attacking a wooden castle known to have provisions. The castle, however, was located on a hill surrounded by forest. Xenophon ordered small parties of his men to appear on the hill road; and when the defenders flung boulders, a soldier would leap into the trees, and he "did this so often that at last there was quite a heap of stones lying in front of him, but he himself was untouched." Then, "the other men followed his example, and made it a sort of game, enjoying the sensation, pleasant alike to old and young, of courting danger for a moment, and then quickly escaping it.

When the stones were almost exhausted, the soldiers raced one another over the exposed part of the road", storming the fortress, where most of the now neutralized garrison barely put up a fight. The inhabitants threw their children over the walls, before throwing themselves down to their deaths, both men and women.

Xenophon records the joyful moment when the Ten Thousand (by then actually far fewer), from the heights of Mount Theches, saw the sea and friendly Greek colonies on the coast, which signified their escape had been made good, whereupon they shouted ''Θάλαττα! θάλαττα! : Thalatta! Thalatta!'' ("The sea! The sea!").

Soon after, Xenophon's men reached Trapezus on the coast of the Black Sea (Anabasis 4.8.22). Before they departed, the Greeks made an alliance with the locals and fought one last battle against the Colchians, vassals of the Persians, in mountainous country. Xenophon ordered his men to deploy their line extremely thin, so as to overlap the enemy, while keeping a strong reserve.

The Colchians, seeing they were being outflanked, divided their army to check the Greek deployment, opening a gap in their line through which Xenophon rushed in his reserves, scoring a Greek victory.

Failure of plans for shipment to Europe
On their arrival at Trapezus on the Euxine, the Greek mercenaries sent their Spartan general Cheirisophus to Anaxibius, the Spartan admiral stationed at Byzantium in 400 BC, to obtain a sufficient number of ships to transport them to Europe.

However, when Cheirisophus met them again at Sinope, he brought back nothing from Anaxibius, but civil words and a promise of employment and pay as soon as they came out of the Euxine.

Final conflict with Pharnabazus (399 BC)

The Ten Thousand under Xenophon continued to the west, some by ship, but most of them by land, and arrived in Bithynia after numerous skirmishes and plunderings. Pharnabazus, satrap of Hellespontine Phrygia, was involved in helping the Bithynians against these plundering raids of the Ten Thousand. He was also trying to stop them from entering Hellespontine Phrygia. His cavalry, which made several raids on the Greek mercenaries, is said to have killed about 500 of them.

Pharnabazus then arranged with the Spartan Anaxibius for the rest of the Ten Thousand to be shipped to Byzantium. On their arrival at Chrysopolis, on the Asiatic shore of the Bosporus, Anaxibius, being bribed by Pharnabazus with great promises to withdraw them from his satrapy, promised to pay them and brought them over to Byzantium. Here Anaxibius attempted to send them forward on their march without fulfilling his agreement. A fight ensued, in which Anaxibius was compelled to flee for refuge to the Acropolis, and which was quelled only by the remonstrances of Xenophon.

Soon after this, the Greeks left the town under the command of the adventurer Coeratades; and Anaxibius issued a proclamation, subsequently acted on by the harmost Aristarchus, that all of Cyrus's soldiers found in Byzantium should be sold as slaves.

In view of his originality and tactical genius, Xenophon's conduct of the retreat caused Dodge to name the Athenian the greatest general to precede Alexander the Great.

Order of battle
According to Xenophon, the Ten Thousand were composed of:
 * 4,000 hoplites under Xenias the Arcadian, until he deserted in Syria
 * 1,500 hoplites and 500 light infantry under Proxenus of Boeotia
 * 1,000 hoplites under Sophaenetus of Stymfalia
 * 500 hoplites under Socrates the Achaean (not to be confused with the philosopher)
 * 300 hoplites and 300 peltasts under Pasion the Megarian, until he deserted in Syria
 * 1,000 hoplites, 800 Thracian peltasts, and 200 Cretan archers (and more than 2,000 men who came from Xenias and Pasion when they deserted) under Clearchus of Sparta
 * 300 hoplites under Sosis the Syracusan
 * 700 Spartan hoplites under Cheirisophus the Spartan
 * 1,000 hoplites and 500 Thessalian peltasts under Menon
 * 400 Greek mercenaries who had deserted from Artaxerxes' army

In addition, they were backed up by a fleet of 35 triremes under Pythagoras the Spartan and 25 triremes under Tamos the Egyptian, as well as 20,000 Persian troops under Ariaeus the Persian. (Although Xenophon lists them as 100,000, most modern historians believe Ariaeus' troops numbered only about 20,000).

Until shortly after the Battle of Cunaxa, Spartan general Clearchus was recognized as the commander of the army. When Tissaphernes arrested and executed Clearchus, Proxenus, Menon, Agias (possibly the same person as Sophaenetus), and Socrates, their places were taken by Xenophon the Athenian, Timasion the Dardanian, Xanthicles the Achaean, Cleanor the Orchomenian, and Philesius the Achaean, with the Spartan Cheirisophus as the general commander.

When the Ten Thousand started their journey in 401 BC, Xenophon stated that they numbered around 10,400. At the time Xenophon left them two years later, their number had dwindled to just under 6,000.

Cultural influences

 * The 1965 novel The Warriors is inspired by Anabasis. It tells the story of a gang (the Dominators) from New York's Coney Island forced to fight their way home from the Bronx after an all-city gang meeting at which a would-be gang-unifier is killed, the Dominators are blamed, and lose their leader. The novel was adapted into the 1979 film The Warriors. In the film, the would-be emperor figure is named Cyrus, the Coney Island gang's fallen leader is named Cleon, and the film's final scenes take place at the edge of the sea.
 * The novel The Sea, the Sea by  Iris Murdoch, winner of the 1978 Booker Prize, was named for this event.
 * David Drake's 1988 novel The Forlorn Hope features a plot revolving around a group of mercenaries caught behind enemy lines, who must fight their way out. Drake's own writings describe Xenophon's Anabasis as the model for the first segment of the book.
 * Harold Coyle's 1993 novel The Ten Thousand shows the bulk of US Forces in modern Europe fighting their way across and out of Germany after the Germans steal nuclear weapons being removed from Ukraine.
 * The 1997 video game Age of Empires has a campaign mission called "Xenophon's March" based on this event. In the mission, the player has to lead a squad of Greek troops through hostile territory to get home.
 * The 2001 novel The Ten Thousand by Michael Curtis Ford is a fictional account of this group's exploits.
 * Shane Brennan's In the Tracks of the Ten Thousand: A Journey on Foot through Turkey, Syria and Iraq (London: Robert Hale, 2005) is an account of his 2000 journey to retrace the steps of the Ten Thousand.
 * Valerio Massimo Manfredi's 2007 novel L'armata perduta (The Lost Army) tells the story of the army through Abira, a Syrian girl, who decides to follow a Greek warrior named Xeno (Xenophon).
 * Paul Kearney's 2008 novel The Ten Thousand is set in a fantasy world based on Xenophon's record of the historical Ten Thousand.
 * John Ringo's 2008 novel The Last Centurion tells the story of a U.S. Stryker company left in Iran after a worldwide plague, which must repeat the journey of the Ten Thousand. The Ten Thousand and Anabasis are frequently mentioned.
 * Finnish artist Petri Hiltunen has portrayed the campaign in his two-part comic album "Anabasis". It was published by Arktinen Banaani in 2011 (Anabasis: 1. Osa, Kyyroksen sotaretki) and 2013 (Anabasis: 2. Osa, Tuhanten miesten marssi).
 * The 2018 novel The Falcon of Sparta by British author Conn Iggulden provides a fictionalized account of the plight of the Ten Thousand.
 * In the 2018 limited series The Terror, Anabasis is recommended as a literary parallel to the grueling walk out by the men of the Franklin expedition.

title: Ten Thousand


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Simon Dupree and the Big Sound

Simon Dupree and the Big Sound were a British psychedelic band formed in 1966 by brothers Derek (vocals), Phil (vocals, saxophone, trumpet), and Ray Shulman (guitar, violin, trumpet, vocals); also known for their later prog rock band, Gentle Giant.

Career
They started as The Howling Wolves and then became The Road Runners, playing R&B around the Portsmouth area, home of the Shulman brothers, becoming Simon Dupree and the Big Sound in early 1966. Making up the rest of the group were Peter O'Flaherty (bass guitar) (born 8 May 1944, in Gosport, Hampshire), Eric Hine (keyboards) (born Eric Raymond Lewis Hines, 4 September 1944, in Portsmouth, Hampshire), and Tony Ransley (drums) (born Anthony John Ransley, 17 May 1944, in Portsmouth, Hampshire). Those early group names aside, their repertory was focused a lot more on the songs of Wilson Pickett, Don Covay, and Otis Redding, than on Howlin' Wolf or Bo Diddley. 'Simon Dupree and the Big Sound' came about in the course of their search for a flashy name.

The group were signed to EMI's Parlophone label, under producer Dave Paramor. Their first few singles, including "I See The Light" (1966), failed to chart, then in October 1967, the group's management and their record label decided to try moving Simon Dupree and the Big Sound in the direction of psychedelia.

They broke through at the end of 1967 with the psychedelic "Kites", a Top 10 hit in the UK Singles Chart. Regarding themselves as blue-eyed soul brothers, they hated it as it was so unrepresentative of their usual style. The follow-up, "For Whom The Bell Tolls", was only a minor hit, and a subsequent single "Broken Hearted Pirates", featuring an uncredited Dudley Moore on piano, made no headway at all.

A then unknown keyboard player by the name of Reginald Dwight was hired to fill in for an ill Eric Hine and he joined them on a 1967 tour in Scotland. They were asked to allow him to stay on, and he was almost recruited as a permanent member. They politely rejected the chance to record any of his compositions (although they did ultimately record "I'm Going Home" as the B-side of their final (contractually obligated) single), and laughed when he told them he was adopting the stage name of Elton John.

The group released one studio album; Without Reservations, on Parlophone Records (1967), and a compilation Amen (1980). A more recent set, Part of My Past (2004), includes all their singles, album tracks and previously unreleased material prepared for their second album, release of which was cancelled at the time.

In November 1968, they released a single "We Are The Moles (Part 1)/(Part 2)" under the moniker The Moles; by this point, Martin Smith had replaced Ransley on drums. Released on the Parlophone label, the single did not give any hint of the identity of the artists, with both songs credited as written, performed and produced by The Moles. Rumours spread that it was an obscure release by The Beatles, who also were under contract at Parlophone, with Ringo Starr on lead vocals.

Frustrated as being seen as one-hit wonders being pushed by their record label as a pop group rather than the soul band they had always intended to be, they disbanded in 1969 and the Shulman brothers went on to form the progressive rock group Gentle Giant.

Albums

 * Without Reservations (June 1967 Parlophone PMC 7029 or PCS 7029) – UK No. 39

Compilations

 * Kites (also known as 'Amen') (compilation album: 1982, See for Miles/Charly CM 109)
 * Part of My Past (compilation album: March 2004)

Singles

 * "I See the Light" / "It Is Finished" (2 December 1966 Parlophone R 5542) – UK No.53
 * "Reservations" / "You Need a Man" (24 February 1967 Parlophone R 5574) – UK No.54
 * "Day Time, Night Time" / "I've Seen It All Before" (5 May 1967 Parlophone R 5594) – UK No.58
 * "Kites" / "Like the Sun Like the Fire" (27 October 1967 Parlophone R 5646) – UK No.9
 * "For Whom the Bell Tolls" / "Sleep" (8 March 1968 Parlophone R 5670) – UK No.43
 * "Part of My Past" / "This Story Never Ends" (27 May 1968 Parlophone R 5697) – UK No.62
 * "Thinking About My Life" / "Velvet and Lace" (20 September 1968 Parlophone R 5727)
 * "We Are the Moles, Part 1" / "We Are the Moles, Part 2" (15 November 1968, Parlophone R 5743, as THE MOLES)
 * "Broken Hearted Pirates" / "She Gave Me the Sun" (7 February 1969 Parlophone R 5757)
 * "The Eagle Flies Tonight" / "Give It All Back" (14 November 1969 Parlophone R 5816)

title: Simon Dupree and the Big Sound


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Angel Blade

Angel Blade (エンジェルブレイド) is part of the Vanilla Series of explicit mature OVA. It was created and directed by Masami Ōbari, who was also responsible for the design of the characters and would also be responsible for the development of the short anime adaptation of The King of Fighters XV. The anime is a parody of Go Nagai's manga and anime Cutey Honey and Kekko Kamen.

The storyline is continued in a three-episode sequel series, Angel Blade Punish!.

The first series was released in the U.S. on two DVDs, entitled Angel Blade (containing episodes 1–2) and Angel Blade Returns (containing episode 3 and some bonus material). Angel Blade Punish! was released in the U.S. as a single DVD containing all three episodes.

The doujin video game company Digi Anime released an eroge visual novel of Angel Blade in 2002 based on the first series.

Synopsis
Angel Blade takes place in a future where the Earth's surface is no longer habitable due to pollution. Humans live in 99 cities above the smog, while the surface below, unknown to them, is home to a race of mutants. Suddenly, a castle, ruled by the organization Dark Mother, mysteriously appears in the sky over City Number 69. For unknown purposes, the mysterious people of this dark castle track down women and start their devious machinations, which are unknown but involve raping women. In the time of chaos, Angel Blade, a beautiful woman, appears as a force of justice to protect the women.

Angel Blade
Angel Blade (エンジェルブレイド Enjieru Bureido) is the main character of the series. She is the alter ego of Moena Shinguji. Her mission is to save the day whenever someone is attacked by one of Phantom Lady's mutants. She primarily fights with a sword that is formed from her heart-shaped pendant. Sexual encounters are her Achilles' heel, as her hormones sometimes render her helpless. She sometimes rides the "Angel Motor," though she doesn't in the Punish! episodes. Her uniform and powers were developed by her parents specifically to battle Phantom Lady and her minions, though it is never explained why they would develop such a sexually charged outfit (one that leaves her breasts, buttocks and genitalia exposed) for their daughter. When her life or anyone else's life is in great danger, Angel Blade goes into a sort of super mode where she dons angelic wings of energy and her eyes glow white. Also in Angel Blade Punish! episode 2 she is forced to enter a weaker form due to her fight with Phantom Lady (Coincidentally this weaker form covers more of her body). It is revealed in Angel Blade Punish! Episode 3, that Angel Blade's true power is Gravity, (another reference to Gravion), that only comes out when people are in great danger. This is partly due to Elphie's "Revival" of Angel Blade.

Angel Ender
Angel Ender (エンジェルエンダー Enjieru Endaa) is Angel Blade's equally revealingly dressed partner who normally fights using only her fists. She is the alter ego of Shaiya. She first appears in Angel Blade episode 3, where she saves Angel Blade during her battle with Colonel Elaine and General Chloe; she also claims that she is the prototype for Angel Blade. It seems that she has her own version of the Angel Motor. She is seen several times in Angel Blade Punish!

Angel Beretta
Angel Beretta (エンジェルバレット Enjieru Beretta) is the mysterious third Angel, who rides a motorcycle and fights using a pair of hi-tech pistols. She appears only at the end of Angel Blade Punish! episode 2 and for a few minutes in the 3rd episode. She saves Angel Blade from being impaled by Widow, but doesn't say much. She is the only one of the Angels who isn't sexually molested at some point by the villains. It is unknown if she is another prototype, or a new Angel, but it is revealed in the opening credits that she is Elphie's Angel.

Moena Shinguji
Moena Shinguji (神宮寺萌奈 Shingūji Moena) is a young, not overdeveloped, student at the academy who is able to transform into her super heroine alter ego, Angel Blade, thanks to the power of her heart-shaped amulet given to her by her parents. She works as a waitress at her aunt's cafe on the academy campus. At first, she is unaware of her dual-life as Angel Blade, until (near the end of the 1st episode) her heart pendant is damaged, leaving Moena's consciousness in control of the Angel Blade body.

Shaia Hishizaki
Shaia Hishizaki (菱崎シャイア Hishizaki Shaia) is a famous supermodel who first appears briefly in Angel Blade episode 1. She later joins Moena and is revealed to be Angel Ender's alter ego. In the Angel Blade Punish! series, she is raped twice: first (in episode 2) by her photographer, after he is "brainwashed" by Widow, then later (in episode 3) by Widow's minion Sledge, in front of an arena full of famous people who all turn out to be mutants.

She shares a name with a character from the video game/OVA series Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer, which Masami Obari previously did work on.

Elphie Elfman
Elphie Elfman (エルフィ・エルフマン Erufui Erufuman) is a busty cowgirl who meets Moena at the beginning of the 2nd Angel Blade Punish! episode. When Moena eventually gets in trouble, Elphie transforms into Angel Beretta. In Angel Blade Punish! episode 3, she (as Angel Beretta) saves Ayame, Shaiya and Angel Blade after they are captured by Widow. She sometimes uses English words and phrases amongst her otherwise Japanese sentences (e.g. "What's your name, samurai girl?" and "Moena, are you okay?"). In the third episode of Angel Blade Punish!, Moena had already lost her powers from Widow's assault, and Elphie tries to comfort her... in the hot tub. Elphie goes down on Moena, and a mysterious nature increases as she causes Moena to have a subliminal golden orgasm, where she has a vision of a mysterious winged woman. Elphie's knowledge of the Angel System and her obtainment of the Beretta form are still unexplained, and rumors are that she could be Nailkaizer in the form she was originally before she was mutated by Dark Mother, since in Nail's flashback in Punish! episode one, her face wasn't shown and her hair was shorter and light blue. Also, both characters in the Japanese cast are played by Yuu Asakawa.

She shares a name with a character from the video game/OVA series Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer, which Masami Ōbari previously did work on. Her name may also be a reference to American singer/composer Danny Elfman.

Ayame Fudo
Ayame Fudo (不動あやめ Fudo Ayame) is a policewoman from a ninja family who becomes involved with the Angel Units and tries to assist them as best as she can. However, despite her skills, she is captured and raped almost every time she does. She also has bad luck with clothing (best shown in the second episode of Angel Blade Punish! when she took a dive off a diving board into a pool and somehow lost her swimsuit). She first appears in Angel Blade episode 1, where she is sexually humiliated, sexually tortured and raped by Nailkaizer and her mutant henchmen until Angel Blade saves her.

She wears a ninja costume and a hair style similar to Mai Shiranui from the video game/OVA series Fatal Fury, which Masami Ōbari previously did work on.

Phantom Lady
Phantom Lady (ファントム・レディ Fuantomu Redei, "Mistress Phantom" in the dub) is the main antagonist of the story. Mysterious and powerful, she has gigantic breasts that are constantly swollen, engorged and lactating. She has her breasts pumped while having sex with Lady Nailkaizer in the original series, nurses her minion Karin in one scene in Punish!, and is even shown drinking from them herself. Like her underlings, she can sprout a penis from her vagina at any time. And she is suspected of being Moena's mother. In the 3rd episode of Angel Blade, after the credits, Kyouka is shown confined in the Phantom Lady's fortress. When she regained consciousness and saw Phantom Lady, Kyouka calls her Maina, the mother of Moena. In the second episode, Isato remembers a promise to Maina saying that she has a dark spell cast over her for the sake of the system, which seems to strengthen the link.

Nailkaizer
Nailkaizer (ネイルカイザー Neirukaizaa) is one of Phantom Lady's chief minions. She is the first character to appear in the Angel Blade series. Like Phantom Lady, she has the ability to grow a penis from her vagina, though she possesses a unique ability to grow three of them. In the 1st episode of Angel Blade Punish!, she is sacrificed by Phantom Lady, who claims that "You sacrifice what you love." Luckily for her, she is saved by Angel Blade (who destroys the "chaos") and Angel Ender (who is shown holding Nailkaizer and Kyouka). In the first episode of Angel Blade Punish! Nail has a flashback when Phantom Lady saves her from unseen dark forces, and transforms her into the mutant Nailkaizer. Nailkaizer's whereabouts are unknown at the moment, but there is some speculation that she may have something to do with Elphie, since she slightly takes on the same appearance in her Angel Beretta form, with her hair in high pigtails and white lipstick, not to mention her dark skin and green eyes as well as her clothes. Elphie also recognized Widow's presence, and Moena saw a vision of Nail after Elphie caused her to orgasm. Nailkaizer's name and character design are taken from the character Necrocaizer (who's also known as Elphie Elphman) in Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer, which Masami Ōbari previously worked on.

Karin Son
Karin Son (孫カリン Son Karin) is one of the five chief minions. She appears to be Phantom Lady's biological daughter, as she is always calling her "お母さん okaa-san, Japanese for mother. Karin tends to keep to herself until episode 3. Towards the end of episode 2, she captures Kyouka, and wounds Isato. She plays an important role in episode 3, and in the 1st episode of Angel Blade Punish!, in which she rapes Kyouka.

She is more or less based on the character of the same name from the video game/OVA series Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer, which Masami Ōbari previously did work on.

Widow
Widow (ウイドウ Uidou) is one of Phantom Lady's mutants. She appears for the first time in Angel Blade Punish! episode 2. Her name is a reference to her spider-like abilities. Widow almost succeeds in impaling Angel Blade, but Angel Beretta comes to her rescue. She tends to call Angel Blade a "caterpillar."

Chloe and Elaine
Colonel Elaine (イレーヌ大佐 Ireenu-taisa) and General Chloe (クローエ将軍 Kurooe-shougun) are minions/female mutants of the Phantom Lady. They are featured in episode 2, where Chloe captures then rapes Emily, and Elaine fingers Seiryu. When General Chloe is in the hospital and goes to Ayame's room, there is a dummy in her bed in place of her. This dummy is Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas, except with modified hair. They also have a small role in Angel Blade Punish! episode 1 where they get "punished" by Lady Phantom. They appear to work together and both attack by expelling powerful energy from their temporary, what looks like, a penis, which is why they are mutants. Chloe almost kills Angel Blade before Angel Ender comes to her rescue, catching Chloe and Elaine off guard. Phantom Lady punishes them for their failure in a degrading, erotic torture, but ceases when she notices they are getting pleasure from it. She then uses them in the "feast"; it appears as though they are now nothing more than a part of the "chaos."

Rush and Sledge
Rush (ラッシュ Rasshu) and Sledge (スレッジ Surejji) are the minions of Widow. They appear in the second and third Angel Blade Punish! episodes. In the third episode they rape both Shaiya and Ayame in a big arena full of famous people, who turn out to be mutants. Later in the episode, they use themselves as shields to protect Widow from Angel Beretta's gunfire and while they are weakened, Shaiya and Ayame kill them.

Emily Chinen
Emily Chinen (知念エミリィ Chinen Emirii) is a big-breasted, pink-haired policewoman who is the daughter of the police chief of City Number 69. She first appears in episode 1 and is Ayame Fudou's partner. In episode 2, she tries to capture Shogun Chloe but is raped in the process. She eventually disappears from the series.

Her name may be a reference to the similarly styled policewoman character named Erika Chinen from the video game/OVA series Virus Buster Serge, which Masami Ōbari previously did work on.

Kyouka
Aunt Kyouka (響香 Kyouka) is Moena's aunt and the owner of the café where she works. She possesses pouty lips and tight curvature, but is best known for her enormous breasts that rival even Phantom Lady's. In the second Angel Blade episode, she meets with Isato, Moena's supposedly dead father, in his secret lab. She is the 'mother' of the Angel System, her womb was somehow used to create the Angel Units Blade, Ender, and Beretta. She is captured by Karin, Phantom Lady's mutant. In Angel Blade Punish! episode 1, Karin rapes Kyouka while they wait for Angel Blade.

Seiryuu Tenmyouin
Seiryuu Tenmyouin (天明院聖流 Tenmyouin Seiryuu) is the student body president and most popular girl at AquaTokyo complex's university. In episode 1, Nailkaizer mistakenly believes she is Angel Blade and captures her. Ayame tries to save her but is also captured. In episode 2, she learns about Moena being Angel Blade, and tells her she would keep her secret. Later she goes to the city hospital to find Ayame, is captured by General Elaine and used as a hostage against Ayame's partner Emily who ends up being raped by Chloe while Seiryuu is forced to watch while Elaine violates her, only to be saved by Angel Blade. In episode 3, she is raped and then used as bait for Angel Blade. She appears in all three Angel Blade episodes, but does not appear in Angel Blade Punish!.

Her name is a reference to the Azure Dragon.

Hasumi
Hasumi is Moena's friend and classmate who often complains about her breast size. She is also a bit boy-crazed and drags Moena to go out shopping to find some boys in episode 1 at Aunt Kyouka behest. She acts mainly as a comic relief character and is one of the few females close to Moena not to be raped or sexually molested, though she herself does playfully grope Moena's breasts in episode 1. Like most of her classmates, she idolizes Angel Blade. She encounters Moena's injured father after he and Kyouka are attacked by Karin in his lab, though is unaware of his connection to Moena and Kyouka. She does not appear in Angel Blade Punish! except in a post-credits scene.

Hazuki Tachibana
Hazuki Tachibana (立花ハヅキ Tachibana Hazuki) is a beautiful, well-endowed girl who appears in Angel Blade Punish! episode 2 and 3 as a television reporter. She is tricked continuously into exposing or humiliating herself on television, but remains tough despite what happens to her. She is one of the only female characters in the show who is just molested (by her cameraman, who she fights off by kicking him) rather than engaged in sex of any kind.

She bears an uncanny resemblance to Mizuki Tachibana from the mecha anime television series Gravion and its sequel Gravion Zwei, which Masami Ōbari previously did work on.

Daisuke Yayoi
Daisuke Yayoi (やよい・だいすけ Yayoi Daisuke) is Shaiya's cameraman. A very eccentric artist and a nice guy through half of Punish!, he and his crew are 'attacked' by Widow while in the restroom, as she forces them to have sex with her, where they were mutated by her webs. This causes Yayoi to assault Shaiya and leave her vulnerable for Sledge and Rush to kidnap.

title: Angel Blade


text:
Fernand Choquette

Fernand Choquette, (October 27, 1895 – January 17, 1975) was a Canadian Quebec MNA and judge of the Quebec Court of Appeal from 1956 until 1970. He also worked as a lawyer for over 10 years and a teacher for over 20 years.

Born in Montmagny, Quebec, the son of Philippe-Auguste Choquette and Marie Bender, he received a B.A. in 1915 and an LL.B in 1918 from Université Laval. He married Marguerite Vallerand in 1922.

Defeated in the 1935 and 1936 provincial elections, Choquette served two terms as a member of the Quebec Liberal Party from 1939 to 1948 for the riding of Montmagny (now part of Montmagny-L'Islet).

In 1972 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada "for his contribution to the advancement of law".

title: Fernand Choquette


text:
Adventure Kid

Adventure Kid (アドベンチャーKID) is an erotic manga series written and illustrated by Toshio Maeda. It was published by Wanimagazine into four volumes from 1988 to 1989 and it was adapted into an original video animation (OVA). Mixing horror, fantasy and comedy, it follows Norizaku and Midori as they find a demonic computer that sends them to Hell and destroy their world. They are transported to a World War II setting and they have to prevent their future to be ruined.

In the British release of the anime the alternate name Adventure Duo was used because it was believed parents might buy it for their children by mistake without realizing the explicit sexual content and scenes of tentacle rape. Both the manga and OVA series were licensed in North America by Central Park Media, through its Manga 18 and Anime 18 divisions. The manga was well received for its art style and plot, while the anime was mostly criticized for its poor animation quality.

Story
Episode 1: A young man named Norikazu finds a computer from World War II buried in his back garden. When he activates it, he and a girl named Midori are transported to Hell where erotic creatures and monsters of different kinds live. They meet some friends including a sexy elf woman named Eganko who falls in love with Norikazu, and a perverted monster prince who is soon enslaved by Midori. With the help of their new friends the pair try to make the dangerous journey back home.

Episode 2: Having made their way back home the adventure duo find the world they knew is gone, and is now ruled by the demonic computer which first sent them to Hell. They inexplicably travel back in time to World War II in an attempt to stop the world from being changed. In doing so, they witness the atomic bomb being dropped on Hiroshima, and there is an appearance of the Enola Gay, as well as numerous symbols of Japanese culture at the time.

Episode 3: This episode has a humorous love-quadrangle plot in which Eganko comes up with a plan to make Norikazu fall in love with her with a love potion, while simultaneously making Midori fall in love with an egotistical young man from her school. Their plan backfires when the love potions are mixed up and in the end everyone gets what they deserve.

Content
Mariana Ortega-Brena, writing in the journal Sexuality & Culture, classified it as "situated somewhere between porn, sci-fi horror and the slasher film" with a darker tone than regular hentai. Helen McCarthy in 500 Essential Anime Movies called it "an insane mixture of pornography and sitcom," while Sequential Tart's Sheena McNeil affirmed it is "erotic fantasy with a good dose of humor." Jonathan Clements and McCarthy also remarked in The Anime Encyclopedia its horror content, while it was deemed "erotic grotesque" and "erotic violence" by McNeil and Oricon respectively.

Chris Beveridge of Mania.com compared the Hiroshima scene to the style of the film Dr. Strangelove and said there was an "almost outright theft" of Terminator 2: Judgment Day's main theme by Brad Fiedel. Clements and McCarthy wrote that it adds a sexual content on the "alien girlfriend-squatter set-up of Urusei Yatsura" and found humorous references condemning the excesses of the author's previous work, Urotsukidōji.

Manga
Written and illustrated by Toshio Maeda, the manga was published by Wanimagazine in four tankōbon volumes between November 1988 and November 1989. Central Park Media translated it into English and published the four volumes through its Manga 18 label from January to November 2003.

Anime
A three-episode original video animation (OVA) titled Yōjū Sensen Adventure Kid was directed by Hideki Takayama. Originally the production staff wanted to have live-action erotic actresses dubbing some characters to create a public appeal but with no background on it the hired cast was not able to act. Published through VHS format, the three volumes were released each in a year from 1992 to 1994 by MW Films and Jupiter Films. Tokuma Japan Communications rereleased the entire series into three volumes in February 2002.

Its North American publication rights were acquired by Central Park Media in the 1990s that kept it until its bankruptcy in 2009. Central Park Media through its Anime 18 division first released the subtitled episodes into two volumes—both in VHS and CD-ROM format—and later into a single VHS containing the dubbed episodes. A DVD release of the whole series by Central Park Media occurred in 2001. For the British release, it was renamed Adventure Duo because the word "kid" could mask its sexual content. Also, all episodes had to be edited in order to pass certification of the British Board of Film Classification; a minute of video was cut from the first while the last had over nine minutes cut. Paradox released three VHS volumes in the 1990s while Kiseki Films published a single one in 2002.

Reception
The manga was called a classic hentai title by Patrick King of Animefringe. Sheena McNeil reviewed positively all manga volumes, and was mainly impressed with the fact that sexual content—"quite a variety of sexual activities" that gradually changes from softcore to hardcore —had usually a purpose within the plot instead of being "just there." In her words: "It's hentai with plot — and I'm not talking a semblance of a plot thrown in to hold the sex together, I'm talking about an actual plot which makes Adventure Kid an enjoyable read on multiple levels." She praised its "well thought-out characters" and dubbed its art "exceptional" stating it "is graphic, but it's not in your face extreme." McNeil summed up her opinion: "Provocative, humorous, dirty, and ingenious, it took a while to develop and get it on (more than fondling and blow-jobs), but it was well worth it." Allen Divers, writing for Anime News Network, reviewed the third volume of the manga and said that "Adventure Kid is a well drawn tale with a variety of sight gags and quite witty dialogue." For the last volume, Martin Ouellette of Protoculture Addicts commented that "While not the best work of Maeda, it does contain everything a hentai otaku will ever need: sex, weird sex and bizarre sex (as well as immoral sex)."

Reviewing the anime, Chris Beveridge criticized the "poor animation and the extensively bad lighting style used" as well as the "mock" dialogues. The reviewer concluded that he "probably should have cut [his] losses after the first five minutes," ultimately stating "Avoid at all costs, unless you love to MST3K anime."

title: Adventure Kid


text: Talk:Kasturba Gandhi College for Women

title: Talk:Kasturba Gandhi College for Women


text:
Hex map

A hex map, hex board, or hex grid is a game board design commonly used in simulation games of all scales, including wargames, role-playing games, and strategy games in both board games and video games. A hex map is subdivided into a hexagonal tiling, small regular hexagons of identical size.

Advantages and disadvantages
The primary advantage of a hex map over a traditional square grid map is that the distance between the center of each and every pair of adjacent hex cells (or hexes) is the same. By comparison, in a square grid map, the distance from the center of each square cell to the center of the four diagonal adjacent cells it shares a corner with is √2 times that of the distance to the center of the four adjacent cells it shares an edge with. This equidistant property of all adjacent hexes is desirable for games in which the measurement of movement is a factor. The other advantage is the fact that neighbouring cells always share edges; there are no two cells with contact at only a point.

One disadvantage of a hex map is that hexes have adjacent cells in only six directions instead of eight, as in a square grid map. Commonly, cells will form continuous straight lines "up" and "down", or "north" and "south", in which case the other four adjacent cells lie "north-west", "north-east", "south-west" and "south-east". As a result, no hex cell has an adjacent hex cell lying directly east or west of it, making "horizontal" movement in a straight line impossible. Instead, paths in these directions, and any other path that does not bisect one of the six cell edges, will "zig-zag"; since no two directions are orthogonal, it is impossible to move forward in one direction without moving backwards slightly in the other.

Games that traditionally use the four cardinal directions, or otherwise suit a square grid, may adapt to a hex grid in different ways. For example, hexagonal chess replaces the four directions of orthogonal movement (along ranks and files) with the six directions to adjacent cells, through cell edges. The four directions of diagonal movement are likewise replaced with the six directions that lie through vertices of the cell; these "diagonal" movements travel along the edge between a pair of adjacent cells before arriving at another cell. A three-colour grid aids in visualising this movement, since it preserves the traditional chessboard's property that pieces moving diagonally land only on cells of the same colour.

Uses
The hex map has been a favourite for game designers since 1961, when Charles S. Roberts of the Avalon Hill game company published the second edition of Gettysburg with a hex map. The hex grid is a distinguishing feature of the games from many wargame publishers, and a few other games (such as The Settlers of Catan).

The hex map has also been popular for role-playing game wilderness maps. They were used in the Dungeons & Dragons boxed sets of the 1980s and related TSR products. GDW also used a hex grid map in mapping space for their science-fiction RPG Traveller.

A number of abstract games are played on a hex grid, such as
 * Abalone
 * the six games of the GIPF series
 * Hex
 * Havannah
 * Y
 * Chinese Checkers
 * Agon

Several variants of chess have also been invented for a hex board.

The television game show Blockbusters (1980–1982, 1987) was also based on a hex grid.

Early examples of strategy video games that use hex maps include 1983's Nobunaga's Ambition, 1989's Military Madness (the first entry in the Nectaris series), and 1991's Master of Monsters. The first Civilization had a hex map version during development, but designers decided against it because "the world was not ready ... it was too freaky". While the first four iterations of the popular Civilization computer game franchise used square maps, Civilization V and Civilization VI use hexagonal maps. Other games that use hex maps are The Battle for Wesnoth, Dragon Age Journeys, Heroes of Might and Magic III, Forge of Empires and UniWar.

title: Hex map


text:
Night Shift Nurses

Night Shift Nurses is the North American localization of Yakin Byōtō (夜勤病棟), a Japanese OVA series adapted by Discovery from the visual novel of the same name. It was formerly licensed by Anime 18, and now by Critical Mass Video. The series is particularly notorious for its explicit depictions of rape, necrophilia, sadomasochism, and paraphilia.

Setting
Night Shift Nurses, as was originally written for the game, takes place in an undisclosed area of Japan, mainly at the fictional St. Juliana Hospital. A majority of the game is portrayed on campus with minor visits to the character's residences and surrounding towns.

Plot
Yakin Byōto 1: Ryuji Hirasaka is an unemployed, middle-aged Japanese gynaecologist, single, independent, and living on his own. One evening, he receives an email from the fictional St. Juliana Hospital, a local institution, offering him a temporary job opportunity. He contently accepts, scheduling to meet with the president the following day.

That afternoon, semi-formal and with a portfolio, Ryuji commutes to the hospital. After an acquaintance with Ren Nanase, a nurse who escorts him to the president, he is frightened to discover his potential employer is a woman he had brutally raped in the past, Narumi Jinguji. In spite of the excruciating atmosphere, however, Narumi explains her wish to develop a department in the hospital that caters to the sexual interests of patients; in need of his expertise to oversee the operation. Overwhelmed with lewd excitement, Ryuji agrees.

Yakin Byōto 2: A young elite doctor Souichiro Kuwabara couldn't forget his feelings towards Ren Nanase, whom he had fallen in love with back in his training days. He's been switching occupations at different hospitals one after another, to go look for her, and finally he meets her again at the Sei-Katorea General Hospital. However, her attitude was remote and sadly enough his love couldn't be fulfilled. To make things worse and more complicated, he finds a stack of photographs depicting Ren being molested. Ren had been turned into a lewd woman by Hirasaka when she was still working at St. Julianna. He was very disappointed after what he had witnessed to the point where he ends up losing his mind and going insane-(both mentally and sexually).

Yakin Byōto 3: In a rural village, Yotsuya Jiro, a young novelist was lying in front of a hospital after falling off his bike. He was seriously injured with a broken leg, and when he thought he was about to die, a pink-haired nurse named Yuu Yagami, helped him. He was sent into an emergency ward, and he met a beautiful woman, Reika Mikage. She is a director of the hospital, and she asked him to become a test subject. Because he didn't have any relatives, he accepted it. Then, Yuu was supposed to take care of him. Since that day, his fate had changed a lot.

Yakin Byōto Zero: This is the back story of how the genius doctor Ryuuji Hirasaka acquired his perverted pastime as a med school student. He and Narumi Jinguuji are rivals at the top of their class. One day, Narumi tells him that if he can seduce the woman she designates in the 2 weeks before graduation, she'll admit her defeat and do anything he tells her. The girls she suggests are just as beautiful and desirable as herself. Sensing his perverted perceptions transforming into a talent at her tantalizing suggestion, he readily agrees.

Characters

 * Ryuji Hirasaka (比良坂 竜二)
 * Ryuji Hirasaka is the aforementioned villain protagonist of the series. A knowledgeable practitioner, his life takes a sharp turn when he is invited to direct and corrupt a team of nurses at his new place of work. An unconvicted sex offender, Ryuji is vicious, controlling and intimidating, often cold reading those under him to learn about their vulnerabilities and how to exploit them. He sports a mullet and is bespectacled. He is murdered by Ren at the end of episode 5. In Night Shift Nurses Kranke he has a better ending: he marries Ren and the couple decide to move to the countryside to continue their experiments.
 * Ryuji Hirasaka is the aforementioned villain protagonist of the series. A knowledgeable practitioner, his life takes a sharp turn when he is invited to direct and corrupt a team of nurses at his new place of work. An unconvicted sex offender, Ryuji is vicious, controlling and intimidating, often cold reading those under him to learn about their vulnerabilities and how to exploit them. He sports a mullet and is bespectacled. He is murdered by Ren at the end of episode 5. In Night Shift Nurses Kranke he has a better ending: he marries Ren and the couple decide to move to the countryside to continue their experiments.

 * Narumi Jinguji (神宮寺 成美)
 * Narumi Jinguji is the thirty-two-year-old head practitioner of the St. Juliana Hospital, specializing in gynaecology. Voluptuous and enticing, she arranges to meet with Ryuji one afternoon to offer him the chance to sexually discipline a select group of her nursing staff for the purpose of developing a prostitution ring. As a previous rape victim of her own employee, Narumi exhibits bursts of psychological imbalance and unrest. She is noted for her long green hair. Like Ryuji, she too wears glasses. She commits suicide after attempting to kill Ryuji near the end of episode 5. In Night Shift Nurses Kranke, she is shown attending Ryuji and Ren's wedding.
 * Narumi Jinguji is the thirty-two-year-old head practitioner of the St. Juliana Hospital, specializing in gynaecology. Voluptuous and enticing, she arranges to meet with Ryuji one afternoon to offer him the chance to sexually discipline a select group of her nursing staff for the purpose of developing a prostitution ring. As a previous rape victim of her own employee, Narumi exhibits bursts of psychological imbalance and unrest. She is noted for her long green hair. Like Ryuji, she too wears glasses. She commits suicide after attempting to kill Ryuji near the end of episode 5. In Night Shift Nurses Kranke, she is shown attending Ryuji and Ren's wedding.

 * Ren Nanase (七瀬 恋)
 * Bright and friendly, Ren Nanase is a twenty-two-year-old nurse at the St. Juliana Hospital who is arguably the most iconic character of the series. She is the first nurse Ryuji meets and the first who genuinely welcomes him as a friend and superior. When her love for an inpatient boxer, Naoya Ohkawa, is discovered, Ryuji learns of her match fixing and uses it as blackmail. Like the nurses to come, in spite of the abhorrent treatment she receives, Ren develops Stockholm syndrome and becomes emotionally attached to her abuser. Ren is distinguishable by her incredibly long hair, of which is usually tied into a ponytail. It is later revealed that she is pregnant. She is the one who kills Ryuji after he gained back his consciousness. After being arrested she admits that she loves him. In Night Shift Nurses Kranke, she marries Ryuji, lives with him in the countryside, and becomes a "good" wife.
 * Bright and friendly, Ren Nanase is a twenty-two-year-old nurse at the St. Juliana Hospital who is arguably the most iconic character of the series. She is the first nurse Ryuji meets and the first who genuinely welcomes him as a friend and superior. When her love for an inpatient boxer, Naoya Ohkawa, is discovered, Ryuji learns of her match fixing and uses it as blackmail. Like the nurses to come, in spite of the abhorrent treatment she receives, Ren develops Stockholm syndrome and becomes emotionally attached to her abuser. Ren is distinguishable by her incredibly long hair, of which is usually tied into a ponytail. It is later revealed that she is pregnant. She is the one who kills Ryuji after he gained back his consciousness. After being arrested she admits that she loves him. In Night Shift Nurses Kranke, she marries Ryuji, lives with him in the countryside, and becomes a "good" wife.

 * Remi Shinjyo (新城 礼美)
 * Remi Shinjyo is a twenty-seven-year-old senior nurse of the hospital maternity ward. As a headstrong superior, Remi is outwardly proud, fastidious and authoritative, especially to Ryuji. Although it is not mentioned until later, Remi is responsible for an act of malpractice that resulted in the death of a patient. Ryuji takes advantage of Remi's malpractice and subjects her to inhumane experiments. Like Ren, Remi falls for Ryuji and shows huge interest of wanting to be experimented by Ryuji again. Amongst all the nurses, she is one of the few nurses in the series that is not a virgin.
 * Remi Shinjyo is a twenty-seven-year-old senior nurse of the hospital maternity ward. As a headstrong superior, Remi is outwardly proud, fastidious and authoritative, especially to Ryuji. Although it is not mentioned until later, Remi is responsible for an act of malpractice that resulted in the death of a patient. Ryuji takes advantage of Remi's malpractice and subjects her to inhumane experiments. Like Ren, Remi falls for Ryuji and shows huge interest of wanting to be experimented by Ryuji again. Amongst all the nurses, she is one of the few nurses in the series that is not a virgin.

 * Ako Fujisawa (藤沢 亜子)
 * Shy and quiet, Ako Fujisawa is a twenty-three-year-old pharmacist. The daughter of a wealthy family, she is falsely accused of stealing drugs from her department and this is used as the basis for her series of abuse. In much the same fashion as Ren and Remi, Ako develops delusional, obedient feelings for Ryuji. Owing to one of the elements of the show, Ako becomes a coprophile.
 * Shy and quiet, Ako Fujisawa is a twenty-three-year-old pharmacist. The daughter of a wealthy family, she is falsely accused of stealing drugs from her department and this is used as the basis for her series of abuse. In much the same fashion as Ren and Remi, Ako develops delusional, obedient feelings for Ryuji. Owing to one of the elements of the show, Ako becomes a coprophile.

 * Hikaru Kodama (児玉 ひかる)
 * Hikaru Kodama is a twenty-one-year-old amateur nurse, newly employed and specializing in pediatrics. As her department suggests, Hikaru absolutely loves children and like them, is energetic. She is the fourth and final nurse to be subjected to Ryuji and by far endures the most inhumane practices in the first phase of the series. It is later revealed that most of the group has to endure the same thing as her. Hikaru is noted for her pigtails and loose socks. She has an adoptive sister, Ai, hospitalized for heart problems. She later admits to have fallen for the doctor. In Night Shift Nurses Kranke, the doctor later does his experiments on both her and her sister. During Ryuji and Ren's wedding, she is the one who catches the bouquet.
 * Hikaru Kodama is a twenty-one-year-old amateur nurse, newly employed and specializing in pediatrics. As her department suggests, Hikaru absolutely loves children and like them, is energetic. She is the fourth and final nurse to be subjected to Ryuji and by far endures the most inhumane practices in the first phase of the series. It is later revealed that most of the group has to endure the same thing as her. Hikaru is noted for her pigtails and loose socks. She has an adoptive sister, Ai, hospitalized for heart problems. She later admits to have fallen for the doctor. In Night Shift Nurses Kranke, the doctor later does his experiments on both her and her sister. During Ryuji and Ren's wedding, she is the one who catches the bouquet.

 * Ai Kodama (児玉 あい)
 * Ai Kodama is Hikaru's adopted younger sister and a female patient at St. Juliana Hospital who suffers from a serious heart condition. She has a very close relationship with her older sister.

 * Dr. Sekigawa (関川)

 * Naoya Okawa (大川 直哉)
 * Naoya is a professional boxer and a male patient at St. Juliana Hospital who had broken his leg in an accident. He has romantic feelings for Ren, until he found out that she was in a relationship with Ryuji.

 * Souichiro Kuwabara (九羽原 宗一郎)

 * Souichiro Kuwabara is a young, seemingly kind-hearted male doctor supposedly in his late 20s who first appears in the second series of Night Shift Nurses-(Night Shift Nurses 2, Yakin Byoutou Ni|夜勤病棟・弐). A few years after St. Juliana closed down due to the strange circumstances that had occurred in the previous series, he gets employed at a different hospital called Sei-Katorea General Hospital-(聖カトレア総合病院|Sei Katorea Sōgō Byōin). Dubbed "The Super Elite Doctor", he gets a lot of admirers from the female staff and a few female patients; his father is a director of two other hospitals that he runs at the same time. Despite appearing to be kind-hearted at first, it turns out to be a facade, and he is revealed to be every bit as depraved and misogynistic as Ryuji Hisakawa, as he starts raping and abusing his female co-workers at the hospital.

 * Mana Kazama (風間 愛)

 * Mana is a red-haired nurse employed at the same hospital as Souichiro.

 * Riuru Kaneshiro (金城 瑠璃)

 * Riuru is the blonde-haired director of Sei-Katorea General Hospital. She's in a bisexual relationship with Konohara, one of the nurses employed at the hospital; it's revealed that she is futanari.

 * Karen Konohara (小乃原 香蓮)

 * Karen is a blue-haired lesbian nurse at Sei-Katorea General Hospital. She is shown to have a bad temper and has the personality of a typical tsundere character.

 * Suzuka Nogami (野上 涼華)

 * Suzuka is a lavender haired nursed at Sei-Katorea General Hospital. She is shown to have a habit of shoplifting random merchandise from different stores which she had inherited from her childhood; she has the personality of a young innocent child.

 * Sayuki Tezuka (手塚 咲雪)
 * Sayuki is an orange-haired nurse at Sei-Katorea General Hospital. She wears her hair up in two side braids; she also suffers from a minor form of Autonomic Ataxia, causing her body to tremble in fear whenever her stress levels get too high.

 * Jiro Yotsuya (四谷 次郎)
 * Yotsuya is a young novelist who resides in a rural small town village called Tokizaka.

 * Yuu Yagami (八神 優)

 * Yuu is a dark pink haired nurse who works at the same hospital that Yotsuya was staying at after he was injured.

 * Reika Mikage (御影 麗佳)

 * Sakurako Kujou (九条 桜子)

 * Hiyori Kisaragi (如月 ひより)

 * Shizune Yunagi (夕凪 静音)

 * Koko Amamiya (甘宮 心)

 * Shizuru Hirasaka (比良坂 詩弦)

 * Maya Yumizuka (弓塚 麻耶)

 * Eri Kedouin (祁答院 英莉)

Reception
As a result of the unrestrained content of the series, Night Shift Nurses is usually regarded as one of, if not the most graphic hentai ever released. Several minutes of particularly unruly scenes were even banned from North American releases. Industry aggregator Mania.com gave the series an F, citing that although the animation is "clean" and "slick", the quantity of edits made for the American release yields it one that "[...]I in no way [can] recommend."

title: Night Shift Nurses


text:
Shirley Graham Du Bois

Shirley Graham Du Bois (born Lola Shirley Graham Jr.; November 11, 1896 – March 27, 1977) was an American-Ghanaian writer, playwright, composer, and activist for African-American causes, among others. She won the Messner and the Anisfield-Wolf prizes for her works.

Biography
She was born Lola Shirley Graham Jr. in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1896, as the only daughter among five children. Her father was an African Methodist Episcopal minister and the family moved often due to her father's work in parsonages throughout the country. In June 1915, Shirley graduated from Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane, Washington.

She married her first husband, Shadrach T. McCants, in 1921. Their son Robert was born in 1923, followed by David Graham DuBois in 1925. In 1926, Graham moved to Paris, France, to study music composition at the Sorbonne. She thought that this education might allow her to achieve better employment and be able to better support her children. Meeting Africans and Afro-Caribbean people in Paris introduced her to new music and cultures. Graham and McCants divorced in 1927.

Graham served as music librarian while attending Howard University as a nonmatriculated student under the tutelage of Professor Roy W. Tibbs. He recommended her for a teaching position at Morgan College which led to her position as head of the music department from 1929 to 1931.

In 1931, Graham entered Oberlin College as an advanced student and, after earning her BA in 1934, went on to do graduate work in music, completing a master's degree in 1935. In 1936, Hallie Flanagan appointed Graham director of the Chicago Negro Unit of the Federal Theater Project, part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration. She wrote musical scores, directed, and did additional associated work.

In 1932, she composed the opera Tom-Tom: An Epic of Music and the Negro which premiered in Cleveland, Ohio, commissioned by the Stadium Opera Company. Tom Tom featured an all-Black cast and orchestra, structured in three acts; act one taking place in an Indigenous African tribe, act two portraying an American slave plantation, and the final act taking place in 1920s Harlem. The music features elements of blues and spirituals, as well as jazz with elements of opera. The score of this opera was considered lost and has not been performed since its premiere until it was rediscovered in 2001 at Harvard University.

Graham briefly worked at the Federal Theatre Project before it was shut down in 1939 by a group of anti-communists. Elizabeth Dilling – a white-supremacist and staunch anti-communist – as well as Senator Robert Rice Reynolds, a Nazi sympathizer and anti-semite, sought to defund the Federal Theatre Project. The Federal Theatre Project eventually was defunded as a result of this anti-communist and racist rhetoric. From 1940 to 1942, Graham worked at the Phillis Wheatley Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) in Indianapolis, Indiana, where she focused on establishing a theatre program and then became the director of the YMCA-USO group in Fort Huachuca, Arizona. The YWCA supported the Federal Anti-Lynching Law. However, Elizabeth Dilling and anti-communist and white-supremacist groups had claimed that YWCA was a "Communist-front organizations controlled by Jews" and attacked the organization's support for equal rights for Black peoples. Dilling's publication of "Red Channels" ultimately launched anti-communist backlash against Graham Du Bois, resulting in her work being pulled from libraries and censored.

In the late 1940s, Graham became a member of Sojourners for Truth and Justice – an African-American organization working for global women's liberation. Around the same time, she joined the American Communist Party.

In 1951, she married W. E. B. Du Bois, the second marriage for both. She was 54 years old; he was 83.

After the United States Supreme Court ruled that the State Department could not deny passports to citizens who refused to sign affidavits that they were not communists, Graham Du Bois and Du Bois immediately applied for passports.

In 1958, Graham Du Bois and her husband visited Ghana, where she spoke at the All-African Peoples' Conference (AAPC), an event held by 62 African National Liberation organizations where she delivered a speech titled "The Future of All-Africa lies in Socialism" where she stated "Africa, ancient Africa, has been called by the world and has lifted up her hands! Africa has no choice between private capitalism and socialism. The whole world, including capitalist countries, is moving toward socialism, inevitably, inexorably. You can choose between blocs of military alliance, you can choose between groups of political union; you cannot choose between socialism and private capitalism because private capitalism is doomed." In 1960 the Du Boises attended a ceremony in the Republic of Ghana honoring Kwame Nkrumah as the first president of the newly liberated country. Graham Du Bois and W. E. B. Du Bois later became citizens of Ghana in 1961.

Graham Du Bois attended the Second Summit of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in Cairo in 1964 and consulted with Malcolm X on the efforts of the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU) to get support for the issues inside the US among heads of state, the UN and national liberation movements. Graham announced the start of a course on television screenwriting in Accra to create a group of writers for Ghana National Television.

During her first visit to China in 1959, Graham Du Bois, alongside her husband W. E. B. Du Bois, was commemorated in China for their activism and commitment to Black liberation, as well as to liberation of all people of color across the globe. The Chinese Communist Party in 1959 commemorated W. E. B. Du Bois by publishing his book The Soul of Black Folk in Chinese languages. Graham Du Bois devoted her time in China to the women's struggle and sought to bridge ties between the proletarian struggle in China with the struggle of Black Americans. The People's Daily recognized her as a member of the World Peace Council and of the national committee for the Association of American-Soviet Friendship.

In 1967, she was forced to leave Ghana soon after the 1966 military-led coup d'état, and moved to Cairo, Egypt, where her surviving son David was working as a journalist. There she continued writing, studied Arabic and become a supporter of Afrocentrism. Later she moved to China again in the midst of the Cultural Revolution. During this time, Graham Du Bois sided with the Chinese communists in the Sino-Soviet split. She had praised China's music programs in Shanghai and she joined the Bureau of Afro-Asian Writers. Graham Du Bois spent time in people's communes and with the Red Guards.

She gave talks at Yale and UCLA in 1970, where she was able to speak on imperialism, capitalism and colonialism and her experiences in countries undergoing socialist construction, such as China and Vietnam. She also gave W. E. B. Du Bois' writings to the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

She produced a movie in China called Women of the New China in 1974. Shirley Graham Du Bois died in Beijing, China in 1977, where she is buried in the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery. Her funeral was attended by many important political figures in China, including Cheng Yonggui, Deng Yingchao, and Huo Guofeng, where they honored her as a hero for her internationalism and selflessness. The Communist Party Chairman lay a memorial wreath in honor of Graham Du Bois, as did the embassies of Tanzania, Ghana, and Zambia.

Death
Shirley Graham Du Bois died of breast cancer on March 27, 1977, aged 80, in Beijing, China. She died as a citizen of Tanzania, Ghana, and the United States of America. She had moved from Ghana to Tanzania after Ghanaian president Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown on 24 February 1966, and became close to Tanzanian president, Julius Nyerere, and acquired Tanzanian citizenship.

Honors
Her alma mater Oberlin Conservatory of Music recently honored DuBois offering cluster courses and a conference devoted to reviving her remarkable legacy as a composer, activist and media figure. The conference was called Intersections: Recovering the Genius of Shirley Graham Du Bois 2020 Symposium on Thursday and Friday, February 27 and 28, 2020, that included a plenary lecture by Columbia professor and author Farah Jasmine Griffin. The event was co-sponsored by The Gertrude B. Lemle Teaching Center, StudiOC, a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Dean of The college, Dean of the Conservatory, History Department, Oberlin College Libraries, Africana Studies Department, and the Theater Department.

Her papers are archived at;
 * W.E.B. Du Bois Manuscript Collection at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Massachusetts
 * Federal Theatre Project collection at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia
 * Washington Conservatory of Music Collection in the Moorland-Spingarn Research Library at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
 * Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Harvard Radcliffe Institute, Cambridge, MA

Works
After meeting Africans in Paris while studying at the Sorbonne in 1926, Graham composed the musical score and libretto of Tom Tom: An Epic of Music and the Negro (1932), an opera. She used music, dance and the book to express the story of Africans' journey to the North American colonies, through slavery and to freedom. It premiered in Cleveland, Ohio. The opera attracted 10,000 people to its premiere at the Cleveland Stadium and 15,000 to the second performance.

According to the Oxford Companion to African-American Literature, her theatre works included Deep Rivers (1939), a musical; It's Morning (1940), a one-act tragedy about a slave mother who contemplates infanticide; I Gotta Home (1940), a one-act drama; Track Thirteen (1940), a comedy for radio and her only published play; Elijah's Raven (1941), a three-act comedy; and Dust to Earth (1941), a three-act tragedy.

Graham used theater to tell the black woman's story and perspective, countering white versions of history. Despite her unsuccessful attempts to land a Broadway production as many African-American women before and after her, her plays were still produced by Karamu Theatre in Cleveland and other major Black companies. Her work was also seen in many colleges and both Track Thirteen (1940) and Tom-Tom were aired on the radio.

Due to the difficulty in getting musicals or plays produced and published, Graham turned to literature. She wrote in a variety of genres, specializing from the 1950s in biographies of leading African-American and world figures for young readers. She wanted to increase the number of books that dealt with notable African Americans in elementary school libraries. Owing to her personal knowledge of her subjects, her books on Paul Robeson and Kwame Nkrumah are considered especially interesting. Other subjects included Frederick Douglass, Phillis Wheatley, and Booker T. Washington; as well as Gamal Abdul Nasser, and Julius Nyerere. One of her last novels, Zulu Heart (1974), included sympathetic portrayals of whites in South Africa despite racial conflicts.

Selections from her correspondence with her husband (both before and after their relationship began) appear in the three-volume 1976 collection edited by Herbert Aptheker (ed.), Correspondence of W.E.B. Du Bois. Shirley Graham Du Bois is the subject of Race Woman: The Lives of Shirley Graham Du Bois.

Biographical works
Biographies for young readers:
 * with George D. Lipscomb, Dr. George Washington Carver, Scientist, New York: Julian Messner, 1944, (Library binding has ISBN 978-0671325107)
 * Paul Robeson, Citizen of the World, Connecticut, 1946: Greenwood Press, reprint 1972
 * Your Most Humble Servant: Benjamin Banneker, New York: Julian Messner, 1949; winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in 1950
 * The Story of Phillis Wheatley: Poetess of the Revolution, New York: Julian Messner, 1949
 * The Story of Pocahontas, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1953
 * Jean Baptiste Pointe duSable: Founder of Chicago (1953)
 * Booker T. Washington: Educator of Head, Hand and Heart, New York: Julian Messner, 1955
 * His Day Is Marching On: A Memoir of W.E.B. Du Bois, New York: Lippincott, 1971
 * Julius K. Nyerere, Teacher of Africa, New York: Julian Messner, 1975
 * Du Bois: A Pictorial Biography, Johnsons, 1978

Novels:
 * There Once Was a Slave (1947), the Messner Prize-winning historical novel on the life of Frederick Douglass; and
 * Zulu Heart, New York: Third Press, 1974

Further reading/links

 * Nishikawa, Kinohi. "Shirley Graham" entry, The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature. Ed. Hans Ostrom and J. David Macey, Jr. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2005, pp. 652–53.
 * Thompson, Robert Dee. A socio-biography of Shirley Graham-Du Bois: a life in the struggle. University of California, Santa Cruz, 1997 (digitized August 4, 2009)
 * Shirley Graham Du Bois profile, African American Registry
 * Shirley Graham Du Bois Papers, Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University
 * Shirley Graham Du Bois bibliography, amazon.com; accessed May 2, 2014.
 * FBI files on Shirley Graham Du Bois

title: Shirley Graham Du Bois


text: User talk:68.202.195.222

title: User talk:68.202.195.222


text:
2007 Ontario electoral reform referendum

A referendum was held on October 10, 2007, on the question of whether to establish a mixed member proportional representation (MMP) system for elections to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. The vote was strongly in favour of the existing plurality voting or first-past-the-post (FPTP) system.

Background
Currently, Ontario elects Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs) using the single member plurality, or first-past-the-post (FPTP), system. In this system, each voter gives one vote to a candidate in an electoral district; the candidate with the most votes wins. In most cases, the party with the most elected candidates is asked to form a government.

The initiative to reform this system was first proposed in 2001 by the Liberal Party opposition leader of the time, Dalton McGuinty. The impetus for the proposal was at least in part the experience of the province with two successive majority governments elected in three consecutive elections with less than 50% of the popular vote, the NDP from 1990-95 under Bob Rae (elected in 1990 with only 38% of the popular vote), and the Conservatives, twice elected with 45% of the vote in 1995 and 1999 under Mike Harris. When the Harris government enacted sweeping changes in public services, a feeling developed that both of these governments lacked a sufficient democratic mandate to justify the extent of such changes. The Liberals won a landslide majority of their own in October 2003, winning 70% of the seats with 45% of the vote.

On November 18, 2004, Premier McGuinty announced that a citizens’ assembly would be established to examine the FPTP electoral system and recommend possible changes to be voted upon by referendum in the next provincial election. Enabling legislation to implement these measures —the Election Amendment Act, 2005— received Royal Assent on June 13, 2005. It included provisions for Elections Ontario to select volunteers for a Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform. An all-party Committee on Electoral Reform was also created to consider and report on options for electoral reform. Its report was submitted in November 2005. It included a number of recommendations and defined the Citizen's Assembly's mandate.

The Ontario Citizen's Assembly was modeled primarily on the British Columbia Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform established as the first of its kind in 2002, leading up to the British Columbia referendum in 2005. It was composed of 103 members, one from each of Ontario's existing ridings, including 51 women, 51 men, and one native member. Its deliberations began in September 2006 and ended with the Assembly's final meeting on April 28, 2007. Proceedings included a learning phase as members learned about the strengths and weaknesses of different electoral systems, a period of public consultations, and a "deliberative" phase during which the Assembly came to a consensus on its recommendations.

Proposed changes to the electoral system
The Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform proposed a mixed member proportional representation (MMP) system. Although there exist slightly different variants of MMP, the model proposed for Ontario by the Citizen's Assembly was designed with simplicity and practicality in mind.

The general idea
As is usually the case in MMP systems, each voter would cast two votes:
 * one for a local candidate and
 * one for a political party.

The local member would be elected according to the usual FPTP mechanism. These members would represent the electoral district, as in the past.

However, there would also be a number of "list seats." The second ballot would be used to determine what share of total seats (local + list) should be proportionately assigned to each party to ensure proportionality of the overall result.

The proposed Legislature would have 129 seats consisting of 90 local members (70% of the Legislature) and 39 list members (30% of the Legislature). The conventions as to which party is asked to form a government would remain unchanged.

The use of party lists
List members would be chosen according to a ranked list of candidates proposed by each party before the election. In the Assembly's proposal, there would be only one such list per party for the whole province, as opposed to several regional lists, and it could include candidates also running for office locally. If a candidate for a list member seat had already been elected locally by the time that list seats were being allocated, that candidate's name would simply be passed over in favour of the next candidate on that party list.

The largest remainder issue
The number of seats won by a party would be calculated by multiplying a party's share of the party vote by the total number of seats in the province. As this multiplication would not automatically yield a round number, the fractional part would be allocated in favour of the party or parties with the largest fractions.

For example, if there were four parties with party votes yielding 45.43, 31.54, 24.76 and 5.27 seats respectively for a total of 107, the initial allocation without the fractions would be 45, 31, 24 and 5, for a total of 105 seats so far. This would leave two seats to be allocated on the basis of fractions; in this example, these seats would go to the second and third parties. The final tally of seats would thus be 45, 32, 25 and 5.

This approach to allocating the fractional seats is called the largest remainder method. The result is as close to proportionality as possible using a simple method given the need to allocate the fractional seats in some way. However it is not necessarily as close as that from the more complex Sainte-Lague method used for New Zealand's MMP system, given that unlike the latter formula the largest remainder method may result in the so-called Apportionment paradox in allocating seats.

The Allocation of list members seats
Since the number of local seats is established by the election results at the local level, what remains to be done is to fill in the difference with the required number of list member seats for each party. In the above example, if the first party had won 39 local seats, they would now be allocated 6 more seats from the list, for a total of 45 as determined by their share of the party vote.

No leveling seats for overhang
A particular situation that could arise, though rarely, is that a party might win more local seats than it would normally be allowed in total based on its share of the party vote. This excess of seats is called an "overhang" and in some systems, a form of compensation is made for this by adding "leveling seats" to the other parties. The Assembly did not allow for leveling seats, accepting instead that the system would be slightly less proportional in such cases (see the article "Overhang seat", section "Dealing with overhang seats" for the alternative method that was proposed).

Referendum question and threshold
On June 20, 2007, the Ontario Democratic Renewal Secretariat announced that cabinet had decided on the following wording of the referendum question:

''Which electoral system should Ontario use to elect members to the provincial legislature? / Quel système électoral l’Ontario devrait-il utiliser pour élire les députés provinciaux à l’Assemblée législative?''

 * The existing electoral system (First-Past-the-Post) / L’actuel système électoral (système de la majorité relative)
 * The alternative electoral system proposed by the Citizens’ Assembly (Mixed Member Proportional) / L’autre système électoral proposé par l’Assemblée des citoyens (système de représentation proportionnelle mixte)

This approach to wording the question was subtly more neutral than that adopted in the 2005 referendum in British Columbia in two ways:
 * it gave equal billing to the existing FPTP system rather than asking if voters were for or against the proposed reform using a Yes / No format; and
 * it used the word "proposed" rather than "recommended."

To pass, the alternative system required 60% support across the board, and at least 50% support in 64 of the 107 (60% of total) ridings. If successful, the new government would have proposed and passed a new law for MMP by December 31, 2008. and the resolution would have been in effect in any subsequent election.

The referendum was held on October 10, concurrently with the 2007 provincial election, which provided for a separate referendum ballot with the referendum question.

Elections Ontario education campaign
The Ontario Citizens' Assembly recommended that a comprehensive, well-funded public education program, be undertaken to assist voters with their decision, beginning in May 2007 (right after it released its final report) and continuing through to the referendum in October. The Assembly recommended that the education campaign include a description of the new system and how it differs from the current system; a description of the Citizens’ Assembly process; and the Assembly's rationale for recommending a Mixed Member Proportional system for Ontario. This would ensure that Ontarians could make an informed decision.

A June Environics poll showed that 70% of those polled were not familiar with the proposal, including over 50% who knew nothing at all about the upcoming referendum.

The McGuinty government decided to mandate Elections Ontario to direct the education campaign, but with the referendum scheduled for October 10, 2007, Elections Ontario didn't formally launch its public education campaign until August of that year. The projected cost for the referendum was $6.825 million, an amount that fell short of the minimum $13 million called for by Fair Vote Canada. The assigned money would give one mailout to each Ontario household, a part-time Referendum Resource Officer in each of the province's ridings, a call centre and a website.

According to LeDuc et al., "Elections Ontario interpreted its information mandate quite narrowly, and did not inform the public of the substance of the proposal or the competing arguments in favour of or against it." Citizens were expected to get the information they needed from various websites or from the press. Remarkably, although the Citizens' Assembly had produced a shorter version of their report and a short leaflet further summarizing it, Elections Ontario distributed neither, to the surprise and disappointment of the Citizens' Assembly. By contrast in British Columbia, the Citizens' Assembly material was distributed to every household.

Similarly, the government made no effort to explain why the Citizen's Assembly had been created, how it had conducted its hearings and deliberations, or why they had made the recommendations upon which voters were expected to pronounce themselves.

The lack of information was such that by late September 2007, public understanding of the question remained very low, with 47% of respondents telling pollster Strategic Counsel they knew nothing at all about the new system, and another 41% saying they knew only "a little." Only 12% said they knew a lot.

Support
The Ontario New Democratic Party supported the referendum, although party leader Howard Hampton criticized the system for giving Northern Ontario a decreased number of ridings. The Green Party of Ontario also lent its support.

As can be seen in the individual endorsements for and against shown below, the Liberals were divided on the issue, with a greater number in support of reform than against it. However, the Premier himself did not take a position on behalf of the government.

Other political parties lending their support to electoral reform included the Family Coalition Party of Ontario and the Communist Party of Ontario.

The proposed system received critical support from Fair Vote Canada, which organized the Vote for MMP campaign, a multi-partisan citizen-based campaign. Vote for MMP had received a long list of public endorsements from all parts of the political spectrum. In addition, over 140 professors of law and politics have endorsed MMP.

The women's group Equal Voice were also critically supportive during Select Committee on Electoral Reform hearings, speaking in support of proportional representation. Equal Voice, with the support of the Doris Anderson Fund has organized the Equal Voice in Politics campaign to support MMP in the referendum.

MMP was endorsed by the Ontario chapter of the Canadian Federation of Students and sixteen other Ontario student unions.

Candidates endorsing MMP
There does not appear to exist any comprehensive review of the views of 2007 election candidates from each party on the referendum. The following identifies a selection of candidates upon which information could be found.

Although the Ontario Liberal Party had not taken a formal position on MMP, a number of Liberal candidates took a public position in favour of the proposal, including the following.
 * Liberal
 * Michael Bryant, St. Paul's
 * Steven H. Fishman, Simcoe—Grey
 * John Gerretsen, Kingston and the Islands
 * Selwyn Hicks, Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound
 * Kate Holloway, Trinity—Spadina
 * Ted McMeekin, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale
 * Shafiq Qaadri, Etobicoke North
 * Tony Ruprecht, Davenport
 * George Smitherman, Toronto Centre
 * Ian Wilson, Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington
 * Lorenzo Berardinetti, Scarborough Southwest

NDP and Green candidate support was basically universal, since those parties had taken a party position on the issue. The following provides a sample:
 * NDP and Green Party
 * Edelweiss D'Andrea, Ottawa South (NDP)
 * Rick Downes, Kingston and the Islands (NDP)
 * Lyn Hamilton, Ottawa West—Nepean (NDP)
 * John David Ford, Ottawa South (Green)

Opposition
The Freedom Party of Ontario was the only party that officially opposed the proposed system, claiming that rule by a majority could be anti-democratic and incompatible with the protection of minorities and of individual rights.

Though the PC leader at the time, John Tory, and most PC candidates opposed electoral reform, the party itself did not formally take a position on the issue.

As explained by LeDuc et al., the mainstream print media were "uniformly opposed to both the Assembly process and the MMP proposal". This included the National Post, the Globe and Mail, and the Toronto Star. A content analysis conducted by the authors showed that newspaper coverage was predominantly negative, and that it failed to go beyond the statement of objections to explain the issue to the public.

Organized opposition to the proposal included the No MMP website.

Individual candidate opposing the proposed reform
The following candidates took a position in favour of the existing FPTP (and against the proposed MMP):

 * Liberal:
 * Dwight Duncan, Windsor—Tecumseh
 * Steve Peters, Elgin—Middlesex—London
 * Greg Sorbara, Vaughan—King—Aurora
 * Jim Watson, Ottawa West—Nepean
 * Progressive Conservative:
 * Mike Patton, Ottawa West—Nepean
 * Richard Raymond, Ottawa South
 * John Tory, Don Valley West
 * Family Coalition:
 * David MacDonald, Ottawa South

No official position
As already noted, neither the Ontario Liberal Party nor the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario took an official position on electoral reform. The positions of Liberal candidates on the issue varied, while most PC candidates opposed the initiative.

The Ontario Libertarian Party, Confederation of Regions Party, Republican Party of Ontario, Reform Party of Ontario and Party for People with Special Needs did not officially state a position on electoral reform.

Results
The proposal was defeated, with 36.8% of the valid votes cast supporting MMP, and 63.2% in favour of retaining FPTP. For detailed results by riding and by region, see Ontario electoral reform referendum, 2007 detailed results.

The result was decisive, with only five constituencies in the Toronto area returning a majority in favour of MMP. Four of these constituencies also elected an NDP candidate.

Analysis
Explanations of the results that have been put forward are of three types: those having to do with the particular model that was put forward; the inadequacy of public education; and the interests of the political elite in favour of the status quo.

Analysis and polling conducted after the referendum identified two features that had not been well received: the proposal to increase the number of members in the legislature to make room for a certain number of list members; and the use of closed lists defined by the parties themselves as a mechanism. Fair Vote Canada points to two features of the MMP model proposed by the Citizen's Assembly that differed from that proposed in 2004 by the Law Commission of Canada in two significant ways:
 * the Law Commission had proposed that voters have the ability to vote directly for party candidates in each region —an option that would have addressed voters' concerns about the use of closed lists as proposed by the Citizen's Assembly;
 * the Law Commission had proposed that at-large members should be elected at the regional level, rather than province-wide —an option that would have alleviated any possible concerns about MLAs not being "locally anchored and accountable."

Design issues such as these aside, the major factor determining the outcome was widely seen to be the lack of adequate information and understanding of both the proposal itself and the Citizen's Assembly that had given rise to it. In a pre-referendum poll conducted in April 2007 by Stratcom Research, the most commonly cited argument in opposition to the MMP proposal was lack of information about it. For LeDuc et al., a victory for the reform proposal would have been surprising under the circumstances. As they argue based on the evidence of this case and others, "The political advantage in referendum campaigns, particularly those dealing with unfamiliar issues, often seems to rest with the NO side. Those opposed to a proposal do not necessarily have to make a coherent case against it. Often, it is enough merely to raise doubts about it in the minds of voters, question the motives of its advocates, or play upon a natural fear of the unknown."

The authors point to past surveys that tend to show a public that is aware of electoral issues and somewhat positive towards the issue of proportionality but does not have particularly strong views about it. They conclude that "in Canada, and particularly in Ontario, we do not find an underlying climate of opinion that would necessarily facilitate the passage of a reform proposal."

Pilon looks more closely at the role of the print media, which was expected to provide the required space for deliberation about the referendum question. He concludes that Ontario's print media was biased in favour of the No side, offered limited coverage, and was based predominantly on speculative or logical arguments rather than evidence or expert‐based ones.

Arguments such as the above suggest the need for political leadership if a referendum such as this is to succeed. This leads analysts, such as LeDuc et al. to look to the ambivalence or hostility on the part of the political elite for an explanation. For them, the lack of information and balanced analysis available to voters was not an accident, but the result of inadequate funding, an excessively limited approach to public education by Elections Ontario, a last-minute approach to informing the public, the lack of attention to the role of the Assembly, and hostility from the media elite.

Official sources

 * Referendum Statistical Results
 * Your Big Decision, official referendum webpage
 * Ontario Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform

Organized support

 * Vote for MMP
 * Equal Voice in Politics

Organized opposition

 * No MMP Campaign