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Mongoloid (song)

"Mongoloid" is the first single released by American new wave band Devo in 1977, on the Booji Boy Records label. It was backed with the song "Jocko Homo". "Mongoloid" also had one of the first music videos made using collage. "Mongoloid" would later be re-recorded by Devo and appeared on the album Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! in 1978. It is also a staple of Devo's live shows.

Song description
"Mongoloid", like many of Devo's early songs, was built on a motorik beat. The song opens with a 4/4 electric bass line, which is then joined by drums, and electric guitar. Over this, a swooping overdubbed synthesizer line featuring frequent pitch bend is played on Minimoog. The synth is not used as a lead instrument during the song, and is used only in the opening and closing. The doubled vocals are sung simultaneously by both Gerald V. Casale and Robert "Bob 1" Mothersbaugh. On the original single, the vocals are deliberately sung in a nasal fashion. The lyrics describe a man who has Down syndrome yet leads a normal life in a de-evolved society, hence the lyric "He was a Mongoloid, Mongoloid / His friends were unaware / Mongoloid, he was a Mongoloid / Nobody even cared".

Music video
"Mongoloid" was Devo's second music video, after The Truth About De-Evolution. It was not actually made by the band, but by assemblage artist and experimental filmmaker Bruce Conner. Conner combined 1950s television advertisements, science fiction film clips (including a scene from It Came from Outer Space), and scientific documentaries with abstract animation and original film work. Devo marketed the film as "A documentary film exploring the manner in which a determined young man overcame a basic mental defect and became a useful member of society. Insightful editing techniques reveal the dreams, ideals and problems that face a large segment of the American male population. Very educational. Background music written and performed by the DEVO orchestra."

"Mongoloid" appears as a bonus feature on The Complete Truth About De-Evolution DVD.

Discography
"Mongoloid" was originally recorded as a single released on the Booji Boy Records label in 1977. The original single was a triple gatefold, held together with stickers. The inside of the gatefold displayed the lyrics of the two songs in either blue or black ink depending on the pressing. The back cover of the single was an image of Booji Boy with the text "We're all Devo! Booji Boy XO."

As Devo gained fame, Stiff Records in the UK agreed to release the single on their label. There were several pressings of the "Mongoloid" single with varying packages, ranging from a full triple gatefold, to a simple picture sleeve, to a generic "Stiff Records" paper sleeve. The Stiff Records releases are marked by the Stiff logo in the lower left hand corner of the front cover.

Both songs featured on the single were re-recorded for the band's debut album Are We Not Men? We Are Devo!. The original single versions can be found on the Pioneers Who Got Scalped anthology.

Tour
In order to promote the single, Devo undertook a 'tour' using their limited budget to promote it.

Other versions
For Devo's debut album ''Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!'', "Mongoloid" was re-recorded. This version contains much more involved synthesizer playing throughout the song rather than during the opening and closing. An "E-Z Listening" version of "Mongoloid" was made for playing before concerts and appears on the 1987 E-Z Listening Disc. In 2002, Devo performed a techno version of "Mongoloid" at a special show for the writers and producers of the cartoon Rugrats (for which Mark Mothersbaugh composed the theme song). In 2007, Gerald Casale played an acoustic version of "Mongoloid" accompanied on the piano by Re/Search co-founder V. Vale at a re-release party for Industrial Culture Handbook. The video is available on the Re/Search Publications website.

Covers
"Mongoloid" has been one of the most frequently covered songs in the Devo catalog:
 * In 1979 a Finnish punk band, Sehr Schnell, recorded the song in a Finnish punk collection album, "Hilselp", with lyrics in Finnish, "Mongoloidi".
 * A 1979 Rhino Records compilation of Devo covers by various local bands, titled KROQ-FM Devotees Album, features three humorous versions of this song recorded by Jupiter, the Deadliners, and the Sordes.
 * Lost Kids, a Danish punk band, covered the track in the song Asocial with different lyrics, released on the 1978 EP Født Som Nul and the 1979 compilation Pære punk.
 * A bluegrass version, recorded in Cleveland, Ohio, by the Hotfoot Quartet in 1980 and released as a 45 rpm single on the Black Snake label.
 * Siniestro Total, a punk band from Galicia (Spain), released a cover of the song (renaming it as "Mongoloide" and with lyrics in Spanish) as the B side of the single "Si yo Canto" from their 1984 album "Menos mal que nos queda Portugal". This cover also appears in their 1993 compilation album "Ojalá estuvieras aquí".
 * Zvoncekova Bilježnica, a Serbian hardcore/post-punk band covered this song for their 1992 album Inžinjeri ljudskih duša in Serbian language with different lyrics.
 * Demented Are Go, a Welsh psychobilly band, covered it on their 1993 album Tangenital Madness on a Pleasant Side of Hell.
 * Australian ska band The Porkers covered this song for their 1994 album Grunt!
 * Thrash metal group Demolition Hammer covers the song on their 1994 album Timebomb.
 * Possum Dixon performed a Spanish cover, "El Mongoloido", on We Are Not Devo, the Devo tribute album released in 1997.
 * A choral version of the song, both A Capella and with instrumental accompaniment, was released by the German band Popchor Berlin in 2002 on their EP-1" album.
 * Sepultura covered the song on their 2002 Revolusongs EP.
 * The Washington Dead Cats, a French punkabilly band, covered "Mongoloid" on their album "El Diablo is Back" in 2006.
 * In 2007, Datarock performed an acoustic version of the song for Like a Version, a segment on the national Australian radio station, Triple J.
 * "Loose n Boozy" Vancouver BC band The Cadaver Dogs, referred to as "the Blue Cheer of country" included a bonus hidden track cover of "Mongoloid " on their 2008 release PARIAH SOCIAL. The tune came out of a late night drunken Crazy Horse type jam...ragged, but right!
 * Rummelsnuff, a German industrial/punk musician, covered "Mongoloid" on his first record Halt Durch! in 2008.
 * Alpha Consumer, a Minneapolis rock band covered the song on their debut album.
 * The Belgian rock band The Assassinators plays a cover version of the song.
 * Layo & Bushwacka used samples from this song on their track "Love Story".
 * The Chilean band Los Mox covered this song on their album Con Cover.
 * The Real Losers, a Leeds garage rock band did a cover on their last album "Music for Funsters".
 * The Sky Fades Away, a Russian post-punk band covered this song.
 * "Mongoloid" was also covered by an early incarnation of the band October Rising, when they were known as the "Star Spangled Bastards".
 * A slightly altered version of the chorus serves as the theme music of the Androsynth race in the Star Control computer games.
 * In the Flemish film Ex Drummer, the main character's band The Feminists do a version of "Mongoloid" in rehearsals and in concert. This version was recorded by Belgian band Millionaire.
 * German punk and synthpunk band Jennifer Rostock covered the song on the expanded version of their debut album "Ins Offene Messer - Jetzt Noch Besser!"
 * The Finnish band The Valkyrians covered the song in 2011 on the album, Punkrocksteady.
 * German band Ernst recorded a cover of the song in the German language.
 * Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät covered the song with Sehr Schnell's Finnish translation in 2014.

title: Mongoloid (song)


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User talk:Alphax/20050420-02

Root mean square functions
What are the RMS functions for various waveforms as a function of the amplitudes? Eg. RMS of a sine wave is $$\sqrt2$$ of the amplitude. Alphax τεχ 08:40, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * Well, two things first: the RMS value of a sine wave is $$\frac1\sqrt2$$ of the amplitude. Also note that "the" RMS value of a waveform depends on where it's centered — for the following I've assumed that the mean value of the wave is 0 (as is usually the case in this context).  Using the continuous function formula at RMS, I get

 * sawtooth ($$f(x)=x$$ on [-T/2,T/2] and $$f(x+T)=f(x)$$): $$\frac1\sqrt3$$ times the amplitude
 * triangle ($$f(x)=T/4-\left|x\right|$$ on [-T/2,T/2] and $$f(x+T)=f(x)$$): also $$\frac1\sqrt3$$
 * square ($$f(x)=\operatorname{sgn}\ x$$ on [-T/2,T/2] and $$f(x+T)=f(x)$$): 1 (since its value is always $$\pm1$$ times the amplitude
 * Those are the standard waveforms I know about -- if you want more you'll have to specify them! --Tardis 02:09, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * Thankyou! I knew square, and I figured sawtooth and triangle would be the same. (How much of this can be added to the RMS article?) Many thanks, Alphax τεχ 02:56, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC)

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

title: User talk:Alphax/20050420-02


text: User talk:82.147.34.250

title: User talk:82.147.34.250


text:
User:Colin Barrett

Colin Barrett is a software engineer, or was in 2008. This page won't be updated very often (ever).

title: User:Colin Barrett


text: Category:Latin Patriarchs of Jerusalem

title: Category:Latin Patriarchs of Jerusalem


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Elias Wessén

Elias Wessén (15 April 1889 – 30 January 1981) was a prominent Swedish linguist and a professor of Scandinavian languages at Stockholm University (1928–1956). In 1947, he was honoured with seat 16 in the Swedish Academy, which he held until his death.

His earliest work concerned morphological problems in the Germanic languages, Onomasiology and Norse mythology. He published parts of Sveriges runinskrifter, editions of medieval texts and together with Åke Holmbäck, a translation of the Swedish medieval province laws (with commentaries). He published several reference works, such as Svensk språkhistoria in three tomes, and a grammar for modern Swedish Vårt svenska språk. In 1944, he initiated Nämnden för svensk språkvård (nowadays Språkrådet, the Swedish Language Council).

title: Elias Wessén


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Mountain House, California

Mountain House is a city in San Joaquin County, California, United States. The planned community was originally approved by the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors in 1994 and construction was officially broken down in 2001. Mountain House was then incorporated in 2024. As of the 2020 census, when Mountain House was still classified as a census-designated place, the population was 24,499.

History
In 1849, Thomas Goodall erected a blue denim cloth tent to serve as a midway stopover for gold miners headed from San Francisco to the Sierra Nevada foothills via Altamont Pass. Goodall eventually built an adobe house at the eastern edge of the Diablo Range hills, calling it The Mountain House. Simon Zimmerman later acquired the stop and it became known as Zimmerman's Mountain House and became a well-known way station stop on the way to Stockton. The last remaining settlement buildings were leveled in 1940.

In November 1994, the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors officially approved the new community of Mountain House. In 1996, the master plan was approved. In August 2000, many of the documents controlling the development and growth of Mountain House were adopted and approved by the San Joaquin Board of Supervisors acting as the Mountain House Board of Directors.

Mountain House was projected to be a small full-fledged city developed over a 30-year period by the Master Developer Trimark Communities. The community covers 4784 acres in San Joaquin County. The town was planned for 12 distinct neighborhoods including 10 family neighborhoods and two age-restricted neighborhoods, each organized around a center containing a neighborhood park, a K-8 school, and a small commercial area.

Construction began in 2001, but growth slowed down to about 50 permits per year because of the Great Recession in 2008. Development started again with increasing building permits and small land development projects in 2010 and 2011 and has continued at a high rate.

As of 2013, Mountain House included the established villages of Wicklund, Bethany, Altamont, Questa, Hansen, Cordes, and College Park. Some 15,000 households or approximately 45,000–50,000 people are anticipated when Mountain House is fully completed.

Local control led Mountain House residents to seek incorporation as California's newest city in 2024. In the March primary election, more than 90% of voting residents voted for incorporation. The city officially came into existence on July 1, 2024, and celebrated with a ceremony on July 4.

Milestones

 * November 10, 1994 – Mountain House project approved by San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors.
 * May 14, 2001 – Trimark breaks ground on Mountain House project.
 * January 18, 2003 – First home foundation poured.
 * August 24, 2004 – Wicklund Elementary School opens. MHCSD opens an office at Wicklund Elementary School.
 * November 6, 2007 – Mountain House votes to form an independent board for the MH Community Services District (MHCSD).
 * December 7, 2007 – The San Joaquin Delta College satellite campus site is annexed to Mountain House CSD through a public-private partnership with developer Gerry N. Kamilos.
 * November 2008 – Noted for having the highest percentage of underwater mortgages in the U.S.
 * November 2008 – First independent board of the MHCSD was elected.
 * August 17, 2009 – Delta College Mountain House Campus opens.
 * June 8, 2010 – Voters approve unification of Lammersville Unified School District.
 * January 2011 – 15-year-old resident Thia Megia becomes youngest finalist ever on American Idol.
 * July 2012 – Mountain House High School breaks ground.
 * August 2014 – Mountain House High School opens.
 * June 2015 – Drought conditions place Mountain House water supply at risk.
 * September 2018 – Mountain House breaks ground on town hall complex.
 * March 2020 – Town Hall and Library opens
 * January 12, 2022 – A large retail center opens in Cordes Village
 * March 5, 2024 – Voters approve Measure D to incorporate to become San Joaquin County's 8th city
 * July 1, 2024 – Officially incorporated

Financial downturn
In November 2008, The New York Times reported that Mountain House was the "most underwater community in America" – the ZIP code with the highest amount of negative equity on its homes. With home values decreasing across the nation, Mountain House was described as the worst-hit, with 90% of its homes worth less than the amount their owners owe in mortgages. The average homeowner in Mountain House was reported to be $122,000 in debt. Many local businesses in the 95391 ZIP code were closing because the homeowners were cutting back on their spending.

CalPERS, an agency that manages pensions for California public employees, invested heavily in Mountain House beginning in 2005, purchasing approximately 9,000 residential lots from Shea Homes. By May 2010, the $1.12 billion investment by CalPERS had been reduced to 18% of that figure: $200 million. Even though home values had dropped significantly, CalPERS determined that they would hold on to the investment, counting on a recovery of the housing market.

Economic recovery
An uptick in economic performance at Mountain House was noted in September 2011 by Big Builder, a trade magazine of major land and housing development published by Hanley-Wood.

Acknowledging the New York Times 2008 article that branded Mountain House as the most underwater community in America, the article chronicled a grassroots commitment by residents to keep their neighborhoods looking well-kept by mowing neglected lawns of homes in foreclosure, short sales or abandoned.

This community spirit helped persuade CalPERS to hold onto its Mountain House investment, despite the drawbacks of a 1994-vintage land plan, termed "out of sync with the realities of the post-housing crash world". Helping to balance the challenges of the land plan was the level of established infrastructure and homebuyers motivated by affordable pricing, proximity to job centers and traditional neighborhoods.

In April 2012, Big Builder again reported on the community, noting more robust first-quarter sales, new lot offers, and flexibility for semi-finished and raw land in future development.

Geography
Mountain House lies on the foothills of the Diablo Range, and close to the Altamont Pass which is over 1,000 feet in elevation. It is on the border of Alameda and Contra Costa counties. According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP covers an area of 3.2 sqmi, all of it land. The census definition of the area may not precisely correspond to local understanding of the area with the same name. The community is bisected by Mountain House Creek. Mountain House Creek originates south of the Altamont Pass and Interstate 580, flowing northeasterly along and crossing under the interstate, then along Grant Line Road to the intersection with Mountain House Road at the historic Alameda County Mountain House. The creek continues northeasterly through the residential communities of Mountain House before emptying into the Old River, a distributary of the San Joaquin River.

Demographics
The 2010 Census reported that Mountain House had a population of 9,675. The 2020 Census reported that Mountain House had a population of 24,499, an increase of 153% over the decade.

In 2020, 42% of the population was age 18 or younger and 6% were above age 65.

In 2020, Mountain House grew increasingly diverse with a population that is now 54.6% Asian, 18.7% Non-Hispanic White, 13% Hispanic and 7.3% black, and 9.5% two or more races; 45% of the population have a bachelor's degree or higher.

There were 5,948 households in 2020 and the median household income was $154,347.

Government
The Mountain House Community Services District (MHCSD) provided services from 2008 until the city incorporated in 2024. Before 2008, all services were provided by San Joaquin County.

The MHCSD had 18 primary powers which include providing police (contracted with San Joaquin Sheriffs), fire (contracted with French Camp Fire), library services, water, sewer, garbage (contracted with West Valley Disposal), public recreation, road maintenance, street lights, graffiti abatement, CC&R (Master Restrictions) enforcement, telecommunication services, converting utilities to underground, transportation services, flood control protection, wildlife habitat mitigation, pest and weed abatement, and dissemination of information.

Education
Students in Mountain House are served by the Lammersville Joint Unified School District.

Mountain House Elementary School is a K–8 school in unincorporated Alameda County, run by the independent Mountain House Elementary School District.

Mountain House High School opened in 2014.

The south campus of the San Joaquin Delta College opened in 2020, and is located in the College Park Village of Mountain House.

Media
Mountain House Matters is a monthly publication about Mountain House, its people and activities.

The Tracy Press is a weekly newspaper that covers Tracy and Mountain House.

Public transportation
The nearest railway station is in Tracy, operated by Altamont Corridor Express (ACE). Livermore Amador Valley Transit Authority provides bus service to Hacienda Business Park and the Dublin/Pleasanton BART station. San Joaquin RTD provides van service to the Tracy Transit Center.

Major highways
Interstate 205 serves as the closest major highway to Mountain House, which runs just south of the community and is connected via an interchange at Mountain House Parkway (exit 2).

title: Mountain House, California


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Púchov

Púchov (Puchau; Puhó) is an industrial town in the centre of Púchov District in Slovakia, with a population close to 18,000.

Geography
It is located on the main train line between Bratislava and Košice. It is halfway between Trenčín and Žilina, two major Slovak cities, approximately 30 minutes train from both cities.

The Váh river crosses Púchov, and there is a small dam open to public crossing.

The health resort Nimnica (until 1990 part of Púchov) is situated in the vicinity and is a starting point for tours to Javorníky and White Carpathians mountains.

Parts:

History
The nearness of the Váh river and town's strategic location contributed to create cultural and social relations, which were a part of its history. The first written reference dates back to 1243, when Béla IV., King of Hungary, signed his gift certificate to Vychlap Bechend. In this reference are also mentioned Leustrak's son and Puch from his immediate vicinities. The word "puch" is of Indo-European origin and it can be translated as "puffed up", "haughty" and "ov" is a possessive suffix, therefore this name can be translated as a former "land of Puch". There exist another version, that origin of town's name originates from the word "Pochov", which denotes a place many deceased from the whole vicinities were buried in the past. This claim was supported by many archaeological excavations of the graves throughout the centuries. Púchov vicinities, especially Púchovská skala (Púchov rock) was settled earlier during palaeolithic period. The excavations give evidence of settlements since the early Stone Age to the Roman period. During 1888-1894 an Austrian Army commissioned officer, an amateur archaeologist, baron Emil Friedrich Johannes Hoenning O'Carroll carried out an exploration of Púchovská Skala and his discovery of two bronze swords explained the town's ancient history. His discoveries later contributed to the origin of the official archaeological name Púchov culture. During the 7th – 8th centuries was the town settled by Slavs and in the 9th century the Moravian settlements shared the most expansion. In 1469 Matthias Corvinus, the King of Hungary, gave Púchov homestead to the Marczibányis, who were the lineal descendants of Púchovs since the 13th century.

Demographics
According to the 2001 census, the town had 18,833 inhabitants. 97.4% of inhabitants were Slovaks, 1.3% Czechs and 0.2% Roma. The religious make-up was 71.4% Roman Catholics, 13.8% Lutherans, and 11.3% people with no religious affiliation.

Economy
It is a strong industry base - home to Matador and Continental Tire plants, producers of pneumatic tyres, and Makyta, a producer of fashion clothes. Matador is a 20-minute walk from the train station in Púchov, while the city center is a 10-minute walk in the other direction.

Sport
The number one sport in the town is football. The local team FK Matador Púchov had several successful seasons in the Slovak highest league, but currently is only in the Slovak second league. Among other sports, there has been a long tradition of swimming. Several of the best swimmers made it to the European championship.

Some other sport clubs worth mentioning are volleyball and handball.

The local ice hockey team is actually the Slovak National Ice Hockey Team under 20. The team named "Slovakia 20" is a permanent member of the highest Ice Hockey league. This was done as an experiment to help the young players to get more tough matches and increase their motivation.

Cyclists, Peter and Martin Velits, come from Púchov as well.

Slovak Bandy Association has organised rink bandy practice in Púchov.

Culture and education
The town has several high schools and a branch of the Slovak University of Technology.

Twin towns — sister cities
Púchov is twinned with:

 * 🇧🇾 Babruysk, Belarus
 * 🇺🇦 Bela Cerkev, Ukraine
 * 🇨🇿 Hlinsko, Czech Republic
 * 🇷🇺 Omsk, Russia
 * 🇷🇸 Stara Pazova, Serbia

title: Púchov


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Sport in New Zealand

Sport in New Zealand largely reflects the nation's colonial heritage, with some of the most popular sports being rugby union, rugby league, cricket, association football, basketball, horse racing and netball, which are primarily played in Commonwealth countries. New Zealand has enjoyed success in many sports, notably rugby union (considered the national sport), rugby league, cricket, America's Cup sailing, world championship and Olympics events, and motorsport.

Other popular sports include squash, golf, hockey, tennis, cycling, and tramping, baseball and a variety of water sports, particularly sailing, rowing, and surf sports. Winter sports such as skiing and snowboarding are also popular, as are indoor and outdoor bowls.

Administration
Sport New Zealand is the main government agency responsible for governing sport and recreation in New Zealand. It was established in 2003 by the Sport and Recreation New Zealand Act 2002, consolidating three agencies into one, and was known as Sport and Recreation New Zealand (SPARC) until February 2012. Sport New Zealand is accountable to the government through the Minister of Sport and Recreation. A subsidiary of Sport New Zealand, High Performance Sport New Zealand (HPSNZ), is responsible for managing the country's high performance programme.

Participation
The New Zealand Secondary School Sports Council (NZSSSC) runs an annual census of sport participation amongst secondary school students (age 13 to 18). The data only includes students that had a "meaningful engagement" in the sport, e.g. representing their school in a team.

Rugby union
Rugby union is the national sport in New Zealand. It has the largest spectator following of all sports in New Zealand. New Zealand's men's national rugby team, the All Blacks, has the best winning record of any men's national team in the world, and is currently ranked second in the world. The All Blacks won the first Rugby World Cup in 1987, and again on home soil in 2011. They won their third World Cup in 2015 in England, becoming the first holders to successfully defend their title. The All Blacks traditionally perform a haka, a Māori challenge, at the start of international matches. This practice has been mimicked by several other national teams, notably the national rugby league team, and the basketball teams. New Zealand's women's national rugby team, the Black Ferns, also has the best winning record of any women's national team in the world, and is currently ranked second in the world. The Black Ferns have won a record six championships at the Women's Rugby World Cup in 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2017, and 2021.

Outside Test matches, there are three widely followed competitions:
 * Super Rugby (previously Super 6, Super 10, Super 12, and Super 14), the elite club competition in the southern hemisphere. It has involved teams from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa since its formation, and in 2016 added teams in Argentina and Japan (with the Japan team also playing select "home" matches in Singapore). It is played from summer right through until winter (February to August), with a 3-week break in June for international tests to take place.
 * Mitre 10 Cup (previously Air New Zealand Cup and ITM Cup), created in 2006 as a successor to the National Provincial Championship (NPC), involves professional provincial New Zealand teams and is played mainly during the Winter and spring months, from August to November.
 * Heartland Championship, an amateur competition of lower-level New Zealand provincial teams, also created in 2006 as a successor to the NPC and is also played in the winter and spring months, from August to November.

In the sevens variant of rugby union, the men's national team has been the main force in the sport since the creation of the World Rugby Sevens Series in 1999, winning the World Series 12 times in its 16 seasons. They have also won the Rugby World Cup Sevens thrice, in 2001, 2013 and the most recent edition in 2018, and won the first four gold medals awarded in sevens at the Commonwealth Games (1998–2010). The country also hosts one round of the World Series each season at Westpac Stadium in Wellington. In women's sevens, the national team is about as dominant as the men; they won the first three editions of the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series (2013–2015) and are the current holders of the Rugby World Cup Sevens, winning the women's tournaments in 2013 and 2018. New Zealand hosted the 2021 Women's Rugby World Cup. It was the first ever Women's Rugby World Cup to be held in the southern hemisphere and also the first Women's Rugby World Cup where the host nation was crowned as the champion.

Cricket
Cricket is the national summer sport and the second most popular sport in New Zealand, which is one of twelve countries competing in Test match cricket. The provincial competition is not nearly as widely followed as rugby, but international matches are watched with interest by a large portion of the population. This parallels the global situation in cricket, whereby the international game is more widely followed than the domestic game in all major cricketing countries.

Historically, the national cricket team has not been as successful as the national rugby team. New Zealand played its first Test in 1930, but had to wait until 1956 until its first Test victory. The national team began to have more success in the 1970s and 1980s. New Zealand's most famous cricketer, the fast bowler Richard Hadlee who was the first bowler to take 400 wickets in test cricket, played in this era.

New Zealand has traditionally been stronger in one-day cricket, having reached the final of both the 2015 and 2019, beating South Africa and India in the semi-finals but ultimately losing to Australia and England in the final. (They tied the match in 2019 but lost on boundary countback). The team also won the 2000 edition of the ICC Champions Trophy and reached the 2009 final, and won the bronze medal at the 1998 Commonwealth Games.

Martin Crowe and Kane Williamson won the prestigious 'Player of the Tournament' award in the 1992 Cricket World Cup and 2019 Cricket World Cup respectively. Geoff Allott was the highest wicket taker in the 1999 Cricket World Cup along with Shane Warne. Fast bowler Kyle Mills is the highest wicket taker in ICC Champions Trophy matches. Martin Guptill was the highest run-scorer in the 2015 Cricket World Cup and even broke the record of the highest score in World Cup matches during his knock of 237 against West Indies in the quarter-final. Trent Boult was the highest wicket taker in the 2015 Cricket World Cup along with Mitchell Starc. Kyle Jamieson was the Player of the Match in the 2019–2021 ICC World Test Championship final.

In Twenty20 cricket, New Zealand has twice reached the semi-finals of the ICC T20 World Cup, doing so in 2007 and 2016, and has reached the final in 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup by defeating England in the semi-final. Many New Zealand cricketers regularly feature in T20 leagues around the globe every year.

In June 2021, they beat India in the ICC World Test Championship Final in Southampton to become the inaugural World Test champions. They were hence ranked the number one Test team in the world. New Zealand has won two multinational ICC tournaments- 2000 edition(now referred to as ICC Champions Trophy) under Stephen Fleming and ICC World Test Championship under Kane Williamson.

New Zealand's Women's Team, the White Ferns have reached the final of their World Cup four times, winning the 2000 edition of the tournament.

There is also a London New Zealand Cricket Club based in London, England, for New Zealanders living in or based in the United Kingdom.

Netball
Netball is the most popular women's sport, both in terms of participation and public interest in New Zealand. As in many netball-playing countries, netball is considered primarily a women's sport, with men's netball largely ancillary to women's competition. The sport maintains a high profile in New Zealand, due in large part to its national team, the Silver Ferns, which with Australia, has remained at the forefront of world netball for several decades. In 2008, netball in New Zealand became a semi-professional sport with the introduction of the trans-Tasman ANZ Championship. The sport is administered by Netball New Zealand, which registered 125,500 players in 2006.

Rugby league
Unlike Australia, where rugby league is the dominant rugby code, rugby union is the more popular code in New Zealand. The New Zealand domestic league is semi-professional and enjoyed by many great sports fan. The New Zealand national side has competed in the Rugby League World Cup since 1954. They were the previous World Champions, winning the World Cup for the first time on 22 November 2008 at Lang Park, Brisbane. The team also reached the 2013 Rugby League World Cup (hosted by England and Wales) final on Saturday 30 October 2013. They lost to Australia in the final, 34–2. The team's most recent title came in the 2014 Rugby League Four Nations tournament by beating Australia, which brings their Rugby League Four Nations championships total to two.

Association football
Football has always been a significant sport in New Zealand, and was introduced by the first English settlers. It is considered the regional sport of Greater Wellington, which in turn is the only region in New Zealand not to have rugby as the most popular sport. This is exemplified by Wellington having New Zealand's only major professional side, the Wellington Phoenix, which plays in the Australian A-League. Football's greater regional popularity has been due to extensive support among the city's half a million people, especially since inner city clubs were formed immigration from Europe and the Middle East in the postwar period. These clubs were often ethnically based, including Wellington Olympic AFC (Greek), Wellington United (Dutch and Hungarian), and Island Bay United (Italian). The Miramar Rangers have often been considered Wellington's local powerhouse. Several Wellington Phoenix players have gone on to have major success overseas, such as Sarpreet Singh, Roy Krishna, Marco Rojas and Liberato Cacace. Wynton Rufer, considered the country's greatest ever footballer, was born and raised in Wellington.

Nationally, the sport is administered by New Zealand Football, which changed its name from "New Zealand Soccer" in 2007 to move in line with common usage around the world. Use of term "football" to refer to the sport is increasingly favoured by news sources and publications.

The New Zealand national team, nicknamed the "All Whites", has qualified for the FIFA World Cup twice. At their first appearance in 1982, the All Whites were knocked out in the first round with three losses. Their next appearance in 2010 saw another first-round exit, but with considerably more success on the field; the All Whites earned three draws, including a 1–1 result against defending champion Italy, ending up as the only team that was not beaten in this edition. The country's only professional football team, Wellington Phoenix FC, plays in the A-League which is otherwise an all-Australian competition. The two major domestic competitions are the New Zealand Football Championship, which is played between eight regional teams, and the Chatham Cup which is a knock-out competition played between clubs. Neither the Phoenix nor the NZFC franchises play in the Chatham Cup.

Auckland City FC won the semi-professional OFC Champions League competition in a record eight times; 2006, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016, and earned the bronze medal at the 2014 FIFA Club World Cup held in Morocco. Nowadays, the Navy Blues are looking into the possibility of joining the A-League as the second New Zealand team after the Wellington Phoenix.

Football is especially popular amongst young people. In 2017, football was played by 25,037 secondary school students, making it the fourth-most popular sport behind netball, rugby union and basketball.

New Zealand hosted the 1999 FIFA U-17 World Cup, the inaugural FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in 2008 and the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup and will co-host the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup alongside Australia.

Thoroughbred horse running
The various Cup days in the major cities attract large crowds, the biggest ones being Auckland Cup week and the Wellington Cup festival. Horses often travel to Australia and vice versa for racing and breeding purposes. The world-famous Phar Lap and many Melbourne Cup winners were bred in New Zealand. Thoroughbred racing is the most prominent type of horse racing in New Zealand, although there is still a strong following of Standardbred harness racing (or "trotters" and "pacers" as they are sometimes known).

Athletics (track and field)
Athletics is New Zealand's second-most successful Olympic sport with 24 medals, of which 10 have been gold. Arthur Porritt was New Zealand's first Olympic athletic medallist, winning bronze in the 100 metres at the 1924 Summer Olympics. The race was later immortallised in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire, although at Porritt's request his character in the film was renamed "Tom Watson".

The nation in particular has been strong in middle-distance events. New Zealand men have won Olympic gold in the 1500 metres three times: Jack Lovelock in 1936, Peter Snell in 1964 and John Walker in 1976. Snell also won back-to-back gold medals in the 800 metres in 1960 and 1964.

The national governing body is Athletics New Zealand, which formed in 1887 as the New Zealand Amateur Athletics Association and adopted its current name in 1989.

Australian rules football
Australian rules football is a growing sport in New Zealand with programs established under the reorganised governing body of AFL New Zealand. Australian rules football was previously much more popular in New Zealand, with a team competing at the 1908 Melbourne Carnival. Participation dropped after World War I. The game was re-established in New Zealand in the 1970s.

Leagues currently exist in Auckland, Canterbury, Waikato, and Wellington. The national team won the Australian Football International Cup in 2005.

New Zealanders who have played in the Australian Football League, the premier Australian rules football competition, include Joe Sellwood, Wayne Schwass, Thomas O'Halloran, Danny Dickfos, Trent Croad and Karmichael Hunt.

American football
American football is a small sport in New Zealand with programs established in Auckland, Waikato, Hawkes Bay and Wellington. The governing body is the New Zealand American Football Federation.

The New Zealand national team is called the New Zealand Steelblacks.

Baseball
The Auckland Tuatara of the Australian Baseball League are currently the only professional baseball team playing in New Zealand. The Tuatara began their inaugural season during the 2018–19 Australian Baseball League season, and originally played their home games at McLeod Park in Te Atatū South. For their second season, they moved their home games to North Harbour Stadium in Albany, New Zealand.

The New Zealand national baseball team are known as The Diamondblacks.

Basketball
The Auckland-based New Zealand Breakers are the only New Zealand-based team in the National Basketball League of Australia. Four players from New Zealand have gone on to play in the NBA: Steven Adams, Aron Baynes, Sean Marks, and Kirk Penney.

On the international stage, the Tall Blacks (New Zealand's national team) came in 4th place at the 2002 FIBA World Championship.

Beach volleyball
Beach volleyball is a growing sport in New Zealand. In 1996 brothers Glenn and Reid Hamilton represented New Zealand in the first ever beach volleyball event at the Summer Olympics at Atlanta, USA. In 2012 Kirk Pitman and Jason Lockhead reached 20th in the world rankings. Anna Harrison (née Scarlett) and Susan Blundell were the highest ranking female pairing reaching 33rd in the world rankings.

In 2018 Beach Volleyball made its Commonwealth Games debut. Tauranga brothers Sam and Ben O'Dea claimed the bronze medal while Shaunna Polley and Kelsie Will gained 5th place.

The national governing body is Volleyball New Zealand.

Equestrian
Equestrian sportsmen, sportswomen and horses make their mark in the world, with Mark Todd being chosen international "Horseman of the Twentieth Century", and many juniors at Pony Club level. Mark Todd won a gold medal in eventing at the 1984 Olympic Games, and again at the 1988 Games. He won Bronze at the 2012 London games. A Bronze Medal was also won in the Teams Event at the 1988 Games. Further medals were won at the 1992, 1996, and 2000 Games.

Boxing
Amateur boxing was earlier a popular sport in New Zealand, but during the 1950s there was a move to stop schools promoting boxing championships and the sport is now only of minority interest. Despite this there has been success at Commonwealth and Olympic Games level.

Professional boxing in New Zealand has produced Joseph Parker, Geovana Peres, Daniella Smith, Maselino Masoe, Bob Fitzsimmons, Torpedo Billy Murphy, Cherneka Johnson, and Floyd Masson all World Champions. Herbert Slade, David Tua, Kali Meehan, Lani Daniels, Michelle Preston and Tom Heeney were all contenders for a World Championship.

Canoeing
New Zealand enjoyed success in canoeing and kayaking at the Summer Olympics in the 1980s with sprint kayakers such as Ian Ferguson and Paul MacDonald, winning four gold medals at the 1984 Los Angeles games, and gold, silver and bronze at the 1988 Seoul games. The sport had a lower profile in the 1990s and 2000s, with the single Olympic medal success in the time being Ben Fouhy's silver medal at the 2004 Athens games. In the early 2010s, canoeing and kayaking returned to international success with sprint kayaker Lisa Carrington winning multiple gold medals at the World Championships and Olympic Games.

Cycling
New Zealand has produced a number of notable cyclists, across a variety of disciplines including track cycling, road cycling, mountain biking, Downhill and BMX. New Zealand won two cycling medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics – Hayden Roulston took silver in the Men's 4000 m Individual Pursuit, while the men's team pursuit team took bronze. At the 2017 UCI Track Cycling World Championships, the New Zealand team took a total of five medals, equalling the country's record medal tally previously achieved at the 2012 and 2014 Worlds, with Ethan Mitchell, Sam Webster and Eddie Dawkins winning the gold in the men's team sprint for the third time in four years and Mitchell additionally becoming the first New Zealander to medal in the individual sprint. In road racing, George Bennett became the first New Zealander to take an overall win in a UCI WorldTour event when he won the 2017 Tour of California. New Zealand is famous in Downhill Racing too; riders as Sam Blenkinsop, Brook McDonald, Nathan Rankin and Wyn Masters are some of the fastest downhill racers in the world. The sport is governed in New Zealand by Cycling New Zealand.

Extreme sports
Extreme sports are increasingly popular in New Zealand, both with residents and tourists. Bungee jumping and zorbing were both invented in New Zealand.

Futsal
The New Zealand national futsal team, nicknamed the Futsal Whites, is the representative side for New Zealand in international futsal and is governed by New Zealand Football (NZF). New Zealand made the bid for the 2020 FIFA Futsal World Cup but lost out to Lithuania.

Gliding
New Zealand hosted the 1995 World Gliding Championships at Omarama in North Otago, near the centre of the South Island. The Southern Alps are known for the excellent wave soaring conditions. In 2002 and 2003, Steve Fossett tried to beat the world gliding altitude record there (see: Gliding New Zealand and external links below).

Golf
New Zealand's Michael Campbell won the 2005 U.S. Open Golf Championship.

The New Zealand amateur team of Campbell, Phil Tataurangi, Steven Scahill and Grant Moorehead won the Eisenhower Trophy (World Amateur team event) in 1992 in Vancouver.

Sir Bob Charles has won the British Open and a number of other titles.

Lydia Ko, born in Seoul but raised from infancy in New Zealand, was #1 in the women's World Amateur Golf Ranking, and won two events on the US-based LPGA Tour before turning professional in 2013. She has since won seven more LPGA events, and for a time was #1 in the Women's World Golf Rankings for professionals. The first of Ko's two stints as #1 in the professional rankings began in February 2015, before her 18th birthday, making her the youngest player of either sex to reach the top of the world rankings. Later in 2015, Ko won her first major championship, the Evian Championship, becoming the youngest player of either sex to win a professional major championship, and became the youngest-ever LPGA Player of the Year.

Tournaments and competitions include New Zealand Open, New Zealand Women's Open, New Zealand Amateur and New Zealand PGA Championship.

Hockey
In New Zealand, like most other Commonwealth nations, "hockey" without an identifier refers to field hockey, as opposed to ice hockey and other kinds of hockey. The New Zealand Hockey Federation (also known as Hockey New Zealand) administers the sport in New Zealand, and had 48,174 registered players in the 2013 winter, of which 52.8 percent were female and 47.2 percent were male.

The New Zealand men's national team and women's national team are both known as the "Black Sticks". The best result attained thus far by the men was a gold medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. The best placing by the women thus far has been a 4th placing at both the 1986 Women's Hockey World Cup and the 2012 Summer Olympics. In the Commonwealth Games they have won a silver medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, bronze at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, and gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. , the men's team is ranked 8th and the women's team is ranked 4th in the world by the International Hockey Federation (FIH).

Ice hockey
Ice hockey has been played in New Zealand since 1937, but is a fairly small sport and has currently around 1600 active players.

The national governing body is New Zealand Ice Hockey Federation which is made up of 3 Regional Associations. Since 2005 the NZIHF organizes the New Zealand Ice Hockey League that currently consists of five teams, two teams from Auckland, one from Dunedin, one from Queenstown and one from Christchurch.

New Zealand's men's national ice hockey team is called the Ice Blacks and the women's the Ice Ferns.

Indoor Bowls
New Zealand Indoor Bowls was introduced in 1908 and today is made up of 37 centres and 767 clubs covering all of New Zealand. Membership peaked in 1963 with 73,100 affiliated members, today it has an estimated 20,000 members currently affiliated. Many members are attracted to the sport due to the competitiveness and skill required to successfully compete with being named as an interprovincial representative being a goal of most players.

Kabaddi
New Zealand has a small but growing kabaddi following. The men's national team took part in the 2012 Kabaddi World Cup, and the women's team surprisingly reached the final on debut in the Women's 2013 World Cup, a feat which they repeated in 2014. The sport is run in New Zealand by the New Zealand Kabaddi Sports Federation.

Kickboxing
Kickboxing is a growing sport in New Zealand. New Zealand have had multiple world champions including Ray Sefo, Mark Hunt, Israel Adesanya, Michelle Preston and many more.

King in the Ring in a regular eight-man kickboxing tournament that happens between three and five times a year in New Zealand.

Kī-o-rahi
Kī-o-rahi is a traditional Māori ball sport played in New Zealand with a small round ball called a ki. It is a fast-paced sport incorporating skills similar to Australian Rules, rugby union, netball and touch. In 2005 Ki-o-rahi was chosen to represent New Zealand by global fast-food chain McDonald's as part of its 'Passport to Play' programme to teach physical play activities in 31,000 American schools. The New Zealand Ki-o-rahi representative organisation, Ki-o-Rahi Akotanga Iho, formed with men's and women's national teams, completed a 14 match tour of Europe in September and October 2010.

Motorsport
Despite New Zealand not having a major car industry since the 1990s, it is very successful at motorsport. There are many levels of competitive motors sport series in New Zealand, which are most simply broken down into watersports (hydro-planing, jetski racing and thundercat racing), automobile racing (Club and national level circuit racing and rallying, with some international events, as well as speedway) and finally motorcycle racing (street, circuit and dirt/motocross).

To date, New Zealand has seen one Formula One World Champion, Denny Hulme, in 1967. Six other New Zealanders have raced at Grand Prix level: Bruce McLaren (four wins), Chris Amon, Howden Ganley, Mike Thackwell, Brendon Hartley and Liam Lawson. Bruce McLaren founded the McLaren racing team, which was named after him.

In addition to their Formula One careers, Chris Amon and Bruce McLaren won the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans sports-car race. Earl Bamber won the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans, and won again in 2017 with fellow kiwi Brendon Hartley. Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme won four Can-Am sports-car racing championships, from 1967 to 1970. Scott Dixon won the Indianapolis 500 in 2008, and the IndyCar Series championship in 2003, 2008, 2013, 2015, 2018 and 2020. Dixon has won 53 races to date in his IndyCar career, the second most after American driver A. J. Foyt.

New Zealand has many drivers currently competing on a high level on the world stage: Scott McLaughlin, Shane van Gisbergen and Fabian Coulthard are among several New Zealand drivers who have contested the Australian-based Supercars Championship, which holds a round in New Zealand each year, currently at the Pukekohe circuit. Greg Murphy has won the pinnacle race of the Supercar season, the Bathurst 1000, four times. Brendon Hartley won the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2015. Two New Zealanders currently compete in the American IndyCar Series: Scott McLaughlin for Team Penske, and Scott Dixon for Chip Ganassi Racing.

A1 Team New Zealand was a front-runner since the series inception. Jonny Reid won seven races for the team helping it twice claim second place in the Championship, 2006–07 & 2007–08. On 20 January 2008, Taupo Motorsport Park hosted the fifth race in the 2007–08 A1 Grand Prix season.

Rallying is a popular sport at all levels in New Zealand, and has previously hosted rounds of the World Rally Championship (the last time being in 2012) and hosts the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship each year. A highly competitive national championship is run each year, and some drivers also take part in the Australian Rally Championship, most notably the late Possum Bourne, who was a seven-times Australian Rally Champion. Hayden Paddon is New Zealand's top rally driver competing in the World Rally Championship for Hyundai.

Ivan Mauger, born in Christchurch on 4 October 1939, won a record 6 motorcycle speedway World Championships in 1968, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1977 and 1979. He also finished on the podium of the World Final in 1967 (3rd), 1971 (2nd), 1973 (2nd) and 1974 (2nd). Mauger also won the Speedway World Team Cup riding for Great Britain in 1968, 1971 and 1972, while winning the title for a fourth time with the New Zealand team in 1979. Mauger was also the Speedway World Pairs Champion in 1969 and 1970 as well as the Long Track World Champion in 1971, 1972 and 1976, a total of 15 World Championships in speedway racing. With his Long Track title in 1971 he also became the first rider to have won all four World Championship competitions, while winning in 1972 saw him become the first rider to win both the Speedway and Long Track World Championships in the same year. In 1999, Ivan Mauger was voted the best speedway rider of the Millennium by the readers of Speedway Star and Vintage Speedway magazines.

Barry Briggs, born in Christchurch on 30 December 1934, is a New Zealand motorcyclist who won four individual Speedway World Championships (1957, 1958, 1964 and 1966) and took part in a record 87 world championship races. Briggs also won the Speedway World Team cup with Great Britain in 1968 and 1971. Between 1954 and 1970, Briggs appeared in a record 17 consecutive World Individual Finals.

Ronnie Moore became New Zealand's first motorsport World Champion when he won the 1954 Speedway World Championship, backing that up to win a second time in 1959. Moore also won the World Pairs Championship with Ivan Mauger in 1970. Although born in Hobart, Australia in 1933, Moore's parents moved to New Zealand while he was still a child and he always considered himself to be a Kiwi and rode under the New Zealand flag.

Since then Graeme Crosby and Aaron Slight have both risen to the top of World Championship motorcycle racing, in 500cc and Superbikes respectively but championships have been elusive. Also John Britten designed a revolutionary motorcycle called the Britten V1000. Shayne King became the first rider from New Zealand to win the 500cc Motocross World Championship in 1996. Stefan Merriman is a four-time winner of the World Enduro Championship for enduro motorcycling.

In 2003 Wade Cunningham become New Zealand's first ever Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile world champion by winning the Karting World Championship. Cunningham later raced in the US Indy car series.

Orienteering
Orienteering is a popular sport in New Zealand, that combines cross-country running with land navigation skills across a range of settings. Variations of the sport popular in New Zealand include bicycle orienteering, ski orienteering, and rogaines. Orienteering is a popular sport for youth and juniors, and New Zealand regularly sends competitors to both the World Orienteering Championships and the Junior World Orienteering Championships. Orienteering in New Zealand is organized by the New Zealand Orienteering Federation. Matt Ogden won the middle-distance event at the 2012 Junior World Orienteering Championships in Slovakia.

Rowing
Rowing has been a consistent medal winner at the Olympic Games with the first coming in 1920. New Zealand have won medals at every Olympics between 1968 and 2016, with the exception of 1980.

At the World Rowing Championships of 2005, in Kaizu, Gifu, Japan, New Zealand won 4 gold medals in 4 consecutive races – now known in New Zealand sporting culture as the "Magic 45 minutes".

In 2006, Nathan Cohen became the first New Zealander to win a gold medal at the World University Games in any sport, rowing a single scull.

In addition a number of Rowing World Cup events have been won by New Zealanders. Rowing New Zealand is the governing body.

Lake Karapiro in the Waikato and Lake Ruataniwha in the Mackenzie Basin are the two premier rowing venues in New Zealand. Karapiro hosted the 2010 World Rowing Championships.

Sailing
New Zealand sailors have won a large number of international events, including Olympic Games medals in 1956, 1964, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2008, 2012 and 2016. New Zealand holds the America's Cup sailing title, having won it three times in the challenge's history.

Surf lifesaving (surf sports)
In New Zealand, surf lifesaving sport encompasses a number of different disciplines, including surf swimming, board paddling, surf ski, beach flags, beach sprint, Ironman with competitors starting from the age of 7. Surf lifesaving is a relatively popular minor sport with and estimated 8,000 competitors of which 2,500 attend Ocean Athletes (Junior Nationals 10–14) and Nats (Senior nationals). The New Zealand team also known as the Black Fins have also been highly successful in recent years placing 2nd in the 2010 World Championships and are currently the only country apart from Australia to have won World Champs, (1956, 1998, 2012, 2014, 2016) which is respectable considering the comparatively small size of the sport in the country.

America's Cup
Auckland hosted consecutive America's Cup regattas in 2000 and 2003. In 2000, Team New Zealand successfully defended the trophy they won in 1995 in San Diego, but in 2003 they lost to a team headed by Ernesto Bertarelli of Switzerland whose Alinghi was skippered by Russell Coutts, the expatriate Kiwi who helmed the victorious Black Magic in 1995 and New Zealand in 2000 as well as many other Kiwis. Coutts and Brad Butterworth, along with several other Team New Zealand members, defected to Bertarelli's Alinghi team, taking with them a wealth of experience that allowed the new team to win the America's Cup on the first challenge. Coutts was later dismissed from the Alinghi team; he fought a court battle with Bertarelli to allow him to sail in the 2007 America's Cup contest in Spain, but reached a settlement that kept him out of that contest. The 2021 America's Cup will be held in Auckland's Waitematā Harbour after New Zealand won the 2017 America's Cup.

Winter sports
New Zealand has several areas for skiing and snowboarding, on both islands. Whakapapa and Turoa are the only commercial resorts on the North Island; Queenstown, Wānaka and Christchurch are the top locations in the South Island to access the mountains. In addition to the commercial ski resorts, New Zealand has many non-profit club fields across both the North and South Islands, particularly in the region of the Southern Alps close to Christchurch such as Craigieburn Valley, Broken River and Temple Basin. In the North Island, there are club field skiing options on Mount Taranaki at the Manganui area and also on the Eastern aspect of Mount Ruapehu at Tukino.

International snowboarders from New Zealand include Mitch Brown, who placed 25th at the 2006 Winter Olympics in the men's halfpipe, and his sister Kendall Brown, who placed 15th at the 2010 Winter Olympics in the women's halfpipe. Also New Zealand snowboarder Jacob Koia is currently sitting in 18th position on the TTR world rankings. Notable skiers include Claudia Riegler and Olympic medallist Annelise Coberger.

Softball
New Zealand's men's softball team, nicknamed the "Black Sox", have been highly successful on the international stage despite the sport being the second most popular summer sport behind cricket in NZ. The Black Sox shared the honours at the World Championships in Lower Hutt in 1976 with the US and Canada, and won outright in 1984, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2013 and 2017. They were the runners up at the 2009 World Champs to Australia. They were 3rd in the inaugural World Championships in Mexico City 1968 ; this team was affectionately known as "The Pilgrims".

The New Zealand women's national softball team are nicknamed the White Sox. They won the World Championships in 1982.

Squash
Squash has been played competitively in New Zealand since 1932. In 2010, there were 220 clubs affiliated with the national organisation, Squash New Zealand. Competitions are played at club, regional and national level.

Dame Susan Devoy won the World Open Championship a record four times, in 1985, 1987, 1990, and 1992. She also won seven consecutive British Open titles from 1984 to 1990, and an eighth in 1992.

At the Squash in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, Joelle King and Jaclyn Hawkes won gold in the women's doubles. King and Martin Knight won silver in the mixed doubles.

New Zealand hosted the Women's World Team Championships in 2010. They were held at International Pacific College in Palmerston North.

In the Squash at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Joelle King won gold in the women's singles and Paul Coll took silver in the men's singles. King won gold again with Amanda Landers-Murphy in women's doubles. King and Coll won bronze in the mixed doubles.

Surfing and surfsport
Surfing in New Zealand has ahistory dating back as far as 1963, when the first national championships were held at Mount Maunganui and won by Peter Way. Surfing has since become more popular with many New Zealanders competing on the international scene. In 1976, New Zealand hosted the Amco/Radio Hauraki Pro at North Piha which became the first event of the very first year of the World Professional Surfing Tour. The event was won by Michael Peterson. In 1987, Iain Buchanan would go on to compete on the world tour finishing 34th overall, the highest placing ever for a New Zealand surfer. New Zealand's top surfer Maz Quinn at a young age won the Billabong Pro-Junior Series in Australia in 1996, then competed in the World Pro Junior final in France coming second overall to Taj Burrow. Maz Quinn placed 7th on the ASP World Qualifying Series (WQS) in 2001 to qualify for the World Championship Tour (WCT) – the first Kiwi to do so. Woman's surfing has also come far in recent years with New Zealand surfer Paige Hareb currently sitting in 8th position on the ASP World Tour of Surfing.

Surf lifesaving is also popular in New Zealand, with national championships being held yearly.

Quidditch
Quidditch was introduced to New Zealand around 5 years ago and is currently played mainly at the university level, though some attempts have been made to introduce the under 16 version 'kidditch' to schools. New Zealand is currently listed as an 'emerging area' as there are "more than zero teams but... [no] regular competitive activity". The governing body is QuANZ (Quidditch association of New Zealand) which reports to the IQA (International Quidditch Association). Each year QuANZ hosts an international camp, inviting players from NZ, Australia, and other countries to take part in a 3-day training weekend, held in Christchurch. The national team 'Black Brooms/Tawhai Pango' made their international debut at the 2018 IQA World Cup in Florence, Italy. The team performed better than expected with a final ranking of 20th out of 29 after beating Finland but losing to Malaysia and Germany in pool play, then beating Switzerland and losing a second game against Malaysia. The final game was lost to The Netherlands in the play off for the 19/20 rank. Currently New Zealand's biggest contribution to quidditch as a sport is in overseas leagues where many New Zealanders play for regional teams in Australia and England. The current president of Quidditch UK is NZ born Matthew Bateman.

Tennis
Tennis was introduced to New Zealand in the 1870s, soon after the modern form of the game was invented in England.

The first New Zealand Tennis Championships were played at Farndon in Hawkes Bay in 1886.

Māori participation in tennis began soon after, with many Māori playing at a high standard by the 1890s. Sir Maui Pomare, the first Māori to qualify as a doctor, won the USA Inter-Varsity Tennis Championships in 1899 while he was studying there. This began a great legacy of Māori participation in tennis, with many players of high calibre emerging over the years, most recently professional players like Kelly Evernden, Rewa Hudson and Leanne Baker. But perhaps the doyenne of Māori tennis was Ruia Morrison, who played with great honour in international competitions, and at Wimbledon, in the early days of the professional era.

New Zealand and Australia, combined as Australasia, were founding members of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) in 1913.

New Zealander Tony Wilding was the World No. 1 player in 1913. He was Wimbledon Champion in 1910, 1911, 1912 and 1913. He was a pivotal figure in helping Australasia win the Davis Cup in 1907, hold it in 1908 and 1909, and to win it again in 1914. He was killed in action during World War I on 9 May 1915 in the Battle of Aubers Ridge, northern France.

New Zealand has competed in the Fed Cup since 1965, when they played Argentina (won 2–1) and Australia (lost 0–3). At a Fed Cup regional tournament held in Christchurch in 2007, New Zealand played Jordan (won 3–0), India (lost 1–2), Chinese Taipei (lost 1–2), Kazakhstan (won 3–0), and Hong Kong (won 2–1).

New Zealand's representatives at the Olympic Games have been: 1912, Stockholm – Tony Wilding (Australasia); 1988, Seoul – Belinda Cordwell and Kelly Evernden (singles) and Bruce Devlin with Kelly Evernden (men's doubles); 1996, Atlanta – Brett Steven; 2008, Beijing – Marina Erakovic.

The Heineken Open is part of the ATP International Series played in Auckland each year, just before the Australian Open.

Triathlon
Hamish Carter of New Zealand won gold at the 2004 Athens Olympics and bronze at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, and was rated world number one for several years. Other successful triathletes from New Zealand include Bevan Docherty, who won the ITU world championship, and a silver in Athens (both in 2004). He has also gained a bronze medal in Beijing 2008, and a silver medal in the Commonwealth Games (Melbourne in 2006).

On the women's side, Samantha Warriner was ranked number 1 in the world. She won silver at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2006, and Andrea Hewitt took bronze at the same event.

Volleyball
Volleyball is the second most popular sport for girls in NZ aged 13–18 and sixth for boys. Volleyball has been growing in popularity at school level in recent years especially amongst girls.

The national governing body is Volleyball New Zealand which is made up of 14 Regional Associations. Within each Association there are clubs and/or representative teams. The main events on the calendar each year are the National Secondary Schools Championships and the National Club Championships.

The New Zealand women's national volleyball team won the gold medal on several occasions.

Olympic Games
New Zealanders first competed at the Summer Olympic Games in 1908, with Australia as a combined Australasia team. The New Zealand Olympic Committee was formed in 1911 and was recognised by the IOC in 1919. New Zealand first competed as an independent nation in 1920 and has attended every games since with the exception of the 1980 Moscow games, which New Zealand boycotted (four New Zealand athletes did compete at the 1980 games though under the NZOC flag). The nation first attended the Winter Olympic Games in 1952, and has competed at all but two (1956 and 1964) Winter Olympic Games since.

After the 2018 Winter Olympics, New Zealand as a nation has won 120 medals: 46 gold, 28 silver, and 46 bronze. All but three of those medals were won at the Summer Olympic Games. In addition, three medals, one gold and two bronze, were won by New Zealanders in 1908 and 1912 as part of Australasia. New Zealand ranks 34th on the all-time Olympic Games medal table by total medals, and 29th when weighted by medal type. The most successful sports of New Zealand have been rowing (24 medals, including 11 gold) and athletics (24 medals, including 10 gold).

New Zealand's most celebrated Olympian is probably middle-distance runner Peter Snell, who won three gold medals and broke several world records during the 1960s.

Commonwealth Games
New Zealand is one of only six nations to have competed at every Commonwealth Games since they were founded as the British Empire Games in 1930. The country has hosted three editions of the games: the 1950 British Empire Games and the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, and the 1974 British Commonwealth Games in Christchurch.

National team colours
New Zealand's national sporting colours are black and white (or silver). The silver fern is a national emblem worn by New Zealanders representing their country in sport.

National team names
The national men's rugby union team is known as the "All Blacks". The national women's netball team is known as the "Silver Ferns". Historically, rugby and netball dominated team sport in New Zealand, and the national teams of other sports have acquired names which have been formed with reference to these two (see: list below). The women's rugby team is known as the "Black Ferns", rather than the "All Silvers". Some of these names seem to have arisen as genuine nicknames (e.g. "Tall Blacks", "Wheel Blacks"), and some are neologisms developed as marketing devices (e.g. Black Sticks (hockey), Black Caps (cricket)). New Zealand Badminton temporarily named their teams "Black Cocks". The men's national soccer team is called the "All Whites", as they play in an all-white strip. At the time the national soccer team was formed, an all-black strip would not have been allowed.

Two notable exceptions to the "Black/Ferns" naming scheme are the "Kiwis" (men's Rugby League) and "SWANZ" (the name formerly used for women's soccer).

 * Notes

title: Sport in New Zealand


text:
Sharaf al-Din al-Tusi

Sharaf al-Dīn al-Muẓaffar ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Muẓaffar al-Ṭūsī (c. 1135 Tus, Iran – c. 1213 Iran) known more often as Sharaf al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī or Sharaf ad-Dīn aṭ-Ṭūsī, was an Iranian mathematician and astronomer of the Islamic Golden Age (during the Middle Ages).

Biography
Al-Tusi was probably born in Tus, Iran. Little is known about his life, except what is found in the biographies of other scientists and that most mathematicians today can trace their lineage back to him.

Around 1165, he moved to Damascus and taught mathematics there. He then lived in Aleppo for three years, before moving to Mosul, where he met his most famous disciple Kamal al-Din ibn Yunus (1156-1242). Kamal al-Din would later become the teacher of another famous mathematician from Tus, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi.

According to Ibn Abi Usaibi'a, Sharaf al-Din was "outstanding in geometry and the mathematical sciences, having no equal in his time".

Mathematics
Al-Tusi has been credited with proposing the idea of a function, however his approach being not very explicit, algebra's decisive move to the dynamic function was made 5 centuries after him, by German polymath Gottfried Leibniz. Sharaf al-Din used what would later be known as the "Ruffini-Horner method" to numerically approximate the root of a cubic equation. He also developed a novel method for determining the conditions under which certain types of cubic equations would have two, one, or no solutions. To al-Tusi, "solution" meant "positive solution", since the possibility of zero or negative numbers being considered genuine solutions had yet to be recognised at the time. The equations in question can be written, using modern notation, in the form $f(x) = c$, where  $f(x)$  is a cubic polynomial in which the coefficient of the cubic term  $x^{3}$  is  $−1$, and  $c$  is positive. The Muslim mathematicians of the time divided the potentially solvable cases of these equations into five different types, determined by the signs of the other coefficients of $f(x)$. For each of these five types, al-Tusi wrote down an expression $m$  for the point where the function  $f(x)$  attained its maximum, and gave a geometric proof that  $f(x) < f(m)$  for any positive  $x$  different from  $m$. He then concluded that the equation would have two solutions if $c < f(m)$, one solution if  $c = f(m)$, or none if  $f(m) < c$.

Al-Tusi gave no indication of how he discovered the expressions $m$  for the maxima of the functions  $f(x)$. Some scholars have concluded that al-Tusi obtained his expressions for these maxima by "systematically" taking the derivative of the function $f(x)$, and setting it equal to zero. This conclusion has been challenged, however, by others, who point out that al-Tusi nowhere wrote down an expression for the derivative, and suggest other plausible methods by which he could have discovered his expressions for the maxima.

The quantities $D = f(m) − c$  which can be obtained from al-Tusi's conditions for the numbers of roots of cubic equations by subtracting one side of these conditions from the other is today called the discriminant of the cubic polynomials obtained by subtracting one side of the corresponding cubic equations from the other. Although al-Tusi always writes these conditions in the forms $c < f(m)$,  $c = f(m)$, or  $f(m) < c$, rather than the corresponding forms  $D > 0$,   $D = 0$, or  $D < 0$, Roshdi Rashed nevertheless considers that his discovery of these conditions demonstrated an understanding of the importance of the discriminant for investigating the solutions of cubic equations.

Sharaf al-Din analyzed the equation x3 + d = b⋅x2 in the form x2 ⋅ (b - x) = d, stating that the left hand side must at least equal the value of d for the equation to have a solution. He then determined the maximum value of this expression. A value less than d means no positive solution; a value equal to d corresponds to one solution, while a value greater than d corresponds to two solutions. Sharaf al-Din's analysis of this equation was a notable development in Islamic mathematics, but his work was not pursued any further at that time, neither in the Muslim or European world.

Sharaf al-Din al-Tusi's "Treatise on equations" has been described by Roshdi Rashed as inaugurating the beginning of algebraic geometry. This was criticized by Jeffrey Oaks who claims that Al-Tusi did not study curves by means of equations, but rather equations by means of curves (just as al-Khayyam had done before him) and that the study of curves by means of equations originated with Descartes in the seventeenth century.

Astronomy
Sharaf al-Din invented a linear astrolabe, sometimes called the "Staff of Tusi". While it was easier to construct and was known in al-Andalus, it did not gain much popularity.

Honours
The main-belt asteroid 7058 Al-Ṭūsī, discovered by Henry E. Holt at Palomar Observatory in 1990, was named in his honor.

title: Sharaf al-Din al-Tusi


text:
Koonung Secondary College

Koonung Secondary College is a secondary state school in Mont Albert North, Victoria, in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. The school takes its name from the nearby Koonung Creek.

Its school catchment includes the suburbs of Mont Albert, Mont Albert North, Balwyn, Balwyn North, Doncaster, Box Hill, Box Hill North, Surrey Hills and Burwood.

On 13 June 2019, it received a grant of $6.05 million to improve its facilities.

Curriculum
Koonung follows the VELS (Victorian Essential Learning Standards) for the years 7–10 curriculum. A standard VCE (Victorian Certificate of Education) course is run in years 11 & 12 (year 10 students also have the option to take one or two VCE subjects), with a range of VET (Vocational educational Training) subjects also available.

Notable former students

 * Zac Clarke – AFL footballer
 * Josh Daicos – AFL footballer
 * Daniel Pearce – AFL footballer
 * Jo Hall
 * Eliza Jane Morley - Actress
 * Ryan Li - PhD in IT

title: Koonung Secondary College


text:
Oneota

Oneota is a designation archaeologists use to refer to a cultural complex that existed in the Eastern Plains and Great Lakes area of what is now occupied by the United States from around AD 900 to around 1650 or 1700. Based on the classification defined in Gordon Willey and Philip Phillips' 1958 book Method and Theory in American Archaeology, the Oneota culture belongs to formative stage. The culture is believed to have transitioned into various Siouan cultures of the protohistoric and historic times, such as the Ioway. A long-accepted ancestry to the Ho-chunk has yet to be conclusively demonstrated.

Oneota is considered a major component of Upper Mississippian culture. It is characterized by globular, shell-tempered pottery that is often coarse in fibre. Pieces often had a spherical body, short necks and/or a flat lip. Sometimes the vessels had strap handles. Decoration includes wavy and zigzag lines, often in parallel. Most decoration was done on the top half of the vessel. One site occupied by the Oneota people for a period was the Aztalan site off of the Crawfish river in Wisconsin.

Analytically, the culture has been broken down into various stages or horizons. Generally accepted are the following:
 * Emergent Horizon (c. AD 900-1000),
 * Developmental Horizon (c. AD 1000-1300),
 * Classic Horizon (c. AD 1300-1650) (previously called the Oneota Aspect),
 * Historic Horizon (post-contact, generally after 1650).

In addition, the Oneota culture has been divided geographically based on stylistic and socio-economic differences. Some of these traditions are Orr, Langford, and Fisher-Huber.

The Oneota diet included corn, beans, squash, wild rice, nuts, fish, deer, and bison, varying according to the region and locale.

Relationships with Middle Mississippian were present but are not yet clearly understood. Whether Oneota developed in situ out of Late Woodland cultures, was invasive, was the result of influence from (proto-)Middle Mississippian peoples, or was some mix of these, is not clear.

title: Oneota


text: User talk:130.237.17.46

title: User talk:130.237.17.46


text:
Statutes of Lithuania

The Statutes of Lithuania, originally known as the Statutes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, were a 16th-century codification of all the legislation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and its successor, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Statutes consist of three legal codes (1529, 1566, and 1588), all written in Chancery Ruthenian, translated into Latin and later Polish. They formed the basis of the legal system of the Grand Duchy and were "the first full code of laws written in Europe since Roman Law" and "a major milestone inasmuch as it is the first attempt to codify significant East European legal trends". The Statutes evolved hand-in-hand with the Lithuanian expansion to Slavic lands, thus the main sources of the statutes were Old Lithuanian Customary law, Old Slavic customary law, as well as the nobility privileges in Poland, Magdeburg Rights, international treaties and royal charters and proclamations of the 12th to 14th centuries.

First and Second Statutes
The main purpose of the First Statute was to standardize and unify the law, under one legal code, ending the prominent regional particularism. The unified law was supposed to act as a tool for better political and economic integration of the different regions.

Although general land privileges (obshchezemskie privilei) of 1447, 1492 and 1506 provided certain legal norms, as a rule they did not cover more specific types of problems such as procedure, punishment and other finer points of law. At the diet held in 1514, the delegates made the first request for laws and rights written down in a comprehensive code. After further repeated requests for such a code, a general diet was convened in the spring of 1522 for the discussion of provisions to be included in the first statute.

The First Statute was drafted in 1522 and came into force in 1529 by the initiative of the Lithuanian Council of Lords. It has been proposed that the codification was initiated by Grand Chancellor of Lithuania Mikołaj Radziwiłł as a reworking and expansion of the Casimir Code. The First Statute consisted of 13 Chapters and was divided into 282 Articles. The first edition was redrafted and completed by his successor Albertas Goštautas, who assumed the position of the Grand Chancellor of Lithuania in 1522.

The First Statute was hand-written and survived in several copies. The statutes of Lithuania were translated to Latin because of its superior terminology and to avoid ambiguity. Augustinus Rotundus was the most active proponent of Latin usage in the GDL.

The second statute came into effect in 1566 by the order of the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, Sigismund II Augustus, and was larger and more advanced. The Grand Duke did this because of pressure from the Lithuanian nobility, as the expansion of nobles' rights since the publication of the first statute had made it redundant. The second statute was prepared by a special commission, consisting of ten members, appointed by the Grand Duke and the Council of Lords.

This Second Statute made the rights of Orthodox Christians and Catholics equal. It consisted of 14 Chapters and contained 367 Articles.

Since May 2024, a fair copy of the First Statute in Western Ruthenian, belonging to Albertas Goštautas, and a manuscript copy of Polish translation of the Second Statute are exhibited at a permanent exhibition in the Palace of the Commonwealth in Warsaw.

Third Statute
The Third Statute, described as an "outstanding monument of the legal, literary and linguistic culture", was accepted in 1588 in response to the Union of Lublin, which created the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The main author and editor of this statute was the great Chancellor of Lithuania Lew Sapieha of Ruthenian origin. The statute was the first one to be printed (in contrast to the handwritten statutes before) in the Ruthenian language using the Cyrillic alphabet. Translations of the statute were printed in Muscovia and also in Poland, where at that time laws were not thoroughly codified and the Lithuanian statute was consulted in some cases where the corresponding or comparably similar Polish laws were unclear or missing.

The statute reorganized and modified existing laws and also included new laws. Novel features included a tendency toward severe penalties, including capital punishment, which was in line with the general reactionary retributive trend in contemporary European law (cf. Malleus Maleficarum). The statute also provided that crimes committed by or against people from different social ranks were punished alike, following the idea of equal worth of human life. Yet the hurdles for a peasant to have a noble tried and convicted were higher than the other way around. The statute was supported by Lithuanian magnates, as it granted them special powers and privileges allowing them to keep the lesser Lithuanian nobility and peasants in check. As a token for being acknowledged as Grand Duke of Lithuania, Sigismund III Vasa revised the Union of Lublin and approved the Third Lithuanian Statute.

Many features of the statute were not in line with the provisions of the Union of Lublin, which is not at all mentioned in the statute. The third article of the Statute provided that all lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania will be eternally within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and never become part of other states. In this category fall e.g. the provisions about distributing local offices only to native people (or to people who had bought that status). So, too, do the many, detailed provisions about the Lithuanian estates' assemblies which eventually were abolished by the Lublin union treaty. Thus, in everyday legal practice, the statute trumped and even usurped the union treaty.

A group often opposing the statute was the Polish nobility, which viewed such inconsistencies as unconstitutional, particularly since the Union of Lublin stipulated that no law could conflict with the law of the Union. The statute, however, in turn, declared the laws that conflicted with itself to be unconstitutional. Statutes of Lithuania were also used in territories of Lithuania annexed by Poland shortly before the Union of Lublin. These conflicts between statutory schemes in Lithuania and Poland persisted for many years.

The third variant of the Statute had particularly many humane features, such as a prohibition to enslave a free man for any crime; freedom of religion; and a recommendation to acquit the accused when there is a lack of evidence, instead of punishing the innocent. Also, it provided for double compensation for killing or hurting a woman. It was in force in the territory of Lithuania until 1840 when it was replaced by Russian laws. Until then, many Russian peasants and even nobles (e.g., Andrey Kurbsky) were fleeing from despotism in the neighboring Tsardom of Russia to Lithuania.

The Third Statute consisted of 14 chapters:

 * Chapter 1. "O parsune nasshoj gospodarskoj" (On the status of Grand Duke of Grand Duchy of Lithuania).
 * Chapter 2. "O oborone zemskoj" (On advocacy).
 * Chapter 3. "O volnostyah shlyahetskih i o rozmnozhen'yu Velikogo Knyazstva Litovskogo" (On noble privileges and on the development of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania).
 * Chapter 4. "O sud'yah i sudeh" (On the judges and courts of law).
 * Chapter 5. "O oprave posagu i o vene" (On inheritance).
 * Chapter 6. "O opekah" (On trustees)
 * Chapter 7. "O zapiseh i prodazheh" (On the conduct of business and taxes).
 * Chapter 8. "O testamentah" (On testaments).
 * Chapter 9. "O podkomoryh v poveteh i o pravah zemlenyh o granicah i mezhah" (On the local government and land ownership).
 * Chapter 10. "O puschu, o lovy, o derevo bortnoe, o ozera i senozhaty" (On the use of land resources: hunting, fishing, honey hunting, etc.).
 * Chapter 11. "O kgvalteh, o boeh, o golovschinah shlyahetskih" (On violations, fights and punishments of Szlachta)
 * Chapter 12. "O golovschineh i o navezkah lyudej prostyh i o takih lyudeh i chelyadi, kotoraya ot panov svoih othodit, takzhe o slugah prikaznyh" (On the rights and punishments of servants and non-aristocracy).
 * Chapter 13. "O grabezhah i navezkah" (On theft and robberies).
 * Chapter 14. "O zlodejstve vsyakogo stanu" (On various frauds and wrong doings).

Implications and developments
Copies of the statutes used to be kept in each powiat (district) so they could be used and seen by each person desiring to do so.

Attempts by the Lithuanian nobility to limit the power of Lithuanian magnates led to the equalization of laws movement, culminating in the reforms of the election sejm of 1697 (May–June), confirmed in the coronation sejm of September 1697 in the document Porządek sądzenia spraw w Trybunale Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskego. These reforms limited the jurisdiction and competency of several Lithuanian offices, such as those of the hetman, kanclerz (chancellor), marszałek (marshal) and podskarbi (under-treasurer), to equate them with those of the corresponding offices in the Polish crown. Many of these offices at the time were held by members of the Sapieha family, and the changes were at least partly made with a view to reducing their power. The reforms also instituted Polish as the administrative language, replacing Ruthenian, in written documents and court proceedings, contradicting the wording of the Third Statute.

The Statutes of Lithuania were a sign of the progressive European legal tradition, and were cited as precedent in Polish and Livonian courts. Furthermore, they had a major influence on the 1649 encoding of the Russian legal code, Sobornoye Ulozheniye. After forming an association with Poland—including both the dynastic union (1385–1569) and the confederated Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1795)—the Lithuanian Statutes were the Grand Duchy's greatest expression of independence.

In 1791, efforts were made to change the system and do away with the privileges of the nobility, creating a constitutional monarchy with a modern citizenry (see Constitution of 3 May). However, these plans came to naught when Russia, abetted by Austria and Prussia, partitioned the Commonwealth. On 30 October 1794, Russian empress Catherine the Great reversed all changes of the law approved by the Great Sejm, and mandated use of the Lithuanian Statutes as the applicable law for the conquered Western Krai of Russia. To facilitate the application of the decree translation of the document into Russian was started and took up to 1798. However, the print of this version of the document was swiftly forbidden as the 200-year-old document was seen as more liberal than the contemporary Imperial law. The statutes remained in effect until 1840, when they were outlawed by emperor Nicholas I as part of a reprisals and russification policies after the November Uprising.

title: Statutes of Lithuania


text:
Iron shirt

Iron Shirt (Cantonese: tit1 saam3) is a form of hard style martial art exercise believed to help protect the human body from impacts in a fight. This is one of the 72 arts of the Shaolin Temple. Some martial arts are based on the belief that a correctly trained body can withstand more damage than one that is untrained. Iron Shirt is said to be a series of exercises using many post stances, herbs, qigong and body movements to cause the body's natural energy (qi) to reinforce its structural strength. Practitioners believe that directing energy to parts of the body can reinforce these parts of the body to take blows against them. In the Shaolin version of Iron Shirt, the practitioner would do things such as lying on a stump or supporting tablets of granite on the chest with the goal of toughening the body.

Famous practitioners
According to 13th generation lineage Tai He ("Great Harmony") Wudangquan Master Fan Ke Ping, a collector of rare Kung fu manuals, Zhou Tong, the archery teacher of General Yue Fei, practiced Shènzi bādà Qígōng ( - "Testicle Eight Outstanding Techniques"). A book of this style supposedly appeared during the Ming Dynasty and was taught on Wudang Mountain. It became a "hereditary style", taught only to close family members. Other styles include the Hǔ Xiào Jīn Zhōng Zhào ( – “Tiger Shouting Golden Bell Exercise"), Tie Bu Shan ("Five Phoenix Iron Shirt Work") and the Wu Feng Qi Ming Gui Xi Su ("Five Phoenix Combined Shouting Tortoise Resting Method"). Zhou Tong supposedly learned these skills from an “unknown master” and passed it along. During the Ming Dynasty, Daoist Priest Deng Kun Lun is fabled to have learned the set and later published a book in 1426 called Dà Sòng Quān Nèi Dì Yī Gāo Shǒu Zhōu Tóng Zhēn Chuán Hǔ Xiào Jīn Zhōng Zhào Fú Qì Liàn Xíng Mì Shù ( - “Great Song Circle Internal Sequence First Master Zhou Tong True Line Tiger Shouting Golden Bell Exercise Build Secret Technique”).  There is a VCD series about this set of qigong exercises.

A folktale called "Meeting Zhou Tong By Chance" states Zhou Tong was walking down the far side of a tall bridge when he noticed a large young man walking up in his direction while looking down at his own feet. Thinking the young man to be a martial arts master wanting to embarrass Zhou by knocking him off the bridge with a shoulder strike, Zhou prepared for a counter-attack and began to swallow air with a subtle “Hm!” and focused all of his energy to his right shoulder. The skin of his shoulder turned red then purple and became hard as rock underneath his clothing. When the two men brushed shoulders, the young man was nearly knocked off of the bridge and the pain caused saliva to pour from his mouth. The attack left him weak in the knees and one side of his body was completely numb. But the incident was a misunderstanding. The young man was none other than his future student, the Water Margin bandit Wu Song who was looking down at his feet to avoid large water puddles born from a freak rain shower.

title: Iron shirt


text: User talk:130.225.184.24

title: User talk:130.225.184.24


text:
National Professional Qualification for Headship

The National Professional Qualification for Headship (or NPQH) is a professional qualification for aspiring headteachers. The qualification was introduced in 1997 by the newly elected Labour government, following a commitment in their manifesto to introduce a mandatory qualification for head teachers. Initially voluntary, the first group of people were awarded the qualification in July 1998. The legal requirement and qualification became mandatory on 1 April 2004. Until 8 February 2012, holding the NPQH was a mandatory requirement for all newly appointed English and Welsh school head teachers. It is taught via blended learning at centres all over the country, and administered by the National College for Teaching and Leadership which has centres in Manchester, Nottingham, London, and Ruddington.

It is intended to prepare experienced teachers for headships through training in management techniques, tutorial support, and achieving school standards.

In April 2005, the Conservative Party made scrapping the college and qualification a part of their manifesto for the May 2005 General Election, a move criticised by the incumbent Labour government and teaching union the National Association of Head Teachers.