text:
Talk:Ruse de guerre

Standard of rules
This article uses many subjective terms like "legitimate" or "unacceptable" without identifying the rules to which it refers. The Geneva Conventions are widely accepted nowadays, but as war occurred during a few thousand year's of human history, they should be considered for what they are (an historical attempt to reduce war lawlessness, beginning in the 19th century) rather than being considered as a sort of divine law.

Otto Skorzeny's use of American uniforms
Last fall. when Kevin Sites captured a clip of a young Marine shooting a seriously wounded, unarmed Iraqi captive, columnist Thomas Sowell wrote an article defending the young Marine. He argued that the treatment GIs gave to German prisoners wearing American uniforms during the Battle of the Bulge set a precedent for giving prisoners summary executions. I got involved in a discussion on slashdot about Sowell's claim. My correspondents cited details of Otto Skorzeny's exploits that turned out to be partially incorrect. One of the links I turned up quoted Skorzeny on advice he had received from German experts in military law. According to this link the legal advice he received was that wearing American uniforms was a legitimate ruse de guerre, so long as they took off their American uniforms before they fired any weapons. According to his account Skorzeny was skeptical that this advice held any value.

Skorzeny commanded a half-company of Germans who were to make a serious attempt to infiltrate behind the American lines, without being detected. Of these 48 volunteers a small number made it back to the German lines. Three were captured, interrogated, stood trial, and were openly executed by firing squad. One of these three captured Germans was the source of the incapacitating rumour that the goal of this force was to assassinate Eisenhower. If one were to be charitable, the execution of these three was the grain of truth behind Sowell's claim that GIs were authorized to shoot prisoners.

In practice this half-company of infiltrators were not able to evade detection. Half a dozen made it back behind German lines, three were captured, the rest were killed in combat. Can this high rate of casualties be explained by the Germans being delayed by changing uniforms? Could this hight rate of casualties be explained by the Americans refusing to accept attempts by the Germans to surrender? Could this high rate of casualties be explained by furious GIs practicing summary execution of prisoners in secret?

My understanding of the obligations of the Geneva Conventions and the US UCMJ is that when a captor takes a prisoner into custody they are obliged to take reasonable steps to keep them safe. My understanding is that even if they suspect a prisoner of committing war crimes they are still obliged to keep them safe, until they are handed over to those authorized to make a determination as to whehter they were legitimate prisoners of war, innocent civilians, or illegal combatants, suspected war criminals.

summary execution of spies?
Isn't there a tradition of routinely shooting spies, because they were fighting out of uniform? Wouldn't this suggest that spying is not recognized as a legitimate ruse de guerre?

That gets into what you imply by saying "legitimate". Although spies face execution, it is an ancient, established practice of war, and all parties know their need (and duty) to defend against it. Many parties would simply consider spying to be a tactic that risks grave consequences, but is nonetheless legitimate. The very fact that governments typically shoot (foreign) spies instead of hanging them testifies to this. In that sense, it differs from attacking under the guise of a Red Cross vehicle, because in that case, combatants have a moral obligation to NOT attack such vehicles, but rather to offer safe passage. 65.77.101.63 00:51, 12 September 2007 (UTC) David

wikianswers?
"A Ruse de Guerre (trick of war) is a deliberate attempt to fool the enemy in wartime, for instance by making mock aeroplanes or tanks from wood in order to pretend you had more than you actually had."

and

"The fatal duel between the Duke of Hamilton and Lord Mohun is well known. McCartney, the second to Lord Mohun, was suspected of having stabbed treacherously the Duke; a reward was offered for having apprehended him.  About that time a gentleman was set upon by highwaymen, and with a happy presence of mind he told them he was McCartney.  On this they brought him to a justice of the peace in hopes of the reward, when he gave charge against them for the robbery, and they were sent to jail."

and

"A ruse de guerre is a military trick, such as disguising a warship to appear to be a neutral merchant vessel, as the Germans did with their armed merchant cruisers during World War II. Germany's Pocket battleships also took steps to disguise their appearance.

This kind of naval deception was more common during 18th and 19th century. It was generally considered acceptable to sail under false colors, provided the belligerent lowered the false colors and raised the flag of their own nation, prior to firing their guns."

and

French wiki "Ruse de Guerre"[]

Pohick2 (talk) 23:51, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

Breaking Rules
Several places in this article there are assertions governing what would constitute a ruse of war based on certain practices being against the rules, however the article does not make clear whose rules these are (genever convention? US Army?) and really needs to do so as it is not clear that such rules are always observed or indeed should be in anything more than a legal sense. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 110.20.35.20 (talk) 09:41, 11 December 2013 (UTC)

 * I think the Geneva Conventions are the main implied source. However, most of the examples are from before those conventions were created. Nine years later your concern remains valid. --Aecur (talk) 04:55, 11 September 2022 (UTC)

Possible copyright problem
This article has been revised as part of a large-scale clean-up project of multiple article copyright infringement. Earlier text must not be restored, unless it can be verified to be free of infringement. For legal reasons, Wikipedia cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or printed material; such additions must be deleted. Contributors may use sources as a source of information, but not as a source of sentences or phrases. Accordingly, the material may be rewritten, but only if it does not infringe on the copyright of the original or plagiarize from that source. Please see our guideline on non-free text for how to properly implement limited quotations of copyrighted text. Wikipedia takes copyright violations very seriously. Money emoji💵Talk💸Help out at CCI! 01:08, 12 March 2020 (UTC)

Flying German colors in Normandy
It is stated that when the Allied forces flew German colors in Normandy this was part of a legitimate ruse. However, earlier in the text it says that use of enemy military insignia is not permitted under international rules of war. At the time, the Hague Convention was already in force, so this ruse was likely illegitimate in WW2. It is certainly illegitimate now. I'm not sure enough to make the change myself, but there is objectively an inconsistency in the text. Aecur (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 16:51, 10 September 2022 (UTC)

 * @Aecur Quite often, a WP-talkpage can have few watchers, and comments like these can go unnoticed. If you want, you can in cases like these check for Wikiprojects at the top of the talkpage, and ask for input at their talkpages. None may bite but the hooks are cheap. Some Wikiprojects are more or less abandonded, but WikiProject Military history is not one of those. Happy editing! Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 09:08, 5 November 2022 (UTC)

American flag   Ruse de guerre   Lusitania
The article Ruse de guerre says Lusitania flew an American flag without specifying when or giving a reference. The article RMS Lusitania makes no mention of American flags. These two articles need to be reconciled. Reports at the time were coloured by politics but modern assessments should be able to clarify it. Humphrey Tribble (talk) 00:51, 4 August 2023 (UTC)
 * Please note that it has been referenced here since it was first added in 2008.Davidships (talk) 19:07, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Ruse de guerre


text: User talk:206.158.3.70

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

title: User talk:206.158.3.70


text: Category:514 BC deaths

title: Category:514 BC deaths


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Michael Mayo

 This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion of the article below. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was delete moink 07:39, 9 May 2005 (UTC)

Michael Mayo

 * Delete. Vanity, albeit well-formatted vanity --Theo (Talk) 09:59, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * The more that [User:Jerryseinfeld|Jerryseinfeld]] adds to this article, the more convinced I become that this person is not notable. Mayo's level of achievement is such that even I would qualify for an article by such criteria.--Theo  (Talk) 17:40, 5 May 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. Yes, well formatted, and probably someone's labour of love, but they didn't read What Wikipedia is not, or this wouldn't have existed in the first place. Master Thief Garrett 10:12, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete, not notable, vanity. Megan1967 04:13, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep. Notable. Perhaps one of the world's five most notable research report writers for the world's largest market space; financial services. Still don't agree? This example may convince you: Name the ten best paid celebrities (entertainment, sports) (Forbes celebrities), you have probably heard of them. Name the ten best paid CEOs (Forbes CEOs), you may not have heard of all of them. But the compensation of the top 20 on the two lists almost perfectly match each other (at least during 2004). Forbes even has a list of the best paid business analysts (Forbes analysts). --Jerryseinfeld 20:35, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * You seem to know a lot about this man. If you want this article to be kept, please rewrite it so it doesn't sound so vain and chatty. Then I (and maybe others) will reconsider the previous vote. Remember, we're not voting on what *could* take up this namespace, only what *is* here right now. An article on Bill Gates would be deleted if it was as chatty as this. It's not the potential, it's the content right now. If this is not rewritten it will be deleted, and someone at a later date may choose to recreate it properly. Master Thief Garrett 23:01, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like some other VfD subpages, is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion, or the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.

 * First: what "relevant live page"? The live page was deleted. Second: It was wrong to delete that article, if you do a search on mike mayo you'll see that he's among the most well respected analyst on the street, he has even testified before a senate banking committee in 2002 (Testimony on conflicts of itnterest). Please restore the article on him that I contributed to.--Jerryseinfeld 07:56, 20 November 2005 (UTC)


text: Category:510s BC deaths

title: Category:510s BC deaths


text:
Tests of general relativity

Tests of general relativity serve to establish observational evidence for the theory of general relativity. The first three tests, proposed by Albert Einstein in 1915, concerned the "anomalous" precession of the perihelion of Mercury, the bending of light in gravitational fields, and the gravitational redshift. The precession of Mercury was already known; experiments showing light bending in accordance with the predictions of general relativity were performed in 1919, with increasingly precise measurements made in subsequent tests; and scientists claimed to have measured the gravitational redshift in 1925, although measurements sensitive enough to actually confirm the theory were not made until 1954. A more accurate program starting in 1959 tested general relativity in the weak gravitational field limit, severely limiting possible deviations from the theory.

In the 1970s, scientists began to make additional tests, starting with Irwin Shapiro's measurement of the relativistic time delay in radar signal travel time near the Sun. Beginning in 1974, Hulse, Taylor and others studied the behaviour of binary pulsars experiencing much stronger gravitational fields than those found in the Solar System. Both in the weak field limit (as in the Solar System) and with the stronger fields present in systems of binary pulsars the predictions of general relativity have been extremely well tested.

In February 2016, the Advanced LIGO team announced that they had directly detected gravitational waves from a black hole merger. This discovery, along with additional detections announced in June 2016 and June 2017, tested general relativity in the very strong field limit, observing to date no deviations from theory.

Classical tests
Albert Einstein proposed three tests of general relativity, subsequently called the "classical tests" of general relativity, in 1916:
 * 1) the perihelion precession of Mercury's orbit
 * 2) the deflection of light by the Sun
 * 3) the gravitational redshift of light

In the letter to The Times (of London) on November 28, 1919, he described the theory of relativity and thanked his English colleagues for their understanding and testing of his work. He also mentioned three classical tests with comments:
 * "The chief attraction of the theory lies in its logical completeness. If a single one of the conclusions drawn from it proves wrong, it must be given up; to modify it without destroying the whole structure seems to be impossible."

Perihelion precession of Mercury

Under Newtonian physics, an object in an (isolated) two-body system, consisting of the object orbiting a spherical mass, would trace out an ellipse with the center of mass of the system at a focus of the ellipse. The point of closest approach, called the periapsis (or when the central body is the Sun, perihelion), is fixed. Hence the major axis of the ellipse remains fixed in space. Both objects orbit around the center of mass of this system, so they each have their own ellipse. However, a number of effects in the Solar System cause the perihelia of planets to precess (rotate) around the Sun in the plane of their orbits, or equivalently, cause the major axis to rotate about the center of mass, hence changing its orientation in space. The principal cause is the presence of other planets which perturb one another's orbit. Another (much less significant) effect is solar oblateness.

Mercury deviates from the precession predicted from these Newtonian effects. This anomalous rate of precession of the perihelion of Mercury's orbit was first recognized in 1859 as a problem in celestial mechanics, by Urbain Le Verrier. His re-analysis of available timed observations of transits of Mercury over the Sun's disk from 1697 to 1848 showed that the actual rate of the precession disagreed from that predicted from Newton's theory by 38″ (arcseconds) per tropical century (later re-estimated at 43″ by Simon Newcomb in 1882). A number of ad hoc and ultimately unsuccessful solutions were proposed, but they tended to introduce more problems. Le Verrier suggested that another hypothetical planet might exist to account for Mercury's behavior. The previously successful search for Neptune based on its perturbations of the orbit of Uranus led astronomers to place some faith in this possible explanation, and the hypothetical planet was even named Vulcan. Finally, in 1908, W. W. Campbell, Director of the Lick Observatory, after the comprehensive photographic observations by Lick astronomer, Charles D. Perrine, at three solar eclipse expeditions, stated, "In my opinion, Dr. Perrine's work at the three eclipses of 1901, 1905, and 1908 brings the observational side of the famous intramercurial-planet problem definitely to a close." Subsequently, no evidence of Vulcan was found and Einstein's 1915 general theory accounted for Mercury's anomalous precession. Einstein wrote to Michael Besso, "Perihelion motions explained quantitatively ... you will be astonished".

In general relativity, this remaining precession, or change of orientation of the orbital ellipse within its orbital plane, is explained by gravitation being mediated by the curvature of spacetime. Einstein showed that general relativity agrees closely with the observed amount of perihelion shift. This was a powerful factor motivating the adoption of general relativity.

Although earlier measurements of planetary orbits were made using conventional telescopes, more accurate measurements are now made with radar. The total observed precession of Mercury is (574.10 ± 0.65)″ per century relative to the inertial ICRF. This precession can be attributed to the following causes:

The correction by (42.980 ± 0.001)″/cy is the prediction of post-Newtonian theory with parameters $$\gamma = \beta = 1$$. Thus the effect can be fully explained by general relativity. More recent calculations based on more precise measurements have not materially changed the situation.

In general relativity the perihelion shift σ, expressed in radians per revolution, is approximately given by:
 * $$\sigma = \frac {24\pi^3 L^2} {T^2 c^2\left(1 - e^2\right)}\ ,$$

where L is the semi-major axis, T is the orbital period, c is the speed of light, and e is the orbital eccentricity (see: Two-body problem in general relativity).

The other planets experience perihelion shifts as well, but, since they are farther from the Sun and have longer periods, their shifts are lower, and could not be observed accurately until long after Mercury's. For example, the perihelion shift of Earth's orbit due to general relativity is theoretically 3.83868″ per century and experimentally (3.8387 ± 0.0004)″/cy, Venus's is 8.62473″/cy and (8.6247 ± 0.0005)″/cy and Mars' is (1.351 ± 0.001)″/cy. Both values have now been measured, with results in good agreement with theory. The periapsis shift has also now been measured for binary pulsar systems, with PSR 1913+16 amounting to 4.2° per year. These observations are consistent with general relativity. It is also possible to measure periapsis shift in binary star systems which do not contain ultra-dense stars, but it is more difficult to model the classical effects precisely – for example, the alignment of the stars' spin to their orbital plane needs to be known and is hard to measure directly. A few systems, such as DI Herculis, have been measured as test cases for general relativity.

Deflection of light by the Sun

Henry Cavendish in 1784 (in an unpublished manuscript) and Johann Georg von Soldner in 1801 (published in 1804) had pointed out that Newtonian gravity predicts that starlight will bend around a massive object. The same value as Soldner's was calculated by Einstein in 1911 based on the equivalence principle alone. However, Einstein noted in 1915 in the process of completing general relativity, that his 1911 result (and thus Soldner's 1801 result) is only half of the correct value. Einstein became the first to calculate the correct value for light bending: 1.75 arcseconds for light that grazes the Sun.

The first observation of light deflection was performed by noting the change in position of stars as they passed near the Sun on the celestial sphere. The observations were performed by Arthur Eddington and his collaborators (see Eddington experiment) during the total solar eclipse of May 29, 1919, when the stars near the Sun (at that time in the constellation Taurus) could be observed. Observations were made simultaneously in the cities of Sobral, Ceará, Brazil and in São Tomé and Príncipe on the west coast of Africa. The result was considered spectacular news and made the front page of most major newspapers. It made Einstein and his theory of general relativity world-famous. When asked by his assistant what his reaction would have been if general relativity had not been confirmed by Eddington and Dyson in 1919, Einstein famously made the quip: "Then I would feel sorry for the dear Lord. The theory is correct anyway."

The early accuracy, however, was poor and there was doubt that the small number of measured star locations and instrument questions could produce a reliable result. The results were argued by some to have been plagued by systematic error and possibly confirmation bias, although modern reanalysis of the dataset suggests that Eddington's analysis was accurate. The measurement was repeated by a team from the Lick Observatory led by the Director W. W. Campbell in the 1922 eclipse as observed in remote Australian station of Wallal, with results based on hundreds of star positions that agreed with the 1919 results and has been repeated several times since, most notably in 1953 by Yerkes Observatory astronomers and in 1973 by a team from the University of Texas. Considerable uncertainty remained in these measurements for almost fifty years, until observations started being made at radio frequencies. The deflection of starlight by the nearby white dwarf star Stein 2051 B has also been measured.

Gravitational redshift of light
Einstein predicted the gravitational redshift of light from the equivalence principle in 1907, and it was predicted that this effect might be measured in the spectral lines of a white dwarf star, which has a very high gravitational field. Initial attempts to measure the gravitational redshift of the spectrum of Sirius-B, were done by Walter Sydney Adams in 1925, but the result was criticized as being unusable due to the contamination from light from the (much brighter) primary star, Sirius. The first accurate measurement of the gravitational redshift of a white dwarf was done by Popper in 1954, measuring a 21 km/s gravitational redshift of 40 Eridani B.

The redshift of Sirius B was finally measured by Greenstein et al. in 1971, obtaining the value for the gravitational redshift of $89 km/s$, with more accurate measurements by the Hubble Space Telescope showing $80.4 km/s$.

Tests of special relativity
The general theory of relativity incorporates Einstein's special theory of relativity, and hence tests of special relativity are also testing aspects of general relativity. As a consequence of the equivalence principle, Lorentz invariance holds locally in non-rotating, freely falling reference frames. Experiments related to Lorentz invariance special relativity (that is, when gravitational effects can be neglected) are described in tests of special relativity.

Modern tests
The modern era of testing general relativity was ushered in largely at the impetus of Dicke and Schiff who laid out a framework for testing general relativity. They emphasized the importance not only of the classical tests, but of null experiments, testing for effects which in principle could occur in a theory of gravitation, but do not occur in general relativity. Other important theoretical developments included the inception of alternative theories to general relativity, in particular, scalar–tensor theories such as the Brans–Dicke theory; the parameterized post-Newtonian formalism in which deviations from general relativity can be quantified; and the framework of the equivalence principle.

Experimentally, new developments in space exploration, electronics and condensed matter physics have made additional precise experiments possible, such as the Pound–Rebka experiment, laser interferometry and lunar rangefinding.

Post-Newtonian tests of gravity
Early tests of general relativity were hampered by the lack of viable competitors to the theory: it was not clear what sorts of tests would distinguish it from its competitors. General relativity was the only known relativistic theory of gravity compatible with special relativity and observations. Moreover, it is an extremely simple and elegant theory. This changed with the introduction of Brans–Dicke theory in 1960. This theory is arguably simpler, as it contains no dimensionful constants, and is compatible with a version of Mach's principle and Dirac's large numbers hypothesis, two philosophical ideas which have been influential in the history of relativity. Ultimately, this led to the development of the parametrized post-Newtonian formalism by Nordtvedt and Will, which parametrizes, in terms of ten adjustable parameters, all the possible departures from Newton's law of universal gravitation to first order in the velocity of moving objects (i.e. to first order in $$v/c$$, where v is the velocity of an object and c is the speed of light). This approximation allows the possible deviations from general relativity, for slowly moving objects in weak gravitational fields, to be systematically analyzed. Much effort has been put into constraining the post-Newtonian parameters, and deviations from general relativity are at present severely limited.

The experiments testing gravitational lensing and light time delay limits the same post-Newtonian parameter, the so-called Eddington parameter γ, which is a straightforward parametrization of the amount of deflection of light by a gravitational source. It is equal to one for general relativity, and takes different values in other theories (such as Brans–Dicke theory). It is the best constrained of the ten post-Newtonian parameters, but there are other experiments designed to constrain the others. Precise observations of the perihelion shift of Mercury constrain other parameters, as do tests of the strong equivalence principle.

One of the goals of the BepiColombo mission to Mercury, is to test the general relativity theory by measuring the parameters gamma and beta of the parametrized post-Newtonian formalism with high accuracy. The experiment is part of the Mercury Orbiter Radio science Experiment (MORE). The spacecraft was launched in October 2018 and is expected to enter orbit around Mercury in December 2025.

Gravitational lensing
One of the most important tests is gravitational lensing. It has been observed in distant astrophysical sources, but these are poorly controlled and it is uncertain how they constrain general relativity. The most precise tests are analogous to Eddington's 1919 experiment: they measure the deflection of radiation from a distant source by the Sun. The sources that can be most precisely analyzed are distant radio sources. In particular, some quasars are very strong radio sources. The directional resolution of any telescope is in principle limited by diffraction; for radio telescopes this is also the practical limit. An important improvement in obtaining positional high accuracies (from milli-arcsecond to micro-arcsecond) was obtained by combining radio telescopes across Earth. The technique is called very long baseline interferometry (VLBI). With this technique radio observations couple the phase information of the radio signal observed in telescopes separated over large distances. Recently, these telescopes have measured the deflection of radio waves by the Sun to extremely high precision, confirming the amount of deflection predicted by general relativity aspect to the 0.03% level. At this level of precision systematic effects have to be carefully taken into account to determine the precise location of the telescopes on Earth. Some important effects are Earth's nutation, rotation, atmospheric refraction, tectonic displacement and tidal waves. Another important effect is refraction of the radio waves by the solar corona. Fortunately, this effect has a characteristic spectrum, whereas gravitational distortion is independent of wavelength. Thus, careful analysis, using measurements at several frequencies, can subtract this source of error.

The entire sky is slightly distorted due to the gravitational deflection of light caused by the Sun (the anti-Sun direction excepted). This effect has been observed by the European Space Agency astrometric satellite Hipparcos. It measured the positions of about 105 stars. During the full mission about $3.5$ relative positions have been determined, each to an accuracy of typically 3 milliarcseconds (the accuracy for an 8–9 magnitude star). Since the gravitation deflection perpendicular to the Earth–Sun direction is already 4.07 milliarcseconds, corrections are needed for practically all stars. Without systematic effects, the error in an individual observation of 3 milliarcseconds, could be reduced by the square root of the number of positions, leading to a precision of 0.0016 milliarcseconds. Systematic effects, however, limit the accuracy of the determination to 0.3% (Froeschlé, 1997).

Launched in 2013, the Gaia spacecraft will conduct a census of one billion stars in the Milky Way and measure their positions to an accuracy of 24 microarcseconds. Thus it will also provide stringent new tests of gravitational deflection of light caused by the Sun which was predicted by General relativity.

Light travel time delay testing
Irwin I. Shapiro proposed another test, beyond the classical tests, which could be performed within the Solar System. It is sometimes called the fourth "classical" test of general relativity. He predicted a relativistic time delay (Shapiro delay) in the round-trip travel time for radar signals reflecting off other planets. The mere curvature of the path of a photon passing near the Sun is too small to have an observable delaying effect (when the round-trip time is compared to the time taken if the photon had followed a straight path), but general relativity predicts a time delay that becomes progressively larger when the photon passes nearer to the Sun due to the time dilation in the gravitational potential of the Sun. Observing radar reflections from Mercury and Venus just before and after they are eclipsed by the Sun agrees with general relativity theory at the 5% level.

More recently, the Cassini probe has undertaken a similar experiment which gave agreement with general relativity at the 0.002% level. However, the following detailed studies revealed that the measured value of the PPN parameter gamma is affected by gravitomagnetic effect caused by the orbital motion of Sun around the barycenter of the solar system. The gravitomagnetic effect in the Cassini radioscience experiment was implicitly postulated by B. Bertotti as having a pure general relativistic origin but its theoretical value has never been tested in the experiment which effectively makes the experimental uncertainty in the measured value of gamma actually larger (by a factor of 10) than 0.002% claimed by B. Bertotti and co-authors in Nature.

Very Long Baseline Interferometry has measured velocity-dependent (gravitomagnetic) corrections to the Shapiro time delay in the field of moving Jupiter and Saturn.

Equivalence principle
The equivalence principle, in its simplest form, asserts that the trajectories of falling bodies in a gravitational field should be independent of their mass and internal structure, provided they are small enough not to disturb the environment or be affected by tidal forces. This idea has been tested to extremely high precision by Eötvös torsion balance experiments, which look for a differential acceleration between two test masses. Constraints on this, and on the existence of a composition-dependent fifth force or gravitational Yukawa interaction are very strong, and are discussed under fifth force and weak equivalence principle.

A version of the equivalence principle, called the strong equivalence principle, asserts that self-gravitation falling bodies, such as stars, planets or black holes (which are all held together by their gravitational attraction) should follow the same trajectories in a gravitational field, provided the same conditions are satisfied. This is called the Nordtvedt effect and is most precisely tested by the Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment. Since 1969, it has continuously measured the distance from several rangefinding stations on Earth to reflectors on the Moon to approximately centimeter accuracy. These have provided a strong constraint on several of the other post-Newtonian parameters.

Another part of the strong equivalence principle is the requirement that Newton's gravitational constant be constant in time, and have the same value everywhere in the universe. There are many independent observations limiting the possible variation of Newton's gravitational constant, but one of the best comes from lunar rangefinding which suggests that the gravitational constant does not change by more than one part in 1011 per year. The constancy of the other constants is discussed in the Einstein equivalence principle section of the equivalence principle article.

Gravitational redshift and time dilation
The first of the classical tests discussed above, the gravitational redshift, is a simple consequence of the Einstein equivalence principle and was predicted by Einstein in 1907. As such, it is not a test of general relativity in the same way as the post-Newtonian tests, because any theory of gravity obeying the equivalence principle should also incorporate the gravitational redshift. Nonetheless, confirming the existence of the effect was an important substantiation of relativistic gravity, since the absence of gravitational redshift would have strongly contradicted relativity. The first observation of the gravitational redshift was the measurement of the shift in the spectral lines from the white dwarf star Sirius B by Adams in 1925, discussed above, and follow-on measurements of other white dwarfs. Because of the difficulty of the astrophysical measurement, however, experimental verification using a known terrestrial source was preferable.

Experimental verification of gravitational redshift using terrestrial sources took several decades, because it is difficult to find clocks (to measure time dilation) or sources of electromagnetic radiation (to measure redshift) with a frequency that is known well enough that the effect can be accurately measured. It was confirmed experimentally for the first time in 1959 using measurements of the change in wavelength of gamma-ray photons generated with the Mössbauer effect, which generates radiation with a very narrow line width. The Pound–Rebka experiment measured the relative redshift of two sources situated at the top and bottom of Harvard University's Jefferson tower. The result was in excellent agreement with general relativity. This was one of the first precision experiments testing general relativity. The experiment was later improved to better than the 1% level by Pound and Snider.

The blueshift of a falling photon can be found by assuming it has an equivalent mass based on its frequency E = hf (where h is the Planck constant) along with E = mc2, a result of special relativity. Such simple derivations ignore the fact that in general relativity the experiment compares clock rates, rather than energies. In other words, the "higher energy" of the photon after it falls can be equivalently ascribed to the slower running of clocks deeper in the gravitational potential well. To fully validate general relativity, it is important to also show that the rate of arrival of the photons is greater than the rate at which they are emitted. A very accurate gravitational redshift experiment, which deals with this issue, was performed in 1976, where a hydrogen maser clock on a rocket was launched to a height of 10,000 km, and its rate compared with an identical clock on the ground. It tested the gravitational redshift to 0.007%.

Although the Global Positioning System (GPS) is not designed as a test of fundamental physics, it must account for the gravitational redshift in its timing system, and physicists have analyzed timing data from the GPS to confirm other tests. When the first satellite was launched, some engineers resisted the prediction that a noticeable gravitational time dilation would occur, so the first satellite was launched without the clock adjustment that was later built into subsequent satellites. It showed the predicted shift of 38 microseconds per day. This rate of discrepancy is sufficient to substantially impair function of GPS within hours if not accounted for. An excellent account of the role played by general relativity in the design of GPS can be found in Ashby 2003.

Other precision tests of general relativity, not discussed here, are the Gravity Probe A satellite, launched in 1976, which showed gravity and velocity affect the ability to synchronize the rates of clocks orbiting a central mass and the Hafele–Keating experiment, which used atomic clocks in circumnavigating aircraft to test general relativity and special relativity together.

Frame-dragging tests

Tests of the Lense–Thirring precession, consisting of small secular precessions of the orbit of a test particle in motion around a central rotating mass, for example, a planet or a star, have been performed with the LAGEOS satellites, but many aspects of them remain controversial. The same effect may have been detected in the data of the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft, a former probe in orbit around Mars; also such a test raised a debate. First attempts to detect the Sun's Lense–Thirring effect on the perihelia of the inner planets have been recently reported as well. Frame dragging would cause the orbital plane of stars orbiting near a supermassive black hole to precess about the black hole spin axis. This effect should be detectable within the next few years via astrometric monitoring of stars at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. By comparing the rate of orbital precession of two stars on different orbits, it is possible in principle to test the no-hair theorems of general relativity.

The Gravity Probe B satellite, launched in 2004 and operated until 2005, detected frame-dragging and the geodetic effect. The experiment used four quartz spheres the size of ping pong balls coated with a superconductor. Data analysis continued through 2011 due to high noise levels and difficulties in modelling the noise accurately so that a useful signal could be found. Principal investigators at Stanford University reported on May 4, 2011, that they had accurately measured the frame dragging effect relative to the distant star IM Pegasi, and the calculations proved to be in line with the prediction of Einstein's theory. The results, published in Physical Review Letters measured the geodetic effect with an error of about 0.2 percent. The results reported the frame dragging effect (caused by Earth's rotation) added up to 37 milliarcseconds with an error of about 19 percent. Investigator Francis Everitt explained that a milliarcsecond "is the width of a human hair seen at the distance of 10 miles".

In January 2012, LARES satellite was launched on a Vega rocket to measure Lense–Thirring effect with an accuracy of about 1%, according to its proponents. This evaluation of the actual accuracy obtainable is a subject of debate.

Tests of the gravitational potential at small distances
It is possible to test whether the gravitational potential continues with the inverse square law at very small distances. Tests so far have focused on a divergence from GR in the form of a Yukawa potential $V(r) = V_0\left(1 + \alpha e^{-r/\lambda}\right)$, but no evidence for a potential of this kind has been found. The Yukawa potential with $$\alpha=1$$ has been ruled out down to λ = $5.6 m$.

Mössbauer rotor experiment
It was conceived as a means to measure the time dilation effect on Earth after being motivated by Einstein's equivalence principle that implies a rotating observer will be subject to the same transformations as an observer in a gravitational field. Mössbauer rotor experiments hence permit a precise terrestrial test of the relativistic Doppler effect. From a radioactive source fixed at the center of a spinning disc or rod, gamma rays travel to an absorber at the rim (in some variations of the experiment this scheme was reversed) and an unabsorbed number of them pass through depending on the rotational speed to arrive at a stationary counter (i.e., detector of gamma quanta resting in the lab frame). In lieu with the Clock hypothesis, Einstein's general relativity predicts that the moving absorber's clock at the rim should retard by a specific amount due to time dilation on account of centrifugal binding alone compared to a rest frame absorber. So the transmission of gamma photons through the absorber should increase during rotation, which can be subsequently measured by the stationary counter beyond the absorber. This prediction was actually observed using the Mössbauer effect, since the equivalence principle, as originally suggested by Einstein, implicitly allows the association of the time dilation due to rotation (calculated as a result of the change in the detector's count rate) with gravitational time dilation. Such experiments were pioneered by Hay et al. (1960), Champeney et al. (1965), and Kündig (1963), and all of them had declared confirmation of the prediction of Einstein's theory of relativity.

Be that as it may, an early 21st Century re-examination of these endeavors called into question the validity of the past obtained results claiming to have verified time dilation as predicted by Einstein's relativity theory, whereby novel experimentations were carried out that uncovered an extra energy shift between emitted and absorbed radiation next to the classical relativistic dilation of time. This discovery was first explained as discrediting general relativity and successfully confirming at the laboratory scale the predictions of an alternative theory of gravity developed by T. Yarman and his colleagues. Against this development, a contentious attempt was made to explain the disclosed extra energy shift as arising from a so-far unknown and allegedly missed clock synchronization effect, which was unusually awarded a prize in 2018 by the Gravity Research Foundation for having secured a new proof of general relativity. However, at the same time period, it was revealed that said author committed several mathematical errors in his calculations, and the supposed contribution of the so-called clock synchronization to the measured time dilation is in fact practically null. As a consequence, a general relativistic explanation for the outcomes of Mössbauer rotor experiments remains open.

Strong field tests
The very strong gravitational fields that are present close to black holes, especially those supermassive black holes which are thought to power active galactic nuclei and the more active quasars, belong to a field of intense active research. Observations of these quasars and active galactic nuclei are difficult, and interpretation of the observations is heavily dependent upon astrophysical models other than general relativity or competing fundamental theories of gravitation, but they are qualitatively consistent with the black hole concept as modeled in general relativity.

Binary pulsars
Pulsars are rapidly rotating neutron stars which emit regular radio pulses as they rotate. As such they act as clocks which allow very precise monitoring of their orbital motions. Observations of pulsars in orbit around other stars have all demonstrated substantial periapsis precessions that cannot be accounted for classically but can be accounted for by using general relativity. For example, the Hulse–Taylor binary pulsar PSR B1913+16 (a pair of neutron stars in which one is detected as a pulsar) has an observed precession of over 4° of arc per year (periastron shift per orbit only about 10−6). This precession has been used to compute the masses of the components.

Similarly to the way in which atoms and molecules emit electromagnetic radiation, a gravitating mass that is in quadrupole type or higher order vibration, or is asymmetric and in rotation, can emit gravitational waves. These gravitational waves are predicted to travel at the speed of light. For example, planets orbiting the Sun constantly lose energy via gravitational radiation, but this effect is so small that it is unlikely it will be observed in the near future (Earth radiates about 200 watts of gravitational radiation).

The radiation of gravitational waves has been inferred from the Hulse–Taylor binary (and other binary pulsars). Precise timing of the pulses shows that the stars orbit only approximately according to Kepler's Laws: over time they gradually spiral towards each other, demonstrating an energy loss in close agreement with the predicted energy radiated by gravitational waves. For their discovery of the first binary pulsar and measuring its orbital decay due to gravitational-wave emission, Hulse and Taylor won the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics.

A "double pulsar" discovered in 2003, PSR J0737-3039, has a periastron precession of 16.90° per year; unlike the Hulse–Taylor binary, both neutron stars are detected as pulsars, allowing precision timing of both members of the system. Due to this, the tight orbit, the fact that the system is almost edge-on, and the very low transverse velocity of the system as seen from Earth, J0737−3039 provides by far the best system for strong-field tests of general relativity known so far. Several distinct relativistic effects are observed, including orbital decay as in the Hulse–Taylor system. After observing the system for two and a half years, four independent tests of general relativity were possible, the most precise (the Shapiro delay) confirming the general relativity prediction within 0.05% (nevertheless the periastron shift per orbit is only about 0.0013% of a circle and thus it is not a higher-order relativity test).

In 2013, an international team of astronomers reported new data from observing a pulsar-white dwarf system PSR J0348+0432, in which they have been able to measure a change in the orbital period of 8 millionths of a second per year, and confirmed GR predictions in a regime of extreme gravitational fields never probed before; but there are still some competing theories that would agree with these data.

Direct detection of gravitational waves
A number of gravitational-wave detectors have been built with the intent of directly detecting the gravitational waves emanating from such astronomical events as the merger of two neutron stars or black holes. In February 2016, the Advanced LIGO team announced that they had directly detected gravitational waves from a stellar binary black hole merger, with additional detections announced in June 2016, June 2017, and August 2017.

General relativity predicts gravitational waves, as does any theory of gravitation in which changes in the gravitational field propagate at a finite speed. Then, the LIGO response function could discriminate among the various theories. Since gravitational waves can be directly detected, it is possible to use them to learn about the Universe. This is gravitational-wave astronomy. Gravitational-wave astronomy can test general relativity by verifying that the observed waves are of the form predicted (for example, that they only have two transverse polarizations), and by checking that black holes are the objects described by solutions of the Einstein field equations.

Gravitational-wave astronomy can also test Maxwell-Einstein field equations. This version of the field equations predicts that spinning magnetars (i.e., neutron stars with extremely strong magnetic dipole field) should emit gravitational waves.

"These amazing observations are the confirmation of a lot of theoretical work, including Einstein's general theory of relativity, which predicts gravitational waves", said Stephen Hawking.

Direct observation of black holes
The galaxy M87 was the subject of observation by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) in 2017; the 10 April 2019 issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters (vol. 875, No. 1) was dedicated to the EHT results, publishing six open-access papers. The event horizon of the black hole at the center of M87 was directly imaged at the wavelength of radio waves by the EHT; the image was revealed in a press conference on 10 April 2019, the first image of a black hole's event horizon. In May 2022, the EHT provided the first image of the super massive black hole Sagittarius A* in the center of our own Milky Way galaxy.

Gravitational redshift and orbit precession of star in strong gravity field
Gravitational redshift in light from the S2 star orbiting the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* in the center of the Milky Way has been measured with the Very Large Telescope using GRAVITY, NACO and SIFONI instruments. Additionally, there has now been detection of the Schwarzschild precession in the orbit of the star S2 near the Galactic centre massive black hole.

Strong equivalence principle
The strong equivalence principle of general relativity requires universality of free fall to apply even to bodies with strong self-gravity. Direct tests of this principle using Solar System bodies are limited by the weak self-gravity of the bodies, and tests using pulsar–white-dwarf binaries have been limited by the weak gravitational pull of the Milky Way. With the discovery of a triple star system called PSR J0337+1715, located about 4,200 light-years from Earth, the strong equivalence principle can be tested with a high accuracy. This system contains a neutron star in a 1.6-day orbit with a white dwarf star, and the pair in a 327-day orbit with another white dwarf further away. This system permits a test that compares how the gravitational pull of the outer white dwarf affects the pulsar, which has strong self-gravity, and the inner white dwarf. The result shows that the accelerations of the pulsar and its nearby white-dwarf companion differ fractionally by no more than 2.6 (95% confidence level).

X-ray spectroscopy
This technique is based on the idea that photon trajectories are modified in the presence of a gravitational body. A very common astrophysical system in the universe is a black hole surrounded by an accretion disk. The radiation from the general neighborhood, including the accretion disk, is affected by the nature of the central black hole. Assuming Einstein's theory is correct, astrophysical black holes are described by the Kerr metric. (A consequence of the no-hair theorems.) Thus, by analyzing the radiation from such systems, it is possible to test Einstein's theory.

Most of the radiation from these black hole – accretion disk systems (e.g., black hole binaries and active galactic nuclei) arrives in the form of X-rays. When modeled, the radiation is decomposed into several components. Tests of Einstein's theory are possible with the thermal spectrum (only for black hole binaries) and the reflection spectrum (for both black hole binaries and active galactic nuclei). The former is not expected to provide strong constraints, while the latter is much more promising. In both cases, systematic uncertainties might make such tests more challenging.

Cosmological tests
Tests of general relativity on the largest scales are not nearly so stringent as Solar System tests. The earliest such test was the prediction and discovery of the expansion of the universe. In 1922, Alexander Friedmann found that the Einstein equations have non-stationary solutions (even in the presence of the cosmological constant). In 1927, Georges Lemaître showed that static solutions of the Einstein equations, which are possible in the presence of the cosmological constant, are unstable, and therefore the static universe envisioned by Einstein could not exist (it must either expand or contract). Lemaître made an explicit prediction that the universe should expand. He also derived a redshift-distance relationship, which is now known as the Hubble Law. Later, in 1931, Einstein himself agreed with the results of Friedmann and Lemaître. The expansion of the universe discovered by Edwin Hubble in 1929 was then considered by many (and continues to be considered by some now) as a direct confirmation of general relativity. In the 1930s, largely due to the work of E. A. Milne, it was realised that the linear relationship between redshift and distance derives from the general assumption of uniformity and isotropy rather than specifically from general relativity. However the prediction of a non-static universe was non-trivial, indeed dramatic, and primarily motivated by general relativity.

Some other cosmological tests include searches for primordial gravitational waves generated during cosmic inflation, which may be detected in the cosmic microwave background polarization or by a proposed space-based gravitational-wave interferometer called the Big Bang Observer. Other tests at high redshift are constraints on other theories of gravity, and the variation of the gravitational constant since Big Bang nucleosynthesis (it varied by no more than 40% since then).

In August 2017, the findings of tests conducted by astronomers using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT), among other instruments, were released, and positively demonstrated gravitational effects predicted by Albert Einstein. One of these tests observed the orbit of the stars circling around Sagittarius A*, a black hole about 4 million times as massive as the sun. Einstein's theory suggested that large objects bend the space around them, causing other objects to diverge from the straight lines they would otherwise follow. Although previous studies have validated Einstein's theory, this was the first time his theory had been tested on such a gigantic object. The findings were published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Gravitational lensing
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope and the Very Large Telescope have made precise tests of general relativity on galactic scales. The nearby galaxy ESO 325-G004 acts as a strong gravitational lens, distorting light from a distant galaxy behind it to create an Einstein ring around its centre. By comparing the mass of ESO 325-G004 (from measurements of the motions of stars inside this galaxy) with the curvature of space around it, astronomers found that gravity behaves as predicted by general relativity on these astronomical length-scales.

Other research papers

 * A. Einstein, "Über das Relativitätsprinzip und die aus demselben gezogene Folgerungen", Jahrbuch der Radioaktivitaet und Elektronik 4 (1907); translated "On the relativity principle and the conclusions drawn from it", in The collected papers of Albert Einstein. Vol. 2 : The Swiss years: writings, 1900–1909 (Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1989), Anna Beck translator. Einstein proposes the gravitational redshift of light in this paper, discussed online at The Genesis of General Relativity.
 * A. Einstein, "Über den Einfluß der Schwerkraft auf die Ausbreitung des Lichtes", Annalen der Physik 35 (1911); translated "On the Influence of Gravitation on the Propagation of Light" in The collected papers of Albert Einstein. Vol. 3 : The Swiss years: writings, 1909–1911 (Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1994), Anna Beck translator, and in The Principle of Relativity, (Dover, 1924), pp 99–108, W. Perrett and G. B. Jeffery translators, ISBN 0-486-60081-5. The deflection of light by the sun is predicted from the principle of equivalence. Einstein's result is half the full value found using the general theory of relativity.
 * M. Froeschlé, F. Mignard and F. Arenou, "Determination of the PPN parameter γ with the Hipparcos data" Hipparcos Venice '97, ESA-SP-402 (1997).
 * A. Einstein, "Über das Relativitätsprinzip und die aus demselben gezogene Folgerungen", Jahrbuch der Radioaktivitaet und Elektronik 4 (1907); translated "On the relativity principle and the conclusions drawn from it", in The collected papers of Albert Einstein. Vol. 2 : The Swiss years: writings, 1900–1909 (Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1989), Anna Beck translator. Einstein proposes the gravitational redshift of light in this paper, discussed online at The Genesis of General Relativity.
 * A. Einstein, "Über den Einfluß der Schwerkraft auf die Ausbreitung des Lichtes", Annalen der Physik 35 (1911); translated "On the Influence of Gravitation on the Propagation of Light" in The collected papers of Albert Einstein. Vol. 3 : The Swiss years: writings, 1909–1911 (Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1994), Anna Beck translator, and in The Principle of Relativity, (Dover, 1924), pp 99–108, W. Perrett and G. B. Jeffery translators, ISBN 0-486-60081-5. The deflection of light by the sun is predicted from the principle of equivalence. Einstein's result is half the full value found using the general theory of relativity.
 * M. Froeschlé, F. Mignard and F. Arenou, "Determination of the PPN parameter γ with the Hipparcos data" Hipparcos Venice '97, ESA-SP-402 (1997).
 * M. Froeschlé, F. Mignard and F. Arenou, "Determination of the PPN parameter γ with the Hipparcos data" Hipparcos Venice '97, ESA-SP-402 (1997).

Textbooks

 * S. M. Carroll, Spacetime and Geometry: an Introduction to General Relativity, Addison-Wesley, 2003. A graduate-level general relativity textbook.
 * A. S. Eddington, Space, Time and Gravitation, Cambridge University Press, reprint of 1920 ed.
 * A. Gefter, "Putting Einstein to the Test", Sky and Telescope July 2005, p. 38. A popular discussion of tests of general relativity.
 * H. Ohanian and R. Ruffini, Gravitation and Spacetime, 2nd Edition Norton, New York, 1994, ISBN 0-393-96501-5. A general relativity textbook.
 * C. M. Will, Theory and Experiment in Gravitational Physics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1993). A standard technical reference.
 * C. M. Will, Was Einstein Right?: Putting General Relativity to the Test, Basic Books (1993). This is a popular account of tests of general relativity.
 * C. M. Will, Was Einstein Right?: Putting General Relativity to the Test, Basic Books (1993). This is a popular account of tests of general relativity.

Living Reviews papers

 * An online, technical review, covering much of the material in Theory and experiment in gravitational physics. It is less comprehensive but more up to date.
 * An online, technical review, covering much of the material in Theory and experiment in gravitational physics. It is less comprehensive but more up to date.

title: Tests of general relativity


text:
Category:Spoken articles

This category is for spoken versions of articles created by WikiProject Spoken Wikipedia. For help playing Ogg audio, see Help:Media. You may also request for a spoken article at Category:Spoken Wikipedia requests. Pages are added to this category via Template:Spoken Wikipedia. Please do not manually add this category anywhere. __HIDDENCAT__

title: Category:Spoken articles


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Long vs short term orientation

 This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion of the article below. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was delete. Mindspillage (spill yours?) 14:39, 6 May 2005 (UTC)

Long vs short term orientation
What is this? Is it real? I don't know what to think... Master Thief Garrett 09:59, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Copyvio is what it is (unless the anon who created it is the author of, in which case it's original research. FreplySpang (talk) 17:36, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Copyvio takes precedence but the concept behind the article should be kept once a non-copyvio version is created. The existence of this concept is well sourced at Hofstede.  Rossami (talk) 01:57, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Even if it wasn't a copyvio (i.e., the uploader is also the author) that would fall under No Original Research, wouldn't it? I'd sooner see it just plain deleted. If at some indistinct time someone else wants to recreate it, then that's fine. As it is, we'd need someone quite knowledgeable in the subject to replace it with an adequate article... Master Thief Garrett 03:31, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like some other VfD subpages, is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion, or the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Tracy Neve

 This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion of the article below. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was keep. Mindspillage (spill yours?) 14:31, 6 May 2005 (UTC)

Tracy Neve
3660 Google hits, most of them nude photos of her; therefore she's probably not noteworthy other than for her cleavage! Master Thief Garrett 10:02, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep. Notable model in Britain and no less worthy of an article than the many nude models and porn stars already inclued in Wikipedia. Actually, this piece has more content than most of those other articles. 23skidoo 20:17, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep, regular page 3 girls are "Well known entertainment figures" (Criteria for inclusion of biographies)" Kappa 02:37, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep, notable model. Megan1967 04:14, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like some other VfD subpages, is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion, or the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Ullal

 This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion of the article below. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was keep. Mindspillage (spill yours?) 21:17, 6 May 2005 (UTC)

Ullal
Smells made up to me... Master Thief Garrett 10:00, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Why? See, . Strong keep. FreplySpang (talk) 17:43, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Merge and redirect to Mangalore. Megan1967 04:15, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Merge as above. Radiant_* 10:55, Apr 25, 2005 (UTC)
 * keep its not made up Yuckfoo 16:25, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like some other VfD subpages, is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion, or the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.

title: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Ullal


text: User talk:203.197.237.225

title: User talk:203.197.237.225


text:
St Fagans National Museum of History

St Fagans National Museum of History (Sain Ffagan: Amgueddfa Werin Cymru), commonly referred to as St Fagans after the village where it is located, is an open-air museum in Cardiff chronicling the historical lifestyle, culture, and architecture of the Welsh people. The museum is part of the wider network of Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales.

It consists of more than forty re-erected buildings from various locations in Wales, and is set in the grounds of St Fagans Castle, a Grade I listed Elizabethan manor house. In 2011 Which? magazine named the museum the United Kingdom's favourite visitor attraction.

A six-year, £30-million revamp was completed in 2018 and the museum was named the Art Fund Museum of the Year in 2019.

History
The museum was founded in 1946 following the donation of the castle and lands by the Earl of Plymouth. It opened its doors to the public in 1948, under the name of the Welsh Folk Museum. The museum's name in Welsh (also meaning "Welsh Folk Museum") has remained unchanged since that date, whereas the English title was revised to Museum of Welsh Life, thereafter St Fagans National History Museum, and again to its current title.

The brainchild of Iorwerth Peate, the museum was modelled on Skansen, the outdoor museum of vernacular Swedish architecture in Stockholm. Most structures re-erected in Skansen were built of wood and are thus easily taken apart and reassembled, but a comparable museum in Wales was going to be more ambitious, as much of the vernacular architecture of Wales is made of masonry.

2017 refurbishment
A redeveloped main reception building was opened in July 2017. The six-year, £30-million redevelopment of the site, which was funded by a number of sources, notably the Welsh Government and the National Lottery, was completed in October 2018.

The £30-million redevelopment project provided many benefits, including three new galleries showcasing Wales’ history, improvements to buildings such as the Iron Age farmstead, Bryn Eryr, and Medieval Prince's court and Llys Llywelyn, as well as a refurbished main entrance building and a new restaurant, play area and learning spaces. One of the new buildings, the Gweithdy ('workshop'), features Stone Age tools and stick chairs.

In June 2019, St Fagans was named UK's Museum of the Year 2019 by the Art Fund, which commended the facility's "exceptional imagination, innovation and achievement".

Buildings and exhibits
The museum comprises more than forty buildings representing the architecture of Wales, including a nonconformist chapel (in this case, Unitarian), a village schoolhouse, a toll road tollbooth (below), a cockpit (below), a pigsty (below), and a tannery (below).

The museum holds displays of traditional crafts, with a working blacksmith forge, a pottery, a weaver, a miller, and a clog maker. It also includes two working water mills: one flour mill and one wool mill. Part of the site includes a small working farm which concentrates on preserving local Welsh native breeds of livestock. Produce from the museum's bakery and flour mill is available for sale.

The medieval parish church of Saint Teilo, formerly at Llandeilo Tal-y-bont in west Glamorgan (restored to its pre-Reformation state), was opened in October 2007 by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and still serves as a place of worship for Christmas, Easter, and Harvest Thanksgiving. A Tudor merchant's house from Haverfordwest was opened in 2012. A relocation of the historic Vulcan public house from Newtown in Cardiff to St Fagans was completed in May 2024.

Although the museum was intended to preserve aspects of Welsh rural life, it now includes several buildings that depict the industrial working life that succeeded it, that being almost extinct in Wales. There is a row of workers' cottages, depicting furnishing from 1800 to 1985, from Rhyd-y-car near Merthyr Tydfil (below), as well as the pristine Oakdale Workmen's Institute. A post-war prefabricated bungalow (below) represents later domestic lifestyles.

From 1996 to 2012, the museum hosted the Everyman Summer Theatre Festival when it re-located from Dyffryn Gardens. This festival, which includes a Shakespeare play, a musical, and a children's show, has become part of the Welsh theatrical calendar since its founding at Dyffryn in 1983.

Scenes from the Doctor Who episodes "Human Nature" and "The Family of Blood" were filmed at the museum.

Based on archaeological findings, a reconstruction of Llys Rhosyr, a thirteenth-century court of the princes of Gwynedd, was completed and opened to the public in October 2018. Called Llys Llewelyn ('Llewelyn's Court'), it was opened with the intention that schoolchildren would be able to stay in the buildings overnight, from spring 2019.

The Gweithdy ('Workshop'), a sustainable building designed by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, was first opened in July 2017; a café was later added. The new gallery was opened in October 2018, housing improved facilities for visitors while supporting the study of collections and hosting demonstrations and workshops by traditional craftsmen.

Future developments

 * The rebuilding of the Victorian police station from Taff's Well, Rhondda Cynon Taf.
 * In 2012 it was announced that Raglan railway station would be rebuilt at the museum.

title: St Fagans National Museum of History


text:
Christopher Wood (painter)

John Christopher "Kit" Wood (7 April 1901 – 21 August 1930) was an English painter born in Knowsley, near Liverpool.

Early life
Christopher Wood was born in Knowsley to Doctor Lucius and Clare Wood. He was educated at Marlborough College in Wiltshire, then briefly flirted with medicine and architecture at Liverpool University before pursuing an artistic career.

Artistic career
At Liverpool University, Wood met Augustus John, who encouraged him to be a painter. The French collector Alphonse Kahn invited him to Paris in 1920. From 1921 he trained as a painter at the Académie Julian in Paris, where he met Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Georges Auric and Diaghilev. He travelled around Europe and north Africa between 1922 and 1924.

By the 1920s his father was running a general practice in Broad Chalke, Wiltshire, and Wood painted a series of canvases there including Cottage in Broadchalke, Anemones in a Window, Broadchalke, and The Red Cottage, Broadchalke.

In 1926, Wood created designs for Constant Lambert's 1925 Romeo and Juliet for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, although they were never used. The same year he became a member of both the London Group and the Seven and Five Society plus meeting and befriending Ben and Winifred Nicholson. The Nicholsons' dedication to his work had a great influence and exhibited together at the Beaux Arts Gallery in April–May 1927 and subsequently painted together in Cumberland and Cornwall in 1928. Like Nicholson, Wood admired Alfred Wallis whom they met on a trip to St Ives, and whose primitivism influenced Woods' stylistic development.

He painted coastal scenes, and his finest works are considered to be those painted in Brittany in 1929 and during his second trip to Brittany in 1930 when he painted fewer marine pictures and more churches. He claimed that his "mother's people were Cornish and that he got his love of the sea and for boats from his Cornish ancestry".

In April 1929, Wood held a solo exhibition at Tooth's Gallery in Bond Street, London where he met Lucy Wertheim at a private view. She purchased a picture and soon became one of his biggest supporters, buying up his work. For his part Wood apparently appreciated the support, telling Wertheim at her birthday party that: "I know that my future as a painter from now on will be bound up with your own, and I shall become great through you!"

In May 1930, he had a largely unsuccessful exhibition with Nicholson at the Georges Bernheim Gallery in Paris. In June and July he made a second sojourn to Brittany to create new work. Later in July Wertheim travelled to meet Wood in Paris, to choose the paintings for a one-man show that would be the opening exhibition at her new Wertheim Gallery in October. While discussing the exhibition over lunch the day after her arrival, Wood issued her with an ultimatum: "I want you to promise to guarantee me twelve hundred pounds a year from the time of my exhibition, one hundred pounds a month being the least I can live on. If I can't have this sum I've made up my mind to shoot myself". When she complained, he begged her forgiveness, and they went to review the paintings again. Following his death in August the show was cancelled; it was eventually staged as a memorial show at another gallery.

Personal life
Wood was bisexual. In the early summer of 1921, Wood met José Antonio Gandarillas Huici (1887–1970), a Chilean diplomat who was the son of Chilean Senator José Antonio Gandarillas. Gandarillas, a married homosexual fourteen years older than Wood, lived a glamorous life partly financed by gambling. Their relationship lasted through Wood's life, surviving his affair with Jeanne Bourgoint. In 1927 his plans to elope and marry heiress Meraud Guinness were frustrated by her parents whereupon he required emotional support from Winifred Nicholson. (Meraud went on to marry Chilean painter Álvaro Guevara in 1929.) Wood also had a liaison with a Russian émigrée, Frosca Munster, whom he met in 1928.

Death and commemoration
By 1930, painting frantically in preparation for his Wertheim exhibition in London, Wood became psychotic and began carrying a revolver. On 21 August, he travelled to meet his mother and sister for lunch at The County Hotel in Salisbury and to show them a selection of his latest paintings. After saying goodbye, he jumped under a train at Salisbury railway station, although in deference to his mother's wishes, it was reported as an accident.

Christopher Wood is buried in the churchyard of All Saints Church in Broad Chalke. His gravestone was carved by fellow artist and sculptor Eric Gill.

Although his planned exhibition at the Wertheim gallery was cancelled on his death, a posthumous exhibition was held in February 1931. This was followed by an exhibition at the Lefevre Gallery in 1932.

The 1938 Venice Biennale included some of his paintings, and later the Redfern Gallery (part of the New Burlington Galleries) compiled a major retrospective.

title: Christopher Wood (painter)


text: User talk:81.153.206.162

title: User talk:81.153.206.162


text:
Afram

The Afram River is a 100 km river in Ghana. Prior to the construction of the Akosombo Dam in the 1960s, the Afram is a principal tributary of the Volta River and today is an equally important tributary of Lake Volta. The river runs roughly in a southwesterly direction. It collects all the drainage of the Kwahu Plateau.

title: Afram


text:
Wingham

Wingham may refer to:

Places

 * Wingham, Kent, a village in England
 * River Wingham, a river flowing through Wingham, Kent, England
 * Wingham, New South Wales in Australia
 * St Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Wingham, Australia
 * Wingham, Ontario in Huron County, Canada
 * Wingham Bulls, a senior hockey team based out of Wingham, Ontario, Canada
 * Wingham/Richard W. LeVan Aerodrome, near Wingham, Ontario
 * Wingham Ironmen, an ice hockey team in Wingham, Ontario

People with the surname

 * Duncan Wingham, Professor of Climate Physics at University College London
 * Henry Wingham, Lord Chancellor of England (1255–1260) and Bishop of London
 * Thomas Wingham (1846-1893), English musician, known as a teacher

title: Wingham


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Patrick Wong

 This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion of the article below. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was deleted already. Mindspillage (spill yours?) 14:41, 6 May 2005 (UTC)

Patrick Wong
15,000 Google hits. Possibly POV, apparently directly dumped from a website. Clearly a copy-vio. Does he deserve his own article? Master Thief Garrett 11:10, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Rewrite. Google for "Patrick Wong" minister and you get over a thousand, which isn't what I call very, very few. Perhaps you mistyped somewhere? The hits include this one from the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. . Unless this is some form of extremely elaborate hoax, Mr Wong would appear to easily qualify for an article. However, a direct cut and paste from a website isn't it. Average Earthman 10:50, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Ah, yes, I must have mistyped, I did like five pages at the same time. I've finally found the correct wording of the plagarism tag, and added it. Master Thief Garrett 11:10, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like some other VfD subpages, is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion, or the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Main Street, Dallas, Texas

 This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion of the article below. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was keep. Mindspillage (spill yours?) 14:39, 6 May 2005 (UTC)

Main Street, Dallas, Texas
I'm sure the editor had good intentions, but this should be merged with Dallas, Texas core page, surely??? Master Thief Garrett 10:09, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Please don't nominate things for deletion that you don't want deleted. There's more than one tool in the toolbox.  Get the  tag out and use it. Uncle G 14:23, 2005 Apr 23 (UTC)
 * I'd vote Keep, and it's an invalid nomination. If you think it should be merged, add up top. --SPUI (talk) 15:51, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * nonono, I mean is Dallas, Texas' Main Street even noteworthy? When I say "merge" I'm meaning in the "add one or two lines and delete the rest" sense. I mean, it's not exactly, um, that street with the White House on it (name escapes me at the moment)...? Master Thief Garrett 07:11, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep, Dallas, Texas' main street is more noteworthy than many small villages. Kappa 11:41, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * But *how* notable, that's the issue? Does it deserve it's own page at all? Master Thief Garrett 12:12, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep. Most major streets are "notable". This one certainly is. --Centauri 12:17, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Well then I suppose I can add the mainstreet of Cabri, Saskatchewan then? Yes I am being facetious, but you see my point: where do we draw the line? Master Thief Garrett 12:44, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * If there's not much to say about it, then it can be merged with the town (by that I mean a real merge, not your type of neutered merge). In this case there is enough for a full article. --SPUI (talk) 16:34, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep. Main street of one of the largest cities in the United States is quite notable. Mike H 04:04, Apr 25, 2005 (UTC)
 * See Deletion_policy/Roads_and_streets. In general, for merging you can be bold and do so, rather than dragging it through VfD. Merge this, btw. Radiant_* 10:55, Apr 25, 2005 (UTC)
 * Indeed. I've added a merge tag. Master Thief Garrett 10:56, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * keep it is notable, please dont move it Yuckfoo 00:57, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep. Main street of major city. Capitalistroadster 04:15, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * "Main Street" is often not the main street of a major city. This one certainly is not the defining street of Dallas, Texas.  Merge and redirect (which you should have done via discussion on the articles' Talk pages, not through VfD).  Rossami (talk) 02:10, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep. A major street of a major city is notable, even if it is not considered the definining street of the metropolis.  The article seems to establish notability.  If this were merged to anything, I think it would be Downtown, Dallas, Texas.--Pharos 07:08, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like some other VfD subpages, is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion, or the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.


text: User talk:71.128.166.174

title: User talk:71.128.166.174


text:
Sudanese Ba'ath Party

Sudanese Ba'ath Party (حزب البعث السوداني, Ḥizb al-Ba‘th al-Sūdānī) is a political party in Sudan. It is said to be neutral to the Syria-Iraq split within Ba'athist politics.

History
The party emerged from a split within the pro-Iraqi Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Country of Sudan in 2002. Another Sudanese faction, led by Kamal Bolad remained in the pan-Arab party.

Prominent members
In 2010, Mohamed Ali Jadein was a prominent member of the Sudanese Ba'ath Party. In 2013, his group was viewed as having split from the "Ba'ath (Sudan Region) Party".

title: Sudanese Ba'ath Party


text:
Talk:Active Fuel Management

Mercedes??
Didn't Mercedes' S600 series have this same type of technology for a few years in the 1990s? --76.115.67.114 (talk) 19:07, 28 October 2011 (UTC)

AFM
I have a 06 chevy 2500 4x4 with a 6.0 engine do they have AFM

Gary — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.207.86.144 (talk) 19:07, 30 July 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 3 one external links on Active Fuel Management. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20061029082032/http://www.gm.com/company/onlygm/fuel/engine.html to http://www.gm.com/company/onlygm/fuel/engine.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20050407145028/http://www.caddyinfo.com:80/xv12.htm to http://www.caddyinfo.com/xv12.htm
 * Added tag to http://www.cadillac.com/cadillacjsp/models/feature.jsp?model=sixteen
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20040306033811/http://media.gm.com:80/news/releases/010912opelsignum.html to http://media.gm.com/news/releases/010912opelsignum.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at ).

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 17:28, 3 October 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 external links on Active Fuel Management. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20061029082032/http://www.gm.com/company/onlygm/fuel/engine.html to http://www.gm.com/company/onlygm/fuel/engine.html
 * Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.caddyinfo.com/xv12.htm

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 07:19, 26 June 2017 (UTC)

title: Talk:Active Fuel Management


text:
Forty Signs of Rain

Forty Signs of Rain (2004) is the first book in the hard science fiction "Science in the Capital" trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. (The following two novels are Fifty Degrees Below, (2005, and Sixty Days and Counting, 2007).

Plot introduction
The focus of the novel is the effects of global warming in the early decades of the 21st century. Its characters are mostly scientists, either involved in biotech research, assisting government members, or doing paperwork at the National Science Foundation (NSF). There are also several Buddhist monks working for the embassy of the fictional island nation of Khembalung.

Characters
Anna Quibler – a hard-scientist administrator in charge of the Bioinformatics Division at the NSF; part of her job entails farming out grant proposals from scientists and science students nationwide to program directors under her supervision. She befriends the Khembalis.

Charlie Quibler – Anna's husband, a stay-at-home dad taking care of their young sons. He is the science policy advisor to Senator Phil Chase and works tirelessly to introduce bills to Congress for climate change mitigation.

Frank Vanderwal – a University of California, San Diego biomathematician with an interest in sociobiology, working for a year at the NSF; he oversees review of biology grant proposals. A rock climbing hobbyist and co-founder of Torrey Pines Generique.

Drepung – a Tibetan Buddhist monk, he identifies himself to Anna as the assistant and translator for Rudra Cakrin, but is revealed later in the series to be the spiritual leader of the Khembalese.

Rudra Cakrin – ambassador from Khembalung to the United States; a Tibetan in exile, he pretends to be the spiritual leader of the Khembalese but is actually Drepung's assistant.

Leo Mulhouse – chief science researcher at Torrey Pines Generique, working on gene therapy.

Senator Phil Chase – a Democratic Senator from California, he understands the need for both policy change and Realpolitik; a character in Antarctica.

Diane Chang – Head of the National Science Foundation.

Plot
Frank Vanderwal, having spent a year at the National Science Foundation (NSF) in Washington, D.C., is impatient with what he sees as its passivity and its reluctance to demand serious political change in the face of severe climate change. He keeps an eye on environmental triggers such as climate change in the Arctic and thermohaline circulation. Though he likes his colleague, Anna Quibler, and much of her work, he misses his hometown, San Diego. An athletic man, he frequently goes climbing and canyoneering when he can. Interested in sociobiology, he views both his own behavior and others' as that of primates who evolved on the African savannahs and who are not entirely biologically prepared to live in the urban environment. He considers behaviors in ordinary situations, such as traffic, and in extraordinary situations in light of the game theory decision making strategy known as the prisoner's dilemma.

Anna's husband, Charlie Quibler, feels as urgently as Frank does about environmental issues. He juggles the raising of their two young sons, Nick and Joe, with encouraging Senator Phil Chase and Chase's chief of staff, Roy, to badger the conservatives in Congress about passing legislation to convert the United States to a non-anthropogenic global warming society, to construct carbon sinks, and to work for international cooperation for amelioration of climate change. (It is clear that the President, never named, is George W. Bush; we are told that his predecessor was Bill Clinton; he views climate change as a "downer" and refers to it as "climactic [not climatic] terrorism." )

Anna, a devoted wife and mother, is, in Frank's view, something of an ultra-rationalist; Charlie is amused by her constant search for quantifiable measurements in all parts of her life. She discovers the new Khembali embassy in the NSF building and invites Drepung and Rudra Cakrin to lunch. When they all get along well, and she becomes interested in their concern about the threat of rising sea levels to Khembalung, their small island nation in the Bay of Bengal, she invites them to come for dinner when they all have time.

Leo Mulhouse, a science director at Torrey Pines Generique, a biotechnology startup company in San Diego, searches for therapies for various human diseases. He is alarmed to learn that his boss, Derek, has spent $51 million to buy another company which might (and might not) work in tandem; Torrey Pines has not yet been able to show any profits, which puts them at risk for sale to investors who might care to purchase or even quash any patentable techniques they come up with. He turns out to be right when the company is sold some weeks later. Leo has another worry: his house, located on a cliff over the Pacific, is threatened by coastal erosion.

Frank, eager to return to California, writes an angry denunciation of NSF and leaves it in the in-box of the director, Diane Chang, for her to find the next morning. That evening, he unexpectedly has a romantic encounter with a beautiful woman in a Washington Metro subway elevator when the elevator is stuck between floors. They are released, and she disappears before he can learn her name. Invited to the Quiblers' house to meet the Khembalis, he tells Anna about the woman; she is pleased to find him so excited and talkative, and urges him to track her down.

Frank, thinking that now he might want to stay in D.C., regrets the angry letter about the NSF and decides to break into Chang's office and remove it. Using his climbing skills, he enters the NSF building from the roof, descends through the atrium skylight, manages his way down a large mobile, and gets into Chang's office. The letter, however, is gone; Chang often comes into her office at all hours. Nervous and upset, he returns home. The next day, Chang tells him to prepare a talk for the NSF Board of Directors. Frank realizes that Chang has read his letter, but he tells the directors honestly how he feels about the NSF and urges them to become more daring and more politically active. During the discussion, he sees that many of them feel as he does. Frank accepts an invitation to remain at NSF for another year.

A catastrophic "trigger event" occurs when what Robinson calls the Hyperniño creates an enormous storm on the West Coast. The sandstone cliffs of California begin shelving off into the Pacific Ocean. Leo, now unemployed, witnesses this at his Leucadia, California home and, in the rainstorm, joins members of the United States Geological Survey and an army of volunteers in attempting to shore up the cliffs.

Meanwhile, another enormous storm in the Atlantic creates a flood in Washington. Charlie is trapped at the Capitol Building with other co-workers. They watch as the rain comes down for hours and the National Mall is drowned. "Constitution Avenue looked like the Grand Canal in Venice." The Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay overflow, flooding the city:

"The Lincoln Memorial, despite its pedestal mound, appeared to be flooded up to about Lincoln's feet. Across the Potomac the water was going to inundate the lower levels of Arlington National Cemetery. Reagan Airport was completely gone."

When the National Zoo faces rising waters, the Khembalis help the staff to unlock the cages and free the animals. Drepung and his associates arrange for two tigers to be brought to the Quiblers' house, where one is kept in a zoo truck and the other is put into their cellar.

Frank, joining other volunteers in deploying sandbags out in the storm, is amazed to see his mystery woman pass in a boat up the river. Spotting the boat's number, he gets her phone number and calls her; she promises that, after a while, she will call him back.

After days, the storm and the floodwaters subside. Charlie, finally arranging a lift home from the office, says to Senator Chase, "Are you going to do something about global warming now?"

Themes

 * The need to tackle climate change on both national policy and international relations levels
 * The clash between the scientific opinion on climate change and bureaucratic climate change denial
 * Current sea level rise
 * Human behavioral ecology and evolutionary psychology
 * The prisoner's dilemma and morality
 * The value and limitations of peer review

Reception
Rick Kleffel began a strong review with a strong statement:

"Embarrassingly enough, what's all too often missing from science fiction is science itself. ... Robinson offers a fine example of science fiction as fiction about the process of science... Bureaucrats, lobbyists and working-stiff scientists are revealed in all their self-conflicted glory. For the reader, it's an exciting glimpse of science entwined with a frightening and convincing speculative plot. Forty Signs of Rain may be the smartest and best disaster novel you'll read.

Robinson zooms into the heads of his scientific and bureaucratic characters with laser-like clarity. Frank constantly observes the people around him as if they were primates, roaming the African plains... he sees the world as a scientist even when he's just standing in an elevator. But he's also a complex and conflicted character. ... Robinson is working on a wide canvas here, so some reader patience for final results will be required. But within the confines of this first entry in the series, you get a nice sense of toe-tapping tension as careers collide with cash and bounce back hopelessly, helplessly in the face of a nearly religious faith in the efficacy of capitalism.

... The practice of science is the real subject here. Robinson shows a once-honored form of human activity now kowtowing to crass capitalism, and he does it with the kind of detail and finesse that makes the whole picture captivating. This is no simple axe grinding, but rather an honest re-assessment of where we are going with the way things currently work. Robinson is not afraid to tackle current politics in his scientific fiction, and here's where the science really works in favor of the narrative and the conclusions that Robinson reaches."

Robert K. J. Killheffer in his review for Fantasy & Science Fiction said "Forty Signs of Rain is a fascinating depiction of the workings of science and politics, and an urgent call for us to pull our heads from the sand and confront the threat of climate change. We should listen." The reviewer for SF Site was also interested in the scientific themes, calling the novel "one of the most chilling" and "one of the most important and thought provoking books" she had read that year: "Greed is the key, here, and it's a tragedy. ... This book is a wake up call of sorts, to scientists in the United States especially, to go out and fight for what they believe in."

Kirkus Reviews was critical, saying, "As stiff and hard SF as they were, the Mars books succeeded through the sheer chutzpah of their epic insight. This one feels like the ho-hum preview for a run-of-the-mill end-of-the-world story." Publishers Weekly said, "Robinson's tale lacks the drama and excitement of such other novels dealing with global climate change as Bruce Sterling's Heavy Weather and John Barnes' Mother of Storms, but his portrayal of how actual scientists would deal with this disaster-in-the-making is utterly convincing. Robinson clearly cares deeply about our planet's future, and he makes the reader care as well."

Lara Apps wrote, "The result is a slow-building, educational and entertaining introduction to what promises to be a provocative and exciting trilogy." Jerry Wright, admitting that Robinson's "politics leave me cold," concluded, "Robinson seems to focus on details of the characters' lives, their work, and their thoughts, but behind it all, the specter of global warming looms. Soon there is a change here, a change there, until all the imbalances combine to bring about a catastrophe that who knows, might even wake up the DC politicians. KSR outlines quite a plausible scenario, and the science behind the troubles seem accurate."

Awards and nominations

 * Nominated for both the British Science Fiction Award, in 2004; and the Locus Award in 2005.

Release details

 * 2004, United Kingdom, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. ISBN 0-00-714886-0, Pub date January 2004, Hardback
 * 2004, United States of America, Spectra ISBN 0-553-80311-5, Pub date June 2004, Hardback
 * 2005, United Kingdom, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. ISBN 0-00-714888-7, Pub date February 2005, Paperback
 * 2005, United States of America, Spectra ISBN 0-553-58580-0, Pub date July 2005, Paperback

title: Forty Signs of Rain