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Midnighter

Midnighter is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books first published by WildStorm and later DC Comics once it absorbed the former. The character was created by writer Warren Ellis and artist Bryan Hitch. The character made his first appearance in Stormwatch (vol. 2) #4, titled "A Finer World (Part 1 of 3)" (February 1998). He went on to appear in various Authority books and other series, as well as his own eponymous ongoing series.

Midnighter is best known as a member of the rogue superhero team the Authority. He and his husband, Apollo, have also been interpreted as a parallel of the Batman/Superman World's Finest partnership.

In an interview for Comic Values Annual (1999), edited by Alex G. Malloy, Warren Ellis described Midnighter as "The Shadow by way of John Woo". Midnighter is rarely seen without his costume and mask. Recurring themes in Midnighter's adventures are his love of violence and killing, as well as comments on his sexuality.

In 2011, DC chose to integrate the characters from the Wildstorm Universe with its mainstream DC Universe setting. Since then, Midnighter has appeared in a solo series, plus the team-up books Midnighter and Apollo, The Authority, and Superman and the Authority. The character has also been featured as part of the supporting cast for the superhero Nightwing, Batman's protégé Dick Grayson, with whom he becomes good friends. Although until 2021 Midnighter and Batman had never met on-panel, the character has become increasingly integrated with the wider Batman supporting cast.

Stormwatch
Warren Ellis created and introduced the character in 1998 in Stormwatch vol. 2 #4, soon after his appointment as writer on the title. The issue introduces Midnighter and Apollo as former Stormwatch agents from a secret black ops team known only to the first Weatherman, Henry Bendix. In the first issue of the arc, collected in trade paperback as A Finer World, Christine Trelane had cracked the files of the recently deposed Bendix and discovered Apollo and Midnighter's existence. The new Weatherman, Jackson King, intercepts them on a mission to seize weapons made in the "Nevada Garden", a bioengineering facility created by the first Engineer. Flashback sequences show Midnighter and Apollo, the sole survivors of their seven-member team's sinister first mission, escaping Bendix and going rogue to spend five years fighting crime on the streets of the US. Midnighter and Apollo initially resist their capture, believing Stormwatch still to be under Bendix's command. On learning of his death, they end their opposition and accept a mission from King to destroy the Nevada Garden. To repay their assistance, Trelane grants Midnighter and Apollo new civilian identities and lives away from Stormwatch. This story arc introduces Midnighter's trademark enhancements, his superpowered healing and ability to anticipate an opponent's moves so quickly as to win any fight, as being the product of bioengineering commissioned by Bendix.

The Authority
In 1999 Warren Ellis concluded his run on Stormwatch with the Final Orbit storyline, which saw the team destroyed. Midnighter was one of several Stormwatch characters Ellis retained for his new Wildstorm title, The Authority. In it, Midnighter (along with Apollo) was recruited by Jenny Sparks for a new team, the Authority, under her leadership. The new series picked up themes Ellis had explored in Stormwatch, including the political potential of a team more powerful than world governments and the United Nations.

A formidable fighter with a sardonic attitude, Midnighter epitomised the new team's commitment to fighting for a finer world, including against vested interests and world governments. Midnighter and Apollo's relationship, though hinted in previous issues, was revealed in The Authority #8. Midnighter was the architect of the team's first significant victory, the defeat of autocratic dictator Kaizen Gamorra, which he achieved by dropping the 50-mile-long Carrier onto Gamorra's island base.

During the Transfer of Power storyline, Midnighter was the only Authority member to evade capture when the U.S. government had the team attacked and replaced with manipulable substitutes. Presumed dead, Midnighter had in fact escaped the Carrier with baby Jenny Quantum. He returned to overthrow the puppet team and rescue Apollo from imprisonment and abuse at the hands of their replacements. Shortly thereafter Midnighter and Apollo were married and adopted Jenny.

Midnighter had a central role in Ed Brubaker and Dustin Nguyen's Revolution maxiseries. A visitation, apparently from a future Apollo, convinced Midnighter that he was on the path to becoming a malign dictator. To avoid this fate, Midnighter quit the team, precipitating its break-up, and returned to life fighting solo on the streets. Raised alone by Apollo, Jenny exploited her powers to age herself to young adulthood and reformed the Authority. Having convinced Midnighter to rejoin the team, Jenny discovered he was being manipulated by a dimension-hopping Henry Bendix, hitherto assumed dead. Midnighter fought for Bendix before the Engineer was able to break the mind-control; Midnighter then killed Bendix by ripping out his spine.

Kev
Midnighter featured in the first three of Garth Ennis's Kev miniseries, featuring Kev Hawkins, a former SAS soldier. Kev was introduced in the semi-parody The Authority: Kev, in which he killed Midnighter, Apollo and the rest of the Authority, though the Carrier resurrected them. On their last meeting they took down MI5's Royal Oak project, an attempt to replicate Bendix's experiments. Kev later featured without the Authority in the final book of his series, A Man Called Kev.

Midnighter, Grifter and Midnighter, and World's End (2006-2011)
On 1 November 2006, an ongoing Midnighter solo series began, with an initial creative partnership of Garth Ennis and Chris Sprouse. The book was part of the 2006 "Worldstorm" soft reboot of the Wildstorm universe, which saw several books relaunched, but which faltered when flagship titles The Authority and WildC.A.T.S. suffered serious delays and were cancelled after two and one issues respectively. The series was originally intended as a six-issue miniseries but ran for 20 issues and was cancelled in June 2008.

Midnighter idea came when Ennis was having a lunch with other WildStorm people. Beside his A Man Called Kev and Battler Britton vanity projects, Wildstorm editor Scott Dunbier asked Ennis to also do something a bit more commercial in return, so the writer suggested to "go straight for the jugular and give the best character they’ve got his own book", which in his opinion would be Midnighter. Ennis described the character as "utterly lethal and he tells it like it is. He's got a nice dark sense of humor, too". About Midnighter's sexuality, the writer stated that "his sexuality is not a complex issue: he likes screwing men. He likes screwing one man in particular – but that doesn't mean he wants to be around the guy 24/7, hence the solo book". At Midnighter presentation, Ennis said that he could do more than six issues, something that didn't happen, and would try to maintain it as a solo book, without "any major appearances by The Authority in general" ("superteam, yawn"), "Apollo in particular" ("boring blond twat") or crossovers ("They can get someone else in for that").

Keith Giffen became the ongoing writer for Midnighter's last ten issues after a request from Dunbier, since Giffen previously expressed desire to write The Authority. According to Giffen, the idea was to keep Midnighter's consistency in characterization while adding his own different feel to it. He said Midnighter was an interesting character to him because he "never quite understood his power": "The idea of somebody who faces you down, and two seconds after meeting you, knows how to defeat you? That's kind of intriguing. Just playing around with that will be interesting". The writer expressed similar feelings to Ennis about keeping Midnighter on his own and "pull him back from The Authority", saying that he didn't want "that kind of feel that Midnighter is an extension of The Authority book". Giffen also added that he wished "to keep [writing Midnighter] until they throw me off the book".

The first story arc saw Midnighter attacked and kidnapped by agents of a man named Paulus while passing through the Carrier's teleportation portal. Paulus told Midnighter that he had replaced Midnighter's secondary heart with a remote-detonated bomb, and challenged him on pain of death to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Time-travelling back to the First World War trenches, Midnighter encountered Hitler as a young corporal in the German army, but was apprehended by 'time police' officers from the 95th century before carrying out his mission. In his struggle to escape, he crashed the officers' time machine at the year 1945, shortly before Hitler's expected suicide. Eventually Midnighter allied himself with the police and returned to his own time, where he threatened to erase Paulus from history by killing his kidnapped younger self; he secured Paulus's surrender without having to kill the child. Midnighter then returned to the Carrier, but was apparently just as listless as before, immediately sending himself on another mission in Iraq.

This first arc was followed by four single-issue stories. Midnighter #6 featured an apparent alternate-universe Samurai Midnighter. Midnighter #7, by Brian K. Vaughan and Darick Robertson, explored the way Midnighter's brain processes combat by running the story backwards. Midnighter #8, by Christos Gage and John Paul Leon, dealt with Midnighter's attempts to connect better with humans after a graphic and public battle with the Suicide King.

A second story arc (issues #10–16), under new creative team Keith Giffen and Jon Landry (with ChrisCross pencilling later issues), detailed Midnighter's attempts to rediscover his life before becoming superhuman. Files given to him by Jenny Quantum identified him as Lucas Trent, born 14 July 1967 (making him 40 years old in 2007), a native of Harmony, Indiana. On visiting the town he found it was the hub of a paramilitary patriotic organisation named Anthem, with ambitions to take over the United States and provide the country with the conscience they felt it had lost. While battling Anthem and its superpowered operatives, including Dawn (a reference to the phrase "dawn's early light" in "The Star-Spangled Banner"), and Rosie (patterned after Rosie the Riveter), he discovered that Jenny had falsified the documents she gave him, and that he had never been Trent – but decided to stay on in Harmony nonetheless.

The final Midnighter storyline, again by Giffen, featured a Midnighter imposter attacking the Carrier and the Authority, and Midnighter's, fight to defeat him.

The 2007 mini-series, Grifter & Midnighter, united Grifter, of WildC.A.T.s, with Midnighter. The series was written by Chuck Dixon, with art by Ryan Benjamin and inking by Saleem Crawford.

The 2008 Number of the Beast Wildstorm limited series described the devastation of Earth, and set the scene for a new Authority ongoing series, by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, part of the World's End storyline. In this series Midnighter appears as one of the last Authority members still able to act in the ruins of London, now called Unlondon. Separated from Apollo, who is confined to the upper atmosphere by sunlight-blocking fog over the planet's surface, Midnighter helps civilians to reach the ruins of the Carrier, now a stronghold for survivors. Midnighter is able to contact Apollo via balloons which he releases high up in the atmosphere.

Following the resolution of the World's End storyline, the Authority's Carrier is called back to its creators. Jack Hawksmoor, Swift, and the Engineer go with it, but Midnighter remains on Earth to be with Apollo, who needs to be close to the sun.

The New 52: Stormwatch, Grayson and Midnighter (2011-2016)
In the autumn of 2011, DC relaunched its production with 52 new titles, including Stormwatch (written by Paul Cornell and drawn by Miguel Sepulveda). Cornell's Stormwatch #1 debuted a radically new version of the team, which lasted until spring 2013. Featuring longtime DC character Martian Manhunter and a number of new creations, Stormwatch was posited as a modern-day version of DC's Demon Knights, and Midnighter and Apollo were introduced at the start of their careers, unaware of one another's sexualities and their mutual attraction to one another. The first issue depicts the group's attempt at recruiting Midnighter and Apollo. Lucas Trent was presented for the first time as Midnighter's actual name and his costume was redesigned drastically. When Harry Tanner (who at the time was disguised as one of the Shadow Lords) framed Midnighter, he escaped, taking the Projectionist along with him. Eventually, when the team managed to capture him, Harry's ruse was revealed and Midnighter's innocence was proven. After the Engineer, who had been slowly losing her humanity, attacked them, Midnighter managed to escape with Apollo and with the help of his ally Zealot, attacked the base. After Jenny destroyed the base and killed the Engineer, the team mostly disassembled and Midnighter and Apollo realized that they had feelings for one another. For Jim Starlin's run on the title with issue #19, a time travel incident returned Midnighter and Apollo to their original designs and status as long-time lovers, before the New 52's status quo for the characters was restored in the final issue.

During the summer of 2014 he is regularly featured in the comic book series Grayson as he works to stop Spyral in collecting the body parts of a dead villain which endows those who have them the powers of the Justice League.

The character began appearing in his own ongoing series titled Midnighter, which began in June 2015 as part of "DC You" and was written by Steve Orlando. In it, Midnighter, having broken up with Apollo, has to come to terms with being newly single, as well as tracking down a thief who stole exotic technology from the God Garden and is openly selling it to different individuals. Amongst the items stolen are files containing the origin of who Midnighter really was before the Gardener abducted and created him, and Lucas Trent is revealed to be a fake name. After teaming up with Spyral agent Dick Grayson to track down Russian vampire thrill-killers, Midnighter accompanies his new boyfriend to the latter's hometown to track down those who attacked his father and encounters the mastermind behind the theft of the God Garden technology – Prometheus.

Midnighter represented both a new path and a return to the character's roots. It re-established his over-the-top acts of graphic violence and focused on his community work with everyday people, a similar scenario to the character's early days in the WildStorm Universe before joining Stormwatch. This Midnighter, however, is considerably younger than his WildStorm counterpart, and desires to have a more social life. According to writer Orlando, he began writing Midnighter after Mark Doyle, Batman's editor, asked if he wanted to "pitch" any character. In an interview with Comic Vine, Orlando described Midnighter as:

"...a fighter. That is a big part of where we’re going in this book. People talk about how he's the 'anti-Batman'. I think he's very different. [...] Midnighter doesn't brood. People think he's like another mopey vigilante. Really, Midnighter loves his job. It just happens that his job is horrifying. Everybody knows who he is and what he does but he has to really find out how to do anything. [...] Midnighter doesn't know if he likes bagels. He doesn't know if he likes going to the movies. He doesn't know if he likes any of those things because all he's ever done is fight. He can do that. He's the best at that but there has to be other things if he's going to be a real person."

The series had a close relationship with Grayson, a rebooted Dick Grayson solo comic. The characters Midnighter, Dick Grayson and Helena Bertinelli frequently feature in both comic books. Midnighter begins shortly after the end of his relationship with Andrew Pulaski, known as the hero Apollo. This decision, according to Orlando, was made to define Midnighter as a stand-alone character with his own sexual experiences with other people, while slowly building both characters' new interactions. The writer cites Christopher Marlowe, Orlando Cruz, Tab Hunter, John McClane, Emile Griffith, John Woo and Melvin Van Peebles as inspirations for the title character's personality.

DC Rebirth: Midnighter and Apollo (2016-2017)
The character appears again along with his former boyfriend, Apollo for a six-issue miniseries titled Midnighter and Apollo, continuing in the New 52 canon, where the two of them have gotten back together as a couple. Apollo is attacked and his soul trapped in a hell dimension, and Midnighter plans to rescue him. He learns by Extraño where Apollo is trapped. He then goes in search of the Ace of Winchesters, killing a demon called Vodyanar to get one bullet and then going into Hell to take the Ace from the Lords of the Gun.

Midnighter is also referenced in the newly renumbered Detective Comics as a Batman Family ally; it is mentioned that Nightwing reaches out to him to access Door technology. This implies that they have maintained their working relationship and friendship from Grayson and the DCYou Midnighter series.

Infinite Frontier
Following Infinite Frontier, Midnighter is recruited by an ageing Superman with weakening powers into a new incarnation of the Authority in the limited series Superman and the Authority.

Powers and abilities
Midnighter's abilities are presented in the character's first appearance, occurring in Stormwatch (vol. 2 #4). Midnighter is the product of bioengineered enhancements commissioned by the character of Henry Bendix. It is implied (as in the Midnighter solo series (issues #10–16)) that Midnighter was a normal human before enlisting with Stormwatch Black. Several storylines have featured the deactivation, over-riding, or removal of the character's enhancements to reduce Midnighter's abilities to those of a normal man. The abortive Team Achilles series suggested that Bendix had "designed" Midnighter and Apollo during his childhood.

Typically, Midnighter is presented with superhuman strength, speed, reflexes and resilience. The character is shown moving faster than both the human and superhuman eye, and in possession of a healing factor that allows him to rapidly recover from injury and illness. Storylines have shown Midnighter surviving a broken neck, broken limbs, holes through his chest and burning; the character is also portrayed clearing "AIDS in six weeks". Midnighter is capable of surviving in anaerobic environments for short time periods and possesses a secondary replacement heart. He also has the power to suppress pain so he can keep fighting when pain would stop a normal person.

Many writers have referenced Midnighter's trademark ability to predict the unfolding of a battle before it starts. Early in Ellis's run on The Authority, the character was described as having a mental combat computer, with neural-inductive implants, which he uses to run through a given combat situation millions of times in his mind, almost instantly covering nearly every possible result before the first punch is even thrown. This allows for the perfect response and counterattack, such that if Midnighter can possibly win a battle, he will. Ellis portrayed the Midnighter delivering a monologue on this ability to intimidate opponents; Keith Giffen later had the character distribute a business card to this effect, to save time. Howard Link of Stormwatch describes such an ingenious ability design as neurotactical wetware. Issue #7 of the Midnighter solo series, written by Brian K. Vaughan, showed the character using this ability regressively, to visualize the desired outcome of a battle and work backwards logically to achieve it. The stand-alone Authority graphic novel Human on the Inside, by John Ridley, suggested the ability was reactive, and required an opponent to make a first move to define the possibilities for a response; however, this is contradicted by numerous earlier and later comics. Midnighter was also unable to use this ability against the Joker due to the latter's extreme insanity, implying that Midnighter's ability to predict attacks in opponents with unpredictable nature is useless. Also, his attack prediction abilities can be thrown off by enemies who are faster than him.

In The New 52, Midnighter's abilities are slightly different. His power to predict the outcome of any situation still exists, but appears to have been supplemented by a form of precognition as well as enhanced knowledge. He is able to finish other people's sentences before they have thought about it, and when Stormwatch's map of alien threats to Earth materialised in front of him and Apollo, he instantly knew what it was. He has significant resistance to telepathic attacks, as he was able to resist the Scourge of Worlds' attempt to use Martian Manhunter's telepathy on him. He mentions that he has carbon-fibre muscles that presumably enhance his strength. Harry Tanner, reputed to be the world's greatest swordsman, struggled to land even a single blow on Midnighter since the latter could predict every move he would make. After a few seconds of fighting, Midnighter immediately knew what Harry's power was. Midnighter has demonstrated the ability to move so stealthily that the Manhunter and Hawksmoor could not hear or sense his stalking until it was too late. Midnighter's suit enhances his durability; he was able to survive unaided in hyperspace for a while.

Alternate versions

 * InWildstorm Winter Special 2005, a story called Apollo & Midnighter: Two Dangerous Ideas features their alternate reality analogues, Pluto and Daylighter, with inverted color schemes to match. At first the real Apollo and Midnighter believed that they were their homophobic counterparts, but later learned that they were a former couple and had broken up.
 * Issue #6 of Midnighter's solo series starred a nameless, super-skilled swordsman from feudal Japan who fell in love with a peace-seeking Chinese warrior much like Apollo. This swordsman had powers similar to Midnighter's future-sight and super-strength.
 * A teenage Midnighter called Daybreaker appears in Gen13 (volume 4) #11 as a member of the "Authori-teens" and is implied to have feelings for teammate Kid Apollo.
 * An alternate version of Midnighter appeared in the "Ruling the World" Authority/Planetary crossover.

Reception
In 2013, ComicsAlliance ranked Midnighter as #17 on their list of the "50 Sexiest Male Characters in Comics". In 2015, IGN listed Midnighter (along with Apollo) on their list of "18 Awesome LGBT Characters".

Interviews

 * Talking Grifter & Midnighter with Chuck Dixon, Newsarama, 5 January 2007
 * Talking Midnighter, Four Horsemen with Giffen, Newsarama, 22 May 2007

Reviews

 * Review of Midnighter #1 Comics Bulletin, 6 November 2006.

title: Midnighter


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Arnotts (Ireland)

Arnotts is the oldest and largest department store in Ireland. It is located on Henry Street, on the north side of central Dublin. Together with the Brown Thomas chain of department stores, it is owned by UK-based Selfridges, which in turn is owned by Thai Conglomerate Central Group and Austria's Signa Holding.

History
Arnotts has its origins in a business founded in 1843 at 14 Henry Street, by George Cannock and Andrew White. In 1845, two bankers, Andrew and Patrick Reid, became partners in the business. In 1848, White died, and the Scottish entrepreneur John Arnott took shares in the company. In 1865, Cannock departed the business, and the business was renamed as Arnott's.

Arnotts occupies much of the block behind the GPO to the west of O'Connell Street, between Henry Street and Abbey Street, covering an area of some 300,000 square feet. The original building was completely destroyed in a fire on May 4, 1894, and was reconstructed in the following year. It was registered as a private company on April 18, 1895. The main entrance is on the pedestrianised Henry Street.

In 2006, the then-owner of Arnotts, Nesbitt Acquisitions, announced plans to redevelop their properties located between O'Connell Street and Liffey Street, incorporating Independent House, the former Independent Newspapers building on Abbey Street. The new development was to be called the Northern Quarter and was to be one of the largest rejuvenation projects to ever be undertaken in this area of the city centre. The estimated cost of the project was €750,000,000. As part of this project, it was intended to move the department store to a nearby former Debenhams Ireland branch in the Jervis Shopping Centre, but as plans changed this opened as "Arnotts Project"; which operated for less than a year before being surrendered back to the landlord.

Following planning difficulties and the financial crisis in Ireland, the project never went ahead. Arnotts incurred large debts in acquiring property.

Arnotts was one of the longest-standing sponsors of GAA until 2009, when its 18-year partnership as sponsor of Dublin GAA came to an end.

In July 2010, Arnotts was taken over by Anglo Irish Bank and Ulster Bank, due to large outstanding loans on its failed "Northern Quarter" property development. The previous owner, Nesbitt Acquisitions, comprising about 50 members of the Nesbitt family led by Richard Nesbitt, retained one per cent of the business.

A footwear-only branch of Arnotts was located in the Stillorgan Shopping Centre until 2011, with a former branch on Grafton Street initially changed to be branded as a River Island, before being sold in 2003.

On November 2, 2015, the store was taken over by Selfridges, a chain of department stores, and now trades as a sister store to Brown Thomas which is part of the same group.

Across O'Connell Street in North Earl Street was its sister store, Boyers & Co, which closed down on 31 January 2016.

On 24 December 2021 it was announced that the Selfridges company had been sold to a joint venture between Thai Central and Signa Holding in Austria for $5.37 billion, a deal which included Arnotts as well as the Brown Thomas chain and De Bijenkorf in the Netherlands.

Scottish business
In 1850, John Arnott opened a drapery shop on Jamaica Street, Paisley, Scotland. In 1864, the business purchased the building in which the Paisley drapery shop was located. It went on to expand the shop, and by 1874, it had developed into a department store.

During 1886, the partnership between Arnott and Cannock was dissolved. John Arnott's half-brother, Thomas Arnott, continued to operate the Paisley department store as Arnott and Company. The Scottish business was incorporated in 1891. In 1936, Fraser, Sons & Co Ltd bought the business but continued to trade under the Arnott and Company brand. In 1938, it was merged with the neighbouring business, Robert Simpson & Co, to create Arnott Simpson Ltd, with the two stores being reconstructed into one. In 1947, Arnott Simpson Ltd was liquidated, with the business being subsumed into its parent, House of Fraser, although the Arnott and Company trading name continued to be used.

Further department stores acquired by House of Fraser in Scotland were re-branded as Arnotts for the majority of its stores throughout Scotland. The Arnotts brand disappeared from Scotland when House of Fraser closed the last remaining department store using the Arnotts brand (in Paisley) in January 2004.

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

title: Arnotts (Ireland)


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User talk:Muchosucko

User_talk:Muchosucko/Archive1

Your userpage
Please change or at least drastically resize the image on your userpage. While Wikipedia is not censored, an image like this should (by the principle of least surprise) not appear in unexpected places, like on your userpage. (You could move it to a subpage like User:Muchosucko/Vulva and link to that subpage, or just link to the image). Some people browse Wikipedia from work or other places where images like this might get them in trouble, and there is no need to do so. I also fail to see how the image says anything about you as a Wikipedian. See WP:USER. Happy editing, Kusma (討論) 04:41, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Architecture Wikiproject
Hi. Great work with all your architecture and design edits. I was wondering if you might be interested in joining WikiProject Architecture. Also we've been revamping the Architecture Portal and nominations to Portal:Architecture/Selected picture candidates and Portal:Architecture/Selected article candidates will always be welcome.--Mcginnly | Natter 10:03, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

 * Sign up at WikiProject_Architecture

please do not ban me i'm only a mortal

Orphaned fair use image (Image:Mercedes benz ml350 silver lighting.jpg)
Thanks for uploading Image:Mercedes benz ml350 silver lighting.jpg. I notice the 'image' page currently specifies that the image is unlicensed for use on Wikipedia and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently orphaned, meaning that it is not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful.

If you have uploaded other unlicensed media, please check whether they're used in any articles or not. You can find a list of 'image' pages you have edited by clicking on the "my contributions" link (it is located at the very top of any Wikipedia page when you are logged in), and then selecting "Image" from the dropdown box. Note that any fair use images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you.  howch e  ng   {chat} 23:58, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

WTF??
I dont live in fontana douchebag, Im from Rancho!!!!!!!!! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 63.199.50.20 (talk) 16:47, 8 December 2006 (UTC).

WTF??
I dont live in fontana douchebag, Im from Rancho!!!!!!!!! (63.199.50.20 16:48, 8 December 2006 (UTC))

Disputed fair use rationale for Image:Happiness-intelligence-lisasimpson.jpg
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Chop suey
You might want to look in to Chop suey and its history. User:Asugar2 added a bunch of very low-quality material, which I culled (in fact, I'm not even sure that long-term the little that's left should remain). User:Gisling restored his material. --Macrakis (talk) 14:09, 7 September 2011 (UTC)

Nomination of Super chair suspension for deletion
A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Super chair suspension is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

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title: User talk:Muchosucko


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Talk:Ratzinger

Untitled
Ratzinger: definition or meaning of the word translated to English. Does anyone have the meaning of Ratzinger?

title: Talk:Ratzinger


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Naval Tactical Data System

Naval Tactical Data System (NTDS) was a computerized information processing system developed by the United States Navy in the 1950s and first deployed in the early 1960s for use in combat ships. It took reports from multiple sensors on different ships and collated it to produce a single unified map of the battlespace. This information could then be relayed back to the ships and to the weapons operators.

Background
Warships have compartments known as Combat Information Centers, or CICs, that collect, sort and then communicate all of the battlefield information known to that ship. Information about targets would be forwarded to the CIC by the operators of the radar and sonar systems, where crewmen would use this information to update a shared map. Commanders used the map to direct weapons to particular targets. The system was similar to the Battle of Britain Bunker system, but on a smaller scale.

There were two major problems with this system. One was that each ship had its own view of the battlespace, independent of the rest of the ships in the task force. This led to force allocation problems - the ship with the right weapon for a particular target might not see that target on their sensors, or two ships might attempt to attack the same target while ignoring another. This could be addressed by adding inter-ship radio or flag signals as another input to the map, but the workload of moving so many bits of data was enormous. This led to the second major problem, the high inherent manpower requirements and lack of shipboard space.

During World War II and the immediate post-war era, major navies started studying these problems in depth, as concerns about coordinated attacks by long-range high-speed aircraft became a serious threat. To give the task force enough reaction time to deal with these threats, "pickets" were posted at a distance from the force to allow their radars to pick up the targets while still on the approach. The information from these ships then had to be relayed, normally by voice, to the other ships in the force. Some experiments with video cameras pointed at the radar displays were tried, but were subject to transmission loss when the ships pitched on the swells and the high-bandwidth antennas no longer pointed at each other.

What was ultimately desired was a system that could collect target information from any sensor in the fleet, use that to build a single shared picture of the battlespace, and then distribute that data accurately and automatically to all of the ships. As the data was now being collected almost entirely from electronic devices and displays, a system that picked up this data directly from those displays would be ideal.

Previous systems
Devised to be used in conjunction with the Type 984 radar, the first such system was developed by the Royal Navy in the immediate post-war era using analog systems that tracked the rate of motion of "blips" on radar screens. The operators used a joystick to align a pointer with the target and then pushed a button to update the location. The circuitry then adjusted the rate of predicted movement of the blip and displayed a pointer that moved over time. Updating no longer required any inputs, unless the predicted motion began to differ at which point additional button pushes could be used to update it. The data for each of these tracks, a series of voltages, could then be transmitted around the ship, and later, inter-ship transmission using pulse-code modulation. Ralph Benjamin found that decoding the position of the joystick was not ideal and desired a system that read out relative motion instead of absolute position, and invented the trackball as a solution. The Type 984 radar and Comprehensive Display System (CDS) were fitted to the aircraft carriers HMS Eagle (R05), HMS Hermes (R12) and HMS Victorious (R38)

This work suffered from the reliability of the analog circuits used to run the system. By the early 1950s the digital computer appeared to offer a solution, not only by greatly increasing reliability through the removal of any moving parts, but also by directly working with the digital data that made up the plots. Data from one computer simply needed to be copied directly to another, there was no need to code and decode analog signals representing those values. The Royal Canadian Navy began work on such a system under their DATAR project, which included the first working example of the trackball concept. Unfortunately their design used tubes, and the resulting machine was so large it took up almost all of the free space on the Bangor-class minesweeper it was installed on. Efforts to build a transistorized version of the DATAR did not receive funding and the project ended.

System implementation
The work by the RN and RCN teams was well known to the USN starting as early as 1946, and included live demonstrations of the Canadian system on Lake Ontario. They also built their own version of the Royal Navy's concept as the "Electronic Data System", and 20 sets were eventually produced by Motorola. In 1953 they produced a new system for air direction known as the "Intercept Tracking and Control Console" which could track two incoming and two outgoing (interceptor) formations. However, the system was huge and did not include inter-ship transmission, so was only used on a small number of aircraft carriers.

However, all of these solutions had problems that limited their usefulness. Analog systems were difficult to keep operational and subject to errors when maintenance was less than perfect. The Canadian version, using digital computers, was better, but needed to be transistorized. The US Air Force was also involved in their own Project Charles, a similar system but on a much larger scale. Their system also used vacuum tubes and would end up being the largest computers ever built, each occupying 20000 ft2 of floor space, weighing 150 ST, and consuming 1.5 megawatts of electrical power. The Navy kept a watchful eye on these developments and others under Project Cosmos.

Development of computers in the mid-1950s led both by the Navy's long interest in code-breaking computers, the introduction of newer types of transistors, and the widespread introduction of core memory, reached a point where a Navy version of Air Force's SAGE air defense network was a practical possibility. The Navy began development of the NTDS system using a transistorized digital computer in 1956. With NTDS and wireless data links, ships could share the information gathered by their sensors with other ships in a task force. In October 1961, NTDS was on the USS Oriskany carrier and the USS King and USS Mahan destroyers as service test ships. First production NTDS runs were ordered for 17 high priority ships with missiles including 10 Belknap-class cruisers under construction between 1962-67. NTDS was the inspiration for the Aegis system in the 1980s.

Hardware description
A variety of UNIVAC embedded computers, including the first fielded version of the late 1950s, the CP-642A (AN/USQ-20), typically with 30 bit words, 32K words of magnetic core or thin film memory, 16 parallel I/O channels (also 30 bits wide) connected to radars and other peripherals, and a RISC-like instruction set, were used. Logic circuits used discrete transistors and other elements soldered to a printed circuit board with connectors running along one side. Each card was coated in a varnish-like substance to prevent exposure to corrosion-inducing salt spray (See Conformal Coating). A number of cards were connected and secured to a tray on rollers. In turn, several trays of various types, interconnected and secured to a metal enclosure, constituted the computer. Most NTDS computers were water-cooled, though some later lighter-weight models were air-cooled.

Modem description
The NTDS information was transmitted between ships of aircraft carrier battle groups using Collins Radio's Kineplex modems. Kineplex was a parallel-tone, multicarrier modem.

Seymour Cray and the NTDS
Seymour Cray is credited for developing the first NTDS processor, the AN/USQ-17. However, this design did not go into production.

ASW Ships Command & Control System
ASW Ships Command & Control System (ASWSC&CS) was a NTDS system for antisubmarine warfare (ASW). It was implemented only on the frigates USS Voge (FF-1047), USS Koelsch (FF-1049) and the ASW aircraft carrier USS Wasp (CVS-18) in 1967. The ASWSC&CS allowed the development of improvements in antisubmarine warfare using digital computers, which were implemented in other ASW ship classes. UNIVAC was contracted to define the hardware and develop the software to incorporate ASW functions.

AN/UYQ-100 Undersea Warfare Decision Support System (USW-DSS) is the current system fielded in 2010.

title: Naval Tactical Data System


text:
EISCAT

EISCAT (European Incoherent Scatter Scientific Association) operates three incoherent scatter radar systems in Northern Scandinavia and Svalbard. The facilities are used to study the interaction between the Sun and the Earth as revealed by disturbances in the ionosphere and magnetosphere.

The EISCAT Scientific Association exists to provide scientists with access to incoherent scatter radar facilities of the highest technical standard.

EISCAT 3D
The construction of EISCAT's new generation of incoherent radars: EISCAT 3D, has started in November 2022.

The first stage of the new system will consist of three radar sites, functioning together, just as the old mainland system. Later, transmitter up grade and more sites will be added to the system.

Instead of parabolic dishes, as the old system, EISCAT 3D is a multistatic radar composed of three phased-array antenna fields. Many small antennas working together as one. Each field will have between 5 000 - 10 000 crossed dipole antenna mounted on top of a ground plane 70 meters in diameter.

The core site of EISCAT 3D is located just outside Skibotn, Norway. The facility will have 109 hexagonal antenna units as its main antenna, and 10 antenna units spread out around the main site. On top of the antenna units the dipole antennas are mounted. The Skibotn facility will have 10 000 of these small antennas. The Skibotn facility will act both as a transceiver and receiver of the EISCAT 3D system.

Two receiver sites are located in Karesuvando, Finland and Kaiseniemi, Sweden. The facilities will consist of 54 and 55 antenna units with approximately 5 000 dipole antennas.

Space debris tracking, tracking of meteorites, research on GPS and radio traffic, space weather, aurora research, climate research and near-Earth space are some of the areas where EISCAT 3D will be able to offer much more flexible and meticulous research data.

The use of EISCAT 3D is solely civil. The new system should be up and running 2023/2024. This also means that the old mainland system will be dismantled.

The mainland system
The mainland system consisted of three parabolic dish research radar antennas, designed as a tristatic radar, that is, three facilities that work together. The radar antennas are located in Tromsø, Norway; Sodankylä, Finland and Kiruna, Sweden, north of the Scandinavian Arctic Circle.

The core in the tri-static system, is located at Ramfjordmoen, outside Tromsø, Norway with a 32 meter mechanically fully steerable parabolic dish used for transmission and reception in the UHF-band. Operating in the 930 MHz band with a transmitter peak power 2.0 MW, 12.5% duty cycle and 1 μs – 10 ms pulse length with frequency and phase modulation capability.

And the VHF radar that operates in the 224 MHz band with transmitter peak power 3 MW, 12.5% duty cycle and 1 μs – 2 ms pulse length with frequency and phase modulation capability. The antenna, used for transmission and reception, is a parabolic cylinder antenna consisting of 4 quarters, constituting a total aperture of 120 m x 40 m. This antenna is mechanically steerable in the meridional plane (-30° to 60° zenith angle), and electronically steerable in the longitudinal direction (±12° off-boresight). The receiving antennas in Sodankylä, Finland and Kiruna, Sweden, is fully steerable 32 meter parabolic dish antennas. The receivers include multiple channels the UHF radar and the VHF radars. The data are pre-processed in signal processors, displayed and analysed in real-time and can be recorded to mass storage media.

EISCAT Svalbard Radar
The location in Longyearbyen, Svalbard, high above the arctic circle and near the north pole, offers unique capabilities in auroral research. Svalbard’s unique climate with polar night from November until February, make the season for observing the northern lights long.

The EISCAT Svalbard Radar (ESR) also operates the UHF-band, at 500 MHz with a transmitter peak power of 1000 kW, 25 % duty cycle and 1 μs – 2 ms pulse length with frequency and phase modulation capability. There are two antennas, a 32 meter mechanically fully steerable parabolic dish antenna, and a 42 meter fixed parabolic antenna aligned along the direction of the local geomagnetic field.

The whole radar system is controlled by computers, and the sites in Tromsø, Kiruna, Sodankylä, and Longyearbyen are interconnected via the Internet.

Tromsø Ionospheric Modification facility
An ionospheric heating facility, Heating, is also located in Ramfjordmoen outside Tromsø, Norway. It consists of 12 transmitters of 100 kW CW power, which can be modulated, and three antenna arrays covering the frequency range 3.85 MHz to 8 MHz.

History
EISCAT was founded in December 1975, as an association of research councils in six member countries. But the plans to establish a research facility focusing on incoherent scatter technology in the Northern Lights zone, started as early as 1969. Many meetings with interested researchers were held in the early 70s, but it was not until Professor Sir Granville Beynon organized a meeting in 1973, where a board and a chairman were appointed, that the work really began. In 1974, the Council presented a report on how the organisation, operations and implementation of EISCAT's UHF system could take place, and at the end of 1975 the first six member states agreed to start the work towards the construction of EISCAT.

The member countries are now Sweden, Norway, Finland, Japan, China and the United Kingdom. The members have changed somewhat: Germany is no longer a full member, France was a member from the start of the organization in 1975 until 2005, while Japan and China were added later (1996 and 2007 respectively).

EISCAT is governed by The EISCAT Council, which consists of representatives from research institutions in the various member countries. Two committees, the Administrative and Financial Committee (AFC) and the Advisory Scientific Committee (SAC), assist the Council in its work.

title: EISCAT


text:
Talk:Dusky seaside sparrow

SIGHTING?!
I saw one like the bird in the picture yesterday! I don't know if this may have been one of the unbanded duskies' descendants or rather a hybrid, but it looked like that! I'm not making it up. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.111.81.193 (talk) 14:02, 24 February 2016 (UTC)

Untitled
According to Protecting Endangered Species by Felicity Brookets, et al. (Usborne Conservation Guides series; Copyright 1990; Published by Usborne Publishing Ltd. in 1990 and Scholastic, Inc. in March 1995; ISBN 0-590-22628-2), Orange Band died in 1989. On page 2 and the back cover: "Orange Band, the [very] last dusky seaside sparrow, died in 1989." Who has their information wrong? GPHemsley→◊ 21:35, Jun 11, 2005 (UTC)

Voice of the Dusky Seaside Sparrow
Hearing the voice of a species that is no longer among us gave me the chills. Does anyone know if bloodsamples were taken of this species to attempt cloning it? Dionyseus 02:03, 12 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Forget cloning birds. a) it is impossible now and as far as any scientist (as opposed to scifi hack) can tell, it will remain so for decades if not forever, and b) even if it worked, cloning extinct taxa is too expensive and would not be successful in any case; competition for funding would furthermore mean that for any genetically diseased basket-case clone with the sole fate to be mercykilled (as these would be incapable of natural behavior) and left to rot in a museum cabinet, several entire species would have to be stripped of conservation funding and abandoned to extinction. See the cloning articles for scientific literature on the matter. Dysmorodrepanis 20:17, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

What is the bird in the picture?
"Orange Band"? He has no orange band. But it should be possible to track down which individual the supreme male specimen on the fto actually was, and possibly life-histroy details. Dysmorodrepanis 20:17, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

Bad dates?
"One, banded in 1998 with an orange leg band was unique." How was Orange Band banded in '98 when he died in '87? Some VERY MINOR proofreading skills would be nice before posting. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.177.1.66 (talk) 14:14, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

title: Talk:Dusky seaside sparrow


text:
User talk:Mahagaja/Archive 1

Hello and welcome to Wikipedia! Hope you like it here, and stick around.

Here are some tips to help you get started:

 * To sign your posts (on talk pages, for example) use the '~' symbol. To insert just your name, type ~~~ (3 tildes), or, to insert your name and timestamp, use ~~~~ (4 tildes).
 * Try the Tutorial, and feel free to experiment in the test area.
 * If you need help, post a question at the Help Desk
 * Eventually, you might want to read the Manual of Style and Policies and Guidelines.
 * Remember Neutral point of view
 * Explore, be bold in editing pages, and, most importantly, have fun!

Good luck!

Meelar (talk) 16:29, Dec 28, 2004 (UTC)

Hi there. I just spotted your article on Irish dialects, and I was wondering if you wrote this article here:. The pair appear very similar, and I'm hoping that you wrote both, so that there isn't any legal question. Anyway, have a good one. - Vague | Rant 10:16, Dec 31, 2004 (UTC)

 * Yes, the original page is mine, too. So there are no copyvio problems! --Angr 12:35, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)

 * Excellent, thank you for confirming that. - Vague | Rant 01:51, Jan 1, 2005 (UTC)

Just a heads-up: you didn't sign your vote on Votes for deletion/List of images/Chicks. - dcljr 10:35, 29 Jan 2005 (UTC)

 * Oops, thanks for catching that! Have just added my signature. --Angr 15:36, 29 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Ph[o/a]netician
You reverted my AmE [fɑnətɪʃn̩] to [foʊnətɪʃn̩] on International Phonetic Alphabet for English. Must say I've only ever heard the former from Americans; the latter sounds distinctly British to me. Does the fact that you're in a position to take photos of Ithaca mean you're at Cornell? If so, maybe you could ask Abby and Amanda what they say. --Angr 07:05, 31 Jan 2005 (UTC)

 * I made that change actually based on consulting Merriam-Webster which lists the /ɑ/ pronunciation as an also, meaning significantly less common. I've just now checked the American Heritage Dictionary, which only gives the /oʊ/ pronunciation. Also, my Jones 15th ed. English Pronouncing Dictionary gives only /oʊ/ for American pronunciation, but it gives /ɒ/ as a second British one.

 * I'm no longer in Ithaca, but Abby was my adviser and I took phonetics from Amanda. I was in her first phonetics class at Cornell. To be honest, I don't remember with any clarity how they pronounced phonetician, but I spent 3 years in the linguistics department at Cornell and the /ɑ/ pronunciation strikes me as one I don't believe I've ever heard. I will consult with my co-workers tomorrow who are formerly of the UCSC linguistics department tomorrow, but I'm fairly certain they'll agree. Do you have any written authority for the /ɑ/ being more prevalent in American English? If so, perhaps we can select a word with a less disputed pronunciation situation... Cheers! Nohat 07:25, 31 Jan 2005 (UTC)

List of names in English with non-intuitive pronunciations
Hi Angr, just noticed that you changed the SAMPA pronunciations on List of names in English with non-intuitive pronunciations to IPA, citing Wikipedia preferences as your rationale. Could you point me in the direction of the page where this policy is outlined? I'm personally very much against this change (largely because it's a total pain to edit) and would like to argue against it -- only problem is, I can't find where the policy is defined! Thanks, Lancevortex 10:11, 31 Jan 2005 (UTC)

 * Hi Lancevortex, the policy is stated at International_phonetic_alphabet and SAMPA. Personally I like the policy because SAMPA is a total pain to read. Editing with the IPA is a lot easier if you do the editing in Microsoft Word vel sim. and then paste into Wikipedia. There's also WikiTeX if you know how to use it (I don't). --Angr 10:50, 31 Jan 2005 (UTC)

 * Readability is a matter of opinion, I guess. That said, I must confess I didn't realise that SAMPA was merely a hack; I suppose that's why I've never seen it anywhere but Wikipedia. Thanks for piquing my interest and making me actually find out about what I was arguing for. I'm converted -- just wish I had an IPA keyboard. --Lancevortex 01:28, 1 Feb 2005 (UTC)

 * Wymondham - the "windham"/"windum" pronunciation is the only one used for Wymondham (the place in Norfolk) which is how it is referenced in the listing, which is why i made the mod. On a separate note how about adding a non IPA guide to the pronunciation of each word for those who can't read the IPA characters. GraemeLeggett 08:40, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Pronunciation
In Yosemite National Park, you also changed the SAMPA to IPA. Problem is, now I can't find anywhere that tells me how to read it! I looked at the article International Phonetic Alphabet which is clearly for linguists with a specialized terminology and not for people who just want to know h ow to pronounce things, and I looked at International Phonetic Alphabet for English but after scrolling up and down dozens of times I had still found only a couple of the characters. Can you point me to a table that shows the characters on the left and sample words on the right showing the pronunciation? (And add a link to such to each occurrence of this notation, as was originally there for the SAMPA notation)? Otherwise this is pretty much useless. Thanks. Elf | Talk 17:42, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)

 * Excellent work. Thanks. Elf | Talk 22:09, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)

IPA template
Thanks for correcting my edit to International Phonetic Alphabet for English. I'd wondered why there seemed to be superflous spaces after leading slashes or square brackets, but I hadn't realised that the slashes or brackets need to be inside the IPA template not outside. I've been correcting some of my own recent edits accordingly, and put a note on Template Talk:IPA. rossb 07:07, 18 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Image:Kiltnballs.JPG
Hi Angr — this is just a heads-up that I've listed Image:Kiltnballs.JPG at Images and media for deletion as it was orphaned (no articles link to it), out-of-focus, and appears to be unencyclopedic. If you think otherwise, feel free to say so there or at my talk page. — Asbestos | Talk  19:31, 27 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Hey Abestos, that's cool. It was at Kilt, where I felt it was relevant to the topic under discussion, but someone removed it a few days ago on grounds of being in poor taste. Whatever. I won't vote to keep it. --Angr 19:41, 27 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * That's fine. I listed it mainly because of its being orphaned, and if it's not going to go back up anywhere then there probably isn't much need to keep it. Thanks, — Asbestos | Talk  19:45, 27 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Deleting a Celtic article?
Thanks for supporting the deletion of Westcountry Brythonic. What's the other article you suggested might be dodgy? Evertype 13:03, 2005 Mar 6 (UTC)
 * I'm not an admin, but I didn't know that "summarizing" was an official function. I was just, well, summarizing. Evertype 01:35, 2005 Mar 9 (UTC)

Conlang
In the discussion on Westcountry Brythonic, you state "one of my favorite pastimes is designing a version of Modern English based on the premise "What if the Norman Conquest had never happened?" — but I don't put it up at Wikipedia and pretend it's an attested language!". Have you put it up anywhere on the web, as I would be interested in learning about it? Nick xylas 18:51, 8 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Christian Homosexuality
I have found a very interesting image of Jonathan and David I have placed on Christian views of homosexuality. Thought I would pass by and let you know since you seem to have an interest in the subject. Apollomelos 10:23, 12 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Tuareg
At Tuareg, why did you de-link Amghar? -- Jmabel | Talk 19:07, Mar 14, 2005 (UTC)

Aboriginal languages
Hello, I'm not sure that some of the recent changes you've made to several Native American tribes are appropriate. You've categorized among others the Tasttine, Onondaga, and Tsuu T'ina articles to be included in several language-based categories. I feel this is incorrect as those articles are not for the languages of these aboriginals. I think that stubs for the Tasttine language, Onondaga language, and Tsuu T'ina language should be created, and only those should be in the language categories. Please let me know what you think of this proposal. Thanks, Kurieeto 22:16, Mar 15, 2005 (UTC)

California English
User:RickK deleted the article, claiming it had been on Votes for Deletion. I couldn't find any record of there being a deletion debate at Votes for deletion/California English, so I have restored the article. I will put a note on RickK's talk page and ask him why he deleted it. Nohat 08:28, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Apparently there was a page called Californian Accent which failed VfD and was deleted. RickK has decided that any article about California English is therefore fair game to be deleted. I have listed the article on Votes for Undeletion. Please register your desire to have the article undeleted there. In the meantime, feel free to work on the copy I have moved to my namespace at User:Nohat/California English. Nohat 08:52, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Underlined links
It's not that they're annoying me--in fact I already have them turned off--it's just that IPA is impossible to read if there are underlines, and with underlines is the default for users and the only option for anonymous readers. In general, IPA should not appear in links. It's kind of a pain, I know, but I think it's the best solution unless links containing IPA can be forced to not have underlines for everyone, and that's not just a technical question, but one of policy. Nohat 19:52, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)

North Germanics
At RfC I listed: I guess this is a field where you can weight in as a moderating force.
 * Talk:Rikssvenska, Talk:Swedish language, Talk:Swedish phonology, Talk:Voiceless dorso-palatal velar fricative, and most probably soon in more related articles, souring relations between contributors with conflicting attitudes and personalities (likely related, among other things, to the status of Finland-Swedish and the Mandatory Swedish education in Finland)

Regards! --Johan Magnus 09:59, 26 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Bhili
Thanks. Of course this changes my vote. -- Jmabel | Talk 06:23, Apr 6, 2005 (UTC)

Berlin pronunciation
In the Village Pump debate on the issue: PMA 05:40, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep IPA, but provide pro-NUN-see-ay-shuns for words that are pronounceable in some variety of English. There's no reason we can't do both. khan 19:19, 2005 Mar 24 (UTC)
 * Why is it childish? PMA

World Book may be many things but it isn't a childrens' encyclopedia - given that both Dr. Jim Duffy and Dr. Adam Carr have spoken out against IPA - as Adam said Wikipedia should be for its readers not its editors and Jim said On Taoiseach we are told the word is pronounced /"ty: S'Vx/. Even with a link attached, to many people worldwide it might as well be written in Aramaic for all the use it is to them. Previously, to recognise that many people don't have the practical experience of understanding complex pronunciation guides, they were simply told the office was pronounced tee-shoch (the och as in loch). That version could be followed easily by many people. /"ty: S'Vx/ to many would appear to be complete gobbledigook. - you might want to reconsider your position. PMA 08:40, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)

OK - i'm sorry for causing this mess - i was only trying to make things better. PMA 10:27, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)

pater noster
thanks for your good work on this article. -leigh (φθόγγος) 04:11, Apr 12, 2005 (UTC)

Barred Owl vs. Barred owl
Hi, I moved Barred owl back to Barred Owl. Bird species names are one of the areas that the Wikipedia convention for capitalization of article titles does not hold. All words of bird species names are capitalized in most English language ornithological literature and Wikipedia follows this convention. See WikiProject Birds for explanations as to why. Dsmdgold 01:19, Apr 15, 2005 (UTC)

Dake-bonoism
Hi Angr,

I must have been confused by "Heavy Revision Needed" while going through the messy VFD, thinking they were keep votes. My apologies.

P.S. I was told by another fellow admin that rough concensus meant 75-80%, not two-thirds.

- Mailer Diablo 16:18, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I was a little puzzled by the deletion. Efforts were being made at revision, albeit somewhat slow. Didn't look like even a rough consensus.

Pope categories
I understand the general concept of not doubling up on categories, but in this special case (Popes in general and then subcategorized by name) I feel it is necessary, because Category:Popes also serves as a list of popes. --Dante Alighieri | Talk 23:43, Apr 19, 2005 (UTC)

 * The reason I started making those pages was that right now there's no way to jump from, say, Pope Benedict VIII to a list of the other Popes Benedict. Putting all of the like-named popes in a category enables that. The reasoning behind it is simple... let's say I know I need a "Pope Benedict" but I don't know which one... so I just go from one to the next til I find the right one. ;) --Dante Alighieri | Talk 23:58, Apr 19, 2005 (UTC)

 * OK, you've convinced me... I'm gonna figure out a different (see also, more elegant) way of achieving this. Do me a favor and leave the categories as they are for the time being? I'll fix them in a bit. --Dante Alighieri | Talk 17:04, Apr 20, 2005 (UTC)

Vandalism heads up: Looks like you added that the Pope was born on Easter -- I think it is wrong and don't know where you got it from, though. Anyway, someone has fixed it, so don't worry. Garybrimley 01:23, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * I did add it, and it wasn't vandalism. I got it from a German tabloid newspaper. But I should have known better than to trust a tabloid newspaper to get its facts straight. April 16, 1927, was in fact Holy Saturday, not Easter Sunday. And since it's the same newspaper that claims he was baptized only four hours after being born, I no longer know whether that's true either. They have a photograph of an entry in a baptismal register for April 16 (no year) at 8:30 AM showing that *someone* named Ratzinger was baptized, but I can't make out the first name. It doesn't look like Joseph (or even Alois), though. Anyway, thanks for letting me know. --Angr/comhrá 05:58, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * Hey, that's cool. And this morning I stumbled across a website  that shows pictures from his hometown. (I think this one is trustworthy as far as their "facts" are...maybe.) Garybrimley 20:20, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Thanks
I just want to thank you for your dogged policing of List of words of disputed pronunciation. People put a lot of nonsense there and it's nice to know someone else is being super-vigilant in maintaining its neutrality. Nohat 17:38, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Xiong
Hi there! Because the RFC about Xiong seemed to deal mainly on his disagreements with Netoholic, I thought it best to start a new RFC to see if people have comments on Xiong's behavior that do not relate to Netoholic. Please give your thoughts and/or opinion on that at Requests for comment/Xiong. Radiant_* 08:26, Apr 27, 2005 (UTC)

Pandeism vfd
Please consider changing your vote on Votes for deletion/Pandeism to a "redirect" to pantheism. I believe I have adduced sufficient referential evidence to show that this article was not "original research," but simply an non-notably uncommon use of a term that is most commonly used as a reference to a word of similar construction. I'm sure that you, as a linguist, know that it is very easy for those not acquainted with religous details to confuse "theism" with "deism", after all, so this would be a useful redirect. I apologize for having overestimated the importance of the use of this term with which I had been made familiar. It was one of my first posts, when I was new to Wikipedia and not yet familiar with the criteria for notability. -- 8^D BD2412gab 06:29, 2005 Apr 29 (UTC)
 * Forget the above. I have found conclusive evidence of the use of the term "Pandeism" dating back to 1833, being used by Godfrey Higgins, a follower of John Toland, the creator of pantheism.. The term is used in a book written by Higgins called the Anacalypsis. -- 8^D BD2412gab 10:27, 2005 Apr 29 (UTC)

User page vandalism
I actually reverted your user page, as it was being spammed by someone at 218.69.195.11. Anyway, I hope it wasn't presumptous of me. --T-Boy 09:21, 11 May 2005 (UTC)

Brackets in IPA
Hi, sorry, I was fixing wiki syntax, I could not tell if it required any brackets (double) or (single). But I know now, thanks. Who 20:01, 12 May 2005 (UTC)

Vfd vote for 1968 in France
Hi - thought you might want to take a look at the article now, and see whether you still feel the same about its vfd...? Grutness...  wha?  07:10, 15 May 2005 (UTC)

gweuskōr
The Welsh-Hindi thing was on BBC? I thought wikinerds was just some website — the author asked nicely if he could include my maps, so I was flattered, and amenable to adding the link :) dab (ᛏ) 12:18, 17 May 2005 (UTC)

Signing
OK, I thought I signed in the right place since I am mentioned several times in the complaint.--Wiglaf 06:26, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

Surely, people who have been involved should not count as "other users".--Wiglaf 06:30, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

Relax, I have added one and I am looking for more.--Wiglaf 06:36, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

I think you have a pretty complete case :).--Wiglaf 06:45, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

Lord's Prayer
I add a music section section there just wish some hymnal experts can add some more hymns like that title there so that people can enjoy and think about the meaning of the Lord's Prayer. I think we may discuss about the two MIDIs, but I totally can not agree that you delete that section!! Music is an important "something" in liturgy, right? By killing that section, do you mean that none of the music about the Lord's prayer is good?

The 2nd MID is collected in 2nd ed. of Hymnal book of Presbyterian Church in Taiwan and I heard that song in many other denominations in Taiwan. I am now in USA (and that's the reason why I can not find who is the composer and left 'unknown' there). The conductor and the two church organists of the church I attend in USA tell me that the song is famous. A serious handicap christian musician from north Europe sang this song in an important meeting held by China Christian union Association. Thousands of people attended that meeting. I don't know why you say that it is not famous.

The 1st MID is composed by a good Christian Ph.D whose major is composing music. He is also a Professor in the best music department of university in Taiwan. He won many championship about composing music throughout USA, Taiwan, Europe, and south of America. Although you are a Ph.D in theoretical linguistics, that does not mean that you have good musical background nor even have better musical background than a Ph.D of music. What are your argumentations that the tune is not good? Just like what you say, "whether or not they're good is POV," can you delete such a "good" music just by your POV without any argumentation?

Sincerely & Emanuel

Pastor Jacob

 * Sorry, English is not my mother language and I am not good in my mother language, neither, (what a bad linguistic persion am I!) so I think and type in English very slow. Before I modify some sentences in previous parapraghs, I checked my my talk, you did not reply at that time.  Just after I fix some errors, add 1 or 2 sentences and click on "Save page," it shows something like "you have message."

 * The followings are messages I reply you about your answer in my my talk.
 * About the copyright issue: I am not very sure about that. (Therefore, I am not arguing with you about this.) As I know:
 * 1. The 2nd hymn is more than 40, even 50 years. It seems that past the ordinary copyright period.  (I should make sure about that.)
 * 2. In Taiwan, regilious broadcast is outside the copyright law. Maybe it is not the case in international copyright law, I should try to know it.
 * 3. MIDI is a form different from printing. Though someone can print a music sheet from a MIDI file, the quality is really bad and a little bit far from use.  As a MIDI lover, especially who is much more older than 20, I think I should know that issue.  I will consult a lawyer recently.  Thank you.
 * Thank you for remind me about that.

 * About the signature: Thank you for telling me that. And sorry for I forget to add link from my signature to my user page or my talk.  I am new to Wikipedia, therefore, a lot of things need to learn.  I just learn ~ about 1 hour before I post the 1st message to you.  The reason why I still left my name by typing instead of ~ is to show my title.  Discussing to a Ph.D. without evdience and/or title seems funny.

 * About the music background: It's happy to hear that you have music background. I played a musical instrument from the age of 7 up till the age of about 37, and I attended an orchestra (which has about 100 members) about 2.5 years, 3 chambers upto about 4 years, conducting church choir about 4 years and attending church choir about 20 years.  The two reasons that I show you this are why I am happy to talk to one who has music background and why I make a lot of MIDIs (more than 600).

 * About the POV / NPOV: I admit that famous / good are POV. Thank you to let me know the NPOV policy of Wikipedia. (I did not know it before.)  But about this issue, I think the appropriate action is to change the title, not to delete the section.

 * About your dictions on the Edit summary, you write 'their inclusion smacks of vanity': Is it POV or NPOV?

 * About the message you leave in edit summary: They are nothing about copyright. But what you answer me is almost about the copyright issue.  Why?
 * By the way, you leave 2 messages whick look like almost the same in my my talk. May I or you delete the older one?

 * Jacob grace 08:05, 22 May 2005 (UTC)

 * ^^ & :). The reason I wrote 'MIDIs which are done by me' is just for copyright problem: I do not copy MIDIs done by some others without permission!  I don't think about whether it violates the copyright law to public the MIDIs without the composer's permission.  So ridiculous am I!!
 * I'll check the copyright problem up. If it is ok, I will restore it/them with suitable title.   Jacob grace 23:07, 22 May 2005 (UTC)

German help
Hey, I was wondering if you could just help me out with a quick translation. I'm copying a good image from the German Wikipedia here. So I'm just trying to figure out what the caption says so I know what's going on. Could you tell me what "Darstellung der Beulenpest in der Toggenburgbibel" means? Its from the Black Death page at Schwarzer_Tod. Thanks a lot. --Dmcdevit 05:01, 23 May 2005 (UTC)

 * Ah. Thanks a bunch. I wanted to know where it came from. Quick service is appreciated! :) --Dmcdevit 05:11, 23 May 2005 (UTC)

Zivinbudas
hi Angr — since Z's only reaction to his rfc so far is an invitation to "suck dick, you bum", while he happily keeps reverting IE languages, I do think you could take the case to the arbcom now. I would do so myself, but it's your rfc :) dab (ᛏ) 06:19, 23 May 2005 (UTC)

I've now officially requested an Arbitration against Zivinbudas. As one of the people who were involved in previous attempts at compromise with him, you might be interested in the case. Also, feel free to list yourself as one of the parties involved here. Halibutt 04:05, May 30, 2005 (UTC)

Hero of Belarus
Hello. I am sorry I did not get back to you earlier, but I am answering your question, the official laws printed by Belarus are printed in Russian. However, today, I have located a speech by President Lukashenko which announces the Belarusian name of the medal: Героя Беларусі. The speech can be found at. If this is all that you wish to know, I wish for you to consider voting at the FAC page, at Featured_article_candidates/Hero_of_Belarus. Thanks again, Zscout370 (Sound Off) 04:03, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

Question on International_Phonetic_Alphabet_for_English & [ai] differentiation
At International Phonetic Alphabet for English (and pretty much everywhere else) it describes the -er in "runner" as and the -ir- in "bird" as. Is this a convention so that each reader will read it according to the way they understand the word to be pronounced? And if so, of what use is it? I have always thought of "runner" as and "bird" as. Have I missed something somewhere?

On another tissue, are you familiar with phonemic differentiation between the diphthongs and ? I'm assuming that before voiced consonants and in syllable-final position and that  before unvoiced consonants is common, but how widespread is the differentiation between the noun "hide"  and the verb "hide", and between "wider"  and "whiter" ? Tomer TALK 17:49, May 24, 2005 (UTC)

 * Yes, I do. And I've conducted minisurveys on the subject (about 20 individuals, all men 18-25, all from the Twin Cities area or northwestern Wisconsin, all Comp. Sci. majors) and found that, at least in northwestern Wisconsin, this differentiation is almost universal.  The one person I spoke with who didn't differentiate between them (a 20-year-old guy from Sparta, Wisconsin, who as it happens is somewhat asocial) pronounces "whiter" as  and "wider" as  (the vast majority of the others did not differentiate between /w/ and ).  Tomer TALK  18:23, May 24, 2005 (UTC)

 * Yep. A rabbit has a hayd, and huyds in thornbushes (or so Beatrix Potter taught me)...  :-p  Tomer TALK  18:33, May 24, 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:Mahagaja/Archive 1


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Brahma kumaris

 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. Eugene van der Pijll 20:04, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Brahma kumaris
A page of poorly written advertising for this organization. --Ian Pitchford 21:36, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Delete Advert, and I'm baffled by the comment in the edit history that they are "affiliated to the United Nations". Leithp 23:31, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete --Xcali 05:35, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete advertising. JamesBurns 05:39, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * This organization is a big religious fringe in India, but the article is clearly advertising. I suggest removing the content and keeping it as a stub for someone with a npov to fill in later. Bambaiah 13:06, Jun 15, 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:Tristessa de St Ange/Desk

Active tasks

 * Talk:SUMO class

title: User:Tristessa de St Ange/Desk


text:
Fascioloides magna

Fascioloides magna, also known as giant liver fluke, large American liver fluke or deer fluke, is trematode parasite that occurs in wild and domestic ruminants in North America and Europe. Adult flukes occur in the liver of the definitive host and feed on blood. Mature flukes measure 4 to 10 cm in length × 2 to 3.5 cm in width, and have an oval dorso-ventrally flattened body with oral and ventral sucker. The flukes are reddish-brown in colour and are covered by tegument. As with other digenean trematodes, the life cycle includes intramolluscan phase in snails. The parasite is currently distributed in wild ruminants in North America and Europe, including Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, and the United States.

History
Fascioloides magna is essentially of North American origin but the parasite was introduced into Europe with imported game animals at the second half of the 19th century. In spite of being native to North America the fluke was first described in Italy. In 1875, Bassi observed massive deaths of red deer in the Royal Park (now La Mandria Regional Park) near Torino, Italy. The signs were similar to well known fasciolosis in sheep. He named it Distomum magnum. The author believed that the parasite was introduced into the park in wapiti imported from the United States in 1865. Most workers did not accept Bassi’s species because of his poor description. From 1882 to 1892, the fluke was recorded from different areas of the United States and described separately by many authors. Later, Stiles (1894) pointed out that the American findings are identical with species described previously by Bassi. Stiles made a complete morphological description of the adult fluke and named it Fasciola magna (Bassi 1875) Stiles 1894. In 1917, Ward showed that owing to the lack of the distinct anterior cone and the fact that vitellaria are confined to the region ventral to the intestinal branches, he established a new genus Fascioloides and rename it to Fascioloides magna (Bassi 1875) Ward 1917. In 1895, Stiles suggested that the life cycle of the fluke is very similar to Fasciola hepatica, i.e. it includes an aquatic snail as an intermediate host. He gave a comparative description of the egg and miracidium of the fluke. However, first reported intermediate hosts of F. magna were not published until 1930’s. The complete life cycle of F. magna, including a description of all the larval stages, was described by Swales (1935) in Canada.

Life cycle
The life cycle of F. magna is relatively complex and is similar to the development of the related fluke, F. hepatica. A detailed account of the F. magna life cycle was given by Swales (1935), Erhardová-Kotrlá (1971), and reviewed by Pybus (2001). Adult flukes occur in pairs or groups within a fibrous capsule in the liver parenchyma of the definitive host. Mature flukes release eggs which are collected in the cavity of the capsule. The capsule contains a great mass of eggs and has duct connections to bile ducts. The eggs are passed together with bile into the bile collecting system, enter the small intestine, and leave the definitive host along with the faeces. The eggs which are passed out in the faeces into the environment are undeveloped and undergo embryonation outside the host. Several physical-chemical factors, especially temperature, humidity and oxygen tension, are known to influence embryonation. During the embryonation of the egg, a larva called a miracidium develops from germinal cells. Fully developed miracidium releases the operculum of the egg using several proteases. The embryonation period varies from 27 to 44 days in natural conditions. Ciliated miracidia hatch in water and actively seek suitable intermediate hosts that are freshwater snails from family Lymnaeidae. After attaching to a suitable snail host, the miracidium penetrates into the snail body. After shedding its ciliated cell layer it is called a sporocyst. The sporocysts are found in the foot, the snail body, digestive glands, reproductive organs, and in the pulmonary sac of the snail. The sporocysts contain germinal cells that give rise to 1–6 mother rediae (a trematode larval form with an oral sucker). Developed mother rediae are released from the sporocyst and migrate into digestive glands, renal organ, reproductive organs, and pulmonary sac of the snail body. Each mother redia can asexually produce up to 10 daughter rediae. However, only 3 to 6 daughter rediae complete their development and leave the mother rediae. In turn, each daughter redia may produce 1–6 cercariae in experimentally infected snails and 16–22 cercariae under natural conditions. Cercariae emerge from the rediae and mature usually in digestive glands of the snail. Mature cercarie spontaneously emerge from the snail host and swim actively in water for up to two hours before encysting on vegetation. After encystment the flukes are called metacercariae. Development within the snail takes 40 to 69 days depending upon the temperature and the species of snail. The definitive host ingests vegetation containing the metacercariae. In the stomach and the intestine, the metacercariae are stimulated to emerge from the cyst (excystation). Newly excysted juvenile flukes penetrate the wall of the intestine and migrate in the abdominal cavity. Juvenile flukes penetrate the Glisson's capsule of the liver and continue migrating in the liver tissue. Rarely juvenile flukes penetrate other organs, such as lungs or kidneys. In these organs, however, flukes do not survive and not attain maturity. In the liver, flukes migrate within the parenchyma to search another fluke. If the fluke meet another one, they stop moving, and the fibrous capsule is formed around them. In the capsule, the parasite completes its development and starts egg-laying. Prepatent period varies 3–7 months and is dependent on host species. Adult F. magna can survive in the liver of the host up to 7 years.

Distribution
Currently, F. magna occurs only in North America and Europe where suitable habitat exists and susceptible intermediate hosts are found. However, sporadic works reported unique appearance of the fluke in other continents. F. magna was found in imported animals in South Africa, Australia and Cuba. In all cases, infected animals (brahman heifer, ox, and elk, respectively) were imported from the United States or Canada.

North America
During the 20th century, F. magna was reported in these American states: Arkansas, California, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin. Areas of New England are not areas normally inhabited by F. magna, but the fluke has been reported in this region. In Canada, the fluke was reported in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec. Currently, F. magna is enzootic in five major areas: (1) the Great Lakes region; (2) the Gulf coast, lower Mississippi, and southern Atlantic seaboard; (3) northern Pacific coast; (4) the Rocky Mountain trench; and (5) northern Quebec and Labrador. However, within these broad ranges, actual presence of giant liver flukes varies from locally abundant to locally absent.

Europe
Fascioloides magna was first reported by Bassi in Torino, Italy. In spite of Bassi's work, no other data concerning the occurrence of F. magna in Europe were reported until the 1930s. In the Czech territory, Ullrich reported the first appearance of F. magna in fallow deer as late as 1930. At the same time, Salomon (1932) diagnosed the fluke in one hunted red deer near Görlitz (Saxony) in Germany. Other isolated findings of the fluke were recorded in Italy and Poland. From 1948 to 1961, sporadic occurrence of the parasite in red deer (Cervus elaphus), fallow deer (Dama dama) and roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) were reported by several authors in former Czechoslovakia. However, all reports were published on the basis of incident discoveries in hunted deer and no massive infections were documented. In 1960s, a number of F. magna outbreaks in cervids were reported in some areas of former Czechoslovakia. The prevalence of infection varied from 70 to 80% in red deer and maximum parasite burden was 144 worms. In addition, sudden deaths were documented in free or game ranging deer. The highest mortality was reported in free ranging roe deer in Písek County in the South Bohemia of former Czechoslovakia. In the same region, moreover, the parasite was found in livers of slaughtered cattle. Erhardová-Kotrlá (1971) confirmed red deer, fallow deer and roe deer as main definitive hosts of F. magna in Europe. In the 1960s, F. magna was enzootic in former Czechoslovakia in following four major areas: (1) České Budějovice and Třeboň county, including Nové Hrady Mountains; (2) the area along the Vltava River on the Vltava-Týn hills near Hluboká and Bechyně; (3) Písek and Milevsko county; (4) the Brdy mountains and the Hřebeny mountains. In following years, F. magna was only reported from these areas. Recently, geographical distribution of F. magna in cervids was determined in the Czech Republic. The giant liver fluke was confirmed in the same areas as reported in the 1960s. However, seven new endemic areas of F. magna were discovered suggesting that the parasite is spreading in the Czech Republic. Moreover, the appearance of F. magna in the Šumava Mountains has epizootiological importance due to possibility of spread of the parasite into the German territory (Bavaria). During the last few years, a new European enzootic area has established in the Danube watershed in Central Europe. In 1988, F. magna was isolated from a 3-year old red deer female found dead near the Gabčíkovo water plant at the Danube River in Slovakia. The parasite has spread through whole Slovakian Danube watershed. Soon after the Slovakian first report, F. magna was found in red deer in Hungarian parts of Danubian floodplain forests. The prevalence reported by the same authors was up to 90%. F. magna infection of cervids is a considerable problem in northern part of Hungary (Szigetköz) and the southern Danubian territory in the Gemenc area. Since the autumn of 2000, F. magna has been found in Austrian territory, east of Vienna. In years 2000–2001, the prevalence of the giant liver fluke in red deer in Austrian parts of Danube (east of Vienna) was 66.7%. Appearance of American liver fluke was reported in Croatia in January 2000. The prevalence of fascioloidosis among red deer in Hungary was 21,1–60,7 % between 1998–2005. During the necropsy of 459 deer livers (using Egri's method) the number of flukes per host ranged from 1 to 138 in the same period. Regarding the origin of F. magna enzootic area in the Danube River watershed, it is essential to point out that cervids were not introduced into these localities, neither recently nor in the past. Origin of the F. magna population in Danubian floodplain forests in Central Europe remains therefore unclear.

Definitive hosts
Natural infections of F. magna occur primarily in cervids and bovids. Although many species are susceptible to infection, only a few cervid species contribute significantly to maintaining populations of the fluke. In North America, the common definitive hosts of the giant liver fluke are wapiti (Cervus elaphus canadensis), white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and caribou (Rangifer tarandus). In Europe, F. magna occurs commonly in red deer (Cervus elaphus), fallow deer (Dama dama) and roe deer (Capreolus capreolus). Domestic ruminants are also susceptible to natural infection with F. magna. However, the infection is not patent, and domestic ruminants do not contribute to the propagation of the parasite in the environment. In North America, the giant liver fluke is commonly found in cattle, sheep and goats in areas where F. magna is enzootic in deer. In contrast, F. magna occurs rarely in domestic ruminants in Europe. The list of all natural definitive hosts of F. magna is presented in Table. Humans are not known to be a definitive host.

The only indigenous primary definitive host of F. magna is white-tailed deer. This species has been parasitized by the fluke for the longest time in historical context. Wapiti and caribou are of Eurasian origin and entered North America during the Pleistocene epoch, and overlapped with white-tailed deer in some parts of North America. They might have encountered F. magna in these shared biotopes.

(1) Definitive hosts
Definitive hosts are primarily New World and some Old World cervids. In definitive hosts, flukes are encapsulated in thin-walled fibrous capsules communicating to the bile system. The eggs are passed through the bile system, enter the small intestine, and leave the host with faeces. Therefore, the infection is patent. The capsules are a result of the defence response of the host to the parasite and are pathognomonic for F. magna infection. They contain two to five flukes, greyish-black fluid with eggs and cell detritus.

F. magna infections in definitive hosts are usually subclinical. However, massive deaths caused by the fluke in red-, fallow- and roe deer were reported. Lethargy, depression, weight loss and decreased quality of antlers can occur sporadically. In addition, nervous symptoms were observed very rarely. In the first case, urging motion followed by apathy was reported in one experimentally infected fallow deer. Authors suggested that these symptoms were associated with hepatocerebral syndrome. Other author has observed partial paralysis in naturally infected wapiti caused by migrating juvenile flukes in the spinal cord. Biochemical and haematological profiles are little investigated in definitive hosts. A decrease of haemoglobin, elevation of γ-globulins, and increase of eosinophils in serum was observed in experimentally infected white-tailed deer.

(2) Dead-end hosts
Dead-end hosts are represented by large bovids, suids, llamas, horses and some Old World cervids. Infections in dead-end hosts are characterized by excessive fibrosis, thick-walled encapsulation of flukes within hepatic parenchyma, and black pigmentation of various tissues. Both afferent and efferent bile ducts are totally occluded and are marked by tracts of fibrous tissue. The eggs can not be passed into the bile system, and, therefore, the infection is not patent. In addition, flukes rarely mature in dead-end hosts probably due to strong immune response. Nevertheless, appearance of F. magna eggs in the faeces of a single experimentally infected calf has been documented. Rarely have the pathophysiology or clinical symptoms in dead-end hosts have been studied. In cattle, significant elevations of eosinophil counts in periphery blood but only slight increases of AST and GGT have been observed. While American authors have not observed any clinical symptoms in cattle, anorexia and weight loss were recorded in naturally infected bulls in the former Czechoslovakia.

(3) Aberrant hosts
Aberrant hosts of F. magna are sheep and goats. However, the course of infection is similar in guinea pigs, rabbits, bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) and chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra) that were infected experimentally. Infections in aberrant hosts are characterized by excessive wandering of juvenile flukes and death of the host. Aberrant hosts die usually within 6 months post-infection and the death is associated with acute peritonitis or extensive haemorrhage caused by migrating flukes. In aberrant hosts, flukes do not mature and migrate until the host dies. Occasionally, a few flukes mature and eggs can be found in the faeces. Hepatic lesions in aberrant hosts generally include firm adhesions of the liver to the diaphragm, black pigmentation, hematomas, necroses, and haemorrhagic tracts in which juvenile flukes are located. While a lack of fibrous capsules within hepatic parenchyma has been reported by several authors, flukes in fibrous capsules have also been documented in sheep. However, the wall of the capsule is different from those found in cervids and large bovids. The dominant feature is a diffuse fibrosis throughout the liver and haemorrhagic migratory tracts containing erythrocytes, black pigment, and cell detritus. The liver lesions are infiltrated by eosinophils, plasma cells, and pigment-laden macrophages. Sheep and goats die acutely without any previous clinical signs. Only elevation of eosinophils and slight increase of γ-globulins were observed in experimentally infected sheep. Recently, several changes in biochemical and haematological profile have been documented in experimentally infected goats. The significant increase of GLDH (glutamate dehydrogenase) was recorded from 14 weeks after infection in goats experimentally infected with F. magna.

Intermediate hosts
Since the presence of an intermediate host is essential to the completion of the life cycle, snails occupy the important role in the epidemiology of F. magna. The intermediate hosts of the giant liver fluke belong to the family Lymnaeidae. In North America, a total of 10 lymnaeid snails were reported as intermediate hosts of F. magna. 6 of 10 North American snail species were found naturally infected and the other four were infected only under experimental conditions. In addition, the Australian species Austropeplea (Lymnaea) tomentosa was exposed to the North American isolate of F. magna and the parasite was able to complete its development. The most common North American natural snail hosts of the fluke are Fossaria (Galba) modicella, Stagnicola (Lymnaea) caperata and Fossaria (Galba) bulimoides techella. In Europe, an intermediate host had not been known until 1960’s. At the beginning, Ślusarski assumed that Lymnaea stagnalis could act as an intermediate host of F. magna in Europe. His assumption, however, has been neither confirmed by positive findings in the field nor by experimental infection. In 1961, Dr. Erhardová described the life cycle of F. magna based on observations of experimentally and naturally infected snails. She confirmed that Galba truncatula is an intermediate host of the giant liver fluke in Europe. In later works, the author studied another lymnaeid species in the former Czechoslovakia. However, G. truncatula was repeatedly confirmed as the only snail host of F. magna. In 1979, Chroustová reported successful experimental infection of Stagnicola (Lymnaea) palustris with F. magna. She considered that this species might serve as an intermediate host of the fluke in the environment. Nevertheless, no naturally infected snails were found. Recent studies indicate that another lymnaeid snail, Radix peregra, may be also involved in the transmission of F. magna in Europe. This opinion is supported by successful experimental infection of R. peregra in the lab as well as by findings of naturally infected R. peregra in the environment These findings suggested that the intermediate host spectrum of F. magna should be, similarly to North America, diverse in Europe. The list of intermediate hosts of F. magna is presented in following table.

(*) Snails originated from Australia infected with United States isolate of F. magna

(**) Snails originated from France infected with Czech isolate of F. magna

Clinical signs, pathology and pathophysiology
According to several American authors, three types of definitive host exist: Pathology of F. magna infection varies according to host type but some features are shared by all three types. Primary lesions usually occur in the liver and are associated with mechanical damage due to migrating juvenile flukes or fibrous encapsulation of sedentary adult flukes. The most common feature of F. magna infection is black pigmentation in abdominal or thoracic organs, especially in the liver. The hematin pigment is produced by flukes as a byproduct of feeding on blood. Pigment within tissues is a result of migrating of juvenile flukes and it accumulates within hepatic cells without resorption. F. magna has also been associated with Red Water disease in bovine. F. magna causes liver damage, which allows the bacteria Clostridium haemolyticum to cause secondary infection in hepatic tissue. The infection will decrease the livers function, and the host's urine will become red, hence the name "Red Water" disease.
 * (1) definitive hosts
 * (2) dead-end hosts
 * (3) aberrant hosts

Diagnosis
While the eggs of F. magna resemble those of F. hepatica, this similarity is of limited use; eggs usually are not passed in cattle and sheep. Recovery of the parasites at necropsy, as well as proper identification of F. hepatica or F. gigantica is necessary for definite diagnosis. When domestic ruminants and deer share the same grazing areas, the presence of disease due to F. magna should be kept in mind. Mixed infections with F. hepatica occur in cattle.

Control of F. magna and prevention
For control of fascioloidosis in wild ruminants, successful application of anthelminthics in feed is necessary. The drug has to have flavour and smell that do not prevent animals from eating medicated feed. In addition, there should adequate therapeutic scope, i.e. span between therapeutic and minimal toxic dose. Therefore, only some of anthelminthics that are efficient in domestic ruminants have been tested in wild ruminants infected with F. magna. Several drugs, namely oxyclozanide, rafoxanide, albendazole, diamphenetide, closantel, clorsulon, and triclabendazole, have been used in control of F. magna infection in cervids. However, the results have differed between different authors. In the same way as for F. hepatica, triclabendazole seems to be the most effective against F. magna. Fascioloidosis of cervids was successfully controlled with triclabendazole in the United States, and triclabendazole with levamizole in Hungary, Canada, Austria, and Croatia. In contrast, rafoxanide is commonly used in treatment in Czech Republic Slovakia and Hungary. Nevertheless, recent studies suggested that use of rafoxanide in control of F. magna infection should be considered. Unfortunately, rafoxanide in a commercial drug called Rafendazol Premix is the only registered drug for wild ruminants. Triclabendazole and others are produced as drugs for domestic animals and it can be used in free-living animals only with special permit. In some cases, it may be difficult to determine if F. magna or a different fluke such as Fasciola hepatica or Fasciola gigantica is causing pathology since all these flukes will have the same clinical signs. In the case that the identity of the trematode cannot be determined, the drug triclabendazole can be used since this will deal with all three parasites.

As human food
In North America, especially in Wisconsin, flukes found inside deer livers are sometimes consumed by humans, sautéed in butter. They are served as "liver butterflies", "little livers" or "little flapjacks".

title: Fascioloides magna