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Spy Smasher

Spy Smasher is the name of two fictional characters appearing in comics published by Fawcett and DC Comics. The first is a superhero that was formerly owned and published by Fawcett Comics. The second is a female anti-terrorism government agent and published by DC.

Alan Armstrong
Similar to Batman and the Blue Beetle (Ted Kord), Spy Smasher (secretly the "wealthy Virginia sportsman" Alan Armstrong) is a master detective, equipped with a number of gadgets and a specialized vehicle, the "Gyrosub", which was a combination of an airplane, an automobile, and a submarine. Created by Bill Parker and C. C. Beck, Spy Smasher was introduced in Whiz Comics #2 (February 1940). Alongside Captain Marvel, Spy Smasher became one of the magazine's most popular characters. His perpetual enemy was the Mask, the mastermind of a deadly spy ring. He also fought the America-Smasher, the Angel and the Blitzys.

In Whiz Comics #16-18, Spy Smasher was briefly brainwashed by the Mask to fight Captain Marvel, but finally Captain Marvel was able to restore his mind.

With the end of World War II and the Japanese surrender in August 1945, Spy Smasher was left without a battle to fight. His name was changed to Crime Smasher in Whiz Comics #76 (July 1946), and he soon fell out of favor. One issue of Crime Smasher was published in 1948, and then the character disappeared.

In 1953, Fawcett ceased publication of all superhero comics, after settling a lawsuit against DC Comics over Captain Marvel being an infringement on the copyright of Superman, agreeing to cease publishing Captain Marvel.

After DC Comics obtained the rights to the Fawcett characters in 1972, Spy Smasher began appearing irregularly in DC Comics, presented as one of the heroes of Earth-S prior to Crisis on Infinite Earths. He first appeared in Crisis in Eternity, as a member of the Squadron of Justice when King Kull had captured Shazam and the Elders, and teamed up with other villains to wipe out life on all three Earths, and defeated Ibac on Earth-Two as he attacked Atlantis by tricking him into saying "I back down from no-one", defeating him as saying his name causes him to turn into a normal man and vice versa. The character was used prominently in the 1990s series The Power of Shazam!, in which aged Alan Armstrong often recounts his adventures as Spy Smasher. The Power of Shazam! #24 was dedicated to Armstrong's recounting of a Cold War-era mission he undertook with an archaeologist named C.C. Batson to Batson's children, Billy (alter-ego of Captain Marvel) and Mary (alter-ego of Mary Marvel).

While Alan was still Spy Smasher in that story, a crossover between Power of Shazam and Starman in 1997 included Jack Knight running over the history of the Fawcett City heroes, and mentioning that he thought Spy Smasher became Crime Smasher after the war but was unsure.

AC Comics has published reprints of some Golden Age Spy Smasher stories that have lapsed into the public domain. The character also made a cameo appearance in the inaugural issue of Image Comics' Next Issue Project.

Katarina Armstrong
A new Spy Smasher, government agent Katarina Armstrong, created by Gail Simone, first appears in Birds of Prey #100 (January 2007). She is a high-ranking anti-terrorism agent who is affiliated with several American, Commonwealth, and United Nations agencies. Her relation to Alan Armstrong has not been revealed, though her secret identity and costume seem clearly inspired by him. She is depicted in her first appearances as having a domineering demeanor, and is not hesitant to kill to complete missions. Having forced Oracle to work for her, she plans to take over the Birds of Prey organization and usurp Oracle's position. Issue #103 indicates that Katarina and Oracle were friends in college. At some point prior to Katarina's debut, they became rivals. That issue shows a flashback of both women competing in a race, with Katarina beating Barbara by cheating but immediately confessing to the judges after she had won.

Katarina accompanies the Birds on a mission in Russia, and in a conflict with the Secret Six, Katarina finds her equal marksman in Deadshot. Katarina assumes leadership of the Birds from Oracle and fires Lady Blackhawk for dissent. Back at Oracle's base, she is challenged to a fight by Oracle, who then manages to give Katarina a proper beating. She is humiliated when she faces the united front of every single one of Barbara's living former agents. Spy Smasher leaves disgraced after being threatened by Black Canary, but before doing so also gives Oracle information on Misfit's background.

It was later mentioned in Checkmate #16 by Sasha Bordeaux that Josephine Tautin had "drop-kicked her down a deep, dark hole. Something she quite enjoyed doing, incidentally". Checkmate #18 has Sasha personally apologising to Barbara for Katarina's actions.

In the aftermath of Final Crisis, Katarina is seen being held prisoner by the Global Peace Agency. The GPA agents apparently erase all of her memories by "resetting" her brain, telling Cameron Chase that Katarina can hear their conversations but can no longer process what the sounds mean. Her current fate is unknown, though it is implied that she was returned to normal, as with many other characters in the story, after Nemesis and Chase use the cosmic treadmill.

During the events of Brightest Day, an unknown villain begins targeting the members of the Birds of Prey. Oracle initially muses that it could be Katarina's doing, as she has the means and motive to harm the Birds, but it is eventually revealed to be the work of the White Canary.

Spy Smasher is eventually revealed to be alive and well when she recruits Bane and his new team of mercenaries (consisting of himself, Jeannette, Lady Vic, King Shark, Dwarfstar and Giganta) to invade and claim Skartaris in the name of the U.S.

Characterization
Creator Gail Simone said on Katarina: "I felt the DCU needed a Jack Bauer. In these early issues, she looks like a pointed allegory to the abuse of powers by the government, but she doesn’t see it that way, and she’s a lot more complex than that. It’d be a cheat to simply make her evil and completely hate-able, I think. She’s got some levels. And she knows Babs’ weaknesses. I like her. She's very very dark... Even above [Barbara and Katarina's] competitive natures, there is a perfectly valid and honest ideological difference of opinion there. Babs believes what she's doing is necessary, Katarina believes what Babs is doing is treason. They actually like each other, but like brothers fighting on opposite sides of the Civil War, the distance between them is so vast and clearly drawn that they can't even hope to reconcile. They were friends; their ideals make them bitter enemies".

Powers and abilities
Alan Armstrong is an intelligent scientist and inventor, a master detective and a skilled hand-to-hand combatant. He also possessed a number of gadgets and a specialized vehicle.

Katarina Armstrong is an expert markswoman and a skilled hand-to-hand combatant on a similar level to Deadshot. She claims to be of higher political authority than anyone in the United States, even the President, but is later outranked in an issue of Checkmate by Sasha Bordeaux. Although she explicitly states that her job is to kill people, specifically terrorists and those who aim to harm the United States, she has yet to be directly depicted as taking a life.

In other media

 * The Alan Armstrong incarnation of Spy Smasher appears in a self-titled film serial, portrayed by Kane Richmond. This version is an American freelance agent in Nazi-occupied France who was originally believed to have been killed in a plane crash and has an identical twin brother and a fiancée named Eve Corby.
 * The Alan Armstrong incarnation of Spy Smasher appears in a flashback in the Justice League Unlimited episode "Patriot Act", voiced by an uncredited Nathan Fillion.
 * The Alan Armstrong incarnation of Spy Smasher appears in DC Universe Online.

title: Spy Smasher


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Hjemkomst Center

The Heritage Hjemkomst Interpretive Center, commonly known as the Hjemkomst Center, is a museum in Moorhead, Minnesota. Hjemkomst Center first opened in 1985 and serves as a home to Hjemkomst Viking Ship, Hopperstad Stave Church replica, quarterly museum exhibits, and county archives. In 2009, the Clay County Historical Society (which was founded in 1932) and the Heritage Hjemkomst Interpretive Center merged to form the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County.

Hjemkomst

Hjemkomst, which means "Homecoming" in Norwegian, is a replica Viking ship that is permanently housed in the center of the museum. The ship is a full-scale replica of the Gokstad Viking ship that was discovered in Norway in 1880. The idea for building Hjemkomst was that of Robert Asp (1923–1980), a guidance counselor at Moorhead Junior High School. Construction on Hjemkomst began in 1974 at the Leslie Welter Potato Warehouse in Hawley, Minnesota. The warehouse site was then transformed into the Hawley Shipyard during the construction. That same year, Asp became diagnosed with leukemia; however he still continued to build the ship; he had help from other volunteers.

In July 1980, the Hawley Shipyard was torn down for the removal and christening of the completed ship. Hjemkomst was shipped overnight to Duluth, Minnesota, on August 5, 1980. Asp held the rank as captain during the ship's maiden voyage throughout Lake Superior until his death four months later on December 27, 1980. In May 1982, Asp's three sons and daughter along with eight members of Hjemkomst crew decided to sail Hjemkomst to Norway, which was Asp's original dream. The ship departed Duluth on May 11, 1982, and arrived in New York City on June 8, then arrived in Bergen, Norway, on July 19, and on August 9 arrived in Oslo. The ship stayed in Oslo for a year until it was transported back to Minnesota on MV Brunto.

Hopperstad Stave Church Replica
The Hopperstad Stave Church Replica is a replica of a Norwegian stave church located on the grounds of the Hjemkomst Center. The church was built in 1998 by Guy Paulson and was constructed of cedar, redwood, and pine. It is a full-scale replica of the 12th Century Hopperstad Stave Church in Vik, Norway. The church serves as a reminder of the Scandinavian heritage in the Red River Valley.

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

title: Hjemkomst Center


text: Category:South Korean film directors

title: Category:South Korean film directors


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Navicular syndrome

Navicular syndrome, often called navicular disease, is a syndrome of lameness problems in horses. It most commonly describes an inflammation or degeneration of the navicular bone and its surrounding tissues, usually on the front feet. It can lead to significant and even disabling lameness.

Description of the navicular area
Knowledge of equine forelimb anatomy is especially useful for understanding navicular syndrome. The navicular bone lies behind the coffin bone and under the small pastern bone. The deep digital flexor (DDF) tendon runs down the back of the cannon and soft tissue in that area and under the navicular bone before attaching to the back of the coffin bone. The DDF tendon flexes the coffin joint, and the navicular bone acts as a fulcrum that the DDF tendon runs over.

The navicular bone is supported by several ligaments above, below, and on the side. One of these ligaments is the impar ligament, which attaches the navicular bone to the coffin bone (distal phalanx). Cartilage lies between the navicular bone and the coffin joint, as well as between the navicular bone and the DDF tendon. The navicular bursa—a small sac that protects the DDF and navicular bone from abrasion as the tendon slides over the area—lies between the navicular bone and the DDF tendon.

Causes and contributing factors
There is no single known cause of navicular syndrome, although there are many theories, and several primary factors.

The first factor is compression of the navicular bone under the DDF tendon and the back of the small pastern bone. Repeated compression in this area can cause cartilage degeneration, with the cartilage flattening and gradually becoming less springy and shock-absorbing. It may also begin to erode. Cartilage degeneration is common in navicular horses, usually along the flexor surface. This finding, and the associated biochemical changes, have led some researchers to conclude that there are elements in navicular disease common to osteoarthritis, and to suggest similar therapeutic regimes.

Cartilage erosion may progress to the point that the bone underneath will become exposed. With the cartilage no longer present to protect it, the navicular bursa and DDF tendon may become damaged by the constant rubbing against the navicular bone. Navicular bursitis (inflammation of the navicular bursa) may occur, even if cartilage damage is not severe. This is probably due to the friction between the navicular bone and the DDF tendon from compression.

Constant compression can also increase the bone density directly under the cartilage surfaces, especially on the flexor side. This tends to make the bone more brittle, and thus more likely to break.

Another main factor is the tension placed on the ligaments that support the navicular bone. Some experts believe that the degenerative process begins with excess tension placed on these ligaments, causing strain and inflammation. Inflammation from strain of the impar ligament can decrease blood flow to and from the navicular bone, as the major blood vessels supplying the bone run up and down this area. If the ligament continues to be strained, it can thicken and permanently reduce blood flow to the navicular bone.

Because veins are more easily compressed than arteries, blood flow to the bone would be less obstructed than blood flow from the bone. This would cause a buildup of pressure within the navicular bone. The navicular bone, in response to both the increased pressure and overall decreased blood supply, would absorb mineral from its center.

Excess tension can also cause exostoses where the ligaments attach to the navicular bone, giving the bone a "canoe" shape. If tension is extreme, the ligaments may actually tear.

Recent research has found correlations between "toe-first landing" of the hooves and navicular problems, due to excessive strain put on the deep digital flexor tendon, as a consequence of misalignment of the lower joints. Toe-first landing, usually seen as a consequence of navicular disease, may actually be a cause or at least a contributing factor to the onset of tendon inflammation and bone modifications.

Toe-first landing is often caused by frog and heel overtrimming, long toes, and/or poor shoeing.

Conformation
Certain conformational defects may contribute to navicular syndrome, especially defects that promote concussion. These include upright pasterns, small feet, narrow and upright feet, significant downhill build (commonly seen in American Quarter Horses), and long toes with low heels (commonly seen in Thoroughbreds).

The long toe, low heel conformation places constant stress on the navicular bone, even as the horse is standing. Upright feet increase concussion, especially in the heel region of the hoof where the navicular bone is located. Excess concussion cannot be absorbed as well by the structures designed to do so (the frog, heels, and digital cushion), so more impact is transmitted to the structures within the foot.

Poor hoof shape is usually inherited, although poor shoeing and trimming can contribute to these shapes.

With the long toe, low heel conformation can come contracted heels (narrowing of the heel) which further compresses the navicular bone along with sheared heels adding more stress to the tendons and navicular bones.

Shoeing
Poor trimming, shoe selection, or inappropriate shoe attachment are well-known causes of lameness, and navicular disease is fairly common in the modern-day domesticated horse. However, it is also seen in wild horse populations. Those who advocate "barefoot trimming" of domestic horses propose that in nature, a horse's hoof is designed to expand and contract as the horse moves. This expanding and contracting acts as an auxiliary blood pump, and aids the circulation of blood to the lower extremities. When an inflexible metal shoe is improperly attached to the hoof, the hoof can no longer work as designed, and blood flow is inhibited. However, evidence of navicular degeneration has been established in the fossil record of early horses. Mary Thompson, a vertebrate paleontologist at Idaho Museum of Natural History, has found evidence in many species of early horses and concludes, "The results of this study strongly suggest that man’s intervention (whether by increased usage or improper breeding practices) may not be the sole cause of the syndrome", although she cautions that her results are preliminary.

Work
Working on steep hills, galloping, and jumping all contribute to navicular syndrome, as they place greater stress on the DDF tendons, and may cause overextension of the pastern and coffin joints.

Regular exercise on hard or irregular ground increases concussion on the hoof, thus increasing the risk of navicular syndrome.

It is possible that standing can also increase the chance of navicular disease (such as a horse that spends most of the day in a stall with little turnout, as with some racehorses and show horses). Blood flow to the hoof decreases when the horse is not in motion. The horse is also constantly applying pressure to the navicular bones (which is intermittent as the horse moves).

Body weight
Horses with a high weight-to-foot-size ratio may have an increased chance of exhibiting symptoms of navicular syndrome, since the relative load on the foot increases. This might explain why the syndrome is seen more frequently in Thoroughbreds, American Quarter Horses, and Warmbloods as opposed to ponies and Arabians.

Signs
Heel pain is very common in horses with navicular syndrome. Lameness may begin as mild and intermittent, and progress to severe. This may be due to strain and inflammation of the ligaments supporting the navicular bone, reduced blood flow and increased pressure within the hoof, damage to the navicular bursa or DDF tendon, or from cartilage erosion.

Affected horses display a "tiptoe" gait – trying to walk on the toes due to heel pain. They may stumble frequently. The lameness may switch from one leg to another, and may not be consistent. Lameness usually occurs in both front feet, although one foot may be more sore than the other.

Lameness is usually mild (1–2 on a scale of 5). It can be made worse when the horse is worked on a hard surface or on a circle.

After several months of pain, the feet may begin to change shape, especially the foot that has been experiencing the most pain, which tends to become more upright and narrow.

Treatment and prognosis
No single treatment works for all cases, probably because there is no single cause for all cases. The degenerative changes are usually quite advanced by the time the horse is consistently lame, and these changes are believed to be non-reversible. At this time, it is best to manage the condition and focus on alleviating pain and slowing the degeneration.

Trimming
Putting the foot into proper neurological and biomechanical balance is crucial. Often navicular horses have long toes and underrun heels with very little inner wall depth or strength. Exposing the horse to proper stimulus to improve hoof form and structure is also vital.

Hoof care
The issue of hoof care is a subject of great debate. Corrective shoeing can be beneficial to horses suffering from navicular disease, although sometimes the effects are only temporary. Others believe that removing the shoes altogether is the best way to manage this disease, as it allows increased circulation to the hoof. People on both sides agree that proper hoof shape and angle are an important long-term management plan for a horse with navicular disease. As with laminitis, different horses may respond in different ways to a given technique, so the farrier, owner, and veterinarian should work as a team to formulate a plan and to adapt if the initial plan is not effective.

People who choose to treat navicular disease through shoeing may use a shoe designed to lift and support the heels. This can sometimes be accomplished with a flat shoe and trimming alone. Wedge pads or wedged shoes are often used, but can amplify heel-related problems if present. Another strategy is to use a bar type shoe. Often, an egg-bar shoe, or straight bar shoe. Some horses benefit from shoes that change the breakover of their foot (like a rolled toe). With or without shoes, the hoof must be trimmed in such a way as to restore the balance and angle that may have been lost. Horses with long toe-low heel conformation need careful trimming to counter this. Horses with upright feet may need their heels lowered and a shoe that will allow their heels to spread. Early intervention is key; in one study, shoeing was successful in 97% of horses treated within ten months of the onset of signs, while only 54% of horses lame for over a year responded.

Advocates of barefoot trimming cite recent studies which show that removing the shoes can help alleviate the symptoms of navicular disease, and in some cases, reverse some of the damage done to the hoof. Because navicular disease can be caused, or at least exacerbated by shoeing, removing the cause is the first step in this strategy toward the management of pain in the animal. Successive carefully applied trims help to restore the natural angle and shape of the hoof, while walking helps to stimulate circulation to the hoof. It is not uncommon to find horses whose navicular disease is completely manageable through corrective barefoot trimming. However, this may require a transition period lasting from weeks to years where the horse may remain lame, or may never become sound.

If there is significant degeneration in the bone, a flexor cortex cyst, adhesions to the deep digital flexor tendon, or avulsion fractures, relief is typically incomplete no matter what foot care technique is used.

Exercise
Horses with navicular syndrome need a less intense work schedule. Their fitness can be maintained through slow long-distance work or swimming, as opposed to being worked at high speeds, up steep hills, or on hard surfaces, irregular terrain, or deep footing. Reducing the frequency of jumping is also important. Some veterinarians and hoof care practitioners recommend exercising the horse on varied terrain to stimulate and strengthen the caudal hoof structures.

Medication
Vasodilators improve the blood flow into the vessels of the hoof. Examples include isoxsuprine (currently unavailable in the UK) and pentoxifylline.

Anticoagulants can also improve blood flow. The use of warfarin has been proposed, but the extensive monitoring required makes it unsuitable in most cases.

Anti-inflammatory drugs are used to treat the pain, and can help the lameness resolve sometimes if shoeing and training changes are made. Include Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), corticosteroids, and other joint medications. The use of intramuscular glycosaminoglycans has been shown to decrease pain in horses with navicular disease, but this effect wanes after discontinuation of therapy. Oral glycosaminoglycans may have a similar effect.

Bisphosphonates can be useful in cases where bone remodeling is causing pain.

Gallium nitrate (GaN) has been hypothesized as a possible treatment for navicular disease, but its benefits have not been confirmed by formal clinical studies. One pilot study examined horses given gallium nitrate in their feed rations. While it was absorbed slowly, it did stay in the animals' system, providing a baseline dosage for future studies.

Surgery
Palmar digital neurectomy (or "nerving" or "denerving") is not without adverse side effects and should therefore be used as a last resort. In this procedure, the palmar digital nerves are severed, so the horse loses sensation in the back of the foot. This procedure should only be performed if it will eliminate the lameness associated with navicular syndrome, and only after all other options have been explored. The procedure is usually performed on both front feet. Complications can include infection of the wound, continuation of the lameness (if the nerves regrow or if small branches of the nerves are not removed), neuromas, and rupture of the deep digital flexor tendon. After the neurectomy, if the horse becomes injured in the area the injury may go undetected for a long period of time, which risks the animal's health. Due to this, the feet should be cleaned and inspected regularly. Neurectomy tends to lower the market value of a horse, and may even make the horse ineligible for competition. Neurectomy is controversial. The most common misconception about "nerving" a horse is that it will permanently solve the lameness/pain issue. In fact, though the time periods vary based on the individual horse and surgical method utilized, these nerves often regenerate and return sensation to the afflicted region within two to three years.

In navicular suspensory desmotomy, the ligaments supporting the navicular bone are severed. This makes the navicular bone more mobile, and thus reduces the tension of the other ligaments. It is successful about half of the time.

Prognosis
The prognosis for a horse with navicular syndrome is guarded. Many times the horse does not return to its former level of competition. Others are retired. Eventually all horses with the syndrome will need to lessen the strenuousness of their work, but with proper management, a horse with navicular syndrome can remain useful for some time.

title: Navicular syndrome


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Jim Ferrier

James Bennett Elliott Ferrier (24 February 1915 – 13 June 1986) was an Australian professional golfer from Manly, New South Wales. After compiling a fine record as an amateur golfer in Australia during the 1930s, he moved to the United States in 1940, turned professional in 1941, and joined the U.S. PGA Tour. He won the PGA Championship in 1947, among his 18 Tour titles, and was the first Australian and first golfer from the southern hemisphere to win a professional golf major title. Ferrier became an American citizen in 1944.

Early life, family, early golf, education, marriage
Ferrier was born in Sydney, son of John Bennett Ferrier, who had worked as both an insurance clerk and an employee of American Tobacco Company, and his Australian-born wife, Louisa Elliott. Jim was raised in Manly, a coastal suburb (on the Northern headland) of Sydney, NSW, and was taught golf as a youth by his father, a low-handicap player, who was born of Scottish descent in Shanghai, China, with family from Carnoustie, Scotland. Ferrier Street in Carnoustie, near the world-famous golf course Carnoustie Golf Links, honors the family. The senior Ferrier took a job as secretary of the Manly Golf Club, where Jim began golf at age four and a half. Jim was educated at Sydney Grammar School. Young Ferrier injured a leg playing soccer in his teens, and he had to contend with a significant limp for the rest of his life.

Championship success
Ferrier was playing to a handicap of scratch (zero) by his mid-teens, when he left school to be able to play more golf; he was club champion for the first time at Manly at age 15. His first significant win at the state level came in the 1931 New South Wales Amateur Championship, and he repeated there in 1934, 1937, and 1938. From age 16, Ferrier represented New South Wales seven times in Australian Men's Interstate Teams Matches, in 1931, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, and 1939 and he compiled an overall head-to-head record of 7 wins and 3 losses in those events. He also played for New South Wales in the 1932 Kirk-Windeyer Cup, winning all his matches.

He was runner-up in the 1931 Australian Open at the age of 16, taking a six on the 72nd hole to lose by one stroke to five-time champion Ivo Whitton. He also finished runner-up in that championship in 1933 and 1935. He broke through to win in both 1938 (by 14 strokes) and 1939, still as an amateur. He won the Australian Amateur title in 1935, 1936, 1938 and 1939; his four titles in that event is tied for most with Michael Scott. Ferrier was also victorious in eight further significant Australian professional Open events during the 1930s (see below).

He had the opportunity to play exhibitions at Manly Golf Club with world-class players such as Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen, along with Australian Joe Kirkwood, Sr., who had caddied at Manly for Ferrier's father. He also played with Harry Cooper in 1934, when an American team made a tour of Australia; the team also included stars such as Paul Runyan, Denny Shute, and Craig Wood.

Ferrier was runner-up in 1936 to Hector Thompson by 2-up, in The Amateur Championship at St Andrews; this was the best result by an Australian to that juncture, in the world's oldest amateur championship. On that same trip to the British Isles, Ferrier became the first Australian to win the Golf Illustrated Gold Vase, at the Ashridge Golf Club; this was one of the most prestigious amateur events in England. He traveled by ship from Australia to Britain, then on to the USA by ship after his British golf events, flew across the North American continent, then returned to Australia by ship across the Pacific, making a global circuit. He met Sarazen and woman pro Helen Hicks on ship, and played with them in Australia. Sarazen won the 1936 Australian Open.

Ferrier worked as a golf reporter and writer for several Australian publications.

Ferrier married Norma Kathleen Jennings on 12 January 1938 at All Saints Church of England, Woolhara, Sydney. He taught Norma to play golf, and she eventually reached a three handicap, being proficient enough to help her husband with his game. The couple had no children.

Moves to USA, turns pro, joins PGA Tour
In 1940, Ferrier went to the United States as a golf journalist, writing for The Sydney Morning Herald. Ferrier was not allowed to qualify for the U.S. Amateur, due to an Australian golf manual published earlier in the year that he was contracted to receive royalties from. His tournament entry was rejected by the United States Golf Association. At the time, amateur golf eligibility rules differed between Australia and the USA.

As an amateur, Ferrier played several Tour events in 1940, including the Masters Tournament, to which he had been invited based on his amateur record in Australia. However, he was allowed to enter several other amateur events in the U.S., despite the USGA's ruling. He scored his first win in the USA in the 1940 Chicago District Amateur Championship, at the Riverside Golf Club. In January 1941, Ferrier lost to George Dawson in the 36-hole final of the Miami Biltmore Hotel Amateur Championship.

He turned professional in March 1941 and joined the PGA Tour as a club professional, based at the Elmhurst Country Club in Elmhurst, Illinois, near Chicago, joining the Professional Golfers Association of America. Ferrier signed a golf equipment contract with Wilson Sporting Goods.

With the United States declaring war on Japan, Nazi Germany, and Italy, in December 1941, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Ferrier and his wife Norma worked in defense industry jobs in the Chicago area during World War II; this was part of conditions to become American citizens. He served in the U.S. Army from 1944 to 1945, rising to the rank of staff sergeant. While stationed in the artillery at Camp Roberts, California, he gained his first tour victory at the Oakland Open in December 1944, a week after a runner-up finish to Byron Nelson in San Francisco.

In 1946, following discharge from the Army, Ferrier embarked on full-time PGA Tour play. That year, he made golf history by becoming the first player to score a hole-in-one twice in one PGA Tour tournament. He performed the very rare feat at the Victory Bond San Francisco Open held at the Olympic Club, in the first and fourth rounds; despite this, Ferrier finished well behind champion Byron Nelson.

Ferrier's most significant career win came at the PGA Championship in 1947, one of golf's four major championships. He was the first Australian to win a major, and at the time this gave him a lifetime exemption to PGA Tour events. The previous year, he was the medalist in the stroke play qualifier and set the scoring record.

Ferrier returned to Australia on a trip in 1948, and lost an 18-hole playoff in the Australian Open to Ossie Pickworth, who won his third straight title. Pickworth, three years younger, had also grown up at the Manly Golf Club, had caddied for Ferrier there, and had worked at the club as an assistant professional.

At the 1950 Masters, Ferrier led Jimmy Demaret by three shots with six holes to play, but finished two strokes back as the runner-up to Demaret. He scored 16 of his 18 PGA titles between 1947 and 1952, with a peak of five wins in 1951; that was second on Tour to Cary Middlecoff (6). He was second leading money winner on the Tour that year, behind only Lloyd Mangrum. Ferrier's other significant victories included consecutive Canadian Open titles in 1950 and 1951.

Ferrier was renowned as an outstanding putter.

Later years, death
Ferrier greatly scaled back his PGA Tour competition from 1954, and took a financially lucrative club professional's job with the Lakeside Country Club in suburban Los Angeles, for eight years. He did return to playing more Tour events in the early to mid 1960s, with some success. He was runner-up in the 1960 PGA Championship at age 45. His final Tour win in 1961 snapped a nine-year winless stretch, and he also won a California regional pro event in 1963 in his 48th year.

But his game fell off after that, although he continued to play some Tour events into the late 1970s, using his lifetime exemption. This created some friction on Tour, since he (and certain other non-competitive aging past champions) was blocking younger players from entering, with fields at limited sizes. An eventual change of PGA Tour regulations came from that, requiring veteran players to maintain a certain playing standard to continue to have access to tournaments. The present-day Champions Tour had not yet been created, although Ferrier did play some events on that Tour in the early 1980s, but struggled.

Ferrier became a member at the same city's Wilshire Country Club.

On 6 January 1955 (Season 5 Episode 17), Ferrier appeared on the television game show You Bet Your Life hosted by Groucho Marx, of Marx Brothers fame. He was paired with Marilyn Pierce, a dog trainer and former model.

Ferrier died in Burbank, California, in 1986 at the age of 71.

Legacy, honors
Ferrier's record in important Australian events was as good as anyone's in the 1930s, although he competed as an amateur; he won a total of ten Open events, where professionals were in the field; he also won a total of eight significant amateur events in Australia. His total of four titles, achieved over a span of five years, in the Australian Amateur Championship is tied for the most ever, with Hon. Michael Scott. His runner-up finish in the Amateur Championship of 1936 was the best result by an Australian until Doug Bachli won in 1954; this title was matched by Australian Bryden Macpherson in 2011.

Ferrier did not begin playing the American PGA Tour full-time until 1946, the year he turned 31 years old. But over the next eight seasons, he compiled a very impressive record for outstanding, consistent play. From 1946 to 1953 inclusive, Ferrier finished in the top-25 of Tour events a total of 202 times. Over eight-year periods across the Tour's history, this total has been topped only by Doug Ford, with 223, from 1952–1959. Ferrier's single-season high was 34 top-25 finishes in 1950; this figure has been topped only by the 37 from Lloyd Mangrum in 1948, and by Harold McSpaden, with 35 in 1945; it was matched by Dow Finsterwald with 34 in 1956, with all data through the 1988 season. In terms of top-10 finishes, his 29 from 1950 has been surpassed only by 31 from McSpaden in 1945, and 30 from Byron Nelson, also in 1945.

Ferrier's five wins on the regular PGA Tour in the 1951 season was the most by an Australian until it was matched by Jason Day in 2015.

Ferrier was ranked #22, through the 1988 season, by the Tour's wide-ranging statistical project, which tabulated in detail the performance statistics for the Tour's top 500 players, through the 1988 season. Of those ranked above him on that list, only E. J. Harrison, at #16, has not been inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Ferrier was the first Australian to win one of the four men's professional championships. He was also the first player from the Southern Hemisphere to win a major.

Ferrier's example set the stage for the international success of stars such as South African Bobby Locke (four Open Championship titles between 1949 and 1957), and fellow Australian Peter Thomson (five Open Championship titles between 1954 and 1965). But Ferrier's record in the U.S. was superior to those of both Locke and Thomson.

Until the arrival of South African Gary Player on the U.S. Tour in the late 1950s, Ferrier was the most successful non-American in that Tour's history, or at least since Tommy Armour played in the 1920s and 1930s. Ferrier was certainly the most successful non-American of his era. Until the arrival of fellow Australian Greg Norman on the U.S. Tour in the 1980s, Ferrier was the most successful Australian on that Tour. Travel between golf tournaments became notably easier after Ferrier and his cohorts wound down their careers; players of his era mostly drove their cars. As airline service improved in the U.S. and around the world, and as tournament prizes rose greatly, later generations were able to save time and energy by flying between tournaments.

As his success mounted, Ferrier helped to design a signature set of Wilson golf clubs; Wilson also issued a replica of Ferrier's putter – the Grandmaster – from his 1947 PGA Championship win; this putter is now a collector's item. He was made a member of the Sport Australia Hall of Fame with its inaugural class in 1985. He received an entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography. His portrait is in the Australian National Portrait Gallery.

Writings

 * Jim Ferrier's Golf Shots, 1940, Australia.
 * The Golf Clinic, 1949 (contributor)

Amateur wins
(This list may be incomplete)
 * 1931 New South Wales Amateur
 * 1934 Queensland Amateur, New South Wales Amateur
 * 1935 Queensland Amateur, Australian Amateur
 * 1936 Australian Amateur, Golf Illustrated Gold Vase
 * 1937 New South Wales Amateur
 * 1938 Queensland Amateur, Australian Amateur, New South Wales Amateur
 * 1939 Queensland Amateur, Australian Amateur
 * 1940 Chicago District Amateur

PGA Tour wins (18)
PGA Tour playoff record (2–1)

Australasian wins (13)
Note: wins before 1941 as an amateur
 * 1933 New South Wales Close
 * 1934 Queensland Open
 * 1935 New South Wales Close
 * 1936 New South Wales Close, Lakes Open
 * 1937 New South Wales Close, Lakes Open
 * 1938 Australian Open, New South Wales Close, Queensland Open
 * 1939 Australian Open, Queensland Open
 * 1948 Lakes Open

Other wins (5)
(This list may be incomplete)
 * 1944 Northern California Open
 * 1945 Northern California Open, 9th Service Command Golf Championship
 * 1955 Southern California PGA Championship
 * 1963 Southern California Open

Wins (1)
Note: The PGA Championship was match play until 1958

Results timeline
{{legend|lime|Win}} {{legend|yellow|Top 10}} {{legend|#eeeeee|Did not play}}

NT = no tournament

WD = withdrew

CUT = missed the half-way cut

R32, R16, QF, SF = Round in which player lost in PGA Championship match play

"T" indicates a tie for a place

Summary

 * Most consecutive cuts made – 7 (twice)
 * Longest streak of top-10s – 5 (1946 PGA – 1948 Masters)

Team appearances
Amateur
 * Australian Men's Interstate Teams Matches (representing New South Wales): 1931, 1933, 1934 (winners), 1935, 1936, 1937 (winners), 1939

title: Jim Ferrier


text:
Sinus Successus

The lunar feature Sinus Successus (Latin sinus successūs "Bay of Success") lies along the eastern edge of Mare Fecunditatis. It is an outward bulge that forms a type of bay. The selenographic coordinates of Sinus Successus are 0.9° N, 59.0° E, and the diameter is 132 km.

Along the eastern edge of the bay is the flooded crater Condon, and the crater Webb forms the southern end of the area. There are no other features of significance on the bay. However the terrain just to the northwest of Sinus Successus was the landing site for the Soviet Luna 18 and Luna 20 probes.

title: Sinus Successus


text: Category:Latvian film directors

title: Category:Latvian film directors


text:
The Sentinel (1977 film)

The Sentinel is a 1977 American supernatural horror film directed by Michael Winner, and starring Cristina Raines, Chris Sarandon, Ava Gardner, Burgess Meredith, Sylvia Miles and Eli Wallach. The plot focuses on a young model who moves into a historic Brooklyn brownstone that has been sectioned into apartments, only to find that the building is owned by the Catholic diocese and is a gateway to Hell. It is based on the 1974 novel of the same name by Jeffrey Konvitz, who also co-wrote the screenplay with director Winner. It also features Christopher Walken, Jeff Goldblum, John Carradine, Jerry Orbach, Tom Berenger, Nana Visitor and Beverly D'Angelo in supporting roles.

The film was released by Universal Pictures in 1977.

Plot
Alison Parker, a fashion model with a history of suicide attempts due to childhood trauma, moves into a historic Brooklyn Heights brownstone. The top floor apartment is occupied by a blind priest, Father Halliran, who spends his time sitting at his open window. Soon after moving in, Alison begins having strange physical problems, including fainting spells and insomnia, and hears noises. She meets her odd new neighbors, including the eccentric, elderly Charles Chazen, and lesbian couple Gerde and Sandra, becoming disturbed when Sandra masturbates in front of her. She also attends a bizarre birthday party for Chazen's cat. When Alison complains to the rental agent Miss Logan, she is told that the building is occupied only by Halliran and her. Alison's lawyer boyfriend Michael contacts his corrupt detective friend Brenner to investigate.

One night, Brenner goes to Alison's building, while inside she encounters the animated corpse of her deceased father. She escapes by stabbing him and is hospitalized with a nervous breakdown. Police detectives Gatz and Rizzo investigate; clues lead them to suspect that Michael murdered his wife after she refused to leave him, so he could marry Alison. They find Brenner's stabbed body; clues suggest Alison might have murdered him. They also find that the people Alison claimed she saw at the cat's birthday party are all deceased murderers.

Alison, who can now read Latin words no one else can see, visits a Catholic church, and confesses her sins, including her adultery with Michael, to Monsignor Franchino. Michael breaks into the Diocesan office and reads Halliran's file, which shows he is one of a series of priests and nuns who previously attempted suicide in lay life, then became clergy or nuns on the date of their predecessor's death. Alison is listed as the latest in the series, slated to take over as "Sister Teresa" the next day. Frightened, Michael is confronted by Father Halliran, who reveals that the brownstone is the gateway to Hell. Michael is killed by Franchino.

In the brownstone, Alison is confronted by Chazen and the minions of Hell, including the now-dead Michael, who indeed had hired Brenner to kill his wife. They explain that Halliran is the Sentinel, who ensures that the demons do not escape Hell. Halliran is nearing the end of his life, and Alison, with her history of suicide attempts, has been chosen as the new Sentinel to save her own soul. Chazen tries to convince Alison to join Michael in Hell instead. However, after Halliran's intense struggle with the demons, Alison takes the cross from him, accepting her duty as the Sentinel and saving her soul. Defeated, an angry Chazen disappears.

The brownstone is demolished and replaced with a modern apartment complex shortly after. Miss Logan shows an apartment to a young couple. She explains that there are only two neighbors: a violin player and a reclusive nun. Alison, now blind and dressed as a nun, sits looking out the top apartment window.

Development
Universal Pictures purchased the film rights the novel in 1974 and originally hired its author Jeffrey Konvitz to write the screenplay. It later replaced Konvitz with Richard Alan Simmons as screenwriter and hired Don Siegel as director. Although location scouting for this version of the film was done in New Orleans in 1975, it was abandoned in favor of a screenplay co-written by Konvitz and the new director Michael Winner, who was offered the project by Universal executive Ned Tanen when the two met at a party in Los Angeles.

Casting
Winner cast Cristina Raines in the lead role of Alison Parker, having directed her previously in The Stone Killer (1973), though her scenes were ultimately cut from the finished version of that film. In the role of Michael Lerman, Alison's attorney boyfriend, Winner hired Martin Sheen, but Universal disagreed with this casting decision, as executive felt Sheen had "done too much television" and did not have a wide enough appeal to film audiences. As an alternative, Winner cast Chris Sarandon, whom he had been impressed by in his role in Dog Day Afternoon (1975) as well as several Broadway theatre productions. Sarandon later commented that he regretted accepting the role: "When I first read it, I thought it had a chance of being a first-rate picture. I liked the book a lot... but I had no fun making it...  It was the only picture I've done that I felt was not a success on any level, personally or professionally."

A number of Golden Age Hollywood stars were cast in supporting roles, including Ava Gardner, Martin Balsam, John Carradine, José Ferrer, Arthur Kennedy, Eli Wallach, and Sylvia Miles. Christopher Walken was given a minor supporting role as a detective, while the film marked Beverly D'Angelo's first feature screen appearance; Winner later stated that he felt Walken and D'Angelo should have portrayed the lead roles of Alison and Michael. Richard Dreyfuss also appears in the film's final sequence in an uncredited role as an extra.

Winner chose to cast Gardner in the role of the realtor, Miss Logan, because he felt "every time I rent an apartment in New York, I get it from a realtor who looks just like Ava. She keeps saying she's a lousy actress, but she's very good." After working with Gardner on the film, Winner became a lifelong friend of hers.

Filming
Principal photography began in New York City on May 21, 1976 with a budget of $3.5 million. The external views of the house were taken from the block built at the west end of Remsen Street in Brooklyn and many of the film's locations are in Brooklyn Heights.

Winner was visually inspired by the depictions of the creatures of Hell as they appear in the works of Christopher Marlowe, Dante's Inferno, and the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch. Shortly after the film's release, Winner revealed that many of the deformed persons featured in the finale were actually people with physical disabilities and abnormalities, whom he cast from hospitals and sideshows.

After the film's completion, Winner screened the final cut for Universal Pictures executives, whom he stated "almost committed suicide by doing a two-foot fall from their padded leather chairs."

Music
John Williams was originally hired to compose the film's score before being replaced with Gil Mellé.

Box office
The Sentinel was released theatrically by Universal Pictures on February 11, 1977 and was a mild box-office success. It grossed a total of $4 million in the United States, and was the 57th highest-grossing film of the year.

Contemporaneous
By director Winner's account, The Sentinel received reviews that were "on the whole, very good." Kevin Thomas praised the film's performances and entertainment value, but noted that it lacked originality, writing: "Whether intended or not, The Sentinel seems above all a parody of every chiller dealing with the supernatural from Rosemary's Baby through The Exorcist to The Omen. Indeed, the material is so derivative and therefore essentially unconvincing that it's hard to imagine how else it could have been played." Critic Peter Travers described the film as "one of those all-star movies featuring actors who give the impression of being in-between jobs... The shocking thing to me about The Sentinel is why actors such as Ferrer, Gardner, Kennedy, Meredith, Carradine, and Martin Balsam lend their names to it."

Variety gave the film a negative review, writing "The Sentinel is a grubby, grotesque excursion into religioso psychodrama, notable for uniformly poor performances by a large cast of familiar names and direction that is hysterical and heavy-handed." The New York Times called the film "dull", criticizing the film for its long stretches, but commended Raines' performance. John Simon of the National Review described The Sentinel as "dreadful". Film scholar Robert Bookbinder wrote in his 1982 book The Films of the Seventies the final sequence in which the "armies of Hell" terrorize Alison "is undoubtedly one of the most terrifying interludes in seventies cinema."

Modern
, The Sentinel holds an approval rating of 48% on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes based on 21 reviews, with a rating average of 6/10. Anthony Arrigo from Dread Central gave the film 3.5 out of 5 stars, writing, "The Sentinel might be devoid of any big, memorable showstopper moments but it maintains enough of a chilling atmosphere to keep fright fans engaged." Brett Gallman from Oh, the Horror! gave the film a positive review, stating that, although it was not the best of the "demonic horror" subgenre, it was just as entertaining. Gallman also commended the film's script, performances and effective imagery.

David Pirie in Time Out was quite negative in his review, claiming The Sentinel was "just a mass of frequently incomprehensible footage, acted so badly that even the most blatant shocks count for little". Pirie criticised the movie for being derivative of Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist and The Omen: "The Sentinel seems little more than a pile of outtakes from recent supernatural successes." Robin Wood described The Sentinel as "the worst—most offensive and repressive—horror film of the 70s".

Ian Jane from DVD Talk awarded the film 3.5 out of 5 stars. In his conclusion Jane wrote, "Michael Winner's The Sentinel is a gleefully perverse slice of seventies horror that makes no qualms about taking things in a few entirely unexpected directions while still sticking to some tried and true genre conventions. It's not a perfect film but it's definitely interesting and always entertaining." The film was ranked #46 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments in 2004.

TV Guide awarded the film 1/5 stars, calling it "a truly repulsive film". Jedd Beaudoin from PopMatters gave the film 1/10 stars, criticizing the film's lack of believability and incoherent plot.

Home media
The first home media release of this film was in 1985, under the MCA Home Video label. Universal Pictures Home Video released The Sentinel on DVD in 2004. In 2015, Scream Factory issued the film on Blu-ray with new bonus materials, including three audio commentaries.

title: The Sentinel (1977 film)


text:
Frederick Coleridge Mackarness

Frederic(k) Michael Coleridge Mackarness (31 August 1854 – 23 December 1920) born at Tardebigge, Saint Bartholomew, Worcestershire, England was a British barrister, judge and Liberal politician and Member of Parliament for the Newbury constituency.

Family and education
Mackarness was the son of the Right Reverend John Fielder Mackarness, who was Bishop of Oxford from 1870 to 1888 and Alethea Buchanan Coleridge. He was educated at Marlborough College and Keble College, Oxford. In 1882 he married Amy Chermside, the daughter of an Anglican vicar. They do not appear to have had children. Amy Mackarness died in 1916.

Career
Mackarness went in for the law and was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple in 1879. He practised as an advocate of the Cape Supreme Court for some years, was appointed Revising Barrister for Harrow, Middlesex in 1889 and for London in the same year – Revising Barristers were Counsel of not less than three years standing (and from 1873, of not less than seven years' standing) appointed to revise the lists of parliamentary voters. He was appointed Recorder of Newbury in 1894 and was Professor of Roman-Dutch Law at University College, London from 1905 to 1906. In 1911, he was given a County Court judgeship in Sussex.

Politics
Liberal politics were a part of Mackarness' family. His sister Mary was married to Bernard Coleridge, another barrister of the Middle Temple, who was Liberal MP for Sheffield Attercliffe from 1885 to 1894. His father was also a Liberal and his appointment as Bishop of Oxford was on the recommendation of William E. Gladstone.

In 1903, Mackarness resigned from his position as Recorder of Newbury to become the prospective Liberal parliamentary candidate. Newbury was a traditionally Conservative seat. Since its creation in 1885 it had been represented first by William George Mount and then by his son William Arthur Mount for the Tories. David Cameron who became Prime Minister at the 2010 general election is descended from the Mount family. At the 1900 general election William Arthur Mount was returned unopposed.

However. Mackarness was elected as MP for Newbury at the 1906 general election narrowly beating Mount by 402 votes. He was an active member of the House of Commons.

Very shortly after his election in April 1906 he was the sponsor of a Private Members Bill - The Housing of the Working Classes Acts Amendment Bill which sought to reorganise the provision of housing for the working classes in rural areas. Whilst the Bill itself was unsuccessful it resulted in a Select Committee Report which set out significant and wide ranging proposals to reform the legislation. Subsequently the Liberal Government enacted the Housing of the Working Classes Act 1909 which resulted in systematic inspection of the condition of working class housing and the provision of council housing in many places, particularly in rural areas in the period up to the start of the First World War.

While in Parliament he took up the cause of Chinese Labour in South Africa and campaigned on behalf of native Indians and their civil rights. In 1910, in his role as chairman of the executive of the India Civil Rights Committee, he published a pamphlet entitled Methods of the Indian Police in the 20th Century in which he showed, by quoting official reports, that untried prisoners were tortured to extort evidence. This document was suppressed by the Provincial Governments in India under the Press Act of 1912 and the resulting controversy caused a rift between Mackarness and his sympathetic supporters in the Liberal press and Edwin Montagu who was the Under-Secretary of State for India. Apart from his interest in the issue of so-called coolie labour, Mackarness drew on his experience in South Africa to comment regularly on matters affecting the British colonies there over the years. In 1902 he published Martial Law in the Cape Colony during 1901 and was a member of the South African Conciliation Committee, a British anti-war organisation opposed to the suffering caused by the Second Boer War and dedicated to bringing the war to an end through negotiation. Mackarness was also noted as an 'indefatigable' supporter of Irish Home Rule.

In 1909, Mackarness told his constituency Liberal Association that "for private reasons" he did not intend to fight the next election. The seat reverted to the Conservatives by a wide margin, William Arthur Mount recording a majority of 2,358 over the new Liberal candidate, Thomas Hedderwick the former MP for Wick Burghs.

Death
Mackarness died in London on 23 December 1920 and his funeral took place in Eastbourne on 3 January 1921.

title: Frederick Coleridge Mackarness


text:
Quad Cities Nuclear Generating Station

Quad Cities Generating Station is a two-unit nuclear power plant located near Cordova, Illinois, United States, on the Mississippi River. The two General Electric boiling water reactors give the plant a total gross electric capacity of approximately 1,880 MW. It was named for the nearby cities of Moline, Illinois, Rock Island, Illinois, Davenport, Iowa, East Moline, Illinois, and Bettendorf, Iowa — known as the Quad Cities.

The Quad Cities plant is owned and operated by Constellation Energy. In 2004, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved a 20-year license extension for both reactors at this plant. Citing the plant's ongoing string of financial losses, Exelon had considered shutting down the facility by 2018.

On June 2, 2016, Exelon announced its intentions to close Quad Cities Nuclear Generating Station on June 1, 2018 due to the plant's profitability and a lack of support from the Illinois state legislature.

On December 14, 2016, Exelon announced it would keep Quad Cities Nuclear Generating station open due to Illinois passing the Future Energy Jobs Bill.

Extended power uprate
During an extended power uprate test on March 5, 2002 (designed to extend the power efficiency of existing BWR reactors), Quad Cities Unit 2 began to experience vibrations in a steam line. On March 29 the plant was manually shut down due to high vibrations causing leaks in the main turbine control system. Unit 2 was restarted on April 2, but vibration broke a main steam pipe drain line. The line was repaired and the restart resumed, but by June 7 the main steam lines were showing unexplained aberrations. The plant was again taken offline for repairs on July 11, and the problem was traced to a hole in the steam dryer. The steam dryer was repaired and Unit 2 was restarted on July 21, 2002. The incident did not result in any increased probability of an accident. The NRC inspected all repairs and the extended power uprate was completed successfully. 2015 net generation was 15.5 million MWh, and the capacity factor was 95.0%. This equates to roughly 1.2 million homes.

Surrounding population
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission defines two emergency planning zones around nuclear power plants: a plume exposure pathway zone with a radius of 10 mi, concerned primarily with exposure to, and inhalation of, airborne radioactive contamination, and an ingestion pathway zone of about 50 mi, concerned primarily with ingestion of food and liquid contaminated by radioactivity.

The 2010 U.S. population within 10 mi of Quad Cities was 34,350, a decrease of 0.5 percent in a decade, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data for msnbc.com. The 2010 U.S. population within 50 mi was 655,207, a decrease of 0.3 percent since 2000. Cities within 50 miles include Davenport and Moline (19 miles to city center).

Exelon's cost disclosure
In 2015, Exelon's executive vice president stated that its five Illinois dual-unit power plants have costs roughly $33/MW·h to $34/MW·h of electricity produced and that its Clinton single-unit power plant costs roughly $38/MW·h to $39/MW·h. These costs consist of labor, scheduled and outages maintenance (including provisions for unanticipated outages), nuclear fuel, capital spending, corporate costs (like legal and human resources), and the property taxes paid to host communities.

On the other side, revenues come from the energy prices paid by utility customers and businesses and capacity charges covered by all consumers. For 2016 and 2017 energy prices were set in 2015 around $30.50/MW·h (about $33/MW·h in 2014). The August 21, 2015, announced capacity price, set via an auction conducted yearly by PJM Interconnection (the power-grid administrator covering northern Illinois), for the year beginning June 1, 2018, was $215 per megawatt-day, which, divided for 24 hours, translates to $8.96/MW·h. Adding those revenues yields slightly less than $39.50/MW·h, beginning in mid-2018.

In that auction, Quad Cities did not qualify for the capacity charges, having bid too high, so it will get only the energy price, $30.50/MW·h.

More, each power plant has to pay congestion costs, to move its energy on the power grid. Some plants have around $1/MW·h to $2,50/MW·h of such costs. Quad Cities is projected to pay $9.60/MW·h in 2015. Putting all together, Exelon expected to get revenue around $22.50/MW·h in 2017, so Quad Cities would lose $11/MW·h. Given an annual generation of 15.44 million MW·h, it sums to $170 million of losses.

But Quad Cities could be relieved of some of the congestion costs in 2017. Grand Prairie Gateway, a new transmission line, is under construction by Commonwealth Edison, the largest Illinois electric utility. Once completed, it will relieve power-grid congestion for both Quad Cities and Byron, another Exelon power plant. Taking away congestion costs, Quad Cities losses may be reduced to around $70 million in 2017.

In 2016, Exelon distributed charts showing its nuclear plants earning revenue of $19,40/MW·h from Quad Cities to $27,80/MW·h from Dresden. Other values shown were: Braidwood $26.1, Byron $22.2, La Salle $26.5 and Clinton $22.6.

In 2016, Exelon also got a $5.60/MW·h additional revenue following agreements for high-demand periods delivery and in investor presentations, Exelon stated that about 90% of 2016 revenues are locked at more than $34/MW·h. Summing all together, it appears that almost all Exelon power plants, except Clinton, would break-even at $35/MW·h.

In December 2016, Illinois voted to subsidize Exelon with 1c/kWh or $235 million per year (depending on electricity rates) to keep QC and Clinton open for at least 10 years, as natural gas had decreased rates.

Seismic risk
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's estimate of the risk each year of an earthquake intense enough to cause core damage to the reactor at Quad Cities was 1 in 37,037, according to an NRC study published in August 2010.

title: Quad Cities Nuclear Generating Station


text:
Central German

Central German or Middle German (mitteldeutsche Dialekte, mitteldeutsche Mundarten, Mitteldeutsch) is a group of High German languages spoken from the Rhineland in the west to the former eastern territories of Germany.

Central German divides into two subgroups, West Central German and East Central German.

Central German is distinguished by having experienced the High German consonant shift to a lesser degree than Upper German. It is spoken in the linguistic transition region separated from Northern Germany (Low German/Low Franconian) by the Benrath line isogloss and separated from Southern Germany (Upper German) by the Speyer line.

Central German is spoken in large and influential German cities such as Berlin, the former West German capital Bonn, Cologne, Düsseldorf, the main German financial center Frankfurt, Leipzig, and Dresden.

The area corresponds to the geological region of the hilly Central Uplands that stretches from the North German plain to the South German Scarplands, covering the states of Saarland, Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse, Thuringia and Saxony.

The East Central dialects are the closest to Standard German (chiefly as a written language) among other German dialects. Modern Standard German thus evolved from the vocabulary and spelling of this region, with some pronunciation features from East Franconian German.

Classification

 * West Central German (Westmitteldeutsch)
 * Central Franconian (Mittelfränkisch)
 * Ripuarian (Ripuarisch)
 * Moselle Franconian (Moselfränkisch)
 * Luxembourgish (Luxemburgisch)
 * Rhine Franconian (Rheinfränkisch)
 * Palatinate German (Pfälzisch)
 * Lorraine Franconian (Lothringisch), spoken in Lorraine
 * Hessian
 * North Hessian (Nordhessisch)
 * East Hessian (Osthessisch)
 * Central Hessian (Mittelhessisch)
 * South Hessian (Südhessisch)
 * East Central German (Ostmitteldeutsch)
 * Thuringian (Thüringisch)
 * Upper Saxon (Obersächsisch)
 * Erzgebirgisch
 * Nordobersächsisch-Südmärkisch
 * Lusatian
 * East Central German dialects spoken in the former eastern territories:
 * Silesian (Schlesisch), nearly extinct
 * High Prussian (Hochpreußisch), nearly extinct

title: Central German


text:
User talk:DavidBrooks/archive/EB2004

This is stuff that people have sent me about the Missing encyclopedic articles project.

The basis for the division was the original List of encyclopedia topics, which I have worked on extensively over the past year and a half. The smaller sections make it much easier to work with the list, remove links once they are activated, and deal with specific topics. As for calculating percentage done, the easiest thing I find is to simply paste the list into Word, and replace all the #'s. The number of replacements made, subtracted from 1,000, gives the remainder left. Danny 12:03, 19 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Hi, I will answer on the other page--thanks for asking me--but I am certainly not leader of anything. Just a run of the mill wikipedian with too much time on his hands. Danny 01:24, 30 Mar 2005 (UTC)

/29
Hi David. Many thanks for your message. You make a good point and I replied via email. If you don't get the mail, let me know. Pcb21| Pete 17:45, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Nice work on Tabinshwehti. If you look further down the list, Thibaw is another Myanmar king. ;-) Danny 18:35, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Paul Monette
''As part of the EB2004 project I picked the first item on page 21, did a little research, and put together a stub. Only after I used "what links here" did I see you have him listed as a project. Since I know nothing about gay lit, I'd obviously have no qualms with you replacing it. The point is that we have an article! David Brooks 06:01, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)''
 * Cool! Thanks, I noticed there was no article and was getting set to write one... someday.  Well done! -- Cleduc 14:10, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Montacute House
Great photographs, I have just moved them about a little, as there was a large void in the centre of the page, hope you don't mind. Giano | talk 09:49, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * I quite liked them the way we had them! Giano | talk 12:51, 11 May 2005 (UTC)... reply on your page. David Brooks
 * No I knew it was User:Alphax I just thought it was a bit heavy handed of him to just move them when the history showed someone had spent time already arranging them, and then just inform us his way was best! it's not as if its going to be on the front page is it?. No, don't bother to revert, its not worth a war.  Nice you've made your wife famous, the old one actually had a lot of blurring and smudging where I had removed my charming children to deny them their moment of fame! I've retagged the old image (had my wrists slapped) it is an orphan now, but yours are far better so it does not relly matter. Regards Giano | talk 17:19, 11 May 2005 (UTC)

Lung articles
I think lung congestion can safely be redirected, although it is an awkward term. As for pulmonary infarction, this appears to be a distinct clinical entity generally resulting from pulmonary embolism. As there is no Emedicine article (at least for adults) about it, it is probably not exactly shocking that we have no article about it.

Sorry to hear about your lumbal foraminal stenosis. I hope the diodes down your left side will be better soon :-) JFW | T@lk  20:13, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * PS have a look at this link. Do you notice something truly impressive? JFW | T@lk  20:15, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)

EB 2004
Sorry, I tried to scan the talk page for policy, but didn't slog through all of it. I wonder why they are all in capital in the first place, the online EB search brings up most in lower case. In any case, feel free to change them all back, but try to leave the comments. I guess it just seems a red link that follows the naming conventions is more useful than one that doesn't. Or are we assuming everyone that creates links from there will check the naming conventions too? - Taxman Talk 23:14, Jun 6, 2005 (UTC)

EB2004
Thanks for spotting my cork tree error, bit embarrassing as it was me that put the automatic links there to easily check EB and wiki!, thanks Bluemoose 09:22, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Q
I can see you're working from the top as I write, so I am working from the bottom. Pcb21| Pete 18:06, 18 Jun 2005 (UTC)

 * Sorry, you are right it is a pleasure. I will endevour to share it! Pcb21| Pete 18:15, 18 Jun 2005 (UTC)

EB2004 duplicates
Hi - thanks for the clarification on the duplicate entries. Makes sense to me. And thanks for your work on organizing this effort! CDC  (talk)  05:26, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Missing topics
Shame you won't be on 2004 anymore. Good luck with Nuttall! Pcb21| Pete 1 July 2005 15:00 (UTC)

Nuttal:Epoch Making Events
Nice handling of that one. I'd scratched my head about that entry myself before just skipping it. --KharBevNor 2 July 2005 18:46 (UTC)

Le noir faineant
To be truthful, I don't care either way. All I ask is that in case you re-create the article, you categorise it as "royalty-stub" or nothing, instead of generic "stub"; see WP:STUB. Cheers. --Sn0wflake 05:12, 14 August 2005 (UTC)

Nuttall
Didn't get round to looking at usernames so my comment wasn't directed at anyone in particular... further I didn't want to offend anyone... just that I can see that the proportion of poorly-thought-out articles has increased so it is probably more than one perosn. I don't know if you saw my suggestion... to import all of Nuttall material inside a ==Historical view== section complete with "Please note this is old" disclaimer and a Category:Nuttall import to be checked, as a way of working around the more "enthusiastic" contributors. Pcb21| Pete 16:06, 15 August 2005 (UTC)

 * Good point about the blue links in the other lists.
 * The idea was originally espoused as the third comment in Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Missing_encyclopedic_articles but people didn't like it because it is has it defencies. I agree it does, but might be better than the current alternatives. The way to work-around you very good point would be first to work through the list of Nuttall x 1911, data-dumping from both in some automated fashion, with a category of Category:Nuttall and 1911 import to be checked.
 * Having said that, given that I actually haven't yet got the code or support to do it, I will indeed take up your suggestion and join you as an "elder statemen" of the project and clean up after other people!
 * (Agreed re spelling mistakes and some outright errors in Nuttall, agree to being bold in throwing such things off the list as we see fit). Pcb21| Pete 19:19, 15 August 2005 (UTC)

David Schenkel
Hiya. Yes, I did create the redirect, mostly because I thought someone would come through and might check the Nuttall entries again. I'd really like to think that the Nuttall pages we're creating are going to stay around and not be deleted, but as the EB2004 and Hutchinson pages were deleted on Jimbo's whim, I thought that it would be good to include it (with an appropriate commit message). It certainly is a toss-up, because I could see some people argue that it's polluting the namespace... Womble 23:19, 7 September 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:DavidBrooks/archive/EB2004


text:
User:Nesbit

Bio
John C. Nesbit works in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University, where he teaches and does research in educational psychology and educational technology. His primary research interests are self-regulated learning with multimedia, evaluation of multimedia learning resources, methods for analyzing learner interactions with educational software, and the cognitive effects of argumentation. His Erdős number is 6.

 * Curriculum Vitae
 * Research and Teaching

Why I do Wikipedia
Abstracting and assembling information from existing sources is a type of knowledge construction and learning. Wikipedia's editing and discussion tools make that knowledge construction process open, visible, collaborative and quite efficient. The struggles that editors sometimes have in defending their edits, or changing the edits of others, are opportunities for teaching and learning that are not easily had in other settings.

title: User:Nesbit


text:
Mikhail Nesterov

Mikhail Vasilyevich Nesterov (Михаил Васильевич Нестеров; 31 May 1862 – 18 October 1942) was a Russian and Soviet painter; associated with the Peredvizhniki and Mir iskusstva. He was one of the first exponents of Symbolist art in Russia.

Biography
He was born to a strongly patriarchal merchant family. His father was a draper and haberdasher, but always had a strong interest in history and literature. As a result, he was sympathetic to his son's desire to be an artist, but insisted that he acquire practical skills first and, in 1874, he was sent to Moscow where he enrolled at the Voskresensky Realschule.

In 1877, his counselors suggested that he transfer to the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where he studied with Pavel Sorokin, Illarion Pryanishnikov and Vasily Perov, who was his favorite teacher. In 1879, he began to participate in the school's exhibitions. Two years later, he entered the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, where he worked with Pavel Chistyakov. He was disappointed at the teaching there and returned to Moscow, only to find Perov on his deathbed, so he took lessons from Alexei Savrasov. After a brief stay in Ufa, where he met his future wife, Maria, he returned to Moscow and studied with Vladimir Makovsky. While creating a series of historical paintings, he supported himself doing illustrations for magazines and books published by Alexei Stupin, including a collection of fairy tales by Pushkin. In 1885, he was awarded the title "Free Artist" and married, against his parents' wishes. The following year, his wife died after giving birth to his daughter, Olga. Several of his works from this period feature his wife's image.

His first major success came with his painting, "The Hermit" which was shown at the seventeenth exhibition of the Peredvizhniki in 1889. It was purchased by Pavel Tretyakov and the money enabled Nesterov to take an extended trip to Austria, Germany, France and Italy. Upon returning, his painting, "The Vision to the Youth Bartholomew", the first in a series of works on the life of Saint Sergius, was shown at the eighteenth Peredvizhniki exhibition and also purchased by Tretyakov. This series would eventually include fifteen large canvases and occupy him for fifty years.

Religious art
In 1890, Adrian Prakhov, who was overseeing work at St Volodymyr's Cathedral, became familiar with Nesterov's paintings and invited him to participate in creating murals and icons there. After some hesitation, he agreed, then travelled to Rome and Istanbul to acquaint himself with Byzantine art. This project would take twenty-two years to complete. Although it brought him great popularity, he apparently came to feel that the images required were too clichéd and beneath his dignity as an artist, so he occasionally introduced some minor innovations, such as setting portraits of saints in a recognizable landscape. Despite this, he undertook other religious commissions. In 1898, Grand Duke George Alexandrovich asked him to work at the Alexander Nevsky church in Abastumani. He spent six years there, off and on, creating 50 small murals and the iconostasis, but was dissatisfied with the results. He was apparently much more pleased with later work at the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent. He refused to work on the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Warsaw, because he did not approve of building an Orthodox cathedral in a predominantly Catholic city.

In 1901, he wanted to deepen his spiritual appreciation of the monastic life, so he spent some time at the Solovetsky Monastery on the coast of the White Sea. He painted numerous works there and the influence of his visit could be seen in his canvases for many years after. He was also inspired by the novels of Pavel Ivanovich Melnikov, dealing with the lives of the Old Believers in the Volga region. In 1902, he married Ekaterina Vasilyeva, whom he had met admiring his works at an exhibition.

Later years
In 1905, after the Revolution began, he joined the Union of the Russian People, an extreme right-wing and antisemitic nationalist party that supported the Tsar. As a result, he was in some danger after the October Revolution. In 1918, he moved to Armavir, where he became ill and was unable to work. He returned to Moscow in 1920 and was forced to give up religious painting, although he continued to work on his Saint Sergius series in private. From then until his death, he painted mostly portraits; notably Ivan Ilyin, Ivan Pavlov, Otto Schmidt, Sergei Yudin, Alexey Shchusev and Vera Mukhina.

In 1938, toward the end of the Great Purge, his son-in-law, Vladimir Schroeter, a prominent lawyer, was accused of being a spy and shot. His daughter was sent to a prison camp in Zhambyl, where she was brutally interrogated before being released. He was also arrested and held for two weeks at Butyrka prison.

In 1941, he was awarded the Stalin Prize for his portrait of Pavlov (created in 1935). It was one of the first given to an artist. Shortly after, he received the Order of the Red Banner of Labour. As the war progressed, his health and financial situation deteriorated rapidly. He had a stroke while working on his painting "Autumn in the Village" and died at Botkin Hospital.

His unfinished memoirs, which he had begun in 1926, were published later that year under the title "Bygone Days". In 1962, he was honored with a postage stamp. In 1996, his likeness appeared on the 50 Ural franc banknote and, in 2015, a monument to him was unveiled at the Bashkir Nesterov Art Museum in Ufa.

title: Mikhail Nesterov


text:
User:BlankVerse/rants

<User:BlankVerse/Other Subpages <User:BlankVerse/rants/evidence

BlankVerse's ever-lengthening Wikipedia rants

 * note : I have started an evidence subpage that will be used to provide examples for some of the topics that I've covered below. At the moment there is only one example on that page. Also, for some of the topics, I will probably create separate subpages that will discuss the particular topic in more detail, but, that will happen sometime later.

Please, if you want to respond to any of my points don't edit this page, but instead reply on the Talk page.

I've started this collection of rants mostly because of the ever-increasing number of articles on the internet and in print, both pro and con, about the Wikipedia. For both types of articles it seems like most of their authors have not spent that much time examining the Wikipedia. Furthermore, it is obvious that none of them have spent much time actually editing articles on the Wikipedia. Especially for the anti-Wikipedia articles, it seems like each writer is like one of the blind men in the Indian parable of the Blind Men and the Elephant, where they examine one single aspect of the Wikipedia, or even just one article on the Wikipedia, and assume that is representative of the rest of the Wikipedia.

This is my collection of criticisms of the Wikipedia as written by a regular editor, who, despite these criticisms below, still holds out hope that the Wikipedia can improve both articles and procedures.

One problem with Wikipedia administrators
There is currently no effective way to quickly stop an admin from doing mischief in the same way as a block with regular editors, which leads to wheel wars and other problems. my longish essay on this topic, which had been "featured" on my user page, has been moved to "On misbehaving administrators".

Editor laziness
My personal opinion is that laziness is the number one problem with the Wikipedia. It takes only one or two minutes to type what you think is true, but it can sometimes take an hour or more to verify that information. That means that for every person who adds some random factoid, the Wikipedia probably needs at least 15-20 conscientious editors who are doing fact-checking, assuming that is the only thing that they are doing, and many more than that if those editors are doing other things on the Wikipedia besides fact-checking.

Repeating internet nonsense
Although there are some wonderful resources on the internet filled with well-researched information, there is also plenty of misinformation and just plain nonsense on the internet. For example, in one of my areas of knowledge, Japanese poetry and especially haiku, the number of very good haiku websites is outnumbered by the so-so and nonsense websites by at least ten-to-one. The bad websites repeat misinformation and state opinions as if they are facts, among other glaring errors. (evidence)

Know your sources
Too many editors don't know the difference between a primary source and a secondary source, and are often way too trusting of the information they find on secondary sources. For example, although the Urban legend website snopes.com does a good job for most of their articles, I've caught them repeating misinformation found on the internet. For one example, it took them several months before they finally corrected the article after I had notified them of their error.

Unintentionally narrow coverage
I'd call this section Correcting systemic bias except that name seems to raise the hackles of some editors. Part of the problem with that name is that I think that some people assume that it is accusing them of intentional bias. Instead, the problem in most cases is that people only write about what they know, and since most people on the internet are from Europe and North America (and to a lesser degree, the Far East), so the coverage both in the types of articles on the Wikipedia and within the articles themselves, reflects that. There are so many articles on the Wikipedia that have broad applicability to many different nations and cultures around the world, but the articles themselves are written as if the topic only applies to First World countries or only Western nations, or sometimes even as narrowly as only to the US or the UK. That leaves huge portions of the world without any coverage in the articles.

I think that one partial solution for this is creating a checklist subpage similar to the todo template—especially for articles that are intended as comprehensive overview articles. The checklist would say: This is a topic that has broad applicability, but as currently written only covers certain areas. Please help improve this article by expanding its coverage." Below that would be a checklist of regions, nations and cultures where editors could mark basic coverage, better coverage, and very good coverage for each particular region, nation or culture.

Another part of the solution is to seek more press coverage and actively recruitment editors in areas outside of Europe and North America.

Tribal conflicts
Sometimes it seems like every single conflict around the world that has happened in the last two millennia is getting relived in the editing of articles on the Wikipedia. I would have thought that the basic humanitarian impulse of creating an encyclopedia of human knowledge for all mankind would mostly attract individuals that were not imbued with strongly partisan, nationalist, bigoted, intolerant, or prejudiced viewpoints, and, for the most part, that is true. The problem is that it takes at least a half-dozen individuals that are more even-tempered and dedicated to a neutral point of view to counter each rabid nationalist. Although their numbers may be small, each obstreperous chavinist is like a spanner in the works of the Wikipedia (and getting each one banned through arbitration is a interminable process).

Revert wars: Part I
Especially after having been in one very short-lived revert war, I believe that they are a much bigger problem on the Wikipedia than most editors and administrators on the Wikipedia seem willing to acknowledge. One of the problems with revert wars is that they are counter-productive—they harden the attitudes of the individuals on both sides of the revert war. That means that the only way to "win" a continuing revert war is to either out-stubborn the opposition, or get them banned (temporarily or permanently). Until a page is protected, there is no incentive for either side to compromise or try to reach consensus.

As the revert article says, a revert is like a metaphorical slap in the face. It is a direct insult that says "I found absolutely nothing in what you added that was worth keeping". A revert is also, in many cases, an indirect acknowledgment by the person doing the revert that they are either unable or unwilling to work towards consensus or compromise on the article.

My personal opinion is that the WP:3RR rules should be modified so that for any continuing revert war without any substantive discussion on the article's Talk page, even if it is only one or two reverts per day, that all the individuals involved should be temp-banned (at least from editing that article—remember that it takes at least two editors to have a revert war). Also, any reverts against a clear consensus for the article (especially if shown by a survey), then the individual(s) involved could be temp-banned.

Revert wars: Part II
There is a side-effect of revert wars that I've never seen anyone talk about. Whenever there is a discussion on the Wikipedia on the internet where there is the ability for people to add feedback (for example, the Yahoo! blog entry about the agreement between Yahoo! and the Wikipedia), there are always people who will say "I tried to edit on the Wikipedia, but as soon as I added something to an article, someone deleted everything I had written". Usually they will mention that they were insulted as well.

How many people have been discouraged from editing on the Wikipedia because of an aggressive revert warrior? This is something that will be very hard to measure, but my guess is that it is probably a dozen or more people give up on editing the Wikipedia for each aggressive revert warrior. I think that it is in the best interest of the Wikipedia to start tracking some of these complaints, and even trying to contact some of the people who added the complaints, to try to find out which articles and which editors might have been the problems. It might also be worthwhile to try to track down some of the editors who did a fair amount of editing (1,000-2,000 edits) but then suddenly left the Wikipedia, to determine the reasons why they quit editing.

Royal pain-in-the-asses
Perhaps it's just because I was born in the colonies, but I absolutely cannot understand the fascination that many people have with royals, nobles, and peers. All the protracted edit wars over titles and styles are something that I have no wish to get entangled in.

I should have know better when I wandered into the discussion into whether the William of Orange article should be a disambiguation page that covered the two main monarchs that are called that name (one British and the other Dutch), plus numerous other less distinguished royalty who have been called William of Orange, or the UK-centric position that it should be a redirect to "King Billy". Because I had added my opinion to that survey, one of the participants decided that I must be one of the partisans in the royalty debates, so they added an appeal to my Talk page (as part of their vote-spam campaign) asking me to get involved in yet another extended discussion on naming royals. This one was over someone (Elisabeth of Bohemia, aka the Winter Queen 1596-1662) who shared multiple names with other people (see Elisabeth of Bohemia (disambiguation)-(1 of 8), Elizabeth Stuart (disambiguation)-(1 of 7), and Winter Queen (disambiguation)) To disabuse him of the idea that I might give a damn, I left a message very similar to the the following on his Talk page:

 * To be extremely blunt, I care not one whit about the naming and styles for 99.999% of the Wikipedia articles about any lucky-by-birth stiff who had some pretensions to a hereditary right to rule over others or had the remotest ancestral connections to such a person. Once in a blue moon I may add my two centavos to a discussion, but that is far as I will get involved. Blank Verse   ∅

Diacritics
What! No diacritics in the English language? What an utterly déclassé position to take. I will sit in a café, eating canapés and drinking Curaçao. and consider your assertion. Perhaps I'll order a soufflé while I contemplate writing a roman à clef. My dining companion will wear a macramé wrap over a gold lamé blouse and tell me about a feeling of déjà vu she had when she met a naïve débutante. During our tête-à-tête, I will tell her a risqué story about an ingénue I once knew. A street vendor might come along and try to sell us a piñata made from papier-mâché.

Voilà! An overabundance of words that still usually maintain their diacritics when used in more formal written English, even though the words have been naturalized into the English language. Words that I couldn't shoehorn into my example would include fiancée, ménage à trois, outré, El Niño and chargé d'affaires, as well as numerous French cooking and music terms. BlankVerse 13:29, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

 * For more words, see wikt:Appendix:English words with diacritics.

Entropy
Crappy little substubs are easy to improve. On the other hand, the very best articles on the Wikipedia, such as the Featured articles, are destined to degrade over time as various editors dull the brilliant prose that made that article a Featured article in the first place. Not all of the new edits will lower the quality of a FA, but the preponderance of them will.

The Wikipedia is an encyclopedia!
Too many Wikipedia editors seem to forget the only purpose (of the Wikipedia is to create a great encyclopedia. In too many cases it looks like an editor doesn't share that goal.

On joining WikiProjects and Regional notice boards
I have deliberately not listed myself as a participant in any of the WikiProjects and Regional notice boards that I participate in—including the Southern California WikiProject and California WikiProject that I created. Here's why:

When I was preparing to create the two WikiProjects I looked at many of the existing WikiProjects and Regional notice boards trying to identify the things that worked and the things that didn't work. One thing that I noticed in passing was that I kept seeing some of the same names signed up as participants. Sometimes they actually did do something with that WikiProject for a little while, but many times the only thing they ever did was add their name as a participant. The extreme example is the Stub-sorting WikiProject, where they had so many people that signed up that they had to create a separate page, yet it's mostly the same 3-4 people that do almost all of the work and a rotating cast of about a half-dozen that do stuff for a month or two before disappearing. Since I am much more of a doer than a joiner, I'd rather not be listed as a participant. If someone is really interested they will notice my participation on the talk page and in the history of the projects page and subpages. Besides, my goal is to get both WikiProjects to the point where they are self-sustaining without any need for my input.

Why I don't 'do' barnstars
The main problem that I have with barnstars is that I've seen a few too many instances of editing cliques who have circle jerked each other with barnstars, essentially rewarding each other for their POV edit warring. I greatly appreciate any of the personal thank you's that I've received over the past couple of years (including yours), but I am not fond of barnstars and so I have preferred to keep my user pages barnstar-free. BlankVerse 23:55, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

 * Note: I've now created a subpage, User:BlankVerse/Kudos, that currently has a couple of more formal Wikipedia kudos, but I may eventually go back and add some of my favorite informal thank yous to that page as well.  Blank Verse  08:08, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Schools and Wikipedia vandalism
As my watchlist has grown, I have, of course, encountered more vandalism of Wikipedia articles. Recently I've started doing reverse DNS checks on some of the anon IPs to get a feel for where the vandalism is coming from. Most of the vandalism, as to be expected, is from the larger ISPs such as AOL. I have been surprised, however, to see how much vandalism is coming from schools, especially high schools and colleges. (My guess is that school IPs constitute roughly 15-20% of all anon IP vandalism.)

Almost all of the vandalism that I've seen has been from U.S. schools, but that is, in part, from the selection of articles in my watchlist. Yet that is not the whole cause since I see a fair amount of international vandalism from non-schoool IPs. I have also seen some vandalism from Canadian and English schools, but none from any other schools except for a single English-language school in Japan. (However, I've read about problems from school IPs from New Zealand.)

Just as disappointing as seeing all that article vandalism from schools is how unimaginative most of the vandalism has been. It is also surprising to see how many of the students are apparently using their real names (adding themselves as distinguished alumni, for example), plus the names of their friends and enemies. With cases of repeated vandalism, it is very tempting to consider reporting those students to their school's administrators.

Checkuser
Because of the way that my ISP handles it's POPs, I could easily look like three different users that would come up completely negative on a checkuser check. If I wanted to risk inconclusive checkuser results, I could also look like users in two different counties, in four different area codes, up to 30 miles apart. If I started borrowing or paying for internet access from friends, neighbors, work, the local libraries, Kinko's, etc., I could have a dozen or more sockpuppets that would get completely negative results from a checkuser check. That's one reason that doing a check is as much art as science and access to the tool is limited to those who can interpret the results.

When the checkuser capability was first added to the MediaWiki software, I argued strenuously that access to checkuser should be restricted to the smallest number of individuals necessary. Especially with the expanded ArbComm, I think that there are now too many people who have access to checkuser.

What especially worried me was that there were a number of admins who essentially tried to grant themselves checkuser through a poorly advertised RFA-like procedure. This was very worrying to me because checkuser is something that could easily be used for mischief or revenge. In the beginnings, I saw many requests for checkuser that were obviously just fishing expeditions. Those with checkuser capability wisely declined those. However, I am starting to see some use of Checkuser outside the formal Requests for checkuser that has started to get me worried again. I have no doubt that there will eventually be a huge controversy over one or more uses of Checkuser. It is possible that one or more of the smaller Wikipedias may be at the greatest risk of experiencing abuse of Checkuser as some of them gain access to Checkuser.

One problem with Checkuser is that IPs can, for example, reveal the company (and sometimes department) where a person works, where they go to school (and sometimes which dorm or department they are in), etc. I know there have been at least two cases where there have been threats to go to an editor's employer over the editor's behavior, with one admin leaving the Wikipedia because of the threat.

Jimmy Wales / or How big is the Wikipedia?

 * Recently User:Ericsaindon2 complained when he didn't get a personal response from User:Jimbo when he appealed his on-year ban that was one of the results of his Request for arbitration. Here is my response.

Jimmy Wales is the co-founder and chairman of the Board of Wikia a multi-million dollar for-profit corporation. He is also the co-founder of the nonprofit Wikipedia and chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Wikimedia Foundation.

Just for the English-language Wikipedia there are over 1,000 administrators. The next 13 largest Wikipedias add over 1,000 more administrators. Then consider the fact that there are over 150 Wikipedias, over 50 Wiktionaries, over 30 Wikiquotes, over 45 Wikibooks, a number of Wikisources and Wikinews, Wikispecies, the Meta Wiki and the Wikimedia Commons. Even the smallest of those Wikis has 1-10 administrators. There are currently almost 3,000 administrators just for the different Wikipedias. Keep in mind that those are just the administrators, and there are many more editors who regularly edit on the Wikipedia who are not administrators (for example, I'm not an administrator, but I have over 10,000 edits in over 18 months.)

Ask yourself: Does the head of a large regional American Red Cross chapter usually get involved in problems with a single volunteer. Or does the superintendent of a large school district normally get involved in the suspension of a single student. Since nobody else is protesting your yearlong banishment, and the ban does not involve any change in Wikipedia policy, I think that you are being very unrealistic in expecting a personal response from Jimmy Wales.

FYI: The sorts of things that he might get involved in would include the recent controversial approval  of the restoration of adminship for User:Carnildo. If it looks like that storm is going to blow over, however, he may not even get involved in that case. BlankVerse 19:11, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Article titles
Redirects are cheap! Entering any number of possible titles into the Wikipedia search field will still end up at the expected article if the redirects have been created. Why are there such huge arguments made over the "official" Wikipedia title of an article?

All the debates are predicated on the assumption that there is a "best" or most appropriate title. In some of the debates, my opinion has been that neither of the proposed titles really has a better claim of priority for the most appropriate title. In those cases, it is usually the most stubborn or most partisan group that wins out. Maybe the best solution in those cases is to use both suggested titles as redirects to some generic Inoffensive title. That may slightly lower the Google rating of a Wikipedia article, but probably not by much. BlankVerse 18:39, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

title: User:BlankVerse/rants


text:
User:Luke Parks

I am a recent alumnus of the University of Warwick and have contributed to articles about it and the University of Warwick Students' Union.

Luke Parks

title: User:Luke Parks