text:
Dzi bead

A dzi bead (Tibetan: གཟི།; pronounced "zee"; alternative spelling: gzi) a type of agate bead of uncertain origin found in the Himalayan regions including Tibet, Bhutan, and Ladakh.

Traditionally they are worn as part of a traditional Tibetan necklace. In traditional Tibetan necklaces dzi beads are usually flanked with coral. Sometimes they are also worn with amber and turquoise beads.

The bead is considered to provide positive spiritual benefits to the wearer. These beads are generally prized as protective amulets and are sometimes grounded and used in traditional Tibetan medicine. Beads subjected to this process shows small "dig marks" where a portion of the bead would have been scraped or ground away to be used in medicine. Some dzi beads also exhibit grinding and polishing for being used as a burnishing tool in the application of gold leaf on thanka paintings or gilting bronze statuary.

The most highly prized dzi beads are the ancient "pure dzi". The original source of these beads currently remains a mystery. While the ancient "pure dzi" beads and "Chung dzi" beads are greatly valued, new modern-made dzi beads are also gaining popularity among Tibetans as an affordable and easier obtainable alternative.

Names
The meaning of the Tibetan word "dzi" [གཟི།] translates to "shine, brightness, clearness, splendor". In mainland China and Taiwan they are widely known by the name "天珠, tīan zhū", which is given by Taiwanese collectors and means "heaven's bead" in Mandarin Chinese.

Design
Dzi beads are made from agate, and may have decorative symbols composed of circles, ovals, squares, waves or zig zags, stripes, lines, diamonds, dots, and various other archetypal and symbolic patterns.

Colors mainly range from brown to black, with the pattern usually in ivory white. Dzi beads can appear in different colours, shapes, and sizes; the surface is usually smooth and waxy, presumably resulting from wear over a long period of time.

Sometimes the natural patterns (usually "layered" swirls) of the agate can be seen underneath or behind the decorative symbols and designs. Some dzi beads exhibit what are referred to as "blood spots", which are tiny red dots in the white areas, indicative of iron content. This is a highly desirable characteristic among collectors, but relatively rare. Another desirable effect is "Nāga skin", in which the surface of the bead exhibits tiny circular weathering marks that resemble scales. Sometimes natural bands agate beads without and artificial etchings are also viewed as a type of dzi by Tibetans.

The number of "eyes", or circular designs on the stone, is considered significant when considering the importance of a dzi. The symbolic meaning of dzi beads are sometimes based on the number and arrangement of the dots.

Origins
Dzi stones made their first appearance between 2000 and 1000 BC, in ancient India: a few hundred thousand were supposedly brought back by Tibetan soldiers from Persia during a raid. The malicious effect of the "evil eye" was taken very seriously by these people. Dzi were considered to counteract the evil eye. The artisans who made the dzi created amulets with "eyes" on them as a "fight fire with fire" form of protection. Artisans used agate as the base stone, and then embellished the beads lines and shapes using ancient methods that remain mysterious. Treatments may have included darkening with plant sugars and heat, bleaching and white line etching with natron, and protecting certain areas with grease, clay, wax or a similar substance. A hole was drilled before the bead was decorated as drilling caused most breakage during the production process, and holes were also useful for stringing and dipping numerous beads as a step in coloration. The earliest holes were conical and done with solid drill bits drilling from both ends and, hopefully, meeting near the center of the bead. Very small drill tips of chipped flint were used without abrasives and numerous other materials, regardless of hardness, when used with abrasives. Neolithic era beads were also drilled with hollow, tubular abrasion driven bits of reed and, later, during the Chalcolithic, copper. These drilled a hole with a core of agate inside the tubular drill. Tubular bit holes were parallel walled rather than conical, but also done from both ends. Both methods required arduous work done with a bow drill, with time and effort being determined by hardness of abrasive, from ground sand (quartz) to corundum.

Although the geographic origin of dzi beads is uncertain, it is accepted that they are now called "Tibetan beads", just like "Tibetan coral", which also came to Tibet from elsewhere. Tibetans cherish these beads and consider them hereditary gems. In this way they have survived thousands of years, being worn by hundreds of individual people. Dzi are found primarily in Tibet, but also in neighbouring Bhutan, Nepal, Ladakh and Sikkim. Although dzi type agate beads were made in the Indus Valley during the Harappan period and at various locations rich in agate deposits in India, such as in Khambhat, since their Neolithic periods, the earliest archaeologically controlled find of an agate bead with dzi style decoration of straight and curved lines and circular eye found has been from a Saka culture excavation (Uigarak) in Kazakhstan, dated 7th – 5th century BCE. These were said to be imports from India, reflecting long distance trade with the more nomadic Saka or Scythian tribes.

Sometimes shepherds and farmers find dzi beads in the soil or in the grasslands. Because of this, some Tibetans traditionally believe or believed that dzi are naturally formed, not man-made.

Since knowledge of the bead is derived from several differing oral traditions, the beads have provoked controversy regarding their source, their method of manufacture and even their precise definition. In Tibetan culture these beads are believed to attract local protectors, dharmapalas or deities or maybe beneficial ghosts, ancestors or even bodhisattvas. Because of this, dzi beads are always treated with respect.

New dzi
It has been reported that modern era dzi style beads were made in Idar Oberstein, Germany at least as early as the 19th century. The German agate-cutters at Idar-Oberstein plied their trade since the Roman Period. They brought the coloring of agates to a science and the cutting and drilling to the mechanical level of perfection for which Germans are known.

Due to the questionable origin of most hand made dzi beads and the high demand for them, there has been relatively recent reproduction reported in Asia. The most convincing replica of ancient dzi beads came from Taiwan during the 1990s. China has also produced some good-quality dzi beads since about 2006.

A nice dzi should be made of good quality agate with the cutting, drilling and decorating taking many days. Modern methods and technology such as lasers, modern sugars and chemicals, and vacuum chambers can produce very good results. The waxy appearance is still desirable but is sometimes lacking. Some especially well-made new dzi are accepted by Tibetans because it is safe to wear them in public since they look like ancient dzi. Some claim the new dzi function with the same efficacy as the old ones; others believe the protective energies of ancient dzi can move into a new dzi, if the stone is of the same quality or better and the two beads are kept together or when binding rituals are performed.

Dzi are also popular in China, Taiwan, Thailand and Singapore. Genuine ancient dzi are too expensive for most Tibetans; those who have not owned dzi for generations can no longer afford to buy them. Some of the new dzi have become highly collectible resulting in much higher prices.

With a few exceptions, new beads are not considered to have the mystic associations of the ancient beads, but it is considered possible to give new dzi similar powers with some time and effort: 1) by taking them to be blessed by a lama or guru; 2) taking them on pilgrimages to holy places such as stupas and shrines; and 3) reciting mantras, as well as taking religious vows with them. An advantage of new dzi beads is that they do not carry any of the bad karma of previous owners. It is considered possible to rid a stone of bad energy by submerging it in saltwater for several hours, and then fanning incense over it. The dzi should be treated with respect from that time on. Sun basking and herbal smudging are also said to purify the beads. Spirit aroma offering and recitation of Cintamani dharani are considered helpful in charging the bead as well.

Imitation dzi
Imitation dzi are created from materials other than agate or chalcedony. They can be made of glass, resin, lampwork, wood, bone, plastic, metal, or non-traditional etched stones. Imitation dzi have a long history, some dating back a couple of hundred years. The older mock dzi have some collectible value. Some of the resin mock dzi have a filling of lead to add weight.

Some people would also call the modern machine-carved and machine-drilled, highly polished new dzi "mock dzi". Almost invariably mass-produced, these are available for less than two dollars, and are often sold by the strand. The etching on these cheap beads has been done very quickly, and the decorations do not penetrate into the inner core of the bead. These are usually targeted for sale to mainland Chinese customers as lucky feng shui charms.

Value
Market value for ancient beads can easily reach into hundreds of thousands of US dollars – especially for beads with more "eyes". Tiny red spots caused by iron inclusion in the agate also increase the value. New dzi prices range from about ten to two thousand US dollars, depending on quality and luster.

Similar beads
Similar to dzi beads are the so-called chung dzi, which have been imported to Tibet since ancient times. These can be plain, naturally banded agate beads, or etched beads (often with black and white striped patterns). Some are carnelians or black agate with thin white etching patterns resembling the back of a turtle, which is an ancient pattern that dates back to the era of the Harappan Indus culture. Ancient Roman agate beads as well as etched Bactrian, Middle Eastern, Chinese, Afghan, Yemeni, and Indian agate and carnelian beads made their way into Tibet. All these are considered chung dzi (in Tibetan, "chung" means ordinary or common). Chung dzi are believed to have similar properties to real "eyed" dzi; they are less valuable, but they are highly prized by Tibetans and also considered a variety of dzi.

Another similar type of bead is called Luk Mik ("goat's eye") – it is a naturally formed "one-eyed" coin-shaped agate (pictured). Luk Mik are the preferred dzi for travelling in Tibet.

The antique Pyu and Phumtek beads of Burma are also similar in some ways to dzi: they share some of the dzi bead patterns, but instead of agate, the Phumtek are generally made from petrified opalized palm wood, while Pyu beads are often made of red or orange carnelian with some thin white alkali-etched lines.

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

title: Dzi bead


text:
The Curse of the Jade Scorpion

The Curse of the Jade Scorpion is a 2001 crime comedy film written and directed by and starring Woody Allen. The cast also features Dan Aykroyd, Helen Hunt, Brian Markinson, Wallace Shawn, David Ogden Stiers, and Charlize Theron. The plot concerns an insurance investigator (Allen) and an efficiency expert (Hunt) who are both hypnotized by a crooked hypnotist (Stiers) into stealing jewels.

The Curse of the Jade Scorpion received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $18 million worldwide against a production budget of $33 million, becoming a commercial failure.

Plot
In 1940 New York City, efficiency expert Betty Ann Fitzgerald is secretly sleeping with her boss, Chris Magruder, who promises her that they will pursue their relationship in public once he finalizes his divorce with his wife.

During a dinner at the Rainbow Room, stage magician Voltan calls on Betty Ann and her co-worker, insurance investigator C.W. Briggs, to be in his hypnotism act. Using "Madagascar" and "Constantinople" on them, respectively, as trigger words to put them in a trance, the two are given the suggestion that they are newlyweds and in love before being reawakened. Returning home for the evening, C.W. receives a call from Voltan, who says "Constantinople" to put him in a trance and order him to steal jewels. C.W. does not remember committing these crimes after waking up and decides to investigate. He soon notices Betty Ann's behavior is "suspicious" (it is actually related to her affair with Chris). While sneaking into her house, he witnesses Chris telling her that he has reconciled with his wife and will not have a divorce. When Chris leaves, a distraught Betty Ann gets drunk and tries to jump out of a window. C.W. stops her and spends the night keeping her from killing herself.

Eventually, investigations start picking up evidence pointing to C.W., leading to his arrest. He escapes to Betty Ann's place, where she grudgingly hides him. Thinking that C.W. is no longer available, Voltan calls Betty Ann, saying "Madagascar" to put her in a trance and steal for him. While in that state, the subliminal suggestion of being in love leads her to seduce C.W. His co-workers George Bond and Alvin "Al" eventually realize the initial hypnosis is the cause of the robberies. George, an amateur magician, frees C.W. of the trigger word and restores his memories. C.W. returns to Betty Ann's apartment to find her missing. Realizing Betty Ann must have been hypnotized again, he goes to the site where she is delivering the jewels to Voltan. Voltan tries to escape but is caught by the police. The still-hypnotized Betty Ann expresses her love for C.W., who kisses her before erasing her memories of the event.

Back at work, C.W. learns Betty Ann and Chris are going on a romantic getaway and decides to resign. Chris understands and says that if C.W. leaves, the company will give him his blessing and if he stays, Chris will give him a raise. He also intends to force Betty Ann to retire after they get married, as he does not want his wife to be working with him. Disturbed, C.W. heads to Betty Ann's office to inform her of his resignation and say goodbye. The two have a parting drink. Outside, Al says that he will quit if C.W. does, and the rest of the staff hail him as a hero. C.W. dismisses his success as luck. George then reveals that a hypnotized person would not do anything that they would not when in a normal state. Al gets C.W. to admit that he loves Betty Ann.

At Al's urging, C.W. goes after Betty Ann, who is about to leave for Paris with Chris. C.W. proposes to Betty Ann and confesses his love for her. As Betty Ann and Chris are about to depart, a desperate C.W. says "Madagascar". Betty Ann, who is now in an amorous state, tells Chris that she is staying and announces that she will marry C.W., confessing to C.W. that she fell in love with him the moment that they met. Chris runs to stop his divorce while Al presents C.W. with the jade scorpion as a gift. C.W. and Betty Ann go to her apartment and have sex. As they are leaving, George reveals that he had deprogrammed Betty Ann the night before. C.W. eventually realizes that Betty Ann is not hypnotized and is going with him willingly.

Reception
The Curse of the Jade Scorpion grossed $7.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $11.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $18.9 million, against a production budget of $33 million. In the United States and Canada, the film debuted at number 11 on its opening weekend, grossing $2.4 million from 903 theaters.

The film received mixed reviews from critics. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 45% based on 123 reviews, with an average rating of 5.2/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "The writing for Scorpion is not as sharp as Woody Allen's previous movies as most of the jokes fall flat." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 52 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.

Allen himself seems to be in relative agreement with some critics, remarking that it is perhaps his worst movie. Allen has said he felt he let down the rest of the cast by casting himself as the lead. He explained that part of the problem was the period setting and the set building expense which made it too expensive to go back and re-shoot anything. Allen re-shot the entirety of his 1987 drama September after he felt he got the casting wrong. Allen remarked he offered the role of C.W. Briggs to both Jack Nicholson and Tom Hanks, but had to take it when both refused.

However, in the ten years since its release, it is beginning to enjoy a new generation of cult status comedic recognition. Roger Ebert wrote, "There are pleasures in the film that have little to do with the story. Its look and feel is uncanny; it's a tribute to a black-and-white era, filmed in color, and yet the colors seem burnished and aged. No noir films were shot in color in the 1940s, but if one had been, it would have looked like this. And great attention is given to the women played by Hunt, Berkley and Theron; they look not so much like the women in classic film noir as like the women on film noir posters—their costumes and styles elevate them into archetypes. Hunt in particular has fun with a wisecracking dame role that owes something, perhaps, to Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday."

Music
The film features a variety of 1940s era music.

 * "Sophisticated Lady" (Duke Ellington)
 * "Two Sleepy People" (Hoagy Carmichael, Frank Loesser) – Earl 'Fatha' Hines
 * "Tuxedo Junction" (Buddy Feyne, William Johnson, Julian Dash, Erskine Hawkins) – Dick Hyman & the Rainbow Room All Stars
 * "How High the Moon" (Morgan Lewis, Nancy Hamilton) – Dick Hyman & the Rainbow Room All Stars

 * "In a Persian Market" (Albert W. Ketèlbey) – Wilbur De Paris
 * "Flatbush Flanagan" (Harry James) – Harry James
 * "Sunrise Serenade" (Frankie Carle, Jack Lawrence) – Glenn Miller

title: The Curse of the Jade Scorpion


text:
Call screening

Call screening is the process of evaluating the characteristics of a telephone call before deciding how or whether to answer it.

Some methods may include:

 * listening to the message being recorded on an answering machine or voice mail.
 * checking a caller ID display to see who or where the call is from.
 * checking the time or date which a call or message was received.
 * prescreening callers to a request line at a radio station or call-in talk show before they are allowed on the air

In addition, in the US and Canada, Call Screen is the name of a calling feature offered by the telephone companies that allows a customer to establish a list of numbers; anyone calling the customer from those numbers will receive an automatic message indicating that the call is not being accepted. Another name, not usually used for marketing purposes, is "Selective Call Rejection". There are also devices such as the TeleZapper for screening telephone calls.

Android 11 have support for call screening with STIR/SHAKEN.

title: Call screening


text:
Alexandre bis

Alexandre bis (Alexander Twice; in Czech: Dvakrát Alexandr) is a surrealist comic opera in one act by Bohuslav Martinů, (H. 255), composed in 1937 to an original libretto written in French by André Wurmser.

History
The opera was intended by Martinů, who was then living in Paris, for performance at the Paris World Exhibition of 1937. However, various delays (including the intervening World War II) prevented its performance during the composer's lifetime.

The opera's first performance was given at the Nationaltheater Mannheim on 18 February 1964, when it was conducted by Georg Calder. Shortly afterwards it was given its first performance in Martinů's native Czechoslovakia by the Janáček Theatre in Brno. It was first performed in America in October 2014 by Gotham Chamber Opera at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan.

The opera is subtitled "The Tragedy of a Man who Had His Beard Cut", and the surrealist libretto is set in Paris about 1900. Although Martinů had asked Wurmser for a libretto including a singing cat, he compromised on Wurmser's suggestion of a singing portrait, which acts as narrator to a tale of bourgeois infidelity.

Roles

 * Armanda, soprano
 * Alexandre, baritone
 * Oskar, tenor
 * Philomène, mezzo-soprano
 * Portrait, bass

Synopsis
The opera takes place in a bourgeois salon in Paris around 1900. The maid Philomène is cleaning and complaining about her life. The husband Alexandre, bearded, asks Philomène to bring in a suitcase and secretly leaves, allegedly for the station, crossing his cousin of the same name from America. Alexander's portrait on the wall is outraged by the game of betrayal. Oscar, a man Armande had met on holiday, comes to visit her. He is dressed in sportswear and offers her a lesson in cycling. Armanda rejects his courtship, pointing out that she is polite and respectable. Oscar leaves.

The beardless Alexander-cousin arrives and explains that Alexander-husband has gone away. Armande falls in love with him at first sight and submits to him, which displeases the painting of Alexander and the maid Philomène. Armande then has dreams full of remorse. In the first dream, both Alexanders kill each other. In the second, the goddess of marriage, played by Philomène, condemns Armande and she is abducted by demons - bearded dancers. In the third, the suitor Oscar appears and dances with Armande on roller skates.

In the morning the maid Philomena cleans up in the salon and complains about her life. Alexandre-husband enters, without his beard, and says goodbye to Armande before leaving for the office. During the farewell, he discovers that his wife has also changed. After his departure Oscar enters. To his surprise, this time Armanda accepts his invitation for a cycling lesson. The portrait of the husband is left alone and expresses the moral – that it is best if a husband does not tempt his wife.

Recordings

 * Supraphon, 1982 (1984 LP, 1994 CD 11 2140-2 611) with René Tuček, Richard Novák (bass), Vladimír Krejčík, Daniela Šounová-Brouková, Anna Barová, Janáček Opera Orchestra of Brno, conductor: František Jílek (recording in Czech).

title: Alexandre bis


text:
Talk:Northrop YA-9

Questions/comments
A fly-off of the two prototypes took place October 10 and December 9 1973, with the YA-10 declared the winner on January 18 1973

Was the winner declaration in 1973?? 1974 makes more sense. Or was fly-off in 1972?? --195.249.233.217 08:07, 10 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Fixed the spelling of programme. Wikistyle dictates the appropriate use of english in regards to the subject matter's country of origin British Spelling Cfpresley

Added specifications
I added the weight specifications and wing area, using the March Field Air Museum page on YA-9A as a source. I also added the number of hardpoints. I left the aero-specs template in place because I am not sure if it would be approppriate to remove it now. --Marvin talk 00:29, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

Not much information on the subject
This article really says almost nothing about the YA-9. Design history? Design Philosophy? Flight test experience? Nothing. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.50.92.159 (talk) 23:59, 26 June 2015 (UTC)

 * it's wikipedia dude - think of it as a 8th grade term paper written by a committee - now if this were a British aircraft, the article would be 10,000 words long, all expounding how great the design was, etc. even though only 3 were produced (or if it were a production a/c maybe 100). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.171.131.187 (talk) 17:36, 18 August 2016 (UTC)

title: Talk:Northrop YA-9


text:
Talk:Philosophy of nature

new article, but lots of over-laps?
Should this be merged with Natural Philosophy? Or, perhaps to keep the distinction, this new article should be re-named Nature (Philosophy)?--Andrew Lancaster 15:31, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
 * I'm not opposed to a re-delegation of content, or renaming of some kind. Previously content was removed by ScienceApologist and this article was made into a redirect.  I think all this should be patiently clarified as to what these topics mean, or say, and should be delegated accordingly.  Right now Natural Philosophy is approximately on the right track, meaning that it speaks to what is commonly understood as natural philosophy by persons knowledgeable in this area.  The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Macmillan,1967 8-vol. set & supp (1996) has a fairly good article on "Nature, Philosophical Ideas of", for example.  So it's a valid topic in its own right as differentiated from "natural philosophy".  I wouldn't be opposed to redirecting a new page titled Nature (philosophy) to here, or vice-versa. ... Kenosis 16:05, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
 * I am not sure how do it, but can you change this article to "Nature (Philosophy)"?--Andrew Lancaster 14:31, 11 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Hi again, Andrew. Insofar as there can quite legitimately be separate topic forks on Nature, Philosophy of nature, Nature (philosophy) and Natural philosophy, this can readily be done for the present, making adaptations as the content develops. I want to make an NPOV cautionary note here, being familiar with the basic debate within philosophy and the history of it.  Andrew, you have been taking a very stong POV slant on the topic which is an a priori bias.  It will not stand up ultimately, unless balanced in the context of the debate between Plato and Aristotle, between the late neo-Platonic and Aristotlean a posteriori thinkers such as Ibn Rushd and Aquinas, between the continental rationalists and empiricists, and so forth.  Please also recall that there are two additional cardinal rules on WP, which are WP:VER and WP:NOR.  Many of the edits you've offered, some of which can still be readily seen in the content of Philosophy of nature, are musings and synthetic ideas that are unsourced and plainly are attempts to superimpose an idea of the a-priori forms on concepts for which those who developed the concepts had abandoned the Platonic ideas, such as in your repeated references to "forms" in direct relationship to "modern science".  The solution to the a-priori/a-posteriori dilemma requires an understanding of obscure thinkers like Kant, deSaussure, Peirce and others to sort it out, and indeed this debate is still not settled today,  But please don't impose this POV on the content of "nature"-related articles, because what you've been putting forth here just ain't so, and it is extremely apparent that you'll need to dig in with more research of your own and get a more well-developed handle on that ongoing debate through the many centuries and respect both "sides" of it.  So I definitely would look forward to seeing your offerings to WP based on that anticipated growth of your own knowledge on the general subject area of history of philosophy. But, heck, I'm just one editor here-- just happen to be dwelling around these parts of WP presently. ... Kenosis 15:51, 11 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Which part of the content do you propose to move over to Nature (philosophy)? ... Kenosis 15:51, 11 July 2006 (UTC)
 * I have moved the entire content over to Nature (philosophy) and made this into a redirect for the present. ... Kenosis 01:20, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Dear Kenosis, I don't seem to be able to make any progress, and I fear that this is just a never ending circle, because what I have written seems to strike some dischord with you which I don't quite get. Your main example is that I used the word "form" in the context of modern science. I therefore added a quote to show that this comes straight out of Bacon, the man who argued the case for modern science. It is not my term. It is not POV or slanted. It is not controversial. It is not unsourced. What's more you clearly don't understand the point, because I have never claimed that Bacon's forms were the same as the Platonic forms. His thinking was clearly revolutionary. What you are effectively rejecting however (although you seem not to see it clearly) is that there is/was a link between the two: Bacon was REPLACING the forms. That is how he understood his reappraisal of Nature, and that is how early scientists understood him, and that is how his opponents understood him (and where they exist, still do). Tell me if this makes sense to you. This is very important for understanding the concept of Nature, because otherwise it is hard to see why the word has such a strange chaos of meanings in modern times. --Andrew Lancaster 14:20, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

title: Talk:Philosophy of nature


text:
Boké Region

Boké Region is located in western  Guinea. It is bordered by the countries of Senegal and Guinea-Bissau and the Guinean regions of Kindia and Labé. Its capital is the city of Boké.

Administrative divisions
Boké Region is divided into five prefectures; which are further sub-divided into 37 sub-prefectures:

 * Boffa Prefecture (8 sub-prefectures)
 * Boké Prefecture (10 sub-prefectures)
 * Fria Prefecture (4 sub-prefectures)
 * Gaoual Prefecture (8 sub-prefectures)
 * Koundara Prefecture (7 sub-prefectures)

Mining reserves
Boké Region is the home to a great part of Guinea's aluminium (or bauxite) reserves. At least two of the country's largest mining facilities are located there:

 * Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinée, or CBG, which is operated by Halco Mining, an international and intercorporate aluminium mining entity.
 * Alumina Company of Guinea, or ACG, operating the Friguia bauxite-alumina complex in Fria Prefecture.

title: Boké Region


text:
Dionysian Mysteries

The Dionysian Mysteries were a ritual of ancient Greece and Rome which sometimes used intoxicants and other trance-inducing techniques (like dance and music) to remove inhibitions and social constraints, liberating the individual to return to a natural state. It also provided some liberation for men and women marginalized by Greek society, among which were slaves, outlaws, and non-citizens. In their final phase the Mysteries shifted their emphasis from a chthonic, underworld orientation to a transcendental, mystical one, with Dionysus changing his nature accordingly. By its nature as a mystery religion reserved for the initiated, many aspects of the Dionysian cult remain unknown and were lost with the decline of Greco-Roman polytheism; modern knowledge is derived from descriptions, imagery and cross-cultural studies.

Origins
The Dionysian Mysteries of mainland Greece and the Roman Empire are thought to have evolved from a more primitive initiatory cult of unknown origin (perhaps Thracian or Phrygian) which had spread throughout the Mediterranean region by the start of the Classical Greek period. Its spread was associated with the dissemination of wine, a sacrament or entheogen, with which it appears always to have been closely associated (though mead may have been the original sacrament). Beginning as a simple rite, it evolved quickly within Greek culture into a popular mystery religion, which absorbed a variety of similar cults (and their gods) in a typically Greek synthesis across its territories; one late form was the Orphic Mysteries. However, all stages of this developmental spectrum appear to have continued in parallel throughout the eastern Mediterranean until late in Greek history and forcible Christianization.

Early Dionysus cult
The ecstatic cult of Dionysus was originally thought to be a late arrival in Greece from Thrace or Asia Minor, due to its popularity in both locations and Dionysus' non-integration into the Olympian Pantheon. After the deity's name was discovered on Mycenean Linear B tablets, however, this theory was abandoned and the cult is considered indigenous, predating Greek civilization. The absence of an early Olympian Dionysus is today explained by patterns of social exclusion and the cult's marginality, rather than chronology. Whether the cult originated on Minoan Crete (as an aspect of an ancient Zagreus) or Africaor in Thrace or Asia, as a proto-Sabaziusis unanswerable, due to lack of evidence. Some scholars believe it was an adopted cult not native to any of these places and may have been an eclectic cult in its earliest history, although it almost certainly obtained many familiar features from Minoan culture.

Role of wine
The original rite of Dionysus (as introduced into Greece) is associated with a wine cult (not unlike the entheogenic cults of ancient Central America), concerned with the grapevine's cultivation and an understanding of its life cycle (believed to have embodied the living god) and the fermentation of wine from its dismembered body (associated with the god's essence in the underworld). Most importantly, however, the intoxicating and disinhibiting effects of wine were regarded as due to possession by the god's spirit (and, later, as causing this possession). Wine was also poured on the earth and its growing vine, completing the cycle. The cult was not solely concerned with the vine itself, but also with the other components of wine. Wine includes other ingredients (herbal, floral, and resinous) adding to its quality, flavour, and medicinal properties.

Scholars have suggested that, given the low alcoholic content of early wine, its effects may have been due to an additional psychoactive ingredient in its sacramental form, supported by iconography showing herbs being mixed with the wine in the kraters, especially preceding ecstatic behavior. Poppy, from which opium is extracted, is a likely candidate, being sometimes worn as a wreath by the god in art. Also, honey and beeswax were often added to wine, introducing an even older drink (mead). Károly Kerényi postulated that this wine lore superseded (and partly absorbed) earlier Neolithic mead lore involving bee swarms associated by the Greeks with Dionysus. Mead and beer (with its cereal base) were incorporated into the domain of Dionysus, perhaps through his identification with the Thracian corn deity Sabazius.

Other plants believed to be viniculturally significant were also included in wine lore such as ivy (thought to counteract drunkenness—thus the opposite of the grapevine—and seen as blooming in winter instead of summer); the fig (a purgative of toxins) and the pine (a wine preservative). The bull (from whose horn wine was drunk) and goat (whose flesh provided wineskins, and whose browsing pruned the vines) were also part of the cult, eventually seen as manifestations of Dionysus. Some of these associations had been linked with fertility deities (like Dionysus) and became part of his new role. An understanding of vinicultural lore and its symbolism is key to understanding the cult which emerged from it, assuming a significance other than winemaking that would encompass life, death, and rebirth and providing insight into human psychology.

Rites

The rites were based on a seasonal death-rebirth theme, common among agricultural cults such as the Eleusinian Mysteries. The Osirian Mysteries paralleled the Dionysian, according to contemporary Greek and Egyptian observers. Spirit possession involved liberation from civilization's rules and constraints. It celebrated that which was outside civilized society and a return to primordial nature—which would later assume mystical overtones. It also involved escape from the socialized personality and ego into an ecstatic, deified state or the primal herd (sometimes both). In this sense Dionysus was the beast-god within, or the unconscious mind of modern psychology. Such activity has been interpreted as fertilizing, invigorating, cathartic, liberating, and transformative, and so appealed to those on the margins of society: women, slaves, outlaws, and "foreigners" (non-citizens, in Greek democracy). All were equal in a cult that inverted their roles, similar to the Roman Saturnalia.

The trance induction central to the cult involved not only chemognosis (an altered state caused by drug use), but an "invocation of spirit" with the bullroarer and communal dancing to drum and pipe. The trances are described in familiar anthropological terms, with characteristic movements (such as the backward head flick found in all trance-inducing cults found today in Afro-American Vodou and its counterparts). As in Vodou rites, certain rhythms were associated with the trance. Rhythms are also found preserved in Greek prose referring to the Dionysian rites (such as Euripides' The Bacchae). This collection of classical quotes describes rites in the Greek countryside in the mountains, to which processions were made on feast days:
 * Following the torches as they dipped and swayed in the darkness, they climbed mountain paths with head thrown back and eyes glazed, dancing to the beat of the drum which stirred their blood' [or 'staggered drunkenly with what was known as the Dionysus gait']. 'In this state of ekstasis or enthusiasmos, they abandoned themselves, dancing wildly and shouting 'Euoi!' [the god's name] and at that moment of intense rapture became identified with the god himself. They became filled with his spirit and acquired divine powers.

This practice is demonstrated in Greek culture by the Bacchanals of the Maenads, Thyiades, and Bacchoi; many Greek rulers considered the cult a threat to civilized society and wished to control it (if not suppress it altogether). The latter failed; the former would succeed in the foundation of a domesticated Dionysianism as a state religion in Athens. This was but one form of Dionysianism—a cult which assumed different forms in different localities (often absorbing indigenous divinities and their rites, as did Dionysus himself). The Greek Bacchoi claimed that, like wine, Dionysus had a different flavour in different regions; reflecting their mythical and cultural soil, he appeared under different names and appearances in different regions.

Dionysian paraphernalia

 * Kantharos, drinking cup with large handles, originally the rhyton (drinking horn from a bull), later a kylix, or wine goblet
 * Thyrsus, long wand with a pine cone on top, carried by initiates and those possessed by the god
 * Stave, once cast into the ground to mark ritual space
 * Krater, mixing bowl
 * Flagellum, a scourge
 * Minoan double axe, once used for sacrificial rites, later replaced by the Greek kopis (curved dagger)
 * Retis, hunter's net
 * Laurel crown and cloak, purple robe, or leopard or fawnskin nebix
 * Hunting boots
 * Persona masks
 * Bullroarer
 * Salpinx, long, straight trumpet
 * Pan flute
 * Tympanon, a frame drum
 * Liknon, sacred basket with fig

Traditional offerings to Dionysus
Musk, civet, frankincense, storax, ivy, grapes, pine, fig, wine, honey, apples, Indian hemp, orchis root, thistle, all wild and domestic trees.

Animals sacred to Dionysus
Dionysus has numerous sacred animals, such as the leopard or bull. Other sacred animals include: lions and other big cats, goats, donkeys, and serpents.

The bull and goat and their "enemies", the panther (or any big catafter the Greeks colonized part of India, Shiva's tiger sometimes replaced the traditional panther or leopard) and the serpent (probably derived from Sabazius, but also found in North African cults); in addition, the dolphin, the lion, and the bee.

Bulls

Dionysus's association with bulls is found in multiple epithets. In The Bacchae, Pentheus, who opposed his worship in the god's origin city of Thebes, saw horns upon Dionysus's head as he started to go mad.

Dionysus's epithets connected to bulls are as follows:

Taurokephalos/Taurokranos/Taurometôpos Greek: Ταυροφαγος; a surname of Dionysus in the Orphic mysteries. (Orph. Hymn. 51. 2.) It also occurs as a surname of rivers and the ocean, which were symbolically represented as bulls, to indicate their fertilising effect upon countries. (Eurip. Iphig. Aul. 275, Orest. 1378 ; Aelian, V. H. ii. 33; Horat. Carm. iv. 14, 25.)

Tauros; a bull, occurs as a surname of Dionysus. (Eurip. Bacch. 918 ; Athen. xi. p. 476; Plut. Quaest. Graec. 36 ; Lycoph. Cass. 209.)

Invocations of Dionysus (from the Orphic hymns)

 * "I call upon loud-roaring and revelling Dionysus,
 * primeval, double-natured, thrice-born, Bacchic lord,
 * wild, ineffable, secretive, two-horned and two-shaped.
 * Ivy-covered, bull-faced, warlike, howling, pure,
 * You take raw flesh, you have feasts, wrapt in foliage, decked with grape clusters.
 * Resourceful Eubouleus, immortal god sired by Zeus
 * When he mated with Persephone in unspeakable union.
 * Hearken to my voice, O blessed one,
 * and with your fair-girdled nymphs breathe on me in a spirit of perfect agape".

 * "In intoxication, physical or spiritual, the initiate recovers an intensity of feeling which prudence had destroyed; he finds the world full of delight and beauty, and his imagination is suddenly :liberated from the prison of everyday preoccupations. The Bacchic ritual produced what was called 'enthusiasm', which means etymologically having the god enter the worshipper, who believed :that he became one with the god".
 * Orphic Hymn XLIV. To Dionysus Bassareus
 * A Hymn
 * Come, blessed Dionysius [Dionysos], various nam'd, bull-fac'd, begot from Thunder, Bacchus [Bakkhos] fam'd. Bassarian God, of universal might, whom swords, and blood, and sacred rage delight: In heav'n rejoicing, mad, loud-sounding God, furious inspirer, bearer of the rod: By Gods rever'd, who dwell'st with human kind, propitious come, with much-rejoicing mind.
 * Orphic Hymn XLV. To Liknitus Bacchus [Liknitos Dionysus]
 * The Fumigation from Manna.
 * Liknitan Bacchus [Liknitos Dionysos], bearer of the vine, thee I invoke to bless these rites divine: Florid and gay, of nymphs the blossom bright, and of fair Venus [Aphrodite], Goddess of delight, 'Tis thine mad footsteps with mad nymphs to beat, dancing thro' groves with lightly leaping feet: From Jove's [Zeus'] high counsels nurst by Proserpine [Persephoneia], and born the dread of all the pow'rs divine: Come, blessed pow'r, regard thy suppliant's voice, propitious come, and in these rites rejoice.
 * Orphic Hymn XLVI. To Bacchus Pericionius [ Dionysus Perikionios]
 * The Fumigation from Aromatics.
 * Bacchus Pericionius [Dionysos Perikionios], hear my pray'r, who mad'st the house of Cadmus once thy care, With matchless force, his pillars twining round, (when burning thunders shook the solid ground, In flaming, founding torrents borne along), propt by thy grasp indissolubly strong. Come mighty Bacchus to these rites inclin'd, and bless thy suppliants with rejoicing mind.
 * Orphic Hymn XLVI. To Bacchus Pericionius [ Dionysus Perikionios]
 * The Fumigation from Aromatics.
 * Bacchus Pericionius [Dionysos Perikionios], hear my pray'r, who mad'st the house of Cadmus once thy care, With matchless force, his pillars twining round, (when burning thunders shook the solid ground, In flaming, founding torrents borne along), propt by thy grasp indissolubly strong. Come mighty Bacchus to these rites inclin'd, and bless thy suppliants with rejoicing mind.

Inscription about the mysteries in Plovdiv
An ancient Roman inscription written in Ancient Greek dated to 253–255 AD was discovered in the Great Basilica at the Plovdiv (ancient Philippopolis). The inscription refers to the Dionysian Mysteries and also mentions Roman Emperors Valerian and Gallienus. It has been found on a large stele that was used as construction material during the building of the Great Basilica.

title: Dionysian Mysteries


text:
Talk:Super Mushroom

Amanita
would it be worth mentioning that the red mushroom is based on amanita muscaria?

 * Unless any evidence can be presented that the SMB mushroom was based off a particular mushroom variety, and not arbitrarily colored, I don't think that would be helpful. In past versions of this article, other claims have been made to what the mushroom is supposed to resemble, seemingly based off opinion. --Poiuyt Man talk  09:55, 10 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Mario and This Powerup
Is it just me or have you noticed that Mario no longer needs this power-up anymore? My theory is, Mario has eaten so many that the effect of the Mushrooms has basically had a permanent effect and he is already Super without eating the mushroom anymore. Now all these things do is heal him, not make him grow. Your thoughts? -BTV

New Category For This
I really think this needs to be listed under a new catagory called "Mario Items". Problem is, my computer won't let me. A little help?

Merge into Super Mushroom

 * Agree. The other article could use the detail of this one. --SheeEttin 00:00, 25 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Agree. There seems to be no point on having this when the other one has neear nothing... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Wizkid357 (talk • contribs)
 * Disagree. No, this stands on it its own and the mario artical is already very, very long. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by PopiethePopester (talk • contribs).
 * Agree. This should be non-controversial. I've edited the topic of this section to make it clear we're talking about merging this into Super Mushroom and not Mario or anything else. -- Lee Bailey(talk) 08:05, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

needs lengthening
while i think that articals should not be ridiculously long, this artical needs lengthening. try adding the fictional history of the 'shroom —The preceding unsigned comment was added by PopiethePopester (talk • contribs).

GA Nomination
I am failing this WP:GA nomination for lack of references. Simply playing the games and reporting their content runs afoul of WP:OR and I am sure that their are websites and magazines dedicated to Mario and the Mushroom Kingdom that could be listed. Otherwise a good article. Eluchil404 18:11, 6 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Shouldn't you add a failed template for future reference? -- ReyBrujo 19:20, 6 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Yep, just forgot since there wasn't a template to begin with.

number of spots on cap of ALL the mushrooms
this article is very similiar to the article located at --

i raise the following concern, however. i have been looking online everywhere and at several images of the mushrooms and toad people (eg, Toad, princess peach's servant). the number of spots on the cap seems to vary throughout images. sometimes, the cap will have three spots, with the primary one located at a RAISED center of the cap. other times, it will have five spots, with the primary one at the LOWER center of the image. can anyone give some insight as to the history of the cap and how/why it has changed. screenshots from the game show 5 spots AND 3 spots. what is the difference, if any? the best image i have found online can be seen at (ctrl+f --> mushroom) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Gr8koogly (talk • contribs).

Just so you know
I've merged 1-up Mushroom and Super Mushroom into an article about Mushrooms in the Mario franchise.

title: Talk:Super Mushroom


text:
User:Treesleeper

x0x0.us

title: User:Treesleeper


text:
Saxifraga cernua

Saxifraga cernua, the drooping saxifrage, nodding saxifrage or bulblet saxifrage, is a flower common all over the High Arctic. It stretches further south in mountainous areas of the Alps, Norway, Iceland, Siberia and Alaska.

It grows to 10–20 cm tall and the stem has 3–7 leaves. The basal and lower stern leaves are kidney-shaped, 3–5 lobed on long petioles. The flowers are mostly single and terminal. Petals are white and are much longer than the sepals. The plant reproduces by means of brownish-red bulbils in the axils of the upper stem leaves. Flowers bloom June to August.

This plant grows in moist sandy and mossy places, on ledges and in snow beds.

It became a protected species in the UK in 1975 under the Conservation of Wild Creatures and Wild Plants Act.

title: Saxifraga cernua


text:
What Men Live By (opera)

What Men Live By (Čím lidé žijí) is an opera in one act by Bohuslav Martinů to an English libretto by the composer, based on Where Love Is, There God Is Also (1885) by Leo Tolstoy, though he chose to use the more universal title of a different Tolstoy story What Men Live By (1886). It was composed in 1951-1952 when the composer was living in the United States, and described by him as a 'pastoral-opera'.

Performance history
The opera was premiered as a television broadcast in New York in May 1953. The first staged performance took place on 1 August 1954 in Interlochen, Michigan, by the National Music Camp company. Correspondence of the composer shows that he preferred semi-staging for the work which "positively rebels against the full trappings of operatic presentation", and "produced an unpretentious work of quiet, ecstatic beauty and radiant charm". After the student staging with piano in 1954, the first performance with orchestra took place in New York the following year, and professional productions were mounted in Plzeň and Brno using Czech translation.

The opera was nominated in the 'Rediscovered Work' Award in the International Opera Awards in 2015, through three Prague concert performances at the Rudolfinum in 2014 at the Martinů Music Days, with Jiří Bělohlávek conducting the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. A film of the opera, with soundtrack by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Jiří Bělohlávek in 2014, directed Jiří Nekvasil, was released in 2018.

Instrumentation
The orchestral score requires 1 flute, 2 oboes, 3 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 1 trumpet, 1 trombone, timpani, percussion (various instruments), piano and strings (6 violins I, 6 violins II, 4 violas, 3 violoncellos, 2 double basses). Apart from the vocal soloists, a small chorus (or a vocal quartet or quintet) is also required.

title: What Men Live By (opera)


text:
William Higgins

William Higgins may refer to:

Sports

 * Alexander Higgins (footballer, born 1870) (1870–?), born William Alexander Higgins, English footballer
 * William Higgins (English cricketer) (1850–1926), English cricketer
 * William Higgins (New Zealand cricketer) (1888–1968), New Zealand cricketer
 * William Higgins (rugby league), rugby league footballer of the 1900s for Wales League XIII, and Ebbw Vale
 * William Higgins (tennis), American tennis player of the 1960s and 1970s in 1971 US Open – Men's Singles
 * William S. Higgins, coach for the Gonzaga University men's basketball and football teams
 * Bill Higgins (baseball) (1859–1919), American baseball player
 * Bill Higgins (basketball) (born 1952), American basketball player
 * Bill Higgins (hurler), Irish hurler
 * Billy Higgins (karateka) (born 1945), British karateka
 * Billy Higgins (Scottish footballer) (born 1940), Scottish footballer
 * Billy Higgins (English footballer) (1924–1981), English football winger

Politicians

 * William J. Higgins (1880–1943), lawyer, judge and political figure in Newfoundland
 * William L. Higgins (1867–1951), U.S. Representative from Connecticut

Others

 * William Higgins (chemist) (1763–1825), Irish chemist
 * William Higgins (director) (1942–2019), American director of gay pornographic films
 * William R. Higgins (1945–1990), United States Marine Corps colonel, killed in Lebanon
 * William Victor Higgins (1884–1949), American painter and teacher
 * Billy Higgins (vaudeville) (1888–1937), American vaudeville entertainer
 * Billy Higgins (1936–2001), American jazz drummer
 * William Higgins (high constable), first high constable of Toronto
 * William Higgins (priest) (died 1666), Anglican priest

title: William Higgins


text:
The Real Blonde

The Real Blonde is a 1997 film directed and written by Tom DiCillo, and starring Matthew Modine, Catherine Keener and Maxwell Caulfield. It is a satire of New York's fashion and entertainment industries.

Plot
Joe is an aspiring actor working as a bus boy in a high-class restaurant. His longtime girlfriend Mary works as a cosmetician for the fashion industry and largely supports him with her steady income. Joe is more concerned with expressing himself than getting a paying job, and has been unwilling to accept roles that do not live up to his artistic standard. Mary supports Joe, but urges him to accept any role to get his foot in the door. Meanwhile, his co-worker Bob lands a lucrative role on a soap opera. Bob is a classically trained actor, but is willing to overlook the quality of the material for the money. He also has a fetish for natural blonde women, leading him to date Sahara, a naive model, and then dump her after discovering that her hair is dyed.

Joe swallows his artistic pride and meets with an agent, Dee Dee Taylor, who arranges for him to be an extra in a Madonna video. Mary is harassed as she walks to work each day and begins taking a self-defense and anger management class on the advice of her therapist. The instructor encourages her to express her anger, and she finds the class extremely empowering. Bob is successful in his soap opera role and begins a relationship with his beautiful co-star Kelly, a "real blonde".

At the Madonna video, the director treats Joe and the other extras like cattle. Joe meets Madonna's body double, Tina, a friendly aspiring actress, and gets himself fired for protesting an anti-Semitic statement made by the assistant director. Joe's firing sparks an argument between Joe and Mary. The pressure of Joe's career is straining their relationship, and they have not had sex in a long time. Mary's instructor, Doug, gives her a ride home from her class and makes a pass at her. She rebuffs him, but lies to cover up the incident to Joe. Meanwhile, Bob suffers from erectile dysfunction and is unable to have sex with Kelly. She mocks his inadequacy and leaves him.

Dee Dee takes pity on Joe and allows him to audition for the role of a "sexy serial killer". He reads his lines with Tina and begins to improvise his dialogue. He impresses the producers and lands the role. Tina invites him out for a drink and he resists her advances with some difficulty. Mary meets with her therapist and tells him about her experience with her self-defense instructor. He tells her that she must become comfortable with men showing their attraction to her and begins sharing his own sexual fantasies about her. She storms out of the session. Meanwhile, Bob is negotiating a longtime contract on the soap opera, but Kelly continues to taunt him on set. Bob threatens to quit the show and then forces the producer to kill off Kelly's character.

Bob goes back to dating Sahara, with whom he is miserable. Joe breaks the big news about his role to Mary and they rejoice. Mary asks him if she is wrong for feeling angry when men hit on her. Joe supports her and threatens to beat up her therapist if he ever sees him again. They have sex for the first time in months and drift off to sleep, happy and satisfied. Mary wraps her hand around Joe's finger, revealing that his improvised monologue had been about his feelings for her.

Cast

 * Matthew Modine as Joe, an aspiring actor with strong opinions.
 * Catherine Keener as Mary, Joe's longtime girlfriend and a successful makeup artist.
 * Maxwell Caulfield as Bob, an actor with a fetish for natural blondes.
 * Daryl Hannah as Kelly, a blonde soap-opera star.
 * Bridgette Wilson as Sahara, a naive model with dyed blonde hair.
 * Marlo Thomas as Blair, a fashion photographer and Mary's boss.
 * Kathleen Turner as Dee Dee Taylor, a prominent talent agent.
 * Elizabeth Berkley as Tina, an aspiring actress who works as Madonna's double.
 * Denis Leary as Doug, Mary's self-defense instructor.
 * Steve Buscemi as Nick Reve, the director for Madonna's video.
 * Dave Chappelle as Zee, the assistant director for Madonna's video.
 * Christopher Lloyd as Ernst, a head waiter and Joe's boss.
 * Beatrice Winde as Wilma

Background
The Real Blonde had a higher budget than DiCillo's previous work, and he claimed it was not the kind of movie the studio wanted him to make. At the time, he commented, "when they gave me the budget, they trusted me not to make a three-hour movie about two people staring at each other." In an interview with IndieWire, DiCillo discussed the film's title, remarking "it’s a title that forces you to think twice. And I think the film asks you to think twice. If you take a look at the title, on a surface level, it almost appears to be a serious thing. But if you think about what it’s really saying, with the 'e' on the end 'Blonde' (feminizing it), it’s pertaining to a woman. Pertaining particularly to a very specific area of a woman. If a woman is the real blonde, her hair on top and on the bottom is going to be blonde. The title itself just forces you to go there which I think is great." He added, "every element of authority or what is perceived as real in the film deserves a second look. My idea was that the real blonde represents this ideal, this image of perfection that we all sort of create. We place it just outside of our grasp and exert this tremendous energy to try to attain it. Most of the time the energy is absolutely misplaced. It causes us to literally exhaust ourselves. It sometimes can be really destructive and ultimately is a fruitless exercise."

Casting
DiCillo has stated that Tom Rosenberg of Lakeshore Entertainment, the film's production company, wanted him to cast a big name actress in the role of Mary, such as Nicole Kidman or Julianne Moore. DiCillo instead wanted Catherine Keener to play Mary, as he had experience working with her on previous films, including Box of Moonlight, Living in Oblivion and Johnny Suede. He said, "I knew no one could play the part like Catherine but Lakeshore wouldn’t approve her. I was in agony. Every night I'd lie awake asking myself, 'Is this what it takes to move ahead? Rejecting all the wonderfully talented people I've worked with who actually helped get me to where I am?'". DiCillo kept pushing for Keener to play Mary and eventually Rosenberg relented, saying he could cast Keener as long as she worked out with a personal trainer for six weeks and consulted a professional make-up artist. DiCillo was hesitant to call Keener and tell her this, saying "I imagined her hearing the words I was about to say to her and I knew there was no way I could make the call. What actress could ever commit to a film knowing the producers were questioning the way she looked? Also, it would have destroyed our friendship". DiCillo decided not to call Keener. He says, "[instead] I called Tom Rosenberg and said, 'That’s it. I’ve put stars in every other role. I’m casting Catherine Keener, without your trainer and your make-up'".

Release
The Real Blonde premiered on September 14, 1997, at the Deauville Film Festival in France, and went on to play at several other festivals, including the Sundance Film Festival. It then received a theatrical run in the United States beginning on February 27, 1998, where it grossed only $83,048 against a budget of $10 million. It was released on VHS and LaserDisc in late 1998 by Paramount Home Entertainment, and then on DVD in January 1999.

Reception
The movie received mixed reviews from critics and currently holds a 34% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

In September 1997, Lisa Nesselson of Variety wrote, "The Real Blonde pillories the shallow realms of fashion advertising, rock videos and soap operas while championing the search for sincere romance and rewarding work in the big city", and described the film as a "comic exploration of the quest for integrity and depth in a world wowed by artifice and superficiality." She went on to write "[the] populous cast displays appropriate urban energy. Modine is OK, if not especially memorable, as the low-profile actor with sky-high standards. Keener grounds the proceedings with her Everywoman brunette demeanor, and Berkley and Wilson sally forth for the hard-working blond contingent." A 1997 review from the Film Monthly Journal of the British Federation of Film Societies states, "it is a film which wears its heart on its sleeve and to many this is so apparent as to be annoying. However, its dealings with contemporary sexual mores and male / female relationships, are, in some parts, quite amusing."

In March 1998, Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave it a C+, commenting "the movie, an attack on superficiality, never quite makes it out of the shallow end." Marc Savlov of The Austin Chronicle labelled it a "very crowded movie that babbles endlessly without ever saying very much." Geoffrey Macnab of British paper The Independent wrote, "director Tom DiCillo finally got a decent budget for his satire The Real Blonde, but there's still no danger of this director joining the movie mainstream."

It was featured on an episode of Siskel & Ebert, where it received two thumbs up from Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. In his other review for the Chicago Sun-Times, Ebert gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, and wrote:"[Director/writer DiCillo] devises brief, sharply observed scenes. He notices, for example, the way a makeup artist makes up not only a model's face but also her attitude. The way the karate instructor, playing an aggressor, takes a sly pleasure in using sexist insults. The way people talk knowledgeably about movies they haven't seen. The way a guy who's embarrassed to be in a porno store will brazen it out. All of the actors are right for their roles because a degree of typecasting has been done, but Daryl Hannah brings a particularly focused energy to the role of a soap opera actress who is not impressed that a guy is impressed by her. And Catherine Keener brings a wry wit to her character; she sees models on Times Square billboards and knows what it took to get them there. The characters are articulate enough to talk about what really moves them; they don't play sitcom games. DiCillo never puts two and two together, but somehow it all adds up."

title: The Real Blonde


text:
Talk:William Forshaw

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on William Forshaw. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20041214215530/http://www.homeusers.prestel.co.uk/stewart/berkshir.htm to http://www.homeusers.prestel.co.uk/stewart/berkshir.htm

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

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 05:49, 1 December 2017 (UTC)

title: Talk:William Forshaw


text:
Trans-Amazonian Highway

The Trans-Amazonian Highway (official designation BR-230, official name Rodovia Transamazônica ) was introduced on September 27, 1972. It is 4,000 km long, making it the third longest highway in Brazil. It runs through the Amazon forest and the Brazilian states of Paraíba, Ceará, Piauí, Maranhão, Tocantins, Pará and Amazonas, from the proximities of Saboeiro up until the town of Lábrea.

History
The project was started by the military dictatorship that was in power from 1964 to 1985 out of their perceived need to guarantee control over the remote regions while encouraging economic engagement with the natural resources in the region. The highway was intended to integrate these regions with the rest of the country, and with Colombia, Peru and Ecuador. Another main goal of the project was to alleviate the effects of the drought affecting the Northeast region of the country by providing a route to largely empty land in the middle of the rainforest, which could be settled. It was originally planned to be a fully paved highway 5200 kilometers long. However, these plans were modified following its inauguration.

In particular, because of high construction costs and Brazil financial crisis in the late 1970s, only a part of the highway was paved, from its beginning to 200 km ahead of Marabá. The lack of a fully sealed road caused many problems. Travel on the non-paved stretches of the highway is extremely difficult during the region's rainy season between October and March. In the wet season cars often get stuck in the poorly constructed road and in the dry season there are often pot holes in the dry mud roads that damage vehicles.

Construction of the highway was very challenging because of the remoteness of the site. Workers building the road were frequently isolated and without communication. Occasional visits to nearby cities provided the only outside contact. However, severe techniques and procedures that evolved during the construction of Belém-Brasília Highway (BR-153) were then used. According to, roughly 800 km of the highway is due to be paved in the next 4 years, improving transport links in the central region of Pará state. The Brazilian Government are now planning to pave the whole highway with tarmac. As of December 2009, paving was underway between the town of Ruropolis and Itaituba and north to Santarém. This will connect soy plantations with overland trucking routes to the south of Brazil. The road has been left untouched however at points further west of Itaituba, at times narrowing to roughly 2 meters wide.

Access to the construction sites was mostly accomplished by small airplanes using temporary airstrips and boats. Today construction vehicles can be seen traversing the road east and west bringing dirt and gravel to prepare for paving operations.

In 2019 the Brazilian government announced that it was seeking to privatize major sections of BR-230 in an attempt to pave more sections of the road.

In September 2022, the Brazilian government finished restoration on a paved 33.3 kilometer section of BR-230 located in the arid northern Tocantins between Aguiarnópolis and Trevo de Nazaré. There are still many sections of the road in the Amazon that remain unpaved entirely.

Characteristics

The BR-230 or Transamazônica is a transversal highway, considered the third longest highway in Brazil, with 4260 km in length, that connects the port city of Cabedelo in Paraíba with the municipality of Lábrea, in Amazonas, cutting through some of the main cities from Brazil. It also serves as a link with port areas in the state of Pará, such as Port of Santarém; Marabá, Altamira and Itaituba. It also connects with ports on the Northeast coast, like Suape Port. In Paraíba it represents the main axis of movement of people and goods between its municipalities, having as reference the port of Cabedelo and the cities of João Pessoa, Campina Grande, Patos, Pombal, Sousa and Cajazeiras, the largest economic centers in the state. It crosses the soil of Paraíba for 521 km, with good traffic conditions up to the border with the state of Ceará.

The 147.6 km long section between Cabedelo, where its milestone 0 is located, and Campina Grande, passing through Grande João Pessoa and other municipalities, was doubled under the Fernando Henrique Cardoso government. Additional duplication is expected between the municipalities of Campina Grande and Cajazeiras.

Designed to better integrate the north of Brazil with the rest of the country, it was inaugurated on August 27, 1972, still unfinished and there are several sections to be paved. Initially designed to be an 8,000-kilometer-long paved highway, connecting the north and northeast regions of Brazil with Peru and Ecuador, it has not undergone major changes since its inauguration. Later, the project was modified to 4,977 km to Benjamin Constant, however construction in Lábrea was interrupted, totaling 4,260 km.

Economy by state
BR-230 has a leading role in the development of the economy of several Brazilian states.

Paraíba
Paraíba's economy is the 19th richest in the country and the sixth in the Northeast (behind Bahia, Pernambuco, Ceará, Maranhão and Rio Grande do Norte, and ahead of Alagoas, Sergipe and Piauí). According to data from 2014, the Gross Domestic Product of Paraíba was R $155,143 million and the GDP per capita was R $16,722.05. The largest economies in Paraíba are João Pessoa, Campina Grande, Cabedelo, Santa Rita and Patos.

In 2010, taking into account the municipal population of eighteen years of age or older, 59.3% were economically employed, 32.2% were economically inactive, and 8.5% were unemployed. Still in the same year, taking into account the employed population in the same age group, 40.30% worked in the services sector, 23.38% in agriculture, 15.55% in commerce, 7 96% in manufacturing industries, 7.09% in civil construction and 1.15% in public utility. Cabedelo, in the João Pessoa Metropolitan Region, is the third largest economy in the state and the highest GDP per capita in Paraíba.

At the end of the 16th century, when the occupation of the territory of Paraíba began, the economy of Paraíba was centralized in the primary sector (agriculture), mainly in the cultivation of sugar cane. According to the IBGE, Paraíba had, in 2015, a herd of 10,647,748 chickens, 1,170,803 cattle, 566,576 goats, 501,362 sheep, 312,409 quails, 174,533 pigs, 52,683 horses and 913 buffaloes. In the same year, the state produced, in temporary crops, sugar cane (6801,981 t), pineapple (290,772 thousand fruits), cassava (131,073 t), sweet potato (30,192 t), tomato (13,045 t), corn (10,934 t), beans (7,019 t), watermelon (4,292 t), onion (2,256 t), broad beans (1,439 t), potatoes (473 t), rice (360 t), peanuts (252 t), herbaceous cotton (228 t ) and garlic (10 t). [120] In permanent cultivation: banana (134,606 t), coco-da-bay (36,385 t), papaya (30,810 t), mandarin (15,304 t), mango (11,306 t), passion fruit (8,287 t), orange (5,424 t), sisal (5,035 t), grape (2,196 t), guava (2,023 t), lemon (1,882 t), cashews (960 t), avocado (624 t), annatto (395 t) and black pepper ( 58t). In 2011, the municipalities with the highest agricultural gross domestic product in the state were, in descending order, Pedras de Fogo, Santa Rita, Itapororoca and Araçagi.

In 2018, Paraíba had an industrial GDP of R$8.8 billion, equivalent to 0.7% of the national industry and employing 109,825 workers in the industry. The main industrial sectors are: Construction (32.1%), Industrial Services of Public Services, such as Electricity and Water (23.9%), Leather and Footwear (11.3%), Food (6%) and Non-Metallic Minerals (5.9%). These 5 sectors concentrate 79.2% of the state industry.

Paraíba's industrial profile is mainly focused on the benefit of minerals and raw materials from the primary sector. The main industrial centers of Paraíba, as well as the main industrial centers of the state, are: in the forest area, the Metropolitan Region of João Pessoa (Bayeux, Cabedelo, Conde, João Pessoa, Lucena and Santa Rita), where the industries are mainly food, cement, civil construction and textiles; in the wild, Campina Grande, where once again the food industries stand out, as well as those of beverages, footwear, industrialized fruits and, more recently, software; in the interior, Cajazeiras, Patos, São Bento and Sousa, with an emphasis on the textile and clothing industries. Industrial activity in the state is, to this day, in the process of development, with the aim of generating better living conditions for the population. The highest GDP in the secondary sector are João Pessoa, Campina Grande, Santa Rita, Cabedelo and Caaporã.

In commerce, the value of sales throughout the state reached R$4.8 billion, while the entire tertiary sector contributed more than R$25 billion. The state is the fifth largest exporter in the Northeast, standing out in the export of consumer goods, intermediate goods and capital. Sugar, ethyl alcohol, footwear, granite, clothing, sisal, and fabrics are the main products exported from Paraíba abroad, mainly to Australia, Argentina, the United States, Russia, and the European Union.

Ceará
In 2008, Ceará's GDP, at market prices, was R$60,098,877,000, of which 47.17% is concentrated in the capital, Fortaleza, according to a study by IPECE. However, there is a slight process of decentralization of wealth in the state, since in 2004 the capital represented 47.80% of state GDP. On the other hand, the richest cities, in general, the richest cities continue to increase their share of total GDP. Some of these cities are: Maracanaú (5.19%), Juazeiro do Norte (3.31%), Caucaia (3.25%), Sobral (2.83%), Eusébio (1.56%), Horizonte ( 1.39%), Maranguape (1.07%), Crato (1.07%) and São Gonçalo do Amarante (1.02%).

The five municipalities with the highest GDP per capita in Ceará are: Eusébio (R$23,205), Horizonte (R$15,947), Maracanaú (R$15,620), São Gonçalo do Amarante (R$14,440) and Fortaleza ( R$11,461), all well above the state average, which is R$7,112. The ten municipalities with the highest GDP accounted for 67.86% of total GDP.

Starting in the 1960s, progressive industrialization and urbanization processes took place, which gained momentum starting in the 1980s, partly due to the policy of granting tax benefits to companies that establish themselves in the state. Currently, although it continues to be a sub-industrialized economy in relation to other Brazilian states, the Ceará economy is no longer based primarily on agricultural activities. In fact, the tertiary sector of commerce and services predominates, as well as tourism. However, agriculture, and especially livestock, continue to be relevant in the state's economy, and the importance of non-traditional crops is increasing. Some examples of these crops are the production of fruits and vegetables in the Jaguaribe River valley, and the production of flowers in the Sierra de Ibiapaba and in Cariri Microregion.

Since 2004, Ceará's economy has undergone a period of moderate growth, between 3.5% and 5% per year. In 2007 growth was 4.4%, lower than the Brazilian average; and in 2008 of 6.5%, well above the average, mainly due to the great recovery of the agricultural sector (24.59%), in addition to the maintenance of the high levels of growth of the industry (5.51%) and from the tertiary sector (5.21%). In 2009, despite the international economic crisis and losses in the primary sector, Ceará's GDP grew 3.1%, higher than the change in Brazilian GDP, which was -0.2%, mainly due to the good performance of the service sector. Thus, Ceará's GDP reached more than 2% of national production for the first time. An estimate made by IPECE reveals that Ceará's GDP had record nominal growth, when it grew to 10 billion from 2009 to 2010. In 2010 there was also a record participation of the Ceará economy in the national economy. Such participation, which was 1.89% in 2007, increased to 2.04% in 2010...

In 2011, the Ceará economy continued to grow above the national average. The PIV of Ceará reached 84 billion, an increase of 10 billion compared to the previous year, according to preliminary data from IPECE.

In agriculture, the most important products are: Beans, corn, rice, cotton, cashew nut, sugar cane, cassava, castor bean, tomato, banana, orange, coconut, and more recently the grape are the main products. There has recently been a shift towards irrigated agriculture mainly for export, in areas close to the Chapada del Apodi, devoting itself especially to the cultivation of fruits such as melon and pineapple. The cultivation of flowers has also gained importance in recent times, especially in the Sierra de Ibiapaba.

In livestock, cattle, pigs, goats, horses, poultry, donkey and sheep are mainly kept.

The main resources minerals extracted from Ceará soil are: iron, mineral water, calcareous, clay, magnesium, granite, petroleum, natural gas, sea salt, graphite, gypsum and crude uranium. The municipality of Santa Quitéria has the largest uranium reserve in Brazil.

The main sectors of the industry of Ceará are the manufacture of clothing, the food, metallurgical, textile, chemical and footwear industries. Most of the industries are located in the Metropolitan Region of Fortaleza, especially in Fortaleza, Caucaia and Maracanaú, where the Maracanaú Industrial District is located, an important industrial complex that stimulates the state's economy. The Special Protection Zone for Birds of Ceará will be installed in Caucaia and São Gonçalo do Amarante, in the Pecem Industrial and Port Complex, where a steel industry and a petroleum refinery will also be installed.

The Federation of Industries of the State of Ceará (FIEC) is the union entity of company owners. The entity brings together the majority of owners and industrial leaders. Some of the large companies in Ceará with national scope linked to the FIEC are: Aço Cearense, Companhia de Alimentos do Nordeste, Grendene, Café Santa Clara, Grande Moinho Cearense, Grupo Edson Queiroz, Indústria Naval do Ceará, J. Macêdo, M. Dias Branco, Troller and Ypióca.

Commerce is of great importance in the economy of Ceará, representing more than 70% of the state's GDP. The main commercial institution in the state is the Federation of Commerce of the State of Ceará (Fecommerce). Some commercial chains affiliated with Fecomercio with national prominence are Rede de Farmácias Pague Menos, Cone Pizza, Otoch and Esplanada.

In 2009, construction began on the second state supply center (Ceasa), in the Cariri region, which will complement food distribution, together with Ceasa in the Metropolitan Region of Fortaleza. In addition to Ceasa's commercial activity, all cities maintain municipal markets.

title: Trans-Amazonian Highway


text:
Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore

The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) Singapore is the curatorial division of LASALLE College of the Arts, dedicated to supporting innovative and emerging creative practices. Focusing on art and design from the present, it provides an active site for contemporary culture in Singapore. It comprises five galleries that span a total of 1,500 square metres, one of the largest spaces devoted to contemporary art in Singapore. It engages local and international audiences in critical viewing and discussion through a diverse programme of exhibitions, projects, publications and events.

The ICA Singapore provides a cultural and educational tool for students and the wider public to advance their knowledge and appreciation of the contemporary local, regional and international arts.

History
The Dr Earl Lu Gallery was established by LASALLE College of the Arts in 1986, in recognition of a major contribution of artworks by philanthropist and artist Dr Earl Lu, it presented exhibitions of traditional and contemporary arts, often with a focus on practices from Asia. From 2001 to 2004, under the directorship of Binghui Huangfu, the gallery worked closely with LASALLE’s Contemporary Asian Art Centre, a research facility directed by T.K. Sabapathy that sought to advance knowledge and collaboration between artists across Asia through dialogue, research and publications. In 2004, Dr Earl Lu Gallery was renamed the Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore and repositioned as a centre of Singapore and international contemporary art. In 2007, the institute moved along with LASALLE College of the Arts from the Goodman Road campus to a new campus on McNally Street, where it is based today.

Since its establishment, the ICA Singapore has presented exhibitions of international contemporary art. These include solo exhibitions by Yeo Hwee Bin (2000), On Kawara (2004), Antony Gormley (2005), Lim Tzay Chuen (2005), Roberto Chabet (2011), Ian Woo (2011), Jeremy Sharma (2012) Milenko Prvacki (2012), Shubigi Rao (2013), Tang Da Wu (2013), Jack Tan (2015), Marco Fusinato (2015) and Ana Prvački (2015–16). Group exhibitions include Text & Subtext: International Contemporary Asian Women Artists Exhibition (2000), Sight and Sight: Translating Cultures (2003), Lost to the Future: Contemporary Art from Central Asia (2013), Sound: Latitudes and Attitudes (2014), Countershadows (tactics in evasion) (2014), Artists Imagine a Nation: SG50: Pictures of People and Places from the Collections of Koh Seow Chuan and Friends (2015), Rendez-Vous (2015) and Sous la Lune/Beneath the Moon (2015–16).

Past directors of the ICA Singapore include Binghui Huangfu (1996–2003), Eugene Tan (2003–08) and Charles Merewether (2010–13). The current director of ICA Singapore is Melbourne-born curator Bala Starr.

Controversies
In February 2016, two items that were part of the group show "Fault-lines: Disparate and desperate intimacies" were removed from artist Loo Zihan's installation "Queer objects: An archive for the future". This action was agreed after discussion between ICA Singapore staff, curator Wong Binghao, and Loo Zihan, and was due to the nature of the objects, which could potentially be considered offensive to some members of the public. The items were a penis sheath and a butt plug. The ICA Singapore, curator and artist emphasised that the decision was taken to make the exhibition accessible to all, including students of the LASALLE College of the Arts, half of whom are under 18 years old.


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Glark

 This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion of the article below. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was DELETE. There were a couple of merge votes, however I could not find anything to merge that is not already covered in Television Without Pity. JeremyA 22:04, 19 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Glark
Seems to be about a webpage user or owner. I cannot find much evidence of notability. At any rate, bio articles should not be titled with a web-nickname. Sjakkalle (Check!)  08:23, 10 Jun 2005 (UTC)

He is however one of the founders of one of the most popular television discussion sites on the Internet, which has beeen quoted in the Entertainment media and is often linked to from TV articles on wikipedia. I would not support deletion, although the article could of course be bettered by editing. --newsjunkie 11:47, 10 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * Mild keep Taken into account Newsjunkie`s info and good article on `twp`. _Must_ be rewritten though. -Snorre/Antwelm 13:49, 10 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * Merge with Television Without Pity.  I don't think Glark is notable on his own--Xcali 16:10, 10 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete or just redirect: An article on a screen name?  No, no.  Screen names are not people, so they have no accomplishments.  They're just masks present in very specific, non-real contexts. Geogre 19:18, 10 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. This is not a person.  RickK 19:54, Jun 10, 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete non notable. JamesBurns 02:08, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep He is definitely noteworthy, with many sites, in addition to TWoP.
 * Delete, nn. --W(t) 14:32, 2005 Jun 13 (UTC)
 * Delete. I like TwoP, but nicknames are generally not encyclopedic and this one is no execption. Quale 18:41, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)

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

title: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Glark


text:
Bishop of Bedford

The Bishop of Bedford is an episcopal title used by a Church of England suffragan bishop who, under the direction of the Diocesan Bishop of St Albans, oversees 150 parishes in Luton and Bedfordshire.

The title, which takes its name after the town of Bedford, was created under the Suffragan Bishops Act 1534. The first three suffragan bishops were appointed for the Diocese of London, but through reorganisation within the Church of England in 1914, Bedford came under the Diocese of St Albans.

Richard Atkinson, formerly Archdeacon of Leicester, was consecrated by Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, in St Paul's Cathedral on 17 May 2012.

History
With the huge increase in London's population in the 19th century, the Bishop of London was one of the first to require help from other bishops. Alongside assistant bishops (including some returned from the colonies; see Assistant Bishop of London, he gradually resumed appointments to suffragan Sees — Bedford was first in 1879. That See was chosen as the one erected by the Suffragan Bishops Act 1534 nearest to London; and the stipend of the bishop was provided by appointing him to St Andrew Undershaft, in the east of the City of London. The suffragan was always intended to take responsibility for the East End; by 1887 this meant the rural deaneries of Spitalfields, of Hackney and of Stepney. To these were added the rural deaneries of Islington, Shoreditch, St Sepulchre (the part outside the City), and Enfield in 1888, such that the bishop's area became known as "East and North London" — i.e. the East and North of the then-County of London (inside the diocese). Billing called himself Bishop-Suffragan for East London, and this responsibility passed to the Bishop of Stepney (which See was newly-erected under the Suffragans Nomination Act 1888) on Billing's resignation of his London duties in 1895. How was resident at Stainforth House, Upper Clapton by 1887; Billing was still residing there in 1895.

title: Bishop of Bedford


text:
Talk:Philosophy of Organism

Disputed
That etymology of concrescence is completely "off the wall." It is a good English word and can be looked up in the dictionary. The organism Whitehead is talking about is only the growth of the merely real into the actual by concrescence (see Heraclitus). Even as a stub unfortunately the article is uninformative and misleading. If the editor intended merely to hold a place I would say it is better to do so in a only a few words - a single sentence - that are accurate rather than a complete fantasy. Otherwise, it seems better to me to cover less ground but do it with higher quality. I notice the large number of philosophy articles springing up like grass and we could use those all right but with the conditions I just mentioned. Thanks.Dave (talk) 22:28, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

title: Talk:Philosophy of Organism


text:
Talk:Philosophy of social science

THE BEHAVIOUR AND THE HUMAN BODY as 2 different matters of study to the Philosophies of Sociolgy and the Philosophy of Scientists.

Classifying all the components of human behavior differs greatly to classifying all of the components of the body of the human being.Human behavior has a set definition.The living human body has a set definition. We do not know all of the components of human behaviour.We do know all of the components of the human body...for the human body can be illustrated in diagramitic form as years and years of study have enabled us to verify that we know the entire facts and produce them by diagram etc for others to observe. This process of study and its verifacation has,from its early days, been the hallmark of the methods of the Scientist. A fact is a fact and it can never be disputed.

Sociolgists study human behavior and can work using the same method,by study and verifacation,but their subject matter can be very different to that the Scientist,and it is not so easy for them to classify facts.

The sociologist,for example,may decide to study why there are not enough skilled cooks in the workforce. He can gather data to prove this and produce it in a printout.It may reveal that in North Scotland there is a ratio of 1 to 375- 1 skilled cook to a requirement in the area of 375. If he wants to end his study there,he could,and report to the Government that they should make more training places for cooks available.

In this way Sociology is as factual as Science.

However if he wishes to find out why this situation arose,then he has to study the behaviour of all relevant groups. From school curriculums to colleges to individual choices to obstacles to facilities to teachers and he may have to carry out his study from a very early date,it could be more than 3 decades ago or more. He may prove a great number of facts but if it transpired to amount to "Individual unwillingness to learn to cook" then analysing the reasons for it are not viable.He will never be able to analyse "individual unwillingness" So in this part of his study he has got an entirley different subject matter than the Scientist ..he cannot gather data and verify it. He can only give his opinion. — Preceding unsigned comment added by ANGELACMCMAHON (talk • contribs) 09:39, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

Fodor
Some Fodor should be mentioned to eliminate the Social Sciences being reduced to Physics by reductionism. 128.6.175.41 17:55, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

---

A section on the relationship to philosophy of science is necessary.

Social Science and Natural Science
There are several reasons for natural science to be more successful than social science (if it can be called science). Firstly, natural science stresses quantitative research. Secondly, there is no emotional linkage between the researcher and the object of study. Social science research, however, has many taboos. It is not nice to say this thing, or it will offend people in saying that thing, and the like. People sometimes can only say things that are politically correct but not scientifically correct. In my opinion, human language is vague. For example, the word “desk” does not indicate how many legs the “desk” has or what material it is made of. By the same token, “socialism” and “capitalism” are also vague concepts. If I can provide concrete parameters such as measurement, material and color, then the “desk” I talk about has a definite meaning. There are also concrete parameters in social science research, such as efficiency, extent of security, degree of equity, level of equality, measure of natural freedom and social freedom, people’s average life span, crime rate, average number of phones and cars in the population, and the like. In order to reach objective conclusion, researchers of social studies should make use of these quantified concepts as much as possible to define concepts such as “socialism” and “capitalism”. Adjudicators giving marks at the gymnastics competition is adopting a way to quantify the performance of the athletes. I believe that social theorists should also quantify the social conditions of different period and different regions in human history. It will be impossible to achieve absolute accuracy, even natural scientists cannot measure the length of an object to absolute accuracy. There will inevitably be some errors but in the case of social science, errors will be bigger. People have not forsaken the assessment method for gymnastics competition simply because it contains large errors. Up to now, not only are there vague concepts such as “socialism” and “capitalism”, but also new vague concepts made up from these vague concepts, such as “primary stage of socialism” and “socialism with distinctive Chinese characteristics”, and the like.

65.110.25.82 (talk) 02:29, 11 May 2010 (UTC)

Potentially dangerous transclusion redaction
I found this at the top of the article:

The philosophy of social science is the study of the logic, methods, and foundations of social sciences (psychology, cultural anthropology, sociology, etc...). Philosophers of social science are concerned with the differences and similarities between the social and the natural sciences, causal relationships between social phenomena, the possible existence of social laws, and the ontological significance of structure and agency.

There are only three active transclusions. I was able to find the phrase "ontological significance of structure and agency" via internal search only in philosophy of science, where it is hard coded, not transcluded. The "etc..." is kind of nasty, and I have trouble believing it has survived in transcluded pages for any length of time. For a variety of reasons, I suspect this is cruft from ancient history and, in any case, not congruent with how much of anything else is done these days.

If I'm totally wrong, and this transclusion was actually accomplishing something, then my apologies, and restore at will, but please elaborate in the comment why and how it functions, which escapes me. — MaxEnt 15:21, 30 September 2023 (UTC)

Clarification: By "how" it functions, I mean what purpose it serves on the transcluding pages that couldn't be served less weirdly, not how transclusion itself works, which I understand just fine. — MaxEnt 15:22, 30 September 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Philosophy of social science