text:
HL Anyang

HL Anyang is a professional ice hockey team based in Anyang in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. It is one of the founding and current members of the Asia League Ice Hockey (ALIH). Formed in 1994, it is the oldest professional ice hockey team in South Korea. The Halla Group contributes three billion won annually to run the club.

At its inception the team was based in Mok-dong, Seoul and named the Mando Winia. In 1998 the team took the name of Mando's parent company, Halla. After the collapse of the Korean Ice Hockey League in 2003, they were the only team to survive. They joined four Japanese teams to create the new Asia League Ice Hockey. In 2005, the team moved to its current hometown of Anyang, where it plays its home games at the Anyang Ice Arena. After two years of finishing in fifth place, they became the first non-Japanese team to finish first in the regular season in 2008–09. However, they failed to defeat the Nippon Paper Cranes in the semi-finals. In the following season, Halla again finished in first and won the semi-final and final series giving them their first play-off series win and first Asia League Championship. The club captured their second AL title after the league cancelled the championship final due to the earthquake in Japan. Asia League announced Halla and Tohoku Free Blades as the co-champions. In 2022, the team rebranded as HL Anyang.

1994–2003: pre-Asia League Ice Hockey
The team was founded in 1994 by the Halla Group to help promote hockey in Korea. The Halla Group also felt that by creating an ice hockey team, it would help them to fulfill their role as a responsible corporation by providing something to the community. The team was originally named "Mando Winia". It was so named because Mando is a subsidiary company of Halla and Winia is a brand of air conditioner sold by the company. In 1997 the team was disbanded for a short time during the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. However, the chairman of Halla Group, Chung Mong-won, fought to keep the team.

As a member of the Korean Ice Hockey League the team won the championship five times. During this time, the team also changed their name from "Mando Winia" to "Halla Winia". The team first looked at adding foreign players to their roster in late 2001 with other members of the Korean League. In 2003, the team was one of the founding members of Asia League Ice Hockey.

2003–present: Asia League Ice Hockey
While the team participates primarily in the Asia League, they also play in tournaments like the All Korea Ice Hockey Championship each year. In the inaugural year of Asia League Ice Hockey, Halla played a shortened seasons of only 16 games, and failed to break .500. In the following year they brought Esa Tikkanen, a veteran player of 20 NHL seasons, on board. He was brought on primarily to coach the players but he also played during the team's games. Tikkanen felt that as the players played against more skilled teams their own skill level showed greater improvement. He also felt that they should play more games and that the season was too short. That year the team was also noted for showing great improvement over the first year's effort. Halla finished the season winning 18 games out of 42 with 5 ties. Their top offensive player, Marco Poulsen, finished fifth in the overall points race, however they did not reach their goal that year of making the playoffs, finishing in fifth place one spot out of the playoffs. In the off-season the team changed their name from Anyang Halla Winia to Anyang Halla with the expiration of the sponsorship contract. As well they hired Otakar Vejvoda to be the team's new coach. Vejvoda was considered a legend in the Czech Extraliga both for his skill as a player and a coach.

In the 2005–06 season Halla improved on the previous year's performance finishing in second place. The league saw a reduced season of only 38 games. Song Dong-hwan was the leader in goals for the league with 31 and Patrik Martinec ranked second in assists with 44. Martinec ranked number two on the total points list while Song finished in fourth place. Halla also scored the most short-handed goals of any team in the league with 11. The city of Anyang won an award for being "The best Hockey Town in Asia". The team made the play-offs for the first time since the league's formation. They received a bye in the first round and played Kokudo, the winner of the third place and sixth place match-up. Anyang won only a single game out of the first three which were played on home ice. They were eliminated in the fourth game which was played in Kokudo's home rink by a score of 5–1. Kokudo went on to be the league champions for the second year in a row.

After the conclusion of the 2005–06 season there were some roster changes. Two of the team's top players, Song Dong-hwan and Jang Jong-moon, had to report for compulsory military service. Starting goaltender, Kim Sung-Bae, retired after the previous season. Even though they were missing these players they were noted for having more players with more than 10 goals and 10 assists than in the previous season. With the departure of Song offensive output dropped slightly, the team's top offensive player finished seventh overall in goals with 21. However Martinec won the assists race with 53 and the overall points total with 71. The team shared top spot in the short-handed goals with 2 other teams, scoring 10 over the course of the season. With a further shortened season of only 34 games the team finished in fifth place and faced the other Korean team, Kangwon Land in the quarter-finals. During the regular season Kangwon won six of seven meetings, and the quarter-finals were no different. Kangwon swept Halla in three games, the final game ending in 3–2 with a last minute desperate bid by Halla to tie the game.

The next season saw the AL further reduce the number of games played to just 30. In the pre-season Halla won the Anyang Cup, which is a pre-season tournament held in Anyang. The team's record in the regular season remained relatively the same and they finished again in fifth place. Lee Yu-Won was the top offensive player with 16 goals and was tied for fourth place with three other players. Martinec continued to contribute many assists to the team and finished in second place with 29, one point off first. He finished in fourth place in the overall point totals. Halla did not have another player in the top 10. The team once again led the league in short-handed goals and gave up the fewest short-handed goals against along with the Oji Eagles. In the playoffs the Halla faced the Nippon Paper Cranes in the first round. During the regular season the two teams split their series, each winning two games. The playoffs told a different story, and Nippon swept Halla in three games. Halla lost each game by a single goal. Vejvoda praised Nippon's goalie for his excellent play and commended his players for their effort.

Following the defeat in the post-season Halla replaced Vejvoda as head coach with Shim Eui-Sik. Shim had spent his entire professional career playing for Halla and during the 2007–2008 season he was the coach of Little Halla. As a player Shim had 30 points in 80 games. He vowed to reorganize the team and set his sights on a league championship. The team's general manager also hired Samuel H. Kim, then an analyst for SBS Sports and previously an NHL reporter from Vancouver, as a scout for the organization. Halla moved away from the heavy Czech influence which had previously dominated the team and filled three of the four spots for foreign players on the team with players from North America. Brock Radunske, Brad Fast and Jon Awe became the first three players from North America to play for the team. They also arranged for Eric Thurston, the head coach of University of Alberta's team, to spend the first three weeks of the training camp assisting the new coach and new North American players. Martinec was the only Czech player to remain on the team. In addition to the new foreigner players, Song Dong-hwan and Jang Jong-moon returned from military service. In the 2008 pre-season Anyang Cup, Halla finished fourth out of five teams. The AL increased the number of regular season games for the 2008–09 season to 36. In September head coach Shim was suspended for five games for refusal to play. The incident stemmed from a goal that was scored as the final buzzer sounded during a 21 September game against High1. Halla entered the dressing room and refused to return to the ice. The league considered the game a forfeit. Anyang Halla finished the season in first place with a total of 76 points. Their defeat of their rivals High1 in the final game of the season marks the first time a non-Japanese team had finished first place in the Asia League. Brock Radunske captured the titles for both the most goals scored with 29 and most points on the season with 57. Martinec finished in second place for the second year in a row in the assists category with 47. Overall the team finished with five players in the top ten in the overall points tally. For the first time the team ended the season with the number one powerplay scoring 54 goals. In contrast to earlier seasons the team did not lead the league in short-handed goals, ranking in the middle of the pack both in goals for and against. They were the only team not shutout during the regular season. After receiving a bye in the first round of the play-offs Halla had to face the Nippon Paper Cranes in the semi-final. They returned to Anyang for game six of the series leading 3–2. They were expected to win the series but Nippon's Ilmura scored two game-winning goals and the Japanese club defeated Anyang in 7 games.

Halla opened the 2009–10 season with a loss on home ice, but at the midpoint of the season they were tied for first place with the Oji Eagles. The league maintained the number of games at 36. The first half of the season saw Halla plagued with injuries. Particularly hard hit were the team's foreign imports. After the third game of the season Jon Awe was diagnosed with a sports hernia that required surgery and was scheduled to miss 8–12 weeks. On 29 November, Brad Fast received a knee injury that would sideline him for 4–6 months, ending his season. Brock Radunske was also on the injury list with a concussion, while Patrik Martinec was day to day with a lower-body injury. Halla replaced Awe quickly with Dustin Wood, who has played in both the American Hockey League and Deutsche Eishockey Liga. Fast was replaced by Lee Don-ku from Yonsei University. Halla also had several other regular players injured including Kim Won-jun, Kim Kyu-hun, and Lee Seung-yup. After 18 games Halla led the league with 94 goals. On 31 January 2010 Halla defeated the Oji Eagles in overtime by a score of 4–3, clinching first place for the second year in a row. The win also set up a semi-final match-up against Korean rivals High1, guaranteeing that a Korean team would appear in the final for the first time in league history. Halla won all of their series against opposing teams, except against their rival High1. Of 18 possible points available in their six-game series, Halla took only eight. They were the only team to win a series against the Nippon Paper Cranes. The team led the league in goals scored with 180. Individually, Kim Ki-sung led the team in goals scored with 22, while Patrik Martinec again led with 40 assists and 51 points. Halla finished with five players in the top ten-point list. The team also led in both powerplay goals for, with 57, powerplay percentage, with 34.97%, and shorthanded goals for, with 10. In the annual end of season awards, Patrik Martinec took the award for Most Valuable Player and Best Playmaking. Cho Min-ho took the award for Young Guy of the Year. Anyang city won the award for Best Hockey Town for the second time for their spirit and sell-out crowds. Anyang Halla defeated High1 by a score of 5–2 to win the semi-finals three games to one, winning their first play-off series and becoming the first Korean team to play for the Championship Cup. Halla faced the Cranes, who had knocked them out of the playoffs twice, in the final. The series went to the full five games and four of the games went to overtime. Brock Radunske scored two overtime winners and assisted Kim Woo-Jae in scoring the overtime winner in game five, making Halla the first non-Japanese team to win the Asia League Championship. Radunske was named MVP while head coach Shim was named "Coach of the Year". After retiring as a player, Martinec signed a 1-year deal to work as an assistant coach on the team.

Like the previous season, Halla lost the opening game against High1. However, they once again found themselves on top at the midpoint of the season. The team was second in the league in goals scored with 65. Halla retained Dustin Wood who was brought in as a replacement in the previous season. On 14 November 2010 the team defended their Korea Domestic Championship title against High1 by defeating them 5–1 in the final game of the week-long tournament. After finishing first two consecutive years, Halla finished in fourth place one point behind the Free Blades. They won their season series against all teams except the Cranes and Eagles. They also finished fifth in goals scored with 130, one behind High1, but allowed the second fewest goals with 94, three behind the Eagles. While the team's penalty kill was ranked fifth in the league, they were tied for the most short-handed goals with the Cranes with six goals. Their powerplay was ranked third, and they gave up the second fewest short-handed goals. Brock Radunske led the team with 20 goals and finished fourth in the league. Cho Min-ho also made the top ten ranking and finished in eight place with 18 goals. Kim Ki-sung was the only Halla player to make the top ten in assists and finished in tenth place with 27. Overall Cho Min-ho led the team with 44 points and finished ninth in the league. Dustin Wood led the team in penalty minutes with 45. With their fourth-place finish, Halla had to face the Eagles in the first round of the playoffs. The series began in Japan, but Halla took two of three games and upon returning to South Korea they won the fourth game of the best-of-five series and knocked the Eagles out. The Free Blades defeated the Cranes and Halla were set to face them on 12 March 2011 in Sendai, Japan. However, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck the Sendai area about one hour after the team landed there to prepare for the games. The League immediately cancelled the three games scheduled in Sendai and on 22 March 2011 they officially cancelled the final series, award co-championship titles to both Anyang Halla and Tohoku Free Blades. This decision made Halla only the second team to capture back-to-back championships since the league's inception.

Community contributions
As a team and organization the Halla have engaged in charitable work. In 2008 they had two charity games on 27 and 28 December. The admission fee was waved and instead fans were asked to make donations. The proceeds were donated to the poor children of Anyang city as well as the sick children's hospital. On 19 December 2009 The Anyang Halla organization donated 20,000 won for each goal that had been scored in the season to charity, totaling just over 2 million won. On 25 and 26 December 2010 Halla repeated their charity game series, and offered free admission to the game in exchange for donations to the sick children's hospitals in Gyeonggi Province. After the cancellation of the final series, the team held a charity game on 22 March 2011 to raise money for the Japanese earthquake victims. Instead of raising a trophy to celebrate their championship, the team took a final photo holding signs of sympathy and encouragement for Japan. The team raised almost 20 million won in donations for Japan. The team maintains a yearly tradition of giving free admission to students who take the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) to promote rest and comfort after the difficult exam.

Media
The club launched a new radio broadcast deal in 2007 with Afreeca.com. On 11 May 2009, SBSsports acquired a five-year broadcast contract with the club.

Arena
The Anyang Ice Arena is located within the Anyang Sports Complex and was opened on 24 November 2000. It seats 1,284 spectators. The ice rink is also used for short track and figure skating among other sports. The team previously used the Mok-dong Ice Rink in Seoul.

Honours

 * Korean Ice Hockey League:
 * Winners (5): 1997–98, 1999–2000, 2001–02, 2002–03, 2003–04

 * Korea National Ice Hockey Championship:
 * Winners (12): 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2014, 2016, 2021, 2022, 2023

 * Asia League Ice Hockey:
 * Regular season winners (7): 2008–09, 2009–10, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2022–23, 2023–24
 * Championship winners (8): 2009–10, 2010–11, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18, 2019–20, 2022–23, 2023–24

a: Shared with Tohoku Free Blades

b: Shared with PSK Sakhalin

Team records
As of the 2022–23 season. Only Asia League games are included.

 * Most games played: Kim Ki-sung, 425
 * Most goals scored: Kim Ki-sung, 222
 * Most assists: Brock Radunske, 318
 * Most points accumulated: Brock Radunske, 534

Current roster
Squad for the 2022–23 season.

Team captains

 * Lee Dong-ho, 1994–1998
 * Rho Jung-won, 1998–2000
 * Shim Eui-sik, 2000–2002
 * Kim Chang-bum, 2002–2004
 * Park Sung-min, 2004–2006
 * Kim Woo-jae, 2006–2012
 * Kim Woo-young, 2012–2014
 * Park Woo-sang, 2014–2016
 * Kim Won-jung, 2016–2018
 * Cho Min-ho, 2018–2022
 * Park Jin-kyu, 2022–present

Head coaches

 * Kim Sae-il, 1994–2004
 * Byun Sun-wook, 2004–2005
 * Otakar Vejvoda, 2005–2008
 * Shim Eui-sik, 2008–2014
 * Jiri Veber, 2014–2016
 * Patrik Martinec, 2016–2021
 * Paek Chi-sun, 2021–present

Asia League
*Prior to the 2008–09 season, there were no shoot-outs and games ended in a tie.

Import players
Prior to the 2008–09 season, Halla drew most of their imports from the Czech Republic, including their head coach.

 * Canada

 * Brock Radunske 2008–2018, C/LW
 * Brad Fast 2008–2011, D
 * Dustin Wood 2009–2014, D
 * Ric Jackman 2011–2013, D
 * Mark Derlago 2012–2013, LW
 * Matt Dalton 2014–present, G
 * Alex Plante 2015–2020, D
 * Eric Regan 2015–2020, D
 * Scott Barney 2017–2018, C/RW

 * Croatia
 * John Hecimovic 2011–2012, RW

 * Czech Republic
 * Aleš Zima 2003–2004, F
 * Michal Madl 2003–2004, D
 * Daniel Seman 2005–2006, D
 * Jaroslav Nedvěd 2005–2007, D
 * Zdeněk Nedvěd 2005–2007, RW
 * Patrik Martinec 2005–2010, C
 * Pavel Falta 2006–2007, G
 * Tomas Hruby 2007–2008, F
 * Patrik Hucko 2007–2008, D
 * Milan Kopecký 2007–2008, C
 * Filip Stefanka 2007–2008, D
 * Karel Pilař 2016–2017, D

 * Finland
 * Vesa Ponto 2004–2005, D
 * Marco Poulsen 2004–2005, C
 * Esa Tikkanen 2004–2005, LW

 * Russia
 * Ruslan Bernikov 2017–2018, LW
 * Nikolai Lemtyugov 2018–2019, LW/RW

 * Slovakia
 * Miroslav Stefanka 2003–2004, C

 * United States
 * Jon Awe 2008–2011, D
 * Alex Kim 2010–2012, C
 * Jeff Dimmen 2013–2015, D
 * Mike Testwuide 2013–2017, RW
 * Mike Radja 2016–2017, C
 * Bill Thomas 2018–2020, RW
 * Troy Milam 2019–2020, D

Retired numbers

 * 43 Patrik Martinec (2005–2010)
 * 87 Cho Min-ho (2008–2022) scored the first goal in South Korean Olympic hockey history at the 2018 tournament. He died in 2022 at the age of 35 from lung cancer.
 * 91 Shim Eui-sik (1994–2006) was the Korean League MVP five times and held the record for most career goals and career points. He spent his entire professional career with the club.

title: HL Anyang


text:
Pseudorandom ensemble

In cryptography, a pseudorandom ensemble is a family of variables meeting the following criteria:

Let $$U = \{U_n\}_{n \in \mathbb{N}}$$ be a uniform ensemble and $$X = \{X_n\}_{n \in \mathbb{N}}$$ be an ensemble. The ensemble $$X$$ is called pseudorandom if $$X$$ and $$U$$ are indistinguishable in polynomial time.

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

title: Pseudorandom ensemble


text:
Talk:Sir Charles Seely, 1st Baronet

Untitled
Is this copied from a reference book? Charles Matthews 09:57, 14 July 2005 (UTC)

all the details are available in newspapers of the day....times of london, IoW county press. Nottinghamshire county press etc. if you think there is a copyvio please advise which changes you wish to be made.

merge suggestion
The articles Sir Charles Seely, 1st Baronet and Sir Charles Seely, 1st Baronet 1833-1915. appear almost identical, but have quite different history and editors. --Scott Davis Talk 04:32, 27 August 2005 (UTC)

 * Some fellow with an interest in the Seely family created a whole raft of articles about a month ago. Some got tagged as copyvios because they seemed really close to Burke's Peerage entries. For some reason, there are multiple instances of some of them, at different names. I've been trying to run them down. Mackensen (talk) 13:10, 27 August 2005 (UTC)

Someone came in and removed numerous edits and is anonymous. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.180.91.243 (talk) 10:37, 28 May 2015 (UTC)

Bookplate_of_Sir_Charles_Seely,_Baronet.jpg
What was wrong with this image? Seely died in 1915. The heraldry made for him is likely to have been out of copyright, so why was it called that? Rodolph (talk) 17:38, 11 April 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:Sir Charles Seely, 1st Baronet


text: User talk:67.39.96.236

title: User talk:67.39.96.236


text:
Villa La Pietra

Villa La Pietra is a renaissance villa in the hills outside Florence, in Tuscany in central Italy. It was formerly the home of Arthur Acton and later of his son Harold Acton, on whose death in 1994 it was bequeathed to New York University. The villa is now home to NYU Florence.

History
Villa La Pietra was bought and somewhat modified in the 1460s by the Florentine banker Francesco Sassetti. In 1545 or 1546 it was sold to the. The villa was given its present form in the seventeenth century by the cardinal Luigi Capponi, possibly with the assistance of Carlo Fontana. During the brief period from 1865 to 1871 when Florence was capital of the Kingdom of Italy, the villa was used as the embassy of Prussia.

In 1903 Arthur Acton, an Anglo-Neapolitan art dealer, rented it after his marriage to Hortense Mitchell, the daughter of John J. Mitchell a banker from Chicago, Illinois. With money from her family, the couple bought the villa in 1907.

The villa contains the art collection assembled by the Actons, which reflects twentieth-century Anglo-American taste. It is used for didactic purposes by New York University. The collection includes works from the circle of Giotto, Romanesque sculptures, a relief of the Virgin and Child by Donatello, and fifteenth-century tapestries made for the de' Medici family.

Between 1905 and 1930 the gardens of the villa were substantially altered by the Actons, only the walled lemon garden to the north-west of the villa remaining mostly unchanged since the time of Luigi Capponi. The Actons laid out a formal Baroque Italian garden with extensive stonework, including almost two hundred statues, many of them by the Venetian sculptors Orazio Marinali and Antonio Bonazza, brought to Florence from the villas of the Brenta. The gardens were restored in the early years of the twenty-first century.

title: Villa La Pietra


text: User talk:80.55.189.214

title: User talk:80.55.189.214


text:
Sophie Charlotte

Sophie Charlotte may refer to:

 * Sophie Charlotte of Hesse-Kassel (1678–1749), princess of Hesse-Kassel
 * Charlotte Christine of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1694–1715), German duchess
 * Princess Charlotte Sophie of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (1731–1810), German duchess
 * Duchess Sophie Charlotte in Bavaria (1847–1897), Duchess of Alençon and born Duchess in Bavaria
 * Sophie Charlotte (actress), German-Brazilian actress Sophie Charlotte Wolf da Silva (born 1989)

title: Sophie Charlotte


text: User talk:69.239.227.25

title: User talk:69.239.227.25


text:
Talk:Eurostar

Image removal
The image File:Eurostar Departures Building - Amsterdam Centraal.jpg was removed by myself and @Murgatroyd49 because it was poorly lit, badly framed and of generally low quality. The logged-out IP that initially added it, and the user that reinstated it several times have both been blocked for a week for edit warring. Although they can't argue their case here it would be useful in the meantime to get the opinion of other users on the merits of the image, and see whether a better Eurostar Amsterdam image can be found. 10mmsocket (talk) 21:56, 8 May 2023 (UTC)

 * @10mmsocket As a professional photographer I disagree. The eurostar photo is correctly exposed, well framed and actually very high quality 81.98.108.119 (talk) 07:37, 9 May 2023 (UTC)
 * ? sockpuppet? Murgatroyd49 (talk) 08:10, 9 May 2023 (UTC)
 * Maybe we should assume good faith, but it's hard to. I can't see how any "professional photographer" would describe that as high quality, let alone well-framed or correctly exposed. We should let others draw their own conclusion about the comment. 10mmsocket (talk) 08:14, 9 May 2023 (UTC)
 * Personally I don't see an issue with the image. It is in focus, not blurred, and high resolution. Although it was clearly taken in the evening/in an overcast day, the building is perfectly clear to see and shown centrally in the frame. I don't see any benefit to the overall usefulness of the article by removing it. Blaiserandpascal (talk) 09:06, 9 May 2023 (UTC)
 * Agreed @Blaiserandpascal I think @10mmsocketmust be having a hard time working out that it's shot in low light... 81.98.108.119 (talk) 09:11, 9 May 2023 (UTC)
 * the picture of Ashford international is darker, lower resolution and blurry, also from 2007. Would be good if this could be updated with a better one. Blaiserandpascal (talk) 09:19, 9 May 2023 (UTC)
 * More sockpuppets? Murgatroyd49 (talk) 09:23, 9 May 2023 (UTC)
 * @10mmsocket@Murgatroyd49From the looks of it others are drawing their own conclusions you just disagree with them. Maybe you might be able to enlighten us on specific areas of the photograph in question which appear blurred or wrongly exposed to you 81.98.108.119 (talk) 09:52, 9 May 2023 (UTC)
 * While I disagree that the lighting is particularly poor, I do agree that the image is generally of poor quality, with much of the building obscured by passengers. A better image showing the building would be preferable. Danners430 (talk) 11:14, 9 May 2023 (UTC)
 * While I agree that it would be preferable to have a photo with less people, the building is still highly visible and the focus of the image. As neither @10mmsocket@Murgatroyd49 have provided a better image, and I cannot see one, I don't see how removal is benificial to anything except the personal tastes of certain users (@10mmsocket @Murgatroyd49) Blaiserandpascal (talk) 11:18, 9 May 2023 (UTC)
 * sockpuppet Murgatroyd49 (talk) 11:19, 9 May 2023 (UTC)
 * I am not. I assume you're a sock puppet of @10mmsocket. Blaiserandpascal (talk) 11:20, 9 May 2023 (UTC)
 * I would suggest we all stop throwing accusations of sockpuppetry around - this is not the place for it. If there are concerns about sockpuppetry, they should be raised at the appropriate forum.
 * What this discussion is for is to get consensus on whether the image should be reinstated or a better one found. Danners430 (talk) 11:24, 9 May 2023 (UTC)
 * Agreed! @10mmsocket@Murgatroyd49 are yet to actually explain why they are so strongly opposed, they have both just said "bad". Blaiserandpascal (talk) 11:26, 9 May 2023 (UTC)
 * Their opinion is just as valuable as yours or mine.
 * Additionally, please stop edit warring on the main page until this discussion is concluded. Danners430 (talk) 11:27, 9 May 2023 (UTC)
 * An edit war is not going to help anyone. We need to understand eveyone's reasoning before making a decision. Mine has been explained clearly. Do we know if something lead to this becoming so contentious? Blaiserandpascal (talk) 11:32, 9 May 2023 (UTC)
 * I do not - however I agree with the point originally made that the image is poor quality, and a better one should be found. As of right now, I cannot see a consensus saying the image should be kept, however the discussion is obviously very new. Danners430 (talk) 11:34, 9 May 2023 (UTC)
 * What is your particular complaint about the image being "low quality", at this point I'm struggling to understand. Myself, ip user (professional photographer) and the original poster (banned apparently) have all suggested keeping it. @Murgatroyd49@10mmsocket both seem to favour no image of the Amsterdam departures building. You dislike this image but welcome a better one, I suspect it would be equally as difficult to agree on. Blaiserandpascal (talk) 11:39, 9 May 2023 (UTC)
 * If the IP user is a professional photographer, I'm a monkey's uncle. The image is fine if you want a picture of an underlit group of passengers waiting on a platform with a partly obscured building in the background. Murgatroyd49 (talk) 11:44, 9 May 2023 (UTC)
 * I don't think the people are underlit none of the image is in shadow and the details of the building are visible. I also don't find having people in the photo particularly offensive as this is how the building looks when in use and the people are not obscurity most of it. Perhaps a new caption ,'people queueing at the Amsterdam departures building'? Blaiserandpascal (talk) 11:48, 9 May 2023 (UTC)
 * Also worth mentioning if this image is deemed not high enough it raises questions about other images on the same article. Blaiserandpascal (talk) 11:55, 9 May 2023 (UTC)
 * Agree with, very poorly lit. Furthermore as I may have pointed out in an edit summary, I'm not sure what purpose it... serves? It doesn't "say" much. If the article/section was about groups of people it might be more acceptable, because that's what it shows. But plonking it next to the section about "records"...?
 * Points have already been made that a better image should be found. However, I'm not sure if there has to be one there at all...? Mattdaviesfsic (talk) 16:11, 9 May 2023 (UTC)

Lille to Brussels is the only international intra-Schengen journey that Eurostar is offering for sale.
I believe this information to be outdated, as ex-Thalys services are now branded Eurostar, too. Regards, ULF 2001:4C80:40:493:9AEE:CBFF:FEE7:FBAD (talk) 11:42, 16 November 2023 (UTC)

Eurostar and Schengen
. Hi, agreed that problems existed because of not being a member of Schengen, but the statement is in the present tense and all the problems have been greatly exacerbated by our withdrawal from the EU. Murgatroyd49 (talk) 17:42, 26 February 2024 (UTC)

 * @Murgatroyd49: My reversion was due to a lack of referenced. Here's a couple of references to support your addition:
 * https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jan/24/eurostar-trains-empty-seats-brexit-passport-rules-london-paris-brussels from 2023
 * https://www.belganewsagency.eu/possible-restrictions-on-eurostar-services-due-to-future-post-brexit-passport-controls
 * The previous restrictions were around the problem of the which was eventually closed by separating passengers travelling from Brussels to Lille only from UK-bound travellers. A reference from that article seems suitable for reusing:
 * https://web.archive.org/web/20200327221758/https://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/conditions-carriage
 * I've added text and the references, but it's a bit messy so open for copy-editing. Bazza 7 (talk) 14:10, 28 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Thanks Murgatroyd49 (talk) 14:22, 28 February 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Eurostar


text:
Mahjong culture

Mahjong ( English pronunciation: /mɑːˈdʒɒŋ/ mah-JONG) culture refers to the various traditions, customs, beliefs, and practices surrounding the game of mahjong, a popular tile-based game originating in China. It is played in other East Asian countries, such as Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, as well as in other parts of the world. Mahjong has a long-spanning history that dates back more than a century. It has evolved over time to include different regional variations and cultures. The game has also become an important aspect of social life in many communities, often played at family gatherings, social events, and even in professional settings.

China
Mahjong was created in 1846 by imperial servant Chen Yu-Men. Within years, the game became extremely popular across China. There were local and regional variations, as there are today, but the game at its core was prevalent across the entire country. The game started to become heavily associated with gambling, smoking opium, and wasting time. As such, during the late Qing reforms, mahjong became considered a social issue. Mahjong started to become outlawed indirectly as gambling and smoking opium became criminalized. The ban was not very successful, however, at least until the Chinese cultural revolution. During the cultural revolution, mahjong was considered a part of “old culture” and that causes nearly all mahjong-related paraphernalia to be outlawed and or destroyed.

After the end of Mao's control, mahjong became popular again in the country as government and social reforms changed and became less restrictive.

Culture and practices
Mahjong, outside of being a game, is also widely considered to be a social activity that has been used to build relationships and create a sense of community. Being invited to play mahjong is seen as a form of kinship and acceptance in some cultures. In China, mahjong is closely related to teahouse culture where players gather to play and socialize. Mahjong is played almost anywhere a table is available or can be set up. This ranges from people's homes, streets, and sidewalks, or even workplaces. Indeed, playing mahjong can be considered a form of social gathering.

Some consider mahjong to be primarily luck and only partly skill. As such, divination and fortune play a large part in mahjong. There are many practices or rituals relating to the luck or fortune of the players in the game. Failing to properly execute them gives the player negative fortune, leading to the player's loss.

For example, the seating arrangement of the players in mahjong is believed to bring either great luck or great misfortune, determining the outcome of the game. Seating arrangements must be determined randomly and given to the supernatural, so as to give everyone fair chances. Methods of determining seating arrangements vary across different cultures, but seating arrangements are almost always determined randomly.

Additionally, arranging the table at an angle, unaligned with the surrounding walls, is said to promote good fortune by aligning it with the mahjong ghosts.

Mahjong players also have many superstitious beliefs, some examples are:

 * Going to the bathroom and washing your hands can fix your luck.
 * Beginner's luck, the idea that beginners will experience more wins.
 * Tapping a player’s shoulder is bad luck for the player.
 * An opening-game victory gives bad luck.

Additionally, expensive Mahjong sets can be seen as a status symbol and are a source of pride among families.

United States
Mahjong was brought to the United States in the 1920s by Joseph Park Babcock. It was imported into the U.S. during a time when many Americans had held ancient China in high regard but held racial prejudice against contemporary Chinese. Mahjong was marketed as an exotic and mystical game played in ancient China and it quickly gained popularity. Despite the anti-Chinese sentiment in the era, the game was played by many Americans, including Chinese Americans who saw the game as a way to connect with their Chinese heritage while also playing a trendy game. Initially, the game was male-dominated, but over the course of the mahjong craze, it started to become more associated with women and femininity. The change is thought to be brought on by “the merging of American gendered ideas of Chinese culture with the strengthened association of women as archetypal consumers."

Another aspect of mahjong's popularity in the U.S. is its unique appeal to Jewish families, particularly women, even after the initial mahjong craze. Hoping to revitalize the game, a group of Jewish women from New York established the national Mah-Jongg League. By the mid-20th century, after World War II, Mahjong games became lodged in many Jewish-American families, offering a space for socializing, networking, and entertainment.

Japan
Mahjong was brought to Japan by soldier Saburo Hirayama in 1924; Hirayama opened a mahjong school and parlor to introduce the game to Japanese citizens. Much like in America, the game had spread across the country and became widely popular. As of 2007, Japan has some twenty-two thousand mahjong parlors across the country, with at least five thousand of them inside Tokyo alone. Additionally, in Chiba, Japan, there is a mahjong museum that showcases the history of the game. Mahjong was the most popular game in Japan in 2010. Today, a considerable amount of mahjong in Japan is played digitally through the internet and software.

Hong Kong
In Hong Kong:

 * During a Chinese wedding banquet, guests play Mahjong during the waiting time.
 * A count-down Mahjong before the Chinese New Year or the New Year is a typical practice for many Hong Kong families.
 * While most people have a Mahjong set at home, most Chinese restaurants offer sets of Mahjong equipment for their customers.
 * Officially, casinos are illegal in Hong Kong. However, there are legal Mahjong schools, where gamblers can play Mahjong.
 * The elderly are encouraged to play Mahjong as brain exercise.
 * To invite a person to a Mahjong game is an indication of friendliness in Chinese Culture.

However, Mahjong games also create problems. Addiction to Mahjong is a common type of problem gambling. Mahjong is also a favourite medium for bribery - the person giving the bribe will intentionally lose large sums of money to the person being bribed.

Philippines
In the Philippines, games of mahjong are played graveside as a form of honoring the dead, specifically on All Souls’ Day.

title: Mahjong culture


text: File:Purple Tape 2002.jpg

title: File:Purple Tape 2002.jpg


text:
Talk:Aylesbury Grammar School

Notable alumni
For four hundred years of history the notable alumni section is a bit of a poor show: surely there must have been other notable people at this school in the past? -- Fr a ncs2000 23:16, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

 * You're the one who added it. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 88.105.47.17 (talk • contribs) 20:28, July 6, 2006.

 * Yes I'm well aware of that, and what I'm doing is appealing to others to populate it. -- Fr a ncs2000 23:04, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Major edit by User:mboverload
User:mboverload made [|this] major edit to the article on 23 July. The reasons for removing information on the annual inter-house events, and the timetable of the day, are that it is "information that belongs on the school website as it can easily change". However, I am none too convinced about the legitimacy of his actions, as I pointed out to him on his talk page:

 * ''Mboverload,

 * ''You have removed a fair amount of information from this article as you say it "belongs on the school website and can easily change". You removed information about the inter-house competitions and the school timetable.

 * ''Can you elaborate on this please, as I don't see where you're coming from. The house competitions are a fundamental element of the school's life which have been taking place for over 300 years. It is an interesting and relevant piece of the article. Indeed, it would seem strange to keep the information about the houses but not the two events which they, to be honest, exsist for. Do you agree? The events run each year, and so the holder of each trophy is unlikely to "easily change".

 * ''The school timetable, whilst perhaps slightly less noteworthy of inclusion I admit, is nonetheless a piece of information relevant to the school, and again, can you explain why it is "easily changeable and therefore belongs on the school's website"?

 * ''I would appreciate it if you would make your intentions and wishes clear on the article's talk page in future so that some consensus may be achieved before such a major edit is done.

 * Regards, Victor Greenstreet 09:54, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

Can I have any other opinions on this? Does anyone else think the information is relevant? Victor Greenstreet 10:16, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

 * Actually, I'd be personally agreeing with mboverload in this situation. At the end of the day, Wikipedia is an encyclopaedia. While it is a very detailed encyclopaedia, achieving what written encyclopaedias cannot, content such as a school timetable is not (in my opinion) appropriate. Details of school athletic events as well are not as important, although I suppose are more justified. What would be appropriate content for an article on a school might be history, significant staff, major events etc. Ongoing initiatives such as athletics carnivals do not in my mind rate a mention. --Draicone (talk) 10:23, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

 * Whilst the school timetable might not be that important, the annual house trophy competitions, each of which take in over 15 sports, is a large part of the school life. As I have already pointed out, if we're going to include info about Houses, wouldn't it be strange not to put in the two major, and to be honest, the only two things, they exsist for? Cheers for your opinion though! Victor Greenstreet 10:28, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

 * As the person who first added the timetable and trophies sections I agree that the timetable bit could go - I doubt it serves any real purpose in an encyclopedia. However I strongly believe that the trophies section should stay. As any present or former pupil of AGS will know, the Watson and Brodie trophies are an integral part of the culture and history of the school. Clearly the holder of these trophies are subject to annual change and I'm not arguing that the article should say 'Currently held by Denson' or what-have-you, but I do believe they have a place in this article.

 * If there is an argument about information in the article that should be on the school's webpage then this should also apply to the current heads of houses, pupil numbers... --Jmptdc 10:36, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
 * If it has truly been going on for 300 years...that should have been said and I wouldn't have removed it. You can add it back in, but I still think it has dubious value. =D --mboverload @  10:57, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

 * Yep - I've put it back, with the extra comment you suggested. Thanks for your time, look forward to working together again in future. Victor Greenstreet 11:07, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

 * =D. If you want to assert the importance or notability of something else you can add it back in.  I like that you calmly contacted me and wrote a well thought-out post.  I respect that a lot.  --mboverload @  11:14, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

Brody cup/trophy
According to the school's website it is the Brodie cup not trophy, but the Watson trophy --144.32.177.123 09:01, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, the school website is wrong most of the time - It's Trohpy not cup! 89.240.48.77 16:56, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

Specialist School Status
The DfES Specialist Schools Home website shows that the AGS doesn't have a second specialist status in Languages. Language is, however, listed as a High Performing Leading Option (whatever that means). --Scribble Monkey 12:05, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

When was the site last updated? It was sent out in a school newsletter stating that the school had been granted specialist status in Languages in April 2006. --172.188.207.54 22:19, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

 * The Excel spreadsheet on the DfES site is dated July 2006. It lists specialist statuses valid from as late as September 2006. It does look like AGS has been awarded something subtly different. --Scribble Monkey 08:31, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

Yes - it does have Language college status, as a pupil of the school I can confirm. 88.105.35.203 22:31, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

 * Strange it's not listed on the DfES site! --Scribble Monkey 08:31, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

The spreasheet properties now say created "Friday, February 03, 2006 7:05:06 AM" URN  -  DfES No  - School Name        -       Specialism - High Performing Leading Option 110511 - 825/4500 - Aylesbury Grammar School - Technology - Language 110494 - 825/4058 - Aylesbury High School   - Language  -  Training School --Hjal 02:59, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Rewrite suggestion
Suggested re-write of final para, introduction.

'Several decades ago, the sixth form at the time were given the option of whether they wanted there to be a school uniform. Their decision was that it was best to have school uniform, and so to this day school uniform remains mandatory. Although if there are pupils whose families have financial difficulties, there is a thrift shop from which they can purchase second hand uniform.'

perhaps;

'The sixth form were polled about retaining the school uniform some years ago [date, anyone?] and decided that it should remain mandatory. However for families in financial difficulties, there remains the option of purchasing second hand uniform from a thrift shop [is this in the school?]'

Just a little bit neater... Ndaisley 13:12, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

The Thrift Shop is a school-run thing, yes.

The Photos
Can we have better photos of the buildings? These ones are horrible and dingy.
 * It probably is, mate. silv  71.235.66.254 04:04, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

 * They're very poorly lit, I assure you it doesn't look _that_ bad in real life. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.137.67.222 (talk) 01:18, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

Major edit - I have greatly changed the structure of this article
I have greatly changed the structure of this article. I think it is easier to read now and more organised. Miltonkeynes 00:45, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

Removed Section of talk page
I do have a reason for doing this, it was my own comment, if you want to know why ask me on my own talk page, thanks. User:Tom walker 23:40 GMT 25 December 2006

Not a news site
Wikipedia isn't a blog or a news site so posting school closings due to weather does not go here. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by OverlordQ (talk • contribs) 07:42, 8 February 2007 (UTC).

William Henry Ridley
It is possible that Ridley House was named after the author and priest William Henry Ridley, or one of his relations. However, I have no idea who my old Denson house is named after. —Preceding unsigned comment added by AbrahamCat (talk • contribs) 23:09, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

I think it is more likely to be Nicholas_Ridley_(martyr), who was burned in nearby Oxford. Like you, I am puzzled by Denson. Who he? Old Aylesburian (talk) 09:13, 23 August 2011 (UTC) (Hampden)

 * Denson's named after a former head of the Old Boy's Association but I don't have a source for that! Tom walker (talk) 17:26, 23 August 2011 (UTC)

Section on blacking up controversy
On May 16th 2014 I added this 'controversy' section as version https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aylesbury_Grammar_School&direction=prev&oldid=627992367:

 * On May 9, 2014, boys at the school dressed up as the Jamaican bobsleigh team for their school-leaving celebrations and 'blacked up' as part of their costume. This came to public attention when an image of the schoolboys was tweeted by the then headmaster Stephen Lehec, and was criticised for being racist. Lehec issued a formal apology, though in his analysis 'at no time was there an undertone of any act being of a derogatory or racist nature'. The matter was widely reported in local and national media.

This was removed on 22nd October 2014 by an anonymous user with the comment 'Not relevant to school information'. I think this material is relevant, however. It is still a recent event; it was reported in local and national news; and if, for example, I was a black/ethnic minority parent considering sending my son to the school I would consider it noteworthy. What views do other people have? Alarichall (talk) 13:37, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

 * That looks to me as if it should go back in - decently-sourced. I'll give it some thought. Tacyarg (talk) 08:18, 16 July 2023 (UTC)

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 * Marksturgeon.jpg

title: Talk:Aylesbury Grammar School


text: User talk:80.53.109.118

title: User talk:80.53.109.118


text:
Piper excelsum

Piper excelsum (formerly known as Macropiper excelsum) of the pepper family (Piperaceae) and commonly known as kawakawa, is a small tree of which the subspecies P. excelsum subsp. excelsum is endemic to New Zealand; the subspecies P. e. subsp. psittacorum is found on Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island and the Kermadec Islands.

Description
Kawakawa is found throughout the North Island, and as far south as Ōkārito (43.20 °S) on the West Coast, and Banks Peninsula (43.5 °S) on the east coast of the South Island. The tree grows to 20 ft.

The leaves are often covered with holes caused by the caterpillar of the kawakawa looper moth (Cleora scriptaria). The images depict the variety majus which has larger and more glossy leaves than P. excelsum.

Leaves
Kawakawa leaves are about 5–10 cm long by 6–12 cm wide; they are opposite to each other, broadly rounded with a short drawn-out tip and are heart-shaped at their bases. The leaves are deep green in colour if growing in the forest, but may be yellowish-green in more open situations.

Flowers
The flowers are produced on greenish, erect spikes 2.5–7.5 cm long. Kawakawa flowers are quite minute and very closely placed around the spike. After pollination the flowers gradually swell and become fleshy to form small, berry-like fruits that are yellow to bright orange.

Berries
Each berry cluster is the size of a small finger. Ripening period is January and February. These fruits are favoured by kererū or New Zealand pigeon (Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae) and tūī (Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae).

Uses
Kawakawa was used as a traditional medicinal plant of the Māori. An infusion made from the leaves or roots was used or its leaves were chewed to relieve toothache, and wounds were often bound in kawakawa leaves. The sweet edible yellow berries (most often found in summer on female trees) of the plant were eaten as a diuretic. Traditionally, leaves with holes that had been eaten by caterpillars were considered the best to use.

In cultural contexts, host people of a marae wave leaves of kawakawa to welcome guests. At a tangi, both hosts and guests may wear wreaths of kawakawa on the head as a sign of mourning.

Early European settlers to New Zealand used kawakawa in teas, and experimented using it as a flavouring agent in beer. It is commonly grown as an ornamental plant in gardens. Kawakawa essential oil contains myristicin, a deliriant when consumed in high concentrations.

Relationship with kava
Kawakawa is sometimes called "Māori kava" and is often confused with the kava plant (Piper methysticum). While the two plants look similar and have similar names, they are different, albeit related, species.

Kava is a traditional plant and beverage of the South Pacific. The roots of the plant are used to produce a drink with medicinal, sedative, anesthetic, euphoriant, and entheogenic properties. It is most likely not a coincidence that this plant has a similar name to kawakawa. One source stated: "In New Zealand, where the climate is too cold for kava, the Māori gave the name kawa-kawa to another Piperaceae, P. excelsum, in memory of the kava plants they undoubtedly brought with them and unsuccessfully attempted to cultivate. The Māori word kawa also means "ceremonial protocol", recalling the stylised consumption of the drug typical of Polynesian societies."

Common name
The name kawakawa comes from the Māori language, where it refers to the bitter taste of the leaves, from kawa or bitter.

title: Piper excelsum


text:
Soudan

Soudan may refer to:

 * The French name (and former English name) for the country of Sudan
 * The French name for French Sudan (present-day Mali)
 * Archaic spelling for the region of Sudan
 * Soudan, Minnesota, an unincorporated town near Tower, Minnesota, US
 * The Soudan Mine, a former iron mine, now part of a state park
 * Soudan 1 and Soudan 2, particle detectors located in the Soudan Mine
 * Soudan Banks, a group of reefs in the Indian Ocean, off East Africa
 * Fereej Al Soudan, a district in Qatar

 * Communes in France
 * Soudan, Loire-Atlantique
 * Soudan, Deux-Sèvres

 * Surname
 * Arlette Soudan-Nonault, Congolese journalist and politician
 * Eugène Soudan (1880–1960), Belgian jurist and politician
 * Mohamed Soudan (born 1956), senior member of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood
 * Tim Soudan (born 1968), lacrosse coach and former player

Sudan (Begriffsklärung)

title: Soudan


text:
Arrah

Arrah (also transliterated as Ara) is a city and a municipal corporation in Bhojpur district (formerly known as Shahabad district) in the Indian state of Bihar. It is the headquarters of Bhojpur district, located near the confluence of the Ganges and Sone rivers, some 24 miles from Danapur and 36 miles from Patna.

Typonym
According to a Jain inscription found at Masarh village near the town, Arrah is mentioned there as Aramnagar (transl. City of Aramas). That "Aramnagar" later become "Arrah".

According to mythologies, the word "Arrah" or "Ara" is derived from the Sanskrit word Aranya, which means forest. It suggests that the entire area around modern Ara was heavily forested in the old days.

Arrah has also historically been known as Shahabad, a name given to it by Babur in 1529, when he camped here after his victory against the Afghans of Bihar. The name "Shahabad" means "city of the king" and was used in the former Shahabad district.

In mythologies
According to the Hindu epic Ramayana, sage Vishwamitra, the Guru of Rama, had his Ashram in the region of Arrah. It is also the area where Rama killed the demonness Taraka. In Mahabharata it was the home of the powerful demon called Bakra, whose daily food was human being supplied either by villages of Bakri or Chakrapur (or Ekchakra), as Arrah was then called. Pandava came to Ekchakra during their wandering and they were entertained by a Brahmin whose turn it was to supply a human for the demon. On hearing this, Bhima decided to go himself to the demon as he has eaten a Brahmin's salt, and killed the demon.

Ancient

This place is also described by Xuanzang as the place, where the Demons of the Desert abused their strength and power and feasted on blood and flesh of man.

In ancient India, it was the part of Magadha. In 684BC Arrah was the part of the region ruled by Haryanka dynasty. During Chandragupta Maurya Arrah was the part of the great Magadh empire. The Pillars of Ashoka are found at the Masarh village in Arrah town. During 200 CE it was part of Gupta dynasty. Bhojpuri Folktales of Vikramaditya like Singhashan Battishi, Baital pachisi are still famous in the town and other Bhojpuri speaking area. It was also the part of Pala Empire and Chero empire. Bihiya and Tirawan were the capitals of Chief Ghughulia and Raja Sitaram Rai respectively.

Medieval

In 14th century Chero lost Western Bihar along with Arrah to Ujjainiya Rajputs under the leadership of Hunkar Shahi. They named the territory "Bhojpur" on the name of their ancestor Raja Bhoja. In 1607, a number of Chero chiefs combined to launch a spirited attack against Ujjaniniyas. One of the descendants of Sitaram Rai, Kumkum Chand Jharap drove out Ujjainiyas from the Bhojpur region and captured major parts of the territory. In 1611, Ujjainiyas defeated Cheros and recaptured the lost region again. Sher Shah Suri also defeated Chero during the early 16 century and made Sasaram its capital after defeating the Mughals. In 1604 Chieftain Narayan Mal got a land grant from Jahangir. After that Raja Horil Singh shifted the capital to Dumrao and established Dumraon Raj. Babur pitches his camp in Arrah in 1529 A.D and took control over it.

Modern

After the Battle of Buxar the British took control over Arrah. Arrah was one of the centres of revolt in 1857.

During the Indian rebellion of 1857, a group of 18 British civilians and 50 Indian soldiers was besieged in the Little House at Arrah, by a band of 2500–3000 armed soldiers and around 8000 others under the command of 80-year-old Veer Kunwar Singh, the Zamindar of adjacent Jagdishpur. A British regiment, dispatched to their assistance from Danapur, was repulsed, but the group withstood the siege for eight days until they were relieved by other East India Company troops.

In 1911 the king of England George V visited Arrah and prayed at the Holy Saviour Church. Between 1901 and 1911 the town suffered severely due to Plague. As a result, the population in 1911 became 38,549 which was 46,170 in 1901.

Geography
Arrah is located at the elevation of 192 m from the sea level at the bank of Son river, Ganga River and Gangi River. Arrah lies at the confluence of the Ganga and the Son River, other small rivers that flow in the town are Gangi River, Badki Nadi and Chhotki Nadi.

The Ganga river acts as northern boundary of the town and due to alluvial deposit the area is very fertile and considered as best wheat growing area of Bihar. The eastern boundary of the town is the Son river which separates and Bhojpuri and Magahi speaking regions of Bihar.

During the British Raj Arrah was the part of Bengal presidency. The land of the city is fertile and most used for cultivation with very low forest cover. The main crops that are grown here are rice, mango and mahuaa.

Climate
The climate is characterised by relatively high temperatures and evenly distributed precipitation throughout the year. The Köppen Climate Classification sub-type for this climate is "Cwa" (Humid Subtropical Climate).

Demographics
As per the 2011 census, Arrah Municipal Corporation had a total population of 261,099, out of which 139,319 were males and 121,780 were females. It had a sex ratio of 874. The population below 5 years was 34,419. The effective literacy rate of the 7+ population was 83.41 per cent.

Languages
Hindi is the official language with Urdu being the additional official. Bhojpuri is the most commonly spoken language, followed by Hindi and Urdu.

Administration
The Arrah sub-division (Tehsil) is headed by an IAS or state Civil service officer of the rank of Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM).

Blocks
The Arrah Tehsil is divided into 8 Blocks, each headed by a Block Development Officer (BDO). List of Blocks is as follows:
 * 1) Arrah
 * 2) Agiaon
 * 3) Barhara
 * 4) Koilwar
 * 5) Udwant Nagar
 * 6) Sandesh
 * 7) Sahar
 * 8) Garhani

Civic administration
Arrah is the headquarters of the Bhojpur district. On 1 June 1865, the town constituted into a municipality which later became municipal corporation, which currently divides the city in 45 wards. Each ward elects its ward commissioner and, the Mayor is chosen through indirect election in which ward commissioners from respective wards cast their votes.

Police in Arrah is headed by a Superintendent of Police, who is an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer.

Economy
The city has industry area located near Koilwar. The mineral which is abundant here is sand of Son river. The alluvial deposits of Ganga river is considered suitable for brick making, the city mainly produces the revenue through building materials like sand and bricks. In last three year, 300 million tonnes of sand has been mined which has produced a royalty of ₹2800 crores.

Culture/Cityscape

Arrah's native language is Bhojpuri, a language derived from Magadhi Prakrit. Bhojpuri festivals and cuisine is followed here. Food of Bhojpuri cuisine includes Litti-Chokha, Makuni (Paratha stuffed with roasted gram flour), Dal Pitthi, Pittha, Aaloo Dum, Jaaur (Kheer) and main snack and sweets are Khurma (sweets made of Chhena), Thekua, Pudukiya, Patal ke Mithai, Anarsa, Gargatta and Laktho. Some of the drinks are Satuā, Amjhor, Taadi and Māthā. Khurma and Belgrami are the native sweets of this place.

The festivals celebrated here are Holi, Durgapuja, Chhath, Diwali, Teej, Jitiya, Gai Dadh (Govardhan Puja), Jamdutiya, Eid, Christmas, etc.

Tourism
Arrah is a holy place for Jains and there are 44 Jain temples in the city. There is a centuries-old Jain temple of Parashanatha in the Masarh village. Some notable places of Arrah are:

Aranya Devi Temple
This is a temple of Aranya Devi (Forest Goddess). She is said to be the deity goddess of Ara town. Here one statue is of Adi Shakti and the second is established by the Pandavas. The temple is very old and draws many devotees every day. It is situated at the top of stone boulders.

Maulabagh Mosque
This Masjid was built in the 18th century by John Deane, the collector of Shahabad. He had a Mohammedan wife with whom he lived 20 years with 6 children. After his death in 1817, he was buried in the outer garden of Maulabagh Mosque (called as Bibi Jaan ke Hata or Handa) where his tomb can still be seen. This mosques is also mentioned by British officers in their writings.

Koilwar Bridge
Koilwar Bridge, also known as Abdul Bari Bridge, is a 1.44 km long, 2-lane wide rail-cum-road bridge built in 1862 over Son River connecting the city of Arrah to Patna.

Ramna Maidan
Ramna Maidan, located in Arrah, Bhojpur District, Bihar, with 60 acres of land one of the largest urban parks in Arrah.

Arrah–Chhapra Bridge
Arrah–Chhapra Bridge is also called Veer Kunwar singh Setu which connects Arrah and Chhapra is the world's longest multi span extradosed bridge in the world with a length of 1920m.

Maharaja College, Ara
The present Maharaja college premises is an important historical site.

Masarh
Masarh is a village 10 km from Arrah, the Lion capitals of Mauryan period have been found here. Masarh has been identified by Cunningham with Mo-ho-so-lo of the Chinese pilgrim Huen Tsang,

Arrah House
Arrah House is a small British building in the premises of Maharaja College.

Holy Saviour Church
Holy Saviour Church is a church in Arrah, built by the British in 1911, when King of United Kingdom George V visited the city.

Education
Schools in Arrah are either government-run or private schools. Schools are affiliated by Central Board of Secondary Education and Bihar School Examination Board. Veer Kunwar Singh University is located here. Harprasad Das Jain College, Maharaja Collage, and Jagjiwan College are some of the premier institutions for higher education. Jain Siddhant Bhawan is a Jain Library in Arrah which is illustrious for collecting centuries older manuscripts in various languages.

In 2018, Bihar government has opened Government Engineering Colleges in each district of Bihar under the Department of Science and Technology. Government Engineering College, Bhojpur located south of Ramna Road, beside Maharaja College.

Sports
Cricket is the most popular sport, however other sports such as volleyball, basketball, and athletics are also played.

Veer Kunwar Singh Stadium is the stadium situated in the Ramna Maidan which hosts various cricket, football, and hockey tournaments. Other grounds in the town are Ramna Maidan, Maharaja college ground, Airport Ground, and Jain College Ground.

From 5–7 December 2019, East Zone Inter University Kabaddi championship took place in the premises of Maharaja College in which 47 universities of 12 different states participated.

In folk tradition

 * There is a very famous Bhojpuri saying about this place, Ara jilā Ghar  Ba ta, kawana bāt kē dar bā" (trans. If you belong to Arrah, there is nothing to fear).
 * Arrah also has mentions in many Bhojpuri Folk songs like Arrah Hile Chhapra Hile Baliya Hilela.

Films and songs

 * Some shots of the feature film Gandhi were shot in Arrah near the Koilwar bridge.
 * Shots of the first Bhojpuri film Ganga Maiyya Tohe Piyari Chadhaibo were shot at Arrah railway station.
 * The story of the Bollywood film Anaarkali of Aarah was based on a dancer of Arrah and her confrontation with the Vice chancellor of Bir Kuber University (originally Veer Kunwar Singh University).

Books

 * English book Two Months In Arrah, written in 1857, by a surgeon in British army named J.J. Halls, is an account of the Siege of Arrah.

Notable people

 * Veer Kunwar Singh, leader of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 in Bihar.
 * Jagjivan Ram, 4th Deputy Prime Minister of India, Defense Minister of India during 1971 India Pakistan war.
 * Meira Kumar, first woman speaker of the Lok Sabha.
 * Ram Subhag Singh, He was the First Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha.
 * Pawan Singh, Bhojpuri actor and singer
 * Neeraj Pandey, film director
 * Vishal Aditya Singh, actor and model

Villages
Arrah block contains the following 115 villages:

title: Arrah


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2005 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11

The 2005 Tour de France was the 92nd edition of Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The Tour began in Fromentine with an individual time trial on 2 July and Stage 11 occurred on 13 July with a mountainous stage to Briançon. The race finished on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, on 24 July.

Stage 1
2 July 2005 — Fromentine to Noirmoutier-en-l'Île, 19 km (ITT)

The winning time of David Zabriskie was set early in the day – so early, in fact, that virtually none of the TV stations covering the Tour actually showed it. Zabriskie, who has also won a stage in the Vuelta a España and a time trial in the Giro d'Italia, put a powerful time in that few could approach. The best attempt was a run by Alexander Vinokourov, a teammate of Jan Ullrich, who came in 53 seconds back, putting him, for a time, in second place. Most of the other big names rode respectably, as with Landis, though Iban Mayo wound up four minutes behind the other GC contenders – a disappointment to be sure. Also disappointing was Joseba Beloki, who demonstrated that he has not returned to the form he had before his crash in the 2003 Tour.

The big names this Tour, though, were expected to be Ivan Basso, Jan Ullrich, and, of course, Lance Armstrong — the final three starters. Basso performed respectably, coming in 18th, 1:53 back from Zabriskie – a perfectly respectable showing for someone who is not known as a time trialist. Ullrich also did well in 12th place, 1:12 back, especially considering that the day before he got into a gruesome crash with his team car in which he shattered the rear window as he flew through it. The real story, though, was Lance Armstrong, whose time trialing skills this year had been in doubt after a poor showing in the Tour de Georgia. After a small mishap where his foot fell out of the pedal at the start, he rode an incredible time trial, bridging the one-minute gap to Jan Ullrich with 3 km remaining. He finished two seconds behind Zabriskie, sending a clear message to anyone who thought he might be off form this year.

As for the other jerseys, Zabriskie won the first green sprinter's jersey, while the winner of the previous year's prologue, Swiss Fabian Cancellara, got the white young rider's jersey.

Stage 2
3 July 2005 — Challans to Les Essarts, 181.5 km

A textbook Tour day – an early break of László Bodrogi (Crédit Agricole), David Cañada (Saunier Duval–Prodir), Thomas Voeckler (Bouygues Télécom), and Sylvain Calzati (Ag2r-Prevoyance) got away and was caught at the end. This led to a bunch sprint, with a strangely lackluster McEwen holding on for third as a rock-solid Tom Boonen blasted to his 15th win of the year, and to the green jersey, which he claimed from Zabriskie, although today, in a rare occurrence, Lance Armstrong was wearing it, since Zabriskie also had the yellow jersey, which meant the green went "on loan" to Armstrong, who was second. Bodrogi racked up enough time bonuses on the intermediate sprints to pass Vinokourov in the standings for third place, 47 seconds behind Zabriskie, who held his yellow jersey. All but three of the riders finished in the peloton, making time bonuses the only things that shuffled the standings at all. In the last kilometres, the main group broke, and most of the General Classification contenders (except Jan Ullrich) came in nine seconds after Boonen. The break-up, however, was caused by a fall, and the judges applied the same time to them as the first group.

The real stand-out story of the day was Thomas Voeckler, who masterfully attacked on the small category 4 climb to win the small number of points in the mountain competition that were up for the day. Since those were the only mountain points around, though, Voeckler managed to put himself in polka dots, meaning the young French rider has now worn three of the four leader jerseys in the Tour de France in his career.

Stage 3
4 July 2005 — La Châtaigneraie to Tours, 212.5 km

A normal day with some minor drama at the finish, the early break this time consisted of Erik Dekker (Rabobank), Rubens Bertogliati (Saunier Duval), and Nicolas Portal (AG2R), who were caught 1 km from the end. Dekker had already managed a great feat at Tours the previous season by holding off the peloton after being in a breakaway for 200 kilometres, and winning the Paris–Tours. This time, however, the French city did not bring luck to the Dutchman. After the breakaways were reeled in, the Swiss time trial champion Fabian Cancellara attempted an escape in the last kilometer, but was brought back, leading to a bunch sprint. Commentators expected that the long, straight drive to the finish would favour Robbie McEwen, but instead it was Tom Boonen who took a convincing win.

At the finish line Robbie McEwen was reprimanded for trying to push Stuart O'Grady away with his head, a move possibly spurred on by O'Grady preventing him from attacking Boonen by blocking his path. Although McEwen crossed the line third, the judges knocked him to the back of the main pack, giving him a place of 186th, and dealing quite a blow to his hopes of a fourth green jersey, placing him 44 points behind Tom Boonen, who has 70.

The general classification remained unchanged, and Cancellara held his young rider's jersey, although if Tom Boonen gets another stage win time bonus, it would go to him. Meanwhile, the early break crossed two of the three category four climbs first, giving Dekker six mountain points. Voeckler could only manage to cross an early climb in second, giving him two more and bringing him up to five, putting Erik Dekker in polka dots. Dekker also won the prize of most combative rider.

Stage 4
5 July 2005 — Tours to Blois, 67.5 km (TTT)

This was a nail-biter of a team time trial in which the teams of the three favorites – Armstrong, Ullrich, and Basso – all did well. Discovery trailed CSC in the team standings, and so launched second to last, but showed their usual team time trial form with a pencil-straight line, each member taking pulls like clockwork. As the time trial wore on, Armstrong began taking longer pulls at the front, bringing the pace of the pack up dramatically. Even still, CSC, launching behind them, kept a grueling pace of their own, actually leading Discovery through all of the checkpoints. The race wasn't decided until the last kilometer and a half, when yellow jersey David Zabriskie crashed as his knee hit the handlebar, probably because of his cycle chain malfunctioning. He got back on and crossed the line in a blood-stained yellow jersey 1'28" behind the Discovery riders. On the other hand, Ullrich, whose T-Mobile Team crossed the line at 35", lost only 30" due to the adjusted gap for the team trial stage. After this stage, Ullrich was in 14th place, 1'36" off Armstrong.

Had Zabriskie held on another half a kilometer he would have gotten the same time as the rest of CSC, but instead he dropped to ninth in the overall standings, and CSC's surprise at the yellow jersey hitting the pavement in front of them cost them two seconds on Discovery – coincidentally, the exact margin by which Zabriskie had led Armstrong going into the stage. The result was to put Armstrong in his 67th yellow jersey, and to put teammate Yaroslav Popovych in the white jersey. With no sprints or mountains, the green and polka dot jerseys remained on the shoulders of Tom Boonen and Erik Dekker, respectively.

* This means that even though the team finished with a longer time, the provision set forth in the Tour de France Guideline states that the gaps for the team trial stage is capped according to the relative finishing position of the teams. Thus, even though Gerolsteiner and Illes Balears-Caisse D'Epargne finished at the same time, for the riders in those two teams, IBC riders have a 10" advantage over the GST riders for the individual classifications.
 * Notes

Stage 5
6 July 2005 — Chambord to Montargis, 183 km

Juan Antonio Flecha made an early break, and was joined 90 km later by László Bodrogi (Crédit Agricole), Salvatore Commesso (Lampre), and Kjell Carlström (Liquigas), but not by George Hincapie, whose team had earlier said they wanted to put him into a break to give him a turn in yellow. The break was finally reeled in 10 km from the finish by a Discovery-led peloton, setting up the sprint. It was a tough, uphill sprint, and McEwen took it by a wheel over Tom Boonen, taking his first win of the Tour, but still only putting him in fourth for the green jersey due to his being relegated to 186th in the third stage.

David Zabriskie recovered enough from his crash to start today, and finished with the peloton in 176th place. Out of respect for the role his crash played in the overall standings, Lance Armstrong initially refused to wear the yellow jersey today, and it was not until the race was stopped as it was rolling out of the neutral zone so that the organizers would ask him to wear it that he agreed to.

Today also saw the first withdrawal of the Tour as Constantino Zaballa of Saunier Duval–Prodir failed to finish the stage. The Yellow, Green, Polka and White jerseys remain on their respective riders.

Stage 6
7 July 2005 — Troyes to Nancy, 199 km

An early escape initiated by Christophe Mengin (Française des Jeux) after 24 km was accompanied by Karsten Kroon (Rabobank), Jaan Kirsipuu (Crédit Agricole), Mauro Gerosa (Liquigas-Bianchi) and Stéphane Augé (Cofidis). Karsten Kroon and Stéphane Augé took 7 mountain points each, with Kroon winning the last mountain, which results in the Dutch rider wearing the polka dot jersey, keeping it in team Rabobank. Around 10 km from the finish, the breakaway was broken in pieces after an attack of Estonian champion Kirsipuu, but Mengin, a rider local to Nancy, managed to hold on and left Kirsipuu behind. One and a half kilometers from the end, Alexander Vinokourov and Lorenzo Bernucci came off the peloton to join him, and then, 700 meters from the end, Mengin risked too much, slid out and crashed, followed independently by much of the front of the peloton. The result was to give Bernucci the stage, due mostly to his superior navigation of the crash, and Vinokourov a 19-second boost in the general classification. Boonen kept the green jersey, but Hushovd's fifth-place finish gave him a substantial boost, putting him just 7 points back in that competition. Claudio Corioni of abandoned the race.

Stage 7
8 July 2005 — Lunéville to Karlsruhe, 228.5 km

Because the Tour arrived to the German city of Karlsruhe, it was clear that at least one German rider would try to win. It was Fabian Wegmann who attacked very early and gathered all the mountain points available before the peloton began his pursuit. Even though the main field flew through the French countryside propelled by Quick Step and Davitamon–Lotto, Wegmann managed to enter Germany ahead of the group, but he was eventually reeled in. This time it was Tom Boonen who sprinted too early, and he gave Robbie McEwen the chance of a second stage win in this year's Tour de France. Wegmann had gathered enough points to make him leader of the mountain's classification and receive the polka-dot jersey on the podium in front of the German public.

Stage 8
9 July 2005 — Pforzheim to Gérardmer, 231.5 km

Stage 8 is a stage that takes the riders from Germany back into French territory. Overnight saw two riders drop out of the race, which meant at the day's start there were 183 riders still in the race. The day's stage saw four cat-3 climbs at the beginning of the stage and the first cat-2 climb of this year's race towards the end of the stage. In between the last cat-3 and the cat-2 climb the stage was relatively flat, which was supposed to benefit the sprinters more than the climbers.

Early during the race, the peloton moved at a rapid pace, causing a number of riders to drop from the main peloton. Early attacks were mostly caught, save for a group of seven riders which maintained lead towards the end. A group determined to catch the riders was attacked by Vinokourov, followed by Savoldelli; when the Italian cracked and Armstrong was left alone, the chase group with about 32 people was formed, including Ullrich, Voigt, Basso, and McGee. Taking advantage of Armstrong's solitude, another member of, Andreas Klöden, attacked and escaped, reaching the last remaining member of the breakaway. Towards the summit of the cat-2 climb, Weening and Klöden had a 17" lead over the chase group, and they were able to maintain the lead over the group when they crossed the finish line.

Because Weening and Klöden crossed the line at virtually the same time, the jury had to use the sensor system to determine the winner. Weening was declared the stage winner, beating out Klöden by 0.0002 of a second, or 9.6 millimeters. At the stage's end, Armstrong still holds the yellow jersey, although there was a lot of movement at the top 10 of the classement général. Popovych, the white jersey holder, was dropped out of the chase group and as a consequence fell out of top 10 and relinquished the white jersey to Karpets, who leads the youth classification by 1". The polka dot jersey also changed owner, as Rasmussen took 32 points out of a maximum 36 in this stage. Stage 1 winner David Zabriskie was dropped on the first climb, finished the stage in last place (51'12" off the leader) and barely escaped the fate of DNF.

Furthermore, Armstrong was isolated from his team, because none of his team-mates was able to follow the attacks in the group of the favourites, mainly the attacks of Vinokourov.

Stage 9
10 July 2005 — Gérardmer to Mulhouse, 171 km

This stage featured three cat-3 mountains followed by the cat-2 Grand Ballon, cat-3 and finally the cat-1 climb up the Ballon d'Alsace, first crossed in the 1905 Tour de France. The terrain was designed so the challengers of the polka dot jersey had to make a move.

From the beginning of the stage there were attacks. A group of riders managed to escape the peloton. Michael Rasmussen was a part of this group in the beginning and according to the team he lost two minutes on the previous stage on purpose so that he wouldn't be a threat to the general classification and then would be able to do this attack in order to take mountain points, his main aim for this Tour. Rasmussen and Dario Cioni very quickly escaped the original group and carried on as a duo. Cioni had trouble following Rasmussen over the mountains and eventually gave up. Meanwhile, the original breakout group was reduced to Christophe Moreau and Jens Voigt. Moreau was a contender for the polka dot jersey and Voigt was in position for the yellow jersey, so they both had an interest in chasing Rasmussen. He however kept the distance even though he had been riding alone for almost the entire stage and won the stage. Moreau and Voigt came in three minutes later, which gave Voigt the yellow jersey.

Stage 10
12 July 2005 — Grenoble to Courchevel, 181 km

The start of the stage was delayed by as much as 40 minutes because of a protest staged by farmers who were angry over wolves being reintroduced to the Alps. Even though had shown some signs of weakness in the stage won by Weening, it was the American team which lead the peloton in pursuit of a breakaway which contained Óscar Pereiro, Jörg Jaksche and some other riders. Even though most of Discovery's team fell back quite soon, Yaroslav Popovych prepared a brutal attack for his leader. The peloton broke and only Rasmussen, Valverde and Mancebo could hold Armstrong's wheel. Even though they did not collaborate with the American, a gap formed between this group, then Basso and then Ullrich and Klöden. Vinokourov had failed badly, like Christophe Moreau, who had hoped to get the yellow jersey on this stage. Armstrong's attempt to win the stage on a sprint breakaway was foiled by Valverde in the closing meters. Nonetheless, the Texan regained the maillot jaune and seemed to acknowledge Valverde's win perhaps indicating that he saw him as future heir apparent.

Stage 11
13 July 2005 — Courchevel to Briançon, 173 km

Stage 11 was another major mountain stage in the Alps including the legendary Col de la Madeleine and Col du Galibier climbs, the latter being the highest point of this year's tour at 2645m. Alexander Vinokourov, after a disastrous day in the previous stage to Courchevel when he lost over 5 minutes, attacked on the Col de la Madeleine. Lance Armstrong and his rode strongly behind mindful of the threat from Vinokourov but aware of the advantage that they had over him. The tactics of the T-Mobile team riders, including Vinokourov, in support of their apparent team leader Jan Ullrich were, as ever, questionable. Three riders, Óscar Pereiro (this year's most aggressive rider) and Santiago Botero (both of ) established a breakaway before Pereiro was dropped after the Col du Télégraphe and before the fearsome ascent of the Col du Galibier. Vinokourov crossed the summit of the Galibier first, taking the Henri Desgrange prize, in front of Botero, a rider who was enjoying a renaissance in 2005. Meanwhile, Lance Armstrong's Discovery Channel Team were controlling the peloton at just over 2 minutes behind although Michael Rasmussen jumped ahead to get more King of the Mountain points and to continue his domination of the polka dot jersey. Botero joined Vino on the now wet and dangerous descent and the pair continued together to Briançon where the Kazakhstan champion outsprinted Botero to take his second stage victory after his first one to Gap in the 2003 Tour de France that had seen the major injury to Joseba Beloki and the remarkable cross-country exploits of Lance Armstrong. The peloton, and all the main contenders, came in at 1'15" behind thus preserving Armstrong in the yellow jersey and Vinokourov's exploits not making up for the previous day's losses.


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Cooper Black

Cooper Black is an ultra-bold serif typeface intended for display use that was designed by Oswald Bruce Cooper and released by the Barnhart Brothers & Spindler type foundry in 1922. The typeface was drawn as an extra-bold weight of Cooper's "Cooper Old Style" family. It rapidly became a standard typeface and was licensed by American Type Founders and also copied by many other manufacturers of printing systems.

Its use in pop culture increased worldwide since 1966, when The Beach Boys used it for the cover artwork of their album Pet Sounds. It was then featured in the Doors’ L.A. Woman (1971) and David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust (1972), and in the opening credits of The Bob Newhart Show, Dad's Army, Diff'rent Strokes, Garfield, M*A*S*H, Enos, The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Everybody Hates Chris and other shows. The font is used for the Disney Sing-Along Songs from the intro. As a result, Cooper Black has become emblematic of late-1960s/early-1970s style. It is also known in railroading for its association with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway "Yellowbonnet" paint scheme, also dating to the early 1960s, which had "Santa Fe" in large yellow letters on locomotive sides.

Cooper Black followed on from Cooper's career as a lettering artist in Chicago and the Midwest of America in the 1920s. Cooper Black was advertised as being "for far-sighted printers with near-sighted customers", as well as "the Black Menace" by detractors. While very bold, Cooper Black is based on traditional "old-style" serif lettering, rather than the hard-edged "fat face" fonts popular in the nineteenth century, giving it a soft, 'muddy' appearance, with relatively low contrast between thick and thin strokes.

Cooper Hilite
Cooper Hilite is a version of Cooper Black originally designed by painting white relief impressions into a printed proof of Cooper Black. It has been digitized by ParaType and Wordshape.

Imitations and variants
Cooper Black was immediately popular and spawned imitations, including Goudy Heavy Face from Frederic Goudy, Ludlow Black and Pabst Extra Bold. Cooper Black remains popular: the editors of the typography discussion website Fonts in Use report more submissions of its use than any other face that is not a sans-serif, although outnumbered by Times New Roman once its many variants are added up.

Many unusual versions of Cooper were created in the phototypesetting period of the 1960s and 1970s, a period of explosion in the production of display faces. These included "Ziptop Cooper Black" from Photo Lettering Inc., a version with the top bolder than the bottom, and other distorted variants.

Many digitisations of Cooper Black exist from companies including Bitstream, Adobe and others. Soap, designed by Ray Larabie of Typodermic, is a uni-case variant. A version from URW, which does not include an italic, is bundled with many Microsoft products. Cooper Old Style has been digitised by URW.

Miles Newlyn designed the New Kansas typeface, based on the Cooper Black typeface.

title: Cooper Black


text:
User talk:Mbaskar

Headline text
PEOPLE ATTAINED PEACE OF MIND ALWAYS CHATTERING MAY SHARE THAIR PEACE WITHOUT TALKING.....

title: User talk:Mbaskar


text:
SS.10

The Nord Aviation SS.10 was a MCLOS wire-guided anti-tank missile designed by the French engineer Jean Bastien-Thiry. In American service, the missile was called the MGM-21A. The missile entered service in 1955 with the French Army. It was used briefly by the US Army in the early 1960s. The missile ceased production in January 1962 after approximately 30,000 missiles had been built.

Development
Development began in France in 1948, when the Arsenal de l'Aéronautique in Châtillon sous Bagneux began looking at the possibility of developing the German X-7 missile further. The missile was designed to be cheap: In 1955, the missile cost 340 Francs and the control box 1,750 Francs. The first rounds were test fired in 1952. Development was completed in 1955 and the missile entered service with the French Army under the designation SS.10 ("Sol-Sol" French for "Surface to Surface").

The US army procured 500 missiles and three sets of launching equipment to evaluate a prototype version of the missile between early 1952 and October 1953, but concluded that the missile was not currently ready for use, but that the continued development should be monitored. After development of the missile was completed, the US successfully re-evaluated the missile in mid-1958, and the later SS.11 (also by designer Bastien-Thiry) and Entac missiles were procured for Army use.

History
In late 1955, Israel ordered 36 SS.10 launchers. They were received a year later, too late for the IDF to use them in the 1956 Suez Crisis. Subsequently, a self-propelled variant was developed, with four launchers carried by Dodge truck. In the early 1960s, SS.10 missiles were retired from the IDF service, replaced by SS.11.

The US Army was interested in the missile from an early stage, but pursued development of their own missile – the SSM-A-23 Dart missile. However, after the SSM-A-23 was cancelled in 1958, they began to consider procuring the SS.10 and SS.11 missiles. In February 1959, they decided to buy the SS.10 as a stopgap. The missile was delivered in January 1960 and was phased out in 1963 in favour of the MGM-32 Entac. The missile received the designation MGM-21A.

Description
In flight, the missile is steered by an unusual arrangement of electrically powered vibrating spoilers, the power for these spoilers is transmitted to the missile along the guidance wires from the operator's station. Since the missile spins in flight, a gyroscope is needed to determine which spoilers are currently up/down or left/right. Guiding the missile to the target is very demanding and requires a high level of operator skill and concentration - this is typical with MCLOS guided missiles.

General characteristics

 * Length: 860 mm
 * Wingspan: 750 mm
 * Diameter: 165 mm
 * Launch weight: 15 kg
 * Speed: 80 m/s
 * Range: 500 to 1600 m
 * Guidance: wire-guided MCLOS
 * Warhead: 5 kg Hollow-charge 400 mm versus RHA

Prototypes

 * Nord-5201 - Two winged prototype.
 * Nord-5202 - Four winged prototype.
 * Nord-5203 - Final production version.

Production versions

 * SS.10 / MGM-21A

Former operators

 * 🇫🇷 France
 * 🇮🇷 Iran
 * 🇺🇸 United States
 * 🇺🇸 United States

title: SS.10


text:
Valery Polekh

Valery Vladimirovich Polekh  (5 July 1918 – 6 September 2006) was a Soviet horn player. The horn concerto Op.91 by Reinhold Glière was dedicated to him.

title: Valery Polekh


text:
Bank of Madura

Bank of Madura was a Tamil Nadu-based bank established in 1943 by Karumuttu Thiagarajan Chettiar. It acquired Chettinad Mercantile Bank (est. 1933) and Illanji Bank (est. 1904) during the 1960s. The Bank of Madura was a Chettiar bank with a large customer base of over 2 million customers and a network of more than 280 branches and 40+ ATM centres spread across around 100 cities in India. The bank merged with ICICI Bank Limited, under Section 44A of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, under the leadership of Chairman K.M. Thiagarajan. The Bank had roughly 44 billion INR in assets at the time of the merger, not accounting for inflation. The Reserve Bank of India approved the merger effective 10 March 2001. It was headquartered at Madurai.

The parties involved and news outlets alike described the merger as a positive strategic move. Bank of Madura shareholders approved the merger on 19 January 2001. Following the merger the Bank of Madura's share price initially rose sharply.

title: Bank of Madura


text:
Authority figures in comedy

A recurring theme in the literary, theatrical, and film tradition of comedy is the use of stock characters representing authority figures, designed to poke fun at officialdom by showing that its members are not immune to entanglement in the ridiculous. This is an old tradition, well illustrated in works such as Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Voltaire's Candide. This practice arises in part from the desire of those subject to the power of those in authority to use any available means of limiting this power by demonstrating that the authority figure is just as subject to mockery as those lacking power. This represents "the attempt to use aggression to protect oneself from engulfment, impingement or humiliation by diminishing the perceived power and threat of the other", an effort which often takes the form of caricature of those in authority.

This theme was commonly used by the British comedy troupe, Monty Python. In their sketches, a "common comedic device was for authority figures (such as military officers, police, judges, Conservative politicians, BBC news announcers and even God) to take their characters to extremes by suddenly spouting complete nonsense".

Examples include:
 * Police officers, as seen in Keystone Cops, Inspector Clouseau, Reno 911!, Police Academy, The Thin Blue Line and Carry On Constable.
 * Soldiers, as seen in Sgt. Bilko, Carry on Sergeant, Stripes, Blackadder Goes Forth and Il Capitano in the Commedia dell'arte.
 * Civil servants, as seen in Yes Minister, Carlton-Browne of the F.O., The Ministry of Silly Walks and Spin City.
 * Priests, as seen in All Gas and Gaiters and Father Ted.
 * Teachers, principals, and deans, as seen in Animal House and High School High.

Some television shows, such as South Park and The Simpsons, have a collection of characters that represent all of the main groups of authority figures, and each portrays such figures as humorously flawed. Indeed, each show has a resident police officer — Officer Barbrady and Chief Wiggum, respectively — portrayed as an incompetent and bumbling idiot. The shows also mockingly portray their resident religious leader — Priest Maxi in South Park and Reverend Timothy Lovejoy in The Simpsons. The shows also include, with slightly different characteristics, the flawed exercise of authority by parents, teachers, school principals, mayors, and occasionally soldiers and politicians.

Examples can also be found in the art of the Russian joke.

title: Authority figures in comedy


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Past & Present (journal)

Past & Present is a British historical academic journal, which has been a leading force in the development of social history. Founded in 1952, the journal is published four times a year by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Past and Present Society, a British historical membership association and registered charity. The society also publishes a book series (Past and Present Publications), and sponsors occasional conferences and appoints postdoctoral fellows.

The current chair of the editorial board is Joanna Innes, the Winifred Holtby Fellow and Tutor in Modern History at Somerville College, University of Oxford.

History
After the end of the Second World War, an emerging subfield of social history gradually became popular in history departments.

Past & Present thus emerged in 1952 as an alternative to mainstream political history journals. It was founded by a combination of Marxist and non-Marxist historians, including John Morris. The Marxist historians included members of the Communist Party Historians Group, including E. P. Thompson, Christopher Hill, Eric Hobsbawm, Raphael Samuel, Rodney Hilton, and Dona Torr. Gordon Childe was a founder member of the board. The journal previously had the subtitled A Journal of Scientific History. These figures often advocated History from Below in explaining the history of class, labour, and social relations.

Morris was the editor from 1952 until 1960 and remained as chairman of the editorial board until 1972.

Past & Present was simultaneously influenced by the Annales school of historians, which aimed to write history in its totality.

The History Workshop movement, founded in the 1960s, aimed to become a platform for the study of "ordinary people". The influence of Past & Present greatly expanded in the historical discipline after the publication of Thompson's The Making of the English Working Class in 1963.

title: Past & Present (journal)


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The Best Of (Motörhead album)

The Best Of is a 2-CD compilation album by the band Motörhead, released in August 2000 on the Sanctuary Records subsidiary label Metal-Is.

Recording
The Best Of includes 36 Motörhead tracks spanning the band's career from 1977 to 2000, including four previously unreleased live tracks recorded in 1981. It also includes three non-Motörhead tracks: Girlschool's cover version of Motörhead's "Bomber", a cover version of Johnny Kidd & The Pirates' "Please Don't Touch" performed by the Motörhead/Girlschool collaboration Headgirl, and Hawkwind's original version of "Motörhead", the song from which Motörhead frontman Lemmy took the band's name after being fired from Hawkwind. 14 of Motörhead's then-16 studio albums are represented, with March ör Die (1992) and Bastards (1993) excluded.

Track listing
NOTE: The live recordings were later featured on the re-release 40th anniversary edition of No Sleep 'til Hammersmith in 2021.

title: The Best Of (Motörhead album)


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title: User talk:62.171.194.45