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Fritz Bauer

Fritz Bauer (16 July 1903 – 1 July 1968) was a German Jewish judge and prosecutor. He played an instrumental role in the post-war capture of former Holocaust planner Adolf Eichmann and the beginning of the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials.

Early life
Bauer was born in Stuttgart, to a Jewish family. His parents were Ella (Hirsch) and Ludwig Bauer. Bauer's father was a successful businessman who ran a textile mill that provided him with an annual income of by 1930 (for comparison, the annual income of a typical doctor in Germany in 1930 was ). His sister Margot called their childhood a "liberally Jewish one". Though his family was assimilated into the German culture, his parents did not celebrate Christmas as a secular holiday (a common practice in Jewish homes in Stuttgart at the time), and insisted on celebrating Jewish holidays. He attended Eberhard-Ludwigs-Gymnasium in Stuttgart, and studied business and law at the Universities of Heidelberg,  Munich and  Tübingen. German universities were traditionally strongholds of the völkisch movement, and almost all student fraternities in Germany under völkisch influence refused to accept Jews as members. Accordingly, Bauer found himself joining the liberal Jewish fraternity FWV (Freie Wissenschaftliche Vereinigung – Free Academic Union) in Heidelberg, to which he devoted much of his time. The only other major Jewish fraternity were the Zionists, whose views Bauer opposed.

Career in the Weimar Republic
In 1928, after receiving his PhD in law (at 25, Doktor der Rechte [Jur.Dr.] in Germany), Bauer became an assessor judge in the Stuttgart local district court. By 1920, he already had joined the Social Democratic Party (SPD). Bauer found himself feeling at home in Stuttgart, a city with a left-wing working class majority that had a reputation as a "progressive" city where Weimar culture flourished. The city council of Stuttgart was dominated by the Social Democrats while the Nazis won only 1.1% of the vote in the Stuttgart municipal election of 1928. However, Bauer was the only judge in Württemberg who was a member of the SPD and one of the only two Jewish judges in Württemberg. He was much an outsider in the Württemberg judiciary. Bauer recalled later about the other judges in Württemberg: "They came from the highly elitist student fraternities and members of the reserve officers' corps. Their entire outlook was conservative and authoritarian in spirit. The Kaiser had gone, but the generals, public officials and judges remained". Bauer found himself appalled by the way that the other judges in Württemberg flagrantly favored the Nazis, always imposing the most lenient sentences on Nazis who engaged in violence and the harshest possible sentences on Communists and Social Democrats who did the same.

Bauer believed that this favoritism towards the Nazis encouraged their violence. Bauer remembered that the judges of Württemberg almost down to a man loathed the Weimar Republic, which they believed was born of the stab-in-the-back myth of 1918 committed by "godless and unpatriotic scoundrels. The judges weren't at all fond of the republic and they used the guise of judicial independence to sabotage the new state". Bauer felt the political biases of the judiciary—who had an unwritten rule under the Weimar republic that violence committed by the right was acceptable—was the "judicial overture" to their actions under the Nazi regime. In the early 1930s, Bauer was together with Kurt Schumacher, one of the leaders of the SPD's Reichsbanner defense league in Stuttgart. Bauer served as the chairman of the Stuttgart chapter of the Reichsbanner and from 1931 onward found himself engaged in a feud with Dietrich von Jagow, the SA leader for Southwestern Germany. In late 1931, Bauer was demoted from a judge handling criminal cases to a judge handling civil cases following accusations from the Nazi journalist Adolf Gerlach in the local Stuttgart Nazi newspaper NS-Kurier that Bauer was biased because he was a Jew and a Social Democrat who discussed details of the trial with a journalist from the Social Democratic newspaper Tagwacht. At the hearing in response to Gerlach's complaint, Bauer argued the details of the case involving a local con-man on trial for cheating others of their money had already been discussed in the court, so he had not violated any rules by speaking to a journalist and the case was not political. At the hearing, the judges ruled that Bauer had failed to "comply with existing regulations", thereby implying that Gerlach's accusations were partly justified and only declined to dismiss him because it could not be proved that Bauer's actions were "politically motivated".Following the demotion, Bauer contacted Kurt Schumacher, a highly decorated World War One veteran who lost his arm who served as the editor of the Social Democratic newspaper Schwäbische Tagwacht, about the need to drum up an anti-Nazi movement. Schumacher told Bauer: "We don't need intellectuals. Workers don't like intellectuals". Finally, Schumacher agreed to send Bauer to speak at a SPD rally, where Bauer gave what he called "a talk which went down rather well, I must admit". Bauer had a "deep, roaring voice" that electrified audiences and even a hostile Nazi account admitted he had "an accessible and very appealing style of expression". Schumacher in turn was, despite his grotesque appearance owing to his war wounds, one of the most popular Social Democrats in Württemberg, as one lawyer recalled: "He was like Churchill, chain-smoking cigarettes and puffing on cigars. You could sense his resolve and unwavering belief in the absolute righteousness of his cause". Schumacher and Bauer travelled across Württemberg giving speeches as Bauer recalled: "He and I spoke every weekend, sometimes three, four or five times. We were urging people to defend the Weimar Constitution, but also combat the extremism of the Weimar era". The rallies usually ended with people shouting Frei-Heil! (Hail Freedom!) which was intended to mock the Nazi slogan Sieg Heil! (Hail Victory!). As Schumacher was also a Social Democratic MdR, he had to spend much time in Berlin attending the sessions of the Reichstag, causing him to resign as a chairman of the Stuttgart chapter of the Reichsbanner in favor of Bauer. After the Harzburg Front was founded in October 1931, Bauer was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the Iron Front, whose stated purpose was to defend democracy.

Imprisonment in Nazi Germany
On 8 March 1933, Jagow was appointed police commissioner for Württemberg. On 23 March 1933, while Bauer was at work in his office, a group of policemen arrived to arrest him without charges. In March 1933, soon after the Nazi seizure of power, a plan to organize a general strike against the Nazis in the Stuttgart region failed, and Schumacher and Bauer were arrested with others and taken to Heuberg concentration camp. Bauer was tormented by the SA guards at Heuberg who found various ways to humiliate him and often beat him. As a "third-class" prisoner (i.e. one considered especially dangerous to the German state), Bauer was singled out for abuse such as being forced to stand for hours facing a wall while SA men struck him in the knees with their nightsticks and banged his head against the wall. Other than mentioning that he was forced to clean the camp's latrine on a daily basis, Bauer never mentioned his own experiences at Heuberg, which was too painful for him. The man whom Bauer consistently praised in his recollections of Heuberg was Schumacher, who despite missing one of his arms and being in constant pain because of his war wounds, was unyielding in his principles, taking abuse from the guards without complaint. The more prominent and older Schumacher, who had been an outspoken opponent of the Nazis as an SPD deputy in the Reichstag, remained in concentration camps (which destroyed his health) until the end of World War II, whereas the young and largely unknown Bauer was released.

In November 1933, Bauer was transferred from Heuberg to a newly founded prison, Oberer Kuhberg concentration camp, located in former Army barracks in Ulm, where the guards were professional policemen instead of the SA, and conditions were better. In 1933, it was possible for lesser political prisoners to be released if they signed a public declaration of loyalty to the Nazi regime. On 13 November 1933, a letter appeared in the Ulmer Tagblatt newspaper from eight imprisoned Social Democrats declaring their loyalty to the new regime, which led to their release; one of the signatories was Bauer, who felt so humiliated that he never allowed discussion of this chapter of his life. In accordance with the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service he was removed from office. Schumacher was also offered release if he signed such a declaration, which he refused, saying that he rather would stay in the concentration camps forever than betray his beliefs; much of the praise that Bauer was later to offer Schumacher as a man who was always true to himself seemed to have reflected guilt about his own actions in signing the declaration.

Exile
In 1936, Bauer emigrated to Denmark.

While in Denmark Bauer after the deportation of his relatives managed to get in contact with the Danish minister of justice. Steincke, to plead with him to get a visa for his parents so that they could leave Germany and come to Denmark. Steincke not thinking the situation was so dire changed his mind after Bauer requested that his parents be given a visa to Greenland. Steincke realizing the severity of the station anyone would be in to want to go there as it was a cold and inhospitable place granted the Bauers visa to come to Denmark. The Bauers arrived in Denmark on 1st of January 1940.

Shortly after, Bauer was arrested by the Danish police on charges of having sex with a male prostitute. Homosexuality was legal in Denmark, but soliciting the services of a prostitute of the same sex was not. Bauer admitted to the police that he did have sex with the prostitute in question, but denied vehemently that he paid the man for sex. After the German occupation, the Danish authorities revoked his residence permit in April 1940 and interned him in a camp for three months. On 1 December 1941, Bauer's first cousin, Erich Hirsch, and his aunt, Paula Hirsch, both of whom had remained in Stuttgart, were arrested by the Stuttgart police and were placed on a train together with 1,013 Stuttgart Jews. The train went to Riga, where all of the Jews were taken out to a field outside of Riga and shot by Latvian collaborationists. In October 1943, as Nazis began the deportation of Danish Jews to Theresienstadt concentration camp, he went underground. If Bauer was homosexual, that would have placed him in even further peril should he remain in Germany or Nazi-occupied Denmark. To protect himself, he formally married the Danish kindergarten teacher Anna Maria Petersen, in June 1943. Although some authors, such as biographer Ronen Steinke, argue that Bauer was probably homosexual, others consider this unproven.

In October 1943, he fled to Sweden after the Danish government resigned and the Nazis declared martial law, which endangered the Jewish population in Denmark. Bauer spent 8 days in hiding in a cellar and on the night of 13 October 1943 left Denmark in a Danish fishing boat that took him his parents, sister, brother in law and two nephews to Sweden. Living for a time in Gothenburg before departing to Stockholm where Bauer founded, along with Willy Brandt and others, the periodical Sozialistische Tribüne.

Learning to speak swedish (albeit with a strong German accent) Bauer supported himself by teaching law students at Stockholm university and archival work. In his spare time he wrote books, ranging in topics from economics to Napoleon.

In 1945 his father, Ludwig, died from leukemia while living in Sävedalen.

Return to Germany
Bauer returned to Germany in 1949, as the postwar Federal Republic (West Germany) was being established, and once more entered the civil service in the justice system. At first he became director of the district courts, and later the equivalent of a U.S. district attorney, in Braunschweig. Ella Bauer ,his mother died in 1955.

In 1956, he was appointed the Generalstaatsanwalt (state prosecutor) in Hessen, based in Frankfurt. Bauer held this position until his death in 1968.

In 1957, thanks to Lothar Hermann, a former Nazi camps prisoner, Bauer relayed information about the whereabouts in Argentina of fugitive Holocaust planner Adolf Eichmann to Israeli Intelligence, the Mossad. Hermann's daughter Sylvia began dating a man named Klaus Eichmann in 1956 who boasted about his father's Nazi exploits, and Hermann alerted Fritz Bauer, at the time prosecutor-general of the Land of Hesse in West Germany. Hermann then tasked his daughter with investigating her new friend's family; she met with Eichmann himself at his house, who said that he was Klaus's uncle. Klaus arrived not long after, however, and addressed Eichmann as "Father".

In 1957, Bauer passed the information to Mossad director Isser Harel, who assigned operatives to undertake surveillance, but no concrete evidence was initially found. Bauer trusted neither Germany's police nor the country's legal system, as he feared that if he had informed them, they would likely have tipped off Eichmann. Thus he decided to turn directly to Israel authorities. Moreover, when Bauer called on the German government in order to make efforts to get Eichmann extradited from Argentina, the German government immediately responded negatively.

In 2021, it became known that much more instrumental to the capture of Eichmann was the geologist Gerhard Klammer, who had worked with Eichmann in the early 1950s in a construction company in the Argentine Tucumán province, who provided Bauer with Eichmann's exact address and a photograph of Eichmann alongside Klammer. Klammer was in contact with the German priest Giselher Pohl and bishop Hermann Kunst, to whom he sent the information with the photograph, from which Klammer's face was ripped. Kunst, in turn, passed the evidences to Bauer. Bauer's sources remained secret, and along with Klammer's recomposed picture were not revealed before 2021.

Mossad's Isser Harel acknowledged the important role Fritz Bauer played in Eichmann's capture, and claimed that he pressed insistently the Israeli authorities to organize an operation to apprehend and deport him to Israel. Shlomo J. Shpiro, in the introduction to Harel's book The House on Garibaldi Street, stated that Bauer did not act alone but was discreetly helped by Hesse minister-president Georg-August Zinn.

Bauer was active in the postwar efforts to obtain justice and compensation for victims of the Nazi regime. In 1958, he succeeded in getting a class action lawsuit certified, consolidating numerous individual claims in the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials, which opened in 1963. Bauer pressed for replacing the 1935 version of Paragraph 175 of the German penal code, which made the "expression of homosexuality" illegal, thus meaning that for gay people even to come out of the closet and declare their sexuality was a criminal offense. In West Germany, the 1935 version of Paragraph 175 stayed in effect until 1969, making the lives of gay people almost unbearable. Perhaps reflecting concerns about drawing attention to his own sexuality, Bauer did not demand the abolition of Paragraph 175, and instead suggest merely reverting back to the 1871 version of Paragraph 175 that made homosexual sex a criminal offense.

In 1968, working with German journalist Gerhard Szczesny, Bauer founded the Humanist Union, a human-rights organization. After Bauer's death, the Union donated money to endow the Fritz Bauer Prize. Another organization, the Fritz Bauer Institute, founded in 1995, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to civil rights that focuses on history and the effects of the Holocaust.

Fritz Bauer's work contributed to the creation of an independent, democratic justice system in West Germany, as well as to the prosecution of Nazi war criminals and the reform of the criminal law and penal systems. Within the postwar German justice system, Bauer was a controversial figure due to his political engagements. He once said, "In the justice system, I live as I were in exile."

Death
Bauer died in Frankfurt am Main, aged 64. He was found having drowned in his bathtub. A post-mortem examination stated he had consumed alcohol and taken sleeping pills.

After a wake by his friends on the 6th of July, his body was cremated and the ashes taken to Sweden and interred in his parents' grave in Örgryte Old Cemetery.

Works

 * Die Kriegsverbrecher vor Gericht ("War Criminals in Court"), with a postscript by Hans Felix Pfenninger. Neue Internationale Bibliothek, Europa, Zürich 1945.
 * Das Verbrechen und die Gesellschaft ("Crime and Society"). Ernst Reinhardt, Munich 1957.
 * Sexualität und Verbrechen. Beiträge zur Strafrechtsreform ("Sexuality and Crime"). Fischer, Frankfurt 1963.
 * Die neue Gewalt. Die Notwendigkeit der Einführung eines Kontrollorgans in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland ("The new Oppression"). Verlag der Zeitschrift Ruf und Echo, Munich 1964.
 * Widerstand gegen die Staatsgewalt. Dokumente der Jahrtausende ("Resistance to State Oppression"). Fischer, Frankfurt 1965.
 * Die Humanität der Rechtsordnung. Ausgewählte Schriften ("The Human Values of Legal Process; Selected Documents"). Joachim Perels and Irmtrud Wojak, Campus Verlag, Frankfurt/New York 1998, ISBN 3-593-35841-7.

Biographies
Further reading: Bernhard Valentinitsch,Der Staat gegen Fritz Bauer. In: Journal for Intelligence,Propaganda and Security Studies(=JIPSS). Vol. 10 (Graz 2016), pp. 236-237.
 * Irmtrud Wojak: Fritz Bauer. Eine Biographie, 1903–1968, Munich: C.H. Beck, 2009, ISBN 3-406-58154-4
 * Ronen Steinke: Fritz Bauer: oder Auschwitz vor Gericht, Piper, 2013, ISBN 978-3492055901, translated into English as:

title: Fritz Bauer


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Downtown MRT station

Downtown MRT station is an underground Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station on the Downtown line (DTL). Located in Downtown Core, Singapore, underneath Central Boulevard, the station serves various commercial developments including the Marina Bay Financial Centre, Asia Square and SGX Centre. The station is operated by SBS Transit.

First announced as Landmark MRT station in 2005 as part of the Circle line's Downtown extension, the station was constructed as part of DTL Stage 1. The station opened in 2013. Downtown station features an Art-in-Transit artwork Leaves by Jason Lim.

History
The station was first announced as Landmark station when the Land Transport Authority (LTA) unveiled the 3.4 km Downtown extension (DTE) on 14 June 2005. The DTE was initially planned to be a branch of the Circle line, extending from Milennia (now Promenade) station to Chinatown station. In 2007, the DTE was revised, becoming Stage 1 of the 40 km Downtown line (DTL). Through a public poll, the station was renamed to Downtown in June 2009.

Contract C907 for the construction of the station was awarded to Taisei Corporation for sgd230000000 (US$ million) in December 2007. The contract also included the construction of Central Boulevard above the station. The station held an open house on 7 December 2013. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong held an official inauguration at this station on 21 December; the station commenced operations the following day along with the DTL Stage 1 stations.

Station details
Downtown station serves the DTL and is situated between the Bayfront and Telok Ayer stations. The official station code is DT17. Downtown station is within walking distance of the Raffles Place and Marina Bay stations on the North South Line. Being part of the DTL, the station is operated by SBS Transit. The station has a side platform configuration with four underground levels.

Downtown station is underneath Central Boulevard between the junctions of Straits View and Marina View, and serves the Marina Bay Financial Centre. The station's six entrances connect to surrounding developments and landmarks including Asia Square, Hong Leong Building, Marina Bay Suites, One Raffles Quay, OUE Downtown and SGX Centre. The station has provisions to link with future developments.

Artwork
Leaves by Jason Lim is a mosaic of six leaves displayed at this station as part of the Art-in-Transit programme, a public art showcase which integrates artworks into the MRT network. While the leaves on a macroscopic level guide commuters to the platforms, the close-up view shows a series of plant cells reflecting how local businesses are connected. The work was inspired by the structure of bamboo leaves; bamboo is significant in Asian economies and cultures, representing integrity and resilience.

Lim initially planned a mural of a single leaf blade across the platform wall, but, due to the platform design, he changed his planned artwork to six blades. He used mosaic tiles for the artwork to create a pixellated effect, allowing commuters to interpret his work in various ways. The work was first created on sheets of A3 graph paper, with each square shaded. These drawings were scanned in low resolution and enlarged to further "pixel" them and create the intended mosaic effect. Rather than mounting Lim's work on cement, the LTA allowed Lim to install mosaic tiles on the entirety of the wall dedicated to the artwork. This allowed his work to be integrated with the station's design. An Italian mosaic tile manufacturer produced the tiles.

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

title: Downtown MRT station


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Closure with a twist

Closure with a twist is a property of subsets of an algebraic structure. A subset $$Y$$ of an algebraic structure $$X$$ is said to exhibit closure with a twist if for every two elements

 * $$ y_1, y_2 \in Y$$

there exists an automorphism $$\phi$$ of $$X$$ and an element $$y_3 \in Y$$ such that
 * $$ y_1 \cdot y_2 = \phi(y_3)$$

where "$$\cdot$$" is notation for an operation on $$X$$ preserved by $$\phi$$.

Two examples of algebraic structures which exhibit closure with a twist are the cwatset and the generalized cwatset, or GC-set.

Cwatset
In mathematics, a cwatset is a set of bitstrings, all of the same length, which is closed with a twist.

If each string in a cwatset, C, say, is of length n, then C will be a subset of $$\mathbb{Z}_2^n$$. Thus, two strings in C are added by adding the bits in the strings modulo 2 (that is, addition without carry, or exclusive disjunction). The symmetric group on n letters, $$\text{Sym}(n)$$, acts on $$\mathbb{Z}_2^n$$ by bit permutation:
 * $$p((c_1, \ldots, c_n)) = (c_{p(1)}, \ldots, c_{p(n)}),$$

where $$c = (c_1, \ldots, c_n)$$ is an element of $$\mathbb{Z}_2^n$$ and p is an element of $$\text{Sym}(n)$$. Closure with a twist now means that for each element c in C, there exists some permutation $$p_c$$ such that, when you add c to an arbitrary element e in the cwatset and then apply the permutation, the result will also be an element of C. That is, denoting addition without carry by $$+$$, C will be a cwatset if and only if
 * $$\forall c\in C : \exists p_c\in \text{Sym}(n) : \forall e\in C : p_c(e+c) \in C.$$

This condition can also be written as
 * $$\forall c\in C : \exists p_c\in \text{Sym}(n) : p_c(C+c)=C.$$

Examples

 * All subgroups of $$\mathbb{Z}_2^n$$ — that is, nonempty subsets of $$\mathbb{Z}_2^n$$ which are closed under addition-without-carry — are trivially cwatsets, since we can choose each permutation pc to be the identity permutation.
 * An example of a cwatset which is not a group is

 * F = {000,110,101}.

To demonstrate that F is a cwatset, observe that
 * F + 000 = F.
 * F + 110 = {110,000,011}, which is F with the first two bits of each string transposed.
 * F + 101 = {101,011,000}, which is the same as F after exchanging the first and third bits in each string.

 * A matrix representation of a cwatset is formed by writing its words as the rows of a 0-1 matrix. For instance a matrix representation of F is given by

 * $$ F = \begin{bmatrix}

0 & 0 & 0 \\ 1 & 1 & 0 \\ 1 & 0 & 1 \end{bmatrix}.$$

To see that F is a cwatset using this notation, note that

 * $$ F + 000 = \begin{bmatrix}

0 & 0 & 0 \\ 1 & 1 & 0 \\ 1 & 0 & 1 \end{bmatrix} = F^{id}=F^{(2,3)_R(2,3)_C}. $$

 * $$ F + 110 = \begin{bmatrix}

1 & 1 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & 1 & 1 \end{bmatrix} = F^{(1,2)_R(1,2)_C}=F^{(1,2,3)_R(1,2,3)_C}. $$

 * $$ F + 101 = \begin{bmatrix}

1 & 0 & 1 \\ 0 & 1 & 1 \\ 0 & 0 & 0 \end{bmatrix} = F^{(1,3)_R(1,3)_C}=F^{(1,3,2)_R(1,3,2)_C}.$$

where $$ \pi_R$$ and $$ \sigma_C$$ denote permutations of the rows and columns of the matrix, respectively, expressed in cycle notation.

 * For any $$ n \geq 3 $$ another example of a cwatset is $$ K_n $$, which has $$n$$-by-$$n$$ matrix representation

 * $$ K_n = \begin{bmatrix}

0 & 0 & 0 & \cdots & 0 & 0 \\ 1 & 1 & 0 & \cdots & 0 & 0 \\ 1 & 0 & 1 & \cdots & 0 & 0 \\ & & & \vdots & & \\ 1 & 0 & 0 & \cdots & 1 & 0 \\ 1 & 0 & 0 & \cdots & 0 & 1 \end{bmatrix}. $$

Note that for $$ n = 3$$, $$K_3=F$$.

 * An example of a nongroup cwatset with a rectangular matrix representation is

 * $$ W = \begin{bmatrix}

0 & 0 & 0\\ 1 & 0 & 0\\ 1 & 1 & 0\\ 1 & 1 & 1\\ 0 & 1 & 1\\ 0 & 0 & 1 \end{bmatrix}. $$

Properties
Let $$C \subset \mathbb{Z}_2^n$$ be a cwatset.

analogous to Lagrange's Theorem in group theory. To wit,
 * The degree of C is equal to the exponent n.
 * The order of C, denoted by |C|, is the set cardinality of C.
 * There is a necessary condition on the order of a cwatset in terms of its degree, which is

Theorem. If C is a cwatset of degree n and order m, then m divides $$2^n!$$.

The divisibility condition is necessary but not sufficient. For example, there does not exist a cwatset of degree 5 and order 15.

Generalized cwatset
In mathematics, a generalized cwatset (GC-set) is an algebraic structure generalizing the notion of closure with a twist, the defining characteristic of the cwatset.

Definitions
A subset H of a group G is a GC-set if for each $$h\in H$$, there exists a $$\phi_h\in\text{Aut}(G)$$ such that $$\phi_h(h) \cdot H = \phi_h(H)$$.

Furthermore, a GC-set H ⊆ G is a cyclic GC-set if there exists an $$h\in H$$ and a $$\phi\in\text{Aut}(G)$$ such that $$H = {h_1, h_2, ...}$$ where $$h_1 = h$$ and $$h_n = h_1 \cdot \phi(h_{n-1})$$ for all $$n > 1$$.

Examples

 * Any cwatset is a GC-set, since $$C + c = \pi(C)$$ implies that $$\pi^{-1}(c) + C = \pi^{-1}(C)$$.
 * Any group is a GC-set, satisfying the definition with the identity automorphism.
 * A non-trivial example of a GC-set is $$H = {0, 2}$$ where $$G = Z_{10}$$.
 * A nonexample showing that the definition is not trivial for subsets of $$Z_2^n$$ is $$H = {000, 100, 010, 001, 110}$$.

Properties

 * A GC-set H ⊆ G always contains the identity element of G.
 * The direct product of GC-sets is again a GC-set.
 * A subset H ⊆ G is a GC-set if and only if it is the projection of a subgroup of Aut(G)⋉G, the semi-direct product of Aut(G) and G.
 * As a consequence of the previous property, GC-sets have an analogue of Lagrange's Theorem: The order of a GC-set divides the order of Aut(G)⋉G.
 * If a GC-set H has the same order as the subgroup of Aut(G)⋉G of which it is the projection then for each prime power $$p^{q}$$ which divides the order of H, H contains sub-GC-sets of orders p,$$p^{2}$$,...,$$p^{q}$$. (Analogue of the first Sylow Theorem)
 * A GC-set is cyclic if and only if it is the projection of a cyclic subgroup of Aut(G)⋉G.

title: Closure with a twist


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User talk:Jovan

Salsa (dance)
The sentence that contains the phrase "between 1940 and 1970" explains why, although briefly. Salsa dance is basically mutated Mambo (dance). So there is no definite date of "origin" of salsa dance. People are still debating about the exact moment when the music has become called "Salsa". There are a number important milestones, like Fania Records, but you may find lots of material on the web yourself. Welcome to update the article, but please don't forget to indicate according to whom is the particular version of salsa history. mikka (t) 07:13, 24 July 2005 (UTC)

Request for edit summary
When editing an article on Wikipedia there is a small field labelled "Edit summary" under the main edit-box. It looks like this: The text written here will appear on the Recent changes page, in the page revision history, on the diff page, and in the watchlists of users who are watching that article. See m:Help:Edit summary for full information on this feature. When you leave the edit summary blank, some of your edits could be mistaken for vandalism and may be reverted, so please always briefly summarize your edits, especially when you are making subtle but important changes, like changing dates or numbers. Thank you. – Oleg Alexandrov (talk) 16:52, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Universidades y Colegios
I would like to invite you to check out the userboxes that I have created in Wikipedia! If your Collge/University is not there feel free to make create one or let me known and I'll make it (User: Lufthmark)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Userboxes/Education/Mexico

title: User talk:Jovan


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Telok Ayer MRT station

Telok Ayer MRT station is an underground Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station on the Downtown line (DTL). Situated in Outram, Singapore, the station serves various offices and commercial developments around the junction of Cross Street and Telok Ayer Street. The station is operated by SBS Transit.

First announced as Cross Street MRT station in 2005 as part of the Circle line's Downtown extension, constructing the station required diverting the traffic on Cross Street to a temporary viaduct while building the DTL tunnels above the operational East West line tunnels. The station, which opened in 2013 along with the DTL Stage 1 stations, features an Art-in-Transit artwork Charm of Bay by Lim Shing Ee.

History
The station was first announced as Cross Street station when the Land Transport Authority (LTA) unveiled the 3.4 km Downtown extension (DTE) on 14 June 2005. The DTE was initially planned to be a branch of the Circle line that would extend from Milennia (now Promenade) station to Chinatown station. In 2007, the DTE was revised to be the first stage of the 40 km Downtown Line (DTL). Contract 908 for the construction of Cross Street station and associated tunnels was awarded to a joint venture between Samsung Corporation and Soletanche Bachy France at a contract sum of S$224.9 million (US$ million) in August 2007. Through a public poll, the station was renamed to Telok Ayer in June 2009.

During the station's construction, a temporary viaduct was built along Cross Street. The two-lane 407 m bridge, which ran between Central Boulevard and China Street, was constructed to replace the closed lanes that had to make way for the station's construction. Work on the viaduct began on 3 February 2008 and it opened for traffic on 28 December that year. Three subsequent ramps to the viaduct were opened over the course from February to April 2009.

The DTL tunnels to the station had to be constructed right above the operational East West line (EWL) tunnels. To minimise any upward movement of the EWL tunnels, cement was pumped into the soft soil to strengthen it, while structures such as hydraulic jacks and interlocking pipes were installed above the tunnels. The steel pipes for the DTL tunnels' foundation had to be cautiously positioned to avoid any damage to the EWL tunnels. To address the poor ground conditions at the site during excavation, the diaphragm walls adopted the “Trouser Legs” concept which allowed the walls to reach the harder soil at deeper depths, functioning as both as earth–retaining and foundation elements.

Additionally, the LTA engaged with businesses that were affected by the construction. With the assistance of the LTA, four businesses along Telok Ayer Street had to be relocated to other premises as the construction barriers would impact their visibility and business. Before returning the shops to their owners upon the station's completion, the LTA repaired any minor damage the shops has incurred during the construction. The businesses were grateful for the LTA's assistance during the relocation. To address the noise and dust issue raised by an Indian restaurant along that street, the LTA lined the construction site with large yellow palms that enhanced the area's greenery while mitigating the noise and dust from the construction.

On 29 August 2012, then Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew visited and inspected the station site, where he announced the alignment of the Thomson line. The station held an open house on 7 December 2013, with surrounding businesses marking the event by giving various offers to patrons. Telok Ayer station commenced operations on 22 December along with the DTL Stage 1 stations. As part of LTA's review of the DTL station Tamil names to make them phonetically closer to the English names, Telok Ayer's Tamil name was amended in 2016.

Station details
Telok Ayer station serves the DTL and is situated between the Downtown and Chinatown stations. The official station code is DT18. Being part of the DTL, the station is operated by SBS Transit. The station is located underneath Cross Street and Telok Ayer Street and is close to several developments including the Far East Bank Building, RHB Building, Prudential Tower and PWC Building, while serving religious and cultural sites such as Lau Pa Sat Festival Market, Nagore Dargah India Muslim Heritage Centre and the Thian Hock Keng Temple. Telok Ayer station is within walking distance to Raffles Place station on the North South and East West lines. It is planned to connect the station with the adjacent Chinatown station via an underground retail link.

Designed by Ong&Ong, durable and easily maintained material and lighting are adopted to ensure the functionality of the station's modern design. The above-ground station structures, while contemporary in design, is intended to blend with the other shophouses in the area. The station features elliptical patterns and shapes used on various facilities, including the lifts, the supporting structures and the curved ceiling. These patterns are intended to act as wayfinding elements for commuters.

Artwork
Commissioned as part of the Art-in-Transit (AiT) programme — a public art showcase which integrates artworks into the MRT network — Charm of Bay (also named Bulbous Abode) by Lim Shing Ee is displayed at the concourse level of the station. The artwork, which consists of the wall patterns, floor tiles and the station columns, creates a "whimsical landscape" at the concourse level. Each of the concourse's "bulbous" boulder-like columns, cladded in brown, resembles "primitive monuments" such as pebbles and boulders in rivers to reflect the locality's role as the primary settling point of early Chinese immigrants. The boulders cast artificial shadows on the station floor (with darker coloured floor tiles) intended to "map" the commuter traffic as people passes through these rounded spaces.

The abstract patterns on the two opposing walls were inspired by former plantations in the area, along with elements of water and man-made landscapes. These patterns intend to reflect Telok Ayer's history and name, which means "Bay Water" in the Malay language. Each of the figures seem to be related or directed towards the next, as though passing down stories of the past to the next generation. The artwork figures were produced by PolyVision Ceramic Steel using screen printing on durable panels, ensuring that the artwork does not fade.

The artwork project required collaboration with the station's contractors and architects and was one of Lim's (and her partner Kazunori Takeishi's) first major public projects. The work was well received by other AiT artists. Erzan Adam, the artist for the artwork at Farrer Park station, remarked that the work offered an "upbeat, quirky" interpretation of the locality's history, while Yek Wong, the artist for the artwork at one-north station, "loved" the artwork's "quirky" pop references with its "fresh colours".

title: Telok Ayer MRT station


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Pushkar Lake

Pushkar Lake or Pushkar Sarovar is located in the town of Pushkar near Ajmer city in Ajmer district of the Rajasthan state of western India. Pushkar Lake is a sacred lake of the Hindus. The Hindu scriptures describe it as "Tirtha-Guru" [Thirtha Raj]– the perceptor of pilgrimage sites related to a water-body and relate it to the mythology of the creator-god Brahma, whose most prominent temple stands in Pushkar. The Pushkar Lake finds mention on coins as early as the 4th century BC.

Pushkar Lake is surrounded by 52 bathing ghats (a series of steps leading to the lake), where pilgrims throng in large numbers to take a sacred bath, especially around Kartik Poornima (October–November) when the Pushkar Fair is held. A dip in the sacred lake is believed to cleanse sins and cure skin diseases. Over 500 Hindu temples are situated around the lake precincts.

Tourism, deforestation and pollution in the surroundings have taken a heavy toll on the lake, adversely affecting its water quality, reducing the water levels and destroying the fish population. As part of conservation measures, the government is undertaking de-silting, de-weeding, water treatment, and afforestation as well as mass awareness programme.

Geography

Pushkar Lake around which the Pushkar town has developed is in the Ajmer district in the state of Rajasthan, India amidst the Aravalli range of hills. The mountain range known as Nag Parbat ("snake mountain") separates the lake from the city of Ajmer. The valley is formed between the two parallel ranges of the Aravalli hills (in elevation range of 650 - 856 m running south-west to north-east. Situated at 14 km northwest from Ajmer, the artificial Pushkar Lake created by building a dam is surrounded by deserts and hills on all three sides. The lake is categorized as a "Sacred Lake" under the list of "Classification of Lakes in India".

The soil and topography in the catchment are predominantly sandy with very low water retention capacity. The land use pattern in the Pushkar valley that drains into the lake comprises 30% of the area under shifting sand dunes, 30% under hills (degraded and barren) and streams and 40% of the area is agricultural.

Climate
The region experiences semi-arid climatic conditions with dry and hot summers and cool winters. The summer months of May and June are the hottest, with a maximum temperature of around 45 C. During the winter months, the maximum mean temperature is in the range of 25 - 10 C. Rain mainly occurs during a short spell of two months during July and August. The recorded average rainfall is in the range of 400 - 600 mm. Rainfall is also recorded some times during winter months of January and February.

From April to September, strong winds blowing in the southwest to northeast direction add to the formation of sand dunes.

Hydrology
The Pushkar Lake drains a catchment of the Aravalli hills covering an area of 22 km2. The lake has a water surface area of 22 ha. It is a perennial lake sourced by the monsoon rainfall over the catchment. The depth of water in the lake varies from season to season from 8 - 10 m. The total storage capacity of the lake is 0.79 million cubic metres (1.03 million cu yd). As the lake periphery is encircled by 52 ghats of various sizes, the surface water flow from the catchment into the lake is channeled through a series of arches under a footbridge, 110 m long at the southern end. The footbridge facilitates the parikrama (circumambulation) that is performed by pilgrims around the lake covering all the 52 ghats (covers an area of 2 ha).

Flora and fauna
Pushkar Lake, when full, is rich in fish and other aquatic life. The depth of the lake has substantially shrunk – to less than 1.5 m from a maximum of 9 m – resulting in the death of large fish weighing 5 - 20 kg, caused due to the viscous water and the lack of oxygen for the fish to survive. Since the region where the lake and its valley is situated is arid, the flora and fauna recorded relate to desert plants, including cactus and thorny bushes, as well as desert animals like camels and cattle. Man-eating crocodiles used to be a menace in the Puskhar Lake, resulting in the deaths of people. Pilgrims were aware of this fact, yet many considered it lucky to be eaten by crocodiles. The crocodiles were caught with nets by the British and shifted to a nearby reservoir.

History
Pushkar Lake's history dates back to the 4th century BC. Numismatics, in the form of punched Greek and Kushan coins date the lake back to this time. The inscriptions found at Sanchi attest to the lake's existence to the 2nd Century BC. This suggests that Pushkar was a pilgrimage centre even if it did not lie on the trade route.

In the fifth century AD, Chinese traveller Fa Xian made reference to the number of visitors to Pushkar Lake.

A story tells of a ninth-century Gurjara king, Nahar Rao Pratihar of Mandore, chasing a white boar to the lakeshore on a hunting expedition. In order to quench his thirst, he dipped his hand into the lake and was astonished to see that the Leukoderma marks on his hand had disappeared. Impressed with the sacred curative nature of the lake, he got the lake restored to its glory. After discovering the curative characteristics of the lake water, people have since visited the lake to take a holy dip and cure themselves of skin problems.

The creation of Pushkar Lake, as an artificial lake, is also credited to the 12th century when a dam was built across the headwaters of the Luni River. The 10th Sikh guru, Guru Govind Singh (1666–1708), is said to have recited the Sikh sacred text Guru Granth Sahib on the banks of the lake.

During the Mughal rule, there was a short break in the lake's importance due to the levy of a pilgrim tax and a ban on religious processions. In 1615–16, the Mughal emperor Jahangir (1569–1627) built his hunting lodge (seen now in total ruins) on the shores of the Pushkar Lake to celebrate his victory over the local Rajput Rana (king). He came to this lodge 16 times for hunting during his stay in Ajmer, about 23 km from Pushkar. This act violated the local tradition of not killing any animals in the precincts of the sacred lake. He also committed an idolatrous act by breaking the image of Varaha – the boar Avatar of the god Vishnu, as it resembled a pig and symbolically hurt Islamic sensitivity. Thereafter, Jahangir's grandson emperor Aurangzeb (1618–1707) destroyed and desecrated several temples, which were later rebuilt. However, during the rule of Jahangir's father, Emperor Akbar (1542–1605), there was a revival of not only the lake but also the Ajmer's Dargah dedicated to sufi saint Moinuddin Chishti, of whom Akbar was a devout follower.

The Rajput rulers of Amber, Bundi, Bikaner and Jaisalmer made great efforts to restore the importance of the lake and its surrounding temples. Credits given for modern additions to the building of ghats and the renovation/construction of temples go to Maharaja Man Singh I of Amber for the Raj Ghat and Man temple; Maha Rana Pratap for the Varaha temple; Daulat Rao Scindia for Kot Tirth Ghat, the Marathas-Anaji Scindia to the Koteshwar Mahadev temple and Govind Rao, the Maratha governor of Ajmer for Shiva Ghat; to the British rule for combining the religious pilgrimage with a cattle fair to generate taxes for improving the lake and its surroundings; and gifting of the Jaipur Ghat and the Main Palace on the ghat in 1956 by the Maharaja of Jaipur.

Religious significance
There are various legends from Hindu epics Ramayana and Mahabharata and the Puranic scriptures which mention the Pushkar Lake and the town of Pushkar surrounding it.

According to the Hindu scripture Padma Purana, Brahma saw the demon Vajranabha (Vajranash in another version) trying to kill his children and harassing people. He immediately slew the demon with his weapon, the lotus-flower. In this process, the lotus petals fell on the ground at three places, where springs emerged creating three lakes: the Pushkar Lake or Jyeshta Pushkar (greatest or first Pushkar), the Madya Pushkar (middle Pushkar) Lake, and Kanishta Pushkar (lowest or youngest Pushkar) lake. When Brahma came down to the earth, he named the place where the flower ("pushpa") fell from Brahma's hand ("kar") as "Pushkar". It is also said that the sacred Sarasvati River emerged at Pushkar as five streams. The three lakes were assigned their presiding deities as the Hindu Trinity Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, respectively. When Brahma came down to the earth, he named the place where the lotus fell as 'Pushkar'. Brahma then decided to perform a yagna at the place, at the main Pushkar Lake. However, his wife Savitri (called Sarasvati in some versions) could not be present at the designated time to perform the essential part of the yagna. Brahma, therefore, married a Gujjar, a dominant agricultural race named Gayatri and completed the yagna with his new consort sitting beside him. However, when Savitri finally arrived at the venue, she found Gayatri sitting next to Brahma in her rightful place. Agitated, she cursed Brahma that he would be worshipped only in Pushkar. As a result of this, yagna performed in the presence of all the gods, it is said that a dip in the lake created at this place is credited with holiness, assuring salvation from all sins. It is now one of the five holiest centres of pilgrimage for Hindus.

Ramayana and Mahabharata refer to Pushkar Lake as Adi Tirtha, or the "original sacred water-body". The famous Sanskrit poet and play-writer Kalidasa also referred to this lake in his poem Abhijñānaśākuntalam. The Ramayana mentions that Vishwamitra performed penance at Pushkar Lake for a thousand years. In spite of Brahma appearing before him and granting him the higher status of a rishi instead of a royal-sage (rajarishi), Vishwamitra continued his penance, but, the celestial nymph apsara, Menaka came to the lake to take a bath. Vishwamitra was enamoured by her beauty and they decided to live together in pursuit of pleasure for ten years. Then, Vishwamitra realized that his main activity of penance was disturbed. He, therefore, took leave of Menaka and went away to the north to continue his meditation. Vishwamitra was also described as building the Brahma temple at Pushkar after Brahma's yagna. Mahabharata mentions that Pushkar is a holy place of the god Vishnu, considered as the Adi Tirtha where millions of tirthas united during sunrise and sunset, and visiting the lake and taking a holy bath in the lake would wash off all sins.

According to Hindu theology, there are five sacred lakes collectively called Panch-Sarovar ('Sarovar' means "lake"). Namely, Mansarovar, Bindu Sarovar, Narayan Sarovar, Pampa Sarovar and Pushkar Sarovar; hence, Pushkar is considered one of the most sacred places in India. It is also the belief of devotees that a dip in the waters of the lake on Kartik Poornima would equal the benefits that would accrue by performing yagnas (fire-sacrifices) for several centuries. Pushkar is often called "Tirtha-Raj" – the king of pilgrimage sites related to water-bodies. The scriptures also mention that doing parikrama (circumambulation) of the three lakes (the main Pushkar, Madya Pushkar where there is a Hanuman temple and an old Banyan tree, and Kanistha Pushkar where a Krishna temple exists), which cover a distance of 16 km, during the Kartik Poornima day would be highly auspicious. International Business Times has identified Pushkar as one of the ten most religious places in the world and one of the five sacred pilgrimage places for the Hindus, in India.

Cultural attractions
Pushkar Lake and its precincts offer a plethora of monuments of national importance, such as the Pushkar city, the Brahma temple at Pushkar and the ghats on the periphery of the lakes. The lake is the central divine theme for the popularity of all the monuments seen in the town and the fairs held here.

Pushkar city
Pushkar city, with a population of 14,791 at the 2001 census, is one of the oldest cities in India. The city lies on the shore of Pushkar Lake. The date of its actual origin is not known, but legend associates Brahma with its creation concurrent with the lake; Brahma is said to have performed penance here for a darshan (sight) of god Vishnu. Thus, its uniqueness lies in the fact of its historic-religious-cultural background, and as a result it attracts approximately 100,000 visitors every month, apart from the very large congregation that occurs during the annual Pushkar Fair. However, Pushkar Lake is central to its sustenance as a religious centre. The tourist arrivals during 2005 were reported to be about 16.12 million (said to be the maximum among all tourist attractions in Rajasthan), out of which the foreign tourists were about 63,000.

Temples
Apart from the sacred Lake, Pushkar is said to have over 500 temples (80 are large and the rest are small); of these many old temples were destroyed or desecrated by Muslim depredations during Aurangzeb's rule (1658–1707) but were re-built subsequently. The most important of these is the Brahma temple. Though the current structure dates to the 14th century, the original temple is believed to be 2000 years old. Pushkar is often described in the scriptures as the only Brahma temple in the world, owing to the curse of Savitri, but also as the "King of the sacred places of the Hindus". Although now the Pushkar temple does not remain the only Brahma temple, it is still one of very few existing temples dedicated to Brahma in India as well as the most prominent. Hindu pilgrims, including holy men and sages visit this temple after taking a ceremonial sacred bath in the Pushkar Lake. Other notable temples around the lake include Varaha temple – dedicated to Varaha (the boar incarnation of god Vishnu), Savitri temple and Gayatri temple, dedicated to the consorts of Brahma.

Ghats
Ghats (stone steps laid on a gradual bank slope to descend to the lake edge) at Pushkar are integral to the lake. Ghats are also used for sacred bathing and rites, such as ancestor worship. Out of 52 ghats used by pilgrims to take a holy bath in the lake, ten important ghats on the periphery of the lake, which have other contiguous ghats adjoining them, have also been declared as 'Monuments of National Importance'. These ghats are: the Varaha Ghat, the Dadhich Ghat, Saptarishi Ghats, Gwalior Ghat, Kota Ghat, Gau ghat, Yag Ghat, Jaipur Ghat, Karni Ghat and Gangaur Ghat. These ghats, as well as the sacred Pushkar Lake (which is also a declared heritage monument), have been refurbished over the centuries by the Royal families of Rajasthan and by the Maratha kings. These are now undergoing further works as part of a heritage improvement programme launched with funds provided by the Government of Rajasthan and several departments of the Government of India. There are strict codes to be followed while taking a bath in the ghats, such as removing shoes away from the ghats and avoiding the passing of unwarranted comments about Hindu religious beliefs by non-Hindus, since the ghats and the temples are linked to the divine lake. The sacred water of the lake is said to be curative of many skin diseases. Local belief is that water around each ghat has a special curative power. While many ghats have been named after the Rajas who built them, some ghats have particular importance. Varaha ghat is so named since Vishnu appeared here in his incarnation of a boar (Varaha). Brahma Ghat is so named since Brahma bathed here. The Gau Ghat was renamed as Gandhi Ghat after Mahatma Gandhi's ashes were immersed at this ghat. Nart Singh Ghat, close to Varaha Ghat, has a stuffed crocodile on display.

A coinage known as "Puskar Passport" used by visitors to the lake and the ghats denotes the red thread that is tied on the wrists of pilgrims by the priests (for a dakshina – an unspecified fee). This indicates that the pilgrim has visited Pushkar Lake and is usually not approached by priests again for further rites and fees.

Pushkar Fair
Pushkar Lake and its precincts become very heavily populated during the annual Pushkar Fair or Pushkar mela, which has both a religious as well as an economic aspect. During the fair, a very large gathering of pilgrims takes a holy dip in the lake and the camel fair is an adjunct celebration. Pushkar Fair commences on Prabodhini Ekadashi, the 11th lunar day in the bright fortnight and ends on Kartik Poornima – the full Moon day in the month of Kartik (October–November), the latter being the most important day of the fair. This fair is held in the honour of god Brahma. A ritual bath on Kartik Poornima in the Pushkar Lake is considered to lead one to salvation. It is believed circling the three Pushkars on Kartik Poornima is highly meritorious. Sadhus, Hindu holy men, gather here and stay from the Ekadashi to full moon day in caves. The Pushkar fair is also Asia's largest camel fair. The colourful and lively Camel Fair reportedly attracts 2 lakh people and 50,000 camels. In this fair held on the banks of the lake, camels are very colourfully decorated and paraded in the sand dunes on the southern part of the lake. Tribes from several neighbouring villages are seen in their traditional colourful costumes. The fair on Kartik Poornima, the day when Brahma is believed to have concluded his Yagna establishing the lake. It is organized by the Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation (RTDC), Pushkar Municipal Board and the Animal Husbandry Department of Rajasthan. The fair is a colourful cultural event also with folk dances, music, camel races, and the cattle fair. The tug of war is a popular entertaining sport held during the fair. This event is held between the Rajasthanis and foreigners; locals invariably win the event.

Status and conservation issues
The natural environment of Pushkar Lake and its precincts has become increasingly degraded in the last few decades. The problems arise primarily from the over development of tourist facilities as well as the deforestation of the surrounding area.

The critical issues related to the conservation of the lake have been identified as:

 * Siltation during the rainy season due to soil erosion of the denuded hills and inappropriate agricultural practices flowing through the three feeder streams namely, the Gomukh, the Nag Pahar and Savitri.
 * Shifting sand dunes from hills and surrounding areas causing a rise of the bed level of the lake.
 * Upstream interception by farmers through check dams for farming practices causing reduction in inflows. This reduction is reflected in the full reservoir level of 8.53 m not being achieved during most years, resulting in pilgrim displeasure and the reduction in maximum depth of the lake, reported now as only 4.6 m.
 * Large inflow of sewage from the ghats and the surrounding habitation has caused serious water pollution.
 * Alarming rate of fall in groundwater level has occurred in the vicinity of the lake due to high extraction for various uses.

In recent years, storage in the Pushkar Lake has been reduced alarmingly, leaving only a small puddle of water in many years during the festival season when pilgrims flock to the lake for sacred bathing during the Hindu holy month of Kartik, when the Pushkar Fair is held. During the 2009 Pushkar fair, the situation became very grim when the lake dried up entirely. Alternate arrangements were made to facilitate sacred bathing by providing water in concrete tanks near one of the upper ghats, fed by tube wells from groundwater sources. While the authorities have been blamed for poor planning by de-silting the lake, the drought situation has resulted in insignificant rainfall in the area to fill the lake.

Water quality issues
The lake does not meet the National Water Quality Standards due to its high concentration of Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD). Considering the adverse impact on the lake water quality due to Eutrophication, anthropogenic pressures and holy rituals and tourism, a water quality study was specifically undertaken at four sites on a monthly basis for six months. The sampling sites were chosen to represent the pressure of pilgrims and other pollution inflows at the locations. The water samples were analysed for temperature, pH, salinity, conductivity, total dissolved solids, alkalinity, hardness, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, chloride, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate, sulphate, sodium, ammonium, potassium, total chlorophyll, biochemical oxygen demand and chemical oxygen demand. The analysis over the period has revealed that the lake water was alkaline, chloride and conductivity concentrations were high at all the four sites, and there were lower levels of dissolved oxygen (at sites with greater pollution load) and high hardness (on account of excess of calcium and magnesium from surface run-off). During the period of the annual Pushkar Fair, a distinct co-relationship was discerned between various parameters analysed and the degree of water pollution in the lake. This has called for urgent remedial actions to be undertaken by all of the government agencies involved with the lake management, with people's participation.

Restoration works
To supplement water supply to the lake, even as early as in 1993, the government built 12 deep tube wells to supplement water supply to the lake. However, most tube wells were dysfunctional, thereby aggravating the problem. The Union Ministry for Environment and Forests included Pushkar Lake on a list of five lakes under the National Lake Conservation Project (NLCP) for restoration. They have been providing funds since 2008 for the restoration works, but the situation has not eased.

Development plans are under various stages of implementation to address the critical issues related to the lake. They aim to improve water quality, increase water storage capacity, prevent encroachment of the lake periphery, improve the ambiance around the lake, as well as to introduce recreational and revenue generating schemes.

Sewage outfalls into the lake are proposed to be completely stopped by the interception and diversion of feeder lines. Lining the main feeders into the lake and setting up water treatment plants to continuously treat and recirculate the lake water are also envisioned. Conservation measures proposed for adoption to clean the lake are by way of desilting, water treatment at inlet of feeders into the lake, construction of check dams, conservation of ghats, afforestation of denuded hills in the catchment, soil moisture conservation measures, stabilization of sand dunes by planting vegetation of suitable species of plants and restriction of cultivation in the bed of feeder channels. In addition, the institutional measures considered for effecting improvement of the lake are mass awareness programmes with the population's participation as well as the control of fish proliferation to reduce the risk of death of fishes during periods of inadequate water depth in the lake.

title: Pushkar Lake


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Mentha longifolia

Mentha longifolia, also known as horse mint, brookmint, fillymint or St. John's horsemint, is a species of plant in the family Lamiaceae. It is native to Europe excluding Britain and Ireland, western and central Asia (east to Nepal and far western China), and northern and southern (but not tropical) Africa.

Description
It is a very variable herbaceous perennial plant with a peppermint-scented aroma. Like many mints, it has a creeping rhizome, with erect to creeping stems 40–120 cm tall. The leaves are oblong-elliptical to lanceolate, 5–10 cm long and 1.5–3 cm broad, thinly to densely tomentose, green to greyish-green above and white below. The flowers are 3–5 mm long, lilac, purplish, or white, produced in dense clusters (verticillasters) on tall, branched, tapering spikes; flowering in mid to late summer. It spreads via rhizomes to form clonal colonies.

Taxonomy
Mentha longifolia has been widely confused with tomentose variant plants of the species Mentha spicata; it can be distinguished from these by the hairs being simple and unbranched, in contrast to the branched hairs of M. spicata.

Infraspecies
The following subspecies and varieties are recognised:
 * Mentha longifolia var. amphilema Briq. ex Rech.f. - western Asia
 * Mentha longifolia var. asiatica (Boriss.) Rech.f. - western Asia to western China
 * Mentha longifolia var. austroafghanica Rech.f. - Afghanistan
 * Mentha longifolia subsp. capensis (Thunb.) Briq. - southern Africa
 * Mentha longifolia var. chlorodictya Rech.f. - Caucasus to western & central Asia
 * Mentha longifolia var. kermamensis Rech.f. - Iran
 * Mentha longifolia var. kotschyana (Boiss.) Briq. - eastern Turkey, Iran
 * Mentha longifolia subsp. longifolia (L.) L. - Europe, northwestern Africa
 * Mentha longifolia var. muqarrabica Shinwari & Chaudhri - Pakistan
 * Mentha longifolia subsp. noeana (Briq.) Briq. - Turkey east to Iran
 * Mentha longifolia var. petiolata Boiss. - northern Iraq to northern & western Iran
 * Mentha longifolia var. schimperi (Briq.) Briq. - Sinai to Arabian Peninsula
 * Mentha longifolia var. swatica Shinwari & Chaudhri - Pakistan
 * Mentha longifolia subsp. typhoides (Briq.) Harley. - northeastern Africa, southwestern Asia
 * Mentha longifolia subsp. wissii (Launert) Codd. - southwestern Africa

Hybrids
Mentha longifolia hybridizes with other Mentha species. Hybrids include:
 * Mentha × villosa-nervata Opiz. (hybrid with Mentha spicata) sharp toothed mint
 * Mentha × rotundifolia (L.) Huds., 1782 (hybrid with Mentha suaveolens) false apple mint

Varieties and Cultivars
Unlike other commonly cultivated species and hybrids of mint, there are few horticultural cultivars of M. longifolia. The only ones of note are:
 * M. longifolia Buddleia Mint Group (syn. M. longifolia 'Buddleia') - with silvered leaves.

Cultivation
Like almost all mints, Mentha longifolia can be invasive. Care needs to be taken when planting it in non-controlled areas.

Uses
Nicholas Culpeper's Complete Herbal (1653) states that "It is good for wind and colic in the stomach ... The juice, laid on warm, helps the King's evil or kernels in the throat ... The decoction or distilled water helps a stinking breath, proceeding from corruption of the teeth, and snuffed up the nose, purges the head. It helps the scurf or dandruff of the head used with vinegar." In addition, Mentha longifolia, like other Mentha species, is known to have important medicinal properties.

title: Mentha longifolia


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Talk:Ahlus Sunnah wal-Jamaa'h

When this page was originally put up, it reflected a traditionalist Sunni POV, praised the Sunni, and used the pious PBUH when referring to Muhammad. Of the two links, one is to a traditionalist-Sufi leaning site, and one is dead. I de-piefied, de-Sunnified, and removed the links. I couldn't find anything that was sufficiently non-POV or inclusive. DMOZ didn't help, since there's no category there for Sunni. Zora 07:15, 24 July 2005 (UTC)

The term Salafi can not be found before the creation of Saudi Arabia some 50 years ago. Even the term Wahhabi is a couple of hundred years old. The term Ahlus sunnah Wal-Jamaa'h is from almost begining of Islam. How can a new and minority group claim the thousand year old term belonging to Majority? Only thru oil power!!!
 * That's ridiculous. The word "Salafi" is derived from "salaf as-salih" or "righteous predecessors".  The word is found not only in the Qur'an but throughout all of Islamic history, among many traditional Islamic thinkers.  This is based on the hadith from Muhammad, "the best generation is mine, and the one after that, and the one after that".  This refers to first three generations known as the sahaba, the tabi'een, and the taba'tabi'een - the salaf.  So yes, it does have a long history in Islam.  The dispute comes in over who is actually following the example laid down by those  generations.  As it is, this article reflects an extreme bias toward blind followers of madhahib and toward the Ashariyyah and the Maturidiyyah - in fact, this article falsely claims that those are the only two schools of aqeedah, ignoring the athariyyah entirely.  This really isn't acceptable and this article needs to reflect what is already acknowledged by other articles on this very site. MezzoMezzo 21:30, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

Further review
Upon looking at this article, half of it was taken up by sections on taqlid and the sunnah, which are pointless as both already have their own articles here on Wikipedia. Of the three external links, one of them was commercial and the other was about the sunnah, not the term "ahl as-sunnah wa'l-jamaa'h". The first two paragraphs were blatantly biased in favor of the Sufi point of view, and left out the third traditional school of aqeedah. On top of this, there is a section on Shi'ism which I am not sure about, I am not Shia so I may not be able to pick up on any bias as well as a Shia individual would. Regardless, the necessary edits to remove the extreme bias of this article cut it down to almost nothing. I strongly support the merge of this article with the article for Sunni Islam. MezzoMezzo 21:46, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

title: Talk:Ahlus Sunnah wal-Jamaa'h


text: User talk:24.23.253.141

title: User talk:24.23.253.141


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Niobrara National Scenic River

The Niobrara National Scenic River is in north-central Nebraska, United States, approximately 300 miles (480 km) northwest of Omaha. In 1991, Congress set aside 76 miles (120 km) for preservation under the management of the National Park Service with assistance from the local Niobrara Council. Several "outstandingly remarkable values" have been designated to be protected along the Niobrara National Scenic River, including: Fish and Wildlife, Scenery, Fossil Resources, Geology, and Recreation. The river was designated by Backpacker magazine as one of the 10 best rivers for canoeing in the United States.

Along the National Scenic River are numerous waterfalls that empty into the river from the surrounding cliff and canyon walls; the highest one is Smith Falls, which drops almost 63 feet (19 m) into the river valley. There are short sections of Class I and II rapids on the river, and several locations further downstream require a portage around the rapids. The westernmost 26 miles (40 km) of the Scenic River section, from the Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge (just east of Valentine) to the Rocky Ford portage, offer canoeing, kayaking, and tubing opportunities. Although the remainder of the river can be paddled, access is limited by private landholder permission. Around 75,000 people visit the river annually, with the months of June through August being the busiest. Water levels decline slightly in late summer, but the river can still be enjoyed by canoe, kayak, and inner tube.

Considered an extraordinary example of a Great Plains river, the Niobrara is home to over 500 plant species many at or beyond their usual range, including many not otherwise naturally found within several hundred miles. These species include birch, ponderosa pine and a rare hybrid aspen (quaking X bigtooth). Species from six different vegetation communities can be found in proximity. Northern boreal forest types occur on north facing slopes where shade and abundant ground water create cooler microclimates. Species growing here include paper birch, aspen, ferns and club mosses. Rocky Mountain forest plants include ponderosa pine, serviceberry, and horizontal juniper. Eastern deciduous forests grow on the moist bottom lands and islands of the Niobrara. They include American elm, basswood, cottonwood, green ash, bur oak, hackberry and box elder. Three types of prairie are found in the river valley, displaying a botanical transition between among the eastern tallgrass prairie, the Sandhills mixed-grass prairie, and Northern Mixed-grass prairie. Mule deer, beaver, mink, pronghorn, river otter and even bison can be found in the area. Approximately 300 bison and a few dozen elk are protected in the 19,000 acre (77 km2) Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge, which is located along the river.

In the Niobrara river, minnows such as sand shiners, red shiners and flathead chubs search for their food of aquatic insects near streambank margins. Larger fish, such as rainbow and brown trout, prefer cooler, clear water where springbranch canyon tributaries enter the river. Channel catfish, a popular game fish, prefer deeper waters or cover during the day and feed at night in the riffles. Softshell, snapping or painted turtles may be found sunning on logs in summer.

The scenic river is spanned by 15 bridges, including six which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

title: Niobrara National Scenic River


text:
Manzat

Manzat (Auvergnat: Manzac) is a commune in the Puy-de-Dôme department in Auvergne in central France.

title: Manzat


text:
Gonzaga, Minas Gerais

Gonzaga is a municipality in the state of Minas Gerais, in Brazil. It is situated in the Governador Valadares metropolitan area.

Its population was estimated at 6,171 in 2020.

It is Jean Charles de Menezes's native city.

The mayor of Gonzaga is currently Julio Maria de Sousa.

title: Gonzaga, Minas Gerais


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Hilde Güden

Hilde Güden (or Gueden; 15 September 1917 – 17 September 1988) was an Austrian soprano who was one of the most appreciated Straussian and Mozartian sopranos of her day. Her youthful and lively interpretations made her an ideal interpreter of roles such as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos and Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro.

Early life
Born Hulda Geiringer in Vienna, she studied singing with Otto Iro, piano with Maria Wetzelsberger, and dancing at the Vienna Music Academy. She debuted, as Hulda Gerin, in 1937 in Benatzky's operetta Herzen im Schnee at the Vienna Volksoper. Her operatic debut came in 1939, when she sang Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro at the Zurich Opera.

In 1941, the famous conductor Clemens Krauss engaged her for the Munich State Opera, where she sang with much success. From this time she used Hilde Güden as her stage name.

Post-war career
In Italy, Tullio Serafin invited her to sing Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier) in Rome and Florence. From then on, she gained great successes in Paris, Milan, London, Venice, Glyndebourne, and other major cities. She made her debut at Salzburg Festival in 1946 by singing Zerlina in Mozart's Don Giovanni in 1946. In 1947, she started a long membership with the Vienna Staatsoper, where she was still of the greatest stars up to 1973. In December 1951, she debuted at the Metropolitan Opera as Gilda in Rigoletto. In 1953, she sang Ann Trulove in the first U.S. performance of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress at the Metropolitan Opera.

From late 1950s, she moved from light roles to lyric ones in the same operas; from Susanna to Countess Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), from Zerlina to Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), from Despina to Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), from Nannetta to Alice Ford (Falstaff), and from Musetta to Mimi (La bohème). She was also praised for her performances of Violetta in La traviata, Marguerite in Faust, and Micaëla in Carmen.

She was a most versatile and accomplished singer. Besides her usual Mozart and Richard Strauss, she was also an ideal operetta singer. Her Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus is considered one of her best roles. In the bel canto repertoire, she became a famous Gilda in Rigoletto and Adina in L'elisir d'amore. She was also noted for her Lieder and oratorio work. She died, aged 71, in Klosterneuburg, and was buried in Munich 's Waldfriedhof Cemetery. (Tenor Fritz Wunderlich is also buried there.)

Recordings
During the 1950s and 1960s, Hilde Güden made dozens of recordings with the best artists of her generation, especially for the Decca/London label. Following is a selection of her recorded works:

1. Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro (as Susanna) with Lisa della Casa, Cesare Siepi, and Erich Kleiber (conductor); Vienna State Opera Chorus and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; rec.1955 (Decca)

2. Mozart: Don Giovanni (as Zerlina) with Lisa della Casa, Cesare Siepi, Walter Berry, Suzanne Danco and Josef Krips (cond.); Chorus and Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera; rec.1955 (Decca)

3. Mozart: Die Zauberflöte (as Pamina) with Wilma Lipp, Leopold Simoneau, Kurt Boehme and Karl Böhm (cond.); Chorus and Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera; rec.1955 (Decca)

4. Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus (as Rosalinde) with Wilma Lipp, Anton Dermota, Julius Patzak and Clemens Krauss (cond.); Chorus and Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera; rec.1950 (London Gramophone LLP 305, Decca, now only available in various "public domain" versions)

5. Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus (as Rosalinde) with Erika Köth, Walter Berry, Regina Resnik and Herbert von Karajan (cond.); Chorus and Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera; rec.1960 (Decca)

6. Johann Strauss: Der Zigeunerbaron (as Saffi) with Karl Terkal, Walter Berry, Anneliese Rothenberger and Heinrich Hollreiser (cond.); Chorus and Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera; rec.1959 (EMI)

7. Richard Strauss: Daphne (as Daphne) with Fritz Wunderlich, James King, Paul Schoffler and Karl Böhm (cond.); Chorus and Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera; rec.1964/live (DG)

8. Richard Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier (as Sophie) with Maria Reining, Sena Jurinac and Erich Kleiber (cond.); Chorus and Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera; rec.1954 (Decca)

9. Richard Strauss: Die schweigsame Frau with Hermann Prey, Fritz Wunderlich, Hans Hotter, and Karl Böhm (cond.); Chorus and Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera; rec.1959/live-Salzburg Festival (DG)

10. Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos (as Zerbinetta) with Lisa della Casa, Irmgard Seefried, Rudolph Schock and Karl Böhm (cond.); Chorus and Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera; rec.1954/live-Salzburg Festival (DG)

11. Richard Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (as Eva) with Paul Schöffler, Günther Treptow, Karl Dönch, Anton Dermota and Hans Knappertsbusch (cond.); Chorus and Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera; rec.1950–51 (Decca)

12. Giacomo Puccini: La bohème (as Musetta) with Renata Tebaldi, Giacinto Prandelli, Fernando Corena and Alberto Erede (cond.); Orchestra e coro dell'Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Roma; rec.1950 (Decca)

13. Giuseppe Verdi: Rigoletto (as Gilda) with Aldo Protti, Mario Del Monaco, Cesare Siepi and Alberto Erede (cond.); Chorus and Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome; rec.1954 (Decca)

Video

 * As the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro, in a live performance with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Geraint Evans, Graziella Sciutti, and Evelyn Lear, conducted by Lorin Maazel, from the Salzburg Festival, 1963. The DVD is published by Video Artists International, Inc. Catalog number VAI DVD 4519.

 * Arias from Don Pasquale and Die Fledermaus on Golden Age of Singing, Vol. 1, published by Video Artists International, Inc. Catalog number VAI DVD 4701.

 * "Vilia" from The Merry Widow on Golden Age of Singing, Vol. 2, published by Video Artists International, Inc. Catalog number VAI DVD 4702.

title: Hilde Güden


text:
Hydroxychloroquine

Hydroxychloroquine, sold under the brand name Plaquenil among others, is a medication used to prevent and treat malaria in areas where malaria remains sensitive to chloroquine. Other uses include treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and porphyria cutanea tarda. It is taken by mouth, often in the form of hydroxychloroquine sulfate.

Common side effects may include vomiting, headache, blurred vision, and muscle weakness. Severe side effects may include allergic reactions, retinopathy, and irregular heart rate. Although all risk cannot be excluded, it remains a treatment for rheumatic disease during pregnancy. Hydroxychloroquine is in the antimalarial and 4-aminoquinoline families of medication.

Hydroxychloroquine was approved for medical use in the United States in 1955. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines. In 2021, it was the 116th most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 5million prescriptions.

Hydroxychloroquine has been studied for an ability to prevent and treat coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), but clinical trials found it ineffective for this purpose and a possible risk of dangerous side effects. Among studies that deemed hydroxychloroquine intake to cause harmful side effects, a publication by The Lancet was retracted due to data flaws. The speculative use of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 threatens its availability for people with established indications.

Medical uses
Hydroxychloroquine treats rheumatic disorders such as systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, and porphyria cutanea tarda, and certain infections such as Q fever and certain types of malaria. It is considered the first-line treatment for systemic lupus erythematosus. Certain types of malaria, resistant strains, and complicated cases require different or additional medication.

It is widely used to treat primary Sjögren syndrome but does not appear to be effective. Hydroxychloroquine is widely used in the treatment of post-Lyme arthritis. It may have both an anti-spirochete activity and an anti-inflammatory activity, similar to the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

Contraindications
The US FDA drug label advises that hydroxychloroquine should not be prescribed to individuals with known hypersensitivity to 4-aminoquinoline compounds. There are several other contraindications, and caution is required if the person considered for treatment has certain heart conditions, diabetes, or psoriasis.

Adverse effects
Hydroxychloroquine has a narrow therapeutic index, meaning there is little difference between toxic and therapeutic doses. The most common adverse effects are nausea, stomach cramps, and diarrhea. Other common adverse effects include itching and headache. The most serious adverse effects affect the eye, with dose-related retinopathy as a concern even after hydroxychloroquine use is discontinued. Serious reported neuropsychiatric adverse effects of hydroxychloroquine use include agitation, mania, difficulty sleeping, hallucinations, psychosis, catatonia, paranoia, depression, and suicidal thoughts. In rare situations, hydroxychloroquine has been implicated in cases of serious skin reactions such as Stevens–Johnson syndrome, toxic epidermal necrolysis, and Drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms. Reported blood abnormalities with its use include lymphopenia, eosinophilia, and atypical lymphocytosis.

For short-term treatment of acute malaria, adverse effects can include abdominal cramps, diarrhea, heart problems, reduced appetite, headache, nausea and vomiting. Other adverse effects noted with short-term use of Hydroxychloroquine include low blood sugar and QT interval prolongation. Idiosyncratic hypersensitivity reactions have occurred.

For prolonged treatment of lupus or rheumatoid arthritis, adverse effects include the acute symptoms, plus altered eye pigmentation, acne, anemia, bleaching of hair, blisters in mouth and eyes, blood disorders, cardiomyopathy, convulsions, vision difficulties, diminished reflexes, emotional changes, excessive coloring of the skin, hearing loss, hives, itching, liver problems or liver failure, loss of hair, muscle paralysis, weakness or atrophy, nightmares, psoriasis, reading difficulties, tinnitus, skin inflammation and scaling, skin rash, vertigo, weight loss, and occasionally urinary incontinence. Hydroxychloroquine can worsen existing cases of both psoriasis and porphyria.

Children may be especially vulnerable to developing adverse effects from hydroxychloroquine overdoses.

Eyes
One of the most serious side effects is retinopathy (generally with chronic use). People taking 400 mg of hydroxychloroquine or less per day generally have a negligible risk of macular toxicity, whereas the risk begins to increase when a person takes the medication over five years or has a cumulative dose of more than 1000 grams. The daily safe maximum dose for eye toxicity can be estimated from a person's height and weight. Macular toxicity is related to the total cumulative dose rather than the daily dose. Regular eye screening, even in the absence of visual symptoms, is recommended to begin when either of these risk factors occurs.

Toxicity from hydroxychloroquine may be seen in two distinct areas of the eye: the cornea and the macula. The cornea may become affected (relatively commonly) by an innocuous cornea verticillata or vortex keratopathy and is characterized by whorl-like corneal epithelial deposits. These changes bear no relationship to dosage and are usually reversible on cessation of hydroxychloroquine.

The macular changes are potentially serious. Advanced retinopathy is characterized by reduction of visual acuity and a "bull's eye" macular lesion which is absent in early involvement.

Overdose
Overdoses of hydroxychloroquine are extremely rare, but extremely toxic. Eight people are known to have overdosed since the drug's introduction in the mid-1950s, of which three have died. Chloroquine has a risk of death in overdose in adults of about 20%, while hydroxychloroquine is estimated to be two or threefold less toxic.

Serious signs and symptoms of overdose generally occur within an hour of ingestion. These may include sleepiness, vision changes, seizures, coma, stopping of breathing, and heart problems such as ventricular fibrillation and low blood pressure. Loss of vision may be permanent. Low blood potassium, to levels of 1 to 2 mmol/L, may also occur. Cardiovascular abnormalities such as QRS complex widening and QT interval prolongation may also occur.

Treatment recommendations include early mechanical ventilation, heart monitoring, and activated charcoal. Supportive treatment with intravenous fluids and vasopressors may be required with epinephrine being the vasopressor of choice. Stomach pumping may also be used. Sodium bicarbonate and hypertonic saline may be used in cases of severe QRS complex widening. Seizures may be treated with benzodiazepines. Intravenous potassium chloride may be required, however this may result in high blood potassium later in the course of the disease. Dialysis does not appear to be useful.

Detection
Hydroxychloroquine may be quantified in plasma or serum to confirm a diagnosis of poisoning in hospitalized victims or in whole blood to assist in a forensic investigation of a case of sudden or unexpected death. Plasma or serum concentrations are usually in a range of 0.1-1.6 mg/L during therapy and 6–20 mg/L in cases of clinical intoxication, while blood levels of 20–100 mg/L have been observed in deaths due to acute overdosage.

Interactions
The drug transfers into breast milk. There is no evidence that its use during pregnancy is harmful to the developing fetus and its use is not contraindicated in pregnancy.

The concurrent use of hydroxychloroquine and the antibiotic azithromycin appears to increase the risk for certain serious side effects with short-term use, such as an increased risk of chest pain, congestive heart failure, and mortality from cardiovascular causes. Care should be taken if combined with medication altering liver function as well as aurothioglucose (Solganal), cimetidine (Tagamet) or digoxin (Lanoxin). Hydroxychloroquine can increase plasma concentrations of penicillamine which may contribute to the development of severe side effects. It enhances hypoglycemic effects of insulin and oral hypoglycemic agents. Dose altering is recommended to prevent profound hypoglycemia. Antacids may decrease the absorption of hydroxychloroquine. Both neostigmine and pyridostigmine antagonize the action of hydroxychloroquine.

While there may be a link between hydroxychloroquine and hemolytic anemia in those with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency, this risk may be low in those of African descent.

Specifically, the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) drug label for hydroxychloroquine lists the following drug interactions:
 * Digoxin (wherein it may result in increased serum digoxin levels)
 * Insulin or anti-diabetic medication (wherein it may enhance the effects of a hypoglycemic treatment)
 * Drugs that prolong the QT interval such as methadone, and other arrhythmogenic drugs, as hydroxychloroquine prolongs the QT interval and may increase the risk of inducing serious abnormal heart rhythms (ventricular arrhythmias) if used concurrently.
 * Mefloquine and other drugs known to lower the seizure threshold (co-administration with other antimalarials known to lower the convulsion threshold may increase risk of convulsions)
 * Antiepileptics (concurrent use may impair the antiepileptic activity)
 * Methotrexate (combined use is unstudied and may increase the frequency of side effects)
 * Cyclosporin (wherein an increased plasma cyclosporin level was reported when used together).

Pharmacokinetics
Hydroxychloroquine has similar pharmacokinetics to chloroquine, with rapid gastrointestinal absorption, large distribution volume, and elimination by the kidneys; Tmax is 2–4.5 hours. Cytochrome P450 enzymes (CYP2D6, 2C8, 3A4 and 3A5) metabolize hydroxychloroquine to N-desethylhydroxychloroquine. Both agents also inhibit CYP2D6 activity and may interact with other medications that depend on this enzyme.

Pharmacodynamics
Antimalarials are lipophilic weak bases and easily pass plasma membranes. The free base form accumulates in lysosomes (acidic cytoplasmic vesicles) and is then protonated, resulting in concentrations within lysosomes up to 1,000 times higher than in culture media. This increases the pH of the lysosome from four to six. Alteration in pH causes inhibition of lysosomal acidic proteases causing a diminished proteolysis effect. Higher pH within lysosomes causes decreased intracellular processing, glycosylation and secretion of proteins with many immunologic and nonimmunologic consequences. These effects are believed to be the cause of a decreased immune cell functioning such as chemotaxis, phagocytosis and superoxide production by neutrophils. Hydroxychloroquine is a weak diprotic base that can pass through the lipid cell membrane and preferentially concentrate in acidic cytoplasmic vesicles. The higher pH of these vesicles in macrophages or other antigen-presenting cells limits the association of autoantigenic (any) peptides with class II MHC molecules in the compartment for peptide loading and/or the subsequent processing and transport of the peptide-MHC complex to the cell membrane.

Mechanism of action
Hydroxychloroquine increases lysosomal pH in antigen-presenting cells by two mechanisms: As a weak base, it is a proton acceptor and via this chemical interaction, its accumulation in lysozymes raises the intralysosomal pH, but this mechanism does not fully account for the effect of hydroxychloroquine on pH. Additionally, in parasites that are susceptible to hydroxychloroquine, it interferes with the endocytosis and proteolysis of hemoglobin and inhibits the activity of lysosomal enzymes, thereby raising the lysosomal pH by more than 2 orders of magnitude over the weak base effect alone. In 2003, a novel mechanism was described wherein hydroxychloroquine inhibits stimulation of the toll-like receptor (TLR) 9 family receptors. TLRs are cellular receptors for microbial products that induce inflammatory responses through activation of the innate immune system.

As with other quinoline antimalarial drugs, the antimalarial mechanism of action of quinine has not been fully resolved. The most accepted model is based on hydrochloroquinine and involves the inhibition of hemozoin biocrystallization, which facilitates the aggregation of cytotoxic heme. Free cytotoxic heme accumulates in the parasites, causing death.

Hydroxychloroquine increases the risk of low blood sugar through several mechanisms. These include decreased clearance of the hormone insulin from the blood, increased insulin sensitivity, and increased release of insulin from the pancreas.

History
After World War I, the German government sought alternatives to quinine as an anti-malarial. Chloroquine, a synthetic analogue with the same mechanism of action was discovered in 1934, by Hans Andersag and coworkers at the Bayer laboratories. This was introduced into clinical practice in 1947 for the prophylactic treatment of malaria. Researchers subsequently attempted to discover structural analogs with superior properties and one of these was hydroxychloroquine.

Chemical synthesis
The first synthesis of hydroxychloroquine was disclosed in a patent filed by Sterling Drug in 1949. In the final step, 4,7-dichloroquinoline was reacted with a primary amine which in turn had been made from the chloro-ketone shown:
 * Hydroxychloroquine synthesis.svg

Manufacturing
It is frequently sold as a sulfate salt known as hydroxychloroquine sulfate. In the sulfate salt form, 200 mg is equal to 155 mg of the pure form.

Brand names of hydroxychloroquine include Plaquenil, Hydroquin, Axemal (in India), Dolquine, Quensyl, and Quinoric.

title: Hydroxychloroquine


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Bco

 This page is an archive of the proposed deletion of the article below. Further comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or on a Votes for Undeletion nomination). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result of the debate was Delete --Allen3 talk 13:38, August 4, 2005 (UTC)

Bco
This site has an Alexa ranking of 127,378, which isn't as bad as it could be, but the site still doesn't seem that important. If the article is kept, somebody needs to edit out all of the junk (I tried, but I don't have the patience). Delete. Joel7687 07:23, 24 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. Not notable. Full of rubbish too. DarthVader 10:33, 24 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep.
 * Above vote by Simonmi2. User's first edit (Contribs)

 * Delete nn, website advertising. JamesBurns 06:59, 27 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep. BCO is a rich and active community where people can find a wealth of travel, music, art, fashion information. The article apparently keeps being edited by it's users thus reducing it's usefulness. Imeyer 17:47, 28 July 2005 (UTC)
 * User's first edit. (Contribs)

 * Delete. Non-notable. --Blu Aardvark | (talk) 08:33, 29 July 2005 (UTC)

Votes made by anon

 * Delete. I wanted to shoot myself in the face with a shotgun when I read this article.
 * Above vote by 170.140.210.108

 * Delete. blam.gif
 * Above vote by 207.245.36.114

 * Keep.
 * Above vote by 24.198.1.103.

 * Delete. blam.gif...seriously.
 * Above vote by 63.203.254.174

 * Delete. as a BCO member, I find this entry useless. Thanks.
 * Above vote by 213.238.215.91

 * Keep. As a long-lasting and seminal messageboard BCO deserves to have an entry.
 * Above vote by 80.45.197.203

 * Keep. BCO is a messageboard unique on the internet... (mostly) unmoderated and (mostly) intelligent and (always) entertaining and as such deserves to be noticed and defined. 20:47, 2 August 2005 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.30.114.155 (talk • contribs) 20:47, 2 August 2005
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in an undeletion request). No further edits should be made to this page.

title: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Bco


text:
Liz Carpenter

Mary Elizabeth Sutherland Carpenter (September 1, 1920 – March 20, 2010) was a writer, feminist, reporter, media advisor, speechwriter, political humorist, and public relations expert. As the first woman executive assistant to Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson from 1961 to 1963, and then as press secretary for First Lady Lady Bird Johnson from 1963 to 1969, Carpenter was a prominent member of the Johnson White House and also a close personal friend of the Johnsons.

Carpenter was an ardent supporter of the Women's Movement when it began and never wavered from her convictions. Her projects and causes ranged from supporting the Equal Rights Amendment to fighting cancer. Her lighthearted memoir of her time in the White House, Ruffles and Flourishes, published in 1969, was a national best-seller. Often called the "funniest woman in politics", she was in demand as a public speaker until her death.

Early life
Carpenter was born in her great-grandparents' antebellum home in Salado in southern Bell County, Texas. In 1936, the 24-room Robertson House was declared a state historic monument. In 1967, a plaque was unveiled to indicate that Carpenter had once lived there. Another memorial to Carpenter is on the campus of Salado College, founded by her great-grandfather, Elijah Robertson. At the age of seven, she moved with her family to Austin.

Media and political career
In 1942, Carpenter began covering the White House and Congress for the Austin American-Statesman. For the next eighteen years, she reported on presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to John F. Kennedy as a Washington reporter.

She was still a working reporter at the time of the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, California. She soon joined the staff of Lyndon B. Johnson in his campaign for Vice President in 1960 and traveled on his foreign missions as a press spokeswoman. After Kennedy's election, she became the first woman executive assistant to the vice-president.

Carpenter was in Dallas on November 22, 1963, at the time of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. She drafted the fifty-eight words that Johnson used on his return to Washington:

 * This is a sad time for all people. We have suffered a loss that cannot be weighed. For me, it is a deep personal tragedy. I know that the world shares the sorrow that Mrs. Kennedy and her family bear. I will do my best. That is all I can do. I ask for your help and God's.

Following Johnson's succession to the presidency, Carpenter became the first professional newswoman to be press secretary to a first lady for Lady Bird Johnson (1963–1969), for whom she also served as staff director. Carpenter also assembled several other staffers as an informal "White House Humor Group" to add humorous remarks to the President's speeches, at Johnson's request.

After the Johnson Administration ended in 1969, she published Ruffles and Flourishes, her account of her White House experiences.

She was a vice president of Hill and Knowlton in Washington after leaving the White House. In 1971, she was one of the founders of the National Women's Political Caucus and co-chair of ERAmerica, traveling the country to push for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment.

She was appointed by President Gerald Ford to the International Women's Year Commission, by President Jimmy Carter to serve as Assistant Secretary of Education for Public Affairs, and by President Bill Clinton to serve on the White House Conference on Aging.

Carpenter was a member of the Peabody Awards Board of Jurors from 1977 to 1983.

Literary career
Her books include: Unplanned Parenthood, Random House 1994; Getting Better All the Time, Simon and Schuster 1986, as well as countless articles and forays on the lecture circuit. Start With a Laugh, gives humorous advice on speech writing, was published by Eakin Press and launched at the opening of the National Women's Museum: An Institute for the Future in Dallas. Her most recent book, Presidential Humor, Bright Sky Press 2006, was a compilation of quips and quotes from "George the First to George the Worst."

Carpenter wrote an article for the Reader's Digest in the early 1980s, about enjoying life having recovered from an illness, closing the article with the poem "Warning" by British poet Jenny Joseph, which had the opening lines "When I am an old woman I shall wear purple, With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me". This led to the poem's fame spreading across the US through adoption by the greetings card industry and eventually the development of the Red Hat Society.

Awards and recognition
Carpenter was named a Distinguished Alumna of the University of Texas in 1975, and in 1990 was named distinguished alumnae of the Department of Communications. She was named by Governor Mark White to the Texas Women's Hall of Fame. She was given the ProBene Award of the College of Liberal Arts.

The Liz Carpenter Lectureship was established in 1984 by a group of her friends, including Erma Bombeck and Mark Russell, who gave a performance at the Paramount Theater to raise funds for it. In the last several years, Mrs. Carpenter's lectureship in the College of Liberal Arts has brought President Bill Clinton, President Gerald Ford, Hillary Clinton, Jehan Sadat, Maya Angelou, Bill Moyers, Jane Goodall, and writers such as Betty Friedan, Nora Ephron, Shana Alexander, and Jean Auel and nationally known humorists such as Fannie Flagg and Carol Channing.

The Liz Carpenter Award is given annually for the best scholarly book on the history of women and Texas published during the calendar year. The Award was established in 1992 by an anonymous donor who is committed to the publication of scholarly research on the history of women and Texas. The award honors Liz Carpenter, a sixth-generation Texan, for her commitment to the pursuit of the history of women in Texas and for a lifetime of achievements that qualify her as a maker of that history.

She was the recipient of Alpha Phi's Frances E. Willard Award in 1980. She died in Austin, Texas in March 2010.

title: Liz Carpenter


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Censuswhacking

 This page is an archive of the proposed deletion of the article below. Further comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or on a Votes for Undeletion nomination). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result of the debate was delete. – ABCD✉ 00:23, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

Censuswhacking
Not a single use-site... coverd by the BBC and others NN Neologism used by one site on the interent. Googlewhack is a little different. humblefool® 07:26, 24 July 2005 (UTC) Not a single use-site... coverd by the BBC and others
 * Dont Delete Is mentioned on several sites - including BBC Evil Angel
 * Delete. Seems to be a neologism. DarthVader 11:20, 24 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. 10:50, 24 July 2005 (UTC) User: 24.171.36.233.
 * Delete. Non notable neologism. Sjakkalle (Check!)  08:14, 25 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. It has been mentioned on the BBC's website but probably never will be again. If the practice becomes notable beyond the website from whence it originates then I look forward to the article's return. Flowerparty talk 23:47, 25 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete neologism. JamesBurns 07:00, 27 July 2005 (UTC)

 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in an undeletion request). No further edits should be made to this page.