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TP.3 Reloaded

TP.3 Reloaded is the seventh studio album by American R&B singer R. Kelly. It was released by Jive Records on July 5, 2005 in the United States. The third installment in Kelly's 12 Play series, it includes the first five parts of the song "Trapped in the Closet". The album became his fifth number-one on the US Billboard 200 album chart, and sold more than 1.02 million copies within its first three months of release.

Critical reception
TP.3 Reloaded received mixed reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 60 based on 18 reviews. Christian Hoard from Rolling Stone called the album a "return to form". He wrote that TP.3 Reloaded "shows how little Kelly has learned about life and how much he’s learned about hitmaking" and noted that it was "easy on the ears, a little ridiculous and enthralling all at once." Rob Mitchum from Pitchfork felt that TP3 Reloaded was "one of those albums where every song sounds like a radio single [...] Kelly cruises through genres like he's giving a guided tour, hitting crunk, dancehall, hip-hop, reggaeton, and naturally, a handful of bedroom ballads along the way. Production work is minimal, guest stars pay deference to their album host, and the entire album puts Kelly, his malleable voice, and his considerable persona center stage." Brian Sims from HipHopDX found that TP.3 Reloaded "presents a balanced R. Kelly, his artistic genius channeled through several genres, not overdone with just one." Vibe remarked that "while the content is strictly sex obsessed, the range of musical styles here is as varied and satisfying as the many positions and places the album will take you." In his review for New York Times, Jon Pareles noted that "Kelly models his singing and songwriting on Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and especially Prince. But he is now the unquestioned master of the ultra-slow groove, where the beat turns into an inner throb as notes ooze and drip from his synthesizers." Billboards Gail Mitchell felt that with 'TP.3 Reloaded, Kelly "doesn't break any new lyrical ground, but [his] talent for penning original, infectious grooves remains intact." Nathan Rabin from The A.V. Club wrote that TP.3 Reloaded "initially seems like a rote exercise in self-parody, then a delightful romp in self-parody, then finally something in between" and called it "intermittently fun but uneven." Stylus Magazine critic Thomas Inskeep declared the album "uneven by and large, and below what we all know R.’s capable of, this one mostly shoots blanks."

AllMusic editor Andy Kellman gave the album two and a half stars out of five and wrote: "Thematically opposite to Happy People/U Saved Me. the first hour of TP.3 is mostly about getting rowdy and getting it on, full of some of the clumsiest and lewdest lyrics Kelly has written, a few of which are extreme enough to be parody-proof [..] With one or two exceptions, all of these songs are second and third rate by his standard." Similarly, Entertainment Weekly's Raymond Fiore found that "Kelly descends into pitiful self-parody on his seventh solo album. You’ve heard it all before [...] Unless you’re intrigued by a cramp-afflicted Kelly doing the nasty, listen at your own peril." Los Angeles Times critic Richard Cromelin noted that "some of the up-tempo tracks are infectious, and the burbling ballads have a lush sensuality, but Kelly’s whole approach is familiar and threadbare." Keith Harris, writing for The Village Voice found that "only a true beat-whore could groove along complacently to TP.3," while Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine called the album some "epic piece of crap."

Commercial performance
TP.3 Reloaded debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, with first weeks sales of 491,000 copies. It was Kelly's fifth album to top the chart as well as his ninth number one on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums list. On August 8, 2005, the album was certified Gold and Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). By October 2005, TP.3 Reloaded had sold 1.02 million copies in the US, according to Nielsen Soundscan.

Track listing
All tracks produced by R. Kelly; except "Playa's Only" produced by Scott Storch, and "Burn It Up" produced by Luny Tunes and co-produced by R. Kelly.

title: TP.3 Reloaded


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Talk:Gifted Education Programme (Singapore)

Untitled
Just a note to all regarding the Talkingcock satire incident: I was heavily involved in the flaming for a while, and the incident was three years ago. It is something I deeply regret because my fellow classmates and I missed an opportunity to present ourselves in a positive manner and instead made fools of ourselves, but at the time the article bothered me very much. I would like to point out that being a young scholar places a lot of stress on us and that much of the prejudice is undeserved and the stereotypes inaccurate. I remain resolute in my absolute rejection of the article because it is largely inaccurate and unnecessarily stereotypes an often misunderstood group of people, but I often wish I had handled it better. As it has been three years since the incident, I would urge people not to view it as representative of the attitudes of gifted students on the whole, but rather at a certain age with a corresponding mindset (at 13 everyone thinks they own the world), and also not to discriminate because it is often offensive or hurtful to be labelled as a gifted student. Again, I plead for your understanding. -P

 * stereotypes is bad especially for young people, probably the name "gifted" should be changed to something neutral. But, take it easy lah, :D, I normal stream wan, also faced alot of stereotype ...  --Vsion (talk) 15:59, 11 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Relax, I think I would have done the same if I had been aware of the thread at the time (in 2001 I was 5 years old, LOL). Such reactions are understandable because the extremely distorted depiction of a typical GEP student in the article adds fuel to the already furiously burning fire of the extreme stereotyping of GEP students. When faced with such a ridiculous article that insults thousands of people throughout Singapore, it is natural to try to strangle everyone nearby and start typing numerous wrathful posts that attempt to prove that not every GEP student is the Mr. Hao Xuesheng visualised by so many mainstream people (OK, I'm stereotyping the mainstream, but whatever). 218.186.8.12 10:37, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

The Control Group
The Gifted Education Programme was initially something of an experiment. After all, it was not known what effect, if any, such a programme would have on the educational and social outcomes of the students selected for it. This is a classic educational outcomes problem - it is very difficult to determine whether the quality of the school, or the natural qualities of the students, are responsible for the future success of the students. To put it another way, students from elite schools may succeed because the schools are elite, or because the students who go to elite schools are already predisposed to be successful and cannot be improved further. The implication - if the latter statement were true - is that elite schooling is pointless beyond being a good sorting device that tells society which students are 'good'.

Regardless, in any social experiment, there must be a 'control group' - in this context, a group of students selected not because of their tested intellectual superiority, but rather because of their normality. Such an experiment would provide evidence as to whether the Gifted Education Programme really helped students, or whether student's initial attributes in fact were the dominating determinants of their future outcomes. The possibility of this is recognised by some GEP students when they first enter the program who, when questioned on their poor performance by teachers, jokingly claim that there was a computer error.

No one knows whether the Singapore Gifted Education Programme really had such a 'control group' or not except administrators at MOE's GE Branch. However, members of the ACS(I) class of 1994, among others, continue to believe in the existence of this 'control group'. As with most conspiracy theories, though, this theory is a mish-mash of conjecture, suspicion with a healthy mix of denigration by some GEP students of others perceived by them to be idiots and unworthy to be in the program.

"Oh, please!" - attrib. member of ACS (I) GEP Class of 1993

 * Transfered from article; purely speculative. Validation required. --Vsion (talk) 16:11, 11 February 2006 (UTC)

Rumour about RI's plan
Since September 2005, word has cirulated that Raffles Institution will be adopting GE pedagodgy and philosophy to teach the pupils who were not in the GEP. It was also said that the RI GEP students from the GEP primary school will still be retained as a group consistent with previous arrangement. In their efforts to incorporate GE pedagodgy in teaching the Special/Express pupils, the teaching staff of the GEP department and the non-GEP department will be working together as one single department. The school administration is of the belief that this will facilitate the working among the teachers and pupils from both streams. It will also help to ensure that the Special Express teachers will be trained to use GE methodology. The school administration has not officially announced this measure, but if this development is really true, this could mean that the GEP bloc in RI would eventually be enlarged to include staff and students from the Special/Express stream.

This has brought about much controversy, leading to a very sluggish implementation by the school administration. Some critics of this plan argue that the MOE's test to select able students to join the GEP is more than reliable to show that the Special-Express pupils simply do not have the aptitute to undergo GEP education. Morever, many have pointed out that such a move would inevitable result in a lowering of standards amongst the GEP students, simply because Special-Express teachers, who lack the training and the qualifications, are being brought in to teach GEP students using GEP methods and the GEP syllabus. However in RI’s case, they do regard all their other students as gifted since they are from the top 3% based on their primary results. So if their plan for all their teachers to be trained to adopt GE methodology is completed, it would bring about a new definition and a significant change to the landscape of Gifted Education in Singapore. It is unclear whether the other schools that also take in students from the top 3% of each cohort, such as Raffles Girls' School (Secondary) and Hwa Chong Institution, will adopt a similar approach.

 * Transferred from article, speculative. --Vsion (talk) 16:19, 11 February 2006 (UTC)

Bias?
"non-GEP students (referred to as "mainstreamers")"

Maybe it's just me but this strikes me as implying that "mainstreamers" is somehow insulting, which it isn't because:

 * 1) Its GEP counterpart ("GEPers") is generally accepted by many (as far as I know) as a short alternative to "GEP students", even if it originated as a derogatory term;
 * 2) It is no different from other non-insulting terms ("scientists", "historians") that refer to people by their profession, status or other characteristics;
 * 3) It is arguably less insulting than "non-GEP students", since that defines the mainstream by the GEP and reminds everyone that they didn't get into the GEP; and
 * 4) "Mainstream" is a widely accepted term for non-GEP classes as a whole; it makes no sense to say "mainstream" is not insulting while "mainstreamers" is.

This may just be my POV, but I think this part is biased. Or maybe I'm just hypersensitive; please comment! -- WPholic (talk) 09:15, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

 * I guess used in this context, both "GEPers" and "mainstreamers" do have negative connotations. An equivilant (worse) form of "mainstreamers" to "GEPers" would be "SEPers" (Special/Express). However, both "GEPers" and "mainstreamers" are not words in the dictionary (Singaporean jargon) and therefore should not be used in the article I guess. "Gifted students" and "mainstream students" should be used as a neutral alternative. --121.6.83.196 (talk) 16:24, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

 * Agreed. Though I've never heard of the term "SEPers" in all my years as a student lol. \ G.E.6.M.0.9.  see   ~    talk    ~    sign    11:59, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

 * Haha that's because it's too negative? --121.7.141.35 (talk) 13:06, 23 June 2009 (UTC)

 * Hm, I wrote a letter to GE Branch and MOE highlighting the segregation between mainstream and gifted pupils a few years back. Apparently, they are well aware of such an existence too and are taking (undisclosed) steps to close this gap. Might be interesting, since it isn't mentioned anywhere in this article, but I doubt private letters are allowed to be sourced. --121.7.141.35 (talk) 13:12, 23 June 2009 (UTC)

Controversial statement removed
I have removed this statement: "The severity of the situation is apparent in the fact that there are only thirteen pupils enrolled in the entire Secondary One GEP as of 2006."

The reason being that MOE renamed the GE streams in other schools to "GEP/IP" or "SBGE" instead of keeping the "GEP" label for these schools. It is incorrect to state that "there are only thirteen pupils enrolled", which came about just because of this renaming. This occured during the transitory period where the other secondary schools worked with GE branch for their "GEP/IP" or "SBGE" and were still not fully independent.

The Straits Times gives the reason for the abolishment of the GEP as "only thirteen pupils chose to enroll in the GEP", but this is inaccurate too because of the intentional renaming of the similar programmes to make it appear different. --2.219.221.217 (talk) 22:18, 16 October 2013 (UTC)

POV tag
Why did you add the POV tag to this article, and what should be done in order to make the article more "neutral"? Jarble (talk) 08:08, 4 November 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
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Potential copyright issues
Documenting what I believe to be a case of copyright infringement dating to January 2008, at least, although I am not exactly sure how to interpret this overall. This concerns content on page 59 of "School For Talented Students In Asian Countries, A Comparative Study" in the The Primary Teacher, January and April 2008 (what I assume is a periodical). I was unable to find much out about its authors or provenance otherwise.

The edition of the "Criticism of the programme" section in this edit from July 2007 includes text that very clear matches the first paragraph on page 59 of the source above. Give the timeline, it might appear that the source copied from Wikipedia. But further investigation reveals that this edit from the same editor in January 2008 entailed the addition of an entire paragraph (under the section "Integration with mainstream") that is almost identical to the second paragraph of page 59 of the "School For Talented Students" article, making it much less clear what was happening. My personal theory is that this relatively obscure periodical was published in text, or perhaps put online in another form, before the 2008 print was made available. Alternatively, the source article could have been published in April 2008, copying the two Wikipedia paragraphs and adding in the citations that were lacking from Wikipedia. Either way, I'm not sure what to make of it, so I am tagging this for potential copyright issues and asking for any insight anyone may have. WhinyTheYounger (talk) 00:07, 2 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Additional clarification: the first potentially plagiarized paragraph is not apparent in the current revision, and the last paragraph has been substantially altered, given the passage of over 12 years. WhinyTheYounger (talk) 00:16, 2 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Hi, WhinyTheYounger - thanks for your note! I was really surprised to get this message (which I was alerted to in my email), as I haven't been active on Wikipedia for a while and made these edits almost 13 years ago (when I was actually 11 years old). I don't remember ever seeing this article before it was linked in this copyright message, and definitely didn't refer to or plagiarise from it in 2008. I wouldn't have had access to it anyway, as it seems that this is an exclusively Indian publication that isn't distributed in my country (at least I've never seen it), and the page you linked suggests that it was only uploaded online in 2017. I suspect that the article plagiarised from this Wikipedia article and was published in April 2008 like you suggested. I'm not sure what the procedure is to handle this as I've been inactive for years, but I hope that clears it up. Thanks for your concern and for keeping an eye out! :) aoxiang 翱翔  (user)(talk) 00:51, 2 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Thank you so much for your quick response. In light of this explanation, I am comfortable assuming good faith and withdrawing my copyright complaint, particular since Aoxiang returned from over a year of inactivity to specifically address the issue, which could have been very easy to ignore. WhinyTheYounger (talk) 04:02, 2 June 2020 (UTC)

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


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Averest

Averest is a synchronous programming language and set of tools to specify, verify, and implement reactive systems. It includes a compiler for synchronous programs, a symbolic model checker, and a tool for hardware/software synthesis.

It can be used to model and verify finite and infinite state systems, at varied abstraction levels. It is useful for hardware design, modeling communication protocols, concurrent programs, software in embedded systems, and more.

Components: compiler to translate synchronous programs to transition systems, symbolic model checker, tool for hardware/software synthesis. These cover large parts of the design flow of reactive systems, from specifying to implementing. Though the tools are part of a common framework, they are mostly independent of each other, and can be used with 3rd-party tools.

title: Averest


text:
User:Gakmo/monobook.css

body { background: none; }

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title: User:Gakmo/monobook.css


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Nasir ibn Alnas

An-Nasir ibn Alnas, (Arabic: الناصر بن الناس) (Alnnasir bin Alnaas) (died 1088) was the fifth ruler of the Hammadids in Algeria, from 1062 until his death.

Life
An-Nasir succeeded Buluggin ibn Muhammad (1055–1062) after his murder in 1062. After the decline of the Zirids in Ifriqiya as a result of the invasion of the Banu Hilal (since 1051), An-Nasir was able to extend the influence of the Hammadids in the Maghreb. Vassals were installed in Tunis and territory as far as Kairouan came under control. Influence was also built up in the northern Sahara by driving out the Ibadi from Sadrata (1077). With the establishment of Bejaia as a second capital, maritime trade gained importance for the economy. Italian architects and craftsmen were enlisted in the construction of Bejaia. The extensive control of the trade routes led to economic growth and a flourishing of the kingdom.

The Hammadid state reached its peak under Ibn Alnas during which it briefly became the most important state in Northwest Africa. He established Hammadid rule in Sfax, Tunis, Kairouan, Susa, Tripoli and advanced far into the Sahara. He also built Bejaia and made it his capital.

However, the stability of the realm was precarious, since the Bedouin Banu Hilal began to infiltrate the Hammadid state after their conquest of Ifriqiya. At first, they were used as mercenaries against the Almoravids - even when the Almoravids conquered territory as far as Algiers in 1081, they could be turned back with Bedouin help. But the Banu Hilal could not be kept under Hammadid control, and ultimately caused the downfall of the kingdom.

An-Nasir was succeeded by his son Al-Mansur ibn an-Nasir.

title: Nasir ibn Alnas


text:
Bindle

A bindle is the bag, sack, or carrying device stereotypically used by the American sub-culture of hobos. The bindle is colloquially known as the blanket stick, particularly within the Northeastern hobo community.

A hobo who carried a bindle was known as a bindlestiff. According to James Blish in his novel A Life for the Stars, a bindlestiff was specifically a hobo who had stolen another hobo's bindle, from the colloquium stiff, as in steal.

In modern popular culture the bindle is portrayed as a stick with cloth or a blanket tied around one end for carrying items, with the entire array being carried over the shoulder. This transferred force to the shoulder, which allowed a longer-lasting and comfortable grip, especially with larger heavier loads. Particularly in cartoons, the bindles' sacks usually have a polka-dot or bandanna design. However, in actual use the bindle can take many forms.

One example of the stick-type bindle can be seen in the illustration entitled The Runaway created by Norman Rockwell for the cover of the September 20, 1958, edition of The Saturday Evening Post.

Though bindles are virtually gone, they are still widely seen in popular culture as a prevalent anachronism.

The term bindle may descend from the German word Bündel, meaning something wrapped up in a blanket and bound by cord for carrying (cf. originally Middle Dutch bundel), or have arisen as a portmanteau of bind and spindle. It may also be from the Scottish dialectal bindle cord or rope to bind things.

Bindle is also a term used in forensics. It is the name for a piece of paper folded into an envelope or packet to hold trace evidence: hairs, fibers or powders. Similarly, bindle is sometimes used to describe a small package of powdered drugs.

title: Bindle


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Toronto Paramedic Services

The City of Toronto Paramedic Services (TPS; formerly known as Toronto Emergency Medical Services) is the statutory emergency medical services provider in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The service is operated as a division of the City of Toronto, under the Community & Social Services cluster. The service is funded by the municipal tax base, and operates similarly to other municipal divisions, such as the Toronto Parks, Forestry & Recreation division, or the Toronto Water division, but retains operational independence from other divisions. While under municipal government control, it is subject to provincial legislation and licensing. It is not the only service provider in its area; private-for-profit medical transport services also provide routine, non-emergency transports and coverage for special events, but the statutory emergency medical system is the only provider permitted to service emergency calls.

History
The City of Toronto has operated an ambulance service directly on an uninterrupted basis since 1883, when the City of Toronto Health Department acquired two ambulances to transport those with infectious diseases to the local sanitarium. Full-time emergency ambulance service began in 1888, with the provision of emergency ambulance service by the Toronto Police Force, which eventually operated four horse-drawn vehicles. Prior to these two municipal initiatives, ambulance service was provided for the young city by a variety of means, including both hospital-based and private companies. This 'broad spectrum' approach to service delivery would continue for more than ninety years.

Toronto may very well be able to claim to have the first formally trained 'ambulance attendants' in North America, with the Toronto Police Force ambulance service staff receiving five days of formal training in their jobs from the St. John Ambulance Brigade in 1889. Training included first aid skills, anatomy and physiology. Such training for ambulance attendants was unheard of at that time, outside of military circles. The police constables assigned to the ambulance also did regular policing, when not required for ambulance calls. As the city grew and technology progressed, so did the ambulance service. The first motorized ambulance was actually purchased by a local funeral home in 1911, and the Toronto Police Ambulance Service began the conversion from horse-drawn to motorized vehicles in 1913, with the process largely completed by 1918. Over the years, the two City of Toronto departments would have their services supplemented by more than 130 individual ambulance operators, most of them private companies, and in suburban areas by several of the tiny, local fire departments. The two municipal services would finally be merged in 1933, when the Toronto Police Department turned the operation of their ambulances over to the Department of Public Health, and ended their involvement in the city's ambulance service.

This service would grow again in 1953, as the result of the creation of the municipality of Metropolitan Toronto, dramatically expanding the required service area. Service would continue in this fashion until 1967, when the amalgamated City's suburban fire departments surrendered their ambulances, resulting in the evolution of the Department of Public Health Ambulance Service into the City-operated Department of Emergency Services (DES). Some private companies, and one operated by the provincial government, would continue to operate in 'Metro' Toronto until 1975, although with centralized dispatch services provided by DES.

The Metropolitan Toronto Department of Ambulance Services was created in 1975 under the leadership of John Dean, and absorbed the five remaining private ambulance companies and single provincial service, providing a single, unified ambulance service in Metro Toronto. Known colloquially as Metro Toronto Ambulance or simply Metro Ambulance (although never its official name) the service provided ambulance services from 1975 to 1998.

Metropolitan Toronto was restructured during 1998, transforming it from a regional government overseeing six member municipalities into a single, unified city, and many municipal and regional services were restructured as a result. Metro Ambulance became Toronto Ambulance then Toronto Emergency Medical Services in 1998 under the leadership of Chief Ron Kelusky, in order to reflect its evolving role from primarily a provider of medical transportation to an actual provider of medical care. It was at that time that the service undertook a rebranding with the unique forward facing A on all of its vehicles.

The service introduced its first paramedics in 1984 (although experiments in pre-hospital advanced life support actually began in 1969). Toronto EMS introduced many other innovations, including the concept of dedicated ground-based critical care transport ambulances in 2000, as well as many specialty support units described in this article, many of which were originally conceived and pioneered by the service.

As of April 2005, the departments and commissioners were replaced by divisions under the city manager (and deputy managers). Toronto EMS now operates under the city's Emergency Medical Services Division. It is the largest municipal EMS operation in Canada and at the time was led by Chief Bruce Farr.

In July 2014, Chief Paul Raftis announced that as part of a rebranding effort, Toronto EMS will change its name to Toronto Paramedic Services. The change follows a national trend and drive for the adoption of Paramedic as the publicly recognized title for prehospital emergency care providers. On October 1, the new name came to effect.

Uniforms
Uniforms consist of:

 * Dark navy short or long sleeve police style shirt with departmental crest, reflective stripes around arms and Toronto Paramedic in reflective print on chest and back.
 * Chartreuse high visibility jacket with Toronto Paramedic in reflective print on back as well as job title (Paramedic, Supervisor etc...) front and back.
 * Dark navy cargo pants with reflective stripes around lower leg.
 * White shirts for Supervisory/Management staff.
 * Bicycle helmet and shorts for bike crews.
 * Hard hat with visor as required (construction sites, vehicle extrication etc...).
 * Black safety boots/shoes.
 * FR Military style tactical shirt/pants, gloves, Ballistic helmet/riot helmet and Ballistic vest for tactical units.
 * HAZMAT suits for CBRNE units.
 * Dress uniform consisting of dark navy pants and tunic, white shirt, navy tie and forage cap. Paramedic uniforms have royal blue cap band and striping on pants. Management staff have black maple laurels as well as gold piping on cap peak. Striping is orange-gold for the honour guard.

Fleet
Of the 242 vehicles in the Toronto Paramedic Services fleet, 150 are CMVSS / Ontario Standard Type III ambulances. Of these, approximately 100 are in service at any time on a typical, mid-week, day shift. These vehicles are currently supplied by Crestline Coach Ltd.. They are mounted on Chevrolet Express van chassis with boxes custom built by Crestline to suit the needs of the service. The department currently employs Chevrolet Tahoe SUVs for First Response and supervisory vehicles as well as an assortment of fully equipped but unmarked vehicles (Primarily Dodge Caravan and Ford Taurus) for senior management. Toronto Paramedic Services currently operates a fleet of custom built busses and equipment support vehicles for use during mass-casualty or large-scale events. Toronto Paramedic Services operates its own repair facilities, located at the service's Headquarters complex. All maintenance and repair work (with the exception of body work), and all equipment, radio, and medical electronics maintenance and repairs are performed on site by service staff.

Fleet numbering

 * 5XX - Paramedic Supervisor, Rapid Response, Special Operations
 * 4XX,8XX - Ambulance, West
 * 9XX - Ambulance, East
 * ESUXX - Emergency Support Unit

Current fleet
1 One example in service on Toronto Islands due to road width restrictions 2 Special Operations 3 Unmarked, issued to senior operations staff 4 Used for transporting large groups/special teams for events or deployment 5 Equipped with multiple, mission specific pods

Historic/retired vehicles
1 Vehicle actually owned by Lambton County heritage museum. Previously on display at Toronto EMS HQ. Similar to vehicles that would have been operated in Toronto during Late 19th/Early 20th century. http://www.horsedrawnambulance.com 2Multiple model years used by department until final retirement. 3 Examples may still be in service as utility vehicles

Staff
Toronto Paramedic Services has 1,207 members including paramedics and other support staff. These are categorized as follows:

 * Paramedics
 * Level I - Primary Care Paramedic (PCP) - 428 positions. Must complete 1,400 hours of training in a community college prior to employment. Successful completion of provincial certification exams is also required.
 * Level II - Primary Care Paramedic Enhanced - 151 positions. Requires an additional 572 hours of training in order to use an expanded skill set and scope of practice.
 * Level III - Advanced Care Paramedic (ACP) - 290 positions. In addition Level II training requires a further 360 hours of training and 480 hours of preceptorship.
 * CCTU - Critical Care Paramedic (CCP) - 23 positions. In addition to Level III training, CCTU requires an additional 1,142 hours of training and 480 hours of preceptorship. Typically work only on Critical Care Transport ambulances, pictured right.
 * Paramedic Superintendent - Paramedic Superintendent - Unknown Amount. The Superintendent is above the ranks of the following, they are considered a staff member within the department. They train, evaluate, and interview our paramedics. Trainers are known as F.T.O, Field training officers.
 * Paramedic commander - Paramedic commander - Unknown amount. This is the highest-ranking paramedic to most likely find on duty. They are classified as a very high-ranking unit they are equivalent to a chief superintendent within Toronto Police services. They are the highest ranking unit aside from the Deputy chief, and chief themselves.

The total number of paramedics is 887.

 * Other staff
 * Management staff - 72 positions.
 * Support staff - 134 positions.
 * Emergency Medical Dispatchers - 125 positions. (the Toronto Paramedic Services trains its own EMDs)
 * Other support roles/not specified - 6 positions.

Communications
Toronto Paramedic Services operates its own Communications and System Control Centre (called a Central Ambulance Communications Center or CACC "Kaack"), including emergency medical dispatch, patient distribution and system oversight. Toronto Paramedic Services participates in the community-wide 9-1-1 system, and triages emergency calls using the Advanced Medical Priority Dispatch System. The system uses Computer-Aided Dispatch, including Tritech VisiCAD, augmented by PDS and Optima Live software and technology. The service utilizes a satellite-based Automatic Vehicle Locating system in order to ensure that the closest appropriate response resource is consistently sent to each emergency call; all emergency response resources are included. The service utilizes a 700 mHz P25 Phase II trunking radio system for dispatch purposes. The Control Centre has direct landline contact with the 9-1-1 Center, all other emergency services, all acute care hospitals, and all Paramedic Stations. The service utilizes “Language Line” service to provide instant simultaneous translation of emergency calls in more than 140 languages. Toronto Paramedic Services operates the largest EMS Communications Centre in Canada, which was recently accredited as an International Centre of Excellence by the International Academy of Emergency Dispatch.

Operations
Service is provided to a residential population of approximately 3.2 million people, which rises to approximately 5 million on most business days.

Toronto Paramedic Services operates a total of 41 stations, geographically distributed across the 246 sqmi of the City of Toronto. Emergency service headquarters (which is shared with Toronto Fire Services, but both services operate independently) is located at 4330 Dufferin Street in Toronto. This facility includes administrative offices, some education facilities, the Communications Centre, Fleet Maintenance, Planning and Operational Support, and Materials Management/Logistics.The service is supplemented by well-developed Paramedic Services in neighbouring communities on three sides, with Lake Ontario providing the southern boundary of the service area. Air ambulance operations are provided within the City of Toronto by Ornge, a privately owned air ambulance contractor, under contract to the Government of Ontario.

Based upon information provided by Toronto Paramedic Services, the service processed in excess of 535,000 calls through its Control Centre in 2007 (the most recent year for which complete data is available), resulting in 223,769 emergency calls being dispatched. Using the AMPDS system, which triages calls by severity for dispatch purposes, the actual dispatch volume by category for that same year was:

 * Echo: 4,311
 * Delta: 76,595
 * Charlie: 31,126
 * Bravo: 64,572
 * Alpha: 36,674
 * Non-Emerg: 25,775

District 1 - Northwest
The District 1 Hub is located at 01 Station (1300 Wilson Ave). The Northwest quadrant is bounded roughly by Steeles Avenue to the north, Eglinton Avenue to the south, Yonge Street to the east, and Highway 427 & Mississauga border to the west.

District 2 - Northeast
The District 2 Hub is located at 20 Station (2430 Lawrence Ave E). The Northeast quadrant is bounded roughly by Steeles Avenue to the north, Eglinton Avenue to the south, the Scarborough-Pickering Townline and Rouge River to the east, and Yonge Street to the west.

District 3 - Southwest
The District 3 Hub is located at 30 Station (100 Turnberry Ave). The Southwest quadrant is bounded roughly by Eglinton Avenue to the north, Lake Ontario to the south, Yonge Street to the east, and Etobicoke Creek to the west.

District 4 - Southeast
The District 4 Hub is located at 42 Station (1535 Kingston Rd). The Southeast quadrant is bounded roughly by Eglinton Avenue to the north, Lake Ontario to the south and east, and Yonge Street to the west.

District 5 - Special Operations
The District 5 Hub is located at 55 Station (5700 Bathurst St). District 5 has stations in multiple quadrants and is responsible for Toronto Paramedic Services’ special operations teams, which include: Response Units, Marine Unit, Critical Care Transport Unit (CCTU), CBRNE, ETF, Bike Unit, and Emergency Support Units.

Special operations
In addition to regular operations, Toronto Paramedic Services staffs a Special Operations Division, tasked with the provision of Paramedic services in unusual circumstances. The elements of this unit include:

 * Tactical Unit - Cross-trained paramedics providing medical support to the Toronto Police Emergency Task Force.
 * Marine Unit - Cross-trained paramedics staffing the patrol vessels of the Toronto Police Marine Unit in order to provide support for Toronto Police personnel, EMS services on the waters of Lake Ontario, and EMS service to the Toronto Islands.
 * HUSAR - Specially-trained paramedics operate together with elements of the Toronto Fire Services, Toronto Police Service and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre Emergency Physicians to provide a joint-service Heavy Urban Search and Rescue team.
 * CBRNE (Chemical, Biological, Radioactive, Nuclear & Explosive) - Specially-trained paramedics operate together with elements of the Toronto Police Service and Toronto Fire Services to provide a joint-service Terrorism/Hazardous Materials Response team.
 * Public Safety Unit - Cross-trained paramedics providing medical support to the Toronto Police Public Order Unit
 * Emergency Response Unit - Single paramedics in SUVs, tasked solely with response to high priority emergency calls.
 * Bicycle Unit - Paramedics equipped with mountain bikes, capable of providing either BLS or ALS services in off-road areas, or at special events. Team also works in concert with the Toronto Police bike team to provide first response capabilities in the Entertainment District on weekend nights.
 * Emergency Support Unit - Paramedics trained to operate the service's busses and equipment trucks. These respond to all potential Mass Casualty Incidents (fires, multi-patient car accidents etc...), support for large crowd situations such as festivals and parades as well as responding to all calls involving aircraft at Toronto Pearson International Airport

Challenges
Hospital in-patient beds and Emergency Departments tend to be severely overcrowded, resulting in difficulties for paramedics transferring the care of their patients to hospital staff in a timely manner. Two- to four-hour delays in the transfer of care are commonplace, and six- to eight-hour delays are not unheard of. When this occurs, the service's ability to provide service to emergency calls in a timely manner will often degrade, because of decreased unit availability. Multiple stakeholders and various levels of government are currently seeking solutions to this problem, but have, so far, experienced only limited success.

The funding for Toronto Paramedic Services occurs as a result of a mixed formula, with fifty percent of funding coming from the municipal tax base and fifty percent from the provincial government. The funding of Toronto Paramedic Services is based upon its census population, not its business day population. As a result, there are always more people requiring EMS services than the system has been funded for.

Language barriers and cultural misperceptions in Toronto's multicultural landscape are commonplace for Toronto's paramedics. The service subscribes to Language Line, a simultaneous telephone-based translation service which operates in more than 140 languages. This service is used by Emergency Medical Dispatchers processing 9-1-1 calls, or by paramedics treating patients in the field, on a daily basis. The service also operates its own ethnocultural access program.

The 'Baby Boom' generation is aging. As it does so, all of those 'boomers' become net consumers of health care, driving up demand for services. Simultaneously, all of those 'boomers' employed by the service in the early 1970s are reaching the end of their careers and retiring. Since subsequent generations are typically much smaller, the service is experiencing difficulty in recruiting suitably trained replacement staff, just as demand for services is increasing.

Research
Over the years, the presence of such a large system and call volume, along with a commitment to consistently capture high quality data, has permitted Toronto EMS to become a 'test-bed' for research projects involving both EMS and emergency medicine. This has resulted in a service which is extremely research-oriented and interested in outcome-based medicine. While this has provided any number of research opportunities for physicians and emergency medicine residents through the Sunnybrook Centre for Prehospital Medicine (the Base Hospital), it has also permitted paramedics to function as supporting and as lead researchers, and in some cases, as the principal researcher of their own projects. All research conducted at Toronto EMS is pre-approved by the University of Toronto Research Ethics Committee, and the findings of research conducted at Toronto EMS, by both physicians and paramedics, has been published in respected, peer-reviewed, international journals.

Community involvement
Toronto paramedics are heavily involved in various community programs and partnerships. Toronto's paramedics are active participants in the community which they serve. At the 'grass roots' level, Toronto's paramedics and EMDs fund a children's breakfast club, ensuring a nutritious breakfast for the children who live in several of the city's housing projects. Paramedics also participate in a variety of other events in the community, including their enthusiastic (and occasionally successful) participation in the dragon boat races staged annually by the city's Chinese community. As another little known fact of community involvement by paramedics, all of the floats in the city's annual Santa Claus Parade (one of North America's largest), are driven by volunteers from Toronto Paramedic Services, including both paramedics and a variety of other staff.

title: Toronto Paramedic Services


text:
Chester Cathedral Choir

Chester Cathedral Choir is the resident choir of Chester Cathedral, Cheshire, England. In common with most British cathedral choirs, the choir sings evensong daily during term time.

Composition
The Lay Clerks (alto, tenor and bass) sing both with the boys and the girls. In common with many other British cathedral choirs, the choir sings every day during the week and weekends (except for Wednesdays) together with a busy schedule of broadcasts, tours, recordings and concerts. There is also a mixed-voice adult choir - the Nave Choir (the longest-running cathedral voluntary choir in the country) - which is directed by the Assistant Director of Music, and sings a service of Compline regularly on Sunday evenings during term time.

Since 1997 the cathedral choir has recruited girl as well as boy trebles, both front rows singing regularly with the lay clerks. Occasionally, the girls and boys combine for special events.

The choir is directed and accompanied by Philip Rushforth (Director of Music), Benjamin Chewter (Assistant Director of Music) and Geoffrey Woollatt (Assistant Organist).

Recording and broadcast
Notable recordings of the choir include: The Water of Life (2002); Love Eternal (2003); the Sing for Joy collection; and the Festival Evensong (2007). The choir also broadcasts regularly on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4, and also recorded a concert for a broadcast on BBC Radio 2 during Christmas 2007. Their most recent recording is 'Glory to the New-Born King' (2012), which was released on the Priory label and attracted wide critical acclaim, notably in Gramophone magazine. In July 2012 the choir sang a live broadcast of Evensong on BBC Radio 3 as part of the Chester Festival; this included the first broadcast performance of The Chester Service by Francis Pott.

Touring
Chester Cathedral Choir toured the United States for the first time in October 2007 and toured France in the summer of 2012 (performing in the cathedrals of Troyes and Albi, and the basilica of St-Sernin, Toulouse).

title: Chester Cathedral Choir


text:
The Life and Times of David Lloyd George

The Life and Times of David Lloyd George is a BBC Wales drama serial first broadcast in 1981 on BBC Two. It stars Philip Madoc as David Lloyd George, the final Liberal prime minister of the UK. The cast also includes Lisabeth Miles, Kika Markham and David Markham. It was written by Elaine Morgan and produced and directed by John Hefin.

The serial is in nine hour-long parts, covering most of the major events of Lloyd George's life, from his birth in Manchester in January 1863 until his death in 1945 in Llanystumdwy. It covers his personal life, specifically the running of two families. The duration of Lloyd George's political career, of over 54 years, combined with the length of the series, means that certain periods of history have been skirted over. This is particularly the case with the various Liberal Party splits from 1918 onwards. The historical consultant for the series was the historian A. J. P. Taylor.

The serial featured music by Ennio Morricone, including the theme music ("Chi Mai"), which was a surprise hit on the UK Singles Chart, reaching number 2. The opening titles showed an elderly Lloyd George walking through the Welsh countryside near Criccieth remembering his Uncle Lloyd baptising the young David George (later Lloyd George) in a mountain stream.

Cast

 * Philip Madoc - David Lloyd George
 * Dylan Jones - David Lloyd George (as a boy)
 * Euros Jones - William George (as a boy)
 * Lisabeth Miles - Margaret Lloyd George
 * William Thomas - William George
 * Kika Markham - Frances Stevenson
 * William Hootkins - Winston Churchill
 * Meredith Edwards - Richard Lloyd
 * David Markham - Herbert Henry Asquith
 * Sue Jones-Davies - Megan Lloyd George
 * Gillian Elisa - Anita George
 * Ietsyn Garlick - Richard Lloyd George
 * Elen Roger Jones - Sara
 * Lisa Grug - Megan Lloyd George (older age)
 * Denys Hawthorne - John Dillon
 * Hugh Morton - Reginald McKenna
 * Jonathan Elsom - Maurice Hankey
 * Ioan Meredith - J.T. Davies
 * Berly Williams - Betsy George
 * Rachel Thomas - Mrs. Richard Owen
 * Jack Wynne-Williams - Richard Lloyd George
 * John Gill - Lord Curzon
 * Anthony Sharp - Lord Grey
 * Ed Devereaux - Max Aitken (later Lord Beaverbrook)
 * Fulton Mackay - Andrew Bonar Law
 * Michael Anthony - Georges Clemenceau
 * Michael Cochrane - Charles Masterman
 * Dermot Tuohy - John Redmond
 * John Boxer - Murray of Elibank
 * John H. Francis - Gwilym Lloyd George
 * David Troughton - A. J. Sylvester
 * Ruth Madoc - Lizzie Davies
 * Glyn Williams - Returning officer
 * Donna Edwards - Mair Lloyd George
 * Kevin Flood - Edward Carson
 * Ray Smith - Aneurin Bevan
 * Paul Curran - Stanley Baldwin
 * Lockwood West - Edward VII
 * Roland Culver - William Ewart Gladstone
 * Wendy Williams - Emmeline Pankhurst
 * David Lyn - Sam Evans
 * Richard Beale - Lord Kitchener
 * Terence Brook - George V
 * Shane Connaughton - Éamon de Valera
 * Morris Perry - Lord Birkenhead
 * Gabriel Connaughton - Michael Collins
 * Desmond Llewelyn - Lord Lansdowne
 * Angus MacKay - Sir Francis Hopwood
 * Jack May - Lord Runciman
 * David Garfield - Tom Bell
 * Edward Judd - LNER Director
 * Ray Handy - Reverend Ellis
 * Gilbert Wynne - Tim Davies
 * William Squire - Dr. Clifford
 * Roger Nott - Aide

Episodes
The series was first broadcast on BBC Two in 1981 and was repeated on BBC One in 1983. Episodes 1 to 8 are approximately 60 minutes long, and episode 9 is approximately 70 minutes long.


text:
Committee 2008

"Committee 2008: A Free Choice" (Комитет 2008: Свободный выбор; Komitet 2008: Svobodnyy vybor) was an umbrella organization of the Russian democratic opposition, launched on 29 January 2004 and broke up in the spring of 2005.

History
It was formed in response to the failure of Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces to gain any seats in the 2003 elections to the State Duma, and to the growing authoritarianism of President Vladimir Putin who was re-elected in March 2004 with over 70% of the votes cast.

The Committee's goal was to ensure free and fair presidential elections in 2008. Putin was due to step down as President, after serving two terms, and the Committee intended to work against the election of the Kremlin's chosen successor, whoever that might be. The chairman of the 2008 Committee was Garry Kasparov; the original signatories of the 2004 declaration were Mikhail Berger, Vladimir Bukovsky, Alexander Golts, Igor Irtenyev, Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr., Yevgeny Kiselyov, Yulia Latynina, Dmitry Muratov, Boris Nemtsov, Sergey Parkhomenko, Alexander Ryklin, Victor Shenderovich and Irina Yasina. Others who joined later were politicians Vladimir Ryzhkov and Irina Khakamada.

The Committee was short-lived, holding its last meeting in summer 2005. A number of its members subsequently helped to set up the United Civil Front and the much broader Other Russia coalition (2006-2010) which were actively engaged in protest activities in 2007 and 2008.

title: Committee 2008


text:
Fire striker

A fire striker is a piece of carbon steel from which sparks are struck by the sharp edge of flint, chert or similar rock. It is a specific tool used in fire making.

History
Before the invention of matches, percussion fire making was often used to start fires. Before the advent of steel, a variety of iron pyrite or marcasite was used with flint and other stones to produce a high-temperature spark that could be used to create fire. There are indications that the Iceman, also known as Ötzi, may have used iron pyrite to make fire.

From the Iron Age forward, until the invention of the friction match in the early 1800s by John Walker, the use of flint and steel was a common method of fire lighting. Percussion fire-starting was prevalent in Europe during ancient times, the Middle Ages and the Viking Age.

When flint and steel were used, the fire steel was often kept in a metal tinderbox together with flint and tinder. In Tibet and Mongolia, they were instead carried in a leather pouch called a chuckmuck.

In Japan, percussion fire making was performed using agate or even quartz. It was also used as a ritual to bring good luck or ward off evil.

Uses
The type and hardness of steel used is important. High carbon steels (1060, W1, tool steels, etc.) generate sparks easily. Iron and alloys (like stainless steel, 5160, etc.) are more difficult and generate fewer sparks. The steel must be hardened but softer than the flint-like material striking off the spark. Old files, leaf and coil springs, and rusty gardening tools are often repurposed as strikers.

Besides flint, other hard, non-porous rocks that can take a sharp edge can be used, such as chert, quartz, agate, jasper or chalcedony.

The sharp edge of the flint is used to violently strike the fire steel at an acute angle in order to cleave or shave off small particles of metal. The pyrophoricity of the steel results in the shavings oxidising in the air. The molten, oxidising sparks then ignite tinder. The tinder is best held next to the flint while the steel striker is quickly slid down against the flint, casting sparks into the tinder. Char cloth or amadou ("tinder fungus") is often used to catch the low-temperature sparks, which can then can be brought to other, heavier tinder and blown into flame.

title: Fire striker


text:
Michael Keating (actor)

Michael Keating (born 10 February 1947) is an English actor. He is best known for his role as Vila Restal in the science fiction television series Blake's 7.

Career
Keating was born in Edmonton, London, and his acting career began in 1966. One of his earlier notable roles was as Goudry in a 1977 Doctor Who story, entitled The Sun Makers. Just over a month later, Keating first appeared in the role of Vila Restal in the BBC TV series Blake's 7, which aired from 1978 to 1981. Vila Restal was the only character to appear in all fifty-two episodes of the series. In 1981, Keating appeared in an episode of the BBC sitcom Yes Minister titled The Death List, playing the role of Police Constable Ross.

Some years later Michael Keating reunited with his Blake's 7 co-star Gareth Thomas, in an episode of the BBC drama series Casualty. In 2004, Keating returned to the Doctor Who franchise, guest starring as Major Koth in the Big Finish Productions audio adventure The Twilight Kingdom. In 2006, he starred in another Doctor Who audio adventure, this time as Inspector Chardalot in Year of the Pig. In 2009, he had a brief role in the BBC one-off drama Micro Men about the rise of the British home computer market in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Recent career
From 2005 to 2017, Keating played Reverend Stevens in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. He appeared as a recurring character, usually for a single episode or a few episodes at a time, in connection with another character's christening, marriage, or funeral, or relating to regular churchgoer Dot Branning (June Brown).

title: Michael Keating (actor)


text:
Administrative centre

An administrative centre is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune, is located.

In countries with French as administrative language (such as Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and many African countries), a chef-lieu (, plural form chefs-lieux, literally 'chief place' or 'main place'), is a town or city that is important from an administrative perspective.

Algeria
The capital of an Algerian province is called a chef-lieu. The capital of a district, the next largest division, is also called a chef-lieu, whilst the capital of the lowest division, the municipalities, is called agglomération de chef-lieu (chef-lieu agglomeration) and is abbreviated as A.C.L.

Belgium
The chef-lieu in Belgium is the administrative centre of each of the ten provinces of Belgium. Three of these cities also give their name to their province (Antwerp, Liège and Namur).

France
The chef-lieu of a département is known as the préfecture. This is the town or city where the prefect of the department (and all services under their control) are situated, in a building known as the prefecture. In every French region, one of the departments has pre-eminence over the others, and the prefect carries the title of Prefect of region X..., Prefect of Department Z... and the city where the regional prefect is found is known as chef-lieu of the  region or,  more commonly, Regional prefecture. The services are, however, controlled by the prefecture of the department.

The chef-lieu of an arrondissement, commonly known as the sous-préfecture is the city or town where the sub-prefect of the arrondissement (and the services directly under their control) are situated, in a building called the sub-prefecture. The arrondissement where the département prefecture is located does not normally have a sub-prefect or sub-prefecture, the administration being devolved usually to the Secretary-general of the departmental prefecture, who functions as sub-prefect for the arrondissement.

The chef-lieu of a canton is usually the biggest city or town within the canton, but has only a nominal role. No specific services are controlled by it. In past decades, there was always a Gendarmerie, a treasurer and a justice of the peace.

New Caledonia
The chef-lieu indicates the principal city of the provinces of New Caledonia. So Nouméa is the chef-lieu of South Province. But the chef-lieu can also mean the principal area within a town. So Wé is part of the town of Lifou, but is the chef-lieu of Lifou. In the Loyalty Islands and the other islands, the name of the chef-lieu differs from that of the name of the town. For the towns of the mainland, the chef-lieu has the same name as the town. Nouméa is a town composed only of Nouméa.

Francophone West Africa
Many of the West African states which gained independence from France in the mid-20th century also inherited the French administrative structure of Departments and Communes, headed by a Chief-Lieu. States still using Chief-Lieu to identify the administrative headquarters of a government subdivision include Senegal, Burkina Faso, Benin, Mali, and Niger.

Taking Niger and Mali as examples, the administrative subdivisions down to the Commune level each have a formal place of administrative headquarters, titled the chef-lieu. The larger portion of the terminology of administrative division is inherited from colonial rule as part of French West Africa, and has survived and been somewhat modified over time. In both nations there have been remarkably parallel histories. With the decentralization process begun in both nations in the 1990s, the chef-lieu has transitioned from the location of the Governor, Commandant, or Prefect and their staff, to the location of Commune, Cercles of Mali/Departments of Niger, and Regional Councils and a variety of decentralized bodies. The chefs-lieux of a Region, Cercle or Département, is usually also a Communal chef-lieu. Both nations collect these councils in a "High Council of Collectivites" seated at the nation's capital. Smaller sub-divisions in Mali's Communes (Villages, Tribal councils, Quarters) are administered from or identified as a Place/Site (Site in French), so the chef-lieu is literally the Chief-Place even at the lowest level.

Jordan
In the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the administrative centres are known as "chief towns" or nahias. Nahias may be in charge of a sub-district (qda), a district (liwa), or a governorate (muhafazah).

Luxembourg
Luxembourg is divided into two judicial arrondissements (Luxembourg City, Diekirch), four electoral circonscriptions (constituencies), twelve cantons, as well as 100 communes (municipalities; Luxembourgish: Gemengen).

Arrondissements, districts and cantons have each a chef-lieu and are named after it. The same is true for each commune which is composed of more than one town or village. Usually (with a few exceptions), the commune is named after the communal chef-lieu.

Russia
In Russia, several million-plus cities in federal districts have the official status of an administrative centre: Moscow (as the main city of the Central Federal District), Vladivostok, Volgograd, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Pyatigorsk, Rostov-on-Don and St. Petersburg. The main cities of regions and municipal districts are also called unofficially the administrative centre or simply the centre. The only exception to this rule is the republics, for which the term "capital" is used to refer to the seat of government. The capital of Russia is also an entity to which the term "administrative centre" does not apply.

Sweden
In Sweden there are two levels of administrative centre; the local municipal and the regional county.

Central locality
Central locality (Swedish: "centralort") is a term commonly ascribed to the settlement that serves as a municipal administrative centre. This level handles the local administrative and political tasks of the surrounding settlements. Since central place theory was the guiding principle during the municipal reform 1962–1977, most municipalities were dominated by a larger urban area where the political seat was located. Most municipalities are named for their central locality, but there are several exceptions.

There are many deviations from the central locality principle. Some municipalities are dominated by two or more towns of similar size, and sometimes they share the municipal administration, with the municipality having its official address in one of the towns. For example, both Skillingaryd and Vaggeryd are central localities of Vaggeryd Municipality. Conversely, there are municipalities within metropolitan areas. For example, there are twenty-six municipalities within the Stockholm metropolitan area.

The term central locality has no legal standing and it is unclear how it should be applied to these municipalities. Some municipalities appointing one or several localities to be the central locality.

Residence city
A residence city (Swedish: "residensstad") is the town or city which is the political and administrative seat of the county. This level handles the more regional political and administrative tasks of the county, such as healthcare and public transport. The name comes from that this is the town or city where the governor (Swedish: "landshövding") have their residence. There are some exceptions to this, however. In the newer amalgamated "greater counties", often referred to as "regions", the administrative centre is placed in one of the older residence cities. Examples of this is Malmö in Region Scania and Gothenburg in the Västra Götaland Region.

Switzerland
The term chef-lieu is applied to the capital of each Swiss canton. In 16 of the 26 cantons, the territory is subdivided into districts. Every district also has a location nominated as chef-lieu and each has a prefect.

Tunisia
The term chef-lieu is used to designate the capital of each gouvernorat (department). Each of the 24 gouvernorats is subdivided into delegations (districts) which each have a central city as chef-lieu of delegation.

United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom it is the centre of a local authority, which is distinct from a historic county with a county town.

Popular culture

 * The Fiancée of the pirate (1969) is a film by Nelly Kaplan, where the action takes place in a hamlet where everyone spends their time worrying about what everyone thinks about the chef-lieu of the town.

title: Administrative centre


text:
List of unit testing frameworks

This is a list of notable test automation frameworks commonly used for unit testing. Such frameworks are not limited to unit-level testing; can be used for integration and system level testing.

Frameworks are grouped below. For unit testing, a framework must be the same language as the source code under test, and therefore, grouping frameworks by language is valuable. But some groupings transcend language. For example, .NET groups frameworks that work for any language supported for .NET, and HTTP groups frameworks that test an HTTP server regardless of the implementation language on the server.

Columns
The columns in the tables below are described here.

 * Name: Name of the framework
 * xUnit: Whether classified as xUnit
 * TAP: Whether can emit Test Anything Protocol (TAP) output
 * Generators: Whether supports data generators generating test input data and running a test with the generated data
 * Fixtures: Whether supports test local fixtures associating a test environment with a single test
 * Group fixtures: Whether supports group fixtures associating a test environment with a group of tests

Some columns do not apply to some groupings and are therefore omitted from that groupings table.

Ant
For Apache Ant tasks.

AppleScript
For AppleScript.

Visual Basic (VB6.0)
For unit testing frameworks for VB.NET, see .NET languages.

C#
See .NET languages below.

Fortran
MPI column: Whether supports message passing via MPI - commonly used for high-performance scientific computing

Groovy
All entries under Java may also be used in Groovy.

title: List of unit testing frameworks


text:
Leslie Schofield

Leslie Schofield (born 12 December 1938) is an English actor who is most famous in the UK for his role as Jeff Healy in the soap opera EastEnders, whom he played from 1997 to 2000. His character was famous for unsuccessfully proposing to Pauline Fowler (played by Wendy Richard). He also appeared in EastEnders briefly in 1988 and 1989 playing a different character - Brian Wicks, ex-husband of established character Pat (Pam St Clement).

Schofield appeared as Chief Bast, an Imperial Officer aboard the doomed Death Star in George Lucas's first released Star Wars film, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in 1977. He also appeared in Star Wars Holiday Special, as the producers used deleted scenes and stock footage from A New Hope. His other film appearances included The Body Stealers (1969), Twinky (1969), Villain (1971), The Ruling Class (1972), The Glitterball (1977), The Wild Geese (1978), Force 10 from Navarone (1978), Silver Dream Racer (1980) and Dead Man's Folly (1986).

TV appearances in science fiction programmes include two Doctor Who stories, The War Games (1969), and The Face of Evil (1977) and as prison ship officer Raiker in the Blake's 7 episode "Spacefall" (1978). He appeared in an episode of Midsomer Murders entitled "Vixen’s Run" and an episode of Minder, You Lose Some, You Win Some. Schofield also played Reggie Perrin's son-in-law, Tom in the third series of The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, Len in The Smoking Room, the father in the BBC children's drama Jonny Briggs and CBBC comedy show ChuckleVision.

Some of Leslie Schofield's earlier acting experiences took place when he served in the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy. After performances at HMS Ariel (Later HMS Daedalus) he was moved to HMS Seahawk near Helston in Cornwall, where he participated in amateur productions. It was his performance as John Proctor in the Navy Drama Festival of 1963 which brought him to the attention of Walter Lucas, the adjudicator and then director of the British Drama League, who helped him to leave the Navy and start in repertory theatre.

title: Leslie Schofield


text:
Global Justice Now

Global Justice Now, formerly known as the World Development Movement (WDM), is a membership organisation based in the United Kingdom which campaigns on issues of global justice and development in the Global South.

The organisation produces research on topics on the developing world and free trade. Examples include their work against trade deals such as TTIP, or highlighting how UK aid has been used.

Much of their research is aimed at attempting to demonstrate how corporation power, supported by governments, has an adverse effect on those living in poverty.

Purpose and goals
Its aims are:
 * To work with, and amplify the voices of, groups that are fighting the takeover of their resources, such as food, water and energy
 * To mobilise people in the UK to create change
 * To use political systems to control the power of big business

Organisational structure
Global Justice Now has a network of local groups as well as individual members, and an office in Edinburgh from which Global Justice Scotland is run. It participates in international networks such as the Our World is Not for Sale network on trade and corporate globalisation, and the World Social Forum.

Global Justice Now has an associated charity, Global Justice Now Trust, which funds Global Justice Now’s charitable activities.

History
Global Justice Now started in 1969 as 'Action for World Development' (AWD). Many people were involved in collecting one million signatures on a petition about world development and had seen the need for political campaigning which charity law restricted development charities from undertaking. AWD was formally launched by aid agencies such as Oxfam and Christian Aid, and by churches.

The World Development Movement was formed in 1970, and extended the work of AWD but as a separate body with its own member groups to decide its policies and priorities. Its constitution was subsequently changed to allow individuals as well as local groups to become members.

Global Justice Now was a co-founder of the Fairtrade Foundation in 1992, Jubilee 2000 in 1997, the Trade Justice Movement in 2000, and the 2005 anti-poverty mobilisation Make Poverty History.

In late 2006, Global Justice Now moved its London offices from Brixton to new premises at 66 Offley Road in Kennington, London.

On 1 January 2015 the organisation was renamed to Global Justice Now as part of a wider relaunch.

Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)
Global Justice Now successfully campaigned against TTIP, the proposed free trade agreement between the European Union and the United States. It argued that safety regulations, workers’ rights, environmental protection rules and food standards regulations were all threatened by TTIP. TTIP negotiations petered out in October 2016 and the whole project was shelved. This allowed Global Justice Now to claim a significant campaign victory.

Climate change
Global Justice Now considers climate change to be a climate justice issue. In 2009 they successfully campaigned to stop new coal-fired power stations in Kingsnorth, Kent and Hunterston in Ayrshire because the organisation considered any plans for new coal-fired power stations to be incompatible with plans to tackle climate change.

From 2010 Global Justice Now ran a campaign on climate debt opposing the UK government's plans to give money in the form of climate loans to already heavily indebted poor countries in the global South.

Controversy
Global Justice Now entered into a controversial partnership agreement with Ecotricity from which they benefit financially whereby supporters who switch their energy supply to Ecotricity, leads to a payment of up to £60 to Global Justice Now. The owner of Ecotricity, Dale Vince is reported to employ aggressive tax avoidance strategies to minimise his tax obligations. This directly conflicts with Global Justice Now's Tax Justice campaigns to hold corporations to account so they pay their fair share of tax in the countries they operate in. Furthermore, Ecotricity employ G4S Utility Services for their meter reading services, a subsidiary of controversial multinational G4S that is widely reported to be involved in widespread human rights abuses. As a social justice organisation Global Justice Now were criticised for indirectly aiding and abetting human rights abuses as a result of their continued relationship with Ecotricity. In response to complaints about Ecotricity's use of G4S, Dale Vince gave assurances that he would end the contract with G4S Utility Services in 2014 and then reneged on his promise when Ecotricity announced it had renewed its contract with G4S Utility Services for another four-year period from January 2016 to December 2020.

Global Justice Now ended its partnership with Ecotricity in early 2016, following a review over concerns about their association with G4S. The organisation gave assurances that their partnership was set up at a time when Ecotricity were the most ethical option to promote to their supporters who were concerned about the environmental and climate impacts of their energy use. They also added that the termination of the partnership was not triggered by any complaints received nor was there any open or public criticism, as implied by this posting.

title: Global Justice Now


text:
Talk:James Lovelock

Sustainable retreat
I propose the article Sustainable retreat be merged here. It's not particularly notable, and there's room for it here. — Arthur Rubin (talk) 08:37, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

 * I concur, it will fit nicely into the Geoengineering proposal section. -- Cdw ♥'s  ♪  ♫  ( talk ) 21:57, 24 June 2012 (UTC)

 * I also concur. There should be a redirect left under Sustainable retreat, but otherwise a full merger with James Lovelock seems like an obvious choice. 24.220.149.32 (talk) 04:25, 26 June 2012 (UTC)

 * Apparently I forgot to log in before making my remarks above^. KevinOKeeffe (talk) 04:28, 26 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Looks good to me. Jonathan A Jones (talk) 09:22, 26 June 2012 (UTC)

 * Full merge to this page leaving redirect is good. Macdonald-ross (talk) 11:12, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

Edit rationale
Lovelock has made a number of controversial statements regarding previous positions he has held. Inclusion of new statements into this article has created confusion over his position on global warming. They have also contributed to fragmenting of the article.
 * As of 13:37, 24 April 2012, user Grahamboat added comments made on MSNBC, citing the article: 'Gaia' scientist James Lovelock: I was 'alarmist' about climate change.
 * As of 19:58, 24 April 2012, IP user 96.248.81.68 added a new section titled "Reversal on Global Warming Theory". In the new section James Delingpole of "The Telegraph" quoted from the same MSNBC article.
 * As of 21:30, 24 April 2012, IP user 74.90.12.122 deleted all information in the above section claiming to: "remove false information & insert reliable source" citing the article: 'Gaia' Scientist Takes Back Climate Change Predictions.
 * As of 00:55, 25 April 2012, user Jonathan A Jones consolidated all the previous statements into a section renamed "Global warming alarmism".
 * As of 10:10, 25 April 2012 user Grahamboat removed the word "alarmism" from the section name.
 * As of 21:26, 25 April 2012, IP user 59.127.20.197 copy edited the Global warming section, without attribution, calling Lovelocks comments a "marketing gimmick" intended as "book hype" thereby creating WP:NPOV and/or WP:OR issues.

A series of mistakes resulted in the creation of a new section when Lovelock's statements belong in the "Climate and mass human mortality" section as they modify his views on climate change. Only the edit by IP user 59.127.20.197 on 25 April was truly inappropriate, the edit by IP user 96.248.81.68 on 24 April was WP:RS had it been attributed to the MSNBC article. Therefore, I will attempt to restore all WP:verifiable content. I will also add content from the article in the Guardian by Leo Hickman titled "James Lovelock: The UK should be going mad for fracking". His recent statements portray Lovelock as continuing his concern over global warming while at the same time criticizing extremism and suggesting alternatives to oil, coal and green solutions which he does not support. -- Cdw ♥'s  ♪  ♫  ( talk ) 04:38, 25 June 2012 (UTC)

 * I could see it was getting fragmented but couldn't really see how to fix it without a substantial set of moves - so thanks for taking this on. Jonathan A Jones (talk) 09:20, 26 June 2012 (UTC)

Specificity of his electron capture detector?
How does he target a specific molecule to detect? How does he set up the device to specifically detect 1-beta-2-diethyl-crappa-fentanyl-methoxy-premidol for example? How does his device specifically look for just that 1 molecule only rather than getting a false positive? Tomato expert1 (talk) 14:56, 21 December 2012 (UTC)

Dead link in footnote "[34]"
In this [18:57, 26 January 2013] edit: (("diff" page)), a footnote -- (it was footnote number "[34]", last time I checked) -- was added, whose link target now seems to be a dead link.

("").

The wikitext added at the time of that edit -- (as you can see from the "diff" page) -- is just this: "". The "backups" of the link target that could be found on http://web.archive.org/ (i.e., using https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.bishop-hill.net/storage/James%20Lovelock%20Letter.pdf) were only these two:

 * https://web.archive.org/web/20130616160655/http://www.bishop-hill.net/storage/James%20Lovelock%20Letter.pdf
 * https://web.archive.org/web/20130909055725/http://www.bishop-hill.net/storage/James%20Lovelock%20Letter.pdf

...and they were equally as disappointing as [the original link target] http://www.bishop-hill.net/storage/James%20Lovelock%20Letter.pdf itself.

I do not want to take the time to "contact a site operator". Maybe they could help to find some backup of what used to be there (at that URL) (http://www.bishop-hill.net/storage/James%20Lovelock%20Letter.pdf ); ...if someone asks politely. Maybe the author of the erstwhile "letter" on that web site (he is the subject of this BLP article -- [right?]) would be willing (and able) to assist the website maintainers, in finding it.

If you have any advice, then please (feel free to) chime in... --Mike Schwartz (talk) 02:05, 6 December 2013 (UTC)

a few minutes later (the same day)

 * Hello! Now it appears that [the original link target] http://www.bishop-hill.net/storage/James%20Lovelock%20Letter.pdf is no longer quite such a dead link any more;  although, as the entries in the Wayback machine show, (see the "backups" of the link target that could be found on http://web.archive.org/ and are listed above), I was not just imagining the (temporary) difficulty.  ("see also" the excerpt headed "Page Not Found" above.)

 * I have taken this opportunity to make a Webcite [archive] "backup" of the .PDF file, now that the link to it (at least the one from http://www.bishop-hill.net/blog/2013/1/25/lovelock-recants.html ) seems to be working OK.

 * The results may be seen in the revised footnote. Enjoy.

 * PS: There was something wrong with the usefulness of the revised footnote. (I was unable to successfully "click on" it, nor even to get a "preview" to show up, when the target was so far away as to require that;  also, the link that is supposed to be "clickable", from the up-arrow [or "circumflex"] near the footnote, back to the referring section, does not seem to work.)  I eventually figured out why. The problem has now been fixed via this recent edit.   --Mike Schwartz (talk) 03:11, 6 December 2013 (UTC)

Nobel 1995
James Lovelock has not been awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1995. Lovelock's work has been fundamental for the development of the work of the Nobel winners, nonetheless he didn't receive the award.

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1995/

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1995/press.html

http://www.jameslovelock.org/page5.html

I suggest to revise the article.

Best

 * The article doesn't say that he shared the prize - I think that you've just misread what it does say. However, this may mean that it could be slightly tweaked to be clearer.  --P LUMBAGO  11:04, 26 November 2014 (UTC)

Suggestion
Could there be some mention of him and/or his theories on the MP on his 100th birthday? 82.44.143.26 (talk) 16:14, 1 July 2019 (UTC)

 * You might have to explain what this "MP" is first. Given that a symposium is being run to commemorate it (see here), I think that some sort of mention of his 100th birthday is relevant. But if it were only candles on a cake, not so much. —P LUMBAGO 08:18, 2 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Main Page naturally - and anything reasonably relevant (ditto other persons reaching 'a great age').
 * The link does not seem to work. 82.44.143.26 (talk) 16:21, 2 July 2019 (UTC)

 * Got you. Sorry about the link, it still seems to work for me, but there's related information about U. Exeter's events around his birthday here and here for specifically public events. Cheers, —P LUMBAGO 08:08, 3 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Link working now: and some of the connections can be less obvious than others (eg a Kirk Douglas film on his birthday). The point being the people are notable for things other than reaching that age (or 'first (category X) to reach (age)'). 82.44.143.26 (talk) 18:21, 3 July 2019 (UTC)
 * In my opinion, a 100th birthday is a significant enough reason to feature a scientist/scholar of his caliber on the main page. UpdateNerd (talk) 18:28, 3 July 2019 (UTC)
 * There will be some 'people in category X' who are notable only for reaching a particular age and other trivial/quiz factoid reasons. 82.44.143.26 (talk) 18:18, 4 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Which may still be a sufficient reason for bringing an interesting article on the person/what they are linked to, to the main page for general interest. 82.44.143.26 (talk) 17:45, 23 July 2019 (UTC)

(reset) The OED 'word of the day' had 'Gaia' to celebrate - and the WP main page 'nothing' (or at least 'not when I looked'). 82.44.143.26 (talk) 14:06, 26 July 2019 (UTC)

Bibliography ordering
Just a pedantic question about the ordering of items in the bibliography. Should we order according to original publication date rather than the data of the particular edition that's cited? It's rather odd that Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth, his original title on the concept, appears more recently in the list of books than later titles that actually build on it. Might it be better to order by original publication date? Actually, I'll just be bold and make the change. —P LUMBAGO 13:38, 9 July 2019 (UTC)

Claims of bring back to life frozen hamsters using microwaves and claiming legit papers exist for this!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tdiKTSdE9Y Shows the claim and him even claiming it!

Theres too many reason it doesnt work, Eg you freeze the brain the brain is destroyed all the electrical activity is stopped and it doesnt come back!--139.216.248.236 (talk) 04:51, 25 June 2022 (UTC)

 * They were only superficially and briefly frozen before being warmed (which our articles fail to explain sufficiently). The article says "60% of the water in the brain crystallized into ice" but there's no reason to think that areas such as the limbic system were impaired. (The same goes for reports of people frozen outside overnight before being found and rejuvenated.) UpdateNerd (talk) 09:37, 25 June 2022 (UTC)

PETM CO2 Concentration is incorrect
PETM CO2 concentration was certainly not 450ppm.

estimates for pre-PETM atmospheric CO2 concentrations range from 600 to 2800 parts per million (ppm), broadly consistent with estimates from proxy data (15). Starting from these conditions, an increase of 750 to 26,000 ppm of atmospheric CO2 would be required to account for an additional 5°C rise in global temperature, which implies an addition of 1500 to 55,000 PgC to the atmosphere alone (see the first figure).

From Pagani et al. 2006, Science. Fatfail (talk) 03:59, 15 February 2023 (UTC)

 * Agreed. But I struggle to find an actual value, rather than talk of how much was added. So, really, we don't greatly care; I've removed it William M. Connolley (talk) 09:33, 15 February 2023 (UTC)

"Sir James Lovelock" listed at Redirects for discussion
The redirect [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sir_James_Lovelock&redirect=no Sir James Lovelock] has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at until a consensus is reached. ‑‑Neveselbert (talk · contribs · email) 16:12, 21 February 2023 (UTC)

Poor wording
Sorry - would fix this, but am under pressure right now.

This wording is weak and factually incorrect

... the lack of respect humans have had for Gaia, ... is testing Gaia's capacity 2A02:8012:1E9:0:A88F:A440:FD07:1A2E (talk) 10:52, 30 April 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:James Lovelock


text:
Stockman (Australia)

In Australia, a stockman (plural stockmen) is a person who looks after the livestock on a station, traditionally on horse. It has a similar meaning to "cowboy". A stockman may also be employed at an abattoir, feedlot, on a livestock export ship, or with a stock and station agency.

Associated terms
Stockmen who work with the cattle in the Top End are known as ringers and are often only employed for the dry season which lasts from April to October. A station hand is an employee who is involved in routine duties on a rural property or station, which may also involve caring for livestock. With pastoral properties facing dire recruitment problems as young men are lured into the booming mining industry, young women from the cities are becoming a common sight on outback stations, often attracted by the chance to work with horses. An associated occupation is that of the drover, who, like the shearer may be an itinerant worker, and is employed in tending to livestock while they are travelling on a stock route.

A station trainee is known as a jackaroo (male) or jillaroo (female).

History

The role of the mounted stockmen came into being early in the 19th century, after the Blue Mountains, separating the coastal plain of the Sydney region from the interior of the continent, were first crossed by Europeans in 1813. The town of Bathurst was founded shortly after, and potential farmers moved westward, and settled on the land, many of them as squatters. The rolling country, ideal for sheep and the large, often unfenced, properties necessitated the role of the shepherd to tend the flocks.

Early stockmen were specially selected, highly regarded men owing to the high value and importance of early livestock. All stockmen need to be interested in animals, able to handle them with confidence and patience, able to make accurate observations about them and enjoy working outdoors.

Aboriginal Australians were good stockmen who played a large part in the successful running of many stations. With their intimate bonds to their tribal places, and local knowledge they also took considerable pride in their work. After the gold rushes white labour was expensive and difficult to retain. Aboriginal women also worked with cattle on the northern stations after this practice developed in northern Queensland during the 1880s. A Native Administration Act later stopped the employment of women in the cattle camps. Aboriginal people often received only food and clothing to retain their labour, until they began to be paid a small cash wage in the 1950s and 1960s, much less than their white counterparts. In 1966, Vincent Lingiari led Gurindji workers on the Wave Hill walk-off, a strike on the large Vesteys cattle station in the Northern Territory, which brought about wage parity two years later. In the 21st century class actions for these "stolen wages", as they have been dubbed, have taken place in Queensland, Western Australia and the NT.

In 1911, rural stockmen received only £1 to £1/5/- a week plus keep after a decision was made by the Arbitration Court. The award of 1918 increased wages by up to 50 per cent to a minimum of £2/13/-. Head stockmen received about £1 extra. Stockmen now work under a state or federal award, which is reviewed regularly.

Role and description
A stockman is responsible for the care for livestock and treatment of their injuries and illnesses. This includes feeding, watering, mustering, droving, branding, castrating, ear tagging, weighing, vaccinating livestock and dealing with their predators. Stockmen need to be able to judge age by examining the dentition (teeth) of cattle, sheep and occasionally horses. Those caring for sheep will regularly have to deal with flystrike treatments, jetting animals, worm control and lamb marking. Pregnant livestock usually receive special care in late pregnancy and stockmen may have to deal with dystocia (abnormal or difficult birth or labour). A good stockman is aware of livestock behavioural characteristics, and has an awareness of flight zone distances of the livestock being handled. Apart from livestock duties a stock person will inspect, maintain and repair fences, gates and yards that have been broken by storms, fallen trees, livestock and wildlife.

A head stockman is responsible for a number of workers and a range of livestock and property operations including the supervision of operations that includes feeding, mating, managing artificial breeding and embryo transfer programs; managing vehicle and equipment maintenance; repair and maintenance of property structures; supervising and training of staff.

Mustering is done with horses or vehicles including all-terrain vehicles (ATV), and some of the large cattle stations use helicopters or light aircraft to assist in the mustering and surveillance of livestock and their watering points. Cattle mustering in the Outback and the eastern ‘Falls’ country of the Great Dividing Range often necessitates days camping out in isolated areas and sleeping in a swag (bedroll) on the ground with limited food choices. Damper is a traditional type of bread that was baked by stockmen during colonial times, or nowadays when the bread supply has been exhausted. It is made with self-raising flour, salt and water and is usually cooked in a camp oven over the embers of a fire. In these areas the days in the saddle are often very long as the cattle have to be mustered and then driven to yards or a paddock where they can be held. After the stock have been yarded they may then require drafting prior to branding, shearing or whatever procedures are required or have been planned.

The employment of mounted workers to tend livestock is necessitated in Australia by the large size of the "properties" which may be called sheep stations or cattle stations, depending upon the type of stock. In the inland regions of most states excluding Victoria and Tasmania, cattle stations may exceed 10,000 km2 with the largest being Anna Creek Station at 24,000 km2 (6,000,000 acres). The traditional attire of a stockman or grazier is a felt Akubra hat; a double-flapped, two-pocket (for stock notebooks) cotton shirt; a plaited Kangaroo leather belt carrying a stockman's pocket knife in a pouch; light coloured, stockman cut, moleskin trousers with brown elastic side boots. The moleskin trousers have now largely been replaced by jeans. The plaited belt is often replaced by a working stockman or ringer with a belt known as a Queensland Utility Strap which can be used as a belt, neck strap, lunch-time hobble or a tie for a "micky". This attire is still used in Australian Stock Horse competitions. Pocket knives may be used to castrate and/or earmark an animal, to bang cattle tails or in an emergency to cut free an animal entangled in a rope or horse tack. Specially designed and cut for riding, oilskin Driza-Bone coats are used during wet weather. The horse typically wears a ringhead bridle, a saddle cloth, a leather Australian stock saddle, which may be equipped with a breastplate in steep country, and saddlebag and quart-pot.

Changing times
Stockmen traditionally ride horses, use working dogs and a stockwhip for stock work and mustering, but motorised vehicles are increasingly used. Sometimes the vehicles that are used are four-wheel drive (4WD) "paddock-bashers", which are often old unregistered utilities. These vehicles may also be modified by removing the top and fitting roll and bull bars for bull or buffalo catching.

Some stations are now making changes for the employment of women by building female living quarters and installing hydraulic cattle crushes etc.

Transportable steel yards are now often carried on a truck to an area where stock-work can be completed without having to drive stock long distances to permanent yards. Stockmen and their horses can be unloaded at these yards and then the cattle can be branded and also transported from these yards if required. Lambs are also often marked in temporary yards as a means of reducing infection.

Sports
A number of equestrian sports are particularly associated with stockmen. These include campdrafting, team penning, tentpegging and polocrosse, as well as working dog trials. The sports are played in local and state competitions and are often a feature of agricultural shows such as the Sydney Royal Easter Show. Stockman challenges are also gaining in popularity across the eastern states of Australia. In this event competitors show their skills by whipcracking, packing a packhorse (to be led around a course), bareback obstacle course, cross country, shoeing and stock handling competing in a single Australian Stock Saddle. The best will compete in a final with a brumby catch and a second final section of a stock saddle buckjump ride where they have to mark out carrying a stockwhip, or a timed obstacle event.

Cultural depictions of stockmen

The role of the stockmen has often been celebrated in various media, with the stockman being generally more highly renowned for his ability to bring down a bullock than an outlaw and for sharp wit rather than sharp shooting.

Two well-known songs commemorate the death of a stockman, the anonymous "Wrap me up with my stockwhip and blanket" and Rolf Harris's "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport".

Through the 19th and early 20th centuries the writing of balladic poetry was a favoured form of literary expression, and the public recitation of such pieces remains a feature of Australian folk festivals. The majority of the most popular ballads deal with rural subject and many are specifically about stockmen. These works include Adam Lindsay Gordon's Bush Ballads and Galloping Rhymes which includes "The Sick Stockrider", and, most famously, Banjo Paterson's epic poem The Man from Snowy River.

"The Man from Snowy River" was to become the source of three movies, one in 1920, and another in 1982 to be followed by a sequel. A TV series followed called Banjo Paterson's The Man from Snowy River.

In 2002 the story was shown as live musical theatre called The Man from Snowy River: Arena Spectacular. The inspiration for this musical performance came from the Opening Ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, when the performance opened with 121 stockmen and women riding Australian Stock Horses in a tribute to the Australian pastoral heritage and the importance of the stock horse in Australia's heritage. The pastoral tribute took place to music written by Bruce Rowland, who composed a special Olympics version of the main theme for the 1982 movie "The Man from Snowy River". David Atkins and Ignatius Jones, who were the artistic creators of the opening ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, were also the co-creators of the musical, The Man from Snowy River: Arena Spectacular.

A further tribute to the stockman derives from the fact that for a number of years the promotions of the Sydney Royal Easter Show have referred to it as "The Great Australian Muster".

In Longreach, Queensland, a museum and memorial called the Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame was established to pay tribute to the pioneers of the Australian outback.

Famous stockmen

 * Nathaniel Buchanan
 * Big John Dodo (c. 1910 - 2003)
 * Ben Hall (9 May 1837 – 5 May 1865)
 * Sidney Kidman
 * William Henry Ogilvie
 * James Alpin McPherson
 * Breaker Morant

title: Stockman (Australia)


text:
Matthew Corbett

Matthew Corbett (born Peter Graham Corbett on 28 March 1948) is an English former actor, singer, comedian, magician, puppeteer, television presenter, and writer, best known for presenting The Sooty Show and later Sooty and Co. He is the son of Sooty's creator, Harry Corbett, and took over the show from his father in 1976. He retired in 1998.

Career
Corbett was born in Guiseley, West Riding of Yorkshire, on 28 March 1948. In the late 1960s he had to choose another name when joining the performing arts trade union Equity, as there was already a Peter Corbett registered. He kept his surname and chose to go by the first name Matthew, retaining the name throughout his television career.

Corbett appeared in the Doctor Who serial The Dæmons (1971) as a character called Jones and was a regular performer in the Thames Television children's show Rainbow, where he sang and performed and wrote with Rod Burton and Jane Tucker as Rod, Matt and Jane, later on known as Rod, Jane and Roger and finally being better known as Rod, Jane and Freddy.

In 1976, Corbett left Rainbow to take over The Sooty Show from his father Harry, who was retiring (he made a special guest appearance on Rainbow with Sooty in the episodes "1000th Birthday Party" and "The VIP"). Corbett retired in 1998 after 22 years, and chose Richard Cadell to replace him.

In 2006, he and his brother, Dave Corbett, wrote the theme tune for CITV’s Horrid Henry

In January 2008, he reappeared on television, presenting Locks and Quays, a regional interest programme shown in the ITV Granada area (North West England), featuring a journey from the east to the west coast of England, along waterways such as the Humber estuary, the Aire and Calder Navigation and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.

On Sooty's 60th birthday in 2012, he said that the bear was "in, or should I say on, the right hands".

Personal life
Corbett's great-uncle was the fish and chip shop chain owner Harry Ramsden.

Corbett contracted COVID-19 in 2020. He nearly died after he contracted pneumionia, which led to atrial fibrillation and had to spend 10 days in intensive care.

As of 2020, he stated he and his wife planned to reside in a retirement village in Horsham, West Sussex.

title: Matthew Corbett