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Northern Alliance

The Northern Alliance ( E'tilāf Šumāl or اتحاد شمال Ettehād Šumāl), officially known as the United Islamic National Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan ( Jabha Muttahid Islāmī Millī barāyi Najāt-i Afğānistān), was a military alliance of groups that operated between early 1992 and 2001 following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. At that time, many non-Pashtun Northerners originally with the Republic of Afghanistan led by Mohammad Najibullah became disaffected with Pashtun Khalqist Afghan Army officers holding control over non-Pashtun militias in the North. Defectors such as Rashid Dostum and Abdul Momim allied with Ahmad Shah Massoud and Ali Mazari forming the Northern Alliance. The alliance's capture of Mazar-i-Sharif and more importantly the supplies kept there crippled the Afghan military and began the end of Najibullah's government. Following the collapse of Najibullah's government the Alliance would fall with a Second Civil War breaking out however following the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan's (Taliban) takeover of Kabul, The United Front was reassembled.

The Northern Alliance fought a defensive war against the Taliban regime. They received support from India, Iran, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, the United States and Uzbekistan, while the Taliban were extensively backed by the Pakistan Army and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence. By 2001, the Northern Alliance controlled less than 10% of the country, cornered in the north-east and based in Badakhshan province. The US invaded Afghanistan, providing support to Northern Alliance troops on the ground in a two-month war against the Taliban, which they won in December 2001. With the Taliban forced from control of the country, the Northern Alliance was dissolved as members and parties supported the new Afghan Interim Administration, with some members later becoming part of the Karzai administration.

Amidst the Fall of Kabul in 2021, former Northern Alliance leaders and other anti-Taliban figures regrouped as the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan.

Commanders and factions
The United Front was formed in late 1996 against the Taliban government by opposition factions. Since early 1999, Ahmad Shah Massoud was the only main leader able to defend his territory against the Taliban, and as such remained as the main de facto political and military leader of the United Front recognized by members of all the different ethnic groups. Massoud decided on the main political line and the general military strategy of the alliance. A part of the United Front military factions, such as Junbish-i Milli or Hezb-e Wahdat, however, did not fall under the direct control of Massoud but remained under their respective regional or ethnic leaders.

Military commanders of the United Front were either independent or belonged to one of the following political parties: Military commanders and subcommanders of the United Front included:
 * the Sunni Tajik-dominated Jamiat-e Islami and Shura-e Nazar, led by Burhanuddin Rabbani and Ahmad Shah Massoud
 * the Shia Hazara-dominated Hezb-e Wahdat, led by Muhammad Mohaqiq and Karim Khalili
 * the Sunni Uzbek and Turkmen-dominated Junbish-i Milli, led by Abdul Rashid Dostum
 * the Sunni Pashtun-dominated Eastern Shura, led by Haji Abdul Qadeer
 * the Shia Tajik and Hazara-dominated Harakat-e Islami, led by Asif Mohseni and Sayed Mohammad Ali Jawid
 * From northern Afghanistan: Bismillah Khan Mohammadi (Jamiat-e Islami), Atta Muhammad Nur (Jamiat-e Islami), General Atiqullah Baryalai (Jamiat-e Islami), General Shahjahan Noori (Jamiat-e Islami), Mohammed Daud Daud (Jamiat-e Islami), Mohammed Fahim (Jamiat-e Islami), Gul Haidar (Jamiat-e Islami), Muhammad Mohaqiq (Hezb-e Wahdat), Abdul Rashid Dostum (Junbish-i Milli), Qazi Kabir Marzban;
 * From eastern Afghanistan: Haji Abdul Qadeer (Eastern Shura), Hazrat Ali (Eastern Shura), Jaan Daad Khan, Abdullah Wahedi, Qatrah and Najmuddin;
 * From southern Afghanistan: Qari Baba, Mohammad Arif Noorzai and Hotak;
 * From western Afghanistan: Ismail Khan (Jamiat-e Islami), Doctor Ibrahim, and Fazlkarim Aimaq;
 * From central Afghanistan: Sayed Mustafa Kazemi (Hezb-e Wahdat), Said Hussein Aalemi Balkhi, Akbari, Sayed Mohammad Ali Jawid, Karim Khalili (Hezb-e Wahdat) and Sher Alam Ibrahimi (Ittehad-e Islami).

The two main political candidates in the 2009 Afghan presidential election both worked for the United Front:

 * Abdullah Abdullah (was a close friend of Ahmad Shah Massoud and the foreign minister of the alliance)
 * Hamid Karzai (his father was killed by the Taliban, he subsequently went on a diplomatic mission to gather support for Massoud in Europe and the U.S in 2000/2001)

Headquarters
Initially, the city of Mazar-i-Sharif under Dostum's control served as one of the Northern Alliance's headquarters, until the city was overrun in 1997. Under Massoud's control, Taloqan in Takhar Province, north of Panjshir, was the group's headquarters until September 5, 2000, when the city was taken by the Taliban and led to its base moving to Badakhshan Province. Massoud also maintained a private residence in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. It was there where Massoud would meet international diplomatic staff who supported the Northern Alliance.

Background

During the early 1990s the Najibullah regime funded pro government militias all over the country in order to fight the mujahedeen insurgency however Najibullah, an ethnic Pashtun began to mistrust the mostly non-Pashtun militias in the north many of whom had ties to Ahmad Shah Massoud. In an effort to reassert his control over the supply lines in the North, Najibullah replaced General Abdul Momim, an ethnic Tajik, with General Rasul, a Pashtun Khalqi known for being the brutal commander of Pul-e-Charkhi. Momim refused to step down, he and ethnic Uzbek, General Rashid Dostum defected and allied with Ahmad Shah Massoud and Ali Mazari forming the Northern Alliance. The alliance would take the city of Mazar-i Sharif on March 19, 1992 and launching a massive offensive towards the capital of Kabul. Many non Pashtuns in the Afghan military defected to the alliance.

After removing Najibullah from power the alliance would dismantle as another civil war would break out between the various groups and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezbi Islami which many Pashtun Khalqists allied with. The civil war would see foreign interference from Saudi Arabia and Iran, as competitors for regional hegemony, supported Afghan militias hostile towards each other. According to Human Rights Watch, Iran was backing the Shia Hazara Hezb-e Wahdat forces of Abdul Ali Mazari in order to "maximize Wahdat's military power and influence". Saudi Arabia supported the Wahhabite Abdul Rasul Sayyaf and his Ittehad-e Islami faction. A publication by the George Washington University describes:

"[O]utside forces saw instability in Afghanistan as an opportunity to press their own security and political agendas."

Conflict between the two militias soon escalated into a full-scale war.

Due to the sudden initiation of the war, working government departments, police units or a system of justice and accountability for the newly created Islamic State of Afghanistan did not have time to form. Atrocities were committed by individuals of the different armed factions while Kabul descended into lawlessness and chaos as described in reports by Human Rights Watch and the Afghanistan Justice Project. Because of the chaos, some leaders increasingly had only nominal control over their (sub-)commanders. Human Rights Watch writes:

"Rare ceasefires, usually negotiated by representatives of Ahmad Shah Massoud, Sibghatullah Mojaddedi or Burhanuddin Rabbani [the interim government], or officials from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), commonly collapsed within days."

Meanwhile, southern Afghanistan was under the control of local leaders not affiliated with the central government in Kabul. In 1994, the Taliban – a movement originating from Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam–run religious schools for Afghan refugees in Pakistan – also developed in Afghanistan as a politico-religious force. In November 1994 they took control of the southern city of Kandahar and subsequently expanded their control into several provinces in southern and central Afghanistan not under the central government's control.

In late 1994, most of the militia factions which had been fighting in the battle for control of Kabul were defeated militarily by forces of the Islamic State's Minister of Defense Ahmad Shah Massoud. Bombardment of the capital came to a halt. The Islamic State government took steps to restore law and order. Courts started to work again. Massoud tried to initiate a nationwide political process with the goal of national consolidation and democratic elections, also inviting the Taliban to join the process but they refused as they opposed a democratic system.

The Taliban started shelling Kabul in early 1995 but were defeated by forces of the Islamic State government under Ahmad Shah Massoud. Amnesty International, referring to the Taliban offensive, wrote in a 1995 report:

"This is the first time in several months that Kabul civilians have become the targets of rocket attacks and shelling aimed at residential areas in the city."

The Taliban's early victories in 1994 were followed by a series of defeats that resulted in heavy losses which led analysts to believe the Taliban movement had run its course. At that point Pakistan and Saudi Arabia drastically increased their support to the Taliban. Many analysts like Amin Saikal describe the Taliban as developing into a proxy force for Pakistan's regional interests. On September 26, 1996, as the Taliban with military support by Pakistan and financial support by Saudi Arabia, prepared for another major offensive against the capital Kabul, Massoud ordered a full retreat from the city. The Taliban seized Kabul on September 27, 1996, and established the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

Reestablishment of the United Front
Ahmad Shah Massoud and Abdul Rashid Dostum, former allies and enemies, recreated a United Front (Northern Alliance) against the Taliban that were preparing offensives against the remaining areas under the control of Massoud and those under the control of Dostum. The United Front included beside the dominantly Tajik forces of Massoud and the Uzbek forces of Dostum, Hazara troops led by Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq and Pashtun forces under the leadership of commanders such as Abdul Haq and Haji Abdul Qadir. Notable politicians and diplomats of the United Front included Abdul Rahim Ghafoorzai, Abdullah Abdullah and Masood Khalili. From the Taliban conquest of Kabul in September 1996 until November 2001 the United Front controlled roughly 30% of Afghanistan's population in provinces such as Badakhshan, Kapisa, Takhar and parts of Parwan, Kunar, Nuristan, Laghman, Samangan, Kunduz, Ghōr and Bamyan.

Foreign intervention
Throughout the 1990s, Iran was the primary state sponsor of the Northern Alliance, along with India and Russia. By contrast, the Taliban were supported by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Because of Indian influence in the Alliance, Pakistan feared a Northern Alliance victory would result in Pakistan's encirclement by India on one side and an Indian-allied Northern Alliance on the other. During the 1990s, Turkey also supported the Northern Alliance. Israel was initially not critical of the Taliban, as both governments opposed Iran, and the Mossad reached out to the Taliban. However, later, under pressure from United States and Turkey, Israel instead began reaching out to the Northern Alliance, even though it remained suspicious of the Alliance's pro-Iran position.

Due to Indian backing of Karzai's administration and a consequent overwhelming support for India among Karzai's Afghan government officials, Pakistan looked to neutralise this threat by cultivating the Taliban in 2001. The assistance provided by India was extensive, including uniforms, ordnance, mortars, small armaments, refurbished Kalashnikovs, combat and winter clothes, as well as funds. In 2001 alone, according to several international sources, 28,000–30,000 Afghans, who took refuge in Pakistan during Afghan jihad, 14,000–15,000 Afghan Taliban and 2,000–3,000 Al Qaeda militants were fighting against anti-Taliban forces in Afghanistan as a roughly 45,000 strong military force. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf – then as Chief of Army Staff – was responsible for sending thousands of Pakistanis to fight alongside the Taliban and Bin Laden against the forces of Ahmad Shah Massoud. Of the estimated 28,000 Afghan refugees returned from Pakistan fighting in Afghanistan, 8,000 were militants recruited in madrassas filling regular Taliban ranks. A 1998 document by the U.S. State Department confirms that "20–40 percent of [regular] Taliban soldiers are returned Afghans from Pakistani refugee camps".

Human Rights Watch wrote in 2000:

"Of all the foreign powers involved in efforts to sustain and manipulate the ongoing fighting [in Afghanistan], Pakistan is distinguished both by the sweep of its objectives and the scale of its efforts, which include soliciting funding for the Taliban, bankrolling Taliban operations, providing diplomatic support as the Taliban's virtual emissaries abroad, arranging training for Taliban fighters, recruiting skilled and unskilled manpower to serve in Taliban armies, planning and directing offensives, providing and facilitating shipments of ammunition and fuel, and ... directly providing combat support."

After Taliban captured Kabul, Iran's assistance to the Northern Alliance increased dramatically. Iran established an "airbridge" between Mashhad and the Afghan airbases of Bagram and Kulyab to ferry large quantities of arms to the Northern Alliance. For example, it was reported that on one day alone in 1997, 13 Iranian flights arrived at Bagram. In another instance, Iran was believed to have been found sending 700 tons of arms via Tajikistan.

On August 1, 1997 the Taliban launched an attack on Sheberghan, the main military base of Abdul Rashid Dostum. Dostum has said the reason the attack was successful was due to 1500 Pakistani commandos taking part and that the Pakistani air force also gave support.

In October to November 1998, the Northern Alliance used Iranian and Russian arms to recapture territory from the Taliban near the Uzbekistan and Tajikistan border.

In 1998, Iran accused Pakistan of sending its air force to bomb Mazar-i-Sharif in support of Taliban forces and directly accused Pakistani troops for "war crimes at Bamiyan". The same year Russia said that Pakistan was responsible for the military expansion of the Taliban in northern Afghanistan by sending large numbers of Pakistani troops, some of whom had subsequently been taken as prisoners by the anti-Taliban United Front.

In 2000, the UN Security Council imposed an arms embargo against military support to the Taliban, with UN officials explicitly singling out Pakistan. The UN secretary-general implicitly criticized Pakistan for its military support and the Security Council stated it was "deeply distress[ed] over reports of involvement in the fighting, on the Taliban side, of thousands of non-Afghan nationals". In July 2001, several countries including the United States, accused Pakistan of being "in violation of U.N. sanctions because of its military aid to the Taliban".

In 2000, British Intelligence reported that the ISI was taking an active role in several Al Qaeda training camps. The ISI helped with the construction of training camps for both the Taliban and Al Qaeda. From 1996 to 2001 the Al Qaeda of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri became a state within the Taliban state. Bin Laden sent Arab and Central Asian Al-Qaeda militants to join the fight against the United Front among them his Brigade 055.

With the fall of Kabul to anti-Taliban forces in November 2001, ISI forces worked with and helped Taliban militias who were in full retreat. In November 2001, Taliban, Al-Qaeda combatants and ISI operatives were safely evacuated from Kunduz on Pakistan Air Force cargo aircraft to Pakistan Air Force bases in Chitral and Gilgit in Pakistan's Northern Areas in what has been dubbed the "Airlift of Evil".

The role of the Pakistani military has been described by international observers as well as by the anti-Taliban leader Ahmad Shah Massoud as a "creeping invasion". The "creeping invasion" proved unable to defeat the severely outnumbered anti-Taliban forces.

Taliban massacres
According to a 55-page report by the United Nations, the Taliban, while trying to consolidate control over northern and western Afghanistan, committed systematic massacres against civilians. UN officials stated that there had been "15 massacres" between 1996 and 2001. They also said, that "[t]hese have been highly systematic and they all lead back to the [Taliban] Ministry of Defense or to Mullah Omar himself". Al Qaeda's so-called 055 Brigade was also responsible for mass-killings of Afghan civilians. The report by the United Nations quotes eyewitnesses in many villages describing Arab fighters "carrying long knives used for slitting throats and skinning people".

Ahmad Shah Massoud
After longstanding battles especially for the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, Abdul Rashid Dostum and his Junbish-i Milli forces alongside allied Hezb-e Wahdat forces were defeated by the Taliban and their allies in 1998. Dostum subsequently went into exile. Ahmad Shah Massoud remained the only major anti-Taliban leader inside the country who was able to defend vast parts of his territory against the Pakistani Army, the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, not once leaving Afghanistan except for diplomatic purposes.

The Taliban repeatedly offered Massoud money and a position of power to make him stop his resistance. Massoud declined. He explained in one interview:

"The Taliban say: 'Come and accept the post of prime minister and be with us', and they would keep the highest office in the country, the presidentship. But for what price?! The difference between us concerns mainly our way of thinking about the very principles of the society and the state. We can not accept their conditions of compromise, or else we would have to give up the principles of modern democracy. We are fundamentally against the system called 'the Emirate of Afghanistan'."

"There should be an Afghanistan where every Afghan finds himself or herself happy. And I think that can only be assured by democracy based on consensus."

Massoud wanted to convince the Taliban to join a political process leading towards democratic elections in a foreseeable future. He also stated:

"The Taliban are not a force to be considered invincible. They are distanced from the people now. They are weaker than in the past. There is only the assistance given by Pakistan, Osama bin Laden and other extremist groups that keep the Taliban on their feet. With a halt to that assistance, it is extremely difficult to survive."

In early 2001 the United Front employed a new strategy of local military pressure and global political appeals. Resentment was increasingly gathering against Taliban rule from the bottom of Afghan society including the Pashtun areas. In total, estimates range up to one million people fleeing the Taliban. Many civilians fled to the area of Ahmad Shah Massoud. National Geographic concluded in its documentary "Inside the Taliban": "The only thing standing in the way of future Taliban massacres is Ahmad Shah Massoud". In the areas under his control Massoud set up democratic institutions and signed the Women's Rights Declaration. At the same time he was very wary not to revive the failed Kabul government of the early 1990s. Already in 1999 the United Front leadership ordered the training of police forces specifically to keep order and protect the civilian population in case the United Front would be successful. In early 2001 Ahmad Shah Massoud addressed the European Parliament in Brussels asking the international community to provide humanitarian help to the people of Afghanistan. He stated that the Taliban and Al Qaeda had introduced "a very wrong perception of Islam" and that without the support of Pakistan and Bin Laden the Taliban would not be able to sustain their military campaign for up to a year. On this visit to Europe he also warned that his intelligence had gathered information about a large-scale attack on U.S. soil being imminent.

On September 9, 2001, two Arab suicide attackers, allegedly belonging to Al Qaeda, posing as journalists, detonated a bomb hidden in a video camera while interviewing Ahmed Shah Massoud in the Takhar province of Afghanistan. Commander Massoud died in a helicopter that was taking him to a hospital. He was buried in his home village of Bazarak in the Panjshir Valley. The funeral, although taking place in a rather rural area, was attended by hundreds of thousands of mourning people.

The assassination of Massoud is considered to have a strong connection to the attacks in the U.S. two days later, which killed nearly 3,000 people and which appeared to be the terrorist attack that Massoud had warned against in his speech to the European Parliament several months earlier. John P. O'Neill was a counter-terrorism expert and the Assistant Director of the FBI until late 2001. He retired from the FBI and was offered the position of director of security at the World Trade Center (WTC). He took the job at the WTC two weeks before 9/11. On September 10, 2001, John O'Neill told two of his friends,

"We're due. And we're due for something big. ... Some things have happened in Afghanistan [referring to the assassination of Massoud]. I don't like the way things are lining up in Afghanistan. ... I sense a shift, and I think things are going to happen. ... soon." O'Neill died the following day, when the south tower collapsed.

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, United Front troops ousted the Taliban from power in Kabul with American air support in Operation Enduring Freedom, using intelligence reports offered by Iran during the Six plus Two Group meetings at the United Nations Headquarters. In November and December 2001 the United Front gained control of much of the country and played a crucial role in establishing the post-Taliban interim government of Hamid Karzai in late 2001.

Post 9/11

After the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001, the United Front succeeded in retaking Kabul from the Taliban with air support from US-led forces during Operation Enduring Freedom. Despite fears of a return to the chaos similar to that of the 1992–1996 civil war, all the Afghan leaders met in Germany to create a new government. Hamid Karzai was chosen to lead the country and most key positions were given to Tajik members of the Northern Alliance. This created a major international issue. While Pakistan has always favored Afghanistan's major ethnic group, the Pashtun, India saw an opportunity for increasing its regional power by jumping on board with the support of the Northern Alliance in the early days of the war. With both nations seeking to increase or maintain their regional power through opposing factions on the ground, observers came to view the conflict in Afghanistan as a proxy-war between the two state powers.

From 2002 to 2004, war activity in Afghanistan was relatively calm. By 2006, however, with the support of Pakistan and Iran, a Taliban insurgency gained increasing strength. In 2010, Afghan President Karzai decided that the only way to end the Taliban insurgency was to call for peace. This process became accepted and supported by all international partners of Afghanistan, except by several key figures of the Northern Alliance such as Abdullah Abdullah, Ahmad Zia Massoud, Mohammad Mohaqiq, and others. The opposition, by then splintered into several parties, warned that Karzai's appeasement policy could come at the cost of Afghanistan's political and economic development, including the progress made in areas such as education and women's rights. Because NATO excluded the Karzai administration and the opposition leaders were excluded from secret talks with the Taliban, Karzai's political rhetoric was increasingly adjusted to Taliban demands, United Front leaders, and in late 2011, regrouped to oppose a return of the Taliban to Afghanistan.

Legacy
Between 1996 and 2001, the Northern Alliance blocked the Taliban and al-Qaeda from gaining control of the entirety of Afghanistan. Many internally displaced persons found shelter in areas controlled by Ahmad Shah Massoud. After the September 2001 attacks in the United States, U.S. air raids followed by ground troops of the United Front ousted the Taliban from power in Kabul. Between November and December 2001, the United Front gained control of most major Afghan cities. Had it not been for the United Front, the U.S. would have needed to deploy large number of ground troops, as was done in the Iraq War.

The United Front was influential in the transitional Afghan Government of Hamid Karzai from 2001 until 2004. Notably, Mohammed Fahim became the Vice President and Defense Minister, Yunus Qanuni became the Minister of Education and Security Advisor and Abdullah Abdullah became the Foreign Minister. Most foreign observers expected this dominance to continue and for Fahim or Qanuni to be selected as Karzai's Vice President in the 2004 elections. However, Karzai instead selected Ahmad Zia Massoud, younger brother of the former United Front leader Ahmad Shah Massoud. Karzai easily won the 2004 Presidential election with 55.4% of the vote, followed by three former leaders of the Northern Alliance, Quanuni (16.3%), Mohaqiq (11.7%) and Dostum (10%).

Some of the military strength of the UIF has now been absorbed into the military of Afghanistan, while many of the remaining soldiers were disarmed through a nationwide disarmament program. The existence and strength of the Afghan National Army has significantly reduced the threat of the former UIF elements attempting to use military action against the new NATO-backed Afghan government. Most of the country's senior military personnel are former members of the UIF, including Defense Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi.

Some members of the alliance are now part of the United National Front (Afghanistan) which is led by Rabbani and includes some former leaders of the UIF such as Yunus Qanuni, Mohammed Fahim, and Abdul Rashid Dostum. The United National Front has positioned itself as a "loyal" opposition to Hamid Karzai. Others like Abdul Rasul Sayyaf claim to be loyal to Hamid Karzai while, however, following their own agenda.

Abdullah Abdullah, a doctor of medicine and one of Ahmad Shah Massoud's closest friends, ran as an independent candidate in the 2009 Afghan presidential election and came in second place. On November 1, 2009, Abdullah, however, quit the runoff election because of widespread allegations of election fraud. Some of his followers wanted to take to the streets but Abdullah called for calm. Massoud Khalili, another of Ahmad Shah Massoud's close friends, became ambassador to India and subsequently to Turkey, while the younger brother of Massoud, Ahmad Wali Massoud, serves as ambassador to the United Kingdom. Massoud's ex-commander Bismillah Khan Mohammadi was chief-of-staff of the Afghan National Army, then as Minister of the Interior followed by Minister of Defense. One of Massoud's close intelligence agents, Amrullah Saleh, became director of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) in 2004 but had to resign in 2010.

Reformation (2011)
The National Front of Afghanistan, which was created by Ahmad Zia Massoud, Abdul Rashid Dostum and Mohammad Mohaqiq in late 2011 to oppose peace talks with Taliban, is generally considered as a reformation of the military wing of the United Front. Meanwhile, much of the political wing has reunited under the National Coalition of Afghanistan led by Abdullah Abdullah.

Former head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), Amrullah Saleh, created a new movement, Basej-i Milli, with support among the youth. It mobilized about 10,000 people in an anti-Taliban demonstration in the capital Kabul in May 2011. Former Northern Alliance strongman Mohammed Fahim, Vice President of Afghanistan, remained in an alliance with Hamid Karzai until Fahim's death in 2014.

2021 resurgence
Following a takeover of Kabul and much of Afghanistan by the Taliban in 2021, the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, led by Ahmad Massoud, son of late Afghan politician Ahmad Shah Massoud, and Vice President Amrullah Saleh started gathering strength in the Panjshir Valley. The flag of the ‘Northern Alliance’ or the United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan was hoisted for the first time since 2001 in the Panjshir Valley, signalling their return.

Human rights issues (1996–2001)
The human rights situation during combat was heavily dependent on the specific commander and his troops. The situation for different leaders and their troops of the United Front thus shows sharp contrasts. Also, the quality of life of the Afghan population was heavily dependent on the specific leader that was directly controlling the area in which they lived. Sharp contrasts could also be witnessed regarding life and structures in those areas.

Area of Ahmad Shah Massoud
Ahmad Shah Massoud controlled the Panjshir area, some other parts of Parwan and Thakhar province. Some parts of Badakshan were under his influence while others were controlled by Burhanuddin Rabbani. Badakshan was the home region of Rabbani.

Massoud created institutions which were structured into several committees: political, health, education and economic. In the area of Massoud women and girls were allowed to work and to go to school, and in at least two known instances Massoud personally intervened against cases of forced marriage. Women also did not have to wear the Afghan burqa. While it was Massoud's stated conviction that men and women are equal and should enjoy the same rights, he also had to deal with Afghan traditions which he said would need a generation or more to overcome. In his opinion that could only be achieved through education.

Hundreds of thousands of Afghans fled from the Taliban to the areas controlled by Massoud. There was a huge humanitarian problem as there was not enough to eat for both the existing population and the internally displaced Afghans. In 2001, Massoud and a French journalist described the bitter situation of the displaced people and asked for humanitarian help.

Area of Abdul Rashid Dostum
Until the conquest of Balkh by the Taliban in 1998, Abdul Rashid Dostum controlled the following provinces: Samangan, Balkh, Jowzjan, Faryab, and Baghlan provinces. According to Human Rights Watch many of the violations of international humanitarian law committed by the United Front forces date from 1996–1998 when Dostum controlled most of the north.

According to Human Rights Watch in 1997, some 3,000 captured Taliban soldiers were summarily executed in and around Mazar-i Sharif by Dostum's Junbish-i Milli forces under the command of Abdul Malik Pahlawan. The killings followed Malik's withdrawal from a brief alliance with the Taliban and the capture of the Taliban forces who were trapped in the city. With the U.S. War on Terror, troops loyal to Dostum also returned to combat. In December 2001, during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, between 250 and 3,000 (depending on sources) Taliban prisoners were shot and/or suffocated to death in metal truck containers. The prisoners were killed while being transferred from Kunduz to Sheberghan. This became known as the Dasht-i-Leili massacre In 2009, Dostum denied the accusations.

Dostum belonged to those commanders making their own, often draconian, laws. Human Rights Watch has released documents alleging widespread crimes targeted against the civilian population. Human Rights Watch asked to actively discourage and refuse support in any way to any group or coalition that includes commanders with a record of serious violations of international humanitarian law standards, specifically naming Abdul Rashid Dostum; Muhammad Mohaqiq, a senior commander of the Hezb-e Wahdat; Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, leader of the erstwhile Ittehad-e Islami; and Abdul Malik Pahlawan, a former senior Junbish-i Milli commander.

Dancing boys
Commanders and other members of the Northern Alliance sexually abused dancing boys they and their friends owned as part of a regional custom known as bacha bazi (boy play), a practice which was downplayed and covered up by United States and Afghan authorities.

title: Northern Alliance


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Barry O'Meara

Barry Edward O'Meara  (1786 – 1836) was an Irish surgeon and founding member of the Reform Club who accompanied Napoleon to Saint Helena and became his physician, having been surgeon on board the HMS Bellerophon when the emperor surrendered himself. He was a medical graduate of Trinity College Dublin.

Life
O'Meara is remembered as the author of Napoleon in Exile, or A Voice From St. Helena (1822) a book which charged Sir Hudson Lowe with mistreating the former emperor and created no small sensation on its appearance. Less known are his secret letters he sent clandestinely from Saint Helena to a clerk at the Admiralty in London. These letters shed a unique light on Napoleon's state of mind as a captive and the causes of his complaints against Lowe and the British government.

O'Meara was also the physician to have performed the very first medical operation on Napoleon: by extracting a wisdom tooth in the autumn of 1817.

Legacy
O'Meara's granddaughter, Kathleen O'Meara was a Catholic writer based in Paris.

O'Meara was portrayed by Michael Williams in the 1972 Anglo-American historical drama film Eagle in a Cage.

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

title: Barry O'Meara


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Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Lisa Shock

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

The result of the debate was delete. Joyous (talk) 21:38, July 30, 2005 (UTC)

Lisa Shock
Biography, not notable The Uninvited Co., Inc. 18:28, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

 * Delete, to the best of my ability to determine, she seems to be someone who posts many comments about her particular obsession on bulletin boards around the web. She may be intelligent, witty, and loads of fun at a party, but I don't see that Wikipedia should have articles about such lives, unless we want an entire category devoted to USENET flamers of the late 1990s. Jwrosenzweig 18:43, 22 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete, non-notable. Stirling Newberry 18:58, 22 July 2005 (UTC)
 * In addition to being non-notable, the tragic misspelling of "Katamari Damacy" and/or "Katamari Damashi" has tainted the Matrix. Delete with extreme prejudice. Nandesuka 19:21, 22 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Well that is pretty much the most arrogant vote for deletion I have ever seen. She didn't write the article anyway.  You should be deleted with extreme prejudice.  Unsigned comment by anon IP 132.239.153.57, author of the article according to his comment here --Nandesuka 20:40, 22 July 2005 (UTC) Sorry.  It is my first wiki entry ever.  I misunderstood.24.165.29.82 21:46, 22 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Doggone it, I put a speedy delete on this thing and the anon reverted it. Now, it's here.  I have had it with these GameFAQs entries.  I still say speedy delete under the new rules. - Lucky 6.9 20:52, 22 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete Non-notable. Thatdog 21:33, 22 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete I misunderstood the standards of "notability" needed to have a wiki article. I was only writing it because I thought a lot of people would like to know about her.  Apologies.  I feel the entire deletion process was fairly heavy-handed. 24.165.29.82 21:41, 22 July 2005 (UTC)
 * No apology necessary. It's simply necessary to have a certain amount of general notability regarding the subject of an article. - Lucky 6.9 22:31, 22 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete nn. -- Etacar11   01:05, 23 July 2005 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in an undeletion request). No further edits should be made to this page.


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Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/List of U.S. state capitals

List of U.S. state capitals
Maybe someone that knows more about the United States can create brief articles for the capitol buildings that are missing? Phoenix2 18:29, July 22, 2005 (UTC)
 * Nominate and support. Phoenix2 18:29, July 22, 2005 (UTC)
 * objectI think there needs to be some clarification as to wether the article is refering to the city or the buildings. --The_stuart 18:55, 22 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Is the list not obviously referring to the state capitals, and the information about the capitol buildings ist just extra information? Phoenix2 18:58, July 22, 2005 (UTC)
 * Comment This article needs some work, but I will withhold vote until later. There is conflict between the pictures and the text in the right-hand column, with a lot of overlap (this may just be my bad browser, please tell me if it is).  The intro could also be a little more extensive. --Sophitus 19:01, July 22, 2005 (UTC)
 * There seems to be a lot of problems with pictures when I try to put them down the side of the page. Again, I am using 1024 by 768, and on this page there is no more room to shrink the pictures, really.  I'll see what I can do about the lead.  If there are any Americans here who can add some more valuable information to the lead and elsewehre, that would be good. Phoenix2 19:11, July 22, 2005 (UTC)
 * I've decided to overhaul this list and remove the information about the capitol buildings, which will be in a list that I will do later. The list with the capital information will be at User:Phoenix2/Sandbox1. Phoenix2 19:16, July 22, 2005 (UTC)
 * Comment: The info is limited. It should have more info such as the year it became the capital. You can also add former capitals of a state if any. Some countries like South Africa have a separate judicial, legislative and administrative capital. Any state having such a split? =Nichalp   «Talk»=  13:20, July 30, 2005 (UTC)


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Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Hexa do

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

The result of the debate was delete. Sasquatch ↔讲↔看 06:00, August 4, 2005 (UTC)

Hexa do
It's a version of Sudoku that hasn't been verified by anyone yet. User is seeking validation via Wikipedia. Delete Francs2000 | Talk 18:29, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

 * Delete per nom. No hits in a Google search on "hexa do" sudoku. Chuck 19:25, July 22, 2005 (UTC)

 * Delete notability not established. JamesBurns 04:37, 23 July 2005 (UTC)

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

title: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Hexa do


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Borderline (Madonna song)

"Borderline" is a song by American singer Madonna from her debut self-titled studio album (1983), written and produced by Reggie Lucas. In 1982, Madonna was signed on by Sire Records for the release of two 12-inch singles; after the success of first single "Everybody", the label approved the recording of an album, and the singer decided to work with Lucas. "Borderline" is a pop song with post-disco elements whose sounds recall the music of the 1970s, while the lyrics find a woman complaining of her lover's chauvinism.

In the United States, it was released as single on February 15, 1984, whereas in Europe it was published twice: first in June 1984, and then in January 1986. Upon release, "Borderline" was acclaimed by music critics, who lauded the singer's vocals; in retrospective reviews, it has been referred to as Madonna's breakout song, and as one of the best songs from the 1980s. It was commercially successful: in 1984, it gave Madonna her first top-ten hit in the US Billboard Hot 100. The 1986 release saw success across Europe: it became the singer's second number one in Ireland, and reached the top 3 in the United Kingdom, Belgium and The Netherlands.

The song's music video was directed by Mary Lambert; in it, Madonna portrays the girlfriend of a Hispanic man, to whom she returns after being enticed to pose and model for a white British photographer. Authors pointed out that with the visual, the singer broke the taboo of interracial relationships. "Borderline" has been performed in the singer's Virgin (1985) and Sticky & Sweet (2008) concert tours. It has also been covered by artists like Jody Watley, the Flaming Lips, and Kelly Clarkson, among others.

Background
In 1982, Madonna was living with her former Michigan boyfriend Stephen Bray in an unused rehearsal studio in New York City. Since "funky dance records were in style on the radio and dance floor", she and Bray created a demo tape with four dance tracks, including "Everybody", "Burning Up", and "Ain't No Big Deal". While pitching the tape, she met and befriended DJ Mark Kamins at Danceteria nightclub. After listening to "Everybody", Kamins took her to Sire Records, where Seymour Stein, the label's president, signed Madonna for two 12-inch singles. Produced by Kamins and released in October, "Everybody" became a hit in the dance scene. The single's success led to the label approving the recording of an album, but Madonna chose not to work with either Bray or Kamins, opting instead for Warner Bros. producer Reggie Lucas; Lucas was hired by Sire executive Michael Rosenblatt to give the album "an R&B feel". Upon meeting her, Lucas wasn't impressed with the singer's "boho-punk style", and thought she "didn’t seem particularly avant-garde."

Prior to entering the studio, Madonna had written three new songs: "Lucky Star", "Think of Me", and "I Know It". However, she soon realized that there was not enough material for a full-length album ― the only tracks available were "Everybody", "Burning Up", "Lucky Star", "Think of Me", "I Know It", and "Ain't No Big Deal". Lucas then brought two compositions of his own to the project: "Physical Attraction" and "Borderline", which he wrote specifically for Madonna. Him and the singer worked on "Borderline" while she was staying at artist Jean-Michel Basquiat's apartment; "I'd write songs and put them on a little cassette player [...] I’d ask Madonna if she liked them [...] I did the demos for 'Physical Attraction' and 'Borderline' [...] and we did what we did to them", the producer recalled. Upon hearing the final version, Stein declared, "I dared to believe this was going to be huge beyond belief, the biggest thing I'd ever had, after I heard 'Borderline'... The passion that she put into that song, I thought, there's no stopping this girl".

Composition and release
Recording took place at the Sigma Sound Studios in New York. Personnel working on the song included Lucas on the drum machine, Fred Zarr and Dean Gant on keyboards and synthesizers, alongside Ed Walsh; the bass was played by Anthony Jackson, while Bobby Malach played tenor saxophone. Background vocals were provided by Gwen Guthrie, Brenda White, and Chrissy Faith. Lucas compared "Borderline"'s style to that of Stephanie Mills' "Never Knew Love Like This Before" (1980), which he also produced. It is also the first song where he used a drum machine instead of a drummer. According to Rikki Rooksby, author of The Complete Guide to the Music of Madonna, the chord progression evokes Bachman-Turner Overdrive's "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" (1974), while the inversions are similar to the sound of the 1970s, specifically disco, Philadelphia soul, and the work of Elton John.

"Borderline" is a pop song with post-disco elements. It saw a change in Madonna's usual vocal tone, as she sings in a more "refined and expressive" way. Lyrically, it has been described as a "flirty, confectionery complaint from one lover to another". According to the sheet music published by Alfred Publishing Inc., "Borderline" is set in the time signature of common time with a moderate tempo of 120 beats per minute. It is composed in the key of D major, with Madonna's vocal range spanning from F♯3 to B4. The song follows the chord progression of D–C–G in the first verse, and changes to Bm–Em–A–F♯ in the pre-chorus. The refrain has a progression of G–D–A.

In the United States, "Borderline" was released on February 15, 1984, as the fourth single from the Madonna album, following "Holiday"; in the United Kingdom, it was published as the album's fifth single on June 2, 1984. To "keep the Madonna mania going on", a second European release was done in January 1986. "Borderline" was then included on Madonna's compilation albums The Immaculate Collection (1990) and Celebration (2009).

Critical reception
"Borderline" has been acclaimed since its release. For Rikky Rooksby, it's the "most harmonically complex track on the album", while Dave Marsh, author of The Heart of Rock & Soul, felt it was "too damn good to be denied, no matter whose value system it disrupts". To Marc Andrews, it's the album's "sweetest" song. Author Maury Dean, in his book Rock 'n' Roll Gold Rush, applauded its "saucy-style and come-hither magnetism". AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine singled it out as "effervescent", and as one of the "great songs" on his review of the Madonna album; for Stewart Mason, from the same portal, "[it] proved that Madonna was more than a pretty face, a dancer's body and a squeaky voice [...] 'Borderline' is a pure treasure, one of those unabashedly commercial pop songs that also manages to at least hint at deeper emotions". He concluded that the singer, "delivers the best vocal performance of her early career, when her limitations were at their most obvious".

From Slant Magazine, Sal Cinquemani deemed it "soulful", and Eric Henderson "tender", further adding: "Has there ever been an opening refrain more winsome and instantly nostalgic than that of Madonna’s first Top 10 single?". While the staff of The Advocate described "Borderline" as an "enjoyable earworm", Pitchfork's Jill Mapes opined that it "helped [Madonna] resituate electronic dance-pop at Top 40’s apex". Mapes also added that it's the singer's "passionate performance [that] takes it over the top". The Arizona Republic's Ed Masley deemed it the best song on the Madonna album, adding that, although it features "the same girlish pout as her other early hits, [she] invests with way more soul". This opinion was shared by Entertainment Weeklys Chuck Arnold and The Quietus Matthew Lindsay; the former said the singer "has never sounded more genuinely soulful than on the divine 'Borderline'", while the latter also deemed it one of her "most enduring" songs. One lukewarm review came from the Observer–Reporter's Terry Hazlett, who expressed the song was "inoffensive, danceable [but] ultimately forgettable".

While reviewing The Immaculate Collection on its 25th anniversary, Drew Mackie from People opined it was "catchy", and a "promise of even better things to come" in Madonna's career. James Rose, from the Daily Review, referred to "Borderline" as an "insight to an emerging wordsmith, with a deeper sensibility married to her unerring aim on manufactured pop hooks". On his review of the 2001 re-release of Madonna, Michael Paoletta from Billboard pointed out that, "such tracks as 'Borderline' [...] remain irresistible". While ranking the album's tracks on its 40th anniversary, Marcus Wratten from PinkNews placed "Borderline" on the first spot, singling out Madonna's performance, and comparing the single to a "warm, comforting hug". "Borderline" has often been referred to as Madonna's breakout song: Journalist Roxanne Orgill in her book Shout, Sister, Shout!, wrote that it made the singer "the star that she is". J. Randy Taraborrelli, in his biography of Madonna, said it was, along with "Holiday", one of the "key recordings" that helped to establish her career. Mark Elliott from website This is Dig! added that "Borderline" was a "landmark song", as it positioned Madonna as a "premier-league mainstream star and a compelling dance act". Finally, the staff of Rolling Stone concluded that, "['Borderline'] propelled [Madonna] from urban-radio contender to pop queen".

Matthew Jacobs from HuffPost placed the song at number 17 of his ranking of Madonna's singles, singling out "those wailing vocals". On Gay Star News' ranking, the single came in at number 12; Joe Morgan wrote: "[Madonna] may have done more complicated songs, and experimented more, but 'Borderline' is pure pop finery". Jude Rogers, from The Guardian, opined "Borderline" showcased "the young, untutored star at her most gentle and beseeching", and placed it at number 2 of her ranking of Madonna singles. It was named "the song that proved early on that Madonna was no one-trick disco show pony", as well as her 27th best, by PinkNews' Nayer Missim. Louis Virtel, writing for The Backlot, named "Borderline" the sixth best song of Madonna's discography, highlighting its "desire and unabashed innocence", and "phenomenal closing segment". The staff of Rolling Stone named it the second best song of 1984. On Pitchfork's ranking of the 200 best songs from the 1980s decade, "Borderline" was placed at 106: "four minutes of emotional helium [...] there’s so much charisma, it’s easy to see why it catapulted [Madonna] toward[s] being the biggest pop star in the world", read Jeremy Gordon's review. In 2023, while celebrating the 65th anniversary of the Hot 100, the staff of Billboard named "Borderline" the 128th best pop song to appear in the chart since 1958: "Not [Madonna's] biggest '80s pop hit, but likely her purest", read the review.

Commercial performance

The week of March 3, 1984, several radio stations began to add "Borderline" to its rotation, which caused it to debut at number 107 of Billboard's Bubbling Under Hot 100. One week later, it entered the Hot 100 at number 76. By June 16, it peaked at number 10, becoming Madonna's first top-ten hit, the first of 17 consecutive top-tens the singer would achieve from 1984 through 1989. Overall, it spent 30 weeks on the chart. On March 24, 1984, it entered the Dance Club Songs chart at number 67, eventually peaking at number 4 almost two months later. It also reached the 23rd position of the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. By the end of 1984, "Borderline" ranked 35th on Billboard's Hot 100 chart. On October 22, 1998, the song was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipment of 500,000 copies. In Canada, the single debuted in the 56th position of RPM's Top Singles chart on the week of August 4, 1984; one month later, it peaked at number 25.

In the United Kingdom, "Borderline" debuted at the 74th position of the UK Singles Chart on June 2, 1984, and, almost two week later, reached number 56; it spent 5 weeks on the chart overall. Following the 1986 re-release, it peaked at number two, behind Billy Ocean's "When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going". In February 1986, the single was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). "Borderline" was the 50th best-selling single of 1986 in the United Kingdom. According to Music Week magazine, over 298,300 copies of the single have been sold in the United Kingdom as of 2008. The 1986 release saw success across Europe; it was Madonna's second number one in Ireland after "Into the Groove", and peaked within the top 3 of the charts in Belgium and The Netherlands. "Borderline" reached the 29th and 25th spot of Music & Media's European Hot 100 Singles and European Airplay Top 50, respectively. In Australia, the singled peaked at number 12. It was less successful in New Zealand, where it barely cracked the top 40.

Background and synopsis
Mary Lambert directed the music video for "Borderline", which was filmed on location in Los Angeles, California from January 30 to February 2, 1984. Production was in charge of Lambert, Bruce Logan, and Michele Ferrone; Simon Maskell was on art direction, Andrea Dietrich on cinematography, while Glenn Morgan did the editing. In the video, Madonna plays a young woman emotionally torn between her Hispanic boyfriend and a white British photographer, for whom she models and who publishes her pictures on a magazine cover. Lambert recalled that there was "no formula" used when making the video and that they were simply "inventing it as we went along". The role of the singer's boyfriend was played by Louis "Louie Louie" Cordero, while actor John Leguizamo appeared as an extra.

Lambert herself described the video's plot to Rolling Stone: "[A] Boy and [a] girl enjoy simple pleasures of barrio love; girl is tempted by fame, boy gets huffy, girl gets famous, but her new beau's out-of-line reaction to a behavioral trifle (all she did was to spray-paint his expensive sports car) drives her back to her true love". Throughout the clip, the singer is seen with her boyfriend and his "multiethnic break-dancing entourage", hanging out on rooftops; the scenes with the photographer depict a luxury sports car and take place in a "sanitized, colorless" private studio. Madonna herself is shown with messy hair, "dramatic" make-up, jewelry, and a punk studded belt. In one particular scene with the boyfriend, she dons a denim jacket with "boy toy" emblazoned on the back. When she models, she wears a couple of evening gowns. These clothes were later used in fashion shows by designers like Karl Lagerfeld and Christian Lacroix.

Footage with the photographer was shot in black-and-white, while the scenes in the barrio with her boyfriend were shot in full color. "Borderline" was added to MTV the week of March 24, 1984. Years later, it was added to Madonna's video compilations The Immaculate Collection (1990) and Celebration: The Video Collection (2009).

Analysis and reception
According to Douglas Kellner, author of Media Culture: Cultural Studies, Identity, and Politics Between the Modern and the Postmodern, by having a Hispanic man play her love interest in the video, Madonna was breaking the "taboo of interracial relationships". The author also saw this as a marketing strategy: the singer was inviting whites, Hispanics and other people of color to "fantasize that, they too can have or be [her]", thus successfully appealing to different audiences. Kellner also held that the multiple and contrasting outfits Madonna wears throughout the visual suggested that, "one's identity is a construct that can [be] modified or change[d] at will". He also noted how Madonna was starting to use fashion, sexuality and "the construction of image to present herself as both an alluring sex object and a transgressor of established borderlines", citing a scene in which she sprays graffiti all over classical sculptures as an example. In The Cultural Politics of U.S. Immigration, Leah Perry specified that the singer had painted over the statues' genitals, thereby creating a "female sexuality that was independent of patriarchal control [...] that defied rather than rejected the male gaze".

In Madonna's Drowned Worlds, Santiago Fouz-Hernández and Freya Jarman-Ivens wrote that the Hispanic boyfriend and British photographer represented "the dualities" of the singer's life and career up at that point: "the gritty, multirracial street and club scene [...] [and] the new slick, fast world of popularity and success". On the same vein, Kellner singled out the "contrasting fashion codes" between upper-class and Hispanic cultures; one is shown throughout high fashion, art, and luxury, while the other is equated to barrios and urban ghettos. Throughout the clip, Madonna interacts with both men; in the end, however, she returns to her Hispanic boyfriend. Kellner concluded that this was meant to project "the fantasy that one can have it all, crossing borderlines from one culture to another [and] appropriating the pleasures of both". From website This is Dig!, author Mark Elliott wrote that the clip "further fuelled the explosive impact of [Madonna's] first 18 months of fame", also adding that the singer played the same character from "Borderline" in the music videos for "Like a Virgin" and "Material Girl" (1985) –which were also directed by Lambert– as well as in Desperately Seeking Susan (1985). The video for Madonna's 1994 single "Secret" was seen as a sequel to "Borderline".

Matthew Lindsay referred to "Borderline" as a "mini-movie", and compared it to the 1975 film Mahogany ―which also features an interracial romance― and to the work of director John Hughes. Radhika Jones said the singer resembled a "cool big sister crossing over into womanhood". Eric Henderson considered "Borderline" to be the singer's 23rd greatest music video, deeming it "as simple and direct as the song’s message: Be with me and you’re going to have a really good time". Louis Virtel wrote: "Remember simpler times when Madonna could just spray graffiti and look jilted at a pool hall, and that would be enough for a beautiful video? [...] [her] yearning is contagious — even if she is clad in chartreuse socks and yellow heels". He named it her eleventh best. Finally, Out magazine's Julien Sauvalle considered it one of the singer's "most stylish" videos and noted influence on Rihanna's "We Found Love" (2011). "Borderline" earned Madonna a nomination for Best New Artist at the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards.

Live performances
In February 1984, Madonna appeared on The Dance Show and performed "Borderline", joined by her brother Christopher Ciccone, and dancer Erika Belle. The single was then included on two of the singer's concert tours: Virgin (1985) and Sticky & Sweet (2008). On the first one, the performance saw Madonna coming out from behind a silhouette. Her wardrobe consisted of a crop top beneath a vest with a silver cross pattée, matching fringed gloves and miniskirt, leggings, low heel leather boots, and a crucifix earring in one ear. "Borderline" is one of three performances not included on the Madonna Live: The Virgin Tour video release (1985).

On 2006's Confessions Tour, "Borderline" was sampled on an introduction video that led to "Music" (2000), along with "Holiday", "Dress You Up" (1985), and "Erotica" (1992). An arena rock rendition of "Borderline", with Madonna playing a purple Gibson Les Paul electric guitar, was performed on the Sticky & Sweet Tour. The singer wore 1980s-styled gym shorts, while the backdrops depicted graffiti and artwork inspired by Keith Haring. From the Houston Press, Chris Gray referred to the number as a "stunner [...] one of several instances where [Madonna] proved her guitar was far more than a prop". The performance was included on the Sticky & Sweet Tour live album release (2010), recorded during the four concerts in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

On March 10, 2016, Madonna sang an acoustic "Borderline" on the Melbourne concert of her Madonna: Tears of a Clown show; she was dressed as a clown ―with a pink wig and candy-striped tights― and began the performance by saying: "I don’t have bipolar disorder but I am a little borderline". Writing for The Guardian, Monica Tan praised the singer for "knowing her jokes were shit but using them as a segue into songs". Finally, on June 9, the singer did a “slowed-down, souled-up” rendition of the song on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where she was joined by American band the Roots; the number was watched by the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama.

Covers and media reference
In 2000, an electro-industrial cover of the song recorded by Canadian musician Nivek Ogre was included on Virgin Voices: A Tribute To Madonna, Vol. 2; AllMusic's Heather Phares was critical of the rendition, saying it had "missed the mark". Two years later, it was recorded by American pop punk band Showoff for the compilation album Punk Goes Pop. American singer Jody Watley recorded "Borderline" for her ninth album The Makeover (2006). This rendition had a slowed down "sparse" arrangement of piano, percussion and synths, and was lauded by the staff Billboard, who applauded its "beautifully chilled-out rhythms". When asked why she chose to cover the song, Watley explained: "['Borderline'] is a song I’ve always liked. Because -even though the way it was originally recorded was very poppy- for me [it] always had a melancholy side to it, which I think my version taps into".

American duo Chapin Sisters recorded the song for the tribute album Through the Wilderness (2007). One year later, it was sung by Welsh singer Duffy at Radio 1's Big Weekend; afterwards, Duffy revealed that she was "terrified" at the idea of performing a Madonna song. In 2009, "Borderline" was covered by American bands the Flaming Lips and Stardeath and White Dwarfs for the Warner Bros. Records compilation Covered, A Revolution in Sound. On his review of the album, AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine felt this version turned the original "inside out". Also in 2009, American band Counting Crows did a "strangely country" rendition of "Borderline" at a concert in London's Royal Albert Hall; it was made available to download on MP3 through the band's official website on March 17 of that year.

Actors Cory Monteith and Lea Michele performed a mashup of "Borderline" and Madonna's 1986 single "Open Your Heart" in "The Power of Madonna" (2010), the fifteenth episode of American television series Glee. Australian guitarist Tommy Emmanuel and American singer Amanda Shires covered the track for the former's 2018 album Accomplice One. According to Rolling Stone, this rendition "retains little of its original feel", being described as a "lilting waltz, with Shires' plaintive fiddle replacing the bubbly synthesizer hook". In January 2021, American singer Kelly Clarkson did a "stirring" rendition of the song during the "Kellyoke" segment of her talk show The Kelly Clarkson Show. One year later, in March 2022, Welsh band Manic Street Preachers sang "Borderline" during their appearance at the BBC 6 music festival; the following month, the band recorded a studio version. In 2017, on "Who's Your Daddy?" ―second episode of the ninth season of Will and Grace― Will Truman (Eric McCormack) references "Borderline" by saying it got him through a bad breakup.

Track listings and formats

 * US 7-inch single
 * 1) "Borderline" (7-inch remix) – 3:59
 * 2) "Think of Me" (LP version) – 4:55

 * UK 7-inch and limited-edition picture disc
 * 1) "Borderline" (7-inch remix) – 3:59
 * 2) "Physical Attraction" (single edit) – 3:56

 * UK 12-inch single
 * 1) "Borderline" (U.S remix) – 6:57
 * 2) "Borderline" (dub remix) – 5:48
 * 3) "Physical Attraction" (LP version) – 6:42

 * German and UK CD Maxi-Single (1995)
 * 1) "Borderline" (LP version) – 5:17
 * 2) "Borderline" (U.S. remix) – 6:57
 * 3) "Physical Attraction" (LP version) – 6:42

 * US 12-inch Maxi-Single
 * 1) "Borderline" (New Mix) – 6:54
 * 2) "Lucky Star" (New Mix) – 7:14

 * US 12-inch promotional maxi single
 * 1) "Borderline" (New Mix) – 6:54
 * 2) "Borderline" (Instrumental) – 5:48

 * Australian 12-inch single
 * 1) "Borderline" (U.S. remix) – 6:57
 * 2) "Borderline" (7-inch remix) – 3:59
 * 3) "Borderline" (Dub remix) – 5:48

 * German 12-inch single
 * 1) "Borderline" (U.S. remix) – 6:57
 * 2) "Borderline" (dub remix) – 5:48
 * 3) "Physical Attraction" (LP version) – 6:42

 * Digital single (2023)
 * 1) "Borderline" - 5:21
 * 2) "Borderline" (7-inch remix) - 3:59
 * 3) "Borderline" (U.S. remix) - 6:57

Credits and personnel
Credits are adapted from the album and 7-inch single liner notes.
 * Madonna – lead vocals
 * Reggie Lucas – writer, producer, guitars, drum programming
 * Fred Zarr – synthesizers, electric and acoustic piano
 * Dean Gant – synthesizers, electric and acoustic piano
 * Ed Walsh – synthesizers
 * Anthony Jackson – electric bass
 * Ira Siegal – guitars
 * Bobby Malach – tenor saxophone
 * Gwen Guthrie – background vocals
 * Brenda White – background vocals
 * Chrissy Faith – background vocals
 * Glenn Parsons - artwork
 * Jeri McManus - artwork
 * George Holz - photography

title: Borderline (Madonna song)


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Talk:List of state capitals in the United States

Time zones?
Why are time zones included on this list? Is it at all relevant? I would think if someone wanted to see what time zone a city was in, they'd click through to the city's article. JEK   23:15, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Merge?
Should this be merged with List of current and former capital cities in the United States? That list does contain all the information this list contains. JEK   23:16, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

I would almost vote for deleting this page. There's a pretty good list on the US state page. This page could probably just link to the appropriate section on that page? - Cribananda 23:52, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

CDT Alabama
what is the purpose of having CDT Alabama as a redlink for every time zone for every capital in this article. Why not just Eastern, Central, Mountain, ETC. Also, whether it is daylight time or not depends on the month of the year, so why here? Thanks Hmains 03:08, 7 July 2006 (UTC)


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Talk:ShadowCrew

Comments
- REVIEW PROCESS

Untitled
There's a sentence in the first section that says "The site worked on a review process" or something along those lines. The next sentence starts "If you had a XXXX or XXXX to sell, or a XXXX service..." and it just continues with about 20 different replacements for XXXX. That makes for a really tedious sentence, for one- when you give an example, you don't need to include every freaking possibility. Four would have been more than plenty and a bit tedious itself. THAT'S NOT EVEN THE WORST PART- it just ENDS. It doesn't finish what the "if" is. I assume it was supposed to explain the review process, guessing by the way it was set up- but who knows? All it is now is a pointless list of everything that was ever sold there

Nobody has ever discussed how many of the 4000 members were police or fraud prevention personel. Or just observers for that matter.

Someone needs to also update what happened to those arrested, etc. - Someone needs to re-seed that Archive. Its full of holes and errors.... Anyone?

Later, Tribute. -

What is this about?

This article is not terribly useful without some kind of context. 69.30.112.10 00:31, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

-

citation needed

- — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.112.178.223 (talk) 04:46, 9 January 2012 (UTC)

I was doing some research on SC and other carder sites for a blog article and found this site: http://afterlife.wordpress.com/2006/07/12/carding-web-sites/

There are numerous posts from August and September that would seem to indicate that thegrifters site or at least the El Mariachi guy was and/or is still around. I can't get to the site now, but it looks like it was still up as of mid to late 2006.

El Mariachi is certainly still around and running his site TheGrifters.net. Several have spoken to him confirming he is at least active in early 2007.

According to the wired story here: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,72515-0.html El Marachi and TheGrifters.net were run by the FBI.

"Administration"

In the "Administration" section of the article, the sentence that starts "If you had items you would like to sell..." just ends up rambling on without resolving itself. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.158.128.180 (talk) 02:19, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

Counterfeitlibrary Shadowcrew Refugees
My nick is Assweasel on Shadowcrew Phoenix  on CounterfeitLibrary bearez on Counterfeitersguild.

I had actually left the scene after the demise of CounterfeitLibrary I was a bit dismayed as to the blatant credit card, egold, e-bay etc scams that were going on and new that Law enforcement were not far behind.

These earlier boards were created to share info on how to make fake ID's and if they had stayed out of the cID theft and credit card ripoffs would probably still be around today.

I manufactured ID's from several states and sold them on the boards. Someone wanting an Id to do a bit of underage drinking or a woman escaping an abusive husband seemed to be pretty harmless and that is what i confined myself to.

I was probably the most respected vendor that ever hit the scene and got myself out well in advance of Law enforcement. there were a number of ppl that confined themselves to basically what i was doing and oddly enough none of us has had any trouble with Law Enforcement. the worst i suffered was a seizure of my equipment. I suppose that this came as a result of Gollumfun snitching. No one had my address other than him.

I had sent some money to his wife so she could go buy my daughter a 4ft princess barbie in the US that was not available in canada. Anyhow they raided my farm when i wasn't there and grabbed my gear.

Anyhow if anyone is doing research on this i have insider knowledge of what went on. And as the Staute of Limitations has run out i don't mind talking about it.

Don't be asking for any ID'S. I quit making them after 911. just the thought of the possibility of selling to the likes of the ATTA gang was quite sobering to me. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.102.104.34 (talk) 20:05, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

 * I'd like to ask you a few questions if you happen to see this. I used to be on SC long ago and as you mentioned, I had originally come there looking for "novelty" ID's. I remember a user named KEVLAR with MI cards...anyways, if you can contact me that would be great. You can post on my talk page or some other way and I will give you my email/contact info. jlcoving  ( talk ) 23:49, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

Wasn't the etiquette at the time something along the lines of "If you look like an Arab, we're not helping you"? 124.190.154.40 (talk) 18:42, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

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====================== Deck- Are we ever going to fix the inaccuracies in this wiki. The amount of edit's is insane, also please explain to me how you can found something that preexists ones involvement.

PS: Who ever scrubbed "Kidd Seth Sanders)" grats on the revisionist history. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Decknomore (talk • contribs) 02:38, 20 June 2012 (UTC)

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This article was useless
Made some edits that requested citations, many of the claims were clearly made by people desiring to limit their exposure or downplay the criminal activities of this group. Also removed several overly biased and unsourced claims that were making the article into a propaganda piece for the criminals. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.8.57.37 (talk) 03:38, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Complete Rewrite - Post Here Anything Useful To Improve The Article
This article is in the process of being completely rewritten, so if you see something out of place or grammar/empty sections, feel free to move them or fill them, just please don't delete referenced material because you disagree with what is said. We will try to get everybody's POV mashed up to get a nice neutral article.

All unreferenced information will slowly be removed and replaced with information found in credible sources. If you would like to contribute, but don't feel like hunting for references, put your suggestions here. I've put in different sections to untangle the mess of unrelated sentences that composed the article. Cheers! Meishern (talk) 21:35, 6 April 2011 (UTC)

 * Just wanted to drop a note stating that I took time to add references to every request for citation and reformatted the article into a more appropriate format. Jeremy112233 (talk) 00:44, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

Details about this stuff
Almost everything that has "citation needed" next to it in this article can be found in Kevin Poulsen's book "Kingpin", which is pretty exhaustive (and certainly not flattering) in its documentation of ShadowCrew and its contemporaries. It's well worth a read, though I can't say I care enough to provide the references. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.253.86.183 (talk) 21:10, 20 October 2011 (UTC)

Number of Users
"The last available page before October 27, 2004 on archive.org[5] shows 2,709 registered members. Even this number is not an accurate estimate of the true number of members as registration was free, so the number could easily exceed those stated."

"as registration was free, so the number could easily exceed those stated." apparently whoever wrote that did not understand was registration means. Some people just don't understand who forums work. It annoys the hell out of me, but its not surprising. I am going to remove that sentence. Anyone who understands how industry standard forum software (example: vBulletin) works knows that a member is someone who has signed up, and that the number of "members" CANNOT exceed that number, typically listed at the bottom or top of each page, because that number counts the number of people who have signed up, with a username, for the website. Free or not, that number cannot be exceeded.68.6.76.31 (talk) 04:00, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 3 external links on ShadowCrew. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090117135809/http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nj/press/files/pdffiles/firewallindct1028.pdf to http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nj/press/files/pdffiles/firewallindct1028.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20050522001128/http://yahoo.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_22/b3935001_mz001.htm to http://yahoo.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_22/b3935001_mz001.htm

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title: Talk:ShadowCrew


text:
Skip Prosser

George Edward "Skip" Prosser (November 3, 1950 – July 26, 2007) was an American college basketball coach who was head men's basketball coach at Wake Forest University at the time of his death. He was the only coach in NCAA history to take three separate schools to the NCAA tournament in his first year coaching the teams. In 21 years as a collegiate coach, he made 18 postseason appearances.

Previously, he coached Xavier University for seven seasons, where he achieved great success. He spent his first year coaching at the collegiate level at Loyola College in Maryland, taking the Greyhounds to the team's first modern-day NCAA Tournament appearance.

Prosser was the Atlantic Coast Conference Coach of the Year in 2003.

Early life
Prosser was born and raised in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania suburb of Carnegie and graduated from Carnegie High School, where he played football and basketball. He played basketball and rugby union at the United States Merchant Marine Academy where he earned a degree in nautical science in 1972.

Prosser coached at Linsly Military Institute in Wheeling, West Virginia, where he achieved a 38–9 record. He then was hired as a history teacher at Wheeling Central Catholic High School, where he coached his teams to a state championship in 1982, five regional championships and three conference titles over a period of six years and a record of 104–48. Prosser would say later in his career that he would be happy if he were still teaching and coaching at Central Catholic High. One of the players on his championship team was Doug Wojcik, former head coach at the College of Charleston. Prosser earned his master's degree in secondary education from West Virginia University while he taught at Wheeling Central.

Coaching
Prosser coached 15 seasons as head coach at the collegiate level. He began his college coaching career when he was hired by Coach Pete Gillen as an assistant coach for eight seasons at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, starting with the 1985–86 season, and he became Gillen's top assistant.

His collegiate head coaching career began at Loyola College in Maryland on April 1, 1993. Besides replacing Tom Schneider, who had resigned amid a then-school-worst 2–25 season, Prosser inherited a program that had completed its sixth straight losing campaign. In his only season at Loyola, the Greyhounds finished with a 17–13 overall record and won the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championship to earn its first-ever NCAA Division I tournament berth. He returned to Xavier precisely one year later, on April 1, 1994, to succeed Gillen, who had accepted a similar position at Providence College two days prior. Prosser became the second-winningest coach in Xavier history after Gillen.

Prosser began his career at Wake Forest in 2001 and led the Demon Deacons to the NCAA tournament in each of his first four years there. Prosser is credited for sparking participation in the Wake Forest student Screamin' Demons and increasing attendance with game-time antics, like having the Demon Deacon mascot enter Lawrence Joel on a Harley Davidson and filling the coliseum with Zombie Nation's "Kernkraft 400" at tip-off and when the Deacons would go on a run. During Prosser's tenure as head coach, home season tickets sold out for the first time ever in 2004. During the 2004–05 season, the team was ranked #1 by the Associated Press for the first time in the school's history and won a school-record 27 games. At Wake Forest, Prosser won 100 games faster than all but two ACC coaches. In 2003, his Demon Deacons squad became the first from the ACC to ever lead the nation in rebounding. In the summer of 2007, Prosser had organized what was said to be a top-five recruiting class for the upcoming year.

Prosser was the collegiate coach of current or former NBA players Aaron Williams, James Posey, David West, Josh Howard, Darius Songaila and Chris Paul; he won national recruiting wars for Paul and Eric Williams. He amassed a career record of 291–146 (.666).

Every senior whom Prosser coached earned his degree in four years.

Coaching style
Prosser's teams were known for their fast tempo and offensive explosiveness.

During his last two troubling seasons, Prosser would quote Thomas Paine, Henry David Thoreau, Friedrich Nietzsche, or William Shakespeare to his players to inspire them. In the spring semester before summer exhibition tours, Prosser would require that every member of his team take a one-credit class on the history of the place they would be visiting. He would also attend the class and write the required term paper.

Personal life
Prosser and his wife Nancy met in Cincinnati. He had two sons, Scott and Mark, who are from his first marriage to Ruth Charles. Mark was formerly the head coach at Division II Brevard College, served as an assistant coach at Winthrop University, and is now head coach at Winthrop University.

An avid sports fan, Prosser was a follower of the Pittsburgh Steelers since childhood and would often find sports bars to watch their games while on the road. He was at Three Rivers Stadium to witness the Immaculate Reception. He also saw Roberto Clemente's 3,000th and final hit, and the last game ever played at Three Rivers Stadium. He once hitchhiked across the country.

Prosser earned a reputation in college basketball for a keen intellect and sense of humor. He enjoyed reading the books of Robert Ludlum, along with biographies and books on history, philosophy, and politics. The athletic director at Loyola, Joe Boylan, said that Prosser was a "renaissance man coaching basketball." Former Xavier player Dwayne Wilson said, "He always liked to read history books, so he was always quoting something—whether it be Winston Churchill or another great author—he was always quoting somebody on something."

Prosser stated, in an interview that aired just after his death, that his favorite quote was from Ralph Waldo Emerson: "He was a transcendentalist in America in the 1830s who said 'Our chief want in life is someone who will make us do what we can.' I thought that was a powerful statement that we need to be around people who challenge us to be as good as we can be."

Since 2009, Prosser's legacy has been celebrated in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, with the annual READ Challenge as part of the Skip Prosser Literacy Program. The READ Challenge, a collaboration between Wake Forest Athletics and the Wake Forest Department of Education with support from the Winston-Salem-based literary nonprofit Bookmarks, encourages and supports reading among fourth-grade students in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools. In the fall of 2019, 1,441 fourth graders from 29 elementary schools participated in the READ Challenge. 903 fourth-graders read 1500 or more minutes before winter break, the highest participation total since 2014.

Death
On July 26, 2007, Prosser collapsed in his office around noon after jogging at the Kentner Stadium track adjacent to his office in the Manchester Athletic Center on Wake Forest's campus. A staff member found him unresponsive around 12:45 pm; medical personnel performed CPR and used a defibrillator in efforts to revive Prosser. He was rushed to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 1:41 pm from an apparent "sudden massive heart attack". He was 56 years old.

The announcement of Prosser's death was delayed until later in the day because his wife was traveling to Cincinnati and had not yet been reached. Players were gathered and taken to an off-campus location without their cell phones to guard them from reports of Prosser's death.

Prosser ate lunch the previous day with his predecessor as Wake Forest coach, then University of South Carolina coach Dave Odom. Prosser then ate dinner with his son Mark, who was also in Florida recruiting, before flying to North Carolina Thursday morning.

Two funeral masses were held for Prosser. The first was on July 31, 2007, at the Holy Family Catholic Church in Clemmons, North Carolina, near the Wake Forest campus (due to seating limitations, this service was televised by closed circuit television to Wait Chapel on campus). The second mass was held on August 4, 2007, at the Cintas Center on the campus of Xavier University in Cincinnati. Prosser was then buried at the Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati.

title: Skip Prosser


text:
Talk:William Tranter

Copyright?
What do you think, is this article a copyvio of this site, or is it simply the presentation of very similar information, but with enough of a difference to be clearly distinct from the site I posted above? Jwrosenzweig 18:32, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

Yes I agree it is almost direct copy of the original web page which I wrote. There is a lot more related information about William Tranter on the site. Kerry Guerin 27 July 2005

I may not have checked well enough, but I see very little in terms of literal copying. The creator used a web page as a resource and phrased the facts in their own words. The source was properly referenced. There is no copyright on a collection of facts, just on a specific expression. If you disagree, please report the issue at Copyright problems. Rl 10:27, 27 July 2005 (UTC)

title: Talk:William Tranter


text:
Big Me

"Big Me" is the fourth single by Foo Fighters from their self-titled debut album. Released in the spring of 1996, the song became a crossover hit for the band on pop radio, when it reached #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay.

Music video
The song became well known for its music video, which parodies Mentos advertisements, turning them into commercials for "Footos," with the "Freshmaker" slogan being rendered as "The Fresh Fighter". The concept came from director Jesse Peretz, who had originally pitched the idea to another band, and the Foo Fighters accepted the concept because, according to Dave Grohl, "We had some difficulty finding a treatment that would suit the song, which is this short, tongue-in-cheek, ridiculously candy-coated pop tune. We didn't want to make this big, pretentious portrait video. We wanted to make fun of ourselves and the song." The video, which was entirely filmed on location in Sydney Central Business District, McMahons Point, Kirribilli, North Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, debuted on MTV on February 14, 1996, and quickly became a Buzz Bin clip. It was eventually nominated for 5 MTV Video Music Awards at the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards, winning only "Best Group Video".

The video's success led to many fans throwing Mentos at the band whenever they played the song live. For an extended period of time, the band did not play the song live due to this, as Grohl cited: "We did stop playing that song for a while because, honestly, it's like being stoned. Those little … things are like pebbles – they hurt." The band only started to change its mind after Weezer started performing "Big Me" during the Foozer tour both bands did together.

2019 Record Store Day re-release
The "Big Me" single was re-released on a 3-inch vinyl for Record Store Day on April 13, 2019. The single is one of several 3-inch Record Store Day re-issues that is playable on special miniature record players.

Singles

 * CD single
 * 1) "Big Me"
 * 2) "Floaty (BBC Evening Session Recording 23 November 1995)"
 * 3) "Gas Chamber (BBC Evening Session Recording 23 November 1995)" (Angry Samoans cover)
 * 4) "Alone + Easy Target (BBC Evening Session Recording 23 November 1995)"

 * 7" White Vinyl
 * 1) "Big Me"
 * 2) "Floaty (BBC Evening Sessions Recording 23 November 1995)
 * 3) "Gas Chamber (BBC Evening Sessions Recording 23 November 1995) (Angry Samoans cover)

 * Maxi CD single
 * 1) "Big Me"
 * 2) "Winnebago"
 * 3) "How I Miss You" (features Dave Grohl's sister Lisa on bass and Mike Nelson on drums)
 * 4) "Podunk"
 * 5) "Ozone" (Ace Frehley cover)
 * 6) "For All the Cows" (live at the Reading Festival, August 26, 1995)
 * 7) "Wattershed" (live at the Reading Festival, August 26, 1995)

 * 3” Record Store Day 2019 Exclusive Single
 * 1) “Big Me”

title: Big Me


text:
Joachim Menant

Joachim Menant (16 April 1820 – 30 August 1899) was a French magistrate and orientalist.

He was born in Cherbourg. He studied law and became vice-president of the tribunal civil of Rouen in 1878, and a member of the court of appeal three years later. But he became best known for his studies on cuneiform inscriptions.

He also collaborated with Julius Oppert. He was admitted to the Academy of Inscriptions in 1887, and died in Paris two years later.

His daughter Delphine (b. 1850) received a prize from the Académie française for her Les Parsis, histoire des communautés zoroastriennes de l'Inde (1898), and was sent in 1900–1901 to British India on a scientific mission, of which she published a report in 1903.

Selected bibliography

 * La Bibliothèque du palais de Ninive, Paris, E. Leroux, 1880. Texte en ligne
 * Les Langues perdues de la Perse et de l'Assyrie, Paris, E. Leroux, 1886. Texte en ligne
 * Annales des rois d'Assyrie, traduites et mises en ordre sur le texte assyrien, Paris, Maisonneuve, 1874
 * Babylone et la Chaldée, Paris, Maisonneuve, 1875
 * Catalogue des cylindres orientaux du Cabinet royal des médailles de La Haye, La Haye : Imprimerie de l'État, 1878
 * Collection épigraphique de M. Lottin de Laval. Inscriptions en caractères cunéiformes des briques de Babylone. Essai de lecture et d'interprétation, Caen, Impr. Hardel, 1859
 * Découvertes assyriennes; la bibliothèque du palais de Ninive. Paris, E. Leroux, 1880
 * Éléments d'épigraphie assyrienne ; les écritures cunéiformes, exposé des travaux qui ont préparé la lecture et l'interprétation des inscriptions de la Perse et de l'Assyrie, Paris, B. Duprat, 1864
 * Éléments d'épigraphie assyrienne ; manuel de la langue assyrienne: I. Le syllabaire. II. La grammaire. III. Choix de lectures, Paris, Imprimerie nationale, 1880
 * Éléments d'épigraphie assyrienne. Le syllabaire assyrien, exposé des éléments du système phonétique de l'écriture anarienne, Paris, Imprimerie impériale, 1869–1873
 * Éléments du syllabaire hétéen, Paris, Imprimerie nationale : C. Klincksieck, 1892
 * Empreintes de cylindres assyro-chaldéens relevées sur les contrats d'intérêt privé du Musée Britannique, Paris, Imprimerie nationale, 1880
 * Exposé des éléments de la grammaire assyrienne, Paris, Imprimerie impériale, 1868
 * Grande inscription du palais de Khorsabad. Paris, Imprimerie Impériale, 1863
 * Inscriptions assyriennes des briques de Babylone ; essai de lecture et d'interprétation, Paris, B. Duprat, 1859
 * Inscriptions de Hammourabi, roi de Babylone (XVIe siècle avant J.-C.), Paris, B. Duprat, 1863
 * Inscriptions des revers de plaques du palais de Khorsabad, Paris, Imprimerie impériale, 1865
 * Kar-Kemish : sa position d'après les découvertes modernes, Paris, Imprimerie nationale, 1891
 * La Bible et les cylindres chaldéens, Paris, Imprimerie nationale, 1880, 1879
 * La Stèle de Chalouf ; essai de restitution du texte perse, Paris, F. Vieweg, 1887
 * Leçons d'épigraphie assyrienne professées aux cours libres de la Sorbonne pendant l'année 1869, Paris, Maisonneuve, 1873
 * Les Achéménides et les inscriptions de la Perse, Paris, A. Lévy, 1872
 * Les Cylindres orientaux du Cabinet royal des médailles à La Haye, Paris, Imprimerie nationale, 1879
 * Les Écritures cunéiformes exposé des travaux qui on préparé la lecture et l'interprétation des inscriptions de la Perse et de l'Assyrie, Paris, Duprat, 1860
 * Les Fausses Antiquités de l'Assyrie et de la Chaldée, Paris, Ernest Leroux, 1888
 * Les Langues perdues de la Perse & de l'Assyrie, Paris, Ernest Leroux, 1885–1886
 * Les Noms propres assyriens. recherches sur la formation des expressions idéographiques. Paris, Benjamin Duprat, 1861
 * Les Pierres gravées de la Haute-Asie. Recherches sur la glyptique orientale, Paris, Maisonneuve, 1886
 * Les Yédidiz ; épisodes de l'histoire des adorateurs du diable, Paris, E. Leroux, 1892
 * Manuel de la langue assyrienne. Paris, Imprimerie nationale, 1880
 * Ninive et Babylone, Paris, Hachette, coll. , 1888
 * Notice sur les inscriptions en caractères cunéiformes de la collection épigraphique de M. Lottin de Laval, Caen, A. Hardel, 1858
 * Notice sur quelques empreintes de cylindres du dernier empire de Chaldée, Paris, Imprimerie nationale, 1879
 * Observations sur les polyphones assyriens, Lisieux, A. Durand, 1859
 * Observations sur trois cylindres orientaux, Paris, Maisonneuve, 1880
 * Rapport sur les inscriptions assyriennes du British Museum, Paris, 1862–1863
 * Remarques sur les portraits des rois assyrochaldéens, Paris, Imprimerie nationale, 1882
 * Zoroaster ; essai sur la philosophie religieuse de la Perse, Paris, Derache, 1857

title: Joachim Menant