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Virus Syndicate

Virus Syndicate are a British grime collective from Manchester, centred on JSD and Nika D. They are known for their fusion of dubstep with grime, and have been lauded by The Daily Telegraph as "some of the tautest British MC-ing since the first Dizzee Rascal album."

Music and style
Virus Syndicate is known for their fusion of dubstep and grime, putting dub effects on the vocals and using sub bass, common in dubstep music. On their 2015 album Symptomatic, Virus Syndicate branched out in Horrorcore and Political hip hop, with songs such a "Watch Your Back" and "Psychopath" having a theme centred on insanity and "Watch Your Back" contains graphic murder descriptions and the song "Do Suttin'" contained political lyrics rapped by Goldfinger denouncing police brutality ("Police are on the loose, they're murderin' civilians"), government corruption, and religion ("The real villains are police, religion, and the crooked politicians"). The song also encourages action in the lyrics in the chorus also rapped by Goldfinger "Do somethin', don't just sit back".

Career
They often supplied the vocal accompaniment on Mark One's solo recordings, specifically on his debut LP, One Way. They have also released two of their own grime LPs, Work Related Illness and Sick Pay, both in collaboration with Mark One. The LP cover featured cartoon artwork and a comic strip about the everyday life of the members of group. They also appear on the track "Dead Man Walking" on Milanese's first album. Virus Syndicate appear on the Planet μ record label. Additionally, they made an EP in 2015 with the Dutch Hip-Hop group Dope D.O.D. called Battle Royal EP. They next released a track called "Next Wave", a collaboration with Swedish DJ and Producer, Bossfight. In 2016, their collaboration with Buku, a track called "Worker Bees" was featured on Ubisoft Annecy's extreme snow-sport game "STEEP". Since their 2017 EP "The Mancunian Way" on Disciple Records, the group have released multiple projects on the label together with big names in the bass music world such as Virtual Riot, Dodge & Fuski, Barely Alive, Infekt and more.

title: Virus Syndicate


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Patton Versus Rommel

Patton vs. Rommel is a computer wargame designed and programmed by Chris Crawford for the Macintosh and published by Electronic Arts in 1986. Versions for MS-DOS compatible operating systems and Commodore 64 were developed by Sculptured Software and published in 1987.

Plot
Patton vs. Rommel is set in and around the Normandy beachhead shortly after the D-Day invasion of June, 1944. American, Canadian and British forces are placed in the correct positions as the Allied advance started to bog down. The German forces of Rommel are likewise in place defending Caen and other cities.

Gameplay
To win the game, the Allied player must advance farther and faster than the real-life Allied forces. For the Rommel-side player to win, he or she must defend more territory longer than the actual German defenders. If the German side can effectively counter and stall the Allied attacks and prevent a breakthrough, the Rommel player will usually win.

This creates a dynamic where the Patton player must look for a way to create a hole in the German lines wide enough to push one or more armored divisions through into the German rear area. Since almost all of the German forces are concentrated at the front, the principle of fog of war means that units that are not within sight of enemy units "disappear" from the game map – and from the thinking of the enemy. When they suddenly reappear in a surprise attack from the rear they have an overwhelming advantage over the units they are attacking. In this way an Allied player can roll up a major element of the German line and achieve a victory.

In real history the Allies eventually broke through and surrounded several German panzer and infantry divisions, which were decimated as they attempted to escape through the Falaise Gap. In the game this decisive victory requires practice and skill by the Allied player.

Development
After the success of Crawford's game Balance of Power, EA wanted to work with him, but could not acquire the rights to sequel the game from its publisher, Mindscape. Instead, they suggested he build on the tradition of his seminal Atari 8-bit game Eastern Front.

Crawford elected to focus the game's design on fog of war and the personalities of American general George Patton and the German field marshal Erwin Rommel. In real life the two were never involved together in a major confrontation, as Rommel was wounded in 1944 and later forced to commit suicide (due to his association with the anti-Hitler conspirators of the July 20 plot), before Patton had command in large-scale land operations. The game's AI, however, worked to be true to the strategies of each of the two generals.

Reception
Computer Gaming World described the game as "very playable", admiring its in-game advisors and simple movement scheme, even allowing units to queue actions that are remembered turn-to-turn. A 1991 survey of strategy and war games, however, gave it two and a half stars out of five, and a 1993 survey of wargames gave the game two stars. Crawford himself did not believe that the game would be popular, describing it in a 1987 interview as "not a great game. It is a good game, it is fun, but I don't feel it has greatness in its bowels ... Balance of Power I did for me [while] Patton Vs. Rommel is a game for the public". The game was very well received by war game enthusiasts but never became popular in a wider marketplace.

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

title: Patton Versus Rommel


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Talk:The Virgin Prunes

Virgin Prunes, not "The" Virgin Prunes
Isn't the band name just Virgin Prunes, where did "The" come from? "The" Virgin Prunes is a variation, while Virgin Prunes is used mostly. You can see it on their album covers (82.43.99.178 (talk) 01:20, 30 November 2009 (UTC))

Please do not copy and paste from virginprunes.com
Please do not copy and paste material from virginprunes.com - it has happened twice so far, and is a clear copyright violation. I have emailed the maintainers of the virginprunes.com web site, and in response they have clearly stated that they do not give permission for their content to be incorporated into the Wikipedia. As such, please respect the author's copyright, and do not copy any material from their web site - it does not help, and in fact it only creates work for others who need to revert any such copyright violations. -- All the best, Nickj (t) 02:00, 28 August 2005 (UTC)

Discography
Where is the discography section?????Dr. Who 13:28, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

Clean-up
I did a little bit of clean-up, mostly prose, and added some wikilinks as well. I didn't find entries for some of the albums; if I can find the time I may start those up. --aguasde13013 kickin' it just for you 17:54, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

title: Talk:The Virgin Prunes


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Curved space

Curved space often refers to a spatial geometry which is not "flat", where a flat space has zero curvature, as described by Euclidean geometry. Curved spaces can generally be described by Riemannian geometry, though some simple cases can be described in other ways. Curved spaces play an essential role in general relativity, where gravity is often visualized as curved space. The Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker metric is a curved metric which forms the current foundation for the description of the expansion of space and shape of the universe. The fact that photons have no mass yet are distorted by gravity, means that the explanation would have to be something besides photonic mass. Hence, the belief that large bodies curve space and so light, traveling on the curved space will, appear as being subject to gravity. It is not, but it is subject to the curvature of space.

Simple two-dimensional example
A very familiar example of a curved space is the surface of a sphere. While to our familiar outlook the sphere looks three-dimensional, if an object is constrained to lie on the surface, it only has two dimensions that it can move in. The surface of a sphere can be completely described by two dimensions, since no matter how rough the surface may appear to be, it is still only a surface, which is the two-dimensional outside border of a volume. Even the surface of the Earth, which is fractal in complexity, is still only a two-dimensional boundary along the outside of a volume.

Embedding
One of the defining characteristics of a curved space is its departure from the Pythagorean theorem. In a curved space
 * $$dx^2 + dy^2 \neq dl^2$$.

The Pythagorean relationship can often be restored by describing the space with an extra dimension. Suppose we have a three-dimensional non-Euclidean space with coordinates $$\left(x',y',z'\right)$$. Because it is not flat
 * $$dx'^2 + dy'^2 + dz'^2 \ne dl'^2 \,$$.

But if we now describe the three-dimensional space with four dimensions ($$x,y,z,w$$) we can choose coordinates such that
 * $$dx^2 + dy^2 + dz^2 + dw^2 = dl^2 \,$$.

Note that the coordinate $$x$$ is not the same as the coordinate $$x'$$.

For the choice of the 4D coordinates to be valid descriptors of the original 3D space it must have the same number of degrees of freedom. Since four coordinates have four degrees of freedom it must have a constraint placed on it. We can choose a constraint such that Pythagorean theorem holds in the new 4D space. That is
 * $$x^2 + y^2 + z^2 +w^2 = \textrm{constant} \,$$.

The constant can be positive or negative. For convenience we can choose the constant to be
 * $$\kappa^{-1}R^2$$ where $$R^2 \,$$ now is positive and $$\kappa \equiv \plusmn 1$$.

We can now use this constraint to eliminate the artificial fourth coordinate $$w$$. The differential of the constraining equation is
 * $$xdx + ydy + zdz + wdw = 0 \,$$ leading to $$dw = -w^{-1}(xdx + ydy +zdz) \,$$.

Plugging $$dw$$ into the original equation gives
 * $$dl^2 = dx^2 + dy^2 + dz^2 + \frac{(xdx+ydy+zdz)^2}{\kappa^{-1}R^2 - x^2 - y^2 - z^2}$$.

This form is usually not particularly appealing and so a coordinate transform is often applied: $$x = r\sin\theta\cos\phi$$, $$y = r\sin\theta\sin\phi$$, $$z = r\cos\theta$$. With this coordinate transformation
 * $$dl^2 = \frac{dr^2}{1-\kappa\frac{r^2}{R^2}} + r^2d\theta^2 + r^2\sin^2\theta d\phi^2$$.

Without embedding
The geometry of a n-dimensional space can also be described with Riemannian geometry. An isotropic and homogeneous space can be described by the metric:
 * $$dl^2 = e^{-\lambda(r)}{dr^2} + r^2d\theta^2 + r^2\sin^2\theta d\phi^2 \,$$.

This reduces to Euclidean space when $$\lambda = 0$$. But a space can be said to be "flat" when the Weyl tensor has all zero components. In three dimensions this condition is met when the Ricci tensor ($$R_{ab}$$) is equal to the metric times the Ricci scalar ($$R$$, not to be confused with the R of the previous section). That is $$R_{ab} = g_{ab} R$$. Calculation of these components from the metric gives that
 * $$\lambda = -\frac{1}{2}\ln \left( 1 - k r^2 \right)$$ where $$k \equiv \frac{R}{2}$$.

This gives the metric:
 * $$dl^2 = \frac{dr^2}{1-k{r^2}} + r^2d\theta^2 + r^2\sin^2\theta d\phi^2$$.

where $$k$$ can be zero, positive, or negative and is not limited to ±1.

Open, flat, closed
An isotropic and homogeneous space can be described by the metric:
 * $$dl^2 = \frac{dr^2}{1-\kappa\frac{r^2}{R^2}} + r^2d\theta^2 + r^2\sin^2\theta d\phi^2$$.

In the limit that the constant of curvature ($$R$$) becomes infinitely large, a flat, Euclidean space is returned. It is essentially the same as setting $$\kappa$$ to zero. If $$\kappa$$ is not zero the space is not Euclidean. When $$\kappa = +1$$ the space is said to be closed or elliptic. When $$\kappa = -1$$ the space is said to be open or hyperbolic.

Triangles which lie on the surface of an open space will have a sum of angles which is less than 180°. Triangles which lie on the surface of a closed space will have a sum of angles which is greater than 180°. The volume, however, is not $$(4/3)\pi r^3$$.

title: Curved space


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Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Vaishnava Theology

 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 KEEP. -Splash 01:48, 3 September 2005 (UTC)

Vaishnava Theology
Delete - Neologism 63.125.67.40 01:56, 28 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Merge to Vishnu if Notable Roodog2k 02:38, 28 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep, I quickly found two college courses and plenty of other relevant hits. Kappa 02:49, 28 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep. *drew 02:51, 28 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep seems notable. Elfguy 03:15, 28 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep. Paul Klenk 04:19, 28 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Merge with Vaishnavism. Author could have searched wikipedia before creating a new article. Manik Raina 13:48, 28 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep. User:Siyavash Siyavash
 * 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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Conservatism in Canada

Conservatism in Canada (conservatisme) is generally considered a movement which is primarily represented by the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada in federal party politics, as well as various centre-right and right-wing parties at the provincial level. Far-right politics have never been a prominent force in Canadian society. The first party which called itself "Conservative" in what would become Canada was elected in the Province of Canada election of 1854.

Canadian conservative ideology has its origins in British Toryism, but over time has been influenced by American conservatism. Stemming from the resettlement of United Empire Loyalists after the American Revolutionary War with traditionalist conservative views alongside pro-market liberalism ideals, is the reason that Canadian conservatives generally prefer the Westminster system of government.

Originally, Canadian conservatism tended to be traditionalist. Conservative governments in Canada, such as those of John A. Macdonald, Robert Borden, R. B. Bennett, and John Diefenbaker, were known for supporting an active role for the government in the economy and the creation of government-operated businesses (early Crown Corporations such as the Canadian National Railway) to develop and protect Canadian industries, protectionist programs such as the National Policy. Canadian conservatism thus mirrored British Conservatism in its values and economic and political outlooks. Canadian conservatives have generally favored the continuation of old political institutions and the preservation of strong ties to the monarchy.

In the latter half of the 20th-century, Canadian conservatism embraced neoliberal economic policies which included free trade, the seeking of balanced budgets, and the support of the privatizations of Crown Corporations which were claimed to be better provided for by the private sector. During this time, division arose between the conservatives in Eastern and Western Canada because Western conservatives perceived Canada's federal parliament as being dominated by Eastern interests. This Western alienation led to the creation of the Reform Party of Canada as a Western-based populist protest party promoting constitutional reform to balance the regions' interests and sought to expand into the East—especially in Ontario—to displace the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. While the PCs and Reform had some similar economic policies, Reformers wanted deeper cuts to government services than the PCs and Reformers had strong social conservative stances whereas the PCs were more neutral on controversial social issues.

The PCs faced an unprecedented collapse in the 1993 federal election and Reform surpassed the PCs as the largest conservative party in Canada's parliament. After several elections of neither party making significant gains, the two parties agreed to merge into the new Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. Meanwhile, although Quebec delivered few seats to conservative parties in federal elections from 1993 on, conservative themes were influential in Quebec provincial politics.

Blue Tory
Blue Tories are, in Canadian politics, Conservatives who are more free-market or liberal economically. Prior to the 1960s, these Conservatives were most identified with the Montreal and Toronto commercial elite who took positions of influence within the Progressive Conservative Party. Since the mid-1970s, they have been heavily influenced by the libertarian movement and the more individualist nature of American conservatism. Blue Tories tend to favour libertarian policies such as devolution of federal power to the provincial governments, a reduced role for government in the economy, reduction of taxation and similar mainstream market liberal ideals. The term Blue Tory does not refer to social conservatism.

One example of a Blue Tory administration in Canada was the 'Common Sense Revolution' provincial Progressive Conservative government of Ontario Premier Mike Harris. The Harris Tories were widely viewed as radical by Canadian standards in their economic policies and style of governance. Harris' government embarked on a number of initiatives, including cuts to education, welfare and Medicare, privatization of government services and health care, the sale of provincial highways and the forced amalgamation of municipalities. Provincial income taxes were also cut by 30% and corporate tax rates were nearly cut in half during the Harris mandate.

Most Blue Tories are at least somewhat ideologically aligned close to the economic libertarian positions of the former Canadian Alliance; as such, they supported the merger between the PCs and the Alliance to form the new federal Conservative Party of Canada (CPC). Some notable Blue Tories include many prominent federal and provincial Progressive Conservatives such as former PC Party Leader and Attorney General Peter MacKay, Conservative Party leadership contender and former Treasury Board President Tony Clement, former Premier of Ontario Mike Harris, and former CPC leader Andrew Scheer.

Red Tory
A Red Tory is an adherent of a centre-right or paternalistic-conservative political philosophy derived from the Tory tradition, predominantly in Canada, but also in the United Kingdom. This philosophy tends to favour communitarian social policies, while maintaining a degree of fiscal discipline and a respect of social and political order. It is contrasted with "Blue Tory" or "High Tory". Some Red Tories view themselves as small-c conservatives.

In Canada, Red Toryism is found in provincial and federal Conservative political parties. The history of Red Toryism marks differences in the development of the political cultures of Canada and the United States. Canadian conservatism and American conservatism have been different from each other in fundamental ways, including their stances on social issues and the role of government in society. The adjective "red" refers to the economically left-leaning nature of Red Toryism in comparison with Blue Toryism, since socialist and other leftist parties have traditionally used the colour red. The term reflects the broad ideological range traditionally found within conservatism in Canada.

Historically, Canadian conservatism has been derived from the Tory tradition, with a distinctive concern for a balance between individual rights and collectivism, as mediated through a traditional pre-industrial standard of morality – which has never been as evident in American conservatism. Red Toryism derives largely from a classical conservative tradition that maintained that the unequal division of wealth and political privilege among social classes can be justified if members of the privileged class practiced noblesse oblige and contributed to the common good. Red Tories supported traditional institutions such as religion and the monarchy, and maintenance of the social order. This position was later manifest in their support for some aspects of the welfare state. This belief in a common good, as expanded on in Colin Campbell and William Christian's Political Parties and Ideologies in Canada, is at the root of Red Toryism.

Libertarianism
Libertarianism as a political philosophy is not considered to be a primary force in Canadian conservatism. This philosophy is represented mainly by the Libertarian Party of Canada, People's Party of Canada, and other small provincial parties. These parties have never been successful in having members elected.

Social conservatism
While social conservatism exists throughout Canada, it is not as pronounced as it is in some other countries, such as the United States. It represents conservative positions on issues of culture, family, sexuality and morality. Despite the recent Conservative government having influential members who would be defined as social conservatives in its caucus, social conservatism is considered to have little influence on Canadian society and political policy. One of their notable wins was a 2014 neo-abolitionist law passed against prostitution, which banned buying services as well as third party involvement.

History
The conservative movement in Canada evolved from relatively informal pre-Confederation political movements or parties, gradually coalescing into the Conservative Party of Canada. This party was the dominant political force in Canadian politics from 1867 to 1935. Thereafter, the party (renamed the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 1945) spent more time in opposition than in government.

During the twentieth century rival "small-c conservative" movements appeared, most notably the federal Social Credit and Reform parties. Conservatism was divided (especially by region) until the merger of the Progressive Conservatives and the Canadian Alliance (the direct successor to the Reform Party) in 2003.

Pre-Confederation
In the early days of electoral politics in Canada, the term conservatives or Tories applied to those people who supported the authority of colonial governors and their advisers over the elected assemblies. These conservatives took their cues from British Tories, especially Burke. They supported royal privilege, and were avowedly anti-democratic. Tory supporters were often descended from loyalists who had fled the United States during the American Revolution and War of Independence. They were wary of emulating the US's "mob rule" and preferred a strong role for traditional elites such as landowners and Christianity in politics.

Many were Anglicans who supported keeping the Anglican Church of Canada as Canada's established church. In each colony, Tories contested elections as the personal party of the governor. Business elites who surrounded the governor also hoped to gain patronage. In Upper Canada this was the Family Compact, in Lower Canada the Chateau Clique. Opposition to the rule of these oligarchies resulted in the Rebellions of 1837. After the rebellions, Lord Durham (a Whig or liberal) issued his Report on the Affairs of British North America, a report to the British government that recommended that most powers in colonial governments be given from the governor to the elected assemblies. This new arrangement, called responsible government, mirrored earlier changes that had occurred in Britain.

Responsible government
After the failure of radical liberalism during the Rebellions of 1837, a new set of moderate liberals, led by Robert Baldwin in Canada West, Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine in Canada East and Joseph Howe in Nova Scotia rose to prominence. They campaigned for and won responsible government by creating broad coalitions that took in liberals, moderates, and conservatives.

The only way for conservatives as a party to regroup was to accept the consequences of responsible government. They abandoned the idea of being the governor's party and embraced mass politics. At the same time the coalition that had won responsible government began to break up in the 1850s. This presented an opening for more moderate conservatives such as John A. Macdonald and George-Étienne Cartier to claim the political centre. Their coalition dominated politics in the United Province of Canada, and when joined by liberal George Brown, provided the broad support necessary to negotiate Confederation with the Maritime Provinces.

Macdonald-Cartier era

The MacDonald-Cartier coalition's prestige was only strengthened by the creation of the new Canadian Confederation in 1867. Their coalition dominated the early politics of the new state. Their "National Policy" of high tariffs against the United States, and intense railway building, became the basis of a political dynasty that dominated Canadian politics from Confederation until Macdonald's death in office in 1891. The greatest strain in this coalition came during the Riel rebellions of 1869 and 1885, which inflamed French-English and Protestant-Catholic tensions in the country. After Macdonald's death, the coalition faltered.

Interregnum
The death of Macdonald left a large power vacuum in the Conservative Party, leading to the short tenure of John Abbott, who was the Protestant compromise choice. Abbott's government collapsed when his cabinet walked out on him, forcing him to resign and allowing for the selection of the first Catholic prime minister of Canada, John Sparrow Thompson. At just 45, he was expected to become the successor to Macdonald's legacy, but after only a year in office he died from a stroke. Two more short-serving Conservatives, Mackenzie Bowell and Charles Tupper, served out the end of the Conservative government, until the election in 1896 when the coalition of French and English Canadians fell apart and Sir Wilfrid Laurier became the second Liberal prime minister of Canada. The Liberals would dominate for the next fourteen years until the emergence of Robert Borden.

World War and Depression
Robert Borden's Conservative government led Canada into the First World War, with the Laurier-led Liberal in opposition. The government wanted to introduce conscription, and sought a coalition to pursue this policy. Most English-speaking Liberals joined the Tories to form a coalition called "Unionist" with the mostly-French speaking Liberal rump in opposition. After the war this coalition, now led by Arthur Meighen could not govern with a stable majority. In the 1921 election the Conservatives were relegated to third place, at the expense of the new Progressive movement based mostly in the Prairie West (see Western alienation).

Once the Progressive movement had largely been subsumed into the Liberal Party of Canada, the Conservatives were once again in opposition, until the election of 1930, under the leadership of R. B. Bennett. But in the 1935 election the Conservatives were handed a major defeat by the Liberals, with a new right-wing party, Social Credit, placing a close third, again on the strength of Western alienation.

Post-War
Throughout most of the last century, the Progressive Conservative Party (often abbreviated PC) dominated conservative politics at the federal level and in most provinces. Canada had many conservative Prime Ministers in the past, but the first to be elected under the Progressive Conservative banner was John Diefenbaker, who served from 1957 to 1963.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, with the rise of Conservative politicians in Canada such as Ralph Klein, Don Getty, Brian Mulroney, Preston Manning, Mike Harris and others, the objectives and values of Conservatives in Canada began to mimic those of fiscal conservatives in both the US and UK. With the rise in inflation and a large budgetary deficit in Canada from the Trudeau government, emphasis was put on "shrinking the size of government" (in part, through privatization), pursuing continental trade arrangements (free trade, creating tax incentives and cutting "government waste"). Joe Clark became Prime Minister with a minority government in 1979, but lost to a non-confidence vote after only nine months, and the Liberals again took power. After Pierre Trudeau's retirement in 1984, his successor, John Turner, called a federal election, which was won in a landslide by the PCs under Brian Mulroney. Mulroney succeeded by uniting conservatives from Western Canada with those from Quebec. During his tenure, the government unsuccessfully attempted to negotiate the status of Quebec through the failed Meech Lake and Charlottetown Accords.

During the government of Brian Mulroney (1984–1993), government spending on social programs was cut, taxes for individuals and businesses were reduced (but a new national tax appeared for nearly all goods and services), government intervention in the economy was significantly reduced, a free trade agreement was concluded with the United States, and Crown Corporations such as Teleglobe, Petro-Canada and Air Canada (some created by previous Conservative governments) were sold to both domestic and foreign private buyers (privatized). However, due to the failure of the Mulroney government to balance the budget and service debt, the federal debt continued to rise. It was not until the end of Mulroney's administration and the beginning of Jean Chrétien's Liberal government that the government's program of spending finally halted the growth in the federal debt.

The government's willingness to affirm Quebec's demands for recognition as a distinct society was seen as a betrayal by many westerners as well as angering Canadian Nationalists mostly from Ontario. The Reform Party of Canada was founded on a strongly right-wing populist conservative platform as an alternative voice for these western conservatives.

The Progressive Conservative Party lost a large base of its support toward the end of the Mulroney era. Brian Mulroney's failed attempts to reform the Canadian Constitution with the Meech Lake and Charlottetown Accords, and the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax lost him most of his support.

Following Mulroney's resignation in 1993 and Kim Campbell's brief tenure, the Conservatives were reduced to only two seats in Parliament in the 1993 federal election. The Liberal Party was elected with a strong majority and the Reform Party gradually replaced the Tories as the major right-wing party in Canada. The Reform Party under Preston Manning would become the Official Opposition from 1997 to 2000.

Throughout the 1990s, many social conservatives and Blue Tories in the PC Party began to drift slowly to the Reform Party and then in droves to the Reform Party's direct successor, the Canadian Alliance. This left the PC Party under the control of the moderate Red Tory faction. Despite taking what they believed to be more popular socially progressive approaches on certain issues, the PCs significantly fell in the popular vote from the 1997 to 2000 federal elections and were not able to greatly increase their representation in the House of Commons. The Reform Party and then the Canadian Alliance dominated the opposition benches.

Support for both the Reform Party and the Progressive Conservatives was negligible in Quebec until the 2006 federal election, where the renewed Conservative party won 10 seats in Quebec. In the west, the Reform Party took most of the PC Party's former seats, but held much more socially or economically conservative views than the old party on most subjects (regarding, for example, homosexuality, religion in public life, gun control, and government intervention in the economy).

The PCs retained moderate support in the Atlantic Provinces, would manage to regain a few seats. They also retained scattered support across the country. The result was that neither new party managed to approach the success of the Progressive Conservatives prior to 1993. In many ridings the conservative vote was split, letting other parties win: the Liberal Party under Jean Chrétien won three successive majority governments starting in 1993. During this period, either the Bloc Québécois or the Reform Party were the Official Opposition.

After the 1997 federal election some members of the Reform Party tried to end the vote splitting by merging the two parties. A new party was formed, called the Canadian Alliance, and Stockwell Day was elected its leader. However, many PCs resisted the move, suspecting that Reform Party ideology would dominate the new party, and the new party garnered only a little more support than its predecessor. Meanwhile, the PC Party re-elected Joe Clark as their leader and attempted to regain lost ground.

Day's tenure was marked by a number of public gaffes and apparent publicity stunts, and he was widely portrayed as incompetent and ignorant. Several MPs left his party in 2002.

In 2003, when former Prime Minister Joe Clark retired after being brought back to improve the PC party's standings, Peter MacKay was chosen in a leadership contest to replace him. MacKay immediately created controversy within the party by entering into negotiations with Canadian Alliance leader Stephen Harper to merge the two parties. MacKay had been elected on a third ballot of the party's leadership convention as a result of an agreement that he signed with another leadership contestant, David Orchard, in which he promised never to merge the PC Party with the Alliance.

Later on that year, the Progressive Conservative Party, which dated back to 1854 (though existing under many different names), merged with the Canadian Alliance. 96% of the Alliance's membership and 92% of the PC Party's riding representatives approved the merger. The contemporary Conservative Party of Canada was then created, and, in 2004, Stephen Harper was elected leader. Dissident Red Tories opposed to the merger would go on to form the minor Progressive Canadian Party. Under Stephen Harper, the platform of the Conservative Party emphasized the Blue Tory policies of fiscal restraint, increases in military spending, tax cuts and Senate Reform. The Harper-led Conservative Party has, however, come under fire, with many accusing them of adopting neoconservative policies.

Yoram Hazony, a scholar on the history and ideology of conservatism, identified Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson as the most significant conservative thinker to appear in the English-speaking world in a generation.

Foreign policy
While in Opposition, Stephen Harper voted in favour of Canadian military involvement in the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq; he later admitted this had been a mistake. Conservative Party member resolutions express strong support for the state of Israel and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Harper also took aggressive action against perceived sponsors of terrorism such as Iran, closing the Canadian embassy and expelling the Iranian diplomats in 2012.

Refugees and deportations of Iraq War resisters
In 2012, the Conservative government introduced reforms to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act which limited refugee claims from those on a list of designated countries of origin, those considered safe by Canada for most persons. Other changes allowed for detention of mass arrivals, following the MV Sun Sea incident. These changes cleared an immigration backlog that had persisted for many years under the previous Liberal government, reducing the processing time from over 1000 days to less than two months.

All 110 Conservative Party MPs voted against an opposition motion concerning conscientious objectors and the introduction of programs to allow objectors to seek refuge in Canada. On 13 September 2008, this refusal to set up a special program was reiterated by a Conservative Party spokeswoman after the first such conscientious objector (Robin Long) had been deported and sentenced to 15 months in jail. (See Canada and Iraq War resisters for details about two motions in Parliament concerning Canada and Iraq War resisters.)

China
Consistent in all recent Canadian governments is strong ties to China. In 2013, the Conservative administration approved the acquisition of Nexen by a Chinese firm. It also advanced, as of 2013, FIPA agreement, containing guarantees that Chinese buyer would have the legal right to sue Canada in private settlement of inhibition to its activities by that government (including provincial or municipal for whom the federal government would be liable). The actual extent or limit of these powers would not be publicly known and settlements would be private, in effect a "confidential lawsuit", for instance a future BC or Canadian government reversing a federal approval of the Northern Gateway pipeline. The move received criticism from many quarters, including the often supportive Financial Post and is the subject of a current lawsuit.

In other respects, Conservative MPs have sometimes been sharply critical of China, particularly over human rights policies and especially treatment of the Falun Gong. These positions are not materially different than those of other parties.

Parliamentary democracy
Prior to winning election, Stephen Harper openly favoured the alternative vote method of selecting both MPs and Senators.

As the successor of the Western Canada-based Canadian Alliance (formerly the Reform Party of Canada), the party supported reform of the Senate to make it "elected, equal, and effective" (the "Triple-E Senate"). However, party leader Stephen Harper advised the Governor General to appoint the unelected Michael Fortier to both the Senate and to the Cabinet on 6 February 2006, the day his minority government took office. On 22 December 2008, Prime Minister Harper asked the Governor General to fill all eighteen Senate seats that had been vacant at the time. It was earlier reported in The Toronto Star that this action was "to kill any chance of a Liberal-NDP coalition government filling the vacancies next year".

The party introduced a bill in the parliament to have fixed dates for elections and, with the support of the Liberal Party, passed it. However, Ned Franks, a Canadian parliamentary expert, maintains that the Prime Minister still has the right to advise the Governor-General to dissolve the parliament early and drop the writs for an election.

Transparency and accountability
In 2006, the Conservatives campaigned strongly against Liberal abuses in the Sponsorship scandal and vowed to introduce several accountability measures that would hold even a majority government to account. These included a Parliamentary Budget Office whose first head Kevin Page found himself often sharply at odds with Harper government policy and issued several reports scathing of Conservative practices, even sometimes being described as the "sharpest thorn in Harper's side". Major media commentators often use Page's reports as a starting point for general criticisms of Harper's budgetary and transparency practices, including comedic rants.

While other accountability officers have been similarly ignored or critical, the influence and neutrality of the persons who were appointed, and the general public trust of their opinions, seems to be an indication of success on long-term transparency. The office is likely to continue under future administrations and be quite difficult to eliminate or ignore.

By contrast, agency discipline and appointments to the Canadian Senate have tended to reflect a more cynical view that parties in power tend to forget transparency and accountability promises made when out of power.

Domestic issues
In its founding documents, the Conservative Party avowed principles of lower taxes, smaller government, more decentralization of federal government powers to the provinces, modeled after the Meech Lake Accord, traditional religious and cultural values and has in practice strongly supported Oil Sands and other controversial energy projects. The Party has also both avowed and introduced legislation to reduce some gun controls and some MPs openly favour the death penalty.

Abortion
The current Conservative government position on abortion is that a debate on abortion legislation will not take place in Parliament. Former party leader Stephen Harper stated that "As long as I'm prime minister we are not reopening the abortion debate".

The appointment of Dr. Henry Morgentaler, an abortion-rights activist, to the prestigious Order of Canada, was deplored by some Conservative MPs. The Conservative government distanced itself from the award.

The Conservative government excluded the funding of abortions in Canada's G8 health plan. Harper argued that he wanted to focus on non-divisive policies. This stance was opposed by the Liberals, NDP and international health and women's groups. The Archbishop of Quebec and Primate of Canada, Marc Ouellet, praised this decision, but urged Harper to do more "in defence of the unborn". In May 2010, 18 Conservative MPs addressed thousands of students at the anti-abortion 13th annual March for Life rally on Parliament Hill.

Same-sex marriage
Former party leader Stephen Harper has repeatedly stated that his government will not attempt to ban same-sex marriage in Canada. Same-sex marriage was recognized nationwide in Canada in 2005 with the Civil Marriage Act. Harper most recently restated this commitment after news broke that a lawyer with the federal Justice Department was of the opinion that foreign same-sex couples visiting Canada to get married who are from regions where same-sex marriage is illegal were not obligated to get divorced in Canada since their marriage in their home region was never legitimate. Harper corrected the record and restated that his government will not legislate nor attempt to legislate same-sex marriage. However, the Conservative Party of Canada's Policy Declaration states, "We support legislation defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman". This was repealed by the party at their convention in 2016.

The party had a free vote on whether the House wanted to reopen the issue of same-sex marriage, which was defeated. In March 2011, just ahead of the expected Canadian election, the Conservatives added one line about gay rights to the "Discover Canada" booklet for new immigrants which they had published in 2009: "Canada's diversity includes gay and lesbian Canadians, who enjoy the full protection of an equal treatment under the law, including access to civil marriage". The Minister of Citizenship, Immigration, and Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney, had previously removed mention of gay rights from the booklet published in 2009.

Crime and law enforcement
Before the majority was achieved in 2011, Conservatives promised to re-introduce Internet surveillance legislation that they were not able to pass, bundling it with the rest of their crime bills. They said they plan to fast track the legislation within 100 days after taking office.    The Internet surveillance bill was later scrapped by the Conservatives and not put into law.

Gun control
While the gun rights issue is not as pronounced by Canadian conservative groups as it is by Americans, it has recently received much attention and politicizing in the recent years. One of the biggest accomplishments of the Conservative Party was the passage of Bill C-19 in 2012, which abolished the long gun registry that was introduced by Liberal prime minister Jean Chrétien in 1993. This resulted in the mandatory destruction of records of people owning non-restricted firearms (shotguns and bolt-action rifles), except for the province of Quebec, where the bill is still being challenged and contested. This had been a long-standing goal and premise of the Conservative Party, and a defeat for gun control activists in Canada.

In September 2014, Stephen Harper showed opposition to an RCMP ban of the Swiss Arms Classic Green Carbine, assuring to protect owners of the rifle from prosecution. He also stated that he supports the use of firearms for self-defense in rural areas where police protection isn't sufficient, as self-defense isn't considered a valid reason for attaining a firearms license. However, in spite of these pro-gun moves, Stephen Harper stated that he had no intention to promote an American-style vigilantism in Canada.

In October 2014, the Public Safety Minister Stephen Blaney proposed Bill C-42, or the Common Sense Firearms Licensing Act which would ease the restrictions on gun owners but implement mandatory training courses for first-time owners. This proposed bill would allow easier transportation of firearms to a shooting range without having to notify a Chief Firearms Officer and ease the licensing process. This would also lift the ban on the Swiss Arms Classic Green Carbine, and allow the prime minister to override decisions made by the RCMP. Harper stated his support of these laws as well as the support for use of guns for self-defense in rural Canada, which drew immense criticisms from supporters of gun control and Liberal politicians. However, Harper rejected these claims, stating that police services are insufficient in rural areas, and that guns were a "responsibility" in Canada and not a right as in the United States.

The bill passed a House of Commons reading. However, the bill has received criticisms from both gun rights and gun control advocates, with each claiming that the bill serves the opposites' agenda. Leaders of opposition parties also criticize the bill as merely a political tool used by the Conservative Party to gain votes. The law took effect on September 2, 2015.

Conservatism in Western Canada
The four Western Canada provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba have long been a hotbed for protest politics and political parties of the left and right. All four provinces have strong rural and Christian constituencies, leading to an active presence of the Christian right. Historically, the heavy presence of agriculture led to the emergence in the past of large left-leaning, agrarian farmer's based protest movements such as the Progressive Party of Canada and the United Farmers of Canada which supported free trade with the United States and increased social benefits. These movements were later absorbed by the Liberal Party of Canada, the Conservative Party of Canada (who became the progressive conservatives) and the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF).

During the Great Depression, two radical protest movements appeared: the CCF in Saskatchewan advocated progressive social policies and reformist democratic socialism; while in Alberta, the Social Credit Party of Alberta formed a provincial government that favoured evangelical Christian conservatism, provincial control over natural resources, limited government intervention in the economy and a radical philosophy known as Social Credit based on providing dividends to the population to support small businesses and free enterprise.

Provincial Social Credit parties went on to dominate the government of Alberta from 1934 to 1971 and British Columbia from 1951 to 1972 and 1975–1991. However, unlike the CCF, which morphed into the social-democratic New Democratic Party, the Social Credit Party would die out. Their popularity grew in Quebec, leading to Western supporters of Social Credit feeling isolated by the federal party's Quebec nationalism. The provincial Social Credit governments of British Columbia and Alberta would abandon Social Credit economic policies and followed staunchly conservative policies while maintaining ties with the federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada as opposed to the federal Social Credit Party of Canada.

In British Columbia, the BC Social Credit Party was replaced as the party of the centre-right by the British Columbia Liberal Party, and in Alberta the Alberta Social Credit Party were completely annihilated by the more moderate Alberta Progressive Conservative Party, leaving both parties as marginal political forces. In the 1980 federal election, the Social Credit Party of Canada lost all of its remaining seats and was forced to disband in 1989. Most of its Western members moved onto the ideologically similar Reform Party of Canada, founded by Preston Manning, the son of Alberta's former Social Credit premier, Ernest Manning.

The Reform Party grew out of the province of Alberta and was fed by dissatisfaction with the federal Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney. Right-wing Westerners felt that Mulroney's liberal economic policies did not go nearly far enough, that his government was overly favourable toward the more populous provinces of Quebec and Ontario, that his policies on social issues such as abortion and the death penalty were too liberal, and that, like the Liberal Party of Canada, the Progressive Conservatives had allegedly come to not take Western Canada demands for provincial economic autonomy seriously enough.

Though for most of the 1990s, the Tories enjoyed roughly the same electoral support as the Reform Party due to Canada's first-past-the-post system of elected representatives to the House of Commons, Reform dominated the position of Official Opposition. In 1999, the Reform Party was dissolved and joined by some right-wing members of the PC Party to create the Canadian Alliance, formally known as the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance; however, this new enlarged party was unable to attract any real support east of Manitoba and was dissolved in 2003, merging with the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada to create the contemporary Conservative Party of Canada. This party, led by former Canadian Alliance leader Stephen Harper, won a minority government in the 2006 federal election, with 36% of the vote and 124 seats in the House of Commons out of 308.

In Alberta, the Progressive Conservative dominated the government from 1971 to 2015, following slightly right-wing policies under premiers Peter Lougheed, Don Getty, Ralph Klein, Ed Stelmach and Alison Redford. Following the election of the Alberta New Democratic Party and Rachel Notley in 2015, efforts began to 'unite the right' with Jason Kenney elected as PC Leader. Kenney oversaw merger negotiations with Wildrose Party leader Brian Jean, culminating in ratification votes in July 2017 as the United Conservative Party, which elected Kenney leader in October 2017. In BC, the British Columbia Liberal Party (BC Liberals) have taken a rightward economic turn under Premier Gordon Campbell in competing with the centre-left British Columbia New Democratic Party to govern the province, filling the gap left by the electoral collapse of the BC Social Credit Party in 1991. In Saskatchewan, the center-right Saskatchewan Party formed its first government in 2007 after many years of Saskatchewan NDP rule. In Manitoba, the Progressive Conservative Party, led by Brian Pallister won a landslide majority government in the 2016 election, defeating incumbent Premier Greg Selinger and the 16-year reigning NDP government.

Represented in Parliament

 * Conservative Party of Canada

Not represented in Parliament

 * Christian Heritage Party
 * People's Party of Canada

Provincial

 * United Conservative Party of Alberta
 * BC United
 * British Columbia Conservative Party
 * Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba
 * Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick
 * Progressive Conservative Party of Newfoundland and Labrador
 * Progressive Conservative Party of Nova Scotia
 * Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario
 * Progressive Conservative Party of Prince Edward Island
 * Coalition Avenir Québec
 * Conservative Party of Quebec
 * Saskatchewan Party
 * Saskatchewan United Party
 * Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan
 * Yukon Party

The Quebec Liberal Party, a big tent federalist party, was often described as centre-right from the 1980s to 2010s, and it has been the closest to conservative major party in some Quebec provincial elections.

Historical

 * Anti-Confederation Party
 * Canadian Alliance
 * Conservative Party of Quebec
 * Social Credit Party of Canada
 * British Columbia Social Credit Party
 * Reform Party of British Columbia
 * British Columbia Unity Party
 * British Columbia Progressive Conservative Party
 * Alberta Social Credit Party
 * Representative Party of Alberta
 * Alberta Alliance Party
 * Alberta Party
 * Alberta First Party
 * Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta
 * Wildrose Party
 * Manitoba Party
 * Union Nationale
 * Ralliement créditiste
 * Ralliement créditiste du Québec
 * Reform Party of Canada
 * Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan

Largest

 * Upper Canada Tories before 1854 in Upper Canada / Canada West
 * Parti bleu in Lower Canada / Canada East
 * Liberal - Conservative Party 1854-1873
 * Conservative Party of Canada 1873-1917
 * Unionist Party of Canada 1917-1920
 * National Liberal and Conservative Party 1920-1921
 * Conservative Party of Canada 1921-1940
 * National Government (Canada) 1940
 * Conservative Party of Canada 1940-1942
 * Progressive Conservative Party of Canada 1942-1993
 * Reform Party of Canada 1993-2000
 * Canadian Alliance 2000-2003
 * Conservative Party of Canada 2003–present

Conservative prime ministers

 * Sir John A. Macdonald 1867–1873, 1878-1891 Liberal Conservative/Conservative
 * Sir John Abbott 1891-1892 Conservative
 * Sir John Thompson 1892-1894 Conservative
 * Sir Mackenzie Bowell 1894-1896 Conservative
 * Sir Charles Tupper 1896 Conservative
 * Sir Robert Borden: Conservative/Unionist, 1911–1920
 * Arthur Meighen: Conservative, 1920–1921, 1926
 * Richard Bennett: Conservative, 1930–1935
 * John Diefenbaker: Progressive Conservative, 1957–1963
 * Joe Clark: Progressive Conservative, 1979–1980
 * Brian Mulroney: Progressive Conservative, 1984–1993
 * Kim Campbell: Progressive Conservative, 1993
 * Stephen Harper: Conservative, 2006–2015

title: Conservatism in Canada


text:
Canal Indigo

Canal Indigo is a Canadian English and French language pay-per-view and Near Video on Demand provider owned by Vidéotron. The service was launched on August 26, 1996.

Channels and content
Canal Indigo PPV service consists of 11 standard definition channels and two high definition channels. Programming on Canal Indigo includes movies, concerts, sports, and other special events. Adult content is also available through Canal Indigo's '''Olé! Télévision''' service.

History
Canal Indigo started on August 26, 1996 with eight analogue channels using the Videoway system on Videotron. A few months after the launch of Videotron's digital cable, Indigo was running 39 channels, until January 1, 2005 at 8:41 pm when Indigo experienced a technical bug, leaving nine working channels. On June 1, 2005, Canal Indigo came back with 24 channels. On August 1, 2007, due to the growing popularity of Video On Demand, Canal Indigo was reduced to 12 channels.

Canal Indigo was the monopoly provider of French-language pay-per-view programming in Canada until late 1999, when Bell ExpressVu (now Bell Satellite TV) launched its bilingual Vu! service, replacing Canal Indigo on that provider. On December 27, 2007 Shaw Broadcast switched all of its PPV feeds to its own proprietary PPV service displacing Canal Indigo from Shaw, Shaw Direct and any other system that receives their PPV feeds via Shaw Broadcast.

Viewers Choice Canada Inc., operator of the namesake English-language pay-per-view service, was originally the largest shareholder and managing partner (40%) in Canal Indigo, with Cogeco, Groupe TVA, and TQS Inc. holding minority interests at 20% each. However, on March 20, 2008, Groupe TVA announced it would be purchasing Viewers Choice and the remaining stakeholders interests in the service. The sale was approved by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) on July 18, giving Groupe TVA full ownership of the service. Groupe TVA launched a new 24/7 high-definition channel on November 1, 2008, and removed one SD channel.

On December 1, 2009, the CRTC approved a corporate reorganization that would transfer Canal Indigo from Groupe TVA to fellow Quebecor Media division and cable provider Vidéotron.

In July 2014, Videotron indicated to the CRTC that it intended to change Canal Indigo into a bilingual (English / French) service, due to the planned shutdown of English-language provider Viewers Choice at the end of September 2014. Due to new standard conditions of licence for PPV providers being introduced in 2014, CRTC approval is no longer required to convert from a single-language service to a bilingual one. However, since Videotron operates almost exclusively in French-language markets, the company requested an exemption from the standard requirement for bilingual PPV services which would otherwise require it to operate a minimum of 15 English-language channels and 5 French-language channels, plus a separate barker channel in each language. Under Videotron's original proposal, Canal Indigo would offer at least 8 French-language channels and 2 English-language channels, plus a bilingual barker channel. The application was approved on September 30, on condition that Canal Indigo maintain the same ratio but with a minimum of 3 English-language channels (and thus 12 French-language channels).

title: Canal Indigo


text:
Talk:Fort Macleod

Anon Contribution
moved here for discussion -- WBardwin 02:02, 28 August 2005 (UTC)

 * "They are all under the control of one man... Trevor Norlin, the towns only billionaire."

Spelling of the Name
I here note that in the 1890's, the name of this place was being spelled "Fort McLeod" (see the 2 Feb 1892 issue of the Winnipeg Free Press for one instance). That doesn't make it correct, but it does show that this spelling was in common usage at the time. -Glacierman (talk)

104 deg F August 10 2018
New record likely. https://weather.com/weather/monthly/l/CAXX1474:1:CA B137 (talk) 01:24, 4 December 2018 (UTC)

Pronunciation
I was talking with a friend about this place, and he continually pronounced it "Mac-lee-odd", despite my suggestion that it was correctly pronounced "Macloud", as several Scots acquaintances of mine (two of the name itself) would aver. Either one of us would be correct, as there is no mention in the article of its correct pronunciation. If there is somebody who knows authoritatively, would they include a note to that effect please?162.196.161.203 (talk) 03:15, 19 November 2020 (UTC)

 * There's a youtube video here of an interview with the then mayor of Fort Macleod in which the pronunciation is clearly "McLoud". That clinches it, so I have added the IPA equivalent as a courtesy. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 162.196.161.203 (talk) 20:35, 17 April 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:Fort Macleod


text: Template:Non-free music video screenshot


text:
Bosaso District

Bosaso (Boosaaso) is a Administrative divisions of Somalia in the northeastern Bari region of Somalia. Its capital of Bari region. It is also the commercial capital of Puntland state of Somalia and one of Somalia's commercial capitals..

title: Bosaso District


text: User talk:70.18.224.66

title: User talk:70.18.224.66


text:
Talk:Nue

Thrush
Is the japanese blackbird the thrush known as "zoothera dauma" (scientific name)? Or what would it's scientific name be?

Yes, that's right. Nue isn't a blackbird, but a White's thrush (Zoothera dauma), whose common name today in Japan is toratugumi (トラツグミ in hiragana katakana, 虎鶫 in kanji). The bird warbles in a thin voice in a forest at night, so this makes people feel creepy.

(1) This feature of this bird explains the composition of the kanji of nue; nue (鵺) consists of night (夜) and bird (鳥). (2) This trait of this bird's warble also gives an account for the etymology of nue, the ledendary chimera; according to the legend, nue warbles in a creepy voice like a thrush, the original nue. Therefore, strictly speaking, nue is a name for the bird, not a name for the legendary beast; the beast is only a creature warbling in a nue-like voice. In the common use in Japan, however, the word nue refers to the beast, rarely to the bird.60.236.113.249 14:24, 27 December 2006 (UTC) (correction: 60.236.113.249 14:28, 27 December 2006 (UTC))

tanuki vs. racoon dog
The description of the nue is as follows:

 It has the head of a monkey, the body of a tanuki, the legs of a tiger, and a snake instead of a tail.

The link at tanuki leads to the racoon dog article. I wonder if maybe it should be linked straight to the tanuki article instead? Or, if it doesn't, should the "tanuki" in the description be changed to "racoon dog"? Since this is a physical description, I'm leaning towards "racoon dog" here. What say ye?

Also, the info on the thrush in the discussion above is interesting. Why isn't any of this in the article? TomorrowTime 16:32, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I think it was originally linked to raccoon dog and actually said "raccoon dog", but folks complained, "But in Japan, it's called a tanuki!", so we compromised. Now, the semi-consesus seems to be to use tanuki for the creature in a Japanese folkloric sense and to use raccoon dog for the being in a biological sense. This instance is a gray area, but I agree with you; it's the physical appearance that's being described here, not the ability to change into a teapot or whatever else is ascribed to tanuki in Japanese tales. (Some of our Japan editors just like inserting random Japanese words into articles . . . .) — BrianSmithson 01:31, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
 * How about this sentence to appease our Japanese-loving editors:
 * It has the kubi of a saru, the karada of a tanuki, the ashi of a tora, and a hebi instead of a shippo.
 * Sure it's called a tanuki in Japan, and I support the use of that term when discussing the shapeshifting joker with giant balls. But the more I think of this, the more convinced I am that in the above sentence, "racoon dog" would be more appropriate. Oh well, I wont take any unilateral action here... TomorrowTime 16:20, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I will. ;) Now we face the annoying animal editors, though. They always want to capitalize common names of animals (so that raccoon dog redirects to Raccoon Dog). Oh well; thank God for redirects. — BrianSmithson 22:44, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Chrono Trigger
I always figured the Nu were simply a horrible, horrible pun on Mu. There's no indication one way or another in the game itself, so is there some other source stating that they are supposed to be Nue?

Final Fantasy XI
This PS2, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC platform MMO has a Notorious Monster named Nue of the Tiger family. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.185.197.6 (talk) 00:38, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Onmyouza
Nue is a 10 minute song by the Japanese Metal band, Onmyouza. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.167.246.137 (talk) 15:43, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

title: Talk:Nue


text:
SS America (1939)

SS America was an ocean liner and cruise ship built in the United States in 1940 for the United States Lines and designed by the noted American naval architect William Francis Gibbs. It carried many names in the 54 years between its construction and its 1994 wreck: SS America (carrying this name three different times during its career); troop transport USS West Point; and SS Australis, Italis, Noga, Alferdoss, and American Star. It served most notably in passenger service as America and the Greek-flagged Australis.

It was wrecked as the American Star at Playa de Garcey on Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands on 18 January 1994. The wreck deteriorated and completely collapsed into the sea. As of 2022, it is no longer visible on the ocean surface and has become an artificial reef.

Construction (1936–1939)

America was laid down under the first Maritime Commission contract on 22 August 1938 at Newport News, Virginia by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company.

It was one of only a few ocean liners, American or otherwise, to have had its interiors designed by women—the New York firm Smyth, Urquhart & Marckwald. The ornate decor typical of liners of the past was forgone, in favor of a more contemporary and informal design.

The aim was to provide an atmosphere of cheerfulness and sophisticated charm.

America was launched on 31 August 1939 and was sponsored by Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of then-president of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt. Her cousin, Kermit Roosevelt, was one of the founders of United States Lines. The liner entered service on 10 August 1940, undertaking its maiden voyage as the flagship of the United States Lines.

Early career (1939–1941)
As originally designed, America could carry 543 in cabin class, 418 in tourist class, 241 in third class, and 643 crew. The interior accommodations were styled by architects Eggers & Higgins to be the utmost in contemporary American design, making use of stainless steel, ceramics, and synthetics.

America was originally constructed with low funnels in order to give the ship a modern, streamlined appearance. Very early in its career, however, the height of the funnels was increased by 16 feet, due to heavy soot deposits on the decks. The forward funnel was in actuality a dummy, housing the horn and certain ventilation uptakes.

Due to conflict having begun in Europe in World War II, in which the United States was still neutral, the ship's name, along with "United States Lines" and two American flags were painted in large size to be clearly visible on both sides of the hull.

At night, it sailed while fully illuminated, as further precaution. Additionally, it did not immediately take to its intended North Atlantic service route, instead sailing in safer waters. It was, however, quietly fitted with a degaussing cable for protection against naval mines on 3 January 1941.

On 28 May 1941, America was called up to service by the United States Navy, while the ship was at Saint Thomas in the United States Virgin Islands. It was ordered to return to Newport News to be handed over to the Navy.

Duquesne Spy Ring
Two German spies, Franz Joseph Stigler and Erwin Wilhelm Siegler, were members of its crew in 1941. While on the America, they obtained information about the movement of ships and military defense preparations at the Panama Canal, observed and reported defense preparations in the Canal Zone, and met with other German agents to advise them in their espionage efforts. They operated as couriers transmitting information between the United States and German agents aboard. Stigler worked undercover as chief butcher. Both remained on the America until its conversion by the Navy into a troop transport and its commission into the U.S. Navy as the USS West Point.

Stigler and Siegler, along with the 31 other German agents of the Duquesne Spy Ring, were later uncovered by the FBI in the largest espionage conviction in U.S. history.

Upon conviction, Stigler was sentenced to serve 16 years in prison on espionage charges with two concurrent years for registration violations; Siegler was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment on espionage charges and a concurrent two-year term for violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

1941

America was moored at Norfolk, Virginia, and acquired by the Navy on 1 June 1941 to be used as a troop transport. The ship was renamed the USS West Point (AP-23), the second U.S. Navy ship of the name. It entered the Norfolk Ship Yards on 6 June 1941 for conversion and on 15 June 1941, it was commissioned for service under the command of Captain Frank H. Kelley, Jr.

By the time the conversion was completed, life-rafts covered the promenade deck windows, "standee" bunks could be found everywhere, several anti-aircraft weapons were installed, all of the windows were covered, the ship was painted in a camouflage gray color, and the troop-carrying capacity was increased to 7,678.

The USS West Point soon proceeded to New York City and, while anchored off the Staten Island quarantine station on 16 July, took on board 137 Italian citizens and 327 German citizens from the consulates of those nations in the United States which had been closed. West Point got under way at 2:55 that afternoon, bound for Portugal, and arrived at Lisbon on 23 July.

While there, the ship was visited by Portuguese naval and diplomatic dignitaries; and it transferred supplies to the Coast Guard cutter USCGC Ingham (WHEC-35), the "station ship" at Lisbon, Portugal. After its final Italian passenger had disembarked on 23 July, and the last German on 24 July, West Point commenced taking on 321 American citizens and 67 Chinese—consular staffs and their families – on 26 July.

Returning to New York on 1 August, West Point discharged its passengers and headed south for an overhaul at Portsmouth, Virginia. She then participated in tactical exercises off the Virginia Capes from 26 to 29 August in company with USS Wakefield (AP-21) and USS Mount Vernon (AP-22).

The Preamble to Convoy WS-12X
The Atlantic Conference was held on 9 August 1941 in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, between Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Roosevelt. Besides the "official" agenda, Churchill hoped to obtain considerable assistance from the USA, but the American President had his political hands tied. On 1 September 1941, Roosevelt received an urgent and most secret message asking for US Navy troopships manned by Navy crews and escorted by U.S.N. fighting ships to carry British troops for the purpose of reinforcing the Middle East. On 4 September the US destroyer, USS Greer (DD-145), came under an unsuccessful U-boat attack. Roosevelt gave authority to the US Navy to "shoot to kill". On 5 September the President assured the British leader that six vessels would be provided to carry twenty thousand troops and would be escorted by the American Navy. The chief of Naval Operations ordered troop ships divisions seventeen and nineteen, on 26 September 1941, to prepare their vessels for approximately six months at sea. These transports were to load to capacity with food, ammunition medical supplies, fuel and water and were to arrive at Halifax, NS on or about 6 November and after the arrival of a British convoy from the UK were to load twenty thousand troops. The Prime Minister mentioned in his letter that it would be for the President to say what would be required in replacement if any of these ships were to be sunk by enemy action. Agreements were worked out for the troops to be carried as supernumeraries and rations to be paid out of Lend Lease Funds and officer laundry bills were to be paid in cash. All replenishments of provisions, general stores, fuel and water would be provided by the UK. Fuel and water would be charged for the escorts to the UK in Trinidad and Cape Town only. The troops would conform to US Navy and ships regulation. Intoxicating liquors were prohibited. It was further agreed that the troops were to rig and man their own anti-aircraft guns to augment the ships batteries.

Convoy William Sail WS-12X
On 3 November, it sailed from Virginia waters and arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 5 November. There, on 8 & 9 November, it embarked 241 officers and 5,202 men of the 55th Brigade, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment, and 100 men of a US Army Field Service company. On 10 November, West Point – in company with five other transports: Wakefield, Mount Vernon, USS Orizaba (ID-1536), USS Leonard Wood (APA-12), and USS Joseph T. Dickman (AP-26) – got under way for India as Convoy HS-124. En route, they were joined by the aircraft carrier USS Ranger (CV-4), the cruisers USS Vincennes (CA-44) and USS Quincy (CA-39), and a division of destroyers.

On 17 November 1941, Convoy WS12-X reaches Trinidad. All ships were replenished, and the convoy departs Trinidad on 19 November 1941.

On 7 December at 2000, the convoy receives a radio communication of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

On 9 December, convoy WS12-X arrived in Cape Town, South Africa.

At about 0800 on 13 December 1941, the troopships departed Cape Town headed for Bombay. At 650 on 21 December 1941, the USS Mount Vernon (AP-22) and USS Orizaba detached from the convoy headed for Bombay, and were bound for Mombasa. The remainder of the convoy continued to Bombay under the escort of HMS Dorsetshire (40), arriving on 27 December 1941.

Wakefield commenced discharging its embarked troops at 1900 at the Ballard Piers, completed her unloading, and shifted berths the next morning. West Point took Wakefield's former berth while Joseph T. Dickman moored to unload its equipment and troops.

Convoy BM 11
Having completed its discharge by 31 December 1941, West Point anchored in the stream on the morning of 2 January 1942 and awaited further orders until 4 January, when British authorities asked Captain Kelley, of West Point, if his ship and Wakefield could be brought under 30 ft draught to make passage for Singapore. Kelley responded that it could be done, but this would entail discharging ballast and expelling some of the ship's fresh water supply—thus endangering the ship's stability.

Due to prevailing low-water conditions at Bombay at this point, neither West Point nor Wakefield could go alongside piers in the harbor to either load equipment or troops. Thus, the embarkation and loading procedures had to be carried out by the tedious process of embarking troops and loading supplies from smaller ships and lighters brought alongside. Wakefield embarked – almost to a man – the troops which it had brought from Halifax, a total of 4,506, while West Point embarked two-thirds of the troops which it had transported, in addition to some which had come out on other ships. All told, it carried some 5,272 men.

West Point sailed for Singapore on 9 January, in a "15-knot" convoy, with Captain Kelley as the convoy commodore. In addition to the two American ships, three British transports – Duchess of Bedford, RMS Empress of Japan (1930), and MV Empire Star (1935) – made up the remainder of the van. Escorted by British light cruiser HMS Caledon (D53) until this ship was relieved by light cruiser HMS Glasgow (C21) at 1630 on 22 January, the convoy's escort soon swelled to three cruisers and four destroyers as the convoy neared Java. Japanese submarine activities near the Indonesian archipelago prompted concern for the safe arrival of the valuable ships, hence a 200 mi detour through the shallow, coral-studded Sunda Strait.

Led by British cruiser HMS Exeter (68), the ships slowed to 10 kn, and streaming paravane gear, began the passage. An escorting destroyer steamed between each transport, as they steamed in single-column order. It was a dangerous passing, a small divergence from the charted course could mean a disastrous grounding.

The screen's commander, Captain Oliver L. Gordon, R.N., commanding Exeter, desired to arrive at Singapore with as many ships as possible by dawn on 29 January, and thus split up the convoy, sending the faster vessels—West Point, Wakefield, and Empress of Japan—ahead at increased speed under escort of cruisers HMS Exeter, HMS Durban (D99), HMS Dragon (D46), and destroyers HMS Express (H61) and HMS Electra (H27). Proceeding to Singapore via Berhala Strait, Durian Strait, and Philips Channel, the group steamed through these bodies of water in bright moonlight which made navigational aids unnecessary. Upon their arrival off Singapore, the ships lay to in an exposed position, beyond the range of shore-based antiaircraft guns, until pilots could be obtained to bring the ships in. Since the naval base came under daily heavy air raids, the transports proceeded to Keppel Harbor, the commercial basin at Singapore, where they could discharge their troops and cargo.

Singapore
Securing abreast godowns (warehouses) 52, 53, and 54, West Point commenced off-loading equipment and disembarking its troops. All but 670 engineer troops, who had been ordered retained on board, were ashore before nightfall. Air raids, meanwhile, continued until midnight as the Japanese steadily pounded Singapore from the air. At each alert, the local workers working dockside would vanish, taking to the shelters and leaving the vital cargo still unloaded. As a result, the unloading was carried out by the crew of West Point, its embarked troops, and 22 local workers who were brought aboard to assist.

On 30 January, seven Japanese bombers appeared over the city and were engaged by British Brewster Buffalo fighters. As the alert continued, 30 more Japanese planes appeared overhead, on course over Keppel Harbor. Several bombs fell on shore, eastward of West Point's moorings, while another stick fell in the water to the southward. In the interim, bombs hit other targets. A small tanker moored near Wakefield was sunk at dockside; bombs fell abreast Empress of Japan; and Wakefield took a direct hit forward which destroyed its sick bay, killed five men and wounded nine. The last bombs in this stick straddled West Point and showered her with shrapnel. As the raid lifted, West Point sent two medical officers and 11 corpsmen on board Wakefield, at the latter's request, to render medical assistance.

Later that morning, Captain Kelley attended a conference with British authorities, who informed him that his ship was to be used to carry a contingent of Australian troops from Suez to Singapore and to transport refugees and evacuees to Ceylon. With the emergency "acute", Kelley agreed to take on board up to one thousand women and children and such additional men as the British desired to send. With the abandonment of the naval dockyard, untenable in the face of increasingly heavier Japanese bombardments from artillery and aircraft, several dockyard naval and civilian personnel and their families were assigned to West Point for evacuation. Most carried only hand baggage; had little, if any, money; but were all fortunate enough to escape the doomed city before its fall to the onrushing Japanese troops of General Yamashita. All told, some 1,276 naval officers, their families, dockyard civilians, civilian evacuees, a 16-man Royal Air Force (RAF) contingent, and 225 naval ratings made up the 1,276 people embarked by 6:00 p.m. on 30 January.

Clearing Singapore, West Point and Wakefield headed due west, escorted by HMS Durban. Overcast and squally weather covered their departure and permitted them to transit the Banka Strait unmolested by the seemingly omnipresent Japanese aircraft. Routed to Batavia, Java, to embark more refugees, West Point led Wakefield and Durban through the minefields and anchored in Batavia Roads at 3:05 a.m. on 31 January. HMS Electra—which would be lost in the Battle of the Java Sea 27 February—came alongside eight hours later and transferred 20 naval dockyard personnel, three women, five naval officers' wives, one Free French officer, and an RAF officer to West Point for passage to Ceylon.

February 1942 to end of 1942
At 12:40 pm on 1 February, West Point—in company with Wakefield and under escort of Exeter, HMS Encounter, and HMAS Vampire (D68)—got under way. The destroyers eventually went off to perform other duties, and Exeter as well soon dropped away to escort another convoy, leaving the two big troopships on their own. While they were en route, disconcerting news came over the radio. Japanese I-boats (identified after the war as I-162 and I-153) had been active in the vicinity, sinking six ships between them. West Point acquired an extra passenger while en route; for, on 4 February, a baby boy was born on board.

Colombo Harbor, Ceylon, where they arrived on 6 February, was so crowded that British authorities could not permit Wakefield to repair its damage there. The passengers, in turn, experienced much difficulty in arranging for suitable transportation ashore. In addition, neither transport could fully provision.

British authorities requested the American ships to evacuate personnel to Bombay. Accordingly, West Point took on board eight men, 55 women, and 53 children, as well as 670 troops, for passage to India. Wakefield, despite its weakened condition caused by the direct hit on 29 January, embarked two naval ratings, six RAF personnel, and 25 men and one officer of a British Bofors gun detachment. The two ships departed Colombo on 8 February and, escorted by the Greek destroyer Vasilissa Olga, proceeded at 20 kn. Captain Kelley later highly praised the operations of this sole escort. Although heavy weather was encountered en route, the Greek destroyer acquitted itself well, continuing to patrol its station "at all times at high speed ahead of our zig-zag."

After discharging her evacuees at Bombay, West Point parted company with Wakefield and proceeded to Suez where she picked up Australian troops who were being withdrawn from the North African Campaign to fight the Japanese in Southeast Asia. Meanwhile, one disaster after another had plagued the Allied forces. Singapore fell on 15 February; Java on 4 March. West Point carried its embarked troops to Australia and disembarked them at Adelaide and Melbourne before heading across the Pacific toward San Francisco.

As the Allies built up for the long road back, West Point participated in the effort to aid America's allies in the southwest Pacific with massive contingents of troops. Accordingly, the transport carried men to Wellington, New Zealand, and arrived on 30 May. There, it received orders to return to New York; and it got under way from Melbourne on 8 June, bound for the Panama Canal. It entered the Atlantic on 26 June, and arrived at New York on 2 July.

After two voyages to the United Kingdom, West Point sailed for India, via the South Atlantic route, and arrived at Bombay on 29 November, before pushing on for Auckland, New Zealand, the following month.

1943
The transport returned via Nouméa, New Caledonia, to San Francisco on 31 January 1943. It remained on the West Coast until 16 February, when it got under way for the South Pacific and retraced its route to Wellington, New Zealand, and Australian ports. It then continued west—calling at Bombay, Massawa, Aden, and Suez—and stopped briefly at Cape Town en route to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Eventually arriving at New York on 4 May, the ship subsequently made two voyages to Casablanca, French Morocco before sailing for Bombay via the southern Atlantic route. Calling at Rio de Janeiro and Cape Town en route, the big transport continued, via Bombay and Melbourne, on for the West Coast of the United States.

Soon thereafter, West Point began transporting troops to Australia and continued making voyages there and to Allied bases in the Central and South Pacific through the end of 1943.

1944
In 1944, the transport continued its vital workhorse duties, departing San Francisco on 12 January, bound for Nouméa and Guadalcanal; and from San Pedro, California on 22 February, bound for Nouméa and Milne Bay. It sailed from the latter port and steamed via the Panama Canal to Boston, Massachusetts, where it arrived on 12 June. It conducted five successive voyages to the United Kingdom before departing Boston on 6 December 1944 for Oran, Algeria; Casablanca, French Morocco; and Marseille, France. The transport left the Mediterranean on 26 December and proceeded to Norfolk, Virginia.

1945–1946

In 1945, West Point voyaged to Italian and French ports, via Oran or Gibraltar, staging from Hampton Roads, Virginia, Boston, or New York. After Germany surrendered, it took part in some of the initial "Magic Carpet" voyages, bringing home American troops from the European battlefronts. Following its last European voyage—to Le Havre, France—West Point was transferred to the Pacific Fleet. It departed Boston on 10 December 1945, transited the Panama Canal, and proceeded to Manila, Philippines via Pearl Harbor. Retracing the same route, it docked at pier 88 in New York on 7 February 1946 and soon got under way for Hampton Roads, where it was released from troop-carrying service on 22 February.

Its last voyage under the name West Point was a short trip from Portsmouth to Newport News for reconversion to a passenger liner. There, six days later, it was officially decommissioned, stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 12 March, and transferred to the Maritime Commission's War Shipping Administration.

During its naval service, it carried a total of over 350,000 troops which was the largest total of any Navy troopship in service during World War II. On one voyage in 1944 it was able to transport 9,305 people. Additionally the troop transport carried Red Cross workers, United Nations officials, children, civilians, prisoners of war, and U.S.O. entertainers.

Awards
During its service in the U.S. Navy, West Point earned the following awards:

 * American Defense Service Medal
 * European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal
 * Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
 * World War II Victory Medal

United States Lines career (1946–1964)
America ' s postwar career was successful, if uneventful. Finally, it was able to sail the New York–Le Havre–Bremerhaven–Cobh route that had been delayed by World War II. To many ship lovers, she was the most beautifully decorated liner to fly the American flag, smaller and more graceful than her much faster fleetmate, the SS United States, which debuted in 1952.

The great disparities between America and United States prevented them from becoming true running mates like the RMS Queen Mary and RMS Queen Elizabeth of the Cunard Line.

After 1955, it continued to sail the US–Europe route through at least 1960, but also served tropical ports such as Bermuda and the Caribbean. It sailed on fourteen trans-Atlantic voyages in 1962, and eight in 1963, but was laid up in Hoboken for five months starting in September, 1963 as a result of industrial action.

Chandris line career (1964–1978)
America was sold to the Greek-owned Chandris Group on 16 November 1964. At twenty-four, it was getting older and facing competition from both newer, faster ships and long-range, even non-stop, air travel. The postwar emigrant run from Europe to Australia had become a lucrative market for passenger ships unable to court the luxury trade.

America, now renamed Australis (meaning "Australia", following the naming convention of Chandris liners), was refitted extensively. Some 350 additional cabins were installed and many existing cabins were given extra berths, increasing the passenger capacity from fewer than 1,200 to 2,258.

Its maiden voyage was from Southampton on 21 August 1965 to Australia and New Zealand via Piraeus and Suez, returning to Southampton via the Pacific and Panama and Miami. Thereafter it sailed regularly from Southampton, occasionally Rotterdam, on this round-the-world route. On the closure of the Suez Canal in 1967, Piraeus was dropped as a port-of-call and it sailed southbound via Cape Town.

On 22 October 1970, fire broke out in the galley, causing the air-conditioning supply units and exhaust systems to be cut off from the bridge and "B" deck port about 3:45 a.m. It was extinguished the following day, but the voyage was delayed due to repair work.

On 11 July 1974, Australis was involved in a minor collision with the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne (R21) while in Sydney Harbour. Both ships were slightly damaged, but there were no casualties.

It was the last liner providing a regular service to Australia and New Zealand from Southampton until its final voyage, which left on 18 November 1977. After arriving at Auckland, she was laid up at Timaru on 23 December 1977.

Ultimately, rising fuel costs, aging infrastructure, and the creation of long-range jetliners caused Chandris to pull Australis off the Australian run in 1978.

Venture Cruise Lines career (June 1978 – August 1978)
Following a period of layup in Timaru, New Zealand, Australis was sold to Venture Cruise Lines of New York. Under this new ownership, the ship was renamed America once again in an attempt to capitalize on its American heritage despite being registered as a Greek vessel. The ship's hull was painted dark blue and the funnels were repainted in a blue-and-red color scheme.

America set sail on her first cruise on 30 June 1978. Its refit, however, had not been completed by the time of the sailing. The ship was in an extremely bad condition, with piles of soiled linen, worn mattresses, and scattered piles of trash everywhere, together with a pungent smell of kitchen odors, engine oil, and the sounds of plumbing back-ups.

In addition, water in overhead pipes leaked and dripped all over the decks. Along with these many maintenance issues, attempts to spruce the ship up led to other problems, such as the many layers of paint visible on the ship's outer bulkheads as well as on the lifeboat davits and gear. Additionally, the public rooms aboard were carelessly repainted, as seen from how the America's stainless-steel trims were then scarred with paint-brush strokes.

Due to overbooking and her state of incompletion, a number of passengers "mutinied", forcing the captain to return to New York, having only barely passed the Statue of Liberty. Nine hundred-sixty passengers were offloaded upon docking. On a second sailing that day, an additional 200 passengers left via tender at Staten Island.

America finally left for a five-day cruise to Nova Scotia on 3 July 1978. Upon arrival, she was met with $2.5 million in claims from passengers. Further issues saw the cancellation of all further sailings, and America was impounded on 18 July 1978 for non-payment of debts. America also received an inspection score of six out of a possible 100 points by the US Public Health Service.

On 28 August 1978, America was ordered to be sold at auction by the United States district court.

Second Chandris career (1978–1980)
Chandris Lines repurchased America for $1,000,000 and renamed her Italis. Her forward dummy funnel had become severely corroded due to years of neglect and was removed as part of an ambitious plan to modernize her silhouette by adding streamlined superstructure above the bridge, but this 'new look' was never completed. She retained the dark blue hull adopted by Venture Cruise Lines.

Italis first operated under Chandris as a hotel ship from 23 June - 20 July 1979 when it was chartered for the Organisation of African Unity Conference held in Monrovia, Liberia. It then carried out three 14-night cruises from Genoa and Barcelona to Egypt, Israel and the Eastern Mediterranean beginning on 28 July 1979. At the end of this series of cruises it was finally laid up in Elefsina Bay, Piraeus, Greece on 12 September 1979.

Uncertain future at Piraeus (1979–1993)
The ship was next sold to Intercommerce Corporation in 1980, and was renamed Noga. Intercommerce's intention was to convert the ship to a prison ship, to be anchored in Beirut; but this never happened.

In September, 1984, the ship was sold to Silver Moon Ferries and was once again renamed, now carrying the name Alferdoss (meaning "paradise" in Arabic). However, the new name was not completely added (since the port bow was only renamed Alferdoss), so the name on the stern and starboard bow continued to show Noga.

While under the ownership of Silver Moon Ferries, a burst bilge pipe led to flooding in the engine room and some crew quarters. Due to the quickly-occurring list, the starboard anchor was raised and her port anchor was cut away, and it was quickly beached to prevent sinking. After being pumped out and repaired, it was returned to its original location.

In the late 1980s, the ship was sold for $2 million for scrapping. The scrap merchant made an initial deposit of $1 million, and began work. Following the demolition of the lifeboats and lifeboat davits, the scrappers defaulted on payments, and pulled out.

Alferdoss/Noga would continue in this state until 1993.

Wrecked at Fuerteventura and break up (1994–2008)
In October, 1992, the ship was sold yet again, with the intention of being refitted to become a five-star hotel ship off Phuket, in Thailand. Drydocking at that time revealed that, despite the years of neglect, the hull was still in remarkably good condition. In August, 1993, it was renamed American Star, her propellers were removed and placed on the deck at the bow, the funnel was painted red, the bridge was painted signal orange just for the tow, and ladders were welded to starboard. Since the vessel was not allowed to pass through the Suez Canal due to its age, the vessel had to go around the Cape of Good Hope in order to get to Thailand.

The ship left Greece under tow on 22 December 1993, but the tow proved impossible due to inclement weather. It then returned to Greece for a few days until the weather calmed down. On 31 December 1993, American Star left Greece for the last time, under tow by Ukrainian tugboat Neftegaz-67.

The hundred-day tow began. Shortly afterward, American Star and Neftegaz-67 sailed into a thunderstorm in the Atlantic. The tow-lines broke and six or more crew members were sent aboard the American Star to reattach the emergency tow-lines, which proved unsuccessful. Two other towboats were called to assist Neftegaz 67. On 17 January 1994, the crew aboard American Star was rescued by helicopter. The ship was left adrift. At 6:15 a.m. on 18 January, the ship went aground at Playa de Garcey, off the west coast of Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands.

While discussions among the ship's owners, the towing firm, and the companies insuring the ship were going on, the ship was left to nature, with the forward part going aground on a sandbar. Within the first 48 hours of grounding, the pounding surf of the Atlantic broke the ship in two just past the second funnel. The ship was declared a total loss on 6 July 1994. The 344 ft stern section collapsed completely to port and sank in 1996, while the 379 ft bow section remained intact. As months passed after running ashore, the wreck attracted onlookers and even looters. Locals even created a zipline to the wreck to carry off anything valuable from it. Due to the rough waves and strong current, trying to reach the wreck was very unsafe. Over the years several people trying to swim out to the wreck had died while others had to be airlifted off once they got on board. Those that have gotten onboard showed views of the interiors and exteriors of the wreck such as sparse cabins and water crashing through the blown-out portholes. The only other documentation came from a German documentary in 1999 that showed the interiors and exteriors of the wreck, including rare views filmed just after the stern section had split apart. As part of an art project, the film crew brought generators and floodlights aboard to illuminate the bow section.

By 2004 the bow section continued to remain upright with the water eroding away cargo hold no. 1, making the bow section extremely top heavy. In November, 2005, the port side of the bow section collapsed, which caused the liner's remains to assume a much sharper list, and the remaining funnel detached and fell into the ocean somewhere between November 13 & 15. The collapse of the port side also caused the hull to begin to break up and by October, 2006, the wreck had almost completely collapsed onto its port side.

On Approximately March 20, 2007, the starboard side finally collapsed, causing the wreck to break in half and fall into the sea.

Debris field (2008 – present)
It was noted in 2013 that the wreck was no longer visible on Google Maps. By 2018, only the bow was left visible, and only during low tide.

In 2019, extensive underwater footage was taken of the American Star's debris field by scuba divers during a period of calm seas. While the liner's hull and superstructure are now fully disintegrated, there remain recognizable chunks of the vessel half buried in the sand. Anchor chains on the forecastle and a boiler are particularly intact. The detached funnel is also intact. The wreck site is teeming with marine life.

title: SS America (1939)


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User talk:69.197.107.164

Proposed deletion of Alcona, Ontario

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title: User talk:69.197.107.164


text:
File:Songs of Darkness, Words of Light.jpg

Summary
Sleeve of My Dying Bride's Songs of Darkness Words of Light (2004)


text:
File:ARIARoleplaying.jpg

The cover to ARIA Roleplaying by Last Unicorn Games. Scanned by LordAmeth.

title: File:ARIARoleplaying.jpg


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Red Hot TV (Canadian TV channel)

Red Hot TV is a Canadian English language Category B specialty channel that broadcasts adult entertainment material, primarily consisting of pornographic films, with a focus on couples-oriented programming sourced from various adult film studios including original Canadian content. The channel is owned by Ten Broadcasting, a company owned by Stuart Duncan (80.01%) and LFP Video Inc. (19.99%).

History
In December 2000, Ten Broadcasting Inc. was granted approval by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to launch a television channel called TEN – Channel 2, described as "a national English-language Category 2 specialty television service devoted to adult entertainment programming, including adult entertainment films, talk shows, phone-in shows and other programming on the theme of sexuality."

The channel was launched on December 1, 2003 on Rogers Cable as X Channel. In 2006, the channel was renamed Red Light District TV. The channel was once again renamed, this time on August 1, 2008 as Red Hot TV.

Theme nights

 * Monday: Red Hot Gone Wild
 * Tuesday Nights: Foreign Nights
 * Wednesday Nights: Amateur Nights
 * Thursday Nights: Titty Nights
 * Red Hot Fridays
 * Sunday Nights: Red Hot Classics

Slogans

 *  On weekday To Now Up Is Hot
 * "Turn Up The Heat"
 * "Life is Red Hot"

title: Red Hot TV (Canadian TV channel)