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Venetian glass

Venetian glass (vetro veneziano) is glassware made in Venice, typically on the island of Murano near the city. Traditionally it is made with a soda–lime "metal" and is typically elaborately decorated, with various "hot" glass-forming techniques, as well as gilding, enamel, or engraving. Production has been concentrated on the Venetian island of Murano since the 13th century. Today Murano is known for its art glass, but it has a long history of innovations in glassmaking in addition to its artistic fame—and was Europe's major center for luxury glass from the High Middle Ages to the Italian Renaissance. During the 15th century, Murano glassmakers created cristallo—which was almost transparent and considered the finest glass in the world. Murano glassmakers also developed a white-colored glass (milk glass called lattimo) that looked like porcelain. They later became Europe's finest makers of mirrors.

During the Early Middle Ages, Venice was originally controlled by the Eastern Roman Empire before eventually becoming an independent city state. It flourished as a trading center and seaport in the High Middle Ages. Its connections with the Middle East helped its glassmakers gain additional skills, as glassmaking was more advanced in areas such as Syria and Egypt. Although Venetian glassmaking in factories existed as far back as the eighth century, it became concentrated in Murano by law beginning in 1291: since glass factories often caught fire, this removed much of the possibility of a major fire disaster for the city. Venetian glassmakers developed secret recipes and methods for making glass, and the concentration of Venice's glassmaking on the island of Murano enabled better control of those secrets.

Murano became Europe's luxury glassmaking center, peaking in popularity in the 15th and 16th centuries. Venice's dominance in trade along the Mediterranean created a wealthy merchant class that was a strong connoisseur of the arts. This helped establish demand for art glass and more innovations. The spread of glassmaking talent in Europe eventually diminished the importance of Venice and its Murano glassmakers. The occupation and dissolution of the Venetian state by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1797 caused more hardship for Murano's glassmaking industry. Murano glassmaking began a revival in the 1920s. Today, Murano and Venice are tourist attractions, and Murano is home to numerous glass factories and a few individual artists' studios. Its Museo del Vetro (Glass Museum) in the Palazzo Giustinian contains displays on the history of glassmaking as well as glass samples ranging from Egyptian times through the present day.

Late Antiquity and Middle Ages
The Venetian city state grew during the decline of the Roman Empire in the fifth century, as people fled the barbarian invasions to the safety of islands in the Venetian Lagoon. Small communities grew in the lagoon, among which Venice eventually became the most prominent. The city of Venice became a highly successful trading port, and by the inception of the 11th century dominated trade between Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. It also had a strong navy. Many European Crusaders passed through Venice on their way to and from the Holy Land. Treasures of many kinds were bought and sold in Venice: spices, precious metals, gemstones, ivory, silks—and glass. Successful trade bred a wealthy merchant class in addition to the nobles, and the wealthy became patrons of Venice's famous art and architecture.

It is thought that glass production in Venice began as early as around 450, as glassmakers from Aquileia fled to the islands to escape barbarian invaders. The earliest archaeological evidence of a glass factory in the area comes from the Venetian lagoon island of Torcello and dates from the seventh or eighth century. The original Venetian glassmakers were joined by glassmakers from Byzantium and from the Middle East—which enriched their glassmaking knowledge. Glass was made in the Middle East long before it was made in Europe, though Ancient Roman glass made in Italy, Germany and elsewhere could be extremely sophisticated. Early products included beads, glass for mosaics, jewelry, small mirrors, and window glass.

Venetian glassmaking grew in importance to the city's economy. Around 1271 the local glassmakers' guild made rules to help preserve glassmaking secrets. It was forbidden to divulge trade secrets outside of Venice. If a glassworker left the city without permission, he would be ordered to return. If he failed to return, his family would be imprisoned. If he still did not return, an assassin would be sent to kill him. Additional rules specified ingredients used for making glass and the type of wood used as fuel for the furnaces.

Island of Murano
A law dated November 8, 1291 confined most of Venice's glassmaking industry to the "island of Murano". Murano is actually a cluster of islands linked by short bridges, located less than 2 km north of the Venetian mainland in the Venetian lagoon. The furnaces used to make molten glass were a fire hazard, especially in cities with wooden structures nearby. Moving the glassmaking industry to Murano removed the threat of a disastrous fire in Venice. The move also kept the technology of glassmaking, and the glassmakers, confined to Murano. This prevented the spread of Venetian glassmaking expertise to potential competitors. Glassmakers were not allowed to leave the island without permission from the government. Leaving without permission, or revealing trade secrets, was punishable by death. Locating the industry on a single island also made it easier for the government to monitor imports and exports.

Murano in the 1200s was a summer resort where the aristocrats of Venice built villas with orchards and gardens. It took about an hour to row a boat from Venice to Murano. Although the glassmakers could not leave the island, the nobles had no such constraints. Despite their travel restrictions, the glassmakers lived on a beautiful island, were under the direct rule of Venice's Council of Ten (the Venetian state-security committee), and had extra privileges. They did not work during the hot summer, during which furnace repair and maintenance was performed. During the 1300s, the annual summer vacation lasted five months. In the 1400s, the Venetian government shortened the summer vacation to three and a half months. Murano glassmakers sometimes complained they were not working enough. Glassmakers also enjoyed heightened social status. On December 22, 1376, it was announced that if a glassmaker's daughter married a nobleman, there was no forfeiture of social class, so their children were nobles.

Major products and innovations
The Venetian glassmakers of Murano are known for many innovations and refinements to glassmaking. Among them are Murano beads, cristallo, lattimo, chandeliers, and mirrors. Additional refinements or creations are goldstone, multicolored glass (millefiori), and imitation gemstones made of glass. In addition to guarding their secret processes and glass recipes, Venetian/Murano glassmakers strived for beauty with their glass.

Aventurine
Aventurine glass, also known as goldstone glass, is translucent brownish with metallic (copper) specks. It was developed by Venetian glassmakers in the early 15th century. It is first cited in historical documents in 1626. The name aventurine is used because it was discovered accidentally.

Beads
Glass beads (a.k.a. Murano beads) were made by the Venetians beginning in the 1200s. The beads were used as rosary beads and jewelry. They were also popular in Africa. Christopher Columbus noted that the people of the New World (Native Americans) were "delighted" with the beads as gifts, and beads became popular with American Indians.

Calcedonio
Calcedonio is a marbled glass that looked like the semiprecious stone chalcedony. This type of glass was created during the 1400s by Angelo Barovier, who is considered Murano's greatest glassmaker. Barovier was an expert glassblower, revived enameling, and also worked with colored glass. His family had been involved with glassmaking since at least 1331, and the family continued in the business after his death. He died in 1460.

Chandeliers
During the 1700s, Giuseppe Briati was famous for his work with ornamented mirrors and chandeliers. Briati's chandelier style was called ciocche—literally bouquet of flowers. Briati's typical chandelier was large with multiple arms decorated with garlands, flowers and leaves. One of the common uses of the huge Murano chandeliers was interior lighting for theatres and important rooms in palaces. Briati was born in Murano in 1686, and his family's business was glassmaking. He was allowed to work in a Bohemian glass factory, where he learned the secrets of working with Bohemian crystal—which was becoming more popular than Murano cristallo. In 1739, the Council of Ten allowed him to move his furnace from Murano to Venice because his work had caused such jealousy that he and his workers feared for their lives. (His father had been stabbed to death in 1701.) Briati retired in 1762, and his nephew became manager of the glass works. Briati died in Venice in 1772, and is buried in Murano.

Cristallo
Cristallo is a soda glass, created during the 15th century by Murano's Angelo Barovier. The oldest reference to cristallo is dated May 24, 1453. At the time, cristallo was considered Europe's clearest glass, and is one of the main reasons Murano became "the most important glass center".

The name arose because it looked like rock crystal or clear quartz, which had long been carved into various types of vessels and small hardstone carvings. Rock crystal was said to have magical qualities and in the Middle Ages was often used in Christian religious objects. Cristallo became very popular. This type of glass was fragile and difficult to cut, but it could be enameled and engraved. Manganese dioxide, a de-coloring agent, was a key ingredient in the secret formula used to make cristallo. An easy modification to cristallo made in Murano was to produce a frosted or crackle version. The use of "crystal" as a marketing term for glass has continued into modern times, though for at least the last century it has normally meant lead crystal glass of the type developed by Ravenscroft. Cristallo could be made extremely thin, thus reducing the remaining hint of color, and the Venetians usually made clear pieces this way.

Filigrana
The filigrana (a.k.a. filigree) style was developed in Murano in the 1500s. By embedding glass canes (usually white but not always) in colorless glass, the glassware has a striped appearance. Vetro a fili has straight white stripes, vetro a retortoli has twisted or spiral patterns, and vetro a reticello has two sets of lines twisted in opposite directions. Francesco Zeno has been mentioned as the inventor of vetro a retortoli.

Lattimo
Lattimo, or milk glass, began being made in Murano during the 15th century, and Angelo Barovier is credited with its re-discovery and development. This glass is opaque white, and was meant to resemble enameled porcelain. It was often decorated with enamel showing sacred scenes or views of Venice.

Millefiori

Millefiori glass is a variation of the murrine technique made from colored canes in clear glass, and is often arranged in flower-like patterns. The Italian word millefiori means thousand flowers. This technique was perfected in Alexandria, Egypt, and began being used in Murano in the 15th century.

Mirrors
Small mirrors were made in Murano beginning in the 1500s, and mirror makers had their own guild beginning in 1569. Murano mirrors were known for the artwork on the frame that held the mirror in addition to their quality. By the 1600s, Murano mirrors were in great demand. However, by the end of the century, English-made mirrors had the best quality. Only one glass house in Murano was still making mirrors by 1772.

Murrine
Murrine technique begins with the layering of colored liquid glass, heated to 1040 °C, which is then stretched into long rods called canes. When cooled, these canes are then sliced in cross-sections, which reveals the layered pattern. Ercole Barovier, a descendant of Murano's greatest glassmaker Angelo Barovier, won numerous awards during the 1940s and 1950s for his innovations using the murrine technique.

Sommerso
Sommerso ("submerged" in Italian), is a form of artistic Murano glass that has layers of different colors (typically two), which are formed by dipping colored glass into another molten glass and then blowing the combination into a desired shape. The outermost layer, or casing, is often clear. Sommerso was developed in Murano during the late 1930s. Flavio Poli was known for using this technique, and it was made popular by Seguso Vetri d'Arte and the Mandruzzato family in the 1950s. This process is a popular technique for vases, and is sometimes used for sculptures.

Spectacles
Eyeglasses are thought to have been invented in Italy; with Pisa, Venice, and Florence discussed as the location of the invention. Almost from the invention of eyeglasses sometime late in the thirteenth century, Venice was an important hub for the manufacturing of spectacle lenses.

Golden age, decline, and revival
The 16th century was the golden age for Venetian glassmaking in Murano. Major trading partners included the Spanish Indies, Italy, Spain, Ottoman Turkey, and the German-speaking states. At least 28 glassmaking furnaces were in Murano in 1581. Numerous leaders and dignitaries visited Murano during this century, including the queen of France, dukes, princes, generals, cardinals, archbishops, and ambassadors. Collectors of Murano glass included Henry VIII of England, Pope Clement VII, King Ferdinand of Hungary, Francis I of France, and Philip II of Spain.

During the 16th century Murano glassmakers liberated themselves from the imitation of metalwork shapes, which had previously been their habit. Shapes became elongated and elegant, "then more elaborate and inclining to fantasy", for example in the hot-work pieces added to the sides of the stems of glasses. The glass was extremely thin, and therefore fragile, adding to the effect of luxury.

In 1612 the Florentine priest Antonio Neri published L’Arte Vetraria (The Art of Glass), which revealed all the secrets of Venetian glass production to the outside world, and by the later 16th century the efforts of the Venetian Republic to hold on to its virtual monopoly in the production of luxury glass, mainly by keeping skilled workers in the republic, were beginning to fail. Other countries, often led by their monarchs, were keen to have their own fine glass industries, and tempted skilled workers away. This led to a diffusion of the Venetian style to many centres around Europe. The glass made in this movement is called façon de Venise (French for "Venetian style"); the quality is typically rather lower than the Venetian originals, partly from difficulties sourcing the right materials, and the place of manufacture is often hard to discern. Engraved glass was a part of this diffusion, and initially was especially developed in Germany.

Eventually, the dominance of cristallo came to an end. In 1673, English glass merchant George Ravenscroft created a clear glass he called crystalline—but it was not stable. Three years later, he improved this glass by adding lead oxide, and lead glass (a.k.a. crystal) was created. Ravenscroft, who had lived for many years in Venice, made lead crystal that was less breakable than cristallo. In 1674, Bohemian glassmaker Louis le Vasseur d'Ossimont (1629-1689) made crystal that was similar to Ravenscroft's. In 1678, Johan Friedrich Kunkel von Lowenstein produced a cristallo-like glass in Potsdam. The Bohemian and Prussian-style glass was later modified by the addition of lime and chalk. This new glass is attributed to Bohemian glassmaker Michael Müller in 1683. It had a tendency to crizzle at first, but the problem had been solved by 1714. The Bohemian glass was not suitable to the Murano-style artwork on the glass. However, this harder glass was produced as a thicker glass suitable for glass engraving and grinding. The Bohemian and English glass eventually became more popular than cristallo made in Murano. By the 1700s, Murano glass was traded mostly with Italian states and the Turkish empire. Small quantities were traded with England, Flanders, the Netherlands and Spain.

Napoleon conquered Venice during May 1797, and the Venetian Republic came to an end. The fall of the Venetian Republic caused hard times for glassmaking in Murano, and some of the Murano methods became lost. Controlled by France and Austria, Venetian glassmaking became unprofitable because of tariffs and taxes—and glassmakers that survived were reduced to making mostly beads. Napoleon closed the Venetian glass factories in 1807, although simple glassware and beadmaking continued. In the 1830s, outsiders tried to revive the industry. However, it was not until Venice became part of Italy in 1866 that Murano glassmaking could experience a revival. Around that time, local leaders such as the mayor of Murano Antonio Colleoni and Abbot Vincenzo Zanetti (founder of the Murano Glass Museum), along with Murano manufacturers such as Fratelli Toso, began reinventing the earlier Murano techniques for making glass. Antonio Salviati, a Venetian lawyer who gave up his profession in 1859 in order to devote his time to glassmaking, also had an important role in the revival of glassmaking in Murano.

Making glass
From its beginning until the fall of the Venetian Republic, Murano glass was mostly a very high quality soda–lime glass (using today's terminology) that had extra attention focused on its appearance. Glass from that time typically contained 65 to 70 percent silica. A flux, usually soda (sodium oxide as 10 to 20 percent of the glass composition) was added to enable the silica to melt at a lower temperature. A stabilizer, usually lime (calcium oxide as about 10 percent of the glass) was also added for durability and to prevent solubility in water. Small quantities of other ingredients were added to the glass, mostly to affect appearance. Sand is a common source for silica. For certain types of glass, the Murano glassmakers used quartz as their source for silica. Quartz pebbles were crushed into a fine powder. Two sources for sand were Crete and Sicily. Quartz pebbles were selected from the Ticino and Adige rivers in Northern Italy. Their source for soda was what they called allume catina—plant ash found in the eastern Mediterranean countries of the Middle East. Beginning in the 16th century, allume catina was also imported from Mediterranean coastal regions of Spain and France. The mixing and melting of the batch of ingredients was a two-stage process. First, nearly equal amounts of silica and flux were continuously stirred in a special furnace. The furnace was called a calchera furnace, and the mix was called fritta. In the second stage, the fritta was mixed with selected recycled waste glass (cullet) and melted in another furnace. Depending on the type and color of glass, other additives were used. Lead and tin were added for white opaque glass (latimo). Cobalt was used for blue glass. Copper and iron were used for green and for various shades of green, blue, and yellow. Manganese was used to remove colors. Although natural gas is the furnace fuel of choice for glassmaking today, the fuel mandated in Murano during the 13th century was alder and willow wood. During this second stage, the surface of the molten glass was skimmed to remove undesirable chemicals that affected the appearance of the glass. Additional techniques were used as glassmaking evolved. To improve clarity, molten glass was put in water and then re-melted. Another technique was to purify the flux by boiling and filtering.

Tools
The Venetian glassmakers had a set of tools that changed little for hundreds of years. A ferro sbuso, also called a canna da soffio, is the blowpipe essential for extracting molten glass and beginning the shaping process. A borselle is a tong-like tool of various sizes used to shape glass that has not hardened. A borselle puntata is a similar tool, only it has a pattern that can be imprinted on the glass. A pontello is the pontil, an iron rod that holds the glass while work is done on the edge of the glass. A tagianti is a large scissors used to cut glass before it has hardened. A scagno is the workbench used by the glassmaker. "Good tools are nice, but good hands are better", is an old Murano saying that reinforces the idea that the glassmakers of Murano rely on their skills instead of any advantage caused by special tools.

Today
Some of Venice's historical glass factories in Murano remain well known brands today, including De Biasi, Gabbiani, Venini, Salviati, Barovier & Toso, Pauly, Berengo Studio, Seguso, Formia International, Simone Cenedese, Alessandro Mandruzzato, Vetreria Ducale, Estevan Rossetto 1950 and others. The oldest glass factory is Antica Vetreria Fratelli Toso, founded in 1854.

Overall, the industry has been shrinking as demand has waned. Imitation works (recognizable by experts but not by the typical tourist) from Asia and Eastern Europe take an estimated 40 to 45 percent of the market for Murano glass, and public tastes have changed while the designs in Murano have largely stayed the same. To fight the imitation problem, a group of companies and concerned individuals created a trademark in 1994 that certifies that the product was made on Murano. By 2012, about 50 companies were using the Artistic Glass Murano® trademark of origin.

Glassmaking is a difficult and uncomfortable profession, as glassmakers must work with a product heated to extremely high temperatures. Unlike 500 years ago, children of glassmakers do not enjoy any special privileges, extra wealth, or marriage into nobility. Today, it is difficult to recruit young glassmakers. Foreign imitations, and difficulty attracting young workers, caused the number of professional glassmakers in Murano to decrease from about 6,000 in 1990 to fewer than 1,000 by 2012.

Alaska
In February 2021, Venetian glass trade beads were announced to have been found at three prehistoric Eskimo sites in Alaska, including Punyik Point. Uninhabited today, and located a mile from the Continental Divide in the Brooks Range, the area was on ancient trade routes from the Bering Sea to the Arctic Ocean. The researchers believed the likely route these artifacts traveled from their creation in Venice was across Europe, then Eurasia and finally over the Bering Strait, making this discovery "the first documented instance of the presence of indubitable European materials in prehistoric sites in the western hemisphere as the result of overland transport across the Eurasian continent." From radiocarbon dating materials found near the beads, archaeologists estimated their arrival on the continent to sometime between 1440 and 1480, predating Christopher Columbus. The dating and provenance has however been challenged by other researchers who point out that such beads were first made in Venice in the mid-16th century, and that an early 17th-century French origin is also possible.

title: Venetian glass


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Raman amplification

Raman amplification is based on the stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) phenomenon, when a lower frequency 'signal' photon induces the inelastic scattering of a higher-frequency 'pump' photon in an optical medium in the nonlinear regime. As a result of this, another 'signal' photon is produced, with the surplus energy resonantly passed to the vibrational states of the medium. This process, as with other stimulated emission processes, allows all-optical amplification. Optical fiber is today most used as the nonlinear medium for SRS for telecom purposes; in this case it is characterized by a resonance frequency downshift of ~11 THz (corresponding to a wavelength shift at ~1550 nm of ~90 nm). The SRS amplification process can be readily cascaded, thus accessing essentially any wavelength in the fiber low-loss guiding windows (both 1310 and 1550). In addition to applications in nonlinear and ultrafast optics, Raman amplification is used in optical telecommunications, allowing all-band wavelength coverage and in-line distributed signal amplification.

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

title: Raman amplification


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Australian Monarchist League

The Australian Monarchist League (AML) is an incorporated nonprofit organisation, that runs throughout Australia, promoting and educating on the Australian Constitution and monarchy. The organisation was part of the successful "no" campaign in the 1999 republic referendum, which asked whether Australia should become a republic and whether Australia should alter the constitution to insert a preamble. Neither of the amendments passed.

Structure
The Australian Monarchist League is a nonprofit organisation incorporated in New South Wales. Originally a branch of the London-based International Monarchist League (IML) the league severed any affiliation with the IML and established itself as an independent Australian body. (A separate organisation, the International Monarchist League in Australia, was formed in 2006 as an affiliate of the IML). The organisation is not formally associated with any political party or other organisation, and it has no paid staff, relying on volunteers to keep the group functioning. The league is governed by a National Council comprising representatives from branches in each state and territory. All positions in the league are subject to election in accordance with the league's constitution.

The elected chairman and CEO of the league is Philip Benwell who has served on a volunteer basis for over 25 years. In 1978, Benwell was charged with fraudulent misappropriation and obtaining money under false pretences. He fled to Sri Lanka, where his family owned tea plantations. He was eventually extradited back to Australia in 1987, after a period of imprisonment at Welikada Prison, but was never prosecuted for the earlier charges. When it was feared that the press was about to publish details of this, Benwell stood aside from being chairman during the height of the 1999 referendum campaign.

1999 republic referendum
During the 1998 Constitutional Convention on the future of Australia's constitutional monarchy, the league along with the five other constitutional monarchist groups formed a united front led by Lloyd Waddy QC, the National Convenor of [Australians for Constitutional Monarchy] which was by far the dominant monarchist group. Positions on the official Vote No Committee were filled according to votes received at the Convention election where the league had won 6.05% of the vote. Accordingly, all eight monarchist seats went to an alternative organization which had won 72.39% of the monarchist vote, Australians for Constitutional Monarchy (along with two supporting an elected head of state). Nevertheless, the Australian Monarchist League played a role in the proceedings, including Benwell privately taking the Australian Electoral Commission to the Federal Court in an unsuccessful attempt to gain a firmer definition of what would count as a "yes" vote in the referendum, arguing that the planned approach (accepting any vote in which the voter's intention was clear) was such that the counting would be weighted towards "yes" and "opened the door for electoral fraud".

Post-1999 actions
Both prior and subsequent to the referendum, the Australian Monarchist League has acted to protect the image of the constitutional monarchy. Some examples of successes in this area include complaints lodged by the organisation in 2005 regarding an image depicting Princess Diana by photographer Erwin Olaf at the Australian Centre for Photography. Similarly, they wrote to the Japanese ambassador in 1998 after Toyota ran an advertisement showing a Range Rover with the words "Don't worry, Your Majesty, you're not the only British export that's had its day", resulting in Toyota withdrawing the advertisement and in 2008 complained to both the Coopers Brewery and the Advertising Standards Bureau after Coopers ran an advertisement stating "Forget the monarchy, support the publicans", forcing its withdrawal. The league continues to maintain vigilance, more recently lodging complaints against the ABC, claiming bias.

Along with their actions during the referendum, the league have been active in protecting the symbols of Australia's constitutional monarchy; they acted to ensure that the pledge of loyalty to the monarch remained a part of Scouts Australia, and spoke against the removal of references to the Queen from the Victorian legal system. Aside from campaigning, the AML distributed copies of William Dargie's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II after the Commonwealth Government Bookshops ceased selling photographs of the monarch.

Recent activities
Other activities include disseminating literature and maintaining a library on Australian history and the Australian Constitution and conducting public seminars.

The league condemned Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in June 2022 for the appointment of Matt Thistlethwaite as Assistant Minister for the Republic.

Following the coverage of the Coronation of King Charles III on the 6 May 2023, the league accused the ABC of "despicable" news coverage of the coronation and claimed that it was biased. Resultingly, the league submitted a signed letter of dissatisfaction from members to the Chair of the ABC later that month, demanding an apology. From this, the ABC completed an internal investigation into the way the Coronation was broadcast after 1,000 people voiced their disproval of the coverage.

Notable members and patrons

 * Eric Abetz
 * Tony Abbott AC
 * John Howard OM AC
 * Sir John Fuller
 * Pro Hart MBE
 * Malcolm Murray, 12th Earl of Dunmore
 * Bruce Ruxton AM OBE
 * Nancy Wake AC GM
 * David Leach AC CBE LVO
 * Lady Mary Fairfax AC OBE
 * Noël Deschamps

Membership
, the league had approximately 100 financial members, 20,000 official members and a support base of over 53,000 people.

title: Australian Monarchist League


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User:Mclaincausey

I don't even have time to maintain http://www.mclaincausey.com/ my website, much less profile pages.

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Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections January 2006/Candidate statements/172

In a famous 1957 essay "Bureaucratic Structure and Personality," Robert Merton called attention to the possibility that an organization's rules, procedures, and hierarchy of offices—structures originally conceived as a means—could become transformed into ends themselves. When this happens, a familiar process of displacement of goals sets in, leading to an over-concern with strict adherence to regulations, legalism, inefficiency, and ineffectiveness.

When I ran for arbitrator last year, I called attention to the possibility that the excessive preoccupation of the Arbitration Committee (Arbcom) with its own rules and discipline were leading to greater and greater displacement of Wikipeida's sole goal: writing an encyclopedia. Over the past year, the committee has grown yet more cumbersome, ineffective, inefficient, and inaccessible. I fear that I was right last year.

Despite the timid attempts to revamp the increasingly myopic body, the Arbcom still focuses too much on personality instead of the merit of the edits, and too much on process instead of product. This is what I want to change; as an arbitrator, I'd favor focusing on the accuracy and constructiveness of the edits in question—as opposed to the personalities—to the greatest extent possible within the framework of the established norms, rules and procedures of the committee.

To correct this, we need an Arbcom composed of active writers and editors, not just administrators or bureaucrats who enjoy close access to the foundation. Members of the Arbcom need to see the bigger picture and better distinguish between individuals mucking up Wikipedia with inane rubbish and individuals dedicated to writing a serious, quality encyclopedia. As an active editor since December 2002 (with intermittent breaks) and founder of the Forum for Encyclopedic Standards, I can see this big picture; and my contributions history clearly demonstrates a commitment to making this into a viable encyclopedia and to fighting for strict encyclopedic standards. 172 | Talk 05:02, 3 October 2005 (UTC)

Full disclosure
I have been an active editor on Wikipedia for nearly three years focusing on some highly contentious topics in history and contemporary politics. In the process, I have gotten to know a number of users with whom I'm on quite friendly terms, and others with whom I'm on less friendly terms. Therefore, I would without exception recuse myself from any case involving the following editors: Lir, Sam Spade, Silverback, Ultramarine, Fred Bauder, and Netoholic. I am probably biased in favor of a far greater number of editors. If I case were to involve such an editor, without exception I would seek advice from fellow arbitrators regarding whether or not I should recuse myself. In the event that any current or former arbitrator were to advise me to recuse myself from any particular case, I would do so on the basis of that advice alone and without exception. If I were to fail to follow those standards above, these comments here would demonstrate grounds for my removal from the committee quite clealry. 172 | Talk 10:41, 9 November 2005 (UTC)

Questions
Q: What would you change or do differently if you were elected to the arbitration committee? Jtkiefer T - 03:52, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

I would not be afraid to challenge established practices on the committee that have failed; and I will not be afraid to remind my colleagues that the Arbcom is only a means to an end: serving the editors of the main namespace. I would also focus on making the Arbcom a more responsive, efficient institution by recruiting a staff to assist our work. Any judicial body that handles the volume of work that Arbcom is beginning to see has a staff. So I don't understand why the arbitrators seem so preoccupied with having a small number of people do all the work and make all the decisions secretively on the IRC. It's time that the Arcom start recruiting assistants who can relate to our content editors to handle casework, answer process-related questions, and work with arbitrators on verifying claims, briefing them on the information they have gathered. 172 | Talk 09:12, 9 October 2005 (UTC)

Some questions being asked of all the candidates by jguk
''Q: How old are you and what do you do? (If student, please state what subjects you are studying.)''

A:While I'm sure that candidates will be judged by the community's assessment of their work on Wikipeida, not by CVs or resumes or anything else along these lines, I can see the value in asking this question as a way of gaining insight into the perspective of the candidate. I try to stay anonymous, but I have given out some personal details. I am a statistical outlier in the 1940s row on the "Wikipedians by age page." I am a historian focusing on international political economy, which had peaked in popularity during the oil crises of the 1970s but renewed currency in recent years. When I am not teaching, I am doing research. 172 | Talk 08:53, 9 October 2005 (UTC) Q: How many hours a month do you think you will need to be a good Arbitrator and are you really willing to put in the time?

A:Frankly, I'm sure that it'll require more time a month than I-- or any working person for that matter-- can afford to volunteer. Nevertheless, I am confident that I will be able to handle it. Since there is never a shortage of volunteer labor on Wikipedia, I plan on creating subpages in my namespace where anyone will be free to prepare my casework. I also plan on appointing some trusted assistants to help me interpret all the work. (In large research universities, delegating is done all the time, with TAs grading much of the homework and even giving lectures.) Not only would delegating help me do more work in less time, but it would bring more perspective to the process of arbitration and make matters more transparent. The solution to the members' lack of time is to creat an effective institution that transcends the individual personalities of its members so that you do not have a small handful of people doing all the work. Therefore, my longer-term goal will be creating a staff of assistants and ombudsman, perhaps under each arbitrator or under the committee as a whole. 172 | Talk 08:53, 9 October 2005 (UTC)

''Q: If chosen, you will need to arbitrate on disputes arising from the creation or revision of articles. Experience of creating and revising articles yourself, particularly where it has involved collaboration, is very valuable in understanding the mindset of disputants who come to arbitration. With reference to your own edits in the main article namespace, please demonstrate why you think you have the right experience to be a good arbitrator.''

A:I agree completely. Unless an arbitrator has experience editing the main namespace, he or she is not going to understand what causes conflict on Wikipedia. I don't want to name any names, but there are arbitrators who are of the condescending mentality that anyone who gets into a conflict is a "problem user." They fail to understand that conflict is inevitable when anyone can edit controversial material in a near-anarchic environment because they aren't editors. They fail to understand that good editors can disagree. (On that note, I'm on very good terms with at least a dozen editors with whom I was once involved in edit wars or heated arguments.) Unless we are dealing with overt trolls like Skyring and LaRouche cult editor Herschelkrustofsky, I think we should avoid micromanaging sentencing and agonizing over intent. Instead, an arbitator who can understand were the litigants and "plaintiffs" are coming from will be able to figure out creative ways to end conflicts rather than explicit banning, such as separating the disputing parties by barring them from editing particular articles. 172 | Talk 08:53, 9 October 2005 (UTC)

Q: Please list out what other Wikipedia usernames you have edited under.

A:172 has always been a bit too much work for me. I would never have time for another account! 172 | Talk 08:53, 9 October 2005 (UTC)

Retrieved comments
Retrieved from a deleted page upon my request by Raul654

Support
 * Support. Yes, 172 is a highly-contreversial editor, but he truly cares about Wikipedia; he was even willing to give up his own adminship. He has some innovative new ideas about ArbCom and some strong views, and we need at least one editor like him on the commitee. Neutralitytalk 23:45, 6 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Support You seem to have hit the proverbial bull right in the eye. The rules need to be trimmed, bureaucracy needs to be put in check, and content is at least as important as personality of the editor. There are people whom I respect, if not like, and I'd like to see them on Wiki. But the other kind has no place here. For what it is worth, you have my full support.--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus Talk 01:15, 27 November 2005 (UTC)

Oppose
 * Oppose... he's proved himself untrustworthy to the wikipedia community :-\ R  e  dwolf24  (talk) 02:59, 5 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Oppose See the two arbitration cases involving him and his numerous 3RR violations and repeated unblocking of himself . Ultramarine 12:52, 5 October 2005 (UTC)
 * By all means, I invite everyone to review the two cases so that it is clear to everyone that I am under no sanctions or restrictions as an editor, unlike the two people who requested the cases against me (first Lir, second Netolithic). Instead, the first case resulted in the finding that I am "valued contributor with expert knowledge in my areas of interest." The second was more inconclusive. It decided that I forfeited my adminship because I choose not to defend myself against Netolithic's laughably flimsy charges of 'administrative abuse'. In principle I disagree with the Arbcom's practice of hearing the "cases" of malicious trolls against competent, good-faith editors. (In fact this is one of the reasons I am running again for arbitrator. I ran in December 2004, coming only around seven percentage points from winning.) So, at the time I felt that it would be better for the community if I protested the litigious culture poisoning the atmosphere on Wikipedia by not responding to the case, even if that meant the loss of my adminship.  Nevertheless, if any legitimate contributor is interested in reviewing any of my actions as an administrator from May 2003 to this year, I will be happy to explain my reasoning. 172 | Talk 07:10, 6 October 2005 (UTC)

Neutral
 * Oppose - I like the AC focusing more on "process instead of product". That is what the body was set up to do - deal with misbehaving editors.  If 172 wants to suggest a body to review the content of Wikipedia, by all means, let him do so, but that body is not, and should not be, the Arbcom. JesseW, the juggling janitor 22:48, 6 October 2005 (UTC)

 * I'm not sure. 172 is a great editor in my opinion; a good academic and very passionate about what he writes about. Unfortunately, I am slightly swerved by all the controversy that has revolved around him (I'm not saying any of the accusations are true or false, however). I think he would make a good arbitrator, but I'm not sure as to what the reactions of other wikipedians will be to his rulings. — Ilγαηερ   (Tαlκ)  00:32, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

Request from Dragons flight
Arbcom is overworked and no fun. Please review these discussions:   Come up with a short list of suggestions for ways you would endorse for improving the arbitration process. Bonus points for actually managing to create new policy. Dragons flight 07:53, 11 October 2005 (UTC)

Dragons flight,

If you don't mind, I'm going to respond to each of the individual proposals point by point.

wikien-l/2005-October/thread
Responses to be inserted upon completion See my response to 4 in the third thread. By and large, I don't see too many problems with the current size and length of terms. 172 | Talk 00:40, 13 October 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/RFC
Responses to be inserted upon completion

 * 1) Strong support. I was one of the early people to come out in favor of an editorial review board. If anyone is interested in restrarting the discussion, contact me by email or on my talk page. Or just go to the special page I created on the proposal: Forum for Encyclopedic Standards/Editorial arbitration.
 * 2) I'm skeptical about the possibility of mediation working in the long run. The people on Wikipedia are not professional negotiators, without the training in the subject necessary to get opposing camps on Wikipedia to agree voluntarily. But if people agree to serve on it, and if editors seek its assistance, there's no harm in trying it out.
 * 3) Strong oppose-- sounds like an invitation to trolling.
 * 4) Oppose-- I can understand Gmaxwell's point, but encountering a really stubborn POV pusher can be hell. Editors who can see the shades of gray should not have to put up with that. 172 | Talk 00:38, 13 October 2005 (UTC)
 * 5) Wait and see. In the end article validation should be Wikipedia's goal. For now, however, I think we should at least get an editorial review board off the ground, which would be much easier, before considering changes of a much greater magnitude.
 * 6) I support a content advisory board, perhaps as a step below launching an editorial review board. I have been in touch with professional academics, journalists, and graduate students willing to serve on an editorial advisory board on Wikipedia. In the long run, I'd hope to see such a body establish its legitimacy in the community on its way toward becoming a review board with formal authority.
 * 7) Strong oppose-- ignoring problems don't make them go away.
 * 8) I doubt the idea of "NPOV admins" would work. Setting up an editorial advisory board with public scholarly credibility would be more realistic.
 * 9) I was very disappointed at the time that Mav's proposal for a content subcommittee did not get enacted. One my goals as an arbitrator would be restarting that very same discussion. A content subcommittee working under the Arbcom would be of much help, helping the committee better relate to our best members. I'd support this proposal even if a separate advisory board were established.
 * 10) Oppose-- too difficult to define consensus.
 * 11) Oppose-- would easily degenerate into disputes over nepotism and cronyism.
 * 12) Still considering.
 * 13) Oppose-- The NPOV subcom may not be familiar enough with the subject at hand to be able to make the right judgment.
 * 14) Oppose-- instruction creep to the extreme.
 * 15) Support-- objective critetria for naming and other content standards can indeed be reached.

Proposed_modifications_to_rules

 * 1) Unnecessary. If an innapropriate candidate runs and fails, the only reasources wasted or his or her own time.
 * 2) Unecessary-- a solution in search of a problem. I don't see what's wrong with approval voting, the current system.
 * 3) Oppose-- but not strongly. I think it's more efficent to have Jimbo continue to appoint the vacancies. Further, Jimbo has had a good track record in his appoitments.
 * 4) Strongly oppose. The Arcom can hardly seem to fill its 12 seats, let alone 24. The solution to backlog is creating a staff of caseworkers verifying evidence, answering process questions, and gathering evidence working under the arbitrators. That way the same number of arbitrators will be able to do more work in less time.
 * 5) Oppose due to the timescale.
 * 6) Oppose. Same principle as the response to number four.
 * 7) Strong oppose. The ArbCom will be divided into three subcommittees, or "circuits", of about nine users each-- instruction creep has never worked on Wikipedia.
 * 8) Strong oppose-- instruction creep inherent in such a complicated voting method.
 * 9) Oppose-- current system is fine.
 * 10) Support. Sockpuppet voting is a problem. I remember how frustrated I was when I suspected that a great editor I nominated for adminship (who happened to be one of the arbitrators elected last year) lost because of sockpuppets sometime in mid-2004. UninventedCompany raises a good point that there are no reliable means of detecting sockpuppets. But I trust that common sense methods for disqualifying votes would be used if it ever came to this. Even if this policy is never acted it, adoping it might might at least act as a deterrent.
 * 11) Oppose per UninventedCompany. Rotating terms are important because they make the Arbcom less political than it otherwise would be.
 * 12) Undecided at the momemnt.

172 | Talk 00:02, 13 October 2005 (UTC)

Form question by Snowspinner
Being an arbitrator requires a finely tuned bullshit detector. What in your life has prepared you to detect bullshit with ease? Phil Sandifer 21:19, 27 November 2005 (UTC)

Form Question from karmafist
Many policies contradict and overlap with each other, and then WP:IAR makes things even more complicated while making them paradoxically more flexible. When two or more policies apply and conflict, what do you do? karmafist 18:24, 1 December 2005 (UTC)


text:
Campbell Barracks

Campbell Barracks, in Heidelberg, Germany, was home to Headquarters, United States Army Europe (USAREUR) from 1948 to 2013. It was also home to Headquarters, V Corps and Headquarters, Allied Force Command Heidelberg.

History
As part of the German rearmament, the German 110th Infantry Regiment was activated in May 1936 and stationed in Heidelberg. The existing Grenadier-Kaserne (now Patton Barracks) was not large enough for the regiment. Accordingly, a new installation was built in 1937 on what was then farmland on the southern outskirts of Heidelberg near the suburb of Rohrbach.

At first unnamed, the new installation was designated Großdeutschland-Kaserne after Austria became part of Nazi Germany in March 1938. Stories linking Großdeutschland-Kaserne to the Großdeutschland Division of World War II have no foundation. The casern predates the division, which was not formed until May 1942. Neither the division nor any of its subordinate units were ever stationed in Heidelberg, nor was the 110th Infantry Regiment ever attached to the Großdeutschland-Division.

When completed, the new Heidelberg barracks became the home of the 110th Infantry's headquarters, its 1st Battalion and its two regimental support companies. The regiment's 2d Battalion was stationed at Loretto-Kaserne (now called Hammonds Barracks) in Seckenheim and the 3d Battalion at Grenadier-Kaserne. The Keyes Building on Campbell originally served as the regimental officers mess.

The first Allied troops entered Heidelberg on the morning of Good Friday, March 30, 1945, and the city surrendered without a fight. The Wehrmacht had left Heidelberg a day earlier but not before blowing up the bridges crossing the River Neckar, which in Heidelberg meant blowing up the old bridge.

The U.S. units that initially occupied Großdeutschland-Kaserne are not known, but by V-E Day, 8 May 1945, the headquarters of the U.S. 6th Army Group occupied the Kaserne. The Army Group headquarters was inactivated in June 1945, whereupon the headquarters of the U.S. Seventh Army moved from Augsburg to Heidelberg, officially opening at Großdeutschland-Kaserne on July 22, 1945.

The Seventh Army headquarters remained in Heidelberg until its inactivation on 31 March 1946. The headquarters of the U.S. Third Army then moved from Bad Tölz to Großdeutschland-Kaserne on 2 April 1946. In the meantime the Third Army had activated a new organization on 15 February 1946 called the U.S. Constabulary. The Constabulary was basically a police force with the mission of maintaining law and order in the U.S. Zone of occupied Germany. On February 15, 1947, the Constabulary headquarters moved from Bamberg to Großdeutschland-Kaserne and the Third Army headquarters was inactivated on March 15, 1947.

During this time the headquarters of the U.S. Army in Europe, then known as the U.S. Forces, European Theater (USFET), was stationed in Frankfurt in the IG Farben Building (the Abrams Building). The same day Third Army headquarters was inactivated, USFET was redesignated as the European Command (EUCOM), not to be confused with the joint United States European Command (USEUCOM) of today.

In the series of phased moves between February and June 1948, the Constabulary headquarters moved from Heidelberg to Stuttgart and the EUCOM headquarters moved into the vacated facilities at Großdeutschland-Kaserne.

The Kaserne was formally renamed Campbell Barracks on August 23, 1948 in memory of Staff Sergeant Charles L. Campbell, 14th Infantry Regiment, 71st Infantry Division, who was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross posthumously for extraordinary heroism. On March 28, 1945, two days before the surrender of Heidelberg, Staff Sergeant Campbell led a patrol across the Rhine River near Mannheim and was killed while covering the withdrawal of his patrol as it returned to the west bank with valuable information.

Until July 1949, the Commander in Chief, EUCOM, was also the U.S. Military Governor of occupied Germany. His office and staff were in Berlin. The ranking officer in Heidelberg was the EUCOM Chief of Staff. While Lieutenant General Clarence R. Huebner was the EUCOM Chief of Staff, the riding hall in building 31 was converted to the Wilson Theater, a protected monument building because of the wooden architecture of its roof, which opened on March 4, 1949.

Joint Headquarters
The next significant organizational change came on August 1, 1952 when a new joint headquarters, the United States European Command (USEUCOM), was activated in Frankfurt. At the same time, the EUCOM headquarters in Heidelberg was redesignated the United States Army, Europe (USAREUR). A small NATO planning cell called the CENTAG Plans Staff was also established at this time within the USAREUR headquarters staff, with the Commander in Chief, USAREUR, given the additional title of Commander, CENTAG (COMCENTAG). In April 1959, the CENTAG Plans Staff was designated Headquarters, CENTAG, and separated from the USAREUR headquarters staff. The USAREUR G3 (as the Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations, was then known) nevertheless continued to serve as the CENTAG Chief of Staff while serving as the USAREUR G3.

The Supreme Allied Commander, Europe (SACEUR), formally activated a separated CENTAG headquarters on 1 October 1960. Between June and August 1961 the CENTAG headquarters staff moved from Campbell Barracks to Hammond Barracks in Seckenheim.

On December 1, 1966, the Seventh Army headquarters (which had been reactivated in Stuttgart in November 1950) merged with the USAREUR headquarters. This new headquarters was designated Headquarters, United States Army, Europe, and Seventh Army (HQ USAREUR/7A).

In the late 1970s, a series of studies concluded that interallied coordination would be improved by stationing three international NATO headquarters on the same installation with HQ USAREUR/7A. This resulted in the headquarters of the Fourth Allied Tactical Air Force (4ATAF) moving into building 8 of Campbell Barracks in September 1980. The CENTAG headquarters returned to Campbell Barracks in December 1980, occupying offices in buildings 3,5, and 7 (with an office for the CENTAG Chief of Staff in building 1). Finally, the headquarters of the Allied Command Europe Mobile Force (Land) moved to Campbell Barracks in December 1980, occupying part of building 7.

Post Cold War
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the demise of the Soviet Union, and the dissolution of the East European Communist Bloc radically changed the politico-military situation in Europe. In addition to significant reductions and realignments of U.S. Forces in Germany, a number of changes occurred in the NATO military organizational structure, all of which affected stationing at Campbell Barracks.

On 30 June 1993 CENTAG and 4ATAF discontinued operations. On July 1, 1993, the headquarters of NATO's Allied Land Forces Central Europe (LANDCENT) became operational on Campbell Barracks with a staff from seven nations (Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States). LANDCENT moved into offices in buildings 3,7, and 8, formerly used by CENTAG and 4ATAF. The CENTAG Chief of Staff office suite in building 1 was returned to USAREUR. In the summer of 1994, V Corps headquarters moved from Frankfurt to Campbell Barracks.

The departure from the Cold War era brought the implementation of a new NATO Integrated Military Structure and LandCENT was formally designated Joint Headquarters Centre (JHQ CENT) in a ceremony held on March 9, 2000. The new structure, which accompanied this designation, included personnel from five additional nations: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Norway, and Poland - making a total of 12 NATO Nations contributing to the Headquarters.

The devastation caused in the September 11, 2001 attacks sent shock waves through the military and on April 30, 2002 the Lieutenant General Timothy J. Maude Center for Human Resources was dedicated to Timothy Maude (November 18, 1947 - September 11, 2001) in his honor. He was the highest-ranking military officer killed in the attacks at the Pentagon. He worked on Campbell Barracks from 1995 to 1998 as Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel and Installation Management. It was his last assignment before being stationed in Washington D.C.

On July 1, 2004, the Headquarters once again transitioned in a ceremony marking its designation to Component Command-Land Headquarters, Heidelberg. New structure is currently represented by 15 NATO nations, including its newest members Lithuania and Slovakia. This transformation to CC-Land HQ HD was part of a major NATO restructuring, and realized a fundamental change in headquarters mission and operations, as this headquarters turns its focus from one of six joint sub-regional command headquarters, to assume roles as one of only two land centric headquarters in the NATO command structure designed to provide expeditionary command and control at the operational level of conflict.

With this increased operational focus, there remains the critical element of promoting enhanced interoperability and standardization through provisions of land advice and guidance within Allied Command for Operations. Headquarters will also work closely with Allied Command for Transformation on aspects such as land concept development, exercises and training. Within JFC Brunssum, headquarters serves as the principal focus for all land matters. CC-Land HQ HD has conducted work in the fields of land-based operational planning, intelligence, logistics, command and control, training and exercises.

Closure
In 2010, the US Army announced that Campbell Barracks would close, with the troop drawdown process completed by no later than 2015. NATO central army operations were relocated to Izmir, Turkey in March 2013. Flags were lowered for the last time at Campbell Barracks on 6 September 2013, with all personnel already re-located to Wiesbaden Army Airfield. According to the New York Times closure will save the Pentagon $112 million a year, mostly in costly security expenses for several scattered facilities. As the headquarters of the United States Army in Europe, the Barracks issued the orders for the millions of American soldiers – 15 million in Germany alone – who have served in Europe since 1945. The US Army is now concentrated in just five key locations in Germany, with its new European headquarters in Wiesbaden. The base will be turned over to the German government.

title: Campbell Barracks


text:
Victory Park, Dallas

Victory Park is a master planned development northwest of downtown Dallas, Texas (USA) and north of Spur 366 (Woodall Rodgers Freeway). It is along Interstate 35E, part of the Stemmons Corridor and Uptown.

The US$3 billion project, at 75 acre, is just north of the West End Historic District of downtown Dallas. When it is finished, the project will contain more than 4,000 residences and 4000000 sqft of office and retail space.

History
Victory Park was developed by Ross Perot, Jr., son of billionaire tycoon Ross Perot, who was a majority owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA basketball team. Perot envisioned Victory Park as an "urban lifestyle destination." Anchored by the American Airlines Center, home of the Mavericks, the entire development was planned at a very detailed level by its developers.

The development has been criticized as being a "collection of imposing hyper-modern monumental structures, high-end chain stores, enormous video screens, expensive restaurants, a sports arena and tons of parking, completely isolated from the rest of the city by a pair of freeways . . . like the schizophrenic dream of some power-hungry capitalist technocrat." However, other journalists have countered this criticism of New Urbanist principles, citing that developments like Victory Park build on a classic, centuries old formula and "are not a quick fix but the slow weaving together of smart, sometimes big, often small, urban solutions" to create viable and enduring community destinations.

Current tenants

The American Airlines Center: Home of the Dallas Mavericks and Dallas Stars, was the first tenant located in Victory Park. The facility opened in July 2001.

Plaza Towers : office towers bordering AT&T Plaza. In 2012, Cumulus Media relocated their local radio stations (KLIF, KLIF-FM, KPLX, KSCS, KTCK AM/FM, and WBAP) here.

One Victory Park: A large office building across the street from the American Airlines Center and the W Hotel; houses the Dallas office of Big 4 accounting firm Ernst & Young, corporate headquarters for PlainsCapital Bank, and the Dallas offices of Haynes and Boone. The buildings ground level features a 9600 sqft. Balducci's, a luxury gourmet grocer, Lucy Boutique and a Starbucks. This building features an environmentally friendly underfloor air system. Conditioned air for the occupants is provided by raised floor custom air handling units located in the tenant space that delivers 62 degree air into a raised access floor plenum. This underfloor air system provides users with the ability to control their own space temperature as well as improving the ventilation effectiveness. When building churn occurs, workstation moves can be performed easier with lower cost and less product waste.

Perot Museum of Nature and Science: Thom Mayne-designed museum dedicated to science, nature and the environment.

Former tenants
WFAA-TV, which had occupied a "window-on-the-world" studio in the Plaza Towers since 2007, left Victory Park in 2021 for an updated studio at the station's headquarters on Young Street.

Commuter rail

 * Trinity Railway Express
 * Victory Station

Light rail

 * DART: and
 * Victory Station

Education
The district is zoned to schools in the Dallas Independent School District.

Residents of the neighborhood are zoned to Hope Medrano Elementary School, Thomas J. Rusk Middle School and North Dallas High School.

title: Victory Park, Dallas


text:
Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections January 2006/Candidate statements/Ambi

Arbitration is quite possibly the most thankless task on Wikipedia. I know, because I've been there. I was one of the arbitration committee's major critics in the early days, and successfully lobbied for changes in quite a number of decisions. I was then elected to the committee last December, and for six months was one of its most active members, before stepping down some months ago after becoming burned out, and subsequently spending several months doing little else but writing new articles.

In the months since I stepped down, things have grinded to a near-complete halt, so it is with some trepidation that I throw my hand into the ring once again. My votes as an arbitrator are on the record for interested parties, as is my general philosophy with arbitration matters - what is best for the encyclopedia? If elected, I will once again try to stand by those who, whatever their beliefs, want to write a neutral encyclopedia in good faith, and see that those who want to disrupt the project don't continue their behaviour unchecked. I will support alternatives to banning users where possible, and over time I've come to have a fairly good understanding of which measures actually solve issues and which are a waste of time. I would also like to hope I've been as neutral as possible in the past and can continue to be in the future - I have never hesitated to recuse myself from a case if there was a perception of a conflict of interest.

Above all else, I want to make sure that the arbitration process starts moving again. If re-elected, I will be back voting nearly every day, and making sure that new cases don't sit on the requests page for a month waiting for someone to formally accept them. I'm also prepared to give some time to the one thing I didn't do enough of as an arbitrator - writing out proposed decisions, which has become a major bottleneck in the process. Finally, if I'm re-elected to my open position, I will only serve a one-year term, and most probably not stand again. Ambi 04:43, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

Questions and comments
Dear Ambi, with all due respect for your burning outs (i myself moved to wiki.pt because of one), why do you feel it will be diferent this time? I ask this because, as far as i can tell, the role of ArbCom is not becoming simpler. Thanks, muriel@pt 12:01, 8 October 2005 (UTC)

 * Sometimes everyone needs a break - I certainly did, and the few months since have done me some good. After the break, I feel better prepared than ever to step back into the breach (particularly now that I know what I'm getting into). Moreover, I'm making a commitment that I will serve out the year, and I have every intention of fulfilling that commitment if re-elected. Ambi 04:59, 9 October 2005 (UTC)

Some questions being asked of all the candidates by jguk
''Q: How old are you and what do you do? (If student, please state what subjects you are studying.)''

A: I'm 19, and I'm currently studying law, politics and gender studies at university. Ambi 04:59, 9 October 2005 (UTC)

Q: How many hours a month do you think you will need to be a good Arbitrator and are you really willing to put in the time?

A: I don't think this is a question that can be given an arbitrary figure. If you're going to do as a good arbitrator, you really need to be around at least every couple of days, but the time commitment can vary from five minutes (if only a vote or two is needed) through to a few hours (if there's an urgent problem demanding a group response). I did this right up until the day I stepped down, and if re-elected, I will be back doing it again. Ambi 04:59, 9 October 2005 (UTC)

''Q: If chosen, you will need to arbitrate on disputes arising from the creation or revision of articles. Experience of creating and revising articles yourself, particularly where it has involved collaboration, is very valuable in understanding the mindset of disputants who come to arbitration. With reference to your own edits in the main article namespace, please demonstrate why you think you have the right experience to be a good arbitrator.''

A: I've always been one to prefer writing articles to diving into meta matters, and have written countless articles throughout my time here. I've been involved with many a WikiProject, and I created much of the collaborative infrastructure (the noticeboard, the new articles list and the ACOTW) which has pushed the quality of Australian articles up over the last year.

However, I don't think any of this is necessarily much of a guide to how anyone will fare as an arbitrator; while having a fairly good experience of co-operative editing is necessary to wrap your head around disputes, being neutral, relatively level-headed and having had some success in resolving disputes is more important. To this extent, I have served a stint on the mediation committee, had a fairly effective record in having decisions changed as an unofficial advocate, and have served as an arbitrator before. Ambi 04:59, 9 October 2005 (UTC)

Q: Please list out what other Wikipedia usernames you have edited under.

A: Ambivalenthysteria (long since renamed to Ambi)

Questions by Bggoldie

 * Q1: In your statement you have mentioned both your resignation and a conclusion about the halt of arbitration process. What leads you to the latter, and do you imply there is relation between them (if yes, why)? What will be your contribution to the Committee which you consider may revert such trend? -- Goldie (tell me) 02:14, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

 * As people started to burn out in the middle of this year, Grunt and I remained the two most active members of the committee, voting on cases nearly every day despite also being burnt out ourselves. Both of us were also driving forces behind the scenes; making sure the bureaucratic work was done and haranguing the other arbitrators to go vote to stop cases from stalling. When we resigned simultaneously, no one else really stepped in to fill the gap. Things have improved since the appointment of four new arbitrators, but they're still not voting every day, and they're not doing the behind the scenes stuff. If I'm given the opportunity to step back into my old position, I'll resume the same role and hopefully be able to get things moving again.

 * Q2: Do you have experience in resolving disputes outside the virtual reality? Can you describe it. -- Goldie (tell me) 02:14, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

 * No. I really don't think this has anything to do with whether someone will be a good arbitrator, either. Probably the best arbitrator we've ever had, Jwrozenzweig, had no prior dispute resolution experience to my knowledge, and neither did anyone else in the committee's history, with the possible exception of lawyer Fred Bauder. Experience on here is enough for our purpose. Ambi 14:01, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

 * Q3: Please describe your level of knowledge in multi-cultural environments, level of involvement in such environments, and experience of resolving dusputes on highly controversial topics (religious, political, racial). -- Goldie (tell me) 02:14, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

 * I tend to have quite a few articles in so-called "systemic bias" areas on my watchlist, and keep an eye on them; I do, however, detest being involved in edit wars myself, so I tend to leave the truly controversial articles alone. In terms of resolving disputes in these areas, I handled a few of these as a mediator before becoming an arbitrator, and I handled many a case as an arbitrator; my votes there are on the record for all to see. Ambi 14:01, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

 * Q4: Which is the most important qualification to be arbitrator (according to you), and how can it be measured? What is your score in this metric? -- Goldie (tell me) 02:14, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

 * Most important qualifications? Firstly, being reasonably neutral and unbiased, then being able to sort through mountains of often nonsensical evidence to work out what is actually going on in a particular dispute. A good arbitrator then needs to be able to come to a solution which will solve the problem and work in the interests of a Wikipedia as a whole. None of these, however, can be measured on some scale. It's simply something that requires judgement. Did I live up to those expectations? Feel free to judge for yourself. Ambi 14:01, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

Request from Dragons flight
Arbcom is overworked and no fun. Please review these discussions:   Come up with a short list of suggestions for ways you would endorse for improving the arbitration process. Bonus points for actually managing to create new policy. Dragons flight 07:54, 11 October 2005 (UTC)

 * You're exactly right that the committee is overworked. However, solving these issues will be a complicated process, and - with respect - I think your suggested solutions on the mailing list are somewhat oversimplistic and overoptimistic. We've had a lot of trouble finding decent candidates that have been willing to run in the past, and if you look at the results from the last election, you'll find that only a few more available spots would have seen several users being elected to the committee who have since been severely thwapped by the same committee. On the surface it may seem like a quick fix, but it would be a disaster if implemented.

 * My personal suggestion is that in the short-term, it would be useful to expand the committee by two or three, and to have better means of handling the inevitable high turnover of arbitrators. The long-term, however, is going to require much more substantial changes, and I'm not sure this is the venue to discuss it - this is an election to get people to serve under the current system, not a constitutional convention. However, since you asked, my preferred system would be to maintain the current committee as a form of "Supreme Court", and siphon off as many cases as possible to a series of smaller committees with lower standards for election (perhaps along the lines of RfA in order to filter out the bad eggs). Ambi 12:13, 11 October 2005 (UTC)

Resigning
Ambi, if elected, under what conditions would you resign before a year is up? – Quadell (talk) 15:38, 23 October 2005 (UTC)

 * While none of us can be sure that something unforeseen won't come up that may force us to quit, at this point I'd have to say none. Ambi 00:41, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

Form question by Snowspinner
Being an arbitrator requires a finely tuned bullshit detector. What in your life has prepared you to detect bullshit with ease? Phil Sandifer 21:20, 27 November 2005 (UTC)

Form Question from karmafist
Many policies contradict and overlap with each other, and then WP:IAR makes things even more complicated while making them paradoxically more flexible. When two or more policies apply and conflict, what do you do? karmafist 18:26, 1 December 2005 (UTC)


text:
The Amenta

The Amenta are an Australian extreme metal band formed in 1997 as Crucible of Agony. By 2002 the line-up was Cesium 137 (aka Mark Bevan) on lead vocals, Diazanon (Dave Haley) on drums, Ethion (Erik Miehs) on guitar, Endrin (Nathan Jenkins) on bass guitar and Chlordane (Timothy Pope) on keyboards. In 2009 the line-up had Miehs and Pope joined by Cain Cressall on vocals, Dan Quinlan on bass guitar and Robin Stone on drums. The group has issued three studio albums, Occasus (2004), n0n (2008), and Flesh Is Heir (2013). The group went on an indefinite hiatus in 2013, but reunited in 2020.

History
The Amenta originally formed in Baulkam Hills, a Sydney suburb, in 1997 as Crucible of Agony. They initially played black metal and released two demos in 1999 under that name. They were renamed as The Amenta in 2001 and, the following year, self-released their first extended play, Mictlan. The line-up was Cessium 137 (aka Mark Bevan, lead vocals), Scott Howard (drums), Ethion (Erik Miehs, guitar), Ben Symons (guitar) Endrin (Nathan Jenkins, bass guitar) and Chlordane (Timothy Pope, keyboards). Howard was soon replaced by Diazanon (Dave Haley) on drums.

In 2003 they signed with Listenable Records and followed with their debut studio album, Occasus. It was acclaimed by rock magazine, Kerrang!, where they were awarded Best Metal Newcomers for 2004. Occasus had AllMusic's Eduardo Rivadavia describe their sound as "a barrage of speed-riffs, crushed throat shouting, and what may or may not be programmed drums ... that recall the similarly claustrophobic crush" of bands such as Zyklon and Cryptopsy. In May 2006 the band replaced Bevan with Jarrod Krafczyk on vocals. They played several tours, including an appearance at the 2007 Festival of the Dead followed by a national tour of the United Kingdom with Akercocke and The Berzerker. Also that year, they supported Polish blackened death metal band Behemoth on their tour of Australia, and released the Virus DVD as a bonus disc with the limited re-release of Occasus/Mictlan.

In October 2008 The Amenta issued their second album, n0n. It features guest appearances from Jason Mendonca of Akercocke, Nergal of Behemoth, Alice Daquet of Sir Alice, and Alex Pope of Ruins. The album was described by Alex Boniwell in the magazine, Terrorizer, as "industrial metal for people who 'actually' like both industrial and metal". Cosmo Lee of Allmusic, found the album was "futuristic yet anachronistic. Its fizzy synths, brooding soundscapes, and micro-level editing employ state-of-the-art computing. But the approach is nothing new. Whenever machines and metal intertwine this tightly, the ghost of '90s industrial metal looms large". The Amenta toured Europe in January 2009 with Deicide.

They returned to Australia and commenced a national tour with The Berzerker, which ran from late January 2009 to late March with a tour of New Zealand. The Amenta were scheduled to perform at the Rockout Festival 2009 featuring acts such as Twisted Sister, Girlschool, and Rose Tattoo, however it was postponed and ultimately cancelled. The group embarked on their first North American tour in November–December 2009 with Vader, Decrepit Birth, Warbringer, Augury and Success Will Write Apocalypse Across the Sky. They supported Behemoth and Job for a Cowboy for the 2010 Australian tour.

In 2011, The band released an online EP, V01D which was the band's first recordings with new vocalist Cain Cressall. It featured re-recordings of old tracks, remixes, a cover version, and a brand new song. The group embarked on an Australian tour with Ruins in March and April. Then in June they opened for Morbid Angel and later embarked on a tour to Europe with Deicide, Belphegor and Hour of Penance. In July they toured Western Australia playing material from their three albums. On 15 May 2012 The Amenta released a five-track EP, Chokehold. In August 2012, the band's website announced that a new full-length album, Flesh Is Heir, was forthcoming. The group was due to tour Europe in November and December of that year with Obituary, Macabre and Psycroptic.

On 20 October 2013, The Amenta announced that they would cease from performing live, and were going on an indefinite hiatus. A seven-year period of inactivity had ended by November 2020, and the band plans to release a new album in early 2021.

On 19 June 2021, the band broke their hiatus and returned to the stage performing at Hobart's winter festival Dark Mofo.

Current members

 * Erik Miehs (Ethion) – guitar (2002–2013, 2020–present), bass (2008)
 * Timothy Pope (Chlordane) – keyboards, samples, programming (2002–2013, 2020–present)
 * Cain Cressall – vocals (2009–2013, 2020–present)
 * Dan Quinlan – bass guitar (2009–2013, 2020–present)
 * Dave Haley (Diazonon) – drums (2002–2007, 2013, 2020–present)

Former members

 * Mark Bevan (Cesium 137) – vocals (2002–2006)
 * Nathan Jenkins (Endrin) – bass guitar (2002–2007)
 * Jarrod Krafczyk – vocals (2006–2009)
 * Chad Halford – bass guitar (2008)
 * Dale Harrison – bass guitar (2008–2009)
 * Robin Stone – drums (2007–2013)

Touring members

 * Joe Haley – guitar (2005)
 * Scott Bernasconi – guitar (2007)
 * Tim Aldridge – guitar (2011)
 * Ryan Huthnance – guitar (2012)
 * Robin Stone – drums (2021)
 * Sam Bean – bass guitar (2021-present)

Timeline

Albums

 * Occasus (2004)
 * n0n (2008)
 * Flesh Is Heir (2013)
 * Revelator (2021)
 * Plague of Locus (cover album) (2023)

Extended plays

 * Mictlan (2002)
 * V01D (2011)
 * Chokehold (2012)
 * Teeth (2013)

title: The Amenta


text:
Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections January 2006/Candidate statements/Carbonite

Greetings, I'm Carbonite. I've been an editor since November 2004 (originally as User:Carrp) and an admin since March 2005. I think the ArbCom is absolutely essential to Wikipedia's success and I want to help in every way that I can. I'll fully admit that I'm not an especially gifted writer, but I am determined, fair and analytic. As a programmer and statistician I try to approach every issue logically and attempt to see all sides. All decisions would be based solely on that case's facts and merits.

The ArbCom can and should be improved in many ways. Most importantly, as Wikipedia evolves, so must the ArbCom. Although I believe that increasing the number of arbitrators is an important component of this growth, it's certainly not the only part. Streamlined procedures must put in place for all aspects of the ArbCom's duties. Far too often, cases will sit for weeks or even months before being resolved.

It's crucial to always keep in mind that Wikipedia is about building an encyclopedia. Dispute resoltion is about removing obstacles that stand in the way of achieving that goal. When a user is consistently taking more from the project than they're contributing, and all attempts to rectify this have failed, it's the place of the ArbCom to decide what's best for the project. If a user can or will not change their behavior so that it creates a net postive for the project, restrictive measures would be necessary. This may include a ban on editing certain pages, a revert limitation or various forms of parole (for personal attacks, removing comments, etc..) In extreme cases or in cases where previous measures were ineffective, a ban would be in order.

I would be honored to serve on the ArbCom and welcome any questions on my talk page or through my email link. Thank you for your consideration. Carbonite | Talk 14:29, 6 October 2005 (UTC)

Some questions being asked of all the candidates by jguk
''Q: How old are you and what do you do? (If student, please state what subjects you are studying.)''

A: I'm 28 years old. I'm an analyst/developer for a small publishing company in Boston.

Q: How many hours a month do you think you will need to be a good Arbitrator and are you really willing to put in the time?

A: The amount of time required to be a good Arbitrator depends mainly on the quantity and complexity of cases. The ArbCom is currenly overwhelmed with cases, with 10 requests, 12 in the evidence phase, and 5 in the voting phase. I would estimate that an average of one hour per day (30 hours per month) would be necessary. If I were to be elected, I would make the necessary time commitment.

''Q: If chosen, you will need to arbitrate on disputes arising from the creation or revision of articles. Experience of creating and revising articles yourself, particularly where it has involved collaboration, is very valuable in understanding the mindset of disputants who come to arbitration. With reference to your own edits in the main article namespace, please demonstrate why you think you have the right experience to be a good arbitrator.''

A: Coming soon

Q: Please list out what other Wikipedia usernames you have edited under.

A: My original username was Carrp. I edited under this name from November 2004 - March 2005.

Request from Dragons flight
Arbcom is overworked and no fun. Please review these discussions:   Come up with a short list of suggestions for ways you would endorse for improving the arbitration process. Bonus points for actually managing to create new policy. Dragons flight 07:55, 11 October 2005 (UTC)

Relevant experience
What experience do you have that would be relevant? Have you dealt with the Arbcom or Mediation committee yourself? Have you been part of an RFC (involving either yourself or others)? A lot of arbcom tasks involve reading a lot of less-than-brilliant prose and writing concise opinions; do you have any experience in Wikipedia or in other venues that might relate?