text:
Mittal Steel South Africa

ArcelorMittal South Africa is part of the steel company Arcelor-Mittal. The company was originally Iscor Ltd., a South African parastatal steel company. It was founded in 1928 and was first listed on the JSE Securities Exchange in 1989.

Establishment of the company
Hendrik van der Bijl, one of the most influential South Africans of the twentieth century, together with Dr. Fredrik "Frikkie" Meyer, (a student of Albert Einstein while studying in Berlin), and others, were the main driving force behind the establishment of the South African Iron and Steel Industrial Corp. (Iscor).

Iscor, with its first works in Pretoria built by the German Demag, was established as a state company in terms of the Iron and Steel Industry Act, No. 11 of 1928. The objectives of establishing the company were to produce iron and a range of steel products, and to create employment opportunities.

Production at the Pretoria plant started in 1934. On 4 April 1934 the first steel was tapped from the open-hearth furnace at the Pretoria Works. Wartime needs for steel and the local manufacture of numerous necessities brought about a sharp increase in demand. Iscor had to expand, and the Pretoria works had reached their limit of growth.

In 1941 Dr. van der Bijl and his fellow directors decided that expansion in a new area had become necessary. The idea of a new steelworks in Vereeniging was revived. For the immediate war needs it was decided to begin by building a plate rolling mill planned in such a way that it could later form part of a large integrated steelworks.

The situation of the terrain along the Vaal River west of Vereeniging made it ideal for development. There was sufficient slope for drainage towards the river and the area was downstream from the Rand Water Board's pumping station intake. The heavy industries could be suitably sited on relatively high ground in a position where the prevailing winds would minimise the dangers of pollution. Dr. van der Bijl convinced the directors of Iscor that the area beside the Vaal River was the obvious site for Iscor's new steelworks.

After the discovery of iron ore at Thabazimbi, the African Metals Corp. (Amcor) was established near Vereeniging in 1937. The erection of the Plate Mill was completed in 1943 and went into production the same year. Iscor started trading in 1947.

Directly after World War II, it was decided to build a fully integrated steel works at Vanderbijlpark, and a start was made on this early in 1947. On 4 October 1952 the Vanderbijlpark Works officially opened by His Excellency the Governor General, Dr E.G. Jansen. Several of the new production units started up in 1953, followed by major expansion schemes in 1956, 1960. From 1964 to 1969 a second development phase started at Vanderbijlpark Works. Large extensions were added; older plants modernised to supply higher quality and value-added products such as electrolytic tinplate for the canning and beverage industries.

On 17 May 1969 the South African Government decided that Iscor's third fully integrated steelworks be erected at Newcastle. The main factor leading to this selection was to decentralise industry away from the Witwatersrand complex and to promote industrial development in Natal, the best watered province of South Africa. Newcastle, as a border area with an adequate supply of labour, and with the Amcor ironworks that could be taken over to save on initial capital costs as well as to provide an outlet for the iron which was at that time being exported to Yawata in Japan ( the contract for which was to expire shortly), was therefore chosen.

Further factors were that Newcastle was situated on main rail and road routes between Johannesburg and Durban, essential services such as water and electricity were already well catered for, and the town had a basic established infrastructure with a settled community. While ore would have to be transported 1 000 km from Sishen, coking coal was available from nearby and the overall economics were favourable. It was decided that both profile and flat products would be catered for in a plant with an ultimate capacity of 8 million tons per annum of liquid steel. Subsequent changes in steel markets has meant that extension to flat products has been delayed indefinitely and the current capacity is about 2,00 million tons of liquid steel.

From 1972 to 1977 the largest expansion period for Vanderbijlpark Works followed. Iron making facilities were extended and the steel making processes modernised by the commissioning of basic oxygen furnaces and electric arc furnaces. A colour coating line established at the South Works and a whole new works – the North Works was established to manufacture wide hot-rolled, cold-rolled and galvanised products.

1981 saw the corporation arriving at important decisions on future strategy. The looming shortage of scrap in the country and shortage of high grade coking coals led to the decision to place an order for a coal based kiln type direct reduction plant of 720 000 tons/annum at Vanderbijlpark Works.

The metallurgical plants at Pretoria were very old and uneconomic and caused pollution; it was thus decided to phase out the coke ovens, blast furnaces and steel conversion plants, and to replace these with a new facility initially based on scrap and electric arc furnaces with the later addition of an iron making plant. Certain of the obsolete rolling mills would also be closed down and the overall works steel making capacity would be reduced to about 900 000 tons of liquid steel/annum.

The world steel industry entered a crisis period during the end of the 1970s and early 1980s with the widespread recession, which occurred at that time. South Africa did not escape this recession and the local demand for steel fell as a result. A world oversupply situation occurred in the steel market with export prices falling to uneconomic levels. During 1982 Iscor was thus forced into the early closure of the two oldest blast furnaces at Pretoria Works, as well as the closure of the so-called South Works at Newcastle which had been taken over from Amcor only a decade earlier.

Race relations
The company was created by an act of the Parliament of South Africa to accomplish two things: to manufacture cheap steel (to help encourage industrialization) and to create employment. The company did a reasonably good job of the first task, although it became less efficient in the 1970s as it responded less to market pressures than to the political directives of the government of the day. Approximately half of the workforce was black, and were prevented from carrying out skilled or well-paid labour. White workers were provided with subsidized housing, extensive job training, and opportunities for occupational advancement. Black labourers were given free basic accommodation in hostels so that they could be close to their workplace; however these were extremely cramped, dirty and sometimes crime-ridden. The hostels were not open to families and only males were allowed. This became a political issue during the struggle for a democratic South Africa.

After a series of strikes in the 1930s and 1940s, the company provided white workers with cheap housing, generous pensions and health insurance. After forty years of work, skilled workers were eligible for a 100% pension, including annual adjustments for inflation. Black workers were not eligible for pensions until the 1980s. Blacks never received inflation-adjusted pensions as the company eliminated the pension scheme after it was privatized of the company in 1989.

title: Mittal Steel South Africa


text:
Talk:Phi Sigma Sigma

Archiving
Does anybody mind if I archive the very long jumble of a discussion that took place nearly a year ago? I find it really distracting when I look at this talk page to see the whole mess. If nobody responds in about a week I'll just go ahead and do it. And probably try to organize the convo per its timeline since I know some responses were just thrown out there in random places. Anyway if you have objections please let me know. Thanks --ImmortalGoddezz 18:02, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

 * Okay since there's been no response I've gone ahead and archived and organized it. So it should now be both readable and in the timeline that it occurred. I hope this doesn't bother anybody. --ImmortalGoddezz 04:02, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

Revert War
Clearly there are quite a few people who differ in their opinions about whether "secrets" about pss that were leaked on the penny-arcade.com forums should be in the article. Personally I have no problem with including it, as long as it's well written and sourced, rather than just a copy/paste of the post in question. Inicholson (talk) 17:34, 20 November 2012 (UTC)

I'd argue that the secrets themselves probably aren't as notable as the ignored DMCA take notice itself. 74.204.176.62 (talk) 18:33, 20 November 2012 (UTC)

 * Probably worth posting them here in the talk section so everyone knows what you are talking about 67.171.211.245 (talk) 00:36, 21 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Here's a link: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Phi_Sigma_Sigma&oldid=524075893#Secrets 71.95.65.238 (talk) 00:53, 21 November 2012 (UTC)
 * The Penny Arcade forums aren't an WP:RS. This shouldn't be added to the article. Robofish (talk) 23:33, 21 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Someone asked for a link, I gave them a link, no one is suggesting that the PA forums are WP:RS

Citation tags
Any reason the tags were changed from "citation needed" to the functionally identical "fact" tag? Desirsar (talk) 17:54, 3 April 2013 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 23 September 2015
please remove the small section about the secret name of the organization and change it to ending with the section before it

71.179.37.193 (talk) 04:47, 23 September 2015 (UTC)
 * ❌ - Wikipedia is Not Censored - Arjayay (talk) 09:58, 23 September 2015 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 14 December 2015
One of the greatest parts of being in the sorority is sharing knowledge with specifically only your sisters. This Wikipedia page reveals a secret from the sorority that been been around for over 100 years.

If what is in quotes can be removed, the entire organization would greatly appreciate it. We pride ourselves on respect and loyalty. Whoever put this on the page has no respect nor loyalty to the organization.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Phisig1913 (talk) 20:56, 14 December 2015 (UTC)

 * X mark.svg Not done While Wikipedia values respect, as an encyclopedia it is not censored, and the Wikipedia project has no loyalty to the organization. While Penny Arcade's behavior is abrasive, the information is supported by reliable sources and is presented in a generally neutral way. The story was also picked up and expanded on by other sources. Grayfell (talk) 23:06, 14 December 2015 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 11 April 2016
"A cease and desist order sent by the sorority to the website requesting removal of the name was ignored and the organization subsequently filed suit seeking to have it expunged.[3]" contains information that is private and should be deleted off this page as it is not for public eyes. This information was released without the permission of the national organization Phi Sigma Sigma, and thus breaches our own privileges to privacy as well as the privileges of the members who are still active within the fraternal organization. This content also breaches our own copyrights and should be omitted from this public page immediately.

Sbling1993 (talk) 03:14, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: Wikipedia is not censored. The content is reliably sourced. — JJMC89  (T·C) 03:41, 11 April 2016 (UTC)

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

title: Talk:Phi Sigma Sigma


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Animal Airport

 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent 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. — J I P | Talk 16:21, 19 October 2005 (UTC)

Animal Airport
This could be a mildly interesting article if only there were more details. Where, in Heathrow, is the 'Animal Reception Centre'? What does it do? Who works there? Sadly, these details don't appear in any websearches either so Delete. Eddie.willers 03:35, 12 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Comment. After exhaustive websearching, all I can turn up about this show is that a total of eight, 24-minute episodes were made in 1999 by World Television for the British Channel 5. It has been repeated since on satllite & cable channels but not on by the terrestrial broadcasters. I would hesitate, therefore, to say that it is 'notable'. There do not appear to be listings of its content or production staff on the web although it is in current distribution for broadcast. Eddie.willers 14:20, 12 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep TV programs are generally notable, and being a stub is not a criterion for deletion. — brighterorange (talk) 03:50, 12 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete I don't see verification that this is a real TV show. If it's shown it's real and it's broadcast nationally, I'll probably vote to keep.  --rob 06:21, 12 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep Providing its real.  Ban e  s  08:32, 12 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep, real TV show. Kappa 09:45, 12 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Do you have a source that confirms this? If so, please include it in the article, and I will happily reconsider my vote. --rob 10:32, 12 October 2005 (UTC)
 * AFAIK Animal Airport is simply a compilation of animal related parts of the BBC TV documentary series "Airport". The "Airport" series is notable, "Animal Airport" isn't a show in its own right.  If there's a page for the BBC "Airport" series, redirect Animal Airport there and add comment?
 * Are you sure? This link http://tinyurl.com/ahp82 credits it to Channel 5, which would be a strange place for a BBC documentary to end up.  In either case, Keep(waynemarkstubbs) 14:30, 12 October 2005 (UTC)

 * re-direct to Airport (television show) per above. Nothing to merge, since a) no verified info exists, and b) the target already mentions the "the animal reception centre" in it. --rob 14:22, 12 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Comment: A Google search for "animal airport" turns up a variety of hits for this show, see for example, but not all that much information. So it's verifiable but not clearly notable. --Metropolitan90 14:26, 12 October 2005 (UTC)

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


text: User talk:68.237.143.50

title: User talk:68.237.143.50


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Merle Hay Mall

Merle Hay Mall is an enclosed super-regional shopping mall in Des Moines, Iowa, in the United States. Opened in 1959, it is the second oldest regional shopping center in Iowa, and was the largest mall in Iowa in terms of gross leasable area before the 2004 opening of Jordan Creek Town Center in neighboring West Des Moines. It was also the site of the deadliest fire in Des Moines' history, which killed eleven people in 1978.

The mall's anchor stores are Kohl's, Target and Ross Dress for Less. There are 2 vacant anchor stores that were once Younkers - which is set for remodeling as an ice arena - and Sears - which was demolished in 2021. Applebee's, IHOP, and Starbucks operate on the outparcels of the mall. Other prominent stores in the mall include Old Navy. Most of the mall is in the northwest part of Des Moines, but the wing that contains the former Younkers, Kohl's, and the food court is inside the city limits of neighboring Urbandale.

Merle Hay Mall is independently owned by the Merle Hay Mall Limited Partnership, and the family of one of its original developers continues to manage the mall. A Chicago-based company, Urban Retail Properties, handles the mall's leasing duties.

History
The site of Merle Hay Mall was originally home to St. Gabriel's Monastery from 1921 until its demolition in 1958. In 1956, the Passionist monks who resided there sold the monastery site to Chicago-based developers Joseph Abbell and Bernard Greenbaum. Abbell, in a 1994 interview, stated that the developers chose Des Moines for their mall because of the city's "reputation as a model urban area in middle America." The mall was known as Northland Shopping Center early in its planning stages until Younkers executives suggested that it be named for Merle Hay, the first Iowan killed in World War I and namesake of the road in front of the mall, instead. Merle Hay Plaza was originally planned as a strip mall before it was redesigned as an open-air plaza with two department stores and four buildings around a common area shortly before construction began in early 1958.

Merle Hay Plaza opened on August 17, 1959. It had 31 stores at the time of its opening, including its first anchor (Younkers), as well as a bowling alley that is still in operation today. A second anchor store opened later in 1959, as Sears moved from downtown Des Moines to Merle Hay Plaza. Other early tenants included a Safeway supermarket (whose space later became part of Sears), Kresge, Bishop's Buffet (which closed in 1995), and Walgreens (which was replaced by an Old Navy in 1999). A movie theater and six-story office building were added in 1965.

Enclosure
Merle Hay Plaza was enclosed in 1972 and became Merle Hay Mall. Two years later, as Valley West Mall and Southridge Mall were under construction, Merle Hay Mall completed a major westward expansion that doubled the size of the mall. Two additional anchors, Montgomery Ward (which also moved from downtown) and Younkers Store for Homes, were added to the mall as part of that expansion. By 2000, Merle Hay Mall attracted an average of 35,000 shoppers per day.

In a 1994 interview with The Des Moines Register, Iowa State University economist Kenneth Stone stated that Merle Hay Mall successfully adapted to the changing lifestyles of the 1960s and 1970s by offering longer shopping hours during a time when downtown Des Moines merchants began restricting their hours. Author and Des Moines native Bill Bryson commented on how Merle Hay Mall's opening changed Des Moines in his 2006 memoir The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: "My father never shopped anywhere else after that. Neither did most people. By the early 1960s, people exchanged boasts about how long it had been since they had been downtown. They had found a new kind of happiness at the malls." In 1989's The Lost Continent, Bryson wrote that "Jack Kerouac, of all people, thought that Iowa women were the prettiest in the country, but I don't think he ever went to Merle Hay Mall on a Saturday" when he commented on the obesity of Iowa women.

Younkers fire
The original Younkers store at Merle Hay Mall was destroyed by a fire that broke out on the morning of November 5, 1978. The fire caused an estimated $20 million in damage, and killed eleven store employees. The store was closed for nearly a year in order to rebuild.

In early 1979, Des Moines fire officials announced that a hydrogen buildup caused by alkaline water leaking from the store's heating and cooling system caused the fire. Court documents filed by prosecuting attorneys in 1981 stated that an electrical malfunction caused wires that were covered in polyvinyl chloride to overheat, giving off hydrochloric acid. Lawyers representing Younkers and the families of the eleven victims sued more than 20 companies that manufactured or were associated with polyvinyl chloride, including Monsanto Company and Underwriters Laboratories. Most of those lawsuits were settled out of court in 1984, while the last suit against B.F. Goodrich was dismissed by a Polk County district judge in April 1986.

Anchor changes
Merle Hay Mall lost its first anchor in 1991 when the Younkers Store for Homes closed after Younkers decided to stop selling furniture and appliances in order to focus on its more profitable fashion business. Kohl's replaced it in 1993.

In 1998, during the chain's first round of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Montgomery Ward faced eviction from the mall after an analysis by Kenneth Stone showed that Ward was operating a discount store instead of the "first class, full line department store" that its lease required. Montgomery Ward responded by closing in early 1999, and Famous-Barr opened a new store in that space in August 2000, while the rest of the mall underwent a $20 million renovation that year. Younkers moved into the former Famous-Barr space on July 18, 2004, one month after Famous-Barr left the Des Moines market, and the old Younkers was demolished shortly afterwards to make room for a new Target store that opened July 19, 2005. Target's opening ended a period of declining sales at the mall, as sales had decreased by 8 to 10 percent during the first year that Jordan Creek Town Center was open.

Present-day redevelopment
The mall is anchored by Kohl's (73,799 sq ft) and Target (126,483 sq ft) with two vacant anchors last occupied by Younkers (165,000 sq ft) and Sears (223,000 sq ft), with over 60 inline tenants including the food court along with a vacant portion of the building which had been a single-screen movie theater with the largest movie screen in Des Moines. During the Christmas holiday season there are several businesses which occupy space in the mall temporarily too. It is managed by Abbell Credit Corporation, the same company that has held a majority ownership interest in the mall since 1959. It has undergone several renovations over time to remain a viable shopping center. According to Elizabeth Holland, the CEO of Abbell Credit Corporation, the Des Moines area is large enough to support only two shopping malls, and the goal of the Merle Hay Mall redevelopment is to make it "become one of the two surviving shopping malls."

On March 10, 2008, the Des Moines city council agreed to rezone the area around Merle Hay Mall into a tax increment financing district in order to help the mall's owners pay for future renovations. The move came as the mall's assessed property value had declined by over $13 million since 2005. Merle Hay Mall's owners constructed a new main entrance to the mall and relocated some retailers to other areas of the mall in order to create space for new "junior" anchor stores with exterior entrances. The spaces occupied by the former Sam Goody Superstore (replaced by Staples), the former Waldenbooks and GameStop (which is now next to the Helzberg's Diamonds) were renovated to include Staples. Old Navy moved to the west into a space across from their former location which made way for Shoe Carnival and Ulta to occupy Old Navy's space. As a result of the redevelopment, Old Navy has relocated to a smaller space within the mall. In 2013, Dunham's Sports moved out of the mall, with MC Sports replacing it. However, in 2017, MC Sports filed for bankruptcy and moved out shortly after. It has since been replaced with a bouncy-house arena. The upper level became a Flix Brewhouse movie theater in mid-2014. Flix has proven to be an exceptionally popular destination not just in the mall, but in all of greater Des Moines. In 2015, Deb closed. Staples announced in late-2016 that it would be closing their store in Merle Hay Mall with the actual last day of business occurring on February 4, 2017. In October 2017, the Staples location became Ross Dress for Less. On April 18, 2018 it was announced that Younkers would be closing, as the parent, Bon-Ton Stores, was going out of business. The store closed on August 29, 2018. On July 13, 2018 Sears announced they will also be closing at Merle Hay Mall. The nearly 60 year-old anchor was one of the original stores but ended business at the mall in October 2018 which left Kohl's and Target as the only anchors. In December 2019, GameDay arcade and restaurant opened in the mall. It is accessible from both outside and inside the mall.

2020 brought challenges for retailers in the mall due, in part, to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic which resulted in many retailers being closed for a prolonged period of time. By August, some prominent retailers, Helzberg Diamonds, Victoria's Secret and Justice among them; closed their locations in the mall. In October 2020, it was announced that the vacant Sears building would be demolished to facilitate future development. In November 2020, the Des Moines Buccaneers hockey team announced they would build a new sports facility in the old Younkers and adjacent areas. The new project will see a 3,500-capacity arena for the Bucs, three additional sheets of ice for tournaments and community use, and a 150-room hotel, to be completed ahead of the 2022-23 hockey season.

title: Merle Hay Mall


text:
Wikipedia:Peer review/Cheese/archive1

Cheese
I've wrestled with and expanded this page to a point where I think it covers most of the topic in a sensible way. I'd like to see it as an FA someday. Bunchofgrapes (talk) 03:36, 12 October 2005 (UTC)

 * Congratulations, I like this article a lot. I hope you don't mind if I make a few comments, and, if I can, help out.

 * 1) The end of the lead section has a sentence on the etymology of cheese that looks a bit suspect. It looks like an oversimplified statement of the development of Indo-European languages. Just for starters, West Germanic is a language group, and one can only really point to a reconstructed proto-West-Germanic word (which would traditionally be marked with an asterisk, *kasjus). I'll do a little more research and find a better wording.
 * 2) The history section is good, but I'm sure it could be longer. I think something like this just needs a lot of research.
 * 3) The section on cultural attitudes is very important. Kudos for having it!
 * 4) I would really like to see a types of cheese section before the nutrition section. Although some types are mentioned elsewhere, it would be good to get the big picture on the cheese world.
 * I hope this is helpful. --Gareth Hughes 11:17, 12 October 2005 (UTC)

 * It certainly is, and thanks. I hadn't looked into the etymology at all, I admit... I very much like your idea to have a types of cheese section. I'll get that done in the next day or two and see if I can find more information for the history section as well. (And of course I joyfully welcome any and all help you might give to the page.) Bunchofgrapes (talk) 15:14, 12 October 2005 (UTC)

 * I started a "Types of cheese" section... Still needs completion. Thanks for the great etymology paragraph! I took the liberty of moving it into a subsection under History, which seemed appropriate given the nature of the material. Bunchofgrapes (talk) 23:04, 12 October 2005 (UTC)

 * Cheese mostly done now, although I think perhaps I should add Processed cheese too. Bunchofgrapes (talk) 03:44, 13 October 2005 (UTC)

 * What's a "bunchofgrapes" doing editing an article on Cheese? Sounds funny. Anyway, looks good, but I'd like to see a longer history section as well. Also, the quotes, if they're not there already should really be moved to Wikiquote with the Wikiquote link in the external links section. The image you have in that section at the moment, would fit fine at the start of the Cheese making section. Perhaps you can add a section about major cheese related stuff in pop culture? A few more references wouldn't hurt either. I hope my comments are of some help to you. Good luck with the article and feel free to contact me when it's up as a FAC. - Mgm|(talk) 18:23, 12 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Well, grapes... wine... cheese... it all fits. I have always despised the quotes section, but wasn't sure what to do about it. (Also, right now, it's a mixture of quotes and pop-cultural expressions and usages, really.) Are you suggesting eliminating all the "quotes" (moving them to Wikiquote if not there already) and expanding the pop-culture-y stuff? Bunchofgrapes (talk) 20:27, 12 October 2005 (UTC)
 * You could keep "Cheesy", "The Big Cheese" and "Say Cheese" amongst others and create a section about cheese in the English language, but real hard quotes should be moved to Wikiquote. Is canned cheese mentioned somewhere? Pop culture would mention important roles for cheese in film, television, literature and art. I'm not sure which of the current things in the quotes section falls under that, but anything pop cultury can indeed be used to expand a bit. - Mgm|(talk) 22:05, 12 October 2005 (UTC)
 * What on earth (I ask fearfully) is canned cheese? Bunchofgrapes (talk) 03:44, 13 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Either cheese in cans similar to how corned beef is packaged or some cream cheese in a spray can. - Mgm|(talk) 07:45, 13 October 2005 (UTC)

I think I've incorporated every bit of advice given so far, except for fishing for film, television, literature and art cheese roles. (Which except for the Monty Python Cheese sketch, I'm a little at a loss for.) There is now a separate "Cheese in language" section, with the etymological info and paragraphs on slang usage. (Go cheeseheads!) The History section has a bit more to it and is subsectioned out now; I've added more to the Cultural attitudes section as well. (And of course I added "Types of cheese", which now includes Processed Cheese and Easy Cheese, a canned "aerosol" cheese.) The list of quotes is gone, and between Wayward and myself there's been a lot of copyediting since the article went up for peer review.

I'd really appreciate any reviews of the new material, or any further critiques at all. Bunchofgrapes (talk) 05:02, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

 * I think this is an excellent article. Well done! Cedars 09:59, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

title: Wikipedia:Peer review/Cheese/archive1


text:
Influenza pandemic

An influenza pandemic is an epidemic of an influenza virus that spreads across a large region (either multiple continents or worldwide) and infects a large proportion of the population. There have been six major influenza epidemics in the last 140 years, with the 1918 flu pandemic being the most severe; this is estimated to have been responsible for the deaths of 50–100 million people. The 2009 swine flu pandemic resulted in under 300,000 deaths and is considered relatively mild. These pandemics occur irregularly.

Influenza pandemics occur when a new strain of the influenza virus is transmitted to humans from another animal species. Species that are thought to be important in the emergence of new human strains are pigs, chickens and ducks. These novel strains are unaffected by any immunity people may have to older strains of human influenza and can therefore spread extremely rapidly and infect very large numbers of people. Influenza A viruses can occasionally be transmitted from wild birds to other species, causing outbreaks in domestic poultry, and may give rise to human influenza pandemics. The propagation of influenza viruses throughout the world is thought to be in part by bird migrations, though commercial shipments of live bird products might also be implicated, as well as human travel patterns.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has produced a six-stage classification that describes the process by which a novel influenza virus moves from the first few infections in humans through to a pandemic. This starts with the virus mostly infecting animals, with a few cases where animals infect people, then moves through the stage where the virus begins to spread directly between people, and ends with a pandemic when infections from the new virus have spread worldwide.

One strain of virus that may produce a pandemic in the future is a highly pathogenic variation of the H5N1 subtype of influenza A virus. On 11 June 2009, a new strain of H1N1 influenza was declared to be a pandemic (Stage 6) by the WHO after evidence of spreading in the southern hemisphere. The 13 November 2009 worldwide update by the WHO stated that "[a]s of 8 November 2009, worldwide more than 206 countries and overseas territories or communities have reported [503,536] laboratory confirmed cases of pandemic influenza H1N1 2009, including over 6,250 deaths."

Influenza

Influenza, commonly known as the flu, is an infectious disease of birds and mammals. It was thought to be caused by comets, earthquakes, volcanoes, cosmic dust, the rising and setting of the sun, vapors arising from the air and ground, or a blast from the stars. Now we know that it is caused by an RNA virus of the family Orthomyxoviridae (the influenza viruses). In humans, common symptoms of influenza infection are fever, sore throat, muscle pains, severe headache, coughing, and weakness and fatigue. In more serious cases, influenza causes pneumonia, which can be fatal, particularly in young children and the elderly. While sometimes confused with the common cold, influenza is a much more severe disease and is caused by a different type of virus. Although nausea and vomiting can be produced, especially in children, these symptoms are more characteristic of the unrelated gastroenteritis, which is sometimes called "stomach flu" or "24-hour flu."

Typically, influenza is transmitted from infected mammals through the air by coughs or sneezes, creating aerosols containing the virus, and from infected birds through their droppings. Influenza can also be transmitted by saliva, nasal secretions, feces, and blood. Healthy individuals can become infected if they breathe in a virus-laden aerosol directly, or if they touch their eyes, nose or mouth after touching any of the aforementioned bodily fluids (or surfaces contaminated with those fluids). Flu viruses can remain infectious for about one week at human body temperature, over 30 days at 0 C, and indefinitely at very low temperatures (such as lakes in northeast Siberia). Most influenza strains can be inactivated easily by disinfectants and detergents.

Flu spreads around the world in seasonal epidemics. Ten pandemics were recorded before the Spanish flu of 1918. Three influenza pandemics occurred during the 20th century and killed tens of millions of people, with each of these pandemics being caused by the appearance of a new strain of the virus in humans. Often, these new strains result from the spread of an existing flu virus to humans from other animal species, so close proximity between humans and animals can promote epidemics. In addition, epidemiological factors, such as the WWI practice of packing soldiers with severe influenza illness into field hospitals while soldiers with mild illness stayed outside on the battlefield, are an important determinant of whether or not a new strain of influenza virus will spur a pandemic. (During the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, this practice served to promote the evolution of more virulent viral strains over those that produced mild illness.) When it first killed humans in Asia in the 1990s, a deadly avian strain of H5N1 posed a great risk for a new influenza pandemic; however, this virus did not mutate to spread easily between people.

Vaccinations against influenza are most commonly given to high-risk humans in industrialized countries and to farmed poultry. The most common human vaccine is the trivalent influenza vaccine that contains purified and inactivated material from three viral strains. Typically this vaccine includes material from two influenza A virus subtypes and one influenza B virus strain. A vaccine formulated for one year may be ineffective in the following year, since the influenza virus changes rapidly over time and different strains become dominant. Antiviral drugs can be used to treat influenza, with neuraminidase inhibitors being particularly effective.

Variants and subtypes of Influenza A virus
Variants of Influenza A virus are identified and named according to the isolate that they are like and thus are presumed to share lineage (example Fujian flu virus like); according to their typical host (example Human flu virus); according to their subtype (example H3N2); and according to their deadliness (e.g., Low Pathogenic as discussed below). So, a flu from a virus similar to the isolate A/Fujian/411/2002(H3N2) is called Fujian flu, human flu, and H3N2 flu.

Variants are sometimes named according to the species (host) the strain is endemic in or adapted to. Some variants named using this convention are:
 * Bird flu
 * Dog flu
 * Horse flu
 * Human flu
 * Swine flu

The Influenza A virus subtypes are labeled according to an H number (for hemagglutinin) and an N number (for neuraminidase). Each subtype virus has mutated into a variety of strains with differing pathogenic profiles; some pathogenic to one species but not others, some pathogenic to multiple species. Frequently, a newer strain will completely replace an older strain.

Because of the impact of avian influenza on economically important chicken farms, a classification system was devised in 1981 which divided avian virus strains as either highly pathogenic (and therefore potentially requiring vigorous control measures) or low pathogenic. The test for this is based solely on the effect on chickens - a virus strain is highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) if 75% or more of chickens die after being deliberately infected with it. The alternative classification is low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI). This classification system has since been modified to take into account the structure of the virus' haemagglutinin protein. Other species of birds, especially water birds, can become infected with HPAI virus without experiencing severe symptoms and can spread the infection over large distances; the exact symptoms depend on the species of bird and the strain of virus. Classification of an avian virus strain as HPAI or LPAI does not predict how serious the disease might be if it infects humans or other mammals.

Nature of a flu pandemic
Some pandemics are relatively minor such as the one in 1957 called Asian flu (1–4 million dead, depending on source). Others have a higher Pandemic Severity Index whose severity warrants more comprehensive social isolation measures.

The 1918 pandemic killed tens of millions and sickened hundreds of millions; the loss of this many people in the population caused upheaval and psychological damage to many people. There were not enough doctors, hospital rooms, or medical supplies for the living as they contracted the disease. Dead bodies were often left unburied as few people were available to deal with them. There can be great social disruption as well as a sense of fear. Efforts to deal with pandemics can leave a great deal to be desired because of human selfishness, lack of trust, illegal behavior, and ignorance. For example, in the 1918 pandemic: "This horrific disconnect between reassurances and reality destroyed the credibility of those in authority. People felt they had no one to turn to, no one to rely on, no one to trust."

A letter from a physician at one U.S. Army camp in the 1918 pandemic said:

"It is only a matter of a few hours then until death comes [...]. It is horrible. One can stand it to see one, two or twenty men die, but to see these poor devils dropping like flies [...]. We have been averaging about 100 deaths per day [...]. Pneumonia means in about all cases death [...]. We have lost an outrageous number of Nurses and Drs. It takes special trains to carry away the dead. For several days there were no coffins and the bodies piled up something fierce [...]."

Wave nature
Flu pandemics typically come in waves. The 1889–1890 and 1918–1920 flu pandemics each came in three or four waves of increasing lethality. Within a wave, mortality was greater at the beginning of the wave.

Variable mortality
Mortality varies widely in a pandemic. In the 1918 pandemic:

"In U.S. Army camps where reasonably reliable statistics were kept, case mortality often exceeded 5 percent, and in some circumstances exceeded 10 percent. In the British Army in India, case mortality for white troops was 9.6 percent, for Indian troops 21.9 percent. In isolated human populations, the virus killed at even higher rates. In the Fiji islands, it killed 14 percent of the entire population in 16 days. In Labrador and Alaska, it killed at least one-third of the entire native population."

Influenza pandemics
A 1921 book lists nine influenza pandemics prior to the 1889–1890 flu, the first in 1510. A more modern source lists six.

Asiatic flu (1889–1890)
The 1889–1890 pandemic, often referred to as the Asiatic flu or Russian flu, killed about 1 million people out of a world population of about 1.5 billion. It was long believed to be caused by an influenza A subtype (most often H2N2), but recent analysis largely brought on by the 2002-2004 SARS outbreak and the COVID-19 pandemic determined the outbreak to be more likely caused by a coronavirus.

Spanish flu (1918–1920)
The 1918 flu pandemic, commonly referred to as the Spanish flu, was a category 5 influenza pandemic caused by an unusually severe and deadly Influenza A virus strain of subtype H1N1.

The Spanish flu pandemic lasted from 1918 to 1920. Various estimates say it killed between 17 million and 100 million people This pandemic has been described as "the greatest medical holocaust in history" and may have killed as many people as the Black Death, although the Black Death is estimated to have killed over a fifth of the world's population at the time, a significantly higher proportion. This huge death toll was caused by an extremely high infection rate of up to 50% and the extreme severity of the symptoms, suspected to be caused by cytokine storms. Indeed, symptoms in 1918 were so unusual that initially influenza was misdiagnosed as dengue, cholera, or typhoid. One observer wrote, "One of the most striking of the complications was hemorrhage from mucous membranes, especially from the nose, stomach, and intestine. Bleeding from the ears and petechial hemorrhages in the skin also occurred." The majority of deaths were from bacterial pneumonia, a secondary infection caused by influenza, but the virus also killed people directly, causing massive hemorrhages and edema in the lung.

The Spanish flu pandemic was truly global, spreading even to the Arctic and remote Pacific islands. The unusually severe disease killed between 10 and 20% of those infected, as opposed to the more usual flu epidemic mortality rate of 0.1%. Another unusual feature of this pandemic was that it mostly killed young adults, with 99% of pandemic influenza deaths occurring in people under 65, and more than half in young adults 20 to 40 years old. This is unusual since influenza is normally most deadly to the very young (under age 2) and the very old (over age 70). The total mortality of the 1918–1920 pandemic is estimated to be between 17 and 100 million people, constituting approximately 1–6% of the world's population. As many as 25 million may have been killed in the first 25 weeks; in contrast, HIV/AIDS has killed 25 million in its first 25 years.

Asian flu (1957–1958)
The Asian flu was a category 2 flu pandemic outbreak caused by a strain of H2N2 that originated in China in early 1957, lasting until 1958. The virus originated from a mutation in wild ducks combining with a pre-existing human strain. The virus was first identified in Guizhou in late February; by mid-March it had spread across the entire mainland. It was not until the virus had reached Hong Kong in April, however, that the world was alerted to the unusual situation, when the international press began to report on the outbreak. The World Health Organization was officially informed when the virus arrived in Singapore, which operated the only influenza surveillance laboratory in Southeast Asia, in early May. From that point on, as the virus continued to sweep the region, the WHO remained attuned to the developing outbreak and helped coordinate the global response for the duration of the pandemic.

This was the first pandemic to occur during what is considered the "era of modern virology". One significant development since the 1918 pandemic was the identification of the causative agent behind the flu. Later, it was recognized that the influenza virus changes over time, typically only slightly (a process called "antigenic drift"), sometimes significantly enough to result in a new subtype ("antigenic shift"). Within weeks of the report out of Hong Kong, laboratories in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia had analyzed the virus and concluded that it was a novel strain of influenza A. Chinese researchers had already come to a similar conclusion in March, but as China was not a member of the WHO nor a part of its network of National Influenza Centers, this information did not reach the rest of the world, a fact which the WHO would lament after the pandemic.

The virus swept across the Middle East, Africa, and the Southern Hemisphere in the middle months of the year, causing widespread outbreaks. By the end of September, nearly the entire inhabited world had been infected or at least seeded with the virus. Around this time, extensive epidemics developed in the Northern Hemisphere following the opening of schools, generally peaking in North America and Europe in October. Some countries experienced a second wave in the final months of the year; Japan experienced a particularly severe resurgence in October. Influenza activity had largely subsided by the end of the year and remained apparently low during the first months of 1958, though some countries, such as the United States, experienced another rise in mortality from respiratory disease, of unclear origin.

The disease tended to resemble seasonal influenza in its presentation; the WHO described it at the time as "uniformly benign". However, there was the potential for complications, of which there was some variability. Most deaths were a result of bacterial pneumonia, though cases of this condition were attenuated through the use of antibiotics that did not exist in 1918. There were also detailed accounts of fatal primary influenza pneumonia, with no indication of bacterial infection. Those with underlying conditions such as cardiovascular disease were at greater risk of developing these pneumonias; pregnant women were also vulnerable to complications. In general, the elderly experienced the greatest rates of mortality. Estimates of worldwide deaths vary widely depending on the source, ranging from 1 million to 4 million. Mortality in the US has been estimated between 60,000 and 80,000 deaths. Pandemic impact continued over several years in many countries, with Latin America experiencing considerable excess mortality through 1959. Chile experienced notably severe mortality over the course of two waves during this period.

This was the most publicized influenza epidemic at the time of its occurrence. As the first pandemic to occur in the context of a global surveillance network, it was also the first time that preparations could be made ahead of an anticipated epidemic. Vaccination efforts were undertaken in some countries such as the US, though it is doubtful how successful such campaigns were with altering the courses of individual epidemics, mainly due to the timing of when the vaccines became widely available and how many people were able to be effectively immunized before the peak.

Hong Kong flu (1968–1970)
The Hong Kong flu was a category 2 flu pandemic caused by a strain of H3N2 descended from H2N2 by antigenic shift, in which genes from multiple subtypes reassorted to form a new virus. This pandemic killed an estimated 1–4 million people worldwide. Those over 65 had the greatest death rates. In the US, there were about 100,000 deaths.

Russian flu (1977–1979)
The 1977 Russian flu was a relatively benign flu pandemic, mostly affecting population younger than the age of 26 or 25. It is estimated that 700,000 people died due to the pandemic worldwide. The cause was H1N1 virus strain, which was not seen after 1957 until its re-appearance in China and the Soviet Union in 1977. Genetic analysis and several unusual characteristics of the pandemic have prompted speculation that the virus was released to the public through a laboratory accident.

H1N1/09 flu pandemic (2009–2010)
An epidemic of influenza-like illness of unknown causation occurred in Mexico in March–April 2009. On 24 April 2009, following the isolation of an A/H1N1 influenza in seven ill patients in the southwest US, the WHO issued a statement on the outbreak of "influenza like illness" that confirmed cases of A/H1N1 influenza had been reported in Mexico, and that 20 confirmed cases of the disease had been reported in the US. The next day, the number of confirmed cases rose to 40 in the US, 26 in Mexico, six in Canada, and one in Spain. The disease spread rapidly through the rest of the spring, and by 3 May, a total of 787 confirmed cases had been reported worldwide.

On 11 June 2009, the ongoing outbreak of Influenza A/H1N1, commonly referred to as swine flu, was officially declared by the WHO to be the first influenza pandemic of the 21st century and a new strain of Influenza A virus subtype H1N1 first identified in April 2009. It is thought to be a mutation (reassortment) of four known strains of influenza A virus subtype H1N1: one endemic in humans, one endemic in birds, and two endemic in pigs (swine). The rapid spread of this new virus was likely due to a general lack of pre-existing antibody-mediated immunity in the human population.

On 1 November 2009, a worldwide update by the WHO stated that "199 countries and overseas territories/communities have officially reported a total of over 482,300 laboratory confirmed cases of the influenza pandemic H1N1 infection, that included 6,071 deaths." By the end of the pandemic, declared on 10 August 2010, there were more than 18,000 laboratory-confirmed deaths from H1N1. Due to inadequate surveillance and lack of healthcare in many countries, the actual total of cases and deaths was likely much higher than reported. Experts, including the WHO, have since agreed that an estimated 284,500 people were killed by the disease, about 15 times the number of deaths in the initial death toll.

Other pandemic threat subtypes
"Human influenza virus" usually refers to those subtypes that spread widely among humans. H1N1, H1N2, and H3N2 are the only known Influenza A virus subtypes currently circulating among humans.

Genetic factors in distinguishing between "human flu viruses" and "avian influenza viruses" include:
 * PB2: (RNA polymerase): Amino acid (or residue) position 627 in the PB2 protein encoded by the PB2 RNA gene. Until H5N1, all known avian influenza viruses had a glutamic acid at position 627, while all human influenza viruses had a lysine.
 * HA: (hemagglutinin): Avian influenza HA bind alpha 2–3 sialic acid receptors while human influenza HA bind alpha 2–6 sialic acid receptors.

"About 52 key genetic changes distinguish avian influenza strains from those that spread easily among people, according to researchers in Taiwan, who analyzed the genes of more than 400 A type flu viruses." "How many mutations would make an avian virus capable of infecting humans efficiently, or how many mutations would render an influenza virus a pandemic strain, is difficult to predict. We have examined sequences from the 1918 strain, which is the only pandemic influenza virus that could be entirely derived from avian strains. Of the 52 species-associated positions, 16 have residues typical for human strains; the others remained as avian signatures. The result supports the hypothesis that the 1918 pandemic virus is more closely related to the avian influenza A virus than are other human influenza viruses."

Highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza kills 50% of humans that catch it. In one case, a boy with H5N1 experienced diarrhea followed rapidly by a coma without developing respiratory or flu-like symptoms.

The Influenza A virus subtypes that have been confirmed in humans, ordered by the number of known human pandemic deaths, are:
 * H1N1 caused Spanish flu, 1977 Russian flu, and the 2009 swine flu pandemic (novel H1N1)
 * H2N2 caused Asian flu
 * H3N2 caused Hong Kong flu
 * H5N1 is bird flu, endemic in avians
 * H7N7 has unusual zoonotic potential
 * H1N2 is currently endemic in humans and pigs
 * H9N2, H7N2, H7N3, H10N7

 * H1N1

H1N1 is currently endemic in both human and pig populations. A variant of H1N1 was responsible for the Spanish flu pandemic that killed some 50 million to 100 million people worldwide over about a year in 1918 and 1919. Controversy arose in October 2005, after the H1N1 genome was published in the journal, Science. Many fear that this information could be used for bioterrorism.

"When he compared the 1918 virus with today's human flu viruses, Dr. Taubenberger noticed that it had alterations in just 25 to 30 of the virus's 4,400 amino acids. Those few changes turned a bird virus into a killer that could spread from person to person."

In mid-April 2009, an H1N1 variant appeared in Mexico, with its center in Mexico City. By 26 April the variant had spread widely; with cases reported in Canada, the US, New Zealand, the UK, France, Spain and Israel. On 29 April the WHO raised the worldwide pandemic phase to 5. On 11 June 2009 the WHO raised the worldwide pandemic phase to 6, which means that the H1N1 swine flu has reached pandemic proportions, with nearly 30,000 confirmed cases worldwide. A 13 November 2009 worldwide update by the WHO states that "206 countries and overseas territories/communities have officially reported over 503,536 laboratory confirmed cases of the influenza pandemic H1N1 infection, including 6,250 deaths."

 * H2N2

The Asian Flu was a pandemic outbreak of H2N2 avian influenza that originated in China in 1957, spread worldwide that same year during which an influenza vaccine was developed, lasted until 1958 and caused between one and four million deaths.

 * H3N2

H3N2 is currently endemic in both human and pig populations. It evolved from H2N2 by antigenic shift and caused the Hong Kong flu pandemic that killed up to 750,000. "An early-onset, severe form of influenza A H3N2 made headlines when it claimed the lives of several children in the United States in late 2003."

The dominant strain of annual flu in January 2006 is H3N2. Measured resistance to the standard antiviral drugs amantadine and rimantadine in H3N2 has increased from 1% in 1994 to 12% in 2003 to 91% in 2005.

"[C]ontemporary human H3N2 influenza viruses are now endemic in pigs in southern China and can reassort with avian H5N1 viruses in this intermediate host."

 * H7N7

H7N7 has unusual zoonotic potential. In 2003 in Netherlands 89 people were confirmed to have H7N7 influenza virus infection following an outbreak in poultry on several farms. One death was recorded.

 * H1N2

H1N2 is currently endemic in both human and pig populations. The new H1N2 strain appears to have resulted from the reassortment of the genes of the currently circulating influenza H1N1 and H3N2 subtypes. The hemagglutinin protein of the H1N2 virus is similar to that of the currently circulating H1N1 viruses and the neuraminidase protein is similar to that of the current H3N2 viruses.

Severity
In 2014, the CDC adopted the Pandemic Severity Assessment Framework (PSAF) to assess the severity of pandemics. The PSAF superseded the 2007 linear Pandemic Severity Index, which assumed 30% spread and measured case fatality rate (CFR) to assess the severity and evolution of the pandemic.

Historically, measures of pandemic severity were based on the case fatality rate. However, the case fatality rate might not be an adequate measure of pandemic severity during a pandemic response because:
 * Deaths may lag several weeks behind cases, making the case fatality rate an underestimate
 * The total number of cases may not be known, making the case fatality rate an overestimate
 * A single case fatality rate for the entire population may obscure the effect on vulnerable sub-populations, such as children, the elderly, those with chronic conditions, and members of certain racial and ethnic minorities
 * Fatalities alone may not account for the full effects of the pandemic, such as absenteeism or demand on healthcare services

To account for the limitations of measuring the case fatality rate alone, the PSAF rates severity of a disease outbreak on two dimensions: clinical severity of illness in infected persons; and the transmissibility of the infection in the population. Each dimension can be measured using more than one measure, which are scaled to allow comparison of the different measures.

Assessment
The World Health Organization (WHO) developed a global influenza preparedness plan, which defines the stages of a pandemic, outlines WHO's role and makes recommendations for national measures before and during a pandemic. This included a classification system for assessing the progress of an outbreak. Phases 1–3 correlate with preparedness, including capacity development and response planning activities, while phases 4–6 clearly signal the need for response and mitigation efforts. In February 2020, WHO announced that it no longer uses this six-phase classification model: "For the sake of clarification, WHO does not use the old system of 6 phases—that ranged from phase 1 (no reports of animal influenza causing human infections) to phase 6 (a pandemic)—that some people may be familiar with from H1N1 in 2009." In 2014, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) introduced the Pandemic Intervals Framework for assessing influenza outbreaks. It includes two pre-pandemic intervals: -

 * Investigation
 * Recognition

and four pandemic intervals,

 * Initiation
 * Acceleration
 * Deceleration
 * Preparation

Strategies to prevent a flu pandemic
This section contains strategies to prevent a flu pandemic by a Council on Foreign Relations panel.

If influenza remains an animal problem with limited human-to-human transmission it is not a pandemic, though it continues to pose a risk. To prevent the situation from progressing to a pandemic, the following short-term strategies have been put forward:
 * Culling and vaccinating livestock
 * Vaccinating poultry workers against common flu
 * Limiting travel in areas where the virus is found

The rationale for vaccinating poultry workers against common flu is that it reduces the probability of common influenza virus recombining with avian H5N1 virus to form a pandemic strain. Longer-term strategies proposed for regions where highly pathogenic H5N1 is endemic in wild birds have included:
 * changing local farming practices to increase farm hygiene and reduce contact between livestock and wild birds.
 * altering farming practices in regions where animals live in close, often unsanitary quarters with people, and changing the practices of open-air "wet markets" where birds are kept for live sale and slaughtered on-site. A challenge to implementing these measures is widespread poverty, frequently in rural areas, coupled with a reliance upon raising fowl for purposes of subsistence farming or income without measures to prevent propagation of the disease.
 * changing local shopping practices from purchase of live fowl to purchase of slaughtered, pre-packaged fowl.
 * improving veterinary vaccine availability and cost.

Public response measures
The main ways available to tackle a flu pandemic initially are behavioural. Doing so requires a good public health communication strategy and the ability to track public concerns, attitudes and behaviour. For example, the Flu TElephone Survey Template (FluTEST) was developed for the UK Department of Health as a set of questions for use in national surveys during a flu pandemic.
 * Social distancing: By traveling less, implementing remote work, or closing schools, there is less opportunity for the virus to spread. Reduce the time spent in crowded settings if possible. And keep your distance (preferably at least 1 metre) from people who show symptoms of influenza-like illness, such as coughing and sneezing. However, social distancing during a pandemic flu will likely carry severe mental health consequences; therefore, sequestration protocols should take mental health issues into consideration.
 * Respiratory hygiene: Advise people to cover their coughs and sneezes. If using a tissue, make sure you dispose of it carefully and then clean your hands immediately afterwards. (See "Handwashing Hygiene" below.) If you do not have a tissue handy when you cough or sneeze, cover your mouth as much as possible with the crook of your elbow.
 * Handwashing hygiene: Frequent handwashing with soap and water (or with an alcohol-based hand sanitizer) is very important, especially after coughing or sneezing, and after contact with other people or with potentially contaminated surfaces (such as handrails, shared utensils, etc.)
 * Other hygiene: Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth as much as possible.
 * Masks: No mask can provide a perfect barrier, but products that meet or exceed the NIOSH N95 standard recommended by the World Health Organization are thought to provide good protection. WHO recommends that health-care workers wear N95 masks and that patients wear surgical masks (which may prevent respiratory secretions from becoming airborne). Any mask may be useful to remind the wearer not to touch the face. This can reduce infection due to contact with contaminated surfaces, especially in crowded public places where coughing or sneezing people have no way of washing their hands. The mask itself can become contaminated and must be handled as medical waste when removed.
 * Risk communication: To encourage the public to comply with strategies to reduce the spread of disease, "communications regarding possible community interventions [such as requiring sick people to stay home from work, closing schools] for pandemic influenza that flow from the federal government to communities and from community leaders to the public not overstate the level of confidence or certainty in the effectiveness of these measures."

The Institute of Medicine has published a number of reports and summaries of workshops on public policy issues related to influenza pandemics. They are collected in Pandemic Influenza: A Guide to Recent Institute of Medicine Studies and Workshops, and some strategies from these reports are included in the list above. Relevant learning from the 2009 flu pandemic in the UK was published in Health Technology Assessment, volume 14, issue 34. Asymptomatic transmission appears to play a small role, but was not well studied by 2009.

Anti-viral drugs
There are two groups of antiviral drugs available for the treatment and prophylaxis of influenza: neuraminidase inhibitors such as Oseltamivir (trade name Tamiflu) and Zanamivir (trade name Relenza), and adamantanes such as amantadine and rimantadine. Due to the high rate of side effects and risk of antiviral resistance, use of adamantanes to fight influenza is limited.

Many nations, as well as the World Health Organization, are working to stockpile antiviral drugs in preparation for a possible pandemic. Oseltamivir is the most commonly sought drug, since it is available in pill form. Zanamivir is also considered for use, but it must be inhaled. Other anti-viral drugs are less likely to be effective against pandemic influenza.

Both Tamiflu and Relenza are in short supply, and production capabilities are limited in the medium term. Some doctors say that co-administration of Tamiflu with probenecid could double supplies.

There also is the potential of viruses to evolve drug resistance. Some H5N1-infected persons treated with oseltamivir have developed resistant strains of that virus.

Vaccines
A vaccine probably would not be available in the initial stages of population infection. To date, there is no known mechanism to develop a vaccine to protect against a virus which does not yet exist. The avian flu virus H5N1 has the potential to mutate into a pandemic strain, but so do other types of flu virus. Once a potential virus is identified and a vaccine is approved, it normally takes five to six months before the vaccine becomes available.

The capability to produce vaccines varies widely from country to country; only 19 countries are listed as "influenza vaccine manufacturers" according to the World Health Organization. It is estimated that, in a best scenario situation, 750 million doses could be produced each year, whereas it is likely that each individual would need two doses of the vaccine to become immuno-competent. Distribution to and inside countries would probably be problematic. Several countries, however, have well-developed plans for producing large quantities of vaccine. For example, Canadian health authorities say that they are developing the capacity to produce 32 million doses within four months, enough vaccine to inoculate every person in the country.

Another concern is whether countries which do not manufacture vaccines themselves, including those where a pandemic strain is likely to originate, will be able to purchase vaccine to protect their population. Cost considerations aside, they fear that the countries with vaccine-manufacturing capability will reserve production to protect their own populations and not release vaccines to other countries until their own population is protected. Indonesia has refused to share samples of H5N1 strains which have infected and killed its citizens until it receives assurances that it will have access to vaccines produced with those samples. So far, it has not received those assurances. However, in September 2009, Australia, Brazil, France, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, the UK, and the USA agreed to make 10 percent of their H1N1 vaccine supply available to less-developed countries.

There are two serious technical problems associated with the development of a vaccine against H5N1. The first problem is this: seasonal influenza vaccines require a single injection of 15 μg haemagluttinin in order to give protection; H5 seems to evoke only a weak immune response and a large multicentre trial found that two injections of 90 μg H5 given 28 days apart provided protection in only 54% of people. Even if it is considered that 54% is an acceptable level of protection, the world is currently capable of producing only 900 million doses at a strength of 15 μg (assuming that all production were immediately converted to manufacturing H5 vaccine); if two injections of 90 μg are needed then this capacity drops to only 70 million. Trials using adjuvants such as alum, AS03, AS04 or MF59 to try and lower the dose of vaccine are urgently needed. The second problem is this: there are two circulating clades of virus, clade 1 is the virus originally isolated in Vietnam, clade 2 is the virus isolated in Indonesia. Vaccine research has mostly been focused on clade 1 viruses, but the clade 2 virus is antigenically distinct and a clade 1 vaccine will probably not protect against a pandemic caused by clade 2 virus.

Since 2009, most vaccine development efforts have been focused on the current pandemic influenza virus H1N1. As of July 2009, more than 70 known clinical trials have been completed or are ongoing for pandemic influenza vaccines. In September 2009, the US Food and Drug Administration approved four vaccines against the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus, and expected the initial vaccine lots to be available within the following month.

Government preparations for a potential H5N1 pandemic (2003–2009)
According to The New York Times as of March 2006, "governments worldwide have spent billions planning for a potential influenza pandemic: buying medicines, running disaster drills, [and] developing strategies for tighter border controls" due to the H5N1 threat.

"[T]he United States is collaborating closely with eight international organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), and 88 foreign governments to address the situation through planning, greater monitoring, and full transparency in reporting and investigating avian influenza occurrences. The United States and these international partners have led global efforts to encourage countries to heighten surveillance for outbreaks in poultry and significant numbers of deaths in migratory birds and to rapidly introduce containment measures. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. Departments of State, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Agriculture (USDA) are coordinating future international response measures on behalf of the White House with departments and agencies across the federal government."

Together steps are being taken to "minimize the risk of further spread in animal populations", "reduce the risk of human infections", and "further support pandemic planning and preparedness".

Ongoing detailed mutually coordinated onsite surveillance and analysis of human and animal H5N1 avian flu outbreaks are being conducted and reported by the USGS National Wildlife Health Center, the CDC, the ECDC, the World Health Organization, the European Commission, the National Influenza Centers, and others.

United Nations
In September 2005, David Nabarro, a lead UN health official, warned that a bird flu outbreak could happen at any time and had the potential to kill 5–150 million people.

World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO), believing that the world was closer to another influenza pandemic than it has been any time since 1968, when the last of the 20th century's three pandemics swept the globe, has developed guidelines on pandemic influenza preparedness and response. The March 2005 plan includes guidance on roles and responsibilities in preparedness and response; information on pandemic phases; and recommended actions for before, during, and after a pandemic.

United States
"[E]fforts by the federal government to prepare for pandemic influenza at the national level include a $100 million DHHS initiative in 2003 to build U.S. vaccine production. Several agencies within Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)—including the Office of the Secretary, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), CDC, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)—are in the process of working with vaccine manufacturers to facilitate production of pilot vaccine lots for both H5N1 and H9N2 strains as well as contracting for the manufacturing of 2 million doses of an H5N1 vaccine. This H5N1 vaccine production will provide a critical pilot test of the pandemic vaccine system; it will also be used for clinical trials to evaluate dose and immunogenicity and can provide initial vaccine for early use in the event of an emerging pandemic."

Each state and territory of the United States has a specific pandemic flu plan which covers avian flu, swine flu (H1N1), and other potential influenza epidemics. The state plans together with a professionally vetted search engine of flu related research, policies, and plans, is available at the current portal: Pandemic Flu Search.

On 26 August 2004, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tommy Thompson released a draft Pandemic Influenza Response and Preparedness Plan, which outlined a coordinated national strategy to prepare for and respond to an influenza pandemic. Public comments were accepted for 60 days.

In a speech before the United Nations General Assembly on 14 September 2005, President George W. Bush announced the creation of the International Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza. The Partnership brings together nations and international organizations to improve global readiness by:
 * elevating the issue on national agendas;
 * coordinating efforts among donor and affected nations;
 * mobilizing and leveraging resources;
 * increasing transparency in disease reporting and surveillance; and
 * building capacity to identify, contain and respond to a pandemic influenza.

On 5 October 2005, Democratic Senators Harry Reid, Evan Bayh, Dick Durbin, Ted Kennedy, Barack Obama, and Tom Harkin introduced the Pandemic Preparedness and Response Act as a proposal to deal with a possible outbreak.

On 27 October 2005, the Department of Health and Human Services awarded a $62.5 million contract to Chiron Corporation to manufacture an avian influenza vaccine designed to protect against the H5N1 influenza virus strain. This followed a previous awarded $100 million contract to Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines business of Sanofi, for avian flu vaccine.

In October 2005, Bush urged bird flu vaccine manufacturers to increase their production.

On 1 November 2005, Bush unveiled the National Strategy To Safeguard Against The Danger of Pandemic Influenza. He also submitted a request to Congress for $7.1 billion to begin implementing the plan. The request includes $251 million to detect and contain outbreaks before they spread around the world; $2.8 billion to accelerate development of cell-culture technology; $800 million for development of new treatments and vaccines; $1.519 billion for the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Defense to purchase influenza vaccines; $1.029 billion to stockpile antiviral medications; and $644 million to ensure that all levels of government are prepared to respond to a pandemic outbreak.

On 6 March 2006, Mike Leavitt, Secretary of Health and Human Services, said U.S. health agencies are continuing to develop vaccine alternatives that will protect against the evolving avian influenza virus.

The U.S. government, bracing for the possibility that migrating birds could carry a deadly strain of bird flu to North America, plans to test nearly eight times as many wild birds starting in April 2006 as have been tested in the past decade.

On 8 March 2006, Dr. David Nabarro, senior UN coordinator for avian and human influenza, said that given the flight patterns of wild birds that have been spreading avian influenza (bird flu) from Asia to Europe and Africa, birds infected with the H5N1 virus could reach the Americas within the next six to 12 months.

July 5, 2006, (CIDRAP News) – "In an update on pandemic influenza preparedness efforts, the federal government said last week it had stockpiled enough vaccine against H5N1 avian influenza virus to inoculate about 4 million people and enough antiviral medication to treat about 6.3 million."

Canada
The Public Health Agency of Canada follows the WHO's categories, but has expanded them. The avian flu scare of 2006 prompted The Canadian Public Health Agency to release an updated Pandemic Influenza Plan for Health Officials. This document was created to address the growing concern over the hazards faced by public health officials when exposed to sick or dying patients.

Malaysia
Since the Nipah virus outbreak in 1999, the Malaysian Health Ministry have put in place processes to be better prepared to protect the Malaysian population from the threat of infectious diseases. Malaysia was fully prepared during the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) situation (Malaysia was not a SARS-affected country) and the episode of the H5N1 outbreak in 2004.

The Malaysian government has developed a National Influenza Pandemic Preparedness Plan (NIPPP) which serves as a time bound guide for preparedness and response plan for influenza pandemic. It provides a policy and strategic framework for a multisectoral response and contains specific advice and actions to be undertaken by the Ministry of Health at the different levels, other governmental departments and agencies and non-governmental organizations to ensure that resources are mobilized and used most efficiently before, during and after a pandemic episode.

title: Influenza pandemic


text:
Lyubov Axelrod

Lyubov Isaakovna Axelrod (born Esther Axelrod; Любо́вь (Эстер) Исаа́ковна Аксельро́д, penname Orthodox Ортодо́кс; 1868 – 5 February 1946) was a Russian revolutionary, Marxist philosopher, literary critic and an art theoretician.

Early life
Axelrod was born in the family of a rabbi in Vilenkovichi, a village in the Vilna gubernia of the Russian Empire, now in Pastavy Raion, Belarus. She became involved with the narodnik organization at age 16. She emigrated to Switzerland in 1887, with the assistance of Leo Jogiches (lover of Rosa Luxemburg) when the Vitebsk organisation collapsed in the wake of an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Alexander III of Russia organised by Aleksandr Ulyanov, older brother of Vladimir Lenin.

1892 to 1918
In 1892 she became a Marxist and joined the Geneva-based Emancipation of Labor group, becoming a close associate of its leader Georgi Plekhanov. In 1900, she received her Ph.D. in philosophy from Bern University. In 1902 she worked with Georgi Plekhanov and Lenin on the newspaper Iskra, as a contributor and an organiser. When the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party split into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks at its Second Congress in 1903, she joined the Bolsheviks, but split with them soon afterwards, at the same time as  Plekhanov.

In 1906 Axelrod returned to Russia during an amnesty and became a leading Russian authority on Marxist philosophy, second only to Plekhanov, as well as working with the Mensheviks' illegal organisation. Her Philosophical Essays, published in 1906, were acknowledged by both the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks as the definitive rebuttal of the 'neo-Kantians' Nikolai Berdyaev and Pyotr Struve, former Marxists who had broken with the revolutionaries. She was critical both of Alexander Bogdanov and of Vladimir Lenin during their debate over Empiriocriticism in 1908–1909, branding their ideas as anti-Marxist. In 1910, in Saint Petersburg, she joined the Central Trade Union Bureau, which was also illegal. After the outbreak of war in 1914, like Plekhanov, she argued that Germany was the aggressor and that Russia had a right to defend itself. She teamed up with two other prominent Marxist 'defencists', Pyotr Maslov and Aleksandr Potresov to produce the fortnightly journal Delo ('Fact'). After the February Revolution of 1917 she joined the central committee of the Menshevik party, and following the October Revolution of November 1917 she was reunited with Plekhanov in the small anti-Bolshevik group Yedinstvo. She abstained from party politics after the May 1918 death of Plekhanov, and made it her life's work to defend his philosophy.

Later career
In the 1920s she first worked at the Institute of Red Professors and later at the Soviet Institute of Philosophy. Her appointment to lecture in philosophy at Sverdlov University, in 1921, was originally blocked by the Orgburo, but when Lenin was consulted he said that it should be allowed, on condition that she was kept under observation in case she started promoting Menshevism. In the 1930s her version of Marxism was officially denounced as a "Mechanistic revision of Marxism" and she faded into obscurity.

She died on 5 February 1946 in Moscow.

Published works

 * Against Idealism (1922)
 * Marx as a Philosopher (1925)
 * Critique of the Foundations of Bourgeois Sociology and Historical Materialism (1925)
 * The Idealist Dialectic of Hegel and the Materialist Dialectic of Marx (1934)

title: Lyubov Axelrod


text:
Chessie (mascot)

Chessie was a popular cat character used as a symbol of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O). Derived from an etching by Viennese artist Guido Grünewald, the image first appeared in a black and white advertisement in the September 1933 issue of Fortune magazine with the slogan "Sleep Like a Kitten." The advertisement makes no mention of the cat's name.

When the ad generated a positive response, the railroad developed an advertising campaign around the image and chose the name Chessie as a derivation of the railroad's name. The promotion proved widely popular and, in addition to national print advertising, grew to include calendars, clothing, and even two children's books about the character. Chessie's mate was Peake, who was introduced in the June 1937 issue of Life magazine and was the father of her two kittens, "Nip" and "Tuck". During World War II, the Chessie character was used to promote War Bonds and support for the war effort, depicted as working on the home front to support Peake, who was off to war. The Chessie image continued to appear in advertising until 1971 when passenger train travel was consolidated under Amtrak.

When in 1972 the C&O merged with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and Western Maryland Railway, the newly formed holding company was named the Chessie System after the popular image. C&O itself had been popularly called "Chessie System" since the 1930s. Chessie System also adopted the "Ches-C" logo, which incorporated the silhouette of the kitten into the "C" of the railroad's name. The Chessie System merged with other railroads to become the CSX Corporation in 1986. Though the Chessie logo is no longer found in advertising and was phased out of usage on trains, Chessie is still the mascot of the CSX Corporation, and there are many examples of rolling stock that still feature the kitten logo, having yet to be repainted.

title: Chessie (mascot)


text:
Train driver

A train driver is a person who operates a train, railcar, or other rail transport vehicle. The driver is in charge of and is responsible for the mechanical operation of the train, train speed, and all of the train handling (also known as brake handling). Train drivers must follow certain guidelines for driving a train safely.

Naming
A train driver is also called engine driver, engineman or locomotive driver, commonly known as an engineer or railroad engineer in the United States and Canada, and also as a locomotive handler, locomotive engineer, locomotive operator, train operator, or motorman. In American English, a hostler (also known as a switcher) moves engines around rail yards, but does not take them out on the main line tracks; the British English equivalent is a shunter.

Career progression
For many American railroads, the following career progression is typical: assistant conductor (brakeman), train conductor, and finally the engineer. For many years the fireman was next in line to be an engineer, but that classification has been eliminated. In the US, engineers are required to be certified and must then be re-certified every two to three years.

The traditional career progression in the United Kingdom (for steam locomotives) was engine cleaner, passed engine cleaner (i.e. the employee has passed the assessment for fireman), fireman, passed fireman (i.e. passed assessment for driver), and driver.

In India, a driver starts as a diesel assistant (or electrical assistant for electric locomotives). They then get promoted on a scale: goods, passenger, mail express, and the Rajdhani, Shatabdi, and Duronto express services.

The British transport historian Christian Wolmar wrote in October 2013 that train operators employed by the Rio Tinto Group to transport iron ore across the Australian outback were likely to be the highest-paid members of the occupation in the world at that time.

Notable train drivers

 * Ben Chifley, former Prime Minister of Australia
 * Christine Gonzalez, first female driver for a Class 1 railroad.
 * Casey Jones, American engineer whose wreck on the Illinois Central Railroad on April 30, 1900 was immortalized in verse and music.

title: Train driver


text:
Kuils River

Kuils River (Afrikaans: Kuilsrivier) is a town in the Western Cape, South Africa, 25 km (15 miles) east of Cape Town and 20 km (12 miles) west of Stellenbosch at the gateway of the Cape Winelands. It is also the name of the main tributary of the Eerste River, and forms part of the Eastern Suburbs zone of the City of Cape Town.

Origin
Originally named De Boss, Kuils River was a refreshment post of the Dutch East India Company in 1680, also known as de Kuijlen. In 1700 the farm Leeuwenhof and other parts of de Kuijlen were sold to Olof Bergh.

Developments during the 19th and 20th century
It started to develop into a village. A church was founded by Rhenish Missionary Society in 1843 in Sarepta. A proper road was built in 1845, a railway station in 1862 and a school in 1898. In 1898 stands were sold for residential development. On 4 December 1950 it attained municipal status. The town takes its name from the nearby river, in which there are many pools, or kuile (Dutch for dams).

Administration and location
Kuils River is a level two administrative region, and is close to Stellenbosch It is located near the intersection of the M12 and the R102.

Kuils River is home to the respective Alta du Toit and Jan Kriel Schools, the former, for mentally challenged children and the latter for children with special educational needs. Kuils River is the birthplace of Herman Charles Bosman (3 February 1905); journalist, poet and author. He is regarded as one of South Africa's greatest ever writers (in English).

The industrial area Blackheath is in Kuils River.

Roads
Kuilsrivier lies just off the R300 (Kuils River Freeway), running north–south from the N1 in Brackenfell to the N2 and the M7 in Mitchells Plain. However, the main route through the town is the R102 (Van Riebeeck Road), connecting to Bellville in the west and Somerset West in the south-east.

Kuilsrivier is also served by a network of metropolitan routes such as: the M12 (Stellenbosch Arterial; Polkadraai Road), connecting Stellenbosch with the Cape Town International Airport and Elsiesrivier; the M23 (Bottelary Road) connecting Stellenbosch with Bellville; the M32 (Nooiensfontein Road) connecting Kuilsrivier with Blue Downs; and the M100 (Saxdowns Road) connecting Kuilsrivier with Brackenfell.

Coat of arms
Kuils River was a municipality from 1950 to 1996. The town council assumed a coat of arms, designed by Ivan Mitford-Barberton, in 1955 and registered it with the Cape Provincial Administration in January 1956.

The shield was divided into three horizontal sections: (1) a running buck on a silver background, (2) a golden yoke on a red background, and (3) four silver and blue stripes with wavy edges. The crest was a bull's head, and the motto Via trita via tuta.

title: Kuils River


text:
Richard Grayson (writer)

Richard Grayson (born June 4, 1951, in Brooklyn, New York) is an American writer, political activist, performance artist, and perennial candidate most noted for his books of short stories and his satiric runs for public office.

Grayson's fiction is largely autobiographical, or pseudo-autobiographical.

Early career
Grayson was born in 1951 and attended New York public schools, graduating from Midwood High School in 1968. He attended Brooklyn College and received a B.A. in political science in 1973 and an M.F.A. in creative writing in 1976; Grayson also received an M.A. in English from Richmond College (now The College of Staten Island) in 1975. His stories began appearing in literary magazines in the mid-1970s, and in 1979, his first book-length collection of short stories, With Hitler in New York, was published. In the same year Grayson registered with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) as a candidate for Vice President of the United States, receiving coverage for his humorous "campaign".

By 1979, Grayson had over 125 stories published in magazines and anthologies. He remained a prolific writer in the early 1980s, when several short story collections came out in quick succession: Lincoln's Doctor's Dog (1982),    Eating at Arby's (1982),   and I Brake for Delmore Schwartz (1983). Most of these stories originally appeared in journals such as Transatlantic Review, Texas Quarterly, California Quarterly, and Epoch.

In 1981, Grayson received a $3,000 grant from the Florida Fine Arts Council for his fiction. In 1988, Grayson received a writer-in-residence award for from the New York State Council on the Arts to be the writer-in-residence at the Rockland Arts Center in West Nyack, New York. Grayson also won a $5,000 fellowship in literature/fiction from the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs in 1998.

Also in 1981, Grayson began a series of what he termed "publicity art," getting media attention for creating a fan club and fan magazine for his grandmother and starting a campaign to draft Burt Reynolds as a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate from Florida. Grayson also filed a political action committee to draft Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran to run for the U.S. House of Representatives from Brooklyn in order to "neutralize" the Ayatollah during the Iran hostage crisis, saying that if elected, "Khomeini would be as ineffective as any other congressman."

Political activity
In 1982, Grayson ran for a seat on the Davie, Florida, town council on a platform advocating that the town's numerous horses be given the right to vote. A Miami Herald editorial endorsed his opponent, calling Grayson's candidacy "some kind of wry joke."

In 1983, Grayson filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to run for President of the United States in 1984 as a Democrat. Over the next year, the exploits in his humorous campaign to replace President Ronald Reagan were widely covered in the media. In November 1983, Grayson took part in a series of debates with other minor presidential candidates at shopping malls in Florida.

To help raise money for the financially struggling Donald Trump in 1990, Grayson, with "tongue firmly in cheek," created the Trump Rescue Fund in 1990, soliciting money for the billionaire on the streets of New York, though a Trump Tower employee shooed Grayson and his hand-lettered flyers away from the building. Later in 1990, as the economy faltered, Grayson appeared on CNN touting Pauper, a magazine featuring "articles about poor celebrities, bankrupt businesses, failed financial institutions, [and] tips on frugal living." A "Pauper 400" list would "answer the lists of the super-rich in 'wealth-oriented magazines.'"

In September 1991, Grayson spoke at a public hearing of the Florida Redistricting Commission, showing his drawings of legislative districts configured like a palm tree, the Space Shuttle, the sun, a boat and an alligator, saying that districts in recognizable shapes would get more voters interested in state government.

During the 1994 elections, upset at how many Republican U.S. House members of Florida were unopposed by Democrats, Grayson filed with the Division of Elections as a write-in candidate to run against Representative Michael Bilirakis in Florida's 9th congressional district in the Tampa Bay area although Grayson lived outside the district, in Gainesville. Despite naming his political campaign committee "God Hates Republicans," Grayson received only 157 write-in votes.

In the 1996 election, Grayson filed as a write-in candidate against Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican who was otherwise unopposed in the Miami-based 18th congressional district. For the 2004 elections, Grayson again filed to run as a write-in candidate in the election against an otherwise unopposed Florida Republican U.S. House member, Ander Crenshaw. After winning the endorsement of John B. Anderson, an independent candidate for president in 1980, Grayson told Broward Palm Beach New Times, "What I'm doing now is not quite a joke...I'm trying to make a point. In Florida, we have a system where, if one candidate files for an office and no other candidate files, then there's no election." In the conservative 4th congressional district in northern Florida, Grayson supported legal recognition of same-sex marriage, socialized medicine, a $10 an hour minimum wage, repeal of President George W. Bush's tax cuts, and immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq; Grayson did not set foot in the district until October 2, 2004, when he did a television spot at a Jacksonville CBS affiliate. Grayson received less than 1% of the vote.

Grayson became the Green Party nominee for Arizona's 6th congressional district in the 2010 election after winning the party's primary with six write-in votes. The Green Party sued Grayson and other party nominees, claiming they were "sham" candidates who should be removed from the November ballot. A federal judge ruled in favor of Grayson and other Green Party primary winners.

Grayson ran for president again in the 2012 election, this time in the Green Party's Arizona presidential primary and was endorsed by the Tucson Weekly, which noted "we have been most impressed with Richard Grayson, including his plan to deport Republicans back to the 18th century, where they could be more comfortable with their tricorner hats and other Tea Party garb, and his demand that Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu be nicer to his ex-boyfriends." In a field of six candidates, Grayson finished in a tie for third place, with 39 votes.

Later in 2012, Grayson changed his voter registration to the new Americans Elect party and in the primary, he won the nomination to run in Arizona's 4th congressional district. Grayson finished fourth in the general election, receiving 1% of the vote in November 2012.

In the 2014 election, running unopposed, Grayson won the Democratic nomination for Wyoming's at-large congressional district. When Grayson ran as a "hip-hop candidate," with a campaign committee called PPLZ 4 GRAYSON CREW, the head of the Wyoming Democratic party said of his campaign, "I am not thrilled with it." The only endorsement Grayson received came from United Auto Workers. In November 2014, Grayson garnered 23% of the vote running against Republican Congresswoman Cynthia Lummis. Despite not campaigning, spending any money, or visiting Wyoming, Grayson managed to beat Lummis 46% to 43% in Teton County. For the 2016 election, he filed to run again for Congress in Wyoming, but quit when a local Democrat entered the race.

Grayson won another Green Party primary in 2018, this time for the election for state representative in Arizona's 16th legislative district. When no Democrat filed to oppose Kelly Townsend for state senator in the same district in the 2020 election, Grayson filed as a write-in candidate “for those Democrats and others who hate Trump Republicans.”

In 2022, with no Democrat on the ballot in Arizona's 9th congressional district, Grayson ran a write-in campaign against incumbent Republican U.S. Representative Paul Gosar, receiving 3,531 votes to Gosar's 192,976 votes.

Although the No Labels organization asserted that it was not a political party and would not run candidates for offices other than President and Vice President in 2024, Grayson announced he would run in the 2024 Arizona primary as a local candidate of the No Labels Party.

Social activism and writing
Grayson's experience as a lawyer and gay activist informed some of the stories in his 1996 collection, I Survived Caracas Traffic, whose title story Kirkus Reviews called "a resonant meditation on the themes of relationships, AIDS, and mortality." Another story in the same volume is "Twelve Step Barbie," which, along with "With Hitler in New York" is probably the author's best-known work and the subject of academic criticism. The New York Times Book Review called the book "far too bright and keenly made to flick casually away.

In New York in June 1990, Grayson created Radio Free Broward, a service to mail copies of the 2 Live Crew album As Nasty as They Wanna Be to residents of South Florida, where a federal judge had ruled it obscene and where a record store owner was arrested for selling it. Grayson attended the Fort Lauderdale obscenity trials related to the album the following autumn and winter.

As a staff attorney in social policy at the Center for Governmental Responsibility at the University of Florida law school, Grayson began writing op-ed columns for various Florida newspapers opposing proposed laws limiting the rights of gay speakers on college campuses, reinstating chain gangs in prisons, charging lottery winners for past welfare payments, and randomly testing students in middle and high school students for drugs, along with Florida's then-existing ban on adoptions by LGBT parents.

In addition to teaching at Broward Community College, Grayson has taught at Long Island University, Brooklyn College, Kingsborough Community College and The School of Visual Arts in New York;  Santa Fe Community College, Florida Atlantic University and Nova Southeastern University in Florida;   and Arizona State University and Mesa Community College in Arizona. He has also led workshops at writers' conference, including those at Winthrop College (now Winthrop University) and Francis Marion College (now Francis Marion University) in South Carolina.

Recent work
Grayson originally published some of the gay-themed stories in The Silicon Valley Diet on early internet sites that featured short fiction. In 2004 he appeared in various literary webzines with his memoirs, satire, and stories. His "Diary of a Congressional Candidate in Florida's Fourth Congressional District," a recurring feature on the website of McSweeney's, covered his 2004 campaign as the sole opponent to Rep. Crenshaw.

More recently, Grayson published two short story collections almost simultaneously. The more experimental book was Highly Irregular Stories (2006), which Kirkus called "an eclectic anthology of intriguing short stories...Grayson’s stories here recall no one so much as Richard Brautigan, who walked a similar line between wit and warmth in his more eccentric novels." In its review of the book, Hipster Book Club said, "The funny stuff in Highly Irregular Stories is not just mildly amusing but actually laugh-out-loud funny."

The second volume, And to Think That He Kissed Him on Lorimer Street (2006), which Kirkus termed "[a] funny, odd, somehow familiar and fully convincing fictional world," featured more representational and autobiographical stories, set mostly in Brooklyn.

In 2008, Grayson self-published a book featuring some uncollected stories from three decades under the title Who Will Kiss the Pig?: Sex Stories for Teens. Kirkus called the book “[f]unny, pleasurable and often prescient short fiction that delivers many more hits than misses,” but most of the media attention came from Gawker and Gothamist after Grayson placed a Craigslist ad that began, “Cool Brooklyn book publisher looking for cool 18-25yo hipsters to blurb our cool forthcoming book of sex stories for teens.”

In 2009, Grayson's writing also appeared in the anthology Life As We Show It: Writing on Film and the chapbooks The Tao Shoplifting Crisis and I Hate All of You on This L Train.

While the Dictionary of Literary Biography has called Grayson "a marginal figure in contemporary American fiction," it also noted that "he and his fictional persona seem quite aware of this fact" and that "taken as a body of work, Grayson's short fiction ultimately appears to be one ongoing, career-long writing project, focused always on the effects of contemporary culture on the self."

title: Richard Grayson (writer)