text:
Omichund

Omichund, Omichand, or Umichand (উমিচাঁদ; died 1767) was a merchant and broker during the Nawabi period of Bengal. He was one of the principal authors of the conspiracy against Nawab and associated with the treaty negotiated by Robert Clive before the Battle of Plassey in 1757.

Biography
Omichund was of Punjabi Khatri background. He had long been resident at Calcutta (Kolkata), where he had acquired a large fortune by providing the investment for the British East India Company, and also by acting as intermediary between the English and the local court at Murshidabad. In a letter of William Watts of later date, he is represented as saying to the Nawab (Siraj ud-Daulah):
 * "He had lived under the English protection these forty years; that he never knew them once to break their agreement, to the truth of which he took his oath, by touching a Brahman's foot; and that if a lie could be proved in England upon any one, they were spit upon and never trusted."

Several houses owned by him in Calcutta are mentioned in connection with the fighting that preceded the tragedy of the Black Hole in 1756, and it is on record that he suffered heavy financial losses at that time. He had been arrested by the English on suspicion of treachery, but afterwards he was forward in giving help to the fugitives and also valuable advice.

On the recapture of Calcutta, he was sent by Robert Clive to accompany Watts as agent at Murshidabad. It seems to have been through his influence that the nawab gave reluctant consent to Clive's attack on Chandernagore. Later, when the treaty with Mir Jafar was being negotiated circa 1757, he put in a claim for 5% on all the treasure to be recovered, under threat of disclosing the plot. To defeat him, two copies of the treaty were drawn up: the one, the true treaty, omitting his claim; the other containing it, to be shown to him, which Admiral Charles Watson refused to sign, but Clive directed the admiral's signature to be appended. When the truth was revealed to Omichund after Plassey, Macaulay states (following Robert Orme) that he sank gradually into idiocy, languished a few months, and then purportedly died. However, as a matter of fact, he survived for ten years, until 1767; and by his will he bequeathed £2000 to the Foundling Hospital (where his name may be seen in the list of benefactors as "a black merchant of Calcutta") and also to the Magdalen Hospital in London.

Lord Clive testified and defended himself thus before the House of Commons of Parliament on 10 May 1773, during the Parliamentary inquiry into his conduct in India:

"Omichund, his confidential servant, as he thought, told his master of an agreement made between the English and Monsieur Duprée [a general of the French East India Company] to attack him, and received for that advice a sum of not less than four lacks of rupees. Finding this to be the man in whom the nabob [nawab] entirely trusted, it soon became our object to consider him as a most material engine in the intended revolution. We therefore made such an agreement as was necessary for the purpose, and entered into a treaty with him to satisfy his demands. When all things were prepared, and the evening of the event was appointed, Omichund informed Mr. Watts, who was at the court of the nabob, that he insisted upon thirty lacks of rupees, and five per cent. upon all the treasure that should be found; that, unless that was immediately complied with, he would disclose the whole to the nabob; and that Mr. Watts, and the two other English gentlemen then at the court, should be cut off before the morning. Mr. Watts, immediately on this information, dispatched an express to me at the council. I did not hesitate to find out a stratagem to save the lives of these people, and secure success to the intended event. For this purpose we signed another treaty. The one was called the Red, the other the White treaty. This treaty was signed by every one, except admiral Watson; and I should have considered myself sufficiently authorised to put his name to it, by the conversation I had with him. As to the person who signed admiral Watson's name to the treaty, whether he did it in his presence or not, I cannot say; but this I know, that he thought he had sufficient authority for so doing. This treaty was immediately sent to Omichund, who did not suspect the stratagem. The event took place, and success attended it; and the House, I am fully persuaded, will agree with me, that, when the very existence of the Company was at stake, and the lives of these people so precariously situated, and so certain of being destroyed, it was a matter of true policy and of justice to deceive so great a villain.' –Great Britain Parliament, 1812"

title: Omichund


text:
Mary Ann Vecchio

Mary Ann Vecchio (born December 4, 1955) is an Italian American respiratory therapist and one of two subjects in the Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph by photojournalism student John Filo during the immediate aftermath of the Kent State shootings on May 4, 1970.

The photograph depicts the 14-year-old Vecchio kneeling over the body of Jeffrey Miller, who had been fatally shot by the Ohio National Guard moments earlier. Vecchio had joined the protest while visiting the campus, where she befriended two of the other students who would be hit by gunfire that day: Sandra Scheuer, who was killed, and Alan Canfora, who was wounded in the right wrist.

Biography
Vecchio was from an Italian immigrant family who lived in Opa-locka, Florida, where she attended Westview Junior High School at the beginning of 1970. She states that her home life was volatile, and that she and her siblings would leave the house for long periods when their parents fought. Vecchio soon got in trouble for smoking marijuana and skipping school. In February 1970, the police told Vecchio, then 14 years old, that they would send her to jail if she skipped school again. Weeks later, on March 10, she ran away from home. Vecchio says that she was not rebelling or intending to make a political statement: "I just wanted to be anywhere that wasn't Opa-locka." Vecchio began hitchhiking her way across the country, sleeping in fields and hippie crash pads with other transient youth, while occasionally working odd jobs for food.

Kent State
On May 4, 1970, Vecchio was at Kent State University in northern Ohio. On April 30, President Richard Nixon had announced a U.S. invasion of Cambodia and students were having an anti-war protest. As she walked towards a field on campus where protesters were gathering, Vecchio struck up a conversation with a male student. The two watched as a student waving a black flag taunted a line of the Ohio Army National Guard, who seemed to fall back and then fired more than 60 shots at the students.

Vecchio dropped to the ground during the firing. When she looked up, the student she had been talking to, Jeffrey Miller, lay beside her, shot through the mouth. She fell to her knees by his body, though nearby depicted students appeared too stunned or confused to react. Vecchio recalls crying, "Doesn't anyone see what just happened here? Why is no one helping him?" Three other students lay dead or dying nearby (William Knox Schroeder died an hour later while undergoing surgery at Robinson Memorial Hospital). Vecchio remembers running from the scene until she saw National Guardsmen herding students onto a bus. Dazed and wanting to get away, she got on the bus, which drove two hours to Columbus, Ohio, where parents were waiting for their children who were attending Kent State. Vecchio, who had never heard of the city of Columbus before arriving, wandered the streets looking for food and shelter.

Student photographer John Filo, who was taking photos of the protest, had narrowly avoided being shot. After rising to his feet, he saw a girl drop to her knees by a body on the ground ten feet away. He said, "I knew the boy was dead, but I could tell she didn't know. I could see something building in her, and all of a sudden she lets out this scream and I shoot. I shoot one more picture, and I'm out of film." When he saw the National Guard cutting electric wires on campus, Filo ran to his car, hid the film inside his hubcap, and drove two hours to the offices of his hometown newspaper Valley Daily News in Tarentum, Pennsylvania to develop the film. He sent his photo by wire to the Associated Press and the next morning it appeared on the front pages of newspapers around the world. Filo identified the girl simply as "coed." Vecchio cannot recall the first time that she saw the photo, sometimes called the Kent State Pietà.

Decades later, Filo would state, "It was because she was 14, because of her youth, that she ran to help, that she ran to do something. There were other people, 18, 19, 20 years old, who didn't get close to the body. She did because she was a kid. She was a kid reacting to the horror in front of her. Had she not been 14, the picture wouldn't have had the impact it did."

Aftermath
Vecchio subsequently hitchhiked out of Columbus. She had heard that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was looking for the girl in the photo, so she didn't tell anyone who she was, imagining that she could disappear if she got to California. However, another child at a crash pad in Indianapolis recognized her and tipped off a reporter at The Indianapolis Star. Vecchio talked to the reporter, hoping he would give her bus fare to get to California. Instead, he reported her to local police, who detained her in juvenile detention as a runaway before sending her back to Opa-locka three weeks after the Kent State shootings. She later said, "I would have stayed anonymous forever. But that guy from the Indianapolis Star, he knocked out my future."

Following publication of the photograph through the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review satellite paper Valley Daily News and its subsequent pickup internationally, Florida governor Claude Kirk labelled Vecchio a dissident Communist, stating that she was "part of a nationally organized conspiracy of professional agitators" that was "responsible for the students’ death." Many people refused to believe that Vecchio, who was nearly six feet tall, was actually 14. She was followed whenever she left her house by reporters and hecklers, and the family received many death threats. Messages received included, "What you need is a good beating until you bleed red", "I hope you enjoyed sleeping with all those Negroes and dope fiends", and "The deaths of the Kent State four lies on the conscience of yourself." Some anti-war figures expressed resentment that she was receiving so much publicity but had not even been a protester.

Vecchio's father sold t-shirts with her image on them, which she signed, along with the occasional autograph. Her family reportedly later sued T-shirt companies for 40 percent of the profits from sales of apparel featuring Filo's photograph.

Later life
Vecchio ran away from home again, got caught and was sent to juvenile detention. She ran away from juvenile detention, but was caught again. When she eventually was released from juvenile detention, she was constantly followed by police, who arrested her for loitering and smoking marijuana. In 2017, she described herself as having been "a mess, like I was trying to punch my way out of a paper bag." She was profiled in a 1977 broadcast of 60 Minutes, where she was described as a "maladjusted kid" and interviewed by Morley Safer about her prostitution arrests in Miami.

At age 22, Vecchio moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, married Joe Gillum in 1979, and became a clerk at a casino coffee shop. She lived in Las Vegas for nearly 20 years, eventually being promoted to the casino floor. In 1995, Vecchio and John Filo met for the first time, when both were scheduled to appear at an Emerson College conference commemorating the 25th anniversary of the shootings. She also appeared at Kent State University in May of the same year for the 25th annual commemoration. She returned to Kent State University again for the 36th commemoration in May 2006 and for the 37th commemoration in May 2007.

In 2001, Vecchio earned her high school diploma at the age of 46. She ended her marriage and moved back to Florida to live in a camper trailer while she worked at the spa at Trump National Doral Miami and took classes at Miami Dade Community College to become a respiratory therapist. After graduating, she worked at the Veterans Affairs Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, though she never disclosed that she was the girl in the famous Kent State photo. Vecchio states that she did not realize that she displayed behaviors characteristic of post-traumatic stress disorder until she worked with veterans.

Since retirement, she has been living near the Everglades, growing avocados and oranges on a small plot. Vecchio reported that she was greatly affected by watching the video of the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

In popular culture
Vecchio's image was ubiquitous on magazine covers and posters in the aftermath of the Kent State shootings. Humor magazine National Lampoon ran a fake ad for a "204 pc. Kent State Disturbance set" of play figures with "1 kneeling student" and, in 2006, satiric newspaper The Onion published a fake report under the title, "Kent State Basketball Team Massacred By Ohio National Guard In Repeat Of Classic 1970 Matchup," with Vecchio's face photoshopped over the body of a cheerleader.

Vecchio has been portrayed in several stage performances depicting the Kent State shootings. The character Vekeero in Halim El-Dabh's 1971 Opera Flies is based on Vecchio. Her role was played by Kelley Lepsik in the 2000 performance of Kent State: A Requiem. Janet Ruth Heller published a poem entitled "For Mary Vecchio, August, 1973," which portrays Vecchio as a modern Mary praying for the fallen Kent State students.

Before being published, the photograph was retouched to remove the distracting background fencepost that appeared over Vecchio's head in the original image. The unretouched original was stored in the archives of Life magazine.

A modification of the photograph was painted by Victor Kalin as cover art for a 12-inch vinyl phonograph record Murder at Kent State, released by Flying Dutchman Records in 1970. The painting makes a cultural statement by adding a National Guard unit in the background. Written commentary by Nat Hentoff places the incident in a context of national malaise.

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

title: Mary Ann Vecchio


text: Category:Education in Bhutan

title: Category:Education in Bhutan


text: User talk:204.100.214.99

title: User talk:204.100.214.99


text: User talk:130.64.143.100

title: User talk:130.64.143.100


text: User talk:204.82.110.173

title: User talk:204.82.110.173


text:
FCPA

FCPA may refer to:

 * Fairfax County Park Authority
 * Fellow of the Society of Certified Practicing Accountants
 * Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
 * Makabana Airport, in the Republic of the Congo, which has that ICAO airport code

title: FCPA


text:
User:Pecosdave

Pecosdave is a geek (real name David Allen Monroe) and divorced father of one who has showed a passing interest in technology and physics since childhood. Due to his rural upbringing in Pecos, TX he was limited in his oppertunity to explore his interest until he graduated high school in 1996. As a result much of what he was able to learn on was depricated when he was first able to get his hands on it, for example his first computer - aquired in 1995 - was an IBM PC Convertible. He learned computers and operating systems that are before his time, but unlike his technical peers he learned them in a catch up manner. As a result he has large amounts of knowledge from experience, but his knowledge also contains large amounts of holes from being "out of time".

Career History
His knowledge is not limited to the computer field. He has experience with audio/video, wiring relay panels, and is a decent mechanic. When he was younger he actually desired a career in audio/video, but due to various factors such as poor hearing, the onset of the dot com bubble, and the plethora of available jobs that resulted he slowly migrated into the computer and networking industry.

Pecosdave started out with a variety of manufacturing jobs in Phoenix, AZ and the surrounding area in 1996, then after frustration of making less than minimum wage, (when you count hours while on salary) and living in the bad neighborhoods of Phoenix he decided to move back to Texas. He worked for a year for a company called Alpha Networks. Alpha Networks did the technical work for small companies, large enough to have networks, but not large enough to have their own IT department. Pecosdave credits Alpha Networks as being the single most important piece of his education to date. Starting work there at 20 years old with very little networking experience, Randy and Marshall Williams were very instrumental in teaching Pecosdave networking and many aspects of Novell NetWare in particular.

Alpha Networks began to fail as a company. As Y2K many of their clients began to fear the "bug" and refused to have any computer work done, including needed maintnance. They commonly had the belief that doing any computer maintnance before the Y2K bug hit would be a complete waste of money since it was all going to break the last day of December 1999 anyways. Something had to be done. One of Alpha Networks clients was a local buisiness name Beeper Boutique. Randy had long casually spoken with the owner of Beeper Boutique about starting an ISP. That's when Everyones Internet was born.

Pecosdave quickly found himself doing more and more work on the ISP end of the buisiness, building servers, running Ethernet, and taking support calls. After a few weeks he transfered over to Everyones Internet all together and left his job at Alpha Networks behind. Over the next few months Alpha Networks dissolved into Everyones Internet completely, all employees moving over. This put Pecosdave in the position of being the first actual Everyones Internet employee, being the first person to recieve a paycheck with the name Everyones Internet at the top instead of the previous employer. For P.R. and ego purposes, Jeff Lowenberg is offically refered to as the first Everyones Internet employee by the official history on the website and in all company documentation except for actual pay records. In all fairness Jeff was answering support calls as a Beeper Boutique employee before Dave, as Dave did background work at the Alpha Networks office while an Alpha Networks employee.

Due to frustrtions over ethical, health and social life concerns Pecosdave took another job that was offered to him supporting Shell and Texaco gas stations for Equiva Services. Due to the fact this was an oil field company Dave soon saw his contract to Equiva being handed to Computer Sciences Corporation where he soon became a CSC employee.

Soon, Texaco left the alliance, and with that Equiva was adsorbed into the remaining Motiva and Equilon parent companies, Equilon being renamed to Shell Oil Products US. Over time, Shells new CEO decided it was not econmical for Shell to own their own gas stations, and sold all corporate stations to private investors. Since Daves job function was to keep corporate sites working, he soon found himself on the job market.

Since that time Dave has done various contract jobs for Tek Systems out of their Houston office.

Pecosdave is now employed by the GHG company, contracted to Lockheed Martin in the Ground Systems Maintenance department at NASA. As a member of the Datacomm group he is responsible for ensuring the Johnson Space Center can communicate with the International Space Station, the shuttle orbiters, and the other space centers.

Dave likes:

 * Linux and Free Software

title: User:Pecosdave


text:
Samuel Benchimol

Samuel Isaac Benchimol (July 13, 1923 – July 5, 2002) was a Brazilian economist, scientist, and professor of Moroccan-Jewish descent. He was also one of the leading experts on the Amazon region. He was assigned to the Amazonian Academy of Literature, Professor Emeritus at the Federal University of Amazonas (where he taught for more than 50 years), researcher at the FEA, community leader president of the Commitê Israelita do Amazonas (Amazon Jewish committee) and entrepreneur founding member of the group Bemol and Fogás.

Publications

 * Benchimol, S. (1958). O Banco do Brasil na economia do Amazonas. Rio de Janeiro: Superintendência do Plano da Valorização Econômica da Amazônia (SPVEA).
 * Benchimol, S. (1965). O cearense na Amazônia: inquérito antropogeográfico sobre um tipo de imigrante (2 ed.). Rio de Janeiro: SPVEA Seção de Documentação e Relações Públicas.
 * Benchimol, S. (1965). Pólos de crescimento e desenvolvimento econômico. Manaus.
 * Benchimol, S. (1966). Estrutura geo-social e econômica da Amazônia. Manaus: Govêrno do Estado do Amazonas.
 * Benchimol, S. (1968). Política e estratégia na grande Amazônia brasileira. Belém: Estante Universitária.
 * Benchimol, S. (1977). Amazônia, um pouco-antes e além-depois (Coleção Amazoniana, 1). Manaus: Editora U. Calderaro.
 * Benchimol, S. (1983). Cartas do primeiro Governador da Capitania de São José do Rio Negro, Joaquim de Mello e Póvoas, 1758–1761. (Memória geosocial e histórica do Amazonas). Manaus: Univ. do Amazonas, Comissão de Documentação e Estudos da Amazônia.
 * Benchimol, S. (1999). Amazônia: formação social e cultural. Manaus: Valer Editora. ISBN 85-86512-23-0

title: Samuel Benchimol


text:
Talk:Gareth Thomas (English politician)

Untitled
There are two Gareth Thomas MPs - and an actor: redirects all round?

Photo
This page really needs a photo Matthewfelgate 23:29, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Nothing on his constituancy page is past 2004. Surely he must have done something other thatn being on the merry go round of government posts in the last 5 years- perhaps we will get to know again before his seeking re-election. He is my MP so I am interested - or maybe I should just go and ask him! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Churchwithnoname-101 (talk • contribs) 18:33, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Nearly Lost his Seat?
I'd dispute that he nearly lost his seat to Hannah David in 2015, and she did not "buck the trend", as the Conservative vote was up nationally. Given the boundry changes, and the changed demographic in Harrow West in the last ten years, Hannah David did well to reduce his majority from ~3000 to ~2000, but to say he "nearly lost" or that Hannah David "bucked the trend" is over-egging it a bit.

31.51.114.41 (talk) 11:08, 11 May 2015 (UTC)

Expenses
Gareth Thomas famously (locally) got caught out in the expenses scandal. He didn't do anything illegal, but some local residents regard claiming for a second home in Hammersmith (on the basis that Harrow West is 11 miles out from Westminster and thus "too far") as immoral. Google this for plenty of local newspaper coverage. Whilst he may wish to erase this from history, and has taken to publishing expenses on his web site now (and may wish to plead youth and inexperience), it's relevent to his standing locally.

MPs' expenses: minister Gareth Thomas used public money for £1,000 accountancy bill http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5391332/MPs-expenses-minister-Gareth-Thomas-used-public-money-for-1000-accountancy-bill.html

Gareth Thomas and Tony McNulty reveal 'mistakes' in expenses http://www.harrowtimes.co.uk/news/4399968.Harrow_MPs_admit__mistakes__in_expenses_claims/

31.51.114.41 (talk) 11:08, 11 May 2015 (UTC)

Was he ever a teacher?
It states in the introduction that Gareth Thomas was a teacher, at least between 1996 and his election in 1997. He was definitely as student teacher (and head of the Student Union), but was he ever employed as a teacher, however briefly, before becoming an MP? If so where (in other words, citation needed!) I have tried asking the guy in person ("Where did you teach?", but go the brush off - but he may have been preoccupied).

31.51.114.41 (talk) 11:08, 11 May 2015 (UTC)

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title: Talk:Gareth Thomas (English politician)


text:
Hydrocharis

Hydrocharis is a genus of aquatic plants in the family Hydrocharitaceae described as a genus by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. It is widespread across much of Europe and Asia, plus a few scattered locations in Africa. It is also reportedly naturalized in parts of North America.

The best known species is Hydrocharis morsus-ranae, commonly called common frogbit or European frog's-bit, and occasionally water-poppy. The name "American frogbit" refers to another aquatic plant, Limnobium spongia.

Three species are recognised:
 * Hydrocharis chevalieri (De Wild.) Dandy – Benin, Cameroon, Gabon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo
 * Hydrocharis dubia (Blume) Backer – Primorsky Krai, China, Japan, Korea, Indian subcontinent, SE Asia, New Guinea
 * Hydrocharis morsus-ranae L. – Europe, Siberia, North Africa, Turkey, Caucasus, Kazakhstan

title: Hydrocharis


text:
Edward England

Edward England (c. 1685–1721) was an Irish pirate. The ships he sailed on included the Pearl (which he renamed The Royal James) and later the Fancy, for which England exchanged the Pearl in 1720. His flag was the classic Jolly Roger — almost exactly as the one "Black Sam" Bellamy used — with a human skull above two crossed bones on a black background. Like Bellamy, England was known for his kindness and compassion as a leader, unlike many other pirates of the time.

England was born Edward Seegar in Ireland around 1685. He took part in Henry Jennings' expedition for the sunken 1715 Treasure Fleet off the coast of Florida, and then began sailing with Charles Vane in 1718. Upon Vane and other prominent pirates accepting the King's Pardon, England and some of his men sailed for Africa. Along his way he spawned the career of Bartholomew Roberts, among others. In 1720, near the African island of Comoros, England and his men got into a violent conflict with James Macrae. After 10 days of hiding on an island, England and Macrae agreed to a peace deal, upsetting England's crew; he was subsequently voted out as captain and marooned on the island of Mauritius. After four months, England and the loyal crewman that had been stranded with him managed to build a boat and sail to a pirate safe haven in Madagascar. He died sometime in the winter of 1720–21, possibly from tropical disease.

Early life
Born in Ireland as Edward Seegar sometime around 1685, he was probably raised a Catholic, and was said to be an educated man. Seegar changed his surname to England when he turned pirate. Some sources claim "Seegar" was not England's name at all, but was instead a separate pirate (Jasper Seagar) who sailed under England. England made his way to Jamaica and during the War of the Spanish Succession he served as a privateer. He was captured by the pirate captain Christopher Winter and forced to join the crew. Winter took England to the pirate base on Nassau, Bahamas. England took part in Henry Jennings' assault on the Spanish salvage camp at Palma de Ayz, Florida, stealing £87,000 in gold and silver. England is next reported as Charles Vane's quartermaster, in March 1718. Vane's sloop, the Lark was captured by the Royal Navy, but England and the rest of the crew were released to induce the other pirates of Nassau to accept the King's pardon.

Captaincy – Coast of Africa
England was granted captaincy of his own ship in mid-1718. England decided not to accept the pardon along with Vane and a few others, and after the arrival of Woodes Rogers, they set sail for the coast of Africa.

Along the way, he and the crew took several ships. One of the ships was the Cadogan from Bristol, captained by a man named Skinner. Some of England's crew knew Skinner and recognized him instantly because he never paid them for their work previously. According to Charles Johnson, the crew member said:

"Ah! Captain Skinner is it you, I am much in your debt, and now I shall pay you in your own coin."

A group of pirates next grabbed the captain, tied him to the windlass and threw empty bottles at him. Next because he had been a good master to his men they gave him a quick death by simply shooting him in the head with a flintlock pistol. Given the crew of the Cadogan was without a captain, England offered them a choice to join his crew. Aboard the crew was Howell Davis who refused to sign the articles of the pirates. Howell said he would rather die than become a pirate, however, England refused to kill him and instead gave command of the captured ship to Davis. This began the start of Davis' pirate career. Davis would go on to spawn the career of Bartholomew Roberts as well, and the careers of many other pirates.

After some time, England and his crew captured a larger brig or frigate named the Pearl. Taking the ship as their own, they renamed it the Royal James (after James Stuart, alluding to the Jacobitism of England or his crew ) and in the spring of 1719 went off in search of plunder in Africa. Between the Gambia River and the Cape Coast, the pirates seized and looted ten ships. Two of these they kept as prizes, granting them to Captains Robert Lane and Richard Sample, who left England to sail for the Caribbean. After looting the ten ships, England made John Taylor the captain of his next prize, the Victory. After looting two additional ships, England and the crew decided to make port in a small African town. However, the pirates grew increasingly belligerent and conflicts arose with the locals over the treatment of women. Soon a fight broke out, resulting in the pirates burning the entire town and departing.

Indian Ocean
By 1720, England had reached the Indian Ocean, where he met with fellow pirate Captain Oliver la Buse. England captured a thirty-four gun Dutch ship, which he named Fancy in honour of English pirate Henry Every, and he made the Fancy his new flagship. England decided to attack an East Indiaman under the command of James Macrae, the Cassandra, near the island of Comoros. A long and bloody battle ensued, and both ships ran aground. Macrae and his surviving crew escaped and hid on the island for ten days. Finally Macrae, who was injured, tired, and hungry, went aboard England's consort the Victory, hoping for mercy, and surrendered to the pirates. The cargo of the Cassandra was valued at £75,000. Ninety of the Fancy's crew died in the attack on the Cassandra. England had a good nature and unusual kindness, in that he did not believe in torturing captives unless they could not otherwise be persuaded. England ordered Macrae's life spared, and the pirates kept the Cassandra and gave the heavily damaged Fancy to Macrae. England's quartermaster, John Taylor, who was now captain of the Victory, resented this choice, and only agreed after England got him drunk. England then captured a small English ship near Cochin, the drunk captain reporting a false rumour that Macrae was preparing a fleet to chase the pirates. This enraged the pirates, particularly Taylor, who had wanted to kill Macrae. Around this time, Taylor organised a vote to remove England from command. The new captain – a former member of the Fancy crew named Jasper Seator – marooned England and three others on the coast of Mauritius, before taking Cassandra and Victory north in the hunt for more prizes. Seator died in 1721, with Cassandra eventually passing to Taylor who took her to the Caribbean.

Marooning in Mauritius
England and his three companions were put ashore without adequate provisions, and were forced to scavenge. After about four months, the men built a small boat and managed to sail to the pirate haven of St. Augustine's Bay in Madagascar.

Legacy
After arriving at St. Augustine's Bay, England survived for a while on the charity of other pirates, possibly some of Henry Every's old crew. He died in late 1720 or early 1721, possibly from a tropical disease.

England's son John eventually did as his father had wished and named his son John as well. This tradition continued among England's descendants.

Edward England is known today as one of the more humane pirate captains of the Golden Age of Piracy. According to Captain Charles Johnson,

"He had a great deal of good Nature, and did not want for Courage ; he was not avaritious, and always averse to the ill Usage of Prisoners received : He would have been contented with moderate Plunder, and less mischievous Pranks, could his Companions have been brought to the same Temper, but he was generally over-rul'd, and as he was engaged in that abominable Society, he was obliged to be a Partner in all their vile Actions."

title: Edward England


text:
Imants Bleidelis

Imants Bleidelis (born 16 August 1975) is a Latvian former professional football midfielder. He made 106 appearances for the Latvia national team.

Club career
Born in Riga, Latvian SSR, Soviet Union, Bleidelis started his career at Skonto in 1992. In 1994, he played for Inter Skonto, and then between 1994 and 1999 he played 128 games scoring 24 games for Skonto. Skonto then sold him to English club, Southampton who were then in the Premier League, for £650,000, where he joined fellow countryman Marians Pahars. Bleidelis signed a three-and-a-half-year contract. He played only two league games in three seasons, and after being allowed to go on trial in Denmark with Superliga club, Viborg January 2003 Southampton released him on 26 January, and two days later he signed a two-year contract with Viborg, where he scored six goals in 55 appearances.

He left Viborg in winter 2004 after turning down a new contract. Despite offers from two Latvian clubs, Skonto and Venta, in 2005, he moved to Austria to play for Austrian Bundesliga club Grazer AK, where he signed a two-year contract. He made his debut for the club on 17 February 2005 in the UEFA Cup against English club Middlesbrough.

He moved back to Latvia in 2006 with Jūrmala. In 2007, he moved to Liepājas Metalurgs. Bleidelis had his contract with FK Liepājas MetalurgsLiepājas Metalurgs terminated on 7 July 2008, along with another Latvian international, Andrejs Rubins.

International career
Bleidelis played over 100 international matches and scored ten goals for the Latvia national team. He made his debut on 19 May 1995 against Estonia in the Baltic Cup. He played at the Euro 2004 finals and his 100th appearance came on 2 June 2007 against Spain in UEFA European Championship qualifier.

Honours
Skonto
 * Virsliga (6): 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998
 * Latvian Football Cup: 1992, 1995, 1997, 1998

Metalurgs
 * Virsliga runners-up: 2007
 * Baltic League: 2007
 * Baltic Football: 2002

title: Imants Bleidelis


text:
Gentry Lee

Bert Gentry Lee (born March 29, 1942) is an American scientist, space engineer, and science fiction author. He is chief engineer for the Planetary Flight Systems Directorate at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Space career
Lee was director of science analysis and mission planning during the Viking missions to Mars in the 1970s. He was also the chief engineer for the Galileo mission from 1977 to 1988. He worked on the Stardust and Deep Impact missions to comets in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He had engineering oversight responsibility for the Mars Exploration Rovers, which landed in January 2004 and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (2006).

In 2009, Gentry narrated and appeared in Discovery Channel's two-hour special "Are We Alone?", which examined the possibility of life on other worlds in the solar system.

Writing career
As an author he is best known for co-writing, with Arthur C. Clarke, the books Cradle in 1988, Rama II in 1989, The Garden of Rama in 1991 and Rama Revealed in 1993. He collaborated with Carl Sagan on the 1980 series Cosmos.

Rendezvous With Rama was written in 1972 and Clarke had no intention of writing a sequel. Lee turned the Rama series into a more character-driven story following the adventures of Nicole des Jardins Wakefield, who becomes the main character in Rama II, The Garden of Rama, and Rama Revealed. When asked, Arthur C. Clarke said that Gentry Lee did the writing while he was a source of ideas.

Lee went on to write three more science fiction novels after Rama Revealed. Two take place in the Rama universe (Bright Messengers, Double Full Moon Night) while one makes several references to it (Tranquility Wars).

Awards
In 2006, he was awarded the Masursky Award for Meritorious Service to Planetary Science by the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society, for his lifetime of contributions to systems engineering of robotic planetary missions.

In 2021, he was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for contributions to 20 planetary exploration missions to Mars, Jupiter, asteroids, and comets.

Television

 * Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1980) (co-writer)
 * Are We Alone? (2009) (narrator)
 * Living Universe: Journey to Another Stars'' (2018)

title: Gentry Lee


text:
Samuda Estate

The Samuda Estate is on the east side of Manchester Road, in Cubitt Town on the Isle of Dogs. With 505 dwellings it is home to about 1,500 people and covers 11.4 acre.

Historical background
The estate is named for the shipbuilding company of the Samuda Brothers, Jacob and Joseph d'Aguilar Samuda, who formerly occupied the site. Admiral Togo did his work experience here in 1877 working on the construction of the Fusō.

The estate was designed by Gordon Tait of the Worshipful Company of Masons, and built by Tersons Ltd for the London County Council in two phases, commencing in 1965. Work was completed by the Greater London Council and the estate subsequently became part of the Tower Hamlets council housing stock. Upon completion in 1967, the total cost of construction was £2,879,424 – including the cost of rebuilding the river wall, and the removal of massive concrete foundations on the former ship yard.

Composition
The estate comprises four and six-storey blocks arranged around central traffic-free squares, some connected by covered bridges:
 * Ballin Court, named after Louise Sakina Ballin wife of Joseph d'Aguilar Samuda
 * Yarrow House, named after Alfred Fernandez Yarrow (1842–1932), an engineer who set up Folly Shipyard
 * Pinnace House
 * Reef House
 * Hedley House, named after Joseph Hedley, one time partner of Alfred Yarrow
 * Talia House
 * Halyard House
 * Dagmar Court
 * Kelson House, by the riverside, is a 25–storey tower of interlocking maisonettes, arranged on three levels in a fashion derived from Le Corbusier's Unité d'Habitation (1947–52).

As a concession to the changing needs of its inhabitants resulting from the increase in car-ownership, the development included an underground parking area composed of 200 garages along with space for motorcycles. In 2004 the Samuda Estate Local Management Organisation distributed a paper calling for the refurbishment of the derelict underground garages as potential business units, with a multi-faith prayer facility, Tower Hamlets Community Recycling Consortium, and a workshop area for Local Labour in Construction.

The LDDC built the Samuda Community Centre for the estate in 1986, at a cost of £350,000.

Photography
Jonathan B50 visited Kelson House in 1973, and has published 7 photographs taken from the top of Kelson House as part of his Sunset – Moon – Sunrise series.
 * John Gay, the German architectural photographer, visited the estate shortly after it was built. 96 photographs he took of the Samuda Estate have been included in the English Heritage Archive.

Literature

 * The Samuda Estate was used as the setting for Defiant Pose, a novel by Stewart Home.

Visual arts

 * Graffiti: the SELMO participated in the Greater London Authority's investigation into graffiti, explaining that graffiti was not seen as a major problem for the estate, appearing mainly in the communal stairwells. Caretakers were usually able to remove it quickly. When it presented problems, SELMO used specialist services to remove it. In light of far more pressing problems on the estate SELMO had worried about looking into alternative ways of dealing with graffiti.

Film and TV

 * The innovative You Have Been Watched (Media Arts Project, 2002) was filmed in one day on the estate using CCTV cameras. See some images here. This involved a high level of resident involvement, which was reflected in the narrative structure which involved the local Community television station having its data hijacked by another organisation. When this becomes generally known, the residents organise a protest which leads to the public mock execution of the ones responsible. The film has been subject to critical attention in transgender studies.
 * It has also been used as a location for a number of films and TV Dramas, including Dirty Pretty Things, England Expects, Top Boy, The Face and Red Light Runners an uncompleted film scheduled to star Harvey Keitel.

Netflix series, Top Boy was filmed on the Samuda Estate under the fictional name "Summerhouse Estate".

Privatisation
In 2005 the Samuda Estate was privatised as part of the Tower Hamlets London Borough Council's Housing Choice programme. A new Housing Association Toynbee Island Homes was established on a resident-led basis. However, in 2007, This was taken over by One Housing Group in 2007. In April, 2008 the local housing office was the site of a dramatic sit-in by a board member of the Samuda Estate Local Management Organisation following their eviction from the 'Samuda Housing Office which they occupied since 2005. This coincided with the firing of the resident Board members of Island Homes by the One Housing Group Chief Executive Officer Mick Sweeney. Quoting a report from Campbell Tickell, Sweeney admitted they were guilty of "persistent serious failures in their duties to properly govern the association".

In what The Wharf newspaper described as a "war of words", a spokesperson for One Housing Group argued that the action taken was "essential in protecting the interests of residents":
 * Barkantine Management Team, who had been fired from the Island Homes Board responded that residents were being treated with disrespect: "It is a question of professionals blaming the amateurs".
 * In a statement made in the occupied Samuda Office, the view was aired that "management does not like effective participation and would only like to play lip service to it.
 * Another SELMO spokesperson suggested that One Housing Group were "flexing their muscles".

 * "OHG will continue to support Island Homes and an interim board will be appointed to take such steps as are required to ensure that services to Island Homes residents are first class, and to ensure the promises made to residents in relation to the improvement works to their homes are delivered."

title: Samuda Estate


text:
User:Doc Tropics/United States health reform under Clinton

Bill Clinton, in his term from 1993 to 2001 was, like all presidents, charged with dealing with health reform. But despite all his efforts, he was unable to develop a fully transparent and simplified plan.

Knowing that the middle class was the main addressee of his plan, Clinton declared his top priorities to be for "those who do the work, pay the taxes, raise the kids, and play by the rules". His health-care reform plan was developed by some of the largest private insurers (Aetna, Prudential, and Travelers), who wanted to manage the delivery of health care along with paying for it. Large corporations, wanting to reduce cost through managed care and also wanting to shift some burden of cost to smaller companies, joined the interested parties. These corporations included General Electric Company, General Motors Corporation and Caterpillar.

Background
At the time of Clinton's election health reform seemed possible, given strong Democratic political capital in Congress (a democratic majority), and rising public support. The Democratic Congress would have been in favor of an agenda pertaining to public welfare and equality. Clinton, however, was unable to develop a clear and transparent national health-insurance plan. With Americans expecting reform, Clinton relied on his speechwriting team to develop a comprehensive health-care reform plan. However he rejected the plan just one day before his speech to a joint session of Congress concerning the future of health care. The final version of the speech briefly vaguely outlined how Clinton would implement national health insurance but left many questions unanswered. Ambiguities of the plan, including the finance of such reform, limited the credibility and efficiency of such reform.

Clinton also could not make health care a top priority for Americans. During his campaign, citizens ranked health care third behind the economy and the national deficit. In addition, Clinton failed to convince Americans to support his plan of managed competition. Opposition from powerful interest groups also hurt Clinton's chances of reforming the current health-care system.

Origins of the call for reform
Until the early 1990s, the US health care system was dominated by traditional indemnity insurance, fee-for-service payment, free choice of doctors who were mainly in solo or small group practices, and third-party payment. Americans had become used to top-quality care without having to pay the bill. This set-up led to a large problem of moral hazard which increased the cost of health care tremendously. With no central government organization to moderate costs, US companies began to complain that health-care costs put them at a competitive disadvantage compared to foreign competitors. Many large companies became more involved in overseeing employee health-care costs by self-insuring or enrolling their employees in a managed-care system. However, the late 1980s and early 1990s saw the rise and fall of the idea of managed care. While in 1980 few employers viewed health-care costs as a major problem, by the end of the decade that was no longer the prevailing view.

Rising health-care costs became an extremely serious issue in the 1990s. During the 1980s, median household incomes grew by $1500 while health-care costs grew by $1400. According to some estimates, one out of every seven dollars of goods and services produced in America was being spent on health care. Without insurance only the wealthy could afford health care, yet thirty seven million people, or 15% of the population, did not have insurance. In addition, government officials were worried that the rising costs would have a detrimental effect on the national debt and limit the amount of money available for other government programs (Johnson and Broder 62). Therefore, both Democrats and Republicans agreed that the health-care system needed to be reformed in order to provide greater security to citizens.

However, the issue would probably not have been brought to the forefront but for the 1991 off-term special election in Pennsylvania following the sudden death of Senator John Heinz. Pennsylvania's former Attorney General, Richard Thornburg, was widely expected to win. His challenger was Democrat Harris Wofford, who ran far behind in the polls and brought up the issue of health care reform as a "nothing to lose" issue. He recovered from a double digit deficit in the polls to win the senatorial election, putting health care reform on the national agenda.

Although previous efforts to impose universal health insurance had failed, Americans were now "experiencing a troubling new sense of vulnerability". During the 1990s, a large economic recession resulted in the loss of health benefits for many working Americans. In 1992, 1,200,000 American families lost their insurance. Many other Americans believed that their current insurance would not be sufficient in the case of a severe illness or injury. The loss of security felt by millions of Americans increased public attention on the health-care system. While many did not want the government to run the health-care system, they believed that the government had to institute some kind of reform.

How the issue was framed
On September 22, 1993, Clinton addressed the issue of health-care reform to a publicly-broadcast joint-session of Congress. The speech outlined a plan for universal health coverage. He made the case for reform by citing rising health-care costs, 37 million uninsured Americans, and a generally wasteful and inefficient system. He outlined the proposal within the context of these six principles: security, simplicity, savings, choice, quality, and responsibility.

Much of the speech was devoted to the idea of prevention — the long-term benefits of more preventative care — and cutting the financial burden of universal coverage. Clinton depicted the current system as barring doctors from working effectively, and individuals from the right care. He conceded that his plan would cost more for some, but stressed that everyone would save in the long term. He asserted that there should be no free rides in the US health-care system; everyone should pay. Clinton posited universal health care as his generation's "moon landing", and as a step towards the equality of public welfare.

Policy communities
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton played an important role in the formation of health policy. She took health policy to be her "crusade" and stood by her husband and spoke at Congress, advocating the passage of new health-care reform. On January 15, 1993, it was announced that Hillary would be in charge of a task force made to develop a plan for health-care reform. Hillary on the Hill became one of those events charged with political symbolism, and unforeseen consequences. It was dramatic. It was triumphant. But its very success also triggered new and intense activity among opponents who saw in this formidable First Lady a foe whose defeat would require their most determined efforts.

In late 1993, Hillary's approval rating for her handling of health-care reform was actually higher than the President's. The public gave President Clinton a 55% rating, while Hillary got a 60% (Schneider). In late February of 1993, three groups from the health-care industry sued the reform task force, claiming that Hillary could not chair a task force since she was not a government employee. Hillary called the suit a "deft political move, designed to disrupt our work...and foster an impression with the public and the news media that we were conducting secret meetings". The suit resulted in the release of 250 boxes of uninteresting task force memos and reports. The task force eventually formulated a plan for health-care reform in late September, a few months past the "100 days" promise of Clinton; the plan became a 1,342 page long bill known as Clinton's "Health Security" plan.

The Health Insurance Association of America immediately opposed the plan. The Association had hired Bill Gradison, a Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, as its president and chief lobbyist. Gradison brought Charles Kahn, the leading health-policy counsel on Ways and Means, on board as well. Gradison then initiated a $3 million ad campaign against Clinton's plan. . The most famous ads featured a husband and wife, Harry and Louise, discussing the Clinton plan and using phrases such as, "The government may force us to pick from a few health plans designed by government bureaucrats" and, "government monopoly". The advertisements may have been particularly effective because they characterized Clinton's plan as being in conflict with middle class values. The Health Insurance Association of America also used its own insurance agents to lobby their communities and members of Congress.

This lack of support for a national health-reform plan prompted Aetna, MetLife, Cigna, Prudential, and Travelers to resign from the Health Insurance Association of America in 1992. These five companies formed their own lobby group, the Alliance for Managed Competition, which supported Clinton's plan in some areas, but called for change in others. For example, they opposed the creation of a national health board which could cap health spending nationally.

Policy entrepreneurs
Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia had a personal stake in the passage of health reform because his mother had died of Alzheimer's disease. He took the issue so seriously that "he believed health care reform to be an issue that represented nothing less than the economic health and future of the United States".

Arnold Bennett, the Media Director of Families USA was another key player in the Clinton health-reform initiative. Arnold Bennett is a political activist, Democratic consultant and documentary filmmaker. Bennett said, “is unfortunately not the only report that conveys the notion that the Clinton health reform plan will help the uninsured at the expense of the middle class, and that new taxes on us are needed to insure them”.

Another key player was Senator Ted Kennedy from Massachusetts who strongly believed in health reform and supported Clinton whole-heartedly. He "believed this was a moment of historic opportunity, the most favorable in all his years in Congress" (Johnson and Broder 34).

The national mood
In the initial months of the Clinton Administration, the public had a limited amount of confidence in the new president. Following two failed Attorney-General nominations, a Republican filibuster of the first part of the Clinton economic plan, and a controversy over gay soldiers in the military, the nation was in a skittish mood, but open to health reform.

In one of Clinton's initial polls on health care, most individuals were unhappy with their personal health coverage. Two-thirds of voters were dissatisfied with the overall health-care system. Further, based on the polling data, the administration concluded that the public wanted to see "Congress take its time" in making major changes. Thus, the administration worked to frame their reform as a deliberate, bi-partisan, and inclusive reform process (Johnson and Broder 18). At the time of Clinton's speech to present his plan in September of 1993, one Harris poll found that ninety-one percent of Americans agreed with the idea that, "everybody should have the right to get the best possible care — as good as the treatment a millionaire gets," and a Gallup poll found that eighty percent of Americans believed that, "government should be responsible for medical care for people who can't afford it" (Yankelovich 12). The only two groups who did not support Clinton's plan were Republicans and many of those who earned more than $50,000 per year (Blendon, Brodie, Benson 9).

The No Name Coalition, started by the Conservative Christian Coalition and National Taxpayers Union placed negative editorials in The Wall Street Journal and, along with other prominent conservatives such as talk-show host Rush Limbaugh, waged an intensive war against Clinton’s plan. In the end, the Coalition grew to include more than 30 organizations. This does not include include additional money by corporations and other associations, public records show that the Coalition spent over $100 million dollars fighting against Clinton’s plan.

Just as Clinton was about to begin a series of speeches and events to generate attention and support for the health-security plan in late 1993, the crisis in Somalia erupted. Two Black Hawk helicopters were shot down in the Battle of Mogadishu; 18 Americans were killed and another 80 were wounded. The nation's attention was captured by the events, causing Clinton to put his plan on hold for an entire month (Quadagno 187).

Organized political support and opposition
Newt Gingrich was one of the staunchest opponents to Clinton and his health-care plan. Only by controlling Congress with a new conservative Republican majority could the final goals of their "Republican Revolution" be achieved: to break the public dependency on Democratic tax-funded government programs; "defund the government," as they put it, and in so doing, destroy the liberal constituency groups; and permit the flowering of an antigovernment, antitax, entreprenurial nations. All these aims were threatened by the Clinton plan. (Johnson and Broder 12) Gingrich attacked the proposal, and claimed it would create "bigger government, bigger bureaucracy and higher taxes for worse healthcare" (Clymer).

Medical lobby communities gave moderate support to the Clinton plan. For example, the AMA supported employer mandates and universal coverage, but did not support reductions in Medicare benefits, caps on spending, or criminal penalties for abuse by physicians. Similarly, the American Group Practice Association (AGPA) supported cost containment and universal coverage, but opposed premium caps and health alliances, fearing interference with group practice strategies (Langbert 642).

Labor union leaders the AFL-CIO favored the Clinton plan initially; they supported employer-based solutions for the health-care problem. (Johnson and Broder) This proved untimely however, as the prospects of an employer-mandated option seemed to be unpopular with business (Gottschalk). In 1993 and 1994, the AFL-CIO staged many grassroots efforts to generate support for reform (Dark). The labor movement "played old politics" through local efforts, while the Republicans and opposers of reform used the media to reach the mass public (Johnson and Broder). Organized labor opposed, most of all, taxation of health-insurance benefits (Langbert 642).

However, strong opposition forces from interest groups and the business class existed. The Health Insurance Association of America spent over $20 million on advertisements to oppose a universal health-reform plan. Their efforts included the notorious "Harry and Louise" television commercials. Other techniques such as mailing campaigns and phoning were used by coalitions.

Moreover, small businesses, which feared financial burdens, organized oppositions with mailings and town meetings (Reynolds). The National Federation for Independent Business (NFIB) fiercely opposed employer mandates — a crucial component to the Clinton Plan (Starr: 1995). Small business pledged to oppose any legislation with an employer mandate; Clinton's plan had a mandate requiring all employers to pay 80% of insurance premiums. In a 1995 survey, only 28% of companies supported an employer mandate (Martin 899, 904).

On the other hand, big business generally supported employer mandates. According to Michael Becker, vice president of benefits for McDonnell Douglas Corporation, claimed in 1995 that companies with generous benefit programs would experience cost reductions as a result of universal coverage (Langbert 642).

In his first of what would become legendary strategy memos circulated among Republican policymakers, critic William Kristol said the party should "kill," not amend or compromise on, the Clinton health-care plan. He reasoned that allowing any plan to pass under a Democratic president and Congress would give that party control of the middle-class vote. Ideologically, this would encourage and strengthen New Deal liberal ideas of government support, at the cost of gains from limited government. He wrote, It will re-legitimize middle-class dependence for 'security' on government spending and regulation. It will revive the reputation of the party that spends and regulates, the Democrats, as the generous protector of middle-class interests. And it will at the same time strike a punishing blow against Republican claims to defend the middle class by restraining government. (Johnson and Broder 234)

Thus, Kristol presented the first public document uniting Republicans behind total opposition to the reform plan, a position already (privately) advocated by Newt Gingrich and other strategists. A later memo advocated the phrase "There is no health care crisis," which Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole used in his response to the State of the Union Address (Johnson and Broder 270). Unfortunately, this resulted in an avalanche of phone calls from citizens seeking to demonstrate the reality of their health-care problems, and played into the image of Republicans as aloof and uncaring (Johnson and Broder 363).

Kristol was so set on total opposition to any health reform under a Democratic Congress that he urged the defeat of liberal Republican Senator John Chafee's compromise bill in another memo. He wrote, The Chafee-led rump group runs the serious risk of snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory. We're going to defeat Clinton on health care, win seats in November, and pass our own health bill next year. (Johnson and Broder 446) By then, Republican policymakers were so overwhelmed by these weekly memos that they felt they had no choice but to follow in total opposition to reform, not compromise (Johnson and Broder 385). After the death of the plan, Kristol went into the midterm election proclaiming, "I think we can continue to wrap the Clinton plan around the necks of the Democratic candidates." (Johnson and Broder 531)

Why the window of opportunity for health reform opened
In part, public opinion helped open up a new opportunity for health reform during the Clinton era. Beginning in 1973, Americans felt that they had been spending “too little rather than too much on protecting the nation’s health” (Blendon & Benson 38). By 1993, national health spending had reached a record high of $888 billion as health-insurance premiums rose rapidly (CMS). Public confidence in institutional leaders of medicine reached a record low (44%), and a majority of Americans felt that the nation was spending too little on improving health care (Blendon & Benson 38-39). In the 1992 election, voters ranked health care as the third most important issue in their presidential choice, behind only the economy and the federal budget deficit (Blendon, Brodie, Benson 12).

After the hard-fought 1992 election, Clinton stepped into office with fresh optimism and confidence in his abilities. With the American public and an experienced, Democrat-dominated Congress supporting him, President Clinton seemed like the right man in taking on the task of health-care reform. As Clinton began formulation of a national health-care plan, public opinion polls showed a two-to-one margin of approval for the plan; fifty-seven percent of Americans approved of the plan that Clinton was promising (Yankelovich 11). Even as the nation's trust in the presidency and government was falling, Americans became noticeably more supportive of government involvement in health care (Hacker 658). Paul Starr, a sociologist from Princeton and author of "The Middle Class and National Health Reform," claimed that, due to pressures from the middle class, the pressure for national health-care reform was stronger in the 1990s than it had been for decades (Hacker 657).

Why the window of opportunity for health reform closed
President Clinton’s failure started with the isolation of important players, Congressional leaders and administration officers, whose support would be critical in shepherding reforms through Congress. The Clinton Administration tried to tie the health-reform plan to the budget reconciliation bill, but key senators refused to allow such an action. Instead of compromising and reaching out to moderate Congressmen, President Clinton continued to push his own plan. Arrogant, and perhaps hard-headed, President Clinton continued to back his own plan. He further alienated support by pledging to veto any bill that did not provide universal coverage (alternative plans) in his 1994 State of the Union Address (Reynolds). Additionally, Clinton's "closed door policy" surrounding the generation of a health-care reform plan angered both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill. By leaving key decisions to relative outsiders, Hillary Rodham Clinton and top aid Ira Magaziner, President Clinton turned his back on the legislators whose votes he eventually needed (Reynolds).

Moreover, Clinton's leadership style was a hindrance to the passage of health legislation. He was optimistic almost to a fault. Related to Clinton's energy, enthusiasm, intelligence and devotion to policy is a cluster of more problematic traits — absence of self-discipline; hubristic confidence in his own views and abilities; and difficulty in narrowing his goals, ordering his efforts and devising strategies for advancing and communicating the ends he seeks to achieve (Greenstein 594).

Clinton was slow to pass health reform. During his campaigning, he promised to have a health-care bill ready within the first 100 days in office, but in reality, it took over nine months to prepare the bill. Clinton's failure to mobilize during the "honeymoon period" impeded his ability to get the bill passed. By the time Clinton presented a plan to Congress, more than 500 lobby groups had bombarded the administration on the topic of health reform (Langbert 641). In addition, Clinton took on many responsibilities, impeding his ability to focus solely on health care. This delay played a crucial part in the demise of the reform. It afforded the opposition time to organize and mobilize public opinion against the plan (Reynolds).

This delay itself, was not all his fault. The administration’s health-reform plan was halted for nine months because of concerns about getting the budget reconciliation bill passed. Clinton thought he had enough votes to pass the budget bill, but key senators backed out.

When the bill was finally made public, only twenty-one percent of Americans said they knew a lot about Clinton's plan. One month later, only seventeen percent of Americans felt they knew what Clinton's plan was about. That number fell to thirteen percent one month later (Yankelovich 14). He lacked a concrete plan as well as consideration of the financial costs of such health-care reform. The lack of a definitive plan limited the credibility and therefore the efficacy of the Clinton plan.

The future of health-care reform
One interesting duo paired up to work on health-care reform in 2006; Hillary Rodham Clinton and Newt Gingrich. "As it turns out, Gingrich and Clinton have a lot more in common now that they have left behind the politics of the 1990s, when she was seen as a symbol of the liberal excesses of the Clinton White House and he was a fiery spokesman for a resurgent conservative movement in Washington" (Hernandez).

Although the pairing surprised many people, both Clinton and Gingrich were confident. Clinton stated that, "I find he and I have a lot in common in the way we see the problems that we're going to have to deal with in order to have a 21st-century health-care system." Gingrich also expressed confidence in the bipartisan nature of their effort, saying that, "I'm confident there are things like votes in the Senate and judges where there would be dramatic difference, but I think we're both mature enough as adults that we separate this argument" (Washington Post).

While Bill Clinton was not successful with his national health-insurance initiative, there were several programs enacted during the Clinton administration that expanded Medicaid coverage for select groups, especially low-income children.

Specifically, the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 established both the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and an additional Medicaid coverage group for low-income children parallel to the group of children eligible for SCHIP. The two provisions allowed states to choose to extend Medicaid for targeted low-income children, create a new SCHIP program for those children, or coordinate both programs to cover the target population. Targeted low-income children are those who are not otherwise eligible for Medicaid, not covered under a group health plan or other insurance, and are living in families with income that is either, (1) above the state's Medicaid financial eligibility standard but less than 200% of the federal poverty level; or (2) in states with Medicaid income levels for children already at or above 200% of the poverty level. As of August 2004, 33 states cover targeted low-income children under Medicaid.

A Legal Advocate named Gordon Bonnyman has also used the legal system to try to expand health-care access. Bonnyman is the executive director of the Tennessee Justice Center, an organization that sues Tennessee to force expansion of the state’s Medicaid plan (TennCare). The program has successfully helped 400,000 people receive insurance. Bonnyman still believes however that the best solution to the health-care problems facing this country is to promote universal health-care coverage. While he does not think that a single-payer system could work in this country, he suggests an incremental approach which would force both parties to compromise and to stop waiting to find the "perfect" universal health-care plan. He also believes that a universal health-care plan would eventually save costs.

Jonathan Overland, of Health Affairs journal, lists some political obstacles to health reform. One is institutional fragmentation. The structure of U.S. political institutions creates a number of barriers to the passage of any legislation, let alone a reform as controversial, ideologically divisive and threatening to powerful interests as national health insurance. (Overland 3) He also cites the fact that political parties are weaker in the US than anywhere else in the democratic world. The structure of Congress also establishes an "institutional bias in U.S. politics favoring the status quo: traditionally reformers have had to jump over every legislative hurdle, while opponents have only had to trip them up once to win" (Overlander 3). An unbalanced political arena and the general political culture are also obstacles. He writes that, the three most overlooked lessons from US health politics are these: (1) Getting reform onto the national agenda does not mean that it is going to pass; (2) Consensus that a problem exists implies no agreement whatsoever on solutions; and (3) Favorable public opinion does not guarantee legislative victory. (Overland 8)

After 2001. public attention was put onto national defense and the war on terror. The nation also expressed high concern for the economic status of the country. As time goes on, domestic concerns will get more of the spotlight. Fears of the economic status combined with the purportedly inevitable bankruptcy of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, should give great support for health-care reform.


text:
El Toro (Six Flags Great Adventure)

El Toro (Spanish for The Bull) is a wooden roller coaster located at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, New Jersey. Designed by Werner Stengel and manufactured by Intamin, the ride opened to the public on June 11, 2006. Intamin subcontracted Rocky Mountain Construction to build the ride, and the coaster's track was prefabricated, allowing for quicker installation and lower construction costs. El Toro is the main attraction of the Mexican-themed section of the park, Plaza Del Carnaval. It replaced another roller coaster, Viper, which closed following the 2004 season.

When it opened, El Toro had the steepest drop of any wooden roller coaster in the world at 76 degrees, a record that was later broken by T Express at Everland in 2008. Among wooden coasters, its height of 181 ft ranks fourth, its drop height of 176 ft ranks second, and its maximum speed of 70 mph ranks third. The coaster has been well-received, and with the exception of its first two years of operation, has consistently ranked in the top three of the annual Golden Ticket Awards publication from Amusement Today.

History
El Toro sits on the former site of Viper, which closed in 2004. All components of Viper were removed in early 2005, except for the station. El Toro was announced on September 28, 2005, along with Bugs Bunny National Park, a new themed area for children. It was also announced El Toro would be part of a new themed area known as Plaza del Carnaval, which would also include the adjacent wooden racing coaster, Rolling Thunder. Al Rubano, the director of Six Flags Great Adventure's construction committee, oversaw the ride's construction. The lift hill was topped out on December 20, 2005, at a height of 188 ft. The ride started testing on Memorial Day weekend in 2006. The ride had a surprise opening on June 11, then held its grand opening on June 12.

El Toro uses the same station as Viper, the coaster that formerly stood on the site. El Toro also sits partially on land once shared by Great Adventure's first wooden coaster, Rolling Thunder.

Description
El Toro carries a Mexican theme, and its name translates to "The bull" in Spanish. The ride's queue is surrounded by Southwestern-style buildings of Plaza del Carnaval, and it features abandoned "wagon wheels" and Spanish posters along a wall separating the queue from the ride.

Ride layout
After departing from the station, the train makes a turn to the left, passing through the ride's structure. It then begins to climb the 181 ft tall cable lift hill. Once the entire train is on the lift the cable increases its speed to around 13 mph. Once at the top of the lift the speed of the cable gently slows down, but it is barely noticeable on the ride. After cresting the top of the lift, the train briefly travels forward and makes a 180-degree turn to the left. It then drops 176 ft at a 76-degree angle, reaching a top speed of 70 mph. As the train reaches the bottom of the drop, it comes close to the track above, creating a headchopper effect. It then travels up a 112 ft camelback hill followed by a second camelback hill at 100 ft. It then rises and then travels through a 180-degree downward-banked turn to the right, and up another banked turn to the left. The train goes through a small second hill that speeds past the station and the lakeside. The train then makes another turn and up a smaller hill where riders experience -2 g forces on an ejector airtime hill, crossing over the former Rolling Thunder track. After coming down the drop, the train snakes through twists and turns. After coming out of the twister section, the train slows down as it moves through small "S" curve camelback hills and into the brake run.

Trains

El Toro operates two trains, labeled A and B, each with six cars per train. Riders are arranged two across in three rows for a total of 36 riders per train. It has a theoretical capacity of 1,200 guests per hour. Both trains contain a cosmetic bull head mounted on the front car. The trains have padded "wings" at shoulder level to prevent riders from being injured during moments of strong lateral forces.

Track
The wooden track is approximately 4400 ft in length, and the height of the lift is approximately 181 ft. El Toro is very different from a traditional wooden roller coaster because it uses prefabricated wooden track. It was built and designed by Intamin, who also worked with employees of Rocky Mountain Construction to build the ride. Instead of carpenters cutting, shaping, and laying down the track on site by hand, the track is laser cut in a factory. This means that the track is manufactured to a higher degree of precision than could be achieved by hand. The "Plug and Play" aspect of the coaster speeds its construction, since track does not have to be completely manufactured on site. In addition, because of the speed of construction, the costs of building the coaster are lowered due to fewer man-hours spent on its construction. The riders are subject to a coaster whose track is as smooth as steel. El Toro is the first Intamin "Plug and Play" (Pre-Fab) wooden roller coaster in the United States and one of four in the world. The other three are Colossos at Heide Park in Germany, Balder at Liseberg in Sweden, and T Express at Everland in South Korea.

Records
When El Toro debuted, it broke records as the second-tallest and fastest with the second-longest drop of a wooden roller coaster in the United States. , El Toro is the third fastest wooden roller coaster in the world with a maximum speed of 70 mph. It is also the third-tallest with the second-longest drop among wooden coasters.

Incidents
After suffering a malfunctioning lift motor in early August 2013, El Toro was closed for several weeks. The motor was sent to Intamin's American headquarters in Maryland for repairs.

On June 29, 2021, a train partially derailed after the rear car's up-stop wheels—which sit underneath the train and below the track—moved out-of-place to the top of the track. The cause of the incident was not released publicly (as the information was considered "proprietary"), but all riders were able to safely exit the ride. El Toro was closed for most of Six Flags Great Adventure's 2021 operating season, pending the outcome of an investigation from Intamin. Although the park was not fined for the accident itself, the park was fined $5k for failing to immediately notify the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs post-incident. In early 2022, it was announced that El Toro would reopen on April 2, 2022.

On August 25, 2022, a malfunction occurred near the end of the ride, causing minor injuries to 14 riders, with five taken to a nearby hospital. The park closed the ride indefinitely, pending an investigation into the incident. An anonymous ride operator alleged that issues from previous incidents had not been fixed, saying in an interview with WCBS-TV: "The employees keep telling them that there is an issue with the pothole and maintenance has done nothing about it." Six Flags officials reported on August 30, 2022, that El Toro's safety systems were working properly and that the ride would reopen after it had been repaired. In September 2022, the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA) said El Toro was "structurally compromised", which would force El Toro to remain closed indefinitely. The DCA said it would also conduct an engineering review of El Toro and consult with Intamin. Six Flags officials said they expected to reopen the ride for the 2023 season, and it reopened on June 17, 2023.

Awards and rankings
When the ride debuted, it ranked 3rd for "Best New Ride of 2006" in the Golden Ticket Awards.

title: El Toro (Six Flags Great Adventure)


text:
Category talk:Music of Belgium

Why the hell the Belgian Jazz is listed as a subcat and any other categories (Belgian punk rock, Belgian folk, etc.) would go somewhere else? Chris 17:01, 3 October 2005 (UTC)

title: Category talk:Music of Belgium


text:
Fergus Johnston

Fergus Johnston (born 21 May 1959) is an Irish composer and member of Aosdána.

Life and career
Johnston was born in Dublin, the son of the physicist and political activist Roy H. W. Johnston, and studied for both a degree in music and a master's degree in Music and Media Technology at Trinity College Dublin (MusB 1982). He also has a PhD in composition from the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Initially, he had also studied at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin (flute with Doris Keogh, clarinet with Tim Hanafin, and composition with James Wilson). In 1985 he was invited by the European Community Youth Orchestra to write an orchestral piece under the guidance of György Ligeti. 1989-91 he was Chairman of the Association of Irish Composers. He completed his education with the English composer Robert Hanson.

Johnston's output includes works for both orchestra and smaller ensembles, some works of which include electronics, and two operas. His music has been performed at many venues and festivals including the 1985 Asolo Musica Festival in Italy, the 1996 International Society for Contemporary Music Festival, the 2001 Sonorities Festival of Contemporary Music in Belfast, and Raidió Teilifís Éireann's 2005 Living Music Festival. His use of the system is unusual among Irish composers, his compositional process typically includes a significant element of pre-planning.

Selected works
Stage
 * Bitter Fruit (Nell McCafferty) (1992), chamber opera
 * The Earl of Kildare (Celia de Fréine) (2008), opera

Orchestral works
 * Samsara (1991)
 * Flute Concerto (1996; rev. 2003)
 * Je goûte le jeu ... (1997), for string orchestra
 * Wind Symphony (1998), for wind band
 * Through Hollow Lands (2002)
 * Binn an tSíorsholais (2004)
 * Wexford Suite (2005)
 * Brahms Begins the Day (2006)
 * Scenes and Interludes from 'The Earl of Kildare' (2008)

Chamber music
 * Timon of Athens (William Shakespeare), incidental music (1983), 2fl, 2cl+bcl, bn, vn, gui, perc, 3 speakers
 * Reflections (1984), ob, 2cl, bn, hp, vib, str qt
 * Brass Quintet (1985)
 * Episodes 1 (1986), fl, trb, egui, perc
 * Episodes 2 (1987), fl, ob, cl
 * Signals! (1989), vn, dancers (opt.)
 * Incantations (1989), cl+bcl, perc
 * Cusp (1992), vn, pf
 * Kaleidophone (1992; rev. 1996), 2vn, va, vc, hp, perc
 * Gabor Haenjo’s Variations on a Theme by Paganini (1993), cl, vc, pf
 * Carn (1993), 2pf
 * Líofa (1994), fl, cor ang, bcl, hn, str qt
 * Opus Lepidipterae (1996), fl, pf/arec, gui/fl, hpd
 * Piano Trio (2012)
 * Toccata, Fugue, and A Camel's Swan-Song (2013), vc, pf
 * String Quartet (2015), vn, va, vc, db

Solo instrumental
 * Three Pieces for Double Bass (1980)
 * Pavan and Galliard (1984), guitar
 * Two Pieces for Solo Flute (1987)
 * Prelude & Passacaglia (1987), violin
 * Psyche (1992), alto recorder
 * creepy crawlies (1993), piano
 * Prelude (1993), piano
 * Three Piano Pieces (1995)
 * Éagaoineadh (1995), piano
 * The Oul’ Winda Rag (1996), piano
 * Rashad's Words (1999), percussion
 * Lord Leonard Gray, His March (2006), piano
 * Three Bulgarian Dances (2007), organ
 * Miniatures for Scott (2015), piano

Vocal
 * Two T’ang Poems (Li Ho) (1984), soprano and chamber orchestra
 * The Wisdom of the World (1990), mezzo and Irish harp
 * After a Childhood Away from Ireland (Eavan Boland) (1997), soprano and piano
 * Five Oriental Texts (2015), soprano and chamber orchestra

Choral
 * Three Songs on Words by e.e.cummings (1981; rev. 1982), S, fl, cl, bn
 * now I lay (with everywhere around) (e.e. cummings) (1983), satb
 * Praise Music (Psalms) (1988), satb
 * Sine musica nulla vita (1988), ssatb
 * The Little Snowgirl (1991), A, B, children's vv, female vv, orch
 * Psalm 84 (1996; rev. 1997), satb & organ

Electro-acoustic
 * Morríghan (2000), baroque fl, hpd, live electronics
 * Méadú (2001), vn, pf, tape
 * Árd Fhearta (2001), 2ob, 2fl, 2cl, 2bn, 2tpt, 2trb, tb, bronze-age hn, live electronics

Recordings

 * Samsara, performed by Ruse Philharmonic Orchestra, Tsanko Delibosov (cond), on: Vienna Modern Masters VMM 3035 (CD, 1996).
 * Kaleidophone, performed by Concorde, on: Contemporary Music Centre CD02 (promotional CD, 1997).
 * Je goûte le jeu ..., performed by Irish Chamber Orchestra, Fionnuala Hunt (cond), on: Black Box Music BBM 1013 (CD, 1998).
 * Árd Fhearta; Carn; Signals; Samsara, performed by Reamonn Keary (pf), Shirin Goudarze-Tobin & Frantisek Jaros (vn), Ruse Philharmonic Orchestra, Tsanko Delibosov (cond), on: Monumental Music MOMU 014 (CD, 2001).
 * Three Bulgarian Pieces, performed by Vox 21, on: RTÉ lyric fm CD 123 (CD, 2009).
 * Piano Trio, performed by Fidelio Trio, on: Metier MSV 28556 (CD, 2015).

Honours and awards

 * 1989 – Macaulay Fellowship, Arts Council of Ireland
 * 1992 – Elected to Aosdána, Ireland's Academy of Arts.
 * 1996-2001 - Appointed as member of the Board of Directors of the National Concert Hall of Ireland, An Ceoláras Náisiúnta.

title: Fergus Johnston


text:
Talk:Aquarius Reef Base

Removed of lunar mission section
The following text was removed:

Use in preparation for lunar mission

''NASA plans to send three astronauts and a doctor to Aquarius from October 3 to October 20, 2005 to train for a mission to the moon. The team's mission includes testing techniques for remote surgery, remotely operating a planetary rover, simulating moonwalks with pressurized suits, and even building an underwater base near Aquarius similar to one that could be constructed on the moon.''

The text was removed due to cancellation of the mission. See Aquarius 2005 Schedule.

Epolk 17:04, 3 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Ah, I guess I jumped the gun. Thanks for noticing. Wmahan. 00:42, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

Internal photo is not of Aquarius.
Interior photo is actually a photo of Hydrolab; a habitat which preceded Aquarius and hasn't been used since the 1980s.

Date of Hurricane Hugo
The article has the wrong year for Hurricane Hugo. Hugo occurred in September 1989, not 1988. As I have no knowledge of the repair work mentioned, I will leave it for someone else to correct. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.75.170.119 (talk) 08:13, 5 March 2007 (UTC).

Info
http://aquarius.uncw.edu/about/

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/NEEMO/history.html

Strange sentence
"It is one of the few underwater research facilities in the world dedicated to science." Aren't all research facilities dedicated to science? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.21.89.186 (talk) 16:21, 23 April 2012 (UTC)

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So, exactly where is it?
In the intro paragraph here, it's stated that the facility is 5.4 miles off Key Largo. Yet, in the NEEMO article, it's stated to be 3.5 miles off Key Largo.

Neither article mentions a move/relocation of any kind.

So, exactly where is the Aquarius Reef Base? 2600:8800:785:1300:C23F:D5FF:FEC4:D51D (talk) 02:18, 6 October 2018 (UTC)

MRDF
https://www.mrdf.org/undersea-explorations lists three undersea habitats of theirs. #1 was repurposed to become #3 and #2 was brought to the surface and turned into a museum. so, it seems unlikely that they're currently operating two habitats. 108.246.204.20 (talk) 22:49, 15 December 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:Aquarius Reef Base


text:
User talk:Lharvill

Welcome!

Hello,, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers: I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Where to ask a question, ask me on my talk page, or place  on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome! →Jo urna list  >>talk<<  17:04, 3 October 2005 (UTC)
 * The five pillars of Wikipedia
 * How to edit a page
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 * Tutorial
 * How to write a great article
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Speed reading link
Hi there. You replaced a link on Speed reading with the edit summary "restore non-spam link". The link in question was added by, and as you can see from that IPs contributions, they have been adding that link for a while. That qualifies as spam in my books. The link doesn't have much merit on its own even without considering that it is being spammed: The content of the linked-to site is both promotional of a particular speed-reading course and contains information that asserts the truth of something that is controversial. As such, Wikipedia ought not recommend this site to our readers as a source of further information. — Saxifrage ✎ 02:40, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

title: User talk:Lharvill


text: User talk:69.222.214.9

title: User talk:69.222.214.9


text:
Bill Johnson

Bill Johnson may refer to:

Entertainment

 * William Manuel Johnson (1872–1972), known as Bill, American double bass player and founder of King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band
 * Bill Johnson (reed player) (1912–1960), American alto saxophonist, clarinetist, and arranger
 * Bill Johnson (banjoist) (died 1955), American jazz banjoist and guitarist
 * Bill Johnson (blues musician), Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
 * Bill Johnson (musical theatre actor) (1916–1957), American actor and singer of stage and screen
 * Bill Johnson (film and television actor) (born 1951), American actor known for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
 * Bill Johnson (New Zealand actor) (1924–2016), New Zealand actor
 * Bill Johnson (filmmaker), American film and television editor

Politics

 * Bill Johnson (Ohio politician) (born 1954), U.S. Representative from Ohio
 * Bill Johnson (Kentucky politician) (born 1965), unsuccessful Republican candidate for Secretary of State of Kentucky, 2011
 * William A. Johnson Jr. (born 1942), known as Bill, first African-American mayor of Rochester, New York

American football

 * Bill Johnson (defensive end) (1916–2002), American football defensive end
 * Bill Johnson (center) (1926–2011), American football player (San Francisco 49ers) and coach (Cincinnati Bengals)
 * Bill Johnson (guard) (1936–2020), American football player
 * Bill Johnson (punter) (born 1944), football player with the New York Giants
 * Bill Johnson (American football coach) (born 1955)
 * Bill Johnson (running back) (born 1960), American football player
 * Bill Johnson (defensive tackle) (born 1968), American football defensive lineman

Baseball

 * Bill Johnson (1890s outfielder) (1862–1942), Major League Baseball outfielder
 * Bill Johnson (1910s outfielder) (1892–1950), Major League Baseball outfielder
 * Bill Johnson (catcher) (1895–1988), American Negro leagues baseball catcher
 * Bill Johnson (1940s outfielder), American Negro leagues outfielder
 * Bill Johnson (pitcher) (1960–2018), Major League Baseball pitcher

Other sports

 * Bill Johnson (footballer, born 1882) (1882–1952), Australian rules footballer for South Melbourne and St Kilda
 * Bill Johnson (footballer, born 1886) (1886–1964), Australian rules footballer for Essendon and Carlton
 * Bill Johnson (footballer, born 1900), English footballer
 * Bill Johnson (rugby league) (1916–1997), rugby league footballer of the 1930s, for Wales, and Huddersfield
 * Bill Johnson (cricketer) (born 1959), English cricketer, Durham CCC
 * Bill Johnson (skier) (1960–2016), American skier
 * Bill "Skinny" Johnson (1911–1980), basketball coach

Other people

 * Bill Johnson (pastor) (born 1951), American revivalist, pastor and author
 * Bill Johnson (author) (1956–2022), science fiction writer
 * Bill Johnson (scientist) (1922–2010), British academic

title: Bill Johnson


text: Talk:Bill Johnson

title: Talk:Bill Johnson


text: User talk:209.158.171.2

title: User talk:209.158.171.2