Thursday, January 31, 2008


"God Defend New Zealand" is one of the national anthems of New Zealand, together with "God Save the Queen". Although they both have equal status, "God Defend New Zealand" is the anthem that is in common use.

God Defend New Zealand History
The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage has responsibility for the national anthems. The Ministry's guidance [1] for choosing which anthem should be presented on any occasion advises that " 'God Save The Queen' would be specially appropriate at any occasion where Her Majesty The Queen, or a member of the Royal Family, or the Governor-General, when within New Zealand, is officially present or when loyalty to the crown is to be stressed, while 'God Defend New Zealand' would be specially appropriate whenever the national identity of New Zealand is to be stressed even in association with a toast to Her Majesty as Queen of New Zealand."

Wednesday, January 30, 2008


Tourism in Melbourne, Australia, is an important industry with approximately 7.6 million domestic visitors and 1.88 million international visitors in 2004.. The city has a large sports tourism industry, hosting a large number of spectator sports.

Melbourne tourism Restaurants
As one would expect from a city its size, Melbourne contains all manner of pubs, bars, and nightclubs. The CBD contains a wide variety of venues, from the ubiquitous faux-Irish pubs and more traditional Aussie hotels, through some very upmarket wine bars, serious jazz venues on Bennetts Lane, fashionable nightclubs and dance venues (where the Melbourne Shuffle was born), often hidden away down obscure grungy alleys, and massive pickup joints (of which The Metro on Bourke Street is perhaps the biggest).
The restaurant strips, particularly Brunswick Street have their own bars, some of which are the best rock venues in Melbourne. King Street, on the southern side of the CBD, was traditionally a nightclub strip and still hosts several, but many are now exotic dancing venues (a final note on this topic, small brothels are legal in Victoria and are found discreetly dotted throughout the suburbs). Chapel Street, Prahran, is perhaps the trendiest, most upmarket (and most expensive) nightlife strip. Another area of note is St Kilda, background for the TV show The Secret Life Of Us, which is the home of several huge music venues including the famous Esplanade Hotel (known as 'the Espy'), the Prince of Wales, and The Palace. On its beachside setting, it also combines the upmarket with the grungy.
The recent influx of city-dwellers has given rise to the numerous underground bars and sidewalk cafes in the alleys between Flinders Street - Flinders Lane and Bourke Street - Lonsdale Street. Notable alleys include Block Arcade/Block Place (off Little Collins Street), Degraves Street (off Flinders Lane), and Hardware Lane (between Bourke and Lonsdale Streets).
Other prominent cafe strips include:
Melbourne also has a vibrant gay community, with gay and gay-friendly bars across the city. It is mostly concentrated on two gay villages - Commercial Rd, South Yarra and Smith St, Collingwood, but there are also gay bars and clubs in St Kilda, Fitzroy, Richmond and Yarraville.

St Kilda's Fitzroy Street, Carlisle Street and Acland Street are home to many popular cafes.
Fitzroy's Brunswick Street
South Yarra's Chapel Street
Collingwood's Smith Street
Richmond's Bridge Road
Southbank's Southgate and Crown Casino. Close to Melbourne

Culture of Melbourne
History of Melbourne
Media in Melbourne
Melbourne City Tourist Shuttle
Transport in Melbourne
Tourism in Australia
Melbourne travel guide from Wikitravel

Tuesday, January 29, 2008


This is a list of recognized hooligan firms or football firms, which are groups that have been verified as participating in football hooliganism or other sports-related hooliganism.

England

Paris Saint-Germain – Commando Pirate, France

Beitar Jerusalem – La Familia Israel

S.K. Brann – Bergen Casuals Norway

Ruch Chorzów – Psychofans Poland

Aberdeen F.C. – Aberdeen Soccer Casuals Hooligan firm Wales

Casuals
Football hooliganism
Hooliganism
Skinhead
Ultras
Yobbo

Saturday, January 26, 2008


In cooking, a consommé is a type of soup that is similar to a very rich clarified bouillon.

Consommé Varieties
Double consommé is a consommé which has been made to double strength. There is considerable disagreement among chefs as to how it is made. While some say that it is made by using twice the normal quantity of meat, others say it is made to normal strength and then reduced (cooked down) by half. It is often used in other cold-cuisine items, especially those which use aspic, or natural gelatin.
Another variation that is often seen is cold jellied consommé, which, as the name implies, is served cold, and has more gelatin in it.

Friday, January 25, 2008

Art conservation and restoration
Conservation is the profession devoted to the preservation of cultural property for the future. Conservation activities include examination, documentation, treatment, and preventive care, supported by research and education. (Definition taken from the Core Documents of The American Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works - see external links.) Preventive conservation is an important element of museum policy and collections care. It is an essential responsibility of members of the museum profession to create and maintain a protective environment for the collections in their care, whether in store, on display, or in transit. A museum should carefully monitor the condition of collections to determine when an object or specimen may require conservation-restoration work and the services of a qualified conservator-restorer. The principal goal should be the stabilisation of the object or specimen. All conservation procedures should be documented and as reversible as possible, and all alterations should be clearly distinguishable from the original object or specimen. (Definitions taken from The ICOM Code of Professional Ethics - see external links.) Art conservation is not identical to art restoration. Restoration is a process that attempts to return the work of art to some previous state that restorer imagines to be "original". This was commonly done in the past. However, in the late 20th century a separate concept of conservation was developed that is more concerned with preserving the work of art for the future, and less with making it look pristine. Restoration is controversial, since it often involves some irreversible change to the original material of the artwork with the goal of making it "look good." The attitude of restorers in recent years is to make all the restoration they undertake reversible. The use of watercolor paints to inpaint damages on fresco is an example of a technique utilized to achieve almost complete reversibility.
Art conservation can involve the cleaning and stabilization of art work. Ideally, any process used is reversible, departures from that ideal not being undertaken lightly. Cleaning is not a reversible process and can sometimes be controversial due to fears that cleaning would damage a piece, or on the grounds that damage or residue forms part of the history of a given piece and should not be modified. Michaelangelo's statue of David has undergone two cleanings to remove dirt that had accumulated on the statue's surface.
In North America, five colleges/universities offer a graduate degree in art conservation:
In addition, the University of Texas, Austin offers a Certificate of Advanced Study in the conservation of library and archival materials as part of its Master of Science in Information Studies program.

The University of Delaware (in association with Winterthur Museum)
Buffalo State College, New York
Queen's University, Ontario
New York University
University of California, Los Angeles/Getty Program in Archaeological and Ethnographic Conservation Canadian Conservation Associations

ArtWatch International
Cultural heritage
Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Material AICCM
Canadian Conservation Institute http://www.cci-icc.gc.ca/

Thursday, January 24, 2008


Southeastern is a train operating company in the United Kingdom. It began operations in south-east England on 1 April 2006, replacing the former publicly-owned operator South Eastern Trains and serves the commuter routes to south-east London, Kent, and parts of East Sussex. The London termini of its services are Charing Cross, Blackfriars, Cannon Street, and Victoria. Southeastern operate on 773 miles (1237 km) of track, with 182 stations. 82% of its train services run into London.
It is owned by Govia, which is itself jointly owned by Go-Ahead Group and Keolis, who also operate the neighbouring Southern operating company which overlaps with Southeastern in some areas. The company's formal name, under which it mounted its bid for the franchise, is London and South Eastern Railway. Although it continued to use the logo and livery of its predecessor for its first year of operations, a new company logo was adopted early in 2007 and stations, beginning with Waterloo East, have begun to be re-painted under the new corporate colour scheme. In August 2007, a Class 508 train was painted in a new trial livery, although the company has stated that the exact design is yet to be finalised.

Current routes
From London termini (Victoria, London Bridge, Waterloo East, Charing Cross, Blackfriars, and Cannon Street) unless otherwise stated;

North Kent Line: services via Dartford to Gillingham
Chatham Main Line - services to the Kent Coast via Bromley South and Chatham, dividing at Faversham to Ramsgate and Dover
Swanley to Ashford (via Maidstone East) Line
South Eastern Main Line - services the Kent Coast via Ashford and Sevenoaks

  • Ashford to Ramsgate (via Canterbury West) line
    Kent Coast Line: Ashford to Ramsgate (via Folkestone and Dover)
    Hastings Line (Hastings via Tunbridge Wells)
    London Bridge to Tunbridge Wells (via Redhill and East Croydon) — uses part of the Brighton Main Line Main lines
    The suburban services run to:

    Sevenoaks: two services — one via Grove Park to Charing Cross, and one via Swanley and Bromley South to Blackfriars (Catford Loop Line).
    Hayes line to Charing Cross
    Orpington

    • via Lewisham to Charing Cross (South Eastern Main Line)
      via Bromley South to Victoria (Chatham Main Line)
      Dartford via: North Kent Line, the Bexleyheath Line, and the Dartford Loop Line to Charing Cross.
      Bromley North Line Suburban lines

      Medway Valley Line, some services extend to Tunbridge Wells, and occasionally to Gatwick Airport and Three Bridges
      Sheerness Line
      Horsham to Tunbridge Wells (via Gatwick and Redhill) — uses part of the Brighton Main Line and Redhill to Tonbridge Line (to be transferred to Southern during 2009). Rural lines

      Future expansion
      Following the completion of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (also known as "High-Speed 1" or HS1), Southeastern will operate high-speed domestic services on it, including the Olympic Javelin service that is to run during London's 2012 Summer Olympics.
      A fleet of twenty-nine six-carriage Shinkansen-derived high-speed 'A-trains' have already been ordered from Hitachi for this route.

      CTRL-DS and Olympic Javelin
      Due to the opening of the second phase of the CTRL in November 2007, improvments to the services provided are scheduled to begin from December 2007, due to train paths becoming available.

      An additional evening peak train from Charing Cross to Tunbridge Wells;
      An additional evening service from Cannon Street to Faversham with connections to the Thanet coast;
      Improved frequency of services between Beckenham Junction and Victoria and Orpington and Victoria, improving links to Bromley South;
      Contra peak improvements on many Metro routes and on the main line via Tonbridge; and
      Improvements made to Saturday services so they mirror, where possible, the Monday to Friday off peak pattern "Traditional" network
      Like its sister franchise Southern, Southeastern is committed to introducing Oyster Pay As You Go (PAYG) on its London routes but is yet to implement.

      Southeastern (train operating company) Ticketing
      Southeastern operate a fleet of about four hundred trains, all of which are electrical multiple units.

      Rolling stock

      Future fleet

      Olympic Javelin
      South Eastern Trains
      Connex South Eastern
      Network SouthEast
      Southern Region of British Railways
      Southern Railway
      South Eastern and Chatham Railway
      South Eastern Railway
      London, Chatham and Dover Railway

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Common knowledge
Common knowledge is what "everybody knows", usually with reference to the community in which the term is used.
The assertion that something is "common knowledge" is sometimes associated with the fallacy argumentum ad populum (Latin: "appeal to the people"). The fallacy essentially warns against assuming that just because everyone believes something is true does not make it so. Misinformation is easily introduced into rumors by intermediate messengers.
In many cases "common knowledge" is also widely established as being true. So then the assertion that something is "common knowledge", is merely another way of saying that someone is ignoring an obvious fact, or should have known about it had they been paying attention.
Many techniques have had to have been developed in response to the question of distinguishing truth from fact in matters that have become "common knowledge". The scientific method is usually applied in the cases involving appeal to and familiarity with the phenomena associated with astronomy, mathematics, physics, and as such to the general laws of nature. In legal settings, rules of evidence generally exclude hearsay (which may draw on "facts" someone believes to be "common knowledge"). To avoid undue influence from publicity on the neutrality of a jury, judges occasionally must order a change of venue. Journalists and other investigators of truth may seek a source closer to the facts, eliminating unreliable intermediaries.
That set of truths amenable, discoverable and convenient to use which have come to be known as such by an informed group of parties interested in their own general circumstances, the circumstances each of their own particular endeavours and studies, and the general circumstances pertaining to such studies and endeavours is called amongst them the body of common knowledge, and such informed groups being usually associated strongly by kinship, locality nationhood or like primary affiliation and as are also numerous and inventive in such number then : "common knowledge" rightly is known, to be the body of common knowledge held to be as such within that larger group. . "Conventional wisdom" is a similar term, coined by economist John Kenneth Galbraith, referring to ostensibly pervasive knowledge or analysis.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008


François Couperin (French IPA: [fʀɑ̃'swa ku'pʀɛ̃]) (November 10, 1668September 11, 1733) was a French Baroque composer, organist and harpsichordist. François Couperin was known as "Couperin le Grand" (Couperin the Great) to distinguish him from the other members of the musically talented Couperin family.

François Couperin Life
See also:

Philippe Beaussant: François Couperin, translated from the French by Alexandra Land, Portland OR: Amadeus Press, 1990. ISBN 0-931340-27-6
List of compositions by François Couperin

Monday, January 21, 2008

Wadden Sea
The Wadden Sea (Vadehavet in Danish, Waddenzee in Dutch, Waadsee in Frisian, Wattensee in Low German, Wattenmeer in German) is the name for a body of water and its associated coastal wetlands lying between a section of the coast of northwestern continental Europe and the North Sea.
The Wadden Sea stretches from Den Helder in the Netherlands in the southwest, past the river estuaries of Germany to its northern boundary at Skallingen north of Esbjerg in Denmark along a total length of some 500 km and a total area of about 10,000 km².
It is typified by extensive tidal mud flats, deeper tidal trenches and the islands that are contained within this, a region continually contested by land and sea. The landscape had been formed for a great part by storm tides.
The Wadden Sea is famous for the rich fauna, avifauna and flora. Today, a great part of the Wadden Sea is protected in cooperation of all three countries; see Wadden Sea National Parks for the protected areas within the German borders.
The Governments of The Netherlands, Denmark and Germany have been working together since 1978 on the protection and conservation of the Wadden Sea. Co-operation covers management, monitoring and research, as well as political matters. Furthermore, in 1982, a Joint Declaration on the Protection of the Wadden Sea was agreed upon to co-ordinate activities and measures for the protection of the Wadden Sea. In 1997, a Trilateral Wadden Sea Plan was adopted.
Some Frisians practice the traditional sport or recreation of wadlopen, or low-tide sea-walking in the Wadden Sea.
For the islands, see the applicable sections of List of islands of the Netherlands, Frisian Islands and Danish Wadden Sea Islands.
Note that the word "wad" is Dutch for mudflat.

Sunday, January 20, 2008


The Polish Cathedral style of North-American Catholic church is a genre of church architecture found throughout the Great Lakes and Middle Atlantic regions as well as in parts of New England in North America. The claim of different 'architectural styles' of Europe ascribed to these churches is misleading, as most of them are already labeled by art historians as examples of Eclecticism and Historicism, characterized by the various Architectural Revivals found in styles of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In these churches are found a mixture of architectural traits from numerous past eras characteristic of Europe and the Americas.

Polish Cathedral style List of churches built in the "Polish Cathedral" style

Eclecticism
Eclecticism in art
Jozef Mazur, Polish-American painter and stained-glass artist
Tadeusz Żukotyński, Polish Catholic fine art painter and mural artist
Sr. Maria Stanisia, Polish-American fine art painter and restoration artist
Czesław Dźwigaj, Polish Catholic artist and sculptor
Holy Cross in Chicago, an ornately decorated church founded by Lithuanians in Chicago's Back of the Yards, which displays architectural affinities with the architecture of Polish Cathedrals.
Polish Americans
Poles in Chicago
Polish Roman Catholic Union of America
Roman Catholicism in Poland

Saturday, January 19, 2008


This article gives an overview of liberalism in Poland. It is limited to liberal parties with substantial support, mainly proved by having had a representation in parliament. The sign ⇒ means a reference to another party in that scheme. Parties included in this scheme do not necessarily label themselves as "liberal".

Liberalism in Poland The timeline

1938: Left wing liberals founded the Democratic Party (Stronnictwo Demokratyczne)
1939: The party is banned by the Germans
1945: The party is brought under communist control
1989: The party returned to a democratic profile
1991: The party entered the electoral committee of the conservative Liberal Democratic Congress
1997: The party entered the electoral committee of the liberal Freedom Union
2001: The party entered the electoral committee of the conservative liberal Civic Platform
2005: The party entered the electoral committee of the conservative liberal Civic Platform Democratic Party

1990: In 1979 Janusz Korwin-Mikke activist of official Democratic Party published his political agenda. His main idea was to introduce Laissez-faire market economy in Poland. The proposed solution was to sign a deal with class of ruling communists, transforming their share in power into share in business. In 1990 new party Union of Real Politics (Unia Polityki Realnej) was officially proclaimed. Union of Real Politics

1990: Liberals supporters of the Solidarity Trade Union around Zbigniew Bujak, Władysław Frasyniuk, and Adam Michnik founded the Citizens Movement 'Democratic Action' (Ruch Obywatelski Akcja Demokratyczna/ROAD).
1991: A left-wing faction led by Bujak forms the Democratic Social Movement (Ruch Demokratyczno Społeczny) and the rest of the party merged into the Democratic Union (Unia Demokratyczna/UD). From Democratic Union to Democratic Party

Donald Tusk - Władysław Frasyniuk - Janusz Onyszkiewicz - Janusz Korwin-Mikke - Leszek Balcerowicz

Friday, January 18, 2008

Detective Chief Inspector Gill Templer
Detective Chief Inspector Gill Templer is a detective in the Inspector Rebus series of novels by Scottish author Ian Rankin. She first appears in Knots and Crosses as a Detective Inspector. She is promoted to Detective Chief Superintendent just before The Falls.
Knots and Crosses Hide and Seek Tooth and Nail Strip Jack The Black Book Mortal Causes Let it Bleed Black and Blue The Hanging Garden Dead Souls Set in Darkness The Falls Resurrection Men A Question of Blood Fleshmarket Close The Naming of the Dead Exit Music

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Biography

Emmeline; or The Orphan of the Castle (1788)
Ethelinde, or the Recluse of the Lake (1789)
Celestina (1791)
Desmond (1792)
The Old Manor House (1793)
The Emigrants (1793)
The Wanderings of Warwick (1794)
The Banished Man (1794)
Montalbert (1795)
Marchmont (1796)
The Young Philosopher (1798)
The Letters of a Solitary Wanderer (1800) Charlotte Smith Novels

Charlotte Smith Poetry

The Old Manor House

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Badí'
Badí' (Arabic: ﺑﺪﻳﻊ)‎(1852 - 1869), was the title of Mírzá Áqá Buzurg-i-Nishapuri, also known by his title the Pride of Martyrs, was the son of `Abdu'l-Majid-i-Nishapuri, a highly praised follower of the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh.
Badí' is most famous for being the bearer of a tablet written by Bahá'u'lláh to Nasiri'd-Din Shah, for which he was tortured and killed at the age of 17. The Bahá'í calendar, known as the Badí' calendar, was named in his honour. He is also one of the foremost Apostles of Bahá'u'lláh.
The Kitáb-i-Badí', a book written by Bahá'u'lláh, has no relation to the Badí' of this article.

Haji Abdu'l-Majid

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Tholeiitic
Tholeiitic basalt is an igneous rock, a type of basalt. Like all basalt, the rock type is dominated by clinopyroxene plus plagioclase, with minor iron-titanium oxides. [1] Orthopyroxene or pigeonite may also be present in tholeiitic basalt, and olivine, if present, may be rimmed by either of these calcium-poor pyroxenes. Tridymite or quartz may be present in the fine-grained groundmass of tholeiitic basalt, and feldspathoids are absent. Tholeiitic rocks may have a fine, glassy groundmass(AGI, 41), as may other types of basalt.
Chemically, these rocks have been described as subalkaline basalts, that is, they contain less (Na2O plus K2O) at similar SiO2 than alkali basalt; the field for basalts plotted with these chemical variables is shown in the TAS classification, and the distinction between basalt types is discussed by Le Maitre and others (2002).
The International Union of Geological Sciences recommends that "tholeiitic basalt" be used in preference to the term "tholeiite" (Le Maitre and others, 2002).
Basalt magmas are partial melts of peridotite produced by decompression melting in the Earth's mantle, a process described for igneous rocks. Tholeiitic basalts are the most common volcanic rocks on Earth, as they are produced by submarine volcanism at mid-ocean ridges and make up much of the ocean crust. MORB, the acronym for typical mid-ocean-ridge basalt, is a type of tholeiitic basalt particularly low in incompatible elements. In contrast, alkali basalt is not typical at ocean ridges, but is erupted on some oceanic islands and on continents, as also is tholeiitic basalt. (AGI, 41), [2]

Monday, January 14, 2008


Federico Fellini (January 20, 1920October 31, 1993) was one of the most influential and widely revered film-makers of the 20th century.

Biography
Variety Lights (1950), Fellini's first film, was co-directed with the more experienced director, Alberto Lattuada. The film is a charming backstage comedy set amongst the world of small-time traveling performers, a world Fellini knew well after working on Roberto Rossellini's Paisà in 1946. While the film shoot was an exhilarating one for the 30-year-old Fellini, its release to poor reviews and limited distribution proved a disaster for all concerned. The production company went bankrupt, leaving both Fellini and Lattuada with debts to pay for over a decade. In 1990, Fellini won the prestigious Praemium Imperiale awarded by the Japan Art Association. Considered as the equivalent of the Nobel Prize, the award covers five disciplines: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Music, and Theatre/Film. Past winners include Akira Kurosawa, David Hockney, Pina Bausch, and Maurice Béjart.

Filmmaking career
In 1948 Fellini acted in Roberto Rossellini's Il miracolo with Anna Magnani. To play the role of a silent rogue who is mistaken by Magnani for a saint, Fellini had to bleach his black hair blond. Fellini also wrote scripts for radio shows and movies (most notably for Rossellini, Pietro Germi, Eduardo De Filippo and Mario Monicelli) as well as numerous and often uncredited gags for well known comic actors like Aldo Fabrizi. A gifted caricaturist, Fellini produced satirical drawings in pencil, watercolors and colored felt pens that toured Europe and North America, and which are now eagerly sought after by collectors. Much of the inspiration for his sketches was derived from his own dreams while the films-in-progress stimulated drawings for decor, costumes and set designs (just as it was for Sergei Eisenstein whose own drawings share striking affinities with Fellini's work).

Other work
A unique combination of memory, dreams, fantasy, and desire, Fellini's films are deeply personal visions of society, often portraying people at their most bizarre. The term "Felliniesque" is used to describe any scene in which a hallucinatory image invades an otherwise ordinary situation. Important contemporary filmmakers such as David Lynch, David Cronenberg, Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, have all cited Fellini's influence on their work.
Polish director, Wojciech Has (1925-2000), whose two major films, The Saragossa Manuscript (1965) and The Hour-Glass Sanatorium (1973) are outstanding examples of modernist fantasies, has often been compared to Fellini for the sheer "luxuriance of his images" (Gilbert Guez in Le Figaro).
Singer Fish (ex Marillion) released a full album "Fellini Days", taking inspiration for the lyrics and music from the works of Fellini.

Influence and legacy
Links to Fellini's drawings related to single films

Luci del Varietà (1950) (co-credited with Alberto Lattuada)
Lo Sceicco Bianco (1951) [1] [2]
I Vitelloni (1953) [3]
L'amore in città (1953) (segment Un'agenzia matrimoniale)
La strada (1954) Oscar (best foreign language film) [4]
Il bidone (1955)
Le Notti di Cabiria (1957) Oscar (best foreign language film) [5]
La dolce vita (1960) Oscar (best costumes)
Boccaccio '70 (1962) (segment Le tentazioni del Dottor Antonio)
(1963) Oscar (best foreign language film and best costume design)
Giulietta degli Spiriti (1965)
Histoires extraordinaires (1968) (segment Toby Dammit)
Satyricon (1969)
I clowns (1970)
Roma (1972)
Amarcord (1973) Oscar (best foreign language film)
Il Casanova di Federico Fellini (1976) Oscar (best costume design)
Prova d'orchestra (1978)
La città delle donne (1980)
E la Nave Va (1983)
Ginger and Fred (1986)
Intervista (1987)
La voce della luna (1990) Federico Fellini Filmography as director

Art film

Sunday, January 13, 2008


The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution intended to guarantee equal rights under the law for Americans regardless of sex. Amendments can be approved according to the process in Article V of the Constitution. The final deadline for approving the ERA passed in either 1979 or 1982—depending upon one's view of a controversial extension of the ratification time constraint. In the intervening years, public discussion on the ERA has been greatly reduced, though the proposal has been reintroduced in every Congress since 1982.
In the current 110th Congress, the "Equal Rights Amendment" has been offered in the Senate as S.J. Res. 10 by Democrat Sen. Edward Kennedy, MA, lead sponsor, and in the House of Representatives as H.J. Res. 40 with Democrat Representative Carolyn Maloney, NY, as lead sponsor.

Text of the ERA

History of the ERA
Although the 1920 ratification of the 19th Amendment had guaranteed American women's right to vote, Alice Paul, a suffragist leader, argued that this right alone would not end remaining vestiges of legal discrimination based upon sex. In 1923, Paul drafted the Equal Rights Amendment and presented it as the "Lucretia Mott Amendment" at the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the 1848 Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments.
The National Women's Party took the ERA to Congress in the 1920s, where Sen. Charles Curtis and Rep. Daniel R. Anthony, Jr.—both Republicans and both from Kansas—introduced it for the first time as Senate Joint Resolution No. 21 on December 10, 1923, and as House Joint Resolution No. 75 on December 13, 1923, respectively. Though the ERA was introduced in every session of Congress between 1923 and 1970, it almost never reached the floor of either the Senate or the House for a vote—instead, it was usually "bottled up" in committee. Exceptions occurred in 1946, when it was defeated in the Senate by a vote of 38 to 35, and in 1950, when it was passed by the Senate in a modified form unacceptable to its supporters. The ERA was strongly opposed by the American Federation of Labor and other labor unions as well as by Eleanor Roosevelt and most New Dealers, who contended that women needed government help and should not be forced into the workplace to compete with men.
Representative Martha W. Griffiths of Michigan, however, achieved success on Capitol Hill with her House Joint Resolution No. 208, which was adopted by the House on October 12, 1971, with a vote of 354 yeas, 24 nays and 51 not voting (117 Congressional Record 35815). Griffiths' joint resolution was then adopted by the Senate on March 22, 1972, with a vote of 84 yeas, 8 nays and 7 not voting (118 Congressional Record 9598). And with that, the ERA was finally presented by the 92nd Congress to the state legislatures for ratification, as Article V of the Constitution prescribes, with a seven-year deadline for ratification by the required three-quarters of the legislatures (38 legislatures).
The national debate on the ERA has largely subsided, in part because of expanded interpretations of existing statutes and constitutional provisions which have afforded more equal legal treatment of men and women. In Congress, supporters of the ERA have re-introduced the amendment in Congress [1] every term since 1982 without success.
On March 27, 2007, new resolutions were introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate as as H.J. Res. 40 and S.J. Res. 10, respectively. They contain the traditional ERA language, but this time with no deadline attached. The congressional sponsors referred to the new resolutions by the name "Women's Equality Amendment," but this title does not appear in the resolutions, and some groups backing the proposals continue to refer to them as the "Equal Right Amendment."

History in Congress
The initial pace of state legislative ratifications was rapid during 1972 and 1973, but then slowed considerably with only three ratifications during 1974, just one in 1975, none at all in 1976, and only one in 1977. The 92nd Congress, in proposing the ERA, had set a seven-year time limit for the Amendment's ratification, and by the end of that deadline on March 22, 1979, a total of 35 of the required 38 states had ratified it. However, five of these 35 states withdrew their ratifications before the deadline arrived. In 1981, the only court to consider the issue ruled that these rescissions were valid. (Idaho v. Freeman, 1981, 459 U.S. 809) Thus, in the view of many (but not all) legal scholars, the 1972 ERA died in 1978, with only 30 of the necessary 38 state ratifications.
However, in 1978, Congress passed a controversial bill, by majority votes (not two-thirds votes), that purported to extend the ratification deadline for 39 months. During this disputed "extension," no new states ratified or rescinded. The only federal court to even consider the issue ruled that this ex post facto extension was unconstitutional. (Idaho v. Freeman, 1981, 459 U.S. 809)
The National Organization for Women attempted to appeal the U.S. district court holdings (in Idaho v. Freeman) that the rescissions were valid and the time extension was unconstitutional, but in 1982 the U.S. Supreme Court declared the entire matter moot, on grounds that the 1972 ERA was dead with or without the rescissions and with or without the purported deadline extension.
As previously noted, five of the 35 states which ratified the ERA rescinded their ratifications before the original 1979 deadline. (Technically, in South Dakota, one of the five, the legislature passed a measure that said its assent would last only until March 22, 1979.)
Here are details on the five rescissions:
Some law professors believe that a state legislature cannot rescind its prior ratification of a proposed Federal constitutional amendment. However, the U.S. District Court for Idaho held, in Idaho v. Freeman, that the rescissions -- all of which occurred before the original 1978 ratification deadline -- were valid. And, according to research by Prof. Jules B. Gerard, professor of law at Washington University, of the 35 legislatures that passed ratification resolutions, 24 explicitly referred to the 1978 deadline. (Letter to House Judiciary Committee, June 14, 1978)
At various times, in eight of the 15 non-ratifying states, at least one chamber of the legislature approved the ERA, those eight states being:




  • (1) Idaho which ratified the ERA on March 24, 1972, by approving Senate Joint Resolution No. 133, and which then adopted House Concurrent Resolution No. 10 on February 8, 1977, to rescind that ratification.
    (2) Kentucky which ratified the ERA on June 26, 1972, by approving House (Joint) Resolution No. 2, and which then adopted House (Joint) Resolution No. 20 on March 17, 1978, to rescind that ratification; there is some speculation about Kentucky's rescission in that the rescinding resolution was vetoed by the Lieutenant Governor who was acting as Governor in the Governor's absence. However, the U.S. Constitution provides no role for a governor (nor for the President of the United States) in the constitutional amendment process.
    (3) Nebraska which ratified the ERA on March 29, 1972, by approving the erroneously-worded Legislative Resolution No. 83 and then approving the correctly-worded Legislative Resolution No. 86; Nebraska lawmakers then adopted Legislative Resolution No. 9 on March 15, 1973, to rescind only the aforementioned Legislative Resolution No. 83—this could mean that Nebraska remains officially in the "ratified" column.
    (4) Tennessee which ratified the ERA on April 4, 1972, by approving House Joint Resolution No. 371, and which then adopted Senate Joint Resolution No. 29 on April 23, 1974, to rescind that ratification.
    (5) South Dakota, where lawmakers ratified the ERA on February 5, 1973, by approving Senate Joint Resolution No. 1; then South Dakota legislators adopted Senate Joint Resolution No. 2 on March 1, 1979, stipulating that the ERA's opportunity for ratification—by any state of the Union—would expire on March 22, 1979; furthermore, Senate Joint Resolution No. 2 made clear that South Dakota's own ratification of the ERA would only be valid up until March 22, 1979, and that any activities transpiring after that date would be considered by South Dakota to be null and void.


    • (1) Florida whose House of Representatives voted to ratify the ERA on March 24, 1972, with a tally of 91 to 4; a second time on April 10, 1975, with a tally of 62 to 58; a third time on May 17, 1979, with a tally of 66 to 53; and a fourth time on June 21, 1982, with a tally of 60 to 58.
      (2) Illinois whose Senate voted to ratify the ERA in May of 1972, with a tally of 30 to 21; and whose House of Representatives voted to ratify the ERA on May 1, 1975, with a tally of 113 to 62; and again on May 21, 2003, with a tally of 76 to 41. At various times, votes were conducted in both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly on the question of ratifying the ERA and while most members voted in favor of ratification, the result would often be less than the three-fifths supermajority vote—a requirement that existed in Illinois when those votes were cast.
      (3) Louisiana whose Senate voted to ratify the ERA on June 7, 1972, with a tally of 25 to 13.
      (4) Missouri whose House of Representatives voted to ratify the ERA on February 7, 1975, with a tally of 82 to 75.
      (5) Nevada whose Assembly voted to ratify the ERA on February 17, 1975, with a tally of 27 to 13; and whose Senate voted to ratify the ERA on February 8, 1977, with a tally of 11 to 10.
      (6) North Carolina whose House of Representatives voted to ratify the ERA on February 9, 1977, with a tally of 61 to 55.
      (7) Oklahoma whose Senate voted to ratify the ERA on March 23, 1972, by a voice vote.
      (8) South Carolina whose House of Representatives voted to ratify the ERA on March 22, 1972, with a tally of 83 to zero. Mixed reception in state legislature
      In 1978—as the 1979 deadline approached—the 95th Congress adopted House Joint Resolution No. 638, by Representative Elizabeth Holtzman of New York, which purported to extend the ERA's ratification deadline to June 30, 1982 (Volume 92, United States Statutes At Large, page 3799). It should be noted that House Joint Resolution No. 638 received fewer than a two-thirds vote in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. For that reason, it was deemed necessary by ERA supporters that House Joint Resolution No. 638 be transmitted to then-President Jimmy Carter for signature as a safety precaution. Carter did sign the joint resolution, although questioning—on procedural grounds—the propriety of his doing so.
      No additional states ratified the ERA during that extra period of slightly more than three years. On June 18, 1980, a resolution in the Illinois House of Representatives resulted in a vote of 102-71 in favor. However, Illinois required a 3/5ths majority on constitutional amendments, and the measure failed by only five votes. In fact, the only occurrence favorable to the ERA between the original deadline of March 22, 1979, and the revised June 30, 1982, expiration date was—as noted earlier—its approval by the Florida House of Representatives on June 21, 1982. In the final week before the deadline, that ratifying resolution was defeated in the Florida Senate by a vote of 16 yeas and 22 nays. Even if Florida had become the 36th state to ratify the ERA, the amendment would still have been two states short of the required 38 (or seven states short, if rescissions are valid).
      On December 23, 1981, a United States District Court ruled, in the case of State of Idaho, et al. v. Freeman, et al. (529 F. Supp. 1107; judgment stayed January 25, 1982), that the ERA's deadline extension was unconstitutional and, further, that a state legislature may indeed rescind a prior ratification of a proposed amendment to the Federal Constitution. The Supreme Court thereby recognized that the 1972 ERA had failed to win ratification, but the Court did not issue a ruling on the merits of the either the deadline extension issue or the rescission issue in this case.

      Extension of ratification deadline
      The political tide changed direction in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. At the 1980 Republican National Convention in Detroit, Michigan, the Republican Party platform was amended to qualify its support for the ERA. One of the most prominent opponents to the ERA was Phyllis Schlafly, a conservative Republican. According to its critics, the ERA would have granted more power to Congress and to the Federal courts, a stance unpopular at a time when public opposition to expanded Federal government authority—and Federal judicial activism in particular—was growing. Opponents, and even most supporters of the ERA, agree that if freshly re-proposed by Congress, the ERA would have to start from scratch and would need to gain state ratifications all over again—the state approvals achieved during the 1970s being non-transferable.

      Shift in political attitudes
      Opponents of the ERA argue that its passage would have far-reaching implications, obliterating traditional distinctions between the sexes. Women, ERA opponents claim, would be required to register for the Selective Service System (the draft) just as men currently do, and would have to serve in combat just as men must. Opponents go on to assert that the ERA would also remove laws that specially protect women, such as labor laws in heavy industry.
      Especially since the early 1980s, the potential impact of the ERA on abortion-related laws has become a major factor in the ERA debate. On November 15, 1983, the majority (Democratic) leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives attempted to again pass the ERA (to begin the entire ratification process over again), under a procedure that did not allow consideration of any amendments. The ERA fell short of the required two-thirds vote (278-147) when 14 co-sponsors voted against it, many of them insisting on the need for an "abortion-neutral" amendment proposed by Congressman F. James Sensenbrenner, which read, "Nothing in this Article [the ERA] shall be construed to grant, secure, or deny any right relating to abortion or the funding thereof." Neither house of Congress has voted on any ERA since that day.
      The ERA-abortion issue was further fueled by the use of ERAs in state constitutions in lawsuits attacking anti-abortion policies in some states. ERA-based efforts to invalidate restrictions on tax-funded abortions succeeded in Connecticut and, especially, in New Mexico. On November 25, 1998, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled 5-0 that the state ERA -- very similar to the proposed federal ERA -- prohibited the state from restricting abortion differently from "medically necessary procedures" sought by men, and the court ordered the state to pay for abortions under the state's Medicaid program.
      Other critics have argued that the courts could rule that the ERA would mandate the recognition of same-sex marriage. They point to various court decisions, including a Hawaii Supreme Court decision in 1993, a Baltimore, Maryland circuit court decision in January 2006, the Massachusetts ruling for same-sex marriage in 2003, and to a decision by a California trial court in March 2005, all of which used state bans on sex discrimination as partial justification for the rulings.
      Critics also maintain that the ERA would require the integration of single-sex schools, sports teams or even restrooms—they point to a decision by a court in the State of Washington which ordered a fraternal civic organization to admit women, based upon the ERA within its state constitution. Finally, some opponents of the ERA contend that the amendment simply is not necessary, and that other provisions of the Constitution—and various rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court and lower federal courts—provide sufficient support for equal rights for both genders.
      Some supporters of the ERA characterize some of the opponents' arguments as "scare tactics," or as overstating the changes designed that the ERA would impose in specific areas of the law. For instance, ERA advocates argue that the assertion that the ERA would require women to register for the draft ignores the fact that, under Article I of the Constitution, Congress has always had the power to draft women. Opponents respond that the status quo, in which Congress may draft women—but has chosen not to—is different from requiring that any draft apply equally to men and women.

      Criticism of the ERA
      The report, entitled Sex Bias in the U.S. Code, co-authored by Ruth Bader Ginsburg (and sixteen other individuals under the supervision of a government attorney), before Ginsburg became a federal judge, and published in 1977 by the United States Commission on Civil Rights, sought to show how the proposed ERA (for which Ginsburg was a strong advocate) would change Federal laws to make them gender-neutral and to "eliminate sex-discriminatory provisions."

      "Sex Bias in the U.S. Code"
      Some ERA supporters argue that the earlier 35 state ratifications are still valid and therefore only three more would amend the ERA to the Constitution, without Congress resubmitting it to state lawmakers. This idea is called the "three-state strategy".
      The three-state strategy was publicly unveiled at a press conference held in Washington, D.C., in December, 1993. According to an Associated Press report, "a coalition of women's groups," operating under the name "ERA Summit," planned "to ask Congress to nullify 1982 deadline for ratification.". Equal Rights Amendment Three-state strategy

      Alternatives to the ERA
      Despite the ERA's failure at ratification, many of its goals have otherwise been achieved through judicial interpretations of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The successes of feminism in altering both the culture and politics of the United States since the 1970s, together with the significant inclusion of women in many fields once traditionally dominated by men, have dampened much of the political momentum that once propelled the ERA.

      Further Reading

      Unsuccessful attempts to amend the U.S. Constitution
      List of amendments to the United States Constitution
      List of proposed amendments to the United States Constitution
      Reproductive rights
      Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
      Women's right to know
      Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality
      Equal pay for women
      Feminist history in the United States
      Feminist studies
      History of feminism
      List of feminism topics
      List of notable feminists
      Older Women's League

Saturday, January 12, 2008


Cromartyshire (Siorrachd Chromba in Gaelic) was a county in the Highlands of Scotland, consisting of a series of enclaves within Ross-shire. Ross-shire and Cromartyshire were organised as a single county of Ross and Cromarty in by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, which was itself replaced by the Highland region and the Western Isles (now officially named as Na h-Eileanan Siar) in 1975. The only burgh of Cromartyshire is the county town, Cromarty.
The Local Government Act 1889 provided that "the counties of Ross and Cromarty shall cease to be separate counties, and shall be united for all purposes whatsoever, under the name of the county of Ross and Cromarty."
The nucleus of the county consists of the lands of Cromarty in the north of the peninsula of the Black Isle. To this have joined from time to time various estates scattered throughout Ross-shire, most notably the districts around Ullapool and Little Loch Broom on the coast of the Minch, the area in which Ben Wyvis is situated, and a tract to the north of Loch Fannich - which was acquired by the ancestors of Sir George Mackenzie (1630 - 1714), afterwards Viscount Tarbat (1685) and 1st Earl of Cromartie (1703). Desirous of combining these sporadic properties into one shire, Viscount Tarbat contrived to procure their annexation to his sheriffdom of Cromarty in 1685 and 1698, and the area of the enlarged county now amounts to nearly 370 square miles (958 km²).

Cromartyshire Towns and villages
Major towns
Smaller towns & villages

Cromarty
Ullapool
Achduart, Achiltibuie, Alnessferry, Ardmair, Ardnagoine
Badenscallie, Balblair, Barbaraville, Brae of Achnahaird, Braes of Ullapool
Camusnagaul, Cullicudden
Dundonnell
Inver
Jemimaville
Kildary, Kilmuir
Lochslin
Milton, Morefield, Mount High
Newmills
Polbain, Polglass, Portmahomack
Reiff, Resolis, Rhives, Rhue
Springfield