Blair Peach died on 24 April 1979 after an anti-racism demonstration in Southall, London, England. Peach, a New Zealand teacher and activist born in 1946, had taken part in an Anti-Nazi League demonstration against a National Front election meeting in Southall Town Hall. An investigation by Commander John Cass of the Metropolitan Police Service concluded that Peach had been fatally hit on the head by an officer of the service's Special Patrol Group, and that other officers had obstructed the investigation. Excerpts from a leaked copy of the report were published in early 1980. In 1988 the Metropolitan Police paid £75,000 compensation to Peach's family. The full report was not released to the public until 2009, after a newspaper vendor died from being struck from behind by a member of the Territorial Support Group, the Special Patrol Group's successor organisation. An award in Peach's honour was set up by the National Union of Teachers, and a school in Southall is named after him. (Full article...)
Bistorta officinalis, also known as the common bistort, is a species of flowering plant in the dock family Polygonaceae. It is native to Europe and northern and western Asia, but has also been cultivated and become naturalized in other parts of the world such as in the United States. It is typically found growing in moist meadows, nutrient-rich wooded swamps, forest edges, wetlands, parks, gardens and disturbed ground. A herbaceous perennial, it grows to a height of 20 to 80 centimetres (8 to 31 inches). It blooms from late spring into autumn, producing tall, erect, unbranched and hairless stems ending in single terminal racemes that are club-like spikes, 5 to 7 centimetres (2 to 3 inches) long, of rose-pink flowers. This B. officinalisinflorescence was photographed in the Austrian Alps.
Pelophylax cypriensis, commonly known as the Cyprus water frog, is a species of frog in the family Ranidae, the true frogs. It is endemic to Cyprus. It is a medium-sized frog, with females (body length up to 75 mm, 3.0 in) being larger than males (up to 65 mm, 2.6 in). The skin is rather warty and colouration varies widely. There are four unwebbed toes on the front legs and five webbed toes on the hindlegs. Males have paired external vocal sacs. This Cyprus water frog was photographed under the Elia Bridge in Limassol District, Cyprus.
Walter White (1893–1955) was an American civil rights activist who led the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for a quarter of a century, from 1929 until his death. He directed a broad program of legal challenges to racial segregation and disfranchisement. Under his leadership, the NAACP oversaw the plans and organizational structure of the fight against public segregation in the United States. He worked with President Harry S. Truman on desegregating the armed forces after World War II and gave him a draft of Executive Order 9981 to implement this. Under White's leadership, the NAACP set up its Legal Defense Fund, which conducted numerous legal challenges to segregation and disfranchisement, and achieved many successes. This photograph of White was taken by Clara Sipprell around 1950, and is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.
There is a great disconnect between how athiests and religionist view the proper place for religion in the public square. Briefly, atheists (usually) want no religion in the public square, and religionists want equal access (non-denominational) to the public square and view athiesm as just one other "religion" that needs access.
Wikipedia's Reputation
I've been thinking about this key principle: "[What] reliable sources ... have in common is process and approval between document creation and publication." This is also the key to Wikipedia's reliability and reputation. The core principles of neutrality and verifiability along with the standards for articles (featured/good/etc) and the implicit approval of every person who reads an article and makes no changes to it.
Intellectual Property
We (Americans) often "borrow" other people's intellectual property because the transaction method (i.e. limited use permission) does not exist and can not be created without the transaction cost exceeding the value of the permission (which is close to $0.00 in most cases) so we keep using other's work, and they don't sue us.
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