title: Debate

text: When the Challenger first puts their question to the sitting Defender, their right hand is held above the shoulder at the level of their head, and the left hand is stretched forward with the palm turned upward. At the end of their statement, the Challenger punctuates by loudly clapping together their hands and simultaneously stomping their left foot. They then stylistically drawback their right hand slowly with the palm held upward and, at the same time, hold forth their left hand with the palm turned downward. Holding forth the left hand after clapping symbolizes closing the door to rebirth in samsara. The drawing back and upraising of the right hand symbolizes one's will to raise all sentient beings up out of samsara, cyclic existence, and to establish them in the omniscience of Buddhahood. The left hand represents "Wisdom" – the "antidote" to cyclic existence, and the right hand represents "Method" – the altruistic intention to become enlightened for the benefit of all. The clap represents a union of Method and Wisdom.


title: Debate

text: In this style of debating, the same speaker shifts allegiance between "For" and "Against" the motion. It is a solo contest, unlike other debating forms. Here, the speaker is required to speak for 2 minutes "For the motion", 2 minutes "Against the motion", and finally draw up a 1-minute conclusion in which the speaker balances the debate. At the end of the fifth minute, the debate will be opened to the house, in which members of the audience will put questions to the candidate, which they will have to answer. In the Turncoat format, emphasis is on transitions, the strength of argument, and the balancing of opinions.


title: Debate

text: United Asian Debating Championship is the biggest university debating tournament in Asia, where teams from the Middle East to Japan come to debate. It is traditionally hosted in Southeast Asia, where participation is usually highest compared to other parts of Asia.


title: Debate

text: Asian debates are largely an adaptation of the Australasian format. The only difference is that each speaker is given 7 minutes of speech time, and there will be points of information (POI) offered by the opposing team between the 2nd to 6th minutes of the speech. This means that the 1st and 7th minute is considered the 'protected' period where no POIs can be offered to the speaker.


title: Debate

text: The debate will commence with the Prime Minister's speech (first proposition) and will be continued by the first opposition. This alternating speech will go on until the third opposition. Following this, the opposition bench will give the reply speech. In the reply speech, the opposition goes first and then the proposition. The debate ends when the proposition ends the reply speech. 4 minutes is allocated for the reply speech, and no POI's can be offered during this time.


title: Debate

text: The International Public Debate Association (IPDA), inaugurated on February 15, 1997, at St. Mary's University (Texas) in San Antonio, Texas, is a national debate league currently active primarily in the United States. Among universities, it is unlikely that IPDA is the fastest growing debate association within the United States. Although evidence-based arguments are used, the central focus of IPDA is to promote a debate format that emphasizes public speaking and real-world persuasion skills over the predominant use of evidence and speed. To further this goal, IPDA predominantly uses lay judges in order to encourage an audience-centered debate style. Furthermore, although the main goal of the debater is to persuade the judge, IPDA also awards the best speakers within each tournament.


title: Debate

text: IPDA offers both "team debating" where two teams, consisting of two people, debate and individual debate. In both team and individual debate a list of topics are given to the two sides thirty minutes before the start of the round. A negotiation ensues to pick a topic. The sides, one affirming the resolution and one negating the resolution, then prepare an opening speech, a cross-examination of the other side, and closing remarks for the round.


title: Debate

text: While most member programs of the International Public Debate Association are associated with colleges or universities, participation in IPDA tournaments is open to anyone whose education level is equivalent to high school graduate or higher.


title: Debate

text: WUPID is an invitational tournament that employs the BP or Worlds format of debating. It invites the top 30 debating institutions in accordance with the list provided by the World Debate Website administered by Colm Flynn. If any or some of the teams cannot participate then replacements would be called in from the top 60 teams or based on strong recommendations from senior members of the University Debating community.


title: Debate

text: WUPID was first held in December 2007, with Sydney University being crowned champion. The second installation in 2008 saw Monash taking the trophy home. The third WUPID was held in Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) in December 2009. The first two tournaments were co-hosted by Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UNIKL).


title: Debate

text: WUPID was the brainchild of Daniel Hasni Mustaffa, Saiful Amin Jalun, and Muhammad Yunus Zakariah. They were all former debaters for UPM who took part at all possible levels of debating, from the Malaysian nationals to the World Championship.


title: Debate

text: In youth debate, students typically either have classroom debates moderated and graded by teachers or they participate as pairs in inter-school debate competitions.


title: Debate

text: In classroom debates, the topics of the debate are related to course content and material and during the debate, students on either side put forth arguments and proposals relating to class content as well as defenses of their own argument against the opposing side. The teacher and peers of the students participating in the debate make up the judging panel and upon conclusion of the debate, the winners are announced and students are given constructive feedback about how well they understood the course material and how effective their arguments were.


title: Debate

text: Inter-school youth debate tournaments typically follow the format of Policy debate with teams of two participating in three to five debate rounds about any topic and each round lasting around 90 minutes. Groups and organizations for youth that are under the nation-wide Urban debate league follow this model of debate.


title: Debate

text: The main goals of classroom debate and inter-school debate tournaments are to encourage youth participation in debate, help students develop their communication and listening skills and ability to draw from given information, as well as to make and defend against arguments with logical and rational thinking. Another goal of youth debate is to serve underrepresented school districts and populations and to provide students in those areas with the tools and skills to succeed in their academics and in society. In fact, a major population of young students that are part of debate leagues are Black, Latinx, or receiving some form of financial assistance. Classroom debates and debate tournaments also provide spaces for youth to make their voices heard on public issues such as climate change, voter disenfranchisement, and immigration.


title: Debate

text: Several researchers state that participation in extracurricular activities like debate brings positive benefits for children including increased standardized test scores and better behavioral performance. Other researchers argue that there is no conclusive evidence that proves that there is a direct correlation between student participation in extracurriculars and behavioral or academic progress. Despite this, many debate organizations believe that extracurricurals, debate in particular, indeed have positive behavioral, social, and academic impacts on children like the Boston Debate League, a Boston-based organization that hosts debate competitions for middle and high-schoolers, stating that their mission is "to integrate argumentation and competitive debate into public schools in Boston to develop critical thinkers ready for college, career, and engagement with the world around them."


title: Debate

text: With the increasing popularity and availability of the Internet, differing opinions arise frequently. Though they are often expressed via flaming and other forms of argumentation, which consist primarily of assertions, formalized debating websites do exist. The debate-style varies from site to site, with local communities and cultures developing. Some sites promote a contentious atmosphere that can border on "flaming" (the personal insult of your opponent, also known as a type of ad hominem fallacy), while others strictly police such activities and strongly promote independent research and more structured arguments.


title: Debate

text: debatewise.org, idebate.org and debate.club are known as debate portals. Rulesets on various sites usually serve to enforce or create the culture envisioned by the site's owner, or in some more open communities, the community itself. Policing post content, style, and structure combine with frequent use of "reward" systems (such as reputation, titles, and forum permissions) to promote activities seen as productive while discouraging unwelcomed actions. These cultures vary sufficiently that most styles can find a home. Some online debate communities and forums practice Policy Debate through uploaded speeches and preset word counts to represent time limits present in the physical debate. These virtual debates typically feature long periods of theoretical prep time, as well as the ability to research during a round.


title: Debate

text: Originally most debate sites were little more than online or bulletin boards. Since then, site-specific development has become increasingly common in facilitating different debate styles.


title: Yosemite Sam

text: Yosemite Sam ( ) is a cartoon character in the "Looney Tunes" and "Merrie Melodies" series of short films produced by Warner Bros. His name is taken from Yosemite National Park. He is an adversary of Bugs Bunny. He is commonly depicted as an extremely aggressive, gunslinging outlaw or cowboy with a hair-trigger temper and an intense hatred of rabbits, Bugs in particular. In cartoons with non-Western themes, he uses various aliases, including "Chilkoot Sam" (named for the Chilkoot Trail; Sam pronounces it "Chilli-koot") and "Square-deal Sam" in "14 Carrot Rabbit", "Riff Raff Sam" in "Sahara Hare", "Sam Schultz" in "Big House Bunny", "Seagoin' Sam" in "Buccaneer Bunny", "Shanghai Sam" in "Mutiny on the Bunny", "Von Schamm the Hessian" in "Bunker Hill Bunny", "Baron Sam von Schpamm" in "Dumb Patrol", and many others. During the golden age of American animation, Yosemite Sam appeared in 33 shorts made between 1945 and 1964.


title: Yosemite Sam

text: Animator Friz Freleng introduced the character in the 1945 cartoon "Hare Trigger". With his grumpy demeanor, fiery temper, strident voice, and short stature (in two early gags in "Hare Trigger", a train he is attempting to rob passes right over top of him and he has to use a set of portable stairs to get on his horse; in "Bugs Bunny Rides Again", he rides a miniature horse), along with his fiery red hair, Sam was in some ways a caricature of Freleng. While he often denied any intentional resemblance, in the "Looney Tunes Golden Collection", surviving members of his production crew assert, and the late director's daughter acknowledges, that Sam definitely was inspired by Freleng. Freleng himself even said in an interview with the Associated Press that "I have the same temperament, I'm small, and I used to have a red mustache." Other influences were the Red Skelton character Sheriff Deadeye and the Tex Avery cartoon "Dangerous Dan McFoo". When he does a "slow burn" and cries "Oooooh!" he borrows a bit from such comedic character actors as Jimmy Finlayson (a frequent foil to Laurel and Hardy) and Frank Nelson (one of Mel Blanc's costars on "The Jack Benny Program"). Freleng also cited the Terrible-Tempered Mr. Bang, a character in the "Toonerville Trolley" comic strip, as an influence. In his memoir "", Chuck Jones says that a great-uncle who occasionally visited his family was a retired Texas Ranger who was short, had red hair, a large mustache, and a hair-trigger temper (but no beard, unlike Sam). Michael Maltese originally considered calling the character Texas Tiny, Wyoming Willie, or Denver Dan, but then settled on the final name.


title: Yosemite Sam

text: Other characters with Sam-like features appear in several "Looney Tunes" shorts. The Bugs Bunny entry "Super-Rabbit" (1943) features the cowboy character "Cottontail Smith", whose voice is similar to Sam's. "Stage Door Cartoon" (1944), however, features a southern sheriff character that looks and sounds similar to Sam, except for a more defined Southern stereotype to his voice. In a Daffy Duck cartoon called "Along Came Daffy" (1947), Daffy has to contend with "two" Yosemite Sams, one with Sam's red hair and one with black hair. Finally, "Pancho's Hideaway" (1964) features a Mexican villain who is designed much like Sam but has a different accent. In addition, in the 1949 Chuck Jones-directed cartoon "Mississippi Hare", Bugs Bunny battles with an old, pistol-toting gambler called Colonel Shuffle, one whose role could have easily been portrayed by Sam. (The Colonel reappears in "Dog Gone South", this time pitted against Charlie Dog, and accompanied by a bulldog named Belvedere, who resembles Hector the Bulldog).


title: Yosemite Sam

text: Freleng created Yosemite Sam to be a more formidable adversary for Bugs Bunny. Until then, Bugs's major foe had been Elmer Fudd, a man so mild-mannered and good-natured that Freleng thought Bugs actually came off as a bully by duping him. Sam, on the other hand, was extremely violent and belligerent, not at all a pushover like Fudd. Freleng compacted into a tiny body and 11-gallon hat the largest voice and the largest ego "north, south, east, aaaaand west of the Pecos".


title: Yosemite Sam

text: For over 19 years, except for one cartoon ("Hare-Abian Nights" in 1959) Freleng's unit had exclusive usage of Sam at the Warner studio. Though officially a cowboy, Freleng put Sam in a different costume in almost every film: a knight, a Roman legionary, a pirate, a royal cook, a prison guard, a duke (Duke of Yosemite, no less), a Hessian mercenary, a Confederate soldier, a mountain climber (climbing the 'Shmadderhorn' mountain in Switzerland), a hen-pecked house husband and even a space alien. The humor of the cartoons inevitably springs from the odd miscasting of the hot-tempered cowboy. However, some countries seem to prefer his pirate incarnation, as "Sam the Pirate" is his official name in France and a frequent alternative name in Italy.


title: Yosemite Sam

text: While Sam's basic character is that of a cowboy, he usually wears a black Domino mask (or just a wide black outline on the outer sides of his eyes) to show that he is an outlaw. This is so associated with his persona that he wears the mask even when dressed as a duke, a riff, a pirate, or a Viking.


title: Yosemite Sam

text: Sam is significantly tougher and more aggressive than Elmer Fudd when challenging Bugs Bunny. He is also quicker to learn from his mistakes and never falls for the same ploy twice. But despite Sam's bluster, he does not prove much brighter than Elmer in his encounters with Bugs. His noise contrasts to the calmly cocky rabbit. Sam's own cockiness always gets the best of him; Bugs can see he is incapable of turning down a challenge. Every time Bugs dares Sam to "step across that line", he cannot help but do so, even if he steps off into empty space or down a mine shaft.


title: Yosemite Sam

text: Yosemite Sam was depicted without six-gun pistols in "Looney Tunes Cartoons" on the streaming service, HBO Max. The series' executive producer and showrunner, Peter Browngardt, said the character could still continue to use cartoon violence, such as dynamite and Acme-related paraphernalia.


title: Yosemite Sam

text: However, this change appears to have been reversed, as he is once again depicted using his pistols in "" (2021).


title: Yosemite Sam

text: Yosemite Sam is one of Bugs's toughest antagonists, proudly calling himself the meanest, toughest hombre in the West. Yosemite Sam is a character more aggressive than Bugs's other regular antagonist, Elmer Fudd, given that Sam has a tougher accent, a higher, fiercer voice, and a more violent spirit, although he is portrayed as a bumbling fool in most of his appearances. Yosemite Sam has had several occupations in his life that Bugs has gotten in the way of. Among his occupations are:


title: Yosemite Sam

text: Yosemite Sam made appearances in several television specials in the 1970s and 1980s, and in three of the "Looney Tunes" feature-film compilations. Sam was the star of his own comic book series from 1970 to 1984, for a total of 81 issues. Published by Gold Key / Whitman Comics, the official title of the series was "Yosemite Sam and Bugs Bunny". Yosemite Sam was the main basis for the character of The Grump from DePatie-Freleng Enterprises's TV series "Here Comes the Grump". The Grump's dragon was similar to Sam's in "Knighty Knight Bugs", right down to the fiery nasal explosions upon its master. He also made a cameo appearance in Disney/Amblin's "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", where he is blasted out of Toontown. In the film, he is the only Looney Tunes character to not be voiced by Mel Blanc, with Joe Alaskey taking the role.


title: Yosemite Sam

text: Yosemite Sam was one of the classic Looney Tunes characters who appeared as faculty members of Acme Looniversity in the 1990s animated series "Tiny Toon Adventures". Sam was shown teaching classes in Firearms and Anvilology (the study of falling anvils, a staple joke in the Looney Tunes genre), and was sometimes portrayed as the school principal (though at least one episode identified Bugs Bunny as the principal, and Wile E. Coyote was Dean of Acme Loo). As with all the main Looney Tunes characters, Sam had a student counterpart at Acme Loo in Montana Max. In "K-Acme TV", Yosemite Sam was seen as the judge of "Toon Court" (a parody of "The People's Court") where he proceeded over a trial where Calamity Coyote issues a complaint against the ACME Corporation for negligence and faulty workmanship. The ACME Corporation's representative Bobbo ACME claims that the devices made by the ACME Corporation work if they are used right as he demonstrates the catapult on Calamity Coyote. Judge Yosemite Sam finds in favor of the ACME Corporation. In the same episode, Yosemite Sam appeared as a prospector in a documentary detailing about the sightings of a furry creature called Bigbutt (a spoof of Bigfoot).


title: Yosemite Sam

text: Yosemite Sam also appeared along with Bugs Bunny in a number of Mirinda commercials in early 90s, most probably due to direct competition to Fanta, being advertised with Disney characters at that time.


title: Yosemite Sam

text: He also appears in the movie "Space Jam" as a player for the Tune Squad. In a memorable scene, he and Elmer Fudd shoot off the teeth of one of the Monstars while clad in "Pulp Fiction"-esque attire, complete with Dick Dale's "Misirlou" playing. In an earlier scene, when the Nerdlucks hold all the toons hostage, he confronts the Nerdlucks, pointing his pistols at them, and orders them to release all the toons ... only to have the lead Nerdluck fire a laser pistol back at him, which leaves Sam smoldering naked and beardless as the phasers burned off his mustache.


title: Yosemite Sam

text: Sam also appeared in "The Warners 65th Anniversary Special" and two episodes of 1995's "The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries".


title: Yosemite Sam

text: In the 2003 movie "", Yosemite Sam is a bounty hunter employed by the Acme Corporation who was hired to finish off DJ Drake and Daffy Duck. In this film, he owns a casino in Las Vegas, which he calls Yosemite Sam's Wooden Nickel, and is accompanied by Nasty Canasta and Cottontail Smith from "Super-Rabbit" (who may be originally employed as his security guards). He goes as far as betting a large sack of money to get the card, stealing Jeff Gordon's car, and even using a stick of Dynamite to beat DJ and Daffy.


title: Yosemite Sam

text: In 2004, a possible numbers station in Albuquerque using the character's voice began transmitting, taking a piece of audio from the 1950 "Merrie Melodies" cartoon "Bunker Hill Bunny", days after it was discovered and its location was tracked, the station ceased broadcasting but returned for a short time again in 2005, but hasn't been heard since. This was referred to as the "Yosemite Sam transmission." This was also believed to have a reference to the "Bugs Bunny" quote "I knew I should have taken that left turn at Albuquerque."


title: Yosemite Sam

text: Sam also plays the role of minor villain K'Chutha Sa'am (a parody of the Klingon) in the "Duck Dodgers" animated TV series.


title: Yosemite Sam

text: He also appears in the video games "", "", "Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle", "The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 2", "Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 3", "The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout", "", "Bugs Bunny in Double Trouble", "", "", "Sheep, Dog, 'n' Wolf", "Looney Tunes B-Ball", "Daffy Duck in Hollywood" and the "" video game. In "", Yosemite Sam makes an appearance riding a railway cart on the Wild West level.


title: Yosemite Sam

text: Yosemite Sam appears in multiple episodes of "The Looney Tunes Show", voiced by Maurice LaMarche. Sam is depicted as being well meaning, but suffering anger problems. He first appeared in the show in three "Merrie Melodies" segments called "Blow My Stack", "Moostache" and "Stick to My Guns". Yosemite Sam is one of Bugs and Daffy's neighbors. In the episode "Daffy Duck, Esq.", it is revealed that his full name is Samuel Rosenbaum and thus established him as being Jewish (both his creator Friz Freleng and original voice actor Mel Blanc were also Jewish, though there is no evidence that Freleng had ever explicitly intended Sam to have been a Jew). In "Ridiculous Journey", it is revealed that Yosemite Sam has a cousin in Blacque Jacque Shellacque who Yosemite Sam enlisted to recover Sylvester, Tweety, and Tasmanian Devil after they were accidentally shipped to Alaska. It was through Yosemite Sam that Bugs Bunny and Granny enlisted Blacque Jacque Shellacque's help. In "You've Got Hate Mail" after accidentally being sent an angry email by Daffy, Sam decides to change his ways and proceeds to shave, sell his cowboy clothes, and become a normal suburbanite. However, after a particularly annoying book club meeting, he reverts to his old ways.


title: Yosemite Sam

text: Yosemite Sam appears in the 2015 DTV movie "" voiced by Maurice LaMarche. He appears in "New Looney Tunes" (originally Wabbit) voiced by Maurice LaMarche in season one and by Fred Tatasciore in season two. His appearance has him depicted to having a larger moustache and a fat body. Yosemite Sam is often shown trying to commit crimes or obtain items where Bugs Bunny always thwarts him. He is also shown to own a lot of cats at his house.


title: Yosemite Sam

text: The role of Yosemite Sam was originated by Warners Bros' principal voice man, Mel Blanc. In his autobiography, Blanc said he had a difficult time coming up with the voice when he played a similar character called Tex on Judy Canova's radio show. He tried giving Sam a small voice but did not feel that it worked. One day, he decided to simply yell at the top of his voice, which was inspired by a fit of road rage he had that day. It fit perfectly with the blustery character but was also a strain on Blanc's throat, thus he always did Yosemite Sam's lines at the end of a recording session so he could rest himself overnight. As he got into his 70s, the voice became too rough on his throat; the role of Sam was taken over by future Looney Tunes voice actor Joe Alaskey in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" while Blanc played all his other Looney Tunes roles in the film. This makes Sam one of the few voices created by Blanc to be voiced by someone else during his lifetime. Blanc used the same voice to depict Bob and Doug McKenzie's father (portrayed by Dave Thomas, but dubbed with Blanc's voice) in the film "Strange Brew" (1983). Blanc voiced the character for the last time in his lifetime in the 1989 TV special "Bugs Bunny's Wild World of Sports". Archive recordings of Blanc as Yosemite Sam (along with Sylvester and The Tasmanian Devil) were used in the 1990 pinball game, "Bugs Bunny's Birthday Ball" (a year after Blanc's death). Archived recordings of Blanc for Yosemite Sam were also used in the 1999 PlayStation video game, "" (a decade after Blanc's death). Blanc used a voice similar to Yosemite Sam's for Mr. Spacely on "The Jetsons".


title: Nigel Havers

text: Nigel Allan Havers (born 6 November 1951) is an English actor. His film roles include Lord Andrew Lindsay in the 1981 British film "Chariots of Fire", which earned him a BAFTA nomination; as Dr. Rawlins in the 1987 Steven Spielberg war drama, "Empire of the Sun"; and as Ronny in the 1984 David Lean epic "A Passage to India". Television roles include Tom Latimer in the British TV comedy series "Don't Wait Up" and Lewis Archer in "Coronation Street", between 2009 and 2019.


title: Nigel Havers

text: Havers was born in Edmonton, Middlesex, and is the younger of two boys (with an older brother, Philip), born of Sir Michael Havers (later Lord Havers), who was a barrister who became a controversial Attorney General for England and Wales and, briefly, Lord Chancellor in the Conservative Government in the 1980s. His paternal aunt, Lady Butler-Sloss, his grandfather Sir Cecil Havers and elder brother Philip Havers KC also had prominent legal careers. His paternal uncle, David Havers, was a Manchester-based businessman.


title: Nigel Havers

text: Havers took part in the BBC TV series "Who Do You Think You Are?", broadcast in the UK in July 2013. As part of the show he explored his ancestry from an Essex businessman, on his father's side, and a Cornish miller on his mother's side.


title: Nigel Havers

text: Havers was educated at Nowton Court Prep School in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk and the Arts Educational School, an independent school in London, opting against the Eton education traditional to his family (except his father, who was educated at Westminster School), because he thought that fagging "sounded frightful".


title: Nigel Havers

text: Havers is most known for "playing the quintessential, old school Englishman with his dashing good looks, cut-glass accent and thoroughly charming manner". Havers's first acting job was in the radio series "Mrs Dale's Diary" and he subsequently went on to working for the Prospect Theatre Company initially "carrying a spear and making cups of tea" as he puts it in his autobiography. After this he had a stint working for a Jamie Symonds. Symonds, who was interviewed on "Richard and Judy", stated "Nige used to babysit for us back then as well as iron and generally fix things. I loved him greatly as I still do. I miss his fluffy hair and his strong hands".


title: Nigel Havers

text: From an early age Havers had an eye for the ladies; Kenneth More, a friend of his father, advised a young Havers that "If you are charming, you don't have to ask them to go to bed, they ask you". He describes his experiences with an early leading lady, Maxine Audley thus: "I was in her dressing room doing whatever she asked me to, and I mean anything and everything. One afternoon I sauntered into her dressing room, still in my officer's kit, only to find a similarly clad new member of the cast rehearsing what I had perfected over the past few months. My time was up. She blew me a kiss and I slid away. Actually, I was rather relieved, I needed a rest."


title: Nigel Havers

text: After his theatre work, Havers slid into a period of acting unemployment, during which time he worked for a wine merchant. He ended this part of his career when his girlfriend, who later became his first wife, Carolyn Cox, suggested they move in together in 1974.


title: Nigel Havers

text: In 1975, Havers's career began to pick up with an appearance in "Upstairs, Downstairs," appearing in one of the series' last episodes, "Joke Over" as Peter Dinmont, one of Georgina's (Lesley-Anne Down) "Roaring Twenties" "party" friends. Dinmont is in the Rolls Royce when Georgina accidentally kills a farmer on a bicycle. Dinmont refuses to testify on Georgina's behalf at a preliminary trial, as he was passed out drunk in the back seat and did not witness the accident.


title: Nigel Havers

text: It was also in 1975 that Havers appeared in the Granada Television daytime series "Crown Court," in which he played a hapless heroin addict, Patrick Mills, who stands trial on a series of drug offences.


title: Nigel Havers

text: His first film appearance was a small part in "Pope Joan" (1972) and he was a character in "The Glittering Prizes" (1976), but his first major success came with the leading role in a BBC dramatisation of "Nicholas Nickleby" (1977), closely followed by another BBC drama serial, "A Horseman Riding By" (1978). By the time he appeared in the film "Chariots of Fire" (1981), he had become a familiar face on British television. Despite his work in such films as "A Passage to India" (1984), "Empire of the Sun" (1987) and "Farewell to the King" (1989), he never became a film star, but has continued in a succession of starring roles on television. He co-starred for several years in the 1980s BBC sitcom "Don't Wait Up" (1983–1990) alongside Dinah Sheridan and Tony Britton. He also starred in "The Little Princess" (1986) with Maureen Lipman, which won him a dedicated audience. He is also widely recognised in the Lloyds Bank television commercials.


title: Nigel Havers

text: Havers co-starred with Warren Clarke in the 1991 comedic mini-series "Sleepers" on the BBC. In it, he and Clarke played former KGB spies who had assimilated into English life in the 1960s and were "lost" for 25 years. Successfully and happily living as Englishmen, their worlds are turned upside-down when they discover that the KGB is looking for them. As they resist going back to Russia, the ex-spies lead the KGB, CIA, and MI5 on a madcap chase through England. The following year, Havers was the subject of "This Is Your Life", having been surprised by Michael Aspel at Twickenham Film Studios.


title: Nigel Havers

text: Havers then wrote his autobiography, "Playing with Fire", which was published in October 2006. In 2009 he appeared in the U.S. television drama "Brothers & Sisters", and the "Doctor Who" spin-off "The Sarah Jane Adventures".


title: Nigel Havers

text: On 18 December 2009, he first appeared in the British soap (broadcast on the ITV network) "Coronation Street" playing the charming escort Lewis Archer, who woos Audrey Roberts. He left on 13 August 2010. He returned to the role on 17 February 2012 and left again on 1 February 2013. He returned again on 1 June 2018 and remained in "Coronation Street" until the character's death on 1 January 2019.


title: Nigel Havers

text: In November 2010, Havers became a contestant on the tenth series of "I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!", which started on 14 November 2010. On 21 November, Havers left the show after vehemently objecting to a challenge called Kangaroo Court in which contestants who lost the challenge would be subjected to an electric shock.


title: Nigel Havers

text: As a guest star in the 2011 Christmas Special episode of television show "Downton Abbey", Havers portrayed Lord Hepworth, a charming and hopeful suitor of wealthy Lady Rosamund Painswick, the widowed sister of the Earl of Grantham played by Samantha Bond. In the episode, Hepworth is discovered having an affair with Lady Rosamund's maid and outed as a "fortune hunter." Series creator Julian Fellowes remarked in his book of teleplays for the second series of "Downton Abbey" that "no one in Equity is better" than Havers "at playing a cad."


title: Nigel Havers

text: In July 2012, Havers presented a programme on ITV called "The Real Chariots of Fire", a documentary about the runners who inspired the film "Chariots of Fire". In 2014, he played Tony Pebble in "The Life of Rock with Brian Pern", a BBC Four comedy which parodied the life and career of former Genesis singer, Peter Gabriel. On 25 January 2015, Havers took part in celebrity talent show "Get Your Act Together".


title: Nigel Havers

text: Havers appeared in the ninth series of the sitcom "Benidorm," in 2017, returning as the same character for the tenth series in 2018. He also joined fellow celebrities Simon Callow, Lorraine Chase, and Debbie McGee on the Channel 5 (UK) show, "Celebrity Carry On Barging", later that year.


title: Nigel Havers

text: In the mid-1980s, Havers began an affair with Polly Williams, the daughter of actor Hugh Williams and the sister of his friend, the actor Simon Williams. He has stated that he had several affairs during his first marriage, which he now regrets. Havers has written of the depression he experienced trying to choose between his marriage to Carolyn Cox and their young daughter Kate, born in 1977, and his mistress. During this time, he consulted a psychiatrist at the Devonshire Hospital in London. Things were resolved in his mind when he took on a role in the TV film, "Naked Under Capricorn", which was filmed in Alice Springs, Australia. He describes in his autobiography wrangling a herd of cattle and catching sight in the distance of a figure who turned out to be Williams. The couple got married in 1989, and the marriage lasted until her death on 24 June 2004. A blessing was held in Saint Tropez the following month. Following his wife's death, Havers took legal action, claiming her will left him without "reasonable financial provision". The case was settled before court; Havers was awarded £375,000 and proceeds from the sale of some of his late wife's belongings.


title: Nigel Havers

text: Havers was arrested in February 1990 on suspicion of drunk driving, and taken to Harrow police station. He was later banned from driving for one year, and fined £500, but told a woman's magazine "I don't regret it at all". He continued, "I thought the whole thing was pretty unfair. I was only 300 yards from home in a restaurant and had only used my car anyway because it was pouring with rain." He said "I got the same punishment as people who are three times over the limit. I felt victimised, especially as the police know who I am." He was criticised for these comments by John Knight, co-founder of the Campaign against Drinking and Driving, while a spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers said "I think he's probably a little bit out of touch with public feeling."


title: Nigel Havers

text: On 8 June 2007, Havers married Essex native Georgiana "George" Bronfman (née Rita Webb), in New York City. Bronfman is the former spouse of the late Edgar Bronfman, the mother of Sarah and Clare Bronfman, and is known for her charitable work with noted palaeoanthropologist Richard Leakey.


title: Ramón Mercader

text: Jaime Ramón Mercader del Río (7 February 1913 – 18 October 1978), more commonly known as Ramón Mercader, was a Spanish communist and NKVD agent, who assassinated Russian Bolshevik revolutionary Leon Trotsky in Mexico City in August 1940 with an ice axe. He served 19 years and 8 months in Mexican prisons for the murder.


title: Ramón Mercader

text: Mercader was awarded with the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, Order of Lenin, and the Gold Star after his release from a Mexican prison in 1960. He divided his time between Cuba, the Soviet Union, and other countries.


title: Ramón Mercader

text: Mercader was born on 7 February 1913 in Argentona to Eustaquia (or Eustacia) María Caridad del Río Hernández, the daughter of a Cantabrian merchant who had become affluent in Spanish Cuba, and Pau (or Pablo) Mercader Marina (b. 1885), the son of a Catalan textiles industrialist from Badalona. His cousin, actress María Mercader, became the second wife of Italian film director Vittorio De Sica, the father of Italian comedy actor Christian De Sica. Mercader grew up in France with his mother after his parents divorced. She was an ardent Communist who fought in the Spanish Civil War and served in the Soviet international underground.


title: Ramón Mercader

text: As a young man, Mercader embraced Communism, working for leftist organizations in Spain during the mid-1930s. He was briefly imprisoned for his activities, but was released in 1936 when the left-wing Popular Front coalition won in the elections of that year. During the Spanish Civil War, Mercader was recruited by Nahum Eitingon, an officer of the NKVD (People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, an agency preceding the KGB), and trained in Moscow as a Soviet agent.


title: Ramón Mercader

text: Mercader's contacts with and befriending of Trotskyists began during the Spanish Civil War. George Orwell's biographer Gordon Bowker relates how English communist David Crook, ostensibly a volunteer for the Republican side, was sent to Albacete. He was taught Spanish and also given a crash course in surveillance techniques by Mercader. Crook, on orders from the NKVD, used his job as war reporter for the "News Chronicle" to spy on Orwell and his Independent Labour Party comrades in the POUM (Workers' Party of Marxist Unification) militia.


title: Ramón Mercader

text: In 1938, while a student at the Sorbonne, Mercader, with the help of NKVD agent Mark Zborowski, befriended Sylvia Ageloff, a young Jewish-American intellectual from Brooklyn, New York and a confidante of Trotsky in Paris. Mercader assumed the identity of Jacques Mornard, supposedly the son of a Belgian diplomat.


title: Ramón Mercader

text: A year later, Mercader was contacted by a representative of the Bureau of the Fourth International. Ageloff returned to her native Brooklyn in September that same year, and Mercader joined her, assuming the identity of Canadian Frank Jacson. He was given a passport that originally belonged to a Canadian citizen named Tony Babich, a member of the Spanish Republican Army who died fighting during the Spanish Civil War. Babich's photograph was removed and replaced with one of Mercader. Mercader told Ageloff that he had purchased forged documents to avoid military service.


title: Ramón Mercader

text: In October 1939, Mercader moved to Mexico City and persuaded Ageloff to join him there. Leon Trotsky was living with his family in Coyoacán, then a village on the southern fringes of Mexico City. He was exiled from the Soviet Union after losing the power struggle against Stalin's rise to authority.


title: Ramón Mercader

text: Trotsky had been the subject of an armed attack against his house, mounted by allegedly Soviet-recruited locals, including the Marxist-Leninist muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros. The attack was organised and prepared by Pavel Sudoplatov, deputy director of the foreign department of the NKVD. In his memoirs, Sudoplatov claimed that, in March 1939, he had been taken by his chief, Lavrentiy Beria, to see Stalin. Stalin told them that "if Trotsky is finished the threat will be eliminated" and gave the order that "Trotsky should be eliminated within a year."


title: Ramón Mercader

text: After that attack failed, a second team was sent, headed by Eitingon, formerly the deputy GPU agent in Spain. He allegedly was involved in the kidnap, torture, and murder of Andreu Nin. The new plan was to send a lone assassin against Trotsky. The team included Mercader and his mother Caridad. Sudoplatov claimed in his autobiography "Special Tasks" that he selected Ramón Mercader for the task of carrying out the assassination.


title: Ramón Mercader

text: Through his lover Sylvia Ageloff's access to the Coyoacán house, Mercader, as Jacson, began to meet with Trotsky, posing as a sympathizer to his ideas, befriending his guards, and doing small favors. He made drawings of the villa to help the other groups of assassins. Trotsky's grandson Esteban Volkov, aged 14 at the time of the assassination, emphasized that Jacson had been present in Trotsky's house during the first attack led by Siqueiros.


title: Ramón Mercader

text: On 20 August 1940, Mercader was alone with Trotsky in his study under the pretext of showing the older man a document. Mercader struck Trotsky from behind and mortally wounded him on the head with an ice axe while he was looking at the document.


title: Ramón Mercader

text: The blow failed to kill Trotsky, and he got up and grappled with Mercader. Hearing the commotion, Trotsky's guards burst into the room and beat Mercader nearly to death. Trotsky, deeply wounded but still conscious, ordered them to spare his attacker's life and let him speak.


title: Ramón Mercader

text: Caridad and Eitingon were waiting outside the compound in separate cars to provide a getaway, but when Mercader did not return, they left and fled the country.


title: Ramón Mercader

text: Trotsky was taken to a hospital in the city and operated on but died the next day as a result of severe brain injuries.


title: Ramón Mercader

text: Trotsky's guards turned Mercader over to the Mexican authorities, and he refused to acknowledge his true identity. He only identified himself as Jacques Mornard. Mercader claimed to the police that he had wanted to marry Ageloff, but Trotsky had forbidden the marriage. He alleged that a violent quarrel with Trotsky had led to his wanting to murder Trotsky.


title: Ramón Mercader

text: In 1943, Jacques Mornard was convicted of murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison by the Sixth Criminal Court of Mexico. His true identity as Ramón Mercader eventually was confirmed by the Venona project after the fall of the Soviet Union.


title: Ramón Mercader

text: Sylvia Ageloff was arrested by the Mexican police as an accomplice because she had lived with Mercader, on and off, for about two years up to the time of the assassination. Charges against her eventually were dropped by Mexican authorities, even if some still consider that she was a GPU agent.


title: Ramón Mercader

text: Shortly after the assassination, Joseph Stalin presented Mercader's mother Eustaquia Caridad with the Order of Lenin for her part in the operation.


title: Ramón Mercader

text: After the first few years in prison, Ramón Mercader requested to be released on parole, but the request was denied by the Mexican authorities. They were represented by Jesús Siordia and the criminologist Alfonso Quiroz Cuarón. In 1943, Caridad Mercader applied to Stalin personally for her part in the secret operation to release Ramon Mercader. In 1944, she obtained a permit to leave the USSR. However, contrary to the agreed-upon conditions, she not only led the attempt of release of Ramón at a distance, but traveled to Mexico, where she was known not only as the mother of Ramón, but also as an organizer of the assassination. That undermined an undercover operation that was being prepared to get Ramón Mercader out of jail. Caridad Mercader's presence proved to be counterproductive; although she improved the life of Ramón in prison significantly, the Mexican authorities tightened security measures, causing the Soviets to abandon their efforts to release Ramón. Though Caridad reported important things to the Mexican authorities, Ramón served 19 years and eight months in prison (including the time under initial investigation and trial) according to the initial trial's 20-years-and-one-day conviction. Ramón, who according to his brother Luis never shared his mother's passion for the communist cause, never forgave her for her interference.


title: Ramón Mercader

text: After almost 20 years in prison, Mercader was released from Mexico City's Palacio de Lecumberri prison on 6 May 1960. He moved to Havana, Cuba, where Fidel Castro's new socialist government welcomed him.


title: Ramón Mercader

text: In 1961, Mercader moved to the Soviet Union and subsequently was presented with the country's highest decoration, Hero of the Soviet Union, personally by Alexander Shelepin, the head of the KGB. He divided his time between Czechoslovakia, from where he traveled to different countries, Cuba, where he was the advisor of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, and the Soviet Union for the rest of his life. He married a Mexican named Rogalia in prison after 1940 and had two children.


title: Ramón Mercader

text: Ramón Mercader died in Havana in 1978 of lung cancer. He is buried under the name Ramón Ivanovich Lopez (Рамон Иванович Лопес) in Moscow's Kuntsevo Cemetery. His last words are said to have been: "I hear it always. I hear the scream. I know he's waiting for me on the other side."


title: Ramón Mercader

text: The ice axe recovered by the Mexico City police was stored in an evidence room for several years until it was "checked out" by a secret police officer, named Alfredo Salas, who claimed he wanted to preserve it "for posterity." It was a mountaineering ice axe known in French as a "piolet", made by the Austrian manufacturer Werkgen Fulpmes. Mercader cut off about half the length of the handle. He claimed to be an experienced mountaineer, and bragged to police interrogators, "I had a rare ability to handle the piolet, since two blows were sufficient for me to crack through an enormous block of ice".


title: Ramón Mercader

text: Salas passed the ice axe on to his daughter, Ana Alicia, who eventually put it up for sale in 2005. Trotsky's grandson, Esteban Volkov, stated that he is "unconcerned" about the fate of the alleged murder weapon and wondered "if it is the real axe." The ice axe was bought by Keith Melton, an American collector and author of books on the history of espionage, and is now on display at the International Spy Museum, in Washington, D.C.


title: Ramón Mercader

text: There have been many documentaries about the assassination and Mercader over the years. A Spanish documentary about Mercader's life, called "Asaltar los cielos" ("Storm the skies"), was released in 1996 while a Spanish-language documentary, "El Asesinato de Trotsky", was co-produced in 2006 by The History Channel and Anima Films as a joint US/Argentine production, and directed by Argentinian director Matías Gueilburt. There have been also many films, such as the 1972 Joseph Losey-directed "The Assassination of Trotsky", featuring Alain Delon as Frank Jacson/Mercader and Richard Burton as Trotsky, and the 2016 film "The Chosen," directed by Antonio Chavarrías and filmed in Mexico, which is an account of Trotsky's murder, featuring Alfonso Herrera as Mercader. The Trotsky assassination is depicted in the 2002 film "Frida", with Mercader portrayed by Antonio Zavala Kugler (uncredited) and Trotsky by Geoffrey Rush.


title: Ramón Mercader

text: In 1967, West German television presented "L.D. Trotzki – Tod im Exil" ("L. D. Trotsky – Death in exile"), a play in two parts, directed by August Everding, with Peter Lühr in the role of Trotsky. "Trotsky", a 2017 Russian Netflix series, features Konstantin Khabenskiy as Trotsky and Maksim Matveyev as Mercader, who is referred in the English subtitles as "Jackson."


title: Ramón Mercader

text: Trotskyist veteran Lillian Pollak depicted her friendship with Mercader, then known as Frank Jacson, and the assassination of Trotsky in her self-published 2008 novel "The Sweetest Dream" while a 2009 novel by U.S. writer Barbara Kingsolver, "The Lacuna", includes an account of Trotsky's assassination by "Jacson." Cuban author Leonardo Padura Fuentes' 2009 novel "El hombre que amaba a los perros" ("The Man Who Loved Dogs") refers to the lives of both Trotsky and Mercader.


title: Ramón Mercader

text: David Ives' "Variations on the Death of Trotsky" is a short one-act comedy drama based on Mercader's assassination of Trotsky written for the series of one-act plays titled "All in the Timing".


title: Flag of the Republic of China

text: The flag of the Republic of China (), also known as the Blue Sky, White Sun, and a Wholly Red Earth () and retroactively the Nationalist Flag of China, now more commonly known as the Flag of Taiwan, consists of a red field with a blue canton bearing a white disk surrounded by twelve triangles; said symbols symbolize the sun and rays of light emanating from it, respectively.


title: Flag of the Republic of China

text: The flag was originally designed by the anti-Qing group, Revive China Society, in 1895 with the addition of the red field component in 1906 by Sun Yat-sen in his speech. This was first used in mainland China as the Navy flag in 1912, and was made the official national flag of the Republic of China in 1928 by the Kuomintang. It was enshrined in the sixth article of the Constitution of the Republic of China when it was promulgated in 1947. The flag is no longer officially used in mainland China, as the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949. As the islands of Taiwan and Penghu were under Japanese rule until 1945, the flag was not in use in two territories, until the ROC took control in 1945. The flag is now mostly used within Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other outlying islands, where the ROC relocated in 1949 after its defeat in the Chinese Civil War.


title: Flag of the Republic of China

text: The public display of this flag is still seen in historical museums and war cemeteries across mainland China but its use remains illegal as tools for subversion of state power. Some supporters of Taiwanese independence reject the flag due to its association with Chinese nationalism and as a statement of opposition against the Kuomintang, although the Democratic Progressive Party and its leaders still generally retain and use the current flag both domestically and abroad.


title: Flag of the Republic of China

text: The canton (upper corner on the hoist side) originated from the "Blue Sky with a White Sun flag" () designed by Lu Haodong, a martyr of the Xinhai Revolution. He presented his design to represent the revolutionary army at the inauguration of the Society for Regenerating China, an anti-Qing society in Hong Kong, on 21 February 1895. This design was later adopted as the KMT party flag and the Coat of Arms of the Republic of China. The "red Earth" portion was added by Sun Yat-sen in winter of 1906, bringing the flag to its modern form. According to George Yeo, the Foreign Minister of Singapore, in those days the Blue Sky with a White Sun flag was sewn in the Sun Yat Sen Villa or Wan Qing Yuan in Singapore by Teo Eng Hock and his wife.


title: Flag of the Republic of China

text: During the Wuchang Uprising in 1911 that heralded the Republic, the various revolutionary armies had different flags. Lu Hao-tung's "Blue Sky with a White Sun" flag was used in the provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, and Guizhou. In Wuhan, a flag with 18 yellow stars was used to represent the 18 administrative divisions at the time. In Shanghai and northern China, a "Five-coloured Flag" () (Five Races Under One Union flag) was used of five horizontal stripes representing the five major nationalities of China: the Han (red), the Manchu (yellow), the Mongol (blue), the Hui (white), and the Tibetan (black).


title: Flag of the Republic of China

text: When the government of the Republic of China was established on 1 January 1912, the "Five-coloured Flag" was selected by the provisional Senate as the national flag. The was adopted by the army and the modern flag was adopted as a naval ensign. Sun Yat-sen, however, did not consider the five-coloured flag appropriate, reasoning that horizontal order implied a hierarchy or class like that which existed during dynastic times.


title: Flag of the Republic of China

text: After President Yuan Shikai assumed dictatorial powers in 1913 by dissolving the National Assembly and outlawing the KMT, Sun Yat-sen established a government-in-exile in Tokyo and employed the modern flag as the national ROC flag. He continued using this design when the KMT established a rival government in Guangzhou in 1917. The modern flag was made the official national flag on 17 December 1928, after the successful Northern Expedition that toppled the Beijing government, though the Five-coloured Flag still continued to be used by locals in an unofficial capacity. One reason for this discrepancy in use was lingering regional biases held by officials and citizens of northern China, who favored the Five-coloured Flag, against southerners such as the Cantonese/Hakka Sun Yat-sen.


title: Flag of the Republic of China

text: During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the invading Japanese established a variety of puppet governments using several flag designs. The Reformed Government was established in March 1938 in Nanjing to consolidate the various puppet governments employed the Five-coloured Flag. When Wang Jingwei was slated to take over the Japanese-installed government in Nanjing in 1940, he demanded to use the modern flag as a means to challenge the authority of the Nationalist Government in Chongqing under Chiang Kai-shek and position himself as the rightful successor to Sun Yat-sen. However, the Japanese preferred the Five-coloured flag. As a compromise, the Japanese suggested adding a triangular yellow pennant on top with the slogan "Peace, Anti-Communism, National Construction" () in black, but this was rejected by Wang. In the end, Wang and the Japanese agreed that the yellow banner was to be used outdoors only, until 1943 when the banner was abandoned, leaving two rival governments with the same flag, each claiming to be the legitimate Nationalist government of China.


title: Flag of the Republic of China

text: The national flag was specified in Article Six of the 1947 Constitution of the Republic of China. The flag was also used in Communist-held areas until 1949. After the Chinese Civil War began to ease, the government of Chiang Kai-shek relocated the Republic of China to the island of Taiwan, whose administration was handed over to the ROC from Japan in 1945. On the mainland, the communist forces of Mao Zedong established the People's Republic of China and adopted their own national flag.


title: Flag of the Republic of China

text: On 23 October 1954, the National Emblem and National Flag of the Republic of China Act () was promulgated by the Legislative Yuan to specify the size, measure, ratio, production, and management of the flag.


title: Flag of the Republic of China

text: The "Blue Sky with a White Sun" flag of Lu Hao-tung was unveiled in February 1895 in Hong Kong. The twelve rays of the white Sun symbolize the twelve months and the twelve traditional "shichen" (), a traditional unit of time which corresponds to two modern hours. Sun Yat-sen added the "Red Earth" to the flag to signify the blood of the revolutionaries who sacrificed themselves in order to overthrow the Qing dynasty and create the ROC. Together, the three colours of the flag correspond to the Three Principles of the People: Blue represents nationalism and liberty; White represents democracy and equality; and Red represents the people's livelihood and fraternity. President Chiang Kai-shek proclaimed on the National Day in 1929, "As long as a national flag with Blue Sky, White Sun, and a Wholly Red Earth flies in the land of China, it will symbolize the independence and liberty of the descendants of the Huang Emperor".


title: Flag of the Republic of China

text: The blue-and-white canton of the ROC flag is often used as the party flag of the KMT. The flag has developed a great deal of additional symbolism due to the unique and controversial political status of Taiwan. At one level, the flag represents a clear symbol that Taiwan is not governed by the same government as Mainland China, as this flag is different from the flag of the People's Republic of China (PRC).


title: Flag of the Republic of China

text: Meanwhile, because it was formerly used as the flag over all of China, the flag has become a symbol of continuity with the ideals of the Chinese nationalism and Chinese unification movements, and has become a symbol of a connection both historical and current with mainland China. In addition, the flag is derived from the seal of the KMT, and the colour of the field of the flag is associated with the KMT party colours.


title: Flag of the Republic of China

text: Some Chinese see the flag as an expression of Chinese nationalism and pride combined with simultaneous disapproval for the current communist regime. Additionally, the flag may symbolize identification with, and admiration for the political thoughts of Sun Yat-sen, and his Three Principles of the People.


title: Flag of the Republic of China

text: One irony is that given the association of the flag with Chinese nationalism in opposition to Taiwan independence, the ROC flag has found an unexpected ally in the People's Republic of China. The PRC has criticized Taiwan independence groups for wishing to change or abolish the ROC flag, and has implied that legal steps to do so would bring a strongly negative reaction from the PRC.


title: Flag of the Republic of China

text: However, the presence of the ROC flag in Taiwan also distinguishes the fact that Taiwan and ROC territorial islands elsewhere fall under jurisdiction of a country separate from that of mainland China, the People's Republic of China (PRC). The hoisting of the ROC flag is even advocated by the most extreme Taiwanese independence supporters, such as Taiwan Solidarity Union members when emphasizing the separate and independently governed systems and territories of the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China in mainland China.


title: Flag of the Republic of China

text: The specific designs of the flag are located in the "Law about the national flag and emblem of the Republic of China." The ratio of the flag is 2:3, with most of it being red. One-fourth of the flag is blue, which contains the 12 pointed sun. Each sun ray is 30 degrees, so the total sun rays will make up a complete 360 degree circle. Inside the sun, the blue ring is the diameter of the white sun divided by 15.


title: Flag of the Republic of China

text: In later years, more details regarding of the canton area (also used as the flag of the KMT), were codified into law. In the drawing released in "Law on the Party and National Flag Manufacturing and Methods" (), the sun was drawn in more specific detail and mathematical values were given to all elements in the flag. In the law, the canton still had a ratio of 2:3, but the math values given were 24x36 meters. The diameter of the sun with rays is of height of the canton, so in this case, it will be 18. The diameter of the white sun without the sun rays is of the width of the canton, so it is 9. The blue ring that is on top of this sun and part of the rays is diameter of the white sun, so the size will be 0.6. The angle of the rays, 30 degrees, and the total number of rays have not changed.


title: Flag of the Republic of China

text: The colours of the national flag are dark red, white and dark blue. However, the KMT party flag only uses white and dark blue; both flags are to be topped with a golden finial. The law does not list any specific colour processes, such as Pantone, to manufacturing or drawing the flag. The Ministry of the Interior provides colours only for reference. Other publications, such as the "Album des pavillons nationaux et des marques distinctives", have given approximations for Pantone colours: the dark blue as Pantone 301c and the dark red as Pantone 186c. "Album des pavillons" also gave the approximate CMYK colours for the flag; dark blue is 100-45-0-10 and dark red is 0-90-75-5.


title: Flag of the Republic of China

text: In the early years of the Republic, under the KMT's political tutelage, the flag shared the same prominence as the KMT party flag. A common wall display consisted of the KMT flag perched on the left and the ROC flag perched on the right, each tilted at an angle with a portrait of Father of the Nation Sun Yat-sen displayed in the center. For the summits held between the KMT and Communist Party during the Chinese Civil War, the ROC flag was displayed at an equal position to the flag of the Chinese Soviet Republic (Jiangxi Soviet). Later, the flag law specified a horizontal display of the flag with the portrait of Sun Yat-sen in a portion of the red field at the center position. This display can be found in numerous government offices in Taiwan and is that which the President and Vice President face to take the oath of office.


title: Flag of the Republic of China

text: The flag has a ubiquitous presence in Taiwan. The hoisting and lowering of the flag are ceremoniously accompanied by the National Flag Anthem of the Republic of China while those present stand at attention to give a standard salute with the right hand, held flat, to the right eyebrow. Schoolchildren have traditionally been required to attend morning rallies where the flag is raised after a rendition of the "National Anthem of the Republic of China". Before martial law was lifted in 1987 in Taiwan, it was required that all vehicles be halted when passing by a flag ceremony.


title: Flag of the Republic of China

text: The symbolism of the ROC flag began to shift in the early 21st century as there was a warming of relations between the pan-Blue coalition in Taiwan and the Chinese Communist Party on mainland China. The flag of the Republic of China has begun to symbolize a common shared history between both mainland China and Taiwan, and as such the government of the PRC has made it clear that for Taiwan to change the flag would be a major provocation in favor of Taiwan independence. The ambiguity surrounding the flag was made apparent during the trip of Kuomintang Chairman Lien Chan to mainland China in April 2005, during which the flag was very prominently displayed at ceremonies honoring Sun Yat-Sen at which both KMT party officials and government officials from the PRC were in attendance. One place in Mainland China where the White Sun emblem is still prominently displayed in public is the ceiling mosaic within Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing.


title: Flag of the Republic of China

text: The use of the flag in Taiwan reflects the controversy behind its symbolism. Although supporters of Taiwan independence, such as former President Chen Shui-bian, will display and salute the flag on formal official state occasions, it is never seen at political rallies of the Democratic Progressive Party. This is not only because of its association with mainland China but also because the flag contains design elements of the KMT party flag. By contrast, the ROC flag is always extremely prominent at political rallies of the pan-Blue coalition. This difference extends to the colours seen at the rallies. Rallies of the pan-Blue coalition give prominence to the colours of the ROC flag, with very large amounts of blue and smaller amounts of red. Rallies of independence-leaning parties are filled with green, with no blue or red at all.


title: Flag of the Republic of China

text: Some supporters of Taiwan independence, including former president Lee Teng-hui, have called for the abandonment of the flag, and there are a number of alternative designs for a specifically Taiwanese flag. However, the prospects for this are not high given that changing the flag requires a constitutional amendment; that the current flag has a huge amount of support among pan-Blue supporters and grudging acceptance among moderate independence supporters; and because changing the flag might cause political tension with the PRC. During the 2004 ROC legislative elections, it was briefly suggested that if the pan-green coalition won the elections that it would force the KMT to change the party emblem to be different from the flag. This proposal generated a few days of controversy and was then quickly forgotten.


title: Flag of the Republic of China

text: There has been disagreement in the overseas Chinese community on which flag to fly to represent themselves, supporters and organizations of the Chinese democracy movement often fly the ROC flag rather than the PRC flag to symbolize opposition to Communist rule.


title: Pink noise

text: Pink noise or noise is a signal or process with a frequency spectrum such that the power spectral density (power per frequency interval) is inversely proportional to the frequency of the signal. In pink noise, each octave interval (halving or doubling in frequency) carries an equal amount of noise energy.


title: Pink noise

text: Pink noise sounds like a waterfall. It is often used to tune loudspeaker systems in professional audio. Pink noise is one of the most commonly observed signals in biological systems.


title: Pink noise

text: The name arises from the pink appearance of visible light with this power spectrum. This is in contrast with white noise which has equal intensity per frequency interval.


title: Pink noise

text: Within the scientific literature, the term 1/f noise is sometimes used loosely to refer to any noise with a power spectral density of the form


title: Pink noise

text: where "f" is frequency, and 0 < α < 2, with exponent α usually close to 1. One-dimensional signals with α = 1 are usually called pink noise.


title: Pink noise

text: The following function describes a length formula_2 one-dimensional pink noise signal (i.e. a Gaussian white noise signal with zero mean and sd formula_3 that has been filtered), as a sum of sine waves with different frequencies, whose amplitudes fall off inversely with the square root of frequency formula_4 (so that power, which is the square of amplitude, falls off inversely with frequency), and phases are random:


title: Pink noise

text: In a two-dimensional pink noise signal, the amplitude at any orientation falls off inversely with frequency. A pink noise square of length formula_2 can be written as:


title: Pink noise

text: General 1/"f"-like noises occur widely in nature and are a source of considerable interest in many fields. Noises with α near 1 generally come from condensed-matter systems in quasi-equilibrium, as discussed below. Noises with a broad range of α generally correspond to a wide range of non-equilibrium driven dynamical systems.


title: Pink noise

text: Pink noise sources include "flicker noise" in electronic devices. In their study of fractional Brownian motion, Mandelbrot and Van Ness proposed the name "fractional noise" (sometimes since called "fractal noise") to describe 1/"f" noises for which the exponent α is not an even integer, or that are fractional derivatives of Brownian (1/"f") noise.


title: Pink noise

text: In pink noise, there is equal energy per octave of frequency. The energy of pink noise at each frequency level, however, falls off at roughly 1-3 dB per octave. This is in contrast to White noise which has equal energy at all frequency levels.


title: Pink noise

text: The human auditory system, which processes frequencies in a roughly logarithmic fashion approximated by the Bark scale, does not perceive different frequencies with equal sensitivity; signals around 1–4 kHz sound loudest for a given intensity. However, humans still differentiate between white noise and pink noise with ease.


title: Pink noise

text: Graphic equalizers also divide signals into bands logarithmically and report power by octaves; audio engineers put pink noise through a system to test whether it has a flat frequency response in the spectrum of interest. Systems that do not have a flat response can be equalized by creating an inverse filter using a graphic equalizer. Because pink noise tends to occur in natural physical systems, it is often useful in audio production. Pink noise can be processed, filtered, and/or effects can be added to produce desired sounds. Pink-noise generators are commercially available.


title: Pink noise

text: One parameter of noise, the peak versus average energy contents, or crest factor, is important for testing purposes, such as for audio power amplifier and loudspeaker capabilities because the signal power is a direct function of the crest factor. Various crest factors of pink noise can be used in simulations of various levels of dynamic range compression in music signals. On some digital pink-noise generators the crest factor can be specified.


title: Pink noise

text: Pink noise can be computer-generated by first generating a white noise signal, Fourier-transforming it, then dividing the amplitudes of the different frequency components by the square root of the frequency (in one dimension), or by the frequency (in two dimensions) etc. This is equivalent to spatially filtering (convolving) the white noise signal with a white-to-pink-filter. For a length formula_2 signal in one dimension, the filter has the following form:


title: Pink noise

text: Matlab programs are available to generate pink and other power-law coloured noise in one or any number of dimensions.


title: Pink noise

text: The power spectrum of pink noise is formula_12 only for one-dimensional signals. For two-dimensional signals (e.g., images) the average power spectrum at any orientation falls as formula_13, and in formula_14 dimensions, it falls as formula_15. In every case, each octave carries an equal amount of noise power.


title: Pink noise

text: The average amplitude formula_16 and power formula_17 of a pink noise signal at any orientation formula_18, and the total power across all orientations, fall off as some power of the frequency. The following table lists these power-law frequency-dependencies for pink noise signal in different dimensions, and also for general power-law colored noise with power formula_19 (e.g.: Brown noise has formula_20):


title: Pink noise

text: Consider pink noise of any dimension that is produced by generating a Gaussian white noise signal with mean formula_21 and sd formula_3, then multiplying its spectrum with a filter (equivalent to spatially filtering it with a filter formula_23). Then the point values of the pink noise signal will also be normally distributed, with mean formula_21 and sd formula_25.


title: Pink noise

text: Unlike white noise, which has no correlations across the signal, a pink noise signal is correlated with itself.


title: Pink noise

text: The Pearson's correlation coefficient of a one-dimensional pink noise signal (comprising discrete frequencies formula_26) with itself across a distance formula_14 is:


title: Pink noise

text: If instead of discrete frequencies, the pink noise comprises a superposition of continuous frequencies from formula_29 to formula_30, the autocorrelation coefficient is:


title: Pink noise

text: The Pearson's autocorrelation coefficient of a two-dimensional pink noise signal comprising discrete frequencies is theoretically approximated as:


title: Pink noise

text: Pink noise has been discovered in the statistical fluctuations of an extraordinarily diverse number of physical and biological systems (Press, 1978; see articles in Handel & Chung, 1993, and references therein). Examples of its occurrence include fluctuations in tide and river heights, quasar light emissions, heart beat, firings of single neurons, resistivity in solid-state electronics and single-molecule conductance signals resulting in flicker noise. Pink noise describes the statistical structure of many natural images.


title: Pink noise

text: General 1/"f" noises occur in many physical, biological and economic systems, and some researchers describe them as being ubiquitous. In physical systems, they are present in some meteorological data series, the electromagnetic radiation output of some astronomical bodies. In biological systems, they are present in, for example, heart beat rhythms, neural activity, and the statistics of DNA sequences, as a generalized pattern.


title: Pink noise

text: An accessible introduction to the significance of pink noise is one given by Martin Gardner (1978) in his "Scientific American" column "Mathematical Games". In this column, Gardner asked for the sense in which music imitates nature. Sounds in nature are not musical in that they tend to be either too repetitive (bird song, insect noises) or too chaotic (ocean surf, wind in trees, and so forth). The answer to this question was given in a statistical sense by Voss and Clarke (1975, 1978), who showed that pitch and loudness fluctuations in speech and music are pink noises. So music is like tides not in terms of how tides sound, but in how tide heights vary.


title: Pink noise

text: In brains, pink noise has been widely observed across many temporal and physical scales from ion channel gating to EEG and MEG recordings in humans. In clinical EEG, deviations from this 1/f pink noise can be used to identify epilepsy, even in the absence of a seizure, or during the interictal state. Classic models of EEG generators suggested that dendritic inputs in gray matter were principally responsible for generating the 1/f power spectrum observed in EEG/MEG signals. However, recent computational models using cable theory have shown that action potential transduction along white matter tracts in the brain also generates a 1/f spectral density. Therefore, white matter signal transduction may also contribute to pink noise measured in scalp EEG recordings.


title: Pink noise

text: It has also been successfully applied to the modeling of mental states in psychology, and used to explain stylistic variations in music from different cultures and historic periods. Richard F. Voss and J. Clarke claim that almost all musical melodies, when each successive note is plotted on a scale of pitches, will tend towards a pink noise spectrum. Similarly, a generally pink distribution pattern has been observed in film shot length by researcher James E. Cutting of Cornell University, in the study of 150 popular movies released from 1935 to 2005.


title: Pink noise

text: Pink noise has also been found to be endemic in human response. Gilden et al. (1995) found extremely pure examples of this noise in the time series formed upon iterated production of temporal and spatial intervals. Later, Gilden (1997) and Gilden (2001) found that time series formed from reaction time measurement and from iterated two-alternative forced choice also produced pink noises.


title: Pink noise

text: The principal sources of pink noise in electronic devices are almost invariably the slow fluctuations of properties of the condensed-matter materials of the devices. In many cases the specific sources of the fluctuations are known. These include fluctuating configurations of defects in metals, fluctuating occupancies of traps in semiconductors, and fluctuating domain structures in magnetic materials. The explanation for the approximately pink spectral form turns out to be relatively trivial, usually coming from a distribution of kinetic activation energies of the fluctuating processes. Since the frequency range of the typical noise experiment (e.g., 1 Hz – 1 kHz) is low compared with typical microscopic "attempt frequencies" (e.g., 10 Hz), the exponential factors in the Arrhenius equation for the rates are large. Relatively small spreads in the activation energies appearing in these exponents then result in large spreads of characteristic rates. In the simplest toy case, a flat distribution of activation energies gives exactly a pink spectrum, because formula_35


title: Pink noise

text: There is no known lower bound to background pink noise in electronics. Measurements made down to 10 Hz (taking several weeks) have not shown a ceasing of pink-noise behaviour.


title: Pink noise

text: 1/"f" noises with α near 1 are a factor in gravitational-wave astronomy. The noise curve at very low frequencies affects pulsar timing arrays, the European Pulsar Timing Array (EPTA) and the future International Pulsar Timing Array (IPTA); at low frequencies are space-borne detectors, the formerly proposed Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) and the currently proposed evolved Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (eLISA), and at high frequencies are ground-based detectors, the initial Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and its advanced configuration (aLIGO). The characteristic strain of potential astrophysical sources are also shown. To be detectable the characteristic strain of a signal must be above the noise curve.


title: Pink noise

text: Pink noise on timescales of decades has been found in climate proxy data, which may indicate amplification and coupling of processes in the climate system.


title: Pink noise

text: Many time-dependent stochastic processes are known to exhibit 1/"f" noises with α between 0 and 2. In particular Brownian motion has a power spectral density that equals 4"D"/"f", where "D" is the diffusion coefficient. This type of spectrum is sometimes referred to as Brownian noise. Interestingly, the analysis of individual Brownian motion trajectories also show 1/"f" spectrum, albeit with random amplitudes. Fractional Brownian motion with Hurst exponent "H" also show 1/"f" power spectral density with α=2"H"+1 for subdiffusive processes ("H"<0.5) and α=2 for superdiffusive processes (0.5<"H"<1).


title: Pink noise

text: There are many theories about the origin of pink noise. Some theories attempt to be universal, while others apply to only a certain type of material, such as semiconductors. Universal theories of pink noise remain a matter of current research interest.


title: Pink noise

text: A hypothesis (referred to as the Tweedie hypothesis) has been proposed to explain the genesis of pink noise on the basis of a mathematical convergence theorem related to the central limit theorem of statistics. The Tweedie convergence theorem describes the convergence of certain statistical processes towards a family of statistical models known as the Tweedie distributions. These distributions are characterized by a variance to mean power law, that have been variously identified in the ecological literature as Taylor's law and in the physics literature as "fluctuation scaling". When this variance to mean power law is demonstrated by the method of expanding enumerative bins this implies the presence of pink noise, and vice versa. Both of these effects can be shown to be the consequence of mathematical convergence such as how certain kinds of data will converge towards the normal distribution under the central limit theorem. This hypothesis also provides for an alternative paradigm to explain power law manifestations that have been attributed to self-organized criticality.


title: Pink noise

text: There are various mathematical models to create pink noise. Although self-organised criticality has been able to reproduce pink noise in sandpile models, these do not have a Gaussian distribution or other expected statistical qualities. It can be generated on computer, for example, by filtering white noise, inverse Fourier transform, or by multirate variants on standard white noise generation.


title: Pink noise

text: In supersymmetric theory of stochastics, an approximation-free theory of stochastic differential equations, 1/"f" noise is one of the manifestations of the spontaneous breakdown of topological supersymmetry. This supersymmetry is an intrinsic property of all stochastic differential equations and its meaning is the preservation of the continuity of the phase space by continuous time dynamics. Spontaneous breakdown of this supersymmetry is the stochastic generalization of the concept of deterministic chaos, whereas the associated emergence of the long-term dynamical memory or order, i.e., 1/"f" and crackling noises, the Butterfly effect etc., is the consequence of the Goldstone theorem in the application to the spontaneously broken topological supersymmetry.


title: Pink noise

text: Pink noise is commonly used to test the loudspeakers in sound reinforcement systems, with the resulting sound measured with a test microphone in the listening space connected to a spectrum analyzer or a computer running a real-time fast Fourier transform (FFT) analyzer program such as Smaart. The sound system plays pink noise while the audio engineer makes adjustments on an audio equalizer to obtain the desired results. Pink noise is predictable and repeatable, but it is annoying for a concert audience to hear. Since the late 1990s, FFT-based analysis enabled the engineer to make adjustments using pre-recorded music as the test signal, or even the music coming from the performers in real time. Pink noise is still used by audio system contractors and by computerized sound systems which incorporate an automatic equalization feature.


title: Pink noise

text: In manufacturing, pink noise is often used as a burn-in signal for audio amplifiers and other components, to determine whether the component will maintain performance integrity during sustained use. The process of end-users burning in their headphones with pink noise to attain higher fidelity has been called an audiophile "myth".


title: Philosophy of education

text: The philosophy of education is the branch of applied philosophy that investigates the nature of education as well as its aims and problems. It includes the examination of educational theories, the presuppositions present in them, and the arguments for and against them. It is an interdisciplinary field that draws inspiration from various disciplines both within and outside philosophy, like ethics, political philosophy, psychology, and sociology. These connections are also reflected in the significant and wide-ranging influence the philosophy of education has had on other disciplines. Many of its theories focus specifically on education in schools but it also encompasses other forms of education. Its theories are often divided into descriptive and normative theories. Descriptive theories provide a value-neutral account of what education is and how to understand its fundamental concepts, in contrast to normative theories, which investigate how education should be practiced or what is the right form of education.


title: Philosophy of education

text: One of the difficulties in giving a more precise definition is the great variety of topics that are being discussed in the philosophy of education. Some studies focus on its fundamental concepts, like the concepts of education, teaching, learning, and student. Such studies often take the form of conceptual analysis, which aims to clarify concepts by discovering their fundamental constituents. Many discussions center around the aims of education, i.e. issues like why individuals should be educated and what purposes should be pursued in the process. There is wide agreement that these aims include passing on knowledge as well as the development of the abilities of good reasoning, judging, and acting. But theories describing more specific goals and their relative importance are usually controversial. Prominent suggestions include curiosity, creativity, rationality, morality, freedom, autonomy, and open-mindedness. An important discussion concerning the epistemic aims of education is whether education should focus mainly on the transmission of true beliefs or rather on the ability to reason and arrive at new knowledge on one's own. In this context, many theorists emphasize the importance of critical thinking in contrast to indoctrination. Critical thinking is a form of reasoning that is reflective, careful, and focused on determining what to believe or how to act. It also involves the ability to challenge unwarranted claims by epistemic authorities, in contrast to indoctrination, which is primarily concerned with instilling certain beliefs into the student's mind without regard to their evidential status. Another debate about the aims of education is whether the primary beneficiary is the individual educated or the society having this individual as its member.


title: Philosophy of education

text: Many of the more specific discussions in the philosophy of education concern the contents of the curriculum. This involves the questions of whether, when, and in what detail a certain topic, like sex education or religion, should be taught. Other debates focus on the specific contents and methods used in moral, art, and science education. Some philosophers investigate the relation between education and power, often specifically regarding the power used by modern states to compel children to attend school, a practice rejected by some advocates of the movements of deschooling and unschooling. A different issue is the problem of the equality of education, i.e. the demand that all students should be treated equally in public education. This is often understood in the sense that education should open the same opportunities to everyone. This ideal is threatened by various sources of inequality, like active discrimination and unequal distribution of wealth. In regard to educational research, some philosophers of education promote a quantitative approach, which follows the example of the natural sciences by using wide experimental studies. Others prefer a qualitative approach, which is closer to the methodology of the social sciences and tends to give more prominence to individual case studies. A topic that came to particular prominence in the contemporary discussion is the role of standardized testing in public schools.


title: Philosophy of education

text: Various schools of philosophy have developed their own perspective on the main issues of education. Existentialists emphasize the role of authenticity while pragmatists give particular prominence to active learning and discovery. Feminists and postmodernists often try to uncover and challenge biases and forms of discrimination present in current educational practices. Other philosophical movements include perennialism, classical education, essentialism, critical pedagogy, and progressivism. The history of the philosophy of education started in ancient philosophy and has remained an important topic to the present day. Despite its long and diverse history, it only emerged as a systematic branch of philosophy in the latter half of the 20th century. In universities, the philosophy of education usually forms part of departments or colleges of education.


title: Philosophy of education

text: The philosophy of education is the branch of philosophy that examines the nature, aims, and problems of education. As the philosophical study of education, it investigates its topic similar to how other discipline-specific branches of philosophy, like the philosophy of science or the philosophy of law, study their topics. A central task for the philosophy of education is to make explicit the various fundamental assumptions and disagreements at work in its field and to evaluate the arguments raised for and against the different positions. The issue of education has a great many manifestations in various fields. Because of this, both the breadth and the influence of the philosophy of education are significant and wide-ranging, touching many other branches of philosophy, such as ethics, political philosophy, epistemology, metaphysics, and philosophy of mind. Its theories are often formulated from the perspective of these other philosophical disciplines. But due to its interdisciplinary nature, it also attracts contributions from scholars belonging to fields outside the domain of philosophy.


title: Philosophy of education

text: While there is wide agreement on the general topics discussed in the philosophy of education, it has proven difficult to give a precise definition of it. The philosophy of education belongs mainly to applied philosophy. According to some definitions, it can be characterized as an offshoot of ethics. But not everyone agrees with this characterization since the philosophy of education has a more theoretical side as well, which includes the examination of the fundamental concepts and theories of education as well as their philosophical implications. These two sides are sometimes referred to as the outward and the inward looking nature of the philosophy of education. Its topics can range from very general questions, like the nature of the knowledge worth teaching, to more specific issues, like how to teach art or whether public schools should implement standardized curricula and testing.


title: Philosophy of education

text: The problem of education was already an important topic in ancient philosophy and has remained so to the present day. But it only emerged as a distinct branch of philosophy in the latter half of the 20th century, when it became the subject of a systematic study and analysis. The term "education" can refer either to the process of educating or to the field of study investigating education as this process. This ambiguity is also reflected on the level of the philosophy of education, which encompasses the study of the philosophical presuppositions and issues both of education as a process and as a discipline. Many works in the philosophy of education focus explicitly or implicitly on the education happening in schools. But in its widest sense, education takes place in various other fields as well, such as at home, in libraries, in museums, or in the public media. Different types of education can be distinguished, such as formal and informal education or private and public education.


title: Philosophy of education

text: Different subdivisions of the philosophy of education have been suggested. One categorization distinguishes between descriptive and normative issues. Descriptive theories aim to describe what education is and how to understand its related concepts. This includes also epistemological questions, which ask not whether a theory about education is true or false, but how one can arrive at the knowledge to answer such questions. Normative theories, on the other hand, try to give an account of how education should be practiced or what is the right form of education. Some normative theories are built on a wider ethical framework of what is right or good and then arrive at their educational normative theories by applying this framework to the practice of education. But the descriptive and the normative approaches are intertwined and cannot always be clearly separated since descriptive findings often directly imply various normative attitudes.


title: Philosophy of education

text: Another categorization divides topics in the philosophy of education into the nature and aims of education on the one hand, and the methods and circumstances of education on the other hand. The latter section may again be divided into concrete normative theories and the study of the conceptual and methodological presuppositions of these theories. Other classifications additionally include areas for topics such as the role of reasoning and morality as well as issues pertaining to social and political topics and the curriculum.


title: Philosophy of education

text: The theories within the philosophy of education can also be subdivided based on the school of philosophy they belong to. Various schools of philosophy, such as existentialism, pragmatism, Marxism, postmodernism, and feminism, have developed their own perspective on the main issues of education. They often include normative theories about how education should or should not be practiced and are in most cases controversial.


title: Philosophy of education

text: Another approach is to simply list all topics discussed in the philosophy of education. Among them are the issues and presuppositions concerning sex education, science education, aesthetic education, religious education, moral education, multicultural education, professional education, theories of teaching and learning, the measurement of learning, knowledge and its value, cultivating reason, epistemic and moral aims of education, authority, fallibilism, and fallibility.


title: Philosophy of education

text: The starting point of many philosophical inquiries into a field is the examination and clarification of the fundamental concepts used in this field, often in the form of conceptual analysis. This approach is particularly prominent in the analytic tradition. It aims to make ambiguities explicit and to uncover various implicit and potentially false assumptions associated with these terms.


title: Philosophy of education

text: Theorists in this field often emphasize the importance of this form of investigation since all subsequent work on more specific issues already has to assume at least implicitly what their central terms mean to demarcate their field. For example, in order to study what constitutes good education, one has to have a notion of what the term "education" means and how to achieve, measure, and evaluate it. Definitions of education can be divided into thin and thick definitions. Thin definitions are neutral and descriptive. They usually emphasize the role of the transmission of knowledge and understanding in education. Thick definitions include additional normative components, for example, by stating that the process in question has to have certain positive results to be called education. According to one thick definition, education means that the person educated has acquired knowledge and intellectual skills, values these factors, and has thus changed for the better. These characteristics can then be used to distinguish education from other closely related terms, such as "indoctrination". Other fundamental notions in the philosophy of education include the concepts of teaching, learning, student, schooling, and rearing.


title: Philosophy of education

text: A central question in the philosophy of education concerns the aims of education, i.e. the question of why people should be educated and what goals should be pursued in the process of education. This issue is highly relevant for evaluating educational practices and products by assessing how well they manage to realize these goals. There is a lot of disagreement and various theories have been proposed concerning the aims of education. Prominent suggestions include that education should foster knowledge, curiosity, creativity, rationality, and critical thinking while also promoting the tendency to think, feel, and act morally. The individual should thereby develop as a person, and achieve self-actualization by realizing their potential. Some theorists emphasize the cultivation of liberal ideals, such as freedom, autonomy, and open-mindedness, while others stress the importance of docility, obedience to authority, and ideological purity, sometimes also with a focus on piety and religious faith. Many suggestions concern the social domain, such as fostering a sense of community and solidarity and thus turning the individual into a productive member of society while protecting them from the potentially negative influences of society. The discussion of these positions and the arguments cited for and against them often include references to various disciplines in their justifications, such as ethics, psychology, anthropology, and sociology.


title: Philosophy of education

text: There is wide consensus concerning certain general aims of education, like that it should foster all students, help them in the development of their ability to reason, and guide them in how to judge and act. But these general characteristics are usually too vague to be of much help and there are many disagreements about the more specific suggestions of what education should aim for. Some attempts have been made to provide an overarching framework of these different aims. According to one approach, education should at its core help the individual lead a good life. All the different more specific goals are aims of education to the extent that they serve this ultimate purpose. On this view, it may be argued that fostering rationality and autonomy in the students are aims of education to the extent that increased rationality and autonomy will result in the student leading a better life.


title: Philosophy of education

text: The different theories of the aims of education are sometimes divided into "goods-based", "skills-based", and "character-based" accounts. "Goods-based" accounts hold that the ultimate aim of education is to produce some form of epistemic good, such as truth, knowledge, and understanding. "Skills-based" accounts, on the other hand, see the development of certain skills, like rationality as well as critical and independent thinking as the goal of education. For "character-based" accounts, the character traits or virtues of the learner play the central role, often with an emphasis on moral and civic traits like kindness, justice, and honesty.


title: Philosophy of education

text: Many theories emphasize the epistemic aims of education. According to the epistemic approach, the central aim of education has to do with knowledge, for example, to pass on knowledge accumulated in the societal effort from one generation to the next. This process may be seen both as the development of the student's mind as well as the transmission of a valuable heritage. Such an approach is sometimes rejected by pragmatists, who emphasize experimentation and critical thinking over the transmission of knowledge. Others have argued that this constitutes a false dichotomy: that the transmission of knowledge and the development of a rational and critical mind are intertwined aims of education that depend on and support each other. In this sense, education aims also at fostering the ability to acquire new knowledge. This includes both instilling true beliefs in the students as well as teaching the methods and forms of evidence responsible for verifying existing beliefs and arriving at new knowledge. It promotes the epistemic autonomy of students and may help them challenge unwarranted claims by epistemic authorities. In its widest sense, the epistemic approach includes various related goals, such as imparting true beliefs or knowledge to the students as well as teaching dispositions and abilities, such as rationality, critical thinking, understanding, and other intellectual virtues.