title: Chief mate

text: To become a chief mate (unlimited) in the United States, one must first accumulate at least 365 days of service while holding a second mate's license. Then, the candidate must attend approximately 13 weeks of classes or complete the assessments from NMC Policy Letter 04-02 and pass a series of examinations given by the United States Coast Guard. Similarly, one must have worked as a third mate for 365 days to have become a second mate. There are many special cases in license upgrades at the individual level, as licensing regulations change from time to time. A sizable portion of mates still working received their licenses before current laws went into effect.


title: Chief mate

text: There are two methods to attain an unlimited third mate's license in the United States: to attend a specialized training institution, or to accumulate "sea time" and take a series of training classes and examinations.


title: Chief mate

text: Training institutions that can lead to a third mate's license include the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (deck curriculum), the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and U.S. Naval Academy with qualification as an underway officer in charge of a navigational watch, any of the state maritime colleges, the Great Lakes Maritime Academy, or a three-year apprentice mate training program approved by the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard.


title: Chief mate

text: A seaman may start the process of attaining a license after three years of service in the deck department on ocean steam or motor vessels, at least six months of which as able seaman, boatswain, or quartermaster. Then the seaman takes required training courses, and completes on-board assessments. Finally, the mariner can apply to the United States Coast Guard for a Third Mate's license.


title: Chief mate

text: A master of 1,600 ton vessels can, under certain circumstances, begin the application process for an unlimited third mate's license.


title: Chief mate

text: If approved the applicant must then successfully pass a comprehensive license examination before being issued the license. "Hawsepiper" is an informal maritime industry term used to refer to an officer who began his or her career as an unlicensed merchant seaman and did not attend a traditional maritime college/academy to earn the officer license.


title: Chief mate

text: A ship's hawsepipe is the pipe passing through the bow section of a ship that the anchor chain passes through. Hawsepiper refers to climbing up the hawsepipe, a nautical metaphor for climbing up the ship's rank structure. Hawsepiper is considered a positive term when said respectfully. Many hawsepipers are proud of their background and use the term to describe themselves.


title: Chief mate

text: Several merchant seamen's unions offer their membership the required training to for career advancement. Similarly, some employers offer financial assistance to pay for the training for their employees. Otherwise, the mariner is responsible for the cost of the required training.


title: Chief mate

text: Since the requirements of STCW '95 have been enacted, there have been complaints that the hawsepiper progression path has been made too difficult because of the cost in time and money to meet formal classroom training requirements. These critics assert that the newer requirements will eventually lead to a shortage of qualified mariners, especially in places like the United States.


title: Nautiloid

text: Nautiloids are a group of marine cephalopods (Mollusca) which originated in the Late Cambrian and are represented today by the living "Nautilus" and "Allonautilus". Fossil nautiloids are diverse and speciose, with over 2,500 recorded species. They flourished during the early Paleozoic era, when they constituted the main predatory animals. Early in their evolution, nautiloids developed an extraordinary diversity of shell shapes, including coiled morphologies and giant straight-shelled forms (orthocones). Only a handful of rare coiled species, the nautiluses, survive to the present day.


title: Nautiloid

text: In a broad sense, "nautiloid" refers to a major cephalopod subclass or collection of subclasses (Nautiloidea "sensu lato). Nautiloids are typically considered one of three main groups of cephalopods, along with the extinct ammonoids (ammonites) and living coleoids (such as squid, octopus, and kin). While ammonoids and coleoids are monophyletic clades with exclusive ancestor-descendant relationships, this is not the case for nautiloids. Instead, nautiloids are a paraphyletic grade of various early-diverging cephalopod lineages, including the ancestors of ammonoids and coleoids. Some authors prefer a narrower definition of Nautiloidea (Nautiloidea "sensu stricto), as a singular subclass including only those cephalopods which are close to living nautiluses.


title: Nautiloid

text: Nautiloids are among the group of animals known as cephalopods, an advanced class of mollusks which also includes ammonoids, belemnites and modern coleoids such as octopus and squid. Other mollusks include gastropods, scaphopods and bivalves.


title: Nautiloid

text: Traditionally, the most common classification of the cephalopods has been a four-fold division (by Bather, 1888), into the orthoceratoids, nautiloids, ammonoids, and coleoids. This article is about nautiloids in that broad sense, sometimes called Nautiloidea "sensu lato".


title: Nautiloid

text: Cladistically speaking, nautiloids are a paraphyletic assemblage united by shared primitive (plesiomorphic) features not found in derived cephalopods. In other words, they are a grade group that is thought to have given rise to orthoceratoids, ammonoids and coleoids, and are defined by the exclusion of those descendent groups. Both ammonoids and coleoids have traditionally been assumed to have descended from bactritids, which in turn arose from straight-shelled orthoceratoids. The ammonoids appeared early in the Devonian period (some 400 million years ago) and became abundant in the Mesozoic era, before their extinction at the end of the Cretaceous.


title: Nautiloid

text: Some workers apply the name Nautiloidea to a more exclusive group, called Nautiloidea "sensu stricto". This taxon consists only of those orders that are clearly related to the modern nautilus to the exclusion of other modern cephalopods. In this restricted defition, membership is somewhat variable between authors, but it usually includes Tarphycerida, Oncocerida, and Nautilida.


title: Nautiloid

text: All nautiloids have a large external shell, divided into a narrowing chambered region (the phragmocone) and a broad, open body chamber occupied by the animal in life. The outer wall of the shell, also known as the conch, defines its overall shape and texture. The chambers (camerae) of the phragmocone are separated from each other by thin curved walls (septa), which formed during growth spurts of the animal. During a growth spurt, the rear of the mantle secretes a new septum, adding another chamber to the series of shell chambers. At the same time, shell material is added around the shell opening (aperture), enlarging the body chamber and providing more room for the growing animal. Sutures (or suture lines) appear where each septum contacts the wall of the outer shell. In life, they are visible as a series of narrow wavy lines on the outer surface of the shell. Like their underlying septa, the sutures of the nautiloids are simple in shape, being either straight or slightly curved. This is different from the "zigzag" sutures of the goniatites and the highly complex sutures of the ammonites.


title: Nautiloid

text: The septa are perforated by the siphuncle, a fleshy tube which runs through each of the internal chambers of the shell. Surrounding the fleshy tube of the siphuncle are structures made of aragonite (a polymorph of calcium carbonate – which during fossilisation is often recrystallized to calcite, a more stable form of calcium carbonate [CaCO]): septal necks and connecting rings. Some of the earlier nautiloids deposited calcium carbonate in the empty chambers (called "cameral deposits") or within the siphuncle ("endosiphuncular deposits"), a process which may have been connected with controlling buoyancy. The nature of the siphuncle and its position within the shell are important in classifying nautiloids and can help distinguish them from ammonoids. The siphuncle is on the shell periphery in most ammonoids whereas it runs through the center of the chambers in some nautiloids, including living nautiluses.


title: Nautiloid

text: The subclass Nautiloidea, in its broader definition, is distinguished from other cephalopods by two main characteristics: the septa are smoothly concave in the forward direction, producing external sutures which are generally simple and smooth. The siphuncle is supported by septal necks which point to the rear (i.e. retrosiphonate) throughout the ontogeny of the animal.


title: Nautiloid

text: Modern nautiluses have deeply coiled shells which are involute, meaning that the larger and more recent whorls overlap and obscure older whorls. The shells of fossil nautiloids may be either straight (i.e., orthoconic as in "Orthoceras" and "Rayonnoceras"), curved (as in "Cyrtoceras") coiled (as in "Cenoceras"), or rarely a helical coil (as in "Lorieroceras"). Some species' shells—especially in the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic—are ornamented with spines and ribs, but most have a smooth shell. The shells are formed of aragonite, although the cameral deposits may consist of primary calcite. The coloration of the shell of the modern nautilus is quite prominent, and, although somewhat rarely, the shell coloration has been known to be preserved in fossil nautiloids. They often show color patterns only on the dorsal side, suggesting that the living animals swam horizontally.


title: Nautiloid

text: Much of what is known about the extinct nautiloids is based on what we know about modern nautiluses, such as the chambered nautilus, which is found in the southwest Pacific Ocean from Samoa to the Philippines, and in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Australia. It is not usually found in waters less than 100 meters (328 feet) deep and may be found as far down as .


title: Nautiloid

text: Nautili are free swimming animals that possess a head with two simple lens-free eyes and arms (or tentacles). They have a smooth shell over a large body chamber, which is divided into subchambers filled with an inert gas (similar to the composition of atmospheric air, but with more nitrogen and less oxygen) making the animal neutrally buoyant in the water. As many as 90 tentacles are arranged in two circles around the mouth. The animal is predatory, and has jaws which are horny and beak-like, allowing it to feed on crustaceans.


title: Nautiloid

text: Empty nautilus shells may drift a considerable distance and have been reported from Japan, India and Africa. Undoubtedy the same applies to the shells of fossil nautiloids, the gas inside the shell keeping it buoyant for some time after the animal's death, allowing the empty shell to be carried some distance from where the animal lived before finally sinking to the seafloor.


title: Nautiloid

text: Nautili propel themselves by jet propulsion, expelling water from an elongated funnel called the hyponome, which can be pointed in different directions to control their movement. Unlike the belemnites and other cephalopods, modern nautili do not have an ink sac, and there is no evidence to suggest that the extinct forms possessed one either. Furthermore, unlike the extinct ammonoids, the modern nautilus lacks an aptychus, a biomineralized plate which is proposed to act as an operculum which closes the shell to protect the body. However, aptychus-like plates are known from some extinct nautiloids, and they may be homologous to the fleshy hood of a modern nautilus.


title: Nautiloid

text: The rocks of the Ordovician period in the Baltic coast and parts of the United States contain a variety of nautiloid fossils, and specimens such as "Discitoceras" and "Rayonnoceras" may be found in the limestones of the Carboniferous period in Ireland. The marine rocks of the Jurassic period in Britain often yield specimens of "Cenoceras", and nautiloids such as "Eutrephoceras" are also found in the Pierre Shale formation of the Cretaceous period in the north-central United States.


title: Nautiloid

text: Specimens of the Ordovician nautiloid "Endoceras" have been recorded measuring up to in shell length, and there is a description of a specimen estimated to have reached , although that specimen is reported as destroyed. These large nautiloids would have been formidable predators of other marine animals at the time they lived.


title: Nautiloid

text: In some localities, such as Scandinavia and Morocco, the fossils of orthoconic nautiloids accumulated in such large numbers that they form limestones composed of nonspecific assemblages known as "cephalopod beds", "cephalopod limestones", "nautiloid limestones", or "Orthoceras limestones" in the geological literature. Although the term "Orthoceras" now only refers to a Baltic coast Ordovician genus, in prior times it was employed as a general name given to all straight-shelled nautiloids that lived from the Ordovician to the Triassic periods (but were most common in the early Paleozoic era).


title: Nautiloid

text: Nautiloids are first known from the late Cambrian Fengshan Formation of northeastern China, where they seem to have been quite diverse (at the time this was a warm shallow sea rich in marine life). However, although four orders have been proposed from the 131 species named, there is no certainty that all of these are valid, and indeed it is likely that these taxa are seriously oversplit.


title: Nautiloid

text: Most of these early forms died out, but a single family, the Ellesmeroceratidae, survived to the early Ordovician, where it ultimately gave rise to all subsequent cephalopods. In the Early and Middle Ordovician the nautiloids underwent an evolutionary radiation. Some eight new orders appeared at this time, covering a great diversity of shell types and structure, and ecological lifestyles.


title: Nautiloid

text: Nautiloids remained at the height of their range of adaptations and variety of forms throughout the Ordovician, Silurian, and Devonian periods, with various straight, curved and coiled shell forms coexisting at the same time. Several of the early orders became extinct over that interval, but others rose to prominence.


title: Nautiloid

text: Nautiloids began to decline in the Devonian, perhaps due to competition with their descendants and relatives the Ammonoids and Coleoids, with only the Nautilida holding their own (and indeed increasing in diversity). Their shells became increasingly tightly coiled, while both numbers and variety of non-nautilid species continued to decrease throughout the Carboniferous and Permian.


title: Nautiloid

text: The massive extinctions at the end of the Permian were less damaging to nautiloids than to other taxa and a few groups survived into the early Mesozoic, including pseudorthocerids, bactritids, nautilids and possibly orthocerids. The last straight-shelled forms were long thought to have disappeared at the end of the Triassic, but a possible orthocerid has been found in Cretaceous rocks. Apart from this exception, only a single nautiloid suborder, the Nautilina, continued throughout the Mesozoic, where they co-existed quite happily with their more specialised ammonoid cousins. Most of these forms differed only slightly from the modern nautilus. They had a brief resurgence in the early Tertiary (perhaps filling the niches vacated by the ammonoids in the end Cretaceous extinction), and maintained a worldwide distribution up until the middle of the Cenozoic Era. With the global cooling of the Miocene and Pliocene, their geographic distribution shrank and these hardy and long-lived animals declined in diversity again. Today there are only six living species, all belonging to two genera, "Nautilus" (the pearly nautilus), and "Allonautilus".


title: Nautiloid

text: A consensus on nautiloid classification has traditionally been elusive and subject to change, as different workers emphasize different fundamental traits when reconstructing evolutionary events. The largest and most widely cited publication on nautiloid taxonomy is the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology Part K by Teichert et al. 1964, though new information has rendered this volume outdated and in need of revision. Treatise Part K was based on previous classification schemes by Flower & Kummel (1950) and the Russian "Osnovy Paleontologii Vol. 5" (1962) textbook.


title: Nautiloid

text: Other comprehensive taxonomic schemes have been devised by Wade (1988), Teichert (1988), and Shevyrev (2006). Wade (1988) divided the subclass Nautiloidea ("sensu lato") into 6 superorders, incorporating orders that are phylogenetically related. They are:


title: Nautiloid

text: Three of these superorders were established for orders of uncertain placement: Endocerida, Actinocerida, and Discosorida. The other three unite related orders which share a common ancestor and form a branch of the nautiloid taxonomic tree: Plectronoceratoidea, which consists mostly of small Cambrian forms that include the ancestors of subsequent stocks; Orthoceratoidea, which unites different primarily orthoconic orders (including the ancestors for Bacritida and Ammonoidea); and Nautilitoidea, which includes the first coiled cephalopods, Tarphycerida, as well as Nautilida, which includes the recent "Nautilus". Another order, Bactritida, which is derived from Orthocerida, is sometimes included with Nautiloidea, sometimes with Ammonoidea, and sometimes placed in a subclass of its own, Bactritoidea.


title: Nautiloid

text: Recently some workers in the field have come to recognize Dissidocerida as a distinct order, along with Pseudorthocerida, both previously included in Orthocerida as subtaxa.


title: Nautiloid

text: Cladistic approaches are rare in nautiloid systematics. Many nautiloid orders (not to mention the group as a whole) are not monophyletic clades, but rather paraphyletic grades. This means that they include some descendant taxa while excluding others. For example, the paraphyletic order Orthocerida includes numerous orthocerids stretching through the Paleozoic, but it excludes coleoids, despite coleoids having a well-established ancestry among the orthocerids. Interpretations by Engeser (1996-1998) suggests that nautiloids, and indeed cephalopods in general, should be split into two main clades: Palcephalopoda (including all the nautiloids except Orthocerida and Ascocerida) and Neocephalopoda (the rest of the cephalopods). Palcephalopoda is meant to correspond to groups which are closer to living nautilus, while Neocephalopoda is meant to correspond to groups closer to living coleoids. One issue which this scheme is the necessity of establishing a firm ancestry for nautilus, to contextualize which cephalopods are closer to which of the two living end members. On the basis of morphological traits, Nautilida is most similar to coiled early nautiloids such as the Tarphycerida and Oncocerida. However, these orders diverged from coleoid ancestors in the early Ordovician at the latest, while genetic divergence estimates suggest that Nautilida diverged in the Silurian or Devonian.


title: Nautiloid

text: A more recent phylogenetic study by Lindgren "et al." (2004), which supports the monophyly of cephalopods, does not bear on the Palcephalopod/Neocephalopod question, since the only cephalopods included were "Nautilus" and coleoids.


title: Nautiloid

text: For an in-process revision of Treatise Part K, King & Evans (2019) reclassified nautiloids "sensu lato" into five subclasses. Major groups were primarily defined by variation in their muscle attachment types. Other traits referenced during this reclassification include protoconch morphology, connecting ring structure, and the extent of cameral and endosiphuncular deposits. While most previous studies referred to subclasses with the suffix '-oidea', these authors instead opted for the suffix '-ia', to prevent confusion between group levels. For example, Nautiloidea "sensu stricto" was renamed to Nautilia, to differentiate it from the informal broader definition of "nautiloid". In addition, they used the unsimplified names for orders, with the suffix '-atida' rather than the common simplified form, '-ida'.


title: Nautiloid

text: Traditional nautiloid classification schemes emphasize certain character traits over others, potentially involving personal bias as to which traits are worth emphasizing according to different authors. This issue may be resolved by sampling all morphological traits equally through bayesian phylogenetic inference. The first cephalopod-focused paper to use this technique was published by Pohle et al. (2022). They recovered several previously hypothesized groups, though many orders were determined to be paraphyletic. The study was focused on early cephalopod diversification in the Late Cambrian and Ordovician, and did not discuss in detail the origin of post-Ordovician groups. The following is a simplified version of their cladogram, showing early cephalopod relationships to the order level (although various isolated families also originated during this diversification event):


title: Nirmala Srivastava

text: Nirmala Srivastava (née Nirmala Salve; 21 March 192323 February 2011), also known as Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, was the founder and guru of Sahaja Yoga, which she established in 1970. For the following four decades through a multitude of talks, programs, and discourses provided to the public without cost, Shri Mataji promoted the idea that anyone, regardless of race, ethnicity, or background, could meditate. She claimed to have been born fully realised and spent her life working for peace by developing and promoting a simple technique through which people can achieve their own self-realization.


title: Nirmala Srivastava

text: Born in Chindawara, Madhya Pradesh, India to a Hindu father and a Christian mother Prasad and Cornelia Salve, her parents named her Nirmala, which means "immaculate". She said that she was born self-realised. Her father, a scholar of fourteen languages, translated the Koran into Marathi, and her mother was the first woman in India to receive an honours degree in mathematics. Shri Mataji descended from the royal Shalivahana/Satavahana dynasty. The former union minister N.K.P. Salve was her brother and the lawyer Harish Salve is her nephew. The Salve surname is one of several in the Satavahana Maratha clan.


title: Nirmala Srivastava

text: She passed her childhood years in the family house in Nagpur. In her youth she stayed in the ashram of Mahatma Gandhi. Like her parents, she was involved with the struggle for Indian independence and, as a youth leader when a young woman, was jailed for participating in the Quit India Movement in 1942. Taking responsibility for her younger siblings and living a spartan lifestyle during this period infused the feeling of self-sacrifice for the wider good. She studied at the Christian Medical College in Ludhiana and the Balakram Medical College in Lahore.


title: Nirmala Srivastava

text: Shortly before India achieved independence in 1947, Shri Mataji married Chandrika Prasad Srivastava, a high-ranking Indian civil servant who later served Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri as Joint Secretary, and was bestowed an honorary KCMG by Elizabeth II. They had two daughters, Kalpana Srivastava and Sadhana Varma. In 1961, Nirmala Srivastava launched the "Youth Society for Films" to infuse national, social and moral values in young people. She was also a member of the Central Board of Film Certification.


title: Nirmala Srivastava

text: In 2003 a charity house for the rehabilitation of destitute women was set up in Delhi (the "Vishwa Nirmala Prem Ashram"). She set up the "Shri P.K. Salve Kala Pratishthan" in Nagpur as an international music school in the same year, to promote classical music and fine art.


title: Nirmala Srivastava

text: Until 2004, during her travels, she gave numerous public lectures, pujas, and interviews to newspapers, television and radio. In 2004 her official website announced that she had completed her work and Sahaja Yoga centers exist in almost every country of the world. She continued to give talks to her devotees and allowed them to offer her puja.


title: Nirmala Srivastava

text: She spoke on several occasions about the harms of drinking alcohol and that many people were cured from addiction when they got their self realization through Sahaja Yoga.


title: Sri Lanka Freedom Party

text: The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (; ) is one of the major and most well known political parties in Sri Lanka. It was founded by S.W.R.D Bandaranaike in 1951 and, since then, has been one of the two largest parties in the Sri Lankan political arena. It first came to power in 1956 and since then has been the predominant party in government on a number of occasions. The party is generally considered as having a democratic socialist or progressive economic agenda and is often associated with nationalist Sinhalese parties. The party follows a Non-Aligned foreign policy but always had close ties to socialist nations. The Sri Lanka Freedom Party is a Second Main constituent party in the Sri Lanka People's Freedom Alliance.


title: Sri Lanka Freedom Party

text: After independence, the SLFP represented a form of non-revolutionary socialism and a policy of non-alignment with strong ties to socialist countries. Its social democratic and nationalist policies in the aftermath of Sri Lankan independence supported its rapid rise towards attaining major party status alongside the center-right United National Party. Founding leader, S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike stated that the basis of the party would be the ‘Pancha Maha Balavegaya’ (Five Great Forces) which consisted of the native doctors, clergy, teachers, farmers and workers.


title: Sri Lanka Freedom Party

text: After winning 9 seats in the 1952 parliamentary election, leader S.W.R.D Bandaranaike contested the 1956 election on a platform of giving true meaning to the independence achieved in 1948. This involved a nationalist, democratic and socialist program which saw the SLFP achieve a huge victory at the 1956 elections and is seen by many observers as a social revolution resulting in the eclipse of the Westernized elite.


title: Sri Lanka Freedom Party

text: Amongst the many achievements of S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike's term of office include the reverting of major defence facilities from British to local control, initiating a shift in Sri Lanka's foreign policy from the West to the Non-Aligned Movement and lowering the voting age from 21 years to 18 years of age.


title: Sri Lanka Freedom Party

text: Working people, a core base of support for the party, also benefited through the setting up of an Employee's Provident Fund and the empowerment of peasants through the Paddy Lands Act. The healthcare and education systems were also improved for the benefit of the common man with the establishment of ayurvedic research centers, recognition of native physicians as well as the allowing of students to learn in their mother tongue (rather than only English).


title: Sri Lanka Freedom Party

text: The S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike government also had a lasting contribution in language policy. In 1956 Sinhala replaced English as the official language of Sri Lanka, fulfilling a major election pledge. In reaction to Tamil unease, the Bandaranaike–Chelvanayakam Pact was signed to grant official status to the Tamil language. However, this agreement was vehemently opposed by extremists led by the main opposition party UNP and instead a watered down act was passed. In September 1959, Bandaranaike was assassinated by an extremist monk opposed to his attempts to allegedly appease Tamils. He was replaced as Prime Minister for an interim period by Wijeyananda Dahanayake.


title: Sri Lanka Freedom Party

text: After this, the party turned to Bandaranaike's widow Sirimavo Bandaranaike who consequently in 1960 became the world's first elected female head of government. Sirimavo Bandaranaike was determined to carry on the program of her husband and her government pursued several socialist policies during its terms of office between 1960-1964 and 1970–1977. Sirimavo also initiated the trend of the SLFP forging alliances with other leftist parties such as the Communist Party of Sri Lanka and the Lanka Sama Samaja Party which continues to this day with the United People's Freedom Alliance.


title: Sri Lanka Freedom Party

text: Under Sirimavo Bandaranaike's leadership, SLFP governments nationalized key sectors of the economy such as banking and insurance, the Ceylon Transport Board and also all schools then owned by the Roman Catholic Church. Issues arose during the state takeover of foreign businesses which upset the United States and Britain. Consequently, this augmented the SLFP's foreign policy shift towards the East and Non-Aligned Movement. Further, in 1972, the SLFP led government oversaw the introduction of a new constitution which changed the country's name from Ceylon to Sri Lanka and declared Sri Lanka to be a republic.


title: Sri Lanka Freedom Party

text: During her term in office, Sirimavo Bandaranaike achieved high international standing, being chosen as chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1976 and receiving plaudits as the SLFP led government attempted to mediate between India and China during the Sino-Indian war.


title: Sri Lanka Freedom Party

text: In government, the SLFP had to also overcome a number of challenges to democracy such as the 1962 coup attempt launched by Christian officers upset by the increasing number of Buddhist officer corp which had previously been three-fifths Christian. Likewise, in 1971 the SLFP led government was almost toppled by a violent Marxist insurrection, which was eventually put down after it claimed more than a thousand lives.


title: Sri Lanka Freedom Party

text: Towards the end of Sirimavo Bandaranaike's second term as Prime Minister, her government had become increasingly unpopular amidst the background of a declining economy and charges of corruption and the SLFP was routed in the 1977 election. This was the start of 17 years in opposition.


title: Sri Lanka Freedom Party

text: This period of opposition was made greatly difficult after President J.R. Jayewardene's government stripped Sirimavo Bandaranaike of her civic rights for 7 years and expelled her from parliament. As a result, the SLFP fielded Hector Kobbekaduwa at the 1982 Presidential Election, which failed to deliver a strong outcome for the party. The SLFP suffered a further blow in the same year, when a referendum to delay parliamentary elections by 6 years was passed. During this period, the party suffered from internal conflicts, with Sirimavo's son Anura Bandaranaike, who led the party in parliament after her expulsion, shifting the traditionally socialist party to the right, while her daughter and future party leader Chandrika Kumaratunga led a breakaway group, the Sri Lanka People's Party, in response to her brother's shift. In 1989 Sirimavo Bandaranaike returned to the parliament and took the lead again; she became leader of the opposition.


title: Sri Lanka Freedom Party

text: Towards the early 1990s, the existing UNP government had weakened through internal conflicts of its own as well as the descent into two civil wars and fading public support. New SLFP leaders, most prominently Mahinda Rajapaksa, had launched successful pada yatra, jana gosha and white flag campaigns against the UNP government during this period. By that time, Anura Bandaranaike had left the party for the UNP to receive ministerial appointments, so Kumaratunga, who had returned to the party, now was the undisputed leader behind her mother. Sirimavo Bandaranaike had lost her influence with the electorate and steped aside as party leader in favor of her daughter.


title: Sri Lanka Freedom Party

text: During the 1994 parliamentary and presidential elections, SLFP completed a successful return to power and Chandrika Kumaratunga was elected the nation's President as part of the SLFP led People's Alliance coalition. Kumaratunga's tenure marked the beginning of the SLFP's shift from the socialism of Sirimavo towards a more centrist philosophy that sought to combine both the free market and the SLFP's traditional people friendly policies.


title: Sri Lanka Freedom Party

text: The People's Alliance government continued with their predecessor's attempts to negotiate with the LTTE, whilst simultaneously attempting to weaken them militarily through force. The SLFP government however initially placed greater emphasis on achieving peace with the Kumaratunga government engaging in numerous peace talks. However, LTTE intransigence limited the policy's effectiveness. The People's Alliance can be credited however with significant victories on the foreign policy front, with Foreign Affairs Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar spearheading successful efforts to further isolate the LTTE internationally. Other achievements of the Kumaratunga administration include the establishment of several new public universities.


title: Sri Lanka Freedom Party

text: Despite successes on these fronts, the Kumaratunga government also oversaw territorial losses to the LTTE as well as a flagging economy. As a result of this, a UNP government was elected at the 2001 Parliamentary elections. In November 2003, Kumaratunga used her presidential powers to take powers away from Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe's UNP in the form of important ministries, and the People's Alliance returned to power at the 2004 polls with future party leader Mahinda Rajapaksa being appointed as the Prime Minister.


title: Sri Lanka Freedom Party

text: A rift opened up in the party in 2005 over the choice of its candidate for the 2005 Presidential election between the President Kumaratunga backed Anura Bandaranaike and Mahinda Rajapaksa. Many members of the SLFP had been uneasy with Chandrika Kumaratunga's liberal economic policies, privatization of many public institutions as well as several allegations of corruption against her. Ultimately Rajapaksa was selected as the Presidential candidate for the SLFP led United People's Freedom Alliance and was subsequently elected as President


title: Sri Lanka Freedom Party

text: Under Mahinda Rajapaksa, the SLFP shifted back to the left towards a social democratic program termed Mahinda Chinthana. Some of the companies privatized by the Kumaratunga administration were re-nationalized such as Shell Gas Lanka.


title: Sri Lanka Freedom Party

text: The major legacy of this period of UPFA government was the end of the long-running civil war and the reunification of Sri Lanka. This achievement boosted the popularity of the SLFP, leading to convincing victories in the presidential and parliamentary polls held in 2010.


title: Sri Lanka Freedom Party

text: In the post-war period, the Rajapaksa administration instituted a large-scale infrastructure and development drive including the construction and renewal of many of Sri Lanka's key roads, mainly using loans from China. In 2011 the construction of Sri Lanka's first expressway was completed. Likewise, new coal and renewable energy power plants were built, improving the nation's power generation capacity. Tourism received a boost specially in Colombo which ranked as the world's fastest growing tourist city in 2015. However many of such projects launched by Rajapaska mostly named after himself have been called white elephants, being built ignoring feasibility studies, Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport built by Rajapaksa only services one budget carrier and has been built near a migratory route for birds


title: Sri Lanka Freedom Party

text: Other policies of the Rajapaksa government include programs to aid farmers and agricultural production, such as the re-launch of the farmer's pension scheme and subsidization of fertilizers.


title: Sri Lanka Freedom Party

text: In the area of foreign policy, the Rajapaksa government was seen to align itself towards the East, in accordance with SLFP tradition. This situation was augmented by the prevailing geopolitical environment which led some Western nations to criticize the UPFA government regarding accusations of human rights abuses during the civil war.


title: Sri Lanka Freedom Party

text: During this time the government has been implicated of political kidnappings and accused of running a family dynasty of four brothers.


title: Sri Lanka Freedom Party

text: The 2010-2015 period of SLFP led government was characterized by high economic growth and a reducing debt-to-GDP ratio. But the IMF has said Sri Lanka's national accounts "suffer from insufficient data sources and undeveloped statistical techniques" and Opposition legislators have accused Rajapaksa of giving overstated growth estimates. One of the top officials in the statistics office was sacked for disobedience and leaking internal information after he said that economic growth data compiled by the office was inflated


title: Sri Lanka Freedom Party

text: Eventually allegations of corruption and nepotism saw Mahinda Rajapaksa lose the presidency to SLFP defector Maithripala Sirisena in 2015, who ran against him with the support of the UNP and other smaller parties. The UNP consequently regained power despite the UPFA still holding a majority of seats in the legislature.


title: Sri Lanka Freedom Party

text: Soon after President Sirisena's victory, Mahinda Rajapaksa handed over leadership of the party to Maithripala Sirisena as per the SLFP constitution which states any SLFP member who is President is automatically leader of the party. Very soon afterwards, the party split into two main factions with those supporting President Sirisena and willing to work with the minority UNP government on one side. The Rajapaksa faction which included parts of the SLFP and UPFA acted as the main de facto opposition to the new regime. Nimal Siripala de Silva was appointed as parliamentary leader of the SLFP and the official Opposition Leader.


title: Sri Lanka Freedom Party

text: During Maithripala Sirisena's term as President, SLFP members came to dominate the cabinet numerically, albeit largely with lower ranking positions. The SLFP, especially the Rajapaksa faction, were instrumental in revising the 19th Amendment to the constitution proposed by the UNP so as to reduce Presidential powers without transferring executive powers to the Prime Minister. However, rigorous attempts by President Sirisena and the SLFP to modify the prevailing and unpopular electoral system were unsuccessful due to stiff opposition from the UNP and other smaller parties.


title: Sri Lanka Freedom Party

text: On 14 August 2015, Party Chairman and President Sirisena issued letter stating that Pro-Rajapaksa loyalist and General Secretary Anura Priyadarshana Yapa has been removed from post and he claimed that Anura Priyadarshana Yapa was going against the party policy and disobeying the commands of chairman, Sirsena appointed his loyalist Duminda Dissanayake as "acting" General Secretary 48 hours ahead of Parliamentary Election, Sirisena also obtained court order to prevent Anura Priyadarshana Yapa from functioning as General Secretary thereafter till 24 August 2015, Eventually President Sirisena had sacked both General Secretaries of UPFA and SLFP


title: Sri Lanka Freedom Party

text: In the August general election the UPFA led by the SLFP only won 95 seats while its rival the UNFGG led by the UNP won 106 seats. The United National Party who won the elections invited SLFP and an agreement was signed with the SLFP to jointly create a national unity government. 45 MPs joined the government and 50 MPs including Mahinda Rajapaksa remained in the opposition with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party splitting.


title: Income in the United States

text: Income in the United States is measured by the various federal agencies including the Internal Revenue Service, Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Department of Commerce, and the US Census Bureau. Additionally, various agencies, including the Congressional Budget Office compile reports on income statistics. The primary classifications are by household or individual. The top quintile in personal income in 2019 was $103,012 (included in the chart below). The differences between household and personal income are considerable, since 61% of households now have two or more income earners.


title: Income in the United States

text: This difference becomes very apparent when comparing the percentage of households with six figure incomes to that of individuals. Overall, including all households/individuals regardless of employment status, the median household income was $67,521 in 2020 while the median personal income (including individuals aged 15 and over) was $35,805.


title: Income in the United States

text: While wages for women have increased greatly, median earnings of male wage earners have remained stagnant since the late 1970s. Household income, however, has risen due to the increasing number of households with more than one income earner and women's increased presence in the labor force.


title: Mark Latham

text: Mark William Latham (born 28 February 1961) is an Australian politician and media commentator, currently serving as a member in the New South Wales Legislative Council. He previously served as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and leader of the opposition from December 2003 to January 2005, leading the party to defeat at the 2004 federal election.


title: Mark Latham

text: Latham was born in Sydney and studied economics at the University of Sydney. He joined the Labor Party at a young age and worked as a research assistant to Gough Whitlam and Bob Carr. He was elected to the Liverpool City Council in 1987 and became mayor in 1991. Latham entered the House of Representatives by winning the seat of Werriwa at the 1994 Werriwa by-election. He was included in Labor's shadow cabinet after the 1996 federal election, but left the frontbench in 1998 following a dispute with the party leader, Kim Beazley. He returned to the shadow cabinet in 2001, when Simon Crean became leader.


title: Mark Latham

text: Latham became leader of the Labor Party in December 2003, narrowly defeating Beazley in a leadership vote after Crean's resignation. He was the youngest leader of the party since Chris Watson in 1901. At the 2004 federal election, the ALP lost five seats and reduced its share of the two-party-preferred vote; the incumbent Howard government was re-elected to a fourth term. Latham became disillusioned with politics and retired in January 2005. After leaving politics, he published a memoir, "The Latham Diaries", in which he attacked his former colleagues and condemned the state of political life in Australia.


title: Mark Latham

text: After leaving parliament, Latham became a prominent political and social commentator, and became known for his right-wing and socially conservative political views. In December 2016, he began co-hosting "Outsiders" on Sky News Live. His employment at Sky News was terminated in March 2017 after he made insulting comments about a fellow presenter and the teenage daughter of a governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia. Latham returned to politics and joined the Liberal Democratic Party in May 2017, which led to him receiving a lifetime ban from the Labor Party. In November 2018, Latham left the party and announced that he had joined One Nation as its state leader in New South Wales. He successfully stood for the party in the upper house at the 2019 state election.


title: Mark Latham

text: Latham was born on 28 February 1961 in Ashcroft, a suburb of south-western Sydney in New South Wales. He was educated at Hurlstone Public School; the Hurlstone Agricultural High School, where he was dux; and at the University of Sydney, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Economics with Honours in 1982. While he was a student, Latham worked at the Green Valley Hotel for 2 years. He also worked as an adviser to Labor politician John Kerin from 1980 to 1982. After completing his degree, Latham worked as a research assistant to the former Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam from 1982 to 1987, which included working on the latter's book "The Whitlam Government", and then as an adviser to then-Leader of the New South Wales Opposition Bob Carr from 1988 to 1991.


title: Mark Latham

text: In 1987, he was elected to the Liverpool City Council, in Sydney's south-west, and was mayor from 1991 to 1994. Latham played rugby union with the Liverpool Bulls club and had a stint as its president. He has also been a fan of St George Dragons rugby league club since 1968.


title: Mark Latham

text: Latham's term as mayor saw radical changes introduced to the council, with large spending on public works, to be paid for by a combination of loans and efficiencies achieved from outsourcing many council services. The public works, including libraries, a pedestrian mall and public art, have been highly praised in accounts of the period.


title: Mark Latham

text: In an article in "Quarterly Essay" journalist Margaret Simons, who conducted an extensive investigation of the period, concluded that there were real issues in the financial management of the council. These mostly related to the drafting of the outsourcing agreements. Simons also said most of the allegations come from council members who were sacked for incompetence by the state government.


title: Mark Latham

text: On 1 June 2004, Latham told Parliament that during his time as mayor he had reduced Liverpool's debt service ratio from 17 to 10 percent, which he said was less than half of western Sydney's average. He also said Liverpool had adopted a debt-retirement strategy that he claimed would have made it debt free by 2005, but it was not implemented by his successors. Councillor Colin Harrington, whom Latham defeated during the mayoral elections of 1991, later said these figures were not accurate. He said the average debt-servicing ratio for western Sydney was 12.1 percent and he said the council's financial staff could find no significant reference to the debt-retirement strategy.


title: Mark Latham

text: In January 1994, Latham was elected at a by-election to the House of Representatives for the Sydney seat of Werriwa, which had been Gough Whitlam's seat from 1952 to 1978. He was elected to the Opposition front bench after Labor lost the 1996 election, and became shadow minister for education. After the 1998 election he resigned from the front bench following a policy dispute with the opposition leader, Kim Beazley. The two became political enemies following this incident.


title: Mark Latham

text: The views expressed in "Civilising Global Capital" (see below) alienated him from many Labor traditionalists, but his aggressive parliamentary style won him many admirers. He once referred to Prime Minister John Howard as an "arselicker" and to the Liberal Party frontbench as a "conga line of suckholes". He also described U.S. President George W. Bush as "the most incompetent and dangerous president in living memory".


title: Mark Latham

text: On politics, Latham commented in 2002: I'm a hater. Part of the tribalness of politics is to really dislike the other side with intensity. And the more I see of them the more I hate them. I hate their negativity. I hate their narrowness. I hate the way, for instance, John Howard tries to appeal to suburban values when I know that he hasn't got any real answers to the problems and challenges we face. I hate the phoniness of that.


title: Mark Latham

text: Latham was a strong supporter of Kim Beazley's successor Simon Crean, defending the leader against his critics within the party. He called Crean's principal frontbench detractors, Stephen Smith, Stephen Conroy and Wayne Swan "the three roosters". When Crean resigned the Labor leadership, Latham contested the ballot for leader against Beazley. On 2 December 2003, Latham won the vote for the leadership by 47 votes to 45. Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard were early contenders for the leadership, but both withdrew in favour of Beazley and Latham respectively. At age 42, Latham became the youngest leader of the federal parliamentary Labor Party since its first leader Chris Watson, who became leader at age 33 in 1901. In his first press conference as leader, Latham championed his belief in a "ladder of opportunity" that would bring prosperity to all Australians.


title: Mark Latham

text: The Howard government targeted Latham's brash personality and his colourful past. Howard characterised him as "Mr Flip-Flop", referring to a character in a children's book. Peter Costello attempted to damage Latham's economic credentials by referring to the experimental economic ideas that he had put forward as shadow treasurer, such as abolishing negative gearing and replacing the GST with a Progressive Expenditure Tax. Frequent references were made to Latham's temper; he was alleged to have broken a taxi-driver's arm in a scuffle arising from a fare dispute.


title: Mark Latham

text: On winning the leadership, Latham appointed his predecessor, Simon Crean, as shadow treasurer, while also retaining a number of Kim Beazley's supporters in senior positions. In July 2004 Beazley himself was re-elected to the ALP front bench as Shadow Minister for Defence.


title: Mark Latham

text: In January 2004, the Labor Party national conference was held in Sydney. During the conference, Latham received very positive media coverage and introduced his plans for early childhood literacy. He introduced an unusual campaign style, choosing to focus on "values" issues, such as reading to children and economic relief for middle-class Australia, which he termed with the political slogan "ease the squeeze".


title: Mark Latham

text: Latham also put forward plans to reform the education and health systems. In contrast to the intense stagecrafting of Latham's image at the conference, he boosted his profile by means of loosely organised "town hall"-style direct meetings around the country. By March, Labor had taken the lead over the Coalition in the opinion polls, and Latham had a higher personal approval rating than any opposition leader since Bob Hawke in 1983. Commentators began to discuss the serious possibility that Latham could be Prime Minister by the end of the year.


title: Mark Latham

text: In March, following the Spanish election at which the pro-Bush administration People's Party government was defeated, Latham sparked a new controversy by committing a Labor government to withdrawing Australian troops from Iraq by Christmas. At that time, Australia had about 850 troops in Iraq, mostly involved in patrol work and in training members of the new Iraqi defence forces. Howard accused Latham of a "cut and run" approach and said "it's not the Australian way not to stay the distance".


title: Mark Latham

text: Until March 2004, Labor under Latham's leadership held a strong lead in national opinion polls. Latham's commitment to withdraw from Iraq caused a sharp drop in Labor's lead, but following the revelations of prisoner abuse in the Abu Ghraib prison, Labor's lead increased again, suggesting that support for involvement in Iraq had declined, undermining Howard's position.


title: Mark Latham

text: In June 2004, Labor's "troops home by Christmas" policy came under fire from U.S. President George W. Bush who, at a White House press conference during Howard's visit to Washington DC, described it as "disastrous". Bush's comments raised controversy in Australia over whether Bush was interfering in Australia's domestic political affairs, whether the election of a Latham government would endanger the U.S. alliance, and whether the comments were made with Howard's prior knowledge.


title: Mark Latham

text: Shortly afterwards, Latham announced the recruitment of Peter Garrett, president of the Australian Conservation Foundation and former lead singer with the rock band Midnight Oil, as a Labor candidate in Kingsford Smith, a safe Sydney electorate being vacated by the retiring former minister Laurie Brereton. Garrett revealed that he had been approached months before by senior ALP figures, including John Faulkner and Kim Beazley, and had taken this long to make up his mind. Most commentators regarded his recruitment as a high-risk tactic, seeing the potential advantage to Labor of Garrett's popularity among young people as being offset by the possibility that his record of radical and anti-American statements in the past would offend moderate voters.


title: Mark Latham

text: The second coup scored by Latham was the announcement that he would abolish the generous superannuation schemes available to members of parliament; his plan was quickly adopted by the Howard government in the face of a rising wave of public support with the support of his mentor former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, the former member for Werriwa.


title: Mark Latham

text: Other announced policies and initiatives included: the introduction of federal government parenting classes for those parents deemed to be failing to adequately discipline their children; a ban on food and drink advertising during children's television viewing hours; the introduction of a national youth mentoring program; the government distribution of free story books to the families of newborn children; a federal ban on plastic shopping bags; and the introduction of legislation to prohibit vilification on the basis of religious beliefs or sexual orientation, similar to laws adopted in the state of Victoria that some critics said had led to a restriction of free speech. Some of these initiatives prompted Howard to criticise Latham as a "behavioural policeman".


title: Mark Latham

text: In July 2004, Latham again became the centre of controversy when it was alleged on a commercial television network that he had punched a political rival during his time on Liverpool Council. Latham strongly denied the accusation. On 6 July 2004, he called a press conference and denounced the government for maintaining what he called a "dirt unit," which he said was gathering personal material about him, including details of his first marriage. The government denied that any such unit existed, but some observers speculated that Liberal Party researchers had accumulated more potentially embarrassing material about Latham, which would be used during the election campaign (a threat which never eventuated), in addition to claims that Latham was an inexperienced economic manager.


title: Mark Latham

text: Between March and August, Latham's position in the opinion polls gradually declined, leading to renewed speculation that Howard would call an early election. During August, Labor claimed a tactical victory over the government on the issue of the Australia – United States Free Trade Agreement and there were allegations in a Senate inquiry that Howard had lied about the "Children Overboard Affair" during the 2001 election campaign. By mid-August, Labor was again ahead in all three national opinion polls.


title: Mark Latham

text: The election was held on 9 October 2004. Although opinion polls showed the ALP leading the government at various stages of the six-week campaign, the government was re-elected with an increased majority. This was despite Latham being generally credited with a strong performance and a victory in the sole campaign debate. In the days after the election, Latham was criticised for releasing many key policies too late, a case in point being Labor's policy regarding conservation of Tasmanian old growth forests.


title: Mark Latham

text: Among those critical of Latham were journalists Tom Allard and Mark Metherell, who said "the flurry of releases meant Mr Latham went off message from Labor's core strengths of health and education." Labor's party president, Carmen Lawrence, blamed the unexpected severity of the defeat on an effective Coalition "scare campaign" focused on Latham's limited economic management experience, and the alleged threat of a rise in interest rates under Labor, which was not effectively countered, reportedly in an attempt by Tim Gartrell to conserve funds for later in the campaign (where, in previous years, Labor had been outspent by the Liberals).


title: Mark Latham

text: Gartrell also apparently failed to anticipate the interest rates scare campaign. The inability of his campaign to counter the Liberal campaign would later be cited by Latham himself, in the "Latham Diaries", as a key reason for the election loss. Latham wrote that he had told his wife Janine that "I've tried to carry the whole show on my shoulders: my family, my community, my party. But now I'm stuffed. I have collapsed under the weight of those fucking ads". Michael Costello, a former chief of staff to Kim Beazley, said: "This is a complete train wreck. We now face at least two terms before we can win government again. We face at least three years with John Howard pretty much in control of the Senate."


title: Mark Latham

text: On the morning of 8 October, the day before the election, a television crew filmed Latham and Howard shaking hands as they crossed paths outside an Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio studio in Sydney. The footage showed Latham appearing to draw Howard towards him and tower over his shorter opponent. The incident received wide media coverage and, while Latham claimed to have been attempting to get revenge for Howard squeezing his wife's hand too hard at a press function, it was variously reported as being "aggressive", "bullying" and "intimidating" on the part of Latham. The Liberal Party campaign director, Brian Loughnane, later said this incident generated more feedback to Liberal headquarters than anything else during the six-week campaign, and that it "brought together all the doubts and hesitations that people had about Mark Latham". Latham disputes the impact of this incident, however, having described it as a "Tory gee-up: we got close to each other, sure, but otherwise it was a regulation man's handshake. It's silly to say it cost us votes – my numbers spiked in the last night of our polling." According to Latham's account of events, Latham came in close to Howard for the handshake to prevent Howard shaking with his arm rather than his wrist.


title: Mark Latham

text: Latham became the first Labor opposition leader since Frank Tudor in 1917 to fail to make a net gain in seats from the government at his first election. Some commentators, including Kim Beazley, said Latham's leadership had rescued Labor from a much heavier defeat. Beazley said polling a year before the election indicated the ALP would lose "25–30 seats" in the House of Representatives. Instead the party lost a net four seats in the lower house, a swing of 0.21% and there was a 1.1% swing to the ALP in the Senate.


title: Mark Latham

text: Labor's defeat led to media criticisms of Latham's personal style and policy priorities, and also to a crisis in confidence in his leadership within the Labor caucus. Several prominent members of the front-bench, notably John Faulkner, Lindsay Tanner and Bob McMullan, chose not to recontest front-bench positions. McMullan made it clear he was unhappy with Latham's leadership style and gave an interview suggesting there would be a leadership challenge early in 2005. The national secretary of the Australian Workers' Union, Bill Shorten, was also highly critical of Latham.


title: Mark Latham

text: In December, after Latham was incorrectly reported to have blamed Labor's state premiers for the defeat, an unnamed Labor frontbencher predicted a leadership challenge within the next few months, saying Latham's supporters had lost confidence in him. Latham also had a heated public confrontation with the Labor deputy leader in the Senate, Stephen Conroy, renewing speculation there would be a challenge to Latham's leadership in the new year.


title: Mark Latham

text: Latham was helped by the fact that there was no obvious successor to the leadership. The most likely candidates, Kevin Rudd, Wayne Swan and Stephen Smith, accepted senior positions on Latham's frontbench and pledged loyalty to him. The leaders of the Socialist Left faction, and the centre-left under Martin Ferguson and Julia Gillard, also maintained their support for him. There was little support for a return to Beazley, and neither Tanner nor McMullan were seen as viable leadership candidates. In the longer run, however, many commentators doubted Latham would survive until the 2007 election after such a heavy defeat.


title: Mark Latham

text: The final crisis for Latham's leadership erupted in the aftermath of the December 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. With both Latham and his deputy leader, Jenny Macklin, on leave, the acting opposition leader, Senator Chris Evans, issued statements in the aftermath of the tsunami. Latham was criticised for not issuing a statement as leader personally, particularly at a time when John Howard expressed national sympathy over the disaster, pledged $1 billion in loans to Indonesia and declared a national day of mourning. Latham rejected the criticism of his non-appearance after the tragedy, saying "none of my verbiage could make any practical difference – bring back the dead, reverse the waves, organise the relief effort". Macklin issued a statement on the disaster on 30 December before also choosing to take leave.


title: Mark Latham

text: Opinion polls in January showed a sharp decline in Latham's support and a preference for the return of Beazley as Labor leader.


title: Mark Latham

text: On 18 January 2005, citing life-threatening illness and family concerns, Latham announced his resignation from the Labor Party leadership and from Parliament. He strongly criticised the media for invading his family's privacy during his illness. Latham had been federal Labor leader for 13 months, the shortest tenure since Billy Hughes was expelled from the party in 1916. Latham was only the second federal Labor leader, after Matthew Charlton in 1928, to leave politics without ever having held ministerial office.


title: Mark Latham

text: Political journalist Mungo MacCallum wrote: Latham became leader too early in his career, he lacked the skills needed to deal with the webs of intrigue within his own party, he refused to massage the media and the advisers he did listen to were out of their depth against Howard's praetorian guard. But he had many qualities that were not only desirable and attractive but are in short supply in today's ALP. In other circumstances he could have developed into a formidable leader, even prime minister. As it is, he remains one of the great what-ifs.


title: Mark Latham

text: Although Latham wrote "Civilising Global Capital" while he was an MP, most of his works have been written after his parliamentary career.


title: Mark Latham

text: While on the backbench of Parliament in the late 1990s, Latham published "Civilising Global Capital: New Thinking for Australian Labor" (Allen and Unwin, 1998), in which he argued that Labor needed to abandon many of its traditional policies and embrace the aspirational values (home ownership, higher education) of the upwardly-mobile skilled working class and small business class. His policies as the leader of the Labor Party were largely derived from the stance taken in this book, which ideologically is described as "the third way".


title: Mark Latham

text: Latham's biography "Loner: Inside a Labor Tragedy," by Bernard Lagan, was launched on 29 June 2005 by Senator John Faulkner, published by Allen & Unwin. The book caused furore within Labor ranks. Most of this was due to material contained within a single email written by Latham in the last page of the book. Of Kim Beazley's return to the leadership, Latham said: "Labor got the leader it truly deserves – it is well suited to a conservative stand-for-nothing type of leader." Latham also criticised state Labor premiers Bob Carr, Peter Beattie and Geoff Gallop, calling them "A-grade arseholes." Union leader Bill Shorten remarked that Latham had displayed "all the attributes of a dog except loyalty."


title: Mark Latham

text: Of his election loss, Latham wrote: I had my shot at being prime minister. It didn't work out on several fronts. But life goes on, potentially in a splendid way, spending so much time with my family. After suffering testicular cancer, the greatest gift in my life has been the ability to have children with Janine. I would be a fool to waste it.


title: Mark Latham

text: Soon after his retirement, Latham announced his decision to publish a selection of diary entries spanning almost a decade. Following a bidding war, it was announced that Melbourne University Press (MUP) would publish the "Diaries" in late September. MUP later awarded the exclusivity rights for extracts to News Ltd and the exclusivity for the first interview to the ABC television program "Enough Rope," which was due to be broadcast at 9.30 pm on Monday 19 September 2005.


title: Mark Latham

text: Meanwhile, excerpts of the "Diaries" were published by "The Australian" from 15 September ahead of their publication in book form on 19 September. The excerpts published include attacks by Latham on the ALP, his successor Kim Beazley, frontbencher Kevin Rudd and former Labor prime ministers Paul Keating and Gough Whitlam.


title: Mark Latham

text: Due to the publicity the "Diaries" were now generating, the extensive amount of published extracts, and concerns that Latham had recorded other interviews, in particular with another ABC program, "Lateline", "Enough Rope" pushed to have the interview broadcast four days early on Thursday 15 September at 8.30 pm with a simultaneous broadcast on some ABC radio stations. However, when the time came to broadcast, the ABC announced that the interview would not be shown due to a legal injunction sought by News Limited (owner of "The Australian"), which had the rights to publish extracts from the "Diaries". Reports on the night said any broadcast by the ABC was a breach of confidentiality between News and the book's publisher, MUP, the newspaper publisher having signed to an A$80,000 deal to publish excerpts of the book in the weekend newspapers. However, at 10.30 pm, the ABC aired the Denton interview after the Supreme Court of New South Wales lifted the injunction. Justice Harry Palmer said the publication of large parts of the book in News Limited newspapers largely destroyed the value of the material. Due to the last-minute changes, the edition of ABC's "Lateline" program scheduled for 10.30 pm featuring another interview with Latham (also subject to the short-lived injunction) was aired the following night.


title: Mark Latham

text: The "Diaries" represent a remarkable and unprecedented statement by a former leader of a major political party. In the book, Latham is scathing about Australia's political system: It takes committed people ... and turns them into one-dimensional robots ... The only good news is that the public is on to them. The electorate has worked out the artificiality of it all. They can see through the spin doctors, the publicity stunts, the polling and the tricks of marginal-seat campaigning. This is why people now talk about politics with a cool anger. They have a clear feeling that the system is far from genuine. That the robots, in fact, are tin men.


title: Mark Latham

text: Latham's seventh book, a collection of quotations titled "A Conga Line of Suckholes", was released by Melbourne University Publishing in late September 2006.


title: Mark Latham

text: In November 2010, Latham contributed an essay in "The Monthly" titled "No Exit The ALP". In it, Latham again criticised the ALP, writing that "for all the heightened rhetoric, for the seemingly endless creation of summits, committees and policy review processes, the lasting impression from the Rudd years is one of emptiness". He also remarked that "Without a guiding philosophy of politics, Rudd's prime ministership was an exercise in populism. He avoided tough decisions and mastered the art of media manipulation as a way of extending his honeymoon". Latham concludes that Labor had "lost its way". His suggested solution is that Labor again champions great causes, writing that:


title: Mark Latham

text: Having studied the literature and, at one time, been part of these debates, I can identify just three credible ideas that have been advanced for the renewal of the social democratic project. Each seeks to move beyond economic issues, beyond the material realm of politics, to stake out new ground. The first tries to reclaim social capital, the rebuilding of mutualism and community, as a Labor icon. The second positions Labor as an anti-establishment party, breaking down the entrenched centres of power in society. The third champions a crusade on climate change, an uncompromising attempt to roll back the materialism of western society in favour of environmental values.


title: Mark Latham

text: Mark Latham also wrote "Reviving Labor's agenda: a program for local reform" (Pluto Press / Australian Fabian Society, 1990), "What did you learn today?: creating an education revolution" (Allen & Unwin, 2001), "From the Suburbs: Building a Nation from our Neighbourhoods" (Pluto Press Australia, 2003), "The Political Bubble: Why Australians Don't Trust Politics" (Pan Macmillan, 2014), "Latham at Large" (Melbourne University Press, 2015), and "Taking Back Australia: Saving Our Country, Our Culture, Our Civilisation" (Wilkinson Publishing, 2018).


title: Mark Latham

text: He also, as at 2020, writes a weekly article for the Spectator magazine (Australian edition): "Latham's Law".


title: Mark Latham

text: Latham gave his first public lecture since the release of the "Diaries", titled "Ten Reasons Why Young Idealistic People Should Forget About Organised Politics", on 27 September 2005, at Melbourne University. During the lecture, he argued that organised politics is ineffective at achieving real social change, due to public apathy, the rise of conservatism and the inward-focused structure of the major parties, and instead encouraged youth to focus on more grassroots, community-based programs. He also claimed politics has a detrimental impact on health, happiness and family life, largely blaming the "arrogant" and "incompetent" media, as well as internal party struggles.


title: Mark Latham

text: On Thursday, 19 January 2006, Latham was eating with his two sons at a Hungry Jack's restaurant in Campbelltown, New South Wales when he was photographed by Ross Schultz, a photographer from "The Daily Telegraph". Schultz alleged that Latham snatched the camera and smashed it, without destroying the electronic media that contained the photographs. It was reported that Latham called Schultz a paedophile, presumably because he thought Schultz had taken pictures of his sons. The "Telegraph" subsequently announced plans for upcoming publication of the photographic images in the following Saturday's edition and that it would be seeking $12,000 from Latham to replace the equipment. The following day, Latham appeared to drive towards a Channel 7 television cameraman at his Sydney home. The photographer was unhurt but Seven's head of news in Sydney, Chris Willis, said the footage clearly showed Latham's car veer toward the cameraman as he stood on the side of the road. In February 2006, Latham was charged with assault, malicious damage and theft in relation to the incident. Latham did not appear in Campbelltown Local Court to face the charges, on 22 March, instead giving a lecture to political science students at the Australian National University. When asked by a student how he could blame everyone else but himself, Latham replied: "I'm sorry I didn't come in here and expose myself as a miserable arsewipe." On 26 April, "The Sydney Morning Herald" reported that Latham again chose not to appear in Campbelltown Local Court in relation to the 19 January incident. The case was adjourned to 24 May. On 6 June, "The Sydney Morning Herald" reported that Latham escaped having a criminal conviction for malicious damage to the camera being used by Schultz recorded against him, but had been placed on a good behaviour bond for two years. After pleading guilty to malicious damage, he had the charges of assault and theft dropped. He was also required to pay $6,763.70 in compensation for the damaged camera.


title: Mark Latham

text: "The Sun Herald" reported on 13 August 2006 that the family were moving from their Glen Alpine home to a property at Mount Hunter, near Camden.


title: Mark Latham

text: He commented on the 2007 federal election campaign with an article in the "Australian Financial Review", in which he said Australia was having a "Seinfeld election, a show about nothing". Latham wrote that, no matter which party won, Australia would have a conservative economic policy and an industrial relations system which was decentralised and productivity-based. He stated that Australian public life had reached the "zenith of policy convergence", and that "Many people in the Labor movement are expecting Labor in power to be far more progressive than its stated election promises. I expect a Labor administration to be even more timid, more conservative".


title: Mark Latham

text: In 2010, Latham was a guest reporter for television show "60 Minutes", where he reported on the federal election campaign. It was here that during a report he confronted Julia Gillard. Latham pushed his way through the crowd and confronted Gillard and her partner, Tim Mathieson, saying: "I understand you have made a complaint about me working for Channel 9". Gillard replied "I don't know anything about that, Mark. If you want to work with Channel 9, that's a matter for you", before Latham suggested that Kevin Rudd had been behind the leaks against her during the campaign.


title: Mark Latham

text: During the campaign, Latham attacked Gillard's stance on population growth as "a fraud", arguing that the Gillard government would have to reduce immigration levels if it was serious about easing population pressures in Australia's capital cities.


title: Mark Latham

text: He also caused a stir when, on "60 Minutes", he urged voters to issue a protest vote by leaving the ballot paper blank on election day: They say that voting in Australia is compulsory, but it's not compulsory to fill out the ballot paper. You can put it in the ballot box, totally blank. That's what I'll be doing on Saturday and I urge you to do the same. It's the ultimate protest vote. Following that interview, he continued to attack Gillard as well as journalist Laurie Oakes.


title: Mark Latham

text: On 14 August 2013, during the election federal campaign, Latham was interviewed by the 3AW radio station in Melbourne. He caused controversy when asked to comment on Liberal Party leader Tony Abbott's characterisation of Fiona Scott, the Liberal candidate for Lindsay, as having "sex appeal". Latham responded: It showed very bad judgment, it showed that he's got low standards. I've had a good look at Fiona Scott [...] and I don't think she's got sex appeal at all. [... Abbott] must have had the beer goggles on because she's not that good of a sort, and I'd rather have an aspirant for the prime ministership who's a good judge when it comes to checking out the good sorts.


title: Mark Latham

text: In August 2015, Latham resigned from his regular column after spending eight years with the "Australian Financial Review". His resignation was linked to a series of articles critical of Australian of the Year Rosie Batty and also Group Captain Catherine McGregor.


title: Mark Latham

text: In January 2016, further controversy erupted over Latham's radio podcast on Triple M with comments that he paraphrased from a government report saying "men who have lost their self esteem" turn to domestic violence "as a coping mechanism." Latham referred to Batty (whose son was murdered by his father) as "exploiting her personal tragedy" and "doing more harm than good" by publicising domestic violence against women and children as an epidemic "when the official reports show it at one percent." Batty responded that she hoped "someone like Mark is able to become more informed and (is) not stuck in the, I guess, ignorant position because that type of thinking went out several decades ago...there are still some people unfortunately very influenced and stuck in those (mindsets)."


title: Mark Latham

text: Triple M is a supporter of White Ribbon Campaign, a charity which is led by men to raise awareness of domestic violence caused by men. Since Latham's podcast was broadcast, there have been widespread calls for White Ribbon to distance itself from Triple M and Latham. The chair of White Ribbon, John Rosewarn, responded that "Mark Latham's views on domestic violence, as aired by Triple M, show his lack of understanding and knowledge of this complex issue, including its prevalence, causes and community response." White Ribbon also tweeted: "Domestic violence is much more than physical violence; it's never a coping mechanism."


title: Mark Latham

text: During the 2016 United States presidential election, Latham announced his support for Republican candidate Donald Trump, stating "Donald is by no means perfect but I much prefer his approach to the lying snakes of machine politics and media manipulation" and praised Trump's pledge to dismantle the Obama administration's deals with Iran.


title: Mark Latham

text: After leaving federal politics, Latham worked as a journalist and political and social commentator, appearing on numerous panel programs including "Sunrise" on the Seven Network and "The Verdict" on the Nine Network. In 2016, Latham became co-host of Sky News Live programs "Jones + Co" and in 2017 co-host of "Outsiders".


title: Mark Latham

text: In a March edition of "Outsiders", Latham criticised a lack of diversity among corporate diversity officers and included Sky News colleague Peter van Onselen's wife as an example. Van Onselen and his "To The Point" co-host Kristina Keneally criticised Latham for the segment. Latham responded by criticising both, including negative statements about Keneally's record as Premier of New South Wales. Keneally threatened to take defamation action and made a formal complaint to Sky News management. In a separate incident, ABC Radio Sydney presenter Wendy Harmer initiated legal action after Latham made numerous statements criticising her.


title: Mark Latham

text: A third controversy related to Latham questioning the sexuality of a school student during an "Outsiders" segment criticising a video put out by Sydney Boys High School in support of International Women's Day and suggested he "thought that first guy was gay", referring to a student in the video. Latham was fired from Sky News on 29 March 2017 after the story was published.


title: Mark Latham

text: Latham later defended himself saying that a lot of journalists who discussed the comments had not seen the show: That video was put out there to deliberately confuse people, because the young people were using the words of women and the first fellow up was talking about sex with a man - so it became clear later on what the sort of trick was, but they put it up there for public discussion, we had a discussion about it on the show. No offence was meant, none should have been taken. It really is appalling that people who complained about nothing at the time all of a sudden get worked up later on...


title: Mark Latham

text: In April 2017, Latham launched a website called Mark Latham's Outsiders and hosted a weekly Facebook Live program. Despite sharing the same name, it is unrelated to the Sky News program "Outsiders" which has continued without him as host.


title: Mark Latham

text: In 2019, Latham was a keynote speaker at the inaugural Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Australia, alongside former prime minister Tony Abbott and British politician Nigel Farage.


title: Mark Latham

text: In May 2017, Latham announced via his Facebook page that he would be joining the Liberal Democrats, a libertarian party. The Labor Party responded by placing a life ban on Latham from ever re-joining the party, after a motion was passed by the New South Wales branch of the Labor Party. According to Latham, he had terminated his ALP membership in March 2017 after being refused permission to address a party gathering.


title: Mark Latham

text: Latham also announced that he was open to running as a candidate for the Liberal Democrats in future elections. However, he was blocked by the party executive from running as a candidate and, as a result, resigned his party membership in September 2018.


title: Mark Latham

text: In November 2018, Latham announced that he had joined One Nation as the party's state leader in New South Wales, and would stand for the Legislative Council at the 2019 state election. In response, Luke Foley, the state ALP leader, ruled out recommending preferences to One Nation candidates. Latham ran on a platform which opposed immigration, congestion, overdevelopment and renewable power, and proposed DNA tests for Aboriginal welfare recipients and banning the burqa in Government buildings.


title: Mark Latham

text: Latham was successful in his bid to return to parliament, winning an eight-year term in the Legislative Council. Latham's maiden speech to the NSW parliament focused on criticising "leftist elites", maintaining the values of Western civilisation, the importance of education and the right to freedom of speech, as exemplified in the recent Israel Folau controversy.


title: Mark Latham

text: Since 2020, Latham has promoted a bill titled "Parental Rights" bill which seeks to prohibit teachers from discussing "the ideology of gender fluidity to children in schools".


title: Mark Latham

text: In 2021, Latham moved a motion to pull Bruce Pascoe's book "Dark Emu" from the NSW school curriculum. One Nation, Fred Nile and the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party voted for it, while the Liberal Party, the National Party, Labor and the Greens voted down the motion.


title: Mark Latham

text: In October 2022, Latham announced his plan to quite Legislative Council just before the 2023 New South Wales state election and to run again on the top of the One Nation ticket. The Plan is designed to increase the numbers of One Nation in the Legislative Council from 2 to 4 after the election.


title: Mark Latham

text: Latham supports travel ban on certain Islamic countries, saying, "If you know that there’s a country that’s producing a lot of troublemakers, would-be terrorists, radical jihadists coming to Australia, what sort of sane nation would say, 'Bring 'em in!' If you know there's a nation that's no good for us, then turn off the tap."


title: Mark Latham

text: Latham has claimed he is a supporter of same sex marriage. However, in 2017 during the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey he endorsed the 'no' vote, saying that a 'yes' vote "will open a can of worms".


title: Mark Latham

text: In 2018, Latham launched a Save Australia Day campaign with help from Aboriginal politician Jacinta Price in response to the #ChangeTheDate social media campaign which called for the date of Australia Day to be moved or for the holiday to be abolished entirely due to criticisms from members of the Aboriginal population and sympathizers who claim it is a celebration of imperialism. Latham argued "Changing the date will not change the circumstances of any disadvantaged Indigenous people" and "if the Left succeeds in moving or abolishing Australia Day, there is nothing about Australia that will be safe into the future".


title: Mark Latham

text: Latham began dating his first wife, Gabrielle Gwyther, in 1987, and they married in 1991. They separated in 1997 and divorced in 1999. Latham married his second wife, Janine Lacy, in 2000; they have two sons together. Latham announced his separation from Lacy in 2022.


title: Mark Latham

text: Latham has described himself as a humanist. In a 2004 interview he said "I'm agnostic. I think there's a force, a spiritual world beyond the material. But I'm not in a position to define it, let alone put it into a certain form of religious practice."


title: Salem bin Laden

text: Salem bin Mohammed bin 'Awad bin Laden () (4 January 1946 – 29 May 1988) was a Saudi Arabian investor and businessman.


title: Salem bin Laden

text: Considered the eldest son of Mohammed bin Laden, he was the founder of Saudi Binladin Group and a half-brother of Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden was educated at Millfield and acted as the patriarch of the bin Laden family after the 1967 death of his father. Salem managed the family's extensive investment portfolio and was in charge of family income distribution. He also oversaw the individual education plans for each of his (half-) brothers and (half-) sisters. Just like his father, he highly valued close relationship of the bin Ladens with the Saudi royal family. He provided means and support to the family during the Mecca uprising of 1979.


title: Salem bin Laden

text: George W. Bush knew James Bath, a Texan businessmen who served as the North American representative for rich Saudis among Bin Laden relatives and using Bath connections he met billionaire Salem bin Laden, banker and BCCI Khalid bin Mahfouz. The two Saudis were willing to invest in the oil business. Salem Bin Laden was one of the investors in the Arbusto oil company, created by George W. Bush in 1979.


title: Salem bin Laden

text: Salem bin Laden died on 29 May 1988, when he accidentally drifted into high-voltage electrical power lines adjacent to the Kitty Hawk Field of Dreams Ultra-Lite Flying Field at the edge of Schertz, a northeastern San Antonio suburb. The Sprint ultralight aircraft he was flying fell 115 feet to the ground after the wire strike. Salem, who was not wearing a safety helmet, died of head injuries from the resulting fall. The National Transportation Safety Board did not conduct an accident investigation since the aircraft was an ultralight aircraft, which was not covered under their mandate due to exemption while operating under FAR Part 103 Provisions required by Federal law. The Schertz Police, who attended to the incident, stated in the report that Salem died in a freak accident.


title: Salem bin Laden

text: This was the second plane crash-related death in the bin Laden family, as Salem's father Mohammed bin Laden was also killed in a plane crash in 1967.


title: Salem bin Laden

text: A third plane crash claimed more members of the bin Laden family on 31 July 2015 when a business jet carrying Osama bin Laden's half sister, Sana, and his stepmother, Rajaa Hashim, crashed at Blackbushe airport in Hampshire, England.


title: Delayed-choice quantum eraser

text: A delayed-choice quantum eraser experiment, first performed by Yoon-Ho Kim, R. Yu, S. P. Kulik, Y. H. Shih and Marlan O. Scully, and reported in early 1999, is an elaboration on the quantum eraser experiment that incorporates concepts considered in John Archibald Wheeler's delayed-choice experiment. The experiment was designed to investigate peculiar consequences of the well-known double-slit experiment in quantum mechanics, as well as the consequences of quantum entanglement.


title: Delayed-choice quantum eraser

text: The delayed-choice quantum eraser experiment investigates a paradox. If a photon manifests itself as though it had come by a single path to the detector, then "common sense" (which Wheeler and others challenge) says that it must have entered the double-slit device as a "particle". If a photon manifests itself as though it had come by two indistinguishable paths, then it must have entered the double-slit device as a "wave". Accordingly, if the experimental apparatus is changed while the photon is in mid‑flight, the photon may have to revise its prior "committment" as to whether to be a wave or a particle. Wheeler pointed out that when these assumptions are applied to a device of interstellar dimensions, a last-minute decision made on Earth on how to observe a photon could alter a situation established millions or even billions of years earlier.


title: Delayed-choice quantum eraser

text: While delayed-choice experiments have confirmed the seeming ability of measurements made on photons in the present to alter events occurring in the past, this requires a non-standard view of quantum mechanics. If a photon in flight is interpreted as being in a so-called "superposition of states", i.e. if it is interpreted as something that has the potentiality to manifest as a particle or wave, but during its time in flight is neither, then there is no time paradox. This is the standard view, and recent experiments have supported it.


title: Delayed-choice quantum eraser

text: In the basic double-slit experiment, a beam of light (usually from a laser) is directed perpendicularly towards a wall pierced by two parallel slit apertures. If a detection screen (anything from a sheet of white paper to a CCD) is put on the other side of the double-slit wall (far enough for light from both slits to overlap), a pattern of light and dark fringes will be observed, a pattern that is called an "interference pattern". Other atomic-scale entities such as electrons are found to exhibit the same behavior when fired toward a double slit. By decreasing the brightness of the source sufficiently, individual particles that form the interference pattern are detectable. The emergence of an interference pattern suggests that each particle passing through the slits interferes with itself, and that therefore in some sense the particles are going through both slits at once. This is an idea that contradicts our everyday experience of discrete objects.


title: Delayed-choice quantum eraser

text: A well-known thought experiment, which played a vital role in the history of quantum mechanics (for example, see the discussion on ), demonstrated that if particle detectors are positioned at the slits, showing through which slit a photon goes, the interference pattern will disappear. This "which-way" experiment illustrates the complementarity principle that photons can behave as either particles or waves, but not both at the same time.


title: Delayed-choice quantum eraser

text: Which-path information and the visibility of interference fringes are hence complementary quantities. In the double-slit experiment, conventional wisdom held that observing the particles inevitably disturbed them enough to destroy the interference pattern as a result of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.


title: Delayed-choice quantum eraser

text: However, in 1982, Scully and Drühl found a loophole around this interpretation. They proposed a "quantum eraser" to obtain which-path information without scattering the particles or otherwise introducing uncontrolled phase factors to them. Rather than attempting to "observe" which photon was entering each slit (thus disturbing them), they proposed to "mark" them with information that, in principle at least, would allow the photons to be distinguished after passing through the slits. Lest there be any misunderstanding, the interference pattern does disappear when the photons are so marked. However, the interference pattern reappears if the which-path information is further manipulated "after" the marked photons have passed through the double slits to obscure the which-path markings. Since 1982, multiple experiments have demonstrated the validity of the so-called quantum "eraser".


title: Delayed-choice quantum eraser

text: A simple version of the quantum eraser can be described as follows: Rather than splitting one photon or its probability wave between two slits, the photon is subjected to a beam splitter. If one thinks in terms of a stream of photons being randomly directed by such a beam splitter to go down two paths that are kept from interaction, it would seem that no photon can then interfere with any other or with itself.


title: Delayed-choice quantum eraser

text: However, if the rate of photon production is reduced so that only one photon is entering the apparatus at any one time, it becomes impossible to understand the photon as only moving through one path, because when the path outputs are redirected so that they coincide on a common detector or detectors, interference phenomena appear. This is similar to envisioning one photon in a two-slit apparatus: even though it is one photon, it still somehow interacts with both slits.


title: Delayed-choice quantum eraser

text: In the two diagrams in Fig. 1, photons are emitted one at a time from a laser symbolized by a yellow star. They pass through a 50% beam splitter (green block) that reflects or transmits 1/2 of the photons. The reflected or transmitted photons travel along two possible paths depicted by the red or blue lines.


title: Delayed-choice quantum eraser

text: In the top diagram, it seems as though the trajectories of the photons are known: If a photon emerges from the top of the apparatus, it seems as though it had to have come by way of the blue path, and if it emerges from the side of the apparatus, it seems as though it had to have come by way of the red path. However, it is important to keep in mind that the photon is in a superposition of the paths until it is detected. The assumption above—that it 'had to have come by way of' either path—is a form of the 'separation fallacy'.


title: Delayed-choice quantum eraser

text: In the bottom diagram, a second beam splitter is introduced at the top right. It recombines the beams corresponding to the red and blue paths. By introducing the second beam splitter, the usual way of thinking is that the path information has been "erased"—however we have to be careful, because the photon cannot be assumed to have 'really' gone along one or the other path. Recombining the beams results in interference phenomena at detection screens positioned just beyond each exit port. What issues to the right side displays reinforcement, and what issues toward the top displays cancellation. It is important to keep in mind however that the illustrated interferometer effects apply only to a single photon in a pure state. When dealing with a pair of entangled photons, the photon encountering the interferometer will be in a mixed state, and there will be no visible interference pattern without coincidence counting to select appropriate subsets of the data.


title: Delayed-choice quantum eraser

text: Elementary precursors to current quantum-eraser experiments such as the "simple quantum eraser" described above have straightforward classical-wave explanations. Indeed, it could be argued that there is nothing particularly quantum about this experiment. Nevertheless, Jordan has argued on the basis of the correspondence principle, that despite the existence of classical explanations, first-order interference experiments such as the above can be interpreted as true quantum erasers.


title: Delayed-choice quantum eraser

text: These precursors use single-photon interference. Versions of the quantum eraser using entangled photons, however, are intrinsically non-classical. Because of that, in order to avoid any possible ambiguity concerning the quantum versus classical interpretation, most experimenters have opted to use nonclassical entangled-photon light sources to demonstrate quantum erasers with no classical analog.


title: Delayed-choice quantum eraser

text: Furthermore, use of entangled photons enables the design and implementation of versions of the quantum eraser that are impossible to achieve with single-photon interference, such as the delayed-choice quantum eraser, which is the topic of this article.


title: Delayed-choice quantum eraser

text: The experimental setup, described in detail in Kim "et al.", is illustrated in Fig 2. An argon laser generates individual 351.1 nm photons that pass through a double-slit apparatus (vertical black line in the upper left corner of the diagram).


title: Delayed-choice quantum eraser

text: An individual photon goes through one (or both) of the two slits. In the illustration, the photon paths are color-coded as red or light blue lines to indicate which slit the photon came through (red indicates slit A, light blue indicates slit B).


title: Delayed-choice quantum eraser

text: So far, the experiment is like a conventional two-slit experiment. However, after the slits, spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) is used to prepare an entangled two-photon state. This is done by a nonlinear optical crystal BBO (beta barium borate) that converts the photon (from either slit) into two identical, orthogonally polarized entangled photons with 1/2 the frequency of the original photon. The paths followed by these orthogonally polarized photons are caused to diverge by the Glan–Thompson prism.


title: Delayed-choice quantum eraser

text: One of these 702.2 nm photons, referred to as the "signal" photon (look at the red and light-blue lines going "upwards" from the Glan–Thompson prism) continues to the target detector called "D". During an experiment, detector "D" is scanned along its "x" axis, its motions controlled by a step motor. A plot of "signal" photon counts detected by "D" versus "x" can be examined to discover whether the cumulative signal forms an interference pattern.


title: Delayed-choice quantum eraser

text: The other entangled photon, referred to as the "idler" photon (look at the red and light-blue lines going "downwards" from the Glan–Thompson prism), is deflected by prism "PS" that sends it along divergent paths depending on whether it came from slit "A" or slit "B".


title: Delayed-choice quantum eraser

text: Somewhat beyond the path split, the idler photons encounter beam splitters "BS", "BS", and "BS" that each have a 50% chance of allowing the idler photon to pass through and a 50% chance of causing it to be reflected. "M" and "M" are mirrors.


title: Delayed-choice quantum eraser

text: The beam splitters and mirrors direct the idler photons towards detectors labeled "D", "D", "D" and "D". Note that:


title: Delayed-choice quantum eraser

text: Detection of the idler photon by "D" or "D" provides delayed "which-path information" indicating whether the signal photon with which it is entangled had gone through slit A or B. On the other hand, detection of the idler photon by "D" or "D" provides a delayed indication that such information is not available for its entangled signal photon. Insofar as which-path information had earlier potentially been available from the idler photon, it is said that the information has been subjected to a "delayed erasure".


title: Delayed-choice quantum eraser

text: By using a coincidence counter, the experimenters were able to isolate the entangled signal from photo-noise, recording only events where both signal and idler photons were detected (after compensating for the 8 ns delay). Refer to Figs 3 and 4.