Participatory democracy, participant democracy or participative democracy is a form of government in which citizens participate individually and directly in political decisions and policies that affect their lives, rather than through elected representatives. Elements of direct and representative democracy are combined in this model.

Overview
Participatory democracy is a type of democracy, which is itself a form of government. The term "democracy" is derived from the Greek expression  (dēmokratia) (δῆμος/dēmos: people, Κράτος/kratos: rule). It has two main subtypes, direct and representative democracy. In the former, the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation; in the latter, they choose governing officials to do so. While direct democracy was the original concept, its representative version is the most widespread today.

Public participation, in this context, is the inclusion of the public in the activities of a polity. It can be any process that directly engages the public in decision-making and gives consideration to its input. The extent to which political participation should be considered necessary or appropriate is under debate in political philosophy.

Joining political parties allows citizens to participate in democratic systems, but is not considered participatory democracy.

Participatory democracy is primarily concerned with ensuring that citizens have the opportunity to be involved in decision-making on matters that affect their lives. It is not a new concept and has existed in various forms since the Athenian democracy. Its modern theory was developed by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the 18th century and later promoted by John Stuart Mill and G. D. H. Cole, who argued that political participation is indispensable for a just society. In the early 21st century, participatory democracy has been more widely studied and experimented with, leading to various institutional reform ideas such as participatory budgeting.

History

Origins in Ancient Greece

Democracy in general first appeared in the city-state of Athens during classical antiquity. It was first established under Cleisthenes in 508–507 BC. This was a direct democracy, in which ordinary citizens were randomly selected to fill government administrative and judicial offices, and there was a legislative assembly consisting of all Athenian citizens. However, Athenian citizenship excluded women, slaves, foreigners (μέτοικοι/métoikoi) and youths below the age of military service. Athenian democracy was the most direct in history as the people controlled the entire political process through the assembly, the boule and the courts, and a large proportion of citizens were involved constantly in public matters.

During the 20th century
During the 20th century, practical implementations began to take place, mostly on a small scale, attracting considerable academic attention in the 1980s. Experiments in participatory democracy took place in various cities around the world. As one of the earliest examples, Porto Alegre, Brazil adapted a system of participatory budgeting in 1989. A World Bank study found that participatory democracy in these cities seemed to result in considerable improvement in the quality of life for residents.

In the 21st century
In the early 21st century, experiments in participatory democracy began to spread throughout South and North America, China, and across the European Union. In a US example, the plans to rebuild New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 were drafted and approved by thousands of ordinary citizens.

The Citizens' Assembly (2011) in Ireland
In 2011, as a response to citizens' growing distrust in the government following the financial crisis of 2007–2008, Ireland authorised a citizens' assembly called "We the Citizens". Its task was to pilot the use of a participatory democratic body and test whether it could increase political legitimacy. There was an increase in both efficacy and interest in governmental functions, as well as significant opinion shifts on contested issues like taxation.

The Citizens Convention for Climate in France (2019)
The French government organised "le grand débat national" (the Great National Debate) in early 2019 as a response to the Yellow vests movement. It consisted of 18 regional conventions, each with 100 randomly selected citizens, that had to deliberate on issues they valued the most so that they could influence government action. After the debate, a citizens' convention was created specifically to discuss climate change, "la Convention citoyenne pour le climat" (the Citizens Convention for Climate, CCC), designed to serve as a legislative body to decide how the country could reduce its greenhouse gas emissions with social justice in mind. It consisted of 150 citizens selected by sortition and stratified sampling, who were sorted into five sub-groups to discuss individual topics. The members were helped by experts on steering committees. The proceedings of the CCC garnered international attention. After nine months, the convention outlined 149 measures in a 460-page report, and President Macron committed to supporting 146 of them. A bill containing these was submitted to the parliament in late 2020.

Effects of social media
In recent years, social media has led to changes in the conduct of participatory democracy. Citizens with differing points of view are able to join conversations, mainly through the use of hashtags. To promote public interest and involvement, local governments have started using social media to make decisions based on public feedback. Users have also organised online committees to highlight local needs and appoint budget delegates who work with the citizens and city agencies.

The Occupy movement
Participatory democracy was a notable feature of the Occupy movement in 2011. "Occupy camps" around the world made decisions based on the outcome of working groups where every protester had a say. These decisions were then aggregated by general assemblies. This process combined equality, mass participation, and deliberation.

Evaluation

Strengths

The most prominent argument for participatory democracy is its function of greater democratization.

With participatory democracy, individuals or groups can realistically achieve their interests, "[providing] the means to a more just and rewarding society, not a strategy for preserving the status quo."

Participatory democracy may also have an educational effect. Greater political participation can lead to the public to seeking to also make it higher quality in efficacy and depth: "the more individuals participate the better able they become to do so", an idea already promoted by Rousseau, Mill, and Cole. Pateman emphasises this potential as it counteracts the widespread lack of faith in the capacity and capability of citizens to meaningfully participate, especially in societies with complex organisations. Joel D. Wolfe asserts his confidence that such models could be implemented even in large organizations, progressively diminishing state intervention.

Weaknesses
Criticisms of participatory democracy generally align with advocacy for minimal democracy. The main opposition is the disbelief in citizens' capabilities to bear the greater responsibility. Some reject the feasibility of participatory models and refutes its proposed educational benefits.

Critics conclude that the citizenry is disinterested and leader-dependent, making the mechanism for participatory democracy inherently incompatible with advanced societies.

Other concerns are whether such massive political input can be managed and turned into effective output. David Plotke highlights that the institutional adjustments needed to make greater political participation possible would require a representative element. Consequently, both direct and participatory democracy must rely on some type of representation to sustain a stable system. He also states that achieving equal direct participation in large and heavily populated regions is hardly possible, and ultimately argues in favor of representation over participation, calling for a hybrid between participatory and representative models.

A third category of criticism, primarily advanced by Dr. Roslyn Fuller, rejects equating or even subsuming instruments of Deliberative Democracy (such as citizens' assemblies) under the term of Participatory Democracy, as such instruments violate the hard-won concept of political equality (One Man, One Vote), in exchange for a small chance of being randomly selected to participate and are thus not 'participatory' in any meaningful sense.

Proponents of Deliberative Democracy in her view misconstrue the role sortition played in the ancient Athenian democracy (where random selection was limited only to offices and positions with very limited power whereas participation in the main decision-making forum was open to all citizens).

Fuller's most serious criticism is that Deliberative Democracy purposefully limits decisions to small, externally controllable groups while ignoring the plethora of e-democracy tools available which allow for unfiltered mass participation and deliberation.

Mechanisms promoting participatory democracy
Scholars have recently proposed several mechanisms to increase citizen participation in democratic systems. These methods intend to increase the agenda-setting and decision-making powers of the people by giving citizens more direct ways to contribute to politics.

Citizens' assemblies

Also called mini-publics, citizens' assemblies are representative samples of a population that meet to create legislation or advise legislative bodies. When citizens are chosen to participate by stratified sampling, the assemblies are more representative of the population than elected legislatures. Assemblies chosen by sortition provide average citizens with the opportunity to exercise substantive agenda-setting and/or decision-making power. Over the course of the assembly, citizens are helped by experts and discussion facilitators, and the results are either put to a referendum or sent in a report to the government.

Critics of citizens' assemblies have raised concerns about their perceived legitimacy. Political scientist Daan Jacobs finds that although the perceived legitimacy of assemblies is higher than that of system with no participation, but not any higher than that of any system involving self-selection. Regardless, the use of citizens' assemblies has grown throughout the early 21st century and they have were often used in constitutional reforms, such as in British Columbia's Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform in 2004 and the Irish Constitutional Convention in 2012.

Deliberative opinion polls

 Trademarked by Stanford professor James S. Fishkin, deliberative opinion polls allow citizens to develop informed opinions before voting through deliberation. Deliberative polling begins with surveying a random representative sample of citizens to gage their opinion. The same individuals are then invited to deliberate for a weekend in the presence of political leaders, experts, and moderators. At the end, the group is surveyed again, and the final opinions are taken to be the conclusion the public would have reached if they had the opportunity to engage with the issue more deeply. Philosopher Cristina Lafont, a critic of deliberative opinion polling argues that the "filtered" (informed) opinion reached at the end of a poll is too far removed from the opinion of the citizenry, delegitimizing the actions based on them.

Public consultation surveys
Public consultation surveys are surveys on policy proposals or positions that have been put forward by legislators, government officials, or other policy leader. The entirety of the deliberative process takes place within the survey. For each issue, respondents are provided relevant briefing materials, and arguments for and against various proposals.  Respondents then provide their final recommendation.  Public consultation surveys are primarily done with large representative samples, usually several thousand nationally and several hundred in subnational jurisdictions. .

Public consultation surveys have been used since the 1990s in the US.  The American Talks Issue Foundation led by Alan Kay played a pioneering role.  The largest such program is the Program for Public Consultation at the University of Maryland's School of Public Policy, directed by Steven Kull, conducting public consultation surveys on the national level, as well as in states and congressional districts. They have gathered public opinion data on over 300 policy proposals that have been put forward by Members of Congress and the Executive Branch, in a variety of areas. Such surveys conducted in particular Congressional districts have also been used as the basis for face-to-face forums in congressional districts, in which survey participants and House Congressional Representative discuss the policy proposals and the results of the survey.

The questionnaires used in the surveys by the Program for Public Consultation, which they call "policymaking simulations", have also been made available for public use, as educational and advocacy tools. Members of the public can take the policymaking simulations to better understand the proposal, and are given the option to send their policy recommendations to their elected officials in Congress.

E-democracy

E-democracy is an umbrella term describing a variety of proposals to increase participation through technology. Open discussion forums provide citizens the opportunity to debate policy online while facilitators guide discussion. These forums usually serve agenda-setting purposes or are sometimes used to provide legislators with additional testimony. Closed forums may be used to discuss more sensitive information: in the United Kingdom, one was used to enable domestic violence survivors to testify to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Domestic Violence and Abuse while preserving their anonymity.

Another e-democratic mechanism is online deliberative polling, a system in which citizens deliberate with peers virtually before answering a poll. The results of deliberative opinion polls are more likely to reflect the considered judgments of the people and encourage increased citizen awareness of civic issues.

Liquid democracy

In a hybrid between direct and representative democracy, liquid democracy permits individuals to either vote on issues themselves or to select issue-competent delegates to vote on their behalf. Political scientists Christian Blum and Christina Isabel Zuber suggest that liquid democracy has the potential to improve a legislature's performance through bringing together delegates with a greater awareness on a specific issue, taking advantage of knowledge within the population. To make liquid democracy more deliberative, a trustee model of delegation may be implemented, in which the delegates vote after deliberation with other representatives.

Some concerns have been raised about the implementation of liquid democracy. Blum and Zuber, for example, find that it produces two classes of voters: individuals with one vote and delegates with two or more. They also worry that policies produced in issue-specific legislatures will lack cohesiveness. Liquid democracy is utilized by Pirate Parties for intra-party decision-making.

Participatory budgeting

Participatory budgeting allows citizens to make decisions on the allocation of a public budget. Originating in Porto Alegre, Brazil, the general procedure involves the creation of a concrete financial plan that then serves as a recommendation to elected representatives. Neighbourhoods are given the authority to design budgets for the greater region and local proposals are brought to elected regional forums. This system lead to a decrease in clientelism and corruption and an increase in participation, particularly amongst marginalized and poorer residents. Theorist Graham Smith observes that participatory budgeting still has some barriers to entry for the poorest members of the population.

Referendums

In binding referendums, citizens vote on laws and/or constitutional amendments proposed by a legislative body. Referendums afford citizens greater decision-making power by giving them the ultimate decision, and they may also use referendums for agenda-setting if they are allowed to draft proposals to be put to referendums in efforts called popular initiatives. Compulsory voting can further increase participation. Political theorist Hélène Landemore raises the concern that referendums may fail to be sufficiently deliberative as people are unable to engage in discussions and debates that would enhance their decision-making abilities.

Switzerland currently uses a rigorous system of referendums, under which all laws the legislature proposes go to referendums. Swiss citizens may also start popular initiatives, a process in which citizens put forward a constitutional amendment or propose the removal of an existing provision. Any proposal must receive the signature of 100,000 citizens to go to a ballot.

Town meetings

In local participatory democracy, town meetings provide all residents with legislative power. Practiced in the United States, particularly in New England, since the 17th century, they assure that local policy decisions are made directly by the public. Local democracy is often seen as the first step towards a participatory system. Theorist Graham Smith, however, notes the limited impact of town meetings that cannot lead to action on national issues. He also suggests that town meetings are not representative as they disproportionately represent individuals with free time, including the elderly and the affluent.

Mechanisms to prevent participatory democracy

In his 2016 book Against Democracy, Jason Brennan advocates for a less participatory system because of the irrationality of voters in a representative democracy. He proposes several mechanisms to reduce participation, presented with the assumption that a vote-based system of electoral representation is maintained.

Restricted suffrage and plural voting

Comparing an untested voter to an unlicensed driver, Brennan argues that exams should be administered to all citizens to determine if they are competent to participate in public matters. Under this system, citizens either have one or zero votes, depending on their test performance. He also proposes a plural voting regime in which each citizen has by default one vote (or zero votes) but can earn additional votes through passing voter entrance exams or possessing academic degrees. Critics of Brennan, including reporter Sean Illing, found parallels between his proposed system and the literacy tests the Jim Crow laws that prevented black people from voting in the United States between.

Universal suffrage with epistocratic veto

Brennan proposes a second system in which all citizens have equal rights to vote or otherwise participate in government, but decisions made by the elected representatives are scrutinized by an epistocratic council. This council could not make law, only "unmake" it, and would likely be composed of individuals who pass rigorous competency exams. He admits that an epistocratic veto could lead to significant gridlock but suggests that this may be a necessary evil in the process of reducing democratic incompetence. The epistocratic veto would thus serve as a back-end check, as opposed to a front-end check in restricted suffrage, that still allows all citizens to participate in electing representatives.

See also

 Citizens' assembly
 Civic intelligence
 Collaborative governance
 Deliberative democracy
 Demarchy
 Direct democracy
 Green politics
 Inclusive Democracy
 Open source governance
 Participatory budgeting
 Participatory justice
 Public incubator
 Public participation
 Public sphere
 Radical transparency
 Sociocracy
 Sortition
 Workers' council

Notes

References

Further reading

Articles containing video clips
Types of democracy

Participatory democracy


Are You Listening? is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film directed by Harry Beaumont and starring William Haines, Madge Evans and Anita Page.

Plot
Radio writer Bill Grimes is in love with radio actress Laura O' Neill, and they enjoy harmless social activities together like roller-skating. But Bill is bitterly married to Alice, who dislikes him as much as he does her but they are unable to separate because, in the Depression, they can't afford separate domiciles. Alice demands that Bill stay home for their third wedding anniversary celebration so as not to humiliate her in front of another couple she's invited; at Laura's suggestion, Bill tries to soften her by a gift of stockings, but she criticizes them and the evening is wretched for him. He had to break a theater date with Laura to be there, and when he finally gets away to visit her she decides this can't work and breaks up with him. Laura lives with her sister Sally, who is practiced in dating rich men without compromising herself. Their younger, naive sister Honey comes to town avid to go out on double dates with Sally, but does not master the technique of furtively dumping her liquor, gets sloppy drunk and Sally must rescue her. Honey thinks a clubman means to marry her, but when he shows up for a lunch date he scoffs at the idea, says all men lie like that, and just wants to keep dating her even though he's engaged. She is consoled by her sisters and finds love with a nice guy at the station whose intentions are honourable. There is backstage comedy about an inept sound-effects man and a series of great love stories the sponsor, a bathtub magnate, dislikes because they're not about plumbing. Late in the story, Bill moves out into a hotel; he has lost his job because he's too depressed to write comedy, and can't send the money to Alice that he promised. She comes to confront him in his hotel room, they quarrel, and when he gives her a small, exasperated push without looking she falls, hits her head and dies. Bill thinks of calling the police, but instead panics and runs; he goes to say goodbye to Laura, and she decides to run with him. The police discover the body (offstage) very quickly, and the radio station manager decides to make a sensational story out of tracking down the "vicious murderer" and his "paramour". Bill and Laura get as far as Miami, but a gas station attendant has recognized them from the anodyne radio description and called the police, so that a newspaper editor they go to for help locks them in his office and calls the radio station. Bill thinks he is talking to a sympathetic colleague who will get him a lawyer, but he really puts the phone call with Bill on the air and spins it to say Bill confessed (he didn't). This apparently does no harm at Bill's trial, because we next find that he was just convicted of manslaughter. Laura meets him at the station on his way to prison and they cheer each other up with the reflection that his sentence is only three years, it could be reduced for good behaviour, and "maybe the Depression will be over by then."

Cast
 William Haines as Bill Grimes
 Madge Evans as Laura O'Neil
 Anita Page as Sally O'Neil
 Karen Morley as Alice Grimes
 Neil Hamilton as Jack Clayton
 Wallace Ford as Larry Barnes
 Jean Hersholt as George Wagner
 Joan Marsh as Honey O'Neil
 John Miljan as Ted Russell
 Murray Kinnell as Carson
 Ethel Griffies as Mrs Peters
 Hattie McDaniel as Singer
 Rolfe Sedan as Hotel Manager
 Louise Carter as Mrs O'Neil
 Charles Coleman as Butler
 Charley Grapewin as Pierce
 Frank Whitlock as Radio Announcer
 Herman Bing as Actor

Production
Are You Listening? was William Haines' final film for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film was an attempt by the studio to revamp Bill's character. The film turned a small profit, although not as impressive as, New Adventures of Get Rich Quick Wallingford, (his previous film), and nowhere near the Haines grosses of old.

References

External links

1932 films
1932 crime drama films
American black-and-white films
American crime drama films
Films about radio people
Films directed by Harry Beaumont
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films
1930s English-language films
1930s American films
English-language crime drama films

Are You Listening? (film)


A city centre is the commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely equivalent terms exist in other languages, such as "" in French,  in German, or shìzhōngxīn () in Chinese. In the United States, the term "downtown" is generally used, though a few cities, like Philadelphia, use the term "Center City", while others such as Portland use the term "City Center".

Overview and related concepts

The city centre is the (often historical) area of a city where commerce, entertainment, shopping, and political power are concentrated. The term is commonly used in many English-speaking countries and has direct equivalents in many other languages. However, noticeably, in the United States, the term "downtown" is commonly used to denote a city centre, and in Canada the terms "city centre" and "downtown" are used interchangeably, most notable in the modern, purpose-built cores of former boroughs or newer suburban cities that had no traditional urban core (i.e. North York City Centre and Mississauga City Centre). In Australia, the term "Central Business District" is widely used to refer to the city centre, but usage of the term "City Centre" is increasing, especially in Melbourne. In South Africa, "CBD" is used in formal contexts, but in informal contexts, the city centre is referred to as "town", and despite the growth of decentralised CBDs such as Sandton and uMhlanga "town" continues to refer to the original CBDs of cities.

In many cities, the Central Business District (CBD) is within the city centre, but the concept "city centre" differs from the CBD. The concept of the "CBD" revolves solely around economic and financial power, but the "city centre" also includes historical, political, and cultural factors. A clear example is Paris: La Défense is the central business district of Paris, but it is not the city centre. In most larger and/or older cities, the CBD and the city centre will only partially overlap, if at all.

A city centre is often the first settled part of a city, which can make it the most historical part of a city.

Usage

Australia
In most Australian cities, the city centre to some extent coincides with the central business district, with the result that "the City", "city centre", and "central business district" or "CBD" are regarded as near-synonyms. However, in some Australian cities, the city centre and the CBD are geographically separately identified. The term "CBD" is not often used in the capital Canberra, where the primary activity is government; its "city centre" is usually identified as the district called "City" or "Civic".

China
In Chinese, the urban centre of a city is called the "city centre" or "urban core" (). In many cities, it is the historical city centre and the cultural and commercial centre. Historically, the CBD often occupied one portion of the city centre. In recent years, larger cities have often developed CBDs or financial districts that occupy a part of the city centre or are outside the historical city centre completely. For example, Beijing's historical city centre is defined by the former city walls and remains the political and cultural centre of the city, but Beijing's CBD sits in Chaoyang District, to the east of the historical city; Shanghai's city centre was defined by the Old Chinese City, the International Settlement and the French Concession and sat on the west bank of the Huangpu River, whereas the modern financial district is concentrated on Lujiazui, a newly developed area across the river from the traditional city centre (although parts of the traditional city centre remain key financial and business centres).

Israel
The Hebrew term for "city centre" is a direct translation: "מרכז העיר" (merkaz ha'ir); however it is used inconsistently in different cities throughout Israel due to their extremely varied topographies and urban designs.
 In Jerusalem the term is used both colloquially and officially as the name of the commercial district that lies at the geographical center of the Western city. This area is many times larger, denser and more active than any of the city's other commercial centres. The formation of a dedicated city centre resulted partially from geographical necessity; pedestrian travel between different neighborhoods is difficult due to the hilly terrain, so public transportation and wider roadways instead pull residents to one centralized location - atop the city's central ridge-line - where they can congregate effectively. At the edges of the district the urban make-up shifts almost abruptly into residential neighborhoods, creating palpable boundaries. Much-smaller commercial centres within each residential neighborhood may meet day-to-day shopping needs, but mostly attract only local residents. In this way, Jerusalem's residential neighborhoods function more like suburbs to the Jerusalem City Centre.
 By contrast, Tel Aviv follows a much more decentralized urban design scheme, with services, shopping, entertainment and cultural institutions spread out more evenly throughout the entire city. This design philosophy applies also to Tel Aviv's many satellite cities (the "Gush Dan" metropolitan area), creating a much more uniform sprawl of commercial activity that only gradually decreases towards the suburbs. Decentralization provides a vast proportion of Tel Aviv's residents with access to a large variety of services, shopping, and leisure activities very close to home, typically within walking or biking distance. As a result, the term "Tel Aviv centre" is often more of a geographical reference to the city's central region, in contrast with "north Tel Aviv" and "south Tel Aviv" which have their own unique social atmospheres. This central region, encompassing roughly one third of the city's total municipal area, does feature a higher concentration of leisure and shopping businesses, but is simultaneously also strongly residential - housing one third of the city's residents. Nevertheless, most skyscrapers and non-service businesses in Gush Dan are situated at the edges of Tel Aviv centre or completely outside it - as result of a conscious decision of the municipal government to keep them out. This gives central Tel Aviv a very laid-back atmosphere relative to its central location within the heavily populated metropolis.
 Haifa, Israel's third largest city, has its Central Business District situated at its geographical north along the shoreline of Haifa Bay. This flat, seaside area is called the "Lower City" of Haifa, in contrast to the neighborhoods on the slopes and peak of Mount Carmel to its southeast. Though it contains a few residential neighborhoods, the Lower City houses only 5% of the city's entire population, and features almost all of its tallest structures, most of which are office spaces. Commercial and leisure centers in Haifa are mostly found outside the Lower City, and have attracted much more activity than the Lower City since the 1980s, leaving the Lower City partially dilapidated. New developments in the Lower City since the start of the 21st century aim to reverse this trend.

Netherlands

In Dutch, the terms binnenstad, centrum, stadscentrum, or stadskern are used to describe the city centre. Amsterdam is a clear example of the city centre and the central business district not being the same area. The city centre of Amsterdam is Centrum, the historical heart of the city, but the CBD areas of Amsterdam are Omval in the southeast and Zuidas, in the south. Additionally, Westpoort serves as the city's industrial park.

Because of the bombardment of Rotterdam during World War II, with the loss of its historical core, the city centre and the CBD are the same area in Rotterdam.

New Zealand
City centre and central business district are used interchangeably in New Zealand for any urban area that had city status prior to the 1989 local government reorganisation which saw many city councils amalgamate with surrounding boroughs, counties and towns to form larger districts. Prior to 1989, city status was granted to a town or borough with a population greater than 20,000. In everyday language, New Zealanders often refer to city centres as going to "town".

Wellington metropolitan area has 4 respective city centres in Wellington, Lower Hutt, Porirua and Upper Hutt whereas Auckland metropolitan area has 2 city centres in Auckland and Manukau. Timaru has a "city centre" whereas towns larger than it such as Blenheim or Pukekohe have "town centres" as they did not achieve city status prior to the 1989 local government reform which changed the population threshold for city status to 50,000.

See also
 100 percent corner
 Administrative centre
 Central business district
 Inner city
 Town centre

References

Urban studies and planning terminology
City

City centre


Denis Ryan is an Irish-Canadian folk musician, best known as a member of the popular Irish-Newfoundland band trio Ryan's Fancy, and as a singer and tin whistle player.

Biography
Born in Newport, County Tipperary, Ireland, Ryan immigrated to Toronto in 1969.  He formed the Irish- Canadian folk group Ryan's Fancy in 1970 with Fergus O'Byrne and the late Dermot O'Reilly and moved to St. John's Newfoundland in 1971 to attend Memorial University where he graduated with a degree in Folklore.  Ryan and his family moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1980 and have been residing there ever since.

Ryan's career has spanned more than 40 years.  He has performed all over the world, appearing in over two hundred television shows in both Ireland, USA, and Canada, including 78 TV shows with the Ryan's Fancy Tommy Makem syndicated series. The group also had a national TV series on CBC in 1976. Other TV shows included Ryan's Fancy on Campus in the late 70's and early 80's, also on the CBC. They recorded 13 albums. In early 2011, Ryan's Fancy released their 40th Anniversary Collection.

Songs that Ryan made popular in Ireland and Canada in the 70s and 80's include "Newport Town", "Mulchair River", "Logy Bay", "Sweet Forget Me Not", and "Now I'm Sixty Four". Ryan's versions of "Dark Island" and "Let me Fish off Cape St. Mary's" were to many the group's most popular songs, and became Ryan's signature pieces. As a singer, he has performed for former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, US president Ronald Reagan, Queen Elizabeth, and has sung with former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.

In 1983, Ryan's Fancy disbanded and Ryan has since been working in the Investment Management business.  He is involved with numerous community projects including serving as the national chairman of the fundraising committee of the Darcy McGee Chair of Irish Studies at St. Mary's University, and was also on the Board of Governors for St. FX University.  In 1994 he received an honorary degree, Doctor of Letters from St. Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Ryan was the founder of Nova Scotian Crystal, Canada's only hand cut mouth-blown crystal manufacturer.
Ryan recorded various solo CD projects, including Mist Covered Mountains,  Newport Town, Here and There, and Cape St. Marys.

In the mid 1990s, Ryan hosted the CBC TV Series "Up on the Roof". He played the role of a Judge in the Trailer Park Boys movie "Live in Ireland". He became notorious in 2010 thanks to his appearance in a popular YouTube video about bankers. In October 2015, he hosted a TV documentary about the Canadian painter Tom Forrestall.
In May 2021, he received an honorary Doctor of Letters from Cape Breton University.

Discography

Solo
 Mist Covered Mountains
 Here and There
 Let Me Fish Off Cape St.Mary's
 Newport Town with Denis Carey.

With Ryan's Fancy
Ryan's Fancy Discography

References

External links
Ryan's Fancy Official Website
Ryan's Fancy: Songs from the Shows

Living people
People from Newport, County Tipperary
Irish emigrants to Canada
Canadian folk musicians
Irish folk musicians
Irish tin whistle players
Irish male fiddlers
20th-century Irish male musicians
21st-century Irish male musicians
21st-century Irish fiddlers
Year of birth missing (living people)
Musicians from County Tipperary
20th-century Irish flautists
21st-century Irish flautists
Irish male flautists

Denis Ryan (singer)


Levomoramide is the inactive isomer of the opioid analgesic dextromoramide, invented by the chemist Paul Janssen in 1956. Unlike dextromoramide, which is a potent analgesic with high abuse potential, levomoramide is virtually without activity.

"Resolution reveals that the analgetic activity in this case resides almost entirely in the (+) isomer."

"In the α-CH3 series, one of the optical isomers of each enantiomorphic pair is about twice as active as the racemic mixture; the other isomer is devoid of significant analgesic activity."

However, despite being inactive, levomoramide is scheduled by UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.

References

Synthetic opioids
4-Morpholinyl compounds
1-Pyrrolidinyl compounds
Carboxamides

pl:Moramid

Levomoramide


Nathaniel Peeples (June 29, 1926 – August 30, 2012) was a professional baseball outfielder in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. He played in the Negro leagues and in minor league baseball.

Early life
Peeples was born in Memphis, Tennessee. He attended LeMoyne-Owen College.

Negro league career
He played for the Memphis Red Sox (in 1948), Kansas City Monarchs and Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League.

Minor league career
Peeples spent ten seasons in the minor leagues, from 1951 to 1960. He began his career in the Brooklyn Dodgers system, playing there from 1951 to 1953. He joined the Milwaukee Braves system in 1953 and remained there until 1959. He briefly joined the Chicago Cubs system in 1959 and last played in the Mexican League in 1960.

Notable seasons
In 1954, Peeples played briefly for the Atlanta Crackers of the Southern Association. Though he played only two games with the team, his stay was notable for he became the only African American to ever play in the Southern Association. The ripples of racism still permeated the South in those days, however, and – facing pressure from other league clubs – the Crackers sent him to the Jacksonville Braves of the South Atlantic League, prematurely ending his stay with the Atlanta squad after a two-week stint. Other sources say it was Peeples' lack of ability that earned his demotion to Jacksonville.

In 1957, with the Corpus Christi Clippers of the Big State League, Peeples hit .314 with 25 home runs, 116 runs scored and 99 RBI, leading the league in the latter two categories and finishing second in home runs, behind Don Miles' 28. The following year, with the Austin Senators of the Texas League, he hit .259 with 21 home runs, 79 RBI and 23 stolen bases, finishing second in the league in steals, behind Rod Kanehl.

Death
Peeples died at the age of 86 in Memphis, Tennessee.

References

External links
 and Seamheads

Minor league baseball players
Indianapolis Clowns players
Kansas City Monarchs players
Memphis Red Sox players
1926 births
2012 deaths
20th-century African-American sportspeople
21st-century African-American people

Nat Peeples


Mae Barnes (born Edith Mae Stith, possibly January 23, 1907 – December 13, 1996) was an American jazz singer, dancer and comic entertainer.  She was responsible for introducing the Charleston dance to Broadway in the 1924 revue Runnin' Wild.  After her career as a dancer ended, she became a successful nightclub singer and recording artist.

Biography
She was born in New York City.  There is some uncertainty over her year of birth.  Most sources give 1907, but blues researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc give 1892, based on 1900 and 1910 US census records,  though the 1892 date would suggest that she died at the age of 104.

Around 1919, she left school, purportedly to move to Cleveland, Ohio, but instead started working as a chorus girl.  Developing expertise as a singer and tap dancer, she worked in vaudeville and toured the south in such shows as Bon Bon Buddy Jr. and Dinah.  In 1924, she made her Broadway debut in Runnin' Wild, in which she introduced the Charleston dance, and became known as "the bronze Ann Pennington".

On her second tour, in Shuffle Along (1927), the entertainer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson called her "the greatest living female tap dancer".  She in the 1927 Broadway production of Rang Tang,' as well as the Broadway production of Rainbow, with Charlie Ruggles, wherein she danced an "insanely comic" version of the Black Bottom.  She continued to perform as a dancer and entertainer in Broadway shows, including the Ziegfeld Follies and Hot Rhythm, and toured on the Keith vaudeville circuit through most of the 1930s.

In 1938, she broke her pelvis in an automobile accident.  This effectively ended her career as a dancer, and she diverted her energies into singing.  She sang in nightclubs in Hollywood, Honolulu, and New York City, including a seven-year residency at the Boite in Greenwich Village, and at clubs in Park Avenue.  In the late 1940s she featured at parties including those hosted by socialite Elsa Maxwell, and gave fundraising benefit shows for hospitals.  She toured Europe in 1950, and stayed in London to take the lead in Jack Hylton's revue, Knight of Madness.

After returning to New York in 1951, she became the main attraction at the Bon Soir club on Eighth Street, accompanied by a vocal group, the Three Flames (Tiger Haynes, Roy Testamark and Averill Pollard).  They attracted the attention of Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun of Atlantic Records, who issued Barnes's first EP in 1953 and an LP, Fun with Mae Barnes, the following year.  She was accompanied by Garland Wilson and the Three Flames, and the songs included "(I Ain't Gonna Be No) Topsy", a celebration of black pride, and "On the Sunny Side of the Street", which became her signature song.   She became well known for her "sassy" song interpretations, and for "her irreverent interpolations into familiar lyrics".

In the mid-1950s she appeared regularly on TV variety shows, and headlined at the Apollo Theatre.  She recorded another album, Mae Barnes, on which she was backed by a jazz group led by trumpeter Buck Clayton, in 1958 for Vanguard Records.  Although it was not successful, she continued as a popular live act, and in 1960 the Erteguns recorded her performance at the Playboy Club for a further album, although it remained unreleased.   In 1959 she appeared in the Harry Belafonte film "Odds Against Tomorrow" as a club singer. She continued to perform in clubs through the 1970s and 1980s, and featured in a documentary, Wild Women Don't Have the Blues, in 1987.

Mae Barnes died from cancer in hospital in New York in 1996 (not Boston in 1997, as reported in some sources).  She left no close relatives.

Discography
 Fun with Mae Barnes (Atlantic, 1954)
 Mae Barnes (Vanguard, 1958)

References

External links

1907 births
1996 deaths
American blues singers
Vaudeville performers
American women jazz singers
American jazz singers
20th-century American singers
Singers from New York City
20th-century American women singers
Jazz musicians from New York (state)

Mae Barnes


Amāvásyā () is the lunar phase of the new moon in Sanskrit.
Indian calendars use 30 lunar phases, called tithi in India. The dark moon tithi is when the Moon is within 12 degrees of the angular distance between the Sun and Moon before conjunction (syzygy). The New Moon tithi (called Pratipada or Prathama) is the 12 angular degrees after syzygy. Amāvásyā is often translated as new moon since there is no standard term for the Moon before conjunction in English.

Meaning of Amāvásyā

In Sanskrit, "amā" means "together" and "vásya" means "to dwell" or "cohabit". It also means "na" +"ma"+"asya" meaning to "na" = "No, "ma"=Moon, "Asya"="There" in turn meaning to There is no Moon i.e., Moon is not visible.

In the pūrṇimānta māna Hindu lunar calendar used in most parts of the Indian subcontinent, the lunar month starts on the day following the full moon or purnima and therefore Amāvásyā always falls in the middle of the month. However, in the amānta māna calendar used in some places, the lunar month starts on the day of the new moon, making Amāvásyā the last day of the lunar month in those places. Many festivals, the most famous being Diwali (), are observed on Amāvásyā. Many Hindus fast on Amāvásyā.

Few Pancha-Gauda Brahmins have month from next day of Purnima (day) to Purnima (day), that is Purnima is last 29/30 days (Purnimanta). Pancha-Dravida have month from next day of Amavasya to Amavasya . Amavasya is last 29/30 days (Amanta). Śhukla paksha is called as the bright half as the Moon changes from New Moon to Full Moon while in Krishna paksha it changes from Full Moon to New Moon. Hence it is seen that same Amavasya has same festival all over the country. Ujjain, Allahabad, Orissa, Bihar Brahmins are one few Pancha-Gauda Brahmins have month from 1 day after Purnima (day) to Purnima (day)(Purnimanta), While the people of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh the Pancha-Dravida have month from 1 day after Amavasya to Amavasya. Amavasya is last 29/30 days (Amanta). Since Kanchipuram Mutt where the Adi Shankara lived and all the Pancha-Gauda and Pancha-Dravida use to visit hence Tamil Nadu developed a  mixture of Panchangam and saka calendar. Similarly the place where Pancha-Gauda and Pancha-Dravida are living together as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Southern Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh also show the mixtures. Also the people following Jainism follow Pancha-Dravida calendar, Amavasya is last 29/30 days.

In old Indian culture and beliefs, irrespective of religions, Amavasya  is considered a time of great power. In Tamil, though Amavasai is commonly used in religious spheres, the pure Tamil scholars prefer the term Puthuppi Rai Fast is observed to propitiate both the Sun and Moon Gods.

Festive Amavasya
 Lakshmi Puja (30 Ashvin or 15 Krishna Paksha Kartik; the Diwali after Naraka Chaturdashi): Lakshmi Puja marks the most important day of Diwali celebrations in North India. Hindu homes worship Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, and Ganesh, the God of auspicious beginnings also known as the remover of obstacles, and then light deeyas (little clay pots) in the streets and homes to welcome prosperity and well-being.

Tradition and Belief

Amavasya Somavati

An Amavasya falling on Mondays has a special significance. It is believed that a fast on this particular Amavasya would ward off widow-hood in women and ensure bearing of progeny. It is also believed that all desires could be fulfilled if one fasts on this Amavasya.

Worship of Forefathers (Pitra)
Every month, the Amāvāsyā day is considered auspicious for the worship of forefathers and poojas are made.  Religious people are not supposed to travel or work, and instead concentrate on the rites of Amavasyas, typically at home in the afternoon. Even today, traditional workers like masons do not work on Amavasya in India. However, they will work on Saturdays and Sundays. Even High Court judges of 18th century India used to observe Amavasya as a day off. It was the British Rule that brought the Christian Sunday-off principle to Indian industry.

On Amavasyas, Shraadh is done to forefathers by Brahmins whose fathers have died. In modern times, a short 20-minute version of the ceremony is done—offering black sesame and water as oblation to departed souls.  This oblation is offered to father, grandfather, great-grandfather, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. If one of these persons are still alive, their name is skipped and the corresponding earlier generation person is offered oblation. Then a final oblation is offered to those anonymous souls which died and have nobody in their lineage offering oblation. These oblations are believed to give birth to good children without mental or physical challenges.

The dark fortnight of Aswayuja (September–October) is known as the Pitru Paksha (Mahalaya), which is especially sacred for offering oblations to departed ancestors. The last day of this period, the dark moon day, called mahalaya Amavasya, is considered the most important day in the year for performing obsequies and rites. The manes return to their abode on the evening of Deepavali. Due to the grace of the Yama, it has been ordained that offerings made during this period benefit all the departed souls, whether they are connected to you or not.

Rameshwaram
In Tamil Nadu, lakhs of People will make special Tharpanam (Oblation) in Rameshwaram & other Holy Theerthas on Thai Amavasai, Aadi Amavasai, Mahalaya Amavasai. Thai Amavasai comes in the month of Jan-Feb and is the 1st Amavasai after Uttranayana Punya Kaalam (Northern Journey of Sun). Aadi Amavasai comes in the month of Jul-Aug and is the 1st Amavasai after Dakshinayanam Punya Kaalam (Southern Journey of Sun). Pitru Paksh Mahalaya Amavasai comes during Navratri

References

External links
 Kalnirnay on iPhone
 Tithi Calendar
 A discussion of Amāvāsyā translation issues within Monier-Williams' Sanskrit Dictionary
  Amavasya

Hindu astronomy
Hindu calendar
Hindu astrology
Days of the Hindu calendar
Observances held on the new moon
Hindu festivals

Amavasya


The Oil City Athletic Club was a professional football team based in Oil City, Pennsylvania from 1893 until 1903. The team was the intrastate rival of the Franklin Athletic Club. The team later folded as a result of a series of bidding wars with Franklin over the era's best football players in Pennsylvania in 1903.

1902 bidding war
Franklin and Oil City had a lot of money tied up in their football teams. In 1902, during the teams' third meeting however, Oil City signed the entire team from the Pittsburgh Athletic Club, seven of the Philadelphia All-Stars, some players from a team located in Steubenville, Ohio and from Grove City College for that one game against Franklin. Since there was a large amount of hometown gambling on football games in 1902, this action resulted in all of the Franklin fans losing their bets to Oil City. However while losing the game, Franklin did manage to hold Oil City's all star team to a 10-0 score.

1903 Pre-season
To avoid being out bid again by Oil City for football talent, Franklin's manager Bill Prince recruited every star player inside of Pennsylvania to play for Franklin. After the team's loss against Oil City, Prince attended the first National Football League championship game between the Pittsburgh Stars and Philadelphia Athletics. Immediately after the game, Prince signed every important player in sight to Franklin.

After seeing what Prince had done, Oil City forfeited their season due to a lack of players. All of the money that was to be gambled on the 1903 football contests between Franklin and Oil City, sat in a bank escrow account and was later returned to the gamblers.

References

American football teams established in 1893
American football teams disestablished in 1903
History of Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh Pirates
Defunct sports clubs and teams in Pittsburgh
Defunct American football teams in Pennsylvania
Early professional American football teams in Pennsylvania
1893 establishments in Pennsylvania
1903 disestablishments in Pennsylvania
Venango County, Pennsylvania

Oil City Athletic Club


Terry Fallis is a Canadian writer and humourist. Fallis was trained as an engineer at McMaster University in Ontario. Fallis was involved in student politics and became president of the student union.  Fallis joined the Liberal Party of Canada and worked for the campaigns of Jean Chrétien, Robert Nixon and Micheal Ignatieff.  Fallis wrote and later self-published a novel called the "Best Laid Plans" about a man who wants to quit his work in politics by managing the campaign of someone he believes has absolutely no chance of winning so that no one will take him seriously enough ever to hire him again and then shockingly ends up having his political candidate win.  Fallis won the Stephen Leacock Award  for Canadian humour.  Fallis wrote a sequel to "The Best Laid Plans" called "The High Road" about an idealistic re-election campaign.  Fallis wrote "Up and Down" about a 71 year old woman from British Columbia who becomes an astronaut in NASA.  Fallis later met a man by the name of Brian Mulroney who is not related to the Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.  Fallis then wrote a novel called "No Relation" about a man who wants to become a writer but can't because his name happens to be Earnest Hemingway,even though he is not related to Ernest Hemingway and starts a support group for people who have famous names while trying to resist his father's effort to make him take over his father's underwear company.  Fallis wrote the novel "Poles Apart" about a man who starts a popular feminist website using the pseudonym Eve and who everyone assumes is a woman. Fallis also wrote a novel called "One Brother Shy"

Other websites
 Terry Fallis

Canadian novelists
Living people
1959 births

Terry Fallis


Alasdair Roderick Mackenzie (3 August 1903 – 8 November 1970) was a Scottish farmer and politician who became a Liberal Party Member of Parliament.

A Gaelic speaker, he went to Broadford Junior Secondary School on the Isle of Skye. He became a farmer, and was active in the National Farmers Union, being President of the East Ross branch for two years. He was elected to Ross-shire County Council in 1935 on which he served for twenty years; on leaving the council he was a member of the Crofters' Commission for five years.

At the 1964 general election Mackenzie was elected, at the age of 61 and contesting his first parliamentary election, as a Liberal for Ross and Cromarty. He defeated the sitting National Liberal obtaining a majority of 1407 votes. He was re-elected in 1966 but defeated at the 1970 general election. Mackenzie had been party spokesman in the Commons on Agriculture and Fisheries and posts and telecommunications. He  differed from the majority of his party in opposing United Kingdom membership of the European Economic Community. He was the lone Liberal voting against the Labour government at the end of debate on the Common Market. He was also out of step with the mainstream party on the issue of capital punishment. He was a principal supporter of the campaign to re-instate the death penalty for the murder of police or prison officers led by Conservative MP, Duncan Sandys in 1966 In 1970 he was appointed to the Scottish Agricultural Advisory Committee but died later that year.

References
M. Stenton and S. Lees, Who's Who of British MPs Vol. IV (Harvester Press, 1981)
The Times, Obituary: 10 November 1970.

External links

1903 births
1970 deaths
Scottish Liberal Party councillors
Scottish Liberal Party MPs
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies
UK MPs 1964–1966
UK MPs 1966–1970
Scottish farmers

Alasdair Mackenzie


This article lists political parties in Saint Pierre and Miquelon.
Saint Pierre and Miquelon has a multi-party system, in which some of the French political parties are active. They participate in the elections through either Saint Pierre or Miquelon lists.
At the last elections the following lists took part:
Saint Pierre and Miquelon 2000 (Saint Pierre et Miquelon 2000, related to the Socialist Party)
Future Miquelon (Miquelon Avenir, related to the Socialist Party)
Road to the Future (Cap sur l'Avenir, related to the Radical Party of the Left)
Archipelago Tomorrow (Archipel Demain, related to the Union for a Popular Movement)
Miquelon Objectives (Objectifs Miquelonnais, related to the Union for a Popular Movement)

See also
 Politics of Saint Pierre and Miquelon
 List of political parties by country

External links
 Archipel demain
 Cap sur l'avenir
 Saint-Pierre & Miquelon Information
 Saint-Pierre & Miquelon Community website, includes political discussions

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
Saint Pierre and Miquelon-related lists
+Saint Pierre and Miqeulon
Saint Pierre and Miquelon

List of political parties in Saint Pierre and Miquelon


Hibiscus insularis, the Phillip Island hibiscus, is a species of flowering plant in the mallow family Malvaceae, that is endemic to Phillip Island, a small island to the south of Norfolk Island, Australia. The entire natural extent of this species is just two small clumps, and each clump apparently consists of multiple separate stems of a single genotype.  It has been propagated and planted more widely on Phillip Island, but only vegetatively which does not increase the genetic diversity.  Seedlings apparently have not been observed in the wild.  It produces greenish-yellow flowers that fade to mauve through most of the year.

Horticultural use of the Philip Island hibiscus has greatly increased the number of plants (though not in its natural environment) but as it is usually propagated by cuttings the number of genotypes is still extremely small.  This species is listed as Critically Endangered under Australian federal environment legislation.

References

Botanic Gardens Trust: Hibiscus insularis+
Coyne, Peter. Norfolk Island's Fascinating Flora. Petaurus Press, 2011, p. 64

insularis
Flora of Norfolk Island
Malvales of Australia
Critically endangered flora of Australia
Plants described in 1833

Hibiscus insularis


Tony Steward (Exley Anthony Whitefoord Steward; 27 June 1941 – 4 May 2002) was a South African cricketer. He was a right-handed batsman and a leg-break bowler, and occasional wicket-keeper. He was born and died in Durban.

Steward began playing Second XI cricket for Essex during the 1962 season, scoring a duck on his debut for the team, before making fourteen further appearances for the team before the end of the year. While he spent the following year still as a part of the Second XI, it was his consistent performances this season which brought him up to the first-team squad, for whom he made his debut first-class appearance in 1964, playing a single University Match prior to his first appearance in the County Championship a month later.

Steward batted well from the Essex lower order, frequently scoring in double-figures with tenacious partnership-building from more experienced members of the team, and making nine County Championship appearances before the season came to a close.

Steward's second and final season of first-class cricket in England came the following year, but Essex underperformed, finishing third-bottom in the 1965 County Championship table. Steward found himself out of the team and moving back to South Africa at the end of the season.

Steward made a return to cricket during the 1967–68 season, playing three games for Natal B in the Currie Cup. Nearly a decade later, he made two further appearances for South African Country Districts in miscellaneous matches.

External links
Tony Steward at Cricket Archive

1941 births
2002 deaths
South African cricketers
Essex cricketers

Tony Steward (cricketer)


Carl E. Olson (born April 17, 1969) is an American theologian, a Christian apologist and non-fiction author.

Early life and education
Olson was born in Hot Springs, Montana, and raised in Plains, Montana. After graduating from high school in 1987, he studied graphic design and fine art for two years at Phoenix Institute of Technology and Northwest Nazarene College. He then attended Briercrest Bible College in Saskatchewan, Canada from 1989 to 1991, graduating with an associate degree. In the fall of 1991 he moved to Portland, Oregon, where he worked as a graphic designer and illustrator. After marrying in 1994, he converted to the Catholic Church in 1997, from what he describes as a Protestant fundamentalist organisation. In 2000, he graduated from the University of Dallas with a master's degree in theological studies.

Career

His first book was Will Catholics Be "Left Behind"? A Catholic Critique of the Rapture and Today's Prophecy Preachers (Ignatius Press, 2003). Olson's second book  The Da Vinci Hoax: Exposing the Errors in The Da Vinci Code was co-authored with medievalist Sandra Miesel and was published in June 2004. He also wrote the Introduction to Pied Piper of Atheism: Philip Pullman and Children's Fantasy (Ignatius Press, 2008), which was co-authored by Miesel and Pete Vere. His third book Did Jesus Really Rise From the Dead? Questions and Answers About the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus was published in 2016, as well as Called To Be the Children of God: The Catholic Theology of Human Deification, which he co-edited with Fr. David Vincent Meconi, S.J.

Olson is the editor of The Catholic World Report and Ignatius Insight, the online magazine of Ignatius Press. He is a frequent contributor to the Catholic newspaper Our Sunday Visitor, for which he writes a weekly Scripture column titled "Opening the Word." He has written hundreds of articles, book reviews, and columns for a variety of periodicals and newspapers, including First Things, National Catholic Register, and Catholic Answers Magazine. In addition to his writing, Olson has appeared on Fox, BBC radio, CNN, EWTN, and other television and radio networks.

Olson lives in Eugene, Oregon, with his wife and two children.

Books

 Carl E. Olson and Sandra Miesel, The Da Vinci Hoax: Exposing the Errors in the Da Vinci Code, Ignatius Press, 2004;
 Carl E. Olson, Will Catholics Be Left Behind? A Critique of the Rapture and Today's Prophecy Preachers, Ignatius Press, 2009;
 Carl E. Olson and David V. Meconi , Called to Be the Children of God: The Catholic Theology of Human Deification, Ignatius Press, 2016;
 Carl E. Olson, Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead? Questions and Answers about the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus, Ignatius Press, 2016;
 Carl E. Olson, Praying the Our Father in Lent, Catholic Truth Society, 2021;
 Carl E. Olson, Prepare the Way of the Lord, Catholic Truth Society, 2021.

References

External links

 Carl E. Olson's personal website
 Catholic World Report
 Ignatius Insight, the Ignatius Press online magazine

American male journalists
Converts to Roman Catholicism from Evangelicalism
Living people
American Roman Catholic religious writers
Northwest Nazarene University alumni
1969 births
People from Sanders County, Montana
University of Dallas alumni
Writers from Eugene, Oregon
Writers from Portland, Oregon
Journalists from Montana
20th-century American journalists
Catholics from Montana
Catholics from Oregon
Editors of Catholic publications

Carl E. Olson