Interleague play in Major League Baseball refers to regular-season baseball games played between an American League (AL) team and a National League (NL) team. Interleague play was first introduced during the 1997 Major League Baseball season. Prior to that, matchups between AL teams and NL teams occurred only during spring training, the All-Star Game, other exhibition games (such as the Hall of Fame Game in Cooperstown, New York), and the World Series. Unlike modern interleague play, none of these contests, except for the World Series, counted toward official team or league records.

History

Early discussions
Regular season interleague play was discussed for baseball's major leagues as early as 1903, when the two major leagues made peace and formed the National Commission as governing body. The first National Commission Chairman, Cincinnati Reds president August Herrmann (who had already been a proponent of interleague play), proposed an ambitious scheme in late 1904. Herrmann's plan would have seen the two leagues ending their seasons earlier, after approximately 116 games, "and then have every National League team play two games in every American League city, and have every American League team play two games in every National League city." Another interleague play idea was floated around the same time by Boston Americans owner John Taylor, whose plan was for each league to play its full 154-game schedule, to be followed by not just a championship series between the two league winners, but also by series between the two second-place finishers, the two third-place teams, and all other corresponding finishers.

In August 1933, several owners reacted favorably to a proposal by Chicago Cubs president William Veeck to have teams play four interleague games in the middle of the season, beginning in 1934. In December 1956, Major League owners considered a proposal by Cleveland Indians general manager and minority-owner Hank Greenberg to implement limited interleague play beginning in 1958. Under Greenberg's proposal, each team would continue to play a 154-game season, with 126 within that team's league, and 28 against the eight clubs in the other league. The interleague games would be played immediately following the All-Star Game. Notably, under Greenberg's proposal, all results would count in regular season game standings and league statistics. While this proposal was not adopted, the current system shares many elements. Bill Veeck predicted in 1963 that Major League Baseball would someday have interleague play, and in 1968 included it in a proposal for a dramatic realignment of the major league structure. While the concept was again considered in the 1970s, it was not formally approved until 1996, at least in part as an effort to renew the public's interest in MLB following the 1994 players' strike.

Interleague play introduced

MLB's first regular-season interleague game took place on June 12, 1997, as the Texas Rangers hosted the San Francisco Giants at The Ballpark in Arlington. There were four interleague games on the schedule that night, but the other three were played on the West Coast, so the Giants–Rangers matchup started a few hours earlier than the others. Texas's Darren Oliver threw the game's first pitch and San Francisco outfielder Glenallen Hill was the first designated hitter used in a regular-season game by a National League team. San Francisco's Darryl Hamilton got the first base hit in interleague play, while Stan Javier hit the first home run, leading the Giants to a 4–3 victory over the Rangers.

From 1997 to 2001, teams played against the same division from the other league; for example, the American League West played teams from the National League West, typically scheduled to alternate between home and away in consecutive years. In 2002, however, the league began alternating which divisions played which divisions, and thus in 2002 the American League East played the National League West, the American League Central played the National League East, and the American League West played the National League Central. Matchups which had been of particular interest prior to this format — mainly geographic rivals — were preserved. Corresponding divisions were skipped once when this rotation began, but were put back in the rotation in 2006.

From 2002 to 2012, all interleague games were played prior to the All-Star Game (with the exception of games postponed by weather that were made up after the All-Star Game). Most games were played in June and early July, although beginning in 2005, interleague games were played during one weekend in mid-May.

The designated hitter (DH) rule was originally applied in the same manner as in the World Series (and the All-Star Game prior to 2010). In an American League ballpark, both teams had the option to use a DH, while in a National League ballpark, both teams' pitchers were required to bat. Teams from both leagues have both benefited and have been at a disadvantage when it comes to the DH rule in interleague play. For instance, Barry Bonds, who spent his entire career in the National League and actually won eight Gold Gloves earlier in his career, was used strictly as a DH later in his career when the San Francisco Giants played away interleague games due to his poor fielding. Conversely, Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz, who spent his entire career in the American League and was the Red Sox's regular DH, was assigned to play first base when the Red Sox had away interleague games, with the Sox choosing to give up good fielding in favor of retaining Ortiz's power hitting. With the introduction of the DH to the National League in 2020 and from 2022–present, this no longer applies.

In 2007, two teams – the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Baltimore Orioles – played six games with more than one interleague opponent. The Dodgers played both the Toronto Blue Jays and the Los Angeles Angels while the Orioles played both the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Washington Nationals. This happened again in 2012 as the New York Yankees played both the New York Mets and the Atlanta Braves for six games. The Miami Marlins also did this, playing both the Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox for six games each.

The first Civil Rights Game was an exhibition interleague game between the Cleveland Indians and St. Louis Cardinals at AutoZone Park in Memphis on March 31, 2007. The first regular season Civil Rights Game was an interleague game between the Chicago White Sox and Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park on June 20, 2009.

Since the introduction of interleague play, two teams have shifted leagues: the Milwaukee Brewers from the American League to the National League in 1998, and the Houston Astros from the National League to the American League in 2013. As a result, a 2013 interleague series between the two teams made it the first time that two teams faced each other in an interleague series after both teams previously faced each other in an interleague series representing opposite leagues: the two teams met from September 1–3, 1997 (Houston in NL, Milwaukee in AL), then again from June 18–20, 2013 (Houston in AL, Milwaukee in NL). In both instances, the series took place in Houston, with the team representing the American League winning 2–1. From 1998 to 2012, both teams were division opponents in the National League Central.

For the 2020 season, all interleague games featured the DH, as the National League used the rule for the first time in its history due to health and safety measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The DH became permanent in the NL for the 2022 season.

Series history
Interleague play has largely favored the American League in terms of win–loss records. In 27 years of play, the AL has won the season series 19 times, and holds the longest streak of 14 straight seasons, from 2004 through 2017. The National League has won 7 and one season ended in a tie. With the Pirates beating the Royals on September 19, 2018, the National League guaranteed a season series win for the first time since 2003.

As of the end of the 2022 MLB season, the American League holds an all-time series advantage of 3,634–3,328 and has finished with the better record in interleague play for 14 straight seasons, dating back from 2004 through 2017.  2006 was the most lopsided season in interleague history, with American League teams posting a 154–98 record against their National League counterparts.

Records

Wins by league

Interleague statistics
The following is the text of Major League Baseball's policy regarding the compilation of statistics as a result of interleague play:
"For the first time in the history of Major League Baseball, Interleague games are to be played during the regular season. Breaking tradition always brings about controversy and the matter of baseball records is no exception.

"It is the opinion of Major League Baseball that there is no justification for compiling a new volume of records based on Interleague Play. On the contrary, the sovereignty of each league's records will be retained, and if a player or a team breaks a record against an Interleague opponent it will be considered a record in that league. In cases where two teams – as Interleague opponents – break a league or Major League record, that record will be annotated with the phrase 'Interleague game.' Streaks by both teams and individual will continue (or be halted) when playing Interleague opponents in the same manner as if playing against an intraleague opponent. In essence, records will be defined by who made them rather than against whom they were made."

"The official statistics of both leagues will be kept separately as they have in the past. This means statistics for each team and their individual players will reflect their performance in games within the league and also in Interleague games without differentiation."

Geographical matchups and natural rivals

1997–2001, 2006, 2009, 2012, 2015, 2018, 2020, and 2021 saw teams from corresponding leagues (AL East vs NL East, AL Central vs NL Central, and AL West vs NL West) face each other in a series of 2 or 3 games each, although from 1998 to 2012, this was not strictly followed due to unbalanced leagues. Not all matchups were considered interleague rivals, by playing a series of only two or three games, not the four or six-game series exclusive between one NL and one AL team.

Since 1999, certain interleague matchups have been highly anticipated each year, due to the geographic proximity of the teams involved. Many cities, metropolitan areas, and states contain at least one team in each league. From 1999–2012, 2015, 2018, 2020, and 2021, there were six games between the two teams annually, three per ballpark, since their respective divisions also played each other. In 2013–2014, 2016–2017, 2019, and 2022, there were four games between the two teams, two per ballpark, as their respective divisions did not meet. With the beginning of in league-wide interleague play in 2023, all yearly matchups saw the continuation of the four-game series format.

Permanent rivalries
 Baltimore Orioles v. Washington Nationals — Beltway Series, MASN Cup (the teams share the same cable partner), Battle of the Beltways, Parkway Series, or MARC Madness. Introduced in 2006, the Nationals′ second season in Washington, D.C., after their move from Montreal.
 Chicago Cubs v. Chicago White Sox — Windy City Series, Crosstown Classic, or Red Line Series. The two teams played in the 1906 World Series. The two teams would play in an exhibition series yearly from 1903 to 1942 (excluding years either team won their respective pennant). From 1985 until interleague play began in 1997, the two teams would play an annual Windy City Classic charity exhibition game. The interleague rivalry has been ongoing since 1999.
 Cincinnati Reds v. Cleveland Guardians — Ohio Cup. Wade Miley of the Reds threw a no–hitter against the then-Indians on May 7, 2021, making the Reds the first team to no–hit their interleague rival. This was the second no-hitter in an interleague game between teams from the same state, after Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series. The two teams would play an annual pre-season exhibition game yearly from 1989 to 1996. The regular season rivalry was introduced in 1999 with a hiatus in 2002 and 2003.
 Detroit Tigers v. Pittsburgh Pirates — This series only became a rivalry because the other AL and NL Central teams were already paired up, it has become popular with fans of both teams, possibly due to the rivalry between the NHL's Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins.  The two teams have several other connections as well. The Tigers' AA Minor League affiliate, the Erie SeaWolves, located near Pittsburgh, is a former affiliate of the Pirates and has retained the logo of a wolf wearing a pirate bandanna and eye patch.  Additionally, Jim Leyland, former manager of both the Pirates (1986–1996) and the Tigers (2005–2013), remains popular in Pittsburgh where he continues to reside. The two teams played in the 1909 World Series. The regular season rivalry has been ongoing since 2012 except for 2020.
 Kansas City Royals v. St. Louis Cardinals — I-70 Series or Show-Me Series, and named so because the cities of Kansas City and St. Louis are both in Missouri and connected by Interstate 70. The two teams played in the 1985 World Series. Previously played as interleague rivals in 2002, 2003, and 2006 to 2009, the formal rivalry has been ongoing since 2011.
 Los Angeles Angels v. Los Angeles Dodgers — Freeway Series. The two teams played in a pre-season exhibition series in 1962 to 1964, 1969 to 1971, 1973 to 1979, and 1981 to 1996. The interleague rivalry has been ongoing since 1999.
 Miami Marlins v. Tampa Bay Rays — Citrus Series, the interleague rivalry has been ongoing since 1999 except for a formal rivalry in 2003.
 Milwaukee Brewers v. Minnesota Twins — The Twins and the Brewers were formerly regional rivals in the American League, as well as division rivals from 1970 to 1971, and again from 1994 to 1997. The two metro areas are connected by Interstate 94. However, the term "I-94 Series" is used almost exclusively to refer to the games played between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Chicago Cubs and interleague contests with the also-former-rival Chicago White Sox. The interleague rivalry has been played yearly since it began in 2002.
 New York Mets v. New York Yankees — Subway Series. The two teams would play in an in-season annual exhibition game, the Mayor's Trophy Game, 19 times between 1963 and 1983. The two teams played in the 2000 World Series. The addition of the Mets in 1962 brought National League baseball back to New York after the Dodgers and Giants moved to California in 1958. The interleague rivalry has been ongoing since 1999.
 Oakland Athletics v. San Francisco Giants — Bay Bridge Series or Battle of the Bay. The two teams played in the 1989 World Series as well as the 1905 World Series, 1911 World Series, and 1913 World Series when they were located in Philadelphia and New York, respectively. The interleague rivalry has been played yearly since it began in 1999.
 San Diego Padres v. Seattle Mariners — The two teams were once the only west-coast teams not to be paired up with another interleague rival.  The two teams share a Spring Training complex in Peoria, Arizona. Often cited as a counterargument against the "rivalry" series in general due to the teams' lack of a historical rivalry and their locations on opposite ends of the Pacific Coast (and the I-5 corridor), as well as both teams' general underachievement throughout their time as "rivals." Sometimes jokingly referred to as the Vedder Cup after Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder, who has lived in both cities (although Vedder himself, raised in the Chicago area, is a Chicago Cubs fan). The rivalry was introduced in 1999 and has been played as a formal rivalry yearly since except in 2002, 2004, 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2021.

In 2014, the ten teams that qualified for the postseason were five pairs of geographical rivals: the Angels, Athletics, Orioles, Royals, and Tigers from the AL; and Dodgers, Giants, Nationals, Cardinals, and Pirates from the NL.

Split rivalries
Beginning in 2013, five teams in each league, two in each East division and three in each West division that had no formal rivalries formed "split rivalries."  While the East divisions see rivalry pairings mostly alternate from year to year, the West divisions have so far seen four different variations of pairings between the six teams that are largely erratic.

In the East:
 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021:
 Boston Red Sox v. Philadelphia Phillies — These two teams played in the 1915 World Series. Previously played as rivals in 2006 and 2010.
 Toronto Blue Jays v. Atlanta Braves — These two teams played in the 1992 World Series.
 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024:
 Boston Red Sox v. Atlanta Braves — The Braves played in Boston as the Boston Red Stockings, Red Caps, Beaneaters, Doves, Rustlers, and Braves from 1871 through 1952. The teams played 104 exhibition games in a series known as the City Series or Trolley Series throughout their shared time in Boston. The two teams continued to play exhibition games from 1957 to 1966 when the Braves moved to Milwaukee in a series known as the Jimmy Fund Game. The rivalry existed in 1999 to 2002, 2007, 2009, and even-numbered years between 2013 and 2022, 2023, and 2024.
 Toronto Blue Jays v. Philadelphia Phillies — These two teams played in the 1993 World Series, where Joe Carter hit a walk-off home run during Game 6. Previously played as rivals in 2009.

In the West:
 2013, 2019, 2023, 2024:
 Houston Astros v. Colorado Rockies - The two teams played as NL West division rivals in 1993, the Rockies' first season, prior to the 1994 divisional realignment.
 Seattle Mariners v. San Diego Padres — The two teams were once the only west-coast teams not to be paired up with another interleague rival.  The two teams share a Spring Training complex in Peoria, Arizona. Often cited as a counterargument against the "rivalry" series in general due to the teams' lack of a historical rivalry and their locations on opposite ends of the Pacific Coast (and the I-5 corridor), as well as both teams' general underachievement throughout their time as "rivals." Sometimes jokingly referred to as the Vedder Cup after Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder, who has lived in both cities (although Vedder himself, raised in the Chicago area, is a Chicago Cubs fan). The rivalry was introduced in 1999 and had been played as a formal rivalry yearly except in 2002 and 2004, until the introduction of split rivalries in 2013.
 Texas Rangers v. Arizona Diamondbacks — Previously played as rivals from 1998 to 2000 before it was replaced with the interleague Lone Star Series. The two teams would meet in the 2023 World Series.
 2014, 2016, 2020, 2022:
 Houston Astros v. Arizona Diamondbacks
 Seattle Mariners v. San Diego Padres
 Texas Rangers v. Colorado Rockies
 2015, 2017, 2018:
 Houston Astros v. Arizona Diamondbacks
 Seattle Mariners v. Colorado Rockies
 Texas Rangers v. San Diego Padres
 2021:
Houston Astros v. San Diego Padres
Seattle Mariners v. Arizona Diamondbacks
Texas Rangers v. Colorado Rockies

Former interleague rivalries
 Baltimore Orioles v. Philadelphia Phillies — Played from 1999 to 2005. 2006 the Washington Nationals replaced the Phillies as the Orioles' rival. Although the Nationals moved to Washington in 2005, the schedule for that season was already established, so the Washington-Baltimore rivalry series could not start until the next season. Therefore, in 2005 the Orioles played the Phillies as their rival for the last time, while Washington played Montreal's planned 2005 schedule, which included what would have been the Expos's interleague rivalry games with the Toronto Blue Jays. These two teams also played against each other in the 1983 World Series.
 Houston Astros v. Texas Rangers (Lone Star Series) — Played from 2001 to 2012. In 2013, the Astros moved to the American League West, and the two teams began to play against each other 19 times a year as divisional rivals and then later reduced to 13 in 2023.
 Montreal Expos v. Toronto Blue Jays (Pearson Cup or The All-Canadian Series) — Played from 1999 to 2004 (and by Washington against Toronto in 2005). By the time the Expos moved to Washington, D.C., to become the Washington Nationals for the 2005 season, the 2005 schedule already had been set, so the Nationals played what had been intended as Montreal's rivalry series with the Blue Jays that season. In 2006, the Nationals began playing the Baltimore Orioles annually as their interleague rival.
 Over the 14 seasons of interleague rivalries when the leagues had unequal teams between 1999 and 2012, several rivalries only occurred once for the sake of scheduling and had no geographic basis. These would never occur again as formal interleague rivalries after leagues were balanced in 2013.
 Arizona Diamondbacks v. Detroit Tigers in 2005
 Boston Red Sox v. Miami Marlins in 2012 (concurrent with the Citrus Series)
 Colorado Rockies v. Detroit Tigers in 2003
 Detroit Tigers v. St. Louis Cardinals in 1999
 Kansas City Royals v. Pittsburgh Pirates in 2000
 Los Angeles Dodgers v. Toronto Blue Jays in 2007 (concurrent with the Freeway Series)
 In 2020, the Pittsburgh Pirates played a one-off rivalry series against the Cleveland Guardians and the Detroit Tigers played one against the Cincinnati Reds (two teams having faced off in the 1940 World Series) instead of facing off in their usual rivalries, though the Pirates and Tigers still played a 3 game set and the Ohio Cup was still played for during a 4 game set.

Scheduling

1997–1998: Beginnings of interleague play
1997 was the first year of regular season interleague play. The 20 teams in the East and Central divisions played 15 games each in five three-game series. The eight teams in the West divisions played 16 games each in eight two-game series, playing home and away two-game series against each team.

1998 saw the addition of two expansion teams; with the Milwaukee Brewers' move to the National League, the leagues were now unequal in size. All the teams in the American League played 16 interleague games, playing one four-game series (split into two home, two away) and four three-game series. National League teams played between 12 and 16 interleague games.

1999–2012: Three weeks in June
From 1999 through 2012, each team in the American League played 18 interleague games a year, but because the National League had two more teams than the American, only four NL teams would play a full 18-game interleague schedule, with the remaining twelve teams playing only 15; occasionally an NL team played only 12 interleague games, allowing a fifth team in the league to play a full slate. With the exception of the two NL teams playing each other, all teams were involved in interleague play at the same time (typically in June and July), playing only interleague opponents until the interleague schedule was complete for the year. The schedule was later changed to occur only in June; in 2005, it was changed again to allow for more weekend interleague games, with each team playing one series during the third weekend in May and the rest in mid-to-late June (occasionally stretching into early July).

Because of the existence of "natural rivals", not every matchup was played within each matched pair of divisions; for instance, the Milwaukee Brewers faced only Baltimore and Boston from the AL East in 2003, then met New York, Tampa Bay, and Toronto in 2005.

2013–2022: Astros join American League
In 2013, the Houston Astros joined the American League, giving each league 15 teams and thereby necessitating that interleague games be played throughout the season, including on Opening Day and during key division races all the way to the end of the season. This did not require expanding the total number of interleague games, because the probability of an interleague game during the era in which the Astros played in the NL was 252/2430 or about 1 in 9.6 games. With an odd number of teams in each league, one team in each league would be the "odd man out" and have to play an interleague game to fill out the schedule, meaning as few as 1 in 15 games could be interleague (14 AL teams in 7 AL games, 14 NL teams in 7 NL games and 1 AL and 1 NL team in an interleague game). Despite this, there have been proposals to increase interleague play to 30 games or beyond. A smaller increase took place immediately, having every team play 20 interleague games starting 2013.

From 2013 to 2022, each team played 20 interleague games across eight series. Each team played one three-game series against four teams from one division in the other league, and two two-game series (one home, one away) against the remaining team in that division. Divisions had been rotated since 2002 but teams did not necessarily play everyone in that division prior to 2013. The remaining four games were played against a team's "natural rival" in home and home two-game series. From 2013 to 2017, these two series were back-to-back at one venue on Monday and Tuesday and at the other team's venue that Wednesday and Thursday. Should a team's natural rival be a member of the division they are scheduled to play as part of the yearly rotation (this first occurred for all teams in 2015), the team would play home-and-home three game series against the natural rival, home-and-home two game series against two other opponents, and single three game series against the last two (one home, one away). Because the requirement for nearly daily interleague play (the only exception being if not all teams are playing) spreads out interleague play throughout the year, not every team will be in interleague play on the same day. Due to the 2016 CBA lengthening the schedule by four days, 2018 was the first year during which no team was required to play back-to-back home-and-home two game series against any other team.

In 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic the schedule was shortened from 162 games to 60 and interleague opponents were switched to the corresponding divisions. The teams played 20 interleague games using the same format that was in place in 2015 and 2018, when the same geographic divisions were aligned together for interleague play. In 2020 only, the Central's "natural rivals" were altered to include Cleveland v. Pittsburgh and Detroit v. Cincinnati instead of the usual Cleveland v. Cincinnati and Detroit v. Pittsburgh.

2023–present: Expanded interleague play
As part of the Collective Bargaining Agreement signed in 2022, interleague play was expanded from 20 to 46 games per team per season, starting in 2023. Each team will play a four game series in a home-and-home format (2 games at each team's park), against its natural rival and a single three-game series against the other 14 interleague opponents, with the venue alternating every year. Teams without natural rivals continue to have rivalry matchups assigned to them.

Most days, there will be either one, three, or five interleague games scheduled, as an average of around 3.8 interleague games are played per day. With 15 teams in each league, the number of interleague games is almost always odd, with exceptions based on when teams from each of the AL and NL have the same off day. Doubleheaders and make-up games also apply should a rainout or other extended delay requires one or more games to be postponed.

Other
On April 1, 2013, an interleague game was played on Opening Day for the first time, between the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park, with the Angels claiming the distinction of winning that game, 3–1, in 13 innings. Also, on September 29, 2013, for the first time in major league baseball history, an interleague game was played on the last day of the regular season, between the Miami Marlins and the Detroit Tigers at Marlins Park. The Marlins not only claimed the distinction of winning that game, 1–0, in walk-off fashion, but also saw their pitcher Henderson Álvarez pitch a no-hitter, marking just the 7th time a no-hitter was tossed in an interleague contest.

On April 3, 2016, for the first time in MLB history, the previous year's World Series participants faced off on Opening Day the following year. The Kansas City Royals hosted the New York Mets at Kauffman Stadium in a nationally televised game and won, 4–3.

With the Pittsburgh Pirates' victory over the Oakland Athletics on July 10, 2013, every team has beaten every other team at least once; the A's had previously been 11–0 all time against the Pirates.

Every team has also hosted and visited every other team at least once. This distinction was completed in July 2016 when the San Diego Padres made their first trip to Toronto. The two teams had previously played in San Diego in 2004, 2010, and 2013.

From 1997–2001, the divisions were paired with their geographical counterpart (AL East vs. NL East, AL Central vs. NL Central, AL West vs. NL West).  Beginning in 2002, the divisional pairings rotated. The geographical counterparts were initially skipped in 2004, but returned to the schedule in 2006, creating a three-year rotation that remained in use for over a decade. In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the originally scheduled matchups were adjusted in order to limit travel. Divisional pairings before 2023 were:

Starting in 2023 with the new collective bargaining agreement, every team will play every other team regardless of league, for a total of 46 games per season. The format is a four game home and home series against the geographic rival and a single three game series against the other 14 interleague opponents, with location to rotate every other year.

Arguments

Since its introduction, regular-season interleague play has continued to be a source of controversy among baseball fans and others involved with the sport. Among the arguments used in favor of and in opposition to interleague play are the following:

Pros
 Interleague play increases attendance; however, these numbers may be skewed, as interleague games were previously primarily played on weekends in June, when attendance is higher across the board, school is not in session and temperatures are higher than some of the other months of the season. However, season-long interleague play should mitigate this statistical bias.
 Fans can see players they might not otherwise get to see, especially those who have only ever played in one league.
 Certain geographic rivalries are played out during the regular season that otherwise might not happen for years at a time. The Yankees now play four games against the Mets each season, whereas they would only have gone head to head in the 2000 World Series if not for interleague play. From 1962 until interleague play, the Mets and the Yankees had only played each other in the Mayor's Trophy Game (held from 1963 to 1983), which was an exhibition game even though it was played during the regular season.
 It creates matchups that might not have been seen in generations. For example:
 During the 2004 season, the Giants and Red Sox played each other for the first time since meeting in the 1912 World Series.
 The Red Sox had never played at Wrigley Field (an NL park since 1916) until 2005. Conversely, the Chicago Cubs' trip to Fenway Park in 2011 was their first appearance there since the teams met in the 1918 World Series. The Cubs played their home games in that series in the more expansive Comiskey Park.
 In 2004, the Yankees and Dodgers met for the first time since the 1981 World Series at Dodger Stadium. They didn't meet at the Bronx until 2013, making the Dodgers the only team to never have played a regular season game at the old Yankee Stadium.
 In 2008, the New York Yankees visited the Pittsburgh Pirates for the first time since the 1960 World Series.
 It allows for a rematch of the previous World Series. Starting 2023, this is guaranteed to happen once per year as all 30 teams will play each other. The most notable example of this before 2023 came in 2016, when the New York Mets and Kansas City Royals, who met in the 2015 World Series, met again on Opening Day in Kansas City.
 It allows the relative strength of the two leagues to be measured against each other over a large assortment of games, rather than just in the World Series once per year.

Cons
 Most American League pitchers do not like taking batting practice for the opportunity to bat in one or two games (unless they have previously played in the National League). These pitchers are also unaccustomed to running the bases, which can lead to injury and premature fatigue. (For example, Chien-Ming Wang of the New York Yankees suffered a season-ending lisfranc sprain on his right foot when running the bases during an interleague game against the Houston Astros in 2008.)
 The addition of the designated hitter to the NL greatly reduced these occurrences beginning in the 2022 season. However, a pitcher who bats as the DH is allowed to remain as DH even if he is relieved on the mound.
 The World Series and All-Star Game lose the prestige that used to result from the two leagues playing completely exclusive schedules during the regular season: in the case of the World Series, the "best in the American League" playing the "best in the National League" for the only time that season.
 More games against interleague opponents means fewer games against same-league and division rivals – the latter of which may be more compelling. However, the leagues currently play an unbalanced schedule that favors divisional opponents rather than teams from other divisions (which is important due to the postseason qualifying structure – only the best team from a given division is guaranteed a berth in the postseason).
 Starting in 2023, divisional games were reduced from 19 to 13 per season, while every team plays three games against every interleague opponent except for four against their geographic rival. These changes were intended to address strength-of-schedule disparities that could potentially skew a wildcard race, with playoffs expanded to six teams per league.
 Some have argued that the AL possesses an unfair advantage over the NL because of the designated hitter rule in the AL, citing the overwhelming dominance of the AL in interleague play for more than a decade. When NL teams are on the road, they are forced to find a DH in place of their pitcher, who would normally bat ninth. Sometimes, the NL team will use one of their star hitters as the DH and use a bench player to fill in for the appointed DH, and other times, the NL team will simply use a bench player as the DH and have him bat later. In either case, however, the benefits of using a DH in place of the pitcher are minimal, especially considering that the AL designated hitters have seen more action in their positions and that AL teams still possess their full 9-man batting lineup. Even when the NL team is hosting, arguments have been made that there is no real benefit for the NL team either. For the most part, designated hitters are also passable fielders, meaning that they can still be used in the game. And even though the AL team has to take a player out of their lineup, it leaves them with a starting player available to pinch-hit and/or come in as a substitute player later in the game, as opposed to a bench player on an NL team. And although AL pitchers see less action than NL pitchers, stats have showed that AL pitcher batting average is not much lower than NL pitcher batting average, in large part due to the fact that several AL pitchers have played in the NL. For these reasons, some have argued that the NL should adopt the DH, while others have argued that the AL should drop the DH.
 The NL did eventually adopt the DH as part of the 2022 CBA, eliminating the strategical disparity of interleague play.
 These cons applied primarily to the 1997–2001 and/or 2002–2012 formats and not necessarily to the current format:
 The "rivalry" series that consist of six games a year for some teams leads to further scheduling inequities. For example, the AL West race can be skewed by Seattle getting six games per year against last-place San Diego and Oakland's six matchups against defending champion San Francisco.
 Some teams play a certain inter-league team more than a certain intra-league team. For example, the Washington Nationals played the Baltimore Orioles (an AL team) 6 times in the 2012 season, and the San Diego Padres and Pittsburgh Pirates (NL teams) only 5 times each. This is no longer the case since 2013, when every pair of intra-league foes are guaranteed six meetings against each other, three at each venue.
 Most notably, teams no longer play identical opponents as their divisional rivals, and even where they do, they don't always play them an identical number of times. This can lead to "strength of schedule" disparities like those the NFL has to deal with on a yearly basis.
 For example, in 2005, the San Diego Padres played every AL Central team except for Kansas City, who had the worst record in the league, as well as six games against Seattle, who finished that season 69–93. Meanwhile, their division rivals, the San Francisco Giants, played every AL Central team except for the Chicago White Sox, who had the best record in the AL and went on to win the World Series, in addition to six against Oakland, who was in playoff contention for most of the season.

See also

 Major League Baseball rivalries
 List of Major League Baseball awards

References

Notes

External links

 For head-to-head listings, choose team and the time period to get full list and results

Baseball terminology
Major League Baseball competitions
Recurring sporting events established in 1997

Interleague play


Sir (Robert) Arthur Arnold (28 May 1833 – 20 May 1902) was a British Liberal politician and author.

Biography

He was the third son of Robert Coles Arnold, a justice of the peace of Framfield, Sussex, and the younger brother of poet Sir Edwin Arnold. Born in Gravesend, Kent, he was educated privately and trained as a surveyor and land agent.

In 1861, he was involved in the surveying operations prior to the construction of the Thames Embankment. Two years later he was appointed under the 1863 Public Works (Manufacturing Districts) Act as an Assistant Commissioner (and later Inspector) of Public Works in Lancashire, during the Cotton Famine, and subsequently wrote A History of the Cotton Famine. In his spare time he was a writer, and published two "sensation" novels: Ralph, or St Sepulchre's and St Stephen's (1863) and Hever Court (1867).

He made a tour of southern and eastern Europe in 1867, and became a strong supporter of the Kingdom of Greece a position he set out in From the Levant. In 1873 he was awarded the Golden Cross of the Order of the Saviour of Greece.

In 1867, he married Amelia Elizabeth Hyde of Castle Hyde, County Cork. They had no children. His wife was a campaigner for women's suffrage and a prominent public figure in her own right.

He was a member of the Radical faction of the Liberal Party, and in 1868 was the first editor of The Echo, a Liberal evening paper. In 1873 was an unsuccessful candidate for a by-election at Huntingdon. In 1875, soon after the sale of the Echo to Albert Grant, Arnold resigned his editorship and journeyed through the Middle East with his wife. He published an account of the thousand-mile journey in 1877 as Through Persia by Caravan.

In 1878, he published a collection of his political writings as Social Politics. Among the causes he supported were disestablishment of the Church of England, land law reform, reform of local government in The Metropolis, nationalisation of railways, women's suffrage and support for the temperance movement.

In 1880, he was elected as one of two members of parliament for Salford, with the Liberals gaining both seats at the expense of the Conservatives. The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 split the parliamentary borough of Salford into three single-member divisions, and Arnold stood unsuccessfully for the new Salford North constituency in 1885 and 1886. At the 1892 general election he stood at Dorset North, but again failed to be elected.

On the creation of the London County Council in 1889, Arnold was elected as a county alderman, and was chairman of the council from 1895 to 1897. He was knighted in 1895. He was also a Deputy Lieutenant and Justice of the Peace for the County of London, and a Board of Trade Harbour Commissioner and JP for Dartmouth.

His beliefs were reflected in his presidency of the Free Land League and his membership of the London Anti-Vivisection Society.

Sir Arthur Arnold died suddenly at his Kensington, London, home in May 1902, aged 68.

Works

References

External links

1833 births
1902 deaths
Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
UK MPs 1880–1885
Members of London County Council
Knights Bachelor
British newspaper editors
Progressive Party (London) politicians
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Salford
People from Gravesend, Kent
People from Kensington
English justices of the peace

Arthur Arnold


The Oxfordshire rising took place in November 1596 under the rule of Queen Elizabeth I of England during times of bad harvest and unprecedented poverty. A small group of impoverished men developed a plan to seize weapons and armour and march on London, hoping to attract "200 or 300... from various towns of that shire". They met on Enslow Hill on 21 November, but without any of the assumed support were quickly arrested, and tortured due to suspicions of a wider conspiracy. A year later two of the men were hanged, drawn, and quartered for their treason.

Background

The years 1596-98 were the worst for many years for the English population, as bad harvests coincided with outbreaks of disease, as well as a fall in wages which forced many people into starvation.  Given the state of the poorest classes, those with property felt threatened by revolt, a fact not helped by the boom in publishing of sensationalist literature detailing the many 'crimes' of vagrants thanks to new printing technology. Over 20% of the rural population were considered 'poor' (i.e. impoverished) and so these fears were easy to feed. Furthermore, as it was up to the local gentry and JPs (Justices of the Peace) to enforce these laws there was a great deal of inconsistency in their application.

As population levels started to rise in the second half of the sixteenth century, pressure on land for food and work increased, and the enclosure of common land, whether agreed amicably among farmers or enforced illegally by greedy landlords, was seen by distressed groups as the cause of their grief. For much of the period grain prices rose ahead of wool prices and enclosure attracted less political attention. By the 1590s, however, private profit was replacing communal co-operation. Allegations that common lands had been fenced off, villagers denied rights of pasturage, and land converted from arable to pasture lay behind events in Oxfordshire in 1596.

The 'rising'

The ringleader of the rising was a carpenter from Hampton Poyle named Bartholomew Steer. Along with two other men, Steer formulated a plan to protest against enclosures after between forty and sixty men visited the county's Lord Lieutenant, Lord Norris, and asked him to help the poor. However the protest soon escalated into a more violent plot, first to throw down the enclosures themselves and then to seize weapons from the Lord Lieutenant's residence and kill several local landowners. Steer and two brothers, millers James and Richard Bradshaw, tried to recruit further support as they travelled round the local area.

Steer arranged for the plotters to meet on Enslow Hill at 9pm on 21 November, assuming they would attract wide support, and proposed they march to London after attacking local targets in order to link up with the London apprentices. Steer seems to have selected Enslow Hill due to folk memories of a previous rising (centred on resistance to religious reforms) that was suppressed there in 1549: he told one man that the commons had risen and then been "hanged like dogs" after being persuaded to return home, but that he intended to go through with his plan and "would never yield". However, there were some signs that people were nervous about committing themselves. When Steer asked his brother how much support he could expect in Witney and received a discouraging response, he commented that "if all men were of that mind they might live like slaves as he did. But for himself happ what would, for he could die but once and [...] he would not alwaies live like a slave".

Four men gathered at Enslow Hill on the 21st: Steer, Thomas Horne, a servant from Hampton Gay, Robert Burton, a Beckley mason, and Edward Bompass, a fuller who had promised to bring support from the neighbouring village of Kirtlington., However, no one else appeared and the gathering disbanded after two hours. It is possible that they were victims of a misunderstanding, as a larger group of armed men, who remained anonymous, had been seen to gather on the hill the preceding Sunday. It also seems likely that the men's proposal of violent methods and their marginal status in the community as young, landless artisans (Steer and Bompass were both 28, and others involved were of a similar age and status) contributed to the lack of support. The plotters were quickly arrested after a servant, Roger Symonds, who Steer had tried to recruit, informed his landlord of the plan. Although Norris himself tried to play down the significance of the 'rising', the Privy Council clearly considered this rebellion threatening in the context of the time and the climate of general dissatisfaction, particularly as Robert Burton was taken into custody in London, where he may have been attempting to solicit support among the City apprentices. Sir Edward Coke advised that the ringleaders were liable for charges of treason, "making war against the Queen", under a 1571 Act, although it appears that not all the statute's legal requirements had in fact been met.

Five principal ringleaders - Steer, James and Richard Bradshaw, Bompass, and Burton - were taken to London tied to the backs of horses and closely guarded to prevent their conversing with one another. There they were lodged in separate prisons and interrogated. Around twenty other men were also imprisoned or interrogated, though not charged with treason as the ringleaders eventually were. As the authorities were eager to discover if any gentry were involved in the conspiracy, the use of torture was authorised, and Coke pursued the charges with extreme aggression, despite the misgivings of several judges regarding his interpretation of the statutes. Coke appears to have based his arguments on defective knowledge of a riot that took place on May Day 1517, the so-called "Evil May Day". Steer in his defiant testimony claimed that he "stood in no need" himself, but "meant to have risen to help his poor friends, and other poor people in misery".

Despite the charge of treason, on the terms of the 1571 statute, being "shaky" at best, the men were tried before an Oxfordshire jury including several men who had been personally threatened by the plot. Steer and James Bradshaw were both absent from 24 February arraignment, suggesting they had died in prison in the meantime. Two plotters, Burton and Richard Bradshaw, were convicted on the treason charge and eventually executed on Enslow Hill, within sight of the enclosures they had wished to remove. The fate of Bompass is unclear, though it is possible he also died in prison. Though the trials themselves and executions passed unrecorded at the time, the convictions for treason of Burton and Bradshaw were used by Coke in the trial of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex to support his prosecution. In a more positive outcome of the 'rising', Parliament subsequently passed an Act halting further enclosures.

References

1596 in England
Conflicts in 1596
16th-century rebellions
Elizabeth I
History of social movements
Tudor rebellions
Poverty in England
Riots and civil disorder in Oxfordshire
16th century in Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire rising of 1596


Carlfred Bartholomew Broderick (April 7, 1932 – July 27, 1999) was an American psychologist, sociologist, and family therapist, a scholar of marriage and family relations at the University of Southern California, and an author of several books. He was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1932, and he died of cancer in 1999 in Cerritos, California, at the age of 67.

Personal
Although his given name was "Carlfred" (one name) he was known as "Carl" in many circles. He and his wife Kathleen had eight children (four sons and four daughters). He was an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served in the capacity of bishop, stake president, and stake patriarch.

Broderick died on July 27, 1999, at his home in Cerritos, California.

Education
Broderick attended Harvard University, earning his bachelor's degree in social relations, and graduating magna cum laude 1953. He completed his Ph.D. in child development and family relations at Cornell University in 1956 and later doing postdoctoral work at the University of Minnesota.

Academia
Broderick was an associate professor of family development at the University of Georgia from 1956 to 1960 and a professor of family relationships at Pennsylvania State University from 1960 until 1971 at which time he joined the faculty at the University of Southern California. In addition to teaching and leading the marriage and family therapy program at USC, Broderick was himself a relationship counselor. A behaviorist, he helped partners in crisis by teaching them "working tools" for real-life situations. For three decades, he also assisted colleges and school districts in North and South America, Europe, and Australia in the development of family-life and sex-education programs. Broderick chaired the USC department of sociology from 1989-1991. From 1971 through his retirement in 1997, he was executive director of USC's Marriage and Family Therapy Training Program, and director of the Human Relations Center. Upon his retirement, which was due to ill health, USC named him professor emeritus.

Public appearances
Broderick appeared as a guest on many radio and television talk shows, including ten times on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson during the 1970s.

Organizations
Broderick was active in the American Sociological Association, the International Sociological Association, the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, the Southern California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (president in 1974-75), the American College of Sexology, the National Council on Family Relations (served as president), and the Association of Mormon Counselors and Psychotherapists (served as president in 1982-83). In 1989 the National Council on Family Relations honored him with its Distinguished Service Award for his "outstanding contributions to the field of family therapy."

Writer
Broderick authored many books, papers and essays for different audiences. Some of his books are scholarly texts written for an audience of colleagues, others are for students, some are for individuals and couples who are trying to find happiness in their marital and family relationships. He served for 5 years as the editor of the Journal of Marriage and the Family (the publication of the National Council on Family Relations). A devout member of his religion, Carlfred wrote some books specifically for an audience of fellow church members which approach marital issues from a religious perspective.

Some of the periodicals which have featured his work include: Marriage and Family Living, The Journal of Social Issues, The Journal of Sex Research, The Journal of Marriage and the Family, The Ensign of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought.

A partial list of his books include:
Understanding Family Process: Basics of Family Systems Theory
One Flesh, One Heart: Putting Celestial Love into Your Temple Marriage
The Therapeutic Triangle: A Sourcebook on Marital Therapy
Dear Sister, Once Abused: A Story of Hope and Freedom from the Bondage of Childhood Sexual Abuse (written with Victoria Lynn)
My Parents Married on a Dare: And Other Favorite Essays on Life
Couples: How to Confront Problems and Maintain Loving Relationships
Marriage and the Family
The Uses of Adversity

References

USC Dept. of Sociology
Footnotes, newsletter of the American Sociological Association, November 1999

1932 births
1999 deaths
American leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
20th-century American psychologists
Cornell University College of Human Ecology alumni
Harvard College alumni
Patriarchs (LDS Church)
University of Southern California faculty
Latter Day Saints from California
Latter Day Saints from Georgia (U.S. state)
University of Georgia faculty
Pennsylvania State University faculty
Latter Day Saints from Pennsylvania
Latter Day Saints from Utah
American sociologists

Carlfred Broderick


SmartBus is a network of bus services in the city of Melbourne, Australia. Overseen by Public Transport Victoria, the network comprises nine key cross-town and orbital bus routes around Melbourne. Key aspects of the service include more frequent services, extended hours of operation to include late evening and Sunday services. improved timetable information at bus stops, roadspace priority along certain routes and priority at particular traffic lights. Busses on SmartBus routes are shared among three operators, with route 900 being operated by both Ventura Bus Lines and CDC Melbourne.

SmartBus originally was a policy proposed by the Victoria State Government in the late 1990s, but was only implemented in the early 2000s. In 2003, the first trial program began with routes 703 and 888/889 (now 902) being upgraded to SmartBus status. The program was deemed successful and as a result new SmartBus routes began service with the most recent addition of routes being the introduction of the four Doncaster Area Rapid Transit routes routes in 2010.

History

20th century
Although SmartBus was originally a policy initiative of the Kennett government in the late 1990s, the government only began implementing the proposal in the early 2000s. However, plans from the late 1980s included several cross-town routes, which were to be called Metlink.

21st century
The first stage of the trial was implemented on 5 August 2002, with the following services being chosen as pilot routes: 703 Middle Brighton to Blackburn and 888/889 Nunawading to Chelsea. These two routes received extra funding for more services, services on 703 increased by 20% and on 888/889 by up to 50%. Sunday services were also added to 888/889. The aim was to find out whether increased services and better reliability would increase patronage. The project was deemed successful when in 2003, on the 1st anniversary of SmartBus, the Victorian Government released a media statement that the SmartBus program increased patronage by 25%.

On 16 October 2006 route 900 began operation, connecting major areas in south-eastern Melbourne including Chadstone SC, Oakleigh and Monash University.

Three orbital bus lines operate in Melbourne as part of the SmartBus network; they provide cross city links connecting railway and tram lines and other bus routes.

The first orbital route started as several routes (including Route 665 from Dandenong to Ringwood and Route 830 from Dandenong to Frankston ). It was re-launched as Yellow Orbital Route 901 on 24 March 2008 operating between Frankston and Ringwood. Despite this, the route was only extended, extended to Melbourne Airport on 26 September 2010; it is Melbourne's second longest bus route (2nd to 684 Melbourne-Melbourne to Eildon) at 115 kilometres (71 mi) with a journey time of four and a half hours and connects with nine railway stations and over 100 bus routes.

This was followed by Route 700 running between Mordialloc and Box Hill; it was re-launched as a SmartBus on 14 June 2005. On 20 April 2009 it was extended to Altona, becoming the Red Orbital 903; it connects to 11 railway stations and nine tram lines, and is 86 kilometres (53 mi) in length.

Last, in April 2010, the Green Orbital 902 started operation, assuming the operations of route 888/889. It runs between Chelsea and Airport West, connecting to nine railway stations, three tram routes and over 60 local lines, spanning .

A Blue Orbital (route 904), was proposed in the 2006 Meeting our Transport Challenges publication, which proposed to service the inner city from Sandringham to Williamstown, however this proposed route was cut from the 2008 Victorian Transport Plan, with the route not mentioned in text or maps.

Doncaster Area Rapid Transit (DART) Routes begun operation on 4 October 2010. Those routes were designed to provide a public transport connection between the Doncaster area and the Melbourne central business district.

All of the nine routes were originally operated by National Bus Company (now Ventura Bus Lines) however Transdev Melbourne signed the contract for the three orbital and four DART routes from August 2013 until January 2022 as part of the Melbourne Metropolitan Bus Franchise. In January 2022, Kinetic Melbourne succeeded Transdev as operator of the several bus routes in Melbourne, including the three orbital and four DART routes which were succeeded to Transdev nine years earlier.

Network and Operations

Routes

Services
SmartBus routes operate from 5:00am to 9:00pm from Monday to Saturday and from 6:00am to 9:00pm on Sundays, Good Friday and Christmas Day. Most services run the full route however, some services on the three orbital routes and off-peak services route 908 may serve shorter runs. SmartBus services usually serve most stops however, route 900 instead offers a limited express service, only stopping at major stops along the route.

Frequencies on the nine routes are higher than most bus routes on the network, will vary throughout the day and go as follows.

 30 minute frequencies between 5:00am and 6:30am
 15 minute frequencies between 6:30am and 9:00pm on routes 703, 901, 902 and 903
 10 minute frequencies (or higher) between 6:30am and 9:00pm on routes 900, 905, 906, 907 and 908
 30 minute frequencies from 8:30pm and 12:00am
 30 minute frequencies on weekends and public holidays
 60 minute frequencies on Night Network services

Operators

Infrastructure

Buses

Originally, SmartBus routes used a dedicated fleet of Mercedes-Benz OC500LEs painted in the grey SmartBus livery however, this has since been changed. Most of these buses have been displaced onto non-SmartBus routes and replaced by Gemilang Coachworks and Volgren bodied and Scania K320UBs painted in the orange PTV livery. Unlike their non SmartBus counterparts, buses dedicated to SmartBus will feature PIDS inside of the bus, which will show the next stop. In 2022, Kinetic Melbourne began running electric buses on 901, 902 and 903.

Bus Stops

SmartBus bus stops offer a variety of premium features not usually present at non-Smartbus bus stops. All SmartBus bus stops feature totems, with some including real time PIDs embedded into them. Additionally, major bus stops may include shelters, bins, and real time passenger information displays. These displays will show the next departures of each SmartBus route and at railway stations will additionally show the next departures of rail services.

Signalling
SmartBus corridors use more modern signalling which is not common on non-SmartBus routes. The location of buses is tracked using GPS satellite receivers fitted to the bus, which relay this information to the network control centre. Many traffic lights on SmartBus corridors are fitted with bus signal priority equipment, to allow for buses to change signals ahead to speed up their journey. The information from both systems is also commonly used when operating PIDs, when accounting for delays and earlier arrivals.

References

External links

SmartBus at Public Transport Victoria

Bus routes in Melbourne

SmartBus


is a Japanese light novel series. It was written by Kana Akatsuki. The drawings in the book were drawn by Akiko Takase. It won the grand prize in the Kyoto Animation Award in 2014. This was for novels. This was the first time something had won a grand prize in the Kyoto Animation Award. Kyoto Animation released the first book on 25 December 2015. They released it under their KA Esuma Bunko company. An anime television series came out between January and April 2018. An original video animation episode came out in July 2018 and a movie will come out in January 2020.

References

2015 books
Light novels

Violet Evergarden


Cross (also known as Smile For Me) is a 2012 Hong Kong horror thriller film written and directed by Daniel Chan, Steve Woo, Lau Kin-ping, Hui Shu-ing and starring Simon Yam, Kenny Wong, Liu Kai-chi and Nick Cheung. The film revolves around a Catholic serial killer played by Yam, who after witnessing his wife's death, believes he is given the duty to kill suicidal people to bring them peace and thereby allow them to enter heaven.

Plot
One day, a man brings luggage to a police report room. From the luggage, he takes out some files, a plastic wrapped scalpel and a half-filled vial, one by one, and methodically places them in front of the police while confessing that he killed a man and wants to surrender. He has actually been involved in many murder cases during the past few months.

The man's name is Lee Leung, who claims he is not a serial killer but an angel of God. This is God's test for him, first to have his wife commit suicide to end the pain of leukemia, and then to have him suffer from the pain of losing his wife; if suffering people want to end their lives themselves, they would have to suffer in hell; life and death is a tragedy, and there is no way out.

Lee Leung begins to pay attention to online news stories about suicides and incidentally finds a discussion site about suicide, where people share various methods of committing it, and some would also talk about their reasons for committing it, including some for their family, and others because they have lost the meaning of life. He understands the suffering of people wanting to commit suicide, and believes his mission is to help those people escape from pain. He asked God to give him strength to redeem these suffering people: since they choose to die, he will perform the duty of murder, so the victim can be murdered instead of committing suicide and that they may enter heaven after they die. He meets four suicidal people online and communicates to them one by one and fulfils their wishes. When Lee Leung opines that he is executing for God's will, he finds that his faith and plan of salvation suffers from an impact he is unable to withstand.

Cast
Simon Yam as Lee Leung
Kenny Wong as Professor Cheung
Liu Kai-chi as Mr. Yip
Mimi Kung as Mrs. Yip / Chan Wai-fong
Evelyn Choi as Mabel Wong
Chen Ran as Ai
Nick Cheung as Mr. Wong
Pal Sinn as Convicted killer
Océane Zhu as Lee Leung's wife
Kageyama Yukihiko as Louis
Au Hin-wai as Sergeant Wong
Jason Cheung as Yip Wing-hong/ Jason Chan
Mo Tzu-yi

References

External links
Official website

Cross at Hong Kong Cinemagic

2012 films
2012 horror films
2012 horror thriller films
Hong Kong horror thriller films
2010s serial killer films
Hong Kong serial killer films
2010s Cantonese-language films
Films set in Hong Kong
Films shot in Hong Kong
Hong Kong slasher films
Religious horror films
2010s slasher films
2012 directorial debut films
2010s Hong Kong films

Cross (2012 film)


Le Kram is a town and commune in the Tunis Governorate of Tunisia. Situated between La Goulette, the port of Tunis, and Carthage, it opens onto the Gulf of Tunis to the east and the Lake of Tunis to the west. As of 2004 it had a population of 58,152. Before 2001, Le Kram was a municipal district within the municipality bordering La Goulette.

The original name of the city was Aga El Kram; it was Gallicised as Le Kram. The word kram in Tunisian Arabic refers to a fig tree or a fruit tree in general. Professor Mohamed El Aziz Ben Achour says of the town's founder:
"Mustapha Aga [...] living peacefully in his palace in the area of Carthage, in the midst of an extensive orchard with fig trees, the source of the name of the village which was established later in this location... "

Ahmad I ibn Mustafa, Bey of Tunis under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire, gave this orchard to Mustafa Aga, who served from 1837 to 1855 as war minister in the Kingdom of Tunis.

Under the French protectorate, Kram was home to many Europeans who built houses along the beach, some of them modest and others sumptuous. These  villas have been replaced by military training centers and the residential area of Kram Salammbo. One can still admire some of the gardens that surrounded the houses; the oldest were built in an Islamic Tunisian style, while the larger homes of the bourgeoisie were built in a purely Italian style, exemplified by La Carmencita, a small villa located on the street Sakiet Sidi Youssef (formerly Rue Jules Ferry). The town was developed mainly as a result of the opening of the Tunis-Goulette-Marsa or TGM railway combining the Khereddine line and the La Goulette-Carthage Salammbô line.

The center of Salammbô contains, among other curiosities, the remains of the port of Punic Carthage, the Tophet (or sacred area) of the ancient Carthaginians and the buildings of the Institute and Museum of Oceanography

See also
List of cities in Tunisia

References

External links

Populated places in Tunis Governorate
Communes of Tunisia
Tunisia geography articles needing translation from French Wikipedia

Le Kram


Franz Hermann Anton Magill (August 22, 1900 – April 14, 1972) was a German riding instructor, SS officer and war criminal of the Nazi era.

Background

Franz Magill was the son of a day laborer. His father bought a small farm in Zuchen in 1908, where Magill graduated from elementary school. He was called up at the end of the First World War and  after the end of the war in 1919 he became a volunteer (twelve donors) in the Hussar Regiment No. 5 of the Reichswehr. In 1923 he was promoted to sergeant, in 1928 to sergeant. In 1929 he passed the riding instructor examination at the riding school in Belgard and, after leaving the Reichswehr, went to the private "German riding school" at Gut Düppel in Berlin as a qualified riding instructor.

After the National Socialists took power in 1933, Magill joined the SS and directed the riding instruction of an SS Reitersturms. In March 1935 he became a full-time SS leader riding instructor at the SS Junker School in Braunschweig and made a career there. At the end of 1935 he was promoted to SS-Hauptsturmführer and, after he joined the NSDAP in 1937 (membership number 4.137.171), to SS-Sturmbannführer on April 20, 1938.

Shortly after the attack on Poland, Magill received the order to set up SS cavalry squadrons in Gut Düppel and, in September 1939, in Lodsch in occupied Poland, then two months later in the Lublin district. There, the basis of the SS skull rider standards (two regiments) formed. In May 1940, Magill received an order from Hermann Fegelein to set up the 2nd SS-Totenkopf-Reiterstandard. Magill was not up to the task. In April 1941 he was recalled as leader of the 2nd regiment and commander of a cavalry division with four squadrons. The regimental leader of the 1st regiment was Hermann Fegelein and the 2nd regiment SS-Sturmbannführer was Heimo Hierthes (1897-1951). In the 1st regiment, Magill's position was held by SS-Sturmbannführer, Gustav Lombard.

References

Martin Cüppers: Wegbereiter der Shoah. Die Waffen-SS, der Kommandostab Reichsführer-SS und die Judenvernichtung 1939−1945. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2005

LG Braunschweig, 20. April 1964. In: Justiz und NS-Verbrechen. Sammlung deutscher Strafurteile wegen nationalsozialistischer Tötungsverbrechen 1945–1966, Bd. XX, bearbeitet von Irene Sagel-Grande, H. H. Fuchs, C.

F. Rüter. Amsterdam: University Press, 1979, Nr. 570, S. 23–105 Verfahrensgegenstand: Massenerschiessung tausender Juden im Pripjetgebiet, darunter mindestens 4500 Juden aus dem Ghetto Pinsk

Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich, 2007, S. 386

1900 births
1972 deaths
German war criminals
SS officers
Waffen-SS people

Franz Magill


Fusion was an American comic book series published from 1987–1989 by Eclipse Comics, whose creative team included the writer Steven Barnes, the artists Lela Dowling and Steve Gallacci, conceptual editor Lex Nakashima and many more.

The world of Fusion is centuries in our future, when a series of galactic wars have led to a spiraling arms race between "tekkers and splicers" — that is, between those who take a technological and technocratic route to improving humanity, and those who have abandoned humanity altogether through genetic engineering. The story involves the exploits of a group of space mercenaries in an era when humans who have not been enhanced either genetically or cybernetically, are becoming extremely rare.

From the first issue, the book included two back up series featuring Dr. Watchstop, and the Weasel Patrol, a comic stemming from doodles "drawn" of Tan.

Weasel Patrol had an animated pilot that was produced by Nickelodeon in 1991. It was never picked up as a series.

In 2014, the first five issues were reprinted in a collection titled Fusion: The Soulstar Commission.

Regular characters
The only recurring characters are the crew of the mercenary spaceship Tsunami.
 Indio Tremaine: Captain. Human. Born into the Clan of the Three Suns, of which she is the only survivor.
 Dow Cook: Synthetic human bio-engineered invulnerable to shock and trauma and with enhanced self-healing ability. Very insecure about himself.
 Tan: A musteliform bred from Terran otter stock. Canadian, an alumnus of Labatt's Tech (a fictitious university named after the beer). An alcoholic mechanical and electronics wizard with a severe gambling problem. Never goes anywhere without his leather pilot cap and goggles.
 Beolvoch: A meehook. Something like a dinosaur with feathers. Has an extremely high metabolic rate and thus a voracious appetite for raw meat. Must eat regularly and copiously to stay active. Consequently, spends much time in a suspended animation state or complaining that he is hungry. Appears to be a genuine alien species rather than uplifted and genetically engineered earthform.
 Alshain: A felinoid; a temperamental and somewhat edgy pilot.
 Carz: A leoniform with only one working eye. He is generally a steadying influence, but when he loses it, beware!
 Herrick: A hawklike creature, of military caste. Dies very early in the series, in one of many moves which went against formula. Appears in "how we got here" sequences.
 Haven: A birdlike creature with well-developed nesting instincts. She is a doctor by training.
 Eddie: Modelled after some creature with very long ears and a prehensile tail. Likes to hang upside down. A cool dude in shades and khakis or Hawaiian shirts. Nothing rattles Eddie. Was a classmate of Tan at Labatt's.

References

Cyborg comics
Comics about genetic engineering
Planetary romances
Space Western comics

Fusion (Eclipse Comics)


Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (2005) is Malcolm Gladwell's second book. It presents in popular science format research from psychology and behavioral economics on the adaptive unconscious: mental processes that work rapidly and automatically from relatively little information. It considers both the strengths of the adaptive unconscious, for example in expert judgment, and its pitfalls, such as prejudice and stereotypes.

Summary
The author describes the main subject of his book as "thin-slicing": our ability to use limited information from a very narrow period of experience to come to a conclusion. This idea suggests that spontaneous decisions are often as good as—or even better than—carefully planned and considered ones. To reinforce his ideas, Gladwell draws from a wide range of examples from science and medicine (including malpractice suits), sales and advertising, gambling, speed dating (and predicting divorce), tennis, military war games, and movies and popular music. Gladwell also uses many examples of regular people's experiences with "thin-slicing," including our instinctive ability to mind-read, which is how we can get to know a person's emotions just by looking at his or her face.

Gladwell explains how an expert's ability to "thin slice" can be corrupted by their likes and dislikes, prejudices, and stereotypes (even unconscious ones). A particular form of unconscious bias Gladwell discusses is psychological priming. He also discusses the implicit-association test, designed to measure the strength of a person's subconscious associations/bias.

Gladwell also mentions that sometimes having too much information can interfere with the accuracy of a judgment, or a doctor's diagnosis. In what Gladwell contends is an age of information overload, he finds that experts often make better decisions with snap judgments than they do with volumes of analysis. This is commonly called "analysis paralysis." The challenge is to sift through and focus on only the most critical information. The other information may be irrelevant and confusing. Collecting more information, in most cases, may reinforce our judgment but does not help make it more accurate. Gladwell explains that better judgments can be executed from simplicity and frugality of information. If the big picture is clear enough to decide, then decide from this without using a magnifying glass.

The book argues that intuitive judgment is developed by experience, training, and knowledge. For example, Gladwell claims that prejudice can operate at an intuitive unconscious level, even in individuals whose conscious attitudes are not prejudiced. One example is the halo effect, where a person having a salient positive quality is thought to be superior in other, unrelated respects. The example used in the book is Warren G. Harding. Henry Daugherty was impressed by Harding's appearance of respectability, and helped him become president of the United States of America, though Harding did nothing extraordinary for his political career.

Gladwell uses the 1999 killing of Amadou Diallo, where four New York policemen shot an innocent man on his doorstep 19 times, as another example of how rapid, intuitive judgment can have disastrous effects.

Research and examples
The book begins with the story of the Getty kouros, which was a statue brought to the J. Paul Getty Museum in California. It was thought by many experts to be legitimate, but when others first looked at it, their initial responses were skeptical. For example, George Despinis, head of the Acropolis Museum in Athens, said "Anyone who has ever seen a sculpture coming out of the ground could tell that that thing has never been in the ground". Gradually, the argument for the legitimacy of the kouros' provenance fell apart. The letters tracing its history turned out to be fakes, referencing postal codes and bank accounts that did not exist until after the letters were supposedly written. However, experts to this day are unsure whether the kouros is authentic or not. The museum notes that "anomalies of the Getty kouros may be due more to our limited knowledge of Greek sculpture in this period rather than to mistakes on the part of a forger."

John Gottman is a researcher on marital relationships whose work is explored in Blink. After analyzing a normal conversation between a husband and wife for an hour, Gottman can predict whether that couple will be married in 15 years with 95% accuracy. If he analyzes them for 15 minutes, his accuracy is around 90%. But if he analyses them for only three minutes, he can still predict with high accuracy who will get divorced and who will make it. This is one example of when "thin slicing" works.

The studies of Paul Ekman, a psychologist who created the Facial Action Coding System (FACS), indicates that a lot of "thin slicing" can be done within seconds by unconsciously analyzing a person's fleeting look called a microexpression. Ekman claims that the face is a rich source of what is going on inside our mind and although many facial expressions can be made voluntarily, our faces are also dictated by an involuntary system that automatically expresses our emotions. One example of how movements of the face result in emotions is shown in an experiment from Paul Ekman, Wallace V. Friesen and Robert Levenson. They asked their test subjects to remember negative or burdening experiences. Another group was asked only to make faces that resembled negative feelings like anger, sadness and the like. Both groups were connected to sensors which measured their physiological reactions (pulse and body temperature). Interestingly the latter group showed the same physical reactions as the first group.

In a study done by Fritz Strack and his colleagues, students had to watch a movie. One group did so with a pen between their teeth while the other group had to hold the pen with their lips. The first group interpreted the movie funnier than the second, because the muscles responsible for smiling were used and then made the brain release hormones related to being happy. These studies show that facial expressions are not only the result of emotions but can also be their cause.

The book finishes with the case of sexism suffered by Abbie Conant, when she was the trombone soloist of the Munich Philharmonic, and its director, Sergiu Celibidache, relegated her to minor positions, made her receive a lower wage than her male colleagues and looked down on her from 1980 to 1993, when she finally left the orchestra.

Reception
Richard Posner, a professor at the University of Chicago and a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, argues that Gladwell in Blink fails to follow his own recommendations regarding thin-slicing, and makes a variety of unsupported assumptions and mistakes in his characterizations of the evidence for his thesis. The Daily Telegraph review writes, "Rarely have such bold claims been advanced on the basis of such flimsy evidence."

In Think!: Why Crucial Decisions Can't Be Made in the Blink of an Eye (Simon and Schuster, 2006), Michael LeGault argues that "Blinklike" judgments are not a substitute for critical thinking. He criticizes Gladwell for propagating unscientific notions:

As naturopathic medicine taps into a deep mystical yearning to be healed by nature, Blink exploits popular new-age beliefs about the power of the subconscious, intuition, even the paranormal. Blink devotes a significant number of pages to the so-called theory of mind reading. While allowing that mind-reading can "sometimes" go wrong, the book enthusiastically celebrates the apparent success of the practice, despite hosts of scientific tests showing that claims of clairvoyance rarely beat the odds of random chance guessing.

Nobel prize winner Daniel Kahneman, author of Thinking, Fast and Slow which speaks to rationality's advantages over intuition, says:

Malcolm Gladwell does not believe that intuition is magic. He really doesn't... But here his story has helped people, in a belief that they want to have, which is that intuition works magically; and that belief, is false.

In an article titled "Understanding Unconscious Intelligence and Intuition: Blink and Beyond", Lois Isenman agrees with Gladwell that the unconscious mind has a surprising knack for 'thinking without thinking' but argues that its ability to integrate many pieces of information simultaneously provides a much more inclusive explanation than thin-slicing. She writes:

Gladwell often speaks of the importance of holism to unconscious intelligence, meaning that it considers the situation as a whole. At the same time, he stresses that unconscious intelligence relies on finding simple underlying patterns. However, only when a situation is overwhelmingly determined by one or a few interacting factors is holism consistent with simple underlying signatures. In many situations, holism and simple underlying signatures pull in different directions.

Topics mentioned
 Aeron chair produced by Herman Miller
 Amadou Bailo Diallo
 Cook County Hospital
 Getty kouros
 Keith Johnstone's book Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre
 Kenna
 Millennium Challenge 2002 and Paul K. Van Riper
 Pepsi Challenge and New Coke
 All in the Family
 The Mary Tyler Moore Show
 The Goldman Algorithm
 Abbie Conant

See also
 Gavin de Becker
 Paul Ekman
 John Gottman
 Interpersonal perception

References

External links
 Official website (archived 24 November 2006)

Psychology books
2005 non-fiction books
Works by Malcolm Gladwell
Popular psychology books
Back Bay Books books


Orepuki in Southland, New Zealand is a small country township on the coast of Te Waewae Bay some 20 minutes from Riverton, 15 minutes from Tuatapere and 50 minutes from Invercargill that sits at the foot of the Longwood Range. Once a thriving gold mining settlement of 3000 people, today Orepuki is something of a ghost town with an assortment of abandoned stores, goldmining relics and sluicing scars as the only reminders of its former glory.

History

In pre-European times, local Māori used the unique and highly prized garnet gemstones on the beach to polish and sharpen their 'toki' or adzes/axes.

According to Maori history several Ngati Mamoe Maori were killed by a tsunami while walking along the beach near Orepuki in the 1820s. They had been gathering fish at the Waiau River mouth in autumn as provisions for the winter period. The beach runs between the sea and a line of cliffs meaning that only a moderate tsunami of 2–4 metres high would have been needed to cause so many deaths. The likely source of the tsunami could have been an earthquake on the Fiordland or Puysegur faults. There are questions around the exact date of this event as it is reliant entirely on unverified unnamed sources.

European sealer John Boultbee noted in 1827 that there was an "old and small" Māori village situated near present-day Orepuki. It seems likely that any trace of this village was washed away by later goldminers and their sluicing activities. The English translation of 'Orepuki' has been subject to numerous theories: Aro-puke or 'crumbling cliffs' being one of the more popular suggestions. In 1923, Henry P. Young, the former headmaster of Orepuki School, said in a talk to the Southland Branch of the N.Z. Society, published in the Southland Times, "the proper name is "Aropaki" and means a bright area or expanse." In Ngā Ingoa o Aotearoa: an oral dictionary of Māori placenames, recorded in 1992, local  (tribal elder) George Te Au offers as pronunciations both Ore-PUki and ō-RĀpaki.

The European origins of Orepuki township begin with the discovery of gold in the beaches black sand in 1865. The first tent town of Hirstfield sprung up near Monkey Island (in the lee of which ships anchored). Several years later a slightly more permanent second township was constructed to the north of the present day village, known as Garfield. Mining operations however, dictated that this site was on gold bearing land and the people and their houses, including the school, shifted to the present site to allow further mining.
On 25 May 1885 a branch line railway was opened to Orepuki, providing it with swift transport to Invercargill.  On 1 October 1903, a further extension beyond Orepuki was opened and the line ultimately became the Tuatapere Branch.  The section of line between Riverton and Tuatapere closed on 30 July 1976. Orepuki station building still stands, relocated to serve other purposes on a farmer's paddock.
Other industries to have operated in Orepuki include: sawmilling, coal mining, a shale works , a smelter to extract platinum, a flax mill and farming which remains as the main industry today.
An array of old buildings still exist and currently the township supports a pub, a bowling green, a community hall, a church  and a population of around 100 people. Orepuki Primary School closed in 2003. By 2014, Orepuki started undergoing a transformation with new houses being built and renovated and the opening of the Orepuki Beach Cafe .

The area is famous for a number of former All Blacks, world champion shearers, and its odd trees which appear to be in a perpetual gale, even in complete calm (frequent strong salt winds from the sea have warped and bent many trees by nearly 90°).

Surrounding areas include Pahia, Round Hill, Wakapatu, Ruahine, Colac Bay, Garden Bay, Cosy Nook, Waihoaka, Te Waewae and Te Tua.

Nearby attractions

Monkey Island;  a small island and mini lagoon off the southern end of the beach. Accessible during low tide, with a small walking track. Local Māori used the island as a traditional lookout for southern right whales and named it 'Te Puka o Takitimu', or the 'Anchorstone of Takitimu' waka/canoe.
Gemstone Beach;  situated ½ km north of Orepuki, this wild beach contains semi-precious gemstone such as: garnet, orbicular jasper, garnet sands, rodinguite quartz, semi nephrite, fossil worm casts, oil shale and elusive sapphire.
McCracken's rest; a rest area that provides spectacular panoramic coastal views from Pahia to the Waiau River mouth and further around to the former timber town of Port Craig.

References

External links
 Riverton to Orepuki Goldfields
 A trip from Riverton to Orepuki in 1860
 Orepuki on the Western Southland Website
 A to Z guide.

Southern Scenic Route
Ghost towns in Southland, New Zealand
Foveaux Strait

Orepuki


Thomas Gankama-Quiwonkpa (27 July 1940 – 17 November 1985), a Dan from Nimba County, was a Commanding General of the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) and founder of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL).

Biography
Born in the town of Zualay in 1940, Quiwonkpa was the son of subsistence farmers.  At the age of sixteen, he joined the AFL. After finishing high school in 1958 through a programme at the Barclay Training Center, he received an assignment to the AFL's records department.

Part of Samuel Doe's coup (1980)
He came to prominence on 12 April 1980, when he assisted Samuel Doe in a military coup that overthrew the Americo-Liberian government of William R. Tolbert, Jr. About a month later, the revolutionaries arrested AFL commander-in-chief Edwin Lloyd and other military leaders on charges of planning a counter-coup. By mid-May, Quiwonkpa was proclaimed a major general and made the new AFL commander.

Two months later he was using the title of brigadier general.  Before long, he fell out with Doe; in 1983, Quiwonkpa was demoted and subsequently charged with an attempt to overthrow the Doe administration, forcing him to flee the country.

Coup attempt against Doe (1985)
On 12 November 1985, one month after elections were held, Quiwonkpa, supported by about two dozen heavily armed men, covertly entered Liberia through Sierra Leone, and launched a coup against Doe. However, Quiwonkpa's unorthodox methods and lack of support from the United States resulted in a disastrous failure.

Quiwonkpa was captured and on November 15 was killed and mutilated by Krahn soldiers loyal to Doe. His killers then dismembered his body and reportedly ate parts of it. His body was publicly exhibited on the grounds of the Executive Mansion in Monrovia soon after his death.

Joe Wylie, later deputy minister of defense in the NTGL, was among the group who launched the coup.

Post-coup attempt reprisals
In a campaign of retribution against the coup plotters and their supporters, Doe's government launched a bloody purge against the Gio and Mano ethnic groups in Quiwonkpa's Nimba County, raising alarm about a possible genocide. Doe's slaughter of an estimated 3,000 people provoked ethnic rivalries that later fuelled the First Liberian Civil War.

References

External links
 Liberia - Election and Coup Attempt - 1985

1955 births
1985 deaths
Liberian murder victims
People murdered in Liberia
People from Nimba County
Brigadier generals
Executed military leaders
People's Redemption Council
Dan people
People executed by Liberia by firing squad
1985 murders in Africa
1980s murders in Liberia

Thomas Quiwonkpa


The 35th Primetime Emmy Awards were held on September 25, 1983. The ceremony was broadcast on NBC, from the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, Pasadena, California.  It is remembered for the vulgar language during the ceremony, much of it from Joan Rivers who cohosted the ceremony with Eddie Murphy.  Rivers also wore nine dresses throughout the ceremony.

Despite being one of the lowest-rated shows of the season, the critically acclaimed first season of Cheers won Outstanding Comedy Series as well as three other major awards. For the third straight year, Hill Street Blues won Outstanding Drama Series, it received at least 14 major nominations for the third straight year, unprecedented at the time, and also received every nomination in the Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series field. Second City Television also garnered every nomination in a category, for Outstanding Writing in a Variety, Music or Comedy Program. NBC dominated the night, on the strength of the shows mentioned, it received 71 of the 128 major nominations, and won 19 of 25 major categories.

In its final ceremony, M*A*S*H was once again nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series. M*A*S*H was nominated every year it was on the air, 11/11, winning once in 1974, this record would be tied by Cheers a decade later when it too went 11/11, finishing with four victories.

Winners and nominees

Programs

Acting

Lead performances

Supporting performances

Individual performances

Directing

Writing

Most major nominations

Most major awards

Notes

References

External links
 Emmys.com list of 1983 Nominees & Winners

035
1983 television awards
1983 in California
September 1983 events in the United States

35th Primetime Emmy Awards


Jan Beránek (born January 11, 1970), is a Czech ecological activist, energy expert, politician, employee of Greenpeace and former member and chairman of Czech Green Party.

He studied physics at the Univerzity of Jan Evangelista Purkyně in Brno from 1988 to 1990. Already at that time, back in 1989, he had established together with his friend Jakub Patocka an environmental organization Hnuti DUHA (Rainbow Movement), which later (1993) became the Czech branch of Friends of the Earth

Soon after the political changes in Czechoslovakia in November 1989, he became a full-time political and environmental activist, and subsequently abandoned the studies. Later, from 1993 to 1995, he also studied sociology at the same university (by then called Masaryk University). However, he did not graduate either.

Has been actively working on issues related to energy, climate change and nuclear power since his studies in late 1980s, with initial focus on the energy policies and the Soviet-designed nuclear power plants in the Czech Republic and other Eastern European countries. He wrote and contributed to several publications about energy and nuclear power, including three commissioned by national and local governments. He also published many articles and analytical papers on those issues. Was invited and spoke as a specialist at several expert hearings in the European Parliament.

In 2002, he has left Hnuti DUHA/Friends of the Earth Czech Republic from a position of an executive director, in order to engage with Czech party politics. In April 2003, he was elected as a chair of the Czech Green Party, and served in this position until September 2005.

Since 2005 he works for Greenpeace, where he first led the energy campaign in Central and Eastern European region. In June 2007, he became the Nuclear Energy Project Leader at Greenpeace International, based in Amsterdam. Among others, he visited Chernobyl in 1996, lead a specialist team to Kashiwazaki-Kariwa following the Japanese earthquake in 2007. In 2011, he acted as a head of the Greenpeace's global crisis response team to Fukushima nuclear disaster. Later he became one of the authors of a highly appraised Greenpeace report "Lessons from Fukushima"

Since 2011, he conducted numerous radiation field work at Fukushima as well as other locations in Japan. Earlier, he was also involved in detecting and analyzing radioactive contamination at sites in Spain, Ukraine, and the Czech Republic. In 2013, he has earned the highest grade at the radiation protection course of the Technical university at Delft, Netherlands.

Since 2017, he has been searching for the fate of his distant relative Silvestr Němec, an interwar employee of Baťa in Singapore, who died in February 1942 as a member of a military unit of Czechoslovak volunteers in city during the Japanese invasion. By the research, the book Pátrání po Silvestrovi (Searching for Sivestr) was eventually published in 2020.

He currently works as energy campaign team leader at Greenpeace International at Amsterdam.

References

1970 births
Living people
Leaders of the Green Party (Czech Republic)
Masaryk University alumni

Jan Beránek