title: High-definition television

text: The limited standardization of analog HDTV in the 1990s did not lead to global HDTV adoption as technical and economic constraints at the time did not permit HDTV to use bandwidths greater than normal television. Early HDTV commercial experiments, such as NHK's MUSE, required over four times the bandwidth of a standard-definition broadcast. Despite efforts made to reduce analog HDTV to about twice the bandwidth of SDTV, these television formats were still distributable only by satellite. In Europe too, the HD-MAC standard was considered not technically viable.


title: High-definition television

text: In addition, recording and reproducing an HDTV signal was a significant technical challenge in the early years of HDTV (Sony HDVS). Japan remained the only country with successful public broadcasting of analog HDTV, with seven broadcasters sharing a single channel.


title: High-definition television

text: However, the Hi-Vision/MUSE system also faced commercial issues when it launched on November 25, 1991. Only 2,000 HDTV sets were sold by that day, rather than the enthusiastic 1.32 million estimation. Hi-Vision sets were very expensive, up to US$30,000 each, which contributed to its low consumer adaption. A Hi-Vision VCR from NEC released at Christmas time retailed for US$115,000. In addition, the United States saw Hi-Vision/MUSE as an outdated system and had already made it clear that it would develop an all-digital system. Experts thought the commercial Hi-Vision system in 1992 was already eclipsed by digital technology developed in the U.S. since 1990. This was an American victory against the Japanese in terms of technological dominance. By mid-1993 prices of receivers were still as high as 1.5 million yen (US$15,000).


title: High-definition television

text: On February 23, 1994, a top broadcasting administrator in Japan admitted failure of its analog-based HDTV system, saying the U.S. digital format would be more likely a worldwide standard. However this announcement drew angry protests from broadcasters and electronic companies who invested heavily into the analog system. As a result, he took back his statement the next day saying that the government will continue to promote Hi-Vision/MUSE. That year NHK started development of digital television in an attempt to catch back up to America and Europe. This resulted in the ISDB format. Japan started digital satellite and HDTV broadcasting in December 2000.


title: High-definition television

text: High-definition digital television was not possible with uncompressed video, which requires a bandwidth exceeding 1Gbit/s for studio-quality HD digital video. Digital HDTV was made possible by the development of discrete cosine transform (DCT) video compression. DCT coding is a lossy image compression technique that was first proposed by Nasir Ahmed in 1972, and was later adapted into a motion-compensated DCT algorithm for video coding standards such as the H.26x formats from 1988 onwards and the MPEG formats from 1993 onwards. Motion-compensated DCT compression significantly reduces the amount of bandwidth required for a digital TV signal. By 1991, it had achieved data compression ratios from 8:1 to 14:1 for near-studio-quality HDTV transmission, down to 70140 Mbit/s. Between 1988 and 1991, DCT video compression was widely adopted as the video coding standard for HDTV implementations, enabling the development of practical digital HDTV. Dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) was also adopted as framebuffer semiconductor memory, with the DRAM semiconductor industry's increased manufacturing and reducing prices important to the commercialization of HDTV.


title: High-definition television

text: Since 1972, International Telecommunication Union's radio telecommunications sector (ITU-R) had been working on creating a global recommendation for Analog HDTV. These recommendations, however, did not fit in the broadcasting bands which could reach home users. The standardization of MPEG-1 in 1993 led to the acceptance of recommendations ITU-R BT.709. In anticipation of these standards, the Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) organisation was formed. It was alliance of broadcasters, consumer electronics manufacturers and regulatory bodies. The DVB develops and agrees upon specifications which are formally standardised by ETSI.


title: High-definition television

text: DVB created first the standard for DVB-S digital satellite TV, DVB-C digital cable TV and DVB-T digital terrestrial TV. These broadcasting systems can be used for both SDTV and HDTV. In the US the Grand Alliance proposed ATSC as the new standard for SDTV and HDTV. Both ATSC and DVB were based on the MPEG-2 standard, although DVB systems may also be used to transmit video using the newer and more efficient H.264/MPEG-4 AVC compression standards. Common for all DVB standards is the use of highly efficient modulation techniques for further reducing bandwidth, and foremost for reducing receiver-hardware and antenna requirements.


title: High-definition television

text: In 1983, the International Telecommunication Union's radio telecommunications sector (ITU-R) set up a working party (IWP11/6) with the aim of setting a single international HDTV standard. One of the thornier issues concerned a suitable frame/field refresh rate, the world already having split into two camps, 25/50 Hz and 30/60 Hz, largely due to the differences in mains frequency. The IWP11/6 working party considered many views and throughout the 1980s served to encourage development in a number of video digital processing areas, not least conversion between the two main frame/field rates using motion vectors, which led to further developments in other areas. While a comprehensive HDTV standard was not in the end established, agreement on the aspect ratio was achieved.


title: High-definition television

text: Initially the existing 5:3 aspect ratio had been the main candidate but, due to the influence of widescreen cinema, the aspect ratio (1.78) eventually emerged as being a reasonable compromise between 5:3 (1.67) and the common 1.85 widescreen cinema format. An aspect ratio of 16:9 was duly agreed upon at the first meeting of the IWP11/6 working party at the BBC's Research and Development establishment in Kingswood Warren. The resulting ITU-R Recommendation ITU-R BT.709-2 ("Rec. 709") includes the 16:9 aspect ratio, a specified colorimetry, and the scan modes 1080i (1,080 actively interlaced lines of resolution) and 1080p (1,080 progressively scanned lines). The British Freeview HD trials used MBAFF, which contains both progressive and interlaced content in the same encoding.


title: High-definition television

text: It also includes the alternative 1440×1152 HDMAC scan format. (According to some reports, a mooted 750-line (720p) format (720 progressively scanned lines) was viewed by some at the ITU as an enhanced television format rather than a true HDTV format, and so was not included, although 1920×1080i and 1280×720p systems for a range of frame and field rates were defined by several US SMPTE standards.)


title: High-definition television

text: HDTV technology was introduced in the United States in the early 1990s and made official in 1993 by the Digital HDTV Grand Alliance, a group of television, electronic equipment, communications companies consisting of AT&T Bell Labs, General Instrument, Philips, Sarnoff, Thomson, Zenith and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Field testing of HDTV at 199 sites in the United States was completed August 14, 1994. The first public HDTV broadcast in the United States occurred on July 23, 1996, when the Raleigh, North Carolina television station WRAL-HD began broadcasting from the existing tower of WRAL-TV southeast of Raleigh, winning a race to be first with the HD Model Station in Washington, D.C., which began broadcasting July 31, 1996 with the callsign WHD-TV, based out of the facilities of NBC owned and operated station WRC-TV. The American Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) HDTV system had its public launch on October 29, 1998, during the live coverage of astronaut John Glenn's return mission to space on board the Space Shuttle "Discovery". The signal was transmitted coast-to-coast, and was seen by the public in science centers, and other public theaters specially equipped to receive and display the broadcast.


title: High-definition television

text: Between 1988 and 1991, several European organizations were working on discrete cosine transform (DCT) based digital video coding standards for both SDTV and HDTV. The EU 256 project by the CMTT and ETSI, along with research by Italian broadcaster RAI, developed a DCT video codec that broadcast near-studio-quality HDTV transmission at about 70140 Mbit/s. The first HDTV transmissions in Europe, albeit not direct-to-home, began in 1990, when RAI broadcast the 1990 FIFA World Cup using several experimental HDTV technologies, including the digital DCT-based EU 256 codec, the mixed analog-digital HD-MAC technology, and the analog MUSE technology. The matches were shown in 8 cinemas in Italy, where the tournament was played, and 2 in Spain. The connection with Spain was made via the Olympus satellite link from Rome to Barcelona and then with a fiber optic connection from Barcelona to Madrid. After some HDTV transmissions in Europe, the standard was abandoned in 1993, to be replaced by a digital format from DVB.


title: High-definition television

text: The first regular broadcasts started on January 1, 2004, when the Belgian company Euro1080 launched the HD1 channel with the traditional Vienna New Year's Concert. Test transmissions had been active since the IBC exhibition in September 2003, but the New Year's Day broadcast marked the official launch of the HD1 channel, and the official start of direct-to-home HDTV in Europe.


title: High-definition television

text: Euro1080, a division of the former and now bankrupt Belgian TV services company Alfacam, broadcast HDTV channels to break the pan-European stalemate of "no HD broadcasts mean no HD TVs bought means no HD broadcasts ..." and kick-start HDTV interest in Europe. The HD1 channel was initially free-to-air and mainly comprised sporting, dramatic, musical and other cultural events broadcast with a multi-lingual soundtrack on a rolling schedule of 4 or 5 hours per day.


title: High-definition television

text: These first European HDTV broadcasts used the 1080i format with MPEG-2 compression on a DVB-S signal from SES's Astra 1H satellite. Euro1080 transmissions later changed to MPEG-4/AVC compression on a DVB-S2 signal in line with subsequent broadcast channels in Europe.


title: High-definition television

text: Despite delays in some countries, the number of European HD channels and viewers has risen steadily since the first HDTV broadcasts, with SES's annual "Satellite Monitor" market survey for 2010 reporting more than 200 commercial channels broadcasting in HD from Astra satellites, 185 million HD capable TVs sold in Europe (£60 million in 2010 alone), and 20 million households (27% of all European digital satellite TV homes) watching HD satellite broadcasts (16 million via Astra satellites).


title: High-definition television

text: In December 2009, the United Kingdom became the first European country to deploy high-definition content using the new DVB-T2 transmission standard, as specified in the Digital TV Group (DTG) D-book, on digital terrestrial television.


title: High-definition television

text: The Freeview HD service currently contains 13 HD channels () and was rolled out region by region across the UK in accordance with the digital switchover process, finally being completed in October 2012. However, Freeview HD is not the first HDTV service over digital terrestrial television in Europe; Italy's Rai HD channel started broadcasting in 1080i on April 24, 2008, using the DVB-T transmission standard.


title: High-definition television

text: In October 2008, France deployed five high definition channels using DVB-T transmission standard on digital terrestrial distribution.


title: High-definition television

text: If all three parameters are used, they are specified in the following form: "[frame size][scanning system][frame or field rate]" or "[frame size]/[frame or field rate][scanning system]". Often, frame size or frame rate can be dropped if its value is implied from context. In this case, the remaining numeric parameter is specified first, followed by the scanning system.


title: High-definition television

text: For example, "1920×1080p25" identifies progressive scanning format with 25 frames per second, each frame being 1,920 pixels wide and 1,080 pixels high. The "1080i25" or "1080i50" notation identifies interlaced scanning format with 25 frames (50 fields) per second, each frame being 1,920 pixels wide and 1,080 pixels high. The "1080i30" or "1080i60" notation identifies interlaced scanning format with 30 frames (60 fields) per second, each frame being 1,920 pixels wide and 1,080 pixels high. The "720p60" notation identifies progressive scanning format with 60 frames per second, each frame being 720 pixels high; 1,280 pixels horizontally are implied.


title: High-definition television

text: Systems using 50 Hz support three scanning rates: 50i, 25p and 50p, while 60 Hz systems support a much wider set of frame rates: 59.94i, 60i, 23.976p, 24p, 29.97p, 30p, 59.94p and 60p. In the days of standard-definition television, the fractional rates were often rounded up to whole numbers, e.g. 23.976p was often called 24p, or 59.94i was often called 60i. Sixty Hertz high definition television supports both fractional and slightly different integer rates, therefore strict usage of notation is required to avoid ambiguity. Nevertheless, 29.97p/59.94i is almost universally called 60i, likewise 23.976p is called 24p.


title: High-definition television

text: For the commercial naming of a product, the frame rate is often dropped and is implied from context (e.g., a "1080i television set"). A frame rate can also be specified without a resolution. For example, 24p means 24 progressive scan frames per second, and 50i means 25 interlaced frames per second.


title: High-definition television

text: There is no single standard for HDTV color support. Colors are typically broadcast using a (10-bits per channel) YUV color space but, depending on the underlying image generating technologies of the receiver, are then subsequently converted to a RGB color space using standardized algorithms. When transmitted directly through the Internet, the colors are typically pre-converted to 8-bit RGB channels for additional storage savings with the assumption that it will only be viewed only on a (sRGB) computer screen. As an added benefit to the original broadcasters, the losses of the pre-conversion essentially make these files unsuitable for professional TV re-broadcasting.


title: High-definition television

text: Most HDTV systems support resolutions and frame rates defined either in the ATSC table 3, or in EBU specification. The most common are noted below.


title: High-definition television

text: At a minimum, HDTV has twice the linear resolution of standard-definition television (SDTV), thus showing greater detail than either analog television or regular DVD. The technical standards for broadcasting HDTV also handle the 16:9 aspect ratio images without using letterboxing or anamorphic stretching, thus increasing the effective image resolution.


title: High-definition television

text: A very high-resolution source may require more bandwidth than available in order to be transmitted without loss of fidelity. The lossy compression that is used in all digital HDTV storage and transmission systems will distort the received picture when compared to the uncompressed source.


title: High-definition television

text: The optimum format for a broadcast depends upon the type of videographic recording medium used and the image's characteristics. For best fidelity to the source, the transmitted field ratio, lines, and frame rate should match those of the source.


title: High-definition television

text: PAL, SECAM and NTSC frame rates technically apply only to analogue standard-definition television, not to digital or high definition broadcasts. However, with the rollout of digital broadcasting, and later HDTV broadcasting, countries retained their heritage systems. HDTV in former PAL and SECAM countries operates at a frame rate of 25/50 Hz, while HDTV in former NTSC countries operates at 30/60 Hz.


title: High-definition television

text: High-definition image sources include terrestrial broadcast, direct broadcast satellite, digital cable, IPTV, Blu-ray video disc (BD), and internet downloads.


title: High-definition television

text: In the US, residents in the line of sight of television station broadcast antennas can receive free, over-the-air programming with a television set with an ATSC tuner via a TV aerial. Laws prohibit homeowners' associations and city government from banning the installation of antennas.


title: High-definition television

text: Standard 35mm photographic film used for cinema projection has a much higher image resolution than HDTV systems, and is exposed and projected at a rate of 24 frames per second (frame/s). To be shown on standard television, in PAL-system countries, cinema film is scanned at the TV rate of 25 frame/s, causing a speedup of 4.1 percent, which is generally considered acceptable. In NTSC-system countries, the TV scan rate of 30 frame/s would cause a perceptible speedup if the same were attempted, and the necessary correction is performed by a technique called : Over each successive pair of film frames, one is held for three video fields (1/20 of a second) and the next is held for two video fields (1/30 of a second), giving a total time for the two frames of 1/12 of a second and thus achieving the correct average film frame rate.


title: High-definition television

text: Non-cinematic HDTV video recordings intended for broadcast are typically recorded either in 720p or 1080i format as determined by the broadcaster. 720p is commonly used for Internet distribution of high-definition video, because most computer monitors operate in progressive-scan mode. 720p also imposes less strenuous storage and decoding requirements compared to both 1080i and 1080p. 1080p/24, 1080i/30, 1080i/25, and 720p/30 is most often used on Blu-ray Disc.


title: High-definition television

text: HDTV can be recorded to D-VHS (Digital-VHS or Data-VHS), W-VHS (analog only), to an HDTV-capable digital video recorder (for example DirecTV's high-definition digital video recorder, Sky HD's set-top box, Dish Network's VIP 622 or VIP 722 high-definition digital video recorder receivers (these set-top boxes allow for HD on the Primary TV and SD on the secondary TV (TV2) without a secondary box on TV2), or TiVo's Series 3 or HD recorders), or an HDTV-ready HTPC. Some cable boxes are capable of receiving or recording two or more broadcasts at a time in HDTV format, and HDTV programming, some included in the monthly cable service subscription price, some for an additional fee, can be played back with the cable company's on-demand feature.


title: High-definition television

text: The massive amount of data storage required to archive uncompressed streams meant that inexpensive uncompressed storage options were not available to the consumer. In 2008, the Hauppauge 1212 Personal Video Recorder was introduced. This device accepts HD content through component video inputs and stores the content in MPEG-2 format in a .ts file or in a Blu-ray-compatible format .m2ts file on the hard drive or DVD burner of a computer connected to the PVR through a USB 2.0 interface. More recent systems are able to record a broadcast high definition program in its 'as broadcast' format or transcode to a format more compatible with Blu-ray.


title: High-definition television

text: Analog tape recorders with bandwidth capable of recording analog HD signals, such as W-VHS recorders, are no longer produced for the consumer market and are both expensive and scarce in the secondary market.


title: High-definition television

text: In the United States, as part of the FCC's "plug and play" agreement, cable companies are required to provide customers who rent HD set-top boxes with a set-top box with "functional" FireWire (IEEE 1394) on request. None of the direct broadcast satellite providers have offered this feature on any of their supported boxes, but some cable TV companies have. , boxes are not included in the FCC mandate. This content is protected by encryption known as 5C. This encryption can prevent duplication of content or simply limit the number of copies permitted, thus effectively denying most if not all fair use of the content.


title: Ralph Nader

text: Ralph Nader (; born February 27, 1934) is an American political activist, author, lecturer, and attorney noted for his involvement in consumer protection, environmentalism, and government reform causes.


title: Ralph Nader

text: The son of Lebanese immigrants to the United States, Nader attended Princeton University and Harvard Law School. He first came to prominence in 1965 with the publication of the bestselling book "Unsafe at Any Speed", a highly influential critique of the safety record of American automobile manufacturers. Following the publication of "Unsafe at Any Speed", Nader led a group of volunteer law students—dubbed "Nader's Raiders"—in an investigation of the Federal Trade Commission, leading directly to that agency's overhaul and reform. In the 1970s, Nader leveraged his growing popularity to establish a number of advocacy and watchdog groups including the Public Interest Research Group, the Center for Auto Safety, and Public Citizen. Two of Nader's most notable targets were the Chevy Corvair and the Ford Pinto.


title: Ralph Nader

text: Nader made four bids to become President of the United States, running with the Green Party in 1996 and 2000, the Reform Party in 2004, and as an independent in 2008. In each campaign, Nader said he sought to highlight under-reported issues and a perceived need for electoral reform. He received nearly three million votes during his 2000 candidacy, but also stirred controversy over allegations that his campaign helped Republican candidate George W. Bush win a close election against Democratic candidate Al Gore.


title: Ralph Nader

text: A two-time Nieman Fellow, Nader is the author or co-author of more than two dozen books and was the subject of a documentary film on his life and work, "An Unreasonable Man", which debuted at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. He has been repeatedly named to lists of the "100 Most Influential Americans", including those published by "Life", "Time", and "The Atlantic". "The New York Times" described him as a "dissident".


title: Ralph Nader

text: Ralph Nader was born on February 27, 1934, in Winsted, Connecticut, to Rose (née Bouziane) and Nathra Nader, both of whom were Melkite Antiochian Greek Orthodox Christian immigrants from Mount Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley in Southeastern Lebanon. After settling in Connecticut, Nathra Nader worked in a textile mill before opening a bakery and restaurant. Ralph Nader occasionally helped at his father's restaurant, as well as worked as a newspaper delivery boy for the local paper, the Winsted "Register Citizen". Nader graduated from The Gilbert School in 1951, going on to attend Princeton University. Though he was offered a scholarship to Princeton, his father forced him to decline it on the grounds that the family was able to pay Nader's tuition and the funds should go to a student who could not afford it. Nader graduated "magna cum laude" and Phi Beta Kappa with a Bachelor of Arts from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 1955 after completing a senior thesis titled "Lebanese Agriculture".


title: Ralph Nader

text: After graduating from Princeton, Nader began studying at Harvard Law School, though he quickly became bored by his courses. While at Harvard, Nader would frequently skip classes to hitchhike across the U.S. where he would engage in field research on Native American issues and migrant worker rights. He earned a LL.B. from Harvard in 1958. Nader identified with libertarian philosophy in his youth, but gradually shifted away in his early 20s. Although Nader acknowledged that he "didn't like public housing because it disadvantaged landlords unfairly", his viewpoint changed when he "saw the slums and what landlords did". After graduating from Harvard, Nader served in the U.S. Army as a cook and was posted to Fort Dix.


title: Ralph Nader

text: In 1959, Nader was admitted to the bar and began practice as a lawyer in Hartford, Connecticut, while also lecturing at the University of Hartford and traveling to the Soviet Union, Chile, and Cuba, where he filed dispatches for the "Christian Science Monitor" and "The Nation". In 1964, he moved to Washington, D.C., taking a position as a consultant to Assistant Secretary of Labor Daniel Patrick Moynihan.


title: Ralph Nader

text: Nader was first propelled into the national spotlight with the 1965 publication of his journalistic exposé "Unsafe at Any Speed". Though he had previously expressed an interest in issues of automobile safety while a law student, "Unsafe at Any Speed" presented a critical dissection of the automotive industry by claiming that many American automobiles were generally unsafe to operate. Nader researched case files from more than 100 lawsuits then pending against General Motors' Chevrolet Corvair to support his assertions.


title: Ralph Nader

text: The book became an immediate bestseller, but also prompted a vicious backlash from General Motors (GM) who attempted to discredit Nader by tapping his phone in an attempt to uncover salacious information and, when that failed, hiring prostitutes in an attempt to catch him in a compromising situation. Nader, by then working as an unpaid consultant to United States Senator Abe Ribicoff, reported to the senator that he suspected he was being followed. Ribicoff convened an inquiry that called GM CEO James Roche who admitted, when placed under oath, that the company had hired a private detective agency to investigate Nader. Nader sued GM for invasion of privacy, settling the case for $425,000 and using the proceeds to found the activist organization known as the Center for the Study of Responsive Law.


title: Ralph Nader

text: A year following the publication of "Unsafe at Any Speed", Congress unanimously enacted the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act. Speaker of the United States House of Representatives John William McCormack said the passage of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act was due to the "crusading spirit of one individual who believed he could do something: Ralph Nader".


title: Ralph Nader

text: In 1968, Nader recruited seven volunteer law students, dubbed "Nader's Raiders" by the Washington press corps, to evaluate the efficacy and operation of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The group's ensuing report, which criticized the body as "ineffective" and "passive" led to an American Bar Association investigation of the FTC. Based on the results of that second study, Richard Nixon revitalized the agency and sent it on a path of vigorous consumer protection and antitrust enforcement for the rest of the 1970s.


title: Ralph Nader

text: Following the publication of the report, Nader founded the watchdog group Public Citizen in 1971 to engage in public interest lobbying and activism on issues of consumer rights. He also served on its board of directors until 1980.


title: Ralph Nader

text: By the early 1970s Nader had established himself as a household name. In a critical memo written by Lewis Powell to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Powell warned business representatives that Nader "has become a legend in his own time and an idol of millions of Americans".


title: Ralph Nader

text: Ralph Nader's name appeared in the press as a potential candidate for president for the first time in 1971, when he was offered the opportunity to run as the presidential candidate for the New Party, a progressive split-off from the Democratic Party. Chief among his advocates was author Gore Vidal, who touted a 1972 Nader presidential campaign in a front-page article in "Esquire" magazine in 1971.<ref name="The Best Man/'72">Vidal, Gore The Best Man/'72 , "Esquire"</ref> Nader declined the advances.


title: Ralph Nader

text: In 1973, Ralph Nader was plaintiff in the case against acting attorney general Robert Bork, who under orders of President Richard Nixon had fired special prosecutor Archibald Cox in the so-called Saturday Night Massacre, an action that was ultimately ruled illegal by federal judge Gerhard Gesell.


title: Ralph Nader

text: In the 1970s, Nader turned his attention to environmental activism, becoming a key leader in the antinuclear power movement, described by one observer as the "titular head of opposition to nuclear energy". The Critical Mass Energy Project was formed by Nader in 1974 as a national anti-nuclear umbrella group, growing to become the largest national anti-nuclear group in the United States, with several hundred local affiliates and an estimated 200,000 supporters. The organization's main efforts were directed at lobbying activities and providing local groups with scientific and other resources to campaign against nuclear power.


title: Ralph Nader

text: Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, through his ongoing work with Public Citizen, Nader continued to be involved in issues of consumer rights and public accountability. His work testifying before Congress, drafting model legislation, and organizing citizen letter-writing and protest efforts, earned him direct credit for the enactment of the Freedom of Information Act, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Clean Water Act, Consumer Product Safety Act, and Whistleblower Protection Act.


title: Ralph Nader

text: In the late 1990s, Nader would accuse Microsoft of being a monopoly. He would organize a conference featuring Microsoft's critics from the tech world.


title: Ralph Nader

text: In 1999, Nader was unsuccessfully approached by Nike to appear in an advertisement. The firm offered Nader $25,000 to say "another shameless attempt by Nike to sell shoes" while holding Air 120 sneakers. After Nader turned down the offer, the corporation hired filmmaker Spike Lee.


title: Ralph Nader

text: Ralph Nader's name appeared in the press as a potential candidate for president for the first time in 1971, when he was offered the opportunity to run as the presidential candidate for the New Party, a progressive split-off from the Democratic Party in 1972. Chief among his advocates was author Gore Vidal, who touted a 1972 Nader presidential campaign in a front-page article in "Esquire" magazine in 1971. Psychologist Alan Rockway organized a "draft Ralph Nader for President" campaign in Florida on the New Party's behalf. Nader declined their offer to run that year; the New Party ultimately joined with the People's Party in running Benjamin Spock in the 1972 presidential election. Spock had hoped Nader in particular would run, getting "some of the loudest applause of the evening" when mentioning him at the University of Alabama. Spock went on to try to recruit Nader for the party among over 100 others, and indicated he would be "delighted" to be replaced by any of them even after he accepted the nomination himself. Nader received one vote for the vice-presidential nomination at the 1972 Democratic National Convention.


title: Ralph Nader

text: In the 1980 Presidential Election, the progressive oriented Citizens Party approached Nader with the prospect of running as their Presidential Nominee. Nader declined their offer stating "I will never run for president". The party ended up nominating biologist Barry Commoner instead.


title: Ralph Nader

text: Nader stood in as a write-in for "none of the above" in both the 1992 New Hampshire Democratic and Republican Primaries and received 3,054 of the 170,333 Democratic votes and 3,258 of the 177,970 Republican votes cast. He was also a candidate in the 1992 Massachusetts Democratic Primary, where he appeared at the top of the ballot (in some areas, he appeared on the ballot as an independent).


title: Ralph Nader

text: Nader was drafted as a candidate for President of the United States on the Green Party ticket during the 1996 presidential election. He was not formally nominated by the Green Party USA, which was, at the time, the largest national Green group; instead he was nominated independently by various state Green parties (in some states, he appeared on the ballot as an independent). However, many activists in the Green Party USA worked actively to campaign for Nader that year. Nader qualified for ballot status in 22 states, garnering 685,297 votes or 0.71% of the popular vote (fourth place overall), although the effort did make significant organizational gains for the party. He refused to raise or spend more than $5,000 on his campaign, presumably to avoid meeting the threshold for Federal Elections Commission reporting requirements; the unofficial Draft Nader committee could (and did) spend more than that, but the committee was legally prevented from coordinating in any way with Nader himself.


title: Ralph Nader

text: Nader received some criticism from gay rights supporters for calling gay rights "gonadal politics" and stating that he was not interested in dealing with such matters. In July 2004, however, he publicly stated that he supported same-sex marriage.


title: Ralph Nader

text: His 1996 running mates included: Anne Goeke (nine states), Deborah Howes (Oregon), Muriel Tillinghast (New York), Krista Paradise (Colorado), Madelyn Hoffman (New Jersey), Bill Boteler (Washington, D.C.), and Winona LaDuke (California and Texas).


title: Ralph Nader

text: In the 2006 documentary "An Unreasonable Man", Nader describes how he was unable to get the views of his public interest groups heard in Washington, even by the Clinton Administration. Nader cites this as one of the primary reasons that he decided to actively run in the 2000 election as candidate of the Green Party, which had been formed in the wake of his 1996 campaign.


title: Ralph Nader

text: In June 2000, The Association of State Green Parties (ASGP) organized the national nominating convention that took place in Denver, Colorado, at which Green Party delegates nominated Ralph Nader and Winona LaDuke to be their party's candidates for president and vice president.


title: Ralph Nader

text: On July 9, the Vermont Progressive Party nominated Nader, giving him ballot access in the state. On August 12, the United Citizens Party of South Carolina chose Ralph Nader as its presidential nominee, giving him a ballot line in the state.


title: Ralph Nader

text: In October 2000, at the largest Super Rally of his campaign, held in New York City's Madison Square Garden, 15,000 people paid $20 each to hear Nader speak. Nader's campaign rejected both parties as institutions dominated by corporate interests, stating that Al Gore and George W. Bush were "Tweedledee and Tweedledum". A long list of notable celebrities spoke and performed at the event including Susan Sarandon, Ani DiFranco, Ben Harper, Tim Robbins, Michael Moore, Eddie Vedder and Patti Smith. The campaign also had some prominent union help: The California Nurses Association and the United Electrical Workers endorsed his candidacy and campaigned for him.


title: Ralph Nader

text: Nader and LaDuke received 2,883,105 votes, for 2.74 percent of the popular vote (third place overall), missing the 5 percent needed to qualify the Green Party for federally distributed public funding in the next election, yet qualifying the party for ballot status in many states.


title: Ralph Nader

text: Nader often openly expressed his hope for Bush's victory over Gore, saying it "would mobilize us", and that environmental and consumer regulatory agencies would fare better under Bush than Gore. When asked which of the two he'd vote for if forced, Nader answered "Bush ... If you want the parties to diverge from one another, have Bush win." As to whether he would feel regret if he caused Gore's defeat, Nader replied "I would not—not at all. I'd rather have a provocateur than an anesthetizer in the White House." On another occasion, Nader answered this question with: "No, not at all ... There may be a cold shower for four years that would help the Democratic Party ... It doesn't matter who is in the White House."


title: Ralph Nader

text: In the 2000 presidential election in Florida, George W. Bush defeated Al Gore by 537 votes. Nader received votes, which led to claims that he was responsible for Gore's defeat. Nader disputes that he helped Bush to win. A 2003 study found that Nader's candidacy was a critical factor in Bush's victory. A 2004 study found that Nader voters had the profile of likely voters with a preference for Democratic candidates. They were therefore likely to vote for Gore over Bush in the absence of Nader's candidacy.


title: Ralph Nader

text: A study by Harvard Professor B.C. Burden in 2005 showed Nader did "play a pivotal role in determining who would become president following the 2000 election", but that:


title: Ralph Nader

text: However, Jonathan Chait of "The American Prospect" and "The New Republic" notes that Nader did indeed focus on swing states disproportionately during the waning days of the campaign, and by doing so jeopardized his own chances of achieving the 5% of the vote he was aiming for.


title: Ralph Nader

text: Then there was the debate within the Nader campaign over where to travel in the waning days of the campaign. Some Nader advisers urged him to spend his time in uncontested states such as New York and California. These states – where liberals and leftists could entertain the thought of voting Nader without fear of aiding Bush – offered the richest harvest of potential votes. But, Martin writes, Nader – who emerges from this account as the house radical of his own campaign – insisted on spending the final days of the campaign on a whirlwind tour of battleground states such as Pennsylvania and Florida. In other words, he chose to go where the votes were scarcest, jeopardizing his own chances of winning 5 percent of the vote, which he needed to gain federal funds in 2004.


title: Ralph Nader

text: When Nader, in a letter to environmentalists, attacked Gore for "his role as broker of environmental voters for corporate cash," and "the prototype for the bankable, Green corporate politician," and what he called a string of broken promises to the environmental movement, Sierra Club president Carl Pope sent an open letter to Nader, dated October 27, 2000, defending Al Gore's environmental record and calling Nader's strategy "irresponsible." He wrote:


title: Ralph Nader

text: You have also broken your word to your followers who signed the petitions that got you on the ballot in many states. You pledged you would not campaign as a spoiler and would avoid the swing states. Your recent campaign rhetoric and campaign schedule make it clear that you have broken this pledge ... Please accept that I, and the overwhelming majority of the environmental movement in this country, genuinely believe that your strategy is flawed, dangerous and reckless.


title: Ralph Nader

text: Nader announced on December 24, 2003, that he would not seek the Green Party's nomination for president in 2004, but did not rule out running as an independent candidate.


title: Ralph Nader

text: Ralph Nader and Democratic candidate John Kerry held a widely publicized meeting early in the 2004 presidential campaign. Nader said that John Kerry wanted to work to win Nader's support and the support of Nader's voters, prompting Nader to provide Kerry more than 20 pages of issues that he felt were important. According to Nader, he asked John Kerry to choose any three of the issues and highlight them in his campaign; should Kerry meet these conditions Nader would not contest the election. On February 22, 2004, having not heard back from Kerry, Nader announced that he would run for president as an independent.


title: Ralph Nader

text: Due to concerns about a possible spoiler effect, many Democrats urged Nader to abandon his 2004 candidacy. Terry McAuliffe stated that Nader had a "distinguished career, fighting for working families", and that McAuliffe "would hate to see part of his legacy being that he got us eight years of George Bush". Theresa Amato, Nader's national campaign manager in 2000 and 2004, later alleged that McAuliffe offered to pay-off Nader if he would not campaign in certain states, an allegation confirmed by Nader and undisputed by McAuliffe.


title: Ralph Nader

text: Nader received 463,655 votes, for 0.38 percent of the popular vote, placing him in third place overall.


title: Ralph Nader

text: In February 2007, Nader criticized Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton as "a panderer and a flatterer," later describing her as someone who had "no political fortitude." During a February 2008 appearance on "Meet the Press", Nader announced his intention to run for president as an independent, later naming Matt Gonzalez as his running-mate. Nader was endorsed by Howard Zinn, Jesse Ventura, Justin Jeffre, Tom Morello, Val Kilmer, Rocky Anderson, James Abourezk, Patti Smith, and Jello Biafra. The Nader campaign raised $8.4 million in campaign funds, primarily from small, individual donations. Nader/Gonzalez earned 738,475 votes and a third-place finish in the 2008 United States presidential election.


title: Ralph Nader

text: Nader condemned the 2011 military intervention in Libya. He branded President Barack Obama as a "war criminal" and called for his impeachment.


title: Ralph Nader

text: In June 2019, Nader, who lost his 24-year-old grandniece in the Ethiopian Airlines crash, claimed that the Boeing 737 Max "must never fly again... it's not a matter of software. It's a matter of structural design defect: the plane's engines are too much for the traditional fuselage". Nader also called for Boeing top leaders to resign and said that the Federal Aviation Administration "has been in the pockets of the Boeing company for years".


title: Ralph Nader

text: In 2002, Nader founded the D.C. Library Renaissance Project, which has sought to halt the development of the West End Library in Washington, D.C., alleging that it "violated affordable housing guidelines, undervalued the land, and didn't conform to the city's Comprehensive Plan." The legal obstacles presented by the Library Renaissance Project have cost the D.C. government over one million dollars in legal fees. Nader has opposed the privatized development of D.C. libraries despite community support, citing a lack of oversight and competitive bidding process.


title: Ralph Nader

text: In 2009 Nader published his first work of fiction, "Only the Super Rich Can Save Us". Many of the characters were fictionalized versions of real-life persons including Ted Turner and Warren Buffett. The book's principal villain, a "conservative evil genius" named Brovar Dortwist, represents Grover Norquist. According to Norquist, Nader had called him prior to the book's publication and said he "wouldn't be too unhappy, because the character was principled".


title: Ralph Nader

text: The novel met with mixed reviews with "The Wall Street Journal" noting that the book "reads less like a novel ... than a dream journal" with a plot that victoriously concludes with "American society thoroughly Naderized", though "The Globe and Mail" called it "a powerful idea by the perfect person at a fortuitous time".


title: Ralph Nader

text: During the 2012 United States presidential election, Nader moderated a debate for third-party candidates at Washington, D.C.'s Busboys and Poets. The debate was attended by Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, Libertarian Gary Johnson, Rocky Anderson of the Justice Party and Constitution Party candidate Virgil Goode. He later moderated a similar debate in a studio appearance broadcast by Russia Today.


title: Ralph Nader

text: Since March 2014, Nader has co-hosted the weekly Ralph Nader Radio Hour, produced at KPFK-FM in Los Angeles and distributed via the Pacifica Radio Network. The program features "interviews with some of the nation's most influential movers and shakers" and discussion of current events. Nader's co-hosts are Steve Skrovan and David Feldman.


title: Ralph Nader

text: In 2015, after a decade planning, Nader founded the American Museum of Tort Law in Winsted, Connecticut. The opening ceremonies were emceed by Phil Donahue. Nader personally donated $150,000 to the establishment of the museum, which was sited on two parcels of land rezoned by the town of Winsted to host it. At the time of its opening, some expressed skepticism that a museum dedicated to tort would have much interest to the general public, though Nader responded that he was "astounded how a country can go over 200 years and not have a law museum".


title: Ralph Nader

text: Nader unsuccessfully sought a seat on the Harvard University Board of Overseers in 2016 as part of an insurgent candidate slate operating under the name "Free Harvard, Fair Harvard" which called for increased transparency by the university as to how it made athletic and legacy admissions decisions. In February of that year he expressed support for Donald Trump making a third-party run for president, saying that such a move might help break-up the two party system.


title: Ralph Nader

text: Nader was raised in the Antiochian Greek Orthodox Church. His siblings are Laura (a professor of social and cultural anthropology at U.C. Berkeley), Claire, and late brother Shafeek.


title: Ralph Nader

text: He has lived in Washington DC since the 1960s, but is domiciled in Connecticut, where he is registered to vote.


title: Ralph Nader

text: In addition to English, Nader also speaks Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, Chinese, and conversational Arabic.


title: Ralph Nader

text: After his older brother Shafeek died of prostate cancer in 1986, Nader developed Bell's palsy, which paralyzed the left side of his mouth for several months. He commented on his partial facial paralysis to audiences during this time with the quip that "at least my opponents can't say I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth."


title: Ralph Nader

text: Nader's grandniece Samya Stumo was among the 157 people killed in the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 in March 2019.


title: Ralph Nader

text: Nader has been described as an "ascetic ... bordering on self-righteous". Despite access to respectable financial assets, he famously lives in a modest apartment and spends $25,000 on personal bills, conducting most of his writing on a typewriter. According to popular accounts of his personal life, he does not own a television, relies primarily on public transportation, and over a 25-year period, until 1983, exclusively wore one of a dozen pairs of shoes he had purchased at a clearance sale in 1959. His suits, which he reports he purchases at sales and outlet stores, have been the repeated subject of public scrutiny, being variously described as "wrinkled", "rumpled", and "styleless". A newspaper story once described Nader as a "conscientious objector to fashion".


title: Ralph Nader

text: Nader has never married. Karen Croft, a writer who worked for Nader in the late 1970s at the Center for Study of Responsive Law, once asked him if he had ever considered marriage, to which he reportedly responded that he had made a choice to dedicate his life to career rather than family.


title: Ralph Nader

text: According to the mandatory fiscal disclosure report that he filed with the Federal Election Commission in 2000, Nader owned more than $3 million worth of stocks and mutual fund shares; his single largest holding was more than $1 million worth of stock in Cisco Systems, Inc. He also held between $100,000 and $250,000 worth of shares in the Magellan Fund.


title: Ralph Nader

text: Nader said he owned no car and owned no real estate directly in 2000, and said that he lived on $25,000 a year, giving most of his stock earnings to many of the over four dozen non-profit organizations he had founded.


title: Ralph Nader

text: Nader owns shares in Amazon and believes the corporation should be paying shareholders a dividend. He also believes that there should be an "antitrust investigation" looking into the company's business practices.


title: Ralph Nader

text: Nader is also an Apple Inc. shareholder. In 2018, he wrote an open letter to Tim Cook criticizing Apple's $100 billion share buyback.


title: Ralph Nader

text: The Steve Skrovan documentary film "An Unreasonable Man" is about the life of Ralph Nader and uses both archival footage and original interviews. It debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006.


title: Ralph Nader

text: Nader was featured on the cover of the January 22, 1968, issue of "Newsweek"; the December 12, 1969, issue of "Time"; the June 1971 issue of "Esquire"; and the August 2016 issue of "Pacific Standard".


title: Ralph Nader

text: Nader has been a guest on multiple episodes of "Saturday Night Live", "Real Time with Bill Maher", "The Daily Show", "The O'Reilly Factor", "Meet the Press", "Democracy Now!", and "The Late Show with David Letterman". In 2003 he appeared on "Da Ali G Show" and, in 2008, was interviewed by Triumph the Insult Comic Dog on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien".


title: Ralph Nader

text: In 1988, Nader appeared on "Sesame Street" as "a person in your neighborhood", the episode also featuring Barbara Walters and Martina Navratilova. Nader's appearance on the show was memorable because it was the only time that the grammar of the last line of the song "a person that you meet each day" was questioned and changed. Nader refused to sing a line which he deemed grammatically improper, so a compromise was reached by which Nader sang the last line solo, with the modified words: "a person "whom" you meet each day."


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Generally, membership in a fraternity or sorority is obtained as an undergraduate student, but continues thereafter for life. Some accept graduate students as well.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Individual fraternities and sororities vary in organization and purpose, but most share five common elements:


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Fraternities and sororities engage in philanthropic activities, host parties, provide "finishing" training for new members such as instruction on etiquette, dress and manners, and create networking opportunities for their newly graduated members.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Fraternities and sororities have been widely criticized for practicing elitism and favoritism, discriminating against non-white students and other marginalized groups, conducting dangerous hazing rituals, and facilitating alcohol abuse. Fraternities specifically have been further criticized for encouraging misogynistic behavior and perpetrating sexual violence. Many colleges and universities have sought to reform or eliminate them due to these concerns, but these efforts have typically been met with intense controversy.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: The first fraternity in North America to incorporate most of the elements of modern fraternities was Phi Beta Kappa, founded at the College of William and Mary in 1775. The founding of Phi Beta Kappa followed the earlier establishment of two other secret student societies that had existed at that campus as early as 1750. In 1779 Phi Beta Kappa expanded to include chapters at Harvard and Yale. By the early 19th century, the organization transformed itself into a scholastic honor society and abandoned secrecy.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: In 1825, Kappa Alpha Society, the first fraternity to retain its social characteristic, was established at Union College. In 1827, Sigma Phi and Delta Phi were also founded at the same institution, creating the Union Triad. The further birthing of Psi Upsilon (1833), Chi Psi (1841) and Theta Delta Chi (1847) collectively established Union College as the Mother of Fraternities.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: The social fraternity Chi Phi, officially formed in 1854, traces its roots to a short-lived organization founded at Princeton in 1824 bearing the same name.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Fraternities represented the intersection between dining clubs, literary societies and secret initiatory orders such as Freemasonry. Their early growth was widely opposed by university administrators, though the increasing influence of fraternity alumni, as well as several high-profile court cases, succeeded in largely muting opposition by the 1880s. The first fraternity meeting hall, or lodge, seems to have been that of the Alpha Epsilon chapter of Chi Psi at the University of Michigan in 1845, leading to a tradition in that fraternity to name its buildings "lodges". As fraternity membership was punishable by expulsion at many colleges at this time, the house was located deep in the woods. The first residential chapter home, built by a fraternity, is believed to have been Alpha Delta Phi's chapter at Cornell University, with groundbreaking dated to 1878. Alpha Tau Omega became the first fraternity to own a residential house in the South when, in 1880, its chapter at the University of the South acquired one. Chapters of many fraternities followed suit, purchasing and, less often, building them with support of alumni. Phi Sigma Kappa's chapter home at Cornell, completed in 1902, is the oldest such house still occupied by its fraternal builders.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Sororities (originally termed "women's fraternities") began to develop in 1851 with the formation of the Adelphean Society Alpha Delta Pi, though fraternity-like organizations for women didn't take their current form until the establishment of Pi Beta Phi in 1867 and Kappa Alpha Theta in 1870. The term "sorority" was used by a professor of Latin at Syracuse University, Dr. Frank Smalley, who felt the word "fraternity" was inappropriate for a group of ladies. The word comes from Latin "soror", meaning "sister," "cousin, daughter of a father's brother," or "female friend." The first organization to use the term "sorority" was Gamma Phi Beta, established in 1874.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: The development of "fraternities for women" during this time was a major accomplishment in the way of women's rights and equality. By mere existence, these organizations were defying the odds; the founding women were able to advance their organizations despite many factors working against them. The first "Women's Fraternities" not only had to overcome "restrictive social customs, unequal status under the law and the underlying presumption that they were less able than men," but at the same time had to deal with the same challenges as fraternities with college administrations. Today, both social and multicultural sororities are present on more than 650 college campuses across the United States and Canada. The National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) serves as the "umbrella organization" for 26 (inter)national sororities. Founded in 1902, the NPC is one of the oldest and largest women's membership organizations, representing more than 4 million women at 655 college/university campuses and 4,500 local alumnae chapters in the U.S. and Canada.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: In 1867, the Chi Phi fraternity established its Theta chapter at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, marking the first foray of the American social fraternity outside the borders of the United States. At the time, many students from the American south were moving to Europe to study because of the disrepair southern universities fell into during the American Civil War. One such group of Americans organized Chi Phi at Edinburgh; however, during the Theta chapter's existence, it initiated no non-American members. With declining American enrollment at European universities, Chi Phi at Edinburgh closed in 1870.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Nine years following Chi Phi's abortive colonization of the University of Edinburgh, a second attempt was made to transplant the fraternity system outside the United States. In 1879, Zeta Psi established a chapter at the University of Toronto. Zeta Psi's success at Toronto prompted it to open a second Canadian chapter at McGill University, which it chartered in 1883. Other early foundations were Kappa Alpha Society at Toronto in 1892 and at McGill in 1899, and Alpha Delta Phi at Toronto in 1893 and at McGill in 1897. The first sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta, was established at Toronto in 1887. By 1927 there were 42 fraternity and sorority chapters at the University of Toronto and of 23 at McGill University. A few chapters were also reported at the University of British Columbia, Carleton University, Dalhousie University, University of Manitoba, Queen's University, University of Western Ontario, Wilfrid Laurier University, University of Waterloo and Brock University.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: The arrival of the fraternity system in Asia accompanied the introduction of the American educational system in the Philippines. The first fraternities were established in the University of the Philippines. The now defunct Patriotic and Progressive Rizal Center Academic Brotherhood (Rizal Center Fraternity), a brotherhood of Jose Rizal followers, was founded in 1913. This was followed by the Rizal Center Sorority. The first Greek-letter organization and fraternity in Asia, the Upsilon Sigma Phi, was founded in 1918. The first Greek-letter sorority, UP Sigma Beta Sorority, was recognized in 1932.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Many early fraternities made reference to Christian principles or to a Supreme Being in general, as is characteristic of fraternal orders. Some, such as Alpha Chi Rho (1895) and Alpha Kappa Lambda (1907), only admitted Christians, while others, such as Beta Sigma Psi (1925) and Phi Kappa Theta (1959), catered to students belonging with certain denominations of Christianity, such as Lutheranism and Catholicism.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Due to their exclusion from Christian fraternities in the United States, Jewish students began to establish their own fraternities in the period of 1895 and 1920, with the first one being Zeta Beta Tau (1898).


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Although many of the religion-specific requirements for many fraternities and sororities have been relaxed or removed, there are some today that continue to rally around their faith as a focal point, such as Beta Upsilon Chi (1985) and Sigma Alpha Omega (1998).


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Numerous Greek organizations in the past have enacted formal and informal prohibitions on pledging individuals of different races and cultural backgrounds. This began with White fraternities and sororities excluding African-Americans due to racism. All-black fraternities and sororities were spearheaded thereafter in response.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: While racist policies have since been abolished by the North American Interfraternity Conference, students of various ethnicities have come together to form a council of multicultural Greek organizations. The National Multicultural Greek Council, officially formed in 1998, is a coordinating body of 19 Greek organizations, including nine fraternities, and ten sororities with cultural affiliations.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: The first multicultural sorority, Mu Sigma Upsilon, was established in November 1981 at Rutgers University. The formation of this Greek organization allowed for the emergence of a multicultural fraternity and sorority movement, giving birth to a multicultural movement.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Fraternities and sororities traditionally have been single-sex organizations, with fraternities consisting exclusively of men and sororities consisting exclusively of women. In the United States, fraternities and sororities have a statutory exemption from Title IX legislation prohibiting this type of gender exclusion within student groups, and organizations such as the Fraternity and Sorority Political Action Committee lobby to maintain it.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Since the mid-20th century a small number of fraternities, such as Alpha Theta, Lambda Lambda Lambda, and Alpha Phi Omega have opted to become co-educational and admit female members; however, these generally represent a minority of Greek-letter organizations and no such fraternity is currently a member of the North American Interfraternity Conference, the largest international association of fraternities. The first coed fraternity was Pi Alpha Tau (1963–1991) at the University of Illinois at Chicago.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Much more commonly, coed fraternities exist in the form of "service" fraternities such as Alpha Phi Omega, Epsilon Sigma Alpha, Alpha Tau Mu and others. These organizations are similar to "social" fraternities and sororities, with the exception of being coed and non-residential.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: In 2014, Sigma Phi Epsilon became the first fraternity in the North American Interfraternity Conference to accept transgender members, or those identifying as male, to join the social fraternity. Several sororities have adjusted their policies to confirm that transgender prospective members are allowable.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Importantly, all these variants have stemmed from a process of "self-determination," without challenge by other Greeks. But in a bellwether case, in 2016 Harvard University changed its student conduct code to bar members of single-sex groups from leading campus groups, serving as captains of sports teams or participating in valuable academic fellowships. This is being contested vigorously in U.S. Federal Court by several affected fraternities and sororities.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Individual chapters of fraternities and sororities are largely self-governed by their active (student) members; however, alumni members may retain legal ownership of the fraternity or sorority's property through an alumni chapter or alumni corporation. All of a single fraternity or sorority's chapters are generally grouped together in a national or international organization that sets standards, regulates insignia and ritual, publishes a journal or magazine for all of the chapters of the organization, and has the power to grant and revoke charters to chapters. These federal structures are largely governed by alumni members of the fraternity, though with some input from the active (student) members.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Most Greek letter organizations select potential members through a two-part process of vetting and probation, called rushing and pledging, respectively. During rush (recruitment), students attend designated social events, and sometimes formal interviews, hosted by the chapters of fraternities and sororities in which they have particular interest. Usually, after a potential new member has attended several such events, officers or current members meet privately to vote on whether or not to extend an invitation (known as a "bid") to the prospective applicant. Those applicants who receive a bid, and choose to accept it, are considered to have "pledged" the fraternity or sorority, thus beginning the pledge period (new member period). Students participating in rush are known as "rushees" (Potential New Members "PNMs") while students who have accepted a bid to a specific fraternity or sorority are known as "new members" or in some cases "pledges".


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: A new member period may last anywhere from one weekend to several months. During this time, new members might participate in almost all aspects of the life of the fraternity or sorority, but most likely not be permitted to hold office in the organization. At the conclusion of the new member period, a second vote of members may sometimes be taken, often, but not always, using a blackball system. New members who pass this second vote are invited to a formal and secret ritual of initiation into the organization, advancing them to full membership.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Many Greek-letter organizations give preferential consideration for pledging to candidates whose parent or sibling was a member of the same fraternity or sorority. Such prospective candidates are known as "legacies".


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Membership in more than one fraternity or sorority is almost always prohibited. Recently, some Greek-letter organizations have replaced the term "pledge" with that of "associate member" or "new member". Sigma Alpha Epsilon, in 2014, abolished pledging altogether. Potential members are now immediately initiated into the fraternity upon accepting a bid.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Unique among most campus organizations, members of social Greek letter organizations often live together in a large house (generally privately owned by the fraternity itself, or by the fraternity's alumni association) or a distinct part of the university dormitories. A single undergraduate fraternity chapter may be composed of anywhere between 20 and more than 100 students, though most have between 35 and 45 members and pledges. Often fraternities and sorority houses (called lodges or chapter houses) are located on the same street or in close quarters within the same neighborhood, which may be colloquially known as "Greek row" or "frat row". At some, often small, colleges, fraternities and sororities occupy a specific section of university-owned housing provided to them. Some fraternities and sororities are un-housed, with members providing for their own accommodations. In many of these cases, the fraternity or sorority owns or rents a non-residential clubhouse to use for meetings and other activities.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: With a few exceptions, most fraternities and sororities are secret societies. While the identity of members or officers is rarely concealed, fraternities and sororities initiate members following the pledge period through sometimes elaborate private rituals, frequently drawn or adopted from Masonic ritual practice or that of the Greek mysteries.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: At the conclusion of an initiation ritual, the organization's secret motto, secret purpose and secret identification signs, such as handshakes and passwords, are usually revealed to its new members. Some fraternities also teach initiates an identity search device used to confirm fellow fraternity members.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Julian Hawthorne, the son of Nathaniel Hawthorne, wrote (in his posthumously published "Memoirs") of his initiation into Delta Kappa Epsilon:


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: I was initiated into a college secret society—a couple of hours of grotesque and good-humored rodomontade and horseplay, in which I cooperated as in a kind of pleasant nightmare, confident, even when branded with a red-hot iron or doused head-over heels in boiling oil, that it would come out all right. The neophyte is effectively blindfolded during the proceedings, and at last, still sightless, I was led down flights of steps into a silent crypt, and helped into a coffin, where I was to stay until the Resurrection...Thus it was that just as my father passed from this earth, I was lying in a coffin during my initiation into Delta Kappa Epsilon.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Meetings and rituals are sometimes conducted in what is known as a "chapter room" located inside the fraternity's house. Entry into chapter rooms is often prohibited to all but the initiated. In one extreme case, the response of firefighters to a blaze signaled by an automated alarm at the Sigma Phi chapter house at the University of Wisconsin in 2003 was hampered in part because fraternity members refused to disclose the location of the hidden chapter room, where the conflagration had erupted, to emergency responders.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: According to Assistant Professor Caroline Rolland-Diamond of the Paris West University Nanterre La Défense, in one ritual popular in the 1960s, born out of frustration to the ubiquitous nascent counterculture, "The men were stripped to their underpants, tied up to a tree, and covered in a nasty mix of food and leaves, remaining there until their fiancées came to free them with a kiss."


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: The fraternity or sorority badge is an enduring symbol of membership in a Greek letter organization. Most fraternities also have assumed heraldic achievements. Members of fraternities and sororities address members of the same organization as "brother" (in the case of fraternities) or "sister" (in the case of sororities). The names of almost all fraternities and sororities consist of a sequence of two or three Greek letters, for instance, Delta Delta Delta, Sigma Chi, Chi Omega, or Psi Upsilon. There are a few exceptions to this general rule, as in the case of the fraternities Triangle, Acacia, and Seal and Serpent.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: There are approximately 9 million student and alumni members of fraternities and sororities in North America, or about 3 percent of the total population. Roughly 750,000 of the current fraternity and sorority members are students who belong to an undergraduate chapter.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: A 2007 survey conducted at Princeton University showed that white and higher income Princeton students are much more likely than other Princeton students to be in fraternities and sororities. Senior surveys from the classes of 2009 and 2010 showed that 77 percent of sorority members and 73 percent of fraternity members were white.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Since 1900, 63 percent of members of the United States cabinet have been members of fraternities and sororities, and the current chief executive officers of five of the ten largest Fortune 500 companies are members of fraternities and sororities. In addition, 85 percent of all justices of the U.S. Supreme Court since 1910 have been members of fraternities. U.S. presidents since World War II who have been initiated into fraternities are George W. Bush, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, and Franklin Roosevelt. Three Prime Ministers of Canada have been members of fraternities.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: In 2013, about 25 percent of members of the U.S. House of Representatives and 40 percent of members of the U.S. Senate were members of Greek-letter organizations.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Actress Sophia Bush was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma at the University of Southern California and has since gone on to further her career in television and receive the Human Rights Campaign's Ally for Equality Award. Other notable sorority women include Mariska Hargitay, who is an actress and founder of the Joyful Heart Foundation.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Studies have found that university graduation rates are 20 percent higher among members of Greek-letter organizations than among non-members, and students who are members of fraternities and sororities typically have higher-than-average grade point averages. One reason for this is many chapters require their members to maintain a certain academic standard.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Each organization requires its members to maintain a minimum GPA in order to continue their membership. Greek members who maintain high GPA's are invited to join notable Greek honor societies. The two most notable Greek honor societies include: Gamma Sigma Alpha and Order of Omega. Gamma Sigma Alpha acknowledges Greek members who hold a 3.5 GPA in upper division classes. Order of Omega recognizes the top 3% of Greek members who exemplify leadership qualities. Greek honor societies provide life-time membership with opportunities such as scholarships and networking.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: There is a high representation of former Greek life members among certain elites in the United States. Greek members "are more likely to be thriving in their well-being and engaged at work than college graduates who did not go Greek," according to a study done by Gallup and Purdue University.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: A 2014 Gallup survey of 30,000 university alumni found that persons who said they had been members of Greek-letter organizations while undergraduates reported having a greater sense of purpose, as well as better social and physical well-being, than those who had not.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Greek letter organizations have often been characterized as elitist or exclusionary associations, organized for the benefit of a largely white, upper-class membership base. Members of fraternities and sororities disproportionately come from certain socio-economic demographics. Fraternities specifically have been criticized for what is perceived as their promotion of an excessively alcohol-fueled, party-focused lifestyle.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: "New York Times" columnist Frank Bruni questioned the existence of exclusive clubs on campuses that are meant to facilitate independence, writing: "[Colleges] should be cultivating the kind of sensibility that makes you a better citizen of a diverse and distressingly fractious society. How is that served by retreating into an exclusionary clique of people just like you?"


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Some colleges and universities have banned Greek letter organizations on the grounds that they are, by their very nature and structure, elitist and exclusionary. The oldest ban was at Princeton, though Princeton has now had fraternities since the 1980s. Oberlin College banned "secret societies" (fraternities and sororities) in 1847, and the prohibition continues to the present. Quaker universities, such as Guilford College and Earlham College, often ban fraternities and sororities because they are seen as a violation of the Quaker principle of equality. Brandeis University has never permitted fraternities or sororities as it maintains a policy that all student organizations have membership open to all.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: One Harvard University study found that "4 out of 5 fraternity and sorority members are binge drinkers. In comparison, other research suggests 2 out of 5 college students overall are regular binge drinkers." There is also a high rate of alcohol-related death among fraternities, which has recently resulted in several lawsuits against various GLOs.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Fraternities, and to a lesser extent sororities, have been criticized for hazing, sometimes committed by active undergraduate members against their chapter's pledges. Hazing during the pledge period can sometimes culminate in an event commonly known as "Hell Week" in which a week-long series of physical and mental torments are inflicted on pledges. Common hazing practices include sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation, paddling and other types of spanking, use of stress positions, forced runs, busy work, forced drinking and mind games. Rarer incidents involving branding, enemas, urination on pledges and the forced consumption of spoiled food have been reported. Hazing, in many cases, has been reported and has led to the permanent disposal of particular chapters of fraternities and sororities across the country.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Supporters of fraternities note that hazing is almost universally prohibited by national fraternity organizations, and the occurrence of hazing in undergraduate fraternity chapters goes against official policy. Supporters of fraternities also note that hazing is not unique to Greek-letter organizations and is often reported in other student organizations, such as athletic teams.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: In 2007, an anti-hazing hotline was set up to report incidents of hazing on college campuses. Currently, 46 national fraternity and sorority organizations support the toll-free number, which generates automatic email messages regarding hazing and sends them to the national headquarters directly from the National Anti-Hazing Hotline. Every year, the last week of September is considered to be National Hazing Prevention Week (NHPW).


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: There were several hazing incidents that resulted in deaths in 2017 including the death of Tim Piazza in which three members of Beta Theta Pi were sentenced to prison after pleading guilty in charges related to the hazing. Other incidents included the death of Maxwell Gruver, Andrew Coffey and Matthew Ellis.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Critics of Greek-letter organizations assert that they create a culture of nepotism in later life, while supporters have applauded them for creating networking opportunities for members after graduation. A 2013 report by "Bloomberg" found that fraternity connections are influential in obtaining lucrative employment positions at top Wall Street brokerages. According to the report, recent graduates have been known to exchange the secret handshakes of their fraternities with executives whom they know are also members to obtain access to competitive appointments.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Studies show that fraternity men are three times more likely to commit rape than other men on college campuses. Fraternity pledges are at a higher likelihood to commit rape or sexual assault because of the pressure to meet the hyper-masculine standards that fraternities expect of their members. Overall, fraternity men are shown to have more rape-supportive attitudes than non-fraternity men.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Fraternities have often been accused of fostering rape-supportive attitudes by promoting male dominance and brotherhood, and fraternity affiliation has been found to be a significant predictor of sexually predatory behavior in retrospective research. Sexual assault is such a common occurrence among fraternity organizations that one fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, is commonly referred to by the nickname, "Sexual Assault Expected". Attitudes towards women learned in fraternity life can perpetuate fraternity men's lifelong attitudes, leading to the potential to commit sexual assault and rape after college life. Furthermore, studies show that women in sororities are almost twice as likely to experience rape than other college women. A research article studied campus demographics and reported rapes and found that campuses that report more rapes have more fraternity men, athletes and liquor violations.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Researchers have found that in predominantly-male environments, such as fraternities, athletics and military groups, men feel pressure to meet the group's standard of ‘masculinity’, which may contribute to the reason that in these settings, men are more accepting of sexual violence. Nicholas Syrett, a professor of history at the University of Northern Colorado, has been a vocal critic of the evolution of fraternities in the 20th century. Syrett has stated that, "fraternal masculinity has, for at least 80 years, valorized athletics, alcohol abuse and sex with women." "Time" magazine columnist Jessica Bennett has denounced fraternities as breeding "sexism and misogyny that lasts long after college". In her column, Bennett recounts that, while she was an undergraduate student at the University of Southern California, doormen at fraternity parties "often ranked women on a scale of 1 to 10, with only 'sixes' and up granted entry to a party".


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: To protect the "brotherhood", fraternity men and athletes may not confront or report sexual assault when it happens. Perpetrators have often received little to no consequences for their actions.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: It is common for members of Greek-letter organizations to have higher-than-average GPAs due to test and homework banks filled over the years by members of their organization. There is much backlash condemning the test and homework banks as academic dishonesty.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Researchers, such as Matthew W. Hughey, have linked racism in Greek life to persons experiencing microaggressions, fewer opportunities to use the networking system built into Greek life and the use of harmful stereotypes. In response to experiencing racism and exclusion from solely or predominantly white GLOs, black and multicultural GLOs were founded.


title: Fraternities and sororities

text: Additionally, homophobia, transphobia, antisemitism, and xenophobia are notable reoccurring issues with many college Greek systems across the nation.


title: Pea

text: The pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the flowering plant species Pisum sativum. Each pod contains several peas, which can be green or yellow. Botanically, pea pods are fruit, since they contain seeds and develop from the ovary of a (pea) flower. The name is also used to describe other edible seeds from the Fabaceae such as the pigeon pea ("Cajanus cajan"), the cowpea ("Vigna unguiculata"), and the seeds from several species of "Lathyrus".


title: Pea

text: Peas are annual plants, with a life cycle of one year. They are a cool-season crop grown in many parts of the world; planting can take place from winter to early summer depending on location. The average pea weighs between 0.1 and 0.36 gram. The immature peas (and in snow peas the tender pod as well) are used as a vegetable, fresh, frozen or canned; varieties of the species typically called field peas are grown to produce dry peas like the split pea shelled from a matured pod. These are the basis of pease porridge and pea soup, staples of medieval cuisine; in Europe, consuming fresh immature green peas was an innovation of early modern cuisine.


title: Pea

text: A pea is a most commonly green, occasionally golden yellow, or infrequently purple pod-shaped vegetable, widely grown as a cool-season vegetable crop. The seeds may be planted as soon as the soil temperature reaches , with the plants growing best at temperatures of . They do not thrive in the summer heat of warmer temperate and lowland tropical climates, but do grow well in cooler, high-altitude, tropical areas. Many cultivars reach maturity about 60 days after planting.


title: Pea

text: Peas have both low-growing and vining cultivars. The vining cultivars grow thin tendrils from leaves that coil around any available support and can climb to be high. A traditional approach to supporting climbing peas is to thrust branches pruned from trees or other woody plants upright into the soil, providing a lattice for the peas to climb. Branches used in this fashion are called pea sticks or sometimes pea brush. Metal fences, twine, or netting supported by a frame are used for the same purpose. In dense plantings, peas give each other some measure of mutual support. Pea plants can self-pollinate.


title: Pea

text: The wild pea is restricted to the Mediterranean Basin and the Near East. The earliest archaeological finds of peas date from the late Neolithic era of current Greece, Syria, Turkey, Israel, Iraq and Jordan. In Egypt, early finds date from c. 4800–4400 BC in the Nile delta area, and from c. 3800–3600 BC in Upper Egypt. The pea was also present in Georgia in the 5th millennium BC. Farther east, the finds are younger. Peas were present in Afghanistan c. 2000 BC; in Harappan civilization around modern-day Pakistan and western- and northwestern India in 2250–1750 BC. In the second half of the 2nd millennium BC, this legume crop appears in the Ganges Basin and southern India.


title: Pea

text: In early times, peas were grown mostly for their dry seeds. From plants growing wild in the Mediterranean Basin, constant selection since the Neolithic dawn of agriculture improved their yield. In the early 3rd century BC Theophrastus mentions peas among the legumes that are sown late in the winter because of their tenderness. In the first century AD, Columella mentions them in "De re rustica", when Roman legionaries still gathered wild peas from the sandy soils of Numidia and Judea to supplement their rations.


title: Pea

text: In the Middle Ages, field peas are constantly mentioned, as they were the staple that kept famine at bay, as Charles the Good, count of Flanders, noted explicitly in 1124.


title: Pea

text: Green "garden" peas, eaten immature and fresh, were an innovative luxury of Early Modern Europe. In England, the distinction between field peas and garden peas dates from the early 17th century: John Gerard and John Parkinson both mention garden peas. Sugar peas, which the French called , because they were eaten pods and all, were introduced to France from the market gardens of Holland in the time of Henri IV, through the French ambassador. Green peas were introduced from Genoa to the court of Louis XIV of France in January 1660, with some staged fanfare; a hamper of them were presented before the King, and then were shelled by the Savoyan comte de Soissons, who had married a niece of Cardinal Mazarin; little dishes of peas were then presented to the King, the Queen, Cardinal Mazarin and Monsieur, the king's brother. Immediately established and grown for earliness warmed with manure and protected under glass, they were still a luxurious delicacy in 1696, when Mme de Maintenon and Mme de Sevigné each reported that they were "a fashion, a fury".


title: Pea

text: Modern split peas, with their indigestible skins rubbed off, are a development of the later 19th century.


title: Pea

text: The top producer of green peas – by far – is China with 12.2 million tons, followed by India (4.8 million tons), USA (0.31 million tons), France (0.23 million tons) and Egypt (0.15 million tons). United Kingdom, Pakistan, Algeria, Peru and Turkey complete the top 10.


title: Pea

text: In modern times peas are usually boiled or steamed, which breaks down the cell walls and makes the taste sweeter and the nutrients more bioavailable. Along with broad beans and lentils, these formed an important part of the diet of most people in the Middle East, North Africa and Europe during the Middle Ages. By the 17th and 18th centuries, it had become popular to eat peas "green", that is, while they are immature and right after they are picked. New cultivars of peas were developed by the English during this time, which became known as "garden" or "English" peas. The popularity of green peas spread to North America. Thomas Jefferson grew more than 30 cultivars of peas on his estate. With the invention of canning and freezing of foods, green peas became available year-round, and not just in the spring as before.


title: Pea

text: Fresh peas are often eaten boiled and flavored with butter and/or spearmint as a side dish vegetable. Salt and pepper are also commonly added to peas when served. Fresh peas are also used in pot pies, salads and casseroles. Pod peas (snow peas and snap peas) are used in stir-fried dishes, particularly those in American Chinese cuisine. Pea pods do not keep well once picked, and if not used quickly, are best preserved by drying, canning or freezing within a few hours of harvest.


title: Pea

text: In India, fresh peas are used in various dishes such as "aloo matar" (curried potatoes with peas) or "mattar paneer" (paneer cheese with peas), though they can be substituted with frozen peas as well. Peas are also eaten raw, as they are sweet when fresh off the bush. Green Peas known as Hasiru Batani in Kannada are used to make curry and Gasi. Split peas are also used to make "dal", particularly in Guyana, and Trinidad, where there is a significant population of Indians.


title: Pea

text: Dried peas are often made into a soup or simply eaten on their own. In Japan, China, Taiwan and some Southeast Asian countries, including Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia, peas are roasted and salted, and eaten as snacks. In the Philippines, peas, while still in their pods, are a common ingredient in viands and pansit. In the UK, dried yellow or green split peas are used to make pease pudding (or "pease porridge"), a traditional dish. In North America, a similarly traditional dish is split pea soup.


title: Pea

text: Pea soup is eaten in many other parts of the world, including northern Europe, parts of middle Europe, Russia, Iran, Iraq and India. In Sweden it is called "ärtsoppa", and is eaten as a traditional Swedish food which predates the Viking Age. This food was made from a fast-growing pea that would mature in a short growing season. "Ärtsoppa" was especially popular among the poor, who traditionally only had one pot and everything was cooked together for a dinner using a tripod to hold the pot over the fire.


title: Pea

text: In Chinese cuisine, the tender new growth [leaves and stem] dou miao (; "dòu miáo") are commonly used in stir-fries. Much like picking the leaves for tea, the farmers pick the tips off of the pea plant.


title: Pea

text: In Greece, Tunisia, Turkey, Cyprus, and other parts of the Mediterranean, peas are made into a stew with lamb and potatoes.


title: Pea

text: In the United Kingdom, dried, rehydrated and mashed marrowfat peas, or cooked green split peas, known as mushy peas, are popular, originally in the north of England, but now ubiquitously, and especially as an accompaniment to fish and chips or meat pies, particularly in fish and chip shops. Sodium bicarbonate is sometimes added to soften the peas. In 2005, a poll of 2,000 people revealed the pea to be Britain's seventh favourite culinary vegetable.


title: Pea

text: Processed peas are mature peas which have been dried, soaked and then heat treated (processed) to prevent spoilage—in the same manner as pasteurizing. Cooked peas are sometimes sold dried and coated with wasabi, salt, or other spices.


title: Pea

text: In North America pea milk is produced and sold as an alternative to cow milk for a variety of reasons.


title: Pea

text: In East Asia, the sprouts or shoots of pea (;) were once dedicated cuisine when the plant was not highly available as nowadays. But now, when the plant can be easily grown, fresh pea shoots are available in supermarkets, and some people decided to grow them in their backyard.


title: Pea

text: In order to freeze and preserve peas, they must first be grown, picked, and shelled. Usually, the more tender the peas are, the more likely that they will be used in the final product. The peas must be put through the process of freezing shortly after being picked so that they do not spoil too soon. Once the peas have been selected, they are placed in ice water and allowed to cool. After, they are sprayed with water to remove any residual dirt or dust that may remain on them. The next step is blanching. The peas are boiled for a few minutes to remove any enzymes that may shorten their shelf life. They are then cooled and removed from the water. The final step is the actual freezing to produce the final product. This step may vary considerably; some companies freeze their peas by air blast freezing, where the vegetables are put through a tunnel at high speeds and frozen by cold air. Finally, the peas are packaged and shipped out for retail sale.


title: Pea

text: Pea grading involves sorting peas by size, in which the smallest peas are graded as the highest quality for their tenderness. Brines may be used, in which peas are floated, from which their density can be determined.


title: Pea

text: There are many varieties (cultivars) of garden peas. Some of the most common varieties are listed here. "PMR" indicates some degree of powdery mildew resistance; "afila" types, also called semi-leafless, have clusters of tendrils instead of leaves. Unless otherwise noted these are so called dwarf varieties which grow to an average height of about 1m. Giving the vines support is recommended, but not required. Extra dwarf are suitable for container growing, reaching only about 25 cm. Tall varieties grow to about 2m with support required.


title: Pea

text: Sugar peas or edible-pod peas (, "eat-all pea"), lack the tough membrane inside the pod wall and have tender edible pods. There are two main types:


title: Pea

text: The name "sugar pea" includes both types, and therefore it can be synonymous with either snow peas or snap peas in different dictionaries.


title: Pea

text: Snow peas and snap peas both belong to Macrocarpon Group, a cultivar group based on the variety "Pisum sativum" var. "macrocarpum" named in 1825. It was described as having very compressed non-leathery edible pods in the original publication.


title: Pea

text: The scientific name "Pisum sativum" var. "saccharatum" is often misused for snow peas. The variety under this name was described as having sub-leathery and compressed-terete pods and a French name of "petit pois". The description is inconsistent with the appearance of snow peas, and therefore botanists have replaced this name with "Pisum sativum" var. "macrocarpum."


title: Pea

text: The field pea is a type of pea sometimes called "P. sativum" subsp. "arvense" (L.) Asch. It is also known as dun (grey-brown) pea, Kapucijner pea, or Austrian winter pea, and is one of the oldest domesticated crops, cultivated for at least 7,000 years. Field peas are now grown in many countries for both human consumption and stockfeed. There are several cultivars and colors including blue, dun (brown), maple and white. This pea should not be confused with the cowpea ("Vigna unguiculata") which is sometimes called the "field pea" in warmer climates.


title: Pea

text: It is a climbing annual legume with weak, viny, and relatively succulent stems. Vines often are 4 to 5 feet (120 to 150 cm) long, but when grown alone, field pea's weak stems prevent it from growing more than 1.5 to 2 feet (45 to 60 cm) tall. Leaves have two leaflets and a tendril. Flowers are white, pink, or purple. Pods carry seeds that are large (4,000 seeds/lb), nearly spherical, and white, gray, green, or brown. The root system is relatively shallow and small, but well nodulated.


title: Pea

text: The field pea is a cool-season legume crop that is grown on over 25 million acres worldwide. It has been an important grain legume crop for millennia, seeds showing domesticated characteristics dating from at least 7000 years ago have been found in archaeological sites around what is now Turkey. Field peas or "dry peas" are marketed as a dry, shelled product for either human or livestock food, unlike the garden pea, which is marketed as a fresh or canned vegetable. The major producing countries of field peas are Russia and China, followed by Canada, Europe, Australia and the United States. Europe, Australia, Canada and the United States raise over 4.5 million acres and are major exporters of peas. In 2002, there were approximately 300,000 acres of field peas grown in the United States.


title: Pea

text: A variety of diseases affect peas through a number of pathogens, including insects, viruses, bacteria and fungi. In particular, virus disease of peas has worldwide economic importance.


title: Pea

text: Additionally, insects such as the pea leaf weevil ("Sitona lineatus") can damage peas and other pod fruits. The pea leaf weevil is native to Europe, but has spread to other places such as Alberta, Canada. They are about — long and are distinguishable by three light-coloured stripes running length-wise down the thorax. The weevil larvae feed on the root nodules of pea plants, which are essential to the plants' supply of nitrogen, and thus diminish leaf and stem growth. Adult weevils feed on the leaves and create a notched, "c-shaped" appearance on the outside of the leaves.


title: Pea

text: The Pea moth can be a serious pest producing caterpillars the resemble small white maggots in the pea-pods. The caterpillars eat the developing peas making them unsightly and unsuitable for culinary use. Prior to the use of modern insecticides, pea moth caterpillars were a very common sight in pea pods.


title: Pea

text: In the mid-19th century, Austrian monk Gregor Mendel's observations of pea pods led to the principles of Mendelian genetics, the foundation of modern genetics. He ended up growing and examining about 28,000 pea plants in the course of his experiments.


title: Pea

text: Mendel chose peas for his experiments because he could grow them easily, develop pure-bred strains, protect them from cross-pollination, and control their pollination. Mendel cross-bred tall and dwarf pea plants, green and yellow peas, purple and white flowers, wrinkled and smooth peas, and a few other traits. He then observed the resulting offspring. In each of these cases, one trait is dominant and all the offspring, or Filial-1 (abbreviated F) generation, showed the dominant trait. Then he crossed members of the F generation together and observed their offspring, the Filial-2 (abbreviated F) generation. The F plants had the dominant trait in approximately a 3:1 ratio.


title: Pea

text: Mendel reasoned that each parent had a 'vote' in the appearance of the offspring, and the non-dominant, or recessive, trait appeared only when it was inherited from both parents. He did further experiments that showed each trait is separately inherited. Unwittingly, Mendel had solved a major problem with Charles Darwin's theory of evolution: how new traits were preserved and not blended back into the population, a question Darwin himself did not answer. Mendel's work was published in an obscure Austrian journal and was not rediscovered until about 1900.


title: Pea

text: The pea karyotype consists of seven chromosomes, five of which are acrocentric and two submetacentric. Despite its scientific popularity, its relatively large genome size (4.45Gb) made it challenging to sequence compared to other legumes such as "Medicago truncatula" and soybeans. The International Pea Genome Sequencing Consortium was formed to develop the first pea reference genome, and the draft assembly was officially announced in September 2019. It covers 88% of the genome (3.92Gb) and predicted 44,791 gene-coding sequences. The pea used for the assembly was the inbred French cultivar "Caméor".


title: Pea

text: Some people experience allergic reactions to peas, as well as lentils, with vicilin or convicilin as the usual allergens.