title: Public toilet

text: As an "away-from-home" toilet room, a public toilet can provide far more than access to the toilet for urination and defecation. People also wash their hands, use the mirrors for grooming, get drinking water (e.g. refilling water bottles), attend to menstrual hygiene needs, and use the waste bins. Public toilets may also become places for harassment of others or illegal activities, particularly if principles of Crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) are not applied in the design of the facility.


title: Public toilet

text: Public toilets were part of the sanitation system of ancient Rome. These latrines housed long benches with holes accommodating multiple simultaneous users, with no division between individuals or groups. Using the facilities was considered a social activity.


title: Public toilet

text: By the Middle Ages public toilets became uncommon, with only few attested in Frankfurt in 1348, in London in 1383, and in Basel in 1455. A public toilet was built in Ottoman Sarajevo in 1530 just outside a mosque's exterior courtyard wall which is still operating today.


title: Public toilet

text: Sociologist Dara Blumenthal notes changing bodily habits, attitudes, and practices regarding hygiene starting in the 16th century, which eventually led to a resurgence of public toilets. While it had been perfectly acceptable to relieve oneself anywhere, civility increasingly required the removal of waste product from contact with others.


title: Public toilet

text: New instruction manuals, schoolbooks, and court regulations dictated what was appropriate. For instance, in "Galateo: or, A Treatise on Politeness and Delicacy of Manners", Giovanni della Casa states “It does not befit a modest, honourable man to prepare to relieve nature in the presence of other people, nor do up his clothes afterward in their presence. Similarly, he will not wash his hands on returning to decent society from private places, as the reason for his washing will arouse disagreeable thoughts in people.” Historian Lawrence Stone contends that the development of these new behaviours had nothing to do with problems of hygiene and bacterial infection, but rather with conforming to increasingly artificial standards of gentlemanly behaviour.


title: Public toilet

text: These standards were internalized at an early age. Over time, much that had to be explained earlier was no longer mentioned, due to successful social conditioning. This resulted in substantial reduction of explicit text on these topics in subsequent editions of etiquette literature; for example, the same passage in "Les règles de la bienséance et de la civilité Chrétienne" by Jean-Baptiste de la Salle is reduced from 208 words in the 1729 edition, to 74 words in the 1774 edition.


title: Public toilet

text: The first modern flush toilet had been invented in 1596, but it did not gain popularity until the Victorian era. When hygiene became a heightened concern, rapid advancements in toilet technology ensued. In the 19th century, large cities in Europe started installing modern flushing public toilets.


title: Public toilet

text: George Jennings, the sanitary engineer, introduced public toilets, which he called "monkey closets", to the Crystal Palace for The Great Exhibition of 1851. Public toilets were also known as "retiring rooms." They included separate amenities for men and women, and were the first flush toilet facilities to introduce sex-separation to the activity. The next year, London's first public toilet facility was opened.


title: Public toilet

text: Underground public toilets were introduced in the United Kingdom in the Victorian era, in built-up urban areas where no space was available to provide them above ground. The facilities were accessible by stairs, and lit by glass brick on the pavement. Local health boards often built underground public toilets to a high standard, although provisions were higher for men than women. Most have been closed as they did not have disabled access, and were more prone to vandalism and sexual encounters, especially in the absence of an attendant. A few remain in London, but others have been converted into alternative uses such as cafes, bars and even dwellings.


title: Public toilet

text: In the early days of the colony of Hong Kong, people would go to the toilet in sewers, barrels or in alleys. Once Hong Kong opened up for trade (1856-1880), the British Hong Kong government determined that the appalling hygiene situation in Hong Kong was becoming critical. Thus, the government set up public toilets (squat toilets) for people in 1867. But these toilets needed to cleaned and emptied manually every day and were not popular. In 1894, plague broke out in Hong Kong and 2,500 people died, especially public toilet cleaners. The government decided to act, setting up underground toilet facilities to improve this situation, though these toilets also had to be cleaned and emptied manually.


title: Public toilet

text: Early in 1940, the colonial government built the first public flush toilet. In 1953, a fire broke out in Shek Kip Mei. After that, the government embarked on a major public housing project in Hong Kong including public toilets for residents. More than ten people shared each toilet and they used them for bathing, doing their laundry as well as going to the toilet. Finally, in the 1970s, the government decided that one toilet for four or five families was insufficient and renovated all public housing providing separate flush pedestal toilets for all residents.


title: Public toilet

text: In the United States, concerns over public health and sanitation spurred the sanitarian movement during the late 1800s. Reforms to standardize plumbing codes and household plumbing were advocated for; the intersection of advancements in technology and desire for cleanliness and disease-free spaces spurred the development of public toilets.


title: Public toilet

text: Facilities for women sometimes had a wider emphasis, providing a safe and comfortable private space in the public sphere. The Ladies Rest Room is one example of the non-euphemistic use of the term: literally, a place to rest. Historically such rooms pre-dated the washroom and washrooms were added afterwards. Subsequent integrated designs resulted in the "women's restroom lounge".


title: Public toilet

text: A notable early example of a public toilet in the United States is the Old School Privy. The American architect Frank Lloyd Wright claimed to have "invented the hung wall for the w.c. (easier to clean under)" when he designed the Larkin Administration Building in Buffalo, New York in 1904.


title: Public toilet

text: According to a 2021 study by QS Supplies, the United States has just 8 public toilets for every 100,000 people, a rate that ties the country with Botswana in terms of access to toilet facilities. In the 1970s there were 50,000 coin-operated public restrooms in the U.S. but have been eliminated by 1980 and public facilities did not replace them.


title: Public toilet

text: Massachusetts passed the first law requiring sex separation of public toilets in 1887. By 1920, this was mandated in 43 states.


title: Public toilet

text: In jurisdictions using the Uniform Plumbing Code in the U.S., sex separation is a legal mandate via the building code.


title: Public toilet

text: Various countries have legislation stipulating how many public toilets are required in a given area for employees or for customers.


title: Public toilet

text: The Restroom Access Act is legislation several U.S. States passed that requires retail establishments with toilet facilities for employees to also allow customers to use the facilities if the customer suffers from an inflammatory bowel disease or other medical condition requiring immediate access to a toilet.


title: Public toilet

text: In the United Kingdom, the "Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992" requires businesses to provide toilets for their employees, along with washing facilities including soap or other suitable means of cleaning. The "Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Approved Code of Practice and Guidance L24", available from Health and Safety Executive Books, outlines guidance on the number of toilets to provide and the type of washing facilities associated with them.


title: Public toilet

text: Local authorities are not legally required to provide public toilets, and while in 2008 the House of Commons Communities and Local Government Committee called for a duty on local authorities to develop a public toilet strategy, the Government rejected the proposal.


title: Public toilet

text: In 2022 the UK Government Equality Minister Kemi Badenoch announced plans to make provision of single-sex toilets compulsory in new public buildings above a certain size. The technical review consultation on increasing accessibility and provision of toilets for men and women in municipal and private sector locations outlined the context in a call for evidence to be submitted:


title: Public toilet

text: The presence or absence of public toilets has also long been a reflection of a society's class inequalities and social hierarchies.


title: Public toilet

text: In the UK the number of public toilets fell by nearly 20% from 3,154 in 2015/16 to 2,556 in 2020/21 This loss leads to health and mobility inequality issues for a range of people, including the homeless, disabled, outdoor workers and those whose illnesses mean that they frequently need to access a toilet. The decline of the great British public toilet is described by the Royal Society for Public Health as creating a “urinary leash” which restricts how far people can travel out from their homes.


title: Public toilet

text: The lack of public toilets for women reflects their exclusion from the public sphere in the Victorian era. During this period, after leaving their parent's home, women were expected to maintain a career as homemaker and wife. Thus, safe and private public toilets were rarely available for women. The result was that they were often restricted in how far they could travel away from home without returning. Alternatively, they had to make do in the public streets as best they could. They often experienced sexual harassment as men tried to "sneak a peek" or otherwise bothered them. Some women experienced even worse if they could not secure safety and privacy even at home or in their workplaces. There problems continue for women in all parts of the world.


title: Public toilet

text: The practice of pay toilets emerged in the US in the late 19th century. In these spaces, public toilets could only be accessed by paying a fee. Sex-separated pay toilets were available at the Chicago World's Fair (US) in 1893. Women complained that these were practically unavailable to them, authorities allowed them to be free, but on Fridays only. In the twentieth century, activist groups in the U.S., including the Committee to End Pay Toilets in America claimed that such practices disadvantaged women/girls because men/boys did not have to pay for urinals. As an act of protest against this phenomenon, in 1969 California Assemblywoman March Fong Eu destroyed a toilet on the steps of the California State Capitol. Although by the 1990s most US jurisdictions had migrated away from pay toilets, until 1992, U.S. female senators had to use toilets located on different floor levels than the ones they were working on, a reflection of their intrusion in an all-male profession.


title: Public toilet

text: While some public facilities were available to women in London by 1890, there were much fewer than those available to men.


title: Public toilet

text: Toilets also were assigned strong moral overtones. While public water closets were considered necessary for sanitation reasons, they were viewed as offending public sensibilities. It has been said that because public facilities were associated with access to public spaces, extending these rights to women was viewed as "immoral" and an "abomination". As a result of Victorian era codes, women were delegated to the private sphere, away from the public, fulfilling their roles as dutiful wives and mothers where any association with sexuality or private body parts was taboo. For women, the female lavatory in a public space was associated with danger and immoral sexual conduct.


title: Public toilet

text: According to World Bank data from 2017, over 500 million women lacked access to sanitation facilities to go to the bathroom or manage menstrual hygiene. Risk of sexual assault is high, in India as high as 50%. Amnesty International includes sex-separated toilets among its list of suggested measures to ensure the safety of women and girls in schools.


title: Public toilet

text: In many places the queues for the women's toilets are longer than those for the men's; efforts to deal with this are known as potty parity. It has been estimated that women take up to 50% longer in the toilet. The reasons given include pregnancy, managing menstruation, health conditions (such as cystitis), clothing design, and helping others. Women are more likely to be accompanied by children, disabled, or older people.


title: Public toilet

text: After slavery ended in the United States, southern states attempted to replicate its social economic oppression by passing laws requiring that blacks and whites be separated in all public and private venues. Racial segregation included public toilets, mandated by Jim Crow laws prior to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 'Justifications' provided for segregated facilities included "protection of a certain group, privacy, cleanliness, and morality.” This segregation imposed significant restrictions on the lives of African-Americans. Strategies to keep African-Americans out of sight included the "basement solution," which involved locating public toilets for black people in the basement next to janitor supply rooms. Black workers often had to walk long distances to get to the toilets they were assigned.


title: Public toilet

text: Those who were able to afford cars could avoid the indignities of segregated trains and buses, but they faced the difficulty of finding a public toilet they were allowed to use. Courtland Milloy of the "Washington Post" recalled that on cross-country road trips in the 1950s his parents were reluctant to stop the car to allow the children to relieve themselves – it just wasn't safe. One solution to this was to carry a portable toilet (a sort of bucket-like arrangement) in the trunk of the car. This treatment led to the creation of "The Negro Motorist Green Book", an annually updated guidebook. Once the traveler found the correct "colored restroom", it could serve "as a respite from the insults of the white world", akin to what is now called safe space.


title: Public toilet

text: Following the 1941 executive order which prohibited “discrimination in the employment of workers in defence industries or government,” white women refused to share bathrooms with black women throughout the South. Engaging in numerous labor strikes and walkouts against Fair Employment Practice Committee politics, they erroneously claimed that racial integration would cause them to catch syphilis from toilet seats. Similar arguments equating equal access to restrooms with contracting venereal diseases were made by white women after the 1954 court ruling against segregated public schools which led to the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School.


title: Public toilet

text: Samuel Younge Jr., then a student at Tuskegee Institute, was murdered in 1966 after trying to use a "whites-only" restroom. He was the first black college student to be killed for his actions supporting the Civil Rights Movement.


title: Public toilet

text: Public toilets have frequently been inaccessible to people with disabilities. In the United States, all public toilets in federal buildings were required to be accessible to people with disabilities by the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968. These requirements were extended to all public buildings by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.


title: Public toilet

text: Access to public toilets for transgender and gender non-conforming people is often contested. In the United States, various bathroom bills have been put forward to define who can have public toilet access, and on what terms. Many of these bills seek to criminalize usage by people whose gender identity does not match the sex on their birth certificates.


title: Public toilet

text: A variety of reasons have been put forward for these measures, including protecting the privacy of females, avoidance of retraumatization in females affected by male violence, and to protect females from being assaulted by males donning disguises, although there is no evidence of the latter ever having occurred in the past. The UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission published guidance in 2022 outlining scenarios where it considered exclusion of transgender people from single-sex spaces to be justifiable and proportionate. While transgender public toilet usage has been labelled as a moral panic, the ongoing discourse continues to have significant impacts on this group.


title: Public toilet

text: Public toilets play a role in community health and individual well-being. Where toilets are available, people can enjoy outings and physical activities in their communities. By letting people get out of their cars and onto their feet, bicycles and mass transit, public toilets can contribute to improved environmental health. Mental well-being is enhanced when people are out with families and friends and know a place "to go" is available.


title: Public toilet

text: Public toilets also serve people who are "toilet challenged". First, some people need to go very frequently, including young and old people, people who are pregnant or menstruating, and those with some medical conditions. Second, some people need toilet access urgently, suddenly and without warning: such as those with chronic conditions such as Crohn's disease and colitis, and those temporarily afflicted with food-borne illnesses.


title: Public toilet

text: The inability to satisfy essential physiological needs because no toilet is available contributes to health issues such as urinary tract infections, kidney infections, and digestive problems which can later develop into severe health problems. Inadequate access to a public toilets when required can lead to substantial problems for people with prostate problems, people who are menstruating or going through the menopause, and people with urinary and fecal incontinence.


title: Public toilet

text: A 2015 study by the National Center for Transgender Equality found that 8% of transgender Americans reported having developed urinary tract infections, kidney infections, and other kidney-related problems as a result of avoiding, or not being granted access to, the facilities. In another survey, the group DC Trans Coalition found that 54% of its respondents (located in Washington, DC) reported physical problem from avoiding using public toilets, such as dehydration, kidney infections, and urinary tract infections.


title: Public toilet

text: According to the Government of Australia, more than 3.8 million Australians of all ages are estimated to suffer continence issues. This represents 18% of the Australian population. Therefore, the Department of Health and Ageing maintains the National Public Toilet Map to enable the public to find the closest facility.


title: Public toilet

text: Workers have legal rights to access a toilet during their work day. In the United States, the Department of Labor's Occupational Health and Safety protects workers' rights to toilet breaks because of the documented health risks. This protected right to a toilet is a function of the workplace and is lost when workers leave the workplace.


title: Public toilet

text: If bus and truck drivers on timed schedules have difficulty in accessing toilets, this puts them at risk of bladder and digestive health problems. Furthermore, if the concentration of a driver in urgent need is compromised, it becomes a broader public safety concern.


title: Public toilet

text: Public toilets may cause people to be infected with some diseases, particularly if hygiene is lacking. In 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, it become clear that COVID-19 spreads not only through respiratory droplets but through aerosol particles which remain suspended for much longer. There are multiple touch points in public toilets – stall door locks, flush handles, and faucets. The NGO PHLUSH has published guidelines on the safe reopening of public toilets. This includes for example: "Place hand-hygiene stations at the entrance restrooms and ask users to clean hands before entering to avoid surface contamination." The guide also recommends removing forced air hand dryers that can spread viruses and bacteria into the room.


title: Public toilet

text: Modern public toilets may be designed with a labyrinth entrance (doorless entry), which prevents the spread of disease that might otherwise occur when coming in contact with a door. Doorless entry provides visual privacy while simultaneously offering a measure of security by allowing the passage of sound. Doorless entry also helps deter vandalism; fewer audible clues to another person entering discourages some vandals. Doorless entry may also be achieved simply by keeping an existing door propped open, closed only when necessary.


title: Public toilet

text: Pay toilets usually have some form of coin operated turnstile, or they have an attendant who collects the fee.


title: Public toilet

text: People often expect a high level of privacy when using public toilets. Privacy expectations may include toilet cubicles, cubicle doors, urinal partitions and similar.


title: Public toilet

text: The World Health Organization states that toilets should be "suitable, private and safe to use for all intended users, taking into consideration their gender, age and physical mobility (e.g. disabled, sick etc.)" and "All shared or public toilets should have [...] doors that can be locked from the inside, and lights".


title: Public toilet

text: Modern public toilets often have a service entrance, utilities passage, and the like, that run behind all the fixtures. Sensors are installed in a separate room, behind the fixtures. Usually, the separate room is just a narrow corridor or passageway.


title: Public toilet

text: Sensor-operated fixtures (faucets, soap dispensers, hand dryers, paper towel dispensers) prevent the spread of disease by allowing patrons to circumvent the need to touch common surfaces. Sensor-operated toilets also help conserve water by limiting the amount used per flush, and require less routine maintenance. Each sensor views through a small window into each fixture. Sometimes the metal plates that house the sensor windows are bolted on from behind, to prevent tampering. Additionally, all of the electrical equipment is safely behind the walls, so that there is no danger of electric shock. However, a RCCB must be used for all such electrical equipment.


title: Public toilet

text: Some public toilets have an automatic sensor controlled flushing system that flushes the toilet when the user steps away from the sensor. They might also have an additional button that the user can push to provide a second flush.


title: Public toilet

text: Urinals for males are common in public toilets as they are more space efficient than toilets (for urination). Urinals in public toilets are common in Western countries but less so in Muslim countries, partly due to Islamic toilet etiquette rules. Urinals for females exist but are rare. Urinals can be with automatic or manual flushing, or without flush water as is the case for waterless urinals. They can be arranged as single sanitary fixtures (with or without privacy walls) or in a trough design without privacy walls. The body posture for users of urinals is specifically the standing position. Compared with urination in a general-purpose toilet, usage is faster and more sanitary because at the urinal there are no fecal germs, no additional doors or locks to touch, and no seat to turn up. A urinal takes less space, is simpler, and consumes less water per flush (or even no water at all) than a flush toilet.


title: Public toilet

text: Service lighting consisting of windows that run all the way around the outside of the toilet using electric lights behind the windows, to create the illusion of extensive natural light, even when the toilets are underground or otherwise do not have access to natural light. The windows are sometimes made of glass brick, permanently cemented in place. Lighting installed in service tunnels that run around the outside of the toilets provides optimum safety from electrical shock (keeping the lights outside the toilet), hygiene (no cracks or openings), security (no way for vandals to access the light bulbs), and aesthetics (clean architectural lines that maintain a continuity of whatever aesthetic design is present, e.g., the raw industrial urban aesthetic that works well with glass brick).


title: Public toilet

text: Older toilets infrequently have service ducts and often in old toilets that have been modernized, the toilet cistern is hidden in a tiled over purpose-built 'box'. Often old toilets still have high-level cisterns in the service ducts. On the outside, the toilet is flushed by a handle (just like an ordinary low-level cistern toilet) although behind the wall this handle activates a chain. Sometimes a long flushing trough is used to allow closets to be flushed repeatedly without waiting for the cistern to refill. This trend of hiding cisterns and fittings behind the walls started in the late 1930s in the United States and in the United Kingdom from the 1950s, and by the late 1960s it was unusual for toilet cisterns to be visible in public toilets. In some buildings such as schools, however, a cistern can still be visible, although high-level cisterns had become outdated by the 1970s. Many schools now have low-level cisterns.


title: Public toilet

text: An option for hand drying is usually provided next to the sink. This can be either a paper towel dispenser (sometimes they have auto-sensors for touchless dispensing) or a mechanical hand dryer (used manually or with auto-sensors). Drying of washed hands is important for convenience but also because wet and moist hands are more easily recontaminated. From a hygiene viewpoint, paper towels are superior to electric air dryers.


title: Public toilet

text: Public toilets by their nature see heavy usage. Some high-vandalism settings, such as beaches or stadiums, will use metal toilets. Public toilets generally contain several of the following fixtures.


title: Public toilet

text: Thorough cleaning and maintenance are important for public toilets. This task is usually performed by a "public toilet attendant" (who is there during an entire shift) or by professional cleaning staff. They maintain and clean the facilities, ensuring that toilet paper, soap, paper towels, and other necessary items are kept stocked.


title: Public toilet

text: Public toilets need both periodic maintenance and emergency cleaning. Volunteer-managed facilities may also be an option in some cases.


title: Public toilet

text: There are now durable options for restroom stall materials such as solid plastic that were designed to help fight vandalism. Solid plastic allows for scratches to be less noticeable due to the solid color throughout the product compared to powder coated steel. Powder coated steel chips easily leading to obvious damage compared solid plastic. Solid plastic is also an easier to clean and maintain option for public restrooms with high traffic volumes.


title: Public toilet

text: Toilets that require the user to pay may be street furniture or be inside a building, e.g. a shopping mall, department store, or railway station. The reason for charging money is usually for the maintenance of the equipment. Paying to use a toilet can be traced back almost 2000 years, to the first century AD. The payment may be taken by a bathroom attendant, or by a coin-operated turnstile or cubicle door (see John Nevil Maskelyne, who invented a doorlock requiring the insertion of a penny coin, hence the euphemism to "spend a penny".) The first pay toilet in the United States was installed in 1910 in Terre Haute, Indiana.


title: Public toilet

text: In some places, the provision of public toilet facilities is under great pressure. One response by public authorities is to close the buildings, often citing criminal activity. The United Kingdom government austerity programme has led to major council cut-backs to public toilet provision, with knock-on effects on the public realm as a whole. Some of the buildings, particularly the underground ones, are sold and used for other purposes, e.g. as a bar.


title: Public toilet

text: Another response is to privatise the toilets, so that a public good is provided by a contractor, just as private prisons are. The toilets may fall under the category of privately owned public space - anyone can use them, but the land ultimately belongs to the corporation in question. When toilets that have been privatised are improperly run, or closed, there may be calls to take them back into the control of the public authority, as with Westminster Council in central London - one of the wealthiest places in the world, where members of the public are reduced to urinating in the parks and streets for lack of available facilities.


title: Public toilet

text: Public toilets are often separated by sex. In many cultures, this separation is so characteristic that pictograms of a man or a woman often suffice to indicate the facility, without explicit reference to the fixtures themselves. In restaurants and other private locations, the identifications can be designed to match the decoration of the premises. Toilet facilities for people with disabilities, especially those reliant on a wheelchair, may be either gender-specific or unisex. Gender-neutral toilets are usual in cases where sex-separated ones are not practical, such as in aircraft lavatories and passenger train toilets.


title: Public toilet

text: In the 21st century, with lobbying from the transgender rights movement, some initiatives have called for gender-neutral public toilets, also called unisex public toilets (also called gender-inclusive, or all-gender). These may be instead of, or in addition to, gendered toilets, depending on the circumstances. Many groups are re-imagining what public toilets can look like; for instance, architect Joel Sanders, transgender historian Susan Stryker, and legal scholar Terry Kogan launched "Stalled!," an open source website which offers lectures, workshops, and design guidelines for unisex public toilets.


title: Public toilet

text: In addition to accommodating transgender and gender non-conforming individuals, gender-neutral public toilets facilitate usage for people who may require assistance from a caretaker of another gender, such as people with disabilities, elderly people, and children.


title: Public toilet

text: An additional consideration with regard to gendered public restrooms is the availability of baby changing tables. Sometimes, these tables have only been installed in women's restrooms, owing to stereotypical assumptions that only women were likely to be accompanied by babies needing to have their diapers changed. This can be an impediment for fathers with their children and other male caregivers. Advocates have worked for changing tables to be installed in men's restrooms. Unisex washrooms would provide access to either regardless.


title: Public toilet

text: Public toilets have long been associated with graffiti, often of a transgressive, gossipy, or low-brow humorous nature (cf. toilet humour). The word "latrinalia"—from "latrine" (toilet) and "-alia" (a collection)—was coined to describe this kind of graffiti. A famous example of such artwork was featured on the album cover of the satirical Tony Award Broadway musical "Urinetown", using felt-tip pen scribblings.


title: Public toilet

text: As graffiti merged into street art, so some public street-level toilets began to make a feature of their visibility. The Hundertwasser toilet block is a colourful example in Kawakawa, New Zealand, designed by an Austrian artist and viewed as a tourist draw in a small town.


title: Public toilet

text: Some public toilets are known for drug-taking and drug-selling, as well as vandalism. This type of criminal activity is associated with all "neglected, unsupervised buildings", not just toilets, and good cleanliness and maintenance, and ideally an attendant on the premises, can act as a protection against these problems.


title: Public toilet

text: Violent crime inside public toilets can be a problem in areas where the rate of such crimes in general is very high. In South Africa, for instance, many people have reported being afraid to use public toilets. There have been several highly publicized murders in public toilets, such as the Seocho-dong public toilet murder case in South Korea in 2016. In the US, an infamous case was the murder of a 9-year-old boy in 1998 in a San Diego county public toilet.


title: Public toilet

text: Increasing public toilet provision can help to protect women from violent attacks. Research studies have found increased risk of women and girls being raped where there is limited or no access to safe toilets at night.


title: Public toilet

text: Several billion people lack access to improved water and sanitation and must travel long distances or wait until night time to defecate under cover of darkness. Women and girls manage menstruation which increases their water and sanitation requirements for several days each month. Amongst the UN sustainable development goals there is a specific references to achieving access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all paying special attention to the needs of women and girls in vulnerable situations (indicator 6.2).


title: Public toilet

text: A study conducted by the UCLA School of Law's Williams Institute found no significant change in the number of crimes since the passage of various laws that enable transgender public toilet usage. Transgender and gender non-conforming people are at risk of violence when using the public toilet (see: trans bashing). A 2015 study by the National Center for Transgender Equality found that 59% of transgender American avoided using public facilities for fear of confrontation. This landmark study, which included 27,715 respondents, found that 24% of respondents had their presence in the restroom questioned, 12% had experienced verbal harassment, physical assault, or sexual assault when attempting to use the restroom, and 9% were denied access entirely. Several studies have found that preventing transgender people from using public toilets has negative mental health impacts, leading to a higher risk of suicide.


title: Public toilet

text: Before the gay liberation movement, public toilets were amongst the few places where men too young to enter gay bars legally could meet others who they knew with certainty to be gay. Many, if not most, gay and bisexual men at the time were closeted, and almost no public gay social groups were available for those under legal drinking age. The privacy and anonymity public toilets provided made them a convenient and attractive location to engage in sexual acts then.


title: Public toilet

text: Sexual acts in public toilets are outlawed in many jurisdictions (e.g. the Sexual Offences Act 2003 in the UK). It is likely that the element of risk involved in cottaging makes it an attractive activity to some.


title: Public toilet

text: Customers often expect retail stores and shopping centres to offer public toilets. Customers rank complimentary toilets highly, and their availability influences shopping behaviour. By offering appropriate customer toilets, retail stores and shopping centres may enhance their profits and image; however, many retailers pay insufficient attention to their customer toilet facilities. Due to the potential of customer toilets to increase profits and improve store image, retailers could benefit from regarding toilets as a marketing investment rather than a property expense. Some business, like Starbucks, have officially opted to let anyone use their toilets, without having to purchase anything. This decision was made after a highly publicized instance of racial profiling.


title: Public toilet

text: Lack of adequate school toilets is a very serious problem in many developing countries, and contributes to many problems from poor child health to school drop out. Many pit latrines are not adequately built for young children, which has resulted in the tragic consequence of children dying by falling inside the hole. Globally, about 620 million children do not have adequate toilets at school and around 900 million cannot wash their hands properly; and almost half of the schools do not provide soap.


title: Public toilet

text: The situation of inadequate school toilets violates the children's right to education and to right to water and sanitation. Such situations are common in many parts of the world, especially in Africa and South Asia, but also in other regions. For example, in the Caucasus and Central Asia, 30% of schools do not provide adequate toilets and 37% of schools do not have access to adequate water supplies. The presence of soap and toilet paper is very important, but is largely non-existent in many regions. Missing or inadequate doors and partitioning are observed in both high- and low-income countries, which can affect the children's self-esteem, especially around puberty; in the case of girls, lack of menstrual hygiene management and privacy (such as the availability of functional toilet doors with locks, disposal facilities and menstrual hygiene products in schools, lack of soap and toilet paper) can severely impact upon their well-being and is considered a form of violation of girl's rights.


title: Public toilet

text: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has funded several research projects for provision of community, shared or school toilets in developing countries since 2011 when they launched their "Reinvent the Toilet Challenge".


title: Public toilet

text: It is today accepted in the countries of the Council of Europe that a lack of basic privacy is a violation of fundamental rights. For example, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in "Szafrański v. Poland" (2015) that the forcing of prisoners to use the toilet without adequate privacy amounts to a violation of Article 8 (right to respect for private life) of the European Convention on Human Rights.


title: Heirs to the Land

text: Heirs to the Land () is a 2022 Spanish television series based on the novel of the same name by Ildefonso Falcones. Set in 14th-century Barcelona, it is a sequel to "Cathedral of the Sea". The series premiered on Netflix on 15 April 2022, to be followed by a run on Atresmedia and Televisió de Catalunya.


title: Heirs to the Land

text: Set in 14th-century Barcelona, the plot follows the story of Hugo Llor, who dreams of becoming a ship builder.


title: Heirs to the Land

text: "Heirs to the Land" is based on the novel "" by Ildefonso Falcones, published by Grijalbo in 2016. A sequel to "Cathedral of the Sea", "Heirs to the Land" is directed by , who also was the director of the former series. Produced by , shooting began in Barcelona in November 2020. Shooting locations also included the , province of Girona, as well as the Tamarit Beach in the province of Tarragona. The series was set for a exclusive release on Netflix for a 12-month initial streaming window, followed by a 3-month window on Atresmedia and Televisió de Catalunya.


title: Roma tomato

text: The Roma tomato or Roma is a plum tomato popularly used both for canning and producing tomato paste because of its slender and firm nature. Commonly found in supermarkets in some countries, Roma tomatoes are also known as Italian tomatoes or Italian plum tomatoes.


title: Roma tomato

text: The "Roma VF" variant is most common in seed catalogs as of 2007. It was developed by the USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in Beltsville, Maryland, in the 1950s as a fusarium wilt-resistant cultivar.


title: Roma tomato

text: While the Roma is an open-pollinated variety rather than a hybrid, it has been steadily improved to the point that most Roma tomato vines are verticillium- and fusarium wilt-resistant (thus the VF in the name).


title: Roma tomato

text: Most commercial plum tomatoes sold in markets in the Western Hemisphere are Romas or related types. Smaller plum tomatoes about the size of cherry tomatoes are sometimes sold as "baby Romas". A smaller relative known as "Windowbox Roma" is sold as a tomato suitable for window gardens and hanging containers.


title: Roma tomato

text: Roma tomatoes are egg- or pear-shaped and red when fully ripe. They have few seeds and are a good canning and sauce tomato. While Roma is an open-pollinated variety, in general it is not considered an heirloom tomato.


title: Roma tomato

text: Maturing in under three months, the plant itself grows to 1 meter (40 inches) in height and the single fruit weighs about 60 grams (2 oz).


title: Strictly Come Dancing (series 18)

text: Strictly Come Dancing returned for its eighteenth series with a launch show on 17 October 2020 on BBC One, with the live shows starting on 24 October. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the series launched a month later than usual and ran for nine weeks instead of the usual thirteen. Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman returned as hosts, while Zoe Ball and Rylan Clark-Neal returned to host "". In four shows Clark-Neal was replaced by Gethin Jones after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.


title: Strictly Come Dancing (series 18)

text: On 12 September, it was announced that for the first time since the tenth series, there would be no live show broadcast from the Blackpool Tower Ballroom, also due to the pandemic. There was also no Halloween Special for the first time since the seventh series. However, it was announced shortly afterwards that there would be four episodes highlighting best moments by week from previous series. This started on 19 September, with Movie Week Highlights, Blackpool, followed by Musicals up until The Grand Final. The Grand Final episode featured a tribute to 2014 winner Caroline Flack, who died on 15 February that year.


title: Strictly Come Dancing (series 18)

text: Craig Revel Horwood, Shirley Ballas and Motsi Mabuse returned to the judging panel for their eighteenth, fourth and second series respectively. On 21 August 2020, it was announced that Bruno Tonioli would not be part of the judging panel for this series, due to travel restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic and his role on "Dancing with the Stars". Tonioli instead appeared virtually to give his verdict on the performances during the Sunday night results show. Motsi Mabuse had to miss weeks 4 and 5 in accordance with British government guidelines after travelling to Germany due to a break in at her dance academy; she was replaced by Anton du Beke, who became a permanent judge the following series replacing Tonioli.


title: Strictly Come Dancing (series 18)

text: The series was won by Bill Bailey and his professional partner Oti Mabuse. At 55 years old, Bailey became the oldest winner in the show's history, and Mabuse became the first professional dancer to win the show for the second consecutive time, as well as the second professional dancer to win twice, the first being Aliona Vilani.


title: Strictly Come Dancing (series 18)

text: On 6 March 2020, Kevin Clifton announced he was leaving the show after seven years. Despite being confirmed in the 2020 professional line-up, on 26 March 2020, AJ Pritchard announced he was leaving the show after four years. The other professional dancers from 2019 were all confirmed to be returning for the series. Gorka Márquez received a celebrity partner for the first time since 2018; however, Neil Jones and Nadiya Bychkova only featured in group dances after having partners the previous year, alongside Graziano Di Prima and Nancy Xu.


title: Strictly Come Dancing (series 18)

text: Due to the pandemic, several changes had to be made in how the professional dancers performed. Firstly, the dancers had to shield at home for two weeks. They then formed a bubble which allowed them to stay in a hotel together and to practise their dances there. All the group dances were pre-recorded and played throughout the series.


title: Strictly Come Dancing (series 18)

text: On 1 September 2020, the first three celebrities announced to be participating in the series were Caroline Quentin, Jason Bell and Max George. On 2 September 2020, it was announced that Olympic boxer, Nicola Adams would feature in the first same-sex couple. On 3 September 2020, "Made in Chelsea" star Jamie Laing was announced to be participating in the series after withdrawing from the seventeenth series due to a foot injury. Celebrity reveals continued throughout the week until the full line-up was revealed on 4 September 2020. Due to the shorter series, only 12 couples competed, the fewest since the third series in 2005. On 12 November 2020, it was announced that Katya Jones had tested positive for COVID-19, which due to government guidelines on self-isolation, meant that she and Nicola were forced to withdraw from the competition.


title: Strictly Come Dancing (series 18)

text: "Unless indicated otherwise, individual judges scores in the charts below (given in parentheses) are listed in this order from left to right: Craig Revel Horwood, Shirley Ballas, Motsi Mabuse".


title: Strictly Come Dancing (series 18)

text: "Individual judges scores in the charts below (given in parentheses) are listed in this order from left to right: Craig Revel Horwood, Shirley Ballas, Anton du Beke".


title: Strictly Come Dancing (series 18)

text: "For the Dance Off, Jamie & Karen chose to dance their Salsa, while Ranvir & Giovanni chose to dance their Waltz."


title: Steppe bison

text: The steppe bison or steppe wisent (Bison" "priscus) is an extinct species of bison that was once found on the mammoth steppe where its range included British Isles, Europe, Central Asia, Northern to Northeastern Asia including Japanese archipelago, Beringia, and central North America, from northwest Canada to Mexico during the Quaternary. This wide distribution is sometimes called the Pleistocene bison belt, compared to the Great bison belt. The radiocarbon dating of a steppe bison skeleton indicates that it was present 5,400 years ago in Alaska. Three chronological subspecies, "Bison priscus priscus", "Bison priscus mediator", and "Bison priscus gigas", have been suggested.


title: Steppe bison

text: The steppe bison first appeared during the mid Middle Pleistocene in eastern Eurasia, subsequently dispersing westwards as far as Western Europe. During the late Middle Pleistocene, around 195,000-135,000 years ago, the steppe bison migrated across the Bering land bridge into North America, becoming ancestral to modern American bison, as well as extinct forms such as the largest known bison, the long-horned "Bison latifrons," and the smaller "Bison antiquus."


title: Steppe bison

text: The steppe bison distribution contracted after the end of the Pleistocene, surviving into the early-mid Holocene in Alaska-Yukon and eastern Siberia, before becoming extinct.


title: Steppe bison

text: Resembling the modern bison species, especially the American wood bison ("Bison bison athabascae"), the steppe bison was over tall at the withers, reaching in weight. The tips of the horns were a meter apart, the horns themselves being over half a meter long.


title: Steppe bison

text: "Bison priscus gigas" is the largest known bison species of Eurasia; the species was possibly analogous to "Bison latifrons", attaining similar body sizes and horns which were up to apart, and presumably favored similar habitat conditions.


title: Steppe bison

text: Steppe bison appear in cave art, notably in the Cave of Altamira and Lascaux, and the carving "Bison Licking Insect Bite", and have been found in naturally ice-preserved form.


title: Steppe bison

text: Blue Babe is the 36,000-year-old mummy of a male steppe bison which was discovered north of Fairbanks, Alaska, in July 1979. The mummy was noticed by a gold miner who named the mummy Blue Babe – "Babe" for Paul Bunyan's mythical giant ox, permanently turned blue when he was buried to the horns in a blizzard (Blue Babe's own bluish cast was caused by a coating of vivianite, a blue iron phosphate covering much of the specimen). Blue Babe is also frequently referenced when talking about scientists eating their own specimens: the research team that was preparing it for permanent display in the University of Alaska Museum removed a portion of the mummy's neck, stewed it, and dined on it to celebrate the accomplishment.


title: Steppe bison

text: In 2016, a frozen tail was discovered in the north of the Republic of Sakha in Russia. The exact age was not clear, but tests showed it was not younger than 8,000 years old. A team of Russian and South Korean scientists proposed extracting DNA from the specimen and cloning it in the future.


title: Paulo Futre

text: Paulo Jorge dos Santos Futre (; born 28 February 1966) is a Portuguese former footballer who played mostly as a left winger. He is one of the greatest natural talents of the Portugal.


title: Paulo Futre

text: After starting playing for Sporting, he moved to Porto – winning the 1987 European Cup – after which he embarked in an extensive professional career, having represented clubs in Spain, France, Italy, England and Japan, most notably Atlético Madrid. He also appeared for Benfica during four months in 1993, and his later years were blighted by injury problems.


title: Paulo Futre

text: A Portuguese international since the age of 17, Futre earned over 40 caps for his country, representing it at the 1986 World Cup.


title: Paulo Futre

text: Born in Montijo, Setúbal District, Futre first appeared professionally in 1983–84, as a 17-year-old for Sporting CP, whose youth system he had joined at the age of nine. When he requested a pay raise from president João Rocha, he was turned down and left for FC Porto after just one season, as veterans Jaime Pacheco and António Sousa moved in the opposite direction as part of the deal.


title: Paulo Futre

text: In the following years, Futre collected two Primeira Liga titles, also helping the northerners to the 1986–87 European Cup, putting on a "Man of the match" performance in the final against FC Bayern Munich.


title: Paulo Futre

text: After that continental win, Futre was traded to Atlético Madrid in Spain, earning a reported annual salary of €650,000. At the capital club he quickly rose to fan favourite status, but his physical weakness left him with several knee injuries which tormented his career in the 1990s.


title: Paulo Futre

text: In his fifth season, Futre provided countless assists for striker Manolo who scored 27 goals for the Pichichi Trophy, with him netting in the campaign's Copa del Rey, a 2–0 win over neighbours Real Madrid. During most of his spell with the "Colchoneros", he was also team captain.


title: Paulo Futre

text: In January 1993, Futre moved to Porto and Sporting rivals S.L. Benfica, winning a Taça de Portugal in his short stay (and scoring in the final against Boavista F.C. in a 5–2 triumph), as his injury woes persisted. Afterwards, he signed a one-season contract with Olympique de Marseille, where he teamed up with countryman Rui Barros. His time in France was largely disappointing, however, once again due to continual injuries, as well as competition from Dragan Stojković in his position, which limited him to only two goals in eight league appearances.


title: Paulo Futre

text: Halfway through 1993–94, despite being linked with A.C. Milan, Futre eventually transferred to newly promoted Serie A side A.C. Reggiana 1919. On his debut, on 21 November 1993, he scored a memorable individual goal which opened the scoring in a 2–0 success over U.S. Cremonese and gave the hosts their first ever win in the top flight; during the second half, however, he suffered a serious injury after an aggressive challenge from Alessandro Pedroni, which kept him out for the rest of the season as his team narrowly avoided relegation.


title: Paulo Futre

text: The following campaign, Futre managed only 12 appearances and netted four times, which were not enough to save Reggiana from relegation. For 1995–96 he did move to Milan but, due to continuing injury troubles as well as competition from other talented offensive, creative players in his position, he only featured once for the Fabio Capello-led team, coming on as a substitute for Roberto Baggio in the final match of the season against Cremonese at the San Siro, which ended 7–1 for the hosts who celebrated the league conquest.


title: Paulo Futre

text: After his time in Italy, Futre agreed to a one-year deal with West Ham United, where he infamously refused to play until he was given squad number 10. Finally, he returned to Atlético Madrid (ten La Liga matches in 1997–98), effectively ending his career with J1 League club Yokohama Flügels; he ranked joint-98th in World Soccer's 100 Greatest Players of the 20th Century, published in December 1999.


title: Paulo Futre

text: Futre worked as director of football at Atlético Madrid from 2000 to 2003, subsequently becoming a real-estate developer in his hometown. In May 2011, he was part of Dias Ferreira's team in an unsuccessful run for Sporting's presidency.


title: Paulo Futre

text: Futre played 41 times for Portugal in a 12-year span, scoring six goals. His debut came against Finland for the UEFA Euro 1984 qualifiers, on 27 April 1983 – he was only 17 years and 204 days old, breaking a national team record.


title: Paulo Futre

text: Futre was a member of the national team that competed in the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico, playing 90 minutes in the 1–3 loss to Morocco in an eventual group stage exit.


title: Paulo Futre

text: A highly talented and creative left-footed winger whose playing style initially drew comparisons with Diego Maradona, Futre was known in particular for his explosive acceleration as well as his excellent technical ability. His dribbling skills, speed, flair, balance, agility and quick feet enabled him to be extremely fast with the ball at his feet and allowed him to take on several opponents.


title: Paulo Futre

text: Due to his vision and work-rate, Futre was capable both of creating and scoring goals, and was a versatile player who was also deployed as a second striker and as an attacking midfielder on occasion during his time in Italy. Despite the precocious talent he demonstrated in his youth, he was also prone to injuries which greatly affected his career, leading to increasingly inconsistent performances, a poorer goalscoring rate, and a premature retirement at the age of 32.


title: Paulo Futre

text: Futre's younger son, Fábio, was also a footballer. A midfielder, he played for Atlético Madrid's youth teams, and was called up for Portugal under-17s. His nephew, Artur Futre, appeared professionally for F.C. Alverca, F.C. Maia and C.D. Aves, without much impact; his older son, Paulo, played in a rock band, "Fr1day".


title: Paulo Futre

text: Paulo Sr. was also a television presenter, hosting the TVI 24 late night talk show "A Noite do Futrebol".


title: Paulo Futre

text: "Scores and results list Portugal's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Futre goal."


title: Giuseppe Farina

text: Emilio Giuseppe Farina, also known as Giuseppe Antonio "Nino" Farina, (; 30 October 1906 – 30 June 1966) was an Italian racing driver and first official Formula One World Champion. He gained the title in 1950. He was the Italian Champion in 1937, 1938 and 1939.


title: Giuseppe Farina

text: Born in Turin, Farina was the son of Giovanni Carlo Farina (1884–1957) who founded the Stabilimenti Farina coachbuilder. He began driving a two-cylinder Temperino, at the age of just nine. Farina became a Doctor of Political Science (although some sources say engineering); he also excelled at skiing, football and athletics. He cut short a career as a cavalry officer with the Italian army to fulfill a different ambition: motor racing.


title: Giuseppe Farina

text: While still at university Farina purchased his first car, a second-hand Alfa Romeo, and ran it in the 1925 Aosta-Gran San Bernardo Hillclimb. While trying to beat his father, he crashed, breaking his shoulder and receiving facial cuts, establishing a trend that continued throughout his crash-prone career. His father finished fourth.


title: Giuseppe Farina

text: During the 1933 and 1934 seasons Farina returned to the sport, racing Maseratis and Alfa Romeos for Gino Rovere and Scuderia Subalpina, and began a friendship with Italian racing legend Tazio Nuvolari. It was Nuvolari who to some extent, guided Farina's early career. In 1935, he raced for the factory Maserati team, showing enough promise to impress Enzo Ferrari, who recruited him to drive for Scuderia Ferrari, the team that ran the works-supported Alfa Romeos. It was in an Alfa Romeo 8C that he finished second in the Mille Miglia, after driving through the night without lights. He became a Grand Prix winner when he won the 1937 Grand Prix of Naples.


title: Giuseppe Farina

text: Although he was noted for his driving style and intelligence, he had a petulant streak and disregard for his fellow competitors whilst on the race track. He was involved in two fatal accidents. The first was during the 1936 Grand Prix de Deauville, when he tried to pass Marcel Lehoux for second. Farina's Alfa Romeo 8C collided with Lehoux's ERA, causing the ERA to overturn and catch fire. Lehoux was thrown out, suffered a fractured skull and died in hospital, while Farina escaped with minor injuries. Two seasons later, during the 1938 Gran Premio di Tripoli, László Hartmann's Maserati 4CM cut a corner in front of Farina. The cars collided and overturned. Farina survived without major injuries, but Hartmann died the following day.


title: Giuseppe Farina

text: In 1938, the official Alfa Romeo team, Alfa Corse, returned to motor sport and Farina was a member. Driving the new Alfa Romeo 158 Voiturette in 1939, he won the Grand Prix d'Anvers, Coppa Ciano and the Prix de Berne, to become the Italian Champion for the third year in succession. The following year, he won the Tripoli Grand Prix and finished second in the Mille Miglia for the third time.


title: Giuseppe Farina

text: After World War II, Farina returned to Alfa Corse to drive their 158. He won the 1946 Grand Prix des Nations. However, he left Alfa Corse after a disagreement over team leadership and sat out the whole of the 1947 season. He came back to the sport in 1948 with a privately entered Maserati and a works Ferrari. During this period, he also married Elsa Giaretto. In her opinion motor sport was a silly and dangerous activity, and she tried to persuade Farina to stop. Three days after their high society wedding, Farina flew to Argentina where he drove his Maserati 8CL to victory in the Gran Premio Internacional del General San Martín. On his return to Europe, he won the Grand Prix des Nations and the 1948 Monaco Grand Prix. Using Ferrari's first Grand Prix car, the Ferrari 125, he won the Circuito di Garda before giving the Temporada another visit. This resulted in victory in the Copa Acción San Lorenzo in February 1949. The rest of the year he raced Maseratis for Scuderia Milano and Scuderia Ambrosiana, and at times in his own 4CLT/48. He won the Lausanne Grand Prix and then was re-signed by Alfa Corse.


title: Giuseppe Farina

text: In 1950, Farina returned to Alfa Romeo for the inaugural FIA World Championship of Drivers. The opening race of the season was held at Silverstone Circuit, in front of 150,000 spectators. Farina won, with teammates Luigi Fagioli and Reg Parnell, completing an Alfa Romeo 1–2–3 finish. At Monaco eight days later, a multiple pile-up on the first lap saw Farina spin out of a race that Juan Manuel Fangio went on to win. In the 1950 Swiss Grand Prix, Farina beat his teammate Fagioli into second. The next race, at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, saw Fangio beat Fagioli, with Farina finishing in fourth with transmission problems. At this stage, Farina still led the championship on points: Farina 22; Fagioli 18; Fangio 17.


title: Giuseppe Farina

text: When Fangio won the 1950 French Grand Prix, Farina finished outside of the points in seventh. By the season finale on 3 September, the 1950 Italian Grand Prix, Farina was trailing his teammate by two points. For Alfa, Monza was home territory and so they fielded an additional car for Piero Taruffi and Consalvo Sanesi. It was the Ferrari of Alberto Ascari who put pressure on the Alfas during the early stages of the race, lying in second, in the knowledge that his car only needed one fuel stop to the Alfas' two, but he retired with engine problems. Soon after, Fangio's gearbox failed and Taruffi handed over his car, only for it to drop a valve and retire. Instead, first position and therefore the championship went to Farina.


title: Giuseppe Farina

text: He continued with Alfa Romeo for the 1951 season, but was beaten by Fangio, who secured the title for the Milanese marque. Farina finished the season in fourth place, with his only world championship victory coming in the 1951 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps. Farina switched back to Ferrari for 1952, when Grand Prix racing switched to Formula 2 specification, but had to take second place to team leader Ascari. He won the non-championship Gran Premio di Napoli and Monza Grand Prix. Ascari's total domination of the championship had been a bitter blow to Farina's self-image. He also drove Tony Vandervell's Thinwall Special – a modified Ferrari 375 F1 car to second place in the end-of-season Woodcote Cup at Goodwood.


title: Giuseppe Farina

text: He remained at Ferrari for the 1953 season. He was involved in a large accident at the first race of the season, the Argentine Grand Prix: President Juan Perón had allowed free access to the race, which meant that the drivers had to race with hordes of spectators lining the circuit, and a young boy ran across the track while Farina was committed to a fast corner, the Curva Nor Este. Farina was forced to take evasive action and swerved into the spectators standing on the exit of the corner, killing seven and injuring many others.


title: Giuseppe Farina

text: Farina's best result of the season was victory in the 1953 German Grand Prix. He took up the challenge against the works Maserati of Fangio and Mike Hawthorn when Ascari's car lost a wheel. Other non-Championship Formula One victories came in the Gran Premio di Napoli and Grand Prix de Rouen-les-Essarts. By now he had accepted that Ascari and Fangio were faster drivers than him. He nevertheless took a string of podium finishes, gaining third place in the World Championship. This year saw the introduction of the World Sportscar Championship, and as part of the Scuderia Ferrari squad of drivers, Farina made a number of appearances, winning twice. The first came in the 24 Heures de Spa-Francorchamps, when he and Hawthorn had a winning margin of 18 laps, which amounted to about an advantage of close to 90 minutes. The second victory came in the next race, the 1953 1000km of Nürburgring, this time partnered by Ascari, with a smaller margin of just over 15 minutes. He also triumphed in the Daily Express Trophy race at Silverstone in another one-off race in the Thinwall Special.


title: Giuseppe Farina

text: Although he was now 47, a golden opportunity arose at Ferrari when Ascari left the team, leaving Farina the team leader. After early season results including victories in the 1000 km Buenos Aires sports car race, co-driven by the young Italian Umberto Maglioli, and the Syracuse Grand Prix, he crashed heavily in the Mille Miglia whilst leading in his Ferrari 375 Plus. Just seven weeks later, and with his right arm still in plaster, Farina raced in the 1954 Belgian Grand Prix. He was leading before the end of the first lap, dicing with Fangio's Maserati, until the ignition failed on his Ferrari. Later in the season he was badly injured in the Supercortemaggiore Grand Prix, a sports car race at Monza, as a consequence of which he spent 20 days in hospital.


title: Giuseppe Farina

text: He was back with Ferrari for the start of the 1955 season in Argentina, taking morphine injections to ease the pain. But the heat took its toll on all of the drivers. Farina pitted due to exhaustion, with his Ferrari 625 being taken over by the team's spare driver, Maglioli. When José Froilán González pitted, a revived Farina was sent out in his place. Later in the race, González – who was back in his car – crashed but rejoined and handed the car back to Farina, who brought it home in second. Third place in the 1955 Argentine Grand Prix went to Farina's original car which had been drivern by Maglioli and Maurice Trintignant. After a third place in Belgium, Farina retired mid-season, owing to the continued pain and the death of Ascari. He returned for the 1955 Italian Grand Prix, but his Scuderia Ferrari-entered Lancia D50 suffered a tyre failure at 170 mph during a practice session, whilst on the Monza's new banking. The car spun, but Farina stepped out unhurt. Ferrari withdrew the car from the event, and Farina did not start his final Grand Prix.


title: Giuseppe Farina

text: Farina entered the 1956 Indianapolis 500, with a six-cylinder Ferrari engine installed in a Kurtis Kraft chassis. The car, sponsored by Bardahl, was listed on the entry as a Bardahl-Ferrari. Qualifying for the race was scheduled for four days during May. The second weekend saw heavy rain that cancelled the third day and left only a small amount of time for drivers to contest the remaining spaces of the grid. This meant a few drivers did not get a chance to qualify on the fourth day, and Farina was one of them. Farina elected to race a conventional Indy car in 1957, but he had difficulty getting the car up to speed and experienced some handling problems. His teammate, Keith Andrews, stepped into the car for a test run, but crashed on the front stretch. The car backed into the inside wall and Andrews was crushed to death between the cowl and fuel tank. Farina withdrew from the event and never returned.


title: Giuseppe Farina

text: Following his retirement, Farina became involved in Alfa Romeo and Jaguar distributorships and later assisted at the Pininfarina factory.


title: Giuseppe Farina

text: On his way to the 1966 French Grand Prix, Farina lost control of his Lotus Cortina in the Savoy Alps, near Aiguebelle, hit a telegraph pole and was killed instantly. He had been on his way to both watch the race and to take part in filming as the adviser and driving double of the French actor Yves Montand, who played an ex-World Champion in the film "Grand Prix".


title: Tamaraw

text: The tamaraw or Mindoro dwarf buffalo (Bubalus mindorensis) is a small hoofed mammal belonging to the family Bovidae. It is endemic to the island of Mindoro in the Philippines, and is the only endemic Philippine bovine. It is believed, however, to have once also thrived on the larger island of Luzon. The tamaraw was originally found all over Mindoro, from sea level up to the mountains (2000 m above sea level), but because of human habitation, hunting, and logging, it is now restricted to only a few remote grassy plains and is now a critically endangered species.


title: Tamaraw

text: Contrary to common belief and past classification, the tamaraw is not a subspecies of the water buffalo, nor is it a subspecies of the slightly larger carabao, which is classified as a subspecies of the water buffalo. In contrast to the carabao, the tamaraw has a number of distinguishing characteristics; it is slightly hairier, has light markings on its face, is not gregarious, and has shorter horns that are somewhat V-shaped. It is the second-largest native terrestrial mammal in the country next only to the carabao.


title: Tamaraw

text: The presence of "B. mindorensis" on the island of Mindoro, coupled with the discovery of fossil bubalids in other islands around the archipelago, indicates that the family was once widespread throughout the Philippines. In fact, fossil finds in the 20th century have shown that "B. mindorensis" was once found on the northern Philippine island of Luzon during the Pleistocene.


title: Tamaraw

text: As a member of the family Bovidae, the tamaraw's close affinity to the water buffalo ("B. bubalis") has been validated many times in the past. It was once considered a subspecies of "B. bubalis" (as "Anoa bubalis"), "Anoa bubalis mindorensis". Recent genetic analysis studies of the family members further strengthen this view.


title: Tamaraw

text: The tamaraw was originally described as "Anoa mindorensis" by French zoologist Pierre Marie Heude in 1888. In 1958, it was described as "Anoa bubalis mindorensis", a subspecies of the then-water buffalo species ("Anoa bubalis"). A little over a decade after, the tamaraw was elevated to species status as "Anoa mindorensis" in 1969.


title: Tamaraw

text: Later research and analyses of relationships determined the genus "Anoa" to be a part of the genus "Bubalus". The tamaraw's scientific name was updated into its present form, "Bubalus mindorensis" (sometimes referred to as "Bubalus "("Bubalus")" mindorensis").


title: Tamaraw

text: The name tamaraw has other variants, such as tamarau, tamarou, and tamarao. The term tamaraw may have come from "tamadaw", which is a probable alternative name for the banteng ("Bos javanicus").


title: Tamaraw

text: "B. mindorensis" has the appearance of a typical member of its family. It has a compact, heavyset, bovine body, four legs that end in cloven hooves, and a small, horned head at the end of a short neck. It is smaller and stockier compared to the water buffalo ("B. bubalis"). Little sexual dimorphism is seen in the species, although males are reported to have thicker necks. The tamaraw has a typical shoulder height of . The length of the body is , while the tail adds a further . Reported weights have ranged from .


title: Tamaraw

text: Adults have a dark brown to grayish color and more hair than "B. bubalis". The limbs are short and stocky. White markings are seen in the hooves and the inner lower fore legs. These markings are similar to those of the anoa ("B. depressicornis"). The face is the same color as the body. Most of the members of the species also have a pair of gray-white strips that begins from the inner corner of the eye to the horns. The nose and lips have black skin. The ears are long from notch to tip with white markings on the insides.


title: Tamaraw

text: Both sexes grows short, black horns in a V-shaped manner compared to C-shaped horns of "B. bubalis". The horns have flat surfaces and are triangular at their base. Due to the regular rubbing, the tamaraw's horns have a worn outer surface, but with rough inner sides. The horns are reported to be long.


title: Tamaraw

text: The tamaraw was first documented in 1888 on the island of Mindoro. Before 1900, most people avoided settling on Mindoro due to a virulent strain of malaria. However, as antimalarial medicine was developed, more people settled on the island. The increase in human activity has drastically reduced tamaraw population. By 1966, the tamaraw's range was reduced to three areas: Mount Iglit, Mount Calavite, and areas near the Sablayan Penal Settlement. By 2000, their range was further reduced to only two areas: the Mounts Iglit–Baco National Park and Aruyan.


title: Tamaraw

text: Initial estimates of the "B. mindorensis" population on Mindoro was placed at around 10,000 individuals in the early 1900s. Less than 50 years later in 1949, the population had dwindled to around 1000 individuals. By 1953, fewer than 250 animals were estimated to be alive. These population estimates continually grew smaller until the International Union for Conservation of Nature publication of their 1969 Red Data Book, where the tamaraw population was noted to be an alarmingly low 100 head. This head count rose to 120 animals in 1975. Current estimates place the wild tamaraw population from 30 to 200 individuals.


title: Tamaraw

text: As a rare, endemic mammal on a relatively secluded island, the ecology of the tamaraw is largely unknown. Individuals of the species are reclusive and shy away from humans. In addition, the small sizes of the species' subpopulations, already spread thin throughout their fragmented range (on 1986, about 51 individuals are found in a 20-km area), make contact with any more than a solitary individual a rarity.


title: Tamaraw

text: "B. mindorensis" prefers tropical highland forested areas. It is typically found in thick brush, near open-canopied glades, where it may feed on grasses. Since human habitation and subsequent forest fragmentation of their home island of Mindoro, the habitat preferences of the tamaraw have somewhat expanded to lower-altitude grassy plains. Within their mountainous environment, tamaraws will usually be found not far from sources of water.


title: Tamaraw

text: The tamaraw is a grazer that feeds on grasses and young bamboo shoots, although it is known to prefer cogon grass and wild sugarcane ("Saccharum spontaneum"). They are naturally diurnal, feeding during the daytime hours; however, daytime human activities have recently forced select "B. mindorensis" individuals to be nocturnal to avoid human contact.


title: Tamaraw

text: The tamaraw is known to live for about 20 years, with an estimated lifespan of about 25. The adult female tamaraw gives birth to one offspring after a gestation period around 300 days. There is an interbirth interval of two years, although one female has been sighted with three juveniles. The calf stays for 2–4 years with its mother before becoming independent.


title: Tamaraw

text: Unlike the closely related water buffalo, "B. mindorensis" is a solitary creature. Adults of the species do not occur in herds or smaller packs, and are often encountered alone. Only juveniles exhibit the typical bovine herding behavior and clan hierarchy often seen in water buffalo. Males and females are known to associate all year round, but this interaction lasts only a few hours. This solitary behavior may be an adaptation to its forest environment. Adult males are often solitary and apparently aggressive, while adult females can be alone, accompanied by a bull, or their young of different ages.


title: Tamaraw

text: Reports of aggression when cornered are unsubstantiated. Tamaraw Threat posture involves lowering the head, and shifting its horns into a vertical position, accompanied by head shaking.


title: Tamaraw

text: Being an entirely endemic and rare land mammal, "B. mindorensis" stands as an extremely vulnerable species. Currently, it is classified as a critically endangered species and has been so since 2000 by the IUCN on its IUCN Red List of endangered species. Awareness of the conservation status of "B. mindorensis" began in 1965, when it was classified as status inadequately known by the IUCN. Enough data were gathered on the tamaraw population by 1986, and the IUCN conservation monitoring center declared the species endangered. Throughout succeeding surveys conducted in 1988, 1990, 1994 and 1996, the species remained listed on the Red List as "endangered". The relisting of the species in 1996 fulfilled the IUCN criteria "B1+2c" and "D1". Criterion "B1" indicated that the species' range was less than 500 km, and is known to exist in less than five independent locations. A noticed continuing decline in the population fulfilled sub-criterion "2c", given the condition of the population's sole habitat. Criterion "D1" essentially required that a population be composed of less than 250 mature individuals; individual counts of the "B. mindorensis" population at the time figured significantly lower than this. In 2000, the tamaraw was relisted on the Red List under the more severe "C1" criteria. This was due to estimates that the population would decline by 20% in five years or within the timespan of two generations.


title: Tamaraw

text: Many factors have contributed to the decline of the tamaraw population. Over the course of the century, the increase of the human population on Mindoro has exposed the island's sole tamaraw population to severe anthropogenic pressures. In the 1930s, the introduction of non-native cattle on the island caused a severe rinderpest epidemic among the tamaraw population then numbering in the thousands. Hunting of tamaraws for food and sustenance has also taken a toll on the species' numbers. The most major factor threatening survival of "B. mindorensis" is habitat loss due to infrastructure development, logging, and agriculture. These factors reduced the population of thousands during the early 1900s to less than 300 individuals in 2007.


title: Tamaraw

text: Due to the decline of the "B. mindorensis" population, various Philippine laws and organizations have been created towards the conservation of the species. In 1936, Commonwealth Act No. 73 was enacted by the then-Philippine Commonwealth. The act specifically prohibited killing, hunting, and even merely wounding tamaraws, with an exception noted for self-defense (if one were to be attacked by an agitated individual) or for scientific purposes. The penalties were harsh enough to include a hefty fine and imprisonment.


title: Tamaraw

text: In 1979, an executive order was signed creating a committee specifically geared towards the conservation of the tamaraw; it was referred to as a "source of national pride" in the said order. The Tamaraw Conservation Project was also established in 1979. The organization has successfully bred a tamaraw, nicknamed "Kali", in captivity in 1999. In 2001, Republic Act 9147, or the Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act was enacted to protect the tamaraw and other endemic species from hunting and sale. During the 1970s, a gene pool was established to preserve the tamaraw's numbers. However, the project was not successful, as only one offspring, named "Kali", was produced. As of 2011, Kali is the only surviving animal in the gene pooling project. The project was also not improved as the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau showed that the tamaraws were already breeding in the wild. Cloning was not implemented for conservation as the Department of Environment and Natural Resource argued that such measures would diminish the genetic diversity of the species.


title: Tamaraw

text: A small subpopulation of tamaraws has been found within the confines of the Mt. Iglit Game Refuge and Bird Sanctuary on Mindoro.


title: Tamaraw

text: As of May 2007, "B. mindorensis" is on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, where it has been since the species was first put on the list on January 7, 1975. With the listing, CITES recognizes the species as critically endangered and threatened with extinction. Thus, international commercial trade in the species or any derivatives of which, such as meat or horns, is considered illegal. While commercial trade in the species is prohibited, exchange for noncommercial reasons, such as scientific research, is allowed.


title: Tamaraw

text: The 2002 Presidential Proclamation 273 set October as a "Special Month for the Conservation and Protection of the Tamaraw in Mindoro.".


title: Tamaraw

text: As of April 2019, according to June Pineda, Tamaraw Conservation Program coordinator of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the latest count at Mounts Iglit-Baco National Park in Occidental Mindoro showed 466 to 494 tamaraws, lower than 2018’s 523 animals.


title: Tamaraw

text: While not as heavily exploited as other large, endangered mammals, the tamaraw population was subject to some harvesting pressure from subsistence hunters before conservation efforts were spurred towards the latter half of the 20th century. The IUCN has described this as still going on in their 2006 Red List report.


title: Tamaraw

text: Though the national animal of the Philippines is the carabao, the tamaraw is also considered a national symbol of the Philippines. An image of the animal is found on the 1980- to early-1990-version of the one-peso coins.


title: Tamaraw

text: In 2004, Proclamation No. 692 was enacted to make October 1 a special working holiday in the province of Occidental Mindoro. In line with the Tamaraw Conservation Month, the proclamation aimed to remind the people of Mindoro the importance of the conservation of the tamaraw and its environment.


title: Tamaraw

text: During the wake of the Asian utility popularity in the 1990s, Toyota Motors Philippines released the Toyota Kijang as the "Tamaraw FX", an evolution of the Tamaraw AUV. It was widely patronized by taxi operators, and was immediately turned into a staple mode of transportation much like a cross of the taxi and the jeepney. The FX later saw a new generation model known locally as the Revo The tamaraw is also the mascot of the varsity teams of the Far Eastern University (FEU Tamaraws) in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines, and of the Toyota Tamaraws of the Philippine Basketball Association. The Tamaraw Falls in Barangay Villaflor, Puerto Galera, were also named after the bovine.


title: Seyyed Hossein Nasr

text: Seyyed Hossein Nasr (; , born April 7, 1933) is an Iranian philosopher and University Professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University.


title: Seyyed Hossein Nasr

text: Born in Tehran, Nasr completed his education in Iran and the United States, earning a bachelor's degree in physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a master's in geology and geophysics, and a doctorate in the history of science from Harvard University. He returned to his homeland in 1958, turning down teaching positions at MIT and Harvard, and was appointed a professor of philosophy and Islamic sciences at Tehran University. He held various academic positions in Iran, including vice-chancellor at Tehran University and President of Aryamehr University, and established the Imperial Iranian Academy of Philosophy at the request of Empress Farah Pahlavi, which soon became one of the most prominent centers of philosophical activity in the Islamic world. During his time in Iran, he studied with several traditional masters of Islamic philosophy and sciences.


title: Seyyed Hossein Nasr

text: The 1979 revolution forced him to exile with his family to the United States, where he has lived and taught Islamic sciences and philosophy ever since, establishing himself as one of the world's leading representatives of the Islamic philosophical tradition and the perennialist school of thought.


title: Seyyed Hossein Nasr

text: Nasr's works offer a critique of modern worldviews as well as a defense of Islamic and perennialist doctrines and principles. He argues that knowledge has been desacralized in the modern period, that is, separated from its divine source—God or the Ultimate Reality—and calls for its resacralization through sacred traditions and sacred science. Although Islam and Sufism are major influences on his writings, his perennialist approach inquires into the essence of all orthodox religions, regardless of their formal particularities. He is considered a key thinker on the environment, particularly in terms of Islamic environmentalism and resacralization of nature. He is the author of over fifty books and more than five hundred articles.


title: Seyyed Hossein Nasr

text: Seyyed Hossein Nasr was born on 7 April 1933 in Tehran to Seyyed Valiallah Khan Nasr, who was a physician to the royal family, philosopher and homme de lettres, and one of the founders of modern education in Iran. Nasr's parents were originally from Kashan. His mother was well-versed in Persian literature and poetry. He is a descendant of Sheikh Fazlollah Nouri from his mother's side, is the cousin of Iranian philosopher Ramin Jahanbegloo as well as the father of American academic Vali Nasr.


title: Seyyed Hossein Nasr

text: The surname "Nasr", which means "victory", was given to his grandfather by the Shah. The title "Seyyed" indicates a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad.


title: Seyyed Hossein Nasr

text: Nasr completed his primary education in Tehran. His education was supplemented by religious and philosophical discussions with his father and an entourage of theologians, ministers, scholars, and mystics. He immersed himself in the Koranic studies, Persian literature, Arabic and French languages at an early age. While he was completing his first year of secondary school at Firooz Bahram High School, his father was hurt in a serious accident, so his mother sent him to continue his education in the United States so that he would not be present at the time of his father's imminent death. He would later say that there are three things that his father left him: "first of all, love of knowledge for our own Persian culture, our religious, literary, philosophical tradition; secondly, an avid interest in what was going on in the West in the realm of science and philosophy, literature and everything else; thirdly, a sense of serenity that he had within himself."


title: Seyyed Hossein Nasr

text: In the United States, Nasr first attended Peddie School in Hightstown, New Jersey, graduating in 1950 as the valedictorian of his class.


title: Seyyed Hossein Nasr

text: He then applied to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston to study physics and was accepted with a scholarship. When he realized, after an encounter with the philosopher Bertrand Russell, that the study of physics would not bring answers to his questions, he enrolled in additional courses on metaphysics and philosophy with Giorgio de Santillana who introduced him to the works of René Guénon. From there, Nasr discovered the works of other Perennialist metaphysicians, notably Frithjof Schuon, Ananda Coomaraswamy, Titus Burckhardt, Martin Lings, and Marco Pallis. This school of thought has shaped Nasr's life and thinking ever since. The widow of Commaraswamy gave him access to the library of her late husband, and Nasr spent much of his time there and worked to catalogue the library. He visited Schuon and Burckhardt in Switzerland while still a student and was initiated into the Alawi branch of the Shadhili Sufi order. He considered the works of Schuon, with central importance given to the practice of a spiritual discipline in addition to doctrinal knowledge, especially instrumental in determining his intellectual and spiritual life.


title: Seyyed Hossein Nasr

text: After receiving an MIT B.S. degree in physics in 1954, Nasr enrolled in the graduate program in geology and geophysics at Harvard University, where he received a Master of Science in both fields in 1956, and went on to pursue his PhD degree in the history of science and learning at the same university. He planned to write his dissertation under the supervision of George Sarton, but Sarton died before he could begin his dissertation work and so he wrote it under the direction of I. Bernard Cohen, Hamilton Gibb, and Harry Wolfson.


title: Seyyed Hossein Nasr

text: At the age of twenty-five, Nasr graduated with a PhD from Harvard and completed his first book, "Science and Civilization in Islam", the title being a direct tribute to "Science and Civilization in China", the work by Joseph Needham which had for task to present to Westerners the complex developments of the history of science and technology in China, a mission Nasr was himself following for the Islamic civilization. His doctoral dissertation entitled "Conceptions of Nature in Islamic Thought" was published in 1964 by Harvard University Press as "An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines".


title: Seyyed Hossein Nasr

text: Apart from mastering Arabic and French he was initially taught in his childhood, during his student years, Nasr also learned Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish and German.


title: Seyyed Hossein Nasr

text: After receiving his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1958, Nasr was offered the position of associate professor at MIT, as well as a three-year research position as a junior fellow followed by a formal teaching position at Harvard, but he decided to return to Iran. That same year, Tehran University hired him as associate professor of philosophy and the history of science. He continued his study of Islamic sciences with traditional Iranian masters and philosophers (Muhammad Husayn Tabataba'i, Allameh Sayyed Abul Hasan Rafiee Qazvini and Sayyid Muhammad Kazim Assar), completing his dual education, academic and traditional.


title: Seyyed Hossein Nasr

text: He had married and started a family at this point. His son, Vali Nasr, would go on to become an academic and expert on the Islamic world.


title: Seyyed Hossein Nasr

text: At thirty, Seyyed Hossein Nasr was the youngest person to become a full professor at Tehran University. He was quickly recognized as an authority in Islamic philosophy, Islamic science and Sufism. For fifteen years he conducted a doctoral seminar in comparative philosophy and Islamic philosophy with Henry Corbin who was at that time the director of the French Institute for Iranian Studies in Tehran. Five years later he would be made the dean of the faculty of letters and then vice-chancellor of the university.


title: Seyyed Hossein Nasr

text: In 1972, the Shah chose him to become the President of Aryamehr University (now Sharif University of Technology). There, Nasr created a faculty for the humanities in order to encourage the students not to focus exclusively on scientific matters. He also designed courses that focused on the assessment of modern technology and its impact on human society and the environment. During this time, he was also involved in the creation of the Islamic and Iranian studies departments at Harvard, Princeton, the University of Utah, and the University of Southern California.


title: Seyyed Hossein Nasr

text: Nasr refused to engage in the politics of his country despite a number of offers for ministerial positions and ambassadorship. In 1974, Empress Farah Pahlavi commissioned him to establish and lead the Imperial Iranian Academy of Philosophy (now the Institute for Research in Philosophy), the first academic institution to be conducted in accordance with the intellectual principles of the Traditionalist School. During that time, Nasr, Tabataba'i, William Chittick, Peter Lamborn Wilson, Kenneth Morgan, Sachiko Murata, Toshihiko Izutsu, and Henry Corbin held various philosophical discourses. The book "Shi'ite Islam" and the traditionalist journal "Sophia Perennis" were products of this period. In 1978, he was named director of the Empress's private bureau, while continuing to teach philosophy at Tehran University, and serve as chancellor of Aryamehr University, and President of the Imperial Iranian Academy of Philosophy.


title: Seyyed Hossein Nasr

text: In January 1979, the revolution put an end to the Pahlavi dynasty and Nasr, who was visiting London with his family at the time, was unable to return to Iran. He lost everything, including his manuscripts and library. His family settled in Boston. After a few months of teaching at the University of Utah, Nasr was appointed a professor of Islamic studies at Temple University in Philadelphia, which had the largest Ph.D. program in religious studies in the United States.


title: Seyyed Hossein Nasr

text: During the 1980–1981 academic year, Nasr delivered the Gifford lectures at the University of Edinburgh, which were later published under the title "Knowledge and the Sacred". According to William Chittick, "three out of the four of his first books in English ("An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines", "Three Muslim Sages", and "Science and Civilization in Islam") were published by Harvard University Press, and they immediately established him as one of the major and original voices in Islamic studies. His strong endorsement of the writings of Schuon and Burckhardt in these books were in turn instrumental in bringing the Traditionalist school to the notice of official academia".


title: Seyyed Hossein Nasr

text: Nasr left Temple University in 1984 to become a professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., a position he holds to this day. That same year, he established the Foundation for Traditional Studies which published the journal "Sophia" and works on traditional thought. He has authored over fifty books and over five hundred articles based on the principles of the "philosophia perennis". He is regularly invited to give courses and conferences at various institutions and universities of the five different continents on the major themes for which he has become well known: Islam, philosophy, metaphysics, cosmology, anthropology, spirituality, religion, science, ecology, literature, art, etc. His works have been translated into twenty-eight different languages.


title: Seyyed Hossein Nasr

text: Nasr's expertise encompasses traditional culture (wisdom, religion, philosophy, science and art), Western thought from antiquity to the present day, and the history of science. He argues in favor of revelation, tradition, and what he considers ""scientia sacra"", in opposition to rationalism, relativism, and modern western materialism.


title: Seyyed Hossein Nasr

text: Nasr has not developed a new system of thought, but instead hopes to revive traditional doctrines that he believes have been forgotten in the modern world. He is content to recall what, according to him, corresponds to the many manifestations of a timeless wisdom. Although Islam and Sufism are present throughout his writings, his universalist perspective, which is that of perennial philosophy, takes into account what he assumes to be the common essence of all orthodox religions beyond their formal particularities or their current state: "My philosophical world is a kind of synthesis between the perennial philosophy, which I espouse and represent, and the Islamic philosophical tradition, which I have tried to revive and to which I also belong. And so I would say that for the first category, there are Guénon and Schuon; if I had to name a third person, then Coomaraswamy; and for the second category, Ibn Sina, Suhrawardı, Ibn Arabi, and Mulla Sadra." According to Sarah Robinson-Bertoni, Nasr is one of the principal figures in Islamic philosophy, working at the crossroads of Western and Islamic intellectual traditions.


title: Seyyed Hossein Nasr

text: Harry Oldmeadow considers Nasr to be "of the living traditionalists the most widely known in academic circles". For him, Nasr's works are characterized by "rigorous scholarly methodology, an encyclopedic erudition about all matters Islamic, a robustness of critical thought, and a sustained clarity of expression"; and he is "the foremost traditionalist thinker" to base himself on "eternal wisdom ("sophia perennis")" in order to provide a solution to the contemporary environmental crisis.


title: Seyyed Hossein Nasr

text: When he discovered the writings of the most influential members of what would become the Traditionalist or Perennialist school (René Guénon, Frithjof Schuon, Ananda Coomaraswamy, Titus Burckhardt, Martin Lings), the student Seyyed Hossein Nasr fully aligned himself to their perspective founded on the "philosophia perennis".


title: Seyyed Hossein Nasr

text: Thus, in the middle of a "materialistic century", this School provides Nasr with the keys to his spiritual quest: an esoteric doctrine and method within the framework of a Sufi path. For Patrick Laude:


title: Seyyed Hossein Nasr

text: For Nasr, the expression, ""philosophia perennis"", as understood by the Perennialist School refers to both the universal metaphysical truth and to its spiritual realization. The latter can only be considered, according to Nasr, in the framework of a tradition, thus with the aid of a method, rites, symbols and other means sanctified by revelation. The truth, though veiled, is innate to the human spirit and its realization leads to what he calls "knowledge", that is to say gnosis or wisdom ("sophia"), hence the expression ""sophia perennis"", common ground at the heart of all religions. Nasr clarifies that the notion of the "philosophia perennis" does not derive from a compilation "of wisdom writings of various historical traditions", which would have resulted in the conviction of the existence of common truths, but it is these very truths which, by "the practice of intellection, the use of the intellect" understood in a spiritual manner, are revealed to the human spirit which then observes "their presence in other times and climes and in fact in all the sacred traditions the world over". The language of the perennial philosophy is symbolism.


title: Seyyed Hossein Nasr

text: According to Seyyed Hossein Nasr, the "Divine Reality" includes, metaphysically speaking, an "Impersonal Essence" and a personal aspect that the believer "ordinarily identifies with God", in accordance with the perspective of "most religions". Only the "esoteric dimension" within these religions take into account the "Impersonal Essence", as can be seen most notably in "the Kabbalah, Sufism, and among many Christian mystics such as Meister Eckhart and Angelus Silesius". "God as ultimate Reality" is thus at the same time "Essence" and "Person" or "Supra-Being and Being". Understood in this way, God or the Principle,


title: Seyyed Hossein Nasr

text: God is not only "Absolute and Infinite", He is also "the Supreme Good or Perfection". Now, according to Nasr, the specificity of infinitude and of good "in divinis" requires that they exteriorize themselves, that is to say, that they manifest themselves in multiplicity, hence the world. A world that is imperfect despite the perfection of its source because, as Nasr explains, this exteriorization implies a distance from the "Good", hence the presence of evil; the latter, contrary to the good, does not have its root in God. This "imperfect world" – the visible and tangible world of man – constitutes only the periphery of a hierarchy of increasingly subtle "worlds" according to their degree of proximity to Being.