Erin
A topographic map of Ireland, after which Erin is named
Pronunciation	/ˈɛrɪn/
Gender	Female
Origin
Word/Name	Hiberno-English derivative of Irish “Éirinn”
Meaning	Ireland (West), green water, Peace
Region of origin	Gaelic & Celtic
Other names
Related names	Ehrynn, Erinn, Eryn, Erynn, Iorn
Popularity	see popular names

Look up Erin in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Erin is a Hiberno-English derivative of the Irish word "Éirinn". ("Éirinn" is the dative case of the Irish word for Ireland - "Éire", genitive "Éireann").^[1]

Poets and nineteenth-century Irish nationalists used Erin in English as a romantic name for Ireland.^[2] In this context, along with Hibernia, Erin is the name given to the female personification of Ireland.^{[citation needed]}

According to Irish mythology and folklore, the name was originally given to the island by the Milesians after the goddess Ériu.

Erin go bragh ("Éirinn go brách" in standard orthography), a slogan dating from the 1798 revolution, is often translated as "Ireland forever". The etymology of the word as it drifted throughout the Gaelic region gave rise to its use by the early Scots to both mean Ireland and "west" - as Ireland lies to the west of Scotland.^[3]

Usage as a given or family name[link]

As a given name, Erin is used for both sexes, although, given its origins, it is principally used as a feminine forename. It first became a popular given name in the United States.^{[citation needed]} Erin is also a name for Ireland in Welsh, and is one of the 20 most popular girls' names in Wales.^[4]

As a family name, Erin has been used as one of the many spellings of the name of the Scottish clan "Irwin" - which was involved in the Scottish Plantations of Ireland.^[5] However, their name was originally derived from the place of the same name near Dumfries, and means "green water", from Brittonic ir afon.^[6][7]

References[link]

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. The specific problem is: Erin Brockovich's involvement in the Hinkley groundwater contamination case is not adequately described. Please help improve this article if you can; the talk page may contain suggestions. (May 2012)

Erin Brockovich
Brockovich in 2007
Born	(1960-06-22) June 22, 1960 (age 52) Lawrence, Kansas, United States
Occupation	President, Brockovich Research & Consulting[1]
Spouse	Shawn Brown (m. 1982–1987) «start: (1982)–end+1: (1988)»"Marriage: Shawn Brown to Erin Brockovich" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Erin_Brockovich) Steven Brockovich (m. 1989–1990) «start: (1989)–end+1: (1991)»"Marriage: Steven Brockovich to Erin Brockovich" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Erin_Brockovich) Eric L. Ellis (1999-present)

Erin Brockovich-Ellis (born June 22, 1960) is an American legal clerk and environmental activist who, despite the lack of a formal law school education, or any legal education, was instrumental in constructing a case against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) of California in 1993. Since the release of the film that shares her story and name, she has hosted Challenge America with Erin Brockovich on ABC and Final Justice on Zone Reality. She is the president of Brockovich Research & Consulting, a consulting firm. She is currently working as a consultant for Girardi & Keese,^[2][3] the New York law firm Weitz & Luxenberg,^[4] which has a focus on personal injury claims for asbestos exposure, and Shine Lawyers in Australia.^[5]

Early life[link]

She was born Erin Pattee in Lawrence, Kansas, to Frank Pattee, an industrial engineer and Betty Jo O'Neal-Pattee, a journalist. She attended Lawrence High School then Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, and graduated with an Associate in Applied Arts Degree from Wades Business College in Dallas, Texas. She worked as a management trainee for Kmart in 1981 but quit after a few months and entered a beauty pageant. After winning Miss Pacific Coast in 1981, she gave up pageant life. She has lived in California since 1982.

Pacific Gas and Electric litigation[link]

The case alleged contamination of drinking water with hexavalent chromium, also known as chromium(VI), in the southern California town of Hinkley. At the center of the case was a facility called the Hinkley Compressor Station, part of a natural gas pipeline connecting to the San Francisco Bay Area and constructed in 1952. Between 1952 and 1966, PG&E used hexavalent chromium to fight corrosion in the cooling tower. The wastewater dissolved the hexavalent chromium from the cooling towers and was discharged to unlined ponds at the site. Some of the wastewater percolated into the groundwater, affecting an area near the plant approximately 2 by 1 miles (3.2 by 1.6 km).^[6] The case was settled in 1996 for US$333 million, the largest settlement ever paid in a direct action lawsuit in US history.^{[citation needed]}

A study released in 2010 by the California Cancer Registry showed that cancer rates in Hinkley "remained unremarkable from 1988 to 2008."^[7] An epidemiologist involved in the study said that "the 196 cases of cancer reported during the most recent survey of 1996 through 2008 were less than what he would expect based on demographics and the regional rate of cancer."^[7]

Average Cr-6 levels in Hinkley were recorded as 1.19ppb with a peak of 3.09ppb. The PG&E Topock Compressor Station averaged 7.8ppb and peaks at 31.8ppb based on the PG&E Background Study.^[8] California's Public Health Goal (PHG), circa 2011, for hexavalent chromium is 0.02ppb.^[9]

Other litigation[link]

Working with Thousand Oaks, California-based lawyer Edward L. Masry, Brockovich went on to participate in other anti-pollution lawsuits. One accuses Whitman Corporation of chromium contamination in Willits, California. Another lawsuit, which lists 1,200 plaintiffs, alleges contamination near PG&E's Kettleman Hills Compressor Station in Kings County, California, along the same pipeline as the Hinkley site. The Kettleman suit settled for $335 million in 2006. After experiencing problems with mold contamination in her own home in the Conejo Valley, Brockovich became a prominent activist and educator in this area as well.

Brockovich and Masry filed suit against the Beverly Hills Unified School District in 2003, in which the district was accused of harming the health and safety of its students by allowing a contractor to operate a cluster of oil wells on campus.^[10] Brockovich and Masry alleged that 300 cancer cases were linked to the oil wells. Subsequent testing and epidemiological investigation failed to corroborate substantial link, and Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Wendell Mortimer granted summary judgment against the plaintiffs.^[11] In May 2007, the School District announced that it was to be paid $450,000 as reimbursement for legal expenses.^[12]

Brockovich assisted in the filing of a lawsuit against Prime Tanning Corp. of St. Joseph, Missouri in April 2009. The lawsuit claims that waste sludge from the production of leather, containing high levels of hexavalent chromium, was distributed to farmers in northwest Missouri to use as fertilizer on their fields. It is believed to be a potential cause of an abnormally high number of brain tumors (70 since 1996) around the town of Cameron, Missouri, which is currently being investigated by the EPA.^[13]

In June 2009, Brockovich began investigating a case of contaminated water in Midland, Texas.^[14] "Significant amounts" of hexavalent chromium were found in the water of more than 40 homes in the area, some of which have now been fitted with state-monitored filters on their water supply.^[14] Brockovich said "The only difference between here and Hinkley, is that I saw higher levels here than I saw in Hinkley."^[14]

Awards[link]

• Honorary Doctor of Laws, and Commencement Speaker at Lewis and Clark Law School, Portland in May 2005^[15]
• Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, and Commencement Speaker at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles on May 5, 2007^[15]
• Honorary Master of Arts, Business Communication from Jones International University^[15]

Movies[link]

Brockovich's work in bringing litigation against Pacific Gas and Electric is the focus of the 2000 feature film, Erin Brockovich, starring Julia Roberts in the title role. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Writing in a Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. Roberts won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Erin Brockovich. Erin Brockovich herself had a cameo role as a waitress named Julia R.

Brockovich has a more extensive role in the 2012 documentary Last Call at the Oasis, which focuses not only on water pollution but also on the overall state of water scarcity as it relates to water policy in the United States.^[16]

Book[link]

Brockovich's book, entitled Take It From Me: Life's a Struggle But You Can Win, was published in October 2001, and was on the NYT Business Bestseller's List.^[17]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Site of Erin Brockovich
• The Brockovich Report - BrockovichBlog.com
• Brockovich I-Village
• Official MySpace of Erin Brockovich
• Erin Brockovich biography on the Biography Channel
• Erin Brockovich at the Internet Movie Database
• Evening with Erin Brockovich in Sydney, hosted by the Climate Change Coalition 2007
• Detail about Hinkley case at AwesomeStories.com
• Did Hinkley Residents Really Win? at salon.com
• Weitz & Luxenberg PC

Erin McKean

Erin McKean (born 1971) is an American lexicographer. Erin is a founder and the CEO of the online dictionary Wordnik.^[1][2] She was previously the Principal Editor of The New Oxford American Dictionary, second edition.^[3] McKean is also the editor of Verbatim: The Language Quarterly and the author of Weird and Wonderful Words, More Weird and Wonderful Words, Totally Weird and Wonderful Words, and That’s Amore. She has a novel, The Secret Lives of Dresses, coming out from Grand Central.^[4] She writes about dresses in her blog, A Dress A Day, and about lexicography at Dictionary Evangelist. She is currently a member of the advisory board of the Wikimedia Foundation^[5] and of Credo Reference.^[6] She frequently writes the "The Word" column in The Boston Globe.^[7]

McKean has formulated 'McKean's law', a variation on Muphry's law: "Any correction of the speech or writing of others will contain at least one grammatical, spelling, or typographical error."^[8]

External links[link]

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (August 2010)

Biographies

• “Official biography” at Dictionary Evangelist
• McKean’s speaker profile for Wikimania 2007 Taipei
• McKean’s biography as member of the Wikimedia Advisory Board
• McKean’s biography at Stokefire

Blogs

• A Dress A Day
• Dictionary Evangelist
• McKean’s posts at Powells.com

Talks

• Video of a speech by Erin McKean at Google
• TED Talks: Erin McKean redefines the dictionary at TED in 2007
• Gel videos: Your daily lexicographer quota at Gel in 2006

Profiles and interviews

• New York Times: “In Land of Lexicons, Having the Last Word”
• Chat at Wordsmith.org
• NPR: “Googling for New Words”
• iCommons: "A word or two with Erin McKean"
• Portfolio.com: "A Woman of Many Words"

Other

• Verbatim magazine
• Wordnik, an online dictionary that aims to collect all the words

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Erin McKean

1. ^ "Christian Science Monitor". 2009-03-16. http://features.csmonitor.com/backstory/2009/03/16/new-online-dictionary-redefines-look-it-up/. 
2. ^ "Credo Reference". http://corp.credoreference.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2249&Itemid=30. 
3. ^ Erin McKean, ed. (May 2005,). The New Oxford American Dictionary (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 2051. ISBN 0-19-517077-6. 
4. ^ "How Erin McKean Sold Her Blog-Based Book". MediaBistro. 2008-11-07. http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/behind_the_deal/exclusive_interview_how_erin_mckean_sold_her_blogbased_book_99973.asp. 
5. ^ Wikimedia Foundation contributors (2009-02-26). "Advisory Board – Wikimedia Foundation". Wikimedia Foundation. http://wikimediafoundation.org/w/index.php?title=Advisory_Board&oldid=38606#Erin_McKean. Retrieved 2009-03-20. 
6. ^ "Credo Reference". http://corp.credoreference.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2249&Itemid=30. 
7. ^ Chillax – If it works like a word, just use it. Boston Globe 2008-08-03
8. ^ "A word to the wise". (12 August 2008). The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada), pp. A14.

Erin Daniels (born October 9, 1973) is an American actress. She is known for her role as Dana Fairbanks on The L Word (2004–2007). Her feature film work includes A Single Man, One Hour Photo, and Joshua Tree, 1951: A Portrait of James Dean.

Early life[link]

Daniels was born Erin Cohen in St. Louis, Missouri, where she grew up. Her father was an architect and her mother was a clinical social worker. She grew up in a Jewish family; her mother co-founded the Central Reform Congregation in St. Louis and her grandmother received an award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews.^[1] She attended Clayton High School and Vassar College, graduating from the latter in 1995^[2] after majoring in art.^[1]

Career[link]

After Vassar, she moved to New York City, where she studied with William Esper, a protégé of Sanford Meisner, and worked Off Broadway. She then moved to Los Angeles for a part on the short-lived TV series Action.^[1]

In 2002, the St. Louis Film Festival awarded Daniels the Emerging Star Award.^[3] She appeared in One Hour Photo, Wheelmen, and House of 1000 Corpses^[4] before becoming a cast member of Showtime's The L Word. Her depiction of Dana Fairbanks on that show prompted an anonymous donation of a million dollars to the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation,^[5] an organization that promotes and funds breast cancer intraductal research.^[6]

Daniels has also appeared in the TV shows Action, Jericho, Dexter, Saving Grace, Big Shots, Justice, CSI and Swingtown.

She played the role of The Mother in director Matthew Mishory's debut feature, Joshua Tree, 1951: A Portrait of James Dean^[7].

Personal life[link]

Daniels married producer Chris Uettwiller in 2008. They are currently living in Los Angeles with their young son.

Filmography[link]

Film[link]

• 1998: USMA West Point as Christine Davis
• 1999: Flushed as Unknown (as Erin Cohen)
• 1999: Chill Factor as Medic #2
• 2000: The Disciples as Lisa Johnson
• 2002: Wheelmen as Gwen
• 2002: One Hour Photo as Maya Burson
• 2003: House of 1000 Corpses as Denise Willis
• 2008: Zach and Miri Make a Porno as Babs
• 2009: A Single Man as Bank Teller
• 2009: Sunday Afternoons (Screenwriter and Executive Producer)
• 2010: Portland as Amy
• 2011: The Sitter

TV[link]

• 1996: Law & Order as Miss Stadler (1 episode)
• 1999: The Outer Limits as Barbara Chafey (1 episode)
• 1999: Action as Jenny (4 episodes)
• 2000: V.I.P. as Die Bodyguards (1 episode)
• 2001: Jack & Jill as Becky Hart (1 episode)
• 2001: Philly as Nicole Gilbert (1 episode)
• 2003: Boomtown as Karen Crane (4 episodes)
• 2004-2007: The L Word as Dana Fairbanks (39 episodes)
• 2006: Julie Reno, Bounty Hunter as Julie Reno (1 episode)
• 2006: Love Monkey as Dana (1 episode)
• 2006: Dexter as Rita's Neighbor (1 episode)
• 2006: Justice as Betsy Harrison (3 episodes)
• 2007: Jericho as Maggie (2 episodes)
• 2007: Big Shots as Rebecca Parks (1 episode)
• 2007: CSI: NY as Det. Brennan (1 episode)
• 2007: Saving Grace as Asst. D.A. Morgan Byers (1 episode)
• 2008: Swingtown as Sylvia Davis (4 episodes)
• 2009: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as Schuyler (1 episode)
• 2011: Rizzoli & Isles as Kate (1 episode)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Erin Daniels at the Internet Movie Database
• Erin Daniels interview at Diva Magazine official site

K.S. Rhoads (born August 7, 1976) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, composer, music-producer, and performer.

Early life[link]

Rhoads was born in Tucson, Arizona, the younger of two sons. He moved to Denver, Colorado soon after he was born, and many places thereafter, eventually settling in Fort Myers, Florida. At age 15 he began focusing intensely on music, learning many instruments including bass, piano, and harmonica. He bought his first 4 track recorder in 9th grade, and began recording his own songs. He graduated high school in 1994 and moved to Fort Worth, Texas where he attended Texas Christian University. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Religion.^[1] He moved to Nashville in 2001, but it was not until 2007 that he started work on his debut album Dead Language with producers Robin Eaton, and Lij Shaw.

Career[link]

Solo Artist[link]

Dead Language was released in 2007 and received excellent critical reviews. American Songwriter called it "an exhibition in style, grace and limitless possibilities..."^[2] Listen! Nashville says: "Rhoads has the perfectionism and musicianship of Roger Waters, as well as a similar political chip on his shoulder, making him a force to be reckoned with."^[3] He toured as the opening act for Marc Broussard,^[4] Ari Hest, Butterfly Boucher, and Erin McCarley.^[5] In January 2010 he performed at the prestigious ASCAP music cafe at Sundance Film Festival,^[6] as well as SXSW in Austin, Texas. He is currently recording his second album. His songs have been featured on the shows CSI: Miami,^[7] and World of Jenks on MTV.^[8]

Erin McCarley[link]

K.S. Rhoads often plays piano and acts as music director for Universal recording artist Erin McCarley. With McCarley he has performed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,^[9] The Late Show with David Letterman,^[10] and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.^[11] Together they have performed with and/or opened for many artists including: Chris Isaak,^[12] David Gray,^[13] Ray Lamontagne, Guster, Brett Dennen,^[14] Jeff Beck, Paolo Nutini,^[15] and James Morrison.^[16]

Ten Out of Tenn[link]

K.S. Rhoads has toured and recorded with fellow Nashville musicians for a project called Ten Out of Tenn. He, along with the other artists in Ten Out Of Tenn, is the subject of documentary entitled Any Day Now. The film was runner-up in the Nashville Film Festival.^[17] It is the story of 10 musical artists on tour together for one summer in 2008.

String Arrangements[link]

• Third Day - Move
• By The Tree - Invade My Soul
• Erin McCarley - Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing (unreleased)
• Phillip Larue - Let The Road Pave Itself
• Trent Dabbs - Decade Fades
• We Are The Emergency - Whispers & Fragments

Albums Produced[link]

• Mia Carruthers And The Retros - We Will Grow
• Erin McCarley - I Saw The Light (single)
• Farther & Faster - (unreleased)
• Sara Donaldson - Leaving Winter
• Ten Out Of Tenn - Christmas

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Website