Baker

Baker Island
Location of Baker Island in the Pacific Ocean
Geography
Coordinates	0°11′41″N 176°28′46″W / 0.19472°N 176.47944°W / 0.19472; -176.47944
Area	1.64 km2 (0.633 sq mi)
Coastline	4.9 km (3.04 mi)
Highest elevation	8 m (26 ft)
Country
United States
Demographics
Population	0
Additional information
unincorporated

Baker Island ( /ˈbeɪkər/) is an uninhabited atoll located just north of the equator in the central Pacific Ocean about 3,100 kilometers (1,700 nmi; 1,900 mi) southwest of Honolulu. The island lies almost halfway between Hawaii and Australia, and is a possession of the United States. Its nearest neighbor is Howland Island, 68 km (37 nmi; 42 mi) to the north.

Located at 0°11′41″N 176°28′46″W / 0.19472°N 176.47944°W / 0.19472; -176.47944.^[1] the island covers 1.64 km² (0.63 sq mi), with 4.9 km (3.04 mi) of coastline. The climate is equatorial, with little rainfall, constant wind, and strong sunshine. The terrain is low-lying and sandy: a coral island surrounded by a narrow fringing reef with a depressed central area devoid of any lagoon with its highest point being 8 meters (26 ft) above sea level.

The island now forms the Baker Island National Wildlife Refuge and is an unincorporated and unorganized territory of the U.S. Its defense is the responsibility of the United States; though uninhabited, it is visited annually by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. For statistical purposes, Baker is grouped with the United States Minor Outlying Islands.

Description[link]

A cemetery and rubble from earlier settlements are located near the middle of the west coast, where the boat landing area is located. There are no ports or harbors, with anchorage available only offshore. The narrow fringing reef surrounding the island can be a maritime hazard, so there is a day beacon near the old village site. Baker's abandoned World War II runway, 1,665 m (5,463 ft) long, is completely covered with vegetation and is unserviceable.

The United States claims an Exclusive Economic Zone of 200 nmi (370.4 km; 230.2 mi) and territorial sea of 12 nmi (22.2 km; 13.8 mi) around Baker Island.

During a 1935–1942 colonization attempt, the island was most likely on Hawaii time, which was then 10.5 hours behind UTC.^[2] Since it is uninhabited the island's time zone is unspecified, but it lies within a nautical time zone 12 hours behind UTC.

History[link]

Orthographic projection over Baker Island.

Baker was discovered in 1818 by Captain Elisha Folger of the Nantucket whaling ship Equator, who called the island "New Nantucket". In August 1825 Baker was resighted by Captain Obed Starbuck of the Loper, also a Nantucket whaler. The name goes back to Michael Baker, who visited the island in 1834.^[3] Other references state that he visited in 1832, and again on August 14, 1839, in the whaler Gideon Howland, to bury an American seaman.^[4]

The United States took possession of the island in 1857, claiming it under the Guano Islands Act of 1856.^[5] Its guano deposits were mined by the American Guano Company from 1859 to 1878. John T. Arundel and Company, a British firm using a competing claim to the island by the UK, made the island its headquarters for its guano-digging operations in the Pacific from 1886 to 1891. To clarify American sovereignty, Executive Order 7358 was issued on May 13, 1936.^[6]

In 1935, a short-lived attempt at colonization was begun. The American colonists arrived aboard the USCGC Itasca, the same vessel that brought colonists to neighboring Howland Island, on April 3, 1935. They built a lighthouse, substantial dwellings, and attempted to grow various plants. One sad-looking clump of coconut palms was jokingly called "King-Doyle Park" after two well-known citizens of Hawaii who visited on the Taney in 1938. This clump was the best on the island, planted near a water seep, but the dry climate and sea birds, eager for anything upon which to perch, did not give the trees or shrubs much of a chance to survive.^[7] King-Doyle Park was later adopted as a geographical name by the USGS.

The settlement was named Meyerton after Captain H.A. Meyer of the United States Army, who helped establish the camps for the colonists in 1935. It had a population of four American civilians, who were all evacuated in 1942 after Japanese air and naval attacks. During World War II it was occupied by the U.S. military.

LORAN Station Baker[link]

LORAN station Baker was a radio operations base in operation from September 1944 to July 1946. The station unit number was 91 and the radio call sign was NRN-1.^[8]

Flora and fauna[link]

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service aerial view of Baker Island

Baker has no natural fresh water sources. It is treeless, with sparse vegetation consisting of four kinds of grass,^[9] prostrate vines and low-growing shrubs. The island is primarily a nesting, roosting, and foraging habitat for seabirds, shorebirds, and marine wildlife.

Baker Island is home to a number of threatened and endangered species. The ruddy turnstone, bar-tailed godwit, sanderling, bristle-thighed curlew and Pacific golden plover, considered species of High Concern on the national conservation priority scheme, are shorebirds that inhabit the island. Green turtles and hawksbill turtles, both threatened, can be found along the reef.^[10]

Seabird species such as the lesser frigatebird, brown noddy and sooty tern use the island for nesting and roosting. The island is also believed to be a rest stop for arctic-breeding shorebirds.

National Wildlife Refuge[link]

On June 27, 1974, Secretary of the Interior Rogers Morton created Baker Island National Wildlife Refuge which was expanded in 2009 to add submerged lands within 12 nautical miles (22 km) of the island. The refuge now includes 531 acres (2.15 km²) of land and 410,184 acres (1,659.96 km²) of water.^[11] Along with six other islands, the island was administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as part of the Pacific Remote Islands National Wildlife Refuge Complex. In January 2009, that entity was upgraded to the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument by President George W. Bush.^[12]

Environmental challenges on the Refuge include abandoned military debris from World War II and illegal fishing offshore.^[13] Invasive exotics introduced by human activity have also displaced native wildlife including cockroaches and coconut palm. Feral cats, first introduced in 1937, were eradicated in 1965.^[14]

Public entry to the island is by special-use permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service only and is generally restricted to scientists and educators. Representatives from the agency visit the island on average once every two years, often coordinating transportation with amateur radio operators or the U.S. Coast Guard to defray the high cost of logistical support required to visit this remote atoll.^[15]

Ruins and artifacts[link]

Debris from past human occupation is scattered throughout the island and in offshore waters. Most is from the U.S. military occupation of the island from 1942 to 1946. The most noticeable remnant is the 150-foot (46 m) wide, 5,400-foot (1,600 m) long airstrip. It is completely overgrown with vegetation and is unusable. In the northeast section, apparently the main camp area, are the remains of several buildings and heavy equipment. Five wooden antenna poles about 40 feet (12 m) in height remain standing in the camp. Several crashed airplanes and large equipment such as bulldozers are scattered around the island. Numerous bulldozer excavations containing the remnants of metal, fuel, and water drums are scattered about the north central portion and northern edge of the island. The Navy reported the loss of 11 landing craft in the surf during World War II.^[16]

Image gallery[link]

• 

  Baker Island coastline with red-footed booby

• 

  Fish and wildlife sign

• 

  Baker Island day beacon

• Baker Island Day Beacon content.jpg

  Hermit crabs taking shade in day beacon

• 

  Settlement remains, radio tower in background

• Baker Island Gravesite.JPG

  Masked booby on gravestone

• 

  Brown noddies with radio towers in background

• Baker Island wreck.JPG

  Wreckage on Baker Island coast

See also[link]

United States portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Baker Island

• 64th Coast Artillery (United States)
• Howland and Baker islands, includes coverage of the Howland-Baker EEZ
• History of the Pacific Islands
• List of Guano Island claims
• List of islands of the United States
• United States Minor Outlying Islands

References[link]

External links[link]

• Baker Island National Wildlife Refuge
• Baker Island. This article incorporates material from The World Factbook 2000.

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Kenneth Black (born March 11, 1932) is a former politician in the Canadian province of Ontario. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a Liberal from 1987 to 1990, and was a cabinet minister in the government of David Peterson.

Early life and career[link]

Black was born in Bracebridge, and graduated from the University of Toronto in 1955.^[1] He was a secondary school teacher and principal from 1958 to 1980, and was superintendent of the Muskoka Board of Education from 1980 to 1987.^[2] He has also served as past president of Muskoka Children's Aid.

Politician[link]

Black joined the Ontario Liberal Party in 1985.^[3] He was elected to the Ontario legislature in the 1987 provincial election, defeating Progressive Conservative candidate George Beatty in Muskoka–Georgian Bay, a new division created by redistribution. Its primary antecedent, Muskoka, had been held by former Progressive Conservative premier Frank Miller until 1987, and the PCs were historically the dominant party in the area. Black was considered a strong candidate, however, and his victory was not entirely unexpected.^[4] Black credited his victory to a strong campaign team, popular satisfaction with Liberal leader David Peterson, and the fact that some local PCs were unhappy with party leader Larry Grossman.^[5]

In August 1988, Peterson appointed Black as a one-man task force to review government and non-government programs against drug abuse.^[6] His report, issued in mid-October, recommended mandatory drug education starting in the early grades, drug treatment and education programs for offenders, increased training about drugs for social workers and health care workers, and the addition of about thirty-six officers to the provincial drug unit.^[7] Black criticized the "zero tolerance" approach of the American "war on drugs", arguing that it was largely ineffective.^[8]

After the report's release, Black was named special advisor to the premier on drugs with responsibility for co-ordinating and monitoring all government programs against drug abuse.^[9] In December 1988, he announced a pilot project for substance abuse counselling operated by the YMCA of Metropolitan Toronto.^[10]

Cabinet minister[link]

Black was promoted to the provincial cabinet on August 2, 1989, serving as Minister of Tourism and Recreation and Minister responsible for the provincial anti-drug stategy.^[11] He introduced a new provincial anti-drug strategy in November 1989 that fulfilled some of his previous recommendations, including the hiring of more police officers and the introduction of early education programs. It also allocated $4.5 million for community-based pilot projects against drug abuse; in June 1990, Black announced that this funding would to targeted to projects in nine communities.^[12]

Black was critical of the federal Goods and Services Tax introduced by the government of Brian Mulroney, arguing that it would put Ontario's tourism sector at risk of losing jobs and revenue.^[13] Tourism in Ontario declined in this period, due in large part to a continental economic downtown.^[14]

Black travelled to Paris in December 1989 to support Toronto's bid to host Expo 2000.^[15] Toronto lost the bid Hanover, West Germany.

After politics[link]

Black's time in cabinet was brief. The Liberals suffered an upset loss to the New Democratic Party in the 1990 provincial election, and Black finished third in his bid for re-election. He formally resigned from office with the rest of the Peterson cabinet on October 1, 1990. In 1991-92, he was chief organizer for Charles Beer's unsuccessful bid to succeed Peterson as leader of the Ontario Liberal Party.^[16] He attempted to return to the provincial legislature in the 1995 election, but finished well behind Progressive Conservative candidate Bill Grimmett.

Black later served as president of the Muskoka Heritage Foundation, and founded the Muskoka Watershed Council in 2001.^[17] He was appointed as a director of the Toront03 Alliance in July 2003.^[18]

Electoral record[link]

References[link]

1. ^ Nomination Category: Community Advocate, Muskoka Awards 2009, accessed 7 December 2009.
2. ^ "Minister's brother to run for Tories", 24 April 1987, A11.
3. ^ Robert Sheppard, "Liberals target Tory heartland in bid for majority", Globe and Mail, 7 September 1987, A1.
4. ^ Alan Christie, "20 key ridings could determine size of victory", Toronto Star, 6 September 1987, A1.
5. ^ Robert Matas, "Heartland of PC vote is pierced by Grits", Globe and Mail, 11 September 1987, A13.
6. ^ Mary Gooderham, "Peterson appoints backbencher to probe abuse of illegal drugs", Globe and Mail, 17 August 1988, A3. The opposition parties argued that the task force should have included more members.
7. ^ Matt Maychak, "Scholls (sic) don't go far enough now, report says", Toronto Star, 17 October 1988, A1.
8. ^ Elaine Carey, "Can we win war on drugs?", Toronto Star, 17 October 1988, A20.
9. ^ Kathleen Kenna, "MPP to advise Peterson in drug war", Toronto Star, 19 October 1988, A1; Kathleen Kenna, "Schools to get up to $6 million in war on drugs", Toronto Star, 20 October 1988, A16.
10. ^ Matt Maychak, "Ontario setting up drug abuse program for Toronto youths", Toronto Star, 8 December 1988, A11.
11. ^ Ken Black, MPP, Legislative Assembly of Ontario, accessed 7 December 2009.
12. ^ Nancy Wood, "Police, schools, communities all involved in blitz", Toronto Star, 20 November 1989, A1; "9 zones spearhead drug war", Toronto Star, 7 June 1990, A1.
13. ^ "MINISTER SAYS PROPOSED FEDERAL GST MAY HARM TOURISM INDUSTRY" [press release], Canada NewsWire, 23 October 1989, 05:21.
14. ^ Lori MacLean, "Tourism in Ontario on decline again", Globe and Mail, 19 July 1990, N3.
15. ^ Jim Byers, "Ontario reported ready to aid world's fair bid", Toronto Star, 6 December 1989, A6; "Peterson climbs aboard Expo 2000 bandwagon", Globe and Mail, 7 December 1989, A17; "SOLICITOR GENERAL PIERRE BLAIS LEADS CANADIAN DELEGATION MAKING FINAL PITCH FOR EXPO 2000" [press release], Canada NewsWire, 14 December 1989, 11:26 am.
16. ^ Gene Allen, "Elston may jump into Liberal race", Globe and Mail, 13 November 1991, A11.
17. ^ Nomination Category: Community Advocate, Muskoka Awards 2009, accessed 7 December 2009.
18. ^ "Toront03 Alliance Announces Board Of Directors" [press release], CNNMatthews (Canada), 15 July 2003.

Nicholson Baker in December 2007.

Nicholson Baker (born January 7, 1957) is a contemporary American writer of fiction and non-fiction. As a novelist, he often focuses on minute inspection of his characters' and narrators' stream of consciousness, and has written about poetry, literature, library systems, history, politics, time manipulation, youth and sex. His fiction generally de-emphasizes narrative in favor of careful description and characterization.

Life[link]

Nicholson Baker was born in 1957 in New York City, and spent much of his youth in the Rochester, New York, area. He studied briefly at the Eastman School of Music and received a B.A. in philosophy from Haverford College. He lives today with his wife and two children in South Berwick, Maine. He received a National Book Critics Circle Award in 2001 for his nonfiction book Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper.

Baker has been a fervent critic of what he perceives as libraries' unnecessary destruction of paper-based media. He wrote several vehement articles in The New Yorker critical of the San Francisco Public Library for sending thousands of books to a landfill, the elimination of card catalogs, and the destruction of old books and newspapers in favor of microfilm. In 1997, Baker received the San Francisco–based James Madison Freedom of Information Award in recognition of these efforts.

In 1999, Baker established a non-profit corporation, the American Newspaper Repository, to rescue old newspapers from destruction by libraries.^[1] In 2001 he published Double Fold, in which he accuses certain librarians of lying about the decay of materials and being obsessed with technological fads, at the expense of both the public and historical preservation.

Baker describes himself as having "always had pacifist leanings."^[2]

In March 2008, Baker reviewed John Broughton's Wikipedia: The Missing Manual in the New York Review of Books. In the review, Baker described Wikipedia's beginnings, its culture, and his own editing activities under the username "Wageless".^[3] His article, How I fell in love with Wikipedia, was published in The Guardian newspaper in the UK on April 10, 2008.^[4]

Books by Nicholson Baker[link]

• The Mezzanine (1988)
• Room Temperature (1990)
• U and I: A True Story (1991) is a non-fiction study of how a reader engages with an author's work: partly an appreciation of John Updike, and partly a kind of self-exploration. Rather than giving a traditional literary analysis, Baker begins the book by stating that he will read no more Updike than he already has up to that point. All of the Updike quotations used are presented as coming from memory alone, and many are inaccurate, with correct versions and Baker's (later) commentary on the inaccuracy given in brackets.
• Vox (1992) consists of an episode of phone sex between two young single people on a pay-per-minute chat line. The sex scenes in the novel, though quite vivid, nevertheless share the basic approach that Baker has taken since The Mezzanine: in this case, he explores two characters' accumulated thoughts and memories in relation to sex. For some readers, Baker's obsession with detail detracted from a hoped-for pornographic effect. Others, in reading the imaginative sex stories the two protagonists produce for one another, have perceived a budding romantic affection: in the last act they perform before hanging up, the man gives the woman his phone number. The book was Baker's first New York Times bestseller. Monica Lewinsky supposedly once gave a copy to President Bill Clinton.
• The Fermata (1994) also addresses erotic life and fantasy. To quote the dust jacket of one edition: "Arno Strine likes to stop time and take women's clothes off. He is hard at work on his autobiography, 'The Fermata.' It proves in the telling to be a very provocative, funny, and altogether morally confused piece of work." (A fermata is a mark in musical notation indicating a note should be sustained.)
• The Everlasting Story of Nory (1998) was inspired by Baker's daughter Alice, "the informant", to whom he dedicates the book. In this work, Baker tries to see the world through the eyes of a curious nine-year-old American girl attending school in England.
• Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper (2001) is a non-fiction book about preservation, newspapers, and the American library system. An excerpt first appeared in the July 24, 2000, issue of The New Yorker, under the title "Deadline: The Author's Desperate Bid to Save America's Past." The exhaustively researched work (there are 63 pages of endnotes and 18 pages of references in the paperback edition) details Baker's quest to uncover the fate of thousands of books and newspapers that were replaced and often destroyed during the microfilming boom of the 1980s and 1990s.
• A Box of Matches (2003) is in many ways a continuation of Room Temperature, similarly mining the narrator's store of reflections and memories, many of them domestic. The narrator is now middle-aged and has a family. He rises each morning about 4:00, lights a fire in the fireplace, and ponders. The work is admired, although some have found it rather less exuberant than its predecessor.
• Checkpoint (2004) is composed of dialogue between two old high school friends, Jay and Ben, who discuss Jay's plans to assassinate President George W. Bush. Jay is an unbalanced day laborer who, in the depths of his anger and desperation at Bush's actions and his inability to do anything to stop them, has traveled to Washington, D.C., to kill the president. He considers many far-fetched means of assassination, such as depleted uranium boulders, flying radio-controlled CD saws, homing bullets trained to target the victim by being "marinated" in a tin with a picture of the president, and hypnotized Manchurian scorpions. Ben has met Jay in a Washington, D.C., hotel room, unaware that his friend is planning to commit "a major, major, major crime." Over the course of the novella, Ben discusses what drove Jay to plot an assassination. Reviewers have pointed out that the book is mild, and the planned violence so cartoonish as to be non-threatening.
• Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization (2008) is a history of World War II that questions the commonly held belief that the Allies wanted to avoid the war at all costs but were forced into action by Hitler's unforgiving crusade. It consists largely of official government transcripts and other documents from the time. In form it is similar to Sven Lindqvist's "A History of Bombing" (New York: New Press, 2001), which Baker includes in the book's copious list of references. Baker cites documents that suggest that the leaders of the United States and the United Kingdom were provoking Germany into war (showing, for example, that Britain bombed Germany before Germany bombed Britain) and that the leaders of those two nations had ulterior motives for wanting to participate. In the epilogue to the book he suggests that the pacifists (who are often vilified by WWII historians) had it right all along, stating: “They failed, but they were right.” ^[5][6] Some reviewers were dismissive of Human Smoke, the historian Noel Malcolm describing it as a "strangely childish book"^[7] and William Grimes as a "self-important, hand-wringing, moral mess of a book".^[8] Author Christopher Hitchens accused Baker of ahistoricism and wrote that the book served as a reminder of how "fatuous the pacifist position can sound, or indeed can be".^[9] Conservative political commentator R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. awarded his J. Gordon Coogler Award for Worst Book of 2008 to Human Smoke.^[10] Other reviewers praised Baker's use of documentary research and the intricate construction of the text. Colm Toibin wrote in his New York Times review that "the issues Baker wishes to raise, and the stark system he has used to dramatize his point, make his book a serious and conscientious contribution to the debate about pacifism,"^[11] and Mark Kurlansky wrote for the Los Angeles Times that "People are going to get really angry at Baker for criticizing their favorite war. But he hasn't fashioned his tale from gossip. It is documented, with copious notes and attributions. The grace of these well-ordered snapshots is that there is no diatribe; you are left to put things together yourself. [Human Smoke] may be one of the most important books you will ever read."^[12]
• The Anthologist (2009) is narrated by Paul Chowder, a little-known poet, who is attempting to write an introduction to a poetry anthology. Distracted by problems in his life—Chowder's career is going nowhere, and his girlfriend has recently left him—he is unable to begin writing, and instead ruminates on poets and poetry throughout history.
• House of Holes (2011) is a collection of novellas, more or less linked or knotted to each other. The novellas are erotic in the sense of Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron. Either topics are closed resorts in natural areas for wealthy clients on the run from life-threatening epidemics generated by sexual contact. Other relatives like Alice are waving at the entrance of Holes House, offering such artistic entering techniques as tumbling through a clothes dryer and self-sucking through a soft drink straw.^[13] It is a book of romantic fairy tales called by the author himself ”A book of Raunch”.

Books[link]

Novels[link]

• The Mezzanine (1988, Weidenfeld & Nicolson; ISBN 1-55584-258-5 / 1990, Vintage; ISBN 0-679-72576-8)
• Room Temperature (1990, Grove Weidenfeld; ISBN 0-8021-1224-2 / 1990, Vintage; ISBN 0-679-73440-6 / 1990, Granta; ISBN 0-14-014212-6 / 1991, Granta; ISBN 0-14-014021-2)
• Vox: A Novel (1992, Random House; ISBN 0-394-58995-5 / 1992, Vintage; ISBN 0-679-74211-5 / 1992, Granta; ISBN 0-14-014057-3)
• The Fermata (1994, Vintage; ISBN 0-679-75933-6)
• The Everlasting Story of Nory (1998, Random House; ISBN 0-679-43933-1 / 1998, Vintage; ISBN 0-679-73440-6)
• A Box of Matches (2003, Random House; ISBN 0-375-50287-4 / 2003, Chatto & Windus; ISBN 0-7011-7402-1)
• Checkpoint (2004, Random House; ISBN 1-4000-4400-6)
• The Anthologist (2009, Simon & Schuster; ISBN 1-84737-635-5)
• House of Holes, A Book of Raunch (2011, Simon & Schuster; ISBN 1-4391-8951-X

Non-fiction[link]

• U and I: A True Story (1991, Random House; ISBN 0-394-58994-7 / 1991 Penguin/Granta; ISBN 0-14-014226-6 (hard) / 1992, Penguin/Granta; ISBN 0-14-014040-9 (paper) /1995, Vintage; ISBN 0-679-73575-5 / 1998, Granta; ISBN 1-86207-097-0)
• The Size of Thoughts: Essays and Other Lumber (1996, Random House, ISBN 0-679-43932-3 / 1996, Vintage; ISBN 0-679-77624-9 (paper) / 1996, Chatto & Windus; ISBN 0-7011-6301-1 (hard) / 1997, Vintage; ISBN 0-09-957971-5 (paper)
• Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper (2001, Random House; ISBN 0-375-50444-3 / 2001, Vintage; ISBN 0-375-72621-7 / 2002, Vintage; ISBN 0-09-942903-9)
• With Margaret Brentano (his wife). The World on Sunday|The World on Sunday: Graphic Art in Joseph Pulitzer's Newspaper (1898– 1911) (2005, Bulfinch; ISBN 0-8212-6193-2)
• Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization (2008, Simon & Schuster; ISBN 978-1-4165-6784-4)

Further reading[link]

• Cox, Richard J. Vandals in the Stacks? A Response to Nicholson Baker's Assault on Libraries. Greenwood Press, 2002. ISBN 0-313-32344-5
• Fabre, Claire. "Aux frontières de l’intime : l’intériorité exhibée dans Room Temperature (1984) de Nicholson Baker." Revue française d’études américaines. 2006. 113-121.
• Richardson, Eve, "Space, Projection and the Banal in the Works of Jean-Philippe Toussaint and Nicholson Baker", in Emma Gilby et Katja Haustein (ed.), Space. New Dimensions in French Studies, Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Brussels, Francfurt, New York and Vienna, Peter Lang, 2005. ("Modern French Identities", 30)
• Saltzman, Arthur M. Understanding Nicholson Baker. University of South Carolina Press, 1999. ISBN 1-57003-303-X
• Star, Alexander. "The Paper Pusher." The New Republic. May 28, 2001. 38-41.

References[link]

1. ^ American Newspaper Repository
2. ^ McGrath, Charles (2008-03-04) A Debunker on the Road to World War II, New York Times
3. ^ Baker, Nicholson;"The Charms of Wikipedia", The New York Review of Books; Volume 55, Number 4 March 20, 2008.
4. ^ How I fell in love with Wikipedia
5. ^ Toibin, Colm (March 23, 2008). "Their Vilest Hour". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/books/review/Toibin-t.html?ref=arts. Retrieved May 20, 2010. 
6. ^ 'Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization' by Nicholson Baker - BOOK REVIEW - Los Angeles Times
7. ^ Review, Daily Telegraph, 2 May2008
8. ^ Review, New York Times, 12 March 2008
9. ^ Review, New Statesman, 15 May 2008
10. ^ Tyrell, R. Emmett, Jr., "J. Gordon Coogler Award for 2008," American Spectator; Volume 42, Number 2, March 2009
11. ^ Toibin, Colm (March 23, 2008). "Their Vilest Hour". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/books/review/Toibin-t.html?ref=arts. Retrieved May 20, 2010. 
12. ^ Review, "Days of infamy 'Smoke' and mirrors," Los Angeles Times March 9, 2008.
13. ^ Elaine Blair (September 29, 2011 • Volume 58, Number 14). "Coming Attractions". Review on "House of Holes". The New York Review of Books. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/sep/29/coming-attractions/. Retrieved September 13, 2011. 

External links[link]

• Nicholson Baker. Faculty profile at European Graduate School, biography, bibliography, photos and video lectures
• Nicholson Baker at Random House, author page
• Nicholson Baker, "A Debunker on the Road to World War II". New York Times, March 4, 2008
• Cox, Richard J. "The Great Newspaper Caper: Backlash in the Digital Age"
• Grimes, William. ""Say What? It Wasn’t a Just War After All?" New York Times Book Review
• "How I fell in love with Wikipedia". Guardian. April 10, 2008
• "The Charms of Wikipedia" New York Review of Books, volume 55, number 4, March 20, 2008.
• Interview about "Human Smoke" on "BackStory" radio program
• "Can the Kindle really improve on the book?" New Yorker, August 3, 2009. On the Kindle reading device.
• A radio interview with Nicholson Baker Aired on the Lewis Burke Frumkes Radio Show.
• Wroe, Nicholas. "A Life in Writing". Guardian, 19 September 2009. An interview.
• KCRW Bookworm Interview May 4, 2002

Dame Janet Abbott Baker, CH, DBE, FRSA (born 21 August 1933) is an English mezzo-soprano best known as an opera, concert, and lieder singer.^[1]

She was particularly closely associated with baroque and early Italian opera and the works of Benjamin Britten. During her career, which spanned the 1950s to the 1980s, she was considered an outstanding singing actress and widely admired for her dramatic intensity, perhaps best represented in her famous portrayal as Dido, the tragic heroine of Berlioz's magnum opus Les Troyens.^[2] As a concert performer, Baker was noted for her interpretations of the music of Gustav Mahler and Edward Elgar. David Gutman, writing in the Gramophone, described her performance of Mahler's Kindertotenlieder as "intimate, almost self-communing."^[3]

Biography and career[link]

Early life[link]

Baker was born in Hatfield, South Yorkshire, northern England. Her father was an engineer who sang in a male voice choir. Members of her family worked at Bentley pit, in Doncaster, South Yorkshire.^{[citation needed]} She attended York College for Girls and then Wintringham Girls' Grammar School in Grimsby. The death of her elder brother, Peter, when she was 10 years old, from a heart condition, was a formative moment that made her take responsibility for the rest of her life, she revealed in a BBC Radio 3 Lebrecht Interview in September 2011.^[4]

In her early years Baker worked in a bank, transferring to London in 1953 where she trained with Meriel St Clair and Helene Isepp, whose son Martin became her regular accompanist. Knocked down by a bus in 1956, she suffered concussion and a persistently painful back injury.^[5] That same year, she came second in the Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Competition at the Wigmore Hall, winning national attention.

Debut[link]

In 1956, she made her stage debut with the Oxford University Opera Club as Miss Róza in Smetana's The Secret. That year, she also made her debut at Glyndebourne. In 1959, she sang Eduige in the Handel Opera Society's Rodelinda; other Handel roles included Ariodante (1964), of which she later made an outstanding recording with Raymond Leppard, and Orlando (1966), which she sang at the Barber Institute, Birmingham.

Opera[link]

With the English Opera Group at Aldeburgh, Baker sang Purcell's Dido and Aeneas in 1962, Polly (Benjamin Britten's version of The Beggar's Opera) and Lucretia (in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia). At Glyndebourne she appeared again as Dido (1966) and as Diana/Jupiter in Francesco Cavalli's La Calisto, and Penelope in Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria. For Scottish Opera she sang Dorabella in Mozart's Così fan tutte, Dido, Octavian in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos and the role of Orfeo in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice. The latter was considered her signature role; she sang it everywhere and a videotaped performance from Glyndebourne is available (see below).

In 1966, Baker made her debut as Hermia at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and went on to sing Berlioz's Dido, Kate in Britten's Owen Wingrave, Mozart's Vitellia and Idamante, Cressida in William Walton's Troilus and Cressida and the title role in Gluck's Alceste (1981) there. For the English National Opera, she sang the title role in Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea (1971),^[6] Charlotte in Massenet's Werther, and the title roles in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda and Handel's Giulio Cesare.

Oratorio and song[link]

During this same period she made an equally strong impact on audiences in the concert hall, both in oratorio roles and solo recitals. Among her most notable achievements are her recordings of the Angel in Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius, made with Sir John Barbirolli in December 1964 and Sir Simon Rattle over twenty years later; her 1965 performances of Elgar's Sea Pictures and Mahler's Rückert-Lieder, also recorded with Barbirolli; and, also from 1965, the first commercial recording of Ralph Vaughan Williams's Christmas oratorio Hodie under Sir David Willcocks. She performed in 1971 for the Peabody Mason Concert series in Boston.^[7] In 1976 she premièred the solo cantata Phaedra, written for her by Britten; and Dominick Argento's Pulitzer Prize-winning song cycle From the Diary of Virginia Woolf, also written with Baker's voice in mind. She has also been highly praised for her insightful performances of Brahms's Alto Rhapsody, Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder as well as solo songs from the French, German and English repertoire.

Retirement[link]

Dame Janet Baker's final operatic appearance was as Orfeo in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, on 17 July 1982, at Glyndebourne.^[8] She published a memoir, Full Circle, in 1982. In 1991, Baker was elected Chancellor of the University of York. She held the position until 2004, when she was succeeded by Greg Dyke. An enthusiastic Patron of the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition, she gave an address at the closing ceremony of the 2009 event.^[9]

Honours and awards[link]

Baker was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1970 and appointed to Dame Commander (DBE) in 1976. She was appointed a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in 1993. In 1968, she was initiated as an Honorary Member of Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity by the Alpha Omicron Chapter at Occidental College, California, United States.^[10] She received the Léonie Sonning Music Prize of Denmark in 1979. In 2008, she received the Distinguished Musician Award from the Incorporated Society of Musicians and in 2011 she was installed as an Honorary Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians at a ceremony in the City of London. This is the highest honour that the Company can bestow on a fellow musician.^{[citation needed]} Baker was voted into Gramophone Magazine's inaugaral Hall of Fame in 2012.^[11]

Private life[link]

She married (James) Keith Shelley in 1957 in Harrow. Following her retirement as a singer she did perform and record some spoken roles, for example the role of the Narrator in Britten's incidental music for The Rescue of Penelope; in later years, apart from occasional public appearances such as the 2009 Leeds event, she now has "nothing to do with anyone except close friends".^[8]

[edit] Recordings

• Mahler: Kindertotenlieder with The Hallé Orchestra; John Barbirolli conducting (EMI LP cat. no. ASD 2338; released 1968)
• Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Bernard Haitink.
• Handel: Julius Caesar with the English National Opera; Charles Mackerras conducting (Chandos CHAN 3019; recorded 1–7 August 1984; released 1999)
• Schubert: Lieder. A double-CD with pianists Gerald Moore and Geoffrey Parsons, containing forty-two songs. EMI classics, 7243 5 69389 2
• Gluck: Orpheus and Euridice at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, conducted by Raymond Leppard. On video. Copyright 1982 by National Video Corporation, Limited.
• Mozart: La clemenza di Tito, conducted by Sir Colin Davis. Philips.
• Elgar: Sea Pictures, Op. 37
• Purcell: Dido and Aeneas, conducted by Anthony Lewis, English Chamber Orchestra, The St. Anthony Singers; rec. Oct. 1961; with Raimund Herincx as Aeneas. Decca Legendary Performances/UMG. SOL 60047.

References[link]

Notes

External links[link]

• Janet Baker at Allmusic
• IMDb

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (December 2010)

Troy Baker
Born	(1976-04-01) April 1, 1976 (age 36) Dallas, Texas
Other names	Troy E. Baker
Occupation	Actor / Voice Actor

Troy Baker (born April 1, 1976, Dallas Texas) is an American actor and voice actor who works with anime films, television series, and video games. Before pursuing acting, Baker was the lead singer and rhythm guitarist for the indie-rock band Tripp Fontaine, which released the radio single "Burning Out" from their debut album "Random Thoughts On A Paper Napkin" in 2004.

Filmography[link]

Major roles in bold

Anime[link]

• Basilisk: The Kōga Ninja Scrolls - Gennosuke Kouga
• BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad - Ran
• Black Cat - Jenos Hazard
• Bleach - Jin Kariya
• Case Closed - Gin
• Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion - Schneizel el Britannia
• Darker than Black - November 11
• Desert Punk - Makoto
• Dragon Ball series - Various
• Eden of the East - Ryosuke Morimi
• Ergo Proxy - Kazkis Hauer
• Fullmetal Alchemist - Frank Archer
• Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - Greed (2nd Voice)
• The Galaxy Railways - Wataru Yuuki
• Glass Fleet - Eckardo (Young, Ep. 17)
• Gunslinger Girl - Alfonso
• Kekkaishi - Kaguro, Madarao
• Kodocha - Hiroshi
• Marvel Anime: X-Men - Kouichi Kaga, Sublime, Squid (Ep. 1)
• Megaman Star Force - Damien
• Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn - Syam Vist, Gilboa Sant (Ep. 1), Additional Voices
• Monster - Heinz (Ep. 13), Jaormir Lipsky
• Moon Phase - Count Heinrich Von Kinkel
• Mushishi - Yasuke (Ep. 21)
• Naruto - Hokushin, Renga
• Naruto Shippuden - Pain, Yamato, Yahiko, Villager C^[1]
• One Piece - Helmeppo, Ohm
• Peach Girl - Honda, Toru
• Shin-chan - Action Bastard
• Sengoku Basara II - Ishida Mitsunari
• Slayers Evolution-R - Radock Lanzard, Zuuma
• Slayers Revolution - Zuuma
• Soul Eater - Excalibur
• Speed Grapher - David, President of the United States (Ep. 23-24)
• The Third: The Girl with the Blue Eye - Leon (Ep. 13, 15)
• Trinity Blood - Abel Nightroad
• Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle - Kyle Rondart, Shiyuu Kusanagi
• Vampire Knight - Akatsuki Kain
• Vampire Knight: Guilty - Akatsuki Kain
• Yu Yu Hakusho - Shujin

Animation[link]

• Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes - Clay Quartermain, Whirlwind,^[2] Grey Gargoyle,^[2] Blizzard,Ulik, Faradei, Sydren, Michael Korvac, Groot
• Generator Rex - Van Kleiss, Biowulf, Agent Weaver, Roswell
• G.I. Joe: Renegades - Airtight
• Monster High: New Ghoul @ School - Mr. Lou Zarr
• Mr. Meaty - Mr. Wink
• Regular Show - Park Avenue
• Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated - Red Humungonaut, Willard (episode 10)
• Ultimate Spider-Man - Loki
• Young Justice - Two-Face

Live Action[link]

• Comanche Moon - Pea Eye Parker
• The Imposter - Jerome

Movies[link]

• Bleach: Memories of Nobody - Ganryu
• Eden of the East: Paradise Lost - Ryosuke Morimi
• Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa - Erik Jan Haunessen (Ring Master), Frank Archer
• Goemon - Kirigakure Saizo (English Dub)
• Shinobi: Heart Under Blade - Kouga Gennosuke (English Dub)
• Resident Evil: Degeneration - Additional Voices
• Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike - Yuri Lowell
• The Sky Crawlers - Naofumi Tokino

Video Games[link]

• Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures - Conan
• Armored Core V - Male Mech Computer Voice
• Army of Two: The 40th Day - US Elite Soldiers
• Batman: Arkham City - Two-Face, Robin
• Binary Domain - Charles Gregory
• BioShock Infinite - Booker DeWitt
• BloodRayne 2 - Severin, Kagan
• Brother in Arms - Sergeant Matt Baker
• Call of Duty: Black Ops - Terrance Brooks
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - PFC. Joseph Allen, Royce, Scarecrow/Additional voices
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - SSGT. Derek "Frost" Westbrook (Multiplayer)/Additional Voices
• Catherine - Vincent Brooks
• Crimson Gem Saga - Killian (uncredited)
• Cross Edge - Troy (uncredited)
• Darksiders - Abaddon, Straga, Tormented Gate
• Dead or Alive: Dimensions - Ryu Hayabusa
• Diablo III - Scoundrel
• Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten - Valvatorez (uncredited)
• Dragon's Dogma - Additional Voices/Pawn (Voice Option 1)
• Final Fantasy XIII/Final Fantasy XIII-2 - Snow Villiers
• Ghostbusters: The Video Game - Slimer"Ghost Busters (2009)(VG)-Full Cast and Crew". IMDb.com. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1142978/fullcredits#cast. Retrieved 2009-11-19. 
• Golden Axe: Beast Rider - Axe
• Guild Wars 2 - Logan Thackeray
• Guilty Gear 2: Overture - Sol Badguy (uncredited)
• Guitar Hero: World Tour - The Guitarist
• Hexyz Force - Axel Faulken von Rosenbaum
• Infinity Blade - Siris/Ausar
• Kinect Disneyland Adventures - Additional voices
• Kid Icarus: Uprising - Arlon, Pyrrhon
• Knights Contract - Johann Faust
• Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes - Two-Face
• Lunar: Silver Star Harmony - Ghaleon (uncredited)
• Mafia II - Additional Voices
• Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy - Yun (uncredited)
• Marvel Super Hero Squad - SHIELD Agents, A.I.M. Soldiers
• Mass Effect 3 - Kai Leng
• Mega Man X: Command Mission - Spider (uncredited)
• MIB: Alien Crisis - Agent P
• Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker - Soldiers / Extras
• Metroid Prime 3: Corruption - Additional Voices
• Naruto Shippuden: Clash of Ninja Revolution 3 - Yamato
• Naruto Shippuden: Ninja Destiny 2 - Yamato
• Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 3 - Yamato, Pain
• Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 - Yamato, Pain
• Ninja Gaiden 3 - Ryu Hayabusa
• Prototype - Additional Voices
• Quantum of Solace (video game) - Additional Voices
• Quantum Theory - Shiro, Zolf
• Red Faction: Armageddon - Additional Voices
• Red Faction: Guerrilla - Alec Mason
• Resident Evil 6 - Jake Muller
• Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles - Additional Voices
• Resistance 2 - Maj. Richard Blake
• Saints Row: The Third - Male Protagonist (Caucasian - Voice 1)
• Samurai Warriors 3 - Hanzo Hattori (uncredited)
• Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes - Mitsunari Ishida
• Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 - Kanji Tatsumi (uncredited)
• Silent Hill 2 - James Sunderland (HD Collection)
• Singularity - Captain Renko, Additional Voices
• Sonic the Hedgehog (series) - Espio the Chameleon (2010–present)
• Sorcery - Dash
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Republic Heroes - Kul Teska
• Street Fighter X Tekken - Bryan Fury
• Space Siege - Seth Walker
• Tales of Vesperia - Yuri Lowell (uncredited)
• The Last of Us - Joel "Twitter - Ashley Johnson, voice of Ellie in The Last of Us". https://twitter.com/#!/TheVulcanSalute/status/145730465423310848. 
• Tekken 6/Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion - Bryan Fury (uncredited)
• The Last Remnant - Additional Voices
• Transformers: War for Cybertron - Jetfire, Zeta Prime, Additional Voices
• Trauma Center: New Blood - Dr. Markus Vaughn (uncredited)
• Trinity Universe - Suzaku (uncredited)
• Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 - Nova
• Valkyria Chronicles II - Dirk Gassenarl
• White Knight Chronicles - Additional Voices
• White Knight Chronicles II - Scardigne

References[link]

External links[link]

• Troy Baker at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
• Troy Baker at the Internet Movie Database