Pacific Telesis Group ( PacTel ) was one of the seven Regional Bell Operating Companies , sometimes also referred to as "RBOCs" or "Baby Bells", created in 1983 in preparation of the breakup of AT&T Corporation. Pacific Telesis was the holding company for Pacific Bell , Nevada Bell , Pacific Telesis International, PacTel Mobile Services and PacTel InfoSystems. Pacific Telesis was headquartered in San Francisco and incorporated in Nevada . It was acquired by SBC Communications (the former Southwestern Bell) in 1997, which would eventually become today’s AT&T Inc.
50-534: Pacific Telesis is more commonly known as "Pac Bell". Prior to the January 1, 1984, breakup of the Bell System, the corporate name of its principal subsidiary Pacific Bell was The Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company, which had also been referred to as "PacTel." After the corporate name change, Pacific Bell was commonly known as "PacBell." The red and white star trademarked logo was referred to by company employees as
100-495: A superscript number appended to the pertinent block of text. Typographic symbols are sometimes used instead of numbers, with their traditional ordering being: Additional typographic characters used to identify notes include the number sign (#), the Greek letter delta (Δ), the diamond-shaped lozenge (◊), the downward arrow (↓), and the manicule (☞), a hand with an extended index finger. Footnote reference numbers ("cues") in
150-521: A bibliographic element, notes are used for additional information, qualification, or explanation that might be too digressive for the main text. Footnotes are heavily utilized in academic institutions to support claims made in academic essays covering myriad topics. In particular, footnotes are the normal form of citation in historical journals. This is due, firstly, to the fact that the most important references are often to archive sources or interviews that do not readily fit standard formats, and secondly, to
200-482: A conventional image of a heraldic star . Computer scientists and mathematicians often vocalize it as star (as, for example, in the A* search algorithm or C*-algebra ). An asterisk is usually five- or six-pointed in print and six- or eight-pointed when handwritten, though more complex forms exist. Its most common use is to call out a footnote . It is also often used to censor offensive words. In computer science ,
250-513: A large asterisk that lines up with the other mathematical operators, sitting on the math centerline rather than on the text baseline. A Star of Life , a six-bar asterisk overlaid with the Rod of Asclepius (the symbol of health), may be used as an alternative to cross or crescent symbols on ambulances. In many scientific publications, the asterisk is employed as a shorthand to denote the statistical significance of results when testing hypotheses . When
300-498: A parenthesis: CSS also uses the slash-star comment format. Each computing language has its own way of handling comments; /* ... */ and similar notations are not universal. The asterisk was a supported symbol on the IBM 026 Keypunch (introduced in 1949 and used to create punch cards with data for early computer systems). It was also included in the FIELDATA character encoding and
350-441: A reconstructed form. A double asterisk ( ** ) sometimes indicates an intermediary or proximate reconstructed form (e.g. a single asterisk for reconstructed thirteenth century Chinese and a double asterisk for reconstructions of older Ancient Chinese or a double asterisk for proto- Popolocan and a single asterisk for intermediary forms ). In other cases, the double asterisk denotes a form that would be expected according to
400-410: A rule, but is not actually found. That is, it indicates a reconstructed form that is not found or used, and in place of which another form is found in actual usage: In most areas of linguistics, but especially in syntax , an asterisk in front of a word or phrase indicates that the word or phrase is not used because it is ungrammatical . An asterisk before a parenthesis indicates that the lack of
450-565: A season with only 154 games, but Maris was playing the first season in the American League's newly expanded 162-game season. Baseball Commissioner Ford C. Frick , a friend of Ruth's during the legendary slugger's lifetime, held a press conference to announce his "ruling" that should Maris take longer than 154 games both records would be acknowledged by Major League Baseball, but that some "distinctive mark" [his term] be placed next to Maris', which should be listed alongside Ruth's achievement in
500-653: A sentence are a distraction to the reader, and cues are best located at the end of sentences. Notes are most often used as an alternative to long explanations, citations, comments, or annotations that can be distracting to readers. Most literary style guidelines (including the Modern Language Association and the American Psychological Association ) recommend limited use of foot- and endnotes. However, publishers often encourage note references instead of parenthetical references. Aside from use as
550-545: A sporting record indicates that it is somehow tainted. This is because results that have been considered dubious or set aside are recorded in the record books with an asterisk rendering to a footnote explaining the reason or reasons for concern. The usage of the term in sports arose during the 1961 baseball season in which Roger Maris of the New York Yankees was threatening to break Babe Ruth 's 34-year-old single-season home run record. Ruth had amassed 60 home runs in
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#1732851892736600-426: A user needs to add an endnote or footnote using HTML, they can add the superscript number using <sup></sup> , then link the superscripted text to the reference section using an anchor tag . Create an anchor tag by using <a name="ref1"></a> and then link the superscripted text to "ref1". The London printer Richard Jugge is generally credited as the inventor of the footnote, first used in
650-429: A whole business are known as AT&T West. In 2006, the company was dissolved into AT&T Teleholdings , which is the current name of the former Baby Bell Ameritech. Asterisk The asterisk ( / ˈ æ s t ər ɪ s k / * ), from Late Latin asteriscus , from Ancient Greek ἀστερίσκος , asteriskos , "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles
700-531: A word, phrase or sentence that is avoided, questionable or strange, but not necessarily outright ungrammatical. Other sources go further and use several symbols (e.g. the asterisk, question mark, and degree symbol ° ) to indicate gradations or a continuum of acceptability. Since a word marked with an asterisk could mean either "unattested" or "impossible", it is important in some contexts to distinguish these meanings. In general, authors retain asterisks for "unattested", and prefix , ** , † , or ? for
750-496: Is cited as first using the asterisk for linguistic purposes, specifically for unattested forms that are linguistic reconstructions . Using the asterisk for descriptive and not just historical purposes arose in the 20th century. By analogy with its use in historical linguistics, the asterisk was variously prepended to "hypothetical" or "unattested" elements in modern language. Its usage also expanded to include "non-existent" or "impossible" forms. Leonard Bloomfield (1933) uses
800-451: Is found to the left of the zero ). They are used to navigate menus in systems such as voice mail , or in vertical service codes . The Unicode standard has a variety of asterisk-like characters, compared in the table below. (Characters will display differently in different browsers and fonts.) The reason there are so many is chiefly because of the controversial decision to include in Unicode
850-458: Is known to have also used the asteriskos to mark missing Hebrew lines from his Hexapla . The asterisk evolved in shape over time, but its meaning as a symbol used to correct defects remained. In the Middle Ages, the asterisk was used to emphasize a particular part of text, often linking those parts of the text to a marginal comment. However, an asterisk was not always used. One hypothesis to
900-448: Is not known for endnote or footnote citations, and APA and Chicago styles use them more regularly. Historians are known to use Chicago style citations. Aside from their technical use, authors use notes for a variety of reasons: The US Government Printing Office Style Manual devotes over 660 words to the topic of footnotes. NASA has guidance for footnote usage in its historical documents. Former Associate Justice Stephen Breyer of
950-602: The ASCII standard. In fluid mechanics an asterisk in superscript is sometimes used to mean a property at sonic speed. In linguistics , an asterisk may be used for a range of purposes depending on what is being discussed. The symbol is used to indicate reconstructed words of proto-languages (for which there are no records). For modern languages, it may be placed before posited problematic word forms, phrases or sentences to flag that they are hypothetical, ungrammatical, unpronounceable, etc. Historical linguist August Schleicher
1000-571: The Supreme Court of the United States is famous in the American legal community for his writing style, in which he never uses notes. He prefers to keep all citations within the text (which is permitted in American legal citation). Richard A. Posner has also written against the use of notes in judicial opinions. Bryan A. Garner , however, advocates using notes instead of inline citations. HTML ,
1050-457: The question mark , or both symbols (e.g. ?* ) to indicate degrees of unacceptability. In historical linguistics , the asterisk marks words or phrases that are not directly recorded in texts or other media, and that are therefore reconstructed on the basis of other linguistic material by the comparative method . In the following example, the Proto-Germanic word * ainlif is
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#17328518927361100-404: The source code (for information to people, ignored by the compiler ) are marked by an asterisk combined with the slash: Some Pascal -like programming languages, for example, Object Pascal , Modula-2 , Modula-3 , and Oberon , as well as several other languages including ML , Wolfram Language ( Mathematica ), AppleScript , OCaml , Standard ML , and Maple , use an asterisk combined with
1150-406: The "record books". The asterisk as such a mark was suggested at that time by New York Daily News sportswriter Dick Young , not Frick. The reality, however, was that MLB actually had no direct control over any record books until many years later, and it all was merely a suggestion on Frick's part. Within a few years the controversy died down and all prominent baseball record keepers listed Maris as
1200-676: The "splat" or more formally as the "access symbol" after the similar star key on a telephone keypad. Pacific Telesis licensed rights to its name and the Bell name to Vodavi , who sold consumer telephones under the "PacTel" name. Vodavi manufactured PacTel telephones in South Korea to "Bell Specifications". Pacific Telesis later licensed the Pacific Bell name to Thomson Consumer Electronics , who also produced telephone equipment for GE . The cellular and paging unit of Pacific Telesis, PacTel Cellular,
1250-574: The 21st century, the term asterisk to denote a tainted accomplishment caught on in other sports first in North America and then, due in part to North American sports' widespread media exposure, around the world. Many programming languages and calculators use the asterisk as a symbol for multiplication . It also has a number of special meanings in specific languages, for instance: In the B programming language and languages that borrow syntax from it, such as C , PHP , Java , or C# , comments in
1300-509: The SBC subsidiaries that provided regulated local telephone services within the franchise territory in California and Nevada. On November 18, 2005, SBC completed its acquisition of AT&T Corp. to form AT&T Inc. Nevada and Pacific Bells are now known as Pacific Bell Telephone Company d/b/a AT&T California and Nevada Bell Telephone Company d/b/a AT&T Nevada. Pacific Telesis' companies as
1350-448: The additional text, endnotes are advantageous to editorial production because the textual inclusion does not alter the design of the publication. However, graphic designers of contemporary editions of the Bible often place the notes in a narrow column in the page centre, between two columns of biblical text. In English-language typesetting , footnotes and endnotes are usually indicated with
1400-440: The annoyance of many fans and sportswriters. Three years later self-confessed steroid-user Barry Bonds pushed that record out to 73, and fans once again began to call for an asterisk in the sport's record books. Fans were especially critical and clamored louder for baseball to act during the 2007 season, as Bonds approached and later broke Hank Aaron 's career home run record of 755. The Houston Astros ' 2017 World Series win
1450-403: The asterisk is commonly used as a wildcard character , or to denote pointers , repetition, or multiplication . The asterisk was already in use as a symbol in ice age cave paintings . There is also a two-thousand-year-old character used by Aristarchus of Samothrace called the asteriskos , ※ , which he used when proofreading Homeric poetry to mark lines that were duplicated. Origen
1500-450: The asterisk with forms such as *cran, impossible to occur in isolation: cran- only occurs within the compound cranberry . Such usage for a "non-existent form" was also found in French, German and Italian works in the middle of the 20th century. Asterisk usage in linguistics later came to include not just impossible forms, but " ungrammatical sentences", those that are "ill formed for
1550-412: The body text of a page should be placed at the end of a sentence if possible, after the final punctuation. This minimizes the interruption of the flow of reading and allows the reader to absorb a complete sentence-idea before having their attention redirected to the content of the note. The cue is placed after any punctuation (normally after the closing point of a sentence). ... Notes cued in the middle of
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1600-405: The controversy. Uproar over the integrity of baseball records and whether or not qualifications should be added to them arose again in the late 1990s, when a steroid-fueled power explosion led to the shattering of Maris' record. Even though it was obvious - and later admitted - by Mark McGwire that he was heavily on steroids when he hit 70 home runs in 1998, ruling authorities did nothing - to
1650-439: The entire Zapf Dingbats symbol font. Footnote In publishing , a note is a brief text in which the author comments on the subject and themes of the book and names supporting citations . In the editorial production of books and documents, typographically, a note is usually several lines of text at the bottom of the page , at the end of a chapter, at the end of a volume, or a house-style typographic usage throughout
1700-406: The fact that historians expect to see the exact nature of the evidence that is being used at each stage. The MLA (Modern Language Association) requires the superscript numbers in the main text to be placed following the punctuation in the phrase or clause the note is about. The exception to this rule occurs when a sentence contains a dash, in which case the superscript would precede it. However, MLA
1750-518: The intelligibility of censored profanities with multiple syllables such as "b*dw*rd" and "b*****d" or "ba****d", or uncommon ones is higher if put in context with surrounding text. When a document containing classified information is published, the document may be "sanitized" (redacted) by replacing the classified information with asterisks. For example, the Intelligence and Security Committee Russia report. In colloquial usage, an asterisk attached to
1800-535: The joint venture Verizon . Later, when GSM technology became available, Pacific Bell Mobile Services was re-created, debuting in 1996 at the Republican National Convention in San Diego, California and being introduced to the public in 1997. After its public launch, the wireless division was renamed Pacific Bell Wireless and remained as such until the merger with SBC. In 1997, Pacific Telesis Group
1850-502: The latter meaning. An alternative is to append the asterisk (or another symbol, possibly to differentiate between even more cases) at the end. In optimality theory , asterisks are used as "violation marks" in tableau cells to denote a violation of a constraint by an output form. In phonetic transcription using the International Phonetic Alphabet and similar systems, an asterisk was historically used to denote that
1900-469: The likelihood that a result occurred by chance alone is below a certain level, one or more asterisks are displayed. Popular significance levels are <0.05 (*), <0.01 (**), and <0.001 (***). On a tone dialling telephone keypad, the asterisk (called star ) is one of the two special keys (the other is the 'square key – almost invariably replaced by the number sign # (called 'pound sign' (US), 'hash' (other countries), or 'hex'), and
1950-504: The native speaker". The expansion of asterisk usage to entire sentences is often credited to Noam Chomsky , but Chomsky in 1968 already describes this usage as "conventional". Linguist Fred Householder claims some credit, but Giorgio Graffi argues that using an asterisk for this purpose predates his works. The meaning of the asterisk usage in specific linguistic works may go unelucidated so can be unclear. Linguistics sometimes uses double asterisks ( ** ), another symbol such as
2000-502: The need for notes, being the web's way to refer to another document. However, it does not allow citing to offline sources and if the destination of the link changes, the link can become dead or irrelevant. A proposed solution is the use of a digital object identifier . As of 2024, the HTML Living Standard has provided several workarounds for the inclusion of footnotes depending on length or type of annotation. In instances where
2050-416: The origin of the asterisk is that it stems from the 5000-year-old Sumerian character dingir , 𒀭 , though this hypothesis seems to only be based on visual appearance. When toning down expletives, asterisks are often used to replace letters. For example, the word "badword" might become "ba***rd", "b*****d", "b******" or even "*******". Vowels tend to be censored with an asterisk more than consonants, but
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2100-403: The predominant markup language for web pages, has no mechanism for adding notes. Despite a number of different proposals over the years, the working group has been unable to reach a consensus on it. Because of this, MediaWiki , for example, has had to introduce its own <ref></ref> tag for citing references in notes. It might be argued that the hyperlink partially eliminates
2150-697: The same letter – one with the asterisk and one without. In fine mathematical typography, the Unicode character U+2217 ∗ ASTERISK OPERATOR (in HTML, ∗; not to be confused with U+204E ⁎ LOW ASTERISK ) is available. This character also appeared in the position of the regular asterisk in the PostScript symbol character set in the Symbol font included with Windows and Macintosh operating systems and with many printers. It should be used for
2200-444: The single-season record holder for as long as he held the record. Nevertheless, the stigma of holding a tainted record remained with Maris for many years, and the concept of a real or figurative asterisk denoting less-than-accepted "official" records has become widely used in sports and other competitive endeavors. A 2001 TV movie about Maris's record-breaking season was called 61* (pronounced sixty-one asterisk ) in reference to
2250-416: The text. Notes are usually identified with superscript numbers or a symbol. Footnotes are informational notes located at the foot of the thematically relevant page, whilst endnotes are informational notes published at the end of a chapter, the end of a volume, or the conclusion of a multi-volume book. Unlike footnotes, which require manipulating the page design (text-block and page layouts) to accommodate
2300-433: The word it preceded was a proper noun. See this example from W. Perrett's 1921 transcription of Gottfried Keller's Das Fähnlein der sieben Aufrechten : This convention is no longer usual. The asterisk has many uses in mathematics . The following list highlights some common uses and is not exhaustive. The asterisk is used in all branches of mathematics to designate a correspondence between two quantities denoted by
2350-401: The word or phrase inside is ungrammatical, while an asterisk after the opening bracket of the parenthesis indicates that the existence of the word or phrase inside is ungrammatical—e.g., the following indicates "go the station" would be ungrammatical: Use of an asterisk to denote forms or sentences that are ungrammatical is often complemented by the use of the question mark ( ? ) to indicate
2400-980: Was acquired by SBC Communications , and although the Pacific Telesis Group corporate name disappeared fairly quickly, SBC continued to operate the Pacific Bell and Nevada Bell local telephone companies separately under their original names. In September 2001, SBC renamed the telephone companies "SBC Pacific Bell" and "SBC Nevada Bell". In late 2002, the companies were rebranded again as simply "SBC". Meanwhile, employees of SBC working in California and Nevada who supported SBC's non-regulated services and/or services provided both within and outside California were transferred to other SBC subsidiaries, like "Pacific Telesis Shared Services" and "SBC Operations, Inc." However, for legal and regulatory purposes, employees supporting local regulated services were still employed by "Pacific Bell Telephone Company dba SBC California ("SBC California")", and "Nevada Bell dba SBC Nevada", which were
2450-452: Was marred after an investigation by MLB revealed the team's involvement in a sign-stealing scheme during that season. Fans, appalled by what they perceived to be overly lenient discipline against the Astros players, nicknamed the team the "Houston Asterisks". In recent years, the asterisk has come into use on baseball scorecards to denote a "great defensive play." During the first decades of
2500-432: Was spun off in 1994 into a new company called AirTouch Communications , leaving Pacific Telesis with only the landline telephone company. Senior Pacific Telesis management moved to AirTouch, thus leaving a new corporate culture to run the old Pacific Telesis. In 1999, AirTouch merged with Britain's Vodafone to become Vodafone AirTouch. In 2000, Vodafone’s U.S. wireless assets were merged with those of Bell Atlantic to form
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