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ZIP Code
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ZIP Codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan,[1] was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly (zipping along), when senders use the code in the postal address. The basic format consists of five digits. An extended 'ZIP+4' code, introduced in 1983, includes the five digits of the ZIP Code, a hyphen, and four additional digits that determine a more specific location within a given ZIP Code.
The term ZIP Code was originally registered as a servicemark by the U.S. Postal Service, but its registration has since expired.[2] USPS style for ZIP is all caps and the "C" in "Code" is also capitalized, although style sheets for some publications use sentence case or lowercase.
Contents
[hide]
1 History
1.1 Early history and five-digit ZIP Codes
1.2 ZIP+4
1.3 Postal bar code
2 Structure and allocation
2.1 Scope and international mail
2.2 By type and use
2.3 By geography
2.3.1 Primary state prefixes
2.3.2 Secondary regional prefixes (123xx) and local ZIP Codes (12345)
2.3.3 ZIP Codes and previous zoning lines
2.3.4 Division and reallocation of ZIP codes
3 Other uses
3.1 Delivery services
3.2 Statistics
3.3 Marketing
3.4 Legislative districts
3.5 Internet
3.6 Credit card security
3.7 Insurance rating
4 See also
5 References
6 External links
History[edit]
Early history and five-digit ZIP Codes[edit]
A 1963 U.S. Post Office sign
The early history and context of postal codes began with postal district/zone numbers. The United States Post Office Department (USPOD) implemented postal zones for numerous large cities in 1943. For example:
Mr. John Smith
3256 Epiphenomenal Avenue
Minneapolis 16, Minnesota
The "16" was the number of the postal zone from the specific city.
By the early 1960s a more organized system was needed, and on July 1, 1963, non-mandatory five-digit ZIP Codes were introduced nationwide. Three months later, on October 1, 1963, the U.S. Department of the Post Office issued its Publication 59: Abbreviations for Use with ZIP Code, with the list of two-letter state abbreviations, which are generally written with both letters capitalized.[3] An earlier list in June had proposed capitalized abbreviations ranging from two to five letters.[3] According to Publication 59, the two-letter standard was "based on a maximum 23-position line, because this has been found to be the most universally acceptable line capacity basis for major addressing systems",[3] which would be exceeded by a long city name combined with a multi-letter state abbreviation, such as "Sacramento, Calif." along with the ZIP Code. The abbreviations have remained unchanged, with the exception that in 1969, at the request of the Canadian postal administration, the abbreviation for Nebraska was changed from NB to NE to avoid confusion with the Canadian province of New Brunswick.[3]
Robert Moon is considered the father of the ZIP Code; he submitted his proposal in 1944 while working as a postal inspector.[4] The post office gives credit to Moon only for the first three digits of the ZIP Code, which describe the sectional center facility (SCF) or "sec center." An SCF is a central mail processing facility with those three digits. The SCF sorts mail to all post offices with those first three digits in their ZIP Codes. The mail is sorted according to the final two digits of the ZIP Code and sent to the corresponding post offices in the early morning. Sectional centers do not deliver mail and are not open to the public (though the building may include a post office open to the public), and most of their employees work night shift. Mail picked up at post offices is sent to their own SCF in the afternoon, where the mail is sorted overnight. In the cases of large cities, the last two digits coincided with the older postal zone number,[citation needed] thus:
Mr. John Smith
3256 Epiphenomenal Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55416
In 1967, these became mandatory for second- and third-class bulk mailers, and the system was soon adopted generally. The United States Post Office used a cartoon character, which it called Mr. ZIP, to promote the use of the ZIP Code. He was often depicted with a legend such as "USE ZIP CODE" in the selvage of panes of stamps or on labels contained in, or the covers of, booklet panes of stamps.
ZIP+4[edit]
In 1983, the U.S. Postal Service introduced an expanded ZIP Code system that it called ZIP+4, often called "plus-four codes", "add-on codes", or "add-ons". A ZIP+4 Code uses the basic five-digit code plus four additional digits to identify a geographic segment within the five-digit delivery area, such as a city block, a group of apartments, an individual high-volume receiver of mail, a post office box, or any other unit that could use an extra identifier to aid in efficient mail sorting and delivery. But initial attempts to promote universal use of the new format met with public resistance and today the plus-four code is not required.[5] In general, mail is read by a multiline optical character reader (MLOCR) that almost instantly determines the correct ZIP+4 Code from the address—along with the even more specific delivery point—and sprays an Intelligent Mail barcode (IM) on the face of the mail piece that corresponds to 11 digits—nine for the ZIP+4 Code and two for the delivery point.
For Post Office Boxes, the general (but not invariable) rule is that each box has its own ZIP+4 code. The add-on code is often one of the following: the last four digits of the box number (e.g. PO Box 107050, Albany, NY 12201-7050), zero plus the last three digits of the box number (e.g., PO Box 17727, Eagle River, AK 99577-0727), or, if the box number consists of fewer than four digits, enough zeros are attached to the front of the box number to produce a four-digit number (e.g., PO Box 77, Juneau, AK 99750-0077). However, there is no uniform rule, so the ZIP+4 Code must be looked up individually for each box.[citation needed]
Postal bar code[edit]
The ZIP Code is often translated into an Intelligent Mail barcode that is printed on the mailpiece to make it easier for automated machines to sort. A barcode can be printed by the sender (some word-processing programs such as WordPerfect[6] and Microsoft Word[7] include the feature - but is not recommended as the address to ZIP lookup tables can be significantly out of date). It is better to let the post office put one on when it processes the piece. In general, the post office uses OCR technology, though in some cases a human may have to read and enter the address.
Customers who send bulk mail can get a discount on postage if they have printed the barcode themselves and have presorted the mail. This requires more than just a simple font; mailing lists must be standardized with up-to-date Coding Accuracy Support System (CASS)-certified software that adds and verifies a full, correct ZIP+4 Code and an additional two digits representing the exact delivery point.[citation needed] Furthermore, mail must be sorted in a specific scheme to an 11 digit zip with at least 150 mailpieces for each qualifying ZIP code and must be accompanied by documentation verifying this. These steps are usually done with PAVE-certified software that also prints the barcoded address labels and the barcoded sack or tray tags.
This means that every single mailable point in the country has its own 12-digit number (at least in theory). The delivery-point digits (the 10th and 11th digits) are calculated based on the primary or secondary number of the address. The USPS publishes the rules for calculating the delivery point in a document called the CASS Technical Guide.[8] However, when confronted with two addresses like 18 and 18C, often CASS will assign the same 12-digit number to two distinct mail delivery points. The last digit is always a check digit, which is obtained by summing all 5, 9 or 11 digits, taking the residue modulo 10 of this sum (i.e., the remainder after dividing by 10) and finally subtracting this from 10. (Thus, the check digit for 10001-0001 00 would be 7, since 1+1+1=3, 3≡3(mod 10) and 10–3=7.)
Structure and allocation[edit]
Scope and international mail[edit]
ZIP Codes designate delivery points within the United States (including territories), and overseas stations of its armed forces. There are also ZIP Codes for independent countries of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau, each of which is integrated into the U.S. postal system under a Compact of Free Association.
Mail to U.S. diplomatic missions overseas is addressed as if it was to a street address in Washington, D.C. The four-digit diplomatic pouch number is used as a building number, while the city in which the embassy or consulate is located is combined with the word "Place" to form a street name. Each mission uses a ZIP+4 Code consisting of 20521 and the diplomatic pouch number. For example, the mailing address of the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India would be:
Embassy of the United States of America
9000 New Delhi Place
Washington, DC 20521-9000[9]
By type and use[edit]
U.S. postage stamp, 1973: "It all depends on ZIP Code"
There are four types of ZIP Codes:
Unique: assigned to a single high-volume address
Post Office Box only: used only for PO Boxes at a given facility, not for any other type of delivery
Military: used to route mail for the U.S. military
Standard: all other ZIP Codes.
Unique ZIP Codes are used for governmental agencies, universities, businesses, or buildings that receive such extremely high volumes of mail that they need their own ZIP Codes. Government examples include 20505 for the Central Intelligence Agency in Washington, D.C.; 81009 for the Federal Citizen Information Center of the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA)[10] in Pueblo, Colorado. Examples of private address unique ZIP Codes include the headquarters of Wal-Mart (72716) and the Empire State Building (10118).
An example of a PO Box only ZIP Code is 22313, which is used for PO Boxes at the main post office in Alexandria, Virginia, such as those used by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. In the area surrounding that post office, home and business mail delivery addresses use ZIP Code 22314, which is thus a Standard ZIP Code.
In certain exceptional cases, a nominally Standard-type ZIP Code may, in practice, be used as one of the three other types. For example, the ZIP Code 43210 in Columbus, Ohio is listed as a Standard-type ZIP Code. However, since its geographic boundaries are essentially coterminous with those of The Ohio State University's main campus, it is effectively exclusive to the university even though it is not officially a "Unique"-type ZIP code.
By geography[edit]
Primary state prefixes[edit]
ZIP Codes are numbered with the first digit representing a certain group of U.S. states, the second and third digits together representing a region in that group (or perhaps a large city) and the fourth and fifth digits representing a group of delivery addresses within that region. The main town in a region (if applicable) often gets the first ZIP Codes for that region; afterward, the numerical order often follows the alphabetical order.[citation needed] Because ZIP Codes are intended for efficient postal delivery, there are unusual cases where a ZIP Code crosses state boundaries, such as a military facility spanning multiple states or remote areas of one state most easily serviced from a bordering state. For example, ZIP Code 42223 serves Fort Campbell, which spans Christian County, Kentucky and Montgomery County, Tennessee, and ZIP Code 97635 includes portions of Lake County, Oregon and Modoc County, California.
In general, the first three digits designate a sectional center facility, the mail sorting and distribution center for an area. A sectional center facility may have more than one three-digit code assigned to it. For example, the Northern Virginia sectional center facility in Merrifield is assigned codes 220, 221, 222 and 223. In some cases, a sectional center facility may serve an area in an adjacent state, usually due to the lack of a proper location for a center in that region. For example, 739 in Oklahoma is assigned to Liberal, Kansas; 865 in Arizona is assigned to Gallup, New Mexico; and 961 in California to Reno, Nevada.
In terms of geographic location, many of the lowest ZIP Codes, which begin with '0', are in the New England region. Also in the '0' region are New Jersey (non-contiguous with the remainder of the '0' area), Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and APO/FPO military addresses for personnel stationed in Europe, Africa, Southwest Asia and aboard vessels based in the waters adjoining those lands. The lowest ZIP Code is in Holtsville, New York (00501, a ZIP Code exclusively for the U.S. Internal Revenue Service center there).[11] Other low ZIP Codes are 00601 for Adjuntas, Puerto Rico; 01001 for Agawam, Massachusetts, and the zip codes 01002 and 01003 for Amherst, Massachusetts; 01002 is used for mail in town, while 01003 is reserved for the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Until 2001, there were six ZIP Codes lower than 00501 that were numbered from 00210 to 00215 (located in Portsmouth, New Hampshire) and were used by the Diversity Immigrant Visa program to receive applications from non-U.S. citizens.[citation needed]
The numbers increase southward along the East Coast, such as 02115 (Boston), 10001 (New York City), 19103 (Philadelphia), 21201 (Baltimore), 20008 (Washington, D.C.), 30303 (Atlanta) and 33130 (Miami) (these are only examples, as each of these cities contain several ZIP Codes in the same range). From there, the numbers increase heading westward and northward east of the Mississippi River, southward west of the Mississippi River, and northward on the West Coast. For example, 40202 is in Louisville, 50309 in Des Moines, 60601 in Chicago, 63101 in St. Louis, 77063 in Houston, 80202 in Denver, 94111 in San Francisco, 98101 in Seattle, and 99950 in Ketchikan, Alaska (the highest ZIP Code).
ZIP Code zones in the US
The first digit of the ZIP Code is allocated as follows:
0 = Connecticut (CT), Massachusetts (MA), Maine (ME), New Hampshire (NH), New Jersey (NJ), New York (NY, Fishers Island only), Puerto Rico (PR), Rhode Island (RI), Vermont (VT), Virgin Islands (VI), Army Post Office Europe (AE), Fleet Post Office Europe (AE)
1 = Delaware (DE), New York (NY), Pennsylvania (PA)
2 = District of Columbia (DC), Maryland (MD), North Carolina (NC), South Carolina (SC), Virginia (VA), West Virginia (WV)
3 = Alabama (AL), Florida (FL), Georgia (GA), Mississippi (MS), Tennessee (TN), Army Post Office Americas (AA), Fleet Post Office Americas (AA)
4 = Indiana (IN), Kentucky (KY), Michigan (MI), Ohio (OH)
5 = Iowa (IA), Minnesota (MN), Montana (MT), North Dakota (ND), South Dakota (SD), Wisconsin (WI)
6 = Illinois (IL), Kansas (KS), Missouri (MO), Nebraska (NE)
7 = Arkansas (AR), Louisiana (LA), Oklahoma (OK), Texas (TX)
8 = Arizona (AZ), Colorado (CO), Idaho (ID), New Mexico (NM), Nevada (NV), Utah (UT), Wyoming (WY)
9 = Alaska (AK), American Samoa (AS), California (CA), Guam (GU), Hawaii (HI), Marshall Islands (MH), Federated States of Micronesia (FM), Northern Mariana Islands (MP), Oregon (OR), Palau (PW), Washington (WA), Army Post Office Pacific (AP), Fleet Post Office Pacific (AP)
Secondary regional prefixes (123xx) and local ZIP Codes (12345)[edit]
See also: List of ZIP code prefixes
Early advertisement for ZIP Code 10005
The next two digits represent the sectional center facility (SCF) (e.g. 477xx = Vanderburgh County, Indiana), and the fourth and fifth digits represent the area of the city (if in a metropolitan area), or a village/town (outside metro areas): 47722 (4=Indiana, 77=Vanderburgh County, 22=University of Evansville area). When a sectional center facility's area crosses state lines, that facility is assigned separate three-digit prefixes for the states that it serves.
In some urban areas, like 462 for Marion County, Indiana, the three-digit prefix will often exist in one county, while, in rural and most suburban areas, the prefix will exist in multiple counties; for example, the neighboring 476 prefix is found in part or entirely in six counties: Gibson, Pike, Posey, Spencer, Vanderburgh, and Warrick. In some cases, an urban county may have more than one prefix. This is the case with Allen (467, 468), Lake (464, 463), St. Joseph (465, 466), and Vanderburgh (476, 477) Counties. Cities like Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, and New York City have multiple prefixes within their city limits. In some cases, these may be served from the same SCF, such as in San Diego County, California, where the three-digit prefixes 919 and 920 are used for suburban and rural communities, and 921 for the city of San Diego itself, although all three are processed through the same SCF facility.[citation needed]
Despite the geographic derivation of most ZIP Codes, the codes themselves do not represent geographic regions; in general, they correspond to address groups or delivery routes. As a consequence, ZIP Code "areas" can overlap, be subsets of each other, or be artificial constructs with no geographic area (such as 095 for mail to the Navy, which is not geographically fixed). In similar fashion, in areas without regular postal routes (rural route areas) or no mail delivery (undeveloped areas), ZIP Codes are not assigned or are based on sparse delivery routes, and hence the boundary between ZIP Code areas is undefined. For example, some residents in or near Haubstadt, Indiana, which has the ZIP Code 47639, have mailing addresses with 47648, the ZIP Code for neighboring Fort Branch, Indiana, while others living in or near Fort Branch have addresses with 47639. Many rural counties have similar logistical inconsistencies caused by the aforementioned sparse delivery routes, often known as Rural Routes or by some other similar designation.
For example, almost all U.S. government agencies in and around the capital are assigned ZIP Codes starting with 20200 to 20599, which are Washington, D.C. ZIP Codes, even if they are not located in Washington itself. While the White House itself is located in ZIP Code 20006, it has the ZIP Code 20500. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is located in Rockville, Maryland, at ZIP Code 20852, but has been assigned by the Postal Service the address "Washington, DC 20555".
In similar manner, the ZIP Code for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, a federally chartered independent authority, is 20001-6000[12], even though the physical address of the Authority's office, "1 Aviation Circle",[13] is in Arlington, Virginia.[citation needed]
One current exception to this rule is the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). When the USPTO was located in the Crystal City neighborhood in Arlington, Virginia, it was assigned by the Postal Service the address "Washington, DC 20231" despite being physically located in ZIP Code 22202. However, the USPTO now uses a ZIP Code (22313-1450 in ZIP+4) assigned to its current PO box in Alexandria, Virginia.[14]
In rare circumstances, a locality is assigned a ZIP Code that does not match the rest of the state. In even rarer cases a ZIP Code may cross state lines. Usually, this occurs when the locality is so isolated that it is most conveniently served from a sectional center in another state. Examples:
Fishers Island, New York, bears the ZIP Code 06390 and is served from Connecticut because the only ferry service is to Connecticut – all other New York ZIP Codes (excepting those at Holtsville for the IRS) begin with "1".
Returned government parcels from Washington, D.C. are sent to ZIP Codes beginning with "569" so that returned parcels are security checked at a remote facility (this was put into place after the 2001 anthrax attacks).
Some Arkansas roads north of Bull Shoals Lake can best be accessed by the Protem, Missouri, delivery unit (ZIP Code 65733).
Fort Campbell (ZIP Code 42223), primarily in Tennessee, but the main entrance is in Kentucky.
ZIP Codes and previous zoning lines[edit]
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A ZIP Code's address and the city name written on the same line do not necessarily mean that address is within the boundaries of that city. The Postal Service designates one preferred place name for each ZIP Code. This may be an incorporated town or city, a subentity of a large city or an unincorporated census-designated place, or a small unincorporated community. Additional place names may be recognized as acceptable for a certain ZIP Code. Still, others are deemed not acceptable, and if used may result in a delay in mail delivery.
Preferred place names are generally the city or town in which the address is located. However, for many cities that have incorporated since ZIP Codes were introduced, the city name is not the preferred place name. Many databases automatically assign the preferred place name for a ZIP Code, without regard to any acceptable place names. For example, Centennial, Colorado is divided among seven ZIP Codes assigned to Aurora, Englewood or Littleton as its preferred place names; none of these seven ZIP Codes carries "Centennial" as a preferred name, and in the ZIP Code directory, Centennial addresses are listed under those three cities. Since it is acceptable to write "Centennial" in conjunction with any of the seven ZIP Codes, one can write "Centennial" in an address in Aurora, Englewood, or Littleton, as long as it is in one of the shared ZIP Codes.
Acceptable place names are usually added to a ZIP Code in cases where the ZIP Code boundaries divide them between two or more cities, as in the case of Centennial. However, in many cases, only the preferred name can be used, even when many addresses in the ZIP Code are in another city. People sometimes must use the name of a post office rather than their own city.
One extreme example is ZIP Code 85254; it was assigned the place name Scottsdale, Arizona because it is served by the Scottsdale post office, but 85% of its territory is inside the city limits of neighboring Phoenix. Another notorious example is an entire neighborhood of the city of Los Angeles known as Beverly Hills Post Office. Naturally, its residents prefer the more glamorous Beverly Hills address and 90210 ZIP Code, but this regularly causes problems with an emergency response when dispatchers have to sort out whether a given home in 90210 is in Los Angeles or Beverly Hills.
Similarly, Missouri City, Texas, straddles Harris and Fort Bend counties. The portion within Harris County is within the ZIP Code 77071, which must use the city name of Houston instead of Missouri City. At the same time, a small portion of the city of Houston is in Fort Bend County in the ZIP Code 77489, and residents there must use the name Missouri City for their address even though they are in Houston.
This also occurs in some rural areas where portions of one town have their mail delivered to other post offices. For example, while most of the town of Plainfield, Massachusetts is in ZIP Code 01070, some sections of town are in the ZIP Code area for the neighboring town of Cummington with ZIP Code 01026. Only the preferred name of Cummington is allowed in ZIP Code 01026, so residents of parts of Plainfield must list their address as being in Cummington.
This phenomenon is repeated across the country. The previously mentioned Englewood, Colorado is an inner-ring suburb that was built out by the 1960s. Its post office served the area that is now the high-growth southern tier of the Denver metropolitan area, and ZIP Codes in this area were assigned Englewood as their preferred place name. A business community as large as downtown Denver has grown in this area, with headquarters for many internationally recognized corporations. These companies indicate Englewood as their location (the preferred postal place name), although they are located in other cities. As a result, there are really two Englewoods – the city, small and with a largely working-class residential population, and, a number of miles away, the postal Englewood, a vast suburban area of upscale subdivisions and office parks that have nothing to do with the city of Englewood yet share a split identity with it solely because of ZIP Codes. People who say they live or work in Englewood and identify closely with it may rarely enter the city. In Indiana, the ZIP Code for a town usually indicates the ZIP Code for its corresponding township, as nearly all of Indiana's small town post offices have rural routes.[citation needed]
Acceptable place names also come into play in areas where citizens identify more strongly with a particular urban center than their own municipality. For example, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, has 130 distinct municipalities, yet many of the county's residents, and even some residents of adjacent counties, commonly use Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as their postal address. On the opposite end of the spectrum, in some urban areas, neighborhood names may be acceptable even though they have no legal standing, such as La Jolla, California, which is the preferred place name for ZIP Code 92037, despite the fact that La Jolla is a district of San Diego, California and not a separate legal entity (this ZIP Code is also in the 919/920 sequence used by San Diego County's suburban and rural areas, not in the 921 sequence used in the remainder of the City of San Diego, even though La Jolla has always been part of San Diego).
Many ZIP Codes are for villages, census-designated places, portions of cities, or other entities that are not municipalities. For example, ZIP Code 03750 is for Etna, New Hampshire, but Etna is not a city or town; it is a village district in the town of Hanover, which itself is assigned the ZIP Code 03755. Another example is ZIP Code 08043, which corresponds to the census-designated place of Kirkwood, New Jersey, but serves the entirety of Voorhees Township. This is also the case in LaGrange, New York, a portion of which is served by the 12603 ZIP Code based in the neighboring town of Poughkeepsie. The rest of LaGrange is served by the LaGrangeville Post Office. LaGrangeville is itself not a town at all, but a section of LaGrange. Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, served by the 19090 ZIP Code, is a village that straddles the border of Upper Moreland Township and Abington Township, and that post office also serves a small portion of Upper Dublin Township. Furthermore, non-municipal place names may also share ZIP Codes with municipal place names. For example, West Windsor Township, New Jersey, is commonly referred to in most mailing databases as Princeton Junction, a census-designated place within West Windsor.
Postal designations for place names become de facto locations for their addresses, and as a result, it is difficult to convince residents and businesses that they are located in another city or town different from the preferred place name associated with their ZIP Codes. Because of issues of confusion and lack of identity, some cities, such as Signal Hill, California, have successfully petitioned the Postal Service to change ZIP Code boundaries or create new ZIP Codes so their cities become the preferred place name for addresses within the ZIP Code.
Postal designation confusion may have financial implications for local governments because mail volume is one factor used by the U.S. Census Bureau to estimate population changes between decennial census enumerations.[citation needed] Sometimes local officials in a community that is not the preferred place name for a ZIP Code but is an acceptable place name will advise residents to always use the name of the community, because if the census estimate of that town's population is low they may receive fewer funds that are computed based on population. A typical example is Paddock Lake, Wisconsin, whose preferred place name is Salem. Paddock Lake is incorporated as a village within the town of Salem, even though there are more people in the village of Paddock Lake than there are in the unincorporated parts of the town of Salem. Further confusion is caused because Silver Lake, Wisconsin, which is also a village in the town of Salem and is of similar size and status to Paddock Lake, has its own ZIP Code and post office.
In another case, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) denied a radio station (now WNNX FM) a move requiring a change in its city of license to Sandy Springs, Georgia, largely because it was not a city (until municipal incorporation in late 2005), despite being the seventh-largest place in the state by population. The FCC cited the use of "Atlanta" on letters of support from local organizations, even though the USPS forced them to use Atlanta for 30328 until well after incorporation took effect. Currently "Sandy Springs" is only acceptable, despite none of 30328 being in Atlanta, or anywhere else outside the Sandy Springs city limit. This even applies to the ZIP Code used only for PO boxes at the Sandy Springs main post office.
Because ZIP Codes and their associated place names can ignore county lines, problems may occur where street addresses are based on quadrant location within a county. For example, 30339 spans over Vinings, Georgia and Atlanta, Georgia, in southeastern Cobb County; therefore every street address is labeled SE, and has a house number on that county's grid (according to the distance from the town square in the county seat). However, because the USPS demands the use of Atlanta, Vining's addresses are written such that they appear to be in southeast Atlanta, instead of in the opposite (northwest metro Atlanta) side.
Division and reallocation of ZIP codes[edit]
Like area codes, ZIP codes are sometimes divided and changed, especially when a rural area becomes suburban. Typically, the new codes become effective once announced, and a grace period (e.g., one year) is provided in which the new and old codes are used concurrently so that postal patrons in the affected area can notify correspondents, order new stationery, etc.[15]
In rapidly growing communities, it is sometimes necessary to open a new sectional center facility, which must then be allocated its own three-digit ZIP-code prefix or prefixes. Such allocation can be done in various ways. For example, when a new sectional center facility was opened at Dulles Airport in Virginia, the prefix 201 was allocated to that facility; therefore, for all post offices to be served by that sectional center facility the ZIP Code changed from an old code beginning with 220 or 221 to a new code or codes beginning with 201. However, when a new sectional center facility was opened to serve Montgomery County, Maryland, no new prefix was assigned. Instead, ZIP Codes in the 207 and 208 ranges, which had previously been assigned alphabetically, were reshuffled so that 207xx ZIP Codes in the county was changed to 208xx codes, while 208xx codes outside that county were changed to 207xx codes. Because Silver Spring (whose postal area includes Wheaton) has its own prefix, 209, there was no need to apply the reshuffling to Silver Spring; instead, all mail going to 209xx ZIP Codes was simply rerouted to the new sectional center facility.
On the other hand, depopulation may cause a post office to close and its associated ZIP Code to be deallocated. For example, Centralia, Pennsylvania's ZIP Code, 17927, was retired in 2002.[16]
Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, was originally issued the 19117 ZIP Code, although it lies in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Because of the 191 prefix, which is found only in Philadelphia with that lone exception, auto insurance companies charged higher city premiums to that suburban location. For that reason, residents petitioned the USPS for a 190-prefix ZIP Code, which is common to the inner-ring Pennsylvania suburbs of that city, and, after several attempts that were initially disapproved by the USPS, Elkins Park was finally reassigned to the 19027 ZIP Code.
ZIP Codes also change when postal boundaries are realigned. For example, at the same time at which the above-noted change in Montgomery County, Maryland, took place, and under pressure from then-mayor of Washington, D.C., Marion Barry, the USPS realigned the postal boundaries between Washington, D.C. and Maryland to match the boundary. Previously, many inner suburbs, such as Bethesda and Takoma Park, Oxon Hill, Temple Hills, Suitland, and Capitol Heights had been in the Washington, D.C., postal area. As a result of the change, ZIP Codes in Maryland beginning with 200 were changed to new ZIP Codes beginning with 207, 208 or 209, depending on their location, and ZIP Codes straddling the D.C.-Maryland line were split. For example, 20016 (Bethesda) became 20816, while the Maryland portion of 20012 (Takoma Park) became 20912.
Other uses[edit]
Delivery services[edit]
Delivery services other than the USPS, such as FedEx, United Parcel Service and DHL require a ZIP Code for optimal internal routing of a package.
Statistics[edit]
There are over 42,000 ZIP Codes in the United States.[17] ZIP Codes are used not only for tracking of mail but also in gathering geographical statistics in the United States. The U.S. Census Bureau calculates approximate boundaries of ZIP Codes areas, which it calls ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs). Statistical census data is then provided for these approximate areas. The geographic data provided for these areas includes the latitude and longitude of the center-point of the ZCTAs. There are approximately 32,000 ZCTAs. The reason that there is not one ZCTA for every ZIP Code is that PO Boxes are excluded, since only populated areas are included in the Census data.[18] The Census Bureau provides many statistical data sets for ZIP Codes, but does not keep up-to-date datasets of all ZCTAs. Complete datasets providing a similar approximate geographic extent are commercially available.
ZIP Codes are inherently discrete data, or point-based data, as they are assigned only at the point of delivery, not the spaces in between the delivery points. The U.S. Census Bureau then interpolates this discrete data set to create polygons, or areal features representing the approximate extent of the ZIP Code to use for mapping and data presentation. ZCTAs are not to be confused with ZIP Codes, and they are not updated as frequently as ZIP Codes. However, for many research and planning purposes, they are very useful and can be used with ZIP Code data.
Marketing[edit]
The data is often used in direct mail marketing campaigns in a process called ZIP-code marketing. Point-of-sale cashiers sometimes ask consumers their home ZIP Code. Besides providing purchasing-pattern data useful in determining the location of new business establishments, retailers can use directories to correlate this ZIP Code with the name on a credit card to obtain a consumer's full address and telephone number. ZIP-Coded data are also used in analyzing geographic factors in risk, an insurance-industry and banking practice pejoratively known as redlining. This can cause problems (e.g., expensive insurance) for people living near a town with a high crime rate and sharing its ZIP Code, while they live in a relatively crime-free town (see Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, above).
According to an online CNN news story by Greg Botelho posted on Thursday, February 10, 2011, "California's high court ruled Thursday that retailers do not have the right to ask customers for their ZIP Code while completing credit card transactions, saying that doing so violates a cardholders' right to protect his or her personal information."[19]
Legislative districts[edit]
ZIP Codes cannot be used to identify legislative districts. Although the website of the U.S. House of Representatives has a "Find Your Representative" feature that looks up congressional districts based on ZIP Codes alone, it often returns multiple districts corresponding to a single ZIP Code.[20][21] This is because different parts of one ZIP Code can be in different districts.[22]
Internet[edit]
A 1978 proposal for a nationwide system of community networks suggested using ZIP Codes for routing.[23]
ZIP Code data is an integral part of dealer/store locator software on many web sites, especially brick-and-click websites. This software processes a user-input ZIP Code and returns a list of store or business locations, usually in the order of increasing distance from the center of the input ZIP Code. As the ZIP system is confined to the U.S. Postal network, websites that require ZIP Codes cannot register customers outside the U.S. Many sites will either purchase postal code data of other countries or make allowances in cases where the ZIP Code is not recognized.
ZIP Codes can also be used to pull up local news stories and weather forecasts tailored to the ZIP code, along with local television listings and channel lineups for cable/satellite or over-the-air broadcast.
Credit card security[edit]
Main article: Address Verification System
ZIP Codes are used in credit card authorization, specifically Address Verification System (AVS). When a merchant collects the entire address, the ZIP Code is an important part of AVS. In some cases, the ZIP Code is the only thing used for AVS, specifically where collecting a signature, or other information is infeasible, such as pay at the pump or vending machines.
Insurance rating[edit]
ZIP Codes are used by most insurance carriers to determine the rate the customer will receive. Higher populated areas will generally receive a higher rate, but that is not always true. In some areas with a high population, the rate for comprehensive coverage can be lower because the area has a low crime rate.
See also[edit]
J. W. Westcott II
List of ZIP code prefixes
ZIP Code Tabulation Area
References[edit]
Jump up ^ "Mr. Zip and the ZIP Code Promotional Campaign". Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Retrieved 7 March 2013.
Jump up ^ "Latest Status Info". United States Patent and Trademark Office. Retrieved July 10, 2009.
^ Jump up to: a b c d "State Abbreviations", USPS.com.
Jump up ^ Tim Bullamore. Robert Moon Obituary
Jump up ^ "Organizing America: A History of the ZIP Code". Random History. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
Jump up ^ "Archived: How can I print routing barcodes on envelopes? - Knowledge Base". The Trustees of Indiana University. Retrieved July 10, 2009.
Jump up ^ "Insert a barcode into an Office document". Microsoft Corporation. Retrieved July 10, 2009.
Jump up ^ "CASS Technical Guide" (PDF). United States Postal Service. p. 40. Retrieved July 10, 2009.
Jump up ^ "Mail Management". Diplomatic Pouch and Mail Division of the U.S. Department of State. Retrieved April 1, 2015.
Jump up ^ "FCIC – About Us". Federal Citizen Information Center of the U.S. General Services Administration. Retrieved July 10, 2009. For years, consumers have written to Pueblo, Colorado 81009 for timely, practical information they trust.
Jump up ^ "Postal Facts". About.usps.com. 2013-01-16. Retrieved 2014-02-10.
Jump up ^ "Validated Address". Retrieved Oct 4, 2017.
Jump up ^ "Google Maps". Retrieved Oct 4, 2017.
Jump up ^ "Mailing and Hand Carry Addresses for the United States Patent and Trademark Office". USPTO. Retrieved May 6, 2010.
Jump up ^ Roberts, Sam (March 21, 2007). "An Elite ZIP Code Becomes Harder to Crack". The New York Times. p. C15. Retrieved July 10, 2009.
Jump up ^ Wheary, Rob. "Centralia loses its ZIP".
Jump up ^ "United States Postal Service FAQs". USPS. Retrieved May 27, 2011.
Jump up ^ "U.S. Census Bureau data provided by GreatData.com". Retrieved 5 February 2013.
Jump up ^ Botelho, Greg (February 10, 2011). "California high court: Retailers can not request cardholders' ZIP Code". CNN. Retrieved February 11, 2011.
Jump up ^ "The United States House of Representatives · House.gov".
Jump up ^ "Find Your Representative · House.gov".
Jump up ^ "Sunlight Foundation". Jan 19, 2012. Retrieved Aug 6, 2014.
Jump up ^ Wilber, Mike (February 1978). "CIE Net: A Design for a Network of Community Information Exchanges". BYTE. p. 12. Retrieved 17 October 2013.
External links[edit]
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Input device
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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A common computer input device, a keyboard. A user presses a key which transfers information to a computer.
In computing, an input device is a piece of computer hardware equipment used to provide data and control signals to an information processing system such as a computer or information appliance. Examples of input devices include keyboards, mouse, scanners, digital cameras and joysticks. Audio input devices may be used for purposes including speech recognition. Many companies are utilizing speech recognition to help assist users to use their device(s).
Input devices can be categorized based on:
modality of input (e.g. mechanical motion, audio, visual, etc.)
whether the input is discrete (e.g. pressing of key) or continuous (e.g. a mouse's position, though digitized into a discrete quantity, is fast enough to be considered continuous)
the number of degrees of freedom involved (e.g. two-dimensional traditional mice, or three-dimensional navigators designed for CAD applications)
Contents
1 Keyboard
2 Pointing device
3 High-degree of freedom input devices
4 Composite devices
5 Video input devices
6 Audio input devices
7 Punched paper
8 Other
9 See also
10 Further reading
Keyboard[edit]
Main article: Computer keyboard
'Keyboards' are a human interface device which is represented as a layout of buttons. Each button, or key, can be used to either input a linguistic character to a computer, or to call upon a particular function of the computer. They act as the main text entry interface for most users. Traditional keyboards use spring-based buttons, though newer variations employ virtual keys, or even projected keyboards. It is typewriter like device composed of a matrix of switches.And there was another keyboard that is also like input device in musical instrument which help to make sound.
Examples of types of keyboards include:
Keyer
Keyboard
Lighted Program Function Keyboard (LPFK)
Thumb Keyboard
Pointing device[edit]
A computer mouse
Main article: Pointing device
Pointing devices are the most commonly used input devices today. A pointing device is any human interface device that allows a user to input spatial data to a computer. In the case of mouse and touchpads, this is usually achieved by detecting movement across a physical surface. Analog devices, such as 3D mice, joysticks, or pointing sticks, function by reporting their angle of deflection. Movements of the pointing device are echoed on the screen by movements of the pointer, creating a simple, intuitive way to navigate a computer's graphical user interface (GUI).
Pointing devices, which are input devices used to specify a position in space, can further be classified according to:
Whether the input is direct or indirect. With direct input, the input space coincides with the display space, i.e. pointing is done in the space where visual feedback or the pointer appears. Touchscreens and light pens involve direct input. Examples involving indirect input include the mouse and trackball.
Whether the positional information is absolute (e.g. on a touch screen) or relative (e.g. with a mouse that can be lifted and repositioned)
For pointing devices, direct input is almost necessarily absolute, but indirect input may be either absolute or relative. For example, digitizing graphics tablets that do not have an embedded screen involve indirect input and sense absolute positions and are often run in an absolute input mode, but they may also be set up to simulate a relative input mode like that of a touchpad, where the stylus or puck can be lifted and repositioned.
Examples of types of pointing devices include:
mouse
touchpad
pointing stick
touchscreen
trackball
High-degree of freedom input devices[edit]
Some devices allow many continuous degrees of freedom as input. These can be used as pointing devices, but are generally used in ways that don't involve pointing to a location in space, such as the control of a camera angle while in 3D applications. These kinds of devices are typically used in virtual reality systems (CAVEs), where input that registers six degrees of freedom is required.
Composite devices[edit]
Wii Remote with attached strap
Input devices, such as buttons and joysticks, can be combined on a single physical device that could be thought of as a composite device. Many gaming devices have controllers like this. Technically mice are composite devices, as they both track movement and provide buttons for clicking, but composite devices are generally considered to have more than two different forms of input.
Examples of types of composite devices include:
Joystick controller
Gamepad (or joypad)
Paddle (game controller)
Jog dial/shuttle (or knob)
Wii Remote
Video input devices[edit]
Microsoft Kinect sensor seen here on a TV, works by detecting human motion visually
Video input devices are used to digitize images or video from the outside world into the computer. The information can be stored in a multitude of formats depending on the user's requirement.
Examples of types of a video input devices include:
Digital camera
Digital camcorder
Portable media player
Webcam
Microsoft Kinect Sensor
Image scanner
Fingerprint scanner
Barcode reader
3D scanner
Laser rangefinder
Eye gaze tracker
Computed tomography
Magnetic resonance imaging
Positron emission tomography
Medical ultrasonography
Audio input devices[edit]
Audio input devices are used to capture sound. In some cases, an audio output device can be used as an input device, in order to capture produced sound. Audio input devices allow a user to send audio signals to a computer for processing, recording, or carrying out commands. Devices such as microphones allow users to speak to the computer in order to record a voice message or navigate software.Aside from recording, audio input devices are also used with speech recognition software.
Examples of types of audio input devices include:
Microphones
MIDI keyboard or other digital musical instrument
Punched paper[edit]
Punched cards and punched tapes were much used in the 20th century. A punched hole represented a one; its absence represented a zero. There were mechanical and optical readers.
Other[edit]
Gesture recognition
Digital pen
Magnetic ink character recognition
Sip-and-puff#Computer input device
See also[edit]
Peripheral
Display device
Output device
Further reading[edit]
N. P. Milner. 1988
A review of human performance and preferences with different input devices to computer systems. In Proceedings of the Fourth Conference of the British Computer Society on People and computers IV, D. M. Jones and R. Winder (Eds.). Cambridge University Press, New York, NY, USA, 341-362. ISBN 0-521-36553-8
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Christian hedonism
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This article is incomplete. Please help to improve it, or discuss the issue on the talk page. (January 2014)
Christian hedonism is a Christian doctrine found in some evangelical circles, particularly those of the Reformed tradition especially in the circle of John Piper. The term was coined by Reformed Baptist pastor John Piper in his 1986 book Desiring God based on Vernard Eller's earlier use of the term "hedonism" to describe the same concept.[1] Piper summarizes this philosophy of the Christian life as "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him."[2]
Christian Hedonism may anachronistically describe the theology of Jonathan Edwards: "God made the world that he might communicate, and the creature receive, his glory; but that it might [be] received both by the mind and heart. He that testifies His having an idea of God's glory [doesn't] glorify God so much as he that testifies also his approbation of it and his delight in it."[3] Piper has said, "The great goal of all Edward's work was the glory of God. And the greatest thing I have ever learned from Edwards...is that God is glorified most not merely by being known, nor by merely being dutifully obeyed, but by being enjoyed in the knowing and the obeying."[4]
Contents
[hide]
1 Doctrine
2 Criticism
3 See also
4 Notes
5 References
6 External links
Doctrine[edit]
This section contains too many or too-lengthy quotations for an encyclopedic entry. Please help improve the article by presenting facts as a neutrally-worded summary with appropriate citations. Consider transferring direct quotations to Wikiquote. (January 2014)
The Westminster Shorter Catechism summarizes the "chief end of man" as "to glorify God and enjoy Him forever."[5] Piper has suggested that this would be more correct as "to glorify God by enjoying Him forever."[6] Many Christian hedonists, such as Matt Chandler, point to figures such as Blaise Pascal and Jonathan Edwards as exemplars of Christian hedonism from the past, though their lives predate the term.[7]
Christian hedonism was developed in opposition to the deontology of Immanuel Kant.[2] Kant argued that actions should be considered praiseworthy only if they do not proceed from the actor's desires or expected benefit, but rather from a sense of duty.[8][9] On the contrary, Christian hedonists advocate for a consequentialist ethic based on an understanding that their greatest possible happiness can be found in God.[2][6] In this critique of Kant, John Piper was influenced by Ayn Rand.[10]
British writer C. S. Lewis, in an oft-quoted passage in his short piece "The Weight of Glory," likewise objects to Kantian ethics:
If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and to earnestly hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I suggest that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.[11]
Piper later argues:
But not only is disinterested morality (doing good "for its own sake") impossible; it is undesirable. That is, it is unbiblical; because it would mean that the better a man became the harder it would be for him to act morally. The closer he came to true goodness the more naturally and happily he would do what is good. A good man in Scripture is not the man who dislikes doing good but toughs it out for the sake of duty. A good man loves kindness (Micah 6:8) and delights in the law of the Lord (Psalm 1:2), and the will of the Lord (Psalm 40:8). But how shall such a man do an act of kindness disinterestedly? The better the man, the more joy in obedience.[12]
Criticism[edit]
See also: Ethical egoism § Criticisms
Some Christians object to Christian Hedonism's controversial name.[13] It has little commonality with philosophical hedonism; however, Piper has stated that a provocative term is "appropriate for a philosophy that has a life changing effect on its adherents." Critics charge that hedonism of any sort puts something (namely, pleasure) before God,[14] which allegedly breaks the first of the Ten Commandments: "You shall have no other gods before me." In response, Piper states in Desiring God that "By Christian Hedonism, we do not mean that our happiness is the highest good. We mean that pursuing the highest good will always result in our greatest happiness in the end. We should pursue this happiness, and pursue it with all our might. The desire to be happy is a proper motive for every good deed, and if you abandon the pursuit of your own joy, you cannot love man or please God."[15]
See also[edit]
Ethical egoism
Notes[edit]
Jump up ^ Talbot 2010, p. 71-76.
^ Jump up to: a b c Piper 1995.
Jump up ^ Edwards, Jonathan. Schafer, Thomas, ed. The Works of Jonathan Edwards. Vol. 13.
Jump up ^ Piper, John. God's passion for his glory: Living the vision of Jonathan Edwards (PDF). Wheaton, IL: Crossway. p. 75.
Jump up ^ Westminster Shorter Catechism, 25 November 1647
^ Jump up to: a b Piper 1986.
Jump up ^ Chandler, Matt (10 November 2013). "Persevering in the Pursuit of Joy". The Village Church. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
Jump up ^ Kant, Immanuel (1785). Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals. Section 1, 4:397.
Jump up ^ Rand 1961, p. 32.
Jump up ^ Piper, John (1 June 1979). "The ethics of Ayn Rand: Appreciation and critique". Desiring God Foundation.
Jump up ^ Lewis 1941, p. 1–2.
Jump up ^ Piper 2013, p. 63.
Jump up ^ Gentry, Greg (17 September 2005). "Why I am no longer a Piperite". Parableman. Parablemania.ektopos.com. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
Jump up ^ "A biblical study of the theological foundation of Christian Hedonism". The Faithful Word.org. 2002-09-18. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
Jump up ^ Schaumburg, Harry (31 August 2006). "We want you to be a Christian Hedonist!". Desiring God Foundation. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
References[edit]
Booth, Craig W. (18 September 2002). A Biblical Study of the Theological Foundation of "Christian Hedonism". TheFaithfulWord.org.
Grenz, Stanley James. Theology for the community of God.
Lewis, C. S. (1941). "The weight of glory".
Piper, John (1986). Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian hedonist. ISBN 1590521196. Archived from the original on 31 March 2007.
Piper, John (1 January 1995). "Christian hedonism: Forgive the label, but don't miss the truth". Desiring God Foundation. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
Piper, John (2013). Brothers, We Are Not Professionals: A Plea to Pastors for Radical Ministry. Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-4336-7882-0.
Rand, Ayn (1961). For the new intellectual. New York, NY: Signet.
Storms, Sam (2010). "Christian Hedonism: Piper and Edwards on the pursuit of joy in God". In Storms, Sam; Taylor, Justin. For the fame of God's name: Essays in honor of John Piper. Crossway. p. 49-69. ISBN 978-1-4335-2321-2. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
Talbot, Mark R. (2010). "When all hope has died: Meditations on profound Christian suffering". In Storms, Sam; Taylor, Justin. For the fame of God's name: Essays in honor of John Piper. Crossway. p. 71-76. ISBN 978-1-4335-2321-2. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
External links[edit]
Articles critical of Christian hedonism
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Lorien (Babylon 5)
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This television-related article describes a work or element of fiction in a primarily in-universe style. Please help rewrite it to explain the fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspective. (October 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Lorien
Babylon 5 character
First appearance
The Hour of the Wolf
Last appearance
Sleeping in Light
Portrayed by
Wayne Alexander
Information
Species
The First One
Home planet
Z'ha'dum
Affiliated with
The First Ones
Lorien is a fictional character from the universe of the science fiction television series Babylon 5. He appears at the start of season four and again in the last episode of the show.
Contents
1 Character description
1.1 Overview
1.2 Appearance
2 Quote
3 References
Character description[edit]
Overview[edit]
The character Lorien is played by Wayne Alexander. Alexander was also seen in Babylon 5 as Mr. Sebastian from the second season episode Comes the Inquisitor and as Drakh from the fifth season episode The Fall of Centauri Prime.
The character of Lorien made his first appearance in the episode The Hour of the Wolf, which was written by J. Michael Straczynski. The character Lorien makes the statement that he is not a First One but rather the First One, belonging to a nearly immortal race of great wisdom and power, and, according to himself, the first being to achieve sentience in the universe.[1] It was his race that discovered and nurtured many of what the Humans and Minbari refer to as the First Ones, including the Vorlons and the Shadows.
In the millennia after most of the First Ones left the galaxy, Lorien came to reside on Z'ha'dum, and it is his continued presence there that draws the Shadows to return every time they are driven off. However, in late 2260, during the final Shadow War, Capt. John Sheridan of Babylon 5 comes to Z'ha'dum to parley with the Shadows. After this meeting ends poorly, with Sheridan exploding nuclear warheads within the Shadow capital city and leaping into a gorge, Sheridan ends up stuck between life and death in the depths of Z'ha'dum. During this dream state, Sheridan meets Lorien, and near the end of the ensuing discussion on life, death, and the universe, Lorien asks Sheridan a question:
“ Do you have anything worth living for? ”
As Lorien lulls him to embrace death, this is the question Sheridan answers. Freed from the fear of death, Sheridan lets go, and Lorien in turn imbues Sheridan with a part of his own life force, returning Sheridan to life. Together they depart Z'ha'dum for Babylon 5, where Sheridan, presumed dead, arrives in time to prevent a rebellion among the alliance races. During the remnant of the Shadow War, Lorien becomes Sheridan's constant companion, serving as counselor, teacher, and ally. It is partly with Lorien's assistance that Sheridan is able to defeat the Vorlon ambassador Ulkesh after the Vorlon involvement in the Shadow War begins. Most critical, however, is Lorien's role in bringing about the end of the Shadow War in 2261, by providing a stage for Sheridan and Delenn to speak to both the Shadows and the Vorlons, and showing the alliance races the truth behind the war. In the end, beseeched by the Vorlons and the Shadows as if by children to their father, Lorien agrees to leave the galaxy with them and the remaining First Ones, ushering in a new era in the galaxy.
However, Lorien reappears a last time, in 2281, when Sheridan returns to Coriana 6 during the last hours of his life, as he was enjoined by Kosh to do. When he returns, he initiates contact with Sheridan asking four key questions:
Who are you? (The Vorlon Question)
What do you want? (The Shadow Question)
Why are you here? (Emperor Turhan's Question)
Where are you going? (Techno Mage's Question)
Lorien's questions are the questions mankind and the younger races are to introduce to break the stalemate between the Vorlons and the Shadows. Though Lorien does not need these to be answered, he asks them nonetheless, likely as a welcome to Sheridan. As Lorien enters the ship, he explains to Sheridan that they had not forgotten him. Lorien remains with Sheridan as he dies, and it is believed that he took Sheridan back with him beyond the Rim, joining the many First Ones there, though whether Sheridan does so corporeally or as an energy being like Lorien is an open question.
Appearance[edit]
Lorien's true form during Sheridan's dream state
Though Lorien's initial appearance seems to indicate that he has retained his corporeal form, resembling that of a humanoid, there are several instances in which we see that he has evolved into another state. It is thus assumed that Lorien's true form is that of a tentacled energy being, much like the true appearance of a Vorlon, though more evolved and larger in size. Whether Lorien's original form is a humanoid or a tentacled being is unknown. This energy form is seen on several occasions: first, during Sheridan's dream state on Z'ha'dum, then when Lorien departs the galaxy with the remaining First Ones at the end of the Shadow War, and finally, when he returns to Coriana 6 at the time of Sheridan's death.
Quote[edit]
I waited a long time for someone to find me. Now, like the others, I find I hate to leave. But none of us can stay behind this time. That is why it was necessary to find all the remaining First Ones. This is yours now. And you have an obligation to do as we have done. To teach the races that will follow you, and when the time comes as ours has, to step aside and allow them to grow into their own destiny. If your races survive — if you do not kill yourselves, I look forward to the day when your people join us beyond the rim. We will wait for you. Beyond the Rim.
—  Lorien's final words to Sheridan and Delenn at the conclusion of the Shadow War
References[edit]
Jump up ^ "Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?". Babylon 5.
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