Flexplay is a trademark for a discontinued DVD-compatible optical video disc format with a time-limited (usually 48-hour) playback. They are often described as "self-destructing", although the disc merely turns black or dark red and does not physically disintegrate. The technology launched in August 2003 as a joint-venture with Disney's Buena Vista Home Entertainment under the name eZ-D. The Flexplay concept was invented by two professors, Yannis Bakos and Erik Brynjolfsson, who founded Flexplay Technologies in 1999. The technology was developed by Flexplay Technologies and General Electric.

Origins
The technology was originally intended as an alternative means for the short-term rental of newly released movies. Since the disc is capable of being used in any standard DVD player, the manufacturers hoped that it would succeed where other time-limited DVD technologies, such as DIVX, failed. Test marketing of eZ-D discs began in August 2003, but was canceled early when consumers rejected the concept. Owing to fears of cannibalizing DVD sales, movies were made available on eZ-D between 2 months and several years after being released on DVD and were priced at US$6.99, both factors that significantly limited consumer demand.

SpectraDisc was another such technology, and on January 13, 2003, Flexplay Technologies acquired all of the SpectraDisc Corporation assets. SpectraDisc discs worked in a similar way as Flexplay discs, only not starting as red and turning blue instead of black.

Specifications
Flexplay discs do not bear the DVD logo. When asked whether Flexplay discs do or do not comply with DVD forum standards, a company spokesperson replied that "Flexplay DVDs are produced to be readable in DVD players adhering to DVD Forum specifications."

A Flexplay disc is shipped in a vacuum-sealed package. There is a clear dye inside the disc, contained within the bonding resin of the disc, which reacts with oxygen. When the seal is broken on the vacuum-packed disc, the layer changes from clear to black in about 48 hours, rendering the disc unplayable. If unopened, the shelf life of the sealed package is said to be "about a year". The DVD plastic also has a red dye in it, which prevents penetration of the disc by blue lasers, which would go straight through the oxygen-reactive dye.

The Flexplay discs are dual-layer DVD-9 discs. The difference from standard DVDs is the composition of the resin adhesive holding the inner and outer layer together, which is sensitive to oxygen and darkens within a pre-set time, usually 48 hours, when exposed to air. The replacement of the adhesive results in only minimal altering to the DVD manufacturing process. The time of the darkening can be influenced by varying the exact composition of the resin. For the DVD-5 discs, where there is no layer of bonding resin in the optical path, a surface coating can be used.

According to the vendor, "Flexplay discs are fully recyclable and conform to all applicable EPA environmental standards."
Some environmental groups have endorsed the product due to Flexplay's recycling plans and partnership with environmental industry leaders such as GreenDisk, leading to the creation of the first DVD recycling operation. Others such as the Grass Roots Recycling Network nevertheless have objected to the creation of a short-lived "disposable" version of a traditionally durable product.

Chemistry
The reactive layer contains a polymer resin that acts as a carrier for a suitable leuco dye, which, upon contact with atmospheric oxygen, oxidizes to form an opaque or semi-opaque material.

Some of the dyes used are methylene blue, prussian blue, brilliant cresyl blue, Toluidine Blue O, Basic Blue 3, Methylene Green, Taylor's Blue, Janus Green B, Meldola's Blue, Thionin, Nile Blue, and Celestine Blue. The leuco dye is prepared by chemical reduction using a suitable reducing agent. The method commercially used by Flexplay and SpectraDisc employs methylene blue reduced by sodium dithionite.

In order to prevent the oxidation from being triggered during manufacture of the discs, and in order to avoid the need for manufacturing in an inert atmosphere, the leuco dyes are further chemically modified to their blocked forms. Such blocked leuco dyes are the leuco dye precursors that form the leuco dye by a slow, controlled chemical reaction. Leucomethylene blue can be reacted with triisopropylsilyl trifluoromethanesulfonate, forming triisopropylsilyloxycarbonylleucomethylene blue (TIPSOCLMB), which is stable in presence of air oxygen. In presence of nucleophile reagents, e.g. water, the blocked leuco dye compound undergoes hydrolysis, releasing the unblocked leuco dye. This reaction is slow (several days to a week), and the hydrolytic compound is supplied either as atmospheric moisture, or in the formulation of the resin.

The rate of the deblocked leuco dye oxidation is dependent on the pH of the resin polymer matrix. By adding basic compounds (for example, 1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2] octane (DABCO), or other amines), the pH is increased, and the reaction rate increases correspondingly. Correspondingly, by adding strong protic acids (for example, camphorsulfonic acid), the reaction rate can be decreased and the lifetime of the disc prolonged.

The residual oxygen can be removed from the substrates used for disc manufacture by storing them under a vacuum or oxygen free atmosphere (e.g. pure nitrogen) for a period of time (hours to days). Alternatively, an oxygen scavenger (e.g. iron(II) salts, tin(II) salts, or organometallic compounds) can be added to the polymer formulation, reacting with the oxygen present in the polymer matrix in shorter timeframe than the hydrolysis of the blocked leuco dye takes.

The reaction timing can be further controlled by addition of other substances. As the diffusion rate of oxygen through the polymer layer is more or less constant, a supply of suitable antioxidants (e.g. organometallic compounds) which react with the oxygen preferentially to the leuco dye leads to gradual depletion of the antioxidant compound. Only after the antioxidant is consumed, the leuco dye starts being oxidized, achieving the period of delay of the reaction onset, followed by a rapid reflectivity degradation. Stannous ethylhexanoate can be used here as the antioxidant organometallic. Various resin-soluble tin(II) and iron(II) compounds can be used, e.g. chelates and fatty acid salts. Other usable compounds are e.g. hydroquinones, alkylhydroxylamines, dithionates, reducing saccharides (e.g. glucose), α-hydroxyketones (e.g., hydroxyacetone), substituted boron hydrides and silicon hydrides.

The oxidized dyes in the expired discs absorb primarily at the wavelength of the current diode lasers (red, 650 nm) used in the DVD players. However, the new generation of DVDs is designed to use blue lasers at 450-460 or even 405 nm, for which the methylene blue is essentially transparent. While SpectraDisc did not take this in account, the Flexplay discs incorporate a red color filter, blocking blue lasers from reading the disc, expired or not. Acridine Yellow can be used for this purpose, together with 9,10-bis(phenylethynyl)anthracene, and a scale of different azo dyes, aromatic hydrocarbons, and other dyes. The dyes can be added directly to the polycarbonate resin the discs are made of.

Additionally, other methods of the disc degradation are proposed to be deployed together with the primary one; the concern of the technology developers here is that while the dye oxidation mechanism prevents the disc from being read by current consumer technologies, the information on the disc, recorded in the pattern of the pits in the reflective layer, remains intact and could be recovered.  One of the methods is to make the two reflective layers in the DVD-9 disc of different metals (e.g. aluminium and silver), and separate them with an ionic conductor separator. The atmospheric oxygen then undergoes electrochemical reaction in such crude fuel cell with the silver as cathode and aluminum as anode, leading to growth of dendritic silver through the dielectric layer. When the silver reaches the aluminium, an electric short circuit forms, and galvanic corrosion then rapidly degrades the reflective layers. Many other mechanisms are proposed for this slower, less controlled "backup" method of data destruction, ranging from corrosion of the reflective layers to degradation of the polymer matrix of the disc itself.

Releases
The Disney organization announced in 2003 that it would issue some releases on Flexplay ez-D discs (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Bridget Jones' Diary, The Recruit, Rabbit-Proof Fence, The Hot Chick, 25th Hour, Heaven, Equilibrium, Frida and Signs).

Discs were test-marketed in Austin, Texas. One grocery chain dropped the discs in February 2004, saying "It didn't turn out to be an item that our customers were looking for."

In 2004, Flexplay was purchased by The Convex Group who also own the Lidrock and HowStuffWorks brands. Flexplay discs were priced at around US$4.99, a price comparable to that of a two-day DVD rental.

The first Flexplay disc to receive national consumer distribution in the U.S. was a 2004 Christmas movie entitled Noel, which was released "trimultaneously" to theatres, to cable TV, and to Flexplay disc. Reportedly theatres were angered at the simultaneous release, and as a result the movie actually received screenings in only a few dozen theatres.

In June 2008, Flexplay announced that Staples would be selling Flexplay discs in their retail stores.

See also
 Planned obsolescence
 DIVX and DVD-D, other disposable disc formats
 Disc rot, the unintended decay of optical discs due to physical or chemical deterioration

References

External links
Website (archived on December 1, 2010)
How Flexplay DVDs Work
United States patents 6,511,728, 6,537,635, 6,641,886, 6,678,239, 6,709,802, 6,756,103, 6,780,564, 6,838,144, and 6,839,316 by Flexplay Technologies

120 mm discs
DVD
Video storage
Digital rights management systems
Audiovisual ephemera
Discontinued media formats

Flexplay


Nottingham is an unincorporated community in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. Its elevation is 62 feet (19 m). Although Nottingham is unincorporated, it has a post office, with the ZIP code of 21236. Nottingham is often considered a broad area in Baltimore County, encompassing many census-designated places (CDPs) and unincorporated communities. There is also a historical town in Prince George's County that was named Nottingham - it is now an archeological site.

Its total population at the time of the 2000 U.S. Census was 37,779.

References

Unincorporated communities in Baltimore County, Maryland
Unincorporated communities in Maryland

Nottingham, Maryland


Scene can mean:
 A certain place in a movie or play where a part of the story takes place.
 A part of a culture made up of people who have a common interest, usually in a certain type of music. ("Dark clothes are a part of the emo scene.")
 A style based upon "emo", where individuals dye the hair with many bright colours, and wear neon pieces of clothing in general. This is similar to a raver.
 Scene (British TV series)

Scene


Kok-borok (also spelled Kok Borok) is the native language of the Borok people in the disputed territory of the Tripura Division and its neighboring areas of Bangladesh and the Republic of India. The word Kok-borok is a compound of the words kok, which means "language", and borok, which literally means "nation", but is used to denote the Borok people. Thus Kok-borok means "the language of Borok" or "the language of the Borok people".

There are more than 950.000 people speaking Kokborok. Kokporok is an official language in India, in the Tripura division.

Languages of Bangladesh
Languages of India
Tripura
Sino-Tibetan languages

Kokborok language


Evan Evagora is an Australian actor. He is best known for his role as the Romulan Elnor on the television series Star Trek: Picard (20202022).

Biography

Early life
Evagora was born in Melbourne, the youngest of seven children born to Marie and Xristos. His parents both migrated to Australia: his mother, who is of Cook Islands Māori descent, from New Zealand when she was 20, and his father from Cyprus when he was three.

Evagora grew up in Melbourne, where he went to Kew High School. His interests at school included sport, particularly boxing and Australian rules football. He also took an interest in theatre, writing a play in which he took the part of Rove McManus.

Evagora appeared to be destined for a sports career. He won a state boxing championship, and played for Fitzroy Football Club in both Victorian Amateur Football Association and Victorian Football Association games. After school he spent a year travelling around Europe with friends. Evagora then went to film school in South Melbourne.

Career
While at film school Evagora was scouted as a model by a company that represents models and actors, and later moved to Sydney for his acting and then to Los Angeles.

Evagora played the role of Nick Taylor in the film Fantasy Island which was released in February 2020.

Evagora has a starring role in Star Trek: Picard as Elnor, a Romulan hand-to-hand combat expert. He is the first Australian to be a regular cast member in a Star Trek TV series. His role quickly received a "Space Legolas" nickname from Internet users, based on similarities with the character from The Lord of the Rings films, including the name style.

In an Australian magazine interview published in November 2019, Evagora said he would be filming in season 2 of Star Trek: Picard in 2020.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

References

External links

Living people
21st-century Australian male actors
Male actors from Melbourne
Australian male film actors
Australian male television actors
Australian male models
Year of birth missing (living people)
Australian people of Cook Island descent
Australian people of Greek Cypriot descent

Evan Evagora


Nicholas Joseph Swarbrick (14 November 1898 – 2 February 2006) was, at age 107, the final surviving English merchant sailor of the First World War at the time of his death.

He was born in Grimsargh, near Preston in Lancashire, where his father was a farmer. His mother died of tuberculosis when he was only six and he was later to lose his only sister from the same illness. He was only four when she first fell ill and, as she was infectious, he was not able to come near her because of her coughing. His elder (by 11 years) sister was forced to run the household.

He attended Winckley Square School, a Jesuit school in Preston, but dropped out at 14 after being administered especially severe corporal punishment.

As a radio officer in the Merchant Navy, he made several transatlantic crossings to transport horses and troops. He left the Navy in 1929 to help his father's business, later taking up an interest in cattle breeding.

He never married and died in his native Grimsargh on 2 February 2006, aged 107.

References
 Nicholas Swarbrick obituary
 Obituary

1898 births
2006 deaths
English centenarians
Men centenarians
People from Preston, Lancashire
British Merchant Navy officers
British Merchant Service personnel of World War I

Nicholas Swarbrick


Chhanabora is a sweetmeat from the Indian subcontinent made from chhena and syrup. It is attested from the 16th century. It is related to rosogolla and pantua, sharing a cottage cheese basis with the former and a burnt brown crust with the latter. According to local legend, it was created when Maharaja Manindrachandra Nandi of Cossimbazar ordered his cook to create a dessert that was neither rosogolla nor pantua. It is common in Murshidabad and outsize chhanabora are a common gift for high-ranking visitors.

References

Sweets of West Bengal
Bengali desserts
Indian cheese dishes

Chhenabara


A safari is an overland journey.

Safari may also refer to:

Zoological parks
Safari park, a drive-through animal park
Karachi Safari Park, a children's park in Pakistan
Ramat Gan Safari, a zoo in Israel

Computing
Safari (web browser), a web browser developed by Apple Inc.
SAFARI, a proposed French government database of personal data
SimSafari, a 1998 computer game

Drinks
Safari, another name for Yop, a yoghurt drink
Orange Safari, a cocktail

Music
The Safaris, an American pop group
Safari (Gnags album)
Safari (Jovanotti album)
Safari, by Victoria Kimani
Safari (EP), by The Breeders
Safari (Miranda! album), 2014
"Safari" (J Balvin song), 2016

Vehicles
GMC Safari, a van
Pontiac Safari, a station wagon
Citroën Safari, a version of the Citroën DS
Tata Safari, an SUV
Saab Safari, an aircraft
Safari Helicopter a kit helicopter

Media
 Books and magazines
Safari (novel), a series of books by Ahmed Khaled Towfik
Safari Books Online, an online service
Safari magazine, an Indian scientific magazine

 Film and cinema
 Safari (1940 film), an American film from 1940 with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Madeleine Carroll
 Safari (1956 film), a British film from 1956 with Victor Mature and Janet Leigh
 Safari (1991 film), a French TV film directed by Roger Vadim
 Safari (1999 film), a Bollywood film directed by Jyotin Goel
 Safari (2016 film), a  documentary film directed by Ulrich Seidl
Safari Cinema, a former cinema in Croydon, London

 Television
 Safari TV, a Malayalam language travel television channel

Other
SAFARI-1, a South African nuclear research reactor
Safari Club, an alliance of intelligence services formed in 1976 that ran covert operations around Africa
Behrang Safari (born 1985), Swedish footballer
HMS Safari (P211), a British S-class submarine
Mahal Safari, an alternate spelling of Mehal Sefari, an elite Ethiopian military unit
Safari Kimanzi (born 1994), Kenyan boy who received surgery in Australia due to severe burns
Safari Rally, a rallying competition in Kenya
Safari Sevens, a Kenyan rugby sevens tournament
A tradename for dinotefuran, a neonicotinoid insecticide

See also
Safari jacket, a type of clothing
The Surfaris, an American surf rock band
Safar (disambiguation)

Safari (disambiguation)


Bahía de Cádiz Natural Park (Parque Natural de la Bahía de Cádiz) is a  natural park located in the province of Cádiz (Andalusia, Spain). It was established in 1989.

Nature

Located at the mouth of the Guadalete river, it consists of marshland, beaches, reed and sand dunes. It has many types of shrubs and bushes, and ocean pine.

Recreational activities include bird watching, sailing, windsurfing and hiking.

It has been designated a Site of Community Importance.
Animals that can be found include solan goose, stork, cormorant, great crested grebe, seagull, flamingo, tern, sea eagle and avocet. The park is a Special Protection Area (Zona de Especial Protección para las Aves, ZEPA)

Gallery

References

External links

 Official site at Junta de Andalucía
  at This is Andalucia

Natural parks of Spain
Natural parks of Andalusia
Geography of the Province of Cádiz
Special Protection Areas of Spain
Ramsar sites in Spain

Bahía de Cádiz Natural Park


Yannis Brown is an Australian composer and sound designer for portable devices and consoles.

He grew up in Adelaide, Australia. He began playing keyboards by ear at the age of 4 and started composing music around the age of 13. He then moved on to writing MOD tracker formats on the Amiga since 1989 and later IBM PC around 1993. He was heavily involved with the music part of the Demoscene and ran Groovy Compo - a bi-weekly tracker based internet competition first started by Mick Rippon. He also entered other similar competitions, including The Trackering.

Brown has since joined the game industry as a composer and sound designer and has written music for several handheld platforms including: Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation Portable, Palm OS, Pocket PC, Tapwave Zodiac and mobile phones such as the Nokia N-Gage, iOS and Android; notably, in 1999, he wrote the soundtrack for South Park Rally and for composing and porting the score from Dragon Ball Z to Legacy Of Goku 2 and Buu's Fury for Game Boy Advance. He also helped produce audio for many top Web & iOS titles from developers such as NGMoco, PlayFish Games, PopCap Games and AnkiDrive.

His career in the games industry has also included working in-house for multiple companies such as Ratbag Games aka Midway Games Australia, Backbone Entertainment on Gauntlet DS, Death Jr 2 - Root of Evil and Trion Worlds - most notably RIFT & Trove.

He has links with Astraware and has written music for several of their handheld games including: Toucan Tango, Candy Train, Crazy Daisy, Rocket Mania, Super Bounce Out, Cubis, Mazera and Bejeweled.

Yannis also composed tracks for Warblade.

External links
Groovy Audio

Year of birth missing (living people)
Australian male composers
Australian composers
Living people
Video game composers

Yannis Brown


The Vault of Horror (also called Vault of Horror, Further Tales from the Crypt and Tales from the Crypt II) is a British anthology horror movie.  It was made in 1973 by Amicus Productions. Like the 1972 Amicus movie Tales from the Crypt, it is based on stories from the EC Comics series written by Al Feldstein and Bill Gaines. The movie was directed by Roy Ward Baker.

None of the movie's stories are actually from Vault of Horror comics. All but one were in Tales from the Crypt.  The one that wasn't is Shock SuspenStories. The movie does not have the Vault Keeper character from the comics.

Cast
Daniel Massey as Harold Rogers
Terry-Thomas as Arthur Critchit
Curd Jürgens as Sebastian
Michael Craig as Maitland
Tom Baker as Moore
Anna Massey as Donna Rogers
Glynis Johns as Eleanor Critchit
Dawn Addams as Inez
Edward Judd as Alex
Denholm Elliott as Diltant
Robin Nedwell as Tom
Geoffrey Davies as Jerry
Terence Alexander as Fenton Breedley
Ishaq Bux as Fakir
John Forbes-Robertson as Wilson
Maurice Kaufmann as Bob Dickson
Arthur Mullard as Gravedigger
Mike Pratt as Clive
Marianne Stone as Jane
Erik Chitty as Old Waiter
Tommy Godfrey as Landlord
Jerold Wells as Waiter

DVD release
Together with Tales from the Crypt,The Vault Of Horror was released on a "Midnight Movies" double feature DVD on 11 September 2007. The version used is the edited, 1974 US theatrical release.  It has some of the gorier scenes removed or altered in order to receive an MPAA PG rating.

An uncensored version was first shown on the British TV channel Film4 on 25 August 2008. This version still did not show a shot from the original closing sequence.  In this scene the characters who walk to the graveyard are seen with dead, skeletal faces. It may be that this shot has been lost. No prints with it have been found. There is no evidence it was included in the final release prints.

Other websites

1973 horror movies
British horror movies
Movies directed by Roy Ward Baker

The Vault of Horror (movie)


Mid90s (stylized as mid90s) is a 2018 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film written and directed by Jonah Hill, in his feature directorial debut, inspired by Hill's own childhood in the mid-1990s. It stars Sunny Suljic, Lucas Hedges and Katherine Waterston, and follows a 13-year-old boy who begins spending time with a mostly older group of skateboarders while living in 1990s Los Angeles.

The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2018, and was theatrically released in the United States on October 19, 2018, by A24. It was well received by critics, who called it a "promising first outing for Hill", and praised the sense of nostalgia.

Plot
In 1996, 13-year-old Stevie lives in Palms, Los Angeles with his abusive and borderline psychopathic older brother Ian and single mother Dabney. One day, Stevie bikes past Motor Avenue Skateshop, admires the boastful camaraderie of the skateboarders outside, and returns the following day. Back home, he trades with his brother for a skateboard, brings it to the shop and befriends young skater Ruben, who introduces him to the rest of the group: charismatic leader Ray, loudmouth "Fuckshit", and quiet "Fourth Grade". Although an inexperienced skater, Stevie is drawn to the group and aspires to imitate their daredevil behavior and anti-social attitudes. Stevie is nicknamed "Sunburn" by Ray during a conversation, and his acceptance into the group causes Ruben to resent him.

While attempting a skateboard trick across an open section between two rooftops, Stevie falls and suffers a head injury. Dabney becomes concerned about his turn towards recklessness and his new friends, but Stevie has already made up his mind that he is sticking with the group. Ian has a tense standoff with Fuckshit as Stevie watches, but Ian appears intimidated by the group and leaves before a fight can break out. Stevie begins smoking, drinking, and experimenting with marijuana. At a party, he has his first kiss and sexual experience with an older teenage girl named Estee, despite the clear age difference.

After Stevie comes home intoxicated, he and Ian get into a violent fight. Ian has an emotional breakdown when Stevie says that he has no friends and, following the conflict, a distressed Stevie attempts to asphyxiate himself with a cord from a SNES controller, one of several self-harm incidents. The next day, Dabney forbids Stevie from hanging out with the boys. Stevie lashes out and refuses to obey. Having alienated his mother and brother, Stevie sits alone behind the skate shop. Ray consoles Stevie, telling him that even though he thinks his life is bad, the other boys have it worse: Fourth Grade is poor to the point of not being able to afford socks, Ruben's mom is an abusive drug addict, Fuckshit's reckless partying is worsening, and Ray lost his younger brother, who was hit by a car a few years prior. Ray then takes Stevie out to skate at night, and they fall asleep outside the Santa Monica Courthouse.

The shop hosts a party in back of the store. Ray hopes to make a career in skating, and chats up two professionals as potential sponsors. Fuckshit, who is drunk and high, tries to sabotage Ray's chances by embarrassing him in front of the pros. Stevie, who has been drinking heavily, is provoked into a brawl with Ruben. Discouraged by the undisciplined behavior of his friends, Ray tells everyone to go home. However, an intoxicated Fuckshit insists on driving the group to another party. After some convincing, Ray reluctantly agrees, and the group heads off. Talking animatedly and driving inattentively, Fuckshit crashes and flips the car on its side. Stevie is knocked unconscious and is rushed to the hospital.

Stevie later awakens in a hospital bed, and sees Ian in a chair alongside him. Ian gives Stevie a container of orange juice to comfort him. Dabney enters the hospital and sees Stevie's friends, asleep in the waiting room. Moved by the fact they are there for Stevie, Dabney encourages them to visit Stevie's room. They appear willing to reconcile with each other after the previous night's events. Fourth Grade, who has been filming their adventures throughout the film, says he has something to show them. He plugs his camera into a TV to play them a skate video of their daily activities. Fourth Grade has titled the film "Mid90s".

Cast
 Sunny Suljic as Stevie "Sunburn"
 Na-Kel Smith as Ray
 Olan Prenatt as Fuckshit
 Lucas Hedges as Ian, Stevie's abusive older brother
 Katherine Waterston as Dabney, Ian and Stevie's mother
 Gio Galicia as Ruben
 Ryder McLaughlin as Fourth Grade
 Alexa Demie as Estee
Additionally, Jerrod Carmichael cameos as a security guard whom Stevie and his friends taunt. Filmmaker Harmony Korine appears briefly as a sexual partner of Dabney. Korine wrote the screenplay for the 1995 film Kids, which Hill cited as the reason for his cameo appearance. Hip-hop artist Del the Funky Homosapien and professional skateboarder Chad Muska appear as homeless man #1 and #2 respectively.

Production
On March 30, 2016, it was announced that Jonah Hill would be making his directorial debut from his own spec script, Mid90s, a film he would not appear in.

In March 2017, Lucas Hedges joined the cast. In July 2017, it was reported that Katherine Waterston had signed on and that Sunny Suljic was cast in the lead role. It was also revealed that principal production on the film had commenced. On August 1, 2017, Alexa Demie joined the cast.

Music

Mid90s features an original score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, as well as recordings by Pixies, Morrissey, Herbie Hancock, ESG, the Mamas and the Papas, Souls of Mischief, Nirvana, The Pharcyde, and various 1990s hip hop music.

Release
Mid90s had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2018, and was also screened at the New York Film Festival on October 7, 2018. It was theatrically released in the United States on October 19, 2018, in limited engagements, with a wide release the following weekend. The film was released in UK and Irish cinemas on April 12, 2019.

Home media
Mid90s was released on DVD and Blu-ray on January 8, 2019.

Reception

Box office
Mid90s grossed $249,500 from four theaters in its opening weekend for an average of $62,375 per venue, good for the third best of 2018. It expanded to 1,206 theaters the following week and made $3 million, finishing 10th at the box office. In its third weekend of release the film made $1.36 million.

Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of  based on  reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads, "Mid90s tells a clear-eyed yet nostalgic coming-of-age tale that might mark the start of an auspicious new career for debuting writer-director Jonah Hill." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 66 out of 100, based on 45 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by PostTrak gave the film an 83% overall positive score and a 62% "definite recommend".

Owen Gleiberman of Variety called the film "a coming-of-age tale that's unvarnished enough to believe," specifying, "the fact that a star like Hill built this movie from the ground up, and did it with so much integrity and flair, lends it an undeniable hipster quotient." Writing for The Hollywood Reporter, John DeFore said, "in emotional punch and shoulda-seen-this-coming skill, it is more like Hill's Lady Bird, a gem that feels simultaneously informed by its author's adolescence and the product of a serious artist's observational distance."

Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 2 out of 4 stars and said, "Vivid in bits and pieces, Mid90s feels like a research scrapbook for a movie, not a movie. The more Hill throws you around in the name of creating a harsh, immediate impression, the more the impressions blur. Hill will make far better pictures: As an actor, it took him a few films after Superbad to discover the payoff in doing less, and less obviously. The director in him may need another project to figure that out, whatever story he tells next."

More critical reviews called attention to the film's use of homophobic and racist slurs, as well as its treatment of toxic masculinity. Sam Adams of Slate wrote, "The skaters' dialogue is liberally spiced with homophobic and occasional racist slurs, and while anyone old enough to remember the 1990s can attest to the accuracy of their omnipresence, the movie's inclusion of them feels like another cheap shortcut to verisimilitude." Other criticisms cited a scene of juvenile sexuality between Stevie and Estee (the character portrayed by Alexa Demie) for its uncomfortable undertones given the ages of the characters and actors.

Hill commented, "The point of the movie is that nothing's black or white. I'm not a moralist; I'm not here to tell an audience how they should feel. I think the way [the characters] speak about women and gay people is really a messed-up way to go about that. And then at the end of the film, they still are there for one another. So I don't think anyone is purely good or purely bad. I hope to create complex characters that constantly are challenging what you think of them."

Accolades

References

External links

A24 (company) films
American coming-of-age comedy-drama films
Skateboarding films
2010s coming-of-age comedy-drama films
2018 directorial debut films
2018 independent films
2018 films
Films produced by Jonah Hill
Films produced by Scott Rudin
Films scored by Trent Reznor
Films scored by Atticus Ross
Films about drugs
Films set in the 1990s
Films set in 1996
Films set in Los Angeles
Hood films
Films shot in Los Angeles
Films with screenplays by Jonah Hill
2018 comedy-drama films
Films about brothers
2010s English-language films
2010s American films

Mid90s


Kaoru Yamatani (山谷 馨, December, 12 1934 [age 86]; Yoyogi, Tokyo), better known by his pen name Sō Kuramoto (倉本 聰), is a Japanese playwright and screenwriter.

Biography
Sō Kuramoto was born in Yoyogi on 21 December 1934. He attended Azabu High School and studied aesthetics at Tokyo University. He then found work at Nippon Broadcasting System (NBS). While an employee there, he also began submitting scripts for NBS radio programs under the pen name Sō Kuramoto, keeping his identity a secret from his employers. In 1963 he left NBS and began working as a freelancer. He had troubles around NHK's teleplay Katsu Kaishū and escaped to Hokkaido. After staying in Sapporo, he moved to Furano in 1977. In 1984 he established Furano Juku, a school for script-writers and actors.

Works and Writings
All works on IMDb

Japanese writers
1934 births

Sô Kuramoto


The Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPC; ) was established as an officer of the Legislature by Ontario's Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA, 1987), which came into effect on January 1, 1988. The current commissioner is Patricia Kosseim.

Mandate
The commissioner is appointed by and reports to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, and is independent of the government of the day. The function of the office is to uphold and promote open government and the protection of personal privacy in Ontario. The IPC also has responsibility for the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (MFIPPA, 1991) and the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA, 2004).

Together, these three Acts establish rules about how the institutions covered may collect, use, and disclose personal data. They also establish a right of access that enables individuals to request their own personal information and have it corrected if necessary.

The term "freedom of information" refers to public access to general records relating to the activities of government. This ranges from administration and operations to legislation and policy. It is an important aspect of open and accountable government. Privacy protection is the other side of that equation, and refers to the safeguarding of personal information held by government.

Under the three acts and statutory mandate, the IPC is responsible for:
 Resolving access to information appeals and complaints when government or health care practitioners and organizations refuse to grant requests for access or correction;
 Investigating privacy complaints with respect to personal information held by government or health care practitioners and organizations;
 Ensuring that the government organizations and health information custodians comply with the provisions of the Acts;
 Educating the public about Ontario's access and privacy laws;
 Conducting research on access and privacy issues, and providing advice and comment on proposed government legislation and programs.

History
Following the passage of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, the IPC office was created with three staff under the first Commissioner, Sidney B. Linden.

FIPPA applies to all provincial ministries and most provincial agencies, boards and commissions, as well as to universities and colleges of applied arts and technology.

Hospitals were brought under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act in January, 2012 to ensure greater transparency and accountability.  Like other institutions covered by FIPPA, hospitals are required to make an annual report to the IPC.

MFIPPA broadened the number of public institutions covered by Ontario's freedom of information and privacy legislation. It covers local government organizations, such as municipalities, police, library, health and school boards, and transit commissions.

After years of advocacy, a Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA) was enacted in 2004. This health privacy law applied to all individuals and organizations involved in the delivery of health care services – both public and private sectors – to ensure the protection of personal health information of patients. In the first seven years after its enactment, IPC issued only 11 health Orders.

In accordance with the Acts, the Commissioner has delegated some decision-making powers to staff members. Thus, the Assistant Commissioner (Privacy), Assistant Commissioner (Access) and other designated staff may issue orders, resolve appeals, and investigate privacy complaints.

Commissioners

See also
Privacy Commissioner of Canada

References

External links

Offices of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario
Privacy in Canada
1998 establishments in Ontario


In statistics, the Conover squared ranks test  is a non-parametric version of the parametric Levene's test for equality of variance. Conover's squared ranks test is the only equality of variance test that appears to be non-parametric. Other tests of significance of difference of data dispersion are parametric (i.e., are difference of variance tests). The squared ranks test is arguably a test of significance of difference of data dispersion not variance per se. This becomes important, for example, when the Levene's test fails to satisfy the rather generous conditions for normality associated with that test and is a default alternative under those conditions for certain statistical software programs like the VarianceEquivalenceTest routine in Mathematica. In addition to Levene's test, other parametric tests for equality of variance include the Bartlett, Brown-Forsythe, and Fisher Ratio tests.

References

Statistical tests
Analysis of variance

Squared ranks test


Times of Lore is a 1988 action role-playing game that was developed and published by Origin Systems for several platforms, including PC, Commodore 64/128, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Apple II, NES, and Amiga.

Plot

The game's story tells of the kingdom of Albareth whose monarch High King Valwyn has disappeared and the dukes and barons are wrestling for power. Barbarians are threatening to invade, while monsters are pillaging the land. The player must assume the role of one of three heroes, choosing between a barbarian, a knight, and a valkyrie; and unravel the conspiracy and find three magic items.

Gameplay

The game takes place in a very complex world, featuring 13,000 screens of map according to the promotional material. There is no loading during the game, which was quite a feat at the time for such a massive environment.

The Commodore 64 version features high-res overlays for the sprites, a technique that employs two sprites on top of each other one being a low resolution multi-colour sprite the other a high resolution monochrome sprite. Animated water is also used and the game world slowly changes colour between night and day.

It is possible to get to un-winnable situations which require restarting the game, such as killing important characters who would otherwise have given you certain quests or objects. Killing random peasants is not as dangerous, as staying the night at the inn will make them forget your trespasses.

There are many objects to be found in the game, including a teleportation scroll, a returning axe à la Mjolnir, and healing potions. There is the hidden city of Treela, in the middle of the map, behind a forest. Serfs will speak of a dragon in the north, which can be found sleeping in his cave on the eastern edge of the northern mountains. Catacombs also exists but if entered, the ghouls inside are unleashed upon the world, making the game much more difficult. In the Apple II version, the dragon is replaced with a giant lurking in the northwest portion of the map.

Development
Times of Lore, developed by Chris Roberts, was originally titled Ultra Realm. According to Roberts, it was inspired by console action-adventures, particularly The Legend of Zelda. Roberts stated that "interfaces and design are being affected" by the video game console market and that what "the Japanese market originally demanded were certain constraints which did not affect the depth and quality of a game."

Reception
Scorpia of Computer Gaming World recommended Times of Lore as an introductory computer RPG, noting both dialogue and actions were menu-driven, simplifying the game. Compute! agreed with the recommendation, noting that the game's scale was smaller than the Ultima games' and praising its graphics and sound. The magazine named the game to its list of "nine great games for 1989" as "an excellent introductory-level fantasy role-playing game".

Reviews
Jeux & Stratégie #56

Legacy
Times of Lore went on to inspire several later titles by Origin Systems. This includes the 1990 title Bad Blood, another action RPG based on the same engine. It also inspired the 1990 title Ultima VI: The False Prophet, which adopted several elements from Times of Lore, including real-time elements, a constant-scale open world (replacing the unscaled overworld of earlier Ultima games), and an icon-based point & click interface. Richard Garriott, in addition to citing it as an influence on Ultima VI, said that Ultima VII: The Black Gate was also inspired by Times of Lore. The game was a precursor to Diablo and Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance.

References

External links

Times of Lore at Hall of Light

1988 video games
Action role-playing video games
Amiga games
Amstrad CPC games
Apple II games
Atari ST games
Commodore 64 games
DOS games
Fantasy video games
Nintendo Entertainment System games
Origin Systems games
Single-player video games
Video games scored by Martin Galway
Video games developed in the United States
Video games featuring female protagonists
ZX Spectrum games

Times of Lore


Peter Fraser (born 1953) is a British fine art photographer. He was shortlisted for the Citigroup Photography Prize (now known as the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize) in 2004.

Life and career

Early life
Fraser bought his first camera at the age of 7. In 1968, at school, Fraser saw Powers of Ten, a film by Charles and Ray Eames which over nine minutes takes the viewer on a journey from a couple picnicking in Chicago, out to the imagined edge of the Universe and back, continuing on down through the skin to an atomic level. Fraser went to school in Wales until 1971, then studied Civil Engineering for three months at Hatfield Polytechnic, England, before deciding to study photography. He studied Photography at Manchester Polytechnic between 1972 and 1976, repeating his final year due to becoming seriously ill after crossing the Sahara Desert in early 1975.

Photography

Fraser has said that 'The idea that there is no hierarchical relationship between large and small, as everything in the Universe is made of small things, has influenced much of his work and came directly from seeing this film'. Fraser was an early adopter of colour photography in the UK, along with Paul Graham and Martin Parr. He began exhibiting colour photographs in 1982. In 1984, Fraser travelled to Memphis, USA to spend two months with William Eggleston, after meeting him at Eggleston's first UK exhibition opening at the Victoria and Albert Museum the previous year. This experience gave Fraser the confidence to commit to working with colour photography with reference to notions of 'Poetic Truth' rather than notions of 'documentary truth' which prevailed at the time. Therefore, despite the historical pressure of the documentary tradition in British photography at this time Fraser was drawn to making photographs which were in each successive series preoccupied with philosophic and metaphysical questions, alluded to by Ian Jeffrey who said:

"...see Peter Fraser, probably the best colourist anywhere now, and as capable with metaphors as any major poet. Fraser's work is complete, full, in its resonances and layered meanings, rich with the sort of richness you might find in Chardin or Vermeer."

1983–1990

Between 1983 and 1986, Fraser made the exhibitions, Twelve Day Journey, The Valleys Project, Everyday Icons and Towards an Absolute Zero which led to his first publication Two Blue Buckets in 1988. This book won the Bill Brandt Award hosted by the Photographers' Gallery in 1989 and led to an international audience for Fraser's work. In 1990 Fraser was invited to be the British Artist in Residence in Marseilles, which led to the subsequent exhibition and publication Ice and Water in which, through the shimmering heat of the Mediterranean summer his subject had become the space between and around objects.

1990s

Having been a chess enthusiast as a boy, and having been deeply impressed by Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, he travelled to many countries in the world in the early 1990s to scientific research establishments photographing machines at the cutting edge of technology, proposing a series of 'Portraits' of machines shown and published as 'Deep Blue'. This idea had been encouraged by IBM designers of the chess computer Deep Blue speaking on their website of sensing the first signs of consciousness in the computer that finally beat Garry Kasparov, the World Chess champion in 1997. While visiting nearly 60 scientific sites, Fraser frequently photographed in scientific 'Clean Rooms' where particles of dust above a certain size were not admitted. Subsequently, pondering these small particles with 'Powers of Ten' in mind, Fraser decided to start photographing 'dirt and other low status' material. Simultaneous to this work was a University of Strathclyde commission to make new Art in their Applied Physics Department, where research was being undertaken into the fundamental nature of matter at a subatomic level. This led to these two series being combined into a single new series of photographs, Material in which a democratic notion of all material was proposed. This work was published in 2002.

2000s

In 2002 The Photographers' Gallery (London) showed a 20-year overview of Fraser's work, drawing on photographs from a number of his series making a distinction between very large scale 'Images' which became part of the architecture of the gallery space and framed 'Works' hung from the walls. In 2004 Fraser was shortlisted (with Robert Adams, David Goldblatt and Joel Sternfeld) for the Citigroup (formally Citibank) International Photography Prize at the Photographers' Gallery for work which had been exhibited the previous year in the first Brighton Biennial. These photographs were the outcome of a synthesis between two preoccupations, namely his continuing conviction that small things are important, and that the surface of the earth more than ever looks the way it does because the human brain directs the hand to change the shape and nature of materials. This work was subsequently published by Nazraeli Press, USA in 2006. In his text for this book Gerry Badger wrote:

It may seem a long way-and some might feel the connections a mite far fetched-from the simple depiction of objects contained in Peter Fraser's series, to the universe. But this, nevertheless is what Fraser is asking us to think about as we puzzle over these straightforward yet enigmatic images. In each photograph, he brings a forensic attention upon these everyday objects, yet however elegant each image is in itself, it is the linkages-both causal and casual-we might find between each one, jointly and severally, that we are asked to contemplate. In these relations, Peter Fraser is finding a poetic equivalent not just of the unity of opposites, but also to the simple, obvious yet profound idea expressed by Charles Eames: "Eventually, everything connects."

In early 2006 Fraser was invited to be an Artist in Residence at Oxford University to make new art with photography for the Biochemistry Department. The department had commissioned the demolition of several older buildings in which it was housed, to make way for a newly commissioned landmark building. Fraser visited Oxford twice a month for two and a half years making photographs at first in the midst of the demolition process using lower saturation colour film, and then changing to brighter colour film once the construction phase began.

In 2009 Fraser was commissioned by Ffotogallery, Wales, to make new work across the entire country during that year. This resulted in the exhibition and publication Lost For Words, the first time Fraser had worked entirely digitally. These works were shown and published in spring 2010, of which Mark Durden in his accompanying essay observed that:

There is a dark strain running through many of Frasers new pictures. The sensuousness, beauty and idealism in his photography of objects is countered by a sense of the impermanence, incomprehensibility and meaninglessness of things. Objects exist not so much for us but against us, obdurate, enigmatic and other.

In 2012 Fraser exhibited 'A City in the Mind' at Brancolini Grimaldi Gallery, London. This was a series of photographs inspired by Italo Calvino's book Invisible Cities, in which the Tartar Emperor Kublai Khan discusses with Marco Polo cities in his empire Marco has visited on the Emperor's behalf, but for the Emperor can only remain Cities in the Mind.

"In London I have been making work which even though needing physical subjects for the images, collectively suggest a City which we cannot physically visit, but can only in our imagination through the book and exhibitions of the photographs".

In 2013 Tate St Ives exhibited a selected retrospective of Fraser's work, and published a monograph containing photographs from all of Fraser's major series to date, 12 day Journey (1984), Ice and Water (1993), Deep Blue (1997), Lost for Words (2010) and A City in the Mind (2012). This was the first Tate retrospective for a living British photographer working in colour.

In 2013 Fraser received an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Photographic Society.

In 2014 Tate purchased 10 works from the mid-1980s for their permanent collection.

In Spring 2017 Peperoni Books, Berlin, published a new 'Director's Cut' of Fraser's 1988 publication Two Blue Buckets with 19 missing images from the original, and a new essay by Gerry Badger and a discussion between Fraser and David Campany.

From 1 June – 31 July 2017 Fraser's exhibition Mathematics was exhibited at the Real Jardin de Botanico, Madrid, part of PhotoEspana 17, and Skinnerboox, Italy, published Mathematics with 52 colour plates, and essays by Mark Durden, David Campany and an afterword by Fraser.

The first UK exhibition of Mathematics opened at Camden Arts Centre, London, on 5 July and ran until 16 September 2018. The accompanying File Notes no 120 published by the gallery, featured a specially commissioned essay The Things that Count by Amy Sherlock, deputy editor of Frieze.

Publications
Nazraeli Monograph. Nazraeli Press, 2006. .
Lost for Words. 2010. .
A City in the Mind. Steidl Brancolini Grimaldi, 2012. ISBN .
Peter Fraser. London: Tate, 2013. Edited by Martin Clark and Sara Matson. .
Mathematics. Skinnerboox, 2017. Edition of 750 copies. With texts by Mark Durden and David Campany.
Two Blue Buckets. Cornerhouse Publications, UK, 1988.
Deep Blue. Viewpoint Photography Gallery, The Ffotogallery, Tullie House, Cambridge Darkroom Gallery, 1997.
Lost for Words. The Ffotogallery, Wales Ltd, UK.

Solo exhibitions

 1982: The Flower Bridge, Impressions Gallery, York, England.
 1983: New Colour, The Photographer's Corridor, University of Wales, Cardiff.
 1984: New Colour, Gallery Oldham, Oldham, England; Arnolfini, Bristol, England.
 1985: 12 Day Journey, Harris Museum, Preston, England; Axiom, Cheltenham, England.
 1986: Everyday Icons, Photographers' Gallery, London; Photo Gallery Hippolyte, Helsinki; toured the United Kingdom.
 1987: Spectrum Galerie, Sprengel Museum, Hannover, Germany.
 1988: Towards an Absolute Zero, Watershed, Bristol, England; Plymouth Arts Centre, Plymouth, England; Ffotogallery, Cardiff, Wales.
 1989: Triptychs, Interim Art, London.
 1993: Ice and Water, Cornerhouse, Manchester, England.
 1995: Ice and Water, Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri, USA. Ice and Water, James Hockey Gallery, Farnham, England.
 1996: Deep Blue, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London.
 1997-1998: Deep Blue, Viewpoint Gallery, Salford; Ffotogallery, Cardiff; Cambridge Darkroom, Tullie House, Carlisle.
 1999: Peter Fraser, Gallerie 213, Paris.
 2002: Peter Fraser, The Photographers' Gallery, London.
 2003: The Inconsiderable Things, Brighton Photo Biennial, University of Brighton Gallery, England.
 2010: Lost for Words, Ffotogallery, Cardiff, Wales.
 2012: A City in the Mind, Brancolini Grimaldi, London.
 2013: Peter Fraser, Tate Retrospective, St Ives, UK.
2017: Mathematics, Real Jardin Botanico de Madrid, PhotoEspana.
2018: Mathematics, Camden Arts Centre, London, UK.

Collections

Fraser's work is held in the following public collections:
Arts Council of England, London.
The Arthur Andersen Art Collection, London.
The British Council, London.
Contemporary Art Society, London.
Fotografie Forum, Frankfurt, Germany.
HTV, Bristol, England.
Manchester City Art Gallery, UK.
Morgan Stanley, London North West Arts Association, England.
Oldham Art Gallery, England.
Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
Siemens Collection, Munich, Germany.
Sun Life Collection, National Media Museum, Bradford, England.
Tate, London: 10 prints.
Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Washington University Art Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
Mast Foundation, Bologna, Italy
Foundation A Stichting, Brussels, Belgium
Yale Centre for British Art, Yale University, USA.

Further reading
'At the Ruskin', Oxford Poetry magazine, Magdalen College, Oxford University, Spring 2009, Vol. 13 no 1, pp 31–32 text, and 4-page colour insert.
Badger, Gerry. 'Peter Fraser Material', Next Level, Edition 02, Vol 01, 2002. pp. 42–29.
Beaumont, Mary-Rose. 'Peter Fraser', Arts Review, 28 July 1989; p. 42.
Beem, Edgar Allen. 'Close Encounters With the Overlooked', Photo District News (New York), July 2007, pp 82–86
Bell, Adam. ' A City in the Mind', Photoeye, New York, blog 5 November 2012, Photoeye blog
Bishop, William. 'Photographs by Peter Fraser', Creative Camera, May 1986; pp. 18–25.
Bracewell, Michael. "Peter Fraser photographs 2002-2003". Portfolio, no 39, 2004. pp. 8–13. Reproduced here within Fraser's website.
Burnside, John. 'A Liberation from the Ordinary', Tate Etc., Issue 27, 2013, pp. 54–59
Burton, Johanna. "Tiny Jubilations". Citigroup Photography Prize 2004, published by the Photographers' Gallery, pp. 38–39. Reproduced here within Fraser's website.
Chandler, David. 'Peter Fraser', Photoworks (Brighton, England). May/October 2007, p74. Reproduced here within Fraser's website.
Chandler, David. 'Peter Fraser, Photographs 1981-2012' monograph, Tate Publishing 2013
Coles, Alex. "Architecture with Art in Mind", Salt Bridges, Prestel Publishing Ltd, 2010 pp 120 (text), and pp 88–113 (images).
Duffy, Robert' 'Fraser's Different Focus', St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 20 August 1995.
Durden, Mark. 'Peter Fraser', Photography Today, Phaidon Press, 2014, pp. 126–129
"Focus", SuperMassiveBlackHole, issue 7/2011 ("Colour Theory") (PDF). About, and with samples from, Lost for Words.
Haigh, Geraldine. 'Chromatically Correct', Professional Photographer, August 2002, pp. 45–48.
Hubbard, Sue. 'Peter Fraser – Triptychs', Time Out, 26 July 1989.
Jeffrey, Ian. 'Peter Fraser', Untitled magazine, Spring 1994; p. 17.
Jeffrey, Ian. 'Review Citigroup Prize', Photoworks magazine, Spring/Summer 2004, pp 54–57
Jooks, Heinz-Norbert. 'Citigroup Photography Prize Exhibition', Kunstforum 171, July/August 2004, pg 326
Ladd, Jeffrey. "Lost for Words by Peter Fraser", 5B4, 25 June 2010.
Langley, Patrick. Mathematics. Art Review Magazine, October 2018, pp. 99.
Mellor, David. British Photography: Towards a Bigger Picture. New York: Aperture, 1998. pp. 57–61
Mellor, David. No Such Thing as Society: Photography in Britain 1967-1987. London: Hayward Publishing, 2008. pp 127–131, 133–135, 146
Rothman, Aaron. 'Peter Fraser', Photo Eye Booklist (Santa Fe, New Mexico), Spring 2007, pp 20–22
Sherlock, Amy. The Things that Count. File Notes 120, Camden Arts Centre, London, UK.
Withers, Rachel. 'Peter Fraser Material' (interview), Foam, issue 5 'Near', 2004. pp. 99–117. Reproduced here within Fraser's website.

References

External links

1953 births
Living people
Artists from Cardiff
Fine art photographers
Welsh photographers

Peter Fraser (photographer)


Afzal Khan (died 20 November 1659) was a general who served the Adil Shahi dynasty of Bijapur Sultanate in India. He played an important role in the southern expansion of the Bijapur Sultanate by subjugating the Nayaka chiefs who had taken control of the former Vijayanagara territory.

In 1659, the Bijapur government sent Afzal Khan to subjugate Shivaji, a former vassal who had started acting independently. He was killed at a truce negotiation meeting with Shivaji, and his army was defeated at the Battle of Pratapgad.

Victory over the Nayakas
Amid the decline of the Vijayanagara Empire, the Bijapur government campaigned against the Nayaka chiefs who had taken control of the former Vijayanagara territory. One of these chiefs was Virabhadra, the Nayaka of Ikkeri. Kenge Nayaka (or Keng Nayak), the chief of Basavapattana and a discontented tributary of Virabhadra, helped the Bijapur army capture Ikkeri in exchange for 1,00,000 rupees, forcing Virabhadra to flee to Bednur. Subsequently, the Bijapur government decided to capture the forts of Adoni and Tadipatri, which were ruled by friends of Kenge Nayaka. Kenge Nayaka suggested that the march to these areas was difficult, and instead advised Bijapur to capture Bangalore. In exchange for this advice, Kenge Nayaka demanded the fort of Sira, which was located on the way to Bangalore.

The Bijapur commander Randaula Khan sent a force led by Afzal Khan to capture Sira. Kasturi Ranga Nayaka, the commander of Sira, came out of the fort to negotiate with Afzal Khan, but Afzal Khan killed him. The defenders closed the fort gates before Afzal Khan could enter the fort, but Afzal Khan's contingent was soon reinforced by the main Bijapur army led by Randaula Khan. The Bijapur army captured the fort, and handed it over to Kenge Nayaka, while sending the captured wealth to Bijapur. Kenge Nayaka subsequently switched his allegiance to Bangalore, but then re-joined Bijapur, and convinced the Bangalore ruler Kempe Gowda to surrender his fort to Bijapur.

Randaula Khan then invaded Mysore, whose ruler Kanthirava Narasaraja I negotiated peace by paying 500,000 huns (currency unit) to Bijapur. Subsequently, Kenge Nayaka rebelled against Bijapur, and asserted independence at Basavapattana, where he raised an army of 70,000 soldiers to guard the fort. Randaula Khan then formed an alliance with his former overlord Virabhadra, the former Nayaka of Ikkeri, and besieged Basavapattana. Afzal Khan, along with Shahaji and some commanders of African origin, was deployed at the main gate of the Basavapattana fort. He entered the fort after a fierce battle, killed the guards, and captured the qasba – the central part of the fortified town. Kenge Nayaka then launched three successive attacks against him, but Afzal Khan forced him to retreat. Encouraged by Afzal Khan's successes, the Bijapur forces attacked Kenge Nayaka's contingent from both sides. After losing 3,700 soldiers, Kenge Nayaka surrendered the fort, and agreed to pay Bijapur 4 million huns. He was imprisoned, and later killed for attempting to bribe a guard for his release.

Bijapur's victory over Kenge Nayaka frightened the other Nayakas of present-day Karnataka into accepting Bijapur's suzerainty. Randaula Khan sent Afzal Khan to capture Chikkanayakana Halli, whose chief (raja) offered to accept Bijapur's suzerainty. The chief was allowed to keep control of the town (qasba) in exchange for 20,000 huns, but Afzal Khan took control of the fort. Afzal Khan then besieged the fort of Belur, joined by the main Bijapur army. After a four-month long siege, the local chief Venkatapati started peace negotiations, offering to cede the fort of Sakrepatna near Belur. Ultimately, he became a vassal of Bijapur, as did the Nayaka of Tumkur.

Campaign against Shivaji
Afzal Khan is best remembered for his campaign against Shivaji, the founder of the kingdom that later evolved into the Maratha Empire. This campaign, which resulted in Afzal Khan's death, came to be highly celebrated in the Marathi literature. The earliest sources that describe the episode include:

 Afzal Khan Vadh ("The Killing of Afzal Khan"), powada composed by Agrindas or Ajnandas in 1659, and probably revised later; the earliest known heroic ballad in Marathi language
 Cantos 17–21 of Shiva-Bharata, composed by Shivaji's court poet Paramananda at the time of his coronation in 1674
 Shri-Shiva-Prabhuche Charitra (or the Sabhasad Bakhar), a chronicle composed by Krishnaji Anant Sabhasad under the patronage of Shivaji's son Rajaram in 1697
 The Jedhe Shakawali (Jedhe chronology), records kept by the Jedhe aristocratic family

Background
Shivaji was a son of the Bijapur's general Shahaji, who had fought alongside Afzal Khan. He administered Shahaji's fiefs in the Pune region, and had started acting independently of the Bijapur government. He had captured territories ruled by other subordinates of Bijapur, and had negotiated with the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, who had invaded the Bijapur Sultanate. Shivaji claimed to be a loyal servant of Bijapur, but the Bijapur government doubted his loyalty. During much of the 1650s, the Bijapur government had been unable to take any steps against Shivaji because it was busy dealing with the Mughal invasion, internal factional politics, and a succession dispute. After a peace treaty with the Mughals, and the general acceptance of Ali Adil Shah II as the king, the Bijapur government became more stable, and turned its attention towards Shivaji.

Ali Adil Shah II was a minor whose mother had been the de facto ruler since the mid-1640s, when his father had fallen seriously ill. The decision of sending Afzal Khan against Shivaji was probably taken by his mother. An English letter sent by factor Henry Revington to East India Company, dated 10 December 1659, states that the queen advised Afzal Khan to pretend friendship with Shivaji, because military strength would not be enough to defeat Shivaji.

Shivaji reportedly commanded a 60,000 infantry after his conquest of Javli. On the other hand, Afzal Khan's army – including infantry and cavalry – had 10,000 soldiers. This number is supported by the English letter, as well as Tarikh-i-Ali. Maratha sources suggest higher numbers, stating that Afzal Khan's army had as many as 35,000 infantry; 12,000 cavalry; and 500 cannons; according to American academic Nicholas Gier, these sources exaggerate the strength of Afzal Khan's forces in order to glorify Shivaji's victory. The Chitnis Bakhar states that Afzal Khan's army numbered 30,000 men; and Sabhasad states that it had 12,000 cavalry plus additional infantry. Shivaji-Pratpa, Rairi Bakhar, 91 Qalami Bakhar, and Tarikh-i-Shivaji state that Afzal Khan's army numbered 12,000.

Desecration of temples
Afzal Khan, like the ruler of Bijapur, was a Muslim, while Shivaji was a Hindu. According to Shiva-Bharata (1674), composed under Shivaji's patronage, Afzal Khan's army started its march amid several evil omens, such as falling meteors and thunderbolts in cloudless sky. The text states that Afzal Khan first came to Tuljapur, where he destroyed the idol of Shivaji's family goddess Bhavani, and slaughtered a cow (considered holy by the Hindus) in front of her temple. Afzal Khan Vadh states that Afzal Khan challenged the goddess to show her some miracle. He went on to desecrate the Hindu temples at Pandharpur and Shikhar Shingnapur (Shambhu Mahadev).

Sabhasad also supports the account of Afzal Khan's desecrations at Tuljapur and Pandharpur. The Chitnis Bakhar and Shiva Digvijaya state that the idols at Tuljapur and Pandharpur were removed before Afzal Khan could destroy them. The contemporary English letters of the East India Company, the Dutch East India Company's Dagh-register, and the Portuguese records do not mention any desecration of temples by Afzal Khan.

Afzal Khan finally encamped at Wai, a town that he had governed in the earlier years. Shivaji had taken up residence in the newly fortified Pratapgad, and Afzal Khan's desecration of Hindu sites was probably aimed at provoking Shivaji into leaving the safety of the fort. These actions alienated the local Hindu Deshmukhs, who could have provided local support to Afzal Khan. Since Afzal Khan had governed the Wai region in the past, and knew it well, he presumed that he did not need such local support.

Negotiations
At Wai, Afzal Khan wrote to local chiefs, seeking their support against Shivaji. Vithoji Haibat Rao, the deshmukh of Gunjan-Maval, was asked to bring a contingent to Javli in Afzal Khan's support. Khandoji Khopde agreed to support Afzal Khan on the condition that he would be made the deshmukh of Rohidkhore, which was held by Shivaji's loyalist Kanhoji Jedhe.

According to Sabhasad, Afzal Khan then sent his envoy Krishna Bhaskar Kulkarni to Shivaji, declaring that he was a great friend of Shivaji's father Shahaji. He promised that he would use his influence in the Bijapur court to get the king to officially recognize Shivaji's control over Konkan and various forts. He also promised to secure further distinction and military equipment for Shivaji from Bijapur. Finally, he declared that Shivaji was welcome to attend the Bijapur court, or be granted an exemption from personal attendance, if he so desired.

Meanwhile, Afzal Khan's unchallenged march to Wai had greatly frightened Shivaji's followers. His well-equipped army had freely plundered the territory of Shivaji, who had confined himself to a fort instead of challenging Afzal Khan in an open battlefield. Both Sabhasad and Chitnis Bakhar state that Shivaji's counsellors urged him to avoid losses by negotiating peace with Afzal Khan.

Texts such as Afzal Khan Vadh and Shiva-Bharata claim that the goddess Bhavani appeared in Shivaji's dream, warning him of Afzal Khan's treacherous plans, and assuring him of victory. After waking up, Shivaji prayed to the goddess, and resolved to either win against Afzal Khan or die fighting. He summoned the armies of his generals – Moro Trimbak Pingle from Konkan and Netaji Palkar from the Ghats – close to Pratapgad.

Shivaji treated Afzal Khan's envoy Krishnaji Bhaskar with respect, and met him secretly at night, urging him as a Hindu to divulge Afzal Khan's real intentions. Krishnaji hinted that Afzal Khan had treacherous plans. Shivaji then sent Krishnaji back to Afzal Khan with his own agent Gopinath Pant. The envoy presented Shivaji as someone who respected Afzal Khan as an elder and an associate of his father, and as someone who was willing to submit easily. However, his real objective was to find the enemy's military strength and intentions. Sabhasad states that Gopinath bribed Afzal Khan's officers, and learned that Afzal Khan planned to arrest Shivaji at the meeting.

After learning these details from Gopinath, Shivaji pretended that he was scared of Afzal Khan, and refused to come to Wai for a meeting. Shivaji's envoy proposed a negotiation meeting with only a few bodyguards at Javli, located near the foot of the Pratpagad fort. Afzal Khan agreed, and accordingly, Shivaji ordered his men to clear forest and create a path from Wai to Pratapgad.

The place chosen for the meeting was a crest located below Pratapgad, overlooking the Koyna River valley. One day before the meeting, Afzal Khan marched to Par, a village near Pratapgad, via the Radtondi pass. His soldiers encamped in scattered places, close to water bodies near the source of the Koyna River. Meanwhile, Shivaji placed his soldiers in ambush at various intervals along the path leading to the meeting point. He set up luxurious tents at the meeting place.

Before departing for the meeting, Shivaji left instructions for continuation of his government, in case he was killed at the meeting.

Meeting with Shivaji and death

Shivaji took precautionary measures to defend himself against Afzal Khan: he put on thin chain mail and an iron armour under his clothes, and concealed two weapons: the bagh nakh ("tiger claws" or metal hooks attached to fingers), and a sword said to be "possessed" by the goddess Bhavani. He left for the meeting accompanied by two soldiers – his expert swordsman Jiva Mahala and Shambhuji Kavji, each of whom carried two swords and a shield.

Afzal Khan left his camp at Par with an escort of 1,000 soldiers. However, Shivaji's envoy Gopinath argued that such a large escort would scare Shivaji away from the meeting, and convinced Afzal Khan to bring only two soldiers to the meeting, just like Shivaji. Accordingly, Afzal Khan left most of his escort at a short distance from the meeting place, and came to meet Shivaji in a palki, accompanied by five men: two soldiers, his expert swordsman Sayyid Banda, and the envoys Krishnaji and Gopinath.

Shivaji, who was waiting at a distance from the meeting place, demanded that Sayyid Banda leave the tent where the meeting was scheduled. Afzal Khan agreed to the demand: both Afzal Khan and Shivaji now entered inside the tent, each accompanied by three men – two soldiers and an envoy. Afzal Khan insulted Shivaji by calling him a peasant () boy, and Shivaji responded by calling him a son of a fry cook ().

According to the Maratha texts, Afzal Khan asked Shivaji to submit to the Bijapuri king Adil Shah, and be recognized as a vassal lord. He pretended to embrace Shivaji, but then quickly stabbed him with a concealed weapon. Shivaji was protected by his chain mail, and retaliated. Afzal Khan then rushed out of the tent; his companion Sayyid Banda attacked Shivaji, but was killed by Jiva Mahala.  This event is remembered in a Marathi language idiom Hōtā Jivā Mhaṇun Vāchlā Shivā ("Because of Jiva; Shivaji survived the attack").

Afzal Khan was subsequently killed and beheaded. The various sources differ regarding who killed Afzal Khan, and how:

Muntakhab-al Lubab, a work by the Mughal chronicler Khafi Khan, attributes the treachery to Shivaji instead: it states that Shivaji feigned humility and tears while approaching Afzal Khan, confessing his sins and asking for forgiveness after every 3–4 steps. He then pretended to tremble with fear, and requested that Afzal Khan's companions withdraw to a distance. In reality, he had stationed his soldiers in ambush in every cave, and concealed a bichuwa (dagger), which he used to attack Afzal Khan.

After Afzal Khan's killing, Shivaji's Maratha troops, hidden in the forest, came out and routed the Bijapur army at the Battle of Pratapgad, on 20 November 1659 (10 November 1659 in Julian calendar). According to Revington's letter, around 3,000 of Afzal Khan's soldiers died in the battle. Two of Afzal Khan's sons were captured by Shivaji's soldiers. Another son – Fazl Khan – escaped along with Afzal Khan's wives with the support of Khandoji Khopde. The Maratha texts state that many of Afzal Khan's men were killed, but those who surrendered were invited to join Shivaji.

Legacy

Afzal Khan's head was presented before the goddess Bhavani and Shivaji's mother Jijabai as a trophy, and later buried under the "Abdullah Tower" at Pratapgad. The rest of Afzal Khan's body was buried in Javli.

Shivaji's victory over Afzal Khan caught the popular imagination of the local public, and ballads glorifying the event were sung by wandering bards (gondhalis). The victory is also glorified in the local literature (see Powada). The Afzal Khan Vadh equates Shivaji to Rama, and Afzal Khan to Ravana. The Shiva-Bharata similarly describes Shivaji as an avatar of Vishnu, while portraying Afzal Khan as a demonic incarnation. The Shri-Shiva-Prabhuche compares the conflict to the legendary Kurukshetra War, equating Shivaji to Bhima and Afzal Khan to Duryodhana.

Several legends about Afzal Khan's fatal campaign became popular in the following years. One of these legends claims that he had a premonition about his death from an astrologer before he started his march against Shivaji. Therefore, he killed and buried his 63 wives at Afzalpura near Bijapur to ensure that no other men would get them after his death. The graveyard of his 63 wives is known as Sath Khabar.

An annual urs (death anniversary celebration) was held at Afzal Khan's tomb, but in the 1990s, right-wing Hindus objected to the alleged Muslim glorification of Afzal Khan as a martyr during the event. They formed an organization called Pratapgarh Utsav Samiti, and started organizing "Shiv Pratap Din" ("Shivaji Glorification Day") to celebrate Shivaji's victory over Afzal Khan. The Samiti observed the day at the Pratapgad fort from 1996 to 2004, when the Congress-NCP-led state government banned the politicized celebration because of provocative speeches and riots at the event. In 2014, the state passed a resolution banning exhibition of paintings of Shivaji killing Afzal Khan, after some Muslim groups objected to such a painting.

Later Shiv Pratap Din was granted festival status by the government. On 30th November,2022 Maharastra CM Eknath Shinde celebrated Shiv Pratap Din by hoisting flag at Pratapgad fort.

See also

 Shaista Khan, a Mughal general whose defeat by Shivaji is similarly celebrated in Marathi literature

References

Bibliography

External links

History of Maharashtra
History of Karnataka
Adil Shahi dynasty
Indian generals
1659 deaths
Year of birth unknown

Afzal Khan (general)


The 1986 NBA draft was held on June 17, 1986.

Overview and aftermath
This draft holds the record for the most players (out of prospects chosen) who later debuted in the NBA, with 66.

Drug and health issues involving drafted players
There were various drug-related problems that plagued players in the 1986 NBA draft. Most notable was the death of highly touted Len Bias. Bias died less than two days after being selected second overall by the defending champion Boston Celtics. His death was ruled an overdose that resulted from taking of the drug cocaine. Other problems involving drugs hampered the careers of Chris Washburn, Roy Tarpley, and William Bedford.

Successful second-round players
While a number of first-round selections were unable to make an impact in the league, this draft did feature a number of talented second-round selections. Dennis Rodman, who became one of the leading defenders and rebounders in NBA history, was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in August 2011. Mark Price, Kevin Duckworth, and Jeff Hornacek also went on to have successful careers, and each made the NBA All-Star Game. Three others – Johnny Newman, Nate McMillan, and David Wingate – had long, productive careers as role players.

International draftees
This draft contained two exceptional international players, both of whom had shortened careers for unusual reasons. Third-round selection Dražen Petrović was coming off an All-Star caliber fourth season when he was killed in an automobile accident in 1993. He has since been elected to both the Naismith Hall of Fame and the FIBA Hall of Fame. The other, Arvydas Sabonis, was not permitted to play in the United States because of the dangerous political climate in the Soviet Union. He won two Olympic medals before his arrival in the NBA—a gold in 1988 with the USSR, and a bronze in 1992 with Lithuania.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Sabonis had a very successful career in Europe before finally joining the Portland Trail Blazers in 1995. Sabonis had lost much of his mobility by the time he joined the team because of a string of knee and Achilles tendon injuries. He finished second in both the Sixth Man Award and Rookie of the Year voting; after the 1995–96 season, he won a second Olympic bronze medal with Lithuania. He played seven seasons with Portland before returning to his homeland of Lithuania where he finished his career. Sabonis entered the FIBA Hall in 2010 and the Naismith Hall in 2011.

Other draftee contributions to the game
This draft is also known for the number of players who made important contributions to the sport of basketball outside of the court. For example, Nate McMillan had a highly successful run with the Seattle SuperSonics as a player and then as head coach, and then spent seven seasons as head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers. Scott Skiles was the former coach of the Milwaukee Bucks and also the first coach to lead the Chicago Bulls to the playoffs in the post-Jordan era.

Larry Krystkowiak, a former Bucks head coach, was hired in April 2011 as the new head coach at the University of Utah. John Salley won four championship rings with three different NBA teams (Detroit Pistons, Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers) before becoming one of the hosts of The Best Damn Sports Show Period on Fox Sports Network. Mark Price served as an assistant coach at Georgia Tech, a shooting consultant with Memphis (one season) and Atlanta (two seasons), a shooting coach for Golden State (one season), and in December 2011 was named Player Development Coach for the Orlando Magic.

Jeff Hornacek would also be a full-time assistant head coach for the Utah Jazz for two seasons before accepting a job as the head coach for the Phoenix Suns in the 2013–14 NBA season. In 2016, Jeff Hornacek became the head coach for the New York Knicks, and coached them until 2018. Pete Myers, selected in the sixth round as the 120th overall pick, was an assistant coach for the Chicago Bulls from 2001 to 2010 and Golden State Warriors since 2011. Jim Les, the 70th overall pick, was an assistant coach for the WNBA's Sacramento Monarchs from 1999 to 2001 then was head coach at Bradley University from 2002 to 2011 and UC Davis since 2011.

Jay Bilas, who was selected in the fifth round as the 108th overall pick but never played in the NBA, is an ESPN college basketball analyst.

Draft selections

* compensation for draft choices traded away by Ted Stepien

Notable undrafted players
These players who declared or were automatically eligible for the 1986 draft were not selected but played in the NBA.

Early entrants

College underclassmen
The following college basketball players successfully applied for early draft entrance.

  William Bedford – C, Memphis (junior)
  Walter Berry – F, St. John's (junior)
  Michael Graham – F, Georgetown (freshman)
  Jerald Hyatt – G, Lincoln Memorial (junior)
  Andre Morgan – G, Hawaii (junior)
  Chris Washburn – F/C, NC State (sophomore)
  Dwayne Washington – Syracuse (junior)
  John Williams – F, LSU (sophomore)

Other eligible players

See also
 List of first overall NBA draft picks

References

External links
 SI.com's twenty-year retrospective on the 1986 NBA Draft

Draft
National Basketball Association draft
NBA draft
NBA draft
1980s in Manhattan
Basketball in New York City
Sporting events in New York City
Sports in Manhattan
Madison Square Garden

1986 NBA draft


The Composer Is Dead is a 2009 composition for narrator and orchestra, released both as a musical recording and as a book with a CD insert, with text by Lemony Snicket, music by Nathaniel Stookey, and illustrations by Carson Ellis. It is a whodunnit about the orchestra.

Plot

The Composer Is Dead is a murder mystery about the killing of a composer. It takes place in an orchestra, and also is designed to help introduce children to instruments. The book also includes a bonus CD of one of Lemony Snicket's concerts.

Orchestral work

The Composer Is Dead was originally created as an orchestral work by Nathaniel Stookey with narration by Lemony Snicket. The work was commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony and premiered at Davies Symphony Hall on July 8, 2006, with Lemony Snicket narrating and Edwin Outwater conducting. It was first published by G. Schirmer/Associated Music Publishers.

The Composer Is Dead was inspired by Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf and is similar to Benjamin Britten's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra in that it is intended to introduce young audiences to the instruments in the orchestra. The world premiere recording by the San Francisco Symphony, with Handler narrating as Snicket and Edwin Outwater conducting, is to be included with every copy of the expanded book.

After its premiere, The Composer Is Dead was immediately taken up by the Toronto Symphony's New Creations Festival and has since been programmed by many orchestras including the Chicago Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orpheus Sinfonia and the Treasure Valley Symphony. On January 26, 2008, Dino Antagonist led the Little Orchestra Society in the work's New York premiere at Avery Fisher Hall.

References

External links

 Daniel Handler's official website

Works by Lemony Snicket
2009 compositions
HarperCollins books
Compositions with a narrator
Music commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony
2009 children's books

The Composer Is Dead


Xorko t kwtsiou j t champi

Galata () is a village in the Solea valley, located about 60 km west of the capital Nicosia, at an altitude of 620 m in the Troodos Mountains of Cyprus.  It is a popular summer tourist destination (especially among locals) for its cooler climate in the summer months. It is also well known on the island for its fruit produce. In Galata there is Panagia tis Podithou  (), church, which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985 along with nine other Painted Churches in the Troödos Region, because of their unique murals and testimony to the history of Byzantine rule in Cyprus.

Name of village and history
According to Greek mythology, Cyprus was the first land that Aphrodite set foot on; where
Pygmalion begged her to let him be with the statue that he created in her image.  Aphrodite brought the statue to life and Pygmalion married Galatea.

According to one version of villages name first settlers came from Galatia in Asia Minor.
According to other version village was populated with shepherds who sold milk, that is milkmens
(in Greek galataes).
Leontios Machairas in his Chronicle mentioned that Galata belongs to feud of king after 1196. From his chronicles could be concluded that during Lusignan Period Galata belonged to de Giblet family. Demetrios de Coron, senior officer of House of Lusignan, after fall of Lusignans  retired close to Galata, where he built the monastery  Panagia tis Podithou in 1502.  Russian traveler and pilgrim Vasyl Hryhorovych-Barskyi visited Galata and wrote 1735. Edward Stafford of the English Consulate of the island lived in Galata in 1691. In 1910, Galata opened its first hotel.

Village of balconies
Galata is built on the banks of the Klarios River, which crosses the Solea Valley. Galata is almost merged with nearby Kakopetria.

Its traditional houses have wooden balconies and there are still many balconies in the village. They had two floors and the wooden balcony was an extension of the second floor, which faced the main road. The Museum of Folkloric Art  was established in 1990. Galata had four watermills, and the watermill of "Kyrillos" is still operational.

Churches
In Galata there is Panagia tis Podithou   (), church from 1502, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site along with nine other Painted Churches in the Troödos Region. Church  Panagia Theotokos/Archangel Michael from 1514. is located 100 m near Panagia tis Podithou. Small church Agios Sozomenos from 1513 is in middle of village near big main Galata church Panagia Odegetria (Virgin Mary guiding), built in 1930. Agia Paraskevi and Agios Georgios are small 16th century churches on road between Galata and Kakopetria. Agios Nicolaos is small church from the 15th century at western entrance of Galata.

References

Communities in Nicosia District

Galata, Cyprus


Richard Ng Man-tat (, 2 January 1952 – 27 February 2021), commonly called Uncle Tat (), was a Hong Kong actor originally from Fujian. He was a veteran in the Hong Kong film industry, with dozens of awards, including Best Supporting Actor at the 10th Hong Kong Film Awards for his role in A Moment of Romance. Ng was best known for his comedic roles alongside Stephen Chow and was a versatile actor with many memorable performances throughout his career.

Early life
Richard Ng Man-tat was born on Gulangyu island in Xiamen, Fujian, on 2 January 1952. He had an older sister and two younger brothers. As such, his mother tongue was actually Hokkien, but his younger brothers cannot speak it at all. Ng's family migrated to Hong Kong when he was five.  The family relied on his father's monthly income of  to survive. Ng studied at Aberdeen Technical School, where he taught a mechanical course to help provide for the family.

Career

Early acting career and bankruptcy
Ng noticed TVB's Chinese Folklore, which had an actor, Lin Wei Tu (), who was Ng's coworker at the factory where he was working. Ng thought he met the requirements of being an actor and signed up for TVB's acting classes in 1973. In 1974, he graduated fifth in his batch of trainees, alongside veteran actor Chow Yun-fat, and debuted when he was 22. He was one of the seven from his batch to sign an acting contract with TVB.

Ng's breakout film was the 1979 edition of the television series Chor Lau-heung in which he played Wu Tit-fa. This role allowed him to become one of the more sought-after actors of that time. However, he became caught up in the fame and fortune that he gained, and starting gambling. By 1980, he owed  to loan sharks and was declared bankrupt. TVB then minimised his appearances. Ng wanted to borrow money from his friends, including Chow, but he was turned away by them, and then considered suicide as a possible recourse. After some consideration, Ng decided to restudy and improve his acting skills, reading up on Konstantin Stanislavski's An Actor Prepares and Zheng Junli's The Birth of a Role (角色的誕生). To pay off his debts, two-thirds of Ng's salary was used for repayments. While repaying his debts, Ng was cast in 1981's , in which his efforts were recognised, thus enabling him to continue acting in films and television series. The debts were paid off by 1984.

Acting career resurgence
In 1985, Ng acted in the television series Police Cadet '84 which was well-received by local television audiences, and allowed his peers in the industry to re-evaluate him in a positive manner. He began to receive new work at a more consistent rate. In 1988, Ng began to co-star with Stephen Chow with their first TVB television series together, The Final Combat, and also the popular 1990 film All for the Winner, where he played the role of Chow's uncle. From then on, the two collaborated in numerous "mo lei tau" films in the same style as All for the Winner. He was best known for co-starring with Chow in comedy films that broke Hong Kong box office charts in the 1990s.

Through 1991, Ng carried a grudge against Chow Yun-fat for not lending him money. When Ng won the Best Supporting Actor award at the 10th Hong Kong Film Awards for A Moment of Romance, he openly snubbed Chow. Benny Chan, the director of A Moment of Romance, then revealed to Ng that it was on Chow's recommendation that Ng had gotten the role for the film. Chow also had similarly assisted him to get the role for Heroic Cops. Chow said that he didn't want to lend money to him as he feared that it would turn into a form of reliance, making it harder for Ng to recover from his gambling habit. Both Ng and Chow reconciled thereafter.

Although Ng owed much of his popularity to co-starring in comedy films, he showed himself to be a versatile actor in successfully portraying various roles. An example of such was in his portrayal of Sister 13's father in Portland Street Blues, where he played a man who could not feel anything but abuse and rejection. It proved to be the perfect complement to his usual "mo lei tau" style with Chow. He also played Andy Lau's sidekick in the Lee Rock series in a more serious role, which won him Best Supporting Actor at the 10th Hong Kong Film Awards. In Hong Kong, Ng was often known as "Uncle Tat", a nickname most likely derived from his role as Stephen Chow's sidekick (often as his uncle) in their films. Ng was sometimes credited as Richard Ng.

In 2001, Ng and Stephen Chow collaborated for the last time in Shaolin Soccer. In 2006 Ng starred in the Taiwanese drama The Hospital as Tang Guotai (), a professor and director of surgery. He was subsequently nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the 42nd Golden Bell Awards in 2007.

In 2019, Ng starred in the science fiction film The Wandering Earth, in which he played the grandfather of the male lead. Ng nearly rejected the role as he believed that the Chinese film industry was not fit to make science fiction movies, and he had to undergo heart surgery at the time. During the filming, he had to bear the weight of a  spacesuit while still recovering from his heart failure in 2014.

Personal life
Ng married Mak Lee Lee, a Hong Kong artist, in 1976. They met during a TVB training class. Mak gave birth to twin daughters. After Ng's gambling debts had risen to , Mak filed for a divorce which was granted in 1994. While Ng and Mak were still married, Ng cohabited with Lo Siu Chi (卢少慈), also a Hong Kong artist, and had a daughter together. In 1993, while Ng was filming All's Well, Ends Well Too in Singapore, he met Hou Shanyan (侯珊燕), a Malaysian beauty pageant runner-up and artist. Ng married Hou in 1996, and they had a daughter and son. He lived with his family in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, until shortly before his death, when he asked to spend time in Hong Kong.

Being a native of Xiamen, he was fluent in Hokkien. He was reported to be speaking Hokkien with the cast when he was filming in Taiwan.

Illness and death
Ng was admitted to the hospital in 2014 for heart failure due to a viral infection. After this incident, Ng had a will drawn up, and remained in poor health from that point. In February 2021, he confirmed that he suffered from liver cancer and had been undergoing chemotherapy followed by rest and recuperation, but his condition had turned critical.

On 27 February 2021, Ng died in his sleep at Tai Wai's Union Hospital at the age of 69.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

 Ng Man Tat at the Hong Kong Movie DataBase

1952 births
2021 deaths
20th-century Hong Kong male actors
20th-century Chinese male actors
21st-century Hong Kong male actors
21st-century Chinese male actors
Chinese male film actors
Chinese male television actors
Hong Kong male film actors
Hong Kong male television actors
Hong Kong expatriates in Malaysia
Hong Kong male comedians
Hong Kong Christians
Converts to Christianity from Buddhism
Male actors from Fujian
People from Xiamen
Deaths from liver cancer
Deaths from cancer in Hong Kong

Ng Man-tat


Carlo Franco Chueca del Río (born 23 March 1993) is a Peruvian footballer who last played for FC Ararat Yerevan of the Armenian Premier League.

Career
In May 2009, while playing with Chivas USA U16, Carlo Chueca was detected by RSC Anderlecht. The Belgian club offered him a 2-year contract, and Chueca was integrated to the U21 team coached by ex-international star Johan Walem. During his first season with Anderlecht U21 he scored 2 goals in competition games and participated in the famous Viareggio Tournament in Italy. On April 21, 2010, at age 17, he made his debut with Anderlecht First Team: a friendly game vs. KVW Zaventem (1-1).
In June 2011 Chueca was transferred to RAEC Mons of the Jupiler League, where he spent 2 years as a member of the professional roster.
In the summer 2013 he was asked to go back to his former club, Chivas USA, and was officially signed on August 27, 2013. He made his professional debut in MLS on September 9, 2013 in a 1-0 victory vs. D.C. United, when he came on as a substitute for Carlos Alvarez at the 89th minute. During the 2013 MLS season he would play 5 games and deliver 1 assist against Real Salt Lake. By the beginning of the 2014 season, Chueca was released with several other players after Chivas USA announced that the franchise would stop and leave Major League Soccer.

Chueca joined FC Ararat Yerevan of the Armenian Premier League on a one-year contract in December 2014.

Career statistics

References

1993 births
Living people
Footballers from Lima
Peruvian men's footballers
Men's association football midfielders
Major League Soccer players
R.A.E.C. Mons (1910) players
Chivas USA players
FC Ararat Yerevan players
Peruvian expatriate men's footballers
Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium
Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States
Expatriate men's footballers in Armenia

Carlo Chueca