William Nicholas Keogh PC (1817– 30 September 1878) was an unpopular and controversial Irish politician and judge, whose name became a byword in Ireland for betraying one's political principles.

Background
He was born in Galway, son of William Keogh, clerk of the Crown for Kilkenny, and his wife Mary ffrench, daughter of Austin ffrench of Rahoon, near Galway. He went to Dr Huddard's school in Dublin, and graduated from Trinity College Dublin: he was called to the Bar in 1840, and became Queen's Counsel in 1849. No one has ever questioned his intellectual abilities. He was a superb speaker both in public and private and he founded a well-known debating society, the Tail-end Club. He published several books on law, politics and literature, including a book on the prose writings of John Milton. Despite his later reputation for eccentricity and bad temper, as a young man, he was considered to be the best of company: genial, good-humoured and a superb conversationalist. He joined the Connaught circuit where he rapidly acquired a large practice, due less to any great legal skill than to his eloquence and impressive presence; these gifts soon turned him towards politics.

He married Kate Rooney, daughter of Thomas  Rooney, a Galway surgeon, in 1841; they had one son, and a daughter Mary, who married James Murphy (1823-1901), judge of the High Court, and had six children, including Edward Sullivan Murphy.

Political career
In 1847 Keogh was elected MP for Athlone. In 1851 he was one of the founders of the Catholic Defence Association  which championed the cause of tenant reform; he was re-elected for Athlone in 1852. In the latter year he helped found the Independent Irish Party, which was popularly known as "the Pope's Brass Band". The new party was pledged to repeal the Ecclesiastical Titles Act and to further the cause of tenant reform, and most crucially, its members gave an explicit promise not to take office but instead to hold the balance of power at Westminster. In this they were at first successful, helping to vote out the administration of Lord Derby, who was replaced by Lord Aberdeen.

Within months of promising not to take office, Keogh (together with his colleague John Sadleir) made the decision which destroyed his reputation in his own lifetime and long after his death: he accepted office in the Aberdeen Government, becoming first Solicitor-General for Ireland, and then Attorney-General for Ireland in 1855. His decision was seen by the Irish electorate as an unforgivable betrayal of a solemn pledge and his name,  along with Sadleir's, entered the Irish political vocabulary. Even a century later, John A. Costello turned down the offer by Éamon de Valera to make him a Supreme Court judge on the ground that he "did not wish face charges of being another Sadleir or Keogh".

Judicial career
In 1856 Keogh was appointed a judge of the Irish Court of Common Pleas. On the grounds of legal ability no one could dispute that he was highly qualified for judicial office, and in non-political cases, he had a good reputation: if not a profound lawyer, he had the ability to quickly see the essential point of a case. Unfortunately his conduct as a judge did nothing to restore the damage to his reputation. He was a man of strong opinions, which were always expressed forcefully, and his hot temper led to frequent quarrels with counsel. On one occasion Peter O'Brien, the future Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, was threatened with removal from Court. It must be said in Keogh's defence that, having recovered his temper, he apologised to O'Brien in open court in the presence of the assembled Bar. This suggests that Keogh, who as a young man had been famed for geniality and good humour, was not acting out of malice, but rather suffering from stress and ill-health.

Keogh's conduct of the "Fenian Trials" of 1865–6 and the savage sentences which were handed down were much criticised, although his defenders said that Charles Kickham at least had been treated as leniently as the evidence allowed. Further damage was done to his reputation by his decision on the Galway election petition case of 1872, where William Le Poer Trench, the unsuccessful candidate, petitioned to unseat the winner, John Philip Nolan, on the grounds of intimidation and undue pressure from the Catholic clergy. According to Delaney, Keogh's judgment took nine hours to read and "was delivered in an extremely biased manner and did nothing to enhance the reputation of the judiciary". Much of it seems to have been a diatribe against the Catholic hierarchy, which struck the audience as coming very strangely from a former member of the "Pope's Brass Band". There was a public uproar, and the Government had to move to defeat a motion in the House of Commons calling for Keogh's removal from the bench. On foot of the judgment the Government's Law Officers, much to their own embarrassment, felt obliged to prosecute Patrick Duggan, Bishop of Clonfert, and were clearly relieved when he was acquitted.

Friendship with Father Healy
Keogh developed a close friendship with Father Healy of Little Bray and the two used to dine at each other's houses every week. Father Healy's broad-mindedness and sense of humour struck a chord with the unconventional judge. Father Healy remained supportive of Keogh throughout Keogh's disputes with the Church and periods of mental illness.

The following exchange was recorded by Father Healy's biographer:
"My dear Healy," said Keogh, with a very solemn face, "I'll do anything you wish - only name it. I'd turn Turk or Mohammedan if it serves you."
"Turn Catholic," replied Healy.

Last years and death
In his last years, Keogh showed increasing signs of eccentricity, in the face of unrelenting public hostility from much of the Catholic population. His public clash with Peter O'Brien, which probably occurred in 1877, suggests that his bad temper was the result of stress rather than ill nature, and the reminisces of Oliver Burke demonstrate that he could still show considerable charm and good humour on occasion. In 1878 he travelled abroad to Belgium and Germany in an effort to regain his health, but on 19 August 1878, he attacked his valet with a straight razor in a fit of delirium, and was confined to a hospital. While he may have recovered his sanity, he continued to decline physically and died in Bingen am Rhein on 30 September 1878. He was buried in Bonn.

Reputation

Keogh's death did nothing to lessen the hostility to him at home; the Irish newspapers heaped abuse on him, causing The Times of London to protest that in any country but Ireland his talents would have won him popularity and respect. There is no doubt of his intellectual gifts, while his friends recalled the charm and good humour he had shown in his earlier years, and his son-in-law, Mr Justice James Murphy, to whom he had been close, championed him to the end. The picture of him in Burke's Anecdotes of the Connaught Circuit, published a few years after Keogh's death, is largely favourable. However, as McCullagh points out, not many politicians so damage their reputations that they are still spoken of with contempt a century later; and despite Keogh's gifts, one must conclude that much of the damage to his reputation was self-inflicted.

The inscription on the Cormack brothers memorial at Loughmore – placed there 32 years after Keogh's death – was typical of the continuing hostility to him.

Arms

References

External links

1817 births
1878 deaths
Politicians from County Galway
Irish barristers
Solicitors-General for Ireland
Attorneys-General for Ireland
Members of the Privy Council of Ireland
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Athlone
UK MPs 1847–1852
UK MPs 1852–1857
Justices of the Irish Common Pleas
Lawyers from County Galway
19th-century Irish judges

William Keogh


Vranov nad Dyjí (until 1986 Vranov; ) is a market town in Znojmo District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 900 inhabitants. It is known as a summer resort.

Geography
Vranov nad Dyjí is located about  west of Znojmo and  southwest of Brno, on the border with Austria. It borders the municipal territory of Hardegg. It lies in the Jevišovice Uplands. The highest point is the mountain Býčí hora at  above sea level.

Vranov nad Dyjí lies in the valley of the Thaya river. A part of the Vranov Reservoir, which is named after the market town, is situated in the northern part of the municipal territory. The Podyjí National Park occupies the southern part of the territory.

History

The first written mention of Vranov is from 1100, when the Vranov nad Dyjí Castle was mentioned in Chronica Boemorum. In 1323, the manor was acquired by the Lords of Lipá. The Lichtenburg noble family took control of Vranov during the 15th century. From 1516 to 1629, the manor often changed owners.

During the Thirty Years' War, the castle was besieged and damaged by Swedish troops, and the destruction was completed by a large fire in 1665. The Althann family, who acquired the castle in 1680, reconstructed the old Gothic structure into a representative Baroque residence. In the 19th century, the extensive landscape park was added.

Between 1790 and 1882, Vranov was known for its manufactory of earthenware. After 1816, the manufactory began producing ceramic of the wedgwood type.

Demographics

Sights
Vranov nad Dyjí is known for the Vranov nad Dyjí Castle. Today the castle is owned by the state and is open to the public. Together with the ruins of Nový Hrádek Castle, Vranov nad Dyjí Castle is protected as a national cultural monument.

References

External links

Market towns in the Czech Republic
Populated places in Znojmo District

Vranov nad Dyjí


Jacques Vallée, Sieur Des Barreaux (16 December 15999 May 1673) was a French poet, born in Châteauneuf-sur-Loire. His great-uncle, Geoffroy Vallée, had been hanged in 1574 for the authorship of a book called Le Flau de la Joy. His nephew appears to have inherited his scepticism, which on one occasion nearly cost him his life; the peasants of Touraine attributed to the presence of the unbeliever an untimely frost that damaged the vines, and proposed to stone him. His authorship of the sonnet on "Penitence", by which he is generally known, has been disputed, notably by Voltaire.

Des Barreaux was apparently bisexual. Although he was later known as one of the lovers of Marion Delorme, a famous courtesan, he also was the lover of the freethinking poet Théophile de Viau, called the "King of Libertines" by Jesuit prosecutors. During his imprisonment in 1623–25 on charges of writing atheistic poems with homosexual allusions, de Viau addressed a poem to Vallée, "The Complaint of Théophile to his friend Tircis", reproaching Des Barreaux for doing little to help him. After de Viau's death in 1626, a contemporary biographer of high society, Tallement des Réaux, referred to Des Barreaux as de Viau's widow, "thus indicating that their physical relationship was common knowledge at the time."

Subsequently, Des Barreaux was a lover of the libertine poet Denis Sanguin de Saint-Pavin, the so-called "King of Sodom", "a consummate gentleman" whose aristocratic rank and social connections protected him from prosecution for his witty, homosexually themed writings. In his Pensées, Pascal refers to him in a passage about those who renounce reason and "become brute beasts".

Des Barreaux died at Chalon-sur-Saône on 9 May 1673.

See Poesies de Des Barreaux (1904), edited by F. Lachbvre.

References

1599 births
1673 deaths
17th-century French male writers
17th-century French poets
French bisexual writers
Bisexual men
French poets
17th-century LGBT people
French LGBT poets
French male poets

Jacques Vallée, Sieur Des Barreaux


Femke Halsema (born 25 April 1966) is a Dutch politician of GreenLeft (GroenLinks, shortened GL). She has been mayor of Amsterdam since 12 July 2018.

Halsema was born in Haarlem and grew up in Enschede. She studied criminology at Utrecht University.

She was an MP from May 1998 to January 2011 and leading the GreenLeft parliamentary group from November 2002 to December 2010, being party leader the same time.

Halsema did also some academic teaching and wrote several publications about political and sociological topics, including her political autobiography.

Her partner is documentary maker Robert Oey.

References

Other websites
 Mayor Femke Halsema, municipality of Amsterdam

1966 births
Living people
Autobiographers
Dutch academics
Leaders of political parties in the Netherlands
Members of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands
GreenLeft politicians
Mayors of Amsterdam
People from Enschede
Politicians from Haarlem
Politicians from North Holland
Politicians from Overijssel
Writers from North Holland
Writers from Overijssel

Femke Halsema


The Department of Tourism was an Australian government department that existed between December 1991 and March 1996.

History
The Department of Tourism was introduced in December 1991 by the newly elected Keating government, described by media at the time as a "new mini-department" with fewer than 40 staff. Prime Minister Paul Keating said at the time that giving the department Cabinet status (rather than it being a branch of the previous Department of the Arts, Sport, the Environment, Tourism and Territories) would befit the tourism industry's position as one of the fastest growing industries in Australia.

Economist Dr Leo Jago at Curtin University argued in 2013 that establishing the department was a symbolic gesture and that the department's main role was to influence other departments, including the Department of Transport and Communications in regards to aviation reform and the Treasury regarding funding for the Australian Tourist Commission.

Inbound tourism to Australia jumped dramatically during the lifetime of the department, from 2 million visitors in 1988 to 3 million visitors in 1994.

After the Howard government was elected at the 1996 federal election, Prime Minister John Howard dismantled the department, assigning its functions to the newly created Department of Industry, Science and Tourism.

Scope
Information about the department's functions and/or government funding allocation could be found in the Administrative Arrangements Orders, the annual Portfolio Budget Statements and in the Department's annual reports.

At its creation, the Department dealt with:
Tourism, including the tourist industry
International expositions and support for international conferences and special events.

Structure
The Department was an Australian Public Service department, staffed by officials responsible to the Minister for Tourism, initially Alan Griffiths (until March 1993) and then Michael Lee.

References

Ministries established in 1991
Tourism
Government agencies disestablished in 1996
1991 establishments in Australia
Tourism organisations in Australia

Department of Tourism (Australia)


Aaron Selig ben Moses of Zolkiev was a Polish Jewish author who flourished in the seventeenth century. He wrote "'Amude Sheba'" (Seven Pillars) containing: (1) Commentaries and glosses on the old and the new Zohar, explaining the foreign words therein; (2) treatises not included in the old Zohar; (3) references where commentaries on the treatises of the old and the new Zohar can be found; (4) similar indications of the book "Tiḳḳunim"; (5) remarks on the style of the Zohar. The work was published at Cracow in 1637.

References

Jewish Polish writers
17th-century Polish Jews
People from Zhovkva

Aaron Selig ben Moses of Zolkiev


Ethan Skip Erickson (born August 5, 1973) is an American television and film actor and TV host.

Education
Erickson was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has a degree in English literature from UC Santa Barbara.

Career
Erickson once played the recurring role in Buffy the Vampire Slayer as jock Percy West, who actress Alyson Hannigan's character Willow Rosenberg tutors.  He appeared in both season 3 and season 4 as the same character.  As a gymnast since age 8, Erickson reportedly won the part after impressing director/creator Joss Whedon with a backflip during his audition. He starred in Jawbreaker (1999) with Rose McGowan and Julie Benz, as well as The In Crowd, and played as A.J. Chamberlain on Guiding Light.

In 2006, he hosted a short-lived series on UPN called Get This Party Started with Kristin Cavallari of Laguna Beach fame. That same year, he starred in Fashion House on MyNetworkTV as scheming senior designer and blackmailer John Cotter which aired in 2006 in the U.S.

In April 2008, he briefly stepped into the role of Dr. Patrick Drake on the ABC Daytime soap opera General Hospital, while actor Jason Thompson had to take a medical leave of absence.

In the fall of that same year, his role on CSI: NY as firefighter Brendon Walsh, boyfriend to Detective Stella Bonasera (Melina Kanakaredes), was upgraded to recurring. In December 2008 he played a doctor again on an episode of The Starter Wife. In January 2009, Erickson guest-starred on Monk as star quarterback David Gitelson. In May 2009 he was reportedly cast as Britney Spears' love interest in her video "Radar". Two months later, both Erickson and Spears were seen in an ad for Candie's, a young women's fashion line.

Later that year, Erickson was cast in the 2009 Melrose Place sequel, where he had a recurring role as executive chef and co-owner Marcello, in the restaurant where both Violet (Ashlee Simpson) and Auggie (Colin Egglesfield) work.  In addition, he was also the host and narrator of Chefs vs. City on Food Network for years 2009 and 2010.

In 2010, Erickson worked on the hit ABC drama Castle opposite Stana Katic and Nathan Fillion. Later that same year he guest-starred on the TNT network's show The Closer with actress Kyra Sedgwick.

Ethan played the lead role of character Eddie Avedon opposite Jennie Garth, Fred Willard, Zack Ward and Marilu Henner in a movie of the week for Hallmark Entertainment entitled Accidentally in Love, for release in 2011. In the romantic comedy, co-written by Garth's former husband and Twilight actor Peter Facinelli, Erickson portrays a struggling, jaded actor who secretly plays a costumed character on a children's TV show. His outlook on life begins to transform as he realizes his work and life have a bigger meaning when he falls for the mother of a fan of his show. In 2011, Erickson worked with Anne Heche and Eriq LaSalle on the mini-series Blackout.

Filmography

References

External links
 Ethan Erickson: Acting credits

1973 births
American male film actors
American male stage actors
American male soap opera actors
American male television actors
University of California, Santa Barbara alumni
American male voice actors
Living people
Male actors from Minneapolis
Male models from Minnesota

Ethan Erickson


A non-player character (NPC), or non-playable character, is any character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster or referee rather than by another player. In video games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer (instead of a player) that has a predetermined set of behaviors that potentially will impact gameplay, but will not necessarily be the product of true artificial intelligence.

Role-playing games
In traditional tabletop role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, an NPC is a character portrayed by the gamemaster (GM). While the player characters (PCs) form the narrative's protagonists, non-player characters can be thought of as the "supporting cast" or "extras" of a roleplaying narrative. Non-player characters populate the fictional world of the game, and can fill any role not occupied by a player character. Non-player characters might be allies, bystanders or competitors to the PCs. NPCs can also be traders that trade currency for things such as equipment or gear. NPCs thus vary in their level of detail. Some may be only a brief description ("You see a man in a corner of the tavern"), while others may have complete game statistics and backstories.

There is some debate about how much work a gamemaster should put into an important NPC's statistics; some players prefer to have every NPC completely defined with stats, skills, and gear, while others define only what is immediately necessary and fill in the rest as the game proceeds. There is also some debate regarding the importance of fully defined NPCs in any given role-playing game (RPG), but it is general consensus that the more "real" the NPCs feel, the more fun players will have interacting with them in character.

Playability
In some games and in some circumstances, a player who is without a player character can temporarily take control of an NPC. Reasons for this vary, but often arise from the player not maintaining a PC within the group and playing the NPC for a session or from the player's PC being unable to act for some time (for example, because the PC is injured or in another location). Although these characters are still designed and normally controlled by the gamemaster, when players are given the opportunity to temporarily control these non-player characters, it gives them another perspective on the plot of the game. Some systems, such as Nobilis, encourage this in their rules.

In less traditional RPGs, narrative control is less strictly separated between gamemaster and players. In this case, the line between PC and NPC can be vague.

Dependants
Many game systems have rules for characters sustaining positive allies in the form of NPC followers; hired hands, or other dependant stature to the PC. Characters may sometimes help in the design, recruitment, or development of NPCs.

In the Champions game (and related games using the Hero System), a character may have a DNPC, or "dependant non-player character". This is a character controlled by the GM, but for which the player character is responsible in some way, and who may be put in harm's way by the PC's choices.

Video games

The term "non-player character" is also used in video games to describe entities not under the direct control of a player. The term carries a connotation that the character is not hostile towards players; hostile characters are referred to as enemies, mobs, or creeps.

NPC behavior in computer games is usually scripted and automatic, triggered by certain actions or dialogue with the player characters. In certain multi-player games (Neverwinter Nights and Vampire: The Masquerade series, for example) a player that acts as the GM can "possess" both player and non-player characters, controlling their actions in order to further the storyline.  More complex games, such as the aforementioned Neverwinter Nights, allow the player to customize the NPCs' behavior by modifying their default scripts or creating entirely new ones.

In some online games, such as massively multiplayer online role-playing games, NPCs may be entirely unscripted, and are essentially regular character avatars controlled by employees of the game company. These "non-players" are often distinguished from player characters by avatar appearance or other visual designation, and often serve as in-game support for new players. In other cases, these "live" NPCs are virtual actors, playing regular characters that drive a continuing storyline (as in Myst Online: Uru Live).

In earlier and less advanced RPGs, NPCs only had monologue. This is typically represented by a dialogue box, floating text, cutscene, or other means of displaying the NPCs' speech or reaction to the player. NPC speeches of this kind are often designed to give an instant impression of the character of the speaker, providing character vignettes, but they may also advance the story or illuminate the world around the PC. Similar to this is the most common form of storytelling, non-branching dialogue, in which the means of displaying NPC speech are the same as above, but the player character or avatar responds to or initiates speech with NPCs. In addition to the purposes listed above, this enables development of the player character.

More advanced RPGs feature interactive dialogue, or branching dialogue (dialogue trees). An example are the games produced by Black Isle Studios and White Wolf, Inc.; every one of their games is multiple-choice roleplaying. When talking to an NPC, the player is presented with a list of dialogue options, and may choose between them. Each choice may result in a different response from the NPC. These choices may affect the course of the game, as well as the conversation. At the least, they provide a reference point to the player of their character's relationship with the game world.

Ultima is an example of a game series that has advanced from non-branching (Ultima III: Exodus and earlier) to branching dialogue (from Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar and on). Other role-playing games with branching dialogues include Cosmic Soldier, Megami Tensei, Fire Emblem, Metal Max, Langrisser, SaGa, Ogre Battle, Chrono, Star Ocean, Sakura Wars, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Radiant Historia, and several Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy games.

Certain video game genres revolve almost entirely around interactions with non-player characters, including visual novels such as Ace Attorney and dating sims such as Tokimeki Memorial, usually featuring complex branching dialogues and often presenting the player's possible responses word-for-word as the player character would say them. Games revolving around relationship-building, including visual novels, dating sims such as Tokimeki Memorial, and some role-playing games such as Persona, often give choices that have a different number of associated "mood points" that influence a player character's relationship and future conversations with a non-player character. These games often feature a day-night cycle with a time scheduling system that provides context and relevance to character interactions, allowing players to choose when and if to interact with certain characters, which in turn influences their responses during later conversations.

In 2023, Replica Studios unveiled its AI-developed NPCs for the Unreal Engine 5, in cooperation with OpenAI, which enable players to have an interactive conversation with unplayable characters. "NPC streaming"—livestreaming while mimicking the behaviors of an NPC—became popular on TikTok in 2023 and was largely popularized by livestreamer Pinkydoll.

Insult

On the Internet, NPC is often used as an insult to suggest that some people are unable to form thoughts or opinions of their own. Such people are often characterized as being similar to NPC Wojak, who is a grey-faced, expressionless internet meme.

Monetization
NPC streaming is a type of livestream that allows users to participate in and shape the content they are viewing in real time. It has become widely popular as influencers and users of social media platforms such as TikTok, utilize livestreams to act as a Non-Player Character.
"Viewers in NPC live streams take on the role of puppeteers, influencing the creator's next move." This phenomenon has been on a rise as viewers are actively involved in what they are watching, by purchasing digital "gifts" and sending them directly to the streamer. In return, the streamer will briefly mimic character or act.

This phenomenon has become a trend starting from July 2023, as influencers make profits from this new internet character. Pinkydoll, a Tiktok influencer gained 400,000 followers the same month that she started NPC Streaming, while her livestreams began to earn her as much as $7,000 in a day. NPC streaming gives creators a new avenue to earn money online.

See also
 AI player
 Philosophical zombie
 Video game bot

References

MUD terminology
Role-playing game terminology
Video game terminology

Non-player character


Messenger service is a network-based system notification Windows service by Microsoft that was included in some earlier versions of Microsoft Windows.

This retired technology, although it has a similar name, is not related in any way to the later, Internet-based Microsoft Messenger service for instant messaging or to Windows Messenger and Windows Live Messenger (formerly named MSN Messenger) client software.

Utilities

WinPopup sends messages from one Windows computer to another on the same LAN. It is available in all Windows versions from Windows for Workgroups (Ver 3.11) to Windows ME, but has never been included with Windows NT-based operating systems.  WinPopup works by means of the NetBEUI protocol.

There is also a port to Linux with an extended feature called LinPopUp, which allows adding Linux computers to the set. Linpopup is an X Window graphical port of Winpopup, and a package for Debian linux. It runs over Samba. Linpopup does not have to run all the time, can run minimized, and its messages are encrypted with a strong cypher.  The traditional Unix functional equivalent of WinPopUp would be the wall and write commands.

Uses

The Messenger Service was originally designed for use by system administrators to notify Windows users about their networks. It was used maliciously to present pop-up advertisements to users over the Internet (by using mass-messaging systems which sent a desired message to a specified range of IP addresses). Even though Windows XP included a firewall, it was not enabled by default. Because of this, many users received such messages. As a result of this abuse, the Messenger Service was disabled by default in Windows XP Service Pack 2.

The Messenger Service was discontinued in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 and replaced by the old MSG.exe.

Architecture

The Messenger service in Windows 2000 and Windows XP uses the NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NetBT) protocol. The service waits for a message, then it displays it onscreen. The alternative way to send a message is to write it to a MailSlot named messngr. It requires UDP ports 135, 137, and 138 and TCP ports 135, 139, and 445 to work. If access to the ports from outside a network is not blocked, it can lead to the aforementioned spam issue. In Windows NT 3.5, NT 3.51 and NT 4.0, Messenger used the older NetBIOS protocol. (NetBIOS is not installed with Windows 2000.)

Messenger service can be used by either Net Send command from a command-line interface. In addition, the Alerter service uses Messenger to send administrative alerts to network subscribers.

See also
Comparison of LAN messengers
LAN messenger
Alerter service
List of Microsoft Windows components
Messaging spam

References

External links
Official Microsoft sources
 Knowledgebase entry for Messenger Service of Windows
 Command documentation for Net send
 Disabling The Messenger Service in Windows XP

Windows services
LAN messengers

Windows Messenger service


David Hoflin (; born 25 February 1979) is a Swedish-born Australian actor. He is most famous for playing Jason Bates in Ocean Girl between 1994 and 1998, and Oliver Barnes in Neighbours between 2007 and 2008.

Career
He has appeared in TV shows such as Ocean Girl, The Flying Doctors, Head Start, A Country Practice, McLeod's Daughters, Supernatural, State Coroner, Crossbones, and The Lost World.

Hoflin was ten when he starred in his first role alongside Meryl Streep and Sam Neill in Evil Angels (released as A Cry in the Dark outside of Australia and New Zealand), a film about the famous tragic case where a dingo stole baby Azaria Chamberlain from her tent at Ayers Rock.

In the Australian medical drama All Saints, he played a character named Kieran who had become heavily intoxicated with alcohol at a rave and subsequently passed out and neglected his younger sister, who was later raped by his friend Lewis.

In Ocean Girl, he played one of the lead male characters. The romantic chemistry between his character and that of Marzena Godecki's character, Neri is one of the central themes of the series.

Hoflin joined Neighbours in 2007 as Oliver Barnes. He received the job without auditioning after Christian Clark quit with immediate effect. He filmed his last scenes on 6 May 2008, the same day as fellow cast member Daniel O'Connor. Hoflin returned to Neighbours in April 2011 for a two-week guest stint.

Hoflin joined the cast of Alcatraz in 2012. He plays Thomas "Tommy" Madsen, a supposedly deceased, former Alcatraz inmate who disappeared in 1963. He is Rebecca Madsen's grandfather. In 2013 he was also seen on Touch and on Season 8, Episode 20 of Criminal Minds. In 2014 he appears in Crossbones. In 2015 he was a guest star in Supernatural.  Hoflin currently plays Daniel in the Amazon Prime Video series The Peripheral.

Personal life
Hoflin was born in Stockholm, Sweden

Hoflin began a relationship with his Neighbours co-star Natalie Blair in 2008. The pair currently live together in Los Angeles. On 10 March 2012, Fiona Byrne of the Herald Sun reported the couple were engaged. They married on 4 January 2013 in Warburton, Victoria. Blair and Hoflin welcomed their first child, a son, on 29 July 2016.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

Australian male film actors
Australian male child actors
Living people
1979 births
Male actors from Stockholm
Swedish emigrants to Australia
Australian male soap opera actors

David Hoflin


John Harvey Combs was appointed to the Provincial Court of Manitoba in Brandon on March 27, 2003.

Judge Combs received his law degree from the University of Manitoba and was called to the bar in 1977.

He began his career with Legal Aid Manitoba and was a partner in the firm of Hunt, Miller, Combs. He is a life bencher of the Law Society of Manitoba and has chaired a number of committees for that organization.

Judge Combs has also been active in the community. He served on the boards of the Keystone Centre and McKenzie Seeds.

References
Government of Manitoba news release (accessed August 3, 2007)

Judges in Manitoba
University of Manitoba alumni
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)

John Combs


Terry Fullerton (born 4 January 1953) is a British retired racing driver from London, England, who won the Karting World Championship in 1973 and is best known as the teammate and rival of Ayrton Senna during his karting days.

Biography

Terry Fullerton from West London had ambitions to race in Formula 1, but the intensity of his family's grief when his brother, Alec, died in a motorcycle racing accident at Mallory Park in 1964, led him to restrict his career to karts. At 16 years old, Fullerton qualified, but failed to be selected for the British team to compete in the Karting World Championship in 1969. As he was also eligible to race under an Irish licence, he reached the World Championships in 1969 and 1970 but had limited success. In 1971, he began to compete on his British licence and finished 4th in the World Championships that year. He went on to become the first Briton to win the title in 1973.

Fullerton raced for the Italian DAP factory team from 1978 until 1980, where his teammate was Ayrton Senna. After winning the first final at the 1980 World Championship his engine broke down whilst leading the second final and he therefore finished third overall, behind Senna who came second overall. That same year (1980) Fullerton passed Senna on the very last lap of the Final to win the prestigious Champions Cup race at Jesolo (near Venice) in Italy. They were regarded by team manager Angelo Parilla as the best two drivers in the world.

At a press conference at the 1993 Australian Grand Prix, when asked which driver he had the most satisfaction racing against, Senna cited Fullerton. The quote was included in the Senna documentary in 2010.

Fullerton won the British Junior Karting Championship in 1966, 1967 and 1968, with a total of 8 British Championship wins in a career spanning twenty years and devoted solely to karting. He also won the European Championship four times during his career.

Having retired as a racing driver in 1984, Fullerton ran his own race team and then coached up-and-coming racing drivers including: Indycar driver Justin Wilson, Force India driver Paul di Resta, double Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon, double 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Allan McNish and former F1 driver Anthony Davidson. He regarded McNish and Davidson as his best students.

Fullerton is still active as a manager and driver coach in karting (notably coaching three recent British junior champions - 2010 Jake Dennis, 2011 Callan O'Keeffe & 2013 Jehan Daruvala) and now lives in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire with his wife and Daughter.

References

External links
Official page

1953 births
Living people
British racing drivers
Karting World Championship drivers
Sportspeople from Melton Mowbray

Terry Fullerton


Richard Tetteh Seglah is a Ghanaian politician and member of the first parliament of the second republic of Ghana representing Anlo constituency in the Volta Region of Ghana under the membership of the National Alliance Liberals.

Early life and education
Seglah was born in June 1932. He attended Zion College, Wesley College and University of Ghana. where he obtained a Teachers' Training Certificate, Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws respectively in Law and later worked as a barrister and solicitor before going into Parliament.

Career and politics
Seglah begun his career as a barrister and solicitor. His political career begun in 1969 when he became the parliamentary candidate to represent his constituency Anlo in the Volta Region of Ghana prior to the commencement of the 1969 Ghanaian parliamentary election.

He was sworn into the First Parliament of the Second Republic of Ghana on 1 October 1969, after being pronounced winner at the 1969 Ghanaian election held on 26 August 1969. and his tenure of office ended on 13 January 1972.

Personal life
Seglah is Presbyterian.

References

1932 births
Living people
National Alliance of Liberals politicians
Ghanaian MPs 1969–1972
Ghanaian Christians
Politicians from Volta Region
University of Ghana alumni

Richard Tetteh Seglah


The Woolgatherer is a play by William Mastrosimone. It originally premiered at the Theatre at Rutgers University in 1979. It was printed in 1981.

The play is William Mastrosimone's first play.

It has been produced a number of times and has won awards, including the L.A. Drama Critics Award in 1982.

Plot
It is a two-act play, set entirely in a small apartment in South Philadelphia. It centers around Rose and Cliff, two neurotic people searching for love. Rose is a nervous and flighty woman who is haunted by the past and obsessed with destruction; due to her hemophilia, she's closed herself off from the world. She works at a five-and-dime behind the candy counter. She dreams of true love and how she'll meet a man one day who is perfect for her.

Cliff is a foul-mouthed, wise-cracking transcontinental truck driver who gets stuck in town when his truck breaks down. While he is waiting for his rig to be repaired, he wanders into Rose's store looking for a one-night stand. Rose then invites him over to her apartment and they start to argue about issues like her old and cranky neighbor and her boarded up window.

Towards the end of the play, the reader finds out that Rose does a number of strange things including putting on perfume and a hair ribbon before going to sleep.  Cliff thinks that another man is there, so he forces himself in and looks around expecting to find a lover, but instead finding a collection of men's sweaters in her closet.
He soon finds out about her weird collection of men's sweaters.

Earlier in the play, Rose recalls a story from her past.  She was watching some birds at the zoo, when a group of boys started antagonizing her and throwing stones at the birds.  The boys kill the birds, she panics and the police come and take her to the hospital to calm her down. Hints throughout the play suggest that the boys did more to her than talk dirty and kill the birds.  It is a possibility that the birds were a metaphor, and the boys actually raped or hurt her physically.  Like the birds, her spirit or some part of her could have been metaphorically "killed".

This point in the play is when you can really start to tell that Rose is mentally unstable.

Despite their differences, the two characters end up falling in love at the end of the play.

References

American plays
1979 plays
South Philadelphia
Plays set in Philadelphia

The Woolgatherer


William Rufus Terrill (April 21, 1834 – October 8, 1862) was a United States Army soldier and general who was killed in action at the Battle of Perryville during the American Civil War. His Confederate brother James was also killed during the same war, making the Terrills one of the few sets of American brothers killed in action while commanding brigades.

Early life
Terrill was born in Covington, Virginia, and grew up at Warm Springs, in Bath County, Virginia. His father, Colonel William Henry Terrill, was a Virginia lawyer and member of the Virginia Legislature prior to the war. He became a cadet at U.S. Military Academy in 1849 and graduated in 1853.  While a cadet, he was involved in a fist-fight with classmate Philip H. Sheridan. The encounter caused a one-year suspension for Sheridan from the academy, though the two renewed their acquaintance while serving under Don Carlos Buell in the Civil War. Terrill graduated 16th in his class of 1853. After graduation, he was assigned to the 3rd U.S. Artillery and 4th U. S. Artillery, serving in various garrisons. He returned to West Point as an assistant professor of mathematics during 1853–54; served in Florida during the 3rd Seminole War; and the U. S. Coast Survey from 1858 - 1861. In 1856 he was promoted to first lieutenant.  On May 14, 1861, he was appointed captain of the 5th Regular Artillery in Washington, D.C.

Civil War
Even though many regular army officers from the south had been opposed to secession, the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter and Lincoln's subsequent call for volunteers caused many southern-born officers to resign their commissions. Terrill, however, left no doubt about where his loyalties lay, telegraphing the War Department and General Winfield Scott from Poughkeepsie, New York, on April 29, 1861 that "I am now and ever will be true to my oath and my country. No one has any authority to tender my resignation. I will be in Washington as soon as possible." Terrill was commissioned a captain in the 5th Regiment of Artillery in August 1861. He was one of sixteen Virginia-born officers in the regular army to tender his services to the Union. His younger brother James B. Terrill was commissioned a major of Virginia Infantry and served in the Confederate States Army. Their father served the Confederate States as the provost marshal of Bath County, Virginia. The elder Terrill wrote his son a scathing letter of disapproval saying "Can you be so recreant and unnatural as to aid in the mad attempt to impose tyranny upon your kith and kin? Do so and your name shall be stricken from the family records."

William Terrill served as assistant inspector general in Washington, D.C., and then commanded a battery of artillery in the Army of the Ohio at the Battle of Shiloh.  On September 9, 1862 he was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers and took command of the 33rd Brigade in the Army of the Ohio. Terrill was not popular with all of the men in his brigade due to his Virginia background and for being a strict disciplinarian. One soldier of the 105th Ohio wrote "He is a drunken old tyrant and deserves to be shot by his own men, and if it doesn't come to that, it will be because the oaths of hundreds of men in the 105th were good for nothing." However, fellow officers thought highly of Terrill.

He led his green troops into their first combat action at the Battle of Perryville. Around 4:00 PM, a Confederate artillery shell exploded near Terrill, driving a piece of shrapnel into his upper chest and ripping through his left lung. Taken to the rear, he died that night. The previous night, Generals Terrill and James S. Jackson and Colonel George Webster were discussing the improbability of being killed in action. All three would be killed in the following battle.

In 1864 during the Overland Campaign, Terrill's brother James, by then commanding a brigade, was killed in action at the Battle of Bethesda Church and buried on the battlefield. He was posthumously promoted to brigadier general. Another younger brother, Philip Mallory Terrill of the 12th Virginia Cavalry, was killed near Winchester, Virginia, in November 1864. The fourth brother, Dr. George P. Terrill, a Confederate militia commander, survived the Civil War. An unscrupulous war correspondent from Harper's Weekly manufactured a fitting legend that their grieving father later erected a memorial stone for both brothers, which reads "This monument erected by their father. God alone knows which was right."

William R. Terrill was interred at West Point National Cemetery.

See also

List of American Civil War generals (Union)

References
The battle of Perryville, Ky. 8 October 62 - www.aotc.net
The Terrills: "God Alone Knows Which Was Right", American Civil War Magazine, September 2006 - www.stevenlossad.com

Further reading
"God Alone Knows Which Was Right": The Blue and Gray Terrill Family of Virginia in the Civil War

External links
William R. Terrill in Encyclopedia Virginia

1834 births
1862 deaths
United States Military Academy alumni
United States Army personnel of the Indian Wars
American people of the Seminole Wars
United States Army personnel of the Seminole Wars
Union Army generals
People of Virginia in the American Civil War
Union military personnel killed in the American Civil War
People from Covington, Virginia
People from Warm Springs, Virginia
Burials at West Point Cemetery

William R. Terrill


La Chaîne parlementaire (; French for The Parliamentary Channel) is a French television network created, along with its sister station Public Sénat, by law on 30 December 1999. It films and broadcasts live and recorded debates twenty-four hours a day, including committee hearings, questions to the government, and discussions concerning parliamentary debates and government policy.  There are programs that focus on different levels of government; some programs are about Europe, others about local government.  Linked to Public Sénat from its inception, the two channels share content.  The Public Sénat chain also broadcasts a nightly news analysis program and funds and broadcasts documentaries.

Broadcasting history

It started by broadcasting twice a week, Tuesday and Wednesday, in the afternoons on France 3. On 8 February 2000, the channel started broadcasting activity from the Senate of France. On 31 March 2005, the channel obtained its own TNT frequency.

High-definition (HD) broadcasting of the combined LCP/Public Sénat channel started on 1 July 2015 via satellite in the CanalSat mux as an upscaled HD feed. In January 2017 the HD feed was changed from upscaled into native HD (1920x1080).

See also
 Legislative broadcaster

External links
 Website of the National Assembly of France channel (LCP)
 Website of the Senate of France channel (Public Sénat)

References

French-language television stations
Legislature broadcasters
Television channels and stations established in 1999
Television stations in France
1999 establishments in France

La Chaîne parlementaire


Christian Schneider (19 November 1887 – 5 May 1972) was a German chemist, industrial manager and, in the Third Reich, a Wehrwirtschaftsführer (war economy leader).

Early years
The son of August Schneider, an electrician, and his wife, Babette Weiss, Schneider studied chemistry at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, completing his doctorate in 1911. He began working with Alwin Mittasch at the nitrogen laboratory at BASF in 1912 and remained in this role until joining the German Imperial Army in 1914, being injured during the conflict.

Career at IG Farben
Schneider became Carl Krauch's assistant at the IG Farben plant in Leuna in 1919 and soon rose through the corporate ranks. He was appointed an authorised signatory in 1921, a director two years later and became deputy manager of the Ammoniakwerke Merseburg plant in 1924. By 1928 he had been named an alternate member of IG Farben's managing board and was made plant manager at Merseburg in 1936.

Under the Nazis
Soon after Adolf Hitler came to power Schneider sought to underline his commitment to Nazism by becoming a sponsoring member of the Schutzstaffel. He held the rank of honorary Standartenführer within the organisation and developed a number of close contacts in the office of the Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler. He joined the Nazi Party proper in 1937 and also became involved in the counter-intelligence work of the Abwehr when he was made Hauptabwehrbeauftragter (head of security officers) for "Liaison Office W" (or Wehrmacht at IG Farben's headquarters in Berlin that same year).

His career growth continued when he was appointed the head of Product Division I (which controlled IG Farben's mining, oil and nitrogen concern) in succession to Krauch, a post which brought with it full membership of the board. He became chief of plant managers in 1939, a role which also gave him responsibility for the slave labourers who worked on behalf of IG Farben at Auschwitz. He was made chief of counter-intelligence at IG Farben in 1940 and a Wehrwirtschaftsführer in 1941. According to Diarmuid Jeffreys, Schneider was made aware of the Holocaust in early 1943 when Walter Dürrfeld told him during a visit to Buna Werke in early 1943.

Post-war
Brought to trial for plunder, slavery and SS membership at the IG Farben trial, Schneider was acquitted on all counts. After his acquittal, he took roles at the Süddeutsche Kalkstickstoff-Werke AG Trostberg and Rheinauer Holzhydrolyse-GmbH, Mannheim.

During his life Schneider was twice married, to Frieda Butzengeiger and Hedwig Breidenbach, and fathered four children.

Bibliography
Diarmuid Jeffreys, Hell's Cartel: IG Farben and the Making of Hitler's War Machine, Bloomsbury, 2009

References

1887 births
1972 deaths
Businesspeople from Bavaria
20th-century German chemists
German chemical industry people
German Army personnel of World War I
IG Farben people
SS-Standartenführer
University of Erlangen-Nuremberg alumni
People from Kulmbach
People acquitted by the United States Nuremberg Military Tribunals
People from the Kingdom of Bavaria

Christian Schneider


Qincheng Prison () is a maximum-security prison in the Changping District northwest of Beijing in the People's Republic of China. The prison was built in 1958 with aid from the Soviet Union and it is the only prison belonging to the Ministry of Public Security.

The majority of people in prison here are political prisoners. Some of them were participants in the Chinese democracy movement and Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Famous inmates include Jiang Qing, Bao Tong, Dai Qing, as well as Tibetans such as Choekyi Gyaltsen, the 10th Panchen Lama, and Phuntsok Wangyal. Other inmates included many communist cadres who were criticized during the Cultural Revolution, such as Bo Yibo, Peng Zhen, Israel Epstein, Sidney Rittenberg and David Crook. 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo was also imprisoned here.

The prison is at the eastern foothill of Yanshan, facing the North China Plain in the east, north and south.  The plain is where Qincheng Farm (秦城农场) is, which is part of the prison.

Bibliography
 MacFarquhar, Roderick, and Michael Schoenhals, Mao's Last Revolution. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006, pp. 342–345, 416, 435, 442.
 Yao Lun, "Qincheng jianyu de laiyou" (Origins of Qincheng Prison), in Sun Mingshan, ed., Lishi shunjian (Moments in History), vol. 2, Beijing: Qunzhong chubanshe, 2001, pp. 51–58.

Prisons in Asia
Buildings and structures in Beijing
1958 establishments in Asia

Qincheng Prison


Brent Michael Kutzle (born August 3, 1985) is an American musician, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, record producer, and film composer originating from Fountain Valley, California. He is the bassist and cellist for the pop rock band OneRepublic.

Much like OneRepublic's lead vocalist, Ryan Tedder, Brent has also written and performed with various other musicians from both underground music scenes and mainstream acts, including Beyoncé, Matchbox Twenty, Ellie Goulding, Cobra Starship, Leona Lewis, Kelly Clarkson, ísland, Vermeer, Augustine, This Allure, Monarch, Venus Infers, Jessica Dobson, and Kevin Max.
Brent has been married to Jackie Leslie since 2017.

Biography

Early life
He attended Ethan B. Allen Elementary and when Kutzle was thirteen, he attended Sarah McGarvin School located in Westminster, California. He also attended La Quinta High School in Westminster, California Baptist University in Riverside and Vanguard University in Costa Mesa.
Kutzle began playing piano at an early age with his mother a church organist and piano teacher, and his father a pianist and one of 84 pianists in the Los Angeles 1984 Summer Olympics opening ceremonies. Kutzle was encouraged by his father to take on a second instrument, the cello, because the competition is far less than that of violin. Kutzle is a classically trained composer.

Filmography
Kutzle has a cameo appearance in the 2008 film, The Eye, starring Jessica Alba. He appears in the opening scene playing cello as a member of the orchestra. He can also be heard playing cello on the title track, "Songs Like Rain" for the 2006 independent film of the same name.  In 2014, Kutzle was asked by the Jamaican diaspora about how many instruments he could play regarding film and he stated, "Not as many as I could in college, but somewhere around a handful."  Kutzle scored a soundtrack for the 2016 international feature film Behind the Water which stars activist Fraser Kershaw.

OneRepublic
Kutzle joined OneRepublic early in 2007 after the band's former bassist left to pursue a solo career. He has played the cello since fourth grade and has commented that he would never play for a band that 'would not let him play his cello'. Kutzle has transformed the sound of the cello for a rock band by using delay, reverb and looping effects. He made his mark on OneRepublic's debut album Dreaming Out Loud on the track "All Fall Down", which is based on a cello hook that is repeated throughout the whole track.

In addition to playing the cello and the bass guitar, Kutzle, along with Zach Filkins, also aids frontman, Ryan Tedder in songwriting and composing music for the band.  Many of the songs on the band's second album Waking Up were co-written and co-produced by Kutzle, including the lead single "All The Right Moves" and the single, "Good Life" as well as "Feel Again" and "If I Lose Myself" which are both singles from their third album Native. At live concerts, he can be seen playing bass guitar, cello, and singing background vocals along with other band members Zach Filkins, Eddie Fisher , and Drew Brown.

Discography

 Dreaming Out Loud (2007)
 Waking Up (2009)
 Native (2013)
 Oh My My (2016)
 Human (2021)
 One Night In Malibu (2022)

References

American cellists
California Baptist University alumni
1985 births
Living people
Vanguard University alumni
Musicians from Newport Beach, California
OneRepublic members
Guitarists from California
American male guitarists
American male bass guitarists
21st-century American bass guitarists

Brent Kutzle


Cypress Gardens is a theme park near Winter Haven, Florida in the United States.

History
Cypress Gardens opened on January 2, 1936 as a flower garden planted by Dick and Julie Pope. Over the years, it became one of the biggest attractions in Florida, known for its water ski shows, nice gardens, and Southern Belle models.

It became known as the "Water Ski Capital of the World" because many of the sport's major "firsts" and over 50 world records were broken there. Many movies have been filmed at the park, including parts of "This is Cinerama," the first feature filmed in that wide-screen format, and several of Esther Williams films and TV specials in the 1950s and 1960s. With their addition of a custom photography boat named Miss Cover Girl in the early 1960s, the park became a popular site for the filming of television commercials.

Competition for guests increased after the Walt Disney World Resort opened nearby in 1971. In the early 1980s, the Popes retired and gave the park to their son, Dick Pope Jr.

In the 1980s, book publisher Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich bought the park along with SeaWorld, Circus World (later rebuilt as Boardwalk & Baseball) and Stars Hall of Fame, but sold most of the businesses to Anheuser-Busch in 1989. Busch continued to run Cypress Gardens until April 1, 1995, when a group of the park's managers led by Bill Reynolds bought the property.

Under President and CEO Reynolds, the park ran until April 13, 2003, when it closed after a long tourism decline following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. 529 people were put out of work with only three days notice.

Right away the Friends of Cypress Gardens, started and led by Burma Davis Posey, was founded. They enrolled members in all 50 states and 27 countries. Within three and a half months, this grass-roots effort raised $13,500,000 and saved the park.

On February 22, 2004, Adventure Parks Group, owned by Kent Buescher, bought the property and renamed it Cypress Gardens Adventure Park. The purchase of the amusement park portion of the Cypress Gardens property was part of a larger conservation agreement. In that agreement, the entire  site was bought from its previous owner, First Gardens, L.C., by The Trust for Public Land, a nation wide conservation group . TPL then sold a conservation access over the entire property to the state of Florida, while Polk County purchased the  gardens portion of the property, less the development rights conveyed in the state agreement. Adventure Parks Group purchased the balance of the property, also subject to the conservation agreement.

Buescher's plan to reopen the park in September 2004 was delayed by damages created by hurricanes Charley, Frances, and Jeanne. Cypress Gardens Adventure Park finally opened in November 2004. One of its new rides, the Triple Hurricane roller coaster, was named for the fierce storm season. The Splash Island water park opened in 2005, along with the Galaxy Spin roller coaster.

In September 2006, Adventure Parks Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection at the Florida site following approximately $30 million in damages sustained by the 2004 hurricanes.

Land South Adventures, a branch of Mulberry, Florida-based Land South Holdings, bought Cypress Gardens at a bankruptcy auction on October 16, 2007 for $16.9 million, leaving Buescher as temporary manager until Baker Leisure Group of Orlando, Florida took over running the park in January 2008.

Many celebrities have skied and visited at the park, including Elvis Presley, Jordan's former King Hussein and his son, King Abdullah II. It was also the site of a Johnny Carson special.

On Monday, November 10, 2008, Land South Holdings announced the temporary closure of the park, which was shut down November 17 of that year. It reopened on March 28, 2009 with an expanded water park, named Splash Island. The rides and animals, however, were gone. The reopening prices were reduced. Cypress Gardens and Splash Island now have separate ticketing, though seasonal passes are available. Parking is now free.

Attractions

Roller coasters

Thrill rides

Related pages
 List of botanical gardens

References

Other websites
Official site  (uses Adobe Flash)
Photos of Cypress Gardens  Hundreds of photos and a thriving message board.
Cypress Gardens Amusement Rides for Sale - Feb 2009

Theme parks in Florida
Botanical gardens in the United States

Cypress Gardens


The Church of the Nativity of Our Lady (), commonly known as ta' Ġieżu, is a Roman Catholic church in Rabat, Malta. The church was built in 1500 and it was enlarged in 1757. It is adjoined by a Franciscan convent.

History
The Franciscans opened their first friary in Malta in Rabat, having arrived on the islands in 1492. The church was built some years later in 1500. The first Hospitaller Grand Master in Malta, Philippe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, had a room in the friary, and he died there in 1534. The room still exists and it has been restored. The church was enlarged in 1757 with the help of contributions from Italy, Spain and Portugal. It was dedicated on 31 October 1790.

Parts of the church and convent were restored in 2003.

In the early hours of 23 August 2017, two wooden beams which were supporting part of the church's ceiling gave way, leaving a hole and destroying a fresco. Falling debris damaged the marble altar and some benches and light fittings, but no one was injured since the church was empty at the time. The building was closed for some time, although there was no immediate danger of further collapse. The Bank of Valletta has pledged to help in repairing the damage and restoring the church.

A temporary roof was built three weeks after the collapse. Planned permanent repair works initially considered the possibility of building a dome, which was included in the church's original design but was never built, but studies showed that the church's structure was not strong enough to support its weight. The ceiling is to be rebuilt, and the artist Adonai Camilleri Cauchi is to cover a false ceiling under it with new frescoes.

The church is listed on the National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands.

References

External links

Rabat, Malta
16th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Malta
Franciscan churches in Malta
Limestone churches in Malta
Baroque church buildings in Malta
Roman Catholic churches completed in 1500
Roman Catholic churches completed in 1757
National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands

Church of the Nativity of Our Lady, Rabat


Thomas Ross Whitlock (February 20, 1954 – February 18, 2023) was an American songwriter, best known for co-writing the Academy Award– and Golden Globe–winning song "Take My Breath Away", performed by Berlin from the film Top Gun, with Giorgio Moroder. He wrote another song for the film, "Danger Zone", performed by Kenny Loggins.

Career
Whitlock was born and raised in Springfield, Missouri. Many famous musicians visited the city as it hosted the television show Ozark Jubilee, influencing Whitlock to play drums. Soon, he was a session musician working with notable composers like Wayne Carson, as well as a drummer for live bands. At the age of 15, Whitlock began writing songs at the piano. During his high school years at Glendale High School, in Springfield, Missouri, he divided his time between studying during the day and playing drums with rock bands on the weekends throughout the Midwest. He entered Drury University in 1971 to major in music. The university honored him as one of its Distinguished Alumni in 1998, and with an honorary doctorate in music the following year.

In 1983, Whitlock travelled to Los Angeles, California, planning to start a band there. While helping his friend Dave Concors at the now defunct studio Davlen Sound Studios, Whitlock met famed composer Giorgio Moroder as he complained about brake defects in his Ferrari. Whitlock purchased some cans of brake fluid and proceeded to fix Moroder's car. Moroder eventually hired Whitlock for work at his studio. In the meantime, he studied recording with Moroder's engineer Brian Reeves, given the studio was busy with films such as Scarface, Flashdance and Beverly Hills Cop, and wrote his own songs. Prior to the production of the Top Gun soundtrack, Moroder found his songwriting partners Keith Forsey and Pete Bellotte unavailable, and knowing Whitlock was a lyricist invited him for the project. Whitlock and Moroder co-wrote five songs for Top Gun including "Take My Breath Away" and the Kenny Loggins hit "Danger Zone". ASCAP shows 113 songs registered, performed by artists such as Berlin, Bonnie Tyler, Jennifer Rush, Michael McDonald, Ray Charles, Graham Nash, Falco, Diana Ross, Teddy Pendergrass, Roger Daltrey, and John Entwistle.

Whitlock and Moroder had other collaborations, for the films Over the Top, American Anthem and Rambo III, and also co-wrote the official theme songs for both the 1988 Summer Olympics ("Hand In Hand") and the 1990 FIFA World Cup ("To Be Number One").

In 2012, the Library of Congress honored Whitlock for his songwriting contributions. Whitlock was also drummer of the Missouri band, The Dog People, with Michael Granda (aka Supe Dujour), Jim Wunderle, and Terry Wilson.

Death
Whitlock died from complications of Alzheimer's disease in Nashville, Tennessee, on February 18, 2023, at the age of 68.

Filmography of songs
 Top Gun (1986) ("Take My Breath Away", performed by Berlin; "Danger Zone", by Kenny Loggins; "Radar Radio" by Giorgio Moroder featuring Joe Pizzulo; "Lead Me On" by Teena Marie; "Through the Fire" by Larry Greene, all co-written by Giorgio Moroder)
 American Anthem (1986) ("Wings to Fly", performed by Graham Nash, co-written by Giorgio Moroder)
 Over the Top (1987) ("Winner Takes It All" by Sammy Hagar; "Meet Me Half Way" by Kenny Loggins; "In This Country" by Robin Zander; "Take It Higher" and "Mind Over Matter" by Larry Greene; "All I Need Is You" by Big Trouble; "Gypsy Soul" by Asia; "I Will Be Strong" by Eddie Money; all co-written by Giorgio Moroder)
 Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise (1987) ("Nightlife" and "Overdrive", both performed by Larry Lee and co-written by Larry Lee and Steve Bates)
 Fatal Beauty (1987) ("Criminal", performed by Shannon; co-written by Sylvester Levay)
 Dream a Little Dream (1989) ("Whenever There's a Night", by Mike Reno; "Never Turn Away", by Chris Thompson; both co-written by John William Dexter)
 Let It Ride (1989) ("Money Talks", "Win or Lose")
 Navy SEALs (1990) (writer: "Strike Like Lightning", "Shadows")
 Fire, Ice and Dynamite (1990) ("Rock Noon", by Dominoe, co-written by Harold Faltermeyer and Brian Reeves; "Get Ready", by Rockafella, co-written by Faltermeyer)
 Out for Justice (1991) ("Temptation", by Teresa James; co-written by Todd Smallwood)
 Boris and Natasha (1992) ("I Want It All", by Marietta, co-written by David Darling)
 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) ("Even Angels Fall", by Jessica Riddle)

References

External links

 [ Allmusic]

1954 births
2023 deaths
Best Original Song Academy Award-winning songwriters
Golden Globe Award-winning musicians
Grammy Award winners
Drury University alumni
Musicians from Springfield, Missouri
Songwriters from Missouri
Deaths from Alzheimer's disease
Deaths from dementia in Tennessee

Tom Whitlock


Robert Hartley Cromek (1770–1812) was an English engraver, editor, art dealer and entrepreneur who was most active in the early nineteenth century. He is best known for having allegedly cheated William Blake out of the potential profits of his engraving depicting Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrims.

In the early years of the nineteenth century Cromek had supported Blake, and had engraved Blake's design for Benjamin Heath Malkin's A Father's Memoirs of his Child in 1806. Cromek later commissioned Blake to illustrate Robert Blair's poem The Grave. Blake had produced the designs, but his sample engraving was considered by Cromek to be too crude to attract subscribers. Cromek then gave the lucrative job of engraving Blake's designs to a rival engraver Luigi Schiavonetti.

In response, Blake proceeded to create a self-engraved illustration to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Cromek, however, had also given the idea to Blake's friend Thomas Stothard. Stothard's print became far more popular than Blake's, at least during their lifetimes. It remains unclear whether Blake or Cromek originated this project, but Blake certainly believed that the idea was stolen from him. The incident destroyed the friendship between Blake and Stothard.

As a savagely humorous comment on these events Blake wrote epigrams attacking Cromek:
Cromek loves artists as he loves his meat:
He loves the Art; but 'tis the art to cheat.

A petty sneaking knave I knew--
"O! Mr. Cromek, how do ye do?"
In 1809 Cromek published Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, a collection of Scottish ballads. The aspirant poet Allan Cunningham sent in poems of his own authorship, which Cromek included in the collection, even though he may have suspected their real authorship.

About that time Cromek also compiled "RELIQUES OF ROBERT BURNS; Consisting Chiefly of Original Letters, Poems, and Critical Observations on Scottish Songs ". The original edition of 1808 contained a 4-page work by Thomas Stothard, "The Procession of Chaucer's Pilgrims to Canterbury", which did not appear in some later editions.

His son was the artist Thomas Hartley Cromek.

References

1770 births
1812 deaths
English engravers

Robert Cromek


Flinx in Flux (1988) is a science fiction novel  by American writer Alan Dean Foster. The book is fifth chronologically in the Pip and Flinx series.

Flinx finds a woman unconscious on a riverbank deep in the jungles of Alaspin where he has gone to release Pip's offspring. The woman, Clarity Held, turns out to be a research scientist last working on the inhospitable world of Longtunnel. He returns Clarity to her research station, only to encounter his old friends, the Ulru-Ujurrians, who help him psychically touch the threat that drove the ancient alien race, the Xunca, from the known universe.

Synopsis
The book opens upon a meeting of ecological fanatics plotting against operations on Longtunnel. Lifeforms are being modified by gengineers, and they intend to stop the perversion of nature. The scene switches to Alaspin. Flinx has returned to the planet to release Pip's offspring into the wild. The minidrag became pregnant in The End of the Matter. While returning to town, Flinx's empathic abilities detect someone hurt nearby. Flinx discovers a woman, badly hurt, and with bruises that suggest interrogation of some sort. He returns to town, but no one seems to know of a missing woman. He takes her to his hotel and she regains consciousness and reveals herself to be Clarity Held. She explains that she is a gengineer working for Coldstripe on Longtunnel. Fanatics attempting to stop the work kidnapped her. This sparks uncertainty in Flinx, due to his past of genetic alteration by the  Meliorare Society.

Later, while sleeping, people in chameleon suits attack them in the hotel. Flinx and Clarity escape and return to Alaspinport, where Flinx smuggles Clarity onto the Teacher, his personal ship in order to return her to Longtunnel. On the voyage, their relationship becomes romantic.

They land on Longtunnel and Clarity begins showing Flinx around the facilities. All structures are contained in an extensive cavern system since the surface is inhospitable. The caverns are home to a wide variety of flora and fauna that redefine the preconceived Humanx notions of evolution and possible lifeforms. Clarity introduces Flinx to Alynasmolia Vandervort, the leader of the Coldstripe compound.

Flinx stays to learn more about the operation. Clarity and Flinx begin to fall in love, but Flinx is not used to this kind of attachment. Flinx attempts to push Clarity away by confiding in her that the Meliorare Society has manipulated him. During the discussion, an explosion rocks the facility. The fanatics have somehow found the facilities and are destroying everything in sight. Flinx and Clarity flee deeper into the cave with minimal supplies to wait out the attack. However, more explosions rock the facility, and they discover that the fanatics have collapsed the tunnels.

Flinx and Clarity have no choice but to continue through the caves in hope of discovering a way out. In the tunnels, they meet an injured thranx, Sowelmanu, and help him recover enough to go with them. Flinx trips after they take an unexpected slide to another level of the caves, and breaks their last light. In the darkness, Flinx detects a sentient creature in the blackness that feels nothing but peaceful intentions. The aliens turn out to be empathic like Flinx and identify themselves as the Sumacrea. They communicate with Flinx through complex descriptive emotions, allowing Flinx to hone his skills. Eventually, the aliens lead them back to the Humanx settlement.

Clarity and Sowelmanu reunite with their fellow scientists, and Flinx discusses the ordeal with Alynasmolia Vandervort. Clarity discloses Flinx's special abilities to Vandervort. Vandervort cautions Clarity about becoming too close to Flinx due to his unpredictable and possibly dangerous gene modifications. Meanwhile, Flinx is asked to take wounded survivors to a nearby planet, Gorisa, which has better medical facilities. Clarity begins distancing herself from Flinx, and he realizes she fears him.

Clarity and Vandervort accompany Flinx on the journey to Gorisa. Later, Clarity visits Vandervort only to find that Flinx and Pip have been rendered unconscious by sleeping gas and are in a container. Vandervort intends to study Flinx and convinces Clarity that she has no choice but to help. As they begin to leave, fanatics arrive to "save" Flinx and return him to true normal form. A firefight ensues and Flinx's container is damaged. He begins having strange dreams. He regains consciousness and escapes the container. While in the container, Flinx's powers have developed again. He projects intense fear into the combatants, rendering them unconscious.

Clarity and Flinx reunite, but suddenly the ground beneath them erupts. Several of Flinx's old friends, the Ulru-Ujurrians, emerge and ask for Flinx's assistance in understanding a new threat that could end all life. They have discovered an alarm on Horseye that warns of impending danger, but all else is unknown. They project Flinx's consciousness across space, and he finds something terrible and incomprehensible. He returns to his body and decides his mission in life is to do something about this horrible threat. He promises the Ujurrians that he will learn more about the danger, and then they will meet again. He extends an invitation to Clarity to accompany him on his journey to understand himself and this new threat, but she declines, needing a break.

External links

 Alan Dean Foster homepage

1988 American novels
1988 science fiction novels
American science fiction novels
Humanx Commonwealth
Novels by Alan Dean Foster
Sequel novels
Del Rey books

Flinx in Flux


The Earth Suspended River (地上悬河 is located in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, which is a world-famous geographical landscape. Also known as 'the raised bed river', its bed is more than 3 metres higher than the ground. In some places, the water level is even about 10 metres higher than the ground.

The Yellow River is known for being sandy with very high sediment concentration. The reasons are the ascent of this reach is not big, both sides of the river are open, and the current is gentle too. Above all, the sand deposits constantly in the bed. In history, the region was hit by floods frequently, so people built levees for the purpose of governing the floods. As a result, the water level increased continuously year by year. After accumulation of over 300 years, the reach becomes what it is now.

References

Yellow River

The Earth Suspended River


Glendale Falls is a waterfall and the name of an open space preserve in Middlefield, Massachusetts owned and managed by the Trustees of Reservations.  The falls, fed by the waters of Glendale Brook are one of the longest waterfall runs in Massachusetts.

Adjacent to the falls on the north side lies the stone foundation of an 18th-century grist mill operated by the long-defunct Glendale Farm. The farm was established in the early 1770s by a future Revolutionary War veteran named John Rhoads.  The initial success of the farm led to the construction of what is now Clark Wright Road, the sole means of accessing the falls by car.  The farm was not successful for long, however; by 1799 the property was sold and Rhoads was gone.

The preserve was established in 1964.

References

External links
 The Trustees of Reservations: Glendale Falls

Landforms of Hampshire County, Massachusetts
The Trustees of Reservations
Waterfalls of Massachusetts
Open space reserves of Massachusetts
Protected areas of Hampshire County, Massachusetts
Protected areas established in 1964
1964 establishments in Massachusetts

Glendale Falls (Massachusetts)


Francisco Álvarez–Cascos Fernández (born 1 October 1947) is a Spanish politician. He was Secretary-General of the ruling Partido Popular from 1989 to 1999 and the President of the Principality of Asturias from 2011 to 2012.

He studied civil engineering, and after working in an architect office and then for an architects association for a few years, he soon became a professional politician. In 1976 he joined Reforma Democrática, which later merged into Alianza Popular, both right-wing parties. He was the spokesman for the Gijón Council between 1979 and 1986, a county councilor and a member of the regional Pre-Autonomous Body.

In 1982, after Alianza Popular merged into the center-right People's Party, he was elected senator for Asturias, a position which he combined with that of spokesman for the People's Party Parliamentary Group in the General Junta of the Principate of Asturias (Asturias' regional legislature) from 1983 onwards. In 1986 he was elected deputy for Asturias and was re-elected in 1989, 1993, 1996 and 2000.

At the 9th National Congress of the People's Party, he was elected Secretary-General. He  was confirmed three times in this office at the national congresses of the PP which took place in Seville (1990) and Madrid (1993 and 1996).

He was First Vice President of the Government and Minister of the Presidency for the 1996-2000 term, and Minister for Development for the 2000-2004 term.

In 2004, he resigned from Congress and left politics for a few years.

President of Asturias
In 2009, a sector of the party began to ask him to become PP's candidate for President of Asturias, organizing meetings and a campaign for his nomination. The regional party leadership led by Gabino de Lorenzo rejected him as a candidate and insulted him since he wanted to fire many of the people in charge in the party for decades losing election after election. The national leader Mariano Rajoy declined to support him against the attacks within his party, so he resigned from the party. In May 2011 he managed in just five months to create a new party Asturian Forum, which obtained a plurality of 16 out of the 45 seats in the Asturian autonomous parliament. He was inaugurated as President of Asturias.

After six months of minority government and the PP and PSOE (which together had an absolute majority of seats) declining every bill, his regional budget for 2012 was rejected. This blocked situation forced him to resign on 30 January 2012 and call for new elections to be held on 25 March. Asturian Forum lost 4 seats, ending up second  behind the Socialist Party.

Bárcenas affair
As part of the Bárcenas affair, it was revealed that Francisco Álvarez Cascos received 421,693 euros of cash from the Popular Party between 1990 and 2004.

References

1947 births
Presidents of the Principality of Asturias
Living people
Politicians from Madrid
People from Asturias
Government ministers of Spain
People's Party (Spain) politicians
Members of the 3rd Congress of Deputies (Spain)
Members of the 4th Congress of Deputies (Spain)
Members of the 5th Congress of Deputies (Spain)
Members of the 6th Congress of Deputies (Spain)
Members of the 7th Congress of Deputies (Spain)
Polytechnic University of Madrid alumni
Deputy Prime Ministers of Spain
Spanish civil engineers

Francisco Álvarez-Cascos


A United Kingdom is a 2016 British American Czech French Botswanan biographical drama movie directed by Amma Asante and was based on the novel Colour Bar by Susan Williams. It stars David Oyelowo, Rosamund Pike, Terry Pheto, Vusi Kunene, Jack Davenport, Nicholas Rowe, Charlotte Hope, Nicholas Lyndhurst and was distributed by 20th Century Fox.

Other websites

2016 drama movies
British biographical movies
2010s British drama movies
2010s American biographical movies
2010s American drama movies
Czech movies
French biographical movies
French drama movies
Botswanan movies
Movies based on books
20th Century Fox movies
Movies directed by Amma Asante
Movies set in Botswana
Movies set in London
Movies set in the 1940s
Movies set in the 1950s
Movies about racism

A United Kingdom


Basi is a native Ilocano fermented alcoholic beverage or wine made with sugarcane juice, particularly those produced in Northern Luzon particularly in Ilocos Region. This wine is processed in "burnay" (Ilocano earthen jar) or "tapayan".

Description
Basi is the local beverage of Ilocos in northern Luzon in San Ildefonso where it has been consumed since before the Spanish conquest.  In the Philippines, commercial basi is produced by first crushing sugarcane and extracting the juice.  The juice is boiled in vats and then stored in earthen jars (tapayan).  Once the juice has cooled, flavorings made of ground glutinous rice and duhat (java plum) bark or other fruits or barks is added.  The jars are then sealed with banana leaves and allowed to ferment for several years.  The resulting drink is pale red in color.  If fermented longer, it turns into suka or vinegar.

Preparation
There are three general methods for preparing basi, which are the Ilocos Method, the La Union Method, and the Pangasinan Method. All of these methods make use of sugarcane juice, which is obtained by crushing one-year-old sugar cane stalks between wooden or iron rollers attached to a carabao with a long pole. Two types of basi are produced: the basing babae taste sweet and has lesser alcohol content and the basing lalaki taste dry, bitter, potently strong, and has high content of alcohol. Their difference lies in the concentration of sugarcane juice (babae, 29 to 33° Brix and lalaki, 27 to 28° Brix) and the additives added such as tangal (Ceriops tagal (Perr. C.B. Rob.) bark, green guava (Psidium guajava Linn.) leaves, duhat (Syzygium cumini linn.) bark, and fruits, bark and leaves of samac (Macharanga tanarius Linn. or M. grandifolia Linn.),

Ilocos
Basi wines are produced in the province of Ilocos Norte, specifically in Laoag and the towns of Vintar, Sarrat, Piddig, and Batac, and in the province of Ilocos Sur, specifically in Bantay, San Ildefonso and Vigan. The Ilocos method differs from the La Union method in terms of the starter or inoculum used, as well as the additives used.

La Union
The La Union method is used specifically in the town of Naguilian. It consists of the preparation of bubod or starter, as well as the 24-hour binubudan (steamed rice plus starter), boiling sugarcane juice, and additives such as one year old lomboy (duhat) bark, tangal bark, and green guava leaves.

Pangasinan
Pangasinan's  basi industry is not as well-known as those in La Union and Ilocos. The majority of those involved live in the town of Binalonan.

Basi Revolt

The 1807 Basi Revolt in Piddig, Ilocos Norte, occurred when the Philippines' Spanish rulers effectively banned private manufacture of the beverage.

The Basi Revolt, also known as the Ambaristo Revolt, erupted on September 16, 1807, in the present-day town of Piddig, Ilocos Norte. Led by Pedro Mateo, a cabeza de barangay of Piddig, and Saralogo Ambaristo, an Ilocano and Tinguian, and composed of townspeople from Piddig, Badoc, Sarrat, Laoag, Sinait, Cabugao, Magsingal and other towns of Ilocos, they marched under their own flag of yellow and red horizontal bands and made their way southward towards the provincial capital of Vigan to protest against the abuses of the Spanish colonial government.

According to historical accounts, in 1786, people's frustration grew over the basi (the local beverage of the Ilocos) wine monopoly imposed by the Spanish colonial government that prohibited the private manufacture of basi, forcing Ilocanos to buy from government stores.

Even before the arrival of the Spaniards, basi was an important part of the Ilocanos' society and culture. Drinking basi played such a great importance in Ilocano culture; from marriage to childbirth and to death, it was a part of their ritual, tradition, and daily life. Basi was a major industry in the Ilocos region at the time, therefore in addition to the grief of Ilocanos had also lost their livelihood, in other words, they had been robbed of their happiness as well as an essential part of their culture and heritage.

Fueled by these abuses, people were prompted to start the uprising in Piddig town and later spread in the northern and southern towns of Ilocos province. On September 28, 1807, Ilocano forces on their way to the capital Vigan were assassinated by Spanish forces while crossing the Bantaoay River in San Ildefonso, Ilocos Sur, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of Ilocano forces. Those who survived the battle were hanged and their heads pierced with wooden poles and flagged by the Spaniards as a warning to anyone who wanted to strike and fight against the Spaniards.

The Basi Revolt lasted for 13 days. The series of unrest also led the colonial government to divide the province into the now Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur.

A Basi Festival is held annually in Naguilian, La Union. Basi Festival is held every first week of May in the town of Naguilian, La Union to celebrate the "basi". The festival mainly promotes Basi as a local product also Naguilian's one town, one product and the usual activities include street dancing, sport events, agri-trade fair & other amusement games.

Recently, the Sangguniang Bayan of San Ildefonso approved a resolution declaring September 16 as a non-working holiday and named the old road in Gongogong as Ambaristo street in honor of Pedro Ambaristo, leader of the Basi Revolt. Mayor Christian Purisima enrolled basi as their entry into the  "One Town; One Product" (OTOP) program of Ilocos Sur First District Representative DV Savellano.

Commercial production
Basi del Diablo Wines of the Salucop Group, Inc. started making basi in the year 1906, 99 years after the Basi Revolt. The light fermented sugarcane winemaker's most prominent product is the Ambaristo, named after the Basi Revolt hero Pedro Ambaristo.

Nagguilian Basi is another basi brand in the northern part of the Philippines. It is produced in Naguilian, La Union.

See also
Palek
Intus
Palm wine
Tapuy
Tapai
Tapayan

References

Fermented drinks
Philippine alcoholic drinks

Basi


Constantia is an affluent suburb of Cape Town, South Africa, situated about 15 kilometres south of the centre of Cape Town. It is considered to be one of the most prestigious suburbs in South Africa. The Constantia Valley lies to the east of and at the foot of the Constantiaberg mountain. Constantia Nek is a low pass linking to Hout Bay in the west. Constantia is a beautiful family orientated place for families to grow, with the leafy canopies of trees and top schools.

History
Constantia is one of the oldest townships of Cape Town and is famed for its wine. The estate of Groot Constantia (Great Constantia) was established in 1685 by the Dutch Colonial Governor of Cape Town, Simon van der Stel. Other notable wine farms in the area include the oldest estate, Steenberg (Mountain of Stone), established in 1682, Buitenverwachting (Beyond Expectations), Klein Constantia (Small Constantia) and Constantia Uitsig (View of Constantia). Before the twentieth century, the region was noted for its exports of Vin de Constance a sweet dessert wine. Many years ago the trade was crippled by the arrival in the Cape of a parasite that attacked the vines.

In 1661, during the Dutch conquest of Sumatra, Sheik Abdurachman Matebe Shah and his companion Sheikh Mahmoud were exiled to Constantia by the Dutch. Sheik Abdurachman is regarded as one of the three people that first brought Islam to South Africa. The kramat at Klein Constantia is built on the site that Sheik Abdurachman is thought to have died in 1681 or 1682.

About 220 slaves worked over a period of 150 years on the land planted with vineyards, fruit and olive trees at the time of Van der Stel. A labour shortage after emancipation indicates that slaves moved away from the farms where they worked, but possibly stayed in the area. From the mid-1800s to the 1960s, Constantia remained a rural area of wine estates in which African and coloured residents constituted the majority. They were farmers, farm workers, domestics and fruit and flower sellers and lived in the areas of Strawberry Lane, Sillery Road, Spaanschemat River Road and Ladies Mile Road. In 1961 Constantia was zoned as a White Group Area under the Group Areas Act. In the late 1960s inhabitants classified as coloured or African were forcibly removed to areas in the Cape Flats like Mitchell's Plain, Manenberg and Lotus River. On Heritage Day 2009, a plaque remembering the Strawberry Lane community was unveiled by Cape Town's mayor Dan Plato.

Mark Thatcher, the son of Margaret Thatcher, and Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer, the brother of Princess Diana, both lived in Constantia. Mark's house is now owned by the Sahara Group. The historic Tarrystone House, once owned by Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer was listed for sale at R80 million.

Wine
The area is a major tourist hub outside of the central city area. Constantia is a well-known wine-producing area and one of the oldest in the southern hemisphere. It is home to at least ten wine farms, eight of which are included in an official wine route. Numerous operators offer tours of the Constantia wine route where visitors can take part in wine tastings at the farms. In addition to wine, many Constantia estates also include fine dining restaurants offering both local and international fare.
Many of the homesteads along the wine route display Baroque and Cape Dutch architectural styles.

Education
Schools
 Norman Henshilwood High School
 American International School of Cape Town
 Constantia Primary School
 Constantia Waldorf School
 Reddam House Constantia
 The Cape Academy of Maths, Science and Technology

Coat of arms
The Constantia Valley Local Council, which existed from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, registered a coat of arms at the Bureau of Heraldry in October 1992.

The arms were : Argent, an eagle displayed Sable, charged on the breast with an hour glass in fess Or; a chief nowy gabled Gules. The crest was a silver demi-stag with golden antlers and black wings emerging from a red mural crown.  The motto was Terra hereditas nostra.

References

External links

Constantia Valley

Suburbs of Cape Town
Wine regions of South Africa
1684 establishments in the Dutch Empire

Constantia, Cape Town