title: Gulf Oil

text: The Canadian exploration, production, and distribution arm of Gulf Oil was sold to Olympia and York in 1985. From 1992 it continued as an independent oil company (Gulf Canada Resources) until its acquisition by Conoco in 2002.


title: Gulf Oil

text: Most Gulf downstream operations in Europe were sold to the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) in early 1983. The associated Gulf filling stations were converted to trade under the Q8 brand by 1988. However, attempts to sell Gulf Oil (Great Britain) to KPC failed because of irrevocable GOC guarantees given earlier in regard to bonds issued to finance the construction of refinery facilities in the UK. GO(GB) was taken over by Chevron and its stations continued to use the Gulf brand name and insignia until 1997 when the network was sold to Shell, although by this stage a fairly large proportion of Gulf stations were supplied by jobbers rather than Gulf Oil (GB). Gulf completely withdrew from the UK in 1997. This represented the end of the last major "downstream" use of the Gulf brand by Chevron. In the UK, the Gulf brand is now licensed by Certas Energy (GB Oils) , who also now own the Pace brand, which was coincidentally formerly owned by the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation .


title: Gulf Oil

text: GOI and GOLP continue to sell Gulf-branded lubricants worldwide through a network of official licensed companies, joint ventures and wholly owned subsidiary companies. Many of these official Gulf distributors carry out local marketing and sponsorship which help to raise the profile of the brand. Of these wholly owned subsidiaries Gulf Oil Corporation India has raised the market profile of the Gulf brand in the Middle East. GOCL have emerged as one of leading lubricants brands in India and run many marketing sponsorships targeted at the ever-growing youth sector in the country.


title: Gulf Oil

text: GOI licenses the Gulf brand and logo in the UK to the Bayford group, one of the largest independent fuel distributors. Starting in 2001, a new Gulf network of independent stations began appearing across the UK, many of which offered leaded "four-star" petrol, for which Bayford had a special dispensation to sell. At the same time, Gulf Lubricants (UK) Ltd was set up to market Gulf products in the UK, mostly manufactured by the Gulf Netherlands operation. This return by Gulf to the UK after a four-year absence used the slogan "The Return of the Legend". The post-2001 Gulf presence in the UK is a wholly network-based operation. It involves almost no direct Gulf investment in fixed assets, corporate infrastructure, or manufacturing capability. This is a complete contrast to the pre-1997 presence.


title: Gulf Oil

text: In January 2010, after using the name since 1986, GOLP acquired all right, title and interest in the Gulf brand name in the United States and announced plans to expand the use of the Gulf brand beyond its parent company's Northeastern United States base. Its promotions have included sponsorship of major sporting events in the area with advertisements for Gulf in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. To take one case as an illustrative example of the Gulf revival, after Texaco's 2001 merger with Chevron, many former Texaco stations in Pittsburgh switched to Gulf since Chevron does not service the Greater Pittsburgh area. As a result, the Texaco brand name disappeared from the area in June 2004 when the nonexclusive rights agreement with Shell expired, with Shell itself expanding in the area by means other than Texaco. However, in June 2006, Chevron gave exclusive rights to the Texaco brand name in the U.S. and sold some BP gas stations in the southeast which were Gulf gas stations. In New England, former Exxon stations have been rebranded as Gulf, in accordance with the consent decree that allowed the merger of Exxon and Mobil. Many of the former Exxon stations feature a rectangular logo that fit into the existing sign standards used by Exxon. Gulf refers to the look as its "sunrise" imaging.


title: Gulf Oil

text: The Gulf logo is still used around the world by various businesses. GOI uses it for their marketing activities to focus on the sponsorship of motor sport teams including MotoGP team Aprilia Racing Team Gresini for the 2019 season and Formula 1 team McLaren for the 2020 season. This sponsorship is used across the world by Gulf distributors, alongside local activity demonstrating the GOI company ethos of "your local global brand". In 2009, the clothing store chain Old Navy began selling T-shirts bearing the old Gulf logo, along with the former logos of Standard Oil and Chevron.


title: Gulf Oil

text: Between 1980 and 2000, Gulf moved from being a monolithic, vertically integrated multinational corporation to being more of a network of allied business interests. This has given the entire Gulf enterprise a high degree of strategic and operational flexibility. It is a move that reflects fundamental changes in the economics of international business.


title: Gulf Oil

text: Alliances represent yet another shift in the organization of economic transactions from organizational hierarchies to networks; from mass to flexible production; from large, vertically integrated organizations to disintegration and horizontal networks of economic units; from "Fordist" to "post-Fordist" companies.


title: Gulf Oil

text: In March 2016, Gulf MX announced that they will put their own filling stations in Mexico, which is planned to begin operations in July of the same year to compete with the local company (PEMEX) (as a result of the recent changes in the local laws in matter of energy and oil resources). As said by Sergio De La Vega (CEO of Gulf Mexico), in order to improve a better service, Gulf will make fidelity programs and dedicated smartphone apps. for customers (improving fuel payment into the same, fuel administration and better experience with fidelity programs as another additional benefits) adding to modern service stations with more quality-added services.


title: Gulf Oil

text: Adding to that, Gulf will offer franchises to the existing filling station owners to convert them to Gulf branding.


title: Gulf Oil

text: For decades, Gulf operated filling stations on the Pennsylvania Turnpike toll highway system alongside the Howard Johnson's restaurants at the Turnpike's travel plazas (which correspond to European motorway service areas). This began in 1950 with the opening of the Philadelphia Extension, and Gulf added more filling stations as the system was extended. The Standard Oil Company of Pennsylvania (now part of Exxon) had exclusive rights to provide filling station services on the sections of the system that opened prior to 1950, principally the Irwin-to-Carlisle section.


title: Gulf Oil

text: In the 1980s, Sunoco was awarded the franchise to operate the filling stations at the Sideling Hill and now-closed Hempfield travel plazas. This led to a bidding war among three of Pennsylvania's most recognizable gasoline brands each time a travel plaza franchise came up for renewal.


title: Gulf Oil

text: Gulf had the opportunity to become the exclusive provider of filling stations at travel plazas along the Pennsylvania Turnpike after Exxon withdrew from the Turnpike in 1990. Cumberland Farms (owner of the Gulf brand in the northeastern U.S.) was awarded a new contract with the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, but the contract was sold to Sunoco two years later as part of the company's bankruptcy proceedings. In June 1992, all of the former Gulf filling stations on the Turnpike (as with the Exxon ones before it) converted to Sunoco. All of the travel plazas continue to sell Sunoco fuel today.


title: Gulf Oil

text: Most filling stations in Europe sell three types of fuel: unleaded, LRP, and diesel. Although these products lack any real brand differentiation, this has not always been the case. Until well into the 1970s, Gulf (in common with other oil companies) sold distinctive brands of petrol/gasoline including subregular Gulftane (briefly a midgrade low lead), Good Gulf regular, Gulf No-Nox premium, Gulf Super Unleaded, and Gulfcrest (Regular Unleaded). Gulfcrest was also a super premium grade in the 1950s and early 1960s. Gulf petrol was sold using the slogans ""Good Gulf Gasoline,"" and ""Gulf – the Gas with Guts."" Gulf service stations often supplied customers with pens and key rings bearing these slogans. For a few years, beginning in 1966, Gulf stations in the U.S. gave away orange plastic "Extra Kick Horseshoes" to customers who filled their tanks with Gulf's No-Nox premium gasoline (the novelty items were commonly mounted on bumpers).


title: Gulf Oil

text: GOI still produces and sells a wide range of branded oil based products including lubricants and greases of all kinds. These include products for a variety of applications ranging from metal working oils to refrigeration oils. Car engine oils include the Gulf Formula, Gulf MAX, and Gulf TEC ranges. Heavy duty diesel engine lubricants include the Gulf Supreme and Gulf Superfleet ranges.


title: Gulf Oil

text: In the summer of 2013, Gulf Oil licensed the "Gulf" name for racing fuels in a return to the American racing scene for the 2014 competition season. The fuels were announced at the Performance Racing Industry Show in Indianapolis, Indiana, in December 2013. The racing fuels support the World Racing League and the Formula Atlantic Championship in the United States.


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani (; born 11 May 1932), known mononymously as Valentino, is an Italian fashion designer, the founder of the Valentino brand and company. His main lines include Valentino, Valentino Garavani, Valentino Roma, and R.E.D. Valentino.


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: Valentino was born in Voghera, in the province of Pavia, Lombardy, Italy. His mother named him after screen idol Rudolph Valentino. He became interested in fashion while in primary school in his native Voghera, when he apprenticed under his aunt Rosa and local designer Ernestina Salvadeo, an aunt of noted artist Aldo Giorgini. Valentino then moved to Paris to pursue this interest with the help of his mother Teresa de Biaggi and his father Mauro Garavani. There he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and at the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne.


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: His first choice for an apprenticeship, in Paris, was Jacques Fath, then Balenciaga. He found an apprenticeship with Jean Dessès where he helped Countess Jacqueline de Ribes sketch her dress ideas. He then joined Guy Laroche for two years.


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: After five years, Valentino left Jean Dessès over an incident about prolonging a vacation in Saint-Tropez that still makes him uncomfortable today. Rescued by his friend Laroche, he joined his "tiny, tiny" fashion house. After discussions with his parents, he decided to return to Italy and set up in Rome in 1959, as pupil of Emilio Schuberth and then collaborated with Vincenzo Ferdinandi's atelier before opening his own fashion house.


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: In 1960 Valentino left Paris and opened a fashion house in Rome on the posh Via Condotti with the backing of his father and an associate of his. More than an atelier, the premises resembled a real "maison de haute couture". Everything was very grand and models flew in from Paris for his first show. Valentino became known for his red dresses, in the bright shade that became known in the fashion industry as "Valentino red".


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: On 31 July 1960, Valentino met Giancarlo Giammetti at the Café de Paris on the Via Veneto in Rome. One of three children, Giammetti was in his second year of architecture school, living at home with his parents in the haut bourgeois Parioli section of Northern Rome. That day Giammetti gave Valentino a lift home in his Fiat and a friendship, as well as a long-lasting partnership, started. The day after, Giammetti was to leave for Capri for vacation and, by coincidence, Valentino was also going there, so they met again on the island 10 days later. Giammetti would shortly thereafter abandon the University to become Valentino's business and life partner. When Giammetti arrived, the business situation of Valentino's atelier was in fact not brilliant: in one year he had spent so much money that his father's associate pulled out of the business, and had to fight against bankruptcy.


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: Valentino's international debut took place in 1962 in Florence, the Italian fashion capital of the time.


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: At some point in 1964, Jacqueline Kennedy had seen Gloria Schiff, the twin sister of the Rome-based fashion editor of American "Vogue" and Valentino's friend Consuelo Crespi, wearing a two-piece ensemble in black organza at a gathering. It made such an impression that Kennedy contacted Ms. Schiff to learn the name of the ensemble's designer, which was Valentino. In September 1964, Valentino was to be in the United States to present a collection of his work at a charity ball at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Mrs. Kennedy wanted to view the collection but could not attend the event, so Valentino decided to send a model, sales representative and a selection of key pieces from his collection to Mrs. Kennedy's apartment on Fifth Avenue. Mrs. Kennedy ordered six of his haute couture dresses, all in black and white, and wore them during her year of mourning following President John F. Kennedy's assassination. From then on, she was a devoted client and would become a friend. Valentino would later design the white Valentino Gown worn by Kennedy at her wedding to Greek tycoon Aristotle Onassis. In 1966 he moved his shows from Florence to Rome where two years later he produced an all-white collection that became famous for the "V" logo he designed.


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: Throughout the 1970s, Valentino's womenswear for both couture and ready-to-wear generally followed the trends of the time, opening the decade with an emphasis on midiskirts worn over miniskirts, fitted, knee-high boots, trousers, and some ethnic looks, mostly with a fit-and-flare silhouette. In 1971, he paired more brightly colored midis and knee-length skirts with that year's vogue for hot pants, also continuing to show trousers like culottes and knickers with the gently flared standard trouser of the time. He was noted for his tailored clothes. A forties revival was a focus for a time, and Valentino showed platform shoes, padded shoulders, and knee-length skirts, along with occasional forays into thirties and fifties styles, all kept modern by an emphasis on pants.


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: In 1972, he started the year favoring trousers but ended it showing only skirts, including being one of the only designers to present day dresses in a period dominated by separates. He did, though, endorse the favored full sleeves and layering that were seen on many runways and continued to move away from his trademark monotone or bicolor palette, often cream and/or red, and moved into brighter colors and prints. He did knee-length, square-shouldered forties revival again in 1973, continuing with bright prints, including a Bakst influence. During these early seventies collections, his evening styles were often ruffled and sometimes had asymmetric hems, and his V logo ranged from prominent to subtle, sometimes paving seemingly every surface, as in 1970, other times a single, barely discernible letter on a belt or scarf.


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: The mid-seventies move toward fuller peasant silhouettes was seen in Valentino's work somewhat – dirndl skirts, off-the-shoulder flounces, petticoats, blousons, shawls, ponchos, and layering, but he deemphasized the look's characteristic boots and was sometimes criticized for including styles that were too heavily constructed and stiff in this period of minimal construction and flowing shapes, as well as for emphasizing conspicuous-consumption wealth projection during the more egalitarian atmosphere that prevailed in the mid-seventies. He did, though, return to his serviceable presentation of monochrome and bicolor garment groupings.


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: With the high-fashion world's Fall 1978 move toward big shoulders, more formal suits, and a more conspicuous-consumption, 1940s-50s-retro style, Valentino presented shapes that echoed the big shoulders of the 1930s and adopted the blatantly seductive styles being favored by designers in narrow, slit skirts and black bras worn on their own under padded-shoulder jackets. Along with many other designers, he continued to show this style the following year in stiffly structured, broad-shouldered jackets and dresses presented with forties-fifties accessories like hats, gloves, and cinch belts. This padded-shoulder, high-glamour style would continue to dominate fashion into the eighties and bring Valentino unprecedented fame.


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: Throughout the 1970s Valentino spent considerable time in New York City, where his presence was embraced by society personalities such as "Vogue"'s editor-in-chief Diana Vreeland and the art icon Andy Warhol.


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: Valentino was one of the favorite designers of actress Joan Collins, famous in the 1980s for being one of the stars of the popular US TV soap opera "Dynasty", which ran from 1981 to 1989, bringing the designer additional visibility and name recognition among the public. The era's conspicuous-consumption, 1940s-50s-inspired ballgowns, cocktail dresses, and broad-shouldered, sharply tailored suits were taken up with aplomb by Valentino, whose style at the time was similar to that of Givenchy and Oscar de la Renta.


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: A few themes remained constant throughout his eighties collections: his familiar color groupings; his penchant for blatant displays of luxury, wealth, and opulence; broad shoulder padding; and a more comfortable cut than he was showing at the start of the big-shoulder era at the end of the seventies. He continued to show his ready-to-wear collections in Paris and his couture collections in Rome.


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: In the first half of the eighties, he mostly followed the short, narrow skirt line with broad-shouldered tops also followed by Saint Laurent, Givenchy, Ungaro, and others, but also presented longer, looser looks, the chemise dresses of the era, and a variety of pant shapes. During the mid-eighties, the fashion press and buyers often rated him higher than all other Paris designers, ranking him with Saint Laurent and Lagerfeld. He felt confident enough with this elevated stature that in 1985 he added his moniker to a line of designer jeans. Like other designers, he showed a variety of miniskirts throughout the eighties among his other lengths and garments, and he joined the rest of the fashion world in 1987-88 in showing almost exclusively mini lengths for two seasons and then followed his colleagues by the end of 1988 in retreating from an exclusive mini-length focus.


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: From 1983 to 1985, Valentino contributed a specially appointed Valentino Edition to the Continental line of US luxury automaker Lincoln.


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: 1990 marked the opening of the Accademia Valentino, designed by architect Tommaso Ziffer, a cultural space located near Valentino's atelier in Rome, for the presentation of art exhibitions. The next year, encouraged by their friend Elizabeth Taylor, Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti created L.I.F.E., an association for the support of AIDS-related patients, which benefits from the activities of the Accademia Valentino.


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: In 1998 Valentino and his partner Giancarlo Giammetti sold the company for approximately US$300 million to HdP, an Italian conglomerate controlled, in part, by the late Gianni Agnelli, the head of Fiat. In 2002, Valentino S.p.A., with revenues of more than $180 million, was sold by HdP to Marzotto Apparel, a Milan-based textile giant, for $210 million. Maison Valentino is controlled since 2012 by Mayhoola for Investments S.P.C., a holding company sustained by a group of private investors from Qatar. It is present in over 90 countries through 160 Valentino directly operated boutiques and over 1300 points of sale.


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: On 4 September 2007, Valentino announced that he would retire fully in January 2008 from the world stage after his last haute couture show in Paris. He delivered his last women's ready-to-wear show in Paris on 4 October.


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: His last haute couture show was presented in Paris at the Musée Rodin on 23 January 2008. It was, however, somewhat marred by his criticism of fellow Italian design duo Dolce & Gabbana, and the death of Australian actor Heath Ledger, although few allowed these things to detract from his final show, which received a standing ovation from the entire audience that included hundreds of notable names from all areas of show business. Many models returned to attend Valentino's last haute couture show; the audience included Eva Herzigová, Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer, Nadja Auermann, Karolína Kurková and Karen Mulder.


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: In 2012–2013 a major new exhibition opened at Somerset House in London celebrating the life and work of Valentino, showcasing over 130 exquisite haute couture designs.


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: In September 2007, Valentino decided to leave the Creative Direction of his brand. Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli were first nominated Creative Directors of all accessories lines, and the following year, they were appointed Creative Directors of Valentino, guiding all collections, from Prêt-à-Porter to Haute Couture. In June 2015 the Creative Directors were bestowed with the prestigious CFDA International Award, recognition that paid homage to the professional path and to the success of the Maison. On 7 July 2016 Maison Valentino nominated Pierpaolo Piccioli its sole Creative Director of the Maison.


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: "" a feature-length documentary film on the designer, premiered at the 2008 Venice International Film Festival. Produced and directed by Matt Tyrnauer, special correspondent for "Vanity Fair" magazine, the film follows Valentino and his inner circle throughout various events, including last year's anniversary show celebrating his 45-year career.


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: During the movie's production from June 2005 to July 2007, the filmmakers shot more than 250 hours of footage with exclusive, unprecedented access to Valentino and his entourage. "We were let in to the inner circle, but we had to stick it out for a long time, practically move in, to capture the truly great moments", says Tyrnauer. "Valentino is surrounded by a tight-knit family of friends and employees, but, eventually, their guard came down and they forgot there was a camera crew in the room." The film had its North American premiere at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival. It was released theatrically in the United States on 18 March in New York City and selected cities.


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: On 6 July 2006, France's President Chirac awarded Valentino the Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur. During the festivities for the 45th year of Valentino's career, the Mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni, announced that the site of the Valentino Museum would be a building in via San Teodoro in Rome, between the Palatine Hill and the Bocca della Verità. On 24 January 2008, Valentino was presented with the Medal of the City of Paris for his services to fashion in the city where he was educated.


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: On 7 September 2011, Valentino was presented with the sixth annual Couture Council Award for Artistry of Fashion from the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology at a benefit luncheon held at the David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center in New York City.


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: In 2017, Valentino was the recipient of the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. His Golden Plate was presented by Awards Council member Jeremy Irons.


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: Valentino and his associate Giancarlo Giammetti share homes and apartments around the world including the following:


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: Portions of the property date back to the 16th-century but it was in 1750, on the occasion of his marriage to Maria Antonietta Vagnoli, that the nobleman Sallustio Terrosi started building the villa. The villa's decoration includes Empire pieces and Chinese wooden figurines which once adorned the Royal Pavilion at Brighton and Empire settee that belonged to Princess Mathilde, Napoleon's niece, 2,100 rare books that Giammetti miraculously returned to the villa, missing since the 1960s. The design of the spare all-white kitchen was given to one of Giammetti's friends, architect Tommaso Ziffer, a young decorator at the time.


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: The "Sophia Loren" guest room was so named in honor of the room's inaugural guest, richly appointed in Old World style with a lacy ceiling designed by Mongiardino. Paolo Peyrone, a pupil of the English landscape designer Russell Page, assisted with the design of the landscaping around the house. The 18th-century stable, as it was photographed in the 1980s, became an orangery with an upstairs exercise room. The villa has a pool pavilion named "La Turkerie" standing in the middle of the garden was built by the Terrosi-Vagnoli family in 1837 in honor of a visiting pasha.


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: In the film "," Valentino and Giancarlo Giammetti discuss how they met on 30 July 1960 in Via Veneto, the epicenter of Rome's Dolce Vita. They have been together ever since, for more than 50 years, although their love relationship ended in 1972. As told by Giancarlo in his private memoirs, in 1973 Valentino met nineteen-year-old Carlos Souza at the Hippopotamus club in Rio de Janeiro, dating him until Carlos married Brazilian socialite Charlene Shorto in 1983. Valentino and Giancarlo later became the godfathers of Charlene and Carlos' sons, Sean and Anthony. Carlos and Charlene worked as PR for the Maison Valentino even after their divorce in 1990, and have kept a close relationship ever since.


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: As narrated in "Private" by Giancarlo Giammetti, Valentino in the early 1980s met his current boyfriend Bruce Hoeksema, who started as a model at Valentino to later become the vice president of the Maison. Giancarlo Giammetti said that he and Valentino together with Carlos, Charlene and Bruce form a real family. Part of this enlarged family called the "tribe" is also composed by Spanish Duchess Nati Abascal, French-Brazilian Princess Georgina Brandolini d'Adda and Valentino PR Daniela Giardina.


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: Valentino's mother, Teresa, moved from Voghera to Rome to help with the business. Eventually he told both his parents that he was engaged to Italian actress Marilù Tolo, the only woman he had ever truly loved and with whom he had wished to have children.


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: Valentino and Giammetti's lifestyle has been considered flamboyant. John Fairchild, editor-at-large at "Women's Wear Daily" and "W", told "Vanity Fair",


title: Valentino (fashion designer)

text: Valentino adores dogs to the point that he once named a second line of clothing after his late pug Oliver. Today Valentino owns six pugs. When traveling on his 14-seat Challenger jet, three cars are needed to move Valentino and his entourage to the airport: one to move Valentino and Giammetti, another for the luggage and the staff, and a third to transport five of six Valentino's pugs as one of them, Maude, always travels with Valentino.


title: Temple of Set

text: The Temple of Set is an occult initiatory order founded in 1975. A new religious movement and form of Western esotericism, the Temple espouses a religion known as Setianism, whose practitioners are called Setians. This is sometimes identified as a form of Satanism, although this term is not often embraced by Setians and is contested by some academics.


title: Temple of Set

text: The Temple was established in the United States in 1975 by Michael Angelo Aquino, an American political scientist, military officer, and a high-ranking member of Anton LaVey's Church of Satan. Dissatisfied with the direction in which LaVey was taking the Church, Aquino resigned and – according to his own claim – embarked on a ritual to invoke Satan, who revealed to him a sacred text called "The Book of Coming Forth by Night". According to Aquino, in this work Satan revealed his true name to be that of Set, which had been the name used by his followers in ancient Egypt. Aquino was joined in establishing the Temple by a number of other dissatisfied members of LaVey's Church, and soon various Setian groups were established across the United States.


title: Temple of Set

text: Setians believe that Set is the one real god and that he has aided humanity by giving them a questioning intellect, the "Black Flame", which distinguishes them from other animal species. Set is held in high esteem as a teacher whose example is to be emulated but he is not worshipped as a deity. Highly individualistic in basis, the Temple promotes the idea that practitioners should seek self-deification and thus attain an immortality of consciousness.


title: Temple of Set

text: Setians believe in the existence of magic as a force which can be manipulated through ritual, however the nature of these rituals is not prescribed by the Temple. Specifically, Aquino described Setian practices as "black magic", a term which he defines idiosyncratically.


title: Temple of Set

text: Following initiation into the Temple, a Setian can proceed along a series of six degrees, each of which requires greater responsibilities to the group; as a result, most members remain in the first two degrees. Governed by a high priest or high priestess and a wider Council of Nine, the Temple is also divided into groups known as "pylons", through which Setians can meet or correspond in order to advance their magical work in a particular area. Pylons of the Temple are now present in the United States, Australia, and Europe, with estimates placing the Temple's membership between 200 and 500.


title: Temple of Set

text: The Temple of Set is a new religious movement, and draws upon earlier forms of Western esotericism. Among academic scholars of religious studies, there has been some debate as to whether the Temple of Set can be characterized as "Satanism" or not. The religious studies scholars Asbjorn Dyrendal, Massimo Introvigne, James R. Lewis, and Jesper Aa. Petersen describe the Temple of Set as a Satanic group, despite its reluctance to use the term "Satanism", because it is an offshoot of the Church of Satan which continues to use satanic mythology. Conversely, the scholar Kennet Granholm argued that it should not be considered a form of Satanism because it does not place an emphasis on the figure of Satan. Granholm acknowledged that it was an "actor in the Satanic milieu" and part of the wider left-hand path group of esoteric traditions. He suggested that it could also be seen as a form of "Post-Satanism", thereby continuing to reflect its historical origins within religious Satanism.


title: Temple of Set

text: The Temple of Set is far more rooted in esoteric ideas than the Church of Satan had been. It has thus been termed "Esoteric Satanism", a term used to contrast it with the "Rational Satanism" found in LaVeyan Satanism. Accordingly, it has been labelled the "intellectual wing of esoteric Satanism", with the Temple presenting itself as an intellectual religion. Aquino possessed a P.h.D. in political science and this formal education was reflected in the way that he presented his arguments, in which he draws broadly upon Western philosophy and science.


title: Temple of Set

text: Born in 1946, Michael Aquino was a military intelligence officer specializing in psychological warfare. In 1969 he joined Anton LaVey's Church of Satan and rose rapidly through the group's ranks. In 1970, while he was serving with the U.S. military during the Vietnam War, Aquino was stationed in Bến Cát in South Vietnam when he wrote a tract titled "Diabolicon" in which he reflected upon his growing divergence from the Church of Satan's doctrines. In this tract, teachings about the creation of the world, God, and humanity are presented, as is the dualistic idea that Satan complements God. The character of Lucifer is presented as bringing insight to human society, a depiction of Lucifer that was inherited from John Milton's seventeenth-century epic poem "Paradise Lost".


title: Temple of Set

text: By 1971 Aquino was ranked as a Magister Caverns of the IV° within the Church's hierarchy, was editor of its publication "The Cloven Hoof", and sat on its governing Council of Nine. In 1973 he rose to the previously unattained rank of Magister Templi of IV°. According to the scholars of Satanism Per Faxneld and Jesper Petersen, Aquino had become LaVey's "right-hand man". There were nonetheless things that Aquino disliked about the Church of Satan; he thought that it had attracted many "fad-followers, egomaniacs, and assorted oddballs, whose primary interest in becoming Satanists was to flash their membership cards for cocktail-party notoriety". When, in 1975, LaVey abolished the system of regional groups, or "grottos", and declared that in the future all degrees would be given in exchange for financial or other contributions to the Church, Aquino became increasingly disaffected; he resigned from the organization on June 10, 1975. While LaVey seems to have held a pragmatic and practical view of the degrees and of the Satanic priesthood, intending them to reflect the social role of the degree holder within the organization, Aquino and his supporters viewed the priesthood as being spiritual, sacred and irrevocable. Dyrendal, Lewis, and Petersen describe Aquino as, in effect, accusing LaVey of the sacrilege of simony.


title: Temple of Set

text: Aquino then provided what has been described as a "foundation myth" for his Setian religion. Having departed the Church, he embarked on a ritual intent on asking Satan for advice on what to do next. According to his account, at Midsummer 1975, Satan appeared and revealed that he wanted to be known by his true name, Set, which had been the name used by his worshippers in ancient Egypt. Aquino produced a religious text, "The Book of Coming Forth by Night", which he alleged had been revealed to him by Set through a process of automatic writing. According to Aquino, "there was nothing overtly sensational, supernatural, or melodramatic about "The Book of Coming Forth By Night" working. I simply sat down and wrote it." The book proclaimed Aquino to be the Magus of the new Aeon of Set and the heir to LaVey's "infernal mandate". Aquino later stated that the revelation that Satan was Set necessitated his own exploration of Egyptology, a subject about which he had previously known comparatively little.


title: Temple of Set

text: Aquino's "Book of Coming Forth by Night" makes reference to "The Book of the Law", a similarly 'revealed' text produced by the occultist Aleister Crowley in 1904 which provided the basis for Crowley's religion of Thelema. In Aquino's book, "The Book of the Law" was presented as a genuine spiritual text given to Crowley by preternatural sources, but it was also declared that Crowley had misunderstood both its origin and message. In making reference to "The Book of the Law", Aquino presented himself as being as much Crowley's heir as LaVey's, and Aquino's work would engage with Crowley's writings and beliefs to a far greater extent than LaVey ever did.


title: Temple of Set

text: In establishing the Temple, Aquino was joined by other ex-members of LaVey's Church, and soon Setian groups, or "pylons", were established in various parts of the United States. The structure of the Temple was based largely on those of the ceremonial magical orders of the late nineteenth century, such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and Ordo Templi Orientis.


title: Temple of Set

text: Aquino has stated that he believed LaVey not to be merely a charismatic leader but to have been actually appointed by Satan himself (referring to this charismatic authority as the "Infernal Mandate") to found the Church. After the split of 1975, Aquino believed LaVey had lost the mandate, which the "Prince of Darkness" then transferred to Aquino and a new organization, the Temple of Set. According to both the historian of religion Mattias Gardell and journalist Gavin Baddeley, Aquino displayed an "obsession" with LaVey after his departure from the Church, for instance by publicly releasing court documents that reflected negatively on his former mentor, among them restraining orders, divorce proceedings, and a bankruptcy filing. In turn, LaVey lampooned the new Temple as "Laurel and Hardy's "Sons of the Desert"". In 1975, the Temple incorporated as a non-profit Church in California, and later that year secured state and federal recognition and tax-exempted status.


title: Temple of Set

text: Many members of the Temple had voiced their opposition to Aquino's position of power within it. Aquino relinquished his office of High Priest in 1979 to Ronald Keith Barrett, who produced an inspired text of his own, titled "The Book of Opening the Way". Barrett's approach was later criticized as "more mystical than magical" by Temple members. Barrett's leadership was also criticized as authoritarian, resulting in a decline in the Temple's membership. Barrett resigned his office and severed ties with the organization in May 1982. He subsequently established his own Temple of Anubis, which he led until his 1998 death; it survived until the early 2010s. After Barrett's departure, Aquino retook leadership of the Temple of Set. During this period, the sociologist Gini Graham Scott clandestinely participated in the Temple, using her observations as the basis for her 1983 book "The Magicians: A Study of the Use of Power in a Black Magic Group".


title: Temple of Set

text: After receiving his PhD in political science from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1980, Aquino worked as an adjunct professor at Golden Gate University until 1986 while continuing to serve in the United States Army as an Active Guard Reserve officer at the Presidio of San Francisco.


title: Temple of Set

text: He was fascinated with the connections between occultism and Nazism, resulting in some accusations that he was sympathetic to Nazi ideology. In 1983, he performed a solitary rite at Walhalla, the subterranean section of the Wewelsburg castle in Germany that was utilized as a ceremonial space by the Schutzstaffel's Ahnenerbe group during the Nazi period. This resulted in his formation of the Order of the Trapezoid, a Setian group whose members understood themselves as a chivalric order of knights. From 1987 through to 1995, the Grand Master of the Order of the Trapezoid was Edred Thorsson, who had joined the Temple of Set in 1984 and risen to the Fifth Degree in 1990. Thorsson exerted a "discernible influence" over the Setian community through his books, in which he combined aspects of Satanic philosophy with the modern Pagan religion of Heathenry. In 1980, he founded the Texas-based Rune-Gild which shared many of the Temple's key philosophical tenets but with a focus on the study of runes and their applications in magical practice.


title: Temple of Set

text: In the 1980s, Aquino attracted greater publicity for his Temple through appearances on television talk shows like "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and "Geraldo". In 1987, during the Satanic ritual abuse hysteria, the three-year-old daughter of a Christian clergyman accused Aquino of sexually abusing her during Satanic rites held at his Russian Hill home. Responding to the allegations, police raided Aquino's home, however—after no evidence was found to substantiate the allegation and it was revealed that Aquino was living in Washington D.C. at the time of the alleged abuse—the police decided not to charge him with any felony. Aquino attempted to bring formal charges against the chaplain and psychiatrist who had encouraged the girl's claims, although he was more successful in bringing legal action against two books—Carl A. Raschke's "Painted Black" and Linda Blood's "The New Satanists"—that had suggested that he was guilty. He then left the Presidio and was transferred to St. Louis. In 1994, Aquino retired from active service in the Army, being honourably transferred to the Retired Reserve and awarded the Meritorious Service Medal.


title: Temple of Set

text: While the Satanic ritual abuse hysteria declined, Aquino continued to be a figure of prominence in "mind control" conspiracy theories because of his career as a psychological warfare officer in the US Army. In the United Kingdom during this same period, tabloids like the "News of the World" and "Sunday Mirror" published sensationalist articles about the Temple. In the mid-1990s, a group of British Setians approached the religious studies scholar Graham Harvey and encouraged him to conduct research into the group so as to combat misconceptions about them. The Temple first registered a website in 1997, the same year as the Church of Satan. It would also establish its own intranet, allowing for communication between Setians in different parts of the world.


title: Temple of Set

text: One member of the Temple was the New Zealander Kerry Bolton, who split to form his own Order of The Left Hand Path in 1990. In 1995, another couple who joined were LaVey's daughter Zeena Schreck and her husband Nikolas Schreck, both of whom were vocal critics of Zeena's father.


title: Temple of Set

text: In 1996, Don Webb became the high priest of the Temple, a position that he held until 2002. He was replaced by Zeena Schreck, but she resigned after six weeks and was replaced by Aquino, who took charge once more. In that year, Zeena led a schism within the organization establishing her own Berlin-based group, The Storm, which she later renamed the Sethian Liberation Movement.


title: Temple of Set

text: Aquino stood down as Supreme Priest again in 2004, to be replaced by Patricia Hardy who was elected to the position of Supreme Priestess. Although no longer in charge of the organization, he nevertheless remained its most visible spokesperson.


title: Temple of Set

text: In addition to the "Book of Coming Forth by Night", in which Set himself is purported to speak, the Temple's philosophy and teachings are revealed in a series of occult writings titled the "Jeweled Tablets of Set". Each tablet is keyed to a specific degree in the Temple hierarchy. Only the introduction to the first tablet ("Crystal Tablet of Set"), titled "Black Magic", is available for non-members. The "Ruby Tablet", which is available for second-degree members, is the lengthiest and most diverse of the tablets.


title: Temple of Set

text: The private Temple literature is not regarded as secret per se, but is kept restricted because it contains materials which, according to the Temple, may be dangerous to the non-initiated.


title: Temple of Set

text: The human individual is at the centre of Setian philosophy. The Temple places great emphasis on the development of the individual, postulating self-deification as the ultimate goal.


title: Temple of Set

text: The realization of the true nature of the Setian is termed "becoming" or "coming into being" and is represented by the Egyptian hieroglyphic term "kheper", or "Xeper" (a phonetic of _Xpr_), as the Temple of Set prefers to write it. This term is described in "The Book of Coming Forth by Night" as "the Word of the Aeon of Set".


title: Temple of Set

text: Members attempt "to preserve and strengthen" their "isolate, psyche-centric existence" through adherence to the left-hand path. This idea is in opposition to the traditional goal of Hermetic and Western mystical practices, which is the surrendering of the ego into a union with either God or the universe.


title: Temple of Set

text: The Temple teaches that the true self, or "essence", is immortal, and "Xeper" is the ability to align consciousness with this essence. Aquino taught that there is an afterlife for those who have reached the necessary level of individual development. This afterlife could occur in the individual's subjective universe. Those unable to reach this level dissolve into non-existence when the physical body dies. Self-initiation is knowledge understood as a conjunction of intellect and intuition. In keeping with its emphasis on the individual, the Temple encourages their members to celebrate their own birthday, and does not prescribe any other calendar of religious festivities.


title: Temple of Set

text: Barrett presented "Xem" as his Aeonic Word to the Setians, presenting it as a natural and necessary further development of Aquino's "Xeper". Aquino later acknowledged "Xem" as a worthwhile magical concept for Setians to explore, but found Barrett's insistence on its exclusivity as incompatible with the Temple's individualistic philosophy.


title: Temple of Set

text: Aquino's understanding of Satan differed from the atheistic interpretation promoted by LaVey, and the Temple's theology differs from that of the Church of Satan. The Temple states that the name "Satan" was originally a corruption of the name "Set". The Temple of Set promotes the idea that Set is a real entity, and accordingly has been described as being "openly theistic". It further argues that Set is ageless and is the only real god in existence, with all others having been created by the human imagination. Set is described as having given humanity—through the means of non-natural evolution—the "Black Flame" or the "Gift of Set". This refers to humanity's questioning intellect which sets the species apart from other animals and gives it an "isolate self-consciousness" and the possibility to attain divinity. Aquino argued that the idea of the Gift of Set was inadvertently promoted to a wider audience in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film "". According to Aquino, the black monolith which imparts human-level intelligence onto prehistoric apes in the film was a symbol of Set.


title: Temple of Set

text: While Setians are expected to revere Set, they do not worship him, instead regarding him as a teacher and a guide. He is portrayed as a role model on which Setians can base their own deification. According to Webb, "we do not worship Set - only our own potential. Set was and is the patron of the magician who seeks to increase his existence through expansion."


title: Temple of Set

text: Embracing the idea of aeons from Crowley's Thelema, Aquino adopted the Crowleyan tripartite division between the Aeon of Isis, Aeon of Osiris, and Aeon of Horus, but added to that the Aeon of Satan, which he dates from 1966 to 1975, and then the Aeon of Set, which he dated from 1975 onward. Despite presenting these chronological parameters, Aquino also portrayed the aeons less as time periods and more as mind-sets that can co-exist alongside one another. Thus, he stated that "A Jew, Christian or Muslim exists in the Æon of Osiris, a Wiccan in that of Isis, and a Thelemite in that of Horus".


title: Temple of Set

text: Aquino placed an emphasis on what he deemed to be the division between the objective and subjective universes. In the Setian religion, the objective world is understood as representing the natural world and humanity's collective meaning systems, while the subjective universe is understood as the individually experienced world and individual meaning systems. Following earlier esotericists like Crowley, Aquino characterized magic as "causing change in accordance with will". Unlike LaVey, Aquino expressed belief in the division between black magic and white magic. He described white magic as "a highly-concentrated form of conventional religious ritual", characterizing it as being "more versatile", "less difficult", and "less dangerous" than black magic. However, he criticized white magic as "fraud and/or self-delusion" which deceives the consciousness into thinking that it has been accepted in the objective universe.


title: Temple of Set

text: Aquino divided black magic into two forms: lesser black magic and greater black magic. He stated that lesser black magic entails "impelling" things that exist in the "objective universe" into doing a desired act by using "obscure physical or behavioral laws" and into this category he placed stage magic, psychodramas, politics, and propaganda. Conversely, he used the term greater black magic in reference to changes in the subjective universe of the magician, allowing them to realize their self in accordance with the principle of "Xeper". Among Setians it is accepted that there may be changes in the objective universe as a result of greater black magic, but such effects are considered secondary to the impact that they have upon the subjective universe.


title: Temple of Set

text: Within the Temple, rituals are typically known as "workings", and are most often carried out alone. Stressing the religion's individualist nature, there are no rituals that are specifically prescribed by the Temple. Aquino also emphasized that in order to achieve a desired aim, the Setian should carry out physical actions alongside magical ones. There are no regular occasions which are marked by fixed rituals, and the Temple has no calendar of festivals.


title: Temple of Set

text: The Temple uses an inverted pentagram as its insignia, known as the "Pentagram of Set" to Setians. The use of the geometric shape is derived from the Sigil of Baphomet used by the Church of Satan, although stripped of its overtly Satanic add-ons. The Temple explains the meaning and significance of the pentagram by referring to Pythagorean ideas and "mathematical perfection". At Setian gatherings, members wear the pentagram as a medallion. The medallion is colored according to the initiation degree of the Setian.


title: Temple of Set

text: Both the Church of Satan and the Temple of Set also use the trapezoid symbol. The version used by the Church includes flames, a pitchfork and the number 666, while the trapezoid of the Temple has a left-facing Egyptian sceptre, and the number 666 stylized in geometric shapes rather than as clear numbers.


title: Temple of Set

text: The internal structure of the Temple of Set is closely reminiscent of that of the Church of Satan as it existed in the 1970s.


title: Temple of Set

text: All members of the Temple must be affiliated with a pylon, and thus membership is by application, requiring contact with a Setian priestess or priest followed by an evaluation period. The participation of non-initiated in the Temple's rituals are forbidden, due to the belief that their rituals would be dangerous in the wrong hands.


title: Temple of Set

text: The Temple of Set recognizes several stages or degrees of initiation. The degrees indicate the individual Setian's development and skill in magic. The degree structure is based on that of the Church of Satan, which in turn was based on the degrees of a nineteenth-century occult group, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The Temple terms the progression through degrees as "recognitions", because the organization's philosophy sees that the individual member initiates themselves and that the Temple merely acknowledges this by granting the degree. These degrees are:


title: Temple of Set

text: The priesthood of the Temple of Set consists of members holding the third degree or higher; those in the first and second degrees are considered "lay members" of the Temple. The first degree serves as a space for mutual evaluation, in which the Temple assesses whether the individual is appropriate for the group, and the individual decides whether they wish to further their involvement with it. Full membership comes with recognition to the second degree. Many members do not advance beyond the second degree, nor is this expected of them, as while the first and second degree members use the organization's teachings and tools for their own development, the priesthood involves greater responsibilities towards the organization, such as being its official representatives.


title: Temple of Set

text: Recognition is performed by members of the priesthood. The fourth degree, which is acknowledged by the high priest/priestess, entails that the individual is so advanced in their magical skills that they are able to found their own school of magic, represented in the different orders of the Temple. The fifth degree can only be awarded by the unanimous decision of the Council of Nine and by the approval of the Temple's high priest/priestess. A fifth degree member has the power to utter and define a concept which somehow affects the philosophy of the organization, such as the concept of "Xeper" defined by Aquino in 1975. Only a handful of members have attained this degree and most "fifth-degree" concepts defined in such a manner are no longer studied in the organization. The final sixth degree represents a Magus "whose Task is complete". This degree is held by a very select few in the Temple, although any fifth-degree member can assume the sixth degree based on their own assessment.


title: Temple of Set

text: The organization is led by a high priest/priestess, who is also the public face of the Temple. The high priest is chosen among fourth or higher degree members by the chairman of the Council of Nine. This ruling council has nine members chosen from the priesthood (third degree or higher), whose mandate lasts for nine years with a new member being elected every year. The chairman of the council is chosen from among the council members each year. The council has the ultimate ruling power in the Temple and even the high priest is responsible to it. The Temple also has an executive director, whose task is to deal with administrative issues.


title: Temple of Set

text: In addition to the international organization, the Temple sponsors initiatory "Orders" and "Elements" and local groups called "Pylons". Pylons are intended to facilitate the initiatory work of the Temple's members by conducting meetings where discussions and magical works take place. The purpose of a pylon is to provide a space in which the Setian can focus on their religion, aided by like-minded individuals. Pylons typically meet in a member's home. Members usually join the Pylon located geographically closest to them. Correspondence- or Internet-based Pylons also exist, with Harvey noting that this online networking is more common than in-person interaction. A Pylon is led a by a second-degree (or higher) member who is called a "Sentinel". The term "pylon" derives from the architectural features which served as fortified gateways to ancient Egyptian temples. One Finnish Setian informed Granholm that the relationship between the orders and the temple was like that of different departments in a university.


title: Temple of Set

text: "Elements" are loosely structured interest groups, where specific themes and issues are addressed. They can be open for non-members and are commonly in operation only for short periods. Topics of interest include, for example, animal rights, which was the subject of the Arkte element operated by Aquino's wife Lilith.


title: Temple of Set

text: There are sections of the Temple known as "Orders", each of which focus on a particular theme, for instance ancient Egypt, Norse culture, Tantric Hinduism, or vampirism. Others focus on a particular skill, for instance the Order of Uart focuses on the visual arts and the Order of Taliesin on music. Orders can be understood as schools of different aspects of magic providing different paths of initiation. Orders are led by grand masters, who will usually be the founder of the order. In longer-lived orders the founder may have a successive grand master. Orders are founded by members of the fourth degree. When members reaches the second degree of initiation, they are expected to join an order of their own choosing. In normal circumstances, a Setian is only permitted to join one order, however special dispensation can be obtained for a practitioner to join two.


title: Temple of Set

text: Setians also hold annual International Conclaves. First Degree Initiates who obtain sponsorship by a member of the Priesthood are permitted to attend the International Conclave and Regional Gatherings.


title: Temple of Set

text: In 2000, the Temple had thirteen pylons, which were operating in the United States, Australia, Germany, and across Sweden and Finland. The extent of the Temple's membership has not been publicly revealed by the group; however, in 2005 Petersen noted that academic estimates for the Temple's membership varied from between 300 and 500, and Granholm suggested that in 2007 the Temple contained circa 200 members. The Temple's members come from a variety of racial backgrounds.


title: Temple of Set

text: In 1999, the anthropologist Jean La Fontaine suggested that in Britain there were 100 members of the Temple at most, and possibly "considerably fewer". In 2001 the scholar Gareth Medway posited that the group had 70 to 80 members in the United Kingdom, adding that it was the largest Satanic group then active in the country. In 2009, Harvey concurred with La Fontaine's assessment, although still believed that it was the largest Satanic group in the United Kingdom. He noted that most members were male, between the ages of twenty and fifty, and that—despite his expectation that they might be political extremists—they endorsed mainstream political positions, with all those whom he communicated with stating that they had voted for either the Conservative Party, Labour Party, or Liberal Democrats.


title: Highest unclimbed mountain

text: An unclimbed mountain is a mountain peak that has yet to be climbed to the top. Determining which unclimbed peak is highest is often a matter of controversy. In some parts of the world, surveying and mapping are still unreliable. There are no comprehensive records of the routes of explorers, mountaineers, and local inhabitants. In some cases, even modern ascents by larger parties have been poorly documented and, with no universally recognized listing, the best that can be achieved in determining the world's highest unclimbed peaks is somewhat speculative. Most sources indicate that Gangkhar Puensum () on the Bhutan–China border is the tallest mountain in the world that has yet to be fully summited. Gangkhar Puensum has been off limits to climbers since 1994 when Bhutan prohibited all mountaineering above due to spiritual/religious beliefs.


title: Highest unclimbed mountain

text: Unclimbed mountains are sometimes referred to as "virgin peaks." Many virgin peaks exist because the mountain is unreachable, due to either geographic isolation or political instability. Some mountains remain off limits due to religious beliefs of a country or region that hold such mountains as sacred and should remain inviolate. Additionally, since the endeavor to scale taller mountains of the world is usually a major undertaking, lesser peaks, while still very formidable, simply get less attention than the taller ones, and instead these taller peaks are summited by parties following a new route or perhaps during the winter when conditions are generally more treacherous.


title: Highest unclimbed mountain

text: Many mountains, in addition to their highest point or peak, will also have subsidiary subpeaks. Generally, the topographic prominence of a peak or subpeak, as well as the general topography, all come into consideration when determining whether such apexes are considered to be independent peaks or subpeaks. Although objective criteria have been proposed for distinguishing peaks from subpeaks, there is no widely agreed standard. In 1994, the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation classified 82 mountain peaks in the Alps whose summits were at least above sea level and with at least of topographic prominence over any adjacent mountain pass or col, as a distinct peak.


title: Highest unclimbed mountain

text: It can be difficult sometimes to determine whether or not a mountain peak has been fully summited. Long before modern mountaineering commenced in the middle of the 19th century, evidence indicates that people did indeed travel up to the summits or near to the summits of major mountain peaks. Archaeological excavations in the Andes have shown that humans travelled up to in pre-historic times. Permanent settlements as high as were established as far back as 12,000 years ago in the Andes. In the Greater Himalaya region, Lhasa, in Tibet, sitting at has been permanently occupied since the 7th century and many smaller settlements across the Greater Himalaya thrive at elevations exceeding . With humans living at high elevations for many millennia, nearby peaks to such settlements may or may not have been summited at some point in the past. However, many regions away from settlements may never have been explored, especially since some high peaks in the Greater Ranges are so remote that they were unknown to local inhabitants until they were sighted by explorers.


title: Highest unclimbed mountain

text: The world's third-tallest peak, Kangchenjunga, has been summited a number of times, but on the 1955 expedition the first climbers of the peak agreed to honor the wishes of locals and not set foot on the topmost part of the mountain. Succeeding mountaineering parties may (or may not) have followed this tradition. Similarly, Nanda Devi has also been climbed but the topmost summit was not ascended and the primary summit is now off limits to climbers. Machapuchare had only one summit attempt back in 1957 when climbers came within of the summit; Nepal then banned future attempts.


title: Highest unclimbed mountain

text: The mountain most widely claimed to be the highest unclimbed mountain in the world in terms of elevation is Gangkhar Puensum (). It is in Bhutan, on or near the border with China. In Bhutan, the climbing of mountains higher than has been prohibited since 1994. The rationale for this prohibition is based on local customs that consider this and similar peaks to be the sacred homes of protective deities and spirits, and the lack of high-altitude rescue resources from any locale closer than India. The prohibition was further expanded in 2003 when mountaineering of any kind was disallowed entirely within Bhutan. Gangkhar Puensum will likely remain unclimbed so long as the government of Bhutan prohibits it.


title: Highest unclimbed mountain

text: It is unclear which is the highest unclimbed non-prohibited mountain. While some recognize only peaks with of topographical prominence as individual summits, the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation uses a cutoff for determining individual summits. Based on the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation's criteria, Muchu Chhish ( with a prominence of ) in Pakistan is currently the world's tallest that has not been climbed even though it is legal to do so. Other unclimbed summits include one on the massif known as Kabru ( prominence ), Labuche Kang III/East () with prominence of and Karjiang ( with a prominence of ).


title: Highest unclimbed mountain

text: Unclimbed candidates with high topographic prominence are by definition independent mountains, but some have relatively modest elevations. With such peaks, there is a greater possibility of undocumented ascents, perhaps occurring long ago.


title: Highest unclimbed mountain

text: As of mid-2014 Sauyr Zhotasy (, prominence of ), the highpoint in the Saur Range on the border between Kazakhstan and China, and Mount Siple (, prominence of ) on Siple Island off the coast of Antarctica, have no record of successful ascents. The unclimbed status of each of these peaks is difficult to confirm, although Mount Siple in particular is remote, uninhabited (and without any nearby habitation), and seldom visited. The most recent remaining most prominent mountain summited (with a prominence of ) was in June 2014 in the Finisterre Range of Papua New Guinea.


title: Scuttling

text: Scuttling is the deliberate sinking of a ship. Scuttling may be performed to dispose of an abandoned, old, or captured vessel; to prevent the vessel from becoming a navigation hazard; as an act of self-destruction to prevent the ship from being captured by an enemy force (or, in the case of a vessel engaged in illegal activities, by the authorities); as a blockship to restrict navigation through a channel or within a harbor; to provide an artificial reef for divers and marine life; or to alter the flow of rivers.


title: Scuttling

text: The Skuldelev ships, five Viking ships, were sunk to prevent attacks from the sea on the Danish city of Roskilde. The scuttling blocked a major waterway, redirecting ships to a smaller one that required considerable local knowledge.


title: Scuttling

text: In 2012, a cog preserved from the keel up to the decks in the silt was discovered alongside two smaller vessels in the river IJssel in the city of Kampen, in the Netherlands. The ship, dating from the early 15th century, was suspected to have been deliberately sunk into the river to influence its current.


title: Scuttling

text: The Spaniard conquistador Hernán Cortés, who led the first expedition that resulted in the fall of the Aztec Empire, ordered his men to strip and scuttle his fleet to prevent the secretly planned return to Cuba by those loyal to Cuban Governor Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar. Their success would have halted his inland march and conquest of the Aztec Empire.


title: Scuttling

text: HMS "Sapphire" was a 32-gun, fifth-rate sailing frigate of the Royal Navy in Newfoundland Colony to protect the English migratory fishery. The vessel was trapped in Bay Bulls harbour by four French naval vessels led by Jacques-François de Brouillan. To avoid its capture, the English scuttled the vessel on 11 September 1696.


title: Scuttling

text: HMS "Endeavour" was Captain James Cook's ship upon which he discovered Australia. After being sold into private hands, she was finally scuttled in a blockade of Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island in 1778.


title: Scuttling

text: The British sank one ship on 10 October 1781 to prevent it from being captured by the French fleet. Furthermore, the York River, while protected by the French Navy, also contained a few scuttled ships, which were meant to serve as a blockade should any British ships enter the river.


title: Scuttling

text: During the War of 1812, Commodore Joshua Barney, of the U.S. Navy, Chesapeake Bay Flotilla, sank all nineteen of his fighting vessels, to prevent them from being captured by the British, as he and his men marched, inland, in the unsuccessful defense of Washington D.C.


title: Scuttling

text: During the Belgian war of independence, Dutch gunboat commander Jan van Speijk came under attack from a mob of Antwerp labourers. When they forced him and his crew to surrender, he ignited a barrel of gunpowder, thus sinking his ship and killing himself and most of the crew. Van Speijk went on to become a national hero in The Netherlands.


title: Scuttling

text: During the Crimean War, in anticipation of the siege of Sevastopol, the Russians scuttled ships of the Black Sea Fleet to protect the harbour, to use their naval cannon as additional artillery, and to free up the ships' crews as marines. Those ships that were deliberately sunk included "Grand Duke Constantine", "City of Paris" (both with 120 guns), "Brave", "Empress Maria", and "Chesme."


title: Scuttling

text: In April 1861, the United States Navy steam frigate was among several ships Union forces set afire or scuttled at the Gosport Navy Yard (now Norfolk Naval Shipyard) in Portsmouth, Virginia, to keep them from falling into Confederate hands at the outbreak of the American Civil War. The unsuccessful attempt at scuttling "Merrimack" enabled the Confederate States Navy to raise and rebuild her as the broadside ironclad CSS "Virginia". Shortly after her famous engagement with the U.S Navy monitor in the Battle of Hampton Roads in March 1862, the Confederates scuttled "Virginia" to keep her from being captured by Union forces.


title: Scuttling

text: In December 1861 and January 1862, Union forces scuttled a number of former whalers and other merchant ships in an attempt to block access to Confederate ports during the American Civil War. Loaded with stone before being scuttled, the scuttled ships were known as the "Stone Fleet." Those scuttled in December 1861 sometimes are called the "First Stone Fleet," while those sunk in January 1862 sometimes are termed the "Second Stone Fleet."


title: Scuttling

text: During the War of the Pacific, as Chilean troops entered Lima and El Callao, the Peruvian naval officer Germán Astete ordered the whole Peruvian fleet to be scuttled to prevent capture by Chile.


title: Scuttling

text: During the Spanish–American War, a volunteer crew of United States Navy personnel attempted to scuttle the collier in the entrance to the harbor at Santiago de Cuba in Cuba on the night of 2–3 June 1898 in an attempt to trap the Spanish Navy squadron of Vice Admiral Manuel de la Cámara y Libermoore in port there. The attempt failed when she came under fire by Spanish ships and fortifications and sank without blocking the entrance.


title: Scuttling

text: In 1904, during the Russo-Japanese War, the Imperial Japanese Navy made three attempts to block the entrance to the Imperial Russian Navy base at Port Arthur, Manchuria, China, by scuttling transports. Although the Japanese scuttled five transports on 23 February, four on 27 March, and eight on 3 May, none of the attacks succeeded in blocking the entrance. The Russians also scuttled four steamers at the entrance in March 1904 in an attempt to defend the harbor from Japanese intrusion.


title: Scuttling

text: During the siege of Port Arthur, the Russians scuttled the surviving ships of their Pacific Squadron that were trapped in port at Port Arthur in late 1904 and early January 1905 to prevent their capture intact by the Japanese.


title: Scuttling

text: In August 1914, SS "Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse" was requisitioned by the Kaiserliche Marine and converted into an auxiliary cruiser, assigned to commerce raiding in the Atlantic. She was fitted with six 10.5 cm (4 inch) guns and two 37 mm guns. After sparing two passenger ships because they were carrying many women and children, she sank two freighters before she herself was sunk on 26 August 1914. She was ambushed while refuelling off the shore of the then Spanish colony of Río de Oro in western Africa by the old British 6-inch gunned cruiser . Badly outgunned, the ship eventually ran out of ammunition. The crew abandoned and scuttled her. British sources at the time claimed that "Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse" sank because of the damage inflicted by "Highflyer".


title: Scuttling

text: In December 1914, was the only German warship to escape destruction in the Battle of the Falkland Islands. She eluded her British pursuers for several more months, until she put into Más a Tierra in March 1915. Her engines were worn out and she had almost no coal left for her boilers. There, she was trapped by British cruisers, which violated Chilean neutrality and opened fire on the ship. "Dresden"s Executive Officer – the future Admiral Wilhelm Canaris – negotiated with the British and bought time for his crew to scuttle the "Dresden".


title: Scuttling

text: The Zeebrugge Raid involved three outdated British cruisers chosen to serve as blockships in the German-held Belgian port of Bruges-Zeebrugge from which German U-boat operations threatened British shipping. "Thetis", "Intrepid" and "Iphigenia" were filled with concrete then sent to block a critical canal. Heavy defensive fire caused the "Thetis" to scuttle prematurely; the other two cruisers sank themselves successfully in the narrowest part of the canal. Within three days, however, the Germans had broken through the western bank of the canal to create a shallow detour for their submarines to move past the blockships at high tide.


title: Scuttling

text: In 1919, over 50 warships of the German High Seas Fleet were scuttled by their crews at Scapa Flow in the north of Scotland, following the deliverance of the fleet as part of the terms of the German surrender. Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter ordered the sinkings, denying the majority of the ships to the Allies. Von Reuter was made a prisoner-of-war in Britain but his act of defiance was celebrated in Germany. Though most of the fleet was subsequently salvaged by engineer Ernest Cox, a number of warships (including three battleships) remain, making the area very popular amongst undersea diving enthusiasts.


title: Scuttling

text: Under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, the great naval powers were required to limit the size of their battlefleets, resulting in the disposal of some older or incomplete capital ships. During 1924 and 1925, the treaty resulted in the scuttling of the Royal Australian Navy battlecruiser and the incomplete Imperial Japanese Navy battleship "Tosa", while four old Japanese battleships, the Royal Navy battleship , and the incomplete United States Navy battleship all were disposed of as targets.


title: Scuttling

text: SS Palo Alto was a concrete ship built as a tanker at the end of World War I. Completed too late to see war service, she was mothballed until 1929, when she was intentionally grounded off a Northern California beach at Aptos, California, becoming part of a pleasure pier entertainment complex.


title: Scuttling

text: Following the Battle of the River Plate the damaged German pocket battleship sought refuge in the port of Montevideo. On 17 December 1939, with the British and Commonwealth cruisers , , and waiting in international waters outside the mouth of the Río de la Plata, Captain Hans Langsdorff sailed "Graf Spee" just outside the harbour and scuttled the vessel to avoid risking the lives of his crew in what he expected would be a losing battle. Langsdorff shot himself three days later.


title: Scuttling

text: When British and Commonwealth land forces attacked Tobruk on 21 January 1941, the Italian cruiser "San Giorgio" turned its guns against the attacking force, repelling an attack by tanks. As British forces were entering Tobruk, "San Giorgio" was scuttled at 4:15 AM on 22 January. "San Giorgio" was awarded the Gold Medal of Military Valor for her actions in the defence of Tobruk. The ship was salvaged in 1952, but while being towed to Italy, her tow rope failed and she sank in heavy seas.


title: Scuttling

text: As the Allies advanced toward Eritrea during their East African Campaign in World War II, Mario Bonetti—the Italian commander of the Red Sea Flotilla based at Massawa—realized that the British would overrun his harbor. In the first week of April 1941, he began to destroy the harbor's facilities and ruin its usefulness to the Allies. Bonetti ordered the sinking of two large floating dry docks and supervised the calculated scuttling of eighteen large commercial ships in the mouths of the north Naval Harbor, the central Commercial Harbor and the main South Harbor. This blocked navigation in and out. He also had a large floating crane scuttled. These actions rendered the harbor useless by 8 April 1941, when Bonetti surrendered it to the British. Scuttled ships included the German steamers "Liebenfels", "Frauenfels", , "Crefeld", "Gera" and "Oliva". Also scuttled were the Italian steamers "Adua", "Brenta", "Arabia", "Romolo Gessi", "Vesuvio", "XXIII Marzo", "Antonia C.", "Riva Ligure", "Clelia Campenella", "Prometeo" and the Italian tanker "Giove". The largest scuttled vessel was the 11,760-ton "Colombo", an Italian steamer. Thirteen coastal steamers and small naval vessels were also scuttled.


title: Scuttling

text: The British seized the harbor and initiated marine salvage operations to restore navigation in and out. Divers sealed the hulls underwater, and air was pumped in to float the hulls. The divers defused a booby trap in "Brenta", which contained an armed naval mine sitting on three torpedo warheads in the hold. Another danger was "Regia Marina" minelayer "Ostia", which had been sunk by the Royal Air Force with several of its mines still racked.


title: Scuttling

text: Though a civilian contractor was retained to clear a navigable passage through the wrecks, it was not until a year later that headway was made in the effort to return Massawa to military duties. U.S. Navy Commander Edward Ellsberg arrived in April 1942 with a salvage crew and a small collection of specialized tools and began methodically correcting the damage. His salvage efforts yielded significant results in just 5½ weeks. On 8 May 1942, SS "Koritza", an armed Greek steamer, had drydocked for cleaning and minor hull repairs. Massawa's first major surface fleet "customer" was , which needed repairs to a heavily damaged stern in mid-August 1942. Many of the harbor's sunken ships were patched by divers, refloated, repaired and taken into service. "Ostia" and "Brenta" were successfully salvaged, despite their armed mines. All of this occurred while the civil contractor struggled and failed to refloat one ship.


title: Scuttling

text: In 1941, the battleship "Bismarck", heavily damaged by the Royal Navy, leaking fuel, listing, unable to steer and with no effective weapons, but still afloat and with engines running, was scuttled by its crew to avoid capture. This was supported by survivors' reports in "Pursuit: the Sinking of the Bismarck", by Ludovic Kennedy, 1974 and by a later examination of the wreck itself by Dr. Robert Ballard in 1989. A later, more advanced examination found torpedoes had penetrated the second deck, normally always above water and only possible on an already sinking ship, thus further supporting that scuttling had made the final torpedoing redundant.


title: Scuttling

text: After the Battles of the Coral Sea and Midway, the heavily damaged American aircraft carrier "Lexington" and the Japanese carriers "Hiryū", "Sōryū", "Akagi", and "Kaga" were all scuttled to prevent their preservation and use by their respective enemies.


title: Scuttling

text: In November 1942, in an operation codenamed "Case Anton", Nazi German forces occupied the so-called "Free Zone" in response to the Allied landing in North Africa. On 27 November they reached Toulon, where the majority of the French Navy was anchored. To avoid capture by the Nazis (Operation Lila), the French admirals-in-command (Laborde and Marquis) decided to scuttle the 230,000 tonne fleet, most notably, the battleships "Dunkerque" and "Strasbourg". Eighty percent of the fleet was utterly destroyed, all of the capital ships proving impossible to repair. Legally, the scuttling of the fleet was allowed under the terms of the 1940 Armistice with Germany.


title: Scuttling

text: Anticipating a German seizure of all units of the Danish Navy as part of Operation Safari, mostly in Copenhagen but also at other harbours and at sea in Danish waters, the Danish Admiralty had instructed its captains to resist, short of outright fighting, any German attempts to assume control over their vessels, by scuttling if escape to Sweden was not possible and suitable preparations were made. Of the fifty-two vessels in the Danish Navy on 29 August, two were in Greenland, thirty-two were scuttled, four reached Sweden and fourteen were taken undamaged by the Germans. Nine Danish sailors lost their lives and ten were wounded. Subsequently, major parts of the Naval personnel were interned for a period.


title: Scuttling

text: Old ships code-named "Corn cobs" were sunk to form a protective reef for the Mulberry harbours at Arromanches and Omaha Beach for the Normandy landings. The sheltered waters created by these scuttled ships were called "Gooseberries" and protected the harbours so transport ships could unload without being hampered by waves.


title: Scuttling

text: Of the 156 German submarines ("U-boats") surrendered to the Allies at the end of World War II, 116 were scuttled by the Royal Navy in Operation Deadlight. Plans called for them to be scuttled in three areas in the North Atlantic Ocean west of Ireland, but 56 of the submarines sank before reaching the designated areas due to their poor material condition. Most of the submarines were sunk by gunfire rather than with explosive charges. The first sinking took place on 17 November 1945 and the last on 11 February 1946.


title: Scuttling

text: To prevent a Soviet inspection team from examining surrendered Imperial Japanese Navy submarines after World War II, the United States Navy conducted Operation Road's End, in which it scuttled 24 of the submarines in the East China Sea off Fukue Island on 1 April 1946. Nine more Japanese submarines followed on 5 April, and another six went down by early May. In addition, U.S. Navy submarines sank four surrendered Japanese submarines as targets in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii in May and June 1946, and the Royal Australian Navy sank six or seven (sources differ) surrendered Japanese submarines in the Seto Inland Sea on 8 May 1946 in Operation Bottom.


title: Scuttling

text: The July 1946 atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll in Operation Crossroads left the United States Navy with a large number of damaged target ships contaminated with radioactivity. Twenty-seven of these ships – three battleships, two heavy cruisers, eleven destroyers, four submarines, and seven attack transports – were scuttled in the Pacific Ocean between February and November 1948, while the light aircraft carrier was scuttled on 29 January 1951.


title: Scuttling

text: Today, ships (and other objects of similar size) are sometimes sunk to help form artificial reefs, as was done with the former in 2006. It is also common for military organizations to use old ships as targets, in war games, or for various other experiments. As an example, the decommissioned aircraft carrier was subjected to surface and underwater explosions in 2005 as part of classified research to help design the next generation of carriers (the ), before being sunk with demolition charges.


title: Scuttling

text: Ships are increasingly being scuttled as a method of disposal. The economic benefit of scuttling a ship includes removal of ongoing operational expense to keep the vessel seaworthy. Controversy surrounds the practice. Notable actions against the practice include the USS "Oriskany", which was scuttled with 700 pounds of PCBs remaining on board as a component in cable insulation, contravening the Stockholm Convention on safe disposal of persistent organic pollutants, which has zero tolerance for PCB dumping in marine environments. The planned scuttling of the Australian frigate at Avoca Beach, New South Wales in March 2010 was placed on hold after resident action groups aired concerns about possible impact on the area's tides and that the removal of dangerous substances from the ship was not thorough enough. Further cleanup work on the hulk was ordered, and despite further attempts to delay, "Adelaide" was scuttled on 13 April 2011.


title: Scuttling

text: Scuttled ships have been used as conveyance for dangerous materials. In the late 1960s, the United States Army scuttled SS "Corporal Eric G. Gibson" and SS "Mormactern" with VX nerve gas rockets aboard as part of Operation CHASE — "CHASE" being Pentagon shorthand for "Cut Holes and Sink 'Em." Other ships have been "chased" containing mustard agents, bombs, land mines, and radioactive waste.


title: Scuttling

text: In Somalian waters, pirate ships captured are scuttled. Most nations have little interest in prosecuting the pirates, thus this is usually the only repercussion.


title: Scuttling

text: In March 2022, Ukraine was forced to scuttle the Ukrainian frigate Hetman Sahaidachny, a Krivak-class frigate, due to encroaching Russian offensive operations that threatened to capture the frigate.


title: Scuttling

text: The term scuttling is also used in science fiction to describe intentionally destroying a spacecraft. For example, in "The Expanse", this is done by intentionally overloading the ship's reactor.


title: Cloud storage

text: Cloud storage is a model of computer data storage in which the digital data is stored in logical pools, said to be on "the cloud". The physical storage spans multiple servers (sometimes in multiple locations), and the physical environment is typically owned and managed by a hosting company. These cloud storage providers are responsible for keeping the data available and accessible, and the physical environment secured, protected, and running. People and organizations buy or lease storage capacity from the providers to store user, organization, or application data.


title: Cloud storage

text: Cloud storage services may be accessed through a colocated cloud computing service, a web service application programming interface (API) or by applications that use the API, such as cloud desktop storage, a cloud storage gateway or Web-based content management systems.


title: Cloud storage

text: Cloud computing is believed to have been invented by Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider in the 1960s with his work on ARPANET to connect people and data from anywhere at any time.


title: Cloud storage

text: In 1983, CompuServe offered its consumer users a small amount of disk space that could be used to store any files they chose to upload.


title: Cloud storage

text: In 1994, AT&T launched PersonaLink Services, an online platform for personal and business communication and entrepreneurship. The storage was one of the first to be all web-based, and referenced in their commercials as, "you can think of our electronic meeting place as the cloud." Amazon Web Services introduced their cloud storage service AWS S3 in 2006, and has gained widespread recognition and adoption as the storage supplier to popular services such as SmugMug, Dropbox, and Pinterest. In 2005, Box announced an online file sharing and personal cloud content management service for businesses.


title: Cloud storage

text: Cloud storage is based on highly virtualized infrastructure and is like broader cloud computing in terms of interfaces, near-instant elasticity and scalability, multi-tenancy, and metered resources. Cloud storage services can be used from an off-premises service (Amazon S3) or deployed on-premises (ViON Capacity Services).


title: Cloud storage

text: There are three types of cloud storage: a hosted object storage service, file storage, and block storage. Each of these cloud storage types offer their own unique advantages.


title: Cloud storage

text: Examples of object storage services that can be hosted and deployed with cloud storage characteristics include Amazon S3, Oracle Cloud Storage and Microsoft Azure Storage, object storage software like Openstack Swift, object storage systems like EMC Atmos, EMC ECS and Hitachi Content Platform, and distributed storage research projects like OceanStore and VISION Cloud.


title: Cloud storage

text: Examples of file storage services include Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) and Qumulo Core, used for applications that need access to shared files and require a file system. This storage is often supported with a Network Attached Storage (NAS) server, used for large content repositories, development environments, media stores, or user home directories.


title: Cloud storage

text: A block storage service like Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) is used for other enterprise applications like databases and often require dedicated, low latency storage for each host. This is comparable in certain respects to direct attached storage (DAS) or a storage area network (SAN).


title: Cloud storage

text: There are several options available to avoid security issues. One option is to use a private cloud instead of a public cloud. Another option is to ingest data in encrypted format where the key is held within on-premise infrastructure. To this end, access is often by use of on-premise cloud storage gateways that have options to encrypt the data prior of transfer.


title: Cloud storage

text: Companies are not permanent and the services and products they provide can change. Outsourcing data storage to another company needs careful investigation and nothing is ever certain. Contracts set in stone can be worthless when a company ceases to exist or its circumstances change. Companies can:


title: Cloud storage

text: Hybrid cloud storage is a term for a storage infrastructure that uses a combination of on-premises storage resources with cloud storage. The on-premises storage is usually managed by the organization, while the public cloud storage provider is responsible for the management and security of the data stored in the cloud. Hybrid cloud storage can be implemented by an on-premises cloud storage gateway that presents a file system or object storage interface which the users can access in the same way they would access a local storage system. The cloud storage gateway transparently transfers the data to and from the cloud storage service, providing low latency access to the data through a local cache.


title: Cloud storage

text: Hybrid cloud storage can be used to supplement an organization's internal storage resources, or it can be used as the primary storage infrastructure. In either case, hybrid cloud storage can provide organizations with greater flexibility and scalability than traditional on-premises storage infrastructure.


title: Cloud storage

text: There are several benefits to using hybrid cloud storage, including the ability to cache frequently used data on-site for quick access, while inactive cold data is stored off-site in the cloud. This can save space, reduce storage costs and improve performance. Additionally, hybrid cloud storage can provide organizations with greater redundancy and fault tolerance, as data is stored in both on-premises and cloud storage infrastructure.


title: Rya Kihlstedt

text: Rya Kihlstedt is an American actress. She starred in the 1997 comedy film "Home Alone 3" as Alice Ribbons. The following years she appeared in films "Deep Impact" (1998), "Women in Trouble" (2009) and "The Atticus Institute" (2015). On television, she had a recurring roles as Dr. Michelle Ross in the Showtime crime drama "Dexter" and as Marilyn Rhodes in the ABC musical drama "Nashville". In 2015, she starred in the NBC miniseries "Heroes Reborn".


title: Rya Kihlstedt

text: Kihlstedt was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and is a 1991 graduate of Skidmore College in Theatre Arts. She is of Swedish descent.


title: Rya Kihlstedt

text: Kihlstedt made her film debut starring opposite Rutger Hauer in the 1993 action thriller film "Arctic Blue". In 1995, she appeared in the ABC miniseries "" and in 1995 played Lizzie Elmsworth in the BBC adaptation of Edith Wharton's last novel, "The Buccaneers". In 1997, she starred as Alice Ribbons, one of the criminals in the family comedy film "Home Alone 3". The following year, she appeared in the science-fiction film "Deep Impact", and co-starred opposite Carla Gugino in the independent film "Jaded". Also in 1998, Kihlstedt starred with Peter Gallagher in the television film "Brave New World" loosely based on Aldous Huxley's 1932 novel of the same name.


title: Rya Kihlstedt

text: Kihlstedt took a ten-year break from acting as she focused on motherhood and raising her two children. In 2009, she returned to screen appearing opposite her friend Carla Gugino in the comedy film "Women in Trouble", and its sequel, "Elektra Luxx". She guest-starred in a number of television series, including "Covert Affairs", "Criminal Minds", "NCIS", "", and "Drop Dead Diva". In 2011, she had a recurring role in the Showtime crime drama series "Dexter" as Dr. Michelle Ross. From 2012 to 2013, she played Marilyn Rhodes, a powerful record producer in the ABC musical drama "Nashville". Also in 2013, she starred in the comedy film "3 Days in Havana" directed by her husband Gil Bellows.


title: Rya Kihlstedt

text: In 2015, Kihlstedt played the leading role in the independent horror film "The Atticus Institute". From 2015 to 2016, she starred as Erica Kravid in the NBC science fiction miniseries "Heroes Reborn". Also in 2015, she was cast as Tig Notaro's mother Caroline in the Amazon Video original comedy series "One Mississippi". Kihlstedt later appeared in "Once Upon a Time", "Ray Donovan", "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." and NBC 2017 miniseries "Law & Order True Crime". From 2018 to 2019, she had a recurring role as Julia Wagner in the CW series "Charmed". In 2019, she had a recurring role opposite Carla Gugino in her series "Jett", and played Kate Laswell in the video game "". Also in 2019, she starred in the season three of the Canadian crime drama "Cardinal", for which she received Canadian Screen Award nomination.


title: Rya Kihlstedt

text: In 1994, Kihlstedt married actor Gil Bellows. They have two children, a daughter and a son. She is the sister of Oakland-based violinist Carla Kihlstedt, who has been a member of bands such as Charming Hostess, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, and Tin Hat.


title: Brian Laudrup

text: Brian Laudrup (, born 22 February 1969) is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a winger, forward or as a midfielder, and was regarded as one of the most talented players of his generation. He currently works as a football commentator, pundit and analyst on Kanal 5 and 6'eren. Laudrup manages a football academy for marginalised youth, along with former international goalkeeper Lars Høgh.


title: Brian Laudrup

text: During his playing career which eventually stalled due to injury, Laudrup represented a number of European clubs. He started with Danish club Brøndby, winning two Danish championships in the late 1980s. He then played for German and Italian clubs, winning the 1993–94 Serie A as well as the 1994 UEFA Champions League title with Milan. He was a vital part of the Rangers team which dominated the Scottish Premier Division in the 1990s, winning three championships, among others. He won the 1998 UEFA Super Cup in his brief stint with English club Chelsea, and had a brief spell with Copenhagen in Denmark, before ending his career with Ajax in 2000.


title: Brian Laudrup

text: Laudrup also played 82 matches and scored 21 goals for the Denmark national team, and was a vital part of the Danish teams which won UEFA Euro 1992 and the 1995 Confederations Cup.


title: Brian Laudrup

text: Laudrup won the Danish Football Player of the Year award a record four times. He was named by FIFA as the fifth-best player in the world in 1992 and was named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers at the FIFA 100 ceremony in March 2004, alongside his older brother Michael Laudrup.


title: Brian Laudrup

text: Brian Laudrup was born into a football family – his father Finn Laudrup was a former Danish international, and his brother Michael Laudrup also became a Danish international. Brian Laudrup was born in Vienna when his father was playing for Wiener SC.


title: Brian Laudrup

text: Laudrup began his senior career with Brøndby in Denmark. At Brøndby, he competed with later Danish internationals Claus Nielsen and Bent Christensen for a place in the starting line-up, and formed a great partnership with Nielsen. He won the 1987 and 1988 Danish First Division with the club. Halfway through the 1989 season, Laudrup's contract with Brøndby expired, and he agreed to join German club Bayer Uerdingen. The transfer fee was thought to be around DKK 8 million, the partition of which Brøndby and Brian's father and agent Finn Laudrup disagreed about. The Danish Football Union ruled in favor of Brøndby's claims of around DKK 3.9 million, but the Laudrups paid around DKK 3.3 million, and insisted on not paying the remainder. The case was eventually settled in March 1990.


title: Brian Laudrup

text: Laudrup joined Uerdingen in order to play in a club with relative little pressure, and also looked to lean on fellow Dane Jan Bartram, who was already at the club. He scored 6 goals in 34 matches during the 1989–90 Bundesliga season, and impressed so much for both club and country that he was named Danish Player of the Year.


title: Brian Laudrup

text: Laudrup's performances in the Bundesliga were widely praised. At "kicker"'s biannual ranking of Bundesliga players, Laudrup was rated the league's second-best forward in the second highest category, international class, after Werder Bremen's New Zealander, Wynton Rufer. German sports magazine "Sport Bild" hailed Laudrup as the 1989–90 season's best signing, ahead of high-profile names including Uwe Bein, Stefan Kuntz and Thomas Strunz.


title: Brian Laudrup

text: As he felt the Uerdingen executives would not strengthen the Uerdingen team, Laudrup sought to leave the club in the summer of 1990.


title: Brian Laudrup

text: Laudrup's great performances in the Bundesliga and for Denmark attracted Bayern Munich for his signature, who purchased him for a DM6 million transfer fee in May 1990, making him the most expensive Bundesliga player at the time. In his first season, Laudrup scored 9 goals in 33 games as the club finished in second place. Laudrup was also part of the Bayern squad that reached the semi-final of the 1990–91 European Cup.


title: Brian Laudrup

text: Laudrup was highly rated among the experts, but he was also very popular in large parts of the German population. In a vote that gave "kicker"-readers the opportunity to choose their favourite players at individual places and the most popular player, known as "das Idol '90", was won by Laudrup with four times as many votes as Klaus Allofs in second place. By a vote of "Sport Bild" that 156,000 readers participated in, he received 24,245 votes and was elected the fourth best performer out of 900 candidates among German legionnaires abroad and all players in the 1. and 2. Bundesliga. Only the popular world champions Andreas Brehme, Lothar Matthäus and Rudi Völler received more votes. Laudrup finished ahead of high-profile stars like Thomas Häßler, Jürgen Klinsmann, Andreas Möller, Thomas Doll, Jürgen Kohler, Karl-Heinz Riedle and Matthias Sammer, and so entirely on Bundesliga players, Laudrup took first place.