title: Tarot card games

text: A complete Tarot deck such as one for French Tarot contains the full 78-card complement and can be used to play any game in the family with the exception of Minchiate, an extinct game that used 97 cards. Austrian-Hungarian Tarock and Italian Tarocco decks, however, are a smaller subset (of 63, 54, 40, or even 36 cards) suitable only for games of a particular region. Regional tarot decks commonly feature culture-specific suits; the German suits of Hearts, Bells, Acorns and Leaves are used through most of Germanic Europe, the Latin suits of Cups, Coins, Clubs, and Swords are common in Italy and Spain, and the French suits of Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs, and Spades are seen in France, Quebec, West Germany and most of the English-speaking world. This trend continues even to non-Tarot decks such as for the German game of Skat (played with a deck of similar-value cards as in the French piquet deck used for Belote; players in most of western Germany use French suits while players in Bavaria and eastern Germany use German suits).


title: Tarot card games

text: Due to the antiquity of tarot games, the cards are ordered in an archaic ranking. In the plain suits, Kings are always high. With the exception of modern French tarot and Sicilian tarocchi, the ranking in the Latin round suits (cups and coins) or the French red suits (diamonds and hearts) goes from King (high), Queen, Cavalier, Jack, 1, 2, 3 ... 10 (low).


title: Tarot card games

text: The aim in almost all card games of the Tarot family is to make as many points as possible from the cards taken in tricks, the cards having different point values. Those cards which have little or no point value are called various names – Skartins, Ladons or cartes basses depending on the region – but may be referred to as low cards. Cards which have a higher point value may be called counting cards or counters; they usually include the Fool ("Excuse" or "Sküs"), the I ("Pagat" "Petit", "Bagatto" or "Little Man") and the XXI ("Mond") plus all the court cards. In such a case, the low cards are the remaining tarots (II to XX) and all the pip cards. Not all games follow this precisely; in some games, other cards are included among the counters. However, the division of counters and low cards described is the most common and is often accompanied by the following 'standard' card values:


title: Tarot card games

text: The system by which players work out their scores in almost all Tarot games may appear "eccentric and puzzling", but the rationale to it is that, originally, the cards were each valued at one less point than that shown above (e.g. Kings were worth 4 points and low cards had no point value), but every trick taken scored one point. Dummett argues that the tedious work of counting tricks card points separately, led players to fuse the two processes into a single operation. There are several practical methods, but all are designed to achieve the same aim: a quick and relatively simple way of calculating the score.


title: Tarot card games

text: A very common system used in many 54-card Tarock games is counting in packets of three. Under the original scoring scheme, the pack would have been worth 52 points and there would have been 18 points for the 18 tricks making a total of 70 points in total; thus, in most cases, a declarer needs 36 points to win. Mayr and Sedlaczek described 3 common systems:


title: Tarot card games

text: The first, easiest and oldest method is counting in threes with low cards. A player gathers the cards won in tricks and groups them into triplets each comprising one counting card and two low cards. Each triplet scores the value of the counter only e.g. a Queen and two low cards scores 4. In addition, a triplet of three low cards scores exactly 1 point. In some games, players may end up with one or two cards over. Two remaining low cards are rounded up to score 1 point; a single low card is rounded down to zero. This is the simplest method but it doesn't work if a player does not have enough low cards for every counter.


title: Tarot card games

text: The second method, popular in Vienna, was developed later: counting in threes with a 2-point deduction. Cards are grouped in threes again, but the composition is irrelevant. Within each triplet the card values are added and then 2 points are deducted from the total. So, for example, a Queen, Cavalier and Ten are worth 4 + 3 + 1 – 2 = 6 points. Players try to ensure that any odd cards left over are low cards. Again, two low cards are worth 1 point and a single low card is worthless.


title: Tarot card games

text: The third method is a new development and the most precise, but also the most complicated and least used: counting in fractions. Cards are given fractional values as follows: Trull cards and Kings – , Queens – , Cavaliers – , Jacks – and low cards – each. In this way individual cards can be counted. So a Queen, Cavalier and Ten are worth + + = 6 points, producing the same result as the second method.


title: Tarot card games

text: A variant of this method is used for Tarot Nouveau or French tarot, where low cards are each worth half a point, and are combined with a counting card. The fractional values of each of the cards are as follows: Oudlers and Kings - , Queens - , Cavaliers - , Jacks - and low cards - each. The same method is used as above but counting only two cards. For example, a Queen (worth 3 1/2 points) and a low card (1/2 point) would be counted together to make 4.


title: Tarot card games

text: For the purpose of the rules, the numbering of the trumps is all that matters. The symbolic tarot images have no effect in the game itself other than influencing the naming of a few of the cards (Fool, Mond, Pagat, Little Man). The design traditions of these decks subsequently evolved independently and they often bear only numbers and whimsical scenes arbitrarily chosen by the engraver. However, there are still traditional sequences of images in which the common lineage is visible; e.g. the moon that is commonly visible at the bottom left corner of the trump card 21 stems from confusion of the German word "Mond", meaning "moon", with Italian "mondo" and French "monde", meaning "world", the usual symbol associated with the trump card 21 on Italian suited tarots.


title: Thomas Savage (novelist)

text: Thomas Savage (April 25, 1915 – July 25, 2003) was an American author of novels published between 1944 and 1988. He is best known for his Western novels, which drew on early experiences in the American West.


title: Thomas Savage (novelist)

text: Savage was born in Salt Lake City in 1915 to Elizabeth (Yearian) and Benjamin Savage. His parents divorced when he was two years old, and he moved with his mother to a ranch near Lemhi, Idaho. When his mother remarried Charles Brenner in 1920, Savage moved with his mother and his stepfather to the Brenner cattle ranch in Beaverhead County, Montana. Charles Brenner adopted young Savage, who took the Brenner name. However, Savage felt like a misfit on the ranch. Savage was home schooled in the early grades but the Brenners sent him away to Dillon, the nearest town of any size, to attend high school. Savage's early experiences influenced his writing and are reflected in many of his novels.


title: Thomas Savage (novelist)

text: In 1932, Savage graduated from Beaverhead County High School. Savage studied writing at Montana State College (today the University of Montana), where he met Brassil Fitzgerald (1896–1962), a professor of English literature and a novelist, who introduced Savage to his only daughter, Elizabeth Fitzgerald, who then left to study English Literature at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. Savage published his first story, "The Bronc Stomper", in "Coronet" in 1937, to some critical success, and then joined Elizabeth at Colby. He and Elizabeth were married on September 15, 1939; theirs was the first marriage of two Colby students. They received their B.A. degrees in 1940. Both would become well-known novelists, writing as Thomas Savage and Elizabeth Savage.


title: Thomas Savage (novelist)

text: After their marriage, the Savages lived briefly in Chicago before moving back to Montana in 1942 to work on the Brenner ranch. World War II made it hard to find ranch hands, and Charles Brenner needed help. But Savage still felt out of place on the ranch, and he dropped the Brenner surname and returned to using his birth father's name. After just a year, the couple moved away from the ranch, settling in Massachusetts.


title: Thomas Savage (novelist)

text: By the time Savage was 29, he had worked as a wrangler, ranch hand, welder, and railroad brakeman. In 1944, Doubleday published Savage's first novel, "The Pass". In spite of encouraging sales, revenue from the book was not enough to support the Savage family, which now included two boys, Robert and Russell. Savage secured a teaching position at Suffolk University in Boston where he taught from 1947–1948. His daughter Elizabeth was born in 1949, the same year he began teaching at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, founded just a year earlier. One of the few non-Jewish faculty members, he was promoted to assistant professor in his third year. In 1953, he published his third book, "A Bargain with God", his most popular success, confirmed when republished in a condensed version by "Reader's Digest". By 1955, Savage was able to leave Brandeis and devote himself to writing full-time.


title: Thomas Savage (novelist)

text: In 1955, the Savages purchased a home in Georgetown, Maine, where they would remain for nearly thirty years. Tom wrote a total of 13 novels. Elizabeth Savage's ambition to be a novelist was also realized, once their children were sufficiently raised. She wrote nine novels, including the famous "Last Night at the Ritz." She also helped edit her husband's novels, a task at which he thought she excelled.


title: Thomas Savage (novelist)

text: In 1982, the Savages built a home on Whidbey Island in Puget Sound, on property given to him by his sister. Savage published his last novel in 1988. Set in Montana, "The Corner of Rife and Pacific" follows the founders of a tiny Montana town over several generations. Elizabeth Savage died on Whidbey Island in 1989. Savage kept a photo of her by his bedside until his death. He observed that any loving partnership required laughter and good conversation, and after her death he often complained that he missed her conversation.


title: Thomas Savage (novelist)

text: While married, Savage had several long-term and close relationships with men, only after he began slowly coming out in the late 1950s. His wife was aware of his homosexuality before they married. Late in life, he told his daughter he should not be characterized as bisexual. Manohla Dargis, in her "New York Times" review of the 2021 film based on Savage's "The Power of the Dog", described him as "a closeted gay man."


title: Thomas Savage (novelist)

text: After the death of his wife in 1989, Savage lived briefly in Seattle and San Francisco, before moving to Virginia Beach, Virginia, to be near his daughter. His son, the writer Robert Brassil Savage, was struck and killed by a vehicle in 2001 while walking on Virginia Beach Boulevard. In 2001, the Montana Book Festival featured a panel on Savage and his work, but Savage—then 86 years old—did not attend.


title: Thomas Savage (novelist)

text: Savage published his first story, "The Bronc Stomper," in 1937 in "Coronet" under the name Tom Brenner. Annie Proulx has noted that the story was "unremarkable except for its unusual subject matter", breaking a horse. However, the seventy-five dollar payment he received encouraged him to attempt writing a novel. In his first two novels, he introduced the theme of a dysfunctional ranch dynasty that appears throughout Savage's western novels. "The Pass" (1944) was dedicated to his mother and set in the Lemhi Valley, Idaho. Doubleday's advance payment of $750 for the manuscript confirmed his belief in his career as a writer, a view confirmed when a long section of the novel was included in an anthology of Montana fiction in 1946. His second novel, "Lona Hanson" (1948), continued the story and proved a financial success unequalled by any of his later Western novels. Columbia Pictures paid him $50,000 for the movie rights. The film slated to star Rita Hayworth and William Holden was never made, but the payment made Savage financially secure.


title: Thomas Savage (novelist)

text: In 1967, Savage's "The Power of the Dog" was released. The plot focuses on two brothers, simple but honest George Burbank and cold yet malicious Phil Burbank. Phil works to destroy his sister-in-law, goading her with insults to alcoholism in the hope that George will divorce her. He hopes to make an ally of his nephew Peter in this, but Peter proved loyal to his mother. Critics considered the novel Savage's best. The book received favorable reviews. In the "New York Times" Marshall Sprague wrote that Savage had "a magic hand" with characters that have "a classic inevitability," adding, "The prose is austere and economical. Mr. Savage is not one to waste a whole word if no word at all will do." Sales of the book remained modest. In 2001 a new edition was published with an afterword by Annie Proulx. In 2021, a film version was adapted by Jane Campion, featuring Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit-McPhee. The film was a critical success, earning several accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Director for Campion.


title: Thomas Savage (novelist)

text: Savage published "I Heard My Sister Speak my Name" in 1977 (reprinted in 2001 as "The Sheep Queen"). He was inspired by a phone call he received as an adult informing him he had an older sister Patricia [Savage] Hemingway. Patricia, the first child born to Tom's parents, was given up for adoption. Tom did not know Patricia until much later in life and the siblings finally met in 1969. Tom and his sister grew to be close friends and always laughed about their similarities, including that they smoked the same cigarettes, liked the same beer and had the same deep throated laugh.


title: Thomas Savage (novelist)

text: Savage received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1979. He used it to write "Her Side of It," which he considered his best work. His last novel, "The Corner of Rife and Pacific", was nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award and received the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award in 1989.


title: Thomas Savage (novelist)

text: In his writing, Savage dealt with themes of fatal provincialism and the claustrophobia of sexual boundaries. He used his novels to denounce the bigotry he considered entrenched in the western towns and ranches of his upbringing. Savage loosely modeled several character types on his own family. His beloved mother inspired the character of a culturally refined young mother, driven by isolation to alcohol. His grandmother Emma Russell Yearian inspired the character of an iron-fisted matriarch. His stepfather Charles Brenner inspired the character of an honest but slow-witted rancher. His uncle William Brenner inspired the character of a manipulative, calculating ranch hand. Savage wrote himself into many of his novels in the character of an outsider, unsuited to ranch life. These characters appear in many of his novels under different names and different circumstances.


title: Thomas Savage (novelist)

text: When asked to speak of his influences, Savage stated ""Mrs. Bridge", by Evan S. Connell, is one of the best novels I ever read. I was influenced by John Steinbeck, Robert Benchley, and Dorothy Parker. I was a history major, read little fiction, chiefly biography and history. I read S.J. Perelman."


title: Johnny Lee (singer)

text: Johnny Lee (born John Lee Ham; July 3, 1946) is an American country music singer. His 1980 single "Lookin' for Love" became a crossover hit, spending three weeks at number 1 on the "Billboard" country singles chart while also appearing in the top 5 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart and top 10 on "Billboard"s Adult Contemporary chart. He racked up 17 top 40 country hits in the early and mid-1980s.


title: Johnny Lee (singer)

text: Lee was born in Texas City, Texas, and grew up on a dairy farm in nearby Alta Loma (now part of Santa Fe, Texas). In high school he formed a rock n' roll band, "Johnny Lee and the Roadrunners". After graduation, Lee enlisted in the United States Navy and served a tour of duty on the USS Chicago, a guided missile cruiser. After his discharge, he had his name legally changed from John Lee Ham to Johnny Lee. He played cover tunes in Texas nightclubs and bars throughout the late 1960s.


title: Johnny Lee (singer)

text: Lee worked 10 years with Mickey Gilley, both on tour and at Gilley’s Club in Pasadena, Texas. The soundtrack from the 1980 hit movie "Urban Cowboy", which was largely shot at Gilley's, catapulted Lee to fame. The record spawned several hit singles, including "Lookin' for Love."


title: Johnny Lee (singer)

text: Lee also had five other songs reach the top of the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles chart: "One in a Million" (1980), "Bet Your Heart on Me" (1981), "The Yellow Rose" (1984, a duet with Lane Brody and the theme song to the NBC TV-series of the same name), and "You Could Have Heard a Heartbreak" (1984). His other hits include "Pickin' Up Strangers" (1981), "Prisoner of Hope" (1981), "Cherokee Fiddle"(1982), "Sounds Like Love"(1982), "When You Fall In Love"(1982), "Be There For Me Baby"(1981), "Hey Bartender" (1983), "Rollin' Lonely"(1984), and "Save the Last Chance" (1985).


title: Johnny Lee (singer)

text: From 1982 to 1984, Lee was married to "Dallas" actress Charlene Tilton, with whom he had a daughter, Cherish (born 1982). He married his second wife, Deborah Spohr Lee, in 1986. The couple had a son, Johnny Lee Jr., in 1990 and divorced years later. Deborah died November 7, 2002, after a long battle with prescription painkillers. After Johnny Lee Jr. died in 2014 at the age of 23 of a drug overdose, Lee became active in combating the illegal drug epidemic.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: Alexander Joseph Patrick Wilson (24 October 18934 April 1963) was an English writer, spy and MI6 officer. He wrote under the names Alexander Wilson, Geoffrey Spencer, Gregory Wilson, and Michael Chesney. After his death, his family discovered that he had been a serial polygamist who had lied to many people. As of 2018, documents that could shed light on his activities remain classified as "sensitive" by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, under section 3(4) of the Public Records Act 1958. The effect of his deceptions on his wives and descendants were dramatised in the 2018 BBC miniseries "Mrs Wilson", in which his granddaughter, actress Ruth Wilson, portrayed her grandmother, Alison (Wilson's third wife).


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: Wilson was born in Dover, the eldest son and second of four children of Alexander Wilson (1864-1919), from Winchester, Hampshire, and Annie Marie (née O'Toole; 1865–1936), from Carlow, County Carlow, Leinster, who were married in 1886. Wilson's paternal grandfather, Hugh Wilson (1839–1870), was born in Winchester, Hampshire, where he married Elizabeth Bracken (b. 1842) in 1863. Hugh helped found the Army Hospital Corps and participated in the Second Opium War (1860) in China, consequently receiving the China War Medal. Hugh died at the age of 30–31 in 1870, and was buried in the grounds of Netley Hospital, Hampshire. The couple had only one child, Alexander Wilson, Alec's father.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: Wilson's father had a 40-year career in the British Army, progressing from a 15-year-old bugler to a Lieutenant Colonel Quartermaster in the Royal Army Medical Corps by the time he died in 1919. The elder Wilson served throughout the Boer War, consequently receiving the Queen's South Africa and King's South Africa medals. He was mentioned in dispatches for managing and supplying hospital ships and trains from the Western Front during World War I. In 1918 he was responsible for all medical supplies to the British Army in Europe. He was buried on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: In his childhood Alec Wilson's family followed his father to Mauritius, Singapore, Hong Kong and Ceylon. Alec was educated at St. Joseph's College, Hong Kong, a prestigious public school, and St Boniface's Catholic College in Plymouth, where he played amateur football.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: Wilson enlisted in the Royal Naval Air Service in 1914, at the start of World War I, according to a reference in a War Office document which also indicated that he had crashed his aircraft. In 1915 he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Army Service Corps, escorting motor transports and supplies to France. He sustained disabling injuries to his knee and shrapnel wounds to the left side of his body which led to his being invalided out of the Army in 1917, and for which he was awarded the Silver War Badge.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: In March 1916 Alec married his first wife, Gladys Ellen Kellaway (1896 – 1981), in Lyndhurst, Hampshire. He tried to reenlist in 1917, but due to his medical record was unsuccessful. He joined the merchant navy in 1919, serving as a purser – first on a Scottish shipping line, then on a requisitioned German liner, SS "Prinzessin", which sailed from London to Vancouver via South Africa, China and Japan. While working on the "Prinzessin", he was arrested and prosecuted in Vancouver in September 1919, a day after his father's death. He received a six-month sentence of hard labour at Oakalla Prison near Burnaby, British Columbia.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: From 1920 to 1925 Alec and Gladys managed a touring repertory theatre company and lived in Thame, eastern Oxfordshire. In his romantic comic novel "The Magnificent Hobo" (1935), a touring theatrical company moves from town to town.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: In 1925 Wilson answered an advertisement in "The Times" for a position as Professor of English Literature at Islamia College at the University of Punjab in Lahore (now part of Pakistan). Wilson was interviewed and appointed by the college's principal, Abdullah Yusuf Ali, an author and educator who translated the Quran. Biographer Tim Crook discovered that Wilson had fabricated the credentials which led to his appointment. Wilson provided a portrait of Abdullah in his second novel, "The Devil's Cocktail" (1928), as principal of the fictional Sheranwalla College in Lahore.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: Leaving behind Gladys and his children, Adrian Wilson (b. 1917), Dennis B. Wilson (b. 1921), and Daphne Wilson (b. 1922), Wilson left for British India in October 1925.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: En route to British India, Wilson met actress Dorothy Phyllis Wick (1893 – 1965) on the SS "City of Nagpur", bound from Liverpool to Karachi. Wick was on a tour in the place of Dame Sybil Thorndike.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: Wilson married Dorothy in Lahore some time in 1928, while he was still married to Gladys, his first wife. Although a public wedding ceremony apparently took place at the Cathedral in Lahore, no certificate has been found to confirm that a formal marriage occurred. For a while the Wilsons made their home at 11 Mason Road in Lahore.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: Wilson travelled around the North-West Frontier and learned Urdu and Persian. He set up and led Islamia College's University Training Corps and was appointed an honorary Major in the British Indian Army Reserve. At the time the all-Muslim college's students were a minority in Lahore. Sons of Waziristan Chiefs and farmers from the North West Frontier received training here for the British Indian Army.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: Wilson succeeded Yusuf Ali as ninth principal of Islamia College in November 1927 and resigned in March 1931. In his 1939 application to join the Emergency War Officers' Reserve, Wilson claimed that he had been the editor of a daily newspaper in Lahore between 1931 and 1934. He also stated that he'd spent time in Arabia, Ceylon, and Palestine.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: Crook suggests that Wilson's role at Islamia College may have been a cover for work conducted on behalf of British intelligence agencies as a recruiter and informant. Crook maintains that Yusuf Ali had connections with intelligence work. The Soviet Comintern was active in subversion and insurrection, and the British authorities were combating an increasing number of terrorist plots and assassinations between 1928 and 1932. Tensions were raised by hunger strikes and the Lahore Conspiracy Case, during which pro-independence activists died and others were sentenced to death.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: While in Lahore, Wilson began writing spy novels and received his first contract for "The Mystery of Tunnel 51" from Longmans, Green & Co. in 1927. "Tunnel 51" and eight subsequent novels featured the struggle of Sir Leonard Wallace, his intelligence officers and his agents against terrorism and subversion in the British Empire, the influence of the Soviet Union, the tentacles of global organised crime, and Nazi Germany. The Wallace character appears to be closely based on the first "C" (chief, or director) of MI6, Mansfield Smith-Cumming. There is no documentary evidence that Wilson had any connections at this time with MI6 (the Secret Intelligence Service), MI5 (the Security Service), IPI (the Indian Political Intelligence in London), or the Indian Intelligence Bureau in Delhi. But his Wallace shared with Smith-Cumming a wooden limb, grey eyes, and "a wife whose forename began with 'M' ".


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: In addition, Wilson published two crime thrillers, "Murder Mansion" (1929) and "The Death of Dr. Whitelaw" (1930).


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: From 1933 Wilson's publisher was Herbert Jenkins, and his novels included titles in the Sir Leonard Wallace series and others in the crime, romance, comedy and thriller genres. Apart from books that he wrote under his own name, he also published under three pseudonyms. In 1933 "Confessions of a Scoundrel" was published under the pseudonym "Geoffrey Spencer" — the surname used by Smith-Cumming when he rented MI6's headquarters at 2 Whitehall Court. As "Gregory Wilson" Alec wrote "The Factory Mystery" and "The Boxing Mystery" for The Modern Publishing Company in 1938. Between 1938 and 1939, as "Michael Chesney", he wrote a trilogy of spy novels of imperial adventure that featured Colonel Geoffrey Callaghan, Chief of Military Intelligence as central character: "Callaghan of Intelligence", ""Steel" Callaghan", and "Callaghan Meets His Fate". What appear to be his last two novels, "Chronicles of the Secret Service" and "Double Masquerade", were published by Herbert Jenkins in 1940.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: Wilson wrote "forceful, exciting, thrilling, vibrant, vivid, intriguing, daring" stories, according to reviewers in "The Telegraph", "The Observer", "The Scotsman" and "The Times Literary Supplement". In January 1940 "The Observer"'s reviewer, Maurice Richardson, said "Wallace Intervenes": "... is another spy story featuring Hitler in person, if not name. This time he is kidnapped, put in a trunk, and successfully impersonated by Sir Leonard Wallace, Chief of the Intelligence Service. This comes at the end of an exciting love-duel in which one of our younger agents has to seduce a beautiful Austrian Baroness, who fortunately turns out to be on our side all the time".


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: In total, Wilson wrote and published 24 novels and edited three academic books, aside from four unpublished manuscripts.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: A pregnant Dorothy Wilson returned to England in 1933, where her son, Michael Chesney, was born in Paddington. The birth certificate listed the father as Alexander Douglas Chesney Wilson, a Major with the Middlesex Regiment. Crook's research in the Middlesex Regiment's archives did not find a Major by that name. And the only photograph that Michael had of Alec Wilson showed him wearing the uniform of an Officer in one of the Punjab Regiments of the British Indian Army.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: Alec arrived in London in 1934, but left Dorothy and their baby son and returned to Gladys, his first and still-legitimate wife and his family, who now lived in Southampton. He stayed with Gladys for only 18 months.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: After a falling out over finances with Gladys' Aunt Ruth, Alec moved back to London in 1935 to live with Dorothy and Michael. He told Gladys that he would find a place for them all to live. Instead, he and Dorothy lived in Little Venice. Michael later suspected that his father had been involved in intelligence activities as an agent in the 1920s and 1930s. He remembered seeing his father meet Joachim von Ribbentrop at the German Embassy in Carlton House Terrace in London in the spring of 1938, and recalled other meetings with men with whom his father spoke fluent German. A letter written by Dorothy in 1936 mentions that Alec intended to travel to Spain during that country's civil war.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: Bankruptcy forced Alec to move with Dorothy and Michael to Yorkshire in 1940. In 1941 Alec finally left Dorothy, departing in uniform on a train after kissing his son Michael goodbye for the last time.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: By 1940 Wilson was working as a translator for Secret Intelligence Service (then MI6) in Section X, which conducted communications surveillance of embassies. There he met Alison Mary McKelvie (1920 – 2005), a secretary for the Service. When her apartment became uninhabitable during a German bombing raid on London, she moved in with him. In 1941 Wilson married Alison, who became his third wife. Although he had shown her a divorce certificate, it was later found to have been falsified. Wilson was almost 30 years older than Alison. They had two sons: Gordon Wilson (b. 1942) and Nigel Wilson (b. 1944).


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: In 1942 a maternal uncle told Dorothy's son, Michael, aged nine, that Alec had been killed in the Battle of El Alamein. But Wilson was living with Alison in London at the time. While a Lieutenant Colonel Wilson, who had served with the Punjab Regiment, is listed as killed at El Alamein by artillery fire, his photograph and personal history is not that of Alec Wilson.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: Foreign Office files released to The National Archives at Kew in May 2013 confirmed that a translator of Hindustani, Persian and Arabic had joined the SIS in October 1939 and had been forced to resign in October 1942. Although the translator's name is redacted, it is likely to be Alexander Wilson, since the details disclosed match those included in the first part of a memoir, written by Alison Wilson for her two sons, and quoted in Crook's 2010 biography of Wilson.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: The Foreign Office documents included a 1943 file marked "The Case of the Egyptian Ambassador", an MI5 investigation into alleged espionage by ambassador Hassan Nachat Pasha and his staff in London from the beginning of the war. The documents reveal that the SIS/MI6 translator, presumably Wilson, was accused of embellishing translations of intercepted telephone calls to and from the Embassy. The agent investigating Wilson's translations, Alex Kellar, was later found to have been working for the KGB mole at MI5, Anthony Blunt. A report noted that the translator had faked a burglary at his flat and had been in serious trouble with the police.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: In one of the 1943 documents, MI5's Director General, Brigadier Sir David Petrie, states that the fact Wilson was no longer in the service was "...perhaps some small compensation for the amount of trouble to which his inventive mind has put us all. A fabricator, such as this man was, is a great public danger". Then-Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, Sir Stewart Menzies, wrote: "I do not think it at all likely that we shall again have the bad luck to strike a man who combines a blameless record, first-rate linguistic abilities, remarkable gifts as a writer of fiction, and no sense of responsibility in using them!".


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: Crook believes that Wilson could have been the victim of an attempt by Blunt to discredit MI6. Wilson may have faked the burglary to hide from Alison that he'd sold her jewellery to buy antibiotics to treat her post-natal infections. Alison Wilson reported in her memoirs that the police had not investigated the alleged burglary, nor did she recall that Wilson had been in trouble with the police as a result. Crook proposes that the British government took steps to prevent Wilson from "obtaining any kind of official or responsible employment" ever again, ending his publishing career and plunging him and his families into poverty.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: In 1942 Wilson told Alison that MI6 had decided he should go into the field as an agent. He said his subsequent misadventures, including being declared bankrupt, though never discharged, and being jailed for petty theft, were part of the cover he had to adopt for operational reasons.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: In January 1944 "The Times of London" carried a notice declaring Alex Wilson bankrupt. At this time, he lived in Hendon.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: After his dismissal, Wilson worked in cinema management until 1948, when he was prosecuted at Marylebone Police Court and received a three-month jail sentence for embezzling funds from a Hampstead cinema. It was his second appearance before the court, having been prosecuted and fined in 1944 for allegedly posing as an Indian Army colonel and "wearing false decorations". Wilson said that the Hampstead sentence was to enable him to monitor fascist groups in Brixton prison.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: By the mid-1950s Wilson was working as a hospital porter in a casualty unit in West London, when he met and, in 1955, married a nurse, Elizabeth Hill (1921 – 2010), with whom he had a son, Douglas Wilson, that same year. In later years Wilson continued to pretend to work at the Foreign Office while actually working as a clerk at a wallpaper factory. After Elizabeth moved to Scotland with Douglas in 1957, Wilson again lived with Alison.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: On 4 April 1963, aged 69, Wilson died of a heart attack in Ealing, and was buried in Milton Cemetery, Portsmouth. His tombstone notes that he was "also known as Alexander Douglas Gordon Chesney Wilson", describes him as an "author and patriot", and quotes Shakespeare's "Othello": "He loved not wisely but too well". The monument is feet away from the grave of fellow MI6 agent Commander Lionel Crabb.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: Wilson never divorced any of his wives, "instead keeping the women ignorant of each other's existence as he juggled his many separate lives and parallel families." One way he avoided detection was "by changing his middle name on marriage certificates".


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: Her husband's multiple marriages came to Alison Wilson's notice only after Alec's death in 1963, when she discovered from his papers that his first wife was Gladys. Alison telephoned Gladys to inform her of Alec's death and of his other family. Dennis Wilson said that they thought the call had come from Alec's landlady. Alison asked Gladys to pretend to be Alec's relative at his funeral, so as not to upset Alison's sons, Gordon and Nigel. As a result, neither Gordon, Nigel, nor Daphne knew about one another or about their father's bigamy. Alison never found out that her husband was also married to Dorothy and Elizabeth.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: Alison Wilson wrote a two-part memoir in an attempt to make sense of her husband's deceptions, lamenting that "he had not only died, he had evaporated into nothing." Her grandchildren were allowed to read her memoir only shortly before her death.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: All of Alec's wives kept his secrets, maintaining the image of him as a heroic figure for the sake of his children.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: In 2005, Wilson and Dorothy's son, Michael (then aged 73), asked his son's friend, journalist and academic Tim Crook, to investigate his father's life. An actor and poet, Michael had changed his name by deed poll to Mike Shannon. Crook spent six years on the project, publishing the results in a 2010 book entitled "The Secret Lives of a Secret Agent: the Mysterious Life and Times of Alexander Wilson".


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: Crook uncovered Wilson's marriage to Gladys, whose son Dennis told him about the funeral arrangements, and so revealed the marriage to Alison. Alison's sons told him that they had been contacted by Elizabeth's son, Douglas Ansdell, and so had discovered Alec's fourth wife.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: Crook concludes that Wilson's spy novels reveal details of intelligence work so precise as to indicate first-hand experience. Wilson may have been encouraged to write them by the intelligence services to portray themselves as all-powerful, Crook says. And the lack of evidence about Wilson's life may be due to an intelligence operation meant to expunge all traces of him from public records, Crook told a reporter.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: All of Alec Wilson's surviving offspring with their families, 28 persons in all, met for the first time in December 2007 in Hampshire. Each of Alec's children wore a badge indicating who their parents were. Since that first meeting the extended family has tried to meet regularly.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: Actress Ruth Wilson, daughter of Nigel, is one of Alec's grandchildren, and discovered that the children of Mike Shannon were also professionals working in playwriting, filmmaking and drama education. Ruth's brother, Sam Wilson, a senior BBC journalist, wrote an article in "The Times" in 2010 that explored the impact of Alexander Wilson's complicated private life on his various families.


title: Alexander Wilson (British writer)

text: Crook's book on Wilson and his numerous articles inspired the production of the BBC's 2018 three-part drama "Mrs Wilson", starring Iain Glen as Alec Wilson. Ruth Wilson, daughter of Nigel Wilson, portrayed her own grandmother, Alison Wilson, and was also an executive producer. "Mrs Wilson" was nominated in three categories (mini-series, leading actress, supporting actress) for the 2019 Bafta TV awards.


title: Pterophyllum

text: Pterophyllum is a small genus of freshwater fish from the family Cichlidae known to most aquarists as angelfish. All "Pterophyllum" species originate from the Amazon Basin, Orinoco Basin and various rivers in the Guiana Shield in tropical South America. The three species of "Pterophyllum" are unusually shaped for cichlids being greatly laterally compressed, with round bodies and elongated triangular dorsal and anal fins. This body shape allows them to hide among roots and plants, often on a vertical surface. Naturally occurring angelfish are frequently striped transversely, colouration which provides additional camouflage. Angelfish are ambush predators and prey on small fish and macroinvertebrates. All "Pterophyllum" species form monogamous pairs. Eggs are generally laid on a submerged log or a flattened leaf. As is the case for other cichlids, brood care is highly developed.


title: Pterophyllum

text: "Pterophyllum" should not be confused with marine angelfish, perciform fish found on shallow ocean reefs.


title: Pterophyllum

text: The freshwater angelfish ("P. scalare") was described in 1824 by F. Schultze. "Pterophyllum" is derived from the Greek πτερον, "pteron" (fin/sail) and φυλλον, "phyllon" (leaf).


title: Pterophyllum

text: In 1906, J. Pellegrin described "P. altum". In 1963, "P. leopoldi" was described by J. P. Gosse. Undescribed species may still exist in the Amazon Basin. New species of fish are discovered with increasing frequency, and, like "P. scalare" and "P. leopoldi", the differences may be subtle. Scientific notations describe the "P. leopoldi" as having 29–35 scales in a lateral row and straight predorsal contour, whereas, "P. scalare" is described as having 35–45 scales in a lateral row and a notched predorsal contour. "P. leopoldi" shows the same coloration as "P. scalare", but a faint stripe shows between the eye stripe and the first complete body stripe and a third incomplete body stripe exists between the two main (complete) body stripes that extends three-fourths the length of the body. "P. scalare's" body does not show the stripe between the eye stripe and first complete body stripe at all, and the third stripe between the two main body stripes rarely extends downward more than a half inch, if even present. "P. leopoldi" fry develop three to eight body stripes, with all but one to five fading away as they mature, whereas "P. scalare" only has two in true wild form throughout life.


title: Pterophyllum

text: Angelfish are one of the most commonly kept freshwater aquarium fish, as well as the most commonly kept cichlid. They are praised for their unique shape, color, and behavior. It was not until the late 1920s to early 1930s that the angelfish was bred in captivity in the United States.


title: Pterophyllum

text: The most commonly kept species in the aquarium is "Pterophyllum scalare". Most of the individuals in the aquarium trade are captive-bred. Sometimes, captive-bred "Pterophyllum altum" is available. "Pterophyllum leopoldi" is the hardest to find in the trade.


title: Pterophyllum

text: Angelfish are kept in a warm aquarium, ideally around 80 °F (27 °C), with soft and acidic (<6.5ph) water. Though angelfish are members of the cichlid family, they are generally peaceful when not mating; however, the general rule "big fish eat little fish" applies. Suitable tank mates include Raphael catfish which have their own armour for protection.


title: Pterophyllum

text: "P. scalare" is relatively easy to breed in the aquarium, although one of the results of generations of inbreeding is that many breeds have almost completely lost their rearing instincts, resulting in the tendency of the parents to eat their young. In addition, it is very difficult to accurately identify the sex of any individual until it is nearly ready to breed.


title: Pterophyllum

text: Angelfish pairs form long-term relationships where each individual will protect the other from threats and potential suitors. Upon the death or removal of one of the mated pair, breeders have experienced the total refusal of the remaining mate to pair up with any other angelfish and successfully breed with subsequent mates.


title: Pterophyllum

text: Depending upon aquarium conditions, "P. scalare" reaches sexual maturity at the age of six to 12 months or more. In situations where the eggs are removed from the aquarium immediately after spawning, the pair is capable of spawning every seven to 10 days. Around the age of three years, spawning frequency decreases and eventually ceases.


title: Pterophyllum

text: When the pair is ready to spawn, they choose an appropriate medium upon which to lay the eggs, and spend one or two days picking off detritus and algae from the surface. This medium may be a broad-leaf plant in the aquarium, a flat surface such as a piece of slate placed vertically in the aquarium, a length of pipe, or even the glass sides of the aquarium. The female deposits a line of eggs on the spawning substrate, followed by the male, which fertilizes the eggs. This process is repeated until a total of 100 to more than 1,200 eggs are laid, depending on the size and health of the female fish. As both parents care for the offspring throughout development, the pair takes turns maintaining a high rate of water circulation around the eggs by swimming very close to the eggs and fanning them with their pectoral fins. In a few days, the eggs hatch and the fry remain attached to the spawning substrate. During this period, the fry survive by consuming the remnants of their yolk sacs. At one week, the fry detach and become free-swimming. Successful parents keep close watch on the eggs until then. At the free-swimming stage, the fry can be fed suitably sized live food.


title: Pterophyllum

text: Freshwater Angelfish with quality genetics are known to live approximately 12 years in captivity, if the ideal living conditions are provided. In the wild they are thought to live as long as 15 years if unthreatened by their numerous natural predators.


title: Pterophyllum

text: In pet stores, the freshwater angelfish is typically placed in the semiaggressive category. Some tetras and barbs are compatible with angelfish, but ones small enough to fit in the mouth of the angelfish may be eaten. Generous portions of food should be available so the angelfish do not get hungry and turn on their tank mates.


title: Pterophyllum

text: Most strains of angelfish available in the fishkeeping hobby are the result of many decades of selective breeding. For the most part, the original crosses of wild angelfish were not recorded and confusion between the various species of "Pterophyllum", especially "P. scalare" and "P. leopoldi", is common. This makes the origins of "domestic angelfish" unclear. Domestic strains are most likely a collection of genes resulting from more than one species of wild angelfish, combined with the selection of mutations in domesticated lines over the last 60 or more years. The result of this is a domestic angelfish that is a true hybrid, with little more than a superficial resemblance to wild "Pterophyllum" species.


title: Pterophyllum

text: Much of the research into the known genetics of "P. scalare" is the result of the research of Dr. Joanne Norton, who published a series of 18 articles in "Freshwater and Marine Aquarium Magazine".


title: Centennial High School (Compton, California)

text: Centennial High School is a public high school in Compton, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area.


text: Construction of Centennial High School began in 1953, and it was erected in 1954, with its first graduating class in 1954. It is the smallest of the three high schools in the Compton Unified School District, which also includes Compton High School and Manuel Dominguez High School.


text: Students speak English and/or Spanish. 48% of the students are Second-Language Learners (SLL) with 33% of the total enrollment classified as Limited English Proficiency (LEP).


text: Special Education students comprise 11% of the total enrollment. Of this, 5% are identified as Resource Specialist Program (RSP) and 6% as Special Day Class (SDC).


text: All students in attendance qualify for the National School Lunch Program receiving free or reduced breakfast and lunch.


text: The certificated staff and faculty at Centennial High School is ethnically composed of the following as of 2009:


text: The California Department of Education mandates a qualification for subject teaching known as a "Clear Credential". 91% of certificated staff hold a Clear Credential and all except for five staff members met the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) requirements of "Highly Qualified Teacher".


text: Centennial High School is designated by the Compton Unified School District as a Title I school. For over 5 years, the school has remained a Program Improvement (PI) school. As of the 2009-2010 school year, Centennial is in state rank 1 and also ranks 1 with similar schools.


text: Centennial High School has not met its state-identified goals for student progress in all areas each year since 2006. Students failed to meet the No Child Left Behind Act's Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) requirements in English Language Arts (ELA) or Mathematics for all significant subgroups. Centennial remains in year 5+ of school-wide Program Improvement (PI).


text: Identified as a Tier 1 school in the Spring of 2010 by the California Department of Education (CDOE), Centennial High School had a standing graduation rate of 58.9% and since then has been reclassified as a “persistently low-achieving school” by the Assessment and Accountability Division, with graduation rates below 60% for three years or more. California State and Federal Government guidelines for high school graduation rates dictate that all schools should be at 83%, or grow .01% over the past year or .02% over the past 2 years. Currently, the graduation rate at Centennial High School is 58.9%. Therefore, Centennial has chosen the "Transformation Intervention Model" in an effort to increase retention of students, student achievement and the site’s graduation rate.


title: Mille Miglia

text: The Mille Miglia (, "Thousand Miles") was an open-road, motorsport endurance race established in 1927 by the young Counts Francesco Mazzotti and Aymo Maggi, which took place in Italy twenty-four times from 1927 to 1957 (thirteen before World War II, eleven from 1947).


title: Mille Miglia

text: Like the older Targa Florio and later the Carrera Panamericana, the "MM" made grand tourers like Alfa Romeo, BMW, Ferrari, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche famous. The race brought out an estimated five million spectators.


title: Mille Miglia

text: Since 1977, the "Mille Miglia" has been reborn as a regularity race for classic and vintage cars. Participation is limited to cars, produced no later than 1957, which had attended (or were registered to) the original race. The route (Brescia–Rome round trip) is similar to that of the original race, maintaining the point of departure/arrival in Viale Venezia in Brescia.


title: Mille Miglia

text: Unlike modern day rallying, where cars are released with larger professional-class cars going before slower cars, in the Mille Miglia the smaller, slower, lower displacement cars started first. This made organisation simpler as marshals did not have to be on duty for as long a period and it minimised the period that roads had to be closed. From 1949, cars were assigned numbers according to their start time. For example, the 1955 Moss/Jenkinson car, #722, left Brescia at 07:22 (see below), while the first cars had started at 21:00 the previous day. In the early days of the race, even winners needed 16 hours or more, so most competitors had to start before midnight and arrived after dusk - if at all.


title: Mille Miglia

text: The race was established by the young Counts Aymo Maggi and Franco Mazzotti, sports manager Renzo Castagneto and motoring journalist Giovanni Canestrini, apparently in response to the Italian Grand Prix being moved from their home town of Brescia to Monza. Together with a group of wealthy associates, they chose a race from Brescia to Rome and back, a figure-eight shaped course of roughly 1500 km — or a thousand Roman miles. Later races followed twelve other routes of varying total lengths.


title: Mille Miglia

text: The first race started on 26 March 1927 with seventy-seven starters — all Italian — of which fifty-one had reached the finishing post at Brescia by the end of the race. The first Mille Miglia covered 1,618 km, corresponding to just over 1,005 modern miles. Entry was strictly restricted to unmodified production cars, and the entrance fee was set at a nominal 1 lira. The winner, Giuseppe Morandi, completed the course in just under 21 hours 5 minutes, averaging nearly 78 km/h (48 mph) in his 2-litre OM; Brescia based OM swept the top three places.


title: Mille Miglia

text: Tazio Nuvolari won the 1930 Mille Miglia in an Alfa Romeo 6C. Having started after his teammate and rival Achille Varzi, Nuvolari was leading the race but was still behind Varzi (holder of provisional second position) on the road. In the dim half-light of early dawn, Nuvolari tailed Varzi with his headlights off, thereby not being visible in the latter's rear-view mirrors. He then overtook Varzi on the straight roads approaching the finish at Brescia, by pulling alongside and flicking his headlights on.


title: Mille Miglia

text: The event was usually dominated by local Italian drivers and marques, but three races were won by foreign cars. The first one was in 1931, when German driver Rudolf Caracciola (famous in Grand Prix racing) and riding mechanic Wilhelm Sebastian won with their big supercharged Mercedes-Benz SSKL, averaging for the first time more than 100 km/h (63 mph) in a Mille Miglia. Caracciola had received very little support from the factory due to the economic crisis at that time. He did not have enough mechanics to man all necessary service points. After performing a pit stop, they had to hurry across Italy, cutting the triangle-shaped course short in order to arrive in time before the race car.


title: Mille Miglia

text: The race was briefly stopped by Italian leader Benito Mussolini after an accident in 1938 killed a number of spectators. When it resumed in April 1940 shortly before Italy entered World War II, it was dubbed the Grand Prix of Brescia, and held on a short course in the plains of northern Italy that was lapped nine times.


title: Mille Miglia

text: This event saw the debut of the first Enzo Ferrari-owned marque AAC (Auto Avio Costruzioni) (with the Tipo 815). Despite being populated (due to the circumstances even more than usual) mainly by Italian makers, it was the aerodynamically improved BMW 328 driven by Germans Huschke von Hanstein/Walter Bäumer that won the high-speed race with an all-time high average of .


title: Mille Miglia

text: The Italians continued to dominate their race after the war, now again on a single big lap through Italy. Mercedes made another good effort in 1952 with the underpowered Mercedes-Benz 300 SL "Gullwing", scoring second with the German crew Karl Kling/Hans Klenk that later in the year would win the Carrera Panamericana. Caracciola, in a comeback attempt, was fourth.


title: Mille Miglia

text: Few other non-Italians managed podium finishes in the 1950s, among them Juan Manuel Fangio, Peter Collins and Wolfgang von Trips.


title: Mille Miglia

text: In 1955, Mercedes made another attempt at winning the MM, this time with careful preparation and a more powerful car, the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR which was based on the Formula One car (Mercedes-Benz W196), entirely different from their sports cars carrying the 300 SL name.


title: Mille Miglia

text: Both young German Hans Herrmann (who had had remarkable previous efforts with Porsche) and Briton Stirling Moss relied on the support of navigators while Juan Manuel Fangio (car #658) preferred to drive alone as usual, as he considered open road races dangerous after his co-pilot and friend was killed during a race across South America. Karl Kling also drove alone, in the fourth Mercedes, #701.


title: Mille Miglia

text: Similar to his teammates, Moss and his navigator, motor race journalist Denis Jenkinson, ran a total of six reconnaissance laps beforehand, enabling "Jenks" to make course notes (pace notes) on a scroll of paper 18 ft (540 cm) long that he read from and gave directions to Moss during the race by a coded system of 15 hand signals. Although this undoubtedly helped them, Moss's innate ability and the 300 SLR’s exceptional build quality were clearly the predominant factors. Moss was competing against drivers with a large amount of local knowledge of the route, so the reconnaissance laps were considered an equaliser, rather than an advantage.


title: Mille Miglia

text: Car #704 with Hans Herrmann and Hermann Eger was said to be fastest in the early stages, though. Herrmann had already had a remarkable race in 1954, when the gate on a railroad crossing was lowered in the last moment before the fast train to Rome passed. Driving a very low Porsche 550 Spyder, Herrmann decided it was too late for a brake attempt anyway, knocked on the back of the helmet of his navigator Herbert Linge to make him duck, and they barely passed below the gates and before the train, to the surprise of the spectators. Herrmann was less lucky in 1955, having to abandon the race after a brake failure on the Futa Pass between Florence and Bologna, while Kling crashed just outside Rome.


title: Mille Miglia

text: After 10 hours, 7 minutes and 48 seconds, Moss/Jenkinson arrived in Brescia in their Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR with the now famous #722, setting the event record at an average of which was fastest ever on this variant of the course, not to be beaten in the remaining two years. Fangio arrived a few minutes later in the #658 car, but having started 24 min earlier, it actually took him about 30 minutes longer, having engine problems at Pescara, through Rome and by the time Fangio reached Florence, a fuel injection pipe had broken and he was running on 7 cylinders.


title: Mille Miglia

text: The race was forever banned after two fatal crashes in the 1957 race. The first was the crash of a 4.0-litre Ferrari 335 S that took the lives of the Spanish driver Alfonso de Portago, his co-driver/navigator Edmund Nelson, and nine spectators, at the village of Guidizzolo. Five of the spectators killed were children, all of whom were standing along the race course. Portago, already unsettled by doing a race he felt was too dangerous, waited too long to make a tyre change. The crash was caused by a worn tyre. The manufacturer was sued for this, as was the Ferrari team.


title: Mille Miglia

text: From 1958 to 1961, the event resumed as a rallying-like round trip at legal speeds with a few special stages driven at full speed, but this was discontinued also.


title: Mille Miglia

text: Since 1977, the race was revived as the "Mille Miglia Storica", a parade for pre-1957 cars that takes several days, which also spawned the 2007 documentary film "Mille Miglia – The Spirit of a Legend".


title: Mille Miglia

text: Since November 2004, the former Monastery of Sant'Eufemia in Brescia houses the "Mille Miglia Museum", which illustrates the history of this car race with films, memorabilia, dresses, posters, and a number of classic cars that are periodically replaced by other in case of participation in events.


title: Mille Miglia

text: Mille Miglia is also the name of a jacket, named after the race, inspired by the 1920s racewear and designed by Massimo Osti for his CP Company clothing label. The garment features goggles built into the hood and originally had a small circular window in the sleeve enabling the wearer to see their watch. The jackets have been produced for a long period and are still popular with British football casuals.


title: Mille Miglia

text: As a sponsor and timekeeper of the Storica event, the event has lent its name and its trademark logo to Chopard for a series of sports watches. For promotions, Chopard uses photographs from the event by photographer Giacomo Bretzel.


title: Mille Miglia

text: Mille Miglia Red is the name for a colour used by Chevrolet on its Corvette models. The colour was offered between 1972 and 1975.


title: Mille Miglia

text: "Mille Miglia" is also the title of a song from Lucio Dalla's album "Automobili" (1976). The song describes anecdotes about the 1947 edition of the race.


title: Mille Miglia

text: Kaneko released two arcade games based on the race in 1994 ("1000 Miglia: Great 1000 Miles Rally") and 1995 ("Mille Miglia 2: Great 1000 Miles Rally"). SCi Games released a PlayStation game simply named "Mille Miglia" and endorsed by Stirling Moss in 2000 in PAL regions.


title: Mille Miglia

text: In 2008, Alfa Romeo created a limited edition version of its Tipo 939 Spider called the "Mille Miglia". Only 11 cars were built - 8 left-hand drive and 3 right-hand driver - with each numbered car corresponding to one of the marque's Mille Miglia victories. Each car carried a small metal plate with details of the race.


title: Jalaluddin Haqqani

text: Jalaluddin Haqqani () (1939 – 3 September 2018) was an Afghan insurgent commander who founded the Haqqani network, an insurgent group fighting in guerilla warfare against US-led NATO forces and the now former government of Afghanistan they support.


title: Jalaluddin Haqqani

text: He distinguished himself as an internationally sponsored insurgent fighter in the 1980s during the Soviet–Afghan War, including in Operation Magistral. He earned U.S. praise and was called "goodness personified" by the U.S. officials. US officials have admitted that during the Soviet–Afghan War, he was a prized asset of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Former U.S. president Ronald Reagan called Jalaluddin Haqqani a "freedom fighter" during the Soviet–Afghan War. By 2004, he was directing pro-Taliban insurgent group to launch a holy war in Afghanistan. In 2016, U.S. Lieutenant General John W. Nicholson Jr. claimed that the U.S. and NATO were not targeting Haqqani's network in Afghanistan.


title: Jalaluddin Haqqani

text: Media reports emerged in late July 2015 that Haqqani had died the previous year. According to the reports, he died in Afghanistan and was buried in Khost Province of Afghanistan. These reports were denied by the Taliban and some members of the Haqqani family. On 3 September 2018, the Taliban released a statement announcing that Haqqani had died after a long illness in Afghanistan.


title: Jalaluddin Haqqani

text: Jalaluddin was born in 1939 in the village of Karezgay in the Zadran District of Paktia Province, Afghanistan. He was an ethnic Pashtun from the Zadran tribe of Khost. His father was a relatively wealthy landowner and trader. The family later moved to Sultankhel. He started advanced religious studies at Darul Uloom Haqqania, a Deobandi Islamic seminary (darul uloom), in Pakistan in 1964. He graduated in 1970 with an advanced qualification that entitled him to the status of mawlawi, and added "Haqqani" to his name, as some alumni of Darul Uloom Haqqania had done.


title: Jalaluddin Haqqani

text: After King Zahir Shah's exile and President Daoud Khan rose to power in 1973, the political situation in Afghanistan began to slowly change. A number of parties, such as the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), and other people were seeking power. Haqqani was one of them, and after being suspected of plotting against the government, he went into exile and based himself in and around Miranshah, Pakistan. From there he began to organise a rebellion against the government of Daoud Khan in 1975. After the 1978 Marxist revolution by the PDPA, Haqqani joined the Hezb-i Islami movement of Mawlawi Mohammad Yunus Khalis.


title: Jalaluddin Haqqani

text: In the 1980s, Jalaluddin Haqqani was cultivated as a "unilateral" asset of the CIA and received tens of millions of dollars in cash for his work in fighting the Soviet-led Afghan forces in Afghanistan, according to an account in "The Bin Ladens", a 2008 book by Steve Coll. He reputedly attracted generous support from prosperous Arab countries compared to other resistance leaders. At that time, Haqqani helped and protected Osama bin Laden, who was building his own militia to fight Soviet-backed Afghanistan.


title: Jalaluddin Haqqani

text: The influential U.S. Congressman Charlie Wilson, who helped to direct tens of millions of dollars to the Afghan Islamists, was so taken by Haqqani that he referred to him as "goodness personified". Charles Wilson also desired to fire a Stinger missile at one of the Soviet helicopters. Haqqani was happy to make Charles Wilson's wartime fantasy come true. They dragged chains and tires on road to create dust cloud which will attract the Soviet helicopters. However, none of the Soviet helicopters came and Charles Wilson was unable to fire any missile. This episode highlights the type of relationship which U.S. officials and Haqqani network used to share. He was a key US and Pakistani ally in resisting the Soviet-backed Afghanistan. Some news media outlets report that Haqqani even received an invitation to, and perhaps even visited, President Ronald Reagan's White House, although the photographs used to support the allegation of such a meeting have cast doubt that Haqqani ever visited the US. (The pictures originally purporting to show this meeting are, in fact, of Mohammad Yunus Khalis.)


title: Jalaluddin Haqqani

text: During the rule of Najibullah in 1991, Haqqani captured the city of Khost, which became the first communist city to fall to the jihadis. After the fall of Kabul to the Mujahideen forces in 1992, he was appointed Justice Minister of the Islamic State of Afghanistan, and refrained from taking sides in the fratricidal conflict that broke out between Afghan factions during the 1990s, a neutrality that was to earn him respect.


title: Jalaluddin Haqqani

text: Haqqani was not an original member of the Taliban; in 1995, just prior to the Taliban's occupation of Kabul, he switched his allegiance to them. In 1996–97, he served as a Taliban military commander north of Kabul, and was accused of ethnic cleansing against local Tajik populations. During the Taliban government, he served as the Minister of Borders and Tribal Affairs and governor of Paktia Province.


title: Jalaluddin Haqqani

text: In October 2001, Haqqani was named the Taliban's military commander. He may have had a role in expediting the escape of Osama Bin Laden. Initially the Americans tried to convince him to turn against the Taliban. He refused their offers on the grounds that, as a Muslim, he was duty bound to resist them as "infidel invaders", just as he had the Soviets in earlier decades. His base in Khost was attacked and four Guantanamo detainees—Abib Sarajuddin, Khan Zaman, Gul Zaman and Mohammad Gul—were captured and held because American intelligence officials received a report that one of them had briefly hosted Haqqani shortly after the fall of the Taliban.


title: Jalaluddin Haqqani

text: A September 2008 US airstrike that allegedly targeted Haqqani resulted in the deaths of between ten and twenty-three people. The missile hit the house of Haqqani in the village Dandi Darpa Khail in North Waziristan and a close by seminary. The madrasah, though, was closed and Haqqani had previously left the area. Haqqani has been accused by the United States of involvement in the 2008 Indian embassy bombing in Kabul and the February 2009 Kabul raids.


title: Jalaluddin Haqqani

text: Haqqani was the commander, with his son Sirajuddin, of the Haqqani network. The network is made up of resistance forces waging a jihad against US-led NATO forces and the Islamic republic of Afghanistan. On 16 October 2011, "Operation Knife Edge" was launched by NATO and Afghan forces against the Haqqani network in south-eastern Afghanistan. Afghan Defense Minister, Abdul Rahim Wardak, explained that the operation will "help eliminate the insurgents before they struck in areas along the troubled frontier". Both he and his son, Sirajuddin appear to have been the first Taliban to adopt the Iraqi tactic of using suicide bombers, and their network is accused of engaging in kidnappings, beheadings, the killing of women, and assassinations. George Gittoes, the Australian maker of Pashto-language films at his Yellow House in Jalalabad says Haqqani, who has befriended him, would be ready to support Ashraf Ghani in future Afghan elections.


title: Jalaluddin Haqqani

text: Haqqani was fluent in Persian, Arabic, Urdu and his native Pashto language. He had two wives, a Pashtun wife and an Arab wife from the United Arab Emirates, and had at least seven sons:


title: Jalaluddin Haqqani

text: On 3 September 2018, the Taliban released a statement via Twitter proclaiming Haqqani's death of an unspecified terminal illness in Afghanistan. He was buried in Afghanistan.


title: Dravidian architecture

text: Dravidian architecture, or the South Indian temple style, is an architectural idiom in Hindu temple architecture that emerged from South India, reaching its final form by the sixteenth century. It is seen in Hindu temples, and the most distinctive difference from north Indian styles is the use of a shorter and more pyramidal tower over the garbhagriha or sanctuary called a vimana, where the north has taller towers, usually bending inwards as they rise, called shikharas. However, for modern visitors to larger temples the dominating feature is the high gopura or gatehouse at the edge of the compound; large temples have several, dwarfing the vimana; these are a much more recent development. There are numerous other distinct features such as the "dwarapalakas" – twin guardians at the main entrance and the inner sanctum of the temple and "goshtams" – deities carved in niches on the outer side walls of the garbhagriha.


title: Dravidian architecture

text: Mentioned as one of three styles of temple building in the ancient book Vastu shastra, the majority of the existing structures are located in the Southern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, some parts of Maharashtra, Odisha and Sri Lanka. Various kingdoms and empires such as the Satavahanas, the Cholas, the Chera, the Kakatiyas, the Reddis, the Pandyas, the Pallavas, the Gangas, the Kadambas, the Rashtrakutas, the Chalukyas, the Hoysalas, and Vijayanagara Empire among others have made substantial contribution to the evolution of the Dravida architecture.


title: Dravidian architecture

text: "Mayamata" and "Manasara shilpa" texts estimated to be in circulation by 5th to 7th century CE, is a guidebook on Dravidian style of Vastu Shastra design, construction, sculpture and joinery technique. "Isanasivagurudeva paddhati" is another text from the 9th century describing the art of building in India in south and central India. In north India, "Brihat-samhita" by Varāhamihira is the widely cited ancient Sanskrit manual from 6th century describing the design and construction of "Nagara" style of Hindu temples. Traditional Dravidian architecture and symbolism are also based on Agamas. The Agamas are non-vedic in origin and have been dated either as post-vedic texts or as pre-vedic compositions. The "Agamas" are a collection of Tamil and Sanskrit scriptures chiefly constituting the methods of temple construction and creation of "murti", worship means of deities, philosophical doctrines, meditative practices, attainment of sixfold desires and four kinds of yoga.


title: Dravidian architecture

text: Chola style temples consist almost invariably of the three following parts, arranged in differing manners, but differing in themselves only according to the age in which they were executed:


title: Dravidian architecture

text: Besides these, a South Indian temple usually has a tank called the "Kalyani" or "Pushkarni" – to be used for sacred purposes or the convenience of the priests – dwellings for all the grades of the priesthood are attached to it, and other buildings for state or convenience.


title: Dravidian architecture

text: In Southern India seven kingdoms and empires stamped their influence on architecture during different times.:


title: Dravidian architecture

text: From 300 BCE to 300 CE, the greatest accomplishments of the kingdoms of the early Chola, Chera and the Pandyan kingdoms included brick shrines to deities Kartikeya, Shiva, Amman and Vishnu. Several of these have been unearthed near Adichanallur, Kaveripoompuharpattinam and Mahabalipuram, and the construction plans of these sites of worship were shared to some detail in various poems of Sangam literature. One such temple, the Saluvannkuppan Murukan temple, unearthed in 2005, consists of three layers. The lowest layer, consisting of a brick shrine, is one of the oldest of its kind in South India, and is the oldest shrine found dedicated to Murukan. It is one of only two brick shrine pre Pallava Hindu temples to be found in the state, the other being the Veetrirundha Perumal Temple at Veppathur dedicated to Lord Vishnu. The dynasties of early medieval Tamilakkam expanded and erected structural additions to many of these brick shrines. Sculptures of erotic art, nature and deities from the Meenakshi Temple, and Ranganathaswamy Temple date from the Sangam period.


title: Dravidian architecture

text: The Pallavas ruled from 275 CE to 900 CE, and their greatest constructed accomplishments are the single rock temples in Mahabalipuram and their capital Kanchipuram, now located in Tamil Nadu.


title: Dravidian architecture

text: The earliest examples of Pallava constructions are rock-cut temples dating from 610 to 690 CE and structural temples between 690 and 900 CE. The greatest accomplishments of the Pallava architecture are the rock-cut Group of Monuments at Mahabalipuram at Mahabalipuram, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, including the Shore Temple. This group includes both excavated pillared halls, with no external roof except the natural rock, and monolithic shrines where the natural rock is entirely cut away and carved to give an external roof. Early temples were mostly dedicated to Shiva. The Kailasanatha temple also called Rajasimha Pallaveswaram in Kanchipuram built by Narasimhavarman II also known as Rajasimha is a fine example of the Pallava style temple.


title: Dravidian architecture

text: Contrary to popular impression about the succeeding empire of the Cholas pioneering in building large temple complexes, it was the Pallavas who actually pioneered not only in making large temples after starting construction of rock cut temples without using mortar, bricks etc. Examples of such temples are the Thiruppadagam and Thiruooragam temples that have 28 and high images of Lord Vishnu in his manifestation as Pandavadhoothar and Trivikraman forms of himself. In comparison, the Siva Lingams in the Royal Temples of the Cholas at Thanjavur and Gangaikonda Cholapurams are 17 and high. Considering that the Kanchi Kailasanatha Temple built by Rajasimha Pallava was the inspiration for Raja Raja Chola's Brihadeeswara at Thanjavur, it can be safely concluded that the Pallavas were among the first emperors in India to build both large temple complexes and very large deities and idols Many Siva and Vishnu temples at Kanchi built by the great Pallava emperors and indeed their incomparable Rathas and the Arjuna's penance Bas Relief (also called descent of the Ganga) are proposed UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The continuous Chola, Pallava and Pandiyan belt temples (along with those of the Adigaimans near Karur and Namakkal), as well as the Sethupathy temple group between Pudukottai and Rameswaram uniformly represent the pinnacle of the South Indian Style of Architecture that surpasses any other form of architecture prevalent between the Deccan Plateau and Kaniyakumari. In the Telugu country the style was more or less uniformly conforming to the South Indian or Dravidian idiom of architecture.


title: Dravidian architecture

text: The Badami Chalukyas also called the Early Chalukyas, ruled from Badami, Karnataka in the period 543–753 CE and spawned the Vesara style called Badami Chalukya Architecture. The finest examples of their art are seen in Pattadakal, Aihole and Badami in northern Karnataka. Over 150 temples remain in the Malaprabha basin.


title: Dravidian architecture

text: The most enduring legacy of the Chalukya dynasty is the architecture and art that they left behind. More than one hundred and fifty monuments attributed to the Badami Chalukya, and built between 450 and 700, remain in the Malaprabha basin in Karnataka.


title: Dravidian architecture

text: The rock-cut temples of Pattadakal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Badami, Aihole and Mahakuta are their most celebrated monuments. Two of the famous paintings at Ajanta cave no. 1, "The Temptation of the Buddha" and "The Persian Embassy" are attributed to them. This is the beginning of "Chalukya" style of architecture and a consolidation of South Indian style.


title: Dravidian architecture

text: The Rashtrakutas who ruled the Deccan from Manyakheta, Karnataka in the period 753–973 CE built some of the finest Dravidian monuments at Ellora (the Kailasanatha temple), in the rock-cut architecture idiom, with a style showing influences from both north and south India. Some other fine monuments are the Jaina Narayana temple at Pattadakal and the Navalinga temples at Kuknur in Karnataka.


title: Dravidian architecture

text: The Rashtrakuta contributions to art and architecture are reflected in the splendid rock-cut shrines at Ellora and Elephanta, situated in present-day Maharashtra. It is said that they altogether constructed 34 rock-cut shrines, but most extensive and sumptuous of them all is the Kailasanatha temple at Ellora. The temple is a splendid achievement of Dravidian art. The walls of the temple have marvellous sculptures from Hindu mythology including Ravana, Shiva and Parvathi while the ceilings have paintings.


title: Dravidian architecture

text: These projects were commissioned by King Krishna I after the Rashtrakuta rule had spread into South India from the Deccan. The architectural style used was partly Dravidian. They do not contain any of the "shikharas" common to the "Nagara" style and were built on the same lines as the Virupaksha temple at Pattadakal in Karnataka.


title: Dravidian architecture

text: The Western Chalukyas also called the Kalyani Chalukyas or Later Chalukyas ruled the deccan from 973 to 1180 CE from their capital Kalyani in modern Karnataka and further refined the Chalukyan style, called the Western Chalukya architecture. Over 50 temples exist in the Krishna River-Tungabhadra doab in central Karnataka. The Kasi Vishveshvara at Lakkundi, Mallikarjuna at Kuruvatii, Kalleshwara temple at Bagali and Mahadeva at Itagi are the finest examples produced by the Later Chalukya architects.


title: Dravidian architecture

text: The reign of Western Chalukya dynasty was an important period in the development of architecture in the Deccan. Their architectural developments acted as a conceptual link between the Badami Chalukya Architecture of the 8th century and the Hoysala architecture popularised in the 13th century. The art of Western Chalukyas is sometimes called the "Gadag style" after the number of ornate temples they built in the Tungabhadra – Krishna River doab region of present-day Gadag district in Karnataka. Their temple building reached its maturity and culmination in the 12th century, with over a hundred temples built across the deccan, more than half of them in present-day Karnataka. Apart from temples they are also well known for ornate stepped wells ("Pushkarni") which served as ritual bathing places, many of which are well preserved in Lakkundi. Their stepped well designs were later incorporated by the Hoysalas and the Vijayanagara empire in the coming centuries.


title: Dravidian architecture

text: Srivilliputhur Andal temple Rajagopuram is said to have been built by Periyalvar, the father-in-law of the Lord, with a purse of gold that he won in debates held in the palace of Pandya King Vallabhadeva. The primary landmark of Srivilliputtur is a 12-tiered tower structure dedicated to the Lord of Srivilliputtur, known as Vatapatrasayee. The tower of this temple rises high. Other significant temples of the Pandyas include the Meenakshi Temple in Madurai, which is the official symbol of the Government of Tamil Nadu.


title: Dravidian architecture

text: The Chola kings ruled from 848 CE to 1280 CE and included Rajaraja Chola I and his son Rajendra Chola who built temples such as the Brihadeshvara Temple of Thanjavur and Brihadeshvara Temple of Gangaikonda Cholapuram, the Airavatesvara Temple of Darasuram and the Sarabeswara (Shiva) Temple, also called the Kampahareswarar Temple at Thirubhuvanam, the last two temples being located near Kumbakonam. The first three among the above four temples are titled Great Living Chola Temples among the UNESCO World Heritage Sites.


title: Dravidian architecture

text: The Cholas were prolific temple builders right from the times of the first king Vijayalaya Chola after whom the eclectic chain of Vijayalaya Chozhisvaram temple near Narttamalai exists. These are the earliest specimen of Dravidian temples under the Cholas. His son Aditya I built several temples around the Kanchi and Kumbakonam regions.


title: Dravidian architecture

text: Temple building received great impetus from the conquests and the genius of Aditya I Parantaka I, Sundara Chola, Rajaraja Chola and his son Rajendra Chola I. Rajendra Chola 1 built the Rajaraja Temple at Thanjur after his own name. The maturity and grandeur to which the Chola architecture had evolved found expression in the two temples of Tanjavur and Gangaikondacholapuram. He also proclaimed himself as Gangaikonda. In a small portion of the Kaveri belt between Tiruchy-Tanjore-Kumbakonam, at the height of their power, the Cholas have left over 2300 temples, with the Tiruchy-Thanjavur belt itself boasting of more than 1500 temples. The magnificent Siva temple of Thanjavur built by Raja Raja I in 1009 as well as the Brihadisvara Temple of Gangaikonda Cholapuram, completed around 1030, are both fitting memorials to the material and military achievements of the time of the two Chola emperors. The largest and tallest of all Indian temples of its time, the Tanjore Brihadisvara is at the apex of South Indian architecture. In fact, two succeeding Chola kings Raja Raja II and Kulothunga III built the Airavatesvara Temple at Darasuram and the Kampahareswarar Siva Temple at Tribhuvanam respectively, both temples being on the outskirts of Kumbakonam around 1160 CE and 1200 CE. All the four temples were built over a period of nearly 200 years reflecting the glory, prosperity and stability under the Chola emperors.


title: Dravidian architecture

text: Contrary to popular impression, the Chola emperors patronized and promoted construction of a large number of temples that were spread over most parts of the Chola empire. These include 40 of the 108 Vaishnava Divya Desams out of which 77 are found spread most of South India and others in Andhra and North India. In fact, the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple in Srirangam, which is the biggest temple in India and the Chidambaram Natarajar Temple (though originally built by the Pallavas but possibly seized from the Cholas of the pre-Christian era when they ruled from Kanchi) were two of the most important temples patronized and expanded by the Cholas and from the times of the second Chola King Aditya I, these two temples have been hailed in inscriptions as the tutelary deities of the Chola Kings.


title: Dravidian architecture

text: Temple shrine on the Koneswaram temple promontory extremity and the Ketheeswaram temple and Munneswaram temple compounds contained tall gopuram towers by Chola rule of Trincomalee, Mannar, Puttalam and Chidambaram's expansion that escalated the building of those syncretic latter styles of Dravidian architecture seen across the continent pictured.


title: Dravidian architecture

text: Of course, the two Brihadisvara Temples at Thanjavur and Gangaikonda Cholapuram as well as the other two Siva temples, namely the Airavatesvara Temple of Darasuram and the Sarabeswara (Shiva )Temple which is also popular as the Kampahareswarar Temple at Thirubhuvanam, both on the outskirts of Kumbakonam were the royal temples of the Cholas to commemorate their innumerable conquests and subjugation of their rivals from other parts of South India, Deccan Ilangai or Sri Lanka and the Narmada-Mahanadi-Gangetic belts. But the Chola emperors underlined their non-partisan approach to religious iconography and faith by treating the presiding deities of their other two peerless creations, namely the Ranganathaswamy Temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu at Srirangam and the Nataraja Temple at Chidambaram which actually is home to the twin deities of Siva and Vishnu (as the reclining Govindarajar) to be their 'Kuladheivams' or tutelary (or family) deities. The Cholas also preferred to call only these two temples which home their tutelary or family deities as "Koil" or the 'Temple', which denotes the most important places of worship for them. The above-named temples are being proposed to be included among the UNESCO World Heritage Sites, which will elevate them to the exacting and exalting standards of the Great Living Chola Temples.


title: Dravidian architecture

text: The temple of Gangaikondacholapuram, the creation of Rajendra Chola I, was intended to exceed its predecessor in every way. Completed around 1030, only two decades after the temple at Thanjavur and in much the same style, the greater elaboration in its appearance attests the more affluent state of the Chola Empire under Rajendra. This temple has a larger Siva linga than the one at Thanjavur but the Vimana of this temple is smaller in height than the Thanjavur vimana.


title: Dravidian architecture

text: The Chola period is also remarkable for its sculptures and bronzes all over the world. Among the existing specimens in museums around the world and in the temples of South India may be seen many fine figures of Siva in various forms, such as Vishnu and his consort Lakshmi, and the Siva saints. Though conforming generally to the iconographic conventions established by long tradition, the sculptors worked with great freedom in the 11th and the 12th centuries to achieve a classic grace and grandeur. The best example of this can be seen in the form of Nataraja the Divine Dancer.


title: Dravidian architecture

text: The Hoysala kings ruled southern India during the period (1100–1343 CE) from their capital Belur and later Halebidu in Karnataka and developed a unique idiom of architecture called the Hoysala architecture in Karnataka state. The finest examples of their architecture are the Chennakesava Temple in Belur, Hoysaleswara temple in Halebidu, and the Kesava Temple in Somanathapura.


title: Dravidian architecture

text: The modern interest in the Hoysalas is due to their patronage of art and architecture rather than their military conquests. The brisk temple building throughout the kingdom was accomplished despite constant threats from the Pandyas to the south and the Seunas Yadavas to the north. Their architectural style, an offshoot of the Western Chalukya style, shows distinct Dravidian influences. The Hoysala architecture style is described as "Karnata Dravida" as distinguished from the traditional Dravida, and is considered an independent architectural tradition with many unique features.


title: Dravidian architecture

text: The whole of South India was ruled by Vijayanagara Empire from (1343–1565 CE), who built a number of temples and monuments in their hybrid style in their capital Vijayanagara in Karnataka. Their style was a combination of the styles developed in South India in the previous centuries. In addition, the "Yali" columns (pillar with charging horse), balustrades (parapets) and ornate pillared "manatapa" are their unique contribution. King Krishna Deva Raya and others built many famous temples all over South India in Vijayanagara Architecture style.


title: Dravidian architecture

text: Vijayanagara architecture is a vibrant combination of the Chalukya, Hoysala, Rashtrakuta, Pallava, Pandya and Chola styles, idioms that prospered in previous centuries. Its legacy of sculpture, architecture and painting influenced the development of the arts long after the empire came to an end. Its stylistic hallmark is the ornate pillared "Kalyanamantapa" (marriage hall), "Vasanthamantapa" (open pillared halls) and the "Rayagopura" (tower). Artisans used the locally available hard granite because of its durability since the kingdom was under constant threat of invasion. While the empire's monuments are spread over the whole of Southern India, nothing surpasses the vast open-air theatre of monuments at its capital at Vijayanagara, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.


title: Dravidian architecture

text: In the 14th century the kings continued to build Vesara or Deccan style monuments but later incorporated dravida-style gopurams to meet their ritualistic needs. The Prasanna Virupaksha temple (underground temple) of Bukka Raya I and the Hazare Rama temple of Deva Raya I are examples of Deccan architecture. The varied and intricate ornamentation of the pillars is a mark of their work. At Hampi, though the "Vitthala" temple is the best example of their pillared "Kalyanamantapa" style, the "Hazara Ramaswamy" temple is a modest but perfectly finished example. A visible aspect of their style is their return to the simplistic and serene art developed by the Chalukya dynasty. A grand specimen of Vijayanagara art, the "Vitthala" temple, took several decades to complete during the reign of the Tuluva kings.


title: Dravidian architecture

text: The version of Dravidian architecture found in Kerala in the far south-west is significantly different. Very large temples are rare, and sloping roofs with projecting eaves dominate the outline, often arranged in a number of tiers. As in Bengal, this is an adaption to the heavy monsoon rainfall. There is usually a stone core below a timber superstructure. The architecture of Kerala goes back to the Chera dynasty in the 12th century, and a variety of ground plans have been used, including circular ones. The development of multi-building complexes came relatively late.


title: Dravidian architecture

text: The culture of Sri Lanka is recognizable in architecture. The city of Jaffna was close to South India and the majority of the inhabitants of Jaffna have a Dravidian origin. In former royal city of Nallur, there are architectural ruins of Jaffna kingdom.


title: Bundt cake

text: A Bundt cake () is a cake that is baked in a Bundt pan, shaping it into a distinctive doughnut shape. The shape is inspired by a traditional European cake known as , but Bundt cakes are not generally associated with any single recipe. The style of mold in North America was popularized in the 1950s and 1960s, after cookware manufacturer Nordic Ware trademarked the name "Bundt" and began producing Bundt pans from cast aluminum. Publicity from Pillsbury saw the cakes gain widespread popularity.


title: Bundt cake

text: The Bundt cake derives in part from a European brioche-like cake called . In the north of Germany and the southern Anglia peninsula is traditionally known as (), a name formed by joining the two words and (cake).


title: Bundt cake

text: Opinions differ as to the significance of the word . One possibility is that it means "bunch" or "bundle", and refers to the way the dough is bundled around the tubed center of the pan. Another source suggests that it describes the banded appearance given to the cake by the fluted sides of the pan, similar to a tied sheaf or bundle of wheat. Some authors have suggested that instead refers to a group of people, and that is so called because of its suitability for parties and gatherings.


title: Bundt cake

text: Uses of the word "bund" outside of Europe to describe cakes can be found in Jewish-American cookbooks from around the start of the 20th century. The alternative spelling "bundte" also appears in a recipe as early as 1901.


title: Bundt cake

text: Bundt cakes do not conform to any single recipe; instead, their characterizing feature is their shape. A Bundt pan generally has fluted or grooved sides, and is usually coated to make releasing the cake easier. Like other tube or ring style pans, the central tube allows faster and more even heat distribution when baking large volumes of batter.


title: Bundt cake

text: Ring pans like Bundt molds heat faster than regular round pans and they bake deep cakes evenly even at diameters over 9 inches. Usually heating cores are recommended for even heat distribution in deep cake tins and standard cakes larger than 9 inches in diameter. To bake in standard sized tins bundt recipes need conversion. A standard 9 inch cake pan holds around six cups volume, so a 12 cups Bundt recipe will fill two standard cake pans, or one 13x9 sheet pan.


title: Bundt cake

text: Gugelhupf molds also have fluted sides, while other ring shaped molds like tube pans and savarin have straight sides to make releasing delicate fine crumb cakes like angel food cake easier. Since the name "Bundt" is a trademark, similar pans are often sold as "fluted tube pans" or given other similar descriptive titles. The trademark holder Nordic Ware produces Bundt pans only in aluminum, but similar fluted pans are available in other materials.


title: Bundt cake

text: Despite the similar shape, a differs from contemporary Bundt-style cakes in that it follows a particular yeast-based recipe, with fruit and nuts, and is often deeper in shape and more decorative. Other yeasted, brioche-like cakes like babka, monkey bread can be baked in Bundt molds. Today, Bundt pans are also used to bake modernized cake batters and boxed mixes with baking powder, and can be used to mold gelatin salad, ice cream and even savory molded dishes like meatloaf.


title: Bundt cake

text: The people credited with popularizing the Bundt cake are American businessman H. David Dalquist and his brother Mark S. Dalquist, who co-founded cookware company Nordic Ware based in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. In the late 1940s, Rose Joshua and Fannie Schanfield, friends and members of the Minneapolis Jewish-American Hadassah Society approached Dalquist asking if he could produce a modern version of a traditional cast iron dish. Dalquist and company engineer Don Nygren designed a cast aluminum version which Nordic Ware then made a small production run of in 1950. In order to successfully trademark the pans, a "t" was added to the word "Bund". A number of the original Bundt pans now reside in the Smithsonian collection.


title: Bundt cake

text: Initially, the Bundt pan sold so poorly that Nordic Ware considered discontinuing it. The product received a boost when it was mentioned in the "New Good Housekeeping Cookbook" in 1963, but did not gain real popularity until 1966, when a Bundt cake called the "Tunnel of Fudge", baked by Ella Helfrich, took second place at the annual Pillsbury Bake-Off and won its baker $5,000. The resulting publicity resulted in more than 200,000 requests to Pillsbury for Bundt pans and soon led to the Bundt pan surpassing the tin Jell-O mold as the most-sold pan in the United States. In the 1970s Pillsbury licensed the name Bundt from Nordic Ware and for a while sold a range of Bundt cake mixes.


title: Bundt cake

text: To date more than 60 million Bundt pans have been sold by Nordic Ware across North America. November 15 has been named "National Bundt Day".


title: Fatshark

text: Fatshark is a Swedish video game development studio based in Stockholm, Sweden. The studio is located in Stockholm close to the Southern Station. Fatshark acted as a subcontractor for several AAA titles for PC and consoles, and the studio also develops its own games. In January 2021, Tencent acquired majority control of the studio.


title: Fatshark

text: It originated from a company called Northplay, which subcontracted for various Swedish companies between 2003 and 2008. The company is best known for its involvement with the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360; developing for both, "Bionic Commando Rearmed 2" and versions of their PC game "".


title: Fatshark

text: In January 2019, Tencent acquired about a 36% stake in Fatshark in a deal worth approximately (around ).


title: Fatshark

text: Later, in January 2021, it was reported that Tencent had acquired a majority stake in the company valued at around 2.2 billion sek (around million).


title: Fatshark

text: As a recent and smaller developer, Fatshark has had some degree of success with its early releases. In 2010, Fatshark released "" for PC. Described as ""Team Fortress 2" meets Wild West", the game received a 7.0 rating from GameSpot.


title: Fatshark

text: A subsequent 2011 release, "Hamilton's Great Adventure" was received as a surprising change in the developer's choice of gameplay and genre as it focused more on single-player elements with a relatively low learning curve. Several gaming news outlets covered the company's 2012 release-announcement and footage of "Krater", a role-playing video game.


title: Fatshark

text: Fatshark later released "War of the Roses" in 2012, and received a 7.5 rating from GameSpot, 8.0 rating from Eurogamer, and was listed in the Guardian as one of the best games to play in the autumn of 2012. The critics promoted the game for its innovativeness and “freshness”, but also noted a rather steep learning curve. "War of the Vikings" was later released in 2014 as the next installment in the War Franchise. The game added new features such as special attacks, a new Arena mode and the ability to throw weapons, and was set during the Viking Age rather than 15th century England. In November 2014, Fatshark released "Escape Dead Island", an adventure survival horror game set in Deep Silver's Dead Island universe, and is met with mostly negative reviews from game critics. In 2015, the company released "", which sold more than 500,000 units. This was followed by its sequel, "", released in 2018. "" was released in November 2022.


title: Thermal pollution

text: Thermal pollution, sometimes called "thermal enrichment", is the degradation of water quality by any process that changes ambient water temperature. Thermal pollution is the rise or fall in the temperature of a natural body of water caused by human influence. Thermal pollution, unlike chemical pollution, results in a change in the physical properties of water. A common cause of thermal pollution is the use of water as a coolant by power plants and industrial manufacturers. Urban runoff—stormwater discharged to surface waters from rooftops, roads and parking lots—and reservoirs can also be a source of thermal pollution. Thermal pollution can also be caused by the release of very cold water from the base of reservoirs into warmer rivers.