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Strood

Strood is a town in the unitary authority of Medway in Kent, South East England. The town forms a conurbation with neighbouring towns Chatham, Rochester, Gillingham and Rainham. It lies on the northwest bank of the River Medway at its lowest bridging point.

Strood began as a manor then chapelry of Frindsbury until gaining its own parish status in 1193. Today Frindsbury is effectively, in all but a few associations such as in the Church of England, the northern part of Strood. Strood's history has been dominated by the river and facing port-associated towns, particularly its road and rail bridges since the Roman era to Rochester and the two other Medway Towns immediately adjoining and beyond from the north-east quarter of Kent to London and the rest of Britain. It has a mixed retail and leisure area at its heart. Most of its sources of employment are the other Medway towns, their associated commercial, industrial and logistics parks.

Among its broadest named neighbourhoods are the "Earl estate" and Marlowe Park, one named after a house builder, the other after the grounds of a former mansion house.

Pre-conquest
Strood was part of Frindsbury until 1193. It was named Strodes in the Textus Roffensis, now kept in Strood in the Medway Archives Centre, though most early records use the spelling Stroud. The Old English name Strōd refers to a "marshy land overgrown with brushwood". The Gloucestershire town of Stroud has the same etymology.

The Romans built a stone bridge and laid a road on a causeway across the marshy ground. The foundations were about 8 ft below the level of the 1856 road. The road went up Strood Hill, and was called Watling Street, as it still is today. This is the A2 road. There is further evidence of a causewayed road leading along the bank towards the Frindsbury Peninsula leading to a villa, was found in 1819. The present road and field pattern suggest that there was a substantial Roman agricultural settlement centred near Frindsbury.

In 764 AD Offa King of Mercia and Sigered King of Kent granted to Eardulph lands in Easlingham (Frindsbury). In 840, 994, and 998 AD Strood was pillaged by the Danes. In 960 AD a wooden bridge was built across the Medway.

Medieval
A small wooden church was erected at Strood in 1122, as a chapel of ease in the parish of Frindsbury. Land was granted in 1160 to the Knights Templar by King Henry II. The Manor House was used as a Lodging House.

In 1193, Strood became a parish. It was run by the monks of Newark Hospital, and had its own burial grounds. In 1291 there was an affray at Newark Hospital between the Monks of Strood and the locals from Frindsbury.

In 1264 Simon de Montfort laid siege to Rochester Castle from the Strood Side. In the action the wooden bridge was destroyed by fire. After Simon's death a heavy fine was levied on Strood because he had stayed there during the siege. The Strood Quay and Strood Wharf had been built by Bishop de Glanville with rents going to Newark Hospital. In 1293 the Rochester wharf was in such disrepair that ships had to use the Strood facilities, however as the bridge was out of use, ferries had to be used to cross the river. In 1309, a harsh winter, the bridge was damaged by ice. In 1312 the Knight's Templar were suppressed and the Manor of Strood passed into private hands briefly before being passed on to the Abbess and Sisters Minorites of St. Clare of Denney in Cambridgeshire. In 1387 a stone bridge was built by John de Cobham and Robert Knolles. In 1460 Edward IV appointed a mayor of Rochester with jurisdiction over Strood river frontage and the houses there.

Early Modern
Strood was owned by the Rochester monastery from the 18th year of Edward III's reign until the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII, after which time as part of the Hundred of Sharnel (Shamwell) which included Cobham, it was passed to George Brooke, Lord Cobham. His grandson Henry Brooke lost his estates to James I in 1603 through a false charge of treason, although he escaped with his life. The Temple Manor thereafter was granted to Sir Robert Cecil, the Earl of Salisbury (son of William, Lord Burleigh), who later became Lord Treasurer of England under Queen Elizabeth, and married Elizabeth, sister of Henry, Lord Cobham.

In 1554 Thomas Wyatt of Allington on hearing that Mary I intended to marry a Catholic gathered an army with the intention of marching on London. He took Rochester Castle and the bridge. According to Marsh there was to have been a battle at Strood, but the Queen's men, stationed on Strood Hill, deserted. However, Coulson records that Wyatt defeated the Duke of Norfolk and seized six cannon. Wyatt then marched on Cooling Castle. The rebellion fizzled out, and Wyatt was executed, along with the captain of the deserters.

The parish accounts begin in 1555. Following the accession and marriage of Queen Mary (known as "Bloody" Mary) the country reconverted to Roman Catholicism and a considerable sum was spent re-converting the church. However just nine years later in 1565 a further five-year period of refurbishment was required to convert the church back to Protestant usage following the accession of Queen Elizabeth I. The parish registers start from this date. Possibly mindful of the changes, the churchwardens waited until 1574 before going to St. Dunstan's Fair in Rochester to sell "a cross and other relics of Roman superstition, formerly used in Strood Church".

In the 1672 the parishes of St. Margaret's, Rochester and St Nicholas, Strood jointly applied to the Court of Chancery for a ruling which was decided in their favour to extend the area over which Watts charities could operate. The parish of Strood utilised some of the money to provide a workhouse for the poor. Above the door was set a stone slab which is now displayed in the Guildhall Museum, Rochester. The text is reproduced alongside.

In 1769, under authority of the Paving, etc., of London Act 1768, a tollgate was erected at The Angel Inn on North Street in Strood, to pay for improvements to the parish. Hasted, in his study of Kent (1778–99), said Strood's inhabitants were chiefly seafaring or fishermen, and engaged in dredging oysters.

Nineteenth century
Between 1804 and 1824 the Thames and Medway canal was dug. See below, under Transport for more details.

Twentieth century
The ancient City of Rochester merged with the borough of Chatham and part of the Strood Rural District in 1974 to form the Borough of Medway, later renamed the City of Rochester-upon-Medway. In 1998 another merger with the rest of the Medway Towns created the Medway unitary authority.

Twenty-first century
21st century Strood has seen significant growth, due to its proximity to London and cheaper housing. Although Strood is a town in its own right with a population in 2019 estimated at 40,000, it is also officially a suburb of Rochester, albeit a very large suburb. Strangely, Strood the suburb is more heavily populated than its post town Rochester on the east side of the River Medway, the total population being around 68,000.

Geography
Strood lies on the edge of marshy land alongside the River Medway. The chalk hills of the North Downs have been breached at this point, forming a river cliff rising to 100 ft directly behind.

Strood Fair
An annual fair was instituted in 1206 during the seventh year of King John's reign to the priory of Rochester, to be held on 26 August, which continued well into the 18th Century, according to Hasted, the Kent historian. It was traditionally held over three days, and associated with Christian celebration of the Assumption (15 August). The Strood Fair was held regularly into the 1970s. The land used for the Strood Fair was sandwiched between Grange Road and Station Road, adjacent to Strood railway station. It was for many years part of a dairy farm, though by the 1970s the farm building had been turned into a motor repair business. The fair ground was passed on to the people who ran the Strood Fair. It was then used by them to stay through the winter months.

The land is still occupied as winter quarters by the Showman's Guild with its running costs supported by an annual fair on the site. In June 2007, the motor repair building was demolished to be replaced by flats. Today's market is held on a Tuesday and Saturday, and a boot fair is held on a Sunday.

Newark Hospital
Gilbert de Glanvill, Bishop of Rochester, in 1190, early during the reign of Richard I founded a hospital in Strood, east of the church, which was afterwards called the Newark or Stroud Hospital. Newark Hospital was important in raising the profile of Strood, however there was constant concern about its financial management, and the rivalry between it and the Rochester Priory. In 1539, under King Henry VIII, the hospital was under the control of the Dean and Chapter of Rochester.

The location of the former Newark Hospital is now mainly a car park behind Strood High Street. The 19th century railway embankment carrying the Chatham Main Line cuts across the back of the old hospital site. Strood Market was held on part of this land, but was relocated to make way for a food store, Aldi. An archaeological dig of the site was done in the 1970s.

Politics
In 1891 the civil parish had a population of 7982. On 30 September 1894 the parish was abolished and split, the part in Rochester Municipal Borough becoming Strood Extra and the rural part becoming Strood Intra. It is now in the unparished area of Rochester.

Strood Rural District
Strood Rural District was a local government district of Kent from 1894 to 1974. It did not include Strood itself (which formed part of Rochester) and covered a wide area. The offices of Strood Rural District Council were in Frindsbury, Strood; they are now a nursing home called Frindsbury Hall.

Strood representation
Strood is part of the parliamentary constituency of Rochester and Strood.

Local government was consolidated in the late 1990s into a single tier with the creation of Medway Council.

Engineering
Small enterprises were formed to service Chatham Dockyard.

Joseph Collis started as a retail ironmonger in 1777. By 1865 he was a wholesaler specialising in zinc, iron, tinplate and locksmithery. By 1870, he and his partner Stace took over the Pelican Foundry and manufactured structural ironwork, toilet cisterns and manhole covers. Thomas Aveling built his traction engines at the Invicta Works next to Rochester Bridge from 1861. Later the works were acquired the Collis and Stace's Pelican Foundry. Avelings were noted for excellent employment practices, and made their premises available for meetings of co-operative and radical societies. Avelings in turn became Wingets factory, then the Rochester-upon-Medway Civic Centre which passed to Medway Council.

Shorts, the seaplane manufacturer, used a yard on the Strood side for construction of the airframes of F3 and F5 flying boats.

Other employers were Hobourn-Eaton, Kent Alloys, Fishers and the Co-operative bakery.

Retail
Settlement geography tells us that a bridging point becomes a route centre and a trading centre. Being a lowest bridging point of a critical prehistoric military route compounds the problem. Towns had to built above the flood plain at a pinch point and flat land on the Rochester side of the river was needed for a walled town with castle and cathedral, in effect sterilising the land that side of the river from future major development. The land was locked by the construction of the London, Chatham and Dover railway in an embankment and arches. Small shops grew up around "The Angel" in Strood forming the town centre. Further small rows were built within the housing along Gun Lane and at Darnley Road.

By 2005 Strood was served by two supermarkets. Tesco acquired and demolished Temple Street and bought the freehold of all the other plots on the block for future expansion. Safeway in the High Street built on the site of small firms and the Budden and Biggs Brewery. Following the takeover by Morrisons the store was closed with a new, larger, site built at the far side of Jane's Creek. The town centre store lay empty until autumn 2008 when it was redeveloped by the marginal supermarket retailer Netto and discount chain Wilko (the Netto store has since been remodelled as an Asda following a buyout).

Tesco planned for a brand new store to be built on its acquired land in February 2013, but after a national policy change in March 2013 it announced that it would focus on smaller Express stores. The Tesco Store was to include a community hub and library which would be for Medway Council and would have replaced the annex at the previous Civic Centre site in Strood.

An Aldi supermarket also opened on land opposite the Angel Corner (the former site of Strood Market) in November 2012, three years later than originally planned – with locals opposed to the Tuesday and Saturday markets being relocated to the Commercial Road car park.

Strood Retail Park has grown to include Next, Argos, Poundworld, Carpet Right, Matalan and KFC. The nature of the offer reflects the market's interpretation of the local economy.

The Poundland store opened in the Retail Park in February 2015 in the former Paul Simons store. Poundworld went into administration on 11 June 2018 though administrators are hoping for a rescue package.

In March 2015 It was announced that B&Q would be replaced with a gym, cafe and three shops.

In January 2016 It was announced that Brantano would close due to going into administration. The store subsequently closed on 22 March 2016.

A Poundworld store opened in the Retail Park in May 2016 in the former Brantano store.

In early 2017 it was announced that an M&S Foodhall, B&M and a Maplin would open at the former B&Q site. It was then later announced in July 2017 that Starbucks Coffee would be opening amongst the new retail units on Strood Retail Park.

In February 2018 It was announced that Maplin would close due to going into administration.

In June 2018 Following a £15 million loan, it was announced that Carpetright was to restructure its Kent stores with the Strood store closing and everything being transferred to the Gillingham store.

Strood's retail centre serves the villages out to the Isle of Grain and Rochester, as the town has six major supermarkets at its heart (Aldi, Asda, Morrisons, Tesco, Iceland, M&S Food Hall), as well as a plethora of smaller shops and units.

River
Transport in Strood was dominated by the river. From the earliest times river transport used Strood, but before the coming of the Romans the area was marshy and not well populated. Once Strood started to be filled in various boatyards and ship repair businesses started up both on the river and in the creeks which drain the marshes.

Road
Although Strood must have lain on ancient tracks, the coming of the Romans started to fix the road pattern. The lowest bridging point of the River Medway is between Strood and Rochester, and the first bridge was built soon after the Battle of the Medway. This road from Dover via Longdon towards north Wales became known as Watling Street and forms two of the major highways of the Kingdom. The section from Dover to London became the A2 trunk road.

The 20th century has seen a major expansion in road transport and the consequent building of the M2 motorway. The route roughly parallels the old A2 and has necessitated the building of two high level bridges in Strood to the south of the town.

Beyond the M2 is the M20 motorway leading to the south of London and accessible by major roads from Strood.

Strood is on National Cycle Route 1.

Canal
The Thames and Medway Canal was dug between 1804 and 1824 to provide a safe route between the rivers Medway and Thames. Barges were able to avoid the long passage into the Thames estuary and around the Isle of Grain. At the Strood end the canal was entered through a lock into Frindsbury basin and then entered a tunnel. It opened 4 October 1824.

The canal was 8 ft with 27 ft headroom and 26 ft wide, to take 94 ft, 60-ton Thames Barges. It had a 5 ft tow path its entire length. Spoil from the tunnel was used to infill the marshland between St Mary's Church Strood and the River Medway. Frindsbury Basin could handle vessels to 300 tons. A steam pump was installed there to keep the canal topped up.

Commercially the venture was a failure, because tolls were high to recoup the cost, entry to the basins could only occur at high tides (making it quicker to sail the 47 mi round the Isle of Grain). With the end of the Napoleonic wars the military justification had also been removed.

In 1844 A single line railway was laid through the tunnel, part on the towpath and part on a timber structure over the canal. The canal was sold in 1845 to the South Eastern Railway (SER), who filled in the canal within the tunnel and laid a double track (see North Kent Line).

Rail
The South Eastern Railway terminated at Strood, with passengers taking a steamer or coaches to reach Rochester or Chatham. The station, completed 10 February 1856, was opposite The Railway Tavern. More recently it was called the Old Terminus.

On 18 June 1856, the line was extended along the river bank to Maidstone, and Strood Station we see today, was opened (see Medway Valley Line). Also in 1856 the new road bridge over the Medway was opened, in its present position, back where the Roman bridge had been. In 1857 the mediaeval bridge was demolished the stone being used to build the Strood Esplanade in 1858. In 1860 the SER built the Strood pier.

The East Kent Railway had permission to run a line from Faversham to Chatham, and intended to connect with the South Eastern Railway at Strood. When negotiations failed, the East Kent, now called the London Chatham and Dover (LCDR), linked with the Mid Kent Co. at Bromley (see Chatham Main Line). The East Kent Railway built a bridge over the Medway (1853) and taking their line to the North of the Angel, over Gun Lane, and Watling Street then south to Cuxton where it followed the Bush Valley and hence to Sole Street. The London Chatham and Dover built a station on the A2, adjacent to Canal Road, this was called
 * Strood Station, when it was built, then
 * Rochester Bridge Station,1 April 1861
 * Rochester & Strood, 1 November 1861
 * Rochester Bridge (Strood), 1862
 * Rochester Bridge, 1905

The South Eastern Railway retaliated by building a parallel bridge (after 1866 and before 1909) and running a separate line into Chatham. To do this the Watermill was demolished and the Mill Pond filled in. Over the pond was built an Oil and Seed Mill with its own sidings.

There was a loop between the lines at Strood, opened 29 March 1859 which closed in 1860. In 1875 Mayor N. E. Toomer forced the two companies to reopen the loop, now nicknamed Toomers Loop. The service resumed 1 April 1877.

The SER and LCDR effectively merged on 1 January 1899 to form the South Eastern and Chatham Railway. Subsequent rationalisation saw the closure of the SER branch to Chatham, and the closure of the LCDR Strood station. The SER bridge over the Medway was retained for the Chatham Main Line, and the LCDR bridge was abandoned (its piers were later used for the second road bridge). The link between the two lines was used to run services from the Chatham line onto the North Kent Line.

For the current railway station see Strood railway station.

River and the Strood Basin

All Strood below The Angel Inn, on North Street, near Strood Post Office, was built on marshland which was fed by small creeks, these were excavated to make usable jetties and wharf. Two such creeks are well known, Janes Creek which once extended back to the Cricketers Inn, and Temple Creek. Joining Janes Creek, at a right angle was Pelican Creek which has been in-filled and now forms a car park and the foundations of B & M. Strood frequently flooded and the area around Temple Street (now a car park and a Tesco) was known as the 'Swamp'.

Significant floods were recorded in Strood in the years 1158, 1235, 1309, 1682, 1735, 1791, 1854, 1874, 1887, 1953, 1968 and 1979.

William Curel was Medway's oldest established barge builder, with two yards on the Strood bank. The Curel's Upper Yard was next to the Railway Tavern. In 1900 Gill and Son took over the yard, and it became a sail loft.

Mills
There was a windmill on Strood Hill, two on Broom Hill and five in neighbouring Frindsbury.
 * The Strood Hill Mill was a smock mill that was demolished in 1860. It was unsuitably sited, and suffered from variable winds The site now forms part of the Cedars Hotel.
 * Killicks Mill on Broom Hill cap was blown off for the second time in 1880. It was replaced and worked again for a year in 1890 but was unprofitable and was probably demolished in the 1920s. It had six sides rather than the usual eight.
 * Fields Mill on Broom Hill burnt down in 1875. In Dickens' times, the Miller was a Mr Clark, but the owner was Mr Field. Mr Field was an amateur musician, who kept a piano, a harp and a barrel organ in his sitting room. It is said that the organ was bought from Loose Church, and so fixed that the power from the mill turned the organ's handle. Dickens would visit the mill on his walks, and listen to the organ music.

The Frindsbury Mills. The other four mills were all owned by Mr Kimmins.
 * The oldest was a tripod – or post mill. It was called the Quarry Mill and was 100 yards south east of the church. Destroyed in 1850.
 * On Prospect Hill there were two mills. The first was called Manwaring Mill, or Little Mill. It was a black tarred smock mill, and it drove four sets of stones. Little Mill was struck by lightning and demolished in 1886.
 * Also on Prospect Hill was Great Mill or Rose's Mill. It was the highest in Kent with 40 feet by nine feet sweeps. Together the two mills produced 400 sacks of flour a week. Great Mill was demolished in 1890.
 * Kimmin's Mill on Frindsbury Hill was a smock mill with no base. The land became a brick field. A man was killed by its sweeps.
 * House Mill, also known as Kimmins Mill or Frindsbury Mill, stood on Frindsbury hill and was a black smock mill. It was demolished in 1931.

There was a tidemill. When the tide was rising, water flowed into the mill pond driving a mill, when the tide was falling, water flowed back into the river, driving the mill.

Horticulture
The damson cultivar 'Farleigh Damson' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

 * 'Farleigh Damson' (syn. 'Crittenden's Prolific', 'Strood Cluster') is named after the village of East Farleigh in Kent, where it was raised by James Crittenden in the early 19th century. An 1871 letter to the Journal of horticulture and practical gardening claimed that the original seedling had been found by a Mr. Herbert, the tenant of a market garden in Strood, who had given it to Crittenden. It has small, roundish, black fruit, with a blue bloom, and is a very heavy bearer. Its heavy cropping led to it being widely planted in England.

Housing
The area of Strood around Knight's Place and Temple Street, was referred to as the Swamp. On the floods Smetham wrote in 1899 in that woebegone spot the foul contents of water closets were washed into poor peoples homes, and an indescribable filth permeated the fetid spot for months. In 1912 there was a typhoid outbreak here, 56 people contracted it, and five died.

In the 1880s, there was a major expansion of houses. Terraced houses were built on the hill, closing the gap between Strood and Frindsbury. The land around St Mary's, now drained and close to the station was used. There was a mix of house sizes, from the large detached to the small terraces that opened on the street. They were all built in local yellow brick, with detailing in reds.

Following World War I, the city built 19 houses in Steele St, and 73 on Frindsbury Hill (Murray Road). Following World War II, under the Housing (Financial and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1946, and the Housing Subsidies Act 1956 the city continued to build, including the triangle between the A228, Watling Street and the M2.

With continuing population growth and pressure from commuters, more and more land has been developed by the private sector. By 2000, the riverside by the station had been developed. Kingswear Gardens off Canal Road is a social housing estate. Kingswear Gardens is a high crime area, and is prone to flooding. The chalkpit by the A228 at Merral's Shaw now has 400 dwellings on it, in spite of the massive infrastructure work needed, (roads and landscaping) this development is called Medway Gate. In 2009, plans were in existence to build over the Temple Marsh. Up to 620 homes are planned to be built and up to 12,300 sq metres of mixed-use employment and retail floorspace to develop. Now renamed as 'Temple Waterfront'.

There are concerns for the architectural heritage in the area. A sad loss of an Edwardian gem occurred in 2010 when Medway Council demolished the Aveling & Porter building to make way for a car park.

Education
Strood Academy is the only secondary school in Strood. For secondary education, many pupils from Strood attend schools in neighbouring towns.

Churches
The parish church for Strood is St Nicholas College Yard Strood which is Grade II listed building. St Mary's (notionally Frindsbury) was opened by Bishop Claughton in 1869 as a chapel of ease. It has subsequently closed as an Anglican church but has been taken over by the New Testament Church of God. The other Anglican church in the area is St Francis.

There is an historic Catholic church. English Martyrs Church was rebuilt in 1964 in the brutalist style. In recent years it has been featured in articles and books as an early example of this style used for a Catholic church.

The Methodist church in Stonehouse Lane has undergone two changes of name. First the road name changed to Cliffe Road and then the church changed from "Jubilee" to "Peninsular". During the First World War the church was lent to the St John's Voluntary Aid Department as an auxiliary hospital.

Protestant dissenters founded the Zoar chapel in 1782. There is a Gospel Mission Evangelical church in Brompton Lane and an Evangelical church in Darnley Road.

Media
Regional local news and television programmes are provided by BBC South East and ITV Meridian. Television signals are received from the Bluebell Hill TV transmitter.

Local radio stations are BBC Radio Kent on 96.7 FM, Heart South on 103.1 FM, Gold Radio on 1242 AM and KMFM Medway which broadcast from its studios in the town on 100.4 FM.

The town is served by these local newspapers:
 * Medway Messenger
 * Medway Times
 * yourmedway

Sport and leisure
Non-League football club Rochester United F.C., formerly Bly Spartans, plays at Bly Spartans Sports Ground in Strood. The club is in the Kent League, at level nine of the English football league system. Gillingham FC, in EFL's League One is the local professional team, being located approximately three miles from central Strood. Strood boasts an impressive Sports Centre, complete with astroturf floodlit football pitches.

People

 * Lucy Ann Brooks (1835-1926), the temperance advocate, was born in Strood. She was a co-founder and president of the Women's Total Abstinence Union.
 * Isaac Newell (Strood, 24 April 1853 – Rosario, Argentina, 16 October 1907) a teacher and a pioneer of football in Argentina. He was the founder of the Colegio Comercial Anglicano Argentino and the founder of Argentinean football club Newell's Old Boys, which is named in his honour. This club is considered the sixth most important team of Argentina.
 * Anne Pratt (1806–1893), the botanist, was born in Strood. She wrote several books in the 19th century covering a wide range of botanical subjects. She was so well respected for her knowledge of wild flowers that she was granted an allowance from the Civil List. A portrait of her was placed in the Rochester museum. Her most famous work is The flowering plants, grasses, sedges, and ferns of Great Britain and their allies the club mosses, pepperworts, and horsetails. London: Frederick Warne and Co.
 * Charles Roach Smith (1806–1890) notable amateur archaeologist, died in Strood. He was born at Shanklin, Isle of Wight, the youngest of 10 children. In 1826 he moved to London, and established his own business as a chemist in 1834. In 1876 he and his sister bought Temple Place in Cuxton Road, Strood, and some adjoining horticultural land. In London he made the first collection of Roman coins from London excavations which was bought by the British Museum. He subsequently pioneered 'urban site observation' and his 'Illustrations of Roman London '(1859) remained the principal work on the subject until 1909. He pioneered the statistic study of Roman coin hoards. He was elected fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (1836), London Numismatic Society (1837) and was founder member of the British Archaeological Association (1843). After his death, four streets in Strood were named in his honour, Charles Street, Smith Street, Roach Street and Antiquarian Street. Three of these still exist in the vicinity of the Tesco supermarket with Antiquarian Street being demolished and the area now being under the Tesco car park.

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Ramanujan graph

In the mathematical field of spectral graph theory, a Ramanujan graph is a regular graph whose spectral gap is almost as large as possible (see extremal graph theory). Such graphs are excellent spectral expanders. As Murty's survey paper notes, Ramanujan graphs "fuse diverse branches of pure mathematics, namely, number theory, representation theory, and algebraic geometry". These graphs are indirectly named after Srinivasa Ramanujan; their name comes from the Ramanujan–Petersson conjecture, which was used in a construction of some of these graphs.

Definition
Let $$G$$ be a connected $$d$$-regular graph with $$n$$ vertices, and let $$\lambda_1 \geq \lambda_2 \geq \cdots \geq \lambda_n$$ be the eigenvalues of the adjacency matrix of $$G$$ (or the spectrum of $$G$$). Because $$G$$ is connected and $$d$$-regular, its eigenvalues satisfy $$d = \lambda_1 > \lambda_2 $$ $$ \geq \cdots \geq \lambda_n \geq -d $$.

Define $$\lambda(G) = \max_{i\neq 1}|\lambda_i| = \max(|\lambda_2|,\ldots, |\lambda_n|)$$. A connected $$d$$-regular graph $$G$$ is a Ramanujan graph if $$\lambda(G) \leq 2\sqrt{d-1}$$.

Many sources uses an alternative definition $$\lambda'(G) = \max_{|\lambda_i| < d} |\lambda_i|$$ (whenever there exists $$\lambda_i$$ with $$|\lambda_i| < d$$) to define Ramanujan graphs. In other words, we allow $$-d$$ in addition to the "small" eigenvalues. Since $$\lambda_n = -d$$ if and only if the graph is bipartite, we will refer to the graphs that satisfy this alternative definition but not the first definition bipartite Ramanujan graphs. If $$G$$ is a Ramanujan graph, then $$G \times K_2$$ is a bipartite Ramanujan graph, so the existence of Ramanujan graphs is stronger.

As observed by Toshikazu Sunada, a regular graph is Ramanujan if and only if its Ihara zeta function satisfies an analog of the Riemann hypothesis.

Explicit examples

 * The complete graph $$K_{d+1}$$ has spectrum $$d, -1, -1, \dots, -1$$, and thus $$\lambda(K_{d+1}) = 1$$ and the graph is a Ramanujan graph for every $$d > 1$$. The complete bipartite graph $$K_{d,d}$$ has spectrum $$d, 0, 0, \dots, 0, -d$$ and hence is a bipartite Ramanujan graph for every $$d$$.
 * The Petersen graph has spectrum $$3, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, -2, -2, -2, -2$$, so it is a 3-regular Ramanujan graph. The icosahedral graph is a 5-regular Ramanujan graph.
 * A Paley graph of order $$q$$ is $$\frac{q-1}{2}$$-regular with all other eigenvalues being $$\frac{-1\pm\sqrt{q}}{2}$$, making Paley graphs an infinite family of Ramanujan graphs.
 * More generally, let $$f(x)$$ be a degree 2 or 3 polynomial over $$\mathbb{F}_q$$. Let $$S = \{f(x)\, :\, x \in \mathbb{F}_q\}$$ be the image of $$f(x)$$ as a multiset, and suppose $$S = -S$$. Then the Cayley graph for $$\mathbb{F}_q$$ with generators from $$S$$ is a Ramanujan graph.

Mathematicians are often interested in constructing infinite families of $$d$$-regular Ramanujan graphs for every fixed $$d$$. Such families are useful in applications.

Algebraic constructions
Several explicit constructions of Ramanujan graphs arise as Cayley graphs and are algebraic in nature. See Winnie Li's survey on Ramanujan's conjecture and other aspects of number theory relevant to these results.

Lubotzky, Phillips and Sarnak and independently Margulis showed how to construct an infinite family of $$(p+1)$$-regular Ramanujan graphs, whenever $$p$$ is a prime number and $$p\equiv 1 \pmod 4$$. Both proofs use the Ramanujan conjecture, which led to the name of Ramanujan graphs. Besides being Ramanujan graphs, these constructions satisfies some other properties, for example, their girth is $$\Omega(\log_{p}(n))$$ where $$n$$ is the number of nodes.

Let us sketch the Lubotzky-Phillips-Sarnak construction. Let $$q \equiv 1 \bmod 4$$ be a prime not equal to $$p$$. By Jacobi's four-square theorem, there are $$p+1$$ solutions to the equation $$p=a_0^2+a_1^2+a_2^2+a_3^2$$ where $$a_0 > 0$$ is odd and $$a_1, a_2, a_3$$ are even. To each such solution associate the $$\operatorname{PGL}(2,\Z/q\Z)$$ matrix $$\tilde \alpha = \begin{pmatrix}a_0 + ia_1 & a_2 + ia_3 \\ -a_2 + ia_3 & a_0 - ia_1\end{pmatrix},\qquad i \text{ a fixed solution to } i^2 = -1 \bmod q.$$If $$p $$ is not a quadratic residue modulo $$q$$ let $$X^{p,q}$$ be the Cayley graph of $$\operatorname{PGL}(2,\Z/q\Z)$$ with these $$p+1$$ generators, and otherwise, let $$X^{p,q}$$ be the Cayley graph of $$\operatorname{PSL}(2,\Z/q\Z)$$ with the same generators. Then $$X^{p,q}$$ is a $$(p+1)$$-regular graph on $$n=q(q^2-1)$$ or $$q(q^2-1)/2$$ vertices depending on whether or not $$p $$ is a quadratic residue modulo $$q$$. It is proved that $$X^{p,q}$$ is a Ramanujan graph.

Morgenstern later extended the construction of Lubotzky, Phillips and Sarnak. His extended construction holds whenever $$p$$ is a prime power.

Arnold Pizer proved that the supersingular isogeny graphs are Ramanujan, although they tend to have lower girth than the graphs of Lubotzky, Phillips, and Sarnak. Like the graphs of Lubotzky, Phillips, and Sarnak, the degrees of these graphs are always a prime number plus one.

Probabilistic examples
Adam Marcus, Daniel Spielman and Nikhil Srivastava proved the existence of infinitely many $$d$$-regular bipartite Ramanujan graphs for any $$d\geq 3$$. Later they proved that there exist bipartite Ramanujan graphs of every degree and every number of vertices. Michael B. Cohen showed how to construct these graphs in polynomial time.

The initial work followed an approach of Bilu and Linial. They considered an operation called a 2-lift that takes a $$d$$-regular graph $$G$$ with $$n$$ vertices and a sign on each edge, and produces a new $$d$$-regular graph $$G'$$ on $$2n$$ vertices. Bilu & Linial conjectured that there always exists a signing so that every new eigenvalue of $$G'$$ has magnitude at most $$2\sqrt{d-1}$$. This conjecture guarantees the existence of Ramanujan graphs with degree $$d$$ and $$2^k(d+1)$$ vertices for any $$k$$—simply start with the complete graph $$K_{d+1}$$, and iteratively take 2-lifts that retain the Ramanujan property.

Using the method of interlacing polynomials, Marcus, Spielman, and Srivastava proved Bilu & Linial's conjecture holds when $$G$$ is already a bipartite Ramanujan graph, which is enough to conclude the existence result. The sequel proved the stronger statement that a sum of $$d$$ random bipartite matchings is Ramanujan with non-vanishing probability. Hall, Puder and Sawin extended the original work of Marcus, Spielman and Srivastava to $r$-lifts.

It is still an open problem whether there are infinitely many $$d$$-regular (non-bipartite) Ramanujan graphs for any $$d\geq 3$$. In particular, the problem is open for $$d = 7$$, the smallest case for which $$d-1$$ is not a prime power and hence not covered by Morgenstern's construction.

Ramanujan graphs as expander graphs
The constant $$2\sqrt{d-1}$$ in the definition of Ramanujan graphs is asymptotically sharp. More precisely, the Alon-Boppana bound states that for every $$d$$ and $$\epsilon > 0$$, there exists $$n$$ such that all $$d$$-regular graphs $$G$$ with at least $$n$$ vertices satisfy $$\lambda(G) > 2\sqrt{d-1} - \epsilon$$. This means that Ramanujan graphs are essentially the best possible expander graphs.

Due to achieving the tight bound on $$\lambda (G)$$, the expander mixing lemma gives excellent bounds on the uniformity of the distribution of the edges in Ramanujan graphs, and any random walks on the graphs has a logarithmic mixing time (in terms of the number of vertices): in other words, the random walk converges to the (uniform) stationary distribution very quickly. Therefore, the diameter of Ramanujan graphs are also bounded logarithmically in terms of the number of vertices.

Random graphs
Confirming a conjecture of Alon, Friedman showed that many families of random graphs are weakly-Ramanujan. This means that for every $$d$$ and $$\epsilon > 0$$ and for sufficiently large $$n$$, a random $$d$$-regular $$n$$-vertex graph $$G$$ satisfies $$\lambda(G) < 2\sqrt{d-1} + \epsilon$$ with high probability. While this result shows that random graphs are close to being Ramanujan, it cannot be used to prove the existence of Ramanujan graphs. It is conjectured, though, that random graphs are Ramanujan with substantial probability (roughly 52%). In addition to direct numerical evidence, there is some theoretical support for this conjecture: the spectral gap of a $$d$$-regular graph seems to behave according to a Tracy-Widom distribution from random matrix theory, which would predict the same asymptotic.

Applications of Ramanujan graphs
Expander graphs have many applications to computer science, number theory, and group theory, see e.g Lubotzky's survey on applications to pure and applied math and Hoory, Linial, and Wigderson's survey which focuses on computer science.. Ramanujan graphs are in some sense the best expanders, and so they are especially useful in applications where expanders are needed. Importantly, the Lubotzky, Phillips, and Sarnak graphs can be traversed extremely quickly in practice, so they are practical for applications.

Some example applications include

 * In an application to fast solvers for Laplacian linear systems, Lee, Peng, and Spielman relied on the existence of bipartite Ramanujan graphs of every degree in order to quickly approximate the complete graph.
 * Lubetzky and Peres proved that the simple random walk exhibits cutoff phenomenon on all Ramanujan graphs. This means that the random walk undergoes a phase transition from being completely unmixed to completely mixed in the total variation norm. This result strongly relies on the graph being Ramanujan, not just an expander—some good expanders are known to not exhibit cutoff.
 * Ramanujan graphs of Pizer have been proposed as the basis for post-quantum elliptic-curve cryptography.
 * Ramanujan graphs can be used to construct expander codes, which are good error correcting codes.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Ramanujan graph


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Dreamchasers (0th nomination)

I can't figure out what this article is supposed to be about. Maybe someone can enlighten me. Deb 12:14, 22 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * this is something related to Amway, from where it's linked. Cleanup or delete. Ianb 12:21, 22 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. - Kenwarren 13:21, Jul 22, 2004 (UTC)
 * Merge and delete - David Gerard 15:37, 22 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete - not an article, nearly incomprehensible. -- Cyrius|✎ 06:08, 23 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. what the flying fuck? James C. 08:03, 2004 Jul 23 (UTC)
 * Delete: Ah, the Ponzy scheme that is Amway. This is a fragment from a discussion of one type of multilevel marketing done by them.  It doesn't need to be a separate article. Geogre 14:01, 23 Jul 2004 (UTC)


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BookmarkSync

BookmarkSync is an automatic synchronization service that allows users to access their bookmarks or favorites from any computer or web browser. The BookmarkSync client runs as a program within the computer's system tray and monitors the bookmarks in the user's browser, automatically uploading any changes to a central server. This allows one to keep browsers across separate synchronized computers. Cross-platform synchronization is possible by using the Mac OS X client.

History
SyncIT.com Inc. was founded by Michael Berneis and Terence Way in November 1998 with the website going live in March 1999. At its peak, SyncIT.com grew to a size of 350,000 users.

After a server failure in September 2003, the entire project was open-sourced. The rights for SyncIT.com were taken over by Jhas Dean, who ran Sync2It.com and BookmarkSync.com. Dean developed a new client for the latest browsers, including Firefox and Mac platform.

Features
The BookmarkSync client software enables social bookmarking and bookmark data clustering. The user data input requirements of web-based systems incorporating tagging to build a folksonomy, are eliminated by the automated BookmarkSync client software. Sync2It.com has added bookmark clustering and user bookmark ratios to their search results.

Recent updates include BookmarkSync client software include support for Unicode, fast search and locate, local backup and restore functions, local site validation, social bookmark browsing, and multiple language support (German, French, Danish, Dutch, Czech, and Spanish).

The BookmarkSync service is free.

title: BookmarkSync


text:
Talk:Piano blues

Is there a standard way of adding musical notation to wiki? Would here be the right place to add the basic blues chord progression(s) and blues scale(s)?

This is weak!
I wanna expand this stubbins. Who wants ta help? Harmelodix (talk) 23:56, 12 June 2014 (UTC)

title: Talk:Piano blues


text:
Tango n' Vectif

Tango n' Vectif is the debut studio album by English electronic music producers Mike Paradinas and Francis Naughton under the stage name μ-Ziq. It was released in November 1993 by Rephlex. The cover photo of the original release was taken by Richard D. James.

Tango n' Vectif was re-released on 1 October 2001 as a double CD with additional tracks that were on the original vinyl and CD releases as well as the "Phi * 1700" single.

Reception
In a positive review, Rupert Howe of Select stated that "like many of the Rephlex releases, it may sound rough-hewn, but there's nothing unsophisticated about the music."

title: Tango n' Vectif


text:
Rick Baker (disambiguation)

Rick Baker (born 1950) is an American special makeup effects artist.

Rick Baker may also refer to:

 * Rick Baker (mayor) (born 1956), former mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida
 * "The Righteous Maker" Rick Baker (born 1982), American professional wrestler also known as D-Ray 3000

title: Rick Baker (disambiguation)


text:
Free Protestant Episcopal Church

The Free Protestant Episcopal Church (FPEC), later named The Anglican Free Communion and now entitled the  Episcopal Free Communion, was formed in England on 2 November 1897 from the merger of three smaller churches. Others were to join later.

The ordination of bishops from within the apostolic succession was of major importance to this group, as also was having the church recognized as a lawfully constituted religious denomination. The latter event occurred, at least tacitly, when an archdeacon from the group was exempted from World War I conscription in 1917 due to his clergy status, which would not have been permitted had the group not been considered a lawfully constituted denomination.

Formation of the church, 1897
In 1890, Bishop Leon Chechemian, who had been a priest (vardapet) in the Armenian Catholic Church and later emigrated to England, where he was consecrated as a bishop, created the Free Protestant Church of England. In 1897 his church united with two other churches, the Ancient British Church and the Nazarene Episcopal Church, thus creating the Free Protestant Episcopal Church of England, an Anglican church independent of the Church of England. Chechemian was appointed the first primus of the newly formed FPEC.

History
The church had traditionally been quite small. There are various reasons for this, but one of them seems to be that clergy had tended to pass through it as a church in which to be ordained by bishops from the historic apostolic succession before moving on to other, larger church bodies. More recently, the communion has evolved and grown, at present having 25 provinces in different US states and countries.

Leadership of the church moved to the United States in 1978 but returned to the United Kingdom in 2015.

Links with Mar Georgius, 1956–1960
From 1956 to 1960, the FPEC was formally affiliated to the movement then led by Hugh George de Willmott Newman (Mar Georgius). Formal links ceased in October 1960.

Schism, circa 1978–2011
The FPEC has known internal dissension, some based on theological disputes and some on personalities. After a schism (circa 1978) in the communion, one of the factions led by Horst Block was renamed "The International Free Protestant Episcopal Church" (TIFPEC). On 12 February 2008, Block died and Bishop Peter Leers succeeded him as the primus of TIFPEC. In February 2011, Leers dissolved that jurisdiction, ending the division.

The original organization (FPEC) survived. Edwin Duane Follick was primus at the time of the 2011 reconciliation, and thus he became primus of the reunited body.

Schism of 2020
In 2020 a group of bishops mostly from Latin America formally declared their intent to remove Archbishop Palmer. This was done without the approval of the other bishops within the communion, and thus this group which continued to use the name Anglican Free Communion are considered a schismatic group by the original communion as can be read on the official website used by the AFC. This schismatic group would eventually add the name "International" to its name becoming the Anglican Free Communion International (AFCI). This group is headed by Archbishop Firestone but is not the original AFC.

Names
During the bishops' synod of 2012 in Bolivia, the organization adopted the new name "The Anglican Free Communion".

In August 2020 after the schism with the Anglican Free Communion International the communion renamed itself the Episcopal Free Communion, in acknowledgement of the communion original name.

Other names that have been used during the church's history include "Episcopal Apostolic Church of England" and "Ecumenical Church Foundation".

Description
The Free Protestant Episcopal Church (The Anglican Free Communion) is one of the oldest Anglican Communions in existence and is constituted by a large group of Anglicans of all varieties of churchmanship from Anglo-Catholic (High Church), Evangelical (Low Church), Latitudinarian (Broad Church), Charismatic and Liberal.

All of the Provinces of the Communion are autonomous, comprising self-governing churches and families of churches around the world.

As at 2016, Richard Arthur Palmer is the Primus. Richard Arthur Palmer was consecrated in the Liberal Catholic Church in 1997. He has subsequently been involved in the Reformed Liberal Catholic Church (Old Catholic), the Society for Independent Christian Ministry, the Open Episcopal Church and the United Episcopal Church. He was one of the founders of the Open Episcopal Church and for a five-year term he was its primate.

The Free Protestant Episcopal Church is a communion of free Anglican churches around the world, living an Anglican reconciliation and unity.

Apostolic succession
The church claims valid apostolic succession derived from the Armenian Catholic Church, the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Church of England (through the Reformed Episcopal Church of the United States of America). These lines were in the jurisdictions that united in 1897 to found the Free Protestant Episcopal Church.

It is doubtful whether the line of succession from the Armenian Catholic Church is carries an un-broken episcopal succession. Leon Chechemain was a vardapet in the Armenian Catholic Church but evidence that he was ever a bishop in that church is lacking.

Succession of primuses
Note: For a full list of patriarchs of the Ancient British Church and Celtic Orthodox Church, refer to the wikipage of the Celtic Orthodox Church.
 * Leon Chechemian ("Mar Leon") (lived 1848– 1920) served as primus of FPEC from the formation of FPEC on 2 November 1897 until 30 December 1900
 * Charles Isaac Stevens ("Mar Theophilus I") (second patriarch of the Ancient British Church, from 1889 onwards) (lived 1835–1917) served as primus of FPEC from 30 December 1900 until his death on 2 February 1917
 * James Martin ("Mar Jacobus I Antipas") (third patriarch of the Ancient British Church) (lived 1843–1919) served as primus of FPEC from 1917 until his death on 29 October 1919
 * Andrew Charles Albert McLagan ("Mar Andries I") (fourth patriarch of the Ancient British Church) (lived 1851–1928) served as primus of FPEC from 1919 until his death on 16 October 1928
 * Herbert James Monzani-Heard ("Mar Jacobus II") (fifth patriarch of the Ancient British Church)(lived 1861–1947) served as primus of FPEC from 1930 until 18 May 1939 (continued as patriarch of the Ancient British Church until 29 January 1945)
 * William Hall (lived 1890–1959) served from 18 May 1945 until his death on 9 October 1959
 * Charles Dennis Boltwood (lived 1889–1985) had been elected (circa 1951/1954) to succeed Wm Hall. However, Boltwood did not actually become primus until Hall's death on 9 October 1959, then serving until 17 October 1978
 * Albert John Fuge (Snr) (lived 1911–1982) served from 1978 until his death on 30 April 1982 (Note: Horst Block led as schismatic group from circa 1978 until his death in 2008; Peter Leers then led this group until the schism was healed in 2011)
 * Charles Dennis Boltwood served pro-tem as 'Primus-Emeritus' for an interim period of nine weeks from Fuge's death on 30 April 1982 until 7 July 1982
 * Charles Kennedy Moffatt (lived 1907–1989) served from 7 July 1982 until his death on 7 November 1989
 * Edwin Duane Follick (born 1935) was the senior serving bishop at the time of Moffatt's death. In 1994, Follick was recognised as Primus and as having been Primus from 7 November 1989.  Follick retired on 5 February 2015.
 * Richard Arthur Palmer from 5 February 2015

title: Free Protestant Episcopal Church


text:
1997–98 Heineken Cup

The 1997–98 Heineken Cup was the third edition of the Heineken Cup European rugby union club competition. Competing professional club teams from France, Ireland, Italy, Wales, England and Scotland, were divided into five pools of four, in which teams played home and away matches against each other. The pool winners automatically qualified for the knock-out stages. The five runners-up and the best third placed team entered the play-offs, where they competed for the remaining three quarter final positions.

Pool stage
In the pool matches teams received
 * 2 points for a win
 * 1 points for a draw

Semi-finals
Brive advance to final on try count (two tries to one)

title: 1997–98 Heineken Cup


text:
Bluff Limbo

Bluff Limbo is the second album of British IDM Producer μ-Ziq and the follow-up to Tango N' Vectif.

Reception
Bluff Limbo was placed at number 35 on the NME's list for best albums of 1994.

Disc one

 * 1) "Hector's House"  – 4:26
 * 2) "Commemorative Pasta"  – 4:37
 * 3) "Gob Bots"  – 4:50
 * 4) "The Wheel"  – 6:15
 * 5) "27"  – 1:18
 * 6) "Metal Thing #3"  – 5:51
 * 7) "Twangle Frent"  – 7:06
 * 8) "Make It Funky"  – 4:38
 * 9) "Zombies"  – 5:17

Disc two

 * 1) "Riostand"  – 6:18
 * 2) "Organic Tomato Yoghurt"  – 3:58
 * 3) "Sick Porter"  – 5:15
 * 4) "Sick Porter"  – 7:38
 * 5) "Dance #2"  – 5:46
 * 6) "Nettle + Pralines"  – 6:29
 * 7) "Ethereal Murmurings"  – 10:20

Personnel

 * Mike Paradinas - Composer, producer

title: Bluff Limbo


text:
Blue Rodeo

Blue Rodeo is a Canadian country rock band formed in 1984 in Toronto, Ontario. They have released 16 full-length studio albums, four live recordings, one greatest hits album, and two video/DVDs, along with multiple solo albums, side projects, and collaborations.

History
High school friends Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor began playing music professionally together after completing university. They put together several bands without commercial success in the late 1970s, releasing a single as Hi-Fi's in 1980.

Cuddy and Keelor moved to New York City in the early 1980s to further their music careers. There they met keyboardist and fellow Canadian Bob Wiseman, who was at that time working as a producer. Upon returning to Toronto in the summer of 1984, the trio decided to form a band. The name "Blue Rodeo" had already been chosen for the new group when they met former David Wilcox drummer Cleave Anderson and asked him to join. Anderson in turn recommended his former bandmate in The Sharks, bassist Bazil Donovan, and the new band's lineup was essentially set. On February 7, 1985, Blue Rodeo played their first show together at The Rivoli in Toronto; one week later, they performed at Handsome Ned's "Honky Tonk Heart".

The band quickly earned a following in Toronto and was subsequently signed to Canadian independent record label Risque Disque. They entered the studio in 1986 with Rush producer Terry Brown and recorded several songs that would comprise Blue Rodeo's debut album, Outskirts. Released in March, 1987, Outskirts met with moderate success in Canada, until "Try" was released as a single in October of that year. The single was an immediate hit, going to number one on the RPM Country Tracks chart and number six on the RPM Top Singles chart, establishing Blue Rodeo as one of Canada's top new bands and carrying Outskirts to 4× Platinum status in sales. The music video for the single featured Keelor's then-girlfriend Michelle McAdorey, who soon had success with her own band, Crash Vegas.

In 1992, the band's song "After the Rain", written by Cuddy and Keelor, was the most-performed song in Canada. By 1999 the band had sold more than two million albums in Canada.

Cuddy, Keelor, Donovan, Boguski and Cripps have all released solo albums. Glenn Milchem performs his own solo music under the pseudonym "the swallows" and had co-founded, with his twin brother John, the rock duo Starvin Hungry. Keelor has also gone on to produce for other artists, notably alt-country group Cuff the Duke, who have also toured as support for Blue Rodeo.

Blue Rodeo members have collaborated extensively with other notable Canadian artists, including Sarah McLachlan, The Tragically Hip, Burton Cummings, Great Big Sea, Jann Arden, The Sadies, Skydiggers, Cuff the Duke, Crash Vegas, Cowboy Junkies, Sarah Harmer, Jill Barber, and Kathleen Edwards. They have won many Canadian music awards, including twelve Juno Awards and seven SOCAN awards.

On June 16, 2009, it was announced that the band would receive a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto. The induction ceremony was held on September 12, 2009. They are the fifth band to receive the honour.

Blue Rodeo was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame at the 41st Juno Awards on April 1, 2012, joining other Canadian music icons including Rush, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, The Band, Oscar Peterson, Bruce Cockburn, Daniel Lanois, Joni Mitchell, Anne Murray and Tom Cochrane. According to CARAS, on selecting Blue Rodeo as the 2012 inductees, "Spanning nearly three decades, Blue Rodeo has sold in excess of four million records and won an unprecedented 11 JUNO Awards, establishing themselves as one of the premier groups in Canadian music history."

In May 2014, the band received a Governor General's Performing Arts Award (GGPAA) for Lifetime Artistic Achievement, Canada's highest honour in the performing arts. At the Gala honouring GGPAA recipients on May 10, the band delivered the evening's surprise finale.

On August 5, 2013, former keyboard player James Gray died as the result of a heart attack. He was 52 years old.

Canadian guitarist Colin Cripps joined Blue Rodeo as a full member in 2013, due to Greg Keelor's inability to play electric guitar live any more, caused by hearing issues.

In September 2015, Blue Rodeo released the protest song and video "Stealin All My Dreams" which "chronicle the failings of the current government", referring to the government under Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

The band is a member of Canadian charity Artists Against Racism.

The City of Toronto named Blue Rodeo Drive, a street in the Riverdale neighbourhood near the band's studio, after the band in 2022.

Television and film

 * Blue Rodeo's song "Flying" appears on the soundtrack to the television show Due South as track 10, album released in 1996.
 * Blue Rodeo’s song “Lost Together” (from the album of the same name) is featured near the conclusion (and plays over the end credits) of Resident Alien season 3, episode 3 (“141 Seconds”).
 * The song "Hasn't Hit Me Yet" is played in a 2003 episode of the American television series “Ed,” as well as the 2015 British documentary The Fear of 13 about exonerated death row inmate Nick Yarris.
 * The songs "Try" and "Heart Like Mine" are played in the episode "Cupid's Quiver" of the TV show Friday the 13th The Series.
 * The song "Bad Timing" is played towards the end of the season 4 finale of the hit Canadian show Corner Gas.
 * Blue Rodeo is the band appearing at the end of the 1990 film Postcards from the Edge.
 * The song "Try" is played in the background of the bar in the film Navy SEALs.
 * Greg Keelor, one of the band's founding members, composed the soundtrack for the 2010 film Gunless. The soundtrack for the Canadian Western comedy also featured an original ballad by Blue Rodeo titled "Don't Let the Darkness in Your Head".

Concerts
On August 11, 1988, the band played the Erie County Fair in Hamburg, New York (a suburb of Buffalo). They were the headliners after a high school battle of the bands competition. The disastrous gig was the inspiration for their 1990 hit, "What Am I Doing Here."

As part of their 20th Anniversary celebrations in 2004, the "original five" line up of Jim Cuddy, Greg Keelor, Bazil Donovan, Bob Wiseman and Cleave Anderson reunited for a live performance of five songs: "Heart Like Mine", "Try", "Diamond Mine", "Love and Understanding", and "Til I Am Myself Again". The set is included on the DVD In Stereovision: Blue Rodeo.

On Canada Day 2008, Blue Rodeo played on Parliament Hill. The band closed the show before the commencement of the fireworks and was joined on stage by several other artists to perform "Lost Together". On November 28, 2009 the band performed at half-time of the 97th Grey Cup. The band also performed live concerts for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

Cuddy and Keelor performed at the annual Folk on the Rocks music festival in Yellowknife, NT from July 16 to 18, 2010.

On October 19, 2010, Blue Rodeo played the music viral show BalconyTV for a rare acoustic performance on a small Balcony overlooking Dame Street, Dublin.

On July 1, 2011, Blue Rodeo performed at Trafalgar Square as part of the Canada Day in London celebrations.

Blue Rodeo performed at their induction to the Canadian Music Hall of Fame during the Juno Awards of 2012 at Scotiabank Place in the community of Kanata in Ottawa, Ontario on Sunday April 1, 2012. They took the stage with long-time friend and collaborator Sarah McLachlan and performed their 1992 hit single, "Lost Together". As the performance ended, the audience rose for a spirited standing ovation recognizing Blue Rodeo as "one of Canada's true musical treasures".

On January 1, 2017, Blue Rodeo took part in CBC's The Strombo Show's Hip 30, covering "Bobcaygeon".

Blue Rodeo hosts an annual concert each summer at Budweiser Stage. 2020 was the first time in years the concert did not take place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, the band performed on Citytv's Budweiser Stage at Home.

Current members

 * Jim Cuddy – vocals, guitar (1984–present)
 * Greg Keelor – vocals, guitar (1984–present)
 * Bazil Donovan – bass (1984–present)
 * Glenn Milchem – drums (1991–present)
 * Michael Boguski – piano, organ (2008–present)
 * Colin Cripps – guitar, backing vocals (2012–present)
 * Jimmy Bowskill – pedal steel, mandolin, guitar (2017–present)

Former members

 * Cleave Anderson – drums (1984–1989)
 * Bob Wiseman – piano, organ (1984–1992)
 * Mark French – drums (1989–1991)
 * James Gray – piano, organ (1992–2005; died 2013)
 * Kim Deschamps – pedal steel, mandolin, guitar (1993–2000)
 * Bob Packwood – piano, organ (2005–2008)
 * Bob Egan – pedal steel, mandolin, guitar (2000–2016)

Studio albums

 * Outskirts (1987)
 * Diamond Mine (1989)
 * Casino (1990)
 * Lost Together (1992)
 * Five Days in July (1993)
 * Nowhere to Here (1995)
 * Tremolo (1997)
 * The Days in Between (2000)
 * Palace of Gold (2002)
 * Are You Ready (2005)
 * Small Miracles (2007)
 * The Things We Left Behind (2009)
 * In Our Nature (2013)
 * A Merrie Christmas to You (2014)
 * 1000 Arms (2016)
 * Many a Mile (2021)

Videography

 * Video albums
 * Blue Movies (1991)
 * In Stereovision (2004) - Certified 3× Platinum by the CRIA.
 * Toronto Rocks (SARSfest) (2004) - Canadian edition featuring Blue Rodeo.

 * Video singles
 * "Bulletproof" (from Watch This!) (2004)

 * Soundtrack appearances
 * "I'm Checkin' Out" with Meryl Streep (from Postcards from the Edge) (1990)

title: Blue Rodeo


text: User:Keresaspa

title: User:Keresaspa


text:
MIVA Script

Miva Script is a proprietary computer scripting language mainly used for internet applications such as e-commerce. As of 2015, it is developed, maintained and owned by Miva Merchant, Inc., based in San Diego, California. Many web hosting companies support Miva Script on their servers, but it is significantly less widespread than other popular web languages.

History
The language was first developed under the name HTMLScript by Joe Austin and others in 1995, and a company, HTMLScript Corporation, was formed the following year.

The origins of Miva Script began in 1993 when David Haldy and Joseph Austin built the first version of HTMLScript. The first version was written in the programming language Perl, which was called Logic Enhanced HTML (LEHTML). Joseph Austin wrote a wrapper for it in the programming language C that let it start off as a root process and then downgrade itself immediately to the ownership and permissions of the owner of the script file. This wrapper made it suitable for use with his hosting service which was called Volant Turnpike at the time. Joseph Austin eventually sold Volant Turnpike to Dave Haldy. Perl allowed self-executing code, so LEHTML did not have its own expression analyzer and just parsed the expression into Perl syntax and then passed it into Perl. Volant Turnpike users liked using LEHTML, so Joseph Austin and Ron Ahern wrote an expression analyzer and re-implemented the LEHTML syntax in the C language. Joseph Austin called the result HTMLScript and registered the name with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Joseph Austin, Troy McCasland and Derek Finley were the founders of the company called HTMLScript Corporation.

HTMLScript did not have the concept of a "WHILE" or "FOR" loop because of the low server processing power at the time. It would be enough to bring the whole server down if even one program ran away. So, Joseph Austin did not implement a loop to make it impossible for an HTMLScript server process to run away. Also, he implemented the macro in the first version of HTMLScript so it would allow self-executing code. The macro was powerful, but it eventually had some security issues.

In 1997, Jon Burchmore extensively rewrote the language to make it more syntactically consistent, although the new engine supported both old HTMLScript and new (named mivascript) syntaxes. Jon Burchmore rewrote HTMLScript with syntax that Joe developed with the help of SoftQuad, using the emerging XML standard. Jon Burchmore wrote the replacement for KoolKat which then became Miva Merchant. The new end-product supported both the old HTMLScript syntax and new (named Miva Script) syntaxes.

On October 14, 1997, HTMLScript’s name was changed to Miva Script and the company name was changed to Miva. Soon afterward, Miva Merchant followed suit for the name of the product. The name Miva comes from the Egyptian hieroglyphics for the word cat. The word for cat is a combination of two symbols: milk basin followed by a quail. The milk basin is pronounced mee and the quail is pronounced waa which are combined to say cat. Joseph Austin thought this was clever, as they had called KoolKat “an electronic (cat)alog.” Joseph showed it to a German friend who could not pronounce the waa sound and instead kept on pronouncing it as va. Joseph Austin registered the domain Miva.com and filed the trademark.

In 1998, the firm was renamed Miva Corporation. In 1998, the first version of Miva Merchant came out. In 2002, the Miva Script compiler was delivered, and the HTMLScript syntax and macros were dropped from the engine. Miva Corporation was sold in 2003 to a mid-cap, public company called FindWhat. Subsequently, FindWhat bought the name Miva.

In 2007, Russell Carroll and a group of investors bought the original Miva technologies and customer base from Miva and started Miva Merchant, Inc.

Language features
Miva Script is often described as 'XML-like' although this is something of a misnomer. It consists of tags which may be interspersed with HTML and XHTML and which all start with <Mv. There are both paired and stand-alone (empty) tags. Before version 4.14, Miva Script was interpreted by the Miva Script engine, Empresa. Version 4.00 introduced a compiler, boosting performance significantly.

One of the distinguishing features of Miva Script is the native support for a variation of dBase database platform (DBF III) tables with a proprietary index format and support for SQL. Many installations today are running with MySQL database.

Variables are untyped and are not pre-declared. Miva Script uses the file extensions .mv, .mvc, and .mvt which is the common file extension for runtime compiled template source files.

Miva Merchant Empresa
Empresa is the underlying engine for Miva Script. In versions numbered less than 4.0, Miva Merchant Empresa is a script interpreter available for web servers running *nix and Microsoft Windows operating systems. The most recent interpreter version is 3.9705. Interpreted Miva Script is still widely supported by many web hosts. Versions numbered 3.9x are a transitional form of the language, implementing some (but not all) of the new features found in version 4, such as arrays.

Since 4.0, Miva Merchant Empresa is a Virtual Machine for running compiled Miva Script, again available in versions for *nix and Microsoft Windows.

The current version level 5.x added new language constructs, native SQL support, a new access-methodology for dbase3 tables, called MIVA-SQL, and a new templating syntax that the Empresa virtual machine can compile on the fly. Version 5.08 and later support the GD Graphics Library.

Miva Merchant Mia
Miva Merchant Mia is a version of the Empresa engine designed to run on a Windows PC as a localhost server watching a specified port, usually 8000 or 8080. No other server software is needed unless the Post Office Protocol (POP) and SMTP functions are used. This provides a portable, stand-alone development environment.

Miva Merchant Mia is updated with each Miva Merchant Empresa release. Like Empressa, versions pre-4 are interpreters while post-4.0 work only with compiled script. There are a few minor differences between.

Miva Merchant Script Compiler -- Miva Script
Miva Merchant Script Compiler was introduced in mid-2002, claiming to offer better performance and the closure of application source code. Compilability required some changes to the language, with support for the old HTMLScript syntax and macros evaluated at runtime (often considered a security risk) dropped. The compiler produces a platform-independent bytecode which runs on the Miva Merchant Empresa and Miva Merchant Mia Virtual Machines Minor variations exist between Empresa and Mia virtual machines.

In May 2005, MIVA Corporation made the Script Compiler available free. In 2011, the built in licensing code was removed simplifying installation.

In August 2007, Miva Merchant was separated from its parent company due to a management buy-out.

Miva Script 5.0 Introduced the a page template compiler command which is the basis for Miva Merchant Storemorph&trade; page template system. This compiler within a compiler offers a simplified subset of the full language, more suitable for end user creation and editing of web page templates. Storemorph&trade; pages allow modular components created in MivaScript, to be added to a template extending its capabilities.

title: MIVA Script


text:
In Pine Effect

In Pine Effect is the third studio album by English electronic music producer Mike Paradinas under the stage name μ-Ziq. It was released on 31 October 1995 by Hi-Rise Recordings in the United Kingdom, and later by Astralwerks in the United States.

title: In Pine Effect


text:
Pete Shelley

Pete Shelley (born Peter Campbell McNeish; 17 April 1955 – 6 December 2018) was an English singer, songwriter and guitarist. He formed early punk band Buzzcocks with Howard Devoto in 1976, and became the lead singer and guitarist in 1977 when Devoto left. The group released their biggest hit "Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)" in 1978. The band broke up in 1981 and reformed at the end of the decade. Shelley also had a solo career; his song "Homosapien" charted in Australasia and Canada in 1981 and 1982.

Biography
Shelley was born to Margaret and John McNeish in Leigh, Lancashire. His mother was an ex-mill worker in the town and his father was a fitter at Astley Green Colliery. He had a younger brother, Gary. Shelley's stage name is inspired by Percy Bysshe Shelley, his favourite poet.

Buzzcocks
Shelley formed Buzzcocks with Howard Devoto after they met at the Bolton Institute of Technology (now the University of Bolton) in 1975 and subsequently travelled to High Wycombe, near London, to see the Sex Pistols. The band included bass guitarist Steve Diggle and drummer John Maher; they made their first appearance in 1976 in Manchester, opening for the Sex Pistols.

In 1977 Buzzcocks released their first EP, Spiral Scratch, on their independent label, New Hormones. When Devoto left the band in February 1977, Shelley took over as the lead vocalist and chief songwriter. Working with the producer Martin Rushent, the band created the punk/new wave singles "Orgasm Addict", "What Do I Get?" and "Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)", along with three LPs: Another Music in a Different Kitchen (1978), Love Bites (1978) and A Different Kind of Tension (1979). Difficulties with their record company and a dispute with Virgin Publishing over the UK release of their greatest hits record, Singles Going Steady, brought the band to a halt in 1981.

Shelley developed a different personal image from many of his rebellious 1970s punk contemporaries, telling Melody Maker in 1978, "I won't be nasty. We're just four nice lads, the kind of people you could take home to your parents."

Solo career
Shelley's solo debut album Sky Yen was recorded in 1974, but remained unheard until it was released on 12" vinyl on Shelley's own label, Groovy Records, in March 1980. It was recorded as a continuous piece of music using a purpose-built oscillator, and used layered electronics and playback speed manipulation to achieve its experimental feel. Rooted in electronic music, it has been compared with krautrock. Also released on Groovy Records was the soundtrack LP Hangahar by Sally Timms and Lindsay Lee, which included Shelley as a musician, and an album by artists Eric Random, Barry Adamson and Francis Cookson under the name Free Agents. Groovy Records did not release any other records.

Shortly after the success of "Ever Fallen In Love....", Shelly produced an EP by Manchester band Mellatron, including Dave Tucker and Karl Burns, both at various times members of The Fall, but it was never released, after the record label's owner was arrested and the master tapes disappeared.

In 1981, Shelley released his first solo single, "Homosapien", produced by Rushent. On this recording he returned to his original interests in electronic music and shifted emphasis from guitar to synthesiser; Rushent's elaborate drum machine and synthesiser programming laid the groundwork for his next production, the chart-topping album Dare by the Human League. "Homosapien" was banned by the BBC for "explicit reference to gay sex". "Homosapien" peaked at number fourteen in the US dance chart. Shelley talked openly about his bisexuality at this time, which had been implicit in many of the songs he had written, but now came to wider attention due to "Homosapien" and the BBC ban. The single was followed by an LP of the same title.

Shelley released his second LP XL1 in 1983 on Genetic Records. As well as the minor hit "Telephone Operator", the album included a computer program for the ZX Spectrum with lyrics and graphics that displayed in time to the music. XL1 was produced by Rushent and Shelley.

In mid-1984, Shelley released the single "Never Again", followed by the album Heaven and the Sea in 1986. In 1987, he followed the album with a new song, "Do Anything", for the film Some Kind of Wonderful. He composed the theme music for the intro of the Tour de France on Channel 4, which was used from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s.

Shelley recorded a new version of "Homosapien", called "Homosapien II", in 1989. The single featured four mixes of the new recording. He played with various other musicians during his career, including the Invisible Girls who backed punk poet John Cooper Clarke. Shelley also formed a short-lived band called the Tiller Boys. He briefly reunited with Howard Devoto to make the LP Buzzkunst, released in 2002. Shelley appeared on the 2005 debut EP by the Los Angeles band the Adored, who toured with Buzzcocks the following year.

Buzzcocks reform
Buzzcocks reunited in 1989 and released a new full-length album, Trade Test Transmissions, in 1993. They continued to tour and record and released the album The Way in 2014. In 2005 Shelley re-recorded "Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)" with an all-star group, including Roger Daltrey, David Gilmour, Peter Hook, Elton John, Robert Plant and several contemporary bands, as a tribute to John Peel; proceeds went to Amnesty International. Shelley performed the song live at the 2005 UK Music Hall of Fame.

Personal life and death
Shelley was married to Miniko in 1991 and divorced in 2002. Their son Alex was born in 1993. He then moved to Tallinn, Estonia, in 2012 after marrying Greta, an Estonian, preferring the less-hectic pace there to London where he had lived for nearly thirty years. He died there of a suspected heart attack on the morning of 6 December 2018. His brother, Gary McNeish, announced his death on Facebook.

Tributes to Shelley came from a diverse range of music industry professionals, including Pearl Jam, Duff McKagan, Pixies, Billy Talent, Peter Hook, Duran Duran, Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Joyce, Noel Gallagher, Gary Kemp, Flea, Mike Mills, Ginger Wildheart, Glen Matlock and Stuart Braithwaite. Musician Billy Bragg paid tribute to Shelley, covering Buzzcocks', "Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)", on 7 December 2018 at the Meredith Music Festival.

Following his death, the Pete Shelley Memorial campaign was established in order to raise funds to create a lasting memorial in his hometown for his achievements and contributions to the music industry.

Albums

 * Sky Yen (1980) Groovy Records
 * Hangahar (1980) by Sally Smmit (aka Sally Timms of The Mekons) musicians group included Pete Shelley) Groovy Records
 * Homosapien (1981) Genetic-Island/Arista; AUS No. 42, CAN No. 22
 * XL1 (1983) Island/Arista
 * Heaven and the Sea (1986)
 * Buzzkunst (2002) as shelleydevoto (with Howard Devoto)

Singles

 * "Homosapien" (1981), Genetic-Island/Arista - AUS No. 4, CAN No. 6, US Dance No. 14
 * "I Don't Know What It Is" (1981), Genetic-Island/Arista - US Dance No. 22
 * "Witness the Change" (1981) - US Dance No. 63
 * "Qu'est-Ce Que C'est Que Ça" (1982)
 * "Homosapien" (1982), Genetic-Island/Arista
 * "Telephone Operator" (1983), Island/Arista - US Dance No. 22, UK No. 66
 * "Millions of People (No One Like You)" (1983) - UK No. 94
 * "Never Again" (1984), Immaculate
 * "Waiting for Love" (1986), Mercury
 * "On Your Own" (1986), Mercury - US Dance No. 10
 * "Blue Eyes" (1986), Mercury
 * "I Surrender" (1986), Mercury
 * "Your Love" (1988)
 * "Homosapien II" (Pete Shelley vs. Power, Wonder and Love) (1989), Immaculate

title: Pete Shelley


text:
Tuna (Polynesian mythology)

In Polynesian mythology, Tuna is a god of eels. In Hawaiian mythology he fights with Māui, who is having an affair with his wife Hina. Māui kills him, cuts off his head, and plants it near his home. A green shoot emerges from the spot where the head was buried, and grows into the first coconut palm. In the mythology of Mangaia Tuna is the lover of Hine, and asks that his head be cut off and planted in order to stop a flood. A coconut shoot grows from the head. A variant of the story is told in the Samoan myth of Sina and the Eel.

title: Tuna (Polynesian mythology)


text:
1996–97 Heineken Cup

The 1996–97 Heineken Cup was the second edition of the Heineken Cup, an international competition for the top European rugby union clubs. Competing teams from France, Ireland, Italy, Wales and, for the first time, England and Scotland, were divided into four pools of five, with each team playing the other teams once, meaning two home and two away games per team. The pool winners and runners-up qualified for the knock-out stages. The competition was won by a French team for the second time, when Brive beat their English opponents Leicester Tigers 28–9 at the Cardiff Arms Park. The defending champions Toulouse were knocked out in the semi-final by Leicester Tigers and Brive beat Cardiff in the other semi-final.

Teams
The qualifying teams were drawn from six countries. Generally, these were the strongest teams from the top division of domestic rugby; weaker teams participated in the Challenge Cup:
 * England: 4 teams from the English Premiership
 * France: 4 teams from the French Championship
 * Ireland: 3 teams representing one of the four Provinces of Ireland
 * Italy: 2 teams from the National Championship of Excellence
 * Scotland: 3 teams representing one of the four geographical districts
 * Wales: 4 teams from the Welsh Premier Division

Pool stage
In the pool matches teams received
 * 2 points for a win
 * 1 point for a draw

Final
The final was played on 25 January 1997 at the Arms Park in Cardiff. The match was contested by Brive of France and Leicester of England. Brive won the match 28–9; they took the lead early on through a fourth-minute penalty from Christophe Lamaison, and Sébastien Viars extended that lead with an unconverted try two minutes later. Leicester responded with three penalties from John Liley, but Brive finally made their pressure show with three second-half tries, one of which was converted, before Lamaison added a drop goal to seal a 19-point victory.

title: 1996–97 Heineken Cup