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MS Silja Europa

MS Silja Europa is a cruiseferry constructed at Meyer Werft Germany for the Swedish ferry operator Rederi AB Slite, a part of Viking Line. At 59,914 gross tonnage (GT), she is the largest ship commissioned for and to ever operate for Tallink Silja, and is the tenth-largest cruiseferry in the world.

Just before she was due for delivery, Slite entered economic difficulties and could no longer afford the ship, so Meyer Werft kept her and she was soon chartered to Viking Line's rival, Silja Line. She was put on the Helsinki–Stockholm route, replacing MS Silja Serenade which was put to the Turku–Mariehamn–Stockholm route, but the two ships swapped routes with each other again in 1995.

History
MS Silja Europa was commissioned by Rederi AB Slite and launched on 23 January 1993. As a result of the 1990-1994 Swedish financial crisis, the Swedish krona was floated in 1992 and consequently lost value. The Europa became SEK500,000,000 more expensive for Slite, whose bank, Nordbanken, had stopped guaranteeing loans. Combined with the construction of other ships, Slite was declared bankrupt in April 1993. She was christened the Silja Europa in Hamburg, Germany on 5 March 1993, then registered the next day to Fährschiff Europa KB. With a ten-year charter to Finnish cruisferry company Silja Line, Silja Europa made her maiden voyage on 14 March 1993.

On 28 September 1994, Silja Europa was the first vessel to receive the Mayday message from the sinking MS Estonia, and became the second vessel to arrive on-scene (after MS Mariella) following Estonia's capsizing and sinking. The captain of Silja Europa, Esa Mäkelä, was appointed On-Scene Commander for the rescue operation.

In January 2000, a catalytic converter was installed at Aker Finnyards in Rauma, Finland. The funnel received a new blue paintjob, and the ship's safety system was renewed. This was made following the incident of Estonia.

Silja Line was sold to Estonian shipping company Tallink in May 2006 - the Silja Line brand was initially kept separate, but most of its ships (including the Silja Europa) are now in Tallink livery. Silja Europa 's home port was changed to Tallinn and entered Tallink's Helsinki–Tallinn service on 23 January 2013. She was then sailed to Australia on a 14-month charter as an accommodation ship for the Gorgon LNG project at Barrow Island. After this charter, Tallink returned Silja Europa to their Helsinki-Tallinn service on 13 March 2016.

In 2021, she was hired by Devon and Cornwall Police for a ten-day period during which she is to be moored in Falmouth and used to accommodate police officers during a G7 summit in Carbis Bay scheduled for 11–13 June 2021. In October, she moved to the River Clyde and was berthed at Inchgreen Quay, Greenock, to provide accommodation for delegates at the COP26 summit.

Since September 2022, the MS Silja Europa is docked at Velsen-Noord to shelter 1,000 asylum seekers until February 2023. The ship arrived in Velsen-Noord on Wednesday September 21st. The ship passed through the IJmuiden Sea Lock at around 6:30 a.m. that morning and moored at the VOB (Velsen Offshore Base ) quay an hour later.

Accidents and incidents

 * 28 September 1994 Silja Europa was the first vessel to receive the Mayday message from the sinking MS Estonia, and became the second vessel to arrive on-scene (after MS Mariella) following Estonia's capsizing and sinking. The captain of Silja Europa, Esa Mäkelä, was appointed On-Scene Commander for the rescue operation.
 * 13 January 1995 - Silja Europa ran aground close to Furusund, Sweden, due to a failure in the automatic speed control system. She continued under her own power to Stockholm, where she was taken out of service and then delivered to Naantali for repair.
 * 10 October 1996 - A passenger reported that he saw someone jumping overboard. This was reported to the captain, who notified the Swedish Coast Guard - however, instead of stopping the ship (as is procedure), he continued to Stockholm. Later, the Swedish Coast Guard found the person, a female passenger, in the sea. Her body temperature was very low and she died a couple of days later in hospital of hypothermia. The ship's captain was prosecuted and found guilty of not stopping as he should have, but was not punished.
 * 20 August 1997 - The ship collided with a German sailing-boat south of Lemland due to heavy fog. A German couple and their dog were rescued by one of Silja Europa's lifeboats. The sailing boat began to take on water and was later towed to Föglö by the Finnish Border Guard.
 * 28 September 2002 - A female passenger fell overboard and swam to a nearby islet, from where she was later rescued
 * 22 November 2009 - Experienced a steering fault while underway from Stockholm to Turku in the Åland archipelago. The ship would have been in immediate danger of running aground, but the ship's crew made it stop by using asymmetric thrust. The ship's emergency steering (KaMeWa BACK-UP) could not be used because the rudder shaft had broken. Silja Europa had 1,373 passengers at the time of the incident. The ship was steered from the shallow and cramped area to wider waters, where it circled for almost a day. The ship was steered using bow thrusters, while there was a continuous effort of diagonosing and fixing the problem at the same time. The next morning, the tug Ukko arrived at Silja Europa and helped it move towards Turku. A team of divers who arrived with the tug investigated the ship's fault at Airisto and found that the fault was caused by damage to the rudder shaft. Silja Europa was supposed to be in Turku on Sunday evening at 7:15 pm, but didn't arrive until Monday, November 23 at 4:30 pm. The ship left for a repair dock  on November 26. During the repair procedures, Silja Europa was replaced on the Turku-Stockholm route by M/S Baltic Queen. Silja Europa returned to service on 19 December 2009.
 * 19 October 2019 - Two Finnish passengers (25 y/o and 21y/o) were found deceased in a cabin in the Port of Tallinn

title: MS Silja Europa


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Frans van Mieris the Elder

Frans van Mieris the Elder (16 April 1635 – 12 March 1681), was a Dutch Golden Age genre and portrait painter. The leading member of a Leiden family of painters, his sons Jan (1660–1690) and Willem (1662–1747) and his grandson Frans van Mieris the Younger (1689–1763) were also accomplished genre painters.

Biography
Frans was born and died in Leiden, where his father Jan Bastiaans van Mieris was a goldsmith, carver of rubies and diamond setter. His father wished to train him to his own business, but Frans preferred drawing, and studied with Jacob Toorenvliet's father, Abraham Toorenvliet, a glazier who kept a school of design. From his own father's shop he became familiar with the ways and dress of people of distinction. His eye was fascinated in turn by the sheen of jewelry and stained glass; and, though he soon left Toorenvliet for the workshops of Gerard Dou and Abraham van den Tempel, he acquired the Leiden fijnschilder manner over the Amsterdam finish of the disciples of Rembrandt.

He seldom chose panels of which the size exceeded 12 to 15 inches, and whenever his name is attached to a picture above that size it is reasonable to assign it to his son Willem or to some other imitator. Unlike Dou when he first left Rembrandt, or Jan Steen when he started on an independent career, Mieris never ventured to design figures as large as life. Characteristic of his art in its minute proportions is a shiny brightness and metallic polish.

The subjects which he treated best are those in which he illustrated the habits or actions of the wealthier classes; but he sometimes succeeded in homely incidents and in portrait, and not infrequently he ventured on allegory. He repeatedly painted the satin skirt which Ter Borch brought into fashion, and he often rivalled Ter Borch in the faithful rendering of rich and highly coloured woven tissues. But he remained below Ter Borch and Metsu, because he had not their delicate perception of harmony or their charming mellowness of touch and tint, and he fell behind Gerard Dou, because he was hard and had not his feeling for effect by concentrated light and shade. In the form of his composition, which sometimes represents the framework of a window enlivened with greenery, and adorned with bas-reliefs within which figures are seen to the waist, his model is certainly Dou.

It questionable whether Houbraken has accurately recorded this master's birthday. One of his best-known pieces, a party of ladies and gentlemen at an oyster luncheon, in the Hermitage at St Petersburg, bears the date of 1650. Celebrated alike for composition and finish, it would prove that Mieris had reached his prime at the age of fifteen. Another beautiful example, the "Doctor Feeling a Lady's Pulse" in the gallery of Vienna, is dated 1656; and Waagen, in one of his critical essays, justly observes that it is a remarkable production for a youth of twenty-one. In 1657 Mieris was married at Leiden in the presence of Jan Potheuck, a painter, and this is the earliest written record of his existence on which we can implicitly rely. Of the numerous panels by Mieris, at least twenty-nine (such as Young Woman Stringing Pearls) are dated—the latest being an allegory, long in the Ruhl collection at Cologne, illustrating what he considered the kindred vices of drinking, smoking and dicing, in the year 1680. Mieris had numerous and distinguished patrons. He received valuable commissions from Archduke Leopold, the elector-palatine, and Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. His practice was large and lucrative, but never engendered in him either carelessness or neglect. If there be a difference between the painter's earlier and later work, it is that the former was clearer and more delicate in flesh, whilst the latter was often darker and more livid in the shadows. When he died his clients naturally went over to his son Willem, who in turn bequeathed his painting-room to his son Frans. But neither Willem nor Frans van Mieris the Younger equalled Frans the elder.

The pictures of all the generations of the Mieris family were successfully imitated by A. D. Snaphaan, who lived at Leipzig and was patronized by the court of Anhalt-Dessau. To those who would study his deceptive form of art a visit to the collection of Wörlitz near Dessau may afford instruction.

Theft
In early June 2007, A Cavalier (Self Portrait), dated to 1657–1659, was stolen from the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. The 20 cm by 16 cm (6 inches by 8 inches) painting had been donated to the Art Gallery of NSW in 1993 by media figure and philanthropist, James Fairfax.

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

title: Frans van Mieris the Elder


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Raising Helen

Raising Helen is a 2004 American comedy-drama film directed by Garry Marshall and written by Jack Amiel and Michael Begler. It stars Kate Hudson, John Corbett, Joan Cusack, Hayden Panettiere, siblings Spencer and Abigail Breslin, and Helen Mirren. It grossed $37,486,512 at the U.S. box office.

Plot
Helen, Jenny, and Lindsay Harris are close sisters living in New York; the eldest Jenny raised the other two after their mother died when they were young. Jenny and Lindsay are responsible stay-at-home mothers while Helen, an executive assistant to the CEO of one of Manhattan's most prestigious modelling agencies, enjoys a lavish, carefree lifestyle.

One morning, Helen receives a call from Jenny who tells her Lindsay and her husband Paul have died in a car accident, leaving behind their three children, 15-year-old Audrey, 10-year-old Henry, and 5-year-old Sarah. At an appointment with Lindsay's attorney, both Helen and Jenny are shocked to discover Lindsay has appointed Helen guardian of the children. Both sisters are given a letter that Lindsay had left for them.

Forced to give up her wild lifestyle and move to Queens, Helen initially struggles to raise the children on her own. As time goes by, her concentration at work begins to slip and she is fired as a result, leading her to become a receptionist at a car dealership. Helen and Jenny get into a fight about how best to raise the children and they stop talking. Things later start to improve for Helen after she begins dating Dan Parker, the children's school principal and pastor, who helps her bond with them.

Audrey starts to fall in with the wrong crowd at school and gets an older boyfriend called BZ. When she disappears after prom, Helen is forced to call Jenny for back up, too scared to take control of the situation on her own in fear that Audrey will hate her if confronted. Audrey is found at a motel with BZ, and Helen later turns the children over to Jenny's custody, much to their dismay.

Helen goes back to work and slowly returns to her previous way of living, but soon realizes she is not happy. She goes to Jenny's to take the children back, adamant she is ready to put her foot down and be a mother, but Jenny asks her to leave and think about it some more. Later that night, as Helen sits alone in the nearby park, Jenny appears and allows Helen to read her letter from Lindsay; in it, Lindsay explains she chose Helen to care for her children because their personalities are so similar and she wanted the children to have a mother figure who reminds them of her.

Finally having accepted Helen can cope, Jenny returns the children to her the following morning, and they happily begin to settle in to their new family life.

Music
The featured song "Whip It" by Devo was used in the movie. The song was used in its original meaning of solving problems after single Helen becomes the guardian for her late sister's children.

Release
The film was shown at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival. It was released theatrically in the United States on May 28, 2004. In US theaters, the film was preceded by an animated short film from Walt Disney Feature Animation titled Lorenzo, about a cat who gets his tail jinxed and comes to life.

Box office
The film opened at number four on opening weekend, making $10.9 million. In North America, the film made $37,486,512 overall. In foreign countries, it made $12,232,099. The film made $49,718,611 in its entire run, on a $50 million budget, making the film a box-office bomb.

Reception
Raising Helen received mostly negative reviews from critics. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 25% based on 133 reviews, with an average rating of 4.7/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "As shallow and formulaic as a sitcom." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 38 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

Home media
The film was released on DVD and VHS on October 12, 2004. To date, the film has not been released on Blu-ray.

title: Raising Helen


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Talk:Basic soldering techniques

This is a good article, but it should probably be called "Basic Electronic Soldering Techniques", to distinguish it from plumbing and other types of soldering.

 * I say do it, should be renamed :Basic Electronic Soldering techniques", lower case T. This page can be made into a redirect and not necessary but fix the one link to this page at, Soldering. Probably should look for more articles to link here too. Would be nice if this article had some images and maybe SMT soldering techniques added or is there already a page on that?.

 * I renamed the subtitle to Basic electronic soldering techniques and merged it with soldering

title: Talk:Basic soldering techniques


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Category:Contemporary artists

Artists of the contemporary period (1960s to present).

title: Category:Contemporary artists


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Willem van Mieris

Willem van Mieris (3 June 1662 – 26 January 1747) was an 18th-century painter from the Northern Netherlands.

Biography
Willem van Mieris was a painter, sculptor and etcher active in Leiden. He was born in Leiden and studied under his father Frans van Mieris the Elder (1635–1682), who was a successful genre painter. Willem had a reasonably successful career, being supported by a few patrons who commissioned and collected various of his works. His oeuvre consists mostly of genre and portraiture, with some landscape painting, as well as some sculptures. Van Mieris' style was that of the fijnschilders (painters in the "fine manner"), and his genre works, especially later in his career, depicted scenes from upper-class society.

At age 19, Van Mieris took over the family workshop after his father died in 1681, aged 45. He had barely finished his training in the family studio and it would take another two years before he entered the Leiden painters' guild in 1685. He set out to uphold his father's reputation as a Leiden fijnschilder. The Leiden fine painters produced a small scale of mostly genre paintings or portraits with high attention to detail, which was made popular by Frans' master Gerrit Dou (1613–1675). Frans' superb skills as a painter rubbed off on his son and his influence can be seen in technique, subject matter, and style. He finished what was left incomplete on his father's demise. One year later, in 1684, he married his wife Agneta Chapman, whom he often used as his model.

Besides genre and portrait painting, Van Mieris was also a skilled landscape painter, etcher, and draughtsman; moreover, he also tried his hand at history painting with remarkable results. He acted as headman and once as dean of the Leiden Guild of St. Luke in 1693. A year later, in 1694, he founded a drawing academy in Leiden together with the painters Jacob Toorenvliet (c. 1636–1719) and Carel de Moor (1655–1738), which he and de Moor directed until 1736. At that time, Van Mieris stopped working as an artist because he became partially blind and no dated work passes the 1730s.

Van Mieris was born in a family of Dutch painters. Not only his father, but also his brother and son had a background in art. Jan van Mieris (1660–1690) studied under his father Frans the Elder, as well as under Gerard de Lairesse (1641–1711), to eventually become a genre and portrait painter. Willem's son, Frans van Mieris the Younger (1689–1763), was a pupil of his father. He worked as a genre painter and writer, and was considered a distinguished antiquary, who published works of merit on numismatics and history. Such a family background in art, good relationships with wealthy collectors and patrons, and apprenticeships with successful 17th-century masters seems to have made the choice of profession easier in families such as the Van Mierises. Willem, Jan, and Frans II, all direct descendants of the famous seventeenth century fine painter Frans I van Mieris, were bound for prestigious positions in the city, resulting in steady income from the commissions from affluent citizens.

Style and influences
The fijnschilders, whose activity was mainly concentrated in Leiden, included many of the most popular painters of the time, such as Gerard Dou and Willem's father: needless to say, the latter had a decisive influence in shaping young Willem's style. In fact, Frans van Mieris was among the most famous Dutch painters of the late 17th century, his popularity crossing the Netherlands' border time and again: he was highly esteemed by both Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Archduke Leopold of Palatinate, who was to become Emperor Leopold I. His paintings are mostly elegant genre scenes, but they show us the main features of the fijnschilders' conception of painting: even in scenes representing trivial subjects, the Leiden painters strove for absolute perfection in rendering details and refining features in order to achieve absolute elegance. Willem van Mieris, having been introduced to, and trained in, painting by his father, could not but be heavily influenced by the fijnschilders' ideas, ultimately becoming a member of the second generation of Leiden fine painters.

However, Willem van Mieris soon parted ways with Frans when it came to subject matter. In fact, although he still focused on genre painting, his works usually depict scenes taken from the life of the upper class, and even when the protagonists belong to the low spheres of the society, they look much more elegant and refined than their real-life counterparts. This is mainly due to the influence exerted on Willem van Mieris by Gerard de Lairesse, whose Groot Schilderboek, published in 1707, marked the transition from the 17th to the 18th century in Dutch art. In his extensive treatise, de Lairesse stated that the aim of genre painters should no longer be representing the human figure as it is (which was one of the pivotal features of Dutch Golden Age painting), but as it ought to be according to the classical canons of beauty. More specifically, de Lairesse claimed it was necessary to ennoble genre painting, in order to take it to the same level of excellence and public admiration awarded to history painting. To achieve this purpose, the Amsterdam art theoretician proposed that the human protagonists of genre painting (especially women), no matter which social class they belonged to, be represented after classical antiquity sculptures, with their unsurpassable perfection and proportion. De Lairesse's views fascinated Van Mieris, especially after he had the opportunity to experiment directly with classicizing figures thanks to the sculptures of the Flemish artist Francis van Bossuit, who had previously lived and worked in Italy and took inspiration from classical antiquity sculpture for his works. Van Mieris drew many illustrations after Bossuit's sculptures, and borrowed some of their poses for his paintings.

Another distinctive feature of van Mieris's oeuvre is the repetition of certain figures and poses in many of his paintings. This phenomenon, which was actually widespread among both Dutch 18th century history and genre painters, can yet again be tracked back to the new classicizing tendencies of Dutch art. In fact, the social scenario in the Netherlands changed dramatically after 1672, the so-called "year of calamities", and the subsequent war against France, England, and several German states: the aftermath of the conflict saw most of the commercial power of Holland ending up shattered, thus drastically reducing the number of rich collectors interested in buying new works of art. Subsequently, the painters started to modify their style in order to get accustomed with the predominant taste of the few, powerful regents left in the country, who usually aimed at formally elegant and proportionate paintings rather than truthful representations of real life such as those produced during the Golden Age. Thus, artists like Willem van Mieris, who dedicated himself both to history and genre painting, started using figures taken from mythological and biblical works in genre scenes, trying to present them either as common people or, more frequently, as exponents of the nobility, of course with an appropriate background setting (e.g. a richly decorated Palladian villa). Moreover, reusing the same motifs and figures in several paintings allowed the artists to save time and energy, thus leading them to produce more works and having more possibilities of finding an interested collector.

Willem van Mieris' artistic approach to painting included the repetition of similar figures and the features of figures. This approach provided both practical and aesthetic benefits to the artist. Not only did it allow the artist to be highly productive in the studio, it also allowed him to trademark his own type of idealized female figure throughout his oeuvre. Comparisons have been drawn between Willem van Mieris and Gerard ter Borch, another Dutch genre painter of the Dutch Golden Age, who used the technique of repeating figures to realize their common goal of increasing productivity while reducing labour. Willem van Mieris has also been compared to artists like Gerard ter Borch, Gerard Dou, and Jan Steen, for their shared artistic approach to painting which involved designing a group of interacting figures first, and subsequently designing the setting which the figures occupied.

Painters like Willem van Mieris reused not only their own figures, but also those present in paintings by the masters of the previous generations. This was again due to the necessity of pleasing the few patrons and collectors, who greatly admired the works of artists such as Gerard Dou, a member of the first generation of fijnschilders. Willem van Mieris explicitly refers to Dou in two different paintings the subject of which is almost directly borrowed from the eminent master. In this respect, Van Mieris proved to be discreet enough to carefully choose which elements to take from other painters' works in order not to be accused of plagiarism, which was already an issue at the time. In fact, specific guidelines had already been established about how to refer to paintings by previous masters without ending up with mere copies of their work, which were obviously despised as signs of the painter's incapability of producing a work on his own.

One of the major characteristics of Willem van Mieris' artistic style is his idealization of the female nude. Van Mieris' idea of beauty in genre paintings is deeply rooted in and modeled after his studies of classical sculpture. The artist's reference to classical sculpture follows the instructions outlined by Gerard de Lairesse for the improvement of genre painting in his book Groot Schilderboek. De Lairesse suggested that artists should refer to classical sculpture to create an idealized female nude form and should adapt this form to ordinary women within the context of genre painting, a suggestion that is evidently followed by Willem van Mieris throughout his genre paintings.

One of Willem van Mieris' major influences was Francis van Bossuit (1635–1692). Van Bossuit studied Italian sculpture in Rome and was esteemed as a sculptor in Amsterdam from 1680 until his death. Willem van Mieris turned to Van Bossuit's classicized sculptures to develop his own aesthetic for portraying idealized female nudes. Frits Scholten, the senior curator of sculpture at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, has suggested that Willem van Mieris borrowed poses and gestures directly from Francis van Bossuit's sculptures and applied them throughout his own oeuvre. Between the years 1669 and 1702, Willem van Mieris made at least thirteen drawings on parchment modeled after van Bossuit's sculptures, believed to have been produced as works of art rather than preparatory studies for his history paintings.

Models
Agneta Chapman, Willem van Mieris' wife, is considered to have acted as the artist's first model. During the beginning stages of van Mieris' career between 1680 and 1687, the artist produced numerous paintings and drawings depicting young women often represented as mythological figures, which were modelled after his wife. In van Mieris' painting Flora, which currently resides in the Morgan Library & Museum in New York, it is suggested that Agneta served as the model. In this painting, van Mieris disguises his wife as Flora, the ancient Roman goddess of flowers, fertility and spring. The inclusion of peonies helps signify feminine beauty and fertility, which is appropriate given the context of the painting's execution taking place only one year before Willem's and Agneta's wedding. A similar face, suggested to be modeled after Agneta's, reappears in many of van Mieris' early works, including Allegory of Arrogance from 1684, Old Man Seducing a Young Woman from 1683, Artemis Holding an Arrow from 1686, and Woman with a Bird Cage (Lesbia) from 1687. Comparisons have been drawn between Willem van Mieris and Rembrandt, who used his wife Saskia as the model for his depiction of the goddess Flora.

Patrons and collectors
Willem van Mieris was supported mostly by two patrons: Johan Hendrik van Wassenaer Obdam (1683–1745) and the De la Court Family. Count Van Wassenaer Obdam was a nobleman and politician from The Hague, who also was a great art lover and collector. He was one of the most important clients of Van Mieris and showed great interest in Dutch genre paintings, also called "modern" pieces at the time. He appreciated paintings that represented the familiar, everyday circumstances. The 1750 sales catalogue of his collection (121 pieces) that was made after his death tells us that Van Wassenaer owned work by Adriaan van Ostade, Gerard Dou, Jan Steen, Frans I van Mieris, Gabriel Metsu, and Willem van Mieris. The catalogue mentions no fewer than 10 paintings by Willem van Mieris: seven genre paintings, one of which might be An Old Man Reading a Newspaper, and three landscapes. The most outstanding pieces are four genre paintings representing a kitchen or shop scene. The family archive of Van Wassenaer in Twickel has provided evidence that the two men had a close relationship: Van Wassenaer bought paintings directly from van Mieris, including A Kitchen with a Fishmonger, A Woman Weighing Chestnuts, A Grocer's Shop, Interior with Monkeys, and two landscapes. However, it remains unclear whether Van Wassenaer commissioned Van Mieris to make these paintings, but the regular purchase of expensive paintings from the artist himself suggest that the two had close and regular contact. Van Mieris probably selected subject matter that appealed to Van Wassenaer in order to establish even better relations.

The arguably more important patron, however, was Pieter de la Court van der Voort (1664–1739), son of Pieter de la Court (1618–1685) and his second wife, Catharina van der Voort (1622–1674). The De la Court family were rich cloth merchants, and Pieter de la Court van der Voort was a prominent art collector. In his mansion in Leiden he devoted three separate rooms exclusively for the exhibition of his huge collection of paintings and other rooms contained more paintings. He is known to have commissioned Willem van Mieris to make paintings of all kinds – genre, portrait, landscape, history, and still life. In fact, he was so impressed by van Mieris' skill, that he did not only commission original works, but also copies of well-known and much appreciated paintings. According to Pieter's handwritten inventory of 1731 and that of his son Allard de la Court (1688–1755) in 1749, Pieter commissioned Van Mieris to paint ten copies after the work of famous 17th-century painters, such as his father Frans I van Mieris, Gerard Dou, Ary de Vois (1632–1635 to 1680) and Philip Wouwerman (1619–1688). These works must have been accessible to him, although it is not known where the originals were located when Van Mieris copied them. Such copies functioned as high-valuable substitutes for much-loved 17th-century paintings that were unavailable to most collectors. Some of these copies were so good that both salesmen and owners would let them pass as the originals. However, the collectors eager to buy copies still held a clear distinction in value between original and copy. An average copy by Willem van Mieris commissioned by Pieter de la Court van der Voort was 60 guilders, while he was paid much more for work of his own design. In total, Pieter de la Court van der Voort commissioned at least 28 paintings, including copies, from Van Mieris. The large collection and close contact between the two men gave Van Mieris the opportunity to get inspired by the work of other artists, such as Van Bossuit's sculptures, on which many of Van Mieris' drawings are based Besides paintings, Pieter de la Court van der Voort also commissioned four vases for the garden of his Leiden mansion (see below). The two were not only associated through business, but were also intimate friends and Pieter de la Court van der Voort was proud of that. He denied any offer on his friend's work and protected the works themselves and their uniqueness carefully. After his death, he left his collection to his son Allard de la Court, who extended it with more, mostly commissioned, work.

No relationship between the two patrons has been established, except for an archival document from the eighteenth century, which testifies Van Wassenaer's intention to buy Dou's Grocer's Shop. Allard de la Court, who inherited most of his father's collection, describes Van Wassenaer's efforts to acquire the painting at a hefty price. This shows how much Van Wassenaer appreciated Dou's Grocer's Shop and it is possible that Van Mieris made his own version modelled closely after Dou's to please his patron.

Another collection worth mentioning is the one by Sir Matthew Decker (1669–1749). This Dutchman emigrated to London in 1702, where he made a fortune as a banker and director of the East India Company. He was a skilled buyer of art and bought paintings in the Netherlands to ship them across to England. By the end of his life, he amassed a good collection, including paintings by Dou and Willem van Mieris.

Pupils
Hieronymous van der Mij, born in 1687 in Leiden, was one of Willem van Mieris' pupils. Van der Mij painted mostly portraits, borrowing from van Mieris' style. His portraits were highly regarded because of how much they resembled the sitters, who were usually high status individuals including professors or regents of the armhouse.

Willem van Mieris also took care of training his son Frans in the art of painting: when the old artist was forced to retire from active work due to his progressive blindness, he passed on his studio to his son, and the two consistently worked together. However, Frans van Mieris the Younger was not nearly as successful as his father and grandfather: only very few of his works are known to us, and he never managed to gain popularity among collectors. Some of his paintings were even refused by the commissioner, as happened with the German prince of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, who decided not to accept Frans's Diana bathing (executed in close collaboration with Willem) due to its poor quality. After these unsatisfactory results, Frans van Mieris the Younger soon quit painting to dedicate himself to antiquarian collections: he was a highly esteemed expert in numismatics, a field he wrote several renowned treatises on.

Paintings
In Willem van Mieris' painting of Bathsheba from 1708, Bathsheba is depicted in the nude sitting before King David. In October 1707, while van Mieris worked on Bathsheba, ten works by the sculptor van Bossuit were sold from the collection of van Mieris' patron Petronella Oortmans-de la Court, bringing attention to the sculptures of van Bossuit and influencing van Mieris's work. When comparing van Mieris's Bathsheba to two of his drawings that he produced after van Bossuit's sculptures, namely Venus and Cupid and Diana and Callisto, the influence that van Bossuit's sculptures played on Bathsheba becomes evident. In van Mieris's drawing Venus and Cupid, Venus's facial profile shows a strong resemblance to Bathsheba's. In the painter's drawing Diana and Callisto, the position of Diana's body is also similar to that of Bathsheba's. Consequently, it is believed that Bathsheba's graceful pose and gesture, characteristic of van Mieris's trademarked idealized female nude, is directly borrowed from van Bossuit's sculptures. In Willem van Mieris's Lute Player from 1711, the woman depicted in the painting strikingly resembles Bathsheba, which is representative of the painter's repetition of figures.

In Willem van Mieris's painting Granida and Daifilo from 1697, he depicts a scene from P.C. Hooft's pastoral play Granida, a common choice of subject matter in Dutch 17th-century painting. In this painting, van Mieris "combines the minuteness of his Leyden School with a more international late 17th-century classicism". Granida's headgear, the shepherdess's straw hat, as well as Daifilo's tiger-skin are suggested to allude to the theatre. The painting was once part of the Winkler Collection at Leipzig in 1768, but was recorded for the last time when it was passed through a London sale in 1900.

Van Mieris's painting Le Thé is mostly to be inspired Gerard de Lairesse's idea to depict a tea party in his book Groot Schilderboek (1707), in which he translates the laws of international classicism into practical rules for artist's to apply in their studios. Le Thé depicts a scene of a young woman offering a friend a cup of tea, while the friend refuses to accept the tea as she must leave. While van Mieris generally followed the rules for genre painting outlined by De Lairesse, he did not share De Lairesse's belief that genre painting should be as similar to history painting as possible. An additional difference between De Lairesse and van Mieris is that van Mieris eliminates all traces of psychological tension and conflict between the figures, as well as all sense of narration and progression of time.

De rarekiek
Once part of the prized collection of Allard de la Court, De Rarekiek was commissioned by de la Court for 1000 guilders. It took a different, more modern approach to the concept of the quack or salesman who is exhibiting his wares, which was a common theme at the time, by replacing the salesman with a man showing off a raree-show. Van Mieris called the painting "'t Fraai Curieus" ("the fine curiosity), using an expression that was common in the 18th century to refer to travelling minstrels. This painting was one of the few paintings where Van Mieris was trying to renew his repertoire of kitchen scenes and shop interiors.

Joseph with the Wife of Potiphar
This painting illustrates the story that Joost van den Vondel wrote about Iempsar, wife of Joseph's patron Potiphar, attempting to seduce the pious Joseph. The scene depicts Joseph rejecting and leaving her. The figures are elegant, but not dramatic, and the classical composition seems to highlight Van Mieris' shortcoming to illustrate the dramatic nature of the story. However, the work was praised by contemporaries.

The Death Mouse
This painting was started by another painter, Pieter van Singelandt, but was finished by Willem van Mieris after his death. Typical for Van Mieris' work is that the woman is dressed in a rather fashionable manner, creating a striking contrast between the elegant lady in the classical interior and her feeding the cat, an act which befits a maid better. The painting bears an amorous meaning; the woman shows that a thief easily changes into a prey near her. If a man wants to steal a kiss, he will lose his heart.

Keuken met Visboer
This scene in the shop allows Van Mieris to display his skill at emulating reality in a large variety of subjects. Van Mieris details the different materials, creating a highly lifelike picture, but from a distance they seem to not work very well together. The female figure is rather stiff and doll-like, and the background echoes this in its mechanical nature, which leaves nothing to the imagination. This painting was well received by contemporaries, and it was viewed as natural and artistic.

Sculptures
It is not well known that Willem van Mieris worked with multiple media: not only painting. In fact he also worked as a designer and molder of sculptures. His career as a sculptor was, however, a short one: he only worked for a few years at the beginning of the 18th century. Nevertheless, he still did a good job that surpass his paintings in quality. The only work that has come down to us are four vases commissioned by his patron Pieter de la Court van der Voort, which were designed for the garden of his Leiden mansion. The De la Court family had an avid interest in gardening (they introduced the pineapple to Europe) and art, which explains the extensive attention for decoration of the garden. Eleven preparatory drawings for the four vases made by Willem van Mieris have been mentioned in an inventory of the collection of Pieter de la Court's son Allard and two decades later in the auction catalogue of his widow Catherina de la Court-Backer. Willemijn Fock was able to identify six of these drawings and noticed that four vases decorating the gardens of Windsor Castle in England were signed "W. van Mieris inv[enit] et fecit" and Roman numerals state the year of production. After comparison of the drawings and the actual vases, there was no doubt that these were commissioned by Pieter de la Court and to later be acquired by the British royal family in 1825. The four vases portray the four seasons and the shape of the vases are classically inspired on the Medici-vase and the Borghese-vase, but also after the vases of the Versailles palace. The seasonal division is quite traditional, going back to classical literature. Willem van Mieris is likely to have read the translation of Cesare Ripa's Iconologia and represented spring with sacrifice to Flora and Priapus, summer with the bath of Diana and a sacrifice to Ceres, autumn with a parade for Bacchus, and winter with Venus ordering weapons for Aeneas and warming herself to a fire after Ceres and Bacchus leave her. Willem van Mieris always carefully prepared his paintings in order to find the right composition and to study certain elements. Two of his spring drawings can be considered the most carefully done and may be the best work in his large oeuvre of drawings. For the vases, as a source of inspiration he used both his own work and the works of others, both Dutch and Italian, that was brought to him by De la Court especially for this project. He probably used works of Rembrandt and the Flemish Francis van Bossuit. The drawings and actual vases are not a perfect match: the composition differs at times especially by the omittance of figures or details (often because of lack of space or because of lack of space or because the overall picture or story looked better without).

Willem van Mieris was the designer and molder of the reliefs. He collaborated with his friend Filips van der Mij, who was responsible for the casting, and his son Hieronimus van der Mij would later study under van Mieris. The feet and lids of the vases were made by Giovanni Battista Lurago under the supervision of van Mieris.

Allard de la Court also commissioned van Mieris a fountain piece, again in collaboration with Filips van der Mij. The sculpture has been destroyed, but the receipts of the purchase give a detailed description of the work: Hercules strangling the head of a serpent while holding it up. The water sprayed out of the serpent's mouth. However, the fountain has not come down to us, making the vases the only pieces of sculpture by Willem van Mieris that we can admire today.

Criticism and appreciation
Willem van Mieris succeeded in achieving remarkable popularity in the Netherlands, with his paintings hanging in the collections of many eminent members of the Dutch new aristocracy as well as of foreign noblemen such as the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. However, his reputation was not held in as high esteem when it comes to later art critics: Dezallier d'Argenville, though recognizing the ability of Van Mieris as a painter, states in his Abrégé that he was never able to match the level of his father, Frans van Mieris the Elder, whose fame was still celebrated in Europe when Willem painted his major works. This opinion was reflected in the foreign market as well, as this anecdote describes; Pieter de la Court van der Voort (1664–1739) was travelling through France in 1700, intending to sell a work by Willem van Mieris. He covered up the artist's signature to hide the fact that it was a work by Willem, not his father Frans van Mieris, as the value of the painting would be drastically lowered when it would be known that it was the son who painted it.

Much harsher is the opinion of Théophile Thoré, the major critic of Dutch art in the 19th century: in his Musées de la Hollande, a catalogue of the most important works of art exposed in the Netherlands, the French connoisseur blatantly despised Willem van Mieris, labeling his paintings as "harsh, cold, piddling, and unsurpassably insipid". All things considered, no other kind of statement could be expected from Thoré on a painter such as Van Mieris: the Dutch painter embodied the new, classicizing tendency of Dutch art in the 18th century, a tendency that Thoré viewed as the death and destruction of the Golden Age. In fact, the French critic idealized Dutch 17th-century painting as the most complete expression of freedom and independence ever achieved by European art, with Rembrandt and Vermeer as icons of a popular, real and truthful way of painting. On the other hand, the Leiden fijnschilders and the Italianate painters were regarded as traitors of this exceptional artistic movement, being still imprisoned by the old and aristocratic canons of classicizing beauty.

Works

 * Lady with Parrot (1685)
 * The Escaped Bird (1687)
 * A Seated Man (1688)
 * Cimon and Iphigeneia (1698)
 * Family Reunion (17th century)
 * Diana and her Nymphs (1702)
 * A Gentleman Offering a Lady a Bunch of Grapes (1707)
 * A Poultry Seller (1707)
 * The Apothecary (1710)
 * Man with Pipe (1710)
 * The Lute Player (1711)
 * Expulsion of Hagar (1724)
 * The Spinner (first half of the 18th century)
 * Interior with a Mother Attending her Children (1728)
 * An Old Man Reading (1729)
 * Green Grocer (1731), oil onwood, 40 x 34 cm, Wallace Collection, London
 * Ecce Homo (18th century)
 * Suzanna and the Elders after Francis van Bossuit, Detroit Institute of Arts, displayed there as of 1909

Works after the painter

 * Portrait of Willem van Mieris, painted by Taco Hajo Jeigersma

title: Willem van Mieris


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Hindoo (disambiguation)

Hindoo is an archaic spelling of Hindu and one whose use today may be considered derogatory.

Hindoo may also refer to:

 * Hindoo (horse), a racehorse
 * Hindoo style, a Western style of architecture in which Indian motifs are used
 * Hindoo, a Norwegian bark wrecked and beached on Dog Island, Florida

title: Hindoo (disambiguation)


text:
Maria Schneider

Maria Schneider may refer to:
 * Maria Schneider (politician) (born 1923), East German politician
 * Maria Schneider (actress) (1952–2011), French actress
 * Maria Schneider (musician) (born 1960), American musician and composer
 * Maria Schneider (cartoonist) (born 1968), American cartoonist and illustrator
 * Maria "Dish" Schneider, a fictional character from the M*A*S*H franchise

title: Maria Schneider


text:
June Tabor

June Tabor (born 31 December 1947 in Warwick, England) is an English folk singer known for her solo work and her earlier collaborations with Maddy Prior and with Oysterband.

Early life
June Tabor was born and grew up in Warwick, England. As a young woman of 18, she was inspired to sing by hearing Anne Briggs' EP The Hazards of Love in 1965. "'I went and locked myself in the bathroom for a fortnight and drove my mother mad. I learned the songs on that EP note for note, twiddle for twiddle. That's how I started singing. If I hadn't heard her I'd have probably done something entirely different.'"

Discussing in a 2008 interview how she developed her characteristic style, she said, "'I have no musical education whatsoever...I just learned the songs and copied the phrasing by playing those records ad nauseam, trying out both [Anne Briggs and Belle Stewart] singers' styles. Then I tried putting the two together, and missing a few bits out – and that's approximately what I've been doing ever since. It's also why I don't do singing workshops, because that's about as much as I can tell anyone.'"

Her earliest public performances were in the mid 1960s at the Heart of England Folk Club, in the Fox and Vivian pub in Leamington Spa.

She attended St Hugh's College, Oxford University and appeared on University Challenge in 1968, as captain of the college team. She joined the Heritage Society at Oxford University and sang with a group called Mistral.

After she performed at Sidmouth Folk Festival, she was booked in folk clubs and contributed to various recordings. One of her earliest was in 1972 on an anthology called Stagfolk Live. She is also featured on Rosie Hardman's Firebird (1972) and The First Folk Review Record (1974). At the time she was singing purely traditional, unaccompanied material.

In 1976 Tabor collaborated with Maddy Prior on the Silly Sisters album and tour, with a full band that included Nic Jones. It provided the launching pad that same year (1976) for her first album in her own right, Airs and Graces. She later joined again with Prior, this time using the name Silly Sisters for their duo.

Starting in 1977, Martin Simpson joined Tabor in the recording studio for three albums before he moved to the United States in 1987. (Since his return, Simpson has been a guest artist on albums released in the 2000s (decade).) After Simpson's departure, Tabor started working closely with pianist Huw Warren.

After working for decades as a singer, Tabor stopped performing professionally for a time. She made some guest appearances with Fairport Convention during this period. She also worked as a librarian. With her husband David Taylor (they have since divorced), she ran a restaurant called "Passepartout" in Penrith, Cumbria. In the 1990s she returned to music professionally.

Solo work
In 1983, Tabor had sung the title song for the BBC TV series Spyship.

In 1990, Tabor recorded an album with the folk-rock band The Oyster Band titled Freedom and Rain. She went on tour with the Oyster Band, and the Rykodisc label published a limited-run promotional live album the following year. Many of her current fans first discovered her through this tour and album with the Oyster Band. In 1992, Elvis Costello wrote "All This Useless Beauty" specifically for Tabor, and she recorded it for the album Angel Tiger. Costello did not record it himself until 1996, on his album of the same name.

In 1997 she appeared in Ken Russell's television film, In Search of English Folk Song, which was broadcast on Channel 4.

Tim Winton, author of the novel Dirt Music (2001), which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, made a selection of music to express the themes of the novel. The CD Dirt Music (2001) includes "He Fades Away" by Tabor, a tale of the slow death of a miner. (Tabor originally included this song on her 1994 CD Against the Streams.)

In 2002 Tabor performed at the "Passchendale Peace Concert" in Flanders, appearing with Coope Boyes and Simpson. On 30 June 2006 BBC Radio 3 broadcast "Night Waves" to commemorate the anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. It was broadcast live, with Tabor singing World War I-era songs. There was also a discussion with Michael Morpurgo and Kate Adie.

Tabor has also performed jazz and art song, generally with a sparse and sombre tone to it. Her 2003 album An Echo of Hooves marked a return to the traditional ballad form after she concentrated on other styles for several years. It was highly acclaimed. AllMusic described it as, "A stunning jewel in a remarkable career, and one of the best things Tabor's ever released." She next released Always (2005), a boxed set of four CDs that span her career and contain rare recordings.

Collaborations and recent developments
On 24 October 2003 Tabor appeared on Later... with Jools Holland (BBC TV), singing "Hughie Graeme". This was later issued as part of a compilation DVD from the series.

Folk Britannia was the name of a concert at the Barbican centre, and a related TV mini-series (February 2006, repeated in October). She sang "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" at the Barbican, under the heading "Daughters of Albion". Tabor contributed one song to Ashley Hutchings' project Street Cries (2001) and one to a collection of folk musicians singing songs by the Beatles – Rubber Folk (2006). She chose to sing Lennon's "In My Life" a cappella.

Tabor is often experimental but avoids modernism. For example, she frequently sings traditional songs with a piano accompaniment. On the album Singing The Storm (1996), she sings to the accompaniment of Savourna Stevenson's harp, and Danny Thompson's bass. In May 2004 she performed as part of "The Big Session" and sang an adaptation of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" as a duet with John Jones of Oysterband. In 1992, The Wire voted Tabor's "Queen Among the Heather" as one of the "Top 50 Rhythms of all Time".

Tabor has also performed comic work with Les Barker's The Mrs Ackroyd Band. So far Tabor has performed on three of their albums, the 1990 Oranges and Lemmings (singing "The Trains of Waterloo", a parody of the folk song "The Plains of Waterloo" in a duet with Martin Carthy), the 1994 Gnus and Roses (singing "The January June", a send-up of her perceived sombre character), and the 2003 Yelp! (singing "There's a Hole in my Bodhran", to the tune of "There's a Hole in my Bucket"). She sang two songs on Beat The Retreat, a tribute to Richard Thompson.

Topic Records issued a 70-year anniversary boxed set Three Score and Ten; in the accompanying book it lists Tabor's Aqaba as one of their classic albums. Three tracks from it are included in the compilation. "A Place Called England"' from A Quiet Eye is track eight on the second CD, and two songs appear on the seventh CD: "While Gamekeepers Lie Sleeping" from Airs & Graces is track two, and "Hedger and Ditcher" from the Silly Sisters album No More To The Dance is track seventeen.

Awards

 * In 2004 she was named Folk Singer of the Year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.
 * In 2011 Ragged Kingdom was named "Album of the Year" in the fRoots  critics poll.
 * In 2012 Folk Singer of the Year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.

With Maddy Prior

 * Silly Sisters (1976)
 * No More to the Dance (1988) (as The Silly Sisters)

Solo albums

 * Airs and Graces (1976) (including "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" and "Reynardine")
 * Ashes and Diamonds (1977) (including "No Man's Land")
 * A Cut Above (1980), credited jointly with Martin Simpson
 * Abyssinians (1983)
 * The Peel Sessions (1986) – recorded January 1977
 * Aqaba (1988)
 * Some Other Time (1989)
 * Angel Tiger (1992)
 * Against the Streams (1994)
 * Singing the Storm (1996) – with Savourna Stevenson and Danny Thompson
 * Aleyn (1997)
 * On Air (1998)
 * Reflections (1999) 3-CD box set. Contains June's first three solo albums: Airs & Graces, Ashes & Diamonds, A Cut Above
 * A Quiet Eye (1999)
 * Rosa Mundi (2001)
 * An Echo of Hooves (2003)
 * At the Wood's Heart (2005)
 * Apples (2007)
 * Ashore (2011)

Collaborations with Oysterband

 * Freedom and Rain (1990)
 * June Tabor and the Oyster Band Tour '91 Sampler (1991) – eight-song promotional disc.
 * Ragged Kingdom (Westpark Music, 2011)
 * Fire & Fleet, A Tour Memento (2019) - only available at gigs and the website.

Collaborations with Iain Ballamy and Huw Warren

 * Quercus (ECM Records, 2013)
 * Nightfall (ECM Records, 2017)

Collaboration with Flowers and Frolics

 * Bees on Horseback (1977)

Collaboration with Fairport Convention

 * In Real Time (1987) (video release of that year's Cropredy Festival, not the similarly titled album).
 * The Third Leg (1990)

Collaborations with the Mrs Ackroyd Band

 * The Stones of Callanish (1989)
 * Oranges and Lemmings (1990)
 * Some Love (1992)
 * Gnus and Roses (1994)
 * The Wings of Butterflies (1999)
 * Airs of the Dog (2001)
 * Yelp! (2003)
 * Guide Cats for the Blind (2004)

With Savourna Stevenson and Danny Thompson

 * Singing the Storm (1996)

With Peter Bellamy and others

 * The Transports (1977) (June sings the role of The Mother)

Collections

 * Anthology (1993)
 * The Definitive Collection (2003)
 * Always (2005) 4-CD box set and booklet – retrospective, with many rarities (67 tracks in total).
 * An Introduction to June Tabor (2018)

title: June Tabor


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Maria Schneider (actress)

Maria-Hélène Schneider (27 March 1952 – 3 February 2011), known professionally as Maria Schneider, was a French actress.

She is best known for co-starring opposite Marlon Brando in the controversial Last Tango in Paris (1972), which was noted for its graphic sexuality. Schneider later revealed she was not informed about a simulated rape until moments before it was filmed, an event she described as traumatic and humiliating. Although Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger (1975) showcased her abilities, a reputation for walking out of films during mid-production resulted in her becoming unwelcome in the industry. However, she re-established stability in her personal and professional life in the early 1980s, and became an advocate for equality and improving the conditions actresses worked under. She continued acting in film and TV until a few years before she died in 2011 after a long illness.

Early life and family
Schneider was born in Paris to Daniel Gélin, a French actor, and Marie-Christine Schneider from Romania, a model who ran a bookshop in Paris. Gélin was married to actress and producer Danièle Delorme during the affair and his lack of fatherly involvement was deeply felt by his daughter. Gélin never recognised Schneider as his daughter, though he publicly acknowledged his paternity in the 1970s. Schneider was first brought up by her mother in a town near the French border with Germany. Eventually, her mother was unwilling to attend to her and entrusted her to a nurse for two years. Maria Schneider later lived for several years with her maternal uncle Michel Schneider and his wife. She reconnected with her biological father when she was sixteen, by visiting him unannounced.

Schneider later said that she had met Gélin only "three times". Her cousin Vanessa Schneider wrote, in a biographical book published in 2018, that Maria Schneider had actually been in regular contact with her father during her late teens. It was he who first brought her to a film set. Over the years, Maria Schneider and her biological father met irregularly. She eventually bonded with her half-siblings (who had been unaware of her until after she starred in Last Tango in Paris), especially her half-sister Fiona Gélin. Her half-brother Xavier Gélin was also an actor.

Early years
As a teenager, Schneider loved films, going to the cinema up to four times a week. She left home at age 15 after an argument with her mother and went to Paris, where she made her stage-acting debut that same year. She eked out a living as a film extra and a model. While working on a film set, she met Brigitte Bardot, who having worked with her father on several productions (a father who refused to help his daughter), was "horrified" that the young actress was homeless and offered her a room in her house. Through Bardot, Schneider met people in the film business, including Warren Beatty, who was greatly impressed by Schneider, and introduced her to the William Morris Agency. She was 18 when she had her first break in 1970, appearing in Madly, starring Alain Delon. This was followed by relatively substantial roles in films such as Roger Vadim's Hellé (1972); The Old Maid (La Vieille Fille) (1972) with Philippe Noiret; Dear Parents (Cari genitori) (1973) opposite Florinda Bolkan and Catherine Spaak; and Dance of Love (1973), based on a play by Arthur Schnitzler. (The latter film is also known as Merry-Go-Round, which is distinct from Schneider's 1981 film of the same name directed by Jacques Rivette.)

Last Tango in Paris and related controversies
Schneider gained international renown for her performance at the age of 19 in the sexually explicit Last Tango in Paris (1972), directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. In a graphic portrayal of anonymous sex with an older man, she performed several nude scenes, including a rape scene that Bertolucci did not reveal to her until just before the filming of it. In 2007, she said: "I should have called my agent or had my lawyer come to the set because you can't force someone to do something that isn't in the script, but at the time, I didn't know that. Marlon said to me: 'Maria, don't worry, it's just a movie,' but during the scene, even though what Marlon was doing wasn't real, I was crying real tears. I felt humiliated and to be honest, I felt a little raped, both by Marlon and by Bertolucci. After the scene, Marlon didn't console me or apologise. Thankfully, there was just one take." In 2013, Bertolucci said he had withheld the information from her to generate a real "reaction of frustration and rage". Brando alleged that Bertolucci had wanted the characters to have real sex, but Brando and Schneider both said it was simulated. Actress Jessica Tovey, writing in The Guardian, argued that Bertolucci's defense of pursuing an artistic vision was "bogus" and that what occurred was "a violation." Tovey also observed that it is difficult to imagine the "roles being reversed; Brando being brutalized only to discover midway through filming that Schneider and Bertolucci had conspired to add an element of humiliation."

In 2001, Schneider commented: "Last Tango ... first major role. In fact, it's a total coincidence. I was friends with Dominique Sanda. She would make the film with Jean-Louis Trintignant, but she was pregnant. She had a large picture with her of both of us. Bertolucci saw it. He made me do a casting ... I regretted my choice since the beginning of my career would have been sweeter, quieter. For Tango, I was not prepared. People have identified with a character that was not me. Butter, about saucy old pigs ...  Even Marlon with his charisma and class, felt a bit violated, exploited a little in this film. He rejected it for years.  And me, I felt it doubly."

In the 1970s, criminal proceedings were brought against Bertolucci in Italy for obscenity; the film was sequestered by the censorship commission and all copies were ordered destroyed. An Italian court revoked Bertolucci's civil rights for five years and gave him a four-month suspended prison sentence. In 1978 the Appeals Court of Bologna ordered three copies of the film to be preserved in the national film library with the stipulation that they could not be viewed, until Bertolucci was later able to re-submit it for general distribution with no cuts.

Schneider said that due to her experience with the film – and her treatment afterward as a sex symbol rather than as a serious actress – she decided never to work nude again. She started struggling with depression, became a drug addict and made several suicide attempts.

She later became a women's rights advocate, in particular fighting for more female film directors, more respect for female actors, and better representation of women in film and media. "I'm still struggling for the image of women in film and I'm still working, not as much as I would like to because for a woman in her late forties, it's hard to find work. Not only in France. I had a chat with Anjelica Huston last year. We spoke about the same problem, you know. I don't know where it comes from? The writers, the producers, or the directors. But I think it's a pity even for the public. We get a response to see a mature woman in film. We see many, many macho men in film. An actress like Meryl Streep doesn't work as much as Bob De Niro."

1970s, post-Last Tango
In 1975, Schneider was cast opposite Jack Nicholson in the well-received Michelangelo Antonioni film The Passenger, which remains one of the highlights of her career, and was the personal favorite of the actress. That same year, Schneider also starred in René Clément's final movie, the Hitchcockian thriller Wanted: Babysitter, in which, according to Schneider, the director actually wanted the actress for the villainous role; yet, when Antonioni screened The Passenger for him, Clément decided that Schneider would be ideal for the heroine. The picture, produced by Carlo Ponti (as with The Passenger and Dear Parents) and also featuring Robert Vaughn, Vic Morrow, and Sydne Rome, went largely unnoticed by the public and critics alike.

During the '70s, Schneider traveled (including to the Hopi Reservation and Navajo Nation ) and lived in various parts of Europe, including Venice, Paris, and London. After The Passenger and Wanted: Babysitter, Schneider settled in Los Angeles for a year, looking around for film opportunities and being offered roles in Hollywood movies such as Black Sunday (1977) as a Palestinian guerilla terrorist, which she turned down based on what she perceived to be poor quality material. She signed up with renowned talent agent and producer Paul Kohner, and several movies were considered, but ultimately little came of this. Work became difficult for her to find, as she had become uninsurable.

Moving back to Europe, Schneider was asked by director Tinto Brass to play Drusilla, the incestuous sister of a notorious Roman emperor, opposite A Clockwork Orange star Malcolm McDowell, in the infamous, pornographic, multi-million dollar Penthouse production of Caligula; Schneider refused to perform nude or do graphic sex scenes, and was replaced mid-production with Teresa Ann Savoy, who had appeared in the director's previous film Salon Kitty. Around the same time, Schneider agreed to star in Luis Buñuel's That Obscure Object of Desire (1977), and showed up on set, yet argued with the filmmaker over how her role would be portrayed in light of Schneider's growing concern regarding the depiction of women in cinema, and because of excessive nudity. Schneider ultimately dropped out, and Buñuel made the creative, unusual decision to replace her with not one but two actresses for the same role: Carole Bouquet and Ángela Molina. Schneider was also asked by Bertolucci to appear in his 1976 film 1900, but either turned him down or was fired. She was asked to play Mary, mother of Jesus in Franco Zeffirelli's 1979 television miniseries Jesus of Nazareth; Schneider said she did not feel right for the part, though later regretted missing out on this opportunity, and instead eventually appeared in Zeffirelli's 1996 film Jane Eyre in a brief appearance as Bertha Mason.

For the rest of the 1970s, Schneider opted to star in small-budgeted, independent European productions, such as the little-seen Swiss period piece Violanta (1976, with a young Gérard Depardieu), and three consciously feministic works: the Italian production I Belong to Me (Io Sono Mia) (1978, with Stefania Sandrelli); the graphic, disturbing Memoirs of a French Whore (French title: La Dérobade) (1978, alongside Miou-Miou, and for which Schneider was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the 1980 5th César Awards); and the lesbian Dutch drama A Woman Like Eve, directed by Nouchka van Brakel, where Schneider plays the bohemian love interest of conflicted Monique van de Ven who is married to and has children with Peter Faber.

Towards the end of the decade, famed arthouse director Jacques Rivette met Schneider at a cafe on the Champs-Elysées and asked her what kind of movie she'd like to make with him, to which Schneider replied "a thriller"; Rivette then asked which actor she'd like to star opposite, and she suggested her friend Joe Dallesandro, renowned for his association with Andy Warhol and leading performances in Paul Morrissey's films. The result was the vague, symbolic crime drama Merry-Go-Round, a troubled production that Schneider and Rivette, both overcome by ill health and personal issues, eventually completed, and was finally released in 1981 to mediocre reviews.

The 1980s
The 1980s were a much quieter period for Schneider, both personally and professionally. Following issues with multiple drug addictions (including cocaine, LSD, and heroin ) and a suicide attempt in the '70s (in the looming shadow of Last Tango in Paris, which friend and one-time girlfriend of Marlon Brando, Esther Anderson, said "ruined [Maria's] life" ), Schneider once and for all overcame these problems by the early '80s - which she accredited to her "angel", which may have been life-partner Maria Pia Almadio (or, according to some sources, Crapanzano). The beginning of the decade saw the actress appearing in a campy Belgian vampire comedy with Louise Fletcher, Mama Dracula (1980), which received universally negative reviews from critics. The same year, she performed alongside Klaus Kinski in the French thriller Hate (Haine).

1981 saw Schneider in Peacetime in Paris, a Yugoslavian picture set in the French capital, which follows a documentarian researching the history of Nazism in Paris; there he meets and falls in love with Schneider's mysterious character, who helps him out on his quest. The picture won a Special Prize at the 12th Moscow International Film Festival, and also featured Schneider's father, Daniel Gélin, in a supporting role as a taxi driver (none of his scenes, however, are shared with Maria.)

In 1982, she offered performances in two comedies, the Italian Looking for Jesus (Cercasi Gesù), with Fernando Rey, and the French Stray Bullets (Balles perdues). Starting from 1984, Schneider began appearing more regularly in European television movies and shows, such as 1985's A Song for Europe (or A Crime of Honour) with a young David Suchet of Agatha Christie's Poirot fame, while doing supporting roles in cinematic turns like the Japanese production of The Princess & the Photographer (1984).

Towards the end of the 1980s, Schneider had substantial roles in the French thriller Résidence surveillée (1987) and the post-apocalyptic surrealistic comedy Bunker Palace Hôtel (1989) with three other legends of French cinema: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Carole Bouquet, and Jean-Pierre Léaud (the latter of which was Schneider's obsessive filmmaker fiancé in Last Tango in Paris.)

Personal life
In 1973, Schneider came out as bisexual. She told The New York Times in February 1973: "I left my mother's home when I was 15, and I had my first affair at 16—we did everything, but not penetration. Now I'm bisexual completely, and I've had quite a few lovers for my age. More men than women. Probably 50 men and 20 women. I'm incapable of fidelity; have a need for a million experiences. Women I love more for beauty than for sex. Men I love for grace and intelligence." In early 1976, she abandoned the film set of Caligula (reportedly due to its pornographic content, saying "I am an actress, not a prostitute!") and checked herself into a mental hospital in Rome for several days to be with her lover, photographer Joan Townsend. This, coupled with her refusal to perform nude, led to Schneider's dismissal from the film. The 1970s were turbulent years for Schneider, marked by drug addiction, overdoses, and a suicide attempt. Schneider said that she disliked the instant fame accorded to her from Last Tango in Paris. She suffered abuse and began taking drugs. "I was rock 'n' roll. About drugs, we did not know at the time, it was so dangerous. There was an ideal, to change society and especially a thirst for novelty ... I have lost seven years of my life and I regret it bitterly ... I started using drugs when I became famous. I did not like the celebrity, and especially the image full of innuendo, naughty, that people had of me after Last Tango. In addition, I had no family behind me, who protect you ... I suffered abuse. People who come up to tell you unpleasant things on planes.  I was tracked down, and I felt hounded."

Death
Schneider died of cancer on 3 February 2011 at age 58. Her funeral was held on 10 February 2011 at the Church of Saint-Roch, Paris, attended by actors, directors, and producers in French cinema such as Dominique Besnehard, Bertrand Blier, Christine Boisson, Claudia Cardinale, Alain Delon, and Andréa Ferreol, her partner Maria Pia Almadio, half-siblings Fiona and Manuel Gélin, and her uncle Georges Schneider. Delon read a tribute from Brigitte Bardot. Schneider was cremated afterwards at Père Lachaise crematorium, and her ashes were to be scattered at sea at the foot of the Rock of the Virgin in Biarritz, according to her last wishes.

Legacy and honours
In 2001, Schneider was the guest of honor at the 23rd Festival Créteil Films de Femmes. In a master class at the festival, she called film "a tracing of memory", and said that women must be recognized as actors and directors. She also brought attention to the importance of assisting senior French actors who become unemployed and impoverished. Schneider was chosen the same year as vice-president of La Roue Tourne, an organization in Paris that supports senior French actors and directors. According to Schneider, Marcel Carné, director of Children of Paradise (1945) and one of the most important directors of the late 1930s, would have died in poverty but for La Roue Tourne supporting him for the last 10 years of his life.

On 1 July 2010, Schneider was awarded the medal of Chevalier, Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, for her contributions to the arts by Minister of Culture and Communication, Frédéric Mitterrand. He had acted with her in Jacques Rivette's film, Merry-Go-Round (1981).

After Schneider's death, Patti Smith released a song on her 2012 album Banga called "Maria", which was dedicated both to the actress and nostalgic memories of the 1970s.

In 2018, her cousin Vanessa Schneider published Tu t'appelais Maria Schneider, a book about her.

In 2024, her life story was adapted into the film Being Maria.

title: Maria Schneider (actress)


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Frans van Mieris the Younger

Frans van Mieris the Younger (24 November 1689 – 22 October 1763) was a Dutch painter. He was born in Leiden, the son of Willem van Mieris, and continued in the artistic traditions of his grandfather, also named Frans. Willem passed down his painting studio to his son Frans. However, neither Willem nor Frans the Younger achieved the same level of artistic renown as Frans the Elder. Frans Mieris died in Leiden.

Paintings

 * Rev. dr. Cox Macro (1703–1715)
 * Flower (1720)
 * Old Peasant Holding a Jug (1731)
 * Old Man With the Book
 * Three Generations (1742)
 * Portrait of Pieter de la Court (1750)
 * Portrait of Andreas Weiss (1752)

Engravings

 * Gerard van Loon (c. 1704–1763)

title: Frans van Mieris the Younger


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USS Evans (DD-78)

The first USS Evans (DD–78) was a Wickes-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War I, later transferred to the Royal Navy as HMS Mansfield.

United States Navy
Named for Robley Dunglison Evans, she was launched on 30 October 1918 by Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine; sponsored by Mrs. D. N. Sewell, granddaughter of Rear Admiral Evans. The ship was commissioned on 11 November 1918.

After a training and outfitting period which included a maiden voyage to the Azores, Evans departed Newport, Rhode Island on 10 June 1919 for European waters, where she operated until 22 August, returning then to New York. She sailed once more on 11 September, and after patrolling off Central America, reached her assigned home port, San Diego, on 14 November.

Through the next two years, Evans joined in a training schedule which found her ranging the eastern Pacific from Valparaíso, Chile, to Astoria, Oregon. She was placed in reserve at San Diego 6 October 1921, and decommissioned on 29 May 1922. Recommissioned on 1 April 1930, she operated out of San Diego for six months, then was assigned to duty training members of the naval reserve out of New York City, where she arrived 6 December 1930. She returned to San Diego 26 March 1932, to sail with the Battle Fleet on training cruises and in exercises along the west coast and in Hawaiian and Alaskan waters.

Once more out of commission from 31 March 1937 to 30 September 1939, Evans arrived at Key West on 11 December 1939 for neutrality patrol duty in the Antilles, and exercises in various parts of the Caribbean. On 24 September 1940, she sailed from Key West for Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she was decommissioned 23 October 1940, and transferred to the Royal Navy in the land bases for destroyers exchange.

Royal Navy, Royal Norwegian Navy, and Royal Canadian Navy service
Commissioned as HMS Mansfield, a Town-class destroyer, the destroyer had a truly international career, for between December 1940 and March 1942; she was on loan to the exiled Royal Norwegian Navy. As HNoMS Mansfield, she raided a fish oil factory in German hands at Øksfjord near Hammerfest, Norway. Her landing party destroyed the factory's essential machinery, and attempted to capture the local quisling leader, but he escaped. With her Norwegian crew, she also served on escort duty in the North Atlantic, continuing in this vital assignment after she returned to the Royal Navy. Mansfield was modified for trade convoy escort service by removal of three of the original 4-inch/50-caliber guns and one of the triple torpedo tube mounts to reduce topside weight for additional depth charge stowage and installation of hedgehog. In March 1942 she was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy as HMCS Mansfield, and served with the Western Local Escort Force based on Halifax and St. John's. With newer escorts available, in November 1943 the veteran of service in four navies was reduced to care and maintenance service at Halifax, and on 22 June 1944 she was paid off (decommissioned).

Her bell, still lettered "USS Evans", is preserved at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

title: USS Evans (DD-78)


text:
Talk:Dave Willis

Untitled
Sorry about the Carey Means thing...but why did you guys take out the links to Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Space Ghost Coast to Coast? ~ Resister 13:09, 1 Aug 2004 (UTC)

It's amusing to see this article nearly bare compared to Maiellaro's article. 75.2.48.200 02:02, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

IMDB claims that Carl's voice is done by Jim Fortier, not Dave Willis.LH 17:01, 14 February 2007 (UTC)
 * No, it correctly lists Willis as the voice of Carl. Fortier, who is a frequent guest voice actor on the show, did the seperate voice of Carl's Brain in one episode. MK2 06:35, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

title: Talk:Dave Willis


text:
Category:Modern artists

Artists who had a role in the history of modern art, dating from the late 19th century until approximately the 1970s.
 * See also the list of modern artists.

title: Category:Modern artists


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Swiss Toni

Swiss Toni is a British television comedy character played by Charlie Higson. He is a 50-something car dealer, usually depicted wearing a grey suit and with his hair styled in a platinum blond bouffant quiff; his accent is reported to be based on Higson's own poor impersonation of Sean Connery.

The character was created by Charlie Higson and Bob Mortimer, and first appeared in 1995 in a sketch in the second series of The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer, attempting to sell a car to the Bra Men. He became best known as a recurring character in another BBC comedy series, The Fast Show, debuting in the show's third series in 1997. He featured in sketches alongside Rhys Thomas as Paul, a junior employee, in which Swiss would typically compare some activity to "making love to a beautiful woman", with the use of comically exaggerated sexual innuendo.

Swiss later reappeared in a sitcom, also titled Swiss Toni, which developed both the character and his situation beyond the confines of the Fast Show sketches. The two series ran on BBC Three in 2003 and 2004, the first three episodes of the first series also being repeated on BBC One. As well as playing the title character, Higson was the show's main writer and one of its producers. Swiss is again portrayed as the owner of a car dealership, now going through a midlife crisis, including the apparent break-up of his marriage.

Besides Higson as Swiss, other regular cast members included:
 * Rhys Thomas as Paul (as in the original Fast Show sketches), a junior salesman at the dealership
 * Simon Day (another Fast Show regular) as Geoff Fowler, a salesman who is more successful than Swiss, despite problems with alcoholism (many of whose lines Day improvised)
 * Matilda Ziegler as Swiss's wife, Ruth, who breaks up with Swiss and begins a clandestine affair with Geoff
 * Emma Rydal as Miranda, the dealership's young receptionist
 * Elizabeth Spriggs as Swiss's overbearing and unsympathetic mother

Sitcom episodes
Series 1 (February–March 2003)
 * 1) "Cars Don't Make You Fat", featuring Tom Baker as Derek Asquith, an ageing film director hired to make a commercial for the dealership, and snooker player Steve Davis
 * 2) "Taxed and Tested"
 * 3) "Power Assisted Steering"
 * 4) "Part Exchange"
 * 5) "Left Hand Drive", with Mark Benton as Swiss's rival and bike dealer Crazy Alan
 * 6) "One Previous Owner"

Series 2 (July–September 2004)
 * 1) "Troubleshooter", featuring  Olivia Colman as a consultant hired to turn the business around
 * 2) "Speed Date"
 * 3) "Depression"
 * 4) "Gellward"
 * 5) "Cable", featuring Stacey Roca as a cable television producer, and Phill Jupitus
 * 6) "Pangolin"
 * 7) "Mumble Jackets"
 * 8) "Fothergill 2000", featuring Fast Show star Paul Whitehouse as a robot operator, and Mark Heap as a hostage-taker
 * 9) "Listening"
 * 10) "On Top of Old Smokey"

title: Swiss Toni


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Benoît Lecomte

Benoit Lecomte (born 1967) is a French-born long-distance swimmer (now a naturalized American citizen) who swam several sections of the Atlantic Ocean in 1998. Many major media outlets initially wrongly reported that he swam the entire distance across the ocean, but the claim was dismissed and is not officially recognized by Guinness World Records since there is uncertainty about the distance that Lecomte actually covered swimming due to the fact he rested and slept on a boat as it drifted and made progress towards their final destination.

Atlantic Ocean swim
From 16 March to 25 September 1998, Lecomte undertook a swim in stages from Hyannis, Massachusetts to Quiberon, Brittany, France, including a one-week stop in the Azores, a Portuguese archipelago.

During his 73-day, 3716 mi journey, Lecomte was accompanied by a 40 ft sailboat that had an electromagnetic field for 25 ft to ward off sharks. He was accompanied by a crew of three aboard the sailboat, where he could rest and eat between each swimming period. Lecomte typically spent eight hours swimming each day in sessions of two to four hours.

The stated purpose of the swim was to raise money for cancer research as a tribute to his father.

Controversy
Since there is no standard definition of "swimming across the Atlantic", there is uncertainty about the distance that Lecomte actually covered swimming in the water rather than riding in a boat with the prevailing currents. According to the Rocky Mountain News, Lecomte would have had to average 8 mph to have swum the entire distance, 3 to 4 times as fast as other long-distance swimmers.

Other Atlantic Ocean swim claims

 * Guy Delage – swim from Cape Verde Islands to Barbados in 1994
 * Jennifer Figge – swim from Cape Verde Islands to Trinidad in 2009

The Pacific Swim
Benoit Lecomte began his swim of the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday June 5th 2018. He began in Chōshi Japan in the Kantō region, and hoped to make it to California. The distance to be covered was approximately 5500 mi and hoped to end up in San Francisco, California. He expected the trip to take about six months. Part of the reason for the swim was to raise awareness about sustainability and the impact of excessive human garbage polluting the world's oceans. Lecomte said:

"Before anything else I am a father and as a father the future of my children concerns me because, as we all know, our way of life is not sustainable. I don't want to be passive and pass on to my children the liability we are tagging on to our environment. We can all make a difference once we realize how we can be better stewards of the environment and our own ecological footprint, make appropriate daily changes and inspire others to do the same. This is the first goal of this event and is intended to get people's attention throughout the world and to understand that the solution is in our hands and that we can take action.

The second goal is to encourage and work with the education system in all countries to include classes on sustainability and what our ecological footprints are into their own curriculum, because, as we all know, sustainability starts with education."

Lecomte was accompanied by a crew and performed a "staged swim" (resuming the swim in the exact location in which he left the water) using a GPS tracking device, enabling him to accurately track the number of miles he completed thus enabling him to reach a new world record in open water swimming. Lecomte planned to average about 40 mi a day, swimming eight hours with the help of the current.

After about 1,700 miles of swimming, the main sail of Lecomte's assistance boat had been repeatedly torn by heavy winds. The team repaired the tears over and over, breaking nine pencil-sized needles during the trip, but Lecomte ultimately decided to cancel the swim to keep his crew safe.

title: Benoît Lecomte


text:
Talk:European colonies in India

At some the danes had a tradestation named Serampur in Bengal. However according to various webpages it was sold to the british in 1845.

Needy article
This article has a lot of ground to cover, we can take some cues from the European colonization of the Americas series but hopefully we won't need to divide it into subpages. We should add more details on the various "factories", their founding dates, the relationships to the local rulers and important wars and figures like Clive of India. Rmhermen 23:41, Aug 6, 2004 (UTC)

title: Talk:European colonies in India


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Shanbally Castle

Shanbally Castle was located near Clogheen, County Tipperary and built for Cornelius O'Callaghan, the first Viscount Lismore, in around 1810. It was the largest house built in Ireland by the noted English architect John Nash. The castle was acquired by the Irish Land Commission in 1954. On 21 March 1960 the castle, after much controversy, was demolished.

Destruction
The protests against the demolition of Shanbally Castle came from some local sources, An Taisce, a few academics such as Professor Gwynn and some political voices such as Senator Sean Moylan, the Minister for Agriculture until his death in November 1957, and TD from Mitchelstown, John W Moher. Politically, the Fianna Fáil Government had no love for houses of the ascendancy and local TD Michael Davern was in favour of its demolition.

For a brief period it seemed that a purchaser could be found in the form of the London theatre critic Edward Charles Sackville-West, 5th Baron Sackville, who had a tremendous love of the Clogheen area, which he had known since childhood. He agreed to buy the castle, together with 163 acre, but pulled out of the transaction when the Irish Land Commission refused to stop cutting trees in the land he intended to buy.

When this sale did not happen, the Irish Government claimed that it could not find another suitable owner for the castle.

In March 1960, The Nationalist reported the final end of a building which was once the pride of the neighbourhood. "A big bang yesterday ended Shanbally Castle, where large quantities of gelignite and cortex shattered the building," it said. The explosion could be heard up to 10 mi away.

A statement from the Irish Government released after the demolition of the Castle said in response to protests favouring the retention of Shanbally Castle for the nation: "Apart from periods of military occupation the castle remained wholly unoccupied for 40 years".

title: Shanbally Castle


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NGL

NGL may refer to:

Types, techniques, technologies

 * Next-generation lithography
 * Neues Geistliches Lied, a German genre of new songs for use in churches

Objects, products and Software

 * Natural gas liquids, hydrocarbons in natural gas processing
 * Next Generation Launcher, a rocket designed by Orbital ATK (renamed OmegA in 2018)
 * NGL: Anonymous Q&A -  an anonymous multimedia messaging app developed by DeepMoji.

Companies and organizations

 * National Guardian Life, an American life insurance company
 * North German Lloyd, a German shipping company
 * No Greater Love, U.S. humanitarian non-profit organization
 * NGL Prime SpA, a European launcher development company
 * National Gridiron League (Australia), a proposed American football league in Australia that never played
 * National Gridiron League (United States), a proposed American football league in the United States that never played
 * Nordic Golf League, a professional golf tour

Other uses

 * Nordic green left (disambiguation)

title: NGL


text:
Euston Films

Euston Films is a British film and television production company. It was originally a subsidiary of Thames Television, and operated from 1971 to 1994, producing various series for Thames, which were screened nationally on the ITV network. Euston Films productions include Van der Valk (1977), The Sweeney (1975–1978), Minder (1979–1994), Quatermass (1979), Danger UXB (1979), and Reilly, Ace of Spies (1983). The Sweeney had two feature film spin-offs, Sweeney! and Sweeney 2, which were also produced by Euston.

In 2014, Euston Films was revived as a production company by the owner of Thames, Fremantle.

History
The idea for Euston Films dated back to 1965, when writer Trevor Preston and directors Jim Goddard and Terry Green were working at ABC Television. They produced a detailed proposal for a specialist production unit that shot dramas on 16mm film, rather than standard videotape.

The company was founded in 1971 when three Thames executives, Lloyd Shirley, George Taylor and Brian Tesler realised there was a market for a new type of television drama. To facilitate this new-style of quick-changing action, Euston used two crews filming different scenes of the same programme at the same time, which ensured production times were quicker. Euston eschewed the studio videotape shooting more commonly used in British television drama at the time, and all material was filmed on location using the more expensive but higher-quality 16mm film stock.

Initial shows such as Special Branch gained reasonable praise, but it was The Sweeney that first gave the company critical and commercial success. Using a storyline style known as "kick, bollock and scramble", this formula continued in such shows as Fox and Widows. In 1979, the company created Minder as a vehicle for Sweeney star Dennis Waterman, giving the company its longest-running show. In September 1986, Euston Films announced it would increase its production of theatrical films in a joint venture with Film Four International.

With the demise of parent company Thames as an ITV broadcast franchise holder in 1992, Euston's output reduced. It continued to make Minder for ITV franchisee Central Independent Television, but when this series was axed in 1994, further work was not forthcoming.

Euston Films was based at Colet Court in Hammersmith, London.

Revival
In March 2014, it was announced that FremantleMedia (who had relaunched the Thames brand two years earlier) was to revive Euston Films as a production company. Former BBC drama executive Kate Harwood was recruited to take charge of the company. In December 2015, Euston announced it had secured a commission of a new drama series titled Hard Sun, written by Neil Cross, the creator of Luther. Filming took place in and around London, and the series was transmitted in early 2018. In July 2017, Channel 4 announced a new crime thriller called Baghdad Central would be produced by Euston Films.

Euston North/Castlefield
Euston Films launched a second production company called Euston North in January 2017. While the company carries on with their work in London and the South of England, the MediaCityUK-based Euston North focuses on productions in Manchester and the North of England. On 7 June 2019, Euston North was renamed Castlefield.

title: Euston Films


text:
List of WWE Hardcore Champions

The WWE Hardcore Championship was a professional wrestling championship contested for in the United States–based World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) promotion, formerly known as the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) before May 2002. The title was only contestable in matches under hardcore regulations, and could be won only by individual wrestlers. As a professional wrestling championship, it was introduced by the WWF on its television program Raw Is War on November 2, 1998, in which WWF chairman Mr. McMahon awarded Mankind the title. In 2000, the WWF instated the "24/7 rule", a regulation stating that the title could be defended anywhere at any time as long as a referee was present, which led to numerous title changes in shorter time periods; the rule was discontinued in 2002. On the August 26, 2002 episode of Raw, Intercontinental Champion Rob Van Dam defeated Hardcore Champion Tommy Dreamer to unify both titles; the Hardcore Championship was retired shortly thereafter. The title was reactivated on two occasions afterwards, although they are not considered official reigns by WWE according to their official title history. On the June 23, 2003 episode of Raw, Mick Foley (who was the first champion as "Mankind") was awarded the Hardcore Championship belt by the Raw brand authority figure Stone Cold Steve Austin for his contributions in hardcore wrestling. Edge and Foley then introduced themselves as co-holders of the championship in 2006, due to a storyline with alumni of the hardcore wrestling-based Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) promotion.

Over the course of the title's 3 year, 9 month, and 25 day history, there were 230 title reigns shared among 52 wrestlers. Raven has the most reigns as champion, with 26. Big Boss Man's fourth reign was the longest in the title's history, at 97 days. Steve Blackman ranks first in combined reigns by length, at 172 days in six reigns. Blackman also held the record for the longest title reign under the "24/7 Rule" at 89 days, which was the 2nd longest. Due to the "24/7 rule" numerous wrestlers held the title less than one day, and because the exact times at which each wrestler held the title is unknown, it is impossible to determine who had the shortest reign. Each reign was won at WWF/E-promoted events: pay-per-view events, house shows, and on televised events.

title: List of WWE Hardcore Champions


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Reflow oven

A reflow oven is a machine used primarily for reflow soldering of surface mount electronic components to printed circuit boards (PCBs).

In commercial high-volume use, reflow ovens take the form of a long tunnel containing a conveyor belt along which PCBs travel. For prototyping or hobbyist use PCBs can be placed in a small oven with a door.

Commercial conveyorised reflow ovens contain multiple individually heated zones, which can be individually controlled for temperature. PCBs being processed travel through the oven and through each zone at a controlled rate. Technicians adjust the conveyor speed and zone temperatures to achieve a known time and temperature profile. The profile in use may vary depending on the requirements of the PCBs being processed at the time.

Infrared and convection ovens
In infrared reflow ovens, the heat source is normally ceramic infrared heaters above and below the conveyor, which transfer heat to the PCBs by means of radiation.

Convection ovens heat air in chambers, using that air to transfer heat to the PCBs by means of convection and conduction. They may be fan assisted to control the airflow within the oven. This indirect heating using air allows more accurate temperature control than directly heating PCBs by infrared radiation, as PCBs and components vary in infrared absorptance.

Ovens may use a combination of infrared radiative heating and convection heating, and would then be known as 'infrared convection' ovens.

Some ovens are designed to reflow PCBs in an oxygen-free atmosphere. Nitrogen (N2) is a common gas used for this purpose. This minimizes oxidation of the surfaces to be soldered. The nitrogen reflow oven takes a few minutes to reduce Oxygen concentration to acceptable levels within the chamber. Thus nitrogen ovens typically have nitrogen injection in at all times which decreases defect rates.

Vapour phase oven
The heating of the PCBs is sourced by thermal energy emitted by the phase transition of a heat transfer liquid (e. g. PFPE) condensing on the PCBs. The liquid used is chosen with a desired boiling point in mind to suit the solder alloy to be reflowed.

Some advantages of vapour phase soldering are:
 * High energy efficiency due to the high heat transfer coefficient of vapour phase media
 * Soldering is oxygen-free. There is no need for any protective gas (e.g. nitrogen)
 * No overheating of assemblies. The maximum temperature assemblies can reach is limited by the boiling point of the medium.

This is also known as condensation soldering.

Thermal profiling
Thermal profiling is the act of measuring several points on a circuit board to determine the thermal excursion it takes through the soldering process. In the electronics manufacturing industry, SPC (statistical process control) helps determine if the process is in control, measured against the reflow parameters defined by the soldering technologies and component requirements.

title: Reflow oven


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Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Hulver's site

Non-notable spin-off site for moderately notable Kuro5hin.org. - Kenwarren 13:36, Aug 1, 2004 (UTC)
 * Speedy deleted by Chris 73, presumably because it has been VfD deleted previously. See Template:VfD-Hulvers site. -- Cyrius|✎ 21:37, 1 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * Uuups ... I thought the article was listed as speedy delete. I need new glasses. Anyway, since it was listed on VfD before, i guess the deletion was OK. Thanks to Cyrius for checking -- Chris 73 | Talk 02:21, 2 Aug 2004 (UTC)