text:
Super Sport (Chevrolet)

Super Sport, or SS, is the signature performance option package offered by the Chevrolet division of General Motors on a limited number of its vehicles. All SS models come with distinctive "SS" markings on their exterior. The SS package was first made available for the 1961 Impala. Some of the other models bearing the SS badge include the Camaro, Chevelle, El Camino, Impala, Monte Carlo, Nova and Chevrolet Pickup Trucks. Current SS models are produced by the GM Performance Division.

General Motors's also offered SS models through its Australian subsidiary Holden in its range of Holden Commodore sedans and sportwagons, and also in the Holden Ute range of two-door coupé utilities.

History
In December 1956, Chevrolet unveiled a show car based on the first generation (C1) Corvette called the Corvette Super Sport. In early 1957, the Chevrolet Corvette SS debuted — a custom built racing sports car that was the first Chevrolet to wear the SS badge.

In 1961, the SS "kit" (known as a sport and appearance package) was offered on any Impala for just $53.80. The package included Super Sport trim for both the interior and exterior, chassis reinforcements, stronger springs and shocks, power brakes, spinner wheel covers, and narrow-band whitewall tires. The car's dashboard received a Corvette style passenger hand bar and a steering column mounted 7000-rpm tachometer. Chevrolet built 491,000 Impalas that year and 453 had the SS package, of which 311 received the 348 cid and 142 received the 409 cid. Since 1994, the SS package has been used on a variety of GM vehicles, including pickup trucks, four-door sedans, and front wheel drive cars.

Both historically and today, the Super Sport package has typically included high-performance tires, heavy-duty suspension, and increased power, along with a variety of other performance and appearance upgrades.

Current SS models

 * Chevrolet Camaro: 6.2 L LT1 V8 producing 455 hp
 * Chevrolet Blazer EV: A 557 hp EV using the Ultium battery pack.

Cars

 * Chevrolet (Commodore) SS: 6.2 L LS3 V8 producing 415 hp 2014-2017
 * Chevrolet Cobalt: 2.0 L turbocharged Ecotec LNF I4 producing 260 hp 2008–2010 (4 door, 2009)
 * Chevrolet Cobalt: 2.0 L supercharged Ecotec LSJ I4 producing 205 hp 2005–2007
 * Chevrolet Cobalt: 2.4 L Ecotec LE5 I4 producing 171 hp 2006–2008
 * Chevrolet HHR: 2.0 L turbocharged Ecotec LNF I4 producing 260 hp 2008–2010
 * Chevrolet Impala 1961–1969, 1994–1996, 2004–2009
 * Chevrolet Malibu/Malibu Maxx 2006–2007
 * Chevrolet Chevelle 1964–1973
 * Chevrolet Camaro 1967–1972, 1996–2002
 * Chevrolet El Camino 1968–1987
 * Chevrolet Chevy II Nova 1963–1968
 * Chevrolet Nova 1969–1976
 * Chevrolet Monte Carlo 1970–1971, 1983–1988, 2000–2007

Trucks

 * Chevrolet 454 SS 1990–1993
 * Chevrolet S10 SS 1994–1998
 * Chevrolet SSR: 6.0 L LS2 V8
 * Chevrolet Silverado SS
 * Chevrolet Silverado Intimidator SS
 * Chevrolet TrailBlazer SS: 6.0 L LS2 V8 2006–2009

Middle Eastern market

 * Chevrolet Caprice: rebadge of Impala SS (performance version of 4th generation Chevrolet Caprice sedan), 5.7 L LT1 V8 producing 260 hp 1995–1996
 * Chevrolet Caprice: rebadge of Holden Caprice, 5.7 L LS1 V8 producing 350 hp 1999–2006, 6.0 L L98 V8 producing 360 hp 2006–2009, 6.0 L L77 V8 producing 350 hp 2009–2015, 6.2 L LS3 V8 producing 410 hp 2015–2017
 * Chevrolet Lumina coupé: rebadge of third generation Holden Monaro CV8, 5.7 L LS1 V8 producing 350 hp 2002–2006
 * Chevrolet Lumina sedan: rebadge of Holden Commodore SS sedan 2000–2011

South African market
For a short period of time in the early 1970s, a Holden Monaro–based "Chevrolet SS" model, similar in design, size and drivetrain to a Nova SS, was available in South Africa. Unlike the contemporary Nova, it was built as a hardtop, without fixed #2 or B-pillars or frames around the door glass.

Similar to Middle Eastern market, Holden Commodore-based Chevrolet Lumina SS was also offered in South Africa as sedan and also as ute until 2012.

Brazilian market
Classics:
 * Chevrolet Opala: 4.1 L 250 I6 producing 150 hp 1971–1974
 * Chevrolet Opala: 4.1 L 250-S I6 producing 171 hp 1974–1980
 * Chevrolet Opala 2.5 L 151-S I4 producing 98 hp 1974–1980

New Era:
 * Chevrolet Astra 2.0 L Family II I4 producing 130 hp 2006
 * Chevrolet Corsa 1.8 L Family 1 SOHC 8-valve I4 producing 115 hp 2006
 * Chevrolet Meriva 1.8 L Family 1 SOHC 8-valve I4 producing 115 hp 2006

Australia (Holden)
Classics:
 * Holden SS Sedan: 4.2L (253 cu in) 253 V8 or 5.0L (308 cu in) 308 V8
 * Holden LX Torana SS Hatchback: 3.3L (202 cu in) 202 I6, 4.2L (253 cu in) 253 V8 or 5.0L (308 cu in) 308 V8
 * Holden VL Commodore SS: 5.0L (304 cu in) 5000i V8
 * Holden Special Vehicles Group A SS: 5.0L (304 cu in) Enhanced 5000i V8
 * Holden VN Commodore SS: 5.0L (304 cu in) 5000i V8
 * Holden VN Commodore SS: 5.0L (304 cu in) 5000i V8
 * Holden VP Commodore SS: 5.0L (304 cu in) 5000i V8
 * Holden VR Commodore SS: 5.0L (304 cu in) 5000i V8
 * Holden VT Commodore SS: 5.0L (304 cu in) 5000i V8 or 5.7L (350 cu in) GM Gen III LS1 V8

Modern Era:
 * Holden VX Commodore SS: 5.7L (350 cu in) GM Gen III LS1 V8
 * Holden VU Ute SS: 5.7L (350 cu in) GM Gen III LS1 V8
 * Holden VY Commodore SS: 5.7L (350 cu in) GM Gen III LS1 V8
 * Holden VY Ute SS: 5.7L (350 cu in) GM Gen III LS1 V8
 * Holden VY Series II Commodore SS: 5.7L (350 cu in) GM Gen III LS1 V8
 * Holden VY Series II Ute SS: 5.7L (350 cu in) GM Gen III LS1 V8
 * Holden VZ Commodore SS: 5.7L (350 cu in) GM Gen III LS1 V8
 * Holden VZ Ute SS: 5.7L (350 cu in) GM Gen III LS1 V8
 * Limited Run VZ SSZ Runout Models both Sedan and Ute
 * Holden VE Commodore SS: 6.0L (364 cu in) GM Gen III L98 V8 2007-2010
 * Holden VE Ute SS: 6.0L (364 cu in) GM Gen IV L98 V8 2008-2010
 * Holden VE Sportwagon SS: 6.0L (364 cu in) GM Gen IV L98 V8 2009-2010
 * Holden VE Series II Commodore SS: 6.0L (364 cu in) GM Gen III L77 V8 2010-2013
 * Holden VE Series II Ute SS: 6.0L (364 cu in) GM Gen III L77 V8 2010-2013
 * Holden VE Series II Sportwagon SS: 6.0L (364 cu in) GM Gen IV L77 V8 2010-2013
 * All Models Available in Race-Specced 'SS V' Variant
 * Holden VF Commodore SS: 6.0L (364 cu in) GM Gen IV L77 V8 2013-2015
 * Holden VF Ute SS: 6.0L (364 cu in) GM Gen IV L77 V8 2013-2015
 * Holden VF Sportwagon SS: 6.0L (364 cu in) GM Gen IV L77 V8 2013-2015
 * Holden VF Series II Commodore SS: 6.2L (376 cu in) GM Gen IV LS3 V8 2015-2017
 * Holden VF Series II Ute SS: 6.2L (376 cu in) GM Gen IV LS3 V8 2015-2017
 * Holden VF Series II Sportwagon SS: 6.2L (376 cu in) GM Gen IV LS3 V8 2015-2017
 * Series I Models Available in Race-Specced 'SS V' Variant
 * Series II Models Available in Race-Specced 'SS V Redline' Variant

Indonesian market

 * Chevrolet Captiva 2.4 L Ecotec LE5 I4 producing 171 hp 2011

Concept car

In 2003, Chevrolet released a concept car they named the SS. A rear wheel drive sports car with a modern 430 hp small-block V8 engine and race-tuned suspension, it was billed as "a modern interpretation of Chevrolet's Super Sport heritage". Though never intended for production, the vehicle was used as a show car and to hint at what was ahead for Chevrolet sports car design.

Collectors market
It is usually easy to visually differentiate an SS from a "plain-Jane" model. However, it is more difficult to tell the difference between a genuine SS and a "clone", a non-SS vehicle that has been altered to look like an SS. Because of the number of SS clones in the marketplace, potential buyers are advised to do their research and contact their local car clubs for help to ensure that the vehicle is a true SS by running the VIN codes and casting numbers on the engine (this also includes the vehicle's build sheet especially if the SS package was a factory option). Other non-SS vehicles altered to appear like them only use trim panels rather than aftermarket mechanical parts.

title: Super Sport (Chevrolet)


text:
Talk:Kryha

Pronunciation?
How do you pronouce "Kryha"? Melchoir 23:57, 11 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Actually it is just as written: [kriːhɑ]. English man probably be inclined to say [kɹaɪhæ]?--178.158.194.61 (talk) 08:46, 25 April 2016 (UTC)

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

title: Talk:Kryha


text:
Semois

The Semois (Simwès in Walloon, often under elided form Smwès; Semoy, Sesbach in German, Setzbaach in Luxembourgish of Arlon; and known as the Semoy in France) is a river flowing from the Ardennes uplands of Belgium and France towards the Meuse, of which it is a right tributary.

The source of the Semois is in Arlon, Wallonia, in the Belgian province of Luxembourg, close to the border with the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Flowing in a roughly westerly direction, it enters France after passing through the Belgian village of Bohan-sur-Semois and forms about 2 km of the Belgian–French border. It joins the Meuse 24 km further downstream in Monthermé. The total length of the river is 210 km.

Other places on the banks of the Semois are Chiny, Florenville, Herbeumont, Bouillon (including the localities of Dohan and Poupehan), and Vresse-sur-Semois (all in Belgium).

The earliest documentation of the name, as SESMARA, is dated from the 2nd century AD. That was before that region was influenced by significant Germanic immigration. Medieval forms include Sesomirs (664), Sesmarus (950), Sesmoys (1104), and Semoir (1244).

The river has given its name to a variety of tobacco grown in the area.

title: Semois


text:
Snaggletooth

Snaggletooth may refer to:

 * "Snaggletooth", a 1984 song by English rock band Motörhead from No Remorse
 * Snaggletooth a.k.a. Warpig, the mascot of English rock band Motörhead
 * Snivvian (a.k.a. Snaggletooth), a character seen in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, as known as Zutton
 * Snaggletooth (fish), predatory fish of the genus Astronesthes
 * Snaggletooth shark, Hemipristis elongatus, is a species of weasel shark, family Hemigaleidae, and the only extant member of the genus Hemipristis
 * Snagglepuss, originally known as "Snaggletooth", a Hanna-Barbera cartoon character

title: Snaggletooth


text:
User talk:Wiki137~enwiki

Image copyrights
Thanks for uploading Image:Panchreston.txt. I notice it currently doesn't have an image copyright tag. Could you add one to let us know its copyright status? (You can use if you release it under the GFDL, or  if you claim fair use, etc.) If you don't know what any of this means, just let me know where you got the images and I'll tag them for you. Thanks so much,   — Edwin Stearns | Talk 16:03, 15 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Wiki137. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Wiki137~enwiki that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name. If you think you might own all of the accounts with this name and this message is in error, please visit Special:MergeAccount to check and attach all of your accounts to prevent them from being renamed.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 03:39, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 20:29, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Wiki137~enwiki


text:
Sainte-Colombe

Sainte-Colombe may refer to the following places in France:

 * Sainte-Colombe, Hautes-Alpes, in the Hautes-Alpes department
 * Sainte-Colombe, Charente, in the Charente department
 * Sainte-Colombe, Charente-Maritime, in the Charente-Maritime department
 * Sainte-Colombe, Côte-d'Or, in the Côte-d'Or department
 * Sainte-Colombe, Doubs, in the Doubs department
 * Sainte-Colombe, Gironde, in the Gironde department
 * Sainte-Colombe, Ille-et-Vilaine, in the Ille-et-Vilaine department
 * Sainte-Colombe, Landes, in the Landes department
 * Sainte-Colombe, Lot, in the Lot department
 * Sainte-Colombe, Manche, in the Manche department
 * Sainte-Colombe, Rhône, in the Rhône department
 * Sainte-Colombe, Seine-Maritime, in the Seine-Maritime department
 * Sainte-Colombe, Seine-et-Marne, in the Seine-et-Marne department
 * Sainte-Colombe, Yonne, in the Yonne department
 * Sainte-Colombe-de-Duras, in the Lot-et-Garonne department
 * Sainte-Colombe-de-la-Commanderie, in the Pyrénées-Orientales department
 * Sainte-Colombe-de-Peyre, in the Lozère department
 * Sainte-Colombe-des-Bois, in the Nièvre department
 * Sainte-Colombe-de-Villeneuve, in the Lot-et-Garonne department
 * Sainte-Colombe-en-Bruilhois, in the Lot-et-Garonne department
 * Sainte-Colombe-la-Commanderie, in the Eure department
 * Sainte-Colombe-près-Vernon, in the Eure department
 * Sainte-Colombe-sur-Gand, in the Loire department
 * Sainte-Colombe-sur-Guette, in the Aude department
 * Sainte-Colombe-sur-l'Hers, in the Aude department
 * Sainte-Colombe-sur-Loing, in the Yonne department
 * Sainte-Colombe-sur-Seine, in the Côte-d'Or department

Sainte Colombe may also refer to:
 * Monsieur de Sainte Colombe, a French composer who added a low seventh string to the Viola da gamba. A portion of his life is the theme of the movie Tous les matins du monde, aka All the Mornings of the World

title: Sainte-Colombe


text:
User talk:204.78.125.47

Proposed deletion of Dixon Educational Center

The article Dixon Educational Center has been proposed for deletion because of the following concern: "No significant coverage located in searching. Current sourcing is an archive of a website that currently does not exist. Lacks the coverage needed to satisfy WP:ORG"

While all constructive contributions to Wikipedia are appreciated, pages may be deleted for any of several reasons.

You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the notice, but please explain why in your edit summary or on the article's talk page.

Please consider improving the page to address the issues raised. Removing will stop the proposed deletion process, but other deletion processes exist. In particular, the speedy deletion process can result in deletion without discussion, and articles for deletion allows discussion to reach consensus for deletion. Gab4gab (talk) 14:31, 17 June 2022 (UTC)

title: User talk:204.78.125.47


text:
Boots 'N' All

Boots 'N' All was a Sky Sports-televised rugby league, weekly magazine programme, focusing on the Super League, Championship, League 1 and amateur game that ran until the end of 2015. Originally focusing on the lighter side of the game, the programme was the foremost rugby league programme on United Kingdom television and was broadcast every week during the regular rugby league season.

International Syndication
Boots 'N' All is an original British television concept, but an Australian version of the show was broadcast on the Nine Network, hosted by Andrew Voss and Phil Gould. It regularly featured chairman of Bye Supporters club Tim Andrews, and Sydney Roosters mascot Brian the Rooster.

Presenters
The programme was anchored by Eddie Hemmings, Sky Sports regular Super League presenter and commentator, who was usually joined by two studio guests. They were usually two of: Paul Cullen, Phil Clarke, Terry O'Connor, Barrie McDermott, John Kear, Tony Rea, Jon Wells and Brian Carney.

Bill Arthur, Rod Studd and Angela Powers also provided featured reports.

Content
The week's tries, plus player and coaching interviews. Traditionally broadcast on a Wednesday night, the programme was switched to a Thursday to incorporate live matches from the National Leagues during the 2007 season. The programme reverted to a Wednesday the following season and continued to broadcast live at 6pm, with regular repeats during the proceeding 24 hours.

The show usually featured a round up of the weeks news, followed by a discussion of the news. Highlights from a Championship match and previews of the weeks upcoming television matches were included. Furthermore, interviews with players, coaches and leading figures from the game often featured.

Online
In 2007, an online version of Boots 'N' All has been available on the Sky Sports website and Sky Anytime every week during the regular Super League season. Presented by either Bill Arthur or Angela Powers, the programme consisted solely of a review of the previous weekend's Super League action, with analysis from Terry O'Connor or Barrie McDermott.

This programme now airs on Sky Sports television under the name of Super League Full Time.

title: Boots 'N' All


text:
Jemima Shore

Jemima Shore is a fictional character created by Antonia Fraser, and is portrayed as TV's consummately professional investigative journalist. She is featured in a series of crime novels.

Novels

 * Quiet as a Nun (1977)
 * The Wild Island (1978)
 * A Splash of Red (1981)
 * Cool Repentance (1982)
 * Oxford Blood (1985)
 * Jemima Shore's First Case, and Other Stories (1986; short story collection with 5 JS stories and 8 others)
 * Your Royal Hostage (1987)
 * The Cavalier Case (1990)
 * Jemima Shore at the Sunny Grave (1991)
 * Political Death (1995)

Television
Fraser's creation has been the basis of two television series which were broadcast in the United Kingdom: the 1978 Armchair Thriller serial Quiet as a Nun with Maria Aitken as Jemima Shore, and an omnibus series, Jemima Shore Investigates, starring Patricia Hodge in the title role. The series was produced by Thames Television for the ITV network in 1983. One series of twelve episodes was made.

title: Jemima Shore


text:
Talk:The Scarlet Letter

"Scarlet Letterman" listed at Redirects for discussion
A discussion is taking place to address the redirect Scarlet Letterman. The discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2021 July 15 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. Hog Farm Talk 03:49, 15 July 2021 (UTC)

Reception
Reception needs work. It should reflect more modern day analysis as it is claimed to be a masterwork yet nearly half of the critics cited are negative. 2603:6010:11F0:3C0:71CC:AE7A:CEEB:4053 (talk) 03:31, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

Should we remove this tag?
The "Adaptions and influences" section has been tagged as needing expansion. I looked at the main article. It's basically a lengthy list of references to it in mainly television. I honestly know of no other suitable way it could be summarized in the "Adaptions and influences" sections, so I think the tag should be removed. Should I go ahead — Python Drink (talk) 20:42, 14 December 2022 (UTC)

Inclusion of Easy A in the Films section
I think that the 2010 film adaptation Easy A starring Emma Stone ought to be included in the Films section. -cspan02 (talk) 08:32, 21 January 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:The Scarlet Letter


text: Talk:Jinmeiyō kanji

title: Talk:Jinmeiyō kanji


text:
Ed Vaizey

Edward Henry Butler Vaizey, Baron Vaizey of Didcot, (born 5 June 1968) is a British politician, media columnist, political commentator and barrister who was Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries from 2010 to 2016. A member of the Conservative Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Wantage from 2005 to 2019.

Early life
Vaizey was born in June 1968 in St Pancras, London. He is the son of the late John Vaizey, a Labour (later Conservative) life peer, and the art historian Marina Vaizey (The Lady Vaizey CBE ). His father's family is from South London. His mother's family, of Polish Jewish descent, is from New York City. He spent part of his childhood in Berkshire. He was educated at St Paul's School, London before reading history at Merton College, Oxford. Elected Librarian of the Oxford Union, he graduated with an upper second class degree. After leaving university, Vaizey worked for the Conservative MPs Kenneth Clarke and Michael Howard as an adviser on employment and education issues. He practised as a barrister for several years, in family law and child care.

Personal life
Vaizey dated and proposed marriage to Esther McVey. He then dated and married Solicitor, Alexandra Mary-Jane Holland b.1970 on the 17 September 2005, in the chapel of the House of Commons. Michael Gove was his Best Man and the wedding reception was held nearby at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in The Mall, London. The couple share two children, Joseph and Martha.

Political career
Vaizey first stood for Parliament at the 1997 general election, when he was the Conservative Party candidate for Bristol East. In the 2001 general election, he acted as an election aide to Iain Duncan Smith. He unsuccessfully stood at the 2002 local elections for the safe Labour ward of Harrow Road (based around the area of that name) in the City of Westminster.

He is regarded as a moderniser within the Conservative Party, contributing in both policy and image terms. He was a speechwriter for Michael Howard, the then Leader of the Conservative Party, until December 2004, and editor of the Blue Books series which looked into new approaches to Conservative policy in areas such as health and transport.

Vaizey was one of Michael Howard's inner circle of advisers and a member of a group of Young Conservatives somewhat disparagingly referred to as the "Notting Hill Set" along with David Cameron—elected party leader in December 2005—George Osborne, Michael Gove, Nicholas Boles and Rachel Whetstone. Like Gove and Boles, he is a fellow of the Henry Jackson Society, and also a vice-chairman of Conservative Friends of Poland.

Member of Parliament
In 2002, Vaizey was selected by Wantage Conservative Association to be its candidate for the 2005 general election to succeed the sitting MP, Robert Jackson, who subsequently crossed the floor to Labour. Vaizey won a two-thirds majority in the final ballot of members and was elected as MP in that election, receiving 22,394 votes. His majority was 8,017 over the Liberal Democrats; this represented 43% of the voters and a 1.9% swing from the Liberal Democrats to the Conservatives.

When first elected to the House of Commons, Vaizey became a member of the Standing Committee on the Consumer Credit Bill. Before being appointed to the Opposition frontbench he was a member of the Modernisation and Environmental Audit Select Committees and was Deputy Chairman of the Conservative's Globalisation and Global Poverty Policy Group.

In November 2006, Vaizey was appointed to the Conservative frontbench as a Shadow Minister for Culture, overseeing Arts and Broadcasting policy.

In the 2010 general election he received a vote of 29,284, which was 52% of the votes cast, winning an increased majority of 13,457. While the Conservative Party was in negotiations with the Lib Dems in the days after 6 May 2010, Vaizey was appearing regularly on television putting forward the Conservative viewpoint. In the 2015 general election Vaizey increased his majority to 21,749. In the 2017 general election Vaizey's majority was reduced but his share of the vote increased to 54.2%.

Vaizey was one of the group of 21 MPs who had the Conservative Whip removed in September 2019, sitting as an independent politician until having the whip restored on 29 October 2019. On 6 November 2019 Vaizey announced his decision not to stand for re-election in the 2019 general election.

Ministerial career
In 2010, Vaizey was appointed as Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries. with responsibilities in the Departments for Culture, Media and Sport and for Business, Innovation and Skills. Vaizey was the longest serving Minister of Culture since the post was created in 1964, serving a total of 2,255 days, exceeding the total set by the first incumbent, Jennie Lee, by 186 days.

Upon leaving office, over 150 senior figures from the arts and creative industries wrote to the Daily Telegraph to express their thanks for his service as Minister for Culture and the Digital Economy. In 2011 he was mistakenly informed that he was to be Trade Minister, a post actually intended for Ed Davey.

Vaizey supported continued membership of the European Union in the 2016 referendum and is supportive of the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom).

As a minister, Vaizey upheld the policy of free entry to the UK's national museums. Towards the end of his tenure, the Treasury introduced tax credits for theatre, orchestras and museums. Vaizey also secured £150 million in capital funding from the Treasury to help reform museum storage.

He oversaw the separation of English Heritage into two arms – a regulator, now known as Historic England, and a charity, English Heritage. Vaizey also held responsibility for the creative industries and ensured the continuance of the film tax credits, as well as the introduction of tax credits for video games, television and visual effects. As a result, the film industry became the second highest contributor to growth in the service sector in 2017, growing by 72.4% since 2014, compared to European growth of 8.5%. During his tenure, the creative industries grew at three times the rate of the UK economy as a whole. He was dismissed as a minister by Theresa May on 14 July 2016, and returned to the backbenches. He was appointed a member of the Privy Council in July 2016.

Expenses claims
On 18 May 2009, The Daily Telegraph reported that receipts submitted by Vaizey show that he ordered a £467 sofa, a £544 chair, a £280.50 low table and a £671 table in February 2007 from Oka, a furniture shop run by Annabel Astor. The Commons Fees Office initially rejected the claim as the receipt said that the furniture was due to be delivered to Vaizey's home address in West London, but was later paid when Vaizey advised the Fees Office that the furniture was intended for his second home at his Wantage constituency. Vaizey told The Daily Telegraph that he and his wife "had it delivered to London because we would be in to collect it and we were driving down with it".

When these claims became public, Vaizey said that he had repaid the cost of the Oka furniture and the antique chair which he had bought with taxpayers' money: "I accept that the £300 armchair was an antique item and therefore that claim should not have been made. I also accept that the Oka items could be deemed as being of higher quality than necessary. I have paid back both these claims. I have not claimed for any other furniture bought for my constituency home at any time before or since." Vaizey has described himself as "relatively affluent".

In November 2011, it was further reported that Vaizey had submitted expenses claims of 8p for a 350-yard car journey and 16p for a 700-yard journey.

Peerage
It was announced on 31 July 2020 that Vaizey was to be raised to the peerage in the 2019 Dissolution Honours. He was created Baron Vaizey of Didcot, of Wantage in the County of Oxfordshire in the afternoon of 1 September.

He made his maiden speech in the House of Lords on 21 September 2020.

Media career
Vaizey has been a regular commentator for the Conservative Party in the broadcast and news media. He wrote regular comment pieces for The Guardian between 1998 and 2005 and has contributed articles to The Sunday Times, The Times and The Daily Telegraph. He briefly wrote editorials for the Evening Standard. Vaizey is also a regular broadcaster, having appeared on Fi Glover's and Edwina Currie's shows on BBC Radio 5 Live, as a regular panelist on Channel 5's The Wright Stuff, BBC Radio 4's Despatch Box and Westminster Hour, and occasionally presented People and Politics on the BBC World Service. Vaizey is a regular contributor on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, and since December 2022, Vaizey has been a regular presenter on Times Radio.

On 24 September 2010, Vaizey was named tenth in the 2010 Guardian Film Power 100 list. He played a cameo role as an Oxfordshire MP in the 2012 film Tortoise in Love.

Other work
Subsequent to leaving office as Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, Vaizey became a trustee of the National Youth Theatre and the international charity BritDoc, which supports long-form documentary making, both of which roles are unpaid. Vaizey is also a trustee of London Music Masters, a charity which provides children from disadvantaged backgrounds access to a high quality music education.

He was appointed the unpaid chairman of Creative Fuse NE, a programme overseen by five universities in North East England to look at the importance of fusing creativity and technology.

Vaizey took a role with LionTree Advisors who paid a salary of £50,000 for one day's work per week. The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments approved his application to work for the investment bank, which specialises in media and technology mergers and acquisitions, despite Vaizey's having met the firm on "official business" three times in his final months as minister.

He is a past president of the Old Pauline Club, the alumni association of St Paul's School which he attended as a pupil.

title: Ed Vaizey


text:
László Kovács (cinematographer)

László Kovács ASC (14 May 1933 – 22 July 2007) was a Hungarian-American cinematographer who was influential in the development of American New Wave films in the 1970s, collaborating with directors including Peter Bogdanovich, Richard Rush, Dennis Hopper, Norman Jewison, and Martin Scorsese. Known for his work on Easy Rider (1969) and Five Easy Pieces (1970), Kovács was the recipient of numerous awards, including three Lifetime Achievement Awards. He was an active member of the American Society of Cinematographers and was a member of the organization's board of directors.

Early life
Born in Cece, Hungary, to Julianna and Imre Kovács, Kovács studied cinema at the Academy of Drama and Film in Budapest between 1952 and 1956. Together with Vilmos Zsigmond, a fellow student and lifelong friend, Kovács secretly filmed the day-to-day development of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 on black and white 35 mm movie film, using an Arriflex camera borrowed from their school. In November that year, they smuggled the 30000 ft of film into Austria to have it developed, and they arrived in the United States in March 1957 to sell the footage. By that time, however, the revolution was no longer considered newsworthy and it was not until some years later, in 1961, that it was screened on the CBS television network, in a documentary narrated by Walter Cronkite.

Kovács decided to settle in the United States, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1963. He worked at several manual labor jobs, including making maple syrup and printing microfilm documents in an insurance office, before making several "no-budget" and "low-budget" films with Vilmos Zsigmond, including The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies. At the time Kovács would be credited as Leslie Kovacs and Zsigmond as William Zsigmond.

Film career
Kovács' breakthrough came with the 1969 film Easy Rider, starring and directed by Dennis Hopper. Kovács was reluctant to work on this film at first, having already worked on a number of B movie biker films, such as Hells Angels on Wheels. Hopper ultimately convinced Kovács that this film would be different and Kovács signed on as the film's director of photography. He earned second place for the Best Cinematographer Golden Laurel at the 1970 Laurel Awards. In 1970, he again worked with Hopper on the film The Last Movie. That same year, Kovács filmed Five Easy Pieces, for which he received the third place Golden Laurel for Best Cinematographer.

Kovács filmed more than 70 motion pictures. Among these were six films for director Peter Bogdanovich: Targets, What's Up, Doc?, Paper Moon, At Long Last Love, Nickelodeon, and Mask. Bogdanovich worked with Kovács more times than any other cinematographer.

Other notable films Kovács photographed include For Pete's Sake, Shampoo, New York, New York, Ghostbusters, Ruby Cairo, Say Anything..., Radio Flyer, My Best Friend's Wedding, and Miss Congeniality. He also did additional photography on Close Encounters of the Third Kind and The Last Waltz.

When working on The Last Waltz, camera operators were instructed to turn their cameras off at different intervals, in order to save battery life. One of these instances was during Muddy Waters' set, but Waters' outstanding performance led director Martin Scorsese to spontaneously change his mind, and ordered all cameras to be turned on. Because the cameras took several minutes to fully warm up, most caught only the last few bars of Waters' performance. Kovács, however, either did not hear or disregarded orders to shut down his camera, and was the only cameraman on set who managed to film Waters' entire performance.

Kovács' final work appears in Torn from the Flag, a 2006 feature documentary about the 1956 Hungarian Revolution which incorporates original footage he and Zsigmond shot as film students before fleeing to the United States.

Personal life
On July 22, 2007, Kovács died at his home in Beverly Hills, California at the age of 74. At the time of his death, Kovács had been married for 23 years to his wife, Audrey. He had two daughters, Julianna and Nadia, and a granddaughter, Mia.

Awards and honors
In 1995 he was a member of the jury at the 19th Moscow International Film Festival.

Kovács was honored with Lifetime Achievement Awards from Camerimage (1998), WorldFest (1999), and the American Society of Cinematographers (2002). The Lifetime Achievement Award from the ASC is the organization's highest honor. In addition, Kovács received an Excellence in Cinematography Award from the 1999 Hawaii International Film Festival and a Hollywood Film Award at the 2001 Hollywood Film Festival.

The American Society of Cinematographers dedicated the 2008 Heritage Award for top student filmmakers in memory of Kovács.

The 2008 documentary film No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos explores the 50-year friendship between Kovács and Zsigmond and their influence on filmmaking. Film critic Leonard Maltin said that, without Kovács and fellow cinematographer Zsigmond, "the American New Wave of the late 1960s and early '70s wouldn’t have flowered as it did."

title: László Kovács (cinematographer)


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San Francisco cable car system

The San Francisco cable car system is the world's last manually operated cable car system and an icon of the city of San Francisco. The system forms part of the intermodal urban transport network operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway, which also includes the separate E Embarcadero and F Market & Wharves heritage streetcar lines, and the Muni Metro modern light rail system. Of the 23 cable car lines established between 1873 and 1890, only three remain (one of which combines parts of two earlier lines): two routes from downtown near Union Square to Fisherman's Wharf, and a third route along California Street.

While the cable cars are used to a certain extent by commuters, the vast majority of the millions of passengers who use the system every year are tourists, and as a result, the wait to get on can often reach two hours or more. They are among the most significant tourist attractions in the city, along with Alcatraz Island, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Fisherman's Wharf.

San Francisco's cable cars are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is one of only two street railways to be named a National Historic Landmark, along with the St. Charles Streetcar Line in New Orleans.

Beginnings
In 1869, Andrew Smith Hallidie had the idea for a cable car system in San Francisco, reportedly after witnessing an accident in which a streetcar drawn by horses over wet cobblestones slid backwards, killing the horses. Hallidie solicited financial support in 1871 and 1872, and his primary backers were Henry L. Davis, Joseph Britton, and James Moffit.

The first successful cable-operated street running train was the Clay Street Hill Railroad, which had its inaugural run on August 2, 1873. The promoter of the line was Hallidie, and the engineer was William Eppelsheimer; both Hallidie and Eppelsheimer obtained several patents for their work on the Clay Street line. The line involved the use of grip cars, which carried the grip that engaged with the cable, towing trailer cars; the design was the first to use grips. The term "grip" became synonymous with the operator.

The line started regular service on September 1, 1873, and its success led it to become the template for other cable car transit systems. It was a financial success, and Hallidie's patents were enforced on other cable car promoters, making him wealthy.

Accounts differ as to the precise degree of Hallidie's involvement in the inception of the line, and to the exact date on which it first ran. According to the franchise granted by the city, operations were required to begin by August 1, 1873. A retrospective published in 1895 stated that a single car was run over the line at 4 am on the morning of August 1 with few witnesses to ensure the franchise would not expire. Eppelsheimer would later bring a suit against Hallidie and the Clay Street Hill RR in June 1877 over patents, but dismissed it voluntarily the following March.

Expansion
The next cable car line to open was the Sutter Street Railway, which converted from horse operation in January 1877. This line introduced the side grip, and lever operation, both designed by Henry Casebolt and his assistant Asa Hovey, and patented by Casebolt. This idea came about because Casebolt did not want to pay Hallidie royalties of $50,000 a year for the use of his patent. The side grip allowed cable cars to cross at intersections.

In 1878, Leland Stanford opened his California Street Cable Railroad (Cal Cable). This company's first line was on California Street, and is the oldest cable car line still in operation. In 1880, the Geary Street, Park & Ocean Railway began operation. The Presidio and Ferries Railway followed two years later, and was the first cable company to include curves on its routes. The curves were "let-go" curves, in which the car drops the cable and coasts around the curve on its own momentum.

In 1883, the Market Street Cable Railway opened its first line. This company was controlled by the Southern Pacific Railroad and would grow to become San Francisco's largest cable car operator. At its peak, it operated five lines, all of which converged on Market Street to a common terminus at the Ferry Building. During rush hours, cars left that terminus every 15 seconds.

In 1888, the Ferries and Cliff House Railway opened its initial two-line system. The Powell–Mason line is still operated on the same route today; their other route was the Powell–Washington–Jackson line, stretches of which are used by today's Powell–Hyde line. The Ferries & Cliff House Railway was also responsible for the building of a car barn and powerhouse at Washington and Mason, and this site is still in use today. In the same year, it also purchased the original Clay Street Hill Railway, which it incorporated into a new Sacramento–Clay line in 1892.

In 1889, the Omnibus Railroad and Cable Company became the last new cable car operator in San Francisco. The following year the California Street Cable Railroad opened two new lines, these being the last entirely new cable car lines built in the city. One of them was the O'Farrell–Jones–Hyde line, the Hyde section of which still remains in operation as part of the current Powell–Hyde line.

In all, twenty-three lines were established between 1873 and 1890.

Evolution of motive power
Originally, the cables were powered by stationary steam engines. For its initial three cables, the Ferries & Cliff House Railway constructed a three-story structure to house two 450 hp coal-burning steam engines. The building was complete with a 185 ft smokestack to vent away the heavy black smoke created by the Welsh anthracite coal that the company burned. Expansion of service required two additional 500 hp coal-fired steam engines in 1890. Coal consumption in 1893 was about 10 tons per day. The system was converted from coal to oil burning in 1901, and the lessened amount of smoke allowed the smokestack to be shortened to 60 ft. This shortened smokestack still stands at Washington-Mason car barn today.

Electric energy was introduced in 1912, when a 600 hp General Electric motor came online. By 1926, all steam operation of the cable ended when a second electric drive was installed, a 750 hp General Electric motor. With the reduction in the number of cable car lines, the single 750-horsepower electric motor was eventually able to take over the job of running all of the lines. The limitation with that configuration was that if one cable car on one line broke down, all lines had to be stopped. Consequently, during the 1984 reconstruction, each of the four cables (California, Hyde, Mason and Powell) was separately powered by its own 510 hp electric motor.

Decline
The first electric streetcars in San Francisco began operation in 1892 under the auspices of the San Francisco and San Mateo Electric Railway.

By the beginning of 1906 many of San Francisco's remaining cable cars were under the control of the United Railroads of San Francisco (URR), although Cal Cable and the Geary Street Company remained independent. URR was pressing to convert many of its cable lines to overhead electric traction, but this was met with resistance from opponents who objected to what they saw as ugly overhead lines on the major thoroughfares of the city center.

Those objections disappeared after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The quake and resulting fire destroyed the power houses and car barns of both the Cal Cable and the URR's Powell Street lines, together with the 117 cable cars stored within them. The subsequent race to rebuild the city allowed the URR to replace most of its cable car lines with electric streetcar lines. By 1912, only eight cable car lines remained, all with steep grades impassable to electric streetcars. In the 1920s and 1930s, these remaining lines came under pressure from the much-improved motor buses of the era, which could now climb steeper hills than the electric streetcar. By 1944, five of those cable car lines had survived: the two Powell Street lines – by then under municipal ownership, as part of Muni – and the three lines owned by the still-independent Cal Cable.

Fight to remain open
In 1947, Mayor Roger Lapham proposed the closure of the two municipally owned lines. In response, a joint meeting of 27 women's civic groups, led by Friedel Klussmann, formed the Citizens' Committee to Save the Cable Cars. In a famous battle of wills, the citizens' committee eventually forced a referendum on an amendment to the city charter, compelling the city to continue operating the Powell Street lines. This passed overwhelmingly, by 166,989 votes to 51,457. Klussman led another campaign in 1948 to have the city acquire Cal Cable, but the referendum fell short of the required $2/3$ majority, with 58% in favor of acquisition; a second referendum in 1949, requiring a simple majority, passed and the city began negotiations with Cal Cable.

In August 1951, the three Cal Cable lines were shut down when the company was unable to afford insurance. The city purchased and reopened the lines in January 1952, but another referendum that would have funded maintenance for the California Street tracks and the powerhouse and car barn at Hyde and California failed in November 1953. The amendment to the city charter did not protect the newly acquired Cal Cable lines, and the city proceeded with plans to replace them with buses; in addition, businesses in Union Square and downtown began advancing plans to convert O'Farrell to automobile traffic, which would remove service through the Tenderloin district via the inner section of the O'Farrell Jones & Hyde line. The result was a compromise that formed the current system: the California Street line from Cal Cable, the Powell–Mason line already in municipal ownership, and a third hybrid line formed by grafting the Hyde Street section of Cal Cable's O'Farrell-Jones-Hyde line onto a truncated Powell–Washington–Jackson line, now known as the Powell–Hyde line.

This solution required some rebuilding to convert the Hyde Street trackage and terminus to operation by the single-ended cars of the Powell line, and also to allow the whole system to be operated from a single car barn and power house. Despite the changes, much of the systems infrastructure remained unchanged from the time of the earthquake.

Rebuild
By 1979, the cable car system had become unsafe; it needed to be closed for seven months for urgently-needed repairs. A subsequent engineering evaluation concluded that it needed comprehensive rebuilding at a cost of US$60 million (equivalent to $ million in ). Mayor Dianne Feinstein, who took charge of the effort, helped win federal funding for the bulk of the rebuilding job. In 1982, the cable car system was closed for the rebuild which involved the replacement of 69 city blocks' worth of tracks and cable channels, a rebuilding of the car barn and powerhouse within the original outer brick walls, new propulsion equipment, and the repair or rebuild of 37 cable cars. The Historic Trolley Festival was launched the following June as an expected-to-be-temporary substitute tourist attraction during the long closure. The system reopened on June 21, 1984, in time to benefit from the publicity that accompanied San Francisco's hosting of that year's Democratic National Convention.

Recent history
Since 1984, Muni has continued to upgrade the system. Work has included rebuilding historic cars, building brand new replacement cars, building a new terminal and turntable at the Hyde and Beach terminus, and a new turntable at the Powell and Market terminus.

Between 2017 and 2019, the system received a second, but less extensive rebuild. Over the two-year project, Muni rehabilitated the cable car system's gearboxes, which had been in service since the last rebuild in 1984.

The system was shut down in March 2020 to protect operators during the COVID-19 pandemic, as cable cars do not offer a compartment separating them from passengers (unlike Muni buses, which kept running). Limited service on all three lines resumed on August 2, 2021. Full revenue service began on September 4. On September 9, a valve failure caused the fire suppression system in the carbarn to activate, shutting down electric power to the powerhouse. Service resumed on September 18.

Controversies
The cable cars are an iconic part of San Francisco, but they are not without their critics. Most complaints center around the high cost of operating a system that mostly serves tourists, and the large number of accidents involving the cable cars.

The cable car lines serve around seven million passengers per year, but the vast majority are tourists, rather than commuters. The area where the cable cars operate is well-served by a large number of buses and trolleybuses that often give residents better options for their trips. Also, during busy times, the wait to board a cable car can often reach two hours or more.

While Muni does allow monthly passholders to ride the cable cars at no additional charge, single-ride fares are more than triple the fares charged on other Muni routes. The high fares led the San Francisco Chronicle to describe the cable cars in 2017 as a "cash cow" for Muni, yielding a yearly revenue of around $30 million. Still, according to Mission Local, the cable car system had a $46 million operating deficit in 2019. In 2006, then-Mayor Gavin Newsom reported that he had observed several conductors pocketing cash fares from riders without receipt. The following year, the San Francisco auditor's office reported that the city was not receiving the expected revenue from cable cars, with an estimated 40% of cable car riders riding for free. Muni's management disputed this figure and pointed out that safe operation, rather than revenue collection, is the primary duty of conductors. In 2017, after an audit showing that some conductors were "consistently turn[ing] in low amounts of cash", as well as a sting operation, one conductor was arrested on charges of felony embezzlement.

Among U.S. mass transportation systems the cable cars have the most accidents per year and per vehicle mile, with 126 accidents and 151 injuries reported in the 10 years ending 2013. In the three years ending 2013 the city paid some $8 million to settle four dozen cable car accident claims.

Cables and grip
The cable cars are pulled by a cable running below the street, held by a grip that extends from the car through a slit in the street surface, between the rails. Each cable is 1.25 in in diameter, running at a constant speed of 9.5 mph, and driven by a 510 hp electric motor located in the central power house (see below), via a set of self-adjusting sheaves. Each cable has six steel strands, with each strand containing 19 wires, wrapped around a sisal rope core (to allow easier gripping). The cable is coated with a synthetic lubricant to reduce wear and friction. Historically, pine tar was used to lubricate the cable. To start and stop the movement of the car, the grip operator (see below) closes and opens the grip around the cable (similar to the clutch of a conventional car). The grip's jaws exert a pressure of up to 30,000 psi on the cable. Due to wear and tear, a grip's dies have to be replaced after three days of usage.

There are four separate cables: one 16000 ft length and one 10300 ft length for the Hyde and Mason segments, a 9300 ft length for their common Powell section, and one 21000 ft length for the California Street line.

Brakes

Apart from the cable itself (which limits the speeds of cars when going downhill), the cable cars use three separate braking systems:
 * Metal brake shoes on the wheels. The single-ended cars used on the Powell–Mason and Powell–Hyde lines have a foot pedal, controlled by the grip operator, that applies the brakes on the front wheels and a handle, operated by the conductor, that applies the brakes on the rear wheels. On the double-ended cars used on the California St. line, there are pedals near both grips, one controlled by the grip operator, the other by the conductor.
 * Wooden brake blocks pressed against the track when the gripman pulls a lever. The four blocks are made of Monterey Fir and can produce a smell of burning wood when in operation. They have to be replaced after just a few days.
 * An emergency brake consisting of a piece of steel, around 1.5 in thick and 18 in long, suspended beneath the car and pushed into the track slot when the gripman pulls a red lever. It wedges tightly into the slot and often has to be removed with a cutting torch.

Electrical system
Over the years, the cable cars have been retrofitted with several electrical components, including headlights, interior lighting, a GPS tracking system and cameras. However, unlike most modern trains, the cable cars have no method to generate power on board and instead must use large batteries that are recharged in the car barn. In 2018, the incandescent bulbs used for the headlights and interior lighting were replaced with LED bulbs which increased visibility for operators and had a lower drain on the batteries.

Network
The current cable car network consists of three routes:

 * The Powell–Mason (Line 59 or PM) line, follows a common route with the Powell–Hyde line, running north and steeply uphill from a terminal at Powell and Market Streets, before crossing the California Street line at the crest of the hill. Once California Street has been crossed, cars coast downhill, off the cable, for three and a half blocks until the lines split as they turn left onto Jackson Street (as this is one-way, cable cars in the opposite direction use the parallel Washington Street). This line turns North, merges, and continues downhill along Mason Street, briefly half left along Columbus Avenue, and then down Taylor Street to a terminal at Taylor and Bay. This terminus is two blocks south of Fisherman's Wharf and is the closest to Pier 39. As with the Powell–Hyde line, there are manually-powered turntables at each end to reverse the cars. The Powell–Mason line has been in operation since 1888.
 * The Powell–Hyde (Line 60 or PH) line, follows a common route with the Powell–Mason line, running north and steeply uphill from a terminal at Powell and Market Streets, before crossing the California Street line at the crest of the hill. Once California Street has been crossed, cars coast downhill, off the cable, for three and a half blocks until the lines split as they turn left onto Jackson Street. As this section is one-way, cable cars in the opposite direction use the parallel Washington Street. The cars on this line continue uphill on Jackson/Washington to a crest at Hyde Street. Here the line turns North past the "crooked" Lombard Street, then runs steeply downhill (at 21%, the steepest grade in the cable car system) along Hyde Street, to the Hyde and Beach terminal, which is adjacent to the waterfront at the San Francisco Maritime Museum and Ghirardelli Square. As with the Powell–Mason line, there are manually-powered turntables at each end to reverse the cars. The line was spliced together in 1957 using portions of the O'Farrell, Jones & Hyde line and the Washington–Jackson line. Because this line offers iconic views of Alcatraz Island, passes Lombard Street and terminates near popular tourist destinations, it is the most popular with tourists and often has long waits to board.
 * The California Street (Line 61 or C) line runs east and west on California Street from a terminal at California and Market Streets, close to the famed Embarcadero to Van Ness Avenue. The California Street cable cars use double-ended cars with "grip" levers at either end of the longer cars which are operated in each direction without the cars being turned at the ends of the line, where the double tracks converge into a single "stub-end" track. The line once ran a much longer distance from Presidio Avenue to Market Street but service west of Van Ness Avenue was discontinued in 1954. Calls to restore the route to its original length are heard from time to time but nothing serious towards this end has been proposed. This route runs only on California Street, running at first uphill to the summit of Nob Hill, then more gently downhill to a terminus at Van Ness Avenue. This line is used to a greater extent by commuters, with the majority of passengers on weekdays being commuters.

There is also a set of non-revenue tracks from the California Street line along Hyde Street to join the Powell–Hyde line at Hyde and Washington. This connection exists to enable California Street cars to reach the car barn.

A small signal tower controls the crossing of the lines at the intersection of California Street and Powell Street. It has been rebuilt in 1907, 1937, 1967, and 2020–2021.

The system generally starts operating at 5:30 am each day and shuts down at 1:30 am.

The cable car system connects at both its terminals on Market Street with the F Market heritage streetcar line. The Taylor and Bay terminal, and the Hyde and Beach terminal, are both short walks from the F Market line. The system connects with other Muni lines and BART at the Powell & Market and California & Drumm terminals.

Fares
As of January 1, 2020, riding a cable car costs $8 for a single ride, except for seniors riding before 7 am or after 9 pm when the fare is $4. Cable car rides are included in monthly Muni passes, as well as 1-day, 3-day, 7-day passes, and the CityPASS program. Passes loaded on a Clipper card can be read by the conductor with a mobile device. Transfers or fare receipts are not accepted. In the 1960s, the fare for a single ride was 15 cents.

Cars
There are 27 cars in rotation when the system is operating. They come in two kinds:

 * Single-ended cars serve the Powell–Hyde and Powell–Mason lines. These cars have an open-sided front section, with outward-facing seats flanking the gripman and a collection of levers that actuate the grip and various brakes. The rear half of the car is enclosed with seats facing inward and entrances at each end, and the car has a small platform at the rear. These cars are 27 ft long and 8 ft wide and weigh 15500 lb. They have a passenger capacity of 60, 29 of them seated. These cars must be rotated to reverse direction at each end of the line, an operation performed on turntables. Most of these cars were built or rebuilt at Muni's Woods Carpentry Division.
 * Double-ended cars serve the California Street line. These cars are somewhat longer, having open-sided grip sections at both ends and an enclosed section in the middle. These cars are 30 ft long and 8 ft wide and weigh 16800 lb. They can hold 68 passengers, 34 of them seated. The California Street line lacks turning capabilities at each end, resulting in the necessity of the double-ended cars. Some of these cars are former O'Farrell, Jones, and Hyde Street cable cars, while some cars were built at Muni's Woods Carpentry Division.

There are 28 single-ended cars available for operation on the Powell lines and 12 double-ended cars on the California Street line.

Both types of car ride on a pair of four-wheel trucks, to fit the track's narrow gauge. The term California Street car, as in a car running on the California Street line, should not be confused with the term California Car. The latter term applies to all the cable cars currently operating in San Francisco and is a historical term distinguishing this style of car from an earlier style where the open grip section and the enclosed section were separate four-wheel cars (known as the grip car and trailer).

The cable cars are occasionally replaced with new or restored cars, with the old cars being moved to storage for later restoration. There are two historic cable cars in storage in the cable car museum: car numbers 19 and 42, which were used on the Sacramento-Clay and O'Farrell, Jones and Hyde Street lines, respectively.

Car barn, power house, and museum

The cable-car barn is located between Washington and Jackson Streets just uphill of where Mason Street crosses them. Cars reverse into the barn off Jackson Street and run out into Washington Street, coasting downhill for both moves. To ensure that single-ended cars leave facing in the correct direction, the car barn contains a fourth turntable. Cars are moved around the car barn with the assistance of a rubber-tired tractor.

As of 2018, the cable-car barn was staffed with 17 mechanics, six custodians, three carpenters, two painters, two supervisors and one superintendent.

The car barn is situated directly west of the power house and the Cable Car Museum. The museum's entrance is at Washington and Mason. It contains several examples of old cable cars, together with smaller exhibits and a shop. Two galleries allow the visitor to overlook the main power house, and also to descend below the junction of Washington and Mason Streets and see the large cavern where the cables are routed out to the street via huge sheaves.

Crew
The car is driven by the grip, whose job requires strength, coordination, and balance. The grip must smoothly grip and release the cable, know the points at which the grip must be released to coast over intersecting lines or places where the cable does not follow the tracks, and maintain clearance from other traffic. The conductor collects fares, manages crowding, and controls the rear-wheel brakes on some hills.

On the second or third Thursday of each July, a cable car bell-ringing contest is held in Union Square between cable car crews, following a preliminary round held during the second to last or the last week of June. The preliminary round determines which contestants go on to the finals in Union Square, by a process of points awarded by a panel of judges.

title: San Francisco cable car system


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Christiansborg Palace

Christiansborg Palace (Christiansborg Slot; ) is a palace and government building on the islet of Slotsholmen in central Copenhagen, Denmark. It is the seat of the Danish Parliament (Folketinget), the Danish Prime Minister's Office, and the Supreme Court of Denmark. Also, several parts of the palace are used by the Danish monarch, including the Royal Reception Rooms, the Palace Chapel and the Royal Stables.

The palace is thus home to the three supreme powers: the executive power, the legislative power, and the judicial power. It is the only building in the world that houses all three of a country's branches of government. The name Christiansborg is thus also frequently used as a metonym for the Danish political system, and colloquially it is often referred to as Rigsborgen ('the castle of the realm') or simply Borgen ('the castle').

The present building, the third with this name, is the last in a series of successive castles and palaces constructed on the same site since the erection of the first castle in 1167. Since the early fifteenth century, the various buildings have served as the base of the central administration; until 1794 as the principal residence of the Danish kings and after 1849 as the seat of parliament.

The palace today bears witness to three eras of Danish architecture, as the result of two serious fires. The first fire occurred in 1794 and the second in 1884. The main part of the current palace, finished in 1928, is in the historicist Neo-baroque style. The chapel dates back to 1826 and is in a neoclassical style. The showgrounds were built from 1738 to 1746, in a baroque style.

Christiansborg Palace is owned by the Danish Government, and is run by the Palaces and Properties Agency. Several parts of the palace are open to the public.

Absalon's Castle
The first castle on the site was Absalon's Castle, built in 1167 by the bishop Absalon. According to the Danish chronicler Saxo Grammaticus, Bishop Absalon of Roskilde built a castle in 1167 on a small island outside Copenhagen Harbour. The castle was made up by a curtain wall, encircling an enclosed courtyard with several buildings, such as the bishop's palace, a chapel and several minor buildings.

At the death of Absalon in 1201, possession of the castle and city of Copenhagen passed to the bishops of Roskilde. A few decades later, however, a bitter feud erupted between crown and church, and for almost two centuries the ownership of the castle and city was contested between kings and bishops. Furthermore, the castle was frequently under attack, for example by Wend pirates and the Hanseatic cities, and during the years 1249 to 1259 it was occupied and plundered.

In 1370, King Valdemar IV of Denmark was defeated in a conflict with the Hanseatic League, who ordered the castle to be demolished. They sent 40 stonemasons to demolish the castle stone by stone. The castle had long been a terrible nuisance to the Hanseatic cities' trade in the Sound, and the time had now come to remove it.

Copenhagen Castle
During the years after the demolition of Bishop Absalon's castle by the Hansa League in 1369, the ruins on the island were covered with earthworks, on which a new stronghold, Copenhagen Castle, was built. This was completed in the late 14th century. The castle had a curtain wall and was surrounded by a moat and with a large, solid tower as an entrance gate.

The castle was still the property of the Bishop of Roskilde until King Eric VII usurped the rights to the castle in 1417. From then on the castle in Copenhagen was occupied by the king. In the middle of the 15th century, the castle became the principal residence of the Danish kings and the centre of government.

The castle was rebuilt several times. In the 1720s, Frederick IV entirely rebuilt the castle, but it became so heavy that the walls began to give way and to crack. It became therefore evident to Christian VI, Frederik IV's successor, immediately after his accession to the throne in 1730, that an entirely new castle had to be built.

The demolition of the overextended and antiquated Copenhagen Castle was commenced in 1731 to make room for the first Christiansborg. The ruins of Absalon's castle and Copenhagen Castle were excavated at the start of the 20th century and can be seen today in the subterranean excavations under the present palace.

First Christiansborg
King Christian VI commissioned architect Elias David Häusser to build the first Christiansborg Palace (Danish, Christiansborg Slot), and in 1733 work started on a magnificent baroque palace. By 1738, work on the main palace had progressed so far that it was possible to start on the other buildings included in the total project. The palace included show grounds and chapel. Most of the palace complex was completed in 1745 and was the largest palace in northern Europe at the time.

The palace and church were ruined by a fire in 1794, but the showgrounds were saved.

Second Christiansborg
While the royal family lived in temporary accommodations at Amalienborg Palace, the master builder of Altona, architect Christian Frederik Hansen, was called to Copenhagen to resurrect the palace. Hansen started building the second Christiansborg in 1803 in a French Empire style. By the time the palace was finished in 1828, King Frederick VI had decided he did not want to live there after all, and he only used the palace for entertainment. King Frederick VII was the only monarch to live in the palace. This was between 1852 and 1863.

After the introduction of the constitutional monarchy with the Constitution of 1849, the south wing of the palace became the meeting place of the two houses of the first Danish Parliament (the Rigsdagen).

The second Christiansborg burned down in 1884. The showgrounds, including the Riding School, court theatre and Hansen's chapel were saved. The ruins remained in place for the following 23 years due to political fighting.

Third Christiansborg
Thorvald Jørgensen won an architecture competition to decide who would design the third (and current) Christiansborg, which was built from 1907 to 1928. The palace was to contain premises for the royal family, the legislature and the judiciary, and was built in Neo-baroque style in reinforced concrete with granite-covered facades. Fragments from C.F. Hansen's palace were preserved in the north facade facing Prince George's Yard (Prins Jørgens Gård). The original roof was tiled, but after a national collection, the tiles were replaced with copper in 1937–1938. A weather vane with two crowns was later added to the tower, and at 106 meters became the tallest tower in the city.

During the digging work, they came across the ruins of Absalon's Castle and Copenhagen Castle. It was decided to make them publicly accessible, and the ruins under the current palace, and the historical exhibition opened to the public in 1924.

Christiansborg Palace today
The palace is roughly divided in the middle, with the Parliament located in the southern wing and the Royal Reception Rooms, the Supreme Court and the Prime Minister's Office in the northern wing.

Several parts of the palace are open to the public after published schedule with guided tours available, for a substantial fee. It is centrally located in Copenhagen's Indre By ("City Center") district.

Royal Reception Rooms
The Royal Reception Rooms at Christiansborg Palace are located on the ground floor and first floor in the northern half of the palace. The Rooms are used for official functions of the monarch such as banquets, state dinners, the New Year's levée, diplomatic accreditations, audiences and meetings of the council of state.

The Reception Rooms are richly adorned with furniture and works of art rescued from the two earlier palaces, as well as decorations by some of the best Danish artists, such as Nikolaj Abraham Abildgaard, Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, Laurits Tuxen, Joakim Skovgaard and Bjørn Nørgaard.

To reach the Royal Reception Rooms one goes through the Queen's Gate (Dronningeporten), and through the Hall of the Halberdiers (Drabantsalen) to the King's Stairway (Kongetrappen). At the foot of the stairs are the Audience Chamber (Audiensgemakket) and the State Council Room (Statsrådssalen). The King holds an audience every other Monday and attends Council with the government as required – usually on Wednesdays. The King in Council signs new Acts after their adoption in Parliament. The Audience Chamber and the State Council Room are the only Royal Reception Rooms that are closed to the public.

The King's Stairway gives access to the Tower Hall (Tårnsalen). The Tower Hall displays a series of tapestries with motifs from Danish folk songs, woven after cartoons painted by Joakim Skovgaard.

Facing the Palace Square is the oval Throne Room (Tronsalen) where foreign ambassadors present their credentials to King Frederik X. The Throne Room gives access to the balcony where the Danish monarchs are proclaimed. The Throne Room is decorated with a large ceiling painting by Kræsten Iversen, depicting how the Danish flag, Dannebrog, fell from the sky in Estonia in 1219.

The Royal Reception Rooms also include the Fredensborg Hall (Fredensborgsalen), with Laurits Tuxen's painting of King Christian IX and his whole family together at Fredensborg Palace, and parts of the Queen's Library.

The Great Hall is the largest and most spectacular of the Royal Reception Rooms. The Hall is 40 metres long with a ceiling height of 10 metres, and a gallery runs all the way around the room. The Hall seats 400 guests and is used for banquets, state dinners and receptions.

The Great Hall was renovated on the occasion of Queen Margrethe II's 60th birthday when artist Bjørn Nørgaard's 17 tapestries recounting the history of Denmark were hung on the walls. The tapestries were a gift from the Danish business community on the occasion of Queen Margrethe II's 50th birthday.

The Alexander Hall (Alexandersalen) is named for Bertel Thorvaldsen's marble frieze "Alexander the Great Enters Babylon". The frieze was made for the second Christiansborg Palace, and parts of it survived the fire. It was later restored and mounted in this room. The Hall is used for smaller receptions and official dinners, often in connection with state visits.

Parliament Wing

The first floor of the Parliament Wing is structured around the Lobby. At both ends of Lobby are the chambers of Rigsdagen, the former bicameral parliament; the Folketing chamber is located at the far end and the Landsting located at the other (the far chamber has been the only one in use since the Folketing became the sole legislative assembly in 1953). Along the hall are various rooms such as the Speaker's office and offices for the administration.

Ruins under the palace
Under the present palace lie the ruins of Bishop Absalon's Castle and Copenhagen Castle. When the foundations of the present Christiansborg Palace were being cast, workers came across ruins of several buildings and parts of a curtain wall.

Experts were called in from the National Museum of Denmark and the ruins, which lay beneath the inner palace yard, were unearthed. Public interest in these ruins, which dated back to around the year 1167, was tremendous. It was therefore decided that the ruins should not be covered over again but preserved for posterity. The reinforced concrete structure erected to cover the ruins was the biggest of its kind in Denmark when it was built in 1908.

The ruins beneath the palace square were excavated in 1917 and a cover was also built over them. The ruins have been open to the public since 1924. The Ruins Exhibition was renovated during the period 1974-77 and has remained more or less untouched since then.

The Palace Chapel

Christiansborg Palace Chapel is a part of the palace which is at the disposal of the Danish monarch. It is used for religious ceremonies for members of the Danish royal family, most notably baptisms, confirmations and official lying in state. It is also used by the Danish Parliament for the Church service in connection with the opening of parliament.

The history of Christiansborg Palace Chapel goes back to the first Christiansborg Palace, which was built by the contractor general Elias David Häusser from 1733 to 1745. King Christian VI was keen on architecture, and he commissioned a talented young architect in the King's building service, Nicolai Eigtved, to design the palace chapel (1738–42). Eigtved seized the opportunity and designed one of the most distinguished Rococo interiors in Denmark.

In 1794 fire ravaged the palace and it was decided to demolish the ruins completely. The demolition, however, never took place.

Architect Christian Frederik Hansen, who resurrected the palace between 1803 and 1828, was also commissioned to rebuild the palace chapel in 1810. Work commenced in 1813, using the existing foundations and masonry as far as possible. The church and main palace were built in strict neo-classical style, with a dome construction on top of a central church interior. The palace chapel was inaugurated on Whit Sunday, 14 May 1826, to mark the 1,000 anniversary of the introduction of Christianity to Denmark.

The second palace fire in 1884 spared the church, as the fire was stopped in the buildings linking it to the palace. However, fate finally caught up with the church on 7 June 1992. The church burned to the ground, probably set ablaze by fireworks set off during the Whitsun carnival.

During the 1992 church fire, the roof, dome and dividing floor were burned down and the inventory severely damaged. Shortly afterwards, the Danish Ministry of Finance's Palaces and Properties Agency began rebuilding the chapel in collaboration with Erik Møller's Drawing Studio A/S and Royal Inspector of Listed State Buildings Jens Fredslund. No drawings existed of the dome and roof, but a systematic exercise in building archaeology registered the charred remains of the building, and made it possible to recreate the dome and roof. Historically accurate building methods were also used throughout the rebuilding process.

Danish craftsmen were unable to undertake the difficult work of restoring and recreating the interior's scagliola. One of Germany's leading experts, Manfred Siller, took charge and taught the venerable technique to Danish stucco workers.

The rebuilt church was inaugurated on 14 January 1997 to celebrate Queen Margrethe II's Silver Jubilee. The rebuilding was awarded the prestigious Europa Nostra prize.

Riding Ground Complex
The Show Grounds are now all that remain of the first Christiansborg Palace. They consist of two symmetrical wings with a straight, low and narrow stable building followed by a high broad building and narrow, curved stables, after which a one-story narrow end building closes off the wings at the Frederiksholm Canal end.

In 1742, the north wing became the first one to be finished. Building work on the south wing started in June 1740 but ground to a halt by the autumn due to difficulties in obtaining supplies. Work did not recommence until January 1744, now under the supervision of the young architect Nicolai Eigtved. In 1746, 87 hunting horses and 165 carriage horses moved into the new stables, the largest number ever.

In 1766–67, the architect Nicolas-Henri Jardin built a court theatre on the floor above the big stables. It now houses the Theatre Museum.

The Royal Stables are home to the horses and carriages used to perform the ceremonial transport for the Danish royal family during state events and festive occasions. In 1789 the number of horses reached a peak with 270 horses stabled. Today, there are about 20 horses left, and some parts of the original stable buildings have been converted into offices and garages.

From 2007 to 2009 the Royal Stables underwent a thorough renovation to meet the requirements of current animal welfare law.

A Riding School is located in the northern wing of the Riding Ground Complex, opposite the Court Theatre. The Riding School is used for horse shows and to exercise the horses of the Royal Stables. On occasion it is also used for various cultural events such as opera or theatre performances.

The interior is more or less unchanged since the construction in the 1740s. It is equipped with a balcony and a royal box to allow audiences the possibility to attend exercises and performances. The royal box is unique as it is the only royal room preserved from the first palace.

The Court Theatre
The Court Theatre is located over the stables in the southern wing of the Riding Ground Complex, opposite the Riding School. Since 1922 the Court Theatre has housed the collection of the Theatre Museum. The auditorium is often used for theatre performances, lectures and television programmes.

Already at the Copenhagen Castle, one of the wings was fitted out as a theatre. However, the first Christiansborg Palace was constructed without a theatre. During the early reign of King Christian VII it became customary to have theatre performances in the Banqueting Hall, and in 1766 it was decided to construct a proper court theatre. A harness storeroom was adapted to an auditorium. The theatre was designed by the French architect Nicolas-Henri Jardin and inaugurated by King Christian VII and Queen Caroline Matilda in January 1767. Little remains of this original theatre as it was reconstructed in 1842 following the designs of architect Jørgen Hansen Koch. In time the Court Theatre came to function as an annex to the Royal Danish Theatre. In 1881 the theatre was closed as performance venue following the tragic fire of the Ringtheater in Vienna which underlined the dangers involved in the continued use of old theatres.

The Tower
In June 2014, a viewing platform in the Tower, still the tallest in the city, was made accessible to the public, while the interior of the Tower was refurbished and a restaurant opened in place of what was once a storage room. Access to the viewing platform is free, though passing through a security check is required due to the official nature of the building. There is a comfortable lift giving access to upper levels.

The View
The View, an observation deck of the Tower, gives an opportunity to enjoy the views of the following buildings:

• the southeastern direction: Børsen, the Church of Our Saviour, Christian's Church, the Black Diamond, Radisson Blu Scandinavia Hotel (Copenhagen), Koncerthuset, the AC Hotel Bella Sky Copenhagen;

• the southwestern direction: the Danhostel Copenhagen City, the Crystal, the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen Central Station, Carlsberg Headquarters, Carlsberg Silo, the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Copenhagen City Hall, the Scandic Palace Hotel;

• the northwestern direction: Frederiksberg Town Hall, the Church of Our Lady, the Round Tower, the Church of the Holy Ghost, the Nikolaj contemporary art center, Rigshospitalet;

• the northeastern direction: the Marble Church, Amalienborg, Magasin du Nord, Amagerværket, Holmen Church, Danmarks Nationalbank.

The Marble Bridge and the pavilions
In Häusser's original project from the first Christiansborg, the two wings of the palace were linked by a gatehouse at the Frederiksholm Canal end, and a drawbridge led over the canal. The Palace Building Commission was not completely satisfied with the proposal and asked two young architects working for the royal building authority, Nicolai Eigtved and Lauritz de Thurah, to come up with an alternative suggestion.

Their proposal included a permanent bridge over Frederiksholm Canal forming the main entrance to the palace and two portal pavilions flanking an open drive and closing the complex off between the two wings. Both bridge and pavilions were in the new rococo style.

Responsibility was transferred to Eigtved, who was the prime mover behind the project.

The bridge was extremely elegant— sandstone covered with medallion decorations by the sculptor Louis August le Clerc. The pavements were paved with Norwegian marble, hence the name the Marble Bridge (Marmorbro), and the roadway paved with cobblestones.

The pavilions were every bit as magnificent as the bridge. They were covered with sandstone from Saxony, and the sculptor Johan Christof Petzoldt richly decorated the concave roofs with the royal couple's back-to-back monograms and four figures on each roof symbolising the royal couple's positive traits. The interior decoration was by the court's master stonemason Jacob Fortling. The bridge and pavilions were finished in 1744.

In 1996, when Copenhagen was European Capital of Culture, the Palaces and Properties Agency finished a restoration of the Showgrounds that had taken many years. The Marble Bridge and Pavilions were restored between 1978 and 1996 by architect Erik Hansen and the Show Grounds from 1985–1996 by Royal Inspector of Listed State Buildings Gehrdt Bornebusch.

King Christian IX's equestrian statue
A collection was started for the construction of a monument to King Christian IX shortly after his death in 1906. The following year four artists were invited to compete for the commission. There was no discussion about the position of the statue. It would be erected on Christiansborg Riding Ground Complex as a pendant to the statue of King Frederick VII on the Palace Square.

Sculptor Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen, the wife of composer Carl Nielsen, won the competition with her proposal for a new equestrian statue. In the proposal, the statue was shown on a high pedestal, on the sides of which were reliefs depicting a procession of the leading men of the day, including industrialist Carl Frederik Tietgen, politician Jakob Brønnum Scavenius Estrup and poets Jens Peter Jacobsen and Holger Drachmann. The reliefs were later axed, and the architect Andreas Clemmensen designed the pedestal that bears the horse today.

The sculptor sought throughout the country for the right horse to stand as a model, but found it in Hanover in Germany. This gave rise to a good deal of displeasure among Danish horse breeders.

The monument took a long time to complete, but in 1927, 21 years after the king's death, it was unveiled on the Riding Ground Complex.

title: Christiansborg Palace


text:
Andrew Voss

Andrew Voss (born 7 September 1966) is an Australian rugby league commentator and radio and television personality who works for Fox League.

Voss previously worked for the SKY Network Television as a commentator, and at the Nine Network, including Today, NRL Footy Show, The Sunday Footy Show and The Sunday Roast. He and Eddie Hemmings (rugby league) are the two commentators for the video game Rugby League Live 4.

Career
In the 1990s and 2000s, Voss hosted several of the Nine Network's rugby league-related TV shows. He began appearing on The Footy Show in 1997 as a regular guest, starring in different sketches and in group discussions.

In time, he was the Nine's Network's number-two rugby league caller behind Ray Warren. In 2012, he was demoted to the number-three caller behind Ray Hadley. This occurred after Hadley strongly and personally criticised Voss for jokingly questioning on-air the likeness of a statue of Warren erected in Warren's hometown of Junee, New South Wales. Voss then sued Hadley for defamation, and the matter was settled out of court. It was revealed in 2011 that Voss had had a long-running feud with Hadley, dating back to 1994 when they both worked at Sydney radio station 2UE.

Voss has covered various other sporting events, including the Sydney Olympic Games, Melbourne Commonwealth Games and the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games. He travelled to London to cover the 2012 Summer Olympics.

In 2006, Voss was the lead commentator on Torvill and Dean's Dancing on Ice.

In 2009, Andrew was a fill-in sports presenter on the Nine Network's Today between Mondays and Thursdays, in addition to presenting every Friday in place of Cameron Williams.

Also in 2009, Voss hosted Australia's Greatest Athlete for the Nine Network, a program which screened on Saturday afternoons.

He joined UK Premier Sports as the lead commentator for their coverage of the 2013 Rugby League World Cup, telecast in Australia on 7mate. In 2013, he also called the New Zealand Warriors' games for Sky Sport in New Zealand. Voss has made the term "let's have some fun" his own. He mainly uses the term at the start of most matches.

From 2018, Voss started a show called The Fan on Fox League, which runs on Tuesday nights.

title: Andrew Voss


text:
Desert of Wales

The Desert of Wales, or Green Desert of Wales, is an archaic term for an area in central Wales, so called for its lack of roads and towns, and its inaccessibility. The term was coined by English travel writers in the nineteenth century and has no equivalent in the Welsh language. The area corresponds roughly to the upland area called Elenydd in Welsh.

Extent
The word "desert" is used figuratively, to describe the lack of biodiversity due to overgrazing of sheep and human clearing, which, over time, has destroyed the native temperate rainforest, and the lack of human settlement or infrastructure in the region. The area has high rainfall and much of it is covered by peat overlain with purple moor grass and heather moorland, or by plantations of non-native conifers. The soil tends to be acidic. There is no exact definition of the extent of the Desert of Wales, but it is bordered to the east by the A470 and the town of Rhayader, to the south by the A483 from Builth Wells to Llanwrda, to the west by the A482 from Llanwrda to Pumpsaint, and from there northwards by a series of country roads up to Tregaron. The northern boundary is generally taken to be the A44 between Ponterwyd and Llangurig, although the substantial area of moorland to the north of this road, including the reservoirs of Nant y Moch and Llyn Clywedog, has similar topography.

The term 'Cambrian Desert' is also used to describe the region.

History
The term was first recorded in 1836 when the following was written by Joseph Downes: "Affording us water and trees, and yielding a dim and remote picture, wrapped in purple sunset haze, of some fine country far far down, where a chasm of hills gave egress to the water, it appeared quite an oasis to us travellers of this Desert of Wales."

The English terminology has no Welsh equivalent, although the area roughly corresponds to the ancient commote of Elenydd. This Welsh name means the "territory adjoining the river Elan", with the river name itself meaning fawn or hind. Travel is limited to narrow roads, forestry tracks, footpaths and bridleways. It is a sparsely populated area, consisting largely of rolling hills, gorges and steep valleys with ancient native Welsh oak forest.

Ruins
The ruins of Strata Florida Abbey are located on the road from Tregaron.

Wildlife
The area supported the last native red kites in the United Kingdom until their reintroduction and widespread revival in the 1980s.

Water resources
The area has many lakes and reservoirs, some of which supply drinking water to north Ceredigion from Teifi Pools, to the English West Midlands from Elan Valley group of reservoirs, and to populations along the River Severn valley with water stored in Llyn Clywedog and released into the river for later abstraction.

Drainage
It is drained by the Afon Claerwen, Afon Teifi, Afon Cothi, Afon Tywi, Afon Irfon, Elan Valley, Afon Gwy, Afon Ystwyth, Afon Mynach, Afon Rheidol

title: Desert of Wales


text:
Godefroid Kurth

Godefroid Kurth (1847–1916) was a Belgian historian and pioneering Christian democrat. He is known for his histories of the city of Liège in the Middle Ages and of Belgium, his Catholic account of the formation of modern Europe in Les Origines de la civilisation moderne, and his defence of the medieval guild system.

Life
Godefroid Kurth was born on 11 May 1847 in Arlon, the capital of the Belgian province of Luxembourg. His father, a former soldier from Cologne who was naturalized as a Belgian in 1842, became a police commissioner in Arlon but died in 1850. The family spoke Luxembourgish at home, and he learned French in primary school. He was educated at the Athénée royal d'Arlon and the Liège Normal school, where he completed his studies in 1869. That same year he was appointed French master at the Athénée royal de Liège.
 * Early life

In 1873, Kurth became the first person to be awarded the "special doctorate in historical sciences", for a dissertation on Cato the Elder. The same year, he became chair of Medieval History and Belgian History at the University of Liège. One of his students, Henri Pirenne, became a noted historian. Léon-Ernest Halkin considered them the founders of the scientific method of history in Belgium. Kurth modeled his pedagogy on that instituted by the German historian Leopold von Ranke at the University of Berlin. On 7 May 1894 he was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium. He was a member of the committee that organized the Exposition de l'art ancien au Pays de Liège for the 1905 International exposition in Liège.
 * Academic career

In 1906, Kurth was promoted to emeritus status and left the university to take up the position of director of the Belgian Historical Institute in Rome. In 1908, a Festschrift was published in his honor, Mélanges Godefriod Kurth (Université de Liège, 1908). Halkin said of him, "Godefroid Kurth [was] the last of the romantic historians and the first of the 'technical' historians in Belgium."

In Liège, Kurth encountered difficulties because of his strongly held Catholic views, which were considered ultramontane by his contemporaries. He was an active member of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul. In 1873, he was elected president of the Cercle catholique de l'Est, one of the predecessor bodies to the Catholic Party, which Kurth played a role in founding. He was also a pioneer of Christian democracy, helping organize the Social Congresses held in Liège in 1886, 1887, and 1890 that gave shape to Catholic social teaching. His study of the medieval guild system brought an increased appreciation for the principles of charity, brotherhood, and justice. Published in 1886, Les Origines de la civilisation moderne brought him an international reputation but was controversial in drawing a direct connection between the "civilizing principle" of Christianity and the development of modern civilization.
 * Political and social thought

Kurth, who had strong links with the German Centre Party and with German colleagues, was repulsed by the German invasion of Belgium and the accompanying atrocities. Over the summer and autumn of 1915, he gathered testimony of the atrocities, including the killings at Aarschot, but was placed in detention by the Germans in an unheated location. He contracted pneumonia and died at Asse on 4 January 1916. He was provisionally buried in Asse, and later exhumed and reburied in Arlon. There are streets named after him in both Arlon, Asse and Liège.
 * Death

His work on the atrocities was published posthumously as Le Guet-apens prussien en Belgique ("The Prussian Ambush in Belgium"). Cardinal Désiré-Joseph Mercier wrote in the preface that Kurth, whose family origins were German, was "overwhelmed by the invasion, its iniquity, its atrocities, its sham".

Honours and awards

 * Prix quinquennal des Sciences historiques (1891)
 * Commander in the Order of St Gregory the Great (1906)
 * Commander in the Order of Leopold (1907)
 * Honorary Doctorate of the Catholic University of Leuven (1912)

Works
Godefroid Kurth wrote over 500 books and journal articles, including contributions to the Catholic Encyclopedia. His "style is consciously literary, lively, and flamboyant; ...However, Kurth's version of history is also notably technical; it is founded on rigorous principles of historical criticism, extensive mastery of philology and profound knowledge of the sources and other works." His Clovis (1895), Notger de Liège (1905), and La cité de Liège au Moyen-âge (1909–1910) remain indispensable reference works.

 * Books
 * Caton l'ancien, étude biographique (Bruges, Daveluy, 1872), online
 * Analectes pour servir à l’histoire d’Arlon (Arlon, Institut archéologique du Luxembourg, 1880)
 * Les origines de la ville de Liège (Liège, L. Grandmont-Danders, 1883)
 * Les Origines de la civilisation moderne (Louvain, Ch. Peeters, 1886), online
 * Histoire poétique des Mérovingiens (Brussels, Société belge de librairie, 1893), online
 * La Frontière linguistique en Belgique et dans le nord de la France (Brussels, Société belge de librairie, 1896)
 * Das deutsche Belgien und der Deutsche Verein (Arlon and Aubel, Willems, 1896)
 * Clovis, le fondateur (Paris, Éditions Tallandier, 1896; reprinted 2000, ISBN 2235022669)
 * Clovis (Tours, Alfred Mame et Fils, 1906), online
 * L'Église aux tournants de l'histoire (Brussels, Société belge de librairie, 1900)
 * Saint Boniface (Paris, Lecoffre, 1902), online
 * Notger de Liège et la civilisation au Xe siècle (Paris, Brussels and Liège, A. Picard, O. Schepens, and L. Demarteau, 1905), online
 * La Cité de Liège au Moyen-Âge (3 vols., Liège, Dewit, Cormaux et Demarteau, 1909–1910), vol. 1, vol. 2, vol. 3
 * Etude critique sur Jean d'Outremeuse (Mémoires de l'Académie royale de Belgique, Classe des Lettres et des Sciences Morales et Politiques, 7; Brussels, 1910), online
 * Histoire des croix miraculeuses d’Assche (Asse, Imprimerie Frans Van Achter, 1912)
 * Mizraim, souvenirs d'Égypte (Albert Dewit, 1912), online
 * La Nationalité belge (Namur, Picard-Balon, 1913), online
 * Études franques (2 vols., Paris and Brussels, Honoré Champion and Albert Dewitte, 1919), vol. 1, vol. 2
 * Le Guet-apens prussien en Belgique (Paris, H. Champion, 1919)
 * La chronique de Jean de Hocsem (Brussels, Kiessling, 1927), online

 * Articles, lectures and pamphlets
 * "Notice sur un manuscrit d'Hariger et d'Anselme, conservé à l'abbaye d'Averbode", Bulletin de la Commission royale d'Histoire, 4th series, vol. 2 (1875), pp. 377–394, online
 * "Saint Grégoire de Tours et les études classiques au VIe siècle", Revue des questions historiques, 24 (1878), pp. 586–593, online
 * "La Loi de Beaumont en Belgique", Mémoires couronnés et autres mémoires, 31 (1881), pp. 769–790, online
 * "Une biographie de l'évêque Notger au XIIe siècle", Bulletin de la Commission royale d'Histoire, 4th series, vol. 17 (1891), pp. 3–60 online
 * La lèpre en Occident avant les Croisades (Paris, Alphonse Picard, 1891), a lecture delivered to the Congrès scientifique international des catholiques, held in Paris, April, 1891, online
 * Les Corporations ouvrières au moyen-âge (Brussels, Société belge de librairie, 1893)
 * Qu’est-ce que le moyen âge? lecture to the Congrès international des catholiques in Fribourg, 19 August 1897, online
 * "Les Nationalités en Auvergne au VIe siècle", Bulletins de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, 4 (1900), pp. 224–242, online
 * "Les Ducs et les comtes d'Auvergne au VIe siècle", Revue d'Auvergne, September 1900
 * "Comment Philippe II travaillait", in Mélanges Paul Frédéricq : hommage de la société pour le progrès des études philologiques et historiques (Brussels, H. Lamertin, 1904), pp. 289–293, online, contribution to the Festschrift for Paul Fredericq.
 * "Les origines de la Commune de Liège", Bulletin de l'institut archéologique liégeois, 35 (1905), pp. 229–324 online
 * "Ce que demandent les Allemands", Le Vingtième Siècle, 1906
 * "Recherche sur l'origine des paroisses de Liège", Bulletin de la Société d'art et d'histoire du diocèse de Liège, 16 (1907), pp. 227–251, online
 * "Notre nom national", Bulletin de la Commission Royale d'Histoire, 78 (1909), pp. CII-CXXII, online
 * Preface to Marie de Villermont, L'Infante Isabelle: Gouvernante des Pays-Bas (Tamines and Paris, 1912) online
 * "L'édit de Milan (313)", Revue sociale catholique, 17 (1912), pp. 65–73, online
 * "Etude critique sur la vie de Sainte Geneviève", ''Revue d'Histoire Ecclésiastique 14 (1913), pp. 5–80, online

title: Godefroid Kurth


text:
Umer Chapra

Muhammad Umer Chapra (born 1 February 1933) is a Pakistani-Saudi economist. he serves as Advisor at the Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI) of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Prior to this position, he worked at the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), Riyadh, for nearly 35 years, as Economic Advisor and then Senior Economic Advisor.

Personal life
Chapra was born in Bombay, British India on 1 February 1933 to Abdul Karim Chapra, and grew up in Karachi, Pakistan. He completed undergraduate studies from the University of Sindh in 1950, followed by undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in commerce at the University of Karachi in 1954 and 1956 respectively. He then moved to the United States, where he pursued a PhD in economics and sociology from the University of Minnesota in 1961, and worked as an academic for six years.

In 1965, at a time when there was high demand for skilled Pakistani migrants, he moved to Saudi Arabia after being offered an economic advisory position at the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency. He worked under Minister for Finance Sheikh Mohammed Abalkhai during the reign of King Faisal, and played an instrumental role in building Saudi Arabia's banking system, as well as formulating the government's economic and monetary policies over the next several decades. In 1990, he was awarded the King Faisal International Prize in the field of Islamic studies and economics. He was also granted Saudi citizenship in recognition of his services to the country.

In 1995, he was awarded an Institute of Overseas Pakistanis medal by the President of Pakistan, for his contributions in economics. He is married to Khairunnisa Jamal Mundia and they have four children.

Awards
Chapra has received a number of awards for his academic contributions, including:

 * 1) The Islamic Development Bank Award for Islamic Economics (1989).
 * 2) The prestigious King Faisal International Prize for Islamic Studies (1989).
 * 3) The IOP (Institute of Overseas Pakistanis) gold medal by the President of Pakistan for services to Islam and Islamic Economics at the First IOP Convention in Islamabad (1995).
 * 4) The COMCEC 30th Anniversary Academic Award by the President of Turkey "for his outstanding academic studies in Islamic Economics and Finance" in Istanbul (2014).
 * 5) Ranked by the ISLAMICA 500 among the Top 50 Global Leaders who make the Islamic Economy in 2015.

title: Umer Chapra