text:
SpaceShipTwo

The Scaled Composites Model 339 SpaceShipTwo (SS2) was an air-launched suborbital spaceplane type designed for space tourism. It was manufactured by The Spaceship Company, a California-based company owned by Virgin Galactic.

SpaceShipTwo was carried to its launch altitude by a Scaled Composites White Knight Two, before being released to fly on into the upper atmosphere powered by its rocket engine. It then glided back to Earth and performed a conventional runway landing. The spaceship was officially unveiled to the public on 7 December 2009 at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. On 29 April 2013, after nearly three years of unpowered testing, the first SS2 constructed successfully performed its first powered test flight.

Virgin Galactic planned to operate a fleet of five SpaceShipTwo spaceplanes in a private passenger-carrying service  and took bookings for some time, with a suborbital flight carrying a ticket price of US$250,000 in 2015. The spaceplane was also used to carry scientific payloads for NASA and other organizations.

On 31 October 2014, during a test flight, the first SpaceShipTwo VSS Enterprise broke up in flight and crashed in the Mojave desert. An investigation found that the craft's descent device deployed too early. One pilot, Michael Alsbury, was killed; the other was treated for a serious shoulder injury after parachuting from the stricken spacecraft.

The second SpaceShipTwo spacecraft, VSS Unity, was unveiled on 19 February 2016. The vehicle underwent flight testing 2016-2023. Its first flight to space (above 50 miles altitude), VSS Unity VP03, took place on 13 December 2018. The first operational flight of Unity (defined as the first flight flying passengers that were not Virgin Galactic employees) was Galactic 01 on 29 June 2023. The final flight of Unity was Galactic 07 on 8 June 2024.

Design overview
The SpaceShipTwo project was based in part on technology developed for the first-generation SpaceShipOne, which was part of the Scaled Composites Tier One program, funded by Paul Allen. The Spaceship Company licensed this technology from Mojave Aerospace Ventures, a joint venture of Paul Allen and Burt Rutan, the designer of the predecessor technology.

SpaceShipTwo was a low-aspect-ratio passenger spaceplane. Its capacity was planned to be eight people — six passengers and two pilots. The SpaceShipTwo spaceplanes never flew with more than 6 people onboard (4 passengers, 2 pilots). The apogee of the new craft was designed to be approximately 110 km in the lower thermosphere, 10 km higher than the Kármán line but as of July 2021, the maximum height reached was 89.9 km. In the end, the SpaceShipTwos never broke the 100 km limit. The predecessor craft SpaceShipOne's target was also 100 km but the last flight reached an altitude of 112 km. SpaceShipTwo was designed to reach 4200 km/h, using a single hybrid rocket engine — the RocketMotorTwo. It launched from its mothership, White Knight Two, at an altitude of 13500 m, and reached supersonic speed within 8 seconds. After 70 seconds, the rocket engine cut out and the spacecraft coasted to its peak altitude. SpaceShipTwo's crew cabin was 3.7 m long and 2.3 m in diameter. The wing span was 8.2 m, the length was 18 m and the tail height was 4.6 m.

SpaceShipTwo used a feathered reentry system, feasible due to the low speed of reentry. In contrast, orbital spacecraft re-enter at orbital speeds, close to 25000 km/h, using heat shields. SpaceShipTwo was furthermore designed to re-enter the atmosphere at any angle. It decelerated through the atmosphere, switching to a gliding position at an altitude of 24 km, and took 25 minutes to glide back to the spaceport.

SpaceShipTwo and White Knight Two were, respectively, roughly twice the size of the first-generation SpaceShipOne and mothership White Knight, which won the Ansari X Prize in 2004. SpaceShipTwo had 43 and 33 cm-diameter windows for the passengers' viewing pleasure, and all seats reclined back during landing to decrease the discomfort of G-forces. In 2008, Burt Rutan remarked on the safety of the vehicle: "This vehicle is designed to go into the atmosphere in the worst case straight in or upside down and it'll correct. This is designed to be at least as safe as the early airliners in the 1920s ... Don't believe anyone that tells you that the safety will be the same as a modern airliner, which has been around for 70 years."

In September 2011, the safety of SpaceShipTwo's feathered reentry system was tested when the crew briefly lost control of the craft during a gliding test flight. Control was reestablished after the spaceplane entered its feathered configuration, and it landed safely after a 7-minute flight.

Fleet history
SpaceShipTwo (and the WhiteKnightTwo launcher aircraft) were built by The Spaceship Company, originally formed as a joint venture between Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic. Virgin Galactic bought out Scaled Composites' interest in TSC in 2012, and TSC became a wholly owned subsidiary of Virgin Galactic.

The launch customer of SpaceShipTwo was Virgin Galactic, who had publicly announced they had ordered five vehicles, but only three had been ordered by 2015. The first SS2 was named VSS Enterprise. The "VSS" prefix stands for "Virgin Space Ship". VSS Enterprise was the first to fly; it was destroyed in a crash on 31 October 2014. The build of VSS Unity was about 65% complete in early November 2014, and Virgin Galactic expected it to be complete in 2015. It was unveiled in February 2016 and performed its first powered flight in April 2018. The third SpaceShipTwo was expected to commence construction by the end of 2015.

Unity was retired on 8 June 2024 after its final flight took place on that date, as Virgin Galactic shifted its focus to the next generation Delta-class vehicles. At the time, the only SpaceShipTwos completed and flown were the Enterprise and the Unity.

Launch sites
SpaceShipTwo was launched from the WhiteKnightTwo launcher aircraft, which took off from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California during testing. Spaceport America (formerly Southwest Regional Spaceport), a US$212 million spaceport in New Mexico, partly funded by the state government, became the permanent launch site for the latter part of test flight programme and for commercial launches.

Ships in class
Two further ships were under construction by 2016. It is unclear whether these are now designated to be SpaceShip III class vehicles. As of 2024, the only SpaceShipTwo-class vehicles completed and flown are Enterprise and Unity.

Development

On 28 September 2006, Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson unveiled a mock-up of the SpaceShipTwo passenger cabin at the NextFest exposition at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York. The design of the vehicle was revealed to the press in January 2008, with the statement that the vehicle itself was around 60% complete. On 7 December 2009, the official unveiling and rollout of SpaceShipTwo took place. The event involved the first SpaceShipTwo being christened by then - Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger as the VSS Enterprise.

2007 test explosion
On 26 July 2007, an explosion occurred during an oxidizer flow test at the Mojave Air and Space Port, where early-stage tests were being conducted on SpaceShipTwo's systems. The oxidizer test included filling the oxidizer tank with 4500 kg of nitrous oxide, followed by a 15-second cold-flow injector test. Although the tests did not ignite the gas, three employees were killed and three injured by flying shrapnel.

Rocket engine
The hybrid rocket engine design for SpaceShipTwo was problematic and caused extensive delays to the flight test program. The original rocket engine design was based on hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) fuel and nitrous oxide oxidizer, sometimes referred to as an N2O/HTPB engine. It was developed by Scaled Composites subcontractor Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) from 2009 to early 2014. In May 2014, Virgin Galactic announced a change to the hybrid engine to be used in SpaceShipTwo, and took the development effort in-house to Virgin Galactic, terminating the contract with Sierra Nevada and halting all development work on the first-generation rocket engine. Virgin then modified the engine design to include a change of the hybrid rocket fuel from a HTPB to a polyamide fuel formulation. In October 2015, Virgin announced that it was considering changing back to the original HTPB fuel.

2014 change of engine
Rather than the rubber-based HTPB-fuel engine—engines that had experienced serious engine stability issues on firings longer than approximately 20 seconds — the engine would instead be based on a solid fuel composed of a type of plastic called thermoplastic polyamide. The plastic fuel was projected to have better performance (by several unspecified measures) and was projected to allow SpaceShipTwo to make flights to a higher altitude.

when the version 2 engine by Virgin Galactic was publicly announced, the engine had already completed full-duration burns of over 60 seconds in ground tests on an engine test stand. The second-generation engine design also required the modification to the SS2 airframe to fit additional tanks in the wings of SpaceShipTwo — one holding methane and the other containing helium — in order to ensure a proper burn and shut-down of the new engine. Additional ground tests were performed on the new engine between May and October 2014.

2015: another fuel change
Following a series of rocket engine tests, Virgin announced in October 2015 that they would be changing the rocket motor back to hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB), with a similar formulation as they used earlier in the development program before switching to a nylon-based fuel grain. They would use HTPB to power the SpaceShipTwo when it would resume flight following the loss of the initial SS2 test vehicle in October 2014. Full qualification tests remained to be completed at the time.

RocketMotorTwo
The second-generation RocketMotorTwo engine was a variant of the earlier SNC basic design, but was fueled by polyamide plastic fuel, while continuing to use the same nitrous oxide oxidizer. The second-generation engine was made in-house by Virgin Galactic rather than by SNC. By December 2012, 15 full-scale tests had been successfully conducted, and additional ground tests continued into March 2013. In June 2012, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a rocket testing permit to Scaled Composites, allowing it to begin SS2 test flights powered by RocketMotorTwo; the first such powered flight took place on 29 April 2013. The engine produced 270 kN of thrust.

Testing VSS Enterprise
In September 2012, Virgin Galactic announced that the unpowered subsonic glide flight test program was essentially complete. In October 2012, Scaled Composites installed key components of the rocket engine, and SpaceShipTwo performed its first glide flight with the engine installed in December 2012.

The spacecraft's first powered test flight took place on 29 April 2013. SpaceshipTwo reached supersonic speeds in this first powered flight. On 5 September 2013, the second powered flight was made by SpaceShipTwo. The first powered test flight of 2014 — and third overall — occurred 10 January 2014. The spacecraft reached an altitude of 22000 m and a speed of 1.4 Mach. The WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft released SpaceShipTwo (VSS Enterprise) at an altitude of 14000 m.

October 2014 crash

On 31 October 2014, SpaceShipTwo VSS Enterprise suffered an in-flight breakup during a powered flight test, resulting in a crash killing one pilot, Michael Alsbury, and injuring the other. It was coincidentally the first flight to use the new type of fuel, based on nylon plastic grains. The crash was caused by a premature deployment of the feathering mechanism, which was normally used to aid in a safe descent. SpaceShipTwo was still in powered ascent when the feathering mechanism deployed. Disintegration was observed two seconds later.

, SpaceShipTwo had conducted 54 test flights. The spacecraft had used its "feathered" wing configuration during ten of these test flights.

The National Transportation Safety Board conducted an independent investigation into the accident. In July 2015, the NTSB released a report which cited inadequate design safeguards, poor pilot training, lack of rigorous federal oversight and a potentially anxious co-pilot as important factors in the 2014 crash. While the co-pilot was faulted for prematurely deploying the ship's feathering mechanism, the Federal Aviation Administration, Federal Aviation Administration Office of Commercial Space Transportation, and the ship's designers were also faulted for not creating a fail-safe system that could have guarded against such premature deployment.

VSS Unity
In October 2015, it was reported that the second SpaceShipTwo would make its first flight in 2016. VSS Unity was unveiled in February 2016.

A phase of testing called "Integrated Vehicle Ground Testing" began on VSS Unity in February 2016. Between 8 September and 30 November 2016, Virgin Galactic conducted a series of captive-carry flights of Unity, including planned glide flights (1 and 3 November 2016) for which the glide portion of the flight was cancelled because of wind speed. Glide flights of Unity began on 3 December 2016.

After several glide flights over the preceding months, in July 2017, Richard Branson suggested that the craft was to begin powered tests at three-week intervals. In September 2017, CEO George Whitesides suggested that engine testing was complete, and that only a "small number of glide flights" remained before VSS Unity would begin powered tests flights. In October 2017, Branson suggested that SpaceShipTwo could reach space within three months, and that he could travel to space aboard a SpaceShipTwo within six months. A seventh high speed glide test was completed in January 2018. On 13 December 2018, SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity reached its highest altitude up to that point, 82.72 km. This surpassed the U.S. Government definition of space at 80 km but not the standard used elsewhere at 100 km. Despite the debate on where outer space begins, Mark Stucky would receive his astronaut wings, while Frederick W. Sturckow would not as he had already flown on the Space Shuttle four times.

Following a February 2019 spaceflight, VSS Unity began to undergo modifications in preparation for commercial service; this includes an upgrading the flight deck and installing a passenger cabin. It was later revealed in 2021 that VSS Unity had actually suffered a large crack in its structure during its 2019 spaceflight, requiring repair work to the vehicle. Following its return to service VSS Unity made a test flight that included Richard Branson as a passenger on July 11, 2021. During this flight, the vehicle deviated from its planned flight course triggering a Federal Aviation Administration investigation into the issue. While in ascent the vehicle triggered a red warning light which indicated it had deviated from its safe flight path. On 2 September 2021, it was publicly announced that further SpaceShipTwo flight tests would be grounded by FAA mandate until the investigation was completed. The FAA cleared SpaceShipTwo flights to resume later in September, after deciding to expand the restricted aerospace around the vehicle's flight range.

The final test flight (defined as final flight with only Virgin Galactic personnel onboard) was Virgin Galactic Unity 25 mission on 25 May 2023. The first operational flight of Unity (defined as the first flight flying passengers that were not Virgin Galactic employees) was Galactic 01 on 29 June 2023.

Costs
SpaceShipTwo's total development costs were estimated at around US$400 million in May 2011, a significant increase over the 2007 estimate of US$108 million.

Commercial operation
The duration of the flights was expected to be approximately 2.5 hours, although only a few minutes of that was to be in space. The price was initially US$200,000. More than 65,000 would-be space tourists applied for the first batch of 100 tickets. By December 2007, Virgin Galactic had 200 paid-up customers on its books for the early flights, and 95% were passing the 6-8 g centrifuge tests. That number had increased to 575 by early 2013.

In April 2013, Virgin Galactic announced that the price for a seat would increase 25% to US$250,000 before the middle of May 2013, and would remain at US$250,000 "until the first 1,000 people have traveled, so that it matches up with inflation since [Virgin Galactic] started".

The first paying customers had been expected to fly aboard the craft in 2014, following 50–100 test flights. Refining the projected schedule in late 2009, Virgin Galactic declined to announce a firm timetable for commercial flights, but did reiterate that initial flights would take place from Spaceport America. Operational roll-out would be based on a "safety-driven schedule".

In addition to making suborbital passenger launches, Virgin Galactic marketed SpaceShipTwo for suborbital space science missions.

NASA sRLV program
By March 2011, Virgin Galactic had submitted SpaceShipTwo as a reusable launch vehicle for carrying research payloads in response to NASA's suborbital reusable launch vehicle (sRLV) solicitation, which was a part of the agency's Flight Opportunities Program. Virgin projected research flights might reach a peak altitude of 110 km. These flights would provide approximately four minutes of microgravity for research payloads. Payload mass and microgravity levels had not been specified at the time. Since May 2021, NASA-supported technology and systems have been tested on SpaceShipTwo.

Future spacecraft
In August 2005, the president of Virgin Galactic stated that if the suborbital service with SpaceShipTwo would be successful, the follow-up SpaceShipThree would be an orbital craft. In 2008, Virgin Galactic suggested that it may develop a high-speed passenger vehicle to offer transport through point-to-point suborbital spaceflight.

title: SpaceShipTwo


text: User talk:199.120.92.14

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

title: User talk:199.120.92.14


text:
Talk:Vera Brittain

Husband
When naming her husband, George Catlin, the link must be to the wrong George Catlin. It's beyond my Wikipedia abilities to sort this out properly so I'll merely remove the link. The article on Bernard Williams says Vera Brittain married the "American political scientist and philosopher Sir George Catlin". Thincat 10:05, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Vera Brittain's husband was George Edward Gordon Catlin (b 1896), always known simply as Gordon Catlin. As far as I am aware he was actually English but taught at Cornell University in the USA (where he became a Professor) through most of the 1920s and 1930s, which is where the confusion probably stems from. (Gadsby West 09:48, 20 February 2007 (UTC))

 * Found him! George Catlin (political scientist). I'll put the link in the article. --Habap 22:00, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

 * Odd. It's already there. Has been for a while. --Habap 22:03, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

this seems a bit confused
"She was vilified by speaking out against saturation bombing of German cities, although solace was obtained in 1945 when the Nazi Germany blacklist of people living in the United Kingdom to be immediately arrested after a German invasion included her name."

Televised Biography
There was a multi-part biography on PBS several years ago. TRIKER 14:14, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

The Dark Tide
The link to her first novel redirects to a novel of the same name by Dennis L. McKiernan. 204.187.154.49 (talk) 23:29, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on Vera Brittain. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20070702090257/http://www.abolishwar.org.uk/news8.pdf to http://www.abolishwar.org.uk/news8.pdf

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Cheers. —cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 15:57, 17 October 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 one external links on Vera Brittain. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20120716210428/http://www.westminster.gov.uk/services/leisureandculture/greenplaques/ to http://www.westminster.gov.uk/services/leisureandculture/greenplaques/
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20110930064721/http://www.litweb.net/biogs/brittain_vera.html to http://www.litweb.net/biogs/brittain_vera.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at ).

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 18:08, 20 July 2016 (UTC)

title: Talk:Vera Brittain


text:
Svay Pak

Svay Pak (ស្វាយប៉ាក; also called Kilometer 11 and K-11) is an urban commune of overseas Vietnamese in Cambodia, north of Phnom Penh. The commune has been renowned as a destination for adult and child prostitution, and while the latter has been cracked down upon, its prevalence was disputed.

Geography
Svay Pak is located 11 or north of the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, in the district of Russey Keo, at coordinates 11.64672°N, 104.87152°W. , the urban commune had a square footage of 5.675 km2; in January 2003, Svay Pak had a diameter of 150 m.

History
The afternoon of 20 August 1995 saw a fire sweep through Svay Pak. Approximately 300 houses and a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) clinic were burnt down, but the only loss of life was a local dog. Non-governmental organizations Concern and MSF committed to helping residents (the latter promised to rebuild its clinic) alongside local philanthropists. While some locals accused the fire brigade of extorting them for firefighting services, local official Hou Samon said that the village roads were too narrow to accommodate the fire engine; Samon said that the local government planned "to discuss letting the home and brothel-owners resettle in the same area, but first all the roads would have to be widened."

In 2000, the only industry in Svay Pak other than prostitution (and the support thereof) was fishing. , the commune's residents were Vietnamese Cambodians, and those not working in the prostitution industry had "tenuous citizenship status". The population in 2008 was 16446 people, a 3.03% increase from 1998's population of 12197. By 2019, the population was 19042, a 1.3% increase in eleven years. In late 2019, Svay Pak had one of the four primary schools built by the Khmer-Vietnam Association for Vietnamese populations living in Cambodia. After a November 2019 fire, the Vietnamese embassy in Phnom Penh, local businesses, and philanthropists contributed 150 million VND to rebuild houses for affected Vietnamese Cambodians in Svay Pak.

Culture
The Vietnamese expats in Svay Pak are unique as part of neither Cambodian society nor the Vietnamese diaspora. They are served by the Mary Magdalene Church, a local Catholic church established in 1998. In 2006, the church ran a school to assist second-generation Vietnamese Cambodians in assimilating (such as by teaching Khmer).

Sex work
Prostitution has been prevalent in Svay Pak since at least 1995, and was once "one of the most notorious places in the world for sex slavery."

Adult prostitution
Locals reported that brothels first opened in 1985, but they proliferated in the years following the Cambodian–Vietnamese War, in the presence of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia's peacekeeping forces. Post-war, Svay Pak's political corruption and instability led to local authorities extorting brothel owners, while the sex workers themselves "experienced raids, arrests, and rape from armed military and civil police forces operating under loose governmental control." Furthermore, managers in Svay Pak subverted the Cambodian law requiring 100% condom-use for brothels, resulting in a 19% rate of HIV for workers in 2000. Though prostitution in Cambodia was not illegal in 2004, other factors contributed to "de facto criminalization" of the industry.

In March 1999, there were about 300 migrant sex workers in 25 brothels. In May 2000, there were 24 brothels employing approximately 320 women on two main Svay Pak streets. By March 2002, as a result of decreasing demand, there were only 17 brothels and around 279 sex workers. Clients included local Vietnamese, Khmer, Chinese, Japanese, Australians, North Americans, and Europeans. The Southern Vietnamese teens and 20-somethings working in these brothels followed established migration routes into Svay Pak after intermediaries, sometimes the girls' and women's families, were paid US$50–3000 (equivalent to about $– in ). Servicing 14 clients per week, workers could repay this debt in 6–24 months, resulting in high turnover—half of Svay Pak's sex workers had been there for six months of less.

The Phnom Penh Post reported that in 2005 the Cambodian government shut down the commune for a film production and simultaneously excised the brothels; by 2006, "prostitutes no longer operate[d] with impunity."

Child prostitution
Gary Haugen of International Justice Mission (IJM) wrote that in 2000, Svay Pak was a lawless commune where "tiny, elementary-school-age girls" were prostituted to the public in broad daylight. One or more girls shared individual 6 x cubicles where they served Western child-sex tourists.

In 2002, child prostitution was bustling in Svay Pak, driven by child sex tourism from the Western world after child prostitution in Thailand was cracked-down upon. The Daily Telegraph supposed that any sex tourists in Svay Pak were there for the children, for if "a man wants an older girl then there are plenty on offer in the brothels and bars of Phnom Penh." The majority of the children were overseas Vietnamese, sold into prostitution by destitute families. Between the ages of six and 13, girls' virginity was sold for "hundreds of dollars"; prostituted repeatedly, the price diminished until reaching a low of GB£3 or US$ (equivalent to £ or $ in ). At the turn of the 21st century, clients of child prostitution in Svay Pak expressed little fear of authorities because the police were compensated by the brothels; foreigners were only arrested if "a bribe is missed, or an example needs to be made of someone". In 2003, Svay Pak saw up to 50 clients per night for child prostitution.

After two years of pressure from Women's Affairs Minister Mu Sochua, women's rights groups, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, action was taken on the problem of child prostitution on Svay Pak. On 22 January 2003, Svay Pak's child brothels were raided by police. Dozens of pimps and clients were present during the raid, but none were arrested; the raid was "widely advertised in advance", and all but a few of the children had been moved to the towns of Siem Reap and Sihanoukville beforehand. By 29 January, Svay Pak was described as "a ghost town" by the Asian Human Rights Commission; by March, however, a joint Dateline NBC–IJM investigation found that Svay Pak was "the place to go if you're looking for the youngest girls." That year, IJM founder Gary Haugen worked with Cambodian officials to mount an operation to rescue children and arrest perpetrators; despite problems arising from police bribery, "a dozen suspected pimps and madams are in custody, and 37 girls [were] rescued, many under the age of 10." Upon returning to Svay Pak six months later, Dateline members were again offered prostituted children; Minister Sochua was not surprised by the reversion, blaming "extreme poverty and widespread corruption".

When Dateline followed-up in 2008, the show reported that "Svay Pak is a changed place. […] Many of the brothels have closed their doors and moved out of town, replaced by restaurants, a phone store, even a children's community center serving children, some of the same children who were once exploited here." However, in 2011, CNN reported that while pimps no longer swarmed every foreign man who came into town, and children were not to be seen prostituting themselves from streetside windows, the child-sex industry remained; volunteers with Agape International Missions (AIM) were still rescuing girls from the now-underground trade. In 2011, a documentary was made about the problem in Svay Pak; named The Pink Room after a special room for the virgin girls, the film claimed that the child prostitution remained under a new veneer of legitimate businesses like bars or coffeehouses.

In May 2015, The Washington Post published an op-ed by Holly Burkhalter, the "vice president of government relations and advocacy for [IJM]." Burkhalter pushed back against the narrative that IJM and Dateline exposed in 2003, and proclaimed that Cambodian law-enforcement had rid the nation of child sex tourism (CST) in the face of international embarrassment and US Ambassador Charles A. Ray's threat of discontinuing United States foreign aid. Burkhalter detailed government efforts and statistics to back-up her claims of CST eradication. Thirteen days later, the Post published a contrasting op-ed by AIM's Donald J. Brewster. Writing from Svay Pak, Brewster claimed that the commune's criminals have simply adapted to the government's efforts, and continued to prostitute children aged 6–16. Agape International, Brewster wrote, had rescued 32 children from sex-trafficking in the preceding year, and "[t]he highest levels of Cambodia's anti-trafficking police agree" with his evaluation of the continuing crime in Svay Pak.

ABC News traveled to Svay Pak in 2017 and found much the same situation as described by Brewster two years prior: though the number of children in sex work has dropped to 1–2% from 35% of those so working, Western men still solicited preteens for sex and the local SWAT equivalent continued to raid underage brothels. Later that year, CNN collaborated with AIM for an article that caught-up with a young woman (Sephak) who was prostituted out of Svay Pak as a child. In response to these stories, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen accused the non-governmental organization of exaggerating the sex trafficking in Svay Pak, announced a police investigation into AIM, demanded that US ambassador William A. Heidt do the same, and ordered—with "the force of law"—the charity group to leave Cambodia. Cambodian official Huy Vannak suggested that the government reaction against AIM may have stemmed from CNN accidentally implying that Sephak was ethnically Cambodian as opposed to being overseas Vietnamese (CNN issued a clarification). Hun Sen relented after locals spoke up in favor of the group's work and Brewster apologized for their faux pas; though Brewster later returned to California, AIM was still providing services in Svay Pak.

After interviewing locals, clergy, and visiting workers, the Southeast Asia Globe said in March 2021 that "all signs suggest that the open trade practiced in the village […] has been all but stomped out". Furthermore, both the illegal drug trade and tensions between the different ethnic groups have lessened over recent years. Locals also reported that the commune's once-earned reputation leads to their discrimination outside of town. In June 2022, a business in Svay Pak was raided by police, and found to be have an underage girl offering sexual services.

title: Svay Pak


text:
Category:Rivers of Luxembourg

These are the rivers of Luxembourg. For a structured list of rivers of Luxembourg see: List of rivers of Luxembourg.

title: Category:Rivers of Luxembourg


text:
User:Corpet~enwiki

Denis E. Corpet
Denis Corpet is a French scientist, living in Toulouse (France South-West)
 * Prof. D.E. Corpet teaches nutrition and food-borne diseases in the French National Veterinary School of Toulouse (ENVT).
 * Dr. Corpet (PhD) leads an INRA team who researches how to prevent colorectal cancer by a better diet (INRA is a kind of French USDA).
 * Denis Corpet builds a database on all agents and diet that prevent colorectal cancer in people and in rodent models: Chemoprevention Database . In 2006 it reported 1012 studies in volunteers (= clinical trials), rats and mice (Chemoprevention Database Mirror).
 * Denis and Florence Corpet have six kids, and this family shows on Corpet's website some simple and healthy recipes, rock climbing and mountains, and many smiling and sunny photos (shortcut )
 * I would love to participate more to Wikipedia project, but I only had time to

- Write French page on Cancer du côlon and edit the English page Colorectal cancer (I've added the "prevention" paragraph)

- Edit the Pregnancy and fr:Grossesse pages (I've added the "Food and Nutrition during Pregnancy" paragraph)

- Made minor changes in many pages, e.g., Cancer, Food, Hygiene, Mountains, Pyrénées, Encantats, Climbing, French and English Wiki pages.

My personal French Wiki-page: Denis Corpet

title: User:Corpet~enwiki


text:
Burpengary

Burpengary is a town and suburb in the City of Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia. In the, the suburb of Burpengary had a population of 16,488 people.

It is 38.9 km by road from the Brisbane central business district.

Burpengary is one of the City of Moreton Bay's fastest growing residential areas.

Geography
The locality is bounded to the east by the Bruce Highway, to the west by Oakey Flat Road, to the north-west by the North Coast railway line, and to the south-west by Burpengary Creek and the North Coast railway line.

Burpengary railway station serves the town (-27.1621°N, 152.9573°W).

Burpengary Creek is the suburb's main waterway.

Burpengary–Caboolture Road (Morayfield Road) runs through the locality from north-east to north.

History
The name is derived from the Aboriginal word burpengar, meaning the "place of the green wattle".

When Europeans settled in Burpengary in the 1870s, the industry was mainly timber-cutting.

Burpengary Provisional School opened on 9 November 1876. On 1 January 1909 it became Burpengary State School. It closed and re-opened a number of times as student numbers fluctuated.

The town of Burpengary was initially founded as a large truckstop due to its strategic location on the North Coast Road (now the Bruce Highway) from Brisbane to the North Coast (now the Sunshine Coast). Burpengary is still home to a functional truck weigh-bridge.

St Eugene College (Burpengary's first secondary school) opened on 1 December 1989.

Burpengary Library opened in 1994 and had a major refurbishment in 2016.

Historically, Burpengary has been a predominantly blue-collar suburb with a significant proportion of the population directly employed in a labouring or trade-related jobs. However, with expanding planned communities, access to the M1 and council approving plans for mini city initiatives, more and more families are moving to the locality including those in the professions. This is fuelling economic growth with the expansion of the shopping precinct, local services and increasing pressure on the local transport infrastructure since 2005.

Burpengary Meadows State School opened in 2007.

Burpengary State Secondary College opened in 2015, offering years 7 and 8 initially.

Redwood College opened in 2018 for distance education only, but on completion of its campus, expects to enrol on-campus students from 2020.

Demographics
In the, the suburb of Burpengary had a population of 14,022 people, with 51% females and 49% males. The median age of the Burpengary population was 37 years of age, 1 year below the Australian median. Children aged under 15 years made up 20.7% of the population and people aged 65 years and over made up 13.6% of the population. 78.6% of people living in Burpengary were born in Australia. The other top responses for country of birth were England 4.7%, New Zealand 4.2%, South Africa 0.7%, Philippines 0.7%, and Scotland 0.6%. 90.7% of people spoke only English at home; the next most popular languages were Samoan (0.4%), Mandarin (0.3%), Tagalog (0.3%), Dutch (0.3%), and Afrikaans (0.2%).

In the, the suburb ofBurpengary had a population of 16,488 people.

Education
Burpengary State School is a government primary (Prep-6) school for boys and girls at 35 Station Road (-27.1577°N, 152.959°W). In 2017, the school had an enrolment of 995 students with 69 teachers (63 full-time equivalent) and 36 non-teaching staff (24 full-time equivalent). In 2018, the school had an enrolment of 954 students with 71 teachers (65 full-time equivalent) and 40 non-teaching staff (24 full-time equivalent). The school includes an intensive English language program and a special education program.

Burpengary Meadows State School is a government primary (Prep-6) school for boys and girls at 153 Rowley Road (-27.1598°N, 152.9382°W). In 2017, the school had an enrolment of 625 students with 47 teachers (37 full-time equivalent) and 28 non-teaching staff (17 full-time equivalent). In 2018, the school had an enrolment of 635 students with 42 teachers (37 full-time equivalent) and 29 non-teaching staff (18 full-time equivalent). The school includes a special education program.

St Eugene College is a Catholic primary and secondary (Prep-12) school for boys and girls at 138 Station Road (-27.1525°N, 152.9689°W). In 2017, the school had an enrolment of 1,053 students with 78 teachers (74 full-time equivalent) and 51 non-teaching staff (35 full-time equivalent). In 2018, the school had an enrolment of 1,037 students with 75 teachers (71 full-time equivalent) and 49 non-teaching staff (35 full-time equivalent).

Redwood College is a private primary and secondary (Prep-10) school at 6 Gleeson Road (-27.1379°N, 152.9661°W). It offers a distance education program and, after construction of its campus, expects to accept on-campus enrolments "soon" (as at 2021).

Burpengary State Secondary College is a government secondary (7-12) school for boys and girls at 196 Pitt Road (-27.1706°N, 152.9773°W). In 2017, the school had an enrolment of 685 students with 54 teachers (53 full-time equivalent) and 25 non-teaching staff (17 full-time equivalent). In 2018, the school had an enrolment of 886 students with 73 teachers and 29 non-teaching staff (20 full-time equivalent). The school includes a special education program.

Facilities
Burpengary Police Station is at 3 Joyce Street (-27.1553°N, 152.971°W).

Burpengary Fire Station is at 185 Pitt Road (-27.1697°N, 152.9769°W).

Moreton Bay Crematorium & Memorial Park is at 644 Morayfield Road (-27.1399°N, 152.9702°W).

Amenities
The Moreton Bay City Council operates a public library at 121 Station Road (-27.1552°N, 152.9673°W).

Burpengary Community Centre is at 101 Station Road (-27.1553°N, 152.9661°W). It is operated by the Moreton Bay City Council.

St Eugene de Mazenod Catholic Church is at 91 Springfield Drive (-27.1506°N, 152.9692°W).

Caboolture Regional Environmental Education Centre is in Burpengary (-27.1625°N, 152.9383°W).

Burpengary Plaza is a shopping centre (-27.1553°N, 152.9749°W).

Burpengary Equestrian Centre is a sports centre (-27.1651°N, 152.9522°W).

Caboolture Regional Aquatic Leisure Centre is at 1 Aquatic Centre Drive (-27.1296°N, 152.9715°W). It has a 50m Olympic pool, a 25m warm up pool, aqua aerobics, tennis, beach volleyball, gymnasium, cafe, barbecues and landscaped settings and enclosed children's play areas.

A new centre in the area is the AFL fields, where the Brisbane Lions played three Australian Football League pre-season competition matches.

There are a number of parks in the suburb, including:

 * Bunchanan Park (-27.1498°N, 152.9755°W)
 * Burpengary Sports Complex at 54 Findlay Street (-27.1589°N, 152.9663°W)

 * Cr Ernie Svenson Park (-27.1488°N, 152.9671°W)

 * Grogans Park (-27.124°N, 152.9691°W)

 * Narangba Sporting Complex (-27.165°N, 152.9523°W)

Transport
Burpengary railway station provides access to regular Queensland Rail City network services to Brisbane and Ipswich, as well as Caboolture and the Sunshine Coast.

All bus services in Burpengary traveling ether via or to/from the Burpengary Plaza bus stop located at the rear of Burpengary Plaza (-27.1561°N, 152.9744°W).

The 664 local loop bus service provides transport throughout the suburb connecting it to train services at Burpengary railway station. The 667 service also runs to Burpengary on Sunday only from Morayfield. The 660 bus also travels through Burpengary providing connections to Redcliffe, Caboolture, Morayfield and Deception Bay.

Notable residents

 * Loretta Marron, health advocate and CEO of Friends of Science in Medicine

title: Burpengary


text:
Tony Leung Ka-fai

Tony Leung Ka-fai (born 1 February 1958) is a Hong Kong actor who is a four-time winner of the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor.

As he is often confused with actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Tony Leung Ka-fai is known as "Big Tony," while Tony Leung Chiu-wai is known as "Little Tony," nicknames which correspond to the actors' respective age and physical statures.

Career
Leung has been in the film industry for more than 30 years, starring in a variety of roles. His debut film was Burning of the Imperial Palace (1983), where he played the Xianfeng Emperor. He would later work with Chow Yun-fat in three films, Prison on Fire (1987), A Better Tomorrow 3 (1989), and God of Gamblers Returns (1994). He also appeared as Joyce Godenzi's husband in She Shoots Straight, Joyce's trademark film.

In 1991, Leung went to France to appear in Jean-Jacques Annaud's The Lover, based on Marguerite Duras's novel, as the older lover of a young teen schoolgirl, who was played by British actress Jane March.

Leung was originally asked to portray the title character of The Last Emperor (1987) but declined due to prior commitments. The role later went to John Lone.

Leung went on to star in the international horror feature film Double Vision with American actor David Morse. His ongoing career has seen him star in films such as The Myth (2005), Everlasting Regret (2005) and Election (2005).

Leung won his fourth Best Actor award for his performance in Cold War at the 32nd Hong Kong Film Awards.

He also starring in the music video of Mayday's song "Tough" in 2016.

title: Tony Leung Ka-fai


text:
Paweł Mąciwoda

Paweł Mąciwoda (born on 20 February 1967) is a Polish bassist who began playing with the hard rock band Scorpions in 2003 and became an official member in January 2004.

Early career
Born in Wieliczka, Mąciwoda began playing bass guitar semi-professionally at the age of 15 with his father's encouragement. His young age on the rock and roll circuit earned him the nickname "Baby", but within a few years Mąciwoda was touring Europe with a jazz fusion band called the Little Egoists, and for overlapping periods of time performed as a member of the avant-garde rock bands Düpą and Püdelsi, both based in Kraków. At about the same time he also released a solo album entitled Radio Wieliczka. His other band credits during his early years included the popular jazz-rock band Walk Away, headed by the world-famous violinist Michał Urbaniak and lead vocalist Urszula Dudziak, with whom he recorded the album Magic Lady.

Current projects
In 2009, he appeared on the WU-HAE's Opera Nowohucka album alongside such artists as Grzegorz Markowski, Maciej Maleńczuk and Olaf Deriglasoff.

As of 2011, Mąciwoda has been collaborating with friend and fellow musician Efrem Wilder in the outfit Stirwater. The name Stirwater is derived from the English translation of Mąciwoda last name "Mąciwoda". The collaboration between musicians ended after a couple of years but they managed to get a single recorded. It was called "Water water" and it was number two for a couple of weeks on the Polish radio station Trójka in the summer of 2012. After that the band broke up but the project Stirwater is continued as he is playing and recording with fellow musicians from all over the world e.g. Florian Hofer from Germany or Atma Anur from UK.

title: Paweł Mąciwoda


text:
Michael Higgs

Michael Higgs (born 14 February 1962) is an English actor best known for prominent roles in two long-running television series: Eddie Santini in ITV1's The Bill and Andy Hunter in EastEnders, in addition to an 8-episode stretch as Dr Thomas Waugh in Bad Girls.

In 2012–2014 Higgs played Michael Clarke in the BBC sci-fi fantasy series Wizards vs Aliens.

Personal life
He is married to actress Caroline Catz, whom he met on the set of The Bill. They have a son who was born in 2001 and a daughter who was born in 2006.

title: Michael Higgs


text:
James Kottak

James Kottak (December 26, 1962 – January 9, 2024) was an American drummer, best known for his work with the German hard rock band Scorpions, which he joined in 1996. At the time of his firing from the band in 2016, he was their longest-serving drummer. Kottak was also an original member of Kingdom Come, of whom he was their drummer from 1987 to 1989 and again from 2018 to his death in 2024, and he had his own band Kottak, formerly known as KrunK. Other bands Kottak played for were Montrose, Warrant, Wild Horses, the McAuley Schenker Group, and Buster Brown.

Career
Prior to joining Scorpions, Kottak was a drummer for Nuthouse, Apex, the Bob Brickley Band, Mister Charlie, Buster Brown, Montrose, Kingdom Come, Wild Horses, the McAuley Schenker Group, Warrant, and Ashba. As a teenager in Louisville, he had a strong local presence in several live bands, including the fusion group Nuthouse, which also featured his Durrett High School bandmate Don Braden (later a world-renowned jazz saxophonist). He earned a music scholarship from the University of Louisville.

Kottak gained early mainstream exposure during his time with Kingdom Come, appearing on the band's first two studio albums, the first of which included their biggest hit, "Get It On". This track prominently features Kottak's drumming, culminating in a drum solo just before the song's conclusion. Around 1990, Kottak joined The Cult, but left after the first batch of demos for their then-upcoming fifth studio album Ceremony, in which the album's drum tracks were done by Mickey Curry.

In February 1997, he joined Dio on their U.S. tour by filling in for Vinny Appice for four or five shows when the latter had pneumonia. He also gave drum lessons at Far-Out Music in Jeffersonville, Indiana, once having onetime Bride drummer, Jerry McBroom as a student. He also played with guitarist Michael Lee Firkins.

Kottak also played in his own band Kottak, formerly known as KrunK.

Kottak was one of the contributors to the book Sex Tips from Rock Stars by Paul Miles published by Omnibus Press in July 2010.

On April 28, 2016, it was announced that Kottak would be replaced by Mikkey Dee on 12 North American headlining dates, including a run of shows at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas dubbed "Scorpions blacked out in Las Vegas". On September 12, 2016, it was announced that Kottak was no longer in the band.

Kottak endorsed Ddrum and Yamaha drums, Aquarian drumheads, Zildjian Cymbals, Ahead drumsticks and accessories and Danmar percussion.

Personal life
Kottak was married to Athena Bass, Tommy Lee's younger sister, who is also a drummer and was a fellow member of Kottak. The couple had three children between them, including their son, Matthew, and Athena's two children from two prior relationships.

On April 29, 2014, the National Post reported via the Associated Press that Kottak had been arrested in Dubai and sentenced to one month in jail for offensive behavior, insulting Islam, and public drunkenness.

On September 12, 2016, he was fired from Scorpions for his alcoholism, and would later work on his recovery.

Political views
After his dismissal from the Scorpions, Kottak came out publicly about his politically conservative views.

In June 2019, Kottak said, "I wrote a new song.... 'Get out of My Kountry' ie: stay out of my space! We don't need anymore outsiders. We can't even fix the homeless problems?! When homeless problem is solved we take care everyone else..." On October 15, 2019, Kottak went on Twitter and stated, "You know I am sick of every other commercial having inter racial couples...this is not reality. It is Hollywood shoving it down our throat. I don't have one friend or friends who live in this category...just saying". On November 26, 2019, Kottak went on to say that "OK so the percentage of black Americans in the U.S. is about 13% so why are they represented 50 to 60% on all commercials? Just saying call me out if you have a reasonable argument?". A short time later, he added: "Maybe none of you have any balls to speak the truth?"

Death
On January 9, 2024, Kottak was found dead in his bathroom at his home in Louisville, Kentucky, at the age of 61. His exact cause of death is unknown as of yet. However, heavy metal news source Metal Sludge stated that his cause of death was believed to be apparent cardiac arrest.

with Buster Brown

 * Sign of Victory (1985) (Kottak did not play on their Loud and Clear album of 1984. He replaced Bob Koestle in 1985.)

with Montrose

 * Mean (1987)

with Kingdom Come

 * Kingdom Come (1988)
 * In Your Face (1989)

with Michael Lee Firkins

 * Michael Lee Firkins (1990)

with Wild Horses

 * Bareback (1991)
 * Dead Ahead (2003)

with McAuley Schenker Group

 * MSG (1991)

with Warrant

 * Ultraphobic (1995)

with Ashba

 * Addiction to the Friction (1996)

with Scorpions

 * Eye II Eye (1999)
 * Moment of Glory (2000)
 * Acoustica (2001)
 * Unbreakable (2004)
 * Humanity - Hour 1 (2007)
 * Sting in the Tail (2010)
 * Live 2011: Get Your Sting & Blackout (2011)
 * Comeblack (2011)
 * MTV Unplugged – Live in Athens (2013)
 * Return to Forever (2015)

with Black Sheep

 * Sacrifice (1998, 1999)
 * Willie Basse – "Break Away"

with Kottak

 * Greatist Hits (1998)
 * Therupy (2006)
 * Rock & Roll Forever (2010)
 * Attack (2011)

title: James Kottak


text:
User talk:EsonLinji

Culture ships & races
I am considering collapsing the culture races into a single article on the Culture. Additionally, I think a "List of Culture Ships" might be better (such article exists), including the details on each. There's really only a paragraph or two per each ship, and it would allow us to consolidate common info into one place. This is how things are done with the various Star Wars/Star Trek/articles, even with Care Bears and Power Rangers. Would you object to this? ... aa:talk 07:44, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

40k references
Hi. Thanks a lot for adding the references to Eldar (Warhammer 40,000). This is just a quick note to say that "we" (the members of WikiProject Warhammer 40,000) are building up a list of fully formatted etc references at WikiProject Warhammer 40,000/References which you can hopefully just copy-and-paste into articles. Cheers --Pak21 14:33, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Proposed deletion of GSV Bora Horza Gobuchul
A proposed deletion template has been added to the article GSV Bora Horza Gobuchul, suggesting that it be deleted according to the proposed deletion process  because of the following concern:
 * no real world notability shown. lacks coverage in sources independent of book.

All contributions are appreciated, but this article may not satisfy Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion, and the deletion notice should explain why (see also "What Wikipedia is not" and Wikipedia's deletion policy). You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the  notice, but please explain why you disagree with the proposed deletion in your edit summary or on its talk page.

Please consider improving the article to address the issues raised because, even though removing the deletion notice will prevent deletion through the proposed deletion process, the article may still be deleted if it matches any of the speedy deletion criteria or it can be sent to Articles for Deletion, where it may be deleted if consensus to delete is reached. Duffbeerforme (talk) 15:32, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Unreferenced BLPs
Hello EsonLinji! Thank you for your contributions. I am a bot alerting you that 1 of the articles that you created  is tagged as an Unreferenced Biography of a Living Person. The biographies of living persons policy requires that all personal or potentially controversial information be sourced. In addition, to ensure verifiability, all biographies should be based on reliable sources. If you were to bring this article up to standards, it would greatly help us with the current Category:All_unreferenced_BLPs article backlog. Once the article is adequately referenced, please remove the unreferencedBLP tag. Here is the article:

Thanks!--DASHBot (talk) 18:22, 16 January 2010 (UTC)
 * 1) Erika Amato -

ArbCom elections are now open!
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 12:53, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

Proposed deletion of GCU Grey Area

The article GCU Grey Area has been proposed for deletion because of the following concern: "Fictional spaceship that fails WP:NFICTION/GNG. Pure WP:PLOT"

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. Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here 15:06, 19 November 2019 (UTC)

Nomination of GCU Grey Area for deletion
A discussion is taking place as to whether the article GCU Grey Area is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Articles for deletion/GCU Grey Area until a consensus is reached, and anyone, including you, is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article. Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here 07:32, 22 November 2019 (UTC)

Nomination of List of spacecraft in the Culture series for deletion
A discussion is taking place as to whether the article List of spacecraft in the Culture series is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Articles for deletion/List of spacecraft in the Culture series until a consensus is reached, and anyone, including you, is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article. Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here 02:36, 5 December 2019 (UTC)

title: User talk:EsonLinji


text:
Michelle Collins

Michelle Danielle Collins (born 28 May 1962) is an English actress. She is best known for her role as Cindy Beale in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, and has also appeared as Stella Price in ITV's Coronation Street. Her other notable TV roles include the BBC dramas Real Women (1998–1999), Sunburn (1999–2000) and Two Thousand Acres of Sky (2001–2003).

Early life and education
Collins was born on 28 May 1962 at Hackney, east London, to a Welsh mother, Mary, and a father of English and Flemish heritage. Her Flemish grandfather was Belgian from Antwerp and had emigrated to the UK in 1915 when aged five. She, alongside her elder sister Vicki, were brought up by their mother in Highbury, London. When Collins was 14, her mother went back to university to obtain a law degree. In the 1970s, Collins was a member of the youth organisation the Woodcraft Folk, and visited Romania with the group.

Collins trained at the Royal Court Activists and Cockpit Youth Theatre from the age of 14, and Kingsway Princeton College, where she studied drama and theatre at O/A-level.

Early career
After her exams, Collins landed a role in Mikhail Bulgakov's The Crimson Island, directed by Lou Stein, at the Gate Theatre. Her career changed direction after performing in the 1978 video for the Squeeze song "Cool For Cats", and as a backing singer for Mari Wilson and the Wilsations. The band spent 18 months touring the country. When the band broke up in 1982, she went back into acting and with the help of her friend, the British actor Tim Roth, she gained a part in a musical with Gary Hutton and Gary Shail.

Collins's first TV appearance was with Gary Oldman in the BBC drama Morgan's Boy. Other TV credits included: two series of the sitcom Running Wild, where she played Ray Brooks daughter; a part in ITV drama The Bill; a Screen Two production Lucky Sunil, directed by Michael Caton Jones and a BBC play Pressures. She later appeared in three films: Personal Services, Empire State and Stephen Poliakoff's Hidden City. Collins appeared in an episode of the BBC's Bergerac (series 4) in 1985.

EastEnders
While she was filming the BBC play Pressures in 1988, Collins was spotted by EastEnders producer Julia Smith, who asked her to audition for the role of Cindy Beale, who was to feature in 11 episodes of the soap. The manipulative, reckless nature of her character was a hit with viewers so her contract was extended and the character became a major villain in the series. Cindy was the unfaithful wife of EastEnders stalwart Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt), between 1988 and 1998. During breaks from EastEnders she filmed the drama Real Women for the BBC, with Pauline Quirke and Frances Barber. On 14 November 2014, Collins reprised the role of Cindy for a short stint for Children in Need.

In May 2023, it was announced that Collins would be returning to the soap after 25 years, alongside Woodyatt, thus resurrecting the character from the dead. Collins returned to the role permanently in June 2023, where it is revealed that Cindy hadn't died in childbirth, but had entered a witness protection programme and had taken on the identity of 'Rose Knight', the wife of George Knight (Colin Salmon) and the mother of Gina (Francesca Henry) and Anna (Molly Rainford).

After EastEnders
After leaving EastEnders in 1998, her career saw a series of drama roles. These included: two series of Real Women (BBC One); two series of Sunburn (BBC One), for which Collins sang the theme song (which was a no. 28 hit in the UK Singles Chart in 1999); Daylight Robbery (ITV); The Sleeper (BBC One); Uprising (ITV): three series of Two Thousand Acres of Sky (BBC One): the two-part series Perfect (ITV); Lloyd and the Hill (ITV) and Ella and the Mothers (BBC One). In 2003, Collins played Sarah Barton in Single.

In 2003, Collins filmed the BBC drama Sea of Souls and then went on to star in a film for Granada/Channel 4 called The Illustrated Mum, which told the story of two girls coping with the unpredictable behaviour of their depressed, alcoholic mother. The film, written by Jacqueline Wilson, was based on the children's novel of the same name. It was screened over Christmas 2003 and won an Emmy Award and two BAFTAs.

In 2004, she starred in an episode of French and Saunders and also starred with fellow EastEnders actor Martin Kemp in the ITV drama Can't Buy Me Love. In 2005, Collins starred in the ITV drama The Last Detective and in the BBC drama The Family Man, alongside Daniela Denby-Ashe, which aired in March 2006. She starred in the West End musical Daddy Cool, and while working during the night there shot sequences for a cameo in the short film Broken written and directed by Vicki Psarias, which went on to win the several international awards. She also featured in the film Don't Stop Dreaming, released in 2007. She left Daddy Cool in January 2007 to shoot the Doctor Who episode "42".

On 2 July 2007, it was announced that Collins has been cast for the lead role of Karina Faith in new ITV drama series, Rock Rivals, produced by Shed Productions. In 2009, Collins took part in the BBC Wales programme Coming Home about her Welsh family history. On 21 May 2009, it was rumoured that Collins had auditioned to star in US drama Desperate Housewives, but she did join the cast.

In June 2010, it was announced that Collins would make a six-episode guest appearance as a patient's mother in Casualty. In 2010, she also guest-starred in Romeo & Juliet at the Octagon Theatre, Bolton, playing the Nurse. From 7 April-7 May 2011, Collins starred as Sheila Grundy, Fred Dibnah's third wife, in The Demolition Man at Octagon Theatre, Bolton.

Coronation Street
In January 2011, a rumour was posted on Digital Spy that Collins was in talks to join EastEnders' main rivalling soap Coronation Street, after she allegedly met with soap's producer and close friend Phil Collinson. Three months later it was confirmed Collins had joined the cast as Stella Price, new landlady of the Rovers Return pub, beating Lisa Maxwell for the role. Her first episode aired on 16 June 2011 and gained a rating of 8.4 million. It was announced on 22 August 2013 Collins had decided to leave Coronation Street. In January 2014, Collins claimed she was "unhappy" over the lack of screen time for her and her character. Collins filmed her final scenes on 19 February 2014, and made her final appearance as Stella on 2 April 2014.

After Coronation Street
Since leaving Coronation Street, Collins has had various guest roles in television dramas: Casualty as Samantha Kellman (2014), Death in Paradise as Annette Burgess (2015), and Midsomer Murders as Nadine Campbell (2016). In October 2019 Collins appeared in Casualty as Lorna Rowle/Hammond. In 2016, Collins took part in the ITV reality series Bear Grylls: Mission Survive.

Personal life
Collins has a daughter by ex-partner Fabrizio Tassalini, Maia Rose (b. 29 September 1996).

In 2014, Collins revealed that in 1998 – distraught by the end of her relationship with Tassalini and feeling career pressure – she attempted suicide while filming Sunburn in Cyprus. She took an overdose of sleeping pills but later woke up and asked her costar to take her to hospital.

After their split, Collins had an amicable relationship with Tassalini, who lived close by, and they raised their daughter together until he died in 2014. In April 2022 Collins announced she was engaged to her partner of 10 years, Mike Davidson. They married in August that year.

In August 2014, Collins was one of 200 public figures to sign a letter to The Guardian in opposition to Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.

Collins is involved in charitable causes. She is an ambassador for Oxfam and has visited Brazil, South Africa and Armenia, promoting the need for the basic right to education. She is also an ambassador for Ambitious about Autism and a patron for the Alexandra Wylie Tower Foundation.

Guest appearances

 * Celebrity Stars in Their Eyes (9 October 1999) – Contestant, as Chrissie Hynde
 * The Paul O'Grady Show (1 December 2004, 30 March 2006, 25 November 2009) – Guest
 * All Star Family Fortunes (13 September 2008) – Contestant
 * As Seen on TV (30 July 2009) – Guest
 * What Do Kids Know? (31 January 2010) – Guest team captain
 * Loose Women (2010) – Panellist
 * The Alan Titchmarsh Show (26 October 2010) – Guest
 * Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (August 2011) – Contestant with William Roache
 * Let's Do Lunch with Gino & Mel (30 August 2011, 16 July 2014) – Guest
 * Celebrity Juice (13 October 2011) – Panellist
 * The Chase: Celebrity Special (5 November 2011) – Contestant
 * Paddy's 2011 Show and Telly (29 December 2011) – Contestant with Melanie Sykes
 * 12 Again (7 June 2012) – Guest
 * Show Me the Telly (26, 29 November 3, 5, 9, 12, 19 December 2013) – Panellist
 * Catchphrase: Christmas Special (29 December 2013) – Contestant
 * Weekend (26 April 2014) – Guest
 * Saturday Kitchen (3 May 2014) – Guest
 * This Morning (10 July 2015) – Guest
 * Pointless (28 December 2019) - Contestant
 * The Weakest Link (30 December 2021) - Contestant
 * Garraway's Good Stuff (19 June 2022) - Guest
 * Pointless Celebrities (16th March 2024) - Contestant

title: Michelle Collins


text:
Satire boom

The satire boom was the output of a generation of British satirical writers, journalists and performers at the beginning of the 1960s. The satire boom is often regarded as having begun with the first performance of Beyond the Fringe on 22 August 1960 and ending around December 1963 with the cancellation of the BBC TV show That Was The Week That Was. The figures most closely identified with the satire boom are Peter Cook, John Bird, John Fortune, David Frost, Dudley Moore, Bernard Levin and Richard Ingrams. Many figures who found celebrity through the satire boom went on to establish subsequently more serious careers as writers including Alan Bennett (drama), Jonathan Miller (polymathic), and Paul Foot (investigative journalism).

In his book The Neophiliacs, Christopher Booker, who as a founding editor of Private Eye was a central figure of the satire boom, charts the years 1959 to 1964. He begins with the Cambridge Footlights student revue The Last Laugh written by Bird and Cook; it later transferred to the West End. Booker ends the period with the cancellation of the television series That Was The Week That Was, and the closing of the Establishment Club.

The boom was driven by well-connected graduates from first the University of Cambridge, and then the University of Oxford. BT states, "The ground-breaking revue Beyond the Fringe, starring Oxbridge graduates Alan Bennett, Peter Cook, Jonathan Miller and Dudley Moore, opened at the Fortune Theatre, London in 1961 – and started something of a revolution in humour." Booker argues that, with the response to the Suez Crisis which effectively marked the end of the British Empire as a great power, an upper middle class generation with public school and Oxbridge educations who had grown up with certain expectations—of following a career in colonial administration or the civil service—suddenly found themselves surplus. Peter Cook had already entered for a Foreign Office entrance exam, before his stage career took off. At the same time the emergence of the "angry young men" and "kitchen sink realism" in drama were signs that British culture was increasingly dominated by the concerns of the "common man". The Labour Party was proving to be an ineffective opposition to a patrician Conservative government. The satire-boom generation were in general apolitical or had (at that time) left-of-centre tendencies.

title: Satire boom


text: Category:Spanish singers

title: Category:Spanish singers


text:
Voluntary

Voluntary may refer to:

 * Voluntary (music)
 * Voluntary or volunteer, person participating via volunteering/volunteerism
 * Voluntary muscle contraction

title: Voluntary


text:
Democratic Front

Democratic Front is a name used by political parties and alliances in several countries, such as:
 * Democratic Front (Albania)
 * Democratic Front for the Liberation of Angola
 * Democratic Front (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
 * Democratic Front (Cyprus)
 * Democratic Front Party (Egypt)
 * Democratic Front (France)
 * Democratic Front (Georgia)
 * Democratic Front (Guinea-Bissau)
 * Democratic Front (India)
 * Democratic Front (Italy)
 * Democratic Front (Montenegro)
 * Democratic Front for the Reunification of Korea (North Korea)
 * Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
 * Democratic Front (Peru)
 * Democratic Front of National Unity (Peru)
 * Democratic Front for the Liberation of Togo
 * Sikkim Democratic Front (India)

title: Democratic Front


text:
Tustin (disambiguation)

Tustin is a city in Southern California.

Tustin may also refer to:

Places

 * United States
 * Tustin Legacy, Tustin, California, a master-planned community
 * Tustin Ranch, Tustin, California, a master-planned community
 * North Tustin, California, unincorporated area north of the City of Tustin
 * Tustin, Michigan
 * Tustin, Wisconsin, an unincorporated community

Other uses

 * Tustin (surname), a surname
 * Tustin High School
 * Tustin (Metrolink station)
 * Tustin Unified School District
 * Tustin's method, an alternate name for the bilinear transform, a digital-control approximation

title: Tustin (disambiguation)


text:
Christopher Dawson

Christopher Henry Dawson (12 October 1889 – 25 May 1970) was an English Catholic historian, independent scholar, who wrote many books on cultural history and emphasized the necessity for Western culture to be in continuity with Christianity not to stagnate and deteriorate. Dawson has been called "the greatest English-speaking Catholic historian of the twentieth century" and was recognized as being able to expound his thought to "Catholic and Protestant, Christian and non-Christian."

The 1988–1989 academic year at the College of Europe was named in Dawson's honour.

Life
Christopher Henry Dawson was born of an Anglo-Catholic family in the Bevan ancestral home of Hay Castle, during the waning years of the Victorian era, and spent most of his childhood among the ruins of the Yorkshire countryside. His parents were Captain Henry P. Dawson and Mary Louisa, the eldest daughter to the Welsh Archdeacon Bevan. Captain Dawson, although an army officer, was more of an explorer than a soldier, and the closest he ever came to actual combat was behind the front-lines in the Franco-Prussian War. He joined a field-ambulance unit with his cousin Herbert Kitchener, later Lord Kitchener of Khartoum.

Dawson was raised in a devout Anglo-Catholic household. Dawson's childhood was exuberance and wonderment, spending most of his time in the place which would set the course for his interest in history: The Yorkshire countryside. It is here where the young imaginative Dawson would roam around through abbeys and castles for numerous hours. Dawson experienced the past not as an object of distant sentimentality but as something near to the present which one can find meaning in.

During his youth, Dawson had cultivated a profuse interest in Catholicism by virtue of his father's own interests for Roman Catholicism. Dawson recognised a moral and spiritual beauty within the Catholic Church, leading to an intellectual awakening which culminated in his conversion on the Feast of the Epiphany in 1914. Dawson reflected on this time: "From the time I was thirteen or fourteen I had come to know the lives of the Catholic saints and the writings of medieval Catholic mystics and they made so strong an impression on my mind that I felt that there must be something lacking in any theory of life which left no room for these higher types of character and experience."

In 1899, he was sent to Bilton Grange for public school. As a consequence of living predominantly secluded from any social interactions besides that of his family, he was frightened of germs. Dawson was exceptional in only History and English. Dawson suffered from internal torment when facing the world outside his cherished home life. The pain which he had suffered during his time there stuck with him. His daughter recalled an incident when he neared the gates of a school was about to attend, Dawson murmured "I can't face it"; he left the car and sat in the wood reading a book. In 1903, Dawson's father enrolled him to Winchester College. Dawson was a schoolmate of Arnold J. Toynbee but they never encountered each other. Dawson cultivated "a strong historical consciousness that was fed by the aesthetics of that ancient place of worship" Dawson later wrote of his experience at Winchester Cathedral: "I learnt more during my schooldays from my visits to the Cathedral at Winchester than I did from the hours of religious instruction in school. The great church with its tombs of the Saxon kings and the medieval statesmen-bishops, gave one a greater sense of the magnitude of the religious element in our culture and the depths of its roots in our national life than anything one could learn from books"However, he later stated that Winchester College "was the best of English schools".

He was brought up at Hartlington Hall, Yorkshire. Dawson was educated at Winchester College and Trinity College, Oxford, where he obtained 2nd class honours in Modern History in 1911. After his degree he studied economics. He also read the work of the German theologian Ernst Troeltsch.

Dawson's background was Anglo-Catholic, but he converted to Roman Catholicism in 1909.

In 1916, Dawson married Valery Mills, daughter of the architect Walter Edward Mills. They had two daughters and one son.

Career
Dawson was considered a leading Catholic historian. He was a Lecturer in the History of Culture, University College, Exeter (1930–6), the Forwood Lecturer in the Philosophy of Religion, University of Liverpool (1934), the Gifford Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh (1947 and 1948), and the Chauncey Stillman Professor of Roman Catholic Studies at Harvard University (1958–62). Dawson was elected as a Fellow of the British Academy in 1943.

From 1940 for a period he was editor of the Dublin Review.

Writings
"As soon as men decide that all means are permitted to fight an evil, then their good becomes indistinguishable from the evil that they set out to destroy." Dawson began publishing articles in The Sociological Review in 1920. His starting point was close to that of Oswald Spengler and Arnold J. Toynbee, others who were also interested in grand narratives conducted at the level of a civilisation. Dawson's first book, The Age of the Gods (1928), was apparently intended as the first of a set of five to trace European civilisation to the twentieth century. However, he did not follow this plan to a conclusion.

Dawson was a proponent of an 'Old West' theory, the later term of David Gress, who cites Dawson in his From Plato to Nato (1998). Dawson rejected the blanket assumption that the Middle Ages in Europe failed to contribute any essential characteristics. He argued that the medieval Catholic Church was an essential factor in the rise of European civilisation, and wrote extensively in support of that thesis.

Influence
"It is the religious impulse which supplies the cohesive force which unifies a society and a culture... A society which has lost its religion becomes sooner or later a society which has lost its culture." His writings in the 1920s and 1930s made him a significant figure of the time, and an influence in particular on T. S. Eliot, who wrote of his importance. Dawson was on the fringe of 'The Moot', a literary discussion group, and also part of the Sword of the Spirit ecumenical group. According to Bradley Birzer, Dawson also influenced the theological underpinnings of J. R. R. Tolkien's writings.

The topical approach outlined by Dawson for the study of Christian culture forms the core of the Catholic Studies program at Aquinas College. His work was influential in the founding of Campion College and the formation in 2012 of The Christopher Dawson Society for Philosophy and Culture Inc. in Perth, Western Australia.

Dawson's vision also underlies the Humanities and Catholic Culture program at the Franciscan University of Steubenville.

Comparable historians
As a revivalist of the Christian historian, Christopher Dawson has been compared with Kenneth Scott Latourette and Herbert Butterfield. Comparisons have also been made between the work of Dawson and Max Weber. Both employ a metahistorical approach to their subjects, and their subjects themselves bear similarities; namely, the influence of religion on aspects of western culture.

Books

 * The Age of the Gods (1928). Reissued by the Catholic University of America Press (2012)
 * Progress and Religion: An Historical Inquiry (1929). Reissued by the Catholic University of America Press (2001)
 * Christianity and the New Age (1931)
 * The Making of Europe: An Introduction to the History of European Unity. London: Sheed and Ward, 1932. Reissued by the Catholic University of America Press, 2003.
 * The Spirit of the Oxford Movement (1933)
 * Enquiries into Religion and Culture (1933). Reissued by the Catholic University of America Press (2009)
 * Medieval Religion and Other Essays (1934)
 * Religion and the Modern State (1936)
 * Beyond Politics (1939)
 * The Claims of Politics (1939)
 * The Judgment of the Nations (1942). Reissued by the Catholic University of America Press (2011)
 * Gifford Lectures 1947–49
 * Religion and Culture (1948) ISBN 0-404-60498-6
 * Religion and the Rise of Western Culture (1950) ISBN 0-385-42110-9
 * Understanding Europe (1952). Reissued by the Catholic University of America Press (2009)
 * Medieval Essays (1954). Reissued by the Catholic University of America Press (2002)
 * The Mongol Mission: Narratives and Letters of the Franciscan Missionaries in Mongolia and China in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries (1955). Republished in 1966 as Mission to Asia.
 * Dynamics of World History (1957). Edited by John J. Mulloy et al. Reissued by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (2002).
 * The Movement of World Revolution (1959)
 * Progress and Religion: An Historical Enquiry (1960) with others Reissued by the Catholic University of America Press (2001)
 * The Historic Reality of Christian Culture (1960)
 * The Crisis of Western Education: With Specific Programs for the Study of Christian Culture (1961). Reissued by the Catholic University of America Press (2010)
 * The Dividing of Christendom (1965)
 * The Formation of Christendom (1967)
 * The Gods of Revolution (1972)
 * Religion and World History: A Selection from the Works of Christopher Dawson (1975)
 * Christianity and European Culture: Selections from the Work of Christopher Dawson edited by Gerald J. Russello. Reissued by the Catholic University of America Press (1998)

title: Christopher Dawson