Kakadu National Park is a protected area in the Northern Territory of Australia, 171 km southeast of Darwin. The park is located within the Alligator Rivers Region of the Northern Territory, it covers an area of 19,804 km2, extending nearly 200 kilometres from north to south and over 100 kilometres from east to west. It is the size of Slovenia, about one-third the size of Tasmania, nearly half the size of Switzerland; the Ranger Uranium Mine, one of the most productive uranium mines in the world, is surrounded by the park. The name Kakadu may come from the mispronunciation of Gaagudju, the name of an Aboriginal language spoken in the northern part of the park; this name may derive from the Indonesian word kakatuwah, subsequently Anglicised as "cockatoo". Kakadu is biologically diverse; the main natural features protected within the National Park include: four major river systems: the East Alligator River the West Alligator River the Wildman River the entire South Alligator River six major landforms: estuaries and tidal flats floodplains lowlands the stone country the outliers the southern hills and basins a remarkable variety and concentration of wildlife: over 280 bird species 60 mammal species over 50 freshwater species over 10,000 insect species over 1,600 plant species some 117 species of reptilesAboriginal people have occupied the Kakadu area continuously for at least 40,000 years.
Kakadu National Park is renowned for the richness of its Aboriginal cultural sites. There are more than 5,000 recorded art sites illustrating Aboriginal culture over thousands of years; the archaeological sites demonstrate Aboriginal occupation for at least 20,000 and up to 40,000 years. The cultural and natural values of Kakadu National Park were recognised internationally when the park was placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List; this is an international register of properties that are recognised as having outstanding cultural or natural values of international significance. Kakadu was listed in three stages: stage 1 in 1981, stage 2 in 1987, the entire park in 1992. Half of the land in Kakadu is Aboriginal land under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976, most of the remaining land is under claim by Aboriginal people; the areas of the park that are owned by Aboriginal people are leased by the traditional owners to the Director of National Parks to be managed as a national park. The remaining area is Commonwealth land vested under the Director of National Parks.
All of Kakadu is declared a national park under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. The Aboriginal traditional owners of the park are descendants of various clan groups from the Kakadu area and have longstanding affiliations with this country, their lifestyle has changed in recent years, but their traditional customs and beliefs remain important. About 500 Aboriginal people live in the park. All of Kakadu is jointly managed by Aboriginal traditional owners and the Director of National Parks with assistance from Parks Australia, a division of Australian Government's Department of the Environment and Energy. Park Management is directed by the Kakadu Board of Management; the Chinese and Portuguese all claim to have been the first non-Aboriginal explorers of Australia's north coast. The first surviving written account comes from the Dutch. In 1623 Jan Carstenszoon made his way west across the Gulf of Carpentaria to what is believed to be Groote Eylandt. Abel Tasman is the next documented explorer to visit this part of the coast in 1644.
He was the first person to record European contact with Aboriginal people. A century Matthew Flinders surveyed the Gulf of Carpentaria in 1802 and 1803. Phillip Parker King, an English navigator entered the Gulf of Carpentaria between 1818 and 1822. During this time he named the three Alligator Rivers after the large numbers of crocodiles, which he mistook for alligators. Ludwig Leichhardt was the first land-based European explorer to visit the Kakadu region, in 1845 on his route from Moreton Bay in Queensland to Port Essington in the Northern Territory, he followed Jim Jim Creek down from the Arnhem Land escarpment went down the South Alligator before crossing to the East Alligator and proceeding north. A more plausible, if prosaic, explanation for the origin of the name of the park is that Leichhardt applied the colloquial German term for a cockatoo, although this is unlikely to sit well with the indigenous historians. In 1862, John McDouall Stuart travelled along the south-western boundary of Kakadu but did not see any people.
The first non-Aboriginal people to visit and have sustained contact with Aboriginal people in northern Australia were the Macassans from Sulawesi and other parts of the Indonesian archipelago. They travelled to northern Australia every wet season from the last quarter of the seventeenth century, in sailing boats called praus, their main aim was to harvest trepang, turtle shell and other prized items to trade in their homeland. Aboriginal people were involved in harvesting and processing the trepang, in collecting and exchanging the other goods. There is no evidence that the Macassans spent time on the coast of Kakadu but there is evidence of some contact between Macassan culture and Aboriginal people of the Kakadu area. Among the artefacts from archaeological digs in the park are glass and metal fragments that came from the Macassans, either directly or through trade with the Cobourg Peninsula people; the British attempted a number of settlements on the northern Australian coast in the early part of the nineteenth century: Fort Dundas on Melville Island in 1824.
Tranquillo Barnetta is a Swiss former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He played out wide as a left winger but could play in the centre as an attacking midfielder, or in a more withdrawn role as a central midfielder. Barnetta was known for his "extreme pace and creativity". Prior to moving to the MLS, Barnetta played football for several German clubs. At international level, he has amassed 75 caps for the Swiss national team, representing his nation in three FIFA World Cups, two UEFA European Football Championships. Barnetta started his career with his hometown team, St. Gallen for the 2002–2003 season. During his first professional season, he scored 5 goals. Barnetta's debut season in Switzerland was noticed abroad and was soon snapped up by German side Bayer Leverkusen in January 2004. During his first season at Bayer, he had a loan spell at Hannover 96, returning to Bayer in March 2005. After a good showing at the World Cup in Germany, Barnetta became a regular in the Bayer squad.
The 2008–09 season was one to forget for him, after Bayer finished two places lower than the previous season and his goals tally dropped slightly. During the summer transfer window, he was linked with a move away from Bayer as his place in the squad seemed under threat from loanee Toni Kroos. Barnetta regained his good form in the 2009–10 season, scoring a brace in only his second league game of the season and contributing to Bayer's unbeaten run for the entire first half of the season. On 2 July 2012, after his contract ran out at Bayer Leverkusen, Schalke 04 confirmed that Barnetta signed a three-year professional contract with them until 30 June 2015, in preparation for the Gelsenkirchen club's participation in the Champions League; the transfer was reported as a free transfer by Schalke's sport and communications manager Horst Heldt. Barnetta was assigned a number 27 shirt worn by Ciprian Deac. In the 2013–14 season, Barnetta had a season long loan spell at Eintracht Frankfurt, returning to Schalke 04 in June 2014 whom he signed for at the end of the 2011–12 season.
On 23 September 2014, Barnetta scored his first goal for Schalke in his second league match of the 2014–15 season. On 29 July 2015, Barnetta signed with the Philadelphia Union. Integrating with the Union, who were midway through their season, Barnetta netted his first goal on 20 September, in a home win against the Houston Dynamo. After a full preseason with the Union, Barnetta led the team as the attacking playmaker during the 2016 season. Registering 5 goals and 4 assists, he helped lead Philadelphia's return to the MLS Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2011. Prior to the conclusion of the 2016 campaign, the Union announced Barnetta would return to Switzerland to rejoin FC St. Gallen. Barnetta cited he wanted to contribute to his hometown club in front of friends and family while he still had the fitness to do so meaningfully, he finished his Philadelphia career with 6 goals. Barnetta signed a contract with St. Gallen on 14 November 2016, starting from 1 January 2017. At the end of the 2018–19 season, Barnetta decided to retire.
Barnetta is a former youth international and was in the Swiss U-17 squad that won the 2002 U-17 European Championships along with future senior teammates Philippe Senderos and Reto Ziegler. He has been a member of the senior national team and was first called up to the squad for the Euro 2004 but did not make an appearance. Barnetta was called up to the squad after Johann Lonfat was injured and Davide Chiumiento had turned down a call up as the first choice replacement. At the 2006 World Cup, he scored the second goal in Switzerland's group stage win over Togo, but missed a penalty kick in the shootout against Ukraine, which Switzerland lost 3–0. On 4 July, Barnetta was shortlisted for the tournament's Best Young Player award, he was present in 2010 World Cup qualifying as the Swiss secured a place by finishing top of their group. On 4 June 2011, Barnetta scored two free kicks in quick succession against England in the Euro 2012 qualifiers. Barnetta was called up to represent Switzerland at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, but he didn't play any matches.
Known for his "extreme pace and creativity" on the left flank, FIFA's official website describes Barnetta as a "primarily a creative footballer", who "covers ground and closes down opponents on the football pitch with the sort tireless energy and dogged determination one might expect from a tigerish central midfielder". Barnetta is regarded for bringing "drive and maturity" to the Swiss national team. Barnetta was born in St. Gallen. Both his parents are of Italian descent and he holds both Swiss and Italian citizenship. Source: Official website barnettafan.ch – Tranquillo Barnetta's official fanshop Tranquillo Barnetta at fussballdaten.de
Gustav Vigeland, born as Adolf Gustav Thorsen, was a Norwegian sculptor. Gustav Vigeland occupies a special position among Norwegian sculptors, both in the power of his creative imagination and in his productivity, he is most associated with the Vigeland installation in Oslo. He was the designer of the Nobel Peace Prize medal. Adolf Gustav Thorsen was born to a family of craftsmen, just outside Halse og Harkmark, a former municipality in Mandal, his parents were a cabinetmaker and Anne Aanensdatter. He had three brothers; as a youth, he was sent to Oslo. However, the sudden death of his father compelled him to move back to Mandal to help his family. Gustav lived for a time with his grandparents on a farm called Mjunebrokka in Vigeland, an old farm in Valle parish, Lindesnes municipality in Vest-Agder county, he returned to Oslo in 1888, this time determined to become a professional sculptor. He came to the attention of sculptor Brynjulf Bergslien, who supported him and gave him practical training.
The following year he exhibited his first work and Ishmael. In his 20s, he adopted the new family name Vigeland, from the area he had lived. Vigeland spent the years 1891 to 1896 in several voyages abroad, including Copenhagen, Paris and Florence. In the French capital he frequented Auguste Rodin's workshop, while in Italy he experimented with ancient and Renaissance artworks. In these years the themes that would dominate his inspiration - death and the relationship between man and woman - first appeared, he held his first personal exhibitions in Norway in 1894 and 1896, which received notable critical praise. Until 1902 Vigeland was engaged in the restoration of the Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim; the contact with Mediaeval art contributed to another frequent theme in Vigeland's art, the dragon as symbol of sin but as a nature force, fighting against man. Back in Oslo, he obtained from the town an abandoned studio in. In 1905 Norway became independent from Sweden. Vigeland, considered the most talented Norwegian sculptor, received numerous commissions for statues and busts celebrating renowned compatriots like Henrik Ibsen and Niels Henrik Abel.
In 1906 Vigeland proposed a chalk model for a monumental fountain. The idea of the Oslo municipality was to put the fountain in Eidsvolls plass, the square in front of the Parliament of Norway, his work was welcomed, but the location created a dispute: completion of the work was postponed by the dispute. In the meantime Vigeland enlarged the original project; the high granite column was added to the design in 1919. Gustav Vigeland is most known for the Vigeland installation, a permanent sculpture installation in Frogner Park in Oslo. In 1921 the City of Oslo decided to build a library. After a long dispute, Vigeland was granted a new building from the city where he could work and live. Vigeland moved to his new studio on Nobels gate in the borough of Frogner during 1924, his studio was located in the vicinity of Frogner Park, which he had chosen as the definitive location for his fountain. Over the following twenty years, Vigeland was devoted to the project of an open exhibition of his works, which turned into what is known as Vigeland Sculpture Arrangement in Frogner Park.
The Vigeland installation features 212 bronze and granite sculptures all designed by Gustav Vigeland. The sculptures culminate in the famous Monolith, with its 121 figures struggling to reach the top of the sculpture. Vigeland lived and worked at his studio on Nobels gate until his death in 1943, his ashes are still preserved there in the belfry of the building. According to the agreement with the City of Oslo, the building became the Vigeland Museum; the site is located south of the Vigeland Sculpture Arrangement. Vigeland's flat on the third floor was preserved as a part of the museum which houses various works by the artist, along with the plaster models of the Vigeland sculptures in Frogner Park; some art critics considered Vigeland's sculptures to be expressions of nazi or fascist aesthetics, he has been compared to Arno Breker. Writing in Verdens Gang, a newspaper started by former Norwegian resistance members shortly after the German occupation of Norway ended in 1945, Pola Gauguin wrote that the Vigeland installation "reeks of Nazi mentality.”
Vigeland himself was quoted in the newspaper Aftenposten during the German occupation as stating that he was "happy" to accept prominent Nazis in his studio, that "I welcome German soldiers with their excellent discipline to walk around between my work”. Posterity, a 2015 play by Doug Wright, imagined the interaction between Henrik Ibsen. Gjengset, Gunnar Forsteinet liv. En biografisk fortelling om Gustav Vigeland ISBN 82-91690-23-5 Norwegian Hennum, Gerd Gustav Vigeland i svart og hvitt ISBN 82-90581-01-7. Norwegian Wikborg, Tone Gustav Vigeland - mennesket og kunsten ISBN 82-03-11042-8 Norwegian Wikborg, Tone Gustav Vigeland - His Art and Sculpture Park ISBN 82-03-16150-2. Wikborg, Tone Gustav Vigeland. En biografi ISBN 82-05-27590-4. Norwegian Stępnik, Małgorzata Modernist sculpture parks and their ideological contexts – on the basis of the oeuvres by Gustav Vigeland, Bernhard Hoetger and Einar Jónsson, „The Polish Journal of Aesth
Bodil Aileen Niska is a Norwegian jazz musician, well known for popular releases of jazz standards. Growing up in Hammerfest she was taught music by her father, the accordion player Aksel Niska, studied under guidance of Kjell Bartholdsen, ran the jazz club "Montenegro". After moving southward in Norway in 1990, Niska collaborated within the trio "Girl Talk" from 1992, including Tine Asmundsen and Elizabeth Walker, they released the album Talkin' Jazz which sold well. She performed within Bodil Niska Quartet, including Per Husby, Stig Hvalryg and Roger Johansen, at the Oslo Jazz Festival in 2005, she is known for her collaboration with Pete Brown Trio, including Scott Hamilton and Harry Allen. Niska has established the "Bare Jazz" store in Oslo, a record label by the same name. For her work she received "Sildajazzprisen" in 2005 and the Oslo Jazz Festival award "Ella-prisen" in 2009. 2005:"Sildajazzprisen" at the Jazz Festival in Haugesund 2009: "Nordprofil-prisen 2009: "Ella-prisen at Oslo Jazzfestival 2000: First Song, including Egil Kapstad, Bjørn Alterhaug and Pelle Hultén 2004: Blue, with Kapstad, Hulten & Paul Wagnberg 2008: Night Time, with Claes Crona Trio & Staffan William-Olsson 1993: Noe Som Har Hendt, with "Dronning Mauds Land» 1996: Talkin' Jazz, within the trio "Girl Talk» 2006: Sakte Sanger, with Anne Lande & Per Husby Official website Bodil Niska at Barejazz.no
Kostas Chrysogonos is a Greek professor of constitutional law and a Member of the European Parliament, sitting as an independent within the group of the European United Left–Nordic Green Left. He studied law at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, he graduated in 1983 with a Bachelor distinction. He earned his PhD in 1987 from Germany with honours, he was accepted into Harvard Law School but last minute decided not to attend due to personal reasons. In 1990 he was appointed Lecturer of the Law Faculty of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, in 1993 he became Assistant Professor. In 1999 he became Associate Professor and in 2003 Full Professor with a specialisation in Constitutional Law, he delivered lectures in Constitutional Law for years at the National Academy of Judges and the Hellenic Open University and as a Visiting Professor at the University of Regensburg and Leibniz University Hannover respectively. He has published 16 books, including the handbooks Constitutional Law and Private and Social Rights, which are used in Greek universities for teaching purposes, more than 100 research papers in legal journals and edited books in Greek and German.
Kostas Chrysogonos joined forces with the Greek Coalition of the Radical Left and ran for a European Parliament seat in 2014 European elections. In the aftermath of his first campaign he managed to seal the 6th position of the group of MEPs to represent SYRIZA at the European Parliament ahead of prominent figures, he has tabled many written questions, amendments to resolutions and reports. As a Member of the European Parliament he is a Vice-President of the Committee on Development, full member of the Committee on Legal Affairs and member of the Committee on Civil Liberties and Home Affairs, he is a member of the Delegation to the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee and a substitute member of the Delegation to the CARIFORUM — EU Parliamentary Committee as well as the USA — EU Parliamentary Committee. Personal profile of Kostas Chrysogonos in the European Parliament's database of members Personal profile of Kostas Chrysogonos on the website of the GUE/NGL group
Tecla Vigna was an Italian opera singer and educator based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Tecla Vigna was born at Savigliano in northern Italy, studied music at the Conservatory of Milan, where she earned her diploma in 1879, she trained with voice teacher Francesco Lamperti. Vigna, a contralto, performed roles in opera in several Italy cities before being recruited by pianist Albino Gorno to the faculty of the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in 1882. Vigna wrote 90 Daily Vocal Exercises, published while she was teaching at the conservatory. After years of contentious disagreements with the school's administration, she resigned from the college in 1906, soon she was teaching at her own school, her vocal method was described as "distinctly Italian, distinctly modern, dramatic in the best sense of the term." Her students were active in the Euterpe Society of Cincinnati. Vigna became an American citizen in 1920. In ill health, she closed her school and retired in 1925, moved back to Milan, where she died in 1927.
In 1932, one of her American students visited her grave in Milan, left a bouquet of gardenias in tribute