Kirkwall is the largest town of Orkney, an archipelago to the north of mainland Scotland. The name Kirkwall comes from the Norse name Kirkjuvágr, which changed to Kirkvoe and Kirkwall; the town is first mentioned in Orkneyinga saga in the year 1046 when it is recorded as the residence of Rögnvald Brusason the Earl of Orkney, killed by his uncle Thorfinn the Mighty. In 1486, King James III of Scotland elevated Kirkwall to the status of a royal burgh. On the west edge of the town, surrounded by Hatston Industrial Estate, is a prehistoric ancient monument, Grain Earth House, a short low stone-walled passage deep underground leading to a small pillared chamber; this is the form of earth souterrain characteristic of the Northern Isles. It was connected to a surface dwelling, which has since disappeared, the original purpose of these Iron Age structures remains unknown. Further west towards Grimbister is the similar Rennibister Earth House. Kirkwall is the administrative centre for Orkney, is the home of headquarters for Orkney Islands Council and NHS Orkney.

Kirkwall was a parliamentary burgh, combined with Dingwall, Dornoch and Wick in the Northern Burghs constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1708 to 1801 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1918. Cromarty was added to the list in 1832; the constituency was a district of burghs known as the Tain Burghs until 1832, as the Wick Burghs. It was represented by one Member of Parliament until 1918, when the constituency was abolished and the Kirkwall component was merged into the county constituency of Orkney and Shetland. Modern roadsigns still indicate "The City and Royal Burgh of Kirkwall", although Kirkwall is not an official Scottish city. In 1784–85 the well-known outspoken Liberal Charles James Fox represented Tain in the British Parliament, while his political opponents fiercely contested his having been elected in his usual constituency of Westminster. Kirkwall is 130 miles north of 528 mi north of London, it is situated on the northern coast of Mainland Orkney with its harbours in the bay of Kirkwall to the north, with Scapa Flow 1.4 mi to the south.

Its parish, St Ola forms the isthmus between Holm. It is the most populous island settlement in Scotland. Kirkwall experiences an oceanic climate, with strong maritime influence of temperatures; this means it is cooler than the rest of the UK, this is notable in summer. So, its relative proximity to mainland Scotland renders it warmer than Shetland, although temperatures above 20 °C are rather infrequent. Winters are damp and windy, but are mild for their latitude due to the Gulf Stream passing to its west, enabling sea surface temperatures to remain stable; this results in winter temperatures typical for the generic British climates, in spite of its high latitude with infrequent snowfall. So, the said latitude of Kirkwall means a strong difference in terms of daylight between the solstices. In summer, the weak sun strength is not capable of warming Kirkwall up much, unlike similar latitudes over larger landmasses to its east in relative proximity such as the Baltic Sea region where coastal locations average up to 7 °C warmer than Kirkwall during July days.

Due to a lack of warm air enabling convection and heavy rainfall in summer are rare occurrences, resulting in a drying trend during that season. The annual mean temperature is moderated by its mild winters and therefore is warmer than those of the fellow coastal location on the same latitude of Stockholm, that has a oceanic climate; the mild nature of the climate coupled with a shielded location enables tree growth in the urban area, on an otherwise near treeless island. The population was 9,293 in 2011; the population was predicted to be about 10,000 in 2018. Kirkwall harbour with nearly 1 kilometre of quay edge is the second commercial hub for Orkney after Hatston. There is a Marina, support for fishing and dive vessels. After extensive work on harbour facilities, the town has become a popular cruise ship stop, with several ships arriving each week in the season; this has added to the prosperity of the town and allowed a thriving sector of independently owned shops. Each year now, 140 cruise ships visit Stromness.

Weaving in Orkney took place from Viking times, with John Sclater & Co involved in Tweed production in Kirkwall in the 1970s. They used the brand names Jarltex; the Orkney Library and Archive is in Kirkwall. Kirkwall has the most northerly of the world's Carnegie libraries, opened by Andrew Carnegie and his wife in 1909; the building survives. The town has two museums, the larger being Tankerness House Museum, which contains items of local historical interest within one of Scotland's best-preserved 16th-century town-houses, it is a Category A listed building Scotland. The prehistoric and Viking collections are of international importance; the other museum is the Orkney Wireless Museum, dealing with the history of radio and recorded sound. There is a Royal National Lifeboat Institution lifeboat station. One of the major annual events in the town is the Ba Game, held each Christmas Day and New Year's Day between the Uppies and the Doonies, each team representing one half of the town; the composer Peter Maxwell Davies was among a group which founded the annual St Magnus International Festival, centred

Madam Dora DuFran or Dora Bolshaw was one of the leading and most successful madams in the Old West days of Deadwood, South Dakota. Dora was born in Liverpool and immigrated to the United States with her parents Joseph John and Isabella Neal Bolshaw sometime around 1869; the family settled first at Bloomfield, New Jersey moved to Lincoln, Nebraska in 1876 or 1877. She was an good looking woman in her youth, became involved in prostitution around the age of 13 or 14, she became a dance hall girl, calling herself Amy Helen Bolshaw. The gold rush hit Deadwood, South Dakota when she was around 15, Dora promoted herself to Madam and began operating a brothel. Dora coined the term "cathouse". Dora preferred having pretty girls work in her brothel, but the selection in that part of the west was limited, she did, demand that her girls practice good hygiene and dress well. She picked up several girls. From time to time, Old West personality Martha Jane Burke was in her employ. Dora's main competition in Deadwood was Madam Mollie Johnson.

Dora coined the term "cathouse" after having "Phatty Thompson" bring her a wagon of cats for her Deadwood brothel. It was not Charlie Utter. Dora had several brothels over the years; the most popular was called "Diddlin' Dora's", located on Fifth Avenue in Belle Fourche, South Dakota. "Diddlin' Dora's advertised itself as'Three D's - Dining and Dancing - a place where you can bring your mother.' And though the cowboys frequented the popular place, most just wanted to'get down to business,' with at least one man remarking,'I wouldn't want my mother to know I had been there.' " Dora owned The Green Front Hotel, where the cats were placed into service. Dora's other brothels in South Dakota and Montana were located in Lead, Miles City and Deadwood. While in Deadwood, Dora continued her brothel operations. After her husband's death, she moved the business to Rapid City, South Dakota, where she continued having success as a brothel owner. Dora married "a personable gentleman gambler" who helped grow her business.

Dora died of heart failure in 1934. Her pet parrot Fred and husband Joseph are buried with her at Mount Moriah Cemetery in Deadwood. DuFran published a 12-page booklet on Calamity Jane titled Low Down on Calamity Jane. In 1981, this booklet was reprinted in an expanded 47-page version, edited by Helen Rezatto. Dora DuFran is featured in Larry McMurtry's book about Calamity Jane, titled Buffalo Girls: A Novel. In the made-for-TV movie Buffalo Girls, based on McMurtry's book, Dora DuFran is played by Melanie Griffith. In the HBO TV series Deadwood and Deadwood: The Movie, the character of Joanie Stubbs is loosely based on Dora DuFran. Joanie Stubbs is played by actress Kim Dickens

Crystalate is an early plastic, a formulation of nitrocellulose and alcohol invented in the late 19th century and patented by American inventor George Henry Burt. It is best known as a material for gramophone records produced in the UK by Crystalate Manufacturing Company, for moulded billiards and snooker balls, as produced by the Endolithic Company. Crystalate was based on Bonzoline, a plastic produced by John Wesley Hyatt's US-based Albany Billiard Ball Company. Burt, a former Albany employee, began manufacturing what was Bonzoline in the UK in 1900 as crystalate with Percy Warnford-Davis, under the Endolithic name. While Crystalate as a plastic material is obsolete and no longer manufactured, like Celluloid and Bakelite it is encountered by collectors of vintage and antique goods, because many products were made using the substance; the plastic was mandated in the UK for making billiard balls by the Billiards Association and Control Council in 1926. Super Crystalate is a brand name for a composition material, a cast rather than moulded resin, first produced by Composition Billiard Ball in 1972 as a replacement for Crystalate.

Super Crystalate is no longer manufactured but it continues as a trade name on the Aramith Super Crystalate snooker ball sets that are made from phenolic resin. Celluloid, a similar "camphorised" nitrocellulose-based plastic Nitrocellulose#Uses

Joseph Roland Barbera was an American animator, producer, storyboard artist, cartoon artist, whose film and television cartoon characters entertained millions of fans worldwide for much of the 20th century. He was born to Italian immigrants in New York City, where he lived, attended college and began his career through his young adult years. After working odd jobs and as a banker, Barbera joined Van Beuren Studios in 1927 and subsequently Terrytoons in 1929. In 1930, he moved to California and while working at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Barbera met William Hanna; the two men began a collaboration, at first best known for producing Tom and Jerry. In 1957, after MGM dissolved their animation department, they co-founded Hanna-Barbera, which became the most successful television animation studio in the business, producing programs such as The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, Scooby-Doo, Top Cat, The Smurfs, Huckleberry Hound and The Jetsons. In 1967, Hanna-Barbera was sold to Taft Broadcasting for $12 million, but Hanna and Barbera remained heads of the company.

In 1991, the studio was sold to Turner Broadcasting System, which in turn was merged with Time Warner, owners of Warner Bros. in 1996. Hanna and Barbera won seven Academy Awards and eight Emmy Awards, their cartoon shows have become cultural icons, their cartoon characters have appeared in other media such as films and toys. Hanna-Barbera's shows had a worldwide audience of over 300 million people in the 1960s and have been translated into more than 28 languages. Joseph Barbera was born at 10 Delancey Street in the Little Italy section of Manhattan, New York, to Italian immigrants Vincent Barbera, born in Castelvetrano, Francesca Calvacca Barbera, born in Sciacca, Italy, his family moved to Flatbush, New York when he was four months old. He had two younger brothers and Ted, both of whom served in World War II; as a member of the United States Army, Larry participated in the invasion of Sicily. Ted was a fighter pilot with the United States Army Air Forces and served in the Aleutian Islands Campaign.

Barbera's father, was the prosperous owner of three barbershops who squandered the family fortunes on gambling. By the time Barbera was 15, his father had abandoned the family and his maternal uncle Jim became a father figure to him. Barbera displayed a talent for drawing as early as the first grade, he graduated from Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn in 1928. While in high school, Barbera won several boxing titles, he was managed by World Lightweight Boxing Champion Al Singer's manager but soon lost interest in boxing. In 1935, Barbera married Dorothy Earl. In school, they had been known as "Romeo and Juliet". Barbera and his wife separated when he went to California, they reunited but were on the verge of another separation when they discovered that Dorothy was pregnant with their first child. They had four children: two daughters; the marriage ended in 1963. Shortly after his divorce, Barbera met his second wife, Sheila Holden, sister of British rock and roll singer Vince Taylor at Musso & Frank's restaurant, where she worked as bookkeeper and cashier.

Unlike Dorothy, who had preferred to stay at home with the children, Sheila enjoyed the Hollywood social scene that Barbera frequented. During high school, Barbera worked as a tailor's delivery boy. In 1929, he became interested in animation after watching a screening of The Skeleton Dance. During the Great Depression, he tried unsuccessfully to become a cartoonist for a magazine called The NY Hits Magazine, he supported himself with a job at a bank, continued to pursue publication for his cartoons. His magazine drawings of single cartoons, not comic strips, began to be published in Redbook, Saturday Evening Post, Collier's—the magazine with which he had the most success. Barbera wrote to Walt Disney for advice on getting started in the animation industry. Disney wrote back, saying he would call Barbera during an upcoming trip to New York, but the call never took place. Barbera took art classes at the Art Students League of New York and the Pratt Institute and was hired to work in the ink and paint department of Fleischer Studios.

In 1932, he joined the Van Beuren Studios as storyboard artist. He worked on cartoon series such as Cubby Bear and Rainbow Parades, an earlier Tom and Jerry; this Tom and Jerry series starred two humans. When Van Beuren closed down in 1936, Barbera moved over to Paul Terry's Terrytoons studio. In 1935, Barbera created his first solo-effort storyboard about a character named Kiko the Kangaroo; the storyline was of Kiko in an airplane race with another character called Dirty Dog. Terry declined to produce the story. In his autobiography, Barbera said of his efforts..."I was, quite not in the least disappointed. I had proven to myself that I could do a storyboard, that I had gained the experience of presenting it. For now, enough."The original storyboard, passed down through the Barbera family, went on sale at auction in November 2013. Lured by a substantial salary increase, Barbera left Terrytoons and New York for the new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon unit in California in 1937, he found that Los Angeles was suffering just as much from the Great Depression as Brooklyn and returned to Brooklyn.

Barbera's desk was opposite that of William Hanna. The two realized

Stanton St Gabriel is a civil parish in west Dorset, England. It lies midway between the towns of Lyme Regis and Bridport on the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, includes within its boundary the highest cliff on the south coast of England, Golden Cap. In 2013 the estimated population of the parish was 110; the population in 1921 was 54. In 1086 Stanton St Gabriel was described in the Domesday Book as "Stantone", a derivation from Old English meaning "farm on stoney ground"; the old settlement had become deserted by the 18th century. Writing in 1906, Sir Frederick Treves described Stanton St Gabriel as "a village, lost and forgotten centuries ago." He stated that all that remained of the settlement was "an ancient farmhouse, in a state of musty decay, a cottage. Close to the farm and encumbered with its litter are the ruins of the village church." Media related to Stanton St Gabriel at Wikimedia Commons

Mustafa Maluka is an artist and cultural analyst. He is known for theatrically confronting the intersection of contemporary critical theory and global politics with his provocative large-scale portraits, he grew up in Cape Town, South Africa, but came of age in Amsterdam, the Netherlands where he studied at De Ateliers postgraduate art institute and the Amsterdam School for Cultural analysis at the University of Amsterdam. He lives and works in Finland. Maluka's work has appeared in several international exhibitions such as the 27th São Paulo Bienal in Brazil,"World Histories" at Des Moines Art Centre, Iowa and "Flow" at the Studio Museum in Harlem. Mustafa Maluka studied at De Ateliers art institute and the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands and lived in Berlin and New York, he now works in Turku, Finland. He has been included in international group exhibitions at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center, the Studio Museum in Harlem, Des Moines Art Center, the Stedelijk Museum Zwolle and the Contemporary Museum of Honolulu.

He is part of Sindika Dokolo Foundation among others. Mustafa Maluka participated to the group exhibition You Love Me, You Love Me Not at Municipal Gallery in Porto, Portugal showcasing part of the Sindika Dokolo collection and in Us Is Them by the Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, USA. In 2009, he made the cover of the first book on African contemporary art, writing by Sue Williamson, a key figure on the South African art scene since the early 1980s. Mustafa Maluka is cultural analyst, he is known for theatrically confronting the intersection of contemporary critical theory and global politics with his provocative large-scale portraits. He grew up in Cape Town South Africa but came of age in Amsterdam the Netherlands where he studied at De Ateliers postgraduate art institute and the Amsterdam School for Cultural analysis at the University of Amsterdam. Maluka's work has appeared on the covers of various books. Most his painting entitled "I can't believe you think that of me" appeared on the cover of the Harper Collins book South African Art Now and one of his photographs on the cover of the social science book "The new media nation: indigenous peoples and global communication".

A still from a 2001 interactive piece was used as the cover for the book "Africa and its significant others: forty years of intercultural entanglement". The multiple award-winning novel by Doreen Baingana called "Tropical Fish: Stories Out of Entebbe" was adorned with 3 covers featuring different works by the artist. 1998 Thami Mnyele Award, Amsterdam 2004 Tollman Award for the Visual Arts Hard Living, De Ateliers, The Netherlands The Realness, Galerie Tanya Rumpff, The Netherlands Bad for Your Health/Wrong Colour, Virtual Museum of Contemporary African Art Accented Living: a rough guide, Michael Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa The Interview, Michael Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa Reflexive Indices: a phenomenological study, Galerie Bertrand & Gruner, Switzerland The Message, Galerie Mikael Andersen, Germany The Rhetoric of Sincerity / The Sincerity of Rhetoric, Galerie Bertrand & Gruner, Switzerland — A Place so Foreign, Jack Tilton Gallery, New York, USA Discourse in Translation: a pragmadialectical analysis, Galerie Mikael Andersen, Denmark he is avery good painter Preview on April 11, 2013.

Exhibition from April 12 to June 1, 2013. The latest solo show by Mustafa Maluka entitled'Structural Disbelief: an imposition', deals with the social and political structure of prejudice and the various ways, both subtle and overt, in which people are pre-judged and dismissed because of their appearance; the show tackles the structural disbelief faced by successful, high achieving people who appear as'others' within particular societies. It explores fragments of dialogical transaction to which the characters in the paintings are subjected to as individuals who appear as ‘other’ within the societies that they live in. Galerie Bertrand and Gruner Gallery Mikael Andersen Jack Tilton Gallery De Ateliers Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis Artist's Personal Website