Valeria Messalina, sometimes spelled Messallina, was the third wife of the Roman emperor Claudius. She was a paternal cousin of Emperor Nero, a second cousin of Emperor Caligula, a great-grandniece of Emperor Augustus. A powerful and influential woman with a reputation for promiscuity, she conspired against her husband and was executed on the discovery of the plot, her notorious reputation arguably results from political bias, but works of art and literature have perpetuated it into modern times. Messalina was the daughter of Domitia Lepida the Younger and her first cousin Marcus Valerius Messalla Barbatus, her mother was the youngest child of the consul Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus and Antonia Major. Her mother's brother, Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, had been the first husband of the future Empress Agrippina the Younger and the biological father of the future Emperor Nero, making Nero Messalina's first cousin despite a seventeen-year age difference. Messalina's grandmothers Claudia Marcella and Antonia Major were half sisters.

Claudia Marcella, Messalina's paternal grandmother, was the daughter of Augustus' sister Octavia the Younger by her marriage to Gaius Claudius Marcellus Minor. Antonia Major, Messalina's maternal grandmother, was the elder daughter of Octavia by her marriage to Mark Antony, was Claudius' maternal aunt. There was, therefore, a large amount of inbreeding in the family. Little is known about Messalina's life prior to her marriage in 38 to Claudius, her first cousin once removed, about 47 years old. Two children were born as a result of their union: a daughter Claudia Octavia, a future empress and first wife to the emperor Nero; when the Emperor Caligula was murdered in 41, the Praetorian Guard proclaimed Claudius the new emperor and Messalina became empress. After her accession to power, Messalina enters history with a reputation as ruthless and sexually insatiable, while Claudius is painted as led by her and unconscious of her many adulteries; the historians who relayed such stories, principally Tacitus and Suetonius, wrote some 70 years after the events in an environment hostile to the imperial line to which Messalina had belonged.

There was the Greek account of Cassius Dio who, writing a century and a half after the period described, was dependent on the received account of those before him. It has been observed of his attitude throughout his work that he was "suspicious of women". Neither can Suetonius be regarded as trustworthy. Encyclopaedia Britannica suggests of his fictive approach that he was "free with scandalous gossip," and that "he used'characteristic anecdote' without exhaustive inquiry into its authenticity." He manipulates the facts to suit his thesis. Tacitus himself claimed to be transmitting "what was heard and written by my elders" but without naming sources other than the memoirs of Agrippina the Younger, who had arranged to displace Messalina's children in the imperial succession and was therefore interested in blackening her predecessor's name. Examining his narrative style and comparing it to that of the satires of Juvenal, another critic remarks on "how the writers manipulate it in order to skew their audience's perception of Messalina".

Indeed, Tacitus seems well aware of the impression he is creating when he admits that his account may seem fictional, if not melodramatic. It has therefore been argued that the chorus of condemnation against Messalina from these writers is a result of the political sanctions that followed her death; the accusations against Messalina centre on three areas: her treatment of other members of the imperial family. Her husband's family female, seemed to be specially targeted by Messalina. Within the first year of Claudius' reign, his niece Julia Livilla, only recalled from banishment upon the death of her brother Caligula, was exiled again on charges of adultery with Seneca the Younger. Claudius ordered her execution soon after, while Seneca was allowed to return seven years following the death of Messalina. Another niece, Julia Livia, was attacked for immorality and incest by Messalina in 43—possibly because she feared Julia's son Rubellius Plautus as a rival claimant to the imperial succession,—with the result that Claudius ordered her execution.

In the final two years of her life, she intensified her attacks on her husband's only surviving niece, Agrippina the Younger, Agrippina's young son Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus. The public sympathized with Agrippina, who had twice been exiled and was the only surviving daughter of Germanicus after Messalina won the execution of Julia Livia. Agrippina was implicated in the alleged crimes of Statilius Taurus, whom it was alleged she directed to partake in "magical and superstitious practices". Taurus committed suicide, according to Tacitus, Messalina was only prevented from further persecuting Agrippina because she was distracted by her new lover, Gaius Silius. According to Suetonius, Messalina realized early on that the young Nero could be a potential rival to her own son, three years younger, he repeated a tale that Messalina sent several assassins into Nero's bedchamber to murder him, but they were frightened off by what they thought was a snake slithering out from under his bed. In the Secular Games of 48, Nero won greater applause from the crowd than did Messalina's own son Britannicus, something which scholars have speculated led Messalina to plot against Nero and his mother once and for all.

Two prominent senators, Appius Silanus and Valerius Asiaticus met their death on the instigat

Rievaulx Abbey ree-VOH was a Cistercian abbey in Rievaulx, situated near Helmsley in the North York Moors National Park, North Yorkshire, England. It was one of the great abbeys in England until it was seized under Henry VIII of England in 1538 during the dissolution of the monasteries; the striking ruins of its main buildings are a tourist attraction and maintained by English Heritage. Rievaulx Abbey was the first Cistercian monastery in the north of England, founded in 1132 by twelve monks from Clairvaux Abbey, its remote location was well suited to the order's ideal of a strict life of prayer and self-sufficiency with little contact with the outside world. The abbey's patron, Walter Espec founded another Cistercian community, that of Wardon Abbey in Bedfordshire, on unprofitable wasteland on one of his inherited estates. William I, the first abbot of Rievaulx, started construction in the 1130s; the second abbot, Saint Aelred of Rievaulx, expanded the buildings and otherwise consolidated the existence of what with time became one of the great Cistercian abbeys of Yorkshire, second only to Fountains Abbey in fame.

Under Aelred, the abbey is said to have grown to 500 lay brothers. By the end of his tenure, Rievaulx had five daughter-houses in Scotland; the abbey lies in a wooded dale by the River Rye, sheltered by hills. The monks diverted part of the river several yards to the west in order to have enough flat land to build on, they altered the river's course twice more during the 12th century. The old course is visible in the abbey's grounds; this is an illustration of the technical ingenuity of the monks, who over time built up a profitable business mining lead and iron, rearing sheep and selling wool to buyers from all over Europe. Rievaulx Abbey became one of the greatest and wealthiest in England, with 140 monks and many more lay brothers, it received grants of land totalling 6,000 acres and established daughter houses in England and Scotland. By the end of the 13th century the abbey had incurred debts on its building projects and lost revenue due to an epidemic of sheep scab; the ill fortune was compounded by raiders from Scotland in the early 14th century.

The great reduction in population caused by the Black Death in the mid-14th century made it difficult to recruit new lay brothers for manual labour. As a result, the abbey was forced to lease much of its land. By 1381 there were only fourteen choir monks, three lay brothers and the abbot left at Rievaulx, some buildings were reduced in size. By the 15th century the Cistercian practices of strict observance according to the Rule of Saint Benedict had been abandoned in favour of a more comfortable lifestyle; the monks were permitted to eat meat, more private living accommodation was created for them, the abbot had a substantial private household in what had once been the infirmary. At the time of its dissolution in 1538, the abbey was said to consist of 72 buildings occupied by the abbot and 21 monks, with 102 lay employees, an income of £351 a year; the abbey owned a prototype blast furnace at Laskill, producing cast iron as efficiently as a modern blast furnace. As was standard procedure, the confiscated monastic buildings were rendered uninhabitable and stripped of valuables such as lead.

The site was granted to the Earl of Rutland, one of Henry's advisers, until it passed to the Duncombe family. In the 1750s Thomas Duncombe III beautified his estate by building the terrace with two Grecian-style temples, they are in the care of the National Trust. The abbey ruins are in the care of English Heritage; when awarded a life peerage in 1983, former prime minister Harold Wilson, a Yorkshireman, adopted the title "Baron Wilson of Rievaulx". Aelred of Rievaulx Thomas de Ros, 4th Baron de Ros John de Ros, 5th Baron de Ros Abbot of Rievaulx List of monastic houses in North Yorkshire Caroe and Partners. A Second Paradise of Wooded Delight: Rievaulx Abbey Conservation Plan Volume 2. English Heritage. Fergusson, Peter. Rievaulx Abbey. Community, Memory. Yale University Press. Woods, Thomas. How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization. ISBN 0-89526-038-7. Derbyshire, David. "Henry'Stamped Out Industrial Revolution'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 30 June 2014. Specific Official English Heritage site Catholic Encyclopedia article

Marc Bell is an American financier and entrepreneur. He is the managing partner of Marc Bell Capital, a Boca Raton, Florida-based firm founded in 2003, he is a producer of plays and movies. Bell graduated from Scarsdale High School in the Class of 1985, he on earned his Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Babson College and a Master of Science degree in real estate development and investment from New York University. Bell founded the web hosting company that became Globix Corporation in 1989 at the age of 21 and served as its CEO and chairman of the board through the company's IPO in 1996 and into the dot-com bubble, its market capitalization had fallen from $1 billion in 1999 to $5.87 million in 2002 when it went through Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In 2001, he joined the Board of Trustees of New York University and Board of Overseers New York University School of Medicine. Through his company Marc Bell Capital, Bell is an investor and partner in restaurants and nightclubs in New York City in ventures such as Artichoke Pizza and Lavo.

In 2004, Bell and a partner acquired Penthouse magazine for $52 million in a bankruptcy auction through a vehicle they called "Penthouse Media Group", in 2007 Penthouse Media Group acquired Various, which included networking site AdultFriendFinder.com for $500 million and Bell and his partner renamed the company Friend Finder Networks. In the 2008 Bell attempted to enter the Las Vegas casino market and was interviewed by Robin Leach about his intentions. Bell has produced musicals and plays such as Jersey Boys, Rock of Ages, The Wedding Singer, August: Osage County, A Catered Affair, his production Jersey Boys won a Tony Award for Best Musical in 2006 and August: Osage County won Best Play in 2008. In 2010 Bell, through Friend Finder Networks, tried to acquire Playboy Enterprises but was rebuffed after a $210 million bid. In 2013 Friend Finder declared bankruptcy; that same year, Bell put his house in Boca Raton on the market for $35 million.

A launch control center, in the United States, is the main control facility for intercontinental ballistic missiles. A launch control center controls missile launch facilities. From a launch control center, the missile combat crew can monitor the complex, launch the missile, or relax in the living quarters; the LCC is designed to provide maximum protection for the missile combat crew and equipment vital to missile launch. Missile silos are common across the midwestern United States, over 450 missiles remain in US Air Force service. Due to modern conventional weapons, missile launch control centers are becoming rarer in the US, it is expected that the number of missiles will stay at 450 Minuteman III. All LCCs are dependent on a missile support base for logistics support. For example, Minot AFB is the MSB for the 91st Missile Wing. Three types of Minuteman LCCs exist: Alternate Command Post: performed backup functions to missile support base. Functionally, there are three LCC designations. One Alternate Command Post LCC is located within each Minuteman wing and serves as backup for the wing command post.

Three Squadron Command Posts serve as command units for the remaining squadrons within the wing, report directly to the wing command post. The ACP doubles as SCP for the squadron; the remainder of the LCCs are classified as primary LCCs. Four primary LCCs are located within each report to their respective command post; the Titan LCCs held four crew members: the Missile Combat Crew Commander, the Deputy Missile Combat Crew Commander, Ballistic Missile Analyst Technician, the Missile Facilities Technician. Titan II had a three-story LCC dome; the first level was the crews living area and contained a kitchen, bedroom, a small equipment area that housed an exhaust fan and a water heater. The second level was the launch control area and held the LCCFC, the ALOC, the Control Monitor Group, several other pieces of equipment; the lowest level, level 3, held communications equipment, the two battery backup supplies, the sewage lift station, the motor-generator, several other pieces of equipment. There were two types of Titan II sites: standard, ACP sites.

ACPs had all of the equipment that one would find on a standard site plus additional communication equipment. A Minuteman wing consists of either four squadrons. Five flights comprise each squadron; each flight directly controls ten Minuteman missiles remotely. Each flight is commanded from a Launch Control Center, or LCC; the Minuteman LCC is an underground structure of reinforced concrete and steel of sufficient strength to withstand weapon effects. It contains equipment and a Missile combat crew of two officers capable of controlling and launching the 10 Minuteman missiles in unmanned launch facilities within the flight; the Combat Crew monitors message traffic from higher headquarters to all the other four flights in its squadron, has the ability to countermand launch attempts initiated by any other flight in its squadron. One LCC in each Minuteman squadron is designated a Squadron Command Post and has the ability to take control of and remotely launch the Minuteman missiles of any other flight in its squadron, in the event of receipt of an authenticated Emergency War Order and the flight designated in the EWO fails to execute its ICBM fire mission contained therein.

One of the wing's Squadron Command Posts is designated a Wing Command Post and can execute an authenticated EWO for any flight of Minuteman missiles in the wing. It can countermand a launch attempt by any flight in any squadron in the wing; the Minuteman Combat Crew has voice communications capability with all the LFs of the flight which it commands. Under ordinary circumstances this is always used to coordinate with maintenance crews on-site at an LF. If the maintenance crew is performing a site penetration communication with the Combat Crew will always be necessary in order to properly authenticate. Under extraordinary circumstances it may be necessary to communicate with a flight security squad, dispatched to the LF to investigate a perimeter security alarm; each Combat Crew has a voice circuit called the Hardened Voice Channel which links the five Combat Crews that comprise the squadron. There is a voice circuit called the EWO which links the squadron command posts. One of the squadron command posts is the wing CP.

These two voice circuits work like a party line with all LCCs connected simultaneously. Thus, it is not possible for any of the Combat Crews to have private conversations; the term "EWO" used here is not to be confused with an actual Emergency War Order message from the National Command Authority. The same term is used to denote both this circuit and the message transmitted over the Primary Alert System. Message traffic over the LF, HVC, EWO voice circuits are transmitted via the Hardened Intersite Cable System; each Combat Crew has access to commercial telephone lines for ordinary civilian communications. The outer structure of the LCC itself is cylindrical with hemispherical ends, its walls are of steel-reinforced concrete and appr

Axat is a commune in the Aude department in the Occitanie region of southern France. The inhabitants of the commune are known as Axatoises. Axat is located in Cathar country at the doors of the Aude Pyrenees some 45 km west by northwest of Perpignan and 10 km southeast of Quillan. Access to the commune is by the D117 road from Belvianes-et-Cavirac in the north which passes east through the top of the commune and continues to Caudiès-de-Fenouillèdes. Access to the village is by the D118 which branches from the D117 in the north of the commune and goes south to the village continues south through the length of the commune before turning west to follow a mountain ridge to Puyvalador; the commune is alpine in nature with rugged terrain. The village is in a valley in the north of the commune. Axat is a pretty tourist town situated in the high valley of the Aude. Surrounded by mountains and gorges, the narrowest Gorge of Saint Georges is only 3 km away; the River Aude is a popular whitewater sports location.

There are 300 metres of fly fishing stretches where the quality of oxygen in the water attracts salmon and trout. A privately-owned tourist railway known as The Little Red Train, runs on part of the old Carcassonne to Rivesaltes via Quillan SNCF railway line, from a station just west of the village. In summer it links Axat to Rivesaltes passing through Saint-Paul-de-Fenouillet with 60 km of track running over impressive viaducts and through tunnels on open-air carriages; the former track between Axat and Quillan no longer exists. The Aude river flows through the length of the commune from south to north continues northwest at the start of its journey to the Mediterranean Sea. Many tributaries rise in the commune on both banks and flow into the Aude including the Ruisseau d'Artigues, the Ruisseeau de Seilles, many other unnamed streams. In ancient times the Aude basin did not belong to the Sordones but to other iron producers inhabiting Atax country: the Atacini who made swords as well as axes.

The nearest village to the Sordones and part of the land occupied by the Aticini was called Axat and this name, a simple inversion of Atax marks the exact point of division between the two tribes of Sordones and Atacini. The Barony became a Marquisate in 1776 according to Eric Thiou and was extinguished in 1788, it became a courtesy title borrowed by Philippe du Puy de Clinchamps. List of Successive Mayors; the evolution of the number of inhabitants is known from the population censuses conducted in the commune since 1793. From the 21st century, a census of communes with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants is held every five years, unlike larger communes that have a sample survey every year. A Viaduct built in 1900 A Bridge The Church of the Assumption of Notre-Dame, built in 1630, contains a Statue: the Immaculate Conception, registered as an historical objectThe New Provisional Church contains several items that are registered as historical objects: A Statue: Saint John the Evangelist A Statue: Virgin with pedestal A Painting: Saint Michel vanquishing the demon A Painting: The Assumption Water activities: rafting, whitewater swimming, canoeing Axat Football Club, a soccer club founded in 1940.

Outdoor sports: hiking, climbingThere is an outdoor swimming pool, open from June to September with great mountain views. The Dax family from Carcassonne, have been linked to Axat since the middle of the 15th century, when its members were Lords of Axat. Henri Rouzaud, born in Axat on 14 November 1855, died at Narbonne on 17 July 1935, professor and politician Albert Cauneille, norn on 4 October 1910 in Axat, he was twice a finalist in the 1932–33 French Rugby Union Championship. He played centre three-quarters. Clubs: Carcassonne and Narbonne. Henri Gleyzes, born on 18 May 1901 in Axat and died on 15 October 1969, he was a finalist in the 1924–25 French Rugby Union Championship with Carcassonne. He played wing three-quarter. Patrick David, born on 3 May 1954 in Axat. Rugby player, he was a finalist in the 1976–77 French Rugby Union Championship with Perpignan. He played prop. Communes of the Aude department Axat on the old IGN website Axat on Lion1906 Axat on Google Maps Axat on Géoportail, National Geographic Institute website Axat on the 1750 Cassini Map Axat on the INSEE website INSEE

C. V. Balakrishnan is an Indian writer of Malayalam literature, his novels and short stories encompass the emotional issues related to mass culture, sexual politics, fate of the marginalised and institutionalised religions. An author of more than 40 literary works along with a few film scripts and film criticisms, his best known work is the novel Ayussinte Pusthakam, he received the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award thrice and the Kerala State Film Award for Best Book on Cinema in 2002 for Cinemayude Idangal. In 2014, he won the Padmaprabha Literary Award. Balakrishnan was born in Kannur district, Kerala. After completing his school education, he took training in teaching and worked in various schools before shifting to Calcutta in 1979 where he worked as a freelance journalist, it was in Calcutta he began writing Ayussinte Pusthakam. Ayussinte Pusthakam is considered one of the major works in the post-modernist Malayalam literature. Balakrishnan began writing this novel. An old edition of the Bible at St. Paul's Cathedral in Calcutta triggered the book in him.

It took him three years to complete the novel. Says the author: "All the characters and villages of Christian settlers were in my mind long before I began thinking about writing Ayussinte Pusthakam; the characters are based on people I met during my course as a school teacher in a village in Kasaragod. I wrote Ayussinte Pusthakam at a time when I was going through an difficult period. Ayussinte Pusthakam is about loneliness.” The book is about sin and sadness, written in a style and language that have been judiciously borrowed from The Bible." The novel was adapted for the stage by suveeran in 2008. It won many Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi Awards including one for the best play. Aathmavinu Sariyennu Thonnunna Karyangal Avanavante Anandam Kandethanulla Vazhikal Ayussinte Pusthakam Disa Kannadikkadal Kamamohitham Librarian Varu Daivame Varu Aadhi Aavanakkinte Oru Poovu Allenkil Erikkinte Oru Poovu Aagola Grameenar Ozhiyabadhakal Drushti Asthikalile Venal Eenthappanayude Thottam Ellinpadangal Poovidumbol Globinte Ee Vasath Irattakkuttikalude Achan Parimalaparvatham Vilakkumadam Manassinu Ethra Thiraseelakal Manjuprathima Meen Pidikkaan Poya Gabriel Narthanasala Amen Amen Prappitiyan Sari, Pisachineppatti Samsarikkam Tharangaleela Vishadakala Viva Goa Vellivelichathil Ithivritham Kadal Guhakal Oru Gothra kadha, Oru Charithra kadha, Oru Chalachithra kadha Maranam Ennu Perullavan Ottakkoru Penkutty Jivithame Nee Enth?

Jwalakalapam Etho Rajavinte Prajakal Ente Pizha Ente Pizha Ente Valiya Pizha Bhavabhayam Bhumiye Patti Adhikam Parayanda Katha Kulirum Mattu Kathakalum Malakhamar Chiraku Veesumbol Manju Prathima Pranayakalam Sareeram Ariyunnathu Snehavirunnu Urangan Vayya Vishudha Chumbanam Cinemayude Idangal Ethetho Saranikalil Mechilsthalangal Paralmeen Neenthunna Paadam Saannidhyam Sugandha Sasyangalkidayiloode Yathrapathangalil StoryIrattakuttikalude Achan Kottaram Veettile Apputtan Thoramazhayathu story and dialoguesMattoral Puravrutham Sammanam Kattathoru Penpoovu Kochu Kochu Santhoshangal Orma Mathram Vellivelichathil 1994: SBI Malayalam Literary Award for Maalakhamaar chiraku veesumbol 1998: V. T. Bhattathiripad Memorial Award for Atmavinu Sariyennu Thonnunna Karyangal 2000: Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Atmavinu Sariyennu Thonnunna Karyangal 2001: Kerala Film Critics Association Award for Kochu Kochu Santhoshangal 2002: Kerala State Film Award for Cinemayude Idangal 2008: Mayilpeeli Puraskaram 2010: Shantakumaran Thampi Award 2012: O. Chandu Menon Puraskaram 2012: Basheer Puraskaram 2012: Kalakeralam Award for Orma Mathram 2013: Muttathu Varkey Award 2014: Padmaprabha Literary Award 2014: Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Paralmeen Neenthunna Paadam 2015: Abu Dhabi Malayalee Samajam Sahitya Puraskaram 2017: Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Ethetho Saranikalil C. V. Balakrishnan on IMDb "C. V. Balakrishnan - Profile and Life History".

Veethi. Galaxy Infomedia. 9 July 2014. Retrieved 3 July 2019