Waitakere City was a territorial authority district in the west of Auckland, New Zealand. It was New Zealand's fifth largest city, with an annual growth of about 2%. In 2010 the council was amalgamated with other regional authorities into one new Auckland Council; the name "Waitakere" comes from the Waitakere River in the Waitakere Ranges and was applied to Waitakere County, which covered much of the city. Before being settled by Europeans, the Māori iwi Te Kawerau a Maki and Ngāti Whātua had settled in the Waitakere area. In the 1830s, European settlers started to arrive, concentrating on timber milling, kauri gum digging and flax milling, with brickworks and pottery industries following later. In the 20th century and service trades started to grow, with population taking off after World War II due to improved transport links with Auckland City, such as the Northwestern Motorway, whose first section opened in 1952. Suburbs like New Lynn, Glen Eden and Henderson grew to prominence in the following decades.

In February 1993 the council developed the "Greenprint" as an Agenda 21 initiative and declared itself to be an eco-city. Waitakere City was formed by the amalgamation of Waitemata City with the boroughs of Henderson, New Lynn, Glen Eden in the 1989 nationwide re-organisation of local government. There were just two mayors of Waitakere City during its existence, Assid Corban from 1989 to 1992, Bob Harvey from 1992 to 2010. On 1 November 2010, the Waitakere City Council was abolished and Waitakere City was merged into a single Auckland city governed by Auckland Council. All council facilities and services were handed over to the new council; the elected Council consisted of 14 councillors representing the four wards. Each ward had an elected community board that considered local issues; this urban ward contained the old Henderson borough as well as the suburbs of Glendene, Te Atatu South, Te Atatu Peninsula. There were 40,086 residents in 2001, it was located to the west of Auckland city, some 10 kilometres from the city centre, along the western shores of the Waitematā Harbour and its southwestern arm, the Whau River.

Although this area was principally urban, it had some farms and lifestyle blocks in the north and west. The ward contained the suburbs of Whenuapai, West Harbour, Massey and Henderson North, it had a population of 51,369 in the 2001 census. It was located to the north of the Henderson Ward, along the Waitemata's northwestern shore, included one of New Zealand's largest concentrations of former military bases, with former large army and air force stations within the ward. Centred on the old boroughs of New Lynn and Glen Eden, it contained the suburbs of Kelston, Green Bay, Kaurilands and Woodlands Park; the ward had a population of 49,845 in 2001. New Lynn Ward was to the south of Henderson Ward, extended to the shore of the Manukau Harbour at its southern end. New Lynn itself is 10 kilometres southwest of Auckland city centre; this ward was by far the largest in area as it encompassed the sparsely populated Waitakere Ranges, as well as some of the urban fringes as the city expanded westward into former orchards and farms.

The population of 27,450 in 2001 was the smallest of the wards, but it was the fastest growing. It encompassed the suburbs and localities of Swanson, Henderson Valley, Oratia, Laingholm, Cornwallis, Whatipu, Piha, Bethells / Te Henga, Waitakere township. Many of these had volunteer fire brigades to protect their communities from the summer bush fires; this ward lay to the west of the three other wards, extended to the north as well. Its northern end, around Muriwai, was the furthest part of Waitakere from Auckland city centre, lying some 30 kilometres to the northwest of it. Significant industries in the first 150 years of European settlement after about 1850 included brick and pottery manufacturing, timber milling, kauri gum digging, farming, water supply and the twin Royal New Zealand Air Force bases of Whenuapai and Hobsonville. Waitakere City developed light manufacturing; the two commercial centres were New Lynn. Notable niche industries included boat-building and film and television production.

The largest sound stage in New Zealand was built in Henderson. However, Waitakere City's workforce was oriented towards Auckland City, with about 40% of all workers living in the city commuting into the Auckland City area for work from the late 2000s; the walking tracks and sights of the Waitakere Ranges attract thousands from the Auckland region in suitable weather, as do the black-sand surf beaches of Piha and Bethells. These beaches are notoriously dangerous for surfers and swimmers who must take great care to avoid their treacherous rips; the city has a football club playing in the New Zealand Football Championship, Waitakere United, as well several clubs competing in the regional Northern League competition. The Nelson Trusts Stadium holds many sports and entertainment events. There was extensive work by the council in the 2000s to pave and improve pathways around the streams in Henderson and there are now several miles of excellent walking / cycling tracks in the centre of Henderson and running north and south.

Together with major restoration works along the streams it is known as the Project Twin Streams. The area is home to one of the first and oldest baseball clubs in New Zealand, it is based in Te Atatu South at McCleod Park and features both junior and senior gr

John Wesley Vivian "Jack" Payne was a British dance music bandleader who established his reputation during the British dance band era of the 1930s. Payne was born in Leamington Spa, the only son of a music publisher's warehouse manager. While serving in the Royal Flying Corps he played the piano in amateur dance bands. After the RFC became the Royal Air Force towards the end of World War I, Payne led dance bands for the troops. Prior to joining the Royal Air Force, he was part of "The Allies" concert party; this voluntary group performed to wounded soldiers convalescing around Birmingham. He played with visiting American jazz bands at the Birmingham Palais during the early 1920s, including the Southern Rag-a-Jazz Orchestra in 1922, before moving to London in 1925, he played in a ten-piece band which became the house band at London's Hotel Cecil in 1925. This ensemble performed on the BBC in the latter half of the decade. In 1928, Payne became the BBC Director of Dance Music and the leader of the BBC's first official dance band.

In 1929 the band was featured in the first BBC television broadcast appearing in the short film Jazz Time that same year. His signature tune was Say it With Music written by Irving Berlin. In July 1930 a reviewer from The Gramophone magazine wrote that "Jack Payne's Band is public property, it is paid out of the wireless licence fees which you and I supply... As such its one duty is to please the masses, it has to be good musically, it has to entertain, it needn't worry about anything advanced in the way of style, the last thing it need be is rhythmically hot. I think we must all agree that it does its job well, that anything it may at times lack in modern rhythmic stylishness is amply compensated by other qualities more important from the public's viewpoint, such as musical ability and versatility". After leaving the BBC in 1932, when he was succeeded by Henry Hall, he returned to playing hotel venues, switched labels to Imperial and took his band on nationwide tours and made a film Say it with Music, followed four years by Sunshine Ahead.

Payne had three successful waltzes – Blue Pacific Moonlight, Underneath the Spanish Stars and Pagan Serenade, which he composed and published in the 1930s. Payne did some jazz recording, including working with Garland Wilson, he toured South Africa and France in the 1930s, but concentrated his efforts on running a theatrical agency. In 1941 he returned to the post of Director of Dance Music at the BBC, remaining there until 1946, he engaged two young teenagers to sing with his orchestra. They were Carole Carr and Lizbeth Webb, the star of the musical comedy Bless The Bride. During this period, Art Christmas was one of the musicians. Following this he became a disc jockey. In 1955, he followed this change of career by returning to the dance music scene to present his own BBC Television programme and Music, which ran for three series, he made the occasional television appearance as a panellist in Juke Box Jury, as well as other popular music programmes of the decade, including a film appearance as himself in Jamboree.

During his final years, Payne ran a hotel, The Middle House, in Mayfield, East Sussex, not a successful financial venture. Payne was married twice – his first wife having died after sixteen years of marriage, he had an adopted daughter with the pianist and composer Peggy Cochrane. He wrote two autobiographies, This is Signature Tune. Jack Payne died in Tonbridge, Kent on 4 December 1969. "Internet Archive Search: Jack Payne – archive.org". Retrieved 30 April 2012. "British Pathé Search: Jack Payne - britishpathe.com". Retrieved 2 May 2012. Jack Payne at Allmusic Jack Payne – 78rpm Rex Label Discography – 78rpm Collectors' Community. Retrieved 22 July 2013 Everything Stops For Tea – Jack Payne and his Band on YouTube, recorded December 1935, vocal chorus by Billy Scott-Coomber Jack Payne on IMDb

The discography of the British rock band The Sisters of Mercy consists of three studio albums, two compilation albums, two extended plays, sixteen singles. The Sisters of Mercy were formed in Leeds in 1977 by Andrew Eldritch and Gary Marx and they released their debut single, "The Damage Done" in the same year on their own independent record label, Merciful Release. In early 1981, Craig Adams joined the band and they started to use a drum machine, christened Doktor Avalanche. Ben Gunn joined the band as a second guitarist by the end of 1981 and this line-up recorded four more singles and two EPs during 1982 and 1983. Guitarist Wayne Hussey replaced Gunn in early 1984 and, after building up their live reputation, The Sisters signed with WEA, who distribute the band's releases on Merciful Release in the United Kingdom and on Elektra Records in the United States; the band's next single, 1984's "Body and Soul", became their first charting effort in the UK when it reached number 46. Three more singles were released before the band reached number 14 on the UK Albums Chart with their debut album and Last and Always, released in March 1985.

Following the album's release, Marx left the band, before the rest of the group disbanded in mid-1985. After releasing a single and album with The Sisterhood, a legal dispute with Adams and Hussey over ownership of the band name The Sisters of Mercy, Eldritch reformed The Sisters of Mercy with himself as vocalist and Patricia Morrison on bass; the band continued to be supplemented by the drum machine known as Doktor Avalanche. This new line-up reached number seven in the UK with their first single, "This Corrosion", released in September 1987. Floodland, released in November 1987 made the top ten when it reached number nine on the UK Albums Chart. Two further singles from Floodland – "Dominion" and "Lucretia My Reflection" – reached numbers 13 and 20 in the UK in early 1988. Another line-up change in early 1990 saw Morrison being replaced on bass by Tony James; this line-up released the single "More" and the album Vision Thing in October 1990, which reached numbers 21 and 11 on the UK Singles Chart and UK Albums Chart respectively.

A further single, "Doctor Jeep", was released from Vision Thing in December 1990 and reached number 37 in the UK. James left the band in 1991 before the single "Temple of Love", a re-recording of their 1983 single, was released in April 1992 and became the band's highest-charting single when it reached number three in the UK; some Girls Wander by Mistake, a compilation of the band's early material was released in April 1992 and reached number five in the UK. With Bricheno leaving the band by the end of 1992, a new guitarist, Adam Pearson, was recruited before the band recorded the single "Under the Gun", released in August 1993 and reached number 19 in the UK. A greatest hits compilation album, A Slight Case of Overbombing, was released in August 1993 and reached number 14 on the UK Albums Chart. Although The Sisters of Mercy have not made any more commercial releases, they continue to tour under various line-ups with Eldritch as the only main stable member. Official website The Sisters of Mercy at AllMusic

Adam Clarke Nutt Mansion is a historic mansion located at Uniontown, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. It was built in 1882, is a large three-story, irregularly shaped brick dwelling in the Queen Anne style. A front porch and porte cochere were added sometime before 1912, it has a truncated hipped roof, four tall chimneys, a centered tower section. The property includes a contributing fieldstone wall and a non-contributing two-story carriage house with a mansard roof in the Second Empire style, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990

Bhanurekha Ganesan, better known by her stage name Rekha, is an Indian film actress. Noted for her versatility and acknowledged as one of the finest actresses in Indian cinema, Rekha started her career in 1958 as a child actress in the Telugu film Inti Guttu, though her film debut as a lead happened twelve years with Sawan Bhadon. Despite the success of several of her early films, she was panned for her looks and it was not until the mid-to-late 1970s that she got recognition as an actress. Rekha has acted in more than 190 films in her career spanning over 50 years. Throughout her career, she has played strong female characters and, apart from mainstream cinema, appeared in arthouse films, known in India as parallel cinema, she has won three Filmfare Awards, two for Best Actress and one for Best Supporting Actress, for her roles in Khubsoorat, Khoon Bhari Maang and Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi, respectively. Her portrayal of a classical courtesan in Umrao Jaan won her the National Film Award for Best Actress.

Though her career has gone through certain periods of decline, she has reinvented herself numerous times and has been credited for her ability to sustain her status. In 2010, she was honoured with the Padma Shri by the Government of India. Rekha was born in Madras on 10 October 1954 to Tamil actor Gemini Ganesan and Telugu actress Pushpavalli, her father did not acknowledge his paternity during her childhood. Rekha has one half-brother and five half-sisters, it was in early 1970s, when she was looking for a footing in Bollywood, that she revealed her origins. At the peak of her career, Rekha told a magazine interviewer that her father's neglect still rankled and that she had ignored his efforts at reconciliation. Rekha attended Sacred Heart Convent for Girls in Tamil Nadu. At the age of 13, she quit school to start a career in acting, she did not have any personal aspirations in this direction, but the troubled financial state of her family compelled her to do so. Rekha appeared as a child in the Telugu film Intti guttu.

Rekha made her debut as heroine in the successful Kannada film Operation Jackpot Nalli C. I. D 999 with Rajkumar in 1969. In that same year, she starred in Anjana Safar, she claimed that she was tricked into a kissing scene with the leading actor Biswajit for the overseas market, the kiss made it to the Asian edition of Life magazine. The film ran into censorship problems, would not be released until a decade in 1979, she had no interest in acting and was forced to work to sustain her family financially, this was a difficult period in her life. Still a teenager, acclimatising herself to her new surroundings was an uneasy process. Coming from the South, she did not speak Hindi and struggled to communicate with co-workers, was missing her mother, critically ill. Moreover, she was required to follow a strict diet. Recalling this phase, Rekha was quoted as saying, Bombay was like a jungle, I had walked in unarmed, it was one of the most frightening phases of my life... I was ignorant of the ways of this new world.

Guys did take advantage of my vulnerability. I did feel,"What am I doing? I should be in school, having an ice-cream, fun with my friends, why am I forced to work, deprived of normal things that a child should be doing at my age?" Every single day I cried, because I had to eat what I didn't like, wear crazy clothes with sequins and stuff poking into my body. Costume jewellery would give me an absolute terrible allergy. Hair spray wouldn't go off for days despite all my washing. I was pushed dragged from one studio to another. A terrible thing to do to a 13-year-old child, she had two films released in 1970: the Telugu film Amma Kosam and the Hindi film Sawan Bhadon, considered her acting debut in Bollywood. She had to learn Hindi, as, not her spoken language. Sawan Bhadon became a hit, Rekha – a star overnight. Despite the success of the film, she was scorned for her looks, she subsequently got several offers but nothing of substance, as her roles were just of a glamour girl. She appeared in several commercially successful films at the time, including Raampur Ka Lakshman, Kahani Kismat Ki, Pran Jaye Par Vachan Na Jaye, yet she was not regarded for her acting abilities and—according to Tejaswini Ganti—"the industry was surprised by her success as her dark complexion, plump figure, garish clothing contradicted the norms of beauty prevalent in the film industry and in society."

Rekha recalls that the way she was perceived at that time motivated her to change her appearance and improve her choice of roles: "I was called the'Ugly Duckling' of Hindi films because of my dark complexion and South Indian features. I used to feel hurt when people compared me with the leading heroines of the time and said I was no match for them. I was determined to make it big on sheer merit."This period marked the beginning of Rekha's physical transformation. She started paying attention to her make-up, dress sense, worked to improve her acting technique and perfect her Hindi-language skills. To lose weight, she followed a nutritious diet, led a regular, disciplined life, practised yoga recording albums to promote physical fitness. According to Khalid Mohamed, "The audience was floored when there was a swift change in her screen personality, as well as her style of acting." She began choosing her film roles with more care.

Prof. Lokesh Chandra is a prominent scholar of the Vedic period and the Indian arts, he was the president of Indian Council for Cultural Relations during 2014-2017. He has served as a member of the Indian Rajya Sabha, Vice-President of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, Chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research. In 2006 he was conferred with Padma Bhushan by the Indian Government, he is the son of the famous Sanskrit scholar and politician Raghu Vira. After obtaining a master's degree at the University of the Punjab in Lahore in 1947, he edited the Gavamayana portion of the Vedic work Jaiminiya Brahmana with the help of newly discovered manuscripts. Chandra went to the Netherlands to study Old Javanese with the Indologist Jan Gonda at Utrecht University, where he obtained a Ph. D. with the dissertation Jaiminiya Brahmana of the Samaveda II.1-80 in March 1950. Among them are classics like his Tibetan-Sanskrit Dictionary, Materials for a History of Tibetan Literature, Buddhist Iconography of Tibet, his Dictionary of Buddhist Art in about 20 volumes.

Lokesh Chandra, Yashaswini Chandra. Buddhist iconography: Dr. Lokesh Chandra in conversation with Dr. Yashaswini Chandra