Wikipedia:Portal:Portal
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The portal of portals
A portal is an opening in the walls of a building, gate or fortification, and especially a grand entrance to an important structure. Doors, metal gates or portcullis in the opening can be used to control entry or exit. The surface surrounding the opening may be made of simple building materials or decorated with ornamentation. Elements of a portal can include the voussoir, tympanum, an ornamented mullion or trumeau between doors, and columns with carvings of saints in the westwork of a church.
Portals in science fiction, such as wormholes and gates, allow rapid travel between distant locations, often originating from some combination of natural phenomenon and technological device. These fictional devices are required for most stories on an inter-solar scale, otherwise transit time would be excessive for storytelling purposes. An advantage of portal technology over a faster-than-light drive is that it can be imagined to work instantly, and can travel to the past or future. In other forms of fiction, a portal may be magical, and connect to an alternate universe or plane of existence.
Selected article
Portal is an Australian extreme metal band whose style is an unorthodox fusion of death metal with black metal. The band's hybrid musical style is characterised by heavily distorted guitar riffs, down-tuned rhythms, and vocals ranging from "menacing, echoing" sound effects to guttural grunts. Writing for Popmatters, Adrien Begrand noted that "death metal always pretends to be scary, but [...] it's all rather harmless. That said, however, I make no mistake in saying that the death metal peddled by Australia’s Portal is truly friggin' terrifying". Lead guitarist Horror Illogium has described Portal's intent as "to capture a cinematic horror scope".
Selected biography
Gerald Herbert Portal (1858–1894) was a British diplomat, the Consul General for British East Africa and British Special Commissioner to Uganda. Educated at Eton, he joined the diplomatic service as an attaché in 1879, and was posted to the Egyptian Agency the same year. In 1886 he became Acting Agent and Consul General, and the following year he was sent to Ethiopia. In 1889 he was appointed to Zanzibar as the Consul General for British East Africa.
In 1892 Portal was appointed British Special Commissioner to Uganda to report to the British Government on setting up a British Protectorate to replace the East Africa Company, which was becoming increasingly ineffective amidst conflicts between rival factions, including the Kabaka (King) of Buganda, French Catholic, and British Protestant missionaries.
Portal established a settlement between the French and British Missionaries in Uganda, and on May 29, 1893 he signed a treaty with Kabaka Mwanga of Buganda. On April 1, 1893, he hauled down the flag of the British East Africa Company and hoisted the Union Jack. He returned to Britain and recommended the declaration of Uganda as a protectorate.
Portal was made Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1886, and Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1893. He died from typhoid fever in London on January 25, 1894, three months before his advice was acted upon. The town of Fort Portal in western Uganda, where Portal had his base, is named after him.
In the news
- Door opens mid-Qantas flight; plane makes an emergency landing
- Belgian Indymedians discuss participatory journalism at open door day
- Alaskan plane crash survivors say cargo door swung open
- World Health Organization launches clinical trial website
- Kids game portal BBC Jam to close after competition complaints
- With pressure from France, Chad and Sudan open door to possible troop deployment
- Switzerland shut door on Korean Republic 2-0 in Group G
- Sydney train doors stuck, passengers delayed
- Entrepreneur's RFID chip implant to open doors, start car
Categories
- Doors — panels or barriers used to cover an opening
- Gates — entry points to an enclosed space
- Portals — focus pages which highlight a particular subject
- Portals on Wikimedia Commons - images of portals
Did you know?
- Portal hypertension is often the result of cirrhosis of the liver
- The Dark Portal is the first book in the Deptford Mice trilogy
- Fort Portal in Uganda is the seat of both Kabarole and the Toro Kingdom
- Portal's Weighted Companion Cube has fan-created plush and papercraft versions
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Selected geography
El Portal is a village in Miami-Dade County, Florida, USA. The village name is derived from the Spanish phrase for "the gate", after two wooden gates that once stood as a gateway to the village. As of 2004, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau is 2,468.
A small, diverse enclave between Miami Shores and Miami, El Portal was incorporated on December 7, 1937, by residents eager for strict zoning that would ensure tidiness. Three small subdivisions (now neighborhoods), included Sherwood Forest, El Jardin (Spanish for "The Garden"), and El Portal merged into the Village of El Portal.
El Portal has been designated as a bird sanctuary for more than 50 years.
Selected quote
The movie's curse! Watching it opened a portal into another dimension!
The monster came through the portal, now it's going to hunt us down and eat us!
And I'm probably delicious!
- — Beast Boy, Fear Itself, Teen Titans
Related portals
