Bifröst

In Norse mythology, Bifröst (ⁱ/ˈbɪvrɒst/ or sometimes Bilröst or Bivrost) is a burning rainbow bridge that reaches between Midgard (the world) and Asgard, the realm of the gods. The bridge is attested as Bilröst in the Poetic Edda; compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and as Bifröst in the Prose Edda; written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson, and in the poetry of skalds. Both the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda alternately refer to the bridge as Asbrú (Old Norse "Æsir's bridge").

According to the Prose Edda, the bridge ends in heaven at Himinbjörg, the residence of the god Heimdallr, who guards it from the jötnar. The bridge's destruction during Ragnarök by the forces of Muspell is foretold. Scholars have proposed that the bridge may have originally represented the Milky Way and have noted parallels between the bridge and another bridge in Norse mythology, Gjallarbrú.

Etymology

Scholar Andy Orchard posits that Bifröst may mean "shimmering path." He notes that the first element of Bilröst—bil (meaning "a moment")—"suggests the fleeting nature of the rainbow," which he connects to the first element of Bifröst—the Old Norse verb bifa (meaning "to shimmer" or "to shake")—noting that the element provokes notions of the "lustrous sheen" of the bridge. Austrian Germanist Rudolf Simek says that Bifröst either means "the swaying road to heaven" (also citing bifa) or, if Bilröst is the original form of the two (which Simek says is likely), "the fleetingly glimpsed rainbow" (possibly connected to bil, perhaps meaning "moment, weak point").

Bifrost (operating system)

Bifrost is a lightweight distribution of Linux optimized for networking. It is named after Bifröst, the bridge which connects the world and the land of Gods in Nordic mythology.

Primary Usage

Since the intended use is network infrastructure, reliability is the number one priority with performance a close second. It is trusted with mission critical deployments where uptime is measured in years.

The two most common uses are as Edge Router or NAC / Captive portal. Both of these uses often also perform at least basic firewall functions.

History

The first version of the Bifrost firewall was installed at The Department of Chemistry, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in the year 1997.

Present

Currently the development, testing, and packaging is housed at Uppsala University with contributions from many other. The university also runs several installations where Bifrost is used. Bifrost is also used as a base for an authentication service, which make it possible to log in to the net.

Bifrost (disambiguation)

Bifrost or Bifröst is a bridge in Norse mythology.

Bifrost may also refer to:

Blanco

Blanco (white or blank in Spanish) or Los Blancos may refer to:

People

Fictional characters

Places

United States

Other countries

Multiple places

Music

Alberto Blanco

Luis Alberto Blanco Saavedra (born 8 January 1978) is a retired Panamanian football midfielder.

Club career

Nicknamed Satú, he started his career at hometown club San Francisco, then moved to Europe to play in the UEFA Champions League with Moldovan champions Sheriff Tiraspol where he played alongside compatriots Ubaldo Guardia and Roberto Brown. He then had a short stint at Russian outfit Alania Vladikavkaz before moving to the Middle East where he played for UAE side Al Ain and Al-Nasr in Saudi Arabia.

After spells at Plaza Amador and San Francisco, he moved abroad again when signing for Colombians Atlético Junior in February 2008. In 2009 he joined compatriot Alberto Zapata at Israeli team Maccabi Netanya, but left them in summer 2009.

On his return to Panama, he again played for San Francisco and Chorillo and joined Tauro in January 2011. He retired at second division side Atlético Nacional in 2013.

International career

Blanco made his debut for Panama in an October 1999 friendly match against Trinidad and Tobago and has earned a total of 60 caps, scoring 3 goals. He represented his country in 18 FIFA World Cup qualification matches and was a member of the 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup team, who finished second in the tournament and he also played at the 2007 and 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cups.

Blanco (compound)

Blanco was a compound used primarily by soldiers throughout the Commonwealth from 1880 onwards to clean and colour their equipment. It was first used by the British Army to whiten Slade Wallace buckskin leather equipment, and later adapted to coloured versions for use on the cotton Web Infantry Equipment, Pattern 1908 webbing. Blanco became widely used throughout both world wars.

Description

Blanco initially came in either powder manufactured by the Mills Equipment Company (who designed and were a primary manufacturer of the webbing it was used on), or round cake form, much like soap, manufactured by Pickerings and which used the tradename "Blanco" and was used as a cleaning and colouring compound. (The compound was manufactured in Canada as "Capo".) Capo is an abbreviation for "Canadian Colouring Compound". Blanco was applied with a brush and water, and rubbed into the woven cotton material of load bearing equipment, to provide a consistent colour to equipment worn by soldiers in the same unit, and as a method of cleaning the gear. Post-war experimental rectangular waxy blocks became available with greater waterproofing abilities but after 1954 Joseph Pickering & Sons Ltd introduced a tinned paste product that didn't need the addition of water and could be applied directly from the tin. Other manufacturers made competing tinned paste products until the 1980s.