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The original Star Wars trilogy, formerly marketed as the Star Wars Trilogy (and colloquially referred to as the 'original trilogy'), is the first set of three films produced in the Star Wars franchise, an American space opera created by George Lucas. It was produced by Lucasfilm and distributed by 20th Century Fox, and consists of Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). Beginning in medias res, the original trilogy serves as the second act of the nine-episode Skywalker saga. It was followed by a prequel trilogy between 1999 and 2005, and a sequel trilogy between 2015 and 2019. Collectively, they are referred to as the "Skywalker Saga" to distinguish them from  films set within the same universe.

The films center on the Galactic Civil War between the Rebel Alliance and the tyrannical Galactic Empire, as well as the archetypical hero's journey of Luke Skywalker in his quest to become a Jedi under the tutelage of exiled Jedi Masters Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda. Luke joins forces with Princess Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca, C-3PO, R2-D2 and the Rebel Alliance in facing the Empire and the evil Sith Lord Darth Vader.

The original Star Wars film received widespread acclaim from critics for its storytelling, characters, John Williams' musical score and its groundbreaking visual and sound effects. The film surpassed 1975's Jaws as the highest grossing film of all time, turning science fiction films into a blockbuster genre, until it was surpassed by E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in 1982. Both Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back have been hailed as among the greatest and important films of all time. With the trilogy's success, Star Wars became a pop culture phenomenon, spawning a multi-million dollar merchandising empire. All three films have been inducted by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Background
In 1971, Lucas wanted to film an adaptation of the Flash Gordon serial, but could not obtain the rights. He began developing his own story inspired by the work of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Immediately after directing American Graffiti (1973), Lucas wrote a two-page synopsis for his space opera, titled Journal of the Whills. After United Artists, Universal Studios and Disney rejected the film, 20th Century Fox decided to invest in it. Lucas felt his original story was too difficult to understand, so on April 17, 1973, he began writing a 13-page script titled The Star Wars, sharing strong similarities with Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress (1958). By May 1974, he had expanded the script into the first draft of a screenplay, adding elements such as the Sith and the Death Star, but found that the script had grown too long for a single film. Subsequent drafts evolved into the script of the original film.

Lucas negotiated to retain the sequel rights. Tom Pollock, then Lucas's lawyer, writes: "We came to an agreement that George would retain the sequel rights. Not all the [merchandising rights] that came later, mind you; just the sequel rights. And Fox would get a first opportunity and last refusal right to make the movie." Lucas was offered $50,000 to write, another $50,000 to produce, and $50,000 to direct the film; his directing compensation was later increased to $100,000. He also negotiated the sequel rights and ownership of 40% of the merchandising profits. American Graffiti cast member Harrison Ford had given up on acting to try to become a carpenter, until Lucas hired him to play Han Solo.

Casting
Thousands of actors were assessed in the search for the trilogy's main cast. The selected actors are considered by many viewers to have onscreen chemistry even though some of them were inexperienced, with the notable exceptions of Alec Guinness and Peter Cushing. Some, like Ford, have called the dialogue in the scripts clunky, and several lines were unscripted; some of these are considered the most memorable moments in the films.

Films
Star Wars was released on May 25, 1977; unlikely hero Luke Skywalker is drawn into a galactic conflict between the Empire and Rebel Alliance by two droids and an old Jedi Knight; he helps make one of the Rebellion's most significant victories. The film's unanticipated success led Lucas to make it the basis of an elaborate serial. With the backstory he created for the sequel, Lucas decided that the series would be a trilogy of trilogies, with the original film given the subtitle Episode IV – A New Hope to establish it as the first part of the second trilogy. The first sequel, Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, was released on May 21, 1980, and sees Luke begin training as a Jedi under the last living Jedi master, Yoda. Luke confronts Sith Lord Darth Vader, who is revealed to be Luke's father. Vader attempts to convert Luke to the dark side of the Force. The third film, Episode VI – Return of the Jedi, was released on May 25, 1983, and follows Luke as a full-fledged Jedi. Luke succeeds in redeeming Vader, thereby saving the galaxy from the Empire. The sequels were self-financed by Lucasfilm, and generally advertised without the episodic number distinction present in their opening crawls.

A New Hope

A Rebel spaceship is intercepted by the Empire above the desert planet of Tatooine. Aboard, the deadliest Imperial sith warlord Darth Vader and his stormtroopers capture Princess Leia Organa, a secret member of the Rebellion. Before her capture, Leia makes sure the droid  will escape with stolen Imperial blueprints for an armored space station, the Death Star, and a holographic message for the Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, who has been living in exile on Tatooine. Along with ,  falls under the ownership of Luke Skywalker, a farmboy who has been raised by his aunt and uncle. Luke helps the droids locate , now a solitary old hermit known as Ben Kenobi. He reveals himself as a friend of Luke's absent father, Anakin Skywalker, who was 's Jedi apprentice until being murdered by Vader. He tells Luke he must also become a Jedi. After discovering his family's homestead has been destroyed by the Empire, they go to the Mos Eisley Cantina and hire the smuggler Han Solo, his Wookiee  Chewbacca and their space freighter, the Millennium Falcon. They discover that Leia's homeworld of Alderaan has been destroyed, and are soon captured by the planet-destroying Death Star itself. While  disables its tractor beam, Luke and Han rescue the captive Princess Leia, passing through incredible dangers. Finally, they deliver the Death Star plans to the Rebel Alliance with the hope of exploiting a weakness, and launch an attack on the Death Star.

The first rough draft, titled The Star Wars, introduced "the Force" and the young hero Luke Starkiller. Annikin  appeared as Luke's father, a wise Jedi knight. Between drafts, Lucas read Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces, and was surprised to find that his story "was following classical motifs." The third draft replaced (a deceased) Annikin with Ben Kenobi. Some months later, Lucas had negotiated a contract that gave him rights to two sequels. Lucas hired Alan Dean Foster, who was ghostwriting the novelization of the first film, to write them—with the main creative restriction that they could be filmed on a low budget. By 1976, a fourth draft had been prepared for principal photography. The film was titled The Adventures of Luke Starkiller, as taken from the Journal of the Whills, Saga I: The Star Wars. During production, Lucas changed Luke's name to Skywalker and shortened the title to The Star Wars, and finally just Star Wars. At that point, Lucas was not expecting the film to warrant full-scale sequels. The fourth draft of the script underwent subtle changes to become a self-contained story ending with the destruction of the Empire in the Death Star. The intention was that if the film was successful, Lucas could adapt Foster's novels into low-budget sequels. By that point, Lucas had developed a tentative backstory to aid in developing the saga.

Star Wars exceeded all expectations. The success of the film and its merchandise sales led Lucas to make Star Wars the basis of an elaborate film serial, and use the profits to finance his filmmaking center, Skywalker Ranch. After the release of the first sequel, the original film was subtitled Episode IV: A New Hope in the screenplay released in the 1979 book The Art of Star Wars and for all subsequent rereleases beginning with a theatrical rerelease in 1981.

The Empire Strikes Back

Three years after the destruction of the Death Star, the Empire forces the Rebel Alliance to evacuate its secret base on Hoth. Instructed by Obi-Wan's spirit, Luke travels to the swamp world of Dagobah to find the Jedi Master Yoda in hiding. Luke's Jedi training is interrupted by Vader, who lures him into a trap by capturing Han and Leia at Cloud City, governed by Han's old friend Lando. During a fierce duel, Vader reveals that he is Luke's father.

Owing to financial concerns, Alan Dean Foster's sequel novel, Splinter of the Mind's Eye (1978), restricted the story to Luke, Leia, and Darth Vader. After the success of the original film, Lucas knew a sequel would be granted a reasonable budget, and hired Leigh Brackett to write it from Lucas's story. She finished a draft by early 1978, but died of cancer before Lucas was able to discuss changes he wanted her to make. His disappointment with the first draft may have made him consider new directions. Lucas penned the next draft, the first screenplay to feature episodic numbering for a Star Wars story. Lucas found this draft enjoyable to write, as opposed to the yearlong struggle writing the first film, and quickly wrote two more in April 1978. The plot twist of Vader being Luke's father had drastic effects on the series. After writing these drafts, Lucas fleshed out the backstory between Anakin, Obi-Wan, and the Emperor.

With this new backstory in place, Lucas decided that the series would be a trilogy of trilogies, designating the first sequel Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back in the next draft. Lawrence Kasdan, who had just completed writing Raiders of the Lost Ark, was hired to write the next drafts, and given additional input from director Irvin Kershner. Kasdan, Kershner, and producer Gary Kurtz saw the film as a more serious and adult story, and developed the sequel from the light adventure roots of the first film.

Return of the Jedi

About a year after Han's capture, Luke joins Leia and Lando in a rescue attempt to save him from the gangster Jabba the Hutt. Afterward, Luke returns to Dagobah to complete his Jedi training, only to find Yoda on his deathbed. In his last words, Yoda confirms the truth about Luke's father, and that Luke must confront Vader again in order to complete his training. As the Rebels lead an attack on the second Death Star, Luke engages Vader in a lightsaber duel as the Emperor watches; both Sith Lords intend to turn Luke to the dark side and take him as their apprentice.

Ford had originally not signed on to appear in a second sequel, but was convinced to return under the condition that his character would die. Kurtz wanted a bittersweet and nuanced ending outlined with Lucas that not only saw Han dead, but also depicted the Rebel forces in pieces, Leia struggling as a queen, and Luke walking off alone (as in a Spaghetti Western)—while Lucas wanted a happier ending, partly to encourage toy sales. This led to tension between the two, resulting in Kurtz leaving the production.

Themes
The Star Wars trilogy, unlike science fiction that features sleek and futuristic settings, portrays the galaxy as dirty and grimy in Lucas's concept of a "used universe". This was in part inspired by the period films of Akira Kurosawa, which like the original Star Wars trilogy, often begin in medias res without explaining a complete backstory.

Political science has been an important element of Star Wars since the franchise launched in 1977, focusing on a struggle between democracy and dictatorship. Darth Vader's design, initially inspired by Samurai armor, also incorporated a German military helmet. Lucas originally conceived of the Sith as a group that served the Emperor in the same way that the Schutzstaffel (SS) served Adolf Hitler; this was condensed into one character in the form of Vader. Lucas has also drawn parallels between Palpatine and historical dictators such as Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, and politicians like Richard Nixon. Stormtroopers borrow the name of World War I "shock" troopers, Imperial officers wear uniforms resembling those of German forces during World War II, and political and security officers resemble the black-clad SS down to the stylized silver death's head on their caps. World War II terms were used for names in the films, e.g. the planets Kessel (a term that refers to a group of encircled forces) and Hoth (after Hermann Hoth, a German general who served on the snow-laden Eastern Front). Shots of the commanders looking through AT-AT walker viewscreens in The Empire Strikes Back resemble tank interiors, and space battles in the original film were based on dogfights from both world wars.

Re-releases
The original Star Wars film was re-released theatrically in 1978, 1979, 1981 and 1982. All three films were released on various home video formats, including LaserDisc and VHS, until 1996. The trilogy was theatrically re-released in a 1997 "Special Edition", featuring various additions and changes, some of which were negatively received. These versions were released on VHS, replacing the original versions of the films as Lucas's 'original' vision, and were created in part to reinvigorate interest in the saga ahead of the prequel trilogy. The special edition of Star Wars made its broadcast premiere on February 5, 1998 on WB stations across the country (including New York and Los Angeles). Further changes to all three films were made for a DVD release in 2004, intended to bring the films into greater continuity with the prequels. These were re-released in 2006 with bonus discs of the original versions of the films (transferred from the 1993 LaserDiscs). In 2011, original and prequel trilogy box sets were released on Blu-ray, all including another round of alterations.

In the early 2010s, 3D releases were planned for the then-six-film franchise. However, after the financially disappointing 2012 3D release of The Phantom Menace, the rest were cancelled.

In 2019, Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm since the 2012 acquisition of the company by Disney, stated that she would not make alterations to Lucas's original trilogy, because "those will always remain his." While promoting The Rise of Skywalker, director J. J. Abrams expressed his hopes that the original versions of the trilogy would be officially released, but said that the powers that be had told him "that that's not necessarily possible". He further said that when making The Force Awakens, he had gotten into a disagreement about the dialogue between Vader and the Emperor in The Empire Strikes Back before realizing that different versions of the film were being referred to; he cited the fan-created "Despecialized Editions" of the films, while the other party had recalled the current official version.

It was initially unclear whether the first six films of the Star Wars franchise would be available on Disney+ upon the service's launch, as TBS held streaming rights through 2024 as part of its cable rights to the franchise. However, on April 11, 2019, it was announced that the films would be available at launch.

Reception

Box office

Critical response
The original Star Wars film was released in the summer of 1977 to critical acclaim and was a huge summer blockbuster, surpassing Jaws (1975), until 1982 when it was surpassed by E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. The following year, it won six out of its eleven nominations at the 50th Academy Awards. The success of the first film led to it becoming a pop cultural phenomenon spawning countless TV spin-offs, video games, films and a multi-merchandising empire. It was then proceeded by two instalments, The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983), which were also both very successful, with the former's climax, where Vader is revealed as Luke's father, becoming one of the most iconic plot twists in motion picture history.

The original trilogy was praised for its groundbreaking visual and sound effects, John Williams' music, writing, characters and concept. Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back are considered by many to be among the greatest movies ever made, while Return of the Jedi was well-received but not considered to be on par with its predecessors.

Accolades
In 1989, the Library of Congress selected the original Star Wars film for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry, as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." The Empire Strikes Back was selected in 2010, and Return of the Jedi was selected in 2021. 35 mm reels of the 1997 Special Editions were the versions initially presented for preservation because of the difficulty of transferring from the original prints, but it was later revealed that the Library possessed a copyright deposit print of the original theatrical releases. By 2015, Star Wars had been transferred to a 2K scan which can be viewed by appointment.

Academy Awards

Impact and legacy

Popular culture
The popularity of the films have generated numerous references in popular culture works from TV series such as The Simpsons, Family Guy, South Park and Robot Chicken and films such as Clerks, Free Guy and  Toy Story 2, and in the political lexicon, as in Ted Kennedy's nickname for Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative. The trilogy's artistic and technological achievements have been influential on other filmmakers, including Ridley Scott, James Cameron, David Fincher, Joss Whedon, Peter Jackson and Christopher Nolan, as well as sequel trilogy director J. J. Abrams.

The trilogy's impact has led to future careers of its stars including Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia), Harrison Ford (Han Solo), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Kenny Baker (R2-D2), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), James Earl Jones (Darth Vader), Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian) and Warwick Davis (Wicket W. Warrick).

Prequel and sequel trilogies

The success and large impact of the original Star Wars trilogy led to two more trilogies, both financially successful, with individual installments receiving mixed to positive reviews.

The prequel trilogy consists of The Phantom Menace (1999), Attack of the Clones (2002) and Revenge of the Sith (2005), all directed by George Lucas. The prequels feature Baker, Daniels, Oz, Mayhew and McDiarmid reprising their roles, alongside Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen, Liam Neeson and Samuel L. Jackson. After completing his six-film saga, Lucas stated that there would be no further sequels.

In 2012, Disney purchased Lucasfilm and produced a sequel trilogy. This consists of The Force Awakens (2015), The Last Jedi (2017), and The Rise of Skywalker (2019). Lucas had little direct involvement in the creation of these films. The new cast features Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Issac, Adam Driver, Domhnall Gleeson and Andy Serkis, with the main original cast reprising their roles.

Other media

Star Wars has also been spun off into films outside of the Skywalker Saga, numerous TV spin-offs like Star Wars: The Clone Wars, The Mandalorian and other upcoming live-action series for Disney+, as well as hundreds of video games, books, comics and theme park attractions at Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

Notes

References

Works cited

Trilogy
Trilogies
20th Century Fox films
Lucasfilm films
Film series introduced in 1977


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With so many counties using school bus cameras to generate revenue from drivers, many drivers want to know what the law is. We all know that if we are behind a school bus with the stop sign out, we are supposed to stop.
Are Those "ViolationInfo.Com" Tickets Just a Scam?


Less than one in three Australian adults aged 18-59 have a personal life insurance policy** and the rest of us are relying on insurance provided with our compulsory super, or nothing at all, a new survey by the Commonwealth Bank Group's insurance arm, CommInsure, has revealed.
The CommInsure Life Insurance Survey 2004* - conducted by Newspoll - has revealed that one third of Australian adults aged 18-59 have life insurance provided with their compulsory super policy only and a third (31 per cent) do not have any form of life insurance cover at all.
Of the two thirds of Australians with some life insurance, 80 per cent believe they are adequately or more than adequately covered, but CommInsure's Managing Director, Peter Beck, says it is likely they aren't.
"Many people think that their life insurance needs are covered under compulsory super but unfortunately very few insurance policies provided with compulsory superannuation provide adequate cover in the event of a serious accident or death," he said.
"The standard amount of insurance cover held by most people through their super fund is estimated to be between $100,000-$150,000 which is the equivalent to 2-3 times the average salary, when in fact the industry guideline is that most people need about 10 times their salary", Mr Beck said.
The CommInsure Survey reveals that women are much more likely to be under-insured when it comes to their lives; of the one third of Australian adults who reported to have no life insurance, 62 per cent are females compared with 38 per cent males.
For those who claim to have no personal life insurance**, one in two regard it as a waste of money and over half believe that they do not need it.
One in three Australians without personal life insurance** agree that a lack of understanding is a reason for not having it.
Another key factor, Mr Beck said, is that people don't like to think about their own demise or disablement.
"Australians need to be aware of the huge role that life insurance can play in helping provide for family and loved ones in the event of death or disability."
"Personal risk insurance can assist in paying the mortgage and running the household, it can help ensure that your loved ones are not burdened with debt, and it can help replace the income that you would have otherwise earned," Mr Beck said.
The survey found that many Australians are likely to start thinking about getting life insurance when they are triggered by a friend's illness or injury, or a major life stage like having a baby, getting married or buying their first home.
"Realistically anyone with dependants who rely on their income, or anyone with significant debts or assets should be looking to protect themselves or their loved ones with a personal life insurance policy, outside of their compulsory super plan," Mr Beck said.
People interested in finding out more about life insurance can either contact their financial adviser, drop into a branch of the Commonwealth Bank or, to arrange an appointment, visit the website at www.comminsure.com.au/life or phone 13 10 56 from 8am to 8pm, Monday to Friday.
* This Newspoll survey was conducted by telephone in September 2004. The survey was conducted nationally among 914 respondents aged 18-59.
** "Personal life insurance" is life insurance on the respondent's life, organised by the respondent or someone else on their behalf, which is not provided with the respondent's compulsory superannuation.
CommInsure is a registered business name of The Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society Limited ABN 12 004 021 809, a wholly owned but non-guaranteed subsidiary of Commonwealth Bank of Australia ABN 48 123 123 124.


Every UHP student is required to complete an Honors Capstone project. What is a Capstone? In architectural terms, it is the coping stone or copestone, the stone that finishes off a wall. In more general terms, it is a high point or crowning achievement. In academic (and hence UHP) terms, a Capstone is a culminating experience, a project that demonstrates a student has developed an integrated understanding of their major field of study and can apply the tools and modes of inquiry of that field, thereby generating new knowledge.
UHP students come from every college and hence represent a wide diversity of disciplines, each of which has its own unique modes of inquiry and means of presenting new knowledge. Therefore, it is impossible to define a single means for completing the UHP Capstone. To get started, students should review the overview and speak with their UHP advisor.
The prospectus is due by no later than the 20th day of class two semesters prior to a student's graduation date. May graduates should submit the prospectus by the 20th day of class in the Fall term. For December graduates, the prospectus must be submitted by the 20th day of class in the Spring term.
All additional pertinent materials can be found on the Forms section of the website.


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community, Valla wedding venue, Eagles Rest, Brides Choice Award, Best Farm and Country Venue, farm and country wedding venue
Bill and Shireen Penny never intended to open a wedding venue, let alone an award-winning one, but that's precisely what they've done with their recent win at the Brides Choice awards for the best farm and country style venue. "We had no idea; we were nominated by quite a few brides who loved our place. The first we heard of it was when they sent an email telling us we were finalists," Shireen said. "I thought it was a hoax; then they rang us. I was shocked, the next thing we knew we'd won, it means so much to us." The husband and wife team have been involved in marriages for the better part of 40 years now, and through their desire to help people, the seeds for what would become Eagles Rest were planted. "We have been marriage counsellors for nearly 40 years, and one day I was working out of a coffee shop, and the waitress asked me why so many people were coming to see me," Shireen said. "After I explained, she asked me to be the celebrant at her wedding, and true to her word when she was engaged, she came to us. When she saw our land, she asked to have the ceremony and reception here as well. "There was supposed to be bad weather that weekend, so Bill created a makeshift undercover area, it was only four poles and a roof back then, and it's all just evolved from there." With each passing year, Eagles Rest is growing, and the Pennys passion for helping couples on the happiest day of their lives has never been stronger. "We are a one-stop wedding shop; we provide the venue, the celebrant, I think that is one of the reasons why people enjoy the place. They get use of the property Friday until Sunday, it reduces the stress and pressure of the ceremony and pack up," Bill said "Our vision is strong marriages, rather than trying to help fix a marriage after years have gone by, we thought why not try and help a couple at the start of a marriage and lay a strong foundation." "Eagles Rest is not a traditional business; money is not our motivation; we believe in marriage, family and faith in God," Shireen said. "We are blessed, so we can be a blessing." The last few years the duo has overseen the marriage of many happy couples, and along the way they have picked up more than a few stories, one of which Shireen recalls with a particular fondness. "One day we were all set to start the ceremony, Bill was at the front in his suit ready to start, and then we heard screaming coming from the toilets," she said. "A snake had made its way into the toilets; the guests were from the city, and most had never seen a snake before. Bill immediately took off his jacket and dealt with it; they were amazed; everyone thought he was Crocodile Dundee." Eagles Rest will keep the title of Best Farm and Country Venue until next year; in the meantime, the husband and wife team are happy to continue with business as usual. "We could win it again; there is fierce competition with a lot of excellent venues around, we might never win it again, and that is fine, we are happy with what we are doing," Shireen said. "We have discovered that living for something else, and for someone else gives meaning and purpose to life," Bill said. Nambucca Heads offered grant funding by Investing in Rural Community Futures program Macksville High students took part in the Optus Digital Thumbprint workshop The Nambucca Valley on Instagram | photos
https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/crop/frm/stephen.katte/bbca57c4-e62a-4051-916e-92812839d7b0.JPG/r1105_965_3049_2063_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg
Eagles Rest takes out Brides Choice Award for Best Farm and Country Venue | Photos
Stephen Katte
Shireen and Bill Penny were shocked when they won their award. Photo: Stephen Katte
Bill and Shireen Penny never intended to open a wedding venue, let alone an award-winning one, but that's precisely what they've done with their recent win at the Brides Choice awards for the best farm and country style venue.
"We had no idea; we were nominated by quite a few brides who loved our place. The first we heard of it was when they sent an email telling us we were finalists," Shireen said.
"I thought it was a hoax; then they rang us. I was shocked, the next thing we knew we'd won, it means so much to us."
The husband and wife team have been involved in marriages for the better part of 40 years now, and through their desire to help people, the seeds for what would become Eagles Rest were planted.
"We have been marriage counsellors for nearly 40 years, and one day I was working out of a coffee shop, and the waitress asked me why so many people were coming to see me," Shireen said.
"After I explained, she asked me to be the celebrant at her wedding, and true to her word when she was engaged, she came to us. When she saw our land, she asked to have the ceremony and reception here as well.
"There was supposed to be bad weather that weekend, so Bill created a makeshift undercover area, it was only four poles and a roof back then, and it's all just evolved from there."
Valla wedding venue wins award | Photos
Eagles Rest has wells, a billabong, a secret garden and pristine views scattered around the property
The gazebo was built 12 years ago when a reltive wanted to be married on the property
The outdoor chapel, the cross is made from pieces of the old Coffs Harbour Jetty
The toilets where the infamous snake incident occurred
Formerly just four poles and a roof, the structure has been transformed into an excellent vintage looking building
Eagles Rest at Valla
Photos: Stephen Katte
With each passing year, Eagles Rest is growing, and the Pennys passion for helping couples on the happiest day of their lives has never been stronger.
"We are a one-stop wedding shop; we provide the venue, the celebrant, I think that is one of the reasons why people enjoy the place. They get use of the property Friday until Sunday, it reduces the stress and pressure of the ceremony and pack up," Bill said
"Our vision is strong marriages, rather than trying to help fix a marriage after years have gone by, we thought why not try and help a couple at the start of a marriage and lay a strong foundation."
"Eagles Rest is not a traditional business; money is not our motivation; we believe in marriage, family and faith in God," Shireen said.
"We are blessed, so we can be a blessing."
The last few years the duo has overseen the marriage of many happy couples, and along the way they have picked up more than a few stories, one of which Shireen recalls with a particular fondness.
"One day we were all set to start the ceremony, Bill was at the front in his suit ready to start, and then we heard screaming coming from the toilets," she said.
"A snake had made its way into the toilets; the guests were from the city, and most had never seen a snake before. Bill immediately took off his jacket and dealt with it; they were amazed; everyone thought he was Crocodile Dundee."
Eagles Rest will keep the title of Best Farm and Country Venue until next year; in the meantime, the husband and wife team are happy to continue with business as usual.
"We could win it again; there is fierce competition with a lot of excellent venues around, we might never win it again, and that is fine, we are happy with what we are doing," Shireen said.
"We have discovered that living for something else, and for someone else gives meaning and purpose to life," Bill said.
Nambucca Heads offered grant funding by Investing in Rural Community Futures program
Macksville High students took part in the Optus Digital Thumbprint workshop
The Nambucca Valley on Instagram | photos

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Schools Reopening | BHS Activist Clubs Plan Strong Return to Action
BHS Activist Clubs Plan Strong Return to Action
The cycle is familiar; every few months, everyone on social media will have a sudden passion for one issue or another and then forget about it soon after.
By Amelia Wiley Moreira Features August 20, 2021
Owen Blair
The cycle is familiar; every few months, everyone on social media will have a sudden passion for one issue or another and then forget about it soon after. Especially during the pandemic, people have engaged in several issues, starting in summer with Black Lives Matter, then Get Out the Vote with the election in November. More recently, the Stop AAPI Hate movement arose from a lot of racially-charged attacks against Asian Americans. Some of these movements have actually stuck, with many of them sparking new clubs and inspiring initiatives within old clubs at Berkeley High School (BHS). Now, with the arrival of the new school year, many of these clubs have big plans for activism in the wake of this pandemic.
The Women's Student Union (WSU) is one of the activist and advocacy groups that has grown and evolved during quarantine. "We describe our mission in the club as creating a safe space for students to be themselves and have allies," said Neva Zamil, a senior in Academic Choice (AC) and one of four leaders of the WSU. The Jacket spoke with her and co-leader Maize Cline, another AC senior.
In March of 2021, the WSU filed a lawsuit challenging the former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos's 2020 Title IX regulations. This was following the walkouts in early 2020 against rape culture at BHS. During the pandemic, the WSU "organized a Title IX training, where … some of our lawyers ran a training on how to most effectively use Title IX to your benefit as a student."
This year, the club will continue the lawsuit, along with short-term goals like beginning a self-defense class and making the tampon drive an annual event. "One of our huge goals for this year is reaching a wider audience. Obviously, we were limited by being virtual last year…we are hoping that with our projects this year we're going to be able to reach a larger portion of the school," Zamil said.
Anya Draves, a senior in AC, is the founder and co-president of the Zero Waste Club. She established it in 2020 along with Talulla Miller-Ross, also an AC senior. She said, "You see the wildfires raging in California and off the West Coast. That's just one example of the many ways we're feeling climate change, and it's really starting to affect our world and affect the possibility of our futures." The Zero Waste Club aims to combat this by bringing awareness to to the issue of plastic waste and its effect on the climate. "I decided to start a club at Berkeley High to educate students about ways they can make changes in their own lifestyle, to reduce the amount of waste that they produce," said Draves. This year, Draves hopes to gather a larger membership in order to create greater engagement with the project the club has set up. Draves explained, "We're creating a project called the meatless map, which is a guide to eating vegetarian and vegan for off-campus lunch, and we're trying to campaign for meatless Mondays in the cafeteria."
Another club with a mission is the Body Positivity Club, which functioned as a safe, inclusive space for students this past year, including Ava Murakami, a junior in AC who is now its co-president. "I chose body positivity because I had struggled a lot in the past with good body image … and I wanted to express that and talk about that in a place I felt like was safe," Murakami said. Even during the pandemic, she described how the club and its leaders created a tight-knit community. In the new school year, Murakami added, "I want to focus on building a really strong community between people … and then from there we [are] able to build and talk about our feelings."
The little post-its with quotes— "smile, you're pretty" in the mirror or "thick thighs save lives" in the hallways — are something Murakami wants the body positivity club to bring back in person. "I [also] want to continue doing a lot of the creative, expressive art projects," said Murakami. Draves, co-president of the Body Positivity Club, said, "[Body Positivity] is a social justice movement because [things like] diet culture are just another way of oppressing women and oppressing poor people and people of color… So, I would like to bring the social justice aspect of body positivity into the club."
Amid climate change, police brutality, sexual harassment, wealth inequality, and COVID-19, along with many other pressing issues, it can sometimes feel like the world is falling apart. These student clubs at BHS, however, are here to make a difference and inspire students to turn fear and uncertainty into action.


If holiday gatherings call for day drinking, grab thee a mimosa.
The holiday season means lots of brunches, lunches and daytime get-togethers. What goes well with all of these things? The ultimate daytime drinking bubbly: the mimosa. Where's the best place to get your mimosa fix in Houston? Have no fear; your trusty friends at Gastronaut have helped narrow down the best places in town to order one.
With two locations and a revamped Upstairs bar, Hungry's offers their mimosas four ways: traditional, strawberry, raspberry and grapefruit. You can get them by the glass, carafe or flight of all four.
One of the staples of The Creek Group, Onion Creek is another place that serves mimosas early and daily. With the mantra that most things are better served cold, Onion serves theirs frozen. Think of it as a slushy, boozy treat, and if it's too cold outside, have it inside by the fireplace.
This Montrose institution starts serving at 7 a.m. Yes, 7 a.m. Known for being heavy on the bubbly and light on the juice, La Mex, as it is affectionately called, is a great place to get a mimosa and some queso.
While this popular Rice Village bar is known for their frozen screwdrivers, they also serve a good mimosa made with fresh orange juice on the weekends.
With several locations popping up over town as of late, Dish Society also has more than just one way to have your mimosa. Choose from a selection of mixers, from fresh orange juice and grapefruit juice to local favorite prickly pear, as well as the "bromosa" served with Karbach Weisse Versa mixed with orange and lemon juice.
Though they just recently kicked off their brunch service, the bar at Better Luck Tomorrow takes their cocktails very seriously. Their mimosa, with juice made extra fluffy thanks to a special blender, is worth every sip.
Another Mexican restaurant staple on the list. Besides the traditional mimosa, Cuchara puts their stamp on this bubbly favorite by offering mixes with sparking hibiscus or tamarind.
Nestled over on Colquitt, this neighborhood charmer offers up their mimosas with Prosecco, sold by the glass and by the bottle plus a half carafe. Bonus tip: If you are with a group and can order the bottle plus carafe, be sure to also order from the "HOV" section of the menu and get the freakin' weekend tower.
Beer 3106 White Oak Dr.
$$$ American/New American 2048 Colquitt St.


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Katie Melua >
Katie Melua's Delight Over Engagement
By WENN on 18 January 2012
Follow Katie Melua
Katie Melua James Toseland
Picture: Katie Melua Sports Personality of the Year - Arrivals Manchester, England - 22.12.11
Singer Katie Melua is delighted she's set to wed her sports star boyfriend James Toseland after suffering a breakdown and a five-month battle with depression.
The Closest Thing To Crazy hitmaker will marry champion motorcycle racer Toseland later this year (12) after meeting him on tour last April (11).
The normally-private star went public with her romance in July (11), and they got engaged late last year (11). It followed a turbulent few months for Melua, who axed a string of concerts in 2010 after having "a bit of a breakdown".
A spokeswoman for the singer confirmed the happy news on Wednesday (18Jan12), telling WENN, "Yes, they are engaged."
A source adds, "Katie has had a really c**p time so meeting James and getting engaged has put a big smile on her face. She got ill in September 2010 and then was off work for five months, and the first thing she did when she was better was to go on tour. It was on that tour that she met James. They have been seen out at quite a lot of red carpet events and she looks really happy."
Melua and Toseland first stepped out as an engaged couple on the red carpet at the Bbc Sports Personality of the Year event in Manchester, England in December (11) - but onlookers failed to spot the singer was wearing a sparkling band on her ring finger.
Katie Melua regrets naive love songs
Katie Melua's music dream
Katie Melua Had Spider Living In Her Ear
Katie Melua finds spider living in her ear
Katie Melua Mugged In London
Stars Line-up For Queen's Coronation Concerts
Katie Melua Postpones Back-to-back French Shows
Katie Melua Fuming Over Library Closures
Katie Melua's Husband Records Debut Album
Katie Melua Marries
Katie Melua Gifted With Special Wedding Track By Songwriter Pal
Katie Melua Weds
Katie Melua To Marry This Weekend
Katie Melua Used To Be Scared Of Marriage
Musician Index: 0 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z


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Pronephrium is a genus of ferns in the family Thelypteridaceae in the family Thelypteridaceae, subfamily Thelypteridoideae, in the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 (PPG I). Other sources sink Pronephrium into a very broadly defined genus Thelypteris. Some species were split off into the genera Abacopteris, Grypothrix and Menisciopsis in 2021 as a result of a phylogenetic study of the family Thelypteridaceae.

The genus was first described in 1851 by Carl Borivoj Presl.

Species
, the Checklist of Ferns and Lycophytes of the World accepted the following species and hybrids:

Pronephrium affine (Blume) C.Presl
Pronephrium amboinense (Willd.) Holttum
Pronephrium amphitrichum Holttum
Pronephrium aoristisorum (Harr.) S.E.Fawc. & A.R.Sm.
Pronephrium aquatiloides (Copel.) Holttum
Pronephrium borneense (Hook.) Holttum
Pronephrium camarinense (Holttum) S.E.Fawc. & A.R.Sm.
Pronephrium celebicum (Baker) Holttum
Pronephrium clemensiae (Copel.) Holttum
Pronephrium euryphyllum (Rosenst.) Holttum
Pronephrium exsculptum (Baker) Holttum
Pronephrium fidelei Rakotondr.
Pronephrium firmulum (Baker) Holttum
Pronephrium giluwense Holttum
Pronephrium granulosum (C.Presl) Holttum
Pronephrium hewittii (Copel.) Holttum
Pronephrium hosei (Baker) Holttum
Pronephrium inaequilobatum (Holttum) S.E.Fawc. & A.R.Sm.
Pronephrium kjellbergii Holttum
Pronephrium lineatum (Blume) C.Presl
Pronephrium manuselense M.Kato
Pronephrium marojejyensis Rakotondr.
Pronephrium menisciicarpon (Blume) Holttum
Pronephrium merrillii (Christ) Holttum
Pronephrium millarae Holttum
Pronephrium minahassae Holttum
Pronephrium moniliforme (Tagawa & K.Iwats.) Holttum
Pronephrium murkelense (M.Kato) S.E.Fawc. & A.R.Sm.
Pronephrium nervosum (Fee) S.E.Fawc. & A.R.Sm.
Pronephrium palauense (Hosok.) Holttum
Pronephrium peltatum (Alderw.) Holttum
Pronephrium peramalense Holttum
Pronephrium philippinum (C.Presl) S.E.Fawc. & A.R.Sm.
Pronephrium rhombeum (Christ) Holttum
Pronephrium samarense (Copel.) Holttum
Pronephrium simillimum (C.Chr.) Holttum
Pronephrium solsonicum Holttum
Pronephrium thysanoides Holttum
Pronephrium trachyphyllum Holttum
Pronephrium xiphioides (Christ) Holttum

Hybrids
Pronephrium × interruptum Holttum
Pronephrium × liukiuense (Christ) Nakaike
Pronephrium × occultum (C.Hope) comb.ined.

References

Thelypteridaceae
Fern genera
Taxa described in 1851
Taxa named by Carl Borivoj Presl

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Delicious meat joint you will choose again and again. So versatile, you can pot roast it or cook slowly for the most tender meat or cut into escalopes for braising.
Allow 30 minutes for the meat to come to room temperature.
Preheat oven to 250ºC/ fan 230ºC/ gas 9.
Place joint in a roasting tray. Season with salt and pepper.
Once your joint is cooked to your liking, remove from the oven.
Place on a board or platter, cover loosely with foil and leave to rest for 20 minutes.
Easy Carving: After resting, slice across the grain and serve on warm plates.


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Tony Williams Dance Center
Urban Nutcracker
Past Performances:
Souvenir: a new ballet with works from the past and present to music from the American songbook and beyond.
October 26-28, 2018 Tony Williams' new venture, City Ballet of Boston launches their inaugural season at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA with a new show entitled: Souvenir. This presents a selection of songs from the American songbook (and beyond). Music by deBussy, Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Verdi, Chopin, Strauss, Schubert and Brahms accompany dances from the past and present.
City Ballet of Boston will present Birthday Variations from the Gerald Arpino Foundation (set by Nicole Duffy Robertson); Cuban Overture, choreographed by Gianni di Marco; selections from Isadora Duncan set by Ellen O'Reily-Jonas; and two works by Tony Williams. Mr. Williams will present his full ballet, Ephemera, as a whole for the first time, in addition to a new work "Autumn Leaves."
Tickets are available at: https://www.bostontheatrescene.com/season/souvenir-a-new-ballet/
Show times:
10/26 Friday at 8pm
10/27 Saturday at 2pm and 8pm
10/28 Sunday at 2pm
Our show will be held at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA in Boston's historic South End, 527 Tremont Street, Boston, MA 02116.
Isadora Duncan: Isadora Duncan was an American dancer whose teaching and performances helped free ballet from its conservative restrictions and presaged the development of modern expressive dance. Born in 1877, she was among the first to raise interpretive dance to the status of creative art. These dances were choreographed and performed by Isadora Duncan and her disciples. Her legacy has been preserved and maintained to the present day. " The dancer's body is simply the luminous manifestation of the soul" – Isadora Duncan
"A Nutcracker…with real soul"
Tony Williams' Urban Nutcracker, Boston's original holiday classic, is back for its 18th season and packed with more magic for the whole family.
Urban Nutcracker puts a modern spin on the 19th Century fairy tale and transports the audience to an enchanted world not unlike their own. Say hello to Clarice & co…you've entered the world of the Urban Nutcracker. Strains of Duke Ellington dovetails with the buzz of neon driven by the heartbeat of Tchaikovsky. You could say it is a fusion of modern, multicultural and classical dance…but it's more! It's an organic interpretation brought about by a unifying of cultures. This is how art succeeds. This is why classic ballet, urban tap, hip hop, swing, flamenco, step and jazz blend into something special.
Each year the Urban Nutcracker runs at the Boch Center Shubert Theatre
Life: In Color
A 360-degree dance extravaganza featuring jazz and rock-n-roll music from the 1960s to today told through a plethora of dance styles. A touching human story surfaces as emotion is explored through color–literal and metaphorical– while your senses are stimulated throughout the nightclub-esque venue. The sounds of former eras bring us into our current political and social climate, confronting us with reflections of the past through choreography of today. A thought-provoking immersive-dance experience for all ages is compunded with a message of hope and determination for tomorrow's Life: In Color. Oberon Theater, Cambridge MA, 2017.
City Ballet of Boston - 2018


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Port St Lucie: (772) 879-1000
Contact Us Fort Pierce: (772) 461-5211 Port St Lucie: (772) 879-1000
Winfield Scott Ingersoll, II
Winfield Scott Ingersoll, II, 64, died November 14, 2021 in Fort Pierce, Florida. Mr. Ingersoll was born in Lewiston, Maine and resided in Fort Pierce, Florida. He was an appliance repairman. Survivors include his wife, Maria; daughters, Christina, Angela and Alicia; son, Winfield, III; mother, Arlene.
Winfield Scott Ingersoll, II, 64, died November 14, 2021 in Fort Pierce, Florida. Mr. Ingersoll was born in Lewiston, Maine and resided in Fort Pierce, Florida. He was an appliance repairman. Survivors include his wife, Maria; daughters,... View Obituary & Service Information
The family of Winfield Scott Ingersoll, II created this Life Tributes page to make it easy to share your memories.
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Don't Focus On Weight Loss. Do Focus On a Healthy Lifestyle, Says New Research.
There's no question that epidemic numbers of Americans, both children and adults, are suffering from obesity and various metabolic/cardiovascular health issues. What is questionable is how to attack the problem, especially the health challenges.
Losing weight happens slowly, but getting healthy can happen very, very quickly, asserts Dr. James Barnard, UCLA researcher.
Many assert that obesity causes health disorders, including high cholesterol and high triglycerides, and that kids and adults must shed the excess weight to get rid of them.
But in new groundbreaking research, Drs. Christian Roberts, James Barnard, and fellow scientists at UCLA found that many health abnormalities existed in both overweight/obese and normal-weight American children.1 That's the bad news.
The good news is that both groups responded very favorably to a healthy lifestyle, namely, the diet and exercise guidelines of the Pritikin Program, and in just two week's time, long before the obese children would have had the opportunity to shed much weight.
Triglyceride fat levels, for example, fell an average 38% among the obese children and 41% among the normal-weight kids. LDL (bad) cholesterol plummeted 25% in the obese children and 29% in the normal-weight youth.
The implications of this study are profound. First, it suggests that the cause of metabolic and other health abnormalities is not obesity, per se. Rather, the cause is poor lifestyle, which in some children can also lead to obesity.
Secondly, the research shows that children who are overweight/obese need not wait the months or years it takes to shed lots of weight in order to see lots of improvement in health. In their first couple of weeks living Pritikin-style, their weight had fallen on average 8 pounds, from 207 to 199 pounds; yes, they were still overweight/obese. But that hadn't stopped spectacular health results from happening.
"In their first two weeks of following Pritikin's healthy lifestyle, the men hadn't had a chance to drop a lot of weight, but the health benefits they achieved were tremendous, and included dramatically lower levels of cholesterol, triglycerides, blood sugar, insulin, blood pressure, and inflammatory factors, and reversal of the metabolic syndrome, a pre-diabetic condition," states senior investigator Dr. James Barnard.
Finally, the newly published research makes clear that overweight/obese children are not the only ones at risk of metabolic/cardiovascular disorders.
"Normal-weight children in America are also vulnerable and could also greatly benefit from learning and launching a healthy lifestyle like Pritikin," states co-author and UCLA scientist Christian Roberts, PhD.
1 Am J Physiol – Regul Integr Comp Physiol, 2013; 305: R552.
2 J Applied Physiol; 2006; 100: 1657.


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Un-Cross Talk World Premiere Indiegogo Campaign. Click here to learn more!
Doug Boynton of "Girl Singers" Reviews Jacqui Sutton's "Billie & Dolly"
Jacqui Sutton calls it "Frontier Jazz," a melding of two musical styles, blues and bluegrass. It's a jumble of logical instruments for the musical style – near as I can tell, it means a cello instead of a fiddle for bluegrass, an accordion instead of a harmonica for blues. Like that. Lush orchestration leads into a banjo for "God Bless The Child," banjo into a jazz trumpet on the bluegrass "Those Memories Of You," made memorable, but not exactly famous on the Dolly-Linda-Emmylou "Trio" bluegrass album 20 years ago. The banjo is one of the constants through this disc – and Ms. Sutton glides seamlessly from blues to bluegrass in her own singing – she calls it "vocal honesty," this ability to meld the different musical styles in her own performance. I'd call the ability to do that quite a talent. Ms. Sutton has put some serious thought into the interpretation of these lyrics. She speaks in the liner notes about her own musical journey, including "Turning 50 and starting a garage band." Whatever the journey, Ms. Sutton – it was worth it. Good stuff. Expect unexpected things with this one. Extra points for the great work on the album art. This one's got nice "curb appeal." Houston is fortunate to have Ms. Sutton among its community of artists, and I'll be watching for what's next. Very highly recommended.
PermalinkReviews
C. Michael Bailey of "All About Jazz" Reviews "Billie & Dolly"
Heaven knows that contemporary jazz vocals could use a shot of sense-of-humor. The scene hosts a legion of earnest singers paying tribute to their idols, firebrands intent on extending the already stretched-taut realms of scat and vocalese, and soccer moms and dads fulfilling a vanity ambition—all so serious. Sense of humor is in order, but not just any sense of humor will do; it has to be a smart sense of humor, not cheeky or rude, only clever and coy, wafting sophistication and panache.
Appearing just in time is one Jacqui Sutton, late of Houston, Texas by way of Orlando, Rochester, San Francisco, Portland and New York, claiming that …"Turning 50 and starting a garage band is not the usual vocalist's narrative. But that's what happened with me. It's not just any band, but an orchestra: what I call the Frontier Jazz Orchestra: a stylistic mash-up of jazz, bluegrass and orchestral/chamber music." That is a very promising beginning.
Sutton extends this genre mash-up into the core of her release Billie & Dolly, a tribute to singers Billie Holiday and Dolly Parton. Now, what was that about "earnest singers paying tribute to their idols?" Never mind and just go with it, the two singers make such strange musical bedfellows that their pairing has to meet the fun and smart definition. And in a creative way, what Sutton is trying to do makes perfect sense. She is trying to capture what she terms "frontier jazz"—music as it spreads West, incorporating Mississippi and Aaron Copland, Texas and Virgil Thompson, Louisiana and William Grant Still.
Sutton employs a middle-sized band, an octet, as her Frontier Orchestra, nominally lead by multi- instrumentalist/arranger Henry Darragh, who also provides piano and trombone support in addition to his arranging duties. Darragh made his own splash with his uniformly fine Tell Her For Me (Self Produced, 2010). The presence of cellist Max Dyer, guitarist/six-string banjo player Paul Chester and flautist Aralee Dorough lend the orchestra its frontier flavor. Sutton favors copious amounts of Chester's banjo, which he plays and solos like a guitar. The effect is digital sepia, old fashioned with a modern edge, which sharpens with Darragh playing the Fender Rhodes (hear the effervescent "Risk").
The most overt homages paid to the two singers are Sutton's Tombstone setting of "God Bless the Child" (sporting a Darragh-composed brass chorale) and a definitive reading of Parton's "Endless Stream of Tears" accented by some virtuoso banjo, fiddle and accordion playing. Sutton tends to all corners of her 40 acres of music. "Keeper of Your Love/Sweep Me Off My Feet" could have been an out take from the musical Oklahoma! (1943) and shows off Sutton's stage experience supported by duet partner Lyndon Hughes.
"The Moon is Made of Gold" (composed by Rickie Lee Jones' father, Richard Loris Jones) is one of the several disc high points, featuring bassist Anthony Sapp and trumpeter Dennis Dotson. Sapp's solo introduction is solid and commanding; Dodson's sounds like Louis Armstrong sparring with Darragh's Jack Teagarden trombone, explosive and inventive, except with softened edges, like Armstrong and Teagarden
shared just enough cough syrup before playing. Chester fully quotes "The Sunny Side of the Street" in his banjo solo, before Sutton finishes off the torch with command.
Sutton and her orchestra come from all directions at once. "The Mississippi Song" provides more Broadway by way of El Paso. "My Man's Gone Now" is the Gershwins in the warm Gulf climes. "Those Memories of You" is Bill Monroe by way of Clifton Chenier. Sutton's "Frontier" sound achieves its full maturity in Parton's "Endless Stream of Tears." This is music that has no genre, belonging to all. It is uniquely American and could not have been created anywhere else.
The music on Billie & Dolly arrives fully formed and realized, sounding like the destination Cassandra Wilson has been evolving toward for the past 20 years: a bona fide, organic, earthy, fecund sound tempered with grace and good taste. Sutton's confidence and certainty are almost palpable in every selection from this beautiful and unusual recital. Had Bessie Smith met Bob Wills and recorded with him and the Texas Playboys one dusty late Texas autumn day, the results might have sounded a lot like Jacqui Sutton and her Frontier Orchestra.
Tracks: God Bless the Child; Black Hole; Lazy Afternoon; Keeper of Your Love; Those Memories of You; My Man's Gone Now; Risk; The Moon is Made of Gold; Mississippi Song; Sleepin' Bee; Endless Stream of Tears.
Passing Notes: Listener's Notes – From the CD Stack
Jacqui Sutton appears as the face of what she calls "frontier jazz," a blend of jazz and country styles that is signified well in the title of her CD, Billie and Dolly. A mix of the vocal sensibilities of Holiday and Parton, Sutton provides a charismatic focus for a group that manages to create a distinctive sound by blending banjo, accordion, flute, cello, and a variety of percussion with bass, piano, and trumpet. Full of new textures and musical surprises, Billie and Dolly offers a enjoyable and moving set of songs. Check out Sutton and company's reworking of "Those Memories of You" for a taste of their cooking.
Jazz Times Review of Jacqui Sutton – "Billie & Dolly"
Jacqui Sutton
Billie & Dolly
Jazz fusion, which is predominantly the domain of men, is crafted from a fusion of rock guitar and jazz, but vocalist Jacqui Sutton interprets jazz fusion with a woman's touch creating a coalescence of cabaret jazz with shades of country and bluegrass, and she makes the mixture sparkle. Her new album Billie & Dolly from Toy Blue Typewriter Productions puts her own stamp on songs written by soul songstress Billie Holiday and bluebell crooner Dolly Parton. Demonstrating the ability to bridge blues, soul, funk, R&B, Zydeco-tinged bluegrass, and prairieland country, Sutton creates a new kind of Americana music, one that expands the frontiers and invites listeners to appreciate musical expressions that have been kept apart since their inception.
The comfy rhythmic swells of "God Bless The Child" and "Black Hole" have country overtones with swing- inspired nuances, and the bluesy quills of "Lazy Afternoon" are garnished in exotic chimes as the silky texture of the strings are contoured by the gentle flutter of the banjo performed by Paul Chester and the placid riffs of the flute played by Aralee Dorough. The billowy knolls of the bass by Anthony Sapp in "Keeper of Your Love" is blanketed in middle eastern accents and breathy atmospherics crafted by the flute and strings.
The jovial twits of the horns and the piping of bop-laced organ patterns penned by Henry Darraph in "Those Memories of You" have a New Orleans style swagger coupling a funky rhythm with country traits. The floating sensations adorning "My Man's Gone Now" are woven with elegantly braided piano keys as Sutton's vocals move up and down the scale with the finesse of an emotive singer. The bass solo opening "The Moon Is Made of Gold" has a torchlight sheen as Sutton's vocal slides meld into the tranquilizing ambience. The flouncy pickings of the banjo in "Mississippi Song" have a catchy rhythm and the drowsy flickers of "A Sleepin' Bee" caress the senses.
Produced by Sutton, Billie & Dolly is a pleasing blend of uptown jazz, southern blues, prairieland country, orchestral rivulets, and bluegrass vibrations. The one denominator threading these elements is that they all have roots in America's heartland, which is where Billie Holiday and Dolly Parton's music was fashioned from and spoke of to audiences. Sutton combines these elements with the instincts of a sage and the affection of a woman who has this music in her blood. Her interpretation of jazz fusion is unlike her predecessors as she handles it with a woman's touch.
Personnel: Jacqui Sutton – vocals, Henry Darragh – piano/keyboards/trombone, Paul Chester – 6 string banjo, Max Dyer – cello, Anthony Sapp – bass, Ilya Janos – percussion, Dennis Dotson – trumpet/flugelhorn, Aralee Dorough – flute; Guests: Lyndon Hughes – background vocals, Randy Dunn – Theremin, and Allen Huff – accordion
Tracks: God Bless The Child, Black Hole, Lazy Afternoon, Keeper of Your Love, Those Memories of You, My Man's Gone Now, Risk, The Moon Is Made of Gold, Mississippi Song, A Sleepin' Bee, Endless Stream of Tears
"Billie & Dolly" Reviewed by "All Vocals"
More than just a CD, Billie & Dolly is like listening to a play, with each cut having its own story.
PermalinkNews, Reviews
"Billie & Dolly" is Reviewed by Harriet Goldsmith of "All Vocals"
What do Billie Holiday and Dolly Parton have to do with each other? Well, in short, it is the brainchild concept of debut vocalist Jacqui Sutton, and she brands her unique sound as Frontier Jazz and calls herself a Jazzgrass Chic. Jazz and bluegrass melding is not a new concept completely, it has been performed instrumentally by Béla Fleck, but what Sutton offers is the next step, a vocal reading that you can hear the joy in her voice coming through each cut.
Sutton employed composer Henry Darragh to assist
her with putting her ideas down on paper. The two have cooked up a jambalaya of tasty sounds and textures. Even though the CD is named Billie&
Dolly the two namesakes only bookend the release, Billie's "God Bless the Child" is cut #1 and Parton's "Endless Stream of Tears" closes out the journey. In between the bookends are songs from the American Songbook, from the world of musical theater, and a science song written for children.
"Black Hole" comes from a collection of songs about the science of astronomy by contemporary composer David Haines, Sutton gives it a swampy feel supported by horn lines and the swank of banjo.
"Risk" from bluegrass man F.M. Turner a cut featured on his album Igniter is re‐treated by Sutton at a slower pace with elements of R&B grooves splashed across the canvas to create a new work of art. The songs from composer Danny Ashkenasi are included in this embodiment of work," Keeper of Your Love", " Sweep Me Off My Feet" and from the play, beTwixt, beTween & beTWAIN "Mississippi Song" is included from the Ashkenasi catalog and given a swampy torch song feel, with the twang of the banjo. Sutton soars vocally as sounds of plucking and high register delights fill this delicate cut, joined by the cello and hints of horns dancing in the background, the listener is transported to the banks of folklore.
More than just a CD, Billie & Dolly is like listening to a play, with each cut having its own story. I could easily see the theme set to a play, almost a story of America.
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The lawyers at Breakstone, White & Gluck specialize in personal injury, premises liability and product liability cases. We have over 85 years combined experience representing injured clients in Massachusetts, including victims of pool accidents. If you have been injured, it is important to learn your rights. For a free legal consultation, contact us at 800-379-1244, 617-723-7676 or use our contact form.


Scary Maze 5 is the fifth installment which has become a popular game and there are thousands of players who are playing it regularly. If you have a very week heart please, do not click here. The game has very scary theme and it will give you lots of funny time.
Scary Maze 5 is very addicting game which is such a game that will make your time really very enjoyable. In this new installment the maze is more complex so you will face more problems here. The entire game is very thrilling and when people play it they really enjoy their time. You must move the mouse point properly so that you can reach to the destination properly. It is not an easy task because you will see that in some places the maze is so much complex and small that you will face lots of problems. Just start to play the game and you will enjoy your time a lot.
Join the fun filled adventure with uphill rush games series as created by Agame. It is a collection that gives you more games of single player flush traversing through steep hilled landscape with obstacles to be overcome. In the same way they consist of cups to be unlocked to complete the maps in them. The game has diverse vehicles to navigate with and great bonus to be worn.
Uphill rush 1 is a single player flash consisting of four tracks to be completed through unlocking ten cups using different vehicles. Rush 2 gets your speed and accuracy proved as you have to complete the tracks without crashing as you collect coins in the entire levels. In the rush 3 you have 6 maps to complete while sustaining lives riding on cows and others. Rush 4 has 6maps with three rounds to complete. Rush 5 has 6maps with cups to unlock while collecting coins, rush 6, 7, and 10 gives you a right to brag as you compete with friends.
Monkey Go Happy Mini Monkeys 4 is an online puzzle game. The game concept is very funny because there are some mini monkeys and you have to find them. There are 15 mini monkeys and you have to find them all to finish it!
Monkey Go Happy Mini Monkeys 4 is really very enjoyable game to play. The concept of the game is very good and while playing it you can get lots of fun. In this game you have to solve all the puzzles so that you can easily win the game. After solving each of the puzzles you will see a mini monkey and you have to take the monkey to the basket. It is very amazing game and by playing this game you can really enjoy your time a lot. The view of the game is very impressive and you will like it a lot. Just start playing the game right now and get the fun you want.


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Home / Physics / Physicists develop method to produce antimatter from light
Physicists develop method to produce antimatter from light
on Friday, July 30, 2021 in Physics
In the depths of space, there are celestial bodies where extreme conditions prevail: Rapidly rotating neutron stars generate super-strong magnetic fields. And black holes, with their enormous gravitational pull, can cause huge, energetic jets of matter to shoot out into space. An international physics team with the participation of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) has now proposed a new concept that could allow some of these extreme processes to be studied in the laboratory in the future: A special setup of two high-intensity laser beams could create conditions similar to those found near neutron stars. In the discovered process, an antimatter jet is generated and accelerated very efficiently. The experts present their concept in the journal Communications Physics.
The basis of the new concept is a tiny block of plastic, crisscrossed by micrometer-fine channels. It acts as a target for two lasers. These simultaneously fire ultra-strong pulses at the block, one from the right, the other from the left. "When the laser pulses penetrate the sample, each of them accelerates a cloud of extremely fast electrons," explains HZDR physicist Toma Toncian. "These two electron clouds then race toward each other with full force, interacting with the laser propagating in the opposite direction." The following collision is so violent that it produces an extremely large number of gamma quanta -- light particles with an energy even higher than that of X-rays.
The swarm of gamma quanta is so dense that the light particles inevitably collide with each other. And then something crazy happens: According to Einstein's famous formula E=mc2, light energy can transform into matter. In this case, mainly electron-positron pairs should be created. Positrons are the antiparticles of electrons. What makes this process special is that "very strong magnetic fields accompany it," describes project leader Alexey Arefiev, a physicist at the University of California at San Diego. "These magnetic fields can focus the positrons into a beam and accelerate them strongly." In numbers: Over a distance of just 50 micrometers, the particles should reach an energy of one gigaelectronvolt (GeV) -- a size that usually requires a full-grown particle accelerator.
Successful computer simulation
To see whether the unusual idea could work, the team tested it in an elaborate computer simulation. The results are encouraging; in principle, the concept should be feasible. "I was surprised that the positrons that were created in the end were formed into a high-energy and bundled beam in the simulation," Arefiev says happily. What's more, the new method should be much more efficient than previous ideas, in which only a single laser pulse is fired at an individual target: According to the simulation, the "laser double strike" should be able to generate up to 100,000 times more positrons than the single-treatment concept.
"Also, in our case, the lasers would not have to be quite as powerful as in other concepts," Toncian explains. "This would probably make the idea easier to put into practice." However, there are only few places in the world where the method could be implemented. The most suitable would be ELI-NP (Extreme Light Infrastructure Nuclear Physics), a unique laser facility in Romania, largely funded by the European Union. It has two ultra-powerful lasers that can fire simultaneously at a target -- the basic requirement for the new method.
First tests in Hamburg
Essential preliminary tests, however, could take place in Hamburg beforehand: The European XFEL, the most powerful X-ray laser in the world, is located there. The HZDR plays a major role in this large-scale facility: It leads a user consortium called HIBEF, which has been targeting matter in extreme states for some time. "At HIBEF, colleagues from HZDR, together with the Helmholtz Institute in Jena, are developing a platform that can be used to experimentally test whether the magnetic fields actually form as our simulations predict," explains Toma Toncian. "This should be easy to analyze with the powerful X-ray flashes of the European XFEL."
For astrophysics as well as nuclear physics, the new technique could be exceedingly useful. After all, some extreme processes in space are also likely to produce vast quantities of gamma quanta, which then quickly materialize again into high-energy pairs. "Such processes are likely to take place, among others, in the magnetosphere of pulsars, i.e. of rapidly rotating neutron stars," says Alexey Arefiev. "With our new concept, such phenomena could be simulated in the laboratory, at least to some extent, which would then allow us to understand them better."
Yutong He, Thomas G. Blackburn, Toma Toncian, Alexey V. Arefiev. Dominance of γ-γ electron-positron pair creation in a plasma driven by high-intensity lasers. Communications Physics, 2021; 4 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s42005-021-00636-x


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El Samán de Apure est la capitale de la paroisse civile de Mucuritas de la municipalité d'Achaguas dans l'État d'Apure au Venezuela.

Notes et références

Localité dans l'État d'Apure


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Mekoryuk es una ciudad ubicada en el Área censal de Bethel en el estado estadounidense de Alaska. En el Censo de 2010 tenía una población de 191 habitantes y una densidad poblacional de 11,57 personas por km².

Geografía
Mekoryuk se encuentra en las coordenadas . Según la Oficina del Censo de los Estados Unidos, Mekoryuk tiene una superficie total de 16.5 km², de la cual 16.49 km² corresponden a tierra firme y (0.08%) 0.01 km² es agua.

Demografía
Según el censo de 2010, había 191 personas residiendo en Mekoryuk. La densidad de población era de 11,57 hab./km². De los 191 habitantes, Mekoryuk estaba compuesto por el 3.14% blancos, el 0% eran afroamericanos, el 93.19% eran amerindios, el 0% eran asiáticos, el 0% eran isleños del Pacífico, el 0.52% eran de otras razas y el 3.66% pertenecían a dos o más razas. Del total de la población el 0% eran hispanos o latinos de cualquier raza.

Localidades adyacentes
El siguiente diagrama muestra a las localidades más próximas a Mekoryuk.

Referencias

Enlaces externos

Ciudades de Alaska
Localidades del Área censal de Bethel


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"Dweller on the Threshold" is a song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison and first released on his 1982 album, Beautiful Vision. It was released as a single on the B-Side in 1982 with the instrumental "Scandinavia" as the "A" tune. Another release in 1984 had a live version of "Dweller on the Threshold" as the A-Side.

Recording and composition
The song was recorded for the album on the Beautiful Visions sessions in summer 1981 at the Record Plant Studios in Sausalito, California.

The album sleeve states that the lyrics on this song and part of "Aryan Mist" were inspired by the 1950 publication, Glamour —A World Problem by Alice Bailey and the Tibetan master, Djwal Khul, as described in Van Morrison's liner notes for the album. According to the teachings of Bailey, there are a series of what she calls "glamours" which are mental illusions creating a fog that veils the spiritual wanderer from seeing the world as it truly is. He becomes illuminated as a "dweller on the threshold" when the "Angel of Presence" purifies the soul with light. This song was co-written with Morrison's engineer Hugh Murphy.

Other releases
A live version of this song was performed on the Live at the Grand Opera House Belfast album recorded when Morrison appeared in concert on 11 and 12 March in 1983. "Dweller on the Threshold" was one of the hit songs that was featured on Morrison's first ever "Best of" albums, The Best of Van Morrison that was released by Polydor in 1990. It is one of the songs remastered and included on Morrison's third compilation album for 2007, Still on Top - The Greatest Hits.  It is featured on both the two disc set released in the UK on 22 October 2007, and also is one of the twenty-one hits on the single disc released on 6 November 2007, in the US and Canada.

Personnel
Van Morrison –  vocals
Tom Donlinger – drums
Pee Wee Ellis – tenor saxophone
Chris Hayes – guitar
David Hayes – bass guitar
Mark Isham – trumpet
Pauline Lozano – backing vocals
Chris Michie – guitar
Annie Stocking – backing vocals
Bianca Thornton – backing vocals

Notes

References
Nevill Drury (1985). Music for Inner Space, Prism Press
Heylin, Clinton (2003), Can You Feel the Silence? Van Morrison: A New Biography, London: Viking,
Rogan, Johnny (2006). Van Morrison: No Surrender, London:Vintage Books

1982 songs
Van Morrison songs
Songs written by Van Morrison
Song recordings produced by Van Morrison


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Karl Guthe Jansky (Norman (Oklahoma), 22 oktober 1905 – Red Bank (New Jersey), 14 februari 1950) was een Amerikaans natuurkundige.

Jansky werd geboren in Norman (Oklahoma). Hij studeerde aan de universiteit van Wisconsin en ging na zijn studie werken voor Bell Labs in New Jersey.

In zijn werk, dat gericht was op het gebruik van de kortegolfband voor radiocommunicatie, ontdekte hij twee bronnen van ruis in deze radioverbindingen: directe invloed van onweersbuien in de omgeving en onweersbuien veraf waarvan het signaal door de ionosfeer wordt weerkaatst.

Op 26-jarige leeftijd deed Jansky de ontdekking van zijn leven: een derde vorm van ruis, die wordt uitgezonden door het centrum van het melkwegstelsel. Met deze ontdekking, dat hemellichamen naast licht ook radiostraling uitzenden, stond hij samen met Grote Reber aan de wieg van de radioastronomie. Het belang daarvan werd echter pas veel later ingezien.

Om Jansky te eren is de astronomische eenheid van radiofluxdichtheid naar hem vernoemd (jansky, afgekort tot Jy). In 2012 werd de Very Large Array hernoemd tot Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array.

Externe link
My Brother Karl Jansky and His Discovery of Radio Waves from Beyond the Earth

Amerikaans natuurkundige
Amerikaans astronoom


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Falun Dafa Practitioner Jiao Mingfeng Tortured to Paralysis and Mental Collapse in Chaoyanggou Forced Labor Camp
(Clearwisdom.net) Jiao Mingfeng, male, 28 years old, from Yushu City, Jilin Province is an honest and kind person. His conduct has won his boss' admiration and commendation, who said that Falun Dafa practitioners are all good people.
After July 20, 1999, when the Jiang regime started to persecute Falun Dafa, Mr. Jiao went to Beijing to clarify the truth of Falun Dafa to the government. He was arrested, beaten up, detained and eventually sent to Weizigou Forced Labor Camp for one year, where he was tortured. When he was released in the summer of 2000, he had scabies all over him and had lost considerable weight. As he continued to practice the exercises, he recovered rapidly. His previous employer went to his home to invite him back to work.
In April 2002, after talking to people about Falun Dafa, someone reported him and he was arrested. He was then tortured and beaten brutally at the Yushu Public Security Bureau. The police tried to force him to tell them where the Falun Dafa materials and VCD came from, but to no avail. He was sentenced to two years in No. 1 Brigade of Chaoyanggou Forced Labor Camp, Changchun City, Jilin province. Police there use electronic batons, wooden clubs, iron pipes, and a pick as well as "Tying the Ropes" [The police tie up the practitioner with a thin rope, circle the rope around his neck, and tie his hands behind his back. Then the police use all the force they can muster to tighten the rope. The rope becomes tighter and tighter around the body of the practitioner, and makes it more and more difficult for him to breathe. The pain is so intense that the practitioner sometimes loses control of his bladder. There are instances when the rope was tightened enough to break a practitioner's arm.], burning with cigarettes, corporal punishment, and hard labor to torture practitioners. They also incite criminal inmates to beat up the practitioners using reduced terms as incentives (The criminals get 20 days off their terms for every practitioner they manage to "reform").
Jiao Mingfeng refused to sign a "Letter of Reformation" and remained firm in his belief. As a result of the torture, he suffered a mental collapse. His hands twitch and one eye bulges. He has great difficulty speaking, and is losing the ability to look after himself. In spite of all this, the police refuse to release him. They even demanded money from his family, saying that if the money was not paid they wouldn't care if Jiao died.
List of perpetrators at the Chaoyanggou Forced Labor Camp:
No.1 Brigade Leader: Lu Yansheng
Deputy Leader: Li Zhongjie, Cell:86-13331756242
"In Other Dimensions: Fa-Rectification Approaches, The Evil Struggles and The Earth and Human Bodies Are Under Attack"
"Short Fa-Rectification Stories"


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SECURITY ON HIGH ALERT IN MALINDI AS POLICE DISRUPT ALSHABAAB CELL
Security has been heightened in Malindi Sub-county, Kilifi County, after police discovered an Al-Shabaab linked terror cell. On Friday, 22nd February 2019, officers from Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU) stormed the house of Samuel Bauzi Obo at Maweni area in Malindi. Obo was however not present when the police raided his house.
His wife has been arrested to assist police with investigations on suspected terror activities of the husband. Obo is reported to be a fisherman operating at Kiunga. He resides at Maweni area in Malindi where he runs a fish shop at Kwafamau area.
The police operation is in line with the resolve by security agencies to disrupt all terrorist cells in Kenya. Police are saying that the disruption is among many that are planned in Malindi and other areas in the country to deal with terrorists and their accomplices.
Officers from ATPU have indicated that they are in pursuit of other individuals associated with the cell. Apart from Malindi, Police investigations and arrests have extended to neighboring counties. Local security agencies are also liaising with their Somalia counterparts to expand the ongoing operations to Raskiamboni where other coordinators of the botched operation are believed to be hiding.
Police are calling on members of the public to be on the lookout and report any individual associated with extremist activities. Security alertness and counter-terrorism operations have been intensified across the country since the 15th January attack on a business and hotel complex along 14 Riverside Drive in Nairobi where 21 people died.
Al Shabaab · Kenya


I had so fun this morning on the set of Local Memphis Live with Yelp talking about my 4 favorite fashion tips for looking and feeling slimmer.
Ditch the lace up corsets and restricting under garments, go with a slimming multi-functional tank instead. My line of Ellen Anchor Reversible Tanks are not only slimming, but they are long for perfectly layering and are reversible with a scooped neck on one side, and a v-neck on the other.
Often times our bras are actually fitted too tight. We don't want those things to pop off, now do we ladies? But did you know, the clasp actually can cause "bunchage", better known as back fat? When choosing a bra, you shouldn't only buy for support. Choose a seamless, claspless bra to ensure that your clothing looks fabulous on your body! There is enough fabric under the arm area and around the back for smoothing and with no clasp, there is no worries of unwanted back fat. I recommend the Coobie bra for the perfect amount of support and "seamless" slimming fashion.
In the segment I am wearing a top that has ruching across the tummy. No matter, age or size, ruching is EVERYONE's bestfriend. You can quickly and easily hide anything that may be going on in the tummy area and look instantly slimmer. Just in case you are unsure of what this is, I have attached the definition below.
Ladies, jeans can make or break your attempts to look slim! Do not skim when it comes to your denim. There are many slimming jeans on the market but the first, and my favorite, is the Lola Jeans. All of their pull on and button on styles are built to slim the silhouette and lift the back side for a longer, leaner, SLIMMER look. My favorite wash this season is the Anna HGRY. More Lolas Here.
Now if you missed the segemnt… or if you just want to go back and count how many times I said "um.." ( I am working on that 🙂 Check out the video below and as always, thank you for taking the time to read my blog!
I recently got one of your Elle and Anchor tops and I love it!
I am so glad you are enjoying it! I swear by them 😉 Did you know they are ALWAYS buy 2 get one 30% off at both The Attic, The Ivory Closet, and in our online shop at http://www.ivorycloset.com? Hope to see you in the shop soon!


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https://www.accessnow.org:443/ethiopia-verifying-the-unblocking-of-websites/
Ethiopia: Verifying...
Freedom of ExpressionInternet Shutdowns
Ethiopia: Verifying the unblocking of websites
3 July 2018 | 2:03 pm
In just the past few months, positive reforms have swept through Ethiopia. One of the notable changes has been the rapid expansion of internet freedom and digital rights in the country. Over the past decade, the Ethiopian government has relentlessly blocked news websites, blogs, TV stations, jammed radio stations, and arrested those with dissenting voices. Now Ethiopia has dropped the charges against many bloggers, journalists, and opposition groups, freed thousands of prisoners, and most recently unblocked more than 250 websites.
Access Now and the Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) published a report that verifies the extent of the unblocking of these websites. As we were unable to acquire the list of sites the government unblocked, we started off by looking at the websites that were known to be blocked previously.
Our findings suggest that almost all of the websites we previously recorded as blocked are accessible, with a few notable exceptions. For instance, all media outlets have been unblocked except the HTTP version of oromiamedia.org. Most social networking sites are accessible over wifi and mobile data except Instagram. Instagram is accessible over wifi, but locked on mobile data.
All previously tested human rights, LGBTQI, political opposition, and armed group websites have been unblocked with the exception of the Ginbot 7 armed group. While the Tor Project site remains blocked in Ethiopia, psiphon.ca and ultrasurg.us have recently been unblocked.
These positive efforts in Ethiopia should be followed by concrete steps to lift the block from all remaining websites and rectify the laws that lead to the prosecution of those with dissenting voices. As we write in our report:
"We quite rarely hear of governments unblocking hundreds of websites in one go. This is also an important event given Ethiopia's political climate and the conditions that led to pervasive levels of internet censorship.
By lifting the lid on said 264 websites, the Ethiopian government may be closing a decade-long sustained internet censorship. While this is a positive move, there is need for continuous vigilance on monitoring information controls in Ethiopia, as such controls may potentially mutate from overt forms, like website blocking and internet shutdowns, to more covert controls, like targeted surveillance and social media manipulation."
For more information, read the full report.
Berhan Taye@btayeg
View all posts by Berhan Taye →
Internet Shutdowns
#KeepItOn
Old habits die hard: Ethiopia blocks internet in the eastern part of the country, again! Read More
Ethiopia blocked social media for everyone because it's "a distraction for students" Read More


text:
Illustration Terran Kim for DAME, Tierney/Adobe
Black Buying Power Could Transform the Climate Movement
People of color are more affected by the climate crisis than any other group, and they're ready to put their money in the hands of businesses that will solve it.
Heather McTeer Toney Mar 24, 2021
What do Beyoncé, South African rapper Da L.E.S., and my 73-year-old dad have in common?
Besides the fact that they're all Black, they all drive electric vehicles; Tesla to be specific. That's right, Queen Bey herself is "Flawless" in her Model X with Jay-Z and the kids. Da. L.E.S. just dropped a single titled "Elon Musk," complete with a music video highlighting the car. Meanwhile, my dear, sweet, civil-rights fighting, teacher-trained, retired parents are happily running errands in their new 2021 Tesla X Long Range. It was with great joy that my dad expressed how, when driving up to the charging station, he saw other Black people, playing hip-hop while politely putting on their masks before approaching and asking about his car. My husband and I are considering a pretty cool used Model 3 we found on Carvana.
While this is not an endorsement of Tesla, it is an example of the trend now being followed by GM and other major automobile manufacturers: There has been a seismic cultural shift in the acceptance of alternative fuel/climate-friendly vehicles in minority communities, and it spans across generations and geographic locations. At the same time, environmental justice is a social justice issue in our households because, similar to Latino and Indigenous people, Black people are disproportionately impacted by environmental pollution and the effects of climate change. If Americans take full advantage of the Biden-Harris climate plan for clean-energy investment, our country can embrace a clean electricity standard and begin to advance environmental justice and infrastructure stability in Black and Brown neighborhoods, one charging station and electric vehicle at a time.
African American buying power in the U.S. continues to increase, and we are anything if not loyal to a brand. Racial equity matters to us, and we will spend our dollars accordingly. The 2020 Nielsen report showed that, despite COVID-19, African Americans did 11% more shopping online than the average household, are three times as likely to show support of their favorite brands on a social media platform, and expect those brands to take a stance on issues including the planet, social justice, and wellness. To top it off, it is estimated that between 2020 and 2060, African Americans will add more than 20% to the total U.S. population growth. In other words, Black folks are carrying a whole lot of untapped leverage, and the environmental industry would be wise to take note. The EV movement could benefit from a little "soul" power, which is exactly what Tesla is giving.
Black people set trends, and we can make or break it on a moment's notice. Ask a member of any Black household about the purple velvet bag with a gold rope, and I guarantee recognition because somebody's uncle, dad, or cousin collected the "Crown Royal bag". At age 11, I was bopping around the house singing along to Pebbles, "Mercedes Boy" as if I had my own Benz and the checking account to match. Lord knows I was not supposed to be listening to Prince's 1999 album but, honestly, who didn't know the lyrics to "Little Red Corvette"? In 2003, the radio stations played, Lil' Kim's "The Jump Off" on heavy rotation with a solid chorus: "This is for my peeps, with the Bentleys, the Hummers, the Benz, Escalades 23-inch rims, Jumpin out the Jaguar with the Tims…" It seemed like every hip-hop video for the next 10 years featured one of these cars, regardless of affordability or the gas-guzzling expenses associated.
But by 2011, when electric vehicles really began gaining attention, there was no real marketing to minority communities. The Chevy Prius, GM Volt, and Nissan Leaf were geared toward middle-income white people based on the idea of affordability. Charging stations were scarce and certainly not in Black communities. Did the research and marketing team not look at the data of what Black people were driving? (And no offense but, no one wants to hear, "Hey man, wanna go for a ride in my Leaf?"—not sexy).
Now the tables have turned. Studies show African Americans and Latinos are more concerned about climate impacts than any other demographic. Combined with increased Black buying power and the emphasis from the Biden administration on clean energy, environmental justice, and infrastructure development, Black communities have a clear shot at leveraging our support to strengthen our communities economically, socially, and culturally in the name of climate action.
And the work has already begun. Through the executive orders signed by Biden, the administration is set to ensure that federal infrastructure investments are based in clean energy versus fossil fuels, with a focus on addressing environmental disparities that have existed in disadvantaged (often Black and brown) communities. In addition, the Biden administration has set a goal of pushing 40% of the investments directly to these communities and employing an "all of government approach." This means that every agency of the federal government is tasked to incorporate climate actions into the daily mission and push funding to the frontline, marginalized communities that need it most. What's even more exciting are the prospects around the use of electricity as both a clean fuel alternative for the power and automobile sector. Earlier this month The Clean School Bus Act was introduced into the Senate to provide over $1 billion dollars in funds to replace dirty, pollution-spewing diesel school buses across the country. In addition, the Biden clean energy plan calls for a $2 trillion investment, the largest of any administration, directly to cities and towns across the country—creating jobs and providing long overdue access to economic opportunities by way of acting on climate.
Ultimately, it means that communities could be transformed. Imagine the abandoned basketball court next to the old gas station in town being revitalized into a greenspace, with fresh courts made from recycled materials. A space that also acts as a hub for internet access that's connected to an electric school bus that powers the basketball court lights while it is idle in the middle of the day. It's the chance to normalize charging stations as an infrastructure standard, seen at both Whole Foods and McDonalds. It is a chance to offer subsidies to first-time car buyers that move them toward EV cars over gas-fuelled vehicles, a move that could provide further economic independence as opposed to the idea that electric public buses in Black neighborhoods are sufficient. This is a pivotal moment to honor the history of how Black Americans encounter environmental challenges and collective culture while embracing a Black future filled with opportunities through alternative fuels and clean energy. Think about it, a little "soul" may be just the kick-start the entire industry needs.
Hot House Climate Crisis Green Tech
Heather McTeer Toney is Climate Justice Liaison, Environmental Defense Fund and Senior Advisor to Moms Clean Air Force. She served as the first African-American, first female, and youngest mayor of Greenville, Mississippi. In 2014, she was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as Regional Administrator for Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Southeast Region and is well known for her work in public service, diversity, and community engagement.
Follow at @HeatherMcTeer
More by Heather McTeer Toney
Earth Has Filed for Divorce
How the Infrastructure Bill Fails the Climate Crisis
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Gemini is operated by a partnership of five countries including the United States, Canada, Chile, Australia, Brazil and Argentina. Any astronomer in these countries can apply for time on Gemini, which is allocated in proportion to each participant's financial stake. In addition, 10% of the science time is available to astronomers associated with the hosts of each telescope, the University of Hawaii and the country of Chile. See the Governance web page for information on the Gemini Board and Committees, as well as resolutions and minutes of selected meetings.
The Phase I Overview describes how to apply for time on Gemini. The Queue and Schedules page lists allocated programs in the current and previous semesters, together with execution logs and important Phase I and II dates. The Science Operations Statistics page provides information such as weather loss, queue completion rates, open shutter efficiency and more.
At the end of each semester the participant imbalances are calculated using the participant shares. Gemini keeps track of the accrued participant imbalance and the Operations Working Group takes the imbalances into account when agreeing on the distribution of the telescope time available in each semester. The telescope time charging page gives more information on this process.