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What can be done to make the following query run faster?file_id is the primary key on the table (index)
# Random playlist
file_name `title`,
REPLACE(file_path, 'P:/', '') `location`
FROM physical_files
I have several records in the database. And, this query is just not efficient. I want to draw random files, but ORDER BY is not good here.
There is an interesting post on similar topic on Anton Titov. Stil my problem cannot be solved. I cannot generate the list of random file_ids randomly in PHP, because, they may not exist or, filtered within WHERE condition.
Thank you in advance for a good suggestion.
i thought it was an excellent article
why can't you generate the file_ids? what do they look like?
There are a number of options on how to select random entries depending on how many you want.
In the variant where you get the ids and then select one at random you use a database query to extract the list of all the key values that exist in the table and then select randomly from that list. That way they always would exist and satisfy the where condition because you'd specify that in the query retrieving them.
If there are going to be too many ids to extract them all then one alternative is to first do a query to determine how many rows of the table satisfy your query to be included in the random selection. Then generate the required number of random numbers less than that number and then do a second query of the database to return the data in the entries corresponding to those random position in the results (using LIMIT 1 OFFSET randomnumber). To retrieve 30 randomly selected results would require 31 database calls to first retrieve the number of records to select from and then the specific 30 records randomly selected but it would still be lots faster than using ORDER BY rand().
ps. Also agree that is an excellent article. It doesn't cover quite as many alternative options as the book "SQL Antipatterns" does in chapter 16 which provides a half dozen alternative solutions for this problem but the article does provide a far more detailed explanation of the alternatives it does cover.
@r937The reason why I cannot rely on self generated random numbers between 1 and max(file_id) is:* The file_ids may not be continuous.* Some rows will be filtered in WHERE condition; like: allow_play='Y', and if its (row whose allow_play is 'N') file_id was generated, there will be no data.
@felgallWhat about generating a pool of valid file_ids in a different table.And then again randomly selecting file_ids still by ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 30.Building a comma separated list of those file_ids, and querying with the WHERE part:
WHERE file_id IN(r,a,n,d,o,m,l,y,...,f,i,l,e,_,i,d,s)
I think it's ORDER BY RAND() will run much faster than on the table physical_files.This pool has only one column in the table: file_id, and can be indexed.Or, even made the primary key, as like in physical_files.
Since ORDER BY RAND has to load all the keys into memory and then spend a huge amount of time switching them around getting rid of the first step will not save any significant amount of time (like standing on a ladder would make no significant difference in getting you to the moon).
Based on the information you have provided I would suggest that you do one call to count the number of entries that match the criteria you are after. Then generate your 30 random numbers between 0 and one less than the number of entries. Finally do thirty separate calls to the database each to return one of the random results you are after - specify LIMIT 1 and OFFSET randomNumber to get the specific entry corresponding to the random number you generated.
The 31 separate calls to the database will between them be way more efficient than the one call using ORDER BY RAND. Just how much time it will save depends on how many records you are extracting the 30 from but even if you only have a few hundred records it should result in saving you at least 90% of the time the order by rand would take (and probably a lot more).
i strenuously dispute this blanket statement, and ask you to present proof
Why don't you provide an example where the one call using ORDER BY RAND would be more efficient at retrieving 30 records at random than the way I suggested. The inefficiency of ORDER BY RAND is a well documented fact so I believe that the burden of proof that there are circumstances where it isn't lies on the person who disputes that inefficiency.
Anyway the simplest most efficient situation using ORDER BY RAND in this case would be with only 30 records to sort randomly (you can't have fewer than that and be able to retrieve 30 records). Assuming the minimum possible number of comparisons in sorting the database you'd have 29 comparisons with the final random order being identical to the original order. The time taken to do those 29 comparisons compared to the time taken to retrieve the number of records in the table is the difference between the shortest possible time that the order by rand can take and the time that the alternative will always take. This might be slightly faster than doing the extra read but will occur only once in 2.6525285981219105863630848e+32 runs of the code. In all of the other 2.6525285981219105863630848e+32 possible orders in which the 30 records can be returned there will be more than 29 comparisons that need to be done. The average number of compares required will take much longer to carry out than retrieving the number of records in the table. That's with just 30 records in the table. The number of comparisons to be done will grow rapidly as additional records are added to the table and so the average time taken to do the compares will be significantly larger if there are even a few more records in the table. The time taken using the alternative changes far less since all we need to do is count the records and not sort them. So except in a very few instances where the "random order" ends up the same as the order in the database the time taken to do the compares will be significantly longer than the time taken to count the records.
come on, stephen, please stop making stuff up, i've called you on that before and yet you keep making these statements
i'm not disputing that ORDER BY RAND is slow, i'm disputing your claim that 31 calls are "way more efficient" and "saving you at least 90% of the time"
you're the one who pulled the 90% number out of the air, and i'm just asking you to cite your sources
otherwise, it's just more bafflegab on your part, like that monolithic huge paragraph of rationalization that you just posted
I was rather intrigued by this topic so I decided I'd run a test to see if the alternative method Stephen is discussing actually works.
I used a database table called 'items' that is part of a website I made several years ago. It holds RSS entries from several RSS feeds (stored in a table called 'feeds', referenced to in the 'items' table by 'feedId').
The table currently contains 141687 rows and the SHOW CREATE is as follows:
CREATE TABLE `items` (
`itemId` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`feedId` int(11) NOT NULL,
`itemHash` char(32) DEFAULT NULL,
`title` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
`description` text NOT NULL,
`link` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
`fetchtime` datetime NOT NULL,
`imageId` char(64) NOT NULL,
`pubdate` datetime NOT NULL,
`pubdate_raw` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
`numViews` int(11) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
PRIMARY KEY (`itemId`),
KEY `pd_feedid` (`feedId`,`pubdate`),
FULLTEXT KEY `search` (`title`,`description`)) ENGINE=MyISAM AUTO_INCREMENT=245465 DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1
The table holds the results of several years of RSS feeds, but every so often I delete rows that don't get a lot of views (indicated by the column numViews), so there quite a lot of gaps in the itemId auto_increment column.
For the WHERE condition I chose WHERE feedId > 34, which holds for 101065 (roughly two third) of the data.
So this is real world data collected from real world RSS feeds. Not some artificial data that might be generated to favor one method over the other.
The script I used for testing is:
class Stopwatch
private $_starttime;
function __construct() {}
public function start()
$mtime = microtime();
list($usec, $sec) = split(' ', $mtime);
$this->_starttime = (float)$usec + (float)$sec;
public function stop()
$mtime = microtime();
list($usec, $sec) = split(' ', $mtime);
return (((float)$usec + (float)$sec) - (float)$this->_starttime);
$sw=new StopWatch;
$fp=fopen('times.csv', 'a+');
for ($numItems=10; $numItems<=300; $numItems+=10)
echo "\
", '++++ numItems = ', $numItems, ' ++++', "\
for ($n=0;$n<10;$n++)
$query='SELECT itemId FROM items WHERE feedId>34 ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT '.$numItems;
$orderRandTime=$sw->stop() / 10;
for ($n=0;$n<10;$n++)
$query='SELECT count(*) FROM items WHERE feedId>34';
$row = mysql_fetch_assoc($res);
for ($i=0;$i<$numItems;$i++) {
$q='SELECT itemId FROM items LIMIT 1 OFFSET '.$r;
$altMethodTime=$sw->stop() / 10;
fputs($fp, $numItems.';'.((String)$orderRandTime).';'.((String)$altMethodTime)."\
As you can see I start with taking 10 random items from the database, first using ORDER BY RAND() and then using the method Stephen described.I do that 10 times in a row and take the average time over those 10 runs to even out outliers (should have done that more times, like 100, but that would take too long, and anyway 10 also gives quite a good estimate).
After taking 10 random items, I move on to 20, 30, 40, ... 300
Attached to my this post are the CSV file (with .txt extension because vB won't let me upload .csv files) of the results, and a JPG of the graph where the results are drawn in. The horizontal axis indicates the number of random items to take from the database ($numItems in the test script) and the vertical axis indicates the number of seconds it took (on average over 10 runs) to obtain this data.
As one can see from the graph the ORDER BY RAND() method appears to have a O(1) time complexity, whereas the method Stephen described appears to have a O(n) time complexity.When $numItems is smaller than ~75 items, the method Stephen describes is faster, but when I need more then 75 random items that method is losing from the ORDER BY RAND() method.
Of course these actual numbers of this test are highly dependent on the data at hand, but the trend of O(1) time complexity vs O(n) should hold regardless of the data.
Wouldn't the complexity of the ORDER BY RAND also vary dependent on the number of records in the database (which you didn't change) by a lot more than the alternative method would vary by the number of records retrieved? ORDER BY RAND only has a O(1) time complexity because you didn't change the number of records in the data.
Also the number of records in the database would be the one changing over time. The number of records that are required to be retrieved would usually be fixed. That would give this method the O(1) complexity when the number of records in the database is varying and the number of records to retrieve is static.
thank you for the effort, it is much appreciated
Or, what about we suggest Sun/MySQL have a different way
All with the above logics that we discussed? Again
Touché. The time it takes for ORDER BY RAND would indeed change as a function of the cardinality of the table, m. So O(1) is indeed not correct. The Big Oh for ORDER BY RAND must contain m in some way.
Indeed, the method you're describing will always use the same time given a fixed value for n, but that doesn't magically give the method as a whole a complexity of O(1); the complexity is still O(n) since the time needed still increases as a function of n. Pointing out that the time remains the same for a fixed value of n is cheating
But what this means is, if m changes but n remains fixed, the time it will take for ORDER BY RAND will increase, while the time the method you outlined will indeed remain constant.
In terms of the graph I attached with my last post, the blue line will be displaced vertically (its values will be increased) whereas the red line will stay the way it is now.
Nevertheless, there will still be a point where the two lines intersect and after that point ORDER BY RAND will be faster than the method you've described.
To further illustrate this, I have an older version of the database that is a backup from before the last time I pruned it, and that one has 216032 rows. Of these rows, 101065 have a feedId of more than 34. Since the ratio of feedId > 34 vs feedId <= 34 is not the same in this database as it is in the other database, I removed 5913 rows with feedId>34 randomly from the database.
DELETE FROM items WHERE feedId>34 ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 5913
That makes the number of rows with feedId > 34, 154095Since 101065 / 141687 ~= 154095 / 216032 the ratios are now the same for both database, just to make sure the results aren't skewed.
See attachment for the graph with the results of this test for this bigger database versus the results of the smaller database. As you can see the line for the method you outlined indeed hasn't changed (except for high values of n, but I think we accredit that to only taking 10 runs to sample), whereas ORDER BY RAND has increased from ~0.95 to ~0.98
I think we can agree that the rule of thumb seems to be that the method you outlined is better for smaller values of n, while ORDER BY RAND is better for bigger values of n
Scallio, do you mind testing this way of doing it (with the same initial dataset as the first two ways)?
// 3rd Method
for ($n=0;$n<10;$n++) {
$query='SELECT itemId FROM items WHERE feedId>34 LIMIT '.$numItems;
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_BOTH)) {
// Optional shuffling of the order
$orderRandTime=$sw->stop() / 10;
I wouldn't mind but I don't see what you're trying to do. You get $numItems from the database, pick $numItems of those at random (so you'll just get all items in the array) and then shuffle them.
So you just get the $numItems first rows from the database in a random order. Or am I missing something? :shifty:
Remove the LIMIT from the query
Ah, now it makes sense!
Well, that also has a relatively constant time, and I have to say I'm totally surprised. I would have expected it to be the slowest of all options (due to the massive amount of data transfer needed), but with only ~0,21 seconds for $numItems=10 to ~0,22 seconds for $numItems=300 (on the larger table) it's actually quite a lot (~67%) faster than ORDER BY RAND !
Nice one SpacePhoenix!!
PS. If PHP and MySQL run on different servers this probably isn't the best option, especially not if you have to pay for data transfer between those servers. But still, very nice! PPS. This is the code I used:
for ($n=0;$n<10;$n++) {
$query='SELECT itemId FROM items WHERE feedId>34';
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($res)) {
// Optional shuffling of the order
// shuffle($random_item_ids);
$time=$sw->stop() / 10;
I didn't apply shuffle because array_rand also get's random items, thus shuffle would only give it slightly more entropy
Scallio it would make for an intersting test to repeat the three tests but with PHP and MySQL on physically separate server boxes and to compare the speed of each option both against each other and when each option is done where they're on the same server box.
If I had access to two different server boxes I'd surely like to try that. Sadly I don't ... :-/
here's another method ...http://www.rndblog.com/how-to-select-random-rows-in-mysql/

subset: commoncrawl


text:
PARIS — The US national team fell 1-0 to France on Friday night at Stade de France, with Loic Remy's 72nd-minute goal the lone tally in the Americans' latest defeat under head coach Jurgen Klinsmann.
The US are now 1-4-1 in Klinsmann's new regime and have scored just two goals in that span. They are now winless in their last seven games on European soil with one game remaining on the current mini-tour, at Solvenia on Tuesday.
The Americans enjoyed a steady first half on the back line on Friday, but were inevitably done in by a moment of confusion midway through the second half. Marvin Martin chipped a ball to the onrushing Remy, who brushed off a shoulder charge from US defender Clarence Goodson and coolly slotted a shot past US goalkeeper Tim Howard.
It was the only moment of vulnerability for Howard, who made four saves on the night and at times kept France from blowing the game wide open. His best moment came in the 56th minute, when he somehow batted a curling free kick from Karim Benzema off the line to help keep France at bay.
The American offense, meanwhile, struggled all night to generate any real scoring chances and managed just three shots on goal. Clint Dempsey had a brief look at a breakaway opportunity in the 77th minute, but he was taken down just outside the box by France's Laurent Koscielny. Dempsey scorched the ensuing free kick high and wide of the far upper corner.
France created their first real chance of the game in the 27th minute, with Franck Ribery backheeling an Adil Rami centering feed just wide.
Shortly thereafter, the US achieved their first corner kick. Maurice Edu was able to get a head on Steve Cherundolo's serve, but with no pace on his attempt, it was easy picking for Hugo Lloris. France quickly broke out on the counter, with Karim Benzema eventually firing his shot into the chest of a well-placed Goodson.
France also nearly scored in the 55th minute, when Benzema snapped a header off the crossbar.
Fabian Johnson was the only US player to earn his first cap in the loss, but Goodson and Jermaine Jones both made their first appearances under Klinsmann.
FRANCE: Hugo Lloris; Laurent Koscielny, Jeremy Mathieu, Adil Rami, Matthieu Debuchy; Yann MVila (Maxime Gonalons 61'), Alou Diarra, Franck Ribery (Loic Remy 65'), Jeremy Menez; Kevin Gameiro (Olivier Giroud 60'), Karim Benzema (Marvin Martin 66')
USA: Tim Howard; Steve Cherundolo, Carlos Bocanegra, Clarence Goodson, Timmy Chandler: Maurice Edu (Edson Buddle 78'), Kyle Beckerman (Jermaine Jones 67'), Daniel Williams (Fabian Johnson 72'); Clint Dempsey, Brek Shea (Damarcus Beasley 72'); Jozy Altidore


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Colour Filters Customise your display with filters.
The iPad display now comes with a range of customisable colour filters to complement different forms of colour blindness or other vision challenges. So reading documents, surfing the web or putting together a presentation is more accessible than ever.
FaceTime Catch every gesture, expression and sign.
FaceTime has HD video and a fast frame rate, so every sign and facial expression comes through perfectly clear. You can brainstorm with colleagues, catch up with friends or just say hi to Mum.
Switch Control Tap and pinch without tapping and pinching.
Switch Control lets you fully interact with your iPad without ever touching your iPad. By using Bluetooth-enabled switch hardware, you can navigate through onscreen items and do things like edit photos, play movies and send email. You can even use your iPad to control your Mac or Apple TV.*
Guided Access Do everything. One thing at a time.
Guided Access lets parents, teachers or therapists limit iPad to one app at a time, and limit the amount of time spent in an app. So iPad can be a powerful tool for people with autism, or attention and sensory challenges.


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Wayne Clark from Cedar City, Utah, has created this one-of-a-kind '54 Corvette, itself a fairly rare car in that only 3,640 were ever built. Clark is a jeweler, so his tastes run to the precious and beautiful, making it understandable that whatever car he built would have to be unique. Look closely to see all the changes made in the four and one-half years it took to build. For instance, the doors are from a '60 Corvette, reskinned with the '54 exterior panels, allowing for roll-up windows. That same '60 Vette donated its top and windshield. The massive amount of hours needed to fit these components isn't apparent, although the results are flawless.
Clark found the '54 in upstate New York and shipped it to Utah where he determined that the frame was beyond saving. Bruce Hendrickson of Cedar City, Utah, fabricated up-to-date rails from square tubing that would accommodate an LT4 Grand Sport engine, a Camaro rear axle, a custom Monte Carlo IFS with rack and pinion, custom fabricated A-arms, and GM disc brakes all around. Suspension is air bags at all four corners, and the wheels (including the steering wheel) are Budnik. Transmission is a 4L60E. Inside are custom seats covered with saddle leather by Rick Spencer Upholstery in Cedar City. Corvette fans will notice that the trademark humps on both sides of the dash have been removed.
Before Bruce Hendrickson applied the House of Kolor Ferrari Yellow paint, and body modifications were made that included removing lower teeth on the front bumpers, the front license holder, and the forward slanting portion of the side trim just behind each front wheel. This was all done with an eye to making the lines of the car cleaner. Of course, the car has creature comforts such as air conditioning, a CD player, and electric windows.
Since its completion in early 2000, this car has won top awards at every show it has entered, including Best Corvette at the Las Vegas Super Chevy Show. The more we see it, the more we imagine it will continue its winning ways for some time to come.


text:
The audio version is even worse than the video:
Gabcast! Iowa for Freedom #1 – Send Them a Message
These folks really have to stop seeing the courts as partisan organizations with monolithic, anti-Christian conservative views! The reality is that gay unions affect guns about as much as a mountain affects a mole hill. Or actually less: The mountain might actually provide the moles with both a nice view and nice shade, whereas even shotgun gay marriages have no other intended scattershot.
Never has there ever been a better time or reason for Iowans to invest in satellite radio or an iPod.


text:
1/2" x 3/4" x 6.5 LFT Ash Shoe Molding
Transitions between a wood floor and a vertical surface under cabinetry. Also serves as a substitute for quarter round when space is limited.
Reviewed by 1 customer
Best Uses
Comments about 1/2" x 3/4" x 6.5 LFT Ash Shoe Molding:
Using shoe molding that is the same color as the hardwood floor gives continuity to the trim work. Set against a white baseboard, it looks great! Highly recommend the additional investment to match the shoe mold to the floor.


text:
Father who lost son to suicide wants you to know the signs
BATTLE GROUND, Wash. - Brad Hazen's son, AJ, was a bright boy and grew to be a stellar 15-year-old who won trophies and got good grades in middle school.
But "when AJ hit freshman year at high school, that's when everything changed," Hazen said Thursday.
It started while AJ was a freshman at Battle Ground High School over six months. Hazen said there were three warning signs of suicide that he missed.
"The first warning sign was in November, he wouldn't do his homework," he said. "I said, 'It's your responsibility to do homework and my responsibility to go to work.' He said, 'Dad, I don't want to live anymore.'
"The second sign happened in middle of December when he again wasn't doing homework, and I said, 'AJ, do your homework.' I went into his bedroom. He had some knives in his bedroom."
The third sign was after AJ was bullied in class, his girlfriend left him and he was wrapped up in the juvenile system.
"When he was at the probation office, he said, 'All I want is a gun and a bullet.' And that was the third sign. That was on a Wednesday and then AJ took his life on a Friday - the following Friday," Hazen said.
That was Feb. 18, 2011. For two years Hazen has met with school leaders trying to get a program for youth suicide.
"You need to get the whole community involved to educate the parents and the kids about suicide," he said.
Hazen believes that education and communication will prevent other suicides and pain for other families.
"No, it doesn't get any easier. They said it would, but no," he said.
He wants people to recognize the signs of suicide so they can get help immediately.
Last week the district connected parents with mental health experts about monitoring their children's cellphones and Internet activity.
The community of Battle Ground came together Thursday night to shine a light on teen suicide. The meeting with parents, teachers, school board members and just people from the community tried to figure out what resources they have and how to move forward.
A previous KATU News story from On Your Side Investigator Anna Canzano showed how the Internet seemed to play a role in these cases.


text:
Focus on the Collection: Francesco Clemente's High Fever
July 15–October 9, 2011
Focus on the Collection: Francesco Clemente's High Fever
presents a dark and mysterious series of nine woodcut prints exploring the beauty, pleasure, and pain of love by contemporary Italian artist Francesco Clemente. Influenced by mysticism of India, he conveys both the sensual and spiritual aspects of love, including childbirth and motherhood. Clemente exploits the natural grain of his woodblocks to dramatic effect, allowing it to become part of the repertoire of expressive marks found in each of the compositions. The grain and the dark tones of the ink reference the Northern European history of the woodcut. His carved blocks are printed with a deep embossment on thick handmade paper, causing the gouged marks and cut lines to take on a sculptural presence.
Curated by Eric Lutz, associate curator of prints, drawings, and photographs, and Ann-Maree Walker, research assistant,
Focus on the Collection: Francesco Clemente's High Fever
will be on view in Gallery 321 from July 15 to October 9, 2011.
Back to Archive


text:
Based on the success of an outdoor dining platform created for one downtown restaurant last year, the City of Ukiah will draft a policy that will allow other businesses to follow suit.
"I highly encourage other restaurants to do this," said Craig Strattman, co-owner of Patrona Restaurant, which had a platform for outdoor tables with a bike rack built by city staff and paid for by the city's former Ukiah Redevelopment Agency (URA).
"I want to be very clear -- that deck is part of a pilot project built by the (URA) and is a redevelopment asset and will be disposed of as part of the process of winding down the agency," said Assistant City Manager Sage Sangiacomo. "Patrona can possibly purchase the structure if they want, or build its own."
When Vice-mayor Phil Baldwin asked Stratten if he wanted to purchase the platform, Strattman said "If the price is right," explaining that the structure is "very slippery," and there were improvements he would like to see that would "make it more functional," such as changes to the railings and having it be covered so it could be used year-round.
Sangiacomo said the platform cost $22,000, which included $14,000 in materials, and the rest was labor. He did not mention what price Strattman would be quoted.
Strattman said he would be happy to meet with any fellow business owners to "tell them the numbers, and the hardships we've had. Staff flexing has been a nightmare, juggling the inside with the outside, and there were a lot of costs that weren't apparent."
Programs Analyst Shannon Riley said from city staff's perspective, the platform had been very successful.
"The deck has been heavily used, even in marginal weather, because the business owner has installed everything from misters to heaters and umbrellas to maximize its use," Riley said, explaining that Patrona saw an increase in business as well as other nearby businesses. "Sales tax revenue has gone up, which can't be contributed solely to the deck, but other things have happened, such as every single retail vacancy on School Street has been filled.
"I have heard directly from many merchants and there has been a significant amount of interest in expanding outdoor dining," Riley said, adding that business owners expressed concern about losing parking and about a city program being equitable, since there were concerns raised about the lack of equity in the pilot program. "Staff is recommending that council authorize the drafting of an outdoor dining program."
Patrona also received an encroachment permit because the structure takes up three parking spaces, but Strattman said downtown Ukiah doesn't "have a parking problem, we have a walking problem. Do we need more cars driving by, or do we need more people seeing what Ukiah is really about? We need more restaurants and more things for people to do."
"We have more than enough parking downtown, we just don't utilize it very well," said Sangiacomo.
Mayor Doug Crane asked how, as far as the sales tax revenue increases, "did you distinguish between what happened downtown and what happened in the greater community? It may be that all books rose because the economy got a little better."
"We can't (distinguish)," Riley said. "We looked to see if other restaurants took a significant hit, and we didn't see that."
Zach Schat, owner of Schat's Bakery, said he had seen a lot "of positive changes as of late" in downtown Ukiah, and that "(Stratten) made that structure work. He added a lot of things, and that structure wouldn't work without the shade of the trees and the shade of nearby buildings.
"I think a great pilot program that I've been waiting and waiting to see is to make Perkins Street one lane with a wider sidewalk," Schat continued, adding that those changes would help him improve the outdoor seating in front of his business.
Cynthia Ariosta, owner of Saucy on West Standley Street, which recently opened a couple of doors down from Patrona, urged the City Council to move forward with creating the policy.
"One of the main reasons I opened a restaurant here was because of Patrona," Ariosta said. "I thought, if Patrona is here, I can open a restaurant here. I am really glad we're having this discussion."
Council member Mari Rodin agreed.
"This is really a fun item, and the most fun I've had up here in a long time," Rodin said. "It is such a pleasure to see our efforts bear fruit, or seemingly bear fruit, in terms of adding vibrancy to downtown. We can do all we want to try and be a progressive and forward-thinking council, but we can't do it without progressive and forward-thinking entrepreneurs. I think I speak for all of us when I say that we want to continue to try and feed each other's success and create a better downtown."
"If you're directing staff to move forward with guidelines, we are also asking that we be allowed to extend the encroachment permit until the guidelines are created," said Sangiacomo.
Council member Phil Baldwin said he wanted more outdoor dining downtown, but he had concerns that the Patrona deck felt like a "pet project."
"It appears that for certain projects there's plenty of staff time, and I'm concerned that there's equity and consistency," Baldwin said. "Now there's staff time for a new policy, but for other issues we're overwhelmed. It does appear that certain ideas are pursued with very little question, while others are not. I want us to be consistent and non-hypocritical."
"The downtown is one of our key strategic areas," said City Manager Jane Chambers. "In the allocation of workload, this has had a prominent spot, and it is just a new phase of an existing project."
The council voted unanimously to direct staff to draft the policy for outdoor dining and to give Patrona more time on the encroachment permit while the policy is being prepared.
Justine Frederiksen can be reached at email@example.com, on Twitter @JustFrederiksen or at 468-3521.


text:
Since Mr. Burrito has fallen asleep at the wheel, I guess it's up to me to take over duties here.
Prepare to be Kobed!
> acers:
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Since Mr. Burrito has fallen asleep at the wheel, I guess it's up to me to take over duties here.
Prepare to be Kobed!
> acers:
JO will not be available for the game, but will come out in the 2nd half a la the Knicks in the 70s, stirring a truly inspiring 2nd half of team basketball by the Pacers, who put on a massive run never before seen in NBA history, making the final score a respectable Lakers 130 Pacers 121.
O'Neal will step on Shaq's foot and fall-- landing on his neck and causing a season-ending injury.
Before tip-off, Donnie Walsh and Larry Bird will mimic a sketch done earlier in the week by the Utah Jazz, in which Kareem Rush stresses his desire to have been drafted by the Pacers instead of Fred Jones. In retaliation, David Stern forces the Pacers to forfeit the game, and trade JO and Artest for Rush and Walton.
The Pacers proceed to finish the season 35-47, still finishing with the East's 8th seed. The Pacers are promptly swept 4-0 by the top-seeded Celtics in the first round, as Larry Bird resigns and Isiah Thomas returns to the Pacers as the new President of Basketball Operations.
In the 1st .9 seconds of the 1st Quarter Ron Artest will receive a league-first Flagrant Foul 7 for slapping the top of Gary Payton's skull completely off and feasting on the goo inside. He will be fined $400 million Pesos ($3 American), barred from TGIFridays for life, and required to cut his hair like Reggie's circa 1988.
Shaq will go on an explitive-filled tirade in a post game interview on live tv. Wait........that happened today...........
Maybe they will suspend shaq????
Ron Artest will be suspended for Monday's game because Shaq's tirade reminded the NBA Administration of Ron Artest too much.
Ron Artest will be suspended for Monday's game because Shaq's tirade reminded the NBA Administration of Ron Artest too much.
In a cost cutting move to create capspace, the Pacers will announce (just before tipoff) that everybody not named Miller or not currently on IR have been traded to Utah for Greg Ostertag and 3 conditional second round draft picks.
In order to fill out the roster, Boomer and Bowser will be offered 10-day contracts and appear in the slam-dunk contest as representatives of the Pacers.
Ever notice how friendly folks are at a shootin' range??.
The Pacers will be forced to forfeit the game after a racy halftime skit in which Bowser rips off Boomer's uniform and sports bra, exposing the delicious, carpet-haired nipples of David Hasslehoff.


text:
List of His Dark Materials characters
The following is a list of characters from Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy.
- 1 Main characters
- 2 Other characters
- 2.1 John Faa
- 2.2 Farder Coram
- 2.3 Ma Costa
- 2.4 Bernie Johansen
- 2.5 Serafina Pekkala
- 2.6 Lee Scoresby
- 2.7 John Parry
- 2.8 Iofur Raknison
- 2.9 The Authority
- 2.10 Balthamos
- 2.11 Baruch
- 2.12 Chevalier Tialys
- 2.13 Lady Salmakia
- 2.14 Lord Boreal
- 2.15 Ruta Skadi
- 2.16 Xaphania
- 2.17 The Master of Jordan College
- 2.18 Father Gomez
- 2.19 Fra Pavel
- 2.20 Roger Parslow
- 2.21 Metatron
- 2.22 The Palmerian Professor
- 3 See also
- 4 References
- 5 External links
Main characters[edit]
Lyra Belacqua/Silvertongue[edit]
Lyra Belacqua, who later acquires the surname Silvertongue given to her by Iorek Byrnison,[1] is a young girl who inhabits a universe parallel to our own. She is the daughter of Lord Asriel and Marisa Coulter.[2] Brought up in the cloistered world of Jordan College, Oxford, she finds herself embroiled in a cosmic war between angels and a pseudo-deity called The Authority when she prevents Lord Asriel's death and allows him to further his studies on Dust.[3] She is able to read the Alethiometer (an instrument of divination), and is known to the witches as "Eve, the mother of all",[4] who will eventually "bring about the end of destiny". In the end, Lyra is forced to separate from Will Parry (her beloved and bearer of the Subtle Knife), returning to her own world in order to, in her father's footsteps, build the 'Republic of Heaven'.[5] Lyra's dæmon, Pantalaimon, changes shape throughout the majority of the trilogy, but eventually settles as a pine marten.[6]
In the unabridged audiobooks, Lyra is voiced by Joanna Wyatt, and in the BBC Radio dramatisation she is voiced by Lulu Popplewell.[7] In the 2008 movie adaption, she is played by Dakota Blue Richards.[8]
Will Parry[edit]
Will Parry is the son of John Parry, an explorer, and of Elaine Parry, a woman who suffers from mental problems including obsessive-compulsive disorder and paranoid schizophrenia.[9] Will does not remember his father, a former Royal Marine, who has not been heard of since he vanished on an expedition to the Arctic when Will was an infant. It is later revealed that John Parry has wandered into another world and is unable to find his way back.[10] Will becomes the companion of, and ultimately falls in love with, Lyra Belacqua,[5] and also becomes the bearer of the Subtle Knife by winning a fight, in which he loses two fingers on his left hand.[11] At the end of the third book, he must leave Lyra Belacqua and live entirely in his own world, where he is taken care of by Mary Malone and his cat dæmon, Kirjava (which means mottled in Finnish).[5]
In the unabridged audiobooks, Will was voiced by Steven Webb for The Subtle Knife and by Peter England for The Amber Spyglass.[12]
Lord Asriel[edit]
Lord Asriel is a member of the English aristocracy in a parallel universe dominated by an oppressive organisation known as the Magisterium. He is described as being "a tall man with powerful shoulders, a fierce dark face, and eyes that seem to flash and glitter with savage laughter".[13] Possessed of enormous determination and willpower, he is fierce in nature and commands great respect in both the political and academic spheres, being a military leader and a fellow of Jordan College in his world's version of Oxford. Later, it is discovered that he is Lyra's father, while her mother is Marisa Coulter.[3] His dæmon is a snow leopard called Stelmaria.[14]
In the unabridged audiobooks, Lord Asriel is voiced by Sean Barrett; in the BBC Radio dramatisation he is voiced by Terence Stamp[7] and in the film he is played by Daniel Craig.[8]
Mrs Coulter[edit]
Marisa Coulter (ordinarily called Mrs Coulter in the books) is the head of a secret project of the Magisterium, known as the General Oblation Board (called the "Gobblers" by Gyptians and street urchins).[15] She is initially driven by a desire for power; under her guidance, the Oblation Board has been secretly kidnapping children from Lyra's world, and then proceeding to use them as subjects of their experiments at their laboratory in Bolvangar.[3] The Oblation Board thinks that by cutting away the child's dæmon, (a process referred to as Intercision), they can prevent the child from knowing original sin.[16] She is also Lyra's mother.[3] Her dæmon is a golden-coloured monkey,[17] who, in the books, is neither named and only speaks once (he is called Ozymandias in the BBC Radio adaptations).
She is cruel and merciless at times, stopping at nothing to get what she wants. She is deceptive, full of grace and beauty, and uses these qualities to get her way. However, when she finds her daughter in peril at Bolvangar, she experiences a sudden realisation of intense love and a wish to care for Lyra which outweighs her previous loyalty to the Church, and thereafter she goes to great lengths in the effort to shield her from the events around her.[18]
In the unabridged audiobooks, Mrs Coulter is voiced by Alison Dowling; in the BBC Radio dramatisation she is voiced by Emma Fielding;[7] in the film, The Golden Compass, she is played by Nicole Kidman.[8]
Iorek Byrnison[edit]
Iorek Byrnison is a male armoured bear (panserbjørn in Norwegian), a race of polar bear-like creatures. Like all panserbjørne, Iorek follows a very strict code of conduct, and will not, in any situation, betray a promise he has made. He possesses incredible strength, and like many of his kind is an expert metal-worker. He is a great friend to both Lyra Belacqua and Lee Scoresby.
During the first book of the His Dark Materials trilogy, Northern Lights, Iorek Byrnison is found shaping metal for humans in an Arctic port town.[19] These humans had deceived Iorek by giving him spirits, then stole his sky-iron armour while he was intoxicated: this left him no choice but to work for the humans.[19] He tells Lyra Belacqua that if he had his armour, he would kill the humans that stole it, but that without it he would simply be gunned down attempting to get it back. Upon hearing this, Lyra decides to use her alethiometer to find the location of his armour, so that he can break free and join her quest.[20]
Using the Alethiometer, Lyra discovers that the humans have his armour hidden in the cellar of the local priest's house.[20] Almost immediately upon hearing this, Iorek rushes off to find his armour, waiting only to finish his work hours.[20] The humans, suddenly realizing his intent, try to kill him; Iorek is about to crush one of the attackers' heads when Lyra convinces him that it would be better not to hurt the man, as this would lead to more fighting and delay their voyage.[20]
Later, we learn that by bloodline, Iorek was King of the bears in his homeland, Svalbard, but that he had been exiled.[21] This exile was mainly the fault of Iofur Raknison, Iorek's successor as King, who was suspected, but never explicitly proven to have used drugs on another bear in order to make him act unusually.[21] This befuddled bear went up against Iorek Byrnison in a ritual of dominance to win over a female bear.[21] In his drugged state, however, the bear went against normal procedures and would not back down when any bear would normally have done so.[21] This situation ended in Iorek killing the bear, which condemned him to exile.[21] When he returns to Svalbard, Iorek fights and kills Iofur Raknison, reclaiming his rightful place.[22]
Later, he is forced to take his bears on a voyage down to the Himalayas because the climate in his home country of Svalbard has become inhospitable due to Lord Asriel's unintentional changing of the climate by opening a rift between two worlds.[23] He later demonstrates his skill as a smith, repairing the Subtle Knife – including its magical properties – with no specialist equipment and only the aid of Lyra and Will.[24] He and a regiment of his subjects fight on Lord Asriel's side in the battle on the plains; as part of this he takes Lyra and Will to find their lost dæmons.[25] At the end of the Amber Spyglass, it is revealed that he returns to Svalbard and reigns as king of the bears.[26]
In the film, he is voiced by Ian McKellen.[8] In the unabridged audiobooks, Iorek is voiced by Sean Barrett.
Dr. Mary Malone[edit]
Dr. Mary Malone is a physicist from Will's world. She is investigating dark matter, known also as Dust, and is told she must play the part of the Serpent for the second Adam and Eve. She is a former nun, having become an atheist after an encounter with a man from Italy and the taste of marzipan later reminds her of her first romantic encounter. She first appears early in The Subtle Knife and continues to the end of the trilogy.
Lyra Belacqua, upon arriving in Will's world, meets Mary when she tries to find an "experimental theologian" (physicist) in the hope of discovering more about Dust. Mary is amazed by Lyra's knowledge of dark matter, especially after Lyra demonstrates her ability to speak of the unknown by use of the alethiometer.
Mary, inspired by Lyra's abilities, utilises the supercomputer which she and her colleague, Dr. Oliver Payne, have designed to study Dust by writing a program that allows her to communicate with Dust using words on a screen, instead of through symbols. The Dust subsequently tells Mary to travel from her own world, through the window that Will found at the beginning of The Subtle Knife. The Dust tells her that she must "play the Serpent". The Dust also warns her to destroy the computer before she leaves. Mary travels through Cittàgazze to yet another world, where she will eventually 'become the Serpent'.
She spends most of The Amber Spyglass with creatures known as the Mulefa, trying to see Dust, which the Mulefa can see naturally. Mary uses tree sap lacquer to construct a viewing lens (the source of the book's title) which enables her to see Dust.
At the end of the final novel, the witch Serafina Pekkala reveals to Mary both how to see her dæmon and also its form – that of an alpine chough. She offers to help Will upon their return to their own world.
Mary Malone does not appear in Nicholas Wright's stage adaptation of the novels due to the difficulty of portraying Mulefa onstage. The role of the tempter was given to Serafina Pekkala, who was also the bearer of the spyglass, which had been created by Jopari as a device to view Dust.
Other characters[edit]
John Faa[edit]
John Faa, sometimes known as Lord Faa, is the Lord of the western Gyptians who appears mainly in Northern Lights. Despite his advancing age, he is a brave warrior, respected by all his followers, open to advice, and considerate of all. He is a good friend of the elderly Farder Coram. His dæmon is a black crow.
When the Oblation Board starts kidnapping children, he leads 170 of his men to save them. Though initially against the idea, John Faa eventually decides to take Lyra to Bolvangar, to rescue the missing Gyptian children. He is wounded in an ambush, when they were attacked by Samoyeds where many of his Gyptians are killed, despite the action of Iorek Byrnison, his hired panserbjørn or armored polar bear. However, he carries out his mission successfully, retrieving the children Lyra helped rescue, and taking them back to England.
Faa re-appears briefly at the conclusion of The Amber Spyglass when he and other Gyptians are briefly drawn into the world of the Mulefa to bring Lyra home before the worlds separate once again. The Gyptians and the Mulefa share a meal and trade objects in memory of their meeting before the Gyptians return to their world.
In Scotland, during the mid 1500s there was a real historical John Faa, who was often referred to as a King of the Gypsies.
In the film The Golden Compass, Faa is played by Jim Carter.
Farder Coram[edit]
Farder Coram is a respected, elderly Gyptian. He acts as adviser to the Gyptian King John Faa, who describes him as "a wise man … a seer". In the book Farder Coram has a large, unusually beautiful, golden-brown cat dæmon named Sophonax. Coram mainly appears in Northern Lights.
More than fifty years prior to the start of the trilogy, Coram travelled to the north, where he witnessed a witch, Serafina Pekkala, being attacked by another witch's dæmon. Farder Coram shot the rogue dæmon and rescued Serafina, thereafter they became lovers and had a son, who was killed in his youth by a disease from the east. After the son's death, Serafina Pekkala returned to her people as the clan-queen, and Coram returned to the Gyptians.
He accompanies Lyra, Lord Faa, Iorek Byrnison, Lee Scoresby and 170 Gyptians to Bolvangar to rescue the captured children there. Lyra grows to love Coram, as he, more than any other Gyptian, respects her and sees her potential. He guides her in mastering the alethiometer,[27] encouraging her and soon realizing her amazing talent. Lyra accompanies him in Trollesund, a northern town, where he runs such errands as meeting the town's witch consul, so that the Gyptians may ask for Serafina's help. It is clearly seen how much Farder Coram wishes to meet Serafina again, when Lyra is asked, by the Witch Consul, to identify which branch of cloud-pine Serafina once rode. Lyra herself notes how he touches the branch with longing upon his face before they depart. His voice is described as "rich and musical, with as many tones in it as there were colors in his dæmon's fur."
Coram re-appears briefly at the conclusion of The Amber Spyglass when he and other Gyptians are drawn into the world of the Mulefa to meet Lyra and bring her home before the worlds separate once again, the Gyptians and the Mulefa sharing a meal and trading various objects in memory of their singular meeting before they return to their worlds; Coram even briefly rides on a Mulefa when they note his discomfort walking.
It is not clear whether 'Farder' is a dialect variant of 'Father', honouring his role as 'Elder' to the Gyptians. Thomas Coram was a noted 18th Century philanthropist, whose surname is still linked in the UK to charities for orphans and other children, though whether this is the source of the name is not known.
British actor Tom Courtenay portrays him in the film The Golden Compass. In the film The Golden Compass, his dæmon is a caracal, an African, lynx-like wildcat.
Ma Costa[edit]
Ma Costa is a Gyptian woman whose son, Billy Costa is abducted by the "Gobblers" early in Northern Lights. A year before the beginning of the book, Lyra and her friends had 'hijacked' her family's boat and sailed it to Abingdon, the next town down river. In spite of this, Ma Costa rescues Lyra when she is running away from Mrs Coulter and takes her to John Faa.
She is described as having "hands like bludgeons", and also "a mighty voice" … … with lungs of brass and leather". She had "clouted Lyra dizzy on two occasions but given her hot gingerbread on three". Her family are "noted for the grandeur and sumptuousness of their boat", and for being "princes among gyptians". Lyra comes to admire her greatly and to long for "Ma Costa's broad arms" and to "smell the friendly smells of flesh and cooking that enfolded you in her presence".
When Lyra is hiding with the Gyptians, she discovers that Ma Costa had in fact nursed her, when she was a baby. Ma Costa's dæmon is a hawk.
The name "Costa" is phonetically identical to 'coster', who were street traders renowned for their rough manner, disregard for authority and loud voices.
Bernie Johansen[edit]
A minor character whose dæmon has the rare quality of being the same sex as himself. Half-gyptian, he was tasked with watching Lyra for Lord Faa while working as a pastry chef at Jordan College.[28]
Serafina Pekkala[edit]
Serafina Pekkala is a witch queen from a tribe in Inari, Finland, who first appears in Northern Lights and last appears in The Amber Spyglass. She rules over certain clans in the Lake Enara district. Serafina appears throughout the fantasy trilogy and is closely associated with Lyra Belacqua's and her companions' journey. Serafina Pekkala's dæmon is Kaisa, a large grey goose.
She once had a child by the Gyptian Farder Coram, who saved her life when she was attacked by another witch's dæmon. For witches to fall in love with men appears common. There are men within the witch society who serve the witches, or who are taken as lovers or husbands. Witches are said to be capable of appreciating men for their beauty, intelligence, and bravery; but due to the witches' long life-span, the men appear to grow old and die almost at once. This is said to cause the witches great emotional pain. When witches give birth, their female children inherit magical powers and an extensive life-span, while male children do not and are therefore soon sent to live with their fathers.
According to Serafina, witches live for many hundreds of years. Serafina claims to be three hundred years old or more, and states that her clan's "oldest witch mother" is nearly a thousand. Witches own nothing, and so have no means of barter save mutual aid. They have no notions of honour, and therefore insults mean nothing to them. Temperature extremes appear not to harm witches: although they feel the cold, wrapping up against it would prevent them from experiencing other things that the humans of the text may not feel, such as "the bright tingle of the stars, or the music of the Aurora". Witches fly on branches of Cloud-Pine and equate flying to living; as Serafina states, "A witch would no sooner give up flying than give up breathing. To fly is to be perfectly ourselves". Witches see themselves as subject to fate, yet argue that they, and all people, must act as if they possess free will. They believe that when they die Yambe-Akka, the goddess of the dead, comes to collect them.
Pullman claimed on the BBC World Service programme World Book Club in December 2005, that Serafina's name came from a Finnish telephone directory.[29] In context it is obvious that Pullman was teasing the audience, however the claim has since been repeated on several fan-sites. Later in the same programme and in a speech made in Dundee, he said that the name came from a list of politicians living in Copenhagen.
In the film The Golden Compass, Serafina Pekkala is played by Eva Green.
Lee Scoresby[edit]
Lee Scoresby is a skilled "aeronaut" balloonist from the country of Texas. In the novella Once Upon a Time in the North, which is a prequel to His Dark Materials, Lee is twenty-four years old. He meets Iorek Byrnison when the two of them help a Dutch captain, van Breda, escape with his cargo from the Muscovy harbour town of Novy Odense. Lee is an old Arctic hand, and extremely skilled with his balloons. He is skilled at using a gun, though generally nonviolent. He is intelligent, and likes to present himself as more mercenary than his behaviour reveals him to be. His dream is to sell his balloon and buy a ranch back in Texas. His best friend is the armored bear Iorek Byrnison. They had fought together, and he once saved Iorek's life. From details in the novella, it can be deduced that Lee is fifty-nine years old at the time of his death in His Dark Materials.
In His Dark Materials, Lee and his dæmon, Hester the Arctic hare pledge their support to John Faa and the Gyptians on a mission to destroy Bolvangar and save its captive children. He is delighted to learn that Iorek has been hired too. As the Gyptians finish destroying Bolvangar (which Lyra set on fire) and helping the rescued children into sledges, Mrs. Coulter attacks with some Tartars to capture her daughter, Lyra. Lee rescues Iorek from another part of the battle, and is just in time to save Lyra and Roger Parslow from Mrs Coulter. The four, helped by witches, escape.
On this journey, Lee expresses his concern to Serafina Pekkala, the queen of the witches, about the whole situation. He is worried about the war which he is about to be caught up in, and unsure who to support, however, he promises loyalty to Lyra. He is disturbed by the witches' idea of destiny.
The party is attacked by cliff-ghasts on the way to Svalbard, whereupon Lyra falls out of the balloon. Iorek and Roger go to rescue her as soon as the balloon can be put down. As Lee floats with the witches, Lord Asriel tears the path into another world open. Buffetted by winds, Lee and the witches are swept far away, but manage to regroup for a witch council. Lee is given the unique privilege of joining it.
Lee informs Serafina and the others that he has heard of an object which can protect the bearer. A mysterious figure called Grumman knows of its whereabouts. Lee intends to seek out Grumman and then take the object (the Subtle Knife) to Lyra. On his mission, he is forced to kill a servant of the Church. He takes his ring, which can command some power and authority. Lee and Hester find Grumman, and learn that he is really John Parry, from our own world. John has become a shaman and can command magic. He claims that he drew Lee with his mother's ring. The pair set off to find the Bearer of the Subtle Knife, Grumman to inform him of his task and Lee to get Lyra under his protection. They use the Church's ring to regain Lee's confiscated balloons.
As the pair make their escape, they are pursued. The shaman's magic destroy three of the enemy's four zeppelins, but Lee loses his balloon in the process. The forest in which they hide is set alight and they are forced to come out into the open, away from the trees. Escaping from the last one, they are pursued into a narrow gorge.
Lee holds the pass as Grumman escapes, killing all of the enemies and blowing up the zeppelin. He is killed in the process. Lee says goodbye to his weeping dæmon, embracing her tenderly until she disappears. Moments before dying, he calls for Serafina Pekkala with the flower she gave him, but she arrives far too late to save his life. Instead, she places a protective barrier around his body to protect him from carrion beasts.
Iorek comes across Lee's body several days after his death, perfectly preserved due to the witch's spell. In an act of final respect for his friend and ally, the bear thanks him, then devours his body, giving him strength to pursue and save Lyra, which was Lee's greatest wish.
Lyra and Will Parry find Lee in the world of the dead, and he briefly returns to fight the Spectres before he dissolves, hoping to merge with his mother, his unseen sweethearts, and Hester.
Regarding Lee Scoresby's name, Phillip Pullman said "the Lee part comes from the actor Lee Van Cleef … because I thought my Lee would look like him, and the Scoresby comes from William Scoresby, who was a real Arctic explorer.".[30]
American actor Sam Elliott plays Lee Scoresby in the film The Golden Compass.
John Parry[edit]
Colonel John Parry, aka Dr. Stanislaus Grumman, or Jopari, is the father of Will Parry and the husband of Elaine Parry.
Prior to the start of the trilogy, John Parry had been a famous English explorer and a major in the Royal Marines in Will's world. At one point, he had gone on an archaeological exploration of Alaska. There he had hoped to find a portal to a different world. He was unsuccessful at first, but he, and his companions, eventually found a portal by accident, and went through it during a blizzard, entering the world of Cittàgazze. His two companions were killed by the Spectres shortly thereafter.
John then travelled through Cittàgazze and found a portal to the world of Lyra Belacqua. When he arrived there, he met his own dæmon Sayan Kötör the Osprey. He changed his name to Stanislaus Grumman, because he needed a name that seemed natural to that world. Later, he attended the Berlin Academy. He became a famous explorer, though slightly notorious for his strange areas of study. He showed specific interest in Dust.
He joined the Yenisei tribe and underwent trepanation of his skull, becoming a leader and shaman of the tribe and took the name Jopari, the tribemen's mis-pronunciation of "John Parry".
Thereafter, many in both Lyra's and Will's worlds believed he was dead, although there were other rumours. The members of Jordan College believed he was dead because Lord Asriel had shown them a frozen, severed head and tricked them into believing it was Grumman's. Grumman however remained in the village of the Yenisei tribe as their shaman.
In The Subtle Knife, Lee Scoresby is sent to find Grumman. He eventually finds him among the Yenisei tribe, although Grumman claims that it was he who called Lee to find him. Lee takes Grumman to Cittàgazze as Grumman wishes to find the bearer of the Æsahættr ("God-destroyer" in Old Norse).
As they make their way to the knife-bearer, they are chased by soldiers in four zeppelins. Grumman uses his powers to create a storm to destroy one of them. During the night, he destroys the second by making a Spectre attack its pilot. Sayan Kötör commands the birds of the forest to destroy the third. With all his strength sapped, Grumman is unable to destroy the fourth zeppelin. Lee stays behind to fend off the men while Grumman escapes, he promises Lee that he will protect Lyra.
Grumman finds the bearer, Will, on top of a mountain and fights with him after Will attacks him in the darkness. Grumman uses some bloodmoss, (a lichen used to stop bleeding) to heal Will's wound. He tells him of the great destiny that has been bestowed upon him as the bearer of the subtle knife. He tells him that he must defeat the Authority, breaking his oath to Lee Scoresby and not mentioning Lyra. When light arrives, he sees Will's face and they both realise who the other is. An arrow shot by Juta Kamainen, (a witch Grumman had spurned due to his love for Will's mother), pierces Grumman's heart and he dies immediately after realising that Will is his own son.
In the Amber Spyglass, (the final book of the trilogy), he and Lee Scoresby are set free by Lyra from the world of the Dead. Instead of following the other dead people, they both remain to fight their final battle with the Authority.
Iofur Raknison[edit]
Iofur Raknison is a Panserbjørn – an armour-wearing, intelligent polar bear. He appears prominently in the first book, Northern Lights. He is the king of all the panserbjørns and ruler of Svalbard, but wishes for more. He wants to be the equal of a human: that is, to have a dæmon and be baptised a Christian. To this end, he has commanded the bears to build a palace of stone, and began to wear gold and silver ornaments, which they had traditionally despised.
Iofur conceals the fact that he has killed his own father, but Lyra Belacqua divines this with the use of her alethiometer in order to convince Iofur that she is the dæmon of Iorek Byrnison. This knowledge convinces Iofur that she really is a dæmon, and she persuades him that challenging Iorek to single combat is the only way of making her his.[27] Although Iofur begins the fight in fresher condition than Iorek – who, prior to combat, ran a great distance to find Lyra and recover her from Iofur's fortress – Iorek manages to defeat him. He does this by exploiting Iofur's desire to be human, rendering him able to be tricked, feigning injury to lure him in for a powerful attack. After Iofur's defeat, Iorek is proclaimed the king, and his first command is that the bears discard their pseudo-human trinkets and tear down Iofur's palace.
In the 2007 film adaptation, The Golden Compass, the character is renamed Ragnar Sturlusson, to prevent confusion with Iorek Byrnison.[31]
The Authority[edit]
The Authority was the first angel to come into existence; as did the subsequent angels, he formed and condensed from the substance known as Dust. He led other angels and, later, humanity to believe that he was in fact God the creator of the multiverse. This false claim legitimised his taking political power in the Kingdom of Heaven. The angel Xaphania later found out the truth about him, whereupon he banished her from the Kingdom (a reference to the legend of Lucifer). Xaphania and some other angels later started a rebellion against him. The Authority would assume several names, including "Yahweh", the "Lord", "El", "Adonai", and "the Almighty".
He ruled his various churches, organisations, and universes from the Clouded Mountain, a mobile city believed by many in that universe to be Heaven. As the Authority grew older and weaker, the Mountain became more and more obscured by cloud.
In his old age, the Authority appointed the tyrannical archangel Metatron, to act as Regent of the Kingdom of Heaven. Eventually Metatron grew more powerful than his master. The two are opposed by Lord Asriel, who allies with "fallen" angels such as Xaphania in an attempt to overthrow the divine monarchy and replace it with a Republic of Heaven. During the final battle, the Authority is carried away from the Clouded Mountain on the orders of Metatron. He is imprisoned in a crystal box, which keeps him alive but trapped. Lyra Belacqua and Will Parry free him with the subtle knife, not knowing he is too weak to survive outside his box. He drifts apart and dies in a moment of happiness following other characters' precedent by merging with the cosmos.
The Authority appears only in The Amber Spyglass.
Balthamos and his same-sex partner, Baruch, are both angels in rebellion from the Kingdom of Heaven. They seek to become part of Lord Asriel's army of angels and overthrow Metatron, the acting Regent of The Authority.
Both angels find Will Parry at the end of The Subtle Knife; because Will is the bearer of the subtle knife, they hope to bring him to Lord Asriel. However, Will's companion Lyra Belacqua has been kidnapped and Will refuses to go to Asriel until Lyra is found. The angels agree to accompany Will without question until she is found.
This decision proves to be dangerous; both Baruch and Balthamos are aware the Regent is after them, especially now that they are being accompanied by Will. An unfortunate encounter leads to Baruch being fatally wounded. Balthamos and Will are separated from Baruch, who has gone to Lord Asriel in his wounded state. Before dying, Baruch provides Asriel with all the information he and Balthamos have discovered about Will, Lyra, and the Regent.
Baruch's death is immediately felt by Balthamos as a result of the strong bond of love they shared. Stricken with grief, Balthamos promises to aid Will in every way possible to honour Baruch's sacrifice. When Balthamos is unable to do so, he runs away, grieving over Baruch's death and feeling guilty about abandoning Will. The angel does not appear again until the end of the book, when Balthamos confronts Father Gomez, an assassin hoping to kill Lyra by tracking Dr. Mary Malone. However, by the end of his confrontation with Father Gomez, Balthamos neither has the strength or the will to continue existing, and the particles that make up his being separate.
Of the two angels, Balthamos is the more cautious of the pair. He admits that Baruch is the courageous one and whenever Balthamos fails at something important, Baruch is the one to help him fix things. Balthamos has a sarcastic personality, and his relations with Will are conducted with an air of ironic contempt.
As angels of low rank, Balthamos and Baruch's abilities are limited. They appear as luminous humanlike forms, which are barely visible to human eyes even at night. The angels also possess the power to transform, which Balthamos uses to masquerade as Will's dæmon when traveling in Lyra's world. They are capable of flight though their wings do not have a corporeal form.
Baruch and his same-sex partner, Balthamos, are both angels in rebellion from the Kingdom of Heaven. They seek to become part of Lord Asriel's army of angels and overthrow Metatron, the acting Regent of The Authority.
They seek to bring the bearer of the Subtle Knife, Will Parry, to Asriel and accompany Will without question when Will agrees to go to Asriel only after finding Lyra Belacqua. Baruch's courageous and dedicated nature leads to a fight with the Regent. Fatally wounded and separated from Balthamos and Will, Baruch goes to Lord Asriel, after providing Asriel with critically important information, he dies. The last word he utters is "Balthamos!", the name of his angelic partner.
Baruch appears in The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. In Arabic-Christian legends, the name Baruch is identified with Zoroaster. The prophecy of the birth of Jesus from a virgin, and of his adoration by the Magi, is also ascribed to this Baruch.[32] Whether this is relevant is not known.
Chevalier Tialys[edit]
The Chevalier Tialys is a character in The Amber Spyglass. He is a Gallivespian, a race of small beings described as being as tall as the length of a human hand. He serves as a spy to Lord Asriel and, along with his partner the Lady Salmakia, a loyal, if originally reluctant aid to Will Parry and Lyra Belacqua. He has dark hair, and is described as looking 'strong, capable, ruthless and proud'. He wears capri-length silver trousers and no shoes on his spurred feet.
Tialys first encounters the children when, along with Lord Asriel's forces, he arrives with Lady Salmakia to Mrs Coulter's cave, under orders to take the children to Lord Asriel. Lyra first realises that the Gallivespians are a force to be reckoned with when Lady Salmakia attacks Pantalaimon and holds her spur to his leg, in retaliation of Lyra's disrespect towards her. Unfortunately the spies are forced to back down when Will grabs hold of Tialys, and threatens to dash his head against a rock. It is not a good start, and the two parties heavily resent the other one. Tialys, however continues to flare up at being told what to do, but he has very little choice but to obey the children throughout. Tialys is an expert with a lodestone resonator, and uses it to secretly communicate to his superiors, despite being forbidden to do so by Will. Will is furious at the Chevalier's actions, and Tialys is forced to apologise, knowing he is in the wrong.
Later on in the novel, Tialys and Salmakia accompany the children to the world of the dead. Tialys and Lyra have a heated confrontation in the suburbs. Tialys tries to make Lyra do as he tells her to but Lyra launches into a tirade about how Tialys knows nothing about her and how she feels. After this is over Tialys is, once again, forced to back down. Tialys never grows to really like the girl, but begins to admire her courage, and she his. While entering the world of the dead, Tialys tries to kill No-Name the Harpy, to defend Lyra. Later, he bargains with the Harpies, and Lyra marvels at his nerve; the harpies could kill him with one slash of their claws and yet Tialys remains proud and fearless.
Tialys dies when attacking a cliff-ghast, having dug his spurs deep into her neck. Will in particular is stricken with grief, and openly cries heavily. Tialys was buried in a small grave alongside the Lady Salmakia.
Lady Salmakia[edit]
The Lady Salmakia is a character and Gallivespian spy in The Amber Spyglass. She, like her partner the Chevalier Tialys, is sent to guide Will Parry and Lyra Belacqua, but she is determined instead to obey them. She is described as "strong, capable, ruthless, and proud". She is also a much more calm and diplomatic individual than her partner, the Chevalier Tialys. When Lyra looks at her properly for the first time, quite a while after meeting her, she strikes Lyra as possessing a distinct maternal quality. The Lady Salmakia is not beautiful, but her face is exactly one that a suffering person would be happy to see, and her voice has a current of laughter that is also ideal, Lyra thinks, for reading to a child. Salmakia wears a similar costume to Tialys, spurred feet and a green blouse but with a silver skirt.
The lady first meets the children at the same time as the Chevalier, and takes a dislike to them, Lyra in particular. She attacks Pantalaimon after Lyra laughs at her tiny size, and holds her spur against his leg. Lyra sees this as a violation. The Lady later goes on to defuse the situation between Tialys and Iorek Byrnison, when it revealed that the spies have been double-crossing the children.
Later on, when on the boat crossing into the world of the dead, Salmakia wonders if Gallivespians have dæmons too, since the journey causes her and her partner terrible pains in their hearts. When entering the world of the dead, she also sneaks up on No-Name the harpy, spurring her in the foot, but this has no real effect. She bargains with No-Name later, agreeing that the ghosts should tell No-Name and her sisters true stories about the real world. Even later the situation becomes even more reversed when No-Name saves Lyra's life; Salmakia begins to thank No-Name again and again. Salmakia, true to her kindly face and almost motherly demeanour, is the voice of encouragement to cross the Abyss.
Lady Salmakia dies very shortly after Tialys, when the last of her energy has run out. She, like the Chevalier, has made a lasting impression on the children. She was buried in a grave next to Tialys.
Lord Boreal[edit]
Lord Carlo Boreal, or Sir Charles Latrom, CBE as he is known as in Will Parry's world, serves as a minor character in Northern Lights, but is a main antagonist in The Subtle Knife. He is an old Englishman, appearing to be in his sixties. He normally wears pale suits and is described as smelling sweetly.
Lord Boreal is first seen in Lyra Belacqua's world at the cocktail party of Mrs. Coulter. He interacts shortly with Lyra. He is also mentioned just before Lord Asriel crosses the bridge to Cittàgazze in Northern Lights as being a lover of Mrs. Coulter's.
Nothing more is heard of Lord Boreal until The Subtle Knife. While Lyra is exploring a museum in Will's world and looking at trepanned skulls, he watches her quietly. He then approaches her, appearing to be a kindly old man whose only interest in her is to discuss the skulls. Lyra remembers seeing him previously, but is unsure of his identity.
Later, when Lyra is being chased by the men who are after John Parry's notes, Latrom is in a chauffeured limousine and offers her a lift, taking her to Summertown in North Oxford. He hands her back her rucksack, from which, Lyra later discovers, the alethiometer is missing, stolen by Boreal. They go to his home, where Will accidentally reveals Lyra's real name, notices a serpent on Boreal's body, and guesses correctly that it is his dæmon. Lord Boreal tells them that they must get the Subtle Knife for him from Cittàgazze and he will return to them the alethiometer.
After retrieving the knife, Lyra and Will attempt to steal back the alethiometer. Will, using the Subtle Knife, breaks into Boreal's house, while Lyra remains outside where she sees Mrs. Coulter arriving at the house. Will listens to a conversation between Coulter and Boreal, and then steals back the alethiometer. Lyra and Will escape as Boreal tries to shoot the intruders, unaware of who they really are.
Boreal next appears in the office of Mary Malone. He tells her, and her colleague Dr. Oliver Payne, that he will fund their studies further and prevent their shutting down if they specifically continue experimenting under his approval. Malone, however, sees the deceit behind his promises.
Later, Boreal is in a tent in the mountains of Cittàgazze and is talking to Mrs. Coulter, who drugs his drink in order to make him tell her about the Subtle Knife, he dies shortly after from the poisoned drink. This is all seen by a witch, Lena Feldt, who then is discovered by Mrs. Coulter and tortured into telling her Lyra's true name: Eve, mother of all.
Boreal's name means "northern" or "related to the north", as in aurora borealis. His pseudonym, Latrom, is "mortal" spelled backwards. Whether or not this has significance to the story is unknown.
Ruta Skadi[edit]
Ruta Skadi is the Latvian witch queen, and a lover of Lord Asriel. Her dæmon is a bluethroat named Sergi. She is 416 years old (The Subtle Knife), and makes appearances in The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. Her second name, "Skadi", is also that of a Nordic winter goddess.
She accompanies Serafina Pekkala and her companions on part of their journey. She leaves, first to see the angels up above her, and she wants to help them because Lord Asriel is with them. She brings news of a mysterious weapon which turns out to be the Subtle Knife after overhearing tell of it from cliff ghasts. She is described as being very passionate, powerful, pitiless and beautiful, and has black hair and large black eyes. She wears a crown made of the teeth of tigers she killed when a tribe that worshiped them offended her. When it is revealed to the witches that Lyra, Lord Asriel and Marisa Coulter's daughter, is to become the second Eve, Ruta laments that as Asriel's lover, she did not become Lyra's mother, reflecting on what Lyra would have been like as a witch.
In the stage adaptation, however, she commits suicide after killing John Parry, who had, in the past, rejected her as a lover. In the book this is done by a more minor character (Juta Kamainen) who does not appear in the adaptation.
Xaphania is the leader of the rebel angels allied with Lord Asriel in the war against The Authority.
Xaphania first appears in the third book of the trilogy, The Amber Spyglass, at a council of Asriel's commanders. Like all Pullman's angels, she appears naked, winged, and luminous; due to her high rank and great age, she is clearly visible to corporeal beings. As is the norm with members of the angelic orders in the novels, there is a certain ambiguity surrounding Xaphania's exact appearance. She appears both ancient and young, compassionate and austere. Her simultaneous age and youth are remarked on by the witch Serafina Pekkala, who herself appears that way to shorter-lived people.
The angel Balthamos is the first character to refer explicitly to Xaphania. As he explains to Will Parry, she discovered that the Authority had lied to the other angels regarding his status as God the original Creator and so was banished from the Clouded Mountain. This was the start of the first struggle against the Kingdom, Xaphania being the leader of the rebel angels who intervened in human evolution to give mankind its present consciousness some thirty thousand years ago.
Towards the end of trilogy, and after the defeat of the Authority's forces, it is Xaphania who explains to Will and Lyra Belacqua that all the windows between the worlds must be sealed to prevent Dust from leaking away into the abyss, and that the Æsahættr (the Subtle Knife) must be destroyed.
The Master of Jordan College[edit]
The Master of Jordan heads Jordan College, part of Oxford University in Lyra's world. Helped by other Jordan College employees, he is raising the supposedly orphaned Lyra. In chapter 1 of Northern lights, he tries unsuccessfully to poison Lord Asriel. Lyra sees the Master poison a decanter of tokay wine that Asriel is expected to drink. She warns Asriel, who later "accidentally" knocks the decanter to the floor, blaming a servant for the mishap.
Father Gomez[edit]
Father Gomez is a priest sent by the Magisterium to assassinate Lyra. The Angel Balthamos kills Gomez before he can reach her. His dæmon is a green-backed beetle.
Fra Pavel[edit]
Fra Pavel Rašek is a representative and alethiometrist of the Consistorial Court of Discipline. He is said to be a thorough but sluggish reader of the truth, requiring weeks or months to take an accurate reading. He was, however, successful in obtaining information useful to the Consistorial Court in a relatively short period of time, according to Marisa Coulter. He appears to be uncomfortable when voicing potentially heretical discoveries. His dæmon takes the form of a frog.
Roger Parslow[edit]
Roger Parslow, a young kitchen boy and youngest of the Parslow family – who had long been employed as masons for Jordan College – was the best friend of Lyra Belacqua during her early life in Jordan College. Like Lyra, Roger possessed a strong sense of adventure, though he was often the cautioning voice when Lyra got too ambitious, and he and Lyra had explored all over Jordan, from the roofs, over the grounds, to the cellars and crypts. Roger's dæmon, named Salcilia, often appears as a terrier.
Roger is kidnapped by the General Oblation Board ("the Gobblers") and taken to their experimental center in Bolvangar. When Lyra arrives there he assists her in helping the children escape, once more proving his loyalty, and going on with her to see Lord Asriel in Svalbard. However this is his downfall, for which Lyra later blames herself, because Asriel uses Roger to create a hole between worlds by separating him from Salcillia, killing him in the process of channeling the energy from that separation to create the hole.
Roger's character is totally absent in The Subtle Knife, but in The Amber Spyglass, he makes a surprising re-appearance when Lyra encounters him lost and scared, trapped in the Land of the Dead, but eventually she manages to set him free to merge with the Dust in the living worlds. She arranges for this to be a release for all the dead willing to obey the guidelines; but Roger is the first to leave the World of the Dead.
The housemaid Mrs. Lonsdale is related to him. There is also a boy named "Simon Parslow", but it is not known whether Simon is related to Roger.
Metatron serves as the Regent of Heaven and is the ultimate antagonist of His Dark Materials. Metatron seeks to supplant the Authority, to destroy Lord Asriel and his army, and to kill the heroine Lyra Belacqua. He has immense personal power, and is shown as descending from the sky at one point to demolish a large area of land. He is betrayed by Mrs. Coulter, who promises herself to him as a prize for his victory over Lord Asriel. However, she conspires with Asriel to destroy him; the two sacrifice their lives to drag Metatron into an abyss between the universes to ensure that he can never threaten Lyra again. Like one version of the traditional Metatron, he is stated to have been the Biblical character Enoch, who is in the line between Adam and Noah. He appears only in The Amber Spyglass. The name Metatron is that of a medieval Judaic Archangel.
The Palmerian Professor[edit]
The Palmerian Professor is a minor character, possibly presented as a joke by Pullman: The Professor's initials, P.P., are the same as Pullman's. The author thus insinuates himself into the gathering of notables who – at the beginning of the story – have come to Jordan College to hear a presentation by Lord Asriel. Pullman is making a 'guest appearance' in his own novel.
Pullman is a graduate of Exeter College of Oxford University. Exeter's distinctive landmark and its oldest building is Palmer's Tower, hence the name "Palmerian". The Palmerian Professor is the leading authority on armoured bears, just as Pullman is. On the acknowledgements page at the end of the trilogy, Pullman facetiously characterises himself as a plagiarist who has "stolen" ideas from many literary sources. In the trilogy, Professor Jotham Santelia also calls the Palmerian Professor a "plagiarist".
The Professor's last name is revealed as Trelawney in Lyra's Oxford, in which a fold-out map shows an advert for a book by Professor P. Trelawney.
See also[edit]
- ^ Pullman, Philip (2007). Northern Lights. Scholastic. p. 352. ISBN 978-1-4071-0637-3.
- ^ Pullman, Philip (2007). Northern Lights. United Kingdom: Scholastic. pp. 121–124. ISBN 978-1-4071-0637-3.
- ^ a b c d Pullman, Philip (2007). Northern Lights. United Kingdom: Scholastic. ISBN 978-1-4071-0637-3.
- ^ Pullman, Philip (2007). The Subtle Knife. United Kingdom: Scholastic. p. 313. ISBN 978-0-439-94467-0.
- ^ a b c Pullman, Philip (2007). The Amber Spyglass. United Kingdom: Scholastic. ISBN 978-0-439-94468-7.
- ^ Pullman, Philip (2007). The Amber Spyglass. United Kingdom: Scholastic. pp. 502–503. ISBN 978-0-439-94468-7.
- ^ a b c Pullman, Philip, Northern Lights, 2003, BBC Audio, 9781408409411
- ^ a b c d "Golden Compass, The". New Line Cinema. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
- ^ Pullman, Philip (2007). The Subtle Knife. United Kingdom: Scholastic. pp. 8–10. ISBN 978-0-439-94467-0.
- ^ Pullman, Philip (2007). The Subtle Knife. United Kingdom: Scholastic. ISBN 978-0-439-94467-0.
- ^ Pullman, Philip (2007). The Subtle Knife. United Kingdom: Scholastic. pp. 173–180. ISBN 978-0-439-94467-0.
- ^ "Audiobooks". www.bridgetothestars.net. Retrieved 12 September 2013.
- ^ Pullman, Philip (2007). Northern Lights. United Kingdom: Scholastic. p. 11. ISBN 978-1-4071-0637-3.
- ^ Pullman, Philip (2007). Northern Lights. United Kingdom: Scholastic. p. 10. ISBN 978-1-4071-0637-3.
- ^ Pullman, Philip (2007). Northern Lights. United Kingdom: Scholastic. pp. 88–89. ISBN 978-1-4071-0637-3.
- ^ Pullman, Philip (2007). Northern Lights. United Kingdom: Scholastic. p. 375. ISBN 978-1-4071-0637-3.
- ^ Pullman, Philip (2007). Northern Lights. United Kingdom: Scholastic. p. 64. ISBN 978-1-4071-0637-3.
- ^ Pullman, Philip (2007). The Amber Spyglass. United Kingdom: Scholastic. pp. 205–206. ISBN 978-0-439-94468-7.
- ^ a b Pullman, Philip (2007). Northern Lights. United Kingdom: Scholastic. pp. 181–183. ISBN 978-1-4071-0637-3.
- ^ a b c d Pullman, Philip (2007). Northern Lights. United Kingdom: Scholastic. pp. 198–201. ISBN 978-1-4071-0637-3.
- ^ a b c d e Pullman, Philip (2007). Northern Lights. United Kingdom: Scholastic. pp. 320–321. ISBN 978-1-4071-0637-3.
- ^ Pullman, Philip (2007). Northern Lights. United Kingdom: Scholastic. pp. 354–358. ISBN 978-1-4071-0637-3.
- ^ Pullman, Philip (2007). The Amber Spyglass. United Kingdom: Scholastic. p. 111. ISBN 978-0-439-94468-7.
- ^ Pullman, Philip (2007). The Amber Spyglass. United Kingdom: Scholastic. pp. 187–194. ISBN 978-0-439-94468-7.
- ^ Pullman, Philip (2007). The Amber Spyglass. United Kingdom: Scholastic. pp. 413–417. ISBN 978-0-439-94468-7.
- ^ Pullman, Philip (2007). The Amber Spyglass. United Kingdom: Scholastic. p. 518. ISBN 978-0-439-94468-7.
- ^ a b Greenwell, Amanda M. (2010). "The Language of Pictures: Visual Representation and Spectatorship in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials". Studies in the Novel. 42 (1): 99–120. JSTOR 29533971.
- ^ Northern Lights, chapter 7
- ^ "The World Book Club, Philip Pullman, broadcast December 2005, downloadable mp3 file". Retrieved 7 February 2014.
- ^ http://books.scholastic.com/teachers/authorsandbooks/authorstudies/authorhome.jsp?authorID=78&displayName=Interview%20Transcript
- ^ Brian Jacks (2007-11-14). "'Golden Compass' Director Chris Weitz Answers Your Questions: Part I". MTV. Retrieved 2010-04-29. Chris Weitz says " The only difference is that he is called Ragnar Sturlusson and not Iofur Raknison. Why? I didn't want anyone to confuse his name with Iorek's."
- ^ http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/2562-baruch
External links[edit]
- Philip Pullman Author's website
- HisDarkMaterials.com Publisher Random House's His Dark Materials website
- Scholastic: His Dark Materials UK publisher's website
- Randomhouse: His Dark Materials U.S. publisher's website
- BBC Radio 4's His Dark Materials site inc. Dictionary of His Dark Materials and web Q&A with Philip Pullman
- The then Archbishop of Canterbury and Philip Pullman in conversation at the National Theatre, from The Daily Telegraph
- BridgetotheStars.net Fansite for His Dark Materials and Philip Pullman
- HisDarkMaterials.org His Dark Materials fansite
- Cittagazze.com French His Dark Materials fansite


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South Central Farm: Planting a Garden of Life Part 2
South Central Farm: Planting a Garden of Life
Part 2
Part 1
Part 2
HOST: Halo caring viewers, and welcome to Vegetarianism: The Noble Way of Living. Today, we feature 2-part series on the South Central Farm, an organic community farm and garden in California, USA.
The South Central Farm was first established in 1994 in a dense urban area in South Central Los Angeles. Located at 41st and Alameda Street, this 14-acre land had been cultivated by local residents for years.
Surrounded by warehouses and industry, this lush oasis hosted a diversity of plants, including fruit trees, vegetables, herbs, flowers, and even exotic flora.
The South Central farmers use sustainable farming methods, which do not involve any use of chemicals. Their products, fresh and organic, are abundant enough to feed the farmers, their family, and the community.
Hearing of their organic vegan farming work, Supreme Master Ching Hai had contributed US$10,000 to support their noble endeavors. Today, Tezozomoc, a representative from the South Central Farm, will tell us about the background of the farm.
It was a community garden that was put together after the 1992 uprisings. My father had started it with other community members.
Their land was a vacant lot that had been abandoned. When they first started to turn it into a community garden, people had to dig up pieces of concrete. They had to remediate the land.
They had to bring it back to life and then it began to feed about 350 families.
And then, not only that, but the extended family that went along with families like that. For a majority of the constituents were women, single women, retired, grandmothers who would bring their children there.
And then also to show them a different way of life, a constructive, a positive way of life that would impact them in a good way.
HOST: The original South Central Farmers came from different indigenous groups in Mesoamerica. Their traditional beliefs in farming involved caring for the land and retaining agricultural methods that do not use synthetic fertilizers or chemical pesticides.
To discover more about the South Central Farm and its great produce, please visit
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Just the other day we posted the press release about the AT&T Unite 4G LTE Hotspot from Sierra Wireless. Today we were able to get a hands on at the AT&T Developers conference to see it in action. Even with the heavy network congestion, they were able to pull up the HGTV website on an iPad in a scant few seconds. The color LCD display is clear and well laid out and the device felt light in the hand. It has the ability to connect up to 10 devices and according to the rep we spoke to has a standby time of 10 days.
Sadly, they still were not able to provide us with pricing saying that it will be announced later in the month shortly before the actual product launch to retail markets.
This new mobile hotspot makes customers' lives easier by allowing them to stay connected to family, friends, and work while on-the-go and on any Wi-Fi enabled device," said Jeff Bradley, senior vice president, Devices and Developer Services, AT&T. "Coupled with our Mobile Share plans, the AT&T Unite is a compelling and valuable option for connecting to the nation's largest 4G network.
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