A salmon cannery is a factory that commercially cans salmon. It is a fish-processing industry that became established on the Pacific coast of North America during the 19th century, and subsequently expanded to other parts of the world that had easy access to salmon.

Background
The "father of canning" is the Frenchman Nicolas Appert. In 1795, he began experimenting with ways to preserve food by placing it in sealed glass jars and then placing the jars in boiling water. During the first years of the Napoleonic Wars, the French government offered a 12,000-franc prize to anyone who could devise a cheap and effective method of preserving large amounts of food. The larger armies of the period required increased and regular supplies of quality food. Appert submitted his invention and won the prize in January 1810. The reason for lack of spoilage was unknown at the time, since Louis Pasteur did not demonstrate the role of microbes in food spoilage for another 50 years. However, glass containers presented challenges for transportation. Shortly after, the British inventor and merchant Peter Durand patented his own method, this time in a tin can, creating the modern-day process of canning foods.

Canning was used in the 1830s in Scotland to keep fish fresh until it could be marketed. By the 1840s, salmon was being canned in Maine and New Brunswick. The commercial salmon canneries had their main origins in California, and in the northwest of the US, particularly on the Columbia River. They were never important on the US Atlantic Coast, but by the 1940s, the principal canneries had shifted to Alaska.

The first salmon cannery in British Columbia began operating on the Fraser River in 1867.  Although this first cannery was short lived, many others soon followed.  Salmon canneries eventually spread throughout British Columbia, along the Fraser, Skeena, and Nass Rivers, as well as along much of the coast.

North America

Native Americans
Long before the appearance of Europeans, Native Americans operated a dried salmon industry from the Columbia River, trading salmon to the Plains tribes. The Native Americans usually captured salmon by manually hauling seine nets (dragnets). The nets were woven with spruce root fibers or wild grass, and used sticks made of cedar as floats and stones as weights. The movement of the sticks during seining helped keep the fish together. The technique was to "sweep nets during ebb tide from upstream to down, with the net anchored at the beach upstream. A boat then carried the net out and around salmon migrating upstream."

Settlers

Prior to canning, fish were salted to preserve them. Cobb claims that at the start of the 19th century, the Russians marketed salted salmon caught in  Alaska in St. Petersburg. Shortly after, the Northwest Fur Company started marketing salted salmon from the Columbia River. It then merged with the Hudson's Bay Company, and the salmon was marketed in Australia, China, Hawaii, Japan, and the eastern United States. Later, some salmon salteries were converted to salmon canneries.

The first industrial-scale salmon cannery in North America was established in 1864 on a barge in the Sacramento River by the four Hume brothers together with their partner Andrew S. Hapgood, the Hapgood-Hume Company. In 1866, the Hume brothers relocated the business to a site 50 miles inland on the Columbia River. The history of North American salmon canneries is exemplified by their history on the Columbia River. Within a few years, each of the Hume brothers had his own cannery. By 1872, Robert Hume was operating a number of canneries, bringing in Chinese people willing to work for low wages to do the cannery work, and having local Native American people do the fishing. By 1883, the salmon canneries had become the major industry on the Columbia River, with 1,700 gillnet boats supplying 39 canneries with 15,000 tonnes of salmon annually, mainly Chinook.

The settlers learned the use of seine nets from  Native Americans. By 1895, 84 seines were on the Columbia, and Robert Hume started hauling them with teams of horses. The seines were operated from daybreak to dusk around islands and along beaches. At Puget Sound, salmon were caught by fishing boats using purse seines, which are used to encircle a school of salmon and then trap them by drawing ("pursing") the bottom of the net together, as one would with a string purse. By 1905, the boats used engines for hauling the seine lines. In 1922, use of salmon purse seiners on and around the Columbia was made illegal. In 1948, horse and manual seines were also outlawed.

By 1889,   the Chinook runs were declining, and the canneries started processing the less sought-after steelhead and sockeye salmon, followed by coho and chum salmon. The numbers of salmon continued to decline because the canneries intercepted them before they could spawn in the upper river. The decline was accelerated by mining and forestry operations, and the introduction of grazing animals, which resulted in the spawning grounds becoming silted and polluted. Further aggravation resulted from the diversion of water for irrigation. Columbia salmon harvest managers responded to these declines by introducing the hatchery production of fish fry. As a result, production leveled and remained fairly stable for some decades, before going into a further steady decline from 1930. The Columbia's last major cannery closed in 1980.

In 1928, in an attempt to measure the escapement of salmon in Southeast Alaska, the United States Bureau of Fisheries constructed four special weirs designed so the passing salmon could be counted (photo below). Escapement is the proportion of spawning stock that survives fishing pressure during a salmon run. The counting stations were intended to provide harvest managers with data they needed to manage the salmon fisheries, but they missed much of the escapement. Smaller fish passed through the weirs uncounted, the salmon could not be counted during times of flood, and hundreds of other salmon streams in the area were without counting stations.

Cannery workers
People of many different nationalities worked in the canneries along the Pacific coast, thus creating an ideal atmosphere for the development of interracial relationships.  First Nations people made up the majority of the workforce, though Chinese, Japanese, and Caucasian workers were also present.  While at work in the canneries, each of these groups was housed in separate accommodations.  The single men generally stayed in racially segregated bunkhouses, while First Nations families lived in small huts or in camps near the canneries.  The jobs that these different groups performed at the cannery, as well as the wages that they earned, were generally decided by their race.

First Nations
While many of the foreign workers employed at canneries were single or married men trying to provide for their families back home, not uncommonly, entire First Nations families were present at the canneries.  Men, women, and children lived and worked alongside each other during the fishing season, before returning to their homes for the remainder of the year.  First Nations men were valued as excellent fishers, as fishing had been a part of their economy since long before settlers reached the coast.  While First Nations workers were valuable assets to the canneries, they were not always reliable in the sense that they did not always return year after year.  Most First Nations families had other means to provide for themselves, so they were not dependent on the income that the canneries provided, at least in the beginning.  In some cases, though, individuals or families returned to the same cannery year after year.

Chinese
Chinese workers originally performed many jobs inside the canneries.  They made tins, butchered fish, and packed them.  The Chinese were seen as well suited to these more feminine tasks because many people viewed them as a feminine race.  These workers were a source of cheap labor prior to the introduction of the head tax in 1903.  Afterwards, many workers were replaced or reallocated with the invention of the iron chink, a butchering machine said to replace up to 30 Chinese workers.  The name of this machine demonstrates the inherent racisms present at the time of its creation, and it has since been renamed as the iron butcher.  While European workers were generally hired on an individual basis, Chinese men commonly were hired through contractors.  These contractors, often called the China-boss, would agree on a set price with the cannery operators, and would then hire workers with that figure in mind.  Individual Chinese laborers were then paid by the contractor who hired them, though the contractor generally kept a large portion of the money.

Japanese
Japanese workers were prized for their ability to repair boats, as well as their skills as fishermen.  These skills placed them in direct competition with European and First Nations fishers.  Due to the nature of the jobs they performed, Japanese men were not seen as feminine, as the Chinese tended to be viewed.  Although they were still segregated from other workers, they were paid more, and they were higher on the social scale.  The Japanese played an important role in canneries until World War II, when many Japanese men were interned for the duration of the war.  At this time, many of their fishing vessels were also confiscated, making returning after the war difficult for them.  Despite this treatment, many Japanese men did return to cannery life in the aftermath of the war, though the return was slow, and was not welcomed by all.

Women
As mentioned above, many First Nations women came to the canneries with their husbands, fathers, or other male relatives.  They were not idle during the canning season, but performed a number of important tasks within the cannery, similar to the tasks performed by the Chinese.  Women cleaned fish, packed them into tins, mended nets, and acted as nursemaids to the many children on site.  They tended not to act as fishers, though some Native women may have accompanied their fathers on their boats, especially at a young age.  Although women were paid for the work that they performed, their wages were among the lowest in the cannery.  Within the canneries, as many as 50% of the workers could be women, which suggests that the female labor force was necessary to the operation of many canneries.

Although women of other nationalities were sometimes present at canneries, Native women were the most prolific.   Japanese women reportedly worked on the canning with their babies strapped to their backs, and records suggest that white women sometimes worked as cooks or assistant shopkeepers.  Aside from actively participating in the canning process, women helped to make the canneries into more than just work sites.  With the presence of women and children, canneries  became homes away from home for all of the workers on site.

Timeline
 1795–1810: Nicolas Appert worked out how to preserve food in sealed jars and won a 12,000-franc prize.
 1810: Peter Durand patented his more robust method of using tin cans, instead of breakable jars.
 1824: The first recorded time salmon was canned, in Aberdeen, Scotland.
 1839: Salmon first canned at Saint John, New Brunswick.
 1864: First commercial salmon cannery was established on a barge in the Sacramento River.
 1866: The cannery was relocated to the Columbia River, where it triggered an important industry.
 1867: James Symes preserved Fraser River salmon experimentally in hermetically sealed cans in his home kitchen.
 1870: The first commercial canning operation in British Columbia opened on the Fraser River.
 1878: The industry spread to Alaska, with a cannery on the Prince of Wales Island.
 1890: Commercial-scale operations started in northern Japan.
 1906: Siberia established its salmon-canning industry.
 1936: International production peaked at about 300,000 tonnes for the year.
 1980: The Columbia River's last major cannery closed.

Historical images

See also

 Alaska Packers' Association
 Alaska salmon fishery
 Alaskeros, salmon workers in Alaska
 Canned fish
 Canned sardines
 Cannery Row
 Columbia River Indigenous peoples
 History of fishing
 History of Sacramento Cannery Industry
 List of canneries
 List of canneries in British Columbia
 List of salmon canneries and communities
 List of seafood companies
 Rogue River Commercial fishing
 USS LCI(L)-1091

References

Further reading

 Blyth, Gladys Young (2006) Salmon Canneries: British Columbia North Coast Trafford Publishing. .
 Budd, Robert and Imbert Orchard (2010) "Voices of British Columbia: Stories from Our Frontier" Douglas & McIntyre. .
 Campbell, K. Mack (2004) Cannery Village: Company Town Trafford Publishing. .
 "Cassiar Payroll, 1946," Ledger, in MS 32 vol. 15, North Pacific Cannery Archives, Port Edward, BC.
 Crutchfield JA, Pontecorvo G (1969) The Pacific salmon fisheries: a study of irrational conservation. Johns Hopkins Press.
 Friday, Chris (1994) Organizing Asian American labor: the Pacific Coast canned-salmon industry, 1870-1942 Temple University Press. .
 Hume RD (1904) "The first salmon cannery". Pacific Fisherman Yearbook,  2 (1): 19–21.
 Mawani, Renisa (2010) "Colonial Proximities." UBC Press.
 Muszyńska, Alicja (1996) Cheap wage labour: race and gender in the fisheries of British Columbia McGill-Queen's Press. .
 Newell, Dianne (1990) The Development of the Pacific salmon-canning industry: a grown man's game McGill-Queen's Press. .
 Radke AC and Radke BS (2002) Pacific American Fisheries, Inc: history of a Washington State Salmon Packing Company, 1890-1966 McFarland. .
 Sisk, John (2005) "The Southeastern Alaska Salmon Industry: Historical Overview and Current Status" Southeast Alaska Conservation Assessment.., Chapter 9.5.
 Smith, Courtland L (1979) Salmon fishers of the Columbia Oregon State University Press. .
 Yesaki M, Steves H and Steves K (2005) Steveston Cannery Row: an illustrated history Mitsuo. .

External links

 "A Brief Overview of the History of Fish Culture and its Relation to Fisheries Science" Gary D. Sharp, Center for Climate/Ocean Resources Study,'' Monterey.
Cannery Workers and Their Unions, from the Waterfront Workers History Project.

Salmon

Salmon cannery


Roxy's Baby is a 2005 young adult novel by Catherine MacPhail. It is about a fifteen-year-old girl named Roxy who becomes pregnant and subsequently runs away from home.

Plot
Roxy is a fifteen-year-old girl living with her mother, her younger sister, and her new step-dad. Upset about her father's death and resentful of her mother remarrying, she begins to rebel. She attends a party where she has sex for the first time. Soon realising she's pregnant, Roxy runs away from home in fear. She goes to London, hoping to stay a shelter she read about, but quickly leaves when she realises the woman in charge will phone the police, when she learns Roxy is underage.

Luckily, she finds help in the form of Mr and Mrs Dyce, a couple who host young pregnant women in their country house. Things quickly become suspicious; the girls in the Dyces' care are completely cut off from the rest of the world, not allowed to leave the grounds, or even read newspapers or listen to the radio, and once a girl is sent into the birthing room she's never seen again. The Dyces have answers to all of these, but things still seem odd.

One night Roxy slips out, and discovers the Dyces have an extremely sinister motive behind their kindness...

Reception
It won the 13–16 years category at the 2006 Royal Mail Awards for Scottish Children's Books. It was also shortlisted for the Manchester Book Award and longlisted for the Carnegie Medal.

References

2005 British novels
English novels
British young adult novels
Novels about teenage pregnancy
Bloomsbury Publishing books

Roxy's Baby


Coleg Glan Hafren, formerly Rumney College (and before that Rumney College of Technology), was a Further Education college based in Cardiff which merged with Barry College in September 2011 to form the new Cardiff and Vale College.

Background
The college had over 12,000 students and provided over 800 courses, including A levels (including A level and AS level Business Studies), GCSE re-sits and languages; Business and Professional courses such as Law, Marketing and Accounting; Hair and Beauty; Access, ESOL and Open Door; Sport, Catering, Childcare and Travel and Tourism; Creative and Digital courses and Engineering and Construction Technology courses. The courses were provided to students from the age of 14, who may have studied while still at school or from the age of 16, up to the eldest student at the college, at 80 years old. There were also courses run for international students, under the college's British Council-accredited Cardiff College International.

The college had two campuses and four sites. One campus was on Trowbridge Road on the east side of the city. The other campus was in the city centre, with two sites on The Parade, at no. 27 and no. 35. The college also ran a commercial hair and beauty training salon in Cardiff's Castle Arcade, called the Design Academy. The college also provided courses at other sites, notably in Ely.

The college was formed in 1989 and was incorporated in 1993 under a Royal Charter. The name means "College by the River Severn" in English. The college was intended to serve the east-side of Cardiff, with another college intended to serve the west-side of Cardiff. There are six faculties within the college and the Acting Principal from 2009 until 2011.

Coleg Glan Hafren began merger discussions in 2008 with Barry College and in November 2010 announced they had agreed to merge, in response to the Welsh Government's Transformation Agenda which encouraged Welsh colleges to collaborate in order to maximise student benefits and improve student learning. They merged in September 2011 to form the new Cardiff and Vale College.

References

External links
Coleg Glan Hafren

Further education colleges in Cardiff
Educational institutions established in 1989
Defunct universities and colleges in Wales
Educational institutions disestablished in 2011
1989 establishments in Wales
2011 disestablishments in Wales

Coleg Glan Hafren


A Hospital ship is a big boat which is built to cure patients. Most are operated by militaries, or by governments. Attacking one is a war crime, but Hospital ships are not allowed to carry any weapons, and enemy navies (if the owner of the Hospital ship is at war) are allowed to inspect them. And hospital ship is due to be protected by Second Geneva Convention.

Ship types

Hospital ship


The Prisma Health Swamp Rabbit Trail is a  multi-use rail trail in Greenville County, South Carolina, that largely follows the bed of a former railroad that had been nicknamed after the indigenous swamp rabbit. South-to-north the current trail begins at Greenville Technical College, crosses the city of Greenville, proceeds through Falls Park and the campus of Furman University, and ends about a mile north of the Travelers Rest city limits.

History
In 1999, Greeville County Council created the Greenville County Economic Development Corporation to purchase the roadbed of the defunct Greenville & Northern Railway for dual use as a greenway and light rail passenger line. The proposed commuter rail was quickly abandoned, but the Greenville News editorially suggested a bike and hiking trail, though admitting the plan to be an "unrealistic dream." As late as 2005, the head of a Greenville conservation group hiked the route "armed with a machete" because the proposed trail was "heavily overgrown...almost impassible in parts."

Although planning for a multi-use trail began that summer, the Surface Transportation Board in Washington had to approve the abandonment of the line, and a private Greenville firm suggested buying it and resuming rail service.  Eventually the private firm bowed out, and in April 2006, the STB approved the abandonment. In 2007, the Greenville Health System gave $1 million towards the $2.7 million project, and the trail was officially named the Greenville Health System Swamp Rabbit Trail. The Swamp Rabbit Trail was already attracting users by January 2008, even before it officially opened in 2010 after considerable "legal entanglements, regulatory roadblocks, financial issues and citizen opposition."

One currently unconnected section runs from Lake Conestee Nature Park to Parkins Mill Road and I-85, and another disconnected section exists in Fountain Inn. Residents of the affluent Parkins Mill neighborhood have opposed a connector from the Lake Conestee section, but Greenville County plans to bridge the gap with underpasses or overpasses.

A 2012 study estimated that more than 350,000 people annually used the trail and that area businesses increased their sales from 30 to 85%. A 2014 study estimated usage had increased to half a million people a year, a quarter of whom were tourists. In 2013, the mayor of Travelers Rest said that the trail had "been phenomenal for the whole county, but more so for us in Travelers Rest. I can't begin to tell you how much of an economic boost it's been to this town." A 2012 Greenville News editorial described the Swamp Rabbit Trail as "one of the most popular assets in Greenville County...proving that when it comes to such trails, if you build them they will come." In 2016, Greenville County Recreation estimated the trail's economic impact on the county to be $7 million per year.

References

External links
Trail maps
Trail of the Month-April 2010: Rails-to-Trails Conservancy

Rail trails in South Carolina
Parks in South Carolina
Hiking trails in South Carolina
Protected areas of Greenville County, South Carolina
Transportation in Greenville County, South Carolina
Bike paths in South Carolina
Urban planning in the United States
Geography of Greenville, South Carolina

Swamp Rabbit Trail


Michael Calvin McGee (October 21, 1943, in Rockwood, Tennessee – October 27, 2002, in Iowa City, Iowa) was an American rhetorical theorist, writer, and social critic.

Personal life
The son of John Vester and Dorothy Eloise (Hicks) McGee, he spent his early years in Knoxville, Tennessee. He graduated with a B.A. in Speech from Butler University, where he was a champion debater. In 1967 he graduated with an M.A. in Rhetoric from Cornell University. In 1973 he married Lyda Eugenia Twitty. In 1974 he received his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa, writing his dissertation "Edmund Burke's Beautiful Lie: An Exploration of the Relationship between Rhetoric and Social Theory" under Donald C. Bryant. He received some criticism for his teaching because of his staunch liberalism, which affected his teaching style, but despite this, he was still a very sought-after professor, teaching at major universities in the United States such as the University of Alabama, the University of Memphis, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is known for his materialistic views of rhetoric, summarized from the lesser-known McGee essay "The Practical Identity of Thought and Its Expression". In 1979 he moved to Iowa City, where he settled in at the University of Iowa.

Major contributions
McGee had many major contributions in the realm of rhetoric and cultural studies. He published three major works: Rhetoric in Postmodern America, The Ideograph: A Link between Rhetoric and Ideology, and Text, Context, and the Fragmentation of Contemporary Culture. The most important of these is considered to be his second major work, The Ideograph. McGee was the first rhetorical theorist to propose this concept on an ideograph, which he described as, "an ordinary-language term found in political discourse. It is a high-order abstraction representing a commitment to a particular but equivocal and ill-defined normative goal." Also he was a critic of what he saw going on in the world around him. The most well-known of these critiques was his critique of Spike Lee and his association with Nike ads. McGee said that these ads were too racially stereotypical and made a case for Lee to cease these ads but Lee continued with them nonetheless.

Later life

McGee was one of the founders of the American Communication Association and a member of the National Communication Association. In his last years, he was very active in virtual rhetorical communities and online debates. McGee founded a website, (f)ragments, for rhetorical research and created a virtual learning community.

References

External links
American Communication Association
National Communication Association

1943 births
2002 deaths
20th-century American educators
Cornell University alumni
Academics from Knoxville, Tennessee
Writers from Iowa City, Iowa
University of Alabama faculty
University of Iowa alumni
University of Iowa faculty
University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty
Butler University alumni
People from Rockwood, Tennessee

Michael Calvin McGee


Earlham Institute (EI, formerly The Genome Analysis Centre (TGAC)) is a life science research institute located at the Norwich Research Park (NRP), Norwich, England. EI's research is focused on exploring living systems by applying computational science and biotechnology to answer ambitious biological questions and generate enabling resources.

History

The institute was established by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council in partnership with East of England Development Agency (EEDA), Norfolk County Council, Norwich City Council, South Norfolk Council and the Greater Norwich Development Partnership. It cost £13.5 million, and was built by Morgan Sindall. It was officially opened on 3 July 2009 by John Sulston, winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and former Director of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, another genomics research institution.

In early June 2011, it unveiled a supercomputer on its site that has the most powerful processor in the world that runs Red Hat Linux, with six terabytes of RAM. It was installed to crack the structure of the wheat genome, which is five times larger than the human genome.

In June 2016, Earlham Institute completed a rebranding project which saw the name transition from The Genome Analysis Centre (TGAC) to Earlham Institute (EI).

Structure

It is situated on the Norwich Research Park, to the west of Norwich on the former A47 (B1108), and adjacent to the west of the University of East Anglia, next to the River Yare.

Function

The goal of this institute is to be at the forefront of data intensive science in biology, to be a leader in bioinformatics innovation and the application of genome technology and to enable bioscience through dissemination of the data and technology produced in the institute and in collaboration with external scientists worldwide. Project specialisms include wheat and ryegrass, but the wider research carried out includes vertebrate, evolutionary, environment, and regulatory genomics as well as data infrastructure and software development to support the international bioscience community. EI makes its research open access where possible.

Directors
Earlham Institute has been directed by:
 Prof Jane Rogers from July 2009 to December 2012;
 Prof Mario Caccamo from January 2013 to July 2015;
 Prof Dylan Edwards from August 2015 (Interim Director)
 Prof Neil Hall from April 2016 (Current Director)

Communicating science

One of the responsibilities of EI is to communicate the science it undertakes to a range of audiences, such as the international scientific community, the general public, school children, and students. It runs various programmes throughout the year to deliver this responsibility, as well as producing editorial features to explain the research it carries out.

Facilities

EI has a state-of-the-art scientific training facility which helps support the delivery of workshops and training courses to support the international bioscience community.

Sequencing platforms
EI is equipped with next-generation sequencing and genomics platforms for high-throughput data generation for research projects. EI historically has been an early adopter of new technologies for its scientific research, but also makes these available to the UK bioscience community through its National Capability in Genomics.

 Illuina NovaSeq
 Illumina HiSeq 2500
 Illumina MiSeq
 Illumina iSeq100
 PacBio Sequel
 PacBio Sequel II
 Oxford Nanopore MinION
 Oxford Nanopore GridION
 10X Chromium

Pandemic support
Scientists at Earlham Institute and Quadram Institute are helping to develop a new tool to translate the dynamic microbiome/body communication. The method would be useful to researchers seeking to learn how microbes impact safety, the modifications contributing to illness, and pointing to new targets for medicines.

References

External links

Biotechnology in the United Kingdom
Biotechnology organizations
Bioinformatics organizations
Buildings and structures completed in 2009
Buildings and structures in Norwich
Genetics in the United Kingdom
Genetics or genomics research institutions
Government agencies established in 2009
Organisations based in Norwich
Research institutes in Norfolk
South Norfolk
2009 establishments in England
Research institutes established in 2009

Earlham Institute


Ramm may refer to the following people
Given name
 Ramm Hansen (1879–1971) Norwegian born American architect

Surname
 Alexander Ramm (born 1940), American mathematician
 Alexandra Ramm-Pfemfert (1883–1963), German-Russian translator, publisher and gallery owner
 Benjamin Ramm (born 1982), British commentator on liberal politics
 Bernard Ramm (1916–1992), American Baptist theologian and apologist
 Eilert Waldemar Preben Ramm (1769–1837), Norwegian military officer
 Colin Ramm (1921–2014), Australian particle physicist
 Eva Ramm (born 1925), Norwegian psychologist, essayist, novelist and children's writer
 Fredrik Ramm (1892–1943), Norwegian journalist
 Friedrich Ramm (1744–1813), German oboist
 Haley Ramm (born 1992), American actress
 Harald Ramm (1895–1970), Norwegian barrister
 John Ramm, English comedian and actor
 Leandra Ramm (born 1984), American singer-songwriter, actress and television performer
 Nikolai Ramm Østgaard (1885–1958), Norwegian military officer
 Nick Ramm, British pianist and composer
 Nils Ramm (1903–1986), Swedish boxer
 Nils Arntzen Ramm (1903–1974), Norwegian engineer, military captain, and businessperson
 Olaf von Ramm, Canadian engineer
 Regine Ramm Bjerke (born 1949), Norwegian judge
 Wilhelm Ramm (1921–1982), Norwegian chess player

Band
 Rammstein, German heavy-metal band

Ramm


Rebel Love is a 1985 drama film written and directed by Milton Bagby and starring Jamie Rose and Terence Knox. It was distributed by Troma Entertainment.

Set during the American Civil War, the film follows a Yankee war widow (played by Rose) who takes an injured Confederate spy (played by Knox) into her home out of pity, only to find herself falling in love with him.

The picture was shot on locations in Birmingham and Bessemer, Alabama during the summer of 1983, with many scenes filmed at the Tannehill Ironworks Historical State Park. The producers utilized local crews and talent as much as possible.

The film was a finalist in the 1985 USA Film Festival in Dallas.  Despite a modest theatrical run, Rebel Love enjoyed a cable release on Showtime and was later distributed on video by Vestron.  Rose, who started on television in the series Falcon Crest, went on to star in her own 1980s crime drama series, Lady Blue.  Knox, who first gained fame as the villainous Dr. Peter White on the series St. Elsewhere, later starred for three years as the lead character on the popular series Tour of Duty, a Vietnam War drama.

References

External links

1985 films
1985 drama films
American independent films
Troma Entertainment films
1985 independent films
1980s English-language films
1980s American films

Rebel Love


Norton Lakeside Halt railway station is a heritage railway station on the Chasewater Railway in Staffordshire.  It is a simple halt, consisting of a single platform, with no station building and no loops or sidings.  It is situated in Chasewater Country Park.  To the west is Brownhills West railway station and to the east is Chasewater Heaths railway station.

Heritage railway stations in Staffordshire
Railway stations built for UK heritage railways

Norton Lakeside Halt railway station


Achill Rovers F.D.A.C. is an Irish association football club based in Achill Island, County Mayo. The club was founded in 1986 following the merger of Achill United F.C. and Achill Eagles A.D.F.C.. Its senior men's team competes in the Mayo Association Football League. In July 2015 Achill Rovers were named the Aviva Club of the Year by the FAI.

History

Early years
In 1974 Achill United was formed by Fr. Vincent O'Brien. Achill Rovers home ground is named after Fr. O'Brien. In August 1979 Achill Eagles Athletic Drama & Football Club was formed during a meeting in the Minaun Bar. Both clubs were moderately successful junior clubs. However, by 1986 it was clear that in order for an Achill team to remain competitive a merger would be necessary. By the end of the 1985–86 season both Achill United and Achill Eagles were finding it difficult to field full sides. At a meeting in the Slievemore Hotel on 21 April 1986 it was decided to amalgamate the two clubs as Achill Rovers.

Mayo champions
In 1997 and 1998 Achill Rovers finished as runners up and then champions of the Mayo Association Football League. Despite finishing the 1998 season as champions, Achill Rovers subsequently found themselves relegated following a reorganization of the Mayo League. In the addition to renaming the top division the Super League, the league also introduced new criteria for home grounds and facilities. Achill Rovers failed to match the required standards and as result the club found itself excluded from the revamped league.

Achill Rovers on Radio
In 2014 RTÉ Radio 1's The John Murray Show announced that they were going to follow and support Achill Rovers as their underdogs during the 2014 season. Packie Bonner was appointed celebrity coach for the show. In August 2014, Achill Rovers also featured in the BBC Radio 4 documentary series Crossing Continents. The episode focused on immigration from Ireland and the importance of sport in rural communities. The programme featured  interviews with Enda Kenny and with players and officials from Achill Rovers, Achill GFC and  Kilmeena GAA.

Joseph N'Do
In February 2015 Joseph N'Do joined Achill Rovers as a part-time coach, initially working with the U13 and U12 boys, U14 and U12 girls teams and the men's junior team. In January 2016 it was announced that N'Do had also registered with Rovers as a player.
In March 2017, the club signed another international player, Togolese striker, Cyril Guedjé.

Aviva Club of the Year
In July 2015 Achill Rovers were named the Aviva Club of the Year by the FAI and were presented with the award by John Delaney. After being nominated in the participation category Achill Rovers received a cheque of €1,500. They won the award for increasing membership numbers, despite a falling population, and building a club that is open to all the community, actively encouraging new residents to become involved in all aspects of club life. Achill Rovers received a cheque for €5,000 as the overall winners.

Grounds
Achill Rovers play their home games at Fr. O'Brien Park. They have also played home games at the  Currane Community Sports Field.

Gallery

Squad

Honours
Mayo Association Football League
Winners (1): 1998
Runners-up (1): 1997
Aviva FAI Club of the Year
Winners (1): 2015

References

Association football clubs in County Mayo
Association football clubs established in 1986
1986 establishments in Ireland
Achill Island

Achill Rovers F.D.A.C.


NVC community CG7 (Festuca ovina - Hieracium pilosella - Thymus praecox/pulegioides grassland) is one of the calcicolous grassland communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of three short-sward communities associated with heavy grazing, within the lowland calcicolous grassland group, and is regarded as the eastern counterpart of "typical" chalk grassland (community CG2).

It is a comparatively widely distributed community. There are five subcommunities.

Community composition

The following constant species are found in this community:
 Sheep's Fescue (Festuca ovina)
 Mouse-ear Hawkweed (Hieracium pilosella)
 Rough Hawkbit (Leontodon hispidus)
 Wild Thyme (Thymus praecox) / Large Thyme (T. pulegioides)
 Cypress-leaved Plait-moss (Hypnum cupressiforme)

The following rare species are also associated with the community:
 Field Wormwood (Artemisia campestris)
 Purple Milk-vetch (Astragalus danicus)
 Rare Spring-sedge (Carex ericetorum)
 Wall Bedstraw (Galium parisiense)
 Lizard Orchid (Himantoglossum hircinum)
 Hutchinsia (Hornungia petraea)
 Bur Medick (Medicago minima)
 Sickle Medick (Medicago falcata)
 Sand Lucerne (Medicago sativa ssp. varia)
 Fine-leaved Sandwort (Minuartia hybrida)
 Purple-stem Cat's-tail (Phleum phleoides)
 Spring Cinquefoil (Potentilla neumanniana)
 Sand Catchfly (Silene conica)
 Spanish Catchfly (Silene otites)
 Breckland Thyme (Thymus serpyllum)
 Spiked Speedwell (Veronica spicata)
 Spring Speedwell (Veronica verna)
 Side-fruited Crisp-moss Pleurochaeta squarrosa
 the lichen Bacidia muscorum
 the lichen Buellia epigaea
 the lichen Diploschistes scrupsos var. bryophilus
 the lichen Fulgensia fulgens
 the lichen Lecidea decipiens
 the lichen Squamaria lentigera
 the lichen Toximia caerulea var. nigricans
 the lichen Toximia lobulata

Distribution

This community is found scattered throughout chalk grassland sites in southern England, particularly in The Brecks on the Norfolk/Suffolk border, with outlying clusters in the Yorkshire Wolds (also on chalk), and on Carboniferous limestone in Derbyshire and Mendip Hills.

Subcommunities

There are five subcommunities:
 the Koeleria macrantha subcommunity
 the Cladonia spp. subcommunity
 the Ditrichum flexicaule - Diploschistes scruposus var. bryophilus subcommunity
 the Fragaria vesca - Erigeron acer subcommunity
 the Medicago lupulina - Rumex acetosa subcommunity

References

 Rodwell, J. S. (1992) British Plant Communities Volume 3 - Grasslands and montane communities  (hardback),  (paperback)

CG07

British NVC community CG7


Fraggle Rock (also known as Jim Henson's Fraggle Rock or Fraggle Rock with Jim Henson's Muppets) is a children's musical fantasy comedy puppet television series about interconnected societies of Muppet creatures, created by Jim Henson.

An international co-production of Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States, Fraggle Rock was co-produced by British television company Television South (TVS), the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), U.S. pay television service Home Box Office (HBO), and Henson Associates. Unlike The Muppet Show & Sesame Street, which had been created for a single market and only later adapted for international markets, Fraggle Rock was intended from the start to be an international production, and the entire show was constructed with this in mind. At least four different versions of the human "wraparound" segments were produced separately to air in different countries.

Following the success of the Fraggle Rock: Rock On! shorts which aired on Apple TV+ in April 2020, a reboot of Fraggle Rock was ordered by the streaming service. Known as Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock, it premiered on January 21, 2022.

History
Fraggle Rock debuted in 1983 as one of the first shows involving the collaboration of Henson International Television (HiT Entertainment from 1989), the international arm of Jim Henson Productions. The co-production brought together British regional ITV franchise-holder Television South (TVS), CBC Television (Canada), and U.S. pay-TV service Home Box Office and the Jim Henson Company (then known as Henson Associates). Filming took place on a Toronto soundstage. The avant-garde poet bpNichol worked as one of the show's writers. In the early days of development, the script called the Fraggles "Woozles" pending the devising of a more suitable name.

Henson described the Fraggle Rock series as "a high-energy, raucous musical romp. It's a lot of silliness. It's wonderful." The program proved accessible to audiences of all ages, and used the fantasy creatures as an allegory to deal with serious issues such as prejudice, spirituality, personal identity, the environment, and social conflict.

In 2009, as part of the Jim Henson Foundation's donation of puppets to the Center for Puppetry Arts, the Atlanta museum displayed many of the original puppet characters from Fraggle Rock in their exhibition Jim Henson: Wonders from his Workshop.

International co-productions
The producers made the series with the intention of it airing in various forms internationally. That concept grew out of Jim Henson's experience adapting Sesame Street to the requirements of foreign markets. The human "wraparound" segments were produced separately in several countries, so the viewer could always relate to the world of the program. The series has appeared now in over 10 countries and languages. The head producer was Wesley James Tomlinson.
 The original North American version, filmed in Toronto, features an inventor named Doc (played by Gerry Parkes) and his dog Sprocket. This wraparound was also used in Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, the Republic of Ireland, Scandinavia, Spain, Japan, and Eastern Europe. Dutch, Scandinavian, Spanish, Japanese, and Eastern European shows were dubbed in their respective languages.
 The British inserts were filmed first at the TVS Television Theatre in Gillingham, Kent, and later at their larger studio complex in Maidstone (the former since closed and demolished) and presents Fraggle Rock as a rock-filled sea island with a lighthouse. Exterior footage was that of St Anthony's Lighthouse located near Falmouth in Cornwall. The lighthouse keeper is The Captain (played by Fulton Mackay), a retired sailor who lives with his faithful dog Sprocket. In the third season, as MacKay had died in 1987, the role was played by John Gordon Sinclair as P.K., (the Captain's nephew) and in the fourth and final season by Simon O'Brien as B.J. (son of the lighthouse's owner, Mr. Bertwhistle). In 2014, 35 of these British wraparounds were still missing, believed wiped, although subsequent recoveries have gradually reduced this number. As of December 2020, all 96 wraparounds have been found and handed over to the BFI, confirming that the entire UK production still exists in some shape or form. Nickelodeon repeated it in the UK from 1993, as did Boomerang and Cartoonito in 2007. The episodes shown were the original North American versions.
 In France, the wraparound segments take place in a bakery with its version of Doc (played by Michel Robin) who worked as a baker and a French Sprocket called Croquette. Doc inherited the home from his eccentric Uncle Georges (who was a noted inventor). Thus, when the frame story required the use of a mechanical device, Doc would find yet another of Uncle Georges's machines. Plot-lines also frequently involved the elegant but unseen Madame Pontaven (whom Doc repeatedly attempted to impress and invite to dinner with no success). Not all of the 96 episodes were produced in French.
 In the German version, the action takes place beneath the workshop of the inventor Doc (played by Hans-Helmut Dickow). The series was named Die Fraggles with 85 of the 96 produced episodes being presented in German.

Characters

There are four main intelligent anthropomorphic species in the Fraggle Rock environment: Fraggles, Doozers, Gorgs, and Silly Creatures. The Fraggles and Doozers live in a system of natural caves called Fraggle Rock that are filled with all manner of creatures and features and which connect to at least two different areas:
 The Land of the Gorgs which they consider part of the "Universe".
 "Outer Space" (our world).

One of the main themes of the series is that, although the three species depend on the other for their survival, they usually fail to communicate due to vast differences in their biology and culture. The series mainly follows the adventures of five Fraggles, each with their own personality: pragmatic Gobo, artistic Mokey, indecisive Wembley, superstitious Boober, and adventurous Red. Some of the characters' names are film industry in-jokes. For example, Uncle Traveling Matt is a reference to the traveling matte technique used with blue screen to give the impression a character is somewhere they are not; Gobo is named after a shaped metal grill placed over a theater light to produce interesting shadows (window shapes, leaves, etc.) and Red is a reference to a "redhead", another name for an 800w film light.

Fraggles
Fraggles are small anthropomorphic creatures, typically  tall, that come in a variety of colors and have fur tuft tipped tails. Fraggles live a generally carefree life, spending most of their time (they have a thirty-minute work week) playing, exploring, and generally enjoying themselves. They live on mainly radishes and Doozer sticks, made of ground-up radishes and the material with which the Doozers build their constructions. The Fraggles seek wisdom from Marjory the Trash Heap, who is located in a corner of the Gorgs' garden. Marjory the Trash Heap is a large, matronly, sentient compost heap. According to her rat-like companions Philo and Gunge, the Trash Heap "knows all and sees all." By her own admission, she has "everything".

Doozers

Within Fraggle Rock lives a second species of small humanoid creatures, the pudgy, green, and industrious Doozers. They stand about  tall ("knee-high to a Fraggle"). Doozers are in a sense the opposite of Fraggles; their lives are dedicated to working and industry. Doozers spend much of their time busily constructing all manner of scaffolding throughout Fraggle Rock, using miniature construction equipment and wearing hardhats and work boots. Doozers build their constructions out of an edible candy-like substance (manufactured from radishes) which is greatly enjoyed by Fraggles. This is essentially the only interaction between Doozers and Fraggles; Doozers spend most of their time building just for the sake of it, and Fraggles spend much of their time eating Doozer buildings which they consider delicious. The Doozers say in an early episode that "architecture is meant to be enjoyed", and in "The Preachification of Convincing John" Mokey prevents the other Fraggles from eating the building work, believing it to be insensitive to the Doozers. As a result, the Doozer building eventually takes over Fraggle Rock, and once full the Doozers plan on moving out as they have nowhere left to build. They explain that they want the Fraggles to eat their work to create space for more building work to go up again. Despite this co-dependence, the Doozers generally maintain a low opinion of Fraggles, considering them frivolous. The Doozers also seem to have little knowledge of the universe outside Fraggle Rock; early in the series, they are unaware of the existence of the Gorgs or their garden. However, there was also one time when Doc found, in his workshop an ancient-looking Doozer helmet, indicating that the Doozers may have explored outside Fraggle Rock into "Outer Space" at some time in their forgotten past.

Adolescent Doozers come of age with a "taking the helmet" ceremony, in which they proudly accept their Doozer helmet from the Doozer Architect, after swearing to live a life of hard work. Rarely, a Doozer will refuse to "take the helmet"; a once in a generation occurrence that is generally met with shock and disbelief in the Doozer community. Such non-conformist Doozers can, however, find places of high regard in Doozer society, due to the advantages of their more creative way of thinking.

Gorgs
Outside another exit from Fraggle Rock live a small family of Gorgs, fat furry humanoids standing about . The husband and wife of the family, Pa, and Ma, consider themselves the King and Queen of the Universe, with their son Junior Gorg as its prince and heir-apparent, but to all appearances, they are simple farmers with a rustic house and garden patch. In "The Gorg Who Would Be King", Pa says he has ruled for 742 years.

Fraggles are considered pests by the Gorgs, as they often steal radishes from the garden. The Fraggles do not consider it stealing. The Gorgs use the radishes to make anti-vanishing cream, without which they disappear headfirst.

The Silly Creatures of Outer Space
In the North American, French, and German versions of Fraggle Rock (along with most other foreign dubs), the connection between Fraggle Rock and Outer Space is a small hole in the wall of the workshop of an eccentric inventor named Doc and his (Muppet) dog Sprocket. In the British version, the situation is much the same, except that the hole leads into the living quarters of a lighthouse where the keeper lives with his dog, Sprocket.

Gobo must go out into Doc's workshop to retrieve the postcards from his uncle Matt from the wastebasket where Doc throws them, assuming they are misdelivered. Traveling Matt (a pun on traveling matte, the film compositing technique used in his segments) is exploring the wider world, observing humans, and reporting humorously false conclusions about their everyday behavior.

Sprocket often sees and chases Gobo, but can't convince Doc anything lives beyond the wall. Sprocket and Doc have many similar miscommunications throughout the series, given the language barrier, but overall, they understand each other quite well.

In the final episode arc of the original North American version of the show, Doc himself finally meets Gobo and befriends him.  Gobo tells Doc that Fraggles refer to humans as "silly creatures", and apologizes. Doc tells him that he thinks that it is a very good name for humans. Unfortunately in the final episode, Doc and Sprocket have to move to another state, but the Fraggles discover a magic tunnel that allows them to visit Doc and Sprocket's new home easily at any time.

Episodes

Broadcast history
The CBC/HBO version of the series has been broadcast and dubbed in 95 countries. The series airs on Channel 7, TV One, Doordarshan, and Workpoint TV. Others were broadcast on Coub as an uploaded video, and others broadcast on TVtropolis (Canada), Bolivision (Bolivia), and CNC3 (Trinidad and Tobago).

After the show ended on HBO in 1987, the channel started to rerun the series. In 1988, it ran on TNT. The show aired on Disney Channel from October 1, 1992 to September 30, 1996. From 1999 to 2001, the show moved to Odyssey Network, which had recently been purchased by Henson and Hallmark. After Hallmark took full control, it discontinued the reruns. From October 10, 2010 to October 4, 2014, reruns aired on The Hub as part of the channel's launch.

In 2007, Fraggle Rock reruns aired on television internationally. On July 23, 2007, Boomerang and Cartoonito started repeating episodes of the original North American production of Fraggle Rock in the UK, as they were unable to use the UK edits. In January 2013, ITV broadcast two episodes of this version as part of its Old Skool Weekend feature on the CITV channel.

On December 12, 2015, the remastered "The Bells of Fraggle Rock" episode debuted alongside Henson's remastered Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas on ABC Family in its 25 Days of Christmas programming block. Fraggle Rock was available on HBO Now in HD  and in 2016 the series began to air reruns on HBO Family.

In 2019, Fraggle Rock debuts along with the Henson classic content on Amazon Prime Video in North America, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Scandinavia, Finland, and Iceland.

On May 26, 2020, Apple TV+ announced that, alongside a series order for a reboot, they had acquired the exclusive streaming rights to the previous seasons of Fraggle Rock in the 100 countries the service is available in, making the series the first piece of non-original content available on the service.

Home media

Australia
Magna Pacific published the American version of Fraggle Rock on Region 4 DVD in 2007. The DVD set Fraggle Rock: The Complete Fourth Season actually includes seasons four and five. The DVDs have no special features.

A set of plush dolls of Gobo, Wembley, Boober, and Red were released by Sababa Toys, each accompanied by a DVD featuring two episodes of the show, and one episode of the animated series.

United Kingdom
Twelve UK episodes were released on VHS and DVD by Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment in April 2004. TVS, the original ITV broadcaster, has passed through several owners since dropping out of the ITV network in 1992 and it was believed only these 12 episodes had survived. The research found more episodes, but many of the original 95 remained lost.  HiT Entertainment has tried unsuccessfully to locate the missing episodes, including extensive inquiries with The Jim Henson Company both in the UK and the US. When UK television channels wish to broadcast the show, they used the US versions; such was the case with Boomerang and Cartoonito in 2007. In addition to the unknown fate of the physical master material, much of the original TVS production paperwork and sales documentation has been lost during the intervening years. This problem affects the majority of the TV program archive, preventing any commercial exploitation. As of December 2017, search efforts and returned episodes from private collectors - mostly home recordings on VHS - have raised the number of episodes to 95, with only one episode - "Gobo's School For Explorers", missing.
In December 2020 TV preservation company Kaleidoscope announced via their Facebook page that VHS copies of all episodes had been located and transferred from the collection of producer Victor Pemberton. In 2010, Lionsgate Home Entertainment the UK released seasons 1-3 in complete season box sets. These releases are the same as the American box sets, except without bonus features.

United States
HBO Video, previously known as HBO/Cannon Video and Thorn EMI/HBO Video, released a collection of single-episode VHS tapes during the 1980s through Jim Henson Video.

In 1993, Buena Vista Home Video, under their Jim Henson Video label released five Fraggle Rock VHS tapes with two episodes each.

HIT Entertainment released several single-disc DVDs with three episodes each (two in the VHS counterparts) plus bonus episodes which could be unlocked by completing a trivia game before releasing the first three seasons of Fraggle Rock on DVD in Region 1 between September 2005 and September 2007. It released a complete series box set on November 4, 2008, but did not release the final season in a separate release. Season 4 had originally been scheduled to be released on the same day as the complete series set but at the last minute, it was scrapped and was never released.

In 2009, Lionsgate Home Entertainment reached a deal with The Jim Henson Company to release Fraggle Rock on DVD. It subsequently released the final season on DVD for the first time on November 3, 2009. On the same day, the "Complete Series" collection was re-released with new packaging (due to numerous complaints about the previous release).

In 2013, Vivendi Visual Entertainment acquired the license to release Jim Henson Company DVDs, including Fraggle Rock. Season 1 was re-released on March 12, 2013, followed by Season 2 on April 16, Season 3 on May 14, and Season 4 on June 18. A complete series set was also released on May 14 as Fraggle RockThe 30th Anniversary Collection. This 22-disc set features all 96 episodes of the series as well as bonus features. A six-episode DVD was released with the title Meet the Fraggles.

On July 11, 2018, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment announced that they would be releasing a complete series set of Fraggle Rock on Blu-ray in honor of the show's 35th anniversary. The 12-disc set includes remastered versions of all 96 episodes of the series in high-definition, and includes all features from the previous DVD season releases as well as adding new material such as a 1993 Today Show segment featuring Uncle Traveling Matt, a series of on-set videos with creator Jim Henson, and all 13 episodes of Fraggle Rock: The Animated Series. It was released on September 25, 2018.

Spin-offs

Animated series

An animated Fraggle Rock series aired for one season on NBC's Saturday morning lineup in 1987. The cartoon series introduced some Fraggles, Doozers, and other cave creatures exclusive to the series.

A Muppet Family Christmas

Doc, Sprocket the Dog, Gobo Fraggle, Wembley Fraggle, Boober Fraggle, Mokey Fraggle, Red Fraggle, and Uncle Traveling Matt appear in A Muppet Family Christmas. Doc and Sprocket rent the farmhouse of Fozzie Bear's mother while she plans to go to Malibu until Fozzie shows up with his friends. Doc and Sprocket end up adjusting to the Muppets and the characters from Sesame Street. Kermit the Frog and his nephew Robin find a Fraggle hole in the basement and enter Fraggle Rock where they encounter the five main Fraggles. Large Marvin Fraggle and other background Fraggles make appearances as well. During the finale, the five Fraggles come up where Uncle Traveling Matt is seen sitting near Doc and Sprocket. In the final scenes, Jim Henson washes the dishes while Sprocket dries them.

The Doozers

In 2012, The Jim Henson Company and DHX Media announced a computer-animated spin-off to Fraggle Rock, titled The Doozers, targeted at children between ages 4 and 7. It focuses on four young Doozers named Spike, Mollybolt, Flex and Daisy Wheel, who live at Doozer Creek.

The series began airing on Hulu on April 25, 2014.

Canceled feature film
In September 2005, The Jim Henson Company announced it was working on a film adaptation of Fraggle Rock, known as Fraggle Rock: The Movie, with the aim of a release in 2009. The story allegedly involves the original Fraggle characters.

In October 2006, Darkhorizons.com reported "Henson's company has hired executive producer Ahmet Zappa (The Monstrous Memoirs of a Mighty McFearless) to write a treatment for the film which will be a full-length live-action musical fantasy starring the underground dwellers who venture out into the human world. Henson Co. co-topper Lisa Henson is producing, whilst Brian Henson will exec produce."

In May 2008, The Weinstein Company announced it would distribute the Fraggle Rock movie. The film was written as a live-action musical by Cory Edwards, who would also direct. The film was to be produced by The Jim Henson Company; Ahmet Zappa was executive producing along with Brian Inerfeld. The film would involve all of the core characters from the series. The story would take the characters "outside of their home in Fraggle Rock, where they interact with humans, which they think are aliens." Karen Prell and Dave Goelz were slated to return for the film as Red Fraggle, Boober Fraggle, and Uncle Traveling Matt, respectively.

In 2011, Weinstein's deal with Henson expired, leaving the production of the film in doubt. The Scissor Sisters were announced to write music for the film. In October 2011, New Regency acquired the rights to the movie to be produced by The Jim Henson Company and The Montecito Picture Company, with 20th Century Fox distributing. New Regency and the producers were in discussion of whether to use puppets or CGI as well as a mix of live-action. Once this has been decided, it will look to a writer for the movie.

In 2012, James Byrkit and Alex Manugian were announced as screenwriters.

In March 2015, Variety said Joseph Gordon-Levitt would star in and produce the film. On July 28, 2018, Gordon-Levitt revealed that the film is still in early stages of development.

In December 2017, The Walt Disney Company (the current owners of The Muppets) announced that it would acquire 21st Century Fox, including 20th Century Fox. The acquisition was completed in March 2019, thus granting Disney the distribution rights to the film.

The feature film project was subsequently canceled in favor of a new television series.

Fraggle Rock: Rock On!
Fraggle Rock: Rock On! is a series of weekly live-action shorts, first broadcast on the Apple TV+ streaming service starting on April 21, 2020. Episodes follow the Fraggles living in separate caves during a period of social distancing, and interacting with each other using a video chat system that was installed by the Doozers. Footage for the series is shot using smartphones in the production teams' and artists' own homes. A total of six episodes have aired. Original cast members Karen Prell and Dave Goelz reprise their roles as Red Fraggle, and the voices of Boober Fraggle and Uncle Traveling Matt (they were puppeteered by John Tartaglia, who also performs Gobo Fraggle and puppeteers Wembley Fraggle). Other cast members include Donna Kimball as Mokey Fraggle and Frankie Cordero as the voice of Wembley.

Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock

In January 2021, The Jim Henson Company announced that production officially started on a reboot of the show, titled Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock. This new show is distinct from the Fraggle Rock: Rock On! shorts that were released in April 2020, and consists of full-length episodes. The show would be produced at the Calgary Film Centre. The series was released on January 21, 2022. Most of the cast from Fraggle Rock: Rock On returns for the series, with the exceptions of Wembley Fraggle, now performed by Jordan Lockhart, and Boober Fraggle and Uncle Traveling Matt, puppeteered by Frank Meschkuleit and Kevin Clash, respectively (Dave Goelz still provides their voices).

Music
Music played a central part in Fraggle Rock. Every episode featured two or three original songs co-written by Canadian poet Dennis Lee and Philip Balsam, as well as incidental music. Several episodes (usually involving Cantus and the Minstrels) focused primarily on music—such as Red Fraggle's attempt to find "her song" for the Fraggle Medley, or the effect of music on the breaking of winter or the presence of light in Fraggle Rock.

During the show's original run, a re-recorded, extended version of its opening theme was released as a single that reached number 33 on the British chart in March 1984. Writers included Jim Henson, Jerry Juhl, and Jocelyn Stevenson, with songs by Philip Balsam and Dennis Lee.

Album releases
KOCH Records released Fraggle Rockin': A Collection, a three-disc box set of Fraggle Rock music, on October 30, 2007. The collection featured "restored and remastered" versions of three original Fraggle Rock LPs. The collection also included "special liner notes featuring rarely seen photos, contributions from the original composers and even sheet music for select songs". The main portion of these liner notes, called "Getting Down at Fraggle Rock", features an interview with Philip Balsam and Lawrence S. Mirkin and is written by Mike Petersen and Saul Pincus.

Song list

 "Down In Fraggle Rock (Fraggle Rock Theme Song)"
 "Afraid to Be Afraid"
 "All Around the World"
 "Bad News"
 "Ball of Fire"
 "The Ballad of Sir Blunderbrain"
 "Beetle Song"
 "Brave Alone"
 "Brave Boy, Jump Up"
 "Bring Back the Wonder"
 "Catch the Tail by the Tiger"
 "Cave Flute"
 "Choose-Right (Up-Tight Move-Now) Blues"
 "The Clown Concerto"
 "Convincing John"
 "Count on Me"
 "Dixie Wailin' "
 "Do It On My Own"
 "Doom Dee Doom (March Alone)"
 "Doozer Building Song (We'll Work Together Building Shapes in the Air)"
 "Doozer Gong Music"
 "Doozer Knitting Song"
 "Doozer March Song (Set Your Shoulder)"
 "Down in Fraggle Cave"
 "Dream Girl Lover"
 "Dream a Dream (and See)"
 "Dreaming of Someone"
 "Dum De Dum"
 "Dum De Dum II (I Wish I Had a Genie)"
 "Dum of a Son of a Gun"
 "Dump the Stuff Out (Yucky for Sure)"
 "Easy is the Only Way to Go"
 "Everybody's Doin' It"
 "Eye to Eye"
 "Face Facts, Pack Snacks, Make Tracks"
 "Feel So Bad"
 "The Fireman's Anthem"
 "Fly to the Sky (Learn to Fly)"
 "Follow Me"
 "Follow the Road"
 "Follow Your Heart"
 "Fraggle Rock Rock"
 "A Fraggle You Can't See"
 "Free and High"
 "Friends Till the End"
 "Friendship Song"
 "Front 'N' Back Patter Song (Turn Around Now!)"
 "The Garbage of Time"
 "Get Blue (Goin' Down the Road)"
 "Get Goin' "
 "Go with the Flow"
 "Good-bye, Good-bye (Just a Rainbow in the Sky)"
 "The Gorg's Lament (O World O Time O Woe)"
 "The Gypsy Song (I Sniff the Rose)"
 "Help Me for a Change"
 "Helping Hand"
 "Here to There"
 "Hip Hip Hooray"
 "Ho Ho Ho (What a Funny World It Is)"
 "Home"
 "I Knew I Was Good"
 "I Seen Troubles"
 "I Swear (To Be Fair)"
 "I'm Never Alone"
 "I'm Not Scared"
 "I'm a Little Stew Pot"
 "If It Happened to You"
 "Inny Minny Cow Cow"
 "Is It True?"
 "The Joke Isn't Funny Anymore"
 "The Joy"
 "Just Don't Know What Time It Is"
 "Just a Little Wimp"
 "Kick a Stone"
 "Learn to Love a Wimp"
 "Let Me Be Your Song"
 "A Little Doozer Music"
 "Lose Your Heart (And It's Found)"
 "Lost and Found"
 "Lover, Lover, Number 9"
 "The Me I Wanna Be"
 "Magic Be with You" (The last song, appeared in the episode "Change of Address")
 "Mokey's Jam Session"
 "Muck and Goo" (written by bpNichol)
 "Music Box"
 "Music Makes Us Real (Ping!)"
 "Noodlin' Nut"
 "Now You See Me (Now You Don't)"
 "Now's the Time for Parting"
 "Once Upon a Time (I Knew My Name)"
 "One and One (I'm the One that Won!)"
 "Only Way Home"
 "Our Melody"
 "Pantry Chant"
 "Party Hard (Who Knows What You See)"
 "Pass It On"
 "(Today Has Been) A Perfect Day"
 "Perfect Harmony"
 "Pipe Bangers Theme"
 "Please/See/Feel the Water Run"
 "Pukka, Pukka, Pukka Squeetily Boink"
 "Ragtime Queen"
 "Recruiting Song (Heed the Drumbeat Now)"
 "Remembering Song (Na-Na-Na)"
 "Rev"
 "The Rock Goes On"
 "Rollin', Rollin' On"
 "The Rules Song (I'm the Leader Now)"
 "Rumble Bug Hum"
 "Sail Away"
 "Share and You're Not Alone"
 "Shine On Us Now (Moon Come Soon)"
 "Shine On, Shine On Me"
 "Sing It and Say"
 "Sing That Law Again"
 "(Sleep By the) Light of the Moon"
 "Sleeping and Dreaming"
 "Somewhere There's a Special Place"
 "Sorrow and Shame"
 "Spring Cleaning"
 "Stuff Samba"
 "Sunlight and Shadow"
 "Sweet, Sweet Little Treat"
 "There's a Lot I Want to Know"
 "Time to Live as One"
 "Trash is Back in Town"
 "Tree of Life"
 "Turn Your Buttons Down"
 "Voodoo Spell"
 "Water Drip Song"
 "The Way I've Got to Go"
 "Welcome Back, Uncle Matt"
 "Wembley, Wembley, Number 9"
 "Wemblin' Fool"
 "What If"
 "What If a Friend"
 "What an Awful Day"
 "Why?"
 "Wise to Myself"
 "Without a Hat"
 "Workin' "
 "Yes, We Can"
 "Yucky!"
 "Closing Theme"

Soundtrack musicians
 Don Gillis — Musical Director
 Bernie LaBarge — Guitar
 Michael Francis — Guitar
 Bob McLaren — Drums
 Ray Parker — Keyboards
 Tom Szczesniak — Bass Guitar
 Dick Smith — Percussion

In other media

Books
Interactive books produced for Playskool's Talk 'n Play:
 Fraggle Rock: The Great Fraggle Travel Race

Magic Pen and Invisible Inks books for Lee Publications
 Fraggle Rock (No title – the cover scene of Fraggles playing tag – artwork by Nate Butler) (1989)
 Fraggle Rock (No title – the cover scene of Fraggles looking into musical treasure chest – artwork by Nate Butler) (1989)

Listed as: title, author, illustrator, and date of publication.
 The Radish Day Jubilee, Sheilah B. Bruce, Lawrence DiFiori 1983
 Red and the Pumpkins, Jocelyn Stevenson, Kelly Oechsli 1983
 They Call Me Boober Fraggle, Michaela Muntean, Lisa McCue 1983
 Wembley Fraggle Gets the Story, Deborah Perlberg, Steven Schindler 1984
 Gobo and the River, Joseph Killorin Brennan, Diane Dawson Hearn 1985
 Marooned in Fraggle Rock, David Young, Barbara McClintock
 Best Friends, Jocelyn Stevenson, Sue Venning 1984
 Boober Fraggle's Celery Soufflé, Louise Gikow, Kelly Oechsli 1984
 Danger: Boober Cooking, Louise Gikow, Kelly Oechsli 1984
 Boober Fraggle's Giant Wish, Jocelyn Stevenson, Jeffrey Severn 1984
 If I Were King of the Universe, Danny Abelson, Lawrence DiFiori 1984
 The Legend of the Doozer Who Didn't, Louise Gikow, Barbara McClintock 1984
 No One Knows Where Gobo Goes, Mark Saltzman, Peter Elwell 1984
 The Tale of Traveling Matt, Michaela Muntean, Lisa McCue 1984
 Traveling Matt's Adventures in Outer Space, Michaela Muntean, Lisa McCue 1984
 What Do Doozers Do?, Michaela Muntean, Sue Venning 1984
 What's a Fraggle?, Louise Gikow, Barbara McClintock 1984
 Wembley's Egg, Laura Phillips, Sue Venning 1984
 Fraggle Countdown, Michaela Muntean, Diane Dawson Hearn 1985
 The Cave of the Lost Fraggle, Michael Teitelbaum, Peter Elwell 1985
 Follow That Fraggle, Louise Gikow, Barbara Lanza 1985
 Sprocket, Dog Detective, Louise Gikow, Barbara Lanza 1985
 Mokey's Birthday Present, Ellen Weiss, Elizabeth Miles 1985
 Waggleby of Fraggle Rock, Stephanie Calmenson, Barbara McClintock 1985
 Why Wembley Fraggle Couldn't Sleep, H. B. Gilmour, Barbara McClintock 1985
 Goodnight Wembley Fraggle, H. B. Gilmour, Barbara McClintock 1985
 Cotterpin's Perfect Building, Ellen Weiss, Lauren Attinello 1986
 Wembley and the Soggy Map, Louise Gikow, Lisa McCue 1986
 Wembley Fraggle and the Magic Stone, Louise Gikow, Lauren Attinello 1986
 Gobo and the Prize from Outer Space, Lyn Calder, Frederic Marvin 1986
 The Case of the Missing Socks, Rebecca Grand, Jeffrey Severn 1986
 Wembley Fraggle's Big, Bigger, Biggest, Harry Ross, Larry DiFiori 1988
 The Fraggles Alphabet Pie, Harry Ross, Larry DiFiori 1988
 The Fraggles Counting Book, Harry Ross, Larry DiFiori 1988
 Mokey Fraggle's New Colors, Emily Paul, Larry DiFiori 1988
 The Fraggles Cooperate, Harry Ross, Larry DiFiori 1989

Comics
The Star Comics imprint of Marvel Comics published two separate Fraggle Rock comic-book series in 1985 and 1988 respectively.  Originally, the first series was to be drawn by Marty Taras, the creator of Baby Huey, and the cover of the first published issue of the Fraggle Rock comic is done by him. Also, at least one penciled page of his Fraggle work for that first issue has been preserved in print. However the art assignment for the series finally went to Marie Severin, who illustrated all eight-issue interiors and the other seven covers. The second series lasted six issues.

In early 2010, Archaia Studios Press published its first three-issue series of Fraggle Rock. A second three-issue series was followed in January 2011. Both series were collected into hardcover editions shortly after their respective publications. A four-issue miniseries Fraggle Rock: Journey to the Everspring was published in 2014. A third three-issue miniseries was published in 2018.

Other televised appearances
 Before its background appearance on Fraggle Rock, Food (a small, brown, alien creature) first appeared on Saturday Night Live during "The Land of Gorch" sketch. It was later recycled as Zsa Zsa Porkmustard in the "Science Fiction" episode of The Jim Henson Hour as well as an undersea creature cameo in the "Aquatic Life" episode.
 Uncle Traveling Matt appears in The Muppets Take Manhattan, seated in Piggy's wedding party during the play where he is in the same section as the bears that Fozzie Bear was hibernating with.
 There was a special featuring the Fraggles called Fraggles Look for Jobs which details the Fraggles after the show had ended. Gobo has secured a singing job billed as "Gobo the Frosty Fraggle", Wembley has no immediate plans except to stop wearing banana tree shirts, Mokey is writing a screenplay called "Girls of the Sixties", and Red has signed a contract to play hockey for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Boober spends most of the video on the phone (with Bernie and others) hoping to find another acting job, preferably as a romantic lead. Two clips from this have been shown on The Jim Henson Company's YouTube page.
 A prototype version of Blustering Bellowpane Monster appeared in the Play-Along Video film Neat Stuff: To Know & To Do as Mergie (performed by Camille Bonora).
 Mama Tree Bird and Baby Tree Bird appeared in The Ghost of Faffner Hall.
 The Rumble Bugs made background cameos in The Song of the Cloud Forest.
 Gobo Fraggle, Mokey Fraggle, and Wembley Fraggle made a cameo appearance in The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson alongside the other Muppets and characters from "Sesame Street" in the "Just One Person" tribute song to Jim Henson.
 The puppets for Sprocket the Dog, Begoony, Mudwell the Mudbunny, Murray the Minstrel, Aretha, Wander McMooch, Brool the Minstrel, and the Inkspots make cameo appearances in The Muppet Christmas Carol. Begooney was shown as the child of the characters depicted by Mudwell and Murray. Sprocket was seen in a crowd cameo. The Inkspots (performed by Jerry Nelson and Steve Whitmire) were seen in the house windows and one of them was seen near a mud puddle during the song "Scrooge" while sitting next to the Porcupine from Billy Bunny's Animal Songs. Aretha (performed by Karen Prell) appears in a crowd chorus where she has a line in the song with a Pig Businessman and the Blue Frackle. Wander McMooch (performed by David Rudman) and Brool the Minstrel (performed by Louise Gold) make cameo appearances as one of the guests at Fred's party.
 Mudwell the Mudbunny, Begoony, Murray the Minstrel, Brool the Minstrel, Wander McMooch, Inkspots, Aretha, Baby Tree Creature, Mama Tree Creature, Papa Tree Creature and Blustering Bellowpane Monster appears in Muppet Classic Theater.
 The Sneels, where they've appeared in the caves eating plants in Gunge the Great and the Glorious, as well as several posters, returned in The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss with a Seuss style (performed by the puppeteer who voiced "Mokey", the pink Sneel, and Stephanie D' Abruzzo, the Green one). Their babies, who never surfaced anywhere in the caves of Fraggle Rock, made their debut on this show.
 Large Marvin Fraggle (though one of the only Fraggles to appear on the mainstream The Muppets series), Blustering Bellowpane Monster, Begooney, Brool the Minstrel, Inkspots, Mudwell the Mudbunny, Murray the Minstrel, and Poison Cackler appear in Muppets Tonight.
 The puppets for Philo, Begoony, Blustering Bellowpane Monster, The Inkspots, Murray the Minstrel, Beastie, Mudwell the Mudbunny, Brool the Minstrel, Aretha, and an unnamed background cave creature appeared in Mopatop's Shop as various guests.
 Aretha appears in The Muppets' Wizard of Oz as a Flying Monkey.
 Blustering Bellowpane Monster appears in The Muppets. It can be seen in a Muppet crowd cameo near the end of the film.
 Blustering Bellowpane Monster appears in Muppets Most Wanted. He is seen in the opening of "El Muppet Show" and "The Wedding".

Live appearances
 Starting in 2008, Karen Prell began making live appearances with a rebuilt Red Fraggle puppet at various events like San Diego Comic-Con International.
 Wembley Fraggle, Red Fraggle, and Uncle Traveling Matt appeared in the "Fraggle Rock" portion of the Jim Henson's Musical World show at Carnegie Hall in 2012.
 On April 24, 2013, Red Fraggle and Gobo Fraggle appeared at "The Spare Room" to commemorate the 30th Anniversary of Fraggle Rock. Karen Prell performed Red as usual while John Tartaglia performed Gobo.
 In May 2013, John Tartaglia performed Gobo Fraggle at an event to grant the Museum of the Moving Image a permanent gallery devoted to Jim Henson.
 Kathryn Mullen and Karen Prell performed Mokey Fraggle and Red Fraggle at Dragon Con 2013 as part of Fraggle Rock'''s 30th Anniversary during the "Fraggle Rock Meet and Greet" event. Michael K. Frith also attended with puppeteers Paul McGinnis and Victor Yerrid.
 On September 24, 2016, Red, Gobo, Wembley, and Mokey appeared at a Puppets for Puppetry event honoring Muppet performer Dave Goelz. Karen Prell and John Tartaglia performed Red and Gobo as usual, while Kevin Clash performed Wembley and Donna Kimball performed Mokey.

Internet appearances
 Gobo Fraggle, Wembley Fraggle, Boober Fraggle, Mokey Fraggle, Red Fraggle, and Uncle Traveling Matt appear in the music video for the Ben Folds Five song "Do It Anyway", for which Chris Hardwick and Lisa Henson served as executive producers. Only Red, Boober, and Uncle Traveling Matt have a dialogue. While Karen Prell and Dave Goelz reprised their roles of Red Fraggle and Uncle Traveling Matt, the other puppeteers included Sean Johnson as Boober Fraggle, Patrick Johnson as Wembley Fraggle, and Donna Kimball as Mokey Fraggle. The music video begins with Uncle Traveling Matt reporting about his experience at a recording studio (portrayed by The Jim Henson Company Lot) where the recording of the song is overseen by a sound engineer played by Rob Corddry. During the song, the sound of the band's performance reaches Fraggle Rock, opening a hole through which the five main Fraggles are pulled out upon grabbing a microphone cable. The Fraggles then join the band in performing the song. Also during the music video, a gate guard (played by Chris Hardwick) can be seen with a tattoo of Junior Gorg on his left arm, and a female receptionist (played by Anna Kendrick) wears a "Boy Gorg" T-shirt (featuring an image of Junior Gorg dressed as a singer Boy George). The video ends with Folds, Hardwick, Corddry, Kendrick, and Red Fraggle singing the Fraggle Rock'' theme song, with Boober speaking the closing line, "down at Fraggle Rock", as in the original series. The music video was accompanied by a behind-the-scenes video, featuring interviews with Folds, Hardwick, and Red Fraggle.

References

External links

Fictional species and races
1980s American children's comedy television series
1980s American musical comedy television series
1980s British children's television series
1980s Canadian comedy television series
1982 American television series debuts
1982 British television series debuts
1980s Canadian children's television series
1982 Canadian television series debuts
1987 American television series endings
1987 British television series endings
1987 Canadian television series endings
American children's adventure television series
American children's comedy television series
American children's fantasy television series
American children's musical television series
British children's adventure television series
British children's comedy television series
British children's fantasy television series
British children's musical television series
Canadian children's adventure television series
Canadian children's comedy television series
Canadian children's fantasy television series
Canadian children's musical television series
CBC Television original programming
English-language television shows
ITV children's television shows
Star Comics titles
Television shows produced by Television South (TVS)
The Muppets television series
Canadian television shows featuring puppetry
American television shows featuring puppetry
British television shows featuring puppetry
Television series by ITV Studios
Television series by The Jim Henson Company
Television shows filmed in Toronto
Television shows adapted into comics
Television shows adapted into novels

Fraggle Rock


The Wandering Earth () is a 2019 Chinese science fiction film directed by Frant Gwo, loosely based on the 2000 short story of the same name by Liu Cixin about taking the Earth and pushing it somewhere else. The film stars Qu Chuxiao, Li Guangjie, Ng Man-tat, Zhao Jinmai, Wu Jing and Qu Jingjing. Set in the far future, it follows a group of astronauts and rescue workers guiding the Earth away from an expanding Sun, while attempting to prevent a collision with Jupiter. The film was theatrically released in China on 5 February 2019 (Chinese New Year's Day), by China Film Group Corporation.

The film grossed  worldwide. It is China's fifth highest-grossing film of all time and the fifth highest-grossing non-English film to date. It has received generally positive reviews from critics, with The Hollywood Reporter describing it as "China's first full-scale interstellar spectacular." Netflix acquired the film's global streaming rights and began streaming outside China on 30 April 2019. A second film, The Wandering Earth 2, was released in January 2023, serving as a prequel.

Plot

In the year 2058, an anomalously expanding red giant Sun threatens to engulf the Earth within 100 years. The world's nations are forced to consolidate into a world government and construct 12,000 enormous fusion-powered "Earth Engines" to thrust Earth out of the Solar System. Before going on his mission aboard the Navigation Platform International Space Station, Chinese astronaut Liu Peiqiang leaves his son Qi in the care of his father-in-law Han Zi'ang. Half of humanity, mostly chosen by non-transferable lottery, are moved into underground cities; the remaining billions dying in the cataclysms resulting from stopping the Earth's rotation and thrusting the planet from its orbit, and later with the Earth's surface temperature dropping to colder than  as the Earth moves further from the sun.

Seventeen years later, in 2075, Liu Peiqiang is set to return to Earth after the Chinese New Year. His son Liu Qi, now an adult, obtains fake IDs and stolen thermal suits from criminal gangs and "borrows" his grandfather's clearance pass to take his foster sister, Han Duoduo, to requisition a heavy transport vehicle to see the surface. Both are arrested at a nearby checkpoint and get jailed, meeting another prisoner, Tim. Han Zi'ang attempts to bribe an official for the release of his grandchildren, but is himself arrested. As Earth approaches its gravity assist around Jupiter, a spike in tidal force causes devastating earthquakes that disable many Earth Engines and sets the planet on a collision course with Jupiter.

The four escape the prison amidst the structural collapse of the city and attempt to make their way to another underground city inside Han Zi'ang's truck, but are requisitioned for an emergency mission led by Captain Wang Lei to transport a Lighter Core to restart an Earth Engine in Hangzhou. In the frozen ruins of Shanghai, they lose their vehicle while transporting the component up the ruins of the Shanghai Tower, where Han Zi'ang freezes to death. After a confrontation with the other rescue team members, Liu, Tim and Han Duoduo abandon the mission. The trio come upon a crashed cargo plane with an intact vehicle, where the surviving engineer aboard, Li Yiyi, eventually convinces them to transport another Lighter Core to repair the Earth Engine in Sulawesi, reconciling with the other members on the way.

Aboard the space station, Liu Peiqiang discovers that MOSS, the computer commanding the station, has decided to abandon Earth to destruction and repurpose the station as an interstellar ark to seed a new planet with Earth's biosphere. Liu breaks out of forced hibernation and attempts to reach the control room. He is joined by his good friend and Russian cosmonaut Maxim Makarov who was awakened by MOSS to stop Liu. While spacewalking, Makarov is killed by the spacecraft's automated security measures. Liu enters the control room, but his attempts of overriding the evacuation procedures are revoked due to insubordination. Liu Qi's group arrives at the Sulawesi Supply Depot to find that the engine was already fully restored along with most others around the planet. However, the combined thrust of the engines is no longer able to divert the trajectory, with Earth approaching Jupiter's Roche limit. Believing the end is inevitable, MOSS broadcasts a final message to the world, but Liu Peiqiang is reluctant to follow the computer's instructions.

Liu Qi proposes to ignite the mixture of Jupiter's hydrogen with Earth's oxygenated atmosphere, which would cause a shockwave that would knock Earth back into its regular path and away from Jupiter. Li Yiyi configures the Sulawesi engine to fire a plasma beam tall enough to ignite Jupiter, but the group is unable to push the firing pin and ignite the engine. Contacted by Duoduo, Liu Peiqiang is able to persuade the UEG to use its communication channels to call assistance for the party at Sulawesi, but MOSS reveals that the attempted solution was already proposed by Israeli scientists and has zero chance of success. Other rescue parties arrive and together manage to ignite multiple engines, but it falls short of being able to ignite the Jovian hydrogen. After disabling MOSS using a fire started with a bottle of vodka that Makarov smuggled on board, Liu Peiqiang flies the space station into the plasma jet, tearfully apologizing to his son for breaking his promise before sacrificing himself to ignite the mix of atmospheres. The subsequent explosion narrowly saves Earth from destruction.

Three years later, Qi, Duoduo, and Li YiYi work as truck operators, as Earth continues towards the Alpha Centauri star system.

Cast

Production

Development

In 2012, China Film Group bought the rights to three of Liu Cixin's best-known science fiction novels, The Wandering Earth, Supernova Era and The Micro-Age. The plan to turn The Wandering Earth into a film was first announced at China Film Group's 2014 film project promotion conference, which estimated the production cost would be $50 million. In the middle of 2015, China Film Production Branch found Frant Gwo, to discuss the cooperation intention. Gwo replied that he was particularly interested in making science fiction films, but Supernova Era and The Micro-Age were technically more demanding and set in a more distant time, Frant Gwo chose The Wandering Earth. He thinks the technical extension of "The Wandering Earth" makes it easy to empathize with viewers. Frant Gwo was a big fan of the science fiction genre and was first influenced by James Cameron's Terminator 2: Judgment Day which inspired him to become a director in the genre. He spent the following years studying the genre to direct a science fiction film. In the middle of July 2016, The Wandering Earth was officially approved in the script filing of National Radio and Television Administration, and confirmed by Frant Gwo to direct.

Pre-production
In the pre-production stage, Frant Gwo first considered the center of gravity of the movie and the relationship with the original.  Considering that "[from] the novel we can choose different perspectives, such as Liu Cixin often chooses God's perspective, the perspective of the universe, the timeline is very grand, crossing thousands of years. But the movie is hard to express this, If the movie spends two hours to express the detailed world view, it will become a scientific film."  He believed that the film could only take the novel story as the background, and must focus on the characters and emotions of the story.  Based on this, the crew began to consider which part of the original book would be more suitable for the film background.  For this Frant Gwo emphasizes that for "the presentation of the movie needs, you must find a comparison that makes the audience feel very interesting, or can have a visual impact."  In the end he decided to use Jupiter's accelerating gravity to precipitate the Earth into crisis, and for humans to use solidarity and wisdom to protect it as the setting, and to completely adapt the story, which is only about five paragraphs in the original book.  Jupiter was chosen precisely for its visual impact: Earth is huge for humans, but becomes very small and fragile when compared with Jupiter, which is more than 1,300 times larger.

After confirming Jupiter's background the crew began to consider a world view, which was the most difficult part of Kuo Fan's preparatory work. The whole world outlook of the set took about eight months, from the social aspect of politics, economics, culture, education, entertainment, and food production, to natural levels of physical environment change in the Earth, how to escape the sun, the cast, and the relationship between all of these relevant aspects.  In order to establish a rigorous setting, Gwo invited 4 scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) to act as consultants.

The crew also chronicled one hundred years of history, including the big events since 2017, to connect the real world and the movie world.

The film's 3,000 concept maps and more than 8,000 sub-mirrors were created by a conceptual art team of 300 people over a period of 15 months.

In 2017 Beijing Culture partnered with the project to complete the film, together with China Film Group as the main producer of the film.  The Wandering Earth is the first film that is based on a novel written by Liu Cixin.

Filming

Principal photography started on 26 May 2017, in Qingdao, a seaside city on north China's Shandong province, and wrapped on 27 September 2017. Weta Workshop made the film's spacesuits, exoskeletons and weaponry.

Wu Jing was asked by Frant Gwo to play a cameo role in the film, but was later cast in a leading role. When he was told that the production had run into financial trouble, he gave up his remuneration and invested in the film to help it continue, for which he was given special thanks in the credits of the film. Due to the financial difficulties, there was a limited remuneration budget, and the salary for the lead actor Qu Chuxiao was around 100,000 yuan (US$15,000).

Post-production
The visual effects of the film were made by Base FX, Bottleship VFX, Dexter Studios, Macrograph, More VFX, Pixomondo and Black Nomad.

Liu Cixin, the author of the original novella, said to China Central Television, "Chinese studios have no interest to invest in sci-fi films. US sci-fi film audiences have trust but this trust between audiences and China's sci-fi movies doesn't exist yet and this is the main difference between Chinese and US sci-fi films...It is a challenge because this trust must build between producers, investors, and the audience until people have faith in a Chinese sci-fi movie."

Music
The film's music was composed by Roc Chen (), and Liu Tao () as an additional composer. The film's music was performed by the British Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted by Roc Chen at the Abbey Road Studios.

Release
On 25 December 2018, the first official trailer for the film was released at the China Aerospace Museum in Beijing along with a teaser poster.

On 30 January 2019, Beijing-based distributor China Media Capital (CMC Pictures) announced that it has secured the international rights and is planning a sizable North American release on 8 February. The company will open the film in 22 cities in the U.S. and 3 in Canada, throughout Australia and New Zealand. The movie released in U.S. theaters with IMAX 3D during the first week.

On 20 February 2019, it was announced that Netflix acquired the distribution rights to stream the film internationally. The film was expected to be available to stream globally on Netflix, outside of China, on 30 April 2019, however the film was later promoted on the Netflix Facebook page as being released on 6 May 2019.

Reception

Box office
The Wandering Earth released over the Chinese New Year holiday season, and earned more than  (£232million) in 6 days, setting a new record for a Chinese film. It also set the record for the highest-grossing Chinese film on IMAX. Second weekend box office dropped 53%, on par with all other currently playing films post Chinese holiday season, as expected. The film's total gross in China stands at .

On release, it topped the worldwide box office with a 3-day opening weekend gross of $172,718,000, and had a 6-day opening gross of $289,090,290. The film has grossed $693,371,204 in China, $5,875,487 in North America, and $1,575,366 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $699,992,512.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of  based on  reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critics consensus reads: "The Wandering Earths story won't win many points for originality, but this sci-fi epic earns its thrills with exciting set pieces and dazzling special effects." On Metacritic the film has an average score of 57/100 based on reviews from 8 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

The film received a generally positive reception in China. Several state-run media publications have given the film a positive review. Zhong Sheng in the People's Daily writes that the film is "not superheroes saving the world but mankind changing their destiny together."

Tasha Robinson of The Verge describes the film as "rich, gorgeous, and goofy". Travis Johnson, of Flicks.com.au gave the film 4/5 stars and, whilst criticizing the film for its lack of character development, praised the visuals and called it the best science fiction film of 2019. Ben Kenigsberg in The New York Times wrote that the film is "as awash in murky computer imagery, stupefying exposition and manipulative sentimentality as the average Hollywood tentpole", but that it proved that the Chinese film industry "can hold its own at the multiplex." Simon Abrams of RogerEbert.com gave the film 3.5/4 stars, saying that the experience was "visually dynamic, emotionally engaging".

Zhuoyi Wang, an associate professor at Hamilton College, lauded the film's attempt in presenting a unifying view of humanity that imagines humans from diverse backgrounds coming together to save the earth from a disaster. In contrast, the film's Hollywood counterparts often feature a group of individuals from a single country or a single social class. Despite its attempted departure from the exclusionist individualism prevalent in Hollywood, The Wandering Earth has nevertheless received support from Chinese state media for nationalist reasons, leading many to dismiss it as an instrument of Chinese propaganda or a Hollywood clone.

On Douban, during the initial release, the movie had a 8.5 rating; then suddenly fell to 7.9 as of the early morning of February 23 in China. It was claimed some reviewers were offered money for posting negative reviews on the rating platform. Douban banned nearly 50 users for violating guidelines and thousands of comments were removed. The rating finally stabilized at 7.9. Some commenters, specifically on Douban, who gave the film negative reviews were accused to be in bad faith or trolling, but the accusations are disputed.

Accolades
Li Guangjie won the Golden Angel for Best Actor in a Supporting Role at the 15th Chinese American Film Festival in Los Angeles.

The film won the Golden Rooster Award for Best Picture and Best Sound for 2019. It also won the Golden Oak Award for Best Film in New York City.

Prequel

A prequel, The Wandering Earth 2, starring Andy Lau was announced for 2023 and began production in October 2021. The film was released on 22 January 2023.

See also
 Sun in culture
 Moving Earth, the idea of physically moving Earth from one place to another.
 A World Out of Time, a novel by Larry Niven that also features an interaction between the Earth and Jupiter in an attempt to escape an expanding Sun

References

External links

2010s disaster films
2019 science fiction films
2019 films
China Film Group Corporation films
Chinese disaster films
Chinese science fiction action films
Chinese-language films
Films about astronauts
Films based on Chinese novels
Films based on science fiction novels
Films directed by Frant Gwo
Films set in the future
Films set in Beijing
Films set in Sulawesi
Films set in Manila
Films set in Shandong
Films set in Shanghai
Films shot in Shandong
2010s French-language films
IMAX films
Jupiter in film
Post-apocalyptic films
2010s Russian-language films
Space adventure films
Sun in film
Mandarin-language Netflix original films
2010s English-language films

The Wandering Earth


The equatorial saki (Pithecia aequatorialis), also called the red-bearded saki, is a species of saki monkey, a type of New World monkey. It is found in northeastern Peru and Ecuador.

Not much is known about the equatorial saki, its range being specifically unknown.

Description
The equatorial saki weighs between 2 - 2.5 kg, has a head-body length of 39 – 44 cm, and a tail length of 45 – 47 cm. The species' tail in not prehensile, relying on its arm and leg strength to carry itself from branch to branch. The equatorial saki is also sexually dimorphic. It is often confused for the monk saki, but the reddish throat and chest of the equatorial saki set it apart.

Ecology
The equatorial saki is diurnal. The species is frugivorous, but seeds and nuts constitute a large part of diet. This species also consumes leaves and insects, especially ants. The fruits that this species consumes have hard pericarps. Most of its time is spent foraging in the middle to upper levels of the rainforest canopy.

They seem to be found most commonly in riverside, seasonally flooded and swamp forests, but have been seen in terra firme forests as well.

The red-bearded saki moves through the forest both quadrupedally and by leaping. When the red-bearded saki takes off from a tree branch, most likely it does this from a vertical clinging position.

The equatorial saki lives in small groups of two to four that come together to form larger congregations. Groups of red-bearded sakis are described as closed social units. Males groom their young.

References

equatorial saki
Primates of South America
Mammals of Ecuador
Mammals of Peru
equatorial saki
Equatorial saki

Equatorial saki