The Don CeSar is a hotel located in St. Pete Beach, Florida. Developed by Thomas Rowe and opened in 1928, it gained renown as the Gulf playground for America's pampered rich at the height of the Jazz Age. The hotel was designed by Henry H. Dupont. The Don CeSar is a member of Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Construction
In 1924, Thomas Rowe purchased  of land in St. Petersburg, Florida for $100,000 to begin his dream of building a "pink castle". He hired architect Henry Dupont to design the hotel and Carlton Beard as contractor. To ensure the stability of the hotel on the shifting sand and avoid the high cost of sinking so many pilings, Beard devised a floating concrete pad and pyramid footings. To this day, there is no sign of evident settling of the hotel. The architecture is a blend of Mediterranean and Moorish styles modeled after different hotels and developments that Rowe and Beard saw in Palm Beach, Coral Gables and Boca Raton. Arched openings, red clay tile roofs, balconies, stucco over hollow tile and tower like upper stories were some of the elements that they borrowed. The original design called for a $450,000 six-story hotel with 110 rooms and baths. It was expanded to 220 rooms and 220 baths, and the costs soared to $1.25 million, 300% over budget. Rowe named it Don Ce-Sar after Don César de Bazan, the hero of William Vincent Wallace's opera Maritana.

Opening
Rowe's "Pink Lady" opened on January 16, 1928, with an extravagant party attended by the elite of Tampa, Florida and St. Petersburg, Florida. The hotel quickly became a favorite romping ground for the rich and famous of the Jazz Age including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Clarence Darrow, Al Capone, Lou Gehrig, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Pink Palace continued to attract the rich and famous throughout the Great Depression in part to a deal made with New York Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert to house his team during spring training for three years.

However, after the sudden death of Rowe without a will, The Don was left to his estranged wife and began to fall into disrepair until the United States entered into World War II, and the hotel was bought by the Army for $450,000. It was converted into a military hospital and reopened in December 1942. In February 1944, the Don Ce-Sar became a convalescent center for the United States Army Air Corps. In June 1945, the Don Ce-Sar was ordered closed and was vacant by September 1945. It was converted into a Veterans Administration Regional Office by the end of 1945.

Rebirth
In November 1967, the Veterans Administration began moving out of the Don Ce-Sar, having opened a new office in downtown St. Petersburg. By Spring 1969, the once grand hotel was vacant. The General Services Administration planned to raze the graffiti-covered hotel, but this plan was met with fierce opposition from local residents. In March 1972, the Don Ce-Sar was sold to C.L. Pyatt and William Bowman Jr., a franchise owner of Holiday Inn. The Don CeSar (now spelled without the hyphen) reopened on November 23, 1973. Multiple renovations from 1985 to 2001 have updated and added to the hotel, including a  spa, a signature restaurant, and a second outdoor swimming pool. After the addition of the full-service beach club and spa, the official name of the hotel was changed to The Don CeSar Beach Resort and Spa.

The Don CeSar was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and became a founding member of the National Trust Historic Hotels of America in 1989.

In popular culture
 The Don CeSar was featured in a full-color two-page spread in a 1982 issue of National Geographic.
 Don CeSar Hotel in St. Pete Beach, Fla, is said to be haunted by the unchained ghost of its original owner, Thomas Rowe {see " Don CeSar Hotel in St. Petersburg Beach" under 'Florida' in the Wikipedia article "Haunted Locations"}
 Parts of Once Upon a Time in America were filmed at the Don CeSar.
 Comedian Ron White talked about his stay at the Don CeSar in the movie Blue Collar Comedy Tour: One for the Road.
 Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers filmed a music video at the Don CeSar in 1985.
 Robert Altman's film Health was filmed in the hotel.
 The Don CeSar has a long list of famous guests and has hosted Franklin D. Roosevelt and every president since Gerald Ford (excluding Ronald Reagan).
 Thunder in Paradise was filmed around the Don CeSar during April 1993.
 The 1999 film Forever Mine was filmed at the Don CeSar.
 The Don CeSar was one of the featured hotels in the episode "Big Night Out" of Emeril's Florida, a 2013 series starring Emeril Lagasse.
 The 2016 Brad Furman movie The Infiltrator was filmed in part on the rooftop balcony of the Don CeSar in Spring 2015.
 The Pitbull song "Sexy Beaches" was used in the "Visit Florida" tourism campaign, sponsored by the state of Florida. The music video was filmed at The Don CeSar in St. Petersburg, Florida, and was uploaded to Pitbull's YouTube on July 13, 2016.
 The TV series Life's Rewards was filmed in St. Petersburg and Clearwater, Florida, and its setting is the Don CeSar.

See also
 List of Historic Hotels of America

References

External links

Florida's Office of Cultural and Historical Programs
Pinellas County listings
Don Ce Sar Resort and Spa

Hotels in Florida
National Register of Historic Places in Pinellas County, Florida
Moorish Revival architecture in Florida
Mediterranean Revival architecture in Florida
Buildings and structures in St. Petersburg, Florida
Tourist attractions in St. Petersburg, Florida
Historic American Buildings Survey in Florida
1928 establishments in Florida
Hotels established in 1928
Hotel buildings completed in 1928
Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Florida
Historic Hotels of America

The Don CeSar


John Prendergast may refer to:

 John Prendergast (activist) (born 1963), American human rights activist
 John Prendergast (artist) (1815–?), British born painter
 John Prendergast (British Army officer) (1910–2008), British army officer
 John Robert Prendergast, Canadian football player (died 2016)
 John Barry Prendergast (1933–2011), better known as John Barry (composer), composer of film soundtracks, including many James Bond films
 John Patrick Prendergast (1808–1893), Irish historian
 John Prendergast (priest) (fl. 1583–1610), Dean of Lismore and prebendary of Cashel

John Prendergast


The Caroline Plate is a minor tectonic plate that straddles the Equator in the eastern hemisphere located north of New Guinea. It forms a subduction zone along the border with the Bird's Head Plate and other minor plates of the New Guinea region to the south. A transform boundary forms the northern border with the Pacific Plate. Along the border with the Philippine Sea Plate is a convergent boundary that transitions into a rift.

The Caroline Plate was first proposed as a distinct plate by .

Geological setting
A separate terrane with its own tectonic history, the Caroline Plate has been considered part of the Pacific Plate because of sparse seismicity and low velocities along its boundaries.  It includes the West and East Caroline basins and the inactive Eauripik Rise separating them, but neither the Caroline Islands nor the Caroline Ridge. It is subducting under the Bird's Head and the plates or blocks associated with the present Australian Plate along the New Guinea Trench to the south.

The boundary with the Philippine Sea to the west has two segments: the southern segment, the Ayu Trough was spreading at a rate of 8 mm/yr  25–2 Ma but has been slowing down since.  The northern segment, the Palau and southern Yap trenches, is not an active subduction zone as indicated by the lack of active volcanoes.  The Caroline-Pacific boundary is a complex, evolving system partly and potentially developing into a subduction zone.  The south-east boundary, along the Manus Trench, is a convergent boundary, but in the absence of active volcanoes and earthquakes, is not a subduction zone at present. This is the boundary of the Caroline Plate with the North Bismarck Plate, which is believed to be a relic plate currently moving with the Pacific Plate.  Beyond the North Bismarck Plate to the south is an area with currently actively independently moving microplates such as the South Bismarck Plate, the Solomon Sea Plate and the Woodlark Plate.

Tectonic history
The Caroline Plate moves at velocities very close to those of the Pacific Plate and its age of formation and current status as an independent plate are uncertain.  There is a very slow rate of spreading between the Caroline and Philippine plates but the Caroline Plate apparently moved together with both the Philippine and New Guinea plates during the Neogene.

The Caroline Ridge, to the north, meets the Caroline Plate at the Sorol Trough at which there some evidence of oblique extension; the Caroline Ridge, however, is, although of uncertain origin, made of oceanic crust and probably the product of a hotspot.  The presence of a trench and indications of subduction beneath the Pacific Plate is suggestive but the absence of island arcs, which could be expected from substantial subduction in the past, makes the development along this boundary unclear.

The Caroline Plate was, under all circumstances, a separate plate in the past.  The boundary along its eastern side, the Mussau Trench, must have been an important boundary since magnetic anomalies on the Caroline Plate are Oligocene but those on the Pacific Plate Cretaceous.  There are indications of spreading in the Caroline Sea 34–27 Ma.   If the Caroline Plate moved with the Pacific Plate there should be clear evidences of a corresponding subduction beneath New Guinea, of which there is virtually none.  The Ayu Trough is a slow spreading zone that opened 15 Ma.

Before about 6 million years ago as the Ontong Java Plateau and Indo-Australian Plate collided the Bismarck Sea was initially formed as a back-arc basin behind the New Britain arc, and after the collision, a transpressional zone developed in what is now the west Bismarck Sea, associated with subduction of the Caroline plate and North Bismarck Plate at the New Guinea Trench.

References

Sources

Tectonic plates
Geology of the Pacific Ocean

Caroline Plate


An ecomuseum is a museum which shows things about the identity of a place or landscape.  Many of the people who live in that place help to organize things in the museum.  The ecomuseum tries to help the welfare and development of the local community.

Other page
Ecology

Museums

Ecomuseum


(La) Compiuta Donzella, called either di Firenze or Fiorentina, was the earliest woman poet of the Italian language, active in the second half of the 13th century. Three of her sonnets survive in a single manuscript, and one is half of a tenzone. Compiuta may be her given name, but more probably a senhal (code name). Her full name translates "the accomplished young lady from Florence". Her existence was once in doubt and she was considered a construct of the poets, but this view has been discarded.

In A la stagion che 'l mondo foglia e fiora ("In the season when the world sends forth leaves and flowers"), Compiuta complains of her father's choice of a husband for her. She is miserable at springtime, when other lovers are rejoicing. In Lasciar voria lo mondo e Dio servire ("I would like to leave the world to serve God"), she bemoans the state of the world: lack of nobility, meanness of spirit, and dishonesty. She desires to enter a convent, but her father will not let her. In her only tenzone, Ornato di gran pregio e di valenza, with an admiring man who wishes to meet her, she responds with pleasant interest. The famous Italian poet Guittone d'Arezzo, who mentions her by name in his fifth letter, may have addressed it to her.

Compiuta's vocabulary was influenced by her knowledge of Occitan literature and the work of the troubadours. Thus, she contrasts cortesia (courtliness) with villania (villainy), terms borrowed from the setting of aristocratic court. Fin pregio (courtly virtue) and fin'amanti (courtly lovers) are in the courtly love tradition. Compiuta may have had access to the poems of the trobairitz. Her place as a very early vernacular poet was not ignored by contemporaries. Mastro Torrigiano wrote two sonnets about her: one wondering whether she was unnatural (for her sex) or miraculous ("a divine sibyl"), a second praising her for surpassing the norms of her sex.

Notes

References
Janet L. Smarr. "Compiuta Donzella di Firenze". Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia, Christopher Kleinhenz, ed. Routledge, 2004. .

External links

13th-century Italian poets
Italian women poets
13th-century Italian women
Year of death unknown
Year of birth unknown
13th-century women writers

Compiuta Donzella


Minister of State for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs v Teoh (commonly known as Teoh's case) was an Australian court case which was decided by the High Court of Australia on 7 April 1995. The case is notable for giving unprecedented significance to the ratification of international treaties by the executive government (in particular the Convention on the Rights of the Child).

Facts and background
Ah Hin Teoh, a Malaysian citizen, came to Australia in May 1988 and was granted a temporary entry permit. In July 1988, Teoh married Jean Lim, an Australian citizen and the de facto spouse of Teoh's deceased brother. Mrs Teoh had four children, one from her first marriage and three from the de facto relationship. Subsequently, Mr and Mrs Teoh had three children together. In October 1988, Teoh was granted a further temporary entry permit that enabled him to remain in Australia until February 1989. Prior to the expiry of the permit, Teoh applied for a grant of resident status. In November 1990, whilst this application was being processed, Mr Teoh was convicted on charges of heroin importation and possession.

In January 1991, Teoh was notified pursuant to the Migration Act 1958 that his application for resident status had been refused on the ground that he could not meet the good character requirement as he had a criminal record. In February 1991, Teoh applied for a review of the decision, providing documentation that included a testimonial from Teoh's mother-in-law who stated that Teoh was the only person who could keep the family together.

The Immigration Review Panel rejected the review in July 1991, highlighting the seriousness of Teoh's criminal conviction. This decision was accepted by the Immigration Minister, and in February 1992 an order was made that Teoh be deported. Teoh sought a review of both the acceptance of the recommendation and the decision to deport.

In September 1993 in the Federal Court, French J dismissed the application, finding that the acceptance of the Panel's recommendation and the ordering of deportation had not been an improper exercise of power, a denial of natural justice, nor did it involve the consideration of irrelevant factors by the decision-makers.

On appeal, the full bench of the Federal Court (Black CJ, Lee and Carr JJ) found that the decision-maker's power had been improperly exercised because it had failed to make appropriate investigations into the hardship to Teoh's wife and her children were Teoh refused resident status. The full court ordered a stay of the deportation order until the decision had been reconsidered in light of the court's finding. The Immigration Minister appealed against the decision to the High Court of Australia.

Decision
The majority (Mason CJ, Deane, Toohey and Gaudron JJ) agreed with the Federal Court decision that there had been a breach of natural justice, as the Immigration department had failed to invite Teoh to make a submission on whether a deportation order should be made, contrary to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which provided that in any administrative decision concerning a child, the child's best interests must be a primary consideration.

Legitimate expectation
Mason CJ, Deane and Toohey JJ accepted as correct the finding of Carr and Lee JJ that the ratification of an international convention can be a basis for the existence of a legitimate expectation and that, in this instance, there had been a want of procedural fairness. McHugh J dissented on this point and Gaudron J did not rely upon it in her reasons.

Common law rights of children
Gaudron J, although in the majority, did not rely upon the Convention on the Rights of the Child to find in Teoh's favour. The fact that a child is an Australian citizen is enough to establish the principle that the best interests of children should be a primary consideration in the making of administrative decisions. Gaudron J held that whilst the decision-maker was not required to initiate inquiries, procedural fairness required them to inform Teoh that his children's best interests were not being taken into account as a primary consideration and offer him the opportunity to persuade them otherwise.

Repercussions
The Government acted in response to the outcome in Teoh's case by taking up the High Court's statement that a legitimate expectation would not arise where there is either an executive or statutory indication to the contrary. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Downer, and the then Attorney-General, Mr Williams, issued a joint statement stating that the act of entering into a treaty does not give rise to legitimate expectations in administrative law. The statement replaced a statement made by the then Minister for Foreign Affairs and the then Attorney-General in 1995. The statement foreshadowed the introduction of legislation to address the issue. Legislation was introduced in 1997 and again in 1999. It lapsed on both occasions when Parliament was dissolved for the holding of elections.

See also
Australian administrative law

References

Robin Creyke et al., Control of Government Action: Text, Cases And Commentary (Sydney: LexisNexis Butterworths, 2005).

External links
  (1995) 2(1) Australian Journal of Human Rights 135.

High Court of Australia cases
1995 in Australian law
1995 in case law


Emilio H. Navaira III (August 23, 1962 – May 16, 2016) was an American singer-songwriter of Tejano and country music. He is the winner of one Grammy Award and one Latin Grammy Award.

Known to most by the mononym Emilio, he charted more than ten singles on the Billboard Hot Latin Tracks charts, in addition to six singles on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts. Emilio was also one of the few Tejano artists to have significant success in both the United States and Mexico, and was called the "Garth Brooks of Tejano". His biggest country hit was the No. 27 "It's Not the End of the World" in late 1995, and his highest-charting single on any chart is "Por Siempre Unidos," which peaked at No. 7 on Latin Pop Airplay in 1996. Along with Selena, Emilio was one of the most prominent artists that helped popularize Tejano music.

Early life
Emilio H. Navaira III was born on August 23, 1962, in San Antonio, Texas, to Mexican-American parents, Emilio Navaira, Jr. and Maria Hernandez. Growing up on the south side of San Antonio, Navaira found each influence in not only Tejano legends such as Little Joe y la Familia, but also Lone Star country music heroes such as Willie Nelson, Bob Wills, and George Strait. As a student, Navaira graduated from McCollum High School in 1980, received a music scholarship to Texas State University, and majored in music with plans to become a teacher before ultimately deciding to pursue a career as an artist.

Musical career
In 1983 at age 21, Emilio began his performing career by singing lead vocals for David Lee Garza y Los Musicales. In 1987, Cuantas Veces by David Lee Garza Y Los Musicales beat out Alpha by Mexican American singer Selena for Album of the Year at the Tejano Music Awards. In 1989, Navaira formed his own band, Emilio y Grupo Rio. That same year Emilio signed with Columbia Records (then known as CBS Records). This relationship resulted in Emilio recording more than fifteen studio albums to date, including several with his Rio Band.

By the mid 1990s, Emilio began crediting himself solely as Emilio, eventually switching his focus to country music. Between 1989 and 1996, Emilio had released seven Spanish albums with cumulative sales of about 2 million. This success lead to mainstream commercial exposure, with companies such as Coca-Cola and Wrangler Jeans using his songs in their advertisements in the 1990s. Emilio had also gained a sponsorship with Miller Lite beer, who had persuaded him to use their slogan at the time, "Life is good," as the title of his first country album.

Emilio signed with Capitol Records and released his first country music single called "It's Not the End of the World" which reached the Top 30 on the country charts in 1995. His album was a surprise success as well reaching No. 13 on the country charts and also a high placing on the Top 200. Several more singles including a Spanish version of "It's Not the End of the World" followed but none of these singles came close to the Top 40 except "Even If I Tried" which reached No. 41 in 1996. In 1997, he released a second country album, "It's on the House" but it was not as successful as his first country album. Two more minor country singles followed and gradually Emilio faded from country music and increasingly came back to Tejano music.

His 2002 album Acuérdate won the Grammy Award for Best Tejano Album and his 2007 album De Nuevo won the Latin Grammy Award for Best Tejano Album.

Personal life
Navaira has five children. His three children from his first marriage to Cynthia Navaira also perform for Grupo Rio. Emilio Navaira IV plays drums, and Diego Navaira plays guitar and daughter Emely. Emilio IV and Diego also had a band named Ready Revolution; in 2014 they formed The Last Bandoleros, a Tex-Mex-foursome that toured with Sting in 2017. Diego is mainly known for vocals and credited with being on The Voice, which he did not win. He also has two children from his second marriage to Maru Navaira,

Navaira has two siblings: Raul "Raulito" Navaira, who performs back-up vocals for Grupo Rio; and Yvette Navaira. Navaira was a Republican.

Driving accidents
Navaira was hospitalized in critical condition after his tour bus crashed early in the morning on March 23, 2008, in Bellaire (a small municipality partially surrounded by Houston, Texas). Navaira had performed the previous night at Hallabaloos, a Houston nightclub and he was at the wheel of the tour bus as it traveled north along west 610 Loop near the Southwest Freeway when it crashed into a set of freeway barrels shortly before 4 am. Emilio was taken by Life Flight to Memorial Hermann Hospital where a blood clot in his head was removed; Emilio's initial treatment included being kept in a medically induced coma and induced hypothermia to minimize brain swelling. Doctors cautioned that he might not survive.

On September 24, 2008, Emilio was involved in another car accident in San Antonio as a passenger while his wife was driving. According to a witness, the Navairas were stopped in a turn lane when a truck crossed at least two lanes of traffic and struck their vehicle. Both Emilio and his wife Maria were released from the hospital the following day. Emilio's agent, Joe Casias, stated that Emilio and his wife were headed home from a rehabilitation therapy appointment stemming from the March tour bus accident.

Death
Emilio was found dead by his wife in his New Braunfels home on May 16, 2016, at 53 Emilio performed his last known concert in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico, on May 11, 2016, as part of a concert celebrating Mother's Day in that city. Reports indicated he suffered a massive heart attack. Authorities said their investigation into the death of Navaira showed that he died of natural causes because of cardiovascular disease, and found no sign of foul play.

Discography

Studio albums

ASouthern Exposure also peaked at No. 39 on US Heatseekers.

Singles

ACredited to Emilio Navaira.
B"No Es El Fin del Mundo" is a Spanish-language version of "It's Not the End of the World".
C"Por Siempre Unidos" also peaked at No. 7 on Latin Pop Airplay.

Guest singles

Music videos

References

1962 births
2016 deaths
American country singer-songwriters
Grammy Award winners
Latin Grammy Award winners
American musicians of Mexican descent
Hispanic and Latino American musicians
Musicians from San Antonio
Musicians from New Braunfels, Texas
Spanish-language singers of the United States
Capitol Records artists
People from New Braunfels, Texas
Writers from San Antonio
Tejano musicians
Latin music songwriters
Singer-songwriters from Texas
20th-century American singer-songwriters
21st-century American singer-songwriters
Country musicians from Texas

Emilio Navaira


Athens Towers (Greek: Πύργος Αθηνών), is a complex of two buildings situated in Athens, Greece. Athens Tower 1 is  and 28 storeys high, making it the tallest building in Greece, while Athens Tower 2 has 15 storeys and a height of  being the 8th tallest in Greece.

Construction began in 1968 and was completed in 1971 during the dictatorship. At the time of its completion it was the second tallest building in Southeast Europe. It is located in the district of Ampelokipi on 2 Mesogeion Avenue. It is used by many companies such as Interamerican and Alpha Bank. The architect of Athens Tower is Ioannis Vikelas, who also designed the main building of the Goulandris Museum of Cycladic Art. Its architects were Ioannis Vikelas and Ioannis Kympritis. Despite the criticism it has received due to its design and high height, the Tower of Athens is today considered to be one of the landmarks of Athens.

History
The Athens Tower was built in a period when the developmental law restricting the maximum height of a building wasn't active, with the law 395/68 "On the height of buildings and free construction" with which the buildings were given the freedom to be arranged in any way inside the plot to ensure the best lighting and ventilation. Up until 1968 the maximum allowed height of a building was 35 meters, from 1985 to 2000 the maximum allowed building height was 32 meters, from 2000 to 2012 27 meters and from 2012 to present 32 meters. Until 1968, the tallest building in Athens was the 14 storey Athens Hilton, which was completed in 1963. The construction of the Athens Tower started in 1968 and was undertaken by Αλβέρτης - Δημόπουλος (Alivertis-Dimopoulos) Α.Ε., one of the biggest construction companies of the time. For the construction of the building the 2-4 Messogeion Avenue site was granted. The building was completed in 1971. During the 1990s telecommunication antennas were added on the roof of the building.

Description
The Tower of Athens is less than 100 meters high without the antenna masts, has 28 floors and is still the tallest building in Greece. The architecture of the tower is minimalistic and futuristic and is an imitation of other buildings in Europe and America, like the Seagram Building. Typical is the use of glass curtains on the exterior walls of the building with aluminum frame. The use of glass curtains has since become commonplace for large commercial buildings in Athens. The vertical axis of the building is accentuated by white marble columns and vertical columns in the brown anodized aluminum glazing.

The Tower of Athens is built with the method of composite construction, with steel columns and reinforced concrete slabs, in contrast to other tall buildings of the time. Because the builders didn't have expertise in the construction of large steel structures, more emphasis was placed on the reinforced concrete. It was the first building in the Balkans to be constructed using this technique.

Additionally, the pioneering technique of the plastic foundation was used for the building's construction, which had been developed by the professor of Statics and Dynamics of the Polytechnic School of the University of Patras, Aristarchos Oikonomou, who also carried out the statics of the building. Plastic foundations work in a similar way to dampers. Another innovation of the building was the use of plasterboard inside the building, which helped reduce the weight of the building. The partitions of the interior of the Tower of Athens are mobile, making it possible to easily change the interior layout. Below the Tower there are three basements, for parking, warehouses and an engine room.

Next to the Tower of Athens is a smaller tower less than 56 meters high, with 12 floors, with common design features regarding the facade. But unlike the Tower of Athens, the smaller tower is zigzagged. It is connected to it at the first floor. According to the original plan, a two-storey extended base would be built on the plot, on which the Tower would be located. However, the plans changed and a square with two unequal towers was finally built. The buildings house shops and offices.

See also
 Apollo Tower
List of tallest buildings in Athens

References

Buildings and structures in Athens
Towers in Greece
Office buildings completed in 1971
Skyscrapers in Athens
Skyscraper office buildings
Modernist architecture in Greece
1971 establishments in Greece

Athens Towers


A blazar  is a very compact quasar (quasi-stellar radio source). They have a presumed supermassive black hole at the center of an active, giant elliptical galaxy. Blazars are among the most energetic phenomena in the universe and are an important topic in astronomy.

Blazars are one of a group of active galaxies that host active galactic nuclei (AGN). An AGN is a region at the centre of a galaxy which has a much higher than normal luminosity over some or all of the electromagnetic spectrum.

The name "blazar" was originally coined in 1978 by astronomer Edward Spiegel. Blazars are AGN with a relativistic jet which is pointing in the general direction of the Earth. We observe "down" the jet, or nearly so. Many blazars have apparent superluminal features within the first few parsecs of their jets, probably due to relativistic shock fronts.

The blazar at the centre of galaxy M87 is fuelled by a black hole with a mass of about three billion solar masses within ten light years of the galaxy centre.

References

Astronomical objects

Blazar


Claude La Colombière, S.J. is a French Jesuit priest and the confessor of Margaret Mary Alacoque. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church.

His feast day is the day of his death, 15 February. He was a missionary and ascetical writer. Colombière left a large number of writings, including his principal works, Pious Reflections, Meditations on the Passion, and Retreat and Spiritual Letters.

Life

Early life
He was born in 1641 in the city of Saint-Symphorien-d'Ozon, then in the ancient Province of Dauphiné, the third child of the notary Bertrand La Colombière and of Margaret Coindat. The family soon moved to the nearby city of Vienne, where he began his education, before attending the Jesuit school in Lyon for his secondary studies.

In 1658, at the age of seventeen, Colombière entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus at Avignon.  He did this despite what he recorded as "a terrible aversion for the life embraced". When he completed the two-year novitiate, he started his higher studies in the same city. He was professed there and completed his studies. After this he spent the next five years of his regency teaching grammar and literature at the same school.

Jesuit ministry
Colombière was sent to Paris in 1666 to study theology at the College de Clermont. He was also assigned to be the tutor of the children of the Royal Minister of Finances, Jean-Baptiste Colbert. After completing his studies there, he was ordained a priest in 1669 and initially assigned to teach at his former school in Lyon. He then was assigned to join the preaching team of the Jesuit community, through which he gained notice for the clarity and soundness of his sermons.

In 1674, after 15 years of life as a Jesuit, Colombière did his next period of probation known as the tertianship, which was to prove decisive in his life. As a result of this experience of the Spiritual Exercises, he made a personal vow, as a means of attaining the utmost possible perfection, to observe faithfully the Rule and Constitutions of the Society under penalty of sin. Those who lived with him attested that this vow was kept with great exactitude.

The Sacred Heart
After professing the Fourth Vow of the Society at the end of his tertianship on 2 February 1675, Colombière was appointed the rector of the Jesuit community at Paray-le-Monial, where he also became the spiritual director of the nuns of the Monastery of the Visitation Sisters located next to the church. In this way he came to know Margaret Mary Alacoque. The curiosity of such a promising preacher having been assigned to this remote location has led to the supposition that his superiors had her in mind in making this assignment.

The disbelief of the other religious sisters of her monastery left Alocoque anxious and uncertain. She felt isolated in her situation of having experienced a series of private revelations from Christ in which she felt she was being called to promote devotion to his Sacred Heart. When Colombière came to the community and began to hear the confessions of the sisters, she felt that she had finally found a priest in whom she could truly confide, and opened up her heart to him. She later wrote that she saw that his spiritual gift "was that of bringing souls to God along the Gospel way of love and mercy which Christ revealed to us". After speaking with her a number of times and after much prayer, as a result, he was convinced of the validity of her visions and became both her supporter and a zealous apostle of the devotion.

England
In 1676 Colombière was sent to England as preacher to Mary of Modena, then the Duchess of York, wife of the future King James II of England. He took up residence at the Court of St. James's, where he still observed all his religious duties as a member of the Society. He was also as active a preacher and confessor in England as he had been in France. Although encountering many difficulties, he was able to guide Alacoque by letter.

Colombière's zeal and the English climate soon combined to weaken his health and a pulmonary condition threatened to end his work in that country. In November 1678, while awaiting a recall to France, he was suddenly arrested and thrown into prison, denounced as being a part of the Popish Plot alleged by Titus Oates  against the English throne. Caught up in the anti-Catholic hysteria which resulted from this alleged plot, he was confined in severe conditions at the King's Bench Prison, where his fragile health took a turn for the worse. He is quoted by the historian John Philipps Kenyon as having described the effects of the situation—in which over 20 Jesuits died—on the Society of Jesus, writing: "The name of the Jesuit is hated above all else, even by priests both secular and regular, and by the Catholic laity as well, because it is said that the Jesuits have caused this raging storm, which is likely to overthrow the whole Catholic religion".

Thanks to his position at the Royal Court and to the protection of the King of France, Louis XIV, whose subject he was, he escaped death but was expelled from England in 1679. He returned to France with his health ruined by his imprisonment.

Death and veneration
The last two years of Colombière's life were spent at Lyon, where he was spiritual director to the Jesuit novices, and at Paray-le-Monial, where he returned to improve his health. He died on 15 February 1682.

Colombière left a large number of writings, which, including his principal works, Pious Reflections, Meditations on the Passion, and Retreat and Spiritual Letters, were published under the title, Oeuvres du R.P. Claude La Colombière (Avignon, 1832; Paris, 1864).

Colombière was beatified by Pope Pius XI on 16 June 1929, and the cause for his canonization was opened on 14 November 1934. He was canonized by Pope John Paul II on 31 May 1992. His relics are preserved in the Jesuit Church around the corner from the convent of the Visitation sisters at Paray-le-Monial.

See also
Saint news
Saint Claude La Colombière, patron saint archive

References

External links
Claude at Patron Saints Index
An Act of Hope and Confidence in God, a prayer by Claude
Image
 San Claudio de la Colombiere

Jesuit saints
1641 births
1682 deaths
People from Rhône (department)
People associated with the Popish Plot
17th-century French Jesuits
Deaths from pulmonary hemorrhage
17th-century Christian saints
Canonizations by Pope John Paul II
Sacred Heart devotions
Beatifications by Pope Pius XI

Claude La Colombière


Jach'a Jawira (Aymara jach'a big, jawira river, "big river", also spelled Jachcha Jahuira) is a Bolivian river in the La Paz Department, Pacajes Province, Caquiaviri Municipality. It is a left tributary of the Desaguadero River.

Jach'a Jawira originates in the mountains near Caquiaviri. At first it flows to the northwest, then it turns to the west where it joins the Desaguaderdo River south of the village of Nasa Q'ara (Nazacara).

See also
 Qala Jawira
 Thujsa Jawira

References

Rivers of La Paz Department (Bolivia)

Jach'a Jawira (Caquiaviri)


Testimony is a solemn attestation as to the truth of a matter.

Etymology
The words "testimony" and "testify" both derive from the Latin word testis, referring to the notion of a disinterested third-party witness.

Law

In the law, testimony is a form of evidence in which a witness makes a "solemn declaration or affirmation ... for the purpose of establishing or proving some fact".  According to Bryan A. Garner, the editor of Black's Law Dictionary, the word "testimony" is properly used as a mass noun (that is, always uninflected regardless of number), and not a count noun.

Testimony may be oral or written, and it is usually made by oath or affirmation under penalty of perjury.  Historically, to be admissible in court and to ensure maximum reliability and validity, written testimony presented in the form of an affidavit (i.e., the witness would not be appearing in court at the hearing at which the affidavit was considered as evidence) was usually witnessed by another person (in many common law jurisdictions, a notary public) who had to also swear to or affirm its authenticity, also under penalty of perjury.  In 1976, the United States Congress enacted a statute allowing for the use of an unsworn declaration under penalty of perjury in lieu of an affidavit in federal courts.  In other words, the declarant's signature together with a statement that they were making the unsworn declaration under penalty of perjury were deemed as a matter of law to be sufficiently solemn to remind the declarant of their duty to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth (meaning notarization was no longer required).  As of 2006, about 20 states also had similar statutes allowing the use of unsworn declarations in their state courts.

Unless a witness is testifying as an expert witness, testimony in the form of opinions or inferences is generally limited to those opinions or inferences that are rationally based on the perceptions of the witness and are helpful to a clear understanding of the witness' testimony.

Legitimate expert witnesses with a genuine understanding of legal process and the inherent dangers of false or misleading testimony refrain from making statements of fact. They also recognize that they are in fact not witnesses to an alleged crime or other event in any way, shape or form. Their expertise is in the examination of evidence or relevant facts in the case. They should make no firm judgement or claim or accusation about any aspect of the case outside their narrow range of expertise. They also should not allege any fact they can not immediately and credibly prove scientifically.

For example, a hair sample from a crime scene entered as evidence by the prosecution should be described by an expert witness as "consistent with" a sample collected from the defendant, rather than being described as a "match". A wide range of factors make it physically impossible to prove for certain that two hair or tissue samples came from a common source.

Having not actually witnessed the defendant at the scene, the expert witness can not state for a fact that the sample is a match to the defendant, particularly when the samples were collected at different times and different places by different collectors using different collection methods. Ultimately, the testimony of expert witnesses is regarded as supportive of evidence rather than evidence in and of itself, and a good defense attorney will point out that the expert witness is not in fact a witness to anything, but rather an observer.

When a witness is asked a question, the opposing attorney can raise an objection, which is a legal move to disallow or prevent an improper question to others, preferably before the witness answers, and mentioning one of the standard reasons, including:
 argumentative
 asked and answered
 best evidence rule
 calls for speculation
 calls for a conclusion
 compound question or narrative
 hearsay
 inflammatory
 incompetent witness (e.g., child, mental or physical impairment, intoxicated)
 irrelevant, immaterial (the words "irrelevant" and "immaterial" have the same meaning under the Federal Rules of Evidence. Historically, irrelevant evidence referred to evidence that has no probative value, i.e., does not tend to prove any fact. Immaterial refers to evidence that is probative, but not as to any fact material to the case. See Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Ed.).
 lack of foundation
 leading question
 privilege
 vague
 ultimate issue testimony
There may also be an objection to the answer, including:
 non-responsive

Up until the mid-20th century, in much of the United States, an attorney often had to follow an objection with an exception to preserve the issue for appeal. If an attorney failed to "take an exception" immediately after the court's ruling on the objection, he waived his client's right to appeal the issue. Exceptions have since been abolished, due to the widespread recognition that forcing lawyers to take them was a waste of time.

When a party uses the testimony of a witness to show proof, the opposing party often attempts to impeach the witness. This may be done using cross-examination, calling into question the witness's competence, or by attacking the character or habit of the witness. So, for example, if a witness testifies that he remembers seeing a person at 2:00 pm on a Tuesday and his habit is to be at his desk job on Tuesday, then the opposing party would try to impeach his testimony related to that event.

Religion
Christians in general, especially within the Evangelical tradition, use the term "to testify" or "to give one's testimony" to mean "to tell the story of how one became a Christian". Commonly it may refer to a specific event in a Christian's life in which God did something deemed particularly worth sharing. Christians often give their testimony at their own baptism, church services, and at evangelistic events. Many Christians have also published their testimony on the internet.

New Testament
After the early church began to preach about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Peter and the other apostles asserted that "we are witnesses of these things". Pope Francis has commented on Peter being "strong in his testimony", describing "testimony" as the "lifeblood" of the church.

Types
Many Methodist churches in the holiness tradition devote a portion of their Sunday evening service and/or mid-week Wednesday evening service of worship to allow members to give a personal testimony about their faith and experiences in living the Christian life:

In the Religious Society of Friends, the word testimony is used to refer to the ways in which Friends testify or bear witness to their beliefs in their everyday lives. In this context, the word testimony refers not to the underlying belief, but the committed action which arises out of their beliefs, which testifies to their beliefs. Common areas in which modern Friends are said to testify include testimony towards peace, testimony to simplicity, testimony to truth and integrity, and testimony to equality.

 In some religions (most notably Mormonism and Islam) many adherents testify as a profession of their faith, often to a congregation of believers. In Mormonism, testifying is also referred to as "bearing one's testimony", and often involves the sharing of personal experience—ranging from a simple anecdote to an account of personal revelation—followed by a statement of belief that has been confirmed by this experience. Within Mormon culture, the word "testimony" has become synonymous with "belief". Although "testimony" and "belief" are often used interchangeably, they are inherently different. Most Mormons believe that when faith is acted upon, individuals can receive a spiritual witness which solidifies belief into testimony; that if the exercise of faith leads to good works, they can know their religious principles are true. An individual who no longer believes in the religion may be referred to as having "lost their testimony".

Large-group awareness training
In the context of large-group awareness training, anecdotal testimony may operate in the forms of "sharing" or delivering a "share".

Literature

Some published oral or written autobiographical narratives are considered "testimonial literature" particularly when they present evidence or first person accounts of human rights abuses, violence and war, and living under conditions of social oppression. This usage of the term comes originally from Latin America and the Spanish term "testimonio" when it emerged from human rights tribunals, truth commissions, and other international human rights instruments in countries such as Chile and Argentina. One of the most famous, though controversial, of these works to be translated into English is I, Rigoberta Menchú. The autobiographies of Frederick Douglass can be considered among the earliest significant English-language works in this genre.

Philosophy
In philosophy, testimony is a proposition conveyed by one entity (person or group) to another entity, whether through speech or writing or through facial expression, that is based on the entity's knowledge base. The proposition believed on the basis of a testimony is justified if conditions are met which assess, among other things, the speaker's reliability (whether her testimony is true often) and the hearer's possession of positive reasons (for instance, that the speaker is unbiased).

We can also rationally accept a claim on the basis of another person's testimony unless at least one of the following is found to be true:

 The claim is implausible;
 The person or the source in which the claim is quoted lacks credibility;
 The claim goes beyond what the person could know from his or her own experience and competence.

See also

 Bayesian epistemology
 Daubert standard
 Deposition
 Eyewitness memory
 Direct examination
 Hostile witness
 In limine
 Leading question
 Philosophical problems of testimony
 Redirect examination
 Rashomon effect
 Strike from the record
 Testimony in Jewish law
 Testimony of peace

References

External links

Evidence law
Religious practices
Sources of knowledge
Social epistemology
Latter Day Saint terms

Testimony


The Westfield River is a major tributary of the Connecticut River located in the Berkshires and Pioneer Valley regions of western Massachusetts. With four major tributary branches that converge west of the city of Westfield, it flows  (measured from the source of its North Branch) before its confluence with the Connecticut River at Agawam, across from the city of Springfield's Metro Center district. Known for its whitewater rapids and scenery, the Westfield River provides over  of whitewater canoeing and kayaking, in addition to one of the largest roadless wilderness areas remaining in the Commonwealth.

The Westfield River is the Connecticut River's longest tributary in Massachusetts, although the Chicopee River's basin is much larger, and contributes more water to the Connecticut. The Connecticut's northern tributary, the Deerfield River, is nearly as long as the Westfield, being only  shorter.

During the mid-20th century, the Westfield River was so polluted that it would change color based on the nature of the contaminant. Today, the river is clean enough for swimming. It is a state and locally managed river featuring native trout fishing and rugged mountain scenery in the context of a historical mill town settlement (at Westfield).

History

On its initial discovery by Massachusetts Bay Colony explorers John Cable and John Woodcock in 1635, the area stretching from the Westfield River's confluence with the Connecticut River to Westfield itself—which, the next year, would all be encompassed in the settlement that came to be known as Springfield—was named the "Agawam River", after the name of the Native American people then occupying the area. Historical literature often refers to Springfield as sitting at the confluence of the Connecticut River with the western Agawam River and eastern Chicopee River. This "Agawam River" is now known as the Westfield River, and should not be confused with the Agawam River in southeastern Massachusetts, which was named in tribute to Springfield's tribe of Native Americans.

Course and branches

The Westfield River runs for a total of . Rising in the Berkshire Hills region of Massachusetts, it flows southeastwardly to join the Connecticut River at Agawam—directly across from Springfield's Metro Center (downtown).

The Westfield River has a  drainage area that includes three named branches, which join in Huntington to form the Westfield River's main stem, which flows through Russell into Westfield. The branches are the North Branch (sometimes called the East Branch), which rises in the town of Savoy and flows southeast through Windsor, Cummington, and Chesterfield; the Middle Branch, which rises in the town of Peru and flows southeast through Worthington, Middlefield, and Chester; and the West Branch, which has its origins in Washington and Becket, then flows east through Chester.

The three branches converge in the town of Huntington: the Middle and North Branch (or "East Branch") merge near the hamlet of Goss Heights,  north of their junction with the West Branch (designated a National Wild and Scenic river) at Huntington village. From Huntington, the main stem of the Westfield River flows through Russell and Westfield, then forms the boundary between West Springfield and Agawam before ending at the Connecticut River.

Every April, the Westfield River in Huntington is the home of the Westfield River Whitewater Races, the oldest continuously run whitewater race in the United States.

Portions of the river's watershed have been designated the Westfield Creek Wild and Scenic River, and form part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System.

Hydropower facilities and dams

From the mouth heading upstream, the first dam is the West Springfield Dam, which creates a reservoir north of Robinson State Park. This powers two hydropower turbines owned by A & D Hydro, rated at 900 and 466 kW. The 18-foot-high stone and concrete dam includes a 50-foot-wide power canal, and was constructed in 1836.

The second dam (actually two dams, north and south, with an island in the middle) is in the village of Woronoco in the town of Russell. Woronoco hydro station, owned by Eagle Creek Renewable Energy, is at Salmon Falls, also known as Woronoco Falls. It has three Francis turbines, rated for a total of 2.7 MW. These falls were first dammed in the 1870s by the Woronoco Paper Company, later merged with the Strathmore Paper Company. The current dams were constructed in 1938 and 1950 by Strathmore; the paper mills operated until 1999.

The third dam is at the Indian River Power Supply plant on Station Road in Russell. The modern hydroelectric plant is also owned by Eagle Creek Renewable Energy, and is rated at 1.4 MW, with two Francis turbines. The dam and plant were originally constructed by the Westfield River Paper Company in 1909.

The fourth dam is Crescent Dam, located in the Crescent Mills neighborhood of Russell at mile 24 of the river.  This site was formerly a Chapin and Gould Paper Company mill (later known as Texon). The Texon Hydroelectric Project at the site is rated at 1.5 MW, and is owned by Gravity Renewables.

The fifth dam is the Knightville Dam in Huntington, Massachusetts. After the 1936 flood on the Westfield and Connecticut Rivers, it was constructed by the Army Corp of Engineers from August 1939 to December 1941 for $3.3 million. It is only used for flood control, and does not normally impound a reservoir. Construction required relocation of Route 112 and a cemetery. 33 homes were demolished, two were moved and a gas station and store were obliterated. The dam is credited with averting hundreds of millions of dollars in downstream flood damages.

External links

 Westfield River Watershed Association
 The Westfield River Watershed Open Space and Recreation Plan Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, 2003.
  USGS site
 Geographic Names Information System feature detail report – ID 619263

Rivers of Hampden County, Massachusetts
Rivers of Hampshire County, Massachusetts
Tributaries of the Connecticut River
Westfield, Massachusetts
Geography of Springfield, Massachusetts
West Springfield, Massachusetts
Rivers of Massachusetts
Wild and Scenic Rivers of the United States

Westfield River


Aquarelliste (foaled January 23, 1998) is a French Thoroughbred racehorse. Owned and bred by Daniel Wildenstein, she was sired by Danehill, a Leading sire in Australia as well as in France and Great Britain & Ireland. She was out of the mare Agathe, a daughter of Manila, the 1986  Breeders' Cup Turf winner voted 1986 U.S. Champion Male Turf Horse.

Trained by Élie Lellouche, Aquarelliste went into the 2001 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe undefeated having won two Listed races, the Classic Prix de Diane and the Prix Vermeille. However,  Godolphin Racing's colt Sakhee won the Arc with Aquarelliste finishing second, six lengths back.

Racing in 2002 at age four, Aquarelliste won that year's Prix Foy and the Group I Prix Ganay. She ran third to Ange Gabriel in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud at Saint-Cloud Racecourse and was third to the same horse when sent overseas to race at Sha Tin Racecourse in the Hong Kong Vase. Sent to compete in England's important King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, Aquarelliste finished fourth to winner Golan. She wound up her 2002 season with a sixth-place finish in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. As a five-year-old, Aquarelliste's best result was a win in March 2003 in the Group III Prix Exbury.

Retired to broodmare duty, in 2004 Aquarelliste was bred to Sadler's Wells and produced a filly, Aquarelle Bleu.

References
 Aquarelliste's pedigree and partial racing stats

1998 racehorse births
Thoroughbred family 8-f
Racehorses bred in France
Racehorses trained in France
French Thoroughbred Classic Race winners

Aquarelliste


Dominique Armani Jones (born December 3, 1994), known professionally as Lil Baby, is an American rapper. He rose to mainstream fame in 2017 following the release of his mixtape Perfect Timing, becoming one of the most popular artists in the trap music genre as of now.

Lil Baby's first studio album, Harder Than Ever (2018), was certified platinum by the RIAA. It included the song "Yes Indeed" with Canadian recording artist Drake which peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100.

He went on to release two more mixtapes in 2018, Drip Harder and Street Gossip. The former mixtape contained his most popular song "Drip Too Hard", which peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100. The latter mixtape peaked at number two on the US Billboard 200.

Lil Baby's second album, My Turn (2020), peaked at number one on the Billboard 200. The song "We Paid", from the album charted at number ten on the Hot 100. In June 2020, he released the single "The Bigger Picture", which peaked at number three on the Hot 100. It became the highest-charting single of his career.

Throughout his career, Lil Baby has been nominated for three Grammy Awards, two American Music Awards, two MTV Video Music Awards, and seven BET Awards.

Early life
Dominique Jones was born and raised in Atlanta. He lived with his mother and 2 sisters while their father is no longer with them.

Career
Shortly after his release from prison in 2016, Jones released his mixtape Perfect Timing. It features from Young Thug, Lil Yachty, and others.

On July 18, 2017, he released his second mixtape titled Harder Than Hard.

On October 9, 2017, Jones released a collaboration mixtape with close friend and fellow Atlanta rapper Marlo, 2 The Hard Way. This mixtape did not create as big an impact as the former two mixtapes. It still gained some attention.

Jones finally started to break through to the masses with his December 2017 mixtape Too Hard. It was led by his hit single "Freestyle", which was released as a music video on November 5 to promote the upcoming mixtape. Through the success of the single, Jones attracted much attention to his mixtape. When the mixtape was finally released, it featured the single "All of a Sudden" featuring fellow American rapper Moneybagg Yo. This mixtape was defining for much of Jones' current career.

In May 2018, Baby released his first studio album, Harder Than Ever, which debuted at number three on the US Billboard 200 chart. The album was supported by the singles, "Southside" and "Yes Indeed" (with Drake). "Yes indeed" peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100. "Life Goes On" featuring Lil Uzi Vert and Gunna charted at number 74 on the Billboard Hot 100.

On October 5, 2018, after Lil Baby released Harder Than Ever, he released his collaborative mixtape Drip Harder with Gunna. The single "Drip Too Hard" went on to become certified 9x platinum by the RIAA and MC Platinum. It peaked at number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was nominated for Best Rap/Song Performance at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards. The mixtape was released under the labels Quality Control, YSL Records, and Motown/Capitol.

In September 2018, Baby appeared on the Adult Swim television series FishCenter Live.

In November 2018, he released his mixtape Street Gossip.

In December 2018, Baby collaborated with Yung Gravy on Gravy's single, "Alley Oop".

He starred in How High 2, the sequel to the 2001 stoner comedy movie How High. How High 2 premiered on April 20, 2019, on MTV.

On June 21, 2019, Baby and fellow Atlanta rapper Future released a single titled "Out the Mud".

On July 17, 2019, Lil Baby appeared alongside DaBaby on the single "Baby". "Baby" was released on Quality Control's second studio album, Control the Streets, Volume 2. The song peaked at number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100.

On November 8, 2019, Baby released his single "Woah" as the lead single for his second studio album My Turn. The song peaked at number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100.

On November 9, 2019, Baby was featured on British YouTuber KSI's song "Down Like That" along with American rapper Rick Ross and British producer S-X. Baby performed it for KSI's ring walk at Staples Center for KSI's fight against YouTuber Logan Paul.

On November 15, 2019, Baby released a song from the movie Queen & Slim, titled "Catch the Sun". It later appeared on My Turn.

On January 10, 2020, Lil Baby released the second single, "Sum 2 Prove", for his album. It reached number 16 on the Hot 100.

On February 28, 2020, My Turn, was released and debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200. It features guest appearances from Gunna, 42 Dugg, Future, Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Wayne, Moneybagg Yo, Young Thug, and Rylo Rodriguez. My Turn produced 12 songs that appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, giving him a career total of 47 songs on the chart. It put him in a tie with musicians Prince and Paul McCartney.

On May 1, 2020, following the release of the album's deluxe version, My Turn returned to the top spot on the Billboard 200.

On June 12, 2020, Lil Baby released the political song "The Bigger Picture", following the George Floyd protests. The song debuted at number three on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Lil Baby's highest-charting song as a lead artist. His song "We Paid" featuring 42 Dugg from the My Turn deluxe also peaked in the top 10 of the Hot 100.

In July 2020, Lil Baby was featured on late rapper Pop Smoke's "For the Night" from his posthumous first album, Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon. The song reached number six on the Hot 100.

In September 2020, My Turn became the first album of the year to be certified double platinum by the RIAA. "The Bigger Picture" received two nominations at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards: Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song.

On March 14, 2021, Lil Baby performed "The Bigger Picture" at the Grammys to mostly positive reviews. The following day, another collaboration with Drake, "Wants and Needs", debuted at number two on the Hot 100. It passed a previous peak and debuted with "The Bigger Picture" for Jones, becoming his highest-charting song overall.

On June 4, 2021, Lil Baby released his collaborative studio album with Lil Durk, The Voice of the Heroes. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200.

In July 2021, he released the single "We Win" (featuring Kirk Franklin) for the soundtrack to the sports comedy movie Space Jam: A New Legacy.

Personal life
Jason is the son of Jones which he had from his relationship with his Ex-girlfriend Ayesha. Jayda Cheaves is an entrepreneur and model who fell into a relationship with Jones in 2016.

Discography
 Perfect Timing (2017)
 Harder Than Harder: Gangsta Grillz (2017)
 2 the Hard Way (with Marlo) (2017)
 Too Hard (2017)
 Harder Than Ever (2018)
 Drip Hard (with Gunna) (2018)
 Street Gossip (2018)
 My Turn (2020)
 The Voice of the Heroes (with Lil Durk) (2021)
 It's Only Me (2022)

Awards and nominations

References

Notelist

1994 births
Living people
21st-century American rappers
21st-century American singers
African-American singers
African-American rappers
American singer-songwriters
American hip hop musicians
Rappers from Atlanta
Trap musicians

Lil Baby


Computo is a supervillain in the DC Comics universe and a foe of the Legion of Super-Heroes. It first appeared in Adventure Comics #340 (January 1966), in a story written by Jerry Siegel and illustrated by Curt Swan.

Fictional character biography

Pre-Crisis
Computo was created by Brainiac 5 to be a mechanical assistant, but instead became homicidal, and attempted an uprising of machines. It creates an army of replicas and begins terrorizing the city. Calculating that a confrontation with the Legion is imminent, it redesigns itself into its ultimate form, Computo the Conqueror, and send a distress signal which will recall all Legionnaires back to Earth. When the Legion returns unaware, Computo uses its database to create a weapon which neutralizes Legion members' powers and use it against them, and turns the Clubhouse into a walking automaton. Computo forces the Legion to leave Metropolis and kills one of Triplicate Girl's bodies, resulting in her becoming Duo Damsel. Brainiac 5 is finally able to defeat Computo by using an anti-matter device discovered in the ruins of the Batcave.

Years later, after Brainiac 5 uses elements of its original circuitry, Computo re-emerges by possessing the mind of young Danielle Foccart. Computo is defeated when her brother Jacques uses the invisible formula invented by deceased Legionnaire Lyle Norg to become the second Invisible Kid. Several months later, Brainiac 5 would succeed in removing Computo from the young girl and place it within a matrix which tames the program and it becomes the Legion's majordomo—after first exploding the Legion HQ and then rebuilding and redesigning the structure in minutes.

Years later, an army of Computo replicas would try to conquer Bismoll, but are defeated by Senator Tenzil Kem and the Legion of Substitute Heroes. This fiasco, although successful, drives Polar Boy to disband the group and apply for membership in the regular Legion. Sometime later, after resigning from the Legion, Brainiac 5 constructs an organic body (which resembles a dwarfish version of Validus) to house Computo and help the Legion cope with his absence.

Following the events of the "Five Year Gap", the Dominators secretly seize the lifeform and use it as a basis for their enforcer B.I.O.N.

Post-Zero Hour
Following the Zero Hour reboot of Legion continuity, C.O.M.P.U.T.O. (Cybercerebral Overlapping Multi-Processor Universal Transceiver Operator) is created by Brainiac 5 when he and other Legionnaires are trapped in the 20th century and attempt to find a way to return to the 30th century. C.O.M.P.U.T.O is formed by the melding of three miniature supercomputers: a 30th-century Omnicom communications device; a Mother Box; and the "responsometer" (personality module) of Veridium of the Metal Men. C.O.M.P.U.T.O creates a portal to the 30th century, but turns against Brainiac when he assures the other Metal Men that Veridium's responsometer will be restored once C.O.M.P.U.T.O has served his purpose. C.O.M.P.U.T.O is seemingly destroyed, but returns in the 31st century as Presidential Advisor "Mister Venge", seemingly serving the wishes of a returned Ra's al Ghul's agenda. After al Ghul's defeat, he reveals himself as the leader of the computer nation of Robotica which threatens Earth.

Post-Infinite Crisis
In the Justice League of America/Justice Society of America crossover "The Lightning Saga", Sensor Girl replays the Legionnaires' first battle with Computo wherein one of Triplicate Girl's duplicates were killed.

The New 52
During The New 52, Brainiac (although referred to only as 'The Colony of the Collector of Worlds') is first seen as the mysterious informant that supplies Lex Luthor information of Superman and his alien nature. Clark is having a dream of Krypton's final moments in which an artificial intelligence that controls the planet wakes up robots in an attempt to preserve the Kryptonian culture. Later, while Clark makes an interview in a robotic factory, suddenly the same harvester robots appear. At the same time John Corben, who is receiving his last adjustments in his transformation into Metallo, is suddenly possessed by the artificial intelligence who demands for Superman. The robots create havoc throughout Metropolis but Superman soon realizes that they are really after him. Superman fights the possessed Metallo with the help of John Henry Irons. Although they managed to defeat him, the alien sentience had already miniaturized and bottled the city of Metropolis and take it to his ship in space.

Notably, the ship into which Kal-El (who would be renamed Clark Kent when he was found on Earth) was placed as an infant was described as having "Brainiac AI", leaving the identity of the Collector of Worlds in doubt. The Colony of the Collector of Worlds told Superman that its AI technology went by different names, beginning on Yod-Colu as C.O.M.P.U.T.O. On Noma, he was called Pneumenoid; on Bryak it was Mind2; on Krypton he was called Brainiac 1.0; and, finally on Earth, he is the Internet.

In other media
Computo appears in Legion of Super Heroes, voiced by Adam Wylie. This version does not turn evil and is initially based in the Legion's headquarters before being transferred to their starship, the Battle Cruiser.

References

External links
Computo at the Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe
C.O.M.P.U.T.O. at the Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe

DC Comics supervillains
DC Comics robots
Robot supervillains
Fictional artificial intelligences
Fictional characters with spirit possession or body swapping abilities
Comics characters introduced in 1966
Characters created by Jerry Siegel
Characters created by Curt Swan

Computo (character)


Ella Little-Collins (1914 – 1996) was an American civil rights activist and the half-sister of Malcolm X. She was born in Butler, Georgia, to Earl Little and Daisy Little (née Mason); her paternal grandparents were John (Big Pa) Lee Little and Ella Little (née Gray), and her siblings were Mary Little and Earl Lee Little Jr. She had seven half-siblings from her father's second marriage: Wilfred, Philbert, Hilda, Reginald, Malcolm, Wesley, and Yvonne. She worked as congressman Adam Clayton Powell's secretary, the manager of her mother's grocery store, and an investor in house property, which she let out as rooming houses. She joined the Nation of Islam in the mid-1950s and helped establish its mosque in Boston and a day-care center attached to it, although she left the Nation in 1959 to become a Sunni Muslim. She supported black and ethnic studies programs in universities across the United States and founded the Sarah A. Little School of Preparatory Arts in Boston.

In his autobiography, Malcolm X wrote about the impact his first meeting with his half-sister had on him. She came to visit when he was in seventh grade, and he described her as "the first really proud black woman I had ever seen" and wrote "I had never been so impressed with anybody." At the end of the school year, he moved to Roxbury to live with her, and she was his guardian until he turned 21. Her home, the Malcolm X—Ella Little-Collins House, is the last known surviving childhood home of Malcolm X. Its exterior was designated a Boston Landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission in 1998, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2021.

When Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam in 1964, Little-Collins paid for him to make the Hajj. She also paid his funeral and business expenses after his assassination, and took over his Organization of Afro-American Unity, including his project of giving 35 scholarships from Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, and from the University of Ghana to students wishing to study overseas. In 1986 she merged the Organization of Afro-American Unity with the African American Defense League.

In 1988, both of Little-Collins' legs were amputated due to gangrene. She died in 1996.

The Ella Collins Institute at the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center is named after her; its goal is "to establish a vibrant community by joining a classical understanding of Islam with modern scholarship and a healthy understanding of the current cultural context."

References

Further reading

External links

Say Brother Episode; Malcolm X (1969); Ella Collins interview, American Archive of Public Broadcasting

1914 births
1996 deaths
American civil rights activists
Women civil rights activists
People from Taylor County, Georgia
Malcolm X family
American amputees
People from Roxbury, Boston
American activists with disabilities

Ella Little-Collins


The Tirari Desert is a  desert in the eastern part of the Far North region of South Australia. It stretches 212 km from north to south and 153 km from east to west.

Location and description

The Tirari Desert features salt lakes and large north–south running sand dunes.
It is located partly within the Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre National Park. It lies mainly to the east of Lake Eyre North. Cooper Creek runs through the centre of the desert.

The adjacent deserts of the area include Simpson Desert which lies to the north while the Strzelecki Desert is to the east and the Sturt Stony Desert runs aligned with the Birdsville track to the north east.

The desert experiences harsh conditions with high temperatures and very low rainfall (mean annual rainfall is below ).

Access and stations
The main vehicular access to the desert is via the unpaved Birdsville Track which runs northwards from Marree to Birdsville. The Mungerannie Hotel is the only location between the two towns that provides services.

The Tirari Desert region has a number of large cattle stations which are stopping points on the Channel Country aviation mail run.

Dulkaninna Station has been run by the same family for 110 years, has 2,000 cattle and breeds horses and kelpies. Etadunna Station to the north is a  cattle station with 2500 cattle.
The station environs include a number of heritage sites include Bucaltaninna Homestead ruins, the Woolshed ruins and Canny Trig Point (also known as Milner's Pile) and the state heritage-registered Killalpaninna Mission site.

Further north again is Mulka Station which also has a number of heritage sites including homestead ruins at Apatoongannie, Old Mulka and Ooroowillannie. The Mulka Store ruins is listed as a state heritage place on the South Australian Heritage Register.

Vegetation

The vegetation of the dunefields of the Tirari Desert is dominated by either Sandhill Wattle (Acacia ligulata) or Sandhill Cane-grass (Zygochloa paradoxa) which occur on the crests and slopes of dunes. Tall, open shrubland also occurs on the slopes. The otherwise sparsely vegetated dunefields become covered by a carpet of grasses, herbs and colourful flowering plants following rains.

The interdune soil types and hence the vegetation, varies with the dune spacing. Closer spaced dunes result in sandy valleys that have similar vegetation to the dune sides while widely spaced dunes are separated by gibber or flood plains, each supporting particular vegetation communities.

The vegetation on the floodplains varies with the capacity of the land to retain floodwaters, and the frequency of inundation. In drier areas, species including Old Man Saltbush (Atriplex nummularia), Cottonbush (Maireana aphylla) and Queensland Bluebush (Chenopodium auricomum) form a sparse, open shrubland, whereas swamps and depressions are frequently associated with Swamp Cane-grass (Eragrostis australasica) and Lignum (Muehlenbeckia florulenta).

The intermittent watercourses and permanent waterholes associated with tributaries of Cooper Creek support woodland dominated by River Red Gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) and Coolibah (Eucalyptus coolabah).

As at 2008, the Tirari Desert is included in biogeographic regions (IBRA) SSD3: Dieri, part of the Simpson Strzelecki Dunefields (SSD) Region. The desert is also part of the Tirari-Sturt stony desert ecoregion.

Fossils
The desert includes the Lake Ngapakaldi to Lake Palankarinna Fossil Area, a  area on the now-defunct Register of the National Estate with significant Tertiary period vertebrate fossils.

History

The area was first explored by Europeans in 1866 and was previously settled by a small tribe of Aboriginals, the Tirari.

Dieri people
The Tirari Desert has been part of the Dieri people's native title claim. The Australian anthropologist Norman Tindale reported a small tribe now extinct which he referred to as the Tirari. They were located at the eastern shore of Lake Eyre from Muloorina north to Warburton River; east to Killalapaninna.  Tindale disagreed with the earlier findings of Alfred William Howitt that these people were a horde of the Dieri as the language spoken was different from Dieri.  Since Tindale's work was published, much of the data relating to Aboriginal language group distribution and definition has undergone revision since 1974. Tindale's focus was to depict Aboriginal tribal distribution at the time of European contact.

Missions
In the 1860s two Aboriginal missions were established near the Cooper Creek crossing of the Birdsville Track. The Moravians established a short-lived mission at Lake Kopperamanna in 1866. This was closed in 1869 due to drought conditions and poor relations with the local indigenous community.

Bethesda Mission was established by German Lutherans at nearby Lake Killalpaninna around the same period and, after also being abandoned for a short time, was re-established and by the 1880s it resembled a small town with more than 20 dwellings including a church. At this time, it had a population of "several hundred aborigines and a dozen whites". Primarily financed by sheep grazing, the mission closed in 1917 due to the effects of drought and rabbit plagues. Currently, there is little evidence of the settlement other than a small cemetery and some remnant timber posts. The mission remains are listed on the South Australian Heritage Register as the Killalpaninna Mission Site.

European exploration
On an 1866 expedition to determine the northern limit of Lake Eyre, Peter Egerton Warburton approached the desert from the west and followed the upstream course of what is now known as the Warburton River, but which he incorrectly believed was Cooper Creek. In 1874 another expedition, led by James William Lewis, again followed the river upstream to the Queensland border, retracing the route on the return journey and then headed south to the Kopperamanna mission. Subsequently, they followed the course of Cooper Creek to conduct a survey of the east shore of Lake Eyre. Lewis, in a later account of his expedition, said of the lake  "I sincerely trust I may never see it again; it is useless in every respect, and the very sight of it creates thirst in man and beast."

See also

 Deserts of Australia
 Lake Eyre Basin
 List of deserts by area

References

External links

Map of Tirari Desert
Online Natural History of Tirari Desert
Tirari Desert SA @ ExplorOz

Deserts of South Australia
Far North (South Australia)
Lake Eyre basin
IBRA subregions

Tirari Desert


George Rodiek was one of the defendants in the Hindu–German Conspiracy Trial in San Francisco, 1918.

A former Bremen tobacco clerk, Rodiek migrated to Hawaii and took up a position with Hackfeld & Co in 1891. He became a naturalised United States citizen. In 1896 opened the Hilo branch of the company, and became a director in 1900. He had six children.

In 1903 he built the Walker Estate, in the upper Nuuanu Valley. Originally this was a two-story home with a series of gardens featuring ferns, rocks, and orchards generally regarded as the oldest formal Japanese garden in Honolulu.

He was active in the community and by 1916 he was president of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association. He was also a Shriner and helped organise the Army-Navy YMCA. In 1917 he was made German Consul. Several German ships were seized by the Hawaiian authorities when their crews prepared to wreck engineering and navigation equipment, fearing a declaration of war. His attempts to have them released were backed up by the Secretary of State, but the Territorial Governor had not released them by the time war was declared.

His secretary was involved in meeting the  during the Annie Larsen plot to send arms to revolutionaries opposing the British Empire in India as part of the Indo-German Conspiracy. Rodiek was later arrested when travelling through San Francisco. He originally pleaded not guilty but changed his plea to guilty of a single Neutrality Act  violation. He claimed the matter was simply a business transaction and that he had maintained his loyalty to his adopted country. But before the sentencing, a German naval officer's diary was seized, which placed the Honolulu consulate in an incriminating light. Rodiek was found guilty, and fined $10,000. He subsequently received a presidential pardon, but sold his house and moved to San Francisco.

References

See also
Hindu–German Conspiracy
Annie Larsen affair

Hindu–German Conspiracy
Year of death missing
19th-century births
American businesspeople
American businesspeople convicted of crimes

George Rodiek


1977 is the second studio album by Latin hip hop artist Ana Tijoux, released March 9, 2010 on Nacional Records. The album received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album. Single "1977" was featured in AMC's Breaking Bad, Comedy Central's Broad City and the EA Sports video games, FIFA 11 and FIFA 23.

Background
In October 2009, La Oveja Negra in Chile released 1977, her second solo album, with the name coming from the year Tijoux was born. It is a return to her Hip-Hop roots, an homage to the "golden age of Hip-Hop", and largely auto-biographical, exploring mature themes from her own life, from the death of a close friend to having a creative crises, friendship and bad luck, amongst others. It is simple and straight to the point, this being emphasized by her leaving behind a lot of the singing she had been doing previously in other more pop collaborations, and concentrating on rap, both in Spanish and French. After years of sharing the spotlight with her group, collaborating with other artists, and trying to find her way as a solo artist, Tijoux finally arrived in her own right; a raw, direct, mature MC.

Recorded between May and September 2009, the new album was produced by Hordatoj, Foex y Tee (of the label Potoco Discos), together with Habitación Del Pánico. Guests on the record include the saxophonist Agustín Moya with whom she worked with in Aluzinati, Andrés Celis, Solo Di Medina, Bubaseta, Stailok from the group Movimiento Original, DJ Dacel, Quique Neira from Godwana, Cómo Asesinar A Felipes, and the Detroit-based MC Invincible, whom she met over MySpace and did a virtual collaboration for the song "Sube".

The album and its first single "1977" were an immediate hit in the underground rap circles of Chile, where she was welcomed back after a bit of a stray. The record was amongst the top 10 of 2009 for the blog "World Hip-Hop Market", and it was soon picked up by the US-based Latin Alternative label Nacional Records, who released it in March 2010. She was invited to attend the prestigious South By South West Music Festival in Austin, TX, in March 2010, and from there went on to her first ever North American tour.

The single '1977' gained further attention when it featured in the EA Sports video game, FIFA 11. The same song was again in the spotlight in 2011 when it was used in Shotgun - the fifth episode of season 4 of AMC's Breaking Bad.  In 2022, the song was brought back for FIFA 23, as part of the game's Ultimate FIFA Soundtrack (a compilation of 40 songs from past FIFA games).

Reception

Critical response

The album received generally favorable reviews, with critics complimenting Tijoux as "an artist with the promise to cross borders and genres." Critics also complimenting the production for the album, writing "The production suits Ana nicely as well. Combining steady boom-bap drum sequences with organic vinyl scratches and a flare of Latin American influence, the production varies between spicy and soulful, all with an overarching affinity for old-school hip-hop."

Phil Freeman of Allmusic gave the album 4 out of 5, saying "The music behind her is [...] mostly funky and occasionally lurching, these are jazzy beats firmly rooted in the tradition of DJ Premier, DJ Cam, DJ Krush, and other '90s classicists" and "like New York rappers of a prior generation like Jeru the Damaja, she'd rather get listeners thinking than soundtrack their parties."

Track listing

Album certifications

References

2010 albums
Spanish-language albums
Nacional Records albums
Ana Tijoux albums

1977 (Ana Tijoux album)


Joseph Hartman (January 16, 1821 – November 29, 1859) was a farmer, teacher and political figure in Canada West.

He was born in Whitchurch Township in Upper Canada in 1821, the son of Quakers who had immigrated from Pennsylvania. He taught school in the township and also farmed, later becoming superintendent of education. He served on the council for the Home District from 1847 to 1850, when he was elected to the township council and also became reeve. He served 6 terms as warden for the county. In 1851, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly for the North riding of York; he was reelected in 1854 and 1857, aligning himself with the Clear Grits. He supported representation by population. He died in Whitchurch Township in 1859, after suffering from tuberculosis for a number of years.

References

External links
Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online

1821 births
1859 deaths
People from Whitchurch-Stouffville
Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada from Canada West
Canadian Methodists

Joseph Hartman


Amphoe Pai is small district in the northeast of the province of Mae Hongson, Thailand. Pai is very famous for Thai and foreign visitors. There are many important rivers flowing through the district.

Amphoe Pai is made up of seven Tambon (local  government areas) and 66 villages. The Tambon are:
 Wiang Tai which has 8 villages
 Wiang Nuea which has 10 villages
 Mae Na Toeng which has 14 villages
 Mae Hi which has 6 villages
 Thung Yao which 12 villages
 Mueang Paeng which has 9 villages
 Pong Sa which has 7 villages

History
Amphoe Pai was settled back in human prehistory. The Pai area part of the kingdowm of King Mungrai, or Mung Rai during the 1200s. In 1774-1784 Pai was developed into village and then developed into Amphoe Pai.

Tourist attractions
Many people come to Amphoe Pai to visit:
 Morpang waterfall
 Krang temple
 Pratadsrivichai temple
 Nam Hu temple
 Krareang Maping villages
 Pagoda Pratadmayen
 Pongnamrontapai
 Mayen waterfall
 Kongland
 Mueang Pang hot spring
 Huaijogluang

Districts
Geography of Thailand

Amphoe Pai


"Full Force Gale" is a song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was included on his 1979 album Into the Music.

Recording and composition
"Full Force Gale" was recorded in spring, 1979 at the Record Plant Studios, Sausalito, California for the album Into the Music.

The song has a moderately fast 4/4 tempo. It is in the key of D major. The song's introduction uses the chords D–A–G–A–D–G–D–A, while the verses use the chord progression D–A–G–D–A–G–D–A–G–A–D–A. The bridge uses the progression Bm-G-A. The song features a slide guitar solo by Ry Cooder.

In the lyrics Morrison describes the feeling of encounters with "the Lord". Biographer Peter Mills said that "It is a physical effect – he is "lifted up again" as if by a natural force, the full-force gale being a simile for this: 'Like a full force gale'". Because of this Mills concluded that Into the Music has religious elements to it: "Into the Music is New Testament, dealing with forgiveness, love and kindness."

When biographer Steve Turner asked the singer about the theme of rebirth that occurs quite often in his songs, Morrison answered, "I wrote a song called 'Full Force Gale' in which I said 'No matter where I roam/I will find my way back home/I will always return to the Lord'. That answers it for me.  No matter what I might say at the present, that's my feeling about that."

Response
Record World said that "Van's stirring vocal has a great mate in the person of Toni Marcus and her heavenly electric violin."

Allmusic's reviewer, P.G. Ward, calls it: "Essentially a brisk pop tune, Morrison sings it with great fervour  and commitment, delivering simple couplets such as  'In the gentle evening breeze/In the whispering shady trees/I will find my sanctuary in the Lord' with immense skill.  The arrangement is also magnificent, with the fiddle part a particular joy..." He goes on to say: "Into the Music is one of Van Morrison's finest albums, and 'Full Force Gale' is arguably its finest track."

As described by Brian Hinton, "'Full Force Gale' has the cheerful punch of the best gospel singing, and sees Van 'lifted up by the Lord' ... as with Wordsworth, the divine is perceived not through religious teachings but through nature ... "

Appearance on other albums
"Full Force Gale" is also featured on the 1990 compilation album The Best of Van Morrison.
A live version appeared on the 1984 CD Live at the Grand Opera House Belfast.
This song is one of the hits re-mastered in 2007 and included on the compilation album, Still on Top - The Greatest Hits.

Personnel
Van Morrison: vocal, guitar
Herbie Armstrong: guitar
Ry Cooder: slide guitar
Pee Wee Ellis: tenor saxophone
David Hayes: bass
Mark Isham: trumpet
Mark Jordan: piano
Toni Marcus:  violin
Katie Kissoon: backing vocals
Peter Van Hooke: drums

Covers
Elvis Costello – his version appears on the 1994 tribute album, No Prima Donna: The Songs of Van Morrison and also on Costello's own 1995 album, Kojak Variety.

Notes

References
Hinton, Brian (1997). Celtic Crossroads: The Art of Van Morrison, Sanctuary,
Heylin, Clinton (2003), Can You Feel the Silence? Van Morrison: A New Biography, London: Viking,
Mills, Peter (2010), Hymns to the Silence: Inside the Words and Music of Van Morrison, London: Continuum,
Turner, Steve (1993). Van Morrison: Too Late to Stop Now, Viking Penguin,
Van Morrison Anthology, London: Wise Publications,

External links
[ "Full Force Gale" allmusic review]

Van Morrison songs
1979 singles
Songs written by Van Morrison
1979 songs
Song recordings produced by Van Morrison
Warner Records singles

Full Force Gale


Barbara Taylor Bradford  (born 10 May 1933) is a best-selling British-American novelist. Her debut novel, A Woman of Substance, was published in 1979 and sold over 30 million copies worldwide. She wrote 39 novels, all bestsellers in England and the United States.

Early life
Barbara Taylor was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, England to Freda and Winston Taylor. Her father was an engineer who had lost a leg while serving in the First World War. She attended a nursery school in the Leeds suburb of Upper Armley alongside the writer Alan Bennett. As a child during the Second World War, she held a jumble sale at her school and donated the £2 proceeds to the "Aid to Russia" fund. She later received a handwritten thank-you letter from Clementine Churchill, the wife of Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Her older brother Vivian died of meningitis before she was born. She later described her mother as having "put all her frustrated love into me." Her parents' marriage is fictionalized in her 1986 novel An Act of Will.

In her youth, Barbara Taylor read Charles Dickens, the Brontë sisters, Thomas Hardy, and Colette.  At the age of ten she decided to be a writer after sending a story to a magazine. She was paid 7s 6d for the story, with which she bought handkerchiefs and a green vase for her parents.

Taylor Bradford's biographer, Piers Dudgeon, later uncovered evidence that her mother Freda Walker was the illegitimate daughter of Oliver Robinson, 2nd Marquess of Ripon, a local Yorkshire landowner who employed her mother, Edith Walker, as a servant. Dudgeon informed Taylor Bradford that her grandmother and Ripon had had three children together. After some hesitation, Taylor Bradford allowed Dudgeon to publish this information in his biography. Although initially angry at Dudgeon's discovery, she later said that "I came round. There's no stigma now." Her grandmother later spent time in workhouses, which Taylor Bradford explored in the ITV television series Secrets of the Workhouse (2013).

Career
Taylor left school aged 15. After working briefly in the newspaper's typing pool, she became a reporter for the Yorkshire Evening Post.  While there, she worked alongside Keith Waterhouse.

At the age of twenty, she moved to London, where she later became the fashion editor of Woman's Own magazine and a columnist for the London Evening News. She went on to write an interior decoration column syndicated to 183 newspapers.

Her first fiction writing efforts were four suspense novels, a genre she later abandoned. Taylor Bradford would subsequently describe "interviewing herself", saying that "I was in my late thirties. I thought: what if I get to 55, and I've never written a novel? I'm going to hate myself. I'm going to be one of those bitter, unfulfilled writers." Her debut novel, A Woman of Substance, became an enduring best-seller and, according to Reuters, ranks as one of the top-ten best-selling novels of all time. It was followed by 38 other novels, all bestsellers in England and the United States.

Taylor Bradford's works have sold more than 92 million copies worldwide in more than 90 countries and 40 languages.

Taylor Bradford considers Irish historian and author Cornelius Ryan her literary mentor. Ryan encouraged her writing and was the first person (other than her mother) to whom she had confided her literary ambitions. Her favourite contemporary authors are P. D. James, Bernard Cornwell, and Ruth Rendell.

Recurring plotlines and common themes
A common pattern in her novels is a young woman of humble background rising in business through years of hard work, often involving enormous self-sacrifice. As Taylor Bradford is often quoted: "I write about mostly ordinary women who go on to achieve the extraordinary."

Film adaptations
Ten of Taylor Bradford's books were made into television mini-series and television movies, produced by her husband Robert E. Bradford.

Five of her television adaptations were rereleased on DVD in the UK in September 2008 by Acorn Media UK:

 A Woman of Substance
 Hold The Dream
 To Be The Best
 Act of Will
 Voice of the Heart

Personal life
Taylor Bradford met her husband, American film producer Robert E. Bradford, on a blind date in 1961 after being introduced by the English screenwriter Jack Davies. They married on Christmas Eve 1963, and moved permanently to the United States. Taylor Bradford became an American citizen in 1992.

In December 2013, Taylor Bradford auctioned 40 pieces of jewellery given to her by her husband at Bonhams in London. She donated the proceeds to two relatives in England.

Taylor Bradford received an honorary doctorate from Leeds University, the University of Bradford, Mount St. Mary's College, Sienna College, and Post University. She was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II as part of the 2007 Birthday Honours for her contributions to literature. Her original manuscripts are archived at the Leeds University Brotherton Library Special Collections beside those of the Brontë sisters. In 2017, Bradford Taylor was recognised as one of 90 "Great Britons" to commemorate the Queen's 90th birthday.

Taylor Bradford's wealth is estimated at between £166–174 million, leading to rumours that she owns 2,000 pairs of shoes and that her former Connecticut home's lake was heated for the benefit of her swans. Taylor Bradford addressed the rumours in a 2011 interview, tracing the shoes rumour to a joke and the heated lake to the previous owners of the house who had installed it on part of the lake to provide an ice-free area for a pair of swans in winter.

In 1990 she was the subject of This Is Your Life where she was surprised by Michael Aspel at Heathrow Airport.

Her husband died in 2019. Taylor Bradford lives in Manhattan, New York City.

Selected works

Fiction
The Emma Harte Saga
 A Woman of Substance (1979)
 Hold the Dream (1985)
 To Be the Best (1988)
 Emma's Secret (2003)
 Unexpected Blessings (2005)
 Just Rewards (2005)
 Breaking the Rules (2009)
 A Man of Honour (2021)
The Ravenscar Trilogy
 The Ravenscar Dynasty (2006)
 Heirs of Ravenscar (2007) (published as The Heir in the U.S.)
 Being Elizabeth (2008)
The Cavendon Chronicles
 Cavendon Hall (2014)
 The Cavendon Women (2015)
 The Cavendon Luck (2016)
 Secrets of Cavendon (2017)

The House of Falconer

Master of His Fate (2018)
In the Lion's Den (2020)

Other fiction
 Act of Will (1986)
 The Women in His Life (1990)
 Remember (1991)
 Angel (1993)
 Voice of the Heart (1983)
 Everything to Gain (1994)
 Dangerous to Know (1995)
 Love in Another Town (1995)
 Her Own Rules (1996)
 A Secret Affair (1996)
 Power of a Woman (1997)
 A Sudden Change of Heart (1999)
 Where You Belong (2000)
 The Triumph of Katie Byrne (2001) (NL, De wereld aan haar voeten)
 Three Weeks in Paris (2002)
 Playing the Game (2010) (NL, Liefdesspel)
 Letter From a Stranger (2011) (NL, De geheime brief)
 Secrets From the Past (2013)
 Hidden (2013) (published as an eBook)
 Treacherous (2014) (published as an eBook)
 Who Are You? (2016) (published as an eBook)
 Damaged (2018) (published as an eBook)

Non-fiction
 A Garland of Children's Verse (1960)
 The Dictionary of 1001 Famous People: Outstanding Personages in the World of Science, the Arts, Music and Literature (with Samuel Nisenson, 1966)
 Etiquette to Please Him (How to be the Perfect Wife series) (1969)
 Bradford's Living Romantically Every Day (2002)
Interior design
 The Complete Encyclopedia of Homemaking Ideas (1968)
 Easy Steps to Successful Decorating (Illustrated) (1971)
 How to Solve Your Decorating Problems (1976)
 Making Space Grow (1979)
 Luxury Designs for Apartment Living (1983)
 Christian books
 Children's Stories of Jesus from the New Testament (1966)
 Children's Stories of the Bible from the Old Testament (1966)
 Children's Stories of the Bible from the Old and New Testaments (1968)

References

External links
Official USA website
Official UK website
Barbara Taylor Bradford's blog

 Archival material at

1933 births
Living people
American religious writers
American women novelists
British non-fiction writers
British religious writers
British romantic fiction writers
British women novelists
British emigrants to the United States
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
People from Armley
Writers from Leeds
20th-century British novelists
21st-century British novelists
20th-century American novelists
21st-century American novelists
Women romantic fiction writers
Women religious writers
American women non-fiction writers
20th-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American women writers

Barbara Taylor Bradford


Andries Thomas "Andre" Markgraaff (born 23 December 1956) is a retired South African rugby union lock. He matriculated at Diamantveld High School and was a controversial national coach, who resigned after he was taped using the racial term kaffir.

Playing career
Markgraaff was selected for the South African team in 1986 against the Cavaliers but as an unused substitute. Markgraaff also represented Western Transvaal, Western Province, Griqualand West and the then South West Africa in 20 games. He captained the South African Barbarians on a tour to Europe and the Junior Springboks.

Coaching
In 1988, he became coach of Griqualand West. He became president of Griquas in 1991.

In 1996, Markgraaff was appointed as the Springbok rugby coach.
In 1997 Markgraaff was forced to quit after his controversial racial statements, when he referred to a black senior rugby administrator Mluleki George as a "kaffir". In his apology, Markgraaff said
"I'm not making any excuses. I was very emotional at the time. I apologise to the black people of this country and to the whites for causing them embarrassment."

During his short reign the Springboks won eight and lost five tests.

In 1998, Markgraaff took the Griquas to victory in the Vodacom Cup and then to the semifinals of the Currie Cup, losing by 11–27 to the . He also coached the Cats in Super Rugby and was a founder of the PUK Rugby Institute.

Markgraaff made a comeback in rugby administration and was the Deputy President of SARFU and the convener of SARFU's technical committee.

See also
 Invictus (film)

References

1956 births
Living people
Leopards (rugby union) players
North-West University alumni
Politics and race
Rugby union and apartheid
Rugby union controversies
Rugby union players from Kimberley, Northern Cape
South Africa national rugby union team coaches
South African rugby union coaches

Andre Markgraaff