Vladimir Megre (; né Puzakov; ; born 23 July 1950) is a Russian entrepreneur and writer best known as the author of the Ringing Cedars of Russia (also known as Anastasia) series of books, which since the 1990s has given rise to a homonymous socio-religious movement.

Biography

Childhood
Megre was born in Chernigov Oblast, USSR, in present-day Ukraine, and grew up in the village of Kuznichi. He spent most of his childhood with his grandmother, whom he describes as a village healer. As a teenager in the 1960s, Megre occasionally visited a monk called Father Feodorit at the Trinity-Sergiev Monastery, in Sergiev Posad, north-east of Moscow.

Early career
Megre left home at age 16 and moved to Novosibirsk, where he worked as a photographer, camera operator and film director in several commercial co-operatives. He married and had a daughter, Polina. As many other newly capitalistic Russians, he took advantage of Perestroika and the subsequent collapse of the communist system to launch his entrepreneurial career. By the late 1980s had become the president of the Inter-Regional Association of Siberian Entrepreneurs.

In 1994-5 he leased a fleet of river steamers which made two trading voyages along the Ob River north of Novosibirsk.

The Ringing Cedars of Russia
Megre's experiences on the Ob River voyages form the central narrative of his best-selling series of books, The Ringing Cedars of Russia (Russian: Звенящие Кедры России tr. Zvenyashchiye Kedry Rossii), written between 1996 and 2010. The first volume, Anastasia, was printed on credit at the Moscow Print Press Number 11 and the first copies were sold by the author himself in the Moscow metro.

The primary concern of the series is the correct approach to planning, conceiving and raising children, which should all occur at the same location: a family homestead, or self-sufficient plot of land surrounded by a hedge with a water source, dwelling, woods, a meadow, vegetable gardens, berries, herbs, mushrooms, a greenhouse, sauna and beehives. The homestead should be created by a mother and father for the health and enjoyment of posterity.

Being an entrepreneur, he set up his own company to publish subsequent volumes and a self-organised reader's group soon assisted in distributing the books more widely. The books have sold over 11 million copies, mostly in Russia, and have since been translated into twenty languages.

English translations
The first English edition was translated and edited in the United States by John Woodsworth and Leonid Sharashkin, under contract with Megre. It was published and distributed in the U.S. by the Ringing Cedars Press, in the United Kingdom by Ringing Cedars UK Limited, and in Australia by Ringing Cedars Australia. However, the contract for this manuscript was cancelled after an unauthorised second edition with a black cover violated the Megre family's understanding of the arrangement. The remaining stock of black-covered books are still for sale though no new copies are permitted to be printed.

In his tenth book, Megre included an appeal to his readers indicating that his author's page is the "only official source for correspondence in all languages from my readers all over the world". Despite this, the U.S, U.K. and Australian websites still claim to be official sites. The most recent English edition is published by the Ringing Cedars Publishing House LLC, based in Novosibirsk and operated by Megre's daughter Polina.

Future plans
Megre plans to write screenplays to depict the ideas of his books in film.

The movement of kinship homesteads

The central idea of the Ringing Cedars of Russia series is to create a garden and ancestral dwelling on a plot of land at least one hectare in size, known as a "kin's homestead" (Russian: родовое поместье, rodovoye pomest'ye) where nature/generation (Rod) is appropriately cultivated. The result is a living environment perfectly attuned to its human inhabitants, a "love space" for the beneficial conception, birth and upbringing of new generations.

Before the publication of the first book in 1996, there were virtually no family homestead settlements in Russia. In 2014, a conference of the Ringing Cedars' movement in Vladimir city attracted delegates from over 150 family homestead settlements from 48 of the 89 regions of Russia. The current register of Ringing Cedars-inspired settlements lists 213 villages with an Internet presence. During a presentation at the United Nations Nexus Summit in New York City in 2014, Megre presented a map showing the locations of 230 settlements in Russia.

The books have become the basis for a Russian "back-to-the-land" movement based on permanently sustainable, self-reliant, and self-sufficient simple living, providing both physical subsistence and spiritual fulfilment. They combine deep ecology with traditional family values and worship of God (Rod) through nature, unlike communal hippie lifestyles.

Active readers' groups have formed to organise and support the establishment of family homestead settlements. They are found in Australia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Russia and the United States.

References

Bibliography
Vladimir Megré, The Ringing Cedars of Russia series
 Anastasia (book 1)
 The Ringing Cedars of Russia (book 2)
 The Space of Love (book 3)
 Co-creation (book 4)
 Who are We? (book 5)
 The Book of Kin (book 6)
 The Energy of Life (book 7)
 The New Civilisation (book 8, part I)
 The Rites of Love (book 8, part II)
 Anasta (book 10)

External links

 VMegre.com - Official Site of the Author
 Official Twitter channel
 Official Facebook profile
 "Anastasia" Foundation (rus)

1950 births
Living people
People from Chernihiv Oblast
Russian male writers
Environmental writers
Modern pagan writers
Modern pagan religious leaders
Russian modern pagans


Stichopogon is a genus of small robber flies of the subfamily Dasypogoninae. There are at least 100 described species in Stichopogon.

See also
 List of Stichopogon species

References

Asilidae genera


In mathematics, a Redheffer matrix, often denoted  as studied by , is a square (0,1) matrix whose entries aij are 1 if i divides j or if j = 1; otherwise, aij = 0. It is useful in some contexts to express Dirichlet convolution, or convolved divisors sums, in terms of matrix products involving the transpose of the  Redheffer matrix.

Variants and definitions of component matrices

Since the invertibility of the Redheffer matrices are complicated by the initial column of ones in the matrix, it is often convenient to express  where  is defined to be the (0,1) matrix whose entries are one if and only if  and . The remaining one-valued entries in  then correspond to the divisibility condition reflected by the matrix , which plainly can be seen by an application of Mobius inversion is always invertible with inverse . We then have a characterization of the singularity of  expressed by

If we define the function

then we can define the  Redheffer (transpose) matrix to be the nxn square matrix  in usual matrix notation. We will continue to make use this notation throughout the next sections.

Examples

The matrix below is the 12 × 12 Redheffer matrix. In the split sum-of-matrices notation for , the entries below corresponding to the initial column of ones in  are marked in blue.

A corresponding application of the Mobius inversion formula shows that the  Redheffer transpose matrix is always invertible, with inverse entries given by

where  denotes the Moebius function. In this case, we have that the  inverse Redheffer transpose matrix is given by

Key properties

Singularity and relations to the Mertens function and special series

Determinants

The determinant of the n × n square Redheffer matrix is given by the Mertens function M(n). In particular, the matrix  is not invertible precisely when the Mertens function is zero (or is close to changing signs).  As a corollary of the disproof of the Mertens conjecture, it follows that the Mertens function changes sign, and is therefore zero, infinitely many times, so the Redheffer matrix  is singular at infinitely many natural numbers.

The determinants of the Redheffer matrices are immediately tied to the Riemann Hypothesis through this relation with the Mertens function, since the Hypothesis is equivalent to showing that  for all (sufficiently small) .

Factorizations of sums encoded by these matrices

In a somewhat unconventional construction which reinterprets the (0,1) matrix entries to denote inclusion in some increasing sequence of indexing sets, we can see that these matrices are also related to factorizations of Lambert series. This observation is offered in so much as for a fixed arithmetic function f, the coefficients of the next Lambert series expansion over f provide a so-called inclusion mask for the indices over which we sum f to arrive at the series coefficients of these expansions. Notably, observe that

Now in the special case of these divisor sums, which we can see from the above expansion, are codified by boolean (zero-one) valued inclusion in the sets of divisors of a natural number n, it is possible to re-interpret the Lambert series generating functions which enumerate these sums via yet another matrix-based construction. Namely, Merca and Schmidt (2017-2018) proved invertible matrix factorizations expanding these generating functions in the form of

where  denotes the infinite q-Pochhammer symbol and where the lower triangular matrix sequence is exactly generated as the coefficients of , through these terms also have interpretations as differences of special even (odd) indexed partition functions. Merca and Schmidt (2017) also proved a simple inversion formula which allows the implicit function f to be expressed as a sum over the convolved coefficients  of the original Lambert series generating function in the form of

where p(n) denotes the partition function,  is the Moebius function, and the coefficients of  inherit a quadratic dependence on j through the pentagonal number theorem.
This inversion formula is compared to the inverses (when they exist) of the Redheffer matrices  for the sake of completion here.

Other than that the underlying so-termed mask matrix which specifies the inclusion of indices in the divisor sums at hand are invertible, utilizing this type of construction to expand other Redheffer-like matrices for other special number theoretic sums need not be limited to those forms classically studied here. For example, in 2018 Mousavi and Schmidt extend such matrix based factorization lemmas to the cases of Anderson-Apostol divisor sums (of which Ramanujan sums are a notable special case) and sums indexed over the integers that are relatively prime to each n (for example, as classically defines the tally denoted by the Euler phi function). More to the point, the examples considered in the applications section below suggest a study of the properties of what can be considered generalized Redheffer matrices representing other special number theoretic sums.

Spectral radius and eigenspaces

 If we denote the spectral radius of  by , i.e., the dominant maximum modulus eigenvalue in the spectrum of , then

which bounds the asymptotic behavior of the spectrum of  when n is large. It can also be shown that , and by a careful analysis (see the characteristic polynomial expansions below) that .
 The matrix  has eigenvalue one with multiplicity .
 The dimension of the eigenspace  corresponding to the eigenvalue  is known to be . In particular, this implies that  is not diagonalizable whenever .
 For all other eigenvalues  of , then dimension of the corresponding eigenspaces  are one.

Characterizing eigenvectors

We have that  is an eigenvector of  corresponding to some eigenvalue  in the spectrum of  if and only if for  the following two conditions hold:

If we restrict ourselves to the so-called non-trivial cases where , then given any initial eigenvector component  we can recursively compute the remaining n-1 components according to the formula

With this in mind, for  we can define the sequences of

There are a couple of curious implications related to the definitions of these sequences. First, we have that  if and only if

Secondly, we have an established formula for the Dirichlet series, or Dirichlet generating function, over these sequences for fixed  which holds for all  given by

where  of course as usual denotes the Riemann zeta function.

Bounds and properties of non-trivial eigenvalues

A graph theoretic interpretation to evaluating the zeros of the characteristic polynomial of  and bounding its coefficients is given in Section 5.1 of. Estimates of the sizes of the Jordan blocks of  corresponding to the eigenvalue one are given in. A brief overview of the properties of a modified approach to factorizing the characteristic polynomial, , of these matrices is defined here without the full scope of the somewhat technical proofs justifying the bounds from the references cited above. Namely, let the shorthand  and define a sequence of auxiliary polynomial expansions according to the formula

Then we know that  has two real roots, denoted by , which satisfy

where  is Euler's classical gamma constant, and where the remaining coefficients of these polynomials are bounded by

A plot of the much more size-constrained nature of the eigenvalues of  which are not characterized by these two dominant zeros of the polynomial seems to be remarkable as evidenced by the only 20 remaining complex zeros shown below. The next image is reproduced from a freely available article cited above when  is available here for reference.

Applications and generalizations

We provide a few examples of the utility of the Redheffer matrices interpreted as a (0,1) matrix whose parity corresponds to inclusion in an increasing sequence of index sets. These examples should serve to freshen up some of the at times dated historical perspective of these matrices, and their being footnote-worthy by virtue of an inherent, and deep, relation of their determinants to the Mertens function and equivalent statements of the Riemann Hypothesis. This interpretation is a great deal more combinatorial in construction than typical treatments of the special Redheffer matrix determinants. Nonetheless, this combinatorial twist on enumerating special sequences of sums has been explored more recently in a number of papers and is a topic of active interest in pre-print archives. Before diving into the full construction of this spin on the Redheffer matrix variants  defined above, observe that this type of expansion is in many ways essentially just another variation of the usage of a Toeplitz matrix to represent truncated power series expressions where the matrix entries are coefficients of the formal variable in the series. Let's explore an application of this particular view of a (0,1) matrix as masking inclusion of summation indices in a finite sum over some fixed function. See the citations to the references  and  for existing generalizations of the Redheffer matrices in the context of general arithmetic function cases. The inverse matrix terms are referred to a generalized Mobius function within the context of sums of this type in.

Matrix products expanding Dirichlet convolutions and Dirichlet inverses

First, given any two non-identically-zero arithmetic functions f and g, we can provide explicit matrix representations which encode their Dirichlet convolution in rows indexed by natural numbers :

Then letting  denote the vector of all ones, it is easily seen that the  row of the matrix-vector product  gives the convolved Dirichlet sums

for all  where the upper index  is arbitrary.

One task that is particularly onerous given an arbitrary function f is to determine its Dirichlet inverse exactly without resorting to a standard recursive definition of this function via yet another convolved divisor sum involving the same function f with its under-specified inverse to be determined:

It is clear that in general the Dirichlet inverse  for f, i.e., the uniquely defined arithmetic function such that , involves sums of nested divisor sums of depth from one to  where this upper bound is the prime omega function which counts the number of distinct prime factors of n. As this example shows, we can formulate an alternate way to construct the Dirichlet inverse function values via matrix inversion with our variant Redheffer matrices, .

Generalizations of the Redheffer matrix forms: GCD sums and other matrices whose entries denote inclusion in special sets

There are several often cited articles from worthy journals that fight to establish expansions of number theoretic divisor sums, convolutions, and Dirichlet series (to name a few) through matrix representations. Besides non-trivial estimates on the corresponding spectrum and eigenspaces associated with truly notable and important applications of these representations—the underlying machinery in representing sums of these forms by matrix products is to effectively define a so-termed masking matrix whose zero-or-one valued entries denote inclusion in an increasing sequence of sets of the natural numbers . To illustrate that the previous mouthful of jargon makes good sense in setting up a matrix based system for representing a wide range of special summations, consider the following construction: Let  be a sequence of index sets, and for any fixed arithmetic function  define the sums

One of the classes of sums considered by Mousavi and Schmidt (2017) defines the relatively prime divisor sums by setting the index sets in the last definition to be

This class of sums can be used to express important special arithmetic functions of number theoretic interest, including Euler's phi function (where classically we define ) as

and even the Mobius function through its representation as a discrete (finite) Fourier transform:

Citations in the full paper provide other examples of this class of sums including applications to cyclotomic polynomials (and their logarithms). The referenced article by Mousavi and Schmidt (2017) develops a factorization-theorem-like treatment to expanding these sums which is an analog to the Lambert series factorization results given in the previous section above. The associated matrices and their inverses for this definition of the index sets  then allow us to perform the analog of Moebius inversion for divisor sums which can be used to express the summand functions f as a quasi-convolved sum over the inverse matrix entries and the left-hand-side special functions, such as  or  pointed out in the last pair of examples. These inverse matrices have many curious properties (and a good reference pulling together a summary of all of them is currently lacking) which are best intimated and conveyed to new readers by inspection. With this in mind, consider the case of the upper index  and the relevant matrices defined for this case given as follows:

Examples of invertible matrices which define other special sums with non-standard, however, clear applications should be catalogued and listed in this generalizations section for completeness. An existing summary of inversion relations, and in particular, exact criteria under which sums of these forms can be inverted and related is found in many references on orthogonal polynomials. Other good examples of this type of factorization treatment to inverting relations between sums over sufficiently invertible, or well enough behaved triangular sets of weight coefficients include the Mobius inversion formula, the binomial transform, and the Stirling transform, among others.

See also
 Redheffer star product

References

External links and citations to related work

Matrices
Number theory


Pleomele is a former genus of flowering plants. All its species are now placed in the genus Dracaena. The Hawaiian name for plants in this genus is hala pepe, which translates to crushed or dwarfed Pandanus tectorius.

Former species
Pleomele angustifolia (Medik.) N.E.Br. = Dracaena angustifolia
Pleomele atropurpurea (Roxb.) N.E.Br. = Dracaena elliptica
Pleomele aurea H.Mann - golden hala pepe (Kauai) = Dracaena aurea
Pleomele australasica Ridl. = Dracaena angustifolia
Pleomele auwahiensis H.St.John - Maui Nui hala pepe (Maui, Molokai) = Dracaena rockii
Pleomele elliptica (Thunb. & Dalm.) N.E.Br. = Dracaena elliptica
Pleomele fernaldii H.St.John - Lānai hala pepe (Lānai) = Dracaena fernaldii
Pleomele flexuosa (Blume) N.E.Br. = Dracaena angustifolia
Pleomele forbesii O.Deg.  - Waianae hala pepe (Oahu) = Dracaena forbesii
Pleomele fruticosa (K.Koch) N.E.Br. =Dracaena angustifolia
Pleomele gracilis (Baker) N.E.Br. = Dracaena elliptica
Pleomele halapepe H.St.John  - Oahu hala pepe (Oahu) = Dracaena halapepe
Pleomele hawaiiensis O.Deg. & I.Deg - Hawaii hala pepe (Island of Hawaii) = Dracaena konaensis

Uses

Medicinal
Native Hawaiians combined the bark and leaves of hala pepe with the root bark of uhaloa (Waltheria indica) and popolo (Solanum americanum), and a section of kō kea (Saccharum officinarum) to treat high fever and chills. Hala pepe bark, roots, and leaves were combined with ōhia ai (Syzygium malaccense) bark, uhaloa and popolo taproot bark, alaala wai nui pehu (Peperomia spp.) stems, noni (Morinda citrifolia) fruit, kō kea, niu (coconuts, Cocos nucifera), and pia (Tacca leontopetaloides) to treat lung disorders.

Non-medicinal
The soft wood of the trunk was carved by Native Hawaiians into kii. Hala pepe represented the goddess Kapo on the kuahu (altar) within a hālau hula (building which hula was taught or performed). It along with ieie (Freycinetia arborea), maile (Alyxia oliviformis), ōhia lehua (Metrosideros polymorpha) and palapalai (Microlepia strigosa) were the five essential plants at the hula altar.

References

Nolinoideae
Endemic flora of Hawaii
Historically recognized angiosperm genera
Taxa named by Richard Anthony Salisbury


The  Nicaraguan Postal Service (), is a postal service that is decentralized from the Nicaraguan government, but offers a public service to the people.

See also
Universal Postal Union
Postal Union of the Americas, Spain and Portugal

Nicaragua
Postal system of Nicaragua
Philately of Nicaragua


D. Srinivas, also known as Veena Srinivas (born 12 September 1968) is an Indian veena player of Carnatic music.

Early life and background
Srinivas was born in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, to Tulasi, a popular veena player. He travels extensively for his concerts.

Career
Srinivas gave his maiden concert at the age of 9 for All India Radio, Hyderabad.
He is a top grade Veena artist and received Ugadi Visishta puraskaram by the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh. Performing Prestigious Veena concerts all over India and Abroad since 25 years. He is the only Veena artist who performed at the UN.

Awards and honours
 Emani Sankara Sastry award
 Chittibabu Memorial award
 Gidigu Lalitha Memorial award
 Ugadi Visishta Puraskaram from Government of Andhra Pradesh.

Titles
 Veena Vidhwamani
 Veena Praveena
 Raaga Sudhakara
 Vainika Ratna
 Vainika Samraat
 Vainika Chakravarthy
 Veena Sambrahma

Discography
 Tyagaraja Krithis on Veena
 Indian Classical Ringtones

References

External links
 official site

1968 births
Living people
Musicians from Hyderabad, India
Saraswati veena players


Earthworm is a common name referring to many various species of worm which typically live underground.

Earthworm or The Earthworm may also refer to:
Earthworm (album), an album by Circle
The Earthworm (album), a 1995 hip-hop album by LPG
The Earthworm, a character from the 1967 novel James and the Giant Peach


The Black List is a series of films created from 2008 through 2010 as part of The Black List Project, a film, book and museum tour of photographs conceived by photographer/filmmaker Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, with Elvis Mitchell, public radio host and former New York Times film critic.

Volume 1
The Black List: Volume 1 premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2008 and then in August of that year on HBO.

The Black List: Volume 1 won the NAACP Spirit Award in 2009 for best documentary. "The Black List Sold to HBO"

Volume 1 includes: Bill T. Jones, Chris Rock, Colin Powell, Slash, Dawn Staley, Faye Wattleton, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Lorna Simpson, Louis Gossett Jr., Mahlon Duckett, Marc Morial, Rev. Al Sharpton, Richard D. Parsons, Russell Simmons, Sean Combs, Serena Williams, Steven Stoute, Susan Rice, Suzan-Lori Parks, Thelma Golden, Toni Morrison, Vernon Jordan, William Rice and Zane.

Volume 2
The Black List: Volume 2 is the follow-up to The Black List: Volume 1. It premiered on HBO in February 2009.

The Black List: Volume 2 includes Angela Davis, Bishop Barbara Harris, Bishop T.D. Jakes, Charley Pride, Dr. Valerie Montgomery-Rice, Governor Deval Patrick, Kara Walker, Majora Carter, Laurence Fishburne, Maya Rudolph, Melvin Van Peebles, Patrick Robinson, Rza, Suzanne De Passe, and Tyler Perry.

Volume 3
The Black List: Volume III was released in February 2010 and includes interviews with Beverly Johnson, Debra L. Lee, Dr. Michael Lomax, Hill Harper, John Legend, LaTanya Richardson, Lee Daniels and Whoopi Goldberg.

References

External links
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders' official site

Documentary films about African Americans
Film series introduced in 2008
Films directed by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders


Web intelligence is the area of scientific research and development that explores the roles and makes use of artificial intelligence and information technology for new products, services and frameworks that are empowered by the World Wide Web.

The term was coined in a paper written by Ning Zhong, Jiming Liu Yao and Y.Y. Ohsuga in the Computer Software and Applications Conference in 2000.

Research
The research about the web intelligence covers many fields – including data mining (in particular web mining), information retrieval, pattern recognition, predictive analytics, the semantic web, web data warehousing – typically with a focus on web personalization and adaptive websites.

References

External links
 Web Intelligence Journal Page
 Web Intelligence Consortium, an international, non-profit organization dedicated to advancing worldwide scientific research and industrial development in the field of Web Intelligence
 Web intelligence Research Group at University of Chile

Further reading

Artificial intelligence
Crowdsourcing
Big data
Data mining
Collective intelligence
Social information processing


Little Red Riding Hood is a folk tale character.

Red Riding Hood, Little Red Riding Hood or Rotkäppchen (German) may also refer to:

Fictional entities
 Little Red Riding Hood (Shrek), a character in the Shrek franchise
 Red Riding Hood (Once Upon a Time) (known as Red Lucas, also known as Ruby), a character from the ABC television series Once Upon a Time.

Films
 Red Riding Hood (1901 film), a 1901 French silent film directed by Georges Méliès
 Little Red Riding Hood (1918 film), an American fantasy film directed by Otis B. Thayer
 Little Red Riding Hood (1920 film), silent Czech film
 Little Red Riding Hood (1922 film), a Disney animated short film
 Little Red Riding Hood (1953 film), a German film directed by Fritz Genschow
 Little Red Riding Hood (1954 film), a German live-action film directed by Walter Janssen
 Little Red Riding Hood (2022 film), a Russian film

 Rotkäppchen, a 1962 East German film
 Red Riding Hood (1989 film), an Israeli-American live-action musical fantasy film directed by Adam Brooks
 Little Red Riding Hood (1997 film), a 1997 short
 Red Riding Hood (2003 film), an Italian horror film
 Red Riding Hood (2006 film), an American musical film
 Red Riding Hood (2011 film), an American dark fantasy film

Musical works
 Little Red Riding Hood (album), by Lost Dogs
 Little Red Riding Hood (musical), a 1899 musical by George T. Richardson
 Little Red Riding Hood (opera), a 1911 opera by César Cui
 "Li'l Red Riding Hood", a 1966 song recorded by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs
 "Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf", a title given to No. 6 of Rachmaninoff's Op. 39 Études-Tableaux

Other
 "Little Red Riding Hood" (Faerie Tale Theatre episode)
 Little Red Riding Hood (Pinkney book), a 2007 children's picture book by Jerry Pinkney.
 Red Riding Hood, a cultivar of Mandevilla sanderi, a plant also called Dipladenia sanderi and Brazilian jasmine
 Rotkäppchen or Rotkäppchen-Mumm wine, a brand of sparkling wine from Freyburg, Germany

See also
 Adaptations of Little Red Riding Hood
 Red Riding, Yorkshire crime drama


The Ferrymead Two Foot Railway Society Inc. is a member society of Ferrymead Heritage Park, in Heathcote, Christchurch, New Zealand. The society operates the  narrow gauge Ferrymead Two Foot Railway on a 450 m long circuit of track at the park, adjacent to the Moorhouse railway station. Trains are operated during special events or on major operating days using two small carriages built on ex-tipping wagon chassis.

Locomotives
The railway has two F. C. Hibberd & Co. "Planet" diesel-mechanical locomotives, built in 1953. Both were originally imported by Dominion Salt Ltd for use at its Lake Grassmere salt works in Marlborough; following the construction of a conveyor belt system to replace the railway in 1964 both locomotives were placed in open-air storage at Lake Grassmere before moving to Ferrymead in 1967.

Of the two locomotives, Planet No. 3483 George is undergoing restoration to working order at Ferrymead. Planet No. 3484 Winifred has been restored to working order and has been the regular operational locomotive on the group's line since 2007. Both locomotives were named after members of the Skellerup family who originally owned the salt works, Winifred being named after the late Winifred Skellerup while George is named after George Skellerup, Winifred's father and the original owner of Dominion Salt.

Rolling stock
The Society owns a small fleet of wagons, mostly obtained from coal mines on the West Coast of the South Island. The majority of these are coal tubs, although there are a small number of wagons built for maintenance purposes underground. The society also owns a small number of side-tipping wagons formerly used by Dominion Salt at Lake Grassmere.

A further two side-tipping wagons were rebuilt as passenger carriages at Ferrymead in the lead-up to the inauguration of passenger services in 2007. One carriage was built as an eight-seat open carriage, while the other was built as a six-seat closed carriage. The Society also owns a bogie carriage, formerly used as a first class carriage on the 'free railway service' run by the Colonial Sugar Mills in Fiji, which is currently under restoration.

Other equipment
The Society owns a small hand crane which is fitted on a homemade chassis. It is intended to place the crane on static display in the future once it has been restored and made inoperable for safety reasons.

References

External links
 Ferrymead Heritage Park home page
 Light Rail in Heathcote
 Ferrymead's Grassmere Salt Wagons article
 Ferrymead 2 Foot Railway (slightly outdated)
 Some photos of the Railway

Rail transport in Christchurch
Heritage railways in New Zealand
2 ft gauge railways in New Zealand
Ferrymead Heritage Park


Ras al-Amud (, ; ) is a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem (which is under Israeli occupation), located southeast of the Old City of Jerusalem, overlooking the Palestinian neighborhoods of Silwan to the south and Abu Dis and al-Eizariya to the east, and bordering the Jewish neighborhood of Ma'ale HaZeitim to the north, which overlooks the Temple Mount. There were about 11,922 Arabs living in the neighborhood in 2003.

Israeli settlements
Within Ras al-Amud are two Israeli settlements, Ma'ale HaZeitim and Ma'ale David. Ma'ale David is built on the former site of the headquarters of the police headquarters for the Judea and Samaria District, a reference to the West Bank.

In September 1997, plans for the construction of a Jewish neighbourhood on the land provoked an international outcry. Despite American pressure to halt construction, the plan was backed by Jerusalem mayor Ehud Olmert. Under a compromise reached by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, three Jewish families left voluntarily, with ten yeshiva students staying on. On October 18, 2009, the Israeli bus cooperative Egged launched a bus route from Ras al-Amud and Ma'ale HaZeitim to Silwan and the Kotel. Critics claimed this was an attempt to "normalize" the Jewish presence.

In 2011, 100 families were living Ma'ale HaZeitim.

The international community considers Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem to be illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.

Archaeology
An archaeological excavation in Ras al-Amud prior to the construction of a school for Arab girls by the Jerusalem Municipality found remains dating to the Middle Canaanite period (2200–1900 BCE) and the late First Temple period (8th–7th centuries BCE), including a jar handle inscribed with the Hebrew name "Menachem."

In August 2004, a salvage excavation was conducted in the Ras al-Amud neighborhood in the wake of damage to an ancient building while preparing a site for construction. Ceramic finds dating to the Byzantine period included bowls, a cooking pot and a complete lamp. Glass vessels from the Late Byzantine–Umayyad period were also found. Fragments of ceramic pipes, a marble chancel screen and a stone table were recovered from the stone collapse and soil fills. The building is thus believed to have belonged to a Byzantine monastery.

References

Bibliography

Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem


Dracaena aurea, the golden hala pepe, is a species of flowering plant that is endemic to the island of Kauai in Hawaii.  It inhabits coastal mesic and mixed mesic forests at elevations of .  It is a small evergreen tree, usually  tall, but sometimes reaches .  The gray, straight trunk does not have bark and is  in diameter.  The sword-shaped leaves are  long and  wide.

It was first described by Horace Mann Jr. as Dracaena aurea in 1867. In 1914, N. E. Brown moved it to the genus Pleomele. The World Checklist of Selected Plant Families rejects the move.

References

External links

aurea
Endemic flora of Hawaii
Biota of Kauai
Trees of Hawaii
Plants described in 1867
Taxa named by Horace Mann Jr.
Flora without expected TNC conservation status


Adam F.C. Fletcher is an educational consultant focused on youth voice, student engagement and community empowerment. He is recognized for founding The Freechild Project.

His work centers on youth studies, critical thinking and the development of democratic society. Action for Healthy Kids named him a "Healthy Schools Hero" in 2010.

Fletcher was a youth worker in several nonprofit organizations and in government agencies for more than a decade. He completed his undergraduate degree in critical pedagogy and youth studies at The Evergreen State College, and conducted graduate studies at the University of Washington in educational leadership and policy studies. He graduated from Omaha North High School in North Omaha, Nebraska.

Since 2007, Fletcher has been the owner and lead consultant of CommonAction Consulting. Working with educators and government administrators around the world, his consultancy focuses on democratic education. Additionally, he regularly speaks at local, state, national and international conferences across North America, in Brazil and beyond.

Fletcher has also served as a director and advisor to several organizations including the National Youth Rights Association and others, and is a contributing editor to the Review of Education, Pedagogy and Cultural Studies, published by Taylor and Francis. He has written more than 50 publications related to education, youth work and social change.

Select bibliography
 Democracy Deficit Disorder: Learning Democracy with Young People (2023)
 Steps to Youth Leadership in Modern Times (2022)
 #OmahaBlackHistory: African American People, Places and Events from the History of Omaha, Nebraska (2021)
 Student Voice Revolution: The Meaningful Student Involvement Handbook (2017)
 North Omaha History, Volume Three (2016)
 North Omaha History, Volume Two (2016)
 North Omaha History, Volume One (2016)
 Facing Adultism (2015)
 The Guide to Student Voice, 2nd edition. (2014)
 The Practice of Youth Engagement (2014)
 School Boards of the Future: A Guide to Students as Education Decision-Makers (2014)
 The Freechild Project Guide to Youth-Driven Programming. (2013)
 Suffering Love, Laughing at Myself (2013)
 SoundOut Student Voice Curriculum. (2007)

References

External links
 Adam Fletcher website

Canadian educational theorists
Canadian activists
Writers from Olympia, Washington
Writers from Calgary
Canadian social sciences writers
Youth empowerment people
Youth rights people
Canadian expatriates in the United States
Evergreen State College alumni
1975 births
Canadian consultants
Living people
Omaha North High School alumni


The Oklahoma State Banking Department (OSBD) is an agency of the state of Oklahoma. The Banking Department is responsible for regulating Oklahoma's banking system, including state-chartered banks, credit unions, savings and loan associations, and trust companies, as well as [(money transmitters)] and money order companies. The department also handles consumer complaints involving state-regulated financial institutions.

The Banking Department is led by a State Banking Commissioner who is appointed by the Governor of Oklahoma with the consent of the Oklahoma Senate to serve a four-year term. Assisting the commissioner is the State Banking Board, which consists of six members appointed by the governor and the commissioner as chair.

The current State Banking Commissioner is Mick Thompson, a former Oklahoma State Representative who has served in that position since September 1, 1992, when he was appointed by Governor David Walters. He has since been reappointed by Governors Frank Keating, Brad Henry and Mary Fallin in 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012.

With the granting of statehood on November 11, 1907, Article XIV of the Oklahoma Constitution created the Banking Department. Governor Dewey F. Bartlett was chairman of the board, and Herbert H. Smock was the department's first banking commissioner.

Organization
The department is under the supervision of the State Banking Board and its chairman, who is the State Banking Commissioner. The commissioner is appointed by the Governor of Oklahoma to serve a four-year term. The commissioner is assisted in managing the department by a deputy commissioner and two assistant commissioners.

State Banking Board
Banking Commissioner
Deputy Banking Commissioner
Administration Division - responsible for managing the human resources and material resources of the Department
Banking Examination Division - responsible for inspecting all state-charted banks
Western Region
Eastern Region
Credit Union Examination Division - responsible for inspecting all state-charted credit unions
Legal Affairs Division - responsible for providing legal advice to the Department
Finance Division - responsible for overseeing all finance and budgetary issues of the Department
Information Technology Division - responsible for overseeing all information technology needs of the Department
Credit Union Board

State Banking Board
The State Banking Board is the official regulatory body of all financial institutions in the State. The Board is composed of seven members: six appointed members and the State Banking Commissioner. The State Banking Commissioner serves as chairman of the board, but may only vote in case of a tie.

Of the six appointed members, five members must be active offices of a financial institution and a sixth member must be a citizen of Oklahoma, at least 35 years old, who has no experience as a bank officer or stockholder of a bank. All members of the board are appointed by the governor, by and with the advice and consent of the Oklahoma Senate, to serve a six-year term. However, the governor may only nominate individuals to fill the banking represent seats who have been nominated by the Oklahoma Bankers Association (OBA). Should the OBA fail to nominate a list of candidates within 30 days of a vacancy, the governor is free to select anyone who meets the qualifications of office. The governor is always free to nominate anyone to the non-bankers seat.

It is the duty of the State Banking Board to adopt reasonable and uniform rules and regulations to govern the conduct, operation and management of all financial institutions operating in the state. It is the duty of the State Banking Commissioner to enforce the rules adopted by the board.

Budget
The Banking Department is not funded by yearly appropriations from the Oklahoma Legislature. Instead, it is funded entirely from fees generated from the financial institutions regulated by the department.

Staffing
The State Banking Department, with an annual budget of over $6 million, is one of the smallest employers for the state. For fiscal year 2010, the department was authorized 43 full-time employees.

See also
Oklahoma Office of State Finance
Oklahoma Department of Consumer Credit
Oklahoma Department of Securities
Oklahoma Tax Commission

References

"Banking in Oklahoma 1907-2000" by Michael J. Hightower

External links
Oklahoma State Banking Department website

Banking, Department of
Oklahoma
1907 establishments in Oklahoma


"Born in '58" is the last single from Bruce Dickinson's debut solo album, Tattooed Millionaire, released on March 25, 1991. The song is about Bruce Dickinson's early life, growing up with his Grandparents in Worksop (Dickinson was born in 1958).

Track listing
 Born in '58 – 03:40
 Tattooed Millionaire (live) – 04:36
 Son of a Gun (live) – 05:53

Tracks 2 and 3 were recorded live at The Astoria Theatre in London, England in June 1990.

Personnel
 Bruce Dickinson – Vocals
 Janick Gers – Guitar
 Andy Carr – Bass
 Fabio Del Rio – Drums

Chart positions

References

1990 singles
Bruce Dickinson songs
Songs written by Bruce Dickinson
1990 songs
Sony Music singles
Songs written by Janick Gers


Battle of the Sexes is the eighth studio album by American rapper Ludacris, released March 9, 2010 on Disturbing tha Peace and Def Jam South. The album was recorded during 2008 to 2010 and its production was handled by several producers, including T-Minus, Bangladesh, Swizz Beatz, The Neptunes, and The Runners.

Upon its release, Battle of the Sexes received generally positive reviews from most music critics.

Background
Battle of the Sexes was tagged as a collaboration album by Ludacris and label-mate Shawnna. In April 2009, the promotional single titled "Everybody Drunk" which features vocals from Shawnna was released. Shawnna reportedly split from Disturbing tha Peace in 2009 and signed to Nappy Boy Entertainment. It was later reported that Shawnna was removed from the album and became a solo album by Ludacris with guest appearances.

Recording
The album began recording in 2008. Ludacris stated he wanted the album to highlight different view points from males and females; several songs in which he recorded tracks with included artists such as: Nicki Minaj, Lil' Kim, Eve, Trina, Shawnna, Ciara, Ne-Yo, Monica, Flo Rida and Gucci Mane. Pharrell recorded with Ludacris and contributed production and vocals. Bangladesh, Swizz Beatz and J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League also contributed production to the album.

Release and promotion
After several projected release dates, the album was finally released on March 9, 2010, through Disturbing tha Peace and its distributing label Def Jam Recordings. In April 2009, Ludacris released a promotional single for the album, titled "Everybody Drunk", which featured Shawnna. The single failed to chart, and though it appears on the album, the album version features new Disturbing tha Peace signee Lil Scrappy, instead of Shawnna. Official promotion for the album began when Ludacris debuted the first single "How Low" on October 10, 2009, when he performed it at the 2009 BET Hip-Hop Awards. It was made available for digital download on iTunes in December 2009. Ludacris next released three remixes to United States radio stations help promote the song. One of which features Ciara and Pitbull was made available on iTunes on February 9, 2010. He has also filmed a video for the album's second official single, "My Chick Bad" with female rapper Nicki Minaj, and the remix, which featured Eve, Diamond, and Trina. Shawnna provides "additional vocals" on the songs "I Do It All Night", "BOTS Radio" (featuring I-20), "Feelin' So Sexy", and the bonus track "Rollercoaster" (featuring Dru Hill).

Singles
"How Low" was released as the first official single on December 8, 2009. It became a huge mainstream success, peaking at number six in the United States. It went on to achieve double platinum status.
"My Chick Bad", which features Nicki Minaj, was released as the second official single on February 23, 2010. This single was also a big success, peaking at No. 11 in the United States and later also going double platinum.
"Sex Room", which features Trey Songz, was released as the third single on May 18, 2010. On the week ending April 10, 2010, "Sex Room" debuted on the U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs at 28.
In September 2010, Billboard announced that "Everybody Drunk" with Lil Scrappy, would be the next single. A video for the song was released on September 24, 2010.

Apart from its official singles, "Hey Ho", which features Lil' Kim and Lil Fate, was released as a promotional single prior to the release of the album on February 16, 2010, as part of iTunes' countdown to Battle of the Sexes and debuted at No. 8 on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100.

Critical reception

Upon its release, the album received generally positive reviews from most music critics, based on an aggregate score of 68/100 from Metacritic. Allmusic writer David Jeffries gave it 3 out of 5 stars and viewed it as a "porno-style album", stating "Limited and a little patched together, but if cheap thrills are what you’re after, this one puts the dirty back in dirty south". The A.V. Clubs Nathan Rabin viewed its "R&B heavy" material as a weakness, but gave the album a B+ rating and praised Ludacris's lyricism, writing "Ludacris remains an underrated lyricist with unparalleled verbal dexterity. His liquid flow crams an awful lot of polysyllabic words into even the tawdriest sex jam, and no rapper alive conveys joy as effortlessly or infectiously". Giving it  out of 4 stars, Los Angeles Times critic August Brown called Battle of the Sexes "another welcome occasion to listen to Luda enjoying the real love of his life -- the sound of his own voice", and described its music as "fizzy pillow talk and respectfully tawdry club fodder". Despite viewing Ludacris's lyrics as from the male perspective, USA Todays Elysa Gardner commended him for his humor and wrote that the album is "more appealing, and more artful, when Ludacris directs his crude, breezy rhymes where they're best suited: into unabashed displays of loopy lust and boneheaded bravado". XXL writer Rondell Conway gave Battle of the Sexes an XL rating and shared a similar sentiment, stating "Luda may not have evened the playing field, but he certainly created an excellent musical forum for the sexes to air out their differences". Newsdays Glenn Gamboa gave the album a B rating and commended Ludacris for his musical balance, writing "Not only does Luda know when a song needs an R&B crooner or a female voice, he knows when he needs to speed up a flow or rough up a rhyme".

However, Sarah Godfrey of The Washington Post found its "sexed-up, party-oriented music - catchy but hardly groundbreaking" and viewed the female lyrical perspective as minimal, stating "There is plenty of fun happening on Battle of the Sexes, but still, the fellas clearly run it; the ladies are hardly even given a chance". NOWs Jason Richards gave the album 1 out of 5 stars and wrote "Battle seems like an opportunity for the rapper to be more ignorant than ever". HipHopDX writer Kathy Iandoli gave it  out of 5 stars and shared a similar sentiment, calling it "an idea that lost momentum somewhere in the middle of its inception, and the result is a haphazard collection of cuts with no clear direction". Jesal Padania of RapReviews gave Battle of the Sexes a 5.5/10 rating and perceived its lyrics as "instantly forgettable". The Harvard Crimsons Araba A. Appiagyei-Dankah gave it  out of 5 stars and wrote "When the album remembers to be a “battle” rather than an endless string of mildly memorable dance tunes and awkward sex songs, it presents a one-sided and misogynistic view of women". Despite noting that "there really isn't much of a battle at all", Exclaim!s Neil Acharya commended Ludacris for his performance on the album, stating "he seems content to do what he does best: make a pretty run-of-the-mill topic enjoyable with his off-kilter humour and exceptional flow". The Boston Globe writer Ken Capobianco called it "a riotous, raucous set" and wrote favorably of Ludacris's "good-humoured" lyrics. Entertainment Weeklys Simon Vozick-Levinson gave Battle of the Sexes a B− rating and expressed a mixed response towards its themes, but commended Ludacris for his rapping, stating "his gymnastic flow and irrepressible personality redeem more tracks than not".

Commercial performance
The album debuted at number one on Billboard 200, selling 137,300 copies in its first week. This makes it Ludacris' fourth #1 album.  In its second week, it dropped to No. 2, selling 61,200 copies. In its third week, the album dropped to No. 6, moving 45,000 units. In its fourth week the album sold 40,000 units. The fifth week it sold 25,000 more copies. It has spent six straight weeks at the top of the Top Rap Albums chart. As of March 16, 2015, the album has sold 632,000 copies in the United States. The album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America in June 2010.

Track listing

Notes
  signifies a songwriter from a sample.
  signifies a songwriter that is only listed on digital editions of the album.

Sample Credits
 "How Low" contains samples of "Bring the Noise", performed by Public Enemy, written by Carl Ridenhour, Eric Sadler and Hank Shocklee.
 "Everybody Drunk" contains a sample of "You Don't Want Drama", performed by 8Ball & MJG, written by Shondrae Crawford, Marlon Goodwin and Premro Smith.
 "I Know You Got a Man" contains elements of "I Got a Man", performed by Positive K, written by Roland Bautista, Darryl Gibson, Janice-Marie Johnson and Byron Miller.
 "Hey Ho" contains interpolations of "W.F.Y.", performed by Electrik Red, written by Christopher Stewart and Terius Nash.
 "Feelin' So Sexy" contains a sample of "Don't Look Back" performed by Télépopmusik featuring Angela McCluskey, written by Fabrice Dumont, Stephane Haeri, Christophe Hetier and Angela McCluskey.

Personnel
Credits adapted from Tidal.

 Kevin Cates – production (8, 11)
 Bangladesh – production (9, 17)
 T-Minus – production (2, 16)
 The Legendary Traxster – production (3, 14)
 Xcel – production (1)
 DJ Montay – production (4)
 B-Crucial – production (5)
 Tony Dinero – production (5)
 Kajun – production (6)
 Infinity – production (7)
 The Runners – production (10)
 Gaggie – production (12)
 Swizz Beatz – production (13)
 The Neptunes – production (15)
 Marcus Allen – co-production (11)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

See also
 List of Billboard 200 number-one albums of 2010

References

External links
 Official website

 Ludacris Is on Both Sides in Battle of the Sexes at PopMatters

2010 albums
Albums produced by Bangladesh (record producer)
Albums produced by Swizz Beatz
Albums produced by T-Minus (record producer)
Albums produced by The Legendary Traxster
Albums produced by the Neptunes
Albums produced by the Runners
Def Jam South albums
Ludacris albums
Disturbing tha Peace albums


Paraíso is a town and municipality located in the north of the Mexican state of Tabasco, about 75 km due north of the state capital of Villahermosa on the Gulf of Mexico. Much of the area is traditionally dedicated to fishing and agriculture. Today, it is also an oil-producing area with the mostly oil-dedicated port of . There is also some tourism connected to the area's beaches and natural attractions, and the area is promoted under the state's Cacao Route tourism program.

The town
The town of Paraíso is located on the coast of Tabasco, 75 km north of the capital of Villahermosa.  Although one of its important economic activities is tourism, the center of the town has not been overwhelmed with hotels and other tourist oriented businesses. Most of the houses of the town are modest, constructed with brick or adobe with a few hacienda style houses with lavish gardens.

The center of the town is marked by a large plaza with the San Marcos Church on the north side. It and the La Asunción Church are the two most important as they represent its two patron saints of Mark the Evangelist and Our Lady of the Assumption. Parque Central Guillermo Sevilla Fiqueroa features modern architecture with a tall clock tower. It also has areas with gardens and trees and a civic plaza set up to double as an open-air theater. There is also a cafeteria and a reflecting pool.

Carnival begins on 20 January with an event called “La Pintorrea.” On Sunday before Ash Wednesday there is a “flour war” with widows asking for alms on Ash Wednesday. After mass the day ends with the burning of an effigy called “Juan Carnaval.”

History
Although popular etymology has the name derived from “Paso del Paraíso” (Heaven's Pass), in reality the name is from a type of leafy trees of the mahogany family. The municipality does not have a coat-of-arms.

The town of Paraíso was most likely founded sometime between 1848 and 1852 as a camp by indigenous people in the Mecoacán area and then later occupied by mestizos from Jalpa de Méndez and Comalcalco. However, local writer Ángel Suárez Rodríguez asserts that it was founded in 1823 when the ranch of the same name was declared a town. It is true that in this year a church dedicated to Mark the Evangelist and the Virgin of the Assumption was built on the ranch.

From the 19th century on, much of the area was dedicated to the production of cocoa and fruit trees. During this same time, it was a Liberal or federalist stronghold even having its own radical guerrilla army known as “Los Cangrejos y Pejelagartos” (Crabs and Pejalagarto fish). However, the town declined in the latter part of the century and by 1872 there were only four permanent houses.

During the Mexican Revolution, General Ignacio Gutierrez Gomez took the town in 1911. It was taken again in 1914 by Generals Carlos Greene Ramirez and Ramon Sosa Torres.

After the war, the city grew sufficiently that in 1945 it was declared a city by Tabasco governor Noé de la Flor Casanova.

Geography

The land is part of the Tabasco floodplain on the Gulf of Mexico with an average elevation of only two meters above sea level. It is flat with a slight incline towards the sea. The soil is sandy with some clay mixed nearest the ocean with clay dominating inland. Due to its low-lying nature and climate, the area has abundant surface water in the forms of lagoons, lakes, estuaries and wetlands. Major bodies of water include lakes and lagoons such as Mecoacán, La Machona, Tupilco, Puente de Ostión, La Encerrada (Amatillo), Tres Palmas, El Zorro, Arrastradero, Las Flores, Lagartera Tilapa, Manatí and El Eslabón. The last receives its waters from the Gonzalez River as it empties into the Gulf. Other rivers and streams include the Seco, El Corcho, Tupilco, Cocohital, El Corinto, and Arroyo Verde.

Surface water flow in the municipality is split into east and west, both connected by the Río Seco River and the Jobo Canal. The east is dominated by the Mecoacán lagoon which opens into the Gulf of Mexico at Dos Bocas. Linked to it are smaller lagoons such as the Eslabón, La Tinaja and El Carmen/Ramírez. The Mecoacán Lagoon and estuary is a shallow area with an average depth of 1.5 meters and a total extension of 5,160 hectares. Mecoacán is considered to be the second most important lagoon system in Tabasco with extensive oyster banks below bordered by mangrove areas which have been reduced through timber exploitation. The seaward side is formed by a chain of small islands at the mouth of the river with the largest three km in length. The lagoon receives fresh water from the Cuxcuxapa River and some smaller streams. There are also two small lakes such as the Los Angeles. The González River is the principal river on the east side, which forms the border with Centla municipality. It forms the Estero Lagoon before emptying into the sea at the Chiltepec. The west also has the Arrastradero Lagoon, which receives fresh water from various small streams such as El Tigre. It connects to a smaller lagoon called Las Flores. Las Tres Palmas Lake extends to the north-south, widest in the north. It receives water from the Soledad River. Other lakes include Puente de Ostion, Tupilquillo and Tía Juana.

Climate
The climate is hot and wet with rains year round, especially in the summer/fall with an average annual rainfall of 1,751.4 mm. Flooding is a common problem with the last major flooding emergency declared in October 2011. The coldest months are November, December and January with average temperatures around 22 °C. The hottest month is May with average temperatures around 30 °C. Absolute minimums and maximums range from 12 °C to 44 °C. The windiest months are October, November and December when winds can reach 30 km/h.

Paraíso has a tropical monsoon climate according to the Köppen climate classification, with a lengthy wet season and high temperatures year round. The wet season lasts from May to February, with only March and April qualifying as true dry season months, as they average less than 60 millimeters of rainfall. Nonetheless, as is typical for places with a tropical monsoon climate, even the dry season sees some precipitation as well. April is the driest month, with an average of 44 millimeters, and October the wettest, averaging 345 millimeters. Daily high temperatures range from a high of 34.4°C in May to a low 27.4°C in January. Night temperatures tend to hover in the low 20s, dropping slightly below that from December to February.

Flora and fauna
The area along the Gulf of Mexico has sandy soils with areas terminating in full beach. Soils near the ocean tend to be saline. Most of the municipality has perennial rainforest with trees between fifteen and thirty meters tall. However, most of these areas are disturbed with none virgin. In the low ocean front areas there are beaches and mangroves. There is the occasional nopal cactus. Wildlife is mostly limited to bird and reptile species such as storks, kingfishers, seagulls, buzzards, marine and freshwater turtles, and various small lizards.

Economy

The municipality has 57,755 hectares of land with 17% used for agriculture, 16% for livestock, 12% forest and 55% is residential/urban, wetlands or bodies of water. The municipality has an annual agricultural, industrial, arts and crafts fair in April. About thirty three percent of the working population is employed in agriculture and fishing. The most important crop in the municipality is coconut as the number one producer in the state, accounting for over sixty percent of cropland. Other important crops include cacao and bananas. Corn and beans are generally grown in small plots for family consumption. Livestock is not an important economic product although some cattle, pigs and domestic fowl is raised. There are still some tropical hardwood trees such as mahogany which is mostly used to make furniture. Fishing occurs in both ocean and fresh waters catching sea bass, shrimp and shellfish. It is a major producer and distributor of oysters and lately of edible jellyfish, most of which is farmed. However, fishing has been threatened by a number of factors. Oil spills and red tide have led to closure of fishing areas. In the 2000s, wild oyster yields dropped almost fifty percent in the lagoons of the Tabasco coast. It is traditional here for men to harvest oysters and the women to process them but this economic model is disappearing. Over exploitation of the mollusk is the main reason behind the drop in production. A study by the Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco strongly recommends the implementation of oyster farming to replace reliance on oysters growing wild, with state authorities also pushing for this change. However, local fishermen have been resistant to outside interference.

Just under twenty eight percent of the working population is employed in mining, petroleum, construction and manufacturing. Oil drilling is mostly done in two fields: Puerto Ceiba Mesozoico and Puerto Ceiba Terciario, each with two wells. These produce over two thousand barrels daily along with 1.2 million cubic feet of natural gas. Most manufacturing is small concerns which produce corn flour, chocolate, ice, clothing, cinderblock and tortillas. The production of fiberglass is an important source of employment. Handcrafts include figures from dried coconuts and seashells as well as hammocks.

Oil spills both on land and in the ocean have been problematic not only for fishing but for tourism as well. When spills happen, the smell of oil can dominate the air of the surrounding areas. Tabasco beaches have been affected by spills that have occurred off of Campeche. Local fishermen have expressed concerns about the viability of their livelihoods due to oil spills including those such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill off the coast of the United States. Paraíso beaches have been closed on occasion due to high toxicity of chemical spills, which negatively affects local tourism. In 2005, PEMEX cleaned twelve tons of pitch and other contaminants off 77 km of Tabasco beaches, including those in Paraíso. The beaches and waters off them are monitored by federal and state authorities for toxicity and aptness for use by tourists.

Almost thirty five percent are employed in commerce, tourism and services. The municipality has four traditional markets and a weekly tianguis along with supermarkets, corner stores and other retail outlets. Tourism is relatively undeveloped but is mostly based on the areas beaches, fishing and natural sites. The municipality's natural environment has been used for a number of Mexican telenovelas. Available hotels range from small inns to one four-star hotel. The municipality  is just north of the Comalcalco archeological site as part of the Cacao Route.

The most popular tourist area of the municipality is the Puerto Ceiba area due to its vegetation, docks as well as its inn with restaurant. Seafood dishes typical of the area include oysters, and tourists can also tour the Mecoacán Lagoon by boat. The Parador Turístico Puerto Ceiba is a look out area for the Mecoacán Lagoon. It offers boat tours on the Gonzalez River to the Gulf as well as the Mecoacán and Bellote Lagoons. The Aqua Terra Paradise rents kayaks and paddle boats and offers rides on banana boats, motor boats and gives classes on recreational diving. There is also services for recreational fishing, snorkeling and night diving.

The El Paraíso Tourist Center is a recreational center by the beach. It has a pool, hotel, restaurant, bungalows, dressing rooms and more. The beach in the area has a width of between forty and seventy meters with fine gray sand and warm blue waters with gentle waves. The water is shallow up to 100 meters out.

The Barra de Tupilco is a long beach with gray sand and blue green water. This area is commonly visited during the Holy Week vacation period. The Tupilco lighthouse is one of the oldest in the state. Playa Bruja beach is three km from Chiltepec, 200 meters long and forty meters wide. It has fine gray sand with gentle waves on clear green waters. It has palapas, hammocks, a restaurant and dressing rooms among the palms and marine birds. Playa Varadero has equipment for volleyball and soccer. It is the site of musical events during the Holy Week vacation period. Other beaches in the area include Playa Sol, Pico de Oro, Arroyo Verde, Playa Dorado Paraíso y mar, Nuevo Paraíso and Cangrejopolis.

"The República de Paraíso" tourism corridor is a modern four-lane boulevard that connects the town with Puerto Ceiba and El Bellote to the east. The road is lined with various restaurants mostly specializing in seafood with a number having a view of the Mecoacán Lagoon.

Isla Rebeca is surrounded by mangroves and beaches with fine gray sand and calm waters. In the early 2000s, there was an attempt to build an ecotourism resort on Isla Rebeca but the project was abandoned which many of the facilities half built. The island is considered to be a nature reserve with species such as raccoons, iguanas and many species of water birds. The island has an extension of about 200 hectares.

Other attractions include a center for the breeding of fresh water turtles, the only in Latin America and a crocodile sanctuary at the Tupilco Lagoon.

Dos Bocas port

The Dos Bocas port (Puerto dos Bocas in Spanish) was constructed in 1979 and started operating in 1982. It was enlarged starting in 1982 with the East and West Piers. In 2005, the multi-purpose terminal began operating and an industrial park was established. It primarily exists for the shipment of petroleum but also handles other industrial and commercial cargo. The Puerto de Dos Bocas accounts for as much as 85% of Mexico's oil production and imports equipment and machinery for oil exploration and development activities. The port also imports products, equipment, and machinery to support local agricultural production, much of which is exported. It also exports include bananas, mango, pineapple, Persian lemon, papaya, orange, coffee, sugar cane, cocoa, and peppers as well as products based on livestock. Exports out of the port mostly come from the states of Tabasco, Campeche, Chiapas and the south of Veracruz. In 2008, Dos Bocas exported about 8 million tons of cargo, down dramatically from its peak in 2003 when over 30 million tons of foreign trade cargo was exported. It also received about two thousand passengers in 2008. The port primarily ships to Brownsville, Houston, Galveston, New Orleans, Mobile and Jacksonville, but cargo also goes to and from other ports in southeast Mexico and Central America, the Caribbean, Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. The Dos Bocas port also offers guided tours.

On July 26, 2019, the Secretariat of Energy announced the signing of contracts for construction of an oil refinery. The refinery will have a capacity of 340,000 barrels of oil.

The municipality

Paraíso is located in the Grijalva Region of Tabasco, in the subregion of Chontalpa in the north of the state. It borders the municipalities of Centla, Jalpa de Méndez, Comalcalco and Cárdenas with the Gulf of Mexico to the north. It covers a territory of 577.55km2, the smallest in the state, and contains one city (the seat), one town, three villages, ten “colonias,” fourteen ejidos and 25 ranches. It also has seven “Rural Development Centers” in Chiltepec, Ejido Oriente, Francisco I. Madero, La Unión 2a Sección, Nicolás Bravo 1a Sección, Puerto Ceiba and Occidente San Francisco. The municipal government consists of a municipal president, a treasurer, and ten officials called “regidores.” The town has a population of 20,194.  The municipality has 257 people who speak an indigenous language with languages such as Chontal, other Mayan dialects and Zapotec.

The local cuisine is rich in seafood especially oysters, crabs, shrimp, snails and squid. Oysters are most common, mostly served pickled or smoked. Other foods include iguana, freshwater turtle and grilled pejelagarto fish. Sweets include those made with coconut, pineapple and soursop. The most traditional drink of the area is pozol, usually made with corn and cacao.

The municipality has a number of local publications including newspapers El Casabel, Horizontes Nacionales, Opinión and one magazine called La Edición. Mass media comes from state, national and satellite outlets.

There are 138 schools from preschool to vocational education which include 59 preschools, 57 primary schools, 16 middle schools, three high schools, three vocational schools, two special education centers, three work training programs. There are also eleven laboratories, thirty one workshops, nine scholastic libraries and twenty three public libraries. Paraíso's illiteracy rate fell to 4.2 percent in 2008 from 5.9% in 2005.

The municipality has 129.6 km of major roadway, most of which are state highway. There are eighteen vehicular bridges. The main highways include Federal highway 180, the Villahermosa-Comalcalco-Paraíso state highway and the Villahermosa-Jalpa de Méndez-Paraíso state highway. Seat transportation is mostly concentrated at the Dos Bocas port. There is a mall highway that links the town of Paraíso with the port of Dos Bocas. There used to be a road connection between Paraíso and the port of Sánchez Magallanes, but this road has been washed out in places. A rail line between the Dos Bocas port and Villa Chontalpa is under construction. There is an intercity bus terminal and local public transport consisting of vans, small buses and taxis.

Chiltepec has a population of about 3,700 people, located 18 km outside of the municipal seat. Its main economic activities is the growing of coconut, fishing and tourism. It is a fishing port on the mouth of the González River, with the Playa Bruja and Playa Pirata. The town has a rustic dock and boardwalk with benches and a lighthouse.

Quintín Arauz has a population of about 3,500 located 2.5 km outside of the municipal seat. It is dedicated to the growing of coconut, cacao and pepper as well as the raising of pigs and domestic fowl.
Puerto Ceiba has a population of about 2,500 people and is six km from the municipal seat. Its main economic activities are fishing and tourism.

Libertad 1ª. Sección has a population of about 1,800 people located 5.5 km outside of the municipal seat. Its main economic activities are the growing of coconut, cacao and pepper along with the raising of pigs and domestic fowl.

Francisco I. Madero has a population of about 2000 people, located 7.5 km outside of the municipal seat. Its main economic activities are the growing of coconut, cacao and pepper along with the raising of pigs and domestic fowl.

El Bellote is a small community on the shore of the Mecoacán Lagoon which is dedicated to fishing and tourism.

References

External links

Jalapa municipality (Enciclopedia de los Municipios de México)

Municipalities of Tabasco
Populated places in Tabasco


Xingtian (, also Hsing T'ien) is a Chinese deity who fights against the Supreme Divinity, not giving up even after the event of his decapitation. Losing the fight for supremacy, he was beheaded and his head buried in Changyang Mountain. Nevertheless, headless, with a shield in one hand and a battle axe in the other, he continues the fight, using his nipples as eyes and his bellybutton as a mouth.

Description
Xingtian was an official under Yandi. Yandi fought against Huangdi for the position of supreme god, but he lost the conflict. Xingtian still continued the fight after Yandi's defeat, but was defeated and decapitated by Huangdi. Eventually, he regenerated himself and continued his defiance, which was expressed by a martial dance.

Literature
Xingtian appears in chapter 7 of the Classic of Mountains and Seas, which states that he fought and lost against the supreme god to become the supreme divinity. The god decapitated Xingtian and buried his head on Changyang Mountain. However, Xingtian persevered, using his nipples as his eyes, using his navel as his mouth, and brandishing his shield and axe. The Shanhaijing states the following:

In Luo Mi's Lushi from the Southern Song period, Xingtian is described as a minister of the Yan Emperor, who composed music for farmers for plowing and harvesting.

In the Huainanzi, Xingtian is called the corpse of Xingcan (形殘之尸).

The scholar Guo Pu celebrated Xingtian's defiant spirit in an encomium. He mentions the similarity between Xingtian and the corpse of Geng of the Xia, since they were both characters who regenerated and continued their resistance.

The poet Tao Qian also celebrated Xingtian's spirit in his Thirteen Poems upon Reading the Guideways through Mountains and Seas, where he made an association between Jingwei and Xingtian in their persistence to overcome tragedies but also mentions their inability to be free from it:

Symbolism
Xingtian symbolizes the indomitable spirit which maintains the will to resist no matter what tribulations one may undergo or what troubles one may encounter. As such, Xingtian has been lauded in poetry and prose.

In popular culture
In Smite Xing Tian is a playable character.

See also

Headless men
Kabandha
Weapons and armor in Chinese mythology, legend, cultural symbology, and fiction

Notes

References

Bibliography
 Yang, Lihui, et al. (2005). Handbook of Chinese Mythology. New York: Oxford University Press.
Strassberg, Richard (2002). A Chinese Bestiary: Strange Creatures from the Guideways Through Mountains and Seas. University of California Press.

Chinese gods
Chinese giants


Parra is a village on the outskirts of Mapusa town Bardez sub-district, North Goa, India. It has traditionally been known as a village that has grown luscious watermelons. In recent times, the village is facing considerable urbanisation and social change.

Location
It is close to the town of Mapusa and the villages of Saligao, Calangute, Assagao, Anjuna and Vagator.

Village church
 The Parra church is dedicated to St. Anne. According to José Lourenço, the Parra church, dedicated to St. Anne (Santa Ana or Santana), was built in 1649 and its feast is celebrated on the Sunday on or after July 26 each. year. By way of history, the rectorate of St Anne was established  to cover the villages of Parra, Canca and Verla, all adjoining villages in the same locality. Earlier, the village was affiliated to the Nagoa Church, in another adjoining village. The first church was destroyed in 1683, but rebuilt with a vault in 1688. Its cemetery is said to have a "fine Rococo facade".
This church is built in the Mannerist Neo-Roman style. It is of large size with three bays and three storeys. A gable wall is visible behind the frontispiece. There are twin bell turrets which have "pagoda like" roofs. The finials are of a spear type. A curved pediment crowns the apex. There is a large porch with arched openings which has a flat roof with a balustrade.

History
The Parra Church was earlier home to the Franciscan Rectorate of St Anne.  It covered the neighbouring villages of Parra, Cança and Verla, and was established between 1650 and 1653.  It was initially affiliated to the Parish of Nagoa.

Parra's first church was burnt down by the Marathas in 1683, and rebuilt in 1688, as currently existing.

Religious orders
Parra is today home to a number of religious Orders and congregations of religious women.  These include:

 Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB), based at the Don Bosco Youth Welfare Centre, Naikavaddo.
 Society of the Catholic Apostolate of Pallottines (SAC), at the Villa de Palloti, Silva Waddo.
 Franciscan Sisters of St Mary of the Angels at Jyoti Nivas, D'Mello Vaddo Canca.
 Fatima Sisters, at Pereira Social Welfare Centre, Colcondem, Verla and at Xavier Dhaam, Colcondem, Verla.

Other institutions include chapels without chaplains in the parish:
 Our Lady of the Rosary Chapel, Verla
 Our Lady of Piety Chapel, Parra

Village structure
Parra covers a fairly vast land area, but most of it is agricultural land with pockets of residential land. A resident of Parra is popularly known as a "Porrikar". Parra used to be famous for sweet, red watermelons.

Issues linked to Parra
A controversy broke out in 2019 over "cleanliness tax" imposed on tourists clicking photographs on one of the scenic roads of the village.
Meanwhile, a court case emerged over the lack of footpaths following the expansion of the Parra-Mapusa main road in Parra.

Connection with former CM
Former Goa chief minister and ex-Defence Minister of India Manohar Parrikar was a most notable person who traced his ancestral roots to Parra, as reflected in his surname.

Trivia
Parra's Catholic population is estimated at 4000, and the Feast of St Anne Church is celebrated on the Sunday that falls on or after July 26 each year.

Parra's PIN (postal index number) code is 403510.

External links
Pilerne village panchayat Facebook page

References

Villages in North Goa district


KTFC Loei City Football Club  (Thai สโมสรฟุตบอลเคทีเอฟซี เลย ซิตี้), is a Thailand semi professional football club based in Loei Province. The club currently plays in Thai League 4 North Eastern Region.

History
Founded in 2009, Loei joined the new Thai football setup and started at the 3rd level setup, the Regional League North-East Division.

Loei duly came out on top come the end of the regular league season, thus claiming their first ever championship and also crowned as the first ever winners of the Regional League North-East Division.

On winning the championship, Loei entered the 2009 Regional League Championships. An end of season mini-league for all 5 Regional League Division 2 championship winning teams.

They retained 2010 Thai Division 2 League North Eastern Region title. For the second consecutive season they entered 2010 Regional League Division 2 play-offs. Yet again the Division 1 eluded them, and disappointingly Loei finished bottom in their mini-league.

Timeline
History of events of Loei City Football Club

Honours

Domestic leagues
Regional League North-East Division
 Winners (2) : 2009,2010
 Runner Up (1) : 2011

Stadium and locations

Season by season record

P = Played
W = Games won
D = Games drawn
L = Games lost
F = Goals for
A = Goals against
Pts = Points
Pos = Final position

QR1 = First Qualifying Round
QR2 = Second Qualifying Round
R1 = Round 1
R2 = Round 2
R3 = Round 3
R4 = Round 4

R5 = Round 5
R6 = Round 6
QF = Quarter-finals
SF = Semi-finals
RU = Runners-up
W = Winners

References

External links
 Loei City Fanclub on Facebook
 Official Facebookpage

Association football clubs established in 2009
Sport in Loei province
Football clubs in Thailand
2009 establishments in Thailand


La casa del pelícano ("The House of the Pelican") is a 1976 Mexican thriller film. It was shot in 1976 and released in 1977. Main themes of this film are rape and difficult possessive relationship between mother and her son.

Young Enrique Álvarez Félix played Nilo in this film. This was his most famous film role. Nilo was castrated at the end of the film, and this was interesting for some spectators who noticed that Enrique had a difficult relationship with his mother in his real life.

This film was based on the play Nilo, mi hijo by Antonio González Caballero.

Plot
Elementary school teacher Margarita Ramírez tries to make her life beautiful once again with her son Nilo. He is a result of a rape in a distant city, but Margarita loves him nonetheless.

Nilo, the son of the madman of the city, tries to grow up in a common way, but his mother overprotects him and raise him away from other people.

Cast
 Jacqueline Andere as Margarita Ramírez, a beautiful woman who bore Nilo after she was raped
 Enrique Álvarez Félix as Nilo Ramírez, Margarita's son; he is not free in his life. At the end, he was castrated by his mother.
 Isabela Corona as Clementina
 Rosa Furman as Amelia
 Carlos Agostí – An uncle of Margarita
 Mónica Prado as Aurelia
 Daniela Romo as Engracia – Young and lovely woman
 Marta Zamora as Serafina
 Carlos Romo as Federico
 Federico Falcón as Domingo, Nilo's father
 Carlos Rotzinger
 León Singer
 Roberto Montiel as Honorio, Margarita's fiancé
 Carlos Villarreal
 Patricia Arredondo
 Cecilia Leger as Justina

See also
 Emasculation
 Nilo, mi hijo

References

External links

 La Casa del Pelícano

1976 films
1970s thriller films
Mexican thriller films
1970s Spanish-language films
Castration
Mexican films based on plays
Films set in Mexico
Films shot in Mexico
Films about mental health
1976 drama films
1978 drama films
1978 films
1970s Mexican films


Ucassaim is a village in Bardez, in the west coastal region of Goa. It is located close to Mapusa town and is known as the home for some prominent persons from the area. Ucassaim was once is known as Mistirincho Ganv, (Musicians' Village) because of the number of musicians (mistri) who flourished in this village.

Geography and life
Ucassaim is located at  at an elevation of 15 m above MSL, just a few kilometers away from Mapusa City. It is surrounded by the villages of Bastora, Sucorro-Vaddem, Nachinola and Moira.

The village is surrounded by green hills and flowing riverlets. The temperature hovers from around 25 °C in winter to 38 °C in summer.

Area, population
As per the official Census of 2011, Ucassaim has an area of 263.65 hectares, and a population of 278 households, comprising a total population of 1,077 which includes 509 males and 568 females, while the under-six population of children is a total of 74 made up of 27 boys and 47 girls. Ucassaim carries location code number under the Census of 2011.

Wards
The village is divided into eight wards, as subdivisions of the village are locally known: Punola, Paliem, Paliem-Nogeira, Dumpem-Pajir, Igorz Vaddo, St. Anthony, Bela Flor and Pello Vaddo. The village community includes Catholics, Hindus and Muslims.

Prehistoric cave
On the hill behind the village lies a cave popularly referred to as Vagbuyer. It is believed that this is a prehistoric cave in the laterite rock. It is also believed that there used to be a tunnel connecting the cave to the neighbouring Pomburpa Church. The cave contains a small waterfall active in the monsoon, which in turn connects to the rivulet (vanv in Konkani) gushing through the village in the monsoon and connecting to the main river. From the cross on the hill one obtains a beautiful view of the village.

St Elizabeth Church
The construction of the original church building commenced around 1618 and was completed in 1628. The Comunidades of Ucassaim, Bastora, as well as Punola and Paliem, as well as many private individuals, funded the construction. The new church was dedicated to St. Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal.

At the beginning of the 18th Century, a cyclone destroyed the church. It was rebuilt in 1708 on an enlarged scale. To reduce the cost, Fr. Francisco de São Boaventura, the then Parish Priest, himself used to carry timber on his back. Seeing his example, the whole parish joined in building the church and helped in reducing the cost.

The church faces north. On approaching the church plot from the main road one can first see the statue of Christ the King, and then walk along an avenue flanked by rice fields on both sides until reaching the main church building. This place was asphalted in 1995.

As you enter the church, you can see the main altar at the center and two smaller altars on both sides. On the right side wall, you can find the Pulpit which was once upon a time used for preaching.

The statue of the patron saint St. Elizabeth dominates the main altar. Her feast is celebrated on 4 July every year and since it is in the monsoon season, there is a local saying "Sant Izabel Ranni; Dimbhi Bhor Panni" which means "when we have St. Elizabeth the Queen we shall have knee-deep water", which refers to the abundance of water required to cultivate the rice crop. Below, to the right, there are smaller statues of St. Luis Gonzaga and of Our Lady. The main altar also houses the Tabernacle where the Blessed Sacrament is preserved.

On the side altars: the right side altar bears the statue of the Crucified Jesus, below which are smaller statues of St. Anne and St. Anthony. The left side altar bears the statue of Our Lady of Health, whose feast is very popular, and below which are smaller statues of St. Joseph and St. Sebastian.

Some major repairs were done internally in 1996 and in 2008 wherein the platform for the sanctuary and the face-lifting exercise was done under the leadership and guidance of Fr. Almir de Souza, the then parish priest. Fr. Almir also brought about a radical change in the outlook of the parishioners installing in the parish many new norms as per the Vatican II council conclusions. The church has a well developed cemetery which was repaired and renovated around the year 2000 during the tenure of Fr. Mousinho de Ataide.

The church residence now has 2 halls: a larger one used for gatherings and the smaller one which houses the office of the church. Besides these, there are rooms for the Parish Priest and for guest priests and Assistants. The residence is built around an open-air courtyard with a garden built as old as the 18th century and still maintained by the church.

The present Parish Priest of the church is Fr. Mendes.

Temple
A new temple was built and inaugurated in December 2010.

Festivals and celebrations
Ucassaim celebrates a variety of festivals locally. Music is being revived after many decades. A local festival called "GITVANA", held annually, gives a platform for the young and the old to perform on stage singing the traditional mandós or acting in one-act skits. Since the start of this local festival it has brought a lot of talent to the village. The children of the village won first prize in the All Goa Tiatr Competition in the year 2011 and were runners-up in 2012. Natka is another form of theatre in its traditional form held annually; this also provides a great platform for performance.

Occupation and lifestyle

Occupations in Ucassaim range from agricultural farming to garden florists. Many villagers have emigrated to Arab countries in the Persian Gulf, Europe, the United States, Canada and Australia.

Notable people
Prof. Mariano Saldanha (1878–1975), professor of Marathi, Sanskrit and Konkani in Goa and Portugal.
Dr. Ernest Borges, a noted cancer surgeon.

References

External links
Satellite map of Ucassaim
About Ucassaim
St. Elizabeth Church Ucassaim

Villages in North Goa district


The Sessions Band is an American musical group that has periodically recorded and toured with American rock singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen in various formations since 1997.

History

The Sessions Band was first formed in October 1997. That September, Springsteen had organized a fiesta-themed party at his Colts Neck, New Jersey farm and invited the New York–based band The Gotham Playboys to provide entertainment. The next month, Springsteen was invited to donate a recording to an upcoming tribute album to folk singer Pete Seeger. He re-contacted the Playboys and some additional musicians whom he knew through E Street Band violinist Soozie Tyrell, and recorded a number of songs on November 2, 1997.  These included "We Shall Overcome", which was released on the 1998 tribute album, Where Have All The Flowers Gone: The Songs Of Pete Seeger.

The group was then disbanded for an extended period. In late 2004, while reviewing material for a possible follow-up to his Tracks box set, Springsteen stumbled upon these recordings and decided to release them as a stand-alone project. There was not enough material, however, so he reformed the band for what would become known as the Second Seeger Session on March 19, 2005. The third and, so far, final Seeger Session took place on January 21, 2006.

On April 25, 2006, the album was released as We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (so titled as each of the album's thirteen songs had been previously recorded or performed by Pete Seeger). The subsequent Bruce Springsteen with The Seeger Sessions Band Tour took this musical approach even further, with a travelling group partly composed of musicians from the sessions.  On October 3, 2006, the album was reissued as We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions – American Land Edition with five additional tracks.  The album won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album at the 49th Grammy Awards held in February 2007, and had sold 700,000 copies in the United States by January 2009; the RIAA certified it with gold record status.

Members of the Sessions Band occasionally guested on Springsteen and the E Street Band's 2007–2008 Magic Tour. After E Street Band organist Danny Federici ceased touring with the band due to melanoma in November 2007, and his subsequent death in April 2008, Sessions Band member Charles Giordano joined the E Street Band for the remainder of the Magic Tour and has been with the band ever since.

On Springsteen's 2009 Working on a Dream Tour with the E Street Band, Giordano was joined in the touring band by Sessions Band members Cindy Mizelle and Curtis King, who sang backup vocals. Curt Ramm also toured with the E Street Band for much of the final leg of the tour, playing trumpet on select songs. On Springsteen's 2012 Wrecking Ball Tour, Giordano, Mizelle, and King were joined in full-time roles by Ramm on trumpet, Ed Manion on saxophone, and Clark Gayton on trombone. Other members of the band occasionally guested at shows on the Working on a Dream Tour. Sam Bardfeld along with a string section that he fronted, appeared at a few shows on Springsteen's The River Tour 2016. Springsteen has indicated he would like to do another project with the Sessions Band in the future.

On May 16, 2015, Springsteen reunited with a version of the Sessions Band for a four-song set at the Kristen Ann Carr Fund's "A Night To Remember" event in tribute to Thom Zimny at Tribeca Grill in New York City. The band, billed for the evening as the
Tribeca Playboys, consisted of Charles Giordano on accordion, Jeremy Chatzky on upright bass, Larry Eagle on drums, Sam Bardfeld and Soozie Tyrell on fiddle, Losa Lowell on vocals and guitar, Ed Manion on saxophone, and Curt Ramm on trumpet; the group was also joined by guests Nils Lofgren on guitar, Curtis King on vocals, and restaurateur and venue host Drew Nieporent on washboard.

Band members

Seeger Sessions Studio Band
 Bruce Springsteen – lead vocals, guitar, harmonica, B3 organ, and percussion
 Sam Bardfeld – violin
 Art Baron – tuba
 Frank Bruno – guitar
 Jeremy Chatzky – upright bass
 Mark Clifford – banjo
 Larry Eagle – drums and percussion
 Charles Giordano – B3 organ, piano, and accordion
 Ed Manion – saxophone
 Mark Pender – trumpet, backing vocals
 Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg – trombone, backing vocals
 Patti Scialfa – backing vocals
 Soozie Tyrell – violin, backing vocals
 Lisa Lowell-backing vocals

Sessions Band (touring band)
The band ranged in size from 17 and 20 members on stage, depending upon availability on a given night. About half the members had played on the Seeger Sessions album, while the other half were new.

Bruce Springsteen – lead vocals, acoustic guitar, occasional harmonica
Marc "Chocolate Genius" Thompson – acoustic guitar, background vocals, some featured lead vocals
Patti Scialfa – acoustic guitar, background vocals, some featured duet vocals
Frank Bruno – acoustic guitar, some background vocals, occasional drums and washboard
Soozie Tyrell – violin, background vocals
Sam Bardfeld – violin
Greg Liszt – banjo
Marty Rifkin – pedal steel guitar
Charles Giordano – accordion, piano, organ
Jeremy Chatzky – upright bass, occasional electric bass
Larry Eagle – drums
Lisa Lowell – background vocals
Curtis King – background vocals
Cindy Mizelle – background vocals
Art Baron – tuba, occasional trombone
Eddie Manion – saxophones
Mark Pender and/or Curt Ramm – trumpet
Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg and/or Clark Gayton – trombone

Discography
Where Have All The Flowers Gone: The Songs of Pete Seeger (1998)
We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (2006)
We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions - American Land Edition (2006)
Bruce Springsteen with The Sessions Band: Live in Dublin (2007)
Give Us Your Poor (2007)

References

Bruce Springsteen
Musical groups established in 1997
Musical backing groups


Khubayb Al Reem is natural area that provides habitat for a rare type of deer called Al Reem, originally the name of this place came from Al Reem deer. Khubayb Al Reem is located 80 km west of Riyadh city Saudi Arabia on Hejaz road. Nowadays Khubayb Al Reem holds a motor sport venue Reem International Circuit and Wild life.

References

Arabian Peninsula
Environment of Saudi Arabia


"We Made You" is a song by American rapper Eminem from his sixth studio album Relapse (2009). It was released as the second single from the album on April 7, 2009. "We Made You" was written by Eminem, Dr. Dre, Dawaun Parker, Mark Batson, Trevor Lawrence Jr. and Walter Egan. Production was handled by Dr. Dre, with Eminem and Doc Ish serving as additional co-producers.

"We Made You" received generally positive reviews from music critics, and became a success, peaking inside the Top 10 in fourteen countries and at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100. Just like "Shake That", this single is known for being a departure from the serious tone of his second released singles from his previous albums such as "Cleanin' Out My Closet", "The Way I Am" and "Like Toy Soldiers", instead having a more comedic tone.

Background
It features chorus vocals by Charmagne Tripp. Produced by Dr. Dre and co-produced by Doc Ish and Eminem himself, the song samples "Hot Summer Nights" by Walter Egan. The official cover for the single is a picture of the music video, with Eminem, Oxen, Lisa Ann and Bobby Lee.

Critical reception
"We Made You" has generally positive reviews from contemporary music critics. Daniel Kreps of Rolling Stone magazine gave it a positive review stating, "It's nice to see Eminem goofing around again after a few years out of the spotlight during which he grappled with serious issues like the death of his friend Proof, and 'We Made You' with its damnation of current celebrities will likely prove to be a solid pop cultural time capsule of this weird 2009 moment we're experiencing now." Billboard said, "Atop Dr. Dre's marching beat is primarily piano instrumentation, which amid drums and tubas give the track a carnival feel... And in case his word play was too fast and strange accent too difficult to decipher, Charmagne Tripp sings the chorus." Tim Jonze of The Guardian however, reported, "'We Made You' is not Eminem doing what he does best."

Chart performance
"We Made You" sold 167,000 downloads in its first week to enter the Hot Digital Songs chart in Billboard Magazine at number three. The song also debuted at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100, to become Eminem's second top ten in a row on the chart, ranked "Crack a Bottle", a collaboration with Dr. Dre and 50 Cent. This marks the first time that Eminem has had back-to-back top-ten hits on the Hot 100 as a lead artist since 2002, when he scored with "Without Me", "Cleanin' Out My Closet" and "Lose Yourself". "We Made You" has reached the top ten in twelve countries, including number one in Ireland, New Zealand, Australia and Germany.

Music video

Development and release
The single's music video was directed by Joseph Kahn, who also shot "Without Me" from The Eminem Show is in the same vein as previous videos under the Slim Shady persona, and the first of its kind since Encores "Ass Like That". The video was filmed in Las Vegas and features guest star appearances by Dr. Dre, 50 Cent, Denaun Porter, Bobby Lee, The Palms hotel owner George Maloof, Francesca Le (playing Kim Kardashian), Melissa Peterman, Vanilla Ice, Trisha Paytas (playing Jessica Simpson's role in The Dukes of Hazzard), Derrick Barry (of America's Got Talent fame, playing Britney Spears), actress Gabrielle Salinger (playing Amy Winehouse) and pornographic actress Lisa Ann (playing Sarah Palin). The music video for "We Made You" premiered on April 7, 2009 at 6:00 AM on several MTV networks, as well as MTV.com. The video also premiered on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom on the next day.

There is an R-Rated Director's Cut version of the video that premiered in a live show of Eminem's Concert in 2009. It features Lisa Ann fully nude as well as various shots of Eminem touching her breasts. In 2022, a high resolution version was leaked onto Reddit and made publicly available for the first time.

Concept
The music video parodies TV shows Rock of Love and Star Trek (with the Starfleet insignia replaced with an inverted 2nd Infantry Division), as well as video game Guitar Hero with Eminem against an imitation version background of the notes while the homage to film Rain Man was shot at The Palms, a film Eminem has previously referenced in his lyrics. Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho is also homaged. On April 3, 2009, Eminem talked about the music video in an MTV News interview, stating that there is some "Celebrity bashing in it", which is often a feature of his album's lead singles. Celebrities mocked include Bret Michaels, Kevin Federline, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Samantha Ronson, Amy Winehouse and her then-husband Blake Fielder-Civil, Ellen DeGeneres, Portia de Rossi, Jessica Alba, Elvis Presley, Tony Romo, John Mayer, Jennifer Aniston, and Kim Kardashian. Eminem spoofed himself, wearing an ALF T-shirt and holding a cake, referencing a commonly circulated pre-fame photo of him of when he was an adolescent. The video features appearances from Lisa Ann as Sarah Palin, Trisha Paytas as Jessica Simpson, and Derrick Barry, a famous Britney Spears female impersonator, as Spears. The video also features appearances from Dr. Dre and 50 Cent as themselves.

Reception
The music video won the award at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards for Best Hip-Hop Video and was nominated for Best Male Video as well as Video of the Year. The video also ranked at #81 on BET's Notarized: Top 100 Videos of 2009 countdown. The music video also features Beats by Dr. Dre Monster headphones.

Awards and nominations

Track listing
Digital EP

UK CD single

German CD single

Notes
 signifies an additional producer.

Personnel
Mark Batson – keyboards
Charmagne Tripp – chorus vocals

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

See also
List of number-one singles in Australia in 2009
List of number-one singles of 2009 (Ireland)
List of number-one singles from the 2000s (New Zealand)
List of Romanian Singles Chart top 10 Singles in 2009

References

2009 singles
Eminem songs
Music videos directed by Joseph Kahn
Number-one singles in Australia
Irish Singles Chart number-one singles
Number-one singles in New Zealand
Number-one singles in Scotland
Song recordings produced by Eminem
Song recordings produced by Dr. Dre
Shady Records singles
Aftermath Entertainment singles
Interscope Records singles
2009 songs
Songs written by Mike Elizondo
Songs written by Dr. Dre
Songs written by Eminem
Songs written by Walter Egan
Comedy hip hop songs
LGBT-related songs
Cultural depictions of Elvis Presley
Cultural depictions of Britney Spears
Cultural depictions of Sarah Palin
Songs written by Dawaun Parker