title: Brinda Karat

text: She is married to Prakash Karat in 7 November 1975, a Keralite by origin and a prominent CPI(M) leader. Her sister Radhika Roy is married to Prannoy Roy, founder and CEO of NDTV. In 2005, she participated in "Amu", a film made by her niece, Shonali Bose, on the Anti-Sikh riots in 1984. She is an aunt of the historian Vijay Prashad.


title: Brinda Karat

text: Brinda is the author of "Survival and Emancipation: Notes from Indian Women's Struggles," a work addressing the challenges faced by women's movements in India from a left perspective.


title: Trai Byers

text: Trai Byers (born July 19, 1983) is an American actor. He is best known for playing Andre Lyon in the Fox television series "Empire" (2015–2020).


title: Trai Byers

text: Trai Byers was born in Kansas City, Kansas. After a year of high school in Kansas City, he completed his high-school education in Georgia. Byers then graduated from Andrew College with an associate degree in Theater and graduated from the University of Kansas with a bachelor's degree in communications. He also attended the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in Los Angeles, and the Yale School of Drama.


title: Trai Byers

text: In 2011, Byers made his television debut with a recurring role on the ABC daytime soap opera, "All My Children", and the following year had a role in The CW teen soap, "90210". He played civil rights activist James Forman in the 2014 historical epic film, "Selma" directed by Ava DuVernay. He plays Andre Lyon in Fox's 2015 music-industry primetime soap opera, "Empire".


title: Trai Byers

text: During the October 7, 2015 episode of the daytime talk show, "FABLife", Byers's costar Grace Gealey confirmed that they were engaged. He and Gealey married on Grand Cayman Island on April 14, 2016.


title: William Suff

text: William Lester Suff (born Bill Lee Suff; August 20, 1950), also known as The Riverside Prostitute Killer and The Lake Elsinore Killer, is an American serial killer.


title: William Suff

text: In 1974, a Texas jury convicted Suff and his then-wife, Teryl, of beating their two-month-old daughter to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals later reversed Teryl's conviction but upheld Suff's in "Suff v. State" (Tex. 1976) 531 S.W.2d 814, finding insufficient evidence to convict her as either the primary actor or a principal in their baby's murder.


title: William Suff

text: Though Suff was sentenced to 70 years in a Texas prison, he served only ten years before his 1984 release on parole. He is currently incarcerated at San Quentin after having been convicted of killing twelve women in California and receiving the death penalty in 1995.


title: William Suff

text: On January 10, 1989, Rhonda Jetmore, 27, a prostitute, entered into a sexual transaction with Suff. The agreement turned violent when he began choking her. She struck him with a flashlight she had in her hand, causing Suff to lose his grip, allowing her to briefly escape. Suff tackled her to the ground and began ripping off her clothes. He stuck his finger in her mouth and she bit down, causing one of her teeth to break. Suff pulled back and Jetmore was able to run to the door, but was tackled again. As she pleaded with Suff to let her go, he lost track of his glasses. She used her flashlight to shine a light on them and when Suff went to pick them up, she ran out the door and flagged down a car. The passenger, who she happened to know, pulled out a gun and fired at Suff, and she was able to escape.


title: William Suff

text: On June 28, 1989, Kimberly Lyttle, 28, was found manually strangled to death on the side of the road in Lake Elsinore. Her autopsy revealed that she had been hit in the head, and she had cigarette burns on her arms and other areas of her body; all injuries occurring prior to her death. She was covered with a blue bath towel, which was found to have red, white, and blue fibers that were matched to a sleeping bag in Suff's van.


title: William Suff

text: On December 13, 1989, the body of Christina Leal, 23, was found strangled and stabbed to death on a Quail Valley hillside; she was last seen the night before. Her autopsy revealed marks around her wrists and ankles, indicating she was bound, scratch marks on her face, a black eye, four stab wounds in the middle of her chest, at least two knife wounds on her genitalia, and one of her nipples was partially removed; all antemortem. A lightbulb had been inserted into her uterus and was recovered intact.


title: William Suff

text: On January 18, 1990, Darla Ferguson, 23, was found strangled in Riverside, just half a mile from the body of Kimberly Lyttle. She was found with her legs propped up and a trash bag pulled over the top half of her body, tied at the waist with a rope. Her wrists had been bound and she suffered blunt force trauma before death.


title: William Suff

text: On February 9, 1990, Carol Miller, 35, was found nude, with the exception of a shirt pulled over her head, in a grapefruit orchard in Highgrove. The frenulum connecting her upper lip to her gums was torn, indicating she was struggling while being smothered. She had no trauma to her neck. She was stabbed 5 times prior to death. Next to her body was a peeled and eaten grapefruit.


title: William Suff

text: On November 6, 1990, the body of Cheryl Coker, 33, was found in Riverside, partially inside a dumpster. She was found strangled to death, possibly with a wire, with such great force it cut the skin of her neck. Her right breast had been severed post-mortem and was found on a dirt road 30 feet away. A shoe print matching the size, shape, pattern, and wear of shoes belonging to Suff were found at the scene.


title: William Suff

text: On December 21, 1990, Susan Sternfeld, 27, was found strangled, nude, and intentionally posed, near a dumpster in Riverside.


title: William Suff

text: On January 19, 1991, the body of Kathleen Milne, also known as Kathy Puckett, 42, was found nude, lying on a red robe, near a pile of trash, north of Lake Elsinore. A white sock had been stuffed in the back of her throat. Her death was ruled asphyxiation due to the combination of strangulation and the sock blocking her airway.


title: William Suff

text: On July 4, 1991, Sherry Latham, 37, was found nude, face down, in Lake Elsinore. Her cause of death was determined to be strangulation, but due to decomposition, no determination could be made on the method.


title: William Suff

text: On August 16, 1991, Kelly Hammond, 27, of Rubidoux, was found strangled in an alley in Corona. Her nude body appeared to be posed; her right arm was bent and tucked under her abdomen, her left arm was bent with her hand on the ground and palm facing upward, her left leg was drawn to her chest, and her right leg was extended outward. She had two lacerations, which occurred prior to death, on her forehead. Her autopsy revealed her death to be caused by strangulation, with acute opiate intoxication a possible contributing factor.


title: William Suff

text: On September 13, 1991, Catherine McDonald, 30, the only black victim attributed to Suff, was found in Lake Elsinore. Her body was also posed; her legs were spread apart but her feet were together, her arms outstretched to the top of her head. She was four months pregnant. Before she died, she was stabbed in the chest three times. She also had a gaping cut on the left side of her neck. Her right breast was removed post-mortem, and she suffered a stab wound, as well as other lacerations, to her genitals, some before and some after death. Her official cause of death was multiple stab wounds to the neck as well as compression. Shoe prints of the same pattern as the other murders were also near McDonald's body.


title: William Suff

text: On October 30, 1991, the body of Delliah Zamora, 35, was found strangled in Glen Avon. She had fingernail injuries consistent with clawing at a ligature, though method was unable to be determined. Her larynx was crushed and broken down the middle, which would require an extreme amount of pressure.


title: William Suff

text: On December 23, 1991, Eleanor Casares, 39, was found in an orange grove in Riverside. She was stabbed in the chest and strangled. Her breast was removed post-mortem.


title: William Suff

text: A number of additional murders were attributed to Suff, though he was never charged, with the exception of Cherie Payseur.:


title: William Suff

text: On December 10, 1986, Charlotte Palmer, 25, was found near Romoland. Though cause of death could not be determined, authorities believe she was smothered.


title: William Suff

text: On April 29, 1988, the nude body of Linda Ortega, 37, was found stabbed to death near the rodeo grounds in Lake Elsinore.


title: William Suff

text: On May 2, 1988, the nude body of Martha Young, 27, of Albuquerque, was found just a few miles away from Linda Ortega. Her cause of death was determined to be a combination of strangulation and overdose of amphetamines. She was previously reported missing, first by her boyfriend, Joseph Shiflitt, who called her mother on April 10, 1988, and then officially by her mother, 17 days later.


title: William Suff

text: On November 11, 1989, the body of Julie Angel, 36, was found bludgeoned to death in Alberhill, on a street her mother drove every day for work.


title: William Suff

text: On April 27, 1991, Cherie Payseur, 24, was found on a flower bed behind a bowling alley in Riverside. She was initially found nude, but a patron covered the body with a jean jacket before police arrived. She had been hit in the face, and though no official cause of death could be determined, she was thought to have been suffocated. A number of shoe prints were left at the scene, including a partial shoe print on the small of Payseur's back. The analyzed shoe impressions were thought to be the same as the prints from the scene of Cheryl Coker's murder. The semen collected from Payseur's body revealed two donors, ultimately requiring the results to be deemed inconclusive, though the most intensive bands matched that of Suff; as such he could not be excluded as a donor. Suff was charged with Payseur's murder, however, the jury remained deadlocked and he was not convicted.


title: William Suff

text: Suff subsequently raped, tortured, stabbed, strangled, and sometimes mutilated 12 or more women in Riverside County between June 28, 1989, and December 23, 1991. On January 9, 1992, Suff was arrested after a routine traffic stop when a police officer found a bloody knife and objects believed to be related to the killings.


title: William Suff

text: Suff worked as a warehouse clerk for Riverside County when he was arrested, having been hired while still on parole from Texas. During his time in this job, Suff delivered office furniture to the officers on the task force investigating his killing spree.


title: William Suff

text: On July 19, 1995, a Riverside County jury found Suff guilty of killing 12 women and attempting to kill another, though police suspected him of being responsible for as many as 22 deaths. Suff did not testify in his defense. During the penalty phase that followed, the prosecutor presented evidence linking Suff to the 1988 murder of a San Bernardino woman, as well as evidence that despite his prior Texas prison term for murdering his first daughter, he abused and violently shook his three-month-old daughter by his second wife. On August 17, 1995, after deliberating for only 10 minutes, the jury returned verdicts of guilty on 12 murder counts and on one count of attempted murder.


title: William Suff

text: The jury could not unanimously agree to find him guilty on a 13th count of murder. On October 26, 1995, the trial court followed the jury's verdict and ordered Suff condemned to death. Suff resides on death row at San Quentin State Prison.


title: William Suff

text: His 2014 appeal of the sentence was rejected by the California Supreme Court, which upheld the death penalty.


title: William Suff

text: "The Riverside Killer" by Christine Keers and Dennis St Pierre was published in 1996 by Pinnacle True Crime.


title: William Suff

text: In 1997 "Cat and Mouse - Mind Games with a Serial Killer" was published by Dove Books. Suff met with author Brian Alan Lane and told his story. The book includes short stories and poems written by Suff and photos of several of his victims.


title: William Suff

text: Suff is the subject of the television program "Real Detective," season 2, episode 2. The 40-minute program includes dramatic recreations and interviews with the lead detective of the Riverside Taskforce, Det. Bob Creed. The episode first aired on March 9, 2017. He is also profiled as part of the Amazon Prime 2013 Documentary "Serial Killers Defined."


title: William Suff

text: The case was the subject of an episode of The New Detectives, Born to Kill? and the Most Evil Killers.


title: Leigh Brackett

text: Leigh Douglass Brackett (December 7, 1915 – March 18, 1978) was an American science fiction writer known as "the Queen of Space Opera." She was also a screenwriter, known for "The Big Sleep" (1946), "Rio Bravo" (1959), and "The Long Goodbye" (1973). She also worked on an early draft of "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980), elements of which remained in the film; she died before it went into production. In 1956, her book "The Long Tomorrow" made her the first woman ever shortlisted for the Hugo Award for Best Novel, and, along with C. L. Moore, one of the first two women ever nominated for a Hugo Award. In 2020, she won a Retro Hugo for her novel "The Nemesis From Terra", originally published as "Shadow Over Mars" ("Startling Stories", Fall 1944).


title: Leigh Brackett

text: Leigh Brackett was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. Her father died when she was very young; her mother did not remarry. She was a tomboy, "tall" and "athletic". She attended a private girls' school in Santa Monica, California, where she was involved in theater and began writing.


title: Leigh Brackett

text: Brackett first published in her mid-20s; the science fiction story "Martian Quest" appeared in the February 1940 issue of "Astounding Science Fiction". Her earliest years as a writer (1940–42) were her most productive. Some of her stories have social themes, such as "The Citadel of Lost Ships" (1943), which considers the effects on alien cultures of Earth's expanding trade empire. At the time, she was an active member of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society (LASFS), and participated in local science fiction fandom by contributing to the second issue of "Pogo's STF-ETTE", an all-female science fiction fanzine (probably the first such).


title: Leigh Brackett

text: Brackett's first novel, "No Good from a Corpse" (1944), was a hard-boiled mystery novel in the tradition of Raymond Chandler. The book led to her first big screenwriting assignment. After this, Brackett's science fiction stories became more ambitious. "Shadow Over Mars" (1944) was her first novel-length story; though rough-edged, it marked the beginning of a new style influenced by the characterization of the 1940s detective story and film noir. It won a Retro Hugo for best novel in 2020.


title: Leigh Brackett

text: "Planet Stories" published the novella "Lorelei of the Red Mist", in which the protagonist is a thief named Hugh Starke. Brackett finished the first half before turning it over to her close friend Bradbury, so that she could leave to work on the screenplay of "The Big Sleep".


title: Leigh Brackett

text: Brackett returned to science fiction writing in 1948 after her movie work. Between 1948 and 1951, she produced a series of science fiction adventure stories that were longer than her previous work, including classic representations of her planetary settings as "The Moon that Vanished" and the novel "Sea-Kings of Mars" (1949). The latter was later published as "The Sword of Rhiannon".


title: Leigh Brackett

text: In "Queen of the Martian Catacombs" (1949), Brackett created the character of Eric John Stark. Stark, an orphan from Earth, is raised by the semi-sentient aboriginals of Mercury, who are later killed by Earthmen. He is saved by a Terran official, who adopts and mentors Stark. When threatened, Stark reverts to the primitive N'Chaka, the "man without a tribe", who he was on Mercury. From 1949 to 1951, Brackett featured Stark (whose name echoes that of the hero in "Lorelei of the Red Mist") in three stories published in "Planet Stories": "Queen of the Martian Catacombs", "Enchantress of Venus", and "Black Amazon of Mars". With this last story, Brackett's high adventure period ended.


title: Leigh Brackett

text: Brackett adopted an elegiac tone in her stories, no longer celebrating the conflicts of frontier worlds but lamenting the passing of civilizations, and concentrating more on mood than plot. The stories' reflective, introspective nature is indicated in the titles: "The Last Days of Shandakor", "Shannach—the Last", and "Last Call from Sector 9G".


title: Leigh Brackett

text: "Last Call" was published in the final issue (Summer 1955) of "Planet Stories", which had been her most reliable publisher. After "Planet Stories" folded, and then "Startling Stories" and "Thrilling Wonder Stories", Brackett lost her magazine market. The first phase of her career as a science fiction author ended. She produced other stories over the next decade, and revised and published some as novels. A new production of this period was "The Long Tomorrow" (1955), one of Brackett's more critically acclaimed novels. It describes an agrarian, technophobic society that develops after a nuclear war.


title: Leigh Brackett

text: After 1955, Brackett concentrated on writing for the more lucrative film and television markets. In 1963 and 1964, she briefly returned to her old Martian milieu with a pair of stories. "The Road to Sinharat" was an affectionate farewell to the world of "Queen of the Martian Catacombs", and the other, with the intentionally ridiculous title of "Purple Priestess of the Mad Moon", borders on parody.


title: Leigh Brackett

text: Brackett and her husband shared Guest of Honor duties at the 22nd World Science Fiction Convention in 1965 in Oakland, California.


title: Leigh Brackett

text: After another decade-long hiatus, Brackett returned to science fiction in the 1970s with the publication of "The Ginger Star" (1974), "The Hounds of Skaith" (1974), and "The Reavers of Skaith" (1976), collected as "The Book of Skaith" in 1976. This trilogy brought Eric John Stark back for adventures on the extra-solar planet of Skaith (rather than his old haunts, Mars and Venus).


title: Leigh Brackett

text: Often called the "Queen of Space Opera", Brackett also wrote planetary romance. Almost all her planetary romances take place in the Leigh Brackett solar system, which contains richly detailed fictional versions of the consensus Mars and Venus of science fiction from the 1930s to the 1950s. Mars appears as a marginally habitable desert world, populated by ancient, decadent and mostly humanoid races, and Venus as a primitive, wet jungle planet, occupied by vigorous, primitive tribes and reptilian monsters. Brackett's Skaith combines elements of her other worlds with fantasy elements.


title: Leigh Brackett

text: Though Edgar Rice Burroughs's influence is apparent in Brackett's Mars stories, her Mars is set firmly in a world of interplanetary commerce and competition. A prominent theme of her stories is the clash of planetary civilizations; they illustrate and criticize the effects of colonialism on civilizations that are either older or younger than those of the colonizers. Burroughs's heroes set out to remake entire worlds according to their own codes; Brackett's heroes (often antiheroes) are at the mercy of trends and movements far bigger than they are.


title: Leigh Brackett

text: After the Mariner missions indicated there was no life on Mars, Brackett never returned to her solar system. When she started to write planetary romance again in the 1970s, she invented a new solar system outside our own.


title: Leigh Brackett

text: Shortly after Brackett broke into science fiction writing, she wrote her first screenplays. Hollywood director Howard Hawks was so impressed by her novel "No Good from a Corpse" that he had his secretary call in "this guy Brackett" to help William Faulkner write the script for "The Big Sleep" (1946). The film was written by Brackett, Faulkner, and Jules Furthman, and starred Humphrey Bogart.


title: Leigh Brackett

text: After getting married, Brackett took a break from screenwriting. When she returned to screenwriting in the mid-1950s, she wrote for TV and movies. Howard Hawks hired her to write or co-write several John Wayne pictures, including "Rio Bravo" (1959), "Hatari!" (1962), "El Dorado" (1966), and "Rio Lobo" (1970). Because of her background with "The Big Sleep", she later adapted Raymond Chandler's novel "The Long Goodbye" for the screen.


title: Leigh Brackett

text: Brackett worked on the screenplay for "The Empire Strikes Back", the first "Star Wars" sequel. The film won the Hugo Award in 1981. This script was a departure for Brackett; until then, all her science fiction had been in the form of novels and short stories. George Lucas said that he asked Brackett to write the screenplay based on his story outline. Brackett wrote a finished first draft, titled ""Star Wars" sequel", that was delivered to Lucas shortly before her death from cancer on March 18, 1978, but her version was rejected and Lucas wrote two drafts of a new screenplay and, following the delivery of the screenplay for "Raiders of the Lost Ark", turned them over to Lawrence Kasdan to rework some dialogue. Brackett and Kasdan (but not Lucas) were credited for the final screenplay. Brackett was credited in tribute despite not being involved in the final film.


title: Leigh Brackett

text: Laurent Bouzereau, in "Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays", said that Lucas disliked the direction of Brackett's screenplay, discarded it, and produced two more screenplays before turning the results over to Kasdan. io9's co-founder Charlie Jane Anders has written that while "It's fashionable to disparage Brackett's contributions to "Empire"", "it's not true that none of Brackett's storyline winds up in the final movie—the basic story beats are the same."


title: Leigh Brackett

text: For over 30 years, Brackett's screenplay could be read only at the Jack Williamson Special Collections library at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, New Mexico, and at Lucasfilm's archives in California. It was officially published in February 2016. In this draft, there is a love triangle between Luke, Leia and Han Solo. Yoda is named Minch, Luke has a hidden sister named Nellith, Lando Calrissian is Lando Kaddar, Luke's father is still a distinct character from Darth Vader and appears as a Force ghost on Dagobah, and Han Solo, at the end of the script, leaves to search for his uncle Ovan Marek, the most powerful man in the universe after the Emperor Palpatine.


title: Leigh Brackett

text: On December 31, 1946, at age 31, Brackett married another science fiction writer, Edmond Hamilton, in San Gabriel, California. Fellow LASFS member Ray Bradbury served as best man. Bradbury and Robert Heinlein were longtime close friends of Brackett's. She moved with Hamilton to Kinsman, Ohio.


title: SQ3R

text: SQRRR or SQ3R is a reading comprehension method named for its five steps: survey, question, read, recite and review. The method was introduced by Francis P. Robinson, an American education philosopher in his 1946 book "Effective Study".


title: SQ3R

text: The method offers a more efficient and active approach to reading textbook material. It was created for college students, but is useful for young students as well. Classrooms all over the world have begun using this method to better understand what they are reading.


title: Dry sex

text: Dry sex is the sexual practice of having sexual intercourse without vaginal lubrication. Vaginal lubrication can be removed by using herbal aphrodisiacs, household detergents, antiseptics, by wiping out the vagina, or by placing leaves in the vagina besides other methods. Dry sex is associated with increased health risks.


title: Dry sex

text: Removing or preventing vaginal lubrication through practices associated with dry sex increases friction during intercourse, which may be perceived as increased vaginal tightness, and enhanced sexual pleasure for the male partner. Some men who insist on dry sex regard "wet" women as unchaste. Dry sex can be painful for women and men. Dry sex is common in Sub-Saharan Africa and it has also been reported in Suriname among Afro-Surinamese women.


title: Dry sex

text: The practice has been linked to the high incidence of HIV/AIDS infection in South Africa. The practice is regarded as increasing the risk of transmitting sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) for both partners, including HIV in a number of ways. Increased friction during intercourse can cause lacerations in vaginal tissue. Drying the vagina also removes the natural antiseptic lactobacilli which combat sexually transmitted diseases. Furthermore, dry sex increases the risk that a condom will break because of the increased friction. It may also result in vaginal inflammation and/or traumatic lesions which in turn may increase the transmission of STDs in other ways.


title: Northern Isles

text: The Northern Isles (; ; ; ) are a pair of archipelagos off the north coast of mainland Scotland, comprising Orkney and Shetland. They are part of Scotland, as are the Hebrides. The climate is cool and temperate and much influenced by the surrounding seas. There are a total of 36 inhabited islands. The landscapes of the fertile agricultural islands of Orkney contrast with the more rugged Shetland islands to the north, where the economy is more dependent on fishing and on the oil wealth of the surrounding seas. Both island groups have a developing renewable energy industry. Both have a Pictish and Norse history. Both were part of the Kingdom of Norway until they were absorbed into the Kingdom of Scotland in the 15th century. They remained part of it until the 1707 formation of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the 1801 formation of the United Kingdom. They both played a significant naval role during the world wars of the 20th century.


title: Northern Isles

text: Tourism is important to both archipelagos, and there are regular ferry and air connections between them and with mainland Scotland. Their distinctive prehistoric ruins play a key role in their attraction for tourists. The Scandinavian influence remains strong, especially in local folklore, and the place-names of the islands are dominated by their Norse heritage, although some may retain pre-Celtic elements. Both island groups have strong, although distinct, local cultures.


title: Northern Isles

text: The phrase "Northern Isles" generally refers to the main islands of the Orkney and Shetland archipelagos. The Island of Stroma, which lies between mainland Scotland and Orkney, is part of Caithness, so for local government purposes it falls under the jurisdiction of the Highland council area, rather than that of Orkney. It is nevertheless clearly one of the "northern isles" of Scotland. Fair Isle and Foula are outliers of Shetland, but would normally be considered part of Shetland, and thus of the Northern Isles. Similarly, Sule Skerry and Sule Stack, although distant from the main group, are part of Orkney, and therefore technically amongst the Northern Isles. However, the other small islands that lie off the north coast of Scotland are in Highland, and are thus not usually considered to be part of the Northern Isles.


title: Northern Isles

text: Orkney is situated north of the coast of mainland Scotland, separated from it by the waters of the Pentland Firth. The largest island of Orkney, known as the "Mainland" has an area of , making it the sixth largest Scottish island. Its total population in 2001 was 19,245, and its largest town is Kirkwall. Shetland is around north of mainland Scotland. It covers an area of and its coastline is long. Lerwick, the capital and largest settlement, has a population of around 7,500. About half of the archipelago's total population of 22,000 people live within of the town.


title: Northern Isles

text: The superficial rock of Orkney is almost entirely Old Red Sandstone, mostly of Middle Devonian age. As in the neighbouring mainland county of Caithness, this sandstone rests upon the metamorphic rocks of the Moine series. This can be seen on the Orkney Mainland, where a narrow strip of the older rock is exposed between Stromness and Inganess, and also on the small island of Graemsay.


title: Northern Isles

text: Middle Devonian basaltic volcanic rocks are found on western Hoy, on Deerness in eastern Mainland and on Shapinsay. A correlation between the Hoy volcanics and the other two exposures has been proposed, but because of differences in their chemical makeup, this remains uncertain. Lamprophyre dykes of Late Permian age are found throughout Orkney. Glacial striation and the presence of chalk and flint erratics that originated from the bed of the North Sea demonstrate the influence of ice action on the geomorphology of the islands. Boulder clay is also abundant, and moraines cover substantial areas.


title: Northern Isles

text: The geology of Shetland is quite different from that of Orkney. It is extremely complex, with numerous faults and fold axes. The Shetland Islands are the northern outpost of the Caledonian orogeny, and there are outcrops of Lewisian, Dalriadan and Moine metamorphic rocks whose histories are similar to those of their counterparts on the Scottish mainland. There are also small Old Red Sandstone deposits and granite intrusions. Shetland's most distinctive geological feature is the ultrabasic ophiolite, peridotite and gabbro on Unst and Fetlar, which are remnants of the Iapetus Ocean floor. There are oil-bearing sediments in the surrounding seas, on which much of Shetland's economy depends.


title: Northern Isles

text: Geological evidence shows that, sometime around 6100 BC, a tsunami caused by the Storegga Slides hit the Northern Isles (as well as much of the east coast of Scotland), and may have created a wave of up to high in the voes of Shetland, where modern populations are largest.


title: Northern Isles

text: The Northern Isles have a cool, temperate climate that is remarkably mild and steady for such a northerly latitude, due to the influence of the surrounding seas and the Gulf Stream. In Shetland, average peak temperatures are in February and in August. Temperatures over are rare. The frost-free period may be as short as 3 months.


title: Northern Isles

text: The average annual rainfall is in Orkney and in Shetland. Winds are a key feature of the climate. In summer, there are almost constant breezes. In winter, there are frequent strong winds: Orkney has an average of 52 hours of gales annually. The Burradale wind farm in Shetland, which operates with five Vestas V47 660 kW turbines, achieved a world record of 57.9% capacity over the course of 2005 due to the persistent strong winds.


title: Northern Isles

text: Snowfall is usually confined to the period of November to February and seldom lies on the ground for more than a day. Less rain falls between April and August than at other times of the year, but no month has an average rainfall of less than . In Shetland there are 1082 hours of bright sunshine per year, on average, and overcast days are common.


title: Northern Isles

text: To tourists, one of the fascinations of the islands is their "nightless" summers. On the longest day in Shetland there are over 19 hours of daylight, and it never gets completely dark. The long twilight is known in the Northern Isles as the "simmer dim". Winter nights are correspondingly long, with less than six hours of daylight at midwinter. At this time of year the aurora borealis can occasionally be seen on the northern horizon during moderate auroral activity.


title: Northern Isles

text: There are numerous important prehistoric remains in Orkney, especially from the Neolithic period. Four of these remains comprise the Heart of Neolithic Orkney UNESCO World Heritage Site (designated as such in 1999). They are: Skara Brae; Maes Howe; the Stones of Stenness; and the Ring of Brodgar. The Knap of Howar Neolithic farmstead on the island of Papa Westray is probably the oldest preserved house in northern Europe. This structure was inhabited for 900 years, beginning around 3700 BC, but it had evidently been built on the site of an even older settlement. The Shetland Islands are also extremely rich in physical remains from prehistoric eras: They contain a total of over 5,000 archaeological sites. On the island of Fetlar, there is a dividing wall, dating from the Neolithic period, that at one time extended for across the island. It is known as Funzie Girt. But it is the Iron Age that has provided the most outstanding archaeology in Shetland. Numerous brochs were erected during that period. The finest preserved example of these distinctive round towers is the Broch of Mousa. In 2011, a site known as "the Crucible of Iron Age Shetland", which includes the Broch of Mousa, Old Scatness and Jarlshof, joined the UK's "Tentative List" of World Heritage Sites.


title: Northern Isles

text: The culture that built the brochs is unknown, but by the late Iron Age the Northern Isles had become part of the Pictish kingdom. The most common archaeological relics from that period are symbol stones. One of the best examples of these stones is on the Brough of Birsay: It depicts three warriors with spears and sword scabbards, as well as characteristic Pictish symbols. In 1958, a trove of silver metalwork, known as the St Ninian's Isle Treasure, was discovered. The silver bowls, jewellery and other pieces it contains are believed to date from around 800 AD. According to O'Dell (1959), "The treasure is the best survival of Scottish silver metalwork from the period ... [T]he brooches show a variety of typical Pictish forms, with both animal-head and lobed geometrical forms of terminal".


title: Northern Isles

text: Christianity probably arrived in Orkney in the 6th century, and organised church authority emerged in the 8th century. An Ogham–inscribed artefact known as the Buckquoy spindle-whorl was found at a Pictish site on Birsay. There has been controversy about its origin and meaning, but it is now generally considered to be of Irish Christian origin.


title: Northern Isles

text: The 8th century was also the time when the Vikings started invading the Scottish seaboard. They brought to the Northern Isles a new culture and a new language; rendering the fate of the existing indigenous peoples uncertain. According to the "Orkneyinga Saga", Vikings then made the islands the headquarters of the pirate expeditions they carried out against Norway and the coasts of mainland Scotland. According to some sources, in 875, the Norwegian king Harald Hårfagre ("Harald Fair Hair") annexed the Northern Isles and gifted Orkney and Shetland to Rognvald Eysteinsson as an earldom in recompense for the death of his son in battle in Scotland. (Some scholars believe this story is apocryphal and is based instead on events connected with the later voyages of Magnus III of Norway, known as Magnus Barelegs.)


title: Northern Isles

text: In 995, King Olaf I of Norway (Olav Tryggvasson) fully Christianised the islands by fiat, when he stopped in South Walls on his way from Ireland to Norway. The king summoned the "jarl" Sigurd the Stout and said, "I order you and all your subjects to be baptised. If you refuse, I'll have you killed on the spot and I swear I will ravage every island with fire and steel." Unsurprisingly, Sigurd agreed, and the islands became Christian at a stroke. In the early 11th century, they received their own bishop (the Bishop of Orkney).


title: Northern Isles

text: In the 14th century, Orkney and Shetland remained a Norwegian province, but Scottish influence was growing. Jon Haraldsson, who was murdered in Thurso in 1231, was the last of an unbroken line of Norse jarls, and thereafter the earls were Scots noblemen of the houses of Angus and St. Clair. In 1468 Shetland was pledged by Christian I, in his capacity as King of Norway, as security against the payment of the dowry of his daughter Margaret, betrothed to James III of Scotland. As the money was never paid, the connection with the crown of Scotland became permanent. In 1470 William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness ceded his title to James III and the following year the Northern Isles were directly annexed to Scotland.


title: Northern Isles

text: From the early 15th century on the Shetlanders had sold their goods through the Hanseatic League of German merchantmen. This trade with the North German towns lasted until the 1707 Act of Union when high salt duties prohibited the German merchants from trading with Shetland. Shetland then went into an economic depression as the Scottish and local traders were not as skilled in trading with salted fish. However, some local merchant-lairds took up where the German merchants had left off, and fitted out their own ships to export fish from Shetland to the Continent. For the independent farmer/fishermen of Shetland this had negative consequences, as they now had to fish for these merchant-lairds.


title: Northern Isles

text: British rule came at a price for many ordinary people as well as traders. The Shetlanders' nautical skills were sought by the Royal Navy: some 3,000 served during the Napoleonic Wars from 1800 to 1815 and press gangs were rife. During this period 120 men were taken from Fetlar alone and only 20 of them returned home. By the late 19th century 90% of all Shetland was owned by just 32 men, and between 1861 and 1881 more than 8,000 Shetlanders emigrated. With the passing of the Crofters' Act in 1886 the Liberal prime minister William Gladstone emancipated crofters from the rule of the landlords. The Act enabled those who had effectively been landowners' serfs to become owner-occupiers of their own small farms.


title: Northern Isles

text: The Orcadian experience was somewhat different. An influx of Scottish entrepreneurs helped to create a diverse and independent community that included farmers, fishermen and merchants that called themselves "comunitatis Orcadie" and who proved themselves increasingly able to defend their rights against their feudal overlords. In the 17th century, Orcadians formed the overwhelming majority of employees of the Hudson's Bay Company in Canada. The harsh climate of Orkney and the Orcadian reputation for sobriety and their boat-handling skills made them ideal candidates for the rigours of the Canadian north. During this period, burning kelp briefly became a mainstay of the islands' economy. For example, on Shapinsay over of burned seaweed were produced per annum to make soda ash, bringing in £20,000 to the local economy. Agricultural improvements beginning in the 17th century coincided with the enclosure of the commons and in the Victorian era the emergence of large and well-managed farms using a five-shift rotation system and producing high-quality beef cattle. There is little evidence of an Orcadian fishing fleet until the 19th century but it grew rapidly and 700 boats were involved by the 1840s with Stronsay and then later Stromness becoming leading centres of development. Many Orcadian seamen became involved in whaling in Arctic waters during the 19th century, although the boats were generally based elsewhere in Britain.


title: Northern Isles

text: Orkney was the site of a naval base at Scapa Flow, which played a major role in World War I. After the Armistice in 1918, the German High Seas Fleet was transferred in its entirety to Scapa Flow while a decision was to be made on its future; however, the German sailors opened the sea-cocks and scuttled all the ships. During World War I the 10th Cruiser Squadron was stationed at Swarbacks Minn in Shetland and during a single year from March 1917 more than 4,500 ships sailed from Lerwick as part of an escorted convoy system. In total, Shetland lost more than 500 men, a higher proportion than any other part of Britain, and there were waves of emigration in the 1920s and 1930s.


title: Northern Isles

text: One month into World War II, the Royal Navy battleship was sunk by a German U-boat at Scapa Flow. As a result, barriers were built to close most of the access channels; these had the advantage of creating causeways enabling travellers to go from island to island by road instead of being obliged to rely on ferries. The causeways were constructed by Italian prisoners of war, who also constructed the ornate Italian Chapel. The Scapa Flow base was neglected after the war, eventually closing in 1957.


title: Northern Isles

text: During World War II, a Norwegian naval unit nicknamed the "Shetland Bus" was established by the Special Operations Executive in the autumn of 1940 with a base first at Lunna and later in Scalloway to conduct operations around the coast of Norway. About 30 fishing vessels used by Norwegian refugees were gathered, and the Shetland Bus conducted covert operations, carrying intelligence agents, refugees, instructors for the resistance, and military supplies. It made over 200 trips across the sea, with Leif Larsen, the most highly decorated allied naval officer of the war, making 52 of them.


title: Northern Isles

text: The problem of a declining population was significant in the post-war years, although in the last decades of the 20th century there was a recovery and life in the islands focused on growing prosperity and the emergence of a relatively classless society.


title: Northern Isles

text: Due to their history, the islands have a Norse, rather than a Gaelic flavour, and have historic links with the Faroes, Iceland, and Norway. The similarities of both geography and history are matched by some elements of the current political process. Both Orkney and Shetland are represented in the House of Commons as constituting the Orkney and Shetland constituency, which elects one Member of Parliament (MP), the current incumbent being Alistair Carmichael. Both are also within the Highlands and Islands electoral region for the Scottish Parliament.


title: Northern Isles

text: In the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, 65.4% of the constituency’s electors voted for Scotland to stay part of the United Kingdom.


title: Northern Isles

text: However, there are also two separate constituencies that elect one Member of the Scottish Parliament each for Orkney and Shetland by the first past the post system. Orkney and Shetland also have separate local Councils which are both dominated by independents.


title: Northern Isles

text: The Orkney Movement, a political party that supported devolution for Orkney from the rest of Scotland, contested the 1987 general election as the Orkney and Shetland Movement (a coalition of the Orkney movement and its equivalent for Shetland). Their candidate, John Goodlad, came 4th with 3,095 votes, 14.5% of those cast.


title: Northern Isles

text: Ferry services link Orkney and Shetland to the rest of Scotland, the main routes being Scrabster harbour, Thurso to Stromness and Aberdeen to Lerwick, both operated by NorthLink Ferries. Inter-island ferry services are operated by Orkney Ferries and SIC Ferries, which are operated by the respective local authorities and Northlink also run a Lerwick to Kirkwall service. Automatic lighthouses are commonly sited across the islands as an aid to navigation at various locations.


title: Northern Isles

text: Kirkwall Airport serves as the sole commercial airport in Orkney, which is operated by Highland and Islands Airports. Loganair provides services to Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness for both Kirkwall and Sumburgh Airport.


title: Northern Isles

text: Inter-Island flights are available from Kirkwall to several Orkney islands and from the Shetland Mainland to most of the inhabited islands including those from Tingwall Airport. There are frequent charter flights from Aberdeen to Scatsta near Sullom Voe, which are used to transport oilfield workers and this small terminal has the fifth largest number of international passengers in Scotland. The scheduled air service between Westray and Papa Westray is reputedly the shortest in the world at two minutes' duration.


title: Northern Isles

text: The very different geologies of the two archipelagos have resulted in dissimilar local economies. In Shetland, the main revenue producers are agriculture, aquaculture, fishing, renewable energy, the petroleum industry (offshore crude oil and natural gas production), the creative industries and tourism. Oil and gas was first landed at Sullom Voe in 1978, and it has subsequently become one of the largest oil terminals in Europe. Taxes from the oil have increased public sector spending in Shetland on social welfare, art, sport, environmental measures and financial development. Three-quarters of the islands' workforce is employed in the service sector and Shetland Islands Council alone accounted for 27.9% of output in 2003. Fishing remains central to the islands' economy today, with the total catch being in 2009, valued at over £73.2 million.


title: Northern Isles

text: Orkney and Shetland have significant wind and marine energy resources, and renewable energy has recently come into prominence. The European Marine Energy Centre is a Scottish Government-backed research facility that has installed a wave testing system at Billia Croo on the Orkney Mainland and a tidal power testing station on the island of Eday. This has been described as "the first of its kind in the world set up to provide developers of wave and tidal energy devices with a purpose-built performance testing facility." Billia Croo also houses an experimental underwater data center run by Microsoft.


title: Northern Isles

text: The Northern Isles have a rich source of folklore. There are many Orcadian tales concerning trows, a form of troll that draws on the islands' Scandinavian connections. Local customs in the past included marriage ceremonies at the Odin Stone that forms part of the Stones of Stenness.


title: Northern Isles

text: The best known literary figures from modern Orkney are the poet Edwin Muir, the poet and novelist George Mackay Brown and the novelist Eric Linklater.


title: Northern Isles

text: Shetland has a strong tradition of local music. The Forty Fiddlers was formed in the 1950s to promote the traditional fiddle style, which is a vibrant part of local culture today. Notable exponents of Shetland folk music include Aly Bain and the late Tom Anderson and Peerie Willie Johnson. Thomas Fraser was a country musician who never released a commercial recording during his life, but whose work has become popular more than 20 years after his untimely death in 1978.


title: Northern Isles

text: The Norn language, formerly spoken in the islands, is descendant of Old Norse brought by the Vikings in the 9th century. Since 1468-1469, after Orkney and Shetland were absorbed by the Kingdom of Scotland, Norn gradually began to fade as the influx of Scots-speaking settlers migrated to the islands. Norn as such became an extinct language around 1850, after the death of its last-known speaker Walter Sutherland. The local dialects of the Scots language, collectively known as Insular Scots, are distinctive and retain strong Nordic influences.


title: Northern Isles

text: The etymology of the island names is dominated by Norse influence. There follows a listing of the derivation of all the inhabited islands in the Northern Isles.


title: Northern Isles

text: The oldest version of the modern name Shetland is "Hetlandensis" recorded in 1190 becoming "Hetland" in 1431 after various intermediate transformations. This then became "Hjaltland" in the 16th century. As Shetland's Norn was gradually replaced by Scots "Hjaltland" became "". When use of the letter yogh was discontinued, it was often replaced by the similar-looking letter z, hence "Zetland", the mispronounced form used to describe the pre-1975 county council. However the earlier name is "Innse Chat" – the island of the cats (or the cat tribe) as referred to in early Irish literature and it is just possible that this forms part of the Norse name. The Cat tribe also occupied parts of the northern Scottish mainland – hence the name of Caithness via the Norse "Katanes" ("headland of the cat"), and the Gaelic name for Sutherland, "Cataibh", meaning "among the Cats".


title: Northern Isles

text: The location of "Thule", first mentioned by Pytheas of Massilia when he visited Britain sometime between 322 and 285 BC is not known for certain. When Tacitus mentioned it in AD 98 it is clear he was referring to Shetland.


title: Northern Isles

text: Pytheas described Great Britain as being triangular in shape, with a northern tip called "Orcas". This may have referred to Dunnet Head, from which Orkney is visible. Writing in the 1st century AD, the Roman geographer Pomponius Mela called the Orkney islands "Orcades", as did Tacitus in AD 98 "Orc" is usually interpreted as a Pictish tribal name meaning "young pig" or "young boar". The old Irish Gaelic name for the islands was "Insi Orc" ("island of the pigs"). The ogham script on the Buckquoy spindle-whorl is also cited as evidence for the pre-Norse existence of Old Irish in Orkney. The Pictish association with Orkney is lent weight by the Norse name for the Pentland Firth – "Pettaland-fjörðr" i.e "Pictland Firth.


title: Northern Isles

text: The Norse retained the earlier root but changed the meaning, providing the only definite example of an adaption of a pre-Norse place name in the Northern Isles. The islands became "Orkneyar" meaning "seal islands". An alternative name for Orkney is recorded in 1300—Hrossey, meaning "horse isle" and this may also contain a Pictish element of "ros" meaning "moor" or "plain".


title: Northern Isles

text: Unlike most of the larger Orkney islands, the derivation of the name "Shapinsay" is not obvious. The final 'ay' is from the Old Norse for "island", but the first two syllables are more difficult to interpret. Haswell-Smith (2004) suggests the root may be "hjalpandis-øy" (helpful island) due to the presence of a good harbour, although anchorages are plentiful in the archipelago. The first written record dates from 1375 in a reference to "Scalpandisay", which may suggest a derivation from "judge's island". Another suggestion is "Hyalpandi's island", although no one of that name is known to have been associated with Shapinsay.


title: Northern Isles

text: or "island in the tidal stream", a reference to the strong currents in the Pentland Firth. The Norse often gave animal names to islands and these have been transferred into English in, for example, the Calf of Flotta and Horse of Copinsay. Brother Isle is an anglicisation of the Norse "breiðareøy" meaning "broad beach island". The Norse "holmr", meaning "a small islet" has become "Holm" in English and there are numerous examples of this use including Corn Holm, Thieves Holm and Little Holm. "Muckle" meaning large or big is one of few Scots words in the island names of the "Nordreyar" and appears in Muckle Roe and Muckle Flugga in Shetland and Muckle Green Holm and Muckle Skerry in Orkney. Many small islets and skerries have Scots or Insular Scots names such as Da Skerries o da Rokness and Da Buddle Stane in Shetland, and Kirk Rocks in Orkney.


title: Smoke (film)

text: Smoke is a 1995 American independent film by Wayne Wang and Paul Auster. The original story was written by Paul Auster, who also wrote the screenplay. The film was produced by Greg Johnson, Peter Newman, Kenzo Horikoshi, and Hisami Kuroiwa. Among others, it features Harvey Keitel, William Hurt, Stockard Channing, Harold Perrineau Jr., Giancarlo Esposito, Ashley Judd, and Forest Whitaker.


title: Smoke (film)

text: The film follows the lives of multiple characters, all of whom are connected via their patronage of a small Brooklyn tobacconist store managed by Auggie. Brooklyn Cigar Co. was located on the corner of 16th Street and Prospect Park West.


title: Smoke (film)

text: Auggie has been taking photographs of the store from across the street at 8:00am every morning and has been collecting all his photos in albums. A recently-widowed writer Paul Benjamin spends an evening with Auggie, during which Auggie tells Paul of his photographs, which he describes as his "life's work". Auggie asks Paul to look through the photographs, which are collected in a large number of albums. At first, Paul does not take the photographs seriously, saying that "they're all the same". Auggie says that they only look the same superficially, but they are all different, with each photo representing a unique moment in time. Auggie implores Paul to "slow down", which Paul agrees to do. Paul sees his wife in one of the pictures, and breaks down.


title: Smoke (film)

text: The next day, Paul is lost in thought as he crosses the road and is saved from being run down by a truck by a young black man named Rashid, whom he invites to stay in his apartment as a form of thanks. Rashid accepts, but irritates Paul by making noise, and breaking dishes, while Paul is writing. Paul asks Rashid to leave, which he does. Paul is visited by Rashid's aunt, who aggressively demands to know why Rashid has been staying with Paul. She reveals that Rashid's name is in fact Thomas, and that he is from an underprivileged background. She also says that Rashid has been estranged from his father since childhood, and that his father had been spotted recently at a gas station outside the city.


title: Smoke (film)

text: Rashid tracks down his father, Cyrus Cole, to a small-town gas station, which he sketches. Cyrus, not recognising him, befriends him and hires Rashid to carry out renovation work at his gas station. Rashid conceals his identity and tells Cyrus that his name is Paul Benjamin. His father has an artificial arm, which he tells Rashid was the result of a car accident in which his then wife (who was in fact Rashid's mother) was killed. Cyrus says that he was driving drunk and that his artificial arm was a way for God to remind him to better himself. Rashid leaves the station, without any notice.


title: Smoke (film)

text: Rashid returns to Paul's apartment to give him a second hand television as a gift. As Rashid tries to leave, Paul forces him to stay and to call his aunt to reassure her that he is safe. Paul finds $5,000 that Rashid has stashed in the apartment. Paul confronts Rashid about the money, and Rashid reveals that he took the money from the robbers as he fled, which is why he is in hiding. Paul implores Rashid to return the money but Rashid refuses. Rashid disappears one day, without explaining where he has gone.


title: Smoke (film)

text: Paul and Auggie track Rashid down. Paul introduces himself to Rashid's father, who comments that Rashid and he share a name. Rashid confesses that his real name is Thomas Jefferson Cole. His father finally understands that Rashid is in fact his son, but reacts by rejecting him violently. After an emotional breakdown, they reconcile.


title: Smoke (film)

text: Rashid is hired to work at the tobacconist. Auggie imports a box of Cuban cigars that he intends to sell to public officials in the city. Auggie has spent $5,000 on the shipment, the entirety of his savings. Rashid ruins the cigars when he is left to look after the shop on his own by allowing the sink to overflow. He gives Auggie the $5000 to keep his job. Auggie initially refuses but eventually agrees to keep the money.


title: Smoke (film)

text: Auggie's old girlfriend Ruby McNutt visits him in the tobacconist. Ruby asks Auggie for money to cover rehab costs for Felicity, whom she says is his daughter and who is pregnant on drugs. Auggie later gives her the same $5000 that was given to him by Rashid. Auggie asks Ruby if Felicity really is his daughter, to which he receives an ambiguous response.


title: Smoke (film)

text: Paul tells Auggie that he has been asked by the New York Times to write a Christmas story to be published on Christmas day. After Paul says that he does not have any ideas, Auggie offers to tell him the best Christmas story he has ever heard in exchange for lunch. Auggie tells Paul a tender story about spending Christmas with a blind grandmother who at first thinks, and then pretends, he is her grandson. After the grandmother falls asleep, Auggie finds stacks of stolen cameras in the bathroom and decides to take one for himself. Weeks later, he regrets his decision to take the camera, and decides to return but then finds that the grandmother had died in the meantime, meaning that she had spent her last Christmas with him. The story is based on writer Paul Auster's piece "Auggie Wren's Christmas Story", published in The New York Times on Christmas day, 1990. Paul is impressed by the story, and thanks Auggie for it. The exchange ends ambiguously, with Paul suggesting that he suspects that Auggie has in fact invented and perhaps even improvised the whole story, and Auggie suggesting that Paul's understanding is correct, without actually confirming that to be the case.


title: Smoke (film)

text: During and after the closing credits, Auggie's story is enacted in a poignant black-and-white sequence to the soundtrack of Tom Waits's "Innocent When You Dream".


title: Smoke (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a rating of 90% based on 31 reviews. The consensus summarizes: ""Smoke" draws in a stellar ensemble, holds the audience's attention with a robust blend of connected stories, and sends viewers out on a pleasurable high."


title: Smoke (film)

text: It opened on 4 screens (including two in New York and one in Los Angeles) and grossed $70,744 for the weekend, being the number one exclusive release in New York and L.A. It went on to gross $8 million in the United States and Canada and $30 million internationally.


title: Smoke (film)

text: The film was followed by "Blue in the Face", a sequel of sorts that continues following a few of the characters and introduces several new ones.


title: Smoke (film)

text: The character Augustus "Auggie" Wren (played by Harvey Keitel) is modelled after the real-life owner of Augie's Jazz Bar, which closed in 1998. When the establishment reopened in 1999, the new owners could not keep the former establishment's name. To honor its legacy, they named the new club after the 1995 film.


title: Smoke (film)

text: A VHS copy of the film can be seen on top of the television set during the house party finale of the 1996 horror movie "Scream".


title: Spyker F1

text: The Spyker F1 Team, known as the Etihad Aldar Spyker F1 Team for sponsorship reasons, was a Formula One team that competed in the 2007 Formula One World Championship with a Dutch licence. It was created by Spyker Cars after their buyout of the short-lived Midland F1 (formerly Jordan Grand Prix) team. The change to the Spyker name was accompanied by a switch in racing livery from the red, grey and white previously used by Midland, to an orange and silver scheme—already seen on the Spyker Spyder GT2-R—orange being the national colour and the auto racing colour of the Netherlands. At the end of the 2007 season the team was sold and renamed Force India.


title: Spyker F1

text: Spyker F1 Team was the second Formula One constructor to represent The Netherlands nationality since Boro Racing that competed in the 1976 and 1977 seasons.


title: Spyker F1

text: Although created in 2006, the team's roots can be traced back to the year , when it was founded as Jordan Grand Prix. The Silverstone-based squad and facilities were bought by the Midland group in 2005 and renamed Midland F1 in 2006, before being sold to Spyker Cars towards the end of the 2006 season.


title: Spyker F1

text: Rumours had been floating about in the paddock throughout the mid-season about the possible sale of the team, less than two years after Alex Shnaider originally bought it from Eddie Jordan. Reports suggested a price tag of $128 million and that Shnaider was seriously considering the possibility of the sale. Formula One teams had become more valuable because no additional teams could enter after 2008, with the maximum of 12 places already filled.


title: Spyker F1

text: On 9 September 2006, it was revealed that the team was sold to Spyker Cars, a Dutch manufacturer of hand-built cars. Spyker paid $106.6 million for the team. On 10 September, ITV commentators said that both Shnaider and former consultant Johnny Herbert were no longer involved in the team since the announcement of the sale.


title: Spyker F1

text: Former Midland drivers Christijan Albers and Tiago Monteiro were retained for the remaining part of the 2006 season, while it was also confirmed at Spyker's debut race in China that Albers would be staying with the successor team for the 2007 season. As part of the purchase of Midland by Spyker, the cars had a revised livery for the final three races of 2006. The name of the team also changed to Spyker MF1 Racing, as FIA regulations preclude a change of a team's name during a season but do allow for a sponsor name to be added to the front.


title: Spyker F1

text: The previous team boss of Midland, Colin Kolles, remained as team principal into 2007. Michiel Mol became the new Director of F1 Racing and member of the Spyker board, and Mike Gascoyne became Chief Technology Officer from the end of the 2006 season. The team used customer 2006-spec Ferrari engines in 2007, replacing the Toyota units, which went to the Williams team. Although the team remained based in the UK, it chose to register under the Dutch motor racing authority and therefore run under the Dutch flag during 2007, reflecting its new ownership.


title: Spyker F1

text: For the second race driver, Spyker signed one of their 2006 third drivers, Adrian Sutil, to drive for the team in 2007. The official FIA entry list for 2007 was posted on various websites on 4 December 2006, and on the list the Spyker F1 Team was assigned car numbers 20 and 21, but only Christijan Albers' name was made official on the entry list, with the second seat, and car number 21 left TBA, since Sutil had not been confirmed at the time. However, the car numbers were swapped inside the team as Albers wanted to drive a car with an odd number, hence Albers (and later Winkelhock and Yamamoto) raced with number 21 and Sutil 20. Spyker signed four test and reserve drivers for the 2007 season: Adrián Vallés, Fairuz Fauzy, Giedo van der Garde and Markus Winkelhock.


title: Spyker F1

text: In March, Spyker announced a sponsor deal with Etihad Airways and Aldar Properties, two companies from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The official name of the entrant during the season was Etihad Aldar Spyker F1 Team.


title: Spyker F1

text: On 10 July, Albers was released from his Spyker contract due to a lack of sponsorship money, which would have funded the team's development programme. Mol described it as "one of the toughest decisions of my career". Despite former Red Bull Racing driver Christian Klien testing for the team on 12 July 2007, Albers' replacement for the 2007 European Grand Prix was Winkelhock.


title: Spyker F1

text: During the 2007 European Grand Prix, Winkelhock became the only driver to lead a Grand Prix in a Spyker, due to the team's tyre selection. However, Winkelhock did not keep his race drive as this went to Sakon Yamamoto.


title: Spyker F1

text: In August, the new B-Spec Spyker model, which the team hoped to use at the 2007 Turkish Grand Prix, failed the rear crash test which is set by the FIA. All cars must pass these tests to be allowed to race. However, a few days later it was confirmed that the car had passed the crash test in time to compete in the Italian Grand Prix.


title: Spyker F1

text: On 30 September at the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix, the team scored its first and only championship point. Sutil finished 9th on the track, but was promoted to 8th place and into the points scoring positions when stewards ruled post-race that Toro Rosso's Vitantonio Liuzzi had overtaken Sutil under a yellow flag on lap 55; Liuzzi was subsequently given a 25-second penalty that dropped his time below Sutil's.


title: Spyker F1

text: On 14 August, Spyker Cars announced that it might need to sell all or part of the team due to a potential split of the team from its parent company. The team was sold to a consortium named "Orange India" led by Indian businessman Vijay Mallya and Dutch entrepreneur (and existing board member) Michiel Mol after approval by Spyker's shareholders. Mallya attended the Chinese Grand Prix as a team owner. The team was renamed Force India for the 2008 season.


title: Elf (band)

text: Elf was an American rock band founded in 1967 by singer and bassist Ronnie James Dio, keyboardist Doug Thaler, drummer Gary Driscoll, and guitarists Nick Pantas and David Feinstein (Dio's cousin). The band was originally called the Electric Elves, but was shortened to the Elves in 1968 and finally Elf in 1972. Elf disbanded in 1975 after recording three albums and after most of the lineup had been absorbed into the newly formed Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow.


title: Elf (band)

text: The band was formed in 1967 when the members of Ronnie Dio and the Prophets transformed themselves into the Electric Elves and added a keyboard player, Doug Thaler.


title: Elf (band)

text: In February 1968, the band was involved in an automobile accident which claimed the life of Nick Pantas. The accident forced a shuffling of the band member roles as original keyboardist Thaler moved to guitar (after recovering from his injuries) and the group hired Mickey Lee Soule to take over keyboard duties. Upon leaving the group in 1972, Thaler moved to New York and got a job as a booking agent — Elf was one of the bands he booked.


title: Elf (band)

text: Elf's self-titled debut album was produced by Deep Purple members Roger Glover and Ian Paice, who happened to see Elf auditioning in 1972. For the next few years, the band enjoyed mild success as an opening act for Deep Purple.


title: Elf (band)

text: Dio both sang and played the bass guitar until, following the release of Elf's first album, Craig Gruber was asked to join as bass guitarist. In August 1973 Feinstein quit the band and was replaced by Steve Edwards. In 1974, Elf released its second album, "Carolina County Ball". That same year Dio was asked by Glover to sing on his solo album, "The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast". Dio's voice gained the attention of Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, who was beginning to tire of Deep Purple and was looking for musicians to record a solo album. Asides guitarist Steve Edwards and drummer Mark Nauseef, he decided in early 1975 to use the musicians in Elf for this album, and the band Rainbow was soon formed. Though Elf had been writing and recording its third album, "Trying to Burn the Sun" at the same time, following the completion of that album and the Rainbow album, Elf was no more. "Trying to Burn the Sun" was eventually released in the U.S. in June 1975.


title: Elf (band)

text: Beginning in the late 1980s, some of the former members of Elf speculated about a potential reunion of the band, however nothing formal ever took place. Three of the band's members have also died: Driscoll in 1987, Dio in 2010, and Gruber in 2015.


title: Ambient occlusion

text: In 3D computer graphics, modeling, and animation, ambient occlusion is a shading and rendering technique used to calculate how exposed each point in a scene is to ambient lighting. For example, the interior of a tube is typically more occluded (and hence darker) than the exposed outer surfaces, and becomes darker the deeper inside the tube one goes.


title: Ambient occlusion

text: Ambient occlusion can be seen as an accessibility value that is calculated for each surface point. In scenes with open sky, this is done by estimating the amount of visible sky for each point, while in indoor environments, only objects within a certain radius are taken into account and the walls are assumed to be the origin of the ambient light. The result is a diffuse, non-directional shading effect that casts no clear shadows, but that darkens enclosed and sheltered areas and can affect the rendered image's overall tone. It is often used as a post-processing effect.


title: Ambient occlusion

text: Unlike local methods such as Phong shading, ambient occlusion is a global method, meaning that the illumination at each point is a function of other geometry in the scene. However, it is a very crude approximation to full global illumination. The appearance achieved by ambient occlusion alone is similar to the way an object might appear on an overcast day.


title: Ambient occlusion

text: The first method that allowed simulating ambient occlusion in real time was developed by the research and development department of Crytek (CryEngine 2). With the release of hardware capable of real time ray tracing (GeForce 20 series) by Nvidia in 2018, ray traced ambient occlusion (RTAO) became possible in games and other real time applications. This feature was added to the Unreal Engine with version 4.22.


title: Ambient occlusion

text: In the absence of hardware-assisted ray traced ambient occlusion, real-time applications such as computer games can use screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO) or horizon-based ambient occlusion (HBAO) as a faster approximation of true ambient occlusion, using per-pixel depth, rather than scene geometry, to form an ambient occlusion map.


title: Ambient occlusion

text: Ambient occlusion is related to accessibility shading, which determines appearance based on how easy it is for a surface to be touched by various elements (e.g., dirt, light, etc.). It has been popularized in production animation due to its relative simplicity and efficiency.


title: Ambient occlusion

text: The ambient occlusion shading model offers a better perception of the 3D shape of the displayed objects. This was shown in a paper where the authors report the results of perceptual experiments showing that depth discrimination under diffuse uniform sky lighting is superior to that predicted by a direct lighting model.


title: Ambient occlusion

text: The occlusion formula_1 at a point formula_2 on a surface with normal formula_3 can be computed by integrating the visibility function over the hemisphere formula_4 with respect to projected solid angle:


title: Ambient occlusion

text: where formula_5 is the visibility function at formula_2, defined to be zero if formula_2 is occluded in the direction formula_8 and one otherwise, and formula_9 is the infinitesimal solid angle step of the integration variable formula_8. A variety of techniques are used to approximate this integral in practice: perhaps the most straightforward way is to use the Monte Carlo method by casting rays from the point formula_2 and testing for intersection with other scene geometry (i.e., ray casting). Another approach (more suited to hardware acceleration) is to render the view from formula_2 by rasterizing black geometry against a white background and taking the (cosine-weighted) average of rasterized fragments. This approach is an example of a "gathering" or "inside-out" approach, whereas other algorithms (such as depth-map ambient occlusion) employ "scattering" or "outside-in" techniques.


title: Ambient occlusion

text: In addition to the ambient occlusion value, a "bent normal" vector formula_13 is often generated, which points in the average direction of occluded samples. The bent normal can be used to look up incident radiance from an environment map to approximate image-based lighting. However, there are some situations in which the direction of the bent normal is a misrepresentation of the dominant direction of illumination, e.g.,


title: Ambient occlusion

text: In this example, light may reach the point p only from the left or right sides, but the bent normal points to the average of those two sources, which is directly toward the obstruction.


title: Ambient occlusion

text: In 2010, Hayden Landis, Ken McGaugh and Hilmar Koch were awarded a Scientific and Technical Academy Award for their work on ambient occlusion rendering.


title: She's Not There

text: "She's Not There" is the debut single by British rock band the Zombies, written by keyboardist Rod Argent. It reached 12 in the UK Singles Chart in September 1964, and 2 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 in the United States at the beginning of December 1964. In Canada, it reached 2.


title: She's Not There

text: "Rolling Stone" magazine ranked "She's Not There" No. 297 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. "She's Not There" is also The Zombies only song deemed "lyrically inappropriate" following the September 11th terrorist attacks.


title: She's Not There

text: Rod Argent built the lyrics of "She's Not There" from a John Lee Hooker song, whose title – "No One Told Me" – became a part of the opening phrase of "She's Not There". Following an 29 April 1964 performance by the Zombies at St Albans Market Hall, Argent played the one verse he had written of the song for Ken Jones who was set to produce the band's first recording session. Jones encouraged Argent to write a second verse, intending for the band to record it. Argent recalls: "I wrote the song for Colin's range" – referring to Zombies' vocalist Colin Blunstone – "I could hear him singing it in my mind". The song's genres and musical styles are described by authors and music journalists as jazz rock, beat and pop rock.


title: She's Not There

text: "She's Not There" was the second of four songs recorded by the Zombies at a 22 June 1964 recording session at Decca's West Hampstead Studio 2. The backing tracks needed seven takes. One of the song's most distinctive features is Argent's electric piano sound; the instrument used was a Hohner Pianet. The backing vocals are in a folk-influenced close-harmony style. To make the single sound stronger for single release, Ken Jones organised Hugh Grundy to record a strident drum line overdub which only appears on the original mono single mix.


title: She's Not There

text: This minor key, jazz-tinged single was first aired in the United States during the first week in August 1964, on New York rock radio station WINS by Stan Z. Burns, who debuted it on his daily noontime "Hot Spot" segment, during which new songs were played. The tune began to catch on in early autumn and eventually reached 2 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 in December 1964. It was kept from the 1 spot by "Mr. Lonely" by Bobby Vinton.


title: She's Not There

text: The song was later included both on the Zombies' debut album "Begin Here", released in the UK in December 1964, and the US album "The Zombies" issued January 1965. It was also included on the soundtrack to the 1979 feature film "More American Graffiti".


title: She's Not There

text: "She's Not There" was a hit for Santana when it appeared on their 1977 album "Moonflower". Their version peaked at 11 in the UK. It was also a hit in the US, spending 14 weeks on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and peaking at 27, as well as reaching 20 on the Cash Box Top 100 chart. Their take on it features Greg Walker as the lead vocalist.


title: Texas secession movements

text: Texas secession movements, also known as the Texas independence movement or Texit, refers to both the secession of Texas during the American Civil War as well as activities of modern organizations supporting such efforts to secede from the United States and become an independent sovereign state.


title: Texas secession movements

text: The U.S. Constitution does not specifically address the secession of states, and the issue was a topic of debate after the American Revolutionary War until the Civil War, when the Supreme Court ruled in "Texas v. White" that states strictly cannot unilaterally secede except through revolution or the expressed consent of the other states.


title: Texas secession movements

text: Texas was formerly called the Republic of Texas, a sovereign state for nine years prior to the Texas annexation with the United States. Accordingly, its sovereignty was not recognized by Mexico although Texas defeated the Mexican forces in the Texas Revolution, and authorities in Texas did not actually control all of its claimed territory.


title: Texas secession movements

text: Modern secession efforts have existed in the state at least since the 1990s and focused first on the Republic of Texas organization as well as the Texas Nationalist Movement. Recent discussions between Texas Republican Party representatives renewed talks of secession after the decision of the Supreme Court in "Texas v. Pennsylvania", which declined to hear the case regarding attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election due to lack of standing.


title: Texas secession movements

text: Discussion about the right of U.S. states to secede from the union began shortly after the American Revolutionary War. The United States Constitution does not address secession. Each of the colonies originated by separate grants from the British Crown and had evolved relatively distinct political and cultural institutions prior to national independence. Craig S. Lerner has written that the Constitution's Supremacy Clause weighs against a right of secession, but that the Republican Guarantee Clause can be interpreted to indicate that the federal government has no right to keep a state from leaving as long as it maintains a republican form of government.


title: Texas secession movements

text: The question remained open in the decades before the Civil War. In 1825, Alexis de Tocqueville observed, "If today one of these same states wanted to withdraw its name from the contract, it would be quite difficult to prove that it could not do so. To combat it, the federal government would have no evident support in either force or right." However, Joseph Story wrote in 1830 in Commentaries on the Constitution that the document foreclosed the right of secession. On the eve of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln argued that states were not sovereign before the Constitution but instead they were created by it.


title: Texas secession movements

text: Current Supreme Court precedent, in "Texas v. White," holds that the states cannot secede from the union by an act of the state. More recently, in 2006, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia stated, "If there was any constitutional issue resolved by the Civil War, it is that there is no right to secede."


title: Texas secession movements

text: Texas seceded from Mexico in 1836, spurred on primarily by American settlers in the former Mexican territory against the government of Santa Anna.


title: Texas secession movements

text: After the final engagement at San Jacinto in 1836, there were two different visions of the future of Texas: one as a state of the United States and the other as an independent republic. Sam Houston promoted the first, as he felt that the newly independent country, lacking hard currency and still facing threats from Mexico, could not survive on its own. The other was promoted by second Texas president Mirabeau B. Lamar, who felt that it was Texas's destiny to be a nation that extended from the Louisiana border to the Pacific Ocean. For this reason, Lamar is considered the father of Texas nationalism.


title: Texas secession movements

text: The Republic under Lamar incurred large-scale debt, and suffered from a poor economy and inadequate defenses, which led to the annexation of Texas into the United States in 1845. Since then, the state's time as an independent nation has been the basis of a lasting sense of national identity.


title: Texas secession movements

text: The history of Texas in the Civil War has distinctions from the rest of the South, in part because of its history of being independent previously. Much of Texas's dissatisfaction was not only tied to opposition to Lincoln and his view of states' rights (which they also viewed as a transgression of the annexation agreement), but also because they did not feel that Washington had lived up to promises of inclusion into the country as part of annexation. In 1861, Sam Houston still strongly supported remaining in the United States primarily for economic and military reasons. However, those promoting secession used not only elements from U.S. history such as the American Revolution and the Constitution, but also the Texas Revolution and elements from the history of the Republic of Texas.


title: Texas secession movements

text: On February 1, 1861, delegates to a special convention to consider secession voted 166 to 8 to adopt an ordinance of secession which cited the institution of slavery as the primary cause of secession. The ordinance was ratified by a popular referendum on February 23, making Texas the seventh and last state of the Lower South to do so.


title: Texas secession movements

text: Some wanted to restore the Republic of Texas, but an identity with the Confederacy was embraced. This led to the replacement of Texas themes for the most part with those of the Confederacy, including religious justification given in sermons, often demanded by petitioners. The transference to the Stars and Bars was in the hope of achieving the inclusion perceived by some to be denied by Washington. However, that shift was never complete. Clayton E. Jewett wrote in "Texas in the Confederacy: An Experiment in Nation Building" that its identity remained somewhat separate from the rest of the Confederacy. James Marten wrote in "Texas Divided: Loyalty and Dissent in the Lone Star State, 1856–1874" that it battled between loyalty to the Confederacy and dissent and its ambivalence may have been enough to assure Southern defeat.


title: Texas secession movements

text: During the war, Texas was spared most of the actual fighting, with only Galveston seeing any military engagement with Union forces. However, the war did take a serious toll in the way of chronic shortages, absence of men at home to run the economy, military setbacks and fear of invasion. Although Lincoln recognized Texas's history as an independent nation, his definition of the Union meant that Texas forever ceded this to be subject to the Constitution.


title: Texas secession movements

text: After the end of the Civil War, Texans maintained a "rebel" or Confederate identity instead of a completely Texan one as a way of still defying the United States. After the Civil War, it provided a haven for others in the Confederacy leaving claimed devastation. From that time to the present, a "Lost Cause" mythology has continued in Texas and other areas of the South. However, for the most part, overt discussion of the right of states to secede ended, replaced by another mythology based on the indivisibility of the territory.


title: Texas secession movements

text: This did not end Texas's identity as at least somewhat different from the rest of the United States. Unlike southern states, Texas began emphasizing its cowboy heritage and connection with the U.S. Southwest, even influencing the rest of the U.S. identity in the 20th century. For many Texans, the history of the Republic of Texas is considered a time of independence and self-determination often in contrast to interference by the federal government in Washington. Texas requires a course in the state's history in the seventh grade where these ideas can also be found.


title: Texas secession movements

text: In the 1990s, Texas began to use the slogan "Texas. It's Like a Whole Other Country" especially in domestic ads for tourism, and still can be seen today. However, public imagination remains split on the visions of Texas as state and nation that Houston and Lamar had in the 19th century. The two can appear as a conflict between rural and urban Texans but the Lamar vision can be found in the cities as well. Texas did not join in festivities for the 150th anniversary of the Civil War as it was thought that the commemoration would have reopened old unhealed wounds.


title: Texas secession movements

text: There have been efforts to promote Texas secession in the state at least since the 1990s. At this time, Richard Lance McLaren founded the Republic of Texas organization based on his property within the Davis Mountains Resort in Jeff Davis County, becoming the most active and influential secession group at the time. Essentially the organization claimed that the United States annexed Texas illegally and considered it to be held captive. The organization held itself out as an alternative government, based on the principle of very limited powers.


title: Texas secession movements

text: McLaren had both supporters and enemies. His supporters generally believed that globalization was a threat to constitutional rights and against Christian principles. Tactics of the group included filing liens against properties, disavowing state and federal authorities, and opening an "embassy". McLaren's legal filings were so numerous that the county clerk gave them a separate cabinet. Members of the Republic of Texas group listed grievances with the U.S. government, such as accusing the government of a corrupt judicial system, paganism, and of creating illegal treaties and illegitimate agencies. Members of the group also stated that the U.S. government had set itself above the people and had exercised its global influences unlawfully against the Constitution. The Republic of Texas members placed a lot of emphasis on the Branch Davidian incident near Waco as an example of all that was wrong with the U.S. government.


title: Texas secession movements

text: In the summer of 1996, injunctions and other court proceedings against McLaren were well underway. In July of that year, McLaren held a press conference a block away from the state courthouse in Austin stating that he refused to appear because he did not recognize the legitimacy of the court. McLaren was jailed for a month by a federal judge for failing to show in court. After his release, McLaren's rhetoric grew stronger.


title: Texas secession movements

text: In March 1997, McLaren wrote to the federal government to claim 93 trillion dollars in reparations to Texas for the Civil War. By this time, the Republic of Texas organization had fractured into three factions. When two of McLaren's groups were arrested, McLaren took two hostages and holed up with armed supporters on his property, leading to a standoff with Texas Department of Public Safety. The siege ended on May 4, 1997, with McLaren and four others giving up without violence, while two others from the group, Mike Matson and Richard Keyes, fled the hideout armed with handguns and deer hunting rifles. The following day, the fugitives, with the troopers in hot pursuit, fired at a Black Hawk helicopter and searching dogs in the Davis Mountains; Matson was killed by return fire, while Keyes managed to slip away. He was eventually caught in September at New Waverly, north of Houston. In November of that year, McLaren was convicted of kidnapping and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. McLaren was also convicted of federal mail fraud and bank fraud in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Dallas. He is imprisoned at the William P. Clements Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, near Amarillo, Texas, and is scheduled for release on June 15, 2041.


title: Texas secession movements

text: As of 2003, there were three groups that claimed to be the Republic of Texas with different web sites, but without McLaren named as a leader.


title: Texas secession movements

text: The Texas Nationalist Movement (TNM), headed by Daniel Miller, evolved from one of the factions of the old Republic of Texas in 2005. However, the organization has disassociated itself from the Republic of Texas and the tactics of McLaren, instead opting for more political rather than confrontational or violent solution. The group has county-level groups in most parts of the state.


title: Texas secession movements

text: According to its website, the objective of the Texas Nationalist Movement is "the complete, total and unencumbered political, cultural and economic independence of Texas". Unlike its predecessor, TNM claims to work peaceably with the current political system, and to reject use of force to achieve its goals. TNM is an unincorporated association under the laws of the State of Texas. The organization focuses on political support and advocacy, and education surrounding the issue of secession. It seeks to have the Texas Legislature call for a state-wide referendum on the issue, similar to the Scottish Independence vote of 2014.


title: Texas secession movements

text: In January 2013, members of the TNM rallied at the state capital in Austin to promote the resolution, resulting in one mention of secession by one lawmaker on the opening day of the legislative session. In May 2016, the Texas GOP narrowly rejected bringing a resolution for secession to a floor vote at the 2016 Texas Republican Convention. However, in 2020, the Republican Party of Texas included a plank in its party platform (with 93% approval) stating that the federal government has impaired Texas' right to self-government, that any legislation infringing upon the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution "should be ignored, opposed, refused, and nullified", and that Texas retains the right to secede if any future Congress or President change the current political system from a constitutional republic to something else. In June 2022, it voted to include a further secessionist plank in its party platform, calling for the Texas Legislature to approve a referendum on whether Texas should secede from the Union on the 2023 statewide ballot.


title: Texas secession movements

text: Representatives from the Texas Nationalist Movement made multiple trips to Russia in the mid-2010s, and received funding to attend a conference in Russia from the Russian government (via a nonprofit). Miller has refused to reveal the extent of the funding. During Russia's 2016 interference operations in the U.S., a fake Russian Facebook page, dubbed "Heart of Texas," claimed it was passing information about supporters along to the Texas Nationalist Movement.


title: Texas secession movements

text: The rise of membership in the Texas Nationalist Movement coincided with other secession-related news events not part of that organization. Governor Rick Perry, at a political rally in 2009, addressed the possibility of secession. During the rally, many in the crowd began to chant "secede, secede", to which Perry remarked, "If Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that?" Perry subsequently clarified that the comment was tongue in cheek and that he does not support secession. His remarks sparked controversy and harsh criticism from government officials and pundits, such as Jeff Macke and Joe Weisental.


title: Texas secession movements

text: After Perry's comments received news coverage, Rasmussen Reports found that about 1 in 3 of those it polled believed that Texas has the right to secede from the United States, although only 18% would support secession and 75% would oppose secession. In another poll, 60% of Texans surveyed opposed becoming an independent nation. However, 48% of Texas Republicans surveyed supported it. The reaction from outside the state was also strongly split, including those who wanted to get rid of Texas.


title: Texas secession movements

text: After president Barack Obama won the 2012 US presidential election, bumper stickers and signs saying "secede" began appearing in Texas. The election also triggered a wave of petitions on the White House "We the People" website. While the Texas petition was not first to appear, it overtook those of the other states with over 125,000 signatures, well above the 25,000 required to trigger a response. The petition stated that secession would "protect the original ideas and beliefs of our founding fathers which are no longer being reflected by the federal government" and defend Texans from "blatant abuses to their rights" The Texas secession petition was followed by one allowing Austin to secede from Texas and stay part of the union. The White House issued a 476-word response rejecting the idea.


title: Texas secession movements

text: In June 2016, when a 52–48 majority in the U.K. voted to leave the European Union (EU) using the hashtag #Brexit on social media, there was renewed interest that Texas formalize efforts to secede from the U.S., using the hashtag #Texit.


title: Texas secession movements

text: In December 2020, when the Supreme Court refused to hear Texas' lawsuit in "Texas v. Pennsylvania", the chair of the Texas GOP, Allen West, suggested that Texas and other like-minded states could leave the Union. On January 26, 2021, the Texas Independence Referendum Act (HB 1359), a bill to provide for a nonbinding statewide referendum on secession, was filed by Texas House member Kyle Biedermann. The bill was referred to the State Affairs committee but it was never given a hearing or voted on by the committee before the end of the session.


title: Texas secession movements

text: In June 2022, the Republican Party of Texas released their Report of the Permanent 2022 Platform & Resolutions Committee which urges the legislature to introduce a referendum in 2023 to secede from the United States. Similar secessionism in other states, particularly the Southern states, is commonly associated with far-right extremism ahead of the 2022 United States elections. According to Professor Richard Albert of the University of Texas at Austin, such a referendum, if successful, would lead to war in an attempt to overcome "Texas v. White".


title: Texas secession movements

text: The secession of Texas from the United States or the continued existence of the Republic of Texas has featured in some works of fiction, often set during a Second American Revolution or a Second American Civil War and, occasionally, in tandem with American Civil War alternate histories.


title: Urmia

text: Urmia or Orumiyeh (, ) is the largest city in West Azerbaijan Province of Iran and the capital of Urmia County. It is situated at an altitude of above sea level, and is located along the Shahar River on the Urmia Plain. Lake Urmia, one of the world's largest salt lakes, lies to the east of the city, and the mountainous Turkish border area lies to the west.


title: Urmia

text: Urmia is the 10th-most populous city in Iran. At the 2012 census, its population was 667,499, with 197,749 households. The majority of the city's residents are Azerbaijanis, with a large minority of Kurds, and a smaller number of Assyrians, and Armenians, as well as Persian-speakers who moved to the city mostly for employment. The city is the trading center for a fertile agricultural region where fruits (especially apples and grapes) and tobacco are grown. Even though the majority of the residents of Urmia are Muslims, the Christian history of Urmia is well preserved and is especially evident in the city's many churches and cathedrals.


title: Urmia

text: An important town by the 9th century, the city has had a diverse population which has at times included Muslims (Shias and Sunnis), Christians (Catholics, Protestants, Nestorians, and Orthodox), Jews, Baháʼís and Sufis. Around 1900, Christians made up more than 40% of the city's population; however, in the next decades, most of the Christians were either killed as a part of the advancing Ottoman troops and raids by Kurdish tribes or fled shortly after the end of the war.


title: Urmia

text: Richard Nelson Frye suggested Urartian origin for the name, while T. Burrow connected the origin of the name Urmia to Indo-Iranian urmi- "wave" and urmya- "undulating, wavy".


title: Urmia

text: The name could also derive from the combination of the Assyrian Aramaic words Ur(ܐܘܪ; a common name for cities around Mesopotamia; “city”) and Mia (ܡܝܐ, “water”), “City of Water” referring to the great Lake Urmia nearby. Compare Urhay, Ur (of the Chaldees).


title: Urmia

text: As of 1921, Urmia was also called, "Urumia" and "Urmi". During the Pahlavi Dynasty (1925–1979), the city was called "Rezaiyeh" () after Reza Shah, the dynasty's founder, whose name ultimately derives from the Islamic concept of "rida" via the Eighth Imam in Twelver Shia Islam, Ali al-Ridha.


title: Urmia

text: In his seyahatname, Evliya Çelebi referred to the city as "Rūmiyya", also mentioning that the Mongols called the city "Urumiya", Persians "Rūmiyya-eh Kubrā", and some historians "Turkestān-eh Irān", which he justified by the considerable amount of Turkoman awliya in the city.


title: Urmia

text: Due to the city's contact with many ethnic groups and cultures throughout its history, the name of the city has many linguistic variants:


title: Urmia

text: According to Vladimir Minorsky, there were villages in the Urmia Plain as early as 2000BC, with their civilization under the influence of the Kingdom of Van. Excavations of the ancient ruins near Urmia led to the discovery of utensils that date to the 20thcentury BC. In ancient times, the west bank of Urmia Lake was called "Gilzan", and in the 9thcentury BC an independent government ruled there, which later joined the Urartu or Manna empire; in the 8thcentury BC, the area was a vassal of the Asuzh government until it joined the Median Empire.


title: Urmia

text: Assyrians who did survive the invasion of Baghdad by Timur fled through northern Iraq up into the Hakkari Mountains to the west of Lake Urmia and the area remained as their homeland until the 19th century.


title: Urmia

text: During the Safavid era, the neighboring Ottoman Turks, who were the archrivals of the Safavids, made several incursions into the city and captured it on more than one occasion, but the Safavids successfully regained control over the area. When in 1622, during the reign of Safavid king AbbasI (1588–1629) Qasem Sultan Afshar was appointed governor of Mosul, he was forced to leave his office shortly afterwards due to the outbreak of a plague. He moved to the western part of Azerbaijan, and became the founder of the Afshar community of Urmia. The city was the capital of the Urmia Khanate from 1747 to 1865. The first monarch of Iran's Qajar dynasty, Agha Muhammad Khan, was crowned in Urmia in 1795.


title: Urmia

text: Due to the presence of a substantial Christian minority at the end of the 19thcentury, Urmia was also chosen as the site of the first Christian missionaries from the United States in Iran in 1835 led by Justin Perkins (1805–1869) with Asahel Grant (1807–1844); and followed by Fidelia Fiske (1816–1864), Joseph Gallup Cochran (1817–1871), and Joseph Plumb Cochran (1855–1905). Another mission was soon underway in nearby Tabriz as well. During World War I, the population was estimated by Dr.Caujole to be 30,000 people, and a quarter of which (7,500) were Assyrians and 1,000 Jews.