title: Tea culture

text: Formal tea service, hosted at a home, or a historical building as part of a society event, is part of the United States' culture, a skill preserved and passed down from generation to generation through the hereditary families whose ancestors founded the 13 New England colonies or fought in the American Revolution. There are hundreds of heritage societies. Many of the oldest are listed in the Hereditary Register of the United States of America.


title: Tea culture

text: A formal tea is often hosted in the home of a society lady, or by an organization, primarily of women, and there may be a formal meeting followed by socialization amongst those present where introductions are made and recognitions are given. A formal tea might be referred to as a tea party and where the women who are hosting the party or attending the party are well known in their local society, there might also be a newspaper article mentioning prominent society members and their families who attended the event.


title: Tea culture

text: In the United States, tea can typically be served at all meals as an alternative to coffee, when served hot, or soft drinks, when served iced. Tea is also consumed throughout the day as a beverage. Afternoon tea, the meal done in the English tradition, is rarely served in the United States, although it remains romanticized by small children; it is usually reserved for special occasions like tea parties.


title: Tea culture

text: Rather than drinking tea hot, many Americans prefer tea served with ice. In fact, in the United States, about 80% of the tea consumed is served cold, or "iced". Iced tea has become an iconic symbol of the Southern United States and Southern hospitality, often appearing alongside summer barbecue cooking or grilled foods. Iced tea is often made as sweet tea, which is simply iced tea with copious amounts of sugar or sweetener.


title: Tea culture

text: Iced tea can be purchased like soda, in canned or bottled form at vending machines and convenience stores. This pre-made tea is usually sweetened. Sometimes some other flavorings, such as lemon or raspberry, are added. Many restaurants dispense iced tea brewed throughout the day from upright containers.


title: Tea culture

text: Decaffeinated tea is widely available in the United States, for those who wish to reduce the physiological effects of caffeine.


title: Tea culture

text: Before World War II, the US preference for tea was equally split between green tea and black tea, 40% and 40%, with the remaining 20% preferring oolong tea. The war cut off the United States from its primary sources of green tea, China and Japan, leaving it with tea almost exclusively from British-controlled India, which produced black tea. After the war, nearly 99% of tea consumed was black tea. "Green", "oolong", and "white" teas have recently become more popular again, and are often touted as health foods.


title: Tea culture

text: Fast food coffee chains have made a huge impact on how Americans are exposed to herbal and exotic teas. Once considered a rarity, "chai", based on Indian "masala chai", has actually become a popular option for people who might drink a caffè latte. Although not as commercialized.


title: Tea culture

text: Taiwanese-style bubble tea was introduced in the United States in the 1990s, but interest began to swell in the early to mid-2000s owing to the widespread success of bubble tea chains. Offering variations of the traditional bubble tea form (milk tea with tapioca pearls) was effective in bringing in a more diverse client base for popular bubble tea chains like Boba Guys.


title: Tea culture

text: While Argentina is mainly a coffee culture due to its roots in Spain and Italy, Argentina shares in the unique mate culture of the Rioplatense region. Argentines are known for carrying around a mate, or gourd, and bombilla, a special straining straw, to share mate with friends, family, and strangers throughout the day. The tea itself is known as yerba mate.


title: Tea culture

text: Brazilian tea culture has its origins with the infused beverages, or "chás" (), made by the indigenous cultures of the south region. It has evolved since the Portuguese colonial period to include imported varieties and tea-drinking customs. There is a folk knowledge in Brazil which says that Brazilians, mainly the urban ones, have a greater taste for using sugar in teas than in other cultures due to the lack of habit to unsweetened drinks.


title: Tea culture

text: Chilean tea consumption per capita ranks amongst the highest in the world, and is by far the highest within Latin America. Chile's tea culture draws back to both English immigration and the general Anglophilia within the Chilean elites during the 19th century, with consumption of the drink spreading quickly among all social classes as inexpensive alternatives reached the market. Besides black and green tea, Chileans often store herbal infusions, such as chamomile and matico. Although there isn't a fixed moment of the day for tea consumption (it being a common breakfast alternative to coffee, and also a regular after-lunch staple), it is most commonly associated with the late afternoon meal of the "once" (lit. 'elevenses' in Spanish, though contrary to most variations of the meal it is not a morning snack), which most Chileans report as having instead of dinner.


title: King Ralph

text: King Ralph is a 1991 American comedy film written and directed by David S. Ward and starring John Goodman, Peter O'Toole, and John Hurt. The film is about an American who becomes the unlikely King of the United Kingdom after an electrical accident wipes out the British Royal Family.


title: King Ralph

text: The story is loosely based on the 1980 novel "Headlong" by Emlyn Williams. Very little of the story survived the transition to the screen; characters were changed and the story made into a comedy. The film was a minor box office hit but was received negatively by critics.


title: King Ralph

text: The entire British Royal Family is electrocuted and killed in a freak accident outside Buckingham Palace while having a royal portrait taken. Sir Cedric Willingham leads a search for any surviving heirs to whom to pass the crown. After days of searching, a living heir is found: American Ralph Jones.


title: King Ralph

text: Shortly after being fired from his job as a lounge singer in Las Vegas, Ralph is informed by Cedric's assistant secretary Duncan Phipps that he has royal blood. His grandmother Constance had a brief encounter with the first Duke of Warren while a hotel waitress in the US. A ring is given as proof, a duplicate of the ring she used to wear that the Duke had given her.


title: King Ralph

text: Ralph is flown to London, where Cedric gives him a crash course on royal etiquette. On only his second day, he goes to a strip club and meets Miranda Greene, an out-of-luck exotic dancer and aspiring fashion designer. He dares her to go out on a date with him if the British press proves his claim to the monarchy. Meanwhile, Lord Percival Graves is opposed to having an American on the throne and proposes to declare the reigning House of Wyndham at an end and replace it with the House of Stuart, of which he is patriarch. Prime Minister Geoffrey Hale states that Ralph's succession is legitimate unless he commits a grievous error. With this in mind, Graves bribes Miranda to stir up controversy by having a public relationship with Ralph. Despite warnings by Cedric not to commit a mistake similar to that of King Edward VIII, Ralph sneaks out of the Palace to have a date with Miranda in Hyde Park. The next day, she returns Graves' money, but he already has photographs of her with Ralph. To preserve Ralph's reputation, Miranda breaks up with him.


title: King Ralph

text: Despite Ralph's reluctance to accept British culture and his ineptness in formal affairs, he makes a positive impression on King Mulambon of Zambezi during his state visit. They share concerns about the role of leadership they have assumed and the economic interests of their nations. Ralph accumulates a small but loyal following.


title: King Ralph

text: It is arranged for Ralph to marry Princess Anna of Finland to continue the royal bloodline and guarantee jobs for the UK in Finland's newly discovered oil reserves in the Baltic. On the night of the Finnish Royal Family's visit, Ralph is turned off by Princess Anna's unusually deep voice, her bizarre sexual preferences, and her nonchalant acceptance of arranged royal marriage. Miranda attends the royal ball as a set-up by Graves, and photos of her kiss with Ralph are shown to Anna's father King Gustav which, along with Ralph's wild musical number of "Good Golly, Miss Molly", results in Finland turning down the UK in favor of Japan for the offshore equipment contract.


title: King Ralph

text: Ralph accepts a stern rebuke from Cedric and endeavors to set things right. Miranda confesses her role in the scandal and he walks out on her. Becoming suspicious about his situation, Phipps tells Ralph that Cedric is also an heir to the throne (his great-grand-mother, a parlor maid, had a one-night stand with a British prince) but had turned it down.


title: King Ralph

text: Ralph addresses Parliament, apologizing for his recent actions and informing the country he has organized with King Mulambon for Zambezi to purchase £200 million worth of British mining equipment and open three car engine plants in Britain, ensuring jobs for Miranda's family and thousands of other Britons. He then reveals Graves has been sabotaging his succession to the throne and has him arrested for violating the Treason Act of 1702. Finally, he announces he will abdicate and reveals Cedric as his successor.


title: King Ralph

text: Cedric accepts his duty as King, Ralph is created the Third Duke of Warren, with a lucrative annual stipend and his own recording studio in his country estate. Cedric warns Ralph that since he has no children, he may have to be king again after he (Cedric) dies. Ralph marries Miranda and raises his son Ralph II with her while fronting his own singing group Ralph and the Dukettes. They perform a cover of "Duke of Earl" as the credits roll.


title: King Ralph

text: "King Ralph" was shot in various locations in England. Stand-ins for Buckingham Palace include Wrotham Park, Syon House, Somerset House, Harewood House, Old Royal Naval College, Apsley House, Belvoir Castle, Hagley Hall, Lancaster House, and Blenheim Palace. Warwick Castle and Hever Castle were used to substitute the interior shots for Windsor Castle. St Pancras railway station was used to film the scene introducing the Finnish Royal Family. Highclere Castle was used for Lord Graves' home. Dalton, South Yorkshire, was the location of Miranda's parents' home.


title: King Ralph

text: Universal Pictures launched a marketing campaign for the film, including a partnership with Burger King valued at US$8 million.


title: King Ralph

text: The film's score was composed by James Newton Howard, while the soundtrack features songs performed by John Goodman:


title: King Ralph

text: In total, the film grossed $34 million domestically and $52.5 million worldwide against a budget of $23 million.


title: King Ralph

text: Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 25% based on reviews from 12 critics, with an average rating of 4.7/10.


title: King Ralph

text: Owen Gleiberman of "Entertainment Weekly" gave the film a C grade, complaining about the entirely predictable jokes, but praising Goodman for his likable performance. Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert of "At the Movies" gave the film "Two Thumbs Down", with Ebert commenting that "it might have been funnier if John Goodman had played a sleazeball instead of a cuddly nice guy." William Thomas of "Empire" magazine gave the film two out of five stars, calling it "Poor, even for a 'funny because he's fat' film."


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: Women in the Israel Defense Forces have had a significant presence on the country's political scene since its independence in 1948. Israel is one of only a few countries in the world to have a mandatory military service requirement for women, though female conscription is limited to those who are ethnic Jews.


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: According to Israeli military statistics, 535 female soldiers had been killed while serving between the years of 1962 and 2016. Israel's regulated female integration into the armed forces predates its formal establishment in 1948, when women of the Yishuv served within the ranks of various Jewish paramilitary forces during the 1947–1949 Palestine War. A 1999–2000 legal amendment to the 1951 Women's Equal Rights Law of Israel fully equalizes—although separately—men and women in the military.


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: Until 2001, female conscripts served in the Women's Corps, commonly known by its Hebrew acronym: "CHEN". After a five-week-long period in basic training, they could serve as clerks, drivers, welfare workers, nurses, radio operators, flight controllers, ordnance personnel, and course instructors. , 88 percent of all roles in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were open to female candidates, while women could actually be found occupying 69 percent of all available positions.


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: In 2014, the IDF stated that fewer than 4 percent of women are in combat positions such as light infantry and helicopter or fighter pilots, and that they are instead concentrated in "combat-support" positions.


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: Before the formal establishment of Israel in 1948, women served in combat roles within the Jewish paramilitary groups of British Palestine that would later become the central component of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF); the rate of women who were enlisted in combat organizations stood at 20 percent. In the years leading up to the establishment of the IDF, military service for women existed in the lines of the Hashomer and Haganah paramilitary forces. The Haganah stated in its law that its lines were open to "Every Jewish male or female, who is prepared and trained to fulfill the obligation of national defense." Most female recruits served as medics, communications specialists, and weaponeers. During World War II, approximately 4,000 women volunteered for service in the British assisting forces.


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: During the 1940s in Tel Aviv, a battalion was established in which women filled positions in security, weapons transport, and manned anti-aircraft posts. During the winter of 1948, women joined the combat ranks of the Palmach and traveled from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem with their weapons concealed inside their clothes. The Palmach arm (thirty percent of which were women) trained nine female platoon commanders, and numerous other female squad commanders.


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: On 26 May 1948, David Ben-Gurion officially set up the IDF as the military force of Israel. On 18 August 1948, mandatory conscription began for all childless Israeli women who were born between 1920–1930, regardless of whether they were single or married.


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: Women served in many positions, including as nurses, signal operators, drivers, clerks, and cooks. The Women's Corps, under which all female Israeli soldiers served, was responsible for taking care of their needs, training, and integration into different IDF units. The Women's Corps also sent young, qualified female soldiers to be teachers in Israel's then-developing areas and immigrant neighbourhoods.


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: Apart from the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, when extreme manpower shortages brought many female Israeli soldiers into land battles, women were historically prohibited by the Israeli government to go into battle, and instead served in a variety of technical and administrative support roles. Soon after the establishment of the IDF, a decree for the removal of women from frontline positions was brought into effect, and all female soldiers were accordingly pulled back into more secure areas. The cited rationale for this decision revolved around concerns over the high possibility of female Israeli soldiers being captured and subsequently raped or sexually assaulted by hostile Arab forces. While the consensus was that it was fair and equitable to demand equal sacrifice and service from women, it was argued that the risk of Israeli prisoners of war being subjected to sexual abuse was infinitely greater for female soldiers than it was for male soldiers, and therefore unacceptable. A majority of women serving in the IDF then took up positions as secretaries while the rest served primarily as instructors, nurses, clerks, and telephone operators. A few women flew transport missions in the 1950s; some women were accepted into flight training in the 1970s, but did not complete the program before it was closed to women.


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: Hava Inbar, a lawyer, was appointed as the judge of the Israeli military court in Haifa in September 1969, thus becoming the first female military judge in the world. She stated in an interview: "I do not know if I want to be a military judge my whole life, but I am glad that I was appointed; it proves that the IDF leaves almost all doors open for its female soldiers."


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: Due to a rapidly growing need for ground forces during the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, women were needed in field roles. According to Rina Bar-Tal, then-chair of the Israel Women's Network, roles for women beyond technical and secretarial support only started to open up in the late 1970s and early 1980s due to manpower shortages. Since then, a few women have earned ranks higher than colonel. In 1986, Amira Dotan, then-head of the Women's Corps, became the first female brigadier-general. In July 2018, female IDF captain Or Naʽaman ordered a Patriot missile battery to shoot down a Syrian drone and fighter jet over the Golan Heights, which earned her a military certificate of appreciation.


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: Civilian pilot and aeronautical engineer Alice Miller successfully petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court to rule in favour of her taking pilot training exams with the Israeli Air Force (IAF) after she was rejected on gender grounds. During this time, former president and IAF commander Ezer Weizman openly opposed her campaign. Although Miller did not pass the examination, the ruling was a watershed and opened doors for Israeli women in new military roles. Female legislators took advantage of the momentum to draft a bill that allowed women to volunteer for any position they could qualify for.


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: In 2000, an amendment to the Women's Equal Rights Law of Israel with regards to military service states that "The right of women to serve in any role in the IDF is equal to the right of men." the amendment, drafted by female lawmakers, grants equal opportunities to women who are found to be physically and personally suitable for a job; the question of exactly who and what was "suitable" was left to the discretion of military leaders on a case-by-case basis. Following the amendment, a modest amount of women began to enlist in combat support and light combat roles in a few areas, including the Artillery Corps, infantry units, and various armored divisions. By 2000, Caracal became a full-fledged mixed-sex infantry battalion. Many women also joined the Border Police.


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: The first female Israeli fighter pilot, Roni Zuckerman, received her wings in 2001. By 2006, the first female pilots and navigators graduated from the IAF training course and several hundred women entered combat units, primarily in support roles such as intelligence gatherers, instructors, social workers, medics, and engineers. The 2006 Lebanon War marked the first time since 1948 that female soldiers were active in field operations alongside male soldiers. Airborne helicopter engineer Keren Tendler was the first female Israeli combat soldier to be killed in an active warzone after the passing of the amendment. In November 2007, the IAF appointed its first female deputy squadron commander.


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: On 23 June 2011, Orna Barbivai became the first female "aluf" in the Israeli military upon her promotion to the role of commander of the Manpower Directorate; she was the second woman to serve on the General Staff. In 2012, Merav Buchris became the first female ammunitions officer in the IAF. In 2013, in a first, a female IDF soldier was called up to the Torah during a service on a military base. In the same year, the Israeli military announced that it would, for the first time in Israel's history, allow a transgender woman to serve in the army as a female soldier.


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: In 2014, there were several more firsts for women in the Israeli military: Oshrat Bacher was appointed as Israel's first female combat-battalion commander; the first female combat doctor was appointed to the elite Duvdevan Unit; and female "kashrut" supervisors were allowed to work in kitchens on military bases.


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: The mandated military service requirement for Jewish-Israeli women is 24 months, apart from specified roles that instead require a service length of 30 months. Women may be exempted from military service for reasons of religious conscience, marriage, pregnancy, or motherhood. A woman may receive an exemption on religious grounds under the following conditions:


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: Women who arrive in Israel at age 17 and over are generally exempt from military service, but may serve on a voluntary basis. Additionally, women are generally not called up for reserve duty if they are married or if they are beyond the age of 24.


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: Clause 16A of the Israeli Defense Service Law requires that all conscripted female combat soldiers serve active-duty for 2 years and 4 months, and in reserve until the age of 38. Each year, 1,500 female soldiers are drafted into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Women were employed in full combat roles during the 1947–1949 Palestine War; incidents involving the abuse of a killed female soldiers' corpses by Arab troops led to the Israeli cabinet's decision to withdraw women from frontline combat until 2000, when the Caracal Battalion was raised.


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: The most notable combat option for women is the light-infantry Caracal Battalion, in which women comprise 70 percent of the troop strength. There are two other mixed-sex infantry battalions: the Lions of Jordan Battalion and the Bardelas Battalion. The Oketz, an IDF canine unit, also drafts females as combat soldiers. Women are also allowed to join the Combat Intelligence Collection Corps, and to serve as search-and-rescue personnel in the IDF's Home Front Command. Women are allowed to serve as tank crews in the Border Defense Array, composed of units that guard the borders of Israel with Egypt and Jordan.


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: Despite being officially classified as combat soldiers, women in combat roles are not explicitly deployed into combat situations. They are expected to respond in the event a combat situation does erupt, but are not deployed to areas where there is a high risk of combat. The three mixed-sex infantry battalions and female-crewed tanks are deployed to border patrol duties and security duties in the Jordan Valley, and female soldiers are barred from joining the frontline combat brigades that are deployed in the event of war.


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: In 2000, the Women's Corps was dismantled so that female soldiers would be able to fall under the authority of individual units based on their jobs and not on their gender; they would likewise wear the insignia of their units instead of the insignia of the Women's Corps. The position of Gender Affairs Advisor to the Chief of Staff was created in 2001. Female officers who hold the position are in charge of ensuring more opportunities and a suitable environment for female soldiers as well as outlets for the enhancement of their skills. The mission of the advisor is described by the Israeli military as "empowering women, the IDF and Israeli society by promoting conditions that allow for the optimal use of the capabilities of women serving in the IDF; promoting equal opportunities for women during their military service; and assimilating women into military leadership positions."


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: In 2020, 55% of eligible women were drafted into the IDF. Of those granted an exemption, 35-36% were exempted for religious reasons. A law passed in 1978 made exemptions for women on religious grounds automatic upon the signing of a simple declaration attesting to the observance of orthodox religious practices. This legislation raised considerable controversy, and IDF officials feared that the exemption could be abused by any non-religious woman who did not wish to serve and thus further exacerbate the already strained personnel resources of the Israeli military. Women exempted on religious grounds were legally obliged to fulfill a period of alternative service doing social or educational work assigned to them. In practice, however, women performed such service only on a voluntary basis.


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: In 2007, Elazar Stern, the then-head of the Manpower Directorate, appointed a committee to define women's service in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the next decade, with the objective of increasing equal opportunities in for female service members. The committee, headed by Yehuda Segev, submitted its report to Stern in September 2007.


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: In September 2008, the 100-page report was presented to Gabi Ashkenazi, the then-Chief of Staff, who voiced support for the committee's vision:The IDF, as a leading organization in Israeli society, designates the service of men and women to a fulfilling and respectful service based upon equal opportunities in the service of [the] IDF and the State of Israel.


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: The committee called for the annulment of the model that has been in place since the 1950s, under which a soldier's length of service and service options is largely determined by their gender. On this model, the report stated: "This is an archaic model that causes under-utilization of the resources ... of half of Israeli society, and closes off many opportunities, both during service and for integrating into society after service."


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: In 2007, 12 percent of all IDF jobs were completely closed to women. The report partially attributed this closure to the shorter length of service for conscripted women that reportedly served as a barrier to drafting women into the most important, in-demand jobs. The committee claimed that military job postings are "to a large extent" determined by gender rather than an individual soldier's talents and abilities, and that the length of service "should depend solely on the job, rather than on one's gender."


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: The report advised making it harder for women to get an exemption from mandatory military service and curbing the common phenomenon of women falsely claiming exemptions on religious grounds. It also said the criteria for exemptions from service should be the same for both men and women. The panel recommended mandatory quotas for promoting women, with the goal of giving women a "significant presence" in the "senior decision-making ranks" of the military. Additionally, it called for creating an effective and well-funded system to ensure proper working environments for both male and female soldiers, and for drafting a "gender code" that would lay down explicit rules for interaction between the two sexes: "There should be no jobs or units categorically closed to either women or men ... Service in all units, postings and missions would be joint, subject to the rules of appropriate integration."


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: The report proposed opening all jobs to women aside from a handful that would be determined by a special committee, whose decisions would require the approval of the Chief of Staff, the Defense Minister, and the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of the Knesset. It said the initial screening and assignment process should be unified so that men and women are part of the same system and receive their assignments based on the same criteria, including for acceptance into combat units; the panel proposed implementing this change gradually — over the course of a decade.


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: In 1950, Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog and Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel, both chief rabbis, issued a ruling that forbade women joining the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). In the 1980s, Meir Kahane, a far-right rabbi, ardently opposed women serving in the IDF, and advocated alternative national service instead. , David Lau and Yitzhak Yosef of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel were opposed to religious women serving in the military, as was Shmuel Eliyahu.


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: However, Yair Lapid has opposed this position and consequently campaigned for the removal of Lau and Yosef from the Chief Rabbinate. On the issue, Naftali Bennett stated: "I believe that all girls should do either IDF service or national service. With that, the attack on the rabbis for their traditional position is an unacceptable attack on the respect due them." Orthodox rabbi Shai Piron also voiced his support for the chief rabbis' injunction against observant women enlisting in the IDF. In 2003, Piron stated: “I don’t know of any rabbis that would allow [observant women] to serve in the army. The halakhic authorities saw the reality from a joint education and spiritual perspective, this view led them to their halakhic conclusion… The problem with IDF service is the general atmosphere that does not allow for a life without [religious] pitfalls.”


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: In response, politician Elazar Stern said: "A week ago the Chief Rabbis announced that a female serving in the IDF results in an aveira similar to Chillul Shabbos. This is tantamount to issuing a call to women, at least those who view themselves as religious, not to serve in the IDF... I served in the IDF for a few years and I state the military cannot function without women unless we lengthen the service of males to 4.5 years. The price that we will pay by the call of the Chief Rabbinate council that females do not enlist is not that of our daughters, but the daughters of these very same rabbis who don't serve." Rabbi Shlomo Riskin of Efrat has supported women's enlistment in the IDF. In 2014, the Beit Hillel association of national-religious rabbis issued a ruling in Jewish law stating that women are allowed to serve in the IDF; however, rabbi Shlomo Aviner claimed that Beit Hillel did not have the authority to make such a ruling. Under the Israeli Defense Service Law, observant Jewish women are provided with the option of alternative national service instead of enlisting in the IDF.


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: The IDF offers "Haredi" Jewish men "women-free and secular-free" recruitment centres. Moshe Yaʽalon, former IDF Chief of Staff, expressed his willingness to relax regulations to meet the demands of ultra-Orthodox rabbis. Regulations regarding gender equality had already been relaxed so that "Haredim" could be assured that men would not receive physical exams from female medical staff.


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: In "Israel and Its Army: From Cohesion to Confusion", Stuart A. Cohen has argued that prior to the 1990s, there had existed a general consensus in the IDF that "sexual prowess goes hand in hand with military accomplishment." Even when social attitudes were changing in the 1980s, the IDF was still inclined towards tolerance and a senior army official warned of not blowing the "topic out of all proportion." In 1993, it was reported that only 10 percent of around 1,000 annually reported cases of sexual harassment are investigated. Reports of sexual harassment against women in the Israeli military reached an average of one case per day in 1999 — an increase on the 280 complaints received in 1997.


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: In 1998–1999, 54 officers were expelled from the IDF on charges of sexual misconduct while others faced demotion or imprisonment. In one high-profile case, Yitzchak Mordechai was charged with sexual assault and harassment. Another case involved the promotion of General Nir Galili, who was accused of grooming a young female recruit for sexual relations. This issue has led to the description of the Israeli military by the American feminist writer Laura Sjoberg as a "hothouse for exploitive sexual relationships" and a force whose fighting culture is based on "rampant licentiousness." While the IDF has since tried to curb sexual harassment, it remains a problem. In 2004, it was reported that 1 in 5 female Israeli soldiers suffer sexual harassment.


title: Women in the Israel Defense Forces

text: In September 2011, because of a religious ban on men hearing women sing, nine religiously observant cadets in the IDF officers course walked out of an evening seminar on the legacy of Operation Cast Lead, during which band comprising two male and two female vocalists took to the stage to sing. The commander of the school expelled four of them after they said they would disobey orders again in similar situations. The IDF agreed to re-examine regulations on this issue, given the growing presence of "Haredi" soldiers in combat units.


title: Slow West

text: Slow West is a 2015 Revisionist Western film that was written and directed by John Maclean in his directorial debut. It stars Kodi Smit-McPhee as a young Scotsman searching for his lost love in the American West, accompanied by a bounty hunter played by Michael Fassbender. It premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival on 24 January 2015, where it was awarded the Sundance Institute's World Cinema Jury Prize: Dramatic Winner.


title: Slow West

text: The film was first released on 15 May 2015 in the United States, with a simultaneous release on video on demand.


title: Slow West

text: Jay Cavendish, a young Scotsman, travels to the American West to search for his love, Rose Ross. He encounters a group of men chasing a Native American. An Irish bounty hunter, Silas Selleck, arrives and shoots dead the leader. Jay employs the bounty hunter for protection.


title: Slow West

text: At a trading post, unbeknownst to Jay, Silas sees a wanted poster offering a $2,000 bounty for Rose and her father. He plans to use Jay to get to the bounty. Another bounty hunter, Victor the Hawk, also takes notice of the poster. Inside, a Swedish couple attempts a robbery which results in the death of the owner and the husband. Jay intervenes and shoots the wife. Silas and Jay gather provisions and leave, abandoning the couple's children outside.


title: Slow West

text: In the past, in Scotland, Rose is aware of Jay's affection, but only cares for him as a "little brother". Jay's uncle, Lord Cavendish, accidentally dies in an argument with John Ross, Rose's father. Rose and her father leave for America with the bounty on their heads.


title: Slow West

text: In the present, Jay abandons Silas and proceeds alone, thinking him a "brute". He meets a travelling writer, Werner, who offers to accompany Jay. When Jay wakes the next morning, Werner has left, stealing Jay's horse and equipment. Silas finds Jay and returns Jay's horse and belongings, saying he ran into Werner while looking for Jay.


title: Slow West

text: The pair meets Payne, the leader of Silas's old gang, which has taken in the Swedish children. Payne gives Silas and Jay absinthe in a failed attempt to gather information about Rose and her father's whereabouts. While they are asleep, Silas and Jay share a dream of Silas and Rose living together with a child. They awaken to find that Payne has stolen their weapons. Silas discloses the bounty to Jay. They evade Payne's gang in a forest, where Jay is injured by Native Americans.


title: Slow West

text: Rose and her father live in a nearby prairie, protected by a Native American called Kotori. Victor, disguised as a priest, tracks them down and kills Rose's father. After reaching the prairie, Silas ties Jay to a tree to keep him from harm. Silas rushes to the house to warn Rose of Payne's gang but is wounded by Victor. Payne and his men murder Victor and assault the house.


title: Slow West

text: Jay frees himself and runs to the house. After Kotori and most of Payne's gang are murdered, Rose realizes she has shot Jay in the confusion. While she comforts him, Payne enters the house, and Jay shoots him. As he dies, Silas tells Rose that Jay loved her "with all his heart". Silas stays with Rose and the Swedish children.


title: Slow West

text: On 19 September 2013, it was announced that Michael Fassbender, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Ben Mendelsohn had joined the cast of "Slow West", produced by Film4 Productions.


title: Slow West

text: Principal photography commenced on 21 October 2013 in New Zealand. Shooting also took place in Scotland around the Achiltibuie Area, set in Colorado and Scottish Highlands.


title: Slow West

text: The film received critical acclaim upon its premiere at Sundance. It has a score of 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 134 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10 and a critical consensus stating, ""Slow West" serves as an impressive calling card for first-time writer-director John M. Maclean—and offers an inventive treat for fans of the Western." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 73 out of 100, based on 27 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Slow West

text: Rodrigo Perez of "The Playlist" in his review said: "Slow-burning and simmering, "Slow West" knows how to kick the voltage into high gear." Bilge Ebiri of "New York" magazine gave the film a positive review, and said that it is "an absurdist, melancholy coming-of-age tale that jumps from odd comedy to striking violence to stirring reflection". Michelle Orange of SBS gave the film four-out-of-five stars, and said that ""Slow West" is defined by a kind of loving ambivalence—about its hero, its genre, and perhaps most of all about a landscape so harsh and so beautiful it almost makes a man hope to die."


title: Bulletproof glass

text: Bulletproof glass, ballistic glass, transparent armor, or bullet-resistant glass is a strong and optically transparent material that is particularly resistant to penetration by projectiles. Like any other material, it is not completely impenetrable. It is usually made from a combination of two or more types of glass, one hard and one soft. The softer layer makes the glass more elastic, so that it can flex instead of shatter. The index of refraction for all of the glasses used in the bulletproof layers must be almost the same to keep the glass transparent and allow a clear, undistorted view through the glass. Bulletproof glass varies in thickness from .


title: Bulletproof glass

text: Bulletproof glass is used in windows of buildings that require such security, such as jewelry stores and embassies, and of military and private vehicles.


title: Bulletproof glass

text: Bullet-resistant glass is constructed using layers of laminated glass. The more layers there are, the more protection the glass offers. When a weight reduction is needed 3mm of polycarbonate (a thermoplastic) is laminated onto the safe side to stop spall. The aim is to make a material with the appearance and clarity of standard glass but with effective protection from small arms. Polycarbonate designs usually consist of products such as Armormax, Makroclear, Cyrolon: a soft coating that heals after being scratched (such as elastomeric carbon-based polymers) or a hard coating that prevents scratching (such as silicon-based polymers).


title: Bulletproof glass

text: The plastic in laminate designs also provides resistance to impact from physical assault from blunt and sharp objects. The plastic provides little in the way of bullet-resistance. The glass, which is much harder than plastic, flattens the bullet, and the plastic deforms, with the aim of absorbing the rest of the energy and preventing penetration. The ability of the polycarbonate layer to stop projectiles with varying energy is directly proportional to its thickness, and bulletproof glass of this design may be up to 3.5 inches thick.


title: Bulletproof glass

text: Laminated glass layers are built from glass sheets bonded together with polyvinyl butyral, polyurethane, Sentryglas, or ethylene-vinyl acetate. When treated with chemical processes, the glass becomes much stronger. This design has been in regular use on combat vehicles since World War II. It is typically thick and is usually extremely heavy.


title: Bulletproof glass

text: 9mm 124gr @ 1175-1293fps (1400-1530fps for Level 6), 357M 158gr @ 1250-1375fps, 44M 240gr @ 1350-1485fps, 30-06 180gr @ 2540-2794fps, 5.56NATO 55gr @ 3080-3388fps, 7.62NATO 150gr @ 2750-3025fps. For all ratings in the above chart; all copper-jacketed lead FMJ, except 44 mg is lead semi-wadcutter gas-check, and 30-06 is LEAD core soft point.


title: Bulletproof glass

text: Bullet-resistant materials are tested using a gun to fire a projectile from a set distance into the material, in a specific pattern. Levels of protection are based on the ability of the target to stop a specific type of projectile traveling at a specific speed. Experiments suggest that polycarbonate fails at lower velocities with regular shaped projectiles compared to irregular ones (like fragments), meaning that testing with regular shaped projectiles gives a conservative estimate of its resistance. When projectiles do not penetrate, the depth of the dent left by the impact can be measured and related to the projectile’s velocity and thickness of the material. Some researchers have developed mathematical models based on results of this kind of testing to help them design bulletproof glass to resist specific anticipated threats.


title: Bulletproof glass

text: The properties of bullet-resistant glass can be affected by temperature and by exposure to solvents or UV radiation, usually from sunlight. If the polycarbonate layer is below a glass layer, it has some protection from UV radiation due to the glass and bonding layer. Over time the polycarbonate becomes more brittle because it is an amorphous polymer (which is necessary for it to be transparent) that moves toward thermodynamic equilibrium.


title: Bulletproof glass

text: An impact on polycarbonate by a projectile at temperatures below −7 °C sometimes creates spall, pieces of polycarbonate that are broken off and become projectiles themselves. Experiments have demonstrated that the size of the spall is related to the thickness of the laminate rather than the size of the projectile. The spall starts in surface flaws caused by bending of the inner, polycarbonate layer and the cracks move “backwards” through to the impact surface. It has been suggested that a second inner layer of polycarbonate may effectively resist penetration by the spall.


title: Bulletproof glass

text: In 2005, it was reported that U.S. military researchers were developing a class of transparent armor incorporating aluminum oxynitride (ALON) as the outside "strike plate" layer. Traditional glass/polymer was demonstrated by ALON's manufacturer to require 2.3 times more thickness than ALON's, to guard against a .50 BMG projectile. ALON is much lighter and performs much better than traditional glass/polymer laminates. Aluminum oxynitride "glass" can defeat threats like the .50 caliber armor-piercing rounds using material that is not prohibitively heavy.


title: Bulletproof glass

text: Certain types of ceramics can also be used for transparent armor due to their properties of increased density and hardness when compared to traditional glass. These types of synthetic ceramic transparent armors can allow for thinner armor with equivalent stopping power to traditional laminated glass.


title: Bulletproof glass

text: The newest type of curved transparent vehicle armor has an air chamber between the glass and the polycarbonate. Level IIIA (high speed 9 mm) armor consists 8 mm of laminated glass (strike face), a 1 mm air gap, and 7 mm of polycarbonate. This solution stops the bullets in a totally different way. The glass, being hard, deforms the incoming bullet. The deformed bullet completely penetrates the glass and then it is stopped by the flexible polycarbonate.


title: Bulletproof glass

text: The weight reduction over traditional glass-clad polycarbonate is 35%, weighing .25 kilos per square meter for level NIJ 06 IIIA (NIJ 07 HG2). It is also thinner (16.2 mm) vs conventional Glass Clad Polycarbonate (21 mm).


title: Antonia Campbell-Hughes

text: Antonia Campbell-Hughes is an actress and former fashion designer from Northern Ireland, best known for appearing in Jack Dee's sitcom "Lead Balloon" and for portraying Natascha Kampusch in "3096 Days".


title: Antonia Campbell-Hughes

text: After the success of series one of "Lead Balloon", Campbell-Hughes went on to be cast in a variety of comedy shows on British television, alongside Jennifer Saunders and Alex Macqueen, and went on to create her own one-woman show, "Bluebell Welch", for MTV.


title: Antonia Campbell-Hughes

text: Campbell-Hughes was born in Derry, Northern Ireland, living there until the age of two. She has lived in the United States, Switzerland, Germany, and England.


title: Antonia Campbell-Hughes

text: Campbell-Hughes has appeared in popular UK TV series such as "Silent Witness", "Casualty", "Blackbeard: Terror at Sea" and "Spooks"; in Channel 4's "Scapegoat"; in Neil Jordan's "Breakfast on Pluto"; and on stage in productions such as "Roberto Zucco". Her performances in "Lead Balloon" and Jennifer Saunders vehicle "The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle" have been praised by critic Sam Wollaston of "The Guardian".


title: Antonia Campbell-Hughes

text: She wrote and starred in a series of comedy minisketches for MTV entitled "Bluebell Welch". In April 2011, she appeared in series five of ITV's "Lewis".


title: Antonia Campbell-Hughes

text: Campbell-Hughes had her own fashion label, started in her teens. She ran a clothing line that sold internationally under her own name and a diffusion line for high street store Topshop.


title: Antonia Campbell-Hughes

text: Campbell-Hughes' film work to date has been varied, including the BBC period drama "Blackbeard", the Jane Campion feature film "Bright Star", the psychological thriller "The Other Side of Sleep", which premiered at Cannes 2011 Director's Fortnight, "Lotus Eaters", which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival 2011, and the BBC film "When Harvey Met Bob".


title: Migas

text: Migas () ("crumbs" in English) is a dish traditionally made from stale bread and other ingredients in Spanish and Portuguese cuisines. Originally introduced by shepherds, migas are very popular across the Iberian Peninsula, and are the typical breakfast of hunters at "monterías" in southern Spain.


title: Migas

text: The same name is used for a different dish made from corn or flour tortillas in Mexican and Tex-Mex cuisines.


title: Migas

text: Migas is a traditional dish in Spanish cuisine. It was originally a breakfast dish that made use of leftover bread or tortas. Migas is usually served as a first course for lunch or dinner in restaurants in Spain.


title: Migas

text: In Extremadura, this dish includes day-old bread soaked in water, garlic, paprika, and olive oil. In Teruel, Aragon, migas includes chorizo and bacon, and is often served with grapes.


title: Migas

text: In La Mancha, "migas manchegas" is a more elaborate preparation using basically the same ingredients as Aragonese migas.


title: Migas

text: In Granada, Almería and Murcia, in southeastern Spain, migas is similar to North African couscous, using flour and water, but no bread. Preparations commonly feature a variety of ingredients, including fish. Andalusian migas is often eaten with sardines as a tapa, in the form of fried breadcrumbs. In some places the dish is eaten on the morning of the "matanza" (butchery) and is served with a stew including curdled blood, liver, kidneys, and other offal, traditionally eaten right after butchering a pig, a sheep or a goat. Migas is often cooked over an open stove or coals. In Almería, migas is a staple dish when it rains, yet the reason is still subject to much discussion.


title: Migas

text: Migas is also a traditional dish in Portuguese cuisine. It is usually made with leftover bread, either wheat bread traditionally associated with the Alentejo region in Southern Portugal, or corn bread as used in Beira. In Alentejo migas can also be made with potatoes ("migas de batata") instead of bread.


title: Migas

text: Garlic and olive oil are always an ingredient. Other ingredients such as pork meat drippings, wild asparagus, tomato, and seasonings such as red pepper paste and fresh coriander are usually included in Alentejo, while in Beira the other ingredients typically include cooked kale cut in caldo verde style, cooked beans (pinto, black eyed peas or kidney beans), and sometimes cooked rice.


title: Migas

text: In different areas of Mexico, migas is a traditional breakfast dish consisting of corn tortilla strips fried on a pan or griddle until almost crispy, to which eggs are then added to create a scrambled egg/fried tortilla mixture. This preparation makes use of hardened corn tortillas left over from previous meals. Chilaquiles is a similar meal that substitutes salsa for eggs during cooking. Both are hearty, inexpensive working-class breakfast meals.


title: Migas

text: Mexico City also has its own version of migas. It is a garlic soup which is thickened with sliced day-old bolillos (bread). It is usually flavored with pork shanks, ham bones, epazote, oregano and different types of dried chillies. A raw egg is usually added to each plate when served and it is slowly cooked by the warm soup, similar to egg drop soup. It is a very popular dish in fondas around downtown Mexico City, especially in Tepito.


title: Migas

text: There is also a Tex-Mex variation of Mexican migas. This includes additional ingredients, such as diced onions, sliced chile peppers, diced fresh tomatoes, or cheese, as well as various spices and condiments (e.g., salsa or "pico de gallo"). Another common variation is to add chorizo to the standard ingredients.


title: Migas

text: Migas is typically served with refried beans, and corn or flour tortillas may be used to enfold all of the ingredients into tacos. Migas breakfast tacos are popular in Texas.


title: Protostar

text: A protostar is a very young star that is still gathering mass from its parent molecular cloud. The protostellar phase is the earliest one in the process of stellar evolution. For a low-mass star (i.e. that of the Sun or lower), it lasts about 500,000 years. The phase begins when a molecular cloud fragment first collapses under the force of self-gravity and an opaque, pressure supported core forms inside the collapsing fragment. It ends when the infalling gas is depleted, leaving a pre-main-sequence star, which contracts to later become a main-sequence star at the onset of hydrogen fusion producing helium.


title: Protostar

text: The modern picture of protostars, summarized above, was first suggested by Chushiro Hayashi in 1966. In the first models, the size of protostars was greatly overestimated. Subsequent numerical calculations clarified the issue, and showed that protostars are only modestly larger than main-sequence stars of the same mass. This basic theoretical result has been confirmed by observations, which find that the largest pre-main-sequence stars are also of modest size.


title: Protostar

text: Star formation begins in relatively small molecular clouds called dense cores. Each dense core is initially in balance between self-gravity, which tends to compress the object, and both gas pressure and magnetic pressure, which tend to inflate it. As the dense core accrues mass from its larger, surrounding cloud, self-gravity begins to overwhelm pressure, and collapse begins. Theoretical modeling of an idealized spherical cloud initially supported only by gas pressure indicates that the collapse process spreads from the inside toward the outside. Spectroscopic observations of dense cores that do not yet contain stars indicate that contraction indeed occurs. So far, however, the predicted outward spread of the collapse region has not been observed.


title: Protostar

text: The gas that collapses toward the center of the dense core first builds up a low-mass protostar, and then a protoplanetary disk orbiting the object. As the collapse continues, an increasing amount of gas impacts the disk rather than the star, a consequence of angular momentum conservation. Exactly how material in the disk spirals inward onto the protostar is not yet understood, despite a great deal of theoretical effort. This problem is illustrative of the larger issue of accretion disk theory, which plays a role in much of astrophysics.


title: Protostar

text: Regardless of the details, the outer surface of a protostar consists at least partially of shocked gas that has fallen from the inner edge of the disk. The surface is thus very different from the relatively quiescent photosphere of a pre-main sequence or main-sequence star. Within its deep interior, the protostar has lower temperature than an ordinary star. At its center, hydrogen-1 is not yet fusing with itself. Theory predicts, however, that the hydrogen isotope deuterium (hydrogen-2) fuses with hydrogen-1, creating helium-3. The heat from this fusion reaction tends to inflate the protostar, and thereby helps determine the size of the youngest observed pre-main-sequence stars.


title: Protostar

text: The energy generated from ordinary stars comes from the nuclear fusion occurring at their centers. Protostars also generate energy, but it comes from the radiation liberated at the shocks on its surface and on the surface of its surrounding disk. The radiation thus created must traverse the interstellar dust in the surrounding dense core. The dust absorbs all impinging photons and reradiates them at longer wavelengths. Consequently, a protostar is not detectable at optical wavelengths, and cannot be placed in the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram, unlike the more evolved pre-main-sequence stars.


title: Protostar

text: The actual radiation emanating from a protostar is predicted to be in the infrared and millimeter regimes. Point-like sources of such long-wavelength radiation are commonly seen in regions that are obscured by molecular clouds. It is commonly believed that those conventionally labeled as Class 0 or Class I sources are protostars. However, there is still no definitive evidence for this identification.


The 2024 North Carolina gubernatorial election will be held on November 5, 2024, to elect the Governor of North Carolina, concurrently with the 2024 U.S. presidential election, as well as elections to the United States Senate, elections to the United States House of Representatives, and various other state and local elections. Incumbent Democratic Governor Roy Cooper is term-limited and cannot seek re-election to a third consecutive term in office.


title: James Bay

text: James Bay (; ) is a large body of water located on the southern end of Hudson Bay in Canada. Both bodies of water extend from the Arctic Ocean, of which James Bay is the southernmost part. Despite bordering the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario, the bay and the islands within it, the largest of which is Akimiski Island, are politically part of Nunavut.


title: James Bay

text: Numerous waterways of the James Bay watershed have been modified with dams or diversion for several major hydroelectric projects. These waterways are also destinations for river-based recreation. Several communities are located near or alongside James Bay, including a number of Aboriginal Canadian communities, such as the Kashechewan First Nation and nine communities affiliated with the Cree of northern Quebec.


title: James Bay

text: As with the rest of Hudson Bay, the waters of James Bay routinely freeze over in winter. It is the last part of Hudson Bay to freeze over in winter, and the first to thaw in summer.


title: James Bay

text: Human presence along the shores of the bay began after the retreat of the glaciers at the end of the last ice age, around 8,150 years ago. A variety of indigenous cultures have lived in this area. At the time of contact with Europeans, the indigenous peoples along both shores of the bay were ethnically Cree peoples.


title: James Bay

text: Henry Hudson is believed to have been the first European to enter the bay, when he explored it in 1610 as part of his exploration of the larger bay that was named for him. This southerly bay was named in honour of Thomas James, a Welsh captain who explored the area more thoroughly in 1630 and 1631.


title: James Bay

text: James Bay is important in the history of Canada as one of the most hospitable parts of the Hudson Bay region, although it has had a low human population. It was an area of importance to the Hudson's Bay Company and British expansion into Canada. The fur-trapping duo of explorers Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers convinced the English Crown, primarily Prince Rupert of the Rhine, a favoured nephew of Charles I and cousin to Charles II, that a colonial enterprise in the north would yield wealth in minerals and fur. Des Groseilliers accompanied Captain Zachariah Gillam on the ketch "Nonsuch" and they jointly founded Charles Fort, the first European fur-trading post on James Bay.


title: James Bay

text: Their success was such that the company was chartered by Charles II on their return, although they did not bring any minerals. This charter granted a complete trading monopoly to the company of the whole Hudson Bay basin (including James Bay). At the same time, the first English colony on what is now mainland Canada, Rupert's Land, was formed, with the first "capital" designated at Charles Fort. The first colonial governor, Charles Baley (various spellings exist, including but not limited to "Bailey"), was a Quaker, and this is believed to have been a factor in his respectful relations with the company's trading partners, the First Nations.


title: James Bay

text: Significant fur trapping has continued in the region. In general, the east coast or East Main of James Bay was too easily accessed by French and independent traders from the south. The Hudson's Bay Company emphasised from an early period trading relations with tribes in interior trapping grounds, reached from the west coasts of James and Hudson bays. East Main was, nevertheless, the gateway to British settlements in what would become Manitoba (Winnipeg, for example) and as far west as the Rocky Mountains.


title: James Bay

text: James Bay represents the southern extent of the Arctic Archipelago Marine ecozone. While the coastal areas are primarily in the Hudson Plains, the northeastern coast bordering Quebec is in the Taiga Shield ecozone. This rocky and hilly eastern shore forms the western edge of the Canadian Shield in Quebec and as such, the main habitat is boreal forest of the Eastern Canadian Shield taiga ecoregion. The western shore, however, is characterised by broad tundra lowlands that are an extension of the Hudson Bay Lowlands, and the vegetation is mostly muskeg bog. A large portion of this area is part of the Polar Bear Provincial Park. Ringed seals are common elsewhere along James Bay and polar bears can be seen hunting the seals as prey. Beluga whales within James Bay basin could be distinct from those found in Hudson Bay.


title: James Bay

text: Hundreds of rivers flow into James Bay. The geography of the region gives many of them similar characteristics. They tend to be wide and shallow near the Bay (in the James Bay Lowlands), whereas they are steeper and narrower farther upstream (as they pour off the Canadian Shield). For a larger list of waterways in the region, see list of Hudson Bay rivers.


title: James Bay

text: Hannah Bay is the southernmost bay of James Bay. Here the Kesagami and Harricana Rivers flow into James Bay. About 238 km is protected under the Migratory Birds Convention Act of Canada as the Hannah Bay Bird Sanctuary. This sanctuary has also been designated as a Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention since May 1987.


title: James Bay

text: The shores in this area are a mixture of intertidal mud, sand, and salt flats, estuarine waters, intertidal marshes, freshwater ponds, swamps, and forested peatlands. These elements make an abundance of wildlife.


title: James Bay

text: All of northern Ontario and northern Quebec were part of the Hudson Bay Company's proprietary colony of Rupert's Land, and after Rupert's Land was purchased by Canada in 1869, the area became part of the North-West Territory. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Canada transferred much of the North-West Territory to Ontario and Quebec, thus forming modern northern Ontario and northern Quebec. However, all of the islands in Hudson Bay and James Bay remained part of the North-West Territory. Following the partition of the North-West Territory in 1999, the islands in Hudson Bay and James Bay were transferred to the new territory of Nunavut.


title: James Bay

text: The shores of James Bay are sparsely populated. On the eastern shore in Quebec there are four coastal communities belonging to the Cree, the indigenous people of the region (from south to north):


title: James Bay

text: Since 1971, the government of Quebec has built hydroelectric dams on rivers in the James Bay watershed, notably La Grande and Eastmain rivers. Built between 1974 and 1996, the James Bay Project now has a combined generating capacity of 16,021 MW and produces about 83 billion kWh of electricity each year, about half of Quebec's consumption. Power is also exported to the United States via a direct transmission high voltage line. The James Bay Project continues to expand, with work that began in 2010 on a new phase that involves the diversion of the Rupert River.


title: James Bay

text: A proposed development project, the Great Recycling and Northern Development Canal (GRAND Canal), centred on constructing a large dike to separate southern James Bay from Hudson Bay. This would turn the bay into a freshwater lake, due to the numerous rivers that empty into it. The main benefit expected from this would be to redirect this freshwater for human use. Water would be pumped south from the newly formed James Lake into the Harricana River, crossing into the Great Lakes watershed near Amos, into Lake Timiskaming and the Ottawa River, crossing near Mattawa into Lake Nipissing and the French River to Lake Huron (Georgian Bay).


title: James Bay

text: Many of the rivers flowing into James Bay are popular destinations for wilderness canoe-trippers. Among the more popular rivers are:


title: James Bay

text: Two less-travelled rivers are the Groundhog River and the Harricana. The Groundhog is less travelled in modern times due to a series of seven dams that are about a day or two up-river from the Moose. Canoeists can contact the dam company and arrange to be portaged around the dams on company trucks, but they must make arrangements specific to the hour, and they cannot be late. The Groundhog flows into the Mattagami. The Mattagami then flows into the Moose; it is at the meeting of the Missinaibi and Mattagami rivers that the Moose river begins, marked by an island known as Portage Island. This point is about two or three days travel by canoe to Moosonee. Though the Missinaibi and the Groundhog are both fairly high in the summer, the Moose is often quite low. Depending on the tides, groups have had to walk long stretches of the river. Rapids on the Groundhog tend to be bigger and more technical than those on the Missinaibi, but the campsites are few and poor, because the volume of travel is so much less.


title: James Bay

text: The Harricana River is wild, powerful, dangerous river that flows into James Bay east of Moosonee after two infamous sections of river known as 1-mile and 7-mile island. Consistent whitewater and waterfalls make these sections of river extremely dangerous. Anyone wishing to take this route must allow about two days to cross the bay, an extremely dangerous proposition if the tides and the weather are unfavourable.


title: James Bay

text: The most common access point for paddlers to this area is Moosonee, at the southern end of James Bay. A campsite at Tidewater Provincial Park provides large campgrounds with firepits and outhouses on an island across the river from the town. Water taxis will ferry people back and forth for about C$20 each. Many of these rivers finish near Moosonee, and paddlers can take the Polar Bear Express train south to Cochrane at the end of a trip. This train regularly features a 'canoe car' enabling paddlers to travel with their canoes.


title: James Bay

text: Waskaganish, Quebec, is a town farther to the north and east on James Bay. It is accessible via the James Bay Road, and is the most common end point for trips on the Broadback, Pontax, and Rupert rivers (the town itself is situated at the mouth of the Rupert).


title: Ciaran Clark

text: Ciaran Clark (born 26 September 1989) is a professional footballer who plays as a central defender, central midfielder and left-back for Championship club Sheffield United, on loan from Premier League club Newcastle United and the Republic of Ireland national team.


title: Ciaran Clark

text: Clark captained England at under-18, under-19 and under-20 level, but in October 2010 declared his ambition to play for the Republic of Ireland, the country of his parents' birth. He was called up to the national team a month later for the friendly match against Norway, and made his full debut against Wales on 8 February 2011.


title: Ciaran Clark

text: Clark was born in Harrow, London, and grew up in Sandy, Bedfordshire. He came through the Aston Villa youth academy after joining at the age of eleven, and captained the academy U18 team to the 2007–08 Premier Academy League—the academy's maiden league title. He was given a squad number for the 2008–09 season and named on the bench for Villa's 2008–09 UEFA Cup match away at CSKA Moscow, but remained an unused substitute. He captained the reserves to the Premier Reserve League South title and defeated PRL North winners Sunderland in the play-off final to win their first ever Reserve League trophy.


title: Ciaran Clark

text: Clark was included in the squads for the pre-season friendlies and the 2009 Peace Cup. On 30 August 2009, he made his debut in a 2–0 win against Fulham. With Curtis Davies unavailable through injury, the 19-year-old was named in Villa's starting line-up, partnering Carlos Cuéllar in defence. He helped keep a clean sheet and nearly marked his debut with a goal but sent his header inches wide. Garth Crooks of the BBC named the youngster in his team of the week. Although the formidable partnership of new signings James Collins and Richard Dunne limited him to the bench, he was tipped to break into the first team on a regular basis within several years. In November 2009, he signed a contract extension until June 2012.


title: Ciaran Clark

text: Clark started in the first two league games of the 2010–11 season: against West Ham United, partnering Richard Dunne and keeping a clean sheet; then against Newcastle United. Clark was also handed a start in Gérard Houllier's first match as new Villa manager, against Blackburn Rovers in the League Cup. He then started the match against local rivals Birmingham City in midfield and continued in the role against Fulham and Blackpool due to the club's injury crisis. On 27 November 2010, Clark scored his first two goals for the club in a 4–2 defeat against Arsenal at home. He scored a 91st-minute equaliser against Chelsea on 2 January 2011 to rescue a point. He also became the only player in Premier League history to be booked in six successive appearances within the same season.


title: Ciaran Clark

text: Clark scored his first FA Cup goal for the club against Bristol Rovers on 29 January 2012, with a solo run, including stepovers and a left-footed strike curled into the bottom corner.


title: Ciaran Clark

text: On 25 August 2012, he was sent off against Everton for a professional foul on Nikica Jelavić. On 3 September 2012, he scored his first goal of the season in a 1–1 draw away to Newcastle United. On 8 December 2012, after captaining Villa's youth and reserve sides, Clark was handed the armband for the senior side for the first time in a 0–0 draw at home to Stoke, after Gabriel Agbonlahor who had started the match as captain was replaced by Darren Bent. Three days later, Clark followed up his initial role as captain by performing the role again, this time for the full 90 minutes, in a 4–1 victory in the League Cup away at Norwich which saw Villa qualify for the semi-finals.


title: Ciaran Clark

text: Clark started Aston Villa's first game in their 3–1 away victory at Arsenal. After a dip in his form midway through Aston Villa's season, he was dropped to the bench as Lambert preferred a partnership between Ron Vlaar and fellow academy graduate, Nathan Baker. However, due to injury constantly plaguing Aston Villa's defence, along with consistently poor results, Clark still managed 28 appearances in a season that saw Villa finish 15th on 38 points. He accumulated nine yellow cards throughout the season.


title: Ciaran Clark

text: In January 2014 during a training game Clark broke the right leg of his team-mate Libor Kozák. The mishandled injury virtually ended Kozák's Premier League career.


title: Ciaran Clark

text: Aston Villa began the 2014–15 season in good form with Paul Lambert re-introducing Alan Hutton, forming a new look back four of Alan Hutton, Ron Vlaar, Philippe Senderos and Aly Cissokho. When an injury ruled Vlaar out, Nathan Baker came into the back four, with Clark remaining on the bench. After injuries to both Baker and Senderos, Clark was called on along with Jores Okore and formed a solid partnership. Clark scored his first goal of the season from a free-kick curled in by Ashley Westwood in a 2–1 home victory over Leicester.


title: Ciaran Clark

text: On 3 August 2016, Newcastle announced that they had completed the signing of Clark. Having established himself alongside club captain Jamaal Lascelles in central defence, he scored his first goal for the club in a 6–0 win against Queens Park Rangers on 13 September 2016. He went on to add further goals against Brentford and Bristol City while also helping Newcastle concede the joint-lowest number of goals in the division as they returned to the Premier League at the first time of asking. He remained a regular starter for Newcastle in league games for the first half of the following season. However, he was left out of the side for most of the second half of the season with Florian Lejeune and Jamaal Lascelles being preferred at central defence. In the 2018–19 season he only managed 8 appearances in the first team in the Premier League; however he still managed to score three goals, against Arsenal, Burnley, and Chelsea respectively.


title: Ciaran Clark

text: In November 2019 he said he had previously considered leaving Newcastle United in order to maintain his place in the Irish international set-up.


title: Ciaran Clark

text: On 20 January 2021, Clark extended his contract with Newcastle, signing a new two-and-a-half-year contract.


title: Ciaran Clark

text: Clark captained the England U19 team through qualification for the 2008 UEFA European Under-19 Championship, playing in five out of the six qualifiers and scoring a goal. He missed out on the tournament through an ankle injury sustained during training. After being promoted to the England U20s, he was appointed captain and scored in only his second match, in a friendly against Italy in March 2008.


title: Ciaran Clark

text: In late September 2010, Football Association of Ireland (FAI) officials approached Clark about switching his allegiance. They sent scout and former Republic of Ireland under-21 manager, Don Givens, to watch him in the match against Blackburn. On 5 October 2010, it was reported that Clark had pledged his international future to the Irish national team as he qualified through his Irish parents. Club teammate Richard Dunne played a role in convincing him and had spoken to FAI scouts about his eligibility. On 12 November 2010, Clark was named in the Republic of Ireland squad for the friendly against Norway. He then made his debut on 8 February 2011 against Wales at the Aviva Stadium. On 6 February 2013, Clark scored his first goal for the Republic of Ireland, helping them to a 2–0 friendly victory against Poland.


title: Ciaran Clark

text: In Republic of Ireland's opening match at Euro 2016 against Sweden, Clark deflected a ball from Zlatan Ibrahimović into his own net to level the scores. Wes Hoolahan had earlier given Ireland the lead but Clark's mishap saw them share the spoils as the match ended 1–1.


title: Ciaran Clark

text: In November 2019, he said he had previously considered leaving Newcastle United in order to maintain his place in the Irish international set-up.


title: Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo

text: Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo is a 2006 American made-for-TV animated superhero film adaptation of the DC Comics superhero team Teen Titans. It is set in the milieu of the animated series "Teen Titans" that ran on Cartoon Network from 2003 to 2006, with the film serving as the series finale. It premiered on Cartoon Network, Friday, September 15, 2006 and premiered on Kids' WB the following day. "Teen Titans" head writer David Slack wrote the movie.


title: Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo

text: The Teen Titans's hometown, Jump City, is attacked by a Japanese ninja called Saico-Tek. They capture him and discover Saico-Tek was sent by a man called "Brushogun" before he mysteriously vanishes after triggering the tower's fire sprinklers. Subsequently, the Titans head to Tokyo, Japan, to search for his master. Upon arriving there, after overcoming the language barrier and fighting a Gorgo-like giant reptile, the Titans meet Tokyo's own supernatural defense force—the Tokyo Troopers—led by Commander Uehara Daizo. When questioned on Brushogun, Daizo claims that Brushogun is nothing more than an urban legend. Left with no villains to pursue, the Titans decide to enjoy Tokyo.


title: Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo

text: Robin and Starfire express their feelings for each other until Robin starts to focus on Brushogun again and declares they cannot be anything more than heroes, upsetting Starfire. Investigating alone, Robin is attacked by Saico-Tek and ends up pummeling the ninja into the ground. When Saico-Tek does not rise, Robin is apprehended by Daizo for killing him. Elsewhere, Starfire is approached and comforted by a little girl, which helps to overcome her depression and makes her realize that despite Robin's earlier objections, their romantic feelings for each other are indeed truly mutual.


title: Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo

text: Just then, the Mayor of Tokyo announces Robin's arrest and orders that the other Teen Titans must either turn themselves in or leave Tokyo. Starfire calls the other Titans, but as they attempt to regroup, Brushogun sends out his minions to destroy the Titans. Meanwhile, as Robin is being transferred to a more secure facility, a slip of paper bearing the name "Brushogun" fits into the armored car carrying him and explodes, freeing him. Robin co-opts the identity of a Shinjuku mugger to collect information that Brushogun is in fact real. He is eventually found by the Tokyo Troopers, which leads to a car chase. Robin is surrounded when Starfire comes to his rescue and takes him to a shrine (where they attempt to kiss again until they are suddenly interrupted by Cyborg, Raven, and Beast Boy's arrival). There, Raven relates from a book she found that Brushogun was an artist who dreamed of bringing his beloved drawings to life using dark magic. The spell ultimately turned against the young artist, and he was transformed into Brushogun, a being of paper and ink capable to bring any creation he could imagine to life, until he suddenly disappeared. Robin realizes that he did not kill Saico-Tek because he was an ink-made creature, and he was set up to make him look like a criminal.


title: Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo

text: The Titans track Brushogun to a comic book publishing factory, where they discover Brushogun trap-wired into a cursed printing press that taps into his powers to create the enemies the Titans have faced. He reveals that he had sent the first Saico-Tek to the Titans to summon them to Tokyo, in order to stop the real culprit who had enslaved him. The said culprit is revealed to be Daizo, who used Brushogun's power to create both his Tokyo Troopers and the monsters that they captured in order to gain a reputation as a hero.


title: Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo

text: Daizo drops in on the Titans and forces Brushogun to create an army of animated ink minions. A mass battle ensues, culminating in Robin facing Daizo. With no options of escape left, Daizo jumps into the ink reservoir of the press, taking control of Brushogun's magic and transforming himself into a hulking mass of ink and machinery, with Brushogun at the center. As the other Titans battle the creatures Daizo hurls at them, Robin frees Brushogun, causing Daizo to lose control of his power and burst. Brushogun dies peacefully in Robin's arms, dissipating his powers and defeating Daizo. With the battle concluded, Robin and Starfire finally confess their feelings and share their first true kiss.


title: Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo

text: Later on, with Robin's name cleared and Daizo sent to prison, the Titans are awarded medals of honour by the mayor and Tokyo's citizens for their heroic actions. Robin and Starfire are holding hands, confirming they’ve become an official couple. Beast Boy asks Robin if they have to go home, but Robin allows the Titans to stay in Tokyo a little longer to enjoy a well-earned vacation. Beast Boy says that he wants to go to Mexico for their next vacation, causing Raven to slap him.


title: Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo

text: As the end credits roll, the Titans sing a literally translated version of their Japanese theme song in celebration for the defeat of Daizo and their award ceremony.


title: Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo

text: Filip Vukcevic of IGN said in his review, "Something's missing here. "Teen Titans" the television show is a fun, vibrant series that's a lot more entertaining than it looks. Following the show's recent cancellation, it seems like "Trouble in Tokyo" is the last we'll get of our intrepid heroes. Unfortunately, as a swan song or otherwise, when squeezed "Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo" reveals itself for what it really is: a suspiciously average direct-to-DVD movie that looks good, but doesn't do anything to conceal the fact that underneath it's fake."


title: Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo

text: Rafe Telsch of "Cinema Blend" wrote, ""Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo" is a decent follow up for the cancelled series that should make fans happy to see their favorite characters again, although a few of the characters seem to get the shaft on screen time."


title: Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo

text: A soundtrack to the movie was released on July 22, 2008 through La-La-Land Records. The track listing is as follows.


title: Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo

text: The DVD release date was February 6, 2007. The special features included are "The Lost Episode", featuring the villain Punk Rocket, and a game entitled "Robin's Underworld Race Challenge". "Trouble in Tokyo" was also released on Blu-ray through the Warner Archive Collection on December 3, 2019.


title: Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo

text: A stand-alone sequel serving as a crossover between "Teen Titans" and its successor series entitled "Teen Titans Go! vs. Teen Titans" premiered at San Diego Comic-Con 2019 in July, followed by digital release on September 24 and physical release on October 15.


title: Wentworth (season 8)

text: The eighth and final season of Australian television drama series "Wentworth", premiered on Fox Showcase on 28 July 2020. The twenty-episode final season has been divided into two parts; the first, titled "Wentworth: Redemption", contains the first ten episodes (2020), while the second, titled "Wentworth: The Final Sentence", includes the remaining ten episodes and commenced broadcast on 24 August 2021. The story picks up sometime following the siege at the end of the previous season where the prisoners and staff struggle to rebuild their lives as they struggle to cope in the aftermath. In season 8 Joan Ferguson returns, and it is explained how she escaped death after being buried alive by Will Jackson.


title: Wentworth (season 8)

text: This season introduced four new main characters: Ann Reynolds (Jane Hall), Lou Kelly (Kate Box), Judy Bryant (Vivienne Awosoga), Reb Keane (Zoe Terakes), and special guest stars Marta Dusseldorp as Sheila Bausch and Tina Bursill as Eve Wilder.


title: Wentworth (season 8)

text: , titled "Redemption", and featured the first ten episodes in 2020, while the final episodes were broadcast in 2021.


title: Wentworth (season 8)

text: Brian Walsh, Foxtel Executive Director of Television commented that "Wentworth has been the shining star of Foxtel’s extensive slate of Australian dramas and we are very proud to call “action” on the new season. We are indebted to the remarkable creative talent involved and to showcase the outstanding line-up of actors who bring to life this compelling series."


title: Wentworth (season 8)

text: Kate Box joined the cast as Lou Kelly, a former top dog of Wentworth Correctional Facility who often uses a violent approach to get what she wants, along with Jane Hall as Ann Reynolds, a General Manager of extreme authority, taking control of the prison following the siege, and Zoe Terakes as transgender character Reb Keane, a meek and shy prisoner and love interest for Lou. It was later announced that actress Vivienne Awosoga would be joining the cast as Judy Bryant. The characters originally appeared in "Prisoner" in which Lou Kelly was played by Louise Siversen, Ann Reynolds by Gerda Nicolson, Reb Keane by Janet Andrewartha and Judy Bryant by Betty Bobbitt. In June 2020, it was announced that Marta Dusseldorp would join the cast as Sheila Bausch, a cult member accused of mass murder, theft and arson. It was announced in late 2020 that Tina Bursill had been cast as Eve Wilder and is set to appear in the final part of the eighth season in 2021. Bursill portrayed the original Sonia Stevens character in "Prisoner", while the character she will be portraying in "Wentworth" was originally played by Lynda Stoner in "Prisoner".


title: Wentworth (season 8)

text: The season premiered in Australia on Fox Showcase on 28 July 2020. and on August 5 on 5STAR in the UK. In New Zealand, the season is distributed on TVNZ's TVNZ 2 and TVNZ OnDemand streaming service.


title: Wentworth (season 8)

text: In June 2021, it was announced that Season 8, Part 2 was intended to premiere in Germany on 21 July 2021 on Sky Atlantic where it would air double episodes each week; the announcement was made ahead of Foxtel's confirmed release date of 24 August, therefore prompting Sky Atlantic in Germany to reschedule their premiere date and begin broadcast sometime after it has aired in Australia.


title: Wentworth (season 8)

text: The second part of the season premiered on the same day as Australia, 24 August 2021, on 5STAR in the UK.


title: Malcolm Kenyatta

text: Malcolm Kenyatta (born July 30, 1990) is an American politician from North Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A member of the Democratic Party, he has served as the Pennsylvania State Representative for the 181st district since 2019.


title: Malcolm Kenyatta

text: Kenyatta was born to the late Kelly Kenyatta and the late Malcolm J. Kenyatta, at Temple University Hospital in North Central Philadelphia. He has three adopted siblings. Kenyatta is the grandson of the civil rights activist Muhammad I. Kenyatta.


title: Malcolm Kenyatta

text: Kenyatta earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in strategic communication from Temple University and a Master of Science in public communication from Drexel University. During college, Kenyatta organized student protests against proposed education budget cuts by then-Governor Tom Corbett.


title: Malcolm Kenyatta

text: During college, Kenyatta was also an avid poet and performer. In 2008, with the help of theater professor Kimmika Williams-Witherspoon, he founded the award-winning poetry collective Babel, which has twice won the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational.


title: Malcolm Kenyatta

text: Kenyatta completed Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government as a David Bohnett Fellow.


title: Malcolm Kenyatta

text: Kenyatta has been engaged in community affairs and politics since he was eleven years old, serving as the junior block captain with the Philadelphia Streets program.


title: Malcolm Kenyatta

text: Kenyatta has worked as a community activist, specifically around issues of poverty, which he has called "the moral and economic issue of our generation." He worked as a political consultant on multiple state and local races, most notably as the campaign manager for lawyer and activist Sherrie Cohen, the daughter of longtime city councilman David Cohen, in her 2015 bid for the Philadelphia City Council.


title: Malcolm Kenyatta

text: Kenyatta backed Joe Biden in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries and has been critical of Bernie Sanders. He does not support an immediate transition to Medicare for All, noting that he would support interim bipartisan measures instead.


title: Malcolm Kenyatta

text: In 2016 and 2020, he was elected as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. He was selected as one of seventeen speakers to jointly deliver the keynote address at the 2020 Democratic National Convention. This made him, Sam Park, and Robert Garcia the first openly-gay speakers in a keynote slot at a Democratic National Convention.


title: Malcolm Kenyatta

text: Kenyatta was one of 20 electors selected by the Pennsylvania Democratic Party to vote in the Electoral College for Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris in 2020 United States presidential election.


title: Malcolm Kenyatta

text: In December 2017, Kenyatta announced his campaign for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives to replace the long-serving incumbent Curtis Thomas. He won a five-way Democratic party primary election in May 2018 with 42.1% of the vote. The night of the election, unidentified people set up homophobic posters of him and his ex-husband throughout the district.


title: Malcolm Kenyatta

text: Kenyatta won the general election in November against Republican opponent Milton Street with 95.3% of the vote. The win made him one of the youngest elected State Representatives in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the first openly-LGBTQ person of color elected to either chamber of the Pennsylvania General Assembly in the state's history.


title: Malcolm Kenyatta

text: On February 18, 2021, Kenyatta announced his bid for the United States Senate in the 2022 Democratic primary. He lost the Democratic nomination to Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, winning only 10.9% of the vote and also losing his home county.


title: Malcolm Kenyatta

text: In 2017, Kenyatta was named as one of "Philadelphia" Magazine's 38 "people we love" as a "neighborhood champ."


title: Malcolm Kenyatta

text: Kenyatta was the subject of an award-winning documentary, "Going Forward", which followed his 2018 victory.


title: Malcolm Kenyatta

text: In 2020, Kenyatta was named an OUT 100 Honoree by "OUT" Magazine, their annual list of the most "impactful and influential LGBTQ+ people". In the same year, he was awarded the Sen. Tammy Baldwin Breakthrough Award.


title: Binaural recording

text: Binaural recording is a method of recording sound that uses two microphones, arranged with the intent to create a 3-D stereo sound sensation for the listener of actually being in the room with the performers or instruments. This effect is often created using a technique known as dummy head recording, wherein a mannequin head is fitted with a microphone in each ear. Binaural recording is intended for replay using headphones and will not translate properly over stereo speakers. This idea of a three-dimensional or "internal" form of sound has also translated into useful advancement of technology in many things such as stethoscopes creating "in-head" acoustics and IMAX movies being able to create a three-dimensional acoustic experience.


title: Binaural recording

text: The term "binaural" has frequently been confused as a synonym for the word "stereo", due in part to systematic misuse in the mid-1950s by the recording industry, as a marketing buzzword. Conventional stereo recordings do not factor in natural ear spacing or "head shadow" of the head and ears, since these things happen naturally as a person listens, generating interaural time differences (ITDs) and interaural level differences (ILDs) specific to their listening position. Because loudspeaker-crosstalk with conventional stereo interferes with binaural reproduction (i.e., because the sound from each channel's speaker is heard by both ears rather than only by the ear on the corresponding side, as would be the case with headphones), either headphones are required, or crosstalk cancellation of signals intended for loudspeakers such as Ambiophonics is required. For listening using conventional speaker-stereo, or MP3 players, a pinna-less dummy head may be preferable for quasi-binaural recordings such as the sphere microphone or Ambiophone. As a general rule, for true binaural results, an audio recording and reproduction system chain, from the microphone to the listener's brain, should contain one and only one set of pinnae (preferably the listener's own), and one head-shadow.


title: Binaural recording

text: The history of binaural recording goes back to 1881. The first binaural unit, the théâtrophone, was invented by Clément Ader. It consisted of an array of carbon telephone microphones installed along the front edge of the Opera Garnier. The signal was sent to subscribers through the telephone system, and required that they wear a special headset, which had a tiny speaker for each ear.


title: Binaural recording

text: In 1978, Lou Reed released the first commercially produced binaural pop record, "Street Hassle", a combination of live and studio recordings.


title: Binaural recording

text: Binaural stayed in the background due to the expensive, specialized equipment required for quality recordings, and the requirement of headphones for proper reproduction. Particularly in pre-Walkman days, most consumers considered headphones an inconvenience, and were only interested in recordings that could be listened to on a home stereo system or in automobiles. Lastly, the types of things that can be recorded do not have a typically high market value. Studio recordings would have little to benefit from using a binaural set up, beyond natural cross-feed, as the spatial quality of the studio would not be very dynamic and interesting. Recordings that are of interest are live orchestral performances, and ambient "environmental" recordings of city sounds, nature, and other such subject matters.


title: Binaural recording

text: The modern era has seen a resurgence of interest in binaural, partially due to the widespread availability of headphones, cheaper methods of recording and the general increased commercial interest in 360° audio technology.


title: Binaural recording

text: The rise of Dolby Atmos and other 360° audio film technology in relation to commercial entertainment has seen a rise in popularity of the use of binaural simulation. This is with the purpose of fully adapting the 360° soundtrack for headphones and earphones. Users can ostensibly watch 360° films and music with the immersive surround sound experience remaining intact despite using just the two headset speakers. Notably, any full 360° multi-channel soundtrack is automatically converted to simulated binaural audio when listened to with headphones.


title: Binaural recording

text: In 2020, British film-maker Nicholas Cooley released the binaural short film "Rear Mirror", which was featured on a video-on-demand platform (Amazon Prime Video).


title: Binaural recording

text: In 2021, British singer-songwriter Anna Aarons released the single "A Perfect Day" in binaural format.


title: Binaural recording

text: With a simple recording method, two microphones are placed 18 cm (7") apart facing away from each other. This method will not create a real binaural recording. The distance and placement roughly approximate the position of an average human's ear canals, but that is not all that is needed. More elaborate techniques exist in pre-packaged forms. A typical binaural recording unit has two high-fidelity microphones mounted in a dummy head, inset in ear-shaped molds to fully capture all of the audio frequency adjustments (known as head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) in the psychoacoustic research community) that happen naturally as sound wraps around the human head and is "shaped" by the form of the outer and inner ear.


title: Binaural recording

text: The technique of binaural re-recording is simple but has not been well established. It follows the same principles of Worldizing, a technique used by film sound designers in which sound is played over a loudspeaker in a real-world location and then re-recorded, taking along all the aspects and characteristics of the real-world environment with it.


title: Binaural recording

text: Using space to manipulate a sound and then re-recording it has been done through the use of echo chambers in recording studios for many years. In 1959, an echo chamber was famously used by Irving Townsend during the post-production process of Miles Davis's 1959 album "Kind of Blue". "[the effect of the echo chamber on Kind of Blue is] just a bit of sweetening. At 30th Street, a line was run from the mixing console down into a low-ceilinged, concrete basement room—about 12 by 15 feet in size—anywhere we set up a speaker and a good omnidirectional microphone."


title: Binaural recording

text: In binaural re-recording, a binaural microphone is used to record content being played over a multi-channel speaker set-up. The binaural head, or microphone, is therefore theoretically making a recording of how humans will hear multi-channel content. The soundtrack to a film, for example, will be recorded by the binaural microphone with all the environmental cues of the given location, as well as reverberations, including those commonly created by the human torso (assuming a HATS model is used). This method, like certain binaural recordings made with a Neumann KU 100.


title: Binaural recording

text: Using an MRI scanner, Brüel & Kjær and DTU collected the geometries of a large population of human ears. By capturing the full ear canal geometry including the bony part adjoining the eardrum was, this data was post-processed to determine the average human ear canal geometry. Based on this, High-frequency Head and Torso Simulator (HATS) Type 5128, creates a very realistic reproduction of the acoustic properties, covering the full audible frequency range (up to 20 kHz).


title: Binaural recording

text: There are some complications with the playback of binaural recordings through headphones. The sound that is picked up by a microphone placed in or at the entrance of the ear channel has a frequency spectrum that is very different from the one that would be picked up by a free-standing microphone. The diffuse-field head-transfer function (HRTF), that is, the frequency response at the eardrum averaged for sounds coming from all possible directions, is quite grotesque, with peaks and dips exceeding 10 dB. Frequencies from around 2 kHz to 5 kHz in particular are strongly amplified as compared to free field presentation.


title: Binaural recording

text: In January 2012 BBC R&D worked together with BBC Radio 4 to produce a binaural production of "Private Peaceful", the book by Michael Morpurgo. The 88 minute dramatization featured a reproduction of a 5.1 speaker system, and had 4 variations. At the start of each variation, the listener would hear a series of test signals allowing for a choice of which version gives the listener the best spatial experience. By doing this, BBC R&D have accepted that there will be variations on the success of the binaural reproduction, and therefore provided different mixes based on different sets of HRTF data. The release of "Private Peaceful" had an accompanying survey which all listeners were asked to complete. It asked questions about the success that the binaural reproduction had with the listeners and which version (1-4) the listener thought was most successful.