title: Tala (music)

text: A "tala" measures musical time in Indian music. However, it does not imply a regular repeating accent pattern, instead its hierarchical arrangement depends on how the musical piece is supposed to be performed. A metric cycle of a "tala" contains a specific number of beats, which can be as short as 3 beats or as long as 128 beats. The pattern repeats, but the play of accent and empty beats are an integral part of Indian music architecture. Each "tala" has subunits. In other words, the larger cyclic "tala" pattern has embedded smaller cyclic patterns, and both of these rhythmic patterns provide the musician and the audience to experience the play of harmonious and discordant patterns at two planes. A musician can choose to intentionally challenge a pattern at the subunit level by contradicting the "tala", explore the pattern in exciting ways, then bring the music and audience experience back to the fundamental pattern of cyclical beats.


title: Tala (music)

text: The "tala" as the time cycle, and the "raga" as the melodic framework, are the two foundational elements of classical Indian music. The "raga" gives an artist the ingredients palette to build the melody from sounds, while the "tala" provides her with a creative framework for rhythmic improvisation using time.


title: Tala (music)

text: The basic rhythmic phrase of a "tala" when rendered on a percussive instrument such as "tabla" is called a "theka". The beats within each rhythmic cycle are called "matras", and the first beat of any rhythmic cycle is called the "sam". An empty beat is called "khali". The subdivisions of a "tala" are called "vibhagas" or "khands". In the two major systems of classical Indian music, the first count of any "tala" is called "sam". The cyclic nature of a "tala" is a major feature of the Indian tradition, and this is termed as "avartan". Both "raga" and "tala" are open frameworks for creativity and allow theoretically infinite number of possibilities, however, the tradition considers 108 "talas" as basic.


title: Tala (music)

text: The roots of "tala" and music in ancient India are found in the Vedic literature of Hinduism. The earliest Indian thought combined three arts, instrumental music ("vadya"), vocal music ("gita") and dance ("nrtta"). As these fields developed, "sangita" became a distinct genre of art, in a form equivalent to contemporary music. This likely occurred before the time of Yāska (~500 BCE), since he includes these terms in his nirukta studies, one of the six Vedanga of ancient Indian tradition. Some of the ancient texts of Hinduism such as the "Samaveda" (~1000 BCE) are structured entirely to melodic themes, it is sections of "Rigveda" set to music.


title: Tala (music)

text: The "Samaveda" is organized into two formats. One part is based on the musical meter, another by the aim of the rituals. The text is written with embedded coding, where "svaras" (octave note) is either shown above or within the text, or the verse is written into "parvans" (knot or member). These markings identify which units are to be sung in a single breath, each unit based on multiples of one eighth. The hymns of "Samaveda" contain melodic content, form, rhythm and metric organization. This structure is, however, not unique or limited to "Samaveda". The "Rigveda" embeds the musical meter too, without the kind of elaboration found in the "Samaveda". For example, the Gayatri mantra contains three metric lines of exactly eight syllables, with an embedded ternary rhythm.


title: Tala (music)

text: According to Lewis Rowell, a professor of music specializing in classical Indian music, the need and impulse to develop mathematically precise musical meters in the Vedic era may have been driven by the Indian use of oral tradition for transmitting vast amounts of Vedic literature. Deeply and systematically embedded structure and meters may have enabled the ancient Indians a means to detect and correct any errors of memory or oral transmission from one person or generation to the next. According to Michael Witzel,


title: Tala (music)

text: The "Samaveda" also included a system of chironomy, or hand signals to set the recital speed. These were "mudras" (finger and palm postures) and "jatis" (finger counts of the beat), a system at the foundation of "talas". The chants in the Vedic recital text, associated with rituals, are presented to be measured in "matras" and its multiples in the invariant ratio of 1:2:3. This system is also the basis of every "tala".


title: Tala (music)

text: In the ancient traditions of Hinduism, two musical genre appeared, namely "Gandharva" (formal, composed, ceremonial music) and "Gana" (informal, improvised, entertainment music). The "Gandharva" music also implied celestial, divine associations, while the "Gana" also implied singing. The Vedic Sanskrit musical tradition had spread widely in the Indian subcontinent, and according to Rowell, the ancient Tamil classics make it "abundantly clear that a cultivated musical tradition existed in South India as early as the last few pre-Christian centuries".


title: Tala (music)

text: The classic Sanskrit text "Natya Shastra" is at the foundation of the numerous classical music and dance of India. Before "Natyashastra" was finalized, the ancient Indian traditions had classified musical instruments into four groups based on their acoustic principle (how they work, rather than the material they are made of). These four categories are accepted as given and are four separate chapters in the "Natyashastra", one each on stringed instruments (chordophones), hollow instruments (aerophones), solid instruments (idiophones), and covered instruments (membranophones). Of these, states Rowell, the idiophone in the form of "small bronze cymbals" were used for "tala". Almost the entire chapter of "Natyashastra" on idiophones, by Bharata, is a theoretical treatise on the system of "tala". Time keeping with idiophones was considered a separate function than that of percussion (membranophones), in the early Indian thought on music theory.


title: Tala (music)

text: The early 13th century Sanskrit text "Sangitaratnakara" (literally 'Ocean of Music and Dance'), by Śārṅgadeva patronized by King Sighana of the Yadava dynasty in Maharashtra, mentions and discusses "ragas" and "talas". He identifies seven "tala" families, then subdivides them into rhythmic ratios, presenting a methodology for improvisation and composition that continues to inspire modern era Indian musicians. "Sangitaratnakara" is one of the most complete historic medieval era Hindu treatises on this subject that has survived into the modern era, that relates to the structure, technique and reasoning behind "ragas" and "talas".


title: Tala (music)

text: The centrality and significance of "Tala" to music in ancient and early medieval India is also expressed in numerous temple reliefs, in both Hinduism and Jainism, such as through the carving of musicians with cymbals at the fifth century Pavaya temple sculpture near Gwalior, and the Ellora Caves.


title: Tala (music)

text: In the South Indian system (Carnatic), a full "tala" is a group of seven "suladi talas". These are cyclic ("avartana"), with three parts ("anga") traditionally written down with "laghu", "drutam" and "anudrutam" symbols. Each "tala" is divided in two ways to perfect the musical performance, one is called "kala" (kind) and the other "gati" (pulse).


title: Tala (music)

text: Each repeated cycle of a "tala" is called an "avartan". This is counted additively in sections ("vibhag" or "anga") which roughly correspond to bars or measures but may not have the same number of beats ("matra, akshara") and may be marked by accents or rests. So the Hindustani "Jhoomra tal" has 14 beats, counted 3+4+3+4, which differs from "Dhamar tal", also of 14 beats but counted 5+2+3+4. The spacing of the "vibhag" accents makes them distinct, otherwise, again, since "Rupak tal" consists of 7 beats, two cycles of it of would be indistinguishable from one cycle of the related "Dhamar tal". However the most common Hindustani "tala", "Teental", is a regularly-divisible cycle of four measures of four beats each.


title: Tala (music)

text: The first beat of any "tala", called "sam" (pronounced as the English word 'sum' and meaning even or equal) is always the most important and heavily emphasised. It is the point of resolution in the rhythm where the percussionist's and soloist's phrases culminate: a soloist has to sound an important note of the raga there, and a North Indian classical dance composition must end there. However, melodies do not always begin on the first beat of the "tala" but may be offset, for example to suit the words of a composition so that the most accented word falls upon the "sam". The term "talli", literally 'shift', is used to describe this offset in Tamil. A composition may also start with an anacrusis on one of the last beats of the previous cycle of the "tala", called "ateeta eduppu" in Tamil.


title: Tala (music)

text: The "tāla" is indicated visually by using a series of rhythmic hand gestures called "kriyas" that correspond to the "angas" or 'limbs', or "vibhag" of the "tāla". These movements define the "tala" in Carnatic music, and in the Hindustani tradition too, when learning and reciting the "tala", the first beat of any "vibhag" is known as "tali" ('clap') and is accompanied by a clap of the hands, while an "empty" ("khali") vibhag is indicated with a sideways wave of the dominant clapping hand (usually the right) or the placing of the back of the hand upon the base hand's palm instead. But northern definitions of "tala" rely far more upon specific drum-strokes, known as "bols", each with its own name that can be vocalized as well as written. In one common notation the "sam" is denoted by an 'X' and the "khali", which is always the first beat of a particular "vibhag", denoted by '0' (zero).


title: Tala (music)

text: A tala does not have a fixed tempo ("laya") and can be played at different speeds. In Hindustani classical music a typical recital of a raga falls into two or three parts categorized by the quickening tempo of the music; "Vilambit" (delayed, i.e., slow), "Madhya" (medium tempo) and "Drut" (fast). Carnatic music adds an extra slow and fast category, categorised by divisions of the pulse; "Chauka" (one stroke per beat), "Vilamba" (two strokes per beat), "Madhyama" (four strokes per beat), "Drut" (eight strokes per beat) and lastly "Adi-drut" (16 strokes per beat).


title: Tala (music)

text: Indian classical music, both northern and southern, have theoretically developed since ancient times numerous "tala", though in practice some "talas" are very common, and some are rare.


title: Tala (music)

text: Carnatic music uses various classification systems of tālas such as the "Chapu" (four talas), "Chanda" (108 talas) and "Melakarta" (72 talas). The "Suladi Sapta Tāla" system (35 talas) is used here, according to which there are seven families of tāla. A tāla from this system cannot exist without reference to one of five "jatis", differentiated by the length in beats of the "laghu."Thus, with all the possible combinations of "tala" types and "laghu" lengths, there are 5 x 7 = 35 talas having lengths ranging from 3 (Tisra-jati Eka tala) to 29 (sankeerna jati dhruva tala) aksharas. The seven "tala" families and the number of "aksharas" for each of the 35 "talas" are;


title: Tala (music)

text: In practice, only a few talas have compositions set to them. The most common "tala" is "Chaturasra-nadai Chaturasra-jaati Triputa tala", also called "Adi tala" ("Adi" meaning primordial in Sanskrit). Nadai is a term which means subdivision of beats. Many kritis and around half of the varnams are set to this "tala". Other common "talas" include:


title: Tala (music)

text: Each tala family has a default "jati "associated with it; the tala name mentioned without qualification refers to the default "jati".


title: Tala (music)

text: For example, one cycle of "khanda-jati rupaka tala" comprises a two-beat "dhrutam" followed by a five-beat "laghu". The cycle is thus seven aksharas long. Chaturasra nadai khanda-jati Rupaka tala has seven aksharam, each of which is four "matras" long; each avartana of the tala is 4 x 7 = 28 matras long. For Misra nadai Khanda-jati Rupaka tala, it would be 7 x 7 = 49 matra.


title: Tala (music)

text: The number of "maatras" in an "akshara" is called the "nadai". This number can be three, four, five, seven or nine, and take the same name as the jatis. The default nadai is "Chatusram":


title: Tala (music)

text: Sometimes, pallavis are sung as part of a Ragam Thanam Pallavi exposition in some of the rarer, more complicated "talas"; such pallavis, if sung in a non-"Chatusra-nadai tala", are called "nadai" pallavis. In addition, pallavis are often sung in chauka kale (slowing the tala cycle by a magnitude of four times), although this trend seems to be slowing.


title: Tala (music)

text: "Kāla" refers to the change of tempo during a rendition of song, typically doubling up the speed. "Onnaam kaalam" is first speed, "Erandaam kaalam" is second speed and so on. Erandaam kaalam fits in twice the number of aksharaas (notes) into the same beat, thus doubling the tempo. Sometimes, Kāla is also used similar to Layā, for example Madhyama Kālam or Chowka Kālam.


title: Tala (music)

text: Talas have a vocalised and therefore recordable form wherein individual beats are expressed as phonetic representations of various strokes played upon the tabla. Various Gharanas (literally 'Houses' which can be inferred to be "styles" – basically styles of the same art with cultivated traditional variances) also have their own preferences. For example, the Kirana Gharana uses Ektaal more frequently for Vilambit Khayal while the Jaipur Gharana uses Trital. Jaipur Gharana is also known to use Ada Trital, a variation of Trital for transitioning from Vilambit to Drut laya.


title: Tala (music)

text: The "Khyal" vibhag has no beats on the bayan, i.e. no bass beats this can be seen as a way to enforce the balance between the usage of heavy (bass dominated) and fine (treble) beats or more simply it can be thought of another mnemonic to keep track of the rhythmic cycle (in addition to Sam). The "khali" is played with a stressed syllable that can easily be picked out from the surrounding beats.


title: Tala (music)

text: Some rare talas even contain a "half-beat". For example, Dharami is an 11 1/2 beat cycle where the final "Ka" only occupies half the time of the other beats. This tala's sixth beat does not have a played syllable – in western terms it is a "rest".


title: Tala (music)

text: Some talas, for example Dhamaar, Ek, Jhoomra and Chau talas, lend themselves better to slow and medium tempos. Others flourish at faster speeds, like Jhap or Rupak talas. Trital or Teental is one of the most popular, since it is as aesthetic at slower tempos as it is at faster speeds.


title: Tala (music)

text: Compositions are rare in the 108 lengthy anga talas. They are mostly used in performing the "Pallavi" of "Ragam Thanam Pallavis". Some examples of anga talas are:


title: Tala (music)

text: Another type of tala is the "chhanda tala". These are talas set to the lyrics of the" Thirupugazh "by the Tamil composer "Arunagirinathar". He is said to have written 16,000 hymns each in a different "chhanda" "tala". Of these, only 1500–2000 are available.


title: Enclosed religious orders

text: Enclosed religious orders or "cloistered clergy" are religious orders whose members strictly separate themselves from the affairs of the external world. In the Catholic Church, enclosure is regulated by the code of canon law, either the Latin code or the Oriental code, and also by the constitutions of the specific order. It is practised with a variety of customs according to the nature and charism of the community in question. This separation may involve physical barriers such as walls and grilles (that is, a literal cloister), with entry restricted for other people and certain areas exclusively permitted to the members of the convent. Outsiders may only temporarily enter this area under certain conditions (for example, if they are candidates for the order, doctors or craftsmen). The intended purpose for such enclosure is to prevent distraction from prayer and the religious life and to keep an atmosphere of silence.


title: Enclosed religious orders

text: Under certain circumstances, exceptions may be granted for enclosed men or women to leave the enclosure temporarily or permanently.


title: Enclosed religious orders

text: Enclosed religious orders of men include monks following the Rule of Saint Benedict, namely the Benedictine, the Cistercian, and the Trappist orders, but also monks of the Carthusians, Hieronymites, and some branches of Carmelites, along with members of the Monastic Family of Bethlehem, while enclosed religious orders of women include Canonesses Regular, nuns belonging to the Benedictine, Cistercian, Trappist and the Carthusian orders, along with nuns of the second order of each of the mendicant orders, including: the Poor Clares, the Colettine Poor Clares, the Capuchin Poor Clares, the Dominicans, Carmelites, Servites, Augustinians, Minims, together with the Conceptionist nuns, the Visitandine nuns, Ursuline nuns and the Monastic Family of Bethlehem.


title: Enclosed religious orders

text: The English word monk most properly refers to men in monastic life, while the term friar more properly refers to mendicants active in the world (like Franciscans, Dominicans and Augustinians), though not all monasteries require strict enclosure. Benedictine monks, for instance, have often staffed parishes and been allowed to leave monastery confines.


title: Enclosed religious orders

text: Although the English word nun is often used to describe all Christian women who have joined religious institutes, strictly speaking, women are referred to as nuns only when they live in papal enclosure; otherwise, they are religious sisters. The distinctions between the Christian terms monk, nun, friar, Brother, and Sister are sometimes easily blurred because some orders (such as the Dominicans or Augustinians) include nuns who are enclosed, who are usually grouped as the Second Order of that movement, and religious sisters.


title: Enclosed religious orders

text: In the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, once a man or woman has made solemn, perpetual religious vows, the release from these monastic vows has to be approved by the ecclesiastical authorities. Normally there is a transitional period, called exclaustration, in which the person looks to establish a new life and determine if this is what he or she is truly called to do. This usually lasts up to six years under the 1983 Code of Canon Law. After this period the appropriate authority, generally the Holy See, determines that the wish to leave this life is valid and grants the former monk or nun release from their vows.


title: Enclosed religious orders

text: Contemplative orders prioritise worship and prayer over economic or outreach activity. They exist in the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Eastern Orthodox


title: 100 Greatest (TV series)

text: 100 Greatest is a long-running TV strand on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom that has been broadcasting from 11 September 1999 to 10 October 2015, originating in Tyne Tees Television’s Factual Features department under Executive Producer Mark Robinson. The "list show" programmes are generally public polls, and reflect the votes of visitors to the Channel 4 website. However, the results of some of the polls are determined by experts. The programmes are usually broadcast in the weekend schedule, in three- or four-hour blocks, throughout the year. Although the strand has never been officially retired, there have been no new editions since 2015. They are also repeated on E4 on Saturday nights or on Sunday nights.


title: Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger

text: The Tank, Cruiser, Challenger (A30) was a British tank of World War II. It mounted the QF 17-pounder anti-tank gun on a chassis derived from the Cromwell tank to add anti-tank firepower to the cruiser tank units. The design compromises made in fitting the large gun onto the Cromwell chassis resulted in a tank with a powerful weapon and reduced armour. The extemporised 17-pounder Sherman Firefly conversion of the US-supplied Sherman was easier to produce and, with delays in production, only 200 Challengers were built. The Challenger was able to keep up with the fast Cromwell tank and was used with them.


title: Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger

text: The driving force in the development of the Challenger was William Arthur Robotham. "Roy" Robotham had been a Rolls-Royce executive in the car division who, with no work to do, had led a team to develop a tank powerplant from the Rolls-Royce Merlin aircraft engine. The Rolls-Royce Meteor gave the British a powerful, reliable engine, which was used in the A27M Cruiser Mk VIII Cromwell tank. Robotham's contributions gained him a place in the Ministry of Supply and on the Tank Board, despite his lack of experience in tank design.


title: Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger

text: The General Staff brought forward specification A29 for a 45 ton, 17 pounder-armed cruiser tank based on needs identified in the African desert campaign. British tanks were generally underarmed compared to German vehicles. The design weight of this vehicle was subsequently seen as excessive and the specification was passed over in favour of the alternate specification, A30, which was lighter. In 1942, an order for the development of an A30 based tank was placed with Birmingham Railway Carriage & Wagon Company (BRC&W) expecting it to be based on the Cromwell components also being manufactured by BRC&W. The turret and gun mounting were in the hands of Stothert & Pitt. Birmingham Carriage had to modify the Cromwell hull to take a bigger turret.


title: Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger

text: The first prototype was ready in August 1942, only seven months after development had commenced, but proved to be very flawed. An improved second prototype was presented in January 1943 but was still considered unacceptable. A committee met to determine whether a requirement for a 17-pounder tank existed. The Challenger had been developed in anticipation of more heavily armoured Axis tanks, following the trend in Nazi German tank design. At roughly the same time the Tiger 1 entered service with the German army, placing an immediate need for a 17-pounder armed tank in response.


title: Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger

text: When the second prototype was tested at Lulworth, it was found that although it would be effective at long range against the current best-gunned tank in German service (the Panzer IV "Special" with the long gun), at shorter ranges it would be at a disadvantage due to its slow firing rate and thin armour. The design received additional emphasis when, in May 1943, it was found that the Cromwell could not carry its intended armament. Vickers had been developing a 50-calibre-long high-velocity tank gun. It was realised late in the design process that the Cromwell's turret ring was too small for this gun. The Challenger would be the only British cruiser tank to mount a weapon that could tackle heavier German armour until the arrival of the A34 Comet. So in February 1943 an order was made of two hundred vehicles; the Army General Staff took five months to approve the Challenger design for production (in February 1943, the only significant alteration was to the ammunition stowage), and Robotham was also critical of the decision to continue manufacturing the Cromwell with a 6-pounder gun (the 17-pounder gun was "infinitely better").


title: Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger

text: British tank production was constrained by limited resources and insufficient numbers could be made. This was compensated by American production. In the lead up to D-Day, Sherman tanks were fitted with the 17 pounder, creating the interim 17 pounder Sherman Firefly. Converting Sherman tanks was simpler than producing Challengers, so it was decided in November 1943 to terminate the A30 production run after the two hundred vehicles had been built, allowing BRC&W to concentrate on the Cromwell. At the same time the A 40 "Challenger Stage II" project was cancelled, which had envisaged a 36 tonne type with heavier armour. Future design priority was concentrated on the A34 Comet, which eventually replaced the Cromwell, Firefly and Challenger. Challenger production started in March 1944. That year 145 vehicles were delivered with another 52 in 1945. Production was in two batches. A first run of forty vehicles had a 40 mm gun mantlet; with the second batch this was replaced by a 102 mm mantlet. From the hundredth vehicle onwards appliqué 25 mm armour plates were fitted on the turret, that had already been applied to existing vehicles by field units.


title: Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger

text: The tank was rendered obsolete when the Vickers HV 75 mm gun was developed to become the (actually 3 inch = 76.2 mm calibre) to arm the Comet tank. The used the same projectiles as the 17 pounder with a reduced propellant charge. The 17 pounder gun was used on the earliest marks of the Comet's successor, the Centurion tank.


title: Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger

text: The turret mounted the Ordnance QF 17-pounder gun required in the Tank Board specification and the hull machine gun was removed to provide stowage space for the long 17-pounder cartridges. The War Office expected that this larger ammunition, together with its stowage forward, would require two loaders, which raised the turret crew to four, the commander, gunner, loader 1 and loader 2 (later tanks like the Centurion used a three-man turret) To fit the larger weapon "and" additional crewman in the turret, a much larger turret than that of the Cromwell was specified, developed separately, which had a significant effect on the design and was not resolved until later development of Avenger.


title: Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger

text: To carry the weight of the 17-pounder and ammunition, an extra wheel station and suspension arm was needed, lengthening the hull. This change in length, without a corresponding change in width across the tracks, reduced mobility compared to the Cromwell, although speed remained high at 25 mph. To limit the weight, the amount of armour was reduced but this could only be achieved on the turret, on the front (the mantlet was 102 mm of IT 90) and on the sides compared to and on the Cromwell. Applique armour, 25 mm thick, was later added to turret and hull front. The turret did not use a conventional turret ring: to increase the aperture diameter by four inches, it rested on a ball mount on the hull floor. Therefore the base of the turret was unprotected, and it would cantilever if struck by enemy rounds. A jacking feature, with four internal semi-automatic jacks, was fitted to clear jams. The additional length allowed larger hatches to be fitted in the hull while still clearing the turret, providing easier access than Cromwell.


title: Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger

text: Upon Robotham's appointment as Chief Engineer to the Department of Tank Design, the lack of progress on an (A29) 17-pounder armed tank could not adequately be explained. Robotham's memoirs indicate a lack of awareness that any such requirement existed within the department and military users were still unsure whether the tank was required at the point when the rushed A30 design had been completed and prototype vehicles run. The Challenger was then rushed into production alongside existing production runs of Cromwell, limiting the number of tanks that could be produced.


title: Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger

text: The dubious reliability of earlier British tank designs, along with limited manufacturing capacity, led to a joint mission to the US to explore US tank options and share design experiences learned from action. Consequently, British and other Commonwealth forces introduced a much larger contingent of US-made vehicles, each using dual purpose 75 mm guns with reduced anti-armour capability.


title: Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger

text: Cromwells carrying the 6-pounder had been delayed in design and the move to cancel Challenger while switching Cromwell to the dual purpose 75 mm gun (with a corresponding drop in anti-armour performance) left British and other Commonwealth forces without a main-force tank weapon capable of taking on the equivalent generation of Axis tanks. The lack of firepower was keenly felt by tank crews fighting heavier armed—and sometimes more heavily armoured—Axis tanks. The Firefly was used as a stop-gap, which was only resolved, much later, with the A34 Comet. While Comet improved significantly upon both Cromwell and Challenger designs, its design and production followed that of the Cromwell and was delayed much longer than an equivalent production (and evolution) of Challenger.


title: Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger

text: The 17-pounder gun mounted on the Challenger offered sufficient performance against the majority of German AFVs, including the Tiger I and Panther tank and the tank had a higher top speed and cross country mobility than the Panzer IV or StuG III. The Challenger could only hold 48 rounds of the large 17-pounder ammunition because the General Staff required four men in the turret, though later tanks like the Centurion used a three-man turret. The armour of the Challenger offered very little protection against contemporary German anti-tank guns and was lower than that of the Cromwell, which often operated with Challengers.


title: Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger

text: In combat, the Challenger fulfilled much the same role as the Sherman Firefly, providing overwatch for the other tanks in the troop, as its 17-pounder could penetrate almost all German AFVs frontally, unlike the 75 mm. It was deployed in a similar manner at a troop level, this was typically one 17-pounder armed tank (such as Challenger or Firefly) to three 75 mm armed tanks (Cromwells or Shermans); at times, the deployment of 17-pounder armed tanks was increased to two per troop.


title: Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger

text: The Challenger was based on the reliable Cromwell tank, which used the new Rolls-Royce Meteor engine, which was far more reliable and powerful than the ageing Liberty engine used in earlier British Cruiser designs like the Crusader tank. Its reliability was slightly below that of the Cromwell, as a problem was experienced with track throwing, caused by mud building up in the wheels but this was resolved in the field. Supply and maintenance were vastly simplified through the use of common parts with the Cromwell.


title: Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger

text: In comparison with the Firefly, the tank lacked the sloping forward armour but presented a lower profile and avoided the Firefly's constraint on gun depression. The Challenger provided 10° of gun depression while Firefly was limited to 5°, which was a significant disadvantage in combat. It was preferred within Cromwell units as it shared similar mobility and manoeuvrability, whereas the Firefly was slower. Despite a lower design weight than the earlier A29 specification (32½ not 34 tons), the Challenger was heavy and required dockyard equipment to ship, making it impractical to use in amphibious assaults such as the D-day landings.


title: Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger

text: No provision was made for deep wading, before the design went into production; as a result, the A30 could not be landed in the initial phase of the Allied invasion of Normandy. Challenger crews had to wait until July 1944, when Mulberry harbours were operational and ports had been captured.


title: Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger

text: The Challenger and Firefly, equipped with 17-pounder, were added to tank squadrons to deal with opposing heavy tanks and many Challengers were issued to reconnaissance units using Cromwells. It was initially used by the Guards Armoured Division and the 11th Armoured Division, with about sixteen vehicles in each unit: one Challenger and three Cromwells in each troop. The latter division phased the type out from February 1945 onwards, while it was being introduced to the Cromwell units of the 7th Armoured Division. The tank was unpopular at first, with crews complaining about the lack of armour, the high silhouette and the tracks being thrown. The track problem was caused by the smaller idler wheels compared to the Cromwell; these were in August replaced by idlers with a standard diameter. Troops used to the low profile of the Crusader and Cromwell found the height a serious problem, although it was still shorter than the comparable Sherman Firefly.


title: Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger

text: Confidence in the vehicle grew and it became preferred over the Firefly, being lower, faster and more manoeuvrable but the early bad reputation persisted with others. Allied forces were issued with the Challenger, the 1st Polish Armoured Division receiving several in mid-1945 and the 1st Czechoslovak Armoured Brigade used it during the siege of Dunkirk in late 1944. After the war, the Czechoslovak government purchased 22 Challengers from the brigade inventory, which served in the Czechoslovak army (first with the 11th, later 23rd, Tank Brigade and then with the 13th Independent Tank Battalion) until they were put in reserve in 1951 and scrapped in 1959.


title: Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger

text: The A30 Avenger SP2 or SP 17pdr, A30 (Avenger) was a development of the Challenger to be used as a self-propelled gun. It removed the second loader's position and featured a much lower profile turret and lower superstructure on the hull. An additional stowage bin was provided on the glacis plate for a large camo net and return rollers were added to the tracks.


title: Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger

text: The Avenger featured a permanent opening in the turret roof covered with an armoured cover supported a few inches above. This provided the commander and loader with full 360 degree visibility.


title: Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger

text: By the time the pilot was complete, the British had lend-lease M10s for anti-tank work coming into service and the production of Avenger was de-prioritised in favour of Comet production


title: Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger

text: As many as 500 vehicles appear to have been planned and 230 vehicles were ordered from BRC&W, but this dropped to 80 with the end of the war. It is not known how many were actually built; the SP2 nomenclature indicates its place in production with the Archer (SP1) and Alecto (SP3).


title: Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger

text: The Avenger suffered in trials as the engine had to remain running to use the turret traverse motor, because the noise and exhaust could give the vehicle away. Winter trials in a prolonged stationary position also failed in comparison with Archer, when the Avenger's steering failed. Both vehicles had problems with camouflage. The vehicle was dropped from trials in 1950, along with removal of the 17pdr SP Achilles (re-gunned US M10 GMC- equipped with 17pdr).


title: Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger

text: While the Avenger was only used for trials and was ultimately unsuccessful in comparison with the purpose built vehicles, it provides an example of what could have been possible for the Challenger had it not been forced to accommodate a second loader in a larger (four-man) turret in its design. It may have been corrected had effort not been moved to the Comet.


title: Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger

text: Two vehicles survive, one at the Overloon War Museum in the Netherlands, acquired from the Muzeeaquarium Delfzijl in 1976; the other was awaiting restoration at the Isle of Wight Military Museum in the United Kingdom until its closure. Once restored, it will be displayed at the Bovington Tank Museum.


title: Karnataka High Court

text: The High Court of Karnataka ("IAST: Karnātaka Ucca N'yāyālaya", commonly called the Karnataka High Court) is the High Court of the Indian state of Karnataka and thus its highest judicial authority. The court's principal bench is located in Bengaluru, the capital city of Karnataka, with additional benches in Hubballi-Dharwada and Kalaburagi. It was previously called the High Court of Mysore. In Bengaluru, the High Court functions out of a red-painted brick building known as the Attara Kacheri, located opposite the Vidhana Soudha, the seat of the Karnataka Legislature.


title: Karnataka High Court

text: The High Court is composed of the Chief Justice of Karnataka and other judges. Judges are appointed by the President of India. As of February 2022, there are 45 judges in the High Court, out of a sanctioned maximum strength of 62. Prasanna B. Varale has been the Chief Justice since October 15, 2022.


title: Karnataka High Court

text: The High Court is the highest judicial authority within the State of Karnataka. It has superintendence over all courts and tribunals, such as district courts, operating within Karnataka, except those of the armed forces. Appeals against judgments of lower courts, such as district-level civil and sessions courts, are heard in the High Court. Appeals against judgments of the High Court are heard by the Supreme Court of India.


title: Karnataka High Court

text: The Karnataka High court has two permanent benches at Hubballi-Dharwada and Kalaburagi. The permanent Karnataka high court bench at Hubballi-Dharwada became operational on 24 August 2013 and Kalaburagi on 31 August 2013. Before operational of permanent high court benches, Hubballi-Dharwada and Kalaburagi had circuit benches of Karnataka High Court from the year 2008. Hubballi-Dharwada bench of Karnataka High Court was inaugurated by then Chief Justice of India K.G.Balakrishnan on 4 July 2008 and became operational from 7 July 2008 A.D.


title: Karnataka High Court

text: The High Court's principal bench is located in Bengaluru, in a building called the "Attara Kacheri". It is a wide two-storied building of stone and brick, painted red, in the neoclassical style of architecture. It was constructed between 1864 and 1868.


title: Karnataka High Court

text: There was a proposal to demolish this building in the year 1982. A public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in the High Court pleading to stop the demolition. This was the first PIL to be filed in the court, and the case was heard in the same building that was supposed to be demolished. The petition was struck down by the High Court, but the proposal to demolish the building was dropped in 1985 when the Supreme Court asked the state government to reconsider demolition.


title: Karnataka High Court

text: Four judges of the court, E. S. Venkataramiah, M. N. Venkatachaliah, S. Rajendra Babu and H.L. Dattu, went on to become Chief Justices of India and others including Kalmanje Jagannatha Shetty, N. Venkatachala, R. V. Raveendran, Shivaraj Patil, Venkate Gopala Gowda, Mohan Shantanagoudar, S. Abdul Nazeer, A. S. Oka and B. V. Nagarathna were appointed as judges in the Supreme Court of India.


title: Karnataka High Court

text: P Mahadevayya, M Sadasivayya, Nittoor Srinivasa Rau, Sam Piroj Bharucha and G. T. Nanavati were some notable Chief Justices who presided over this court.


title: Karnataka High Court

text: The Karnataka High Court is currently functional in Bengaluru, Hubballi-Dharwada and Kalaburagi. There was a long-standing demand for an additional bench as the location of Bengaluru in south-east corner of the state caused hardship for people visiting the High Court from the distant northern regions of the state. This issue led to agitation, including boycott of court proceedings by lawyers in the northern region. The demand was finally met in the year 2006 when it was decided that circuit benches of the High Court would be set up in Hubballi-Dharwada and Kalaburagi. The new branches were inaugurated on 4 and 5 July 2008, respectively. There was later demand to make both Hubballi-Dharwada and Kalaburagi benches permanent. Consequently, Hubballi-Dharwadaa circuit bench became a permanent bench from 25 August 2013 and Kalaburagi circuit bench became a permanent bench from 31 August 2013.


title: Karnataka High Court

text: In late 2002, 14 newspapers and periodicals reported that some judges from the High Court of Karnataka were allegedly involved in a sex scandal in Mysore. A high-level judicial inquiry committee was established by the Chief Justice. Later, the committee acquitted the judges as they could not find any substantive evidence.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: Prince Rupert is a port city in the province of British Columbia, Canada. Its location is on Kaien Island near the Alaskan panhandle. It is the land, air, and water transportation hub of British Columbia's North Coast, and has a population of 12,220 people as of 2016.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: Coast Tsimshian occupation of the Prince Rupert Harbour area spans at least 5,000 years. About 1500 B.C. there was a significant population increase, associated with larger villages and house construction. The early 1830s saw a loss of Coast Tsimshian influence in the Prince Rupert Harbour area.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: Prince Rupert replaced Port Simpson as the choice for the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (GTP) western terminus. It also replaced Port Essington, away on the southern bank of the Skeena River, as the business centre for the North Coast .


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: The GTP purchased the 14,000-acre First Nations reserve, and received a 10,000-acre grant from the BC government. A post office was established on November 23, 1906. Surveys and clearing, that commenced in that year, preceded the laying out of the 2,000-acre town site. A $200,000 provincial grant financed plank sidewalks, roads, sewers and water mains. Kaien Island, which comprised damp muskeg overlaying a solid rock foothill, proved expensive both for developing the land for railway and town use.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: By 1909, the town possessed 4 grocery, 2 hardware, 2 men's clothing, a furniture, and several fruit and cigar stores, a wholesale drygoods outlet, a wholesale/retail butcher, 2 banks, the GTP hotel and annex, and numerous lodging houses and restaurants. The first lot sales that year created a bidding war.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: Prince Rupert was incorporated on March 10, 1910. Although he never visited Canada, it was named after Prince Rupert of the Rhine, the first Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, as the result of a nation-wide competition held by the Grand Trunk Railway, the prize for which was $250.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: With the collapse of the real estate boom in 1912, and World War I, much of the company's land remained unsold. Charles Melville Hays, president of the GTP, whose business plan made little sense, was primarily responsible for the bankruptcy of the company, and the establishment of a town that would take decades to achieve even a small fraction of the promises touted. Mount Hays, the larger of two mountains on Kaien Island, is named in his honour, as is a local high school, Charles Hays Secondary School. The train station, a listed historic place, replaced the temporary building in 1922.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: Local politicians used the promise of a highway connected to the mainland as an incentive, and the city grew over the next several decades. American troops finally completed the road between Prince Rupert and Terrace during World War II to help move thousands of allied troops to the Aleutian Islands and the Pacific. Several forts were built to protect the city at Barrett Point and Fredrick Point.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: After World War II, the fishing industry, particularly for salmon and halibut, and forestry became the city's major industries. Prince Rupert was considered the Halibut Capital of the World from the opening of the Canadian Fish & Cold Storage plant in 1912 until the early 1980s. A long-standing dispute over fishing rights in the Dixon Entrance to the Hecate Strait (pronounced as "hekk-et") between American and Canadian fisherman led to the formation of the 54-40 or Fight Society. The United States Coast Guard maintains a base in nearby Ketchikan, Alaska.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: In 1946, the Government of Canada, through an Order in Council, granted the Department of National Defence the power to administer and maintain facilities to collect data for communications research. The Royal Canadian Navy was allotted forty positions, seven of which were in Prince Rupert. In either 1948 or 1949, Prince Rupert ceased operations, and the positions were relocated to RCAF Whitehorse, Yukon. The 1949 Queen Charlotte earthquake, with a surface wave magnitude of 8.1 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII ("Severe"), broke windows and swayed buildings on August 22.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: In Summer 1958, Prince Rupert endured a riot over racial discrimination. Ongoing discontent with heavy-handed police practices towards Aboriginals escalated to rioting during BC Centennial celebrations following the arrest of an Aboriginal couple. As many as 1,000 people (one tenth of the city's population at the time) began smashing windows and skirmishing with police. The Riot Act was read for only the second time since Confederation.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: Over the years, hundreds of students were said to have largely paid their way through school by working in the lucrative fishing industry. Construction of a pulp mill began in 1947 and it was operating by 1951. In 1958, Indo-Canadian industrialist Sohen Singh Gill established Prince Rupert Sawmills at the location of the old dry dock on Prince Rupert's waterfront. In the 1960s, the majority of the town's workforce was employed either in the fishery or at Gill's sawmill. The construction of coal and grain shipping terminals followed. From the 1960s into the 1980s, the city constructed many improvements, including a civic centre, swimming pool, public library, golf course and performing arts centre (recently renamed "The Lester Centre of the Arts"). These developments marked the town's changes from a fishing and mill town into a small city.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: In the 1990s, both the fishing and forestry industries suffered a significant downturn. In July 1997, Canadian fishermen blockaded the Alaska Marine Highway ferry M/V "Malaspina", keeping it in the port as a protest in the salmon fishing rights dispute between Alaska and British Columbia. The forest industry declined when a softwood lumber dispute arose between Canada and the USA. After the pulp mill closed, many people were unemployed, and much modern machinery was left unused. After reaching a peak of about 18,000 in the early 1990s, Prince Rupert's population began to decline, as people left in search of work.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: The years from 1996 to 2004 were difficult for Prince Rupert, with closure of the pulp mill, the burning down of a fish plant and a significant population decline. 2005 may be viewed as a critical turning point: the announcement of the construction of a container port in April 2005, combined with new ownership of the pulp mill, the opening in 2004 of a new cruise ship dock, the resurgence of coal and grain shipping, and the prospects of increased heavy industry and tourism may foretell a bright future for the area. The port is becoming an important trans-Pacific hub.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: Prince Rupert is on Kaien Island (approximately 770 km (480 mi) northwest of Vancouver), just north of the mouth of Skeena River, and linked by a short bridge to the mainland. The city is along the island's northwestern shore, fronting on Prince Rupert Harbour. It lies at similar latitudes to Cumbria and the city of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in the northeast of England.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: At the secondary western terminus of Trans-Canada Highway 16 (the Yellowhead Highway), Prince Rupert is approximately 16 km west of Port Edward, 144 km west of Terrace, and 715 km west of Prince George.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: Prince Rupert has an oceanic climate (Köppen "Cfb") and is also in a temperate rainforest. Prince Rupert is known as "The City of Rainbows", as it is Canada's wettest city, with of annual precipitation on average, of which is rain; in addition, 240 days per year receive at least some measurable precipitation, and there are only 1230 hours of sunshine per year, so it is regarded as the municipality in Canada which receives the lowest amount of sunshine annually. Tourist brochures boast about Prince Rupert's "100 days of sunshine". However, Stewart, British Columbia receives even less sunshine, at 985 sunshine hours per year.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: Out of Canada's 100 largest cities, Prince Rupert has the coolest summer, with an average high of . Winters in Prince Rupert are mild by Canadian standards, with the average afternoon temperature in December, January and February being which is the tenth warmest in Canada, surpassed only by other British Columbia cities.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: Summers are mild and comparatively less rainy, with an August daily mean of . Spring and autumn are not particularly well-defined; rainfall nevertheless peaks in the autumn months. Winters are chilly and damp, but warmer than most locations at a similar latitude, due to Pacific moderation: the January daily mean is , although frosts and blasts of cold Arctic air from the northeast are not uncommon.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: Snow amounts are moderate for Canadian standards, averaging and occurring mostly from December to March. Snowfall in Prince Rupert is rare and the snow normally melts within a few days, although individual snowstorms may bring copious amounts of snow. Wind speeds are relatively strong, with prevailing winds blowing from the southeast.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: The highest temperature ever recorded in Prince Rupert was on 6 June 1958. The lowest temperature ever recorded was on 4 January 1965.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Prince Rupert had a population of 12,300 living in 5,072 of its 5,747 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 12,220. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: As of the 2001 Canadian census, among Canadian municipalities with a population of 5,000 or more, Prince Rupert had the highest percentage of First Nations population.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: Prince Rupert is part of the Skeena—Bulkley Valley federal riding (electoral district). Taylor Bachrach is the Member of Parliament for the riding, and is a member of the New Democratic Party.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: In the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Prince Rupert is a large portion of the North Coast riding. Jennifer Rice is the Member of the Legislative Assembly. She is a member of the New Democratic Party of British Columbia. The NDP traditionally has strong support in the region.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: Prince Rupert is in BC School District 52 along with Port Edward. A Coast Mountain College campus is located at 353 5th Ave that also serves as a campus for the University of Northern British Columbia.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: A belief at the beginning of the 1900s that trade expansion was shifting from Atlantic to Pacific destinations, and the benefit of being closer to Asia than existing west coast ports, proved wishful. Reduced transit times to eastern North America and Europe did not outweigh the fact that rail transport has always been far more expensive than by sea. The opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 exacerbated the problem.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: During 1906–08, the federal government undertook a hydrographic survey of the Prince Rupert harbour and approaches, finding it free of rocks or obstructions, and sufficient depth for good anchorage. Furthermore, it offered an easy entrance, fine shelter, and ample space. By 1909, a 1,500-foot wharf had been constructed.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: The port possesses the deepest ice-free natural harbour in North America, and the 3rd deepest natural harbour in the world. Situated at 54° North, the harbour is the northwesternmost port in North America linked to the continent's railway network. The port is the first inbound and last outbound port of call for some cargo ships travelling between eastern Asia and western North America since it is the closest North American port to key Asian destinations. The CN Aquatrain barge carries rail cargo between Prince Rupert and Whittier, Alaska.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: Passenger ferries operating from Prince Rupert include BC Ferries' service to the Haida Gwaii and to Port Hardy on Vancouver Island, and Alaska Marine Highway ferries to Ketchikan, Juneau and Sitka and many other ports along Alaska's Inside Passage. The Prince Rupert Ferry Terminal is co-located with the Prince Rupert railway station, from which Via Rail offers a thrice-weekly Jasper – Prince Rupert train, connecting to Prince George and Jasper, and through a connection with "The Canadian", to the rest of the continental passenger rail network.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: Much of the harbour is formed by the shelter provided by Digby Island, which lies windward of the city and contains the Prince Rupert Airport. The city is on Kaien Island and the harbour also includes Tuck Inlet, Morse Basin, Wainwright Basin, and Porpoise Harbour, as well as part of the waters of Chatham Sound which takes in Ridley Island.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: Prince Rupert is ideally located for a port, having the deepest natural harbour depths on the continent. The city's port capacity is comparable with the Port of Vancouver's. Unlike most west coast ports, there is little traffic congestion at Prince Rupert. Finally, the extremely mountainous nature and narrow channels of the surrounding area leaves Prince Rupert as the only suitable port location in the inland passage region.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: The Prince Rupert Port Authority (PRPA) is a federally appointed agency which administers and operates various port properties on the harbour. Previously run by the National Harbours Board and subsequently the Prince Rupert Port Corporation, the PRPA is now a locally run organization.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: The Canadian Coast Guard maintains CCG Base Seal Cove on Prince Rupert Harbour where vessels are homeported for search and rescue and maintenance of aids to navigation throughout the north coast. CCG also bases helicopters at Prince Rupert for servicing remote locations with aids to navigation, as well as operating a Marine Communications Centre, covering a large Vessel Traffic Services zone from Port Hardy at the northern tip of Vancouver Island to the International Boundary north of Prince Rupert.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: Both BC Ferries and the Alaska Marine Highway operate ferries which call at Prince Rupert, with destinations in the Alaska Panhandle, the Haida Gwaii, and isolated communities along the central coast to the south.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: Prince Rupert Airport (YPR/CYPR) is on Digby Island. Its position is , and its elevation is 35 m (116 ft) above sea level. The airport consists of one runway, one passenger terminal, and two aircraft stands. Access to the airport is typically achieved by a bus connection that departs from downtown Prince Rupert (Highliner Hotel) and travels to Digby Island by ferry. The airport is served by Air Canada from Vancouver International Airport (YVR).


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: Prince Rupert is also served by the Prince Rupert/Seal Cove Water Aerodrome, a seaplane facility with regularly scheduled, as well as chartered, flights to nearby villages and remote locations.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: CN Rail has a mainline that runs to Prince Rupert from Valemount, British Columbia. At Valemount, the Prince Rupert mainline joins the CN mainline from Vancouver. Freight traffic on the Prince Rupert mainline consists primarily of grain, coal, wood products, chemicals, and as of 2007, containers. As the renovations at the Port of Prince Rupert continue, traffic on CN will steadily rise in future years.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: In addition, a three times weekly Jasper – Prince Rupert train operated by Via Rail connects Prince Rupert with Prince George and Jasper. Running during daylight hours to allow passengers to be able to see the scenery along the entire route; the service takes two days and requires an overnight hotel stay in Prince George. The route ends in Jasper and connects passengers with Via's The Canadian, which runs between Toronto and Vancouver.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: Telephone, mobile, and Internet service are provided by CityWest (formerly CityTel). CityWest is owned by the City of Prince Rupert. CityWest provides long-distance telephone service, as does Telus.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: In September 2005, the city changed CityTel from a city department into an independent corporation named CityWest. The new corporation immediately purchased the local cable company, Monarch Cablesystems, expanding CityWest's customer base to other northwest British Columbia communities.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: Since January 2008, Rogers Communications has offered GSM and EDGE service in the area—the first real competition to CityWest's virtual monopoly. Rogers offers local numbers based in Port Edward (prefix 600), which is in the local calling zone for the Prince Rupert area. The introduction of Rogers service forced Citywest to form a partnership with Bell Canada to bring digital services to Citywest Mobility, using CDMA.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: In December 2013, CityWest and TELUS announced it was transitioning out of the cellular business over 2014 and would partner with TELUS to bring CityWest wireless customers onto TELUS' 4G wireless network.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: Prince Rupert is a central point on the Inside Passage, a route of relatively sheltered waters running along the Pacific coast from Vancouver, British Columbia to Skagway, Alaska. Many cruise ships visit during the summer "en route" between Alaska to the north and Vancouver and the Lower 48 to the south.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: Prince Rupert is also the starting point for many wildlife viewing trips including whales, eagles, salmon and grizzly bears. The Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear sanctuary features one of the densest remaining populations in North America; tours can be arranged by water, air (using float planes) or land departing from Prince Rupert.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: The Haida Gwaii are to the west of Prince Rupert, across the Hecate Strait. Alaska is 49 nautical miles (90 km, 56 mi) north of Prince Rupert.


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: The book "", written by Sarah de Leeuw, includes an essay about Prince Rupert entitled "Highway of Monsters".


title: Prince Rupert, British Columbia

text: Amuro Ray, the protagonist of the anime series Mobile Suit Gundam, was born and raised in Prince Rupert.


title: Indian Australians

text: Indian Australians or Indo-Australians are Australians of Indian ancestry. This includes both those who are Australian by birth, and those born in India or elsewhere in the Indian diaspora. Indian Australians are one of the largest groups within the Indian diaspora, with 783,958 persons declaring Indian ancestry at the 2021 census, representing 3.1% of the Australian population. In 2019, the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated that 721,050 Australian residents were born in India.


title: Indian Australians

text: Indians are the youngest average age (34 years) and the fastest growing community both in terms of absolute numbers and percentages in Australia.


title: Indian Australians

text: In 2017-18 India was the largest source of new permanent annual migrants to Australia since 2016, and overall third largest source nation of cumulative total migrant population behind England and China, 20.5% or 33,310 out of 162,417 Australian permanent resident visas went to the Indians who also additionally had 70,000 students were studying in Australian universities and colleges, and Hindi (ranked 8th with 0.7% of total population) and Punjabi (ranked 10th with 0.6% of total population) are among the top 10 languages spoken in Australia. The largest Indian Australian population is found in the state of Victoria. Among Indian origin religions, which also include non-Indians, are Buddhist (2.4% of total population or 563700 people), Hindus (1.9% or 440300) and Sikhs (0.5% or 125900).


title: Indian Australians

text: As of 2016, Indians were the highest educated migrant group in Australia with 54.6% of Indians in Australia having a bachelor's or higher degree, more than three times Australia's national average.


title: Indian Australians

text: The long history of Indian migration to Australia has progressed "from 18th-century sepoys and lascars (soldiers and sailors) aboard visiting European ships, through 19th-century migrant labourers and the 20th century’s hostile policies to the new generation of skilled professional migrants of the 21st century... India became the largest source of skilled migrants in the 21st century.""


title: Indian Australians

text: A study of Indigenous Australian DNA has found that Indigenous Australians may have mixed with people of Indian origin about 4,200 years ago. The same study showed that flint tools and Indian dogs may have been introduced from India at about this time. A 2012 paper reports that there is also evidence of a substantial genetic flow from India to northern Australia estimated at slightly over four thousand years ago, a time when changes in tool technology and food processing appear in the Australian archaeological record, suggesting that these may be related. One genetic study in 2012 by Irina Pugach and colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology has suggested that about 4,000 years before the First Fleet landed in Australia (in 1788), some Indian explorers had settled in Australia and assimilated into the local population in roughly 2217 BC. The study by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology found that there was a migration of genes from India to Australia around 2000 BCE. The researchers had two theories for this: either some Indians had contact with people in Indonesia who eventually transferred those genes from India to Aboriginal Australians, or that a group of Indians migrated all the way from India to Australia and intermingled with the locals directly. This also explains with the Vedda people of Sri Lanka; some of their facial features look very similar to the Australo-Melanesians, which are part of the Australoid race. It is now clear that this was the result of Andamanese aborigines intermixing with Indo-Aryan migrants; these same people (referring to the Andamanese) also shared ancestry with the Dravidians after intermixing with the now extinct Elamites (distinct from the modern Iranian peoples; they also shared ancestry with the Indo-Aryans).


title: Indian Australians

text: In 1627 the south coast of Australia was accidentally discovered by the Dutch East India Company explorer François Thijssen and named "'t Land van Pieter Nuyts", in honour of the highest ranking passenger, Pieter Nuyts, extraordinary Councillor of India. In 1628 a squadron of Dutch East India Company ships was sent by the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies Pieter de Carpentier to explore the northern coast. These ships made extensive examinations, particularly in the Gulf of Carpentaria, named in honour of de Carpentier. The Dutch East India Company ship, "Duyfken", led by Willem Janszoon, made the first documented European landing in Australia in 1606.


title: Indian Australians

text: Alexander Dalrymple (1737–1808 CE), the Examiner of Sea Journals for the British East India Company, whilst translating some Spanish documents captured by Indian sepoys during the 1762 CE occupation of Philippines by the British India, found Portuguese navigator Luis Váez de Torres's testimony which led Dalrymple to discover and publish in 1770–1771 the existence of an unknown continent which he named as Terra Australis (or Southern Continent), this aroused widespread interest and prompted the British government in 1769 to order James Cook in HM Bark "Endeavour" to seek out the Southern Continent, which was discovered in June 1767 by Samuel Wallis in and named by him King George Island. The London press reported in June 1768 that two ships would be sent to the newly discovered island and from there to "attempt the Discovery of the Southern Continent". The British East India Trade Committee recommended in 1823 that a settlement be established on the coast of northern Australia to forestall the Dutch, and Captain J.J.G. Bremer, RN, was commissioned to form a settlement between Bathurst Island and the Cobourg Peninsula.


title: Indian Australians

text: Indian immigration from British India to Australia began early in history of Australian colony. The first Indians arrived in Australia with the British settlers who had been living in India.


title: Indian Australians

text: The people of the first British fleet to establish a new colony, which landed on 26 January 1788, included seamen, marines and their families, government officials, and a large number of convicts, including women and children. All had been tried and convicted in Great Britain and almost all of them in England. However, many are known to have come to England from other parts of Great Britain and, especially, from Ireland; at least 12 were identified as black (born in India, Britain, Africa, the West Indies, North America, or a European country or its colony).


title: Indian Australians

text: Between 1788 and 1868 on board 806 ships in all about 164,000 convicts were transported to the Australian colonies, 1% were from the British outposts in India and Canada, Maoris from New Zealand, Chinese from Hong Kong and slaves from the Caribbean. British colonial convict ships from Britain and elsewhere to Australia frequently stopped over in India, many of which were built in India, and among those ships with convicts started the initial sail from India include "HMS Duchess of York" which sailed from Bengal in India and arrived at Port Jackson on 4 April 1807 carrying merchandise and rice also transported two military convicts, "Hunter" arrived on 20 August 1810, "Indian" arrived on 16 December 1810, "Amboyna" arrived in Australia on 1 January 1822, "Cawdry" arrived on 1 January 1826 from India and Ceylon, "Edward Lombes" on 6 January 1833, and "Swallow" arrived on 23 October 1836. "Almorah" sailed from Britain and stopped over at Madras and Bengal in 1818.


title: Indian Australians

text: In the late 1830s, more Indians started to arrive in Australia as indentured labourers when the penal transport of convicts to New South Wales (which at the time also consisted of Queensland and Victoria) was slowing, before being abolished altogether in 1840. The lack of manual labourers from the convict assignment system led to an increase demand for foreign labour, which was partly filled by the arrival of Indians who came from an agrarian background in India, and thus fulfilled their tasks as farm labourers on cane fields and shepherds on sheep stations well. In 1844, P. Friell who had previously lived in India, brought 25 domestic workers from India to Sydney and these included a few women and children. Among the earliest Indians was a Hindu Sindhi merchant, Shri Pammull, who after arrived in 1850s built a family opal trade in Melbourne which still prosperously continues with his fourth-generation descendants. "Initially, the migrants from India were indentured labourers, who worked on sheep stations and farms around Australia. Some adventurers followed during the gold rush of the 1850s. A census from 1861 indicates that there were around 200 Indians in Victoria of whom 20 were in Ballarat, the town which was at the epicenter of the gold rush. Thereafter, many more came and worked as hawkers - going from house to house, town to town, traversing thousands of kilometers, making a living by selling a variety of products."


title: Indian Australians

text: From the 1860s, Indians, most of them Sikh, worked as merchants, industrialists, and businessmen to operate throughout outback Australia, as 'pioneers of the inland'. The 1881 census records 998 people who were born in India but this had grown to over 1700 by 1891.


title: Indian Australians

text: Between 1860s to 1900 period when small groups of cameleers were also shipped in and out of Australia at three-year intervals, to service South Australia's inland pastoral industry by carting goods and transporting wool bales by camel trains, who were commonly referred to as "Afghans" or "Ghans", despite their origin often being mainly from British India, and some even from Afghanistan and Egypt and Turkey. Majority of cameleers, including Indian cameleers, were Muslims with a sizeable minority were Sikhs from Punjab region, they set up camel-breeding stations and rest house outposts, known as caravanserai, throughout inland Australia, creating a permanent link between the coastal cities and the remote cattle and sheep grazing stations until about the 1930s, when they were largely replaced by the automobile.


title: Indian Australians

text: From federation in 1901 until the 1973 immigration of non-whites, including Indians, into Australia was restricted due to the enactment of the White Australia policy. The laws made it impossible for Indians to enter the country unless they were merchants or students, who themselves were only allowed in for short periods of time. Historians place the number of Indians in Australia at federation in 1901 somewhere between 4700 and 7600. According to the 1911 census, there was only 3698 'Indians' signifying a large decrease, with the trend continuing, with only approximately 2200 'Indians' in the country in 1921. After 1901 Immigration Restriction Act was introduced by the Australian Government the migration [of non-white migrants] from India was curtailed, but following India's independence from Britain in 1947, the number of Indian-born Anglo-western white British citizens emigrating to Australia increased, along with migration of mixed race European-Indians, such as Anglo-Indians, Dutch Anglo-Indians and Portuguese Indians. The 1901 Immigration Restriction Act, one of the first laws passed by the new Australian parliament, which was the centrepiece of the White Australia Policy aimed to restrict immigration from Asia, where the population was vastly greater and the standard of living vastly lower and was similar to measures taken in other settler societies such as the United States, Canada and New Zealand. While Labor Party wanted to protect "white" jobs and pushed for clearer restrictions, Free Trade Party's MP Bruce Smith said he had ""no desire to see low-class Indians, Chinamen or Japanese...swarming into this country... But there is obligation...not (to) unnecessarily offend the educated classes of those nations"".


title: Indian Australians

text: During World War I (1914–1918 CE) Indian and Australian troops were deployed together in several sectors, including in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Egypt and Turkey. During Gallipoli Campaign the Australians and New Zealanders troops were deployed to take part in the operation, although they were outnumbered by the British, Indian and French contingents, a fact which is often overlooked today by many Australians and New Zealanders. Australian nurses also staffed 10 British colonial hospitals in India.


title: Indian Australians

text: During World War II (1939-1945 CE) the hundreds of Australians were posted to British units in Burma and India. Hundreds of Australians also served with RAF units in India and Burma, and in May 1943 330 Australians were serving in forty-one squadrons in India, of which only nine had more than ten Australians. In addition, many of the RAN's corvettes and destroyers served with the British Eastern Fleet where they were normally used to protect convoys in the Indian Ocean from attacks by Japanese and German submarines. Indian, Australian and British troops made a disorganised last stand at Singapore, before surrendering to Japan and Indian National Army of Subhas Chandra Bose's Azad Hind on 15 February 1942, which led to weakening of British empire and eventual independence of India in 1947.


title: Indian Australians

text: The end of White Australia policy saw a boom in migration of middle-class skilled professionals, by 2016 over 2 in every 3 migrants who arrived were skilled professionals mainly from India, UK, China, South Africa and Philippines, ""to work as doctors and nurses, human-resources and marketing professionals, business managers, IT specialists, and engineers...who were not fleeing war or poverty. The Indians in Australia are predominantly male, while the Chinese are majority female."" Indians are the largest migrant ethnic group in Melbourne and Adelaide, fourth largest in Brisbane, and likely to jump from third place to second place in Sydney by 2021. In Melbourne, the suburbs of Docklands, Footscray, Sunshine and Tarneit have higher concentration of Indians specially the students. In Sydney, Parramatta [and neighbouring suburbs such as Harris Park and Westmead, etc.] have higher concentration of migrants. By 2019, the number of Indians grew at nine times the annual national average growth, and number of overseas student visas and post-study work visas also exploded.


title: Indian Australians

text: Between 2007 and 2010, the violence against Indians in Australia controversy took place, and a subsequent Indian Government investigation concluded that, of 152 reported racially motivated assaults against Indian students in Australia in 2009, 23 involved racial overtones. In the year 2007–2008, 1,447 Indians had been victims of crime including assaults and robberies in the state of Victoria in Australia. In either case, the Victorian police refused to release the data for public scrutiny, the stated reason being that it was "problematic: as well as 'subjective and open to interpretation'". Indian media have accused the Australian authorities of being denialist. On 9 June 2009, Indian Prime Minister, addressing the Indian Parliament said that "he was 'appalled' by the senseless violence and crime, some of which are racist in nature," Indian students held protests in Melbourne and Sydney, which were sparked by an earlier attack on Indians by Lebanese Australian men.


title: Indian Australians

text: 783,958 persons declared Indian ancestry (whether alone or in combination with another ancestry) at the 2021 census, representing 3.1% of the Australian population. In 2019, the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated that 721,050 Australian residents were born in India.


title: Indian Australians

text: At the 2021 census the states with the largest number of people nominating Indian ancestry were: Victoria (276,770), New South Wales (261,103), Queensland (93,648), Western Australia (77,357) and South Australia (43,598).


title: Indian Australians

text: In 2009 there were an additional 90,000 Indian students studying at Australian tertiary institutions according to Prime Minister Rudd.


title: Indian Australians

text: This table only reflects the people who were born in India, and not all the people who have the Indian ancestry such as the second generation Indian Australians or the first generation Indian Australians from Indian diaspora nations e.g. Fiji, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Suriname, Guyana, etc. Prior to 1947 India's Independence and simultaneous partition, the Pakistani Australian and Bangladeshi Australian as nations did not exist as these were part of British India, hence these are also included in the demography of Australian Indians till 1947.


title: Indian Australians

text: Hindi and Punjabi languages, with 159,652 and 132,496 speakers, are among top 10 language spoken at home in Australia. Other Indian languages and their respecting speaker in Australia are Tamil (73,161), Bengali (54,566), Malayalam (53,206), Gujarati (52,888), Telugu (34,435), Marathi (13,055), Kannada (9,701), Konkani (2,416), Sindhi (1,592), Kashmiri (215), and Odia (721). Number of Hindi speakers by state in 2018, were NSW (67,034), Victoria (51,241), Queensland (18,163), Western Australia (10,747), South Australia (7,310), ACT (3,646), NT (852), and Tasmania (639). 81% of Punjabi speakers are Sikhs, 13.3% are Hindus and 1.4% are Muslims.


title: Indian Australians

text: According to the 2016 census, majority of Indian Australians are Hindus with about 444,000 individuals who profess Hinduism. Hinduism is also the fastest growing religion in Australia.


title: Indian Australians

text: There are minority of Indian Australians who also follow Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrianism and others.


title: Indian Australians

text: Hindus in Australia grew to 3698 by 1911, 21000 by 1981, 41730 by 1986, 43000 by 1991, 67270 by 1996, 95000 by 2001, 145000 by 2006, 275000 by 2011, and 2% of the Australian population by 2016. In 1971 first ISKON Hare Krishna centre in Sydney was established by Swami Prabhupada, and in 1977 the first Hindu temple of Australia the Sri Mandir Temple was built in Auburn in NSW, followed by the establishment of Sydney Lord Murukan temple in 1985. In 2015, Daniel Mookhey becomes the first Australian MP to be sworn into office by swearing his/her oath on the Bhagavad Gita. In 2018, Kaushaliya Vaghela becomes the first Indian-born Hindu Member of Parliament in any Australian Parliament.


title: Indian Australians

text: According to the , the Sikhism in Australia population numbered 125,909 individuals, of whom 39% live in Greater Melbourne, 21% in Greater Sydney, and 10% in Greater Brisbane. The states and territories with the highest proportion of Sikhs are Victoria (0.89%) and the Australian Capital Territory (0.54%), whereas those with the lowest are the Northern Territory (0.28%) and Tasmania (0.10%).


title: Indian Australians

text: In 2016, it was revealed 54.6% of Indian migrants in Australia hold a bachelor's degree or a higher educational degree, more than three times Australia's national average of 17.2% in 2011, making them the most educated demographic group in Australia.


title: Indian Australians

text: India annually contributes the largest number of migrants to both Australia and New Zealand. According to census figures from 2016, among India-born residents in Australia, the median income was $785, higher than the corresponding figure for all overseas-born residents at $615, and all Australia-born residents at $688.


title: Indian Australians

text: "Indians and the Antipodes: Networks, Boundaries and Circulation" 2018 book edited by Sekhar Bandyopadhyay and Jane Buckingham "is the first book that seeks to juxtapose histories of Indian migration to Australia and New Zealand in a comparative framework to show their interconnectedness as well as dissimilarities. Side by side with stories of collective suffering and struggles of the diaspora, it focuses on individual resilience, enterprise and social mobility. It analyses 'White Australia' and 'White New Zealand' policies of the early twentieth century to point to their interconnected histories. It also looks critically at the more recent migration, its changing nature and the challenges it poses to both the migrant communities and the host societies."


title: Pearl Jam (album)

text: Pearl Jam is the eighth studio album by American rock band Pearl Jam, released on May 2, 2006 on J Records. It was Pearl Jam's first and only release for J Records, their last album issued by Sony Music. It was the band's first full-length studio release in almost four years, since "Riot Act" (2002). The band commenced work on "Pearl Jam" in November 2004 at Studio X in Seattle, Washington and finished in February 2006.


title: Pearl Jam (album)

text: The music on the record was proclaimed as a return to the band's roots, with an emphasis on up-tempo songs with an aggressive sound. The song lyrics are mostly told from the point of view of characters and deal with the socio-political issues in the United States at the period, such as the War on Terror.


title: Pearl Jam (album)

text: "Pearl Jam" was critically well received and a commercial success, debuting at number two on the "Billboard" 200 chart and eventually outselling the band's previous release, "Riot Act". The album also produced three singles—"World Wide Suicide," "Life Wasted" and "Gone"—which were moderately successful. The band supported the album with a full-scale world tour in 2006. Writing for "Kerrang!," George Garner called the album "criminally underrated".


title: Pearl Jam (album)

text: "Pearl Jam" was recorded at Studio X in Seattle, Washington. The band began work on the album following the 2004 Vote for Change tour in November 2004, and again employed producer Adam Kasper, who worked with them on predecessor "Riot Act". The recording sessions started in February 2005, and they worked on it off and on throughout the year, with the sessions being interrupted toward the end of the year when the band toured North America and South America. The album was completed in early 2006. Bassist Jeff Ament attributed the length of time recording to lead vocalist Eddie Vedder having a child and the band touring in the middle of recording. The album was mixed by Kasper at Studio X.


title: Pearl Jam (album)

text: For the first time since 1993's "Vs.", the band members did not go into the recording sessions with any completed songs, only guitar riffs. Vedder admitted that the band "really went in with nothing." The band sat around playing music together and discussed the song arrangements, and in just one week had completed ten songs. Ament described it as a "real collaborative effort," and Vedder described it as "absolute democracy." Guitarist Mike McCready stated that the band members were feeling "fresh and energetic" and "were communicating better than ever." Toward the end of the sessions it came down to Vedder to finish up the material, with Ament observing that "the way the record started and the way that it finished is probably two different things." Regarding his lyric writing process, Vedder said that he wrote at least four different sets of lyrics for each song, with many going as high as eight. Vedder described as a process that demands "the patience of like a "National Geographic" photographer sitting underneath the bush in a tent", adding he would at times "figure out after eight, nine or eleven drafts that the first one was actually the one". A total of 25 songs were written before coming down to the 13 on the final track listing. Outtakes include "The Forest", later featured on Ament's 2008 solo album "Tone", and "Of the Earth", which started being played live in 2010.


title: Pearl Jam (album)

text: Pearl Jam's contract with Epic Records had ended in 2003, but the band was not ready to release an album without label backing. Independent label Epitaph Records was considered, but the band wanted a company that would guarantee a wide release. Manager Kelly Curtis signed a one-record deal with J Records - which ironically during production became, like Epic, a subsidiary of Sony Music after said company merged with J's parent company BMG. J had approached Pearl Jam as early as 2001, and had its first experiments with the band issuing the live album "Live at Benaroya Hall" in 2004. Vedder said J was picked as they searched for "somebody who'll allow us to be who we are and respects how we do things" and contributed with the "facilitation of getting the music out there". Gossard added the label did not input any time or creative constraints upon the band - " We didn't play them much music until it was basically done, and they were pleased. They weren't expecting us to do something that was unnatural for us."


title: Pearl Jam (album)

text: A number of critics cited the album as a return to the band's roots. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic said, "Nearly 15 years after "Ten", Pearl Jam finally returned to the strengths of their debut with 2006's "Pearl Jam", a sharply focused set of impassioned hard rock." Vedder said, "It's easily the best stuff we've done but also some of the hardest stuff. It's very aggressive, because again, it's kind of a product of what it's like to be an American these days. It's pretty aggressive, especially when you turn it loud." Gossard added that after many experimental albums, "Pearl Jam" was "like a coming together again in terms of accepting our natural strengths and also incorporating the best of our experiments".


title: Pearl Jam (album)

text: The album begins with a number of up-tempo songs before expanding to a variety of tempos for its second half. Vedder attributed the faster and more aggressive songs to the band writing a lot of material that kept getting pared down, with the band leaving behind mid-tempo songs, while Ament suggested that it was because of the band balancing recording and touring which resulted in "physicality ... from being out on the road." The band attempted to create an environment in which McCready and drummer Matt Cameron could play much as they do live. Ament said that there was "a lot of honing of the guitars and vocals in the middle and toward the end," which resulted in the album sounding "more polished." On the overall feeling of the album, Ament said, "The band playing in a room—that came across. There's a kind of immediacy to the record, and that's what we were going for."


title: Pearl Jam (album)

text: Current socio-political issues in the United States are addressed on the album, with Vedder claiming the record "deals with real content and the moral issues of our time", and crediting as inspiration both the frustration with George W. Bush being reelected, and the birth of Vedder's daughter - "Now that I see it as my daughter's planet, I'm even more (angry)." McCready said, "We all feel that we're living in tumultuous, frightening times, and that ranges from the Iraq war to Hurricane Katrina to wiretapping to anything that smacks of totalitarianism. And just bad political decisions being made. We feel that as Americans, and we're frustrated. So a lot of those feelings have come out in these songs." Vedder also added that among all the dark themes "the hope was going to be in the guitar solos. It was the guitars and drums going at it that was going to lift you out of the dark abyss that I had painted." The Iraq War is addressed in the songs "World Wide Suicide", "Marker in the Sand", and "Army Reserve". The lyrics of "World Wide Suicide" depict anger against the war. Other themes addressed on the album include alcohol use ("Severed Hand"), religion ("Marker in the Sand"), poverty ("Unemployable"), leaving everything behind to seek a fresh start ("Gone"), and loneliness ("Come Back").


title: Pearl Jam (album)

text: Many of the songs are written from the point of view of a protagonist, which emerged from an early idea of turning the record into a concept album - as guitarist Stone Gossard explained, "we did consider using narration to thematically unify the album, but ultimately a less conceptual structure just felt right." Vedder added that using characters in the tracks helped with the themes, as the stories could "transmit an emotion or a feeling or an observation of modern reality rather than editorializing, which we've seen plenty of these days".


title: Pearl Jam (album)

text: Vedder added that many songs were inspired by the death of fellow musician Johnny Ramone, whom he described as "the best friend I ever had on the planet". The lyrics of "Life Wasted" in particular were written after attending Ramone's funeral. Vedder said that "Gone" is about a man "needing to find a new life without his past, without his possessions, and not really looking for more possessions." Damien Echols, one of the three members of the West Memphis 3, co-wrote the lyrics to "Army Reserve". For the first time McCready contributed lyrics to a Pearl Jam album, writing the lyrics to the closing track "Inside Job". McCready said that he wrote the lyrics while touring in São Paulo as he "want[ed] this song to happen" despite Vedder not having done the lyrics yet, and added that the lyrical inspiration was the realization that "I had to go inside myself first before I could be open to outside ideas."


title: Pearl Jam (album)

text: The album's cover art, photographed by Brad Klausen, depicts an avocado cut in half with the pit still in place. McCready said, "That symbolizes just kind of ... Ed's at the end of the process and said, for all I care right now, we've done such a good job on this record, and we're kind of tired from it. Let's throw an avocado on the cover. I think that's what happened, and our art director goes, hey, that's not a bad idea. I think we were watching the Super Bowl, and we had some guacamole or something." Because the album is self-titled, many fans refer to it as "Avocado" or "The Avocado Album." The cover was named in Pitchfork Media's top 25 worst album covers of 2006. The liner notes art features footage from the "Life Wasted" music video, directed by artist Fernando Apodaca. The photographs involve the band members with their skin decaying and animals crawling in and out of it, as Apodaca felt the songs, "Life Wasted" in particular, fit "my interpretation of the how fragile life is". The album was also issued on a double vinyl.


title: Pearl Jam (album)

text: On the choice of a self-titled album, Vedder explained, "In the end, we thought there was enough there with the title of the songs, so to put another title on the album would have seemed pretentious. So, really, it's actually "Nothing" by Pearl Jam." During the making of the album Vedder considered the title "Superun-owned", a play on Soundgarden's 1994 album, "Superunknown". He explained, "We're un-owned. We want to remain un-owned."


title: Pearl Jam (album)

text: Copies of the album were made available for pre-order through Pearl Jam's official website with different CD art and packaging than the retail version, and also a bonus disk featuring the band's show on December 31, 1992 at The Academy Theater in New York City. Pre-order campaigns were also set with iTunes, Amazon and Best Buy, each retailer receiving an exclusive behind-the-scenes or rehearsal clip shot by photographer Danny Clinch.


title: Pearl Jam (album)

text: The album was released on May 2, 2006. The Sony BMG merger lead to some problems in the international distribution, something the band took into consideration during the release of the self-published "Backspacer" three years later. While Pearl Jam is normally averse to press, to promote the album they performed the album songs on Sessions@AOL, and went to various television shows, including "Saturday Night Live", "Late Show with David Letterman", and "Later... with Jools Holland". Vedder said the exposition happened because "it seem[ed] like a critical time to participate in our democracy." The band also decided to shoot their first conceptual music videos in eight years, "World Wide Suicide" and "Life Wasted".


title: Pearl Jam (album)

text: Three singles were released from "Pearl Jam". The lead single "World Wide Suicide" was made available through online music stores (backed with "Unemployable"), and also issued for free download on the band's website. "World Wide Suicide" entered the "Billboard" Hot 100 at number 41, reached number two on the Mainstream Rock charts, and spent a total of three weeks at number one on the Modern Rock charts. Neither of the album's other commercially released singles, "Life Wasted" and "Gone", charted on the Hot 100, but the former placed on both the Mainstream Rock and Modern Rock charts, while the latter placed on the Modern Rock chart "Big Wave" was featured in the 2006 Twentieth Century Fox movie, "Aquamarine" and on the soundtrack to the 2007 Columbia Pictures movie, "Surf's Up".


title: Pearl Jam (album)

text: Pearl Jam promoted the album with a tour across North America, Europe, and Australia in 2006. The tour originally had 69 concerts, which were then expanded with three gigs in Hawaii, one of them opening for U2's Vertigo Tour in Honolulu. The first leg of the North American tour focused on the Northeastern United States, and then the band moved to the Midwest and the West Coast for the tour's second leg.


title: Pearl Jam (album)

text: Pearl Jam went on to tour Europe for its first time in six years. The band played a small secret show at the Astoria in London, and headlined the Reading and Leeds Festivals in August 2006, despite having vowed to never play at a festival again after Roskilde. In an interview in advance of the band's return to the festival circuit, Gossard commented, "It seems like an era to trust that we're aware enough to get through those bigger shows. We have a heightened awareness of what needs to happen every night so people are as safe as they can possibly be." Vedder started both concerts with an emotional plea to the crowd to look after each other. He commented during the Leeds set that the band's decision to play a festival for the first time after Roskilde had nothing to do with "guts" but with trust in the audience. On September 19, 2006, at the Torino, Italy show at Palaisozaki, Pearl Jam played "Pearl Jam" in its entirety in order midway through its set. After Europe, the band headed to Australia and then finished the year with two shows in Hawaii. The official bootlegs on this tour were available only in digital form, in both MP3 and lossless FLAC formats. The band's shows at The Gorge Amphitheatre were released as part of the "Live at the Gorge 05/06" box set. A DVD documenting the band's shows in Italy entitled "Immagine in Cornice" was released in 2007.


title: Pearl Jam (album)

text: "Pearl Jam" entered the UK charts at number five, the band's highest position there since 2000's "Binaural", while it reached number two in the U.S., selling 279,564<nowiki> </nowiki>copies in its first week. It was held off the top spot by the Tool album, "10,000 Days". As of July 2009, the album has sold 750,000<nowiki> </nowiki>copies in the United States according to Nielsen SoundScan. "Pearl Jam" is considered a comeback hit, outselling 2002's "Riot Act" - by 2009, 750,000 copies as opposed to "Riot Act"s 508,000- and ranking 90th in "Billboard"s list of the 200 best-selling albums of 2006. It has been certified gold by the RIAA.


title: Pearl Jam (album)

text: According to Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 74, based on 28 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews." The album was named in "Rolling Stone"'s top 50 albums of the year at number 13. "Rolling Stone" staff writer David Fricke gave "Pearl Jam" four out of five stars, calling it the band's best album in ten years. He said it's "the most overtly partisan—and hopeful—record of their lives," adding that it's "as big and brash in fuzz and backbone as Led Zeppelin's "Presence"." Allmusic staff writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave the album four and a half out of five stars, saying that "Pearl Jam has embraced everything they do well, whether it's their classicist hard rock or heart-on-sleeve humanitarianism." Chris Willman of "Entertainment Weekly" gave the album a B+, saying that Vedder's "passionate howl seems more valuable now, pitted against the navel-gazing emo whine that's commandeered the landscape," and he went on to say that "in a world full of boys sent to do a man's job of rocking, Pearl Jam can still pull off gravitas." Jon Pareles of "The New York Times" said, "Now as ever, Pearl Jam takes itself seriously. But it delivers that seriousness not with the sodden self-importance of rock superstardom, but with the craft and hunger of a band still proving itself on the spot." PopMatters writer Michael Metivier gave the album a 9/10 rating and viewed it as a progression in "melody and songcraft" over the band's previous work, writing that it "more consistently achieves the grandeur, rage, and beauty they've always pursued, throughout its entirety".


title: Pearl Jam (album)

text: Brian D. Schiller of Slant Magazine gave the album three and a half out of five stars. He stated that "the album is at best another good step toward their once great state and not a full return to it. What's true, though, is that it's the group's best full album since "Vitalogy"." Noel Murray of "The A.V. Club" ranked the album B+, considering it the "tightest Pearl Jam album in a decade", describing the album as a comeback "filled with straight-up, riff-a-riffic rock songs." "Mojo" gave the album three out of five stars. The review said, "[S]elf-titled with good reason: Pearl Jam sound reborn, vital." Kyle Anderson of "Spin" gave the album three out of five stars. He said that "rather than rage against the time machine, they seem to be having fun ... Pearl Jam are taking themselves less seriously, and it fits them like a snug flannel shirt." Mat Snow of "The Guardian" also gave the album three out of five stars. In the review he stated that Vedder "musters absolute conviction in writing and singing lyrics of male teenage angst." Snow observed, "And though few of these 13 numbers have the drama of tracks by the Who or Led Zeppelin, from whom the band draw much of their style, Pearl Jam play like men on a mission." David Raposa of "Pitchfork" called it the "most consistent effort the group's released since its second album," but he added that it "gets pretty boring pretty ... quick."