title: The Nativity Story

text: Meanwhile, three Magi—Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar (Stefan Kalipha, Nadim Sawalha and Eriq Ebouaney) —travel towards Judaea after having previously discovered that three planets will align to form a great star. This Star of Bethlehem appears before the Magi, after a visit by the Archangel Gabriel. The Magi visit Herod and reveal to him that the Messiah is still a child and he will be a Messiah "for the lowest of men to the highest of kings." Shocked by this, Herod asks that they visit the newborn Messiah and report the child's location back to him, under the pretence that he, too, would like to worship him, while in fact he plans to kill the baby for fear of a new king taking his throne. The Magi arrive at the stable where Mary is giving birth to Jesus, and they present the Infant with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.


title: The Nativity Story

text: Suspicious of his intentions, the Magi avoid Herod, returning home via a different route. Herod realises that the Magi have tricked him and orders the death of every boy in Bethlehem under the age of two. Joseph is warned in a dream of the danger and flees to Egypt with Mary and Jesus as the film ends.


title: The Nativity Story

text: "The Nativity Story" opened to a modest first weekend at the domestic box office by grossing $7.8 million, with a 39% increase over the extended Christmas weekend. After its initial run, the film closed out with about $37.6 million in domestic gross and $8.8 million in foreign gross, resulting in a worldwide total of almost $46.4 million on a reported $35 million budget.


title: The Nativity Story

text: "The Nativity Story" received mixed reviews. , the film holds a 37% approval rating on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 131 reviews with an average rating of 5.29/10. The site's consensus says, ""The Nativity Story" is a dull retelling of a well-worn tale with the look and feel of a high-school production." Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 52 based on 28 reviews.


title: The Nativity Story

text: A. O. Scott of "The New York Times" gave the film a positive review saying, "At its best, "The Nativity Story" shares with "Hail Mary" an interest in finding a kernel of realism in the old story of a pregnant teenager in hard times. Buried in the pageantry, in other words, is an interesting movie." Ann Hornaday of "The Washington Post" concluded a positive review of the film stating, "The most intriguing thing about "The Nativity Story" transpires during the couple's extraordinary personal journey, advancing a radical idea in an otherwise long slog of a cinematic Sunday school lesson: that Jesus became Who He was not only because He was the Son of God, but because He was the son of a good man."


title: The Nativity Story

text: Conversely, many critics felt that the film did not take the story to new cinematic heights. Owen Gleiberman of "Entertainment Weekly" noted, ""The Nativity Story" is a film of tame picture-book sincerity, but that's not the same thing as devotion. The movie is too tepid to feel, or see, the light." Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" said, "This is not a chance to 'experience the most timeless of stories as you've never seen it before' but just the opposite: an opportunity, for those who want it, to encounter this story exactly the way it's almost always been told."


title: The Nativity Story

text: Keisha Castle-Hughes became pregnant during filming, at the age of 16, and received a lot of media attention.


title: The Nativity Story

text: Mychael Danna's score of the film was released as an album on December 5, 2006. The album was nominated for a Dove Award for Instrumental Album of the Year at the 39th GMA Dove Awards.


title: The Nativity Story

text: An album of songs inspired by the film was also released under the title "The Nativity Story: Sacred Songs". It featured music by artists like Point of Grace, Amy Grant, Jaci Velasquez, and others.


title: Saint-Paul-de-Vence

text: Saint-Paul-de-Vence (, literally "Saint-Paul of Vence"; ; ) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of Southeastern France. One of the oldest medieval towns on the French Riviera, it is well known for its modern and contemporary art museums and galleries such as the Fondation Maeght, and for the 17-century Saint Charles-Saint Claude chapel, which in 2012–2013 was decorated with murals by French artist Paul Conte.


title: Saint-Paul-de-Vence

text: Saint-Paul-de-Vence has long been a haven of the famous, mostly due to the La Colombe d'Or hotel, whose former guests include Jean-Paul Sartre and Pablo Picasso. During the 1960s, the village was frequented by French actors Yves Montand, Simone Signoret and Lino Ventura, and poet Jacques Prévert.


title: Saint-Paul-de-Vence

text: Saint-Paul is also well known for the artists who have lived there, such as Jacques Raverat, Gwen Raverat and Marc Chagall and more recently the couple Bernard-Henri Lévy and Arielle Dombasle. Former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman has a home there. American writer James Baldwin lived in Saint-Paul-de-Vance for 17 years until his death in 1987. British actor Donald Pleasence lived there until his death in 1995.


title: Saint-Paul-de-Vence

text: Xanthi FC player Vincenzo Rennella was born in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. Actress and artist Rebecca Dayan was raised in a hotel there.


title: Saint-Paul-de-Vence

text: American comic actors Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner were married in Saint-Paul-de-Vence by its mayor on September 18, 1984.


title: Saint Alban

text: Saint Alban (; ) is venerated as the first-recorded British Christian martyr, for which reason he is considered to be the British protomartyr. Along with fellow Saints Julius and Aaron, Alban is one of three named martyrs recorded at an early date from Roman Britain ("Amphibalus" was the name given much later to the priest he was said to have been protecting). He is traditionally believed to have been beheaded in Verulamium (modern St Albans) sometime during the 3rd or 4th century, and his cult has been celebrated there since ancient times.


title: Saint Alban

text: Alban lived in Roman Britain, but little is known about his religious affiliations, socioeconomic status, or citizenship. According to the most elaborate version of the tale found in Bede's "Ecclesiastical History of the English People", in the 3rd or 4th century (see dating controversy below), Christians began to suffer "cruel persecution", and Alban was living in Verulamium. However, Gildas says he crossed the Thames before his martyrdom, so some authors place his residence and martyrdom in or near London. Both agree that Alban met a Christian priest fleeing from persecutors and sheltered him in his house for a number of days. The priest, who later came to be called "Amphibalus", meaning "cloak" in Latin, prayed and "kept watch" day and night, and Alban was so impressed with the priest's faith and piety that he found himself emulating him and soon converted to Christianity. Eventually, it came to the ears of an unnamed "impious prince" that Alban was sheltering the priest. The prince gave orders for Roman soldiers to make a strict search of Alban's house. As they came to seize the priest, Alban put on the priest's cloak and clothing and presented himself to the soldiers in place of his guest.


title: Saint Alban

text: Alban was brought before a judge, who just then happened to be standing at the altar, offering sacrifices to "devils" (Bede's reference to pagan gods). When the judge heard that Alban had offered himself up in place of the priest, he became enraged that Alban would shelter a person who "despised and blasphemed the gods," and, as Alban had given himself up in the Christian's place, Alban was sentenced to endure all the punishments that were to be inflicted upon the priest, unless he would comply with the pagan rites of their religion. Alban refused, and declared, "I worship and adore the true and living God who created all things." (The words are still used in prayer at St Alban's Abbey). The enraged judge ordered Alban to be scourged, thinking that a whipping would shake the constancy of his heart, but Alban bore these torments patiently and joyfully. When the judge realized that the tortures would not shake his faith, he gave orders for Alban to be beheaded.


title: Saint Alban

text: Alban was led to execution, and he presently came to a fast-flowing river that could not be crossed (believed to be the River Ver). There was a bridge, but a mob of curious townspeople who wished to watch the execution had so clogged the bridge that the execution party could not cross. Filled with an ardent desire to arrive quickly at martyrdom, Alban raised his eyes to heaven, and the river dried up, allowing Alban and his captors to cross over on dry land. The astonished executioner cast down his sword and fell at Alban's feet, moved by divine inspiration and praying that he might either suffer with Alban or be executed for him.


title: Saint Alban

text: The other executioners hesitated to pick up his sword, and meanwhile, Alban and they went about 500 paces to a gently sloping hill, completely covered with all kinds of wild flowers, and overlooking a beautiful plain. (Bede observes that it was a fittingly beautiful place to be enriched and sanctified by a martyr's blood.)


title: Saint Alban

text: When Alban reached the summit of the hill, he began to thirst and prayed God would give him water. A spring immediately sprang up at his feet. It was there that his head was struck off, as well as the head of the first Roman soldier who was miraculously converted and refused to execute him. However, immediately after delivering the fatal stroke, the eyes of the second executioner popped out of his head and dropped to the ground, along with Alban's head, so that this second executioner could not rejoice over Alban's death.


title: Saint Alban

text: In later legends, Alban's head rolled downhill after his execution, and a well sprang up where it stopped.


title: Saint Alban

text: Upon hearing of the miracles, the astonished judge ordered further persecutions to cease, and he began to honour the saint's death.


title: Saint Alban

text: St Albans Cathedral now stands near the believed site of his execution, and a well is at the bottom of the hill, Holywell Hill.


title: Saint Alban

text: The earliest mention of Alban's martyrdom is believed to be in Victricius's "De Laude Sanctorum" (The Praise of Saints), c. 396. Victricius had just returned from settling an unnamed dispute among the bishops of Britain. He does not mention Alban by name, but includes an unnamed martyr, who, "in the hands of the executioners told rivers to draw back, lest he should be delayed in his haste." The account closely resembles Alban's martyrdom, and many historians have concluded that this may be a reference to Alban, making it the earliest surviving reference to a British saint. There can be no certainty, however, that the martyr referred to is actually Saint Alban.


title: Saint Alban

text: The foundational text concerning Alban is the "Passio Albani", or the Passion of Alban, which relates the tale of Alban's martyrdom, and Germanus of Auxerre's subsequent visit to the site of Alban's execution. This "Passio" survives in six manuscripts, with three different recensions, referred to as T, P, and E, the oldest of which dates to the eighth century. The T manuscript is located in Turin, the P manuscript is found in Paris and the E manuscripts (of which there are 4) are at The British Library and Gray's Inn, both in London, and Autun (France) and Einsiedeln (Switzerland). The "Passio" is very likely the source text of the more well-known accounts found in Gildas and Bede.


title: Saint Alban

text: Another early text to mention Alban is the "Vita Germani", or "Life of St Germanus of Auxerre", written about 480 by Constantius of Lyon. The text only very briefly mentions Alban but is an important text concerning his nascent cult. According to the "Vita", Germanus visited Alban's grave shortly after defeating the Pelagian heresy in Britain and asked Alban to give thanks to God on his behalf. They once again called on him during their voyage home, and Alban is credited with providing smooth sailing for the voyage back to the continent.


title: Saint Alban

text: Gildas gives a short account of Alban's martyrdom in his "De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae" (c. 570), and Bede gives a much fuller account in his "Ecclesiastical History of the English People" (c. 730). Gildas calls Alban a martyr of "Verulamium" but says he crossed the river Thames prior to his execution, during the persecution of Diocletian. Bede's account is much more detailed but sets the events during the reign of Septimius Severus and in the town of Verulamium, where a shrine devoted to Alban had been established by at least 429 AD, when Germanus of Auxerre is said to have visited the cult centre during his tour of Britain. Alban is also briefly mentioned in the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" (c. 900), and by Geoffrey of Monmouth in "Historia Regum Britanniae" (c. 1136). It is also possible that his martyrdom is referenced in the "Acta Martyrum".


title: Saint Alban

text: Another early source for Saint Alban is the "Martyrologium Hieronymianum", or the so-called 'Martyrology of Saint Jerome' in which the entry "In Britannia Albani martyris" probably occurred originally under 22 June. In fact, in the extant versions, Alban has acquired numerous companions because of confusion/conflation with other entries. The martyrology is preserved in a 9th-century copy but was probably composed in something close to its present form around 600, with the surviving recension showing some signs of being based on a recension compiled at Auxerre (significantly, the hometown of Saint Germanus) For Thornhill (see above), the date given for Alban's martyrdom is striking for its closeness to the summer solstice (on which some variants of the "Hieronymianum" actually place the saint's day). Being the day when the sun is at its brightest in midsummer, that might suggest that there is indeed some significance in the literal meaning of the name "Albanus" (or at least the root "albho-" on which it is based) as 'white' or 'bright'.


title: Saint Alban

text: Matthew Paris, the celebrated medieval English chronicler and most famous of St Alban's Abbey's monks, produced a beautifully-illustrated "Life of St Alban" in the 13th century, which is in French verse adapted from a Latin "Life of St Alban" by William of St Albans, c. 1178. It is now at the Trinity College Library in Dublin.


title: Saint Alban

text: The date of Alban's execution has never been firmly established. Original sources and modern historians indicate a range of dates between 209 and 313.


title: Saint Alban

text: The "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" lists the year 283, but Bede places it in 305, "when the cruel Emperors first published their edicts against the Christians." In other words, it was sometime after the publication of the edicts by Eastern Roman Emperor Diocletian in 303 and before the proclamation of toleration in the Edict of Milan by co-ruling Roman Emperors Constantine I and Licinius, in 313. Bede was probably following Gildas.


title: Saint Alban

text: English historian John Morris suggests that Alban's martyrdom took place during the persecutions of Emperor Septimius Severus in 209. Morris bases his claims on the Turin version of the "Passio Albani", unknown to Bede, which states, "Alban received a fugitive cleric and put on his garment and his cloak ("habitu et caracalla") that he was wearing and delivered himself up to be killed instead of the priest… and was delivered immediately to the evil Caesar Severus." According to Morris St Gildas knew the source but mistranslated the name "Severus" as an adjective, wrongly identifying the emperor as Diocletian. Bede accepted the identification as fact and dates St Alban's martyrdom to this later period. As Morris points out, Diocletian reigned only in the East and would not have been involved in British affairs in 304; Emperor Severus, however, was in Britain from 208 to 211. Morris thus dates Alban's death to 209. However, the mention of Severus in the Turin version has been shown to be an interpolation into an original text, which mentioned only a "iudex" or 'judge'. Subsequent scholars (William Hugh Clifford Frend and Charles Thomas for example) have argued that such a single, localised British martyrdom in 209 would have been unusual, and they have suggested the period of 251–259 (under the persecutors Decius or Valerian) are more likely.


title: Saint Alban

text: While it is certain that the cult devoted to Saint Alban was established in Verulamium, and his martyrdom was also alleged to have taken place there, the sources are unclear about where he was actually executed. Neither Victricius's "De Laude Sanctorum" nor the "Passio Albani" mentions where he was martyred other than that it was in Britain. In the "Vita Germani", Germanus visits Alban's tomb and touches droplets of his blood still on the ground, but the text does not name the location of the tomb. It is not until Gildas that Alban was connected with Verulamium.


title: Saint Alban

text: Little is known about the real Alban (estimated to have died c. 209 – 305 AD, depending on interpretations), as there are no contemporaneous accounts of his martyrdom and the major sources on his life were written hundreds of years after his death, containing wondrous embellishments, which may or may not refer to real events.


title: Saint Alban

text: Saint Alban was long regarded as a genuine martyr saint, the protomartyr of Britain, and for much of the 20th century controversy centred on the date of his martyrdom (see further 'Dating controversy', above). More recently, however, some researchers have taken a more sceptical view about his historicity. In the view of Robin Lane Fox, not only is St Alban's date disputable but so is his very existence.


title: Saint Alban

text: In 2008 the historian Ian Wood proposed that Alban was an 'invention' of Germanus of Auxerre. Germanus visited Britain in 429, as is known from the nearly-contemporary mention by Prosper of Aquitaine. His chronicle, in the entry for the year 429 (published in 433), states:


title: Saint Alban

text: Meanwhile, it was recorded in the "Vita Germani" ('Life of St Germanus of Auxerre'), written probably sometime between 450 and 485 by Constantius of Lyons, that he, together with his fellow bishop Lupus, having stamped out the heresy of Pelagianism in Britain, visited the tomb of Saint Alban:


title: Saint Alban

text: The martyr Alban is also mentioned, one more time, in the context of Germanus's return journey, by sea:


title: Saint Alban

text: The "Vita Germani" was long regarded as the earliest source for the martyr Alban, but recent research by Richard Sharpe has suggested the earliest version of the "Passio Albani" (the official story of the saint's martyrdom) may be even earlier (see below and Sources). Wood's argument was based partly on the idea that the name "Albanus" is suggestive of Albion as the oldest name for Britain, but for him, the name Alban suggested simply 'the man from Albion' rather than an actual 'personification' of the island and its people. It is, in any case, a part of what suggested to Wood that "it is Germanus who gives Alban a name". That, in turn, encouraged him in his conclusion:


title: Saint Alban

text: "The story of the saint's martyrdom seems to have been revealed to, or invented by, Germanus in the context of his anti-Pelagian mission" and in a later article "Alban may, therefore, have been 'discovered' by the bishop of Auxerre".


title: Saint Alban

text: The argument has been accepted by, for instance, Michael Garcia but disputed by, for instance, Professor Nick Higham, who, in an article written in 2014, noted that since Germanus brought relics of continental saints with him, which, so the "Passio" relates, he deposits in the tomb of Saint Alban while removing some bloodstained earth to take back to Gaul, he must have known from the start that he would make a visit to the cult-centre of Saint Alban, as part of his campaign against the Pelagian heresy. On this basis he states: "This would make good sense in terms of his mission, claiming Britain's most famous cult for Catholicism". He therefore argues against the conclusion of Woods and Garcia that the martyr Alban was unknown before being invented by Germanus.


title: Saint Alban

text: Key to the argument is a passage in the T version of the "Passio" that Sharpe has convincingly argued represents an 'interpolation' to the more original E text. All extant versions of the "Passio" mention (after describing the story of the saint's martyrdom) Germanus's visit to the tomb of Saint Alban. The E version, followed essentially by the T version, states (in the translation of Sharpe):


title: Saint Alban

text: It is possible to deduce from the interpolated passage that the name of the martyr was unknown before being revealed to Germanus, either in a vision he had of the martyr during his sea journey or in the dream he had in the basilica. It is also possible to deduce that it was simply the "acta", or 'story of the martyrdom', of an already well known figure that was revealed to Germanus. The "acta" were then written down in "tituli" (translated above as 'placards'): that is possibly engraved in the walls of a church with illustrations. This might have been either in a church in Auxerre (Germanus's home town in Gaul) as argued by Sharpe and Wood, or in Britain. If the latter is the case, by being on public display, they might have served to give a definitive version of the saint's martyrdom, which could not be contradicted or reinterpreted (for instance by the addition of 'Pelagian' themes) In any case, it has been argued by Sharpe and Wood that these "acta" written down in "tituli" were actually the original, very simple and short, first version of the "Passio Albani" that has come down in the 'E' and later versions That is very possible but, of course, quite unprovable, but it seems clear that the "Passio" originates with the circle of Germanus at Auxerre. As time went on, more and more details and wondrous events were added to the account its most detailed version in the 8th century, in Bede's "Ecclesiastical History of the English People".


title: Saint Alban

text: The location of the tomb of Saint Alban that Germanus visited is most often thought to have been "Verulamium", now St Albans. That is on the basis of what is in fact the earliest mention of the martyr Alban in an indigenous British source, in the "De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae" probably written in the second quarter of the fifth century, by the British author Gildas. As part of his brief historical account he describes the persecution of Christians in Britain,which he identifies as part of the persecution of Diocletian, adding at the end of a passage about "their graves and the places where they suffered":


title: Saint Alban

text: "I refer to Saint Alban of Verulam ("Verolamiensem"), Aaron and Iulius, citizens of Caerleon ("Legionum Urbis") and others of both sexes, who in different places, displayed the highest spirit in the battle-line of Christ". ("De Excidio" 10)


title: Saint Alban

text: The "Verulamium" location is supported by the fact that the topography of the "Passio" can be broadly, if not quite exactly, matched to that of "Verulamium", and Bede describes an important cult of Saint Alban there, by the early eighth century at least. Some doubt, however, is encouraged by the fact that in his account of Albans's martyrdom Gildas ("De Excidio" 11) describes the martyr as crossing the Thames to his place of execution (at "Verulamium"/St Alban's there is only the much smaller River Ver), which some have taken as an indication that the actual martyrdom (or the more original version of the story about it) was located in "Londinium".


title: Saint Alban

text: The hilltop located outside Verulamium eventually became the centre of the cult devoted to Alban. It has been claimed (but doubted by some) that a "memoria" over the execution point and holding the remains of St Alban may have existed at the site from c. 300, possibly earlier. There was certainly a cult centre of St Alban at Verulamium by the time of Bede c. 731, and the mention in Gildas strongly suggests that it was already in existence by the early sixth century. However, when and how the cult of Saint Alban originated is the subject of some debate: there is little textual or archaeological evidence that a cult of Saint Alban existed before Germanus of Auxerre visited the site in 429. In fact, one version of the "Passio Albani" says that Germanus did not know the name or story of Saint Alban before visiting the site, and Alban appeared to him in a dream to reveal his identity and martyrdom story. That can be interpreted as suggesting (see above: The Disputed Historicity) that the cult of Saint Alban did not exist before the arrival of Germanus. Germanus is said to have taken away dust from the site, which was still marked with Alban's blood. The cult and veneration of saints was still in its infancy at this time, and it has been suggested that Germanus had a hand in creating and promoting the cult of Saint Alban.


title: Saint Alban

text: In a chapel east of the crossing and high altar are remains of the 14th-century marble shrine of St Alban. In June 2002 a scapula (shoulder blade), believed to be a relic of St Alban, was presented to St Albans Cathedral and placed inside the saint's restored 13th-century shrine. The bone was given by the Church of St Pantaleon in Cologne, Germany News. St Pantaleon's, like St Albans Cathedral a former Benedictine abbey church that had a shrine dedicated to St Alban, has possessed remains believed to be those of St Alban since the 10th century. It is entirely possible that further relics were acquired by the church in the 16th century at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries in England, when many such relics were smuggled abroad to prevent their destruction. St Albans Abbey was dissolved in 1539.


title: Saint Alban

text: The largest relic of St Alban in England is the thigh of the protomartyr preserved at St Michael's Benedictine Abbey, Farnborough, Hampshire, which was transferred from the St Pantaleon's reliquary in the 1950s.


title: Saint Alban

text: There has also been an extensive cult of Saint Alban on the Continent from an early date such as in Mainz, Cologne and Basel on the Rhine as well as a number of other localities in Switzerland and Italy and a notable concentration in the French Alpine regions and the Rhone Valley. Sometimes, the 'Saint Alban' concerned is regarded as a separate figure, other times, he is alternatively called "Albinus" (and often identified with 6th c. bishop, Saint Albinus of Angers), and at other times he is identified with the British martyr.


title: Saint Alban

text: Saint Pantaleon's Church, Cologne holds relics said to be those of the British martyr Alban (as noted above). In fact, although identified with the British martyr, he was locally known as "Albinus". His relics were said to have been brought from Rome by Empress Theophanu and placed in St Pantaleon's church in about 984: the relics were miraculously saved from destruction in an accident on the way at a place that a later version of 1502, was identified as Silenen, Switzerland. The original record was in a 12th-century manuscript that alleged that the relics were actually those of the British martyr, having been delivered to Ravenna by Germanus himself and taken from there to Rome. Another church at Cologne is known to have been dedicated to the British Alban from the 12th century.


title: Saint Alban

text: The Saint Alban of Basel is recorded in the Berne recension of the "Martyrologium Hieronymianum" of circa 800: ""Basilea civitate sancti Albani martyris"", where he would appear to be an independent local figure, being celebrated on 24 August but later identified with the Saint Alban of Mainz.


title: Saint Alban

text: St Alban of Mainz is recorded from 756. He was regarded as a separate figure in sources from Raban Maur's early 9th century martyrology, including a 10th-century "Life" by Gozwin of 1060–2 However, Hippolyte Delehaye suggested that he very probably represents, in origin, a localised version of the British martyr since his feast date was recorded as June 21 in the "Martyrologium Hieronymianum" (just a day before that of the British one, who actually appears on the 21st and 22nd in early recensions).


title: Saint Alban

text: The story in Raban Maur associates Alban of Mainz with a martyred bishop, Aureus of Mainz and two other martyrs, Ursus and Theonestus the latter of whom is said to have originated on the Greek island of Naxos, together with Alban.


title: Saint Alban

text: A Saint Alban of Burano (near Altino, Italy), meanwhile was associated with one Domenicus in a legendary tale reminiscent of one told about Dionysus.


title: Saint Alban

text: Alban is remembered in the Church of England with a Lesser Festival on 22 June and he continues to be venerated in the Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox Communions. The Fellowship of Saint Alban and Saint Sergius is also named in part after Alban.


title: Saint Alban

text: Every year, during the weekend closest to his feast day, St Albans Cathedral hosts the "Alban Pilgrimage", with huge puppets re-enacting the events of Alban's martyrdom around the city of St Albans.


title: Saint Alban

text: Besides his abbey, churches in England dedicated to Saint Alban include the former St Alban, Wood Street in the City of London, St Alban's Church at Holborn in central London, ones in the London suburbs of Teddington, Croydon, Cheam and Ilford, one in Westcliff-on-Sea in Essex, others in Hull and Withernwick in the East Riding of Yorkshire, one in Swaythling, Southampton, one in Northampton, one in a Norwich suburb, one in Bristol, one in Tattenhall, Cheshire and another in Macclesfield, Cheshire. There is also St Alban's, West Leigh near Havant in Hampshire, and the St Alban the Martyr Parish Church of Highgate, Birmingham (including Ark St Alban's Academy). and St Alban the Martyr Church, Cowley, Oxford. Finally, a church is dedicated to Saint Alban at Earsdon Village, Northumberland, which is the nearest one to Bede's Holy Island. There is also a St Albans parish and church in Splott, Cardiff.


title: Saint Alban

text: St Alban's Church in Copenhagen, Denmark, which is the city's only Anglican church. It was built to the design of Sir Arthur Blomfield and consecrated in 1887. The connection with Denmark goes back to the Middle Ages where a church dedicated to Saint Alban was built in Odense. Supposedly, the relics of the saint had been brought here, maybe as early as the ninth century. It was in that church that King Canute IV of Denmark (Saint Canute) was murdered in 1086. The original church no longer exists, but the Roman Catholic parish church of Odense, St Alban's Church, was consecrated in 1908.


title: Saint Alban

text: St. Albans is the name of a community in the borough of Queens in New York City. In 1899, a year after Queens became part of New York City, the new post office for the 600 residents


title: Saint Alban

text: was named St. Albans, after St Albans in Hertfordshire, England, which itself was named after Saint Alban. The name had been in use for the area since at least 1894 for the name of the school district,


title: Saint Alban

text: and the LIRR station was named St. Albans when it opened in 1898. A 1909 map also shows a St Albans Avenue and a St Albans Place in the area.


title: Saint Alban

text: The parish church of St Alban's Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., was erected on Mount Saint Alban in 1854 using a bequest from a young woman, Phoebe Nourse, who earned the money sewing. St Alban's went on to found five mission churches in Washington, four of which still maintain active congregations of their own. Washington National Cathedral, a cathedral of the Episcopal Church in Washington D.C., is located next to the parish church, which preceded the laying of the Cathedral's cornerstone by 53 years. The St Albans School for Boys, which is affiliated with and was established in 1909 soon after the construction of the Cathedral began, is also named for the saint.


title: Saint Alban

text: In 1972, a chapel named after St. Alban was erected and later consecrated in the Sabino Catchment area of Tucson, Arizona. The chapel and the congregation later became St. Alban's Church and Parish. It was in this church that the second Anglican female priest, and first female priest in Arizona, was ordained.


title: Saint Alban

text: In 1928, St. Alban's Chapel, an Episcopalian church, was established on the campus of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.


title: Saint Alban

text: After undergoing several name changes, St. Albans is the name of a community West of Charleston, West Virginia, the capital of the state.


title: Mercedes Schlapp

text: Mercedes Schlapp ( Viana; born December 27, 1972) is an American communications specialist and political commentator for both English and Spanish media. She has served in two presidential administrations as director of specialty media under George W. Bush and as White House Director of Strategic Communications in the Trump administration from September 2017 to July 2019. She went on to work on the Trump 2020 re-election campaign as senior advisor for strategic communications.


title: Mercedes Schlapp

text: She is also co-founder of Cove Strategies, and advises media strategy for corporate and nonprofit organizations.


title: Mercedes Schlapp

text: Schlapp is a first generation Cuban-American born in Florida. She is married to Matt Schlapp, the chair of the American Conservative Union. The Schlapps have five daughters.


title: Mercedes Schlapp

text: Schlapp credits her interest in politics to her father, who escaped captivity as a political prisoner of the Castro regime in 1960s Cuba.


title: Mercedes Schlapp

text: Schlapp earned a bachelor's degree from Florida International University and a master of public administration from George Washington University. In December 2019 she was awarded an FIU Medallion—Outstanding Alumna for her achievements.


title: Mercedes Schlapp

text: Schlapp worked on local and national political campaigns, as well as the 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns for George W. Bush, and was Director of Specialty Media in his administration.


title: Mercedes Schlapp

text: Schlapp also worked as senior advisor for strategic communications on the Trump reelection campaign in 2020.


title: Mercedes Schlapp

text: Schlapp has been a Fox News contributor and a columnist for several publications including "U.S. News & World Report" and "The Washington Times". She is also a regular co-host of "Prime News" with Jenn Pellegrino on Newsmax TV.


title: Mercedes Schlapp

text: Together with her husband Schlapp founded Cove Strategies, a media strategy and lobbying firm based in Alexandria, Virginia, in 2009. According to Open Secrets, the firm performs services mainly in the areas of telecommunications, trade, and health issues and earned greater income during the Trump administration than it did during the Obama administration.


title: Mercedes Schlapp

text: She was a board member of the National Rifle Association before joining the White House. She was an aid consultant at the NRA, earning $60,000 from the NRA in 2015, and $45,000 in 2016, according to NRA tax filings.


title: Mercedes Schlapp

text: On September 12, 2017, President Donald Trump's administration announced that Schlapp would serve as Director of Strategic Communications. During her time with the Trump Administration, Schlapp focused on issues such as school safety, opioids, infrastructure and trade. Prior to joining the Trump administration, Schlapp made numerous statements that were strongly critical of Trump.


title: Mercedes Schlapp

text: Schlapp attracted attention when she and her husband left the White House Correspondents Dinner early in April 2018, saying that she was disgusted by comedian Michelle Wolf's jokes aimed at Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. In a limousine en route to an exclusive NBC/MSNBC afterparty, she tweeted that Wolf's comedy routine is "why America hates the out of touch leftist media elite".


title: Mercedes Schlapp

text: In May 2018, Schlapp defended White House aide Kelly Sadler after she joked that John McCain's opposition to CIA Director nominee Gina Haspel was irrelevant because "he’s dying anyway".


title: Mercedes Schlapp

text: In June 2020, amid the George Floyd protests against racism and police brutality, she retweeted praise for a man who was wielding a chainsaw against protestors while he was yelling the N-word. After Politico asked for comment, she retweeted another account that posted the video of the chainsaw-wielding man but which muted the N-word. After Politico published the story, she apologized.


title: Mercedes Schlapp

text: Schlapp opposes same-sex marriage. She called President Barack Obama’s decision to support it a "political ploy".


title: Lytton, British Columbia

text: Lytton is a village of about 250 residents in southern British Columbia, Canada, on the east side of the Fraser River and primarily the south side of the Thompson River, where it flows southwesterly into the Fraser. The community includes the Village of Lytton and the surrounding community of the Lytton First Nation, whose name for the place is Camchin, also spelled "Kumsheen" ("river meeting").


title: Lytton, British Columbia

text: During heat waves, Lytton is often the hottest spot in Canada despite its location north of 50°N in latitude. In three consecutive days of June 2021, it broke the all-time record for Canada's highest temperature, ending at on June 29. This is the highest temperature ever recorded north of 45°N and higher than the all-time records for Europe and South America. The next day (June 30), a wildfire swept through the valley, destroying the majority of the town.


title: Lytton, British Columbia

text: The Lytton area has been inhabited by the First Nations people for over 10,000 years. It was one of the earliest locations occupied by non-Indigenous settlers in the Southern Interior of British Columbia. The town was founded during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush of 1858–59, when it was known as "The Forks."


title: Lytton, British Columbia

text: Lytton was on the route of the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush in 1858. The same year, it was named after Edward Bulwer-Lytton, the British Colonial Secretary and a novelist. For many years, Lytton was a stop on major transportation routes, namely, the River Trail beginning in 1858, Cariboo Wagon Road in 1862, the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 1880s, the Cariboo Highway in the 1920s, and the Trans Canada Highway in the 1950s. The town is much less important since the construction of the Coquihalla Highway in 1987, which uses a more direct route to the BC Interior.


title: Lytton, British Columbia

text: On June 30, 2021, the day after Lytton set a Canadian all-time high temperature record of , a wildfire swept through the community, destroying most structures. All villagers were ordered to evacuate. Local MP Brad Vis said 90% of the village burned down. Two people died.


title: Lytton, British Columbia

text: In the year since the fire, only a quarter of the properties were cleared of ash and debris. There was incessant wrangling between local residents who wanted to restore buildings and power immediately, and the local council who wanted fire-prevention standards in place. Coupled with inadequate insurance payouts and local record-breaking floods, residents were running out of time to restore the village. They were further hampered when another wildfire took out six residences across the river in July 2022.


title: Lytton, British Columbia

text: Novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton was a friend and contemporary of Charles Dickens and was one of the pioneers of the historical novel, exemplified by his most popular work, "The Last Days of Pompeii". He is best remembered today for the opening line to the novel "Paul Clifford", which begins "It was a dark and stormy night..." and is considered by some to be the worst opening sentence in the English language. Bulwer-Lytton is also responsible for sayings such as "The pen is mightier than the sword" from his play "Richelieu". Though he was a popular author in the 19th century, fewer people today are aware of his prodigious body of literature, which spans many genres. In the 21st century, he is best known as the namesake for the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest (BLFC), sponsored annually by the English Department at San Jose State University, which challenges entrants "to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels."


title: Lytton, British Columbia

text: In 1858, Governor James Douglas named the town after Bulwer-Lytton "as a merited compliment and mark of respect." Bulwer-Lytton served as Colonial Secretary. As governor of the then-colony, Douglas would have reported to him.


title: Lytton, British Columbia

text: On August 30, 2008, the Village of Lytton invited Henry Lytton-Cobbold, the great-great-great grandson of Edward Bulwer-Lytton, to defend the great man's honour by debating Professor Scott Rice, the sponsor of the BLFC, on the literary and political legacies of his great ancestor. The debate received wide media coverage including "The Globe and Mail", "The New York Times", "The Guardian", CBC's "As It Happens", and many local and regional media outlets. The debate was moderated by Mike McArdell of Global TV. Lytton-Cobbold provided a spirited and crowd-inspiring defence of his ancestor, and despite a factual and well-researched presentation by Rice, Lytton-Cobbold emerged as the crowd favourite by a wide margin. In the end, Rice begrudgingly admitted to an admiration of Bulwer-Lytton. This event was held as part of the Village of Lytton's BC150 celebrations, which marked the 150th anniversary of the date that the community received its name, in addition to the province-wide celebration of the establishment of the original Colony of British Columbia on August 2, 1858.


title: Lytton, British Columbia

text: In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Lytton had a population of 210 living in 104 of its 118 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 249. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.


title: Lytton, British Columbia

text: Another 1,700 people in the immediate area live in rural areas and on reserves of the neighbouring six Nlaka'pamux communities.


title: Lytton, British Columbia

text: 802 members out of 1,970 registered members of the Lytton First Nation live on reserves immediately adjacent to the municipality.


title: Lytton, British Columbia

text: Lytton experiences an inland warm-summer mediterranean climate ("Csb)", using the -3°C isotherm, or a dry-summer continental climate ("Dsb"), using the 0°C isotherm. During summer heat waves, Lytton is often the hottest spot in Canada, despite its location north of 50°N in latitude. Because of the dry summer air and a relatively low elevation of , summer afternoon shade temperatures frequently reach and occasionally top . Lytton holds the record for the highest temperature ever recorded in Canada with a record high of on June 29 of the 2021 Western North America heat wave. This occurred after having already broken records multiple times during the previous days of that heat wave. This is the world's highest temperature ever recorded north of the 50th parallel, the highest temperature ever in the United States or Canada recorded outside of the Southwestern United States, and higher than the record-high temperatures ever recorded for Europe or South America.


title: Lytton, British Columbia

text: Before the 2021 heat wave occurred, Lytton, along with the nearby community of Lillooet, shared the second-highest temperature ever recorded in Canada. On July 16 and 17, 1941, the temperature reached a then-record on both days in both communities. The coldest temperature ever recorded in Lytton was on January 18, 1950. While reporting on the new records in 2021, Global News noted that the official Environment Canada weather station is located in the shade and is about cooler than the rest of the village. Hot summer temperatures are made more tolerable by low humidity. The heat can be intense under usually clear skies and sunlight, or by the valley's radiant slopes. Forest fires are not uncommon during the summer.


title: Lytton, British Columbia

text: Lytton's climate is also characterised by relatively short and mild winters (although average monthly temperatures in December and January are just below freezing), with Pacific maritime influence during the winter ensuring thick cloud cover much of the time. Cold snaps originating from arctic outflow occur from time to time, but tend to be short-lived, and mountains to the north block extreme cold from penetrating the Fraser Canyon.


title: Lytton, British Columbia

text: Lytton receives of annual precipitation on average, making it much drier than communities to the south but certainly wetter than some of the driest spots in the BC interior, such as Ashcroft, Kamloops, Spences Bridge, and Osoyoos. It has the driest summers in the interior of British Columbia and one of the driest summers of all places in Canada. Maximum precipitation occurs in the cooler months, with late autumn and early winter constituting the wettest time of the year.


title: Lytton, British Columbia

text: Open coniferous forests of Douglas fir and ponderosa pine dominate the slopes around Lytton. Some black cottonwood is scattered among the conifers. Bunchgrass dominates the forest floor. Non-native trees cultivated in Lytton include black locust and Manitoba Maple.


title: Lytton, British Columbia

text: Lytton lies on the Trans-Canada Highway as well as both the Canadian Pacific and Canadian National Railways. The Canadian National Railway crosses both the Fraser and Thompson Rivers on two large steel bridges at Lytton. Via the Trans-Canada, Lytton is approximately from the city of Vancouver, north of Hope, and south of Cache Creek and Ashcroft.


title: Lytton, British Columbia

text: Highway 12 runs north from Lytton to Lillooet, connecting there to Highway 99, which leads southwest to Pemberton and Whistler and beyond to Vancouver, and northeast to its terminus at Lower Hat Creek (Carquile) at a junction with Highway 97 just north of Cache Creek.


title: Lytton, British Columbia

text: The Lytton Ferry, a free reaction ferry, crosses the Fraser River at Lytton. On the river's west side are Indian reserve communities of the Lytton First Nation and the Stein Valley Nlaka'pamux Heritage Park via trails from the confluence of the Stein River with the Fraser. From the ferry, a route known as the West Side Road leads through the Nesikep and Texas Creek areas to Lillooet and BC Highway 99; the route south from the ferry is much more difficult but leads to North Bend-Boston Bar. When the ferry is out of service because of ice or low water levels on the Fraser River, pedestrian access is available via a walkway on the Canadian National Railway bridge crossing the river.


title: Lytton, British Columbia

text: Via Rail's Canadian and the Rocky Mountaineer pass through Lytton but do not make any stops. Via Rail's closest stops are Ashcroft, to the north, and North Bend/Boston Bar, to the south.


title: Lytton, British Columbia

text: Lytton is a corporate entity created under the Community Charter. Elections for Village Council are held every four years. The current Council comprises the following members:


title: Lytton, British Columbia

text: Originally part of the Lillooet provincial riding, then part of Yale-Lillooet, Lytton is now in the provincial riding of Fraser-Nicola, represented by Jackie Tegart of the BC Liberals, who first won in the 2013 election.


title: Lytton, British Columbia

text: Federally, the town is in the riding of Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon and is currently represented by Brad Vis of the Conservative Party of Canada, who was first elected in the 2019 elections.


title: Lytton, British Columbia

text: The single main employer in the village produced forestry products and was forced to close because of market uncertainties in 2007.


title: Lytton, British Columbia

text: Lytton is the self-proclaimed "River Rafting Capital of Canada" with Kumsheen Rafting Resort now the largest employer in the area. A provincial campsite, Skihist Provincial Park, adjacent to the Trans-Canada Highway six kilometres north of the village, has space for tenting as well as RVs and enjoys one of the few views available of Skihist Mountain, the highest summit of the Lillooet Ranges, across the Fraser to the west of Lytton. The privately run Jade Springs Restaurant, also east of the village on the Trans-Canada, burned down in the fire of June 2021 but offered a full service campground which hopefully will open again once clean up of the Village and area is completed and services are restored.


title: Lytton, British Columbia

text: School District 74 operated Lytton Elementary School which was lost in 2021 Lytton Creek Wildfire. and Kumsheen Secondary School (Kumsheen ShchEma-meet School).


title: Lytton, British Columbia

text: Stein Valley Nlakapamux School is a registered member with the B.C. First Nations Schools Association. The School is mandated to provide instruction and courses approved by the B.C. Ministry of Education and BC Independent Schools.


title: Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project

text: The Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP) is a multi-purpose irrigation project on the Godavari River in Kaleshwaram, Bhupalpally, Telangana, India. Currently the world's largest multi-stage lift irrigation project, its farthest upstream influence is at the confluence of the Pranhita and Godavari rivers. The Pranahita River is itself a confluence of various smaller tributaries including the Wardha, Painganga, and Wainganga rivers which combine to form the seventh-largest drainage basin on the subcontinent, with an estimated annual discharge of more than or 280 TMC. It remains untapped as its course is principally through dense forests and other ecologically sensitive zones such as wildlife sanctuaries.


title: Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project

text: The Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project is divided into 7 links and 28 packages spanning a distance of approximately through 13 districts and utilizing a canal network of more than . The project aims to produce a total of 240 TMC (195 from Medigadda Barrage, 20 from Sripada Yellampalli project and 25 from groundwater), of which 169 has been allocated for irrigation, 30 for Hyderabad municipal water, 16 for miscellaneous industrial uses and 10 for drinking water in nearby villages, with the remainder being estimated evaporation loss. The project aims at increasing total culturable command area (the sustainable area which can be irrigated after accounting for both upstream and downstream factors) by across all 13 districts in addition to stabilizing the existing CCA.


title: Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project

text: On 21 June 2019, the project was opened by Telangana Governor E. S. L. Narasimhan and Chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao. National Green Tribunal declared the Scheme is constructed without following the statuary provisions with regard to environmental aspects.


title: Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project

text: Four major pumping facilities manage the project's outflow, the largest at Ramadugu (Medaram, Annaram and Sundilla being the others) is also likely to be the largest in Asia once consistent measurements are available, requiring seven pumps designed and manufactured specifically for the project by the BHEL.


title: Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project

text: The Engineering giant Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Limited built 15 of 22 Pump houses and undertook major part of the project.


title: Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project

text: Water will be reverse pumped from the confluence point of Godavari and Pranhita Rivers to Sripada Yellampalli Project with the help of 3 barrages (Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla) and 3 lifts.


title: Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project

text: As of June 2019, lifts are being commissioned with provision to lift 2 TMC ("56,63,36,93,184 liters") of water per day from Medigadda. The water is lifted to backwaters of Annaram barrage. Again from Annaram barrage to Sundilla barrage. Finally from Sundilla to Sripada Yellampalli Project. Civil works are being executed to lift 3 TMC per day but pumps are being installed to lift only 2 TMC. If need be, only pumps would need to be installed to increase capacity by one more TMC.


title: Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project

text: A new balancing reservoir is also being proposed in the outskirts of Hyderabad of 20–30 TMC to store water. The water will be supplied to this balancing reservoir in the same link.


title: Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project

text: From Anicut, a series of gravity canals and a small tunnel of 1.2 km are planned to transfer water to Gandamalla Reservoir and Baswapuram Reservoir. Thereafter, gravity canals are planned towards Chityal Mandal and its villages.


title: Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project

text: From Sri Komaravelli Mallanna Sagar, another sequence of gravity canals, tunnels and lifts are used to transfer water to Singur Dam. Apart from that, if need be, water can be transferred to Nizam Sagar Project and from there, to SRSP.


title: Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project

text: Link-VII: From SRSP Foreshore to Nizam Sagar Canals and to Dilwarpur and Hangarga village for Nirmal and Mudhole Constituency


title: Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project

text: From the foreshore waters of SRSP, water will be transferred to reservoirs at Hangarga and Dilwapur villages. Apart from this, existing reservoirs like Masani Tank and kondem Cheruvu will also be linked. Canals under Nizam Sagar will also be irrigated.


title: Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project

text: The project requires about 5,900 MW of electricity to run its several large water pumps. Assuming, on average, the pumps require constant running for two months during the monsoon period, 24 hours a day, the total electricity consumption would be 849 crore units. Taking a unit electricity charge of Rs. 8.0 per kWh, the annual electricity cost is going to be Rs. 7000 crores per year. Assuming the project irrigates about 15 lakh acres, the electricity cost for irrigation is about Rs. 46,666 per acre per year. The chief minister has said that the project requires about Rs. 5000 crore annually for electricity charges. On the other hand, the state irrigation department had allocated Rs.7000 crores for electricity charges in its 2020 budget.


title: Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project

text: The project was mainly funded with the money obtained through loans. Assuming an existing loan of Rs. 80,000 crore, at an interest rate of 6% that needs to paid up over a period of 30 years, the annual loan repayment charge is about Rs. 5760 crores per year. This implies an additional charge of Rs. 38,400 per acre per year towards the loan repayment. Therefore, the total cost of irrigation per acre is approximately Rs. 85,000 per acre per year. On the other hand, the net profit from the cultivation of the main crop i.e., paddy, could be expected to be around Rs.40,000 per acre per year, assuming two crops in a year. These numbers raise questions about the financial viability of the project.


title: Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project

text: Indian Public sector Enterprise BHEL is executing this project and has already commissioned 16 pumping units.


title: Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project

text: In October 2020, the National Green Tribunal, India's court for environmental issues, directed the Telangana government to halt work on the KLIP except the drinking water supply component. A petition had been filed by a farmer from Siddipet district, whose land was affected by the KLIP. The National Green Tribunal found, on hearing his petition, that the environmental clearances for the KLIP had not been obtained before the project, as is required by law, but had been granted by the Union Government of India after work on the project had already begun by the Telangana government. The National Green Tribunal has directed the Indian government's Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change to constitute a committee to investigate the illegally granted clearances, and to file a report with them within six months.


title: View (SQL)

text: In a database, a view is the result set of a "stored" query on the data, which the database users can query just as they would in a persistent database collection object. This pre-established query command is kept in the database dictionary. Unlike ordinary "base tables" in a relational database, a view does not form part of the physical schema: as a result set, it is a virtual table computed or collated dynamically from data in the database when access to that view is requested. Changes applied to the data in a relevant "underlying table" are reflected in the data shown in subsequent invocations of the view. In some NoSQL databases, views are the only way to query data.


title: View (SQL)

text: Just as a function (in programming) can provide abstraction, so can a database view. In another parallel with functions, database users can manipulate nested views, thus one view can aggregate data from other views. Without the use of views, the normalization of databases above second normal form would become much more difficult. Views can make it easier to create lossless join decomposition.


title: View (SQL)

text: Just as rows in a base table lack any defined ordering, rows available through a view do not appear with any default sorting. A view is a relational table, and the relational model defines a table as a set of rows. Since sets are not ordered — by definition — neither are the rows of a view. Therefore, an ORDER BY clause in the view definition is meaningless; the SQL standard () does not allow an ORDER BY clause in the subquery of a CREATE VIEW command, just as it is refused in a CREATE TABLE statement. However, sorted data can be obtained from a view, in the same way as any other table — as part of a query statement on that view. Nevertheless, some DBMS (such as Oracle Database) do not abide by this SQL standard restriction.


title: View (SQL)

text: Database practitioners can define views as read-only or updatable. If the database system can determine the reverse mapping from the view schema to the schema of the underlying base tables, then the view is updatable. INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE operations can be performed on updatable views. Read-only views do not support such operations because the DBMS cannot map the changes to the underlying base tables. A view update is done by key preservation.


title: View (SQL)

text: Some systems support the definition of INSTEAD OF triggers on views. This technique allows the definition of other logic for execution in place of an insert, update, or delete operation on the views. Thus database systems can implement data modifications based on read-only views. However, an INSTEAD OF trigger does not change the read-only or updatable property of the view itself.


title: View (SQL)

text: Various database management systems have extended the views from read-only subsets of data, particularly materialized views: pre-executed, non-virtual views commonly used in data warehousing. They give a static snapshot of the data and may include data from remote sources. The accuracy of a materialized view depends on the frequency of trigger mechanisms behind its updates.


title: View (SQL)

text: Materialized views were introduced by Oracle Database, while IBM Db2 provides so-called "materialized query tables" (MQTs) for the same purpose. Microsoft SQL Server introduced in its 2000 version indexed views which only store a separate index from the table, but not the entire data. PostgreSQL implemented materialized views in its 9.3 release.


title: View (SQL)

text: A view is equivalent to its source query. When queries are run against views, the query is modified. For example, if there exists a view named accounts_view with the content as follows:


title: View (SQL)

text: The RDBMS then takes the simple query, replaces the equivalent view, then sends the following to the query optimizer:


title: View (SQL)

text: The optimizer then removes unnecessary fields and complexity (for example it is not necessary to read the address, since the parent invocation does not make use of it) and then sends the query to the SQL engine for processing.


title: City Spud

text: Lavell Webb (born August 31, 1975) known by his stage name City Spud, is an American rapper and record producer. He was a member of hip hop group St. Lunatics. He was featured on fellow St. Lunatic member Nelly's hit single "Ride wit Me" from Nelly's debut album "Country Grammar". In 1999, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for armed robbery. St. Lunatics campaigned for his release and titled their debut album "Free City" to support the release of City Spud from prison. He was released from prison, after serving 9 years, in 2008.


title: We Are Chaos

text: We Are Chaos (stylized in all caps) is the eleventh studio album by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was produced by Marilyn Manson and Shooter Jennings, and was released on September 11, 2020, by Loma Vista Recordings and Concord Music. The title track and "Don't Chase the Dead" were both issued as singles. The album was a critical and commercial success upon release, garnering mostly positive reviews and becoming their first number one album in Portugal, and their first number one record in Australia since 1998's "Mechanical Animals".


title: We Are Chaos

text: "We Are Chaos" was recorded in collaboration between vocalist Marilyn Manson and musician Shooter Jennings. The two were introduced in 2013 by Twiggy Ramirez, former bassist for the Marilyn Manson band. That same year, the producers of "Sons of Anarchy" asked Manson and Jennings to record a song for the finale to the sixth season of the television series. Their version of the track remains unreleased, with both Manson and Jennings saying they were unhappy with the finished product. The track "Join the Human Gang" was written by Jennings alongside the show's creator Kurt Sutter, and was eventually rewritten and released by The White Buffalo as "Come Join the Murder". Manson went on to portray a character in the seventh season of "Sons of Anarchy", and recorded two albums with Tyler Bates: "The Pale Emperor" and "Heaven Upside Down". Manson and Jennings also collaborated on a cover of David Bowie's "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)", for Jennings's album "Countach (For Giorgio)".


title: We Are Chaos

text: In 2019, drummer Gil Sharone – who performed on "The Pale Emperor" and "Heaven Upside Down" – announced he was leaving the band to pursue other projects. Former Black Flag drummer Brandon Pertzborn was hired as his replacement. Shortly after, Manson announced that Bates was no longer involved with the group, and that "We Are Chaos" would be co-produced by Jennings and feature contributions from his drummer Jamie Douglass. Pertzborn and the band's touring guitarist Paul Wiley were also confirmed to perform on the album. Manson and Jennings recorded a cover version of The Doors track "The End" for use as the theme song for the miniseries "The Stand". The track did not appear in the series, however, with director Josh Boone saying a license to use it proved too expensive for a series made on a limited budget.


title: We Are Chaos

text: Manson said recording "The End" informed the approach he and Jennings took while recording "We Are Chaos", in that it "started us exploring different things. [Shooter is] very talented in so many ways, and working with him is very fluid. We have a totally different collaborative style than I did [with Tyler] on the last two records. Sometimes Shooter will already be doing something that I was going to suggest. We lock brains a lot together." The album was recorded over two-and-a-half years of intermittent studio time. Since Manson and Jennings's touring commitments made it difficult to coordinate schedules, several different studios were used to record "We Are Chaos". Their respective home studios were used as the primary recording locations, with Manson going so far as to rent a house within a short distance of Jennings's to further facilitate recording. Another studio that could accommodate the entirety of Jennings's live band – which included strings and live drums – was also employed.


title: We Are Chaos

text: Despite the difference between the two bands' styles, Manson said they were not "afraid to mix the two together when we were making the songs." "We Are Chaos" contains ten songs, and no additional tracks were recorded. Manson explained that once his and Jennings's respective bands found a mode to collaborate, the songs "flowed quickly" and "there were no extra songs. There was no fat to cut off the music." The album was produced by Manson and Jennings, and Manson's vocals were recorded late at night; the vocalist said that Jennings deduced his "peak hour for singing was 3 a.m. I'm sure that's probably because it's [when] the full range of rasp comes out of my voice".


title: We Are Chaos

text: Jennings said recording the album made him a more confident lead player, explaining that Manson frequently encouraged him to perform instrumentation he was not familiar with during recording sessions. As a result, he plays bass guitar, keyboards and lead guitar on most songs on the album, and also created all of the drum programming. He said several guitars were used to record "We Are Chaos", but that the album predominantly features a black Gibson SG given as a gift to him on his 20th birthday by his father Waylon Jennings. Other guitars used include a reconstructed 1963 white Gibson SG given to him by Dave Cobb, as well as Manson's own Airliner guitar, which Manson would also use to record various guitar parts. The primary amplifier used was a Gallien-Krueger 250 ML Series 2, as its dual-speaker system could record guitars in stereophonic sound. Jennings complimented the amplifier for its ability to modify guitar tones. A Fender Super Champ was used as a "cool alternative", with Jennings saying: "That thing is magical. You can dial in Jimmy Page or you can dial in the Beatles, or fucking Eric Clapton if you want". Various instruments were processed using an Eventide H910 Harmonizer. Although Jennings said he preferred the Eventide H-10, Manson insisted on using the older H910 model, saying: "This is the David Bowie sound!"


title: We Are Chaos

text: Recording for the album completed in January 2020. That same month, bassist Juan Alderete was involved in a bicycle accident which left him with a diffuse axonal injury, a type of traumatic brain injury. A GoFundMe page was created to help cover the cost of his medical expenses. Alderete is credited with performing bass on the album.


title: We Are Chaos

text: "We Are Chaos" was written entirely by Manson and Jennings, with the latter saying their method of composing developed as work on the album progressed. The pair initially wrote material separately; Jennings said that during the initial writing sessions he created musical ideas to present to Manson, and the pair then evolved those ideas into songs. According to Jennings, their style of writing eventually developed to a process where they would "just start from scratch in a room. We'd start with a drum beat, or listen to a song that we liked, and the kind of guitar tone that was going on, and then emulate what was going on with that." David Bowie was a primary influence on the album's composition, specifically the material contained on Bowie's box set "A New Career in a New Town (1977–1982)". Manson gave a copy of that box set to Jennings as a gift early in the album's recording, and the pair frequently listened to it together. During one session, Manson divulged that "Ashes to Ashes" – from Bowie's 1980 album "Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)" – was the song that inspired him to become a musician; Jennings said he was inspired to become a musician and learned to play guitar by listening to "Antichrist Superstar".


title: We Are Chaos

text: The work of Elton John and Bernie Taupin was also an influence. Several songs on the album were written on piano, a first in Manson's career. Manson explained that "it seemed great for both of us to find a spot where my voice and piano [worked together because it] sounded really different. And it seemed like I could really go places that I had not gone before. Different keys, or different rhythms, or just different elements and ideas." This new style of writing had an impact on his vocal delivery, with Manson saying he sings with a more baritone voice on "We Are Chaos" than on previous releases. Manson said that Jennings's previous production work had the biggest impact on the album's sound, but denied "We Are Chaos" consisted of country music. He argued against Jennings's work being classified as such, saying "southern" was a more appropriate classification, noting the latter "also drags in a bit of the Stones, in a way".


title: We Are Chaos

text: A writer for "Inked" noted the dichotomy between Jennings and Manson's previous work while complimenting the collaboration between two seemingly disparate artists, saying: "The respective musical backgrounds of each musician are also evident, complimenting each other throughout the album, but also pushing themselves toward a new direction." They went on to comment that the pair's shared love of 1970s rock music was prevalent throughout "We Are Chaos", and noted that although the album contained the "grinding guitars" found on every Marilyn Manson album, the sound was at times more reminiscent of the likes of Bowie, Iggy Pop and Roxy Music. Some lyrics on the album were inspired by the sudden death of Eric Rosenbaum, a tattoo artist publicly known as Norm Love Letters or Norm Will Rise, who had tattooed Manson on several occasions. Manson said: "I had talked to him two days before he died. It was so heartbreaking."


title: We Are Chaos

text: Manson initially said the lyrics on the album were autobiographical, and that he considered self-titling the record as a result. This was later revised, however, and he described "We Are Chaos" as a concept album. The record purposefully includes ten songs, with the explicit intention of listeners being able to experience the album as if it were a traditional LP, with Manson noting the mood and tone of the record changes drastically after the fifth track. He said: "I wanted it to be like any movie or any great book or any painting or any poem, [in] that it becomes part of the listener's experience, not just mine", noting this was what he apprised when listening to Bowie's "Diamond Dogs", Alice Cooper's "Welcome to My Nightmare" and Pink Floyd's "The Wall" as a teenager, elaborating those albums made a listener "feel like you're a part of something bigger that you can insert yourself into. And I think escapism is an important thing to have now." He went on to say: "Hopefully, [listeners will] interpret it in a way that maybe I didn't even realize." Of the overall concept, he said he hoped listeners would be aware of the presence of a singular story arc, but encouraged people to discover their own story when listening to the album. He said he asked numerous people for their interpretation of the album's content, specifically whether they believed it concluded with a happy, sad or tragic ending.


title: We Are Chaos

text: "We Are Chaos" has been described as post-punk, rock, gothic rock and industrial rock. The first song is titled "Red Black and Blue", whose introduction consists of the vocalist reciting prose text, which he said set the mood for what was to follow on the album. In the prose, he proclaims himself to be a king bee who will cover the Earth in honey so that everyone will devour themselves. AllMusic compared the introductory prose to a sermon, before saying the song "quickly rumbles to life with a pounding beat, gurgling bass, and chugging riffage." Guitars featured on the song were recorded using the GK250 amplifier, which Jennings referred to as the best amplifier in his collection. He highlighted the amp for its "chorus button" feature, which he said was used to record "those huge tones on 'Red Black and Blue' for the chunking guitars." Reviewers compared the song to the work of White Zombie.


title: We Are Chaos

text: Despite being written eighteen months before the album was released, and before the COVID-19 pandemic began, Manson said the lyrics to the title track could be interpreted as referring to the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on mental health. Although it contains political and religious references, the song was primarily inspired by Manson seeking to relate emotionally to the rest of the world. "American Songwriter" compared the lyric to those of Kurt Cobain, describing the chorus as being "among the most visceral, primal expressions of inner turmoil" since Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit". The acoustic guitars on the song use Nashville tuning, which Jennings said he utilized to "bring that Elvis [Presley] meets Jeff Lynn vibe. Nashville tuning gives you the glimmer but you don't have that whole fucking hippy, '60s peace thing going on."


title: We Are Chaos

text: "Don't Chase the Dead" is a post-punk song, and was the first track recorded for the album. Jennings said it was originally written on a Gibson Hummingbird as an acoustic song, but became predominantly electric during recording. The majority of the track was recorded by Manson, Jennings and drummer Jamie Douglass in five hours. The shoegaze-influenced "Paint You with My Love" opens with Manson singing in falsetto tones. Manson said he was asked who sang the intro upon playing the song to the band's former longtime bassist Twiggy Ramirez, claiming the bassist did not recognize his voice in that key. The Arts Desk described it as the prettiest song on the album, comparing the song to T-Rex and Manson's vocals to Bauhaus. Along with the album opener, guitars on the song were recorded using the chorus button of the GK250 amplifier. Jennings described them as "kinda getting that dirty… It sounds like 'Ziggy Stardust' guitar. That amp can really morph sounds well. It can change just depending on how you adjust the knobs."


title: We Are Chaos

text: "Half-Way & One Step Forward" is a new wave song, and was the first track Manson and Jennings wrote together. The vocalist said he was excited as a result of the track's composition, describing it as "so strangely different" to anything he had written previously. It was compared to the work of Depeche Mode, specifically the material contained on their 1991 album "Songs of Faith and Devotion". Manson said the album contains a distinct line after this track, calling the title "Half-Way & One Step Forward" an "obvious" clue as to the album's duality.


title: We Are Chaos

text: The title of the sixth song on the album, "Infinite Darkness", is also the title of the self-portrait featured on the album cover. After Manson created the painting, he and Jennings began work on the similarly-titled song, with the vocalist saying this was the point when the album "really developed into something". "Classic Rock" said it was the sole track on "We Are Chaos" that could be described as industrial goth, which they said was the genre that Manson "built his empire on." AllMusic said the song contained "suitably buzzing riffs, cacophonous percussion, and a feral vocal performance", and that both it and the album's next track, "Perfume", were two of the record's most "classic-sounding moments." Other reviewers noted the two songs contained apparent lyrical references to the Me Too movement. "NME" highlighted the "Infinite Darkness" lyric "Just 'cause you're famous doesn't mean you're worth anything/ In this world or the next one or the one before", while "The Independent" said "Perfume" saw him hammering the "21st-century cult of celebrity victimhood" with the lyric "'Cause victim is chic/ You're as famous as your pain".


title: We Are Chaos

text: The main riff on "Keep My Head Together" was recorded using the acoustic Gibson Hummingbird guitar. Jennings explained the acoustic guitar was recorded via an AKG 451 microphone connected to a Super Champ amplifier, and that the guitar was "right on" the microphone, "really close, and I was playing it really, really quiet, so quiet and so compressed that it became really big, so it sounds like an electric that you can't really identify but it's really the Hummingbird that's been mic'd closely and put through an amp and played extremely quietly." AllMusic compared the guitars on the track to the Smiths's "How Soon Is Now". The track features guitar overdubbing performed by John Sheffler, who performed electric guitar overdubs as well as pedal steel guitar on several tracks on the album.


title: We Are Chaos

text: "NME" described "Solve Coagula" as an arena rock song, with "The Independent" saying that on the track Manson "offers the surprisingly graceful acceptance of 'I'm not special/ I'm just broken/ And I don't wanna be fixed.'" "Consequence of Sound" called the song a gem, elaborating that "the drums, guitars and keyboard of the chorus swell together creating an emotional riptide that pulls the listener along with it. The guitar work recalls Pink Floyd's David Gilmour and the keyboards are reminiscent of something off of "Mechanical Animals", if it had a little more time to mature." Similarly, AllMusic said the "mirrored pair" of "Half-Way & One Step Forward" and "Broken Needle" end up sounding like "unearthed treasures from the glam rock "Mechanical Animals" era." "Inked" commented that Manson and Jennings's shared love of rock music from the 1970s is exemplified with this track, and "Hot Press" called it one of "the most exciting songs he's made in years". Vinyl editions of the album end in a locked groove, in which a two-second section of the outro to "Broken Needle" endlessly repeats itself.


title: We Are Chaos

text: "We Are Chaos" was originally scheduled to be released in February or March 2020, but this was rescheduled after the cancellation of the band's appearance as the opening act on Ozzy Osbourne's No More Tours II series, a North American arena tour set to begin in May 2020. The tour was cancelled when Osbourne was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. The title track was issued as the lead single from the record on July 29, 2020. A music video for the song was released the same day, which was directed, photographed and edited by Matt Mahurin while in quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "We Are Chaos" peaked at number eight on "Billboard" Mainstream Rock Chart, the band's third top ten hit there. In an interview published on September 8, Manson said he intended to shoot a music video for "Don't Chase the Dead", but said this may not be possible due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this, the song was released as the second single from the album on September 10, a day before the album's release.


title: We Are Chaos

text: The album was released on September 11, 2020, and several editions were issued, including CD and cassette versions, as well as numerous limited edition vinyl options: a picture disc, standard black as well as pink and blue colored vinyls, and a red, black and blue-spattered colored vinyl. The latter was bundled with a limited edition 7" vinyl single of "We Are Chaos", containing an exclusive remix as a B-side. CD versions of the albums released in brick and mortar stores contained two bonus tracks: acoustic versions of "We Are Chaos" and "Broken Needle". These songs also appeared as bonuses on Japanese editions of the CD. Additionally, Target stores in North America were supplied with an exclusive "translucent black ice" marbled edition of the vinyl, containing a limited edition art print.


title: We Are Chaos

text: Manson created the artwork for the album. The cover image is a watercolor self-portrait entitled "Infinite Darkness". Manson said he entered a trance-like state when creating the artwork, to the extent that the following morning, he almost forgot he had painted it. He sent a photograph of the still-drying painting to Jennings, who remarked it should be used as the album cover. A music video for "Don't Chase the Dead", directed by Travis Shin and featuring actor Norman Reedus and Manson's girlfriend Lindsay Usich, was released on September 24. Soon after, Manson revealed that he and Lindsay Usich were married in a private ceremony while in lockdown. "Don't Chase the Dead" eventually peaked at number 29 on "Billboard" Mainstream Rock Chart, making "We Are Chaos" their first studio album since 1998's "Mechanical Animals" to contain more than one top thirty-peaking song on that chart. The song also entered "Billboard" Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, and the top five of Hot Hard Rock Songs.


title: We Are Chaos

text: "We Are Chaos" received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 77 based on 11 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". This is the highest score received by any of the band's albums since the website began collecting data, with their 2000 album "Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death)". Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave the album 7.9 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus. This is also the band's highest album rating on that website, since it began collecting data in 2009.


title: We Are Chaos

text: Several publications praised the quality of songwriting and production on "We Are Chaos", including "NME", which complimented Manson's lyricism for focusing less on spectacle and more on craft, and praised Jennings's production for introducing a wide variety of styles to the album. Similarly, AllMusic commended the focus on song-craft, saying this was the key to the band's later-career rejuvenation, elaborating: "As the years of shock tactics and theatrics fade into memory, Manson's left with just the music, aging as gracefully as he can with another expertly crafted offering for the altar." "Hot Press" said the record contained some of the most exciting songs the band had recorded in years, while "Kerrang!" said it continued their creative resurgence, complimenting the "razor-sharp" lyricism and saying the production evoked a "sense of stateliness at times" and a "sleazy rock club stench at others". "Metal Hammer" praised the lyrics for being more emotionally vulnerable than Manson had ever been previously. "Classic Rock" noted the absence of intentionally provocative lyrics on "We Are Chaos", saying that instead it found Manson reflecting "the terrors that are already out there" before summarizing: "It's good to have the king of modern mischief back to cast a milky eye over the mess we've got ourselves into."


title: We Are Chaos

text: Other writers commented on the musical diversity found on the album. "Consequence of Sound" said the production, musicianship and songwriting on the record were among the best of the band's entire discography, and that the musical variation on the record was intriguing. A staff writer for Sputnikmusic described the level of variety as "supreme" and said the record uncovers an adroit chapter in the band's career. They complimented it for mixing elements from their older work with new influences, and said this shift in tone was comparable to the inclusion of blues rock on "The Pale Emperor". They went on to describe the album as "a staggering statement that manages to overthrow the greatness of even "The Pale Emperor"." "The Arts Desk" said that as a result of the musical variation, the album was "more tuneful and affecting than anything else" the band had ever released. "musicOMH" said the tracks on the album are "stronger, tougher and better than they have any right to be", calling the album "stunning" and dubbing it the band's "most complete artistic statement" since "Holy Wood".


title: We Are Chaos

text: Numerous publications applauded the collaboration between Manson and Jennings. "Clash" said that despite being disparate musicians, the pair had "created, if not perfected, a rousing ballad of angst for the Millennials", describing it as a concise album without filler and one that "genuinely gets better with each listen." "Exclaim!" said the record continued the band's creative resurgence, describing it as a "logical and welcome next step" in their discography, and said the best tracks on the album were among the strongest of their latter discography. They went on to summarize that although the vocalist "may not be the pop culture figure he once was, Marilyn Manson is still capable of churning out some of modern rock music's finest work."


title: We Are Chaos

text: The album received some mixed reviews as well. In a brief review, "Rolling Stone" said the songs on the album were not memorable. "Mojo" said the best songs on the record were the tracks where Manson "actually emotes", and summarized: "Manson's Iggyesque croak begs for the pared-to-the-essence Rick Rubin treatment; "We Are Chaos" isn't that record, but it's a step in that direction." Although "The Independent" complimented the quality of musicianship and variety found on the album, saying it "spans everything from Satanism to angry Enya", their writer simultaneously lauded and criticized the lyrics for both critiquing the MeToo movement and for lyrical content they perceived as misogynistic. "Our Culture Mag" echoed this sentiment, saying the most entertaining albums in the band's discography were those which "acknowledge the misanthropy and nihilism" were "a guise played up for dramatic effect". They said the album "works best when it acts as a dark mirror to society", but that it was sonically inferior to its predecessor.


title: We Are Chaos

text: Both Cleveland.com and "The Oakland Press" dubbed "We Are Chaos" the album of the week, while "Spin" said it was the eighth-best album ever produced by Jennings. The record went on to appear on numerous best albums of 2020 lists, including ones by "Alternative Press", "Consequence of Sound", "Loudwire", "Metal Hammer", "Revolver", Sputnikmusic, "Ultimate Classic Rock", and Scandinavian publication "Nöjesguiden". The album was nominated in the "International Record of the Year" category at the 2021 Danish Gaffa Awards, where Manson was also nominated for "International Soloist of the Year".


title: We Are Chaos

text: Industry forecasters predicted the record was on course to debut in the United States with pure album sales of between 20,000 and 22,000 copies, with an additional 2,000 to 5,000 units as a result of streaming and album-equivalent units. It went on to debut as the highest-selling album of the week based on pure sales. Despite this, it entered in the lower portion of the top ten of the "Billboard" 200, primarily as a result of a lack of streaming activity. The record debuted at number eight on the "Billboard" 200 with 31,000 album-equivalent units in its first week, becoming Manson's tenth top ten album. The recorded units included 28,000 traditional album sales, 3,000 streaming-equivalent units (or 4 million on-demand streams of album tracks), and less than 1,000 track-equivalent units (sales of individual tracks). It also debuted atop Top Rock Albums, making it their first number one on that chart, and was their fifth consecutive number one on Top Hard Rock Albums; only three other acts have more number ones on the latter chart—Five Finger Death Punch, Linkin Park and Pearl Jam, who each peaked at the summit six times. The album sold an additional 6,775 traditional copies on its second week in the US, and 4,125 traditional copies the following week. As of February 2021, by which point Manson was dropped by Loma Vista following abuse allegations made against him by former girlfriend Evan Rachel Wood, the album had sold 69,000 copies in the United States. "We Are Chaos" had the highest pure album sales total of the week in Canada, debuting at number eight.


title: We Are Chaos

text: The album was predicted to enter the top three of the UK Albums Chart. It went on to match the peak of previous album "Heaven Upside Down" when it entered the chart at number seven with first week sales of 4,638 copies, 437 copies behind the album which peaked at number three, making it the band's sixth top ten album in the UK. The record debuted at number one on the ARIA Charts, making it the band's second number one album in Australia, following "Mechanical Animals". In Japan, the record debuted at number 28 on the Oricon album chart, with first week sales of 1,344 copies.


title: Phytoremediation

text: Phytoremediation technologies use living plants to clean up soil, air and water contaminated with hazardous contaminants. It is defined as "the use of green plants and the associated microorganisms, along with proper soil amendments and agronomic techniques to either contain, remove or render toxic environmental contaminants harmless". The term is an amalgam of the Greek "phyto" (plant) and Latin "remedium" (restoring balance). Although attractive for its cost, phytoremediation has not been demonstrated to redress any significant environmental challenge to the extent that contaminated space has been reclaimed.


title: Phytoremediation

text: Phytoremediation is proposed as a cost-effective plant-based approach of environmental remediation that takes advantage of the ability of plants to concentrate elements and compounds from the environment and to detoxify various compounds. The concentrating effect results from the ability of certain plants called hyperaccumulators to bioaccumulate chemicals. The remediation effect is quite different. Toxic heavy metals cannot be degraded, but organic pollutants can be, and are generally the major targets for phytoremediation. Several field trials confirmed the feasibility of using plants for environmental cleanup.


title: Phytoremediation

text: Other methods of soil remediation are very expensive because they require a much more complicated process. The contaminated soil would need to be removed, sent to a laboratory to be cleansed on the toxic metals and then brought back to the site from which it was extracted. Phytoremediation is a more cost effective solution. Phytoremediation may be applied to polluted soil or static water environment. This technology has been increasingly investigated and employed at sites with soils contaminated heavy metals like with cadmium, lead, aluminum, arsenic and antimony. These metals can cause oxidative stress in plants, destroy cell membrane integrity, interfere with nutrient uptake, inhibit photosynthesis and decrease plant chlorophyll.


title: Phytoremediation

text: Phytoremediation has been used successfully include the restoration of abandoned metal mine workings, and sites where polychlorinated biphenyls have been dumped during manufacture and mitigation of ongoing coal mine discharges reducing the impact of contaminants in soils, water, or air. Contaminants such as metals, pesticides, solvents, explosives, and crude oil and its derivatives, have been mitigated in phytoremediation projects worldwide. Many plants such as mustard plants, alpine pennycress, hemp, and pigweed have proven to be successful at hyperaccumulating contaminants at toxic waste sites.


title: Phytoremediation

text: Not all plants are able to accumulate heavy metals or organics pollutants due to differences in the physiology of the plant. Even cultivars within the same species have varying abilities to accumulate pollutants.


title: Phytoremediation

text: Phytoextraction (or "phytoaccumulation" or "phytosequestration") exploits the ability of plants or algae to remove contaminants from soil or water into harvestable plant biomass. The roots take up substances from the soil or water and concentrate it above ground in the plant biomass Organisms that can uptake high amounts of contaminants are called hyperaccumulators. Phytoextraction can also be performed by plants (e.g. Populus and Salix) that take up lower levels of pollutants, but due to their high growth rate and biomass production, may remove a considerable amount of contaminants from the soil. Phytoextraction has been growing rapidly in popularity worldwide for the last twenty years or so. Typically, phytoextraction is used for heavy metals or other inorganics. At the time of disposal, contaminants are typically concentrated in the much smaller volume of the plant matter than in the initially contaminated soil or sediment. After harvest, a lower level of the contaminant will remain in the soil, so the growth/harvest cycle must usually be repeated through several crops to achieve a significant cleanup. After the process, the soil is remediated.


title: Phytoremediation

text: Of course many pollutants kill plants, so phytoremediation is not a panacea. For example, chromium is toxic to most higher plants at concentrations above 100 μM·kg−1 dry weight.


title: Phytoremediation

text: Mining of these extracted metals through phytomining is a conceivable way of recovering the material. Hyperaccumulating plants are often metallophyte. Induced or assisted phytoextraction is a process where a conditioning fluid containing a chelator or another agent is added to soil to increase metal solubility or mobilization so that the plants can absorb them more easily. While such additives can increase metal uptake by plants, they can also lead to large amounts of available metals in the soil beyond what the plants are able to translocate, causing potential leaching into the subsoil or groundwater.


title: Phytoremediation

text: Phytostabilization reduces the mobility of substances in the environment, for example, by limiting the leaching of substances from the soil. It focuses on the long term stabilization and containment of the pollutant. The plant immobilizes the pollutants by binding them to soil particles making them less available for plant or human uptake. Unlike phytoextraction, phytostabilization focuses mainly on sequestering pollutants in soil near the roots but not in plant tissues. Pollutants become less bioavailable, resulting in reduced exposure. The plants can also excrete a substance that produces a chemical reaction, converting the heavy metal pollutant into a less toxic form. Stabilization results in reduced erosion, runoff, leaching, in addition to reducing the bioavailability of the contaminant. An example application of phytostabilization is using a vegetative cap to stabilize and contain mine tailings. Some soil amendments decrease radiosource mobility – while at some concentrations the same amendments will "increase" mobility. Vidal "et al." 2000 find the root mats of meadow grasses are effective at demobilising radiosource materials especially with certain combinations of other agricultural practices. Vidal also find that the particular grass mix makes a significant difference.


title: Phytoremediation

text: Phytodegradation (also called phytotransformation) uses plants or microorganisms to degrade organic pollutants in the soil or within the body of the plant. The organic compounds are broken down by enzymes that the plant roots secrete and these molecules are then taken up by the plant and released through transpiration. This process works best with organic contaminants like herbicides, trichloroethylene, and methyl "tert"-butyl ether.


title: Phytoremediation

text: Phytotransformation results in the chemical modification of environmental substances as a direct result of plant metabolism, often resulting in their inactivation, degradation (phytodegradation), or immobilization (phytostabilization). In the case of organic pollutants, such as pesticides, explosives, solvents, industrial chemicals, and other xenobiotic substances, certain plants, such as Cannas, render these substances non-toxic by their metabolism. In other cases, microorganisms living in association with plant roots may metabolize these substances in soil or water. These complex and recalcitrant compounds cannot be broken down to basic molecules (water, carbon-dioxide, etc.) by plant molecules, and, hence, the term "phytotransformation" represents a change in chemical structure without complete breakdown of the compound.


title: Phytoremediation

text: The term "Green Liver" is used to describe phytotransformation, as plants behave analogously to the human liver when dealing with these xenobiotic compounds (foreign compound/pollutant). After uptake of the xenobiotics, plant enzymes increase the polarity of the xenobiotics by adding functional groups such as hydroxyl groups (-OH).


title: Phytoremediation

text: This is known as Phase I metabolism, similar to the way that the human liver increases the polarity of drugs and foreign compounds (drug metabolism). Whereas in the human liver enzymes such as cytochrome P450s are responsible for the initial reactions, in plants enzymes such as peroxidases, phenoloxidases, esterases and nitroreductases carry out the same role.


title: Phytoremediation

text: In the second stage of phytotransformation, known as Phase II metabolism, plant biomolecules such as glucose and amino acids are added to the polarized xenobiotic to further increase the polarity (known as conjugation). This is again similar to the processes occurring in the human liver where glucuronidation (addition of glucose molecules by the UGT class of enzymes, e.g. UGT1A1) and glutathione addition reactions occur on reactive centres of the xenobiotic.


title: Phytoremediation

text: Phase I and II reactions serve to increase the polarity and reduce the toxicity of the compounds, although many exceptions to the rule are seen. The increased polarity also allows for easy transport of the xenobiotic along aqueous channels.


title: Phytoremediation

text: In the final stage of phytotransformation (Phase III metabolism), a sequestration of the xenobiotic occurs within the plant. The xenobiotics polymerize in a lignin-like manner and develop a complex structure that is sequestered in the plant. This ensures that the xenobiotic is safely stored, and does not affect the functioning of the plant. However, preliminary studies have shown that these plants can be toxic to small animals (such as snails), and, hence, plants involved in phytotransformation may need to be maintained in a closed enclosure.