Great Barrier Island lies in the outer Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand, 100 kilometres north-east of central Auckland. With an area of 285 square kilometres it is the sixth-largest island of New Zealand and fourth-largest in the main chain, its highest point, Mount Hobson, is 627 metres above sea level. The local authority is the Auckland Council; the island was exploited for its minerals and kauri trees and saw only limited agriculture. In 2013, it was inhabited by 939 people living from farming and tourism; the majority of the island is administered as a nature reserve by the Department of Conservation. In 2009 the island atmosphere was described as being "life in New Zealand many decades back". With an area of 285 square kilometres, Great Barrier Island is the sixth-largest island in New Zealand after the South Island, the North Island, Stewart Island/Rakiura, Chatham Island, Auckland Island; the highest point, Mount Hobson or Hirakimata, is 627 metres above sea level. Great Barrier is surrounded by several smaller islands, including Kaikoura Island, Rakitu Island, Aiguilles Island and Dragon Island.

A number of islands are located in Great Barrier bays, including Motukahu Island, Nelson Island, Kaikoura Island, Broken Islands, Motutaiko Island, Rangiahua Island, Little Mahuki Island, Mahuki Island and Junction Islands. The island's European name stems from its location on the outskirts of the Hauraki Gulf. With a maximum length of some 43 kilometres, it and the Coromandel Peninsula protect the gulf from the storms of the Pacific Ocean to the east; the island boasts contrasting coastal environments. The eastern coast comprises long, clear beaches, windswept sand-dunes, heavy surf; the western coast and calm, is home to hundreds of tiny, secluded bays which offer some of the best diving and boating in the country. The inland holds several large and biologically diverse wetlands, along with rugged hill country, as well as old-growth and regenerating kauri forests; the island received its European name from Captain Cook because it acts as a barrier between the Pacific Ocean and the Hauraki Gulf.

The Māori name is Aotea. Entrance to the Hauraki Gulf is via one on each side of the island. Colville Channel separates the southernmost point, Cape Barrier, from Cape Colville at the northern tip of the Coromandel Peninsula to the south, Cradock Channel from the smaller Little Barrier Island to the west; the island protects the gulf from the ocean surface waves and the currents of the South Pacific Gyre. It is not a sandbar barrier defined as the correct use of the term. Early European interest followed discovery of copper in the remote north, where New Zealand's earliest mines were established at Miners Head in 1842. Traces of these mines remain accessible only by boat. Gold and silver were found in the Okupu / Whangaparapara area in the 1890s, the remains of a stamping battery on the Whangaparapara Road are a remainder of this time; the sound of the battery working was reputedly audible from the Coromandel Peninsula, 20 km away. In early 2010, a government proposal to remove 705 ha of land on the Te Ahumata Plateau from Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act, which gives protection from the mining of public land, was criticised.

Concerns were that mining for the suspected $4.3 billion in mineral worth in the area would damage both the conservation land as well as the island's tourism economy. Locals were split on some hoping for new jobs. If restarted, mining at White Cliffs would occur in the same area it proliferated on Great Barrier; the area's regenerating bushland still holds numerous semi-collapsed or open mining shafts where silver and gold had been mined. The kauri logging industry was profitable in early European days and up to the mid-20th century. Forests were well inland, with no easy way to get the logs to sawmills. Kauri logs were dragged to a convenient stream bed with steep sides and a driving dam was constructed of wood, with a lifting gate near the bottom large enough for the logs to pass through; when the dam had filled, which might take up to a year, the gate was opened and the logs above the dam were pushed out through the hole and swept down to the sea. The logging industry cut down large amounts of old growth, most of the current growth is younger native forest as well as some remaining kauri in the far north of the island.

Much of the island is covered with regenerating bush dominated by kauri. Great Barrier Island was the site of New Zealand's last whaling station, at Whangaparapara, which opened in 1956, over a century after the whaling industry peaked in New Zealand, closed due to depletion of whaling stocks and increasing protection of whales by 1962; some remains can be visited. Another small-scale industry was kauri gum digging, while dairy farming and sheep farming have tended to play a small role compared to the usual New Zealand practice. A fishing industry collapsed. Islanders are occupied in tourism, farming or service-related industries when not working off-island; the remote north was the site of the sinking of the SS Wairarapa around midnight of 29 October 1894. This was one of New Zealand's worst shipwrecks, with about 140 lives lost, some of them buried in two beach grave sites in the far north; as a result, a Great Barrier Island pigeon post service was set up, the first message being flown on 14 May 1897.

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The Carnac stones are an exceptionally dense collection of megalithic sites in Brittany in northwestern France, consisting of stone alignments, dolmens and single menhirs. More than 3,000 prehistoric standing stones were hewn from local granite and erected by the pre-Celtic people of Brittany, form the largest such collection in the world. Most of the stones are within the Breton village of Carnac, but some to the east are within La Trinité-sur-Mer; the stones were erected at some stage during the Neolithic period around 3300 BCE, but some may date to as early as 4500 BCE. Although the stones date from 4500 BCE, modern myths were formed which resulted from 1st century AD Roman and Christian occupations. A Christian myth associated with the stones held that they were pagan soldiers in pursuit of Pope Cornelius when he turned them to stone. Brittany has its own local versions of the Arthurian cycle. Local tradition claims that the reason they stand in such straight lines is that they are a Roman legion turned to stone by Merlin.

In recent centuries, many of the sites have been neglected, with reports of dolmens being used as sheep shelters, chicken sheds or ovens. More stones have been removed to make way for roads, or as building materials; the continuing management of the sites remains a controversial topic. There are three major groups of stone rows – Ménec and Kerlescan – which may have once formed a single group, but have been split up as stones were removed for other purposes; the standing stones are made of weathered granite from local outcroppings that once extensively covered the area. Eleven converging rows of menhirs stretching for 1,165 by 100 metres. There are. According to the tourist office there is a "cromlech containing 71 stone blocks" at the western end and a ruined cromlech at the eastern end; the largest stones, around 4 metres high, are at the wider, western end. This fan-like layout recurs a little further along to the east in the Kermario alignment, it consists of 1029 stones in about 1,300 m in length.

A stone circle to the east end, where the stones are shorter, was revealed by aerial photography. A smaller group of 555 stones, further to the east of the other two sites, it is composed of 13 lines with a total length of about 800 metres, ranging in height from 80 cm to 4 m. At the extreme west, where the stones are tallest, there is a stone circle. There may be another stone circle to the north. A much smaller group, further east again of Kerlescan, falling within the commune of La Trinité-sur-Mer; these are now set in woods, most are covered with moss and ivy. There are mounds of earth built up over a grave. In this area, they feature a passage leading to a central chamber which once held neolithic artifacts; the tumulus of Saint-Michel was constructed between 5000 BC and 3400 BC. At its base it is 125 by 60 m, is 12 m high, it required 35,000 cubic metres of earth. Its function was the same as that of the pyramids of Egypt: a tomb for the members of the ruling class, it contained various funerary objects, such as 15 stone chests, jewellery, most of which are held by the Museum of Prehistory of Carnac.

It was excavated in 1862 by digging down 8 m. Le Rouzic excavated it between 1900 and 1907, discovering the tomb and the stone chests. A chapel was built on top in 1663 and was rebuilt in 1813, before being destroyed in 1923; the current building is an identical reconstruction of the 1663 chapel, built in 1926. 47.6119°N 3.0608°W / 47.6119. It has a dolmen at the west end, two tombs at the east end. A small menhir 3 m high, is nearby. There are several dolmens scattered around the area; these dolmens are considered to have been tombs. They were constructed with several large stones supporting a capstone buried under a mound of earth. In many cases, the mound is no longer present, sometimes due to archeological excavation, only the large stones remain, in various states of ruin. North, near the Chapelle de La Madeleine. Has a covered roof. 47.6208°N 3.0482°W / 47.6208. It is named after the nearby Chapelle de La Madeleine, still used. A rare dolmen still covered by its original cairn. South of the Kermario alignments, it is 25 to 30 metres wide, 5 m high, has a small menhir on top.

Surrounded by a circle of small menhirs 4 m out, the main passage is 6.5 m long and leads to a large chamber where numerous artifacts were found, including axes, some animal and human teeth, some pearls and sherds, 26 beads of a unique bluish Nephrite gem. It has some Megalithic art carved on its inner surfaces in the form of serpentines and a human-sized double-axe symbol carved in the underside of its main roof slab. In ancient cultures, the axe and more the bi-pennis used to represent the lightning powers of divinity, it was constructed around 4600 BC and used for 3,000 years. A

Alternative R&B is a term used by music journalists to describe a stylistic alternative to contemporary R&B. "Alternative R&B" was once used by the music industry during the late 1990s to market neo soul artists, such as D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, Maxwell. There has been a variety of discussion about the differing genre terms, with several critics describing the music under the broad category of "alternative R&B" or "indie R&B"; the term "hipster R&B" has been used, as has the term "PBR&B"—a combination of "PBR" and R&B. The first use of "PBR&B" was on Twitter by Sound of the City writer Eric Harvey on a March 22, 2011, post. Three years amazed and distressed at how far the term—meant as a joke—had traveled, Harvey wrote an extensive essay about it for Pitchfork. Slate suggests the name "R-Neg-B", as a reference to "negging"; the genre has sometimes been called "noir&B". However, the terms are criticized for "pigeonholing" artists into hipster subculture and being used in a derisive manner. Barry Walters of Spin characterizes the unconventional style as an "exchange between EDM, hip hop and R&B's commercial avant-garde", cites Frank Ocean's Nostalgia and Channel Orange, The Weeknd's House of Balloons and Echoes of Silence, Drake's Take Care, Miguel's Kaleidoscope Dream, Holy Other's Held and How to Dress Well's Total Loss as works associated with alternative R&B.

Brandon Neasman of The Grio observes a "changing of the guard in R&B, from the smooth, cool heartthrobs to these vulnerable, off-kilter personalities" amid the prevalence of social media in society. Neasman finds the subject matter of "these new-wave artists" to be more "relatable" and writes of alternative R&B's characteristics: lot of the production is echo-laden and lofty using a lot of synthesizers and filtered drums—sonically giving a nod to Prince's vintage'80s sound. Additionally, for the most part, it doesn't feel as if these artists are selling sex as their main entrée. Granted, they still sing about the topic, in explicit detail, but it's in equal proportion to drugs and personal philosophies. You don't get that same diversity in subject matter from the majority of modern R&B singers. Hermione Hoby of The Guardian writes that "the music is radical" and observes "an ongoing, mutually enriching dialogue between indie and electronic musicians and R&B artists." Gerrick D. Kennedy of the Los Angeles Times feels that "the new movement feels like the most significant stylistic change in R&B since neo soul rolled around in the 1990s."

Janet Jackson's sixth studio album. There are two predominating opinions regarding alternative R&B as a classifier of sonic and lyrical characteristics within the larger R&B genre, the first of the two being a reluctant acceptance of its existence – if only for the sake of marketability. Stereogum described the genre as a group of "co-conspirators, not a unified movement." In thought, How to Dress Well, while not offended by the term "PBR&B", finds it "tacky". Miguel himself has said that he is "comfortable" with the term "indie R&B" because it "insinuates a higher art. Or a deeper or somehow more artistic delivery of rhythm and blues music, it suggest there's more artistry within a genre that has become more of a cliché of itself."Frank Ocean, when first asked in an interview with The Quietus, whether he considers "Novacane" to be an R&B song, responded, "You're limiting it. And that's; when you say'it's that', you listen to it in a certain way. And you might not miss it, but it's just inaccurate, you'll miss a couple of things, contextually."

He proceeds to point out that race and vocal delivery are stereotypical signifiers of R&B music, in turn forcing himself and his peers into a category they may not identify within. She further explained: "It's; when I first released music and no one knew what I looked like, I would read comments like:'I've never heard anything like this before, it's not in a genre.' And my picture came out six months now she's an R&B singer.'" The Fader echoes her sentiment, stating, "By adding the prefix, it sidelines R&B itself by implying it's not experimental, boundary-pushing or intellectual. It throws side-eye at the genre, while at the same time claiming to have discovered something worthy within it." List of alternative R&B artists Alternative hip hop Neo soul Abebe, Nitsuh. "PBR&B". New York. Cabral, Jeanette. "PBR&B – A subgenre is born". CBC Music. Archived from the original on March 1, 2016. Fennessey, Sean. "Love vs. Money: The Weeknd, Frank Ocean, R&B's Future Shock"; the Village Voice. Archived from the original on May 12, 2011.

Retrieved January 29, 2013

Jānis Akuraters was a Latvian poet, writer and politician. He founded the Latvian National Theatre in 1919 and was director of Radio of Riga between 1930 and 1934. Jānis Akuraters was born on 13 January 1876 in Dignāja parish Jaunzemji homestead, his father was a forester. Akuraters studied in a Birži primary school and in the Jēkabpils city school. After graduation he started work in schools. 1898 in Elkšņi, 1899–1901 in Jumurda and 1902 in Riga. In 1903 Akuraters went to Moscow to study medicine however he started to attend law lectures instead. In this period he started Russian literature studies. In 1904 he turned to poetry. Akuraters participated in the Revolution of 1905 one of his most famous poems Ar kaujas saucieniem uz lūpām is dedicated to revolution. After the suppression of the revolution he was arrested and after release he published art magazine Pret Sauli. In 1907 Akuraters deported to Pskov Oblast, Russia. From there he managed to get to Finland, from there to Sweden settling in Norway.

While in exile Akuraters wrote one of his famous works, his childhood memories Kalpa zēna vasara. He returned to Latvia in 1908. During First World War Akuraters enlisted in the Latvian Rifleman regiment and took part in the famous Christmas Battles. After the war Akuraters turned to politics, he was a member of Latvian National democratic party and was elected as a member of provisional government Peoples council in 1918. He participated in the declaration of the independence of Latvia in 18th. November 1918. In years he was a director of art department and director of Latvian Radio. Jānis Akuraters died on 25 July 1937 in Riga. Jānis Akuraters house in Riga's Torņakalns neighbourhood built in 1933 by architect Verners Vitands has been restored to it original condition and now houses poet's memorial museum. Jānis Akuraters first publication was made in 1895 in magazine Austrums, it was a poem Ziema. During his lifetime are published 10 collections of poetry, 14 plays many novels, his poetry is close to romanticism but in his prose works dominates expressionism

The Nigerian National Order of Merit Award is an academic award conferred on distinguished academicians and intellectuals who have made outstanding contributions to the academic and development of Nigeria. The award is conferred on its recipient by the Federal Government of Nigeria following a nomination and approval of the Governing Board of the Nigerian National Merit Award, its recipient is decorated by the President of Nigeria. Recipients of the award have the legal right to use the postnominal title: Nigerian National Order of Merit, it is the highest academic award in Nigeria and since its institution in 1979, the award has so far been conferred on only 70 distinguished academicians. Nigerian National Merit Award official website

Álvaro Ulcué Chocué was a Colombian Catholic priest and a member of the Paez people that became an activist in the defense of the rights of his people, as well as ethnic minorities and poor people of his country. He used to denounce cases of violence and abuses of power during his homilies, his intention to organize his people to recover the ancestral lands, created tensions with landowners that accused him of uprising. He was murdered by two men on November 1984 in Santander de Quilichao; the crime remains unpunished. He was the son of María Soledad Chocué Peña and José Domingo Ulcué Yajué, governor of the Indigenous Council. Ulcué could start his formal education only when he was 11 in the school of Pueblo Nuevo, Cauca; the school was run by the nuns founded by Mother Laura. He finished his primary at the Indocrespo, a residence for Catholic indigenous young people in Guadarrama intended to ordain indigenous clergy in Colombia, he continued his education at the Minor Seminar of Popayán run by the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, but after 4 years, he had to stop due to financial problems.

He became teacher first in San Benito Abad and at his own indigenous shelter in Cauca. But the Archdioceses and the sisters of Mother Laura helped him to finish his dream to become a priest and they paid the studies at the Seminary of Popayán, he finished theology in the seminary of Ibagué. Ulcué was ordained as a priest on July 1973 in Popayán, he celebrated his first Mass in Pueblo Nuevo, at the side of his Paez people, an event that got the attention of the time, because it was the first time that an indigenous man became a Catholic priest in Colombia. In the occasion he said: "In the Seminar we began 62 and now we reached only three: Tomás Mina a black, Joel Ortiz, a farmer and me, an indigenous; this is the fulfillment of the prophecy that God chooses the humble to confuse the powerful." But his ministry would not be easy: sensible to the suffering of his own people with the problem of lost of ancestral lands before landowners, he became an object of persecution. He received several threats during the 1980s.

First it was his own family, object of violence: in unclear events his own sister, Gloria, an uncle, Serafín and other Paez persons, were murdered. His own father was wounded in events. After the funeral of his sister and uncle, soldiers searched at his house. At the end of 1982 the indigenous communities denounced the threats against Fr. Ulcué, stating that the landowners had put a price to his head, he was not intimidated and he did a travel in 1983 to visit other indigenous communities in Colombia and Ecuador, including Afro-Colombians victims of discrimination and abuse. The most difficult part came in 1984 with the conflict of López Adentro, a part of the Corinto Paez territory, expropriated by landowners. Fr. Ulcué participated in a peaceful recovery of the land on January 25, an action, answered by a violent participation of Police and Army with the death of 5 indigenous, among them a girl of 7 years old. Fr. Ulcué was active providing humanitarian assistance to wounded people and he celebrated a Mass on the site of the recovered land.

On November 8 of that same year, the Ministry of Defense, General Oscar Botero Restrepo, visited the troops with other two generals and Diaz. Fr. Ulcué invited them to his Parish to discuss about the accusations made by the military against his person that were saying that he was promoting the communities to invade private property, he explained to Min Botero the rights of the indigenous peoples to their ancestral lands and the legal character of their claims to recover the indigenous shelters. At the following day of that meeting, on November 9, the army and the Police invaded the land of López Adentro, burned 150 indigenous houses and destroyed with machines 300 hectares of farming. "The government will always be at the side of the powerful, to defend their interests, but the interests of the poor must be defended by the same organized communities," he said when he knew the news. "I invite all Christians and other indigenous companions to rise our voices of protest and to condemn these events as contrary to the Law of God," he asked.

On Saturday, November 10, 1984 at 8:30 AM, in Santander de Quilichao, Fr. Ulcué was attacked by two men in a motorbike, he fell to the ground alive. The two criminals shot him once more; some nuns nearby brought him to the hospital. Nobody has been prosecuted for this crime. In August 14, 1996, 12 years after, the Colombian Institute for Land Reform, reestablished the indigenous shelter of Corinto, with the same details claimed by Fr. Ulcué, including the land of López Adentro. Beltrán Peña, Francisco y Lucila Mejía Salazar 1989: La Utopía mueve montañas. Editorial Nueva América, Bogotá. ISBN 958-9039-25-1 Roattino, Ezio 1985: Álvaro Ulcué Chocué Nasa Pal. Sangre india para una tierra nueva. CINEP, Bogotá. Hugo García Segura. El legado de Álvaro Ulcué Chocué. El Espectador, 12 de noviembre de 2014. Enlace rescatado el 2 de abril de 2015 de http://www.elespectador.com/noticias/nacional/el-legado-de-alvaro-ulcue-chocue-articulo-527124