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Green Park tube station

Green Park is a London Underground station located on the edge of Green Park, with entrances on both sides of Piccadilly. The station is served by three lines: Jubilee, Piccadilly and Victoria. On the Jubilee line it is between Bond Street and Westminster stations, on the Piccadilly line it is between Hyde Park Corner and Piccadilly Circus stations, and on the Victoria line it is between Victoria and Oxford Circus stations. It is in fare zone 1.

The station was opened in 1906 by the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (GNP&BR) and was originally named Dover Street due to its location in that street. It was modernised in the 1930s when lifts were replaced with escalators and extended in the 1960s and 1970s when the Victoria and Jubilee lines were constructed.

The station is near The Ritz Hotel, the Royal Academy of Arts, St James's Palace, Berkeley Square, Bond Street, the Burlington Arcade and Fortnum & Mason, and is one of two serving Buckingham Palace (the other being St James's Park).

Rival schemes
During the final years of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century numerous competing schemes for underground railways through central London were proposed. A number of the schemes submitted to parliament for approval as private bills included proposals for lines running under Piccadilly with stations in the area of the current Green Park station. The first two proposals came before parliament in 1897. The Brompton and Piccadilly Circus Railway (B&PCR) proposed a line between South Kensington and Piccadilly Circus and the City and West End Railway (C&WER) proposed a line between Hammersmith and Cannon Street. The B&PCR proposed a station on the north side at Dover Street and the C&WER proposed a station on the south side at Arlington Street. Following review by parliament, the C&WER bill was rejected and the B&PCR bill was approved and received royal assent in August 1897.

In 1902, the Charing Cross, Hammersmith and District Railway (CCH&DR) proposed a line between Charing Cross and Barnes with a parallel shuttle line running between Hyde Park Corner and Charing Cross. A station was planned at Walsingham House on the north-east corner of Green Park. This scheme was rejected by parliament.

The same year, the Central London Railway (CLR, now the central section of the Central line) submitted a bill that aimed to turn its line running between Shepherd's Bush and Bank into a loop by constructing a second roughly parallel line to the south. This would have run along Piccadilly with a station at St James's Street just to the east of Dover Street. Delayed while a royal commission considered general principles of underground railways in London, the scheme was never fully considered and although it was re-presented in 1903, it was dropped two years later.

A third scheme for 1902 was the Piccadilly, City and North East London Railway (PC&NELR) which proposed a route between Hammersmith and Southgate. It planned a station at Albemarle Street, just to the east of Dover Street. Although favoured in parliament and likely to be approved, this scheme failed due to a falling-out between the backers and the sale of part of the proposals to a rival.

In 1905, some of the promoters of the PC&NELR regrouped and submitted a proposal for the Hammersmith, City and North East London Railway. As the CLR had done previously, the company proposed a station at St James's Street. Owing to failures in the application process, this scheme was also rejected.

Construction and opening
While the various rival schemes were unsuccessful in obtaining parliamentary approval, the B&PCR was unsuccessful in raising the funds needed to construct its line. It was not until after the B&PCR had been taken over by Charles Yerkes's Metropolitan District Electric Traction Company that the money became available. Tunnelling began in 1902 shortly before the B&PCR was merged with the Great Northern and Strand Railway to create the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (GNP&BR, the predecessor of the Piccadilly line).

The GNP&BR opened the station on 15 December 1906 as Dover Street. As with most of the other GNP&BR stations, the station building, on the east side of Dover Street, was designed by Leslie Green. It featured the company's standard red glazed terracotta facade with wide semi-circular arches at first-floor level. Platform and passageway walls were decorated in glazed cream tiles in Green's standard arrangement with margins, patterning and station names in mid-blue. When it opened, the station to the west was Down Street. The station was provided with four Otis electric lifts paired in two 23 ft diameter shafts and a spiral stair in a smaller shaft. The platforms are 27.4 m below the level of Piccadilly.

Reconstruction
The station was busy and unsuccessful attempts to control crowds with gates at platform level were made in 1918. In the 1930s, the station was included amongst those modernised in conjunction with the northern and western extensions of the Piccadilly line. A new sub-surface ticket hall was opened on 18 September 1933 with a pair of Otis escalators provided to replace the lifts. The new ticket hall was accessed from subway entrances in Piccadilly. On the north side, an entrance was provided in Devonshire House on the corner with Stratton Street; on the south side an entrance was constructed on a piece of land taken from the park. The shelter for the southern entrance was designed by Charles Holden. The original station building, the lifts and the redundant below-ground passages were closed and the station was renamed Green Park. Part of the ground floor was used as a tea shop until the 1960s. In 1955, a third escalator was added to help deal with increased passenger numbers.

Victoria line
Proposals for an underground line linking Victoria to Finsbury Park date from 1937 when planning by the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB) for future services considered a variety of new routes and extensions to existing lines. Parliament approved the line in 1955, but a shortage of funds meant that work did not start until after government loans were approved in 1962. Construction works began in 1962. The 1930s ticket hall under the roadway of Piccadilly was enlarged to provide space for new Victoria line escalators and a long interchange passageway was provided between the Victoria line and Piccadilly line platforms. In 1965 a collapse of soft ground during the excavation of one of the tunnels near Green Park station meant that the ground had to be chemically stabilised before work could continue. The disused station building in Dover Street was demolished the following year in conjunction with the works for the new line. A vent shaft was constructed and an electrical sub-station was built in the basement of the new building. The 1930s entrance on the south side of Piccadilly was also reconstructed.

The enlarged ticket hall, new platforms and passageways were decorated in grey tiles. Platforms are approximately 23.4 m below street level. Platform roundel signs were on backlit illuminated panels. Seat recesses on the Victoria line platforms were tiled in an abstract pattern by Hans Unger of coloured circles representing a bird's-eye view of trees in Green Park.

After trial running of empty trains from 24 February 1969, the Victoria line platforms opened on 7 March 1969 with the opening of the third stage of the line between Warren Street and Victoria. The same day, Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the line by riding a train from Green Park to Oxford Circus.

Jubilee line
The origins of the Jubilee line are less clearly defined than those of the Victoria line. During World War II and throughout the 1950s and early 1960s consideration was given to various routes connecting north-west and south-east London via the West End and the City of London. Planning of the Victoria line had the greater priority and it was not until after construction of that line started that detailed planning began for the new line, first called the Fleet line in 1965 as it was planned to run in an east–west direction along Fleet Street. Lack of funding meant that only the first stage of the proposed line, from Baker Street to Charing Cross, received royal assent in July 1969; funding was agreed in August 1971.

Tunnelling began in February 1972 and was completed by the end of 1974. In 1977, during construction of the stations, the name of the line was changed to the Jubilee line, to mark the Queen's Silver Jubilee that year. A construction shaft in Hays Mews north of the station was used for an electrical substation and ventilation shaft. At Green Park, the ticket hall was enlarged slightly to provide space for escalators for the new line which connect to an intermediate concourse providing interchange between the Jubilee and Victoria lines. A second flight of escalators descends to the Jubilee line platforms, which are 31.1 m below street level, the deepest of the three sets. Interchange between the Jubilee and Piccadilly lines was via the ticket hall. Platform walls were tiled in a deep red with black leaf patterns by June Fraser. Trial running of trains began in August 1978 and the Jubilee line opened on 1 May the next year. The line had been officially opened by Prince Charles the previous day, starting with a train journey from Green Park to Charing Cross. In 1993, to alleviate congestion, a third escalator was installed in the lower flight to replace a fixed staircase.

Work on the Fleet line's stages 2 and 3 did not proceed and it was not until 1992 that an alternative route was approved. The Jubilee line extension took the line south of the River Thames via Waterloo, which was impractical to reach from the line's existing terminus at Charing Cross. New tunnels branching from the original route south of Green Park were to be constructed, and the line to Charing Cross was to be closed. Tunnelling began in May 1994, and improvements were carried out at Green Park to provide a direct passageway connection between the Jubilee and Piccadilly lines, including lifts to the platforms at each end. A new ventilation shaft and an emergency exit to Arlington Street were built. The new extension opened in stages starting at Stratford in the east, with services to Charing Cross ending on 19 November 1999 and the final section between Green Park and Waterloo opening the following day.

Recent changes
In 2008, Transport for London (TfL) announced a project to provide step-free access to all three lines in advance of the 2012 London Olympics. The project also included the construction of a new entrance on the south side of Piccadilly with ramped access directly from Green Park designed by Capita Symonds and Alacanthus LW architects. Work commenced in May 2009 to install two lifts from the ticket hall to the Victoria line platforms and the interchange passageway to the Piccadilly line. This work and a third lift in the new park-side entrance between the street level and the ticket hall were completed ahead of schedule in 2011. At the same time, Green Park station underwent a major improvement programme which saw the tiling on the Victoria and Piccadilly line platforms and the interchange passageways replaced. When the Jubilee line opened, the Hans Unger tiling in the seat recesses of the Victoria line platforms was replaced with a design using the leaf patterns used on the Jubilee line platforms; the Unger design was reinstated during the restoration.

The new park entrance and street level shelter feature artwork within the Portland stone cladding titled Sea Strata designed by John Maine RA. The Diana Fountain was relocated from its original site in the centre of the park to form the centrepiece of the new entrance.

To help moderate temperatures in the station, a system using cool ground water extracted from boreholes sunk 130 m into the chalk aquifer below London was installed. The extracted water passes through a heat exchanger connected to the cast-iron tunnel lining and the warmed water is returned to the aquifer through a second set of boreholes 200 m away.

Proposal for new connection
In July 2005, a report, DLR Horizon 2020 Study, for the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) examined "pragmatic development schemes" to expand and improve the DLR network between 2012 and 2020. One of the proposals was an extension of the DLR from Bank to Charing Cross. Unused tunnels under Strand constructed as part of Stage 1 of the Fleet line would be enlarged to accommodate the larger DLR trains. In 2011, the DLR published a proposal to continue the extension to Victoria via Green Park. No further work has been done on these proposals.

Piccadilly bombing
At around 9:00 pm on 9 October 1975, members of the Provisional IRA's Balcombe Street Gang detonated a bomb at a bus stop outside Green Park station, killing 23-year-old Graham Ronald Tuck and injuring 20 others. The attack was part of a bombing campaign carried out by the gang and in addition to the death and injuries caused damage to the Ritz Hotel and neighbouring buildings.

Services
The station is in Travelcard Zone 1, between Bond Street and Westminster on the Jubilee line, Hyde Park Corner and Piccadilly Circus on the Piccadilly line and Victoria and Oxford Circus on the Victoria line. On weekdays Jubilee line trains typically run every 2–2$1/2$ minutes between 05:38 and 00:34 northbound and 05:26 and 00:45 southbound; on the Piccadilly line trains typically run every 2½–3½ minutes between 05:48 and 00:34 westbound and 00:32 eastbound,  and on the Victoria line trains typically run every 100–135 seconds between 05:36 and 00:39 northbound and 05:36 and 00:31 southbound.

As of it is the  station on the London Underground with  million passengers using it per year.

Connections
London Buses day and night routes serve the station.

In popular culture
The opening scene of the 1997 film version of Henry James's The Wings of the Dove was set on the eastbound platforms at both Dover Street and Knightsbridge stations, both represented by the same studio mock-up, complete with a working recreation of a 1906 Stock train.

title: Green Park tube station


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Sorsogon

Sorsogon, officially the Province of Sorsogon (Bikol: Probinsya kan Sorsogon; Waray: Probinsya han Sorsogon; Lalawigan ng Sorsogon), is a province in the Philippines located in the Bicol Region. It is the southernmost province in Luzon and is subdivided into fourteen municipalities (towns) and one city. Its capital is Sorsogon City (formerly the towns of Sorsogon and Bacon) and borders the province of Albay to the north.

Sorsogon is at the tip of the Bicol Peninsula and faces the island of Samar to the southeast across the San Bernardino Strait and Ticao Island to the southwest. Sorsoganons is how the people of Sorsogon call themselves.

Spanish colonial era
In 1570 two Augustinian friars, Alonzon Jiménez and Juan Orta, accompanied by a certain captain, Enrique de Guzmán, reached Hibalong, a small fishing village near the mouth of Ginangra River, and planted the cross and erected the first chapel in Luzon. It was from this village that Ibalong, referring to the whole region, came to be. Moving inland with a northwesterly direction they passed by the territory now known as Pilar, before they reached Camalig, Albay. The establishment of the Abucay-Catamlangan Mission later was ample proof of this. The early towns established here were: Gibalon in 1570 (now sitio of Magallanes); Casiguran – 1600; Bulusan – 1631; Pilar – 1635; Donsol – 1668; Bacon - 1754; Gubat - 1764; Juban and Matnog – 1800; Bulan – 1801; Castilla – 1827; Magallanes – 1860; Sorsogon – 1866 and Irosin – 1880. The province was eventually separated from Albay on October 17, 1894, and adopted the name Sorsogon. The town of Sorsogon was also selected as its capital.

American invasion era
At the 1935 Philippine Constitutional Convention, Sorsogon had its own delegates. They were Adolfo Grafilo, Francisco Arellano, José S. Reyes, and Mario Gaurino.

During the Marcos dictatorship
The Philippines' gradual postwar recovery took a turn for the worse in the late 1960s and early 1970s, with the 1969 Philippine balance of payments crisis being one of the early landmark events. Economic analysts generally attribute this to the ramp-up on loan-funded government spending to promote Ferdinand Marcos’ 1969 reelection campaign,   The next two and a half years were fraught with social conflicts as various sectors went to the streets to express their dissastisfaction with policies that fostered widespread poverty. In 1972, one year before the expected end of his last constitutionally allowed term as president in 1973, Ferdinand Marcos placed the Philippines under Martial Law. This allowed Marcos to remain in power for fourteen more years, during which Sorsogon went through many social and economic ups and downs. Labor unions and protest actions were banned, media outlets were shuttered, the legislature was shuttered, and freedom of expression was generally suppressed. Those who expressed opinions which criticized the government or its policies were accused of being communists and arrested without warrant.

During this time, many citizens of Sorsogon joined the effort to resist the erosion of democracy, and many of them became political detainees, or were tortured and killed by the dictatorship's forces. Among the more prominent of them were local figures Ma. Antonia Teresa “Nanette” Vytiaco, Tony Ariado, Ceasar Gavanzo Jr., and Manuel Gabito, as well as figures like Liliosa Hilao and Juan Escandor, who were killed in Manila. Vytiaco, Ariado, Gaganzi, Gabito, Hilao, and Escandor have all since been honored by having their names inscribed on the Wall of Remembrance at the Philippines' Bantayog ng mga Bayani, which honors the martyrs and heroes who fought against the authoritarian regime.

Contemporary
In 2000, Sorsogon City was created through the merging of the municipalities of Bacon and Sorsogon.

Geography
Sorsogon covers a total area of 2,119.01 km2 occupying the southeastern tip of the Bicol Peninsula in Luzon. The province is bordered on the north by Albay, east by the Philippine Sea, south by the San Bernardino Strait, and west and northwest by the Ticao and Burias Passes. The Sorsogon Bay lies within the central portion of the province.

The province has an irregular topography. Except for landlocked Irosin, all the towns lie along the coast. They are all connected by concrete and asphalt roads. Mountain's sprawl over the northeast, southeast and west portions. Mount Bulusan, the tallest peak, rises 1560 m above sea level.

Except for its overland link with the province of Albay to the north, it is completely surrounded by water. Sorsogon is the gateway of Luzon to the Visayas through its Roll-on/Roll-off ferry terminal facilities located in the municipalities of Matnog, Pilar and Bulan.

Administrative divisions
Sorsogon comprises 14 municipalities and 1 city.

Provincial capital and component city

Municipality

Climate
Sorsogon belongs to Type 2 climate based on the Climate Map of the Philippines by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA). Being a Type 2, Sorsogon has No dry season with a pronounced rainfall from November to January.

The province of Sorsogon normally gets 5 to 10 typhoons every year.

The most notable typhoon is in 1987, when Sorsogon was devastated by Super Typhoon Nina named Sisang. It was a major disaster in the Province of Sorsogon. Damages in properties cost millions of pesos and killing 200 people. It is said that Sisang is the strongest typhoon that hit the province, especially its capital, Sorsogon City. According to PAGASA, Typhoon Nina ravaged with a wind of 180 km/h and a gustiness of 200 km/h. Thousands of houses plus business establishments were destroyed by the said natural calamity. Typhoon Sisang hit the Sorsogon soil at around 7:00 pm and it last until dawn of the next day. It also caused massive storm surges particularly around the Sorsogon Bay area which contributed to the many fatalities during the battering of the typhoon.

Typhoon Xangsane (Milenyo) also battered the province in September 2006 with torrential rains and strong winds. It caused massive flooding and caused infrastructure and agricultural damages. Damages to the entire province was initially placed at ₱2.23 billion, of which ₱1.27 billion was accounted for by damaged houses. Agriculture suffered damage worth ₱234.21 million; school facilities, ₱51 million and infrastructure, ₱208 million.

Population
The population of Sorsogon in the 2020 census was 828,655 people, with a density of undefined PD/km2.

The top 5 towns with the greatest number of populations is Sorsogon City (168,110), Bulan (100,076), Pilar (74,564), Gubat (59,534), and Castilla (57,827). The least populated municipality since the 2000 census is Santa Magdalena.

Of the 704,024-household population in 2007, males accounted for 51.1% and while females comprised 48.9%.

The voting-age population of the province was 369,204 in 2007, equivalent to 52.1 percent of the household population.

Languages
The Bicolano language is predominantly used in Sorsogon as the language used by its people. Despite this, Bicolano itself, as used in the province, has many peculiarities. What is known as "Bikol Naga" is generally used in written communications and generally understood there as a spoken language. However, the people who live in the southernmost parts of Sorsogon like Gubat speak the Waray language. In either case, English and Filipino are the official languages used in education and government communication.

The Bikol languages are peculiar in some localities. For example, people in Bacon, Prieto Diaz and Magallanes speak the Albay Bikol variant. In Sorsogon City, Casiguran and Juban, Bicolano is different for some terms being used there, which have similarity to the Hiligaynon language (the language spoken in Western Visayas and southwestern Masbate).

In Barcelona, Gubat, Bulusan, Matnog, Irosin and Santa Magdalena, a dialect is spoken in which terms and tones are similar to the Waray language of Eastern Visayas (particularly in Northern Samar) called Waray Sorsogon language. The people of Pilar and Donsol speak a dialect which is similar, but not exactly, to the "Miraya Bicol" or the dialect spoken by the nearby towns of Camalig and Daraga in Albay province. The Castilla dialect, although distinct, has a similarity to that which is spoken in Daraga.

Sorsogon Ayta Language
In 2010, UNESCO released its 3rd world volume of Endangered Languages in the World, where 3 critically endangered languages were in the Philippines. One of these languages in the Southern Ayta (Sorsogon Ayta) language which has an estimated speaker of 150 people in the year 2000. The language was classified as Critically Endangered, meaning the youngest speakers are grandparents and older, and they speak the language partially and infrequently and hardly pass the language to their children and grandchildren anymore. If the remaining 150 people do not pass their native language to the next generation of Sorsogon Ayta people, their indigenous language will be extinct within a period of 1 to 2 decades.

The Sorsogon Ayta people live only on the municipality of Prieto Diaz, Sorsogon. They are one of the original Negrito settlers in the entire Philippines. They belong to the Aeta people classification but have distinct language and belief systems unique to their own culture and heritage.

Religion
Sorsogon is predominantly a Catholic province. Spanish conquistadores gave Sorsogon its first encounter with Christianity. This was in the year 1569 when Fray Alonzo Jimenez, OSA, chaplain of the expedition under Luis Enriquez de Guzman celebrated the first Mass upon landing on the coast of sitio Gibal-ong (or Gibalon), barangay Siuton, in the town of Magallanes. Christianity, however, was formally established in Sorsogon with the planting of the Cross on the shores of Casiguran town in 1600 by the Franciscan Friars. This was a prelude to the erection of the first church building dedicated to the Holy Rosary, still revered at present as the Patroness of Casiguran. From there, the Franciscan missionaries devotedly spread the faith to the other towns in Bacon (1617), Bulusan (1630) and Donsol (1668). The other twelve towns followed suit in the course of time. In the original geographic division, the province of Sorsogon formed part of Albay province. It seceded as a separate province on October 17, 1984. Catholicism is followed by 93% of the population of Sorsogon.

The Diocese of Sorsogon was originally part of the Archdiocese of Nueva Caceres. When it was made a separate diocese on June 29, 1951, it included the territory of Masbate. When the Diocese of Nueva Caceres was elevated into an archdiocese in the same year, Legazpi and Sorsogon were made suffragan dioceses of Nueva Caceres. On March 23, 1968, Masbate was made into a separate diocese. At present the Diocese of Sorsogon covers simply the civil province of Sorsogon and the City of Sorsogon with the Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral in Sorsogon City as its seat.

The Iglesia Ni Cristo (Church Of Christ) has the minority of this province each town has 2-3 locale chapels built, the whole province comprised 71 locale, and barangay chapels.

Superstitions and local legends and beliefs
Prior to colonization, the region had a complex religious system which involved various deities. These deities include: Gugurang, the supreme god who dwells inside of Mount Mayon where he guards and protects the sacred fire in which an Aswang (local version of witches and monsters) and, his brother was trying to steal. Whenever people disobey his orders, wishes and commit numerous sins, he would cause Mount Mayon to burst lava as a sign of warning for people to mend their crooked ways. Ancient Bikolanos had a rite performed for him called Atang.; Asuang, the evil god who always tries to steal the sacred fire of Mount Mayon from his brother, Gugurang. Addressed sometimes as Aswang, he dwells mainly inside Mount Malinao. As an evil god, he would cause the people to suffer misfortunes and commit sins. Enemy of Gugurang and a friend of Bulan the god of the Moon; Haliya, the masked goddess of the moonlight and the archenemy of Bakunawa and protector of Bulan. Her cult is composed primarily of women. There is also a ritual dance named after her as it is performed to be a countermeasure against Bakunawa.; Bulan, the god of the pale moon, he is depicted as a pubescent boy with uncommon comeliness that made savage beast and the vicious mermaids (Magindara) tame. He has deep affection towards Magindang, but plays with him by running away so that Magindang would never catch him. The reason for this is because he is shy to the man that he loves. If Magindang manages to catch Bulan, Haliya always comes to free him from Magindang's grip; Magindang, the god of the sea and all its creatures. He has deep affection to the lunar god Bulan and pursues him despite never catching him. Due to this, the Bicolanos reasoned that it is to why the waves rise to reach the Moon when seen from the distant horizon. Whenever he does catch up to Bulan, Haliya comes to rescue Bulan and free him immediately; Okot, god of forest and hunting; and Bakunawa, a gigantic sea serpent deity who is often considered as the cause of eclipses, the devourer of the Sun and the Noon, and an adversary of Haliya as Bakunawa's main aim is to swallow Bulan, who Haliya swore to protect for all of eternity.

Economy

The province's economic activity is highly concentrated in its capital city, Sorsogon City, and the towns of Bulan, Irosin, Gubat, Pilar and Matnog as well. Sorsogon Province is classified as 2nd class with an average annual income of ₱339.4M (C.Ys. 2000–2003). This is about ₱11M short for the province to attain 1st class reclassification which requires at least ₱350M average annual income.

The province had a great contribution on the 97-percent growth in investments for the first quarter of 2008 and increasing tourism arrivals that buoyed the Bicol Region economy, despite the damage brought about by incessant rains and a rice shortage. This is according to the Quarterly Regional Economic Situationer (QRES) released by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Regional Office in Bicol (NRO 5).

Among the provinces, Sorsogon posted the highest growth (293% respectively) in investments from the previous year. Next to Sorsogon is Catanduanes that posted a growth of 280%. Albay contributed 39 percent to the region's investments and posted a growth of 221% from the preceding quarter.

“For the third time, Bicol Region hosted the kick-off of Asia's premier extreme sailing event, the Philippine Hobie Challenge last February 16 at Gubat, Sorsogon. This 260-mile journey from Gubat-Sambuyan-Bacsal-Marambut-Suluan to Siargao enticed both local and foreign water sports enthusiasts. It opened the opportunity for the municipality of Gubat to showcase the town's best,” the QRES stated.

Ranked from main sources of income, 40% of families in the province derived incomes from entrepreneurial activities, 33% from salaries and wages, and 27% from income from other sources such as rental incomes, interests, and overseas Filipino remittances.

Road
The Pan-Philippine Highway (N1/AH26), is the highway backbone network, and the secondary and tertiary roads interconnect most cities and municipalities in Pilar, Castilla, Sorsogon City, Casiguran, Juban, Irosin before ending at Matnog at the ferry terminal.

In order to spur development in the province, The Toll Regulatory Board declared Toll Road 5 the extension of South Luzon Expressway. A 420-kilometer, four lane expressway starting from the terminal point of the now under construction SLEX Toll Road 4 at Barangay Mayao, Lucena City in Quezon to Matnog, Sorsogon, near the Matnog Ferry Terminal. On August 25, 2020, San Miguel Corporation announced that they will invest the project which will reduce travel time from Lucena to Matnog from 9 hours to 5.5 hours.

Seaports
The Matnog Ferry Terminal provides access to the island of Northern Samar in Allen.

Town fiestas
Most of the inhabitants of the province belong to the ethnolinguistic Bicolano and Bisakol groups. Sorsogueños are religious, being mostly Roman Catholics, and are active in festivities celebrated throughout the year. Each town honors their Patron Saint with celebration on its Feast Day. In Sorsogon City, the locals celebrate the Fiesta of the Patron Saints Peter and Paul every June 28–29 annually. Another featured attraction during town fiestas are the traveling carnivals set up near the town center. In Gubat, the feast of Gubat is celebrated on June 13.

 * Kasanggayahan Festival — celebrated in the whole province in the last week of October, commemorates the founding of Sorsogon as a province. Festivities include a series of cultural, historical, religious, agro-industrial and economic activities, showcasing the province's abundant agricultural products, particularly food and decorative items. One of the main activities and highlight of the festival is the Pantomina sa Tinampo, it is a kind of cultural-ethnic street dance native to the province. Hundreds of men and women participated, clad in colorful traditional Filipino couture while dancing barefoot as they parade around the city.
 * Pili Festival — in Sorsogon City, honors the Pili nut and tree which is indigenous to province. The festival coincides with the town fiesta of Sorsogon City. Celebrations include street dancing by locals donning pili nut costumes, cooking competitions, fireworks displays, color run, and even a nutcracking session along the road by the locals.
 * On February 21, 2024, the Department of Agriculture formally introduced a new product, Sorsoganon’s Pili Milk at SM City Sorsogon. It is made from pili nut hard shell (exocarp) or kernel. Currently,  the  Bicol Region has 13,435 farmers that cultivate 142,405 hectares pili plantation. Hence, the Sorsogon Provincial Pili Development Board will petition for declaration of the province as the "Pili Capital of the Philippines".

 * Parau Festival – Pilar, Sorsogon celebrates Parau Festival every October. The Festival coincides with the town fiesta of Pilar. Events include Inter-High School Sportsfest, DLC Competition, Parau Street Dancing Competition, Color Run, Palarong Bayan.
 * Ginubat Festival – from Gubat, Sorsogon, a festival based on the roots of the town of which its name was derived. It features the following activities: cultural street parade, exhibit, sail boat race, beauty pageant, fiesta celebration and the Balik Gubat which is the highlight of the festival.

Minorities
Minorities include Muslim immigrants from Mindanao, who engage in street vending and small shop businesses. A mosque is situated inside Sitio Bolangan on the outskirts of the city. A significant small Chinese population are owners of hardware stores and commodity shops and dwell in the business center. Indian communities are also present and are Hindus. They are typically known to engage in money lending businesses—colloquially called "five-six".

Government
Sorsogon is subdivided into 2 Congressional Districts. The 1st Congressional District comprises the City of Sorsogon and towns of Pilar, Donsol, and Castilla. The Sorsogon Provincial Capitol is located in the City of Sorsogon.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Sorsogon


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Thomas Tallis

Thomas Tallis (c. 1505 – 23 November 1585; also Tallys or Talles) was an English composer of High Renaissance music. His compositions are primarily vocal, and he occupies a primary place in anthologies of English choral music. Tallis is considered one of England's greatest composers, and is honoured for his original voice in English musicianship.

Youth
As no records about the birth, family or childhood of Thomas Tallis exist, almost nothing is known about his early life or origins. Historians have calculated that he was born in the early part of the 16th century, towards the end of the reign of Henry VII of England, and estimates for the year of his birth range from 1500 to 1520. His only known relative was a cousin called John Sayer. As the surnames Sayer and Tallis both have strong connections with Kent, Thomas Tallis is usually thought to have been born somewhere in the county.

There are suggestions that Tallis sang as a child of the chapel in the Chapel Royal, the same singing establishment which he joined as an adult. He was probably a chorister at the Benedictine Priory of St. Mary the Virgin and St. Martin of the New Work, in Dover, where he was employed at an early age, but it is impossible to know whether he was educated there. He may have sung at Canterbury Cathedral.

Career
Tallis served at court as a composer and performer for Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I. He was first designated as an organist at the chapel after 1570, although he would have been employed as an organist throughout his career.

He avoided the religious controversies that raged around him throughout his service to successive monarchs, though he remained, in the words of the historian Peter Ackroyd, an "unreformed Roman Catholic". Tallis was capable of switching the style of his compositions to suit each monarch's different demands. He stood out among other important composers of the time, including Christopher Tye and Robert White. The author and composer Ernest Walker wrote that "he had more versatility of style" than Tye and White, and "his general handling of his material was more consistently easy and certain". Tallis taught the composer William Byrd, as later associated with Lincoln Cathedral; as also Elway Bevin, an organist of Bristol Cathedral and Gentleman of the Chapel Royal.

1530s and 1540s
No record of Tallis exists before 1531, when he is named in the accounts of the Kent Benedictine house Dover Priory. He was employed there as the organist, responsible for directing chants from the organ A "Thomas Tales" is named as the "joculator organorum" at the priory and received an annual payment of £2. The priory was dissolved in 1535, but there is no surviving record of Tallis's departure.

Tallis's whereabouts are not known for the several months after this until mention is made of his being employed at St Mary-at-Hill in London's Billingsgate ward. Records show he was paid four half-yearly payments from 1536 to 1538, with the last payment being specified for services—as either a singer or an organist—for the year up to 25 March 1538.

Towards the end of 1538 Tallis moved to a large Augustinian monastery, Waltham Abbey in Essex, after he had come into contact with the abbot, whose London home was near to St Mary-at-Hill. At Waltham, Tallis became a senior member. When the abbey, too, was dissolved in March 1540, Tallis left without receiving a pension (since he had only recently been employed there), and was instead given a one-off payment of 40 shillings. He took away a volume of musical treatises copied by John Wylde, once a preceptor at Waltham. Among its contents was a treatise by Leonel Power that prohibited consecutive unisons, fifths, and octaves; the last page is inscribed with his name.

By the summer of 1540 Tallis had moved to the formerly monastic but recently secularised Canterbury Cathedral, where his name heads the list of singers in the newly expanded choir of 10 boys and 12 men. He remained there for two years.

Employment at the Chapel Royal
Tallis's employment in the Chapel Royal probably began in 1543. His name appears on a 1544 lay subsidy roll and is listed in a later document. It is possible that he was connected with the court when at St Mary-at-Hill, since in 1577 Tallis claimed to have "served yo[u]r Ma[jes]tie and yo[u]r Royall ancestors these fortie yeres". He may have been responsible for teaching the boys of the choir keyboard and composition.

Around 1552, Tallis married, probably for the first time, his wife being Joan, the widow of a gentleman of the Chapel Royal. Like many other members of the royal household choir, Tallis and his wife lived in Greenwich, although it is not known if he ever owned his house there. He probably rented a house, by tradition in Stockwell Street. There seem to have been no children of the marriage.

Queen Mary I granted Tallis a lease on a manor in Kent which provided a comfortable annual income. He was present at her funeral on 13 December 1558 and at the coronation of Elizabeth I the following month.

Tallis was an eminent figure in Elizabeth's household chapel, but as he aged he became gradually less prominent. In 1575, Elizabeth granted Tallis and Byrd a 21-year monopoly for polyphonic music and a patent to print and publish "set songe or songes in parts", one of the first arrangements of its kind in England. Tallis composed in English, Latin, French, Italian, and other languages. He had exclusive rights to print any music in any language, and he and Byrd had sole use of the paper used in printing music. Amongst the collection of works they produced using their monopoly was the 1575 Cantiones quae ab argumento sacrae vocantur, but it did not sell well and they were forced to appeal to Elizabeth for support. People were wary of the new publications, the sale of which was not helped by both men being Roman Catholics. As Catholics, Byrd and Tallis were forbidden to sell imported music, and were refused any rights to music fonts, or printing patents not under their command. They lacked their own printing press. A second petition in 1577 resulted in the grant of a joint lease of crown lands to the two composers. After the 1575 publication, Tallis is thought to have ceased active composition, as no works from these final years survive.

Final years
Late in his life, Tallis lived in Greenwich, possibly close to the royal Palace of Placentia; tradition holds that he lived on Stockwell Street. He was recorded as a member of Elizabeth I's household in June 1585, and wrote his will in August that year. He died in his house in Greenwich on 20 or 23 November; the different dates are from a register and the Chapel Royal.

He was buried in the chancel of St Alfege Church, Greenwich. A brass memorial plate placed there after the death of his wife (but before the death of Elizabeth (ONDB)) is now lost. His remains may have been discarded by labourers during the 1710s, when the church was rebuilt.

His epitaph on a brass plaque, lost in the subsequent rebuilding of the church, was recorded by the English clergyman John Strype in his 1720 edition of John Stow's Survey of London

Entered here doth ly a worthy wyght, Who for long tyme in musick bore the bell: His name to shew, was THOMAS TALLYS hyght, In honest virtuous lyff he dyd excell.

He serv'd long tyme in chappel with grete prayse Fower sovereygnes reygnes (a thing not often seen); I meane Kyng Henry and Prynce Edward's dayes, Quene Mary, and Elizabeth oure Quene.

He mary'd was, though children he had none, And lyv'd in love full thre and thirty yeres Wyth loyal spowse, whose name yclypt was JONE, Who here entomb'd him company now beares.

As he dyd lyve, so also did he dy, In myld and quyet sort (O happy man!) To God ful oft for mercy did he cry, Wherefore he lyves, let deth do what he can.

William Byrd wrote the musical elegy Ye Sacred Muses on Tallis's death. His widow Joan, whose will is dated 12 June 1587, survived him by nearly four years.

Early works
The earliest surviving works by Tallis are Ave Dei patris filia, Magnificat for four voices, and two devotional antiphons to the Virgin Mary, Salve intemerata virgo and Ave rosa sine spinis, which were sung in the evening after the last service of the day; they were cultivated in England at least until the early 1540s. Henry VIII's break from the Roman Catholic Church in 1534 and the rise of Thomas Cranmer noticeably influenced the style of music being written. Cranmer recommended a syllabic style of music where each syllable is sung to one pitch, as his instructions make clear for the setting of the 1544 English Litany. As a result, the writing of Tallis and his contemporaries became less florid. Tallis' Mass for Four Voices is marked with a syllabic and chordal style emphasising chords, and a diminished use of melisma. He provides a rhythmic variety and differentiation of moods depending on the meaning of his texts. Tallis' early works also suggest the influence of John Taverner and Robert Fayrfax. Taverner in particular is quoted in Salve intemerata virgo, and his later work, Dum transisset sabbatum.

The reformed Anglican liturgy was inaugurated during the short reign of Edward VI (1547–53), and Tallis was one of the first church musicians to write anthems set to English words, although Latin continued to be used alongside the vernacular. Queen Mary set about undoing some of the religious reforms of the preceding decades, following her accession in 1553. She restored the Sarum Rite, and compositional style reverted to the elaborate writing prevalent early in the century. Two of Tallis's major works were Gaude gloriosa Dei Mater and the Christmas Mass Puer natus est nobis, and both are believed to be from this period. Puer natus est nobis based on the introit for the third Mass for Christmas Day may have been sung at Christmas 1554 when Mary believed that she was pregnant with a male heir. These pieces were intended to exalt the image of the Queen, as well as to praise the Virgin Mary.

Some of Tallis's works were compiled by Thomas Mulliner in a manuscript copybook called The Mulliner Book before Queen Elizabeth's reign, and may have been used by the queen herself when she was younger. Elizabeth succeeded her half-sister in 1558, and the Act of Uniformity abolished the Roman Liturgy and firmly established the Book of Common Prayer. Composers resumed writing English anthems, although the practice continued of setting Latin texts among composers employed by Elizabeth's Chapel Royal.

The religious authorities at the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, being Protestant, tended to discourage polyphony in church unless the words were clearly audible or, as the 1559 Injunctions stated, "playnelye understanded, as if it were read without singing". Tallis wrote nine psalm chant tunes for four voices for Archbishop Matthew Parker's Psalter published in 1567. One of the nine tunes was the "Third Mode Melody" which inspired the composition of Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis by Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1910. His setting of Psalm 67 became known as "Tallis's Canon", and the setting by Thomas Ravenscroft is an adaptation for the hymn "All praise to thee, my God, this night" (1709) by Thomas Ken, and it has become his best-known composition. The Injunctions, however, also allowed a more elaborate piece of music to be sung in church at certain times of the day, and many of Tallis's more complex Elizabethan anthems may have been sung in this context, or alternatively by the many families that sang sacred polyphony at home. Tallis's better-known works from the Elizabethan years include his settings of the Lamentations (of Jeremiah the Prophet) for the Holy Week services and the unique motet Spem in alium written for eight five-voice choirs, for which he is most remembered. He also produced compositions for other monarchs, and several of his anthems written in Edward's reign are judged to be on the same level as his Elizabethan works, such as "If Ye Love Me". Records are incomplete on his works from previous periods; 11 of his 18 Latin-texted pieces from Elizabeth's reign were published, "which ensured their survival in a way not available to the earlier material".

Later works
Toward the end of his life, Tallis resisted the musical development seen in his younger contemporaries such as Byrd, who embraced compositional complexity and adopted texts of disparate biblical extracts. Tallis was content to draw his texts from the Liturgy and wrote for the worship services in the Chapel Royal. He composed during the conflict between Catholicism and Protestantism, and his music often displays characteristics of the turmoil.

Legacy
Tallis is remembered as primarily a composer of sacred vocal music, in part because of his lack of extant instrumental or secular vocal music.

No contemporaneous portrait of Tallis survives; the one painted by Gerard Vandergucht dates from 150 years after the composer's death, and there is no reason to suppose that it is a fair likeness. In a rare existing copy of his blackletter signature, he spelled his name "Tallys".

In 1971, the Thomas Tallis School in Kidbrooke opened. A mixed comprehensive school named after the composer.

A fictionalised version of Thomas Tallis was portrayed by Joe Van Moyland in the 2007 Showtime television series The Tudors.

title: Thomas Tallis


text:
Jackie Earle Haley

Jack Earle Haley (born July 14, 1961) is an American actor and director. His earliest roles included Moocher in Breaking Away (1979) and Kelly Leak in The Bad News Bears (1976), The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training (1977) and The Bad News Bears Go to Japan (1978). After spending many years as a producer and director of television commercials, he revived his acting career with a supporting role in All the King's Men (2006). This was followed by his performance in Little Children (2006), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

His subsequent notable roles include the superhero Rorschach in Watchmen (2009), horror icon Freddy Krueger in the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010), and Grewishka, a cyborg criminal in Alita: Battle Angel (2019). He played Odin Quincannon in the first season (2016) of Preacher and The Terror in the first season (2016–18) of The Tick.

Early life
Haley was born and raised in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, the son of Haven Earle "Bud" Haley, a radio show host/disc jockey and actor and Iris D Douglas.

Career
Haley has appeared in numerous films, including John Schlesinger's The Day of the Locust, Damnation Alley, and Losin' It, as well as guest roles on TV. A well-known child actor, he starred as Kelly Leak in the comedy The Bad News Bears, as well as the sequels The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training and The Bad News Bears Go to Japan.

He played Moocher in Peter Yates's acclaimed 1979 film Breaking Away and later in the short-lived TV series of the same name. Throughout the 1970s, he often played tough, angry, pimply, long-haired misfits; although in his feature debut, the offbeat 1972 film The Outside Man, he played Eric, a boy so desperately lonely that he tries to impress the mob assassin holding him and his mother (Georgia Engel) hostage. Haley also shot a pilot for an American version of the popular British comedy The Young Ones titled Oh, No! Not THEM!. In 1974 he played Norm, a misfit kid, in the 12th episode of the Saturday morning children's show Shazam!

Haley's acting career went dormant during most of the 1990s and early 2000s, when he moved to San Antonio. He eventually turned to directing, finding success as a producer and director of television commercials.

With the recommendation of Sean Penn, Haley returned to acting in 2006, first appearing in Steven Zaillian's All the King's Men alongside Penn as Sugar Boy, his bodyguard, before giving a critically acclaimed performance as a recently paroled sex offender in Todd Field's Little Children. He stated that his preparation for the role was greatly influenced by the relationship shared between his mother and his brother True, who battled a heroin addiction before he died of an overdose. Haley was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for this portrayal and in 2007 was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Haley owns a production company, JEH Productions, in San Antonio. In 2008, he appeared in Semi-Pro and starred in Winged Creatures with Kate Beckinsale, Guy Pearce and Dakota Fanning. He also stars in Zack Snyder's 2009 adaptation of the Alan Moore graphic novel Watchmen as Rorschach, a masked vigilante working to find the identity of a costumed hero killer, a role which earned him praise from many reviewers. The film also reunited him with Little Children co-star Patrick Wilson who played Nite Owl II, Rorschach's former partner. Also in 2010, Haley appeared in Shutter Island, directed by Martin Scorsese, as a patient of a hospital for the criminally insane.

In 2010, Haley played Freddy Krueger in the A Nightmare on Elm Street remake. He signed to play the role in a sequel, which was not produced.

Haley has dismissed rumors that he accompanied Johnny Depp to auditions for Wes Craven's original A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) to audition for the role Depp was eventually cast in. Haley auditioned for the role of the film's antagonist, Freddy Krueger, but ended up losing out to Robert Englund for the 1984 version of the film.

Haley was a series regular on Human Target as Guerrero, an ally of the main character, Christopher Chance. The series premiered on January 17, 2010 on Fox, and ran for two seasons before being cancelled in May 2011.

He played Willie Loomis in the 2012 film adaptation of Dark Shadows, directed by Tim Burton, and played Confederate States Vice President Alexander H. Stephens in Lincoln, directed by Steven Spielberg. He played the supervillain "The Terror" in Amazon's re-boot of The Tick.

Personal life
Haley's first marriage was to Sherry Vaughan in 1979. He has two children: a son, Christopher (born 1986), and a daughter, Olivia (born 1998), by his second wife, Jennifer Haley. He married his third wife, Amelia Cruz, in 2004 and they live in San Antonio. Haley holds black belts in Kenpo and Taekwondo.

title: Jackie Earle Haley


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Bridgwater Bay

Bridgwater Bay is on the Bristol Channel, 5 km north of Bridgwater in Somerset, England at the mouth of the River Parrett and the end of the River Parrett Trail. It stretches from Minehead at the southwestern end of the bay to Brean Down in the north. The area consists of large areas of mudflats, saltmarsh, sandflats and shingle ridges, some of which are vegetated. It has been designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) covering an area of 3574.1 ha since 1989, and is designated as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention. The risks to wildlife are highlighted in the local Oil Spill Contingency Plan.

Several rivers, including the Parrett, Brue and Washford, drain into the bay. Man-made drainage ditches from the Somerset Levels, including the River Huntspill, also run into the bay. The mud flats provide a habitat for a wide range of flora and fauna. These include some nationally rare plants, beetles and snails. It is particularly important for overwintering waders and wildfowl, with approximately 190 species recorded including Eurasian whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus), black-tailed godwit (Limosa limosa), dunlin (Calidris alpina) and wigeon (Anas penelope). Fishing has taken place using shallow boats, known as flatners, and fixed wooden structures for hundreds of years. It was also the last site in England used for 'mudhorse fishing'. There are several small harbours along the coast.

The low-lying areas of the bay have been subject to flooding, including the Bristol Channel floods of 1607 and many times since particularly around the Steart Peninsula. In response to this threat sea walls have been built at several points including at Burnham-on-Sea, Berrow and Blue Anchor to Lilstock Coast. The extensive mud flats and high tidal range have been the cause of several drownings and rescue services are now provided by the Burnham Area Rescue Boat.

Geography

Bridgwater Bay forms a portion of the coastline of Somerset on the southern side of the Bristol Channel stretching from the Quantock Hills at the south western end to Brean Down at the northern end. Around the coastline is a wave-cut platform of Jurassic Blue Lias. Several rivers flow into the bay, the main ones being the Parrett, Brue and Washford, along with the man-made River Huntspill. Major features and settlements along the coastline, running from north east to south west, include: Brean, Berrow, Burnham on Sea, the mouth of the River Parrett, the Steart Peninsula, Lilstock, East Quantoxhead and Watchet. Sand dunes at Berrow and a shingle ridge at Steart have been created by winds blowing from the west. On the beach near Stogursey are the remains of a submerged forest dated to 2500 B.C. - 6500 BC.

Brean Down is a promontory marking the eastern end of the bay. Made of carboniferous limestone, it is a continuation of the Mendip Hills, and two further continuations are the small islands of Steep Holm and Flat Holm. It is owned by the National Trust, and is rich in wildlife, history and archaeology, as well as being a Site of Special Scientific Interest in its own right. It is bounded by steep cliffs and, at its seaward point, Brean Down Fort built in 1865 and then re-armed in the Second World War. There is evidence of an Iron Age hill fort, prehistoric barrows, field systems and a pagan shrine. The shrine dating from pre-Roman times was re-established as a Romano-Celtic style temple in the mid-4th century and probably succeeded by a small late-4th century Christian oratory. In 1897, following wireless transmissions from Lavernock Point in Wales to Flat Holm, Guglielmo Marconi moved his equipment to Brean Down and set a new distance record for wireless transmission.

At low tide large parts of the bay become mud flats 4 km wide, due to the tidal range of 15 m, second only to the Bay of Fundy in Eastern Canada. The intertidal mud flats are, as a result, potentially dangerous and it is not uncommon for the emergency services to mount rescue operations on them. Following the death of Lelaina Hall off Berrow in 2002, a local fund raising campaign succeeded in purchasing a Swedish-built BBV6 rescue hovercraft. The hovercraft is operated by Burnham Area Rescue Boat (BARB) in Burnham-on-Sea. Much of the coastline within the western part of the reserve is accessible via a waymarked public footpath, and the South West Coast Path begins at Minehead at the western end of the bay. The tidal range holds potential for energy generation and plans for a tidal barrage in the bay have been considered.

Hinkley Point is a headland extending into Bridgwater Bay 5 mi west of Burnham-on-Sea, close to the mouth of the River Parrett. The landscape of Hinkley Point is dominated by two nuclear power stations: Hinkley Point A - Magnox (now closed) and Hinkley Point B - AGR. A third, twin-unit European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) reactor is planned, and will become Hinkley Point C.

Man-made sea defenses include a sea wall at Burnham-on-Sea and a 3 km section south from Brean Down. There are also sand dune belts which are managed for their protective function and as a wildlife habitat. There are some concerns that the proposed Severn Barrage could leave some sites high and dry, and others permanently under water. The Steart Peninsula has flooded many times during the last millennium. The most severe recent floods occurred in 1981. By 1997, a combination of coastal erosion, sea level rise and wave action had made some of the defences distinctly fragile and at risk from failure. As a result, in 2002 The Environment Agency produced the Stolford to Combwich Coastal Defence Strategy Study to examine options for the future.

The foreshore at Watchet, which lies at the mouth of the Washford River, and on the edge of Exmoor National Park, is rocky, but has a small harbour. The cliffs between Watchet and Blue Anchor show a distinct pale, greenish blue colour, resulting from the coloured alabaster found there. The name "Watchet" or "Watchet Blue" was used in the 16th century to denote this colour.

East Quantoxhead used to have a small harbour which brought in limestone for local limekilns and exported alabaster. It is thought that it was also used for smuggling.

At Kilve are the remains of a red brick retort, built in 1924, when it was discovered that the shale found in the cliffs was rich in oil. The beach is part of the Blue Anchor to Lilstock Coast SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest). Along this coast the cliffs are layered with compressed strata of oil-bearing shale and blue, yellow and brown lias embedded with fossils. In 1924 Forbes-Leslie founded the Shaline Company to exploit them. This retort house is thought to be the first structure erected here for the conversion of shale to oil but the company was unable to raise sufficient capital and this is now all that remains of the anticipated Somerset oil boom.

Fishing
The intertidal mud flats of the bay have a long history of use for fishing, with structures on Stert Flats being dated by dendrochronological analysis to between 932 and 966. It is the last site in England used for 'mudhorse fishing' in which a wooden sledge is propelled across the mudflats to collect fish from nets. Catches include: Thinlip mullet, plaice, dogfish, cuttlefish, skate, shrimp, prawns, sea bass, and sole. Watchet Boat Museum displays the unusual local flatner boats which were used for fishing in the bay, along with associated artefacts.

Ecology
At low tide extensive areas of mudflats (the Steart and the Berrow Flats) are exposed, providing important feeding and overwintering grounds for waders (shorebirds). Invertebrate fauna including six nationally rare species and eighteen nationally scarce species can be found in the ditches and ponds around the shores. Consequently, Bridgwater Bay is a national nature reserve, and is managed by Natural England. Some of the potential risks to wildlife are highlighted in the local Oil Spill Contingency Plan.

Brean Down, Berrow Dunes and Blue Anchor to Lilstock Coast Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) are included in the national nature reserve which is designated as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention. It is also a Nature Conservation Review Grade 1* site, meaning it is included in Derek Ratcliffe's book listing the most important places for nature conservation in Great Britain.

Flora
Common cord-grass (Spartina anglica) was planted in the area in the 1990s. It can now be found on surrounding marshes where it has invaded the fronting mudflats. The Spartina is generally shorter in the bay than at other sites due to the high tides and the turbidity of the water, reaching around 30 cm as opposed to 150 cm elsewhere. On higher ground common saltmarsh-grass (Puccinellia maritima) can be found along with sea aster (Aster tripolium). Where the land is ungrazed, common reed (Phragmites australis) often forms a zone above the sea aster. Where the upper marsh is grazed by cattle red fescue (Festuca rubra) and creeping bent (Agrostis stolonifera) are found. The area of marsh furthest from the sea supports Sea couch (Agropyron pungens) and sea club-rush (Scirpus maritimus).

The nationally scarce bulbous foxtail (Alopecurus bulbosus), slender hare's-ear (Bupleurum tenuissimum) and sea barley (Hordeum marinum) are grazed by sheep on the marshes around the bay. Around Stert Island the nationally rare compact brome (Bromus madritensis) and nationally scarce Ray's knotgrass (Polygonum oxyspermum) can be found.

The ditches are populated with aquatic and bankside plant species. These include the nationally restricted rootless duckweed (Wolffia arrhiza). Other uncommon species such as frogbit (Hydrocharis morsus-ranae) and water fern (Azolla filiculoides) can also be found. The nationally restricted brackish water-crowfoot (Ranunculus baudotii) and sea clubrush (Scirpus maritimus) indicate the slightly brackish nature of the water. Brean Down is a site for the nationally rare white rock-rose (Helianthemum apenninum), which occurs in abundance on the upper reaches of the grassy south-facing slopes. Some of the broomrapes growing near Bridgwater Bay, which were originally thought to be oxtongue broomrape (Orobanche artemisiae-campestriae), are now no longer believed to be this species, but atypical specimens of ivy broomrape (Orobanche hederae) Other plants on the southern slopes include the Somerset hair grass, wild thyme, horseshoe vetch and birds-foot-trefoil. The northern side is dominated by bracken, bramble, privet, hawthorn, cowslips and bell heather.

Fauna
Five Red Data Book invertebrate species have been recorded in the area. These include: the soldier flies Odontomyia ornata and Stratiomys singularior, hover fly Lejops vittata, the great silver water beetle (Hydrophilus piceus), and the water beetle Hydrovatus clypealis. Nationally scarce species include the aquatic snail Gyraulus laevis, the hairy dragonfly (Brachytron pratense), and the ladybird Coccidula scutellata.

Over 190 species of birds have been identified near the bay, some of which use it as a feeding ground during their migrations. Waders and wildfowl often over-winter on the reserve. The populations of Eurasian whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus) and black-tailed godwit (Limosa limosa) are internationally important. Significant populations of dunlin (Calidris alpina) and wigeon (Anas penelope) also frequent the bay. In early winter the wigeon select Puccinellia maritima in preference to Agrostis stolonifera and Festuca rubra. Avocets have become regular autumn and winter visitors to the area in recent years, favouring the lower reaches of the River Parrett, and, for the first time in over 50 years, bred on the reserve in 2012.

Rare vagrant species spotted in the area include lesser yellowlegs, white-rumped sandpiper, Pallid Harrier (in spring) and Richard's pipit (in autumn). The birds seen on Brean Down include peregrine falcon, western jackdaw, kestrel, collared and stock doves, common whitethroat, linnet, stonechat, dunnock and rock pipit. There are also several species of butterfly, including chalkhill blue, dark green fritillary, meadow brown, marbled white, small heath, and common blue.

title: Bridgwater Bay


text:
Fifth Element

Fifth Element may refer to:

Elements

 * Aether (classical element), the fifth classical element, also known as quintessence
 * Boron, the (modern) element with atomic number 5 on the periodic table

Arts and entertainment

 * The Fifth Element, a 1997 film by Luc Besson starring Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich
 * The Fifth Element (video game), a 1998 video game based on the film
 * The Fifth Sacred Thing, which has also been referred to as The Fifth Element, is a novel by Starhawk

Music

 * The 5th Element (Tynisha Keli album), 2010
 * The 5th Element (Kellee Maize album)
 * Fifth Element (Pathfinder album)
 * 5th Element, the 1999 album by reggae and dancehall artist Bounty Killer
 * "5th Element", 2005 hip-hop song by Nova Scotia rapper Classified

title: Fifth Element


text:
Masbate

Masbate, officially the Province of Masbate (Masbateño: Probinsya san Masbate; Lalawigan ng Masbate), is an island province in the Philippines located near the midsection of the nation's archipelago. Its provincial capital is Masbate City. The province consists of three major islands: Masbate, Ticao and Burias.

Masbate is at the crossroads of two island groups: Visayas and Luzon. It is politically part of Bicol Region in the latter. However, from a bio-geographic and socio-ethno-linguistic perspective, Masbate is grouped in the former.

Early history
Masbate is one of the oldest settlements in the Philippines. Archaeological records show that Batungan (in Mandaon) and Bagumbayan (in Palanas) were major settlement sites during the Bronze Age (4000-1000 BC). The development of bronze metallurgy in South-East Asia coincided with an increasingly hierarchical society, firmly based on agricultural village settlements. It was these crucial changes, the introduction of new technologies, new social forms, and a new economic base, which culminated in the foundation of the proto-urban settlements of the 1st millennium AD. A fine stone chisel from Mount Batungan is dated to the twelfth century BC. Of the age of Philippine neoliths, it is only possible to say that polished stone adzes from Masbate have been dated from 2710 BC to AD 179.2 Kalanay (in Aroroy) was an island site from 1000 BC to AD 850 (early metal). Masbateño burial jars and a small pottery skull box found in caves dated to the beginning of the Christian era. Exquisite goldwork represents an old Philippine wealth in both an economic and an artistic sense: all sorts of wrought or molded ornaments and jewelry demonstrate both the availability of the raw material and the skill of the artisan – finger rings, earrings, head-bands, pendants, and pectoral ornaments, heavy chains with interlocking serrated edges, light filigree work, delicate necklaces of fine twisted wires, 12-millimeter beads composed of 184 separate granules soldered together, thin hammered sheets for decorating grosser objects like earplugs or the visages of corpses, and a charming little snail of unknown use. Productive mines in Benguet, Butuan, Masbate, and Paracale were in operation and gold being panned in riverbeds all over the archipelago when the Spaniards arrived.

Spanish colonial era
During the Spanish regime, San Jacinto in Ticao Island was an anchorage point for the Manila-Acapulco-Manila galleons. The course as described by the standard pilot's guide of Cabrera Bueno was substantially followed by nearly all the galleons. The largest variations were in the height at which the eastward crossing was made and in the course laid off the coast of the Californias.

The successive stages were as follows: from Cavite on Manila Bay out through one of the bocas, generally between Mariveles and Corregidor; thence SSW, keeping well clear of Fortun to the left and high Ambil to the right; past Cape Santiago on the Luzon Coast, and E between Mindoro and Maricaban; by the Punta de Escarceo, or “Tide Rip Point,” where currents run strong, and under Isla Verde, outside Subaang Bay, within which there was a fair anchorage in case of need; SE past the islets of Baco, with a good channel off Calapan; SE by E down the Mindoro coast by Punta Gorda de Pola; E by SE between the Tres Reyes and the Dos Hermanas; thence by the wide bocanabetween Marinduque and Banton, out onto the tablazo, or open water, above Sibuyan; SE by E between Burias and Masbate; turning ENE around the Punta de San Miguel and the Punta del Diablo; coasting around the east side of Ticao to the anchorage at San Jacinto; clearing from thence and working out seaward with the monsoon; E right leagues, with the dangerous Naranjos to starboard and the shoal of Calantas to port; NE by N and then ENE seven leagues around Capul; NE with the Sorsogon coast to port and San Bernardino to starboard and NE by E seven leagues to the Embocadero, with San Bernardino now to port and the island of Biri to starboard. At this point, according to Cabrera, “the rapid currents require skillful pilot work.” The galleon was now in the open sea.

From the chronicles of the early years of Spanish colonization, a relacion (report) about Masbate first appeared in Fray Martin de Rada's letter dated July 1569 to the Viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), Marquis de Falces. He mentioned that in a place called Masbat there were plenty of gold mines. Other later documents such as Artieda's Relacion (1573) and Andres de Mirandaola's letter (1574) refer to a place called Masbat or Masbad. It wasn't until 1582 that Miguel de Loarca wrote about a place called Masbate.

In the same year that the Augustinian Fray de Rada wrote about Masbat's gold mines, his fellow Augustinian Fray Alonzo Jimenez landed in Burias and baptized its chieftain Buaya. This baptism is said to be the very first baptism in Luzon. Fray Jimenez also built a church in Burias before he sailed on to Ibalon in 1570. By 1575, Masbate had become a priority in the Augustinian Missionary Memoranda. Fray Francisco de Ortega reported on the pillaging activities of a pirate named Caxabic in the islands of Masbate and Burias. By 1600, the Spaniards had developed Mobo as a galleon shipyard and San Jacinto as a strategic port. In 1605, Masbate was officially an Augustinian Mission and it is first prior was Fray Francisco Guerrero. Masbate had about 250 tributes and 1000 Christian natives. In 1609, Fray Pedro de Arce, bishop-elect of Nueva Caceres, ceded the spiritual administration of Masbate to the Mitra (secular clergy). On May 28, 1682, bishop-elect Dominican Fray Andres Gonzales petitioned the King of Spain to revert some curacies of Nueva Caceres to the charge of religious communities. The petition was approved in 1685 and by 1687, the first Augustinian Recollect missionaries had sailed for the port of San Jacinto to begin the Recollect Mission in Masbate. In 1700, Fray Ildefonso de la Concepcion established the settlement of Uson as a visita (barrio) of Mobo. The town of Masbate was established in 1791 by Fray Manuel dela Virgen del Tremedal.

The jurisdiction of Nueva Caceres embraced the entire provinces of Camarines and Albay, as far as and including the islands of Ticao, Masbate, Burias, and Catanduanes; the province of Tayabas, as far as and including Lucban; and in the opposite coast of Maobàn, to Binangonan, Polo, Baler, and Casiguran. At one time, it was governed by his very illustrious Lordship Doctor Don Ysidoro de Arevalo, who was the bishop-elect. Records show that he enjoyed a yearly stipend of 4,000 pesos of common gold, in conformance with a royal decree. Likewise, a payment was made from the royal treasury, in virtue of a decree by the supreme government and the council of the royal treasury dated October 2, 1723, 200 pesos, for priests of the choir, at 100 pesos each, as assistants of the aforesaid illustrious lord. Another payment was made of 400 pesos, assigned to this church by the royal decree, dated at San Yldefonso on August 19, 1736; for the pay of singers, sacristans, and doorkeepers, and other expenses for worship and for the [care of the] building of the church. It likewise had a contribution of 232 pesos, 4 tomins, which was paid in 6 quintals of wax, 100 gantas of coconut-oil, and 4 arrobas of Castilian wine, in conformity with another royal decree dated February 21, 1705.

The administration of Masbate was given back to the Mitra after the Recollects left Masbate in 1794. All in all, over 60 Recollect missionaries were assigned in Masbate for a period of more than 100 years. Masbate became a separate politico-military command province in 1846. In 1864, it was declared a separate province from Albay. After a devastating typhoon in 1908, Masbate was annexed to the province of Sorsogon. It finally gained status as a separate province on December 15, 1920, by virtue of Commonwealth Act No. 2934. In Rafael Bernal's book: Mexico En Filipinas, Masbate was listed among other places which include Cavite and Pampanga, as areas where there were large concentrations of Mexican immigrants to the Philippines.

20th century
During World War II, the Japanese invaded the Philippines and turned Masbate into a hub for sexual slavery which they called "the military club". A "comfort station" was built by the Japanese in the province, where young girls and teenagers were forced to become "comfort women", and routinely gang-raped, brutalized, humiliated, and murdered by Japanese soldiers for entertainment. The Japanese occupation was resisted by local Masbateño guerrillas under Captain Manuel Donato up until April 1945 during the Allied liberation by which the guerrillas controlled much of the province.

Geography

The province lies roughly at the center of the Philippine archipelago, between latitudes 11°43′ north and 123°09′ east and 124°5′ east. It is bounded on the north by Burias and Ticao Pass, east by San Bernardino Strait, south by the Visayan Sea, and west by the Sibuyan Sea. Relative to mainland Bicol, the province faces the southwestern coasts of Camarines Sur, Albay, and Sorsogon areas. Masbate covers a total area of 4,151.78 km2.

The general surface configuration of the province ranges from slightly undulating to rolling and from hilly to mountainous. In each island, the rugged topography is concentrated in the northeastern portion and gradually recedes to blunt hills and rolling areas in the south, southeast, and southwest.

Administrative divisions
Masbate comprises 20 municipalities and one city, all encompassed by 3 congressional districts.

Provincial capital and component city

Municipality

Demographics
The population of Masbate in the 2020 census was 908,920 people, with a density of undefined PD/km2.

Language
There are four Visayan languages and one from Luzon, spoken in the province.

Masbateño or Minasbaté is a Visayan language unique to the province. It has 75-83% mutual intelligibility with Hiligaynon, another Visayan language spoken in the southwestern tip of Masbate island. Cebuano is another Visayan language spoken in the southeastern municipalities in the island. Waray is spoken in the islands of Ticao Island due to their proximity to mainland Northern Samar, especially to the southern portion parts of the Province of Sorsogon where Waray Sorsogon is spoken.

Minasbaté is spoken in Masbate City and its neighboring municipalities. 33% of the population speaks Hiligaynon and it is spoken mainly in the towns of Balud, Mandaon and the southwestern part of Milagros, while the remaining 9% speak Cebuano, mainly in the southern towns of Esperanza, Pio V. Corpus and Placer. In northeastern Burias Island they speak Bicolano, while in Ticao Island they speak Waray similarly as the people of Gubat, due to the island's proximity to the Northern Samar mainland.

The people generally speak English and Tagalog, though these languages are rarely used in everyday discourse. The people only use them when conversing with tourists and visitors from other Philippine regions and foreign nationals.

Religion
Prior to colonization, the region had a complex religious system which involved various deities. Among these deities include: Gugurang, the supreme god who dwells inside of Mount Mayon where he guards and protects the sacred fire in which Aswang, his brother was trying to steal. Whenever people disobey his orders, wishes and commit numerous sins, he would cause Mount Mayon to burst lava as a sign of warning for people to mend their crooked ways. Ancient Bikolanos had a rite performed for him called Atang.; Asuang, the evil god who always tries to steal the sacred fire of Mount Mayon from his brother, Gugurang. Addressed sometimes as Aswang, he dwells mainly inside Mount Malinao. As an evil god, he would cause the people to suffer misfortunes and commit sins. Enemy of Gugurang and a friend of Bulan the god of the Moon; Haliya, the masked goddess of the moonlight and the arch-enemy of Bakunawa and protector of Bulan. Her cult is composed primarily of women. There is also a ritual dance named after her as it is performed to be a counter-measure against Bakunawa.; Bulan, the god of the pale moon, he is depicted as a pubescent boy with uncommon comeliness that made savage beast and the vicious mermaids (Magindara) tame. He has deep affection towards Magindang, but plays with him by running away so that Magindang would never catch him. The reason for this is because he is shy to the man that he loves. If Magindang manages to catch Bulan, Haliya always comes to free him from Magindang's grip; Magindang, the god of the sea and all its creatures. He has deep affection to the lunar god Bulan and pursues him despite never catching him. Due to this, the Bicolanos reasoned that it is to why the waves rise to reach the Moon when seen from the distant horizon. Whenever he does catch up to Bulan, Haliya comes to rescue Bulan and free him immediately; Okot, god of forest and hunting; and Bakunawa, a gigantic sea serpent deity who is often considered as the cause of eclipses, the devourer of the Sun and the Moon, and an adversary of Haliya as Bakunawa's main aim is to swallow Bulan, who Haliya swore to protect for all of eternity.

Catholicism
About 91% of the population are members of the Catholic Church (Statistics by Diocese Hierarchy, 2014). Devotional practices such as the rosary, novenas to saints, and other religious manifestations as processions, the Misa de Gallo and Holy Week traditional activities are still very much part of the way of life of most parishioners. The Diocese of Masbate was created on March 23, 1968, separating it from the Diocese of Sorsogon. It comprises then,, and now, the civil province of Masbate with its 121 islands incl,uding the two larger ones Burias and Ticao. It is now a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Caceres. Its titular patron is St. Anthony of Padua.

There are a total 22 parishes in the Diocese of Masbate, ministered to by 43 priests and 11 religious sisters. It has 1 minor seminary, 4 pastoral centers, 3 elementary schools, 6 high schools, 1 college and 7 kindergarten schools. And among its faith communities are 20 BEC's 46 neo-catechumenal communities, 11 mandated organizations and 3 charismatic groups.

Others
Other denominations include the Aglipayan Church, the Members Church of God International, popularly called Ang Dating Daan, Jesus Miracle Crusade, Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ) which also functions many religious and social events in the province, as well as Baptist, Methodist, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh-day Adventist and other Christians. Non Christians are also present which is commonly represented by Moslems.

Economy
Masbate is endowed with rich natural resources. In line with its agriculture are other industries such as large farming, livestock, and poultry raising. Along with its coastal areas, the fishing industry predominates. Agricultural lands are planted with rice, corn, root crops, and coconut.

Masbate ranks second to Bukidnon in raising cattle. About 70% of these are sold to Metro Manila and other provinces in Luzon and Visayas. Farming is the main source of livelihood. Copra is the leading product, followed by corn, rice and root crops. Fishing is a major industry along the coast.

Manufacturing firms are in the copra industry, handicrafts, furniture making, and fish processing.

Rich minerals are found in the province. Masbate is described by geologists as a province sitting on a "pot of gold". Other minerals found in the area are manganese, copper, silver, iron, chromite, limestone, guano, and carbon.

Cottage industries such as furniture and cabinet making, ceramics, garments, handicrafts, and metalcrafts, are likewise the source of livelihood.

Infrastructure
In an agricultural province, Masbate remains a net importer of consumer and industrial products. The supply of goods came from Metro Manila, Cebu, Panay, and Bicol Provinces. Construction materials, particularly cement, are sometimes sourced from as far as Iligan City in Mindanao.

Education
Major institutions of higher learning in the province include the state-supported Dr. Emilio B. Espinosa Sr. Memorial State College of Agriculture and Technology in Mandaon and in Masbate City, Osmeña Colleges, Masbate Colleges, Liceo de Masbate (a Catholic school with primary, secondary and tertiary educations under the directorship of the Diocese of Masbate), Southern Bicol College, Cataingan Municipal College. Masbate also has national schools in Aroroy, Cataingan, Placer, San Jacinto, Mandaon, Mobo, and Masbate City.

Other educational institutions include public and private schools such as the Masbate National Comprehensive High School in Masbate City that has two campuses: the Main Campus, which accommodates the Junior High School, and the Annex Campus which holds the Senior High School, Holy Name Academy (a Catholic institution run by the Augustinian Recollect Sisters in Palanas, Masbate) and Lucio Atabay Memorial Elementary School (formerly, Nipa Elem. School) in Nipa, Palanas, Masbate.

Tourism
Masbate has several islands and beaches open to tourists. The province also holds a rodeo festival every summer.

title: Masbate